ECLIPSES. 
 
 peculiarly applied. These philosophers lived chiefly un- 
 der the Roman empire. The most celebrated among them 
 maybe said to have-been Epictetus(A. d. 90) and Plutarch. 
 The latter, in particular, a man of great and various endow- 
 ments, may yet be taken as a striking ins:ance of a false 
 eclecticism. His great object, in his philosophical writings, 
 seems to have been to reconcile the profound speculations 
 and pure morality of the philosophers witluhe fanciful in- 
 ventions and the gross theology of the poets and priests of 
 Greece, Italy, or Egypt. 
 
 A far more favourable specimen of the eclectic spirit has 
 been afforded us in modern times in the person of M. Vic- 
 tor Cousin, without doubt the most able and ingenious 
 thinker of modern France. See his Lectures on the Hist. 
 of Philosophy, in which eclecticism is presented under its 
 fairest guise, and vindicated with the utmost vigour of style 
 and acnteness of thought. 
 
 ECLI'PSES (Gr. cKXciipts, from ckXcitto), I faint 
 awny or disappear), taken in ageneral sense, are those phe- 
 nomena which exhibit the obscuration of astronomical lumi- 
 naries, and may be divided inlo two kinds, in reference to 
 the circumstances under which they are presented ; viz. 
 1. When the obscuration is caused by an interception of 
 the light received by the luminary from the sun ; as in the 
 cases of eclipses of the moon, eclipses of Jupiter's satel- 
 lites,*^. 2. VVhen the obscuration is caused by an inter- 
 ception, either totally or partially, of the light transmuted 
 from the luminary to the spectator ; and this kind consists 
 of eclipses of the sun, occultations of stars and planets by 
 the moon, and the transits of Mercury and Venus over the 
 disc of the sun. 
 
 The most popular and generally interesting objects are 
 the eclipses of the sun and moon ; and their causes and 
 aspects will here deserve some explanation. The earth 
 and moon, being opaque bodies, are illuminated by the sun ; 
 and, just as we observe with small opaque bodies on the 
 surface of the earth which are within the range of ocular 
 examination, they cast their shadows in directions which 
 are opposite to the sun. As the figures of the bodies are 
 nearly spherical, and as the sun is the largest, it is plain that 
 these shadows must be very nearly of a conical form. The 
 moon is eclipsed when it becomes involved in the shadow 
 Df the earth, and so deprived of the light it is accustomed 
 to receive from the sun ; and this can take place only at 
 the time of full moon, or when the moon is in opposition 
 to the sun. Let S represent the sun, E the earth, and n' t n 
 
 As conical shadow, into which the rays of the sun do not 
 enter. This shadow must evidently be a portion of the 
 larger cone T / T' which envelops both bodies. Suppose 
 the plane of the paper to be the plane of the ecliptic, or the 
 plane in which the earth moves round the sun, and let 
 d d ' represent a portion of the path of the moon round the 
 earth, the arrows indicating the direction of her motion. 
 Conceive also by means of cross tangents T P fl , T' P Q ' 
 the two opposite and circumscribing cones TP T', ([' P <[ 
 to be drawn. The latter of these cones, (J ' P (J , is called 
 the penumbral cone ; and the space Nnti' N', projected 
 beyond the earth, is called the earth's penumbra. It is evi- 
 dent that any position within this penumbra is at least par- 
 tially deprived of the light of the sun ; for if we imagine a 
 spectator to be in that position, it is obvious that the inter- 
 position of the earth would act as a partial screen and ob- 
 scure a portion of the sun's disc from his view. It is also 
 evident that a greater portion of the disc of the sun would 
 be hidden from this supposed spectator as his position ap- 
 proaches tiearer to the earth's shadow; and that if we sup- 
 pose him to enter the shadow, he will become totally de- 
 prived of the light of the sun, the disc of the sun in this case 
 being entirely hidden by the intervention of the earth. 
 From this observation it follows that as the moon advances 
 in the penumbra from ([ to m her disc will receive less 
 and less light from the sun, and its brightness will gradually 
 diminish ; also, as soon as a portion of the moon's disc en- 
 ters the shadow, that portion becomes totally deprived of 
 the light of the sun, and is, in other terms, darkened or 
 ■vjlipsed. If in the course of the eclipse only a part of the 
 moon's disc enters the earth's shadow, it is called a partial 
 eclipse ; but if the moon is totally darkened by the whole 
 disc entering the shadow, it is called a total eclipse. It is to 
 be understood in the diagram that the orbit of the moon, or 
 the path she describes round the earth, is not in the plane 
 of the ecliptic or the plane of the paper, but inclined to it 
 at an angle always greater than 4° 57' and less than 6° 21'. 
 This is the reason why eclipses of the moon do not happen 
 334 
 
 at every full moon, for they can only take place when the 
 moon s elevation above the ecliptic at full moon happens 
 to be less than the semidiameter of thrt section of the earth's 
 shadow through which she passes. In the course of a year 
 there may be three eclipses of the moon, which is the 
 greatest number that can happen; but there must always 
 necessarily be two. 
 
 At the time of new moon, or when the moon is between 
 the sun and the earth, her shadow or penumbra may fall 
 on the disc of the earth at certain places, and prevent either 
 all or part of the light of the sun from reaching those 
 places on the earth's surface. This circumstance pro- 
 duces the phenomenon of a total or partial eclipse of the 
 sun, which is limited to the portion of the earth on which 
 the moon's shadow or penumbra happens to fall. The 
 shadow of the moon does not always reach so far as the 
 earth. In the two following diagrams, annexed by way 
 of illustration, the former represents thn case in which it 
 does reach, and the latter represents tho case in which it 
 
 fig- a 
 
 does not reach, the surface of the earth. The shadow ot 
 the moon in the first diagram falls upon a portion of the 
 earth's surface between m and m' ; and the inhabitants, if 
 any, of that portion, will evidently, from what has been 
 said before, have the sun's disc wholly covered by the in- 
 tervention of the dark body of the moon, and therefore 
 fig- 3. 
 
 have presented to them a total eclipse of the sun. But in the 
 second diagram, where the shadow of the moon does not 
 reach the earth, if we suppose the dark conical shadow 
 ntn' to be produced into the small opposite cone mtm' 
 meeting the surface of the earth, it will be obvious, after a 
 slight consideration, that any supposed spectator within 
 this latter cone, or any inhabitant of the portion mm' of 
 the earth, will perceive the dark body of the moon wholly 
 within the disc of the sun, and intercepting only an interior 
 part of his light; the unobscured part of the sun which cir- 
 cumscribes the disc of the moon will consequently present 
 the appearance of a beautiful luminous ring or annulus, 
 and the eclipse exhibiting this aspect is commonly called 
 an annular eclipse of the sun ; the cone m t m' may be simi- 
 larly called the annular cone. It does not always occur, 
 during the progress of an eclipse of the sun, that either the 
 dark shadow of the moon or the annular cone will fall on 
 the earth's surface, and it very rarely happens that either 
 of them fall on a»y defined spot, such as London or Edin- 
 burgh. For the occurrence of an eclipse on the earth, it is 
 only necessary that the moon's penumbra Nnn'N' shall 
 be projected against a portion of the terrestrial surface, as 
 an inhabitant of that portion will at least have a part of the 
 disc of the sun intercepted by the moon. When neither 
 the moon's shadow nor the annular cone meets the earth 
 in the course of an eclipse, and consequently only a part of 
 the sun's disc is obscured to terrestrial vision, it is called a 
 partial eclipse of the sun, and in that respect it is similar to 
 a partial eclipse of the moon. If in the two diagrams we 
 suppose, as before, the plane of the paper to be the plane 
 of the ecliptic, the position of the moon must not neces 
 sarily be considered to be in that plane. The north pole of 
 the earth will be directed upwards at an angle of about 23° 
 28', and the arrows will represent the direction in which 
 the earth revolves about its axis; the moon proceeds round 
 the earth in the same direction, and carries her penumbra 
 across the earth's surface with a much greater velocity than 
 the earth's rotation. It follows, therefore, that the arrows 
 indicate also the direction in which the phenomena of the 
 eclipse pass geographically over the earth, viz. from west 
 to east ; and that different places will have the eclipse at a 
 later or earlier time, according as they are more to the east 
 or west. Eclipses of the sun occur more frequently than 
 eclipses of the moon. In the course of each year there 
 must be two at least in some parts of the earth ; but there 
 cannot possibly be more than four, — a number that some- 
 times, though very seldom, happens. 
 
 Calculation of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon.— it is here 
 chiefly intended to explain methods by which the times of 
 
ECLIPSES. 
 
 beginning and ending of any phase or appearance may be 
 predicted for a particular place on the earth. For these 
 calculations it is necessary, first, to ascertain the longi- 
 tudes and latitudes of the sun and moon by means of the 
 solar and lunar tables. Those of the sun may be deter- 
 mined from the revised tables of Carlini, which form the 
 supplement to the Milan Ephemeris for the year 1833 ; and 
 the moon may be calculated from the tables of 
 Bnrckhardt or Damoiseau. With the help of the tables, 
 the hourly variations of the same quantities, as well as the 
 horizontal parallaxes and scmidiameters of both bodies, 
 are to be calculated. The results so found will be ele- 
 >m which the phenomena of the eclipse may be 
 determined for any stated place on the earth ; but their 
 computation is necessary only for eclipses that occur at 
 remote periods, since all these calculations are accurately 
 i and registered in the Nautical Almanac, a work 
 regularly published three or four years in advance. The 
 positions are there likewise reduced to the plane of the 
 equator, so as to determine the places of the bodies by 
 their right ascensions and declinations, which are more 
 readily applicable to the calculation of all the circum- 
 stances of an eclipse ; besides, the right ascensions and 
 declinations of the moon are given with the utmost pre- 
 cision for every hour, which adds considerably to the 
 facility of these calculations. It will here be the more ge- 
 nerally useful and interesting, therefore, to describe me- 
 thods'by which, with the use of the Nautical Almanac, the 
 circumstances of an eclipse may be predicted, as it will 
 appear from any given spot on the earth's surface. 
 In the diagram (fig. 1.) join E m, E fl . S n, and denote 
 E mn= the moon's horizontal parallax, by P, 
 
 E S n = sun's by *, 
 
 T n 8 = sun's semidiameter, by a ; 
 
 then the angle M E m is the semidiameter of the section 
 of the earth's shadow traversed by the moon, as it would 
 Baa from the centre E ; and the angle M E fl is the 
 similar semidiameter of the penumbra. To determine 
 the Mmidiameter of the section of the shadow, we have 
 wlW = Emn— Efm = Emn— (SnT — nSi) = Em7i 
 -(-» S| — SnT: that is, the semidiameter of the shadow 
 = PjJ-jt — <r. This value, however, is affected by the at- 
 mosphere of the earth, which absorbs those rays of the 
 <nn that would pass near to the surface, and thus makes 
 the shadow of the earth to appear sensibly larger. To 
 tak<- this effect into account, it is the usual practice of 
 astronomers to increase the value given by the preceding 
 expression by one-sixtieth, or to add as many seconds as 
 there are minutes in the radius of the section. The actual 
 formula employed in this calculation is therefore 
 
 Bemid. of shadow = ^ (P + * — ")■ 
 fjy adding to this the anglemE { = mn fl = TnT' = 2<7, 
 we have also, 
 
 Bemid. of penumbra = ^ P + ir— <r) + 2<r. 
 
 Let the circle H I!' K represent the section of the earth's 
 shadow through which the moon passes during the eclipse ; 
 PQa portion of the circle 
 of declination which passes 
 through the centre 8 and 
 the north and south poles, 
 P being towards the north, 
 ami 8 towards the south; 
 A B a portion of the parallel q 
 of declination, which also 
 passes through S; OR, in- 
 tersecting P ft in c, the line 
 or orbit described by the 
 centre of the moon In passing through the shadow; M her 
 position when she first comes into contact with the shadow, 
 and begins to be eclipsed at H ; nt her position at the mid- 
 dle of the eclipse, or lime of greatest obscuration ; and M' 
 her position at leaving the shadow when the eclipse ceases. 
 In the figure, for the sake of convenience, the shadow is 
 supposed to be fixed; and hence the motion of M is not 
 considered to be the entire motion of the moon, but the 
 motion with which she passes through the shadow, or, as 
 it is called, the relative motion of the moon. This relative 
 motion is equal to the difference between the motion of 
 the moon and that of the shadow. But as the centres of 
 the sun and shadow must always be in opposite points 
 of the sphere, as seen from the centre of the earth, the 
 motion of the shadow will be just the same as that of the 
 ion. 
 
 At any assumed time T, near to the time of opposition, 
 let a be the position of M, and draw a 6 parallel to A B ; at 
 this instant let a denote the difference between the right 
 ascensions of the moon and shadow ; also let * = 8 b, and 
 y=ab. Then, from what has preceded, 
 
 Right ascension shadow — right ascension + 12h. 
 
 Declination shadow = declination with a contrary 
 name. 
 
 385 
 
 ECLIPTIC. 
 
 a = right ascension shadow — right ascension d 
 
 x= declination (J — declination shadow 
 
 = declination Q -{-declination j 
 
 But as a b = y may be considered to be part of a parallel 
 of declination, and as a is the spherical angle it sjbtends 
 from the pole, it is evident that y — a X cos. d 's declina- 
 tion. We must therefore first calculate the following quan- 
 tities : — 
 
 Right ascen. shadow = right ascen. ? ^ 12*>. 
 
 y = (right ascen. shad. — that of fl ) X C08 - (I ' s de<>. 
 
 hourly mo. y = (hor. mo. QJs right ascen. — that of 
 X cos. d 's dec. 
 
 s = d 's dec. + 0's dec. 
 
 hourly mo. x= nor. mo. d 's dec. ■+■ hor. mo. E 's dec. 
 
 It will be here observed that hourly mo. y denotes tin- 
 decrease of y, while hourly mo. * denotes the increa .>•<■ 
 of x. in one hour. 
 
 If >' denote the angle c I S or m 8 c, which is the inclina 
 tion of the relative orbit O R with the parallel A B, we Bad 
 also, 
 
 hourly mo. x 
 
 tan. i = £ ri 
 
 hourly mo. y 
 
 . . . . ~ ~ hourly mo. y 
 hourly motion in the orbit O R = — ■ 
 
 Again, in the right-angled triangle a b 8, knowing the sides 
 S4=t, and abz=.y, we calculate the angle a9 b and the 
 distance 8 a. The difference of the angles 8 a 3 b, mSc, 
 gives the angle a 8m; and in the right-angled triangle a S m, 
 knowing also the side a 8, we find the other two sides a m, 
 8 m, the latter of which is the nearest distance of the cen- 
 tres of the moon and shadow. The distance 8 M, at the 
 beginning or ending of the eclipse, is found by adding 
 the semidiameter of the moon to that of the shadow ; 
 hence, in the triangle MStn, knowing also the side 8 m, 
 we find the side M m — m M ' ; and by subtracting and add- 
 ing the value of a m, before found, we get the distances 
 Ma, aM'. Knowing therefore these distances, and the 
 hourly motion in the orbit O R, we find the times employed 
 by the moon in traversing them : the former of these limes, 
 subtracted from the time originally assumed at which the 
 elements were taken, will therefore give the time of the 
 beginning of the eclipse; and, similarly, by adding the lat- 
 ter, we get the time at which the eclipse will terminate. 
 The times thus found will be for the meridian of Green- 
 wich, and will require reducing for the longitude of the 
 place. 
 
 To those who are not familiar with algebraical opera 
 lions, a rough sketch of the figure, drawn by the hand. 
 will indicate most distinctly the way in which the several 
 angles and lines ought to be combined in the process of the 
 calculation. 
 
 For an eclipse of the sun the relative positions of the 
 sun and moon are not independent of the observer's posi- 
 tion, like those of the moon and the earth's shadow. In 
 the calculation of an eclipse of the sun, we must first ap- 
 ply the effects of the relative parallax to the right ascen- 
 sion and declination of the moon to get her exact position 
 with respect to the sun, as she will appear to a spectator at 
 the place for which the calculation is proposed to be made. 
 (8ee the article Parallax.) By subtracting and add- 
 ing the hourly motions, given in the Nautical Almanac, 
 we obtain the values of the quantities for an hour before 
 and afterthe time of conjunction in right ascension. Then, 
 after calculating and applying the effects of parallax to the 
 moon, we find the quantities x, y, in the same manner as 
 for an eclipse of the moon, only substituting the sun in 
 place of the sections of the earth's shadow. The half dif- 
 ferences of the quantities so computed for an interval ol 
 two hours will show their apparent hourlv motions ; and 
 with these the remaining calculation, for either time, is pre 
 cisely the same as has already been described for an 
 eclipse of the moon. It is only further to be observed, 
 that as the apparent relative motion of the moon is not 
 very uniform, the results will be most accurate when they 
 are close to the times assumed. If a very accurate calcu- 
 lation of the beginning or ending be required, it will, for 
 this reason, be necessary to repeat the calculation for a 
 single assumed time close to the occurrence of the phase ; 
 and for this purpose we may adopt the hourly motions- In 
 the first calculation. In these cases, greater accuracy is 
 to be obtained by interpolating the right ascensions and de- 
 clinations from the running ephemeris than by inferring 
 them from the list of elements. 
 
 ECLI'PTIC. In Astronomy, the great circle of the 
 heavens which the sun appears to describe in his annual 
 revolution. It has been called the ecliptic, because eclipses 
 only happen when the moon is in the same plane, or very 
 near it. The ecliptic, from time immemorial, has been con- 
 ceived to be divided into twelve equal parts, called signs,— 
 Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, 
 Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. But the signs 
 of the ecliptic are not to be confounded with the sign* of 
 the zodiac, which denote the places occupied by certain 
 2B 
 

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 http://www.archive.org/details/brandedictionaryOObranrich 
 
DICTIONARY 
 
 SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART:. 
 
 COMPRISING THE 
 
 HISTORY, DESCRIPTION, AND SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES 
 
 OF EVBBY BRANCH OF 
 
 pitman IvuotolcuQc; 
 
 WITH 
 
 T.iE DERIVATION AND DEFINITION OP ALL THE TERMS IN GENERAL USB. 
 
 EDITED B7 *•*' 
 
 W. T. BRANDE, F.R.S.L. & E.. 
 
 <Dt Wt t Ittajcstn's JHfkt ; 
 
 PROFESSOR OK CHEMISTRY IN THE ROYAI. INSTITUTION OP GREAT BRITAIN , 
 PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND MATERIA MEDICA TO THE APOTHECARIES* COMPAN» • 
 
 ETC., ETC., ETC. 
 
 Assisted by 
 
 JOSEPH CAUVIN, ESQ. 
 
 THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS BY EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC GENTLEMEN. 
 ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 NOS. 329 AND 331 PEARL STREET, 
 (FRANKLIN SQUARE.) 
 
 18 54. 
 
* Vie 10 
 List of the 'principal Authors of the work, with the departments for which they are re- 
 spectively responsible. 
 
 General Editor, 
 
 W. T. BRANDE, F.R.S.L. & E., 
 
 Of Her Majesty'* Mint J Professor ->f C' e "'stry in the TtiyaT Institution r f Great ^n'ta-'n ; Prof, of Chemistry and Materia 
 Medica to tho Apothecmies' Company, dsc. 
 
 Assisted by JOSEPH CAUVIN, Esq. 
 
 1. Architecture, Music, and the Fine Arts .... Joseph Gwilt, F.S.A. & F.R.A.S. 
 
 5 J. Lindley, Ph.D.F.R.S.L.S., &c. r 
 
 2. JOOTANY . < Professor of Botany in University College, and in th" 
 
 ( Royal Institution. 
 
 3. Chemistry, Geolooy, Mineralogy, Medicine, and the 
 
 Arts and Sciences dependino on Chemical Princi- > W. T. Brande, Esq. (Editor.) 
 
 PLES 
 
 El 
 
 - S W. T. 
 
 4. Gardening and Agriculture J. C. Loudon, F.L S.H.S., &c. 
 
 5 Law . . [Herman Merivale, A.M., 
 
 *. ( Late Fellow of Baliol College. 
 
 6. General Literature J J. R. M'Culloch, Esq., and 
 
 ( Joseph Cauvin, Esq. 
 
 7. Mathematics, and the Arts and Sciences depending ) m o »«■ * t. n o 
 
 on Mathematical Principles \ Thos ' Galloway, M.A.F.R.S. 
 
 8. Nautical Science Lieutenant Raper, R.N., &c. 
 
 9. Political Economy and Statistics J. R. M'Culloch, Esq. 
 
 10. Theology The Rev. Chas. Merivale, M.A. 
 
 11. Zoology, Anatomy, and Physiology Richard Owen, F.R.S., &c. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The advantages of Encyclopaedias are now so universally acknowledged, that 
 it would be wholly superfluous to endeavour to recommend the present work 
 by dwelling on their peculiar merits. But though the utility of such works be 
 no longer in dispute, it may, notwithstanding, be reasonably supposed that at a 
 period when so many voluminous Encyclopaedias and special Dictionaries have 
 recently issued, and are still daily issuing from the press, this department of lit- 
 erature must be fully occupied, and that there can be no well-founded call for 
 any farther addition to the numbdr. 
 
 It will be found, however, on a little consideration, that this is by no means 
 the case. By far the greater number, or, rather, perhaps we might say, all the 
 Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries of modern times, are either too voluminous or 
 too special for ready reference and general use. The Encyclopedie Francaise, 
 Rees's Cyclopcedia, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Encyclopaedia Metropol 
 itana, and the Penny Cyclopcedia, arc all works of vast extent, comprising man\ 
 volumes, and embracing an infinite variety of articles, or rather treatises, which, ' 
 if published separately, would etich make a considerable work. Now it is ob- 
 n voluminous publications, whatever may be their merits in other 
 respects, want that facility of reference and precision of statement which ought 
 to be the distinguishing features of a useful Dictionary. No man can carry 
 about with him any of the great modern Encyclopaedias ; while the extensive 
 plan on which they are compiled renders them at once far too expensive for 
 general circulation, and wholly unsuitable for ready consultation. The supply, 
 indeed, of that concise and authentic information on the various subjects of sci- 
 ence, literature, and art, which a book of reference should furnish with the ut- 
 most facility to all classes of readers, has been but a secondary object with the 
 compilers of our great Encyclopaedias; and though it had been otherwise, the 
 length, theoretical character, and frequent obscurity of the articles in such works, 
 must have effectually precluded their ever being used for mere purposes of ref- 
 erence. They are valuable as substitutes for libraries, as repositories of the 
 various knowledge connected with the different departments of which they treat ; 
 and being so, they cannot be convenient manuals. 
 
 Special Dictionaries, on the other hand, though they may exhaust some one 
 branch or department of science, literature, or art, and be invaluable to those 
 engaged in iis cultivation, and to those who wish to become acquainted with its 
 details, are not intended to supply information on other branches. A work, 
 therefore, like that nOw offered to the public, possessing the comprehensive char- 
 acter of a general Encyclopaedia without its amplitude, and affording in a conve- 
 nient form an abstract of the principles of every branch of knowledge, and a 
 definition and explanation, of the various terms in science, literature, and art 
 which occur in reading and conversation, appears to be still wanting. 
 
 May we hope that this desideratum, which has been long felt to exist in en- 
 cyclopedical literature, has been at length supplied ? Such, at least, will be the 
 case, should the present work answer the expectations of its authors and pub- 
 lishers. They have endeavoured to produce a condensed and compendious 
 Dictionary, of a convenient size, and adapted to the wants and means of all 
 classes, that may be advantageously used as a manual or reference-book in ev- 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 ery department of science, literature, and art ; and they flatter themselves that, 
 hy rejecting all discussion and details not indispensable to the proper elucidation 
 of the different topics, the work will be found, notwithstanding its comparatively 
 narrow limits, to furnish, in the readiest possible manner, precise and accurate 
 information on the all but infinite variety of subjects which it embraces. Great 
 pains have been taken to make the definitions and explanations correct, clear, 
 and concise- The principles of the most popular and important departments 
 of science, literature, and art, are also distinctly, though briefly explained ; and 
 notices are given of their rise, progress, and present state. 
 
 Neither must it be supposed that because these articles are for the most part 
 brief and compendious, they are either flimsy or superficial. On the contrary, 
 they have been compiled throughout with the greatest care. Popularity has 
 not been sought for at the expense of science, nor brevity by the sacrifice of 
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 on fe - ; nal views ; and it is confidently believed that in every department it will 
 be found to imbody the latest information, and to be on a level with the most 
 advanced state to which knowledge has attained, not merely in this, but also in 
 other countries. No statement has been made as to any unusual or doubtful 
 matter, without referring to the authority whence it has been derived ; and when 
 subjects of general interest and importance are noticed, the reader is referred 
 to the works relating to them in which they are handled with the greatest ability. 
 Not only, therefore, will those who may consult this work have a guarantee for 
 the authenticity of its information, but they will learn the sources to which they 
 may resort with the greatest advantage, should they wish to make farther in 
 quiries. 
 
 Such, in a few words, is the design of this work ; and unless its publishers 
 be greatly deceived as to its execution, it can hardly fail to be useful to individ- 
 uals of all ranks and conditions : to the man of business and the man of pleasure, 
 the student and the superficial reader, the busy and the idle. Every one who 
 takes any share in conversation, or who dips, how cursorily soever, into any 
 newspaper or other publication, will every now and then find the advantage of 
 having access to the Dictionary op Science, Literature, and Art. 
 
 In finally submitting the work to the judgment of the public, the publishers 
 may, perhaps, be allowed to say that they have left no means untried that ap- 
 peared likely to ensure the accuracy and excellence of the work. It was dis- 
 tributed into divisions or departments, each embracing a single subject, or a class 
 of closely-allied subjects ; and these were respectively assigned to gentlemen 
 dislinguished by their attention to, and proficiency in, the topics to be treated of. 
 This seemed to be the most likely means to avoid mere compilation, to ensure 
 accuracy and adequate information, and to make the work not only a compre- 
 hensive and correct, but in some measure also an original, digest and synopsis 
 of human knowledge. 
 

 QV T13 
 
 ■UiriVERSITY 
 
 ©jr 
 
 i&IFO* 
 
 DICTIONARY 
 
 OF 
 
 SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 A. 
 
 :tcr of the Alphabet, in nil known Ian- 
 
 cception of the Amaric, a dialect of the 
 
 ;i il is Hi'* 13th, and of tin- Runic, in 
 
 It was called Alp/in by the Greeks, 
 
 (rews. 
 
 e Abacus.) In Architecture, any Hat 
 
 tnent 
 
 o of the wind. This 
 by a Rudden change of the wind, or an 
 
 ■ tid (i- 
 
 English kings, 
 
 aH,i\. a Blab.) In A 
 n » member of the i lumn. 
 
 ■mitivc 
 
 ia!. ! i, Doric, ami Ionic orders it is square, 
 
 orinthian and composite curved inwards on its 
 i at the quoins or angles at 4."> degrees) 
 with the face of the entablature. The me of the abacus 
 i the ton of the colcunn, an I pri 
 ■■ of level bed for the reception of the archi- 
 ■ 
 Abacus. An ancient instrument used for assisting nu- 
 ll? dc. 
 soar, signifying • table; a 
 unifying sand (because when co- 
 purposes of writing) ; but 
 obably to be referred to the three 
 labet. 
 ■ ahncus will he readily understood from 
 irallelograBl ia divided by parallel 
 i which small pebbles or coun- 
 The counters on the 
 >!e units, those on the 
 use on the third hun- 
 1 11 ; one counter on a 
 :ing equal to ten on the 
 bar Imm n it. By means 
 
 rli bar, it ia ob- 
 vious that any number may be thus 
 :n lii" number of coun- 
 • i 'Y be diminished by placing a counter on the inter- 
 ween two bars, givin* it the value of five 
 plow, When e used, any number 
 
 may I ! under ten millions. The number re- 
 
 It will be li- 
 the at :;ven to the counters, according to the 
 ley occupy, is entirely analogous to our 
 numerical system of digits. The form of the instrument 
 admitted "i considerable variety. The Grecian abacus 
 
 ai (jblong frame, bavins wires stretched aci 
 strung wiili perforated beads o* little ivory balls. In the 
 os the counters were slid along grooves. Its 
 I 
 
 a 'jaro numeros, el tee'.o in pulcert mtttu 
 Swl n»is*e Tafcr 
 
 ABATOR. 
 
 use formed an essential part of the education ol every no- 
 i oi youth : — 
 
 ■-— ? mttas. 
 
 Per: Sat. I. 139 
 
 .employ wires with bead J j 
 ami with them I Swan-penis in universal use. 
 
 as it convi ir decimal dirl 
 
 . continued ti 
 during the middle ai 
 a board, however, with burs or wire the prac- 
 
 bench or bank with chequered ■ 
 which ih 
 
 chequer, ueh a.< is 
 ,! tin' doors of public houses, 
 was formerly used In England as an abacus. For 
 lent account ot ll i d of palpable arithmi 
 i Arithmetic, in the Encj 
 I Sir John Leslie. Dr. D. B. Reia, of Edin- 
 is applied the abacus to facilitate the study of the 
 f chemical compounds. See Reid's Client- 
 
 ABA'IT, or AFT, In sea language, signifies towards the 
 stern, or hinder pan of the vessel Thus a thing Is abaft- 
 
 the foremast when it is between the Ibreni.ist and the 
 stern. 
 ABANDONMENT. A term used in insurances, where, 
 impensation can be demanded, the insured must 
 abandon I i my portion of the rescued property. 
 
 <ised in the language of the customs, to signify the 
 abandonment of an article by the importer to » 
 ment of the duty. 
 
 ABA'TEMENT, Pleaof, in Law, is pleaded to 
 ration, writ, <fcc, on account of some defect in form. (Set 
 Pleading.) 
 Abatement. In Heraldry, symbols of 
 
 o arms: mentioned for the mosl part only by 
 English heraldic writers. A del/, or qmulnwt spi 
 sign of a revoked challenge: an escutcheon reversed, be- 
 n or deserter ; 
 i a boaster: a point in point, to a coward 
 
 • who kills a prisoner of war : a gore sin:* 
 (er, to effeminate persons: a. gusset dexter 
 
 tsset sinister intoxication. The onl 
 meal now used In practice is the boston, which belongs to 
 : it is in the form of the bend sinister, contains 
 one fourth of its dimensions, but does not reach quite to 
 :umference of the escutcheon. 
 A'BATIS. (Fr. abattre, to knock down.) A military 
 ■i lying trees cut down, and laid with their 
 towards ihe enemy, so as to form a defence for troops sta- 
 hind them. Abatis, among the writers ol the bar- 
 barous ages, denotes an officer in the stables, who had the 
 ! distribution of the provender. 
 A'BATON. (Gr. a6arov, an iimccessible y.laca.) Ancdi 
 
ABATTOIR. 
 
 lice at. Rhodes so called by Vitruvius. lib. 2., the entrance 
 whereof was forbidden to all persons, because it contained 
 a trophy and two bronze statues erected by Artemisia in 
 memory at her triumph on surprising the city. 
 
 ABATTOIR. (Pr. abattre, to knock doitn.) A building 
 appropriated to the slaughtering of cattle. In Great Britain 
 there is no example of such a structure, the slaughter- 
 houses not deserving the appellation as applied by the 
 French. Paris possesses some fine specimens of this sort 
 of architecture, constructed in 1609; the most magnificent, 
 is that in the neighbourhood of Montmartrc. 
 
 ABBE'. The French term for the stiperiorof an abbey. 
 Before the Revolution the title was assumed also by a class 
 of persons who had not in all cases received the tonsure, 
 or undertaken to connect themselves with the church. They 
 held a conspicuous place in society, and generally attached 
 themselves to fashionable or literary patrons. This ano- 
 malous class seems to have taken its rise from the great 
 number of abbeys, the revenues of which were allowed to 
 bo bestowed upon laymen, upon condition of tiieir taking 
 oiders within a year alter their preferment, which latter 
 clause was frequently evaded. 
 
 A'BBESS. (I'r. Abbesse.) The governess or superior 
 of a monastery or abbey for females. By a decree of the 
 Council of Trent she must be of the age of forty years, and 
 have professed eight years at least. 
 
 A'BBEY. (Fr. Abhaie.) In Architecture, properly, the 
 building adjoining or near a convent or monastery, for the 
 residence of the head of the house, abbot or abbess. It is 
 often used for the church attached to the establishment. 
 In ecclesiastical history an Abbey was a monastery under 
 the superintendence of an abbot, maintaining in later times 
 the highest rank among religious houses, and enjoying 
 some superior privileges. 
 
 A'HliOT. The superior of a monastery for men. Mo- 
 nastic societies, being originally composed of laymen, were 
 obliged to have recourse to the assistance of a neighbour- 
 ing priest to administer the sacrament and perform other 
 I functions among them. Afterwards the superior 
 of the society in many cases entered into orders, and ex- 
 ercised the ministerial office for the convenience of his 
 community, under the title of abbot. (Ileb. abba, father. ) 
 From the beginning of the sixth century this practice be- 
 came universal, the abbot having absolute power within his 
 own monastery, but being himself subject to the authority 
 of his diocesan. This subjection, however, the abbots 
 gradually threw off to a great extent, and in many places 
 themselves assumed the titles and authority of bishops. 
 Such were the mitred abbots, and the crosiered abbots; 
 the former of whom, to the number of 26, sat in the English 
 parliament with the bishops and two priors in the reign of 
 Henry V11I. 
 
 Abbots are properly superior in rank to Priors ; the latter 
 being often appointed by the abbot to superintend a de- 
 pendent foundation. But the distinction does not appear 
 to have been regularly observed, and there are certain or- 
 ders whose superiors are always called priors; — as the 
 muiil.s of Vallombrosa, the Cistercians, Bcrnardists, Feuil- 
 lasts, Trappists, Grandmontanists, and Pra?monstratenses. 
 
 ABBREVIA'TION. (Lat. brev'is, short.) In Arithme- 
 tic. The process by which a fraction is reduced to lower 
 terms ; thus the division of the numerator and denomina- 
 tor of IS by S reduces or abbreviates the fraction to, ". 
 
 Abbreviation. In Music. A stroke which, placed 
 over or under a note, divides it into quavers if there be only 
 one : if two, into semiquavers ; if three, into demiscmi- 
 quavers. 
 
 Abbreviation. In Writing. Before the invention of 
 printing, a variety of abbreviations were used, most of 
 which have gradually fallen into disuse : they generally 
 consisted in substituting the initials for the words. Of the 
 abbreviations at present in use, the following are those 
 which most commonly occur; — in Titles, 
 A. M., Master of Arts. K. C. H., Knight Command- 
 
 A. B., Bachelor of Arts. er of Hanover. 
 
 B C. I.., Bachelor of Civil K. G, Knight of the Garter. 
 
 Law. LI.. I).. Doctor of Laws. 
 
 I! D.. Bachelor of Divinity. M. A., Master of Arts. 
 Clk., Clerk or Clergyman. M. !>., Doctor of Medicine. 
 C. B , Companion of the M. P., Member of Parlia- 
 
 ABERDEVINE. 
 
 Miscellaneous. Diplon.atical, &c. 
 
 Bath. 
 
 I). C. L ., Doctor of Civil 
 
 Law. 
 D. D., Doctor of Divinity. 
 F. R. 8., Fellow- of the Roy- 
 
 al Society. 
 
 meat. 
 
 M. R. I. A., Member of the 
 
 Royal Irish Academy. 
 R. A., Royal Academy. 
 It. E., Royal Engineers. 
 R. M., Royal Marines. 
 
 G. C. B, Grand Cross of the It. N.. Royal Navy. 
 
 Bath 
 G C. H. Grand Cross of 
 
 Hanover. 
 K. B., Knight of the Bath. 
 
 K. C. B.. Knight Command- 
 er of the Bath. 
 2 
 
 S. T. P.. Doctor of Divinity, 
 or Sanctce Theologise 
 Professor. 
 
 E. I. C, East India Com- 
 pany. 
 
 VV. S 'Writer to the Signet. 
 
 A. D., the year of our Lord. 
 A. H.j the year of the He- 
 
 gira. 
 A. M., the year of the world, 
 i. e., that is to say. 
 ib., in the same place, 
 id., the same. 
 N. B., observe. 
 viz., for videlicet, to wit. 
 L. S., (in a deed) the place 
 
 of the seal. 
 R. S. and L. 8., right and 
 
 left side. 
 N. S., new stvle, (since 
 
 1752.) 
 O. 6., old style, (before 
 
 1752, and in the Greek 
 
 calendar.) 
 
 A. C. or B. C, the year be- 
 fore Christ. 
 
 A. I). C, the year from the 
 building of Rome. 
 
 Nem. con., no one contra- 
 dicting. 
 
 Nem. dis., no one dissenting. 
 
 MS., manuscript. 
 
 A. M., morning. 
 
 P. M., afternoon. 
 
 H. M. S., His Majesty's ship, 
 or service. 
 
 D. G., by the grace of God. 
 
 F. I)., Defender of the Faith. 
 
 II. R. E., Holy Roman Em 
 pire. 
 
 U. S., United States of Ame 
 rica. 
 
 ABDICA'TION. (Lat. abdico, I abdicate.) In Politics, 
 the renunciation of an office or dignity by its holder ; but it 
 is commonly meant to express the voluntary renunciation 
 of supreme power. The most famous examples of this en 
 record, are the abdication of the dictatorship by Sylla, 75 
 years B. C. ; of the imperial throne, by Dioclesian, anno 
 305 ; of the Emperor Charles V., in 1550 ; and of Christina, 
 queen of Sweden, in 1054. —Of all the sovereigns who have 
 made voluntary abdications, Dioclesian is, perhaps, the 
 only one who did not regret the step. Examples of forced 
 or voluntary abdication are too numerous to require to 
 be pointed out. The modern history of France and Eng- 
 land furnish some very striking instances with which every 
 one is familiar. The convention parliament of 1688 used 
 the word abdication to express the act of James II. in 
 abandoning the government and kingdom. The word 
 "desertion" was rejected as implying the possibility of a 
 return. The Scottish convention of estates declari a that 
 James had " forfeited" the kingdom. Abdication is said to 
 differ from resignation, the former being unconditionally 
 latter done in favour of some oilier person. 
 
 ABDO'MEN. (Lat. abdo, / conceal.) The great cavity 
 of the animal body, which is liable to temporary changes 
 in its dimensions, independently of respiration. In cnto 
 otology it forms, in insects the third, in arachmdans ihe 
 second, in both classes the most posterior, of the sections 
 into which the body is externally divided, and contains the 
 principal digestive" and respiratory, and the whole of the 
 generative organs. The enlargements of the abdomen, in 
 relation to the activity of the generative functions, is most 
 remarkable in insects ; in some of which, as the white ant, 
 or termite, it constitutes at the full development of the 
 ova an immense proportion of the entire body of the fe- 
 male. In vertebrates the abdomen is not divided external- 
 ly from the thorax ; and only in one class, the mammalia, 
 by an internal partition, or diaphragm. 
 
 The abdomen is the first-formed cavity in the develop- 
 ment of the animal body, and is the most constant in its 
 existence throughout the animal series. {See CRANIUM 
 and Thorax.) 
 
 ABDO'MINALS. Abdominal?*. An order of malacop- 
 terygious fishes, including those which have (lie ventral 
 tins situated under the abdomen, behind the pecfi 
 
 ABDU'CTION. (Lat. ab, from, and duco, Head.) In 
 Law, the forcible carrying away of a woman, for the pur- 
 pose of marriage or defilement. Where the femah 
 property, oris presumptively entitled to it, such abduction 
 is felony : and in all cases the taking of a girl under si 
 from under the protection of her parents is a misdf mean- 
 our. The crime of abduction, according to Sir W.Scott 
 (see his Notes and Introduction to Rob Roy'), was at one 
 period extremely common on the border of the Scottish 
 Highlands; it is now an ordinary offence in Ireland : the 
 number of convictions in the last 7 years amounts to 61 ; 
 executions. 5. 
 
 ABDU'CTOR. Abductor muscles are those which pull 
 back or separate the limbs to which they are afl 
 
 A'BELITES, or Abeliavs, in ecclesiastical history, a sect 
 mentioned by St. Augustine, in Africa. They are said la 
 have enjoined marriage and virginitv, after the pretended 
 example of Abel. (.See Mosheim, Eng. Trans, i 
 
 A'BER. A Celtic term, implying Ibe month of b river; 
 as Aberdeen, the mouth oi the Dee; Aberystwith, the 
 mouth of the Ystwith, &c. 
 
 AUE'KDEVINE. or European Siskin ; (.Carduelis spinas. 
 Cuv.) A small green and yellow finch, belonging ti 
 same sub-irenus as the goldfinch of England. Its 
 is similar to that of the goldfinch, but is not so sweet, and 
 ends With a harsh jarring note. Its [light is a sen. 
 successive undulating courses, accompanied by a chirp, at 
 each propelling motion of the wings, as in other species of 
 Carduelis. The Aberdevine winters m the south ol Eng 
 land, and flies northward in Ihe month of March, to I 
 in the pine forests of Scotland. The nest is bui'i among 
 
£ 
 
 ABERRATION. 
 
 ;t:e higher branches of tit*- pine : the eggs are four or five 
 in nuj bluish wliiie colour, speckled with pur- 
 
 in the south in Ihe 
 itember. 'I embles in the 
 
 ie common redpole, (Linaria 
 , .'nt. 
 lERRA'TION. (i.n. ab,from, and erro, / wander.) 
 A ter note a change in lha post- 
 
 combined <■!'- 
 ::.tand liie motion of the earth in 
 
 f this remarkable phenomenon, 
 
 ma st;tr S to an ob- 
 
 . or If the motion of light a 
 
 forward 
 
 if BOA 
 
 . then, that 
 
 earth's orbital motion from 
 
 A i" -it will strike the ej a with 
 
 ■iiv proportional lo 1> O, and the eye will ii 
 
 particle with a velocity proportional to A O. 
 •. that of the 
 Jit proportional to I) O, and, secondly, 
 
 Mill to 
 
 ■ i will in no way be 
 having 
 
 (>. Thus the eye 
 
 i I1CDO; and by 
 
 effect would 
 
 ;le im- 
 
 .ng in the direction of the 
 
 with a velocity proportional to C O. 
 
 star will be at 8', in ad- 
 
 1 ' ) l> is the aberral 
 
 .i we know the relative magni- 
 1 i • ■ 10 i the inclination of those 
 
 of light and of 
 their motions. It is 
 
 ether. 
 
 s of Jupiter's satellites, and other phe- 
 
 ;hl is Iran- ; 
 ii velocity of 192,000 mi!>-s per second 
 of the earth in itsort.it is about 1°. miles 
 per second ; we have, therefore, when B O and D O are at 
 right angles, the proportion 
 
 i : 19 = DO : BO=rad.: tan. COD; 
 
 hence ol C O D,or the aberration (oi 
 
 .1 is equal lo the are), la I 
 ical Tables = 20" '6. This being tbegi 
 
 \f Aberration. 
 of Aberration 
 ilcrmined by Bessel < Furulamenla Astroruimirh)l" be 
 •">. Dr. Brinkley found it =20" -37. Mr. Richai 
 vationa made with I 
 i the Qreenwic value 
 
 mirt Royal 
 As r. Society, vol. iv.) 
 The effect of ab< rration on any particular star depends 
 ii of the star with refpri nee to the ecliptic. 
 be the orbil ol nd S 
 
 plane of i! When * 
 
 tlh is nt A Ihe s!ar will be thrown 
 forward by the efl rration to s. 
 
 i nt the opposite 
 bit C, Ihe star will he thrown 
 ■ t'. At i; and !> the earth is mov- B 
 lion parallel to the ray of Light 
 rom the siar, and thi 
 
 Hence a star " 
 
 ■ ecliptic appears to oscillate 
 brwards in a straight line, always returning 
 il the end of a year. 
 A ray of light proceeding from a star situated in the polo 
 ,'ti'-. is always at right angles to the direction of 
 msequently, a star having this posi- 
 tion will appear to describe annually, about the pole of the 
 ecliptb which the radius = 80" - 3. 
 
 In any oilier position, th* apparent path of a star, sb far 
 a Is on aberration, is an ellipse whose m 
 
 minor axis = 40"-6, multiplied by the sine 
 >f the star's latitodo. 
 The apparent places of the planets are also affected by 
 'i 
 
 ABIETIN^E. 
 
 aberral - the body from which toe 
 
 Ider tli.it the 
 ray of light which enters the eye has p 
 the place which ihe planet occupies at the In 
 observation, hut from that which it did 
 an interval ; 
 
 tance between the planet and ihe earth. To 
 nation in the place of the planet must be added thi 
 described by the earth in the same interval; and it i 
 • nl or r< lati 1 
 uring the time which light takes to 
 ■ irth. 
 Th 
 
 (plained, by Dr. Bradley. It is thi 
 which astronomy furnishes of the motion of the earth 
 round the sun. 
 
 Aberration. In Optics, denotes the deviation of the 
 rays of light from the true focus of a cui 
 lufn ; i which they do not unit 
 
 point, inn in r on a i mall 
 
 form a somewhat confused Image of th.- object This 
 arises from tvi Ihe lenses or 
 
 specula; and. 2d I) , cal na- 
 
 ture of 
 
 ment.s are wi 
 no practical i 
 
 cui-v.itnre wh i ry lo collect 
 
 jural!- rays 
 
 !!!">'! the axis of the I tint of 
 
 of the 
 lena This is called th" Tne 
 
 secon i 
 
 of refraction j a beam of 
 
 light u : sing from one medium u 
 
 m ap 
 pear. It waa long I 
 
 that it waa im| losing 
 
 light ; and hi 
 
 feet n and adapt them to clrcu! 
 
 -;its. But il 1 
 
 Live am 
 
 combining i 
 diffexei I ilint 
 
 ABETTOR, (8 incite.) u 
 
 felony, by his advice or 
 
 : the commission of the 
 principal ; if absent, 
 an accessory b- 
 
 ony the much a principal I 
 
 ■ 
 
 ; i 
 ace, arc subjected to th 
 princip 
 ABETANt Fr. beyer, to expect.) Ill 
 
 abeyance, when thi on in esse in whom it cau 
 
 the proper hel rims, in a grant to A/or 
 
 life, and afterwards to the lei- 
 mains in abeyance until the death ol II, as tin 
 heir to a livin ige descendii | 
 
 A'BIB. The first month of fh« Debre •gen- 
 
 erally known by th in'' of Shun. Il is 
 
 h verse of Ihe I3tll I 
 
 A'BIKS. (1 fir tree.) The name of all those 
 
 fir trees which, lik'- of Le- 
 
 banon, have th'-ir leaves growing singly upon the slem. 
 and the scales of the cones round and thin, 
 called by limb 
 Abies exccl-a, ami a 
 
 by otln liaii balsam by A. balsam 
 
 ofGilei .ilver 
 
 fir; Venetian turpentine bj A laiix, the larch. '■'>• 
 
 lished 
 partly by A rdy hy A. nigra. All Ihe 
 
 species are hardy, and, with ti xception of larches, arc 
 
 Dd in cultivation in England. The mostvalu- 
 .i- the limber are, A. Douglasii, A. excelsa. and A. 
 larix; the most ornamental are. A. cedrus, the cedar of 
 odara, and larix. The most worthless in 
 Britain are, a ■ balaamea, and pec* 
 
 : the three latter form, however, fine trees In fa- 
 vourable situations. The wood of the fir la in very ex- 
 tensive use, ami il i --. perhaps, the most serviceable of all 
 
 AB1ETTNJS. A division in the natural order of conife- 
 rous plants, comprehending the true firs, pines, and arau- 
 
ABJURATION. 
 
 caria-li have cones with many rows of 
 
 in which the seeds are form 
 ABJURATION. Oath of (Lat. ab, from, and jure, / 
 ■ Introduced i y slat. 13 VV. HI., and regulated by 6 
 (J. III. An oath as: title of the present royal 
 
 family to the crown ofEnglmd. By this oath thejurorre- 
 right of the king under the Act of Settlement ; 
 tupport him to the utmost of his power; prom- 
 ose all traitorous conspiracies against him; and 
 isclaims any right to the crown of England in 
 tits of the Pretender; 
 Abjuration of the Realm (in law) signifies a sworn ban- 
 ' the taking of an oat!) to renounce and depart 
 I e realm for ever. 
 Abjuration also signifies a solemn recantation of opin- 
 ion of heresy required by the Romish 
 ch. Henry IV. abjured Protestantism at Saint Denis 
 in 1593. Galileo was compelled to abjure li is philosophi- 
 cal opinions by the Inquisition at Home, in 1633. 
 A'iiLATi". ■ t. ablatus, taken aitoy.) The 
 
 ouns implied in English by the 
 mxfrom. (Ste Grammar.) 
 A'BLU'TION. (Latablu .) A religious cere- 
 
 isting in bathing the body or part of it. It con- 
 part of the Mosaic ceremonial, and was after- 
 tnong the Jews, both by the priesis and 
 are most rigidly enforced by the 
 The term is also applied to the cup given, 
 withon y in the popish churches. 
 
 NO'RMAL. (Lat. nh,fruvi, and norma, a rule.) Any 
 
 or itrary to, system or rule. Thu3 Horace 
 
 >'ctl-in formed sagacious countryman, — 
 Rusticus, abjiormta sapiens, crassaque Minerva. 
 
 In botany, if a (lower has five petals, the rule is that it 
 
 the same number of stamens, or some regular 
 
 iple of that number j if it has only four or six stamens, 
 
 ower would be abnormal. 
 
 AliOA'KD, withil ■',.,, one vessel is said to 
 
 r 1 of another when she gets foul of her. 
 
 ABORI'GINES. ir original (a prima origine) 
 
 , that is, those who occupied it at 
 
 tl'.e period when It known, and who either 
 
 il or had immigrated thither be- 
 
 ie dawn of history. Some of the ancients supposed 
 
 mie soil, and were created 
 
 . it, as the Athenians, who thence called themselves 
 
 kthones, coeval with and sprung from the land. But 
 
 n nations use the word Abori 
 
 those inhabitants of a country of whose origin 
 
 Thus the Indians of America 
 
 because they were found 
 
 i its discovery, and we have no accounts of their 
 
 immigrated from any other quarter. 
 
 ABO'RTION. (Lat. abortus, miscarriage.) This term 
 
 /'.died to the morbid or unnatural expulsion of 
 
 i the human subject after the sixth week, and 
 
 ! sixth Before the sixth 
 
 miscarriage, and after the sixth month, 
 
 'abor. 
 
 i in plants that'do not ac- 
 
 periection; a flower only partially 
 
 ! a stamen whose filament lias no anther, a seed 
 
 i no . to, or which consists only of skin, 
 
 abortion. The term is also applied to parts 
 
 h, although perfect in the beginning, cease to grow, 
 
 in being imperfect; thus ovules, which are not 
 
 I, and which shi \ 1 up instead "of growing into 
 
 •e called abortive. 
 
 ABO'UHANNES. An African bird, supposed to be the 
 
 i< lents. 
 ABRACADA'BRA. A celebrated term of incantation : 
 i spell against fevers. The manner in 
 it was written and carried for that purpose may be 
 seen in Defoe's History of the Plague at London. The 
 word seems to be connected with Abrasax or Abraxas; a 
 found inscribed on certain stones or amulets, in such 
 characters, together with the figure of a human body, with 
 the head of a cat and feet of a reptile. Various explana- 
 tions have been attempted of the object of these curiosi- 
 ties : some from the cabalistic and an Egyptian derivation. 
 mano (Berlin, i^!?,) and Neander, have written on 
 ject of the Abraxas stones. 
 AiillA'DING. In Agr. (Lat. ab, from, and rado, I 
 ■•crape or rub off.) Applied to the sloping surface of banks 
 i), which crumbles down from the effects of frost, or 
 the alternate action of drought and moisture. 
 
 ABRA'MIS (Abramis, Cuv.) The name of a subgenus 
 
 of Malacopterygious or sofl-finned abdominal fishes, cbar- 
 
 e of spines or barbels ; by the 
 
 dorsal fin being short and placed behind the ventrals, and 
 
 the anal fin being long. The common bream is a species 
 
 of this ■■ 
 
 ABRA'NCHIANS. Abranthia, Cuv. (Gr. d, without, 
 
 4 
 
 ABSCISS. 
 
 Ppayx ta iai !!s -) An order (the third in Cuvier's arrange 
 merit) of anellidans, so called because the species compos 
 ing il have no external organs of respiration ; they are di- 
 vided into the setigerous abranchians, or worms, and tlw 
 non-setigerous abranchians, or leeches. 
 
 ABRA'SION. (Lat. abrado, J rub off.) In Numismato- 
 logy, implies Ihe wasle of coins, or the loss by wear and 
 tear in the pocket. This forms a considerable item in the 
 expense of a metallic currency; and various means have 
 been employed to lessen it, by alloying the coins SO as to 
 render them harder, by raising the borders so as ti 
 the surface exposed to be rubbed. &c. 
 
 ABRA'XAS. A genus of Lepidopterous insects, ol tin- 
 family GeometridcB : founded by Dr. Leach for the com 
 mon magpie moth (Abraxas glossulariata) and oth 
 species. It is the larvte of the Abr. glossulariata which 
 commit the well known ravages upon the gooseberry trees 
 of our gardens : consuming the leaves almost as soon as 
 they appear. They feed early in the morning, before the 
 dew is off or the sun has much power; and it is at lids 
 time thai thev should be sought for and removed. 
 
 ABRIDGEMENT, In Literature. (Lai. abbrevio, / 
 shorten.) A compendious arrangement of the matter cou- 
 tained In a larger work. Before the invention of printing, 
 when manuscripts were valuable, and the labour of writing 
 them great, the compiling abridgements of considerable 
 works was an important branch of authorship ; and it has 
 been doubted whether we have lost or gained more by the 
 practice : since, on the one hand, the contents of many lost 
 authors are thuspartially preserved to us : and, on the other, 
 the abridgement becoming popular may, in some cases, 
 have caused the loss of the original. Among the best 
 known abridgements of antiquity are the History of Justin, 
 being an abridgement of the lost History of Trogus Pom- 
 peius : the Natural History of Solinus, chiefly abridged from 
 that of Pliny, <tc. Pew modern abridgements, taking the 
 phrase in its strict sense, merit peculiar notice, or have 
 been compiled with any other view than that of assisting 
 education. This, however, is not the case with some ol 
 those works called abridgements, intended to exhibit a 
 summary view of some science or department of litera- 
 ture. The Abrcge Ckronologique de VHisloire d 
 by the president Henault, is a work of this kind. 
 perhaps, been praised beyond its deserts, but still it pos- 
 sesses uncommon merit. Its success led to the 
 firm of various works of the same kind, ol' v. 
 Abrcge Ckronologique de I'Histoire de I'AUema 
 Pfeffel, is probably the best. Dr. Rol from it 
 
 most of his knowledge of the constitution of the German 
 empire. To abridge well requires a thorough knowledge 
 of the subject, with tact to seize upon the prominent points, 
 
 and ability to state them clearly and sucrinelly. Tacitus, 
 says Montesquieu, " abridged all because he knew ail," but 
 Tacituses are rare. 
 
 ABROGA/TION. The annulment of a law by compe- 
 tent authority. (From the Latin ab, from, and rogo, lank.) 
 A phrase derived from (he practice of the Roman popular 
 assemblies, in which the several tribes, curia-, iVc. were 
 said rogare snffragia, to demand the suffrage ; whence also 
 the modern word prerogative. (See Comitia.) 
 
 ABRU'PT. (Lat. abrumpo, I break off'.) A term in Bo- 
 tany, applied to any thing which happens suddenly. A leaf 
 which is suddenly terminated without tapering to a point, a 
 stem which is suddenly bent, a pinnated leaf without a ter- 
 minal leaflet, are all abrupt 
 
 Abrupt. In Ichthyology is applied to the lateral line 
 ivided into two or more parts not contiguous. 
 
 A'BRUS. (Gr. aSpos, delicate, or elegant.) A West In- 
 dian tree with papilionaceous flowers, and pods contain- 
 ing bright red seeds with a broad black scar on one side 
 of them. The seeds are often strung into necklaces for 
 children. 
 
 A'BSCESS. (Lat. abscedo, I separate.) Inflammation in 
 the membranous or fleshy parts of the body, attended by 
 the formation of pus, and the consequent sepa ratio 
 tension of ihe parts affected ; thus the integuments sepa- 
 rate from the parts beneath, and form a tumour. 
 
 A'BSCISS, or ABSCISSA. (Lat. ab scindo, Ic 
 A term used in geometry to denote a segment cut off from 
 a straight line, by an ordinate to a curve. The position ol 
 a point on a plane is perfectly determined when 
 tances, measured in given directions, from two 
 lines given by position, are known; and as cm 
 may be regarded as formed by the contfauo 
 point, their various propertii 
 means of the relation common to all points ol th 
 curve between the two distances so measured. 1 
 A 1! and A C be two straight line 
 
 in, and P any point in a curve 
 X Y. Dr.w PQ parallel to A C, and 
 meeting A I! in <J, then P Ci 
 the ordinate )f the point P, and AQ is 
 
 the absciss. The absciss and ori 
 
 ** considered together, are called the co- 
 
ABSENTEE. 
 
 iminnti ii of the curve, and the point A. where they inter- 
 
 • iritriti of the co-ordinates. For 
 point of the same . 
 
 i A Q and P Q. I d the equation of 
 
 irve. In order to represent this equation algebraic- 
 tie absciss. A I ■ r, and the ordinate 
 P CI by y. The con 
 
 is are much 
 origin 
 point from which the abac 
 i any where in the plane < 
 
 in be Invee- 
 lient to place the origin at some 
 • [he oilier parts of 
 
 word which has reci 
 uliar signification: a landed proprietor 
 ha ai a distance from the district In 
 
 _v. In 1?!.") a lax v. ton ab- 
 
 id, in all cases where t!n-i r residence 
 s than six months in the • 
 
 own. But ii c 
 
 ■•• of a landed proprietor be Injo- 
 luntry, in an ense, is a question 
 
 the evi- 
 
 ofthe 
 ■ nf Ireland, 
 ice, in 
 5, and Quarterly K 
 
 i limit- 
 ■:ior's Outline 
 
 ■hitec- 
 y that 
 mrcli wherein the clergy •■ or the 
 
 This part of the church « 
 
 d, and not as I 
 
 rt, from aplu. 
 n d on the plan, and 
 
 as a covering. It consisted of two 
 
 lary : at the middle 
 throne of the I 
 
 altar, toward 
 from which II ed by an opt 
 
 I cup, 
 
 anciently called by 
 
 uiht thai thence this part 
 
 I its name, but the converse is the real 
 
 I TE. ABSOLUTISM. In Politics, a government 
 ; ihe supreme I 
 flaw, and has unrestricted power of ! ; 
 Uoq. "Elr ommon watch-word i 
 
 anti constitutional party In Spain Yet in that count 
 
 e theory of absolute sovereignty 
 
 limit: since we God the same party denying 
 
 will ihe fun- 
 
 succession to the throne- (.S'ee Des- 
 
 ABSOLUTION. (I.at. ah, /row. solvo, I loose.) A 
 
 churches. In the 
 Roman Catholic, the priest not only di 
 
 er, but is believed to have the power of 
 ising him from his sins : and this authority is 
 i.icil ofTreni to belong to him In Its full 
 The Chun I, In the Order for thi ' 
 
 laxly the same words ; but 
 em not to be exactly agrei 
 •f the absolution so conferred. 1 
 service, the words of the absolution are merely de- 
 
 i'.I). (Lat absorbeo, Iottckup.) In Painting. 
 imbibed. A term applied by the Fren< : 
 a picture in which the oil has sunk in 
 round whereon j] is painted, leaving the colour 
 id the touches indistinct. Our picture dealers use 
 the same thins. It may be re- 
 
 und. In Painting. A ground pre- 
 
 l for a picture, either on board or canvass, chiefly 
 
 : water-colour mixture, by which expe- 
 
 ly taken upor sucked in from the 
 
 i, and a brilliancy imparted to the 
 
 Absorbents. In M tances which remove 
 
 ■ oniarh, such as magnesia and chalk. 
 
 ABSORPTION. In Physiology, is one of the vital or- 
 
 fuuetions, the object of which is primarily to convey 
 
 -upplyof the materials for 
 
 the growth and support of ihe system ; and, secondarily, to 
 
 ACADEMICS. 
 
 remove and carry to the same organs the decayed ana 
 
 ■ irts ofthe bod v. See Lacteals. 
 A'BSTRACT (Lat abstraho, / take away), signifies a ge- 
 neral view or analysis of a v. ' part of a work. 
 It differs from abridgement chiefly in this, that while in the 
 latter it is ofien necessary to enter into somewhat minute 
 details, the former is always confined to a QOtici 
 
 the leading particula idobkekt. 
 
 ABSTRACT MATHEMATICS, or PURE MATHEMA- 
 TICS. That br 
 
 tions or properties of magnitudes or 
 generally, and without restriction 10 any IndtvidV 
 ludc Thus, the proposition that the • 
 gle are, together, equal to two rigbl 
 truth, not confined to au Indi' particu- 
 
 lar species of triangles, but b triangles what- 
 
 ever. Abstract mathematics 
 
 enies or rela.1 
 
 ABSTRACT NUMBERS. Numbers considered In them- 
 ! withoQl reference to any particular thl 
 
 uimon arithmetic are perform: ■ 
 imbers. 
 ABSTRA'CTION. i o, 1 draw bff.) hi Mela 
 
 physics and Logic, the faculty by which, in contemplating 
 any object, we can attend exclusively to some circum- 
 stances or qualities belonging to It, 
 tention from the rest. It is by the means of lh 
 that we ( 
 
 Prkdicasles) which belong to 
 
 of objects. Thus, in considi 
 
 mentally the qu ularaei 
 
 mal, we arrive at the i. I druped, then 
 
 of an animal, &c. &c. ; which 
 
 ual I" 
 ABSU'RDUM, or RKin'CTIO AD ABSIJRDUM. A 
 
 lion in which the truth of a | 
 by a direct proof, but by provii 
 
 ■ DANT NUMBER (Arithmetic) Is a nnml 
 
 that the -• ■ er than (he mil 
 
 self. Thu 
 
 nd C, theirsnm, which is 16, is greater than 
 bundant number Is opposed to a deficient number, 
 ii of the divisors Is less than the n 
 
 . of which the sum oi lh* II 
 :! to itself. 
 ABUTMENT. (According to some, frcm the 
 
 i Spelman ; bul 
 according ■ from the Saxon 
 
 ure, the solid part n 
 from which (11" arch In 
 either artificial or natural. The former are usually fnrm< d 
 
 irv or brickwork, and the latter a 
 other solid i 
 
 i e the loot of (he arch. Ii i 
 be of sufficient solidity and 
 
 ABUTTALS. The buttings or 
 
 showing by what other lands, highways, rivers, &c. they 
 - 
 IA. (Gr. axaKia.) piny leenmmnus 
 
 (ted leaves, and small flow ■ 
 
 are all inhabitants of the warmer parts ofthe woi 
 of ihem, as A. vera, arables, &c , yield gum arable 
 gal : the bark of A. catechu furnii 
 railed catechu, or terra 
 na are exceedingly frag 
 one ofthe principal Ingredients in Italian perfumery. Tie 
 bark of in abounds In tanning prii 
 
 Holland, a her countries, produi ■ 
 
 , in which true leaves are not for:, 
 stead the branches are furnished with bro 
 ;ves. 
 AOADE'MICS. A name given to a series of 
 pliers who taught In the Athenian Academy, tl I 
 They are commoi 
 i under the names of the 
 my. I. The Old Ac 
 of which Plato was the Immediate founder, was repre- 
 sented successively by Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Po- 
 lemo. These philosophers, as far 
 remaining of Ihem allow us to form a judgment. 
 
 • lemselves to the task of elucidating and 
 
 defending i of their great master. '■■ 
 
 tovism.) A list of their works is given us by D 
 Laertius, b. Iv. To them succeeded Arcesi 
 foundpr of (2) Ihe Middle Academy. Under hi 
 the Platonic method assumes an almost i 
 lemical character. Whatever may have been his 
 I 
 
ACADEMY. 
 
 .•egnrcl sltive part of Plato's doctrines, lie con- 
 
 : iu public to the support of the negative 
 
 portion; lhat, namely, which relates to the uncertainty 
 
 nfthe impressions on the senses, and, const quently,of the 
 
 unded on them. His main object was to re- 
 ho maintained a doctrine of perception 
 Mom i promulgated by Dr. Reid in the last 
 
 • PSKCXFTJON.) Socrates is said to have 
 II be knew was. that lie knew nothing. 
 Arc . d ihat he knew even this. Wisdom lie 
 
 in absolute suspension of essi m : virtue, 
 'una:.; of consequences ; in the latter 
 abating (lie ethical dogmatism of the stoics, 
 as in tie former the intellectual. He was succeeded by 
 des, Teleoles and Grander, and Hegesinus. 3. The 
 New Academy cla as its founder. It is not 
 
 limits between this and the Middle Aca- 
 riemy. Like Arcesilaua, Carneades appears to have taken 
 up a i:r.. ttfi d and poll mica] position. His system is a spe- 
 ■ n. I!'- considers probability to 
 ibject, alike in speculation and in 
 ice. The doctrines of this school were adopted by 
 i consequence of the advantage 
 v.hic :'■ uld derive from the practice of 
 
 a question, than from any solid 
 was succeeded by his disciple, 
 1 achiis. Charihides, the third and last of the Mew 
 lo nave been little more than a 
 : an accusation, indeed, to which the 
 mall degree liable. To these three 
 fourth and fifth are added, by some writers: 
 of which Piiilon and Anlinchus are produced as the repre- 
 tter was the friend of Cicero and other 
 d Romans. Neither of them can in any jus- 
 . i heir doctrines being, in fact, in 
 a diametrically opposite nature. 
 ACA'DEMY. (Gr. dxaoripia.) A society of learned 
 [( i! for the advancement of the arts or scien- 
 ces. The name is derived (rem that of a place near 
 Athensi, where there was a famous school for gymnastic 
 
 , .'• their lei tures. But the first 
 ad, at all resembling our modern 
 academy, wi of scholars i Alex- 
 
 ia by Ptolemy Soter. The Jews in various cities, the 
 emperors, and the Arab caliphs, found- 
 ed soc : scription. Charlemagne, among 
 Sorts tor the propagation of literature, collected 
 an association of learned men, who read and compared the 
 ave themselves, in their academic 
 turned names of different ancient au- 
 Bul this institution was dissolved at the death of 
 Akuin find any memorial of a similar society, 
 excel* a few among artists, chiefly in France, until after 
 the taking of Constantinople by (he Turks, when the Greek 
 scholars driven into Italy held literary meetings, which 
 gradually a jular form. About 15U0 a 
 society, called the Academia Secretorum Naturae, was 
 founded at \ house of Baptists Porta, but was 
 il interdict. It was. however, succeeded 
 by the Academia l.yncei at Rome, of which Galileo was a 
 member, the objects of which, like those of the former, 
 were c led with the pursuit of natural history. 
 From the beginning of the 17th century academies multi- 
 in Italy. Among the most eminent of those which 
 bore : i hilosophical character, was the A. del Cimento, at 
 Home, in that century ; the Academy of Orossano, in the 
 kingdom of Naples, &c. : and, in more recent times, the 
 ■ 13 "i Sciences at Bologna deserves to be n entioned 
 But Italj lias been most prolific in acade- 
 mies of literature and philology, which form by far the 
 greatest .lumber in the catalogue of 600 such institutions 
 which have been enumerated as existing or having existed 
 country. A general and somewhat ridiculous fash- 
 ion prevailed in the I7lh and IS1I1 centuries among lite- 
 rary men of that country, of forming themselves into so- 
 cieties for the promotion of literary objects, to which they 
 I symbolic names, every member assuming in 
 ition. Some of these 
 socictiet e.'. e done real service to literature, but by far the 
 isl number have contented themselves with multi- 
 eel sonnets. Among the most 
 aled was the A. degli Arcadj, at Home, of which 
 held In a meadow, and the members 
 epherds and . unded 
 1 and still subsists, having various affiliated soci- 
 -. The A. degll I'midi.onc of the oldest 
 me afterwards the Florentine Aea- 
 Tiie A. degli Intronati (of the Deaf), degli Umoristi 
 Humourists), and many others with similar quaint 
 1 acquired celebrity in Italy. Of her phi- 
 ; academies, the most illustrious is that della Cms- 
 : Florence, which, by the publication of 
 as dictionary, established the Tuscan dialect as the stand- 
 6 
 
 aid of the national language; it is now incorporated with 
 the A. Florentina. In France, the Academic Francaise 
 unded in 1635 by cardinal Richelieu. It was an as- 
 sociation form 1 ii for the purpose of refining the French 
 language and style; and, although In its first period it waa 
 chiefly remarkable for the adulation which it bestowed or; 
 its vain though able founder, it became, in process of lime, 
 by far the most celebrated and influential of all European 
 literary societies. It consisted of 40 members, and a place 
 among them was eagerly sought after, for a long period, as 
 one of the highest honours which could be attained I 
 author, hike that of Crusca, it published a Dictionary of 
 the French Language, in 1694. The Royal Acaden y of 
 Sciences was founded by Louis XIV., in 1666, and pub- 
 lished 130 volumes of memoirs, up to (lie year l?93,when 
 it was abolished by the Convention. The' Ai 1 
 Painting and Sculpture, and that of Inscriptioi ! . 
 Lettres. were the other two principal academies of Paris. 
 The latter was founded by Colbert in 1663, and remodi lied 
 in 1701. At the Revolution all four were abolished: and. 
 in 1795, at the suggestion of Condorcet, the National Insti- 
 tute of France was established in their stead. Il coi 
 of four classes, arising out of the four academies o( wl ich 
 it was composed. According to its re organisation by Na- 
 poleon, in 1806, these classes were remodelled, and each 
 of them consisted of a certain number of secth is, each 
 furnished with a specified number of acting and corres- 
 ponding members. The first class, or that ol sciences, 
 had sixty-three members, and 100 correspondents ; that of 
 languages, forty, and CO correspondents; that ol history 
 and antiquities, forty, and 60 correspondents; that of the 
 arts, twenty-eight, and 3b correspondents. The first, third, 
 and fourth, named each eight foreign associates. In 1S10, 
 the Institute was again remodelled by Louis XVIII. The 
 four classes again took the name of academies, and be- 
 came more independent of each other, their joint property 
 being managed by a commission of eij:hl members, two 
 from each, under the superintendence of the minister of 
 the interior. The first academy (that of sell nee) retained 
 the same number of members. The second and third 
 were reduced to thirty-' i;:ljt and thirty- ively : 
 
 the fourth, increased to forty. The Academj 
 tions and Belles Lettres, and lhat of Scienct 
 to them a classof free academicians, 01 the number often, 
 with no privilege except that of attendance ; II 
 of Arts had the right to choose its own number of free 
 members. 
 
 Of similar institutions in Germany, the oldest was the 
 Academia Naturae Curiosorum, a scientific association 
 founded in 165& in Franconia ; afterwards taken undo 
 imperial protection, when it received the name of thp A. 
 Cssareo Leopoldina. The Royal A. of Sciences, at Ber 
 tin, was founded in 1700, by Frederick I. of Prussia : Leib- 
 nitz was its first director. The Imperial Academy of Sci- 
 ences at St. Petersburgh was founded by Call anne I., 
 and endowed by Catharine II. with great muni 
 established on the French model : she separated from il 
 the Academy of Arts 
 
 In England, the name academy has been chiefly confined 
 to associations for promoting the arts. The Royal Ai 
 my of Arts was founded in 1768, and consists ol forty mem- 
 bers : it has separate professors ol painting, architecture, 
 anatomy, and perspective ; and a coma . 
 annually. The Academy of Ancient Music was I: i 
 by private association, in 1710: ihe Royal Academy ol 
 Music, under the patronage of George III., bill dissolved 
 shortly alter. The principal literary and philosophic; 
 cleties, answering in character to the bran. 
 French Institute, are, 1. The Royal Society of London. 
 which is confined to objects of a scientific character. It 
 had its origin as early as 1645, but was established by royal 
 charier In 1662. Its' acts have been published, under Ihe 
 name of Philosophical Transactions. In m 1665 to the pre- 
 sent day. 2. Those of the Antiquarian Society, which was 
 established in 1751. are published under Ihe tiile of ArchK- 
 ologia. 3. The Royal Society of Arts originated in 1718. 
 4. That of Literature, in 1823. Besides these, then 
 numerous societies which bear the name of the p< ■ 
 branch of science to which their exerlii 
 The Royal Society of Edinburgh obtained a cbarli 
 1783, and another, with more liberal provisions, In 1811. 
 Among Ihe most, valuable published Iran 
 mies and similar societies, besides t! men- 
 
 tioned, are those of Colbert's A. des Inscriptions et I 
 Lettres (CO vols. 4to. from 1701 to 1793): these ol the Insti- 
 tute being continuations of the memoirs of the former aca 
 demies of which it was composed : those of the A. Bl 
 des Sciences and Belles Lettres at Berlin : at first in 1 
 then in French (from its remodelling In 17-1-1 by Frederick 
 the Great), now in German. The "Acta" of the Imp 
 Academy of St. Peteraburgh. The "Commentarli" of ihe 
 A. of Bologna. The Antichita d'Ercolano, published by 
 the Herculanean Academy of Naples. 
 
 Academy. In the sense of a place of Instruction, is now 
 
ACADEMY FIGURE. 
 
 n England a term chiefly appropriated to schools for sta- 
 ke fine arts. The fourth division of :!ie Insti- 
 adernie des Beaux Arte. In 
 my of Painting Mcma to have teen es- 
 . 1712, under 
 
 y after fallen Into decay. The present 
 . founded in l~ already 
 
 Hi. I universities were suppressed 
 but most of them, with som» recent ones, 
 I under the title of Academies Uni- 
 Their collective body represented by the re- 
 stitutes 
 head of which is the Minis- 
 Colleges in Fiance are equivalent 
 England. 
 t* FIGURE. In Painting. A drawing usually 
 and white chalk, on .-, after 
 
 ; . Acalcphae. (Gr. anaXq&n, anet; 
 
 i count 
 
 most of the species 
 
 . irritating and inflaming the skin 
 
 ( Uivler dichototnously into 
 
 ir bladders for swimming, or the" 'by- 
 
 ilephans,' an !i have not, or the 
 
 exter- 
 their 
 ad marine. 
 !i:s. (Gr. ii. without, KtipirToj, l 
 olefin. rripeda Inclu I 
 
 1 that it cannot be unfold* 
 
 •e Acanthus.) a natural order 
 
 s, iii which t). 
 
 flow- 
 
 I tiring im- 
 
 '.ii broken whorls, and by their • 
 ■ hi the placenta. Many of this species have 
 
 ■ i mini 
 mpcrate clii 
 I'NTIIIA. (See Ac J IK; name of a genus 
 
 of hemipternus insects ol the tribe Geucorisae, chat 
 
 prominent ; eyes of 
 resenting, at its junction with the 
 
 nterior pair I I 
 i. or forceps claw, like that 
 ■tig a living pi 
 ACA'NTIIOCE'PHALANS, \ la. (Gr.dxa* 
 
 Oot. a thorn, and ict^oXr/. a head, spiny-hem!' d ) An order of 
 ii in-, or entozoona, which attach themselves to 
 the mucous coat of tin' intestines by means of a proboscis 
 surrounded with minute recurved 
 
 , 'NTHOPHIS. iGr. duavOot. srrine, anil oftf. serpent.) 
 
 ■ of vVnom ■ . allied in the viper, pecu- 
 
 ■i by a horny spine, aim- 
 
 • ■ end of the tail. 
 
 WTJTHOPODS, Acanthopoda. (Or. axavdug. and 
 
 wovi, '■ i applied to a tribe of 
 
 . Including those species | 
 
 ^NTnOPTERY'GIANS,Acanthopterygll(Gr.<J/r«»- ' 
 
 Oos, hi. -first, 
 
 y tlie bony spines which 
 form ' of their dorsal an I anal fins, and gene- 
 
 rally, a] I fins. 
 
 l'NTHU'RUS. (Gr. aicav9"S. a spine, anrl ovpa, 
 if spiny-finned fishes, characterisi 
 1 serrate teeth, and byhavtrut a strong movable 
 i each side of the tat], by means ; 
 a the power of inflicting very se- | 
 vere wounds 
 AOA'NTHU'3 (Gr. axavQns. a spine.) A spinv herbaceous ; 
 irge whitish dowers i 
 oped in spiny bracts, found in various parts of the Levant 
 lis leaf is said by Vitnnius lo have been the model on 
 which Ihe architects of Greece formed the leaves of the 
 ■nil that Ihe idea, of so applying It was 
 I lowing circumstance: — The leave* of 
 nus grow in a tuft closs to the ground, and sprout ' 
 annually. H happened that a basket covered with a tile ! 
 
 .wu of the root of an acanthus plant, 
 
 which, m to grow in the spring, finding itself 
 
 in the naual manner, turned 
 
 ■mind the sides ofthe basket, tlllencounl 
 
 : the tile, they gradually curved back in a kind of 
 
 mthns, are 
 
 inuion of capita ,■ instance, 
 
 ■ order of the arches of Titus and Septimius 
 
 at Rom?, have, from their strong indentations, 
 
 7 
 
 ACCELERATION. 
 
 ■ resemblance to parsley than to acanthus leaves 
 in the Ten 
 ; i laurel leaves. In Egyptian architecture, the 
 ly occurs. 
 x'KDl.V. (Gr. ii. without, and LaL .■-.) A 
 
 term applied to a genus of fossil ostracean 
 
 wanting, and the flat valve is appi 
 ■ onvex valve, like i lid to 
 been <•• 
 
 ' \KI. (Gr. awraot, a ptlte.) In En sterm 
 
 10 the Ir.n henry ar.u-luii.lans, which have ei- 
 
 j 'her a , or pincer represi tiling an an- 
 
 tenna, ma mouth. AU the species are extreme- 
 
 ly "' mite (Acunn 
 
 hi. I many of them parasitic ; of the latti 
 ltch-ii tea ecabiei) is a remarkable example. 
 
 The m era of 
 
 life, resisting for a time the application ol boilli 
 
 ACCl.'D.vs ah CtKRlAM. In Law, tb» title of a will 
 | which ni rally 
 
 the county court, a< tin- issuing of which is a prelim 
 to trying a q ii upon a distress of goods by the 
 
 VCOELERA'TION. (Lai. a< i .) In 
 
 lOCity of Ik, dies in 1: 
 
 ; is uniform or variable, according sa the force 
 by which the motion is produced nets regularly or Irregu- 
 larly, 
 , motlot . rt'sj at- 
 
 tl in tin' falling of heavy bodies, or 
 their descent along inclined planes. In both these In- 
 IOt fail to perceive that the veloci- 
 h eight, 
 or continues a longer time in motion. In order to explain 
 the theory'.: m of gravity, it bine- 
 
 ' that, in virtue of the inertia of mailer, a 
 t, orof uniform mo- 
 tion in a straight line, till. ; ■ rnal inlluen. 
 
 which is admitted as a principle or axiom In mechanics, 
 and IV 
 
 . motion, at 
 moving hod . Irom the action of an extraneous 
 
 idera- 
 bii' hf-igiit above the earth, and abandoned to the action of 
 gravity ; and i the circumstances which take 
 
 u, gravity may be i ■ \ 
 force at 
 
 as the distance from the centre of the earth im 
 any height to which we can reach la so small, compared 
 with the radius of the earth, that the Variation 
 s:ty ol riding on it m Let 
 
 Ihe time whit ■ divi- 
 
 ded Inioequa tervab. During the firs) interval 
 
 an im: i to the body, and t certain mi 
 
 communicated. If gravity now ceased to act, 1 1 ■ - - body 
 would contii ni uniformly with the velocity it 
 
 had acquired; tan ihe imfpnlse is rent 
 
 equal vigour iluriii" I'orval. and. COO equ lolly, 
 
 l-.icity ofthe body is exactly doubled, 
 thing la repeated in tin- third interval, and, c< 
 
 '.icily of the body is then tripled. In the fourth in- 
 terval it is qnadru continually 
 qua! and sin-. ils of time, 
 ly from the action of the aeeel- 
 ■ . and preserving its acquired velocity in ci 
 
 Hence are infer the first great law of 
 uniformly ai . Ion, namely, the velocity at any 
 
 given moment la proportional to the number of imp 
 that have been received, or to the number of intervals that 
 
 ■ i m*- tin nr of Ihe motion ; In 
 
 other words, ihe re '■ Hanoi to the timr.. 
 
 Lett] der the spaces passed over by the falling 
 
 body. Suppose the space through which the body falls 
 during the first interval, or second of lime, to he one pole. 
 As the velocity Is supposed, at the com.v of the 
 
 motion, to be nothing, and id Increase uniformly during the 
 
 SI, it is evident that the space passed over will I 
 same as if the body had continued during the interval 
 to move uniformly with the mean velocity, or the velocity 
 it had at the middle of the interval. But the velocity has 
 been shown to be proportional to the lime. H' DC6, at the 
 end of the first second the velocity is the double ofwhat it 
 was at the middle of the second ; 'and. tl ivily 
 
 : the body, during the second interval or se- 
 cond, would descend through two poles, nee. 
 r, of the renewed action of gravity, the body re- 
 a fresh impulse during the second interval equal to 
 that which it received during Ihe first, and is, consequently, 
 
 i through a space equal to one pole, in addition to 
 licit through which it is carried by its previously acquired 
 velocity. Hence, during the second interval Ihe body falls 
 through three poles. At th© end of this time the vataoKr 
 
ACCELERATION. 
 
 is the double of what it was at the end of the first interval, 
 and, consequently, during the next second would carry the 
 body through four poles. Add, again, the effect of the re- 
 newed impulse, and the space passed over by the body in 
 the third second is five poles. In the same manner, we 
 find the space passed over in the fourth second to be seven 
 poles; in the fifth, nine poles, and so on; the spaces de- 
 scribed in tne successive seconds being proportional to the 
 series of odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, Ax. Adding, there- 
 fore, these numbers successively, we shall have the spaces 
 passed over, since the commencement of Ihe motion, re- 
 presented by the series of square numbers, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 
 36, Are. Whence the second great law of uniform accel- 
 eration, namely, the spaces described are proportional to the 
 squares of the ti/nrs. 
 
 Galileo whs the first who discovered the laws of acceler- 
 ation of falling bodies. He supposed the acceleration to 
 take place by equal degrees, or to be uniform; and exper- 
 iment has confirmed his hypothesis. (*'ee Gravity, Gra- 
 vitation.) 
 
 What has now been said, with respect to motion uni- 
 formly accelerated, applies equally (mutatis mutandis) to 
 motion uniformly retarded. It will also be perceived that 
 the effect of ihe resistance of the air has been neglected. 
 
 ACCELERATION OF THE FIXED STARS denotes 
 the apparent greater diurnal motion of the fixed stars than 
 of the sun-j in consequence of which they daily come to 
 ihe meridian of any place at an earlier hour of the solar 
 nay than they did on the daj preceding. Thus, a star 
 which to-day passes Ihe meridian at six o'clock, mean 
 time, will pass the meridian to-morrow three, minutes and 
 fifty-six seconds before six o'clock. The reason of this is, 
 that Ihe sun, which appears to make a complete revolution 
 of the heavens, from west to east, in the course of a year, 
 advances daily nearly a degree eastward among the stars ; 
 and the apparent diurnal motion being from east to west, 
 the sun's passage over the meridian is retarded daily about 
 three minutes and fifty seconds of time in respect of the 
 stars. But our clocks are regulated by ihe sun ; consequent- 
 ly, in reference to them, the daily transit of the stars over 
 the meridian is accelerated. (See Sidereal Time.) 
 
 ACCELERATION OF THE MOON. An increase of 
 the mean angular velocity of the moon about the earth ; in 
 consequence of 'Which the time of her mean periodic; re- 
 volution is somewhat shorter than it was many centuries 
 This acceleration is exceedingly small, amounting 
 only io about ten oreleven seconds ofa degree in a century. 
 It was discovered by Dr. Halley, from a comparison of very 
 ancienl with modern observations, and was confirmed by 
 an examination of the observations of the Arabians in the 
 i 10th centuries. Its physical Qause long occasioned 
 iy to mathematicians, and was at length de- 
 li) thegeniusof Laplace. It dependson a very slow 
 secular diminution of ihe eccentricity of the earth's orbit. 
 One of the greatest discoveries in physical astronomy is, 
 thai all variations in the elements of the planetary system 
 are periodic. Some centuries after the present lime, the 
 eccentricity of the earth's oi+it will arrive atils minimum 
 value, arid then begin to increase. When this period ar- 
 rives. Ihe mean motion of Ihe moon, which for many cen- 
 turies has been accelerated, will begin to be retarded. (See 
 Planetary System, and Perturbation.) 
 
 ACCELERATION OF THE PLANETS. The motion 
 of a planet in its orbit is variable, being quicker or slower, 
 according as the planet is at a less or a greater distance 
 from lh" sun. Hence, in moving from the apogee to the 
 perigee of the orbit, the motion of a planet is accelerated ; 
 and. on ihe contrary, in moving from the perigee to the 
 apogee, the motion is retarded. 
 
 A'CCENT. (Lat. ad, to. and cano, I sing.) Inordinary 
 language, the greater or less stress laid in pronouncing on 
 each syllable of a word is termed the accent of that syl- 
 lable. But the accent of a Greek syllable is a species of 
 tone, respecting which very contradictory notions prevail 
 among modern commentators, and of winch it is indeed 
 lil io form any accurate conception. The history of 
 nployment of accentual marks in writing the Greek 
 language, is extremely obscure. They are found in manu- 
 scripts of considerable antiquity. In our pronunciation of 
 Greek. they are wholly neglected, quantity being our only 
 guide, iii the stress which we lay oil. the syllable of each 
 word, lint the modern Greeks pronounce their language, 
 in general, laying the stress on the accented syllables, and 
 iting the quantity. The mark of the acute accent is' ; 
 of the grave ' ; of the circumflex, which is a compound of 
 the other two, A , or *. Hut every syllable which has no 
 accentual mark is said to have the itrave accent ; the grave 
 only marked on final syllables of words which have 
 ■i, in accent on any syllable. These three accentual 
 are also employed in the French language; but in 
 ,!v employed, for convenience, to mark a dif- 
 nunciation, not in Ihe accent; the modi- 
 fications of th ds not being all of them express- 
 ed by distinct letters. 
 
 ACCIDENTALS. 
 
 AcrtENr. In Music, a certain stress or forced expression 
 laid on certain parts of a bar or measure. 
 
 ACCE'NTOR. A genus of seed ami insect-eating pas 
 serine birds, of which the hedge-chanter, or, as it is com- 
 monly called, the hedge-sparrow (Accentor modular:*), is a 
 well known example. 
 
 ACCEPTANCE. See Bill op Exchange. 
 
 ACCE'PTOR. (Law.) See Bill of Exchange. 
 
 A'CCESSARY. (Lat. accedo, I approach.) In Law, a-; 
 accessary to an offence is one who is not the chiei 
 present at its performance, but is concerned therein, either 
 before or after the fact. An accessary before the fact, is on« 
 " who, being absent at the lime of the crime committed, 
 doth yet procure, counsel, or command another to commit 
 a crime." An accessary after the fact, is one who, know 
 itig that a felony has been committed by another, receives 
 relieves, comforts, or assists the felon. (See Law, Criki 
 
 NAL.) 
 
 Accessary, or Accessory. (Fr. accessoire.) In Pain; 
 ing, and the fine arts, is a term which extends to every thin" 
 introduced into a work that is not absolutely necessary. In 
 an Historical picture, for instance, the figures which are in 
 action are Ihe principal objects; by them the story is told, 
 all the rest are accessories. Especial care is to be taken 
 that they be so selected and disposed as r. I 
 with the principal group; hence ihe ancient painb 
 sculptors were very shy of using them, lest the eye should 
 be drawn away from the principal group, and its interest be 
 thus lessened or destroyed. 
 
 ACCE'SSION. In international law, the act by which 
 one power enters into engagements originally contracted 
 between other powers. The accession of a sovereign is the 
 period at which he assumes the sovereignty, and in heredi- 
 tary monarchies takes place immediately on ilie decease 
 of his predecessor, 
 
 ACCIA'CCATU'RA. (It. acciacrare, to squeeze.) In Mu- 
 sic, a grace note, one semitone below that to which it is pre- 
 fixed, or, as it were, squeezed in. 
 
 A'CCIDENS, per accident. A term used by the older 
 philosophers to denote ah effect not following from ihe 
 nature or essence of the thing, but from some accidental 
 quality. It is opposed to per se. Thus, fire burns perse: 
 healed iron bums per uccidens. 
 
 A'CCIDENT. In Logic, one of the predicates : in its 
 strictest logical sense, it is that which may be absent from 
 or present in the subject, the essence of the species to which 
 the subject belongs remaining the same. Thus, it may be 
 predicated of a man, that he is li walking," oi that he is " a 
 native of Paris;" the -first of which examples 
 what is termed a separable accident ; the hitler, an insepa- 
 rable ; i. e. Ihe individual may cease (o walk, hut cannot 
 cease to be a native of Paris; but neither of these alter the 
 species, man. to which the individual belongs. Bui ii is 
 observed, Willi regard Io the accident, as well as the other 
 predicables, that they exist only relatively to each other ; 
 so that the same quality may be accidental when predicated 
 of the species, which is a properly when predicated of the 
 individual. Thus " malleability " is an accident of lie 
 ject " metal," because many metals are not malleable. But 
 it is one of the properties of gold, iron, &c 
 these from Die non-malleable metal. (See Phedicabi.e.) 
 
 ACCIDENTAL COLOURS. Colours depending on 
 some affection of the eye, and not belonging to light itself, 
 or any quality of the luminous object, if we look for a 
 short time steadily with one eye upon any bi i 
 spot, as a wafer on a sheet of paper, and immediately after 
 turn the same eye to another part of the paper, a similar 
 spot will be seen', but of a different colour. If Ihe wafer be 
 red, the imaginary spot will lie tireen ; if black, it will be 
 changed into white ; the colour thus appearing being always 
 what is termed the complementary colour of that on which 
 the eye was fixed 
 
 ACCIDENTAL POINT. Perspective. The point in 
 Which a straight line drawn from Ihe eye. parallel to an- 
 other straight, line, cuts the perspective plane. It is the 
 point in which the representations of all straighl lines pa- 
 rallel to the original straight line concur when produced It 
 is called the accidental point, to distinguish it from the prin- 
 cipal point, or point of view. 
 
 ACCIDENTALS. (Lat. accidentalis, happening t>>, 
 chance.) In Painting, are those fortuitous or cl 
 effects, occurring from luminous rays ertain 
 
 objects, by which they are brought il light 
 
 than they otherwise would be, ami 'heir g 
 consequently of greater intensity. Tl ; 
 to be seen in almost every picture by Bern 
 \^->d them to a very great extent Thei 
 instances of accidentals in Raphael's Tic: 
 and particularly in the celebrated pie in 
 Coreggio. in which the light em 
 Christ. With these effects may he classed such acci- 
 dental lights as those from a foi 
 such object, of which the use is extremely imp 
 painter of still life. 
 

 ACCIPITRES. 
 
 In Music, are those flats and sharps 
 
 i m a movement, and which 
 
 t be considered so by the flal pa in the 
 
 accipiter, a hawk.') The name of 
 
 • u-py. 
 
 U'MVi'i- .id rlima, a climate.) 
 
 inure them to a 
 
 tnral to them. Anac- 
 
 ince of art for its con 
 
 nit or animal 
 
 1 without an . man. The ca- 
 
 acclima- 
 
 . 
 
 ■ thin the fortu 
 
 h had hither! 
 
 >\\\\m. the neck ) The 
 tubbing a 
 
 e instrumental 
 to which 
 
 . ument, whose 
 i to exhibit. 
 : i Painting. 
 
 ig to us ornament or 
 
 Accessary, Apphovek.) 
 \l.. The principal orrospon- 
 
 inied t>y iici of pai i 
 
 >8 his ac- 
 .■ 
 
 . him. 
 
 use. ) In 
 
 . l'. (Lat accumbere, to lit dmr 
 
 ■ 
 v in pronouns ; 
 in. {Set 
 
 A IMIALANS, Acephala. (Gr. dxufiahot, 
 
 ■ l'allio branch!- 
 
 i 
 i v the 1 unelli-brancl 
 rs, or the acephala I the aco- 
 
 phora. (Grd«0aXoc, 
 tinviUe to a class 
 corresponding to the acephala and 
 . ier. 
 
 \ botanical term, occasionally cm- 
 li> of which springs from 
 
 Acephalous. In Anatomy, is applied to those malform- 
 
 acer, sharp. Pikes 
 ui of hardy ti 
 
 id various 
 la not of much 
 j.ible ; but thi 
 
 I r makers. T r saccharinum 
 
 id quality, is prepared from il 
 
 Norway maple, 
 
 sed totlie 
 
 \ (K.E (-See Acer), or ACKitlNi:."!". A small 
 ol polypetaloa plants, compre- 
 
 Miiers. It CO 
 
 ints, inhabitin 
 
 • T consists 
 in their samarold dicarpellary fruit, connected with a bro- 
 9 
 
 ACHROMATISM. 
 
 ken whorled calyx, and amymmetrical flowers without 
 f the petals. The uses of the order are 
 
 the same as those of acer. 
 
 A'CKKANS. Acera. (Gr. a, irithout. and Ktpas, a horn.) 
 A name applied to a family of apterous insects, character- 
 ised by the absence of antenna? : and to 
 podous mollusks, including those species which have n > 
 
 A'CERIC ACID. (Lat acer, the mci],; ) An acid ol 
 tained from the sap of thai i 
 
 ifl word literally means chaffy (I.at 
 panis <Jy or brown biead.) Uoti 
 
 the term to leaves of a narrow, stir), and pungent nature, 
 
 ACTA'Ifl LI M. (Lat a lit;!- r>;> or dish ) A term 
 era on the anus of the cul 
 oil, or d 
 
 taouHfera. T i were called 
 
 by Aristotle kotuioi, which Tayl ren- 
 
 . ry of 
 
 Animals. In anatomy, acetabulum signifies lha cavity ol 
 
 !he hip joint, in entomology it is the socket on ti.e trunk 
 
 in which the I'-j 
 
 ACETA'RIOUS PLANTS. (Lai. eceUtria, a salad.) 
 
 ii h as lettuce, muslard and cress, 
 
 AC) Baits containing acetic acid, c.sve Vine- 
 
 GAll.) 
 
 ACE'TIC A * "I I j. The pure m 
 
 pungenl colourless acrid liquid ; its odour, wh 
 
 luied. \ efresbiof : w I, it b" 
 
 known nnder the name of aroma . unci 
 
 durum the germinal 
 
 of many plants, but it is mi during 
 
 irly all 
 i m water, -t 
 is of 
 
 m - - - 4 atoms = 21 -17 ik; 
 
 Hydrogen - - 3 •' =3 
 
 - 3 " ss 24 -17 00 
 
 1 51 
 
 AC'h LQ1 B. A confedi rac; whlcl ulsted 
 
 from very early tin 
 
 he north of the Pi Ii 
 
 ■ original cltl 
 the ep 
 from this lime II gained strength, and Snail) 
 
 the v- 
 
 irincipally on ihe pat I anally 
 
 R mans, on the evenl of tl 
 
 h by Mumiiiiiis, b. c. 1-57. The two most celebral id 
 
 tnstru 
 men) ■ i ; and Philoptemi n 
 Ival, in military reputal , ol I 
 
 and llanuiOal. (.Sip Polybius. i." ii. 1'au 
 
 nicl.i 
 \( li.i; Ml M, or ACHENIUM, (Gr. d, without, and 
 X<n*>c, I gape.) A small bony fruit, i 
 
 p, nor 
 ■'. hen ripe. 
 At'llA'T'i I nown 
 
 by the 'i Ivial nami 
 
 blong ventricose shell, striated longitudinally; with 
 the aperture ovale ami never thickened or reflected, and a 
 smooth, straight columella, truncated al lha base. All the 
 i on.-, the Achalma zf/mi, pro- 
 with a hard, white, calcai and as 
 
 i 'arrow. 
 I HERON. (Cr. axos, grief.) The rive 
 which Bowed round the infernal realms of Hades, accord- 
 i ic mythology of the ancients. 1 
 
 of the same i > one 
 
 in Italy, near which Alexander. 
 
 slain ;' both of which from the unwholi iul na- 
 
 turc of their waters, were supposed to communicate with 
 the Infernal sti 
 
 ACHIEVEMENT. (I'r. achever, to accomplish.) In 
 Heraldry, denotea generally a shield of arm.', 
 but U more particularly applied i 
 monly called hatchment, affixed to the dwellii 
 
 irious, 
 according not only to the rank of the d 
 
 : tie, married, or wido 
 ACHLAMY'DEOUS. (Gr. d, >ySi " 
 
 Its which have neitl '■ ;,1:il 
 
 Sowers are consequently destitute of a covering, or 
 
 ACHROMATIC. (Gr. a, without, and xpw/ia, colour-) 
 Free from colour. 
 
 ACHROMATISM. The destruction of the primary 
 leb accompany the Image ; s R eti 
 
 through a prism or lens. Light is not homogeneous, but 
 B 
 
ACHROMATISM. 
 
 eompoumled of rays unequally refrangible, and differing 
 from one another in oilier physical properties. In passing 
 
 Into a refracting medium, some of the rays are more re- 
 fracted, or bent out of their course, than others ; whence 
 the image of an object, seen through a lens, is rendered 
 confused and indistinct, and appears encircled by a coloured 
 ring. This circumstance presented a formidable obstacle 
 to the use of the telescope ; and accordingly, soon after the 
 invention ol that admirable instrument, the utmost efforts 
 of mathematicians and artists were exerted to remove the 
 imperfection. The compound nature of light, and conse- 
 quently, the theory of unequal refrangibility, wens bow- 
 ever, not known till the time of Newton ; and after the 
 true source of the difficulty had been made known, it con- 
 tinued tor a long time to be believed that achromatism was 
 Impossible, or that light could not be deflected without be- 
 ing decomposed. Newton himself was conducted to this 
 conclusion by imperfect experiments. Subsequent disco- 
 veries have proved that the conclusion was errroneous, and 
 that the rays of light may be bent without being separated ; 
 but after all the progress that has be*-- made in the arts, 
 as well as in the theory of colours and light, the subject of 
 achromatism continues to be one of the most delicate and 
 embarrassing, both in regard to theory and practice. 
 
 The principles on which achromatism is effected may 
 he briefly explained, as follows. On observing the spectra 
 formed by prisms of different substances, it is soon per- 
 ceived that the different colours, though always ranged in 
 the same order, do not occupy the same relative lengths. 
 A prism of flint glass, for example, exhibits proportionally 
 less red, and more violet, than a prism of crown glass ; anil, 
 in some other substances, the difference is still more re- 
 markable. Hence it follows, that the primary coloured 
 rays, in passing through different substances, do not under- 
 go tii' L same relative refractions ; that is to say, the angle 
 formed by two rays, the red and the violet, for example, 
 is greater when the light is refracted by some substances 
 than when it is refracted by others, though in all substances 
 !he violet is more refracted than the blue, the blue more 
 than the green, and so on. The angle, formed between the 
 extreme rays of the spectrum measures the dispersion of 
 
 : and it is found by experiment that the di 
 power of common Hint glass is to that of crown glass in 
 the ratio of about 3 to 2; so that if a prism of flint ■ 
 a spectrum three inches long, a similar prism of crown 
 glass will give a spectrum of only two inches. 
 
 Now, suppose a prism of crown glass, C, the faces of 
 which make an angle of 25°, and a prism of flint glass, F, 
 of 20° 21' 43", to be placed be- 
 hind il, and that a ray of direct 
 or white light. I. I. falling on the 
 first prism at I, emerges from 
 the second bwween the points 
 E and E'. It is known by ex- 
 perience, that when the angles of the two prisms are as 
 above stand, the violet ray E V, on emerging from the 
 second prism, is parallel to the incident ray L I; and that 
 the red ray 1/11 must fill below E V, because the red ray 
 only emerges parallel lo l!ie incident ray when the angle of 
 is 20° 56' 23". Hut if the prism of 
 liim glass were removed, or, which would be the same 
 thing, if{t8 sides became parallel, and consequently its an- 
 gle =0, the red ray E' R would fall above the violet ray 
 E V, the violet being more refrangible than the red. While 
 the angle !•'. therefore, increases from 0° to 20° 56' 28", 
 the emerging rays E' 11 and E V change their relative po- 
 sitions ; whence it follows, that at some intermediate angle 
 of the prism F they will be parallel, and this is the ansile of 
 achromatism. Il is found by experience to be 11° 58' 3"; 
 Varying, however, between the narrow limits according to 
 
 liar constitution of the two refracting substances; 
 and, therefore, in determining the ratio of the angles of the 
 two prisms, recourse must generally be had to particular 
 experiments on the individual substances of which the 
 prisms are composed. 
 
 The achromatism of lenses depends on the same princi- 
 ples, and is determined in the same manner, as that of 
 prisms; but in tlie case of lenses, the compensation is at- 
 tended wilh great practical difficulties, on account of its be- 
 : rv lo have regard to the spherical aberration. 
 If the ratios of the dispersion of the different spectral co- 
 lours were all equal, the achromatism would be perfect, 
 when the extreme rays, or, indeed, any two rays, emerge 
 parallel. This, however, is not generally the case. ; ihese 
 
 e in general variable, and, I hero fore, the angle 
 enders the red and violet rays parallel is not that 
 which is required for the intermediate colours. It is possi- 
 ble, however, to remedy this defect, by combining a 
 
 lumber of prisms or lenses. Theoretical: 
 mg, indeed, the number of rays united or rendered paral- 
 ime as the number of prisma. The achromatic 
 >f telescopes formerly made in England, 
 
 i- rally triple; that is to say, consisted of three 
 ,me1v,a concave lens of flint glass placed between 
 lit 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT-MONEY. 
 
 two lenses of crown slass : but almost all the large objei.l 
 glasses lately constructed consist of only two lenses; l'h< 
 achromatism produced by this combination, Iho 
 rigorously exact, being sufficient tor optical purpi 
 
 Tin: possibility of refracting light without produi 
 iour was discovered and experimentally proved by i\K 
 Hall, a country gentleman of Worcestershire, under whose 
 directions an achromatic telescope was made by a London 
 artist in 1733. But, from whatever cause, no notice was 
 taken of Hall's discovery ; indeed, it. appears to have been 
 entirely forgotten, and contributed notnil lo ad- 
 
 . vance subsequent researches. The merit of the discovery 
 of achromatic compensation belongs lo John Dollond, who 
 arrived at it through a long course of skilful and systematic 
 experiments undertaken for die express purpose, il 
 sibility had, indeed, been previously asserted by tire cele- 
 brated Eulei, who, reasoning from the construction of the 
 eye, which, indeed, is a perfect achromatic instrument, 
 proposed various hypotheses for destroying the coloured 
 images. After Dollond's discovery, the subject was ex- 
 amined theoretically by Euler, Clairaut, and D'Ahmbert, 
 but their profound mathematical investigations ltd to no 
 practical improvement. The object-glasses made by Peter 
 Dollond (a son of the inventor) were long celebrated 
 throughout Europe as the best that were manufactured. 
 Of late years, however, the science o flight hi 
 ly extended ; and the discoveries ofFraunhofer, in ; articu- 
 lar, have opened up an entirely new view of the com- 
 position of the s] ectrum. The largest and best achro- 
 matic glasses have recently been made in Bavaria and 
 Switzerland. (See Chromatics, Refraction.) 
 
 ACl'CULAR. (I. at. acicula, ance.dk.) Any thing that 
 is slender, sharp-pointed, and rather stiff; as many kinds 
 of prickles on the leaves of plants, &c. 
 
 A'CID. In common language, any sour substance ; in 
 chemistry the term is less restricted, and often applied to 
 all substances which saturate and neutralise the alkalis 
 and oilier salifiable bases, without other obvious .acid pro- 
 perties. 
 
 ACIDIFTABLE. Convertible into an acid. 
 
 ACrDULOUS. Dim. of acid. Subacid ; a term fre 
 qu mtl; ning i arboni 
 
 ACI'NACIl'ORM. (Lai. acinaces, a scinutai , and forma, 
 shape.') A name applied to certain succulent leave 
 fruits, which resemble the blade of a curved sword oi 
 Turkish scimitar. 
 
 A'CINUS. (Gr. aKivog, the stone of a grape.) The se- 
 parate carpels of a succulent fruit consisting of many car 
 pels ; as the raspberry. This term is also applied In anato- 
 my to a cluster of the ultimate secerning follicles ol cer 
 tain conglomerate glands ; as the liver. 
 
 ACIPE'NSER. (Lat aclpenser, a zturgcon.) The 
 name of a Linnffian <;enus of the amphibia nantes, cl 
 terised by solitary, lateral, linear d-openings ; the mouth, 
 situated beneath the head, retrac ..le and edentulous; 
 ers under the snout, in front of die mouth/ The sli: 
 (acipenser slurio.) and most of the other amphibia nantes 
 of LinnaMis, from the order chrondropterygii, or cartilagin- 
 ous fishes of Cuvier. Thegenu .-acipenser is sebarateu by 
 A^assiz from the other cartilaginous fishes. It forms a 
 link between the osseous and cartilaginous fishes, having 
 its gills protected by an operculum, and only a 
 or gill-opening, on each side of the respiratory currents: 
 but at the same time having no rays to the bn 
 membrane, and having the whole of its true internal 
 ton in a cartilaginous slate. By Cuvier, then-fore, the ge- 
 nus acipenser is placed in the cartilaginous division of 
 fishes, hut separated from the rays, sharks, and lampreys, 
 which have five or more gill-openings on each side, to 
 form, along with the genera spatularia and chimera, the 
 order eleuthero-branchiata, or those which have the 
 branchiae free at their outer circumference. In the system 
 of Agassi?, the sturgeons are joined with the sauroid i; 
 siluri, polypterus, and some other genera, to form the or- 
 der Ganoides. (.See that word.) Audit is worthy of ob- 
 servation, that the polypterus (a ganoid fish ol the Nile) has 
 a spiral valve in the intestine like that of the SlU 
 
 There are several distinct species of acipenser in the 
 Danube, and other ^reat rivers of Europe : Ihe 
 eimen ever caught in Great Britain is, probably, thai . 
 is recorded by Pennant as having been taken in Ihe Esk, 
 and which weighed four hundred and sixty poui 
 
 In England. Ihe sturgeon is considered a roj 
 its use is exclusively as an article ofluxury foi 
 its flesh, like that of most cartilaginous fishes, 
 lhan is usual among osseous tishes, and having little pecu- 
 liar flavour of ils own. affords ample scope for the skill ol 
 the cook in imparting to ii an extrinsic zest. 
 
 In the northern parts of Europe this fish is much more 
 numerous than in the British rivers, and extensive tishe 
 ries are established for its capture. The best isinglass is 
 manufactured from the sound, or air bladder; and ea 
 is prepared from the roe of the female. 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT MONEY, in Law, paid <ic 
 
ACME. 
 
 m oT fnmo manors by copyhold ten- 
 
 i lord. 
 
 ■ fii|, a point.) In Rhetoric, the extreme 
 
 joint of pathos, or sentiment, to which 
 
 nducted by a series of impres- 
 
 ly rising iii in Climax.) 
 
 \' 5'LOGY,or AKOLOGY. (Or. rinf, o remedy, and 
 
 The doctrine of remedies, or of the 
 
 A'COLYTB. (Or. aKo\ov9os, disciple.) The second ol 
 
 of clergy in the primitive church, ac- 
 
 The Council 
 
 (he Inferior orders to be five — subdea- 
 
 const- 
 
 lical institution. By the 
 
 o be merely occasional or 
 
 es, according to the 
 
 ins ail Parochos, is to follow and 
 
 us, in 
 
 ■■ aliar. Besides this, they cany tights 
 
 e tne) 
 
 ! . . \. \<iiMiin\ A poisonous vegetable prin- 
 from the aconite. 
 
 a the Crimea famous for 
 
 nous plants belong- 
 
 . with showy purple 
 
 growing In panicles, deep* 
 
 us na- 
 
 • d for the de- 
 and of A napellus for certain modici- 
 
 i_ity acriil, and act as vio-_ 
 
 with which the na-' 
 
 % eir wells, during the advance of 
 
 >ry, during the last war, 
 
 \. Tho name aconite has 
 
 to the original go- 
 
 or winter aeon 
 
 Am Vl'lv (<;r. ukuv, a dart.) A genus of non-veno- 
 
 • proper (an- 
 rudiments of the scapular 
 
 ties, and distributed 
 i parts of the old worm, 
 fabulous accounts by the ancient 
 ited to them the pow 
 so much force and velocity as 
 ^e a hurled javelin, or ar- 
 ia untrue as the assertion 
 The Dart snakes are amongst the 
 ieir order; tli< -iMs of small 
 
 1 irvsj. 
 I, i:. or ACOKOIDK.K. The natural order 
 it is dlsttn- 
 having its carpels scpa- 
 . iged in aneqnJiaot 
 
 A't ofaac, an oak, and cent, grain.) 
 
 . and therefore not a term 
 
 : belonging to archil u an 
 
 oi ns constituted b principal 
 
 (Ovid. Metamorph. i. 100; Virgil, 
 
 rwlly used in 
 
 the Continent during scarcities: but in 
 
 i xcept for the feeding of 
 
 . <fcc. 
 
 ■ (Or. aKopof.) A plant with sword-shaped 
 
 ;,,s. found abundantly in the 
 
 a of England, ti i" are, but very rarely, 
 
 i little greenish yellow spadix, which appears 
 
 of a leafilke shape. The 
 
 ■iir, and are 
 
 still i: ng Ihe floors of churches upon the oc- 
 
 i iiin ancient ceremonies. Its stem, or rbizo- 
 
 in iris, and is the calamus aromalicus of 
 
 OTYI.E'DOWS. (Or. d. trilhout, and kotv\ti£g>v, li- 
 
 itanists 
 
 Plants win. sf seeds have no distinct CO- 
 ! to what are more 
 . Buch as ferns, I 
 
 irly so 
 I. bit which are propagated by imdividi 
 
 n t. The word ar-otyledon is occasionally 
 . cactus. &c, whose 
 ugh n-ally of the same nalu 
 
 no obvious division j this 
 the term is, however, seldom employed. 
 ACOl dxovtu, / hear.) 'I 
 
 ND.) 
 
 \< <lll TTW.. In Law. (Lat. acqutetare, to render 
 
 vices to a superior lord. 
 rintinal charge by the verdict of 
 not gull ». Tliis verdict may always be pleaded in an- 
 il 
 
 ACROSTIC. 
 
 swer to a second charge on the same offence : the plea is 
 termed "autrefois acquit."' 
 
 ACQUITTANCE. In Law, the discharge in writing of 
 a sum of money due. All acquittance not under 
 admissible only in evidence, and is not pleadable. An ac- 
 quittance in full of all demands, is an answer to all debts. 
 . !i as are on specialty, which can only be dis- 
 charged by an instrument of equal force. 
 
 A'C'RE. A measure of land, ihat formerly varied in dif- 
 fereul parts ol the United Kingdom. The magnitude of 
 the imperial or statute acre maybe referred to thai of the 
 ■qoare yard, by recollecting that a square, whose side is 
 22 yards long, is the tenth part of an acre ; whence the lat- 
 na 23 X &8 X 10, or 4,840 square yards. The 
 
 chain With which land is measured is 22 yards long, so that 
 ten square chains are one acre. The acre is divided into 
 4 roods, and each rood into 40 perches ; so that each perch 
 contains 30} square yards. 
 
 Square Side of equivalent 
 Acre. JZoorf, )->rrh. yards. vjuarea in yards. 
 1 = 4 = 100 = 4S-10 = C9 s'701 
 I = 40 = 1210 = : 
 
 1 = 30} = 5 5 
 
 121 Irish acres are equivalent to 196 English acres. 
 
 ■ tch acres arc equal to 61 English acres. 
 
 tichacreisa square. la 10 metres, 
 
 and 1000 English acres are equivalent to 40408 acres. (<S'ee 
 Companion to British Almanac, 1830.) 
 
 ACKI 1)1 \NS.ACRIDIA. (fir. dupif. a locust.) A faml- 
 Iy of orthoptcrous Insects, having the genus aeridium lor 
 
 A'URITES, A< IilTA. (Gr. dKpiTos, indiscernible.) Tho 
 
 ol the animal kingdom, in which there i-* 
 
 t discernible nervous system ; and in which tho 
 
 alimentary canal is not separated from the parieti 
 
 body, or contained in a distinct abdominal cavity. It is 
 
 agio, polypi, polygsstrica,ste- 
 
 reiminth (<8to« those wot 
 
 ACRODA'CTYLUM. (Or. dxpnc, highest or extremr } 
 and iaitTvXos, a digit.) In Zoology, the upper surface ol 
 
 k'CRODUB. i< '-. ilsp . .' 'ii.. .: • 
 name of a genua of sharks, cl 
 
 ;il obtuse enamelled leelh 
 
 iws. The fishes of tins genus arp 
 state. 
 
 A'CROGENS. (Or. (ixooj. and yiyvw, I grow.) Plants, 
 
 ■ called cryptogamous and acotyleuonous. They 
 Bd to terns', n. ■ 4 C. : have . 
 
 are multiplied i remark- 
 
 able for Increasing chiefly in lo their 
 
 end, and not in diameter, by the addition of lush D 
 
 ide, as in exogens, or to their inside, as iii in- 
 
 ACRCLlTHOa (Or. dxpoe, and XiOdc, stone.) In 
 Bculplun . emltiesare ol 
 
 de ol wood. According lo Vitruvlus, there was a 
 
 ! built by 
 Mausolus, king of Caria, wherein was an acrolithan statu;; 
 I. And from Trebellius Pollio W( 
 
 . which was gilt. 
 
 \<K<>"\\ CAL,or ACHRONYCHAL. (Or. dkoo;, and 
 
 vv\. night.) A star or planet is said lo be BCTonycal when 
 
 in. or passes the meridian at mid- 
 night It rises acronyally, when it rises 
 
 icronycally, when it sets as the sunrises. The 
 
 I these different positions ol a star, 
 
 lg or setting, with respect to the sun. by the terms 
 
 acrcniyai'. 1 heliacal; and thereby Indicated, in 
 
 u of the sun in the ecliptic, or tho 
 
 season of the year. 
 
 ACROPCDIUM. (Or. d*poc. and «■«»{, foot.) In Zoo- 
 logy, the upper surface Of the whole foot. 
 
 ACROTOL1S. (Or. d K i.oc. and rroXic, city.) The uppei 
 town or citadel of B Grecian city. It was usuall) 
 of the ordinal settlement, and was chosen by the i 
 
 i. The most celebrated were those 
 
 of Athens, Corinth, and Ithome; the two latter Ol winch 
 
 the horns Ol the Peloponnesus, as ifjhcir 
 
 in of the 
 
 peninsnla. 
 
 A'CROSPIRE. (Or. expos, and c-xtipa. a enrxed one.) 
 
 .■in to grow, the part of Ihe germ which af- 
 
 stem shoots forth In the forjB ol a 
 
 fibre, and, gradually bursting 11 
 
 I its appearance at the end ol the bi ed. 
 
 dally, call this the acrospire of barley. 
 
 ACRO'STIC.or ACROSTICH, (6r. dxsoj.and «riw, 
 
 ank.) A composition in verse or prose, in w hie,. 
 
 ol every line, or of every word, read 
 
 collectively, form a name or a sentence. Oreat 1.; n an;i 
 
 . have been exercised in inventing varieties oi tins 
 and similar curious trifles. Such, for exan pli . is the pen 
 tacrostic. in which the initial letter of each versa is r* 
 
ACROTARSIUM, 
 
 peated five times in every verse, so as to form five repeti- 
 tion:; of the same acrostic, as It were, in different columns. 
 
 ACROTA'RSIUM. (Gr. dxpoi, and Tapaos, larsits.) In 
 itoology, the upper surface of the tarsus. (See that word.) 
 
 ACKOTE'RIA. (Gr. dxpoirripioi', l/ie extremity of any 
 thing.) tn Architecture, the pedestals, often without base 
 or cornice, which are placed on the centre and sides of 
 pediments, and which are so placed for Ihe reception of 
 Satires. Vitmvlus gives the rules for their dimensions. 
 The same word is applicable to the ridge of a building. 
 Some have used the word acroterton to signify tl 
 on the pedestals, bni it is strictly the pedestals themselves 
 ouiy to Which it is applicable. The word acroteria is also 
 used to denoie the small pieces of wall in balustrades be- 
 n the pedestal and the balusters 
 
 ACRY'DHJM. (Gr. dxpts, a locust.) The name applied 
 by f'abrictus to a genus of locusts, characterised by acari- 
 nate thorax; filiform antennae, snorter than the thorax: 
 and equal palps or feelers. 
 
 ACT. In Dramatic literature, a division of a drama, sub- 
 divided into scenes. The Greek dramas of the old model 
 were naturally divided into separate portions by the stasi- 
 ma, or choric odes, which occur at intervals, during which 
 the stage was left, to the sole occupation of the chorus. 
 Nevertheless, the Grecian writers do not notice this divi- 
 sion in express terms ; nor do we know the origin of the 
 famous rule'of Horace, that, every dramatic piece should 
 be restrained within the limits of five acts, neither more 
 nor less. The division into acts must be in great measure 
 arbitrary, although rules have been laid down, by various 
 writers, to define the portion of the story or plot which 
 should be contained in each of them. Thus, Vossitis lays 
 it down as a rule, that the first act presents the intrigue, 
 the second developes it, the third is filled with incidents 
 forming its knot or complication, the fourth prepares the 
 means of unravelling it, which is finally accomplished in 
 the filth. (See Drama.) 
 
 Act. In the Universities, an exercise performed by stu- 
 dents before they are admitted to degrees. The student 
 proposes certain questions to the presiding officer of the 
 schools, who then nominates other students to oppose him. 
 ussion is syllogistical and in Latin, and terminates 
 by the presiding officer questioning the respondent, orper- 
 son who is said to keep the act, and Ids opponents, and dis- 
 missing them with some remarks upon Iheir respective 
 merits. 
 
 ACT OF PARLIAMENT. (See Statute.) 
 
 A'CTA DIURNA, daily proceedings. Among the various 
 important improvements effected by Julius Ctesar may be 
 ranked that of his furnishing tin' Romans with a species of 
 per. II" was the first to order that the acta iliurna 
 uf tii" senate and the people should be drawn up in a regu- 
 lar form and published. This publication must conse- 
 quently have, iii many important respects, closely resem- 
 bled a modern newspaper. — (Sueton. in C;es. cap. 20.) 
 
 A'CTA ERUDITORUM The fide of a celebrated lite- 
 rary and scientific journal, which was commenced at Leip- 
 zig, in 1682, by Professor Mencke, of that university. The 
 last volume was that for 1776. 
 
 A'CTIAN GAMES. (Lat. Ltidi Actiaci.) Games cele- 
 brated in antiquity at Actium in honour of Apollo, hence 
 suruamed Actius. The temple of the god was repaired, 
 and tie' games restored ana celebrated with increased 
 splendour by Augustus, in memory of his victory over 
 Mark Antony off Aciium. 
 
 ACTI'NIA. (Gr. Aktw, a ray.) A genus of polypi with 
 very numerous tentacles, which extend, like rays, from the 
 irence of the mouth. They tire amongst the most 
 highly organized of the class, having the alimenfary sac dis- 
 tinct from the parietes of the body; feeding on shellfish 
 .and other marine animals, which they draw into their 
 mouth with their tentacular, and in a short lime rejecting, 
 ture, the shells and indigestible parts. 
 They are of a soft gelatinous texture, and they assume 
 various forms when the tentacles are all expanded, hav- 
 ing the appearance of full-blown many-pelalled flowers; 
 whence they are called "sea anemones/" '■ sea sunflow- 
 ers." &c. (Phil. Tram, lxiii. p. 361.) 
 
 AC'ITNOCA'MAX. (Gr. dxriv, a ray, ica/jui^, a pale.) 
 A name applied by Miller lo the fossil shells of an extinct 
 genus of Cephalopodous Molluscs, apparently connecting 
 the Betemnites with fhe existing Sepia. The remains of 
 r appear, as yet, to be peculiar to the chalk 
 formations of Ensland and Normandy. 
 
 ACTl'NOCRl'NlTES. (Gr. Aktiv. a ray, koivov, a lily.) 
 
 The name of a subgenus of extinct Crinoidean radiated aui- 
 
 Encrinites. characterise,! by the numerous rows 
 
 ■if angular plates, winch, being articulated by their margins, 
 
 constitute the body. 
 
 ACTI'NOLITE. (Gr. dxrtv, a ray, and XiOu;, stone.) 
 A variety of hornblende, which usually occurs in I 
 crystals. 
 
 ACTINO'METER. (Gr. dxru; and jicrpnv, n 
 An instrument invented by Sir John Herscbe-1 for mea- 
 • 12 
 
 ACTOR. 
 
 suring the intensity of the sun's rays. (Sec Photo- 
 
 METER.) 
 
 A'CTION. (Lat. ago, I act.) In Painting and Sculpture, 
 the state of Ihe subject as imagined in the artist's mind at 
 the moment chosen for representation. It must not be 
 confounded with motion, which relates to the mobility of 
 a single figure. Action must, be true, simple, natural, and 
 connected ; and its unity must be preserved, or the action 
 is weakened. 
 
 Action In fhe Military Art, an engagement or battle 
 between opposing forces: hence partial 
 actions, &c. 
 
 Action. In Oratory, the accommodating or 
 the countenance, voice, and gesture id' fhe speaker to '.he 
 matter to he spoken or delivered. This s« 
 Cicero calls it. has always been regarded as a must import- 
 ant part of oratory. The ancient, m 
 
 stress upon it. Demosthenes said that action wis '-the 
 beginning, the middle, and the end of the orator's office ;" 
 and Cicero admits, that ■•jclia! an orator says is not of so 
 much importance as hoir he says it." Hamlet's 
 the players should be kept in mind by those who desire to 
 excel in this art. 
 
 Action. In Poetry, an event either real or imaginary, 
 forming the subject of an epic poem or play, &c. Thus 
 the wrath of Achilles forms the action or subje 
 Iliad, the wanderings of jEneas the action c 
 gEneid, &c. 
 
 Action. In fhe Slock Market in Paris, and other places 
 in France, action is the name given to asha 
 tal stock of a joint stock company. 
 
 Action. In Mechanics, denotes sometimes the effort 
 which a body or power exerts against anoll 
 times flie effect or motion resulting from such efl 
 chanical action is exerted cither by percusi 
 sure ; in the former case, the effect, is instantaneous, in Ihe • 
 latter it is continued. In all cases of mechanical action, 
 the effect of the acting body is resisted in an equal degree 
 by the inertia of Ihe body acted upon, which rei 
 termed reaction ; and it is an axiom in mechanic 
 lion and reaction are always equal, a. opposite 
 
 direcfions. Thus, in driving a nail with a hammer, the 
 stroke acts against the face of the hammer 
 same energy as against the head of the nail ; and 
 ing the hand against a stone, tl 
 on the stone is precisely the same. 
 
 A'CTIONS, in Law, are real, pprsi :ed, Ac- 
 
 tions, real or mixed, for the n 
 very numerous, but. so prolix and difficult I 
 most wholly abandoned as a moans of obtaining 
 and questions relating to lille to land are n< 
 simple form of ejectment. The only case in wl 
 have been resorted to, of late year-. 
 the shorter period to which the action of 
 limited (see Limitations), a right survived for l 
 of the former, which was haired as to flu I 
 recent acts on (his subject have much rede 
 tion. Actions in common \\.<e. i. e. 
 also divided into actions of contract i l 
 into local and transitory, in Ihe former of which 
 or county where the cause of the action aro 
 curately alleged, for the purpose of fhe fri 
 there. This allegation is termed the Venue of tl) 
 from the Norman-French visne, vie inetum, u 
 because the jury impannelled to irv an acti 
 nally from the neighbourhood. In the lalte 
 rial. Actions of tort lo the person, an 3 of con- 
 
 tract, are generally transitory, hut under certain circum- 
 stances Ihe latter may be local. 
 
 ACTI'VITV. The virtue or faculty of acting. T 
 is used in physics to denote the prompfitu 
 of one body on another. Thus we RJ 
 an acid, of poisons, of the electric fluid, • 
 
 Sphere of activity, the space within whi 
 a body (of a magnet, for example) produc 
 effect. 
 
 A'CTOR, ACTRESS. In the flourish!:: 
 early Greek drama, so long as a ci 
 gious solemnity was attached to it. there was no ■ 
 tion in the character of an acf 
 chorus were often filled by volunteer per!.' 
 and station. But when tho dramatic 
 form a profession apart, they appear 
 garded with disrespect. In Rome, 
 buffoons (known by the Tuscan nam 
 enacted the groti 
 Die qualification of actor was a 
 able in the period of the republic; and no circi 
 was considered to indicate more dee 
 Nero to degrade and si 
 his having persuaded a Roman knight, Labe 
 
 ; formance of one ol hi • nv 11 wind 
 Undi r the dissolute reigns of tl 
 Nero, much favour and countenance was sh 
 
ACTIVE MOLECULES. 
 
 . however, obliged at last to banish the pantomimi, 
 
 entirely from Italy, to- 
 
 i consequence ol the 
 
 rty Bpirit which was excited about them. (Sue- 
 
 from Tacitus, that Ihey were 
 
 >red: aiiain banished by Domilian; 
 
 . rva, ami liuil' : ; l>iu,liy 
 
 of the reign o I the last-mentioned emperor, the 
 
 ■ r pageants, in 
 
 ai nobles 
 
 ! for their diversion; and when regular 
 
 long in 
 
 der the proii 
 
 . 
 
 ..til known, retain the custom of calling 
 
 until some time alter the Rcs- 
 ;a»lity had frequently, under 
 [..performed parti m masques, Ac. 
 I. ■ ted in ihi per 
 
 m will bo found in Pepys's 
 Catholic cot 
 
 . i.-iu>n of excoin- 
 
 \i 1 1 . Molecules.) 
 
 tes made 
 
 r. by virtue of a 
 
 n powering 
 
 may think expe- 
 
 ing the procedure and forms of Admiaiater. 
 
 nally a public officer in the 
 drew up writings, contract 
 
 : lis name, from 
 
 The clerk who registered the acts 
 
 mblies of 
 
 i an actuary. na officer 
 
 ia usually termed in England 
 
 ■ CB.) 
 
 ' aruleus, a prickle.) In Botany, any 
 
 : that is, with sharp, promt- 
 
 in the cellular system and have no 
 
 10(1. 
 
 hymenopterous 
 
 i the females and neuters are provided 
 
 aled within the last segment 
 
 I i:. (I. at. acumen, the point of any thing.) 
 lered to a 
 
 , which means 
 
 acus, a needle, and 
 > Pricking with a needle. In the 
 i ii m mo n remedy for painful affections of 
 ol ihc body. It has lately been extensively 
 ure of chronic rheumatism, a long 
 rile being thrust Into the affected no 
 Aii TB The opposite of obtuse. An acute 
 thai which Is less than a right aimle ; an acute-angled irian- 
 wtiich each of the • 
 
 whoso opposite sides form an acute an- 
 i ex. 
 in. (I.at. acutus, shiirp.) in Music, the height or 
 iiul or lone, in respect of another, l! 
 
 AI) Ll'BITUM. In Music (at pleasure), a term applied 
 
 ipaniment which is not essential, and mayor 
 
 iihout interfering with the com- 
 
 AD QUOD DAMNUM. (I.at . tn irhat damage.) A writ 
 nit of certain liberties anil fraie 
 
 . which may he prejudicial to the 
 
 king ' or iln- public; by it the sheriff is direct- 
 
 damage may accrue from the grant in 
 
 ADA'OTYI.E. (Or. a, priv. and (SafcrvXo?, a digit.) In 
 
 ■ locomotive extremity without digits. 
 A'DAGE. (L>at. adagiam, a proverb.) (See Phoverb.) 
 ty are collected by Erasmus in a 
 work 
 
 ADA'GIO. (Ital. adagio, leisurely) In Music, Ihe slow- 
 I time, grave only excepted. (.See Ai.i.eoro.) 
 • IMAN'TINE SPAR. (Or, d, without, and Sa/iaoJ, J 
 r/uer.) A variety of crystallised alumina, 
 t lie sapphire in composition, and of ex- 
 The finest specimens come from India 
 bay i' is called corundum. 
 A'DAMfTES. (Theology.) A sect in the early ages of 
 the Christian church, who are said to have protei 
 exact imitation of the primitive slate of innocence. They 
 re-appeared in the 13th century in Bohemia. (Mnsheim. L 
 p. 231. 
 ADANSO'NI.V. A remarkable African tree, named after 
 13 
 
 ADHESION. 
 
 Adanson, a celebrated French botanist and traveller. It In 
 called by the negroes Baobab. 
 
 A'UAPI.S. A name originally applied by Gesner to the 
 llvrax or coney of Scripture, and adopted by Cuvier to de- 
 signate another email pachydermatous quadruped, now 
 extinct, hut the existence and nature of which that great 
 naturalist detected and deduced from three fragments of 
 id, which were discovered in that immense deposi 
 tory of fossil bones, the gypsum quarries ol Montmartre. 
 Adapis is as follows: — each jaw has 
 four trenchant incisors; two conical can : up- 
 
 per ones straight, the lower inclined obliquely forwards; 
 and apparently fourteen molar teeth, of which Ihe first is 
 trenchant, and the ihrce or four posterior ones, on 
 side, like the posterior molars of ihe Anoplotheriam. Cu- 
 vier supposes ihe animal to have been about the size of a 
 and lo have closely approximated the Anoplotheria. 
 A liiu:i: (See Viper.) 
 
 ADDITION. In Arithmetic. The operation by which 
 
 a number is found equ d to several others taken together. 
 
 It is ihe first of the lour fundamental rules. Addition, in 
 
 i. is the uniting or incorporating of several algebraic 
 
 quantities into a simple or contracted expression. 
 
 A'DPlTlvt;. Something to be added, in contradistinction 
 In subtraclive. which denotes something tn tie taken away. 
 The terms additive and subtractive are sometimes applied 
 braic quantities, to denote these relation! to other 
 quantities which are nmre commonly, though less correct- 
 ly, exj'i live. 
 
 MUM (IdK. (I.at. adduco, I draw towards.) The 
 
 adductor mu ihe abductors: they draw 
 
 •s in which ihey are attached, together, 
 
 ADE'LPIIIA. (Gr. a&t\tbos, a brother.) A collection 
 
 mens into a bundle. Linns ed this trim 
 
 ■ ts in which the st, linens, instead ei growing 
 
 singly, combine Into one or more parcel axis; 
 
 thus, monadelphia signified stamens all connected into one 
 
 phis into two parcels, ami so on. 
 
 ADE'NOSTY'LEjE. (Gr. dirtv, a gland, and crv\oi, a 
 
 ,/, or style.) A subdivision of composite planls, 
 
 compi hairis, enpatorium, and some 
 
 other genera, In which the branches of the style are co- 
 
 hilar hairs. 
 
 ADKTII ACaNS. ADEPIIAGA. (Gr. dj^ajoj, tutu- 
 
 cioii3.) A family of carnivorous and very voracious cole- 
 
 A'I>EPT. (I.at adipiscor, I obtain.) A distinctive term 
 applied lo those ahhemi.-ts who were supposed to have at- 
 tained the great object of (heir researches, or to l.ave d's- 
 ! the philosopher's stone. 
 ADFE'CTED, or AFFECTED. (See the latter term.; 
 ADHE'SION, ( Let adhaveo, / adhere,) is a properly of 
 tier by which contiguous p ■ thcr; 
 
 one of the causes of the treat diversity <<\ aj pear- 
 of plants. Two op] I grow 
 
 ■ rand form apparently one, through whico Ihe item 
 ral in a whorl adhere, and form an involucre ; 
 nber of petals adhere, and thus constitute a moiinpc- 
 talons corolla ; several stamens adhere, and an adelpbia 
 carpi Is contract an adhesion with one 
 ■r, and firm a compound fruit ; finally, Ihe calyx ad- 
 . and then seems us il i! 
 horn Ihe apex of it. Irregularity in (lowers and fruit 
 < produced by the unequal manner in 
 which ce between similar pails; of the 
 
 pals adhere into one parcel, and three 
 nolher; the result of which is a two- lipped calyx; 
 ne thing occurs in the corolla, and elsewhere. 
 Aiihesion. I to denote the force 
 
 with which different bodies remain attached lo each other, 
 t they are brought into contact. Adhesion has often 
 
 t n confounded with cohesion ; hut the two terms are 
 
 dally distinct. Adhesion is the force with which two 
 I of different kin. Is cling to each other when united ; 
 ion is that which unites the panicles of a homogene- 
 i ody with each other. Thus, the particles which 
 form a drop of water or quicksilver are united by cohesion ; 
 Ihe particles of water which wet the surface of any body- 
 are united to it by adhesion. 
 
 Adhesion may exist between two solid bodies, b< I 
 a solid and a fluid, or between two fluid bodies. The a J- 
 hesion of solid bodies is exemplified in the force reqt 
 to soparate two pieces of marble, whose polished so. 
 have been brought into contact. The suspension of water 
 above its level in capillary tubes, or between two plates of 
 glass very nearly in contact, shows the adhesion of a fluid 
 to a solid body ; and an instance of the adhesion of two li- 
 quids is obtained by covering a plale of glass with oil, and 
 bringing it into contact with the surface of water; a very 
 sensible force is required to raise it perpendicularly from 
 the water. , . 
 
 I)r Brook Taylor appears to have been the first who un- 
 k to estimate experimentally the force of adhesion ; 
 the method which he employed was to determine (he 
 
ADIANTUM. 
 
 weight necessary to separate fir-boards from the surface of 
 water. This method, however, unless proper precautious 
 are taken, is apt. to give inaccurate results. On separating 
 a fir-board from water, the whole surface of the board may 
 be observed to be wetted ; that is to say, a thin film of wa- 
 ter remains attached to the wood, so that the force by 
 which the separation was effected is not the force neces- 
 ! ,i v to overcome the adhesion of the water to the board, 
 but the cohesion of the particles of water to each other. 
 This is fully established by the experimental fact, that, 
 when discs of different substances are applied to a liquid, 
 by which they are perfectly welted, their adhesion to it is 
 the same, whatever may be their nature, and exaclly equal 
 to the cohesive force of the fluid. Discsof glass and discs 
 of copper of the same diameter adhere to water with pre- 
 cisely the same force. 
 
 The adhesion of discs to the surfaces of liquids is de- 
 monstrated by Laplace to be a capillary phenomenon, ari- 
 sing from the action of attractive forces which are sensible 
 only at very small distances. Supposing the diameter of 
 the disc to be known, and the height to which the same 
 liquid rises in a capillary tube of the same matter, and of 
 a given diameter, Laplace determined from theory the 
 force necessary to detach the disc. The results of his de- 
 termination, applied to different liquids, as water, oil of 
 turpentine, and alcohol, at different densities, agreed ex- 
 actly with the numbers found by M. Gay-Lussac, in a se- 
 ries of very accurate experiments on this subject. The 
 perfect identity of the forces producing adhesion and ca- 
 pillary attraction, is also proved by the following experi- 
 ment : — It is well known that the height to which fluids 
 rise in capillary tubes depends on the angle which the 
 liuid makes with the sides of the tube. Hut the surface of 
 mercury covered with water in a capillary tube is exactly 
 spherical; consequently, the angle which the mercury 
 makes with the sides of the tube vanishes, and the force is 
 reduced to zero. If, therefore, adhesion depends on a 
 force of the same nature, it follows that, on applying a disc 
 af glass to the surface of mercury, and covering them both 
 with water, no force should be required to separate the 
 tHsc, excepting what is necessary to overcome its weight. 
 Now, this was found by Gay-Lu'ssac to be exactly what 
 takes place. When the mercury and disc were covered 
 wild water, no resistance was offered to their separation ; 
 without tho interposition of the water, a weight of 290 or 
 even -100 gi-ammes was required to overcome the adhesion. 
 (Laplace, Mecanique Celeste, tome iv. Biot. Traill de 
 Physique, tome r\ p. 404.) 
 
 The adhesion of the polished surfaces of solid bodies is 
 picportional lo the extent of the surface, or to the number 
 of points brought into contact. It was formerly believed 
 that the resistance to separation in this case arises solely 
 from the pressure of the atmosphere; but the difference 
 fits amount in different substances proves this opinion to 
 >e erroneous ; besides, it is found to be the same in a va- 
 cuum. (.Sv>e Capillary Attraction.) 
 
 ADIA'NTUM. (Gr. aSiavros, dry.) A genus of thin- 
 leaved ferns, having their fructification in short marginal 
 lines. The leaflets are usually wedge-shaped, and placed 
 upon slender shining petioles. One of the species (A. ca- 
 pillus veneris) was formerly employed in the manufac- 
 ture of svrnp of capillaire. 
 
 ADIA'PHORITES. (Gr. dSia<bopos, indifferent.) A 
 name given lo Melancthon. and 'the party that agreed 
 with him, in submitting, in things indifferent, to an impe- 
 rial edict. The controversy which nave rise to this name 
 had its origin in the imposition by Charles V., in 1548, of 
 an edict, styled the Interim, because it proposed to ac- 
 commodate for a time the differences of the papists and 
 protestants, until the whole matter could be set at rest 
 by the authority of a council. The opposite side was 
 maintained by Flavins and the primitive Lutherans; and 
 iu the debate which followed there were two principal 
 questions: first, whether it is lawful to yield to the ene- 
 mies of truth, even in matters which are not of themselves 
 essential; and, secondly, whether, granting the affirma- 
 tive, the points iu which the Interim required compli- 
 ance, and in which Melancthon yielded it, are properly 
 indifferent. Those points related chiefly to the doctrine 
 of justification by faith, in which Luther am! his genuine 
 followers went lo a great extreme ; while Melancthon, al- 
 though ostensibly the head of the Lutheran church, after 
 (lie death of the great Reformer, adopted much more 
 mod:;- :ie views. Out of this controversy a great variety 
 of Other debates were engendered, and from these quar- 
 rels many schisms and divisions among protestants de- 
 rived tlvir origin. 
 
 A'DIPOCE'RE. (Lat. adeps and eera,/at and wax.) 
 \ fatty substance produced by the decomposition of the 
 fle»h of animals in moist situations, or under water, resem- 
 bling. In some of its properties, a mixture of fat and wax. 
 A'DIPOSE. (Lat. adeps, fat.) Unctuous, or contain- 
 ing fat. Adipose membrane is the cellular membrane in 
 >vhich fat is deposited. 
 14 
 
 ADMIRAL. 
 
 A'DIT. (Lat. adeo, I approach.) A horizontal shaft at 
 passage in a mine, either for access, or carrying off water 
 ADJA'CENT ANGLE. In Geom a mime 
 
 diately contiguous to another, so that one side is common 
 to both angles. It is more particularly used when the two 
 angles, besides having a common side, have their other 
 sides in the same straight line. In this case, lie- 
 angle is the same as the supplemental angle. 
 
 A'DJECTIVE. (Lat. ad, to, and jaceo, I lie.) In Gram- 
 mar, that part of speech which is annexed to 
 tives, to define more' accurately the conceptions intended 
 to be denoted by them. (See Grammar.) 
 
 ADJECTIVE COLOURS. Colours which require lo be 
 fixed by some base or mordant, in order to be .. 
 permanent, dye-stuffs. 
 
 ADJOURNMENT, in Parliamentary language, means a 
 postponement of the sittings or proceedings of eithei 
 House of Parliament from one time to another 
 for its re-assembling. Adjournment differs from proroga- 
 tion in this, that the filter is an act of royal authority, 
 whereas the power of adjournment is vested in each 
 house respectively, no definite limits being prescribed to 
 it by the constitution. (See Prorogation.) 
 
 ADJUDICATION. In Scottish La-.vftbe diligence (»\ e. 
 process) by which land is attached as security for pay- 
 ment of debt. Adjudication for debt is a species of mort- 
 gage, redeemable, except in the cases of what are termed 
 general adjudications, or adjudications contra hajreclitate.nl 
 jacentem. 
 
 ADJUSTMENT. In Marine Insurance, the settlement 
 of a loss incurred by the insured. 
 
 A'DJUTANT. A military officer, attached to every re- 
 giment, who relieves the major of part of his duly, and 
 performs it in his absence. 
 
 A'DJUTANT GENERAL. A staff officer, who is lo the 
 army what the adjutant is to a regiment. lie assists the 
 general, and distributes his orders. 
 
 A'DJUTANT GENERAL OF THE JESUITS. A title 
 given to certain fathers who resided with the general of 
 the order. 
 
 A'D.IUVANT. (Lat. adjuvare, td help.) In Medicine, 
 a substance which assists and promotes the operation of 
 others. 
 
 ADMINISTRATION. (In Law.) If a person die intes- 
 tate as to his personally, letters of administration are grant- 
 ed by the ordinary (see Law, tit. Ecclesiastical Courts) 
 to such person as is pointed out by the Statutes 31 E. 3., 
 and 21 H. 8. These empower the ordinary to grant I 
 letters to the widow, If there be one, or next of kin, at his 
 discretion. Of persons equally near in degree, the ordina- 
 ry may grant to which he please. If none of the kindred 
 take out administration, a creditor may do it. When the 
 will is made without the nomination of any executor, the. 
 ordinary grants administration cum testamenlo annexo, 
 Where a person dies intestate, his personal property de- 
 scends (subject to his debts) as directed by the statute of 
 Distributions, 22 & 23 C. 2. c. 10., explained by 20 C. 2. c 
 30. One-third goes to the widow; the residue in equal 
 proportions to the children, or, if they are dead, lo theii 
 representatives, i. e. their lineal descendants. If thei 
 none of these, then the widow takes a moiety, and the 
 next of kin in equal degree, and their representatives 
 take the other; if there be no widow, they take the whole. 
 But of representatives none are admitted among collaterals 
 farther than the children of the intestate's brothers and 
 sisters. The order of nearness of kin, with reference to 
 the distribution of intestates' estates, is thus . 
 cording to the rules of the civil law— children, parents, 
 brothers, grandfathers, uncles or nephews (and the females 
 of each class respectively), and, lastly, cousins. 
 
 Administration. (Lat. administrate, care of tut affair.} 
 In its general sense means the conduct or management of 
 any affair; but in 'his country the term Is usually applied 
 to the management of the public or natio . the 
 
 government, which is thence called the Administration. 
 
 A'DMIRAL. A great naval officer, who lias the same 
 power and authority over the maritime forces of a state 
 that a general has over its land forces ; and who also tries 
 himself, or appoints officers to try, maritime cases. There 
 are three ranks of Admirals, the Admiral (or full Ad- 
 miral), Vice Admiral, and Rear Admiral. Each of tl 
 again has three gradations, of red, white, and I 
 lours of the flags they bear. The Admiral carries his l! ig 
 at the main, the Vice'at (he fore, and the Rear at the mizen 
 mast. 
 
 Admiral, Lord High. The ninth great, officer of state 
 in England. The office has been usually giv. 
 since the reign of Henry IV., to some of the king's young- 
 esl sons, near kinsmen, or of the higher nubility. Since 
 the reign of Charles II. it has been, With occasional excep- 
 tions, always in commission, and the commissioners are 
 styled 'Lords of the Admiralty.' It was held by the late 
 sovereign William IV., when Duke of Clarence, from 1827 
 to the following year. 
 
ADMIRALTY. 
 
 A'DMIRAI.TV. the Hoard of Commissioners for execu- 
 Lord lliuh Admiral, and having authority 
 
 OVpr naval a lV 
 
 /. In Law, is a court of record, of 
 ngs are carried on, al least to a certain 
 ■ ;' the civil law ; aUl 
 i some cases the assistance of a 
 . lance to the courts of common 
 ! ction principally i" nation 
 
 njuries to private rights arising at sea, or iuti- 
 vuh marhimi 
 nhority extern 
 er with Hie common law courts, or those of 
 Is may bo instituted in this court for assault 
 it sea; for collision of ships; for the reatitu- 
 • ally taken not under colour of war. It 
 equitable jurisdiction between part owners of 
 suits for mariners' wages, and for 
 ea of bottomry 
 of the 
 - to ar- 
 1011 iu cases ol 
 nd incidentally of wreck. 
 
 i)rt,'which decides prize causes in time of 
 
 tribunal, although usually presided over 
 
 by ili. nl admiralty. To that able and 
 
 ■■. Sir W. Scott (Lord Stowell), who sat 
 
 - well as the ;i lor many 
 
 •I, and after its close, the country 
 
 . not only for the high character and value of 
 
 r the light thrown on the difficult 
 
 of national law, by the most pro- 
 
 ions e» er applied lo thai subject. 
 A ' I • N \'l I ; (Lat. adnascor, I grow to any thing.) Is 
 
 ilher, and not 
 
 innate. This term 
 
 ADb'MS. hi Mythology. A beautiful youth, son of 
 
 ind killed by 
 
 It is, also, 
 
 •. on the banks of which 
 
 ■ : -t, was snp- 
 
 kllled. At certain seasons of the 
 quires a high red colour, by the rains washing 
 up particles of red earth. The ancienl 
 
 the river for the death of Adonis. This 
 
 observed as a festival In the adjacent country. 
 
 • . Calmet, Dictiotmairedt la Bible, art. 
 
 Thmmmux.) Milton has beautifully alluded to these cir- 
 
 i umstan 
 
 nmla lo lum-jiii I > 
 
 i Ml ilillie* all n smnincr'i day : 
 "While im 
 
 Ran purple to the ii-a ; mipitoted with blood 
 Of Tfinimnu: yearly wuunJed." 
 
 Parad. Lost, t. r. 445. 
 
 ADONIC. (Cr. 'Kiuivtt, Adonis ) A species of verse 
 j of a dactyle and a spon<lec ; a i in Horace, lib. I. 
 Oil. 11 v. 5 '/'rrruit ur/.ein. ris^re monies. &.C. It was in- 
 tented by Sappho, and derivi from being prin- 
 
 ing at the festivals in memory of Adonis. (Fac- 
 Icon.) 
 ADO'PTER. A vessel with two necks placed between 
 ind a receiver, serving to increase the length of the 
 the former. 
 fcDO'PTlON. (Lat adopto, / adopt.) In the Civil Law, 
 lo the rights and privi- 
 b son. Adoption was a common custom among 
 the Romans, by wins.- law a relation, nearly resembling 
 and slave, wi I between lather 
 
 : so that a child, adopted from one family into 
 another, passed, in effect, from the power of his parent to 
 \ on is said, in Justinian's insti- 
 two sorts: the one, also called arrogation, 
 of parental control, is adopt- 
 a family by virtue of an imperial rescript; the 
 other, v. authority of a magistrate, a child 
 
 rom one family to another. Bui unless the adopt- 
 er poasi n right by blood over the person 
 Dial power of the lather 
 uished. Adoption exists In the jnrispru* 
 ianca of various countries, vi I from the civil 
 
 in the German states and In Prance: In tl 
 country, the pei I be one having neither 
 
 children i 
 A'DRAGANT. Gum Tragacanth. 
 4DR1'FT. N hip that has parted from 
 
 i hip, a gun from 
 . .'. c 
 A' D VENT. (I. at. advenio, {approach ) The holy sea- 
 son, coin Christmas, it begins 
 Irew'sday, the 30:h of November, or on the Sun- 
 
 ADULTERY. 
 
 day next before or after it, according to the day of the 
 
 on which the 26th of December tails. 
 
 ADVENTITIOUS. (I.at. adventitius, extraordinary.) 
 
 In Botany, when any thing appears out of the ordinary 
 
 nature: If a bud appears where buds do not 
 
 usually appear, it is adventitious. This term must not be 
 
 confounded with abnormal, which is used when any thing 
 
 is cOMutmcled out of the ordinary a 
 
 A'DVERB. A word annexed to an adjective or verb, ts 
 define more closely the modifications of the quality or ac- 
 tum denoted. Set (Jkammar. 
 ADVE'RSA. A medallic term, applied to two heads 
 
 h other. 
 A'DVERSE. (i.at. ad, to, and verlo, I turn.) In Bota- 
 ed when tin ii ir under 
 
 sun. 
 ADVE'RTISEMENT. (Lat adverto, I intend to.) In 
 1 sense, means any Information as to any factoi 
 oce. But it 
 nate notices made by competent authority in the daily pa- 
 pers, and otherv general interest, 
 
 i and pro- 
 duce, m ditors, formation and dissolution of 
 partnerships, fee. Such notices, when Inserted In the ga- 
 in newspapers and literary works pub! 
 numbers, in \'.< duty of Is. tit/, each for each 
 lime of Insertion. 
 
 ADULA'RIA. A resplendent crystallised felspar, of e 
 
 pearly lustre. The tin came from Adula, at 
 
 the sum hard. 
 
 AIM I.T. (Let aduttus, gnu** up.) In its general 
 
 \n up, or arrived at maturity. 
 
 It is that period of human life thai extends from youth to 
 
 aim 'I.TF.UY. (I.at. adulteriom, a word of 
 certain derivation.) The sin of incontinence committed 
 by a married person : adultery between two married per- 
 im-. I doublt by some jurists. By the law of Mo- 
 ses, adultery was punished by death, Lev. zx. 10., Deut. 
 in Proverbs (c. \i.) and Ezekiel 
 (xvi. 38, 4i) ) prnvi- that the law was observed in this res- 
 peel ili.wii lo the overthrow of the Jewish monarchy, as 
 we know it to have been in the time of our Saviour. The 
 
 mode of punishment was by Btoning; hut it is ol 
 
 that this mode Is doi ordained in Deuteronomy, rs it Is fox 
 
 lultery Is 
 detailed hi Numbers v. 11—31, Under the Grecian and 
 Roman republics adultery was variously treated ; but the 
 celebrated Lex Julia de Adulterio, under Augustus, pun- 
 ished It with banishment (deportatio vel i 
 
 lib. ii. Annal. It was not until the reign of < nn.-lanliue 
 
 me tincture of Jauaiam ha : uced intc 
 
 ilong with Ihe establishment of Christianity, ihal 
 the puni • ih was formally enacted for 
 
 penalty was again mitigated under Leo and Marcian j and 
 by the laws of Justinian the adulterer was punishable with 
 death, Ihe adultrcss with llagcllation, imprisonment, &e. 
 Hut aboDl the fame period, the gradual Increase of episco- 
 pal authority in cl have drawn crimes of 
 Incontinence almost wholly within the cognizant 
 
 lurts; and the canons contain a variety of 
 Cl of adultery. On I] 
 the jurisprudence of the Northern nations, which visited 
 
 this as well as Other Cril len with very little .se- 
 
 verity, as i net individual:;, reduced the 
 
 penalty in most of the Western kingdoms i 
 niary one, sometimes attended with public di 
 corporal punishment. The customs of the sevi i u French 
 provinces contain a great variety of penalties and tines : at 
 Castelnaudari, in the fourteenth century, the line for adul- 
 tery was fixed at ''five sous only I" Such pena 
 course, fell rapidly Into disuse; and In the sixteenth cen- 
 tury we find it observed by a French civilian (quoted by 
 Thuanus), that " ; it was never heard that any body had 
 been punished for adultery in France." T 
 
 rian when relating an event which 
 created great sensation at the time, namely, the 
 punishment at Orleans of two offenders by St. Cyr, 
 vernor, a rigid Calvinist. The Protestants of that sect, in 
 9 in Scotland and England, made it their 
 urto Introduce primitive severity of manners by 
 severity ol punishment. De Thou, the father, appears al- 
 so to have made some efforts toward putting in force the 
 laws agai,, but from the time of the religious 
 
 ;e of adultery may be said lo have 
 nearly ceased in Prance. although by various an. 
 1701, etc.), besides the civil consequences of an action ol 
 adultery by husband against wife, the latter might be con- 
 demned to seclusion in a house of correction for two 
 years, or more. Iu Geneva, Strasbourg, and other places 
 where the reformed reHgion prevailed, a temporary 
 of law was introduced about Ihe same period, 
 but with little permanent effect. In England, by the old 
 common law, mutilation was the punishment of this a» 
 
ADVOCATE. 
 
 well as other offences; but under the Plantagenets it be- 
 came matter of ecclesiastical cognizance (except so far as 
 civil consequences were concerned), and visited only by the 
 spiritual censure of the church. " The rules of the canon 
 law," says a recent writer, "have manifested an indul- 
 gence towards this offence which is chiefly to be accounted 
 for by reference to the constrained celibacy of its early 
 compilers." But in 1G50 the puritans, under Cromwell, 
 ning an ordinance by which adultery, as 
 well as simple fornication, was made felony, without bene- 
 Gtof clergy ; an absurd decree, which was soon repealed. 
 In 1694, anil again in 180!, the subject of adultery and di- 
 vorce was discussed at length in parliament, but without 
 producing any enactment (See Tebbs's Essay on the 
 Scriptural Doctrines of Adultery and Divorce, and on the 
 Criminal Character and Punishment of Adultery, 8vo., 
 Lond. 1822.) For the Civil consequences of Adultery, see 
 
 MARRIAGE, LAW OF. 
 
 A'DVOCATE. (Lat advocatns, he vrho is called in to 
 plead in a court of late the cause of another.) The original 
 pleaders of causes at Home were the patricians, who de- 
 fended gratuitously their clients; but even before the 
 downfall of the republic, the class had degenerated into a 
 profession, its members receiving rewards for their ser- 
 vices, although still among the most, honorable of employ- 
 ments. But from the original gratuitous character of ad- 
 vocates, arose the peculiar custom by which, among our- 
 selves, the. fees of barristers are still regarded as honorary, 
 and cannot be recovered at law. In the later ages of the 
 empire the advocati appear to have formed a distinct class 
 from the jurisconsulli, or chamber-counsel, and to have 
 much declined in reputation. In France the avocats, or 
 counsel, form a separate order, of which each member is 
 hea to a particular local court. The lord advocate, in 
 Scotland, is a public officer, who prosecutes crimes before 
 the court of justiciary. 
 
 ADVOW'SON. (Lat. advoca'.io, a calling.) Properly, 
 the relation in which a patron (advocatus) stands towards 
 the living to which he presents, i. e. the patronage of a 
 church. The earliest provision for divine worship, in Eng- 
 land and in other countries, was derived from the offerings 
 ot the laity, winch were distributed by the bishop of each 
 diocese among his clergy, whom he sent from place to 
 place to preach and administer the sacraments. ]}y de- 
 grees he was enabled, by the bequests of the faithful, and 
 the customary offering of tithes, to subdivide his diocese, 
 or paroclua. as it was originally called, into various dis- 
 tricts, and to build churches anil establish permanent mi- 
 nisters in each. At the same time it became a common 
 practice among the nobles to build and endow churches 
 for the benefit of themselves aud their own dependants ; in 
 which case they were allowed to present to the benefice, 
 - t to the licensing powerof the bishop and the canons 
 of ilit church. Advowsons, in legal phraseology, are ei- 
 ther a" ipendant, where immemorially annexed to a manor; 
 or i.i gross, where they form separate subjects of property. 
 If the patron of a rectory fails to present within six months 
 after the vacancy happens, the right falls to the bishop; 
 and by similar neglect on his part, to the archbishop, and 
 thence to the king. The presentation is by letter to the 
 bishop; institution, by an instrument registered in the 
 bishop's court; and induction, which completes the in- 
 cumbent's title, is performed by the archdeacon. 
 
 A'DYTUM. (Sr. aSvrov, a recess.) In Architecture, 
 the secret dark chamber in a temple, to which none but 
 the priests had access. It was from this part that the ora- 
 cles' were delivered. Seneca, in his tragedy of Thyestes, 
 says, 
 
 " Ilinc nrnntibua 
 
 b itaniurcei-la. dum ingenti sono 
 Laxuulur Ailyto fata." 
 
 Among the Egyptians, the Secoa was the same thing of 
 which Strabo has given a description. The only well pre- 
 served adytum of the ancients is in the little temple at 
 Pompeii, "it is raised some steps above the level of the 
 temple itself, and is without light. 
 
 JE'DES (Lat.) In Architecture. A small temple con- 
 secrated to a rod which was not afterwards dedicated by 
 the augurs, Irom which circumstance, according to Varro, 
 different from thetfmplum. This distinction among 
 ' mans in the early ages was afterwards lost, and the 
 iscriminately. 
 
 jEDI'CULA (Lat.) A diminutive of the preceding. 
 
 jE'DILE. The title of certain Roman magistrates, so 
 sailed from their care of buildings (cedes). They w y ere 
 llvided into two classes, distinguished by the epithets 
 jlebeian and curule. The two plebeian tediles were, as 
 Iheir name imports, elected from the commonalty 
 Iplebs), and were subordinate to the tribunes of the 
 commons, having jurisdiction over lesser causes, sub- 
 mitted to them by those magistrates. The two curule 
 tediles. so called from their privilege of giving judgment 
 en ivory seats ( sella} curules), were originally elected from 
 the p»" '"-tons but afterwards &ra» bcrt plebeians and pa- 
 ir, 
 
 jERA. 
 
 tricians promiscuously. The magistracy was one ol trie 
 most dignified in the state, and was allowed the use of the 
 robe of honour (toga pretexts), and a certain precedence 
 in the senate. The peculiar office of the tediles was the 
 superintendence of public works, markets, <fcc, in the city. 
 They had also, particularly the curule tediles. to exhibit 
 public games, which they often did eta vast expense, in 
 order to court popularity. Julius Caesar added two other 
 plebeian tediles, called cereal, to inspect the public stores 
 of provisions. 
 
 jEGIOE'RE/E. (Gr. di%, goat, xcpas, horn.) A division 
 of myrsinaceous plants, the type of which is tl 
 eegiceras. It is distinguished by the absence of albumen; 
 the species grow in maritime swamps in tropical countries, 
 and have the embryo germinalingwilhinthi 
 the manner of mangroves, 
 
 JE'GIS. (Gr. dt(,agoat.) The mythological shield of 
 Jupiter, which was covered with the skin of the goal Amal- 
 IhiBa, and given by him to Minerva, who, by fixing on it the 
 head of Medusa, gave it the power of petrifying all persons 
 who looked at it. The word is also used sometimes for 
 the breaslpieee olVa god. 
 
 JS'GYLOPS. (Gr. riif, a goat, and on//, cm rye.) A sore 
 in the inner angle of the eye, frequently terminating in fis- 
 tula lachrymalis. Goats were supposed to be very subject 
 to an analogous affection. — Also the name of a kind of 
 grass. 
 
 iE'NEII). The epic poem of Virgil, relating the wan- 
 derings of jEneas after the capture of Troy, and his settle- 
 ment in Italy. 
 
 TE'OLIPILE. (Lat. JEolus, the god of the winds, and pi- 
 la, a ball.) An hydraulic instrument, contrived tor the 
 purpose of exhibiting the convertibility of water into steam. 
 It consists of a hollow ball of metal, having a slender neck 
 or pipe, with a very small orifice inserted into it. The 
 ball, having been filled with water, is placed over the fire; 
 and the heat gradually converts the water into vapour, 
 which rushes out of the pipe with great violence till the 
 whole is discharged. The experiment is not unattended 
 by (finger ; tor should the small orifice by any accident be 
 sfopprd, the steam would burst the ball. The a-olipile 
 was known to the ancients, being mentioned by Viiruvius. 
 Descartes and others have used it to account for the natu- 
 ral cause and production of the wind ; hence its name 
 jEolipile, that is, pila -Eon, the ball of JEolus, the 
 the winds. The reolipile is sometimes filled with 
 and the jet of its vapour being inflamed, it serves the pur- 
 i blowpipe. 
 
 JE'OLVS. The god of the winds, who was fable. 1 by the 
 early poets to have his seat in the floating island of iEolia ; 
 but the Latin and later Greek poets placed him in Ihe Li- 
 pari U'?s. Here the winds were pent up in vast caves, it 
 *"*... fe the duty of iEolus to let them loose, and to restrain 
 meir violence at the pleasure of Jupiter. Virgil 
 scribed the power and functions of iEolus, in one of th» 
 finest passages of the TEneid : — 
 
 " Hie vadto rex iEolus anli o, 
 
 Lttctautea vtntos lempeslatesqua 
 
 Imperio pretnit, ;ie vinclis el i u 
 
 llli indignantea magno cum murmure i 
 
 um ilaust.a fremunt. C'claa sedcl £oloa 
 Sceptra lenens, mollitqne aminos, ei ; . 
 Ni fuci.it, maria ac terrai 
 Quippe ftrant rapidi secum, verrautqu 
 
 .1.1. 52. 
 
 iEOLUS' HARP, or JEOLIAN HARP. A well known 
 instrument, which produces a pleasing combination of 
 sounds, by the action of the wind, i 
 simple, consisting of merely a number of catgut or wire 
 Strings, stretched in parallel lines over a box of thin deal, 
 with sounding holes cut in the top. The strings being 
 tuned in unison, the effect is produced by placing the in- 
 strument in a current of air. The invention of the iEolian 
 harp is generally given to Kircher, by whom it was first 
 described. 
 
 JE't».\ .fee Gnostics. 
 
 JE'ItA, or ERA. (A word of doubtful derivation.) In 
 Chronology, the term rera, as now understood, is Ihe pe- 
 riod that lias elapsed from some fixed point of time, or 
 ailed the commencement of the sera.' — Thus the 
 Christian fflra began at the birth of Christ, the Mohamme- 
 dan a?ra at the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, 
 the ana of Diocletian at the coronation of thai i 
 <Scc. ; and the period of the occurrence of any event is as- 
 certained by reckoning from one or otherof these epochs. 
 When, for example, it'is said that Que en Victoria 
 cd the throne of Great Britain in 1837, tt means lhal this 
 event took place in the 1537th year of the < 
 of that a?ra which began with the birth of Christ. It is 
 plain from the above statement that the period ol time se- 
 lected for an ajra, or point whence to begin the computa- 
 tion of time, is necessarily arbitrary ; and differen 
 have adopted different periods coincident with some im- 
 portant event in their civil or religious history. Some have 
 
JERARIAN. 
 
 .he year of the creation of Ihe world, and this, 
 date well ascertained, would be one of the best 
 > li:it the sacred writings are not 
 >n this point, and thi i 
 
 he period of its occurrenc 
 
 ■ reckon by the era of the Olympiad (see 
 
 in ai the Bummer solstice, anno 776 
 
 I!, c. T l from the bu 
 
 generally held to be tlte 24th of April. 1!. <:. 763. The Ju- 
 
 dates from the reformation of the calendar by Jo- 
 
 . which took place on the 1st 
 middle of the 4th year of I 
 
 ear of the building of Rome, 
 if the He- 
 mmed to Meil ding with 
 Iwaaab, In com- 
 s to \ I' > 
 in Persia, began lCih June, 
 
 if some of ihe principal rrras, 
 of the Christian sera in which thi 
 iriationa by which they are commonly dis- 
 
 JEms. 
 
 Commenced 
 
 Abbreviations 
 
 
 
 
 
 B. C. 5,509 
 
 A. M. Const. 
 
 — (Alexandrian 
 
 — 
 
 \ M Alex. 
 
 — (Jewish account) - 
 
 — 3,701) 
 
 \ M 
 
 • 
 
 — 747 
 
 Nib. 
 
 . 
 
 — 
 
 Olymp. 
 
 Rome 
 
 — 
 
 A. U. C. 
 
 . 
 
 — 45 
 
 Jul. Mr. 
 
 Bra ■ - - 
 
 — 
 
 A. I). 
 
 . 
 
 A IV 
 
 
 • 
 
 - 
 
 JEr. Dioc. 
 
 . . 
 
 — 
 
 A II 
 
 . . 
 
 — 632 
 
 A. Pers. 
 
 .•II this the year of the Chri 
 with that of any greater .■era. (SB 
 History by Sir II. Nicholas 
 JBRA'RLAN. The term applied to a Roman citizen who 
 had i' rank compatible with per- 
 
 'ii. He, li->\\ • 
 no privileges, and could not serve in the army, or, conse- 
 quently, participate in the distribution of land grant 
 ■ • did. 
 jERA'RIUM. (Lat.) Tlie public treasury of the Ro 
 Hi in ire of which was vested in the qutestors. 
 
 ofthe republic i lm terarium was kepi distinct 
 from the treasury of the emperor, which was called I 
 The erarium lanclhis, or more sacred treasury, was ap 
 pointed to provide for cases of extreme emergency, anil 
 pened on othi 
 AG' RIAL, (Gr. air/j, air. ) In Painting, a term applied 
 diminishing intensity of colour on objects receding 
 from the eye. Aerial perspective la the relative apparent 
 .'■■ii of objects from the foreground, owing to the 
 quantity of air interposed between them and the spectator, 
 andmu8taccompai on of the perspective lines. 
 
 AERIAL AC ID. Carbonic acid. 
 
 A'ERO-DYNA/MICS, (Gr. dtjp, and iwafttt, power.) 
 
 ind of 
 air In motion. This is an expe- 
 rimental scienco, and there are two ways in which it may 
 he nr. The first is, by ascertaining the i 
 
 which air, moving with a certain velocity, that is, wind, 
 pro lu.-.:; on a hod.- against which it strikes; and the 
 second, by ascertaining : a which air at rest 
 
 offers to a solid body rapidly passing through it. The pro- 
 blem is exactly the same, whether the body la considered 
 as ni it rest, or the air is supposed to 
 
 ly with the same velocity. 
 Com moved forward In a straight line, 
 
 dispU Ively the particles of air opposed to it: 
 
 Seel which it produces is proportional to the number 
 i to the quantity of 
 
 motion communicated to each. Suppose now the 
 
 ofthe body to be doubled, the motion communic 
 
 each particle of air displaced will be twice as great 88 he- 
 fore, and twice as many particles will receive the impul- 
 sion in the same time. Hence we infer that the effect will 
 ir that the effect is proportional to 
 velocity. This result of t 
 bly well with experiments made to determine the 
 tanee of the air when the velocity is not verj 
 or not exceeding eight or nine hundred feet in a : '■■ 
 When the velocity is much greater than this, the effect la 
 modified by circumstances which require further expla- 
 nation. 
 When a solid body is moved out of its position, the space 
 17 
 
 AEROLITE. 
 
 which it occupied is not filled with air instantaneously, out 
 only after a sensible, though very short time. Theory, 
 
 tied to a certain degree by experience, ahowa that 
 air, under the ordinary atmospheric pressure,, rushes Into 
 a vacuum with a Telocity of between 1800 and 1400 few 
 in a second of time. But this velocity is very speedily 
 checked : for the instant thai any portion of air is admit- 
 ted, or the vacuum ceases to be perli cl, that portion resists 
 of more with a force proportional to its den. 
 • ■. for example, the air in a receiver to he in- 
 duced to one fourth of its natural density ; the eflbn ofthe 
 
 i air to enter the receiver will be n duceil to three- 
 
 fourths of its amount when the receiver was perfectly ex- 
 hausted : and consequently lite velocity, which is propor- 
 tional to the square root of the effort or Ihe resistance, will 
 
 he reduced in the proportion of 1 to V% ; or of 100 i 
 very nearly. In this manner, ns the air continues to enter, 
 city will rapidly dim 
 Now. conceive a body, for example a cannon ball, to U 
 moving rapidly through the air. hut with a less velocity 
 than 1900 leet per second. The air in front ofthe ball will 
 remain in its natural state, because the condensation pro- 
 duced every instant by the contact of the ball. Is propaga- 
 ted more quickly than the ball moves (the velocity of the 
 propagation being equal to I hat with which air enters a 
 
 vacuum). Hut there is a certain space behind Ihe ball in 
 
 which the air has not entirely recovered Its equilibrium, 
 
 Imt remains more or less rarefied, the bill having p I 
 through it In less lime than la required lor the surrounding 
 
 sir entirely to liil it. In addition, therefore, to the resist- 
 ance n from the communication of motion to 
 
 the particles of air. I -me on Ihe front part of 
 
 the ball, not counterbalanced from behind ; Inconsequence 
 of which, we may infer that the resistance will increase in 
 a quicker ratio than the square of the velocity. Thi 
 duction is also confirmed by experience ; for it is found 
 
 that thi increase with the sqiiiuv 
 
 ofthe velocity only while the velocity is less than '.no or 
 1000 feet per second. Above this velocity the ratio begins 
 
 to fail; and when Ihe velocity exceeds thai with which air 
 urn. the ratio is entirely altered. At a veloci- 
 ty of 1000 feel per second, the n -.-.i - .hi.' e is found 10 be 
 more than t« D by theory. The reason is ib- 
 
 vions: the density of the air before the body is increased 
 by the rapid motion, and, consequently, ire w» 
 
 the fori body than air in II i natural state 
 
 The resistance of the air on the motion of projectiles; 
 experimentally by M. Robins (see nil 
 Princip iv), anil afterwards by Dr. Mutton, of 
 
 Woolwich (W i I, VOL 3, and Math. Diedonai y \ 
 
 whose experiments were carried on to a greater e xtent , 
 and varied in Dumber of ways. The following 
 
 are the principal results deduced by Dr. Mutton, from 
 UtS on bodies moving very slowly, not tt*>r» 
 than 20 feet per second : — 
 
 1st. -istance is nearly in lh>> Same BrOfJOT* 
 
 ufaces; a small increase only taking place in 
 the greater surfaces and for the greater velocities. 
 
 Sid, "The resistance of the air to the same surface witli 
 different velocities, is, in these slow motions, nearly as tho 
 square o, the velocity, hut gradually increases more and 
 more ah ■ irtion as the velocity incres 
 
 3d. -Tin- round ends and sharp ends of solldB suffer leas 
 resistance than the il it or plane ends of the same diame- 
 ter; but the sharper end has not always the 
 ance. 
 
 4th. " When the hinder parts of bodies are of different 
 forms, the re different, though the fore parts 
 
 be exactly alike and equal: owing, probably, to tho differ- 
 ent pressures ofthe air on the hinder parts." 
 
 Dr. Mutton likewise found, that although In slow motions 
 the experimental resistance is nearly equal to that compu- 
 ted by theory, yet, " ■ the experi- 
 mental resistance gradually rxcftt)* the other more and 
 locity of 1300 feet, the formi r > comes 
 double ihe latter; after which, the difference increases a 
 
 little further, till, at the velocity of 1600 Or 1700 feet, when 
 
 ■ the greatest, and is rather less than ' 
 1-lOthj and, after this the difference decreases gradually, 
 Ity increases; and at the velocity of 2000 the 
 former resistance again becomes just double ihs latter." 
 For further information on this subject, tee I'iiojixtji.ks, 
 Wind 
 
 AERO'C.RAPHY. (Or. d»jp./Aea«r, and ypa^>b}, Iirrite* 
 The description of ihe atmosphere, its nature, properties, 
 limits. Ac (See Atmosphere.') 
 
 AT.ROLI'TE. (Gr. drip, the «/,,and >iflos, a stone, stoats 
 
 ofthe air.) The origin or these singular substances is in- 
 
 I in the greatest mystery. Borne philosophers, among 
 
 whom is Laplace, the Illustrious author of the "Mecamque 
 
 impose them to be ejected from volcanoes in the 
 
 j moon ; others suppose them to exist ready formed In the 
 
 celestial space, circulating about the sun wilhgreal velocity 
 
 like planets,and falling to the earth when its attraction, upon 
 
 15 ^^*. 
 
AEROLOGY. 
 
 mem preponderates: others regard them as fragments of 
 rocks which have been propelled by terrestrial volcanos to 
 an immense height above the limits of the atmosphere, 
 "and again xle#cend after having described several revolu- 
 tions about the earth. 
 
 On. examining and comparing the aerolites, the first cir- 
 cumstance that strikes us as remarkable is their perfect 
 resemblance to one another in their composition, what- 
 ever be their form or magnitude. Their exterior surface 
 is black as if they had been exposed to the heat of a fur- 
 nace. Internally they are of a greyish white. Their spe- 
 cific gravity, which is very nearly the same in all of them, 
 varies between 3-352 and 4-281, that of water being taken 
 as unit, Their chemical analysis gives, in almost every 
 instance, the same substances, combined in very nearly 
 the same proportions. They are composed of silex, mag- 
 nesia, sulphur, iron in the metallic state, nickel, and some 
 traces of chrome. Sometimes they are formed of a spongy 
 or cellular texture, the cavities being filled with a stony 
 substance. They have occasionally been found without 
 nickel. These common and constant characters indicate 
 with the greatest evidence a common origin, and their 
 composition renders it probable that it is to be sought 
 elsewhere than in the earth. Iron is scarcely ever found 
 (if. indeed, it is found at all) in the metallic state in terres- 
 trial substances ; volcanic matter contains it only in the 
 state of an oxide. Nickel is also very rare, and never 
 found on the surface of the earth: and chrome is still 
 more rare. 
 
 The fall of the aerolites is accompanied by meteors, 
 named bolides, or fire balls They are, in fact, inflamed 
 globes, which appear instantaneously in the atmosphere, 
 and move through it with extreme velocity, sometimes 
 even equal to that of the earth in its orbit. The direction 
 of their motion is inclined to the horizon. After shining 
 with great splendour for a few instants, they explode with 
 a lom! noise, and often at a great height, 30 or 40 miles 
 above the surface of the earth. They do not affect any 
 peculiar direction with respect to the. motion of the earth, 
 but seem to come from all points of the heavens indiffer- 
 ently. 
 
 With regard to the hypothesis which explains the origin 
 of the aerolites, by supjxising them to be propelled from 
 lunar volcanos. it may be remarked, that no improbable 
 amount of mechanical force would be required. As there 
 is no atmosphere about the moon sufficient to offer a sen- 
 sible resistance to the motion of a solid body, the force re- 
 quired is only that which would be sufficient to overcome 
 the moon's attraction, which is found by calculation to be 
 about four times the force with which a ball is expelled 
 from a cannon with the ordinary charge of gunpowder. A 
 body projected with a velocity of about 7770 feet per se- 
 cond from the lunar surface, would be detached from the 
 moon, and be brought to the earth by terrestrial gravita- 
 tion. But philosophers seem now disposed to assign the 
 aerolites a different origin. From the phenomena of 
 comets there is reason to believe that portions of chaotic 
 matter are dispersed in the planetary regions in detached 
 parcels, or perhaps in considerable masses. The earth in 
 describing its orbit may meet with such masses directly, 
 or pass so near to them as to carry them along with it by 
 virtue of its attraction. On plunging into the atmosphere 
 with the velocity due to the height from which they have 
 fallen, which is that of their distance from the earth, when 
 they begin to obey its attractive force, an enormous heat is 
 evolved by the rapid and powerful condensation of the air; 
 the matter becomes inflamed, and the aerolite is the pro- 
 duct of the combustion. In the same manner, shooting 
 stars, and other igneous meteors of frequent occurrence, 
 are explained. The chaotic matter may be entirely con- 
 sumed long before it reaches the earth, in which case the 
 appearance of the bolide will not be accompanied with the 
 fall of an aerolite. (<S'ee Meteor.) 
 
 Philosophers were long inclined to disbelieve in the fall 
 of stones through the atmosphere. The fact, however, is 
 new placed beyond all doubt by numerous and well au- 
 thenticated instances which have occurred in almost all 
 quarters of the world, even within the present century. 
 A very complete list of the falls of stony or earthy matters, 
 with the times and places of their occurrence, and the ap- 
 pearances they exhibited, is published in the Edinburgh 
 Philosophical Journal, from a work by Chladni, in Ger- 
 man, in which the whole subject of meteoric stones is ably 
 and fully treated. 
 
 AERO'I.OGY. (Gr. drip, air, and \oyog, a discourse.) 
 The doctrine of air, generally applied to medical discus- 
 sions respecting its salubrity. 
 
 AERO'METEll. (Gr. drip, air, and utrpov, a measure.) 
 An instrument for making the necessary corrections in 
 pneumatic experiments, to ascertain the mean bulk of 
 gases. 
 
 A'ERONAUT. (Gr. drip, air, and vavrri;, a sailor.) 
 One who travels in a balloon. 
 
 A'ERONAUTICS. (Gr. dijp. air, and vavriKOf, of or 
 18 
 
 AESTHETICS. 
 
 belonging tn ships.) The art of sailing in and navigating 
 the air. From the earliest ages men have been actuated 
 by a wish to be able to participate in the advantages con- 
 ferred on the lower animals, and having succeeded in na- 
 vigating the sea, to be able also to mount, like the eagle, 
 into the air. The story of Daedalus, who is said to have 
 escaped from Crete to Sardinia, by means of wings con- 
 trived to assist him, is known to every classical reader, 
 and proves, at least, the antiquity of attempts of this sort. 
 But the fate of his companion Icarus, seems to have had 
 agreater influence in deterringfrom similar attempts, than 
 the reported success of the artificial dove, constructed by 
 the geometer Archytas, which is said to have walled it- 
 self through the air by means of internal springs. During 
 the middle ages, when the nature of the atmosphere and 
 the sound principles of mechanical philosophy were alike 
 unknown, many rude and necessarily unsuccessful at- 
 tempts were made to realize this difficult problem. But it 
 was not till the composition of the atmosphere had begun 
 to be ascertained, and that means had been devised of fill- 
 ing vessels with heated air. or other air lighter than at- 
 mospheric air, and consequently capable of floating on it, 
 that there came to be a rational prospect of succeeding in 
 the '-audacious attempt" of riding in the air. At length, in 
 17S2, the brothers Montgolfier succeeded in constructing 
 a balloon ; and on the 21st of October, 1783, Pilatre de Ro- 
 zier, a young naturalist, and the Marquis d'Arlandes, as- 
 cended from Paris to an elevation of more than 3000 feet 
 and alighted safely from their " serial tour," after describ- 
 ing a circuit of about six miles. Since that time ascents in 
 balloons have become comparatively common. {See Bal- 
 loon, and the article .lEronautics in the Encyclopaedia Bri- 
 tannica, 7th edit ) 
 
 A'EROPHY'TES. (Gr. drip, air, and <j>vtov, a plant.) 
 Plants which live exclusively in air ; in distinction to hy- 
 drophytes, which live as constantly under water. 
 
 A'EROSTA'TICS. A term sometimes used to denote 
 the science which treats of the equilibrium of elastic fluids. 
 {Zee Pneumatics.) 
 
 A'EROSTA'TION. (Gr. drip, air, and craw, I stand ) 
 Means simply the weighing of tiie air; but it has been em- 
 ployed, though incorrectly, in the science of aeronautics. 
 or as the art of raising substances into the atmosphere by 
 the buoyancy of heated air, or of very light gases enclosed 
 in a bag of a spheroidical form ; hence called a balloon, 
 which see. 
 
 iESCULA'CEiE. A natural order of exogenous plants 
 consisting of the horse-chestnut, jEsculus hippocastan.im, 
 and other nearly allied species. They are all either shrubs 
 or trees inhabiting temperate regions, and nearly corres- 
 pond with ./Esculus hippocastanum in the structure of the 
 flowers. Their seeds contain starch, and their bark is in 
 some cases hitler and astringent. 
 
 ^SCHLA'PIUS, or ASCLE'PIUS, as he was called by 
 the Greeks, was a mythological deity of the Greeks and 
 Romans, according to whom he was the son of Apollo and 
 the nymph Coronis. He was worshipped as the god 
 of surgery and medicine; but the older poets, as Homer 
 and Pindar, mention him only as a hero well skilled in 
 these arts. The chief seat of his worship was Epidanrus, 
 where he was represented as an old man, with a mantle 
 and staff, round which a serpent is twined. 
 
 AESTHE'TICS. (Gr. dicdriTtKos, having the power of 
 perception by means of the senses.) In the -fine arts, that 
 science which derives the first principles in all the arts 
 from the effect which certain combinations have on the. 
 mind, as connected with nature and right reason. It is in- 
 timately related to sentiment, which links together with 
 feeling the different parts of a composition. All art, con- 
 sidered as imitation of nature, is affected by the same re- 
 lations, and subject to the same laws, which govern nature 
 herself; and if it could be satisfactorily proved that those 
 rules of art which are the result of reason were necessari- 
 ly connected with sensation, it might be possible to lay 
 down laws from which the principles of art might be satis 
 factorily deduced. As an illustration of this, in architec- 
 ture we might take the rule which forbids the position of 
 a heavy mass over a void, when it may appear to have no 
 ostensible and immediate support; in which case it might 
 almost seem possible to connect the unpleasant sensation 
 produced on the mind with the rules of reason : but in ar- 
 chitecture it is difficult to conceive how this could be ef- 
 fected without recurring to primitive types, and on them 
 pursuing the reasoning into all its details. In the other arts 
 it might not, perhaps, be so difficult to establish a si-i of 
 rules, inasmuch as the immediate type is nature herself. 
 The Germans have written much on the doctrine of aesthe- 
 tics; it would, however, seem, that the fundamental prin 
 ciples of taste in all the arts depend on the laws of gravita- 
 tion, and their balances, equipoise and counterpoise j the 
 necessary resultants whereof are symmetry and propor- 
 tion. We shall here lay before the reader a synoptical 
 view of this science: to do more would occupy a space 
 much more than would fill this volume; for, under othei 
 
JEBTHNA. 
 
 name-.-, it is a subject which has much engaged the 
 
 attention of writers on the philosophy of the arts. The 
 
 the polite arts lies in i or the 
 
 ntation, whether by lines, word 
 
 media, and Ion arises from an exer- 
 
 : the inventive faculty; their end being the pro- 
 
 ible sensations ; thus uisned 
 
 ht in the sciences, whose object is to pro- 
 
 Dd utility. And here we. an 
 
 . may be to instruct, or to be 
 
 objects, yet that the expression on which 
 
 the laws which govern the 
 
 i he object of the fine arts is beauty, which is 
 
 ail the various perfections whereof an object 
 
 ii perfections arising, first, from the 
 
 twecn the several parts of the 
 
 ■ !. from the proportions between 
 
 object taken as a whi or the 
 
 the faculty of the mind by which it is 
 
 Ive and e.vjn ' •ions, and is, 
 
 the production of beauty ; wliilc 
 
 ition of a mind refined by 
 
 IB, embracing, and produ. 
 
 Hence a general theory of the polite arts 
 
 be founded on a knowledge of all that they contain 
 
 iile and beautiful. They are usually a 
 
 aence, poetry, musfi nlplure, and 
 
 »rchitecture. By some, dancing 
 
 number; bin. for reasons too long to be advanced here, 
 
 to recollect that, In 
 
 able, must be 
 
 im his work. First, he must consult his genius, 
 
 ftui'l ferre rccutcnt, 
 ftui<l nleanl humeri ; 
 
 . !, be must constantly labour to improve his taste; 
 
 •it object of his Imitation ; 
 
 iust attain perspicuity, so that his end may 
 
 ;n ambiguity and obscurity; fifth, he must 
 
 ve all common or common 
 
 ii expansion of the Imagination 
 
 tswith an airof sublimity, which 
 i a concurri i fourth 
 
 Ait is not the' result of understanding 
 r must 
 thai which 'j to his 
 
 • n iiber die -I 
 l>i- II <;. lioiho. :: Bande, ller- 
 Leipzig, 1829. Urit. 
 I 13, art, •• Philosophy ol Art.") 
 -TUNA. A name applied by Fal MM of 
 
 I by having the wings expanded 
 •el the divisions of the lip equal. 
 TIIF.O'CAMOl :s. (Or. d/j0>j{, unusual, and yauof, 
 marriage) A. name contrived to riy the 
 
 i called cryptogamie plants ; it being the 
 n of the author of the name that the niodp of proper 
 I among such plants was not hidden, hut only of an 
 ■iitiueil by 1) I 
 .•. ell as cellular tissue, in their or- 
 a sense, they are the same as ferns, ly- 
 copo.i . and their allies. 
 
 jE'TMUOSCO'PE. (Or. diOpio;, dear, and anrercu, 
 Iriew.) Ai: Invented by Sir John Leslie for 
 
 relative degrees ol 
 produced by the pulsations from a clear 
 sky. I rely of a differential 
 
 thermometer, adapted to the cavity .>( a 
 idal cup of metal, the interior of 
 which is highly poll a man- 
 
 or the halls occupies a focus 
 of the spheroid; while the orifice of the 
 cup is formed by a plane passing through 
 perpendicular to die 
 A lid of the same metal is filled to 
 outh of the cup, and only r< 
 
 lion is to he made. 
 
 ■•-•• die cup exposed to a clear sky : 
 I pulses darted from the upper 
 atmosphere, which enter 
 the orifice of the cup, are reflected from polished surfaces 
 upon the ball A in the focus, while the bail B, 
 sideof the cup in Us widest part, is ne d from 
 
 them, or receives only the small nuniher which fall 
 obliquely upon it. The two halls are thus exposed to rlif 
 ferent degrees of cold, the effect of which is Immediately 
 apparent, by the rise of the liquor in the stem of the ther- 
 mometer, in consequence of the contraction of the air in 
 the ball A. The effect may be augmented by covering the 
 ball 15, which is out of the focus, with a coat of gold or sil- 
 ver leaf. It is evident that the instrument is equally adapt- 
 19 
 
 AFFINITY, CHEMICAL. 
 
 ed to measure the effects of the radiation of heat, which 
 will be manifested by the d< scent of the stem. 
 
 When applied to this pin, r. the metallic cull 
 
 becomes ui': ; irowiP 
 
 back from the bright sorl 
 
 e their full effect en the naked or Beoticnt one. 
 The aethrioacope is thus convened into a pyroscope. (See 
 Encyc. Brit., art "Climati 
 
 i 'IVa'TION. (Lat. aestivus, ofm i sum- 
 
 mer.) A figurative exprei 
 manner in which the parts of a (lower are arrai 
 they unfold. Uotain 
 of the corolla, of the statu 
 
 ,!■'. > II AKY. (Let. JEshtorium.) !n . was 
 
 anciently understood to be ani creek, frith, or 
 see, in which the tide ebbs and flows (Plia Epi 
 33); but it la 
 
 channels of certain rivers eontigi ea in which 
 
 the water is either salt or brackish, and in wl 
 and How of ll 
 little or no current. 
 
 ■sn. 
 
 A'KTI \TOI. (Gr. citroc, tm eagle.) In Architecture, 
 the name given by I form- 
 
 ing the face of the tympanum of a pediment. This word 
 i now in the British Mu- 
 Dr. Cham:: ng to 
 
 the sin al Athens. 
 
 [OXOGY. (Or. dirui, (t rmtxe, and Xo}os,ilisa,ursc.) 
 Toe do 
 
 rO'MA, or A'ETOS. 'Gr. dtnt.-an eagie.) In Ar- 
 by the (dick si chiti ■ ts to the 
 tympanum of a pedimec 
 
 ge of 
 the roof with figure I ^me thence 
 
 Bret given to the ridge wi iransferred to the 
 
 pedimenl 
 
 AIT ■ih.) 
 
 In the Fine Arts, nil artificial snow arising from the want of 
 simplicity either in colon. 
 the overcharging an] onwithanarl , 
 
 E'CTED, or ADFEOTED. A I 
 When applied 
 
 quantity enl 
 
 equation : thus, x> — 0x2 + bx — c=.u, in which there are 
 three different pov. . iy. r'\ X-, and T. \. 
 
 the term w.inti- 
 
 ii : thus, in the quantity 
 .'. and 
 with the sign +. D 
 
 to algebra by \ 
 AITF/TTO, or AFFETTl (>>(). (It. affetto, ttfiKtion.) 
 In Music, a term prefix* d to a mnven* 
 is to be performed in a smooth, tender, and affecting man- 
 sit, therefore, rather inclining to slowness than the 
 
 Al'KIDA'VIT. (I.at. afikUo, ] confirm by oath.) In 1 
 iih in m riting, sworn 1 eli 
 authority to iriministi r it. 
 
 AFFILIATION. (Lat. ad, i . EliOS, a son.) hi Law, the 
 assignment of a child to a pareni by I 
 where the father ol b bai tard chl 
 timony of the nig it 
 
 tpon him. By the i ndn enl Act, 
 
 this can now only he done, after suificienl i 
 [iarly intended to be charged, by an order of the conn of 
 quarter sessions, on the testimony of the woman, con 
 rated as to sol (.Set 
 
 Bastard.) AJfiliut in Politics, ar< 
 
 lies, depending on a central society with which Wieysor- 
 respond, and from which they receive directions. Such 
 were ih" provincial jacobin clubs, foundi idelol 
 
 the jacobin clubofParis. Such, also, were the corn spend- 
 ing societies In England, for the suppression of whu • 
 ' (;. :;. c 79. 
 
 AFFI'NITY. (Lat affinis. related.) A relation of ani- 
 mals lo one another, in the* shnilarity of a greater propor- 
 tion of their o i thus, a porpoise is said to have 
 an affinity to man, b< i i em bianco to him in 
 respiratory, circulating, at • systems, ii 
 brain, eye, and ear. Are. : while it is said to have anal 
 toafi emblance is confined to ea h 
 form. In short, affinity is that, degree of relationship by 
 which, in forming a concatenated series of animals, we 
 pass from one to another hv the closest gradations, 
 
 AFFINITY, CHEMICAL. The attractive force by 
 which dissimilar substances combine with each other to 
 produce chemical compounds. All natural and artificial 
 substances are either simple or compound. The metals, 
 for instance, are simple substances, — no one of them hav- 
 ing been as yet decomposed : water is a compound; it may 
 be resolved into oxvgen and hydrogen gases, which are 
 therefore called its component part -. To enable substances 
 
AFFINITY, CHEMICAL. 
 
 ta exert their mutual affinities, or to act chemically upon 
 each other, the opposing powers of matter must be over- 
 come, and they must be placed under circumstances fa- 
 TOurable to the exertion of their mutual chemical attrac- 
 tions. Two solid bodies seldom combine, in consequence 
 of their imperfect contact, and the immobility of their par- 
 a ; hence the oldest axiom, corpora non agunt, nisi 
 la. But to this there are exceptions : ice and salt, for 
 instance, run down into liquid brine ; oxalic acid and dry 
 lime unite; and when sulphur and chlorate of potash are 
 ither. they act violently on eacli other. Even 
 when one or both substances are fluid, heat is often requi- 
 site to diminish cohesion, and promote affinity : thus, mer- 
 cury an t iron combine with melted sulphur; and oxygen 
 and hydrogen, and oxygen and carbon, require heat to ef- 
 fect their union. In some cases the action of the solar 
 riys excites and increases affinity, as in the combination 
 of hydrogen and chlorine. 
 
 The investigation of the relative proportions in which 
 eg combine, forms the basis of the atomic theory, or 
 doctrine of chemical equivalents. 
 
 Many substances seem to unite in all proportions; but 
 these are not strict cases of chemical combination: thus, 
 water and sulphuric acid, and alcohol and ether, mix to- 
 gether in any quantities. Others unite indefinitely, up to a 
 certain point: water, for instance, dissolves salt, in varia- 
 ble quantity, till the solution is saturated : we thus find 
 that a given quantity of water is only able to retain a cer- 
 tain weight of salt in permanent solution. In these cases 
 of indefinite combination, the affinities of the combining 
 substances are usually feeble; but where their affinities or 
 attractive powers are energetic, there is a remarkable ten- 
 dency to combine in certain proportions only. Thus, sul- 
 phuric acid and lime unite in the proportions of 40 of the 
 acid to 28 of the lime, and in no other or intermediate 
 quantity : in such cases the acid and the base are said to 
 neutralise each other; and such compounds are often 
 1 neutral salts, that is, salts in which the leading cha- 
 racters of the component parts are no longer perceptible, 
 which are neither acid nor alkaline. When such bodies 
 combine in more than one proportion, which is often the 
 case, the second, third, &c. proportions are simple multi- 
 ples of the first: thus, 16 parts of sulphur combine respec- 
 tively with 8, 16, and 24 of oxygen ; in these compounds 
 the relative proportions being as 1,2, and 3. Again, 14 
 parts of nitrogen combine with 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40 of oxy- 
 gen, forming five distinct compounds, in which the relative 
 proportions of the oxygen are as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. 
 
 Where the combining substances are either naturally 
 gaseous, or where they may be hypothetically so consi- 
 dered, it is obvious that, as their weights bear these simple 
 relations to eacli other, their bulks or volumes will do so 
 likewise : thus, in the case of the compounds just noticed, 
 1 volume of nitrogen will combine respectively with %, 1, 
 1 ;~, 2, and :l l i volumes of oxygen ; or, what amounts to the 
 same thing, 2 volumes of nitrogen will combine with 1, 2, 
 ;;, 4, and 5 volumes of oxy 
 
 thus combine with each other in definite pro- 
 portion-;, it is obvious, that if we select any one substance 
 lity, or =: 1, all oilier substances may be represented 
 by numbers equal to the weights in which they respective- 
 ly combine with each other, and with the unit. Upon this 
 iple of numeric representation, hydrogen, which is 
 known substance, is assumed a3 unity ; the 
 compound of hydrogen with oxygen is water, in which 1 
 part by weight of hydrogen is combined with 8 of oxygen, 
 to form 9 of water: hence, in a table of atomic numbers, 
 definite proportionals, or chemical equivalents, (for all these 
 terms have been applied to such numbers,) we have — 
 Hydrogen represented by 1 
 Oxysen 8 
 
 Water ... 9 
 
 And in the above series of nitric compounds we have, in 
 the first of them, 14 of nitrogen combined with 8 of oxy- 
 gen ; and, accordingly, calling 14 the equivalent of nitrogen, 
 and 8 the equivalent of oxygen, we have the following equi- 
 valents of their compounds ; and it may be presumed that 
 tnese numbers represent the weights of the combining 
 atoms of those bodies: — 
 
 Equivalents, or 
 Atom* combining vMnghtt, Equivalents of tie 
 
 of nitro- of oxy- of nitro- of oxy- compounds, 
 
 gen. gen. gen. gen. 
 
 1 + 1 1 1 + 8 = 22 nitrous oxide. 
 
 1+2 14 + 16 = 30 nitric oxide. 
 
 1+3 14 + 24 = 38 hyponitrous acid. 
 
 1 + 4 14 + 32 = 46 nitrous acid. 
 
 I 4- 5 14 + 40 == 04 nitric acid, 
 
 litis table also shows the nomenclature commonly applied 
 to the compounds; the termination ous indicating the mi- 
 nimum of oxygen, the termination ic the maximum; the 
 term oxide implying generally all those combinations of 
 oxygen which are not sour, such being called acids. More 
 frequently the relative proportions of oxygen in the oxides 
 20 
 
 AFTERMATH. 
 
 are designated by the first syllable of the Greek ordinal 
 numerals: thus we have protoxides, deu toxides. tritoxides, 
 <kc. ; and when the base is saturated with oxygen, the 
 compound is termed a peroxide. When the same sub- 
 stance forms three or four acids, (he term hypo is con- 
 veniently introduced with the termination ous or ic, as 
 shown in the following table of the acids of sulphur: — 
 Atom Equivalents of Equivalent* of Hie 
 
 eull'hur. oxygen. sul/Jiur. oxygen. 
 
 1 + 1 16 + 8 = 24 hyposulphurous. 
 
 1 + 2 16 + 16 = 32 sulphurous. 
 
 1+3 16 + 24 = 40sulph; 
 
 There is also an acid of sulphur intermediate between 
 sulphurous and sulphuric, composed of 1 atom of hy| 
 phurous acid, and 1 of sulphurous acid; (24 + 32 = 56) 
 orof 2 atomsof sulphurand3of oxygen : this is appropri- 
 ately called the hyposulphuric acid. The terms seaqui and 
 bi are sometimes used to designate intermediate and dou- 
 ble compounds of acids, or other bodies with bases : thus, 
 we have three compounds of carbonic acid with ammonia, 
 in which 1 proportional or atom of ammonia is respectively 
 combined with 1, l^,and 2 of carbonic acid, and these w'e 
 call the carbonate, sesquicarbonate, and bicarbonate ol am- 
 monia. For a table of the equivalent numbers of the sim- 
 ple substances, sne E<h/ivai.ents. 
 
 Change of form and change of properties are the com- 
 mon consequences of chemical affinity. We observe. 1. 
 Solids forming liquids (ice and salt). 2. Solids forming 
 gases (explosion of gunpowder). 3. A solid and a liquid 
 producing a solid (lime and water). 4. A solid and a liquid 
 producing a liquid (all common cases of solution ; as of 
 salt and sugar in water). 5. Liquids producing solids (so- 
 lution of carbonate of potassa mixed with muriate of lime). 
 
 6. Liquids producing gases (alcohol and nitric acid). 
 
 7. Gases producing solids (ammonia and muriatic acid). 
 
 8. Gases producing liquids (chlorine and olelant gas). 
 The density of bodies is also materially affected by che- 
 mical combination ; the density of a compound is very 
 rarely the mean of its components, hut generally increased: 
 thus, almost all gaseous compounds occupy loss hulk than 
 their elementary gases in a separate state ; there are, how- 
 ever, cases in which 1 volume of one gas, combined with 1 
 volume of another, produce exactly 2 volumes of a com- 
 pound gas, the density of which is, of course, the mean cf 
 that of its components ; and again, in the combinations of 
 some of the metals with each other, and witii sulphur, the 
 density of the compound is below the mean of its ele- 
 ments. When certain liquids are mixed, great and imme- 
 diate increase of density ensues, and much heat is evolved 
 (sulphuric acid and water). Change of form and of density 
 are often attended by remarkable changes in other quali- 
 ties : thus, tasteless bodies produce active compounds (oil 
 of vitriol is composed of oxygen, sulphur, and water), and 
 active substances produce inert compounds (sulphuric acid 
 and caustic potash produce the inert salt, sulphate of pot- 
 ash) ; so that it is utterly impossible, by any a priori rea- 
 soning', to determine what will be the consequence of che- 
 mical combination : useless elements produce useful com- 
 pounds, and useless compounds yield useful elements. 
 
 Another important and curious consequence of chemical 
 action is change of colour: the vegetable blues are gene- 
 rally reddened by acids, and rendered green by alcalis ; 
 the alcalis render many of the reds purple; and of the yel- 
 lows, brown : chlorine destroys most colours ; so does the 
 joint action of light, air, and moisture (bleaching, <fcc ) 
 
 AFFITIMAT1VE. In Logic, denotasihe quality of a pro- 
 position which asserts the agreement of the predicate with 
 the subject. 
 
 AFFIRMATIVE QUANTITY. In Algebra, denotes a 
 quantity to be added, in contradistinction to one to be taken 
 away. 
 
 AFFIRMATIVE SIGN, or POSITIVE SIGN. The sign 
 of addition, marked +, meaning plus, or more. Dr. Hut- 
 ton observes, that the early writers on algebra used the 
 word plus in Latin, or pin in Italian, for addition, and after- 
 wards the initial/) only as a contraction ; like as they used 
 minus or meno, or the initial m only, for subtraction ; and 
 thus their operations were denoted in Italy by Lucas de 
 Burgo, Tartalea, and Cardan, while the signs' + and — 
 were employed much about the same lime in Germany by 
 Stifelius, Scheubelius, and others, to denote the same ope- 
 rations. 
 
 A'FFIX. In Grammar, a syllable attached to the end of 
 a class of words, determining their meaning. Tims, a 
 class of adverbs in English are determined by the affix ly ; 
 strongly, weakly, &c. Prefix is a syllable so attached at 
 the beginning 
 
 AFRA'NCESADOS. In Modern History, a denomina- 
 tion given in Spain to the party wliicn attached itself to the 
 cause of the French, or of the intrusive King Joseph, du- 
 ring the war of independence, 1803—1814. 
 
 AFT. See Abaft. 
 
 A'FTERMATH. In Agriculture. Grass mown, after the 
 
AGA. 
 
 first crop of hay has been taken away, Instead of being 
 
 il'bv slock. 
 
 A't;\ A title of dignity among the Tories and Persians. 
 
 rious offlcei of Oie janissaries, 
 
 that corps subsisted; the eapi-aga, or chief eunuch 
 
 of the seraglio, <tc. It is also a common epithet of lespeet 
 
 j a riistingtiu h 
 
 AGA'LMATOLI'TE. (Or. dyaAua. i/wige, and \t6os, a 
 
 , The mineral which tlie Chinese carve Into lnv 
 
 AGA'MA. (Gr. ayapai, I wonder at.) The nam" of a 
 
 lizard i !il >n of 
 
 l sauna, or Agamii/tn ; which section is charac 
 
 oill |i. 
 
 eral genera, which are numerous In spe- 
 mted over the warmer parts of 
 
 nil Australia. They have ail the 
 ly, and of producing, but in 
 than in the chamaleon, changes of colour, v. 
 ; the name. 
 A'G vMOl'S. (Gr. <i, without, and ya/oc, nuptials.) A 
 term substituted by som>' writers for cryptogamic, bi 
 have in reality no organs analogous to 
 iver, usually limited to such groups 
 ! fungi, because they have in reality nothing 
 ir similar to the sexes of more p 
 
 - ; while, on the contrary, ferns ami mosses, although 
 
 is parts of an analogous nature. 
 ii useamong 
 
 munion, the oblatii i n the temple, 
 
 liich the rich had brought 
 imed at a common 
 pute whether in the apostolic times this 
 I take place before the communion, in more 
 tiding th" iii- 
 iii churches, 
 . the Council of Laodicea, A. I). 361, and 
 ■ D 
 A'GAPHrTE ' ojsk. 
 
 i in Somalia.) A 
 tnprenendiug many hundred species, among 
 v eampestris. the comm m, and 
 
 . which ace d< 
 
 in my of the 
 ••ni fungi called li tid na- 
 
 il species, which appi 
 
 : i inly grow iii decaying an- 
 
 . among which their stem, or 
 
 IS commonly called, ramifies. Alter the spawn 
 
 iroper age, it ce tsea to branch, a 
 
 parcels 'he fmetifi- 
 
 . which forces iis way into the light under the form 
 
 C. The cap is the part where the spores or 
 
 for reproducing the enerated; they are 
 
 formed within the plates or gills that lie on tl I 
 
 nd are little grey round bodies, which, when 
 
 ected in great quantities upon a sheet or white 
 
 i exceedingly One dust. 
 
 : by the underground stems of 
 
 agarics Which branch from a common centre, ami only 
 
 r fructification at the 
 
 AGARIC MINERAL. Avery soft mealy variety of car- 
 
 i lime 
 
 AG \'sri;i<s AGASTRIA, AGA8TRICA. (dr. d. vilh- 
 
 t< VTnn. a stomach ; stomachleis.) A term which has 
 
 tain animalcules, on the erroneous sup- 
 
 they were devoid of internal digestive cavities. 
 
 •.strics.) The term is still applied to a family 
 
 A'GATE. An aggregate of certain siliceous mi' 
 
 variety of colour and mixture, 
 and admitting of a good polish. Chalcedony generally sp- 
 ine ha.se of agate; camelian, jasper, am. 
 her similar minerals, often enter into their coin 
 tion. 
 
 A'OATHOD.r.'MON. (Or. oyaOos,good, and dai/itui/.) 
 A good spirit. {See H.kmon.) 
 
 AGA'VE. (Gr. dyaw>{, admirable.) A genus of plants 
 found in the temperate parts of America, resembling 
 
 -■ii appearance, but differ- 
 in.: m having an inferior" .-..per- 
 I is Agave americana, called 
 the American aloe, which ha mi the 
 
 '•' ■■ literranean, wh 
 opuntia, the palmet eatropfcalair 
 
 to Em err. It is ma; 
 
 i for its gigantic pyramid of flowers, and I 
 ed by '''*' effort, that It quickly afterwards p 
 sweet sap flows from its inward stem, and upon fermenta- 
 tion becomes an intoxicating beverage, yielding by dl 
 Uon a powerful ardent spirit. Hemp of considerable ' 
 21 
 
 is manufactured from its leaves. The genus agave 
 is the type of one of the subdivisions of amaryllidaceous 
 plants. 
 
 AGE. (Fr. age) Means, generally, a definite period or 
 length of time. 
 
 Age. As applied to man, ago may either mean the 
 whole of his life, or a portion of it. it is usual todi 
 whole period of human life into four parts oragi r • 
 first, or infancy, extending la the fourteenth 
 next, or youth, from the fourteenth to about the twenty- 
 fifth ; manhood, from the twenty-fifth to ts 
 
 I the last, or old age, filling up tl 
 Ovid ingeniously compares these four ages to the 
 ferent seasons of the year.— (Metamorph. xv. \ 
 These divisions are, however, in s great degree arbitrary ; 
 and very frequently they have been extended to six, the 
 first being divided Into infancy and childhood, an 
 into old age an. I age Sometimes, 
 
 life of man is supposed to be divide,! into i 
 leading characteristics of which have been most admirably 
 depicted by shakspeart • — 
 
 " tils a»U bsing seren aset. At flrtt, the iufant, 
 Mewling and 
 
 AixW- n h|> Michel, 
 
 And (hilling moel 
 
 : aiely to Khool : Anil llien the lover ; 
 like furnace, will) a woeful ballad 
 
 i rebrow : then a soldier, 
 led like the paid, 
 q nek- in quarrel, 
 
 ■mil then, the Justice, 
 - lie, wilh capon 
 
 ■I heard uf formal cut, 
 Pull of wise gawn nitd n. 
 And io he play, hit part : The lixth age ahifta 
 Into the «-.tii and llipper d pantaloon ; 
 v\ uii tpactat »ide ; 
 
 .<• well tav'd, a world too wide 
 
 
 
 Iblng." 
 For a scientific discussion of this subject, see Mortality. 
 
 which Individi 
 qualified to undertake certain duties and offices. By" the 
 common law of England, a man at fourteen is a: tl 
 i, in I may then appoint guardians, an 
 wiih ih'-ir consent: at twenty-one he is of full 
 
 any civil privilege in which 
 
 he may otherwise' be entitled, lliat is. ho i, 
 
 be appointed a judge, alien 
 dec. Hut no person can be admitted in England lo i 
 orders til! he be twenty-three 
 
 till he be twenty-four". At I a woman may 
 
 marry, provided she have the consent of her p 
 guardians ; and at twenty-one she \t her own misti 
 
 may dispose of herself and her estates. 
 
 Infants under seven years are hei.i by the law of England 
 to be Incapable of committing felon is above 
 
 ml under fourteen, commit felon 
 ma facte entitled to an acquittal; bill If I 
 court and the jury thai the accused wa 
 clearly understood the nature of Ihe crime he 
 
 ley may pn ed on the principle Ih 
 
 . in point of (act, 
 has been n me, to the extremes) penalty of the 
 
 I 111 this respect 
 
 as if they had arrived at full age. — {Btackstone, 
 
 cap. 8,) 
 
 At Rome, the coneuUjr a^r-. or the age at which 
 became capable of holding the consular dignity, wi 
 
 at forty-three, though in extraordinary cast s this I U 
 
 be set aside. In France, at ibis moment, a man is not al- 
 lowed to exercise the elective franchise till he be 
 live years of age | nor be elected a deputy till he be thirty. 
 In some of the America : to retire 
 
 when they have attained to a certain age, which 
 
 times so early as sixty. 
 
 Aoe. In Mythology, age means one or other of the foul" 
 ages as described by the ancient poets. The first 
 en age, aurea cttas, when there was an eternal B] - 
 when the earth spontaneously poured forth her I 
 and man 
 
 " vindire nullo, 
 
 Spoate sua tine lege f.dein reciutnqueoi 
 
 B Itum on earth. Thi 
 ntoa tBtas, was marked by 
 
 lion and cultivation of lands. The 
 third, or brazen age, aenea (Btas, is described as 
 
 lit, et nd horrid*, promptiur anna ; 
 Nee sceJeruta tamen." 
 
 And then came the last, or iron {<■!<■. ferrea cDtas, fu 
 
 sorts of hardships and Wickedness," which stiU continues. 
 
 (Ovidii Metamorph., i. tin. 89., &c.) 
 
AGENDA. 
 
 Acs. In Literature, age is a period distinguished by 
 great improvements and eminence in arts and sciences, 
 usually bearing the name of some powerful sovereign, or 
 other prominent person, who flourished during that period. 
 Of these ages, the most memorable are the age of Peri- 
 Augustan age, the ago of Leo X., of Louis 
 XIV., .. 
 Aob. In Chronology and History, age is sometimes used 
 13 mous witli a century, and sometimes also with a 
 on. Writers differ in respect to the period bidd- 
 er whal is called the middle ages; but they are 
 commonly understood to begin with the reign of Constan- 
 liiic, and to extend to the fifteenth or the early part of the 
 century. The a?ra of the invention of printing, 
 1450 — 1455, might, we think, be advantageously adopted as 
 the termination of the middle ages. 
 
 AGE'NDA. (Lat. things- to be clone.) Small books are 
 now published under this title, in which individuals may 
 set. down, under their proper heads, the things to be daily 
 attended to. 
 
 Agenda. In Divinity, articles of moral practice, in op- 
 position to crcderula, articles of faith. Also, the ritual of 
 a church, and the books containing it. 
 
 A'GENT. In Law, is a person authorised to «lo some 
 act or acts in the name of another, who is called his princi- 
 pal. An agent may, in genera!, be appointed by bare 
 words, or his appointment will be inferred from circum- 
 stances ; but, lor some purposes specified by the statute of 
 frauds, Ids appointment must be in writing. The agent of 
 a corporation must, in general, be appointed by deed. If 
 [aged to perform certain duties for a consi- 
 deration, the pcrlormance may be enforced in law. But 
 against an unremunerated agent, the principal can only re- 
 cover damages for misconduct in the performance, and 
 cannot compel him to proceed. With respect to the deal- 
 ings of third parties with an agent, some general rules of 
 that the extent of an agent's authority is, as be- 
 tween ins principal and third parties, to be measured by 
 the extent of his usual employment; that the representa- 
 tion of an agent about the subject-matter of a contract 
 1 itiating for his principal, will, if made du- 
 uegotiation, bind the latter; that pay - 
 an agent, in the course of his employment, is pay- 
 ment to the principal : that the principal is, under many 
 . responsible in civil actions for the negli- 
 gence or fraud of his agent, but not criminally liable for his 
 acts, unless done under an express command. 
 
 In Diplomacy, a general name, comprising se- 
 iks— as, 1. Ambassadors. 2. Envoys extraordi- 
 nary and ministers plenipotentiary. 3. Ministers resident. 
 5. Secretaries of legation, &c. In 
 U lire, however, the highest officer em- 
 power at the court of another, is usually 
 [1 nl of that power at the court in question. 
 {See Diplomacy.) 
 A'GGREGATE ANIMALS. This term is applied to 
 nals which are collected together in a common 
 g organised substance containing numerous com- 
 partments, from each of which a distinct occupant sends 
 forth a circle of organs to collect food, which, alter assimi- 
 lation, is carried by a common and continuous system of 
 1] -the support and enlargement of the common 
 Examples of animals so associated or aggregated 
 he class polypi, where they form most of the or- 
 ders; also in the class acalepha?, forming the polytoma ; 
 and in acephalous moltusca, forming the genera botryllus, 
 polyclinum. 
 AGI'I.IA. (Lat. agilis, susift.) A family of rodents in 
 ■■■. of llliger, including the squirrels and dormice. 
 A'GiO. A mercantile term, denoting the percentage 
 difference existing' between the values of the current and 
 Stand ar 1 moneys of any place. Also, the rate of premium 
 Which is given, when a person having a claim which can 
 inly be legallv demanded in one metal, chooses to be paid 
 r. Thus, in countries where silver is the only 
 lard, a large payment in silver is so inconvenient, 
 thai the receiver will ofteta pay a small premium for the 
 convenience of receiving gold : this premium constitutes 
 gokl. 
 A'GIOTAGE. A term employed to designate thesortof 
 res by which speculators in the public funds con- 
 riisseminating false rumours, or otherwise, to 
 lower or enhance their price. It is sometimes also, though 
 less commonly, applied to the machinations of those who 
 ir, by similar artifices, to raise or depress the 
 
 immodtties. 
 
 1TMENT. In Law. From the old French word, 
 
 ; a licence granted for cattle, viz. to 
 
 I, or, in legal phrase, levant, and couchant, on 
 
 A contract by which A.'s cattle are taken into 
 
 I, to remain there at a stipulated sum, paid peri- 
 
 Asistment is also used for the profits of such 
 
 The ''Tithe of Agistment," orof cattle and other 
 
 • f grass lands, demanded by the Irish clergy, was 
 
 22 
 
 AGREEMENT. 
 
 resisted in 1720, by the landlords, and in effect abolisneu 
 by a resolution of the Irish house of commons ( 1 . 
 the act of union, this resolution was passed into law; and 
 thus the tithes of Ireland have, in effect, been thrown on 
 the poorest part of the agricultural population, the owners 
 and cultivators of arable land. (See Ed. Rev., vol. xxxiv. : 
 Wakefield's Ireland, vol. ii.) 
 
 A'GNATE. (Lat. agnatus.) In Roman Law, agnatu 
 are those who descend through males from a common an- 
 cestor ; in opposition to cognutes, i. e. all the descendant! 
 of a common ancestor, whether through males or females. 
 Thus, in France, the hereditary crown passes by right of 
 agnation, females being excluded. 
 
 AGNO'MEN. Besides the pramomen,nomen,and cog 
 nomen, the Romans sometimes had a fourth nam 
 men), which was derived from some illustrious action or 
 remarkable event. Thus, two Scipios had the name Alri 
 canus given them on account of their victories over the 
 Carthaginians in Africa. The youngerof these celebrated 
 generals had a second agnomen, viz. iEmilianus, because 
 he was the son of L. Paulus JEmilius, and adopted into the 
 family of the Scipios. 
 
 A'GNON. A name applied by Fabricius to a genus ot 
 dragon-flies, having the wings erect when at rest, the eyes 
 distinct, and the outer divisions of the lip bifid. 
 
 AGNO'STUS. (Gr. ayviraros, unknown.) A name de 
 vised to express the obscure nature of a genus of trilobites 
 (fossil crustaceans), to which it is attached ; the genus is 
 characterised by the semicircular or reniform shape of the 
 body, which in all other trilobites is ovate or elliptical. 
 
 A'GNUS DEI. (Lat. Lamb of God.) 1. A pray er of the 
 Roman Catholic church, which begins with the words, 
 "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi." 2. An image of 
 wax, impressed with the figure of the Lamb, consecrated 
 by the pope, and distributed to the faithful. 
 
 AGO'MPHIANS, AGOMPHIA. (Gr. a, without, and 
 yojicpios, a tooth.) A term applied by Ehrenberg to those 
 rotifers of which the jaws are deprived of teeth. 
 
 A'GONY. (Gr. dyovia, contest.) In Divinity, the Buf- 
 fering of our Saviour In the garden on the night preceding 
 his crucifixion. Luke, nil 24. 
 
 A'GoRA. The market- lc of 1 (. '. towi 
 was generally used also as the place where die assemblies 
 of the people met. It answers to the Latin term forum. 
 From the verb aytipuv, to collect, or assemble. Fri 
 is derived 
 
 AGORA'NOMUS. The title of an Athenian magistrate, 
 forming one of a body of ten, or, as some say, fifteen, per- 
 sons, whose duty it was to superintend the markets, and 
 collect the customs imposed on certain articles. 
 
 AGOU'TI. The Indian name of some South American 
 herbivorous rodent quadrupeds, nowincluded in the genus 
 Dasvproeta. 
 
 AGKA'RIAN LAWS. (Lat. ager, field.) Under this 
 term are comprehended the enactments which \\ 
 ried or attempted to be carried at Rome by the p] 
 and their partisans, in opposition to the patricians, touching 
 the distribution made of the public lands accruing to the 
 state by conquest. These were leased out to the patricians 
 by the state at. a moderate or nominal rent, while the ple- 
 beians gained nothing by them. The object of the agrarian 
 laws, which did not interfere, with private freehold proper- 
 ty, was to obtain for the plebeians a share in these lands, to 
 restrict the quantity occupied by individuals, and to cause 
 a real rent to be paid from them for the support of the arm v. 
 The most celebrated movers of these laws were, Sp. Cas- 
 sius, Licinius, and the two Gracchi, whose reputation has 
 suffered with posterity, from being intrusted to the hands 
 of writers who favoured the party whose unjust encroach- 
 ments were sought to be moderated by these laws. For a 
 more impartial investigation of them than can be found In 
 ancient writers, (for Cicero, from his aristocratic partisan- 
 ship, has much misrepresented the objects of these re- 
 formers, and the character of the laws they sought to in- 
 troduce,) see Niebuhr's Roman History. In consequence 
 of the misrepresentations here alluded to, an "Agrarian 
 law" now generally serves to denote a law for tie 
 tion of individuals, by reducing landed properly in private 
 hands to a fixed amount. The law of partihilii . 
 estates, as it obtained in the Roman jurisprudence, and still 
 more in countries where it cannot be controlled by testa- 
 mentary disposition, has, in some measure, the 1 
 an Agrarian law, although free from its injustice. 
 
 AGREE'MENT. (Fr. agrement, agretabletiess.) In the 
 Fine Arts, a certain degree of resemblance between the 
 parts, in style and character, so that they may seem to be 
 long to each other. 
 
 Agreement. In Law, that which is consented to by two 
 or more parties. Agreements are divided into executed 
 and executory. Ity the statute of frauds, 29 Car. 2. c. 3, 
 no action can be brought to charge a defendant on any 
 agreement upon consideration of marriage, or on any 
 contract or sale of lands, &c, or any interest therein, ot 
 any agreement not to be performed within one year, unteM 
 
AGRICULTURE. 
 
 "•iit or some memorandum or note of it be in 
 
 i'itb, or 
 
 ;uto lawfully authorised. 
 
 !i of Ml 
 
 equity will in 
 
 mlract 
 
 which 
 
 awarded dam princi- 
 
 . 10 ClltS rule is, win : • ! such 
 
 ■ is breach can be or was intended to be com- 
 
 ■ 
 
 IRICULTURE. (I.at. ager, a JfaULsod com, //tfi.) I 
 oi cultivating I 
 ■ I to horticulture, which is 
 ig land in gardens, or in small quantities: 
 the art of cultivating land 
 nd horticulture that of cultivating it with 
 l1 meaning of the word ugricul- 
 of cultivating tit-Ids ; hut 
 whole 
 mcr, which comprehends in addition to 
 rement of live 
 term, the word agricultun |uenlly 
 
 ■ II oi territorial tin- 
 is made to comprehend embanking, 
 . draining, planting, and sometimes even hor- 
 
 ted by 
 abject 
 i the term auriculture in its gene- 
 and in other countries where the 
 . including thi 
 
 ic ani- 
 •!■■ ; and we .incise 
 
 I practice. 
 
 ive been co- 
 in the primeval state of 
 -ted of 
 i movement 
 from one point to ■ rage and m- 
 
 .. fixed 
 i 
 
 private property. At this 
 ii allure may be said 
 imenced. Previously, the natural produ 
 
 ly consumed whet lound; 
 
 ■, sought in Increase them by culture. 
 
 Uture. — The culture of (he land will be 
 
 found ry country, principally on 
 
 .nd its civilisation ; though partly, also, on its 
 
 In the warm, r climates, 
 
 nature produces fruits in I bundancefor 
 
 h of men and animals, and where v.-ry little 
 
 care is required to proco icutture 
 
 y unne- 
 iry lor i he prosperity of the inhabitants. In el 
 of a dire - 1 ly opposite c made 
 
 am ill" natural obstacles opposed 
 . tor example, as Greenland and 
 i. only oio' or two kinds of corn C 
 cultivated, and perennial ■ iy exist: be- 
 
 Hind is covered with snow lor eight months in 
 the year: and in these countries agriculture is hut little 
 praetl ief resources of the inhabl 
 
 are found In the sea and the forest In intermedia 
 ith of Britain, the m 
 the north of Italy, the s.,ii may i,.- laboured by 
 .out the whole year; and there i 
 limit to the kind of crops that maj nit. In .such 
 
 climates, agriculture is calculated to attain the bight 
 
 |r f perfection; nod comparing i lie diObreut parts of 
 
 cription of climate in both hemispheres, 
 peri, i ed, that tint best agriculture in the 
 
 world is to be found in Britain and in the north of Italy: 
 viz. in East Lothian and Norfolk, in the vale of Arno. and 
 oath i Po The kind of agriculture pn 
 
 In different countries is also of coarse adapted to the dif- 
 ference of climate. Thu e north, the great art 
 ofth i supplying heat; or, rather 
 
 loptfalg such m lard plants and 
 
 anirn told, rains, and tin- ..f tin' 
 
 .nth. on the other hand, the artof 
 
 hiefly directed to moderating ex- 
 
 trem It thus appears that 
 
 the agriculture of any country necessarily depends on its 
 
 In high and low latitudes, win-re there 
 
 ■ 
 
 witi.. tore difficult and hazardous 
 
 sin-- | rla, where the tin i o have 
 
 red as 
 ittained its highest degr I perfi 
 
 in tracing the progress of this tut in civilised countries 
 we have only to follow the chronology of general history. 
 
 Greeks and Romans Appear to have arrived at ■■• 
 e of perfection in legislate n as the moderns, 
 r to htive attained nearly equal excellence in 
 ;lu- practice of agriculture. Till within the present centu- 
 ry, very little difference existed between the most approved 
 lure <it' climates analogous to thai of Italy, and the 
 agriculture of the Romans as described by Cato, Columel- 
 la, and other ancient writers. The chief superiority of the 
 moderns consists in their machinery, and in their kuow- 
 of the art; the last being of very re- 
 sent date, and by no means general among practitioners. , 
 liy science, Improved breeds, both of plants and animals, 
 have been originated; and by Improved machinery, a more 
 perfect tillage litis been produced, mid a No a mure com- 
 separation of the produce from the soil, from the re- 
 fuse of the plants which bore it. and from all Impurities, 
 
 The history of agriculture in Britain begins with that of 
 
 the Soman conquest. Jnlit ind the inhabitants 
 
 in a state of semi- barbarism; but Agricola left theni in pus 
 
 ...fall the arts of civilisation then known. .Agiiiul 
 
 ture declined with the Invasion of the Baxoas; hut was 
 preserved through tint dark ages after the establishment of 
 Christianity, by the intelligence of the rellgloui establish 
 menu, who gradually I., i d of the greater 
 part of ihe landed property of the country. Agriculture 
 re\ Ived in the reign ot Benry VII I., and in that oi Elizabeth, 
 during the long period of peace which then prevailed, and 
 asequeni security of property; I it afterwards 
 
 'I during the 
 nd .Maty. Queen Anne, and George I., 
 ■ quence of the introduction of the Flemish husban- 
 dry, Which included the culture of turnips and clover. A 
 - at.-r stimulus to the art WSS given during the ri ign 
 
 rge 111. by the Introduction of plough? drawn by 
 two horses, ni-.li ad of four or six: of the drill system, and 
 its application to the culture of turnips and potatoes; and 
 by the improvement made in the breeding and rearing of 
 livestock by Bakewell and-Culley. Early in the pn 
 century, tin- threshing machine was an important nddiuoa 
 to agricultural machinery: the reaping machine. ihe 
 
 i ugh, tit" improve 
 menu j 
 
 pplication of ad oi 
 
 • r cattle, in tillage and other field operations. 
 
 The literature of agriculture commences with the winks 
 
 of the Romans, of which Columella's work, " I " llr rvs- 
 
 tica." may be considered me most comprehensive. In 
 
 the daw n of modern agriculture, the principal writi i- 
 
 Dtlui in Italy. Herrera in Spain, Olivier de Berres In 
 
 china in Germany, and Fltzbrrbert in 
 
 d. .\t the beginning of tin- p . the 
 
 islre author on Dgricultare in Italy, was 
 
 Fllippo lie; in France, Teesier; in Germany, Tl 
 and in England, Marshall. The last work from wl 
 
 may i.e obtained of the agriculture ni France 
 . i> •- Mai Km Kuttii 
 
 ..-." complete 
 thick volume, Bvo. ; and tl ding work in 
 
 Britain is Loudon's re ■ ' 
 
 principle* »J arc derived fri 
 
 ledge of the nature of plants ami of animals, of noil* and 
 manures; and of the Climate, the Iber. 
 
 Plants aie organised beings, which take up their fts d. by 
 means of roots, from the interior of tin- soil; animals are 
 
 id beings which -elect their food from veget lees 
 glowing on the surface of the toil, or from Other animals, 
 and this food is prepared before b< d Into the sys- 
 
 tem, bv means of a stomach. The climate ol a ci untry de- 
 
 termlaes both the plants and Ihe animals which can be pro- 
 duced In it and the ther, the time when 
 inU and anim i i Hcnlar 
 .ur or torpidity ; and when certain operations 
 of culture can be performed on them, or on the soiL 
 
 The nature of these elementary materials being under- 
 stood, even though imperfectly, certain improvemenU can 
 be effected in them bv art, which are greatly conducive to 
 the increase of agricultural produce. The kinds ol plants 
 and animals suitable to anv given climate, soil, or season, 
 termlned by the laws of nature ; bat trom among these 
 kinds it is in th" power of man lo make a s. -lection ; and 
 the plants and animals so selected, lo originate others 
 adapted to his purposes in a superior degree. Hence the 
 Importance of selecting certain breeds of animals rather 
 than others: and of making choice, not merely ol one kind 
 of bread corn rather than another, but of particular varieties 
 
 it corn. Thus, in the case of wheat, tbi 
 
 kinds the strains of which, under no circumstances, weigh 
 
 than from 60 to 66 pounds a bushel, while there are 
 
 .which never weigh less than 60 pounds a bushel. 
 
 The nourishment of plants has been lound to depend r luefly 
 
 tnised matters contained in the soil, and pro, 
 
 ay of other plants. This is a law of na- 
 ture, Which, followed up by man, has led to tin- Use Ol ma 
 mires ; as the fact, every where observed, that DO plant can 
 
AGRICULTURE 
 
 ve without water, lias led to irrigation ; and, as the obser- 
 vation that the excess of water is injurious, has led to sur- 
 face anil under-draining. The in/luence of temperature 
 and shelter over the growth of plants, and die thriving of 
 
 animals, is every when' Observable in wild nature ; and 
 though die temperature of a climate cannot be changed, 
 yet that of most localities may be improved by shelter 
 from cold winds, and by diminishing the evaporation from 
 the surface, by means of surface and under-draining, to 
 draw off the superfluous water. The most important prin- 
 ciples in the theory of agriculture are those which relate to 
 the improvement of plants and animals, and of the soil. 
 
 The improvement of the soil may be comprised under 
 two heads — the improvement of its earthy part, and the in- 
 crease of the organized matter added to the earths. The 
 improvement of the soil, considered as a mixture of differ- 
 ent earths, consists in rendering it more or less retentive 
 of water, by diminishing or increasing the size of the parti- 
 cles of which it is composed : for example, by the addition 
 of cay in some cases, and sand in others ; and by improv- 
 ing the earthy composition of the soil by the addition of 
 such earths as may be in too small quantities, or wanting 
 altogether, it has been found, from experience, that those 
 soils which are composed of several primitive earths are 
 naturally more productive than such as consist of only 
 >ne earth, all other circumstances being the same; and it 
 has also hern found that no soil will maintain its fertility 
 for any length of time that does not. contain a certain por- 
 lion of calcareous earth in its composition. Hence one of 
 common means of improving all soils not calca- 
 reous is. by the addition of lime; and of all other soils, by 
 mixing them with such as are of an opposite description. 
 
 All soils whatever are rendered more productive by the 
 addition of organised matter, or what are called manures. 
 Manures may either be composed of animal or of vegeta- 
 ble matter: and these may either he applied 81 
 or together, and in a fresh state, or in a state of decay. 
 It has been found from experience, and explained by che- 
 mical experiments, that every description of manure is 
 rendered more effective by being made to undergo putre- 
 factive fermentation before it is applied ; and this process 
 is carried on with solid manure in heaps or dung-lulls, and 
 with liquid manure in tanks or wells. In the application 
 of manure to soils, the great object of the cultivator is to 
 apply enough for t lie ensuing crop, and as little more as 
 possible; because all that is applied and not immediately 
 Used, is liable, to a certain extent, to have its particles car- 
 ried off by evaporation into the atmosphere, or by rains 
 into rivers or the sea. But, even if this were not the case, 
 to apply manure to a soil where it would not be immediate- 
 ly turned into a crop, would be an expenditure of capital 
 without interest 
 
 The operation of freeing a soil from superfluous water 
 .s of equal or perhaps more importance than supplying it 
 with manure ; because, though without manure plants will 
 not grow with great luxuriance and vigour, yet with too 
 much water they will not grow at all. or will become sickly. 
 
 Tl scess of water may proceed from three causes : an 
 
 extremely moist climate, the only alleviation to which isar- 
 ranging the surface with frequent furrows, and short slopes 
 between them, so as to carry off the rain as soon as it falls; 
 a soil very retentive of moisture, so as to hold it like a 
 sponge, in which frequent under-drains, as near together 
 as tlie surface furrows, are required, and, lastly, a soil 
 lying over a subsoil which abounds in springs, or,'in other 
 words, which has the substrata charged with water, which 
 is continually oozing out through the surface soil. The 
 remedy for this last evil is by undcr-drains of considera- 
 ble depth, so directed as to collect the water from the sub- 
 strata, and carry it off before allowing it to reach the sur- 
 face soil. 
 
 A soil, after being drained and rendered of a proper tex- 
 ture and composition by the admixture of such earthy in- 
 •gredients as may be wanting, requires, to render it fit for 
 being penetrated by the roots of plants, to be frequently 
 stirred and comminuted. This is done by the mechanical 
 operations of ploughing, harrowing, &C. ; which, aided by 
 the alternate action of droughts and rains, frosts and thaws, 
 and summer and winter, have the effect of pulverizing the 
 soil. To maintain a soil in a fertile slate, it is not only tie- 
 cessary to supply it with manure in proportion to the crops 
 Which have been carried from it, but to vary the crops 
 which it is made to produce, it has been found from ex- 
 perience, that crops of plants belonging to the same 
 natural family do not succeed so well after each other, 
 as when crops of a different family are made to inter- 
 vene. Tllds, the several grasses alternate better with 
 root or herbage crops than with one another; or, one 
 of those grasses of which the seed is ripened will alter- 
 nate bolter with another in which the herbage only con- 
 stitutes the crop, than with one of the same kind as itself. 
 Something analogous lo the succession of crops takes 
 
 place also with regard lo the pasturage of animals, 1 
 
 •t is found advantageous to put cattle in a field that has 
 34 
 
 been grazed by horses, rather than to put horses after 
 1 orses, and cattle after cattle. 
 
 Thus, the principles of agriculture may be comprised 
 Under the selection of breeds of plants and animals: the 
 improvement of the soil and subsoil ; the culture or move- 
 ment of the soil ; the. improvement of the local climate by 
 shelter and drying; and the succession of crops. All 
 these principles have been derived from experience: and 
 they are only in part accounted for by chemistry or natural 
 philosophy. They are not, however, on that account, the 
 less true and useful. It is singular that they shi ul I all 
 have been known to the Romans, and, to all appearance, as 
 fully so as they are to modern cultivators. (See Johnston a 
 Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, 13-12. ) 
 
 The practice of Agriculture in Britain may lie included 
 under the heads ol the choice, hiring, and slocking of a 
 farm; and its general culture and management. In tne 
 choice of a farm in any given country, the object of greatest 
 importance is the nature of the soil ; because, though this 
 may be improved by art and expense to such a degree as 
 almost to render a bad soil equal to a good one, yel in prac- 
 tice this would be so expensive as by no means to answer 
 the purpose of the farmer. It may be thought that the vi- 
 cinity of good roads, of a canal, a river, or a market-town, 
 are objects of more importance than the nature of the soil ; 
 but this is not the case, because, supposing the mails to be 
 bad, and the market at a distance, it is only nee 
 change the system of cultivation and management, and to 
 turn the produce of the farm into some description of live 
 stock which may be driven to any distance, even over a 
 country without roads. If it be alleged that the nature ol the 
 climate is of paramount importance to the soil in the choice 
 of a farm, we allow that in an extended sense it is ; for ex- 
 ample, if a cultivator had the choice of any part of Europe, 
 there are douhtless many districts where the climate is fax 
 more favourable for all the operationsand product 
 culture than others; and even if he had the choice of every 
 part of Britain, he might find some localities much more fa- 
 vourable than others. In general, however, the actual choice 
 of any cultivator lies within a given locality, where the cli- 
 mate, in a practical point of view, is every where 1 1 
 Next to soil and climate in the choice of a farm, the state 
 of the buildings and fences on it, the stale of the mails. 
 and the distance from a market-town, a canal, t 
 port, are of importance. Without buildings of a sufficient 
 extent, properly situated, and of the proper kinds, the bu- 
 siness of a farm cannot be carried on ; and though some 
 farms, and some kinds of farming, may be conducted 
 without fences, yet, in general, fence 
 roads. The last circumstance which we shall mention in 
 this cursory glance is, the nature of the tenure by which 
 the farm is to be held, and the covenants and conditions of 
 the lease. No cultivator, who calculates on the employ- 
 ment of a considerable capital, will risk it on the lands of 
 another without some security for having it return 
 this security is a lease for a fixed number of years. On 
 the other hand, no proprietor of lands will deli 
 possession of them to another for a fixed number of years, 
 without a valuable consideration; and tin. 
 himself in the lease, under the denomination of rent. As 
 lands in a state of cultivation, and buildings and fences in 
 a state of repair, are liable to bo injured and deti 
 in value by bad management or neglect, the proprietor 
 guards against these accidents by certain conditions in the 
 lease. 
 
 The kind of culture and management adopted in any 
 farm depends jointly on the soil and climate; and on the 
 kind of produce most in demand, or reckoned i 
 fitable. In the mountainous districts of Great Britain. 
 where the climate is cold, almost Ihe only kind of firm- 
 ing practised is that of breeding and rearing different kinds 
 of live stock; such as sheep or cattle, which are sold for 
 being fattened in more favourable districts: or h 
 order to supply the demand for these animals for the pur- 
 pose of draught, or the saddle. The mountainous districts 
 of Scotland and Wales are chiefly devoted to the breeding 
 and rearing of sheep and black cattle; which are sold to 
 the farmers of the low country in both kingdoms, in order 
 to be fattened for the shambles. The hilly districts of 
 Yorkshire and Lancashire are chiefly employed in the 
 breeding and rearing of horses. In the loj» country of the 
 east coast of Great Britain, the climate being dry, is favour- 
 able for the culture of com : while on tic- west coast, and 
 in Ireland generally, the climate being moist, is more fa- 
 vourable for pasture. The farm products most universally 
 in demand are, corn and butcher's meat: ami t, 
 be produced on every farm the fields of which admit of 
 being kept alternately in tillage and in grass, 'ihe butch- 
 er's meat may, however, be produced in much greater 
 abundance, on such sods as admit of the culture 
 and herbage crops, such as turnips, potatoes. ,-],e 
 while corn may be produce,] most abundantly in gtronf 
 loamy soils, within reach of extensive sources of manure. 
 The most pn Stable description of crop will frequently be 
 
AGRICULTURE. 
 
 to be different from lliat which is most generally in 
 
 rid : for example, In the neighbourhood of a large 
 
 ilture of culinary vegei iblea, on a li 
 
 • •.I farm gardens, is generally far more profit- 
 
 m or butcher's moat, riven the 
 
 . in such situations, is round to 
 
 profit than common farming. Th ere are also 
 
 which may be occasionally cultivated 
 
 i extraordinary profits; each as plants used in 
 
 manufacture not common; plants of 
 
 new and improved variety of the kinds in general 
 
 rm beiii'i fixed on, all preliminary matters settled, 
 
 II be to 
 
 : i of cultivation that he means to 
 
 i i ved, he will be guided by 
 
 capable of producing, ami what be can 
 
 One of the first points thai he will determine 
 
 his, will be the quantity of land that lie can have 1111- 
 
 riicular kind of crop that he intends to prow ; 
 
 e order in which these crop* are to succeed one 
 
 . . p. tint, lodeed, in the whole system of farm 
 
 . is .if more importance than the succession, 
 
 • is usually i ■ prin- 
 
 ■ iii which the i led haa been 
 
 ly hinted at; and in lure treating II practically, it 
 
 that all agricultural crops what- 
 
 i three kinds— exhausting crops, 
 
 i . : 1 iir crops; and ihat the perfec- 
 
 iving an exhausting 
 
 og or cleaning crop; or. what is 
 
 h combined. All crops which are allowed to 
 
 or which are carried whollv off the 
 
 red exhausting, though In different de> 
 
 cultj. 
 
 corn; but clover, lares, or even hay cut 
 
 rtl in a much less degree. 
 
 where the produce i-^ suffered to 
 
 ground, or is consumed on it : as In the case 
 
 Ing crops are 
 
 ■Town in drills, sufficiently wide to admit of 
 
 us of cleaning between. Some 
 
 fi tutting, as where 
 
 in drills; while others are cleaning and resto- 
 
 clover and lucerne, 
 
 the pi. mis an 
 
 it. Other principles which enter into 
 
 i in fixing on a rotation of crops are, that 
 
 allied should ii"t succei d 
 
 us the soil of one 
 ar kind of nutriment, or by depositing in it one in- 
 
 line kind of 
 
 thoul Intermission on the same soil soon 
 
 become sickly. Thus three or four crops of any kind of 
 
 i will not only unfit the soil for that 
 
 v or species of corn, but in a great measure for every 
 
 other. 
 
 firmer having determined on the crops which he is 
 to crow, and the order of their succession, his next busi- 
 Irulate the quantity of stocking which will be 
 required for his farm. My stocking is to be understood the 
 niitiiher of horse-, cattle, and other live slock, and the 
 kind and number of machine*, Implements, and tools, thai 
 will tie required. In addition to these, he must take into 
 calculation the number of male ami female servants which 
 it wiii ■. for him to keep, either permanently by 
 
 lonally by the week. Lastly, he 
 will have to take into consideration the sum of money 
 he will require to lav out for servants' wages, house. 
 it, and all other expenses, before he receives 
 from Ins farm prodi :i tool is the 
 
 anion for what is called stocking a farm ; and 
 
 it amounts, in different parts of the country, to from Si. to 
 107. per acre. Poor soil under pasture requires the smallest 
 sum pei' acre : and rich soil under tillage the largest sum. 
 farm being entered on, and mi culture 
 
 nture business daring the lease is one 
 uniform routine of preparing, sowing, reaping, threshing, 
 and marketing ; including, where the breeding or fattening 
 of live slock enters iuio the system, their purchase, fatten- 
 ning, breeding, and sale. 
 icnliure of Britain, and especially of the low 
 Scotland, excels that of most other countries 
 having similar climates, from the superior skill, intelli- 
 . and capital of the farmer; the considerable length 
 ot |e granted by the landlord ; the superiority 
 
 otthi rid implements employed; and the im- 
 
 i eeds of animals and plants which are reared or 
 Perhaps the nearest approach to perfection in 
 the ciil.ure of arable land in any part of Britain, Is made in 
 mrts of East Lothian; where, in consequence of 
 iff, substituting under-drains for furrows, re- 
 gularly supplying manure, and alternating, cleaningand re- 
 storing crops with exhausting crops, as great an amount of 
 25 
 
 AIR. 
 
 produce is obtained as can stand on the surface at one 
 time. The agriculture of Britain is most defective in th6 
 southern districts of the island; in consequence of the 
 farmers being the very opposite of those in the northern 
 districts, the want or the shortness of leases, and the re- 
 strictive clauses in those leases, by which the tenant is 
 prevented from exercising his own Judgment, and is 
 Obliged to follow in the routine prescribed in the leasesof a 
 former age. (See London's Lncyclo. of Agriculture; Ste 
 Book of the Farm; Low's Practical Agriculture; 
 Library of Useful Knowledge, Farmer's Bei 
 
 A'GRIMONY. A wild plant with sawed pinnated leaves, 
 ig spike of yellow flowers, followed by bur-tike 
 fruit. It has hail the reputation of keepfn 
 from those ladies who persevere in tin' use of it in decoc- 
 tion. At least, it has the merit of being harmless, and from 
 its slightly tonic qualities it would probably form a good 
 kind of diet drink. 
 
 AORlO'NIIMv (Or. aypm, a field.) The name of a 
 family of near eels, Including the various 
 
 kinds of dragon-flies {Libe&ula, Linn. ; tee thai word). The 
 blue dragon-fly (Agrionpuelta) frequents ihe rushy 
 ditches, and is one of the commonest of the Briti - i 
 of this family. 
 
 AGRO'NOMY. (Or. aypo;, a field, and voftof, a rule.) 
 Theart of cultivating the ground : - id, parti 
 
 Ihe French, as svmiiivmoiis with agl iculture. 
 
 AOKOSTn'l.ooV. (Or ' dypwartf. a grass, and \oyo{. 
 a epttchor uniting.) That part of botany which compre- 
 the L'rasses. 
 
 AGR1 l'M\. (Gr. dypvtrvos, sleepless.) Watchfulness 
 
 \ ■ Mi:. An intermittent fever, which comes on at cer- 
 tain intervals, leaving thi the Intermedl 
 ods in apparent health. The febrili often re- 
 markably regular, whence the division of agues into quoti- 
 dians, Which are dally attacks ; tertians, w Inch appi 
 third day, having an intermission of forty-eight hours; and 
 quartans, the intermission of whten la sbottl 
 two hours The pen.nl during which the lever continues 
 is called Ihe paroxysm or pyrexia! period ; and the inter- 
 mission, the apyrexial period. The febrile 
 sis's of three stages, which follow each other in regular 
 u : namely, Ihe cold, the hot. and the sweating 
 nut;; the latter, the febrile symptoms abate and 
 disapn 
 
 AGUE CAKE. An enlargement of the fiver oroffhi 
 
 spleen produced by Ihe 
 
 AOY'RATE. (Gr. ii. without, and yvpof, a circle.) A 
 n to osmundaceous plants by Bwartz, in conse 
 quence of their bavins no true elistir annulus. 
 
 A'HRIMAN, or ARIMANIUS v.) One 
 
 of the ch;- Their philoso- 
 
 &!v held by the 
 I •■ were two prlncipl 
 
 and one of evil. To the latter they gave llm name of 
 
 Ahriman, and ascribed to his agency afi the evila existing 
 
 in the world. The two principles were not. however, sup- 
 be co-eternal or alike powerful, at ieasJ BUCO was 
 not the orthodox belief; hot it was suppose! that in the 
 end, the principle of good, Oromasdce, would finally prevail 
 over and utterly destroy the principle of evil. (Boyle, arte. 
 Ahiman, Manichb'kns, and Zoroastkr.) 
 
 AI. A word which is a pretty close imitation of the 
 plaintive cry of Ihe (hrce-toed sloth {Acbeus tridactylut, !•'. 
 t'uv.), of which it is the trivial name. (See Bradvpod*.) 
 
 All). A pecuniary tribute paid by feudal vassals to their 
 lords In certain cases of emergency. (See Feudal Srs- 
 
 TKM.) 
 
 AIDE DE-CAMP. An officer appointed to attend a ge- 
 neral officer in the field, in winter-quarters, ami in garri- 
 son, to receive and carry orders. A field -marshal is enti- 
 tled to four, a liii ral to two, and a major-gene- 
 The kim: appoints as many as lie pleases, anil 
 this situ he rank of coionel. 
 
 AIGRETTE, in Botany. See Pappus. 
 
 AIR, Atmogpherlc. (Or. drip, air.) The air which sur- 
 rounds our "lobe to a height of about forty miles, and which 
 '1 to all living beings, was one of tie' elements of 
 the ancient phllo • veral of its me- 
 
 chanical properties were discovered by Galileo and Torn- 
 celli about the middle of the seventeenth century ; but its 
 composition was not accurately determined till more than 
 a century afterwards. 
 
 The air is transparent, colourless, Inodorous, and taste- 
 ntial to the respiration of animals nnd vegetables, 
 and to the support of combustion. It is 816 time 
 than its bulk of water; lOOQ cubic inches, at mean tem- 
 perature, and pressure, weighing about 305 grains. 
 
 The air is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen gases, with a 
 small portion of carbonic acid ,ias and of the vapour of wa- 
 ter : in particular situations, other substances exist in it ; 
 as, over marshes, miasmata; over sulphureous springs, 
 sulphuretted hydrogen; over and near tre sea, In. dry 
 
AIR. 
 
 weather, muriatic acid, either free or combined ; and a sub- 
 stance, probably of organic origin, which, aided by light, 
 reddens solution of silver; peculiar organic combinations, 
 sometimes infectious, where people, especially the sick, 
 are confined ; sulphurous acid and ammonia, in London 
 and other places where large quantities of coal are burned ; 
 and traces of nitric acid during severe thunder-storms. 
 
 The leading constituents of the air are nitrogen and oxy- 
 gen, which are to each other in the relative bulks of about 79 
 and 21, or SO and 20 ; atid these proportions are probably 
 not liable to any appreciable change, either dependent on 
 season, wind, weather, situation, or height from the sur- 
 face. Berthollet found 21 per cent, of oxygen in Cairo and 
 in Paris: Baussure, the same in Geneva; De Martyr, in 
 Catalonia, and in all winds, weather, seasons, and states of 
 the barometer ; in wet and dry, and in inhabited and unin- 
 habited places ; Davy, in Bristol and other places in Eng- 
 land and upon the coast ; also in air brought from the 
 coast of Guinea ; Brande, in air from Behring's Straits and 
 from Otaheite : Berger, in the Jura, and in the mountains 
 and valleys of Savoy : Configliachi, on the Simplon and 
 Mont Cenis (208 of oxygen over rice-fields); Gay-Lussac 
 and Humboldt, in Paris, and in all seasons and weathers, 
 and at 6,636 metres above the surface, from 209 to 21-$. ; 
 Dalton, in England, from 207 to 208. : Selden, 21. : on the 
 8th of January, 1835, the barometer being 309 inches and a 
 north-east wind, 21 15. In crowded and confined places, the 
 relative proportion of oxygen may be a little below the pro- 
 per standard, but is soon again restored. Air collected at 
 •he back of the upper gallery in Covent Garden Theatre, 
 on a full night, gave 20 oxygen, and rendered lime-water 
 more than usually turbid. 
 
 The relative proportion of carbonic acid is more varia- 
 ble ; yet this gas is found in air from the most elevated re- 
 gions and purest sources. Saussure and Beauvais found it 
 on the top of Mont Blanc, and in the same proportion in 
 the streets of Paris, and at 650 toises above the city. At 
 sea, carbonic acid has sometimes not been discoverable. 
 Saussure found it vary with the seasons, and no doubt ve- 
 getation may affect it. In August, over a meadow, the air 
 contained 0000.713, in January, 0000,425. Dalton esti- 
 portion ol carbonic acid a' 1 in 1000; 
 t aflgliachi, t 1 --; :iia.ximum at 8, and Humboldt at from 5 
 to 18 : Lhift is probably in excess. 
 
 Tbr, aqueous vapour is the most variable constituent of 
 the atmosphere. It is more abundant with a south and 
 west wind in summer and in warm weather, than with a 
 north and east wind in winter and cold weather. In the 
 climate of Britain it usually fluctuates between 1 and 15 
 per cent. 
 
 Dr. Prout, in his Bridgewater Treatise (p. 350), has sug- 
 gested the possibility of the occasional existence of ex- 
 tremely minute portions of foreign and poisonous matters 
 in the air during the prevalence of epidemic disorders; 
 and, in reference to this subject, a remarkable observation 
 occurred during the prevalence of the cholera. For more 
 than six weeks previous to the appearance of cholera in 
 London, he had been almost every day engaged in accu 
 rately determining the weight of a given quantity of air un- 
 der precisely the same circumstances of temperature and 
 pressure. On the 9th of February, 1832, the weight of the 
 air suddenly rose above the usual standard, and it con- 
 tinued so for six weeks. Onthe9lh of February, the wind, 
 which had been west, veered round to the east, and the 
 first cases of epidemic cholera made their appearance. 
 
 Without reference to the occasional presence of foreign 
 matters, the average ordinary constitution of the atmos- 
 phere may be stated as follows : — 
 
 By measure. By weight. 
 Nitrogen .... 7750 75-55 
 
 Oxygen - ■ - - 2100 23 32 
 
 Aqueous vapour • • 1-42 1-03 
 
 Carbonic acid • - • 03 010 
 
 100 00 100 00 
 
 Air In Music, signifies the melody, or treble part of a 
 musical composition. 
 
 The word is also used for a tune, or song itself, that is, 
 for a series of sounds whose movement is regular and 
 graceful. 
 
 Air. In Painting, the medium in nature through which 
 svery object is viewed, and hence to be transferred to the 
 Imitation on canvass. The effects which it produces are 
 an indispensable part of the knowledge of every artist. It 
 affects the sizes and colour of objects according to their 
 distance. 
 
 AIR- ULADDER, called also Air bag, sound, swim, &c. 
 An organ situated in the abdomen of "most osseous fishes, 
 which, by altering its dimensions, and the quantity or den- 
 sity of its contents, regulates their relative position to the 
 surface oft.be water, and is supposed to represent the ru- 
 diments! condition of the liinns of the higher vertebrates. 
 
 A1K-CELLS. Are cavities in the stems and leaves of 
 26 
 
 AIR-PUMP. 
 
 plants, constructed of cellular tissue, and intended Ic 
 render the part in which they reside buoyant in water. 
 
 Air-Cells. In birds, are membranous receptacles 
 communicating with the lungs, eight of which, of large size, 
 occupy the interspaces of the thoracic ami abdominal vis- 
 cera; the smaller ones extend around the principal joints 
 of the four extremities, penetrate the substance of the 
 bones, insinuate themselves between the skin and subja- 
 cent muscles, and enter the quills of the feathers, so that 
 the whole body of the bird is permeated by the atmosphere ; 
 whereby its specific gravity is diminished, its respiration 
 extended, its circulation accelerated, and its muscular en- 
 ergies increased, and thus it is finally adapted to wing Us 
 way through aerial space. In the Hying insects the air-ves- 
 sels are more or less dilated into air-cells at different parts 
 of their course, in order to diminish the specific gravity of 
 the general mass of the body. 
 
 AIR-GUN. An instrument for projecting bullets or other 
 missiles, the movimi power being the elastic force of con- 
 densed air. A strons; vessel of metal is constructed, into 
 which air is forced by means of a condensing syri 
 through a small hole with a valve opening inwards, and the 
 greater the quantity of air thrown into l lie vessel, tho 
 greater will be the effect, the elastic force of air being near- 
 ly in proportion to its condensation. The magazine of con- 
 densed air is then detached from the syringe, and screwed 
 to the breech of the barrel ; and a trigger, adapted to tho 
 stock of the gun in the usual way, is constructed so as to 
 be capable of opening the valve. The bullet is placed neal 
 the breech, and should fit the barrel very exactly, so as to 
 leave no windage. On pulling the trigger the condensed 
 air escapes through the valve, and rustics with violence 
 into the barrel, propelling the bullet before it ; and the in- 
 stant the finger is withdrawn from the trigger the valve is 
 closed by the pressure of the air in the magazine, which 
 remains in a somewhat less condensed slate for the next 
 discharge. Thus the same supply of air in the magazine 
 will serve for several successive discharges, but the force 
 becomes weaker and weaker after each. 
 
 The air vessel may be of any form, but it is most convc 
 niently disposed of by placing it within the stock ; and this 
 circumstance usually determines its shape and dime] 
 Sometimes, also, a reservoir of bullets is placed in a chan- 
 nel under the barrel; and by a simple mechanism these 
 are successively transferred into the barrel, whereby the 
 gun is quickly loaded after each discharge. The instru- 
 ment thus constructed is called the magazine air-gun. 
 
 The elastic force of inflamed gunpowder is from 1000 to 
 2000 times greater than that of common air. H would 
 seem, therefore, that air would require to be condensed 
 upwards of 1000 limes beyond its natural slate, in order to 
 exert the same propulsive force as gunpowder, Now the 
 velocities communicated are as tiie square roots of (he 
 forces; therefore, If the air in the magazine be condensed 
 only ten times, it consequently exerts a force only equal to 
 1- 100th of that of inflamed gunpowder, ami communicates 
 a velocity of l-10th. There is a circumstance, howi ver, 
 which adds considerably to the effect of the air-gun, name- 
 ly, that as the magazine is large in proportion to Ihe cavity 
 of the barrel, and the valve remains open a sensible por- 
 tion of time, the ball is urged all Ihe way through the barrel 
 with nearly the same force as at the first instant ; whereas 
 in the case of gunpowder, the gas produced by t tie inflam- 
 mation occupies a small space in proportion to Ihe capaci- 
 ty of the barrel, and the force ceases to act before the hall 
 has quitted the barrel. On this account it happens that air 
 condensed only ten times in a magazine ot considerable 
 size, projects a ball with a velocity not greatly inferior to 
 that given by gunpowder. The time and labour necessary 
 foreffecting the condensation of the air prevents the instru- 
 ment from beins: employed as an engine of war; but, as it 
 produces its effect with less noise man the ordinary 6un, 
 it has sometimes been made subservient to the purpose of 
 the assassin. 
 
 AIR-PLANTS. A name given to planrs of any kina 
 which grow without their roots penetrating ihe earlh. 
 They have been so called, from its being supposed that 
 they derive their nourishment exclusively from the atmo- 
 sphere ; but as they are usually found in places where they 
 are in contact with at least minute quantities of vegetable 
 matter, or even with the juices of the plants upon which 
 they grow, it is probable that their existence is in part main- 
 tained much in the same way as that of other plauls. The 
 most extensive natural order in which air-plants are found 
 is orchidacea?, thousands of species of which literally 
 crowd the forests of some of the damp and hot parts of the 
 world. Next to these range bromeliaceous plants, some 
 of which will live for months suspended freely in th 
 or tied to iron or stone balconies. Various species of ficus, 
 and some Gesneracere, have similar habits. The only real 
 air-plant that grows wild in Great Britain is cuscuta. 
 
 AIR-PUMP. A pneumatic machine for lemovin 
 air out of a vessel. The principle of this important phi- 
 losophical instrument is very simple, and may be easily 
 
.AIR-PUMP. 
 
 The essential 
 
 jomprehonded from a brief explanation. 
 
 part of the machine consists of an 
 
 exhausting syringe ("), formed of a 
 
 en at one 
 
 ion of a small ori- 
 
 h a valve (6), opening in-<JS 
 
 An air-tight pi<- 
 
 Ion Is worked op and down In the 
 
 and pinion turned by 
 
 n ori- 
 
 opens upwards, or in the same 
 
 syringe comnranl- 
 
 i pipe (</) fitted Into the opening 
 
 •v, with a vessel (e) called (he receiver, 
 
 e extracted. 
 
 ed on a brass plate (f, g-,) over a 
 
 to which the other end of the pipe is inserted ; 
 
 the contact may be air-tight, the ei 
 
 previously rubbed with lard or some unctuous 
 
 n at the bottom of the tube. As it be- 
 awn ii|>, the valve c of the piston is immediate- 
 die exterior atmosphere, so that 
 i:ter the barrel, and a perfect vacuum would 
 t it, were it not that the valve at the bottom of 
 I open by the pressure of the air in the 
 iich rushes into the barrel till its density be- 
 th in the receiver and barrel. When 
 •i drawn to the top of the barrel, (be 
 air which occupied the barrel has been le- 
 nd barrel are now both filled with 
 previously contained in the receiver 
 
 tclty of the receiver to be six times that 
 of th'i dr which at first occupied 
 
 ■quenlly reduced to 6-7lhs 
 i I the piston now be returned to 
 
 its fli | ■ begins to descend, the 
 
 it no air c.-m enter the receiver. As 
 
 soon I through one-seventh of 
 
 lie density of 
 : and as it descends furth( 
 air in I f the barrel is condensed, till it acquires 
 
 ent to open the valve e in the piston, 
 
 and continues to do so till the | 
 ■ i to th«* bottom of the barrel. I 
 piston the density of the air in ti. 
 rinr i duced to 6-7ths of its previous den- 
 
 sitv ; an I it i- evident that each succeeding stroke will 
 
 . or remove i-7th pert of the re- 
 
 tly, alter the second stroke, the 
 .ill be reduced to (Wilis of 
 ■ the exterior air; after Die third 
 
 to 6-7ths of 96-49ths=216-343ds, and so 
 on. Alter twenty one strokes, it will be reduced to about 
 ensity; alter one hundred strokes, to 
 , a degree Of rarefaction 
 ued ; for as soon as the elasticity 
 elver is reduced bo far that it fa ■ 
 it the valves. DO more air can escape 
 Into the tube, anil the exhaustion cannot 
 ther. 
 What has now been said applies to all air-pumps', though 
 nn of construction admits of great variety. The bet- 
 exhausting barrels, and the pistons are 
 worked bv a rack and pinion, bo that when the one 
 
 _• in the barrel, the other is descending, by 
 which mean-; an uninterrupted discharge of the air is kept 
 up. The receiver is placed on a smooth plate of brass, 
 having a small hole in the mid. lie to receive the end of a 
 communicating with a syringe. Various; contrivan- 
 ces have been employed to continue the exhaustion alter 
 r has been rarefied to that degri e that it does not re- 
 tain sufficient elasticity to lift the valves. In order to deter- 
 mini lo which the rarefaction is carried, aba- 
 
 lapted to the machine, the upper end of 
 ies wilh the receiver, while the lower 
 end is plunged inlo an open basin of quicksilver. As the 
 ■ air is withdrawn Horn the tube 
 ut t!i ■ml the external air presses up the mer- 
 
 cury in the tube to a height proportional to the degree of 
 lion. 
 Tins is called a gauge; but the following form is more 
 mploj ed. " A tube six or ejght inches in length, 
 • end and filled with mercury, is inserted in a 
 liquid. The mercury is of course sup- 
 I by the pressure of the atmosphere, and continues 
 ibe. This apparatus is placed beneath a second 
 pe d. Daring the first 
 l, the mercury still remains sup- 
 ion of the contained air bio- 
 com.. sufficient to support the column of mer- 
 
 fall, and the height at which it 
 itaints above i he level of that iii the basin is the measure 
 
 ALANTINE. 
 
 of the tension of the remaining air. This is called the 
 short Barometer Gauge. 
 
 Otto Guericke, a magistrate of Magdoburgh, was the first 
 who conceived the idea of rarefying the air in a vessel by 
 means of a pump, about the year 1654. The machine 
 which he constructed was of a very rude kind, but it ena- 
 bled him to exhibit experiments which at that time were 
 regarded as astonishing. The air-pump was afterwards 
 greatly improved by Hooke and Boyle; and has attained 
 its present state of perfection through the successive inven- 
 tions of Hauksbee, Smeaton, Culhbertson, and others. 
 
 AIR-VESSELS. Are minute tubes composed of an ex- 
 ceedingly fine transparent membrane, closed at each end. 
 and furnished internally with a delicate elastic i 
 twisted spirally, whence they are now commonly called 
 spiral vessels. They occur in the medullary sheath, the 
 veins of leaves and of tlowers, in the stamen's, the ovary, 
 and the seed : their office is to convey oxygenated air. 
 
 Air-vessels. In insects, the atmospheric air is con- 
 veyed through all parts of the body, for (he pnrpoSi 
 respiration, chiefly by means of air-vessels, or trachea. 
 word.) 
 
 AISLE, or ALA. (Lat. ala, a wing.) Tn Architecture, 
 a term used by the English, more especially, to signify the 
 side subdivisions in a church, usually separated from the 
 nave, or centre division, by pillars or columns ; but among 
 different nations it bears different significations as applied 
 to architecture. Strabo informs us, that among the Bgyp- 
 i of the t. mple were the two walls that hv 
 closed the two sidesof the pronaos, and which were of the 
 same height as the temple itself. The walls, bo observes, 
 from above ground, were a little farther apart than the 
 foundations of the temple, but, as they rose, were built With 
 an inclination towards each other. The right understand- 
 ing, however, of this passage is attended wilh difficulty, 
 ems to have puzzled Pocock no less than ourselves. 
 The Greek al re the colonnades which 
 
 surrounded the coll of the temple, the monopleros temple 
 i hi' only species which had columns without an in- 
 terior (lo them) wall. The peripteral had one tier of co- 
 lumns round dipteral two. and the psendoor 
 ■ invented, was that in 
 which the ala was single, but occupied the sax 
 
 dipteral, though one of (he tiers 
 
 of columns was left out; thus, by metaphor, the columns 
 
 were called the ale, or wings, of the temple. This term is 
 
 also applied lo the sides of a building which are gubordin- 
 
 me principal, and central division, and are vulgarly 
 
 rings. 
 
 AITS. Islets, or little islands, commonly planted wilh 
 osiers, and which are then called willow aits. 
 
 AKK'NII M. See AcUDfrox. 
 
 A LA MIRE. In Music, the name of one of the notes ii: 
 the modern scale of Gaido. (.vee Mrsic.) 
 
 A'LA. (Lat. ala, airing.) In Ornithology, the pectoral 
 
 extremity, the bones ol which support broad folds of skin, 
 
 ed with feathers, and are modified for flight. The 
 
 under part of the base of the wing, where it joins the body, 
 
 tned the axilla ; the joint between the antibracl.ium 
 
 i pus is termed th* flexure or plica. The wing is 
 
 said to be armed (slacalcamta) when the carpus bears one 
 
 or two hornv spurs; to be impennale(alaimpennata) when 
 
 provided with equal, lax plumes, unfit for flight; to be 
 
 elongate (ala elongata) when, in (he folded stale, it equals or 
 
 exceeds in length the body from the base of the bill to the 
 
 root of the tail ; to be middle-sized (ala mrdiocris) when, 
 
 In the folded state, the extremity covers the base of the 
 
 tail ; lo be short (ala brevis) when, in the folded state, the 
 
 extremity reaches the sides of the coccyx. 
 
 In Entomology, the wings, or organs of aerial progres- 
 sion, are tegumentsry productions simply, and consist of a • 
 double membrane of a tender and generally transparent 
 consistence, inclosing numerous nervures, or branched 
 lubes of a firmer substance. 
 
 These organs present considerable differences of form 
 and structure in the different orders of insects, and also 
 varv in number from two to four. 
 
 A'LABASTER. A white semitransparent variety of 
 gypsum or sulphate of lime. It is a mineral ol common 
 occurrence, and is manufactured into ornamental 
 and occasionally into small statues. The ancients used it 
 for ointment and perfume boxes. Perhaps the term Is de- 
 rived from ti, privative, and \a6ov, a handle, as opposed to 
 ;. with handles. This stone Is not slippery, and 
 ore the derivation la incorrectly referred lo u and 
 \au6avw, as if il were difficult to grasp. 
 
 ALANGIA'CEJE. (Alangi, the Malabar name of ont 
 cpecies.) A natural order of plants closely akin to myr- 
 tace». It consists of Indian species, with aromatic root* 
 and eatable fruit. Their long strap-shaped petals afford 
 one of Hie principal distinctions between them and my r- 
 tacea:. , , - _ 
 
 \l. VNTINE. An amylaceous substance extracted from 
 the root of the Angelica archangelica. 
 
ALARMISTS. 
 
 AI.A'KMISTS. In a general point of view, means nil 
 
 individuals who an particularly prone to take alarm 
 
 at, and to circulate and exaggerate, any sort of bad news; 
 
 but the designation it) more peculiarly applied to those who 
 
 u in a i political Innovations or changes. 
 
 ALATE, (Lat. a !a. airing. ) When ;uiv solid I 
 
 by a membranous or leafy expansion. 
 ILAU'UA, (Lat. alauda, a lark.) The name of a Lin 
 ei ine iiiui.'. characterised hy the claw of 
 their hinder me, which Is straight, strong, and longer than 
 the others. The birds of this genus are granivorous, and 
 nidificate on the ground. The field lark, Alauda arvensls, 
 l. , is a well known example : they appertain to theconi- 
 rostral division of the passerine order ol Cuvier. 
 
 Al.it. (Lat. nlbus, n/ii/r.) A vestment worn by priests 
 jn the Roman Catholic church, which differs from the sur- 
 plice in fitting more (lose to the body, and being lied with 
 a girdle ; ti is also commonly embroidered on the I 
 willi crosses. 
 
 ALBA'RIUM oris. (Lat) In ancient Roman archi- 
 tecture, a term Imagined by some to have been nothing 
 
 more than a species of whitewash applied to walls, lull not, 
 
 as wo ihiuk. correctly, in ihe passage oi the tenth chapter 
 of the fifth book of Vltruvius, where he recommends the 
 use of the albaiium opus, for the ceilings ol baths, he al 
 lows tentorium opus as a substitute, so thai ii was clearly a 
 i of stucco. Its employment at the baths of Agrippa. 
 knowing, as we do, the extent to which luxury was earned 
 in the iiaihs of the ancients, seems to prove thai it was a 
 of stucco, and n is by no means improbable 
 
 thai it was MISCeptible of taking a polish. 
 
 A'l.ltATitoss (See Diombdxa.) 
 
 A/LB1GEN8ES. A seel which arose in the south of 
 
 France In the latter half of the twelfth century. They have 
 been confounded with the Waldenses, with whom, how- 
 
 e\n r, they do not appear to have had any real connection. 
 
 Their tenets have heeii very differently described, and pro- 
 bably misrepresented, hy their opponents; and treat oh. 
 
 ) is thrown upon the subject, by the fact of the ap- 
 pearance of various dissenters from Ihe church of Koine in 
 England and elsewhere, ahoiit llie same lime, whose re- 
 spective views have not heen very accurately discrimi- 
 nated, it is probable that the reformers of the south of 
 
 France opposed themselves originally lo Ihe corruptions in 
 
 discipline, winch began tirst at thai period to draw general 
 
 attention and animadversion upon Ihe clerical order. 
 Hence a very easy step would lead ihem lo Ihiuk slighting- 
 ly Of many ecclesiastical Ordinances, ami Ihe ceremonial 
 
 oi religion would seduce them Into the adop- 
 tion ol' mystical notions about an internal linht and assii- 
 
 . and finally betray them into the wildest extravagan- 
 cies, Thus they are charged with perpetuating theManl- 
 ehean doctrines: bul Bossuet, who accuses them of in- 
 cline- tern on certain points, acquits them of 
 holding what Is, after all. the distinguishing tenet ol the 
 Oriental heresy the monstrous doctrine of the two prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 The origin "I the name is doubtful. The Latin name hy 
 
 which Narbonnese Gaul was known in ihe twelfth century, 
 
 mm, which seems to pul forth a better claim to 
 
 ihe derivation than ihe town ol aiim in Languedoc. In the 
 1163, Alexander ill. published a decree again si these 
 
 m.i i is in a council held at Toms, and a net tier in 1179. 
 On neither occasion, however, did he invoke the ass 
 of I hi' secular arm. At the close of the century, when Ihe 
 seel was still flourishing, .and so mod lo lie more parlicu- 
 
 larly under the protection of Raymond, count ofThoulouse, 
 tnnoeenl ill. commenced ihe work ol its extirpation, lie 
 appointed two legates to go through ihe country ami excite 
 the seal of the clergy and laity against the innovators; he 
 instituted the Dominican order of friars, purposely to preach 
 them down; ami finally, in 1207, he addressed himself to 
 Philip Augustus, king of Prance, exhorting him to eradicate 
 
 the heresy Willi the sword. The chief leader of the expe- 
 dition. Which SOOn assumed Ihe character and name of a 
 |6, was Simon de Mont tort, earl ol Leicester, to whom 
 
 the earldom ol Thoulousewas promised by the pope as a 
 
 BtimulU8 to his exertions. In the siege of thai City. how- 
 
 ii' was killed. The Contest, winch was carried on 
 with more or less vigour lor many years, and whicli fur- 
 nishes i In- first evidence of the disposition of the chinch of 
 
 Koine lo employ ihe extreme of violence against those who 
 
 .a from its doctrines, ended in the entire destruction 
 ot the fUblgenses, about the middle of the thirteenth centu- 
 ry, i , Sismondi, Hiat.de* Frtmfati, torn, vl.) 
 
 AI.IM'NISM. A State in which the skin is white, the hair 
 ad Ihe iris pink. (See Ai.hi.no .) 
 
 ALBI'NO. a term originally applied by ihe Portuguese 
 groes who were born mottled or discoloured with white 
 h i, now generally applied to persons id' a preter- 
 natural Whiteness of the skin and hair, and a peculiar red- 
 ness of the pupil ol' Ihe eye, whicli is so weak as lo he of 
 
 little use in broad daylight, so that albinos sleep in the day- 
 time, and are only capable of seeing distinctly in the twi- 
 
 ALCABALA. 
 
 Ugtal or hy moonlight. The disease appi I upon 
 
 a deficiency or morbid state of i bi 
 whole bodj . 
 
 A'LBUM. laterally means any thing white. The term 
 Is now generally applied to b hook in which pe 
 autographs, lit< rary essays, &c. The praetor's album was 
 a white board, on which the edicts of that functionary were 
 Inscribed. 
 
 ALBUM (.'KyF.cfm. When dogs an- led upon b< 
 they digest the annual portion, and the earth) parts (chiefly 
 phosphate ol lime) are voided in the form ol ■ 
 ineni. This inert matter was formerly used In no 
 
 under Ihe above title. 
 
 ALBU'MEN. A peculiar animal matti 
 Into the composition of animal bi | lood, 
 
 muscles, bones. &c . al o the chief component of white ol 
 egg, to which the term albumen was originally applied, ami 
 which well ami familiarly illustrates iis leading pi culi 
 nami ly, thai at a certain temperature II Into a 
 
 son while solid, no longer soluble in water. It may i 
 lalned pure by coagulating ihe while of i b! "tad. 
 
 washing it thoroughly with that fluid, ami then carefully 
 
 drying il at 120°. if then appears as a yellow, shll 
 
 transparent and brittle substance, compost 
 
 Nitrogen - i atom = 1 1 15 05 
 
 Oarbon .... 8 =-\- 
 
 Hydrogen .... 7 =7 
 
 Oxygen - • - - 3 =24 
 
 l 
 The albumen of birds' eggs coagulates at a temperature ol 
 
 14;")° to 166° ; and when dried, shrinks and becomes brittle 
 
 and semitransparent, In all respects resembling horn. One 
 
 hundred parts of the albumen ol the hi upon 
 
 ill drying, about Ml of water, ami lea 1 reel 
 
 due. Alcohol) most Of the acids, and several metallic 
 
 salts, also coagulate albumen, and some of the latti 
 very delicate tests of its presence In animal flul 
 late oi lead, for Instance, renders a soliu ion oi one part ol 
 fresh white of egg in 2000 of water turbid, so that ltdi 
 
 1 part ol dry albumen in 10,000 of water. ( '.., 
 
 mate Is also an excellent test of albumen, foi m 
 
 white insoluble compound ; hence whil 
 
 proposed as an antidote in cases of pol 
 sublime 
 Albumen, a solid fleshy, bony, or horn) substance, 
 
 secreted iii some seeds between the embryo and the 
 
 skin. II is supposed to he intended for llie nutriment of 
 
 the j oung embryo wh«>n il into life The pan 
 
 that furnishes the flour ol corn, ihe flesh of th 
 
 eat mass of the sei d 
 
 nlsts have remarked thai tins substance is never i 
 
 riOUS, however poisonous llie plant may he b) win. 
 borne. 
 
 ALBUMEN OF VEGETABLES. Is a pro) 
 pie. having some of the leading chemfca ei ani- 
 
 mal albumen. 
 
 AI.BU'KNFM. (Lat. alburnum, sop-tcood.J The newly 
 formed and sod part of the wood ol exogenous trees, con- 
 sisting of empt) or ueai ly empty lubes and ceils, ihe 
 
 of which are thin, and not indurated: however dlirabl 
 
 timber of a plant may be, this pari of il is in all i 
 
 able, (he vegetable matter of which it ci rig but 
 
 little power of adhesion, and readily yielding Up its c 
 
 to the oxygen of the atmosphere, the consequence ol which 
 
 composition, it is only when the tissue of this 
 
 part becomes consolidated by the addition of resins, tannin, 
 
 and various other products, which Change its Colour from a 
 
 pale yellow to various Other deeper colours. |h;i| limber 
 really becomes valuable. In some species thl 
 
 rapidly, as In oak, teak, lignum vilte, &c ; in other 
 
 slowly, or not at all, as in the poplar and willow. C 
 
 the wood of the latter class of trees no 
 
 nihility. By some writers the alburnum is defined 
 
 " wood only one year old;" this is, however, 
 
 It is through the alburnum principally that the ascending 
 
 sap of a plant moves; the course of the sap is not, however, 
 
 confined to the alburnum, but is effected wherever the 
 
 w ly tube - are sufficiently open for it to p 
 
 A'l.CA. The name of a i.iiuue. 
 characterised by a short, compret 
 
 convex beak, edged along the upper sntl i rally 
 
 transversely furrowed ; feet toti-palmale, and wanting the 
 hinder toe.' Recent ornithologists haw l.in 
 
 awks or penguins into the nbgenera fratercula 
 
 .ilea. 
 
 Al. (WHAT, A. or AI.CAYA'I.V 
 iu Spain and her colonies, consisting originally ol |(1 
 
 piently oi 1 1 percent, ad valorem, on 
 sold, and payable as often as it changed handi 
 
 slrous impost, by preventing the 
 
 perly, i proved in the highei I 
 
 (Set idea, Rctaolisstment des Manvf, ignc. 
 
ALCALDE. 
 
 igh officer of justice ; from the Ara- 
 
 known 
 -e eaturales. 
 
 n peril i- 
 duet syphilis, 
 
 r of: otherwise called of Knint 
 . order oi knighthood, inati- 
 
 The kinji of Spain is aoveri 
 
 \"/.'/.\ A porous vessel i .rcool- 
 
 nsequent superficial 
 
 
 • h is llie 
 external 
 
 
 The kingfisher, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; these nave a< i 
 
 cives tlie great 
 
 
 much practised 
 tot wholly 
 1 Arabic; 
 
 « tin and 
 
 i i the precious metal. 
 
 d Mi<' last person 
 
 ' i inni mercury 
 
 ed himself in d, it was 
 
 n of his deceptions. The alche- 
 
 -. are said 
 
 enee in many ways. To 
 
 - ascribed the discovery of the concentrated 
 
 rus. Another object of the adepts, 
 
 erwith their research after 
 
 • discovery of the elixir vita;, or sup- 
 
 hcmy is also denominated 
 
 Tris- 
 
 
 s LI OHOL. A term of Arabic oriain, implying the 
 n illy applied to seven 
 ed in modern ch« r 
 wine. 
 
 known in the earliest ages. 
 
 with the 
 
 r Romans. Al- 
 
 twelfth century, taught the method of pro- 
 
 lirit from wine; and Raymond Lully, in the thir- 
 
 • niury. concentrated spirit of wine by carbonate of 
 
 imposition of alcohol was first accurately 
 
 ■ Lavoisier, and its analysis was perfected 
 
 i is exclusively produced by the process of fer- 
 i : it is obtained in combination with water by 
 
 distilling fermented liquors, such as wine, beer, wash. Ax. ; 
 
 the liquor thus obtained (brandy, for instance, if from 
 redistilled, and the spirituous portion, h 
 
 volatile, first passes over; in this slate it is called ardent or 
 
 rectified spirit, and often contains acetic acid and a pecu- 
 29 
 
 ALDERMAN. 
 
 liar flavouring principle, probably of an oily natnre : tr.ese 
 are got rid ol by redistillation with alkaline substances, 
 al, chloride of lime, Ac. 
 
 i absolute alcohol is obtained by distilling the pu- 
 rest rectified spirit otT dry and warm carbonate of potash, 
 or dry quicklime. The specific gravity of rectified spirit 
 is 820 to 628; thatof alcohol, 792, at the 'ur | 
 
 Pure alcohol has an agreeable odour, a strong pungent 
 taste, and is eminently intoxicating. It consists of 
 
 Carbon • • • 2 atoms =12 5218 
 
 rogen - - - 3 " = 3 13 04 
 
 Oxygen - • - 1 " = 8 34 78 
 
 1 23 10000 
 
 Alcohol bums with a pale flame, and produces carbonic 
 arid and inter; tl>'' weight of the water thus !■ 
 
 * !. is as 27 to 23. It produces 
 
 no smoke or s< a cleanly lemp, firing 
 
 much heat with little light. Mixed with waier and certain 
 substances, especially gluten, and exposed to air 
 negar. It is the 
 t wine and of fermented and spirit- 
 uous liqu . medicine and in some 
 '-, being the .-• ua resins for varnishes. 
 •I water are mixed, heat la 
 
 i it is some hours before the 
 two liquid ' the bulk of a pint of 
 
 ■ ml a pint of waterfalls far short of two | 
 series of tables by Mr. (Jilpin will be found in the Pbiloe. 
 Trans, for 1797, exhibiting much information upon the 
 subject of the specific gravities and composition of various 
 mixtures of alcohol ai it impor- 
 
 tance, an bearing upon the levying of duties upon spirituous 
 liquors. 
 Alcohol has never been frozen ; hence its use in the eon- 
 Of thermometers lor measuring low tempera- 
 tures. It boils at the temperature of 170°, and is converted 
 into a vapour, the specific gravity of which is to that of air 
 as 16 to 10. 
 
 AL'COHOl '. In which alcohol appears to 
 
 A I ( ((RAN, or Al.KOKAN. (Al Koran, or the Book, 
 The sacred hook ol ; which, 
 
 B in their belief, was dictated to their pi 
 
 Of 114 chapters; 
 nh-r. but 
 by certaii which ihey are respectively known. 
 
 Every cl malogoua 
 
 to the verses of our Scriptures. There are, however, seven 
 principal ancient copies of the Koran ; and in all of theg-2 
 >r of verses is not the same l I ran la writ- 
 ! or gloating 
 
 believe the 
 
 lis regarded among the Mohammeda 
 
 ■ 
 
 D :e eternal and uncreated (the Sonnites or ortho- 
 is aerts of het 
 Al.< ') ' ut, Arab., a sleeping 
 
 i In Architecture, that part of a aleepu . 
 her where the bed is placed. The uae of alcoves, though 
 not by that name, is ancient They were frequently de- 
 signed in the form of a niche ; such, for instance, as those 
 that Winckelman notices at Hadrian's villa at 'I 
 which species some are also to be seen at Pompeii. They 
 a formed by an enclosure or balustrade, some- 
 nies low, through which, by means 
 of draperies, this part waa separated from the large cham- 
 ber, whereof it was a part. A notion of it may be obtained 
 from many of the ancient bassi rilievi, especially from the 
 celebrated one known by the name of the Nozze Aldobran- 
 dine. In modern architecture, this part of a room differs 
 :• to the rank and taste of the proprietor; in Enf* 
 rarely used, but in France and Italy it forms fre- 
 quently a beautiful feature in the apartments of their pal- 
 aces. 
 A'LCYOMI I- A collective term for the fruit-like 
 
 rm flint fossils common in chalk formations. 
 Al.< VO'MI M. A Linnjnanterm for an aggregate genus 
 of marine polypes, having a fleshy, coriai 
 axis, beset with stellate cells, containing each a polype 
 with eight radiate denticulate arms. The axis is fixed to 
 foreign bodies, and in some species rises in short branches 
 as m that commonly known by tin 
 "•! m's Hand." (Alcyonium digitatum, Linn. ; Lo 
 bularia digitata, Lam.) 
 
 A'LCVONS. (Gr. dy.KVov, a kingfisher.) The name 
 
 given by Tetnmfnck to an orderof birdsof which the king 
 
 fisher (alcedo) is the type. 
 
 A'LUKK. (Kllarn in Anglo-Saxon.) A native tree be- 
 
 the natural order Betulacea;. It is chiefly found 
 
 in damp situations, and is of little value except for hurdle 
 
 ;md for the manufacture of charcoal. 
 
 A'LDERMAN. Originally written ealdor-man, meaning 
 
 elder-man, which was used in the earlier parts of the Pax 
 
ALDINE EDITIONS. 
 
 on period as a name of dignity unconnected with office ; it 
 was also the original title of the officer who was subse- 
 quently styled earl, whence counties were sometimes 
 called alderman-shires. It seems also to have been the 
 designation of the chief magistrate or judicial functionary 
 of minor districts, in which sense it first appears in con- 
 nection with boroughs. Its application is now confined to 
 the class of municipal officers in a borough next in order 
 to the mayor. By 5 & 6 W. 4. c. 76., the aldermen are to 
 be in number one-third of the councillors in every borough 
 (London alone being excepted from the provisions of the 
 act), one part to be elected triennially, on the 9lh of No- 
 vember, Irom among councillors or persons qualified to be 
 such; and to form, with the mayor and councillors, the 
 council of the borough. 
 
 A'LDINE EDITIONS. In Bibliography, those which 
 proceeded from the press of the farrmy of Aldus Manutius. 
 The first of that name established his press at Venice, not 
 long after the year 1490; and to his industry and zeal we 
 owe several of the first editions of Greek authors, and 
 many other valuable works. The Italic characters used in 
 Roman printing by Aldus and his family, first appear in 
 his Virgil of 1501 ; and from that period a series of works, 
 chiefly classical, both Greek and Latin, proceeded from 
 his press in a duodecimo form : these are the best known 
 and most common Aldine editions. The family press is 
 said to have been broken up in 1597, after producing 90S 
 editions. There are, however, Venetian publications of 
 the beginning of the 17th century which bear the impress 
 of the Aldine family (an anchor and dolphin engraved on 
 the last page). A branch of the Aldine press was for a 
 short period established in Rome. (.See Raynouard, An- 
 nules de V Imprimerie des Aides.) 
 
 ALE. See Beer. 
 
 ALEATO'RIUM. (Lat.) In ancient Roman architec- 
 ture, an apartment appropriated to the use of players with 
 dice or aleae. 
 
 ALECTO'RIDES. (Gr. dX«*ro>p, a cock.) A tribe of 
 rasorial or gallinaceous birds, including the curassow, and 
 the species which, like it, resemble the common fowl in 
 the form of the beak. 
 
 ALE'MBIC. (From the Arabic particle al, the, and 
 BStbeeq, corrupted from the Greek word d^i6i\, a cup or 
 vessel.) An obsolete form of still. Constructed upon a 
 small scale in glass, it is sometimes used in the laboratory. 
 
 ALE'MBROTH, or Salt of Wisdom. A term applied by 
 the old chemists to a salt composed of ammonia, muriatic 
 acid, and oxide of mercury. It is poisonous. 
 
 ALEXA'NDRIAN SCHOOL. An academy for litera- 
 ture and learning of all kinds, instituted at Alexandria by 
 Ptolemy, son of Lagus, and supported by his successors. 
 The grammarians and mathematicians of this school were 
 particularly celebrated. In the former class occur the 
 noted names of Aristarchus, Harpocration, and Aristo- 
 phanes ; and among the latter were numbered the astro- 
 nomer Ptolemy, and geometer Euclid. The grammarians 
 of Alexandria exercised a universal literary jurisdiction, 
 publishing canons of those who were to be considered 
 standard authors, and revised editions of ancient writers. 
 For some account of the famous collection of books at 
 Alexandria, see Library. 
 
 ALEXA'NDRINE. The French heroic verse of twelve 
 syllables or six Iambic feet. In English poetry it is occa- 
 sionally used: by Dryden, sometimes as a second line in 
 a heroic couplet, more frequently as a third line in a trip- 
 let ; and the Spenserian stanza necessarily concludes with 
 an Alexandrine. The lines of Pope, defining the Alexan- 
 drine by an example, are well known: 
 
 11 A needless Alexandrine ends the song, 
 Which, like a wounded snake, dl ags its slow length along." 
 
 ALEXIPHA'RMIC. (Gr. aX^u), 1 avert, and fappaKov, 
 a poison.) Antidotes to poisons. 
 
 ALEXITE'RICS. (Gr. oAeJoj, / avert.) Preservatives 
 against contagious and infectious diseases and the effects 
 of poison in general. 
 
 AfLGM. (Lat. alga, seaweed.) Plants which are desti- 
 tute of all signs of sexual organs, and which vegetate exclu- 
 sively under water. When they grow in salt water they 
 are called sea- weeds, when in fresh water thev are named 
 confervas. They comprehend in the division Zoospermeae 
 some of the lowest known forms of vegetable life, plants 
 consisting of simple cells adhering in different degrees, 
 and emitting at maturity spores or seeds having a distinct 
 animal motion. In the case of Oscillatorias, the whole 
 mass of the plant writhes and twists spontaneously ; and 
 Zysmenas actually copulate. It is in this part of the 
 vegetable kingdom that plants approximate to animals in 
 the most striking degree. An excellent account of the 
 salt-water species is given in Greville's Alga; Britannicae ; 
 the fresh-water kinds may be studied in the third volume 
 of the English Flora. See Harvey's Manual op the 
 British Algie, Svo. 1841. 
 
 ALGAKO'BA. (Arab, al, the, and garoba, a bean-tree.) 
 A. tree found in the southern parts of Europe, and in Palcs- 
 30 
 
 ALGEBRA. 
 
 tine, having pods filled with a sweetish nutritions powder: 
 they are supposed to have been the locusts on which St. 
 John fed in the wilderness. It is the ceratonia siliqua of 
 botanists. 
 
 A'LGAROTH, POWDER OF. The white powder 
 which tails when chloride of antimony is dropped into 
 water : it is a submuriate of antimony, virulently purgative 
 and emetic. 
 
 A'LGEBRA. An important branch of the math 
 sciences, and may be defined to be the method oi 
 ting indeterminate quantities. It is a sort of universal 
 arithmetic, founded on the same principles as common 
 arithmetic, and proceeding by rules and operations pre- 
 cisely similar. But it is not confined merely to questions 
 relating to numbers, being applied generally to investigate 
 the relations that subsist among quantities of all kinds, 
 whether arithmetical or geometrical. The reasoning is 
 carried on by general symbols; and it is to the complete 
 system of notation, which has been introduced by its suc- 
 cessive cultivators and improvers, that it owes its immense 
 superiority over the ancient analysis. 
 
 The symbols employed in algebra are of two- kinds : 
 those which denote quantities; and those which denote 
 the affections or relations, or properties of quantities, and 
 operations to be performed on them. For representing 
 quantities or magnitudes, the letters of the alphabet are 
 employed. Thus, in the solution of an arithmetical pro- 
 blem, a number maybe represented by the letter a; in 
 geometry, a may represent a line or an angle ; in mechan- 
 ics, a force. The relations of quantities are expressed by 
 other conventional symbols. The relation of equality is ex- 
 pressed by the sign =; thus, to express that the quantity 
 represented by a is equal to the quantity represented by b, 
 we write a = b. The symbol > or < coming between 
 two quantities denotes inequality ; thus, a > b signifies 
 that a is greater than b, and a < b denotes thai a is less 
 than 6. The two primary operations of which quantities 
 are susceptible, are addition and subtraction, and these 
 are respectively indicated by the symbols + plus, and — 
 minus. For example, a -f b denotes the sum of the two 
 quantities a and b, or that a is to be increased by b ; and 
 a — b denotes the difference between a and b, or that a is 
 to be diminished by b. Multiplication is indicated by the 
 symbol Xi °r by simply placing the letters beside each 
 other without an intervening symbol. Thus, in numbers, 
 "X b or a b denote the same thing, namely, the product 
 arising from the multiplication of the number u into b. In 
 geometry, two letters joined together, as a b, denote a rect- 
 angular parallelogram, one of the sides of which is re- 
 presented by a, and Ihe other by b. Division is indicated 
 by -7- ; or more frequently by placing one of the numbers 
 above the other in the form of a fraction ; thus : 
 
 30-i-lO, or SB.. 
 
 In addition and subtraction, the quantities connected by 
 the appropriate symbols must be homogeneous, or of the 
 same kind ; for it is only such quantities that admit of ad- 
 dition or subtraction. Of two quantities connected by the 
 symbol of multiplication, one must necessarily be an ab- 
 stract number, for a quantity can only be multiplied by a 
 number, or, which is the same thing, added to itself once 
 or twice, or some other number of times. When division 
 is to be performed, the divisor may either be a quantity of 
 the same kind as the dividend, or it may be an abstract 
 number; in the former case, the quotient is an abstract 
 number ; in the latter, it is a quantity of the same kind as 
 the dividend. 
 
 In the multiplication of quantifies, the frequent repeti- 
 tion of the same symbol would become inconvenient; it is 
 usual, therefore, to write Ihe root only once, and to place 
 over it, on the right, the exponent or number indicating 
 the power: thus, a'-* denotes the same thing as a a, or the 
 square of a; aS is the same as aaa, or the cube of a, and 
 a» denotes the nth power of a, or a multiplied by n limes 
 
 into itself. By analogy, a- denotes the square root of 
 
 a; a* the cube root of a, and so on. (.See Notation, 
 Symbol.) 
 
 Algebra is in its nature essentially distinct from arith- 
 metic. In arithmetic absolute numbers are given, from 
 which other absolute numbers are required to be deter- 
 mined. But in algebra the symbols that are employed are 
 perfectly general, and may represent any numbers what- 
 ever; and the expressions which result from combining 
 them according to the conditions of the problem, indicate 
 the solution not of a particular question, but of all questions 
 whatever, in which numbers are subjected to the same 
 series of operations. In this manner the general proper- 
 ties of numbers are discovered. For example, the expres- 
 sion (a + b)(a — b), which signifies that the sum of Ihe 
 two numbers a and b is to be multiplied by their difference, 
 becomes, on performing the multiplication, a2 — bi; 
 whence we infer this general or universal truth, namely, 
 that the product of the sum and the difference of anv f.—- 
 
ALGEBRA. 
 
 \h equal to the difference of the squares of those 
 - Arithmetic could only prove the prop 
 true in respect of particular numbers. The .systematic 
 to which algebra owes nearly the whole of its 
 • ;m instrument of research, is only of recent In- 
 troduction, indeed, the science il-elf, if known at all to 
 nl Greek mathematicians, was known only as a 
 lecies of arithmetic. The Bnt writer on the sub- 
 i whose works we are acquainted, is Diophantus, 
 I iihoitt the middle of the fourth century of our 
 pc,'., and his work relates only to a peculiar class of arith- 
 metical questions, in the solution of which he displayed 
 
 ible address, but the symbols which he u • 
 only abort h as lie- Initial or terminal ing letters) 
 
 of Dinphantu 
 ol the Arabians; bul algebr I 
 them no improvement or extension Arabians, 
 
 ited Into Italy, in the beginning of lie' 13th 
 inrdo Bonacci. a merchant of IYsa. who 
 ind become acquaint- 
 ed wilh the science of those countries A treatise on arith- 
 metic, comprehending algebra as it was then known, was 
 id from that time the 
 been cultivated with some assidui- 
 i .ok on the subject was 
 
 P iciolus, or Lucas tie Burgo, a mino- 
 d in H.'l It contains a pretty com- 
 itise on algebra for the time ; but exlilb 
 
 me state iii which it was left by Dio- 
 
 iplication was confined to questions relating 
 
 lo numbers of no great Interest, and its power extended on- 
 
 cond de- 
 r this epocii it began in be cultivated exten- 
 jo rapid Improvement Bcipio Fer- 
 l d monia, about the year 
 through the boundary within which it had 
 :hc solution of a 
 problem of the third degree. A general method of solving 
 :ubic equations was soon after discovered by Tar: 
 communicated it, under an oath of strict secrecy, to the 
 1 n. Presnmins on some improvements he^ 
 
 la the rules given to him by Tartales, and on the' 
 which he certainly had the merit of Invent- 
 in, wiih a remarkable (though, unfortunately. In 
 not singular) instance of bad faith, 
 which he 
 ' idan, however, 
 1 the methods given to him by Tar- 
 itrlbuted to improve the notation, by 
 . ■ the letters of the alphabet Lewis 
 disciple of Cardan, had the honour of making the 
 next important Improvement In the science, by tbi 
 ery of a method of solving biquadratic equations, or equa- 
 the fourth degree; and H is remarkable that all 
 -of modern mathematicians, have not yet been 
 ■ barrier, or effect the general solution of 
 of a higher order than the fourth. 
 
 - ihe improvement of algebra, by the 
 : ide notation, was made 
 in Germany, by BtlfeL, or Btifellus, a protestant minister, 
 ork, " Arithmetics Integra," was published In 1544. 
 Stifcl adopted [he symbols + and — for plus and minus, to 
 represent addition and subtraction, and also \/ (the con- 
 traction of r) for radix, or root : he likewise Intro I 
 numeral exponents of the pow e r s, — 3, — 2, — 1, 0, -4- I, 
 -f- 2, + 3. &c. The symbol =, denoting equality, was first 
 • Robert Recorde. 
 In following the chain of the principal discoveries, our 
 attention is next arrested by Viola, a native of France, who 
 first applied algebra to the improvement of geometry, and 
 thereby laid the foundation of the modern analysis. He 
 i he first who employed general symbols to repre- 
 sent known, as well as unknown, quantities, and thus intro- 
 duced what has been called the specious algebra, in contra- 
 distinction to the literal, where known quantities are repre- 
 sented by numbers. This improvement, simple as it may 
 appear, wis attended by important rouse, piences, as it ren- 
 methods quite general, and enabled the algebraist 
 ehend whole classes of problems in a single for- 
 gave a method of solving algebraic 
 by approximation : and from his doctrine of an- 
 n derived the arithmetic of sines, and 
 :ost valuable processes of trigonometry. 
 ■ as followed by Albert Girard. who first showed 
 if the negative sign in the solution of equations ; 
 and hy Harriot, to whom the science is indebted for the 
 very important discovery, that every algebraic equation 
 may be regarded as the product of as many simple equa- 
 tions as there are units in the number expressing its order. 
 An equation, for instance, of the fifih degree maybe re- 
 garded as the product of five simple equations. Descartes 
 followed soon after, and opened up vast fields of discovery, 
 by the application of the algebraic analysis to define the na- 
 xure and inr'-ti.igate the properties of curve lines. By re- 
 Z\ 
 
 ALIMENTARY CAMAL. 
 
 ferring every point of a curve to co-ordinate or perpendicu 
 lar axes, lie I e relation between its different 
 
 points by means of an equation, which serve, i as a charao 
 . and from which its differ- 
 ent properties could be investigated by the ordinary opera- 
 tions ol algebra. Descartes also pointed out the method of 
 
 act ii. ' or representing geometrically, equations of the 
 higher e a rule for solving a biquadratic equa- 
 
 tion by means ol a cubic and two quadratics; and improved 
 the methods of reducing and treating equations which had 
 i by Cardan, Girard, Harriot, and others who 
 had preceded him. 
 
 rice, has undergone no revolution since 
 the time of Harriol and Descartes; but it has been im- 
 proved In all its del i ly varied and extended in 
 
 its applications. During the last century, and the latter 
 part of the precedin ! of infinite series, so use- 
 
 ful in many amplications of mathematics, particularly in the 
 calculation 0) probabililie ally cultivated by 
 
 m, the liernotillis. Killer, i Stirling, 
 
 on, anil others. The nature and composition of el- 
 ii equations has been fully Investigated, and the 
 la of approximating to their roots reduced to order 
 and ■] ,i|" the relations of angular 
 
 sections, begun by Vleta, conducted Euler to the arithmetic 
 of sines and a complete theory of plane and spherical 
 nometry. Applied to problems . [on of 
 
 bodies or points, algebra baa gr< en rise to ihe doctrine of 
 lluxions, and the refined methods of the differential and in- 
 legral calculus. It has completely anpi 
 the elegant, but comparatively feeble, ai ;s,and 
 
 •: now regarded as forming the I whole 
 
 edifice of mathematical science. (.See Binomial Tiieo 
 
 > TIOS.) 
 
 ALGEBRAIC CURVE. A curve of which the relation 
 a and the ordinate- I bran 
 
 equation which contains only algebraic quantities. The 
 (arm algebraic la here used In contradistinction la Iran 
 dental, under which Is comprehended infinite series and 
 quantities of the following kind : log. X, ox, sin. x, c 
 tan. x, Ac. 
 
 ALGEBRAIC EQUATION. An equation of which the 
 terms contain only algebraic quantities. ($e>: Equation.) 
 
 A'LGORITIIM, signifies the art of computing in 
 eni-e ti ibject,orinsomeparticulai 
 
 as the algorithm of numbers; the algorithm of the diflcren- 
 ■ i Ins. 
 
 A'LGUAZIL. A Spanish officer corresponding with Ihe 
 English bailitr, having power to place persons in cu 
 and apprehend criminals. 
 
 A'LIAS. (I.af. ul/ieririsp.) In Law, when a defends!)) 
 . or a prisoner, had more than one com- 
 mon appellation, he was designated In the Latin forma of 
 Instruments, as "A. alias dictus B." w eatery 
 
 for a second writ of the lion with a former 
 
 one lo Issue, it is headed '-alias," as, an dee. 
 
 A'l.llil. (Let. etetdtere.) A rant law phrase, need to 
 
 et up by one charged with 
 a criminal Ommce, who oilers evidence to prove that he 
 here at the lime of the act committed, 
 
 A'LIDADE. An Arabic name given to the indexor rulei 
 
 which moves about the centre of an astrolabe or quadrant, 
 
 carry!) op.,, and showing on the limbof 
 
 the instrument the number of degrees and minutes the ob- 
 
 Dove the horizon. 
 
 A'LIEN, generally speaking, is one born in a country out 
 of the allegiance of the sovereign, unless his father were a 
 natural born subject, in which case he will himself be 
 deemed a natural born subject, to all intents and purposes. 
 An alien in England cannot hold landed property, but he 
 may hold and dispose of, by will or otherwise, goods, mo- 
 ney, or other personal estate, and may take a lease of a 
 house for habitation or trade. An alien may. bv totters pa- 
 tent, become a denizen, and take lands by purchase ; or he 
 may be naturalised by act of parliament, and no uute by in- 
 heritance. In either case he becomes an Englisn subject, 
 hut, nevertheless, cannot be a member of the privy council 
 or parliament (&e* Denizen.) 
 
 ALIEN WATERS. Any stream of water carried across 
 an irrigated field or meadow, but which is not employed in 
 cess of irrigation. 
 
 ALIENATION ' In Law, the act of parting with proper- 
 ty : more especially real property. The alienation of real 
 property takes place by deed, or in pais. (See Real Pro- 
 perty.) 
 
 ALIME'NTARY CANAL. A cavity in the interior of an 
 animal body in which the nutriment is taken to be digested, 
 before it is conveyed by the nutritive vessels to Ihe system; 
 it affords the best organical characteristic of an animal, but 
 Ota various modifications of structure. Sometimes it 
 is a simple cavity with one opening ; sometimes a true ca- 
 nal, with an outlet or anus, distinct from the inlet or mouth ; 
 this canal may be divided into stomach and intestine, as in 
 the oyster ; or a mouth, pharynx, and oesophagus may pre 
 
ALIMONY. 
 
 cede the stomach ; the (Esophagus, again, may have one or 
 !wo sacculi appended to it, called crops. The stomach may 
 be subdivided into four bags, as in the ruminants, or into 
 seven, as in the bottle-nose whale; and the intestines into 
 small, blind, and large, forming, with their subdivisions, 
 what are termed duodenum, jejunum, ileum, caecum, co- 
 lon, and rectum. The cfficum, again, may be single, or 
 double, as in most birds ; or a single caecum may exist in 
 addition to a double one, as in the hyrax, a small pachyder- 
 matous quadruped. Lastly, the various glandular organs 
 which communicate with the alimentary canal are to be re- 
 garded as csecal processes of that tube, since these are de- 
 veloped from it, and in this condition ihey are permanent- 
 ly retained by one or other of the lower animals; thus, in 
 tiie sea-mouse, the liver is represented by long, branched, 
 lateral processes of the intestine ; in the codfish, &c. the 
 pancreas is similarly represented by numerous ca^cal pro- 
 cesses of the duodenum. 
 
 A'LIMONY. In Law. The allowance for which a mar- 
 ried woman is entitled to sue on separation from her hus- 
 band. (See Marriage.) 
 
 A'LIQUOT PART of a number. A number which di- 
 vides the given number without leaving a remainder. 
 Thus 2, 3, 4, and 6, are aliquot parts of 12. To find the ali- 
 quot parts of any number, divide the given number by its 
 least divisor; divide the quotient also by its least divisor, 
 and so on, always dividing the last quotient by its least di- 
 visor till the quotient is 1. The divisors thus used are the 
 prime aliquot parts of the given number; and the products 
 of every two, every three, every four, &c. of the prime ali- 
 quot parts, give the compound aliquot parts of the given 
 lumber. Suppose the given number 30; divide 30 by its 
 least divisor, which is 2, and the quotient is 15 ; divide 15 
 oy its least divisor 3, and the quotient is 5 ; divide 5 by it- 
 self (it has no smaller divisor) and the quotient is 1. 
 Therefore, 2, 3, and 5, are the prime aliquot parts of 30. 
 The compound aliquot parts are, 2X3=6,2X5=10, 
 3X5= 15. 
 
 ALISMA'CEiE. (Alisma, from alis, water, in Celtic.) 
 A small natural order of endogenous plants, marked by the 
 presence of numerous distinct carpels in a tripetaloideous 
 flower. They form a near approach to ranunculaceos among 
 exogens. Alisma and sairittaria are common genera. 
 
 ALI'TRUNCK, ALITRUNCUS. In Entomology, the 
 posterior segment of the thorax of an insect to which the 
 abdomen is affixed, and which bears the legs, properly so 
 called, or the two posterior pairs, and the wings. 
 
 ALIZARINE. From Ali-zari, the commercial name of 
 madder in the Levant; a peculiar colouring principle ob- 
 tained from madder. 
 
 A'LKAIIEST. A term of obscure Arabic origin, applied 
 ?y the alchemists to a supposed universal solvent. 
 
 A'LKALI, or ALCAL1, derived from the Arabic article 
 il, and kali, the name of a plant in the same language. A 
 term originally applied to the ashes of plants; now gene- 
 rally used to designate potash, soda, and ammonia, which 
 *re also termed vegetable, mineral, and volatile alcali. 
 These substances have certain properties in common, such 
 »s neutralising and forming salts with the acids, reddening 
 several vegetable yellows, and changing some blues to 
 green, and ready solubility in water. Lime, baryta, stron- 
 tia, and magnesia, have been called alcaline earths, from 
 their analogous action on vegetable colours. Lithia is also 
 one of the alcalis. A singular class of bodies have been 
 discovered in vegetables which have been termed alcalis, 
 or alkaloids, chiefly in consequence of their power of satu- 
 rating and forming definite salts with the acids. Morphia, 
 quinia. &c. are substances of this description. 
 ALKALI, FOSSIL or MINERAL. Soda. 
 ALKALI, PHLOGtSTICATED. Ferrocyanuret of po- 
 tassium. 
 ALKALI, VEGETABLE. Potash. 
 ALKALI, VOLATILE. Ammonia. 
 A'LKALOI'DS. Substances analogous to alcaline bases 
 nf vegetable origin, and generally possessed of great medi- 
 cinal activity. Their ultimate elements are carbon, hydro- 
 gen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The principal substances of 
 this class, together with the plants from which they are 
 obtained, are the following: 
 
 Aconita - - • Aeonitum napellus. 
 
 Aricina - - - A bark from Arica. 
 
 Atropia • - • Atropa belladonna. 
 
 Brucia - - - Strychnos mix vomica. 
 
 Cinchonia - - Cinchona lancifolia. 
 
 Codeia - - - Opium 
 
 Conia - - - Conium maculatum. 
 
 Corydalia ... Corydalis tuberosa. 
 
 Cynapia • - ^Ethusa cynapium. 
 
 Daturia ... Datura stramonium. 
 
 Delphia ... Delphinium staphisagria. 
 
 Diaitalia - - - Digitalis purpurea. 
 
 Emetina - - . Cephaelis ipecacuanha. 
 
 liyoscyamia - - Hyoscyamus niger. 
 
 Dleconia - - • Opium. 
 32 
 
 ALLEGORY. 
 
 Morphia 
 
 Narcotina - 
 
 Nicotina 
 
 Picrotoxia 
 
 Quinia . . , 
 
 Sanguinaria 
 
 Solania 
 
 Thebaia and Narceia 
 
 Veretria 
 
 Opium. 
 
 Opium. 
 
 Nicotians tabacum. 
 
 Meuispermum coccuius 
 
 Cinchona ■:-:■' 
 Sanguinaria canadensis. 
 Solarium nigrum. 
 Opium. 
 Veratrum sabadilla 
 
 A'LKANET. (A corruption of the French orcanerrt 
 orca, a rouge pot.) A kind of reddish purple dye. ob- 
 tained from the roots of Anchusa tinctoria : it was formei 
 ly used for staining the face. 
 
 Alkanet. The Anchusa tinctoria. The root of thii 
 plant, which is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, 
 contains a red resinous colouring matter which it impart, 
 to alcohol and oils : it is used to tinge some ointments, es 
 pecially lip-salves, of a red colour. 
 
 ALKOO'L. A preparation of antimony used by the wo 
 men of eastern nations, to tinge the eyelids and lashes of? 
 black colour. Dr. Shaw, speaking of the women in Barba 
 ry, says, " None of these consider themselves dressed, til/ 
 they have tinged the edges of their eyelids with alkoohl." 
 A'LLA BREVE. (Ital. according to the breve.) Ii 
 Music, the name of a movement whose bars or 
 consist of the note called a breve, equal therefore to twi 
 semibreves or four minims. It is denoted at the begin 
 ning of a staff by a C with a bar drawn through it verti- 
 cally. 
 
 A'LLA CAPELLA. (Ital. according to the chapel.) In 
 Music, the same as alia breve. The name originates in tin 
 circumstance of this time being principally employed lot 
 movements used in the church or chapel. 
 
 A'LLAH. Trie Arabic name of the Supreme Being 
 It signifies the True God, as opposed to the deities oi 
 idolaters. 
 
 A'LLANITE. A silico-ferriferous oxide of cerium fron 
 Greenland ; named after the late Mr. Allan of Edinburgh. 
 ALLA'NTOIC ACID. A white crystallisable acid, ob 
 tained by evaporating the allantoic liquid of the foetal calf. 
 ALLA'NTOIS. (Gr. aXkas, a smisage, and li&os, form.] 
 A thin membranous sac developed from the termination 
 of the alimentary canal of the embryo, situated between 
 the amnion and chorion, and organised by the hj 
 arteries and umbilical vein. Its functions, as a re 
 organ, is of most importance in those oviparous verte- 
 brates where the embryo has no branchiae: in the mam- 
 malia, its use is more or less superseded by the chorion 
 and placenta. In some quadrupeds the allantois has the 
 form of a sausage ; whence its name. 
 
 AI.LE'GIANCE. (Fr. ligence, from the Latin ligare and 
 allegare, to bind. The obedience which a citizen owes to 
 his prince or country.) The allegiance of a born subject of 
 the English Crown is inseparable, and follows him every 
 where ; nor can he by any act of his own free himself from 
 it. There is also a temporary allegiance which t' 
 incur so long as they reside within the kind's dominions 
 By common law, all persons above the age of twelve years 
 were required to take the oath of allegiance at the court 
 leet ; and the oaths of allegiance and supremacy have since 
 been imposed by many statutes. The present form of the 
 oath of allegiance was introduced by the Convention Par- 
 liament of lbSS. In the United States, it appears to be re- 
 garded as a doubtful point, whether the allegiance of the 
 citizen is necessarily perpetual, as in Great Britain. The 
 American laws also require a foreigner to have renounced 
 (as far as possible by his own act) allegiance to his former 
 government, two years before he takes the oath of allegi- 
 ance to that of his acquired country. 
 
 A / LLEGORY. In Rhetoric and Literature (from the 
 Greek words d\\o, another thing, and fiyopew, I declare,') 
 has been defined, "a figurative representation, in which 
 the signs (words or forms) signify something beyond their 
 literal or direct meaning. In this sense allegory may be 
 addressed to the eye, in painting and sculpture, by means 
 of forms, intended to convey, besides the notion of those 
 sensible objects which they represent, certain 
 ideas to winch these objects are supposed to bear analogy 
 Allegory differs, 1. from symbolical writing or representa 
 tion ; because in the first, the type and antitype, or thing 
 exhibited and thing intended, have some real or natural re- 
 semblance, relation, or analogy : in the latter, t!, 
 blance is merely conventional. Thus, to take an instance 
 from modern literature, if it be true, es is now alleged, thai 
 the earlier Italian poets of the middle ages, and Dante in 
 particular, attached a conventional meaning to certain ideas 
 frequently recurring in their poems; as. for example, that 
 Satan signified the papal power,— the three beasts mentioned 
 in the commencement of Dante's poem three States,— love, 
 loyally to the emperor, &c. &c. ; then their poems, consi- 
 dered in reference to this occult sense, most he regarded 
 as specimens not of allegory but of symbolical writing. 
 But if, as in the more ordinary interpretation of Dante's 
 poem, Satan represents the abstract idea of eternal misery. 
 
ALLEGRETTO. 
 
 ts particular vices, «fcc, whi.-h in common accepta 
 me natural analogy with their 
 
 • m is in this re 
 
 :st. there 
 ; running through tin- 
 
 ! ; and in 
 
 .1 ) Alle- 
 
 i 
 
 .' 
 
 . ! without 
 
 ALLEG 
 
 term is a dim 
 
 1 lively in inner ; not, 
 i' than any 
 
 •as : pro- 
 
 . little, strengthen the significa- 
 
 A'U.NM \M> 1F1 i In Wu \ eg of slow 
 
 • in common time, and per- 
 
 ■ 
 <eri. 
 AM. II \'l,l :o for All Saints' 
 
 ALLIA nn, garlic.) Any thing having 
 
 ALLIACEOUS I'l 'which partake more 
 
 ch as onions, 
 -. leeks, garlu . 
 ALLl'ANCE I Law, a 
 
 ■ndly powers; Which may 
 
 ve only. Of 
 
 ■oleon, 
 
 Uliancc. Of the latter, the 
 
 in 1S33 belw. 
 
 Alliances are divided by 
 !- Those in which the allied 
 
 S-.r with their whole force. 
 nliary states p Ives to 
 
 : ti.veii contingent of men, n 
 
 pa for stated subsidies, to 
 
 money, &c. 
 
 ALLIGATION (Lai. allieo. I bind, or tie together.) A 
 
 solution of questions concerning 
 
 the ■ ;ether of different Ingredi- 
 
 ■ of different ipialities. There are two 
 
 nation medial, and the other alli- 
 
 i'o the first ci 'ion of 
 
 ;is of wine at per eal- 
 
 at 17 shillings per 
 
 of the mixture? But if it 
 
 tllons of wine at 17 shillings per 
 
 Ion. in order that the worth of a callon of the mixture may 
 
 "112 to alligation at- 
 - of this kind are, however, most easily 
 t elementary algebra; of which they form an 
 irminate problems, admitting in general 
 of an indefinite numb ir of solutions. 
 A'LLIGATOR. (\ corruption or the Portuguese word 
 l derived from lacerta, a lizard.) In mo- 
 dern Zoology, the term is limited to those species of croco- 
 dile which have a wide obtuse muzzle, unequal teeth, the 
 fourth pairof which, countinz backwards in the lower jaw, 
 pass into corresponding cavities in the upper jaw, where 
 their points are concealed when the mouth is closed. In 
 the true crocodiles, the corresponding teeth pas3 into open 
 grooves in the margin of the upper jaw, and are conse- 
 33 
 
 ALLOY. 
 
 quently exposed. In the alligators the 
 its length being generally ai to r- 
 
 meroua than in the 
 times amoui ty two in the and to 
 
 twenty in the 
 
 and have neither crests nor dentations; the in • 
 
 is are only occupied for half their 
 membrane. The alligator*, so far as is yet ttoowi , 
 New World. 
 ALLITERATION. In Composition. 
 
 r. chiefly at th< metM 
 
 of different w 
 
 In poetry, for tiie production of effect. In the Ceilir 
 ii was a recogi vera! 
 
 . : it was so likewise in the earl; 
 and in old English there are entire poem 
 which the celebrat 
 it remarkable. 
 ALLOCATION. In Law. The allowance of an 
 count in the Exchequer. The writ de i 
 
 granted by fh protbonotary, 
 
 an allocatur. 
 ALLO'CHROITE. A massive mineral allied to thi 
 ' 
 it exhi nr, I, .-nee its name, 
 
 dAXoc, another, and x 00<a j colour. 
 AI.I.O'DIl.'M. In feudal Law. A word of uncertain de- 
 y some writer 
 
 the antiquity of the tennre). Land held 
 individual In his own absolute r 
 ail feudal obligation: opposed, therefore, to fee, a 
 
 property can exist in England, where 
 the king, in the eye of the law, is lord paramounl 
 lands and hereditaments. Inane was. 
 
 "nulle terre ur," and the ; 
 
 'that country always in favour 
 
 -hown to be allodial. In Germany, on 
 mtrary, the legal presumption was in favour of the 
 allodium. 
 
 ALLOTMENT OF LANDS 
 n;i:irt o When more 
 
 land la laid to "i sufllces for a garden, it Is 
 
 ALLOT', or ALLAY. ench verb all 
 
 to mil rived 
 
 \ term applied to D I 
 ! the pri 
 
 lunda : thus, gold is 
 
 . and silver with copper. 
 
 Uionsob- 
 
 with each i : 
 
 nc ; and bronze, of copper and tin ; 
 
 hen mercury ia one of the combining m 
 
 ipoond an amalgam. Many 
 of the alloys are importantly useful in the arts : thus, gold 
 ;■, which in their pure state are too soft and flex] 
 ble for the manufacture of plate, coin, trinkets, 
 hardened by the addition of a certain portion ol 
 or and other valuabh 
 
 vulatiou in this 
 country, is an alloy of 11 parts Of ] I one Of 
 
 copper. Sometimes the alloy consists partly of silver, 
 
 ■• in the older coins; and it is to 
 ranee of one or other of these alloys that the different co- 
 lour of gold coin is owing; the paler containing ■ 
 deeper coloured, copper. A little palladium is sometimes 
 which gives the gold a disagreeable brownish hue, 
 inally in some sovereigns. The 
 standard silver, used for coin, consists hi 12 . 
 11--?- silver, and ii copper: in these alloys it is neces- 
 r of the utmost parity ; for a very 
 minute portion of some of the other metn! 
 lead, renders the precious metal brittle. 1 
 u--ed for plate is the same as that for coin, and ll 
 is guaranteed by the stamp of the Goldsmil 
 The subject of alloy for coin underwent 
 
 n at the beginning of the pr 
 d.-r of government ; the inquiry was intrusted to Mr. Cav- 
 ind Mr. Hatcnett, and the latter gentleman has 
 published a valuable account of his experiments in the 
 phical Transactions" for 1803. to which the reader 
 i red. 
 Bome curious circumstances ensue in the combination 
 or metals, as affecting their densities ; Ho- 
 of an allov being sometimes greater and sometimes less 
 than the mean of its components,— showing thai in some 
 cases expansion has taken place, and in others contraction. 
 Alloys generally melt af a lower temperature than that 
 I required for the i'usion of their component metals sepa- 
 
ALLSPICE. 
 
 rately ; and in some cases (be most refractory metals 
 form very fusible alloys. There are some alloys which 
 are crystallisable, and "probably of definite composition; 
 but the atomic doctrine applies only in a few cases to the 
 alloys, and it is often difficult to pet amass of alloy of 
 similar composition throughout; thus, cold made standard 
 with copper, and then cast into bars in upright moulds, 
 does not yield an uniform compound except under due 
 precautions; for the upper end of the bar, containing 
 the metal from the bot:om of the crucible, will be the 
 purest. 
 
 A'LI.SPICE. The dried immature berry of the Myrtus 
 I'imenta; called also Jamaica Pepper. It is supposed to 
 possess the mixed flavour of several spices, amongst 
 which thai of the clove predominates. 
 
 Al.l.U'SlON, in Rhetoric. (Lat. ad, /o, and ludo, I play.) 
 Strictly, a covert indication, as by means of a metaphor, a 
 play of words, <tc. of something not openly mentioned and 
 extrinsic to the principal meaning of the sentence. In 
 common language, to allude to any thing merely means to 
 mention it indirectly or incidentally. 
 
 ALI.U'VIUM. (Lat. alluo, Iwash upon.) Gravel, sand, 
 and other transported matter washed down by rivers and 
 floods, upon land not permanently submerged beneath 
 water. 
 
 ALMACA'NTAR. (From the Arabic.) A term used by 
 the old astronomers to denote a small circle of the sphere 
 parallel to the horizon. 
 
 ALMAGE'ST. A name given by the Arabs to the cele- 
 brated work of Ptolemy, the astronomer of Alexandria: it 
 signifies the greatest work. The best edition of Ibis work 
 is that of Paris, 1313-15, 2 vols. 4to., Greek and French, 
 by M. Ilalma. 
 
 A'LMANACK. (Probably from the Arabic particle al 
 and manach, to commit ; whence Al Manach, The Diary.) 
 An annual publication containing a calendar of the days 
 and months of the year, the ecclesiastical feasts, the time 
 of the sun's rising and setting, the age of the moon, the so- 
 lar and lunar eclipses. To these (the most essential mat- 
 ters) are frequently added information on various subjects 
 of astronomy, chronology, meteorology, the tides, statis- 
 tics, lists of posts, offices, "public instiluiions, &c, according 
 to the views or fancy of their respective authors. Alma- 
 Hacks correspond In some respects to the Fasti of the Ko- 
 i.i ii.s. and are of very ancient date. The first printed al- 
 manack appeared in 1474, and was drawn up by Regiomon- 
 tanus, nearly, at least so far as regards the calendar, in the 
 form now used. Till within a few years, the numerous al- 
 manacks published in England were little creditable to the 
 I aste or morals of the country. They had for a longtime 
 monopolised by the Stationers' Company. This mo- 
 nopoly was at length broken through by the publication of 
 anew almanack under the superintendence of the Society 
 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ; and since that time 
 the more exceptionable ones have entirely disappeared, 
 and their place been supplied by others, wliich abound in 
 useful and valuable information. The removal of (lie 
 heavy stamp duty of fifteen pence per copy, to which they 
 wen- subjected till 1834, has been attended with all the ad- 
 vantages which usually result from the exercise of free 
 competition. 
 
 The Nautical Almanack is published by order of the 
 board of the admiralty for the use of seamen, and contains 
 a copious list of astronomical phenomena at sea, and of the 
 elements wliich are used in finding the longitude. This 
 work is also a very complete astronomical ephemeris, 
 showing the instants of time at which the planets and prin- 
 cipal stars daily pass the meridian of Greenwich ; the sun'3 
 right ascension, and the logarithms of his distances : the 
 moon's place at intervals of three hours, &c. &c. For a 
 more particular account of works of this kind, see Calen- 
 dar, Ephemeris. 
 
 ALMOND. (Gr. d/ivySa\ov. Fr. amande.) The seed 
 or kernel of the Amygdalns communis. Sweet almonds 
 afford, in the 100 parts, 54 of fixed oil, 24 of albuminous 
 mallei-, gum ami sugar, 4 woody fihre, 5 husk, and 4 
 water and loss. Bitter almonds contain less fixed oil, and 
 a peculiar principle termed Amygdalin. When bitter 
 almonds are cold pressed, the oil which exudes contains no 
 trace of prussic acid; when hot pressed, its flavour may 
 be perceived : the cake remaining after pressure yields a 
 volatile oil by distillation, the quantity and strength of 
 wliich in prussic acid is variable. The oil ofbitter almonds 
 is about the specific gravity of water ; that which passes 
 first over is most poisonous. It changes when exposed 
 to air, and forms benzoic acid : in close vessels it may be 
 long kept without deterioration. When used in medicine, 
 are is requisite on account of its varying strength. 
 Half an ounce of oil of bitter almonds was put into the 
 mouth of a Newfoundland dog (in a diseased state and 
 moaning with pain), with the intention of immediately kill- 
 in;; it; hut after some slight convulsions the animal be- 
 came tranquil, appeared easier, and recovered the effect: 
 tibout a drachm of recently and carefully prepared oil was 
 54 
 
 ALPHABET. 
 
 then administered, when the animal fell upon its side, be- 
 came convulsed, and died in three minutes. The distilled 
 oil of peach leaves and of the cherry laurel also contain 
 prussic acid, and the water distilled from them i: 
 ous. By digesting these oils with finely powdered per- 
 oxide of mercury, crystals of cyanuret of mercury are 
 formed. 
 
 A'LMONER. An officer in a religious house, to whom 
 the distribution of alms was committed. The term is still 
 retained by officers in some of our hospitals. 
 
 ALMS. Charitable offerings; from the Greek cXetj- 
 Hoavvri, pity ; which came in the early agesol the church 
 to be used In the plural number in thepeculiarsen.se which 
 is represented in our language by the word Alms. 
 
 A'LOE. (Arabic, alloch.) A small tree with endoge- 
 nous stems, and stiff, fleshy, hard pointed leaves, abound 
 ing in a purgative principle which is obtained by simple 
 pressure of the bruised leaves, or by boding. The juice- 
 when inspissated becomesthe medicinal drug of the shops. 
 It varies much in quality. (.See the following article.) 
 
 A'LOES. The inspissated juice or extract of several 
 species of aloe. This article is largely imported for me- 
 dical use from Bombay. It is of a brown colour, a pecu- 
 liar and somewhat aromatic odour, and a nauseous and 
 intensely bitter flavour: it consists of extractive and resin, 
 and is nearly soluble in boiling water, but the solution as it 
 cools deposits flakes of resin. The best aloes was former- 
 ly brought from the island of Socotorah. in the Indian Sea. 
 and hence all the finer aloes of commerce is frequently 
 termed Socotorine aloes. Another variety of this drug 
 comes from Barbadoes, in large gourd-shells containing 
 upwards of half a hundred weight each ; it is deep co- 
 loured, opaque, and has a nauseous and peculiar odour, 
 especially when breathed upon. Aloes is a warm stimula- 
 ting purgative, operating as such in the dose of four to 
 eight grains. It stimulates the huge intestines, and should 
 be administered with caution in habits where there is ten- 
 dency to piles, and in cases in females in which uterine 
 stimulants arc improper. 
 
 ALO'NSINE, or ALPHOXSINE TABLES. An astro- 
 nomical work, which appeared in the coder the 
 
 patronage of Alonso X.. in the first year ol his reign. 
 
 ALO'PECU'RUS. (Gr. dAcoirijt, a fox. and oipa. a tail.) 
 A genus of grasses, called by the farmer foxtail ; the flow- 
 ranged in compact tail like siidks. It is very like 
 Phleum or catatoil, from which it differs in its glumes be- 
 not truncate, and its lower pales awned. Alopc- 
 cuius protenis forms a part of all the richest pastures in 
 England. 
 
 AI.O'SA. The name of a genus of Clupeoid fishes, in- 
 cluding the alose, or shad ; separated from the herring and 
 pilchard, with wliich it was classed by Linnaius. The 
 shad ascends large rivers ta the fresh water, where it 
 spawns. The white-bait used to be regarded as the young 
 of the shad, but is now ascertained to be a distinct species 
 of the present genus. 
 
 A'LPH ABET. (From the Gr. dX^ia, 0Hra, the two first 
 Greek letters.) The letters of a written language, disposed 
 in their regular order. An alphabetical language is one 
 possessing an alphabet. 
 
 1. The first and most obvious mode by which thought 
 can be expressed and conveyed to the eye, is by the re- 
 presentation of actual objects. Hence the species of 
 writing which the learned have termed ideographic, i. e. in 
 which knowledge is conveyed, first, by representations of 
 the objects of thought ; secondly, by symbols. The origin 
 of designing is coeval with thatof mankind ; and men early 
 availed themselves of this art to make their thoughts visi- 
 ble. To make it be understood, for example, that one 
 man had killed another, they drew the figure of a dead man 
 stretched on the ground, and of another standing by him 
 upright, with some deadly weapon in his hand. To let it 
 be known that some one had arrived by sea, they drew the 
 figure of a man disembarking from a ship; and so on. 
 This kind of writing, if we may so employ the word, was 
 very early used in Egypt, and most probably, also, in most 
 of the ancient nations. In Greek, the word ypatpuv . 
 fies indifferently either to write or to paint. In Mexico. 
 when the Spaniards landed, the inhabitants of the sea 
 coast conveyed intelligence of the event to Montezuma by 
 sending him a large cloth, on which they carefully painted 
 wdiat they had seen. It is unnecessary to insist on the dif- 
 ficulty atid inconvenience of this method of writing ; and 
 to lessen these, recourse was had to the Bymbolic or emble 
 viatic variety of ideographic writing. In this method ab- 
 breviations or characteristic parts were introduced instead 
 of the entire object. Thus, the ancient Egyptians are said 
 to have represented a siege by a scaling-ladder; a battle, 
 by two hands holding a buckler and a bow, &c. Abstract 
 ideas were, also, represented by symbols, cr sensible ob- 
 jects, supposed to have a certain analogy to them: as, in- 
 gratitude bv a viper, providence by an eye, the head of a 
 hawk, &c. 2. From ideographic was derived syllabic 
 writing. It must have been early remarked that the 
 
ALPHABET. 
 
 ounds formed by the voice in speaking are articulate and 
 :ed ; and the idea occurred of endeavouring to re- 
 uch sounds by appropriate (the word 
 
 repuUii, in the writing of which we use eight letters, would 
 a wiili three syllabic characters. The President 
 f suspects thai originally all the Asiatic nations, 
 i the ancients under the names of Syrians and As- 
 used the syll il ic mode of writing. V. ■ 
 
 of this in an ancient tradition 
 
 '■ribes the invention of writing to the Syrians; but 
 
 that the Phoenicians it le it more 
 
 ind brought tbecharactera to perfection. But this 
 
 iprovement on what is 
 
 ■Mil very imperfect and cumbersome. 
 
 rs required in it ovi 
 nory, and occasions the greatest confusion. Tin.' 
 which is partly ideo- 
 ■■ Cubic, is an example of thl 
 a certain number of elementary signs or keys (two 
 glyphic or 
 ,d ; that is, they are abridged representations of 
 -' 1 4 elements, all the charac- 
 i.UJO, ilia said) are formed by vary- 
 ing and combining then- figures ; every compound charac- 
 ter reprei r more syllables having a 
 
 3 The defects incident to ideographic and syl- 
 
 dividuals 
 
 i ieavour to find out some more simple and 
 
 mmunicating their ideas. And at 
 
 o.| of Alphabetic writing, thi 
 
 . man, and which has been the great 
 >nl of his civil d perfect- 
 
 ed. In tl I Into their 
 
 the voice 
 h by its appi 
 
 c formed by their combination; the 
 1 1 Ing not only to di scribe extei n 
 depict the ■ the mind, an 
 
 riety of 11 to the much 
 
 i of tins modi 
 
 thrown upon 
 'eel by i' 
 
 writing of 
 
 ■ 
 i 
 graphic. Hut, according to the new theory, the 
 
 word Ahom signified an eagle : the figure o 
 
 .•.iih which that woi 
 
 i Rimt i According lo 
 overies, a great pro.' 
 monuments and papyri are 
 partly id rtly alphabetical; i. e. som 
 
 is ; aud these are Intermingled 
 Willi others wl) 'and for letti I 
 
 ived the notion of the phonetic 
 that it was only employed when foi < Ign words or 
 
 e of Greek sings) were Introdn 
 
 llion carried the discovery further, and I 
 
 nd names in the Ian 
 
 i, among 
 ; Interpretation, would 
 thai the phonetic writing Wl 
 1 1. (See Dr. Young's writings, i 
 the article BoYPT in thl 
 
 lion; M Klaproih's Exanien Ci 
 mux de I Quarterly Review, vol In p. 110.; 
 
 'tie Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics, Svo. 
 Londcn, 1826, fee.) ll is not within our present province to 
 hon, upon whai ground of probability this 
 i should 
 in Mr; language Of that country in which the 
 earliest serins cf Knowh dge and civilisation seem to have 
 been developed, H Is probable thai we shall have made a 
 able step towards tracing the origin of pure alpha- 
 betical writing iii other '•. s it Is, although various 
 iov, the symbolical origin of 
 mi alphabets, it cann 
 
 tint any very sal till has been obtained. And, 
 
 total want ol 
 
 the invention of alphabetical writing, and the difficulty of 
 
 (■counting for it on any known principle of men 
 
 • hypothesis of divine revelation has obtained con- 
 currency ; hut it need hardly be observed, how 
 
 • doctrine agrees with all that we know by analogy 
 of the dealings of Providence with man. 
 
 ar that writing was known to the Hebrews at the 
 period w!on the Mosaic books were composed, from many 
 
 contained in them. Exodus, xxxii. 15,16. Num- 
 bers, xvii. I-., xxxi. 9. i9.. xxxiii. 1., «fcc. And although it 
 cannot be positively asserted, that the writing there alluded 
 35 
 
 to may not have been of the symbolical description in use 
 among the Egyptians, there seems, on the other hand, lit- 
 tle reason for supposing that the Hebrew alphabet was not 
 in use even at that remote period. And t: 
 peiior antiquity seems to lie entirely betwei 
 and the Phoenician. The claims of the latter are 
 rd by Mr. Astle (Essay on the Origin if Writing, 
 dui, 1803), whose views are now generally concurred in. 
 The belief was all but universal am<>: g and Ro- 
 
 mans, that the Phoenicians were the inventors of letters. 
 According to Lucan, 
 
 prtmi fnm.T si cratimus'i ausi 
 Mamuram rudihus vocem s.gnurtr fi^nris." 
 
 And l'linysays (lib. v. cap. 12). "Ipsa gens Phoenicum in 
 cloria magna est literarum inventionis." Hut whether the 
 
 Clans were or were not the inventors of alpli 
 writing, there can be little or no doubt that the knov 
 of it was broughi by Cadmus, from Phoenicia, into Greece, 
 about ISOU years H.'C From the Phoenician, therefore, or 
 the Hebrew, are incontestibly derived, I. The Oriental 
 alphabets used in Asia. West of the Indus ; written, like 
 
 w, from righl to left; the principal being the Si 
 Arabic, and Persian. 2. The Pelasgic, or original <• 
 alphabet Were ihere nothing else by which to establish 
 the fact, the eastern origin would 
 
 ivioua from its being originally written, like the Phce- 
 and other eat . m right to left. It 
 
 was afterwards written consecutively ft 
 left to right, in the manni 
 
 procured for it the name of fiovoTpoippiov, or furrowed 
 writing. This species of writing maintained its ground for 
 a ten Solon, promulgated 
 
 ti in it ; and 
 till lie I! C. Hut writing from left to right 
 
 alter- 
 
 ir furrowed medio. I was Options 
 
 is B. C. have been found written from left tc 
 
 ef. Origin of 
 
 &C) Prom ilplia- 
 
 bet were derived thi I n. From the Ionic. 
 
 variety of the Greek, csmi - . the Coptic. 
 
 and Ethlopii . and Runic ; and in 
 
 parativi tnes, the Armenian, Dlyrlai - 
 
 an. Wiih rt Greek writing, it 
 
 DClenl lUille Wllr~ ill 
 
 ters now In use seem to havi been in- 
 
 troduc 
 
 fifth century, they appear intermixed with 
 But the latter were principal! I, until 
 
 Latin alphabet i;i 
 rived from ll to have been 
 
 bout the time of Tarquinius Prisons. In tie 
 which we possess, the tormsofthe let- 
 ters scarcely differ from those ill use I day ; 
 
 hot gi have le en in subsequent tim is Intro 
 
 duccd : first, in the ordinary method of writing it; as, the 
 Uncial, Semi-Uncial, Lombard, Italic, Ac (.See Charac- 
 ter.) Secondly, in the number and form of the letters 
 contained in the n umerous alphabets derived from it. 4. A 
 fourth class of alphabetical languages consists of the Sans- 
 i re very name 
 
 od islands of India. The great 
 regularity of the Devanagaree, or most elegant form a 
 
 t alphabet, and its copiouc ntains 100 let- 
 
 B presumption that it was com- 
 piled by son ividual. or body, (like the Ilus- 
 oid other modern Western alphabets,) from other 
 form* of writing then in use, and imported into India from 
 derivative languages are 
 written like European, from left to right These four 
 i all the alphabetical languages in exis- 
 The following table exhibits the number of letters 
 in some of the principal. 
 
 Class 1. Phoenician (known), 17. Samaritan, Hebrew (cr 
 -riac,22cach. Arabic, 28. Per- 
 
 2. Greek, 24 Armenian, 38. Ethiopic, or A! 
 nian, 202, Modern Russian, 41. 
 
 Class 3. (which is only a subdivision ofClass 2). Latin, 
 22. English, 20. French, 28. Italian, 20. Ger- 
 man. 
 
 scril (Devanagaree), 100. 
 
 ions learned persons have proposed the adoption of 
 
 a universal alphabet ; and have shown that the elementary 
 
 reducible to a still smaller number than those 
 
 j ed in our western alphabets. Harris (Hermes, book 
 
 iii. c 2.) estimates them at twenty. Wachter (Nalurm el 
 
 Scriptura. Concordia) conceives that the number may be 
 
 diminished to ten. Hut Bishop Wilklns-ta bis Essay to- 
 
 a real Character and Philosophical Language, fol.. 
 
 in, 1608, estimates the necessary number at thirty- 
 
 We here present the reader with a table of the principal 
 alphabe-s of the family to which our own belongs. 
 
ALPHABET. 
 
 Arabic 
 
 Syriac. 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 A 
 
 Etrupcaflk 
 
 Anc. Greek. 
 
 Mod Greek. 
 
 Roman. 
 
 Eng. Script, 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
 N 
 
 \ 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 a 
 
 O 
 
 S 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 e 
 
 B 
 
 B 
 
 I 
 
 c 
 
 "A 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 r 
 
 C G 
 
 e y 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 i 
 
 T 
 
 ^ 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 D 
 
 ci 
 
 *(») 
 
 81 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 a 
 
 E 
 
 E 
 
 E 
 
 e 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 F 
 
 
 F 
 
 / ' 
 
 ) 
 
 1 
 
 T 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 X 
 
 Z 
 
 Z 
 
 /y. 
 
 € 
 
 v4» 
 
 n 
 
 ^ 
 
 B 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 4 
 
 k 
 
 ^ 
 
 •j 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 
 
 *(«) 
 
 «t 
 
 i 
 
 fit 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 IJ 
 
 V 
 
 J 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 
 i£ 
 
 ^ 
 
 K 
 
 K 
 
 K 
 
 4 
 
 J 
 
 >w 
 
 b 
 
 z 
 
 >j 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 L 
 
 /. 
 
 r W 
 
 >o(ie) 
 
 » 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
 «,(>) 
 
 v( J ) 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 N 
 
 N 
 
 N 
 
 n, 
 
 
 _£> 
 
 D 
 
 £ 
 
 -s 
 
 i 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 *%, 
 
 7 
 
 V 
 
 A 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 wS 
 
 3 
 
 ^ 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 P 
 
 A 
 
 L^ 
 
 vS 
 
 S 
 
 ■m 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 wO 
 
 P 
 
 ? 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 f 
 
 ; 
 
 ? 
 
 "1 
 
 ^ 
 
 S 
 
 p 
 
 p 
 
 R 
 
 P 
 
 U* 
 
 Or 
 
 » 
 
 JUA. 
 
 >/ 
 
 ^ 
 
 2 
 
 s 
 
 d 
 
 O 
 
 Z 
 
 n 
 
 A 
 
 <r 
 
 T 
 
 T 
 
 T 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 Y 
 
 X 
 
 U V Y 
 
 u V it 
 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 X 
 
 X 
 
 X 
 
 
ALPHONSIN. 
 
 Of the Phoenician, properly so-called, the authentic re- 
 l .ire but few in number and of rude execution ; we 
 .therefore, employed in lieu of it its immediate de- 
 tan, which we have placed in the centre 
 This alphabet, it will be perceived, was made to 
 i iuen like the Phoenician, from right to left, which sys- 
 i retained in the Asiatic alphabets derived from 
 n to the present day, as will be seen on inspeciius the 
 'iets placed on the left of the Btru rderof 
 
 ition. To the right of the Btri theal- 
 
 i Jreek inscription, which dales about 400 U. C, 
 • liad become 
 next in order are the Modern Greek al- 
 :. and lastly the small letters uf our pre- 
 r. We have tltus given the principal alpha- 
 ■ id European, derived from the Phteni- 
 tuay be termed the lineal order of their de- 
 iltboDgh the difference between the two ex- 
 les is certainly very g imples 
 
 ient to enable the reader to trace their 
 :, and to account for the changes that 
 : illy been produced by a desire to give a rounder 
 shape to the letters, and to form them 
 1 or the pen. 
 AI.IMIO'NsiN. An instrument for extracting balls : so 
 i the name of its inventor, Alphonso Ferrim, a 
 
 \'l.l'l\i: PLANTS. Low plants which grow naturally 
 
 nous situations, where they are covered 
 
 it of the winter; and for which 
 
 i hey require the protection of frames 
 
 ttS dif- 
 
 '< plants; which, in gardens, only require to be 
 :s or stones, without the protection of a 
 
 AI.IMM A'CE .K. One of the names of the natural or- 
 
 illed Zingiberaccae. 
 ALR1 rm. Alraun, Alraunbildcr.) Small im- 
 
 ■ ut of Ihe roots of trees, exhibiting ni'h 
 
 human figure, generally female. The 
 I a peculiar feature 
 i of the northern nations. They were 
 , or household gods, of fan, 
 
 I by some to represent female magicians or 
 
 >. (It. To the mark.') In Music, a notice to 
 in that part of 
 mark $ is pri 
 
 weedy 
 much more beaut; . from 
 
 ire known by their i 
 
 'S its name from Alsinc (aloos, a 
 . in which places it is found,) the COO) 
 chick". 
 
 \t.T (Lai alius, high.') In Music. A term applied to 
 the high notes of the scale. 
 
 \I.T\K (From alta ara, Lat. ; or, according to some, 
 
 ?K, Ood, and "iso, described, or i hi Ar- 
 
 pedestal whereon sacrifice was offered. 
 
 is that among the ancients there was a differ- 
 
 u the ara and altare, the latter being raised on 
 
 ii. and used in the service onlyol ; 
 
 iiperior divinities, wliilst the former was merely oa 
 
 (be ground, and appropriated to the service of the ten 
 
 altars were made by exca- 
 
 ■-. which were termed scrobiculi. Some authors have 
 
 ara was the altar before which prayers 
 
 !. whilst the altare was used for sacrifices. It 
 
 r that ancient authors made I 
 . but that the words were used by them iudiscri- 
 ly. The earliest altars were square polished i 
 
 ire placed the offerings to the gods. Whilst 
 lined to libations, perfumes, and oft'. 
 of that sort, the altar was not of large dimensions, and was 
 11 as soon as man thought he was doing 
 ur to the Divinity by an offering of blood, the altar ne- 
 Different forms were 
 :cor ling to the nature of the sacrifice, on which 
 the victim was cut and the Mesh burnt. Of 
 irt is the circular altar of the villa Pamphili at Rome, 
 one of the largest and most elegant of existing remains of 
 that Cl ' is to be seen the cavity for holding the 
 
 fire,:, es for carry tag off the blood. The va- 
 
 follow the service to which they were 
 .1 by difference in their forms, ornaments, andsitu- 
 - ne, as we have already observed, served for 
 burning incense and receiving libations. Some were for 
 iid others for receiving offerings 
 and sacred vases. Many were erected merely as monu- 
 ments of the piety of the devotee, whilst others were con- 
 structed to perpetuate some great event. They served for 
 adjuration, an asylum to the unfortunate and 
 
 evil-doer. The forms varied from square to oblong, from 
 37 
 
 ALTERNATE. 
 
 triangular to circular. Those of metal were usually tripo- 
 
 dial. When of brick or stone, they were generally square 
 
 on the plane. According to Pausaiiias, wood was 
 
 ally a material of which they were 
 
 not seem to have been of any .standard height, inasmuch 
 
 as we sometimes see them on bassi relievi reaching little 
 
 above a man's knee, wliilst in others they appear to reach 
 
 his middle, though it would seem that the circular altar was 
 
 generally the highest in proportion to its diameter 
 
 vius says Ihey should be kept down in height, so that they 
 
 may not intercept the statuesof the gods; and he 
 
 relative height of those used for the different divinities. 
 
 Those of Jupiter and the celestial gods the bjghi 
 
 those of Vesta and the terrestrial gods ; then the sea-gods 
 
 were to have theirs a little lower, and so on. On 
 
 they were decorated for the occasion with such flowers 
 
 and leaves as were sacred to the particular divinity, lint 
 
 besides this casual decoration, the ancient altars furnish us 
 
 with some of the most elegant bassi relievi and : 
 
 (laments that are extant, still serving as m 
 
 winch have escaped the hands of the barbarl 
 
 lg to Vilruvius. their fronts were turned towards 
 
 iinigli often little regard seems to have been paid 
 to their position, as they were occasionally deposited Under 
 the peristyle of a temple, and no: onfrequently in 
 air. In the larger temples there were olim 
 altars : the first was in the moat (acred part, in front of the 
 statue of the god ; the second was before tie d 
 temple ; and the third was portable, called anclabris, 
 on which the offerings and sacred vases we-. 
 
 Christians, the altar is a square or ol : 
 . placed at the east end of the church, for 
 oration oi the mass, or, in Protestant churches, for the 
 celebration of the sacrament. These are I 
 form almost as much as Ihoai 
 
 rwas adopted by the early Chrt I 
 aether with the corresponding Greek term, Svo-iaorriptov, 
 (but not, unless, perha ; 
 he table of i!., 
 altar is sU the fathers in 
 
 -"oiaariipiof j 
 Christ himself, from Bebr. xiii. 10. 2. The church of 
 Christ iu general. 3. Individual members of tta 
 
 rd'a table. It is observed that the fatbt 
 first three centuries on lit of the altar, and not 
 
 >!e, although ■• charge 
 
 which the heat!, 
 
 altars, conceiving the :■ heathens to Im- 
 
 I the pre- 
 sence of the statue of the dcily to whom the o 
 made. From the fourth century the word tab! 
 
 In King Edward L'l Hook of Comm on Pi 
 
 ted in the communion service : ' 
 
 Hooper, on account of the ambiguity of its meaning, and 
 the colour it might seem to lei 
 the eucharist, it was abandoned, 
 
 ,i. This, however, did not satisfy the more vlo- 
 . and (hi the restoration of the reformed 
 at the accession of Elizabeth, the people pror 
 take the first step towards a real and not a verbal sub- 
 stitution, by palling down the altars iii many i 
 I an injunction 
 no matter of great moment 
 there be altars or tables, so that the sacrament be 
 reverentially administered ;" and directs that where the 
 altars bad been pulled down, tables should he i 
 the same 
 
 A'LTERATIVBS. fLat altero, / change.) Medicines 
 which cure diseases by slow and imperceptible 
 without producing sensible evacuations. 
 ALTERNATE. (I.at. alternatus, chun 
 . parts are said to be alternate « 
 when one is placed upon the stem a little higher 
 lower than the other; the word is chietly applied i 
 and is used in distinction to opposite, in which parts arise 
 the same plant on opposite sides of the stem. 
 
 Alternate. (Geometry.) When two straight 
 intersected by a third, the interior angles on the 
 sides of the intersecting line are said to be alternate. 
 Thus A M N ami M N D are a! 
 a \fg p angles : and so also are B M N wi\ 
 
 - M N C. If the two straight lines A 13 
 and C D be parallel, (he alternal 
 
 \. 
 
 V P glea are equal. In pi 
 
 ternate terms are the first an 
 and also the second and fourth 
 terms of a proportion are said to be taken altemati 
 alternation, when the second and third are made to Changs 
 places ; and it is a well known theorem, that a proportion 
 .' among four quantities of the same kind is noi 
 i by this change. Thus, if a: b :: c: d, 
 ternately, a : c: b: d. 
 
ALTICA. 
 
 A'LTICA. A name applied by Fabricius to a subdivision 
 o( the Linnrcan Chrysomelaj, characterised by the oblong 
 body, bifid lip, and thickened hind legs. 
 
 A'LTITUDE. (Lat. alius, high, altitude, height.) In 
 Astronomy, denotes the angle of elevation ofa celestial ob- 
 ject, or the angle of the visual ray with the horizon. The 
 ofa star is apparent or true. The apparent alti- 
 tude is the angle ascertained immediately from observa- 
 tion ; the true altitude is found by correcting the apparent 
 altitude for refraction, parallax, &c. Altitude is frequently 
 used in Elementary Geometry instead of height. The at- 
 titude of a triangle is measured by a straight line drawn 
 1 vertex perpendicular to the base; and the alti- 
 tude of a cone by a straight line drawn from the vertex 
 perpendicular to the plane of the base. 
 
 ALTO. (Lat. altus, high.) In Music, the counter-tenor 
 part, or that immediately below the treble or highest. It is 
 a word also used to denote the tenor violin. 
 
 ALTO RELIEVO. {See Rilievo.) 
 
 A'LUDEL. A piece of chemical apparatus used in the 
 process of sublimation, and much resembling the ancient 
 alembic. 
 
 A'LULA. (Lat. ala, a icing.) In Ornithology, the group 
 of ill- feathers, attached to the joint of the carpus ; as in the 
 snipe. These are also called the 'bastard wings' {ala 
 spuria). 
 
 A'LUM. A salt composed of alumina, potash, and sul- 
 phuric acid, and in its usual form containing a large quantity 
 of water of crystallisation. Its octohedral crystals consist of 
 Alumina ... 3 atoms = 54 10 76 
 Potassa - - - 1 " =48 0-95 
 Sulphuric acid - - 4 " =100 33-74 
 Water - - ■ 24 " =216 45-55 
 
 Crystallised alum - 1 =478 100 00 
 
 Alum dissolves in about five parts of water at 60°. The 
 
 solution has a sweet and astringent taste, and is a powerful 
 
 Styptic. When crystallised alum is heated, it melts, and 
 
 gradually losing water of crystallisation, becomes a white 
 
 mass, called burned alum. 
 
 Alum is largely manufactured for the uses of the arts, 
 especially dyeing and calico printing. What is termer! 
 alum ore, is an albuminous slate, containing sulphuret of 
 iron ; i! is calcined, exposed to air, lixiviated, and the solu- 
 tion so obtained mixed with sulphate of potash, and crys- 
 tallised. The alum works near Paisley, and at Whitby, in 
 Yorkshire, are the largest in England. 
 
 Milk, curdled by stirring it with a lump of alum, Atr- 
 ium whey, which is sometimes taken as a remedy 
 for relaxed bowels. Alum curd is made by beating the 
 white of eirg with a piece of alum till it coagulates. 
 
 ALU'MINA. Aluminous earth; earth of alum; argil. 
 When a solution of ammonia is dropped into a solution of 
 Blum, a white precipitate falls, which, thoroughly washed, 
 dried, and heated, is pure aluminous earth. There are 
 l wo properties of tins earth which render it of great impor- 
 tance in the arts ; one is, that it forms a plastic mixture 
 With water, and, though it is not the predominant ingredi- 
 ent in, yet it confers the valuable property of plasticity 
 upon, all natural clays, which enables them to be moulded 
 into the various forms of pottery and earthenware; the 
 other is the remarkable affinity of alumina for colouring 
 and extractive matter, whence its use in the arts of dyeing 
 and calico printing. 
 
 In the pure and crystalline form, alumina constitutes the 
 sapphire, one of the hardest and most valuable of the 
 gems. In its common state, aluminous earth is a soft 
 white powder, strongly attractive of moisture ; hence, alu- 
 minous fossils are often recognised by adhering to the 
 tongue, and many of them exhale an earthy smell when 
 breathed upon, as we observe in common slate. Alumina 
 consists of 52-91 aluminum, and 47-0(3 oxygen; like the 
 other earths, as they are usually called, alumina, there- 
 fore, is a metallic oxide. Aluminum is with difficulty ob- 
 tained, and in small quantities, by heating chloride of alu- 
 minum with potassium ; it is a grey, difficultly fusible 
 metal, not easily acted on by water, and which, when 
 heated in the air burns with great brilliancy, and forms 
 alumina by the absorption of oxygen. 
 
 Alumina has but a feeble attraction for acids, and does 
 not fully neutralise them; and when it has been heated 
 red hot, or is in an indurated state, as it exists in the sap- 
 phire, in corundum, and some other minerals, it is abso- 
 lutely insoluble. 
 
 The aluminous salts are mostly colourless, soluble in 
 nil ofa sweetish astringent taste. Exclusive of 
 alum, the acetate of alumina is the most important of these 
 ling used as a base or mordant by the dyers. {See 
 Dyeing.) It is usually prepared by mixing a solution of 
 190 parts of acetate of lead with one of 487 parts of alum ; a 
 white precipitate of sulphate of lead falls, and acetate of 
 alumina remains in solution. 
 
 ALU'MIMTE. Native subsulphate of alumina. 
 
 AHJ'MINFM. The metallic base of alumina. 
 38 
 
 AMBARVALIA. 
 
 A'LUMSTONE. A silicious subsulphate of alumina. 
 
 ALU'RNUS. A genus of coleopterous insects, charac- 
 terised by having short filiform antennas ; palpi four to six, 
 very short; maxilla horny and short. 
 
 ALUTA'CEOUS. (Lat. alula, tanned leather.) A pale 
 brown colour. 
 
 ALVE'OLAR. (Lat. alveolus, diminutive of alveus, a 
 cavity.) Belonging to the alveoli, or sockets of the teeth. 
 
 ALVE'OLATE. In Botany. When the surface is co- 
 vered with numerous deep hollows, as in the receptacle of 
 some Composite. 
 
 ALVEO'LITES. A genus of fossil zoophytes, allied to 
 the corallines ; one species of which {Alv. suborbicularia) 
 occurs in the Portland stone. 
 
 A'LVINE. (Lat. alvus, the belly.) A term generally 
 used as relating to the intestinal excretions. 
 
 A'MADOU. German tinder; a fungus found chiefly in 
 old oaks and ash trees. It is boiled in water, dried, beaten, 
 soaked in a solution of nitre, and again dried for use. 
 
 AMA'IN. A sea term, signifying to yield, to let go. 
 Thus, to strike amain is to lower or let fall the topsails, in 
 token of surrender. To wave amain is to make a signal to 
 a vessel to strike its topsails. Amain is also a term used 
 in letting down a thing into the hold or elsewhere, or in 
 lowering a yard, or the like, to denote that Ihe sailors are 
 to let go that part of the rope which they held before, and 
 let down the thing easily and by degrees. 
 
 AMA'LGAM. A combination of mercury with other 
 melals. Medallists apply the term to soft alloys generally. 
 
 AMALTH-E'A. In Mythology. The name of a goat in 
 Crete, alleged to have suckled Jupiter: or of the nymph 
 who tended the goat. The cornu Amalthma, or horn of 
 the goat in question, was the magic cornu copia,,or horn of 
 plenty. 
 
 A'MARANTH. (Gr. d, priv., /uapaivu, I wither, and 
 dvdos, a Jlovcer.) Plants with richly coloured flowers, 
 whose parts are of a thin dry texture, so that they are a 
 long while before they wither. They give their name to 
 the natural order of Amaranthacea:. Amaranthes me- 
 lancholicus, hypochondriacus, caudatus, &c, are the an- 
 nual? known in gardens by the names of Love lies bleedinj, 
 Prince's feather, »fcc. The ii:.m3, in composition 
 other words, is used to designate plants not belonging to 
 the same genus, but to the tame natural order, Globe-ama- 
 ranth is Gomphrena ghffiosa. 
 
 AMARANTHA'CEjE. The order which comprehends 
 the amaranthus, and other similar dry-flowered genera. 
 Some of the species are objects of ornament, as cocks- 
 combs {Celosia coccinea), globes {Gomphrena globota), va- 
 rious species of amaranthus, trichinium, &e. ; but the priti- 
 cipal part consists of tropical kinds. The order partici- 
 pates in the harmless qualities of Chi . from 
 which it is not very different. 
 
 AMARYLLIDA'CEjE. (Amaryllis, one of 
 A natural order of beautiful Endogens, with inferior fruit, 
 six stamens, and six nearly eq.wl segments of the flower, 
 The greater part consists of bulbous species inhabiting the 
 Cape of Good Hope, and the tropical parts of both hemis- 
 pheres. Snowdrops are the most northern form. A few, 
 such as agave and doryanthes, are trees in stature, al- 
 though only herbaceous plants in duration. 
 
 A'MATEUR. (Fr.) A person familiar with, and who 
 encourages any particular art or pursuit, without being 
 professionally engaged in it, is said to be an amateur. But 
 the term is usually restricted to those who are skilled in 
 and patronize the fine arts. 
 
 AMAURO'SIS. (.Gr. dpavpos, dark.) A loss of sight de- 
 pendent upon defective action of the nerve of vision, and 
 independent of visible injury. It is also called gutta Sere- 
 na: drop serene of Milton. 
 
 AMAZO'NIAN STONE. A beautiful green felspar, 
 found in rolled masses near the Amazon river. 
 
 A'MAZONS. (Gr. d, without, and fiat^os, breast.) Fe- 
 male warriors. Tribes, either real or imaginary, belonging 
 to Africa and Asia, among which the custom prevailed for 
 the females to go to war; preparing themselves for that 
 purpose by destroying the right breast, in order to use Ihe 
 bow with greater ease. According to Greek tradition, an 
 Amazon tribe invaded Africa, and was repulsed by The- 
 seus, who afterwards married their queen. Hence, all fe- 
 male warriors have been called Amazons; and the river 
 of that name owes its appellation to one of the early Span- 
 ish navigators, who fancied he beheld armed women on its 
 banks. The wars of the Athenians and Amazons formed 
 favourite subjects for Attic art: they were depicted in the 
 Poecile or painted chamber of the Parthenon. <S"ee Ji 
 Diod. Siculus, Strabo, &c. 
 
 AMBARVA'LIA. (Lat. ambire arva, to go round tin 
 fields.) In Roman Mythology, religious fetes to prop 
 Ceres: so called from the victims being carried round the 
 fields {ter circum ibat hostia fruges, Virg. G. i. 3-15.), 
 These sacred rites were performed by an order of priests, 
 Fratres Amburvales, twelve in number. They were ce- 
 lebrated in the end of May, when the blessing of the god- 
 
AMBASSADOR. 
 
 aess was invoked on the coming harvest. The victims 
 were accompanied by crowds of country people, having 
 Ihcir temples bound with oak leaves, dancing and singing 
 to whom libations were made of ho- 
 ney and wine. {Fw:ciola i : Adam's Antiij.) 
 
 DOR, or EMBASSADOR. In Politics, the 
 order of foreign ministers. An am- 
 il of the country which sends 
 its personally the dignity 
 
 powers of Europe send ambassa- 
 
 Lh the exception of Prussia, which 
 
 never employs ministers of this class. The word ambas- 
 
 rivation, but is suppo 
 
 hi word ambasciare, to solicit. In 
 
 of later date than the ninth century, 
 
 - are frc- 
 
 "ambas- 
 
 ; and it may hence be presumed 
 
 nally given to envoys who attended 
 
 our for another party. As to 
 
 nbassadora in England : if an 
 
 I which is a crime against the 
 
 . iii> is punlaha- 
 
 i i Iminally 
 
 no only malaprotu; 
 
 ments of the laws of the ex- 
 . Vniic, c. 12, an ambassador or public min- 
 mts, buna fi<l' 
 
 ■d from arrest : and the goods 
 i i ds statute 
 .'•nee of the arrest and ill treatment 
 nibassador. 
 
 rn International 
 i : of M. de Wicquefoi 
 turns, 2 tomes, 4to, 1740 ; F. von Mo- 
 
 / U'plomafique of Von Marten! 
 
 died. 
 i like substance, found occa- 
 ■ eces on the sea-coast, but must ;:c- 
 ,;: it is probably an antcdilu- 
 . 
 
 it iut 1070. It is hard, and bi fomes strong- 
 
 triclion. It contains a trace of odo- 
 
 ly soluble In alcohol, a resin 
 
 nd an insoluble resin, which 
 
 titueni (80 to ( J<> per c a burned, 
 
 Distilled per se, U ■ 
 
 r holding succinic and acetic acids, 
 
 and empyreumatic oil in solution (tl 
 
 limed succinic acid (salt of amber), and an 
 
 oil (oil of amber). The acid, when purl- 
 
 i from 3 to 5 per cent. The residual char- 
 
 r 13 per cent., and when strongly 
 
 • little volatile matter resembling c 
 
 iling amber, called fc 
 
 times occurs with it; it Is less soluble in alcohol, and yields 
 
 id. 
 
 uown mass of amber was found near the 
 round in Lithuania, about twelve miles from 
 i ighteen pounds, and is in the royal 
 . i al Merlin. 
 
 e of amber is as an article of ornament, cut 
 ids or necklaces, and in the manufacture of var- 
 
 ATVIBERGRIS. (From ambre, and gris, grey amber.) 
 has been found in the intestines 01 
 
 ibably a product of disease : perhaps 
 ne. Ii has also been found upon the coasts 
 cal countries, in masses of valriou 
 I appearance, and interspersed throughoul 
 I'll the beaks of the sepia octopo : 
 Mimon food of the whale. When genuine, amber- 
 gris has a peculiar odour, not easily described or Imitated, 
 and which Is exceedingly diffusive, especially in soluiion, 
 unate quantity of ambergris is perceptible 
 id is thought to exalt their odour. A grain 
 i down with suaar, and added to a 
 * i very perceptible in the wine and 
 ir, by some considered as an improvement. 
 The best ambergris is softish and somewhat waxy when 
 ty varies from 780 to 896: it ruses al 
 higher temperature gives out a white 
 smoke, which condenses into a crystalline fatly matter, 
 component (about 80 percent.) is a peculiar fatty 
 matter (ambreine), which may be obtained by boiling it In 
 : as the solution rools, it deposits crystals, which 
 may bepurified by pressure in foldsof blotting paper. Am- 
 uses at 100° ; its odour is agreeable, and it rises in 
 vapour 
 
 AMBIDE'XTER. (I.at. ambo, bolh, and dexter, right 
 hand ) One who uses both hands alike, the left as welfas 
 
 Numerous theories have been advan 
 plain the preference so generally given to the right over the 
 39 
 
 AMENDMENT. 
 
 left hand ; but, generally, they seem to be i 
 than solid. 
 
 A'MBl i mbio, lencompass, or circumvent.' 
 
 The circumference or extreme edge of any thing; the en- 
 compassing border of a leaf. 
 
 Ambitus! In Politics. A term used by the ancient Ro- 
 mans to designate the soliciting ami canvassing for offices 
 and honours. It was of two kinds, the one, 
 laris, laudable ; as, where a candidal' 
 
 firetensions, publicly stated the grounds on wll i 
 tcited the suffrages of the electors, and left them 
 their opinion upon his claims without privately 
 their votes. The other, and more common kind of ambi- 
 tus, was either disreputable or unlawful. I 
 
 il solicitations, cajolery, offers of money and pre- 
 ferment, and all those resources for corrupting the free 
 :' electors, so well undersl 
 . in our own times. The bribery a 
 forbidden, although to very Utile purpose,!)} 
 of the Roman legislature. (Facciolati Lexicon, Diction- 
 ary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Taylor & Walton, 
 
 A'.MIil.E, AMBLING. (In Ilorsemansl 
 
 miliar kind of a pace in which a horse's two 
 the same aide move at the same time. 
 
 am HI. OTIS. (Or. du(JXu)(7ic, abortion.) The 
 name, in the system of Dliger, of the Marat 
 eluding the w • -mt>nt. 
 
 AMBLYO'PIA. (Gr. d/iSXtij, dull, and (iuV, th*. siglu.) 
 Imperfect vision. 
 
 AMBLY'PTERUS. (Gr. chitfXvc, obtuse, and vrcpov, a 
 fin.) Tli 
 
 rounded pectoral and i 
 
 having small and numerous teeth, set i er like a 
 
 brush, which shows the habit of thei 
 
 : and Bofl an . 
 Mom 01 the ' 
 A'MltO. (V.r. djiSov, a boss, or icnob.) In Are! 
 The elevated place, or pulpit, in the ■ 
 
 churches, from Whence it VI 
 
 gregatlon, and on which certain parts of th rvice were 
 
 A'MBRI 
 
 .inbreic acid. 
 AMIiKO'Sl.v (Gr 
 
 their drink, the use of w 
 (erred un 
 
 AMBR081 \N CHANT. In Mo- 
 Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, who 
 church there : the I lurth century : 
 
 i| ian chant bj B great monotony and v.an 
 ly in its "melody. 
 
 A'MBL'BALB. A Syrian or Aral wing mil- 
 
 sical girls from Syria, who 
 Rome. See Hor. Sat lib. i. sat. 2. v. 1. and I 
 
 AMBOLA'CRA. (I.at. ambulacrum, on attey.) The 
 narrow longitudinal portions of the shell ol 
 
 ted with s number 
 
 ■ 
 with tl ■ 
 
 AMBTJLATO'RES. (Lat. ambulo. / in,//. .) Th 
 der of birds in 
 nearly with tho Passeree of Linnaeus. 
 
 A'MBULATORY. Formed for walking. In Ornitholo- 
 gy, the term Is applied to the feet of birds where 
 I one behind. 
 
 AMItr'SCADE. A military term derived from the Ital- 
 ian imboscata, concealed in a wood. It is also applied to 
 r an enemy. 
 
 AMBU'STION. (Lat. amburo, Ibt/rn.) A medical term 
 for a burn or scald. 
 
 v'MION. (Heb. |BK. signifying, let it be, or rather, let it 
 be irrevocably jixid.) It is understood to express I 
 assent at i [irayer. It is sometimes Ii 
 
 verily, as when used si the beginnine ol a disc 
 
 AME'NDE HONORABLE. In French Law, a species 
 of infamous punishment, to which criminal 
 
 Inst public decency or morality were condemned 
 under the ancient system, and arc so still In some instances. 
 Such were, sedition, forgery, sacrilege, fraudulent bank- 
 ruptcy, &c. The simple ordryamende la 
 ed merely of an acknowledgment by the criminal 
 fence to open court, bar.- headed and kneeling. The 
 amende honorable in figuris was made by an offender 
 kneeling in his shirt, a torch in the hand, a rope round tie- 
 neck, and conducted by the executioner. I 
 is, usually conjoined with some other punishment ; some- 
 times capital, as in the case of parricides, <&c. 
 
 AME'ND.MENT. In a general • chang« 
 
 made in anything for the better. In Parliamentary Pro 
 . || Is an alteration in the words of any loll or mo- 
 tion, which it is competent for any member to mo 
 the bill or motion has been read. (See PaRLIasjemt 
 
AMENORRHCEA. 
 
 Amendment. In Law. The correction of an error com- 
 aiitted in any process, as the amendment of a declaration, 
 plea, <tc. The deficiency of means of amendment in 
 ;il common law, led to the statutes of amendments 
 and jeofails, beginning With that of 14 E. 3. All amend- 
 ments at ■■ ithin the discretion of the court, and 
 allowed in furtherance of justice according to the particu- 
 lar circumstances of each case. 
 
 AME'NORUIICEA. (Gr. d, uithout. jitiv, a month, and 
 plu>. IJl.oic.) Morbid irregularity or deficiency of the men- 
 strual discharge. 
 
 AMENTA'CEOUS. Having amenta; a name formerly 
 applied in Systematic Botany to such plants as have their 
 (lowers arranged in amenta. But as very different kinds of 
 structure were combined by this character, the order 
 AmentacetE of Jussieu is broken up in several others, and 
 the i' iiii is but hitle used. 
 
 AME'NTHES, in Eastern Mythology, is the kingdom 
 of the dead, or Tartarus of the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 AMENTIA. (Eat. omens, deprived of mind.) Idiotism. 
 
 AME'NTOM. (Eat. amentum, a thong, or hap.) A kind 
 of inflorescence such as is found on willows and poplars ; 
 it differs from a spike only in being deciduous. 
 
 AMERCIAMENT. (From the French merci.) The 
 pecuniary punishment of an offender against the king or 
 i in his court, when by his offence he is said to 
 stand at the mercy of the king or lord. 
 
 AMETABO'LIANS, AMETABOEIA. (Gr. d, tcithout, 
 and fiiTuSo'Xr), change.) A sub-class of insects which do 
 not undergo any metamorphosis. 
 
 A'METHYST. Purple rock crystal. The finer varie- 
 ties are in great request for cutting into seals and brooch 
 Some of the ancient vases and cups are com- 
 posed of this mineral, and it was an opinion among the 
 iii i wine drank oat of an amethystine cup would 
 not intoxicate: hence its name, from the Greek apLtOvaroi. 
 
 A'MIA. The name of a Einntean genus of abdominal 
 fishes founded on a single species (Amia caiva, Linn.) a 
 native of the freshwater streams of Carolina, North 
 America; and which is still its sole representative. It is 
 an example of the Sauroid fishes of Agassi/,, and is re- 
 markable for the cellular structure of its air-bladder, which) 
 as Cuvler remarks, is similar to the lung of a reptile. 
 
 AMIA'NTIIUS. (Gr. dniavros) A term applied to as- 
 lieslus, in consequence of the resistance which it affords 
 tu the action of fire. 
 
 A'MIDES. Compounds containing a base apparently 
 composed of 1 atom of nitrogen, and 2 of hydrogen. The 
 term Ammonide, from their resemblance to ammonia, 
 i lie more correct. 
 
 A'MIDINF,. The soluble part of starch. 
 
 AM1D-SH1PS. A nautical term, denoting the middle of 
 p, either with respect to her length or breadth. 
 
 A'MMOCCE'TES. (Gr. an/ios, sand', and koitti, a bed.) 
 The name of a genus of Cyclostomous fishes, of which the 
 'pride.' or 'stone grig' (Amm. brandiialis), is a well-known 
 example. This fish buries itself in the sand or clay of the 
 hanks of rivers ; has many of the habits of a worm ; pos- 
 sesses a skeleton reduced to membraneous consistence ; 
 and ranks among the lowestof organised vertebral animals. 
 
 A'MMODYTES. (Gr. du/xoi, sand.) The name of a 
 Linntean genus of apodal fishes, characterised by a com- 
 head, narrower than the body; and both elong- 
 ated. Gill-openings lame, with seven branchioslegal rays; 
 dorsal fin extending nearly the whole length of the back; 
 anal tin of considerable length; dorsal and anal fins sepa- 
 m the caudal fin. The sand-eel (Ammodytes tohi- 
 anus, Lin.) and the sandlaunce (Ammodytes lemcea, Cuv.) 
 are examples of this genus. 
 
 A'MMON. In Mythology, apparently a Libyan divinity, 
 adopted by the Greeks, and by them identified with their 
 
 ■ " Btat corniger illic 
 
 Jupiter, ut memarant, sect non ant fulir.lna vibrans. 
 .\iit ? iiiiilis nostra, sad tortis corntbus Amracn." 
 
 The name appears to be derived from dpfio;. sand; and 
 the situation of his celebrated temple in an oasis, sur- 
 rounded by African deserts, indicates his origin. Alexan- 
 d the temple, and assumed the title of son of this 
 divinity, in order to impose on oriental imagination. It 
 i a eel brati d oracle. The lines of Lucan, partly 
 quoted above (Phonal lib. ix. lin. 510. &c), describing the 
 temple, and the refusal of Cato to visit it, and consult the 
 ig an enterprise, of the justice of which he 
 meed, are among the finest and best known por- 
 his poem. 
 AMMO'NIA. Volatile alcali. This important compound 
 is chiefly produced artificially. It exists, combined with 
 acids, in some of the saline products of volcanos, and, in 
 very small quantities, it is discoverable in sea-water. It is 
 found in putrid urine and in the salts produced by the de- 
 composition of animal matter; it exists occasionally in 
 eery min ■ in the air, especially in large towns, 
 
 it-coal is burned ; and the small stellated crystals 
 40 
 
 AMNESTY. 
 
 which are sometimes observed on dirty windows in Lon- 
 don, consist of sulphate of ammonia. 
 
 Ammonia was originally obtained (in the form of muri- 
 ate of ammonia) by burning the dung of camels, which 
 was collected for the purpose in Egypt, especially about 
 the temple of Jupiter Amnion (whence the term sal am- 
 moniac). It was afterwards produced by the distillation ol 
 putrid urine: at present, the demand lor an monia in he 
 various states and combinations is in this country 
 supplied from two sources; the distillation of pit coal, and 
 that of refuse animal substances, such as bone, clippings 
 and shavings of horn, hoof, <5ce. 
 
 When coal is distilled (see Gas), a large quantity of am- 
 moniacal liquor, as it is called, is formed, to which sulphu 
 ric or muriatic acids are added so as to form a sulphate or 
 a muriate of ammonia. When the animal substani 
 mentioned are distilled, a quantity ol impure ammonia 
 passesoff with the other products, which is also converted 
 into sulphate or muriate of ammonia. 
 
 Pure ammonia is obtained in the form of 
 ing a mixture of quicklime and muriate of ammonia. It 
 is very pungent and acrid ; and so soluble, thai 
 sure of water absorbs nearly 500 of gaseous ammonia: this 
 solution is known under the name ol" liquid ammonia, and 
 is used in medicine. Ammonia is a compound ol nitrogen 
 and hydrogen ; it consists of 
 
 Nitrogen - - 1 atom = 14 8235 
 
 Hydrogen - - 3 =3 17 05 
 
 I 17 100 00 
 
 It is decomposed when passed through a red hot lube, and 
 every 100 volumes of ammonia are resolved into 200 vol- 
 umes of a mixture of 3 volumes of hydrogen and 1 of 
 nitrogen. 
 
 Carbonate of ammonia is used in medicine as a stimu- 
 lant, and frequently employed, under the name of smell- 
 ing sal', as a restorative in faintness. It is obtained by sub- 
 limation from a mixture of muriate of ammonia 
 bonate of lime. Muriate of ammonia lias been e 
 ferred to as the common source of pure ammonia. Sul 
 phate of ammonia is aiso manufactured for ihe same 
 nurposes. 
 
 Ammonia is recognised by its pungent smell, by its tran- 
 sient alcaline effect upon vegetable colours, and by produ- 
 cing white fumes when approached by muriatic acid. 
 Tims, if we burn a pi . and hold a glass rod 
 
 dipped in muriatic acid near the smoke of it, dense while 
 fumes appear, announcing I ammonia, 
 
 formed by Ihe action of heal upon the animal m 
 
 AMMONI'ACUM. A gum resin used in medicine : it is 
 imported in drops and cakes from Africa and the East 
 Indies, and is said to be the produce of the Dorema ammo- 
 niacum. It is of a pale buff colour, and stands in the ma- 
 teria medica among the mildly stimulating but uncertain 
 expectorants. It is sometimes applied externally in the 
 form of a plaster. 
 
 A'MMOMTE, AMMONITES. An extinct genusof mol- 
 luscous animals which inhabited convoluted chi 
 siphouifcrous shells, sometimes called Comua ammonis, 
 and vulgarly snake-stones. From their affinity to the 
 naulilites, and the known organisation of the animal of the 
 pearly nautilus, fossil shells of this genus are referred to 
 the Tetrabrancniate order of Cephali constitute 
 
 the typical genus of the second family of that order 
 (Ammunitida). They are characterised by their conspi- 
 cuous whorls, and the marginal-external position of the 
 siphon. They abound in the strata i . da ry for- 
 
 mation, varying from the size of a bean to the dimensions 
 of a coach-wheel. Their name is derived fin m 
 semblance to the horns upon the statue of Jupiter Ammon. 
 
 AMMOM'TIDjE. A family of Cephalopoda, vs 
 bered siphoniferous shells, characterised by Ihe septa 
 being sinuous, with lobated margins. 
 
 AMMO'NIUM. A name given by Davy to the hypotheti- 
 cal base (supposed to be metallic) of ammonia. Accord- 
 ing to the hypothesis of Berzelius, ammonium is a com- 
 pound of 1 volume of nitrogen with 4 volumes of hydrogen. 
 
 AMMO'PHILA. (Gr. djiyioi, sand, and fiXcw,' / love.i 
 The name of a genus of hymenopterous insects, called 
 sand-wasps. The generic characters are, ; 
 inflected, concealing a bifid, retractile, tubular tongue; 
 jaws forcipated, 3-toothed at ihe tip ; antenna? filiform in 
 each sex, wilh about 1-1 articulations; >•)■ 
 plane: sting pungent, concealed wilhin die abdomen. 
 
 AMMEM'TION. In Military Language, signifies all 
 soils of warlike stores and provisions, btil I 
 powder and bill. 
 
 A'MNESTY. (Gr. a pvnorM, oblivion.) In Politics, free- 
 dom from penalty, granted by a solemn act to the 
 of some crime. Usually, by an act of amnesty ii 
 one passed to comprehend a number of individuals guilty 
 of offences of a political nan- m,&c. Anion's 
 
 remarkable amnesties in modem European history, may 
 be cited, that granted on the restoration of Charles II., from 
 
AMNION. 
 
 which were excepted those concerned in the. death of 
 Charl , mted on the second restoration of the 
 
 16, from which, 
 - were excepted by name ; and the law 
 i- political offences in France, in l 
 IN ION (Cr. iftvoi, ulamb.) The membrane which 
 lua in utero . it includes a thin watery 
 amnii. 
 hi lli.tariy, a thin, semitransparent, gelatin- 
 e in which "the embryo of a 
 
 I .in which the embryo appears to 
 
 Sometimi Is wholly absorbed; 
 
 form of albti- 
 
 onally, as in the cocoa-nut, a portion is consoti- 
 
 , and a portion remains always in a fluid 
 
 ID. An acid supposed to be peculiar to 
 tnnii of the cow, but now known to belong to the 
 
 AMO'MEjE. (See Amo.vvm.) One of the names of the 
 
 inly called Zingiberacea:. 
 
 AMO'MUM. (hhamama, Arabic: d/jcofiov, ofthe Greeks.) 
 
 I.itit. with aromatic seeds, much em- 
 
 r the name of cardamoms, mains of Paradise, 
 
 tec i ccur exclusively in the hottest parts of 
 
 India 
 
 AMO'RPHOUS. (Or d, without, and iioptyn, form.) 
 
 i ular forms. 
 AMI'DI.I I iy. ((.'r. n/iirrXoj, a n'ne.) One 
 
 of the natural order Ynacea?. 
 
 4TELIS. The name of a Linna*an genus of Passe- 
 rine bl ised by a straight convex beak, of which 
 is the longer, and is Bubincurved, and 
 ih sides. The Bohemian chatterer, or 
 <*arrulus.) Linn., is a well known spe- 
 referred in the recent systems of 
 Ornii .■mis. retaining the 
 
 AMl'lll WANS. AMPHI'BIA. (Gr. d/zd>«, both, and 
 pios, Ity of existing both in wati 
 
 / I in its 
 
 mala which possess organs for 
 
 ■ns for breathing air. or pills and 
 
 tn the 
 
 .illation and the great capacity of their 
 
 to the vascular gurfi era the 
 
 i;ned air, can remain a Ion 
 
 onder 
 
 for .11 -called Rep- 
 
 iii the 
 
 culty, included under ihe term Amphl- 
 : longer than 
 iry for renewing the air in their limps, 
 ■iy be drowned ; fhey re, not 
 
 -o, however, with that small nor- 
 order which retain their branchial throughout 
 hiate reptiles sullVr nothing from 
 a prolonged aquatic existence, but, on the contrary, are 
 loo long continuance on dry land : a de- 
 J fringed gills, according la 
 Iments on the £ -ioning 
 
 ■ warm-blooded mammalia which have 
 comotive instruments adapted for 
 ind seals, are, 
 ir circulation igiOUS 
 
 irelory membrane of the 
 h supply of air for 
 pi ilea, and arc con- 
 i from a true amphibious organ- 
 ism i 
 tin ii oi' the., i dee the perennibrani 
 
 the Ampullaria, and 
 Bom.- iii-'--'- and crustaceans, are the only examples 
 AMPIU'BIOLI'TE. (Or. d/iptSta, and Xiflu,-, a stone.) 
 /en by Linnaeus to the parts of reptiles, or am- 
 nce. 
 AMPIU'BOLE. (Or. dp<piSo\oi, equivocal.) A name 
 whicl apply to hornblende, because it 
 
 may be i 
 AMPHl'BOI.I. In Oniilhology. the name ofa family of 
 ofltlieer, including those in 
 which atile. 
 
 AMl'lll BO'LOGY. (Or. ri^i, about, and \oyot, dis- 
 ' al phrase or sentence, of 
 i% hie more that) one Interpretation. 
 
 AMPIirCTYO'NlC COUNCIL. This was a congress 
 twelve northern Greek tribes, viz. Thes- 
 as, lonians, Perrhsbians, Mag- 
 QBnianians, Achseans of Phthia, Maiians. 
 i Dolopians, or Delphians. hi the Dorians and 
 tided the Lacedaemonians and Athi 
 ■•lit one deputy. Each of these tribes hai 
 repr« ouncil called the Hieromnemon 
 
 {hpaavr^tow, and PylagOTBS (iruXaj'opaj). The congress 
 41 
 
 AMPHITHEATRE. 
 
 met twice every year , in the spring at Delphi, and at The* 
 mopvhe in the autumn. Its functioi hi to have 
 
 been oi'a political nature further th.in lo see that no mem- 
 ber of the union was destroyed; but were chiefly directed 
 to religious mailers, and more especially the protection of 
 the temple of the Delphian Apollo. The principal ancient 
 a which we | ects and 
 
 constitution of the amphictyonic council, are te pi 
 
 in the orations of jEchincs and Di the lt'.lh 
 
 book of Dlodorus Siculus; Oih ofSirabo; and luih of 
 
 tifs ; Titlmann's Prize Essay on the Amphictijuns ; ajid 
 Midler's Hist, of the Dorians. 
 
 AJfPHlGA'MO. B. (Gr. au<pi, in the sense of doubtful, 
 
 and yapoc, marriage.) The most imperfect of all plants. 
 
 having no trace whatever of sexual organs. They form 
 
 laaea in De Candolle's Nan. {Set 
 
 BOTANY.) 
 
 AMI'IIITM-ISTS. (Gr. du<pu, on both sides, and rcew, 
 he.) Merrein so calls a tribe ol reptiles compre- 
 hending those which have both lui e same 
 amphibia or perenn 
 AMPHIPOD8. (Gr. n/ipic, on both sides, and novs,a 
 ersebf co}ifo)>ii(d.) The third order of eaus- 
 s arrangement, and the only one in 
 which rabcaudal natatory feet co-exist with 
 
 AMPHITROSTYLE. (Gr. du<pi, both or double, npo.be- 
 fore, <TTt;Xoc. aivhinui.) In Architecture, a term ap| 
 to a temple hai ins a portico or porch in the re 
 the front, but without columns al 
 of tempVe never exceeded the number ol four colum 
 front and four m the rear. It dm apletn 
 
 anlis, in having columns instead [he angles ol 
 
 A'MPIIISI!.-i;'NA. (Gr. du<j,t, bol/t. /iancty. to walk.) 
 
 or Ophidian reptiles, iii which the tail 
 
 and head are equally obtuse, and ad so 
 
 similar to those on the back, as to ni.in-r il difficult, on a 
 
 cursory inapt ctlon, to distinguish one i a body 
 
 from the other. Hence these reptiles > 
 to have the power of creeping backward i with 
 
 equal facility. 
 
 AMPHI'BCn, or AMPHT'BOIANS. (Gr. dfift, al 
 ami si i by (he ant 
 
 . at noon-day, fall in opposite directii i 
 • ol times of the year; that is to say, toward* 
 north, when the son al noon is to the south of their zenith, 
 and towards the south when the sun is lo the north ol 
 zinith. The term consequently applies lo the p> oj! 
 pics. 
 AMPeiTHE'ATRE. (Gr. d^t, about, and Siarpov. a 
 theatre. ) in Architecture, a double theatre, or one ol an 
 elliptical figure; being, as Ka name imports, two thi 
 
 d al i in- line of the proscenium ; by which contrivance 
 all th' 
 
 one above the other, saw equally well what w 
 the an ed by the lo* 
 
 Etruscans, 
 I the flrsl e.v 
 iiis. From these the Romans acquired the taste for 
 such shows, which they comnm "iy nation 
 
 i to their dominion. Athenaen* says, k Romani, obi 
 primuni ludoa facere coeperunt, huic ascitl artifiei 
 ineniiit, ser autero. hidi omni 
 nunc a Romania celebrari solent, sunt institutiV' (L. iv. 
 cap. 17.) Tlie most extraordinary edifice remaining in 
 Home is the amphitheatre, generally called the Coliseum. 
 begun by Vespasian and finished by' Ids .-on Titus. Words 
 are inadequate lo coi factory idea of its stupen- 
 
 dous and gigantic dimensions. 
 
 " Omuls Cesareo cedat labor ampl.iilieatro, 
 L'liuin pro etincti* fama bqoalur 
 
 says Martial. It covers five English acres and a quarter of 
 ground ; the walls arc of (he height of 166 feel : i> had 
 for 87,000 spectators, with standing room for 22,000 ol 
 and a vast anna, where thousands of gladiators and wild 
 beasts contended at once — 
 
 *' BotcherM to make a Roman holiday ! : ' 
 This magnificent ruin has suffered much from earth- 
 quakes, and the destroying influence of time ; and to the 
 disgrace of the Papal government, it was allowed 10 be 
 . in comparatively recent times, as a convenient quar- 
 ry, whence the materials of many modern edifices have 
 been derived. — Still, however, its remains are such as to 
 astonish the spectator : 
 
 A ruin— yet what -iiu! From its mass, 
 
 W'ulls,' pa laces, naif-cities, have been reai'd J 
 Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass, 
 And marvel where the spoil could have appear d- 
 
 Latterly, more attention has been paid to the preserva 
 
AMPHITRITE. 
 
 Hon of this noblest monument of Imperial Rome. The 
 walls have been propped up in some places, and sentinels 
 have been placed for its protection. — Besides this amphi- 
 theatre there were three others in Rome, namely, the Am- 
 phitheatrum Castrense, probably built by Tiberius, on the 
 Esquiline; that of Statilfus Taurus ; and that built by Tra- 
 jan, in the Campus Martins. The other principal amphi- 
 theatres were those of Otricoli, on the Garigliano, of brick, 
 Pozzuoli, Capua, Verona, the foot of Monte Casino, Pala- 
 tum, Syracuse, Agrigentum, Catanea, Argos, Corinth, Pola 
 in Istria, Hipella in Spain, Nismes, Aries, Frejus, Saintes, 
 and Autun. This last has four stories, similar in that re 
 spect to the Coliseum. But that in the most perfect state 
 is tl)3 amphitheatre of Verona, which, with the exception 
 of the exterior wall, is still perfect. The first that were 
 erected, were, as we learn from Pliny, constructed of 
 wood, and usually seated in the Campus Martius, or in 
 some place out of the city. Accidents occurring from 
 their insecurity, they were abandoned for the more sub- 
 stantial species of fabric whereof we have been speaking. 
 The first person who is said to have erected an amphithe- 
 atre in Rome, was Caius Scribonius Curio, in the games 
 he gave to the people on the occasion of his father's fune- 
 ral obsequies. Determined to snnpass, in the way of 
 games, all that had hitherto been seen, he constructed two 
 theatres of wood, back to back, which, after the theatrical 
 representations had been finished, were turned round with 
 the spectators still in them, leaving the stages and scenery 
 behind, and, by their opposite junction, forming a perfect 
 amphitheatre, in which the people were gratified with a 
 show of gladiators. The part in which the gladiators 
 fought was called the arena, from being usually covered 
 with sand to absorb the blood spilt in the conflicts for 
 which it was used. The arena was encompassed by a wall, 
 called the podium, fifteen or sixteen feet in height, imme- 
 diately round which sate the senators and ambassadors. 
 As in I he theatres, the seats rose at the back of each other ; 
 fourteen rows in the rear of the podium being allotted to 
 the equites, and the remainder for the public generally, 
 who sate on the bare stone, cushions being provided for 
 the gi nafors and equites. Though generally open to the 
 sky, 1 are were contrivsni bag the whole space 
 
 with a sort of awning. The aven tes by which the public 
 entered were many in number, and bore the name of 
 vomitoria. See the work of MafFei, Degli Amfitealri ; and 
 the section on Amphitheatres in his learned and excellent 
 work, Verona Illustrata. T Kr> modern history of the Coli- 
 seum is given at considerable length in Hobhouse's Illus- 
 trations to Childe Harold. 
 
 AMPHITRI'TE. The name of a genus of cephalo- 
 branchiate or tubicular Annelides, characterised by golden- 
 coloured short bristles, arranged like a crown, in one or 
 two rows, on the anterior part of the head. One species 
 inhabits the south coast of England, and forms for its habi- 
 tation a very delicate, straight, conical tube of grains of 
 sand, agglutinated together by the mucus exuded from the^ 
 skin : this is the Amphilrite auricoma. 
 
 AMPIII'TROPAL. (Gr. du<pi, round, and rpt-mc, I turn.) 
 In Botany. This is said of an embryo which is turned 
 round albumen, or curved upon itself in such a manner 
 thai both its ends are presented to the same point. 
 
 AMPIIIU'ME, AMPHIU'MA. A genus of true amphibi- 
 ous reptiles, with a persistent branchial orifice on each 
 side of the neck ; palatal teeth in two longitudinal rows ; a 
 lengthened body, and four rudimental extremities, each di- 
 vided either into three or two toes according to the species. 
 
 AM'PHORA. (Gr. Ajupopzos, two-handled.) In Sculp- 
 ture and ornamental Architecture, a vase or measure hav- 
 ing two handles, used as a measure for liquids by the 
 Greeks and Romans : they are frequently applied as orna- 
 ments on sarcophagi, &c. 
 
 Amphora. A kind of earthenware vase with two han- 
 dles, used by the Romans to hold wine and other liquids. 
 Also a liquid measure, containing probably about nine gal- 
 lons ; but its exact size is not satisfactorily made out. 
 
 AMPLE'XICAUL. (Lat. atnplecto, I embrace, and cau- 
 lis, a stem.) A leaf or bract whose base projects on each 
 side, so as to clasp the stem with its lobes. 
 
 AMPLIFICATION. In Rhetoric, the lengthening a dis- 
 course or a passage by the enumeration of minute circum- 
 stances, the employment of epithets, particularity of de- 
 scription, &<•., wilhaviewto produce a deeper impression. 
 Exaggeration is properly a species of amplification, in 
 i circumstances and facts are not merely dwelt upon, 
 but represented beyond their true dimensions. 
 
 AM'PLITUDE. In Astronomy, denotes the angular dis- 
 tance ofa celestial body, at the time it rises or sets, from 
 tli" east or west points of the horizon. The amplitude of 
 a fixed star remains the same all the year round ; chat of 
 ni or moon is constantly changing. At a given lati- 
 tude, it depends on the declination of the object. Ampli- 
 tude is sometimes used to denote the horizontal distance 
 to which a projectile is expelled tromagun, or what is 
 more frequently termed the range of the gun. 
 4'J 
 
 ANABAS. 
 
 A'MULET. A substance worn about the person, tz\i 
 supposed to have the effect of protecting the wearei 
 against some real or imaginary evils. Those of the Per 
 sians and Egyptians are said to have been small cylinders 
 ornamented with figures and hieroglyphics. The Greeks 
 and Romans employed for the same purpose a great va- 
 riety of gems and small figures of deities, heroes, or ani- 
 mals, the bulla, and various other articles. Some of these 
 were hung around the necks of children, to defend ihem 
 from the evil eye. In more modern times, scraps ol papei 
 or parchment inscribed with verses of the Bibl 
 magical characters and jargon, have often been used fbi 
 the same purposes. The celebrated Arabian i 
 medals are called by the Arabs Ain, from the first 
 the inscription always beginning with that ctaarai 
 
 AMYGDA'LEj'E. (Gr. dnvyia\ov, an almond.) A dl 
 vision of Rosaceous plants, comprehending the p 
 plum, the apricot, and similar objects. The spec 
 all a fleshy or succulent fruit, gum in their bark, and hy- 
 drocyanic acid in their leaves. They occur principally in 
 colli and temperate latitudes. 
 
 AMY'GDALOI'D. (Gr. duvyiaXov, an almond, ami 
 eiSo;,a form.) Almond-shaped. The term is applied U 
 certain rocks in which other minerals are occasionally im- 
 bedded like almonds in a cake. 
 
 AMYRI'DA'CE^E. Balsamic exogenous plants, consist- 
 ing of shrubs or trees, found almost exclusively in the Tro- 
 pics. Bdellium, balsam of copaiva. gum elemi, and balsam 
 of ToJu, are all produced by species of this order, the type 
 ot which is the genus amyris (myrrha, myrrh.) 
 
 ANA. A termination of the neuter plural form in Latin. 
 used in English and French to denote anecdotes of emi- 
 nent persons, or selections from their works. The first ot 
 the French collections termed ''Ana," and from whicli 
 thai denomination originated, is the Valesiana; containing 
 detached observations on passages of classical antiquity by 
 the celebrated scholar Valois, or Valesius : it appeared a! 
 Paris in 1605. The Menagiana, (Paris, 1715) Es a more 
 amusing work, consisting of anecdotes, criticisms, and 
 miscellaneous observations on all possible 
 buted to the academician Menage. The popularity of this 
 work produced a multitude of other " Ana :" among whicli 
 may be mentioned the Iluetiana, 1723 ; the S< 
 Thuana, Poggiana, and a variety of similar hooks, consist- 
 ing of extracts from the works of distinguished writers, or 
 of thoughts or sayings attributed to them. 
 
 Ana, or AA (contracted from ana). In Medical pre- 
 scriptions, implies "of each." 
 
 ANABA'PTISTS. Properly, all sects are so called that 
 insist upon the repetition of baptism upon admit 
 their communion, from a notion of the invalidity of the re- 
 ligious ceremonies of other denominations. There were 
 several such in the early period of the church, as the Ca- 
 taphrygiansandOsovaliansr but they are to be distinguished 
 from tiiesects which arose in the 15th and the beginning of 
 the 16th centuries, under the papal dominion, especially in 
 Germany; and adopted, in their ignorance and fa 
 preposte'rous notions of the qualifications requisite for .•id- 
 mission into the visible church. Their idea of primitive 
 society consisted in the rejection of all the customs and 
 decencies of life; in the community of goi 
 men ; in uncompromising hostility to all modes of artificial 
 life, and to government generally, as the foundation and 
 sanction of social distinctions. They bad, of C0U1 
 dulgence for the ordinances of any church but their own, 
 and required baptism for themselves as the essential pre- 
 liminary for admission within their pale. Early in the 
 progress of the Reformation, finding their numl 
 increasing under the licentiousness of opinion which the 
 unrestricted abuse of private judgment produced among a 
 rude and uneducated people, they united in a hostile league 
 against all existing institutions, and declared open war 
 against the governments of Lower Germany. Aft 
 mitting the greatest atrocities, and causing an universal 
 panic throughout Europe, their progress was arrested by a 
 complete defeat in Saxony, in which their leader, Muncer, 
 perished. The remnant, however, escaping, established 
 their opinions with more or less moderation of tone in Hol- 
 land and elsewhere. Some of the party seized, soon after, 
 upon the town of Munster, overthrew the magistracy, and 
 established society upon their own principles : b 
 ally were put down with great slaughter. (Siee, as in the 
 Munster Anabaptists, Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, 
 sect. ii. part ii. c. 3., where reference is made to the best 
 works on the subject.) It should be observed, that the 
 anabaptists were not dependent upon religion-: views onlv 
 for their support, but that the war soon assumed the cha- 
 racter of a struggle between the lower and uppi I 
 and the enormities committed by the .insurgents must bo 
 attributed as much to revenge for oppression as to religi- 
 ous fanaticism. (iSise Baptists.) 
 
 A'NABAS. A genus of Acanthnptervgious fishes, Id 
 which the surface ofthe pharynx is broken into numerous 
 little branched appendages and cells, capable of retaining 
 
ANABLEPS. 
 
 ■ ; ;i 1 1 y dropping it into the branchial cavi- 
 whereby these fish' 
 
 ig the waier, 
 i land, and • I, of climbing 
 
 only known • tudineus) is 
 
 scahdens, or climbing perch, of the older 
 
 A'\ IBLEPS. (Gr. dva6\cjrti>, I raise the eyes.) A name 
 
 ■ i by a remai . es from 
 
 n which there result two pupils, 
 
 . io be doable ti they 
 
 -is humour, and one 
 
 LA'STICS (Or. ava, up, ami /tXau, J break.) 
 in which th i iighl is con- 
 
 ! Dioptrics. The term was ap- 
 i to the apparent curves formed 
 ioked at through a body of 
 A. natural order of exo 
 \nacnrdium Occident v nut. 
 
 s, often abounilinzin a fluid resin 
 i . but forming a valuable varnish in 
 its, the fruit oi lanaoardiam, 
 
 trnlsh from Melanorhasa usltatissima, 
 i nuts, sumach, are all pro- 
 rive natural order. 
 
 XnCHOIUTB. 
 
 ANa'CHRONISM. (Gr. dva, backward, and xPO"»Si 
 
 timr > ii or disturbance in Lime: 
 
 King John, cannon are intro- 
 
 ere not in reality employed until a hundred 
 
 1'IION. (Gr. dyaKoXovOav, not following.) 
 
 ■ J. the want of seque in a 
 
 ondl not with the 
 remaindi irs more frequently in the 
 
 ■iv other Ian 
 ■ STIC. In I'm 'try, a spcciesof ode devoted 
 ■ f love and wine ; — 
 
 ! from Ajiacrconof Teos, whoflour- 
 
 nlury b. c. The genuineness of the 
 
 i » ir h 18 name, has. however, been ques- 
 
 ; but someof them are.atall ev. Nis. 
 
 been universally admired for 
 
 their -; — 
 
 '* All UlT Terw i- »ofler far 
 
 ■iv featheri are, 
 . or of my arrow*, 
 Of mr nuttier'* (lores and srmrrnwi ; 
 Graceful, cleanly, imonlh, mil round, 
 All with Venu«* girdle bound *' 
 
 eon have been rendered familiar to 
 
 ■ ler by the translations id' Cowley and 
 
 ions of the original are tho 
 
 ' ;r. <i, without, and AaOavofiai,Ifeel.) 
 
 touch. 
 
 AN \<;l.\ "I'HIC. (Gr. dva, upon, and yXurfito, I carve.) 
 
 • I embossed work on metal. 
 
 rked in relief. When raided on stone, Ihe 
 
 When sunk or indented, it is a dia- 
 
 gtyphic ■ 
 
 ' .'r. dvayivoianu, Iread.) A domes- 
 ■veil by wealthy Romans to read to tbem 
 I nn other occasions. The ancient monks 
 and cli 1 ihe same custom, and n u 
 
 A'NAGRAM.' (Gr. dva, back, and vpafta, Itrrite.) The 
 
 anagram is that 
 ng of the letters of a word or 
 
 ■'." '• live." 
 
 • ile, and evil, havu the «elf«arne letter! ; 
 ■■■ >, whom evil hold* in fetter*" 
 
 ri m is that which is made by«trans- 
 kiters ad libitum: and an anagram In which the 
 
 ■ii'lped out by the admission of letters not 
 ginal word, or the rejection of some of those which 
 termed impure. The manufacture of ana- 
 trrani-;. particularly out of proper names, formed 
 
 ' ingenuity in the 16th and 17th centuries; 
 
 ■ mode of flattery was by Invent 
 
 - of the name of 
 
 i Hut none of the anagrams of that 
 , In felicity, Dr. Burney's on Lord 
 
 '■ taNilo." Of all the exlrava- 
 
 I by the anagrammatic fever, wl 
 
 equals what is recorded ot';< 
 ichman in the 17th century. Andre* Pui 
 read in the anagram " pendu a. It:* 
 
 seal of criminal justice in the province of Auvergne), felt 
 43 
 
 ANALOGY. 
 
 impelled to fulfil his destiny, committed a capital offence 
 in Auvergne, and was actually hung in the place to which 
 the omen pointed. 
 
 ANAL. In Ichthyology, the fin which' is placed between 
 and tail, and expands perpendicularly. 
 
 ANAL GLANDS. Comp. Anal. Organs "tor secreting 
 substance i attractive, but generally repulsive in 
 
 their properties, and applied to purposes of defenc 
 present every grade of the glandular structure, from the 
 simple cscum, or lube, to thi temass; devel- 
 
 oped from, and consequently always running Into 
 mination of the intestine, near Ihe anus. In ins 
 sweet fluid ejected by the aphides, and of which 
 are fond, is, at least in I if secern- 
 
 ing tubules opening near the anus. Odorou 
 sometimes fragrant, sometimes felid, — are in dim 
 cies of insects respectively emitted from the same part ; 
 and the singular defensive acrid vapours discharged explo- 
 sively by the insects called "bombardiers," are Ihe pro- 
 duels ot anal "lands. In lie- moliusks, Ihe most remarka- 
 ble example oi the anal glands is presented by ll • 
 
 . where they are represent 
 rally by a 
 
 wiili part of its p .valid glandular, and which 
 
 the inky fluid which these animals i 
 
 the water around them lor the purp. i ment in 
 
 time of danger. Among fishes, an anal bag opens by a sin- 
 gle narrow duct, as in cephalopoda, into the termination of 
 ihe rectum, in rays and sharks; but it no longer exercises 
 the function of a secemer of colouring matter. In 
 the anal bags are either single, double, or triple; and in 
 many n frogs and tortoises, are devi loped to a 
 
 -i/e, and serve for aquatic respiration. In eroo 
 they are two in number, and emit into the cloaca a muco- 
 caseous secretion, without any strong odour. In birds, the 
 anal follicles have a similar function, hut they are 
 gated into a single cavity, which is called the "bursa I 
 cii." In qua anal follicles are generally col- 
 
 . each having an opening 
 near the verge of tie Insupportably disgi 
 
 odour of the 
 of the viveriv 
 
 in others, Ihe odour is not Stronger than serves to attract 
 Ihe individuals of th 0.6 another. Which 
 
 is Ihe common function of the anal glands in this class of 
 
 \N AL VALVES. A mechanical structure for defending 
 
 initial Orifice of the intestines in some of the Cepha- 
 
 , which swim forwards, from the T Irance 
 
 offoreign or noxious substances. This mechanism is re. 
 
 quired firom the position and direction of the anal opening, 
 which is turned forwards towards the base of the funnel or 
 tinel. 
 \'I.<MME. A variety of zeolite, which by friction 
 
 r electric: from dva\iai, weak. 
 \i.K'<'TA. A Bervanl In ureal Roman nooses, v 
 duly it was lo collect the scraps afier a meal : whence he 
 his name, from ihe Greek nva\cvo>. I pick up. 
 [ALE'MMA (Or. ava\nn6avu>, I take up.) In Geom- 
 etry. An orthographic projection of the sphere on the 
 plane of the meridian. In r his projection the eve is sup- 
 -.■ an infinite distance. Every great cir- 
 cle whose plane is perpendicular to the plane of projection, 
 —the horizon, for example, — is represented by the chord 
 which forma its diameter. A small circle parallel to the 
 plane of projection, is represented by a circle. Every cir- 
 eat or small, of whicti the plane when produced does 
 not past through ihe eye, or Is not perpendicular to the 
 
 . will' be seen obliquely and under the 
 
 form of an ellipse. Analemma also denotes an instrument 
 of brass or wood on which the projection Is made, (the 
 plana of projection being the solstitial colure,)with a move- 
 able horizon attached to it, by means of which some of the 
 common astronomical problems may be solved, though not 
 very exactly. Ptolemy wrote a treatise on Ihe Analemma. 
 of whic Latin translation from an Arabic, ver- 
 
 sion, with i commentary by Commandine. According to 
 fibre, it contains only some complicated rales' for 
 computing the true values of Ihe arcs of the sphere from the 
 by which they are represented on the ana- 
 o volition of trigonometry, contrivances 
 of this sort have become useless. 
 
 A'N.U.F/I'-Y. (Gr. dva\ap6avG).) A species of epi- 
 leptic an. i and frequent recurrence. 
 ANALE'PTIC. A restorative medicine. 
 A'NALOGDE. A body that resembles another. A fos- 
 sil of the same species as a recent one, is its ana- 
 
 aNA'LOGY. (Gr. dvaXoyoi.accordivgtoruleoTprnjor 
 thn.) In Geometry, signifies the same thing as proportion, 
 or ihe equality or similitude of ratios. {See Piiopohtion, 
 and Ratio.) , 
 
 Analogy. In modern Zoology, this term is restricted to 
 the relation which anima'.s bear to one another ^ tin 
 
ANALYSIS. 
 
 similarity of a smaller proportion of their organisation : 
 thus, the Ascalaphus italicus, in the length and knobbed ex- 
 tremities of its antenna:, the colouring of its wings, and its 
 general aspect, exhibits a striking resemblance to a butter- 
 By; but in all the essential parts of its organisation it ad- 
 heres to the neuropterous type of structure; its relation to 
 the Lepidoptera is therefore said to be one of analogy, 
 while it is connected to the ant-lions by the order of affini- 
 ty. As it has been found in some instances, that two se- 
 ries of animals, arranged according to the greater amount 
 of resemblances, or the relation of affinity, are connected 
 to another by analogical resemblances at given points of 
 the series, the relation of analogy has been regarded as dif- 
 fering from that of affinity not only in degree, but in kind. 
 If a zoologist, for example, were led, by a too superficial 
 glance at the external resemblances of two animals, to 
 place them in the same series contiguous to one another, 
 and it were discovered that the resemblance was but skin- 
 deep, or limited to a temporary state of being, as a stage of 
 metamorphosis, but contradicted by a dissimilarity of a 
 greater proportion of the internal organisation, then it 
 would be said that he had mistaken a relation of analogy 
 for one of affinity ; a phrase which the reader, however, 
 will readily perceive merely expresses the fact, that a 
 false judgment had been formed, from not taking into 
 consideration the whole of the points of comparison ne- 
 cessary for determining the mutual relation of animals to 
 each other. 
 
 Analogy. In its Rhetorical sense, signifies a similarity 
 of two tilings in their relation to a third, though there may 
 be the greatest difference in their structure, form, colour, 
 &c. : thus, a hat is analogous to a turban, and both are 
 analogous to a bonnet, having a similar relation to the head 
 of the wearer. In this sense, a porpoise is analogous not 
 only to a fish, but to every other animal which habitually 
 moves and seeks its food in the water. It often happens, 
 however, in Zoology, that a similarity of relationship to a 
 medium of locomotion, a kind of food, &c, is accompanied 
 with a certain amount of corporeal and organic resem- 
 blance ; and this is necessary to constitute an analogy in 
 the zoological sense, though by no means in the strictly 
 logical application of the word. 
 
 Analogy. In ordinary Language, denotes a relation or 
 similarity between different things in certain respects. 
 The conclusions to which we are led concerning one thing, 
 by reasoning from our experience concerning another si- 
 milar thing, form what is termed analogical knowledge. 
 The word analog; is generally employed to designate an 
 imperfect degree of similarity. Thus, a physician, argu- 
 ing from the effects which he had seen produced by a drug 
 )i'. one man, to its probable effects on another man, would 
 De said to reason from experience : but reasoning from the 
 effects produced on an inferior animal, to the probable 
 effects on man, would be, more properly, reasoning by 
 malugy. — In Rhetoric, the word analogy is employed in a 
 somewhat stricter sense ; it designates, not the specific re- 
 semblance between two objects, but a resemblance be- 
 tween the relations in which they stand to other objects. 
 Thus, to term youth " the dawn of life," is said to be a me- 
 taphor by analogy ; not because of any actual resemblance 
 between youth and morning, but because the one is to life, 
 what the other is Co the day. — In Mathematics, analogy 
 signifies the similitude of certain proportions. — In Gratei- 
 mar, it means a conformity in the principles of organisa- 
 tion of different words or collections of words. 
 
 ANA'LYSIS. (Gr. di/aXt><», 1 dissulvt.) A Greek word 
 which signifies the resolution of a Ih.ng into its component 
 parts. — la Logic, analysis is used in opposition to synthesis, 
 as a method of arriving at adequate definitions. In the 
 synthetical method, we begin by assuming some quality 
 which the subject is known to possess. Finding this to be • 
 common to other subjects than the one we wish to define, | 
 we add on some further property and so on, until we have 
 adequately distinguished it from all other things. Thus, 
 man is an animal, man is a hot blooded animal, man is a 
 hot-blooded viviparous animal, &c. &c, may be taken 
 as a specimen of a synthetical process. In analysis we 
 should reverse the method ; assuming the most distin- 
 guishing characteristic, and descending, through succes- 
 sive gradations, to that which is least so. Correspondently 
 with this distinction, an analytical proposition is one in 
 which the subject is implied in the predicate ; e. g, " mat- 
 ter is extended." A synthetical proposition, on the con- 
 trary, is that in which the terms have no necessary con- 
 nection: e.g. "John is tall:" "the world is round." As 
 applied to mental phenomena, analysis is the referring 
 them to the acts or faculties of the mind which they ne- 
 cessarily imply, either as contemporaneously contribut- 
 ing to their production, or as rendering their production 
 possible by their past operation. 
 
 The distinction frequently made between analytic and 
 synthetic reasoning, rests on a somewhat vague use of lan- 
 guage. Strictly speaking, all reasoning can be but of one 
 kind. A process of ratiocination admits, however, of being 
 44 
 
 reversed : i. e. we may make certain assumptions, and 
 from them form certain legitimate deductions ; and we 
 may then proceed to take the truths thus deduced for 
 granted, and by a counter-process arrive, as inferen.' 
 what, in the former case, were the grounds from which we 
 started. Here it is evident that the distinction lies not in 
 the reasoning, but in the subject-matter concerning which 
 we reason. 
 
 Analysis. In Chemistry, this term is applied to the re- 
 solution of compound bodies into their elements. It is 
 either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative 
 sists in the determination of the component parts, merely 
 as respects their nature, and without reference to their re- 
 lative proportions: it is an imperfect, and often a very easy 
 operation, as compared with quantitative analysis, by which 
 we determine not merely the components of a compound, 
 but their relative proportions: to effect this, much si 
 tific skill and practical dexterity are required, more espe- 
 cially in the identification of new substances. The theory 
 of definite proportionals, or the Atomic Theory, as it is 
 usually called, has materially facilitated many analytical 
 processes, and is especially valuable in furnishing an 
 unerring test or criterion of the general accuracy of the 
 results. 
 
 In reference to chemical analysis generally, but more 
 especially as regards organic products, we often employ 
 the terms proximate and ultimate analysis: the former 
 referring to the immediate combinations which form the 
 subject of experiment; the latter to their final resolutions 
 into elementary principles. Thus, in regard to sulphate of 
 lime, it is resolved by proximate analysis into sulphuric 
 acid and lime, and these are called its proximate elements ; 
 but sulphuric acid is itself a compound of oxygen and sul- 
 phur; and lime, of oxyen and calcium; oxygen, sulphur, 
 and calcium, therefore, are the results of the ultimate 
 analysis of sulphate of lime ; and there are many theoreti- 
 cal points in chemistry dependent upon the views which 
 are taken of the various groupings of these ultimate princi- 
 ples. Wheat flour is a compound of starch and gluten; 
 starch is compounded of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon; 
 and gluten, of the same elements with the addition of ni- 
 trogen ; so that the ultimate components of wheat, a 
 yeen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen. See Rose's Pracfi 
 cal Treatise on Chemical Analysis ; Griffin's Blov 
 Analysis, &c. 
 
 Analysis. In Geometry, a method of conductinj 
 ometrical inquiries, invented by the philosophers of the 
 school of Plato, or, according to Theon of Alexandri 
 Plato himself, and one of the most ingenious and beau 
 contrivances in the Mathematics. The essence of the 
 lytic method of establishing the truth of a proposition run 
 sists in assuming the proposition enunciated to be true 
 and deducing consequences from that supposition till * 
 conclusion is arrived at manifestly true ormanifi 
 or at least known to be true or false b; i i>i 
 
 disagreement with some proposition which 
 been demonstrated. Analysis is thus the converse of syn- 
 thesis, or composition, — a form of reasoning by which we 
 ascend, through a series of propositions, from some known 
 truth to the conclusion we are in search of. The dislinc 
 tion between analysis and synthesis, as well as the defini- 
 tion of the two terms in the sense in which they were un- 
 derstood by the ancient geometers, is concisely given by 
 Pappus, in the Preface to the Seventh Book of his Mathe- 
 matical Collections. "Analysis," says Pappus, "i 
 course which, setting out from the thing sought, and which 
 for the moment is taken for granted, conducts by a series 
 of consequences to something already know i 
 among the number of principles admitted to be true. By 
 this method, therefore, we ascend from a truth or a pi < 
 tioii to its antecedents; and we call it analysis, or resolu- 
 tion, as if indicating an inverted solution. In synthesis, on 
 the contrary, we see out from the proposition which 
 last in the analysis: and proceed by arranging, accoi 
 to their nature, tne antecedents which present themselves 
 as consequents 'n the analytic method, and combining 
 them together till we arrive at the conclusion sought. 
 lysis'Vnay be distinguished into two kinds: in die first, 
 which may be called contemplative analysis, we prop., 
 discover the truth or falsehood of an affirmed ] 
 the other belongs to the solution of problems, or the inves- 
 tigation of unknown truths. In i assume the 
 subject of the proposition advanced to be true, ami proi 
 through the consequences of the hypothesis til! we arrive 
 at something known. If this result is true, the proposition 
 is true also, and the direct demonstration is obtained by 
 stating in an inverse order the different parts of the analy- 
 sis. If the ultimate consequence at which we arrive Is 
 false, the proposition was also false. In I 
 blem, we first, suppose it to be resolved, and deduce 
 
 |uences resulting from that proposition til 
 at something known. If the last consi irolvei 
 
 only something which can be executed, or is comprised 
 among what geometers called data, the pi 
 
ANALYSIS. 
 
 ulve<]; and the demonstration, or rather in this 
 action, is obtained, as in the former case, 
 
 of the analysis in an inverse 
 lit is impossible, the thing demanded 
 
 ,!ile. : ' 
 
 mea of the ancient writers on the geometrical ana- 
 
 rved by Pappus in the preface before 
 
 . to: lli^y are. Euclid, in his Data anil Porismaia; 
 
 is, in his treo one Rationis, and in his 
 
 lis ; and Eratos- 
 
 , Ijui uf these only the 
 
 3, however, been 
 lerns, and a complete system 
 be found in the 
 jow. (See also Lea 
 
 term analysis the ancient geometers un 
 ning altogether independen 
 I which might be carried on by ordinary 
 xeplation, analysis is synony- 
 the calculus, and is oppos 
 metry. In this sense lb 
 . is entirely lost sight of; an ! 
 
 licidar mode of reasoning, it 
 
 ■ the instrument by which the reasoning is 
 
 oyed with advantage, 
 
 ; demonstration be analytical or syn- 
 
 ■.rising from the use of algebra in the 
 
 .ins, consists in this, — that the 
 
 certain rules, and carried on 
 
 in consequence of which, the 
 
 ed his problem to equations, can ge- 
 
 ine at a glance, whether the soluti< 
 
 II must be admitted, that the demoi 
 
 itionsof elementary geometry by the 
 ancient m iliar elegance which the alge- 
 
 braic methods cannot always reach; but, in point of power 
 and applicability, the modern analysis is vastly superior to 
 the ancient. "The geometrical synthesis," says Laplace, 
 " has the advantage of never losing sight of Its object, and of 
 illumi.jating the whole path which leads from the first ax- 
 ices; whereas the algebraic 
 principal object in or- 
 der to occupy ns with abstract combinations. But in thus 
 after having abstracted from them 
 i he Is in search 
 manning himself to the operations of analysis, and 
 : ill his forces to overcome the difficulties which 
 ills inaccessible 
 . that it is 
 particular truths into this universal 
 ■ rceive a series of other new and tin- 
 from their mere expressions. No 
 i illy susceptible of the elegance which re- 
 in the development of a long series of ex p 
 y connected with one another, and all flowing 
 from the same fundamental Idea, Analysis also unites 
 il ways capable of lead- 
 ing t .) the simplest methods; for this purpose it is only re- 
 to apply it suitably, by a skilful choice of indeter- 
 minate quantities, and to give the results the form the most 
 nr for geometrical construction or numerical cal- 
 Hodcrn geometers, convinced of the superiority 
 of analysis, have especially applied themselves to extend 
 its domain, and enlarge its limits." — (Exposition du Sys- 
 tem* du Monde, 4to. p 
 
 Analysis is In general the instrument of invention; and it 
 is supposed, not without reason, that the greater part of the 
 discoveries, for which the mathematicians of the 17th cen- 
 tury were distinguished, were mule by Its means, though 
 they were given to the world in a synthetical form. It is 
 evident, from the posthumous worksof Pascal and Rober- 
 val, that they first obtained the solution of many of their 
 problems by the method of indivisibles, and afterwards de- 
 monstrated the truth of their results in the manner of the 
 ancients. Newton himself thought that a mathematical 
 proposition ought not to be made public, or was not fit to be 
 seen, till invested in a synthetic dress. Synthetic, demon- 
 stration is now rarely met with in any other than the most 
 elementary works; thf algebraic analysis has become the 
 ordinary instrument of mathematical investigation. "Ne- 
 vertheless," says Laplace, "geometrical considerations 
 ought not to be entirely abandoned ; they are of great utility 
 in the arts. Besides, it is Interesting to figure to one's self 
 in space the divers results of analysis ; and reciprocally to 
 read the affections of lines and surfaces, and all the varia- 
 tions of the motion of bodies, in the equations which ex- 
 press them. This connection of geometry and analysis 
 throws a new light over both sciences ; the intellectual ope- 
 rations of the latter, rendered sensible by the former, are 
 more easily apprehended, and more interesting to follow ; 
 and when the imagination realises these images, and trans- 
 45 
 
 ANATHEMA. 
 
 forms geometrical results into laws of nature ; when those 
 laws, while they embrace the universe, unveil to our eyes 
 its past and future conditions; the sight of this sublime 
 spectacle atfords the noblest of the pleasures reserved for 
 the human race." — Exposition du Systems du Monde, p. 
 421) 
 
 AXAMORPIIO 'SIS. (Gr. dva, backiccrd, and poptyr), 
 
 form.) A term employed in Perspective, to denote uilmiv- 
 
 ued la such a manner that, when viewed in the 
 
 common way, it presents a confused or distorted image of 
 
 the thing represented, or an image of something entirely 
 
 . but when viewed from a particular point, or as 
 
 mirror, or through a polyhedron, it 
 
 recovers its proportions, and presents a distinct i 
 
 lation of the object. 
 
 Anamorphosis. In Botany, when any part assumes an 
 appearance unusual with it. The calyx of the rose as- 
 suming il. " of a fruit, the stipule of a prosopis 
 im of a cactus when succulent and 
 tube-lil "(.anamorphosis. 
 ANA'NAS (Ananas, Brazilian.) The plant that pro- 
 delicious pineapples of the gardens. It is of 
 South American origin, but has been gradually dispersed 
 through similar climates till it has become apparently wild 
 in Africa and many parts of Asia, especially the Malayan 
 igo, where it arrives at a greater degree of excel- 
 lence than In Its nail 
 
 ANA NDROUS. (fir. d, without, and dvnp, (genitive 
 
 dvipos), a maleor stamen.) When flowers are destitute of 
 
 re usually called female flowers. 
 
 A 'NAP. EST. ((Jr. di/airaitrrof.) A foot in Greek and 
 
 uf two short syllables followed by a 
 
 long, belt) iflha dactyle. 
 
 ANaTHORA. (Gr. ava^opa, raising up.) In Rheto- 
 isor phrases at (he commencement 
 s. Thus in Cicero, Verr. iv. c. 10., 
 Verres calumniatores apponebat. Verves adesse jubebat, 
 eognotcebat, Pi r i ex judicubat. 
 AN \l'l OTIIE'RIUM Set Anopi.otherium. 
 v NAIli 1IY. (Gr. d, without, dpx<>>, I govern.) In Poli- 
 ition of a country in which not only lawful 
 mi. bin regular government dejaev 
 by force. Hence Milton metaphorically terms his personi- 
 fied Chaos an •' Anarch." 
 
 AN AKKHi't II \s A name conceived by Gesner and 
 applied by Linnajus to a genus of spiny. finned osseous 
 laracteriaed by having their mandibular, palatine, 
 and vomerine bones armed with lai tubercles, 
 
 bearing on their summits small enamelled teeth ; anterior- 
 ly the jaws support longer and more conical U 
 means of this powerful dental apparatus the species of this 
 genus, which inhabits the northern seas, called the " wolf- 
 fish," is enabled to break and bruise the testaceous defen- 
 sive coverings of shellfish, the soft parts of which form its 
 ordinary : 
 
 (Lat anas, a duck.) The name of a Linnasan 
 
 genus of Anserine birds, characterised by a large, broad, 
 
 at the margin with numerous thin, 
 
 transverse, projecting plates; and an obtuse papillose or 
 ciliate tongue. The subdivisions of this extensive group of 
 web footed birds, which were indicated by Ltnntsus, have 
 since been raised to the rank of genera (see An atid«), and 
 the term Anas is now restricted to the species which pre- 
 sent a flattened bill, the base of which is always of greater 
 breadth than depth, as wide (or wider) at the extremity as 
 at the beginning ; with nostrils placed nearer the upper 
 margin and tn.se of the bill. The legs are shorter and 
 placed farther back than in the goose (iuuer); they have a 
 shorter neck, and the windpipe is dilated at its lower end 
 into two osseous capsules, of which the left is usually the 
 larger. The ducks, thus characterised, are subdivided in- 
 to those which have the hind toe provided with a mem- 
 brane, and those in which it is naked. Both divisions are 
 again broken up into numerous minor groups, which are 
 tuished by generic terms. 
 
 ANASA'RCA. (Gr. dva, through, and aarf, flesh.) A 
 diffusion of water through the cellular membrane of the 
 limbs, as in < I . 
 
 A.N ; V'STO.MO'SING. When two parts, growing in dif- 
 ferent directions, meet and grow together, as the veins in 
 
 ANA'STOMO'SIS. (Gr. dva, through, and cropa, a 
 mouth.) The communications of the vessels of the body 
 with each other. 
 
 ANA 'STROPHE. A name given in Classical Philology 
 to some species of inversion (see Inversion) or deparlure 
 from the usual order of succession in words. From the 
 Greek avaarpapio, I overturn or invert. Such phrases as 
 mecum, vobiscum, <&c, in which the preposition follows 
 the word governed by it, or in which it is placed between 
 two words governed by it, &c, are instances of anastrophe. 
 
 ANATHEMA. (Gr. avaOepa.) Properly, a thing laid 
 by, consecrated, or devoted : hence a person upon whom 
 the ban of the church is laid, is said to be anathematised 
 
ANATID.E. 
 
 or in the Jewish phrase, to be "anathema." St. Paul 
 says, "If we or an angel from heaven preach any other 
 gospel to you than that which we have preached, let him 
 bo anathema:" and upon the authority of this and similar 
 passages, the church assumed from the first the power of 
 anathematising or excommunicating evildoers and heretics. 
 
 ANA'TIO^E. The name of a family of web-footed birds, 
 of the swan, goose, and duck kind, of which the genus 
 Anas is the type. 
 
 AN V'TO.Yiy. (From ava, through, and re uvea, I cut.) 
 This term literally mesas dissection, but is generally under- 
 stood to signify a knowledge of the internal structure of 
 the human body, in the acquisition of which dissection is 
 essentially necessary. The anatomy of other animals is 
 Usually designated Comparative Anatomy ; and that of 
 plants, Vegetable Anatomy ; which see. 
 
 Although some anatomical knowledge must have been 
 accidentally acquired by the earliest inhabitants of the 
 globe, and although there are several allusions in the early 
 books of the Old Testament to the subject, no dissections 
 of the human body were performed with a view to ascer- 
 tain the position and structure of its internal organs, or to 
 elucidate their functions, till a much later period. 
 
 Homer has, it is true, been complimented, and in some 
 respects justly so, for the precision with which he de- 
 scribes the wounds of his heroes; and the ancient Egyp- 
 tians are said to have acquired great anatomical skill by 
 their practice in the art of embalming; but these, and simi- 
 lar statements, have no bearing upon the pursuit of anato- 
 my as a science, or in connection with surgery, medicine, 
 and physiology. Thales, Socrates, Xenophon, and Plato. 
 are each quoted by anatomical historians, as having ac- 
 quired no inconsiderable anatomical knowledge ; Plato is 
 even said to have anticipated the celebrated discovery of 
 the circulation of the blood. "The heart," he says, " is 
 the centre of the blood-vessels, the spring of the blood, 
 whence it flows rapidly round : blood is the pabulum of 
 the flesh, in order to the nutriment of which the body is 
 ■ id by canals, like those of gardens, to convey the 
 blood like water from a fountain, to the remote parts." 
 
 The first author who is supposed to have written on hu- 
 man anatomy is Hippocrates ; and the first recorded dis- 
 section was, probably, made by 1 1 is contemporary Demo- 
 crittts of Abdera. This carries us back to about 400 years 
 before the Christian era, from which period, to that of Ga- 
 ien, (that is, in the space of 600 years,) little progress 
 seems to have been made in the knowledge even of the 
 structure and position of the viscera of the body, much less 
 ill their uses anil diseases. 
 
 It would appear from Galen that the most eminent anato- 
 mists of antiquity were Erasistratus and Herophilus, who 
 taught anatomy in the celebrated school of Alexandria, 
 ana are said to have been the first who were authorised to 
 dissect human bodies: hence, probably, the high rank 
 which the school, founded by the Ptolemies, acquired, 
 ami maintained for several hundred years. The works of 
 the above-mentioned anatomical professors have been lost, 
 but they are abundantly quoted by their more immediate 
 successors. 
 
 Among the Romans the first anatomist was, probably, 
 Asclepiades, who flourished in the time of Pompey ; and 
 soon afterwards Rome became a celebrated seat of medi- 
 cal science. Celsus, Aretteus, and Galen, are the orna- 
 ments of this period; especially the latter, as an anato- 
 mist; though it appears probable that his descriptions 
 were often taken from dissections of inferior animals, and 
 applied to the corresponding organs of the human body: 
 it is, however, said, that he anticipated many subsequent 
 discoveries, and that a great part of his writings were for a 
 long time unintelligible, till cleared up and explained by 
 the labours of t lis successors. 
 
 During the dark ages anatomy sustained the fate of other 
 branches of knowledge; and, with few exceptions, little 
 progress was made in it, till the revival of learning in Eu- 
 rope; the prejudice, too, against the dissection of the hu- 
 man body was not only maintained, but sanctioned by the 
 highest existing authorities. In the year 1315, a System of 
 Anatomy was drawn up by Mundinus, chiefly, it is said, 
 founded upon such parts of Galen's doctrines as had been 
 preserved by the Arabians. This work deserves notice, 
 as having been the anatomical textbook of the schools of 
 Italy fora period of nearly 200 years. Mundinus is, in- 
 dee'd, celebrated by his contemporaries as the restorer of 
 anatomy. Early in the fifteenth century, when learning 
 began to revive in Europe, in consequence chiefly of the 
 introduction of the writings of the Greek authors, nume- 
 rous treatises on the Sciences made their appearance, 
 amongst which anatomy formed a prominent subject ; and 
 among its most successful followers, the name of the cele- 
 brated Leonardo da Vinci may be recorded, although he. 
 apparently only pursued it in reference to his own art. 
 [See the sketches annexed to Memoire Storiche di L. da 
 Vinci, by C. Amoretti, Milano, 1804.) In reference to some 
 of the drawings and their descriptions, preserved in the li- 
 46 
 
 ANATOMY. 
 
 brary of George III., and which he had access to, Dr. Hun- 
 ter observes, that he saw with astonishment that Leonardo 
 had been a deep student, "and was at that time the best 
 anatomist in the world." We must give the fifteenth cen- 
 tury the credit of Leonardo's anatomical studies, as he was 
 fifty-five years of age at its close. At the beginnii 
 sixteenth century Berengarius and Massa • 
 man anatomy ; but such was the authority 
 at that time, that few dared publish any statement or opin- 
 ions contradicting those of their infallible master. About 
 the middle, however, of the sixteenth century, this spell 
 was broken by the celebrated Vesalius of Brussels, who 
 taught anatomy at Paris and Louvain, and alter 
 Itaiy. He boldly demonstrated the errors of Galen ; de. 
 scribed accurately the dissections of trie body, corrected 
 and improved anatomical nomenclature, and insisted upon 
 the necessity of diligence and actual observation in dissec 
 tion, as the only solid foundation of successful medical and 
 surgical practice. He had many opponents, and is said to 
 have been detected in the very mischievous error for 
 which he blames Galen; namely, that of describing the 
 human viscera from dissections made upon quadrupeds. 
 
 Among the most remarkable contemporaries or imme- 
 diate successors of Vesalius, were Fallopkis and Eusta- 
 chius,— the former of Padua, the latter of Venire ; whose 
 names, as annexed to their discoveries, have been handed 
 down to posterity. Indeed, the schools of Italy seem to 
 have been the only accessible sources of practical anatomy 
 at that period : in France and England an antipathy to dis- 
 section prevailed, which was fatal to all anatomical im- 
 provement. Cortesius, who wrote at the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, and who, after having been | 
 of anatomy at Bologna, tilled the chair of medicine 
 suia. complains that he was prevented finishing a treatise 
 on Practical Anatomy, in consequence of having only been 
 able twice to dissect a human body in the course of twen- 
 ty-four years, "whereas in the academies of Italy there is 
 that opportunity once every year." 
 
 About this time the name of the renowned Harvey be- 
 comes conspicuous in the annals of anatomy : he, like his 
 most eminent, contemporaries, studied medicine in Italy. 
 Fabricius ab Aquapendente, who was his master, had just 
 made the highly important discovery of the vah 
 veins ; and it. was this which, probably, more especially di- 
 rected Harvey's attention to the use of the heart, and the 
 vascular system : for at that time ihe liver was considered 
 as its great centre, and the veins were supposed to convey 
 the blood from it to the remote parts of Ihe body. Har- 
 vey's great discovery of the circulation of the blood was 
 taught by him in his lectures as early as 1616, though not 
 published till 1628, in consequence of his desire to demon- 
 strate the subject in detail, and to collect proofs and illus- 
 trations of the correctness of his doctrines. Thisdl 
 was not only of vast intrinsic importance, but, as is the 
 case in all similar Instances, it led to others; and the route 
 of the blood had no sooner been traced and di 
 than the manner in which the nutritious part of the food is 
 conveyed into the circulation became an object of research : 
 this was successfully developed by Asellius, an Italian phy- 
 sician, in the year 1627. He was so fortunate as to see the 
 lacteals filled'with chyle, and to trace them to Iheir com- 
 mon trunk, the thoracic duct, and thence into the blood- 
 vessels. The lymphatic system was also soon afterwards 
 detected, and first described by T. Bartoline, a Dan 
 tomist ; and this was followed by important detail 
 upon the anatomy of the gravid uterus and of the 
 tive system, in which nearly all the celebrated B 
 of Europe had a share; and among them Harvey was con- 
 spicuous, though Dr. Hunter attributes, with apparent in- 
 justice, his knowledge upon this subject, ami oven the 
 merit of detecting the use of the arteries, to his master 
 Fabricius. The physiology of generation was more espe- 
 cially followed up by Bwammerdam, Malpighi, and Leuen- 
 hoek, who were enabled greatly to extend the bounds of 
 anatomical knowledge by their ingenious use of the mi 
 croscope. 
 
 Although England has produced many celebrat 
 mists, there is no one to whom it is so deeply indebted as 
 Dr. William Hunter, who was born in 171S, at Kilbride, ir 
 Lanarkshire, and was contemporary with the celebrate! 
 Cullen. Dr. Hunter went to London in 17-11, taking with 
 him an introduction to Dr. Douglas, who was then 
 in a work upon the bones, and was a young 
 
 man who might assist in his dissections. He found in 
 William Hunter a person so exactly suited to his purpose, 
 that he not only engaged him as an assistant, but received 
 him into his family and made him his son's tutor. As our 
 object here is to give a brief historical Outline of B 
 rather than the biography of its successful cultivators, we 
 must pass over many interesting points in Dr. Hunter'a 
 earlv history, till he came before the public as an anato- 
 mist, which was in the year 1743. when he communicated 
 to the Royal Society an Essay "On the Structure and Dis- 
 eases of Articulating Cartilages;" and was remarkelfor 
 
ANATOMTf. 
 
 nuity, and skill in tlie arrangement of 
 of which he bad accumulated a 
 Hon, wiili a view of pursuing his favour- 
 namely, that of publicly teaching anatomy. H<' 
 this arduous (ask in 1746, under the an: 
 
 it Garden, in whose theatre lie 
 
 In 1717 he 
 
 [ember of the Corporation of Surgeons : and in 
 
 pring of the following year, having concluded his 
 
 pil, Mr. James 
 
 lid and France, He returned in lime 
 
 rin his winter courae, during which he not only ac- 
 
 ij a high character as an anatomist, but commenced 
 
 of midwifery, in winch he soon attained emi- 
 
 . founded not merely upon his person and address, 
 
 if which were agreeable and well suited to thai line 
 
 profession, but upon his anatomical skill ; so that, in 
 
 : and difficulty it soon became customary 
 
 t his celebrity became so 
 
 In 1762 Dr. 
 
 ■ in of his cl 
 
 . in a work entitled "Medi- 
 
 :" and in the is ap- 
 
 |ueen of George III. His profes- 
 
 now became so numerous and urgent, 
 
 I to take a partner In his lectures, and for 
 
 pupil, William HeWSOn, who af- 
 
 tied Mr. Cruickshank, two gentlemen 
 
 upy no unimportant place In the history of 
 
 i and structural anatomy. 
 
 In 17M Dr. Hunter began his mat and splendid work 
 
 : Uterus," which was not 
 
 till 1775. This nve him a high rank among 
 
 I domestic honours 
 
 d upon him in consequence; but 
 
 menl of his Museum, and School, that 
 
 ■ principally to look for the new impulse which was 
 
 of anatomy in London, and for the cele- 
 
 tropolis has I'heac- 
 
 f this Museum, therefore, 
 
 fly recorded here. When Dr. Hunter 
 
 I a competent fortu II entirely of 
 
 mal merit and unwearied diligence, he 
 
 . still pouring in upon him, and b 
 
 national pur- 
 siit or useful 
 Iropolitan School of Anatomy .'" He a 
 
 176,'j, during the administration of Mr. 
 
 ■ 1 a memorial to that miiiisier, In which 
 
 i the erant of an unemploj jround 
 
 . e siti- of his 
 
 : upon which he undertook to expend 
 
 tuily. After waiting for some time without ■ I 
 he renewed his request, or rather repeated his pro- 
 posal : and his second application, Which WU even iii 
 
 more liberal terms than the former, shared the same su- 
 percilious treatment. Althongl as he well 
 might be, at this unaccountable neglect, he determined 
 n in which he had acquired his wealth and re- 
 putation should not be without some useful and honorable 
 
 orialof his labours: he accordingly purchased a 
 of ground in Great Windmill street, near the Haymarket, 
 ■■• he erected a spacious dwelling-house, behind which 
 magnificent fire-proof room, fitted up as a museum 
 library, and communicating with a good anatomical 
 theatre, and an extensive series of apartment 
 tion an'l for the preparation of anatomical specimens. 
 . was completed in 1770. 
 iter expended upon this Museum a sum exceed- 
 i.OOOL : it included, besides its unrivalled anatomical 
 plendid and valuable collection of books, coins, 
 of minerals, shells, and other ar 
 iral history. By bis will, the u~e of this Mu- 
 direction of trustees, devolved upon his 
 lew IlaiMie ; and in case of his death, to 
 1 ruickshank, for the term of thirty years ; at the end 
 ikh period the entire collection was bequeathed to 
 oWj together with a sum of 8,000/. 
 Dr. Hunter died on the 20th of March, 
 U his will, in regard to his Museum, ha 
 carried Into effect, and it is now in Ola 
 To say nothing of the hooks, antiquities, and objects of 
 natural history. i» contalm 
 
 tion. the finest series of anatomical specimens In Europe. 
 Thus, through the apathy of the administration of that day, 
 was this unrivalled collection lost to the metropolis Dr. 
 Hunter's u uuificent intentions must, however, nevi 
 
 Uen: he furnished a noble and rare example of a man 
 i as he bad rendered himself independent by 
 h;3 own exertion. In a laborious and difficult profession, ap- 
 plied the whole of his lanre income to a great public ob- 
 lect; and, though :1 warted in his original desire, that it 
 47 
 
 I should remain in the metropolis in which the fortune ex- 
 
 led upon it had been amassed, as a monument of his 
 
 tude, and an example to his successors, he was, never- 
 
 3, sufficiently liberal and patriotic to devote it to the 
 
 use of the public, by bequeathing it to the university which 
 
 had granted Mm his degree. 
 
 Dr. Hunter not only gave a new impulse to anatomical 
 Science, the effects of which have been transmitted to the 
 present time, but his zeal in behalf of his favourite pur- 
 suit tended to make many converts. Among these, the 
 celebrated John Hunter stands foremost. Hearing of his 
 reputation, he offered his services as an assist- 
 ant in his inquiries, and his proposal was kindly 
 
 Accordingly, in September, 1748, he left Lanarksl 
 
 then twenty years of age. His disposition to excel In 
 
 anatomical pursuits soon became evident. In the 
 
 of the race ling year he had rendered him ielf sufficient- 
 
 of the subject to instruct ins brother's pupils in 
 
 tctmg-room; and In 1755 was admitted to a part- 
 nership In the lectures. His ardour and enthusiasm ss an 
 anatomist were most extraordinary, and he became as 
 eminent in surgery as his brother was In physic ; yet his 
 more lucrative professional avocations were never allowed 
 
 ede bis scientific zeal; and the result was, the 
 formation of a Museum of Comparative Anatomy, which 
 is at once a memorial of a scientific mind and a skilful 
 hand. Mr. Hunter died suddenly on the 16th of October, 
 1793, at the age of 65. He directed by his will that his Mu- 
 seum, upon which be had expended nearly the ' 
 his large professional income, should be offered to the 
 purchase of the English government ; and, fortunately (or 
 the credit of the country, the j With a very dif. 
 
 ((•rent reception to that which we have above recorded in 
 to his brother. It was purchased for the sum of 
 er, under certain conditions, which 
 
 n not only faithfully, but liberally, fulfilled, to the 
 i Surgeons in London, it is one of the 
 
 ndfd collections in the world, and in many re- 
 spects unrivalled ; it is open, under prop, i 
 n, in the magnificent buil 
 
 ge forits reception, on the south side of Lincoln's 
 
 inn Fields. 
 
 Another convert to anatomical pursuits, educated in lh<; 
 school of William Hunter, was his nephew, the : 
 thew BailHe. His virtues and his talents placed him high 
 
 in public estimation ; his anatomical knowledge wag the 
 
 foundation of his professional eminence; and the excel- 
 lence of his lectures, both as regards matter and manner, 
 tended to exalt the reputation of his uncle's school, and to 
 establish the Importance of anatom] . of medi- 
 
 s than of SOTglca] practice. 
 We have dwelt upon the Ifnutcrian School, from the 
 conviction that it gave a character to anatomical pursuits, 
 eticially Influenced their sub- 
 sequent progress, not only in London, but throughout the 
 Their Importance and their necessity as the 
 of medicine and surgery 
 publicly felt and ackt)o\ 
 
 tion of the human body is on the wane; and the degrading 
 and disgraceful practice of allowing the schools of anato- 
 my ro be supplied with subjects for dissection, by the ro- 
 of exhumation, has been 
 Human anatomy is usually subdivided into descriptive, 
 hid, or, more correctly, pathological. 
 •irn Anatomy embraces a description of the dif 
 ferent organs of the body, together with their relative situa- 
 tions and connei imines the textures of which 
 they are formed, enumerates the nerves and v< 
 which they are supplied, and gives all general and particu- 
 lar details concerning their organisation. Having done 
 this, it proceeds to the analogies that sub-ist among the 
 materials of which different organs are composed ; and is 
 thus bd to specify the proximate constituent parts of the 
 living bodv. 
 
 or Pathouigicou Anatomy comprehends all that 
 
 relates to I f disease upon healthy . structures ; 
 
 flllly traces and describes the changes of texture 
 
 and of composition which they thus suffer, in reference to 
 
 the entire organ, as well as to its individual parts. 
 
 We shall now proceed to give a short description of the 
 parts of which the human body is constructed, referring 
 lor the account of individual organs to the separate terms 
 Under which they are enumerated. 
 Anatomical teachers generally first direct the student's 
 to that branch of the subject which is termed 
 .- in other words, to the bones or skeleton, con- 
 he hardest and most durable part of the whole 
 Structure, and that which gives it its stability and general 
 form. At the period of birth, the bones, for obvious rea- 
 lld not exist With the degree of induration and 
 firmness which they possess in the adult ; we accordingly 
 find that, at that period, they are mostly soft and flexible 
 g cartilage, with certain specks of osseous matter 
 which gradually extend and increase, as the process o» 
 
ANATOMY. 
 
 ossification advances during the growth of the young ani- 
 mal. In contemplating this bony skeleton when it has thus 
 become perfect, we are struck with the admirable adapta- 
 tion ami mutual connection of the various parts of which it 
 consists; the separate bones being extremely numerous, 
 (including the teeth, amounting to about 250,) and attached 
 to each other by unequal surfaces, the cavities and emi- 
 nences of which mutually correspond. These connec- 
 tions, termed articulations, are extremely various ; some 
 admitting of every variety of motion, others of limited mo- 
 .ion, and other-, as it were, continuously united. In the 
 former case the evils of friction are perfectly provided 
 against by the peculiarity of tbe articulating surfaces, which 
 are covered with an extremely smooth and elastic sub- 
 stance, called cartilage ; and lubricated, or as it were oiled, 
 by a slippery lluid termed synovia, which here performs 
 precisely the same office as that of the various anti-attri- 
 tions which are used in machinery. Butas the bones must 
 be more or less restricted in their range of motion, there 
 are peculiar means by which that end is attained : some 
 being prevented from changing their relative situations by 
 certain modes of articulation ; others, where a slight mo- 
 tion is required, being united by cartilage; and others, 
 where extensive and varied motions are wanted, being con- 
 nected by ligaments, membranes, or flesh. Ligaments are 
 white, fibrous, glistening, and flexible substances, occurring 
 in an infinite variety of forms and situations. They are, for 
 the most part, exterior to the joint, and, by their great 
 strength and trifling elasticity, preserve the relative position 
 or connection of the bones in Iheir various movements. 
 Membranes are thin, whitish webs or textures, more flexi- 
 ble and elastic than ligament. They not only assist in the 
 security and motion of joints, but fulfil a variety of other of- 
 fices. They surround or line the cavities and the organs of 
 the body, and contribute to unite and combine the whole ; 
 and, at the same time, interpose and preserve a distinc- 
 tion, enabling separate parts either to co-operate or to act 
 independently of each other. They vary in strength and 
 texture, and different terms are applied to them in different 
 parts of the body : two within the skull are called mattes ; 
 those which envelope muscular fibres are called aponeu- 
 roses ; that which covers the lungs and lines the cavity of 
 the chest is termed pleura ; that which lines the cavity of 
 the abdomen and its included viscera is named peritoneum ; 
 those which inclose articular surfaces are termed capsules ; 
 that which covers bone, periosteum ; and, in other cases, 
 they are called coals, or tunics. The remaining substance 
 concerned in the connection of the bones is Jlesh; it is 
 thus, that the upper extremities are connected with the 
 Dody, and that many of the joints are rendered secure. But 
 Mesh performs another and more important office, inasmuch 
 as it constitutes a principal part of the- organs termed mus- 
 cles, through the medium of which the various movements 
 of the body are effected. Many of the muscles contain, be- 
 sides flesh, a substance analogous to ligament, through the 
 medium of which they are attached to the bones, and to 
 which the term tendon is applied : muscles and tendons are 
 composed of bundles of fibres, which may be unravelled to 
 extreme minuteness ; and when what appears to be a sin- 
 gle fibre is viewed under the microscope, it resembles a 
 chain of infinitely small globular particles. But though the 
 muscles are the immediate organs of motion, they are de- 
 pendent for their powers of contraction and relaxation upon 
 the nerves with which they are supplied. These, when 
 separately examined, appear in the form of white cords or 
 threads ; and, when traced to their origin, are found to is- 
 sue as it were from the brain, and from its elongation, 
 termed the spinal marrow. The trunks of the nerves are 
 subdivided into branches, and these again into filaments, 
 which enter into, and are, as it were, lost in the substance 
 of the muscles and other organs of the body. Their func- 
 tions are in some cases obedient to, and in others indepen- 
 dent of, the will: to the former belong the nerves of the lo- 
 comotive muscles; to the latter, those of the heart, viscera. 
 &c. When they are divided, the peculiar functions of the 
 organs which they supply are impaired or impeded : thus, 
 the muscles may be deprived of the power of contracting, 
 the glands of secretion, the eye of sight, the ear of hearing, 
 and the skin of feeling. The nervous trunks, which issue 
 in pairs from the brain or spinal marrow, amount to about 
 forty; and in tracing them and their branches, they are 
 found in certain different places to swell into knots, which 
 are termed ganglia, or they are reticularly aggregated into 
 plexuses. 
 
 Having thus shown how the bones are connected and put 
 into motion, and from what sources theirmotion is derived, 
 it may next if? inquired how they and the other organs of 
 the body grow and are nourished. This brings us to con- 
 sider the blood and its vessels. 
 
 The composition and propertiesof the blood, and the ex- 
 traordinary changes which it suffers in its passage through 
 the pulmonary vessels, are elsewhere defined. (See 
 Blood, and Resfirat.ion.) Without this exposure to the 
 actioD of the air in the lungs, the blood is unfit for the sup- I 
 
 port of life. We accordingly find that the heart is so con 
 structed as to propel the blood which it receives through 
 the structure of the lungs, and after if has there been aerated, 
 to transmit it over the body : in fact, the heart is a hollow 
 muscle: when it relaxes, its two principal cavities, or ven- 
 tricles, are enlarged, and the blood flows in ; when it con- 
 tracts, they are diminished, and the blood is propi 
 two large tubes or arteries, one leading to the I 
 called the pulmonary artery, and the other to the system 
 generally, and called ihe aorta : these arteries are not only 
 elastic, but also muscular, so that they drive the blood 01: 
 wards from the heart, its retrograde motion being effectu 
 ally prevented by valves placed at their origin. 
 
 The arteries are divided and subdivided into an infinits 
 number of ramifications ; and the branches from the same 
 trunk are frequently observed to unite or anastomose in 
 their course ; so that when, by any accident, some are ob- 
 structed, an adequate supply of blood may be kept up by 
 the others. As, however, the blood cannot return to the 
 heart by these vessels or arteries, we find that they inoscu- 
 late, or communicate at their extremities with another se- 
 ries of tubes or vessels, which are called veins. These are 
 more numerous than the arteries, and generally accompa- 
 ny them in their course. They have a less muscular pow- 
 er; and as they are not assisted by the heart in propelling 
 the blood, they open to it larger and larger channels as it 
 advances, and are supplied with valves by which its reflux 
 is prevented. This is, in fact, Ihe circulation of Ihe blood 
 (first made out by Harvey, asbefore mentioned) ; the veins 
 ultimately terminating in two large trunks which pour the 
 blood into the right auricle of the heart ; whence it is pro- 
 pelled into the right ventricle, from which arises the pul- 
 monary artery, transmitting it through the lungs ; from the 
 lungs the blood (having been aerated) returns by the pul- 
 monary vein into the left auricle of the heart, which con- 
 tracting, propels it into the left ventricle, from which arises 
 the aorta. Such, then, is the extraordinary mechanism by 
 which the circulation of the blood is effected ; but it must 
 not be supposed that the whole of the blood is (bus directly 
 returned from the arterial into the venous system : a part 
 of it is transmilted by minute arterial ramifications into the 
 different structures and organs of which the body is com- 
 posed, each of which is gifted with the power of assimila- 
 tion, fhat is, of converting the blood, or a part of it, into a 
 substance of its own kind. Some of these minute or capil- 
 lary vessels also terminate upon the surface ol the body, 
 where they exhale perspirable matter; others, upon llie 
 membranes lining the cavities of the body, where they se- 
 crete the fluids which lubricate and mo is i en the interior sur- 
 faces: and others again go to the glands,— those peculiar 
 organs or structures, which have not only the power nl 
 separating certain parts of the blood, but of converting it 
 into new forms, which arecalled secretions, some of which 
 are ejected, others retained, for the purpose of the animal 
 economy. 
 
 Thus, then, it appears that the blood nourishes and pre- 
 serves the body and all its parts, and thai i: is continually 
 tending to the renovation and repre.it different 
 
 organs ; but this very process implies another, and no less 
 extraordinary, function, which is performed by a distinct 
 system ; namely, that of absorption. There are, in short, 
 a series of vessels which are continually carrying away the 
 useless and worn-out materials ; removing them in a state 
 of solution ; furnished, like the veins, with valves; termi- 
 nating in a common trunk, called the thoracic duct; and 
 pouring its contents into the veins, just before tiiey enter 
 the right auricle of the heart. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that a continual system of deposi- 
 tion and removal is carrying on within the living body ; that 
 the ramifications of Ihe arterial system are constantly reno- 
 vating the different organs, whilst the absorbents are as 
 constantly removing the materials of which they consist. 
 Nothing, therefore, is stationary or permanenl ; and as the 
 blood, on the one hand, conveys the materials required, so- 
 on the other, it receives those which are removed : and 
 such as are useless, or would be hurtful if retained, are 
 thrown off either by the intestines, the kidneys, ihe lungs, 
 or the skin. It now only remains to show howl! 
 is compensated for, and by what means those i 
 which are thrown off in one form are replaced in . 
 this leads us to the functions of another branch of (he am 
 mal machinery, called (he organs of digestion ; those or 
 gans. namely, by which the food is converted into bloi d. 
 
 Different animals require different kinds and quantities 
 of food ; some living almost exclusively upon animal, others 
 upon vegetable substances; hence their division 
 nivorous and graminivorous tribes. Man partakes of loth , 
 and, accordingly, the structure ol" his digestive organs is in 
 termediate between the comparative simplicity of the truly 
 carnivorous, and the complexity of ihe graminivorous 
 classes. In all (he higher orders of animals, however, the 
 mechanism of digestion is of a complicated character. 
 
 The first change which the food undergoes is in the 
 mouth, where it is torn, ground, and moistened by ma- 
 
ANATOMY. 
 
 coinery expt rations. The teeth 
 
 ire admirably contrived fortius purpose; some of them 
 
 until! tincing, others rubbing and grind- 
 
 i fluid is supplied by the salivary "lauds so as 
 
 te mixture of a proper consistency to be 
 
 i : the 
 food is propelled from the mouth into the lobe which con- 
 
 ! which is called the 
 
 ami is. .it if , by an extraordinary 
 
 utd complicated arrangement of the parts concerned, from 
 
 ig iu any other direction, and, more especially, from 
 
 entering the trachea or air-passage into the lungs. In the 
 
 food is subji ns of thai or- 
 
 which is acid, and by which it is 
 
 ii fluid 
 
 ime the food 
 
 id of the stoma.!;, or the pylorus, 
 
 characters are entirely changed; its separate 
 
 discernible, ami it lias acquired 
 
 . In short, digested. How 
 
 Ugh many attempts 
 ■ explain them upon chemical and me- 
 chanical principles. Dr. Hunter, in his Introductory Lec- 
 ■ remarks, in reference lo 
 this aul similar pi ' therefore expect," 
 
 i at you wilt not hereafter be surprised, when 
 ii many of the must 
 ions relating to animal operations, such 
 i, motion, respiration, digestion, generation, &c. 
 In my opinion, all 11 
 
 link them. Our vanity deceives n 
 we have got the whole as soon as we 
 itural knowledge. Hence 
 different sects ol | nd ca- 
 
 pon such different 
 prlnetl e, for example, to account for digestion, 
 
 le stomach a mill; some would h 
 .and some a wort-trough ; yet, all the 
 while, light that it must have been very 
 
 mill, nor a stewing- 
 h, nor any tiling but a stomach." 
 When the food has been thus far digested in tbi 
 
 ito the duodenum, or upper end of the 
 lube, the whole length or which is about 
 six times that of the body, and which, therefore, is various- 
 ly convoluted to enable it to be packed into 
 oal cavity. Into this portion of the inn 
 is and glands deliver thefer secretions, partly 
 for the purpose of lubricating its surface, and partly to as- 
 i the further changes which are to he brought about 
 fluids, two are ■ emark- 
 
 . he Importance and si nds by which 
 
 they are secreted, and of the ducts by which they art 
 
 I; namely, the bile, which la of a green colour and 
 ml is secreted in the liver; and iht panerantte 
 juice, which appears to resemble saliva, and winch is se- 
 ! by a i;l uid called the pancreas. The influence of 
 Quids upon the chyme is direct and Important: the 
 pancreatic secretion probably acts as a diluent merely ; but 
 the effect of the bile is more complicated ; and it appears 
 to be • the further change of the chyme into 
 
 which is a white milk-like fluid, formed in tiie upper 
 part of the intestine, and absorbed by a distinct set of ves- 
 sels which, from the colour of their contents, have been 
 Called tacteals, and Which convey the chyle, that is, the 
 portion of the products of digestion fitted tor nutrition, into 
 the above-mentioned trunk of the lymphatics, whence it le 
 transmitted into the veins, which open through the medi- 
 um of the right auricle into the right ventricle of the heart. 
 The bitter principle of the bile, and its colouring matter, 
 are obviously not absorbed by the lacteals, but remain with 
 the residue of the food, which la slowly propelled along 
 the whole of the intestinal tube, and, having undergone 
 u changes in its passage, is ultimately voided as ex- 
 
 Havtng nmv enumerated the various classes of organs in 
 the hum in body, and adverted to their leading functions ; 
 having seen how the bones are united by articulations, and 
 connected by ligaments, flesh, and membranes, forming a 
 variety of levers adapted to the motions of the limbs, and 
 supporting and protecting the soft parts, as in the skull and 
 spine ; how the brain ami nerves are concerned in the sen- 
 tient energies, and in presiding over and directing muscu- 
 lar motion, and influencing the functions of the viscera ; 
 having likewise seen how each part of the body is nour- 
 ished by the blood, which is sent from the heart by the ar- 
 teries, and conveyed back to it by the veins ; how the use- 
 less and decayed parts are removed by the lymphatics ; 
 how the nutritious part of the food is carried into the blood 
 »y the lacteals ; and how tenons is changed into arterial 
 Wood in the course of its passage through the pulmonary 
 vessels ; it only remains to observe, that, the whole fabric 
 Is as it were protected from eternal injuries by its integ- 
 uments. Of these the most exterior is a covering, varying 
 49 
 
 ANCHOR. 
 
 in thickness and induration on different parts of the body 
 . where without feeling, and called the epidermis, 
 rely beneath it is a soft mucous substance termed 
 rete mucosum ; and under it the cutis, or true skin. These 
 external coverings of the body are attached to ami 
 ed with the parts beneath, by cellular membr 
 though the animal owes much of II ncurity to 
 
 tturea, it owes more to the senses, iustii 
 appetites, with which it is so miraculously endow* 
 Is led to pursue what is useful, and to gnat 
 danger, inconvenience, and want. Nor is this all; there 
 has likewise been conferred, to a certain extent, upon all 
 lies, the power of reproduction, by which ihej 
 are frequently able to repair the slighter injuries to which 
 the different organs tire exposed; and if this pow 
 ceedingly languid in the latter periods of old age, it j s !>•■■ 
 cause tbe author of nature never intended that i lie animal 
 structure should be immortal. He has fixed its bounds, 
 which it cannot pass ; and has measured out the tin 
 the fairest fabric must crumble into dust, and Its animating 
 spirit return unto Him, the great Almighty Incomj 
 sible Being, who first bestowed it." (.sv-e Dr. Ban 
 troductory Lectures to a Course of Anatomy, and Dr. Wil 
 liam Hunter's Two Introductory Lectures, for details re- 
 specting the history, uses, and Importance of the study ol 
 Anatomy.) 
 
 Anatomy, Comparative. So called because the organ- 
 isation of the lower animals was first principally studied 
 with immediate reference to that of the human 
 Galen, who visited the schools of Alexandria at a period 
 when the dissection of the human body was no longer per- 
 
 ught in the anatomy of the ape to acquit 
 rious knowledge of the anatomy of man. Vesalius, after 
 the revival of literature, dissected various qnadrup 
 
 i their organisation with that of man, in order lo 
 correct the errors of Galea, and to establish the true know- 
 ledge of the peculiarities of the human structure. 
 
 Succeeding anatomists have investigated the structure 
 of the lower animals, to acquire the knowii 
 for experimenting upon them with success; and still more 
 important In physiological sole 
 
 ed ironi tracing the modification and disappearance of dif- 
 ferent organs in the descending series of animals, as the 
 
 only means by which we can obtain just notions of tin 
 uses and relative importance of the • I ins in the 
 
 animal economy, and a of the laws which rcgu- 
 
 e in the same individual. 
 ■ . ey, and Hunter, combined the tnvestiga 
 lion of the mature animals o( different classes with obser- 
 vations of the different stages of development of the cm. 
 bryo, and their example has been assiduously and success- 
 fully followed by the ablest compare . i f fh€ 
 une of [he general laws of anima. 
 
 organisation, of development, and of the analogies which 
 apparently different parts bear to one another throughout 
 i discovered. 
 A very important application of comparative anatomy is 
 to the determination of the relative degrees of complexity 
 in the organisation of different animals, and of the number 
 and value of the points of resemblance which different 
 species manifest to each other in the totality of their Organ- 
 isation. A study of the anatomy of animals, guided by 
 these views, is essential to the determination of their natu- 
 ral affinities, which is the highest aim of the philosophic 
 naturalist. 
 
 Lastly, the labours of the comparative anatomists contin- 
 ually tend to bring to light examples of structures, designed 
 with reference to especial purposes, of the most striking 
 and forcible description ; and thus provide for the moralist 
 and divine a storehouse of facts peculiarly adapte I to the 
 illustration of the doctrine of final causes. (See Grant's 
 Outline of Comparative Anatomy ; also, A General Outline 
 of the Animal Kingdom, by Thos. Rymer Jones, 1811.) 
 
 ANA'TltOPOUS. (Gr. dvarpciru), I invert.) A very 
 common kind of embryo, produced by one side of the 
 ovule crowing upon itself, while the other remains im 
 moveable, till, at last, that part of the ovule which was 
 originally next the apex, is brought down to the hilum. the 
 base of the nucleus in such cases being at the apex of the 
 ovule. The common apple, and the greater part of plants, 
 offer an example of this. 
 
 A'NCIIOR. (Gr. dynvpa.) Con- 
 sists of a straight bar, called the 
 shank, A Ii, which ends in two 
 arms, B C, B I), on which are 
 placed the triangular plates called 
 Jlukes, or palms ; the extremity 
 E or F is called the pea (peak) or 
 bill ; the point B is called the 
 crown. At the end A is ploced 
 the stock G If, which, when of 
 wood, consists of two pieces of 
 oak, hooped together. When the 
 stock is of iron, it passes through 
 D 
 
ANCHOR. 
 
 11 hole in the end of the shank. The stock is at right angles 
 to the plane of the flukes, and is a little longer than the 
 shank. At A is the ring, which is of iron, to which the ca- 
 ble is attached, and by which the anchor is lifted or hung. 
 
 When a hemp cable is used, the ring to which it is bent 
 (fastened in a particular way) is covered first with tarred 
 canvass, and then with pieces of rope secured firmly round 
 il j this is called a puddening, and protects the hemp from 
 the iron. When a chain cable is used, it is shackled to the 
 ring, which is not then puddened. 
 
 M111 of war and large ships carry two large anchors of 
 equal size, at the bows, called, thence, bower anchors ; 
 and two others, of the same size, called the sheet and the 
 spare anchors; besides two or three others, which are 
 much smaller, for temporary occasions. 
 
 The anchor, after being let go from tfae ship's bow or 
 side, whether the shank be vertical or horizontal when it 
 i" water, arrives upright at the bottom, in conse- 
 quence of the resistance of the water on the stock, when it 
 (alls over, and rests on the crown, one corner of a fluke, 
 and the end of the stock. From this position of stable 
 equilibrium on three points forming a long narrow triangle, 
 a small force disturbs it, when the stock, falling flat, one 
 of the bills must pierce the ground, penetrating deeper as 
 the cable pulls, until the arm is partly or entirely buried. 
 
 Since the security of the vessel depends on the hold the 
 tnchor has of the ground, it is evident that the direction of 
 she lluke should be such that the reaction of the soil 
 against it, from the pull of the cable, may tend most effect- 
 ually to keep it down. 
 
 The pressure on the fluke being perpendicular to the 
 surface, take A B to represent the pull of the cable, then 
 the resolved portion of this perpendicular to the fluke is 
 BCorAB cos. ABC; 
 
 and the effect of this in \. « ■ 
 
 keeping the fluke down is \ " 
 B D = B C cos. C B D = \ 
 B C sin. ABC, because ^^4: 
 
 A U is horizontal, and «^^ A 
 
 C B D is 90°— C B A, ver- 
 tical ; hence B D = A B 
 
 sin. ABC cos. ABC, which is maximum when A B C = 
 45°. The flukes of anchors in general make the ansde 
 with the shank much greater than this; but Lieut. Rodger, 
 R, N., has, among other improvements, adopted this angle 
 in his patent anchor, having established the above conclu- 
 sion by experiment. 
 
 Anchors are made of broad flat bars forged together. 
 As the greatest strain upon the shank takes place during 
 the act of weighing, the diameters of the shank are made 
 unequal, the longest being placed vertical. This improve- 
 ment is, we believe, due to Mr. Pering, on whose plan an- 
 chors have of late years chiefly been made. 
 
 The weight of an anchor in men of war is estimated 
 roughly at about 1 cwt. to a gun ; in merchantmen, about 
 1 cwt. for each 15 tons. The weight of the anohor is not 
 strictly proportional to the size of the vessel, as large ves- 
 sels are less affected by sudden or violent motions than 
 smaller ones are. 'Large anchors are thicker in proportion 
 to their length than smaller ones are ; that is, the weight 
 increases faster than the cubes of the dimensions. 
 
 Winn an anchor is left behind, it is recovered either by 
 lifting it by the buoy rope, or, where that is not possible, by 
 sweeping for it ; which is dragging a hawser, hung between 
 two boats, slowly over the bottom till it catches the upper 
 fluke, by which the anchor is then weighed. 
 
 When one anchor is down the ship is said to be at single 
 anchor; when two are down, the ship is generally moored. 
 (See Moored; Cable; Buoy.) Ships rarely ride by 
 more than two anchors : in bad weather a third is often let 
 go under foot, as a precaution in case of one of the cables 
 parting. 
 
 When the anchor is dragged by the pulling of the cable, 
 it is said to come home. When the cable gets twisted 
 round the anchor or stock, the anchor is said to be foul. 
 The anchor is sometimes hove up without one of the 
 flukes, which has either been fixed in a cleft of the rock 
 and wrenched off by the force of weighing, or been snapped 
 off, as some think, by striking against a point of rocks in its 
 rapid descent. 
 
 When the ship is at single anchor, the wind or tide may 
 cany her over the anchor; if the water is deep, she may 
 so drag the cable as to foul the anchor, in which case it 
 may not hold again ; if the water is very shallow, she may 
 get upon the anchor, the. fluke entering the ship's bottom, 
 or she may break the shank by striking upon it. Keeping 
 the ship clear of her anchor is, therefore, an important, as 
 It is also a nice point of seamanship. 
 
 When the anchor is lifted out of the ground, it is said to 
 be aweigh; when hove up to the surface of the water, it 
 is awash. The anchor being hove up by the cable only to 
 the hause holes, is lifted by the ring to the cathead : this is 
 called catting it. The fluke next the ship's side is then 
 lifted up to its resting-place, called the bill board ; it is now 
 50 
 
 ANDALUSITE. 
 
 said to be fished. When the ship is fairly at sea, the ring 
 is lashed close, up to the cathead, and the fluke brought 
 close to the ship's side, or inside the bulwark, and the cable 
 and buoy rope unbent; the anchor is then secured. 
 
 Messrs. Porter & Co. of Dunstan, near Newcastle, Eng- 
 land, have recently patented a new anchor, of the greatest 
 practical utility and importance. It is manufactured in 
 two distinct parts; one forming the arms made of bars, 
 extending from pea to pea, without any crossing or weld- 
 ing, moving as it were on a pivot, and Hie other the shank. 
 By this arrangement, the fatal risk of an unsound weld tit 
 the crown, the part in which the present anchor often 
 fails in the hour of peril, is averted. Among its many ad- 
 vantages are, — a strength threefold greater than that of the 
 ordinary anchor of the same weight, it cants and bites more 
 readily than the common anchor, even in the most stub- 
 born ground ; it is impossible to foul it ; it cannot lodge on 
 its stock end ; it holds on the shortest stay beak ; it may be 
 taken apart at. will ; and it cannot injure a vessel's bows, 
 when hanging a cock bill. (/See London United Service 
 Gazette.) 
 
 Anchor. In Architecture, an ornament applied to 
 mouldings somewhat resembling an anchor intermixed 
 with eggs, and by some called a tongue, from the resem- 
 blance it bears to the forked tongue of a serpent. It is 
 found in the mouldings of all the orders, but is only applied 
 to that called the echinus or quarter round. 
 
 A'NCHORAGE. Ground fit to hold a ship's anchor, so 
 that she may ride safely. The ground best suited for this 
 purpose is hard sand or stiff clay ; and the best position is 
 that which is land-locked, or out of the tide. 
 
 AN'CIIORITE. (Lat. anachoreta. Gr. avaxoipcu, 1 
 retreat, or withdraw.) More properly, anachoret, a hermit, 
 or person who has retired from the world with the purpose 
 of devoting himself entirely to meditation and prayer. 
 Such was the case with many of the early Christians, be- 
 ginning perhaps with such as fled from the persecutions of 
 Decius and Diocletian, and retired into forests and deserts, 
 at first with a view to security merely, and afterwards con 
 tinued, from religious motives, the mode of life they had 
 there adopted. The adoption of perfect solitude was es 
 sential to the character of an anchorite : but they were ne 
 cessarily bound by vows. The origin of this class of reli 
 gionists preceded that of the Coenobites, or monks living 
 in societies: but in later times the monks used frequently 
 to leave their monasteries, with the permission of theii 
 superior, and devote themselves for a time, or for fheii 
 whole lives, to the solitude of anchorites. 
 
 ANCIIO'VY. (tfceENGRAULIS.) 
 
 ANCHYLO'SIS. (Gr. ayitvXow, I bend.) A stiff, im 
 moveable, or bent joint. 
 
 A'NCIENT DEMESNE. In Law, all lands which, hav 
 ing been in possession of Edward the Confessor, and from 
 him having passed to William the Conqueror, are named 
 in Doomsday Book as Terra Regis, are said to be held in 
 ancient demesne. The tenure is peculiar, resembling 
 copyhold in some respects. 
 
 A'NCIENTS. (Fr. anciens.) In the more general 
 sense of the term, Ancients means those who lived long 
 ago, or before the moderns. But the term is now usually 
 employed to designate the Greeks and Romans; and if 
 any other people be meant, it is customary to specify them, 
 as the ancient Germans, the ancient Jews, &c. 
 
 Ancients, Council of. In French History, one of the 
 two assemblies composing the legislative bodies in 1795. 
 It consisted of 250 members; and derived its name lions 
 each of them being at least forty years of age. It was put 
 an end to by the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire. 
 
 AN'CILE. The shield of Mars, which, according to 
 tradition, fell from heaven in the reign of Numa, and was 
 accompanied by an oracle, which declared that, while it 
 remained in Rome, the city could never be taken. Its 
 figure was that of an oval compressed in the middle, so as 
 to be widest near the two extremities. Noma had it pre- 
 served in the temple of Mars, to whose priests, the Salii. 
 its care was committed ; and at the same time hid eleven 
 more shields made to exactly the same pattern, in order to 
 prevent the genuine one from being distinguished and 
 stolen. 
 
 Every year, in the month of March, these ancilia were 
 carried round the city by the Salii, with solemn dances 
 and music, for thirty consecutive days, during which time 
 no business connected with war was allowed to be carried 
 on in the city. 
 
 ANCITITAL. Having two opposite edges or angles. 
 
 ANCIT1TOUS. (Lat. anceps, two-edged.) When any 
 tiling is compressed, with the two opposite edges thin. It 
 is chieflv applied in Botany to leaves and stems. 
 
 ANCO'NES. (Gr. aynuv, the point of the eltnw.) In 
 Architecture, the consoles or ornaments cut on the key- 
 stones of arches, or on the side of doorcases. They are 
 sometimes used to support busts or oth^r figures. 
 
 ANDALU'SITE. A mineral composed of 52 alumina, 
 58 silica, 8 potass, 2 oxide of iron. It is very hard and tn 
 
ANDANTE. 
 
 fusible, by which characters it is distinguished from fel- 
 spar. Ii was first observed in Andalusia in Spain 
 
 AND V'NTE. (Ital. going.) In Music, signifies that the 
 notes are to be played distinctly. 
 ANDR-EA'CEjfc. (Andrrca, one of the genera.) Little 
 like plants, differing from the mosses in the want of 
 >rculum and peristome, and in having a four-valved 
 
 A NDRr.ASIiE'RfJOl.ITE. From Andreasberg, in the 
 A mineralogical name of a species of Harmo- 
 
 ANDRE'NA. The name of a Fabrician genus of bees, 
 
 including those which hav,e the tongue 3-cleft, and the 
 
 im cylindrical, with two membranous bristles on each 
 
 ANDROC.E'UM. (Gr. dvriq, a male, and o'ikos, a house.) 
 All that part of a flower to which the male organs apper- 
 tain. The ring of stamens in a plant is an androcajum : 
 ■ ■.' the mouth of the tube in the i I 
 ether with the true stamens. The term 
 v translated (he male apparatus. 
 ANDRO'fJVNOl.S ((Jr. dvnn. a man, and ywn, a tro- 
 mtDi.) An animal which ponenei the organs of both 
 nail. An hermaphi 
 In Physiology, the possession of the organs of both sexes 
 in the same individual, either naturally, as in the snail; or 
 
 rnaturally,as in the free martin and similar mm 
 An hermaphrodite. 
 In Botany, a union of both males and females, either in 
 iwer, which is also called hermaphrodr 
 me plant, the sexes being in different ii 
 the birch and similar trees. The latter is what Lin- 
 ious. 
 A'NDRON. ((Jr. dvnp, aman.) In Grecian and Roman 
 Architecture, the apartment ap| the reception 
 
 branches of the establishment, and always in 
 pirtof the house: the gyncecea, or women'l 
 In the upper part. 
 ANDROPE'TALOD8. <(Jr. dvnp, a man, and irtraXov, 
 iking of double flowers which are 
 men* into pet 
 ranunculus. Most double flowers are of this 
 
 VN'DRO'PIIORIJM. (Gr. dvnp, a man, or, in Botany, a 
 
 I <]>tptiv,to bear.) A columnar expansion of the 
 
 ir, on which (lif stamens seem in grow, 
 
 iwer. In i. mad partly of 
 
 g filaments, and partly of an elevation of the 
 
 A'NECDOTE. (Gr. dvtxSorov, something inediled, or 
 
 unpublished.) In its original sense, some particular rela- 
 
 • jeet to which publicity had not been given in 
 
 'ins works on that subject, 'in its secondary 
 
 irrative of a particular action or saying of an iudi- 
 
 L1DES,ANELLA'TA. (Lat.anellus,a/f,'o'eri>/g'.) 
 
 'i ally, but improperly, written Annelidans or Anne- 
 
 \ articulate animals with a long cylindrical 
 
 divided into ring-like tving red blood, and 
 
 , but no jointed extremities. The class 
 is divided, according to modifications of the respiratory 
 i.ilobranchiaies, Dorsibranchiates, and 
 ;. of which the Serpuia, or tul 
 Aplir . and the Lumbricus, or earth- 
 
 ■ ly examples. 
 .Y'TROUS. (Gr. d, priv., and tXvrpov. a 
 
 I ziven to those insects which have two 
 or four membranous wings, either naked or covered only 
 with hairs or scales. 
 AM'.MO'METER. (Gr. dvtjtof, the irind. and ptroov, 
 're.) An instrument for ni force or Velo- 
 
 i tiie wind. An instrument of this son was first in- 
 vented by Wolflus. and descrih I by him in his Elementa 
 tens. It consists of four sails, like those of a windmill, 
 turning on a horizontal axis. On the axis is a pen 
 ■crew, which turns a cog-wheel, to the axis of which a 
 r, carrying a w i i emity, is attached. When 
 
 it is calm, the lever and weight assume the vertical posi- 
 tion. When the wind acts on the sails, (he lever is 
 in a vertical circle, to an elevation at which the weig 1 
 ar.tly counterbalances the force of the wind. The angle of 
 ■.'ion of the weight is measured on a dial, the index of 
 which turns on the axis of the cogwheel. Several im- 
 provements have been made on this form of the Instru- 
 ment T ie sails have sometimes been placed horizi 
 ly ; and Mr. Renjamin Martin gave the axis the form of the 
 fusee of a watch, having a cord winding upon it with two 
 rhta at the ends, which answers the same purpose as 
 r and weight, 
 Dr. Lind's anemometer consists of a glass tube, bent in- 
 to the form of the letter U, and open at both extremities. 
 One of the extremities, A, is also bent round to tie 
 zontal direction, in order that the wind may blow into it. 
 The tube being partially filled with water and exposed to a 
 51 
 
 ANGIOSPOROUS. 
 
 current of air, the water in the branch 
 at which the wind enters is depressed, 
 for example, to R, and consequently 
 rises in the other branch to C, and the 
 difference at C, of the levels at which it 
 stands in the two branches, is the height 
 ofa column ofwater.t he wei'rht of which 
 forms a counterpoise Ie the force of the 
 wind. The relative velocities of the 
 wind are thus ascertained, the variation 
 of the velocity being nearly proportional 
 to the square root of the resist 
 The bore of the tube is diminished at 
 the bottom to check the undulatloi 
 the water caused by a sudden gust of 
 wind. Various other contrivances have been pi 
 of which one of the simplest is to expose a flat board of 
 given dimensions to a current of wind, and observe to 
 what exient it will force back a spring attached to it, and 
 restine against an immoveable obstacle. 
 
 AM'.MO'MN. or am:mo\ia. An acrid cry stallisable 
 substance obtained from some species of anemone. It 
 burns like camphor, 
 
 i'NEMOSt '() Ti: (Gr. dvtjios, wind, and a/co-zeco, J 
 
 look.'} An instrument for indicating the direction of the 
 
 wind, a common vane, or weathercock, is an Instrument 
 
 of this kind. (Sometimes the vane turns a spindle which 
 
 descends through the roof of the building into the chamber 
 
 where the observation Is to : Vn Index fixed to 
 
 lie points out the direction of the wind, on a com- 
 
 l fixed to the ceiling. Ity means of wheel-work, 
 
 the direct ndle,orthe* idex,may 
 
 at the compass card may be placed 
 
 on a wall of the chamber, or in any.convenient position for 
 
 observation. 
 
 \\l.l RISM. (Or. dvevpvvo), I dilate.) A hunoor 
 formed by the morbid dilatation of an artery, and which is 
 therefor. d by i's pulsatory motion. 
 
 ANFRA'i I I (il- 1 ' anfnctU a finding backward 
 and forward.) When the lobesof ananther,of the margin 
 of any thii I hack upon itself, and doubled ami 
 
 bent till all trace of its normal character is lost TI 
 
 of a encumber Is anfractuous. 
 
 a'ngei.. a coin oi the value of about ten shillings, h 
 was impressed with the figure of an angel, in comm 
 lion of a saying of Pope Gregory, (hat the 
 beautiful, that if they were I 
 would he ansi N 
 
 \m;i:i . GOLDEN, or ST. GEORGE, or ST. CON 
 STWI'IM:. An ancient order of knighthood, fal 
 repotted to have been instituted by < but proha- 
 
 bly by the imperial houseof Comnenus at Const ii 
 and revived by the Emperor ' 
 tcrship of (his order was resigned f<y the las) re| 
 tion to the house of Comnei ie, dukes 
 
 to the crown of Naples. 
 
 ANGEL-WATER. A mixture of rose, orange-flower, 
 and mynle water, perfumed by musk and ambergris. It 
 in Portugal. 
 
 AN'GELS Spiritual beings ministering to God. In the 
 Scriptures they appear as m which the word 
 
 properly denotes ((Jr. dyyi\o{„ by whom God conveys his 
 
 commands to men, 1 i to be applied to 
 
 the highest order of ministers In the Church of Christ, if 
 we may so interpret the "Angel of the Church of Ephesus, 
 
 of IVrgamus," &e., and the passage in the Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, " A woman ought to have power (a veil, as 
 some Interpret) on lor head, for fear of the angels." We 
 Jso of the devil and his angels. 
 
 ANGI'NA. (Gr. <i^x<J, T Strangle.) A disease attended 
 with a sens.' of anxiety and suffocation: the term is ap- 
 plied to sorethroat, and to certain symptoms arising from 
 organic disease of the heart ; the latter gives rise (o a dis- 
 ■i fliculty of respiration, and is hence termed An- 
 gina Pec 
 
 A'NGIOf'A'RPOl'S. ((Jr. dyyuov, acase, and xapirtf, 
 fruit.) V. < ssels are inclosed within a covering 
 
 that does not form a part Of themselves; as thi 
 
 Covered by its husk, the acorn seated in its cap- 
 sule. The wood is also applied sometimes to such fungi 
 as have their spores included in a peridium, or hollow- 
 shell, as Lvcoperdon. 
 
 ANGIO'I.OGY. (Gr. dyytiov, a vessel, and \oyos, a dis 
 rour*'.) The doctrine of the vessels of the body. 
 
 ANGIOSPE'RMOUS. (Gr dyyctov,avessel,ar\<l oncfiua, 
 s>:nd.) When seeds are inclosed within a pericarp, as in 
 most pi ants. The word is now chiefly used in opposition 
 to gymnospermous, when seeds are not included in a peri- 
 carp, as in fir trees ami others. Linnteus intended to apply 
 , m e sense ; blithe contrasted it with small-lobed 
 seed-like fruits, which he mistook for naked seeds. 
 
 ANGIO'SPOROUS. (Gr. dyytiov. a vessel, and <r«ropc, 
 a 4et&) A term applied to such fungi as Lycoperdon, 
 which have their spores inclosed in a hollow shell or bag. 
 
ANGIOTOMY. 
 
 ANGIO'TOMY. (Gr. dyytiov, a vessel, and re/xvo), I 
 tut.) The dissection of vessels, 
 
 A'NGLE. (Lat. angulus, comer.) In Geometry, this 
 term is employed in several senses, and to signify very dif- 
 ferent tilings. Euclid defines a plane angle to be " the in- 
 clination of two lines to one another, which meet together, 
 but are not in the same direction ;" a definition somewhat 
 . and also defective, inasmuch as in strictness it 
 can apply only to acute angles, and gives no idea whatever 
 of angular magnitude. The definition given by Apollonius, 
 namely, '-the collection of space about a point," is still 
 tceptionable. In fact, it is extremely difficult to 
 form a correct idea of its nature from any description 
 that ran be given in the terms of a definition. 
 
 The simplest way, perhaps, of obtaining a clear concep- 
 tion of angular magnitude is by means of revolving motion. 
 Suppose a straight line A B to revolve about u 
 
 the point A from right to left, and to occupy 
 successively the different positions A B, A C, 
 A D, A E, and A F. At A C it forms angle 
 B A C with its first position A B, of which A 
 B and AC are the sides, and the point A the 
 summit or vertex. The line A C is then in- 
 clined to its first direction A B. When at A D, it is per- 
 pendicular to its first direction! and the angle formed by A 
 li and A D is called right. At A E the separation is equal 
 lo two right angles, and the line lies in the same direction 
 as at first, or A E and A B are in the same straight line. 
 When it arrives at A F, three right angles have been de- 
 scribed ; and, on returning to A B. a whole circuit or four 
 right angles. The right angle B A D is considered the unit 
 of angular magnitude. B AC, which is less than the right 
 angle, is called acute ; and E A C, which is greater than 
 the right angle, is called obtuse. The angle D A C, or the 
 defect of B A C from the right angle, is called the comple- 
 ment of BAC; andEAC,or the defect of BAC,from 
 two right angles, is called the supplement of BAC. 
 
 When an angle is considered in this manner as result- 
 ing from revolving motion, it is obvious that two straight 
 lines meeting in a point, form not only one, but an indefi- 
 nite number of angles. Thus, A B may pass into the posi- 
 tion A C after describing merely the angle B A C, or after 
 describing that angle together with one, two, three, or any 
 number of revolutions. If we assume A to represent the 
 measure of the angle BAC, and C that of the whole cir- 
 cuit, then the same angle BAC will be represented not 
 only by A, but also by A + C, A + 2C, A + 3C, and so on. 
 This extension of the signification of an angle is of very 
 great importance in Trigonometry. 
 
 A solid angle is defined by Euclid to be "made by the 
 meeting of two plane angles which are not in the same 
 plane in one point." These magnitudes are of a very pe- 
 culiar kind; and, unlike all other subjects of geometrical 
 lion, admit of no accurate comparison one with 
 another. No multiple or submultiple of such angles can 
 be taken, and we have no way of expounding, even in the 
 simplest cases, the ratio which one of them bears to ano- 
 ther. Hence all our reasoning concerning them must be 
 onfined to the plane angles by which they are 
 contained. 
 
 Angle, Facial. In Zoology, signifies the angle made 
 
 by the intersection of two lines drawn, the one from the 
 
 eminent part of the frontal bone over the anterior 
 
 of the upper jaw, the other from the external orifice 
 
 ef the ear-passage along the floor of the nasal cavity. 
 
 Angle, Frontal. In Ornithology, signifies the angle 
 which the culmen, or upper line of the beak, makes with 
 lii.- forehead. 
 
 Angle, Spherical. In Trigonometry, signifies the 
 de on a sphere by the intersection of two great 
 circles, or the inclination of the planes of these circles to 
 each other. A spherical angle is measured by the arc of 
 a sreat circle intercepted between those two points of its 
 sides which are at the distance of a semi-circle from the 
 point of intersection, or the vertex of the angle. 
 
 Angle, Visual. (Optics.) The angle formed by two 
 rays of light, or two straight lines drawn from the extreme 
 pointsofan object to the cenlreof the eye. The apparent 
 magnitude of objects depends on the magnitude of the 
 angle under which they are seen; nevertheless, in observ- 
 ing distant objects, our ideas of their magnitude are greatly 
 modified by the judgment which we form of their distan- 
 ces. (See Apparent Magnitude.) 
 
 a'NGULAR MOTION. The motion of a body moving 
 circularly, or oscillating about a fixed point. The angular 
 motion of a planet is measured by the angle described at 
 the centre of the sun, by a straight line drawn from that 
 point to the planet, called the radius vector; and its amount 
 is reciprocally proportional to the periodic time of the 
 planet. 
 
 A'NGULAR SECTION. The division of an angle into 
 
 any number of equal parts. The bisection of an angle 
 
 is accomplished by elementary geometry. The trisection 
 
 requires the aid of solid geometry, being equivalent to 
 
 52 
 
 ANIMAL. 
 
 the solution of a cubic equation. The general division of 
 an angle into any proposed number of equal parts, is a 
 problem which Mathematicians iiave not yet been able to 
 solve. In modern Mathematics, the term Angular Sections 
 is used to denote that branch of analysis which is employed 
 in the investigation of the properties of circular functions. 
 
 ANGUI'LLIFORM. (Lat. anguilla, an eel, forma., shape.) 
 Eel-shaped fishes, or those belonging to the tribe of eels. 
 
 A'NGUIS. The name of a Linnaean genus of Amphibia 
 serpentes, characterised by having subcaudal and abdomi- 
 nal imbricated scales ; which scales consequently form a 
 uniform covering over the whole body. The genus is now 
 subdivided into the subgenera Pseudopus, Ophicaurus, 
 Acontias, and Anguis, properly so called ; the reptiles 
 comprehended under the latter denomination have the 
 tympanum concealed beneath the skin; the maxillary 
 teeth compressed and hooked, and no teeth on the palate. 
 The Anguis fragilia, or slow-worm, is a well-known ex- 
 ample ol this genus. 
 
 ANGUSTU'RA BARK. The bark of the Cusparia febii- 
 fuga, originally imported from Angustura in South Ameri- 
 ca; it is occasionally used in medicine as a tonic, and in 
 the case of diarrhosa. It was first described by Mr. Brande 
 in the year 1791. A poisonous bark is occasionally found 
 in commerce under the name of spurious Angustura. 
 which appears to be the produce ofa species of strychnos.' 
 
 ANGU'STATE. (Lat. angustus, narrow.) When any 
 part sensibly diminishes in breadth. (<S'ie Attenuated.) 
 
 ANHELA'TION. (Lai.) Difficulty of breathing. 
 
 A'NHYDRITE. An anhydrous sulphate of lime. 
 
 A'NHYDROUS. (Gr. a, without, and vSwp, water.) 
 Without water. A term often applied to salts, and to cer- 
 tain acids when deprived of water. 
 
 A'NIL. One of the plants yielding indigo. 
 
 Anil. (Sanscr. nili, indigo.) A kind of" indigo, said to 
 be a native of America, although now cultivated in the 
 East Indies. It is very like Indigofera tjnetoria, the true 
 indigo, from which it chiefly differs in having compressed 
 legumes which are not torulose. 
 
 ANILLE'ROS. In Politics, the name given to the mod- 
 erate party among the principal actors in the Spanish revo- 
 lution from 1820 to 1823. They had the greatest influence, 
 and directed the Cortes. Argueiles and Martinez de la 
 Rosa were at their head. 
 
 A'NIMAL. (Lat. anima, soul, or life.) The name of the 
 higher division or kingdom of organised beings, distin- 
 guished by endowments of sensation and voluntary motion, 
 super-added to the organic functions which animals pos- 
 sess in common with plants. 
 
 It has been objected to this definition, that the so-called 
 sensitive plant is susceptible of impressions which cauge 
 action and motion of its parts, and that the embryos of Al- 
 gae and Confervse have locomotion, while many of the low- 
 er animals are fixed as immoveably to the earth as plants. 
 But these objections have no real value ; and could only 
 have arisen from confounding irritability with sensation, 
 which are two very different phenomena. It is the proper- 
 ty of all living organised beings, and essential to their exis- 
 tence as such, to be susceptible of the impressions of cer- 
 tain stimuli, which occasion a reaction of the part stimula- 
 ted ; and the main object of physiology is to determine the 
 precise mode in which each organ ofa plant or animal re- 
 acts when stimulated. But it is here only necessary to 
 state, that the muscular fibre in animals reacts when stim- 
 ulated by an angular puckering called contraction, and this 
 property is termed irritability. It is independent of the 
 nerves and of sensation, for a portion of muscle removed 
 from an animal body manifests the same contraction when 
 irritated, whether mechanically, galvanically, or chemical- 
 ly. In the living animal the most common stimulus of the 
 muscular contraction is the operation of the nerves, exci- 
 ted by the will, and is commonly the consequence of an 
 act of sensation; but this is by no means the only stimulus 
 by which the irritable property of the muscle is or can be 
 called into play. In plants, universally, there are also irri- 
 table parts, or parts which react when stimulated by pro- 
 ducing motion of a part or the whole of the body. It is 
 this property which occasions the motion of the cambium 
 or sap ; it is by the same endowment that growing plants 
 incline to the light, and extend their roots to the most conge- 
 nial soil ; or entwine their tendrils around the bodies which 
 serve as their support; or move the stamens in regular 
 succession towards the female part or pistil (saxifrage), or 
 incline the pistil successively to each stamen (lily). By a 
 modification of the same irritable property, some plants 
 close their leaflets or flowers at sunset; while others, like 
 the nocturnal animals, go to sleep, as it were, at the ap- 
 proach of day. By a higher degree of this Irritability the 
 leaflets of the fly-trap (Dioncea) approximate each other, 
 and inclose the irritating insect which has alighted upon 
 them ; and the Mimosa pudica withdraws its leaves from 
 the offending touch ; — while the Desmodinm exhibits du- 
 ring the day a constant alternate movement of the lesser 
 folioles, analogous to the quicker vibration of the cilia 
 
ANIMAL. 
 
 which beset the respiratory organs of many molluscous 
 animal.--, and which is equally independent of the nerves 
 if the will. The conditions of all these vegetable mo- 
 , which essentially distinguish them from the volun- 
 tary movements of animals, are, that they never pi 
 
 l an internal impulse, but are invariably the conse- 
 quences of external stimulus, and take place, as it were, 
 mechanically, and in the selfsame manner: while in ani- 
 mals the motion* arise out of an internal determination 
 from parts not moving to the moving powers. Then 
 
 lal difference in the nature of the motion itself, 
 even w hen we Compare the simplest animal with the plant. 
 If we touch ih' fe< ler of a polype, it recedes from the irri- 
 . a true contraction of the part within itself; but in 
 line plant, there is nothing like thiscon- 
 traciion of the part touched, but only an articular plication 
 u. part, without the dimensions of the irritated 
 i Iment has also shown that the in- 
 i arts of the mimosa, in which the irritable 
 i iv is concentrated, move the leaf by an extension of 
 and not a contraction of fibres. 
 li is true that manyof the loweraquatic animals are root- 
 bottom; and these are often aggregated, and 
 1 or plant-like form, as the serpularia 
 les; but, although voluntary motion of 
 el it is sufficiently conspicuous In 
 and the vital endowments of the Indi- 
 vidual polypus manifest a multiplied animal enjoyment, 
 i Hon of a vegetable. The simple*! monad of 
 [hibitn the voluntary characteristics of the ani- 
 mal, by varying its movements to avoid obstacles or 
 its food, while the 1 ibryo of the Conferva 
 
 Is blindly onwards in an unvarying course, 
 '.and excites no idea of ani- 
 ni.dity In the mind of an observer who has had any expe- 
 H'li of animalcules. Ehrei 
 that he can distinguish a moving embryo of 
 from a poly gastric monad as easily as a tree from 
 i bird. 
 
 11 which spontaneous motion 
 . and they chiefly distinguish the ani- 
 mal from the vegetable. Hence ihe nervous system has 
 mod the essence of an animal. Ail the otter sys- 
 tppear in their plan of arrangement to he 
 subject to the modification of the i. ni : and it 
 
 •s upon this system, therefore, that, in the 
 
 . Iheir primary division is founded. 1!' 
 . ches have proved the exl 
 of the lower organised animals, where their 
 
 d ; and, as in i \ 
 
 i-ation has been 
 found to depend exclusively upon them, we are I 
 to assume that all animals m which sensation is. 
 inosi bare it depending on nervous matter present in some 
 condition or other in (heir tissue; even where, a* in the 
 freshwater polype, this is apparently hi 
 
 treme divisibility of the individual 
 without loss of vitality in the detached parts, we may rea- 
 sonably conclude the nervous molecules to be d 
 throughout the corporeal m 
 
 The ar tl ion and voluntary motion modify, 
 
 as night be expected, all the other function* which ani- 
 l common with plants. Tor example, as re- 
 gard* nutrition : vegetables which are fixed to the soil ab- 
 sorb Immediately by their roots the nutritive pari; of the 
 surrounding fluid. These roots are indefinitely subdi- 
 vided ; they penetrate the smallest interstices, and see)., 
 as it were, at a distance, the nourishment of the plant to 
 winch they belong. Tie ir action is tranquil, but uninter- 
 bemgonly Interrupted when dryness ha* deprived 
 them of the juices which are necessary for them. 
 
 Animals, on the contrary, which are rarely stationary, 
 but which have the power of moving, not only parts of the 
 body, tan the entire body, from place to place, require the 
 means of transporting the provision necessary for their 
 ccordingly, thev have received an internal 
 cavity, appropriated for the reception of the nutriment, 
 ani tpon the parietes of which open the pores 'of the 
 • vessels, which have been justly compared to 
 internal roots. 
 
 An internal cavity is requisite for animals on another 
 ground ;— their food must first be digested. Plants are 
 1 by water containing carbonic acid, or the already 
 d organised materia! of the soil. But nutrition iii 
 animals does not immediately commence by tie- 
 lion of such fluids as the soil or the atmosphere furnishes, 
 but their find consists of substances already in organic 
 Combination, which must be prepared and submitted to in- 
 struments for dividing and comminuting it, and to the ac- 
 cent llnids. Thus digestion, or the pi. 
 assimilation of the food. Is entirely peculiar to animals. 
 They alone are endowed with organs of sensation, which 
 guide then in the choice of aliment. They alone possess 
 labial and other prehensile organs for seizing the food ; 
 B 
 
 ANISOBRYOUS. 
 
 teeth and jaws for comminuting and destroying its vitality 
 if living; muscular actions, by which it is swallowed, and 
 a reservoir for its reception endowed with chemical and 
 vital powers for dissolving and assimilating such parts as 
 are proper for nourishment, and which are selected ant] 
 taken into the system through the purely vital sensibilities 
 Of the absorbent internal surface, while' such parts as are 
 unfit for nourishment are expelled. 
 A still more important difference, in connection with the 
 live functions, arises out of the limit 
 (lowers of assimilation in the animal kingdom. Al 
 can convert into their own substance only matter < 
 has already been organised : while plants have the power 
 of assimilating the inorganic binary compoun 
 acid and water. This property of plants is more il 
 tant than perhaps at first sight might be suspected ; tor in 
 the vital operalionsof aiiin 
 
 matter is constantly decomposed, and it is render' d, 
 events, useless as nutriment for other animal 
 means of combustion and other decompi 
 incalculable quantity of vegetable matter is continual 
 solved into binary compounds, or the ultimate 
 matter : hence, if the power of producing new tern;.. 
 ganlsed COmpoonda out of carbonic acid and w 
 
 _ i ven to plants, both n pro 
 
 cess of lime, inevitably have been annihilated, and succes 
 sive creations of animals and vegetables would have been 
 indispensable to maintain the presi nt system of thing.-. It 
 is a beautiful instance of the harmony which pt 
 relations of nature, that animals contribute as essentially It 
 Ihe support of vegetables, by a process of excretion, as 
 these to the maintenance of animal life, by their p 
 
 nidation. The product of the respiratory interchange 
 which take- | ii the circulating fluids and II 
 
 Biosphere In animals, is carbonic acid ; which is the t 
 lial aliment of plants; and which, when in health, and ex- 
 posed to the Inflneneeof the sun's rays, plant* absorb hem 
 the atmosphere by their respiratory organs, the li 
 and exhale the superfluous oxygen which Is extrii 
 the assimilative pn 
 
 atmosphere Is maintained by the different product* which 
 are evolved in the respiratory processes of plants and 
 animals. 
 The circulation of the. nutrient juices is much more in- 
 I (ternal influences of light and i. 
 animals than in plants; and in most classes of the animal 
 kingdom, Ihe motion of the blood is principally determined 
 by the contractions of an express muscular < 
 art. 
 
 eral review, therefore, of the nature and 
 perties of living animals, their distinguishing charai 
 tics may be summed Up as follows: 
 
 Animals are the only beings in nature which manifest 
 sensation and Spontaneous movements. They digest or- 
 id substances alone, and are always provided with a 
 mouth, and an Internal ■■ iiy or canal 
 
 Their nutrient fluids are received by an absorbent inter- 
 nal surface ; while in plants they are taken up by an absor- 
 bent external SU 
 
 Animals at all times, in respiration, exhale carbonic acid 
 and absorb oxygen. (Set ' 
 AMMAL'Cl LES. (S*e Infi-sores.) 
 ANIMAL BUB8TANCE8. The principal products of 
 ■a are chemically characterised by the 
 n as one of their ultimate < lent 
 which is generally In combination with carbon, hydn 
 
 and oxygen. When, therefore, they are sub'. 
 structive distillation, ammonia is a common product : it is 
 also often evolved when they are triturated with caustic, 
 potash, or quicklime. 
 
 ANIMA'TION. (Lat. animare. to enliven.) In Painl 
 the expression given to a figure when indicating activity In 
 its members. Thus a figure truly and vigorously. 
 ted, is said to be animated. 
 
 A'NIMfO. A resin which exudes from the Hymenaea 
 Courbaril. It is brought from South America. It was for- 
 merly used in medicine, but is inert. 
 
 A'NIONS. (Or. dva. upwards, and luv, going.) Sub- 
 1 which in electrochemical decompositions are 
 evolved from their combinations at the surface by which 
 the electricity enters the electrolyte. (Sec Electron.) 
 
 A'MSI'.. (Arab, anisun. Gr. avwov.) The aromatic 
 fruit of an eastern annual umbelliferous plant called Pirn- 
 pinellaanisum. It is principally employed in the manu- 
 facture of liqueurs, and against flatulence. Star -anise is a 
 very different thin/, the produce of Illicium anisatum, a 
 rutin* lo Wint'-ra eri'. 
 
 ANISE"! TK. The French liqueur, made by distilling 
 anise, fennel, and coriander seed with brandy, and sweet- 
 ening Ihe produce. 
 
 ANISO'BRYOUS. (Gr. dvivos, unequal, and ffpva, J 
 grow.) A name civen by pome writers to monocotyledo- 
 nous plants: having only one cotyledon they grow at first 
 with more force on one side of their axis than the other 
 
ANISODACTYLES. 
 
 ANISODAC'TYI.ES, ANISODACTYL.E. (Gr. dptaog, 
 unequal, and JocruXos, a digit.) The name given by Tem- 
 minck to an order of birds, including those Insessorial 
 species the toes of which are of unequal length, as in the 
 nuthatch. 
 
 ANISODY'NAMOUS. (Gr. dvitros, unequal, and ivva- 
 fiij, poicer.) A name given to monocotyledonous plants, 
 for the same reason as anisobryous, which see. 
 
 ANISOSTE'MONOUS. (Gr. dvtcros, unequal, and cttj- 
 t!.b)v, a stamen.) When Ihenumberof stamens in a flower 
 neither corresponds with the calyx nor corolla in number 
 or power; as, for instance, when a flower having five se- 
 pals has three or seven stamens ; in such a case the sta- 
 mens are neither equal to the number of sepals nor any 
 power of their number. 
 
 ANISO'STOMOUS. (Gr. dviaos, unequal, and croua, a 
 mouth.) When the divisions of a calyx or a corolla are un- 
 equal. Seldom used ; the term unequal or irregular is usu- 
 ally employed instead. 
 
 ANISOTO'MIDiE. (Gr. dviaos, unequal, and reuvco, 1 
 cut.) A family of Coleopterous insects, having moniliform, 
 or beaded, antenna?, subelongale, slender at the base, gradu- 
 ally increasing towards the apex, with a terminal club- 
 shaped multiarticulate joint; palpi various, generally fili- 
 form ; head small and ovate ; body convex, never linear. 
 This family includes eight genera: Tritoma, of which we 
 have one indigenous species, Tr. bipustulatum ; Phalacrus, 
 of which Stephens describes twenty-eight British species, 
 remarkable for their brilliant colours, and faculty of rolling 
 up the body into a ball ; Ephislemiis, of which only three 
 species are known, which have been detected in the neigh- 
 bourhood of London ; Leibdes, abundant in species, of 
 which twenty-six are British ; Agathidium, of which we 
 have twelve species, inhabiting putrid wood and fungi, also 
 found near London ; C/ambus, of which various species, all 
 extremely minute, are known ; Clypeaster, a term already 
 appropriated to a genus of Ecliinidas ; lastly, Sericoderus, 
 distinguishable from the rest of the family by its truncate 
 elytra. 
 
 A'NKER. A measure of wine or spirits equal to 10 of 
 tho old gallons, or 8j imperial gall-ms, = 2310 r cubic 
 inches. 
 
 A'NNALS. A chronological history : derived from the 
 Roman "Annales Pontificum," or "Annates Maximi," 
 which were annual records of passing events connected 
 with religious observances, kept by the Pontifex Maxi- 
 anus. 
 
 Annals are a species of historical writing ; but they seem, 
 notwithstanding, to differ materially from history, as the 
 tatter is now understood. Annals should comprise a suc- 
 cinct account of the events having reference to some pecu- 
 liar subject, as they occur in successive years. Inquiries 
 as to the remote causes and consequences of events seem 
 to be misplaced in them ; though they are the essence of 
 history. Cicero, when speakingof annalists, says," Unarn 
 dicendi laudem putant esse brevita/em, non exornatores re- 
 rum., sed tantum narratores." Annals are, in fact, rather ma- 
 terials for history, than history. In the one, events only 
 are narrated, in the other they are narrated and reasoned 
 upon. The annalist may, no doubt, reason upon facts as 
 well as the historian ; but such reasonings are not so well 
 or happily placed in a book divided into years, as in one 
 that depicts the continuous stream of events, without 
 breaking it into limited compartments. Hailes's " Annals 
 of Scotland" is, perhaps, the best work of its class in English 
 literature. 
 
 ANNA'TES, or FIRST FRUITS. A fine paid to the 
 king, as head of the church, by one promoted to an eccle- 
 siastical benefice, and supposed to amount to one year's 
 value of that benefice. This, however, is evaded by as- 
 suming as the basis of the valuation that made in 1535, and 
 contained in what is termed the " Liber Reiris." In Eng- 
 and, first fruits go to the augmentation of Queen Anne's 
 bounty. 
 
 ANNEA'LTNG. (Anhelan, Sax.) There are many sub- 
 stances which, when rapidly cooled, after having been 
 heated, become exceedingly brittle ; an inconvenience 
 often prevented by very slow cooling : this is especially the 
 case with glass, which is therefore suffered to cool very 
 gradually in an oven constructed for the purpose, and the 
 process is called annealing. Many of the metals which 
 have become harsh and hard in the process of manufac- 
 ture, are softened in the sime way : thus the blank pieces 
 for coinage, several metallic wires. etc. are annealed. 
 
 ANNE (ST.), Order op. An order of knighthood, origi- 
 nally established in llolstein, and carried with tho princes 
 nf that country into Russia. If was made a Russian order 
 in 1796; and is now widely diffused. 
 
 ANNO'TTA. Is the pulp of the seeds of the Bixa Orel- 
 lana, an exogenous tree common in Cayenne and other 
 parts of America : it is made into a pulp, which, after hav- 
 ing fermented, is rolled into pieces of two or three pounds' 
 weight : it is imported under the names annotto, Roucou, 
 or Orleans, and is used occasionally as an orange dye and 
 54 
 
 ANNUITY. 
 
 for colouring cheese. It imparts little colour to water, but 
 dissolves in alcohol and in alkaline solutions ; its colour is 
 not materially altered by acids or alkalis. 
 
 ANNO'NA. In Roman writers, means, in a general 
 sense, the year's increase, or the fruits of the year; and it 
 also means the contribution or tax payable in corn, imposed 
 on some of the more fertile provinces of the empire, as 
 Sicily. Egypt, &c, for the use of the army and of the capi- 
 tal. The poorer class of citizens were entitled to a share 
 of this tribute ; and their habitual dependence on it was not 
 only a fruitful source of idleness, but of all sorts of disor- 
 der. To grant an increased allowance of corn was one c f 
 the surest methods by which to attain popular favour. 
 
 Summafavoris 
 
 Annona momenta trahH. Namquc asserit urbes 
 Sola fames, emituique metus, cum segne pcaeutes 
 Vulgua almit. Nescit plebes jejuna timere. 
 
 The office of Praefectus Annona? was of great importance 
 at Rome, and was generally, indeed, exercised by the em- 
 perors. (See, for further particulars, Contarenus, De Re 
 Frumenturia, passim.) 
 
 A'NNUAL. (Lat. annus, a year.) A plant which arrives 
 at perfection, passing from a seed into a perfect plant, yield- 
 ing its fruit, and perishing, within the space of a year.' The 
 term also applies to all cases where duration is for one 
 growing season only. Many plants have perennial roots 
 and annual stems; that is, stems perishing and being re- 
 newed annually : such plants are usually denominated 
 Herbaceous. 
 
 ANNUAl'RE. A name given by the French to publica- 
 tions on continuous or similar subjects, which appear in 
 yearly parts or numbers. Of the existing Annuaires, that 
 published by the Bureau des Longitudes, is the most cele- 
 brated. There are also an Annuaire Hislonque, corres- 
 ponding to our Annual Register, an Annuaire de I'Etat 
 Militaire. an Annuaire du Clerge de France, &c. 
 
 ANNU'lTY. A rent or sum receivable yearly fora term 
 of years. 
 
 An annuity may be receivable during a definite number 
 of years, or during a period of uncertain length; for exam- 
 ple, during the life of one or more individuals. In the 
 former case it is called an Annuity Certain; in the latter, 
 a Contingent Annvity. 
 
 An annuity which is not to be entered upon immediate- 
 ly, but after a certain number of years, is called a Deferred 
 Annuity; if it is not to be entered upon until after the death 
 of some person or persons now living, it is called a Sever- 
 sionary Annuity. When limited by the duration of a given 
 life or lives, it is called a Life Annuity ; and when it. is to 
 continue only for a term of years, provided an individual 
 or individuals now living shall survive that term, it is called 
 a Temporary Life Annuity. 
 
 The practice of raising or investing money on annuities 
 is attended with many advantages in the ordinary affairsof 
 the world. A merchant or trader thus finds the means of 
 clearing off his engagements gradually by the profits of his 
 trade, and without losing possession of the capital necessa- 
 ry for carrying on his speculations; and one who possesses 
 unemployed capital is thus enabled to convert it into an 
 equivalent annual income for life, and thereby derive the 
 utmost benefit from it while he lives, without the risk of 
 destitution from its failure. The accurate determination of 
 the value of annuities in present money, is therefore a sub- 
 ject of very considerable importance. We propose to ex- 
 plain the principles on which the calculation is made, and 
 to apply them to a few of the cases of most frequent occur- 
 rence. 
 
 Annuities Certain.~The values of annuities of this kind 
 depend only on the rate of interest of money, and the num 
 ber of years during which they are payable ; and are easily 
 calculated. Suppose it were required to determine the 
 value, in present money, of an annuity of £100 per annum, 
 to continue five years, or till five payments have been 
 made, the interest of money being five percent,, we should 
 reason as follows : The first payment of £100 becomes 
 due at the end of a year from the present time ; but since 
 jEIOO in hand is equal lo 105 receivable at the end of a 
 year, the present value of the first annual payment is £100 
 reduced in the proportion of 100: 105, or of 1 to 105; that 
 
 is, it is equal to £ — _. In like manner, the present value 
 
 105 
 of .£100, to be received at the end of two years, is less than 
 if it were receivable at the end of one year, in the propor- 
 tion of __; consequently, the present value of £100 to 
 
 1 05 . m 
 
 be received at the end of two years, is £ • Pursn- 
 
 (105)* 
 ing the same reasoning, the present value of £100, to be 
 
 received at the end of three years, is £ 1UU ; at the end 
 100 (105) 3 
 
 of four years, it is £ ; and so on till the end of tho 
 
 (1 05)« 
 term. But it is evident that the present value of tho whole 
 
ANNUITY. 
 
 tnnuity is the sum of the values of all the annual payments ; 
 nence the required value of the proposed annuity is— 
 100 100 _100 ( 100 100 
 
 HJ5 + (105); + (1 UOp + (105)4 + (1-03H 
 This reasoning may be easily generalised. Let o denote 
 the annual payment, f the rateof interest, n the number of 
 years during which it continues, and Sine present value of 
 all the i -hall then have — 
 
 S= " + - 
 
 1+r T (i+r)i 
 
 + (1 + r)' 
 For the sake of abridging, putr = 
 
 niula will become — 
 
 S = a (v + r>2 + v'-i + t>«) 
 
 or B = a v (1 + v + v » + vZ . . . + m — i). 
 Tne sum of the scrips within the parenthesis is 
 
 1 
 
 • 
 
 ^(1 — tm); therefore, 8 as .iLL (1— v); or, writ- 
 1 — pn 1 — v 
 
 tag 1 for _£- 8 = 2 (1 - en), 
 r I — 1> r 
 
 to see the method of proceeding in 
 
 trtain. For instance, lei it be 
 
 : i tie present value of an annuity deferred 
 
 that is, not to be entered ii|x>n till after the 
 
 end of three yesis; and to continue ten years from that 
 
 time It Is evident that we have only to find the value of 
 
 amount for thirteen years, 
 for three years, and to subtract the latter value from the 
 former. 1 Is the value of the deferred annuity, 
 
 thai the annuity, instead ol 
 
 half yearly, or quarterly. It is obvi- 
 
 n annuity of jElOO per annum lor ten y. 
 
 . the interest of mon 
 
 : as an annuity of £60 pet an> 
 
 num for twentj ■ t>te yearly. Interest to-ina 8) 
 
 v of £25 per annum, payable yearly 
 
 : If per cent The principle 
 
 . or any number of individual*] the cal- 
 culate els a Utile more complicated, as it be- 
 comes necessary not only to find the present value of the 
 payment to b i any given year, bat 
 to take into account the probability ol Its being received, 
 that is to sav. the probability that the Individual or individu- 
 als, on the duration of whose lives it depends, will be alive 
 at thai i be annuiiy depend on the continuance 
 Mile life, ami let us denote the probability that the 
 life will be In existence at the end of 
 
 I , .', 3, 4, 5. &c. years, 
 
 by pi, 7 pi, p3, &c. ; 
 
 and, as before, let v ss - . The present value of JB1, to 
 
 1 + r 
 be received certainly atthe end of a year, isr ; but th( 
 babilitv of receiving it Is pi ; therefore, the value of j£l at 
 the en subject to the chance of the given life 
 
 beta? I ■•nee, Is pi r. In like manner, the value 
 
 of £\. to be received certainly at the end of two years, 
 and the chance of Ha being received is p* ', therefore, the 
 value subject to the contingency is p2 r2, and so on. Lei A 
 denote the value of JEI to be received yearly dorin 
 
 ■ continuance of the given life, and we have evidently 
 A = pi t> + pO v ■'■ + p I V3 -4- pi v* + <fec. 
 continued till p becomes nothing, or till the extremity of 
 human life. 
 
 aow necessary to consider the nature of the quanti- 
 ties i v p',p2,p3, &c, and to show in what 
 manner they are to be computed. By the doctrine of 
 chances, the probability of the occurrence of any event is 
 
 red by the quotient that arises from dividing the num- 
 ber of chances favourable to its occurrence by the whole 
 number of ways in which it can happen. Consequently, if 
 n denote the number of individuals living at a given age, 
 »ji the number of the same individuals alive at the end of 
 one year, ffi the number living at the end of two years, 
 n^ the number living at the end of three years, and so on, 
 
 we shall have pi = — , pi 5sj£,j* = ^1, pi = ^i, and 
 
 n n n n 
 
 so on. The numbers n, nl, M3, &c, are laken from a table 
 of mortality, or a table constructed to show the ratio of the 
 number oi individuals who enter upon every given year of 
 life to the number who survive that year, or who die in the 
 Course of it. 
 
 There is no other method of finding the value of the se-« 
 nes represented by A than that of calculating the value of 
 Its different terms separately, and adding the whole into 
 im. Nevertheless, as the object in general is not to 
 determine merely the value of an annuity on a life at a par- 
 ticular axe, but to' construct a table showing its value for all 
 the different ages of life, there is a method of deducing the 
 
 value at one age from the value at another aae. which great 
 ly abridges the labour of calculation. Tl • the 
 
 age of the individual on whose life the annuity depends to be 
 40, and the probabilities of a lifeof40 continuing 1.2,3,<fcc, 
 years to bey;',p-', p3, &c.,wehave, by what Is already .shown. 
 
 A=pl v +J»1M +p$t3 + . . . . +]'% V*. 
 Now, let At be the annuity on a life of 41. that is, one year 
 older than the former; and let the probabilities of a lite of 
 41 living over 1, 2, 3, &c. years, be </>, '/-, 7, </', Ac, we 
 shall ha 
 
 A' = 71 v -f ?-' r2 -f ?3^ 4 • • • • + 7 1 n— 1. 
 Rut the quantities 71, 72,73, Sec. are not Independent of pi, 
 . Ac. ; the one set are evidently functions ol the other. 
 In tact, the probability that a life of 40 will live over 2 years, 
 I to the probability that a life of 40 will live over 1 
 year, multiplied into the probability that a life of 41 will live 
 over 1 year. This is evident from the manner in which the 
 probabilities are obtained ; for, n,ni,n2, being the numbers 
 respectively alive at the ages of 40,41, and 42, the probabili- 
 ty that a life of 40 will live over 1 year, is" 1 , and that it will 
 
 jii n 
 
 continue 2 y ears, -J or 1'X — • In like manner, the pro- 
 
 n ni n 
 babilityof a life of 40 living over 3 years, Is equal to the pro- 
 bability of a life of 40 living over 1 year multiplied into the 
 probability that a-lifeof 41 will live over2years; and so on. 
 
 Hence. p2= pi 71, or 71 =-£1,72 = ^1, 73=^, and so 
 
 ' y y "' ?1 pi pi 
 
 on. We have, therefore, 
 
 Ai =PL(p2i>+p3»'2 + p4r3 +pxr=t— i); 
 
 and, multiplying both sides by pi v, 
 
 p\ r A' =;/ r +7' « '• + pi V*. .... + px v* . 
 On subtracting this equation from 
 
 A =pi V+p3V % + pj v3 + pi vi . . . . +pi v* , 
 we get 
 
 A — pi v At =pt », whence A = pi v (1 + A';. 
 This formula, which was found by the Euler, 
 
 gives the following rule for determining' the value of ail an- 
 nuity on a life at any age from the value of the sinie anoui- 
 . and renders the computation of 
 the wh much more laborious than the direct 
 
 Mon of the annuity on the youngest life. "To the 
 1 an annuity on a life one year older, add unit ; mul- 
 tiply the sum by the probability that the III live 
 over one year, and also by the present value of XI to I 
 ceived at the end of a year. The product Is the value ol 
 the annuity on the given life." 
 The values of deferred and temporary anuui; 
 
 ilv found from the table of the Values for the 
 whole of life. For example, let it be rean 
 the present value of an annuity on the II Idual 
 
 now aged 40, but deferred 10 years, thai 
 commence till the expiration of 10 years. After II 
 If the individual be then alive, the valui 
 
 unity ou the remainder of his life is ihe annultj 
 
 : B. The present value of jEl payable 
 at tie- end of in years isr 0; and the probablli 
 ing it in the evenl of an individual now aged 40 being then 
 alive, is/- ■'ii; therefore, the present value of II BUbjecl to 
 the contingency. Is 7^0 v 10 B. In general, the value of an 
 annuity deterred n years, Is pn m An, where \ 
 the annuity on a life n years older than that corresponding 
 to A. ,' 
 
 A temporary annuity on a single life for n years, is found 
 by adding together the first n terms of the series 
 
 pi v + pi v* + pi v\ &c. 
 But it is frequently more easy to find it. by means of the 
 deferred annuity on the same life for the fame term of 
 years ; for it Is obvious that the temporary annuity and de- 
 ferred annuity are. together, equal to the who!- annuity. 
 Thus, let A be an annuity for the whole of life, At" a tem- 
 porary annuity of the same amount for n years on the same 
 life, and Adn the same annuity deferred n years, we shall 
 — A — A'I«. v 
 
 Annuities on Joint Lives.— The method of calculating 
 annuities to be paid so long as two or more individuals 
 shall continue to live together, is equally simple. Let the 
 probabilities that A and B will live over 
 
 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. years 
 
 be p', p' 2 , PS pt, &c 
 01, tfl, ?', 7 4 - &c. 
 
 respectively, then the probability that both will live ovec 
 1, 2, 3. 4, &c. years 
 
 win be pi 71, p?? 5 . p ; q\ piq*, *c 
 
 and the value of an annuity on their joint lives, which we 
 may denote by AB, becomes 
 
 AB =pi 71 v -r-p'72f2+p3 73 B3+pt7-l Vi + Ac, 
 continued till p or 7 becomes nothing, or to the last ane In. 
 I le. When more lives than two arc involved, the 
 method of proceeding is obvious. 
 
 Another question of this kind frequently occurs, namely^ 
 to determine the value of an annuity on the survivor. • 
 
ANNUITY. 
 
 or more lives. Let us suppose two lives only are concern- 
 ed : and let A be the value of the annuity on the first life, 
 B that on the second, and AB that on the joint lives (i. e. to 
 be paid till one of the lives shall drop). Letpx = the pro- 
 bability the first will live over x years, and qx = the 
 probability the second will live over x years. We shall 
 then have 
 
 1 — px = probability 1st will die before the end of x years, 
 1 — qx s= prob. 2d will die before the end of x years, 
 (I — px) (l — grx) = prob. both will die before end of* years ; 
 and hence the probability that both will not die before the 
 end of.r years, is 1 — (I — px) (1 — qx), which is equal to 
 px -|- (/ ,x — px qx. This expression, therefore, is the mea- 
 sure of the probability that a payment will be received at 
 the end of the^th year; and supposing the annuity to be 
 JE1, the present value of that payment certain is vx. Mul- 
 tiplying this into the above probability, we get the value in 
 present money of the payment to be made at the xthyear, 
 if one or both of the lives survive, viz. 
 
 px vx -\- qxvx — px qx vx. 
 Now, if we substitute successively the numbers 1, 2, 3,4, 
 &c. forx in this expression, we shall have the value of the 
 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, &c. payment, and the sum will be the value 
 D.f the annuity to continue during the life of the survivor. 
 Bill it has been shown that 
 
 p\ »1 -f- pivi + pivZ -f- pi vi + &c. ss A, 
 
 g! el + 32 « a + 9 3 i> 3 + oi » 4 + &c - = B - 
 pi <?' vl + P* qi v~ + pi q'i v3 -f- pi qi vi -(- &c. = A13 ; 
 therefore, the value of the annuity is A + B — A B ; that 
 is to say, the value of an annuity on the survivor of tico lives 
 is equal, to the sum of the annuities on each of the single lives 
 diminished hy the annuity on the joint lives. (For applica- 
 tions of the doctrine of annuities, see the terms Assu- 
 rance, Survivorship.) 
 
 Annuity Tables. — In consequence of the numerous and 
 important applications of the doctrine of life annuities to 
 commercial purposes, great pains and labour have been 
 bestowed in the formation of tables of their values at all 
 the different ages of human life. These tables differ very 
 considerably, not from any difference in the methods of 
 constructing them, ttut from the difficulty of estimating 
 with numeral precision the probable duration of human 
 life. The first table of the kind which we possess was 
 given by Dr. Halley, in a paper inserted in the "Philoso- 
 phical transactions" for 1693, and founded on observations 
 of mortality made at Breslaw. De Moivre, in a tract en- 
 titled "Annuities on Lives," published in 1724, gave a very 
 elegant formula for determining the value of a life annuity 
 ■ •, founded on the hypothesis that the annual de- 
 crements of life are equal ; or that out of a given number 
 of individuals, equal numbers die every year, till the whole 
 become extinct. In 1742, Thomas Simpson published 
 tables of annuities on single and joint lives, calculated from 
 observations of mortality made in London. These were 
 extended in a supplementary work published in 1752. De- 
 parcieux, in 1746, published his excellent " Essai sur les 
 Probabilites de la Duree de la Vie Humaine," with tables 
 of annuities on single lives, calculated from the probabili- 
 Ues deduced from the registers kept in different relidou3 
 houses, and the lists of the nominees in the French Ton- 
 tines. These tables were decidedly the best that had 
 then appeared, and even now, when much more extensive 
 observations have been attained, are of great value. But 
 the tables which acquired the most extensive reputation 
 were the celebrated Northampton Tables, calculated by 
 Dr. Price from registers kept in the city of Northampton. 
 These, till a late period at least, have formed the guide of 
 the transactions of all the assurance offices. They give the 
 probabilities of life, and consequently the value of the an- 
 nuities, considerably lower than all other good observations 
 have subsequently proved them to be; but, in proportion 
 as the annuities are too low, the premiums for assurance 
 deduced from them are too high ; and hence they were 
 extremely safe for the offices, though proportionally unjust 
 for the assured. In consequence of the competition re- 
 sulting from the recent great increase in the number of as- 
 surance offices, they now transact their business on more 
 equitable terms. 
 
 An extensive set of annuity tables was given by Mr. 
 Milne in bis "Treatise on the Valuation of Annuities and 
 Assurances on Lives and Survivorships," published in 
 1815. One of these tables, founded on observations made 
 at Carlisle, has acquired considerable reputation, and per- 
 haps gives a nearer representation of Ihe value of life at 
 present in England generally than any other which has yet 
 been published. The annuities granted by government 
 are now valued according to a table calculated by Mr. Fin- 
 laisoh from the mortality experienced among the different 
 classes of annuitants, this table possesses a creat advan- 
 tage over most others, inasmuch as it is founded on obser- 
 vations of the actual numbers who entered upon and passed 
 through the several years of age among a class of individu- 
 56 
 
 ANODON. 
 
 als none of which couldbelostsightof,sothatno uncertainty 
 remains about the accuracy of the data. The values of the 
 annuities are in general considerably higher than those 
 given by the Northampton Table, at the same rate per 
 cent, and approach to those of the Carlisle Table. The 
 observations also indicate a considerable difference be- 
 tween the values of male and female life at the same ages, 
 a fact which appears to be borne out by all the accurate re- 
 gisters of mortality which have been kept in England and 
 other European countries. (-See Mortality. Also see 
 De Morgan on Probabilities, 8vo.) 
 
 Annuity. In Law. A sum of money paid yearly, and 
 charged on the personal estate, or on the person, of the in- 
 dividual from whom it is due: thus differing from a rent- 
 charge, which is charged on real estate. Annuities are 
 commonly employed as a system of borrowing and lending ; 
 the borrower of the money being the grantor of the annuity, 
 and the lender the grantee. An annuity is either forateriu 
 of years, for a life or lives, or in perpetuity ; and the latter, 
 although charged on personal property, may by the terms 
 of the grant, descend as real estate. A perpetual annuity in 
 redeemable by the grantor, subject, however, to conditions 
 in the grant, by which he may preclude himself from re- 
 deeming for a certain period of years. An annuity for life 
 or years is only redeemable by consent of the parties, unless 
 it has been rendered redeemable on specific conditions in 
 the original grant. Annuities for life, on account of t he risk 
 to which the grantee is exposed, are not within the usury 
 laws : they are, therefore, commonly resorted to as a mode 
 of raising money by loan at high interest. By the slat. 53 
 G. 3. c. 141., a memorial of every instrument by which an- 
 nuities for life are granted must be enrolled in the Court 
 of Chancery, containing the date, names of parties and wit- 
 nesses, and conditions of contract, and the grantor may 
 have the instrument cancelled, if the consideration money 
 is not bona fide paid him. This act is intended to relate 
 only to annuities, granted in return for loans. Annuities 
 created by will are general legacies, and subject to abate- 
 ment, in proportion with other legacies, on a deficiency of 
 the funds of Ihe testator. If a person on whose life an an 
 nuity is charged dies between two days of payment, the 
 grantee has no claim pro rata, for the proportionate amount 
 of the yearly or quarterly sum incurred since his death. 
 This art is further explained by 3 G. 4. c. 92., 7 G. 4. c. 75. 
 
 AN'NULAR ECLIPSE. Aii eclipse of the sun, in which 
 the moon conceals the whole of the sun's disk, excepting a 
 bright ring all round the border. (See Eclipse.) 
 
 AN'NULATE. Formed or divided into distinct rings, 
 or marked with differently coloured annulations. 
 
 AN'NULET. (Lat. annulus, a littlrring.) In Architec- 
 ture. A small square moulding which crowns or accom- 
 panies a larger. Also that fillet which separates the flutings 
 of a column, though improperly used in that sense. It is 
 sometimes called a list or lisiella; which see. 
 
 ANNULO'SA. (Lat. annulus, a ring.) A term used to 
 designate, sometimes a part, sometimes the whole, of the 
 Articulate division of Invertebrate animals. 
 
 A'NNULUS. (Lat. annulus, a ring.) This word is used 
 in Botany in several different senses. In the mushroom 
 and some other fungi it is applied to a collar which sur- 
 rounds the stipes just below the hymenium; in mosses it 
 signifies a rim external with respect to the peristome; in 
 ferns it is an elastic rib which girds the theca nearly all 
 round, and which by its contraction tears the theca open 
 and disperses the spores. 
 
 ANNU'NCIA'TION, Order of the. Founded in Sa- 
 voy by Amadeus VI., in 1335, as the order of the Collar: 
 received its present name from Charles III. The reigning 
 king of Sardinia is grand master of the order. 
 
 Annunciation, Feast of the. A festival of the Christian 
 church, in commemoration of the announcement of the 
 conception of our Saviour to the Blessed Virgin, by the an- 
 gel Gabriel. (St. Luke i. 26. 38.) It is celebrated on the 
 25lh of March, commonly called Lady-day. 
 
 ANO'BIUM. The name of a Fabrician genus of Coleop- 
 terous insects, characterised by antennas filiform, the last 
 joints larger : thorax nearly round, not margined, receiving 
 the head ; palpi clavate ; labium entire. 
 
 A'NODE. (Gr. ava, upwards, and 6&o$,aicny.) The 
 way by which electricity enters substances through which 
 it passes: opposed to cathode, the road or way by which it 
 goes out. 
 
 A'NODON. (Gr. d, priv., dSov;, a tooth .) The name of 
 a genus of Lamellibranchiale Bivalves, including the com- 
 mon freshwater muscle, the shell of which has no articu- 
 lar processes, or teeth, at the hinge The name has also 
 been applied to a genus of serpents, which have the teeth 
 in the mouth very minute, or rudimeutal : the Anodon 
 Typus {Coluber scaber of Linnaeus), a South American spe- 
 cies of this genus, lives upon the egss of birds, which, by 
 the structure of the mouth above mentioned, it is enabled 
 to swallow entire. The inferior spinous processes of the 
 cervical vertebras are prolonged into the gullet, and there 
 receive a coating of enamel ; thus serving the office of 
 
ANODYNE. 
 
 c may take place with- 
 
 .ind 6Swn, p 
 ■ 
 
 generally 
 
 il ir Dame, In the 
 
 ■ 
 
 ties on the 
 
 i 
 
 vit the 
 
 ii arts of the 
 
 oarkible tor their power 
 
 are Ughl and agile 
 
 brilliancy of 
 
 ler. 
 
 O'M M.isTic vi.AK. The im ne in 
 
 ulution with respect to any 
 
 orbit. Ttie 
 
 equinox : the side- 
 
 :ly of 
 if Hie diame- 
 rbii is not fixed, but has a progn 
 
 pose that when the 
 
 the sun, die oilier 
 
 when 
 
 volution, retu 
 
 r will point 1 1 i of the 
 
 ime which till 
 still longer than the tropi- 
 rds at 
 Th has 
 
 the Ii if the <><nii- 
 
 l-fll"s = 01"'.). belore 
 
 it of its ellipse. The lime ocru- 
 
 minutes, and the length of 
 
 lore tlie ano- 
 
 ANOMALY (Gr ivtiuaXoi irregular.) A 
 
 angular distance of 
 
 i the SUB, There 
 
 ndicular 
 
 >il in r. On ar- 
 
 in its orbit is irregu- 
 
 . that while the real | 
 
 r planet moving In the same orbit, with 
 
 i i I performii in in the same 
 
 from A to P. opposed, the 
 
 : v 8 P is the mean ano- 
 
 Himaly. The mean ano- 
 
 cription : to find the 
 
 difficulty, re- 
 
 qulrin (from the cir- 
 
 ■'. ing been first proposed by Kepler, it Is 
 
 Kepler's prol 
 
 ar, an exception from a general 
 
 ANO'MIA. (Gr. d, without, v6uos, a law ; because not 
 le ordinary laws of classification.) The 
 n genus of I 
 
 , apply 
 
 ifthe modem 
 
 I lurmia 
 
 Acephalous Molluscs, having two 
 
 thin valves, of which the flatten 
 
 'lie cardinal margin. The greatest part 
 
 this opening to he in 
 . which is so Icareons, and 
 
 . always attacl 
 I of the muscle serves to join one 
 The animal 11 vestige of a 
 
 . ible for the le 
 AN'ONA (Menona, the Malayan name of II 
 
 found in hot latitudes, with large 
 
 iv fruit, which in some species la used as food. 
 
 -.•iied front its seeds laying In a 
 
 -ii-like pulp, is produced by A. squamosa; 
 
 lyer, the most esteemed of all the fruits in Peru, 
 
 ier: and other kinds are known. 
 
 tA'CE-E. (See anoxa.) e natural 
 
 illy dry and 
 
 ripe camels furnished the Piper 
 
 ANTENNA. 
 
 •urn of the old drun shops. The great mark ol 
 Anonaces is their having ternary (trimerous) flowers, and 
 a ruminated albumen. 
 
 ANO'NYMOUS. (Gr. dvaivvfios, nameless, from avofia, 
 a name.) In Literature, works published without the name 
 of the author. Those published under .-are 
 
 termed Pseudonymous (ibtiSos, falsehood). The N-stcata- 
 1 is that of Barbier (Dictiomurire 
 1 1 Pseudonymee, 3 vote, Parte, 
 is also the of Placcius, 
 
 irum i-t Psevdonymorutn, t. fol. Ham- 
 burg, i . 
 
 ANOPLOTHElUUM. (Gr. uvoxXoj. .idSij. 
 
 piov, beast.) The name of a genus or extinct animate ol 
 
 the order Pachydermata, characterised by tin ■ shot 
 
 and feeble size of tl th, which resemble the in- 
 
 oily unfitted for being used as 
 As the canines In lo not 
 
 i below the level of the incisors a th, no 
 
 : required iii tin- dental Beriesofthe op- 
 posite j.tw for the reception of their pointed 
 
 teeth is uninterrupted in 
 
 ile In no existing animal 
 
 \ loplothertum has 6 incisors, 2 canines, 
 
 and 1 I ich jaw. Tie jiloihc 
 
 Hum • bout the size of a wild boar, but 
 
 longer in the body, with the head of an oblong form, and 
 
 a i the body, 
 ibable use was to assist the animal in swimming, 
 itherium (.1. 
 
 iroaching to I grace- 
 
 lie; a third so 
 
 Of the teeth, 
 
 and th ! is, appear to have been 
 
 sinjul irlv defii 
 
 ANORE'XY. (Gr a, icit/iout. and d.orfiy, ajpetite.) 
 
 ANO'SMIA (Gr. <i. unlhout, and doiui, smell.) Loss of 
 
 leliing. 
 ANO'dTOMA (Gr. dtrta, upioards, and oroutu mouth.) 
 n ite, or air-breathi -. the 
 
 hell of which presents the following [i 'i-uliarity,- 
 the lawt whorl turns upwards low 
 AVH.'i: \\s. wol 'ha. ((Jr. d, prlv., 
 illed to a tribe of n 
 I ol in arriving at maturity ; as the load and 
 frog. 
 
 A'NSERES. (Lat 
 rangement, die n ime of die third order of bird 
 
 the bill broad at the top, and covered with a soil skin ; the 
 i ITATORES.) 
 
 \\T. See Formica, 
 a'ntv JS. plur. (Lat anti 
 
 they are detached from the wall. Vitruvin 
 
 - usually dimin when ac- 
 
 nuns from whose capitals, In all Greek 
 works, they vary. 
 
 A\l'\ l IDS. Medlclnefl which neutralise the 
 
 ANTA'LGIC (Gr. fort, against, and tWyos, pom.) 
 That which relieves pain. 
 
 LNTANACLA'SIS. (A compound word from the Greek 
 
 Suva, and the verb k\hm, I break.) 
 ■i figure in which n word is 
 hut in a different sense or dii 
 
 i kind of antithetical force ti- 
 the expre 
 
 " Luliilur, el labclur in orane rolubilis mvuni." 
 
 The return to thi is of thought and diction al 
 
 nterruption of a parenthesis, is also termed Anta- 
 
 A'NTAl'HUODI'SfAC-s. (Or. dl "| A^pu- 
 
 rfiri;, Venus. I Medicines w! 
 ANT l/RCTIC. (Gr. (ii'ri. against, and dptros 
 Antarctic circle, one , 
 cles of thi allel to the equator, and d 
 
 , the Booth pole. Antarcl 
 
 m extremity of the axis of the earth. (Set 
 Arctic.) . 
 
 ANTECET)ENT. In Analysis, the name given to l he 
 
 ratio a : 6, a is the antecedent, and b is dehommati 
 consequent. „ , 
 
 Antecedent. In Logic, the first n an hypo- 
 
 thetical p lowed by the consequent ; as in the 
 
 following instance : — 
 
 If we say we have no sin (antecedent), 
 We deceive ourselves (consequent). 
 
 ANTEDILU'VIAN. (Lat ante, before, and deluvium, 
 deluge i thai existed before the deluge. 
 
 ANTELOPE, .sec Antii.opk. ,„K„i ar 
 
 ANTF/NNA. (Lat a yard arm.) A movean.e, tuDuiar, 
 and jointed sensiferous b'can situated ('ii '!" !l 
 
ANTENNULjE. 
 
 peculiar to the Condylope Articulata. Certain Annelides 
 carry soft tentacles or filaments upon the head, which 
 have been termed antennae ; but improperly, according to 
 re definition, which would restrict the phrase to 
 the jointed antennae of insects and crustaceans. In the 
 latter class the antennae are commonly four in number, 
 cape,' a 'pedicel,' of two joints, and 
 a 'clavolet' : the latter is setaceous, and divided into avast 
 of minute joints. It is simple in the external an- 
 il in the internal pair is always composed of two 
 of three setaceous filaments. The internal 
 pair of antennae are situated before or between the eyes, 
 the external behind, at the outer sides of the eyes. In in- 
 sects the antennae are always two in number, and situated 
 in the space between or before the eyes ; they consequent- 
 ly correspond to the internal antennae of crustaceans. 
 The cavity or socket In which the base of the antenna} is 
 planted is called the 'tomlus,' or bed. The first, and in 
 many cases the most conspicuous, joint of the antenna; is 
 termed the scape. The base of the scape, by which it is 
 articulated with the torulus, is the bulb. It often looks like 
 a distinct joint, and is the point upon which the antenna 
 turns. The pedicellus, or second joint of the antenna, in 
 some insects, also acts the part of a pivot in the bed of the 
 scape, in order to give a separate motion to the clavola, or 
 This, which includes the remaining joints of the 
 antenna taken together, is occasionally terminated by a 
 i or knob; a term applied to the last joints of the 
 clavolet when suddenly larger than the rest. (For the va- 
 18B with respect to situation, approximation! 
 proportion, direction, figure, termination, and appendages, 
 the reader is referred to the 4th vol. of Kirbyand Spence's 
 Introduction to Entomology.') 
 
 ■ ANTE'NNULiE. (Dim. of antenna.) A term some- 
 times applied to the articulated filaments attached to the 
 jaws or lower lip of Mandibulate insects, and which seem 
 to be endowed with a sensiferous faculty specially adapted 
 t" distinguish kinds of food, and applied by the animal to 
 thai use: these organs are more commonly called palps, 
 palpi, or feelers. 
 
 A'NTEPAGME'NTA. (Eat.) In Architecture, the mould- 
 mis or architraves round doors ; also the jambs of a door. 
 
 ANTEPE'CTUS. In Entomology, signifies the under 
 side or breastplate of the manitrunk, and the bed of the 
 first pair of extremities or arms. 
 
 A'NTEPENIJ'LT, or ANTEPENULTIMA. In Gram- 
 mar and Prosody, the last syllable of a word but two. 
 
 AV1T/RIOR.' (Lat. ante, icfore.) This is said either 
 when of two lobes of a stigma, one, the anterior, is directed 
 towards the front of a flower, and the other, the posterior, 
 towards the back, or in any other similar case. It is also 
 applied to certain stipules, which stand between the petiole 
 and stem of a plant, adhering to the former, as in some 
 Oinchonaceous plants. 
 
 ANTESIGNA'M. A class of soldiers in the Roman 
 army, who were drawn up in front of the standards (ante 
 signa), whence they derived their name. As their post 
 was one that demanded great courage and firmness, they 
 were picked troops. 
 
 ANTIIE'LA. (Gr. dvQr)\iov, a little flower.) A name 
 given bv Meyer in the inflorescence of rushes. 
 
 ANTHE'LIX. (Gr. dvri, against) ami fat £, the helix, or 
 external involute margin of the auricle.) In Anatomy, the 
 outer or external ridge of the auricle ear, which runs near- 
 ly p aralle l with the helix. 
 
 ANTHELMINTICS. (Gr. dvri, against, and l\uiv(, 
 a worm.) Medicines which kill intestinal worms, or effect 
 their expulsion. 
 
 A'NTIIEM. (Gr. avrnbuvri, alternate singing.) A 
 piece of music performed in cathedral service by choris- 
 ters who sing alternately. This manner of singing is very 
 ancient in the church ; some suppose it to have descended 
 from the practice of the earliest Christians, who, accord- 
 ing to Pliny, were accustomed to sing their Hymn to Christ 
 in parts or by turns (aecum invicem). 
 
 A'NTHER. (Gr. dvQr\pa, a flowery herb.) A hollow 
 I dly consisting of two parallel cells, and constitut- 
 ing the apparatus that contains the pollen, or male part of 
 a flower. Theoretically considered, an anther is the blade 
 of a leaf, in a contracted state, with its two sides hollowed 
 out and its parenchyma converted into pollen, while the 
 midrib in a fleshy state divides the two lobes, and is called 
 the connective. 'This part is sometimes highly developed. 
 trhen the lobes of the anther are often placed at a distance 
 irom each other, as in Nymphtea; or it is altogether ab- 
 sorbed \ es run together, and there is but one 
 
 cell, as in Epficris. Other modifications produce other 
 le lobe, for instance, disappears, 
 ive is expanded into the state of a petal, as 
 in (anna; or it is simply lengthened anddistori 
 Salvia; or, the anther remaining in its normal State, ii is 
 ed into a fleshy mass, as in Penrea ; and it under- 
 "\- similar transformations, either from the same 
 or other causes. What is most curious about the anther, 
 
 ANTHROPOGRAPHY. 
 
 is its property of opening to discharge its pollen just at tne 
 very lime when the stigma is ready to receive the influence 
 of the latter. The cause of this sympathy between two 
 really independent parts is supposed to consist in an emp- 
 tying and drying up of the cellules forming the lining of 
 the anther by the absorbent action of the ovary, which is 
 imagined thus by its own effon ut an action 
 
 which is necessary to its own complete operation. The 
 cellules lining the'anther, when thus dried up, contract, 
 and pull against certain fissures or del: in the 
 
 valves of the anther, which give way, and so foi 
 by which the pollen esc 
 
 AWiBERI'FEROUS. (Lat. anthera, an anther, tun! 
 fero, I hear.) Forming a support to an anther. 
 
 ANTHERO'GENOUS. (Lat. anthera, and Or. j stoopm. 
 I urn produced.) When, in double flowers, iln 
 converted into horn like petals, as in the double columbine. 
 
 ANTHF/ROID. Resembling an anther. 
 
 ANTIIE'SIS. (Gr. avdnais, the generation of flowers. , 
 The period when flowers expand. It is at that time that 
 all the curious phenomena of fertilisation occur; the pans 
 are all in their most perfect state, and consequently it is 
 often necessary to speak of that period. 
 
 ANTHO'DIUM. (Gr. dvBot, a flower, or dv6w8ris,fttB of 
 flowers.) The head of Cowers of a thistle or a daisy ; it is 
 the same thing as capitulum, and is applicable to all cases 
 wdiere a number of small flowers or florets are combined 
 in a head, and surrounded by a common involucrum. An 
 anthodium is nothing but a depressed gpi 
 
 ANTIIO'LOGY. (Gr. dvdoXoyta.) Signifying "a 
 land of flowers," and metaphorically applied to 
 of short pieces of poetry, on amatory, convivial, moral, fu- 
 nereal, &c. subjects, called epigrams; not in the English 
 sense of the word, which implies a pointed conceit, hut in 
 the more proper signification of "inscription." The first 
 collection of epigrams known by the name of Anthology 
 was made by Meleager, a Syrian Greek poet, who lived 
 about a century before the 'birth of Christ; and to this 
 several additions were made by different hands as low 
 down as the times of the Byzantine empire. A selection 
 from the Greek Anthology, translated into English verse 
 by the late Mr 
 two editi 
 
 ANTHO'LYSIS. (Gr. dvBoi, id XlMTIf, a 
 
 breaking up.) The changes of flowers from their u 
 some other state, as leaves, branches, ,'. e. 
 
 ANTIIO'PHORUM. (Gr. dvQos, a flower, and A>sp:iv, to 
 bear.) A columnar process arising from the b 
 calyx, and having at its apex the petals, stamens, and pistil. 
 It is usually very short, and is in reality an internode be 
 tween the whorls of sepals and petals. 
 
 ANTIIOXA'NTHUM. (Gr. dvOo j, a flower, and tavQos, 
 yellow.) A dwarf annual grass, found plentifully in 
 tures, and having sweet-scented leaves. It is thought 
 the fragrance of hay is owing to its presence. The fli 
 are in oval heads, which become dull yellow when 
 Farmers call it the sweet vernal crass. 
 _ ANTHOZA'SIA. (Gr. dv9os, a flower, and $ao). I flour- 
 ish.) When the leaves of a plant assume the appearance 
 of petals. 
 
 AN'TIIRACITE. (Gr. dvOpajt, charcoal.) Mineral car- 
 bon. A difficultly combustible species of coal. 
 
 A'NTHRACOTHE'RIUM. (Gr. d»6pa\, charcoal, and 
 Stjziov, a beast.) A name indicative of die stratum in 
 which the fossil genus of Pachyderms, to which it is ap- 
 plied, was found, viz. in the tertiary coal or lignite of Ca- 
 dibona, in Liguria. The genus presents Seven species, 
 some of them approximating to the si; iter of 
 
 the hog ; others approaching nearly to the dimensions of a 
 hippopotamus. 
 
 A'NTHRAX. The name of a Fabfician genus of Dip- 
 terous insects, having the mouth provided with a verj 
 straight setaceous sucker, formed of two unequal horizon- 
 tal valves, and containing stings; palpi 
 hairy; antennae distant, the last joint setaceous. Til 
 nus is now raised to the rank of a family, Anthi 
 racterised by a short body; win. widely em; 
 antenna; distant, two and sometimes three jointed ; the 
 head as high as the thorax. Two of the genera (Somalia, 
 and Anthrax proper) are British. 
 
 ANTHRE'NUS. The name of a Linmean genus o! 
 Coleopterous insects, having the antenna club 
 
 solid; palpi unequal, filiform: , , branaceous 
 
 linear, bifid ; labium entire ; head hid under the thorax. 
 
 A'NTHRIBUS. The name of a Fabrician genus of 
 Coleopterous insects, applied to that section of the Liniueaii 
 Curculiones, which has the lip bifid, the jaw bifid and short, 
 and the proboscis short. 
 
 ANTIfltOPO'GRAPHY. (Gr. dvOpornos, man, aim 
 ypatpuv, to describe.) A branch of P. raphy 
 
 which investigates the physical characteristics, loRal boun- 
 daries, and actually existing cure 
 
 races or families of men : differing from Ethnograpliv 
 which examines their origin and affinities. 
 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
 
 ItuPO'LOGY. ((ii'. dvdpuiros, man, and Xo/»f, 
 human nature, 
 ill intellectual : any writing on the 
 
 mtly used to d 
 
 RO POMO'RPIHTES 
 
 hape. Such 
 
 !i always com- 
 
 ItliellS. 
 
 \ STHRO'POMO'KPIIOUS. <<;r. avOpioKos, a man, and 
 
 \ name applii sllum in some 
 
 ' ol the upper lobes 
 
 to human arms, and the low- 
 
 ANTHROPO PHAG1. (Gr. dvQpwrros. iiian,uin\ipayttv, 
 ipon human tleah. 
 (Gr. AvVot, a Jlowtr, and oi/ia, a /art.) 
 . angcd closely on a i • 
 Piper. 
 Will, acofasubgci 
 
 A'NI'j ' k preposition is 
 
 . antibilious, an- 
 
 : n se poison. 
 ATTRITION. A compound applied to machine- 
 
 . i^pa\iov, arm.) 
 remities, 
 .mil ulna 
 i ither alone, or 
 .narticu- 
 Ih the hand. 
 A'NTICIIAMBER. (Fr. antichambro.) In Architec- 
 r adjoining or near a bed- 
 principal Cham- 
 room in a palace. 
 
 in which 
 ■ 
 
 various and mi 
 
 ied d:\ iin-.s baa 
 •villi the Romish church. At the 
 there aa- 
 ■ 
 
 Grotiua, and 
 
 r Antichrist as symbolical of 
 
 . Lightfoot, and 
 
 J wish im- 
 
 I 
 
 entertained b) ( iiurch divines 
 
 \. (Gr. dtri, and K\ipa\. gradation.) In 
 
 ofascend- 
 
 • to little. Horace 
 
 • Nelnr rirticulna mm." 
 
 nplea of this figure in 
 
 aid eiiilow a college or i 
 But in this case the r>ff tied by the alliteration. 
 
 ANTIChl'NAI, AXIS .. against, and kWci/, 
 
 • of hills or a valley be comp 
 
 ne that lies between them, towards which 
 
 with steep roofs facin? the south, the slates 
 
 ping north and south, and the 
 
 I axis (I,yell.) In the 
 
 l are the anticlinal, 6 b the synclinal 
 
 lines. 
 
 ANTI'COUS. (Lai.) In Botany, la applied to an anther 
 tjrle; or to a petal which 
 flower which i. 
 ; is stem. 
 . i In ancient Architecture. The 
 - lildint ; iliat which v, 
 
 ! lalsouaed 
 ■a the cell and the eolumns of 
 
 . ANTINOMIANS. 
 
 A'NTIDOTE. (Gr. dm, against, and <5«5w/^, I give.: 
 linst sickness, (iv.- Poison.) 
 A'NTli-TXA. or ANTEFIXA (Lat. ante before, and 
 figo, I fix.) In Architecture. The ornaments of lions' and 
 - of a temple, through perfora- 
 tions in which, usually by the mouth, Hie water is cast away 
 from the eaves. By some this term is used to denote tha 
 upright ornaments above the eaves in ancient Architecture, 
 which concealed the ends ofthe barmi, or join) tiles. 
 
 ANTILI'THICS. (Gr. dvrt, against, and \iOot,astone.) 
 Medicines used In the treatment of atone in the bladder and 
 urinary gravel, 
 
 A'NTlI.O'tiAUlTHM. In its most common ac' 
 
 I is number to a logarithm. Thus, in the sommon 
 
 ogarithm of 100 Son etimi i used to 
 
 denote the complement of the logarithm, or the difference 
 
 arithm from the next higher term in the 
 10, 100. ice 
 
 AVI'II.OI'MIC. (Gr uvti, against, and Aoijioj, eu?ita- 
 
 gion, or the plague.) K [I in the prevention and 
 
 the plague. 
 
 A'NTILOPfi. (Gr. dwBof, ornament, and £>d>, eye.) An 
 
 which, according to I irruption 
 
 ■ I "anthotop Eustathius, a i 
 
 :. to the gazelle, in allusion to its beautiful eyes. 
 
 . honied 
 Ruminant I oknia), in which t' 
 
 the horn i 
 
 • ■■I by suborbital or maxillary glandular 
 , and their light and t They are the 
 
 for the ir.nst part, of I 
 ble places in the warmer latitudes of the globe ; frequenting 
 the cliffs ami ledges of mountain rocks, or the vet 
 banks of tropical streams, or the oases of the desert. They 
 
 the intervening wildernesses in pairs or in troops, 
 with Incredible t irtog obstacles, which would 
 
 the course of other quadrupeds, by a suc< 
 
 unda. 
 The antilopes are now arranged under a number of sub- 
 generic di ■ •. which 
 
 ANTIMO'MC ACID, The peroxide of antimony. {See. 
 
 Anti.m 
 
 ANTIMONY. A brittle metal of a silver white 
 
 i ivity, 6 7. I . or just at a red heat 
 
 The principal pt l< scribed 
 
 in the " Cujtus Triumphalia Antimoi 
 
 1 towards the end of the thirteenth century. 
 
 • I. i: gradually combines with 
 In a white vapour. There are three 
 
 I antimony. The protoxide consists of fi.j antimo- 
 ny + 13 oxygen ; it la ■ greyish white powder, eminently 
 c ; and aa such, of much im- 
 
 ,u medicine. It is the active base of emetic tartar 
 and of Je r. The other oxides of antimony, 
 
 nbtnlng with • Jled and- 
 
 monipus and an onsisi respectively oft;." 
 
 antimony + 16 a 5 + 20. The combination ol 
 
 chlorine and antimony was known to the old chemists un- 
 der then many. The principal ore of 
 
 i is met wiiii 
 melted into conical moots, under the name of crude anti- 
 mony. It is of a bluish grey colour, metallic lustre, and a 
 
 • vity 4-frj; it is much more 
 easily fusible than the pure metal. Antimony fori 
 
 alloys with some of thi ble metals: h 
 
 : with a two-hundredth part of antimony, the com- 
 pound is brittle; and even the fumes of antimony in the 
 vicinity of melted gold are sufficient to render if brittle. 
 Alloyed whh had In the proportion of 1 to 16, and 
 addition of copper, it forms the metal at A for printers' 
 
 .- ipoimd 
 
 ." plates upon which mu : 
 
 graved. With iron it tonus a hard whitish alloy. 
 
 celled martial regulus : 12 parts of tin and 1 of antimony 
 form hard pewter. T id teapots 
 
 are formed of an alloy of 100 tin, 8 antimony. 2 
 
 1 e stimmi, or stibium, of the old c 
 ANTTNO'MIANS. (Gr. drt and wboj, tow.) 
 
 Oppugncra ofthe law. In Theology, Antinomian 
 aa interpret the law, to which St. Paul reli 
 
 ciallv in the Epistle to the Romans, as including all n oral 
 ordinanci r; and push the contra-;! which the 
 
 laintdlns between faith and lhe ) works ol 
 ng the entire useles 
 good works, in nnv i i sole efficacj 
 
 rti .ii is applied tothe 
 of Antlnomia given I t 
 
 ,. to the followers o the upin 
 ions of John Agricola on (his aubji 
 however, thai h 
 Similar doctrines app' ' ,,i: I'-nuuuul b> 
 
ANTIPiEDOBAPTISTfS. 
 
 an ephemeral sect in the time of the commonwealth: but 
 amino ay now be taken rather as expressing the 
 
 exti e lie of theology has 
 
 y distinct soot 
 or ci ither in this country or abi r 
 
 ANTIP.-E'DOBA'PTISTS. In Theology. TJ 
 object on the ground that they are 
 
 not capable of understanding the nature of the rite, and of 
 pledging themselves to such a course of life as is required 
 ofallsu to be baptized. (See Baptists.) 
 
 A'X i'lPATHES. A genus of Corticifcrous Polypes, or 
 
 ah>, in which the central axis is enveloped by so soil a 
 
 cortex that it falls off when the specimen is removed from 
 
 water. From the colour of the axis, it is commonly 
 
 called •• black coral," 
 
 A'NTIPE'DES. (Eat. ante, before, pes,/«rf.) In Zoolo- 
 gy the anterior or pectoral extret 
 
 A'NTIPHLOGrSTICS. (Cir. dvrt, against, and $\oyia. 
 >(oj. i '.) Medicines which allay inflammatory 
 
 action. 
 
 A'XTIPIILOGIS'TIC SYSTEM. In Chemistry, the 
 system opposed to that of Phlogiston. {See Phlogistic.) 
 
 A'NTIPHON. (Or. avTiixjiveiv. to sing against, ormutu- 
 il Church Music, the short verse sung be- 
 fore the psalm and other portions of the Catholic service. 
 (Sec Anthem.) 
 
 ANTI'PODES. (Or. dvri, against, and vovs, the foot.) 
 Denotes, literally, these who stand feet to feet; that is. the 
 inhabitants of opposite parts of the earth. They live under 
 the same parallels of latitude, on opposite sides of the equa- 
 tor, consequently the seasons are reversed, or, when it is 
 summer to the one, it is winter to the other. Their longi- 
 tude differs by 180°, or 12 hours, consequently their days 
 and nights are reversed, that is, when it is mid-day to the 
 one, it is midnight to the other. They have the same cli- 
 mate, in so fiir, at least, as climate depends on latitude. 
 
 Y'XTIPOPE. One that assumes the title and functions 
 of pone without a valid election. The term more particu- 
 larly refers to the popes who maintained themselves in op- 
 iHon to each other, during part of the fourteenth and fif- 
 :ecnth centuries. The great western schism was caused by 
 die rival jealousies of the French and Italian parties in the 
 conclave ; the French cardinals having been accustomed by 
 their numbers, and the influence of the kings of France, 
 !o carry the election in favour of French candidates, while 
 the popes resided at Avignon, a period of about 70 years, 
 from 1305 to 1376. Accordingly, when the Italian party at 
 ie.1 in the election of Urban VI., in 13S9, the 
 French cardinals retired from Rome, and there invested 
 with the functions of pope one of their own body, under the 
 ut VII. They attempted, in the first instance, 
 la maintain themselves in Italy, and war was proclaimed 
 del ween the two rivals. After a short struggle, Clement 
 eated to Avignon; and there he, and his successor, 
 idicf XIII.. held their Court, while Urban, and after 
 nim, Boniface IX. and Gregory XII., reigned at Rome. They 
 were supported respectively by different European states, 
 of which France, Austria, Castile, Aragon, Savoy, Genoa, 
 and Scotland sided with the p -coders. The 
 
 schism, however, caused great scandal throughout Chris- 
 tendom, and measures were repeatedly taken, and baffled 
 inly by the artifices of the rival claimants, for an adjust- 
 ment of the difference. There seemed to be three methods 
 if proceeding to this end, and each liable to great difficul- 
 : — 1st. By the simultaneous resignation of both pontiffs, 
 md a fresh election. 2d. By an arbitration between them. 
 A id, 3d. By the calling of a general council, to declare the 
 holy see void, and recommend the conclave to fill the va- 
 cancy. This last method was finally adopted ; though it has 
 been constantly objected, that such a council could not be 
 lawfully convened except by the summons of a reigning 
 pope ; which condition certainly was not fulfilled in the in- 
 stance of the council of Pisa. However, in 1409, the rival 
 parties were both declared guilty of heresy and schism, and 
 thereby the validity of both claims greatly disproved.. Alex- 
 ander V. was then elected In due form \ and the antipopes 
 were unable long to maintain their pretensions against the 
 authority of a general council. 
 
 A'NTIQUARY. Copiers or old books, especially in con 
 /ents, were termed Antiquarii in the Latin of the middle 
 ges. In modern phraseology, antiquary is defined " a per- 
 . » n who studies and ter monuments and re- 
 
 n&ins of antiquity, as old medals, hooks, statues, inscrip- 
 ii us, <fco. ;" to which may be added those who make the 
 manners and customs of ancient times an especial 
 of inquiry. Henry VIII. gave Leland the title of his " An- 
 tiquary." The Royal Society of Antiquaries, in London, 
 ivaa founded under the reign of George II. (/S"se Academy.) 
 
 AXTl'Ql'E. In a restricted sense, pieces of ancient art, 
 mil hy artists usually confined to such as wore made by the 
 Creeks and Romans of the classical age. 
 
 AVI'I'UFITIES. Under this term, which has m I a \< y 
 definil" meaning in modern Eun e appear 
 
 generally to comprehend all memorable things respecting 
 
 eo 
 
 ANTISCII. 
 
 Man in his social state in past time, except the politica 
 events, which form more properly the subject of History. 
 Thus, manners and customs, language, literature, topo- 
 graphical details, the monuments: of architecture, sculpture, 
 Ac. of ancient times, all fall under th mizancc 
 
 of the antiquary. His sen nee is, as it weri 
 the more general objects of the historian. In a n ore re- 
 strictea sense, the study of antiquities is confined ti 
 scription and interpretation of the existing l 
 times, such as architectural remains, manUi 
 and other objects of curious resean 
 writers, there is, perhaps, only one who falls exactly within 
 the definition of what in modern times we shout 
 antiquary; viz. Pausani 
 period of Marcus Antoninus, is entirely di 
 scription of the monuments of earlier periods then existing 
 m Greece. But about the tin e of the revival . 
 when the study of classical writers I ail) pur- 
 
 suit of literary men, classical antiquities becan e : 
 tinct and important branch of research. Besides the wri- 
 ters who employed their antiquarian kno 
 shape of commentary on classical authors, a grea 
 devoted their talents to the productu s exclu- 
 
 sively illustrating particular points in ancii 
 usages. To enumerate the chief classical antiqn 
 the 16th and 17th centuries would be imp. 
 following works may be named as among the n 
 prehensive and general which we possess, con::' 
 immense repository of facts, which the n i 
 cism of modern times has sifted and applied wi 
 
 ; the treatises of Signonius and Mi 
 ter chiefly on Greek antiquities — are collected in 12 folio 
 volumes, "Florence. 1741 ; the vast 7 
 (iincarum ofthe Dutch commentator GrSBvius (Li 
 vols. fol. 1697,&c); and the still more extensive work of 
 Gronovius (Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romano, wn, Leyden, 
 L3 vols. fol. 1697), together with its continue 
 plements, by Burmannus, extending in the whole 
 nmes; the works of Polenns, Pitiscus. and Gn ti 
 the same plan with those two vast culler, 
 quite ExpUquec of Bernard de Montfau 
 the supplements, to 15 vols, folio, Paris. 
 these great works our modern Compendia 
 (in English, the Grecian Antiquities of Archbishop Potter, 
 the Roman Antiquities of Kenneth A 
 compiled. The names of Boeck (Publi 
 Economy of Athens), Heeren </.'.•'■ 
 merce, yc), Midler, Niebuhr, Cret 
 
 muth, &c, attest the equal industry or (ritual 
 
 skill of the classical antiquaries of modern Gen 
 only country in which this branch ofknowle 
 cessfully cultivated. In that more 
 classical antiquities, the description ofthe n one; 
 ancient art, among many illui 
 tion those of Caylus (Rrnieil. d'Atitiqui/i 
 Grecques, et Romaines, 7 vols. 4io. Pa 
 Abbe Winkclmann. In the pi 
 tiquities, the names of Young. Han il 
 stand pre-eminent. In 
 collections of Ilgolinus (Tin 
 rum,M t. fol. Antv. 1744) and Canisii 
 edited by Basnage,4t. fol. v. Antv. V, entioned 
 
 among many others. Easily, the antiquilii 
 
 e received much ana accurate attention, 
 in France and England, within 
 the works of Leland ani 
 tiquities, of Dugdale and Hearne, i 
 modern times, Fosbrooke ( '.' . 
 1802, and Encyclopaedia of Antiquities), Strtitt (R 
 
 I ■■■:-i:;:-i:;i.-i: -.', i/e- \1UtiSe ; f ' 
 
 subsequent works). Brand, 1 
 
 sides many who have devoted th< 
 
 brandies ofthe subject; and. among \\\ 
 
 Henry Ellis, Sir F. Palgrave, Sir H. Nicholas, Mr. Pctrc 
 
 <fcc. In French antiquities, the greatest nan, 
 
 faucon (Menvmena de In. Mon 
 
 Paris, 1725, &c); whi 
 
 study of national antiquities has hei u very 
 
 vated, are peculiarly inch 
 
 His principal works are th 
 
 jEvi, and Rerum Itolicarum 
 
 lount to 41 vol 
 tionary of Greek and R 
 & Walton, London. 1842, pos 
 
 ANTIRRIirXE.E. A s 
 ceous plants, cee 
 the gardens), I.inaria. i ml a ' 
 
 ANTI'SCII, or ANTISCIAN8. ' 
 OKia, shadow.) An old term used [ti 
 those inhabitants of the 
 sile directions. The il 
 temperate zones Intiscians ; th 
 
 in Ihe tropics may he Antiscians al nni 
 and not at another. 
 
ANTISCORBUTICS. 
 
 ANTISCORBUTICS -t the scurvy. 
 
 criKnv, to put re- 
 
 animal and vegetable matter, 
 
 ANTISPASMODICS (Gr. di/Tt, arracnoc, 
 
 SmopuE. 
 
 ANTi'i .•.ml TtBcvai, loset.) In Khc- 
 
 ii :. words, or sentences 
 
 ! r to be more 
 
 -: ; as ill the fol- 
 
 . our knowle I 
 
 word dvTiOeoif by the Latin contra- 
 tug well known pass 
 
 of mixed antithesis and accu- 
 
 it >ia«i not tried, 
 
 PITRAOUS (Gr. iv iyoj, thetnar- 
 
 '■•■lij in 
 
 l ! behind the meatus audi- 
 
 v, anil ratituv, to 
 turn | 
 
 iway from the hilu I hough 
 
 i of parts, is nevertlt 
 ict nature of the de\ 
 
 an in8tniment of Lepidopterous In- 
 
 . in which the ordinary Irophi, or instruments lor ob- 
 
 achine 
 It prin 
 
 > lindrical tubes, and tlie 
 
 ■ ed by 
 
 which intermediate canal 
 
 fiically. the 
 
 utilise inordinately elongated, and they 
 
 ■ palpi. Rudl 
 
 upper 
 
 in the head, 
 
 . i l.i \ PNEl'Al \'iii ' i: Uatlon of the south- 
 
 dvri, opposite, and dixoc, a hougr.) 
 
 ■r ■. a term used in 
 
 ■••■ the inhabitants of the globe who live 
 
 i, but on opposite parallels of lati- 
 
 il the day or night are the • 
 
 ; that is, when it is 
 . it is winter with the other. 
 A'NTONOMA'SIA. (Gr. liin. instead of, and ovnu.n, a 
 . a figure by which a 
 ul for an appellative noun 
 N'ero, an usurper a Cromwell, 6) 
 nlimentary periphrasis, or an appellation 
 ■ 
 _• is railed -His Majesty," or Tacitus "the 
 'ical historians." 
 A'NTH intrum, a cure.) An old name ap- 
 
 h hollow fruits as the apple; they are now 
 
 ANTRU'STIONS, otherwise styled Fidelei (Faithful) 
 .■m. people). ! people 
 
 Pranks, who were the pet or de- 
 
 counts. They were nol 
 i of holding lands by Iholr 
 consequence of being such dependent . 
 ired with donations of land, or benefices; which, in 
 ag hereditary, assumed ll 
 System.) '1 
 word from which Antrustion is derive! btedly 
 
 which our word trust, confli 
 
 AM "IMS. In Mythology, an Egyptian deity. 
 venth, accordin 1 ; to the astron their 
 
 eighl iss. The Gri d htm 
 
 with Mercury. In Egyptian painting and sculpture hi 
 
 fn with the head of a dog i 
 ok of Virgil's JSneid, describing ih 
 flict of Egypt with Rome : — 
 
 Ommeen'imqiie Do'iin monntra, etlatrator AnuhU, 
 Court Neptuamn et Venerem, contraque Miucrvam, 
 Tela ftrunt. 
 A'NUS. The cxcre;nen'.ary orifice of the alimentary c»- 
 61 
 
 APHELION. 
 
 i sometimes opens directly on the exterior sui 
 face of the animal, ;.s in most Mammals; sometimes into 
 immon to it with the outlets of the urii 
 ins, called the cloaca, as in most oviparous Ver- 
 ifies into the respiratory cavity, as in most 
 MoUusks, In Entomology, it signifies the two last segments 
 i, and includes the podex, bypopygium, cu- 
 and appendices. In most of the Acrttes 
 Dlifice to the alimentary cavity, which thus 
 i. -lions of mouth and anus. 
 A'ORIST. ((Jr. dopioros, indrjinite.) That inflexion of 
 which leaves the time of the action denoted un- 
 certain. 
 
 AO'RTA. (Or. drip, tn'r, and ttjoeiv, to keep.) The great 
 
 arterial trunk v. from the left ventricle of the 
 
 and empty ; whence the older 
 
 that it was for the conveyaiii-r of air. 
 
 gave jt th mo. It is single in Mammals and 
 
 reptiles, and in the Ccphalopods ; 
 
 triple in 
 
 Al'A i.\ NO! 6. iCr. <'n 
 
 ii-iij, mire, and yvvp, a female.) 
 > oner, perishing Iran 
 after it Hot e as monocarpic, and nearly 
 
 nusil; only that, like the latter term, it In- 
 American agave, which live 
 fore they fructify. 
 A'l'Al.l s. \ pi crous insects, 
 
 having thi the palpi equal and filiform; 
 
 the labium membra- 
 truncate, and entire. 
 A'PANAGE. An allowani branches ofa 
 
 renuea of the conn!: 
 ith a grant of public domains. A district 
 
 . m ordinary cases, descends to Ihe 
 /ho enjoys it 
 A'PATITK. Native phosphate of lime (from diraraio, 1 
 
 ■ been confounded with other minerals, 
 Al'ATl IMA. An Athenian festival, which cami 
 1 by the rest of the Ionians except tlto 
 
 lophon and Ephesus. Two accounts are given of its ori- 
 rives its name from Ih" Creek word 
 dvuTii. d U was instituted in memory of s 
 
 by which Melanthua the Athenian king overcame 
 i; the other from xari)p,father, and 
 •';//-, because ai tnJ 
 that their nan 
 i on tin- public register, The festival took place 
 daya 
 mm;. In the Zoological trictod to those 
 
 . hich arc 
 
 They are included in the modern sub- 
 
 "glodytes, and Bylobatet, or the 
 
 inzi es, and gibbons. 
 
 APE'LLOl 9. (Gr. ( i. priv. and pcllis, skin.) Destitute 
 
 APETALOUS. (Gr. d, priv., irtra\ov, a petal.) When 
 
 B Dower nly, and no corolla. The term is 
 
 sometimes extended to In which there is rtei- 
 
 corolla; thus, the apeialoos plants of Jus- 
 
 ute of a coron* only, or of all Horal 
 
 r kind. 
 
 A'I'KX. The summit or highest point of any thing. 
 
 ofa pyramid, &c. 
 Al'II K'KKIS (Gr. d<patoctv, to take away.) In Writ- 
 • removal ofa vowel from thecom- 
 i word; as, in English, 'it is' is sometimes 
 written ' 'tis.' abide is changed into • "bide,' &c 
 
 AI'IIAM l'TKROIS, APHANI/PTERA. (Gr. dfavric, 
 of an order of Apterous 
 aving rudimental e'ytraor wings in 
 the perfect 
 
 biing thai or crane-flies. The common 
 
 flea 'Pules irritant, Lin.) may be regarded as the 
 this order. The female flea (.Pule* iriitav.-;. Lin I 
 
 B white colour and rather viscous texture, 
 fromwhii ttle apodal maggots, which are very 
 
 active in I . winding themselves in a serpentine 
 
 manner through the Bubstance in which they i ny be de- 
 
 the head of the larva is protected by a G 
 and bean two small antenna, but. no eyes; the body con- 
 sists of thirteen segments, bearing little 0) 
 
 is armed with a pair of booklets: the mouth pre- 
 sents some small moveable instruments with which Ihe 
 long. After having passed twelve 
 days under this form, the larva spins itself a little Silken 
 cocoon, in which it passes into the pupa State, and in about 
 twelve daya n i pafecl flea; tins metamor- 
 
 phosis distinguishes the flea and chigoe from other blood- 
 sucking parasitic Apterous insects ; and they arc further dis- 
 tinguished by the number of segments into which their 
 body is divided, and their pentarnerous, or nve-joinleu. 
 
 APHE'LION. (Gr. dvo.from, and h^io; the sun.) In 
 
APHELXIA. 
 
 Astronomy, is that point of a planet's orbit which is at the 
 creates! distance from the sun. It is opposed to perihe- 
 lion, v eg the point of the orbit nearest the sun. 
 The aphelion and perihelion of an orbit are consequently 
 the two extremities of its greater axis. In consequence of" 
 the mutual attractions of the planets, the positions and fi- 
 of their orbits arc constantly undergoing a slow va- 
 riation. The aphelia gradually shift their places o 
 of the orbits; and it is "remarkable that thei 
 are direct, or eastward, in the case of all the planets 
 pttag Venus, the aphelion of whose orbit, when re- 
 I to the fixed stars, moves westward at the rate of 
 : ! seconds annually. Of the old planets, Saturn is 
 that whose aphelion undergoes the gri I varia- 
 tion; it amounts to about 18 seconds of a degree. (Set 
 Perihelion, Planet.) 
 
 APHE'LXIA. (Gr. dfeXxciv, to abstract.) Absence of 
 mind. 
 
 APHE'RESIS or APII^E'RESIS. (Gr. dfaipicis, from 
 iipaif,£(,>, 1 take away.) In Grammar, a figure by which a 
 or a syllable is cut off from the beginning of a word ; 
 is in the common abbreviation, '• 't is," lor "it is." 
 
 A'PHIDES, (Gr. dipi;, a puceron, or rine-fretttr.) A 
 family of ilemiptcrous insects, commonly called "plant- 
 inhabiting trees and plants, and living on their juices; 
 remarkable for the anal saccharine secretion referred to 
 in ANAL GLANDS, but more especially for a peculiarity of 
 Iheir generative economy, particularly described by Bon- 
 net, and which consists in the first fecundation of the fe- 
 male influencing not merely the ova immediately dcvel- 
 : thereafter, but those of the females resulting from 
 that developement, even to the ninth generation, which 
 are successively impregnated and productive without any 
 intercourse with the male insects. Certain Coleopterous 
 insects, which prey upon and keep in check the Aphides, 
 arc termed Aphidi'phagi and Aphidivora (<l>ayoj, I cat, voro, 
 I devour), 
 
 AJPHLOGI'STIC. (Gr. d(j>\oyiaros, uninflamma!,U.) 
 Without flame or lire. 
 
 APHLOGI'STIC LAMP. A lamp with a glowing wick, 
 the combustion in which goes on without flame. 
 A'PHONY. (Gr. d, priv., and tpwvri, voice.) Loss of 
 
 APHORISM. (From the Greek dipopigsiv, to define, or 
 
 A term chiefly used in Law and Medicine, 'but oc- 
 
 llally also in Moral Philosophy, <kc, to denote a com- 
 
 nrelu n -i\ e maxim or principle expressed in a few words. 
 
 API i RITE. (Gr. d&pos, froth.) A soft, friable carbon- 
 
 APIIKODI'SIAC. (Gr. 'Atppodtrri, Venus.) That which 
 incites to venery. 
 
 APHRODITE. (Gr. 'A-ppoStrri, the name of the Goddess 
 >J Love, having reference to her upposed origin from the 
 of the sea, dippoi.) This classical name was applied 
 by Linnaeus to a beautiful genus of Annelidana adorned 
 with resplendent silky hairs "and bristles, of which the sea- 
 mouse (Aphrodita aculeuta, Lin.) of our coasts is an 
 example. 
 
 APIIRODI'TIDjE. The name of the family of Anne- 
 lides of which the Aphrodita aculeata is the type. 
 
 APHYLLA'NTHEjE. A small division of the Junca- 
 ceous order of Endogens, comprehending the genus Aphyl- 
 lanthus from the South of Europe, with Calcctasia and 
 Dasypogon from New Holland. 
 
 APHY'LI.OUS. (Gr. d, priv., and (pvWov, a leaf.) Leaf- 
 less. The term is, however, often applied to plants in 
 which the leaves are present, but so small as not to look so 
 much like leaves as mere scales. Plants are also called 
 is, in which, although scales of considerable size are 
 at, there are no true green leaves: of this descrip- 
 tion are Monotropa, Orobanche. Pyrolaaphylla, &c. 
 
 APIA'CEjK. (Lat. apium, parsley.) A name recently 
 proposed to replace that of Umbelliferee, it being construct- 
 ed With n ore resemblance to the plan upon which the 
 names of other natural orders are formed in Botany, than 
 that of Urrtbelfiferas. 
 
 A'PIARY. (Lat apis, a bee.) A place for keeping bee- 
 lives. Sometimes this is a small house, with openings for 
 he bees in front, and a door behind, which is kept locked 
 ecurity; and sometimes it is an area, in which each 
 particular beehive is chained down to a post and padlocked. 
 
 API'CULATEf). (Lat. apex, a sharp point.) When a 
 leaf or any other part is suddenly terminated by a distinct 
 
 A'PIP.E. (Lat. apis, a bee.) One of the varieties re- 
 
 sulting from the modern division of the Linnsan genua 
 
 including these species which are distinguished by 
 
 tne length of the terminal parts of the inferior organs of the 
 
 mouth, whicti constitute a proboscis. 
 
 APIO'CRINITES. (Gr. drnov, a pear, koivop, a ///>/.) 
 Pear Encrinite. (.See Encrinite.) The name Ota 
 
 of fossil Encrinites, in which the body is formed of 
 separate pieces articulated with the stem, and supporting 
 the rays by similar articulations, in consequence of which 
 02 
 
 APIS. 
 
 the stem is rounded and dilated Into a pyriform figure tit 
 its upper part. 
 
 A'PION. A genus of minute Coleopterous insects, of 
 the weevil family ( Cureulionidtz.) ; very nun erous in spe- 
 cies: distinguishable by their elegant pear-sl 
 protruded snout, and straight antenna?. 
 
 A'PIS. In Mythology, a' bull, to which di\ 
 were paid by the Egyptians, especially at Men phis. He 
 was require*! to be black, with peculiar arks. 
 
 One of this description was always maintain 
 suffered to live beyond twenty-five years. He was then 
 buried with much solen nity ; and Belzoni wo 
 that the bones discovered in one- of the Bare 
 terred by him, belonged to anin al. The i 
 
 made by the Persian conqueror Cam by sea on the 
 Apis, and the disasters which were supposed to have he- 
 fallen him in consequence of that act, are detailed in the 
 history of Herodotus, book ii. 
 
 Apis. (Lat. apis, a bee.) The Linna?an genus, now 
 subdivided into different families, is thus characti I 
 mouth horny; jaw and lip membranaceous at the tip; 
 tongue inflected ; feelers four, unequal, filiform ; anti 
 short, filiform, those of the fen ale subclavate ; wings flat : 
 sting of the females and neuters pungent, and concealed in 
 the abdomen. 
 
 The insects of this extensive genus live, bob 
 in large societies, and some are solitary ; then 
 nectar of flowers, honey, and ripe fruit; the larva i 
 and without feet; the pupa n-^rw bles the perfect insect. 
 
 The characters of the Linnaean genus are applies 
 a variety of forms, now the types of nut 
 included by Latreillc in a fan lly of Aculeate Hyn i l 
 rous insect's, under the term Anthophila, or Mi 
 habits of each of the subgenera of this 
 with interest, arisin nd the 
 
 separation of the individuals into three sexual modifica- 
 tions, viz.., the prolific fen ales, or queens; (he unprolif.c 
 females, or workers ; and the t ales, or drones. The nol- 
 icy of the-hive bee (Apis v/rH/Jira, Lin.) has been studied 
 with so much diligence and detail, that we pi 
 mystery of nature with ai . and often feel in 
 
 clined to regard what Iluher relat 
 
 theless, the highly interesting observations of the writer. 
 and those especially on which his reputation chiefly rests. 
 have been confirn ed by subsequent observers, both i 
 tilic entomologists as well as practical apiarians. 
 
 The hive-bee is distinguished from all other species of 
 the modern genus Apis, by bavin: 
 rior pair of legs furnished with a sn ooth and concavi 
 on the outer surface, and fringed 
 ket adapted for the conveyance of pollen; and in I 
 destitute of spines at the extren ity ; 1 ■ 
 the tarsi, in the workers, being of an oblong form, with its 
 inner surface clothed with hairs disposed in transvi rse 
 rows; by the trophi being ol an elongated for 
 n axillary palpi being almost obsolete ami com 
 simile joint. 
 
 The different individuals ol the social Apis me 
 more nearly resemble fach other in their grade of d 
 opement — as regards their locomotive powers, organs of 
 sense, and instinctive endowments — than the ants. No in- 
 dividual among them is without wings; and the indi 
 of the workers, or in perfect fei 
 
 least their tasks are less arduous, than fall to the lot o 
 Apterous labourers of the ant tribes. 
 
 As bees, like most other winged insects, are annua 
 go through the whole essential i c 
 within the year, the histoi - 
 
 the whole, and we have only to choose the point in th 
 cle at which to con n ence it. 
 
 As some individuals, however, always survivi 
 and begin to breed early in which 
 
 quits the parent slock, we shah bi . and 
 
 trace their operations throus 
 
 The first young swarm in England is generally sent 
 offin.Iune. The migration see,..; to depend on w« 
 space in the mother-hive, not on an instinctive 
 change on the part of the brood; for it there I ■ 
 the operations of the increasing comn unity. bi 
 naturally swarm ; and skilful apiai 
 vantage of this circumstance, and. by h akin ! 
 additions to the hive, retain the whole year's 
 the same building. The swarm consists in 
 about six or seven thousand individuals, of \ 
 l-30th part are males, the rest females : and ol 
 only, for the most part, is prolific, an ' 
 queen. Her body is longer than that of either 
 or worker; her colours are brighter and purer, 
 ally of a darker shade : fhi - : the 
 
 abdomen are of a deeper ami brighter yellow, and are 
 times orange; the hei er than that of the 
 
 unprolific female, and the b 
 
 der; her mandibles are notched, and her sting is curved j 
 but the most obvious distinctive character is the propor. 
 
AV 
 
 igtncnt of the body, which 
 i elon- 
 
 irt and thick 
 He 
 
 :ht, and proportionally larger and 
 is in their in- 
 d re arriving at 
 
 ;• than either 
 leas bright 
 
 , which li « ■ r 
 
 iv. lie terms 
 r first 
 'i requisite lor col- 
 "tlice is to build thi 
 
 en laid by the eider. 
 
 ■e two kinds of drones ; oucn.it 
 
 d And 
 
 her variety of the inmates of the 
 
 which are supposed 
 
 >:ers. 
 
 I, commonly leaves the hive in 
 'Iv after a shower. 
 
 II their 
 ■onger proof that instinct . d 
 
 ia not aflbrd- 
 
 on the 
 them of any oriran, 
 jiv limb : yet. the i 
 
 I, they join another 
 
 
 
 e neighbouring 
 ley all lorth- 
 •avityofan old tree 
 ii ; nnd this, • 
 
 The 
 
 or pro- 
 . uh the future consti I 
 In th( In which the 
 
 : ved in this country, the pn 
 
 liflcla] hives. 
 
 I many other inter- 
 
 ! no effect in 
 
 ion of the bee, nor 
 
 ■ ire of 
 
 isable. Tlie consideration 
 
 of tli to i he ordinary consequences of 
 
 i. and of the conditions on winch the circum- 
 
 riation in the bee depend, would lead us 
 
 'lit allotted io the present subject ; but 
 
 . Inquiry full of inti 
 
 ; i lie variation of animals from their sue- 
 ,1'in I. 
 In the wild state, the young colony at first return occa- 
 
 lies of provi- 
 
 their crops 
 
 with they leave th( wax is a pe- 
 
 tion from the working bee : and having the ma- 
 
 Within themselves, they immediately be- 
 
 i n the comb. 
 
 ribing the many-chambered nursery and 
 
 e about to prepare, a few 
 
 irding the material or which it Is 
 
 nation of the war is a very singular and complex 
 "The wax-makers, having taken 
 
 n of honey or sugar, fro n either of which wax 
 can '• ich other, the 
 
 ig attached to 
 
 le hind pair of the uppermost, and form them- 
 
 s cluster, the exterior layer of which looks like 
 
 i of curtain. This cluster consists of a series of fes- 
 
 i or garlands, which cross each other In all directions, 
 
 h most of the bees turn their back upon the ob- 
 
 •■•: the curtain has no other motion than what if re- 
 
 ■ layers, the fluctuations of which 
 
 are co I to it. All this ti ne the nurse-bees pre> 
 
 I activity, and pursue their usual employ- 
 
 The wax- ble for about 
 
 twenty-fourhourSjdnringwhich p • nation of wax 
 
 . and thin laminae of I 
 rally perceived under their ah lomen. O le of the 
 la now seen 
 land-- of the 
 
 'o the middle of t!r i ot the hive, and by turning 
 
 r/3 
 
 APIS. 
 
 itself round to form a kind of void, in which it can move 
 itself freely. Ii then suspends Itself to Ihe centre of the 
 space which it b eter of Which is about 
 
 an inch. It ne\ of the laminae of wax with a 
 
 pincer formed by the ; tatarsus and tibia, and 
 
 drawing it from beneath the abdominal segment, one of 
 the anterior legs takes it with its claws and carries it to the 
 mouth." 
 The wax has, perhaps, the i 
 
 ret ion of the intcgu oilier anl- 
 
 noii : it is for i the un- 
 
 len, and wh< ted there 
 
 seems to irritate the part, lor i 
 
 wagging her abdoi .and running round, ■ 
 
 to shake out the 1 nd she is 
 
 generally followed by one or I eh have 
 
 been attracted by her movements, and an 
 upon the plates of wax as they fall. How i 
 
 l into the wall Sactly lin- 
 
 es off and 
 join them together ; bul ind uniform sin line of 
 
 tho cell shows thai some other operation musl take place*: 
 ■ ic wall of the cell Is son elimes thicker than a 
 scale of wax, ' '■ 
 
 power of applying some i 
 . .I to the wax- icalea, by which Ih 
 to knead and blend them into 'ad when 
 
 we rome 
 
 ly alkaline, and that wax Is 
 by alkali, it is r. that it is by this meant] 
 
 that the ■ e brought Into a - 
 
 Reaumur. exuding 
 
 II, which 
 was applied to the proper place by the DID 
 then kneaded in by the mandibles; and Huber has ile- 
 
 g that the 
 
 lina of wax with it illy, — the 
 
 serving lor a ! by elevating or 
 
 w ill, causes the whole of its circn 
 
 to be exp" that the 
 
 . Into pieces, which drop, as they are 
 
 : with hairs. Of 
 
 the mand 
 
 It in the fc .riband. They are then prei 
 
 sented to the tongue, which i a frothy 
 
 Dquor. During I all sort* 
 
 of forms : tilaj theti 
 
 like a trowel, which applies itself to the riband of wax : al 
 terminating In a point 
 After having moistened the whole ol I 
 
 it re-enter the ■ but in ar. 
 
 direction, when it is worl The li- 
 
 quor mixed with the wax communicates lo It a I 
 and opacity which It ha 
 
 thai dneti. Ity which it possesses in il 
 
 state. 
 
 ommonly begin at the top or roof of their cham- 
 ber, and build downwards, at first working irregularly, and 
 a; it we," I 'hen building 
 
 horizontal cells or a more perfect :'■ 
 
 ' numerous, that they extend downwards in the 
 form of a vertical wall ; other 
 
 a-h plate 
 of a double sel of cejls, the I 
 applied to nd form Ihe p 
 
 ilarj and the i 
 ties which may be observed are not a) 
 
 they are 
 built. The cells are not all of the 
 cient number of a given depth 
 
 and which are necessarily adapted to Ih 
 the future e smaller or shallowei 
 
 . but the mouth oftl 
 
 r to retain the honey. The 
 is vertical co ally about 
 
 half an Incl : these streets, re- lb' y I. in this 
 
 ciiv of Industry, being just wid allow two bees 
 
 " i io pass withoul inc 
 Ing each other. In addition to these Interspaces, the combs 
 
 rated ta various places, so as to allow a 
 
 for the be.-; from one street to another, thus saving them 
 
 much time. 
 
 The shape of each cell is not, as might have been ex- 
 
 cylindrical, or that which seem? best adapted to 
 
 the form of the maggot, or even Of the bee constructor; but 
 
 the only form which allows the cell to be 
 
 iize in proper! ' : mattei 
 
 employed, time fo be so disposed as to 
 
 occupy in the hi --pace. The form <>t 
 
 , the one 
 , rposste sal. a I has to gam greater 
 
APIS. 
 
 strength, and more capacity, with less expenditure of wax; 
 (he latter consideration being one of great importance to 
 bees, which do not secretcavery large quantity of this ma- 
 terial: and the most profound mathematicians and most 
 skilful bund the solution of the problem, 
 
 relating to the attainment of the preceding objects, as de- 
 rived from the infinitesimal calculus;, to have a surprising 
 ei tenl with the actual measure of the different angles 
 of the cell. 
 
 There may generally be observed one or more cells, 
 wider and shallower than the rest, placed either on the 
 ^dge of a comb, or partition ; or placed against the mouths 
 .1' the cells, and projecting beyond the general surface of 
 '.he comb. — These are called the royal cells ; but as they 
 are not adapted to 'tie form of the queen, nor ever lined 
 with the silken covering of the chrysalis, the supposition 
 that the queen is bred in them seems improbable. 
 
 Having now generally described the comb, we return to 
 the consideration of those instinctive operations by which 
 its several compartments are furnished with their destined 
 contents. 
 
 The comb seems at first to be formed entirely for propa 
 gation, and, indeed, to be essentially related to that func- 
 tion ; for if the workers lose their queen, they make no 
 combs; and the reception of honey is, therefore, its se- 
 condary use. Wasps and hornets make combs, although 
 they collect no honey. 
 
 As soon as the young colony has prepared a few combs, 
 the female begins to exclude her eggs. The first that she 
 lays produce the imperfect females, or workers ; the sub- 
 sequent ones produce the males, and, perhaps, the fer- 
 tile females, or queens. The eggs are deposited at. the 
 bottom of the cells, often before they are half completed; 
 they adhere generally by one end to the cell. In about five 
 days the little maggot is hatched, and is seen lying at the 
 bottom of the cell, coiled up in a transparent fluid. 
 
 Now begins the additional employment of the labourers, 
 that of feeding and nursing the young maggots ; for this 
 purpose new materials must be collected abroad, and 
 brought into the hive. 
 
 At first the bees of a young colony fly out singly, and 
 afterwards collectively. They direct their flight generally 
 in a straight line, or the nearest way to the destined object, 
 and often travel to great distances from the hive. In sum- 
 mer time they may be seen almost everywhere where 
 flowers bloom. In April and May they are abroad the 
 whole day ; but in the hot months they venture out less 
 frequently, generally in the morning and evening, at which 
 times it is more easy for them to form the pellets of the 
 pollen, the grains of which adhere together less strongly 
 during the heat of noon-day. 
 
 liees do not like wet weather ; yet it is, perhaps, less the 
 presence of rain, than the changes in the degree of light, 
 which deters them from venturing abroad at this time: for 
 they possess lanre and complex organs of sight, and when 
 clouds collect quickly over the clear sky, they are seen to 
 hurry hack in ureal numbers to the hive ; while, if the sky 
 be uniformly overcast, it is not merely a shower of rain 
 that will drive them back : many of the actions of the bee 
 prove, on the contrary, how essential moisture is for them. 
 The bee does not take honey indiscriminately from every 
 flower ; in the meadows they may be seen generally upon 
 the Orchidere, Polygonia, Caryophylacea, but seldom, if 
 ever, upon the RanunculacecE, perhaps on account of some 
 poisonous quality. The oleander (Ncrium oleander, L.), 
 which yields poisonous honey fatal to thousands of flies, is 
 carefully avoided by bees; and the crown imperial (Fri/il- 
 laria imperialism I,.), the white nectaries of which are so 
 conspicuous, tempts in vain the passing bee. They are, 
 however, extraordinarily activ^ in spring at the blossoming 
 of the Ameiiiacese, Rosacea; (especially the dog-rose), and 
 the balsamic, lilies, Primulacese, &c. ; and are, above all, 
 allured by the innumerable flowers of the lime (especially 
 Tiiia parvifolia). and their hum may be heard among the 
 branch wee. The 'finest flavoured and 
 
 most delicate honey is collected from aromatic plants; 
 and it is therefore always advisable to have large beds of 
 borage, mignionette, lemon thyme, and sage in the neigh- 
 bourhood of bee-hives, Those flowers which yield a nectar 
 Innocuous to the bees themselves, but possessing poison- 
 ous qualities when taken by man, are sometimes frequent- 
 ed by bees, and the honey derived from them acts like a 
 poison. The description by Xenophon of the intoxicating 
 or maddening honey, which so violently affected a number 
 of the ten thousand Greek soldiers in his celebrated retreat, 
 lias been confirmed by the observations of Tournefort. 
 And Dr. Barton, in his account of the poisonous honey col- 
 lected from the Kalmia latifolia by the bees in Pennsylva- 
 nia, justly observes, that there is more of poetry than phi- 
 losophy in the following lines of Pope : — • 
 
 " hi the nice bee what sense 90 subtly true, 
 From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew." 
 
 The honey which is swallowed by the bees passes into 
 the crop, where it in accumulated as in a reservoir, and 
 64 
 
 APIS. 
 
 upon the return of the bee to the hive is regurgitated into a 
 honey cell. If any honey had been previously accumu- 
 lated there, the bee breaks through the firm cream-like 
 crust which always forms upon the exposed surface of the 
 honey; and it is this crust which maintains the honey in 
 the horizontal cells. 
 
 The collection of the farina, or pollen, of flowers, is a 
 great object of the industry of bees. In large flower 
 the tulip, the bee dives in ; and if the poller, receptacle, or 
 anther, be not burst, she biles it open, ami comes out sin- 
 gularly disguised, being covered over entirely with the fer- 
 tilising dust, which adheres readily to the Cringed hairs of 
 her body and legs. 
 
 Aristotle, who was well acquainted with much that is in- 
 teresting in the economy of the bee. was the first to ob- 
 serve that, a bee, during each single excursion from the 
 hive, limits her visits to one species o( flower. Modern 
 naturalists have confirmed the general accuracy of this 
 statement, and have noticed that the pollen with which a 
 bee comes home laden is always of the same colour. The 
 m crssity of this instinct arises out of the operation which 
 the pollen first undergoes when collected by the bee. *he 
 rakes it out with incredible quickness by means of the first 
 pair of legs: then passes it lo tin? middle pair, which 
 transfer it'to the hind legs, by which it is wrought up into 
 little pellets. Now, if the pollen were taken indiscrimi- 
 nately from different flowers, it is probable that the grains, 
 being heterogeneous, would not cohere so effectually. 
 Certain it is, that bees enter the hive, some Willi yellow 
 pellets, others with orange, pink, white, or even green 
 coloured ones; but they are never observed to he party- 
 coloured. Through this instinct, another important end is 
 gained, in relation to the impregnation of flowers: the pro- 
 duction of hybrid plants by the application ol tie.- pollen of 
 one species to the stigma of another is avoided — while 
 those flowers are more effectually fertilised, which require 
 the aid of insects for that purp 
 
 When a pollen-laden bee arrives at the hive, she gene- 
 rally walks or stands upon the c wings, 
 and three or four of her fellow citizens assist in 
 her of her load ; or the laden bee puts her two hind 
 into a cell, and with the intermediate pair, or the extremity 
 of the abdomen, brushes off the pellets. These are then 
 kneaded into a paste at the bottom of the cell : and several 
 cells are thus filled with the packed ani pollen, 
 which is called bee-bread. 
 
 Besides the honey and farina, bees also collect a. pecu 
 liar substance, like gum-resin, which wa poliu 1 
 
 by Pliny ; and this they obtain principally from the bal- 
 samic buds of the horse-chestnut, birch, and 1 
 daily the Papuhis balsamifera, I.. Th 1 soft, 
 
 red, will pull out in a thread, and is aromatic. It is em- 
 ployed in the hive, not only in fipishil . but 
 also in stopping up every chink or orifice !>;. which cold, 
 wet, or any enemy can enter. Like the pellets ol pollen, 
 it is carried on the posterior tibia?, hut tin lenti- 
 cular. Having thus tracei Ihe working 
 bees relating to the collection of ti 1 quired in 
 the economy of the hive, we shall now t irvte, 
 which are the immediate objects of all this industry. 
 
 The bees may be readily detected oung 
 
 maggot, which opens its lateral jaws ti bee- 
 
 bread, and swallows it. The well-fed ; 
 too large for its tough outer skin, and accordin rly easts it ; 
 when its bulk has increased so that it tills its cell, it then 
 requires no more food, and is ready to be inclosed for the 
 chrysalis state. The 'last care Is is to 
 
 cover over the mouth of the cell with a suh.-t; 1 
 brown colour, apparently a mixture of wax and farina. 
 This takes place gem rally four he larva was 
 
 excluded from the egg. The incli ins m 
 
 line the cell, and covering of the aperture before 
 with a silk, which it spins from e ilarto 
 
 those of the silkworm. When the first three segments ol 
 the trunk, to which the locomotive org 1 rfect 
 
 insect are attached, begin to he ei -skin 
 
 splits along the hack, and is pu head 
 
 backwards, and deposited at the bottom 1 and if 
 
 then becomes a chrysalis. Now the v 
 take place, partly by a. formation of new organs, partly by 
 a development of pre-existing ones, which end at la.-t in 
 jiletion of the perfect 
 
 Mr. Hunter ascertained the duration of the 1 
 the bee to be, in one instance, thirteen days and twelve 
 hours, exactly ; making the period of .In . from 
 
 the first deposition of the egg, to be twenty-two days and a 
 half, — a remarkably brief time for the completion ol the 
 tamorphoses, as compared with that in 1 orre 
 
 spondlng changes are effected in other 1 
 When Ihe bee first comes forth it is of a greyish colour, but 
 soon assumes the ordinary brown tints. 
 
 When the season of oviposition and the- rearing of t"_\t 
 larva? is over, then the business of collecting homy geri 
 ously begins ; and when the last chrysalis of the season hai 
 
APIS. 
 
 uisclosc! ell is immediately filled 
 
 with hone er with wax, to serve as a store 
 
 .! the prolific fe- 
 
 ■ following 
 
 in the air. The 
 
 -lit. The 
 
 a similar 
 
 e unpro- 
 
 were con- 
 
 not loiter 
 
 kers ;it a 
 mt piiich 
 '. From 
 1 
 
 lias taken 
 
 . and that 
 
 luring the 
 
 i months, 
 
 |wil mid produce the larvae 
 
 etting in 
 
 i very quiet, they are 
 
 with most other 
 
 . and have 
 superior to that 
 
 i ins in July, when the 
 
 that of the inte- 
 
 •■ s^ J ; and in December, the 
 
 ed a tcm- 
 
 extremely 
 
 aiotain their 
 
 i the product 
 
 dy to lake advantage 
 
 ■ n Bring 
 
 ■v it. They void their ex- 
 
 they are in 
 
 i propriety ; and when purposely confined 
 
 f food, they have been known 
 
 : nance to defile 
 
 '•lions during tin" 1 win- 
 ter influx lition of the oviducts in i 
 
 ly to expand, and are 
 iion in the month of March. This makes 
 H the insects of Eng- 
 land. Tl ustomed duties, 
 
 tig the provision 
 the store of bee -bread, laid tip in the 
 nee of the 
 to form the first sw.irm. As soon, 
 i to blow, the bees By forth to 
 gather fresh pollen, propolis, and honey, and the labours of 
 mmence. 
 It appi i>rescnceofthplarv«, which are des- 
 
 tined to become perfect females, which stimulates the old 
 the hive. After repe - to pene- 
 
 trate their cells, and destroy her royal progeny, she be- 
 r agitation to a portion 
 ther with her, rush out of the 
 i new domicile. It I in every 
 
 i swarm ; the labourers 
 a pay particular attention to the royal larva that 
 ■ 
 
 iK.il the hi K-iently enlarged. 
 
 I . not only the recently hatched young 
 
 >n of the old inhabitants. Some as- 
 sert that the queen, which leads each swarm, is impregnat- 
 <:<■<■ (he new colony is settled ; and, as this may 
 
 ■ in the summer, she begins to oviposit the 
 Phe number of ova which are fertilised by a 
 
 ■ Is prodigious: Huber calculates that the 
 
 ui two months; while, according to 
 of 200 a day. The du- 
 ration ol rerent individuals of the hive varies : 
 that of the male bee is not more than two or three months ; 
 more doubt respecting the longevity of the work- 
 ers, but it is probable that it does not extend much beyond 
 f> year, The term of the queen's existence has been slated 
 to have been prolonged for five years; but this is rendered 
 tble by the fact that all insects of the same species 
 • duration of existence allotted to 
 them. 
 
 The 1 1 meUiftea, I,.) was originally 
 
 limited in i :al range to the Old World, whence 
 
 it. has been transported to America, and other countries 
 where European colonies have been established, and where 
 it Is now acclimated. The distinguished entomologist La- 
 treille, on whose authority we state this fact (Regiie Animal. 
 ■<m. v. p. 365.), is even of opinion that the honey-bee of 
 C5 
 
 APOCYNACEiE. 
 
 the .south Europe, as well as that of Egypt, d;) 
 
 siScaOy from the Apis mellifina of western Europe 
 
 q on the Honey-Bee, Arc 
 
 APl'STES, (Gr. d-inroi, treacherous.) A genus of 
 
 Acanthopterygioua fishes, notable for a strong suborbital 
 
 spin,, with which they are apt to inflict severe wounds 
 
 i auliously handled 
 Al'I.O'.ME. (Br. an-Aoos, simple.) A mineralogical term 
 arnet crystallised in rhombi 
 imp lest laws of decrement from 
 APLY'islA. (Gr. dTT^vata, unclamness.) A 
 Xtctibrani ■ sll known to the ancic nts tin- 
 
 or sea hare, from a I 
 e which the long tentacles of the Aplysi . 
 I ofthe hare. By Aristotle, the term Ap 
 ihy tea, but was arbitrarily irai 
 by Linnsma to the molluscous animals now known nude, 
 
 .'loll. 
 
 APCCALYPSE. (Gr. dMOKaXvxra, I reveaL) The Book 
 of Beveli I in the canon of Li 
 
 orient. Many conflicting ve bei n entertained as 
 
 to the authenii. ugh rejected by 
 
 Luther, and neither admitti d nor rej 
 
 opinion of the iireat majority of critics and divine 
 • in favour ol il 
 j great varieties of opinion as to the 
 was writ- 
 ti n : hut i pinion is. that it is the work of St, 
 
 John the Evangelist. DioTerenl ■ -have differed 
 
 widely in their Lifferenl parts of this 
 
 book ; and it is looked on by i " sealed 
 
 book," ad mt state of our know 
 
 no satisfactory explanation. The phrase apocah 
 
 pientiy used to designate those portions ofthe 
 - which contain pre,. under the 
 
 form of '• future state of the church ; such as 
 
 iel; and, among the Apocrypha, t 
 
 hook Of I 
 
 APOCA'BPOUS. (Gr. dn, from, and Kapnos, fruit.) 
 
 When the carpels of a ilower either do not aiiiier 
 Other at all, as in the strawberry, or Only ! -.- 
 
 in Aigella. When a carpel I ogle in a flower, 
 
 suppositii *her carpel t 
 
 would nol 6 first. 
 
 APCCRYPHA. (Gr. axoKptirrttv, to hide.) I 
 
 i behalf of which a claim to inspiration bus been 
 put forth, but which an triOUS, and are 
 
 i the canon ol Scripture. One great 
 
 distinction beiv.' 
 
 is, that the latter I led by the form- 
 
 er on tin- it which there is 
 
 no dispute iroent ; viz. the 
 
 3d and I: ■ that of Judith, 
 
 ofthe book of Esther, that of Wisdom, ol Jesus 
 ii, liaruch the prophet, the Son.' of the 
 i, of Bel and the Dra- 
 gon, the 17ayei ofManaSSeS, and the I -I and 2d Marca- 
 iding them, as the sixth Article of the English 
 church declares, for example of life and instruction of man- 
 ners, but not applying them to establish any doctrine. The 
 
 il the Old 
 Testament which were not so reci ived by the .lews; and 
 irs that the writings thus excluded are nol quoted 
 by the authors of the New T nitted in- 
 
 to any of the earlier Cl forth by the Christian 
 
 I to contain some manifest in- 
 e-ies, some obviously fanciful relal 
 or two passages, to countenance tenetsat variance with the 
 character, or even the express declarations, of revealed re- 
 ligion. There exist at the present day various writings 
 purporting I puis or Epistles of Joseph, of James 
 
 the Apostle, of St. Paul, an Epistle ofChri I h 
 
 runs, &c. ; which are, for the n osl part, intrinsi- 
 ird ; and, bavins; no external evidence or authority 
 in their favour, have never obtained currency in the church, 
 (S«c art. Canon.) 
 
 APOCYNA'CEvE. An extensive n of plants, 
 
 named after Apocynum, one ofthe more common of its 
 A few species are found in cold clin ales, hut by 
 Far the lamer part are natives of warm or tri 
 in the form of shrubs or trees, or twining | 
 
 re remarkable for their beauty, as various species 
 of Echites; others for their poisonous pre 
 bera. which furnishes the Tanxhin poison of Mad 
 and Strychnos, from various species of which the poisons 
 called tientfi and woorary are procured in different coun- 
 tries ; while a third set produce bark, having useful bitter 
 and febrifugal properties; the inspissated mils that flows 
 from these plants, when removed, constitutes their poison ; 
 the febrifugal bitter principle is an independent secretion, 
 omes useful when it en be separated from the 
 milk. Notwithstanding these dangerous properties, me 
 E 
 
APODE 
 
 Iruits of some species are eatable, as that of Carissa, the 
 cream fruit of Sierra Leone, and some others. 
 
 A'PODE, APODA. ((Jr. d, priv., and irovc, a foot.) 
 Footless. A term applied by Latreille toa section of Sauri- 
 ans or lizards, by Mayor to a family of serpents, and by Op- 
 pel to a family of Batrachians ; by Linnxus to his first or- 
 der of fishes, which have no ventral fins; and by Cuvier a 
 submler of Malacopterygia, or soft-finned fishes, is thus 
 id, comprehending tliose which are devoid of the 
 ventral fins, or the homologuesofthe posterior extremities. 
 It is also indicative of those larva? of insects which have 
 nly the soft tubercles or prolegs ; and the skins of the bird 
 fpiradise, imported as an article of commerce, being al- 
 tays deprived of the legs, it was for some time believed 
 species was naturally without feet, and it was con- 
 sequently termed l'aradisea apoda. 
 
 APODO'GYNOUS. (Gr. d, priv., irovs, a foot, and vvvr), 
 ) A name given by Richard to disks which A) not 
 adhere to the base of an ovary. 
 
 APO'DOSIS, (Gr. dnoSiStoiJU, to give hack.) In Rhe- 
 toric, the second part of a period. (See Protasis.) 
 
 APODYTE'RIUM. (Gr. dnoSvaOat, to strip one's self.) 
 In ancient Architecture, the apartment in the palxsta, or 
 bath, in which a person divested himself of his dress, 
 whether for bathing or for gymnastic exercises. In the 
 baths of Nero, these apartments were small ; but in those 
 of Caracalla, the apodyterium was a magnificent room with 
 columns and other decorations. 
 
 A'POGEE. (Gr. diro,/rom, and yv, the earth.) Applied, 
 in Astronomy, to the orbit of the moon and the apparent 
 orbits of the sun or planets, to denote the points of those or- 
 bits most remote from the earth. It is opposed to perigee, 
 which denotes the point nearest the earth. The apogee of 
 the lunar orbit advances eastward among the stars, and 
 completes a revolution in about nine years. 
 
 APOI.LIN'ARIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a sect 
 who denied the humanity of Christ as far as regards the 
 soul, believing its place to be supplied by the Logos, or 
 Word of God. Apollinaris, their founder, was a bishop of 
 Laodicea, in the latter part of the fourth century : his doc- 
 trine was condemned by the council of Constantinople, 
 a. d. 361. (.See Mosheim's Eccl. History, English transla- 
 tion, i. 423.) 
 
 APO'LLO, or PHQ3BUS. A heathen divinity, son of Ju- 
 piter and Latona, in Homeric times the god of archery, 
 prophecy, music, and medicine. 
 
 .Jupiter est genitor. Per me quel critque, fuitque, 
 Estque patet. Per me concordant carmina nervis, 
 Cerfa quidem nostra, est noslra tamen una sagitta 
 Certiorin vacuo qua' vulneni pertore fecit ; 
 Inveutum medicina meum est. nptferque per orbem 
 Dicor, et hcrbarum estsubjecla potent.a nobis. 
 
 Later poets represent him also as the god of day and the 
 sun. The statues of Apollo represent a young man in the 
 perfection of manly strength and beauty, with unshorn 
 curling lock:-., and a bow or lyre in his hand. The worship 
 of this god was very general in Greece and Italy, especially 
 in the former, where he uttered prophetic responses from 
 many of his temples, the most celebrated of which were 
 those of Delos and Delphi, in Phocis: in the latter of these 
 his most esteemed oracles were delivered. The mytho- 
 logical tales about Apollo are very numerous. His birth 
 took place in the island of Delos, whither his mother took 
 refuge from the persecutions of the jealous Juno ; and his 
 first "exploit was the slaughter of the dragon Python, for 
 which, according to one tradition, he was subjected to ser- 
 vitude under Admetus, king of Pherae, inThessaly. Of his 
 numerous amours, that with the nymph Daphne is most 
 noted. She fled from his embraces, and, when no other 
 means of escape from the arms of her pursuer were left, 
 was turned by her father, the river-god Peneus, into a bay- 
 tree, which in consequence became the peculiar emblem 
 of Apollo. 
 
 APOl.I.O BELVIDERE. A beautiful statue of Apollo, 
 found, towards the end of the fifteenth century, among the 
 ruins of the ancient Antium. It was purchased by Pope 
 Julius II., who placed it in the Belvidere of the Vatican, 
 whence it takes its name. It is, perhaps, the noblest work 
 of art. The god is standing, about seven feet hish, and al- 
 most naked. His quiver hangs over his right shoulder; his 
 E allium over his left arm, which is extended; and in his 
 and are the remains of a bow, out of which he is supposed 
 to have just discharged the arrow that killed the serpent 
 Python. The whole figure has about it an indescribable air 
 of grace, beauty, and majesty. 
 
 " Or view the Lord oftlie unerring bow, 
 The God of life, and poesy, and light — 
 The sun in human limbs array'd, and brow 
 All radiant from his triumph in the fight ; 
 The sliaft liiis Just been (hot— the ai row bright 
 With an immortal'! vengeance I in his eye 
 And nostril beautiful disdain, and mighl, 
 And majesty, flash their full lightning! by, 
 Developing in that one glance the Deity." 
 
 This chef-d'wuvre of Greek sculpture has been supposed 
 66 
 
 APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 
 
 by some, but on very slight grounds, to be alluded to by 
 Pliny (Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi. § 4.). The best critics are ot 
 opinion that the artist is wholly unknown. This noblo 
 statue was conveyed to Paris by Napoleon; but, on the 
 downfal of the latter, it was again restored to the Valican. 
 
 A'POLOGUE. (Gr. d-n6\oyos.) In Literature, a fable or 
 fiction, of which the object is moral. According to some 
 definitions oftlie Apologue, it is a fable of which the inter- 
 locutors or subjects are animals, but this seems an tin 
 founded limitation. (See Faele.) 
 
 APO'LOGY. (Gr. droXoj <«.) In Literature, a defence, 
 or answer to an accusation. The two pieces of Xent phon 
 and Plato, each commonly termed Apologia Socratis, differ 
 in character : the first being a defence supposed to be pro- 
 nounced by the philosopher himself ; the last, a narratior 
 of his last hours and discourses. Treatises in defence oi 
 the Christian religion, in its early period, were tlcnomi 
 nated Apologies by their writers ; as those of Justin Martyr, 
 Tertullian, and others, both preserved and lost. The title 
 has been retained by some writers in modern limes : as by 
 Robert Barclay, in his Apology of Quakerism, and by 
 Bishop Watson, in his Apologies for the Bible and for Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 A'POPHTIIEGM. (Gr. dtroipGcyiia, from (pOiyyo^ai, I 
 speak.) A short and sententious speech or saying. The 
 apophthegms of the ancients are generally sentences ex- 
 pressing some truth of universal application in philosophy, 
 the conduct of life, &c. &c. Such are Plutarch's "Apoph- 
 thegn ata Laconica," a collection of the brief and pointed 
 sayings for which the Lacedaemonians were famous. 
 
 A'POPHYGE. (Gr., signifying./?^///, or refuge.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, that part of a column between the upper fillet 
 which restson the base and the cylindrical part of the shaft 
 of a column, usually moulded into a hollow or cavetto, out 
 of which the column seems as it were to lly or shoot up- 
 wards. 
 
 APOPIIY'SIS. (Gr. aKofyvo). I proceed from.) A protu- 
 berance, process, or projection. In Anatomy, restricted to 
 processes of the osseous system. 
 
 A'POPLE'XY. (Gr. diroirA>j<ro-£tj', to strike down.) A 
 sudden suspension or loss of the powers of sense or mo- 
 tion ; the heart continues to act, and respiration is contin- 
 ued, though often with so rue difficulty. 
 
 APOROBRA'NCHIANS, AFOROBRANCHIATA. (Gr. 
 dnupeoj, licunt, and Ppayx'a, gills.) A name applied by 
 Latreille to an order of the class Arachnlda, characterised 
 by the absence of stigmata or respiratory pores on the sur- 
 face of the body. 
 
 APOSE'PEDIN. (Gr. dxo, from, and orintiwv, product 
 of putrefaction.) A peculiar crystallised substance obtained 
 from putrid cheese. 
 
 A'POSIOPE'SIS. (Gr. d7rno-iw7racu, [o leave off speaking 
 suddenly.) A figure in Rhetoric and < by which 
 
 a sentence is made to break off abruptly when unfinished 
 either in sense or grammatical construction ; so that the 
 part which was to follow appears to lie n tamed in the mind 
 of the speaker or writer. In writing, the Aposiopesis is 
 now often denoted by an horizontal line or break at llio 
 point where the sense is interrupted. 
 
 APO'STACY. (Gr. d<piarrim, 1 desert.) A deserting or 
 abandonins of the true faith ; but the word 
 designate the renunciation of political as well as religious 
 opinions. 
 
 APOSTASIA'CE/E. A very small natural order of plants 
 found in the tropics of India, closely allied to Orchidacc.x 
 from which they differ in having a three-celled ovary ant 
 diandrous flowers, the sexes of which are partly free 
 Apostasia is the principal genus. 
 APO'STILL. In Literature, a marginal note to 
 APO'STLE. (Gr. diroo-roXoc.) A person sent forth upoi 
 any business : hence applied, by way of eminence, to th( 
 twelve elect disciples of Christ, who were sent forth by him 
 to convert and baptize all nations. In the first century, the 
 apostles assumed the highest office in the church ; and the 
 term apostle during that period was equivalent to bishop in 
 after-times. According to Theodoret (v. Bingham, II, Q. 
 1.), the titles of bishop and presbyter we 
 plied promiscuously to the same, or second, order in the 
 church. 
 
 APO'STLES' CREED. A confession of faith, 
 anciently to have been drawn up by lie- 
 selves, and deriving the title "Creed'' from the v. 
 which it begins in Latin (credo, I believe). With •. 
 its antiquity, it may be affirmed, that the greater j 
 clauses is quoted by the apostolic father Ignatius ; and thai 
 the whole, as it now stands in our liturgy, is In be found IP 
 the works of St. Ambrose, in the fourth century. 
 
 APOSTOLIC FATHERS. The writers of the Christian 
 Church, who lived in the apos ere during anj 
 
 part of their lives contemporary with tie- apostles. The) 
 are five: Clement of Rome, Barnabas. Her" as, Ignatius. 
 andPolycarp; of whom the last suffered ma 
 147. Of Ihese the three first are supposed to lie mentioned 
 in the Epistles and Acts ; the fourth, according to a preva 
 
APOSTROPHE. 
 
 v.-as the child whom Christ took In Ms 
 
 i Theophorus; and the fifth, 
 
 the angel 
 
 - 
 
 - rtlOPIIE. (Gr. d-rroarptfetv, to 
 . ;i figure of : 
 breaks off from the 
 
 himself in ; 
 
 An r»r .' 
 
 may be c I 
 APOTH d*oOr\KT\, a repository.) Ill 
 
 Iruns and 
 
 'I . ■ \ 
 
 :. 
 
 IPOTHECA.) A 
 
 unrounded by a border, in which the 
 
 ''(fwcij.) The 
 
 ■ 
 
 r ivine honooi 
 their deceased, and, in some cases, to their living 
 
 A l'( (TOME. (Gr. diroropnc, cut off.) In Music, the re- 
 part of an eniire torn itone has 
 
 ; from it; or i inder ofa whole 
 
 . nr smaller 
 
 ] into two 
 r ami less 
 r • nitons : 
 
 i >n of the apotome to the 
 
 Apotome. In Geometry, a term employed by Euclid 
 
 • le the re- 
 i two lines or quantities com- 
 
 ■ 
 
 by the ej —1. In the tenth hook of his Ele- 
 
 apotomes into six clasaes. 
 a.'POZEM. (Gr. dm, and (civ, to boil.) An old Phar- 
 
 rm for a decoction. 
 APPA'RENT. A term used in Astronomy to denote 
 to the eye. in what I hey 
 
 hus, the apparent altitude ofa star denotes 
 which its line of vision makes with the 
 
 hide is found by making a i 
 is of parallax, which CaUSi 
 "i it would if there 
 The apparent diameter of a planet is measured ' 
 
 :t lines drawn from the eye to oppo- 
 site poin' 
 
 |oinuig those points ; while astronom 
 der which the dia neter would be 
 nth, the true diameter. T 
 horizon denotes the plane which is b , mgenl to tl 
 
 a the place of the observ irizon is a 
 
 o earth. Apparent motion is the 
 in which a body appears to movi 
 wlin i-- h 
 
 diurnal west arises from 
 
 tory motion of 
 
 i. apparent 
 
 u bv the sun' 
 le mean time is that which won!. I be 
 •'. by the sun if its angular velocity in its o 
 "fm. 
 
 APPARITION. Ill a general sense, tneai 
 or semblance of any tiling; but the word 
 spectre, or the pr< I 
 
 tural appearances has been entertained 
 eminent men; but it ha3 chiefly prevailed in ti 
 torance and superstition, and has eitherwhi 
 or had a comparatively limitcr) influence i I 
 «««d times. Set II bbert's Philosophy of Apparitions. 
 
 APPEA'L. In Law, 1. The removal ofa cause from an 
 toferior court to a superior. 2. An accusation of a crimi- 
 
 APPRENTICE. 
 
 nal offence by one subject against another. The bringing 
 
 of the courts of Scotland and Ireland, or I 
 of chancery in England, before the house of lords, is pecu- 
 liarly kn. led an appeal in the first sense. Criminal ap- 
 {■■: thoscjon charges not capital have 
 ong been so. Appeals of treason and of felony 
 
 i r period: the latter had doubtlft 
 
 origin in the early jurisprudence of the (Jolhic nations, by 
 
 . acts of violence or injury were redeemable by a 
 
 the parly injured or his nearest relative. 
 
 They were put an end to by slat. 59 G. 3. c. 46. (.Set \Ya- 
 
 OER Of' IlATTLE.) 
 
 APl'E.V'RANCE. In Law, the act whereby a defendant 
 
 uses the process by which that action 
 
 cod against him: originally by appearing ir . 
 
 nicy, in court ; now, by filing common 
 
 id to a writ of capias, by delivering a memo- 
 
 m riling to an officer of the court, in answer to a 
 
 us, &c. 
 
 APPK'LLANT. In Law, the party by whom an appeal 
 
 ! an order of n agistrate to the quarter 
 
 i the decision ofa court of equity to the 
 
 ! ly is termed respondent. 
 
 APPE'NDAGE. In Botany, all parts which are regu- 
 
 ed round any other part are called appendages; 
 
 the axis : so are all the parts of a 
 
 j ; the supernumerary sepals in a straw- 
 
 lyx; the abortive stamens 
 
 torn the calyx of a passion-flower are append- 
 
 \ ; and so on. 
 
 ■T,M>'i( l LATE. Having appendagea Tlie word 
 
 I to all those plants which are furnished 
 
 with Ic f the axis.) 
 
 APPE'NDIX. In Literature, a supplement added at the 
 
 end of a work, either to contain portions of the subject 
 
 I been omitted, or separate pieces and extracts 
 
 from other works bearing on it : sucn as are termed in 
 
 French pieces justifica 
 
 APPE'NSUS. (l.at. appendo, I hang up.) V- 
 ovule is not exactly pendulous, but is attached to the pla- 
 centa by some point intermediate between the apex and 
 ddle. 
 A'PI'IAN WAY. The most celebrated of the I, 
 
 rom ancient Rome. It was constructed by Hie 
 I '! uidius, a. v. c. 442 ; and comim 
 
 Ian, extended to Capua, 
 
 limit of the empire. It was formed of stones 
 
 Died, and was wide enough for two chariots 
 
 On each side was a ditch for carrying off 
 
 A/PPLE. (Gr. dztos, a uildpeur.) The cultivated fni 
 . (he er.ib apple of our hedges. All the nu 
 are said to have 
 1 slowly from improvements of this wild sort. A 
 I melioration commenced is unknown ; but, 
 as Pliny w I with several kinds, it is reasonably 
 
 it is to be assigned to 
 quity If it could be true that pippins, 
 seedling it ! only at the en*. 
 
 itury, we should have to five the southern 
 of having furnished us with 
 which the valuable varieties we n 
 sess have been derived. Hut there is no doubt tl: 
 of some kind have been known in England from long be- 
 Conquest, and although they may have been of 
 bad quality, and fit for '■ vet they 
 
 could hardly nave foiled to produo 'valuable 
 
 qualities. The term apple i position to 
 
 any large fli pie, thorn-apple, 
 
 APPOGIATU'RA. (Ital. appo upon.") In 
 
 all note preceding a larger one of greater dura 
 ■.'which it borrows one half of ils value : sometimes, 
 • r, it is only one quarter in duration of the note 
 | which it pre'- 
 
 APPORTIONMENT. In Law, the dividing of a rent, 
 rding to the number and proportion ot 
 the pai the land is divided. 
 
 APPRAISEMENT. The valuation of goods sold under 
 rent due, by sworn appraisers, under severa. 
 (See DisTRBsa.) 
 APPREHENSION, SIMPLE. In Logic, is that act or 
 condition of the mind in which it receives a notion of any 
 . said to be either incomplex or complex : the 
 r being the apprehension of one object, or of severa. 
 relation between lb'' u," "cattle;' 
 
 several, with such a relation, as "a man on 
 rd of cattle." 
 APPRENTICE. (Fr. apprendre, to team.) A person 
 hound by indenture, for a certain term, to perforin servi- 
 cer, receiving, in return, instruction in a trade 
 upation ; and, in most instances, necessary food and 
 ing. Apprenticeship seems to have originated, togetli- 
 ' er with guilds and fraternities, in the middle ages, beven 
 
APPROACH. 
 
 anon term of apprenticeship in Germany. =.s 
 
 well us in England ; but other periods, as three and eight, 
 
 have been customary in different trades, places, and limes. 
 
 tier period was fix§d in England by the statute 5 
 
 Eliz. c. -1., which regulated apprenticeship throughout the 
 
 general. By 54 G. 3. c. 96., the legal force of 
 
 ■ship was finally destroyed ; that is, persons were 
 
 exercise their respective trades without having 
 
 served; London, and a few other corporate towns, being 
 
 i. Apprenticeship is, therefore, now only rccog- 
 
 the law as the mode of learning a trade. 
 
 APPROA'CII. In Fortification a term given to the trench 
 
 ed way by which a besieging army may advance 
 
 from its camp to the wall of a fortress without being cx- 
 
 the fire of the defenders. Approaches sometimes 
 
 , covering masses only, formed of earth in bags, 
 
 . stuffed gabions, woolsacks, bales of cotton, or 
 
 oth i" materials within reach. 
 
 Approach, Curve of. In Geometry, the name given to 
 
 ises this property, — that a heavy body 
 
 ing along it by the force of gravity, makes equal 
 
 to tl orizon in equal portions of time. It 
 
 losed by Leibnitz, and its properties investigated 
 
 by Bernoulli and others. 
 
 Approach Uoad. In Landscape Gardening, is the road 
 
 ids from the public or main road, through a park 
 
 tire ground, to the mansion of a country residence. 
 
 In the ancient or geometric style of gardening, this road 
 
 was bounded by lines either straight or regularly curved, 
 
 and was generally accompanied by one or more rows of 
 
 each side, at regular distances: but in the modern 
 
 style, the approach road is led in graceful sweeps, which 
 
 ■ire made to appear as if they were determined by existing 
 
 circumstances, either in the surface of the ground, or in 
 
 the trees or other objects which are placed on it. There 
 
 I e no bend in an approach road for which there 
 
 is not an obvious and sufficient reason, either naturally 
 
 existing, or created by art. 
 
 APPROPRIATION. In Landscape Gardening, is the 
 ast of so blending the scenery of one estate with that of 
 the others that adjoin it, as to make the one subservient to 
 the other, in a scenic point of view. This is effected by 
 appropriate fore-grounds, in the estate at command, 
 to the distant views, in the estates not at command ; or in 
 fields immediately adjoining, by imitating in our own field 
 what is contained in the field of our neighbour: 
 thus, if the park of A. should be chiefly planted with pines 
 and firs, and that of B. chiefly with oaks ; A., in order to 
 appropriate the scenery of B., must substitute oaks for a 
 part of his pines and firs; more especially in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the grounds of B. 
 
 AFPRO'VER. In Law. a person who being indicted of 
 treason or felony, and not disabled from giving legal evi- 
 dence, upon his arraignment, before any plea pleaded, con- 
 e indictment, and takes an oath to reveal all trea- 
 sons and felonies that he knows of, and therefore prays a 
 i enter his appeal or accusation against those that 
 rtners in the crime contained in the indictment. 
 APPROXIMATE. In Zoology, when the teeth are so 
 arranged in the jaws, that one passes on the side of the 
 id there is no intervening vacancy. 
 APPROXIMATION. (Lat. proximus', nearest, next to.) 
 ing near to. In Mathematics, quantities are said to 
 be approximate which are nearly but not absolutely equal 
 In a general sense, the term approximate may be applied 
 ■ result of natural philosophy or experimental 
 science. For example, the magnitude of the earth, the 
 distance of the sun, the masses of the plants, in fact, all 
 the elements of astronomy, are only known nearly, or by 
 approximation. In these cases, however, the want of ab- 
 solute knowledge arises from the imperfections of our 
 senses, or the errors of our instruments. In the language 
 of Analysis, approximation is used to denote those methods 
 of calculation by which we obtain near values of quantities 
 which cannot be found accurately, either on account of the 
 nature of their composition, or the imperfections of our 
 methods of calculation. 
 
 The problem of finding the length of the circumference 
 of a circle, by means of inscribed polygons, affords an in- 
 stance of approximation to the values of geometrical quan- 
 tities. It is a principle in Geometry, that any arc of a cir- 
 cle, however small, is greater than its chord. Now, sup- 
 pose a regular polygon of 100 sides to be inscribed in a cir- 
 cle, and that we know the exact length of one of the sides ; 
 it is evident that the sum of all these lengths will give an 
 approximation to the length of the circttmferenee, though 
 it would fall short of it by a very sensible quantity. Hut 
 suppose that, instead of a polygon of 100 sides, one of 
 1000 sUes were inscribed in the circle, the a| 
 lengths of the sides would now approach much mot 
 J3 the length of the circumference. By continuing to 
 multiply the number of sides, we may obtain an approxi- 
 mation to any degree of nearness we please ; but whatever 
 iie number of the sides of the polygon may be, their sum 
 68 
 
 APRIL. 
 
 will never be exactly equal to the circumference, for tliej 
 are only the chords of small arcs, which of necessity are 
 smaller than the arcs to which they belong. 
 
 Numbers are formed by successive additions of unity 
 which is necessarily a finite quantity. In consequence ol 
 this linitude, it may be affirmed that no magnitudes which 
 flow, or increase, by insensible degrees, can be expressed 
 generally by numbers. For example, let a straight line bt 
 taken at random, and suppose that we wish to detei 
 length, our unit of linear measure being one foot. On ap 
 plying successively a scale divided into feet to the different 
 parts of the given line, the chances are infinity to one that 
 the last division does not exactly coincide with the 
 ty of the line. We may diminish our unit by reducing it 
 to an inch, or to the hundredth or the thousandth part of an 
 inch; the chances of ultimate coincidence will not thereby 
 be increased, though the difference between the last divi- 
 sion of the scale and the extremity of the line may be di- 
 minished till it becomes smaller than any quantity 
 be pleased to assign. Precisely similar to this is what takes 
 place when we attempt to express by decimals a vulgar trac- 
 tion whose denominator is not a measure of any pi 
 ten. Thus, the fraction ^, expressed decimally, is .33333, 
 &c. The first figure of the series gives the approximate 
 value 3-tenths ; the first twofigi hundredths: the 
 
 first three, 333-thousandths, and so on ; the addition of 
 every figure to the series making the difference of its value 
 from 1-third ten times smaller. The difference may, there- 
 fore, be diminished till it becomes smaller than any assign 
 able quantity, but it can never entirely disappear. 
 
 Another instance of the necessity of having recourse to 
 approximation, is presented in seeking to find the roots of 
 numbers. If a number is not an exact square, its square 
 root cannot be expounded by rational numbers, v. i 
 tegcrs or fractions. The same thing occurs with respect to 
 numbers which are not cubes, and so on. In these eases 
 exact numerical values of the roots cannot be found. Ie 
 other cases exact values may exist, though our methods o/ 
 analysis are not sufficiently perfect to enable us to diseovei 
 them. Notwithstanding the successive efforts of the great 
 est algebraists since the days of Lucas de Borgo, no gene- 
 ral method has yet been discovered of solving i 
 of a higher degree than the fourth; consequently, the 
 values of quantities involved in such equations can only be 
 obtained approximately. It is to this subject that iheatten 
 tion of our best writers on analysis has chiefly bi - 
 ed ; in fact, the discussion of the different methi i 
 proximating to the roots of equations of the higher degreei 
 forms one of the principal subjects of pure Al: 
 
 The method of exhaustion, by which the ancient mathn 
 maticians attempted to find the rectification and quadrature, 
 of the circle, was the first instance of a sye 
 of approximation. The Indivisibles of Cavalleri effected 
 the same object in a more rapid and general manner, and 
 prepared the way for the differential calculus. The inven- 
 tion of the method of infinite series led immediately to ge- 
 neral methods of approximating to the valuesof all radical 
 quantities, and subsequently to the roots of all kinds of com. 
 pound equations whatever. Vieta was the first who showed 
 how to find successive values of the roots of equations, each 
 approaching more nearly to the true value than the preced- 
 ing ; but his method was tedious and imperfect. Other 
 methods, more easy and general, have been given by vari- 
 ous mathematicians; among which, the best known are 
 those of Newton, Halley, and Raphson, at 
 have been proposed al a later period by Lagrange. Legen- 
 dre, Budan, and others. Thi 
 
 drawn from the most abstruse parts of the theory of equa- 
 tions, and could not be explained in this place with fhe de- 
 tails necessary to render them of any use. For the best 
 information on the subject, we may refer the reader to the 
 excellent work of Lagrange, " Traite" de la Resolution des 
 Equations Numeriques : : ' the " Nouvelle Me*lhode pour 
 resoudre les Equations Numeriques" of M. Budan ; the 
 "Supplement a 1' Essai stir la Th€orie des Non bt 
 Legendre ; and the article Equations, in the Em;. 
 Britannica. by Mr. Ivory. (See Equations.) 
 
 A'PRICOT. (Lat. prtecox, early, or Arab, berkhach, 
 butter fruit.') The fruit of Armeniaca vulgaris, a native of 
 Cachmere, and probably of the mountains of (.'annul, and 
 cultivated from Persia and the typl throughout 
 
 the temperate parts of the world. In its wild 
 apricot is a small round pale waxy yellow fruit, rosy on one 
 side, and agreeably subacid ; in that stab i: is dried in large 
 quantities under the name of mishmish : in its mosl in. 
 proved state it becomes three times as large and sweetet. : 
 but it is then apt to become insipid. For tin 1 confectioner's 
 purpose, the Brussels and Breda apricots, which are near 
 approaches to the wild fruit, are better adapted than t'-e 
 larger and sweeter kinds. 
 
 A'PRIL. The fourth month of the year. The name is 
 probably derived from Lat. aperire, to open, either from 
 the opening of the buds, or of the bosom of 11. e eartb t» 
 producing vegetation. 
 
A PRIORI. 
 
 n. 1'RIO'RI. (T >ri.) In Philosophy 
 
 and Rhetoric, is a phrase somewhat loosely applied to de- 
 
 tood 10 
 it conclusion 
 is drawn no ler the conse- 
 
 time, nr in thi 
 
 the mercury sinks, there- 
 fore it will ram/' - incut drawn from an au- 
 nt in time, d ' A murder 
 
 ■•ion, as hav- 
 
 iment 
 bis en- 
 ould aflbrdacause fur his committing 
 order. On the other hand, rty falls under 
 
 ii quit the house at a par- 
 Mi on his clothes: these 
 a either from 
 it, or from ef- 
 rutnent 
 favour of the i God, 
 
 drawn from certain primary alio 
 
 ion course of reasoning to 
 una truth from the 
 
 to instance of the latter or a pos- 
 
 A'PcUDES, or A PSES. (Or. drnnc, circfe, or cwrrofure.) 
 
 he orbit of a pi which 
 
 it is 1 the straight hue joining it 
 
 points 01 the orbit are the 
 
 1 1 at which a 
 
 from the sun. 
 
 pais; conaequ 
 
 lion, and the 
 
 these 
 
 two points, which the orbit, is 
 
 called Die line of ii ingular mo- 
 
 the planet's orbit; and the time which 
 
 olution with regard 
 
 {See Aphe- 
 
 M.Y.) 
 
 APTENODV TI.S. (Gr. d. priv., irr^of, that can fly.) 
 
 . for flight, covered with 
 
 Bns ur 
 ling under « 
 
 .. with four toes, all turned (on 
 I. lh" fourth very 
 The lightly 
 
 the bill, con 
 The Patagonian penguin is the 
 
 MS. \l'l': HA (Or. d, priv., -artoov, awing : 
 
 i the class of 
 
 s in different systems of 
 
 naean system it is the seventh or- 
 
 itfnguished by their having no wings. 
 
 Kirby makes bis Aptera the twelfth order of the ciaBS of 
 
 ; that it is not a natural one, and 
 
 limits the definition of it to those insects which are apterous, 
 
 lit in Latrail 
 
 an order of 
 
 A'PTEROllS. In Botany, denotes any part of a plant 
 
 ilitute of membranous expansions. The term 
 
 in distinction to alate, or \\ 
 
 A'PTERYX. (Or. ii, priv., irrfptif, a trim?.) A genus 
 
 of birds represented by an extremely rar native 
 
 i, id, in which the wings are reduced to a 
 defensiv 
 A/PTHOUS. ((Jr. Snrctv, to inflame.) Resembling 
 
 or Apt ha, the d the thrush. 
 
 A'PUsS. A name ap] polo to a cart 
 
 of Bnl is; characterised by a flattened, semi- 
 
 transparent, membranous envelope, which protects the 
 like a shell, having ifl posteriorly; and 
 
 bearing in front two large eyes, placed close together, with 
 a third smaller one behind. The f logs are long, 
 
 ••iitary, and branched, representing antennae; f 
 mauling sixty pairs are si and modified 
 
 so as to form a re in ; according to the struc- 
 
 ture which characterises the Br . or gill-footed 
 
 order, to which the Apus belon : Apus 
 
 ir in immense numbers in our freshwater pools; they 
 prey chiefly on tadpoles; and some at': th of an 
 
 half. 
 APYRE'XJA (Gr. d. priv., ami zvpcrds, fever.) The 
 
 ■ion of feverish disorders. 
 A'l'YROUS. (Gr. d. priv., and jtvo, fire.) A term for- 
 merly apple ices which resisted a strong heat 
 without ens 
 
 A'QUA. (A Latin word of uncertain derivation, but pro- 
 bably from »qua, smooth, or level.) Water. It is often al- 
 B9 
 
 AaUEDUCT. 
 
 igliclsed, as in the words aquavitsc, aquafortis, 
 aquamaj 
 AQUA FORTI8. Nitric acid. 
 A'Ql AMARi'NE. Set Beryl. 
 
 AQ.UA REGIA A nurture of nitric and muriatic acids, 
 from its power of dissolving gold, the king of the 
 
 AQUA TOFI'ANA. See Acuet: a. 
 
 AU1 A'KILM. (Lai. aqua, irater.) In Horticulture. A 
 
 ?, in which only aquatic plants are grown. 
 pond or cistern, containing 
 
 uiace, in which 
 
 pots an the plants. 
 
 Aul'.v'KIls. J%e Waterbearer. The eleventh sign ol 
 
 ugh which the sun moves in part ol the 
 
 of January and February. Also, one oi the twelve 
 
 zodiacal conatell 
 
 AQUATICS. AQUATTLIA. (lat aquaticus.) A name 
 applied by Nitzch to an order of birds; 1 
 
 lie, to a division of Gr 
 by Lamarck, to a family of bugs (Ct'micute); each of which 
 groups Includes animals which live in, swim on, or fre- 
 
 llelS. 
 
 AQUA'TK: plants. Plants which grow in 
 which may be either running or stagnate. In tin 
 
 '.ire called river plants; In the latter, pond plants. 
 .1 are called marine plants. 
 A/QUATEMT In En- 
 
 graving, a n resembling an In 
 
 .GRAVING.) 
 
 A.'QUEDUCT. (La , and ductus, a conduit.) 
 
 A conduit or channel for conveying water from oi 
 to anothi r 
 
 for the purpose of conveying the water of distanl 
 >!v of large cltii 
 The largest and ma ■■' aqueducts, with the 
 
 are acquainted, were the work of 
 
 ins; and the ruin- 
 Italy and oilier countrie 
 laments of tin 
 
 The aqueduct of Ap 
 ■ ■nt, and constructed In tl 
 It convej 1 Ity, from a di 
 
 between 7 and s miles, 
 
 I length. The aqueduct ol 
 
 circuit of three miles, and afterwards, forming a vault of 
 
 it ran :{s mill 
 , ition of 70 L... ' I of three 
 
 distinct channels, placed one above the other, CO 
 water from thn 
 
 flowed the Aqua Julia; in the second, tie 
 and in I!. \qiiu Martia. The 
 
 d hv Agripp 
 In length. ' 1 
 and finish veyed the water t; 
 
 . This aqueduct forme:! 
 
 ngth, and was supported 00 
 through tl 
 
 attraction, that it continues to supply the 
 cilv with water to the present day. The water 
 river Anii conducted to 1: 
 
 : the first was carried through 
 
 f>\' miles 
 
 them upwards of 10x0 feet in h 
 • Rome at the com 
 Nerva. five others \. "d hy that 1 
 
 under the superintendence of Julius Frontinus; ana it ap- 
 pears that at a later p. , ier amounted I 
 ty. The supply Of H 
 works was enor ; 
 
 We may therefore extend the supply, when till tl 
 ducts were in action, to the enormoi 
 
 t of water.' Reckoning the populai 
 
 1 million, which it probably never exceed 
 would furnish no less than o0 cubic, feet for the daily con- 
 sumption of each Inhabitant"— (Leslie's Element* 
 
 <phy.) 
 
 if some Roman aqueducts in Other 
 nee of works 1 
 
 mifioent scale of Rome. O; tl 
 
 aqueduct of Mete was one of the 1 
 
 a river nf very considerable breadth at th 
 
 and conveyed the water of the Gorse to the city 
 
 ilr, whence it 
 
 . subterraneous canals, formed of hewn - 
 
 iu 1 that a man might walk in them uprt 
 
 part Some ol 
 
AUUEOUS SOIL. 
 
 r>vept away by the descent of ice down the river; those at 
 the extremities still remain entire. 
 
 ■ueduct of Segovia, in Spain, is in a still more per- 
 than that of Metz. About 150 of its arcades re- 
 main, all formed of large stones without cement. There 
 rows of arcades, the one above the other, and the 
 ; the edifice is about 100 feet, passing over the 
 )• part of the houses of the city. 
 
 ucts have been constructed in modem times, par- 
 ticularly in France, which rival those of the ancient Ro- 
 mans. One of the most remarkable was constructed by 
 Louis XIV., for conveying the waters of the river Eura to 
 Versailles. It extends about 4400 feet in length, or nearly 
 seven-eighths of a mile, and is upwards of 200 feet in 
 height, li contains 242 arcades, each divided into three 
 rows, forming in all 726 arches of 50 feet span. The intro- 
 duction of cast-iron pipes, which has only taken place with- 
 in the last century, has superseded the use of such expen- 
 sive structures. 
 
 A'QUEOUS SOIL Agr. and Hort. Soil naturally 
 abounding in water, the fluid being supplied by springs in 
 the subsoil. 
 
 AQUE'TTA. (Hal. little water.) A celebrated poison 
 
 used by the Romans under the pontificate of Alexander 
 
 VII. It was probably a preparation of arsenic, and was also 
 
 oder the name of aqua Toffana, from a woman of 
 
 the name of Toffana. who prepared it at Naples. 
 
 AUUIFOLI'ACEJE. (Lat. Aquifolium, the holly.) A na- 
 tural order of Exogens, connecting the monopetalous with 
 : etalous subclasses. The whole of the specil s are 
 either shrubs or trees, and scattered over most parts of the 
 world. Ilex, Trinos, and Cassia are the commonest genera. 
 A'QUILA. (Lat. aquila, an eagle.) The genus of Ac- 
 t-.ipitrine or Raptorial birds, including the eagles proper, or 
 lecies of the Linnaean Falco which have no trench 
 ant tooth and corresponding notch in the beak. 
 
 A'QUILA ALBA. (Lat. the white eagle.) An alchemical 
 name of calomel. The old chemists designated sal ammo- 
 niac and other sublimates by the term aquila. 
 AQUILARIA'CEiE. (Aquilaria, eagle wood, one of the 
 
 ,: d to rhymelacesB. Thespo- 
 
 but little known. The Aquillariaagallochum is the 
 
 produces the eagle or aggul wood, and which, in 
 all probability, was the aloes wood of Scripture. 
 
 ARABE'SQUE. (French.) Painting and Sculpture, af- 
 ter the Arabian taste. This is a term applied to a species of 
 ornament, capricious, fantastic, and imaginary, consisting 
 [ii fruits, flowers, and other objects, to the exclusion, in 
 
 besques, of Hie figures of animals, which religion 
 lot bade. That the Arabians originated this sort of orna- 
 monl is not the fact; it was known to and practised by the 
 
 at a very early period. Foliage and griffins, with 
 ornaments not very dissimilar to those of the Arabians, 
 were by no means unfrequent in the friezes of temples; 
 and on many of the ancient Greek vases at Herculaneum, 
 07i the walls at the baths of Titus, at Pompeii, and many 
 es, elegant examples of this species of decoration 
 arc to be found. It is, however, to Raphael that we owe 
 the most splendid specimens of the style, which he digni- 
 fied, and left in it nothing to be desired. Since his time it 
 has been practised with varying and inferior degrees of 
 
 specially by the French in the time of Louis XIV. 
 Arabesques lose their character when applied to large ob- 
 
 isher are they appropriate where gravity of style is 
 required. 
 A'RABLE. (Lat. arare, to plough.) Land fit to be 
 
 iDto a state of tillage, or ofaration, 
 A'RABOTEDE'SCO. (Ital. arabo, and tedescho, Ger- 
 noan.) In Painting and Sculpture, a style of art composed 
 of Moorish, Roman, and German-Gothic. 
 
 ARA'^EJE, or AROIDEiE. (Arum, one of the genera.) 
 Acrid Endogens, with the flowers arranged upon a spadix, 
 I within a spathe. In hot countries they some- 
 times become arborescent; in many cold countries they 
 are unknown. Most commonly they arise from a fleshy 
 
 Hind tuber, from which an eatable frecula is pro- 
 cured by washing away the acrid matter. Their flowers 
 
 ost destitute of floral envelopes; the sexes are 
 mostly placed in different flowers, and their embryo has a 
 slit on one side. Caladium seguinum, the dumb cane of 
 thfi West Indies, derives its name from its juice paralysing 
 the muscles of the mouth, if chewed ; nevertheless, the 
 
 • 'certain c.aladiums are eaten by the negroes like 
 spinach, but they are too acrid for an European palate. 
 ARA'CHNOID. (Gr. dpaxi'1, a Sjrider, and ti$os,farm.) 
 
 like. It is an Anatomical term, applied to the 
 
 the vitreous humour of the eye, and to the thin 
 
 sic placed between the dura and pia mater of the 
 ! rain. 
 
 AH ACIINI'DANS, ARACHNIDA. (Gr. dpaxvi, aspider.) 
 \ class of Apterous, spider-like Condylopes, having the 
 head confluent with the chest, and the body, consequent- 
 ly, c insisting of but two segments, with eight legs, smooth 
 
 70 
 
 ARBORESCENT. 
 
 eyes, and the sexual orifices situated on the thorax, or an 
 terior part of the abdomen. 
 
 ARjEO'STYLOS. (Gr. dpaio;, vide, and <rrt>Xof, a col- 
 umn.) In Architecture, that style of building in which the 
 distance between the columns used is four and sometimes 
 rive diameters; the former, however, is the distance to 
 which the term is strictly applied. It is only suited to the 
 Tuscan order. 
 
 AROEOSY'STYLOS. (Gr. dpaios, wide, cvv, with, and 
 oruXoc,o column.) In Architecture that style of building in 
 which four columns are placed in a space equal to eight 
 diameters and a half. In this arrangement the central in- 
 tercolumniation is equal to three diameters and a half, ani 
 the others on each side only half a diameter, by which 
 coupled columns are introduced. 
 I ARALIA'CEJE. (Aralia, one of the genera.) An order 
 of Exogens, differing in little from the Apiaceous or umbel- 
 liferous plants, except in having more than two parts in 
 their fruit. They are commoner in hot than in cold lati- 
 tudes, and form an unexpected transition from Apiacese to 
 Vitaceee. The only state of them in Europe is the diminu- 
 tive Adoxa moschatellina. 
 
 ARANEFDANS. ARANE'IDJE. fjLat aranea, aspider.) 
 A tribe of the Pulmonary order of Arachnidans, with a co- 
 riaceous integument; modified antenna?, or chelicers, con- 
 sisting of a single joint armed widi a claw, perforated nenr 
 the apex for the transmission of venom ; breathing by pul- 
 monary ones, which are either two or four in number, with 
 the abdomen pedicellate, and the arms provided with four 
 or six spinnarets. 
 
 ARANEO'SUS. (Lat. aranea, a spider.) Covered with 
 hairs crossing each other like the rays in a spider's web. 
 
 A'RAR. The Barbary name of Inula articulator the 
 tree whose wood is chiefly used by the Mahometans of Af- 
 rica for the construction of their mosques, and whose resin 
 is the sandarach of commerce. 
 
 ARA'TION. Agr. Lands are said to be in a state of 
 aradon, when they are under tillage. 
 
 ARA'TOR. Agr. Literally a ploughman, hut common 
 ly applied to an arable farmer. 
 
 ARATJC*/RIA. (Araucanons, a tribe of Indians in the 
 southern pasts of Chili.) Fir trees with very rigid branches, 
 having leaves like scales, either small and sharp pointed, or 
 stiff, spreading, and lanceolate. The cones consist of leaves 
 something like those of the stem, only longer, and con- 
 taining large seeds. Two species occur in South America, 
 and two in New-Holland. 
 
 A'RBALEST. (Lat. arcubalista, a cross-bow.) This 
 weapon is supposed to have been introduced into European 
 armies by the crusaders, although used lorn: before in the 
 chase (in England as early as the reign of Willi. ■ 
 Conqueror). The arrows used with the cross-bow were 
 short and thick (quarrels, bolts). The weapon was ui 
 the English armies after the reign of Richard 1. ; but the 
 Italians, and especially the Genoese, were most expert in 
 the use of it atone time. A large force of G u 
 bow men served in the French army at Cressy, where their 
 weapon was found very inadequate to match the English 
 long-bow. Yet so deadly a weapon was it at on 
 sidered, that papal hulls were issued in the twelfth century, 
 condemning and forbidding its use in combats Dei 
 Christians. It was disused in England, as a weapon of 
 war, in the reign of Henry VIII. Cross-bows were of 
 several sizes : the large or stirrup cross-bow was bent by 
 the foot 
 
 A'RBITRARY. (Lat. arbitro, I judge.) In a general 
 sense, means that which is not defined by any rule or law, 
 but is left to the sole judgment and discretion of son e one 
 individual or body of individuals. It is commonly used in 
 political discussions to designate despotical or irresponsible 
 power. (See Despotism.) 
 
 ARBITRATION. In Law, the investigation before an 
 unofficial person of the matters in difference between con- 
 tending parties. His judgment is called an award. The 
 reference to him may be made, whether loyal proceedings 
 concerning the question referred have hern instituted 01 
 not. The reference is made by writing under seal or 
 otherwise, and even by parole agreements, but in this latter 
 case the submission cannot, as in the others, 
 rule of court. (&cAward.) 
 
 A'RBOR. The principal spindle or axis which col 
 nicates motion to the other parts of a machine. 
 
 ARBOR DIANiE. r lTie tree of silver, that metal having 
 been called Diana by old chemists; it is trade by putting 
 quicksilver into a solution of nitrate of silver, which cai 
 the separation of the silver in a beautiful arborescent and 
 crystalline form. 
 
 ARBO'REOUS. Woody, or -Trowing on wood. Herba- 
 ceous plants, the stems of which take a ligneous character, 
 are called suffrutescent, or arboreous, according to th 
 gree of woodiness which they exhibit. Plants which grow 
 on trees are also called arboreous, such as the arbor! oua 
 lichens, arboreous mosses, arboreous fungi, A-c. 
 
 ARBORE'SCENT. Stems of plants which are at first 
 
ARBORETUM, 
 and afterwards become somewhat woody and 
 
 ARBORETUM. In Gardening', a place in a park or 
 
 irden or nursery, in which 
 
 of trees and shrubs, one ot" each kind, is cul- 
 
 I lere ought to be sufficient room 
 
 md variety to attain something like its 
 
 hape; though, from the limited 
 
 i collections of trees and shrubs in gar- 
 
 . ■ most 
 
 Europe, so I its the 
 
 the London Horticultural 
 
 1 : Ion's Arboretum llnianni- 
 
 ( the Trees and Shrubs of 
 
 ARBORICI 'I.TDRE. (Lat arbor, a tren, and c 
 
 art of ml Ii and shrubs. 
 
 i for timber or ornamental pur- 
 
 iwn for their 
 
 under horticulture, and is some- 
 
 The origin of arboricultui 
 
 popu- 
 
 country, it would bi 
 
 ids in order to 
 
 of the field and garden. After 
 
 f wood, both 
 
 ind, and then 
 
 ■ artificial plantations, or arbori- 
 
 mgb the Greeks and 
 
 -■ their 
 
 ii and the poplar, for supports to their 
 
 for the purpo 
 
 ■ there is no instance on record of thetr 
 
 . a view of culting them down 
 
 imposes they 
 
 : -. to the management of 
 
 ntion. In Bril 
 
 Vnl. ; and 
 
 ;.. which was 
 
 ,( was finally to remain. 
 
 nation of artificial plantations has 
 
 ■ especially during the hitter end 
 
 ling of the present century, when 
 ly limited by 
 demand for timber 
 for ship-building. The discovery of coal mines, and more 
 I tcility of working them after the 
 invent!, im-engine, by providing fuel exr: 
 
 ly oi >. idered the necessity of preserving natu- 
 
 ral w. rming artificial plantations, lew in Bri- 
 
 t.tin than in any oilier country in the world. In i 
 
 ■ Is no other country in which so small 
 1 with forests ; the woods 
 ry-where planted and maintained for 
 purposes. On the continent of Europ 
 
 Umber was little 
 
 known before the time of Louis XIV., though the natural 
 
 i "I" France and Germany were appropriated, 
 
 irved, for many generations before) At 
 
 ice of the continental na- 
 
 hii2 almost entirely on wood for their fuel, the 
 
 ■ i the natural forests, and the formation of artificial 
 
 plan! in important part of the duties of go- 
 
 I i North America, in the oldest rultl 
 
 country, the formation of artificial plantations 
 
 is barely commencing, while in the back settlements, or 
 
 i, the felling and clearing of timber is only now 
 
 takine p 
 
 f Arboriculture depends on a knowledge 
 nature of trees, of the dhf i calibration, 
 
 ! in the ails. 
 
 in. -hides nursery culture : viz. propasation by 
 
 . grafting, £cc.,and raising In beds 
 
 and rows; transplanting, pruning, thinning, and. finally, 
 
 felling, and the wccession of kinds. The nursery culture 
 
 is carried on in limited spots, called nursery grounds, or 
 
 doners or turnery men; and the 
 other operations in woods, groves, rows, hedgerows, 
 ler holts, <fec, by foresters, woodmen, 
 or bed 
 
 ARBD'8TIIM. The classical name for an -.rchard, hop- 
 yard. • 
 A'RISUTUS. (Arbutus. Lat. : ar, rnush, and boise, bush, 
 •ording to Dr. Theis.) A genus of evergreen 
 onical pallid flowers and a bullet-like succulent 
 gh externally, and containing numerous 
 .all hardy, are known in 
 • common of which Is Arbutus unedo, 
 utiful A. andrachne. 
 7' 
 
 ARCH. 
 
 ARC. In Geometry, a portion of a circle or other curve 
 line. The arc of a circle is the measure of the .m^le form- 
 ed by two straight lines drawn from its extremit'es to fhe 
 
 A'RCA. The name of a LinruBan genus o the Vermes 
 Testacca, characterised by a bivalve and eqti val 
 having numeron iate teeth at the bin 
 
 i. us is placed a 
 
 iranchiate molluscs, and is raised to the rank of a 
 family (Arrui/ti). subdivided into the subgenera Area, 
 . and Nucula, 
 ARCA'DE. (,1'r.) In Architecture, a series of arches 
 crowned with a roof or ceiling, with a walk oi 
 thereunder. The piers of arcades may be decorated with 
 columns, pilasters, niche;, and apertures of dtfTereni 
 
 themselves are turned so 
 with rock-worked and rith plain ru I 
 
 stones or voussoirs, or with a moulded archivolt, springing 
 from an impost or platband, and sometimes,— though that 
 is not to be recommended, — from columns. The key. 
 
 rally carved in the form of a cot 
 sculptured with some device. Scamozzi made the siy.e ol 
 his piers leas, and varied his Imposts and archivolts in pro- 
 portion to the delicacy of the orders he employed, bui 
 made bis piers always of the same proportion. 
 AKCVM M ftat. a secret.) A term often applied to 
 lions by the old philosophers. 
 i red oxide of mercury, obtained by the 
 Lrcanom corallanum; sulplnite of 
 
 ARCE'STHIDA. (<;r. dpx^"{, a juniper berry.) A 
 ticculeht, and 
 
 gether into a (I 
 
 ARCH 1 1. ■■;. ; ■■■ ii ■ . ' ■• ■' '""). In Building, a structure of 
 stones or bricks, or distinct blocks of any hard 
 
 '..■■like form, and supporting one another 
 by their mutual pressure, in describing arch< 
 
 technical terms are made use of, which it will be convenl 
 ent to deb f is formed by the v< 
 
 or stones cut into the shape of a truncated w 
 
 ■ of which at 
 
 Tliu 
 r planes, 
 in whicti 
 jacent I 
 are united, .ire 
 called thi 
 
 ry, A K and 1! F 
 against « 
 extremltl 
 
 : or rest. 
 
 
 t i 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 A ™ X N V 1 ' j 
 
 B 
 
 b 
 
 are ,-alled lie- abutments ; and the line from which 
 I A a B /'. the impost The lower lit ' 
 
 the intrados or soffit; the upper line, the 
 extrados or back. The beginning of the arch i-- • 
 spring of the arch : the middle, the crown ; the parts be- 
 ipring and the crown, the Bunches. The dis- 
 I ini •■ A 1! I" I ween the upper extremities i 
 the sprint, is called the span, and C D is the 
 
 height of the arch. 
 
 There is considerable difficulty in determining the form 
 which an arch oughl to have, in order thai I 
 be the grei . when it sustains a load il 
 
 to Its own weight; iii lact, the determination i 
 accurately made, unless we know not only the ' 
 the materials the arch has to support, but 
 in wbtcb the pressure is connected ; thai is to say, unless 
 we know the amount and direction of the pre 
 every point of the arch. Supposing, however, that the 
 arch has to sustain only its own wi 
 further, that the friction of the arch-sum. s Is rei 
 nothing, a relation between the curve and the wcl 
 
 may be found by comparing the pressures which 
 ted on the different joints. Thus the pre 
 
 any joint. ,v 7 for example, arises from the weight of that 
 
 portion of the arch wl i n a q and fhi 
 
 C H. Now, the portion of the arch C q a 11 is 
 by three fores: the pressure on the joint a q, the pressure 
 onCH.and Its own weight, Letsg be prolonged till it 
 D in O. and hi n be its Intersection with A B. It 
 thai when a body is held iii equili- 
 brium by three forces balancing each other, these forces 
 are proportional to the three sides of a triangle forn ed by 
 
 i iv perpendicular to the direction 
 forces. The three forces sustaining C 7 s II are. I 
 proportional to the sides of the triangle O l> n: for the 
 pressure on s 7 acts in the direction perpendicular to*'i 
 or o 11 ■. the pre- rare on C II is perpendicular to !> (> - an<l 
 n I) is perpendicular to the direction of gravity. 1 
 sure on a o is, therefore, to the pressure on C H as n i> U 
 D O. In like manner, the voussoSr p r 7 a being so shapei 
 that rp, when produced, meets O II in the point Oi If. 
 
ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 /)iess';re on the joint rp is to that on C H, as m D to D O. 
 Hence, the pressure on a q is to the pressure on r pas 
 Dre to Dm. We are thus led to infer that the voussoirs 
 ought to increase in length, from the key-stone to the 
 piers, proportionally to the lines D n, Dm, &c. ; for in this 
 case, the surfaces of the joints being increased in propor- 
 tion to the pressure they sustain, the pressure on every 
 point of the arch will be equal. It will also be observed that 
 the angle n O D is equal to the angle made by a tangent, to 
 the curt e at q, and the horizontal line parallel to A B ; the 
 angle m O 1) equal to that made by the tangent, at jo ami the 
 horizontal line ; and the radius D O remaining constant, D n 
 is the tangent of the point of these angles, and D m of the 
 second; hence the pressures on the successive joints are 
 proportional to the differences of the tangents of the arches 
 reckoned from the crown. From this property, when the 
 intrados is a circle given in position, and the depth of the 
 key-stone is given, the curve of the extrados may be found. 
 When the weights of the voussoirs are all equal, the arch 
 of equilibration is a catenarian curve, or a curve having the 
 form which a tlexible chain of uniform thickness would as- 
 sume if hanging freely, the extremities being suspended 
 fiom fixed points. 
 
 Such is the form which theory shows to be the best adap- 
 ted to give strength to an arch, on the supposition that there 
 is no superincumbent pressure. But it seldom if ever hap- 
 pens that this is the case, and therefore it is entirely unne- 
 cessary, in the actual construction of an arch, to adhere 
 closely to the form determined on the above supposition. 
 Indeed, on account of the friction of the materials and the 
 adhesion of the cement, the form of the arch, within cer- 
 tain limits, is quite immaterial, for the deviation from the 
 form of equilibration must be very considerable before any 
 danger can arise from the slipping of the arch-stones. The 
 Roman arches, which have resisted the attacks of time for 
 so many centuries, are generally in the form of a semicir- 
 cle. For bridges, it is better to employ a smaller segment 
 of a circle ; frequently the elliptic arch is preferred, on ac- 
 count of the beauty of its form. 
 
 It has not been satisfactorily ascertained in what country 
 arches were ljrst erected. They do not occur in any of the 
 buildings of the Egyptians that can unquestionably be re- 
 ferred to an ancient date; and if they were not altogether 
 unknown to the Greeks before the period of the Roman 
 conquest, their principal uses appear to have been very lit- 
 tle understood. They do not appear ever to have been 
 employed in roofing the temples, or to have formed a part 
 of oman ental architecture. By the Romans, however, 
 the advantages of the arch were well understood at a very 
 remote period. The Cloaca Maxima, which is an arched 
 structure, is referred, with the greatest probability, to the 
 ige of the Tarquins ; the arched dome is supposed* to have 
 originated with the Etruscans, and to have been employed 
 for the convenience of the augurs, affording them a shelter 
 from the weather, and permitting them at the same time to 
 have a view of the whole range of the horizon. In the mag- 
 nificent buildings erected under the empire the arch is of 
 frtquent occurrenca; and it was by the Romans that it 
 was first applied to Its most useful purposes, namely, the 
 construction of bridges and aqueducts. The Romans, 
 however, appear to have given little attention to the graces 
 of form in the erection of their arches, for they seldom de- 
 viated from the semicircle. It was in the middle ages that 
 the pointed or Gothic arch was introduced, when Christians 
 and Saracens vied with each other in giving beauty lo their 
 public buildings, by multiplying and combining arches in 
 all possible maimers. The associated architects of those 
 ages, says Dr. Robison (Ency. Brit. art. Arch), having 
 studied this branch of Ihe art of building with so much at- 
 tention, were able to erect the most magnificent buildings 
 with materials which a Greek or Roman architect could 
 nave made little or no use of. There is infinitely more sci- 
 entific skill displayed in a Gothic cathedral than in all the 
 uildinss of Greece and Rome ; indeed, these last exhibit 
 ery little knowledge of the mutual balance of arches, and 
 re full of gross blunders in this respect ; nor could they 
 ive resisted the shock of time so long, had they not been 
 .most solid masses of stone, with no more cavity than was 
 idispensably necessary. It is somewhat remarkable that 
 lose architects do not appear ever to have studied or paid 
 jy regard to the theory of equilibrated arches. The form 
 which they adopted was strong, and capable of resisting 
 considerable inequalities of pressure, and hence the dura- 
 bility of their constructions. For further particulars on 
 this subject, see Bridge. Dome. 
 
 ARCILFO'I.OGY. (Gr. dpx al °i- ancient, and \oyof, a 
 description ) The science or study of Antiquities, and chief- 
 ly, in ordinary language, of those minor branches of anti- 
 quities which are discarded from the contents of genera] 
 history; ,1-; genealogies, national architecture, manners, cus- 
 iiirl similar subjects. 
 ARC H.F/US. (Gr. lipxi. principle.) A term used by the. 
 old chemists and physicians to imply the occult cause of 
 certain phenomena. Van Helmont ami Siahl ascribe certain 
 72 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 vital functions to the influence and superintendence of a 
 spiritus archajus. 
 
 A'RCHAISM. (Gr. dpxaio;, ancient.) In Rhetoiic ana 
 Literature, the use of an obsolete expression or phrase 
 giving an air of antiquity to the passage in which it occurs. 
 
 ARCHA'NGELS. A superior order oi angels. The 
 term occurs once in Scripture, being applied by St. Jude lo 
 Michael. 
 
 ARCHBl'SHOP, or METROPOLITAN. The primate of 
 a province containing several dioceses. The term first 
 came into use in the fourth century, and was then consider- 
 ed superior to that of metropolitan, and equivalent to pain- 
 arch, or bishop of an imperial diocese, such as Rome, Con 
 stantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage. 
 
 ARCHDE'ACON. An Ecclesiastical olncer, ranking 
 next to the bishop. As deacons were originally attendants 
 upon the bishop, so the archdeacon was one selected 1101. ■ 
 among the deacons of several dioceses. liis functions vvi-i e 
 confined to attending upon and assisdi.g the bishop in this 
 discharge of his spiritual duties and the management ui 
 his diocese, and had at first no jurisdiction. There are now 
 more archdeacons than one in each diocese, the whole 
 number in England being sixiy ; and they are en ployed by 
 their bishops in visiting the clergy ol the diocese, and in 
 the dispatch of other matters relating to die episcopal 
 superintendence. 
 
 ARCH-DUKE. A title originally assumed by various 
 dukes, but in the sequel appropriated to those of the house 
 of Austria by the Emperor Frederic 111. in Moo. It is now 
 strictly confined to the younger sous of an Emperor of 
 Austria. 
 
 A'RCIIER. (From the Latin arcus, a buw.) A bow-man) 
 one who uses a bow. The use of the bow 111 war 11, ay be 
 traced to the earliest antiquity, and to the history of almost 
 every people. The exact time when the English long-bow 
 began to be used in war is not exactly ascertained ; tiie 
 Normans brought with them the arbalest or cross-bow ; but 
 from the reign of Edward 11., the long-how, the favourite na 
 tional weapon, seems lo have been fully established. When 
 fire-arms began to come into use, various attempts were 
 unsuccessfully made, by statute and proclamation, to pre- 
 vent this ancient weapon becoming obsolete. In France the 
 officers who attended the lieutenant oi police were . before 
 the Revolution, always called archers, although provided 
 »vith carbines. Artillery is a French tern , originally sig- 
 nifying archery, and the' London artillery con pan) were a 
 fraternity of bow-men. (See Hansard's Book ol Archery.) 
 
 A'RCHETYI'E. (Gr. apxtrviros, from dpxii origin, and 
 TVTros,type.) The original 01 that which is represented in 
 a picture or statue; and, figuratively, die reality which is 
 shadowed out in propheciesor mysteries. Thus, in The- 
 ology, the death of our Saviour is said to lie the archetype 
 of the Jewish sacrifices, which were instituted as types of 
 that event. (See Type.) 
 
 A'RCHIL. (A corruption of orseille, French.) A kind 
 of purple dye obtained from the lichens, called Hoi 
 tuna and fudformis. It is chiefly procured in the Ca- 
 naries. 
 
 ARCHIMANDRITE. A title of the Greek church, equi- 
 valent to abbot ; the word inandia signifying a monastery 
 in the language of the Lower En pire. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE (Gr. dpxi, >■■ .ran-, ar- 
 
 tificer.) The art of Building, according to certain propor- 
 tions and rules determined and regulated by nature and 
 taste. Architecture becomes an art at that period only in 
 the history of nations when they have readied a certain 
 degree of civilisation, of opulence, and of luxury. In an 
 earlier state, it can only be reckoned an ong the trades or 
 occupations necessary to the wants ol mankind ; its appli- 
 cation is then very limited, its use little more than furnish- 
 ing man with shelter from the waters of the heavens, and 
 protection from the inclement vicissitudes oi the seasons 
 At its birth, however, it assumes a character in all countries 
 which in the sequel stamps it with such remarkable and 
 distinguishing features, that in the summit of its grandeur 
 the traces of its early origin are still discernible. Notwith- 
 standing the interval of so many ages from its origin, we 
 may even trace the general form ol architecture to three 
 distinct states of the human race, which necessarily inllu- 
 enced the nature of the habitations suitable to each, and 
 which ultimately became standard models of the art 
 
 People whose dependence fur their SUBt 
 hunting the beasts of the field, as well as those w 
 on the produce of the waters, from the natural i 
 induced by those occupations and the little industry called 
 for in such courses of life, would not be at an early period 
 led to the construction of dwellings. They availed them- 
 selves of the natural caverns of the rock, or at nest hol- 
 lowed them out, for shelter and protection. 
 
 Nations occupied in a pastoral life, through alarj 
 of the year, obliged, for the sake 0! 
 quenlly to change their abode, and thus lend a w 
 life, would find the most suitable dwelling one wit 
 could remove with themselves ; hence the use of tetns 
 
ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Agriculture, which requires continued and active indus- 
 try o:i i induced man to exert his 
 l and durable 
 
 ueces- 
 with iis sloping roof was the off- 
 
 . to be understood that in every country 
 ;le principle, since among 
 
 :n relation to I 
 
 will be found to enter into 
 
 nl of the habits of the 
 
 filiation and 
 
 will these in 
 
 I ou the first named. In 
 
 mankind thai 
 
 inking peculiarities which prevent 
 
 ne people with that of an- 
 
 had a 
 
 try the great leading forma spring 
 
 ■ for the original types of this art 
 
 ins exclusively, have 
 
 coun- 
 
 ofthem, such as the famous car of Dionjaius, 
 
 n the quarries that 
 
 mrhoods. By the help of 
 
 ice with tlie habits of the nation, 
 
 ' mode of life, only, 
 
 utecture. By 
 
 ellingS lias existed 
 
 i to the 
 racier of their 
 'ves of 
 this at a later 
 a may be traced to 
 lear that lite types of the n 
 BTerenl origin. The same passion 
 ippears in pat the di- 
 
 es, would seem to have led 
 parts appear to hav< 
 imitation of any system of carpentry; I 
 
 :, the short and massive propor- 
 ipitals, and thi irongh- 
 
 type i.)i- their Inven 
 In t : ■ remarkable Indlca- 
 
 on. M. de Pauw justly oh 
 
 ■^ which served as 
 modi ' I" them the 
 
 ■ in character 
 
 i.ibils of the Chinese, who, like all the 
 
 lita, encamping with their 
 
 they gathered into cities. Their cities 
 
 i he appearance of a vast encamp- 
 
 extent of them seems to indicate an in- 
 
 aolidi" i cm that will not allow of a number of 
 
 thcr. 
 
 i, which has been universally as- 
 hi or type of all styles of architecture, 
 
 aid not have been that of C 
 ii it unquestionably was that of <■ 
 arch;' . working upon this, transferred to 
 
 hi assemblage of carpentry, a construc- 
 tion w i!i to the members of the orders of ar- 
 ire to this day the ornaments of our 
 bulldii tj le, be it remembered, belongs to a na- 
 occupation is agriculture. In pursuing 
 
 ations only will be needed 
 ito the earth for the purpose of bearing a 
 er, were the origin of the insula) 
 CO of a temple, an 1 
 
 i the art. As the trees were 
 In d bottom than the top, so were the columns 
 
 diminishe I in thickness as they pise. Scaniozzl lm 
 that the mouldings at the bases and capitals of colut 
 their origin in cinctures of iron, to prevent the splitting of 
 the t: . think that the use of'the 
 
 form i from the dampness of the 
 
 earth, and thereby prevent rot. The architrave or chief 
 beam origin. It was the great beam placed hori- 
 
 . df the columns, and destined to i 
 the .: entire building The joists of the ceil- 
 
 space in height which they 
 frieze, the ends of the joists in the 
 tame of triglyphs.frora theii 
 with two whole and two half glyphs or chan- 
 llie ends of them are sculptur. 
 
 posite order of the Coliseum at 
 
 te trigiyphs was for 
 el from a passage in the Iphigenia 
 P 
 
 • the temple. 
 ifterwards filled up solid: and in the other or- 
 73 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 ders, the whole length of the frieze becomes one plain sur 
 face. The inclined rafters of the roof formed a projecture 
 beyond the face of the building, which delivered the rain 
 free of lh<j walls. The ends of these rafters are the origin 
 of intitules and modillions, the former whereol 
 in the cornice with their undersides inclined, as In the Par- 
 thenon at Athens. The form of the pediment followed from 
 the inclined sides of the roof, which were regulated in rc- 
 
 thelr inclination by the nature of the climate. 
 (See art. Koop.) Here, then, in the skeleton of the hut, 
 may he traced the origin of the different members of ar- 
 
 . which will be better understood by reference to 
 the subjoined diagram. Figs. 1 and 2 exhibit the parts of a 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 roof in section and elevation : a a are the architraves, oi 
 • niece, or columen ; e the king post, or 
 
 corami <t d the liebeam, or transtrum ; e the 
 
 strut, or capreolus; //the rafters, or "?g 
 
 its ; h h the common 
 It has i :, ut with leas probability, that the 
 
 main si 
 
 from each other than the strength oi il would 
 
 safely admit, inclined strul 
 
 lumna or supports to the un brave, 
 
 to lessen its bearing, and that tin -t notion Of 
 
 the use of arches in architecture. The subject has 
 pursued into many more details, on which our limits do not 
 permit us t<> enter. 
 
 difficult, perhaps now impossil exact 
 
 period of the invention of BTChitei hue m Gl 
 
 . mid is the result of the la- 
 bours of many. In the time of Homer, 
 r.ctseem to have been in so forward astute as lo>havebeer. 
 
 i to principles and "fa fixed nature. 
 
 architi s with him t 
 
 tee than the form; and well selected and pol 
 
 . more- than line proportion 
 ! merit of the palace of Alcinoiis. 
 
 Tli' i 1 , doubtless the earliest of th i 
 
 mains without testimony which can satisfactorily a 
 us of the period "t its Invention, i 
 
 proof thai it was invented by Dorus, the 
 Helen, and king of Achaiaand Pelopon 
 ble it might have acquired its name Rom having been used 
 
 celebrated tempi.- which tli.it prince bu 
 honoui 
 
 from the use of ii by the Dorians, it obtained introduction 
 i u i,, thi ece. Cerium, however, it is that 
 
 in the time of Alexander the Great tie' three original oi 
 of architecture had been brought ■ Moral as 
 
 -. physical causes had contributed to bring the 
 ' oerty, love of country, and ambition, ha 1 i 
 
 . the common cenrr nd art Tl 
 
 of the Persians at Marathon, with other victoi 
 
 to the country. In the period preceding tie' 
 in war, there was a general burst of talent in 
 avrrr.-. in it the chisel of Phidias was employed ; pi 
 phy, eloquence, the military art, the art- andscienc 
 conspired to give' the epoch lustre. It was in this age that 
 the Gre i need the rebuilding 
 
 edifices that hud been destroyed in the Vermin war. build- 
 ings whose ruins had hmn carefully presei 
 for i lie express purpose of keeping alivi an seoi 
 
 r thai constantly m< :i • : > nation, it 
 
 the flight ol 
 Xerxes, and the victory of Themi 
 restoration of their monuments wa- - 
 
 city of Athens rebuilt ; a city whose hi be Ci il- 
 
 ls M. Quatremere de Quincy has well , 
 as so many trophies of the victory at Salamls. 1 
 the epoch of a pure and grand style of ari 
 
 art generally. The sculpture ol thai period is 
 marked by the same character of purity, sublin Ity, and 
 grandeur; and the Elgin marbles, fortunately now pos- 
 sessed by England, exhibit a perfection v 
 been approached by modern art, and which we 
 
 It was in this age thai the 
 
 temple of Minerva, known by the name ol the Parthenon 
 
 preserved her virginity pure ami in 
 
 a building which displays, perhaps, 
 
 model of the Doric order. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 The Ionic order seems, at this period, to have likewise 
 received the finishing touches of that grace and elegance 
 whereof it was susceptible. This order, passing from 
 Greece to Asia .Minor, seems, in that enervating climate, to 
 have acquired elegance and finish at the expense almost 
 of solidity. Whether we are indebted for its invention to 
 the people whose name it bears, is of little importance. 
 Upon the relation of Vitruvius no dependence can be placed. 
 At. the period, however, of the erection of the temple of 
 Minerva Polias at Athens, which was about the time we 
 have alluded to' it seems to have been brought to a state of 
 perfection that leaves us nothing to desire. The capitals 
 of this example are splendid specimens of decorated 
 architecture. 
 
 By a substitution of acanthus leaves for the olive, laurel, 
 and lotus leaves of the Egyptian capital, Callimachus is 
 said to have invented the Corinthian capital, the feature 
 which distinguishes the Corinthian from the Ionic order. 
 Tiie tale seems an idle one ; but though almost threadbare, 
 we cannot omit it, and will give it in the words of the au- 
 thor who has recorded it. ''A Corinthian virgin, of mar- 
 riageable years, fell a victim to a violent disorder. After 
 her interment, her nurse, collecting in a basket those arti- 
 cles to which she had shown a partiality when alive, car- 
 ried them to her tomb, and placed a tile on the basket, for 
 the longer preservation of its contents. The basket was 
 accidentally placed on the root of an acanthus plant, which, 
 pressed by the weight, shot forth, towards spring, its stems 
 and large foliage, and in the course of its growth reached 
 the angles of the tile, and thus formed volutes at the ex- 
 tremities. Callimachus, who for his great ingenuity and 
 taste was called Catatechnos by the Athenians, happening 
 at this time to pass by the tomb, observed the basket, and 
 the delicacy of the foliage which surrounded it. Pleased 
 with the form and novelty of the combination, he con- 
 structed, from the hint thus afforded, columns of this spe- 
 cies in the country about Corinth, and arranged its pro- 
 portions, determining their proper measure by perfect 
 rules." 
 
 The annexed diagram gives a repre- 
 sentation of the circumstance, as usual- 
 ly found in architectural works: the 
 reader, however, is at liberty to make 
 nis own representation of it, which will 
 most probably be as near the truth as 
 that here given. 
 
 But few ancient examples of the 
 Corinthian order are extant of so ear- 
 ly a date as the age of Alexander. Its 
 delicacy and slenderness render it very susceptible of the 
 ravages of time ; and it has been suggested, that the value 
 of the material of which the columns and capitals of this or- 
 der were made, excited the cupidity of the Romans to re- 
 move them. 
 
 The general opinion runs, that architecture, as well as 
 the other arts, was carried into Etruria by the Pelasgi, at 
 which period Doric was the only order in use in Greece, 
 and was the only one, moreover, as far as can be judged 
 of, adopted by the Pelasgi. But they chamred its character, 
 stripping it of triglyphs, and adding to it a base. — The Ro- 
 mans, who borrowed their earliest architecture from the 
 Etruscans, adopted, under the name of Tuscan, this Doric 
 order, thus cheated of its fair proportions, which is in truth 
 but a species of Doric. 
 
 Rome appears to have been indebted to the people of 
 Etruria for its earliest work of any note. It has always 
 been supposed, that to an Etruscan architect was confided 
 the construction of the immense sewer which drained the 
 city, and in which might be discerned a presage of its fu- 
 ture grandeur, The undecorated and simple art of Etru- 
 ria suited the roughness and austerity of a warlike and 
 then needy people. The art of architecture was long ne- 
 glected among them. Their temples and palaces for a 
 long period were protected from the seasons by a covering 
 of nothing more than clay and straw. Marble and slavery 
 entered Rome together, under the reign of Augustus. Ef- 
 feminacy had been induced by the riches of the known 
 world which centered in the city, whose inhabitants did 
 not apprehend that slavery would follow in the train of the 
 arts which were bound to" the triumphal chariot. 
 
 Augustus, sensible that the only mode of tranquillising 
 the people, when liberty was no more, would be by intro- 
 ducing the pleasures and luxuries attendant on the arts, 
 exerted himself most zealously for their prosperity: his 
 conduct on this point is sufficiently exemplified in the 
 boast attributed to him, "That lie found the city built of 
 - and left it constructed with marble." Livy compli- 
 :-; the founder or restorer of temples, "Tem- 
 plorutn omnium conditorem aut restitutorem." His pa- 
 iw the most skilful Grecian artists to Rome, 
 which now became the capital of the arts, and architecture 
 reached all the perfection it could there attain. It was un- 
 der Augustus that Vitruvius wrote his work on architec- 
 tuie, tin; only ancient text-book on the art that has reached 
 71 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 us. It has been of late the fashion to decry the utility of 
 this author. Those that have done so know little of the 
 art. Though in matters relating to the history of architec- 
 ture, our author deals somewhat in fable, the n ore im- 
 portant parts of his work are invaluable ; and if one of the 
 most profound architects that ever existed could dignify 
 Vitruvius with the title of " our old master," it ill becomes 
 the small fry of the present age to carp at him. Un- 
 der Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, the Pantheon was 
 raised; one of the most magnificent examples of Roman 
 grandeur. Amongst other superb structures he introduced 
 baths, and constructed a considerable number i 
 temples, <tc. Under the successors of Augustus, the pub- 
 lie buildings of the nation continued to increase ; but the 
 art began to degenerate in the reigns of Tiberius. Caligula, 
 and Claudius. It could not be expected, that it would re- 
 vive under such a personage as Nero, who deprived tin. 
 finest statues of their heads to substitute his own portrait 
 on their shoulders. He was, however, a great eneourager 
 of buildings on a highly decorated and colossal scale; wit- 
 ness the Domus Aurea, built for him by Severus and (.Ylcr, 
 in which, from all accounts, richness and luxury them- 
 selves were exhausted. The wisdom and greatness of 
 character of the emperor Trajan were infused into the 
 buildings of his reign. The triumphal arches, but especi- 
 ally his column and forum, incontestably prove the rise of 
 the art under his auspices, at which time his architect, 
 Apollodorus, who raised the column to his memory, was 
 highly patronised. Hadrian and the Antonines wen 
 much devoted to the art, in which the former himself prac- 
 tised. Marcus Aurelius was so attached to the arts, that 
 he became a pupil of Diognetus. Antoninus Pius, at an- 
 cient Lanuvium, built a country house, - :-l the 
 present day astonish by their extent : as an index to its 
 magnificence, it may be mentioned that a cock for regula- 
 ting the supply of water, of the weight of forty pounds, and 
 formed of silver, has been extracted from its ruins. The 
 art, however, was then in its decline, and soon after d 
 peared under his successors. The arch of Septimus Beve- 
 rus is an extraordinary falling off from what it had been ; 
 and it is difficult, in such a short period, namely, since the 
 reign of Marcus Aurelius. to cone ;\ e ho 
 ture, more especially, could have become so del 
 The details of what is called the goldsmiths' arch indicate 
 the decay of good taste ; its profiles are bad, and the orna- 
 ments overloaded. 
 
 For a short time archil ecture was prevented from en- 
 tirely sinking, by the fostering hand of Alexander Severus; 
 but the fall of the western empire completed its ruin : it is, 
 however, from the reign of Gallienus, whose arch proves 
 to what a state it was reduced, that we must reckon the 
 total extinction of the arts. Architecture was indeed mast 
 likely to have survived the general wreck, and perhaps 
 was not completely involved in the universal ruin. In an 
 ace when no sculptor existed, the baths erected by Dio- 
 cletian exhibited a grandeur manifest even in their stu- 
 pendous remains; it seems, however, that a bad 
 must have reigned in the design of them, inasmuch 
 as we learn from history, so overloaded with ornaments 
 was the edifice, that during the public games a great num- 
 ber of spectators lost their lives by the fall of some of the 
 flowers from the ceilings and entablatures. Diocletian's 
 palace at Sjpalatro is another proof of the enormous efforts 
 made by that emperor, and of what the art could then do. 
 About the same time, or in the time of Aurelian, were 
 erected the extensive buildings in Coelosyria, at Balbec, 
 and Palmyra; viciousas they are in taste, one is astonished 
 at the vastness of the plans, the boldness of the undertak- 
 ing, and the funds lavished on their construction. There 
 is nothing more instructive to a student on the rise, pro- 
 gress, and decline of Roman art, because the eye can al- 
 most cover it at one glance, than an examination of a series 
 of Roman coins; and it is recommended, as likely to 
 make an impression on the mind much stronger than the 
 most elaborate treatises on the subject 
 
 Though architecture, from various causes, was destined 
 to survive the other arts, its protracted existence could not 
 extend beyond the period of the removal of the se 
 empire to Byzantium. The endeavours of Constantine to 
 erect his city in' o a metropolis that should rival Rome, 
 which he spoiled of its treasures, were vain ; all his efforts 
 to embellish it with the most splendid n onuments only 
 proved how ineffectual are the attempts of kings to subject 
 the arts to their power. That which Constantine left be- 
 hind him in the eternal city and the rest of Italy, fell a prey 
 to the unrestrained fury of the Visigoths. The edifices 
 which they afterwards reconstructed were from fragments 
 of those they had destroyed ; but their Ignoran 
 fulness of the stations and proportions in which they had 
 originally been used, induced a sad confusion of thi 
 ferent members— entablatures Inverted, and other grotes- 
 que arrangements, were to he seen in their buildings. Tin' 
 vast number of columns which the ruins supplied was 
 as piers for arcades, from which originated, beyond doubt. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 ! nil, after its passage through 
 ■ i tuncy attributes 
 ol the arch springing from columns 
 of the builders of the pen 
 
 • mode of connecting the different 
 ive; but it ser: probable 
 
 knew the mode of conn ■ 
 
 mi under- 
 
 . s cither that of 
 
 ig. From this 
 
 . late period, all 
 
 lost ; and 
 
 iTiie of Gothic, which 
 
 occurs a con 
 
 all is dark on tile subject, 
 
 ■ 
 
 . Ught ap- 
 
 b nrma the 
 
 • 
 
 :i Of St. 
 
 century ; 
 
 I 
 . 
 
 in the art. In 
 the church of 
 
 i lolti : this building is lined 
 and the roof is borne 
 The coin- 
 to explore the 
 
 i the an 
 
 
 
 ■be tliat 
 
 I i lie suc- 
 n of it wa^. consequently, 
 
 ■ ailed, or cam- 
 ! iii the 
 
 irch of the VI 
 I 
 the fir by Fucio, both 
 
 untryman and co- 
 
 I work 
 
 i his hand. v The church, 
 Trinita, is his finest 
 Mill encomium to say thai I 
 
 i trotti. 
 Croce, and di 
 
 • poch seemed to be 
 
 gaged i the church of Santa Maria For 
 
 niarblc 
 
 • church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, 
 
 executed by Marchione: every 
 
 of pure art I 
 
 :ver, of coo : confined to 
 
 Qothle style, — one, 
 
 if its monumen's, of stupendous gran- 
 
 lo the 
 the thirteenth and 
 ■ 
 . < of Irwin Steinbeck. The (bur- 
 la i in Prance and Engl tnd some 
 
 l'i Italy architecture \va uiug to a perfect re- 
 
 i n of the Nicholas whom we have 
 
 s employed by his townsmen i 
 , lis public cen 
 is remarkahle for the elegant simplicity of its 
 Meanly of il la a singular link of 
 
 history of this art : there is no difficulty in tUs- 
 [gle in the mind of 
 
 o hang 
 mi immediate return to thi 
 
 red in 
 ntury. The trouble.! throo 
 
 o which title he has a just 
 By a diligent investigation of the 
 
 . with the scale and compasses in 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 his hand, he succeeded in reviving the ancient rules of art, 
 the just use of the order.--, ami was himself the first to 
 pplication of his «.J i .-- . , well 
 
 how to unite theory with practice, anil from a pro- 
 found Miimenis of antiquil 
 
 m- principles of sound construction, without which 
 all other knowledge In archttectu 
 
 cathedral <u Florence, begun in the Gothic style Of 
 Arnolpho, w I hi to finish, whicn 
 
 with a boldness worthy his genius. Be sur- 
 mounted the church with the tambour dome, which 
 h projected by the oi 
 
 a phantom of the imagi- 
 i 1 1 lan a subject Gar reality. We have not room 
 
 i c ;r- 
 
 rving ihe project i . ; the facility with whlet 
 
 I his object marks him as an artist, in 
 that age, of surprising resources and ability, 
 
 ol Santa Maria de' 
 • I for some of the grand*- 
 •d to liie art : it was the su 
 
 . and i.s still the astonishment of 
 which 
 surrounded. The school formed bj BruneUi 
 spread by means of his dl props.- 
 
 the art in that revived state, which acquired I 
 (lightened protectors In the Medlcis, U 
 Milan, and many nobles of Italy, who opened ' 
 
 the' n 
 
 tion I 
 
 ordinary wi 
 pen of i'ran 
 uphill Ilypn 
 
 i Bessarioo and other 
 
 v tle-ir labotll 
 is to the architect, in which 
 
 I 
 
 nt family of thi i lorence, 
 
 lious as Uriimlli-sclii I, 
 
 i elegance 
 ■ii ; and his work oi 
 period which could be put In - 
 
 v . jlruvius, whose obscurity In 
 
 [ so accurate an i with the 
 
 led to its 
 
 Mitle to desire on thi 
 itecture. 
 hat Albert! 
 
 of the art appi 
 
 "I ■■ Po 
 
 ed in folio bj ! 
 This book la now extremely rare ; it la replete with 
 some of great beauty, from wood blocks, and in it i: 
 thor, in a su; ■ sound pn C 
 
 noble ideas, and principles valuable to the amateur ami ar- 
 chitect to the arti-i 
 which ' ■ as that of Vltruvl- 
 us. In Dl in it ol' pyramids, mail- 
 solea, . ies, clrci, amphitbeal •-, and 
 le more Impression at the time 
 te dry doctrines of Vitrnvioa, and Italy 
 i the poetic dreams of the author. In the period of a 
 the cities of Italy were 
 with 1 1 
 
 Julio Romano, San ' ■ 
 
 Micheli, Bansovino, Serlio, Plrro Ligorio, Vlgnola, l'alladio, 
 of Others whose names are an 
 honour to their country. 
 
 It was hue before' pure art reached In it 
 
 the father of architecture, and we, fortunate- 
 ly, still posse bis beautiful designs. H 
 scarcely be said to have completely en 
 from the trammels of the d . as it 
 
 if Charles i., which 
 :i of the arts in that country. From 
 ich school of art hi;.- 
 has exhibited and still exhibits a very I of ex. 
 
 cellenc perhaps be fairly o hold- 
 
 ing the highest rank in the present day. 
 
 Architectckb, Chinese. As a description of the build- 
 ings ol China would be out of place in a work of this na- 
 ture, the subject of the present article i.s confined to 
 neral view or the pr i baraeter, and 
 
 ie architecture. To describe its general forms, for 
 
 of identifying them, is unnecesary ; they arc 
 
 illy known. 
 
 Wlien we reflect on the limits to which in Chinalhe artsi i 
 
 imitation havi period been confim 
 
 to thee ,:ir " 
 
 ut in thai activity of mind which conducts other mi- 
 
 tionsbydegre Ion. In China the rise of the arts 
 
 ol me- 
 chanical drudgery and servitude in which the people are re- 
 stricted. In their painting, for i exact 
 imitation of plants, fruits, and trees, is thought mdispen- 
 
ARCHITECTURE, CHINESE. 
 
 ftmfele. A Chines* painter would think it necessary to count 
 the scales between the head and tail of a carp he was about 
 to represent; in other words, lie is more of a naturalist 
 than an artist. In China, every matter relating to building 
 is the subject of regulation by the police, which, rather than 
 theory, governs its architecture. The laws of the empire 
 detail and enforce with the greatest precision the mode of 
 constructing a lou or palace lor a prince of the first, second, 
 or third rank, of a grandee, of a mandarin, &c. A man, 
 unless he hold some office, who acquires a fortune by his 
 own exertions, is not allowed to build a house above his 
 rank in society ; his condition has nothing to do with it. 
 According to the ancient law of the kingdom, the numberand 
 height of the apartments, the length and height of a build- 
 ing, are all regulated with precision, from the plain citizen 
 to the mandarin, and from the latter up to the emperor him- 
 self. Herein alone we have sufficient to account for the 
 poverty and want of invention in Chinese art. 
 
 In speaking of the principles of Chinese architecture, the 
 word is not applicable in the same way as when we speak 
 of classic architecture, but is meant to apply to those pri- 
 mitive causes which gave birth to it. Character and taste 
 n every species of architecture are the necessary results 
 of these elements. M. de Pauw has well described it, in 
 respect of its principles and elements. It is impossible, he 
 says, to be mistaken in the objects which were the models 
 of imitation of their first buildings : they are imitations of 
 tents, and that is in consonance with all our knowledge of 
 the priu, hive state of the Chinese, who were, like all the 
 Tartar tribes, nomadic. This, beyond doubt, is the true 
 origin of their dwellings. However the missionaries of Pe- 
 kin may have refuted M. de Pauw upon some inaccura- 
 cies, there can be little hesitation in agreeing with him on 
 this head. One of its strongest proofs is the form of the 
 Chinese roof. Nothing but the form of a tent or pavilion 
 could have given the idea of it ; and though carpentry was 
 for a long period made subservient to this form, reasoning 
 from the progress of all inventions, it would be impossible 
 to believe, where carpentry supplied the architecture, 
 it should all at once have adopted combinations and cover- 
 ings so light and at the same time so complex. There is 
 another point of analogy with the tent construction, which 
 is, that there is nothing like the appearance of a member 
 of wood, similar to our architrave, destined to lie on the 
 tops of the columns, and receive and support the remain- 
 der of the carpentry. The Chinese roofs, on the contrary, 
 jut out beyond the columns, whose upper extremity is 
 hidden by the eaves: hence the omission of the use of 
 capitals. It is easy to perceive that extreme lightness must 
 result from the imitation whereof we are speaking. The 
 spirit and character of tents carried into the construction 
 of cities might, at least in reality, be lost and altered by a 
 change of materials. The semblance of lightness might 
 be found in union with essential solidity of construction; 
 the character would have been intellectually the same. 
 Here, however, identity of material has contributed to the 
 identity of the copy with the original. The Greeks, whose 
 model was carpentry, copied in, as it were, a figurative 
 manner, and the change from wood to stone soon removed 
 the appearance of weakness and lightness that was found 
 in the model. In China the material remains the same, 
 ind its architecture of wood still copies the model of wood ; 
 hence, the lightness of the original is transferred to the 
 copy. 
 
 Lightness is the essential character of Chinese archi- 
 teclure; but there is another characteristic quality, both 
 of the model and the copy, that is observable in the edifi- 
 ces of China, which is its gayness of appearance. In this 
 respect scarcely any style presents a more pleasing effect. 
 Its roofs, single and double, brilliantly painted, its gaily 
 diapered porticos, the gloss over the whole surface, the 
 harmony of this species of decoration, with the light and 
 flowing forms of the buildings themselves, produce a sense 
 of pleasure to eyes constantly accustomed to their con- 
 templation, which would doubtless be disgusted with our 
 cold and monotonous mode of decoration. 
 
 It is particularly in ornament and decoration that we are 
 accustomed to investigate tasle, which is the result of a 
 combination of all the physical and moral causes that in- 
 fluence art. Yet, as every thing in architecture is connected 
 by a sort of mutual relationship, it is difficult to fix the 
 exact proportion that exists between construction and de- 
 coration, and especially in Chinese architecture. In speak- 
 ing of ornament in architecture, one naturally recurs to 
 sculpture for the purpose; but this is not found in Chinese 
 architecture. With the Chinese, ornament consists in 
 varnishing columns, colouring roofs, coating walls with 
 sun, and the like expedients. Tin figures painted 
 on their buildings are connected with tneir religion, and 
 the merit of the art is secondary. The ail of ornament- 
 ing in China is a sort of patchwork, yet the parts of Chi- 
 nese architecture are in unity with each other. A foreign 
 style could never be made to amalgamate with it ; it has 
 been developed in a mode conformable to the wants of the 
 7fi 
 
 country, and its duration for such a number of ages leads 
 us to conclude that it will not lightly be abandoned by the 
 people that have adopted it. 
 
 Architecture, Egyptian. The preservation of the 
 Egyptian monuments of architecture, in many instances 
 so perfect as they still appear, is highly calculated to excite 
 our surprise and admiration, inasmuch as ancient Egyp. 
 ceased to exist in its splendour long before the period of 
 the earliest histories that have come down to us. Almost, 
 as it were, separated from the rest of the world, h. 
 of sand as well as water, and bordering on the mosl savage 
 tribes, it seems indebted to those circumstances lor the 
 protection its edifices have received. Had the country 
 received as successors to its early inhabitants a powerful 
 people, if rich and industrious cities had risen on the sites 
 of the old ones, the temples of Egypt would don 
 have been used as quarries admirably suited to the pur 
 pose. Arabian hordes, and the almost barbarous and 
 wretched inhabitants of the present day, have indeed built 
 their villages on some of the ancient sites. The terraces 
 of some of the temples serve as floors to modern habita- 
 tions ; and. at Thebes, a town of two stories, or rather two 
 stories of towns built on the ceilings of these everlasting 
 ruins, indicate that the means of destruction have not been 
 equal to the natural resistance of works of such solidity. 
 No people ever existed whose whole feelings were so much 
 a passion for ever-enduring monuments. Religion, a genius 
 formed by that religion, government, habits, clin ate, n ate- 
 rials, all united to confer on their buildings a durability as 
 great as the power of man can confer ; and the efforts re- 
 sulting from such causes were successful. 
 
 In a preceding article we have adverted to the three 
 classes of mankind, whose different wants had an influence 
 on their styles of architecture. It is not a forced suppo- 
 sition that the primitive inhabitants of Egypt used tile ex- 
 cavations with which nature furnished them for protection 
 against the heat of a sultry climate. As the inhabitants of 
 Tyre, Sidon, and Palestine were indebted to their forests 
 of cedar for becoming great workers in wood, so the 
 Egyptians, from their earliest mode of life, from their 
 quarries and the facility they acquired in hollowing them 
 out, gained that aptitude for working stone, and that high 
 degree of perfection, so manifest in their works. It is true 
 that their country is not the only one in which excavations 
 abound; but in most other places these excavations have 
 been caused by working them as quarries, and no trace r.j 
 architecture or human abode can be perceived in thefii. 
 In Egypt, on the contrary, where the caverns still fui 
 dwellings for the inhabitants, immemorial custom 1 
 signed them to the use of mankind. The immense sub- 
 terraneous apartments of Egypt must not be placed to tint 
 account of luxury in sepulture. Herodotus tells us. thai 
 the priests would not allow him to visit the subterri 
 apartments of the labyrinth in which they dwelt, and whii I 
 were considered the most beautiful. Now, if this spi 
 of dwelling was used in the refined times of Egypt, a 
 fortiori would it have been so in the earlier ages. Through- 
 out Egyptian architecture its origin appears. A simplicity 
 bordering on monotony; extreme solidity, amounting to 
 heaviness; are its principal characters. There is entire 
 absence of every thing that can be traced to a type of car- 
 pentry, as in the Grecian orders ; hence it appears certain, 
 that at least its type was different, and that type was cavern 
 excavation. The exception that seems to arise fro: 
 use of columns does not militate against the theory; for 
 decoration invariably refers to nature for objects of imita- 
 tion ; and nothing would sooner occur in decorating pillars 
 in every style than the imitation of trees and plants, with- 
 out referring to them as a type. 
 
 The honours of sepulture, seem to have been the cause 
 of the most stupendous of the Egyptian monuments. Dio 
 dorus Siculus tells us, that the kings of Egypt expei 
 sums upon their tombs more immense than other kings 
 did upon their palaces. They were of opinion, he ob- 
 serves, that the frailty of the body during life was no! 
 worthy of a substantial and solid abode. They consim 
 a palace like an inn, which is occupied by many in succes- 
 sion, and in which one stops but for a day. Their toj 
 however, they considered as the real palace in which 
 abode was to be perpetual; hence, they spared no e.\i 
 in rendering them worthy of such an ob 
 supposed that the pyramids were but immense cenof: 
 and that the bodies of the kings were interred In 
 neighbouring subterranean spot ; in short. 
 massesof stone were erected to D 
 which the body occupied. This, however, would not 
 them the less monuments of sepulture. Son 
 tributed to the pyramids a mystic, others an a 
 purpose. 
 
 From Egypt were derived the principal mysl 
 passed into "other religions, and it was in the darl 
 Subterranean apartments that those initia 
 which secrecy was the first law. Secrecy 
 under the figure of Harpocrates. According to I'm. 
 
ARCHITECTURE, EGYPTIAN. 
 
 (he sphinxes with which the entrances of their temples 
 lai Egyptian Mythology waa 
 
 The' Dumbei 
 i, prevented 1 1 1 - - temple itself 
 (re ii. This, which none were allowei 
 
 ■ | animal or 
 
 ;• s lleries, porticos, 
 
 area which the 
 
 - their temples, a 
 nity is observable in 
 -.. their general forms, ami 
 
 ,i of the 
 h ia sub- 
 to be sy- 
 
 ot all : 
 
 uunymoua xrlth iti math, height with grandeur, and size or 
 if plan ia universal. The 
 
 ri'.'hl Ii 
 
 circular monument in this 
 irmity is still more sink- 
 ing, no ■. Ii woul.l 
 ive for judging of art, were no 
 itry. Uniformity of 
 i llie institu- 
 of the country : the edifices were destined to r< 
 
 in symbolic characters, and were not 
 allowed to be left in that respect to the caprice of the ar- 
 
 ls for building which the country 
 
 aflbrd concisely as possible. Though 
 
 il the deserts of Lybia, and near 
 
 : indeed the soil ia 
 
 growth of trees. The most common 
 
 sption 
 
 Egypt lire unfit for 
 
 The oak does not -row in Egypt, and 
 
 ints import thai from A.ra 
 
 Ibe fir which they use in their buildings. Brick seems to 
 
 unbun t?ly dried in tl ck says ilia 
 
 . which is of a black 
 
 nixed with flints and shells. One of the 
 
 I by Pocock, was constructed with this 
 
 ! by any cement Bricks, 
 
 ; after undergoing the heat of the fire at 
 
 e learn from Scripture, Exod. ▼. 
 
 1 x'litas condemned to the labour of 
 
 -without straw to burn them. Stone of al- 
 
 llon, marbles, and granite, were to be had 
 
 and these, as we have before observed, the 
 
 is were very expert in working. 
 
 ction there must have been considerable me- 
 ebanical knowledge employed, for so - neof the blocks of 
 if enormous dimensions; and to form an Idea 
 of Ibe quantity used, it is only necessary to mention that 
 the v. of their temples extend to the extraordi- 
 
 nary I twenty-four feet. Indeed, the walls to 
 
 the principal entrance of the cate at Thebes B 
 their base than fifty feet in thickness. The stones t 
 on the external face ; no re 
 work ther cause of thfl surprising dura- 
 
 bility The roofs are all formed of 
 
 shlgli tons from pier to pier; no trace of the 
 
 arch i discoverable. In the pyramids the pas- 
 
 are covered with stones inclined to each other, ter- 
 minating in n point, one stone lapping over the other. 
 
 The Egyptian temple, unlike that of the Greeks, which 
 may be almost all taken in at one view both interiorly and 
 exteriorly, consists of an of porticos, • 
 
 s, and other apartmei licating 
 
 with one another, each of which in size had little relation 
 to the res: of the edifice. They were usually in a spot 
 surrounded with walls ; and those which were not ■ 
 rounded were inclosed In front by a wall engaged to the 
 i dim In height about a half or a third of 
 /he shaft. Btrabo says that at the entrance oj ' 
 a lame paved court three or four times or even more of its 
 width in length, which the Greeks called the dromos. This 
 was ornamented with sphinxes in rows. Through the 
 dromos was the propvitim or fore portico ; thence to 
 another, and from that to a third, the number of them not 
 11 
 
 being fixed Beyond the propyls was situated the temple 
 itself (or naos), which consisted of two parts, the pronaos 
 or sanctuary, which in Egyp- 
 tian temphs was very small, and contained a figure of the 
 divinity, usually I under the form of sou e ani- 
 
 • din, eli- 
 sions; that of Jupiter at Thebes was more than 1400 fee' 
 100 feet wide, exclusive of the porticos that led tc 
 forms of all the plans are either square or rec- 
 tangular. The art of designing a plan in modern architec- 
 ture becomes difficult from the necessity of keeping the 
 uis within such bounds that they D 
 . and of arranging the decorations, and of counter- 
 poising thrusts; but the Egyptian architect had no such 
 ■ lolumns were brought to the 
 spot and covered at once with mas all com 
 
 billing Without much contrivance with the 
 
 dant use of columns in the Interior ol their 
 inly appears in their plans. The 
 
 .tly from its being suited to the form 
 ind on which it was built, is the only exception to 
 the observation. Their mtercolumoiations are narrow 
 rarely exceeding twice and a half the widt) 
 and usually not more than a diameter and a half. 1 
 ration is always uniform and monotonous, al way i 
 story, and without columns above columns. The pyrami- 
 dal 'form 
 
 i columns may be considered 
 
 , circular on the plan, and polygonal; the 
 
 Fer only among each other by their being sculp- 
 
 lies of rods or trunks, are 
 dill', rent heights with hands II 
 rally in two or three ranges of three, four, or I 
 This part of the arrangement seems to have been 
 hur.irv. The polygonal column frequently occurs, but 
 mora generally when the edifice has been formi I 
 rock or quarry. All the columns rise irom their bases in 
 right lines, diminishing to the top, without any appearance 
 Ulng. One can hardly say that any pre- 
 cise proportion is preserved between their height ana then 
 Qg them, Wfl can only say that they 
 were short, thick, and of enormous diameter, the latter in 
 some cases extending to as much as eleven feet Whal 
 are uinh-i -tors, are not found In Egyptian 
 
 buildings, though sot luadrangnlar columns miglil give 
 
 ting only in the small sepulchral 
 Of the gres I I are also rarely found; but 
 
 da of their columns exhibit great variety. In 
 general form they are either square, vase fori 
 
 some ofthem - antiy shaped 
 
 ill the lotus; the palm branch, and other kinds of 
 inally with the human head. They 
 are usually without abacus, and are connected to the archi- 
 l small die or square block out ol 
 
 I. The entablature rarely, if ever, 
 i an architrave surmounted by a huge 
 upward with a bead or fillet This 
 raa frequently ornamented with glyphs and other 
 and the wings of the vulture 
 ■re. The covering of the temple was a Hat ter- 
 no proofs, by the remains of steps 
 to ascend to it, thai it was so used. 
 Some years ago a question was proposed by the French 
 crtptions and Belles-Lettres, whether the 
 Greeks borrowed their architecture from Die Egyptians'; 
 thai question baa been well answered by M. QuatremSre 
 de Quincy, in the Encyc. Method., to whom we are indebt- 
 ed for much in this article, and the substance of his answer 
 is as follows :— There la no such thing as general human 
 architectu the wants of mankind must vary in 
 
 countries. T different 
 
 can approach each other is intel- 
 lectual : it is (hat oflmpressions which the quabtii 
 
 bunding art ai """" ,l,e 
 
 mind of every man, Of whatever country he • 
 Some of these' Impressions result from every spi 
 archtecture. Architecture sprung as well from the huts of 
 
 abterraneoua excavi 
 and the tents of Asia, and from several mixed principles 
 to us unknown: thus the use of the word architecture is 
 absurd. We ought to name the species; for bel\ 
 idea of architecture as a genus and as a species, there is 
 the same difference as between language and ton 
 
 rlgin of architecture, 
 a search would be after the primitive language. If so, the 
 hut of Vitruvius would not be an Ingenious fable, as some 
 I. but il would be a ridiculous falsehood il he had 
 d that il was the type of all architecture. \ ltru- 
 vtaa, however, spoke only of Grecian architecture : and it 
 in Egypt there exists another type, that only proves mat 
 the but was not the type of Egyptian art, but that It was 
 that of Greek art, and that theory would be fabulous which 
 pretended to be universal. We will conclude tins aiticU 
 
ARCHITECTURE, GOTHIC. 
 
 iy adding that similarity between certain forms of orna- 
 ment, certain details borrowed by the one from another, 
 proves nothing more than that between the people by 
 whom they were used there was some interchange of com- 
 merce or other intercourse, which could not long subsist 
 without some sort of necessary transfusion of the inven- 
 tions and habits of one of those countries into the habits, 
 maimers, and customs of Die other. 
 
 Architecture, Gothic. — To form a correct idea of the 
 Gothic style of architecture, it will be necessary to trace 
 its progress through one very different in its details, though 
 not exactly so in its plan and arrangements. Its type is of 
 a mixed character, and not, as we have seen in the two 
 foregoing articles, founded on the habits of a people. 
 Though a search into the origin of the pointed arch is an 
 idle and useless inquiry, it will be necessary in the end 
 to glance at that as incidental to the style under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 The ancient basilica, which derived its name from ba- 
 sileus, king, and oikos, house, was the part of the king's 
 palace in which justice was administered to the subjects. 
 The building for this purpose retained its name long after 
 the extinction of the kingly office, and was in use with the 
 Romans as well as with the Grecians. Vitruvius does not, 
 however, give us any specific difference between those 
 erected by one or the other of those people. He has (ch. 
 i. 1. 5.) given the details of its form and arrangement, and 
 we refer the reader to his work for the particulars of it. 
 The name was afterwards transferred to the first monu- 
 ments of Christian worship, not because, as some have 
 supposed, the first Christian en perors used the ancient ba- 
 silica; for the celebration of their religion, but more proba- 
 bly with reference to the idea of sovereignty which the re- 
 ligion exercised, though no assertion is here advanced that 
 such a conclusion is necessarily to be drawn. There is no 
 doubt that the most ancient Christian basilica? were con- 
 structed expressly for the purpose of that religion, and their 
 architectural details sufficiently point to the epoch in which 
 they were erected. Nevertheless these new temples of 
 religion, both in the whole and in the details, borrowed so 
 much of those of the ancient basilicas, that even on this 
 account it is not suprising that they should have retained 
 the name. A general notion of one may be formed 
 from the annexed diagram, which will immediately 
 
 glow how admirably it was suited to the reception of an 
 extremely numerous congregation. The numberless col- 
 umns .'. h were at hand, the remains and ruins of an- 
 cient edlflc -s, were put, in requisition for the construc- 
 tion of ti.esj basilica?, of which, adopting the former 
 buildings of -hat name as the type, they proportioned the 
 elevation to the extent of the plans, and in some cases 
 
 i it with the richest ornaments. Instead of con- 
 necting the columns together by architraves on their top, 
 which were not at hand as were the former, arches were 
 thrown over, not only to connect them, but that thereon 
 walls might be carried up to bear the roofing. On this 
 sort of substruction, vaults could not with safety have been 
 borne. From these the o'jvious and natural step was to 
 piers, connected by arches and ornamented with pilasters 
 or columns. The piers underwent a change by being made 
 circular on the plan ; these again, for the purpose of giving 
 the interior a lighter appearance, were made polystylic or 
 in ribs, and ultimately received a vaulting and cross vault- 
 ings in character with their plan below. Though the prac- 
 .icc of vaulting large areas, and the pointed arch, did not 
 appear till a considerable time after tho building of the first 
 Christian basilica?, it is to be observed that the Temple of 
 I'eace at Rome had previously to that period exhibited a 
 
 i of the profound knowledge of the Romans in the 
 of vaulting; in that example groined vaults of very 
 large dimensions were, borne on entablatures and columns. 
 Nor dies this knowledge appear to have been lost in al- 
 most the last stage of decline of Roman architecture under 
 the emperor Diocletian. In the baths of this emperor are 
 In be seen not only groined vaults in three divisions, whose 
 span is nearly seventy feet, but at the back of each springer a 
 buttress, precisely of the nature of a flying buttress, is con. 
 73 
 
 trived to counteract the thrusts of the vaulting. If a com- 
 parison be made between this large hall (now used as a 
 church), of the baths of Diocletian, with the nave of a 
 Gothic church, the difference will be found to be n ore such 
 as n, ust result from the nature and employment of the 
 materials, than from difference of style. From the age of 
 Constantino down to the ninth century, the edifices within 
 the limits of the Koman empire are but degraded speci- 
 mens of Roman architecture ; and there is no evidence 
 from their remains (few indeed they are) thai the Goths 
 and other barbarians who devastated Italy had any other 
 influence on the arts than hastening, perhaps, that fall from 
 which it would seem nothing could have We 
 
 quite coincide in the opinion of Mbller, who in the text 
 to his Deukmaehler der Dcutschen Baukunst says, " 1 can- 
 not possibly agree to the opinion of those connoisseurs 
 who ascribe an individual and peculiar style of architecture 
 to the Goths and Lombards in Italy and Spain, ti 
 Franks in Gaul, and to the Saxons in England." The Ro- 
 man architecture of the fifth and sixth centuries was the 
 model, and the constant correspondence from every part 
 with Rome kept up an influence from thence over the arts 
 and sciences. Fine pioportions were lost, and the art 
 completely degenerated into a servile imitation of earlier 
 forms. The art of construction and the preparation of ma- 
 terials did not, however, fall away from solid building. 
 The basement of the palace built, it is supposed, at Tcrra- 
 cina, by Theodoric, the Gothic, king, who reigned in Italy 
 from a. d. 493 to 525, is in the Roman style. So also is the 
 church of St. Apollinaris at Ravenna; and the circum- 
 stance mentioned by the writer above named, who up to 
 the period at which we are writing, D'Agincourt excepted. 
 is the only writer of any value on the sib ret. of tl 
 pioyment by Theodoric as architects of one Aloysii 
 architect called Daniel, isid the well known Boetms, a na- 
 tive and senator of Home, is a strong corroborative proof 
 that the edifices of tho Goths were built by Ron ans and in 
 the Roman style. Neither does it appear likely that upon 
 the irruption of the I.on bards in the year 568, idler the 
 sway of the Goths had lasted so long, they should have es- 
 tablished a style of their own. They were a rod.' | i 
 whereas the Goths, we know, had become quite a civilised 
 nation, whose style was suited to the wants and habits of 
 the country. It. is true that D'Agincourt ascribes to the 
 Lombards the church of St. Julian, near Bergamo, and some 
 others; but it has not been proved that the churches in 
 question were really erected by the Lon bards. The ap- 
 pellation of Lombardic to the style of church building 
 which existed in France and Germany stands on too slen- 
 der an assumption to be admitted ; indeed, it has been de- 
 monstrated by Maffei, Muratori, and Tiraboschi, that 
 neither the Goths nor the I.on bards introduced any style 
 in particular, but employed the architects whom they 
 in Italy. 
 
 9th to 18th century. /fterthe I£th i 
 
 The late learned Mr. Dallaway says, in his Discourses 
 upon Architecture in England, that "at the beginning of 
 the eighth century all Europe formed but one Gothic king- 
 dom ;" and it is certain that anterior to a. r>. 800, there are 
 very few Gothic remains. From that period to (hi 
 introduction and use of the pointed arch in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, the leading form of the churches was a paralli 
 consisting of a nave, side aisles, a transept on < 
 forming the arms of a cross, and beyond the inti 
 of the transept with the nave was placed a choir, terminated 
 by a semicircular added building called the apsis. The 
 whole of these buildings were constructed with very thick 
 walls, pierced with comparatively small openings. In the 
 vaulting of the nave and aisles, and over all windows am! 
 doors, the covering was semicircular. The i 
 and was mostly constructed with groins, 
 shows the general appearance of the arrangement. Th< 
 gables were not mue,h inclined, and in the upper pari of tin 
 building rows of small pillars appear in the walls. The pro 
 files of the different members are all of Roman origin 
 many are correctly copied in their forms. In En 
 deavours have bee'n n ade to subdivide this style into Saxot, 
 and Norman. The subdivision is useless. Speaking of ar- 
 chitecture as an art, they are of the same school, and the 
 style has been bv Moller called the Christian orRomaC 
 style; by others, the Romanesque style; either of which 
 are appellations suitable, and would sufficiently carry theij 
 meaning with them. 
 
ARCHITECTURE, GRECIAN. 
 
 r end of the twelfth century, and 
 
 ith, very considerable deviations 
 For lh" flat southern 
 led the high northern ruof, which brought with 
 
 lointed arch ircukr beinga 
 
 lary for the harmony oftlie parte a 
 
 evalion of the roof and vaulting 
 ider proportion of towers, columns, capitals, 
 Stc. , and at the latter end of thi 
 
 ids outwards. rted into a living buttress. 
 
 At tin i dificea were in several res] 
 
 re have a mixture of circular and : 
 vaults intersected by horizontal cornices 
 and ilie like. The duration of this heterogeneous style was 
 very limited, being immediately the univer- 
 
 sal prevalence of the high pitched cable and the pointed 
 arch. The plans of the edifices' were not materially 
 ept in the omission of the apsis, and a general 
 d of the whole by an inspection of the 
 B ng cut It appears incon- 
 
 I first to carry ibis 
 
 y as A. D. 124 
 i 'ipon'it.s present plan, a 
 finished, would have been the grandest 
 anil most beautiful in the world. Erwin von Steinbach, 
 
 It the porch of the minsterof Stra 
 
 a bni;^ rhaps, esteemed than the last, because 
 
 t completion. The style which 
 
 we have just been describing wants no other distinctive ap- 
 
 pellation than the pointed u seems after its es- 
 
 e been tortured to invent new coi 
 tions of ornaments and tracery. It overstepped si I 
 
 entury for the introduction and restoration of 
 ly speaking, Italian architecture. 
 
 tOOVe Quoted says that the architects of these 
 . and that their works are 
 the lime in which tbev lived : and that, how- 
 mo and Imitate these works, we are not able to 
 unt of the circumstances under 
 which the style arose not being the same. 
 
 construction exhibited in the 
 ich as to excite our admiration and as- 
 : the exact calculated proportion b> 
 
 counteraction of thrusts of vault- 
 
 quent lightness and boldness resulting 
 
 acquaintance 
 
 ■ riant and useful qualification which an 
 
 archil s namely, the production of the 
 
 effect with the most limited means. T;.i.s 
 qualification was possessed by the architects of the thir- 
 try in the high) nd to an extent <iuite 
 
 unknown to the id Ilomans. 
 
 The name Gothic, which has been given lo the styles of 
 archil has been ad- 
 
 !, very inappropriate. It is, however, now no 
 used in its application as a term of reproach. That the 
 In its invention or perfection is quite 
 . and, as Mr. D dtaway |ustlyi It Is nol worth 
 
 r annihilated 
 In Europe, or whether they subsisted ill the conquered 
 We subjoin an enumera- 
 tion of the different hypotheses upon Which endeavours 
 have I i account for the invention of the pointed 
 
 arch, l-i Wat-hurt on (notes to Pope) asserts that Gothic 
 architecture originated in Spain under Moorish architects ; 
 ng an avenue of lofty trees, the intersecting 
 branches at top forming the sharply pointed arch, and the 
 ■ lump of trees being represented by columns 
 split into distinct shafts. Warburton, however, not only 
 tc chronology in his hypothesis, but is 
 had made a similar re- 
 mark. 8pence (A Pope) puts in his claim be- 
 urton, and S.r Christopher Wren had a notion 
 that the invention belonced to 
 Thomas Warton. 2d. The hj 
 
 it far from satisfactory. He first assumes that 
 dish churches were made of wicker work, and 
 then Btatcs them to have been the prototypes of those built 
 Willi stone, furnishing, that is, the wicker work, from its 
 sprouts, the origin of every ornament or parti- 
 
 ■t was introduced. 3d. That it is founded upon the 
 f framing in wooden buildings. 4th. That of 
 Mr. Murphy, the editor of the a k on the con- 
 
 vent of Batalha, in Portugal. His reaso Hows: 
 
 The pyra : ids of the Egyptians are tombs; the de 
 buried in churches, and on their towers are pyramidal 
 forms ; consequently, the pyramids of the towers' indicate 
 that tl arches ; and as the pyrami- 
 
 dal form i e of the pointed arch style, 
 
 and the pyramid:' o are imitations of the Kiyp- 
 
 tian pyra?' ids, the pointed arch is derived from the latter. 
 We cannot reader can require any refutation 
 
 if such a set of syllogisms as this. 5th and last is that of 
 79 
 
 the late T)r. Milne r. who. whatever may be the opinion on 
 his theory of its origin, was well int'orn ed upon and Inti- 
 mately conversant with the general subject Dr. Milner 
 says that it arose from the imitation of pointed arches, gen- 
 ~-xr—>r~x — >c cnit(>1 ' by the intersection of semTclr- 
 /\/\f\/\ clcs, thus: There are, however, many 
 ( Y V V 1 reasons why this account is not 
 isl'actory. though it D USl 
 
 that in the Romanesque style this con binatlon is frequent- 
 ly to be found. Dr. Milner seems entirely in his hypothe- 
 sis to have lost sight of a circumstance that is 
 liar to every artist, namely, that it is a principle In all art 
 that the i ,ery style are subordinate to and do- 
 
 pendent on tl : how then 
 
 could it have been probable that the leading features of a 
 srj le so generally used should have had Its origin in an ac- 
 ntial decoration like that of the 
 learned doctor's theory. In short, none of the h\ pole 
 mentioned can be considered satisfactory : and. as Mbller 
 es, the solution of the question, whether the pointed 
 style belongs to one nation exclusively, is attended with 
 After all, the problem for solution is 
 
 • Invented the pointed arch, but in what way is its 
 prevalence in the thirteenth century to be accounted . 
 
 Arcuitecti-iii:, Grecian. — Grecian architecture, which 
 was transplanted after its perfection to an Italian soil, 
 where it assumed almost another form, will not require ar. 
 extended notice In this place. The particular detail of the 
 Changes it underwent will be found in the articles Doric, 
 
 nd CouiNTHiAN orders. The a] i| the 
 
 , adopted afterwards by the Unmans. I 
 with certain modifications, lone been !>. ui! of 
 
 I in * 
 the article Architecture, and an explanation of its terms 
 will tie found under their several beads In thW work. Wo 
 shall, however, present a cursory sketch of its rise and 
 
 us. about 1519 B. c. is reported lo have introduced 
 into Greece the wor Egyptian deities, and also 
 
 the practice of quarrying stone; to him also is attributed 
 the instruction ol tie- Creeks in the art offtising and Work- 
 [ng metals, from which period it is said the Greeks rapid- 
 ly advanced in civilisation. According to Pausanlaa, Die 
 Greeks at an early period had ral II iary 
 
 structures, such as the treasury of Minyas, king ofOrcho- 
 menus, and the walls of Tiryns, which that author de- 
 
 as a work worthy the admiration of every age. 
 From the Homeric writings we find that the form of go- 
 patriarchal, that the chief buildings were the 
 palaces of the princes, ami that the altar was tin? only 
 structure for sacred use, and that even this was little more 
 than a hearth, on wnich the victim was prepared for the 
 for, until after Homer's time, no regular pries I 
 
 m Greece. Il seems protable that the temple was 
 d until the kinglv and sacerdotal epa- 
 
 It would be difficult, perhaps now impossible, to 
 trace the decrees from the use oftlie simple altar to the es- 
 I the regular temple, or when the latter he. 
 came a necessary appendage to the religion of the country. 
 Eusebiuaand others have conjectured that the early tem- 
 ples were but stately monurj i in honour of the 
 primltl' o had conferred benefits on mankind. 
 i the Greeks, they sp] 
 mple in plan, and at an early ace consisted of two 
 , as was indeed the case with the dwellings of the 
 
 ntioned in the Scriptures. 
 Between the period commonly assigned to the sicee of 
 Troy to the I lolon and Plslfltratua, \ 
 
 ng the procre 
 (Origint de* Lois) says that Asia Minor was tl 
 which architecture was nursed, and thinks that to this 
 country we are indebted for the invention of the Doric and 
 Ionic orders. All authors seem to admit (hit the ( 
 thian did not appear till some time afterwards, and that it 
 had birth in the mother country, and not in the colonies. 
 Perhaps the earliest temple recorded is that of Jupiter, at 
 Olvmpia, which, according to Pausanias, must have been 
 built 630 years before the Christian era. If Livy be right, 
 that of Diana at Epliesus was of a period little less remote, 
 and at this time the science of mechanics was in its infan- 
 cy ; for even in thetime of Thucydides, though the powers 
 of the crane were known, they were not compendiously 
 applied for the purpose of raising weights. 
 
 nine that the system of imitation in the Doric order 
 was founded on the elementary forms and parts of the hut, 
 it was in that case guided by the principles that nature her- 
 self adopts in her operations, otherwise no bounds wouli 
 have limited the caprice and imagination of its Improvers. 
 In the copy, no part is precisely sin ilar to the model ; but 
 an analocv, and that very stronc, is observable. The pre- 
 
 i and parts of the Doric order. fnduTerenl examples, 
 plainly indicate that the Crecian artists considered them- 
 
 restricted only by general rules, inasmuch as «7e 
 find them varying the height of the Doric column from four 
 
ARCHITECTURE. INDIAN. 
 
 diameters to six and a half in height (see Doric Order), 
 while the height of the entablature varies in terms of the 
 diameter from 172 to 1'97. Lord Aberdeen, in his Inquiry 
 into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture, has 
 d that the height of the capital of this order, in 
 terms of the upper diameter of the shaft, will afford some 
 indication of the comparative antiquity of an example ; but 
 there is no ground for the suggestion, as the author of this 
 article has pointed out in a treatise on Grecian Architec- 
 ture prefixed lo his edition of Chambers' Civil Architecture. 
 Thetntercolun niations used in the Doric order at Prestum, 
 Corinth, and Segesta, and the Parthenon, are equal lo 
 about one diameter of the column. They are about a 
 quarter of a dia ■ at the Temple of Theseus, 
 
 whilst in an example at Syracuse they are somewhat less 
 than a diameter. 
 
 The age of Pericles exhibited almost all that art could he 
 imagined to accomplish; the Feloponnesians and their 
 colonies had erected the temples at Corinth, Nemea, Pa?s- 
 tam, Syracuse, and other places in Sicily : thus, in a space 
 of little more than three hundred years from its introduc- 
 tion, it appears that the art was raised to the summit of 
 perfection. It is probable that the Ionic order is not far 
 behind the Doric in antiquity. In the former, the different 
 examples exhibit a variety not less to be noticed than that 
 we have observed in the latter order. The height of the 
 Ionic column varies in the three examples of the temples 
 on the Ilyssus. Minerva Polias, and Erectheus, from eight 
 diameters and a quarter to nine and a half in height ; but 
 in the heights of the entablatures there is not so much va- 
 riance. The cornice of the Grecian Ionic may be consid- 
 ered as bearing a constant ratio to the whole height of the 
 entablature, as two to nine ; while the whole height of the 
 latter seeQjs nearly constant at two diameters in height. 
 This order received the addition of a base to it3 shaft, 
 which was wanting in the Doric order; but, for the varie- 
 ties, the reader will refer to that article in this work. The 
 volutes, which are its distinguishing features, are found 
 with many varieties. In the temple on the Uyssus, that of 
 Minerva Polias at Priene, and that of Apollo Didymffius, 
 the volute contains only one channel between the revolu- 
 tions of the spiral ; whereas in those of Erectheus and Min- 
 erva Polias, at Alliens, each volute has two distinct spirals 
 with channels between them. In the former of these two 
 the column tern' inates with an astragal and fillet, just be- 
 low the eye of the volute ; in that of Minerva Polias, with a 
 single fillet. In each, the neck of the capital is ornamented 
 wi "i honeysuckles. The shafts are usually cut with flutes 
 of an elliptical form, to the number of twenty-four. These 
 flutes vary from those of the Doric order, in their separa- 
 tion from each other, through the intervention of fillets. 
 
 The distinguishing feature of the Corinthian as of the 
 ionic order is the capital. In a preceding article the ele- 
 gant story by Vitruvius of its invention has been told, be- 
 cause that has been rendered almost sacred by tradition ; 
 but it must be observed, that long before the age of Calli- 
 niachus, its reputed inventor, perhaps even before capitals 
 or columns themselves were known to the Greeks, the 
 leaves of the palm tree, the flowers of the lotus, and even 
 volutes, were applied as ornaments to the capitals of 
 Egyptian architecture ; and, be it observed, the form of the 
 bell itself in no small degree resembles the contour of the 
 lotus flower. The Greek Corinthian and the Egyptian cap- 
 itals of this class, are more distinguishable by their re- 
 spective heights than by peculiarity of other features. The 
 former, however, has a lightness and elegance which the 
 Egyptian, perhaps from moral and political causes, never 
 attained ; hut if even a slight intercourse between the two 
 countries existed, there would appear considerable proof 
 of the identity of the primitive inventors. 
 
 Our knowledge of the Greek Corinthian order is unfor- 
 tunately circun scribed, from the destruction and decay to 
 which from its extreme delicacy it was exposed; never- 
 theless, under even these circumstances, the few examples 
 that remain induce ;> supposition that it was not in such 
 high estimation as those we have already named, inasmuch 
 as the only examples that have come down to us are those 
 of what is called the Tower of the Winds, and the Choragic 
 nt of Lysicrates, both at Athens. Put the former 
 of these is scarcely to be classed among examples of Co- 
 rinthian, and t lie latter (as we now understand the Corin- 
 thian order) is in some respectsalittle outre in the species. 
 In the Choragic Monument the height of the entablature is 
 somewhat less than a fifth of the total height of the order. 
 The base varies little from that of the Ionic order, except- 
 ing in the non-appearance of the horizontal fluting in the 
 upper torus. 
 
 To the orders enumerated may be added one scarcely to 
 be named here, because apparently under no rules which 
 regulated its proportions, namely, the figures called Carya- 
 tides, which were employed for the support of an entabla- 
 ture. For the supposed account of their origin, the reader 
 is referred to the article Caryatides. 
 
 The only subject remaining for notice, under this head, 
 SO' 
 
 is that of the roofs of the Grecian temples. Their roofs con 
 sisted, of course, of two inclined sides, which at the ends 
 formed a pediment. From experience it was soon found 
 that the angle at which the sides of a roof should i 
 ciined to the horizon, should be such as effectually to shel- 
 ter the interior of the building from the inclemencies of tl e 
 seasons. Hence greatly inclined roofs are indispensable in 
 northern climates: the reverse as the clin ate approaches 
 the equator: but this will be more fully explained undf 
 the article Roof. Here we shall merely si: 
 cording to the hypothesis, the inclination of tl i 
 roof should, for the latitude of Athens, be lfi 
 The actual inclination of the root of the ten pie of fur 
 theus is \5/i degrees, temple of Theseus 15 t 
 Parthenon 16 degrees, and thatof the Propylea 14.';. I 
 paring the law with. the Roman examples, the cliri ;i 
 would require^an inclination of the sides of the roof wit. 
 the horizon of 22 degrees, and the variation between thi 
 examples remaining is from 22 to 24 degrees. 
 
 The invention of the arch docs not at present appear t - 
 belong to Greek architecture. Itwasone of the most im 
 portant inventions in the history of architecture ; but s,. 
 disputed a point is not to be touched upon in a work of this 
 nature. We incline to the opinion that its invention does 
 not belong to the Greeks, fortius sin pie reason, that the/ 
 have left us no examples of it that have come to our know- 
 ledge. 
 
 Architecture, Indian. — It is very properly observed by 
 M. Quatremere de Quincy, that, in spite of all theories, an 
 infallible mode of estimating the state of the architecturs 
 and other arts of any people is by their representations of 
 the human form. Every people, he says, who during 8 
 number of ages have persevered in falsely representing th3 
 figure void of all proportion, and according to a certain bar- 
 barous and ignorant routine, must be convicted of a wan-, 
 of that sentiment which leads to a knowledge of truth, anc 
 of that intelligence which knows how to find in nature rules 
 for the choice of forms and arrangements applicable to thi 
 art of building. Every people who do not n anifest in their 
 works this conformity to nature must be ignorant of th? 
 arts of imitation, and all their productions n ust be the re- 
 sult of an irregular taste. These observations particular*' 
 apply to Indian architecture, whose exact antiquity is sti. 
 a problematical question. In a country abounding wit.- 
 deserted monuments, where are found the traces of an ar. 
 cient language now no longer spoken, books no longer un- 
 derstood, the vestiges of a religion whose creei 
 ries seem to have had some resemblance to 1 1 < 
 Greece, one is naturally led to surmise that civilisation ex 
 isted at a very early period. These opinions would Been 
 corroborated by the extraordinary chronologies which th- 
 modern Indians have produced as' incontestable authorities 
 for their remote antiquity. The chronology, however, o* 
 the Hindoos will not bear the test of strict Investigation , 
 neither has any inscription or historic n onument been dis- 
 covered, nor annals found, which give us an Idea of tl»; 
 changes, revolutions, or prosperity which the country maj 
 have experienced. It is, however, certain, that India has 
 been possessed and successively invaded by several peo- 
 ple, and that its creeds, as well as its religions allegories, 
 indicate such great diversity and mixture of opinions aj 
 might lead us into every species of error in matters of his- 
 torical research. 
 
 It is natural to suppose, that the subterraneous or exca- 
 vated monuments of India are prior in date to raised re- 
 constructed works ; and yet, in point of fact, there are in the 
 former neither less details, less caprice in form, nor less pro- 
 fusion of fantastic ornament, than in the latter. Hence ths 
 monuments themselves afford us no cine to their respec 
 live antiquities. M. Meiners contends that none of them 
 are more ancient than the vulgar era, whilst M. Lang] 
 critic of no ordinary sagacity, is of an opinion rather dif- 
 ferent, namely, that Indian art was brought fi 
 and that traces of such an importation are very disl 
 marked, as well as that Greek art is strongly indicated in 
 them. If, however, those monuments, whose date we have 
 good reason for believing is recent, exhibit the same 
 as that manifest in those monuments whose date is un- 
 known, we may fairly assume that the sane style of archi- 
 tecture existed in this country at a period preceding the 
 conquest of Alexander and the epoch in which this i 
 civilized country had intercourse with the Greet 
 Though we have no historical nor chronological guides lo 
 enlighten us on the subject of Indian architecture, il is to 
 be recollected that there is some analogy between Ida ir- 
 regular taste that prevailed in India, and that of the res! of 
 Asia. Southern India abounds with excavated item: n 
 of art; these are equally found in the centre as well a: 
 sides of the vast peninsula. Throughout the region nature 
 seems to have supplied the first associated inhabitants 
 with excavations, either ready formed or easily ci 
 the purposes wanted. It therefore appears probable that 
 the originating principal of the building art in India is found 
 in the subterranean dwelling; and as we line! constructed 
 
ARCHITECTURE, INDIAJN. 
 
 edifices so similar in proportion, forni, and details to those 
 lhal we, as ii were, quarried out, it is fair to conclude that 
 are the type of the latter, which are, Conse- 
 quently, )f a later date. 
 Con a term applicable to the 
 
 ber "i works of huli in arc hit ecu o 
 
 posed of divers materials, or of 
 
 her i" form a i e it cannot be 
 
 Alices 
 
 of India may be divided in land 
 
 towers improperly 
 f the unconstni ay be ranked 
 
 lipouram, whii 
 
 to the earth, 
 
 ■ ml cuatigu l were 
 
 cd exteriorly ■ • ■ with their 
 
 general form, partly pyramidally and partly by irregular 
 
 struct* ipparenl in thi 
 
 gularity in the plan 
 
 ■ i erior form to i inces are ex- 
 
 ■11 in the interior, being hollowed out of the 
 
 . and remind us of the monolythic temple* of Egypt, 
 
 which were cm out of immense blocks of granite, and as 
 
 :-.tus tells ii.-. i 
 
 In otln ambiance be- 
 
 : of India and Egypt ; ii is found in the excava- 
 . and iii working large natural masses of 
 id situation. But to Infer from this sim- 
 imunication between the 
 two nal too much;. hyiKitlictical 
 
 would it be to Infer yle in architecture, 
 
 i rily of practice ; for nothing is more unlike the 
 Egyptian than the Indian style of architecture ; and In the 
 end it will I except in the practice of excava- 
 
 ImUarily at all. The dimensions of the 
 liey have been called, compared with those of 
 .p'.lan pyran than tln-ir excavated tem- 
 
 • ii much overrated by travellers. Of the. latter, 
 the <!: illy hut moderate, and the diffi- 
 
 culty ition could not have been very con 
 
 ines to us be correct, the 
 ire hollowed out from quarries of calcareous - 
 and i. tie a scale, thai even 
 
 ted temple at Elephantaia only 130 feel long, IK) 
 feet wide, and hut 14 feet 6 Inches high. The operai 
 holli .. 'his sort can scarcely be dignified 
 
 with the name of art; but in the pagoda construction we 
 must admit some display Of that which at least approaches 
 
 it. Ti "■.in many Instances, of considerable 
 
 . bill to compare them with the pyramids of Egypt 
 
 is out of the question : these, the only buildinge of much 
 
 height, are pyramidal in general form. Sonnerat, vol. i. p. 
 
 ; some idea of them : he says, " Around the 
 
 ded temples the surrounding walls are thick 
 
 and much raised. On each side is a gate surmounted by 
 
 a pyramidal tower, with a curved mass of enormous size. 
 
 The tower is loaded with figures," ic. Air. If we may 
 
 trusi to the representation oi the pagoda of Chillambaram 
 
 by M. Durocberde la Perlgne, given by Caylus In the 31st 
 
 vol. of the Memoires do PAcadlmle, the pyramidal form 
 
 is therein strongly marked. In it the height of the whole 
 
 r. and at its base it is but SO feet wide. The 
 
 termination is not in a point, but is truncated at a height 
 
 Which makes the plan of iis summit about 36 feet wide. 
 
 Is unequal sided, the flanks being much nar- 
 rower than the faces. Hut the largest of these monuments is 
 thai described by Lord Valentia, namely, the pagoda ofTan- 
 jore, which he considersth lenoftnisspeciesof 
 
 building. This is -iDil feet high, placed on a basement of 40 
 it. The pyramidal mass rises by twelve setsoft", 
 or bands, sculptured in various ways. Buch san pies of ma- 
 mired no great display of constructive 
 skill for their execution, either in working or transport of 
 aterials. At Chillambaram, for i pvra- 
 
 tructed to the height of 30 feet only in 
 nry, the remainder being of brick. The mass is 
 1 with ornaments of stone and of a species of white 
 cement of the country. As in Egypt, none of the monu- 
 ments of this country exhibit any trace of the arch: the 
 coverings of the apartments arc all horizontal, and lhe«li- 
 ons ii, all are necessarily limited by the want of that 
 ;:ent which, in modern architecture, I 
 parent of the most stupendous monuments whereof art 
 ipable. The ceilings in Indian architecture are of 
 enormous blocks of stone, laid on the supports wherewith 
 the buildings are constructed, being the simplest and most 
 inartificial mode of contriving a covering to an apartment. 
 It must be apparent to every one, that the art of India was 
 many degrees below that of Egypt. Though, in the last- 
 named country, arl was limited by the habitsof the people, 
 yet n is equally certain that their knowledge in the use of 
 materials was of a high character, and that their skill in 
 masonry was carried to great perfection. 
 
 That which is known to the architect by the term onion- 
 nance, which means, in its most extended sense, the com- 
 position of a building and the due arrangement of Its se- 
 veral parts, and Which the (.neks and Romans practised 
 
 in their architecture with so much success, is no; percep 
 tible in Indian architecture, as far as we are acquainted 
 wilh it. It seems easy to account for this, for notwith- 
 standing some of the existing monuments have n 
 the name of palaces, there is little doubt of Iheir being ;■',' 
 destined originally for religious purposes. Hence the ar- 
 in ii io certain established routines, were no) 
 at liberty to exercise their invention and ingennii) 
 even hail they been so, the system of castes, in perpetua- 
 ting uniformity of practice, had a tendency Io repress them. 
 
 ce any system could !"■ conceived less likelj 
 dent in ordonnance than the use of so. 
 nean edifices, which admit of no variety of plan, no extern 
 of elevation, nor lead to any of those conceptions which 
 
 lie- taste of the architect generates when he has length, 
 immand. In the caves at 
 . a plan of the Indra Bobba whereof Is here sub- 
 joined, if we examine what may be called the columns 
 
 we find some of them hexagonal, without base, capital, w 
 ornament; some square, with a long cap, like carpentry. 
 The greater number are composed ol throe parts ; a square 
 pedestal, running op more than one half of the total height ; 
 a small portion of shaft, if we may so term it, crowned 
 with a capital of strange form, whereof words eannol give 
 any definite idea. The reader who Isd quoin 
 
 lance with the temples at Bllora, may advantageously reft i 
 to Daniel s p curious objects. Decoration -n 
 
 architecture, consists of large and small detai 
 
 ci-iv.- the name oi 
 
 columns and similar masses, hi the system of Indian de- 
 coration there is no trace of what maybe calli d sn order ; 
 but anions the larger masses of decorations for support, 
 sculptured elephants very frequently occur. In one of the 
 temples at EUora, for Instance, there are threi 
 building, on the same line, whoso bases are sculptured 
 wiih elephants, seen in face. I. ions are also much used as 
 
 ir decoration. 
 Prom information which Sir C. W. Mulct obtained, the 
 at EUora were said to be executed aboul t te 
 900, by Elloo, the rajah of EUichpour, who at thai period is 
 said to have founded Hie town : and the late Dr. lleber, 
 bishop of Calcutta, observing that no mention was made 
 of these excavations, even incidentally, in any Sanscrit 
 manuscript, and that the idols were tin e still 
 
 worshipped in India, dates them in the 13th century. Hut 
 all this is Conjecture, unsupported by any historical docu- 
 ment that entitles it to any weight, and a wide field is open 
 to the traveller and antiquary, in investigating these curious 
 ami fantastic monuments, as illustrative of the early history 
 of the art. 
 
 Architecture, Moorish or Saracenic. When the vic- 
 tories of the Arabians had extended their empire from 
 Constantinople to the confines of Spain, the magnanimity 
 of their leaders, and the brilliant talents of their caliphs, 
 raised the nation to a pitch of glory and power which ex- 
 hibited itself in some very extraordinary productions in 
 the architectural art. In Africa and in Spain, where iheir 
 empire became firmly established, the edifices they erect- 
 ed sufficiently prove with what success they cultivated the 
 arts and sciences. For the notice here (.oven of some of 
 the most extraordinary edifices for which Spain is indebted 
 to its ancient conquerors, we are assisted from the cele- 
 brated work by Murphy, published In 1816, to which th< 
 reader who seeks further Information may refer. 
 
 We do not, in the limited space of such an article as 
 this, think it necessary to extend any inquiry into the 
 earliest works of the Saracens, such as the original Mos- 
 que of Omar, built in 640. Neither of that nor other of 
 their works (few indeed in number) have we sufficient 
 historical evidence to compare them with the architecture 
 of the period in other 
 countries; but we pro- 
 ceed at once to that pe- 
 j riod when some of its 
 r most distinguishing fea- 
 \ hires were such arches 
 I as are here exhibited 
 
 
ARCHITECTURE, MOORISH— MEXICAN. 
 
 Tho mosque at Cordova was begun by Abdelrahmen, 
 the second king of Cordova, and finished by his son towards 
 the end of the eighth century. Its plan is a parallelogram 
 of 600 feet by 40 \ formed by an embattled wall with coun- 
 terfort : led ; the height of this wall varies from 
 35 to 60'feet, and Its thickness is 8 feet This large quad- 
 rangu livided internally into two parts; viz. a 
 court, 200 feet long by the length of the edifice, and the 
 If, which is about 400 feet square. The mosque 
 I ! of 19 naves, formed by 17 rows of columns, from 
 »outh to north, and 32 narrower naves, from east to west. 
 E ich of these naves is 16 feet wide, from north to south, 
 ■ ) feet long ; the width of them in the opposite direc- 
 tion i les Tims the intersection of the naves with each 
 Other produce 850 columns, which, added to the 52 columns 
 of the court, form a total of near a thousand columns. 
 Their diameter is about a foot and a half, and their mean 
 heighl aboul 15 feet, and they are crowned by capitals of a 
 Corinthian or composite species. These columns, which 
 have neither socle nor base, are surmounted by arches 
 from coin nn to column. The ceilings are of wood paint- 
 ed, each range forming on the outside a small roof, sepa- 
 rated from those adjoining by a gutter. One of the most 
 striking effects of the edifice is produced by the beautiful 
 marbles whereof the columns are composed. It seems 
 probable that the larger portion of these columns might 
 have been procured from the Roman ruins in the city; an 
 opinion which is strengthened by their being without bases, 
 or such as ill suited the style of the columns or capitals. 
 Ir. the commencement of the sixteenth century great 
 changes were made in this mosque, for the purpose of 
 converting it into a Christian church ; these, it is said, 
 mined the original effect, but enough is left to indicate what 
 it anciently must have been. It is always considered as 
 one of the earliest Moorish buildings in Spain. The de- 
 corations throughout are in stucco, painted of different 
 colours, and occasionally gilt, in imitation of tho churches 
 of the lower empire. One cannot doubt that its architects 
 were well acquainted with the Byzantine architecture, in 
 which the walls, the arcades, the pavements, in short all 
 the parts, were covered with paintings: and it is clear that 
 the Arabians, who really had invented no architecture of 
 their own. spreading themselves in those countries wherein 
 the arts had been established, were thus led to a trial of 
 Imitating the old masters. 
 
 The Alhambra, at Granada, is perhaps the most curious 
 and interesting Moorish edifice in Spain. It served the 
 double purpose of palace and fortress, and is situate on the 
 summit of a rock that commands the town. According to 
 travellers who have visited and described this edifice, you 
 may here fancy yourself in a fairy-built dwelling. After 
 passing the principal entrance, you arrive at two oblong 
 courts, one of which is called the court of the lions, and 
 is celebrated in Arabian history. A portion of the section 
 of this court is given below. Round these two courts, on 
 the ground floor, are disposed all the apartments of the 
 palace: those for state look out towards tho country; the 
 rest, cooler and more retired, have small openings for 
 light under the interior porticos, the whole of which are 
 decorated with painted stucco, porcelain, and the most 
 valuable marbles. 
 
 There is on a neighbouring hill another palace, called 
 the Generaliffe, now in a state of ruin ; but its ruins show 
 that it was inferior to the Alhambra neither in size nor 
 splendour. It is precisely in the same taste, and the de- 
 tails" are similar, proving that the two edifices are contem- 
 poraneous. 
 
 Surprising as the works we have just named must be 
 c :nsidered, we do not discover in them that real grandeur 
 which exists in the works of (he Egyptians, the Etrurians, 
 the Grecians, or the Romans. The mode of construction, 
 though sufficiently durable, is not scientific, as respects the 
 working of the materials. Brick was the material most in 
 use ; the masonry, where employed, is covered with a coat- 
 ing of stucco, the painting whereof, in different, colours, is 
 a great source of the admiration these buildings excite. In 
 82 
 
 the combinations of the building art in these edifices, ther 
 is nothing to surprise, from the supposition of extraord 
 nary means used in their erection. The domes whicf 
 crown their apartments are neither lofty nor large indi 
 ter, neither do they exhibit great mechanical skill. The 
 Moorish architects seem to have had no notion of raising 
 vaults from lofty piers. In the mosque at Cordova, the span 
 from pier to pier would have been less than 20 feet, which 
 tn vault would not have required very extraordinary skill; 
 yet herein we find timber ceilings throughout. The use of 
 orders seems to have been unknown to them ; they em- 
 ployed the antique columns which tliey found ready to 
 their hands, or rude imitations of them, without any appa- 
 rent acquaintance with the types from which they wi 
 rived, their principles or proportions. Hence their columns 
 may be more appropriately termed posts. In the forms of 
 Moorish architecture one does not discover a character of 
 originality arising out of local causes. The Arabians had 
 wandered far from their country, in which they had never 
 cultivated the arts; their architecture was, therefore, ne- 
 cessarily formed upon models which were before them, 
 such as the degenerated Roman ami Byzantine. Such ele- 
 ments as these, with the materials which the lower empire 
 afforded, formed their taste and monuments. The form of 
 their arcades, whereof we have given some examples above, 
 is confined to this style of architecture. They may be di- 
 vided into two classes, both of them vicious in construction, 
 from not affording the necessary resistance to thrust near 
 the abutments. In masonry, failure would follow such 
 forms, if practised on a large scale ; but where arches are 
 formed of brick, the large surface of cement used, if it be 
 good and the centres not struck until the cement is set hard, 
 allows great caprice in their forms. If the pleasure — we 
 might almost use the word sensuality — of the eye be the 
 sole object, it cannot be denied that success attended the 
 efforts of the Arabian architects of Spain. The details of 
 their decoration, and (he fantasticness of their forms, can 
 not fail to please the eye ; and though they may not satisfy 
 the spectator, they are capable of producing on his mind 
 some of the most seductive charms of which the art is ca- 
 pable. The embroidery and painted draperies of the East 
 appear to have been transposed to their architecture. The 
 variety and profusion with which they used their orna- 
 ments, moreover, give their masses the appearant e of a con- 
 geries of painting, incrustation, mosaic, gilding, 
 much, perhaps, of this was induced by the law of their re- 
 ligion, which forbade the representation of animals or the 
 human fiuure. If taste be not required to produce a reason 
 for the admission of ornament, nothing splen- 
 
 did and brilliant than the effects that resulted from their 
 combinations. It cannot be denied that in this profusion c.f 
 ornament we find the details beautifully executed, and 
 some of their forms extremely fine; and the mode of pierc- 
 ing domes for light, which they practised by means of star- 
 like formed openings, is attended with an almost magical 
 effect. 
 
 Architecture, Mexican. From the historian Robert- 
 son we collect, that the cities of Mexico, large and popu- 
 lous as they are described, were rather the asylums of 
 men just emerged from barbarism, than the peaceable 
 dwellings of a civilised people. Tlascala, according to its 
 description, nearly resembles that of an Indian village. It 
 was but a heap of low straggling huts; according to tl 
 priceof each proprietor, built of turf and stone, and thatch- 
 ed with reeds, the light being received by a door so low- 
 that it. could not be entered upright. In Mexico, from its 
 peculiar situation, the disposition of the houses was more 
 orderly, but their structure was equally mean. The Mexi- 
 can temples, and other public edifices, do not appear to 
 have deserved the high praises which Spanish authors 
 have bestowed upon them. The great temple of Mi 
 the most celebrated in New Spain, as far as can be gath- 
 ered from the obscure and inadequate description of it. 
 has been represented as a magnificent building, raised to 
 such a height that the ascent to it was by a flight of 114 
 steps, yet it was but a solid square mass of 
 partly with stone. Its base on each side extern 
 if. decreased gradually as it advanced in height, tern it 
 at top In a quadrangle of about 30 feet, whereon was pi 
 a shrine of the deity, and two altars on which the ^ <•' 
 were sacrificed. All the other celebrab New- 
 
 Spain resembled that of'Mexico. The ten pie of Cholula. 
 which was considered the most sacred in the country . 
 also the most considerable ; yet, according to Torquemada 
 it was but a solid mound of earth, about a quarter of t 
 league in circuit. 
 
 The Spanish historians led us to suppose thai the i 
 of the emperor and the houses of the nobles exhib 
 some elegance of design and convenient arrangement : we 
 have, however, no vestiges of these remaining, and, from 
 the mode in which Cortes conducted the siege of Mexico 
 it seems likely that all the monuments of any importance 
 were destroyed. Still, as at the period when Rohertsoir 
 wrote his history only two centuries and a half had claused 
 
ARCHITECTURE, ROMAN. 
 
 ma impossible dffices of im- 
 
 it, and without any app 
 
 . aural emini round. 
 
 ;.[ names of 
 
 ut to furnish 
 
 re them 
 
 1) i', tfonumentl dl 
 
 iry Gazette of Mex- 
 
 first 
 ipantla. Its form is pyra- 
 midal, (thai is, in " hi steps or 
 
 rhe lower step 
 
 height a cer- 
 tain n ; the 
 
 c thini 
 
 1 6 of these 
 of this pyra- 
 mid | 
 
 rificea 
 : | itloned 
 
 upon 
 anothe ient, it' in architecture maj 
 
 I 
 vhich is supposed to have 
 of the 
 
 a fortification, but i .Me that it wa 
 
 ptured 
 
 i nil. interpreted by 
 
 ■ 
 lure that it was used for the lust named 
 
 I that 
 
 I themselves. 
 
 I by the nami 
 
 with them), 
 
 to admit that 
 to their art the loaciviousnett of tlie 
 1 in thelra ttic -.' 
 matron ; but our senses may be 
 <jh the oilier may make a strong- 
 i Yuvz. In strictness, Roman and 
 ■ 
 than their arms, extended 
 and : ■ 
 
 carriod into tody at a period of very hiuh antiquity. Nu- 
 
 il that nation e lve« on 
 
 of that country, and even in the interior of the 
 penin -ted cities lonj before the 
 
 tence of Rome. Italy, as far as we can trace, had no orijri- 
 
 ■!y, no such thini as Roman 
 i which cultivates the arts 
 iliar to itself, so wh< 
 of Rn -uire. we mean that peculiar character 
 
 with irt was invested uni ■' tn em- 
 
 CM iracter which was manif ter exu- 
 
 ice of ornament in all the parts of the orders, and 
 which changed the sections of tho mouldings of an order 
 from profiles form ions of a cone, to those 
 
 farmed by the horiz •; of a cylinder. An inter- 
 
 ile existed between Etrur 
 •; in the former of which, at the period in question, 
 the langu i :•■ and mythology of Greece prevailed to a con- 
 sider i i known on this subject, we 
 i it Etrurian architecture was Identical 
 with i History tells that Rome, from its ori- 
 gin, h irrownd from Etruria' art-- 
 works, though, afterwards, the city poe num- 
 
 ■■ iiiuli was !!■.' |th the 
 
 i. That Hi.' Roman I ut this pe- 
 riod were not barbarous and ianorant of the an . 
 .in.' me norla. of their skill in architecture still at 
 I.ivy records a circus, traced by Tarquin, between the 
 Av.n- " Ine hills, forth isand 
 
 nmemorate the victory over the Latins. Tar- 
 on afterward e 1 this circus 
 I porticos. This was at the epoch of tie 
 vex or cloaca. Perhaps in n 
 were two more splendid undertakings carried on at the 
 »me time. This Tarquin, as Dionysius Halicarna: 
 83 
 
 asserts, ornamented the Forum, and had centred in it an 
 that could tend to its beauty as well as to its utility. The 
 first Tarquin was a native of the city of Tarquinium in 
 Etruria, and brought io Home that taste iur and 
 
 solidity which were the distinguishing features of the arts 
 in the country he had left. He constructed the Imn 
 walls of the city in resular masonry, and laid the i. ■ 
 tions of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which, in 
 ling the hill on which it, at I with prodi- 
 
 labour and expense. Th 
 cording to Tacitus, was continued by Son-ins Tulllu 
 Tarquinius B ng workmen . 
 
 Etruria ; but it was not finished till after the expulsion of 
 the kin_'s. Such was its magnificence, says Tacitus, that 
 all the victories of the Romans added to its wealth at 
 coratfon more than tottsextt at His words are, "Horatltu 
 l'nlviiius dedlcavlt, el magnificentia, quam immens e 
 tea popnii Ro marent potiu rent." 
 
 The description of it by Dionysius brinns to mind the 
 clan temple, with its two interior ranks of columns, its pe- 
 ristyle and pediment, eulogised by Cicero. It was i 
 
 yd, and twice rebuilt, on the same foundation?. 
 how that the Romans at an early 
 inferior to no nation in tho archi- 
 
 tecture whii'h w. . and useful to a people 
 
 Such was the opinion of Btmbo, who add no re 
 
 tructlng aque- 
 
 •nans far excelled the Greeks. 
 
 iess in their enterprises, and solidity in carrying 
 
 them ss of the art 
 
 period when magnificence of a 
 
 hiu'h degree was confined to the ten 
 
 Tie hie US to fol- 
 
 low up historically the taste of the art during the ages of the 
 lie. There is scarcely the veatifl of the 
 
 period ; it is. however, easy Io form, either from the ponti- 
 le of the times, or from tl ,,,-n to 
 .-r arts, and especially to III 
 
 ■ I the H 
 
 city not only an importation of works of art, but the 
 
 i be created only 
 b opulence reigns, in architecture, however, ti 
 mans at this line had erected monuments of such dimen- 
 is were beyond the means of the little and separated 
 of Greece. The new stati 
 
 aid all • iiieh at this pi 
 
 ■ r, is one of the proo 
 
 the public and private wealth. Prom the lime of An. 
 
 • (tent to which richness of detail was carried. 
 A small portion of the Ilalhs of Agrippa, known to us un- 
 der the naoienf the Pantheon, one of the moal splendid ex 
 
 ■i of this pe- 
 riod, though now it bronzes of It 
 
 its [tilt caissons, and tl 
 
 adorned it. In the ; I onlv 
 
 pilal of the world, but the world itself; it possi 
 within itself all the food that was I I irish- 
 
 men! of the art. Private individuals in the citj 
 
 the wealth of kins', military glory created a n. salty foi 
 
 monument*, and the amu race i 
 
 and fights of the circus and amphitheatre, required accom- 
 modation for such multll Ml ( v 
 I from the calls to Which ' 
 
 ■ monuments of a description unknown to the 
 
 is— triumphal arches, baths as ■■.<, Im- 
 
 e porticos, amphitheatres, an Themar- 
 
 1 all the quarries of the then known world were ai- 
 
 ; : rj pt furnish) 
 
 city with means of addinji eral magnificence. 
 
 Applied to such di would have 
 
 been indeed surprising If architecture ftd Its 
 
 ' Greek purity. It was the medium for satisfy 
 vanitv which knew no bounds, and was ultimately (.;■ 
 to gain its end more by effect than purity, by richness and 
 exuberance of ornament rather than by ham 
 grandeur of lines rather than by beauty of forms. Archi- 
 tecture was at all periods a favourite art among the Ro- 
 mans. Not a single name of a Roman sculptor has reached 
 us. and Pliny mentions only two or three painters, i 
 Vitnivius we learn, that before his time several had writ- 
 ten on the art. The names of Fussitius, Terentius Varro, 
 Publius Septimius, Cossutius, and O. Mutius are men- 
 tioned by him. 
 
 The luxury in art induced by tho sculptor, aided the num- 
 ber of different combinations in the Corinthian capital. 
 which we have above stated to have been a favourite with 
 th" Romans; this was carried to an excess which in the 
 end produced a new order, known by the name of the 
 Thus, Roman architecture having, says Qua 
 ■•• de Quincy, exhausted all the resources of rich- 
 nlded by taste in the use of ornaments, throws aside 
 acrifieea the whole to detail - and accessaries, 
 covers all" parts of the surface without distinction, loads the 
 
ARCHITRAVE. 
 
 different in ambers with ornaments and sculptures, like a 
 person who, to decorate apiece of cloth, covers it entirely 
 with embroidery. 
 
 We close this article with a few observations on the Do- 
 ric order. This, in Greece itself, at the time of her subju- 
 gation, had begun to be affected by change. It had lost 
 much of the primitive simplicity of its character and the 
 severity of its principles. The various wants in edifices 
 less simple in plan, a taste for elegance and richness which 
 was found in the other two orders, contributed to diminish 
 the severity of its forms and profiles. Thus, in the portico 
 of Augustus at Alliens it was strangely changed in appear- 
 ance. In Home it was adopted with proportions still more 
 slender, and an aspect infinitely less severe. (For re- 
 marks on English Architecture, see the word English.) 
 
 A'RCIHTRAVE. (Gr. dpxt'v, to govern, and Lat. trabs, 
 u beam.') In Architecture, the lower of the three members 
 of the entablature of an order, being, as its name imports, 
 the chief beam that is employed, and resting immediately 
 on the columns. Its origin is given under the article Ar- 
 chitecture. A French writer has called it the founda- 
 tion of the head of an edifice. The architrave sometimes 
 receives the name Epislylium, from the Greek words, ixi, 
 upon, and otvKos. column. 
 
 A'RCHIVES. The repositories of the public records of 
 a state or community : sometimes the records themselves 
 are so called. The word is supposed to be derived from 
 the Greek dpxsta, used for public registers by Josephus. 
 
 A'RCHIVOLT. (Lat. arc us volutus, a turned arch.) In 
 Architecture, the ornamented band of mouldings round the 
 voussoirs or arch stones of an arch, which terminates hori- 
 zontally upon the impost. The archivolt is decorated ana- 
 logously with the architrave, which it may in arcades be 
 said to represent. 
 
 A'RCIION. (Gr. a«Yuy, ruler.) The title of the chief 
 magistrate of Alliens. The office was originally instituted 
 after the death of Codrus, the last king of Athens, and was 
 vested in one person who enjoyed it for life, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his son. Its duties were those of a limited 
 monarchy, accountable to the assembly of (he people ; its 
 duration was afterwards limited to ten, six, and, finally, one 
 year, when its functions were divided among nine persons, 
 taken at first by suffrage, and afterwards by lot, from the 
 nobles. One was chief among them, and was called Epo- 
 nymus, or, naming Archon, because the year was distin- 
 guished by his name. The second, or king Archon, exer- 
 cised the functions of high priest. The third, orPolemarch 
 (polemarchos,) was originally the chief military comman- 
 der. The other six were called Thesmothetae, or setters 
 forth of the law ; they presided as judges in the courts, and 
 the six formed a tribunal which had a peculiar jurisdiction. 
 The nine together formed the councilor state, on which the 
 whole administration rested: but this was transferred by 
 Solon to the senate. The exclusive right of the nobles to 
 this office was taken away by the measures of Cleisthenes, 
 who threw it open to the people at large. See especially 
 Boeckh's Public Economy of Alliens. 
 
 A'RCTIC. (Gr. apxToj. the bear.) An epithet given to 
 liiat part of the heavens, in which are situated the constel- 
 lations of the Great and the Little Bear. Arctic Pole, the 
 north pole of the heavens, or the northern extremity of the 
 axis of the diurnal motion. Arctic Circle, in geography, 
 denotes a small circle of the sphere parallel to the equator, 
 and 23^ degrees from the north pole. At this latitude, the 
 sun, at the summer solstice, comes exactly to the horizon 
 at midnight, without descending below it. The corres- 
 ponding circle in the southern hemisphere is called the 
 Antarctic. The arctic and antarctic circles separate the 
 frigid from the temperate zones. 
 
 A'RCTOMYS. (Gr. dpKrot,bear, and pvs, mouse.) The 
 name of the subgenus of Rodenlia, or gnawers, including 
 the marmot. 
 
 ARCTU'RLS. A star of the first magnitude in the con- 
 stellation of Bootes, designated in the catalogues as a Bootes. 
 It has a sensible proper motion. 
 
 A'RCUATE. (Lat. arcus, a bow.) A part of an animal 
 so called which is linear and bent like a bow. 
 
 ARCUA'TION. (Lat. arcus, a bow.) An obsolete term 
 for the mode of propagating trees by layers, the shoots be- 
 ing bent. 
 
 A'RDEA. The name of a Linnaean genus of Gralla,, or 
 wading birds, characterised by a straight, sharp, long, sub- 
 compressed bill, with a furrow extending on each side, 
 from the nostrils to the apex of the bill. The genus was 
 subdivided by Linnaeus into the Crislatce, corresponding to 
 the modern genus An/hropoides ; the Grues, or cranes; 
 the Ciconia, or storks ; and the Ardem, or herons ; which 
 •alter have been subsequently subdivided into Ardem, or 
 norons proper; Nychcoruces, or night-herons; and Botauri, 
 or bitterns. 
 
 ARDISIA'CEyE. (Ardisia, one of the genera.) Exogens, 
 
 which might, without much inaccuracy, be termed woody 
 
 primulaceous plants. They form herbs and trees in warm 
 
 countries, and have a succulent fruit ; but they really differ 
 
 84 
 
 ARGONAUT. 
 
 in scarcely any positive point of structure from pnmuia 
 and its coordinates. (SceMYRSiNACE^E.) 
 
 A'RE. See A la mire. 
 
 A'REjE. In Entomology, the larger longitudinal species 
 into which the wing may be divided : they are termed cre- 
 tal, intermediate, and anal, according to their relative 
 position. 
 
 ARE'CA. (Areec, the Malabar na?ne.) An Eas' Indian 
 palm tree, whose nuts are folded in the leaf of the piper 
 betel, and, mixed with a little lime, are chewed by the na- 
 tives of the country bordering on the Indian Archipelago 
 as a stimulating narcotic. 
 
 ARE'NA. A Latin word signifying, in its original mean 
 ing, sand, but applied in a secondary sense to that part of 
 the amphitheatre in which the gladiators fought, whu a was 
 covered with sand. The word is sometimes applied 'o the 
 whole amphitheatre. 
 
 ARENA'CEOUS. (Lat. arena, sand.) Sandy. 
 
 ARENA'RIA. (Lat. arena, sand.) A genus of wading 
 birds, wanting the hinder toe : of this genus there is but 
 one British species — the Sanderling. 
 
 ARENA'RIOUS SOIL. (Lat. arena, sawd) In Agr. and 
 Hort., soil in which sand is the prevailing ingredient. 
 
 ARENA'TION. (Lat. arena, sand.) The cure of dis- 
 eases by sprinkling hot sand upon the body. 
 
 ARE'OLA. (Dim. of area.) The ring or margin which 
 surrounds the pustule of small and cow pox. 
 
 ARE'OLjE, in Entomology, are smaller spaces into 
 which the wing is divided by the nervures : they are 
 termed vasal, middle, and apical, according to their rela- 
 tive position. 
 
 ARE'OLATE. In Entomology, divided into small spaces, 
 or areolations. 
 
 Areolate. In Botany, in composite plants, when the 
 florets are placed so completely upon the surface of the 
 receptacle, that many a pentagonal area, or space, is left 
 when the ovaries drop off 
 
 AREOLA'TION (Lat. area) means any small space, 
 distinctly bounded by something different in colour, texture, 
 &c. The spaces of parenchyma, which in leaves are 
 bounded by veins, are areolations. 
 
 AREO'METER. (Gr. dpatos, rare, and ficrpov, measure. 
 An instrument for measuring the density or specific gravi 
 ty of fluids. (See Hydrometer.) 
 
 AREO'PAGUS. The science of measuring the donsit) 
 or specific gravity of fluids. 
 
 AREO'PAGUS. The chief court of judicature at Athens 
 so called because it met in a hall on an eminence, called 
 the hill of Mars, ('A/Jctoj na}os.) This court, which was 
 of very early origin, was raised to the high character it 
 afterwards enjoyed, by Solon, who appointed that it should 
 consist of the archons who had undergone, with credit, the 
 scrutiny they were subject to at the expiration of their 
 office. The areopagus had cognizance of capital crimes, 
 and from it was no appeal to the people, whose decisions 
 it was sometimes known to annul. It controlled all issues 
 from the public treasury, and exercised a censorship ovei 
 the citizens. Its powers were much reduced by the mea- 
 sures of Pericles and his partizans. On the subject of this 
 celebrated institution, our best ancient authority is the 
 Oratio Areopagitica of Socrates. See also Meursius, Di 
 Areopago ; Du ^Canaye, Recherches sur I' A., in the Mem. dt 
 I' Acad, des Inscr., <5r. vol. vii. p. 174.: and Petitus, Ac 
 Leges Atticas. See also Boeckh's excellent work on Athens 
 and her Institutions. 
 
 A'RGEL. The Egyptian name of the leaves of the 
 Cynanchum olenfolium, which are mixed with senm 
 leaves. 
 
 A'RGENT, in Heraldry. (Fr., argent, silver.) One ol 
 the metals employed in blazonry: it is equivalent to pear; 
 among precious stones, diamond among planets. In en 
 graving it is represented by a plain surface. 
 
 ARGENTINA. A Linnxan genus of abdominal fishes 
 belonging to the salmon family; characterised by a small 
 mouth, without maxillary teeth ; the tongue armed with 
 curved teeth ; and a transverse row of small teeth on the 
 vomer; banchiostegal rays, six. The argentines rank in 
 the order Malacopterygia, or soft-finned fishes of Cuvier. 
 The name is derived from the silvery glistening appearance 
 in the scales of these fishes. 
 
 A'RGENTINE. In Mineralogy, nacreous carbonate of 
 lime, so called from its silvery lustre. 
 
 ARGILLA'CEOUS SOIL. (Lat. argilla, clay.) Soil in 
 which clay is the prevailing earthy ingredient. 
 
 ARGOL. The tartar of wine. 
 
 A'RGONAUT, ARGONAUTA. Applied by Linnwus, in 
 the singular number, to the testaceous cephalopod, lesig- 
 nated by Aristotle and the ancients, nautilus, and common- 
 ly called at the present day the paper nautilus, frcm the 
 fragile nature of the boat-like shell in which the inhabiting 
 cephalopod occasionally floats on the still seas of the warm- 
 er latitudes Many modern naturalists limit the applica- 
 tion of the term arsonauta to the shell, supposing that its 
 true constructor is yet to be discovered, and that the ce 
 
r. 
 
 ARGONAUTS. 
 ! which has liitherto been exclusively found in it, 
 
 I > f.YTHOfc.) 
 
 A'RGONAl'TS. The name driven to the chieftain- '-who 
 nied Jason in tlie ship Argo on his fabled expedi- 
 I olchis, after the golden fleece of Phryxus. The 
 irigiual facts on which this mythological story is founded 
 canool now be recalled; but it is generally suppose.! to 
 ' the result of some bold commercial expedition 
 I tlie previous discoveries of its age, or 
 robably still, the series of enterprises by which 
 ne knowledge was extended to the furthest 
 the Euxine." We have a poem on the subject, 
 is under the name of Orpheus, who is said 
 ii of the Argonauts himself, and an epic by 
 ApoUonlua Rhodius, a Greek poet of Alexandria, and like- 
 In Latin, by Valerius Flaccus, who nourished in 
 laian. 
 A'RGUMENT. In Astronomy, denotes the angle or 
 i which a series of numbers in a table depetlda 
 pie, suppose a table were formed ■bowing the 
 it ot horizontal refraction at every degree, etc. of 
 lie; Ihen the altitude would be termed the argument 
 refraction; and the table is said to be entered with 
 Liicnt. 
 
 r. In Logic, an expression in which, from 
 
 thing laid down as granted, (i. e. the premises,) some- 
 
 r. I lie conclusion.) is to be deduced. In or- 
 
 urse, argument is very often used for the 
 
 premises alone, in contradistinction to the conclusion; e. g. 
 
 •• the conclusion which this argument is intended to estao- 
 
 1 ord is also sometimes employed 
 
 it i-. strictly speaking, a course or series ot 
 
 II is in this sense that we speak of ' War- 
 
 ument to prove the divine legation of Moses." 
 
 The w<#d argument u frequently used to express what 
 
 may be property called a disputation: i. e. two trains of 
 
 pose I to each other, as when it is said that A 
 
 I! had a long argument on any subject, and that A 
 
 had the best of the argument. (Vide Wluitely's Logic, p. 
 
 A'RlANS. The followers of the theological opinions of 
 Anus, a presbyterofthe church of Alexandria in the fourth 
 century, who denied the equality of the Father and Son, 
 and is generally considered as the author of a system 
 which continued, under various modi: 
 th" i: influence upon the Christian world of 
 
 any heresy of ancient times. It was in the year 319, that 
 these views were first promulgated at a meeting of the 
 of Alexandria; and their author, after some delay, 
 implicated by the patriarch Alexander. The pro- 
 howevcr, which the opinions continued to make, ex- 
 . after a few years, the notice of the emperor Constan- 
 (ine, who addressed a lelterto Alexander and Arius jointly, 
 in which he attempted to attain the object for which on 
 other occasions he resorted to more violent methods, that 
 of reconciling the conflicting parties upon whatever basis, 
 and securing harmony at all events. At the earnest de- 
 sire, however, of the orthodox party at Alexandria, he con- 
 vened tie- general council of Nictca, which assembled in 
 the year 325, and proceeded to institute a full investigation 
 into the matter In dispute. On this occasion the Nicene 
 creed was drawn up, in which the clause which principally 
 affects this subject is the assertion of the consubstanfiality 
 of the Son with tlie Father, or the Omoousion. This the 
 Arians would not concede. A middle party arose under 
 BusebiVJB of Nicomedia, who proposed, but without effect, 
 the term Omoiousios, asserting, not the identity, hut the 
 similarity of substance. This, which is generally denomi- 
 nated the Semi-arian scheme, satisfied neither tlie Catho- 
 D ir the Arians, who from their rejection of it acquired 
 the title of Amonoioi. The Catholics triumphed, and their 
 opponents submitted to the decree of the emperor which 
 required them to acknowledge the creed propounded for 
 their acceptance. From this time, according to some writ- 
 ers, the Busebians became a mere political party, who en- 
 deavoured to preserve the favour of the prince, for which 
 (hey had already made the greatest of sacrifices, by a repe- 
 tition of similar unworthy arts. At this period another 
 mis, the courtly bishop of Ca>sarea, and celebrated 
 Historian of the Christian church, became one of the lead- 
 ers of this branch of Arianism. His talents and ingenuity 
 are represented as being of singular service to the cause of 
 relics, by inducing the emperor, after some delay, to 
 command the restoration of Arius to the church of Alex- 
 andria, and the banishment of Athanasius. A day was ap- 
 pointed, upon which Alexander, the aged bishop, should 
 admit the still suspected heretic to the holy communion : 
 his protestations of orthodoxy were such as to satisfy the 
 prelate that God only could discover his real sentiments, 
 and he solemnly declared that in His hands he left the 
 matter. In the midst of the fears and scruples of the one par- 
 ly, and the anticipated triumph of the other, the proceeding 
 wis suddenly terminated by the death of Arius : a deliver- 
 ance of the church, in which the Catholics discovered a 
 85 
 
 ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 signal interposition of God, but which the heretics confi- 
 dentially ascribed to assassination by poison. 
 
 Under Constaiilius, the successor of Constantine, in the 
 East, the Ariari party was taken into favour, and the ortho- 
 dox persecuted and proscribed : and when on the death c< 
 Constans, the whole empire fell into his single hands, the 
 cause of heresy began to flourish in the West also, and the 
 " whole world," says St. Jerome, "groaned to find itself All- 
 an." It was at this period, also, that many northern na- 
 tions, who were just preparing to pour themselves upon 
 in empire, were converted tqpthe Christian faith. 
 in which they were instructed, according to the Arian in- 
 terpretation. ' This circumstance contributed materially to 
 the permanence of these opinions; for after the orthodox 
 emperor Theodosius had re-established the doctrine of the 
 Nicene creed throughout his dominions, the West was sub- 
 jected to a second inundation of heresy in the preceding 
 century. The conversion of Clovis to the Catholic faith at 
 the end of the fifth, and of Theodelinda, queen of the Lom- 
 bards, in the sixth century, combined with the race 
 tie- ge ne rals of Justinian, in Italy and Africa, restored the 
 orthodox opinions throughout the greater part of these re 
 gions; and from that period Arianism dwindled away.anr 
 all traces of it seem to have been lost for many centuries. 
 
 In modern times these opinions have been revived. The 
 inferiority of the Son to the Father was proclaimed by 
 hi 1.">-'!1 : and in Geneva, the very place in which 
 he suffere •■ opinions took root, and ha 
 
 become very prevalent among the disciples of the < lunch 
 which Calvin founded. The immediate followers of Ser- 
 vetus removed, upon nto death, to Poland. Iii England, 
 the principal revivers of Arianism, were Winston and 
 Samuel Clarke, who nourished at the beginning of I 
 century. Their doctrines were embraced by great num- 
 bers of tie ii and Independent preachers, and 
 
 to a great deal of controversy among t! 
 bers of those communities, and of the church also. It is 
 remarkable that the congregations which In modi 
 have embraced- any form of Arianism, whether ai I 
 in Poland, or in England, have In almost all case 
 rated into Unitarianism. At the present day. (hi 
 few, if anv. churches of prof 
 
 It should tie remarked, that the term Arian, which is vu. 
 
 garly attributed to those who conceive of the second and 
 third persons, that though inferior to the first, they are ne- 
 vertheless divine, - any distinctions and quallA- 
 
 long sects general!) 
 nated Ari i i the similarity of substance betweon 
 
 the Father and Son : 2d, As to the existence ol I 
 whether he was created before the world; whel 
 creation was from eternity: 3d, As to the relation of the 
 ning'whose rank ti- 
 es there are tnanv conflicting opinions. Dr.Clarke. 
 though generally considered to hold Arian sentiments, pro- 
 fessed hi nself'a believer In the Trinity, and continue I ; , 
 memberof the established church. lie distinguished [he 
 Son from the Father, considering the latter 
 author of all good, to whom all honour and worship is due : 
 the power which was original in the Father being derivative 
 in the Son, who derives also from him his Divinity and Other 
 attributes. The Ilolv Spirit, he considered to hold a siini- 
 Mnation totheSon. When the question, whether 
 the Father can annihilate the Son, was propounded td I>i 
 Clarke, he confessed thai he had nol reflected upon this 
 Imputed consequence of his scheme, and deeluv 
 anv answer. 
 
 ARICI'NA. An alkaloid discovered in 1829, by 1'' 111 tier 
 and Coriol, in a bark from Arica, resembling a B] 
 chinrhona. 
 
 A'RIEL. (Arilla. in low Latin, « piece of red cfo'/i.) A 
 membrane, either fleshy or otherwise, originating I 
 placenta, and growing on a seed either partially or 
 Instances of it occur in the nutmeg, where It constitutes 
 mace; and in the Euonymus Europa-us, where it is a red 
 succulent membrane, it is remarkable that this part, the 
 use of which is unknown, never appears till after ti 
 seed is fertilised. 
 
 A'RIES. (Lat. the Ram.) The first constellation of the 
 ancient zodiac. Aries also denotes the first sign or the firs: 
 30 degrees ol the zodiac ; the first point of Aries being the 
 point in which the equator intersects the ecliptic, and from 
 which the longitudes are reckoned. In ancient tin 
 signs and constellations of tlie zodiac coincided ; but owing 
 to the precession of the equinoxes, the twelve signs gc 
 backward among the constellations, at the rale of aboul I 
 annually, and the first point of Aries is now situate in the 
 constellation Pisces. 
 
 Aries. In ancient Military Science, the Latin nameol 
 the battering ram. an instrument with an iron head used b> 
 batter and beat down the walls of besieged places. 
 
 ARIOSO. See Legato. 
 
 ARISTO'CRACY. (Gr. doioroc. Die best, and Kpareiv, It 
 govern.) According to the acceptation in which the word 
 is used by ancient writers, a government in which all tho 
 
ARISTOLOCHIA. 
 
 ot'st citizens of the state, i. e. those excelling either in he- 
 u-y distinction or In wealth, rated their fellow-citizens. 
 When the power was in the hands of a small class of these, 
 who had acquired it by chance or usurpation, such a 
 government was said to bo an oligarchy. '1'lms aristocracy 
 imerated by Aristotle among the distinct forms of 
 ament ; oligarchy is only mentioned as a perversion 
 icy : and the distinction as taken by him is, that 
 iu an aristocracy the governors rule -for the public good, 
 and in an oligarchy for their own. In modern times, those 
 nments hav% usually been termed aristocratic in 
 which a small privileged class of noble or wealthy persons 
 jither governed absolutely, or shared the government in 
 various proportions with the sovereign or with the people. 
 Th;>3 the Republic of Venice presented the purest example 
 of an aristocracy among the older governments of Europe : 
 while the government of the United Provinces, before the 
 French Revolution, might also be cited as an instance of 
 icratic commonwealth; and Great Britain of a mo- 
 v tempered by aristocracy. In a stricter sense, how- 
 ever, the word has been used by modern speculative poli- 
 ticians to signify any government in which -'a minority of 
 adult males" constitute the ruling class. In this sense, the 
 government of France, that of England both in respect of 
 the House of Commons and of the House of Lords, and, in 
 ; every state in which a census is adopted as 
 edification of those who elect representatives in the 
 national assembly, must be cited as aristocratic. The won! 
 aristocracy is also frequently used to signify a class of per- 
 in the state : the wealthy and noble classes in abody, 
 latter 'lass by itself. 
 ARISTOLO'CHIA. (Gr. dpi<rro$, bust, and \o%ua, child- 
 > A genus of exogenous plants, usually having twin- 
 ens and one-sided bent, yellow or purple variegated 
 PS, the odour of which is often very offensive. They 
 iiited to be powerful stimulants and aromatics. One 
 species, but not a twining one, is occasionally met with wild 
 in England (A. clematitis, common blrthwort): a few are 
 natives of the South of Europe, bat the principal part of 
 the genus is tropical. 
 
 ARI'STOLO'CHIA'CE.'E. Th lerof rtiich 
 
 Aristolochia is the type. Asa. nfseeASAfl woe/.) h 
 
 other common genus associated with Aristolocnia; 
 but there are several tropical forms. The wood of this 
 is remarkable for growing without forming concen- 
 tric zones, although undoubtedly exogenous. 
 ARISTOTE'LIAN PHILOSOPHY. In attempting to 
 an account of the doctrines of Aristotle of Stagira, 
 :el embarrassed by peculiar difficulties. The preju- 
 i under which, until lately, the name of this philo'so- 
 has laboured, and still, perhaps, continues in a great 
 ire to labour, would seem to render a more than 
 ly detailed account of his writings necessary, in order 
 lo justify what, iu the view we shall take of their nature 
 , may contradict the ordinary opinion. At the 
 time, there is perhaps no ancient philosopher, the 
 fall comprehension of whose system requires so extensive 
 a knowledge of the works of his predecessors in scientific 
 research, and so careful a collation of detached passages 
 in his own writings, which are composed for the most part 
 m a fragmentary and unmethodical manner, and an ob- 
 scure and concise diction. The latter difficulty will be the 
 more apparent, when we state the now unanimous opinion 
 of the learned, that the works of Aristotle which remain to 
 us are entirely of the esoteric or acromatic class, intended, 
 not for publication, but lo serve as notes to the oral lectures 
 which he delivered to the more instructed of his pupils. It 
 requires no more than a cursory glance at the titles and the 
 bulk of Aristotle's writings, to be convinced of the com- 
 prehensiveness of his views, and the daringness of his de- 
 sign. He divides the whole circle of knowledge into three 
 provinces, Metaphysics, or the Philosophia prima, 
 including, as its instrument, Logic ; Physics, or the Second 
 Philosophy, tinder which term, in addition to the sciences 
 ordinarily falling under that denomination, he embraces a 
 great portion of the philosophy of the human mind, as the 
 phenomena of sensation) memory, and fancy ; and, thirdly, 
 c-s, or the science which treats of the conduct and 
 duties of man, regarded both as an individual and as a 
 citizen. His Logic is contained in his Categories, his trea- 
 tise on Interpretation or the Nature of Propositions, his 
 former and latter Analytics, and his eight books of Topics; 
 to which may be added his work on the exposure of So- 
 phisms. These form together what, has been called the 
 Organism of Aristotle ; and seem intended as a prepara- 
 discipline to the study of his Metaphysics. (See Arist. 
 Metaph. iv. 3.) The common opinion, which attributes to 
 Aristotle the discovery of the science of Logic, is, we 
 doubt not, substantially correct. The flippant objection of 
 Locke, that this notion would represent God iis having 
 • inimals, and having left it to Aristotle to 
 make them rational, hardly needs a serious refutation. 
 Natural philosophers might with equal justice be accused 
 of asserting that Sir Isaac Newton changed the motion of 
 ' 86 
 
 ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 the heavenly bodies, or that Locke himself created the 
 human understanding. The logic of Aristotle is, what it 
 professes to be, an enumeration of the leading classes, or 
 genera, to which all our notions may be referred ; an ae 
 count of the various methods by which we arrive at genera, 
 propositions, and reason from these when formed ; and a 
 body of rules for the conduct of the understanding in going 
 through these processes. (See Logic, Category, Ac.) 
 Metaphysics is the science of being, as such ; and herein 
 is distinguished from physics, which considers only the 
 modifications of being, and the changes to which they are 
 subject. Each of the physical sciences has its own funda- 
 mental axioms, the truth of which it is compelled to as 
 sume: it is the province of metaphysics to verify these 
 assumptions, and to discover their unity and connexion 
 Aristotle's metaphysical system, though it may be said to 
 owe its origin and many of its peculiarities to that of his 
 great predecessor, Plato, yet deviates from it in many im- 
 portant respects. Both the one and the other admit the 
 existence of a faculty, the sphere of which transcends the 
 objects of sense : they differ as to the method by which 
 this faculty is to arrive at its determinations. Plato doubt- 
 less conceived, that in virtue of the necessary connection 
 in which all conceptions stand to each other, we are able, 
 so soon as we have awakened one idea in our conscious- 
 ness, to arrive at the knowledge of all the rest. Aristotle, 
 on the contrary, conceived all deductive science to be illu- 
 sive which does not rest, for the truth of its fundamental 
 principles, on a previous induction from particulars. 
 Agreeably to this conviction, he begins his Ontolugical 
 speculations with the consideration of the individual, as it 
 presents itself in tjie world of sense. To the production 
 of each separate exercise, four causes are necessary : the 
 material cause, the formal, the final, and the moving cause. 
 The three latter, he seems to admit, are substantiAy iden- 
 tical, inasmuch as in Nature the end of a thing is that very 
 thing itself in its completeness: while the move 
 may be conceived as the type pre-existing in the mind of 
 the artificer, which is the same with the form which he 
 communicates to the material. We should greatly mis- 
 
 I 
 figure, or even with the notion of r nded by 
 
 the understanding. The form of a thing may be differently 
 expressed, as the law of its being, the principle of life 
 within it, which animates and gives an individual e 
 to the matter; which, on the other hand, without its pre- 
 sence, would remain a mere blank potentiality, destitute 
 of all qualities, and therefore unintelligible and' i 
 tible. This distinction between matter and form re-appears, 
 under different names, in various portions of the Aristo- 
 telian philosophy, and is with him a solution of most of the 
 difficulties in ontology and physics. He conceives it to be 
 the only u Z is et : xpkimn:; the possibility oi i thing ::e l 
 ing into existence, the difficulty of comprehending which 
 had led the electic philosophers to deny any nil: 
 ward phenomena. He himself conceives the uni 
 be eternal. With Plato, however, he strenuous!) 
 the existence of reason, as something immutable' and uni 
 versa! : co-eternal with, but unaffected by, the shitting phe- 
 nomena of the world. He differs from" that plui 
 in making tlie uni rith God, instead 
 
 of being, with its correlative being, a creation of the Divine 
 energy. 
 
 Of Aristotle's strictly physical researches we shall say 
 little. He does not himself. icefve that great 
 
 certainty can be attained in this depart n ent of unman 
 science. When, however, we remember, that, his History 
 of Animals has received very high praise from no less a 
 naturalist than Cuvier, and when we reflect that this was 
 perhaps the only branch of natural science in which he 
 was furnished with experimental data, we shall be inclined 
 to attribute the errors and deficiencies of his physical theo- 
 ries rather to the deficiencies of the Greeks in the neces- 
 sary mechanical apparatus, loan to any disqualification in 
 the philosopher himself. In his treatises on the Soul, on 
 Memory and Recollection, and on the Nature of Dreams, 
 lie has earned the perhaps still higher pi 
 created the science of Psychology, and of having discovi r- 
 ed the guiding clue to the explanation of our mental phe- 
 nomena, in the principle of association. 
 
 The third great division of the Aristotelian phi! 
 that which regards the relations of man a 
 political animal," is comprised in the Politics, the (Econo- 
 mics, the Nicomachean and Eudemian Etl 
 books entitled the Magna Moralia. In the true spirit of an 
 ancient Greek, Aristotle regards the science ot i 
 most intimately connected with that of politics. He re 
 peatedly expresses his aversion from all specie; 
 merely ideal perfection ; and his conviction that the practi- 
 cable, under the existing circumstances of humanity, is 
 the true object of ethical inquiry. Among the 
 lluenlial i amstanceS on the conduct of an indi- 
 
 vidual, is the constitution of the state to which he ma>- 
 
ARITHMETIC 
 
 .; in the spirit, and according tn the nvxima of 
 . if lie would cam the praise < f a good 
 id that a good '-.iti/.en andagooi 
 ily identical terms : they c 
 ■t'one who is ;i dutiful member of a rightly 
 onwealth. Tiic question necest 
 , "How is this perfect form ofj deter- 
 
 ,ver is, thai form of government fa the 
 
 her words, which i 
 
 '. ristotle cannot be said to 
 He has in some me 
 .1 to a definite rule of morality in the doctrine, 
 excesses. It 
 
 '•ulations: a vagueness of 
 . and apparently despaired 
 ig. I', chaps the most valuable 
 il his moral writings, is that in which he dis< 
 nestion of the relation ofhappini 
 
 ■i never l"' taken as 
 much as it is the uniform con- 
 . 1. x.) 
 ■ areful review 
 unions, ami a generalization of 
 ■• iMi their va- 
 in a careful induction from 
 and instances with which 
 
 i onse- 
 
 urious in Grecian history, 
 of their effects ore 
 writings of perhaps all who have 
 merit. 
 
 i ; that of 
 at Of 
 
 • ; editions of the I; 
 ■ '.. Of his Ancient I 
 
 mder Aphrodisiensis, Simplicius, 
 :orv of Ancient Phi- 
 
 AK1 ,imOjxos, number.) The s. 
 
 of mi: dhematics which is con- 
 
 sented with the properties of numbers. Tin' elementary 
 
 ieing necessary in li 
 ordinary affairs ol life, arc perhaps as commonly know n as 
 ding and writing, ami then 
 ■ in ; the principles, however, on which they depend 
 neral and highly refined n 
 ■ ber. according to the definition of Newton, is, 
 , only a ratio, or relation. In order to 
 exptaii . he remarked, that every magnitude 
 
 which we compare with another magnitude is either equal, 
 ar greater, or less, and, consequently, has a ■ 
 i that with which it is con pared; thai istoi 
 
 i is contained in it. in a certain manner 
 of containing or being contained 
 II number: thus the number '■> i 
 which a to another smaller than itself. 
 
 unit, and which the greater con 
 three limes. On the contrary, the fracl 
 
 : on" magnitude to another greater than itself, which 
 :en as unit, and which contains the smaller three 
 
 Having distinguished the numbers or relations ofmegnl- 
 . which we have conceived in our minds by parti 
 
 rig these rela- 
 with one another; employing lor this porpo 
 
 nished. 
 
 . the four op 
 
 plication, and division, include the whole science: for all 
 
 the differed combinations thai can be font ed of ratios are 
 
 reduci toan examination of the excess of some 
 
 i the way in which they contain one an- 
 
 I, of facilitating commercial 
 
 accm leal calcnlati iy other very 
 
 ! rules have been invented, such as the rules of pro- 
 
 portiot ' alligation, position, extraction of 
 
 hat, ou attending to the operations 
 
 ee that they are only 
 
 different applications of the four principal rules. 
 
 The particular operations of arithmetic depend in their 
 
 i in of characters by which numbers are 
 
 Our arithmetic, which Is constructed on the 
 
 m of notation, would be entirely changed if 
 
 i or fewer characters than ten were employed. The 
 
 Romans used a different notation, and their rules of arilh- 
 
 ■ ■ut from ours. Butallarithi 
 m wl t numbers may be represented, is ulti- 
 
 iced to lie- lour operations or rules already 
 
 Strictly speaking, indeed, the fundamental 
 rules may he reduced to two, addition and subtraction ; for 
 multiplication is only an abridged method of repeatedly 
 87 
 
 ARITHMETIC. 
 
 adding the same number to itself, an I division only at! 
 abridged method of repeatedly subtracting one oumbei 
 from another. 
 The numeral system of the Romans was very ill adapted 
 purposes of arithmetical calculation ; and, hence, ic 
 keeping their accounts, and in all their commercial trans- 
 actions, they made use of the abacus. The astronomers 
 of Greece contrived an ingenious system, by means ot 
 which they wi mplex arith- 
 
 1 operations, (files .Notation.) The Indian Dt 
 on which the mi m of practical arithmetic is 
 
 founded, were received from th< i I Spain, and 
 
 appeal to have been partially introduced into the other 
 countries of Europe in the fourteenth century ; but there is 
 no evidence of their having come into general use before 
 the invention of printing. The facility afforded by the In- 
 dian numerals In the perforn ance ol all numerical calcula- 
 tions has he. i .tin causes of the great and rapid 
 advances en) of n odi rn mathematl 
 
 The first i on practical arithmetic, in 
 
 which the numerals now in universal use were en ployed, 
 was written by Tartalea, and published in the 
 
 first containing the application ef 
 
 arithn - u poses of civil life; and the second the 
 
 foundations of the principles of algebra. A less perfect 
 
 iblished by Tunstall in 1326, and another 
 
 by Stifi e that time works on the 
 
 1 1 finite. 
 
 Arithmetic acquires several distinctive appellations, from 
 
 the particular manner in which it is used, or the purpose to 
 
 which it is applied : thus. 
 
 Mimetic. The art of. 
 numbers by pairs, and b) means of twi only. 
 
 invented by Leib- 
 nitz, and also by l>e Lagni, and traces ofit have been 
 in the early monuments of China. Suppose the two i ba- 
 le he 1 and u : the zero multiplying any nun ber af- 
 ter which it . '. as in the di i 
 piles the preceding number by K), the i 
 the binary scale would be represented ' e, 10= 
 two. ll='three, I00=four, loi =five, 110= six, 111= 
 
 1=11 ■ 
 
 Lie' I ic, which requires t 
 
 racter proceeding according to tba pow- 
 
 ers of ten. it is this which is univi. d by 
 
 modern nations ; the term, bowi Ily applied to 
 
 ons pro- 
 • i ten ; that 
 is, the mill is I IS divided into tenth 
 
 into hundredths, and so on. it is very remarkable that the 
 Hindoos, who have go long 
 iv notation, are .nil ignorant of its application lo fractions. 
 
 from whom il 
 were i quali. d with this application. The is 
 
 voniion of decimal fractions, which h e eft. 
 
 arithmetical systii . 
 montanus. 
 /; •' ..,„/ Arithmetic, in which the m divi- 
 
 sors Of Unity proceed according to the powers of 12, This 
 
 . lineal and si 
 In win. divided Into 12 inches, the Inch into t:.' 
 
 line..-, ftc., and is accordingly generally used by artifl 
 
 iary Arithmetic, whii 
 by the powei m of subdivision was intro- 
 
 duced into thi ol by Ptolemy, for the pur- 
 
 leal calculation, The partition ol the dr- 
 rence of the i i i eee, was probably 
 
 found. perry that the chord of one-sixth ■ 
 
 circumference Is equal lo the radius. Having divided the 
 
 ,. xa- 
 
 tturaily followed the sane division : hen 
 or prin e was equivalent lo the 360th pari ol 11 
 
 rence. Thedegreewas by analogs subdivided Into 
 lo GO second Ptole- 
 
 the !' i 1 1 1' adopting this n ethori of division 
 
 to the facility which ii affords in calculation : I his com- 
 
 ds that CO is H ' nlenl of all 
 
 nil" hers, inasmuch as being .sufficiently small it has a con- 
 
 nun her of di 
 
 Political Arithmetic The application of arithmetic to 
 
 researches connected with civil governn ent, such as (he 
 
 erof inhabitants of a country, ll" quantity of food lie- 
 nsiimplion, the labour they can accom- 
 . the n can duration oflife, the produce of the soil, the 
 or shipwrecks, ace. In applying arith- 
 metic to inquiries of this sort, we have Ihree principal ob- 
 jects in view; the first is to procure Is, the 
 frotfl the observed facts the conse- 
 quences to which they had, and the third to determine the 
 Uity both of the facts and the consequences. (See 
 Statistics.) 
 
 Arithmeha The name given by Newton •< 
 algebra, or the calculation of magnitudes in neneral. 
 operations of ordinary arithmetic are fowl lea ou lw») 
 
ARITHMETICAL COMPLEMENT. 
 
 tinct classes of principles ; the first are independent of the 
 particular signs by which numbers are expressed, the 
 second depend on those signs. The general properties of 
 numbers, which are independent of any particular system 
 of notation, form the subject of universal arithmetic. (See 
 Lardner's Treatise on Arithmetic ; De Morgan's Elements 
 of Arithmetic.) 
 
 ARITHMB'TICAL COMPLEMENT— of a number is 
 what it wants of the next higher decimal denomination. 
 Thus 4 is the arithmetical complement of 6, because it is 
 what 6 wants of 10. In like manner 43 is the arithmetical 
 complement of 57, and 432 of 568: the number and its 
 complement, when added together, always producing a sum 
 which is expressed by 1, followed by as many ciphers as 
 there are digits in the number. It is used in logarithmic 
 calculation to avoid the trouble of subtraction : for exam- 
 ple, if two logarithms are given, and a third is to be sub- 
 tracted from their sum, the whole operation may be per- 
 formed at once, by writing the reciprocal of the logarithm 
 to be subtracted, and adding the three together. 
 
 Arithmetical Mean between two numbers is a number 
 such that its excess above the first is equal to its defect 
 from the second, or it is a number equal to half their sum : 
 thus 10 is an arithmetical mean between 7 and 13. An 
 arithmetical mean among any number of quantities is found 
 by adding all the quantities together, and dividing by the 
 number. Thus, let there be six numbers, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9; 
 i mean among them is 5, for their sum is equal to 30, and 
 30 divided by 6 gives 5. 
 
 Arithmetical Progression. A series of three or more 
 numbers, such that each differs from that which precedes 
 or follows it by the same number : thus, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, form 
 an arithmetical progression, in which the common differ- 
 ence of the terms is 2. The general expression of this pro- 
 gression is a, a-\-d, a-\-2d, a-\-3d, &c. 
 
 Arithmetical. Proportion. Four numbers are said to be in 
 arithmetical proportion, when the difference between the 
 first and second is the same as the difference between the 
 third and fourth : for example, 2, 5, 6, 9. 
 
 Arithmetical Ratio. The difference between any two 
 .erms of an arithmetical progression. 
 
 ARMA'DA. (Spanish military or naval force.) This 
 name is peculiarly applied in English history to the fleet 
 assembled by Philip II. in 15SS, for the conquest of Eng- 
 land. The Spaniards, with their usual inflation of language, 
 termed it '' Invincible." It consisted of 150 s.hips, carry- 
 ing 2650 .'.urns, and having on board 20,000 soldiers, besides 
 volunteers, and 3000 seamen. The account of its misad- 
 ventures and dispersion is well known. The reader who 
 : < curious to consult a new and careful relation of this cele- 
 brated passage in history, will find it in Southey's Naval 
 History of Great Britain, forming a part of the Cabinet 
 Cyclopcbdia. The best Spanish account of the transaction 
 will be found in Herrera. 
 
 ARMADl'LLO. A Spanish epithet, applied to a genus 
 of small South American macronykous or edentate quadv 
 rupeds, characterised by a defensive armour of small poly- 
 gonal bony plates, which covers the head, trunk, and some- 
 times the tail. Linnaeus applied to this genus the term 
 Dasypus, by which the Greeks, with more propriety, de- 
 signated the hare and rabbit. 
 
 AR'MAMENT. (Lat. Armamentum.) A force equip- 
 ped for war, naval or military. In Roman antiquities, ar- 
 mameuta comprehended the rigging and tackling of a ship, 
 its sails, sailyards, oars, ropes, <fcc. Hence " Anna" de- 
 notes the sails (Virg. JEn. v. 1. 55.) and the rudder (ib. vi. 
 1. 363.) of a vessel. 
 
 ARMI'LLA. (Lat. armilla, a bracelet.) In Ornithology, 
 the coloured circle of the distal naked end of the tibia, 
 above the tarsal joint. 
 
 ARMI'LLARY SPHERE. (Lat. armilla, a bracelet.) An 
 ancient astronomical machine, composed of an assemblage 
 of hoops or circles, representing the different circles of the 
 system of the world, as the equator, the ecliptic, the co- 
 lures, <fec. put together in their natural order, and occupy- 
 ing their proper relative positions. 
 
 ARMI'MAN CHURCH. The Arminians are Christians 
 of the Eutychian or Monophysite doctrine, which recog- 
 nises only one nature in the Saviour, viz. the Divine ; and 
 th< procession of the Holy Gfrbst from the Father only. 
 They hold the seven sacraments of the Romish Church, 
 and the doctrine of transubstantiation : their clergy is also 
 divided into secular and regular. From the wide disper- 
 sion of the Arminians over the commercial regions of the 
 east, their form of Christianity is also considerably diffused, 
 although it appears to be strictly a national church of which 
 none but Arminians are members. Since the last war be- 
 iween Russia and Turkey (1829), the place where the prin- 
 cipal of their four patriarchs resides (Etchmiadzine), has 
 been transferred from the latter to the former government. 
 There is also at Conslanlinople, and in other parts of the 
 Levant, an Arminian Roman Catholic Church, owning the 
 -ipremacy of the Pope. There is a well known congre- 
 l ition of Arminian monks on the island of San Lazaro, 
 
 ARMOUR. 
 
 near Venice, who had published a variety of useful works 
 in the language of their country. 
 
 ARMI'NIANS. Those who hold the tenets of Arminius 
 a Protestant divine, born in Holland in the year 1560. The} 
 are thus summed up : — 
 
 1st. God from all eternity determined to save all who he 
 foresaw would persevere in the faith, and to condemn at. 
 who should continue in unbelief. 
 
 2d. Christ atoned for the sins of all mankind, but thost 
 Dnly who believe partake of the benefit of that atonement 
 
 3d. Man is of himself incapable of true faith ; therefore 
 regeneration by the Holy Spirit, given of God through Christ. 
 is necessary. 
 
 4th. All good works are to be attribute i to the grace oi 
 the Holy Spirit, which, however, does not force a mail 
 against his own inclination. 
 
 5th. God gives to the truly faithful the means of con- 
 tinuing such. With respect to the possibility of a defection 
 from this state of grace, Arminius and his immediate fol 
 lowers expressed themselves undecidedly : but it can « 
 afterwards to be considered a part of the character of Ar- 
 minianism to affirm the possibility. 
 
 The asserters of these opinions in Holland were vehe- 
 mently attacked by the Calvinistic party, which was pie 
 valentat the time ; and in 1610 the Arminians addressed a 
 petition to the States of Holland for protection, from which 
 they derived the name of Remonstrants. In the yeai 
 1618, nine years after the death of Arminius, the synod of 
 Dort was convened by the States General, and a hearing 
 given to both parties. The Arminian opinions were defend- 
 ed by Episcopius, divinity professor at Leyden ; but hia 
 side complained that they were unfairly treated, and the 
 conditions of the discussion violated to their prejudice. 
 They were condemned by the Synod, and treated in con- 
 sequence with great severity, being forbidden to exercise 
 the ministry in public : many of them fled to Antwerp, 
 France, and other quarters. 
 
 From this period their opinions underwent a consider- 
 able change; and the articles above stated, which seem a 
 little different from the tenets of the Lutherans, began to 
 be so explained as almost to do away entirely with the idea 
 of the necessity of succour from the Holy Spirit. From 
 hence they proceeded to reject many mutters of faith, and 
 to simplify materially the articles requisite for salvation. 
 They proposed to draw up such acomprehensive and liberal 
 scheme as should embrace all Christians, with the exclu 
 sion of the Romanists. They considered it sufficient that 
 a man should receive the Holy Scriptures as the rule oi 
 faith, and allowed each individual to interpret them for him- 
 self, only adding thereunto the necessity of moral duties 
 and good works. The Papists were excluded on the score 
 of morality, as admitting the lawfulness of persecution. 
 
 There is no longer any particular sect to which the name 
 Arminian is exclusively applied ; but the opinions above 
 stated are adopted in England by one branch of the Metho- 
 dists, who follow therein the views of their founder Wes- 
 ley, and by many individuals of the church of England, 
 and other denominations. The articles of the English 
 church have been represented by different parties as in- 
 clining both to Arminianism and Calvinism ; and Whilby, 
 and Taylor, bishop of Norwich, are among the most famous 
 of her friends who have maintained the Arminian lencts. 
 
 A'RMISTICE. (Lat. armistitiurn.) In National Law, a 
 truce or suspension of hostilities. 
 
 A'RMOUR. (Lat. armatura.) A term applied to those 
 artificial means by which man is wont either to protect 
 himself or to annoy his enemy, hence called defensive ami 
 offensive. Defensive armour includes those arms speci- 
 ally used for the defence or protection of the body, as cui- 
 rasses, helmets, <kc. The materials used in their construc- 
 tion are exceedingly multifarious, varying in many instan- 
 ces according to the products of the country in which they 
 are fabricated, but depending in general on the judgment 
 and experience of the inhabitants. Offensive arms, or those 
 used in attack, are of different kinds : 1. For cutting, such 
 as the sabre ; -2. For thrusting, such as the straight sword, 
 the bayonet, pike, lance, &c. •" 3. For throwing, such as the 
 mortar, rocket, howitzer, &c. ; and lastly, for shooting, 
 such as guns, pistols, carabines, rifles, and cannons. Lu- 
 cretius traces the progress of offensive arms very m' 
 nutely : — 
 
 " Armaautiqna manu&, ungues dentesqne fuere, 
 Et lapides et item sylvarum fragmina, rami 
 Kt fl.unms!, atque ijnes potlquam stmt cugnita prinvjm ; 
 Posterius ferri vis est, ffirisque reperla ; 
 Et prior terU erat quam ferri cognims usus." 
 
 The history of armour is identified with that of every na 
 tion ; and an elaoorate discussion of this subject woul< 
 throw great light upon questions of mythology, poetry, ju 
 risprudence and civil polity, and strikingly display tin- pro- 
 gressof civilisation. Into such, details, however, our limits 
 necessarily preclude us from entering, and we can 
 fer the reader to Mcyrick's worktpon tins subject ( 3 vols. 
 4to. London, 1S24), which the stuleht of the poln - 
 
ARMS. 
 
 manners, rod wars of antiquity and the middle ages, may 
 
 jon.sult with tireat benefit. 
 
 AJrtMS, or ARMORIAL HEARINGS. In Heraldry, the 
 
 ne on shields or coat armour. 
 
 arms arc divided by heralds into perfect 
 
 . I, Abstractor warranted by 
 
 2. Terminal, belonging to tbe brethren of 
 
 iteral, borne by brethren of the heir 
 
 Fixal. in third degree by right line of male heirs. 
 
 ited by the kiuiz, With a lordship. 2. 
 
 of a king, derived .by a herald. 3. The ensign of 
 
 i won in the field. 4. Heir female of close branch. 
 
 of bastardy. 
 
 A'RMY. (Fr.) Lit. men in arms. A body of men or- 
 
 ii. I disciplined for military service, commanded 
 
 : or leader, with subordinate officers In 
 
 gradation, and supported both in time of peace and war for 
 
 i of internal quiet and defence against tor- 
 
 eigu aggression. An army is generally divided into a cer- 
 
 Ing of brigai li 
 
 Whir, in [he field, it is 
 
 formed into tinea : the first is called the vanguard,the second, 
 
 the third, the rear-guard or body of reserve. 
 
 i . ich line is occupied by the foot: the cavalry 
 
 forms Hi. 'i wing of each line, and sometime* 
 
 d in the Intervals between the 
 
 In the history of armies we may distinguish 
 
 : three different periods: l. The ancient armies, 
 which, from the time of BeaosUis downwards, under- 
 rovements under the 
 Persians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, till they finally 
 e of perfection under the Romans, 
 of the middle ages, the offspring of the feudal 
 which, however well calculated to keep alive a 
 spirit or ferocity, opposed a formidable barrier to the revi- 
 val of the military art, from their contempt of discipline and 
 utter law I that have existed since the 
 
 : of gunpowder and the establishment of standing 
 the use of gunpowder there have been se- 
 ven principal periods in the history of the militaiy art. 
 The ursl i the early part of the fourteenth to 
 
 ; the fifteenth century. The second begins with 
 laign of Charles VIII. in Italy, and extends to the 
 commencement nf the wars in the Netherlands, compri- 
 sing III" wars of the French, Germans, and Spaniards in 
 .■Is the great war of in- 
 dependence, waged b mis. in order to shake 
 
 off the yc nd extends from 1668 to th< 
 
 l he fourth period corn- 
 rated Thirty Years' War, and extends from 
 The fifth period comprehends the wars of 
 I ■ rmany, ond the Netherlands, as well 
 - rthern and Turkish wars, and embraces the space 
 is, via. from lols to 17:m. The sixth period in- 
 ian wars, viz. from the beginning of 
 ii war in 1740, to the breaking out of the 
 Preach Revolution in 1793. During these several periods 
 provements took place in the composition and 
 discipline of armies ; but these were destined to be far 
 I in the seventh and last period, which embraces 
 the military systems and establishments of our own times. 
 In the organisation of the Continental armies great unifor- 
 mity prevails ; but as these are inseparably connected with 
 leal condition of the people, a consideration of their 
 ' lions nations, to 
 which we must refer the reader. The British army, like 
 ■ Ihe Continent, is divided into cavalry, infantry, 
 and artillery, and these again Into regiments and battalions; 
 but in Its composition and organisation an entirely different 
 
 principle is adopted. While the Continental armies are 
 1 by conscription, and every officer must have 
 Served as a private or a cadet, or have acquired some 
 knowledge of the military art in a preparatory establish- 
 ment, the ranks ofthe British army are supplied by volun- 
 tary enlistment, and commissions are, with rare excep- 
 ily attainable, with or without purchase, as a favour 
 commander-in-chief. In addition to the officers 
 attached to each separate resiment, the superintendence 
 of the whole army in its various departments and ramifi- 
 cations is entrusted to a commander-in-chief, a secretary 
 at war. a ral ofthe ordnance, a paymaster-gen- 
 
 eral of the forces, an adjutant-general, and a quartermas- 
 ter-general. There are, besides, a board of genera] officers 
 lothtngof the army, an inspector of army colours, 
 of the military college, and commissioners 
 . asylum. (For an account of armies in «m. 
 yc. Brit. art. Army ; of the British army. 
 h'a British Statistics; ofthe Russian, Italian, and 
 French ar ■■ ies. Tanski, Oudinot, and Daniel.) 
 
 A'RNOLDISTS. The followers, or rather partisans, of 
 Amold of Bresica, who in the twelfth century was the first 
 to raise met the abuses and vices ofthe papa- 
 
 cy. He acquired for a time considerable influence among 
 ■orders, and the tumults which were raised by 
 89 
 
 ARREST. 
 
 his supporters caused great uneasiness in Rome, wlucb 
 was the chief scene of his proceedings. He was finally 
 put down by an armed force, made prisoner, and burnt by 
 Pope Adrian IV. Certain heretical notions on the natur« 
 ofthe Eucharist were charged against him ; but the insur 
 rection which arose under his auspices was clearly a polit 
 leal disturbance, and his harangues seem to have been di 
 reeled rather against the morals than the tenets of th< 
 church which he attempted to overturn. 
 
 ARNOTTO. S'( e Annotta. 
 
 AKO'MA. The characteristic odour of substances, es 
 pecially the strong and peculiar odours of certain plants 
 whence the term aromatic 
 
 ARPE'GGIO anil ARPEGOIA'TO. (It. arpeg»ia:c, u 
 jiliitj on the harp.) In Music, the striking or bowing, if or 
 an mstnl i ent ol the violin species, the notes of a chord in 
 quick and repeated succession, so as to imitate the harp. 
 
 ARQUEBUSA'DE. (From arquebus, a hand /run.) An 
 aromatic spirituous lotion, applied to si rains and bruises, 
 but originally invented as an application to wounds intliclcd 
 by an arquebus. 
 
 A'RQOEBUSE, or HARQUEBUSE. A sort of hind 
 
 I by Infantry before the Invention ofthe musquet. 
 
 The wool is ol uncertain derivation: (he Italian archlDuso 
 
 is said to come from arco, a bow, and bnsio, or bugio, but 
 
 the meaning of this last seems unsettled. The word i» 
 
 used very loosely in old writers for every son of fire-arms 
 
 used bv Infantry, (hinsmithsare still called arquebusjen 
 
 man, Spanish, and Gascon infantry 
 
 i her part of the sixteenth century, the pike and 
 
 arqoebnse-men were intermixed in I iks. The 
 
 barbarous BagUsJi words hackbut, hackbutteer, which we 
 
 find in military language In the reign of Ell 
 
 rived from srquebuse, arquebusier. 
 
 first in the descriptions of the battle of Moral in 
 -iers on horseback arc mentioned in that 
 of the battle ol I'ornosa, l-l'.H. 
 
 ARRACa'CIIA. The South American name for an um- 
 belliferous plant, the arracacia esculents of botanists; 
 whose fleshy sweet roots are cultivated in Columbia and 
 
 Jamaica, in the mountainous parts of those countries, in 
 IK same way as parsnips and carrots in Europe. The 
 loots are of large size, and in quality are When cooked 
 between a sweet ihesiiut and a parsnip. Attempt- to in- 
 it into common European cultivation nave 'mi- 
 formly failed. 
 
 ARRA'CK. A spirituous liquor, Obtained by distilling 
 ■ nted produce of rice ; bat other spirituous liquors 
 I by the same name. Arrack be 
 and somewhat nauseous flavour and odour, derived from 
 a peculiar volatile oil which it contains, and which corres- 
 ponds with that which gives a sickly and di 
 to our corn spirit. 
 
 ARRAI'GNMENT. In Law, the arraignment of a pri- 
 sonerona criminal charge consists in calling Mm to the 
 bar, and (in treason and felony) making him bold up his 
 hand, or otherwise own himself to be the party charged, 
 
 reading t) dictment to him in English, and demanding 
 
 of him his plea (guilty or not guilty), and entering it ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 ARRE'ST. In Law, in execution of the command of 
 some court of record or officer of justice, n ay take place 
 either in criminal or civil cases. 1. For treason, felony, or 
 t the peace, any person may arrest without war. 
 rant or precept. Arrests by public officers may be made 
 either with or without process. Any constable, or even 
 private person, who has a warrant directed to him from a 
 justice ofthe peace to that effect, may arrest for felony ot 
 misdemeanor; and, if the warrant was given without sutli- 
 dent ground, the justice is responsible. Every warrant 
 should be under the hand and seal of a justice ofpi 
 specify Ihe day on which it was made out : it seems to be 
 rather discretionary than necessary, although it is usual to 
 specify the cause of arrest in the warrant. 2. Arrest in a 
 civil cause is by process, in execution of the command of 
 some court or officer of justice. On affidavit of a cans.- ol 
 action to the amount of 4>20 (such cause of action import, 
 ing a contract or liability, express or implied, and 
 of such contract, and a present debt overdue, unless in 
 some rare cases, in which special orders to hold tn 
 given for the causesof action), the plaintiff' obtains a writ of 
 capias, which is the proper process for tbe arrest of one or 
 more defendants who are at large. When a defendant is 
 already in custody in one of the prisons of the superior 
 courts', a writ of detainer to continue such imprisonment at 
 the suit of the new plaintiff is the proper proceeding. The 
 form and effect ofthe writ of capias (see Capias), on which 
 arrest on mesne process takes place, are now regulated by 
 the Uniformity of Process Act, 2 W. 4. c. 39. The s im 
 specified in the affidavit, the sum bona fide claimed for 
 debt and costs, and various other particularities, must be 
 indorsed on the capias. A writ of capias may, like a writ 
 of summons, be merely served on the defendant; but 
 when it is intended to arrest, a sheriff's warrant is ob- 
 
ARRIS. 
 
 jalned, on which the defendant is arrested, and a copy of 
 the writ then delivered to him. Arrest must be made 
 within the county, and at any time within four months af- 
 ter the date of the capias, except Sundays, Christmas- 
 day, and Good Friday. If the writ or warrant is so de- 
 fective as to be absolutely void, the party arrested might 
 legally resist ; but if the process were only irregular, such 
 resistance would be an indictable offence. On arrest, the 
 defendant and two sureties usually execute what is termed 
 a bait-bond, conditioned for causing special bail to be put 
 in. (.See Bail.) But instead of giving bail, he may put 
 into court the sum indorsed on the writ, together with u lur- 
 Iher sum for costs. 
 
 Arrest on a writ of execution (see Capias ad Satisfa- 
 ciendum) is an absolute and perfect execution of the high- 
 est nature against the defendant, under which the debtor 
 is imprisoned until satisfaction is made, unless discharged 
 under the Insolvent Act. 
 
 A'KKIS. (Probably abbreviated or corrupted from a ri- 
 sega, Ital. at Hie projection, or from the Saxon arisan, to 
 arise.) In architecture, the edge of two surfaces meeting 
 each other, or line of concourse of two planes. 
 
 A'RROW ROOT. The commercial name of the starch 
 obtained by washing the grated root of the masanta arundi- 
 nacea, which it yields to the amount of twenty-five to thir- 
 ty per cent. It is sometimes adulterated with potato starch, 
 and the fraud is nut easily detected; it, however, gives a 
 disagreeable flavour and smell, like that of the raw po- 
 tato, and forms a less firm jelly with hot water than when 
 the arrow root is genuine. 
 
 A/KSFNAL. (It. arsenate, from arx, a citadel.) A ma- 
 gazine of military stores, or public establishment where 
 naval and military engines are manufactured or stored. 
 
 A'USKNIC. (Grdpowtuds, strong.) A very soft, brittle, 
 and eminently poisonous metal, of a steel grey colour: its 
 sp. gr. 57. It volatilizes, exhaling a strong odour of garlic, 
 before it fuses, at a temperature of 365° F., and is easily 
 inflammable. It combines with oxygen in two propor- 
 tions: and as both compounds are sour, and form salts with 
 bases, they have been termed arsenious and arsenic 
 acids : the former is composed of 38 arsenic and 12 oxy- 
 I ; r, and 20 oxygen. Arsenious 
 acia is more commonly Known under the name ol white 
 arsenic, and is the usual stale in which this poison occurs in 
 coinmei"2 ; it is obtained during the extraction of several 
 of the metals from their ores, and is a white brittle semi- 
 transparent substance, having little taste, but is virulently 
 poisonous. Its sp. gr. is 37. It forms a dull white powder, 
 and it is in this form that it is usually sold. When heated 
 in the flame of a candle, it rises in the form of a white 
 poisonous vapour, and exhales, in consequence of its par- 
 tial rcJuction, a strong garlicky smell: 100O parts of cold 
 water dissolve about 2% of white arsenic ; but when the 
 water is boiled with the arsenic, 1000 parts take up between 
 77 and 78 ; and this solution, after standing a few days, de- 
 posits rather more than half of the white arsenic, in the 
 form of small crystals, retaining about 30 grains in perma- 
 nent solution. White arsenic dissolves in the alkalies, and 
 combines with the metallic oxides, forming a class of salts 
 called ar&enites: they are all poisonous. Of these the ar- 
 senite of potash is used in medicine, under the name of 
 Fowler's mineral solution : it is empluyed in very small 
 doses in the cure of agues, and is an effective remedy, but 
 requires much care in its administration. 
 
 When white arsenic is taken as a poison, that is, in large 
 doses, it produces violent spasmodic pains of the stomach 
 and bowels, attended by a sense of heat, and constriction 
 in the mouth and throat, an increased flow of saliva, tight- 
 ness about the head, itching of the face and neck, and nau- 
 sea. These symptoms are succeeded by vomiting and 
 purging and excruciating pains ; the pulse, at first full, hard, 
 and frequent, sinks and becomes irregularly feeble, and 
 clamminess of the skin, cold sweats, purple spots, and 
 convulsions, precede death; or if the patient escape this 
 catastrophe, it often happens that hectic fever, paralysis, 
 and mental and bodily debility, attend him for the remain- 
 der of his days. It is often said that the bodies of persons 
 poisoned by arsenic are very prone to putrefaction ; but 
 this does not appear to be always the case. After death 
 the stomach and bowels aflfrusually found inflamed, but 
 often only slightly so ; and it appears from Sir B. Brodie's 
 observations, that this poison kills by some peculiar action 
 upon the heart and nervous system. The treatment of 
 persons thus poisoned consists in promoting the vomiting 
 by an emetic, composed of a solution of 20 grains of sul- 
 phate of zinc in two ounces of water, aided by copious 
 draughts of warm barley-water or gruel ; but the most ef- 
 fective means of getting rid of the arsenic, is by the use of 
 ■ he stomach-pump, which, when immediately resorted to, 
 hag often saved the patient. The after-treatment requires 
 much circumspection. 
 
 The only ready means of ascertaining the presence of 
 white arsenic is by heating the suspected substance upon a 
 •ed-hot coal, or in the flame of a candle or spirit lamp, 
 90 
 
 ARTESIAN FOUNTAINS 
 
 when it will exhale the peculiar arsenical odour resembling 
 that of garlic ; but the treatment of persons poisoned by arse 
 nic, and its detection in doubtful cases, must be left to the 
 medical man and the chemist. It is impossible too strongly 
 to represent the evil which results from the unfetti 
 of arsenic, and from the unwarrantable use of n as 
 for rats, and as a veterinary remedy, for it is thus that it 
 finds its w.ay into culinary vessels, gets accidentally mixed 
 with articles of food, and that bottles which have contained 
 it are used for beer, wine, vinegar, or medicine: its sale 
 should be rigidly nrohibited. 
 
 Arsenic acid is more soluble and sour, but equally poi 
 sonous with the arsenious acid. Its salts are tailed arse 
 niates, and the arseniate of potash obtained by deflagrating 
 a mixture of white arsenic and nitrate of potash is occa- 
 sionally used in medicine: it is the active ingredient in 
 the tasteless ague drop. 
 
 A'RSIS and THESIS. (Gr. upais, lifting up, Bias, lay- 
 ing down.) In Music, terms used in con position, as when 
 a point is inverted or turned, it is said to move; er ursin ei 
 thesin, that is, when it rises in one point and (alls in another ; 
 properly speaking, it is the rise and fall of the hand in beat- 
 ing time. 
 
 A'RSON. (Lat. ardeo, Iburn.) At Common Law, sig- 
 nifies the maliciously and voluntarily burning the house of 
 another. This offence is now defined and regulated in its 
 various degrees by the stat. 7 & 8 G. 4. c. 30. The subjects 
 of arson are defined in two sections of this statute: the 
 first, relating to buildings of every description, the latter 
 to stacks of vegetable productions, (both these classes of 
 offences being capitally punishable,) and to crops ol corn, 
 &c. standing or cut down, plantations, heath, &c, the firing 
 of which is punishable with transportation ior seven years. 
 
 ART. (Lat. ars.) The application of knowledge or pow- 
 er to effect a desired purpose. The ancients divided the 
 arts into " artes ingenue, bona}," or " liberates," ann 
 "artes serviles." tinder the latter were comprehended 
 the mechanical arts, because these were practised only 
 by slaves. The former were summed up in the Latin 
 verse, 
 
 " Lingua, Tropus, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Angulus, Astia (" 
 
 and the latter in the pentameter, 
 
 " Rus, Ncnuis, Arma, Faber, Vuhieva, Lena, Rates." 
 
 In modern times arts are divided into fine and useful, 
 comprising under the former those which have not utility 
 for their direct or in. mediate object; such as music, poetry, 
 sculpture, &c. (For the history and description ol the fine 
 and useful arts, see the respective articles.) 
 
 ARTEMl'SIA. (Artemis, one of the names of ti, 
 Diana.) A composite genus consisting of bitter or stin U- 
 lating plants, of which wormwood, southernwood, and tar- 
 ragon form a part. 
 
 ARTERIO'TOMY. (Gr. dprripia, an artery, and' riftvu, 
 I cut.) The opening of an artery : this operation is occa- 
 sionally performed upon the temporal artery, with a view 
 of relieving inflammatory symptoms about the head. 
 
 A'RTERY. (See Aorta.) These vessels are usual!.; 
 found empty in the dead body, and were supposed by tl:< 
 old anatomists to be air tubes ; they are ran ificatlons o 
 the aorta, and convey the florid blood with a pulsating mo 
 tion to the different organs and parts of the body. 
 
 ARTE'SIAN FOUNTAINS, or ARTESIAN WELLS 
 (Fr. Puits Artesiens.) Vertical perforations of lite extcrio: 
 crust of the earth, of sn all diameter, and frequently o 
 great depth, through which subterraneous water arises U 
 the surface, often forming abundant and elevati d jets 
 The name Artesian is derived from Artois, a province oi 
 France, where especial attention has been given to this 
 means of obtaining water; but it appears, from sufficient 
 historical evidence, that wells of this kind were perfectly 
 well known to the ancients. Niebuhr cites a passage front 
 Olympiadorus, who flourished at Alexandria about th( 
 middle of the sixth century, in which it is stated lha( whet 
 wells are dug in the Oasis to the depth of two hundred 
 three hundred, or sometimes five hundred yards, rivers of 
 water gush out from their orifices of which the agrii uliur 
 ists take advantage to irrigate their lie Ids. The oldest 
 Artesian well known to exist in France is in the ancienl 
 convent of the Chartreux, at Fillers in Artois. Il 
 have been made in 1126. Others exist at Stuttgard, of 
 great antiquity, though their dates cannot be fixed Willi 
 precision. The inhabitants of the great deserl of Sahara 
 appear also to have been long acquainted with this mode 
 of obtaining water, and the Chinese are said (bui the limh 
 of the statement is questionable) to have practised it foi 
 thousands of years. 
 
 Various conjectures have been made as to the source of 
 the water which comes from the Artesian wells. It was 
 long believed that the water of the sea must nei 
 penetrate by wav of infiltration into the interior of the con 
 tinents, and at length form large bodies of subterraneous 
 waters, which, excepting for capillary influences, would 
 not rise above the general level of the ocean. Another 
 
ITESIAN FOUNTAINS. 
 
 . Cardan, and even 
 ubterraueous water, from which 
 upplied, is the 
 ueoua vapours 
 
 uience of the 
 
 re inuiided on mere 
 
 nee, and con- 
 
 . -, that ttie water of ordinary wi 
 
 -nd rivers, is supplied by the rain which 
 
 ,. and which pene- 
 
 of die ground till it 
 
 i npermeable stratum, or is collected In 
 
 it lias been objected that Bj) 
 
 on or near the summits of moun- 
 
 Btipplied in Ill's way ; but en an 
 
 m of all the circumstances, thai is to 
 
 : accurately the extent of surface at a 
 and comparing it with the 
 iin that falls annually in the same clin 
 
 instance, that tlie aqueous depo- 
 ally exceeds the supply 
 imputed that not more than a 
 ii which falls in the valley of the - 
 
 y the river; the remaining two- 
 
 lation, supply fountains and springs, or 
 
 i po ration. Tin 
 
 ■ me continental rivers roll 
 
 but a small part of the rain which 
 
 ' hat the subterraneous water is supplied 
 
 ilion, it remains to be explained 
 
 how it arrives at the situation it occupies in the interior of 
 
 I by what forces it is raised from great depths 
 
 lid the slightest attention to geol- 
 
 otries (and it is in 
 
 I different beds of rocks 
 
 mother, and ranged in a certain 
 
 follow a horizontal 
 
 try ; at other 
 
 i placed perpendicularly 
 
 trance of having been bent 
 
 ictton of apowerful force from 
 
 often 
 
 nits and Hanks of hills, to 
 
 osphere. Between the iti 
 
 i I beds of permeable sand, through which 
 
 I with them, must necei 
 
 lined part by virtue ofita »p 
 i the horizontal branches, by virtue of 
 water remaining in the elevated portions 
 this manner the water insinuates itself 
 ita; and hence we may expect 
 .here the tertiary stratification nr. 
 -riurces of subterraneous water will be 
 perpendicularly through the sur- 
 of a sandy or gravelly na- 
 : on impermeable strata. This consequence 
 v confirmed by experience. M. 
 it i:i digging for coal near St. Nic 
 
 ■ in Dieppe, seven distinct 
 
 9 of water wire found, the respective 
 
 and 100 feel 
 
 1 ; 1th, from O'JO to 710 feet ; 
 
 i i ; 7th, 1090 feet; and the occa- 
 
 very great. Similar oc- 
 
 |uent in the neighbourhood of London, 
 
 Bui it is not enough 111 
 
 ountry is such that water can percolate 
 
 ma of Artesian foun- 
 
 cnuld not be explained without supposing it to be col- 
 
 and forming subterraneous reser- 
 
 irs exist, no 
 
 can be entertained. The celebrated fountain of 
 
 nds forth at all times a stream of water suf- 
 
 nt to form a considerable river. Even in the driest 
 
 plentiful, it produces 4780 
 
 mite. After sreat rains, its product is 
 
 mean quantity emitted is 9360 cubic 
 
 ir about 5030 millions of cubic feet in a 
 
 Many oilier examp'.esof the same kind migl 
 
 : showing that water must not only be collected in 
 
 fides in immense quantities, but that it 
 
 freely from one place to another. In fact, the 
 
 i of the rocks in strata permits the water to be 
 
 ted under the surface, and to be conveyed without 
 
 s if in close p 
 
 ling to the view which has now been taken of 
 er in which subterraneous water is couecti 
 trface through a natural fissure o 
 Bcial nple result of hydrostatic pn 
 
 ■ n the acclivities of hills, or 
 i: eli es of the strata are exposed, 
 
 SI 
 
 ARTICLES OF FAITH. 
 
 and wher - iily, the rain water can be received 
 
 under beds of impermeable materials. Conceive r 
 
 of clay or rocks, as a and b, having a bed of sand or othei 
 
 matter permeable to water interposed, and suppose that a 
 la the place where the edges of the strata crop out, orwherf 
 allows a free entrance of the waier to the per- 
 meable stratum. The water at first descends through the 
 effect of gravity ; it thru passes along towards b in conse- 
 quence of the pi or part of 
 the column near d. Now sup ition to be made 
 at e, and continued till it reaches through the stratum a, 
 ;■ will naturally continue to rise till it gains the 
 same altitude as </, or at least till it reaches the surface if 
 below that altitude. The water in fact between the two 
 tie strata is in the same circumstonces as in an 
 artificial pipe ; and if the surface of the ground at e is con- 
 siderably lower than rf, the ascensional force may be suf- 
 'e jet. 
 Some Artesian fountains, for example i 
 Artois, are Ihe middle of immense plains, where 
 nt hill is to be seen on any side. In 
 ay be inquired where we are to look for 
 those hydrostatic columns whose pressure causes the rise 
 of the subterraneous water to the level of the lowest points '/ 
 
 bvious : we must si | 
 yond the limits of view; at the distance ,,i 60, I 
 miles, or even at a greater distance. The necessity of sup- 
 posing the existence of a subterraneous liquid column ol 
 two or three hundred miles of extent cannot appear a 
 serious objection, when it is considered thai 
 logical structure lias bi en found to pi i 
 even a mi extent of country. Aii i) 
 
 in by Arago, in the " Annuaire 
 du Bui !<J5. 
 
 ARTHRITIC. (Or. ipOptris. Um gout, or from apQpav, 
 
 tits. 
 AKTIlIlO'Dir. (Or. dpopuots, articulation.) A con- 
 nection of bones in which the head of one | 
 a very superficial cavity in another, so as to adn 
 tion in almost all directions; as in the joint bet\ 
 lumerai and tci 
 ARTHRCDIEJE. (Gr. apOpov, a juint.) Anal 
 rigs) which, like conferva and oscillator! 
 an articulated structure. 
 
 MtTIIKODV'MC (Gr. apBpov, ajoint.nml 6iivi),pain.' 
 
 * painful affections of the joints. 
 s/RTICHOKE. (Kharclof, the Arabic name qf the plant.) 
 A thisUe-like plant, called by botanists cynara scolymus,a 
 
 • ■, and now cultivated for its 
 "bottom," that is. for the sake of the fleshy swei 
 tacle of its flowers : the harsh hairy suberanci 
 ill of the hairy pah 
 I of the feathery pappus of the ovaries. The dried 
 artichokes, called by the French '-culs d'arlichaut," are 
 the receptacles deprived of the choke and the .-piny hard 
 hairs of the involucre, blanched by immersion in boiling 
 water and dried in the sun. Jerusalem 
 quite different j they are the tubers ofhelisnthua tubero- 
 
 -us. and derive tlie'ir name, not from the Holy City, but 
 
 corruption of I wote, a sunflower. 
 
 A'RTICLE. Apan prefixed to sul 
 
 to render their signification more or less definite. 
 
 A'KTICLF.S OF FAITH are the particular poinl 
 trine which together make up the sum of the Chi 
 lief. The various churches of Christendom, not being 
 agreed npon all these points, have for [!>■ 
 forth lheirov.il expositions of the whole; ami it ll 
 
 rmbols, or confessions, that the term article is 
 
 immonly applied. The articles ol the English 
 
 Chattel) in :ili '' 1 ' of which was first 
 
 les by Edward VI, in 1563. Under 
 
 Henry VIII. a O d been appointed fa! 
 
 teation of ecclesiastical laws, which was renewed um!, i 
 
 •nd in 1661, according to Style, "I 
 
 bishop (Cranmer) was directed to draw up a book ol am 
 
 rving and maintaining peace .and unity ol 
 
 in the church, that, being finished, they n tehl m 
 
 sei forth bv public authority." From this and the details 
 
 that follow, it seen s that Cranmer con-posed the articles 
 
 original lone, with the assistance of Hicl^y and 
 
 A great similarity in thought and expression may 
 
 be traced between many of the articles and the Iang* *«e 
 
ARUNDINACEOUS. 
 
 them under the article ^Esthetics. They are distinct from 
 the arts simply so called, commonly called the useful arts 
 from their general utility to mankind, because their end is 
 The fine arts are the offspring of genius, their 
 model nature, and their master taste. Characterised by 
 simplicity, they should never wander into luxury nor de- 
 generate into extravagance. 
 
 A 11 1 MHNA'CEOUS. (Lat. arundo, a reed.) Anything 
 having the general appearance of a reed. The term is con- 
 fined to glumaceous plants. 
 
 ARU'SPICES. Roman soothsayers, who foretold future 
 events from the inspection of the entrails of the victims 
 offered at the altars of the gods. 
 
 Their college was not held in the same respect as that 
 of the augurs, and did not consist, like the latter, of men 
 Of high distinction; so much so, that Cicero mentions the 
 admission of one of their order to the senate, as an indig- 
 nity to that body. Like that of the augurs, their art was 
 brought from Etruria. 
 
 ARVI'COLA. (Lat. arvum, a field; colere, to inhabit.) 
 A genus of rodent, or gnawing mammals, of the numerous 
 family of the rat and mouse (Maridct), distinguished by the 
 prismatic form and fangless structure of the molar teeth, 
 and of which the field campagnol (Arvicola agrestis) and 
 the bank campagnol (Arvicola ri/taria) are indigenous spe- 
 cies ; these are commonly confounded with other muriate, 
 under the name of field mice. 
 
 AS. A Roman weight nearly answering to one pound, 
 being accurately equal to 10 oz. 18 dwt. 13^ grs. troy 
 weight. It was divided into 12 ounces (uncise). 
 
 It was also the name of a brass coin, which, originally 
 weighed one pound : but was subsequently reduced by va- 
 rious degrees at different periods to half an ounce, in con- 
 sequence of the gradual increase of the value of meta as 
 compared with that of provisions and other necessaries, as 
 civilisation advanced. Its value was a little more than three 
 farthings of English money. 
 
 A'SAPHUS. (Gr. dtratphi, obscure.) A name devised to 
 express the obscure nature of the genus trilobites, fossil 
 crustaceans, to which it is attached ; and which is charac- 
 terised by a tail-like appendage terminating the posterior 
 extremity of the body, sometimes of a semicircular form, 
 sometimes in the shape of a short triangle, and by tuber- 
 culoid eyes, which have a granular surface arising from the 
 number of compartments (at least 400) on the surface of 
 the cornea, containing each a separate spherical lens. 
 
 ASARABA'CCA. (Asarum, a kind of plant, and Dacca, 
 berry.) A small, round, hard, stemless. hardy European 
 herbaceous plant, with chocolate-coloured three-lobed 
 (lowers, be.tmging to the natural order Aristolochiaceaa. 
 It is reputed to be a sternutatory. The French call it caba- 
 ret, the public-house plant, as it is said, because it was 
 formerly used as an emetic to relieve the stomachs of peo- 
 ple who had been drinking too hard. 
 
 A'SARIN. A crystallisable substance, somewhat re- 
 sembling camphor, extracted from the roots of the Asarum 
 Europretim. 
 
 ASBE'STITS. (Or. atsflttjroc. utictmmtmable.) A fibrous 
 Roft mineral, composed of easily separable filaments of a 
 silky lustre. It consists essentially of silica, magnesia, and 
 lime. It la sometimes woven into cloth, which is incom- 
 bustible, and may therefore be purified by fire : hence the 
 term amianthus, from diiiavroc, undefined. This cloth was 
 used in antiquity to wrap the bodies of the dead when about 
 to be burned, to prevent their ashes being mixed with those 
 of the funeral pile. 
 
 ASCA'LAPHUS, A Fabrician genus of insects sepa- 
 rated from the ant lions (mi/rmeleon) of Linnams, and cha- 
 racterised by having nearly equal palpi ; maxilla ciliate ; 
 labium hornv, rounded, and entire. 
 
 ASCA'RIDES. (Gr. d<7*api?, a term applied by Hippo- 
 crates to certain intestinal worms.) In modern Zoology re- 
 stricted to a genus of round worms, or caelelminthans, with 
 a trilobate or trivalvular head, and a double spiculum for 
 the intromittent organ. Two species of this genus infest 
 the human body; one large, found in the small intestines, 
 called Ascaris lumbricoides; the other of very small size, 
 found in th° rectum, called Ascaris vermicularis. 
 
 ASCE'NDING. (Lat. ascendo, I climb up.) Is said of 
 any part which, being horizontal at its base, gradually 
 curves upwards, as is the case in many stems. If applied 
 to ovules, it m^ans that they are attached to the placenta 
 by a point interme liate between the lower end and the 
 middle. 
 
 ASCENDING NODE. In Astronomy, is that point of a 
 pianet's orbit in which it crosses the ecliptic, proceeding 
 northward. (.S^e Node.) 
 
 ASCENDING SIGNS. The signs are said to bo ascend- 
 ing when they are eastward from the meriian, and conse- 
 quently approaching the meridian through the effect of the 
 diurnal rotation. 
 
 ASCE'NSION. In Astronomy, is either right or ob- 
 lique : the Right Ascension of a star denotes the arc of 
 93 
 
 ASCIDIUM. 
 
 the equator intercepted between the first point of Aries and 
 that point of the equator which comes to the meridian at 
 the same instant with the star. The most convenient way 
 of ccfining the place of a star is to refer it to the equator, 
 and to a certain fixed point in the- equator from which the 
 degrees are begun to be reckoned. For this purpose 
 astronomers choose the point of the equalor at which the 
 sun's path crosses it when he ascends into the northern 
 hemisphere, which is the first poitit of Aries, or the vernal 
 equinox, and reckon the degrees along the equator east- 
 ward, all round the circle. Now, to determine the plane 
 of any star, a great circle is conceived to pass through it. 
 intersecting the equator at right angles. The distance of 
 the star from the equator, measured on the circle, is called 
 its declination; and the distance of the pointof intersection 
 of the equator and the circle from the vernal equinox, fa 
 called the right ascension of the star. The right 
 and declination are thus the two co-ordinates by means of 
 which the plane of any star is determined. The right as- 
 cension is reckoned in time, because it is found by un- 
 serving the time on the sidereal clock which el 
 tween the passage of the first point of Aries and thai of the 
 star over the meridian. When the first point of Aries 
 passes the meridian the astronomical day begins ; astrono- 
 mers then reckon hours min. sec. Suppose a star to 
 come on the meridian 5 hours 35 min. 26 sic. after this : 
 then 5 hours 35 min. 26 sec. is the star's right ascension in 
 time, and is equivalent to an arc of the equator of 83° 51' 
 30", because an hour in time corresponds to 15° in space, 
 and a minute or second in time to 15 minutes or .seconds in 
 space. If the clock, therefore, is regulated to keep time 
 with the heavens, the time indicated by the clock at which 
 any star passes the meridian is the right ascension of the 
 star in time. 
 
 The Oblique Ascension of a star is the arc of the equa- 
 tor intercepted between the vernal equinox and that point 
 of the equator which comes to the horizon at the same 
 time with the star. This varies with the latitude of the 
 place of observation At the equator it coincides with the 
 right ascension. This term is now seldom used in astro- 
 nomy. 
 
 Ascensional Difference is the difference bet ween the 
 oblique and the right ascension. This term Is chiefly used 
 in respect of the sun, because when the arc which it de- 
 notes is turned into time it shows the time befoi 
 six o'clock of sunrise. The sine of the ascensional differ- 
 ence is equal to the tangent of the latitude multiplied into 
 the tangent of the star's declination; hence, when the 
 declination of a star is north, its oblique ascension is found 
 by subtracting the ascensional difference from the right as 
 cension, and when the declination is south, by adding ('.,. 
 ascensional difference to the right ascension. 
 
 On account of the greater precision with which 
 tionsare made with fixed meridional instruments, all as,:,.. 
 nomical elements are now computed from observations of 
 right ascension and declination ; but in ancient 
 positions of the celestial bodies were chielly referr 
 horizon, and hence the oblique ascensions and a» 
 differences entered constantly into the solutions ,,f astro- 
 nomical problems. 
 
 Ascension. The reception of our Saviour into glory, 
 after his last appearance on earth : celebrated in the Chris- 
 tian church, from time immemorial, on the last Thursday 
 but one before Whit-Sunday. Rogation week, that in 
 which the ascension is celebrated, is so termed from the 
 rogations (petitions orlitanies) which were used in the per- 
 ambulation of the bounds of the parish, which, according 
 to ancient usage, took place in this week. 
 
 ASCE'TICS. (Gr. dented), I exercise.) Persons who. in 
 the early ages of Christianity, devoted themselves to a soli 
 tary and contemplative life, following the system of the F.a- 
 senes and Therepeutaj among the jVws. and practising 
 great austerities, with a view to mortify t he flesh and ah- 
 stractthe mind from worldly objects. They had their oris'n 
 in Egypt and Syria, and appear to have suggested the firs! 
 idea of monachism. 
 
 A'SCI. (Gr. daKdc, a bottle.) Little membranous hags 
 or bladders, in which the seed-like reproductive particles 
 or spores of lichens, fungi, &c. are enclosed. 
 
 A'SCIANS, or ASCII. " (Gr. d. without, and oKta. ahadotr 
 A term found in fheolder works on geography, and used ;■- 
 denote those inhabitants of the globe who at certain tinv"i 
 of the year have no shadow. This can only happen will 
 respect to the inhabitants of Ihe torrid zone, who, 
 year, have the sun In the zenith. 
 
 ASCI'DIAN, ASCIDIA. (Gr. doitS;, a bottle, » 
 A genus of heterohranchiate acophalous molluscs, or lun ; - 
 caries, characterised by a body having the form an 
 monly the consistence of a tough leather pouch, 
 to some foreign substance, and with two openn 
 branchial, and the other anal, from which grri 
 water are forcibly ejected when the animal is ten, -bed or 
 irritated. 
 
 AS'CIDIUM. (Gr. dtrxds, a bottle.) A ho 
 
ARTICLES OF WAR. 
 
 tjl the A : the Xllh Article (oa justifira- 
 
 ler had previously writ- 
 
 eel in private memoranda. There has been 
 
 1 as to the authorities from 
 
 ■ Wiuh Article (on predestination) is derived; 
 
 for while s jme persons have interpreted expressions in it 
 
 a, others have denied 
 
 uch interpretation, and have undertaken to 
 
 I Cranmer must have referred in the composition 
 
 of the article to the writings and sentiments of Luther and 
 
 Lhon. 
 
 Elizabeth these articles were remod- 
 srehbishop Parker, who omitted four of them, in- 
 i altering seventeen. These 
 . some alterations 
 r reduced to thirty ■ 
 . \Xl.\ih was restored in a final review by Parker 
 id then imposed on the clergy for subscription, 
 that in the manuscripts and eat 
 ne important variation in the ail 
 rejection of the first clause of the XXth Article, the author- 
 ity of wliii-li may be considered as virtually recognising 
 ina it. 
 ARTICLES OP WAR, the code of military law embo- 
 
 \ ■■:, which is , 
 ARTl'CI ILATED. (I.at. articulus, a joint.) Literally 
 hi articulation or moveable joint; but in 
 i where parts are so slightly con- 
 . finally fail asunder. Tims a leaf is said to 
 villi its stalk when the two finally fall asun- 
 der. \ flower-stalk is articulated in the middle when it is 
 iratcs there into two parts. 
 led disarticulatim:. It is a curions 
 fact that the articulation of plants uniformly takes effect 
 tudinal or woody tissue, and never parallel 
 with it; i lole, in a stem at its nodes, in the 
 
 middle of legumes and other kinds of seed vessels. 
 ARTI'CULATES, ARTHTILA'TA. A term applied by 
 vision of the animal kingdom, cha- 
 i by an external skeleton in the form of a aeries 
 rid surrounding the body; by 
 nervous system ; the ganglinus being 
 lelrically along the middle line of the body 
 jJANOLiATA), and by having distinct respiratory 
 
 ARTICULATION. The connection of the bones of the 
 
 i by joints. 
 
 AbtioulatioS. In Painting and Sculpture, the movea- 
 
 hi the representation of which 
 
 by the ariist the greatest skill and knowledge of anatomy 
 
 is required. 
 
 ARTI'CI LATE, or HOMot; v'NGLIATE. Division of 
 
 lal kingdom. Bee those words. 
 ARTIFICER. (Lat ars, art, and facio, Imakt.) Lit. 
 one wlii art. Among the Romans, ar- 
 
 tificers had peculiar privileges. They possessed their own 
 nd enjoyed an exemption from personal service. 
 lires intellectual refin 
 the exercise of his profession, in contradistinction to arti- 
 san, wiii may practise either the fine or useful arts, but 
 Ige is limited to the general rules of his 
 trade. 
 ARTI'I.l.ERY. (Fr. artiller, to fortify.) In a general 
 notes all kinds of missiles used in wan 
 the machines by which they are propelled. Since the in- 
 iwder, however, the term has been chiefly 
 confined to large ordnance, namely, cannon, howitzers, 
 mortars, . with their carriages, ammunition, 
 
 and apparatus or all kinds, including also the troops espe- 
 cially appointed for their management. 
 
 ncipal military engines of the Romans, which can 
 be properly clawed under the term artillery, were the 
 balista and catapulta; the former for throwing stones, the 
 latter for propelling darts and arrows. The invention of 
 the balista is ascribed by Pliny to the Phoenicians ; but 
 other authors, among whom are Diodorus and Plutarch, 
 say that both instruments were invented in Sicily. ^Slian 
 'hem to Dionysius the elder. They were very 
 I) employed in the latter periods of the republic, 
 »nd under the empire. In the middle ages, engines for 
 tasaulllng and defending fortified towns or castles were 
 greatly multiplied. Among these inventions are enume- 
 rated the espringal, trebuchet, mangona, mangonel, bricol- 
 la, petrary, metafunda, berfrey, war- wolf, <fcc. It is staled 
 in the chronicle of Peter Langtoft, that Richard I. in his 
 wars against the Saracens, had mills in his barges and gal- 
 leys which were turned by the wind, and threw fire and 
 stones upon the enemy. If the accounts given of the ef- 
 fects of some of these machines may be credited, they 
 must have been of great power, and well adapted to the 
 purpose of battering down walls and fortifications. It is 
 related by Hemingford, that the engines used by Edward I. 
 at the siege of the castle of Stirling, threw stones of 300 
 pounds weight. 
 92 
 
 ARTS. 
 
 Though the explosive force of gunpowder was known to 
 Roger Bacon in the twelfth century, it was at a considera- 
 bly later period that nre-arms began to supersede the an- 
 cient artillery. Barboui. in his "Metrical Life of Robert 
 Uruce," says that cannon were used by Edward III. in his 
 first campaign against the Scots, a. d. 1327. Du C'ange 
 says they were employed by the French at the siege of 
 Puy Guillaume in 1336 ; but they must have been at that 
 time very uncommon, for Rapin relates that the four can- 
 non employed by Edward 111. at the battle of Ciessy, in 
 1346, contributed as much by the surprise they occasioned 
 to the French troops as by their execution, to the suc- 
 cess of the day. A few years later they seem to have 
 been no longer rare. The niost ancient cannon were 
 formed of bars or pieces of iron, soldered to each other 
 
 16, and bound together by iron hoops ; i 
 ally lead, or even leather, protected in the same manner, 
 appears to have been employed ; and the cannon balls were 
 made of stone. About the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 cannon ba ist ; and it was about the end of the 
 
 same century that font metal, or bronze, was tir<t used for 
 this purpose. In l 13 r, when Louis XI. was about to attack 
 the cities of Flanders and l'icardy, he ordered bombards 
 or cannon of prodigious length and weight to be cast at 
 Paris, Tours, Orleans and Amiens He also ordered iron 
 bullets to be cast at the foundries of Creil, though stone 
 bullets were still in use. Brass cannon appear to have 
 been first cast in England by John Owen, in 1~>35. A foun- 
 dery was al~ d about the same time in Edin- 
 
 burgh, by Robert Borthwick,an artist in the serviceof James 
 IV. of Scotland. Mortars were made in England under the 
 reign of Henry VIII. and cast iron cannon under that of 
 Edward VI. About the beginning of the 15th century, the 
 custom of applying to cannon the name of birds or !< 
 from some fanciful anal'-, tng their cruelly oi 
 
 swiftness, began to prevail; thence the names falconet, 
 falcon, sacker, culverin, basilisk, dragon, syren, i.e. At 
 present cannon take their names simply from the weigh, 
 of the ball they carry. Thus a piece which discharges a 
 Cast-iron ball of 24 pounds, is called a 21-poumJer ; one 
 that carries a ball of 12 pounds, is called a 12-pminder; and 
 so on. The size of the gun is determined by the service 
 to which it is appropriated: and frequently by the means 
 of transport, or facility of manoeuvring. Ship guns and 
 garrison guns, not requiring to be moved from pjaco to 
 pl ue, admit of large sizes, and are frequently made to 
 carry balls of 32, 3ti, or even 42 pounds. The largest can- 
 non known to exist is a brass one at Beejapoor, which was 
 In commemoration of the capture of that place, by 
 Alum Geer in 1065. Its extreme length is 14 feel 1 inch, 
 the diameter of its bore 2 feel 4 inches. An iron shot of 
 the proper size to fill this bore would weigh 1600 pounds. 
 
 Mortars are probably as ancient as cannon, and were 
 employed to throw red-hot iron and stones long before the 
 InveaMon of shells. The first account of shells used for 
 military purposes is in 1435, when Naples was besieged by 
 is VIII The howitzer is a species of ordnance of a 
 m -hum length between the cannon and the mortar, and in 
 csed for discharging either shells or large balls at point- 
 blanc, or at a small elevation. It is said to have been In- 
 vented by Belidor, and was used at the siege of Ath in 
 16'J7. It is chiefly made of brass. The carronade, a very, 
 short howitzer, was first cast at the Carron Iron Works; 
 from which it takes its name. It began to be employed 
 about the year 1779. Iron-rockets, the invention of Sir 
 William Congreve, were first used at the bombardment of 
 Copenhagen. (See Wilkinson's Engines of War ; Greener 
 on Gunnery ; Greener on the Gun, <kc.) 
 
 ARTILLERY PARK. The place in a camp, or the rear 
 of an army, where the artillery is placed. The artillery ' 
 drawn up is dues, one of which is formed by the guns, 
 the others by the ammunition waggons, pontoons, &c. • 
 and the whole is surrounded by a rope, which forms the park 
 
 ARTILLERY TRAIN. A number of pieces of ordnanc* 
 mounted on carriages, and ready for service. 
 
 ARTISAN. See Artificer. 
 
 ARTOCA'RPEjE. (Gr. aproc, bread, xapirds, fruit 
 breadfruit tree.) A considerable division among urti 
 caceous plants, having the fruit composed of flowers com 
 bined in fleshy heads, and the stem flowing with »r. acrio. 
 milk. The bread-fruit tree of the South Sea-:, and the jack 
 fruit, are among the most conspicuous sp'cies. With them 
 are associated the upas tree, and the fig, in different genera. 
 The bread-fruit tree itself (artocarpus incisa) is a small 
 tree with broad lobed leaves and large globular heads of 
 fruit ; the jack (artocarpus integrifolia) has oblong undivided 
 leaves, and a large, coarser, and oblong fruit. In all tl.e 
 species of artocarpeai the flowers are unisexual. 
 
 ARTS, FINE. (Lat. artes.) Works imagined and exe- 
 cuted by the mind and ingenuity of man. They include 
 painting, architecture, sculpture, poetry, music, rhetoric, 
 and, according to some, dancing. Their history, as res- 
 pects the three first, will be found under several heads 
 in this work, and a concise account of the philosophy of 
 
ASCITES. 
 
 shaped body found upon the stems of certain plants, as ne- 
 penthes, sarracennia, <ic. It usually contains water, and is 
 sometimes clothed willi reflexed hairs, which prevent tVie 
 escape of insects which fall into it; its use is unknown. 
 nthes. sarracennia. cephalotus, and dischidia, it is 
 in reality a leaf rolled up till its edges touch, when they 
 c:;w ogether; in marcgraavia, it is a bract in tne same 
 state 
 
 Af-iTTES. (Gr. do-*:o£.) Dropsy of the belly. 
 
 ASCLEPIADA'CETE. (Asclepias, one of the genera.) 
 Monopetalous exogenous plants, with bifollicular Iruit, the 
 stamens adhering to the stigma, which is large and i ;nta- 
 gonal, and an acrid milk in their stems. They are exceed- 
 ingly different in appearance, some being trees with showy 
 il iwers, others obscure twiners with very inconspicuous 
 Herbaceous corollas, others herbaceous plants with clusters 
 of gaily coloured llowers, and others leafless decumbent 
 shrubs with angular stems and brown putrescent flowers. 
 The latter are stapelias. Hoya, with its delicate waxen 
 lowers running with honey, is a genus of the order; and 
 another is the curious climbing water carrier called dischi- 
 dia. which mounts to the tops of lofty trees with its fleshy 
 bags filled with a constant supply of water. Some of the 
 species arc valuable for tin' toughness of the fibre extract- 
 ed from their stems. The milky secretion of these plants 
 contains caoutchouc, or Indian rubber; it is of an emetic 
 nature, and in some cases it is dangerous. Asclepias tube- 
 rosa, the butterfly weed of North America, is the hand 
 comest of the hardy species. This order only exists in 
 temperate climates, and is most copious in the tropics. 
 
 ASH. (Celt, ac, a point ; its wood being used for pikes.) 
 The fraxinus of botanists, consists of several species of 
 hardy trees, usually valuable for their timber. The tough 
 ash wood of carpenters is yielded by Fraxinus excelsior, 
 and the sweet substance called manna by Raxinus ornus. 
 They mostly bear flowers without petals; but the latter 
 species having those organs is called, in distinction, the 
 (lowering ash- 
 
 A'SUI.AR. (Ital. asciare, to chip.) In Architecture, 
 ■ommon freestones, as they are brought rough and chip- 
 - en or detached from the quarry, of different lengths and 
 thicknesses, Their usuai thickness is nine inches. 
 
 ASHi.ERING. (From same as last.) In Architecture, 
 the upright timber or quarters towards the rooms or in 
 wards in garrets by which the slope of the roof is con- 
 cealed — sometimes it is only two or three feet high, and 
 sometimes the whole height of the room. 
 
 ASH WEDNESDAY. Tlie first day in Lent, called in 
 the l.alin church dies cinerum, the day of ashes ; it being 
 customary on that day for penitents to appear in church 
 clothed lit sackcloth, upon which occasion ashes were 
 sprinkled upon them. 
 
 ASI'1,1 S. A Linna?an genus of dipterous insects, in 
 which the mouth is furnished with a horny, projecting, 
 straight, two-valved sucker, and gibbous at the ba's* an- 
 tennas filiform, approximate, of two articulations; body, 
 oblong and conical in shape. The insects of this genus 
 prey on other insects, especially those of the dipterous and 
 tepidopterous orders. 
 
 ASP. (Gr. dffrrif, an asp.) A species of poisonous ser- 
 pent frequently mentioned by ancient authors, some of 
 whom describe its bite as being ineviiably mortal, and say 
 that the bitten die within three hours, and without pain, 
 being thrown into a deep sleep ; whence it was selected 
 by Cleopatra as the instrument with which at once to ter- 
 minate her existence, and bereave her conqueror of the 
 chief feature of his triumph. There is always much diffi- 
 culty in identifying the precise species mentioned in the 
 classical writings of antiquity, from the vague manner in 
 which they are there alluded to. Some naturalists are of 
 opinion that the species of hooded viper, called by the 
 modern Arabs 'El Haje' [Vipera (Naja) Haje, Cuvier] is 
 the ' Aspis ' of the ancients ; and as il possesses the power 
 ding the skin of the neck, like the Indian Cobra 
 m < apello, it agrees with one of the characters assigned by 
 Pliny to the Aspis—" Colla aspidum inlumescere," lib. viii. 
 the size, however, of the Haje, which varies from three 
 to five feet, is greater than that which is usually attributed 
 to Cleopatra's asp. 
 
 ASPA'R AGIN. A white crystallisable substance obtain- 
 f'l trom the expressed juice of asparagus. It has been 
 '■""» «B e< ") as n diuretic > n medicine. 
 
 ASPA'RAGUS. (Gr. cTrapaaaoi, / tear.) A genus of 
 spiny plants, many of winch are shrubs, and climb upon 
 other plants. They all have minute scale-like leaves small 
 white or greenish flowers, and berried fruit; very often 
 they prouace short leafless branches, in room of leaves 
 Asparagus officinalis, one of the few species which neither 
 climb nor bear spines, is found wild occasionally on the 
 seashore near Weymouth. The succulent shoots which it 
 throws up from its underground eyes are the asparagus of 
 the market gardeners. It is not a little singular, that al- 
 hough this plant has been an object of careful cultivation 
 (or so many years, it should never yet have produced a 
 
 ASSASSINS. 
 
 well-marked permanent variety; the sorts, as they aie 
 called in the shops, are produced by casual differences of 
 soil or cultivation, and are not distinct varieties, 
 ASPARA'GINOUS PLANTS. In Hort. Inastri 
 
 this term ought to be applied only to such plants as belong 
 to asparagineae; but in horticulture it is used to signify ail 
 those culinary vegetables the points of the tender shoots 
 of which in spring, when they nearly emerge from the 
 soil, are eaten, in the same manner as those of asparagus. 
 such, for example, as the points of the common hop, oi 
 the sea-kale, &c. 
 
 ASPA'RTIC ACID. When asparagin is boiled with mag- 
 nesia it is resolved into ammonia and a peculiar acid called 
 as above. 
 
 A'SPECT. In Architecture, the direction towards the 
 point of the compass in which a building is placed. The 
 aspectus is also used by Vitruvius to denote the external 
 distribution of a temple. Thus he describes seven sorts 
 of aspects of temples: that in Antis, the Prostyle, Am 
 pliiprostyle, Peripteral, Dipteral, Pseudodipteral, and ilv- 
 petnral ; under which words they are severally described 
 
 Aspect. In Astrology, the angle formed by the rays of 
 light proceeding from two planets, and meeting at the earth, 
 and which are supposed to possess some natural influence. 
 (iice Astrology.) 
 
 Aspect. In Hort. In speaking of the inclination oi 
 the surface of the ground, the word aspect is us 
 reference to tne sun, as the word exposure is with re- 
 ference to the wind. Hence, a garden, the so 
 which slopes to the east, has an eastern aspect, and also 
 an eastern exposure ; but a garden on a flat surfs 
 tered by plantations on the east, west, and north, cannot he 
 said to have any aspect, while it has a southern exposure, 
 being open to the winds of the south, though 
 from those blowing from the other cardinal points of the 
 compass. 
 
 ASPERGI'LLIFORM. (Lat. aspergillus, the brush with 
 which holy water is scattered about in Roman Catholic place, 
 of worship.) Any thing shaped like that instrument; it i 
 chiefly used in speaking of the stigmas of grasses. 
 
 ASPERGI'LLUM. A genus of tubicolar Bivalves, chant 
 terised by the soldering of both valves to the inner surfac; 
 of the calcareous sheath ; which is dilated or club-shaped i 
 the lower end, and perforated there by many small i.ule.- 
 whence it has obtained the trivial name of the " Watering- 
 pot Shell." In the system of Cuvier, this rare and re- 
 markable genus ranks among the Family Otausa, of the 
 Class Acpphaln testacea. 
 
 ASPERIFO'I.L'E. (Lat. asper, rough, folium, a leaf.) 
 The name given by Linnaeus to the plants now called lie- 
 raginaceous. 
 
 ASPE'RMOUS. (Gr. d, without, o-iripjia, seed.) Destitute 
 of seed. 
 
 A8PHA'LTUM. (Gr. d, priv. and er^oXXu, / slip, from 
 its use as a cement in ancient building.) A black brittle bitu- 
 men, very fusible and inflammable ; it is soluble in naphtha, 
 and forms a good varnish. It is found upon th 
 and banks of the Dead Sea (hence called Asphaltic Lake), 
 and in large quantity in Trinidad and Barbadoes ; the anci- 
 ents employed it in some of their cements, and it was used 
 also in tlie art of embalming. 
 
 ASPHODE'LEjE. (Asphodelus, the principal genus.) 
 Subdivision of the natural order Liliaceae, compn 
 the onion, the squill, the ornithogalutn, anthericu 
 ragus, and similar genera. They differ from true liliaceffi 
 in little beyond their flowers being usually smaller. (.See 
 
 Llt.IACE.'E.) 
 
 ASPHY'XIA. (Gr. d, without, and of€( t s.puk 
 
 faintingfit: a state of body in which tlie pulse cannot be 
 felt, and in which the powers of mind and bony are sus- 
 pended. 
 
 ASPIDORTRY'NCIHTS. (Gr. dams, a shield, fiyx°ti 
 a lira/:.) The name of a fossil extinct genus of sauroid 
 fishes characterised by the length and bony covering of the 
 upper jaw. 
 
 ASSAFCETIDA. A fetid gum resin obtained from the 
 root of Iheferula assafaztida, whence il exudes by incision 
 in the form of a milky juice, which, when dried by expo- 
 sure to the sun, acquires a mottled appearand 
 colour. It is a native of the south of Persia, and ; 
 medicine as a stimulantand antispasmodic in hy 
 nervous disorders, and in spasmodic coin:, 
 flatulent colic. 
 
 ASSA'I. (Ital. enough.) In Music, an adverb of quantity 
 prefixed to such words as allegro, adagio, <fcc . signifying 
 that the motion of the bars or measures should b 
 a mean rate of quickness or slowness, quick or slow 
 enough, hut not too much so in one or tin- other 
 
 ASSA'SSINS. Those who attack and kill by I 
 and violence persons unprepared for defence. 1 
 is derived from a military and religious order. 
 in Persia by Hassan lien Sabah. about the middle of the 
 eleventh centnry,and called Assassins from the)'' immode- 
 rate use of Haschischah (henbme \. which produced an ex- 
 
 
ASSAULT. 
 
 .tin; to fary. Hammer, In his History of 
 ome new and striking vlewB af 
 ;. Their 
 iiintaiiis : and they w 
 
 rol of a prince, or, according to Ifamnv r, a 
 
 tid the mosl implicit deference 
 issination meritorious 
 l by his mandate, and con. 
 uii, in the execution of his ord 
 to humble prey ; for the more lofty the ob- 
 waa their 
 mustered to the 
 hstacle to 
 mans. Among the victims of their 
 I, may be mentioned Con 
 murdered in the mai 
 St vera! historians Iuh 
 hard 1. the Instigation to this crime , but it is a 
 i elucidating. 
 
 itributions 
 
 1 by the sultan Bib ■ 
 
 I. the order of 
 lured long after 
 
 lose who 
 d in 
 
 ineofthe 
 m, and utter strangers 
 
 i the Assassins, 
 ■ 
 
 iturous character 
 ■ he Syrian 
 Hammer, they 
 ives. 
 
 In Law, gene- 
 fered to a man's 
 
 lawyers being of opinion that a blow or an 
 
 fence, others in- 
 
 rritating or abusive language. 
 
 carry a fortified 
 
 the assailants do not 
 
 . any works. During an assault, to 
 
 , parly, the batteries of the as- 
 
 li play. 
 
 mock engagement with foils, 
 i tubal. 
 
 try.) This lerm is sometimes 
 
 . iiotiytnous with analysis, but more gene- 
 
 I to the determination of the composition 
 
 of alloys of gold and silver. From 
 
 ly of coin, plate, and trin ntly fabri- 
 
 ing is of much importance. 'and re- 
 
 onsiderable practical skill in its performance. At 
 
 ro assay masters, the master's as- 
 
 sayer and the king's assaycr: the business of t! 
 
 Ive the gold and silver ingots brought for coinage, 
 to cut one or more pieces from each ingot, and to make writ- 
 is of each assay. The er examines the 
 lara previous to their passing into the moneyenr 1 
 
 purity : and when the money is coined it is not allowed to 
 go out of the mint until pixed ; that is, until it has been as- 
 certained, by the assay of one piece taken out of each 
 ioorneyweight of coin, that it is of standard purity: the 
 therefore is a check officer upon the melter 
 the moneyers. and is responsible for the standard 
 purity of all gold and silver coin issued from the mint. 
 About twelve grains of gold, and twenty grains of silver, 
 are usually employed for the assay. 
 ASSE'MBLY. In French history, the four great legisla- 
 es which succi ither during Hie period 
 
 of the Revolution, are usually termed, l. The National or 
 . 17th of June. 1789, by 
 ution of the deputies of the communes In the 
 ives a national assem- 
 bly, to which li. ihe nobles and clergy after- 
 Ihered; termed Constituent Assembly, from hav- 
 ing framed a constitutii 
 
 lilution by the King, 30th ier, 1791. 
 
 2. The Legislative Assembly: it commenced Its sittings 
 ended the royal authority by its dc- 
 the 10th of August, 1792; andwasdlsao 
 i. 1792. •'!. T Convention): 
 
 it commenced its sir er 21, 1792, with a pro- 
 
 clamation of the Republic ; wa di solved I Brumalre, 4th 
 year of the Republic (Oct. 26, 1795). -1. Two-thirds of this 
 assembly were then included in the new body of the 
 tif," which commenced its sittings Oct. 27, 
 1795, forming two councils, 1. of 500 (ties Cinq-cens); 2. of 
 
 ASSOCIATION. , 
 
 the Ancients (des Anciens), 250 in number. The latter 
 body named the Directory. This assembly subsisted until 
 'li of the Directory by Bonaparte, 19 Drum. 
 8th year of the Republic (Nov. 10, 17'.t'J). {See Direc 
 TOST.) 
 
 Assembly, the General, of the Kirk of Scotland, is the 
 highest ecclesiastical court of that establishment It meets 
 annually in May, ami sits for U . with 
 
 power to appoint a commission to take c of any 
 
 undecided within that period ; the commission 
 in fact a continuation of the assembly, with one additional 
 minister named by the moderator. The assembly con- 
 sists of repp- urghs, 
 and universities of Scotland, and from the churches i 
 
 Indies connected with the Kirk: in all about 360 
 members. '1 ;■ Is attended by a 
 
 nobleman as representative oi the kim:. with the title of 
 Lord High Commissioner; who. however, takes no part 
 in Ihe aerator, or president, is 
 
 nobly 
 is a court of appeal | nod. 
 
 VSSE'SSMENT OF DAMAGES. See Damages. 
 
 ■ »R. In Law. i knowledge 
 
 of the law, appoint am of 
 
 the judge. In various inferior courts assessors are ap- 
 pointed by w iployed, previously 
 to the Reform i 
 
 on the cases submitted to his cognizance al the period n 
 an election, By the Municipal Corporation Relorm Ac* 
 (5 & 6 \V. 4. c. 70. s. o7.) the burgesses of every boron:''., 
 are directed to elect two r the purpose of as- 
 
 sisting the mayor in his IS lists 
 
 And, by sect. 4'J, the bur- 
 id' each ward are to elect ; - for Ihe pur- 
 pose of assisting the alderman at the want elections. 
 A'SSETS. In Law, arc the fund out of which a de- 
 ! person's debts are to be paid. Assets by descent 
 are liable to those debts only which are secured by 
 
 alty, as bond OI covenant binding the party's heirs; 1 
 
 sets in the hand of executors or administrators are liable 
 to all ' • 
 ASSIE'NTO TREATIES In R 
 
 ■ I European nations (first 
 Portugal, then France, and after the | lit in 
 
 1713, England), to supply her South American colonies 
 with negro slaves from Afrii a. wi re so termed. 
 
 18SI GNATS. P French go- 
 
 vernment at various periods during the Revolution. I 
 on the security of the unsold lam 
 
 i me forfeit to 
 1ENT. In Law. Is the total alienation of a 
 I interest : which, by the third section ol 
 i Is. must be, if of'a term bj wri 
 
 ad signature. Assignee la the party to whom at 
 
 -IMII.A'TIOV (Lat assimilalio.) The act by which 
 
 organised bodies Incorporate foi I con- 
 
 vert them iuio their own proper substance. 
 
 aSSI'ZE. (From the Norman Fren ssion.) 
 
 1. In.! bsolete, an ordinance or constitution of 
 
 the sovereign : thus, the code of feudal law framed for the 
 kingdom oi Jerusalem is termed the Assize's de Jerusa- 
 ordinancea n ad and 
 
 other necessaries, were also called Assizes. 3. The peca 
 liar jury by which a writ of rinht was tried, was termed 
 1. In the only sense word 
 
 is now an existing law term, the assizi peri- 
 
 odical session held by the judsf lor courts in 
 
 the counties of England, lor the purpos f trying I 
 
 at nisi prius arid delivering the gaols. {See Courts, Sit 
 
 PERIOIi.) 
 
 ASSO'CIATION. In Psychology, a i to thai 
 
 property of our minds, by winch any object or stale of con- 
 sciousness (whethi i 'ion) has a 
 tendency to recal otl 
 
 with which it has been previously in some way connei 
 The conditions under which this tendency exists were first 
 stated by Aristotle, in his "Treatise on '.Memory and Re 
 collection." According to him they are threefold, consist- 
 ing of Resemblance, Contrast, and Contiguity. If by the 
 last word we understand connexion In space and time, and 
 that of cause and effect, this division is the same with that 
 (riven by Hume, and adopted by modern philosophers. 
 The principle of association has been applied by Hartley, 
 Sir. I. Mackintosh, and other writers on ethics, to explain 
 the origin of our more complex emotions, and in particular 
 moral sentiments. 
 Association. In Politics, a society formed of a num- 
 ber of individuals acting under common rules and an elec- 
 tive government, for the accomplishment of some definite 
 The principle of association is so obvious as to 
 need no comment or explanation. But its practical devel- 
 opement in politics and ethics in modern times, owing in 
 great measure to the facility of communication and diffu 
 
ASSOCIATION. 
 
 jfon of intelligence, is a feature in society of vart and daily 
 increasing importance. The value of a combination of 
 means and wills is plain and undeniable, — Firstly, in cases 
 where the object pursued is pecuniary advantage. Under- 
 takings which it would be impossible for individuals to 
 embark in, either from the great actual outlay required, or 
 the great amount of pecuniary responsibility imposed 
 (such as the establishment of banks, great public works, 
 distant commercial enterprises, &c), arc every day carried 
 into effect with success and profit by companies. Second- 
 ly, in cases where the object is to raise and direct the dis- 
 posal of a large amount of funds, with a view to the accom- 
 plishment of certain ends. Such are associations for pur- 
 poses of education, for the distribution of Bibles, charitable 
 institutions, <fce. <fcc. And thirdly, we may mention a class 
 of associations, common In all times, but which have far 
 more frequently failed with actual loss than accomplished 
 their object ; associations, namely, for the purpose of con- 
 trolling the rate of profit or of labour. (See. Combination.) 
 But besides these ordinary instances of association, the 
 present times appear more peculiarly favourable to the 
 formation of societies having in view the accomplishment 
 of political or moral objects, by controlling the action of 
 governments or individuals. These are wholly distinct 
 from those which we have before enumerated. Their 
 purposes do not generally require a large outlay, nor (ex- 
 cept in some occasional contingencies) much actual and 
 definite co-operation. Their main object generally is to 
 overrule by a display of associated numbers ; occasionally 
 also to bring combined energies to bear upon particular 
 points. They serve to concentrate the action of the wills 
 of many separate individuals, by inducing every man to 
 abandon a portion of his own peculiar views, and take up 
 instead of them the views of the majority of his co-asso- 
 ciates. Of this character were, in France, the clubs which 
 exercised so great a power during the Revolution ; and 
 those which, in calm times, are said to have contributed 
 materially towards bringing about the second revolution of 
 1830 : the society " Aide toi et le ciel t'aidera" more espe- 
 cially. In England, the history of political unions and as- 
 sociations of late years is abundantly well known. The 
 most powerful that we have hitherto seen was the famous 
 Catholic Association, formed in May, 1823, dissolved in 
 March, 1829, when its great object, the passing of the Ca- 
 tholic Relief Bill, was attained. Of associations having 
 moral instead of political objects, and falling within the 
 category last described, perhaps (if we exclude the Free- 
 masons, from the want of any definite purpose which ap- 
 pears to distinguish them) the Temperance Societies of 
 late years afford the most singular examples ; the more re- 
 markable, because their great end is one which (except in 
 a very few instances, such as the exclusion of spirits from 
 snips, &c.) cannot be attained by combined action, unless 
 in so far as it may influence the action and will of indi- 
 vidual men. 
 
 It is impossible to deny the power of political associa- 
 tions ; and it cannot be wondered at that they are regarded 
 favourably by the state in such countries as America, 
 where the principle of democratic associations pervades 
 everything ; with distrust by aristocratic governments, in 
 which the power of a ruling class is exposed to danger from 
 their attacks ; and altogether suppressed as far as possible 
 under arbitrary governments. Yet it may be questioned 
 whether the tendency of modern opinion is not greatly to 
 overrate that power. It is essentially of a temporary cha- 
 racter. At the moment of a doubtful crisis in politics, the 
 expression of the will of an associated multitude will often 
 turn the scale through the mere weight of intimidation. 
 But even with the best organisation, they seem to be radi- 
 cally unfit for the accomplishment of objects requiring un- 
 tired zeal and perseverance. In the first place, by fettering 
 the individual will of their members, they destroy a great 
 portion of the collective energy in the attempt to concen- 
 trate what remains. No mind capable of achieving great 
 objects ever voluntarily works in the trammels of an asso- 
 cialion. They become therefore, for the most part, passive 
 bodies, guided solely by the will and management of a few 
 individuals among th.-m, who are flattered by the exercise 
 of a power resembling sovereignty, but who are them- 
 selves, perhaps, rather fettered than aided in their activity, 
 by the necessity of managing the large masses which they 
 drag along with them. Perhaps no history affords so re- 
 markable an example of the apparent splendour and real 
 weakness of political associations on a large scale, as that 
 of the Jesuits. Their company was formed on an admi- 
 rable organisation ; it had one precise object, the spread of 
 the Uoman Catholic faith ; one definite principle of union, 
 implicit, obedience : the means put within its reach were 
 enormous. It spread and flourished amazingly, exerted 
 the most boundless activity, and excited naturally'the most 
 exaggerated fears among its opponents. And yet it would 
 be difficult, to say in what it has contributed to the objects 
 it had in view. It has made no conquests over Protestant- 
 ism ; for in Bohemia, France under Louis XIV <fec where 
 9C ' 
 
 ASSURANCE. 
 
 it made the greatest show of effectiveness, its operations 
 merely followed in the train of military oppression or state 
 persecution. It has effected no permanent conversions 
 among the heathen. It has done little or nothing, notwith- 
 standing great show and immense expense, in the way of 
 national education on Roman Catholic principles. Its 
 learned men, with few exceptions, have done still less to- 
 ward advancing the cause of true knowledge. Nor has a 
 single mind of great originality and power been developed 
 within the boundaries of the institution. 
 
 Nor is it possible to speak without great doubt of the mo- 
 ral good produced by the extension of the spirit of associ- 
 ation. Some valuable remarks on this subject will be found 
 in an article of Dr. Channing, reprinted from the North 
 American Review, with the title "Remarks on Associa- 
 tions." "One of the most remarkable features of our age," 
 he says, " is the energy with which the principle of combi- 
 nation, or of acting by joint forces in associated numbers, 
 is now manifesting itself. Men have learned what wonders 
 can be accomplished in certain cases of union, and seem 
 to think that union is competent to anything. You can 
 scarcely name an object for which some institution has not 
 been formed. Would men spread one set of opinions and 
 crush another! they make a society. Would they improve 
 the penal code, or relieve poor debtors'! they make socie- 
 ties. Would they encourage agriculture, or manufacturers, 
 or science ? they make societies. Would one class encou- 
 rage horse-racing, and another discourage travelling on a 
 Sunday 1 they make societies. We have immense institu- 
 tions spreading over the country, combining hosts for parti- 
 cular objects. We have minute ramifications of those so- 
 cieties, penetrating everywhere, and conveying resources 
 from the domestic, the labourer, and even the child, to the 
 central treasury." — " Associations often injure free action 
 by a very plain and obvious operation. They accumulate 
 power in a few hands, and this takes place just in propor- 
 tion to the surface over which they spread. In a large in- 
 stitution a few men rule, a few do everything : and, if the 
 institution happens to be directed to objects about which 
 controversy exists, a few are able to excite in the mass 
 strong and bitter passions, and by these to obtain an im- 
 mense ascendency. Public opinion may be so combined, 
 and inflamed, and brought to bear on odious individuals oi 
 opinions, that it will be as perilous to think or speak with 
 manly freedom as if an inquisition were open before us. It 
 is now discovered that the way to rule in this country is by 
 an array of numbers, which no prudent man will like to 
 face. Of consequence, all associations aiming or tending 
 to establish sway by numbers ought to be opposed. They 
 create tyrants as effectually as standing armies. Let them 
 be withstood from the beginning. No matter whether the 
 opinion they intend to put down be true or false, let no 
 opinion be put down by such means : let not error be sup- 
 pressed by an instrument which will be equally powerful 
 against truth, and which must subvert that freedom of 
 thought on which all truth depends." 
 
 A'SSONANCE. In Rhetoric and Poetical Composition, 
 ajingle or imperfect rhyme, formed by separate words, or 
 members of a sentence. 
 
 ASSU'MPSIT, or trespass on the case on promises, in 
 law, is an action of an anomalous character, having the 
 form of tort and the substance of contract it Is, properly, 
 a claim of damages sustained through the breach of a sim- 
 ple contract (i. e. a promise not under seal), and alleges 
 that the defendant assumpsit promised or undertook to 
 perform the acts specified. It has become the most ordin- 
 ary remedy, not only where unliquidated damages, but also 
 where debts are sued for; the law implying a promise to 
 pay or do whatever the defendant is legally liable to pay 
 or do. 
 
 ASSU'MPTION. A festival of the Romish church, kepi 
 on the 15th of August, in celebration of the alleged miracu- 
 lous ascent of the Virgin into heaven. 
 
 ASSU'MPTIVE ARMS. In Heraldry, such as may be 
 assumed with the approbation of the sovereign, or grant 
 from the proper officers of arms : also, in another sense, 
 armorial bearings improperly assumed. 
 
 ASSU'RANCE, or INSU'RANCE. A contract for the 
 payment of a certain sum on the occurrence of a certain 
 event. The term assurance is generally confined to thos. 
 contracts under which a certain sum "is to be paid on tin 
 death of an individual or individuals now living ; while in 
 surance is applied to those which provide for the | 
 of a sum on the occurrence of events not depending on the 
 duration of human life, and which may never happen, such 
 as the loss of ships at sea, the destruction of houses by 
 fire, <fec. 
 
 Assurances on Lives, are contracts which stipulate fu 
 the payment of a certain sum of money on the death of 
 one or more individuals, in consideration of an immediate 
 payment, or, more frequently, of an annuity or annual con- 
 tribution, to be continued during the existence of the lives 
 assured. Contracts of this kind are of immense impor- 
 tance to society. Every man whose income depends on 
 
ASSURANCE. 
 
 nis own life or exertions, and on whom others are depen- 
 dent i<ij- support, must be sensible of the aih 
 
 ments by means of which, at a small sacrifice of im- 
 
 provlde 
 totally ditler- 
 
 than the continuance of an individual I 
 
 than the duration of lifi 
 
 lequenlly, the exact value of life assurai 
 
 ■ iiit any uncertainty whatever, and a man, 
 
 ::ilii es, 
 
 ■v would have 
 
 destilu- 
 cumulation ni capital ; they 
 . in all well-go- 
 value 
 . in nearly the same 
 ing the 
 i mortality must lirst be se- 
 ; living 
 ving obtained these, 
 erest, we proceed as follows : let 
 it an individual of a given age wdl live 
 
 I, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. years, 
 
 !'•■> T'3, P*i P 5 ) &c. respectively ; 
 
 i be the rate of Interest, and v = 
 
 1+r 
 
 and siip- 
 
 1 is to be paid at the end of the 
 
 year in which the I w, the value of Xlto be re- 
 
 r is r, but it will not be re- 
 
 mtinues to the end of the year; and as 
 
 itv that the individual will live over the year is 
 
 tat he will not live over it is 1 — pi,thcre- 
 
 £1 to be received at the end of the year, 
 
 of the life failing in the first year, 
 
 pi.) r. The probability that the life will continue to 
 
 tnd that it will contini 
 
 lore pi — )M is the chance it will drop in 
 
 ind the value of £1 to be received at the 
 
 ■,l X to be ret eiv< i it the life fails in the second year is 
 ke manner, the probability that the life 
 
 v» L tw m the third j ear is 7*2 — p3; and the value of £>\ to 
 end of three years is e>, therefore the 
 to be received" at the end of tlm. 
 
 if the given life fails in the third year, is (p2 — -p3) r3. 
 
 miii. ntinued from year to year, till the proba- 
 
 ailiiy of living over a year becomes nothing, Now, the 
 of the assurance is manifestly equal to 1! 
 
 if all Its partial values for the different years; therefore, 
 
 lending the value by I, we get 
 
 I = (I — pi) v + (pi — p2) r 2 + (jfi — p3) V 3 + &c. 
 
 ot, separating this into two series, 
 
 I = v (1 + p< v + p2 1-2 + p3 r3 4- Sec.) 
 — (pi v + pi «2 + p3 r3 + &c.) 
 
 But it is shown in the article Annuity that the series pi v 
 
 + pS r 2 -(- p3 r3 -f- &c. denotes the value of an annuity of 
 
 XI on a life, tlie probabilities of the continuance of which 
 
 are n i therefore, calling this annuity A, 
 
 v.e have 1 = r (1 -f A) — A. 
 
 Since v = , this formula becomes by substitution 
 
 1+r 
 
 ! = _L_<l-r A). 
 1 + r 
 
 The sum now found is what ought lobe paid down, in or- 
 der t.i receive XI on the failure of the given life; but by 
 far the most usual practice is to pay for the assurance by 
 means of an annual premium, the first payment being imme- 
 . and the others ai the end of each successive year. 
 Lei jbe the annual premium: then the value of all the 
 prenn nsly the same thing as the 
 
 value of an annuity of the same amount, and is. conse- 
 quently, equal to t A. Hence, the value of all the pre- 
 miums is x -f -r A. nrr (1 -f A), Which is necessarily equiv- 
 alent to the assurance. We have therefore the equation 
 «r(l + A) = c(l + A) — A. whence it = t>— A 
 
 1+A 
 
 This formula la very easily computed when we are in 
 possession of a table of annuities, and it shows at once the 
 annual sum which an individual of any age ought to pay, 
 In order to secure to his representatives £\ (and, conse- 
 quently, any other sum) at his death. 
 
 Temporary Assurances. The values of temporary assu- 
 rance menta to pay a certain sum in case a given 
 Individual dies within a given number of years, are easily 
 found from those on the whole of life. For example, let it 
 oe required to find what sum ought to be paid for £1, to be 
 97 
 
 ASTHMA. 
 
 received if an individual now aged 40 shall die within seven 
 years. I 00 of XI to b death of 
 
 I, and V the present value of the same sum, 
 . aged -I". Seven year.-; 
 after this the value of an assurance of XI on the dei 
 person now aged 40 will be I": but the pre 1 
 
 end of sevi n y< are is t? 7 ,tr(ic] 
 the probability that the life will continue seven years is p7 ; 
 value of P, on the contingency thai 
 the life will not fail within seven years, is;-" vt I" ; 
 bog this from 1, the value of £\ to be received cei 
 his death, there remains 1 — 71" ffl 17, to denote the valui 
 of the temporary assurance. This may he expt 
 the following rule. Multiph tl 
 
 in the given fife by the present value of XI. 
 
 d also by the probability that 
 
 the given life will survive seven years; subtract the pro- 
 
 life, and the 
 
 der is the en y< ara 
 
 le pa) ment. 
 In order to find the equivalent annual payment, it must 
 
 ■ (ted that the first payment is made imn 
 
 and that seven payments are to be made in all; conse- 
 quently, all the payments alter the first are 
 potrary annuity of the same amount for six years, or one 
 than the given term; consequently, if v repre- 
 sent the annual nr< mii.m. and A' .1 :> mporarj annuity of 
 
 XI for one year liven titni. Il 
 
 the premiums to be 1 ~ + it A' 6r ir (1 + A'), 
 
 which by hypothesis is equal to thi assurance ; cot 
 
 ly, to find the annual premium, We Lave to divide the 
 value of the temporary assurance in a single payment bv 
 1 + A'. 
 
 In the same manner, the value of an assurance on 
 any number of joint lives is found : it is only ni 
 substitute for A in the above formulas, the value of an an- 
 nuity on the joint lives. Thus, let M be the valui 
 nuity, to continue while A and 11 both live, th( t" (1 + M) 
 — M Is the value of all assurance to be paid at il 1 
 
 in which the first of the two lives shall foil, and the 
 
 equivalent annual payment is r — 
 
 1 + M 
 
 A very important class of assurances comprehends those 
 in which the contract is to pay a sum on t] 
 
 ' Ided that : ther party shall he then alive. The 
 
 compulation of the values of su.'li < ■ now hat 
 
 more Intricate, anil cannot he explained Without 
 
 into details respecting the manner of Combining tin- proba- 
 
 bilities of life, which our limits will not permit (See A 
 
 Familiar Explanation of the - 
 
 portance 1 upon Lives, by Lewis Pocock,8v«. 
 
 1842. A! n, on Probabilities.) 
 
 iininces on ships H iNsruANCE. 
 
 ASSU'RGKNT. (I.ai a.-surgere, torisevp.) Rising; In 
 a curve from a decurved base, 
 
 A 'STAC I H. (Lai, astacus, a lobster.) The name of a 
 Fabririan genus of insects, and now the type of a family 
 (.Astacidni of Decapod, Macronrous, or long-tailed Crusta- 
 ceans: including the lobsters (Astacvs Leach), ttl 
 
 us Leach,) and the cray-fish or spiny lob- 
 sters (Palhittrius I.cach). The distinguishing chai 
 derived from the antennae, the two pairs of which are in- 
 serted in the same horizontal line; the in 
 ing moderate or long footstalks, terminated by two fila- 
 ments; the outer ones naked, or furnished will 1 
 which never entirely conceals the base. 
 
 A'STERISK. b Diplomatics, a sign in the figure of a 
 star, frequently met with in ancient Latin manuscripts, 
 and seeming to serve various purposes ; sometimes to 
 denote an omission, sometimes an addition, sometimes a 
 
 ■ liich appeared remarkable on any account to the 
 copyist. 
 
 A'STERIBM, in Astronomy, denotes a collection of stars. 
 It was formerly used in the" same sense as constellation, 
 but is now generally appropriated to any small cluster of 
 stars, whether forming part of a particular constellation, or 
 Oth era 
 
 A'STEROI'DS. A fantastical name by which the four 
 small and recently discovered planets, namely, Juno, Veata, 
 :'nd Pallas, have been sometimes designated. 
 
 ASTK'RN. (A, and stern.) A sea term, denoting, in 
 the hinder part of the ship, or behind the ship. 
 
 ASTHE'NIC. (Gr. d, trithmit, and adtvos. strength.) 
 Asthenic dls( asea are those which are prominently marked 
 bv great anil direct debility. 
 
 A'STIIMA. (Gr. doO/iatvb), I breathe hard.) A 
 the leading symptoms of which are difficulty of breathing 
 coming on at intervals, accompanied with cough, and more 
 tpectoration. The fit most frequently occurs in 
 the night during the first sleep, suddenly awaking the pa- 
 lasting for three or four hours or more It is a 
 terrible, but in itself rarelv a fatal disease, though it often 
 lays the foundation of organic, mischief. Its proximate 
 cause has not been very clearly ascertained. 
 G 
 
ASTOMOUS. 
 
 A i?TOMOTJS. (Gr. a, without, and crrSfia, a mouth.') i 
 Ceit3»i mosses whose theca has no aperture. 
 
 A'STRAGAL. (Gr. dorptivaXoc, a die or huckle bone.) i 
 'n architecture, a small moulding whose profile is semi- 
 circular. Some have said that the French call it talon, 
 ami the Italians tondine ; bu! this is a mistake, and the 
 word is only properly applied to the ring which separates 
 (ho capital from the column. The astragal is sometimes 
 cut into representations of beads and berries, and a similar 
 sort of moulding is used to separate the faces of the archi- 
 trave. 
 
 ASTRA'GALTJS. (Gr. darpdyaXo;, a die.) The ancle 
 bone. The ancients used the corresponding bones of ani- 
 mals as substitutes for dice. 
 
 AiSTRJE'A. (Gr. ao-rpov, a star.) A genus of lithopby- 
 tnus Polypes; the polypiary or calcareous skeleton of 
 h is characterised by sessile, star-shaped lammellate 
 colls, crowded upon the upper surface. The species are 
 divided into rayed Astrea: (Ast. radiatm), with the stars 
 separated from the base ; and toothed Astrea;, (Astrece 
 denticulatcb), with the stars contiguous. 
 
 A'STROI.ABE. (Gr. aarpov, a star, and \&n0avco, I 
 take.) A circular instrument used for taking or observing 
 the stars. The ancient astrolabe consisted of two or more 
 circles, having a common centre, and so inclined to each 
 other as to enable the astronomer to observe in the planes 
 of different circles of the sphere at the same time. For ex- 
 ample, if the circles were at right angles, the instrument 
 would give both longitude and latitude, or the right ascen- 
 sion and declination of a star. The equatorial, the altitude 
 and azimuth instrument, and the theodolite, are instru- 
 ments which answer the same purpose as the ancient as- 
 trolabe. Ptolemy changed the form of the ancient instru- 
 ment, and reduced it to a plane surface, to which he gave 
 the name of planisphere ; and, from this circumstance the 
 term astrolabe has been used in modern times to denote a 
 planisphere, or stereographic projection of the sphere on 
 the plane of one of its great circles. 
 
 ASTRO'LOGY. (Gr. aarpov, a star, and \6yos, dis- 
 BOr/rse.) According to its derivation, this term should sig- 
 nify the science or knowledge of the stars. Originally, the 
 terms astrology and astronomy were used indifferently in 
 'he same sense ; but for a long time the former has been 
 employed to denote the vain and superstitious study of 
 predictions and horoscopes ; while the latter has been re- 
 served to denote the true science of the celestial motions. 
 According to Lalande, this distinction began to be observed 
 in the time of Clement of Alexandria, that is, in the se- 
 cond century. Astrology is generally coupled with the 
 epithet judicial, from the judgments drawn from it relative 
 to future events. 
 
 Judicial astrology is supposed to have had its origin in 
 Chaldea, whence it passed into Egypt, Greece, and Italy. 
 The desire of penetrating into futurity is so congenial to the 
 human mind, that this pretended science has found favour 
 in all ages and countries : and it is a remarkable fact, that 
 astronomy, which demonstrates the frivolity and absurdity 
 of its predictions, was Jong indebted to it for the principal 
 part of its own progress. Kepler, in the preface to the Ru- 
 dolphine Tables, observes, that astrology, though a fool, 
 was the daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and 
 life the foolish daughter was indispensable. At the present 
 day it is only among the most ignorant vulgar, or the unen- 
 lightened tribes of Asia and Africa, that astrology is held in 
 esteem ; but the triumph of sound science and the spirit 
 of philosophy has been slow and difficult. So late as the 
 year 1705 the conductor of "the Connaissance des Terns" 
 thought it necessary to apologise for the absence of all pre- 
 dictions in that astronomical work, by stating that the 
 Academy had never recognised the solidity of the rules 
 which were given by the ancients for discovering the fu- 
 ture by the configurations of the stars ; and, what is still 
 more surprising, the first lunar tables calculated according 
 to the Newtonian theory were intended to be subservient 
 to the calculation of nativities. 
 
 Astrological predictions are founded on the positions or 
 aspects which the sun, moon, and planets have relatively 
 to each other at the moment of bird), or some other criti- 
 cal period ofaperson's life, and certain arbitrary influences 
 supposed to belong to each of those bodies. For the pur- 
 pose of facilitating the determination of the aspects, the 
 whole heaven visible and invisible, is divided into twelve 
 equal parts by the horizon, the meridian, and four other 
 circles passing through the north and south points of the 
 horizon, and the points of the equator (or rather the prime 
 vertical, or sometimes the ecliptic, for the practice was not 
 uniform), which are at the distance of 30 and 60 degrees from 
 the meridian. These equal spaces are called the twelve 
 houses of the heavens, and the circles by which they are 
 circumscribed are called circles of position. The circles of 
 position are supposed to remain fixed, so that a celestial 
 body is carried through each of the twelve houses in the 
 course of a day by the diurnal rotation. The first house is 
 contained between the eastern horizon and the next circle of 
 98 
 
 ASTRONOMY. 
 
 position, going to the eastward ; consequently the seventh 
 will commence with the western horizon, and the tenth with 
 the meridian or culminating point of the ecliptic. The be- 
 ginning of the first house, or the point of the ecliptic just 
 rising, is called the horoscope. The first house is the 
 house of life; the second, of riches; the third, of brothers; 
 the fourth, of parents ; the fifth, of children ; the sixth, of 
 health ; the seventh, of marriage ; the eighth, of death ; 
 the ninth, of religion ; the tenth, of dignities ; the eleventh 
 of friends ; and the twelfth, of enemies. Each of thE 
 houses has one of the heavenly bodies as its peculiar lord. 
 They have also different powers, the strongest of all being 
 the first, and the next in power the tenth ; so that if two 
 planets are equally powerful, ceteris paribus, that will pre 
 vail which is in the stronger house. 
 
 Having made the preliminary arrangement of the hea- 
 vens, the next object is to consider the aspects or configu- 
 rations of the influential bodies. Aspect, as defined by 
 Kepler, is the angle formed by the rays proceeding from 
 two planets, and meeting at the earth, and which have the 
 property of producing some natural influence. The wr 
 cients reckoned five aspects, namely, the conjunction de 
 noted by the character cj , the opposition by § , the trine by 
 A, the quadrileby Q , and the sextile byX- These names 
 and characters, besides several others added in more re- 
 cent times, are retained in our almanacks to the present 
 day. In the aspect of conjunction the angle made by the 
 two planets is ; in the opposition it is 180°. The trine is 
 the third part of a circle, or 120° ; the quadrile is 90°, and 
 the sextile (30°. With regard to the influences of the as 
 pects, they are benignant, malignant, or indifferent. The 
 quadrile and opposition are considered as malignant or ad- 
 verse ; the trine and the sextile as benignant or propitious ; 
 and the conjunction an indifferent aspect. 
 
 It now remains only to ascribe certain influences to each 
 of the planets., and to suppose all animals, plants, countries, 
 <fcc. subject to their control, in order to obtain an idea of 
 the nature of the astrological art. The influences ascribed 
 to the planets were of course as arbitrary as those ascribed 
 to the aspects. Saturn being at the greatest distance from 
 the sun, was supposed to be of a cold nature ; Jupiter, 
 Venus, and the Moon, temperate and benignant. Saturn 
 and Mars were the most dangerous. The Sun and Mcr 
 cury participated in the properties of the one and the other, 
 according to circumstances. But these influences wen 
 exerted in an infinite number of ways, according to tht 
 houses which the planets happened for the time to occupy. 
 
 It would be superfluous at the present day to adduce any 
 serious argument against a system of imaginary influences 
 and arbitrary rules, having no other foundation than the 
 ignorance and superstition of mankind, and contradicted 
 by every result of true science, and every dictate of com- 
 mon sense. The celestial bodies pursue their courses in 
 obedience to unalterable laws; and the legitimate business 
 of the philosopher is to discover those laws, to trace out 
 their consequences, and to apply the results of his dis- 
 coveries to alleviate the wants or multiply the comforts of 
 humanity. 
 
 ASTRONOMY. (Gr. aarpov. a star, and vfy(OC, a law.) 
 The science which treats of the motions, distances, ar- 
 rangement, and magnitudes of the celestial bodies ; of 
 their constitution and physical condition, and, in general, 
 of whatever can be known respecting them. 
 
 There is no branch of human knowledge of which the 
 results appear at first sight more at variance with the im- 
 pressions of our senses. The first aspect of the heavens 
 leads us almost irresistibly to imagine ourselves placed in 
 the centre of a starry sphere ; which, in its diurnal revolu- 
 tion, carries along with it all the heavenly bodies. But the 
 changes of relative position which some of the most re 
 markable among them continually undergo, soon make it 
 evident that they do not all belong to the same sphere. 
 Further observation and reflection lead us to conclude 
 that the apparent daily revolution of the firmament is 
 merely an illusion occasioned by the diurnal rotation ol 
 our own earth, which, instead of remaining fixed at the 
 centre, is carried forward about the sun with a velocity of 
 about 19 miles in a second of time, more than eight timet 
 that of a cannon-V)all when it leavesthe mouli of a cannon 
 The sun, which appears to be of very moderate dimen 
 sions, is a body whose volume is 1,364,470 tin 
 than thatof the earth, and placed at a distance of 95,000,000 
 of miles; and the stars, which even in the best tell scopes 
 appear only as luminous points, are bodies of the same 
 nature as the sun ; many of them, probably, far surpassing 
 it in magnitude. 
 
 Different Classes of Heavenly Bodies. By far the greater 
 part of the celestial bodies appear to lie fixed in the firma- 
 ment, and to preserve invariably the same relative posi 
 tions. These are the fixed stars. A second class com- 
 prehends a small number which are continually shifting 
 their positions among the stars, and are perceived to ac- 
 complish a complete revolution of the sphere in stated 
 
CRONOMY. 
 
 of time. Hence tliey were caii 
 is. wandering stars, from a Greek word signifyin 
 
 irbtts, very nearly circular, about the 
 sun. Some of them are aci 
 
 revolving round them, as the moon revolves round the 
 .. and which an- called Satellites, ot attends 
 
 Is bodies differing greatly from 
 
 iw mentioned, and which s> .libit very 
 
 nces. 'i'liesi tt. Like 
 
 are obedient to the attraciive force of the 
 
 sun; bui I inch they describe are ex 
 
 i. and they are only visible when near the sun. 
 distant or uncertain Interval*, and 
 a short time; ami consequently then 
 is very imperfectly known. The sum. 
 . and' cornels form a system of which all the 
 l are connected with and act upon one another in 
 ; universal gravitation. (£ 
 .s, Sun, and the other terms, in their res- 
 laces.) 
 
 curiosity, without reference 
 old prompt mankind to study the 
 the va-t machine which rolls over our 
 but the applications of astronomy to the affairs of 
 a numerous and important, that an accurate know- 
 us principles is aim able to society. 
 1 i. It is i re arc ena- 
 etermine the relative positions of points on the 
 e irih ; to fix gi atttudes and Ion- 
 ma of our 
 .' I, It is to astronomy that v 
 
 out an ac- 
 and motions of the 
 itble for the mariner to 
 tore In safety beyond the sight 
 With this kl can direct his 
 
 course with unerring certainty to any given coast; and the 
 (his science, would present an in- 
 Ihe intercourse of distant countries, 
 tiway of nations/' 3d, A 
 ■nts us with the means of establishing the divl- 
 tune necessary for the regulation of civil affairs, 
 ■ pocha. The diurnal revolu- 
 tion of in ■> the smaller divisions of time; the 
 in ol the moon gives the month ; that of I 
 
 < nous configurations of the planets 
 mark out periods of all magnitudes, from a few months or 
 i millions of ages. 
 
 ui/. The first object of the astro- 
 nomer i with all possible precision, the ap- 
 parent places of the stars, or their projections on the 
 :i order to obtain an accurate knowledge of their 
 motions and periods. Hut it is not enough to have 
 Ir positions and motii : ! : - of ob- 
 i m ide at different places and distant times must 
 tared, In order that we maybe enabled to distill- 
 orients which are real from those which are 
 '■id depend on our own position wl 
 
 \tid when the real paths described 
 by the different bodies have thus been determined, we arc 
 next led to investigate the causes of the phenomena, and" 
 of the mechanical forces necessary to pro- 
 o. Elence, Ihe science of astronomy may be di- 
 vided into ■'ilionul, and physical: the first em- 
 ill that ia neces3ary for determining the 
 : the second b 
 and the third to the physical causes by which the 
 lated. 
 ranomy. In order to determ'ne the positions 
 the celestial bodies, it Is n 
 
 rig-time and space with the utmost 
 Hut neither time n r , ice can be m 
 without the aid of very refin* 1 1 instruments and contri- 
 vances. Hence, the theory of instruments, the method of 
 (sing them, and the determination of the different correc- 
 kwis that must be applied in order to free : 
 ritions from the various instrumental and ; 
 ny which they are affected, belong to this division of the 
 A complete knowledge of the sphere and Its va- 
 also of the methods of spherical trigonome- 
 [alsite to the practical astronomer. Observation 
 i the place of a star only with t- 
 own zenith, or horizon, or to another star 
 already determined. Hut their positions mn 
 
 I to invariable planes or circles. 
 
 made in different places may be ca- 
 pable of comparison with one another. Without 
 si-rvations are of no use. 
 Rational Astronomy. This division includes the deter- 
 of the real orbits, and the laws of motion which 
 the different bodies observe, and the construction of hypo- 
 theses by the aid of which we may calculate the | 
 in advance. In the infancy of astronomy, and before ob- 
 servations became very numerous, or were made with pre- 
 99 
 
 cision, various hypotheses were invented to explain the ap- 
 parent motions. Thus Ptolemy explained the in 
 of the planetary motions, by supposing each of the planets 
 be acircle aboutacentre moving uniformly round 
 the earth in the circumference of another circle. Tycho lira- 
 he supposed the planets to revolve in circular orbits about 
 the sun ; and the sun, accompanied by the planets, to re- 
 volve round the earth. Copernicus 
 Well Basil the other planets, to revolve in circui 
 around the sun. All these hypotheses served to explain the 
 
 ua that were known at the time they wet 
 lively invented; and have been successively exp 
 more accurate observations, which have proved that II.-. 
 . orbits are not circles but ellipses, having the suit 
 in the focus which is common to all of them. 
 
 Physical Astronomy. By this term is generally under- 
 stood the application of mathematical science to the inves- 
 of the laws by which the motions of the celestial 
 bodies are regulated, the nature of the forces by which 
 their motions are maintained, and the effects of their ac- 
 tion on one another. By comparing the momentary de- 
 flection of ihe moon's orbit from a straight line with the ef- 
 
 •■ rreslrial gravity, as manifested in 
 falling bodies near the surface of the earth, Newton found 
 that loth the phenomena were produced bvone and tb.fi 
 same cause, and that the moon is retained in her orbit by 
 the attraction of the earth. Subsequent Invest 
 ed on the general laws of the planetary motions, discover- 
 pier, led him to iheconclus veof the 
 
 same nature extends through the universe; and that all 
 bodies in the heavens and on the earth gravitate towards 
 each other with forces directly as t B of mat- 
 
 ter and inversely as the squares of their distan 
 
 [pie he explained the elliptic motions of 
 the facts which concern their 
 figures, rotation, and the position of their axis; and the 
 ■ fluids with which they are sun 
 Otlty of matter in the sun is vastly greater than in 
 t of the planets; hence all the planets are prin- 
 cipally controlled by the sun, and circulate about him In 
 '•lliptic orbits, nearly Ul the SUne manner as if they wire 
 independent of the attractions of one another. Still their 
 mutual Influences are sufficiently perci | 
 from being comparatively small, they are regarded merely 
 ng the sun's action. The calculation of the dis- 
 turbing forces, or of the effects produced by the mutual at- 
 traction of all the bodies In the solar system, forms the 
 most difficult and the most Important problem ever sub- 
 mitted to mathematical analysis. Its solution has 
 the most eminent mathematicians of the last and ihe pre- 
 sent century ; and the successive ad' towards 
 II liraut, D'Alemberf, Euler, Lagrange, and 
 Laplace, have surrounded their names with a halo of 
 glory. 
 
 History of Astronomy. The study of the he::-, 
 occupied the attention of mankind in all attes oi tl 
 At the remotest epochs of historical record 
 shepherds and the Egyptian priests had found a near ap- 
 proximation to the length of the solar year, ai 
 
 on of a long series of recorded or tradi- 
 tional observations, periods of time after which the i 
 the sun and moon return in nearly the same order, and were 
 consequently able to predict these phenomena. 1 
 philosophers of Greece exhausted their imagination in idle 
 speculations about the formation and natu 
 
 it Ihe name of the constellations which they have 
 transmitted to us with their theogonies prove thai 
 paid considerable attention to the arrangement of '■ 
 cipal stars. Pythagoras appears to have had a distinct no- 
 tion of the true system of the world; affirming 
 earth was not placed in the centre, but rev' 
 sun. But the first recorded observations which contributed 
 in any way to the real progress of astrononfy we 
 at Alexandria, under the Ptolemies, about 300 year 
 our era, by Aristilus and Timocharis, who determined the 
 positions of some of the principal zodiacal stars, an 
 by afforded Hipparchus the means of arriving at 
 portant discovery of the precession of the equine 
 Hipparchus, the founder of Grecian astronomy, i 
 about 1-10 years B. C. This illustrious : 
 pears to have paid little regard to the theoretical spei 
 of his contemporaries, but adopted the only method I J 
 a correct knowledge of nature can be obtained, namely, 
 assiduous and accurate observation. Among his import- 
 
 • ries are the precession already mentio: 
 
 length of the solar year ; the eccentricity of the sun's or- 
 
 bti ; the periodic time of the moon's revolution with respect 
 
 to the stars, to the sun, to her nodes, and her apogee ; this 
 
 eccentricity and inclination of the lunar orbit. He invented 
 
 the planisphere, determined the places of 10SO stars, anil 
 
 was the first who introduced into geography the method o: 
 
 positions of places on the surface of the earth by 
 
 of their latitudes and longitudes. 
 
 The name of Ptolemy is still more celebrated than lha 
 
ASTRONOMY. 
 
 <>t llipparchus; though, as an astronomer, he occupies a 
 far interior rank. His principal astronomical discoveiy is 
 the inequality of the moon's motion, technically called the 
 evection ; but his fame chiefly rests on his great work called 
 Syntax, or Composition ; in which he explains the appa- 
 rent motions of the sun, moon, and planets, according to a 
 :>. -sis Invented by Apollonius of Perga, some centu- 
 before, and which consists in supposing each of these 
 i to be carried by a uniform motion round the cir- 
 cumference of a circle called the epicycle, the centre of 
 which is carried uniformly forward in the circumfer- 
 » nee of another circle called the deferent. This second 
 circle may be the epicycle of a third, and so on as ' 
 
 as inequalities remain to be explained ; the earth 
 occupying a position near, but not at, the centre of the 
 last circle. This hypothesis is utterly demolished by a 
 few accurate observations of the present day ; but in the 
 time of Ptolemy it served to explain all the deviations 
 from circular motion then known, particularly the pheno 
 mena of the stations and retrogradations of the planets; 
 and it was even of service to astronomy, by offering a means 
 of reducing the apparent irregularities of the planetary 
 motions to arithmetical calculation. Ptolemy's share of the 
 merit belonging to the invention of this ingenious hypothe- 
 sis consists in the determination of the proportion between 
 the radius of the epicycle and that of its deferent circle, 
 and between the velocity of the planet and the velocity 
 of the centre of its epicycle. The Ptolemaic system con- 
 tinued in vogue till the revival of astronomy and the other 
 sciences in the fifteenth century, when it gave place to 
 theories founded on more enlarged views and more accu- 
 rate observations. 
 
 Fourteen centuries elapsed between Ptolemy and Co- 
 pernicus; and during this long interval, astronomy con- 
 tinued nearly in the same state. The elements of the 
 solar and lunar tables had indeed received many correc- 
 tions; and various improvements in the methods of ob- 
 serving and calculating had been introduced, principally by 
 the Arabs : but in respect of theory, no change had taken 
 place. But an epoch had now arrived when men's minds 
 could no longer be held in thraldom by reverence for an- 
 cient authority ; and a spirit of investigation and inquiry 
 had arisen, which produced the happiest results in all the 
 departments of natural science. Copernicus, guided 
 perhaps in some measure by the opinions of Pythagoras, 
 but more by his own meditations on the planetary pheno- 
 mena, and the comparison of the numerous observations 
 accumulated by Purbach, Regiomontanus, and Walther, in 
 the latter half of the fifteenth century, had the glory of es- 
 tablishing the system of the world on its true basis. In his 
 great work, li De Ilevolutionibus Orbium Ccelestium," 
 published in 1543, he showed that all the apparent motions 
 are easily explained by simply attributing a double motion 
 lo the earth; a diurnal rotation about its axis, and an 
 annua] motion about the sun. The doctrine of the earth's 
 motion was opposed to the religious dogmas of the age, 
 and accordingly the theory of Copernicus met with great 
 resistance; but as observations now began to be greatly 
 multiplied, and to be performed with greater accuracy, the 
 nces in favour of it daily acquired strength, and in a 
 time commanded universal assent among astrono- 
 mers. Tyeho Brahe, indeed, an excellent observer, and 
 whom astronomy is under the greatest obligations, 
 made an attempt to save the ancient prejudices ; while he 
 linsd the phenomena by supposing the sun, accom- 
 panied by the planets, to perform a diurnal revolution about 
 tin; earth. This system, however, on account of its physi- 
 cal improbability, never obtained many followers. 
 
 The next important step in astronomy was made by 
 Kepler. By means of a laborious comparison and calcu- 
 lation of observations, Kepler discovered that the orbits of 
 the planets are not circles but ellipses, having the sun in 
 one of the foci. lie also found that the motion of any 
 planet in its elliptic orbit is so regulated, that the spaces 
 passed over by a straight line drawn from the planet to 
 the sun are equal in equal times ; and that the periodic 
 times of the different planets are in a certain given ratio 
 to their distances from the sun. It is difficult to estimate 
 the importance of these discoveries; either with reference 
 to the amount of prejudice they overthrow, or their in- 
 fluence on astronomical theory. The circular and uni- 
 form motion of the celestial bodies was an axiom that had 
 never been disputed. It was even admitted by Copernicus ; 
 who was obliged, in order to reconcile it with the observa- 
 tions, to suppose the sun placed at a little distance from 
 [he centre of each of the planetary circles. The elliptic 
 motion was a proposition as bold as original ; and, com- 
 bined with the equal description of areas in equal times, led 
 to the discovery of universal gravitation, and all the sub- 
 lime results of physical astronomy. 
 
 About this time, or a little earlier, two discoveries were 
 
 made which save an immense impulse to astronomy. 
 
 These were the logarithms, invented by Napier, and the 
 
 telescope. Without the aid afforded by the logarithms, it 
 
 >U0 
 
 ASYLUM. 
 
 would have been impossible to accomplish the calcula 
 tions which Kepler's discoveries rendered necessary ; anr' 
 to the telescope we are indebted not only for the enlarge 
 ment of the visible boundaries of the universe, and the 
 knowledge of numerous bodies whose existence would 
 otherwise never have been suspected, but also for all the 
 precision of modern observation. 
 
 From the time of these great discoveries, the progress 
 of astronomy has been uninterrupted. By combining the 
 laws of the planetary motions discovered by Kepler, Witt) 
 the theory of central forces established by Iiuygens, New- 
 ton completed the theory ; and proved that all the motions 
 of the universe, from the fall ol a body on the surlace ol 
 the earth, to the oscillations of the celestial sphere, are th- 
 necessary consequences of a single, invariable, and simple 
 law. This is the law of universal gravitation ; which nol 
 only affords a physical explanation of all the phenomena 
 that have been observed, but which, in the hands of mathe- 
 maticians, has led to the discovery of many important tacts 
 which observation subsequently confirmed, though it could 
 not have delected them. The progress of the practical 
 parts of the science has, also, since the same epoch, been 
 commensurate with the improvements of the theory. 
 Observatories were established in different countries, w here 
 a continued series of observations has been kept up. Aca- 
 demies and societies were founded for the purpose of 
 effecting, by combined efforts, what surpassed individual 
 exertion ; voyages and expeditions have been undertaken 
 to distant parts of the world for the purpose of measuring 
 the earth, and determining other elements necessary to a 
 complete knowledge of the planetary system. 
 
 The state of perfection to which astronomy is now 
 brought, may be regarded as the greatest triumph of 
 human exertion and reason. The motions of the moon 
 and the planets are known with the utmost accuracy ; 
 and the tables have all the precision which the navigator 
 or practical astronomer can desire. Our know 
 the planetary system may be regarded as complete. That 
 of the sidereal heavens must always be limited by the op- 
 tical powers of the human eye and the telescope. In this 
 department of astronomy, a boundless field has of late 
 years been thrown open for future research and 
 tion. Stars are observed revolving about one another in 
 elliptic orbits. Are they then connected with each other 
 by forces of the same nature, and observing the same laws, 
 as solar attraction? The periodic times, and consequently 
 the mean distances of one or two comets, are observed to 
 be diminished. Are we then to inter thai the 1 • 
 space are filled with matter of sufficient density to resist 
 the motions of comets 1 Are the comets themselves per- 
 manent bodies; or are they merely formed by the occa- 
 sional collapse, as it were, of nebulous matter, a 
 dissipated altera few revolutions? The resistani 
 ether, the nature of comets, the constitution of the nebula), 
 the laws which regulate the formation and motions of side- 
 real systems : such are the questions (questions remote in- 
 deed from any practical application to the affairs of man- 
 kind) which astronomers now aspire to solve. 
 
 For further information on this extensive and very im 
 portant science, we must refer the reader to the particular 
 ierms which belong to it, and also the general terms, Co- 
 met, Moon, Planet, Satellite, Stah, Sun. The physi- 
 cal theory of the planetary motions will be found explained 
 under Gravitation ; and astronomical instruments de- 
 scribed under their respective names. Works on astrono- 
 my are so abundant in every European language, that it 
 could serve no purpose to make any references to them 
 in this place. The best popular treatise is that of Sir John 
 Herschel in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia. 
 
 ASTA'RTE— the queen of heaven— a Phoenician god- 
 dess, called in the Scripture Ashtaroth. There is some ob- 
 scurity with respect to her worship, and the attributes as- 
 signed to her, which were held by d fferent of the ancients 
 to correspond with those of the Grecian divinities Juno, 
 Diana, or Venus, but most generally the latter. Indeed it 
 is probable that the worship of this latter goddess WHS bor- 
 rowed by the Greeks from that of Astarte, which prevailed 
 to a great extent in the island of Cyprus, the fabled resl 
 dence of Venus. 
 
 ASY'LUM. (Gr. d, not, and trnXaw, J rob.) A place ol 
 refuge to which criminals might fly, and from which it was 
 considered the greatest impiety to move them by force. 
 This privilege was given to many of the temples, altars, 
 and statues of the gods, and its violation subjected the per- 
 petrator, and all his posterity, to the vengeance of the tu- 
 telary deity, and consequently they were driven from their 
 native country as accursed. The sacredness of the asylums 
 was preserved till the reign of Tiberius Cffisar, who, on 
 account of their inconvenience, abolished many, and re- 
 stricted the privileges of the rest. 
 
 Thebes and Athens each claimed the establishment ot 
 the first asylum. Romulus set apart a particular spot oh 
 the descent from the Capitoline hill for this purpose, and 
 thereby materially augmented the population of his .ul'un 
 
ASYMPTOTE. 
 
 jity. Hence Juvenal satirically refers all the aristocracy 
 hi Rome to this Ignoble stock : 
 
 " Kl l«mtn "l '"lis-? repetu. longei)tie revnliai 
 Lb mfarai gentem tledncis afcylu." 
 
 Asylum. The modem signification of this word differs 
 widely from its ancienl acceptation, and the purposes for 
 will !>(• best inferred from the 
 with which it i The most prominent 
 
 re asylums for the blind, deaf and dumb, lunatics, 
 There is no feature, perhaps, which 
 iety more 
 establishment of institutions which tend ti» allevi- 
 >m moral or physical defects 
 the purposes of self-exertion or competi- 
 tion with their fellow-citizens. In this view England has a 
 right to claim a place in the foremost ranks of civilisation, 
 rard the number, the principles, or the In- 
 ternal management of its asylums. It would be out of 
 e to enter Into detail upon so wide and compre- 
 the wr.nl asylum involves, bul the 
 
 • ■.vill find In the parliamentary papers both of 1 
 
 and England, and in the reports published from time to 
 \ the managers of asylums, a mass of information, 
 ubjer.t. at once amusing and instructive. 
 
 given to a straight line or 
 
 which continually approaches nearer and nearer to 
 
 'ii curve, In such a manner that 
 
 ice be- 
 
 ■omes 
 
 term, which 
 
 m the 
 
 .'fall, and therefore 
 
 • meet. 
 
 olty in assenting to the truth 
 
 of lb' lhal lines may continue to api 
 
 , a proposition 
 
 which "I this arises 
 
 from our Inability to effect the division of magnitude be- 
 yond certain limits. A familiar instance of I 
 
 {decimal ; for 
 '.IQ9, tec. ; the difference of which from unity 
 
 Micces- 
 
 • iisit: but it d<ies not become equal to unity till the 
 number of digits is supposed infinitely great The nature 
 
 ami properties of an asymp- 
 tote may be illustrated' geo- 
 metrically by the common 
 hyperbola, the equ 
 which lsii/=aS. ! 
 be the absciss, and A C the 
 ordinate of any point I', and 
 the parallelogram A P 
 to a constant quantity a3. In 
 like manner, the parallelo- 
 grams made by the co-ordi- 
 nates of any other points, p,p 
 will be each equal to a?. It 
 is evident, therefore, that the 
 more the absciss A It is in- 
 
 c - 
 
 C- 
 
 c 
 
 i 
 
 
 rz 
 
 creased, the more the corresponding ordinate A C is di 
 rpial to twice A B, thenp 6 is only 
 half of P II, and so on. The curve, therefore, continually 
 approach' - of the abscissa, but never meets il ; 
 
 for supp" bo taken at such a distance 
 
 that A A would be a million of times greater than A B, p b 
 would be a millionth part of 1' B, — a small quantity, in- 
 deed, but Still not zero. However great A p mi 
 b must always have some value, oil 
 
 come equal to a parallelogram, which 
 
 It is obvious that all that has now been said 
 equally to A C; therefore the two 
 lines A II and I I mptotea to the curve. 
 
 The asymptotes of curve lines are most readily deter- 
 mined from the properties of their algebraic equations. Let 
 us take, for example, the equation B'2.r2 — A2y?=A2B2, 
 which is that of the common hyperbola referred to its 
 
 diameters. 
 
 whence 
 
 We easily deduce tfl =a — ;- — ( 1 — — ) 
 
 A2 \ zi' 
 
 the absolute value of y is found, namely, 
 
 »=-x-* \A 
 
 But the quantity under the ra- 
 
 ATELLANJS FABULiS. 
 and let R Q be denoted by Y. We 'shall then have the' 
 
 two equations Y = — x, y= —x \y * — 3 ! whence it 
 
 is easy to see that the more x is increased, the more the 
 difference between Y and y, that is R P, is diminished • and 
 that it vanishes altogether when * is Infinite. 
 
 n in this expression is always less than unity 
 while x retains a finite value (for x cannot be less than 
 A); the value of the ordinate y is therefore always less 
 
 B 
 than -]*• Now let a straight line A R be drawn through 
 
 the centre A (die origin of the co-ordinates) making 
 with the axis an angle R A Q, whose tangent is eqi 
 
 ; and let the ordinate P ft be produced to meet it in R, 
 
 *, = 
 
 K' 
 
 101 
 
 The trigonometrical value of the cotangent of the anz.e 
 PTQ, which a tangent at P makes with the axis, is 
 
 A2y 
 = jTr— ' or, substituting for y its value in terms of 
 
 _A / JJ 
 
 H v/ 1— — • When the value of x is supposed 
 
 infinite, this expression is reduced to vr; consequently 
 
 the tangent of the same angle is ^. But this is the tan 
 
 gent of the angle made by the asymptote ; and hence th« 
 asymptote to .. qiionily defined and considered 
 
 as a tangent at an infinite distance. 
 
 border to discover whether a carve ha* an asymptote, 
 draw C E, meeting the tangent in 1). In proportion as the 
 point P is taken at ■ greater distance, the point 1 
 proaches to A. and l> to B. Bul the asymptote is the 
 limiting position of I therefore we bave 
 
 to find whether the expressions of C T and CD, I 
 in the given curve, are susceptible of finite limits, 
 when this is the case the construction ol those Umil 
 give the points A and E. and consi (jointly the asvm; 
 
 An algebraic curve cannot have more asymptotes than 
 there are units in the exponent of its order. Of the curves 
 of the second order, the hyperbola alone lias asympi 
 and they are two in number. All curves of (he third order, 
 or which are defined by a cubic equation, have some In- 
 finite branch' i .ranches have not always as J 
 
 totes. 
 
 are an infinity of (hem which, so far from i 
 asymptotes, have none at all. and which 'en in- 
 
 finite branches; for instance, the curve of Cassini 
 conchoid, eissold, and logarithmic, though not els 
 among algebraic curves, hue each an am m 
 
 It may appear a sort of paradox that the areas DO! 
 by curves and their asymptotes, though Indefinite! 
 tended, have sometimes finite limits 
 
 This is the case with the logarithmic 
 and with hyperbolas of all kinds, except the common 01 
 nian. 
 
 In what precedes we have regarded an asympi.- 
 hi line ; but two curves are sometimes 
 asymptotes of each other when they arc such thai i 
 produced they continually approach withou 
 Thus two parabolas, having the same parameter, 
 axes In the same straight line, fulfil the con.' 
 asvmptotism. 
 
 ASYNARTETA. (Gr. d, priv.. and avvaprato, to con- 
 wet.) In Grammar, sentences which follow ea< 
 immediately, without the intervention of any con 
 particle ; as, '' I came, I saw, I conquered." 
 
 ASY'NDETON. (Cr. a, without, ovvotu, 1 
 A figure by which the conjunctioi 
 
 omitted: as in the famous phrase of Caesar, '"Veni, vidt, 
 vici." 
 
 ATE. (Gr. urif.) In Greek Mythology, the | 
 cation of Revenge, Punishment, or Fatality. See Horn. II. 
 lib. xix. 
 
 A'TELES. (Gr. drcXhs. imperfect.) A 
 American monkeys, characterized bj '-' or rudi- 
 
 mental condition of the thumb of the anterior hands. The 
 deterioration of these members as prehi I 
 compensated t.v a very efficient prehensile tail. 
 
 ATELLA'NjB FA'BTJUE. A species of coin. 
 
 had its origin among the Oscan inhabitant 
 from a town of which country, Atella, it derived 
 It was much in vogue at Rome, and it. was I 
 graceful for persons of gentle blood to take par:: 
 
 , as was the ca*e in the other spi 
 The language used in the attellann fabulae was Oscan, and 
 the plots and style of the dialogue, unrestrained by any 
 fixed rules, partook of the nature of comedy, farce alio 
 burlesque, bul was rait stained by licentiousness, till the 
 degenerate morals of the empire drew them too into the 
 of corruption. 
 
A XEMPO GIUSTO. 
 
 A TEMPO GHJSTO. (Ital. in correct time.) In Music, 
 
 direction to the performer, generally after a recitative, 
 
 o keep the measure true and correct, which, during the 
 
 fr-citative, was performed to suit the action and passion of 
 
 ATHA'LAMOUS. (Gr. d, without, and SaXajios, a bed.) 
 
 Lichens whose thallus is not furnished with shields or beds 
 
 porea ; in these the reproductive matter is sup- 
 
 ipersed through the substance of the crust, 
 
 as in lepraria. 
 
 ATIIANA'SIAN CREED. A confession of faith, which 
 ibed in the rubric of the Common Prayer Book, 
 which appoints it to be read on certain days, as commonly 
 called the Creed of St. Athanasius. That it was really 
 composed by that father is more than doubtful : modern 
 iem generally to assent to the judgment of Water- 
 land, who considers it to have been written by Hilary. 
 
 A'THEIST. (Gr. d, without, and $£<5j, God; without 
 God.) One who denies the existence of a God, or a Pro- 
 vidence. 
 
 ATHENJS'UM. (Greek.) In Antiquity, a public place 
 where the professors of the liberal arts held their assem- 
 blies, the rhetoricians declaimed, and the poets rehearsed 
 their performances. There were various places of this 
 kind at Athens. The emperor Adrian established a fa- 
 mous Athenaeum on the Capitoline hill at Rome, and at a 
 later period there was another of nearly equal celebrity at 
 Lyons. In modern times the name has been frequently 
 bestowed upon establishments connected with learning, 
 and upon public clubs or libraries frequented for convivial 
 or literary purposes. 
 
 ATHERI'CERA. (Gr. dBrjp, a point, Kt'paj, a horn.) 
 The name given by Cuvier and Latreille to one of the pri- 
 mary divisions of the Dipterous order of insects. It com- 
 prehends the modern families Syrphidai, Astridm, Cono- 
 piduz, and Muscidce, in all of which the antennae have only 
 two or three joints, the last being furnished with a bristle. 
 
 ATHERI'NA. A Linnaean genus of abdominal fishes, 
 having an elongated body, two widely-separated dorsal fins, 
 and a very protractile mouth armed with very small teeth. 
 All the known species have a broad silvery band along 
 each side, six branchiostegal rays. It was to the fishes of 
 this genus that the ancients attributed an origin by equivo- 
 cal generation; and the inhabitants of the shores of France, 
 which are washed by the Mediterranean, still call them 
 "nonnats." 
 
 ATHEROSPERMA'CE£3. (Atherosperma, one of the 
 genera.) Incomplete aromatic exogenous shrubs found in 
 New Holland and South America, remarkable for having 
 l heir flowers in a cup-shaped involucre, and the peculiar 
 anthers of lauracea?. 
 
 ATHLE'TES. (Gr. aQ\ov, a prize.) Men who con- 
 tended at the public games of the Greeks and Romans, in 
 boxing, wrestling, running, leaping, and throwing the quoit. 
 The name was more particularly applied in the two former 
 cases. Their dress consisted merely of a linen bandage 
 round the loins, the rest of the body being left naked, and 
 anointed with an unctuous mixture called ceroma. The 
 boxers used a kind of glove called caestus, which consisted 
 of leather thongs wrapped round the hand with pieces of 
 lead and iron sewed into them, to give greater weight to 
 the blows. 
 
 Among the Greeks these contests were considered highly 
 honourable, and the victors at their national games at 
 Olympia, and elsewhere, were received in their native 
 states with great distinction, and were rewarded with valu- 
 able privileges ; indeed, one of their most popular divini- 
 ties, Pollox, was celebrated for his skill in boxing. Among 
 the Romans they were slaves, or hired persons of lower 
 rank, or foreigners. 
 
 ATLA'NTES. (Gr. tAuco, I bear.) In Architecture, the 
 statues of men used instead of columns to support an en- 
 tablatuie. The word is used by Vitruvius. 
 
 ATLA'NTIDES. In Astronomy, a name given to the 
 Pleiades, because they were supposed to be daughters of 
 Atlas, or his brother Hesperus, who were translated to 
 heaven. 
 
 ATLA'NTIS. (Greek.) An island mentioned in Plato's 
 Dialogue entitled Lirnams, as having once existed in the 
 Atlantic Ocean opposite to the Pillars of Hercules. It was 
 said to have exceeded Europe and Africa jointly in magni- 
 tude ; and after existing for 9000 years, during which peri- 
 od its inhabitants extended their conquests throughout the 
 known quarters of the globe, to have been uprooted by 
 prodigious earthquakes and inundations, and submerged 
 in the ocean. The question of the reality and site of this 
 •sbeen frequently discussed by modern geogra- 
 phers, who have displayed much critical perspicacity in 
 i',s elucidation. M. Bailly supported the Platonic view of 
 ike existence and site of the island on the authority of the 
 ancients, and cited Homer and Diodorus Siculus in cor- 
 roboration of his opinion. Rudbeck, Kircher, Bookman, 
 iiul others, concur in opinion respecting its reality, but 
 each assigns to it a different locality. According to the 
 "502 
 
 ATMOSPHERE 
 
 conjectures of Buffon and Whitehurst, who regarded the 
 Canaries and the Peak of Teneriffe as the summits of 
 mountains belonging to some submerged continent, Atlan- 
 tis was the land which, at a former period, united Ireland 
 to the Azores and the Azores to America. On the other 
 hand, D'Anville and Heeren regard Plato's account of the 
 Atlantis as altogether a fanciful speculation ; while there 
 are not wanting many who discover in it proofs that the 
 American continent was known at some remote period to 
 the people of the Eastern hemisphere, but that the know- 
 ledge was subsequently lost. 
 
 A'TLAS, in Anatomy, is the term applied to the upper- 
 most of the cervical vertebrae ; so named from its sup- 
 porting the head, as Atlas was supposed to support the 
 globe. 
 
 Atlas. In Literature, a name given to collections of 
 geographical maps and charts ; so called from the mytho- 
 logical giant who was said to support the globe. The name 
 was first applied in this sense by Gerard Mercator, the 
 geographer, in the 16th century. It is now used also for 
 works in which other subjects are displayed in a tabular 
 form : as, genealogy, chronology, ethnography, Ace. 
 
 Atlas. In Geography and Mythology, the name of an 
 extensive chain of lofty mountains, some of their summits 
 having an elevation of above 13,000 feet, in the N. W. of 
 Africa. The early Phoenician and Greek navigators, who 
 saw this vast chain from a distance, and were unacquainted 
 with the intervening country, naturally formed the most 
 extravagant notions of its height. This gave rise to a num- 
 ber of fables. The summits of the mountains were be- 
 lieved to pierce the skies ; and the poets represented Atlas 
 as an old man of gigantic stature who supported the hea- 
 vens on his shoulders. Virgil has described Atlas, con- 
 sistently with the popular belief, in some of the finest lines 
 of the JEneid : — 
 
 Jamque volans apicem et bteraardua cernit 
 
 Atlantas duri, ccelum qui vertice I'ulcit; 
 
 Atlantis, cinctum aasklue cui nubibup atris 
 
 Piniterum caput et ventopulsatur et imbri ; 
 
 Nix humeros infusa tegit ; turn tlumina mento 
 
 Precipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba.— IV. 246 — 252. 
 
 ATMO'METER. (Gr. drain;, vapour, and ulrpov, mea- 
 sure.) An instrument for determining the rate of evapora- 
 tion from a humid surface. 
 
 A'TMOSPHERE. (Gr. druds, vapour, and o&aTpa, a 
 sphere.) The assemblage of aeriform vapours wh'ich form 
 the invisible medium which surrounds the earlh. For an 
 account of the different gases which enter into the compo- 
 sition of atmospheric air, see Am. We shall here confine 
 ourselves to an account of the mechanical properties of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 Weight of the Atmosphere. The first circumstance con- 
 nected with the atmosphere which attracts our attention ia 
 its weight, or the pressure which it exerts on solid bodies 
 at the surface of the earth. It is well known that the rise 
 of water in the sucking pump, and the suspension of the col- 
 umn of mercury in the barometric tube, are caused by the 
 pressure of the atmosphere; we have, therefore, in either 
 of these phenomena, the means of exactly measuring its 
 weight. The column of mercury in the tube of a barome- 
 ter is exactly equal in weight to a cylinder of air of equal 
 diameter reaching to the lop of the atmosphere. Now, the 
 mean height of the barometer at the level of the sea is 
 about 280 inches; and a cubic inch of mercury weighs 
 3425-92 grains, or 0-48956 lbs. avoirdupois. It follows, 
 therefore, that a column of mercury whose base is a square 
 inch, and height the mean height of the barometer, weighs 
 0-48956 X5S-6 = 14-6 lbs. avoirdupois nearly, or that the at- 
 mosphere exerts a pressure equal to 146 lbs. on every 
 square inch at the surface of the earth. 
 
 This pressure of the atmosphere plays a very important 
 part in the animal and vegetable economy. Like that of all 
 other fluids, it is exerted equally in all directions ; thus the 
 air in a tube presses not only on the bottom but also on the 
 sides of the tube, with a force equal to 14-6 lbs. for every 
 square inch. The surface of a man of ordinary stature is 
 about 15 square feet, or 2160 square inches, whence the 
 whole atmospheric pressure which his body sustains 
 amounts to the enormous sum of 31,536 lbs. This great 
 pressure is not sensible, because it is balanced by the re- 
 action of the elastic fluids in the interior of our bodies ; bill 
 if the equilibrium were to be suddenly destroyed, the con- 
 sequences might be fatal. Under the exhausted receiver 
 of an air pump, animal life is soon destroyed : on the sum- 
 mit of a very high mountain a man experiences extreme 
 fatigue, respiration becomes difficult, the pulse is accele- 
 rated, and it has happened that the blood has started from 
 the eyes and ears, and other tender parts of the body, in 
 consequence of the diminished pressure. 
 
 Density of the Atmosphere. The density of the atmos- 
 phere is not the same at, different distances from the sur- 
 face of the earth, but diminishes in the duplicate ratio o/ 
 the altitude: that is to say, if at a certain altitude above the 
 earth's surface it be one half what it. is at the surface, then 
 
ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 at twice thai altitude Hie density will be only one fourth of 
 
 what it is al i in' surface. This may be proved as follows. 
 
 tl tube filled with air, reaching from the 
 
 th to the limits of th e; it is 
 
 each particle of the inclosed air will sustain 
 
 dl those above it; and as the air, in 
 
 Is elasticity, ts proportional- 
 
 . it is easy to see that the density will 
 
 : from below upwards. To discover 
 
 this diminution, let x be the height of any 
 
 Column above the surface of the earth, u = 
 
 . and /' = the pressure of the air at x; and 
 
 simplify the problem, we shall suppose the 
 
 same throughout the column, and 
 
 t the difference of pressure arising from the diininu- 
 
 Supposing the area of the column = 1 the 
 
 in infinitely thin stratum is the differential of the 
 
 t, or d x. and therefore the weight of all the strata or 
 
 [pressed by the in- 
 
 / — u d x (d x being taken with tl _u, be- 
 
 jht diminishes). Bui 
 
 i ■lumii above x must make 
 
 urn with the pressure al r, therefore we have 
 
 ii|)=/ — u d x. But the density is propor- 
 
 og a constant quan- 
 
 ■ = A u and consequently A u =f — u d x. li 
 
 I as— u d arand d i=-A.I!. Integrating this e- 
 u 
 et * = C — A log. 11 Li t V be the density at 
 
 n = C 
 
 — A log. U ; whence eliminating C, x = A log. U — A log. u ; 
 
 orx = A log It follows therefore that as the altitude * 
 
 u 
 
 rithm of the density u diminl 
 when this importanl conclusion, that if the al- 
 
 -urface of the eartli be taken In arilh- 
 in, the densities of the air at these alti- 
 1 progression di 
 By I i in we ran easily find the density 
 
 atmosphere at different altitudes, with the help of a 
 co mm 
 
 io (surface the density is repre. 
 by unity, the densities at other altitudes will be represented 
 as follows : — 
 
 Height in ) , „ „ . _ r _ 
 
 jl, 2, 3, 4, 5, 0, 7. 
 
 ■ 1,0739, 00309, 05011, 03981, 03163, 0-2011 
 
 8o that at an elevation of seven miles the density is re- 
 1 to one-fourth, and at 1 1 miles to one-sixteenth, and 
 so on. Conversely, when the variation of the density or 
 ure at different points is ascertained, the difference 
 of altitude becomes known; hence by means of the bar- 
 ■: we are enabled to ascertain the elevations of the 
 different countries or mountains of the eartli above the 
 I ie sea. 
 I/'i?ht of the Atmosphere. If the air were of the same 
 .• throughout, it would be very easy to determln 
 of the atmosphere. It has been found by acci 
 
 iture of 60° and under a 
 ire measured by 208.2 inches of mercury, a cubic 
 • air weighs 9-311416 grains. Compar- 
 ing this with the weigh! of a cubic inch of mercury, it is 
 nsitv continued the same, the height of 
 lere would be 328,021 inches, or 517 m 
 
 1 diminution of the density, it is 
 ■lit of the atmosphere must great- 
 bave no means of di] 
 mining how much. There are, however, various me- 
 nhvi an approximate estimate. Oneof them, 
 • Kepler, is derived from observations on the 
 ,'wilight, which is occasioned by the power the atmosphere 
 sses of refracting and reflecting light It is generally 
 il twilight ceases when the sun has descended 
 iclow the horizon. Now it may be considered that 
 this tikes place when a ray of light "proceeding from the 
 sun, and passing by the surface of the eartli. just reaches 
 the highest stratum of the atmosphere, and is retl 
 back to the earth in the direction of a tangent to its surface 
 place of observation. On this principle it is calcula- 
 ted thai reflection cannot take place at a greater altitude 
 than 45 miles. There arc other . which lead 
 
 lifer that the height of the atmosphere cannot be much 
 in this sum. With a good air pump, air may !>•• r.ire- 
 100 tiui"<; supposing this to be the u'most limit to 
 which rarefaction can be carried, the atmosphere would 
 id to an altitude of about 40 miles. 
 Limits of i Though we are unable to as- 
 
 sign the. precise boundaries of the atmosphere, there are 
 ■ that it has a limit ; 
 .! -finitely into theci 
 
 to our eartli. If matter, or rather if alrrio 
 ric air, were infinitely divisible, the extent of the atmos- 
 103 
 
 ATMOSPHERIC TIDES. 
 
 phere would also be infinite; but in this case the iluid 
 could not be in oquilibrio unless the sui planets 
 
 as well as the earth had respectively portions of it con- 
 
 ■1 around them proportional to their respective at- 
 tractions. But it is known, from the phenomena of the 
 eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, that the of that 
 
 ■ ■it by any means ezi f the earth hi 
 
 . tiou to the great superiority of hi attrac- 
 
 tive power; hence there can be no communication be 
 twecn the atmosphere of the earth and that of Jupiter, it 
 
 lias also been shown by Dr. Wollastnn. from phenomena 
 attending the passage of Venus near the tun, that the sun 
 haanosenso We are therefore warranted 
 
 in concluding that the atoms of air are not Infinitely divisi- 
 ble, and consequently that the atmosphere has a limit ; and 
 the limit must be situated at that height above the earth 
 where the gravitation of the atoms is just equal to the force 
 of their repulsion. 
 
 Effects qf the Atmosphere on Light. Like all other dia- 
 phano:: 'mospliere attracts the molecules 
 
 Ut, and deflects them from their rectilinear course. 
 This phenomenon Is called refraction. It in 
 apparent elevation of all the celestial bodies abort 
 horizon; but, fortunately for astronomy, its effects can be 
 i leul.iteil. 'The atmosphere also, notwith- 
 standing its i . Intercepts and reflects the rays 
 of light, and multiplies and propagates them by an infinity 
 If the atmosphere did not exist, objects 
 would not be ilium': I light 
 of the sun. As soon as we ceased to look at the sun, or 
 objects ilium i total 
 darkness, The solar rays reflected from the earth would 
 be lost in the regions of spare, and an excessive cold con- 
 tinually prevail. The sun would continue to shine with 
 ited intensity, till it i i n/.on, and Hie tran- 
 sition from the glare of meridian spl- isolate 
 darkness would be almost Instantaneous. All these effects 
 perienced on the summits 
 of very nigh mountains, where tin- sir it greatly ran 
 Id is Insnpp ■ try other light 
 ceived by the eye, than that which comes direct from the 
 sun and the .stars. The illuminating power of the atmos- 
 phen i 
 stars are visible in broad day. 
 
 Colour of the Atmosphere. The general blue colour of 
 the atmosphere, and the brilliant and glowing tints of the 
 morning and 8 from the different modlfica- 
 
 ivntchtbe different rays of light receive In pa 
 through the air. When the sun is near the horizon, the 
 stratum of sir through which the light must pass bef 
 reaches us Is greatly thicker than when he Is al 
 able altitude. Now the red rays possess a greater momen- 
 tum than those of the npper portion 'rum, 
 whence they force their way In greater abundance through 
 the resisting mass of air, and penetrate to the 
 the Violet and blue are reflected or absorbed, lb nee the 
 ruddy colour of the morning and evening skies. The ] in- 
 vading blue colour of the atmosphere is to be ascribed to 
 ater facility with which the blue and violet rays are 
 reflected, or from less power to penetrate 
 ii the aerial strata. At a great height in the almos- 
 . the blue tinge disappears, and the sk.. 
 deep black. 
 
 The atmosphere is a region of clouds and vapours through 
 ency of which the earth is fertilised and rendered fit 
 for the support of animal and vegetable life. The various 
 phenomena of which it is the theatre, and the effect of 
 the changes which are continually taking place in its phy- 
 condition, form one of the most Important branches 
 of natural philosophy. (See Climate, Meteorology, Va 
 pour, Wind, &c.) 
 
 Atmosphere, in Electricity, denotes a medium con- 
 ceived to he diffused over the surface of electric bodies, 
 and to extend to some distance from them. - it is not 
 I that any such fluid medium exists, al leas! of a pe- 
 culiar kind, though it figured greatly in the language of the 
 early writers on electricity. Phenomena that were ex 
 plained by the agency of a peculiar fluid, are now known 
 to depend on the modification which common air receives 
 from electric substances, ticc ELECTRICITY, (.See I.ard- 
 ner's Meteorology, Electricity, <fcc. in Cabinet Cyclopedia 
 Hutchison's Meteorological Observations, &c.) 
 
 ATMOSPHE'RIC STONES. See Aerolites. 
 
 A TMOSPIIE'UIC TIDES Certain changes in the bar- 
 ometric pressure of the atmosphere, depending on the at- 
 traction of the sun and moon. Laplace ascribes the lunar 
 influence indicated by the observations on the diurnal var 
 iations of the barometer to the elevation and depression ol 
 the waters of the ocean, instead of the direct effect of the 
 moon's attraction. The solar action be attributes wholly 
 to the expansion caused by the heat of the sun. It is ex 
 tremely doubtful if, in our latitudes, the attraction of the 
 sun and moon produces any perceptible oscillation of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
ATOM. 
 
 A'TOM. (Gr. d, not, and rljtvo), I cut.) A part so small 
 ss not to be divisible. 
 
 ATO'MIC THEORY. (In Chemistry.) When sub- 
 stances combine chemically, they are found to unite in 
 certain weights ; thus, water is constituted of one part by 
 weight of hydrogen and eight of oxygen, and the gases only 
 combine in those proportions to form it. It is assumed 
 lhat water is a compound ol" an atom of hydrogen and an 
 iilom of oxygen, and that the relative weight of the atom 
 of hydrogen to the atom of oxygen is as 1 : 8; hence the 
 atomic weight of water is 1 + 8, or = 9. The same theo 
 retical news are applicable to all other simple and com- 
 pound bodies, and the numbers which represent their 
 combining weights are hence called their atomic or equi- 
 valent numbers. See Equivalents and Affinity. (See 
 Daubeny on the Atomic Theory.) 
 
 ATOMOGY'NIA. (Gr. aropioi, uncut, and yvvft, a fe- 
 male.) A word proposed to be substituted for angiosper- 
 mia, the name of the second order of the sixth class of Lin- 
 naeus, signifying that the ovary is not cleft into distinct 
 parts' 
 
 ATO'NEMEN'T. (From the old English verb to atone, 
 or reconcile : the phrase is still used adverbially, as where 
 we say that two persons are " at one," i. e. agreed.) In 
 Theology, the reconcilement of God with man by virtue of 
 the death of our Saviour. The sacrifices of Jewish and 
 patriarchal antiquity were types of this great event, and 
 were in themselves offered for the purpose of atoning for 
 sin ; and the idea attached to the practice of sacrifice by 
 the numerous heathen nations of antiquity, and of the pre- 
 sent time, has always been the same. (See Sacrifice.) 
 
 A'TRIUM. (According to Scaliger, from the Greek 
 aiOptoi, exposed to the air.) In ancient Architecture, the 
 atrium is by some considered the same as the vestibule, 
 and Aulus Gellius intimates that in his time these two 
 words were frequently confounded. There is reason for 
 supposing that the vestibule was not properly a part of the 
 house, but merely a portion of the entrance ; for Cicero, in 
 a letter to Atticus, describing the attack made on him in 
 the via sacra, says, lie took refuge to defend himself in the 
 vestibule of Tatius. " Secessi in vestibulum Caii Tatii Do- 
 mionis." If, however, in the time of Aulus Gellius these 
 words were used ambiguously, it is not probable that at 
 this period the question will be settled ; and that this was 
 the case is quite certain, for, in describing the spot where 
 the colossal statue of Nero stood, Martial places it in the 
 atri mi, and Suetonius in the veslibulum. That the atrium 
 was in an inner part the verse of Virgil, " Apparet domus 
 intus el atria tonga patescunt." According to the descrip- 
 tion of Vitruvius, it seems to have been a sort of covered 
 portico, composed of two ranks of columns, forming a cen- 
 tre and two side aisles, and to have been beyond the cavas- 
 liium or court, and before the tablinium or cabinet. The 
 atrium was decorated with the statues of the proprietor's 
 incestors. Festus derives its name from its first use at 
 Atria in Etruria. " Dictum atrium quia id genus edificii 
 primum Atriaa in Etruria sit institutum." 
 
 A'TROPHY. (Gr. d. priv., and rpitpu, I nourish.) A 
 wasting away of the flesh. 
 
 ATRO'PIA. (Gr. arpoiroi, one of the Fates.) A highly 
 poisonous alkaline substance, extracted from the atropa 
 belladonna, or deadly nightshade. 
 
 A'TTA. The name of a Fabrician genus of Hymenop- 
 terous insects belonging to the ant-tribe (Formiciam), cha- 
 racterised by their minute palpi, and Ihe large size of the 
 heads of the neuters. Some of the largest species of ant, 
 as the visiting ant of South America, (Formica cep/udotes 
 I..), are included in this genus. 
 
 ATTA'CHMENT. In Law, a process issuing in a sum- 
 mary manner from a court of record against the person 
 of any one guilty of a contempt of its rules. Attachment is 
 most commonly granted against attorneys for malpractice, 
 against sheriffs for making a false or no return to a writ, 
 and against any parties neglecting to pay costs when ruled 
 to do so. 
 
 Foreign Attachment. Under the custom of the city of 
 London, whenever process for debt from the mayor or 
 sheriffs' court is returned nihil, the plaintiff may, upon its 
 appearing that a third person is indebted to the defendant, 
 obtain satisfaction of his claim by attaching the debt. This 
 s called foreign attachment. 
 
 ATTAINDER, BILL OF. A species of extraordinary 
 proceeding against parties accused of treasons or felonies 
 which cannot be reached by the ordinary course of jus- 
 tice. During the reigns of the Tudors the more constitu- 
 tional process of impeachment was entirely laid aside, and 
 attainders were generally adopted in the case of state crimi- 
 nals. These bills usually commenced in the Lords. They 
 have been very unusual in later times : the last recorded 
 in Mr. Ilatsell's Precedents of Parliament was directed 
 against some persons concerned in the Scotch rebellion in 
 17-16. Parliament is now bound, in passing these acts, to 
 ailhere to the rules of evidence which are followed in or- 
 dinary courts of justice. 
 
 ATTORNEY. 
 
 Attainder is the supposed stain or corruption ol the blooc. 
 of a criminal legally condemned, which, by the common 
 law of England, immediately follows the pronouncing sen- 
 tence of death. The attainder of a criminal follows upon 
 judgment, and not upon conviction. Attainder is either on 
 appearance (by confession or by verdict) or by process 
 otherwise termed by default or outlawry, in case of non 
 appearance. For the effect of attainder on the lands, <tc 
 of the criminal, see Forfeiture. It is enacted by 54 G. 3 
 c. 145. that no attainder for felony, except in cases of high 
 treason, petty treason, or murder, or abetting and counsel- 
 ling the same, shall extend to the prejudice of the rights 
 of any persons except the offender during his life. 
 
 ATTE'LAUUS. The name of a Linnaean genus of Cole- 
 opterous insects, characterised by moniliform antennas, 
 thicker towards the tip, and situated on the rostrum: the 
 head pointed behind, and inclined. The species thus note- 
 rogeneously grouped together are now divided into the 
 genera Atlelabus proper, Apoderus, and Rhynchites. The 
 latter includes some of the most beautiful weevils in this 
 country, amongst which is the rare and splendid Carculio 
 auratus. 
 
 ATTE'NTION. (Lat. altentio.) In Metaphysics, a steady 
 exertion or application of the mind to any object of sense 
 or intellect, in order to its being thoroughly understood, ana 
 afterwards retained. Attention is regarded by Stewart as 
 a distinct faculty of the mind ; and though this arrange- 
 ment does not coincide with the views of many philoso- 
 phers, his illustrations of the results or effects of atten- 
 tion are universally considered as a masterpiece of meta- 
 physical disquisition. (Vide Inquiry into the Human 
 Mind, ch. 2.) 
 
 ATTE'NUANTS. Remedies which dilute the blood. 
 
 ATTEND A'TUS. (hat. made thinner.) When the thick 
 ness of any part diminishes in some particular direction, it 
 is often used in the sense of narrowed, or angustate. 
 
 A'TTIC. (Gr. dm/ids, Athenian ; derived, in the seventh 
 edition of " Ency. Brit.," art. " Architecture," from aretxov, 
 without a wall, which, if true, would make everything attic 
 that was detached from a wall.) In Architecture, a low 
 order of architecture, commonly used over a principal or- 
 der, never with columns in it, but always antse, orpilasters. 
 It is employed to decorate the facade of a floor of small 
 height, terminating the upper part of a building, and is 
 doubtless called attic from its resemblance in proportional 
 height and concealed roof to some of the buildings of 
 Greece. Pliny describes it, after speaking of the oiher 
 orders, thus: •• Pra?ter has sunt quae vocantur attics co- 
 lumnar quaternis angulis pari laterum intervallo." We, 
 however, find no examples of square pillars in the remains 
 of ancient art, though almost all the triumphal arches ex- 
 hibit specimens of pilastral attics, having no capitals save 
 the cornice breaking round them. In modern architecture 
 the proportions of the attic order have never been subject 
 to fixed rules, and their good effect is entirely dependent 
 on the taste of the architect. 
 
 ATTIC BASE. See Base. 
 
 A'TTICISM. (Gr.) An elegant or concise form of ex- 
 pression. Milton, in his Apology for Smectymnuus, thus 
 uses it: "They made sport, and I laughed: they mispro- 
 nounced, and I misliked; and, to make up the atticism, 
 they were out, and I hissed." The term Sal Atticum was 
 employed by the Romans at once to characterise the poign- 
 ancy of wit and brilliancy of style peculiar to the Athe- 
 nian writers, and to designate the liveliness, spirituality, 
 and refined taste of the inhabitants of that city, which form 
 ed the focus and central point of all the eloquence and re 
 finement of the Greeks. 
 
 A'TTITUDE. (Fr.) In Painting and Sculpture, the ges- 
 ture and position of a figure, in which the action 
 merit of the person is represented. It should be natural 
 and unconstrained, expressive, varied. Where more than 
 one figure occurs there should be contrast in the limbs, 
 and at the same time a balancing of each other. 
 
 ATTO'RNEY. (From the modern Latin torno, whence 
 attorno, attornatus, signifying one who serves the turn, or 
 is set in the place of another to do his business.) An at- 
 torney is either private or public. A private attorney is a 
 person who acts for another in Ihe conduct of his affairs 
 out of court ; for which purpose a verbal authority is in 
 general sufficient ; but for the performance of some acts, 
 as, to deliver seisin of land, to transfer bank stock, or to 
 execute a deed for another, lie must be authorised by a 
 formal power of attorney. He is not necessarily of the 
 profession jf the law ; and the above, and all other tlte va- 
 rious matters unconnected with actual Litigation in which he 
 maybe employed, such as the preparation of legal instru- 
 ments, and the giving of advice and assist. n: 
 for and management of property, may be undertaken by 
 any other person. A public attorney, or an al 
 law, has been defined to be an officer of a court ol 
 legally qualified to prosecute anil defend actions in courts 
 of law on the retainer of clients. The circumstance o' 
 his being an officer of the court in which he may practise 
 
ATTORNEY. 
 
 » important, as bringing him immediately within its sum- 
 to his peculiar 
 A solicitor differs from an at- 
 torney in practising in courts of equity instead ol" common 
 
 i re not allowed to appear in court by 
 at the king's special warrant by writ or let- 
 nt, and if this could not be obtained were cont- 
 rary day during the pendency of their suit to lie 
 in their own proper persons. The power of suing 
 by attorney was first given by statute in the 
 Edward I. All persons may now appear in court 
 of their own appointment, except infants, 
 :ar by next friend or guardian ; married wo- 
 ! in chancery in 
 
 attorney musl be appointed by their husbands; id 
 
 I with any criminal offence, must appear in 
 
 ■ ■-. if of hill age, and corporations, cannot 
 i by attorney. 
 
 e of attorneys is now chiefly 
 I . and other statutes made in 
 ding reign. The first requl 
 i wiih in order to become an attorney ll 
 
 .hi writing, called articles of clerkship, on 
 
 duty is payable, with an attorney or 
 
 solicitor actually practising, or other officer of court speci- 
 
 stature to serve him in the capacity of clerk for 
 
 No attorney or solicitor can take more than 
 
 rks at the same time, hut some of the offi- 
 
 ■ are allowed to take three persons 
 
 I 0. I-. at Oxford, 
 
 Cambridge, or Dublin, within a certain fixed period alter 
 
 ition at the university, and before execution of 
 
 iv be admitted as attorneys after a clerk 
 
 9 also who are bound for five 
 
 as part of their term a year 
 
 i ti le pupils to a barrister or special pleader. 
 
 I'viee. and notice given of his 
 
 ily for admission, the clerk must go before 
 
 itinera recent 
 
 lie of court, and his fitness and capacity having 
 be sworn in open court to demean himself 
 II 9 name is then entered on one 
 Hurt, called the roll of attorneys, and 
 lie is dnlv admitted an attorney of thai particular court. 
 . r, when admitted of any one court at 
 Iti r. practise in any one of the other courts there, 
 ii'- of an attorney of such other court, with his 
 i writing He may, at a trifling expense, be ad- 
 inily, as a solici- 
 ,.ty may in like manner he admitted' an attorney 
 of any or the courts of common law. After admission he 
 fore the 16th December in every year, pay a, cer- 
 tain duly, and obtain his certificate. Should he for one 
 • i take out his certificate, he would, 
 ncurringa penalty for practising without one, be 
 thenceforth Incapable of acting In court in any professional 
 . but upon payment of all arrears of duty since 
 ilion of his list certificate, and of a further sum 
 by way of penally, may he readmitted. 
 
 , ney actually practising is supposed to be always 
 
 .and has for that reason many privileges 
 
 in common with its other officers, lie la accordingly ex- 
 
 erving on juries and Inquests, and generally 
 
 from filling all offices which require personal set i 
 
 irivdege in all personal actions of suing in his own 
 court, am! of retaining the venue in Middlesex, and as de- 
 be am sted on mesne process. lie 
 is in gen ! from giving evidence of any confi- 
 
 dential communication made lo him by his client : this, 
 . Is the privilege not of the profession but of the 
 client, who may waive it if he please. An attorney cannot 
 fill the office of justice of the peace, sheriff, and many 
 ind cannot be tail for another unless in 
 criminal cases, lie is not permitted to deal with his clients 
 in the same unrestrained manner in which ordinary men 
 with each other; and when a purchaser of his 
 property, is sometimes required to show affirma- 
 tively in the lii' si instance that he has ziven for it its lull 
 value. To restrain him from extortion;,!.: and vexatious 
 conduit, he is required, one month at least before bring- 
 tion to recover fees for bu , court, to 
 
 deliver to his client a bill of costs, which, upon application 
 of the client and his undertaking to pay what shall appear 
 due, will be taxed by an rfficer of the court, and if exorbi- 
 i' ,- nd reasonable amount. Where 
 \n attorney has been guilty of gross ignorance, oe 
 misbehaviour, in the management of his client's business, 
 v.ill frequently interpose In a summary manner, 
 and compel the attorney to pay the cost's, or make repara- 
 tion for lioned by his default; and in cases 
 of fraudulent malpractice grant an attachment against him, 
 or even strike I im off the roll. He is ber ides liable to an 
 10E 
 
 ATTRACTION. 
 
 action for any gross and culpable negligence, by which the 
 interest of his client may have been prejudiced. In mat- 
 ters of difficulty, not lying within his own department of 
 the profession, he is protected from responsibility by act- 
 ing on the opinion of counsel; but in matters of simple 
 and ordinary practice, where the law will presume him to 
 requisite knowledge himself, be caanot avoid his 
 responsibility hv consulting another. 
 
 ATTORNEY-GENERAL. An officer made by letters 
 patent. lie is the public, prosecutor on behalf of the 
 crown, his duty being to exhibit informations in criminal 
 'i the crown, ex officio, or hy virtue 
 of his office. {Sat Information.) He also files hills in 
 the exchequer for any thing concerning the king's inheri- 
 tance and profits, and bills are filed against him by Dthers. 
 The attorney. general has precedence of all othei 
 As chief legal adviser of the crown, in all matters falling 
 within Ihe purview of his office, hi ■ of great 
 
 importance, and is usu i to new hands when- 
 
 ever an extensive change is made in tile cabinet It is 
 generally understood that the attorney-general for ihe time 
 being has a priority of claim for preferment to any of the 
 high law offices which may fall vacant, if he is willing to 
 accept it; but this rule has by no D uniformly 
 
 acted on. 
 
 ATTRA'CTION. (I.at. ad, to, and traho, /draw.) Used 
 in physics to denote the tendency which we ol 
 certain bodies to approach one another, and to re 
 ration. The meaning of this term has been greatly ob- 
 scured by metaphysical disputations, When a body A, is 
 connected with another body 11, by a rod, or chain, or in 
 general hy the intervention of any mechanical means, we 
 see, or fancy we see, the reason why 1J attracts A, or A is 
 compelled lo follow the motions of B. But when two dis- 
 tinct bodies not connectud by any vi Ible bond of union are 
 observed to approach one another, tin- phenomenon seems 
 to assume a greater degree of mystery, from our being no 
 longer able to percei- y which ihe one body 
 
 ii the other. On reflecting, however, on the con- 
 stitution of material substanr. erinfl that they 
 
 i dfatincl particles, which I 
 reasons for bele ich other, 
 
 we may soon satisfy ourselves that there 
 much difficulty in conceiving how the different p 
 a body cohere, or act on each other by lm| 
 reiving how one body can be the cause of motion in another 
 
 It is wrii remarked by Maupertuis, that the manner hi 
 which the different properties reside inasubjecl Is always 
 inconceivable to us. The vulgar are not astonished when 
 they see a body in motion communicate its mi Don 
 bocUM; we are accustomed to the phenomenon, which 
 prevents our perceiving in it any thing marvellous. Hut 
 philosophers will not readily believe that an Impul 
 is more conceivable than an attractive one. what, in (act. 
 is this impulsive force 7 How does it reside is 
 Who could have predicted its existence before seeing the 
 bodies impinge on each other? 'I' of other 
 
 properties in bodies is not more clear. In what way does 
 Impenetrability and the other come joined to 
 
 extension ? In these things there will always he mysteries 
 
 Before the time of Sir Isaac Newton, the term attraction 
 to denote a species of quality inherent in certain 
 bodies ; at the present time, however, philosophers use 
 the won) not to express any particular mode or species of 
 action, or any physical cause of such action, hut simply 
 the fact, that the different parts of matter tend to approach 
 each other, without any reference to whether 
 
 the power which produces that tendency is jnh< 
 the lioilies, or consists in the expulsion of an external 
 agent. They regard it as one of the ultimate phenomena 
 to which the analysis of matter leads. Newton himself 
 particularly cautions his readers against supposing that 
 Ihere is really an attractive force residing in I lie ci 
 wards which bodies tend, the centres being only mathema- 
 tical points. He takes care to mention that lie uses the 
 term to denote a fact, and not a cause; that lie used il 
 only for the purpose of avoiding systems and explli 
 that this tendency might be caused hy some subtle matte] 
 proceeding from' bodies, and be the effect of a real impul 
 sion ; but whatever its cause might be, it was clearly ,s 
 primary fact from which we might set out in explaining 
 other facts depending on it. At present, objections of the 
 sort which Newton here attempts tp avoid, cany little 
 weight with them, but in the time of Newton they were 
 ed of the greatest importance. Leibnitz called at- 
 traction an occult quality, a term then held in horror; and 
 the fact is certain, that liie physical or metaphysical diffi- 
 culties of explaining the nature of attraction contributed 
 not a little to retard, on the Continent, the adoption of the 
 Newtonian theory of the universe. 
 
 Attraction, with reference to tho laws which it observes, 
 maybe divided into two kinds; one, taking place among 
 
ATTRACTION OF MOUNTAINS. 
 
 bodies, placed at measurable distances from each other ; 
 the oilier among the small panicles of matler, where the 
 effect is only sensible at insensible or inappreciable dis- 
 tances. Among the instances of attraction at sensible dis- 
 tances, even at the greatest distances, the most remarkable 
 Is that of the attraction of gravitation, which belongs to all 
 matter; which determines the motions and the figures of 
 the planets and comets, and causes the descent of heavy 
 bodies to the ground. For an account of the law which 
 this species of attraction observes, and the astronomical 
 phenomena which it produces, see Gravitation. The 
 attraction of magnetism, of electricity, &c, are also in- 
 stances of the action of bodies on each other, at sensible 
 distances. See Magnetism ; Electricity. 
 
 The second species of attraction exists only among the 
 molecules or small particles of matter, and is hence called 
 molecular attraction. The distances to which it extends 
 are extremely small, or insensible. This species of attrac- 
 tion is the cause of the coherence of solids; of crystallisa- 
 tion ; the refraction of light ; the ascent of fluids in capilla- 
 ry tubes; the roundness of a drop of water; and in general, 
 of all chemical actions. (See Capillarity, Cohesion, 
 Affinity, &c.) It is to Newton that we owe the first dis- 
 tinct announcement of this last species of attraction, as it 
 is to him that we owe the discovery of the law of the at- 
 traction of gravitation, and that it pervades celestial as well 
 as terrestrial matter. The law of molecular attraction is 
 in it known ; all that can be positively affirmed of it is, that 
 it decreases in a much quicker ratio than the. inverse square 
 of the distance, and in many instances becomes prodi- 
 giously great, when the distance between the particles is 
 diminished to its utmost limit. 
 
 It would not be possible to explain the constitution of 
 matter, or account for the different forms under which it 
 presents itself, by molecular attraction alone, without call- 
 ing to aid the antagonist principle of repulsion. If the 
 particles of matter only attracted each other, they would 
 continue to advance nearer and nearer to each other, till 
 further approach was rendered impossible by their impen- 
 etrability. But this does not take place; for all bodies are 
 capable of contraction and dilatation, and in fact do dilate 
 and contract, by the application of heat and cold. Tl, 
 panicles of matter being solicited at the same time by two 
 kinds of opposite forces, naturally assume that state of 
 equilibrium which results from the compensated energies, 
 and approach or recede, according as the attractive or the 
 repulsive force predominates. All terrestrial phenomena 
 depend on forces of this kind, as the celestial phenomena 
 depend on universal gravitation. The repulsive force ap- 
 pears to be produced by the principle of heat : the attrac- 
 tion cannot be referred to any principle with which we are 
 more familiar than we are with itself. Some philosophers 
 have attempted to confound molecular attraction with the 
 general attraction of gravity, or at least to regard the form- 
 er as a modification of the other; but in the laws which 
 they obey they are totally different. 
 
 Most of the disputes which have taken place about the 
 nature of attraction have proceeded from the indistinct 
 ideas which we attach to the term force. By force is 
 meant the cause of motion ; but we know not in general 
 what that cause is ; we only judge of its degree by the ef- 
 fect which we see produced. We have no means of mea- 
 suring or comparing forces directly ; what we do measure 
 and compare are the changes of motion ; and when we see 
 bodies in motion, we immediately conclude that it is occa- 
 sioned by the action of a force. Attraction and repulsion 
 are principles of action ; and if they are more difficult to 
 be conceived than any other causes of action or motion, 
 the obscurity arises merely from their implying action at a 
 distance. 
 
 Of all the different kinds of attraction mentioned above, 
 there is only one of which the laws have been fully inves- 
 tigated, namely, the attraction of gravitation. The electric 
 and magnetic attractions are rather terms employed in 
 physics for the purpose of giving a name to what we im- 
 perfectly understand, than used as principles from which 
 to deduce the phenomena to which they give rise. The 
 laws of capillary attraction have been investigated to a con- 
 siderable extent by Laplace ; but molecular attractions in 
 general, which play so important a part in the economy of 
 the world, have seldom been made the subject of mathe- 
 matical investigation. 
 
 ATTRACTION OF MOUNTAINS. That power or force 
 by which all the celestial motions are regulated, and to 
 which we give the name of gravitation, does not act merely 
 on the lp;ge masses of the universe ; the smallest mole- 
 cules ol matter equally partake of its influence, and have 
 an inherent and natural tendency to approach one another. 
 This mutual action, in the case of small bodies, is insensi- 
 ble ; because the attraction resulting from the whole mass 
 of the earth absorbs, as it were, altogether, that which they 
 exercise on one another ; and renders their mutual ap- 
 proach infinitely small or imperceptible. But though the 
 attractive force of matter is insensible in regard to small 
 
 masses, it may become quite appreciable in the caseof largu 
 mountains acting on the plummet of a delicate astronomi- 
 cal instrument. Newton himself was the first who de- 
 duced this consequence from his theory of universal gravita 
 tion. In his tract "De Mundi Syatemate," § 22., he com- 
 putes that a plummet, at the foot of a hemispherical moun- 
 tain three miles high, and six broad (at the bast), would be 
 drawn about one minute and eighteen seconds out of the 
 perpendicular. Some time elapsed, however, before any 
 attempt was made to investigate the subject experimentally. 
 Those who are unaccustomed to consider the intimate 
 relation that subsists among the different parts of physical 
 science, and the light which the accurate solution of one 
 question frequently throws on a multitude of others, will 
 naturally inquire what useful purpose is to be gained by 
 determining the attraction of a mountain.— a determina- 
 tion, moreover, of an extremely nice and delicate kind, 
 and by no means easily executed. Nevertheless, the sub- 
 ject is one of very great importance in astronomy, and its 
 investigation necessary, in order to ascertain the figure of 
 the earth, and determine its interior density. The magni- 
 tude and figure of the earth are found by comparing the 
 lengths of lines measured at different places on its surface 
 with the corresponding celestial arcs, the extremities of 
 which are the zenith points of the extremities of the ter- 
 restrial line. Now if, by the attraction of a mountain, or 
 any other local cause, the plumbline is drawn aside from 
 the perpendicular, or the direction of gravity is not perpen- 
 dicular to the general surface, the position of the apparent 
 zenith will be altered ; and a very small deviation of this 
 kind will produce a great error, for every second of the ce- 
 lestial arc corresponds to about 100 feet on the ground. It 
 is necessary, therefore, to possess the means of making a 
 correct allowance for such causes of local irregularity where 
 they cannot be avoided. Again, the attraction of a moun- 
 tain gives the means of determining the mean density of 
 the earth. For suppose this attraction to be known by its 
 effect on the plumbline, as the dimensions of the moun- 
 tain can be determined by measurement, and the density 
 of its materials can in general be ascertained with tolerable 
 accuracy, the quantity of matter which it contains becomes 
 known. 'Jut the dimensions of (he earth, and the amount 
 of us attrac it a. am ..;■ ^ km wn ; therefore v.c are in pos- 
 session of ail the data necessary to enable us to compute 
 its mean density. 
 
 There are various ways by which the quantity of the at- 
 traction of a mountain may be ascertained. One of the 
 most obvious is to take two stations, one on the south and 
 the other on the north side of the mountain, and as nearly 
 as possible in the same meridian. From the zenith dis 
 tances of the same stars observed at each station, the dif- 
 ference of their apparent latitudes may be accurately de- 
 termined. But the real difference of the latitudes can abo 
 be determined by trigonometrical measurement on tho 
 ground of the distance between the same stations. The 
 difference of these determinations gives the sum of the de 
 viations of the plumbline on the opposite sides of the moun- 
 tain; and when divided in the inverse ratio of the squares 
 of the distances of the stations from the centre of gravity 
 of the mass, will give the deflection of the plummet at each 
 station. Another method supposes one observer to be 
 placetl at the eastern foot of the mountain, and another at 
 the •we'stern, having the means of accurately determining 
 astronomically the" difference of their meridians. This 
 difference, compared with the measured distance by which 
 the one station is east or west of the other, will show the 
 effect of the attraction of the mountain ; but as there is 
 greater difficulty in determining accurately the difference 
 of longitude than of latitude, this method cannot be so 
 easily applied as the former. But it is not absolutely ne- 
 cessary, indeed it may be impracticable, to make observa- 
 tions on the opposite sides of the mountain. Let the me- 
 ridian altitudes of the same stars be observed first on north 
 or south sides of it. and then at a station on tl 
 parallel of latitude, but at such a distance from the moun- 
 tain as to be out of the reach of its action. The difference 
 of the altitudes in the two cases will show the amount of 
 the attraction of the mountain. 
 
 The first attempt to ascertain the attraction of a moun- 
 tain by actual observation was made by the French acade- 
 micians, Bouguer, Godin, and Condamine, who, aboul the 
 year 1738, were dispatched to Peru for the purpose of mea- 
 suring the length of an arc of the terrestrial meridian. 
 Theii experiments were made in the mountain Chimbara- 
 qo, the highest of the Cordilleras and the result seemed to 
 show that the zenith point was altered by thi 
 the mountain to the extent of about 7;.'' seconds of a de* 
 gree. But this quantity was miich too small in determine, 
 with certain evidence, whether the mountain had or had 
 not a sensible effect on the plumbline, for their instruments 
 were not so perfect but that inconsistencies, amounting 
 sometimes to upwards of -0 seconds, entered into I heir ob- 
 servations. From that time no farther attempt was made 
 to determine this interesting fact in physical astronomy to 
 
ATTK CHEMICAL. 
 
 u- 1774, when Dr. Maskelyue, the astronomer i 
 
 xperiment of the .same kind on 
 
 the mou f ien in Perthshire, with instruments 
 
 isuring the minute quanbti 
 
 of latitude of two stations on the north and 
 
 le mountain, compared with that which was 
 
 men! <>t' the distant 
 
 for the ac- 
 ontain on the plummet of the zenith sector. 
 of the mountain was accurately measured 
 ne time ; and with the data thus obtained a labori- 
 w -is made by Dr. Hutton, from which it re- 
 i the earth is about five times 
 ir twice that'of the ordinary rockstone near 
 third experiment of the same kind was 
 / i mountain M 
 
 from the shore of the Mediterranean near 
 ument which he employed forde- 
 -. a repeating circle of 12 It 
 much less to ; "ti for accural 
 
 elyne; but in other re- 
 . particularly those connected with 
 i ii'.-monts, appear to have I 
 
 ace ii'ntl practical skill. The 
 
 that theil m the true 
 
 attraction ol the mountain, amount- 
 
 required for comparing the density 
 
 i with that of the earth ; such comparison, 
 
 with respect lo an insulated 
 
 not 
 
 .■■ills hitherto made on this subject 
 
 t, they are quite sufficient to esta- 
 
 lountains are capable of producing 
 
 if the plumbllnes of astronomical in- 
 
 I ■. therefore, of very great importance, in 
 
 s of the terrestrial meridian, 
 
 Ion where the astronomical latitudes 
 
 remote from large mountains, and 
 
 : Irregularities of the surface are not very 
 
 'i. ii of this sort has been 
 
 ■ 
 
 ; for it is obvious: that a sudden and const- 
 i of density in the strata under the surface 
 > on the plumbline as a mass 
 above it. Tothiscau.se is attri! 
 ility, a great part of the discrepancies 
 amon "t the operations made to determine 
 
 irlh, particularly amnnj those for ascer- 
 ions of density by means of the pen- 
 dulum. See Zach'a Attractiu?i den Montagnet, Avignon, 
 
 ."I. ii. ; 
 l'hil. Trant. vol. Ixviii. ; also Bouguer's figure de la 
 
 ATTRACTION, CHEMICAL. See Affinity. 
 ATTRIBUTES (Lat. ad, /".and tribuo, I give.) In 
 .Inch are used to disthv 
 
 jleand 
 
 thunderbolt are the attributes of Jupiter; the trident, that 
 
 us. of Mercury; the bow and 
 
 ■ ; the balance and sword accompany 
 
 ,VC. 
 
 At H \1.\E. DROIT D*. In French Jurisprudence, the 
 righto lie succession of a foreigner not 
 
 naturalised, i r of a naturalised foreigner dying intestate 
 ut within the realm. The word is de- 
 • come 
 tin alibi natus, born elsewhere. The droit d' au- 
 baine still exists in various countries; and. although abol- 
 ition, was restored by the Code Civil of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 A I (lll'.'Nl.V (C.r. aixv»- the neck.) In Mammalogy 
 this •• ck below the 
 
 micha. or nape. Also, the name of a genus of Camelidae, 
 in which the above region of the neck is remarkably 
 
 Al I UTOR. One who examines and verifies the accounts 
 of offi Qtrosted with money. The term 
 
 is derived from the Latin audio. I i ibly from the 
 
 1 1" delivering accounts viva voce. Re- 
 •ral of fee farm rents, <vc. are termed auditors, 
 ime title are assigned by courts of law 
 In actions of account, <kc. The auditors 
 of the exchequer were officers appointed to take the ac- 
 couili rs of public revenues. The present 
 
 loners for auditing the public accounts, 
 luties formerly divided between various 
 shequer, was constituted In the yea 
 la Germany the junior legal functionaries are termed audi- 
 as to have been originally 
 ! In Prance, where the member! o 
 Chambrea were divided into conseillers- 
 
 inseillers-auditeurs. 
 AIT'OER. An instrument for boring the soil forthe pur- 
 KI7 
 
 AUGUSTINE AGE. 
 
 if ascertaining the nature of the subsoil, the mineral 
 and. in agriculture more especially, the existence of water. 
 There are various kinds of augers, according to the pur 
 poses to which they are to be applied; but they all con- 
 
 three parts, viz. the bit, mouth, or catting pii 
 the handle ; and the connecting rods. The handle is for 
 the purpose of working the instrument by the means of 
 two or more men : the rods for connecting the handle with 
 the bit. or cutting piece ; and the bit for penetrating the 
 soil. When it is necessary t,-> pass through stony soil or 
 rocks, a chisel is substituted fur the bit: and alter the rock 
 is broken in small pieces, the chisel is removed, an 1 re- 
 placed by the common auger, by which the loose mattein 
 are drawn up. 
 
 ORIENTATION, ARMS OF. In Heraldry, coats 
 given by sovereigns to subjects as a mark of honour, to be 
 quartered with their own ; or charges, such as ordinances 
 charged with some device, to be borne in their family shield. 
 Such coats or devices are in general either significant, i. e. 
 bearing some relation to the nature of the achievement for 
 which the honour is bestowed ; or they are portions of the 
 royal arms. 
 
 A! GMENTATION OF STIPENDS, ((lunch of Scot- 
 land.) The stipends of ministers are under the control oi 
 • has the power to enter- 
 tain applications for augmentation from clergymen, and 
 cither to grant or dismiss them. But twenty years must 
 elapse before such application can be rein wed. 
 
 41 GSB1 ao, CONFESSION OF. A formulary drawn 
 up by Luther and Metsncthon, and presented to Charles V. 
 at the diet le it is adopted by the 
 
 Lutheran church, but did not at the time succeed in com- 
 prehending all the reformers, and was the occasion of a 
 separation between the followers of Luther and the parly 
 who called themselves the Evangelical Reformed Church, 
 which has continued ever since. 
 
 AL'(;l US il.it. augures.) Roman soothsayers, who 
 professed to foretel events by the flying, singing, or feed- 
 ing of birds. Their office was one of great importance in 
 the state, as no enterprises or ceremonies were performed 
 unless they declared the omens favourable. Accordingly 
 the members of their college were alwa; BO the 
 
 most honourable citizens. 
 
 Their divinations were called auguries or auspices, be- 
 tween which there is sometimes a distinction made ; the 
 were derived from '.he inspection 
 ol birds, the former being extended to all amensorpro- 
 itever. 
 
 i mans derived their knowledge of angary from the 
 
 Tuscans, who were relet. rated for (heir skill hi this and 
 other religious ceremonies. 
 
 AU'GUST The eighth month of the year. The an- 
 cient Roman year commenced with March, and: 
 month was called Sextilis. The name was changed to 
 i compliment of Augustus Cassar. In the calen- 
 dar of Julias Cl -.ibution of the days through 
 the several months was more commodious than thi 
 arrangement The first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and 
 
 eleventh months consisted of thirty-one days each, and the 
 other months of thirty. bruary, which in com- 
 
 mon years contained twenty-nine days, but in leap years 
 thirty. In order t" gratify the frivolous vanity of Augustus, 
 who thought it a disparagement that the month bearing 
 his name should contain fewer days than July, which was 
 ay was taken from February 
 and given to August. Such was the origin of the Capri- 
 cious distribution of the days among the dlfferenl months 
 which now prevails over the whole Christian world ; and 
 which, being founded on no principle, requires some pains 
 to be remembered. 
 
 AUGUSTA'LES. The epithet given to the priests or 
 fiamens of Augustas Ctesar. See Flamen. 
 
 AUGUSTA'LIS PRJEFE'CTTJB. The prefect or gov- 
 emor of Egypl when it became a Roman province. This 
 officer was a military viceroy appointed immediately by 
 the emperor, and not selected" from the senate, but from the 
 order of knights ; and lie enjoyed greater power than the 
 proconsuls and propraetors, under whose care tl 
 provinces fell. The epithet Augustalis was derived from 
 the circumstance of Augustus having appointed the first 
 prae-fec* of E vpt. 
 
 AUGUSTA'I.IA. A festival instituted in honour of Au- 
 gustus Ctesar on the occasion of his pacifying Sicily , Greece, 
 \sia Minor, and Parthi.a. 
 
 AUGUSTAN HISTORY. A series of history ol the 
 Roman empire from the year 157 A. D. to 286 A. D., written 
 by the following six authors: JE\. Spartlanus.J. Capitolinus. 
 Ml Lamprldius, Vulcatius Gallianus,Trebellius PoHio, and 
 Flavins voplscus. 
 
 AUGU'STINE AGE. A term used to designate the 
 
 ■ most brilliant period In the literary 
 
 history of Rome. ' The civil wars that had long distracted 
 
 the Roman empire had stilled the cultivation of literature 
 
 and the arts; and when the battle of Actium had term'- 
 
AUGUSTINE. 
 
 aated internal commotion, nothing, it was supposed, could 
 so effectually celebrate and adorn the restoration of peace 
 and the happy reign of Augustus, as the appearance of 
 great national poets, who might supply the chief defect in 
 the literature of their country, and create a body of classi- 
 cal works, in which the ancient Roman traditions might 
 be tra^mitted to posterity. To accomplish this object, 
 men of genius were flattered, courted, and enriched, in an 
 unexampled manner, by the liberality of Augustus ; and 
 after a brief interval, the verses of Virgil, Horace, Pro- 
 pertius, Ovid, and Tibullus resounded throughout the em- 
 pire in their respective epic, lyric, and elegiac strains. But 
 it was not merely for ornamental literature that the age in 
 question was distinguished. The science of jurisprudence, 
 the only original intellectual possession of great value to 
 which the Romans can lay undisputed claim, then received 
 its lull development: the immense and nearly inexplica- 
 ble masses of Roman statutes were perspicuously arrang- 
 ed ; and the boundaries of strict law on the one hand, and 
 equity on the other, were respectively ascertained. In this 
 age, too, Rome became the seat of universal government 
 and wealth ; and so numerous and splendid were the ar- 
 chitectural decorations with which it was embellished, as 
 to justify the saying of Augustus — that he found Rome of 
 brick, and left it of marble. 
 
 AUGU'STINE. In Ecclesiastical History, an order of 
 monks and nuns established in the eleventh century, ap- 
 parently in commemoration of the monastic societies as- 
 sembled by Saint Augustine in the fourth, but which had 
 long ceased to exist. See Orders. Ecclesiastical. 
 
 AU'LIC COUNCIL, or REICHSHOFRATH. A council 
 of high powers and dignity in the German empire. The 
 Aulic Council and Imperial Chamber (reichskammerge- 
 richt) were the two supreme courts in that empire. The 
 former consisted of a president, vice-president, and eigh- 
 teen councillors, six of whom were Protestants, with the 
 peculiar privilege that, if unanimous, their votes could not 
 be overruled by those of the Catholics. This court had 
 exclusive jurisdiction in various affairs, principally those 
 which concerned the imperial government. 
 
 AULO'STOMA. (Gr. ai\ds, a pipe, ar6\ia, a mouth.) 
 A genus of Acanthopterygians belonging to the family called 
 by Cuvier Bouches en flute ; including the pipe-fishes, or 
 those species which are characterised by a mouth, which 
 is lengthened into a kind of tube or pipe. 
 
 AU'RA. (Lat the air.) The subtle essence which is 
 contained within the grains of pollen, and in which is sup- 
 posed to reside the power of fertilising the ovules. It is 
 now generally considered that this essence is imaginary, 
 and thai fertilisation is produced by the descent of minute 
 organic particles through the stigma to the ovules. 
 
 Aura. A sensation resembling a wind, or being breathed 
 upon. Aura epileptica is a sensation often experienced by 
 epileptic patients, resembling the ascent of a blast of cold 
 air from the extremities upwards. 
 
 AURANTIA'CE-E. (Lat. aurantium, an orange.) A 
 considerable natural order of Exogens, with polypetalous 
 flowers, confined to the warmer parts of Asia, or the near- 
 est parts of Africa. They have dotted leaves filled with a 
 fragrant oil, anil succulent eatable fruit, covered by an aro- 
 matic skin. The orange, the shaddock, the lime, the 
 lemon, are all species of the genus Citrus, and the best 
 known in Europe. In the woods of India, there are some 
 species that climb; and in the Himalaya exists a species, 
 Limonia laureola, which would probably be a hardy ever- 
 green if introduced into this country. 
 
 AURE'LIA. In Entomology, the name given to the 
 nymph, or quiescent stage of transformation "of an insect, 
 on account of the metallic, golden lustre which is reflected 
 from the case of the nymphs of some diurnal Lcpidoptera. 
 
 AURE'OLA. (Lat. of the colour of gold.) In Painting, 
 the glory with which the ancient painters decorated the 
 heads of the saints, martyrs, and confessors which they 
 executed. 
 
 AU'REUS. A Roman gold coin worth a little more than 
 sixteen shillings, according to the proportion given by Taci- 
 tus. I3ut it varied, as appears from the different values as- 
 signed to it, from 1/. is. to 12s. Its weight was about 2X oz. 
 avoirdupois. 
 
 AU'RICLE. (Lat. auricula, a little ear.) Signifies, in 
 Mammalosy, the external ears, which are said to be 'mar- 
 ginate' (auricula, marginata) when bordered by a helix, or 
 involute margin ;— to be 'operculate' (auricula opercutatcn) 
 when provided with a largely developed tragus, which 
 Hands out like a subsidiary auricle; — to be 'concealed 1 
 (inirini.la'. ahscondil at) when covered by the hair. In Orni- 
 thology, the circle of feathers surrounding the entry to the 
 ear-passage are called auriculars. In Anatomy, the venous 
 chambers of the heart are termed auricles. 
 
 AURI'CULAR CONFESSION. Confession of sins to a 
 priest in private, distinguished from the public confession 
 which was enjoined as a duty by the primitive church, but 
 was early allowed to drop into disuse. It was on occasion 
 of the scandal which the original practice uroduced, that 
 10S 
 
 AURORA BOREAL1S. 
 
 Leo the Great, in the fifth century, first recommended pi\ 
 vate confession tc a priest in certain cases. It was not till 
 the fourth council of Lateran in 1215, that the doctrine of the 
 necessity of this practice was formally established. 
 
 AURI'CULATE (Lat. auricula, alittle ear.) When the 
 base of a leaf or similar part projects on each side of the 
 axis in the form of a little round lobe. 
 
 AURO'RA. In the ancient Mythology, the goddess of 
 the morning. She was the daughter of Tilan and Terra, 
 and was deified as the light which precedes the rising of 
 the sun above our hemisphere. So lovely a being as she 
 was represented to be could not fail to attract a host of ad 
 mirers ; and, accordingly, we find her engaged in nume- 
 rous amours. But the object of her peculiar favour was 
 Tithonus, son of Laomedon, king of" Troy, for whom she 
 cherished so permanent an attachment as to obtain for him 
 the gift of immortality. She unfortunately neglected, how- 
 ever, to combine this privilege with an immunity from 
 age; and in the course of time Tithonus became 
 pid that Aurora out of pity transformed him into a grass- 
 hopper, in which shape he still retained the garrulity of old 
 age. She is supposed generally to rise from the couch of 
 Tithonus : — 
 
 Et jam prima novo spargebat lumine terras, 
 Tithom croceum llnqueoa Aurora cubile. — Vir«. 
 Milton, in a passage teeming with poetic imagery and truth, 
 thus opens the fifth book of Paradise Lost :— 
 
 Now Morn, her rosy steps in th' eastern clime 
 Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl ; 
 When Adam wak.d. so customed, for his si ep 
 "Was aery, light, from pure digestion bred 
 And temperate vapours bland, which th' only EOUnd 
 Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan, 
 Lightly dispersed, am 1 the shrill matin song 
 Of birds on every bough. 
 
 AURO'RA BORE ALIS. Northern lights, Polar lights, ot 
 Streamers. A luminous meteor, generally appearing in the 
 norlhern part of the sky, and presenting alight somewhat 
 resembling the dawn or break of day. The appearances 
 which it exhibits and the forms it assumes an: so prover- 
 bially unsteady, that it is not possible to comprehend them 
 under any general description. Most frequently ilie phe- 
 nomenon appears to proceed from a sort of horizontal cloud 
 or haze in the northern part of the sky, rising a ;ew de- 
 grees above the horizon, and stretching from the north to- 
 wards the east and west, so as to form an arc, which in 
 some instances has been observed to extend upwards ^( 
 100°. The upper edge of the cloud is whitish and lumin- 
 ous, the lower part often dark or thick, and sometimes the 
 clear sky may be seen between it and the horizon. From 
 the upper part of the cloud streams of light shoot up in co- 
 lumnar forms, reaching sometimes only a few degrees, 
 sometimes to the zenith, or even beyond it. Instances oc- 
 cur in which the whole hemisphere is covered v> 
 cations ; but the brilliancy is greatest, and the liglil strong- 
 est, in the north near the main body of the meteor. The 
 streamers have in general a tremulous motion, ami, when 
 close together, present the appearance of waves or sheets 
 of light following each other in rapid succession. When 
 several columns, issuing from different points, mi 
 zenith, a small meteor is formed of greater brilliancy than 
 ihe separate columns. The phenomenon sometimes con- 
 tinues a few hours, occasionally the whole night, and even 
 for several nights in succession. It senerally commences 
 at most two or three hours after sunset, and very rarely in 
 the morning or much after midnight. Auroras have been 
 observed even before the evening twilight has disappeared. 
 In the Shetland Islands, and other countries in high lati- 
 tudes, the northern lights are Ihe constant attem 
 clear and frosty evenings in winter. They are most fre- 
 quent in autumn. 
 
 In Captain Franklin's Narrative, the Auroras observed ;>.! 
 Fort Enterprise, in North America, are described by Lieu:. 
 Wood as follows : — 
 
 "They rise with their centres sometimes in the mag 
 netic meridian, and sometimes several degrees to 
 ward or westward of it. The number visible seldom ex 
 ceeds five, and is seldom limited to one. The altitude ol 
 the lowest, when first seen, is never less than 4°. A 
 vance towardsthezenith,theircentres(orthe parts l 
 vated) preserve a course in the magnetic meridian, 
 to it. But the eastern and western extrom 
 respective distances, and the arches become i 
 broad streams in the zenith, each dividing the sky into 
 two unequal parts, but, never crossing one another nil they 
 separate into parts. Those arches which were bright al ihe 
 horizon increase their brilliancy in the zenith, and i 
 the beams of which they are composed, when the 
 motion is rapid. This interior motion is a sudden 
 proceeding from any visible concentration of mi 
 bursting out in several parts of the arch, is i 
 combustible matter had taken place, and 
 rapidly towards each extremity. In ihis m 
 are formed. They have two motions; one ai righ 
 
AURORA BOREALIS. 
 
 i. or sideways; and ihe orher a tremulous 
 
 i. in which they do not exactly preserve 
 
 . ■ each other. The wreaths, when in the 
 
 ■ I corona boreales. The 
 
 ■ u is always accompanied by colours ; for it 
 
 are often formed without 
 
 and I have not in that case per- 
 
 m." 
 
 jiits are sometimes seen tinged with the 
 
 us prismatic c ' fe and green, 
 
 but m at shades of red, predoml- 
 
 lertius describes one seen by him in Lapland, 
 
 sive region of I ..•.van Is the 
 
 red in so lively a red that the whole con- 
 
 seemed as if dyed in blood. Some ob- 
 
 i>r have affirmed thai they have heard 
 
 i from it. Doubts 
 
 xt&ined on this point, from the 
 
 - iresby, 
 
 I, who observed the 
 
 polar ire, under to urable 
 
 ery high latitudes. Hut the testimony 
 
 ive a kind as to leave no 
 
 doubt thai the phenomenon has, at least in 
 
 accompanied by sounds. 
 
 collected of the po- 
 would seem that the phenomenon was less fre- 
 is than it is now ; but it must be kept in 
 - have not always been so 
 is at present. Aristotle describes the 
 i with sufficient accuracy in his book of Mete- 
 it by Pliny, Cicero, and* 
 ive been often witnessed by the 
 i ites of Orecce and Italy. The 
 of armies lighting in the air, and similar pro- 
 res, doubtless owed their 
 origin to the striking and fantastic appearances of the 
 hts. It is remarkable, however, thai no men- 
 in writer of an Aurora Borealis 
 id from the year 1021 to 
 1707. I it the oldest Inhabitants of 
 
 llpsala considered the phenomenon a great rarity before 
 1710. In the month of March in thai yearaverjr splendid 
 one appeared In England, and by reason of its brilliancy 
 -.1 universal attention. It has been described by 
 Dr. HaUey in the Phil Trans . No. 347. Since then, the 
 has been much more common. A complete ac- 
 count of all the appearances of Auroras recorded pn 
 to 1784 maybe found in the work of Mairan, "Traite" de 
 ['Aurora 
 The Aurora is not confined to the Northern hemisphere, 
 trances being observed In high southern lati- 
 \urora was witnessed by Don Antonio d'Ulloa 
 l in 171">: one appeared at Cuzco in 17-14 ; and 
 anothi 1 by Mr. l'orster (who accompanied 
 
 I voyage round the world), which 
 
 In latitude 53° south, and n 
 ■ ■iitirely, those of the northern hemisphere, exci 
 
 it exhibited no tints, but was of a clear white, 
 tony is given by subsequent navigators. 
 There is great" difficulty in determining the exact height 
 of the Aurora Borealis above the earth, and accordingly 
 the opinions given on this subject by different observers 
 lupposed th" mean height 
 176 French !■ rgman says 4C0 miles, and 
 
 Buler several thousand miles. Prom the comparison of a 
 number of observations of an Aurora lhat appeared In 
 tees in the north of Eng- 
 land and south of Scotland, Dr. Dalton, in a paper present- 
 8 iciety, computed its height to be about 
 100 miles. But a calculation of this sort, in which it is of 
 i thai the meteor is seen in exactly the 
 same place by the different observers, is subject to very 
 grea The observations of Dr. Richardson, 
 
 Franklin, Ho id, Parry, and others, seem to prove that the 
 of the Aurora 'is far within the limits of the atmos- 
 phere, and scarcely above the region of the clouds; in fact, 
 as the diurnal rotation of the earth produces no change in 
 its 'apparent position, it must necessarily partake of that 
 i. and consequently be regarded as an atmospherical 
 aenon. 
 usfaetory theory has yet been given of the cause 
 of the polar lights. Mairan ascribed the phenomenon to 
 the sun's atmosphere ; Euler, to particles of the earth's 
 atmosphere driven beyond its limits by the impulse of so- 
 lar light. Beccaria, Canton, Franklin, and others, refer it 
 to electricity, an agent to whose mysterious influence all 
 the inexplicable phenomena cf meteorology are conveni- 
 ently ascribed. An absurd theory proposed by M. Libes 
 (Dicrionnaire de Physique) formerly met with consider- 
 able favour. He had observed that, on passing an electric 
 spark through a compound of oxygen and nitrogen, nitrous 
 vaptxxs o;'?. reddish' colour are produced. He therefore 
 supposed that the higher regions of the atmosphere near 
 109 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the pole contain little or no hydrogen ; and that conse 
 quently the discharges of electricity, which, by producing 
 a combination of oxygen and hydrogen, form water in the 
 lower strata, in the more elevated strata produco nitrous 
 vaponis, which constitute the polar lights. That some 
 connexion subsists between the Aurora and magnetism, oi 
 rather electricity, which is now regarded as the primary- 
 cause of magnetism, is made certain by the fact that du 
 ring the continuance of brilliant Auroras the magnetic 
 needle is generally disturbed, sometimes violently agitated. 
 
 Ir at the same time is often observed to he highly 
 
 I with electric matter. An experiment contrived 
 
 by M. Canton also seems to indicate an electric origin. II 
 
 s tube be partially exhausted of air, hermetically 
 sealed, and applied to the conductor of an electric ma 
 chine, the whole tube is illuminated from end to end, and 
 continues luminous for a considerable time after it has 
 
 amoved from the conductor. If, after this, the tube 
 ah through the band, the light will be remarkably 
 through its whole length ; and il'it is grasped in both 
 ham Is, near the extremities, strong flashes of light will darl 
 from one end to the other, and continue many hours 
 without fresh excitation. The only conclusion which, in 
 the present state of our knowledge, we are warranted in 
 deducing, is, thai the Aurora Borealis must be ascribed to 
 the agency of electricity in the upper regions of the atmos- 
 phere : in what way the excitement is produced, it re- 
 mains for future discoveries to make known. 
 
 The most systematic series of observations which we 
 possess on the subject, was made bythe Rev. James Far- 
 
 ?|uharson, of Aberdeenshire, in 1829, with an apparatus 
 urnished by the Royal Society, and of which an account 
 is published in the Transactions for 1830. 
 
 AU'RUM Ml BH I M. An obsolete chemical name of 
 the hisulphiiri't of tin. 
 AU'SPICES, Alsi'ICIA. See Augurs. 
 AUSCULTa'TION. (I.at. auscultare, tolisten.) A meth- 
 od of distinguishing healthy and diseased states of the body 
 by the study of the sounds produced by the movements of 
 the different organs, and which differ more or less when 
 the parts are diseased from those which belong to their 
 healthy functions. Sr>> Stethoscope. 
 
 AUTHE'NTIC, AUTHENTICATED. A word of Greek 
 origin. In Diplomatics, ancient MSS. were formerly 
 termed authentlca when originals, in opposition to co| 
 In the modern acceptation of the word, it Is only applied 
 Og marks of having been executed by 
 • per authority. ' 
 AUTHENTIC MELODIES. In Music, such as hava 
 their principal notes contained between the key ncte and 
 its octave. This term is applied bythe Italians to four of 
 the church modes or tones in music which rise a fourth 
 above their dominants, which are always fifths above theil 
 . that is, rise to complete their octaves, thus distin- 
 I from plagal melodies, which fall a fourth below 
 their finals. 
 
 AUTO-DA-FE, properly AUTO-DE-FE. (Span, act of 
 fnith.) A public solemnity held by the Court of the In- 
 quisition in Spain and Portugal. It was a gaol-delivery, at 
 which extracts from the trials of offenders, and the sen- 
 l pronounced by the judges, were read ; after which 
 lltion was conferred on those who were penitent, and 
 discharged: after which, those condemned to death (re- 
 i were transferred to the secular authority: and 
 the auto, properly so called, ended ; the execution 
 of the victims taking place immediately afterwards, under 
 i iiority of the civil judge, a secretary to the inquisi- 
 tion attending. The ceremonial of the autos, processions, 
 horrible executions, <tc, are amply described by many 
 writers. See especially Uormte'a Bitlory of the Inquisi- 
 A Relation of the Inquisition in Portugal, published 
 by Bishop Burnet; and Olmo's Account of the Senual Auto- 
 da- Fe at Madrid in 1080, from which the account in the 
 Penny Cyclopa>dia is abridged. Autos were of several 
 sorts : the public general act (auto publico general), to 
 which the above descriptions apply; the particular act, at 
 which only the officials of the inquisition were present; 
 autillo, or little act; and auto singular, the condemnation 
 of a single individual. .S'ec Inquisition. 
 
 AUTOBIO'GRAPHY. (This word is of Greek origin 
 and signifies literally the life of a person written by him- 
 self) One of the most fascinating, and, if properly under- 
 I, one of the most instructive, species of composition. 
 But none is more calculated to mislead the incautious 
 reader, or to give more false impressions, both of men 
 and events. These memoirs may be divided into two 
 classes: those in which the chief object of the writer is to 
 illustrate the history of his own mind and heart, and the 
 manner in which these were swayed by the destinies of 
 his life ; and those in which his purpose is merely to give 
 a sketch of the scenes and events which have occurred 
 within his own experience, and of characters with which 
 he has been brought in contact. Of the first class of wri- 
 tings, from the Confession of Saint Augustine down to the 
 
AUTOCARPIOUS. 
 
 Confessions of Rousseau, and the many works which have 
 rince been produced in imitation of the latter, it may be 
 said that the general defect is a morbid spirit of exaggera- 
 tion. The mind dwells with intense recollection on its 
 own pains and pleasures, errors and victories; it magnifies 
 contrasts, paints every thing in extremes, and leaves out 
 of the portrait all neutral and moderate features, because 
 the recollection of ordinary feelings and actions passes 
 away, while that of strong excitement is indelible. Of the 
 more narrative class of memoirs, it is sufficient to say, 
 that where the writer was himself a prominent actor in 
 passing events, they are usually little belter than apologies 
 or self-justifications, such as the famous Memoirs of the 
 Cardinal de Retz, and, in our own times, the various frag- 
 ments of autobiography which have been published from 
 the hand of Napoleon. 
 
 AUTOCA'RPIOUS. (Gr. avros, himself, and Kapird;, 
 fruit.) A name given to such fruit as consists of nothing 
 but pericarp, without any additional organ, such as the 
 calyx adhe ring to the outside. 
 
 AUTO'CHTHONS. (Gr. aird;, salf and xQ&v, earth.) 
 The Greek term for the aboriginal inhabitants of a country, 
 implying that they were sprung from the soil. The Athe- 
 nians, whose territory had been held by the same race 
 from time immemorial, chietly on account of its sterility, 
 which offered no incitement to foreign aggression, particu- 
 larly laid claim to this title, in memorial of which they wore 
 '.lie emblematic grasshopper as part of their head-dress. 
 
 AU'TOCRAT. In Politics, a word derived from the 
 Greek avroKparwp, sole, or independent governor. This 
 title of Autocrator was giten to Athenian generals invested 
 with full command by the republic ; also to envoys, in 
 which case it corresponded in meaning with the barbarous 
 Latin word plenipotentiaries. In modern political phrase- 
 ology, the term autocrat, signifying a sovereign possessed 
 of absolute power, is usually confined to the emperor of 
 Russia. 
 
 AU'TOGRAPH. (Gr. aird;, self, and ypetyw, I write.) 
 The autograph of an individual is a piece of writing in hi3 
 hand. 
 
 AUTO'MATON. (Gr. avros, self, and ptarnv, easily.) 
 A name applied to pieces of mechanism so constructed as 
 to imitate the actions of living animals. The term Android 
 (from the Gr. dvi)p, man) is sometimes applied to such ma- 
 chines as resemble the figures and imitate the actions of 
 mankind. 
 
 Tlic extent to which these useless but ingenious contri- 
 vances has been sometimes carried is very surprising. Ar- 
 ehytas of Tarentum, about 400 years before our era, is said 
 to have made a wooden pigeon that could fly. Friar Ba- 
 con's speaking head is a well-known tradition. Albertus 
 Magnus constructed an automaton to open his door when 
 any one knocked ; the celebrated Regiomontanus, a wood- 
 en eagle that flew forth from the city, saluted the emperor, 
 and returned : and likewise an iron fly which flew out of 
 his hand, and returned after flying about the room. These 
 Instances may perhaps have been exaggerated in the des- 
 cription ; but there are some of recent date, and not less 
 remarkable, respecting which the testimony is clear and 
 strong. The following are a fewof the best authenticated : — 
 The flute-player of Vaucauson, described by D'Alembert 
 in the Encyclopedie Methodique, was exhibited in Paris in 
 1738. It played on the flute exactly in the same manner 
 as a living performer, and commanded three octaves, the 
 fullest scale of the instrument. Its height was nearly six 
 feet. In Hutton's Mathematical Recreations, a description 
 is given of an automaton group, constructed by M. Camus 
 for the amusement of Louis XIV., consisting of a coach 
 and noises, with coachman and page, and lady inside, &c, 
 by which the action of driving up, alighting, presenting a 
 petition to the king, and setting off again, was mimicked 
 with wor.derful accuracy. In 1741, Vaucauson, produced 
 a flagelet olayer, which played the flagelet with the left 
 hand, whi'e it beat a tambourine with the right. He also 
 produced a duck, which dabbled in the water, swam, 
 drank, and quacked like a real duck ; raised and moved its 
 wings, drained its feathers with its bill, took barley from 
 the hand and swallowed it, and even digested its food by 
 means of materials for its solution placed in the stomach. 
 (Montucla, Il.'stoiredes Math., tome iii. p. 602.) 
 
 Automaton flute-players have likewise been exhibited in 
 England, of die size of real life, which performed ten or 
 twelve duets Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome, 
 exhibited an lutomaton trumpeter at Vienna, of which a 
 description is given in the Journal des Modes for 1S09. It 
 was a martial figure, in the uniform of a trumpeter of an 
 Austrian dra»oon regiment, which played not only the 
 Austrian and French cavalry marches, and all the signals 
 of those armies, but also a march and an allegro, by Weigh 
 accompanied by the whole orchestra, &c. (Dictionary of 
 Musicians, London, 1827.) 
 
 Automata have also been constructed which wrote, drew 
 likenesses, played on the pianoforte, <fc . The celebrated 
 r.ness-playina automaton is now considered as a solved 
 
 no 
 
 AVERAGE, GENERAL. 
 
 mystery, it being supposed (and not denied) that a boy 
 was concealed inside the figure. The machinery, how- 
 ever, which produced such motions must have been highly 
 ingenious. See Penny Cyclopmdia ; Hutton's Math. Dic- 
 tionary ; Encyc. Brit., article " Androides." 
 
 AU'TOPSY. (Gr. avros, self, and axpis, sight.) Ocular 
 evidence. 
 
 AU'TUMN. The third of the four seasons r>f the year. 
 In a popular sense it denotes that period of the year in 
 which the fruits of the earth are gathered in. Astronomi- 
 cally speaking, it is the time during which the sun is 
 ing from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice. Ow- 
 ing to the elliptic form of the earth's orbit, the seasons are 
 not all of the same length ; and owing to the precession of 
 the equinoxes, their lengths vary a little from age ti 
 In the present century, the time which elapses between the 
 sun's passage through the autumnal equinox and his reach- 
 ing the winter solstice, or while he passes through the three 
 signs of Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius, is 89 da\s 16 hours 
 and 47 minutes. The autumn of the northern hemisphere 
 corresponds to the spring of the southern. 
 
 AUTU'MNAL EQUINOX. The day on which the sun 
 passes through the equator, going southward, or on which 
 his declination changes from north to south. When the 
 sun is in the equator, the day is equal in length to the night 
 all over the world. See Equinox. The autumnal equinox 
 falls srenerally on the 22d or 23d of September 
 
 AUTU'MNAL POINT. One of the two points in which 
 the ecliptic intersects the equator. It is the same as the 
 first point of the sign Libra. 
 
 AVALA'NCIIES. Masses of snow which collect upon 
 <ttie heights of mountains, and gradually sliding down their 
 sides, acquire enormous bulk by fresh accumulations : 
 when they ultimately reach the valleys below, they often 
 cause great destruction. 
 
 AVa'ST. A sea term, signifying, enough ; stop ; cease 
 The etymology of this word is doubtful. 
 
 AVELLA'NA. (Abella or Avella, a toxen of Cumpania, 
 celebrated for its fine filberts.) One of the names of the com- 
 mon hazel nut. The Spaniards in Chili apply the name to 
 the fruit of Quadria heterophylla, because of its resem- 
 blance to filberts. 
 
 A VENA SATIVA. (Diandria trigynia Lin., Gramineas 
 Juss.) The Linnsan name of the common oat. A grami- 
 neous plant characterised by a loose compound "equal 
 panicle and two-flowered spik'elet. The oat is very exten- 
 sively cultivated in most of the northern countries of Eu 
 rope as a bread corn. It has long occupied the same place 
 in Scotland that rye occupies in Germany and the potato" 
 in Ireland. In England it is chiefly used in the feeding of 
 horses ; but there, also, it is used to a considerable extent 
 as food for man, particularly in the northern counties. 
 There are three leading varieties of the common oat culti- 
 vated in England — black ; grey, dun-brown, or red ; and 
 white. The first two varieties being comparatively hardy, 
 may be raised on very inferior soils, and in situations un- 
 suitable for the other. The black is now, however, hardly 
 known in England ; but it is still cultivated to a considera- 
 ble extent in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland, and 
 in the Western Islands. The dun or red oat is principally 
 confined to the moors of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Staf- 
 fordshire. White oats are, speaking generally, less hardy 
 than either of the other varieties, and require a better soil"; 
 but they are also earlier, heavier, and yield a greater quan- 
 tity of meal. ' There are numberless, and some widely dif- 
 ferent, sub-varieties of the white oat. That which is called 
 the potatoe oat has long enjoyed the highest reputation in 
 England, and is almost the only variety that is at present 
 raised on good land in most parts of England and the south 
 of Scotland. The produce of oats varies very greatly. 
 When the ground is foul or exhausted, not more than 20 
 bushels an acre are obtained : but in a rich soil well man- 
 aged and in favourable years, GO, 70, and sometimes even 
 80 bushels and upwards, have been reaped, weighing from 
 35 lbs. to 45 lbs. a bushel, and yielding 7 lbs. meal for 14 
 lbs. oats; but the proportion of meal increases as t lie oats 
 become heavier. The price ofoats amounted at an average 
 of the 7 years ending with the 31st December, 1835, to 22s. 
 per Imp. quarter. 
 
 A'VENUE. (Lat. ad, to, and venio, I come.) In Land 
 scape Gardening, is a road leading from some other road, 
 and forming the main approach to a house; but it is also 
 applied to any broad walk or road of grass or gravel, bor- 
 dered on each side by lines of trees. When the modern 
 style of gardening began to take the place of the ancient 
 style, the term avenue gave way to that of approach 
 road, which subsequently became shortened into that of 
 approach. 
 
 A'VERAGE, GENERAL. In Mercantile Law. whatei a 
 damage or loss is incurred by any part of the ship or cargo ftrr 
 the preservation of the rest. When such damage accrues 
 the several persons interested in die ship, freight, and cargo 
 contribute theirrespectiveproportionstoindemnify theown 
 ersof the part in question against the damage or necessary ex 
 
AVERNUS. 
 
 been incurred for the good of all. Gene- 
 
 tnnot be unless ihe whole adven- 
 
 Every species of loss incurred 
 
 >n any part of the cargo in the course of the voyage, is 
 
 minated average, or particular ave- 
 
 INSURANCE. 
 
 AW.'KM 8. (Lat.) A lake of Italy 10 miles west of 
 
 Naples, celebrated in antiquity as the entrance to the in- 
 
 ferr. i -'rabo's description of this lake was well 
 
 fitted lo impress the minds of the "profanvni vulgus" with 
 
 " lis sleep and perilous banks were 
 
 led with mighty oaks that stretched their boughs over 
 
 the w;iti rv \eluded every ray of wholesome 
 
 light ; mephitic vapours ascending from the hot bowels of 
 
 i irth floated along the surface of the lake in poisonous 
 
 . while the dark and savage practices of the neighbour- 
 
 log people enhanced the horrors of the gloomy scene." 
 
 the lake is represented by Virgil as the 
 
 hi sybil: — 
 
 \ < -toque immaiiiB hlrtu. 
 
 iiique tencbria ; 
 Oleranl Impune rulantel 
 
 » li.iliiua atria 
 era ad conTexa ferebat ; _ birds. 
 
 la iccuni Graii dixeruiil nomine Avernum." (aopvof, without 
 
 This place continued to be the favourite haunt of supersti- 
 tion till the time of Augustus, who violated its sanctity, and 
 dispelled the Impenetrable darkness In which it had hith- 
 erto been enshrouded, by cutting down the surrounding 
 ling it with the Lucrine lake, then an arm 
 of the sea. This hike Mer the name Lago 
 
 d'Averno ; it is about a mile and a half in circumference, 
 ! y places 190 feet deep. Averni is a generic 
 nam- likes or other places that infect the at- 
 
 mo p d vapours, called also Mephites. 
 
 AVERRUNCATOR. (I. at. averrunco, I dress, or weed) 
 
 In Arboriculture, is an instrument for cutting off the 
 
 l trees, consisting of two blades fixed 'in the end 
 
 of a rod; one of which baa a moveable joint, which, by 
 
 it, operates like a pair of tc 
 In the improved forms of this instrument, the point on 
 which ihe moving or cuttim: blade turns, instead of being 
 confined to a circular opening, works in a longttudirj 
 u c- if which, instead of a crushing cut, like 
 
 .hat produced by common hedge shears, a draw cut is 
 
 II d, which leaves the section from which the branch 
 ir shoot has been amputated as clean as that produced by 
 lining knife. 
 AYK'KSi: il.at. aversus, turnedbaek.) In Ornithology, 
 when the posterior extremities are attached to the trunk 
 the anus, so that the body is supported erect, as in the 
 petiL'iiin. they are termed " pedes aversi." 
 aWI vis, a bird.) The name of a class of 
 
 Ttehrated animals, characterised by a 
 double circulation and respiration, oviparous generation, a 
 covering <>l '■ by their anterior extremities he. 
 
 i nil organised fur lliuht. The posterior extremities present 
 five principal modifications, affording characters which (lis- 
 liti^ush five primary orders. In the first order the foot 
 
 »o fig ) has three toes before and one behind, all armed 
 Willi .one, strong, crooked, and more or less retractile talons, 
 111 
 
 AVOIRDUPOIS 
 
 adapted to seize and lacerate a living prey ; this structure 
 i( dated with a strong, curved, sharp-edged and sharp- 
 pointed beak, often armed with a lateral tooth ; a very 
 muscular body, and capability of rapid and lone-continued 
 night. The order Is termed R&ptorea orAccipltrea The 
 d type of foot presents three toes before and one be- 
 hind, and placed on the same level ; slender, flexible, of 
 moderate length, and provided with long, pointed, and 
 slightly curved claws. The two external toes are united by 
 a very short membrane. A foot so constructed {b fig.) is 
 especially adapted for the delicate operations of nest build- 
 ing, and for grasping and perching among the slender 
 branches of trees ; hence the on terised has 
 
 been termed Insessoies, and, from including the smaller 
 tribes of birds, Paseeies. In the third type of foot (c fig.) 
 the hinder toe is raised above Ihe level of the three anterior 
 ones; Uuadeti power of perching ; but the other 
 
 toes are strong, straight, and terminated by robust obtuse 
 daws, adapted for scratching op the soil, and for running 
 along the ground ; the legs are for this purpose very strong 
 and muscular, and the order so characterised Is termed Raso- 
 res, or BalllntB. The modification by which birds are ena- 
 bled to wade and seek Iheir food in water along Ihe mar- 
 gins of rivers, lakes, and estuaries, is gained simply by 
 elongating ihe bones of the leg (tibia and metatarsus), which 
 are covered with a naked scaly skin. The three anterior 
 toesarc sometimes very long and slender, as In the Parraja* 
 cana, by which the bird can support itself upon the broad 
 floating leaves of aquatic plants; sometimes they are of 
 moderate length. The hind toe is elevated, short, and 
 sometimes wanting (d fig.). The Irderof birds character- 
 ised by this : md foot is termed Grallatorea, 
 from the resemblance of the posterior extremities to stilts. 
 In the last form of foot (e fig.) the toea are united by inter- 
 veuiii ced behind the centre of 
 equilibrium; the body la protected by s dense covering of 
 feathers, and a thick down next the skin; and the whole 
 prgani ciaUy adapted for aquatic life. Hence 
 res. 
 
 A'VIARY. (Lai avis, a bird.) A place for keeping 
 birds. In gardens, aviaries for singing birds are generally 
 limited spaces attached to sumiu hot houses, 
 
 in which a temperature is kept up during winter suitable to 
 the kind of bird or birds in the aviary. Winn an aviary 
 contains only birds which live in cllmsii to that 
 
 of Britain, it is formed in the open garden or plear.re 
 ground, each kind of bird having or, in- 
 
 Dclosure c o vered « nh netting tc 
 prevent it from flying away. The most common exotic sing- 
 ing birds kept in aviaries are canaries; and the most common 
 exotic ornamental birds are turtle doves, ami birds ofthi 
 parrot tribe. The orna menial and curious birds Which liv 3 
 in climates similar lo that of Britain may be divided into 
 two classes, the terrestrial and the aquatic Of the former. 
 the most ornamental are Ihe gold and silver pheasants, and 
 the common pigeon, including its numerous varieties; 
 and among the latter, the while and black swans, the Mus- 
 covy duck, ice. The most complete aviaries in the neigh* 
 bourhood of London, exclusive of those in the Zoological 
 Gardens. U'oburn Abbey, and at Knowsley. 
 
 AVI'CULA. A name applied to a genus of bivalves, in 
 some • of which the shell, when expanded, 
 
 offers a slinht resemblance lo a bird flying. The shell is 
 equivalve, with a rectilinear hinge, notched at the anterior 
 edge for the passage of a hyssus : the anterior adductor 
 muscle very small. To this genus belongs the celebrated 
 pearl oyster. Aricutu tiungurilifera. 
 
 AVOI'DANCE. In Ecclesiastical Law, signifies the con- 
 dition of a benefice when void of an incumbent, and is op- 
 posed to plenartv. 
 
 A'VOlRDUPO'IS.or AVERDFFOIS. (Fr. avoir du pobs, 
 to have weight; or perhaps from an old French verb, 
 averer, to verify.) The name given to the common systi in 
 of weigh's in England, by which goods in general, except- 
 ing the precious stones and medicines are weighed. The 
 standard weight of this country is the grain, which is or- 
 dered by act of parliament, 5 Geo. IV. c. 74., to be such 
 that "a cubic inch of distilled water, weighed in air by 
 brass weights, at the temperature of 62 degrees of Fahren- 
 heit's thermometer, Ihe barometer being at 30 inches, is 
 equal to two hundred and fifty-two grains, and four hundred 
 and fifty-eight thousandth pairs of a grain. A pound avoir- 
 dupois contains 7000 grains. The pound is subdivided into 
 16 ounces, and the ounce into 10 drams. The higher de- 
 nominations are the quarter-hundred, the hundredweight, 
 and the ton; 28 pounds making a quarter, 112 pounds a 
 hundredweight, and 20 hundredweights a ton. The pound 
 avoirdupois is greater than the pound troy ; the latter con 
 tabling only 5760 grains. But the troy ounce, which con- 
 tains the twelfth part of WOO, or 4S0 grains, is greater than 
 the ounce avoirdupois, which contains the sixteenth part ot 
 7000, or 437% grains. The avoirdupois ounce is considered 
 as being Ihe Roman uncia, which, according to Dr. Ar 
 bufhnot, contains 437-if- grains, though other authoritiui 
 
AVOSET. 
 
 make it several grains less. The term averdupois occurs 
 in some orders of Henry VIII., a. d. 1532; and Queen Eliza- 
 beth, in 1588, ordered a pound of this weight to be deposit- 
 ed in the Exchequer as a standard. See Weights. 
 
 AVOSE'T. A native wading bird, characterised by a 
 long recurved bill. See Recurvirostra. 
 
 AVOWRY. In Law, the justification advanced in plead- 
 ing by one who has taken a distress in his own right when 
 sued in replevin. The avowry must contain a sufficient 
 
 verment of right to have return. One who justifies as 
 laving taken in the right of another, is said to make cog- 
 .li/.auce. See Replevin. 
 
 AWA'RD. In Law, the judgment pronounced by one 
 01 more arbitrators, at the request of two parties who are 
 at variance, for ending the matter in dispute without the 
 decision of a public tribunal. The act of reference to an 
 arbitrator is termed a submission. 
 
 By the stat. 9 & 10 W. 3. e. 15. it is provided that parties 
 desirous to end a controversy may agree that their submis- 
 sion of the suit to arbitration shall be made a rule of any 
 court of record ; and, after such rule, the party disobeying 
 the award is liable to be punished for a contempt of the 
 court. But the award may be set aside for various causes, 
 as corruption, informality, &c, by motion in court within 
 one term after the award is made. When submission to 
 arbitration has been made a rule of court, it is, by 3 & 4 W. 
 4. c. 42. s. 39., not revocable by either parly without leave 
 of the court. The arbitrators have a jurisdiction over the 
 costs of the action as well as over the matter in controver- 
 sy ; and, in case of a reference at nisi prius, they may re- 
 fer the costs to be taxediby the proper officer of the court. 
 An award must be made in writing, signed and sealed by 
 the arbitrators. 
 
 AWN. (Derivation unknown.) A stiff, usually rough, 
 bristle, proceeding from the end or some other part of a 
 leaf, or of a leafy organ ; it is the beard of grasses, and often 
 proceeds in those plants from Ihe base of either glumes or 
 paleae. An awn is in reality either a vein separating from 
 its parenchyma, or a rigid sharp-pointed barren branch of 
 inflorescence. A part is said to be awned, or aristate, 
 when furnished with this organ. 
 
 AWNING. In Hort., a temporary covering for plants, 
 generally consisting of cloth of some kind, stretched by 
 means of ropes, cords, or wooden rods, so as to protect 
 fruit trees against a wall, or flowers in a bed. An awning 
 for a tulip bed is the most complete structure of this de- 
 scription, and is so constructed, by means of lines and 
 pullies, that the sheeting can either be pulled up or let 
 down over a bed of considerable length in two or three 
 minutes. 
 
 A'XESTONE. A tough silico-magnesian stone, some- 
 times shaped into cutting instruments. See Nephrite. 
 
 AXI'FEROUS. (Eat. axis, a centre, and fero, I bear.) A 
 name given to those plants which, like lichens, fungi, <fec, 
 consist exclusively of an axis, without any leaves or appen- 
 dages of it. 
 
 A'XIL. (Lat. axilla, the armpit.) That part of a plant 
 where a leaf fits on a branch, forming an angle with it : or 
 where two branches diverge from each other. 
 
 A'XILE. (Axis.) Eying in the axis of any thing ; as an 
 embryo, which lies in the axis of a seed, that is, from the 
 base to the end diametrically opposite. 
 
 AXI'LLA. (Lat. axilla, the armpit.) In Anatomy, the 
 hollow below the base of the arm, at its insertion into the 
 chest. An interesting region in topographical anatomy, 
 containing important arteries, veins, nerves, glands, &.c. 
 which p>'e termed 'axillary.' 
 
 AXI'LLARY. Growing in an axil. The term is modi- 
 fied by the prefixing different Latin prepositions: thus, 
 infra axillary, signifies growing from below the axil ; 
 extra axillary, on one side of it; and supra axillary, from 
 above it. 
 
 A'XIMTE. (Gr. a\ivri, an axe.) A mineral usually oc- 
 curring in axeshaped crystals ; it is an alumino-silicate of 
 lime and iron. 
 
 A'XIOM. (Gr. (ifidco, / demand.) In Geometry, a pro- 
 position which it is necessary to lake for granted, and 
 which therefore admits of no demonstration. The follow- 
 ing are among the propositions of this kind enunciated by 
 Euclid : " Things that are equal to the same thing are 
 equal to one another." "The whole is greater than its 
 part." '-If two figures when placed the one on the other 
 entirely coincide, they are equal in every respect." The 
 formal statement of such propositions is totally useless, or 
 rather tends only to produce obscurity. 
 
 Axiom. In Philosophy, properly that which is demand- 
 ed, or postulate. It is used, in the mathematical and physi- 
 cal sciences, in the sense of a proposition, to which the as- 
 Bent of the student is demanded without proof, as a foun- 
 dation for farther argument. 
 
 A'XIS. (Lat. an axletree.) That part in plants about 
 
 which particular organs are arranged. Thus, the stem is 
 
 an axis for the branches ; a branch, an axis for leaves ; the 
 
 achis, an axis for the divisions of inflorescence : and the 
 
 112 
 
 AZURE. 
 
 receptacle, gynobase, or columella, is the axis of the fruit 
 The term is also applied to the imaginary point round 
 which parts of any sort are arranged. 
 
 Axis. (Lat. axis.) In Architecture, a real or imaginary 
 straight line passing through any body on which it may 
 revolve ; the axis of a column, for instance, is a straight 
 line drawn down through its centre ; the axis of the Ionic 
 volute is a line drawn through the two eyes, front and 
 rear. 
 
 Axis. (Lat. axis.) In Mechanics, signifies in general 
 the straight line, real or imaginary, about which a body- 
 turns. In this sense it is called the axis of rotation, of os- 
 cillation, &c, according to the molion of the body. In 
 Geometry, the axis of a figure is a straight line about which 
 the parts of the figure are symmetrically disposed. Thus, 
 the axis of a cone is the line drawn from the vertex to the 
 centre of the base; and the axis of a cylinder, the line 
 drawn through the centre of its two ends. In the ellipse 
 and hyperbola, the transverse axis is the straight line drawn 
 through the two foci ; and the conjugate axis, that drawn 
 through the centre, perpendicular to the transverse. In 
 general, by the axis of a curve line is meant that diameter 
 which has its ordinates at right angles to it. We also 
 speak of the axes of the co-ordinates of a curve, meaning 
 the line on which the abscissa are taken. 
 
 AXIS IN PERITROCHIO. One of the five mechanical 
 powers, consisting of a peritrochium or wheel fixed im- 
 movably to an axle, so that both turn together round the 
 axis of motion. The power is applied at the circumference 
 of the wheel, and the weight raised by a rope wound round 
 the axle. The power gained is the same as that gained by 
 a lever, the longer arm of which is equal to the radius of 
 the wheel, and the shorter equal to the radius of the axle; 
 so that if we suppose the radius of the wheel to be 30 
 inches, and the radius of the axle 6 inches, a weight of one 
 pound suspended by a rope passing round the wheel 
 would raise a weight of five pounds similarly suspended 
 from the axle. 
 
 A'XOLOTL. (Axolotes, is, em, ibus.) A term derived 
 from the Mexican language, and applied to a genus of 
 Perennibranchiate Amphibians, found in the lake of 
 Mexico. 
 
 AYE-AYE. The name of a singular nocturnal quadru- 
 ped of Madagascar, indicative of its peculiar cry ; it is 
 placed by Cuvier in the Rodent order, under the generic 
 name Cheiromys, from the hand-like structure of the 
 hinder feet; a structure which approximates llie genus to 
 the monkey tribe, orQuadrumana, in which other natural 
 ists have placed it. 
 
 AZA'LEA. (Gr. dlaXtoi, dry.) A genus of beautiful 
 plants inhabiting North America and China. They have 
 trumpet-shaped or bell-shaped richly coloured flowers, 
 which are in some species fragrant. The name has appa- 
 rently been derived from the dry brittle nature of their 
 branches. They differ from rhododendron chiefly in being 
 deciduous. 
 
 A'ZIMUTH. (From the Arabic.) A term used in as 
 tronomy, to denote the arc of the horizon intercepted be- 
 tween the meridian and the vertical circle passing through 
 a star or other celestial body ; or the angle made at the 
 zenith by the meridian and the vertical circle in which the 
 body is situated. The azimuth may be counted either 
 from the north or the south point of the horizon : modern 
 astronomers seem to prefer beginning at the north point, 
 and counting eastward and westward to 180° ; but it is not 
 one of those elements usually observed in astronomy, be- 
 ing easily deduced from the declination, which can be 
 measured much more conveniently and accurately. In 
 trigonometrical surveys, however, on the earth's surface, 
 the accurate determination of the azimuth of an object is 
 an operation of very great importance. It is usually made 
 with the theodolite. 
 
 AZIMUTH CIRCLES, or VERTICAL CHICLES, are 
 great circles of the sphere passing through the zenith, and 
 intersecting the horizon at right angles. 
 
 AZIMUTH COMPASS. A compass used at sea for find- 
 ing the horizontal distance of the sun or a star from the 
 magnetic meridian. 
 
 AZIMUTH DIAL. A dial of which the stile or gnomon 
 is perpendicular to the plane of the horizon. It is so called 
 because the shadow marks the sun's azimuth. 
 
 A'ZOTANE. Sir II. Davy proposed to designate the 
 compounds of chlorine by the termination ane. and conse- 
 quently distinguished the compound of chlorine and azote, 
 or chloride of azote, by the above name. 
 
 A'ZOTE. (Gr. a, not, and £<oi7, life.) A simple gase 
 ous body, unfit for respiration; it forms four-fifths of our 
 atmosphere. See Nitrogen. 
 
 A'ZURE. (Fr. azur.) In Painting, a sky-coloured blue. 
 That made of lapis lazuli, called ultramarine, is of great 
 value to the painter. 
 
 A'zure. (Fr. azur, blue.) In Heraldry, one of the co- 
 lours, or tinctures, employed in blazonry. It is equivalent 
 to sapphire among precious stones, and Jupiter among 
 
AZUIUTE. 
 
 planets. In engraving, it is represented by horizontal i 
 'ines. 
 
 A'ZIJRITE. See I.azcmte. 
 
 A'ZYOOS. (Or. A, without, and ?vyoj», a yoke, because 
 il l.as no fellow.) In Anatomy, some single muscles, 
 bones, veins. <kc.. arc so called. 
 
 B. 
 
 11. The second letter in all European alphabets, and in 
 that of most other languages. H b one of those letters 
 n grammarians call labial, because the 
 principal organs employed In Its pronunciation are the lips. 
 se affinity to the other labial '.-iters P and V; 
 and by the Saxons it is confounded with the former, and 
 With the latter by the modern Greeks, Spaniards, and Gas- 
 cons. Hence the sarcastic remark, that in Gascon; " vi- 
 and "bibere" are the same thing. Among the 
 I . and Hebrews, H signified 2; among the Romans 
 11 tricentum per se retinere videtur); with a dash 
 over it It denoted 3000, and with a kind of accent below it 
 3M Tim: l! dit in inscriptions as an abbre- 
 
 viation for Baccho, Beleno. Benemerentl, tec. ; B. B. for 
 e. Optime), 11 L. for lector benevole, B. F. 
 : Uus consults) for bonum factum. 
 mi' s also it is used as an abbreviation for before, 
 ■ re Christ) ; and fax bachelor, as, B. A., B. I.L., 
 M D. (bachelor of arts, of laws, of divinity), intnusicli 
 note on the second line in the bass, and the third in 
 the treble : and in the chemical alphabet, according to Ray- 
 mond Lully, it denotes mercury. 
 
 11 Molls. (I.at. mollc, soft.) In Music, one of the notes 
 in tl> .ally called soft or Ilat \j, to dis- 
 
 ttnguish it from h quadro (square), 5. 
 
 BAAL, or BEL. (Heb.) A goo of the Phcenieians and 
 
 is, worshipped chiefly at Tyre. The term 
 
 ion to all the Eastern languages, signifies lord 
 
 orma ter; and this cfarcom tance has probably given rise 
 
 IS contradictory opinions that prevail n 
 Ing this divinity. Servius (in Am. I.), who la followed by 
 :it. b. xi. c. 4.), observes that Baal in the 
 Kim i. id two significations: Die one denoting 
 
 other equivalent to the Greek Zivc. Accord- 
 Baal and Zcv( be words of similar import in dif- 
 ferent languages, we may apply to the former what Varro 
 relates of the latter, that the numberof divinities worship- 
 inder this title amounted to three hundred. Thisopin- 
 ion, it would appear, was held also by Milton, 
 
 tlieae came ther who, from the bordering flood 
 Of oli! Kuphralei, to the brook (hit parU 
 Egypt from Syrian ground, had general namea 
 i if Haalim awl AataroUi, 4c. 4c. 
 
 robable that the Baal of the Phoenicians, and the Be- 
 lus of the Babylonians, whose worship was so assiduously 
 cultivated (Herod, i.), were one and the same divinity. 
 The priests of Baal amounted to 450 ; and, among other 
 fered upon his shrine, the Bible mentions hu- 
 man victims. To the zealous devotion paid by the Eastern 
 nations to this divinity, and the wide circulation of his 
 Worship, the adoption of his name in the appellation of 
 distinguished individuals, such as Hannibal, Belshazar, As- 
 drubal, tec , hears ample testimony. (Selden, de Hits St/- 
 d 8 Connection, h. v.) 
 BA'BEL. (Heb.) A tower undertaken to be built shortly 
 after the Hood by the posterity of Noah, and remarkable 
 for the frustration of the attempt by the confusion of Ian- 
 About 17i)0 years alter the erection of the tower 
 el, Herodotus saw at Babylon a structure consisting 
 of eight towers, raised one above another, and each 75 feet 
 high (Herod, b. i.); but whether this structure was the 
 famed tower of Babel or not, it is impossible to ascertain. 
 It is generally supposed, however, both by ancient and 
 modem writers, that the city of Babylon afterwards occu- 
 • of Babel, and that the famous temple of Belus 
 built from its ruins. A great difference of tradition 
 prevails as to the height of the tower of Babel. While the 
 orientalists maintain that it was 10,000 fathoms, or about 12 
 miles high, St Jerome asserts, on the authority of eye-wit- 
 nesses who had examined the ruins of a tower at Babylon, 
 that it wa.s 4 miles high, and there are other statements 
 still more extravagant. With regard to modern travellers 
 who pretend to identify the ruins found on or near the site 
 of ancient Babylon with the tower of Babel, their accounts 
 are so discrepant and indefinite, as to render it doubtful 
 if any of them have seen the genuine ruins of this cele- 
 brated tower. (Rich's Travels; Buckingham 1 * Travels 
 in Mesopotamia ; Rennet's Remarks on Herodotus.) 
 
 BABIA'NA. A genus of Cape plants belonging to the 
 natural order Iridacea. The name is derived from Babi- 
 oner, a term given by the Dutch colonists to these plants in 
 113 
 
 BACCHANALIA. 
 
 consequence of the avidity with which their roots are no 
 voured by the baboons. 
 
 BA'RILI.ARD. The name of a small frugivorous Pas 
 serine bird, the Curruea gttmda: also called the white- 
 ed or babbling burette, lesser white throat, and net 
 tie-creeper. 
 
 HAHOO'N. The monkeys, or quadrumana, winch have 
 projecting ridges above the eyes, long and truncate muz 
 lies, cheek-pouches, ischiatie callosities, and generally 
 short tails. 
 
 II.VIIYROL'.SSA. The name of an animal of the hoii 
 kind (Sits fcaStniasn, Cuv.) inhabiting the forests of tiie hi 
 diau Archipelago, with longer legs and longer tusks than 
 the other species of hog ; but the upper and the lower tusks 
 carve upwards and backwards, and serve aa a defence lo 
 the eyes while the animal forces its passage through Ihc 
 entangled jungles. 
 
 BA'CCA. A berry ; usually a succulent fruit containing 
 several seeds. In its most exact application it is a succu- 
 lent fruit filled with pulp, in which the seeds lie loosely, as 
 in the gooseberry. 
 
 I',\i i IALA1 'KI'.AT. (I.at.) The first or lowest aca- 
 demical degree in the English and French universities. 
 The mode by which this degree is attainable is different in 
 different universities. Oxford and Cambridge have two 
 ways of conferring il: 1. By examination, to which those 
 students alone are admissible who have pursued the pre- 
 scribed course of ttndy for the space ol three years. 2. 
 By extraordinary diploma, granted to Individuals wholly 
 unconnected with the university. The former class are 
 styled Baccalanrei Kormati, the latter Baccalaurel Cur- 
 rentes. In France, the degree of Haccalaureal (llaccalau- 
 l.iterarurn) is conferred indiscriminately upon such 
 • rs as, after a strict examination in the 
 s. and philosophy, are declared lo be 
 
 qualified. In the German universities, the tide '-Doctor 
 Philosophise," has long been rabstituted for Baccaiaureus 
 ArtiiimorLiieratum. In the middle ages, the term Baccaiau- 
 reus was applied to an inferior orderof knights, who came in- 
 to the field unattended by vassals: Gram them it was trans- 
 ferred to the lowest class of ecclesiastics ; ami thence 
 
 again, by Pope Gregory IX., to the universities. There are 
 lew v. I, more controverted thai. 
 
 thai of Haccalaureal ; and both the military and Hi 
 
 d their claims to this honour with equa 
 
 zeal ninl ingenuity. While the former maintain that it is. 
 either derived from the barulns or Staff with which !.; 
 
 wee- usually Invested, or from bat ehevaUtr (an inf< 
 
 kind of knight), the latter, perhaps with more plausr 
 trace its origin lo the custom which prevailed naive 
 among tin- Greeks and Romans, and which was ioiu>wciA 
 even in Italy till the thirteenth century, of crowning distin- 
 guished individuals wiih laurel: hence the recipient of thin 
 honour was styled Baccaiaureus (quasi baccis laurtis do 
 natus). 
 
 BACC.U'I.a'KI.S. A fruit consisting of several distinct- 
 carpels, having a succulent coating, and seated upon & 
 short receptacle. 
 
 BA'CCIIA. In Entomology, a genus of Ihc ort\cs Dip/era^. 
 and family Syrjihidm. The two basal joints of the abdomen 
 jre long and slender, with the remaining joints depressed 
 and broad ; they are bronze colour marked with yellow, 
 and are found upon flowers in the neighbourhood of London. 
 
 BACCHANA'I.IA. (I.at.) Festivals in honour of Bat 
 chus. In the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, allu-- 
 sion is constantly made to the conquest which. Bacchus a- 
 chieved over India, and it is generally supposed that these- 
 festivals were instituted to commemorate thai event. They 
 consisted originally of a grand procession, in which the- 
 priests and priestesses of Bacchus bore the principal pact, 
 and were accompanied with games, spectacles, and thea- 
 trical representations. But, at a later period of Grecian, 
 history, they assumed a totally different character : vice,. 
 debauchery, and licentiousness became tlieir distinguish- 
 ed characteristics ; and Plato (de Leg. L, i.) asserts thai 
 during the celebration of these festivals he has seen th* 
 whole Athenian populace in a state of drunkenness. At 
 Athens, there were two principal Bacchanalia held ana.u 
 ally: viz. Bacchanalia Dionysia or Major*. celebrated lathe 
 city about spring-time ; and Bacchanalia Lenaa or Minora 
 (so called from Xijvoj, a wine press), celebrated in thexoua 
 try during autumn. On these occasions, the Bacchse- o* 
 priestesses of the god ran up and down the mountains in a 
 frantic manner (Stat. Theb. vi. 92,), clad in doe-sfclns, 
 with spears in their hands, bound at the points with ivy- 
 leaves (thyrsi), and using the wildest gestures and excla 
 mations. (See the Baccho, of Euripides.) 
 
 These festivals were introduced from Greece into. Etru- 
 ria, and thence by an easy transfer into Rome, where they 
 were at first celebrated chiefly by young men on their lay 
 ing aside the toga praetexta for the toga virilis. But they 
 soon after extended among all classes of the community ; 
 and in the course of time such were the enormities prac- 
 tised at taeir celebration, that the senate (A. u. c. 506) came 
 H 
 
BACCHUS. 
 
 /) the resolution of abolishing them entirely. Virgil, in the 
 ?th book of the JEneid, gives a graphic description of these 
 festivals, and says that the priestesses 
 
 tremtilis nlulalibus auheia complent, 
 Pampineasque gerunt, tncinctre pellibus, hastas. 
 
 And Juvenal uses the term Bacchanalia to express a disso- 
 lute and licentious life : 
 
 Q.ui Curios simulant, et Bacchanalia tivunt. 
 
 BA'CCHUS, or DIONY'SUS (Afoi/utroc). The god of 
 wine, and son of Jupiter and Semele daughter of Cadmus. 
 liis mother perished in the burning embraces of the god. 
 whom she persuaded to visit her with his attribute of roy- 
 liy, the thunderbolt ; the embryo child was sewn up in Ju- 
 ifer's thigh, whence in due time he was produced to light 
 Mythology abounds with the adventures- of Bacchus, the 
 most noted of which are, the transformation of the Tyr- 
 rhenian pirates, who carried him off to sell for a slave, into 
 dolphins ; his revenge on the scoffing Pentheus ; and his 
 invasion and conquest of India. Bacchus was generally 
 represented as a young man of effeminate appearance, 
 with a garland of ivy binding his long hair; in his hand he 
 bore a thyrsus or rod wreathed with ivy, and at his feet lay 
 his attendant panther. 
 BaCCI'FEEOUS. Bearing berries. 
 BA'CHELOR. In the English Universities, the lowest 
 degree in arts, law, divinity, medicine, and music. It is, 
 like other university honours, of French origin. For the 
 various derivations that have been suggested for this word, 
 sec Baccalauueat. 
 
 Bachelor. In Heraldry, the lowest order of knight- 
 hood. See Knight. 
 
 Bachelor, in the Livery Companies of London, is one 
 who is not yet admitted of the livery ; also called yeoman. 
 
 BACILLA'HEjE. A small group of Algaceous plants, 
 having an extremely simple structure, and in part the same 
 as what are called Cymbelleffi. They stand on the limits 
 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and are said to have 
 a power of spontaneous motion. 
 
 BACI'LLUS. A name given to the cotyledon of the hya- 
 cintl i by Link. 
 
 BACK (from the Saxon bar) OF A HIP. In Architec- 
 ture, t lie upper faces of the hip-rafter between the two 
 sides of a hipped roof, so formed to an angle as to be in the 
 same plane with the rafters on each side of it. 
 
 BACKER. In Architecture, a term used to denote a 
 narrow slate laid on the back of a broad square-headed 
 slate where the slates begin to diminish in width. 
 BACKGA'MMON. A game played with dice by two 
 
 pers s on a table divided into two parts, upon which there 
 
 are 12 black and as many white spaces, called points. 
 Each player has 15 men, black and white, to distinguish^ 
 them. This game is of Welch origin, and is said to have' 
 been invented in the period preceding the Conquest. 
 'Gloss, ad Leges Wailic, cited by Henry, vol. iv. p. 404.) 
 Backgammon can only be learned by observation and prac- 
 tice ; and though much depends on chance, still great skill 
 may be displayed in the course of the game. Hoyle, the 
 received oracle in these matters, lias evinced great accura- 
 cy in calculating the odds of backgammon, and has em- 
 bodied a variety of rules and instructions respecting it, 
 which must prove of great service to every player. 
 HACK THE OARS: To row the oars backwards. 
 BACK AND FILL. To keep a ship in the middle of the 
 stream of a narrow river, by alternately advancing ahead 
 from one shore and moving backwards from the opposite 
 shore, while the stream carries her along, the wind being 
 contrary to the direction of the stream. 
 
 BACK STAFF. An instrument used before the inven- 
 tion of the quadrant and sextant, for taking the sun's alti- 
 tude at sea. In using it the observer turned his back to the 
 sun, whence the instrument had its name. It was invented 
 hy Capt. John Davis, about the year 1590. 
 
 BACK-STAYS. In Sea language, ropes stretched from 
 the top-mast heads to the starboard and larboard sides of 
 the ship, their use being to support the top-masts, and se- 
 cond the efforts of the shrouds. They are distinguished 
 into breast backstays and after back-stays, according as the 
 strain on the mast is caused by a side-wind, or a wind fur- 
 ther aft. See Rigging. 
 
 BACO'MAN PHILOSOPHY. The system propounded 
 by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. It is usual to speak of 
 this philosophy as if it were a new invention of its illus- 
 trious founder — as if the method of induction were a mode 
 of philosophising unknown before his time, and in direct 
 opposition to preceding systems, especially that of Aristo- 
 tle : this opinion, we conceive, is entirely erroneous. Aris- 
 totle has in many parts of his works clearly and satisfacto- 
 rily explained the inductive method, and has himself, in 
 his physical writings, given examples of its application. 
 Lord Bacon's distinguishing merit consists, we believe, ra- 
 ther in the attention which, by his splendid eloquence, his 
 wonderful power of illustration, his comprehensive views 
 of the relations of the sciences to each other, and his on- 
 114 
 
 BAGPIPE. 
 
 hesitating faith in the boundless progressiveness of human 
 knowledge, he succeeded in awakening in the minds oi 
 his countrymen, than in any philosophical discoveries pro- 
 perly so called. No man, we admit, ever obtain' 1 i a clear- 
 er insight into the nature and province of inductive re- 
 searcn ; no man, certainly, has laid down with such rigour 
 and accuracy the rules for its successful prosecution. The 
 various modes of experimenting and observing (in the 
 language of Bacon instances') are classed under twenty-se- 
 ven heads: and the circumstances under which each kin. I i> 
 applicable are stated with great fulness and accuracy. 'Y\is 
 is done in the second book of his Novum Organon ; the 
 former book of which consists of aphorisms on the errors 
 of the human intellect generally, and in particular of prece- 
 ding philosophical systems. The.se delusions, under th?. 
 name of idols, he reduces to four classes: the idols of the 
 tribe, or those common to human nature generally ; the 
 idols of the cave, or those generated by individual peculiari- 
 ties; the idols of the market-place, produced by tin incorrect 
 use of words in ordinary discourse; and lastly, the super- 
 stitions introduced by false and visionary systems of phi- 
 losophy, to which the name is assigned of the idols of the 
 theatre. His own method he designates as holding an inter- 
 mediate place between the merely empirical and the dog- 
 matical schools. " While the one," says he, " like ants, con- 
 tent themselves with heaping up materials fpr immediate 
 use, the latter, after the manner of spiders, spin webs out 
 of their own train: there is a middle and a better way— 
 that of the bee, which derives, indeed, its material from 
 the flowers of the garden and the field, but converts and 
 digests it by its own proper virtue." These two books of 
 the Organon form the second great division of his project 
 ed undertaking, the Jnstaurutio Magna, or litjori/i oj 
 Philosophy, and relate to the interpretation of nature. The 
 treatise De Augmc?itis Scientiarum (of the Advancement 
 of Learning') constitutes the first division: the third was 
 to consist of a history of the phenomena of the universe : 
 the fourth (Scala Intellectas) was to comprise an account 
 of the processes of the human understanding, with exam- 
 ples from various sciences : in the fifth was to be contained 
 the introduction to the Philosophia Secunda, or Active Phi- 
 losophy, which, as the combined result of history and ex- 
 perience, was itself to constitute the sixth and last division. 
 (See his Distributio Operis ; Union's Works. Ho ed. vol. 
 iv.) Of this mighty work Bacon only completed the first 
 two divisions. For a comprehensive and impartial esti- 
 mate of the value of the Baconian philosophy, the Ger- 
 man scholar may consult Tennemann's Gesdiichte der 
 Philosophic, lOter band. (Leipzig, 1817.) An account of 
 the Novum Organon has been published hy the Society 
 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. (The best and 
 most complete edition of Lord Bacon's Works, is th.it 
 edited by Basil Montague, Esq., 17 vols. Svo. London, 
 1825. It contains the Latin Works, with Translations, Por- 
 traits, Views, and Fac similes, and a new Life by the Editor.) 
 BA'CTRIS. (Gr. (ianrpov, a cane.) A genus of palms 
 with spiny slender stems and pinnated leaves. Their 
 fruit is succulent, and manufactured into a kind of wine ; 
 walking sticks are made from their steins. 
 
 BA'CULITES. (Lat. baculum, a stick.) A genus of 
 fossil Tetrabranchiate Cephalopods, the chambered sheila 
 of which are quite straight, but. differ from those of the 
 Orthoceratites in having sinuous or undulated partitions 
 with lobated margins : in this structure they are allied to 
 the Ammonites. 
 BA'DGER. -See Meles. 
 
 BA'DISTER. In Entomology, a genus of the order 
 Coleoptera, and family Harpalidce. This genus, with some 
 others, forms a leading group among the carnivorous 
 
 BA'GGAGE. (Fr. bagage.) In the art Military, the 
 clothes, tents, provisions, and other necessaries belonging 
 to an army. In regard to the conveyance of baggage, a 
 striking contrast is presented between the military systems 
 of ancient and modern times. The Roman soldiers had 
 four kinds of baggage (bucellatum or com, utensils of 
 various kinds, valii, and arms), termed by a felicity of lan- 
 guage impedimenta ; and were so heavily laden, that they 
 were called byway of jest mitli Marian i, and mrumnct. 
 In modern times, the plan is every where adopted of rid- 
 ding the soldier of all unnecessary encumbrance; and 
 with this view waggons attached to each battalion are em- 
 ployed for the conveyance of baggage, and guarded and 
 regulated by a body of men set apart for i 
 called the waggon-train. 
 
 BA'GGING. A mode of reaping corn or pulse with a 
 hook, in which the operator effects his object by striking 
 the straw or haulm, instead of drawing the hook through 
 it. In )ther words, it is separating the straw or haulm 
 from tl:? root by chopping. Instead ol by a drawing cut. 
 
 BA'GPIPE. This instrument appears to he of ancient 
 origin, and is very similar to the tibia utrieularU described 
 bv Blanchinus. A representation of it is given by Lus- 
 cinius in his Musurgia (153G), whence it appears that al 
 
BAIKALITE. 
 
 that time tlie instrument was similar to that now in use. 
 It consists of a leather bag, inflated through a valved tube 
 by the mouth (or a bellows), and of three pipes; two of 
 which give only one note each, and are called the great 
 rone; and the third, somewhat like th 
 
 holes. The bagpipe is peculiar to the 
 itions. 
 BA'IKALFFE. A manganeslan cpidote from lake Baikal 
 
 BAIL (Old Fr. bailler, to deliver or gixe up\ in Law, is 
 on of one in custody, Whether for a civil or cri- 
 minal ety taken for his appearance at a day 
 anil place certain. In civil cases bail is chiefly of two 
 kind . : . the sheriff, and bail to the action : or, 
 In oilier term-', bail above and bail below. When a , 
 is arrested upon an affidavit made that he is indebted to 
 the plaintiff in the sum of £20 or upwards (which, since 
 the recent act for abolishing arrest on mesne pTOCC 
 2 Vict. c. 10., must it there is probable cause 
 for believing that the defendant is about to quit England), 
 he lias then, in order to regain his liberty (unless previous- 
 ly discharged nnder a judge's order), to execute a bail 
 bond to the sheritT, the condition of which Is, that he will 
 at the proper period pul in special bail, which amounts to 
 an appearance in court: at ttiis period he either pins in 
 special bail, who are two or more persons, who undertake 
 
 ally that if the defendant lose the verdict h B 
 pay the amount awarded against him, or render him 
 
 ly, or that they will do it for him. In default of spe- 
 I he returns again into custody. 
 Bail, In cases of felony, is taken by two mi:: 
 isi the prison. 
 as io i presumption of his guilt. 
 
 BAIL-BOND, In Law, is a deed executed by a party ar- 
 "■occss (sre Arrest), and two persons as 
 riff, conditioned for his causing 
 to be put in. If the defendant n 
 wards Lo put in and perfect such bail, the plaintiff usually 
 takes from the sheriff an assignment of the bail-bond, and 
 i ! nit in a separate action. 
 !! M 'LIE The name by which the municipal m 
 
 ire designated. The term is synonymous with 
 
 ,1FF. (Fr. bailler, todeliver.) The term properly 
 whence it came to signify more general- 
 ad was applied lo those offl 
 
 on either from the sheriff or the lords ol pi 
 
 Within the hundred, or whatever 
 of their bailiwick, certain Judici 
 
 i local 
 
 as, the meaning of the le commonly 
 
 mted by the 
 
 -' him in the merely ministerial portion of his duly, 
 such as the summon ition of writs, 
 
 ied from the 
 obllg : hey enter into to Indemnil 
 
 tencei of his responsibility for their right 
 i in ih" discharge of their duty. 
 
 BAILIWICK. (Fr. hul 
 
 The dwelling-place or district ol the bailiff: it b 
 
 nty, which is the bailiwick of the sheritT. or til 
 licular franchise of some lord who has exclusive authority 
 within its li'iiits. 
 
 BATLMENT. In Law, is a delivery of goods in I 
 . that the tEUaf 
 ted on the part ol the bailee, or rei 
 with carriers, agents, pawnl many 
 
 mercantile proceed!:. of bail- 
 
 ment 
 
 BA'IKAM. A Mohammedan mita- 
 
 lion of the Easter of the Christian church, an 
 the Rhamaan, or month of fastir 
 
 tice of the t u'kUh mode of recs 
 by lunar months, the fall successively in all the 
 
 thirty-three years. Sixty days 
 i second feast, termed the I 
 Bairnm. 
 BA'JADERES. The name given by the Portugu 
 tncing girls, " 
 are p u -.and instructed in music 
 
 *n 1 dancing by the priests of Bchtva and Vishnu, partly 
 
 lyed by the grandees of India to cheer (hi 
 and m Their dress eoosi 
 
 costly materials, tastefully arranged ; and their movements 
 ■ I" most dextrous, graceful, and fascinating, at least If we 
 may judge of them from the Bajaderes thatappeared at the 
 
 ttre in the autumn of 183s. la 
 character and proceedings, they bear a strong resemblance 
 the Greeks. 
 BA JUL US. (Lai. porter.) In the Lower Greek Empire, 
 the tide of tho officer to whom the education of a prince 
 was entrusted. The name was borrowed by various West- 
 ern courts which imitated the etiquette of Constantinople, 
 and from it some have erroneously derived that of bailiff". 
 BAL^E'NA. (Gr. (ba\aiva.) The Greenland whale ; also 
 116 
 
 BAL2ENA. 
 
 a generic term, comprehending the species which agree 
 with it i;i the presence of whalebone in the mouth and the 
 absence of a dorsal fin. 
 
 It is to this genus that the whale, properly so called, or 
 large-whalebone whale (Balana mysUcetus, Linn.) belongs, 
 which to man is such that large fleets are an- 
 nually fitted out expressly for its capture. The food of the 
 whale consists exclusively of small molluscous and crus- 
 1 1 animals, but chietly the Clio boreatis ; and as these 
 animals abound only in the Arctic seas. 
 be expected to frequent for any length of time those lati- 
 in which its fuod Is scarce or altogether wanting. The 
 long- continued annual destruction of the Balana 
 tut lias greatly diminished the numbers of this rj 
 and d] • nicli remain to the extremes! limits Of 
 
 ithern seas where their means of subsistence i 
 obtained. 
 
 The large-whalebone whale is often spoken of as the 
 
 largest of existing animals, but it is inferior in 
 
 to the small-whalebone whale (Batenoj latter 
 
 attains the length of from 'JO to 100 feet ; while the ordinary 
 
 dimensions of the true whale are from 50 to CO fi 
 
 hngth, and from 30 lo 40 feet in circumference. The terms 
 
 whalebone" and " small- whalebone" relate to the 
 
 size of the whalebone or baleen-plates, which is always 
 
 much greater in tie na than In BdUenoptera; 
 
 and it is this structure, combined with the greater amount 
 
 of blubber in the true whale, which renders it an object of 
 
 ich more value to tin" whale catchers; while its less 
 
 courageous habits, and less violent efforts to escape when 
 
 wounded, make it a more sure and safe j small' 
 
 iale. 
 
 The true whale is chiefly remarkable for the immense 
 
 1, which constitutes a full third of the entire 
 
 length of the animal : it Is narrow above, but very broad 
 
 .. where it consists chiefly of a large under lip, which 
 
 live or six feet, and completely overlaps the upper 
 
 lip. The eyes are very small, and are placed just above 
 
 the angles of the mouth. The external opening of the ears 
 
 '■rceptible. The pectoral fins are of moderate 
 
 ml placed about two feet behind the angles of the 
 
 month. The neck is indicated by some furrowing of the 
 
 skin, but there is no constriction. The ■_ infer- 
 
 of the cylindrical body la a little behind the pe 
 fins. The tail-tin i to lobes of great breadth, 
 
 ross from ftp to tip in a full grown 
 i by muscles of enormous ipowcr. It is 
 this part which constitutes the sole organ of ofix 
 
 . for it has no teeth wherewith lo bite or 
 ingle blow of the tail well. delivered suffices to 
 tout boat in two, or to send it whirling through the 
 air. 
 
 plates of whalebone are the substitutes for teeth in 
 the mouth ; they have a similar mode of development from 
 a |iulp and external membrane, and differ only in foi m 
 in a less proportion of earthy matter in their co 
 They are arranged vertically and transversely, in Iwo se- 
 ll of 300 plates, descending from the pa- 
 upper jaw, and terminating in a fringe 
 of coarse hairs on their oblique lower and inner margins, 
 which hairs are in contact with the upper surface of the 
 bulkv tongue when the mouth is closed. It is thus that the 
 •iiism of the sieve is realised on an enormous scale; 
 and while the Water gulped at each successive mouthful is 
 drained off through the interstices of the baleen plates, the 
 molluscous and crustaceous animals are retained, bruised in- 
 llp between the muscular tongue and coarse fibres ol 
 the whalebone, and swallowed. The areaof the gullet corres- 
 ponds with the minute character of the food, and is rela- 
 tively smaller in the whale than in any other animal. The 
 stomach is divided into four cavities ; the intestinal canal is 
 long and narrow, and provided with a short and simple 
 
 The whale has usually but one young at a birth, and 
 brings forth in the early spring. The period of gestation is 
 unknown, that of suckling lasts a year. In this stage of 
 their growth the young are called short heads by the whale- 
 fishers ; at two years old, and until they are able to find 
 their appropriate food in due abundance, these are lermed 
 ; when they begin to get fat, and until they have ar 
 ' their full size, they are called skull-fish. 
 
 The interesting details of the profitable but perilous oc- 
 cupation of whale-fishing, will be found most amply and 
 correctly given in Scorcsby'a Account of the Arctic Regions, 
 from which many popular narratives have been compiled. 
 The baleen and the blubber are the only parts of the ani- 
 mal of any commercial value, and the quantity of both 
 yielded by these enormous animals is of course consider- 
 able. The length of the largest whalebone plates m a 
 whale of GO feet is as much as 12 feet; and the blubber ot 
 such a one will yield more than 20 tuns of pure oil, the pro- 
 in of oil to the blubber from which it is extracted be- 
 ing as three to four. The blubber is principally accumu- 
 lated at the circumference of the body, beneath, ana in 
 the extended tissue of the skin ; an immense quantity ol 
 
BALANCE. 
 
 fine oil is also lodged in the cellular substance of the 
 tongue ; and the coarse and porous bones, particularly the 
 lower jaw, are full of pure oil. 
 
 BA'LANCE. (Lat. balanx or bilanx, probably a corrup- 
 tion of valenlia, denoting, in low latin, price or value.) A 
 machine for weighing substances. The process of weigh- 
 ing may be performed in various ways, and accordingly 
 there are several kinds of balances : as the common 
 balance or scales, the bent lever balance, the spring 
 balance, the steelyard, the hydrostatic balance, &c. (for 
 which sec the respective words). The term is also applied 
 to any apparatus employed for comparing the intensities of 
 very small forces, as the electric balance, the balance of 
 torsion, &c. We shall here confine our remarks to the 
 philosophical balance, the instrument used when great ac- 
 curacy is .necessary ; for instance in assaying, and in the 
 more delicate investigations of physics and chemistry. 
 
 Neglecting the mere circumstance of construction, and 
 the particular methods of suspension, the balance may be 
 represented thus : — 
 
 A and B are the points from which the scales are sus- 
 pended at the extremities of the beam, C the point of 
 support, G the centre of gravity of the beam, D the point 
 in which the straight line C G intersects the straight line 
 joining A and B. 
 
 The properties required in a good balance are sensibility 
 and stability. The balance must be sensible ; that is to 
 say, when it is properly poised a very small addition of 
 weight to either scale should disturb the equilibrium, and 
 cause the beam to turn ; and it must be stable, that is to 
 say, when the equilibrium has been disturbed it should 
 quickly return, and oscillate about the position of rest. 
 These two properties are in some degree opposed to each 
 other ; in order to attain them both, as far as possible, it is 
 necessary to attend to certain mechanical principles, aa 
 well as to the physical circumstances of construction. Let 
 *s suppose 
 
 W = the weight of the beam. 
 
 L = the load, i. e. the weight of the scales and whatever 
 is in them when the beam is poised. 
 
 P = the pref/onneraung weight or that which causes the 
 beam to turn. 
 
 Suppose now the beam to be po.sed, or that the scales 
 being loaded the position of the line A B is perfectly hori- 
 zontal. The sensibility will evidently be measured by the 
 angular space through which the beam turns when a small 
 weight P is added to either scale ; but the force which acts 
 in turning the beam is proportional to PX^ B, that is, 
 proportional to the weight multiplied into the length of the 
 lever at the extremity of which it acts ; therefore for a 
 given weight P, the sensibility of the balance, all other 
 circumstances being equal, is proportional to the length of 
 the beam. Let us next consider the force which tends to 
 restore the beam when the equilibrium is disturbed. This 
 is made up of two parts ; the first of which is proportional 
 to W X C G, that is to say, proportional to the weight of the 
 beam (which may be regarded as concentrated at the 
 centre of gravity ) multiplied into the length of the lever 
 on which it acts ; and the second proportional to LXCD, 
 that is, to the load also multiplied into its length of lever. 
 The whole restoring force is therefore proportional to 
 VV X <■ G + L X C D. Now this force is precisely that 
 vvhich the preponderating weight P has to overcome in 
 •.timing the scale ; consequently any circumstance which 
 lends to increase it, increases the stability and diminishes 
 the sensibility of the balance ; and anything which lends 
 to diminish it, diminishes the stability and increases the 
 sensibility. By bending the arms of the balance, or alter- 
 ing the points of suspension of the scales, the points G 
 and D may acquire different positions relatively to C. Sup- 
 posing G to be above C in the vertical line joining those 
 points; the termWXCG would become negative, and 
 the restoring force proportional toLXCD-WXCG. In 
 this case, if the load L, or the distance C D, were dimin- 
 ished till LX C D became less than W\C G, the balance 
 would be useless ; because if moved ever so little from 
 the position of rest, it would have no tendency whatever 
 to return. The best construction is to make CD=0, that 
 is, to place the three points of action A, C, B, in the same 
 Straight line, and to construct the beam so that G, the cen- 
 tre of gravity, shall fall a little below the line A B. The 
 sensibility is then independent of the load, and is simply 
 in the inverse portion of \VX C G ; so that by diminishing 
 the weight of the beam, or the distance C G, it may be in- 
 creased to any required degree. It is supposed that the 
 two arms are precisely of the same length, or that C is 
 placed exactly in the middle between A and B, and also 
 that thev are perfectly inflexible. 
 116 
 
 BALANCE OF TORSION. 
 
 The conditions now determined from theory must be 
 the guide of the artist in the construction of a good 
 balance. It is of importance that the beam be as light as 
 possible, consistent with inflexibility ; for not only the in- 
 ertia, but also the friction, is increased in proportion to the 
 weight, and the sensibility consequently diminished. In 
 order to give lightness and strength at the same time, the 
 beam should be formed of two hollow cones of brass, 
 joined together at the broad ends. A cylinder of steel, 
 passing through the middle of the beam at right angles, 
 forms the axis ; and its extremities, ground into sharp 
 edges on the lower side, serve as the points of support. 
 The two edges must be accurately in the same straighi 
 line, and turn on smooth planes of agate or polished steel 
 carefully levelled. The scales should likewise be sus 
 pended from the extremities of the beam on knife edges, 
 crossing each other at right angles ; those in the beam be- 
 ing sharp upwards, and those to which the scales are at- 
 tached sharp downwards. A needle, or tongue, is usually 
 attached to the beam, pointing directly upwards or down- 
 wards when the beam is horizontal, tor the purpose of in- 
 dicating the deviations of the beam from the horizontal 
 position on a graduated scale. It is better, however, to 
 bring the arms to terminate in sharp points, and to place a 
 scale behind each ; in this way the slightest flexure of the 
 beam will be rendered evident, if the zeros of the scales 
 are placed exactly in the same level. The scale is indis- 
 pensably necessary, because the balance, if very sensible, 
 would require a long time to come to rest ; but it is known 
 to be poised, when the excursions of the needle on both 
 sides of the zero of the scale are equal. In order to pre- 
 serve the knife edges, the beam, when not in use, is sup- 
 ported on rests. Props should also be placed under the 
 scales while loading or unloading the balance. The whole 
 apparatus must be placed under a glass case, to protect it 
 from the disturbing influence of currents of air. 
 
 The sensibility of a balance constructed with due care, 
 according to the principles now explained, may be carried 
 to an almost inconceivable extent. There is one in the 
 possession of the Royal Society, made by Kamsden, which 
 weighs ten pounds, and is said to turn with the ten-mil- 
 lionth part of that load, or the thousandth part of a grain. 
 Nevertheless, whatever skill may be employed in ihe con- 
 struction, it is plain that the conditions necessary to math- 
 ematical accuracy can never be entirely fulfilled. It is 
 impossible lo make the two arms of the beam exactly sim- 
 ilar, or exactly equal in length. Absolute precision is un- 
 attainable in practice. This difficulty, however, may tie 
 overcome by the following simple method, imagined ty 
 Borda, by which accurate results are obtained independent- 
 ly of extreme precision in ihe construction of the balance 
 it is only necessary that it be very sensible. Let P, the 
 substance be weighed, be placed in the scale A ; instead of 
 placing known weights in the scale B, put into it some other 
 substance, for instance bits of iron, chips of wire, or sand, 
 added in minute quantities till the substance P is exactly 
 counterpoised, or the beam becomes exactly horizontal. 
 This being done, let the substance P be gently removed out 
 of the scale A, and let known weights, as grains, be put into 
 it till the substance in the scale B is again exactly counter- 
 poised. It is now of no consequence whether the balance 
 was accurate or not, or whether the body P was exactly 
 equal in weight to the substance against which it was 
 weighed in B. The weight of P must be precisely equal to 
 that of the grain weights ; because, under exactly the same 
 circumstances, they both formed a counterpoise to the 
 substance placed in B. 
 
 Chinese Balance. This is formed of a slender tapering 
 rod of wood or ivory, about a foot in length. A silk thread 
 passed through a hole perforated nearer one of its extrem- 
 ities than the other serves as the point of suspension. The 
 balance has thus two unequal arms. From the extremity 
 of the shorter a small scale is suspended to hold the sub- 
 stance to be weighed. A sliding weight passes along the 
 other arm, on which divisions are marked; and when the 
 counterpoise is made, the distance of the standard weight 
 from the fulcrum indicates the weight of the substance. In 
 order to procure a greater range, the rod has generally four 
 holes or points of support, at different distances from the 
 extremity, and a corresponding set of divisions is marked 
 on each of its four sides. The principle of this machine is 
 exactly the same as that of the common steel-yard. 
 
 The Danish Balance, much used in the north of Europe 
 for weighing coarse commodities, is usually formed of an 
 iron bar or a batten of hard wood, having a lump of lead at 
 one of its extremities. The goods are fixed in a hook in 
 Ihe other end ; and the whole is suspended through a loop 
 of cord, which is passed backwards and forwards under 
 the rod till equilibrium is obtained. The weight of the 
 goods is then to the weight of the lead reciprocally as their 
 respective distances from the loop. 
 Roman Balance or Steel-yard. See Steel-yard. 
 BALANCE OF TORSION. A machine invented by 
 Coulomb for measuring the intensities of electric or mag- 
 
BALANCE OF A WATCH. 
 
 nelic forces, by establishing an equilibrium between them 
 ami the force of torsion. Conceive a metallic wire sus- 
 pended from a fixed point, and kept stretched by a small 
 t attached to its lower extremity , where also a hori- 
 zontal needle or lever is fixed, which may be rendered 
 magnetic, or is so formed that one of its ends is a conductor 
 and the other a nonconductor of electricity. The force is 
 l>r ught to act on the extremity of this lever, and its inten- 
 sity measured by the length of the arc which the needle 
 a over, reckoning from the point of repose ; or an 
 index miy be attached to the upper extremity of the wire, 
 uid the force measured by the number of decrees through 
 I it ran be mined before the lower lever beg 
 The force of torsion is inversely proportional to 
 he length of the wire, and directly to the fourth power of 
 The wire must therefore be of considerable 
 (two or three feet for example), and very One ; and 
 irmed of a substance possi lerable elasti- 
 
 city. Brass wire is greatly preferable to iron wire ; and in 
 JOmfl Instruments recently constructed a fine thread of 
 jpu.i glass has been need Instead of metallic wires, at the 
 •i the late Professor Ritchie. One of the most 
 applications of the torsion-balance wa3 that 
 made by Cavendish to measure the force of attraction of 
 -i'heres, in his celebrated experiment to deter- 
 mine the mean density of the earth. 
 
 BALANCE OF A WATCH. That part of the machine 
 which, by its inertia, regulates the beat and produces 
 le motion. It is formed of a wheel or ring, having 
 its weight principally accumulated in its rim, and connected 
 with a spiral spring in such a. manner that when drawn 
 from the position of rest il acquires U oscillatory 
 i from the alternate contraction and expansion of the 
 spring. The balance answers the same purpose in watch- 
 work as (he pendulum in clock-work. ■••din a 
 similar manner by variations of temperature. Supposing 
 the length of the spring to remain constant, the time of vi- 
 bration is directly proportional to the distance of the centre 
 Df gyration from the axis of the balance; consequently the 
 duration of the vibration Is Increased by heat and dimin- 
 ished by cold. To remedy this Inconvenience, i 
 contrivances have been applied : but that which is most 
 illy adopted la the expansion or compensation balance, 
 the principle of which depends on the unequal expansion 
 of two different metals. It may be constructed in the fol- 
 lowing manner : The rim con- 
 two I imiu.v. the inner of 
 steel and the outer of brass, united 
 by fusion. After being turned 10 
 the proper size, the rim is cut in 
 . A, B, and C ; and 
 • ich of the parts thus 
 formed being fixed to an arm of 
 the balance, the other is left at 
 liberty to move inwards or out- 
 wards according to the variation 
 of the relative lengths of the two 
 metals. I), E, F, are three equal weights placed near the 
 free ends, and which, when adjusted at the proper dis- 
 tances, are fixed in their places by means of screws. 
 Three heavy-headed screws, <;. II, I, enter the arms of 
 the balance, and serve to adjust its centre of gravity to the 
 axis of vibration, and also to increase or diminish the mean 
 rate of motion. Now, suppose the balance to receive an 
 increase of temperature, this will tend to lengthen the 
 arms, and consequently to throw the centre of gyration 
 further from the axis, and thereby diminish the velocity of 
 vibration; but as the brass expands more than the steel, 
 the compound bars will at the same time be bent inwards, 
 and the weights I), E, F, thereby thrown nearer the axis, 
 by which the velocity will be increased. When the tem- 
 perature is diminished, the arms are shortened; but the 
 weights are now thrown to a greater distance from the axis 
 by reason of the contraction of the brass being greater than 
 that of the steel, and the consequent tendency of the com- 
 pound liars lo assume a less curved form. It is easy to see 
 •hat in so small a machine the adjustment of the parts to 
 procure exact compensation i- a matter of great nicety, 
 and requiring much practical skill; in fact, it is only possi- 
 compensation bv repeated trials. 
 (See Thomson on Time and Timekeepers; Dent on the 
 Construction and Managementof Chronometers, Watches, 
 and Clocks. «fcc.) 
 
 BALANCE OF POWER. In Politics, a system by 
 which the relative power of different states and alliances is 
 so maintained as to render any extensive derangement im- 
 probat'e. The idea of preserving a balance of power na- 
 tural.; suggested itself to statesmen in ancient Greece, 
 where so large a number of independent states with oppo- 
 sing interests existed on a narrow territory. In Europe, 
 this portion of political science scarcely began to be under- 
 stood until the lfith century ; since which time the main- 
 tenance of the balance of power has formed a favourite ob- 
 ; ect, often pursued with unreasonable avidity, by those 
 117 
 
 BALANITES. 
 
 who have controlled the international relations of Christen 
 dom. The great aim of neutral politicians during that cen 
 tury was to establish a balance between the power of 
 France and that of Austria : the latter united with that of 
 Spain became so enormously powerful in the course of it, 
 as to render this an object of great anxiety. But after the 
 commencement of the 17th century the power of France 
 steadily increased, and that of Austria abated. Cromwell's 
 alliance with Mazarin was the last result of the m 
 tern: for the alliances of Charles II. with thi 
 (br personal objects, and strongly reprobated by all Euro 
 pean statesmen. At the end of the 17th century France 
 stood predominant, and it became the ureal problem of Eu- 
 ropean politics to find a counterpoise to her influence. This 
 was the aim of William III., Eugene, and the Whig! under 
 Queen Anne ; and the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which ac 
 _ed the French supremacy in Spain, was con 
 demned as one of the severest blows ever struck at the 
 balance of power. Nevertheless, this fear, like so man;. 
 others sedulously cherished by speculative st 
 proved to have little foundation. The pow« 
 mained stationary during the ISth century, while the forces 
 of Austria, Russia, and Britain increased; and Prussia sud- 
 denly arose from a third-rate power to the lowest, but still 
 a respectable position, among the first rates. During 
 that century the alliances were formed with no very steady 
 regard lo the balance of power: France and Austria 
 were usually, but not uniformly, rivals. In l?r>ti, the three 
 great Continental powers were united in a frnitle 
 vour to crush the new state of Prussia. The wars of the 
 French revolution entirely altered the ancient equilibrium, 
 it was restored by the congress of Vienna, and the long 
 maintenance of thai peaceful arrangement certainly speaks 
 in favour of the sagacity of its constructors. At present 
 Europe is dividi-d. singularly enough, by two different sets 
 liSereni alliances, or rather tenden- 
 cies towards alliances, for mutual defence. In the first 
 place, the opposition between constitutional and monarchal 
 principles has ranged 00 the one side Austria, U 
 
 with their dependent states: on the other, Britain 
 and Prance, with the Western kingdoms which bave liberal 
 governments. In the next place, the inter. 
 by purely external politics cause a different lineof division. 
 The enormous increase of Russian dominion, particularly 
 towards the East, renders Austria necessarily distrustful 
 and hostile to the former power, England maybe expected 
 to lake Bart with Austria in this quarrel; Prussia, which 
 has no direct interest in the result, will he ranged by pn 
 sition against Austria: while the ultimate decision 'I 
 France is doubtful, and will In effect determine the struggle. 
 BALANCE OP TRADE. The term commonly used : 
 the difference between the value of the exports 
 from and the imports into a country. The balani 
 to be favourable when the value of the exports exceeds 
 that of the imports, and unfavourable w hen the valu 
 imports exceeds that of the exports. The notion was on< < 
 entertained that the prosperity of a country depended on 
 exporting merchandise exceeding the value of the import-, 
 and receiving the balance in the precious metals. This 
 mode of estimatingthe balance of trade, which is evidently 
 founded on the assumption that the precious metals cons'i 
 
 wealth of a country, has been proved to 
 pletely fallacious, and it is now conceded on all h 
 •gold and silver are nothing but commodities, who 
 tation or importation it is necessary neither to pre 
 encourage by any legislative enactments. But 1 1 
 of the balance of trade is not erroneous merely from the 
 false notions which its advocates entertain with respect to 
 money : it proceeds on radically mistaken views 
 nature of commerce. For it will be found thai so far front 
 an excess of exports over imports being any criterion of an 
 advantageous commerce, it is directly the reverse : since. 
 were the value of the exports greater than the value of the 
 imports, merchants would lose on every transaction with 
 foreigners, and the trade with them would be speedily aban- 
 doned. For a succinct statement and exposition of the 
 errors which were till lately generally prevalent upon this 
 subject, see AVCulloch's Commercial Dictionary. 
 
 BALANI'NUS. In Entomology, the name applied by 
 to the subgenus of Weevils (.Curcutiomda), c! 
 which the nut grub, or nut weevil (Balammis nucum), is a 
 species. In the perfect insect the rostrum or borer is near- 
 ly as long as the body. It is by means of this instrument 
 that the parent weevil drills a hole through the soil shell of 
 the immature filbert, into which she introduces a single 
 brown eg<' : this is hatched in about a fortnight ; and by the 
 time the nut is full ripe, the grub has attained its full 
 growth : it then proceeds to bore a hole with its jaws 
 through the shell, and emerges from the cavity of the nut: 
 fallin" to the ground it burrows into the earth, and there 
 remains all winter, changing to the proper state, and ap- 
 peering as a perfect insect in August 
 
 HA'IANITES. (Lat. balanus, an acorn) In liotany, 
 acorn-barnacles, an order of Cirripeds. comprehending 
 
BALAIs T OPHORACE^E. 
 
 i*.iose which have a shelly tube, adherent by its base to 
 foreign substances, and closed at its apex by four opercular 
 valves. 
 
 BA'LANOPHORA'CEiE. (Balanophora, one of the 
 genera.) A natural order of Rhiganths, consisting of fun- 
 gus-like parasitical plants, with small monoecious flowers 
 collected in dense heads arranged upon fleshy receptacles. 
 
 BA'LAS RUBY. A term applied by lapidaries to the 
 (night red varieties of the spinel. It is much less rare and 
 valuable than the oriental ruby or red sapphire. 
 
 BALAU'STA. In Botany, akindof fruit having a leathery 
 rmd, a superior calyx, and several cells irregularly dispos- 
 ed, with many drupaceous seeds in each. 
 
 BALCO'NY. (It. balcone.) In Architecture, a projec- 
 tion from the external wall of a house, borne by columns 
 or consoles, usually placed before windows or openings. 
 
 BALUACHl'NO. (It. a canopy.) In Architecture, a 
 species of canopy' over the principal altar of a church, si- 
 milar to that at St. Peter's, where it is supported by co- 
 lumns ; or that of St. Sulpice at Paris, where it is suspend- 
 ed from above. It succeeded to the ancient cihorium (see 
 that word), which was a cupola supported on four columns, 
 still to be seen at many of the altars in Rome. Bernini 
 may claim the merit of its invention. The height of that 
 which he erected in St. Peter's is 128 feet, and being en- 
 tirely of bronze weighs near 00 tons. It was built by or- 
 der of the Pope Barherini, from the robbery of the Panthe- 
 on, and occasioned the bitter sarcasm — " Quod non fece- 
 runt Barbari, fecerunt Barberini." 
 
 BA'LDRIO. (Lat. baldrellus.) A girdle used by the 
 warriors of feudal limes: it was often splendidly ornament- 
 ed, and marked the rank of the wearer. 
 
 BALDWIN'S PHOSPHORUS. Fused nitrate of lime. 
 
 BALEA'RIC CRANE. See Crane. 
 
 BALL. (Ger. bal.) Literally, any thing made in a glo- 
 Dular form. The word signifies also at once a well-known di- 
 vertissement, and a game familiar in Europe and America. 
 Ball playing was a favourite amusement among the ancients, 
 who practised it in various ways. They had their hand- 
 ball (pita trigonalis), their foot-ball (follis or pila paganica, 
 because played by the rustics), and some other kinds nor 
 used by the moderns. In country vil! sa tennis-court 01 
 place for playing ball, called Spkanrislerium, was usually to 
 be found. (Sue. Vesp. 20.) In the middle ages, there were 
 houses appropriated to ball-playing ; and in Italy there are 
 still public places where this amusement is practised, and 
 great dexterity displayed. 
 
 Ball. In the art Military, any round substance of lead 
 or iron which is discharged from fire-arms, as musket- 
 balls, cannon-balls, &c. The word Ball, with a prefix more 
 or less expressive of its purposes, such as fire-balls, chain- 
 balls, denotes a composition of various ingredients gene- 
 rally combustible. (For an account of these terms see se- 
 parate articles.) Cannon-balls arc made of iron, balls for 
 pistols and fusees of lead. The experiment has been tried 
 of employing iron balls forpistols or fusees, but without ef- 
 fect: as their lightness prevents their flying straight, and 
 they are apt to furrow the barrel of the pistol. As was re- 
 marked, cannon-balls are made of cast-iron, and are dis- 
 tinguished as follows by their respective diameters : — Thus 
 the diameter of a 
 
 42 lbs. ball is 6-684 inches. 
 32 — 6-1Q5 — 
 
 24 — 5-547 — 
 IS — 5040 — 
 12 — 4-403 — 
 
 9 lbs. ball is 4000 inches. 
 
 6 — 3-493 — 
 
 3 — 2-775 — 
 
 2 — • 2-423 — " 
 
 1 — 1-923 — 
 
 BA'LLAD. (It. ballata.) A species of narrative poetry, 
 founded either in history or fiction, displaying the condition 
 and the habits, the tastes and the sentiments of the various 
 nations among whom it is found. The term Ballad is very 
 indefinite in its general acceptation, including classes of 
 composition wholly different in themselves, of which the 
 only common characteristics are brevity of metre and sim- 
 plicity and perspicuity of style. The opinion entertained 
 by Schlegel of the ballad is, "that it is not an original species 
 of composition: but that in general poems of this kind are 
 to be found in the greatest abundance among nations pos- 
 sessed of truly poetical feelings, whose legends, traditions, 
 and national recollections have been interrupted or muti- 
 lated by long-protracted civil wars, or by some universal 
 levolution or concussion of opinions. While some authors 
 have assigned the ballad an Arabian, some an Armorican 
 origin, and others have claimed this distinction for the Nor- 
 mans and Provencials, Percy, Boutenveck, and Schlegel 
 concur in awarding to it a Teutonic descent. Be this as it 
 may. it is agreed that the Scandinavian nations delighted, 
 •tt a very early period, to celebrate in song the deeds of he- 
 mes, lovers, knights, ttc. ; and the three great divisions of 
 the Teutonic poetry of the middle ages — the stories of the 
 Niebeluneen, those of Charlemagne (particularly such as 
 relate to his wars against the Arabians, and the battle of 
 Roncesvalles). and the tales of Kins' Arthur's Round Table, 
 consist of what at a later period were called Ballads. 
 Though the name Ballad is Italian, the spiri* of chivaJr" 
 US 
 
 BALLET. 
 
 had at no period during the middle ages much dominion of 
 influence on the other side of the Alps; a circumstance 
 that sufficiently accounts for the meagreness of the Italians 
 in this department of poetry. The French too never at- 
 tained any perfection in the ballad, as their fabliaux, le- 
 gends, &c. soon degenerated into long prose romances, 
 which were quite destitute of the spirit of the ancient 
 minstrelsy. The Spaniards, on the other hand, are rich in 
 ballads of a highly chivalrous character. These, however 
 along with some Portuguese ballads which bear infallible 
 marks of a Spanish origin, may with more propriety be 
 classified under the denomination of Romantic Poetry 
 (See an Essay "On the Origin, Antiquity, Character, and In 
 fluence of the Ancient Ballads of Spain," from the Edin- 
 burgh Review, prefixed to the Amer. edition of Lockharl's 
 Spanish Ballads.) Among the Welsh, even so early as 
 the 12th century, music and this species of poetry seem to 
 have attained a high degree of excellence ; but the ruthless 
 hand of Edward I., by his massacre of the bards, doomed 
 both the one and the other to an almost total annihilation. 
 Of all the species of ballad, the Irish, among other charac- 
 teristics, appears to be pre-eminently fitted for adaptation 
 to music, as is witnessed in the universally admired "Na- 
 tional Melodies" of Thomas Moore. While a variety of 
 opinion exists among the learned as to the nature and re- 
 quisites of the ballad, it is admitted on all sides that Eng- 
 land and Scotland have the honor of possessing a collection 
 of ballads superior to that of every other nation. There 
 can be little doubt, too, that the home of the English and 
 Scottish ballads is either in the north of England, or in the 
 southern counties of Scotland, as there the influence of the 
 Normans was less than in the south of England. To the 
 proximity, also, of those parts of the two countries where 
 the ballad was cultivated, and the small circle which they 
 embraced, may be attributed the difficulty that exists i:i 
 assigning to each country its proper share in the collection 
 of ballads. In modern times, if we except the romantic 
 legends of Sir Walter Scott (which can scarcely be de- 
 nominated ballads), the Germans have cultivated this spe- 
 cies of poetry with more success than any other nation ; 
 and they can boast of Schiller, Goethe, and Burger, not 
 ■ nly as distinguished poets, but as the revivers of 
 valrous spirit which formed the grand characteristic of our 
 British ancestors. For remarks on the Ballad, vide 
 Ai/.-in's History nf Song; Warton's History of English 
 Poetry ;Bunicy's History of Music ; MothciiceH's A ncient 
 and Modern Minstrelsi/ ; Jones's Musical and Poetical 
 Relics; Schlegel's Kritische Schriften (article on Burger); 
 Sir IF. Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ; Bishoj 
 of Dromore's Collection of Ballads. (See also the Con 
 ■r nr Rations Lexicon.) 
 
 BA'LLAST. Is a mass of weighty material placed in 
 the bottom of a ship or vessel to give her stiffness; that 
 is, to increase her tendency to return to the upright posi- 
 tion when inclined or heeled or er by the force of the wind 
 or other cause. Ballast consists of shingle (the coarse 
 gravel of the sea-beach), stones, &c. In the royal navy 
 iron ballast alone is used, in pigs of nearly 3 cwt. This 
 has the advantage of lying in small compass ; but in con- 
 sequence of its great weight it tends to give excess of sta- 
 bility, which renders the vessel uneasy from the sudden- 
 ness of the motion : this defect is remedied by winging 
 up the ballast, whereby its centre of gravity is raised. For 
 the like reason in stowing the ballast it is tapered to a point 
 at the fore and after extremities. Iron ballast, from its 
 greater cleanliness, is more healthy for the crew than that 
 of other materials. When a ship has no other loading she 
 is said to be in ballast. 
 
 The quantity of ballast and the mode of its stowage differ, 
 greatly in different vessels ; and the connection between 
 the motions of a ship and Iter stowage has not yet been 
 analysed sufficiently to lead to the discovery of direct rules 
 on these important points. 
 
 BALL-COCK. A hollow sphere or ball of metal at- 
 tached to the end of a lever, which turns the stop-cock ol 
 a cistern pipe, and regulates the supply of water. As the 
 surface of the water rises in the cistern, the ball is raised 
 by its buoyancy : and as the water descends, it falls by its 
 own weight. The cock is thus closed when the water 
 rises to a certain height, and the supply stopped ; hut 
 when a part of the water is drawn off from the cistern, 
 the cock is again opened, and the water admitted through 
 the pipe. 
 
 BA'LLET. (Fr.) A theatrical representation of ac- 
 tions, characters, sentiments, and passions, by means of 
 mimic movements and dances, accompanied by music. 
 The ballet is divided into three kinds — historical, mytholo- 
 gical, and allegorical; and consists of three parts — the 
 entry, the figure, and the retreat. (Noverre, Lettres sin 
 les Arts imilateurs, el sur la Danse en particulier.) Th« 
 chief merit of the ballet lies in an ingenious adaptation o' 
 music to the sentiments of the mind as developed in the 
 r Hnce, and in its power of representing every variety o' 
 huiiian conduct and emotion, whether of a tragic or cJmie 
 
BALL1STA. 
 
 nature. It lias been frequently asserted that the ballet was 
 unknown to the ancients ; ami yet if the meaning ol" the 
 rm '•opxi<"f " a| "l !l |e I-atin term '• saltatio" be 
 i. u will be found that both these nations 
 mic dances of a peculiar kiml ; the 
 •stlculation or of dancing being as 
 . that of declamation to another. (Xen. 
 \i. 1.3.8.) Hence it would appear 
 only merit which the moderns can claim in re- 
 to the ballet consists in the substitution of music 
 i.-ry in the room of declamation. Be this as it 
 is generally admitted that the ingenious artist 
 ■ 10 the princess Catherine de 
 til form to the regular ballet, 
 ind that after a i It was introduced into 
 
 i' ranee. There it continues to flourish likeanind 
 pistil : while German; and England, whither it \ 
 remiss In fo 
 are many persons who object to the m- 
 ■t with the opera; and in a few 
 • Der Gotl and die B 
 ill founded. But 
 .,■'<<■ 'I the need Into 
 
 . Robert le Dlable, La Tenia- 
 xl Masanlello, must be of opinion 
 ption of the ballet pro- 
 t charm, by enliancing the power and 
 ma Lexicon.) 
 BALM'STA. (Gr PaWu, I throw.) A military engine, 
 for throwing stones, darts, arrows, 
 times confounded with the 
 mis, who 
 confines rm to those machines which throw 
 
 lie particular mechanism of tin ■ 
 •y certainly understood. According to Vitruvius 
 e made in divers manners; bul the prl 
 
 wood or 
 
 (irmly fixed at one extremity ; the oilier 
 
 extremity Is drawn hack by means of cords and pulleys; 
 
 the elastic force with which 
 
 opels the mi 
 
 An ; nstr:r\er.t, 
 
 force or velocity 
 
 nails. To one extremity of an iron 
 
 bat ia fixed a heavy cubical block of wood, lined at the 
 
 back with ebarofiron at iho^other ex- 
 
 Iremity ol f serves as an axis ol 
 
 B pendulum swings freely backwards and for- 
 wards. The instrument !>•- i t iu thus fitted, If the weight of 
 the pen lulum be known, and likewise the respective dis- 
 en(res of gravity and oscillation from ihe 
 ermine the quantity of 
 that will be communicaled to the pendulum by the 
 m of a body of a given weight moving with a 
 ■ city and striking ii 
 if the pendulum, when at rest, is struck by a body ore 
 known weight, and the vibration which the pendulum 
 
 I blow is known, the velocity rfftl i 
 body may thence be determined. In order to 
 
 il of the vibration, a riband ia attached to the lower 
 
 ig loosely through an orifice in 
 
 trial bar in the frame-work; when the pendulum 
 
 riband along With it, and the quan- 
 tity which thus passes through the orifice measures the 
 chord of the arc of vibration, (See Robint'i New I'rin- 
 Ghirmery, vol. i. Prop. 8. ; also Hutton's Malhe- 
 • •;, vol. ii.) 
 BA'LLIUM. In the Architecture of the Midd 
 
 or court of a fortified castle. This has 
 - the appellation Bailey; thus St. Pe- 
 ter's in the Bailey at Oxford, and the Old Bailey in Lon- 
 don, are so named from their connection with the sites of 
 
 1! AI.I.OO'N. (Fr. ballon, a little ball.) The name of 
 
 , ■■•, which, consisting of an envelope containing a 
 
 r than common air, rises into the at- 
 
 'e with a greater or le censional force. 
 
 i > ported by a net-work which extends over the 
 
 supports the aeronaut ; and a valve, usually placed 
 
 i i, to which a string is attached reaching to the car, 
 
 gives him the power of allowing the gas to escape, and of 
 
 ndinz at pleasure. 
 
 During the dark ages, and for some time after the re- 
 
 projects were entertained for 
 
 air; but it is only in very recent times, 
 
 :, that any of them have been realized. The first 
 
 one mechanical contrivance resent- 
 
 • wings of birds ; but Borelli demonstrated that all 
 
 attempts on the part of man to fly must necessarily fail, 
 
 from the utter disproportion of his muscular power to the 
 
 at would be necessary to give impulsion to wings 
 
 ions magnitude as would be required to sus-. 
 
 tain his weight in the air. 
 
 The principle by which a balloon rises in the atmosphere 
 
 110 " 
 
 BAJLL ON. 
 
 is exactly the same as that which causes the ascent ol ■ 
 cork from the bottom of a vessel filled with water. The 
 weight of the volume of air which ii displaces must ex 
 ceed the weight of the balloon and all that it car 
 it. That bodies must rise and remain suspended in a 
 fluid denser than themselves was proved by Archie 
 but the weight of the air is a modern discovery : and it 
 was only In the latter half of the last century thai" cheinio 
 trv detected the nature and differences of specific 
 ol aeriform fluids. Mr, Cavendish, in 17oti, by some ii:- 
 i vpcriments, recorded in the Philc 
 vol Ivi., found hydrogen gas to be from 
 seven to eleven times lighter than common 
 to the mode of its preparation. In its pu 
 found to be nearly sixteen times lighter than I 
 air. This substance, therefore, if prevented from dill'us- 
 . and allowed to obey the force; by which il is im- 
 pelled upwards, Will continue to mount till it ai ■; . 
 stratum of the atmosphere sixteen times m 
 than at the surface of the earth. Accordingly, no 
 
 idish announced his discovery, tl 
 to Dr. Black thai a very thin bag filled with hydi 
 would mount to the ceiling of a room. Through ■■ 
 
 tperlmenl when lie attemj 
 it failed ; and it was several years later before an I 
 was thougl [ht, and at the same time im- 
 
 permeabl' t illo made a series ol experi- 
 
 ments on this subject In 1782, but did not succeed in rais- 
 ing any thing heavier than a soap bubble. The expense 
 attending : - probably pi 
 
 l iinent from being made on a great scale. 
 Kuowii, gravities of atmospheric air, of the 
 
 gas with which the balloon is to be tilled, and the weight 
 of the envelope in which it is confined, it is not difficult to 
 compute the si/.e the balloon must have in order to rise 
 from the ground, or carry a given « ■ a height 
 
 la the atmosphere. A globe of air, one foot in diameter, at 
 the level of the sea and under the ordinary pressure, weighs 
 about l-26th of a pound avoirdupois. An equal glob 
 
 i <. obtained in the usual way by dissolving, iron lil- 
 ings in dilute sulphuric acid, may be assumed (making ei e- 
 
 ireparation) to 
 times lighter than atmospheric air; consequently 5-6iuaof 
 its whole buoyant force will act in impelling it upwards ; 
 
 • say, the force with which a spht 
 one foot in diameter, will tend to rise in the ati . 
 will be A X A = 7^ of a pound avoirdupois. The as- 
 censional forces of different spheres will be proportional to 
 their magnitudes, thai Is, to the cobes of their diameter ; 
 therefore a Bptiere i ! feel in diameter would ri 
 
 if 24 feet in diameter with a 
 
 X 57 =: 156 pounds. Hut these determ 
 
 mux) be diminished I t of the envelope. The 
 
 best material for the p i nt known is thin silk 
 
 varnished with elastic gum, or Indian rubber. The quauti- 
 
 material required to cover a globe one fool lu di- 
 ameter weighs about l-20th of a pound. Now. for a globe 
 quantity required will increase with 
 the square of the diameter; hence the covering o 
 
 feet in diameter must weigh about? pound 
 one 24 feet in diameter 28 pounds. It follows, : 
 tliataballoi.n of 12 feet diameter will only raise from the 
 ground a weight of 50 pounds, and one of 24 feet 423 pounds. 
 Computing In the same manner, it is found that a balloon 
 CO feet In diameter would raise a weight equal to about 
 6960 pounds; end thai one ofa foot and a half would barely 
 float, the weight of the bag being just equal to that of the 
 imprisom 
 
 The height to which a balloon will rise is determined 
 from the law according to which the density of thi 
 pheric strata diminishes as the distance from the 
 increased. The buoyant force diminishes with Ihe densi- 
 ty ; and when it is reduced to a quantity only equal to the 
 weight of the balloon and its appendages, no further ascen- 
 
 take place. Another circumstance also confines 
 the possible elevation within moderate limits. As the pres- 
 sure of the external air is diminished, the expansive force 
 of the confined gas becomes greater, and would ultimately 
 overcome the resistance of any material of which a balloon 
 can be made. A balloon quite filled at the surface of the 
 earth would inevitably be torn to shreds at the height ol a 
 few miles in the atmosphere, unless a portion of the gas 
 were allowed to escape. For this purpose the balloon is 
 
 I with a safety valve, which can be opi 
 shut at pleasure ; but to prevent unnecessary wa 
 it ought to be made of such a size thai it requires i 
 partly filled. Aballoon halffilled atthe surface ofthe eanl 
 would become fully distended at the height of 3% miles 
 We have hitherto spoken only of balloons filled Willi by 
 drosen gas ; but it is evident that any other subs: 
 Cificalry lighter than air would answer the pu. pose : u 
 fact, the first balloons by which any one was raised into tin 
 atmosphere were not filled with hydrogen, but simply wit.' 
 
BALLOON. 
 
 rarefied air. the rare/action being produced by kindling a 
 fire under them; and as they thus became filled with 
 smoke, they were called smoke-balloons. The ascen- 
 sional force, however, which can be gained in this way is 
 not great ; besides the aeronaut must carry a portion of 
 fuel witli him for the purpose of maintaining the fire, which 
 adds sensibly to the weight to be raised. The keeping up 
 of the fire is also attended with inconvenience, and even 
 danger. 
 
 Two brothers, Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, proprie- 
 tors of a paper manufactory at Annonay in France, have 
 the honour of first preparing and sending up a balloon into 
 the air. After one or two previous trials, they announced 
 a public ascent on the 5th of June, 17S3. The balloon was 
 prepared of linen cloth ; a fire was kindled under it, and 
 fed with bundles of chopped straw. This substance was 
 used with a view to produce a large quantity of smoke. It 
 would seem that they attributed the elevation of the balloon 
 to the ascending power of the smoke, instead of its true 
 cause, the rarefaction of the heated air. In the space of 
 five minutes it was completely distended ; and on being 
 let slip, ascended rapidly. It reached an elevation of about 
 a mile, remained suspended ten minutes, and fell at the 
 distance of a mile and a half from the place of its ascen- 
 sion. When the new T s of this experiment was carried to 
 Paris, the surprise was general, and the virtuosi began im- 
 mediately to consider how it could be repeated. It was 
 determined to apply hydrogen gas on this occasion ; and 
 Charles, a celebrated lecturer on natural philosophy, un- 
 dertook the superintendence of the process. On the 26th 
 of August, 1783, the preparations were complete, and the 
 balloon was transported with much ceremony to the 
 Champ-de-Mars. On the following day, at five o'clock in 
 the afternoon, the report of a cannon announced to the as- 
 sembled multitude that every thing was ready. "The 
 globe, liberated from its stays, shot upwards, to the great 
 surprise of the spectators, with such rapidity that in two 
 minutes it reached the height of 3000 feet. It traversed 
 successively several clouds, by which it was repeatedly 
 obscured. The violent rain which began to fall at the mo- 
 ment of its ascent did not retard its rapid progress, and the 
 experiment was attended with complete success. The 
 satisfaction was so great that even elegantly dressed ladies 
 remained with their eyes intently fixed on the balloon, re- 
 gardless of the rain, which fell on them in torrents." 
 (Lilies, Dictionnarie de Physique.) This balloon remained 
 in the atmosphere only three quarters of an hour ; it fell at 
 a distance of about fifteen miles, when it. was discovered 
 that a rent was made in its upper part, through which the 
 gas had escaped. 
 
 The first adventurers who had courage to undertake an 
 aerial ascent in a balloon, were Pilatre de Rosier, a young 
 naturalist, and the Marquis d'Arlandes. On the 21st of No- 
 vember, 1783, they took their seats in the basket of asmoke 
 balloon ; and after rising to an elevation of upwards of 3000 
 feet, descended safely to the earth. The next ascent was 
 made by MM. Charles and Robert in a balloon filled with 
 hydrogen gas, on the 1st of January, 1784. After a flight 
 of a hour and a half they alighted on the meadow of Nesle, 
 about twenty-five miles from Paris, without the slightest 
 accident. As the balloon still retained a considerable 
 buoyant force, M. Charles resolved on another ascent alone. 
 It rose to the height of near two miles in about ten min- 
 utes ; and the aeronaut had the satisfaction of seeing the 
 sun, which had set when he left the earth, again rise above 
 the horizon. After remaining about thirty-five minutes in 
 the air he descended safely, at a distance of about nine 
 miles from the spot from which he had risen. 
 
 So many aerial voyages executed with safety encouraged 
 other attempts ; and no accident occurred till the accom- 
 plished Pilatre de Rosier, with his companion Romain, 
 was killed in an attempt to cross the channel from France 
 to England. On the 13th of June, 1785, they ascended 
 from Boulogne. Under the principal balloon, which was 
 of hydrogen gas, they had suspended, for the purpose of 
 increasing or diminishing the ascensional power at plea- 
 sure, a smoke balloon, which occasioned the disastrous is- 
 sue. Scarcely a quarter of an hour had elapsed when the 
 whole apparatus, at the height of 3000 feet, was perceived 
 to be on lire ; and the unfortunate voyagers were precipi- 
 tated to the ground. This calamitous occurrence, how- 
 ever, did not damp the courage of aeronauts. It was obvi. 
 ous that it had neen occasioned by the want of proper pre- 
 cautions; accordingly ascents continued to be multiplied, 
 and have since become so common as to be an ordinary 
 spectacle in the principal cities of Europe. 
 
 When balloons first began to be constructed, it was ex- 
 ihat they would be found applicable to many im- 
 portant purposes. These expectations have been disap- 
 pointed, chiefly because it has been found impossible to 
 guide or controul their course. The only power the aero- 
 naut possesses over his balloon is to regulate its elevation 
 within certain limits. In one or two instances they have 
 Been successfully used for military reconnoissance. The 
 120 
 
 BALLOT. 
 
 victory which Jourdan obtained over the Austrians at Fleu 
 rus, in 1794, was ascribed to the knowledge obtained of the 
 enemy's movements by means of a balloon. A very inte- 
 resting ascent was made by Biot and Gay Lussac, in Au- 
 gust i804, and by Gay Lussac alone in September of 
 the same year, with a view to make meteorological obser- 
 vations in the upper strata of the atmosphere. In the first 
 voyage, the two philosophers, at an elevation of between 
 9,500 and 13,000 English feet, found the oscillations of the 
 magnetic needle to be performed in the same time as at the 
 surface of the earth. At 12,800 feet the thermometer, 
 which stood at 63)4° at the observatory, had sunk to 51° 
 of Fahrenheit, being only a decrease of 1° for every thou- 
 sand feet. The hygroscope indicated increased drym ss in 
 proportion to the elevation. In the second ascent, per- 
 formed by Gay Lussac alone, the variation of the compass, 
 at the height of 12,680, was found to remain unaltered. Ai 
 14,4S0 feet a key held in the magnetic direction attracted 
 with one end and repelled with the other the north pole of 
 the magnetic needle. The same was the case at 20,150 
 feet. At 18,000 feet the thermometer fell to the freezing 
 point, and at 22,912 feet to 14-9° of Fahr. Two flasks, 
 which had been previously emptied of air, were opened 
 and filled at an elevation exceeding 21,400 feet ; and the air 
 brought down from this region was found, on being ana- 
 lysed, to contain exactly the same proportions of the con- 
 stituent elements as at the surface. The utmost elevation 
 which he reached was 23,040 feet, or four miles and a quar- 
 ter above the level of the sea, considerably higher than the 
 loftiest peak of the Andes. 
 
 Excepting in these two remarkable ascents of Gay Lus- 
 sac, nothing has been gained to science by the use of bal- 
 loons. The numerous other ascents undertaken, both be- 
 fore and since, have as yet served no other purpose than to 
 gratify idle curiosity ; and from the total failure- of every 
 scheme that has been proposed for directing their course 
 through the air, there is little reason to anticipate any great 
 advantages from them to society. Nevertheless, the 
 comparative cheapness and facility with which they can 
 be filled by coal gas, now so generally used for the pur- 
 poses of illumination, have been the cause of directing pub- 
 lic attention again to the subject; and the recent teat of 
 Mr. Green and two companions, who, with a stupendous 
 balloon, and carrying with them a ton of ballast, ascended 
 from Vauxhall in November, 1836, crossed the channel, 
 and, after a journey through the air of eighteen hours, 
 safely descended in the territory of Nassau in Germany, 
 has contributed to revive the hope of rendering balloons 
 available to useful purposes. 
 
 BA'LLOT. (Fr. balloter.) A method of voting at 
 elections, &c, by means of little balls, of different colours, 
 which arc put secretly into a box, and, when counted, dis- 
 close the result of the poll without any discovery by win >m 
 each vote is given. The origin of the ballot may be traced 
 to the commonwealth of the Israelites, from whom it was 
 adopted by many eastern nations. The voting bj tablets 
 began withthe earliest operations of Athenian polity. But 
 it appears questionable whether the ballot at Athens, at 
 least in its more flourishing times, was anything more than 
 a contrivance for securing rapidity of voting, and whether 
 any secrecy was necessarily attached to it. It was em- 
 ployed in judicial proceedings. Secret voting was, how- 
 ever, the custom of the Areopagus. (Scott on the Athenian 
 Ballot, 183S.) The same system of voting prevailed also at 
 Carthage, and to this is attributed by Ray (Travels through 
 Germany and Italy) the cause of the grandeur and inde- 
 pendence of its inhabitants. In the early periods of Ro- 
 man history, the people voted by word of mouth ; and, in 
 creating magistrates, used the form — Consules, <kc. nomi- 
 no, or dico ; and it was not until the 614th year of the city, 
 that the Gabinian law, Lex Tabellaria, was introduced, for 
 the purpose, as Cicero alleges (De. Off. 2. 7.), of giving to 
 the people more liberty in voting. But from this period, as 
 is universally admitted, the practice of bribery made rapid 
 strides; and notwithstanding every effort was made for its 
 suppression by the enactment of penal statutes, such was 
 its success that Julius Ctesar saw himself necessitated to 
 deprive the people not only of the ballot, but even of the 
 right of suffrage. Since the Christian era, the ballot was 
 adopted at a very early period by the Maltese and the Ve- 
 netians. At Venice, in particular, a most curious and in- 
 tricate system of voting, consisting of ten previous ballots- 
 tions, prevailed for the space of 1300 years ; and Postellus 
 (in a work De Magistratibus Atheuiensium) pointedly as- 
 serts that the abolition of this practice, combined with other 
 causes, led to the decline of this once nourishing state. 
 Another author, after an elaborate dissertation < 
 vantages of the Venetian ballot, sums up his account qI an 
 election of which he had been an eyewitness io th 
 ingwords: — "All was easily performed in a short time. 
 without tumult, without noise, without animosities, and th:. 
 most deserving always elected." In our own tin: 
 well known, the system of voting by ballot in the election 
 of representatives, magistrates, &c. is adopted in Fran.CS 
 
BALSAM OF SULPHUR. 
 
 and America ; and, among ourselves, in cases of applic-i- 
 lion for admission into pnvate clubs and societies. Of all 
 iiible subjects, perhaps there is none which has 
 • ntion of all political parties so vividly, and 
 formed so large an arena for the display of argumentative 
 skill, as the ballot. While its opponents foresee in its in- 
 ii into the public business of England a tissue 
 of hypocrisy and falsehood, and ultimately danger and ruin 
 ite, it seems to its supporters to contain the germ 
 of ell tint is admirable in government and advantageous to 
 the community. Our limns necessarily preclude us from 
 doing Biore than merely noticing the principal arguments 
 on both sides. The advocates of the ballot, on whom the 
 onus protandi naturally rests, assume as an axiom that the 
 great body of the electors are dependent, and consequent- 
 ly in an unfit condition to give a free and Bnbiai 
 On this assumption is hinged not merely the validity, but 
 even the necessity of all their demonstrations in favour of 
 maintained, will not only place 
 tor on a footing of independence, but will remove 
 all inducement to bribery, as no candidate will choose to 
 offer a hrihe when the elector is at liberty to deceive him 
 by giving a secret vote : in a word, that it will annihilate 
 of corrupt influence bv which electors are 
 liable to be svaayed. — the inlluence of threats, and the in- 
 Baence of brines Nor, as they allege, are their opinions 
 upon this head merely speculative ; lor they point with tri- 
 umph to the example of France and America, where the 
 ballol is practised, and where it has long been regarded as 
 nurd of the people'* liberty. The opponents of 
 tie- ballot, on the other hand, maintain that, even under the 
 ballol, the canvassing of constituents by candidates would 
 still be practised : in which case, the ballot would prove 
 serviceable only to the dishonest elector, who promise* his 
 to one candidate and voies for another. More- 
 t even here secrecy would be impracticable, as the 
 would not only be subjected to a process of the 
 i iy, hut that the landlord would be in- 
 '. isit witli more signal marks of his displeasure 
 thai tenant on whom his suspicions of deceit should rest, 
 than I. im who came boldly forward, and voted in the fare 
 r the candida.'e of his choice. Again, that even 
 were secrecy practicable (vide liurke's Reflections, p. 370), 
 it would not bo desirable. For, as every elect"!' h. Ms 
 lor the benefit of the community at large, he is 
 hound to show by an open vote his opinion of the fit- 
 the candidate for his suffrage: that a secret vote 
 dculated to counteract the legitimate influ- 
 ence ol public opinion, and to lower the standard of politi- 
 cal and moral principle, inasmuch as it removes from a 
 I thai responsibility from which no public act 
 ought to be exempted. An I lastly, that the argument de- 
 :n the practice of France and America can have 
 but little weight, unless it can at the same time be demon- 
 condition of these countries in other re- 
 ly analogous to that of our own: that, as 
 'iicerned, vote by ballot was not in- 
 grafted upon its peculiar form of government, but, as in the 
 . was coeval with its existence : and that, as 
 France, only 200.000 in a population of 33 millions 
 enjoy the elective franchise ; and these, from their rank 
 and condition in society, are least likely either to be in- 
 fluenced by intimidation or seduced by bribery. Whether 
 the opponents or the advocates of the ballot have the best 
 >f the argument, it is not for us to determine ; but one 
 ertain, that whether we regard the Athenian or 
 I ii. the French or the American form of govern- 
 ment, it will be found that the people either stipulated for 
 Hot in the original framing of their 
 constitution*, or, as soon as they ascertained the 
 ! I heir right*, Insisted on its introduction, from 
 Eiiuie fancied security it afforded them in the exercise ol 
 their privilege*. For some apposite remarks on the bal- 
 Weat. Review for July, 1830; and a Treatise enti- 
 on the Ballot, 1831, Hatchard and Son ; see 
 also Mo itesquieu, Eeprit des Lois,ii. cap. 20. ; and Fergu- 
 \an Tlistoi <t. p 81. 
 BA'LSAM OFStfLPHUR. Solution of sulphur in olive 
 oil. A brown fetid liquid. 
 
 BALSAMA'CEiE. A natural order of imperfect exoge- 
 nous balsamiferous trees, related to the I'latanaceae ; aspe- 
 ouly genus, Liquidambar, yields the fragrant re- 
 li rax. 
 BALSAMINA'CEJS. (Balsamina, one of the genera.) 
 I order of i olypetalous Exogens allied to Gerania- 
 ■ e They have Irregular flowers, with a spur to one of 
 are chiefly annual stemmed plants, with a 
 mcculenl foliage and showy flowers. The common Im- 
 tiolttangere is a species of this order. 
 HW.SVMODE'NDRON. See Myrrh. 
 I! l/LSAMS. Exudations from certain plants, which are 
 liquid or soft solid, and consist of a substance resemblinga 
 resin, either combined with benzoic acid or with an essen- 
 tial oil, or both. 
 121 
 
 BANDED. 
 
 BA'LTEUS. (Lat. a girdle.) In Architecture, the wid« 
 step in theatres and amphitheatres which afforded a pas- 
 rouad them without disturbing the sitters. Nobody 
 sat on it, hut it served as a landing or resting place, in the 
 Greek and Roman theatres every eighth step was a bal- 
 teus. Vimivius gives the rules for constructing it in the 
 third chapter of his fifth book. The same term is also 
 used by that author to denote the strap which seems to 
 bind the coussinel or cushion of the Ionic capital 
 
 BA'I.LSTEU. (Bald to be from balaustrum.or fia\avo- 
 tiuv, the flower of the wild pomegranate, to the form of 
 which a resemblance is pretended.) In Architecture, a 
 species of small short column, used between piers on the 
 upper parts of buildings, under windows, in balconies, 
 ■fcc. It is quite of modern introduction, that is to say, 
 soon after the revival of architecture. The form of the 
 most ancient that are met with in Florence and other ci- 
 ties of Italy is that of a column, a puerility which has even 
 in these days found admission into some of what are called 
 . buildings in the metropolis. Blondel gives rules 
 for proportioning the baluster in its use where the orders 
 are employed. 
 
 BALI.S'i'KA'DE. A parapet or protecting fence formed 
 with bain 
 
 HA.MHO'O. An Asiatic genus of arborescent grasses, 
 with hollow jointed stems, and a hardy woody texture. 
 They are externally coated with silex, and sometimes 
 tmi substance in the hollows of their stems, 
 when it is called labasheer. Bamboo* mow with great 
 rapidity, anil their shoots are ;ut when young, and boiled 
 like asparagus. They vary in size, according to the spe- 
 cies, from 6 feet to luO feet in length. When small, they 
 form handles to umbrellas and parasol* or walking slicks ] 
 when sufficiently large, they are used for the frame-work 
 of Indian cottages, bedsteads, floors, and a variety of do- 
 mestic purposes. If split into slips, they form bow string*, 
 and sometimes the arrows discharged from the blow-tubes 
 of the Malays. A few species inhabit the tropical parts ol 
 America. 
 
 BAM III SA'CEJE. A section of the natural order of 
 comprehending the bamboo as its type. 
 
 BAN. A word bearing a variety of signifies! nis in the 
 Teutonic jurisprudence and usages, bul all apparently con- 
 nected wih the Original meaning ol "to proclaim, or give 
 public notice.' 1 Hence, l. Ban, the proclamation against 
 an outlaw : e. g. the ban of the German Empire, equiva- 
 lent to ecclesiastical excommunication or declaration of 
 outlawry ; whence the words banish, bandits, banditti, and 
 to " ban" or curse ; in German bannen, verbannen. 2 
 The ban, in the sense of the national army of a Teutonic 
 
 fieople levied by proclamation: hence the French "lever 
 a ban el rsxriere ban" (the latter word being a corruption 
 of heri/iannum , from heer, an army). Tin French ban and 
 arrifere ban was levied for the last time in HJ?2, and com- 
 manded by Turenne, but behaved so ill (hat this feudal ar- 
 mament was thenceforth discontinued. 3. The banns of 
 marriage. beiiiL' notice given by public proclamation to the 
 parish of the intended solemnization. In the Sclavonic 
 tongues ban means master : the lords of some of the fron- 
 tier provinces of Turkey were so styled ; hence the bannat 
 or lordship of Temeswar. now belonging to Austria. 
 
 BANA'NA. A tall herbaceous endogenous plant, the 
 Musa sapienlum of botanists, having broad convex leaves 
 with fine oblique veins, and growing in a tuft from the top 
 of a stem formed by the union of the broad bases of the 
 leaves. The fruit ripens in succession in large clusters 
 weighing many pounds; it is of the same nature as the 
 plantain [quod ride). It is a native of the West Indies, 
 where it contributes essentially to the food of the better 
 classes. 
 
 BA'NCHTJS. A Fabrician genus of Hymenopterous in- 
 sects, of the tribe Pupivora. and family hhneumonidtn ; 
 characterised by long threadlike antennae, abdomen com- 
 pressed at the extremity, ovipositor not extended. Of this 
 genus there are five British species, which, like the rest of 
 the familv, are parasitic in the larva state, feeding on the 
 bodies of other insects. 
 
 BA'NCO. In commerce, a word of Italian origin, signi- 
 fying a bank, and commonly employed to describe the 
 bank of Venice. Banco is also used to distinguish banco 
 money from current money at Hamburg, <fcc. See Ex- 
 change. 
 
 Banco. In Law, superior courts of common law are 
 said to sit in banco during term, the judges occupying 
 the bench of their respective courts. See Courts op 
 Law. 
 
 BAND. (Fr. bande.) In Architecture, a term used to 
 denote what is generally called a face or fascia. To speak 
 correctly, it signifies a flat, low, square, profiled member 
 without respect to its place. That member in a cornice on 
 which modillions or dentils are cut is called the modillion 
 band in the former, and the dentil band in the latter case. 
 
 BA'NDEI). (Lat. fasciatus.) When any body is striated 
 across with col<vir<w» h*uids. 
 
BANDITTI. 
 
 BANDITTI. (It.) Persons declared to be banished, ex- 
 fled, or outlawed. (Home Tooke.) At the present time, 
 bandit and robber are nearly synonymous terms. The 
 Italian bandits formed a peculiar class, and were frequently 
 employed by the petty princes and grandees in executing 
 their projects either of love or ambition. As late as the 
 year 1820, they were frequently employed as escorts ; and 
 in their c&se the proverb "honour among thieves" was 
 amply verified, for, on the payment of a stipulated sum, 
 travellers might repose in them unlimited confidence. 
 
 BANDOLE'ER. In ancient Military History, a large 
 leathern belt worn over the right shoulder, and hanging un- 
 der the left arm, to carry military weapons. The term is 
 also applied to small leather cases, of which each muske- 
 teer wore twelve, hanging upon a shoulder-belt: each of 
 these contained the charge of powder for a musket. They 
 are disused, but may be seen in the armoury in the Tower. 
 
 BA'NIANS. A peculiar class among the Hindus, whose 
 office or profession is trade and merchandise. In this 
 sense Banians stand contradistinguished from Brahmins, 
 Cuttery (Eschatrya), and Wyse (Vaisya), the three other 
 castes into which the Indians are divided. (See Gemelli 
 Carreri, and Sir W. Jones.) They are scattered over the 
 whole of Asia, and have appropriated to themselves the 
 sole management of traffic in the East. They retain every 
 where their native language and religion (the doctrine of 
 the Metempsychosis) ; and are distinguished by their 
 honesty, fidelity, and good nature. 
 
 BA'NISHMENT. "Expulsion from any country, pro- 
 vince, or town, by the judgment of some court or compe- 
 tent authority." Banishment as a species of punishment 
 has been practised by all governments, both ancient and 
 modern. Among the Greeks two kinds of banishment 
 were in use : tpvyn, which involved confiscation of property, 
 and was inflicted only upon those convicted of certain 
 crimes; and, at Athens, ostracism, by which persons were 
 banished on mere suspicion that their power or riches 
 might prove subversive of liberty. The Romans made 
 use of three kinds — relegatio, exilium, and deportatio, — 
 which involved various grades of punishment ; the last, 
 however, being the most severe, as it subjected the delin- 
 quent to the confiscation of his property, and the loss of 
 bis rights as a Roman citizen. The second was introduced 
 by the Emperor Augustus, and formed the kind of banish- 
 ment to which, among others, Ovid was condemned. Du- 
 ring the "irst French revolution, banishment (deportatio?!) 
 was substituted for the guillotine, and towards the end of 
 Robespierre's administration became very general. It 
 still forms part of the French code, where it is classed in 
 the third degree of infamous punishments, and gives rise 
 to civil death. Asa criminal punishment banishment was 
 unknown to the ancient unwritten law of England, although 
 voluntary exile was often adopted in order to evade legal 
 prosecution. It was first towards the end of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's reign that a statute was enacted which condemned 
 persons convicted of certain delinquencies to leave the 
 town or village where they lived ; but it was at a much later 
 period that the punishment of transportation (quod vide) 
 was legalised by parliamentary statute. In Germany, nu- 
 merous instances have recently occurred of persons con- 
 victed of treasonable practices having had their sentence 
 commuted into perpetual banishment; and in the univer- 
 sities of the same country this punishment (relegatio) is in- 
 flicted upon those who are convicted of a gross infringe- 
 ment of the academical laws, and involves the forfeiture of 
 all right to enter upon a professional career. 
 
 BANISTERIEJE. (Banisteria, one of the genera.) That 
 division of Malpighiaceous plants in which the fruit is sa- 
 maroid, not baccate, and analogous to what is found iu 
 Aceraco:e. 
 
 BANK. In Natural History, an elevation of the ground. 
 Banks at sea are indicated by a decrease of the soundings, 
 and sometimes by the elevation of the land above low- 
 water mark. Of these, one of the largest and best known 
 is the great bank of Newfoundland, famous for the resort 
 of cod-fish. 
 
 Bank. In Commerce, an establishment for the custody 
 and issue of money. The individual who manages a bank, 
 or who carries on the business of banking, is called a 
 banker. 
 
 Banks are of various kinds; some confining themselves 
 entirdy to the custody and issue of the money deposited in 
 their hands by their customers, while others issue notes or 
 paper money of their own. They are sometimes conduct- 
 ed by private individuals, and sometimes by companies 
 consisting of an indefinite number of persons. 
 
 Utility of Banks. — Notwithstanding the precious metals 
 ai?, in many respects, admirably fitted to serve as a medi- 
 um of exchange (see Money), they have two very serious 
 drawbacks,— their cost, and the difficulty and expense of car- 
 rying them from |ilace to place. If the currency of Great 
 Britain consisted only of gold, it wouVd amount to at least 
 sixty millions of sovereigns ; and the expense attending 
 such a currency, allowing only X per cent, for wear and 
 122 
 
 BANK. 
 
 tear and loss of coins, could not be reckoned at less than 
 •£3,250,000 a year. The weight of 1000 sovereigns exceeds 
 21 lbs. troy ; so that were there nothing but coins in circu- 
 lation, the conveyance of large sums from place to place 
 to discharge accounts would be a very laborious pro 
 and even small sums could not be conveyed without con- 
 siderable difficulty ; hence it is that most commercial and 
 highly civilised nations have endeavored to fabricate a por- 
 tion of their money of less costly and heavy materials, and 
 have resorted to various devices for economising the use of 
 coin. Of the substitutes for coin hither: 
 is, in all respects, the most eligible. Instead 
 ing their debts by a payment of the precious metals, indi- 
 viduals, on whose solvency the public may rely, paj 
 by giving a bill or draft for the sum, payable in com al I 
 or at so many days after date; and as this bill or draft pass- 
 es currently from hand to hand as cash, it performs all the 
 functions of coin, while it saves its expense to the public. 
 A sense of the advantages that might be derived from the 
 circulation of such bills or drafts led to the institution of 
 banks for their regular issue. 
 
 By a bank of this description, or a bank of circulation, is 
 meant an establishment founded by one or more individu- 
 als, known or believed to be possessed of large property, 
 for the accommodation of the public with loans. A banker, 
 on being applied to for a loan, does not UMtke the advance 
 in gold or silver, or other valuable material, but in his own 
 promissory notes or engagements, binding him to pay the 
 sums specified in them at sight, when presented at the 
 bank, or at some specified period. When a bank is In good 
 credit, its notes are deemed by the public equivalent to a 
 corresponding amount of gold or silver; and, being freely 
 accepted in payment of debts of all sorts, and easily carried 
 about or conveyed by post, they are even more useful to 
 those who originally borrowed them from the bank, 
 and to their subsequent holder, than an equal sum in 
 coin. The borrowers, therefore, do not scruple to p 
 same interest for the loan of a promissory note of JJitlO or 
 .£1,000 than they would do for the loan of a hundred or a 
 thousand sovereigns. But the note costs the issuer com- 
 paratively little. He, in fact, deals in credit, or in i 
 lions to pay, and not. in real valui 
 in the excess of interest derived from the do 
 tions he has issued over and nbeve the interest of the 
 or unproductive stock he is obliged to keep In his cofl 
 meet the demands of the public for payment of his notes. 
 and the expenses of his establishment. 
 
 Besides this sort of bank, there are also banks of depo 
 site, or banks for keeping the money of individuals. A 
 merchant, or other person, using a bank of this sort, makes 
 all his considerable payments by drafts upon his bankers, 
 and sends all the bills due to him to them to be pres 
 and noted, if not duly paid. By this means he save: 
 trouble and expense of keeping a quantity of unemployed 
 money at home, of receiving coins or notes that a) 
 genuine, and of making any mistakes with respect to the 
 presentation of due bills; and in consequence of the saving 
 of money that is thus effected, a much less quantity serves 
 for the demand of the public. 
 
 If a bank of circulation, or an establishment for the issue 
 of notes, fall into discredit, its notes must obviously cease 
 to circulate. Unless when guaranteed by government, or 
 made legal tender, no one ever takes promissory i 
 except on the supposition that they will be paid when pre- 
 sented or when due, and that they are substantially equi- 
 valent to cash. The moment any suspicion (whether well 
 or ill founded is so far of little consequence) arises that the 
 issuers of notes are unable to meet their obligations, there 
 is a run upon them for payment, and their notes are re- 
 jected by every one. 
 
 All banks of circulation are necessarily almost at the 
 same time banks of deposit ; but there are in all civilised 
 and commercial countries a good many of the lal 
 of banks only. Banks of deposit derive their pro 
 from their paying no interest on the sums deposited in 
 their hands, as is the case with most of the London banks ; 
 or from their paying a less rate of interest on 
 than that for which they lend them to the public, as is the 
 case with the Scotch banks. 
 
 English Banks. — Banking establishments for the issue of 
 notes, and for taking care of other people's money, have 
 existed in that country since the latter part of thi 
 teenth century. The Bank of England was founded in 
 1694, and has long been the greatest bank of circulation 
 and deposit in the world. It grew out of a loan of £1.200,- 
 000, for the public service, for which (such was the low 
 state of public credit at the time) the subscribers were 
 to receive 8 per cent, interest, with £1,000 a year as the 
 expense of management, and be incorporated Into a bank- 
 ing company, denominated the Governor and Company 
 of the Bank of England. The charter was granted lor ton 
 years; and it lias since been prolonged by various renew 
 als till the 1st of August 1845. The loans made by the 
 bank to government were gradually increased, till in 1800 
 
BANK. 
 
 they amounted to .£14,636,000. But at the last renewal of 
 the charter in 1833, a fourth part of the standing debt due 
 to the bank was paid off, making the sum now (IS>3) due 
 by the public to that establishment, exclusive of advances 
 on account of dead weight and other public securities, 
 £11,047,750. 
 
 From its foundation the bank has enjoyed several pecu- 
 liar privileges. The principal of these was conferred upon 
 it in 1708, by an act which prohibited any company from 
 established for the issue of notes payable on demand 
 in Engl md and Wales with more than sis partners. This 
 ntinued till l-v-G. when it v. . in so 
 
 more than 03 miles distant from 
 : but within that distance it still prevails, 
 gland is, and baa always I 
 ink, transacting for ii all the banking bu 
 in, receiving I 
 .ad paying tb 
 
 I other public depar . 
 For ihis the bank has received .-■ . 
 
 if the balances of the public money in 
 
 i year. 
 
 In , of its employment by the government, 
 
 mfining the number of partners in other 
 
 ■ apital and credit, Bank of 
 
 • •• always been held in the highest esti- 
 
 i no bank for the issue of promissory notes 
 
 (bed in or near I.on- 
 
 provinces, however, numerous private, banks 
 
 ks with not more than six partners) of issue 
 
 always existed. In 1/92, their number 
 
 e exceeded 350. Many wen 
 
 of that year; bnt subsequently to 1-00 
 
 i rapidly to Increase. In 1809, they amounted 
 
 in 1814, when most numerous, to 940. 8ince 
 
 the abolition of the restriction on the number of pai I 
 
 in lS2t">, many banks havi I; some with 
 
 of proprietors. Except in the case of 
 
 the l: nd, all the holders of stock in the other 
 
 not merely for the amount of 
 
 -lock of the company, but for its 
 
 nL All notes 
 
 n md ; and since ISdG no notes for 
 
 to circulate. 
 
 . the iiank of I 
 , . it had always paid its notes regularly when 
 ■nted. But in of 1796, and the early pari 
 
 owing to the prevalence of repcutts of 
 run upon the Bank of England, 
 i apprehended that sin- mlghl beol 
 :.i make ■ temporary stoppage. To avert a contingency 
 of this son, an order in council was Issued in Pent 
 
 ' be bank not notea in yohi ; 
 
 tnd tl subsequently confirmed by parliament, 
 
 and prolonged till alter the conclusion of a definite treaty 
 at peace. 
 
 ry to what might have been and was anticipated 
 
 red to did not stop the circulation 
 
 oi" Bank of England notes, or dimmish the confidence of 
 
 bment. The report of a commit- 
 
 i, published soon after the 
 
 Bhowed that the bank was not merely pos- 
 
 I of the must ample funds to meet all her engage- 
 
 i had a surplus stock, after all demands 
 
 upon ii £15,513,000. This 
 
 report, and the fact that Bank of England note* became 
 
 i ally legal t' rider, secured their circulation. 
 
 The obligation on tin ■per to pay their notes 
 
 on del . not only to give them circulation, 
 
 but to prevent tbeir being issued in excess ; for as soon as 
 
 any ci ■■• the currency be- 
 
 coin nipared with that of other coun- 
 
 quence, returned upon the 
 
 bank il gold and silver to send 
 
 ir value is higher ; and the banks, to ob- 
 
 obliged to narrow ii London 
 
 being tl" 1 centre where the exchanges vrith other countries 
 
 are value of its currency determines the 
 
 and it ultimately also determines 
 
 value of the currency of the provinces, there biinir a 
 
 .,i in I upon the country banks for gold or bills 
 
 i Lond While the Bank of England was oh If 
 
 pav ! valueof her notes could not, and in point 
 
 fer materially from that of gold. But in 
 
 . or 1400, after the check of cash payments was re- 
 
 in t'i be depreciated, partly in ex 
 
 own overissue, but far more throuuh the 
 
 of the paper of the country banks. The 
 
 multiplied to an unprecedented extent. It is of im- 
 
 M.e. ioo, to observe lhat previously to 1797 neither 
 
 B ii fc of England nor any of the country bank3 issued 
 
 notes for less than £5; but both parties having commenced 
 
 in the course of that year, a new outlet was 
 
 mission of paper that was particularly ac- 
 
 133 
 
 cessible to the country bankers. And such was the eager- 
 ness of the greater number of the latter to get their paper 
 that individuals who could barelyafford to buy stamps 
 for bills frequently succeeded in getting the command of 
 immense sums ; and, as they had nothing of their own to 
 lose, boldly ventured on the most hazardous speculations. 
 During the last hall dozen years of the war the deprecia- 
 tion of paper resulting from circumstances now glanced at 
 was such, that the ounce of standard gold, which should be 
 worth only 3/. 17s. Wid., was, in 1.-14, actually worth 
 5/. 4s., being a depreciation of 25)j per cent. 
 
 The difficulties which had been thrown during the latter 
 years of the war in the way of importation from abroad, 
 
 h deficient crops at home, caused an ex; 
 diuary rise in the price of corn. But no sooner had the 
 northern ports been opened, in the autumn of 1814, tl on a 
 large importation, accompanied by a heavy tall ol prices, 
 i to take place ; which was still further increased 
 on in 1815. This fall proved ru- 
 inous '■ men, who had been large borrowers 
 from the country banks. In consequence of the lOBSM 
 ing from this sod other causes thai grew out ol the sdti 
 
 situation oi the country, a want of confidence was experi- 
 enced ; and the Country banks being generally without the 
 menus of meeting y. no fewer than 240 of 
 
 these establishments stopped payment. There is, in fact, 
 
 believed to have been. In 1814, 1815, and 1816, a greater 
 
 k paper in this country, and a wider 
 range of bankruptcy, than had ever previously taken place 
 • Ice, except pi rhaps in France at the breaking 
 up of tin- Mississippi scheme. The contraction of the cur 
 rency thai had been thus violently brought about, raised its 
 value nearly | I 1819, 
 
 the 59 G. 3. c 7-. AcL" from 
 
 its being Introdnci i I Peel, which provided for 
 
 the return to cash payments by the I ind at the 
 
 old standard. The* m d in 1821. 
 
 The policy of the act of 1819 was much questioned at the 
 lime, and since; but it has been successfully vindicated 
 over and over again. But admitting that when enacted il 
 uable, that would add 
 to the plea i I uige '.u 
 
 The restored standard has no ., (1833) been main- 
 tained for nearly twenty years ; and 99 out of every 100 of 
 the exists I into with refer- 
 
 ence to it. To set it aside would not be to repair former 
 injustice, if such were ■ HI to commit it afresh 
 
 use iii KJ8 for no better ret 
 that a similar abuse had been perpetrated 
 In 1819 ! So long as there is either common sense or com- 
 mon honesty in parliament, we are pretty secure against 
 an attempt n'f this sort succeeding. 
 
 Notwithstanding lhat the bankruptcy which overspread 
 the country in 1814, 1816, and l-l<i, was mainly ascrfbable 
 to the defective constitution of the country banks, and to 
 
 the reckless and improvident manner in which they were 
 managed, no steps were taken when the resumption of 
 cash payments was derided upon In 1819 to obviate any 
 one of these sources of mischief. The consequences ware 
 such as might have been anticipated, A peculiar combi- 
 nation of circumstances having conspired to produce nn 
 extraordinary rage for speculative undertakings in 1824 
 . the country bankers gave in to the infatuation, 
 and madl udden and excessive additions to 
 
 their issues. In consequence the currency became re- 
 dundant ; and this having occasioned a heavy drain for 
 gold on the Bank of England, the latter was,' in the end, 
 obliged to contract her issues. The country banks, whose 
 engagements had In many instances been carried to an ex- 
 tent quite incommensurate with their capital, began to give 
 way the moment they experienced an increased difficulty 
 of obtaining pecuniary accommodation in London : and so 
 rapid and sweeping was the destruction, that in less than 
 six weeks above seventy banking establishments were 
 swept off, and a vacuum created in the currency that ab- 
 sorbed from eight to ten millions of additional issues by the 
 Bank of England ! 
 
 This catastrophe seems at length to have satisfied the 
 parliament and people of England that the private banking 
 system was weak and vicious, and that it was imperatively 
 necessary it should he amended and strengthened. In this 
 view the clause in the act of 1708 already referred to, pro- 
 hibiting any private bank from having more than six part- 
 ners, was repealed ; and the issue of notes for less than £5 
 was also forbidden. 
 
 The last measure has, no doubt, shut up one of the easi- 
 est channels through which the inferior order of country 
 bankers D their paper into circulation, and has 
 
 been so far advantageous. But abundance of other chan- 
 nels arc still open to them ; and the fact that a third part_of 
 all the private banks existing in England and Wales in 1792 
 were destroyed during the revulsion of that year, though 
 no notes for less than £5 were then in circulation, shows 
 how little the suppression of small notes can do to obviata 
 
BANK. 
 
 he mischiefs complained of. Very important advantages 
 were, however, expected to result lrom the other measure, 
 or that repealing the act of 1708, and consequently allowing 
 'he formation of joint stock banks, or banks with any num- 
 Der of partners. But these anticipations proved to be 
 nearly, u not quite, fallacious. There cannot, in fa*-t, be a 
 greater error than to suppose that because a bank has a 
 considerable number of partners it will necessarily be 
 either rich or well managed. It may be neither the one 
 nor the other. A single individual may possess more 
 wealth than a number of individuals associated together ; 
 and the chances are, that if he engage in banking, or any 
 other business, it will be better managed than by a com- 
 pany. Under the present system, and in fact it is impossi- 
 ble to prevent it under any system, the partners in joint 
 stocks, or in other banks, may be men of straw, or persons 
 without property, and unable to fulfil their engagements. 
 It is of die essence of a secure and well established paper 
 currency that the notes of which it consists should be of 
 the exact value of the gold or silver they profess to repre- 
 sent, and that, consequently, they should be paid the mo- 
 ment they are presented. But it is not enough to order that 
 this condition shall be uniformly complied with. Such or- 
 der is obeyed only by the opulent, prudent, and conscien- 
 tious banker, and forms little or no check on the proceed- 
 ings of those of a contrary character. It is the latter class, 
 however, that it is especially necessary to look after; and 
 it is needless to say that any system that permits notes to 
 be issued without let or hindrance by speculative, ignorant, 
 or unprincipled adventurers, must be essentially vicious. 
 
 The progress of the system of joint stock banking, or of 
 banks with more than six partners, since 1826, when it 
 commenced, has been as follows: — 
 
 
 
 Banks. 
 
 
 In 1826 
 
 ivere registered i 
 
 In 1833 
 
 1827 
 
 " 
 
 4 
 
 1834 
 
 1828 
 
 « 
 
 " 
 
 1835 
 
 1829 
 
 M 
 
 " 7 
 
 1836 
 
 1830 
 
 " 
 
 " 1 
 
 
 1831 
 
 " 
 
 " 9 
 
 
 1832 
 
 " 
 
 " 7 
 
 
 104 
 
 In point of fact, however, the joint stock banks have each 
 it an average from five to six branches ; and as these 
 branches transact all sorts of banking business, and enjoy 
 the same credit as the parent establishment, from which 
 they are frequently at a great distance, they are to all in- 
 tents and purposes so many distinct banks. Hence, in- 
 ste.vl of 104, there were really above 500 joint stock banks 
 in England and Wales in 1836, of which no fewer than 200 
 were opened in the course of that year ! Some private 
 banks have latterly been converted into joint stock banks, 
 and others have wound up their affairs and ceased to exist ; 
 still, however, their number amounts to about 550 ; so that, 
 in all, there are at this moment nearly 1,100 joint stock and 
 private banking establishments in England and Wales. 
 From a half to two thirds of these establishments issue 
 notes. 
 
 Previously to 1833, the notes of the country banks were 
 made payable in gold; but it was then enacted that they 
 might be paid either in gold or Bank of England notes, 
 at the option of the issuers. Bank of England notes are 
 now, in fact, legal tender everywhere except at the bank 
 and her branches. 
 
 The dividends on Bank of England stock from 17C7 to 
 the present time have been — from 1767 to 1781. 5% per 
 cent, per annum ; from 1?81 to 1788, 6 per cent. ; from 1788 
 to 1807, 7 per cent. ; from 1807 to 1823, 10 per cent. ; and 
 from 1823 to 1838, 8 per cent. The dividends are exclu- 
 sive of the sums occasionally advanced as. bonuses: the 
 latter amount since 1799, to £3,783.780 over and above an 
 increase in the capital of the bank in 1816, which amounted 
 to .£2,910,600. 
 
 Defects in our present Banking System — Suggestions for 
 its Improvement. — The issue of notes is of all businesses 
 that which seems to hold out the greatest prospect of suc- 
 cess to the schemes of those who attempt to get rich by 
 preying on the public. The cost of engraving and issuing 
 notes is but an inconsiderable item compared with the 
 sums for which they are issued ; and provided they get 
 into anything like extensive circulation, they become, at 
 once, considerably productive. They are not issued, ex- 
 cept on the deposit of bills or other securities yielding a 
 considerable rate of interest ; so that if an individual, or set 
 of individuals, with little or no capital, contrive, by fair ap- 
 pearances, promises, and similar devices, to insinuate him- 
 self or themselves into the public confidence, and can 
 maintain 20,000, 50,000, or £100,000, in circulation, he or 
 !tiey secure a good income in the meantime ; and when 
 the bubble bursts, and the imposture is detected, they are 
 no worse off than when they set up their bank. On (he 
 contrary, the presumption is that they are a great deal bet- 
 ter off: and that they have taken care to provide, at the 
 cost of the credulous and deceived public, a reserve stock 
 'or their future maintenance : hence, seeing the facilities for 
 124 
 
 committing fraud are so very great, the propriety, or rather 
 necessity, of providing against them. 
 
 It has sometimes been contended, in vindication of our 
 present system, which allows any individual or set of in- 
 dividuals, how bankrupt soever in fortune and character, to 
 issue notes without check or limitation of any kind other 
 than the promise to pay them on demand, that they are 
 essentially private paper ; that the accepting of them in 
 payment is optional ; and that as they maj be rejected by 
 every one who either suspects or dislikes Hum, there is no 
 room or ground for interfering with their issue ! Hut 
 every body knows that whatever notes may be in law, they 
 are in most parts of the country practically ami in fact legal 
 tender. The bulk of the people are totally without powei 
 to refuse them. The currency of many extensive districts 
 consists in great part of country notes ; and such small lar- 
 mers or tradesmen as should decline taking I hem would be 
 exposed to the greatest inconveniences. Every one make; 
 use of o(j,is a dealer in money. It is not employed by men 
 of business only, but by persons living on fixed incomes, — 
 women, labourers, minors ; and in short by every class of 
 individuals, very many of whom are necessarily, from their 
 situation in life, quite unable to form any estimate ol the 
 solidity of the different banks whose paper is in circulation. 
 Such parties are uniformly severe sufferers by the tailure 
 of banks. The paper that comes into their hands is a pari 
 of the currency or money of the country ; and it is quite as 
 much a part of the duty of government to lake measures 
 that this paper shall be truly and substantially what it pro- 
 fesses to be, as that it should take measures to prevent the 
 issue of spurious coins or the use of false or deficient 
 weights and measures. 
 
 Now it will be found, should the circulation of provin- 
 cial notes be allowed to continue, that there is but one 
 means of making sure of the solvency of the issuers, and 
 of providing for their being paid when presented ; and that 
 is, by compelling all issuers of such notes to give security 
 for their payment. This, and this only, will hinder the 
 circulation of spurious paper, and afford a sufficient guar 
 antee that the notes the public are obliged to take are real 
 ly and in fact what they profess to be. The measure, too. 
 is one that might be easily enforced. To carry it inio ef- 
 fect, it would merely be necessary to order that all inili- 
 viduals or companies, on applying for stamps, should be 
 obliged, previously to their obtaining them, to lodge in Hit 
 hands of the commissioners an assignment to government 
 of stock, mortgages, landed or other fixed property, equiva- 
 lent to the amount of the stamps issued to them, to be held 
 in security for their payment. 
 
 It has been objected to this plan, that it would be inii.- 
 rious, by locking up a portion of the capital of the banks 
 but this is plainly an error. Its only effect in this respei t 
 would be to force such banks as issued notes to provide * 
 supplemental capital, as a security over and above the Clip- 
 ital required for conducting their business. Bui litis sup- 
 plemental capital would not be unproductive, ll it ((insist- 
 ed of lands, the owners would receive the rents ; and ii it 
 consisted of government securities, they would receive the 
 dividends or interest due upon them, precisely in the same 
 way that they are received by other persons; while the 
 fact being known that they possessed this supplemental 
 capital, or that they had lodged security for the payment 
 of their notes, would, by giving the public perfect confi- 
 dence in their stability, enable them to conduct their busi- 
 ness with a less supply of floating or immediately available 
 capital than would otherwise be necessary, 
 
 It is absurd to object to this plan on the ground of its in- 
 terfering with the private pursuits of individuals, ll is the 
 duty of government to interfere to regulate every business 
 or pursuit that might otherwise become publicly injurious. 
 On lliis principle it interferes to prevent the circulation of 
 spurious coins, and of notes under a certain sum and not 
 payable on demand ; and on the same principle it is called 
 on to interfere to prevent the act ordering the payment of 
 notes becoming again, as it has very frequently done al- 
 ready, a dead letter, by making sure that it shall be com- 
 plied with. The interference that would take place under 
 the proposed measure is not only highly expedient, bul 
 would be of the least vexatious kind imaginable. All thai 
 is required of the persons applying for stamps for notes is, 
 that they should deposit in the hands pf the commissioners 
 a certain amount of exchequer bills, or available securities. 
 according to their demand for stamps. They b 
 to state how they mean to dispose of these stamps, — to 
 whom or in what way they are to be issued They are 
 merely required to give a pledge that they shall be paid, or 
 that they shall not be employed, as so many other: 
 been, to deceive or defraud ihe public. It is Hill, 
 than an abuse of language to call this an interference with 
 private affairs. 
 
 The taking of security in the way now suggested, froln 
 the issuers of notes, would effectually provide for theii 
 payment when presented. Adventurers without capital 
 and sharpers anxious to get themselves huh hied to •>■' 
 
BANK. 
 
 Statement of the Affairs of the Bank of England, February 29, 1S32. 
 
 Dr. 
 
 To bank notes outstanding - • jE18,051,710 
 To public deposits, viz. — 
 Drawing accounts - • • - 2,034,790 
 
 Balance ofaudit roll - • - 550,550 
 
 Life annuities unpaid - - - . 85,030 
 Annuities for terms of years 
 
 unpaid 38,36C 
 
 Exchequer bills deposited • 490,000 
 
 To private deposits viz — 
 
 Drawing account! • • • • 5,6S3,370 
 
 Viirious other debts - - - 54,560 
 
 3,198,730 
 
 To the Bank of England for the capital 
 
 To balance of surplus in favour ot the 
 
 U.'.nk of England 
 
 6,738^30 
 
 14,553,000 
 
 2,637,760 
 
 £44,179,630 
 
 By advances on government securities, 
 viz. — 
 
 Exchequer bills on the growing produce 
 of the consolidated fund in the quar- 
 ter ending 
 
 5th of April, 1S32 3,428,340 
 
 5lh of July, 1832 697,0 
 
 Exchequer bills on supplies 
 1825 7,600 
 
 Ditto for JE 10,500,000 for 1825 2,000 
 
 Or. 
 
 .£4,134,940 
 
 By the advances to the trustees ap 
 pointed by the Act 3. Geo. 4. c. 51. to- 
 wards the purchase of an annuity of 
 .£585,740 for 44 vears, from 5th of 
 
 April, 1S23 - - '- 10,897,880 
 
 By other creditors, viz. — 
 
 Exchequer bills purchased - 2,700,000 
 
 Stock purchased '/ 64,600 
 
 City bonds 50e>.000 
 
 Bills and notes discounted - 2,951,970 
 Loans on mortgages • - - 1,452,100 
 London Dock Company - • 227,500 
 Advances on security of vari- 
 ous articles 570,690 
 
 9,166,860 
 
 By cash and bullion 6,293,150 
 
 By the permanent debt due from go- 
 vernment 14,686,800 
 
 £44, 179,630 
 
 - 2,637,760 
 
 - 14,553,000 
 
 £17,190,760 
 
 Rest, or surplus brought down • 
 Bank capital due to proprietors 
 
 >* rrage Quarterly Account of the Liabilities, Assets, and Surplus or Rest, of the Bank of England, 
 as ordered by the Act 3 &4 Will. IV. cap. 98. 
 
 
 NoUi iu 
 Circulation. 
 
 Deposits. 
 
 Securities. | 
 
 Bullion. 
 
 Rest.erSurplcs 
 Capital. 
 
 1834. 
 January 1. 
 
 April 1. • 
 July I. 
 
 s. jitomber23. - 
 December 18. - 
 
 L. 
 
 K'J16,00G 
 19.097,000 
 18,895,000 
 I'M 26,000 
 18,304,000 
 
 L. 
 
 13,101.0(1" 
 14,011.000 
 15,096,000 
 14,754.000 
 12,256,000 
 
 L. 
 
 23,596,000 
 25,970,000 
 27,593,000 
 28,691,000 
 26,362,000 
 
 L. 
 
 9,948,000 
 9,431,000 
 8,695,000 
 7,695,000 
 6,720,000 
 
 L. 
 
 2,207,000 
 2,293,000 
 2,261,000 
 2,506,000 
 2,522,000 
 
 1835. 
 January 15. 
 
 April 7. - 
 June 30. . 
 September 22. - 
 December 15. • 
 
 18,012,000 
 0,000 
 18^15,000 
 18,240,000 
 17,821,000 
 
 12,5*5.000 
 ll,2S9,om 
 10,954.om 
 13,230,0"0 
 17,729,000 
 
 26.390,000 
 16,328,000 
 25,678,000 
 27,888,000 
 31,048,000 
 
 6,741.000 
 6,329,000 
 6,219,000 
 6,261,000 
 6,626,000 
 
 2.534,000 
 2:677.000 
 2,628,000 
 2,679.000 
 2,624,000 
 
 1836. 
 January 12. 
 April 5. 
 July 1. 
 
 September 22. - 
 December 15. • 
 
 17,262,000 
 18,063,000 
 17,899.000 
 18,147,000 
 17,361,000 
 
 19,169,000 
 14,751,000 
 13,810,000 
 14,118,000 
 13,330,000 
 
 31.954,000 
 27,927,000 
 27,153,000 
 29,406,000 
 28,971,000 
 
 7,076,000 
 7,801,000 
 7,362,000 
 5,719,000 
 4,545,000 
 
 2,599,000 
 2,914,000 
 2,806.000 
 2,860,000 
 2,825,000 
 
 1837. 
 January 10. 
 April 4. • 
 June 27. - 
 September 19. - 
 December 14. - 
 
 17.422,000 
 18.432,000 
 18.202,000 
 18,814,000 
 17,998,000 
 
 14,354,000 
 11,192,000 
 10,424.000 
 11,093,000 
 10,195,000 
 
 30,365,000 
 28,843,000 
 26,932,000 
 26,605,000 
 22,727,000 
 
 4,287,000 
 4,071.000 
 4,750,000 
 6.303,000 
 8,172,000 
 
 2,876,000 
 3.263,000 
 3,056,000 
 3,001,000 
 2,706,000 
 
 1838. 
 January 12. 
 
 17,900,000 
 
 10,992,000 
 
 22,606,000 
 
 8,895,000 
 
 2,609,000 
 
 N. 6 — The rest is foLnd by adding together the circulation and deposits, and deducting their amount from the amount of the securities and bnlliou 
 
 public, would find that banking was no longer a field on 
 which they could advantageously enter. Notes would be 
 made, in fact as well as in law, equivalent to the specie 
 they profess to represent ; and the paper currency would 
 acquire a solidity of which it is at present wholly destitute. 
 Bat though the plan of taking security would completely 
 obviate the risk of loss from the circulation of worthless 
 paper, or of paper issued by parties without the means, 
 and probably also the inclination to pay it on presentation, 
 tt would not touch another abuse inherent in the present 
 system ; that is, it would leave the currency exposed as 
 at present, to all those constantly recurring fluctuations in 
 its amount, those alternations of glut and deficiency, by 
 which it has been affected since provincial banks became 
 125 
 
 considerably multipled, and which are in the last degree 
 injurious. A papei currency is not in a sound or whole- 
 some state, unless, 1st, means be taken to insure that each 
 particular note or parcel of such currency be paid imme- 
 diately on demand ; and unless, 2nd, the whole currency 
 vary in amount and value exactly as a metallic currency 
 trould do were the paper currency withdrawn and coins sub- 
 stituted in its stead. The last condition is quite as indis- 
 pensable to the existence of a well-established currency as 
 the former ; and it is one that cannot be realised other- 
 wise than by confining the issue of paper to a single 
 source. 
 
 It is supposed by many that there can be no greater fluc- 
 tuations in a paper than in a metallic currency, provided 
 
BANK. 
 
 Account of the Amount of the Notes of the Bank of England in Circulation, of the Deposits in the Hands oi the Bank, ol 
 all Secunties held by the Bank, of Bullion in her Coffers, and of the Rest or Surplus Capital of the Uank, on the last 
 day of February in each of the following years : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Notes in 
 Circulation. 
 
 Deposits. 
 
 Public 
 Securities. 
 
 Private 
 Securities. 
 
 Bullion. 
 
 Surplus 
 
 t apilal. 
 
 1778 
 
 7.440,330 
 
 4.002.150 
 
 7,899,292 
 
 3,322,228 
 
 2,010.690 
 
 1,128.730 
 
 1779 
 
 9,012,610 
 
 4,358,160 
 
 8,862,242 
 
 2.073,608 
 
 3,711,150 
 
 1.276, 
 
 1780 
 
 8,410,790 
 
 4,723,89 1 
 
 9,145,059 
 
 1,755,371 
 
 3,581,000 
 
 1,347,410 
 
 1781 
 
 7,092,450 
 
 5,796,830 
 
 8,640,073 
 
 2,546,067 
 
 3,279.940 
 
 
 1782 
 
 8,028,880 
 
 6,130,300 
 
 10,340,055 
 
 3,448,015 
 
 2.157,860 
 
 i;792,7£0 
 
 1783 
 
 7,675,090 
 
 4.465.000 
 
 10,016,349 
 
 2.779,431 
 
 1,321,190 
 
 1,976 
 
 1784 
 
 6,202,760 
 
 3;903,920 
 
 7,789,291 
 
 3,829.929 
 
 655,840 
 
 2,16! 
 
 1785 
 
 5,923,090 
 
 G,669,160 
 
 7,19S,564 
 
 4,973i926 
 
 2,740,820 
 
 1,060 
 
 1786 
 
 7,581,900 
 
 0,151,000 
 
 6,836,459 
 
 3,516,781 
 
 5,979,090 
 
 -.710 
 
 1787 
 
 8,329,840 
 
 5,902,080 
 
 7,642,587 
 
 3716,463 
 
 6,626,690 
 
 2,753, 
 
 1788 
 
 9,501,120 
 
 5,177.050 
 
 7,833,857 
 
 4,030,668 
 
 5,743i440 
 
 2,869,780 
 
 1789 
 
 9,807,210 
 
 5,537i370 
 
 8,249,582 
 
 2,711,108 
 
 7,228,730 
 
 2,844 ,M0 
 
 1790 
 
 10,040,540 
 
 6,223,270 
 
 8,347,387 
 
 1,984,733 
 
 8,633,000 
 
 2,701,310 
 
 1791 
 
 11,439,200 
 
 6,364,550 
 
 10,380,358 
 
 2,222,282 
 
 7,869,410 
 
 2,068,300 
 
 1792 
 
 11,307,380 
 
 5,523,370 
 
 9,938,799 
 
 3,129,701 
 
 6,468,060 
 
 2.705.870 
 
 1793 
 
 11,888,910 
 
 5,346,450 
 
 9,549,209 
 
 6,456,041 
 
 4,010.080 
 
 2.780,570 
 
 1794 
 
 10,744,020 
 
 7,891,810 
 
 9,950,756 
 
 4,573,794 
 
 6,987,110 
 
 2,8; 6 
 
 1795 
 
 14,017,510 
 
 5,973,020 
 
 13,164,172 
 
 3,047,108 
 
 6,127,720 
 
 2.948,530 
 
 1796 
 
 10,729,520 
 
 5,702,360 
 
 12,951,812 
 
 4,188,028 
 
 2,539,630 
 
 3,247,590 
 
 1797 
 
 9,674,780 
 
 4,891.530 
 
 11,714,431 
 
 5,123,319 
 
 1.086,170 
 
 3,357,610 
 
 1798 
 
 13,095,830 
 
 6,148,900 
 
 11,241,333 
 
 5,558,167 
 
 5,828,940 
 
 3.383,710 
 
 1799 
 
 12,959,SO0 
 
 8,131,820 
 
 11,510,677 
 
 5.528.353 
 
 7,563,900 
 
 3,511.310 
 
 1800 
 
 16,844,470 
 
 7,062,680 
 
 13,975,663 
 
 7,448,387 
 
 6,144,250 
 
 3,001,150 
 
 1801 
 
 16,213,280 
 
 10,745,840 
 
 15,958,011 
 
 10,406,719 
 
 4,640,120 
 
 4,105.730 
 
 1802 
 
 15,186,880 
 
 6,858,210 
 
 14,199,094 
 
 7,760,726 
 
 4,152.950 
 
 4.067^80 
 
 1803 
 
 15,319,930 
 
 8,050,240 
 
 9,417,887 
 
 14,497,013 
 
 3,776,750 
 
 4.321,480 
 
 1804 
 
 17,077,830 
 
 8.676,830 
 
 14,684,086 
 
 12,314,284 
 
 3,372.140 
 
 4,616,460 
 
 1S05 
 
 17,871,170 
 
 12,083,620 
 
 16,889.501 
 
 11.771,889 
 
 -3,800 
 
 4,590,400 
 
 1806 
 
 17,730,120 
 
 9,980,790 
 
 14,813,599 
 
 11,777,471 
 
 5,987,1 'JO 
 
 4.807.350 
 
 1807 
 
 10,950,680 
 
 11,829,320 
 
 13,452,871 
 
 13,955.589 
 
 6,142,840 
 
 4,771,300 
 
 1808 
 
 18,188,800 
 
 11,901,900 
 
 14,149,501 
 
 13,234,579 
 
 7,855, 
 
 5,088.7 30 
 
 1809 
 
 18,542.^0 
 
 9,982,950 
 
 14,743,425 
 
 14,374,775 
 
 4,4S8,700 
 
 5,081,090 
 
 1810 
 
 21,019,600 
 
 12,457,310 
 
 14,322,634 
 
 21,055.940 
 
 3,501,410 
 
 5.403,080 
 
 1811 
 
 23,300,220 
 
 11,445,650 
 
 17,201,800 
 
 19,9-20,550 
 
 3.350,940 
 
 5,667,420 
 
 1S12 
 
 23,408,320 
 
 11,595,200 
 
 22,127,253 
 
 15,899,037 
 
 2,983,190 
 
 6,005,960 
 
 1813 
 
 23,210,930 
 
 11,268,180 
 
 25,036,626 
 
 12,894,824 
 
 2,884,500 
 
 6,336,340 
 
 1814 
 
 24,801,080 
 
 12,455,460 
 
 23,630,317 
 
 18,359,593 
 
 2.204,430 
 
 6,937,800 
 
 1815 
 
 ■27,201,650 
 
 11,702,250 
 
 27,512,804 
 
 17,015,696 
 
 2,036,910 
 
 7,631,510 
 
 1816 
 
 27,013,020 
 
 12,388,890 
 
 19,425,780 
 
 23,975,530 
 
 4.040,880 
 
 8.039. 
 
 1817 
 
 27,397,900 
 
 10,825,610 
 
 25,538,808 
 
 8,739,822 
 
 9,660,970 
 
 5,736.090 
 
 1S18 
 
 27,770,970 
 
 7,997,550 
 
 26,913,300 
 
 3,991,970 
 
 10.055,400 
 
 5,192,270 
 
 1819 
 
 25,120.700 
 
 6,413,370 
 
 22,355,115 
 
 9,099,885 
 
 4,184,620 
 
 4.099,550 
 
 1820 
 
 23.484,110 
 
 4,093,550 
 
 21,715,168 
 
 4,472,322 
 
 4,911.050 
 
 3.52 . 
 
 1821 
 
 23i884,920 
 
 5,022,890 
 
 16,010,990 
 
 4.785,280 
 
 11,869,900 
 
 3,168, 
 
 1322 
 
 18,665,350 
 
 4,089,940 
 
 12,478,133 
 
 3,494,947 
 
 11.057,150 
 
 3,674,940 
 
 1823 
 
 18,392,240 
 
 7,181,100 
 
 13,658,829 
 
 4,060,901 
 
 10,384,230 
 
 3,130,620 
 
 1824 
 
 19,730,990 
 
 10,097,850 
 
 14,341,127 
 
 4,530,873 
 
 13,810,060 
 
 2,847,220 
 
 1825 
 
 20,753,700 
 
 10,10S,780 
 
 19,447,588 
 
 5.503,742 
 
 8.779,100 
 
 2.807,820 
 
 1826 
 
 25,407,910 
 
 0,935,940 
 
 20,573,258 
 
 12,345,322 
 
 2,459.510 
 
 2.974,240 
 
 1827 
 
 21,890,010 
 
 8,801,000 
 
 18,685,015 
 
 4,844,515 
 
 10.159,020 
 
 2,996,280 
 
 1828 
 
 21,980.710 
 
 9,198,140 
 
 19,818,777 
 
 3,762.493 
 
 10,347,290 
 
 2.749,710 
 
 1829 
 
 19,870,850 
 
 9,553,960 
 
 19,730,065 
 
 5,648.085 
 
 6,835,020 
 
 2.794,960 
 
 1830 
 
 20,050,730 
 
 10,763,150 
 
 20,038,890 
 
 4,105.500 
 
 9,171,000 
 
 2.501.510 
 
 1831 
 
 19,000,140 
 
 11,213,530 
 
 19,927,572 
 
 5,281 ;408 
 
 8.217,050 
 
 2,612,360 
 
 1832 
 
 18,051,710 
 
 8,937,170 
 
 18,497,448 
 
 5,830,042 
 
 5.293.1 50 
 
 2,037,700 
 
 An Account of the Angreiate Number of Notes circulated in England and Wales by Private Ranks, and by Joint Stock Bank* 
 and their Branches, distinguishing Private from Joint Stock Banks. From Returns directed by 3&*4 Will IV. c. 83. 
 
 Quarters ended 
 
 Private Banks. 
 
 Joint Stock 
 Banks 
 
 Total. 
 
 1833. 
 
 - December 28. - 
 
 8,836,803 
 
 1,315.301 
 
 10, 152. KM 
 
 1834. 
 
 - March 29. - 
 
 . 
 
 
 8,733.400 
 
 1,488,427 
 
 10.191>:.'7 
 
 — 
 
 • June 28. 
 
 . 
 
 
 8,875,795 
 
 1,642,887 
 
 10.51 - 
 
 — 
 
 - September 27. - 
 
 . 
 
 
 8,370.423 
 
 1,783,689 
 
 10.154.112 
 
 — 
 
 • December 28. - 
 
 . 
 
 
 8.537.655 
 
 2.122.173 
 
 10,669,828 
 
 1835. 
 
 - March 28. ■ 
 
 . 
 
 
 8,231.206 
 
 2,188,954 
 
 10,420,10(1 
 
 — 
 
 - June 27. - 
 
 . 
 
 
 8,465,114 
 
 
 10.939,801 
 
 — 
 
 - September 26. . 
 
 
 
 7,912,687 
 
 2,608,036 
 
 10,430,623 
 
 — 
 
 - December 26. 
 
 
 
 B.334,863 
 
 2.799.551 
 
 11.134,414 
 
 1836. 
 
 - March 26. - 
 
 . 
 
 
 8,353,894 
 
 3.094,025 
 
 11.447,919 
 
 — 
 
 - June 25. 
 
 
 
 8,614,132 
 
 3,588,064 
 
 12,202,196 
 
 — 
 
 - September 24. - 
 
 
 
 7,764.824 
 
 3,969,121 
 
 11,733.915 
 
 — 
 
 - December 31. • 
 
 . 
 
 
 7,753.500 
 
 4.258,197 
 
 12.011.697 
 
 1837. 
 
 - April 1. 
 
 . 
 
 
 7,275.784 
 
 3,755.279 
 
 11.031.063 
 
 — 
 
 - July 1 
 
 . 
 
 
 7.187,073 
 
 3,684,764 
 
 10,872,437 
 
 — 
 
 - September 30. - 
 
 . 
 
 
 6,701.990 
 
 3,440,053 
 
 10,112,049 
 
 — 
 
 - December 30. • 
 
 • 
 
 
 7,043,470 
 
 3,826,665 
 
 10,870,135 
 
 !.:!• paper rest on an undoubted basis, and beregularly paid 
 ::n moment it is presented. But this is an error. Where- 
 over there are numerous issuers, there may be, and the 
 chances are fifty to one there will be, perpetually recur- 
 ring fluctuations in the amount and value of the currency. 
 An over-issue of convertible paper is not, of course, indica- 
 126 
 
 ted by any difference between the value of such paper ani 
 gold at home ; but it is indicated by a fall of the exchange, 
 and by an efflux of bullion to other countries. If papel 
 were only issued by the Bank of Enaland, or some ona 
 source in London, and then only in exchange for bullion, 
 the currency would be in its most perfect state, and w. uld 
 
BANK. 
 
 exactly as it would do were it wholly metallic. 
 ■ sent it is quite otherwise. The currency is sup- 
 mndreda of individuals and associations, all actu- 
 ly conflicting views and inte- 
 rne issues of tlie Bank of England, though not al- 
 of the exchange, 
 i by tin: 'influx and efflux of bullion, u 
 ■lows into ami decreasing whm it flows out of tlie 
 eouotry. Hut it is quite otherwise with the provincial 
 bankers. Their issues are not regulated by any such 
 . but by the state of credit and prices in the dis- 
 tricts in which they happen to be situated. If their mana- 
 are good or improving, they rarely 
 ibout making additional issues. Hence, when the 
 state of the exchange and the demand on the Hank of Eng- 
 land for bollion show that tlie currency is redundant, and 
 . the efibrts of the bank to effect its 
 diminution are often impeded, and met by a contrary ac- 
 tion on the part of tlie country banks. This is not owing 
 to the ignorance of the latter. Under the supposed cir- 
 cumstances, the country bankers see. speaking generally, 
 o contract; but being a very numer- 
 i rising several hundn ncntsscat- 
 
 r all parts of the country, each is impre 
 
 d conviction that all that he could do in the 
 ion would benexl to imperceptible; and no 
 thinks of attempting it, so long aa he feels satis- 
 fied of the stability of those with whom he deals. On the 
 banker knows, were he to withdraw a 
 liis competitors would 
 the opportunity of filling up the va- 
 I ; ami that consequently he should lose a 
 portion of his business, without in any degree lessening 
 the amount of p . In nineteen out of 
 
 twenty In I log their 
 
 long after the exchange has be 
 
 intry, and the Bank of England has 
 i -iving to pull Up. 
 The ell .'eel were strikingly exempli- 
 
 fied in ftl i the early part of 1837. The 
 
 iplieation of joint stock banks in 1836, the 
 of notes alloat, 
 Iditions they made to the number of 
 itutes for money, occasioned 
 .. a fall of the 
 B drain upon' the II mk of England for gold. Hut while the 
 
 ■ u mowing her issues, by supplying the exporters 
 I with gold in exchange for notes, the country 
 increasing their Issues! What the former 
 did by contracting on the one hand, the latter more than 
 undid by letting out on the other. The vacuum created by 
 the withdrawal of Bank of England paper was immediate- 
 ly Ailed up, and made to overflow by the issue of a more 
 than equal amount of provincial paper; so that had ;t not 
 
 rid the other re- 
 
 'Pted by the bank, the probability is 
 
 one on paying away bullion for notes 
 
 till she was drained of her last sixpence, without in any 
 
 feting the exchange. But this is not all. Not 
 
 only do the country banks almost universally increase their 
 
 issues when they ought to be diminished, but the moment 
 
 they are compelled to set about their reduction tiny run 
 
 • into the opposite extreme, and unreasonable sus- 
 
 ikes the place of blind unthinking confidence. 
 
 Tlie cry ofsauve qui petit then becomes all but universal. 
 
 •oil takes place without destroying 
 
 fewer of die provincial banks; and, provided the 
 ! in securing themselves, little attention is 
 'id to the interests of those they have taught to 
 hem for help. 
 We have previously noticed the bankruptcy and distress 
 entailed on the country by the over-issue and consequent 
 B in 1814, 1815, and 1816, and 
 again in 1825-26. Tlie influence of the revulsion in 1792 
 was similar, and equally disastrous; and though, owing to 
 ince afforded by the Hank of England, the crisis 
 -, h very much mitigated, it seriously an 
 ind commerce of the empire, and inflicted ablow 
 m both from the effects of which they have not as 
 I , recovered. 
 ih, therefore, the exacting of security for their 
 from the issuers of notes would protect the hold- 
 ers from loss, and he in so far advantageous, it would no! 
 hinder that competition among the issuers that is so very 
 injurious, nor prevent the supply of paper being at one 
 time in excess and at another deficient. If we would pro- 
 vide for thai unity of action on the part of the issuers, and 
 that equality in the value of money, that are so Indispensa- 
 ble, It mu • from one source. Were one body 
 only entrusted with the Issue of notes, it would be able im- 
 v to narrow the currency when bullion began to 
 be expjfted, and to expand it when it began to be im- 
 ported; ami it would be easy for the legislature to lay 
 down and enforce such regulations as would effectually 
 127 
 
 Drevent the fluctuations in the amount and value of ft\e 
 currency ever exceeding those that would take place were 
 it wholly metallic. But nothing of the sort need be ex- 
 pected so long as it is supplied by more than one source. 
 Everything must then be left to the discretion of the par 
 ties. And it will certainly happen in time to come, as it 
 has invariably happened in time past, that some of them 
 will be increasing their issues when they should be di- 
 minished, and diminishing them when they should be in- 
 
 ed; and that tlie country will continue la 
 to the incessant recurrence of the most destructive revul- 
 sions. 
 
 Scotch Hanks.— The act of 1703, preventing more than 
 six individuals from entering Into partnership for carrying 
 on the business of banking, did not extend to Scotland' In 
 a ofthls exemption, several banking comp 
 
 with numerous bodies of partners, have always existed in 
 
 that pan of the empire. The Bank of Scotland was es- 
 tablished by act of parliament in 1695. By the terms of 
 its charter it enjoyed, for twenty-one \ 
 privilege of i in Scotland." Its original capital 
 
 was onlv £100,000; not It was Incre 1,000 in 
 
 1711, and now amounts to 1 ,'.00,000, of which 1,000,000 
 i up. 
 
 Tin- Royal Bank ' was established in 1727. 
 
 ma! capital was £ I'd ,000; at present it amounts to 
 2,000.0. H ». which lias been all paid up. 
 
 The British Linen Company was incorporated in 1746, 
 for the purpose, as its name Implies, of undertaking 
 manufacture of linen. But the views in which il originated 
 were speedily abandoned, and II i • com- 
 
 pany only. Its paid up Capital amounts to Jt'.~)00,0U0. 
 
 Exclusively of till TO other chartered 
 
 hanks in Scotland: the Conine Itablished in 
 
 1810; and the National Bani of Scotland, established In 
 1825. The former has paid up capital of jECOO,000, and the 
 
 te of the other banking companies established in 
 
 partners are 
 
 jointly and individually liable to the whole extent of their 
 
 fortunes for the debts of the firms, Son f them, as the 
 
 Aberdeen Town an Ilk, the Dundee Commer- 
 
 cial Bank, the Berth flanking Comp. my. .V c.. have very 
 
 numerous bodies of partners. Generally sp 
 
 have been eminently successful. Anoi , Jb'150, 
 
 of the stock of the Banking Com 
 
 lished in 1767, is n o less than £2,500 
 
 Their affairs are uniformly conducted by a board ol 
 den. 
 
 There are very few hanks with less than six partners ic 
 Scotland. Almost all the great joint stock banks have nu- 
 merous branches ; so that there is hardly a town or village 
 of any consequence without two or more banks. 
 
 Bank of Scotland began to issue one-pound notes 
 as early as 1701, and their issue has since been continued 
 without interruption. With only one exception, all tlie 
 Scotch regale circu- 
 
 lation at from i:.:.(H).0O0 to 4.000,000, it Is supposed that 
 from £2/XJO,O0U to 2,600.000 consists of notes for XI. In 
 1826 it was proposed to suppress one-pound notes in Scot- 
 laud as well as in England ; but tl having been 
 strongly objected to by the people of Scotland, as being at 
 once oppressive and unnecessary, was abandoned. 
 
 There have been very few bankruptcies among the 
 Scotch banks. This superior stability is to be aSi ribed 
 to a variety of causes ; partly to the great wealth of the 
 early established banks, which had a considerable influence 
 in preventing an inferior clas3 of banks acquiring any 
 hold on the public confidence ; partly to the compara- 
 tively little risk attending the business of banking ir. 
 Scotland : partly to the facilities afforded by the Scotch 
 law for attaching a debtor's property, whether it consist of 
 land or moveables ; and partly and principally, perhaps, 
 to the fart of the Scotch banks being but indirectly and 
 slightly affected by a depression of the exchange and an 
 efflux of bullion. 
 
 T. I*- circumstances now mentioned render it. unneces- 
 sary to enforce that suppression of local issues in Scot- 
 land which is so indispensable in England, where the sys- 
 tem of provincial banking is of a very inferior description, 
 the risk attending the business much greater, and where 
 any excess in the amount of the currency necessarily oc- 
 casions a fall of the exchange and a demand for bullion. 
 The commerce and population of Scotland are too limited, 
 and that country is too remote from the metropolis, or 
 from the centre of the moneyed world, the pivot on which 
 the exchanges turn, to make it of importance that her 
 currency should be identical with that of England. We 
 believe thai the Scotch attach much more Importance than 
 it deserves to the issue of paper, and especially to the issue 
 of one-pound notes; still, however, we do not think that 
 the circumstances are at present such as to call for or to 
 warrant any attempt to introduce any material changes in 
 their banking system. 
 
BANK FOR SAVINGS. 
 
 AH the Scotch banks receive deposits, even of the low 
 amount of £10, and allow interest on them at from one to 
 two per cent below the market rate. But should a deposit 
 be unusually large, as from £5,000 to 10,000, a special 
 agreement is usually made with regard to it. This part of 
 the system has been particularly advantageous. It, in 
 fact, renders the Scotch banks a sort of savings' banks 
 for all classes ; and their readily receiving all sorts of de- 
 posits at a reasonable rate of interest, has tended to dif- 
 fuse a spirit of economy and parsimony among the people 
 that would not otherwise have existed. The total deposils 
 in the hands of the Scotch banks are believed at present 
 (1838) to exceed £25,000,000, of which fully a half is un- 
 derstood to be in sums of from £10 to £00. 
 
 The Scotch banks make advances in the way of dis- 
 counts and loans, and on what are called cash-credits or 
 cash-accounts. By the latter are meant credits given by 
 the banks for specified sums to individuals, each of whom 
 gives a bond for the sum in his account, with two or more 
 individuals as sureties for its payment. Persons having 
 such accounts draw upon them for whatever sums within 
 their amount they have occasion for, repaying these 
 advances as they find opportunity, but generally within 
 short periods. Interest is charged only on the average 
 balance which may be found due to the bank. The total 
 number of these accounts in Scotland in 1826 was esti- 
 mated at about 12,000 ; and it may now, perhaps, be taken 
 at about 14.000. They are believed to average about 
 £500 ; few are for less than 100, and fewer still above 
 5,000. 
 
 It has been contended by no less an authority than Adam 
 Smith, that this species of accommodation gives the 
 Scotch merchants and traders a double command of capi- 
 tal. " They may discount their bills of exchange," says 
 he, " as easily as the English merchants, and have, be- 
 sides, the additional conveniency of their cash accounts." 
 But this is an obvious error. The circulation will take off 
 only a certain quantity of paper; and to whatever ex- 
 tent it may be issued by means of cash accounts, so much 
 the less can be issued in the way of discounts. The ad- 
 vantage of a cash account does not really consist in its 
 enabling a banker to enlarge his advances to his customers, 
 but in the extreme facility it affords of making them. An 
 individual who has obtained such an account may operate 
 upon it at any time he pleases, and by drafts for any 
 amount; an advantage he could not enjoy to any thing like 
 the same extent, without an infinite deal of trouble and 
 expense, were the loans and advances made to him through 
 the discounting of bills. The Scotch banks draw upon 
 London at twenty days' date. This is denominated the 
 par of exchange between London and Edinburgh. 
 
 Irish Banks. — The Bank of Ireland was established in 
 1783, and the same restriction as to the number of partners 
 in other banks that formerly prevailed in England was 
 enacted in its favour. Owing to that and other causes the 
 bankruptcies of private banks have been more frequent in 
 Ireland than in England. In 1821 this restriction was re- 
 pealed, as respects all parts of the country more than 50 
 Irish miles from Dublin. Since that period several bank- 
 ing companies, with large bodies of partners, have been 
 set on foot in different parts of the country : of these the 
 Provincial Bank, founded on the Scotch model, is among 
 the most flourishing. The charter of the Bank of Ireland 
 expired in 1S3S ; but it will continue to go on till it receive 
 notice to that effect. The Irish as well as the Scotch banks 
 issue notes for £1. 
 
 For accounts as to Foreign Banks, see the art. " Paper 
 Money and Banks," in the new ed. of the Encyclopedia 
 Brittanica, and the aulhorities there referred to. Also, 
 Hardcastle's Batiks and Bankers, 8vo., London, 1842. 
 
 BANK FOR SAVINGS. A bank established for the re- 
 ceipt of small sums deposited by the poorer class of per- 
 sons, and for their accumulation at compound interest. 
 
 Though not so well calculated as friendly societies to 
 enable the labouring classes to provide against sickness 
 and old age, savings' banks are very valuable institutions, 
 and are eminently entitled to the public patronage and 
 support. The want of a safe place of deposit for their 
 savings, where they would yield them a reasonable in- 
 terest, and whence they could withdraw them at plea- 
 sure, has formed one of the most serious obstacles to the 
 formation of a habit of accumulation among labourers. 
 Public banks do not generally receive a less deposit than 
 £10 ; and there are but very few amongst the labouring 
 classes who find themselves suddenly masters of so large 
 a sum ; while, to accumulate so much by the weekly or 
 monthly saving of a few shillings, appears at first view 
 almost a hopeless task ; and should an individual have 
 the resolution to attempt it, the temptation to break in 
 upon his little stock at every call of necessity might be 
 too strong to resist. At all events, the progressive ad- 
 dition of interest is lost during the period of accumulation; 
 and it even frequently happens that the chest of the 
 servant or labourer is not safe from the depredations of 
 
 BANKRUPTCY. 
 
 the dishonest ; while the very feeling of insecurity whicn 
 such a circumstance inspires must operate as a fatal 
 check to habits of saving. A similar effect results from 
 the instances that have often occurred, where those poor 
 persons who had, in despite of every discouragement, 
 accumulated a little capital, have been tempted, by the 
 offer of a high rate of interest, to lend it to persons of 
 doubtful characters and desperate fortunes, whose bank- 
 ruptcy has involved them in irremediable ruin. It is 
 plain, therefore, that nothing could be more advantageous 
 with a view to the formation of those improved habits that 
 must necessarily result from the diffusion of a spirit of 
 frugality and forethought among the poor, than the instltu 
 tion of savings' banks, or places of safe, convenient, and 
 advantageous deposit for their smallest savings. They are 
 no longer tempted, from the want of facility of Invest- 
 ment, to waste what little they can save from their expen- 
 diture in frivolous or idle gratifications. They now feel 
 assured that their savings, and the interest accumulated 
 upon them, will be faithfully preserved to meet their future 
 wants ; and as there are very few who are insensible of the 
 blessings of independence, there is no reason to supposr. 
 that they will be slow to avail themselves of the means of 
 accumulation now in their power. 
 
 All moneys paid into any savings' bank established ac 
 cording to the provisions of the act 9 Geo. 4. c. 92., arr 
 ordered to be paid into the banks of England and Ireland, 
 and vested in bank annuities or exchequer bills. The 
 interest payable to depositors is not to exceed 2X,d. pes 
 cent, per diem., or 31. 8s. 5Xd. per cent, per annum. No 
 depositor can contribute more than £30, exclusive of com 
 pound interest, to a savings' bank in any one year; and 
 the total deposits to be received from any one individual 
 are not to exceed £150; and whenever the deposits, ar\C 
 compound interest accruing upon them, standing in tht 
 name of any one individual, shall amount to ££00, nc 
 farther interest shall be paid upon such deposit. The 
 number of depositors in savings' banks, in England, Wales 
 and Ireland, on the 20th of November, 1834, amounted tc 
 499,207, and the deposits to £15,369,844, giving an average 
 deposit of 30/. 16s. to each. As far as we are aware, n« 
 return of the Scotch savings' banks has been published. 
 
 BA'NKRUPTCY, in Law, is a peculiar condition, with 
 reference to legal liabilities and disabilities, into which 
 certain classes of persons only are liable to fall. The word 
 is said to be of Italian origin, and derived from the cere- 
 mony usual in some towns in the middle ages of breaking 
 the bench or counter (bancus) occupied in the publico 
 change by the merchant. 
 
 The statutes respecting bankruptcy begin at the 3-1 
 II. 8., and end with those of the G G. 4. and 1 W. 4., in 
 which the principles of the law on this head are now con- 
 tained. 
 
 All persons engaged in trade, if in other respects capable 
 of making valid contracts, are liable to be made bank- 
 rupts. The proof of trading is, buying and selling with a 
 view to profit by dealing generally with the public ; and it 
 is a question of fact for the decision of a jury, whether a 
 party be a trader or no. Acts of bankruptcy are of two 
 sorts. L Such as tend to defraud or delay creditors. 
 Such as departing from the realm under suspicious cir- 
 cumstances ; keeping house ; making a fraudulent con- 
 veyance, gift, or delivery of goods and chattels (in which 
 all conveyances without a consideration, or voluntary con- 
 veyances, are included, and also conveyances or gifts to 
 creditors with a fraudulent preference). 2. Such as are 
 evidence of insolvency : as, for instance, a declaration of 
 insolvency in the Gazette, a petition of insolvency in the 
 Insolvent Debtors' Court, lying in prison twenty-one days 
 after being arrested for a bona, fide debt, or compounding 
 under certain circumstances with a petitioning creditor. 
 An assignment of the whole of a trader's effects for the 
 benefit of his creditors is also an act of bankruptcy, on 
 which a commission may be supported either imme- 
 diately, or, under certain circumstances, within six months 
 after such assignment has been made. An act of bank- 
 ruptcy, concerted between a trader and his creditor with 
 fraudulent views, is a contempt of court, and also an in 
 dictable offence. 
 
 When an act of bankruptcy has been committed by a 
 trader, a commission, or, as it is now termed, 9. fiat in the 
 nature of a commission, maybe sued out (with certain 
 exceptions) immediately, by a creditor or creditors to a 
 stated amount : such creditor is then termed a petitioning 
 creditor. The bankruptcy will then he held to have com- 
 menced at the time when the act of bankruptcy on which 
 the petition is supported was committed. The striking 
 what is termed a docket in the bankrupt office gives priori- 
 ty of petitioning to a creditor. The fiat when iss-jed is 
 opened, and the circumstances necessary to constitute a 
 bankruptcy proved before a commissioner of bankrupts. 
 There are six commissioners, nominated according to the 
 act of the 1st year of W. 4. ; and of these three together 
 form a subdivision court for the purpose of acting in cor 
 
BANKS1A. 
 
 cert on questions of difficulty. The assignees of the estate 
 and effects of the bankrupt are then chosen by the credi- 
 tors among themselves; and to these, in conjunction with 
 an official assignee anpointed by the court, the whole pro- 
 perty of the bankrupt is assigned by adjudication. From 
 the decision of a commissioner or subdivision court there 
 is an appeal to the court of review in bankruptcy, instituted 
 by the same act; and from thence to the lord chancellor, 
 and finally to the House of Lords. Ttie jurisdiction in 
 bankruptcy is both legal and equitable. 
 
 mment, the whole property, real and per- 
 sonal of the bankrupt, is vested in the assignees from the 
 f the act of bankruptcy, to the avoidance of all 
 the bankrupt's subsequent transactions, except such as 
 have been performed fatal fide with parties having no 
 notice ol such act ; tbe notice being understood according 
 to ordinary rules In equity. Besides the bankrupt's own 
 
 :v of third parlies as shall have been 
 Enhisose and disposition, or reputed ownership, by per- 
 
 of the true owner, passes to his assignees. The 
 bankrupt's right of action of contract, and of tort to pro- 
 perty, but not personal torts, pass likewise to his l 
 But actions against him, except for the recovery of specific 
 real property, do not lie against the assignees, the amount 
 proveable as a debt under the commission ; 
 . where the right of action has ac- 
 crued subsequently to the appointment of the assignees. 
 ■h may be proved by creditors against the 
 bankrupt's estate are either certain or uncertain in their 
 amount : Die first class, including such as are either specific 
 
 money lent or due, or such as are originally un- 
 certain, but capable of being liquidated or reduced to a 
 certain amount ; the second, such as can only be estimated 
 "f equity. It is the business of the 
 •lleet the estate of the bankrupt, as ascer- 
 tained by his examination upon oath and by inspection of 
 his books: but monies on account of the bankrupt's estate 
 
 i eil by the official assignee alone, and paid by him 
 into the Hank of England in the name of the accountant- 
 general of the Court of Chancery. 
 
 >ner than four months, nor later than twelve after 
 Ing of the fiat (unless ordered by the court of re- 
 view), a public meeting of creditors is appointed for the 
 purpose of making the first dividend of the net estate after 
 certain necessary liabilities have been provided for out of 
 
 Bond dividend, if necessary, is made within eigh- 
 teen months of the issuing of the fiat; after which a third 
 illow, according to circumstances. A bank- 
 rupt refusing to surrender his estate, or to make full dis- 
 covery respecting it, is liable to transportation for life. 
 While the proceedings are going on, he is entitled to main- 
 tenance out of his estate. The certificate of conformity 
 U a testimony given to the bankrupt of his having, since 
 Ms bankruptcy, complied with the requisitions of the law: 
 ,t cannot, however, he obtained without the consent of a 
 certain proportion of the creditors; and it is open for any 
 creditor certain of misconduct on the part of the bank- 
 rupt, subsequent or even previous to the bankruptcy, to 
 oppose the granting of this certificate. The effect of the 
 certificate, besides entitling the bankrupt to an allowance, 
 where a dividend of 10s. in the pound or upwards has been 
 
 fiaid lo the creditors (being a per-centage on his estate, 
 trotted, according to circumstances, so as not to exceed in 
 £600 per annum), is to discharge his person and 
 ite from all claims and debts which might have 
 been proved under the bankruptcy. But in case of a 
 second bankruptcy, or a bankruptcy after discharge under 
 Vet or composition with creditors, unless 
 15*. in the pound has been paid, the effectof the certificate 
 is only to discharge the person. 
 
 BA'NKSIA. (I,, honour of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., 
 i patron of natural history, and one of the com- 
 panions of Captain Cook in his second voyage.) A genus 
 of Proteac sous plants forming a conspicuous feature in the 
 landscape of Australia, where the species are called by the 
 colonists wild honeysuckle, and reckoned a sign of bad 
 land. They have flowers and fruit growing in close hard 
 downy or woolly cones, and hard broad leaves on branches 
 and rigid that the traveller, it is said, may literally 
 walk without inconvenience upon the top of a wood form- 
 ed of these trees. 
 
 BVM.IFUE. (Fr.) The territory without the walls, 
 but comprised within the legal limits of a city or town. 
 Tin- word is evidently derived from Ban(bannus, <tc), but 
 (he immediate origin is unknown. 
 
 I1ANN. A proclamation commanding or forbidding 
 my thing. Hence the public notices of marriage given In 
 ihoroh, derived from the civil law, are called Banns of 
 Marriage. According to the law of England, the banns 
 must he published three successive Sundays; and if the 
 marriage be not performed within three months from the 
 last publication, the same process must be repeated. 
 Bishops have the power of appointing surrogates, who may 
 grant a faculty or licence to parties applying to be mar- 
 129 
 
 BAPHOMET. 
 
 ried without banns. But this licence may only he given 
 under certain conditions, and upon good caution and se- 
 curity taken, such as to supersede the necessity of public 
 proclamation. 
 
 BA'NNER. (Swed. bmner; Fr. bannlere.) A Sag or 
 standard under which men are united or bound for some 
 common purpose. This word, found in all the modern 
 I of Western Europe, is of very doubtful origin : 
 .nil of which our ancient English authors were 
 gly fond, and to which they Invariably attach Ih. 
 same meaning. (Chaucer, the Knight's Tale, V. 
 Thomas More s Works, 'XT; Dravton, Battle of A ; 
 Yalden to .Sir II. Maehoorth, Ac.) Among the 
 Germans, the honour of bearing a banner was conferred 
 by the emperor on that individual who eoold bring len 
 vassals into the field. In later times, petty princes assum- 
 ed this privilege ; and in the year 11:1 Pope Eugene IV. 
 Count Bforxa banneret (bannerherrn) of the Ro- 
 man empire. In the free towns on the C Inent, the 
 
 banner was always carried by the chief magistrate ex nffi. 
 
 cio, in cases of solemnities or of grand pri 
 
 England, a knight banneret was created by the ceremony 
 
 of cutting off the four comers of his standard and making 
 
 it square. Some antiquarians trace the origin of this cus- 
 tom to Conan, the lieutenant of Maximus, who governed 
 Britain in the year 383 (Gwillim, AtUMgia Honerum)', 
 
 while others maintain it took its rise from the Black Prince 
 on the field of Cressy. A wonderful similarity seems l<> 
 exist between the duties and privileges of the old knights 
 bannerets of England and those of the prlmipili (the Stan- 
 dard bearers) among the Romans. (7'<;c. flbror.iH.82L) 
 Several banners are famous la history ; such as the Danish 
 banner, taken from the Danes by Alfred the Great; and 
 tile ornlamme of the Trench, which, after passing through 
 various hands, became eventually the great standard of 
 France. (Lantftlot, M>nwires de CAcad. des Inscn'ji/ioti.i.) 
 
 Banner. The ordnance flag, fixed on the forepart of 
 the drum-major's kettle-drum carriage, formerly used by 
 the royal artillery. At present, when such n ilag'is carried 
 it is affixed to the carriage of the right-hand gun of the 
 park — generally a twelve-pounder. 
 
 In the horse equipage the banner of the drums and 
 trumpets must be of the colour of the facings of the re- 
 giment : it bears the royal cypher and crown, and the rank 
 of the regiment. 
 
 liv'VNKKDT. A knight who in the feudal times pos 
 certain amount of fiefs, and had the right of car 
 rying a •' banner." This honour was also veTJT general!, 
 adopted among European nations, and was .awarded on 
 the field of battle to such as had there distinguished them- 
 selves. Knights bannerets were considered, in England, 
 next to barons in precedence. The dignity has not been 
 conferred for a long period. The banner of a banneret 
 was oblong, that of a baron square. When a knight 
 bac hel or was made banneret on the field of battle, tho 
 ceremony was performed by cutting off the ends or tails 
 of his pennon, and thus converting it into a banner. See 
 Knight. 
 
 BA'NYAN. A kind of Indian fig, the Ficus itidica of 
 I.inna'us, forming a very large tree, which sends down 
 roots from its branches, and those roots striking into the 
 ground themselves become trunks, which serve as props 
 to the extending branches ; and as the tree is very long- 
 lived, the quantity of ground an individual will thus cover 
 is incredible. Dr. Roxburgh says, he has seen the tree 
 100 feet high, and full 500 yards in circumference round 
 the extremities of the branches. It is found wild in the 
 skirts of the Circar mountains ; its leaves are used by the 
 Brahmins as plates to eat off; a species of birdlime is 
 obtained from its juice, and the fruit is eaten by birds. 
 
 BA'OBAB. The African name of Adansujua digitals, 
 a tree inhabiting the western side of Africa, and cultivated 
 in Egypt and Abyssinia. It increases more in proportion 
 in diameter than in height; so that it may be seen with a 
 trunk 10 yards in thickness and only 73 feet high, its ap- 
 pearance being lumpish and inelegant. It is supposed 
 that the most remarkable cases of longevity in the vege- 
 table kingdom are afforded by this tree. ' Adanson is 
 quoted by De Candolleas asserting that he saw Individuals 
 which must have been 0000 years old ; and other travel- 
 lers declare that however ancient the individuals may be. 
 the bark is always green and shining, and so full of life 
 that an abundant discharge takes place at the least wound. 
 It is probable that the data upon which these calculations 
 are made will not bear strict investigation ; nevertheless, 
 there can be no reasonable doubt of the Baobab trees ar- 
 riving at a most unusual age. The leaves are employed in 
 powder as an ingredient in African cookery ; and the fruit 
 has a sub-acid juice, which makes it valuable in fevers. 
 
 BA'PHOMET The imaginary idol, or rather symbol, 
 which the Templars were accused of employing in their 
 mysterious rites. {.See Templars.) The distinguished 
 orientalist Hammer has published a dissertation on this 
 subject, in which he endeavours to revive the ancient ac- 
 
BALSAM OF SULPHUR. 
 
 cusations against that military order. These images, which 
 he calls Baphomet, are to be found in some of the muse- 
 ums of continental cities; they are small human figures 
 with two heads, and covered with emblems, to which 
 ilammer attaches a very horrible signification. He de- 
 rives the name (very improbably) from the Greek words 
 Patjjri, dipping or baptism, and jxriris, counsel or wisdom : 
 as if they represented the admission of the initiated to the 
 secret mysteries of the sect. It is proper to observe, that 
 other writers have treated all this discovery as a mere fan- 
 cy of the learned orientalist, and maintain that the figures 
 which he terms Baphomets are in reality relics of the art 
 magic : while the word itself is supposed to be a corrup- 
 tion" (arising from the negligence of some transcriber) of 
 the name Mahomet, occurring in the depositions of wit- 
 nesses against those unfortunate knights. 
 
 BATTISM. (Gr. /Jujrrw, / dip.) The rite of initiation 
 Into the community of Christians, ordained by Christ him- 
 self, when he commissioned his apostles to go and baptize 
 all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 It is recorded by the Evangelists, that our Saviour him- 
 self received baptism from John ; and the ceremony which 
 the Baptist performed is allowed generally to have been 
 an imitation of a rite in common practice among the Jews, 
 who appear to have admitted proselytes by circumcision 
 and baptism. Lustration, however, by water, as an initi- 
 atory rite, is of great antiquity and general practice, especi- 
 ally in the East; and Christian baptism maybe considered 
 as an adaptation of a form which was generally understood 
 to have a symbolical meaning. Accordingly, it has been 
 recognised by all Christian communities as a sacrament, 
 although they have differed in their explanation of its na- 
 ture and meaning. It is upon this point that the question 
 of the validity of infant baptism principally depends; the 
 words of Scripture in that particular not being allowed on 
 all hands to be decisive, nor even the practice of the early 
 church universally admitted. Those, therefore, who con- 
 sider baptism to be a symbol of a covenant thereupon en- 
 tered into between God and the person baptized, require 
 the understanding of the person to accompany the act, and 
 reject the notion of sponsors undertaking to promise on the 
 part of infants : the more common notion, however, con- 
 ceives this sacrament to have in itself a regenerative virtue, 
 by which an infant may be received into participation in the 
 promises made to the church, and be really and truly from 
 that time forth put into the way of salvation. 
 
 Baptism was originally administered by immersion, 
 which act is thought by some to be necessary to the sacra- 
 ment. It is not clear, however, even in the Scripture his- 
 tory, and this ceremony was always adhered to. At pre- 
 sent sprinkling is generally substituted for dipping, at least 
 in northern climates. See Wall's Hist, onlnfant Baptism, <fec. 
 
 BA'PTISTERY. (Gr. /3cmTiga), I baptize.) In Archi- 
 tecture, a building destined for the purpose of administer- 
 ing the rite of baptism. Some authors have contended that 
 the baptistery was anciently placed in the interior vesti- 
 bules of the early churches, as are in our days baptismal 
 fonts. But this is not so : the baptistery was entirely sepa- 
 rated from the basilica, and even placed at some distance 
 from it. Up to the end of the sixth century, after which 
 period the interior vestibule of the church received it, the 
 baptistery was distinct from the church ; and excepting in 
 a few churches, such as that at Florence, and those of all 
 V episcopal cities of Tuscany, Ravenna, and San Giovan- 
 ni Laterano, and perhaps of a few other places, the prac- 
 tice was general. The last mentioned is perhaps the most 
 ancient remaining. One at Constantinople was so large 
 trial on one occasion it held a very numerous council. 
 The baptistery of Florence is nearly 90 feet in diameter, 
 octagonal, and covered with a dome. The celebrated 
 bronze gates by Lorenzo Ghiberi, which Buonarroti said 
 were fit to be the gates of Paradise, enclose it. The bap- 
 tistery at Pisa, designed by Diotisalvi, was finished about 
 1160. It, is octagonal, about 129 feet in diameter, and 179 
 feet high. We are not aware of any building of this sort 
 having been erected in England. 
 
 BA'PTISTS. A denomination of Christians, who deny 
 the validity of infant baptism, and maintain the necessity 
 of immersion. These were also the principal tenets of the 
 Anabaptists, or Rebaptizers, with whom, however, the 
 modern Baptists ought not to be confounded. They are 
 subdivided into two classes, the Particular (Calvinist) and 
 the General (Arminian) Baptists. The mode of church 
 government is similar with both, acknowledging three or- 
 ders of ministers; of whom the messengers correspond to 
 bishops, the elders to priests, and ministering brethren to 
 deacons. Their churches are congregational, and in re- 
 spect to the election of their own ministers independent. 
 Each denomination has, however, its general assembly, 
 possessing some kind of authority over the whole commu- 
 nity. The Baptists are numerous in Holland, where they 
 are known by the title of Mennonites; and in England they 
 form one of the principal Dissenting bodies. 
 130 
 
 BARBER. 
 
 BAR. A shoal often found lying across the mouth ol 
 rivers, and also of harbours; thence called bar harbours. 
 As the sea breaks on these places, in bad weather the pas- 
 sage of a bar is generally dangerous. Ste Brooks on Rivers. 
 
 Bar, Confederation of. In Politics, was an associa- 
 tion of a few influential Polish nobles, formed at Bar, a 
 small town of Podolia, in the year 1767, for the purpose of 
 freeing their country from foreign influence. Their ef- 
 forts, however, were eminently unsuccessful: Die small 
 bands of the patriots were annihilated one by one, and 
 their defeat gave rise to an event almost unprecedented in 
 history, — the partition of Poland by the three neighbouring 
 powers. 
 
 Bar. The bar or place in the courts of law where bar 
 risters or advocates plead : also where prisoners accuse*. 
 of felony are stationed for arraignment and trial. 
 
 Bar. In Heraldry, a kind of ordinary, resembling the 
 fess, but containing oniy the fifth part of the field. Where 
 two bars are borne in an escutcheon, they are so arranged 
 that the whole field appears divided into five parts. A 
 field divided by horizontal lines into four, six, eight, ten, or 
 twelve equal parts, with alternate tinctures, is termed bar- 
 ryof four, six, eight, &c. 
 
 Bar. (Sax. beosga*, to bar.) In Music, a line drawn 
 vertically across the lines of the staff, including a certain 
 quantity or measure of time, varying as the music is either 
 triple or common. 
 
 Bar, Eloquence of the. See Eloquence. 
 
 BA'KBA. (Lat. barba, a beard.) In Mammalogy, sig 
 nines the long tuft of hair dependent from the under jaw. 
 In Ornithology, the same term is applied to the setiformor 
 simple feathers, which in some species of birds depend 
 from the skin covering the gullet or crop. In Ichthyology, 
 a kind of spine, with the teeth pointing backwards. 
 
 Barba. A beard ; a term used in Botany to denote any 
 collection of long loose hairs into a tuft or crest, as on the 
 petals of the iris. 
 
 BARBA'DOES LEG. A disease indigenous to Barba- 
 does, in which the limb becomes tumid, hard, and mis- 
 shapen. 
 
 BA'RBARISM. (Gr.) In Rhetoric, an offence against 
 purity ot style or language, which consists in employing 
 uncouth or antiquated expressions, or in assigning to terms 
 a different signification from that which usage has con- 
 ferred on them. 
 
 BA'RBASTELLE. A small indigenous bat; Piccotas 
 barbasl elhis, Lisson. 
 
 BA'RBEL. An indigenous fresh- water fish (Cyprinus 
 barbus, Linn.) which takes its name from the processes 
 termed Barbels. 
 
 BA'RBELLATE. (Lat. barba.) When the pappus of 
 composite plants is bearded by short, stiff, straight bristles, 
 as in Centaurea. Barbellulate is used when the rough- 
 ness of the pappus is caused by extremely short points, as 
 in Aster. 
 
 BA'RBELS. Small cylindrical vermiform processes 
 appended to the mouth of certain fishes, and subservient 
 to the sense of touch. 
 
 BA'RBER. (Lat. barba.) A person who makes a trade 
 of shaving and dressing the hair of other people for money. 
 It would seem that it is only where a state has made con- 
 siderable progress in civilisation that this art begins to 
 flourish. If we believe Varro, for instance (Plin. 7. 66.), it 
 was not until the 454th year of the city that Ticim 
 first imported barbers into Rome from Sicily. Their shops 
 (Tonstrinaj) soon became the resort of fashionable loon- 
 gers and idlers ; and Horace, to indicate the extreme noto- 
 riety of a story, says that it was " omnibus et lippis notum 
 et tonsoribus." Even the poorest citizens, according to 
 the same author, sought refuge from their ennui in making 
 a round of the barbers' shops : — 
 
 Mutat ccenacula, Iectoe, 
 Balnea, tonsores. 
 
 That the Romans paid great attention to this department 
 of the toilet, is obiuous from the ridicule that was excited 
 against any citizen whose hair bore marks of being cut 
 " inaequali tonsore" (by a bungling barber). 
 
 But besides shaving the beard, to the barbers of the Ro- 
 mans was assigned the delicate task of trimming the nails. 
 Hence Plautus, Aulul. ii. 4. 33. — " Quin ipsi pridem tonsor 
 ungues dempserat ;" and Tibullus, 1. 9. 11. :— 
 
 Quid unpies 
 Artificis docta gubsecuisse manu. 
 
 As early as the time of Hippocrates, some surgical ope- 
 rations were considered as degrading to physicians, and 
 consequently fell to be performed by barbers. In Franc* 
 the council of Tours, in the year 1163, prohibited the Hit 
 gy, who then shared with the Jews the practice of me? 1 
 cine in Christian Europe, from performing any bloody ope 
 ration ; and from that time the barbers remained for somi 
 centuries in uninterrupted possession of the practice of 
 surgery. In England also, early in the 16th century, tht 
 barbers were incorporated with the surgeons of Londor 
 
BARBERRY. 
 
 ^32 Hen. 3. c. 42.): but at the commencement of last cen- 
 tury, ivnen a new impulse was given to the science of sur- 
 gery by the attainments and ability of many practitioners 
 throughout Europe, the barbers wet from their 
 
 ociation with surgeons. (18 Geo. 2. c. 15.) 
 i I and Germ iny to this day the barbers are wont 
 the lancet and the razor alternately. Nowhere, 
 . in these countries is the business of haircutting 
 on by the barbers, but by a distinct and superior 
 urs. The barber's pole has given rise to 
 iculations and ingenious absurdities. The fact is, 
 I eristic of a few 
 inly, being a mark of superior skill, and indicated on the 
 virt of him who possessed it surgical as well as tonsorial 
 ibility. (For some curious remarks on the barbers of 
 Edinburgh, vide Creech's Statistical Account of Kdin- 
 
 BA'RBERRY. See Berberry. 
 
 BA'RBICAN. A watch tower for the purpose of descry- 
 
 also the outer work or defence of a castle, 
 
 nice of a bridge. Apertures in the 
 
 i fortress for firing through upon the enemy are 
 
 • I barbicans. Autho bed to this word 
 
 i and Arabic origin. 
 
 BA'RBITON. An ancient musical Instrument, some- 
 
 lembling tin" lyre. 
 
 barba, a beard.) A finely divided 
 v to the peristome of some mosses, as in the 
 I ortula. 
 B.Y'RCAROI.LE. A song sung by the Venetian gondo- 
 
 nng (from th rola). 
 
 11 villi- nl poets of the Celtic trib 
 
 termed by t r i * - Roman writers. The etymology of the 
 word is uncertain. According to the ancients, they appear 
 to have been the priests as well as the Instructors of these 
 id regarded with peculiar veneration, Lucas ez- 
 ■ tentions the doctrine of the immortality of the 
 no of their most characteristic tenets. After the 
 anity the importance of the bards in 
 Iminisbed; but lii Wales, Ireland, and other Cel- 
 tic districts, they continued to be held in much honour. 
 ' ancient compositions of Welsh hards which we 
 Aneurin, and i. y ware li) are 
 be oi the sixth century. 
 BAREPOLI - without anr sails upon them, 
 
 it sea. Under bare poles, in general, implies 
 void is so high that no sail can be exposed to it. 
 BA'RGAIN. See Contract. 
 
 BARGE. (Gr. ffdpti, a kind of ship.) A general name 
 given to Oat-bottomed craft of a certain size employed on 
 
 Mso one of the larger boats 
 of war. i" I 40 feet long. Barge is also a gene- 
 
 BARGE BOARDS a, to bar.) In Archi- 
 
 tecture, the Inclined projecting boards placed at the gable 
 of a building, which hide the ends of the horizontal timbers 
 of a roof, and are frequently carved with trefoils, quatre- 
 ler ornaments. 
 BARGE COURSE. In Architecture, that part of the 
 tiling of a roof which projects beyond the external face of 
 the gable of a building. 
 
 BARl'I.I.A. The name given in commerce to the im- 
 pure carbonate of soda, imported from Spain and the Le- 
 vant. It is made by burning certain plants that grow upon 
 soda, to ashi 
 I Into grey | ■-. (For an I 
 
 the places where it is produced, the quantitie 
 >s to which it is appl 
 try.) 
 R.i'R'.TONE. (Gr. /?api>>. rovos, a tone.) 
 
 . t high bass, which, In the ancient church music, 
 if written with tlie F clef on the third line of the staff. By 
 the French it is called basse-ta'lte. 
 
 BA'RIUM. The nvtallir i.ase of baryta; it is of a grey 
 colour, more than twice a ■ heavy as water, and is instantly 
 oxidized by air and by water. 
 
 BARK. (Ger. bergen, to cover.) The exterior covering 
 It is composed of cellular tissue, 
 d by woody I 1 down it longitudinally, 
 
 and connected with the medullary proccs 
 It. is Increased in trees by annual layers formed on its in- 
 ner lace, and gradually perishes on the outside as it is dis- 
 tended by the growth of the interior. It seldom, however, 
 shows any very distinct trace of concentric circles, be- 
 cause the latter are continually displaced and disturbed by 
 ntion. Its inner face is named liber. At the com- 
 ment of the annual growth of a tree, it separates 
 spontaneously from the wood, In order to make room for 
 the new matter forming beneath it. It is the depositary 
 of many of the secretions of plants, and seems to act as a 
 living filter of a curious kind, separating certain secretions 
 lers, and allowing a part only to pass off" horizon- 
 tally in the medullary processes on their way to the centre 
 of the tree Its use is to act as a protector to the wood, 
 131 
 
 BAROMETER. 
 
 and as the channel of the sap in it? descent from tnt 
 haves. Its fibre is often tenacious, and manufactured ink) 
 linen or cordage. True bark only exists in Ezogens and 
 Gymnosperms; in Endogens its place is supplied by n 
 cortical integument, which cannot be separated from thn 
 subjacent wood without violence. 
 
 Bark, Peruvian-. See Cinchona. 
 
 Bark. Originally a general term for a vessel, is now 
 restricted to a particular form of rig : namely, that of i 
 ship, but having a gaff topsail instead of the square mizen 
 topsail. 
 
 Bark, Use op jn Tannino. See Tanning. 
 
 BA'RKING IKONS. Instruments fof removing the 
 bark of oak and other trees which is used for tanning 
 They consist of a blade or knife for cutting the bark 
 while yet on the trunk, across at i aces, and 
 
 of chisels or spatula?, of different lengths and breadths, for 
 separating the bark from the wood. 
 
 BARK STOVE. A glazed structure for tropical plants, 
 in which there is a bed bark, or of some other 
 
 fermentable material, which will produce a moist heat. 
 
 BA'RI.EY. (Hordeum, L ; Triandria mouogyuia, L. j 
 Gramineac, Jus*. : chat <l spiked 
 
 inflorescence, c. pikelets in twos 
 
 or threes.) A bread corn of considerable importance. Its 
 native country is unknown, some ascribing it to Tarlary, 
 others to Siberia, and a few In Spain and 
 
 Sicily it produces two crops in the year; but in countries 
 as far north as Britain it produces only one, and is rather 
 a delicate species of cram In England it is second in im- 
 portance i rop in the rota- 
 tion best adapted to light or turnip soils, which, from that 
 circumstance, a > called barley lands 
 its culture is best und> u Norfolk, it is generally 
 
 fireceded by turnips or other green crop. There are two 
 eatling species oi this grain In cultivation,— the fl 
 (ti.-ilic/um, two-rowed or common barley ; and the Hordeum 
 hexaaHchon, or six-rowed barley. One of the best known 
 m I the only one in common cultiva- 
 itland, is caOed bear or bigg, it is not now very 
 iy used as a bread com; but it is used very ex- 
 tensively In malting, and in the fatting of black cattle, ttoga, 
 and poultry. The crops differ widely, according to the 
 land and the Season, varying from 28 to 64 bu 
 acre; but oal crop is from 28 to 40 boshels. 
 
 The common weight "i0 or 51 lbs. per Win- 
 
 chester in ■ ie best Norfolk barley weighs 53 or 
 
 54 lb-;. The price of barley in 1S37 was30s. Ad. a quarter. 
 
 BA'RNACLES. See Cirripeds. 
 
 RARO'METKR. (Gr. {Japof. ir eight, and ucrpov, mea- 
 sure.) A well-known Instrument for measuring tie 
 or pressure of the atmosphere. The invention of the ba- 
 rometer was in some degree owing to an accident. Some 
 workmen employed by the Duke of Florence to prepare a 
 sii. kin.' pump for a deep well, found to their surprise that 
 notwithstanding their utmost care in forming and fitting 
 the Valves and piston, the water would not rise higher than 
 18 palms, or about 32 English feet. For an explanation of 
 this unexpected difficulty they applied to the illustrious 
 Galileo, then passing the evening of his life at his villa near 
 Arcetri ; but the philosopher was not yet prepared with 
 the true answer. In thai age the doctrine of a. plenum was 
 an axiom in philosophy ; and the ascent of water in the 
 barrel of the pump was universally ascribed to nature's 
 horror of a vacuum. Galileo, either fearing to encounter 
 further persecutions by propounding opinions at variance 
 with the prejudices of the times, or preoccupied by the 
 prevailing metaphorical modes of expression, evaded the 
 difficulty by saying that the power of nature to overcome 
 a vacuum was limited, and did not exceed the pressure of 
 a column of water 32 feet in height. That lie was himself 
 little satisfied with this explanation, is evident from the 
 circumstance that previously to his death, which happened 
 soon after, in 1C42, he earnestly recommended to his pupil 
 Torricelli to undertake the investigation of the subject, 
 which the infirmities of advanced age no longer permitted 
 him to prosecute. Torricelli, suspecting the true cause of 
 nsion of the water, namely, the weight of the at- 
 . happily conceived the idea of trying the expe- 
 riment with mercury. lie perceived that if the, weight, of 
 the atmosphere forms a counterpoise to a column of wa- 
 ter of 32 feet, it must also counterpoise a column of mercu 
 ry of about 28 inches In height, the weight of mercury 
 being about 14 times greater than that of water. Having 
 accordingly procured a glass tube of about 3 feet in length 
 and a quarter of an inch in diameter, hermetically gealeJ 
 at one end. he filled it with mercury ; and covering the 
 open end with the finger, he immerged it in an open ves 
 sel containing mercury. On bringing the tube to the ver- 
 tical position, and removing the finger, the mercury in- 
 stantly sunk, leaving a vacuum at the top of the tube, and, 
 after making several oscillations, stood in the tube at the 
 height of about 28 inches above the surface of that in the 
 vessel. On covering the mercury in the vessel with a por 
 
BAROMETER 
 
 tion of water, and raising the tube till the lower end came 
 into contact with the water, the mercury all ran out, and 
 the water rushed up to the top of the tube. This experi- 
 ment, called after its author the Torricellian experiment, 
 demonstrated that the mercury was sustained in the tube, 
 and the water in the barrel of the pump, by exactly the 
 same counterpoise, whatever the nature of it might be. 
 Toiricelli died shortly after, in the flower of his age, with- 
 out completing his great discovery ; but the fame of his 
 experiment was soon carried into other countries, and the 
 subject engaged the attention of the most eminent philoso- 
 phers ; among others the celebrated Pascal. After a va- 
 riety of ingenious experiments on the subject, all of which 
 tended to establish the pressure of the atmosphere, it at 
 length occurred to Pascal that if the mercurial column was 
 really supported by atmospheric pressure, it must be 
 affected by the weight of the superincumbent mass of air, 
 and consequently be diminished at considerable elevations. 
 In order to verify this conjecture, he requested his brother- 
 in-law, Perier, to try the experiment on the Put/ de Dome., 
 a lofty conical mountain in the province of Auvergne, 
 which rises to the height of 500 toises. At the foot of the 
 mountain Perier filled two tubes, and observed the mercu- 
 ry in each to stand at precisely the same height, nearly 28 
 English inches. Leaving one of them under the care of 
 a person to watch its rise or fall, he carried the other to 
 the top of the mountain ; and on repeating the experiment 
 there, the mercury stood at the height of only 247 Eng- 
 lish inches. At two intermediate stations in his descent, 
 the mercury was observed successively to rise, and at the 
 foot of the mountain it stood at exactly the same height in 
 the tube as at first. This experiment was decisive; the 
 result of it was comnvunicated to Pascal at Paris, who, 
 after confirming it by similar observations made succes- 
 sively on the ground, and at the top of a glass-house and 
 the belfry of a church, proposed the barometer as an in 
 strument for measuring the height of mountains, or the 
 relative altitudes of places above the surface of the earth. 
 The barometer had been but a short time invented be- 
 fore it was observed that the height of the mercurial 
 column is subject to variations connected in some way 
 with the changes of weather. But the variations are con- 
 fined within a limited range, scarcely exceeding 3 inches 
 in all, and often, for many days together, do not exceed a 
 few hundredths of an inch. It therefore was considered 
 desirable to render these minute oscillations more appar- 
 ent by increasing their range ; and accordingly, of the 
 numerous forms which the barometer has received, or 
 which have been suggested, the greater part have been 
 proposed with a view to this purpose. The most remark- 
 able or useful constructions are the following, the des- 
 criptions of which will be readily understood with the 
 assistance of the diagrams : — 
 
 Fig. 1. is the Cistern Barometer, and is merely the in- 
 verted tube of Torricelli already described. The tube 
 must be about 34 inches long. When placed in the cis- 
 tern, the mercury sinks till the column between the two 
 surfaces m and n just counterbalances the pressure of the 
 air. The space above the mercury, a m, is or ought to be 
 a perfect vacuum, or only filled with the vapour of mer- 
 cury. In this barometer, as the diameter of the cistern is 
 generally very much greater than that of the tube, almost 
 the whole effect of the rise or fall is perceived in the varia- 
 tion of the upper surface at m. For supposing the section 
 of the cistern 20 times greater than that of the tube, and 
 that the height of the column m n suffers a diminution of 
 one inch ; it is evident that, as all the mercury which goes 
 out of the tube passes into the cistern, when it falls at m it 
 must rise at n, but less in proportion as the section of the 
 cistern exceeds that of the tube In the case supposed, 
 therefore, the alteration of the level at m will be 20 times 
 
 greater than at n; that is to say,there will be a fall of ^ of an 
 
 inch at m, and a rise of J— of an inch at n. 
 
 Fig. 2. is the Siphon Barometer, which was also pro- 
 posed by lorricelli, as being more convenient than the 
 'ormer. It is merely a tube hermetically sealed at the 
 132 
 
 upper end, having the lower or open end bent 'jpwanis 
 in the form of a siphon. The variations in this are onlj 
 half as great as in the cistern barometer; for the tube 
 being of the same width throughout, a diminution of the 
 column m n amounting to one inch will be marked by a 
 fall of half an inch at m and a rise of half an inch at it. 
 This inconvenience may, however, be remedied by hav- 
 ing the lower branch blown into a wide bulb ; but as it is 
 very difficult to procure the bulb to be blown into a perfect- 
 ly regular shape, this enlargement of the bulb is found to 
 give rise to inaccuracies. 
 
 Fig. 3. is a barometer suggested by Descartes, and exe- 
 cuted by Huygens, in which the sensibility is greatly in- 
 creased. Two tubes are cemented to the opposite endsol 
 a pretty wide cylinder, b c. The lower tube and a por- 
 tion of the cylinder, c p, are filled with mercury ; above 
 which water or spirit of wine is introduced, reaching to 
 the top of the upper tube, which is hermetically sealed. 
 The vacuum is made, as in the Torricellian barometer 
 by inverting the compound tube in a basin of mercury 
 The enlargement of the scale obtained by this construe, 
 tion is found thus : Suppose the horizontal section of the 
 cylinder, b c, to be 10 times that of the tube, and the spe- 
 cific gravity of mercury 14 times that of water. Let x be 
 the fall of the mercury in the cylinder at p, corresponding 
 to a fall of one inch of the common Torricellian barome- 
 ter. The descent of the water x inches at/) will be mark- 
 ed by a descent of 10 x inches in the tube at m. But the 
 diminution of the height of the column of water must 
 correspond to a diminution of (1 — x) inches in the height 
 of the column of mercury of equal weight with the water ; 
 therefore, the diminution of the column of water is 14 
 
 (1 — x) inches. Hence 10 #=14 (1 — x), or x=-p r , and the 
 
 descent of the water at m=y|-=5-| ; that is to say, when 
 the Torricellian barometer falls one inch, the barometer 
 of Descartes falls 5|- inches. The defect of this construc- 
 tion is, that the air contained in the water escapes into 
 the vacuum above, and destroys the accuracy of the in- 
 strument. 
 
 Fig. 4. is a form proposed by Huygens, to obviate the de- 
 fect of the former. The siphon barometer terminates in 
 two equal cisterns, or enlarged tubes ; that at the open end 
 communicating with a narrow tube containing water. In 
 this case we may neglect the weight of the water between 
 n and p, or consider it as a small addition to the weight of 
 the atmosphere ; the variations at n will be then as much 
 greater than in the common siphon barometer as the hori- 
 zontal section of the cisterns exceeds that of the tube at n 
 Thus, suppose the section of the cistern 10 times that of 
 the tube ; a variation of atmospheric pressure causing a 
 fall of one inch in the Torricellian barometer will cause 
 the mercury at p in this barometer to rise half an inch, 
 and the water at n to rise 10 times as much, or 5 inches. 
 The defects of this barometer are these : first, as the 
 water descends at n, a portion of it adheres to the sides 
 of the tube, and consequently diminishes the length of the 
 column ; secondly, the volume of the fluid in the reser- 
 voir is considerably affected by the influence of heat and 
 cold ; and, thirdly, the instrument is subject to constant 
 derangement from the evaporation of the water. 
 
 Fig. 5. is the Wheel Barometer, proposed by Hooke. A 
 small weight floats on the surface of the mercury in a 
 siphon barometer, which is very nearly counterpoised by 
 another weight, w, connected with the former by a string 
 passing over a pulley, p. When the mercury rises at n, 
 the weight w descends, and turns the pulley. An index 
 attached to the axle of the pulley shows on a dial the 
 quantity of revolution. This barometer, though very com- 
 monly met with, is a mere toy ; and indicates neither the 
 absolute height of the mercurial column, nor its variations, 
 with sufficient accuracy to be of the slightest use for any 
 philosophical purpose whatever. Even as a weather-glass, 
 it is the worst of all the common forms of the barometer. 
 
 Sir Samuel Morcland proposed to enlarge the scale, by 
 inclining the upper part of the tube so as to form a con 
 siderable angle with the perpendicular. By this contri- 
 vance the scale is increased in the proportion of radius to 
 the cosine of the angle of inclination ; but the friction on 
 the sides of the tube" is greatly increased, and it is very 
 difficult to determine the exact plane of the top of the 
 column which requires to be read off on a vertical scale. 
 This construction is easily conceived without a diagram. 
 
 Fig. 6. is a form proposed by John Bernoulli. The tube 
 terminates in a horizontal branch of considerable length 
 and small diameter : the pressure of air on the column of 
 mercury is exerted horizontally, and by making the vacuum 
 in a cistern at the top, the range becomes very great ; bul 
 the mercury moves along the horizontal branch with diffi 
 culty, and by starts. No reliance can be placed on its in 
 dications. 
 
 Fig. 7. represents an extremely elegant and ingeniou 
 
BAROMETER. 
 
 form of the barometer proposed by Amintons. A conical 
 tube about 4 feet lousj. closed at the top, is partly filled 
 with mercury, and inverted. The diameter of the tube 
 Boat be small, scarcely exceeding 3vi0ths of an inch at 
 the wide end, and tapering away to about 1-lOth near the 
 top. The pressure of the atmosphere from beneath pre- 
 vents tho mercury from falling out, but it descends in the 
 tube till it comes into such a position that the height of the 
 vertical column forms an exact counterpoise to the atmos- 
 pheric pressure. If the pressure is diminished, the mer- 
 cury sinks a little at n ; but as it there fills a tube of larger 
 diameter, its vertical height undergoes a corresponding 
 diminution. The height of the upper surface at m there- 
 fore marks the absolute height of the vertical column, sup- 
 posing the tube to taper equally ; but the difficulty, or rather 
 the iin; ssibility. of fulfilling this condition practically, 
 pn vents this kind of barometer from being used. 
 
 ill notice only one or two other forms of the bar- 
 ometer, proposed with a different view from that of en- 
 larging the scale. Fig. 8. is a modification of the siphon 
 
 li let pr opo sed by Gay I.ussac. It differs from the 
 common form in this respect, that, after the tube has been 
 fllled, the short branch is hermetically closed at the top, 
 and the communication with the atmosphere takes place 
 Uftl a small capillary hole drilled laterally through the 
 tine that though it admits the air to pass freely, 
 it previ nts the passage of the mercury. The barometer is 
 thus rendered very convenient for carriage ; but notwith- 
 
 ing the prom ace of this barometer, it 
 
 and, particularly in travelling, that a portion of 
 air will frequently insinuate itself through the mercury. 
 in order to prevent the possibility of the accident, an inge- 
 nious modification has been made by M. Bunten, a Parisian 
 artist. It i (insists in causing the part of the tube a b to 
 terminate in a very fine point, and to penetrate to some 
 depth into the otber pari ec, to which it is joined ate, in 
 the manner represented in fig. 9. Now if an air bubble from 
 the end o, which communicates with the atmosphere, 
 should find its way through the bent capillary tube, it will 
 passu - of the bulging part, and instead of pen- 
 
 etrating to the vacuum at a. will be arrested at c, whence it 
 expelled by reversing the barometer. 
 None of the contrivances which have been described for 
 ncreasing the range ol the oscillations have been found to 
 Q in practice. It is found to be decidedly bet- 
 
 apply minute divisions, than to attempt to enlarge 
 ne scale ; accordingly, experimenters now adhere to one 
 ir other of the two ancient forms, the cistern barometer 
 .nd the siphon barometer. The height of the column in 
 onvenii ntlj d easured by means 
 if a moveable scale attached to the frame which supports 
 ne lube ; by moans of a tangent screw, the scale is raised 
 >r lowered till its zero coincides exactly with the surface 
 kf the mercury in the lower branch; and with the assis- 
 tance of a vernier, the height can be read off" to the hun- 
 dredth or two-hundredth of an inch with sufficient preci- 
 sion. The scale of the cistern barometer is usually fixed, 
 and the bottom of the cistern is raised or lowered by a 
 screw (ill the surface of the mercury in it coincides with 
 ;hc zero of the scale ; but the scale may be moveable, and 
 its zero brought to coincide with the surface of the mercu- 
 ry in tin' da.-iii. as in the former case. In order to deter- 
 mine whrn thi.3 coincidence takes place, various expe- 
 dients may be had recourse to. The most usual is to place 
 in the surface of the mercury a float carrying a vertical 
 le.iilc. some point on which answers to a fixed point on 
 'he scale, and the coincidence obtains when the two points 
 tre brought into the same level. Another contrivance to 
 effect the same purpose was employed by Fortin, acele- 
 rench artist. An ivory needle is attached to tho 
 scale, pointing downwards, and having its point exactly in 
 the same level with the zero of the scale. The image of 
 :he needle is clearly reflected from the surface of the mer- 
 cury in the cistern, and the cistern is raised or lowered till 
 the point of the needle and its image precisely coincide. 
 
 In order to construct a good barometer, it is indispensa- 
 bly necessary that the mercury be perfectly free from im- 
 purities, and carefully purged of air; this is obtained by 
 boiliug it. The particles of air and moisture which cling 
 v to the sides of the tube must also be expelled 
 by heat; the mercury must then be introduced slowly and 
 continuously in a hot state, and while the tube continues 
 hot. Since the time of Deluc it lias been usual to boil the 
 mercury in the tube before inverting it and forming the va- 
 cuum ; bat doubts now begin to be entertained among the 
 most skilful makers of the expediency of this very trouble- 
 lome process. The mercury is partially oxydated by boil- 
 •ng, an '. a thin crust formed, which keeps the column sus- 
 pended at a greater height, and obstructs the freedom of 
 Jie motion. It Is important that the diameter of the tube 
 • ■ ii'.. very small; for it is found that the mercury moves 
 with more freedom in a tube of considerable width, the os- 
 cillations following the atmospheric changes with more 
 promptitude than in one of smaller dimensions ; besides 
 133 
 
 which, there is less disturbance from capillary attraction. 
 The interior diameter should in every rase exceed on* 
 fourth of an inch. 
 
 The value of the barometer as a scientific instrument de- 
 pends on the purity of the mercury, and the total exclusion 
 of atmospheric air. By proper care in the construction, it 
 is, perhaps, possible to expel every particle of air from the 
 mercury and the interior of the tube when the tarometer 
 is made ; but it seems doubtful if, by any means whatever, 
 it can be preserved for a considerable length of time in 
 this state. The most carefully constructed barometi 
 liable to a slow and gradual deterioration by the intrusion 
 of air, which has been supposed to insinuate Itself between 
 the metal and the tube, and not through the mercury. To 
 obviate this inconvenience Professor DaniellconcehYii the 
 ingenious idea of fixing to the open end of the tube of the 
 cistem barometer a substance having a greater afiini' 
 
 for mercury. " I caused," says he, "a small thin 
 piece of platinum tube to be made, about the third ol Bn 
 inch in length, and of the diameter of the glass tube ; this 
 was carefully welded to its open end, so that the barometer 
 tube terminated in a ring of platinum. The tube was filled 
 and boiled as usual, and the infiltration of air was complete- 
 ly prevented by the adhesion of the mercury both to the 
 interior and exterior surface of the platinum guard. 1 have 
 no doubt that a mere ring of wire welded, or even cement- 
 ed, upon the exterior surface of the glass, which would be 
 a much easier and less expensive operation, would be a 
 sufficient protection, as the slightest line of perfect centae t 
 
 ■ ffeclually arrest the passage of the air." — Meteorolo- 
 gical Essays, p. 577. He farther states, that though time 
 alone can fully confirm the cflkacy of the platinum guard. 
 the experiments, as far as they have gone, nave been com- 
 pletely salisfar 
 
 l ections neressary. — In all barometic observations 
 there are, in general, two essential corrections to be made; 
 one for the capillarity or depression of the mercury in the 
 r for temperature. Pure mercin; 
 
 tube always assumes a convex surface. The follow- 
 ing are the corrections for tubes of different diameters, ac- 
 cording to the theory of Mr. Ivory. (.E/tcyc. Brit., ir. 
 "(Capillary Action.") 
 Dum. of Tub?, 
 Inches. 
 •10 
 
 ■18 
 
 ■j\ 
 
 ■25 
 
 •30 
 
 •35 - 
 These corrections, which must always be applied to tis- 
 tern barometers, show that wide tubes ought to I k 
 ferred; in fact, when the diameter of the tube exi 
 half an inch, they may be safely omitted. In siphon bar 
 ometers having both branches of the same diameter, the 
 depression is equal at both ends ; consequently the effli cl 
 is destroyed, and no correction is required. This is a con- 
 siderable advantage; for notwithstanding the most elabo- 
 rate calculations, some uncertainty must always remain 
 with regard to the exact amount of the capillary repulsion, 
 The correction for the temperature, which is the most 
 important, depends on the expansion of the mercury, and 
 the expansion of the scale on which the division 
 marked. If we make a= the height of the thermometer 
 in degrees above the freezing point, x— the fractional 
 of its bulk which mercury expands for ono degree of heat 
 on Fahrenheit's scale, t/= the fractional r trt r,f its length 
 by which the scale increases, h = the observed height ei 
 the barometer; then the height which lou'.d have been 
 observed had the thermometer stood at t< c freezing ] 
 
 h — ha'x — y). 
 The expansion of mercury in part of s hulk is 0001001. 
 The scale is generally of some mixed • ..etal of which the 
 expansion is not very well ascertained supposing it to be 
 equal to that of copper, the expansion would be COOOOStJ; 
 therefore it will be sufficiently accurate to neglect the tem- 
 perature of the scale, and assume th?' of the mercury to 
 be -0001. Hence the following practic il rale for reducing 
 an observed height to the corresponding height at the tem- 
 perature of the freezing point: "Sutetract the ten-thou- 
 sandth part of the observed altitude for every degree of 
 Fahrenheit above 32." Suppose the thermometer 54" 
 and the barometer 30 inches, the correction will he (54— 32) 
 X 30 X •0001 = 006, to be subtracted fiom 30 inches. In 
 order to find the value of this correction a thermometer 
 must be attached to the barometer, and observed at the 
 same time. A table, showing the correction for tempera- 
 ture for every degree of Fahrenheit from 30° to 90°, and 
 for every difference of half an inch in the height of the 
 mercury' from 28 to 305 inches, was constructed by Pro- 
 fessor Schumacher, and is given by Mr. Iiaily in the Phil 
 Trans, for 1837, p. 434. 
 
 Cause of the variations of the barometer.— Various the- 
 ories have been proposed to account for those frequent 
 
 preuloo. 
 
 Diam. of Tube. 
 
 Cepreiaio 
 
 hiche: 
 
 
 Jncliey. 
 
 1403. 
 
 •40 
 
 •0153. 
 
 oesa 
 
 •45 
 
 0112. 
 
 •0581. 
 
 •50 
 
 ■0083. 
 
 •0407. 
 
 •60 
 
 •0044. 
 
 4S9& 
 
 •70 
 
 
 •0211. 
 
 •SO • 
 
 •0012. 
 
BAROMETER. 
 
 atmospherical changes which cause the rise and fall of the 
 barometer, but none of them can be regarded as very satis- 
 factory. Whatever tends to increase or diminish the ver- 
 tical pressure will obviously cause the barometer to rise or 
 fall ; but the vertical pressure may be increased either by an 
 influx of winds and the accumulation of air at any place, or 
 by a diminution of the elasticity of the atmosphere. Thepre- 
 sence of heat orof moisture augments the elasticity, and con- 
 sequently reduces the weight of the vertical column. During 
 the prevalence of northerly and easterly winds the barome- 
 ter stands high, the elasticity being diminished by the cold. 
 Bat the real difficulty, Professor Leslie remarks, "consists 
 in explaining why the variations of the barometer should 
 be greater in the high latitudes than between the tropics, 
 and why they should exceed in all cases the quantities 
 which calculation might assign. The only mode, perhaps, 
 of removing the difficulty is to take into consideration the 
 comparative slowness with which any force is propagated 
 through the vast body of the atmosphere. An inequality 
 may continue to accumulate in one spot before the 
 counterbalancing influence of the distant portions of the 
 serial fluid can arrive to modify the result. In the higher 
 latitudes, the narrow circle of air may be considered as in 
 some measure insulated from the expanded ocean of at- 
 mosphere ; and hence, perhaps, the variations of the ba- 
 rometer are concentrated there, and swelled beyond the 
 due proportion." (Encyc. Brit.) 
 
 Uses of the barometer. — The barometer is an instrument 
 of great importance in astronomy, its indications forming 
 an essential element in determining the amount of atmos- 
 pherical refraction. (.See Refraction.) It is also, on ac- 
 count of its application to the measurement of altitudes, 
 indispensable in all researches connected with the climate. 
 (See Heights, Measurement op.) The purpose for which 
 it is most commonly sought after is to prognosticate the 
 state of the weather. On land this is perhaps the least im- 
 portant of its applications, but the case is widely different 
 at sea. A remarkable instance of its utility to the mariner 
 is given by Dr. Arnott. "The marine barometer has not 
 yet been in general use for many years, and the author was 
 one of a numerooa crew who probably owed their preser- 
 vation to its almost miraculous warning. It was in a south- 
 ern latitude; the sun had just set with placid appearance, 
 closing a beautiful afternoon; and the usual mirth of the 
 evening watch was proceeding, when the captain's order 
 came to prepare with all haste for a storm ; the barometer 
 had begun to fall with appalling rapidity. As yet the oldest 
 sailors had not perceived even a threatening in the sky, 
 and were surprised at the extent and hurry of the prepara- 
 t-'-in; but the required preparations were not completed, 
 when a more awful hurricane burst upon them than the 
 most, experienced had ever braved. Nothing could with- 
 stand it ; the sails, already furled and closely bound to the 
 vails, were riven away in tatters ; even the bare yards and 
 "masts were in great part disabled, and at one time the whole 
 rigging had nearly fallen by the board. In that awful night, 
 but for the little tube of mercury which had given the 
 warning, neither the strength of the noble ship nor the skill 
 and energies of the commander could have saved one man 
 to tell the talc." (Elements of Nat. Phil. vol. i. p. 353.) 
 
 No certain rules can be laid down for prognosticating the 
 state of the weather from the barometer. The following, 
 taken from the Saturday Magazine, are probably of as ge- 
 neral application as any that can be given. It is always to 
 be remembered that what the barometer actually shows is 
 the present pressure of the atmosphere ; and that its vari- 
 ations correspond to atmospherical changes which have al- 
 ready taken place, the effects of which may follow their 
 cause at a greater or less interval. 
 
 1. After a continuance of dry weather, if the barometer 
 begins to fall slowly and steadily, rain will certainly ensue ; 
 but if the fine weather has been of long duration, the mer- 
 
 • cury may fall for two or three days before any perceptible 
 change takes place, and the longer time elapses before the 
 rain comes the longer the wet weather is likely to last. 
 
 2. Conversely, if after a great deal of wet weather, with 
 the barometer below its mean height, the mercury begins to 
 rise steadily ami slowly, fine weather will come, though two 
 or three wet days may first elapse ; and the fine weather 
 will be more permanent in proportion to the length of time 
 that passes before the perceptible change takes place. 
 
 3. On either of the two foregoing suppositions, if the 
 change immediately ensues on the motion of the mercury 
 the change will not'bc permanent. 
 
 4. If the barometer rise slowly and steadily for two days 
 together or more, fine weather will come, though for those 
 two davs it may rain incessanlly, and the reverse; but if 
 the barometer rise for two days or more during rain, and 
 llien "ii the appearance of fine weather begins to fall again, 
 ilia! fine weather will be very transient, and vice versa. 
 
 5. A sudden fall of the barometer in the spring or autumn 
 indicates wind ; in the summer, during very hotweather,a 
 thunderstorm may be expected ; in winter, a sudden fall 
 ifter frost of some continuance indicates a change of wind, 
 
 134 
 
 BARONET. 
 
 with thaw and rain ; but in a continued frost a rise of the 
 mercury indicates approaching snow. 
 
 6. No rapid fluctuations of the barometer are to be inter- 
 preted as indicating either dry or wet weather of any con- 
 tinuance; it is only the slow, steady, and continued rise 
 or fall that is to be attended to in this respect. 
 
 7. A rise of the mercury late in the autumn, after a long 
 continuance of wet and windy weather, generally indicates 
 a change of wind to the northern quarters, and the approach 
 of frost. 
 
 See also the Phil. TWms, No. 187., for Br. Halley 's Rules. 
 Patrick's Rules, which have long been popularly known. 
 were first published in Harris's Lexicon U'echnicum, art 
 " Barometer." 
 
 BA'ROMETZ. The hairy stem of a species of fern ot 
 Aspidium, which, from its procumbent position and shaggy 
 surface, looks like a crouching animal ; hence called Scy- 
 thian lamb. 
 
 BA'IION. The lowest but most ancient title of British 
 nobility. The dignity appears to have been originally ter- 
 ritorial. The higher feudatories of England, after the Nor- 
 man conquest, possessed baronies on which a certain num- 
 ber of knights' fees were dependent, and were bound to at- 
 tend the king with a certain retinue of knights. But in pro- 
 cess of time, many of the barons having lost by alienation 
 great part of their lands, the distinction between greater 
 and lesser barons began to arise ; and the formeralone con- 
 stituted part of the great council of the sovereign, in their 
 own right, until at some early period (supposed to have 
 been about the reign of Henry III.) the practice of sum- 
 moning individuals to parliament by the king's writ pre- 
 vailed over the former usage. But this subject is involved 
 in great uncertainty. It has, however, been very generally 
 supposed that the dignity of baron, together with the right 
 to sit in parliament, was at an early period annexed in many 
 instances to the possession of certain lands or castles, 
 which have thus been believed to confer baronies by 1 inure. 
 But Sir Harris Nicolas, in his Introduction to the Peer- 
 age, gives strong reasons to show, in the first place, that it 
 is by no means clear that persons seised of lands per baro- 
 niam were entitled to a summons to parliament in the 
 reign of Edward the First; and, in the next i lace, thai 
 there is no positive proof of such a tenure having been le- 
 gitimately established at any subsequent period. Baronies 
 by writ were created by the kiniz's writ of summons to par- 
 liament, when addressed to individuals by name. The first 
 thus created were in 49 II. 3.. of which two (Despenserand 
 Roos) exist at the present day. Whether, however, the 
 dignity thus created was originally hereditary, admits of a 
 doubt; no words to that effect are found in the ancient 
 writs. But, in point of fact, the next heir was summoned 
 by writ, after the decease of his ancestor, in a great ma- 
 jority of instances ; and it has been long settled, thata sum- 
 mons to parliament by the king's writ, addressed to an in- 
 dividual, creates a barony descendible to heirs general. 
 The earliest creation of a barony by letters-patent took place 
 in the 11th year of Richard II. (that of Beauchamp of Kid- 
 derminster) ; and therefore when a dignity of earlier cre- 
 ation than that year is claimed, it is presumed to have ori- 
 ginated in a summons by writ, and consequently to be de- 
 scendible to heirs general. On the death of a baron by 
 writ without issue male, but with more daughters than one, 
 the barony falls into abeyance until only one daughter or the 
 sole heir of one daughter survives. The word Baron 
 (baro, or varo, to which some give a Latin and others a 
 German derivation) appears to have simply signified 
 "man," and in some cases freeman or citizen, in the laws 
 of the Franks and other early nations. In France, the title 
 of baron originally belonged" only to those who were im- 
 mediate vassals of the crown : it afterwards became op- 
 plied in common usage to those who had the right of exe- 
 cuting justice on their fiefs. The title of baron ranked, as 
 in England, after those of duke, marquis, count, and vis- 
 count ; except in Dauphine and Britanny, where the baron 
 had precedence of the Ihree latter. In Germany the title 
 of Baron (Frayherr) is extremely common ; bu! a" great dis- 
 tinction existed, under the Empire, between the barons who 
 were created by sovereign lords who had no voice in the 
 Diet. 
 
 BA'RONET, KNIGHT BARONET. The lowest decree, 
 and the barons of the Empire, the former heinu those imme- 
 diate lords of hereditary dignitv in England. This order was 
 instituted bv King.IamesI. in 161 1, asa reward forthe services 
 of those who came forward to quell the insurrection in Ire- 
 land, and especially in the province of Ulster ; each person 
 who received it furnishing a supply sufficient to maintain 
 thirty soldiers for three years. The creation is by patent under 
 the great seal, and generally limited to the heirs male of the 
 body of the grantee, although sometimes otherwise entail- 
 ed. Baronets rank among themselves according to cre- 
 ation, and come next after the younger sons of barons. By 
 a clause in the patent of creation, the heir male apparent tt 
 the title can claim the honourof knighthood, on attaining the 
 age of twenty-one, in the life of his father or grandfather. 
 
BARONS OF EXCHEQ.UER. 
 
 ISaroueu bear for distinction on their paternal coats the 
 
 arms of Ulster, in a sinister hand, erect, open, and couped 
 
 at the wrist, gules in a field argent This augmentation is 
 
 mes in the middle chief point, sometimes 
 
 on the fess point, &c. as may be most convenient, but 
 
 mi rules of heraldry. Baronets of Ireland 
 
 i bv James I. nine years after th- 
 
 England, with similar privileges and badge. 
 
 Baroneti of Scotland, or Nova Scotia baronets, were 
 
 by Charles I. in 1G25, in furtherance of a project 
 
 ligation in that part of America. Their badge is 
 
 :n of Nova Scotia. I' had long fallen into disuse ; 
 
 - in 1775, by way of revival of the 
 
 order. 
 
 BA'RONS OF EXCHEQUER. Certain Judges in Eng 
 land and Scotland, to whom the administration of justice 
 is r, .inn, . between the sovereign an I 
 
 .ting to the revenue. In tnB former country the 
 Court of Exchequer lakes cognizance of private causes 
 See Exchequer. 
 BA'RONY. A territorial subdivision in Ireland, which 
 • nds with the hundred in England. Each 
 been originally the district of 
 There are in all 262 Ireland. 
 BA'RI -ht. and OKOTtw. I ob- 
 serve.) A term which Ims I n sometimes given to the 
 
 lording to its derivation it signifies observer 
 ■. and is properly applied to instruments which 
 us in the weight of the atmosphere, with- 
 out giving the means of absolutely measuring it. The 
 i ter of Hooke is properly a baroscope. 
 BA'RRAS. The resin which exudes from wounds made 
 in the hark of fir trees. 
 BA'RRATRY. A name applied by our law and that of 
 In England, a "com- 
 mon barreter" is defined by Lord Coke to be a common 
 i I maintainor of suits in disturbance of the peace, 
 and in taking and detaining th i of houses and 
 
 by lalse inventions. Barratry, in this sense, 
 is an Indictable offence at common law. The obtaining 
 benefices at Rome was also an offence of barratry. In 
 ■•trrntry is any act of the master or 
 of a criminal nature, or which is grossly negli- 
 ling to their own benefit, to the prejudice of the 
 owner of the ship, and without his permission. In Scot- 
 land, the crime of a judge who receives a bribe for a judg- 
 ment is called beu 
 
 BA'KREL. An English measure of capacity, varying 
 
 With the nature of the liquid measured. In the old mea- 
 
 •I 31X gallons of wine, 32 gallons of 
 
 By a statute of 1 W. cc M . the 
 
 lie and beer barrels were equalized for every part of Eng- 
 
 land except London, and ordered to contain 31 gallons. 
 
 formerly in use to denote, in a rough 
 
 way, other sorts of goods. Tims, a barrel of salmon, 42 
 
 a barrel of soap, 268 pounds. In common Ian- 
 
 inv hollow cylinder is called a barrel. 
 
 BARREN FLOWERS. Are those which either have 
 
 Itamens and no pistil, or which have neither stamens nor 
 
 pistil. 
 
 HARRICA'DO. (Fr. barricade.') A defence either by 
 intrenchmerit or raised work, made in a hasty manner, by 
 barrels filled with earth, heaps of stones piled up, carts, 
 trunks of trees, or any oilier materials which would ob- 
 uvance of an opposing force. The 
 rricades at Paris took place on the 
 12th ofM in the populace invested the troops 
 
 of the. king, Henry III., in the Louvre, and forced that so- 
 vereign to escape from Paris. Ttie Barricades attain 
 formed an important feature in the revolution of July, 1830. 
 RA'RRIER. (Fr. barrier.) A piece of wood work 
 ■ nl the entrance of a passage or intrench- 
 Dent, with a moveable bar In the centre, which may be 
 removed at pleasure. It is usually erected between" the 
 rind town. 
 BARRIER TREATY. In 1713, a negotiation concluded 
 the Dutch and the King of France shortly before 
 of Utrecht, by which the former reserved the 
 right to hold garrisons in certain fortresses of the Spanish 
 ■nds 
 B \ 'It KIS A large baboon of the Guinea coast. 
 BARRISTER. An advocate admitted to plead at the 
 bar in the English courts of common law and equity. Bar- 
 risters were anciently styled apprentices at law, until their 
 admission to lie- degree of sergeant. A student intending 
 must be admitted a member of one 
 irt (Inner and Middle Temple, Lin- 
 coln's Inn, and Gray's Inn), and reside for a certain time, 
 daring three years in some cases and five in others. The 
 his or arguments (termed exercises) which were 
 formerly required of a student have been reduced to mere 
 of form. A barrister has no legal mode of reco- 
 vering fees (or his s ervic es. 
 BA'RROWS. or TUMULI, says Mr. Cough, in his Se- 
 135 
 
 BASE. 
 
 ptdchral Mojtwnenls, are the most ancient monument* in 
 the world The sepulchres of the heroes of the war of 
 Troy are still distinguished, if tradition is to be relied upon. 
 by the mounds raised over them. In these ancient bar 
 rows the base is said to have been generally formed ol 
 stones, the upper part consisting of a mound of earth. 
 Barrowsare found scattered over the plains ol thel 
 and of Tartary, and in great numbers in the Mississippi 
 valley of North America. The barrows of England are 
 supposed to be almost all of British construction ; 
 the mounds properly so called are sometimes confounded 
 with those tumuli found in Roman camps, where they 
 serve as land marks, or for some military purpose'. Of the 
 antiquaries who have treated of these relics of ancient 
 eras, Dr. Stukely and Sir R. Colt Hoare are the l 
 nent. They have been distinguished, according to necu 
 liarities of form and construction, into long barrows, how !. 
 bell, pond, twin, cone, broad, Sec. In the 
 harrows, the bodies found are deposited within a cisl 01 
 stone receptacle, with the head towards the north : in 
 those of later date, this direction is not observed. Tie- 
 bones which have been discovered within the numerous 
 barrows that have been opened were generally accompa- 
 nied by utensils, weapons. Arc. ; and from the form and 
 finish of these, some conjecture has been made as to the 
 period of the interment. Hut these barrow 
 nerally sepulchral, are not uniformly so: in some, bones 
 of animals only have been found. Harrow bur 
 by Sir It. Hoare to have lasted from a period of unknown 
 antiquity down to about the eighth century. Harrows are 
 chiefly found in the chalk districts of Wills and Dorset- 
 shire. 
 
 HA'HTER. A rule of Arithmetic by which the values 
 ofcomm rent kinds are compared. 
 
 i!\KV'TA. (Gr. /Ju.ji'f, heart/.) The oxide of barium. 
 
 composed of 70 barium and 8 oxygen. Baryta, is common- 
 ly called an alkaline earth. It is of a grey colour, ditlj- 
 CHltly fusible, and poisonous. It is soluble in about 2(1 parts 
 of cold water. It forms white salts with the acids, all ol 
 
 which are poisonous except the sulphate. The soluble 
 salts of baryta are excellent tests of the presence of sul- 
 phuric acid, which (fa i solution by a white 
 precipe ate, insoluble in water and in I'tels, and i 
 of 77 baryta and 40 sulphuric acid : i 17 puts, th. n 
 pure and dry sulphate of bai vaunt to 10 of 
 sulphuric acid. There are only two abundant natural 
 compounds of baryta : 
 
 line, and the carbonate. Native sulphate of baryta, MOVg 
 spar, or baroselenite. is found in this country ii« I 
 land and Westmoreland; a variety from Derle 
 provincially called catrk. Native carbonate of baryta, ui 
 
 at Angh-sark in" L 
 by Dr. Withering, and hence called Witherite. It OCCUra 
 crystallised and massive. It consists of 77 han 
 
 carbonic luivalent, therefore, is 99. 
 
 BARYTO-CALCITE. A mineral found at Alston in 
 Cumberland: it occurs both massive and crystallised in 
 oblique rhombic prisms. It contains about 06 pi r cent of 
 carbonate of baryta, and 34 of carbonate of lime. 
 
 RA'RYTONE. (Gr. Hapttj, grave, and rdvoi, tone.) 
 . ttie compass of which is between tenor 
 and base. Also a musical instrument similar to the 
 gamba. 
 
 BASA/LT. A common species of trap-rock; it is es- 
 sentially composed of felspar and augile, of a compact 
 texture, and dark green, grey, or black colour. It is often 
 found in regular columns, of which the Giant's Causeway 
 and the Island of Staffa furnish magnificent exam; 
 
 BASANI'TK. A variety of silicious slate, sometime 
 used as a touchstone to determine the purity of gold by the 
 colour of its streak. (From (iaaavot. the trier.) 
 
 BA'SCINET. or HA'SINET. A light basinshapeo 
 helmet, worn by the infantry in the reigns of Edward II 
 and HI., and of Richard II. (See Grose on Ancient Ar 
 mottr.) 
 
 BASE. In Geometry, the lowest side of any figure ; ai 
 the base of a triangle, of a cone, &c. Any side of a figun 
 may be taken as its base. 
 
 Base. A chemical term, chiefly applied to metallk 
 oxides, or to the leading constituent of compounds. Thus 
 soda is called the base of sulphate of soda; and sodium in 
 the metallic base of soda. Hence the distinction into salifi 
 able and metallic bases. 
 
 Base. In Music (frequently written Bass), the lowes> 
 part in a concert, whether vocal or instrumental. H) 
 some it is considered the fundamental or most importair 
 part; others regard the melody, or highest part, in thai 
 light. 
 
 Base, Cief. See Clep. 
 
 Base. Thorough. See Thorough Bass. 
 
 Base. (Gr. (Jaoic, a foundation.) In Architecture, gen- 
 erally a body which bears another. In the orders, it Is the 
 lower part of a column, moulded or plain, on which the 
 shaft is placed. In the Grecian Doric the columns are 
 
BASELLA. 
 
 without bases, and stand immediately on the floor or pave- 
 ment of the portico. The different bases are represented 
 below, including the Attic base. 
 
 Tuscan. Roman Doric. Ionic. Corinthian. Composite. Attic. 
 
 BASE'LLA. (A Malabar word.) A turning succulent- 
 leaved Chenopodiaceous plant, native of the tropical parts 
 of Asia, and commonly cultivated instead of spinach in the 
 East Indies. 
 
 BA'SEMENT. (From Base.) In Architecture, the low- 
 est story of a building. 
 
 BASIGY'NIUM. (Gr. /?ao-ic, the base, yvvri, female.) A 
 stalk rising above the origin of the calyx, and bearing an 
 ovary at its apex, as in Capparis. 
 
 BA'SII,. A fragrant aromatic herbaceous plant, the Ocy- 
 ■main Imsilicum, a native of India, whose leaves are much 
 used in cookery for the purpose of giving a savoury flavour 
 to dishes. 
 
 BA'SILIC. (Gr. fiaai'Xuos, royal.) A pharmaceutical 
 term, formerly applied to certain powders, ointments, &c. 
 of pre-eminent virtues and activity. 
 
 BASI'LICA. (Gr. /?uo-i>£t>c, king.) In Architecture, 
 properly the palace of a king ; but it afterwards came to 
 signify an apartment which was usually provided in the 
 houses of persons of consequence, where assemblies were 
 held for dispensing justice. The Gordian family in their 
 magnificent country-house in the Via Prenestina had three 
 basilica?, each upwards of a hundred feet long. There was 
 usually a basilica attached to every market for summary 
 settlement of disputes that might arise, and it was sur- 
 rounded by shops and other conveniences for traders. 
 The difference between the Roman and Grecian basilica is 
 described by Vitruvius, to whose work the reader may re- 
 fer. We have in the article Architecture (quod vide) 
 given some account of the rise of the modern basilica for 
 religious uses from the form of the more ancient one. Its 
 form was that of a parallelogram, with a portico at each end, 
 being covered by a roof supported by ranks of columns. 
 Palladio applied the term to those buildings in the cities of 
 Italy somewhat similar in use to our town-halls. 
 
 BASIU'SCUS. A basilisk. The epithet is applied in 
 Zoology to a most harmless genus of saurian reptiles, of the 
 Lruanoid family, having no femoral pores ; but with pala- 
 tal teeth ; a covering of small scales ; and an elevated dor- 
 sal crest, supported by the vertebral spines, and extending 
 from the neck to the middle of the tail. One of the species 
 . Uasiliscus mitratus) supports a mitre-shaped crest on the 
 1 ead. 
 
 BA'SIN. In Physical Geography, the space of country 
 drained by a particular river; as the Basin of the Thames, 
 Rhine, Rhone, <fec. In Geology, depressed portions of 
 strata, forming a hollow surrounded by hills, as the " Lon- 
 don Basin," the "Parisian Basin," ice. 
 
 BA'SIS. See Base. 
 
 BASI'SOLUTE. (Lat. basis, and solutus,/ree.) A name 
 sometimes applied to those leaves which are prolonged at 
 the bajte below the point of origin, as in the bracts of Fuma- 
 ria. the leaves of Seduin rejlexum, &c. 
 
 BA'SKET. (Eat. bascauda.) In Architecture, part of 
 the Corinthian capital. See Capital. 
 
 BASS. See Base. 
 
 BASSETTE. (Diminutive of Basso.) In Music, the 
 smallest species of the bass violin. 
 
 BASSOO'N. (Fr. basson.) A musical wind instrument 
 made of wood, serving as the proper bass to the oboe and 
 clarionet. The Italians call it fagotto, because composed 
 of two pieces of wood fagottedas. it were together. It is 
 played by means of a bent mouth-piece and reed, and its 
 compass is shown in the synoptical view of the different 
 instruments at the end of the article Music. 
 
 BASSO RII.IEVO. See Rilievo. 
 
 BASSO'RINE. A modification of gum, originally disco- 
 vered hv Vauquelin in gum bassora. 
 
 BA'STARD. A word of which the etymology is entirely 
 uncertain. By the ancient legal course of precedent in Eng- 
 land, the fact of birth during the marriage of the parents, 
 or within a certain time after the death of the husband (ex- 
 tended in some cases to a great length, as in that of the 
 Conntess of Gloucester, temp. E. 2., to one year and seven 
 months), was conclusive in favour of legitimacy. But this 
 fact is now held to amount only to strong presumptive evi- 
 dence, repellable by proof of non-access. The legal inca- 
 pacities of an illegitimate child, by the law of England, re- 
 late wholly to the powers of inheritance and succession, to 
 which he is in no respect entitled either as to real or per- 
 sonal property. In case of a divorce "a vinculo matrimo- 
 ■ i ' in the spiritual court, children born during the mar- 
 riage are bastards by the law of England. The Scottish 
 13b 
 
 BATH. 
 
 law is less strict in .fevour of legitimacy than that of Eng 
 land. Two species of legitimation have been adopted in i! 
 Iromthe civil law: one, "per subsequens matrimonium,'' 
 by the subsequent intermarriage of the parents, (but a child 
 born in Scotland, and legitimated by subsequent intermar 
 riage in Scotland, is not entitled to succeed to real properly 
 in England ; and, if born in England, remains a bastard t< 
 all intents and purposes) ; and secondly, " per rescriptum 
 principis," by letters of legitimation from the crown. 
 
 BASTARD STUCCO. In Architecture, plastering of 
 three coats, whereof the first is usually roughing in, or 
 rendering; the second floating, as in trowelled stucco ; and 
 the third or finishing coat contains a small quantity of hail 
 besides the sand. Bastard stucco is not hand-floated, and 
 the trowelling is done with less labour than what is called 
 trowelled stucco. 
 
 BASTARD WING. (Alula spuria, Linn.) Three oi 
 five quill-like feathers, placed at a small joint rising at the 
 middle part of the wing. 
 
 BASTI'I.LE. In France, in the middle ages, towers and 
 other outworks erected without the limits of towns were 
 so called. The famous Bastile of Paris was an edifice of 
 the same description, originally erected outside the city, 
 near the modern Porte Saint Antoine. It was built by 
 Hugues Aubriot, prevot des marchands, in 13G9 ; and he is 
 said to have been the first prisoner of state confined in it 
 after it was employed for that purpose. The Bastille was 
 taken by the people of Paris on the 14th of July, 17S9, and 
 demolished. 
 
 BASTINA'DO. (Ital. bastonnala, from bastone, a stick.) 
 An ordinary mode of punishment in oriental countries, es- 
 pecially China, Turkey, and Persia. It is commonly in- 
 flicted upon the soles of the feet. According to the Turk- 
 ish law, slaves and rayaJis or tributaries alone are liable t< 
 it ; but no such limitation is observed when the temper o. 
 a magistrate possessing summary authority is inflamed. 
 This punishment is termed zarb in Turkish. It is ex- 
 tremely severe, although limited by law to the Jewish 
 number of 39 blows, or 75 in some aggravated cases ; but 
 this regulation, like the other, is little observed in practice. 
 (See generally, as to this species of infliction in penal law, 
 the essay of Lanjuinais, Sur la Bastonnade et la i'lugella- 
 tion penales.) 
 
 BA'STION. A large projecting mass of earth or mason- 
 ry at the angles of a fortified work, anciently called a bul- 
 wark. The modern bastion consists of two flanks, serving 
 for the defence of the adjacent curtains, and two faces, 
 making with each other an angle of 60° or upwards, which 
 command the outworks and the ground hefore the fortifi- 
 cation. The space between two bastions is called the cur- 
 tain. The use of the bastions is to bring every point at the 
 foot of the rampart as much as possible under the com- 
 mand of the guns, so that on whatever point a besieging 
 army approaches it may be attacked sideways. 
 
 BAT. See Vespertilio, Dermoptera, Cheiroptera. 
 
 BATA'TAS. A species of convolvulaceous plant, Con- 
 volvulus batatas, a native of the East Indies, with fleshy 
 sweet tubers. It is much cultivated for the sake of the lat- 
 ter in all the hotter parts of the world, where they are 
 much esteemed as an article of food. Its name has now 
 been popularly transferred to the potatoe, which has ex- 
 pelled it from cultivation in all temperate climates. 
 
 BATH. (From the Saxon bad.) In Architecture, a 
 place for bathing. Among the ancients, the public baths 
 were of very considerable extent, and consisted of a great 
 number of apartments. These prodigious monuments of 
 Roman magnificence seem to have been borrowed in some 
 respects from the gymnasia of the Greeks, both the one 
 and the other being instituted with a view to the exercise 
 and health of the people. The word thermae, which the 
 Romans called these edifices, signifies a place for the re- 
 ception of hot baths ; but both hot and cold were generally 
 comprised in the same building. In later times, the Ro- 
 mans used the bath before they took their supper. The 
 rich usually had hot and cold baths in their own houses, 
 and it was not till the time of Augustus that the bnths as- 
 sumed an air of grandeur and magnificence. Different 
 authors reckon nearly eight hundred baths in Rome. The 
 most celebrated were those of Agrippa, Antoninus, Cara- 
 calla, Diocletian, Domitian, Nero, and Titus. Those of 
 Diocletian are said to have been capable of accommodating 
 eighteen hundred bathers. The vestiges of these stupen- 
 dous buildings injicate the amazing magnificence of the 
 age in which they were erected. Their pavements were 
 mosaic ; the ceilings vaulted, and richly gilt and painted ; 
 the walls encrusted with the rarest marbles. Many exam 
 pies of ancient Greek sculpture have been restored to the 
 world from these edifices. It was from the recesses o 
 these buildings that Raphael took the hint fur his decora 
 tions of the Vatican, and largely from these resources drew 
 the first restorers of the art. 
 
 Bath. In Chemistry, heated sand is often usea as a 
 medium for communicating heat, as glass anil other ves- 
 sels may be conveniently placed upon or immersed in K : 
 
 
BATHOS. 
 
 sometimes water is used in the same way ; hence sand 
 balk, water bath, &c. The water bath is called by the old 
 chemists Balneum Marite, and often abbreviated B. M. 
 
 Bath, Order op the. A British order of knighthood. 
 On the day of his coronation, Henry IV. conferred the 
 dignity of knighthood on forty-six esquires who had watch- 
 CO during the previous night, and bathed themselves, in 
 pursuance of a very ancient custom, derived from the 
 [ea of the ancient Franks. It was usual, from this 
 period, to make similar creations of knights on royal coro- 
 nations, espousals, and similar solemnities; but the cus- 
 tom was discontinued after the coronation of Charles II., 
 until George 1, in the eleventh year of his reign, institut- 
 ed the present order of the Bath by letters patent. It con- 
 usive of the sovereign, of a grand-master and 
 thirty-six companions ; and was a military order. In 1815, 
 the order was greatly extended (after several intermediate 
 alterations), and is now composed of three classes — mili- 
 tary and civil knights grand crosses, knights commanders, 
 and knlghU companions, — who do not take the title or pri- 
 vilege of a knight bachelor, but take precedence of es- 
 quires. The badge worn by the grand crosses is now a 
 goldei lit points, enamelled white, with a lion 
 
 of England between the four principal angles; on the 
 centre a sceptre erect, or, having on the sides a rose, this- 
 tle, and sham nick, engrafted between three imperial crowns 
 proper, encircled with a riband gules; thereon the motto 
 of the order, "Tria juncta in uno." They also wear a 
 The badge of the knights commanders is the 
 same with that of the knights grand crosses, but smaller ; 
 •their cross somewhat different. The companions have 
 only the badge without a star. 
 
 BATHOS. (Gr. 0aOo(, depth.) A word invented to sig- 
 nify a ludicrous descent, in rhetoric, from elevated to mean 
 thoughts. (See Climax.) It has hern chiefly rendered 
 popular by Pope and Arbnthnot's jeu d'esprit, the ''Trea- 
 tise on the Bathos, by Martinus Scriblerus." 
 
 BATI'DE.T'. A small division of Urticaceous plants con- 
 taining but one genus, Batis, after which it is named. It 
 ! ■ 1 1 in gn at quantity. 
 
 II OTOLITES. A genus of fossil shells, considered by 
 Curler aa kipptiritet. 
 
 BATON. (Fr.) In Music, a term denoting a rest of four 
 aemlbn 
 
 Baton is also the staff of a field marshal. 
 
 BATONNTER. (Mod. Lat. baslonarius.) In French, 
 
 the elected president of an order or fraternity. Thebaton- 
 
 the order of advocates is elected by the whole body. 
 
 In ancient times he carried in their processions a staff 
 
 (baton) with the flag of Saint Nicholas, whence the name. 
 
 resident of the council of discipline. 
 
 BATRA'CHIANB, BATRACHIA. ((Jr. 0iirpax"f, a 
 fni».) An order of Reptilia, including the frogs and toads, 
 and all reptiles which, like them, have naked skins ana 
 external branchiae, In the early stage of existence ; those 
 Ma which retain the gills or gill-apertures through- 
 out life are called " peretinihrancliiaie," or "amphibious." 
 
 BA'TIl ACIIOMY'OMA'CHIA. (Gr. /?<i7-paxo/i»o/iaxia.) 
 
 Thf Battle of the frogs and Mi<~e, a mock heroic poem 
 
 has come down to us. and is attributed to Homer; 
 
 but there is no probability that it was written by the author 
 
 of the Iliad or () Ivssey. 
 
 BA'TRACHOSl'E'RMA. (Gr. ffdrpaxot, a frog, and 
 trrtpjia, &eed ) A name proposed for such Algaceous genera 
 as are articulated and live in fresh water. 
 
 BATTA'LION. A division of the infantry in an army, 
 composed of a variable number of men : at present, in the 
 English service, it is about 750. One battalion generally 
 constitutes a regiment; but some, as those of the Guards, 
 two battalions, and a regiment of artillery of 
 ich battalion is generally divided into ten com- 
 panies ; it Is commanded by its own colonel ; and several 
 battalions or regiments are, on service, all united underone 
 truer, forming a brigade. 
 
 BA'TTARDEAU. (Fr. battre, and eau.) In Architec- 
 as Cofferdam, which see. 
 
 BATTEN. (Probably from the French baton, from its 
 slender width.) In Architecture, a name given by workmen 
 to slip; of wood, from two to four inches broad and one 
 inch thick : the length considerable, but nndefil 
 
 BATTENED DOWN. Covering (he hatchwara in Tery 
 bad weather with strong gratings, and these with painted 
 canvass nailed under long pieces of wood (battens), to keep 
 the w iter from netting below the decks. 
 
 -BA'TTENlNO. (From batten.) In Architecture, nar- 
 row battens fixed to a wall, to which the laths for the plas- 
 > riiir are nailed. 
 
 B A "ITER (Probably from battre, Fr.) In Architecture, 
 i used by artificers to signify that a body does not 
 upright, bat inclines from you when you stand before 
 it ; when, on the contrary, it leans towards you, they des- 
 alination bv saying it overhangs. 
 
 BATTERING-RAM. An ancient military engine em- 
 ployed for beating down the walls of besieged fortresses. 
 137 
 
 BATTLE. 
 
 It consisted of a long heavy beam of timber, armed witn 
 iron at one extremity, and the effect was produced by 
 pushing it violently with successive blows against the wall. 
 The ram was worked in various ways. Sometimes it was 
 simply supported by two files of soldiers, and the impetus 
 given by a simultaneous thrust. More frequently it was 
 slung from a cross beam, supported by two posts, by a rope 
 or cable about its middle ; in which case it had an oscillat- 
 ing motion, like a pendulum. A third sort was moved on 
 rollers or wheels. Generally they were worked under a 
 cover or shed (vineoz or te studines) to protect tin assonants. 
 These machines were often of immense size, and exceed 
 ingly ponderous, requiring UK) men to work them. Justus 
 Lipslus describes a battering ram as ISO feet long, and two 
 feet four inches in diameter, armed with an iron head 
 weighing at least a ton and a half. The momentum ot 
 this ram, pushed forward by the united strength of 100 
 men, must have been equal to that of a 36-pound shot dis- 
 charged point-blank from a modem piece of heavy ord- 
 nance, and its efficacy in communicating a shock to the 
 whole building very much greater. 
 
 BATTERY . A military term, denoting any raised place 
 where cannon or mortars are planted. Batteries have va- 
 rious names, according to the different kinds of artillery 
 employed, or the purposes Ihey are designed to effect. 
 Breach batteries are used to attack the lace of a bastion, in 
 order to make an accessible breach. Batter lea en tchorpt 
 are those which play obliquely. Ricochet battery, one from 
 which cannon are discharged with a very small quantity of 
 powder and a little elevation, so as to carry the ball just 
 over the parapet, where it rolls along the opposite rampart, 
 and produces a destructive effect. They are placed per- 
 pendicular to the line to be enfiladed. In a ricochet battery, 
 small mortars and howitzers are frequently used wil 
 feci in enfilading an enemy's ranks. 
 
 BATTLE. (Fr. bataille.) In the art Military, an engage 
 ment between two hostile armies for the accomplishment 
 of some important object. A battle is the most important 
 event in war: it is the consummation to which all the pre- 
 vious combinations of a general necessarily lend : it is that 
 grand act of war which may decide the fate of kingdoms 
 and of nations as well as that of armies and campaigns. In 
 the early ages of theworjd a battle was merely a fierce and 
 bloody struggle, the issue of which depended more on the 
 physical strength of the combatants than on any scientific 
 combinations which the general could adopt ; but as the 
 arts and sciences progressed, the military system was im- 
 proved; and the battle of Marathon (the firs) well authen- 
 ticated battle in profane history) demonstrated how far su- 
 periority in physical strength may be compensated by ge- 
 neralship and discipline. A further illustration of this fact 
 is afforded in the subsequent battles of Platasa, Ma.ntinea, 
 and Leuctra, among the Greeks; and the banks of the Ti- 
 cinus, the lake of Thrasymenus, and, above all, the plains 
 of Cannae, are memorable for engagements, which for in- 
 genuity of design and dexterity of execution have excited 
 the admiration of soldiers in every age. But to give even 
 a faint sketch of the various exploits which were achieved 
 by the Grecian so-called obli(/ue system, the Macedonian 
 phalanx, and the Roman legion, and of the different mili- 
 tary principles involved in their construction, would be to 
 furnish a history of these different nations ; and we must 
 content ourselves with referring the reader to the article 
 " Bataille," in the Encyclopedie dee Gens da Monde, where 
 some concise though scientific details upon this subject 
 will be found. Though the weapons employed in battle in 
 modern times are widely different from those in use among 
 the ancients, and though many circumstances have com- 
 bined to give an entirely different aspect to the military 
 systems of the two periods, still it is surprising how strong 
 a resemblance to each other is displayed in their ground- 
 work ; and it will be found on examination that the grand 
 principles which even in the present century were adopted 
 by Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington were practised, 
 though imperfectly, by Epaminondas on the field of Leuc 
 tra. Indeed, it is a circumstance worthy of note, that the 
 changes which in every age have taken place both in the 
 manners and the weapons of nations have had no percept idle 
 influence on the grand leading principles of military Indies. 
 " Les tftrarchies," says a French author, " et les manipules 
 sont representees chez les modernes par les compagnies : les 
 xe"nagies ou syntagmes et les cohortes Romaines, par les ha- 
 taillons; enfin, les phalanges et les legions, par les regi- 
 mens, les brigades ou les divisions." There are three com- 
 binations of which a battle is susceptible s- 1. Defensive, 
 which consists in taking up a position, an '. defending it 
 against the enemy. 2. Offensive, in whin the enemy 
 is sought to be harassed at all points and o_' all occasions. 
 The third is a medium between these two, and presup- 
 poses on the part of the general sufficient skill to know 
 when to make an attack, and when to act on the defen 
 sive. It is impossible to state precisely the principles 
 which should guide a general in the adoption of one or 
 oiherof these three svs'ems, from the difficulty ofprovid 
 
BATTLE-AXE, 
 
 trig against unexpected events which often occur to perplex 
 or overturn the most matured and ingenious plans ; but 
 making due allowance for casualties of this nature, a refe- 
 rence to history will prove that design and ingenuity have 
 generally triumphed over chance and accident; and that a 
 skilful disposition of the troops, and the seizure of the pro- 
 per moment for assuming the initiative, combined with 
 courage and adroitness in prosecuting success, will ulti- 
 mately be crowned with viclory. For a full and elaborate 
 view of the principles involved in a battle, the reader may 
 consult with advantage Jomini's Traile ties Grandes Ope- 
 rations Mil italics (Paris, 1824) ; a system which is founded 
 on the united principle of a concentration of the forces, and 
 the commencement of hostilities. 
 
 BA'TTLE-AXE. ' A military weapon, which is purely 
 offensive, and owes its origin to the Celtaj. It was not em- 
 ployed by the Greeks and Romans, though it was found 
 among contemporary nations. At the siege of the Roman 
 capital by the Gauls under Brennus, the most distinguished 
 warriors were armed with battle-axes ; and Ammianus 
 Marcellinus states that this instrument formed part of the 
 offensive armour of the Gauls from time immemorial. In 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, the battle-axe was much 
 employed : the Lochaber axe, in particular, was long a 
 formidable implement of destruction in the hands of the 
 Scottish Highlanders, and obtained almost a universal re- 
 putation. 
 
 BA'TTLEMENTS. (From battle.) In Architecture, a 
 wall or parapet on the top of a building, with embrasures 
 or open places to look through, or discharge missiles for 
 the annoyance of an enemy. 
 
 BATTUE. (Fr.) In Sporting, a term indicating a prac- 
 tice of huntsmen which consists in encompassing a certain 
 portion of the forest, and in endeavouring, by beating the 
 bushes and with loud exclamations, to bring out wolves, 
 foxes, or other animals of the chase. 
 
 BATTU'TA. (It. a beating.) In Music, the motion of 
 beating with the hand or foot in directing the time. 
 
 BAUERA'CEjE (so called from Mr. Bauer, their disco- 
 verer), a small natural order of New Holland shrubs with 
 pretty purple flowers, related to Saxifragacea,. There is 
 but. ne genus. 
 
 BAULK. (From the Dutch.) Sometimes called Dram 
 Timber. In Architecture, a piece of w-hole fir, being the 
 trunk of a tree of that species of wood usually squared for 
 ouilding purposes. In the metropolis the term is only ap- 
 plied to small lengths from 18 to 25 feet, mostly under 10 
 inches square, tapering considerably, and with the angles 
 so left, that I he baulk is not an exact square. 
 
 BAXTE'RIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a name ap- 
 plied to those English theologians who adopted the senti- 
 ments of Richard Baxter on the subject of grace and free 
 will, forming a sort of middle way between Calvinism and 
 Arminianism. They never formed, strictly speaking, a 
 sect, and the name is now disused : nevertheless, similarly 
 modified religious opinions are common among noncon- 
 formists at this day. 
 
 BAY. (From the Dutch baye.) In Architecture, a di- 
 vision of a barn or other building, generally from 15 to 20 
 feet in length or breadth. In plasterers' work it is the 
 space between the screeds prepared for regulating and 
 working the floating rule. See Screeds. 
 
 Bay. (Fr. bate, Ital. baia, Span, bahia.) In Geography, 
 a portion of the sea, inclosed between two capes or head- 
 lands, so that the opening is the widest part and the inlet 
 gradually narrows within. It is thus dintinguished from 
 gulf, in which the opening is comparatively narrow. The 
 distinction, however, is not always observed in nomencla- 
 ture ; e. g. Baffin's Bay, and Chesapeake Bay in America, 
 are both more properly gulfs. 
 
 BA'YONET. A short triangular sword or dagger fixed 
 upon the muzzle of a musket, which is thus transformed 
 into a thrusting weapon. The original invention and sub- 
 sequent improvement of the bayonet are due to the 
 French, who first used it in the Netherlands in 1647, and 
 the advantages which this weapon gained to that nation 
 soon attracted notice to its merits. In the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century, it was every where substituted for 
 the pike, and in some instances it has decided the issue 
 of an engagement without a single shot being fired. Many 
 plans have been devised at different times to augment the 
 efficiency of the bayonet, by turning it to the purposes of 
 tilting and fencing; but when the cumbrousness of the in- 
 strument to which it is attached is considered, it will not 
 seem surprising that all schemes of this nature have 
 proved abortive. Cavalry are often counted by horses, and 
 vnfantry by bayonets. (See Guibert's Essai general de 
 Tactiq'ue. Mitchell, on the Use of the Bayonet.) 
 
 BAY SALT. (See Salt.) A large grained salt, ob- 
 tained by the spontaneous evaporation of sea water in large 
 shallow pits (bays) exposed to the full influence of sun and 
 air; all coarse-grained salt is frequently known under the 
 name of bat) still. 
 
 BAZA'AR. (From an Arabic word, signifying traffic or 
 138 
 
 BEASTS. 
 
 merchandise.) A large square or street where merchants 
 in eastern countries have their shops or warehouses. 
 
 BDE'LLIUM. An African gum resin of a bitter nause- 
 ous taste, and a dark-brown colour. It is sometimes mixed 
 with myrrh. 
 
 BDE'LLOSTOMES, BDELLOSTOMA. (Gr. BcSuXXw, 
 and srojia, a mouth adapted for suction.) A genus of Cy 
 clostomous fishes. 
 
 BEACH. In Geography, a shelving tract of sand or 
 shingle washed by the sea or a freshwater lake, and inter- 
 posed between the water and the land on which vi 
 grows. The beach of the ocean is, generally speaking, 
 little more than the space between low and high water 
 mark ; the beach of a lake, that between the water marks 
 of the highest and lowest ordinary level of the lake. An 
 inland sea without tide, such as the Mediterranean, lias 
 generally little beach, except on flat coasts, where the wa- 
 ters are apt to rise and fall considerably, according in the 
 prevailing winds, liaised beaches exhibit a curious phe- 
 nomenon in geology : they are tracts of shingle and gravel, 
 indurated for the most part into the consistency of pub- 
 dingstone or breccia, found on the sides of shelving 
 ground at a level above that of some neighbouring lake or 
 sea, in such a position as to leave no doubt that they had 
 in ancient times been washed by its waters. They are 
 found extending along large tracts in the vicinity of the 
 great American lakes. 
 
 BE'ACON. (Sax. beacn or beacen, allied to the words 
 beck, beckon, i. e. to point out, in the English language.) A 
 fire lighted by way of signal on a height, or the place 
 where such signals are usually made. Alongthe southern 
 coast of England, many of the highest hills are provincial!}* 
 termed "beacon," from this circumstance. There is a 
 celebrated poetical description of the transmission of news 
 by the fire signals, from height to height, in the Agamem- 
 non of jEschylus. The English beacons were erected un- 
 der the superintendence generally of the lord high admi- 
 ral ; they were usually pitch boxes, or fire pols, and their 
 maintenance and watching was defrayed by a rale levied 
 on the counly. (See Archtlologia, vols. i. and viii.) 
 
 BEAD. (Sax. beade.) In Architecture, a moulding 
 whose vertical section is semicircular. 
 
 BEAK. In Botany, a hard sharp termination ol any part 
 of the fructification. It is Latinized hy rostrum. 
 
 BEAM. (Sax. beam, a tree.) In Architecture. . 
 zontal piece of timber, used to resist a force or weight ; as 
 a tie beam, which acls as a string or chain by its tensi in ; 
 as a straining piece, where it act3 by compression ; as a 
 bressummer, where it bears an insisting weight. 
 
 Beam. In sea phrase, the width of a vessel. Thus a 
 wide vessel is said to have more beam than a narrow one ; 
 the beams being the strong pieces of timber stretching 
 across the ship from side to side, for the purpose of sup- 
 porting the decks and retaining the sides at their proper 
 distance. When a ship is lying entirely on her side, she 
 is said to be on her beam ends. When this is the case in a 
 hurricane or heavy gale, there is often no other resource 
 to right the ship than cutting the masts away. 
 
 Abeam. In the direction perpendicular to the ship's 
 length, a-midships. Thus an object seen from the middle 
 of a vessel, 90 degrees or 8 points from the head or stern, 
 is said to be abeim. 
 
 BEA'MFILLING. In Architecture, the filling in mason 
 ry or brickwork between beams or joists, its height being 
 equal to the depth of the timbers filled in. 
 
 BEAM-TREE. A deciduous British tree of small 
 growth, inhabiting the mountainous parts of the country, 
 and resembling a small apple tree, with berries like those 
 of the mountain ash. Its leaves are strongly veined in a 
 plaited manner, and white underneath ; the wood is hard, 
 compact, and tough, and is used for axletrees, naves of 
 wheels, and cogs of machinery. The Pyrus aria of bo- 
 tanists. 
 
 BEAR. See Ursds. 
 
 BE'ARBERRY. The Arctostaphylus uva ursi. The 
 leaves of this plant, under the name uva ursi, are used as 
 an astringent and tonic in medicine. 
 
 BEARD. (See Barba.) When applied lo corn it is 
 used in the sense of Arrn, which also see. 
 
 Beard. The gills or breathing organs of the oyster and 
 other bivalves are vulgarly so called. 
 
 BE'ARER. (Sax. baran, to bear.) In Architecture, any 
 upright piece used to support another. 
 
 BE'ARING. In Geography and Navigation, the direc- 
 tion or point of the compass in which an object is seen ; 
 thus an object bears north, south, &c. when seen in these 
 directions. When the distance of an object or point of land 
 is specified besides the bearing, -the place of the ship with 
 respect to such object is obviously fixed ; thus, the Land's 
 End N. 48°, E. 141 miles, determines the ship to be 141 
 miles in the S. 4S° W. direction, or nearly south-west 
 from the Land's End. 
 
 BEAR'S FOOT. See Helleborus. 
 
 BEASTS. As charges in Heraldry, are said to be ram 
 
BEAT. 
 
 pant, when represented rearing ; sejant, when seated ; Bta- 
 taiit, when standing J couchant, when lying; salient, when 
 springing; passant, when walking (but the words bi 
 ire used of a beast of cbi 
 ', when full-faced ; regardant, 
 leepy; nascent, rising out of the 
 o ordinary ; issuant, rising from its top orbot- 
 Twu animals represented side by side, but moving 
 us, are said to be eooaterpassant, &c. 
 
 !o beat.) In Music, a reversed 
 ithout i turn. 
 
 beat up, or beat to uindwartl, in Navigation. 
 oust the wind by B zigzag course, and 
 - working to windward. 
 BEAU [DEAL. (Fr.) In Painting, that beauty which ia 
 irmtty and peculiarity found in nature 
 I a species. All the ohjects which na- 
 exhibits to US have their blemishes and defects, though 
 not capable of perceiving them ; and it 1 
 ill of observing what any objects of the same 
 kind have in common that it acquires the faculty of dis- 
 ■ wants in particular. By such means the 
 i of perfect nature, or what is called the 
 See Ideal. 
 BE U,"TY. (Fr. beaute" ) In the Fine Arts, that result 
 perfections whereof an object is suseep- 
 s the senses, and more particularly the 
 i >r. With the painter and sculptor, nature, re- 
 by selecting from the most perfect oi the species, is 
 ■■; hut with the architect the ci 
 
 ; the model of imitation. Some 
 hare been seriously considered 
 less a writer than Burke as consisting in smallness, 
 . delicacy, and the like ; bat such speculations 
 ird for notice here. The primary source of all 
 arts is form; on that alone must the 
 ! If he wonld produce a work capable of pleas- 
 i loubt thai In painting colour is a Dand- 
 
 ier works with many charms ; but they 
 to that great effect which form, unaided 
 .Me. of producing on the mind. 
 
 their nature might lead the artist to the inven- 
 atiful forms; and it was doubtless this fi 
 which ted Bogarth, in his Analysis of Beauty, to p 
 
 it of the serpentine line. But in (hearts 
 iples are infinitely more extended : tor 
 . from their propriety In one art. are strikingly 
 ibsolntely absurd as sources of I 
 we arrive at one general conclusion, that 
 of them fitness for the purpose and proportion to efl 
 beauty of line, and 
 beauty of form. If this be so, no gene- 
 ndent on fitness and proportion 
 laid down ; and perhaps it would not be a difficult 
 to them all those associations which seem to 
 mnected with the subject in its effect on the mind. 
 Alison, in his • !>'ganl Essays on the Nature and Principles 
 lo he much Impressed with the feeling 
 i ive on this point ; for he observes that " if there were 
 ri^inal and independent beauty in any particular 
 i, the preference ol this form would be early and de- 
 cidedly marked both hi the language of children and the 
 opinions of mankind.'' We trust it may not be irreverent 
 article with a quotation which is as expressive 
 of our notions of beauty as resulting from form as the in- 
 spired writer who knew it to be true ofqualities : " All flesh 
 mi" flesh ; but there is one kind of flesh of 
 men. another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another 
 Is. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies ter- 
 ory of the celestial is one, and the glory 
 trial is another." 
 
 nir.w lstor. 
 
 BE'CHICUS. CQr. /?()£, Pnx&S- « cough.) A medicine 
 
 ■ relief of coughs. 
 BED (Sax he'!.) In Architecture, the horizontal sur- 
 .;ii which the stones or bricks of walls lie in courses. 
 Ben op a SrosE, Brick, or Slate. In Architecture, 
 the lower SU1 
 
 BE'DCH V'MBER, LORDS OF THE, or. as they were 
 
 ion of the House of Hanover, Gen- 
 
 . are officers of the royal house- 
 
 i.ol I. under (he groom of the stole; their number has 
 
 usually been twelve, and they wait in turn, a week each. 
 
 office is performed by todies during the reign of a 
 
 BED MOULDING. In Architecture, those mouldings 
 : the orders which are between the corona and frieze, 
 BED OF JUSTICE. (Fr. lit de justice.) In French His- 
 tory, a solemn proceeding to which the monarchs of 
 France had recourse on particular occasions, Aa is well 
 known, the parliament of that country had a ri<:ht to resist 
 any commands or decrees issued by the sovereign. If, 
 r >wever, the king insisted on the fulfilment of his wishes, 
 139 
 
 BEGHARDS. 
 
 he proceeded to hold a " lit de justice :" i. e. he went m 
 person to parliament, attended by the chief officers of the 
 court, and there, mounting the throne (called in the old 
 French language " lit"), caused those commands or de- 
 crees which the parliament had rejected to be registered 
 in his presence. This had the effect of intimidating the 
 parliament into compliance; and the means which I' usu- 
 ally adopted to intimate its dissatisfaction was to enter a 
 protest against the whole proceeding. 
 
 BEDS. In Geology, seams of strata, thick or thin. 
 BEE. Sea Apis. 
 
 BEECH. One of the forest trees of the north of Europe. 
 the Fogus sylvotica of botanists, belonging to the natural 
 order Corylaceos. Its fruit, or mast, consists of triangular 
 
 tosed in a spiny husk or cupule, of the 
 tore as the cup of the acorn, only of a different shape, and 
 the nuts all over. Its wood, which Is hard and 
 rather handsome, is brittle and perishable, anil particularly 
 liable to become wonneaicn. It is chiefly used by turners and 
 millwrights. The purple and copper beeches seen in plan- 
 Ling varieties of Fugvs sylvotica. 
 BEE-EATER Set Manors. 
 
 EATER. (By corruption from the French beauj- 
 
 fetier, an officer appointed to watch the beauffet, buffet, or 
 
 1.) A popular appellation lor the yeoman of the 
 
 i rd. partially derived from the circumstance that 
 some of them originally were ranged at table on solemn 
 
 festivals. 
 
 BEE'LZEBUB. (HebJ A god of the l'hilislines, who 
 had a famous temple at Ekron. His name signifies literal- 
 ly the destroyer ol flies; and if we consider the torment 
 which those insignificant in 
 
 orprising that the Philistines conferred on 
 him this appellation. Besides, it is quite in conformity 
 willi the practice of other idolatrous nations to . 
 their gods as the destroyers of offensive vermin. Take, 
 for instance, the Apollo TuivOtvi (the deatTO] er of rats) of 
 the Greeks. Milton in his epic poem assigns him the second 
 rank ; and in the second book, where he is represented as 
 rising to address the fallen angels, there is an air of ma- 
 jesty in ins demeanour nowhere murpa 
 
 wine of grain. 
 
 .■ fermenting an infusion of barley 
 
 malt and of hop ording to 
 
 It is nutritious from the sugar and 
 
 mucilage which it contains, exhilarating from the spirit, and 
 
 strengthening and narcotic from (he hops. Mr, Bi 
 tamed the following quantities of alcohol from 100 parts of 
 different beers : — Burton ale, between Sand 9; Edinburgh 
 ale, 6 to 7; Dorchester ale, 6 to 6; the average of strong 
 ales being between C and 7 ; brown Stout, 6 to 7: Londoi 
 porter, about 4 (average) ; and London brewers' small beer 
 1 and 2. See 1'kkmf.ntation. 
 
 BEET. (Celt, belt, red.) The sweet succulent root of 
 raris, a Chenopodiaceous plant of biennial dura- 
 tion. It is used in the winter as a salad, for which purpose 
 the red and yellow beets of Castelnaudari are the best; for 
 the food of cattle, under the name of mangel wurzel; and 
 for the extraction of sugar: for the last object a white- 
 rooted variety with a purple crown Is the most esteemed. 
 Sea beet, Beta maritima, is a well-known and excellent sub- 
 stiluie for spinach. 
 
 BE'ETLE. (Sax. byte].) In Architecture, a large 
 i r or mallet, with one, two, or three han- 
 dles, for as many persons, with which piles, stakes, wedg- 
 es, Sec. are driven. 
 
 Beetle. A name commonly given to the insects of the 
 Coleopterous order, especially to such as are of a dark or 
 obscure colour ; it is also applied, but improperly, to the 
 common pest of our kitchens, the blatta, or cockroach, 
 which is an insect of the Orthopterous order, 
 
 BEGHA'RDS. A German word, signifying one who 
 begs with importunity. In this sense, it was frequently 
 applied to the Franciscan anil other mendicant orders, de- 
 noting the practice by which they gained their subsistence. 
 The Benhards formed a sort of intermediate class between 
 the monks and laity, and were known under various de- 
 nominations ; as the tertianes or half monks of the mendi- 
 cant orders, the fraternity of the weavers, the brethren of 
 St. Alexius, <tc. But the term has also been affixed to a 
 set of persons who, in the thirteenth century, became no- 
 torious for the frequency and ardour of their prayers. 
 
 The Beguins were a class of women throughout Ger- 
 many and the Netherlands, who as early as the eleventh 
 century, without taking vows or following the rules of any 
 order, united themselves for devotional and charitable pur- 
 poses, and were distinguished from the great body of the. 
 laity of those times by their industrious, pious, and seclu- 
 ded habits, and by their attention to the education of the 
 young, Their conduct was imitated by men. who formed 
 a union for similar purposes, and were called Beghards 
 \ '■). The Beguins continued to exist in Germany 
 up to the Reformation, under the name of " seelen weiber ' 
 (spiritual women), from the interest they took in the spi- 
 
BEGONIACE.E. 
 
 ritual concerns of their sex; and a society of thein was 
 even seen at Louvain, in the Netherlands, towards the 
 :Iose of last century. There are now in some Roman 
 Catholic countries societies or heguinages of females, who 
 live together after the manner of nuns without taking 
 vows ; hut, by their mode of life and profession, maintain- 
 ing the same intermediate state between the laity and the 
 clergy which was first remarkable in the Beghards and 
 Beguins of the eleventh century. The most celebrated is 
 at Ghent. 
 
 BEGONIA'CEtf:. (Begonia, the principal genus.) A 
 natural order of Polypetalous Exogens, with showy pink or 
 white flowers and handsome succulent leaves, which are 
 frequently richly coloured or gaily variegated, and have 
 one side considerably larger than the other. Their leaves 
 have large stipules, and a subacid flavour. Much differ- 
 ence of opinion exists among botanists as to their affinity. 
 They generally inhabit the dampest parts of the tropics, 
 and are favourites with cultivators both for their beauty 
 and the facility with which they are maintained, in health. 
 BEHE'MOTH. (Hebrew.) The name of an animal, of 
 which some of the characters and attributes are described 
 in poetical language in the 40th chapter of the Book of Job. 
 Much pains have been taken to identify the creature here 
 referred to ; but it must be remembered that the discovery 
 and general adoption of a mode of description which com- 
 bines at once exactness with brevity, and is applicable only 
 to the object described, are the results of a recent and 
 highly advanced state of zoological science. Even the 
 prosaic, and, so far as they went, scientific descriptions of 
 animals in the writings of Aristotle, are rarely so copious 
 and precise as to enable a modern naturalist to identify the 
 existing species there referred to. But ttie aim of Job in 
 the verses in which he sings of Thau, Leviathan, Behe- 
 moth, was to show forth the power and wisdom of the Dei- 
 ty, and lower the pride of man, by appealing to the won- 
 derful powers assigned to some of the most remarkable 
 and formidable objects of animated nature with which he 
 was acquainted ; and it can hardly therefore be expected 
 that curiosity, eager to hunt out the precise species alluded 
 to, should be gratified. Sufficient source of doubt has al- 
 ways been left to shake the most sagacious conjectures ; 
 and some recent inquirers into Biblical zoology, perceiving 
 that the properties of Behemoth were not manifested to 
 the letter in any known existing species, have endeavoured 
 to make the scriptural allusions square with the characters 
 of one of the gigantic extinct animals which the study of 
 fossil remains has brought to light : the Iguanodon, for ex- 
 ample, a supposed herbivorous reptile, with a horn on the 
 nose and a long and flexible tail, has been selected as the 
 species described by Job. The allusion, in verse 17, to a 
 part of the generative organs, which is visible externally 
 only in the class of mammalia, renders it very improbable 
 that Behemoth could be one of the Reptilia. The excla- 
 mation, also, M Behold he drinketh up a river and hasteth 
 not ! He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his 
 mouth," could not with any appearance of truth be applied 
 to a species of a class of animals of which the organization 
 requires them to drink so little and so seldom. If a mam- 
 miferous quadruped, then Behemoth was a herbivorous 
 and ungulate species : " He eateth grass as an ox" (verse 
 15) ; but, unlike the males of the larger ruminants, he had 
 not a divided scrotum, for " the sinews of his stones were 
 wrapt together" (verse 17.) Thus from the few zoological 
 characters which are brought under our consideration, we 
 come, to the conclusion that some huge pachyderm, 
 "whose haunt was in the fens, whose place of retreat was 
 encompassed by the willows of the brook, and overshad- 
 owed by trees, was " the chief of the ways of God," in the 
 language and mind of the sacred poet. 
 
 As there exist differences of opinion among the best He- 
 brew scholars as to the exact signification of the first part 
 of verse 17, which some have rendered ''He sitteth up," 
 and of the second part of verse 19, where allusion is made 
 to some weapon, these become obviously unsafe elements, 
 in the consideration of the zoological problem. 
 
 BELE'MNITES. (Gr. Pe\cu.vov, a dart.) A genus of 
 fossil Dibranchiate Ccpbalopods, the shells of which are 
 chambered and perforated by a siphon, but internal. 
 They are long, straight, and conical ; and commonly 
 called " thunder stones." These' fossil remains arc often 
 found in chalk. 
 
 BEL ESPRIT. (Fr.) A term formerly naturalized in 
 England, applied to those individuals whose conversation 
 or writings display an agreeable sprightliness or vivacity. 
 (Diet. Acad. Frarig.) 
 
 BE'LFRY. (Sax. bell, and Lat. ferre, to cany.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, a tower or other place in which bells are hung. 
 See Campanile. 
 
 BE'LIAL. A Hebrew word, signifying wicked, worth- 
 less, and unprofitable. In Scripture, the sons of Eli are 
 called sons of Belial, for their idolatrous and criminal con- 
 duct (Sam. ii. 12); and likewise the inhabitants of Gibeah, 
 who abused the prophet's wife. (Judg. xix. 22.) The 
 140 
 
 BELLES-LETTRES. 
 
 apostle Paul (2 Cor. vi. 15.), in order to indicate in the 
 strongest terms the high degree of virtue after which th& 
 Christian should strive, places Christ in direct opposition 
 to Belial. Our own epic poet has immortalized the infamy 
 of Belial, by assigning him a prominent place in his Paia- 
 dise Lost. 
 
 A fairer person lost not lieaven ; he heemeu 
 
 Por (iignuy composed, and high exploit. 
 
 But all was false and hol.ow, though his tongue 
 
 Dropped manna, >'iid cou.d make the worse f.ppeur 
 
 The be'ter reason, to perplex and d.ish 
 
 Alaturesl counsels, for his thooghts were low : 
 
 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
 
 Timorous and slothful, &c. 
 In the Paradise Regained, Milton represents even Satan 
 as fired wilh indignation at the impiety of Belial, and as 
 administering to him a sharp rebuke. (Vide Addison's 
 Critique on Milton in the Spectator.) To these quotations 
 may be added an allusion to Belial by Wierus. (Pseudo 
 monorchia Damonum, p. 919.) "Sunt quiilam necroman- 
 tici qui asserunt ipsum Salomonem, quodam die aslutia 
 cujusdam mulieris seductum, orando se inclinasse versus 
 simulacrum Belial nomine." 
 
 BELL. A vessel or hollow body of cast metal, formed 
 to emit sound by the act of some instrument striking 
 against it. Bells are probably of very ancient origin ; they 
 are mentioned as worn upon the high priest's robes, in the 
 book of Exodus (ch. xxviii. ver. 3.) They were used 
 among the Greeks in camps and garrisons. Church bells 
 are said to have been invented by Paulinus, bishop ol Nola 
 in Campania (whence the term Campana), about the year 
 400. They are first mentioned in England by Bede, to- 
 wards the end of the seventh century. 
 
 BELLA DONNA. (Atropa bella donna.) The deadly 
 nightshade : it is an acro-narcotic poison. The name bella 
 donna (handsome lady) is said to have been given from its 
 having been used to improve the complexion. It contains 
 the alkaloid atrojna. 
 
 BELLE'ROPHON. (Gr. PeWspo^ovrra ; Called alto 
 Hipponous.) In the fabulous history of Argos, the son of 
 Glaucus, and grandson of Sisyphus (Pavs. 2. 4.), who was 
 obliged to flee from Corinth for the murder of Bellerus, 
 and seek refuge at the court of Proetus. There Anta?a. the 
 wife of Proteus, conceived a violent attachment for him. 
 which he requited as Joseph did the advances of Potipliur's 
 wife. Nor does the analogy between the cases end here ; 
 for Antaia forthwith accused him fo her husband oi at 
 tempts on her virtue. Proetus. however, unwilling to vio 
 late the laws of hospitality, sent him to Tobates, king oi 
 Lycia, his wife's father, with a letter desiring him to put 
 Bellerophon to death, and mentioning the cause. (Hem . . 
 a letter unfavourable to the bearer was called "Literal Bel 
 lerophontis.") With this view, Tobates sent him on va- 
 rious perilous expeditions : first, against the Chimaera, a 
 dreadful monster, which continually vomited flam** 
 (Lucre, v. 902. ; Viig.JEn. vi. 288. 785.), and which at tl Hi 
 time devastated the country of Lycia, bavin; the I 
 lion, the middle of a goat, and the tail of a serpent (Odd 
 Met. ix. 646.) This monster, however, Bellerophon sue 
 ceeded in destroying by the aid of a winged horse calle. 
 Pegasus (see Pegasus), which he had caught while drink 
 ingat the fountain Pirene in Corinth. In his next expedi- 
 tions against the Solymi and the Amazons, he was equally 
 successful (Horn. II. vi. 155.), and consequently obtained 
 the forgiveness of Tobates. Elated by his success, Bellero- 
 phon tried to fly to heaven on Pegasus ; but Jupiter, en- 
 raged at his presumption, frustrated his attempts by send- 
 ing an insect (oestrum) which stung the horse so violently 
 that he became restive and threw his rider. Though 
 maimed and shattered by the fall, Bellerophon was not 
 killed; but he never perfectly recovered, and continued 
 during the rest of his life to wander up and down in sorrow 
 and dejection. (Hum. II. vi. 201.) Bellerophon, we may 
 add, was celebrated for his skill in horsemanship (I/or. t,o. 
 iii. 12. 7.), and is said to have first taught the art of riding. 
 (I'lin. iv. 56.) 
 
 Belle'rophon. A fossil shell, the animal of which was 
 probably allied to that of argonauta. The genus belongs 
 to the carboniferous and older strata. 
 
 BELLES-LETTRES. (Fr.) Polite Literature. Almost 
 all authors concur in censuring the vague ami indefinite 
 character of this term, as at one time every branch ol 
 knowledge has been included under this denomination, 
 at another, excluded from it. Sometimes we are told 
 that by the belles-lettres is meant a knowledge of ihe 
 arts of oratory and poetry; sometimes that the true 
 belles-lettres include natural philosophy, geometry. 
 and other essential parts of learning ; and on< author, m 
 treating of the belles-lettres, introduces a discourse on the 
 seven sacraments of the Romish church. In the division 
 of the departments at the Lyceum ol Arts, established r.l 
 Paris in 1792, the belles-lettres conprehended general 
 grammar, languages, rhetoric, geography, history, antiqui- 
 ties, and numismatics: whilst philostphy and Ihe various 
 branches of the mathematics were called, in c< 
 
BELLES-LETTRES. 
 
 unction, sciences. Rollin and Rosenstein, who professedly 
 treat of the belles-lettres, comprehend under the term all 
 -tractive and pleasing branches of knowledge 
 nelly occupy the memory and the understanding, 
 it form part either of the superior sciences or of 
 tunical professions. Belles-letlre3, says Blair 
 (after pointing out the tendencies of logical and ethical dis- 
 quisitions), consider man as a being endowed with those 
 and imagination which were intended to 
 embellish his mind, and to supply him with rational and 
 useful entertainment. All that relates to beauty, harmony, 
 grandeur, and elegance— all that can soothe the mind, gra- 
 tify the fancy, or move the affections, belongs to their pro- 
 vince. In an inquiry of this kind, reference must neces- 
 sarily be made to I fume, who, both from the nature of iii.s 
 pursuits and the bent of his mind, was well qualified to 
 give an opinion. Paraphrasing the well-known passage of 
 a classic author, — 
 
 In-:eniia» didicisae fiileliler artea 
 Kmollit mores nee unit esse ferol,— 
 
 >, that the belles-lettres improve our sensibility 
 for all the tender and agreeable passions, at the same time 
 that they render the mind incapable of the rougher and 
 more boisterous emotions. Still the difficulty is not re- 
 fer while all those writers concur in awarding a 
 distinguished pine in the category o"f learning to the '"in- 
 
 the "literae humaniores," as the belles-let- 
 tres are called, they have, if not thrown a veil of obscurity 
 over the precise definition of the term, at least not conde- 
 If we have recourse to the Ger- 
 nuns, we shall find that they comprehend under the de- 
 nomination belles-lettres every branch of learning that is 
 not cultivated with an ulterior view to pecuniary emolu- 
 ment ; but their adoption of the term helletristic, to express 
 all thai relates to works of taste or aesthetics, does not ap- 
 pear to coincide with the definition above given by their 
 professed lexicographers. 
 
 Hut though it would appear difficult to reduce this term 
 
 within the limits of a precise and accurate definition, 
 
 be little doubt that there are few terms which 
 
 tinct a meaning to each individual mind. 
 The influence of the belles-lettres has been felt and ac- 
 knowledged m all ages. The beautiful tribute paid to them 
 
 l defence of Archias is familiar to all. But 
 we shall advert to the sentiments of another Roman, with 
 whom we are more likely to sympathise, as he at least 
 cannot be charged with special pleading. In the beautiful 
 letter to Maecenas, who was afflicted with some mental 
 distemper, Horace first advises his friend to have recourse 
 to the study of polite literature in particular, — 
 
 Sunt verba el voce* quibus hunc lenire dolorem 
 Posais, et magn.un murbi depnnere partem ; 
 
 ind then concludes in these general terms, — 
 [evid'js. Irmeundot, iners, vinosus, amator, 
 Nimj atleo ferns est, nt non mitescere poatit. 
 Si modo culture patienlem cummclel aurem. 
 
 But the high importance with which the same accomplish- 
 ed author has invested polite literature may be still better 
 perceived in another of his epistles, — 
 
 Trojani belli scrtplorem 
 
 Pr.Tne*te relegi, 
 
 Qui, quid lit p'llclirum, quid lurpe, quid utile, quid nou 
 
 studloi et melius l.'hrysippo el Orantore dicll. 
 In this passage Horace pronounces Homer to be the 
 most instructive teacher of moral and political philosophy; 
 and indeed the tribute of respect which all the European 
 nations pay to the Greeks in general, and to Homer in par- 
 ticular, as the authors of their refinement, sufficiently cor- 
 roborates the opinion of the poet 
 
 It would greatly exceed our limits to give even a cursory 
 view of the belles-lettres in the decline and fall of the Ro- 
 man empire ; but we refer the Reader to SchlegeVs Histo- 
 ry of Literature, and to Hallam's Introduction, dec., for full 
 information on this head, ft may, however, be remarked, 
 that during the long period of the middle ages (which has 
 been often, though erroneously, considered as a blank in 
 ory of the human mind) learning was almost whol- 
 ly confined to the church ; and though there was little ori- 
 ginal genius displayed in the province of imagination, yet 
 ! preserved the irerm of the future polite literature 
 of Europe. As early as the 14th century, the spirit of po- 
 lite literature, that had long been slumbering, was reani- 
 mated by the genius of Petrarch, and burst forth like a 
 meteor in the Italian republics. Its genial influence was 
 soon felt on this side the Alps ; and in the year 1400, as 
 Mr. Hallam observes, Spain, France, England, and Ger- 
 many were in possession of a national literature. The 
 traces of this spirit, however, were soon obliterated, and 
 its effects gradually swallowed up in the wars that every- 
 where ensued, and in the all-absorbing taste for metaphy- 
 sical and theological disquisitions that subsequently pre- 
 vailed. 
 It is to the Reformation that may properly be ascribed 
 14/ 
 
 BELOMANCT* 
 
 the origin of polite literature in modern times ; though, to 
 use the words of Schlegel, the authors of that mighty 
 spiritual revolution probably contemplated no other result 
 from it than the emancipation of Europe from ecclesiasti- 
 cal bondage. Among the first-fruits of its effects upon the 
 interests of the belles-lettres in England, it may suffice to 
 mention the names of Spenser, Shakspeare, Diyden, and 
 Milton, who have embodied in their writings all the riches 
 of the English language, and whose works are of them- 
 selves sufficient to furnish any nation with a polite litera- 
 ture of which it might justly be proud. In France, too 
 shortly afterwards, literature assumed a novel and sub- 
 stantial form ; and in the age of Louis XIV. there arose a 
 mighty host of literary stars, which were only equalled in 
 brilliancy by a contemporaneous galaxy of British genius. 
 
 The close of the last and the dawn of the present centu- 
 ry may be regarded as an era in the history of polite lite- 
 rature throughout Europe. Never at any former period 
 were the true nature and object, the wide extent and dig- 
 nity, of the belles-lettres so universally appreciated. 
 While, on the Continent, Gbthe and Schiller were scatter- 
 ing from their rich and inexhaustible stores " thoughts that 
 breathe, and words that burn," England could at the same 
 time boast of the brilliant productions of the Great Un- 
 known, whose influence on polite literature has been well 
 compared to thai of the bright luminary on the terrestrial 
 globe. The rapid strides, too, that have been made in the 
 art of criticism, the establishment of reviews in every 
 country on a more comprehensive plan than was ever pre 
 viously adopted, and the general ability with which these 
 are executed, have greatly contributed to the formation 
 and confirmation of a literary taste. In his admirable Es- 
 say on the Rise of the Arts and Sciences, Hume has re- 
 marked, that nothing is more favourable to the rise of po 
 liteness and learning than a number of neighbouring Uto 
 independent states connected together by commerce and 
 policy. Now, if we apply this observation to the various 
 classes of society in the same country, and contrast the 
 present state of society with that which existed even in 
 the time of Hume, we may perhaps find another clue to 
 the wide spread and cultivation of polite literature among 
 us. At no very distant period, a broad line of demarcation 
 was drawn between the literary and commercial classes 
 of the community ; in fact, literature and commerce stood 
 separated like two different worlds revolving in different 
 spheres. But the scene is changed ; the framework of 
 society has become more artificial, and complicated ; and 
 we may now see the learning of the philosopher, the acutc- 
 ncss and promptitude of the man of business, and the 
 earnestness and enthusiasm of the solitary artist, all 
 brought into actual contact, and shedding each its influ- 
 ence upon the rest. Schlegel's History of Literature. (See 
 art. Literature in this work, and the authorities there 
 referred to.) 
 
 BELL METAL. An alloy of 80 parts of copper and 20 
 of till. The Indian gong metal is a similar alloy. An 
 English bell metal analysed by Dr. Thomson was found to 
 consist of 800 copper, 101 tin, 56 zinc, and 43 lead. Small 
 shrill bells generally contain zinc. 
 
 BELLO'NA. (I.at. bellum.) In the mythology of the 
 ancients, was the wife or sister or the sister wife of Mars, 
 and was especially worshipped by the Romans as the god- 
 dess of war. She possessed a temple, built and dedicated 
 to her by Appius Claudius, which stood in the Circus Fla- 
 ininius, near the Porta Carmentalis. It was here that the 
 senate granted audiences to foreign ambassadors, and re- 
 ceived generals on their return from abroad. In front of 
 this temple also stood the pillar against which the javelin 
 was hurled, the usual preliminary among the Romans to a 
 declaration of war. Bellona is generally depicted as the 
 charioteer of Mars, with wild dishevelled hair, bloody gar 
 ments, and a torch in her hand. Though the Romans 
 were her chief worshippers, there were many temples 
 dedicated to her service in Cappadocia and Paphlagonia. 
 The priests of this goddess, who were termed Bellonarii, 
 consecrated themselves by incisions in their bodies, and 
 sacr ficed to her honour the blood which flowed from their 
 wounds. 
 
 BE'LLOWS. A machine contrived to propel air through 
 a tube or orifice. It is used for blowing fires, supplying 
 the pipes of organs, and other purposes, and is constructed 
 according to various forms, but the principle is the same 
 in all of them. The dimensions of a space in which air is 
 confined are contracted ; the air, being permitted to escape 
 only at a small opening, rushes out with a velocity pro- 
 portional to the pressure and to the smallness of the open- 
 ing. 
 
 BE'LLUvE. (Lat bellua, any great beast.) The term by 
 which Linnaeus designated an order of Mammalia, nearly 
 corresponding to the Pachyderms of Cuvier. 
 
 BE'LOMANCY. (Gr. /JtAoc, javelin, and uavrtia, pro 
 pheey.) Divination by the flight of arrows, common to va 
 rious oriental nations, and especially observed by the Ara 
 bians. It has been performed in various modes; one ol 
 
BELTANE. 
 
 me most common is, to let fly arrows, with inscriptions on 
 labels attached to them, and take for a guide the contents 
 of that belonging to the arrow first found. 
 
 BEL'TANE, or BE'LTIN. (Said to be the "fire of 
 Bel" or Belus.) May-day, and the traditional Celtic cus- 
 toms attached to it. The month of May is thus called in 
 the present Irish language. This day is particularly cele- 
 brat-J by the herdsmen in the Highlands of Scotland. 
 The Beltane-fire, Beltane-cake, &c, are all observances of 
 this day. 
 
 BELTS. A name given to the zones or bands which ap- 
 pear on the disk of the planet Jupiter. They are situated 
 near and parallel to the equator of the planet, and are sup- 
 posed to be produced by clouds in its atmosphere arranged 
 in parallel strata, by currents of wind, which, by reason of 
 the rapid rotation of the planet, must in the equatorial re- 
 gions blow always in the same direction. 
 
 BELVEDE'RE. (It. a fine prospect.) In Architecture, 
 a small building at the top' of a house or palace, construct- 
 ed, as the name implies, to obtain a view of the country. 
 
 BELVISI'EjE. (Belvisia, one of the genera.) In Bot- 
 any, a natural order of monopetalous Exogens, inhabiting 
 Africa on the west side. Scarcely anything is known of 
 the species, and its affinities are quite unsettled. One of 
 the species was called Ncqiuleona imperialis by its discover- 
 er, Palisot de Beauvois, after whom the genus typical of 
 the order is now named. 
 
 BE'MBEX. A genus of Hymenopterous aculeate in- 
 sects of the tribe Fossores, or burrowing sand- wasps ; rais- 
 ed by Dr. Leech to the rank of a family (.Benibecida.), and 
 including the genera Bembex proper, Monedula, and Slizus. 
 Head transverse, with the upper lip exposed ; tongue long, 
 legs short; the brachiaof the female furnished at the sides 
 with very strong spines for burrowing in the sand. For the 
 habits of this family, see Fossores. 
 
 BEMBI'DIUM. A name applied by Latreille to a genus 
 of Coleopterous insects, of the tribe Carabidm. Now raised 
 to the rank of a family (Bembidiidai), including the genera 
 Lymneiun 1, Cillenum 1, Tuchys 8, Pldloclithus 6, Ocys 3, 
 Peryphus 10. Notaphus'J, Sopha 11, TachypusS, Bembidium 
 proper 4 : the figures refer to the number of indigenous 
 species in each of the genera. The common characters 
 of the group are, cubits notched, elytra rounded at the ex- 
 tremity, abdomen not pedicellate, external maxillary palpi 
 terminated by a very minute and acute joint, antenna? sub- 
 elongate. The Bembidiidai are generally found in low and 
 damp situalions, are of very small size, and glitter with 
 polished metallic colours. 
 
 BEND. In Heraldry, an ordinary bounded by parallel 
 lines, equally distant from the line joining the dexter base 
 to the sinister chief. It contains the fifth part of the es- 
 cutcheon if charged, and the third if not charged. The 
 bend sinister descending from the sinister chief to the dex- 
 ter base, is the well known difference which denotes bas- 
 tardy, being borne on the paternal escutcheon of the bastard. 
 
 To Bend. The general sea term for fastening any thing ; 
 is to bend one rope to another, the cable to the anchor, a 
 sail to a yard or gaff Cerlain knots are called bends ; as a 
 iarrick bend, a fisherman's bend, &c. 
 
 BENDS, called also WALES. A certain number of 
 hick planks of the ship's side, from the water upwards. 
 
 BENEDI'CTINE MONKS. An order of monks that 
 allowed the rule of St. Benedict, which, as early as the 
 til century, had extended itself through Italy, France, 
 Spain, Germany, and England. The rules of Benedict, 
 Although founded no doubt on the old monastic institutions 
 of Cassian 'Cassiani Opera, Lips. 1733), were of a much 
 more rational and comprehensive character. Avoiding 
 the extreme rigour of the Eastern systems, he not only 
 exacted a promise from all who entered a convent that 
 they would remain for life, and strictly observe its rules 
 (.Marten. Commen. in Ilegulas Bened. Paris, 1690), but 
 in-escribed to litem a variety of suitable employments. 
 This system soon made rapid progress, and the monks be- 
 gan to be useful to society in various ways: reclaiming 
 waste lands, promoting zealously the cause of education, 
 preserving the history of the times in their chronicles, and 
 multiplying the treasures of antiquity by their copyists. 
 Under Charles the Great this order of monks was prefer- 
 red to every other ; and the spirit of inquiry which they 
 then called into existence was perpetuated by the depth of 
 their enthusiam and the extent of their learning. To give 
 even a cursory history of this order would far exceed our 
 limits, as it embraces perhaps the palmiest days of eccle- 
 siastical domination. (Vide Gieseler's Kirclien-geschichte ; 
 a work of great learning, and. as a book of reference, in- 
 comparable.) As is universally known, it is to the Bene- 
 dictine monks that England (a. d. 590) is indebted for its 
 conversion from idolatry. This order has produced avast 
 number of ancient writers and men of learning. Among 
 others, Placidius Maurus founded the school of Germany ; 
 Alcuinus the university of Par's; Guido invented the scale 
 of music ; Dionysius Exiguus completed the collection of 
 papal decrees (a. d. 510) ; and the most learned man of his 
 142 
 
 BENZOIN. 
 
 time, the admiration of the whole Western world, the Ve 
 nerable Bede, belonged to this order.. 
 
 BE'NEFICE. (Lat. beneficium.) A word denoting a 
 certain class of church preferments, viz. rectories, vicar- 
 ages, perpetual curacies, and chaplaincies ; and distinguish- 
 ed from a dignity, under which title are compri 
 bishoprics, deaneries, and prebe'nds. Under the Roman? 
 certain grants of lands made to the veteran soldiers were 
 called beneficia ; and the same term was applied at the 
 commencement of the feudal system to estates conferred 
 by the sovereign and held under him: which afterwards 
 assuming a hereditary character became ■• I 
 so called. In the middle ages the popes assumed the feu- 
 dal right with reference to ecclesiastical "patronage,'' and 
 the term beneficium was hence applied to livings, &c, on 
 the assumption that they were held under the pope as a 
 superior lord. It was the assertion of this claim by Inno- 
 cent III. and his successors, which roused the jealousy of 
 the European sovereigns, especially those of England and 
 France ; and from the contentions consequent upon this 
 the first opening was made to the cause of Reformation. 
 
 BE'NEFIT OF CLERGY. In law, originated in the im- 
 munities from municipal jurisdiction enjoyed in many 
 states of Europe by the Roman Catholic clergy during the 
 middle ages. When a person-indicted for certain offences 
 (most of those subjecting the offender to capital or corpo- 
 real punishment, excepting high treason) pleaded that lie 
 was a clerk or clergyman, and claimed privilege, he was 
 demanded by his ordinary : a jury was summoned, and he 
 was tried; and, according to their verdict, delivered to the 
 ordinary as acquitor convict, to undergo canonical purgation, 
 and to be discharged or punished according to the result of 
 such purgation. The proof of clergy, at first strictly required. 
 was at last so relaxed, that it was only necessary for the of- 
 fenders show that he was able to read. The bishop's com- 
 missary was present, to decide whether or nol he passed the 
 test satisfactorily. This loose mode of acquiring the pri- 
 vilege was first restricted by the stat. 4 H. 7. c. 13., which 
 provided that offenders who had been allowed their clergy 
 should be " burnt in the thumb," and if they claimed it a 
 second time, be required to give proof of being actually in 
 orders. By 18 Eliz. c. 7., the second trial by compurgation 
 before the ordinary (which had become a mere fiction) 
 was abolished, and the judges were empowered to im 
 prison the person who had benefit of clergy lor a year, if 
 they thought proper. By various subsequent statutes, the 
 burning in the hand was commuted for transportation 
 whipping, &c, at the discretion of the judges ; and the be- 
 nefit was taken away altogether from a number of statu- 
 table felonies. By 5 Anne, c. 6., the ceremony of reading 
 was abolished, benefit of clergy being granted indiscrimi- 
 nately to all entitled to it ; and finally by one of the enact- 
 ments commonly called Peel's Acts (7 & 8 G. 4. c. 28. s. .) 
 benefit of clergy was abolished altogether. 
 
 BENE'VOLENCE. (Lat.) In English History, a species 
 of tax levied by the sovereign. As its name implies, it was 
 nominally a gratuity ; but was, in point of fact, exacted as 
 a forced loan, with or without the condition of repayment, 
 under the reigns of the Plantagenet kings. By a statute ol 
 Richard III. benevolences were declared illegal; but they 
 were again exacted by Henry VII., and occasionally, by 
 means of circulars under the privy seal, by his successors 
 By 13 C. 2. slat. 1. c. 4. no voluntary aid can be raised on be 
 half of the king without the authority of paxliamet 
 the general illegality of levying money for the use of the 
 crown without such authority was declared in 1G88 by the 
 Bill of Rights. 
 
 BEN NUTS. The seeds of an Arabian plant called Mo 
 ringa aplcra ; they yield an oil, called oil of ben, and have 
 been employed in syphilitic diseases. 
 
 BEN, OIL OF. The expressed oil of fhe nut of the J*. 
 ringa uptera. This oil is remarkable for not becoming 
 rancid by age ; and as it is perfectly insipid and inodorous, 
 it is used for extracting the fragrancy of certain flowers, 
 such as jessamin, orange, &c. The same tree furnishes 
 the Li grain nephriticum, supposed to be useful in certain 
 affections of the kidneys. 
 
 BENT GRASS. A species of Agrostis, the bent and 
 creeping stems of which are very difficult to eradicate. 
 
 BENTS. The withered stalks of grass standing in a 
 pasture after the seeds have dropped. 
 
 BE'NZAMIDE. A compound, obtained by exposing 
 chloride of benzole to ammoniacal gas. 
 
 BENZO'IC ACID. This acid forms a constituent of 
 many balsams ; it is generally obtained by beating benzoin, 
 and collecting the acid vapours which are evolved and con- 
 dense in brilliant acicular crystals. It is a compound of 
 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; its equivalent oeing 120. 
 Its combinations are called Benzoates. 
 
 BENZO'IN. The resinous exudation of the Styraxbm- 
 zoe, a tree which is a native of Sumatra. Benzoin is a 
 combination of resin and benzoic acid, it has a mottled o/ 
 amygdaloid texture, and is composed of a mixture ot 
 brown and white parts. It has a fragrant odour. 
 
BENZULE. 
 
 BENZFLE. (From benzoin, and -SXij, principle.) A 
 
 i I of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, regarded as 
 
 inzoic acid. 
 
 BERBERA'C£JE,or BERBER1DE.E. A natural order 
 
 , named alter the genua Borberis, which is in fact 
 
 ■ important genua it contains It is the only one 
 
 lit is succulent and eatable ; that of the others is 
 
 dry and hard. 
 
 BE'RBEREN. A yellow bitter principle, contained in 
 
 iholic extract of the root of the barberry tree. 
 
 BE'RBERRV. (Lat. berberis.) A spiny shrubby plant, 
 
 bearing yellow flowers, and succulent one eel 
 
 gr nuiii in racemea ll Isone of a genus in which the fruit 
 
 u universally fleshy and acid, although often less so than 
 
 nmoii kind (Berberis vulgaris). Some of thespe- 
 
 i my are ever-greens, and seve- 
 
 ral liave a black fruit ; even the common sort has a variety 
 
 of this description, as well as others with pale yellow and 
 
 i idea among people in the 
 
 I iial a berberry hush brings blieht to a wheat field ; 
 parasitical fungus which attacks the berberry is 
 
 in that which produces the mildew 
 which cannot possibly be communicated by the 
 
 "ier. 
 
 BE'RGAMOT, ESSENCE OF. The essential oil of the 
 
 rind of a small pear-shaped fruit, the produce of the Citrus 
 
 Umetta bergamium. It is much used as a perfume, and 
 
 apt to be adulterated with the oils of orange and lemon 
 
 lid with alcohol. 
 
 BRRO'SUS. In Entomology, a genus of Coleopterous 
 
 ol the family // They inhabit ponds, 
 
 they may often be seen swimming in an inverted 
 
 BE'UVL. A mineral allied to the emerald, composed of 
 
 15 alumina. It glucine, 2 lime, 1 oxide of iron. It 
 
 id in beautiful crystals, 
 
 much I irger than those of the emerald. It is the ai/ua- 
 
 fthejewellei come* from Daoria, dn 
 
 the frontiers of China, from Siberia, and from Brazil. 
 
 BBSI'tfBN. An obsolete term for the spores or seeds 
 
 of the lowest kinds of plants, especially of Algae. 
 
 BETEL. The leaf of the betel e-r BirTboa pepper, 
 
 ■ 1 by the Inhabitants of many parts of India 
 
 th a nut of the areca palm tree and lime; whi#i 
 
 wrapped in the betel leaf. It is acrid and 
 
 i red. 
 
 BETIIY'LTJ8. in Entomology, a senus of Hymenoplc- 
 
 the family ProctorrupuU*. 
 BETROTHMENT. A mutual compact between two 
 parties, by which they bind themselves to marry. Be- 
 . the Roman law, as it 
 that of various continental countries. In Germa- 
 ny, betrothments are either public, with the consent of re- 
 ul presenceof witnesses : or private (clandestine), 
 which in some countries are void. — in others, although 
 valid as contracts, punishable as misdemeanors. Public 
 betrothment induces the obligation to marry. But accord- 
 ing to modem practice an action for damages is almost the 
 only way of enforcing it; a small fine or imprisonment 
 utmost criminal penalty for the violation of the 
 ment. 
 BETULA'CEjB. (Betula, one of the genera.) A small 
 natural order of plants, containing the birch, after which it 
 nam '.and the common alder. The order formed 
 p irt iifwhat were formerly called Amentaeem. 
 
 BE'VEL. (Lat. bivium. branching rond ) In Architec- 
 ture, an instrument for taking angles. One side of a solid 
 be bevelled with respect to another when 
 • contained between their two sides is greater or 
 n a right angle. 
 BEVEl, ANGLE. A term used among artificers to de- 
 nize which is neither a right angle nor half a right 
 anile. 
 
 BEVEL OEER. In Mechanics, a species of wheel- 
 work, in which the axles of two wheels working into each 
 other are neither parallel nor perpendicular, but inclined 
 id t her in a certain angle. Wheels of this kind are 
 ed conical wheels, because their teeth may be re- 
 m cut in the frustram of a cone. See Wheel. 
 BEY, or BEG. A Turkish and Tartar title of dignity, 
 i le I -.villi no very accurate application for lord, prince, or 
 ;hlef, and frequently subjoined to the proper names of 
 is of rank. 
 BEZA'NT. A gold coin struck at Byzantium (Constan- 
 1 in weight and in value. Bezants ap- 
 pear to have been current in England from the tenth cen- 
 tury to the time of Edward III. Some of them weighed 
 about twenty grains. According to Camden, a piece of 
 gold which was anciently offered by the king on high fes- 
 
 I I called a Mxantine, and valued at JB15. There 
 were also white or silver bezants. 
 
 Bezant. In Heraldry, a circle, or. The name is de- 
 rived from the gold coins of the Greek empire, termed 
 bezants, or bvzantincs, by the people of the West. It 
 143 
 
 BIBLICAL HISTORi*. 
 
 was probably introduced into coat armour by the Crusn. 
 ders. 
 
 BE'ZOAR. A Persian word implying destructive of 
 poison, and applied to certain intestinal concretions of ani- 
 mals, called bezoar stones, and supposed to possess such 
 powers. 
 
 BI. (Lat. bis, licice.) Signifies, when attached to other 
 words, two, twice, or double ; as bicarbonate of potash, a 
 compound of potash with two atoms of carbonic acid ; bi- 
 locular. two cells ; bivalve, two valvi 
 
 BlARTI'CULATE. (Lat bis, artieuluo, Mint.) Applied 
 • logy to the antennae of insects when they consist 
 but of two joints, and also to the abdomen under the same 
 aa in the Nycleribta biarliculuta. 
 
 BIAFUl'CULATE. (Lat bis, auricula, an auricle.) In 
 Comparative Anatomy, signifies a heart with two auricles, 
 as In most bivalve molluscs, and in all reptiles, birds, and 
 mammals. 
 
 BI'BLE. (Gr. 0i6\os. a book; from whence the word 
 came to bi iphatically to the volume of the Old 
 
 and New Testament 
 
 The sixth article of the English Church enumerates the 
 books of the Old Testament, which it considers of canoni- 
 cal authority: in which it follows the canon received by 
 in the time of our Saviour. The apocryphal 
 writings, which are accounted authentic by the Bom 
 Catholics, are of undoubted antiquity, being comprised in 
 the Septuaginl edition of Um Scriptures ; hut iheir authori- 
 ty has never been acknowledged by the .lews, who reckon 
 twenty-four canonical books; nor are their originals found 
 in the Hebrew langu 
 
 ion of the New Testament is now received with- 
 out variation, we believe, in all Christian communities. 
 In the early period of the church, the authenticity of parti- 
 cular books was frequently disputed, and heretii 
 attempted to foist other apocryphal writings into their 
 place. The general consent, however, of the orthodox 
 church may be inferred from catalogues extant in the 
 writings of many of the Fathers throughout the first four 
 centuries, ami I declaration of the council of 
 
 Laodicea anil others. Some latitude of opinion seems. 
 however, to have been allowed in early times respecting 
 the book of Revelations; and some of the Fathers confess 
 that the genuineness of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 of that of James, of the second of Peter, and two last ol 
 John, was held tiv some to b> 
 
 BIBLE SOCIETY, THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 
 A society established in England in the year 1804, " with 
 the sole object," as it is expressed in its regulations, "of 
 encouraging a wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures 
 without note or comment." The society took its rise from 
 the circumstance of the complaints which had been made in 
 Wales for some years previous, respecting the gi 
 ciency of Bibles iii the language of the Prlncip dlty — a want 
 which, it was urged, the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge had very Imperfectly supplied. The earliest 
 promoters of this Institution were the Rev. Mr. Charles of 
 Bala, Mr. Hughes, and Mr. Steinkoff, minister of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran Church. Among its principal patrons may 
 be mentioned Lords Telgnmouth and Gambler, Messrs. 
 Wilberforre, Granville Sharp, and Charles Grant. This 
 society has now auxiliary establishments connected with 
 it not only in all l he principal cities of the United Kingdom, 
 but throughout Europe and North America. 
 
 The principle upon which the Bible Society acts has al- 
 ways been regarded with jealousy by the high church 
 party in England. In the first place, it is looked upon not 
 only as a rival to the venerable Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge, which had been in action since the 
 year 1099 ; but as casting some slur upon the latter as in- 
 efficient in its operation and erroneous in its principles. 
 The younger society also admits as members the adhe- 
 rents of every religious denomination, and In its proceed- 
 ings maintains an absolute neutrality among them — which 
 its opponents consider incompatible wilh the profession 
 of true churchmanship. Accordingly many controversies 
 have been carried on between the champions of the two 
 institutions ; in the course of which, however, it would 
 seem that the Bible Society has gained ground in the fa- 
 vour of the established church, from whence a large pro- 
 portion of its subscribers are now derived. Among them 
 are the names of several bishops, and many other digni- 
 taries. 
 
 In the report for 1S40, We find the total number of Bibles 
 and Testaments issued by this society since its foundation 
 to be 12,322,471. The number issued during the year end- 
 ing March, 1S40, was 770,360. The income of the society 
 for that year was .£111,449. 13s. Id. 
 
 BI'BLICAL HISTORY AND LITERATITRE. The ac- 
 counts of the books of the Jewish Scriptures antecedent to 
 the captivity are few and indistinct ; but they are referred 
 to under the titles of "the law," "the books of Moses, 
 and " the books of the law of Moses," by Daniel (ix. 11.), 
 Ezra (vi. 18.), and Nehemiah (viii. 1.): there are also other 
 
BIBLICAL HISTORY. 
 
 passages from which it may be inferred, independent of the 
 internal evidence of the books which we possess, that 
 there existed such from an early period. 
 
 The canon of the Old Testament appears, however, to 
 have been settled, and the limits of inspired Scripture de- 
 termined about 50 years after the return from the captivity, 
 by the authority of Ezra and the prophets of his day ; the 
 books of Nehemiah, Malachi, and Ezra himself being sub- 
 sequently added. The sicred writings which came in 
 later times to be incorporated in the collection of the Jew- 
 sh Scriptures are known by the name of Apocrypha, or 
 secret : they were undoubtedly held in respect by the 
 Jews, and by the Christians afterwards; but Protestants 
 deny that they were ever held to V 1 aspired, or their au- 
 thority placed on the same footing as ..iat of the canonical 
 Scriptures. 
 
 At a later period we find passages in the New Testament, 
 in Philo, and most distinctly in Josephus, to prove the fact 
 of this collection of the Scriptures into a volume. The 
 books themselves are first specified by Origen, who enu- 
 merates twenty-two, in which number he coincides with 
 Josephus. His list embraces all that we consider canoni- 
 cal, and rejects the Apocrypha. 
 
 The early versions which illustrate the question of the 
 antiquity of the Hebrew Scriptures are the Samaritan Pen- 
 tateuch, and the Septuagint or Greek translation. It is not 
 to be supposed that the Samaritans would have adopted 
 and translated the books of the Jews, unless they had 
 been received prior to the separation and enmity of the 
 two peoples, the period at latest of the return from the 
 captivity. The Samaritan Pentateuch now extant is said 
 to be a version from the earlier Hebrew Samaritan into 
 the more modern Samaritan, and was made before the 
 time of Origen. The part of the Septuagint which com- 
 prises the Pentat»«eh was made about the year b. c. 285; 
 the translation of the other book into Hellenistic Greek ap- 
 pears to be of different and somewhat later dates. 
 
 Next in order to these may be mentioned the versions 
 of the Old Testament in the earliest periods of Christiani- 
 ty, which are important, not as assisting us to ascertain 
 the antiquity of the original, but as contributing to our 
 knawledge of the genuine text. These may be divided 
 nto three classes. ■ 
 
 I. The Oriental, comprising — 
 
 The Syriac or Peschito (literal), from the Hebrew, 
 about the end of the first century — embracing both 
 the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 The Coptic, from the Septuagint — between centuries 
 two and five. This embraces also the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 The Ethiopic, from the Septuagint — in the fourth cen- 
 tury : embraces the N. T. 
 
 D. The Latin, or Western : — 
 
 The Italic, from the Septuagint, in either the first or 
 second century ; only fragments remain : it em- 
 braced also the New Testament. 
 
 The Vulsate, made from the Hebrew by Jerome, a. d. 
 390. This translation is considered an ultimate au- 
 thority by the church of Rome. 
 
 The Gothic version of Ulphilas, which was made from 
 the Greek of both the Old and New Testaments, in 
 the fourth century, has not come down to us entire. 
 Only a small part is in print. 
 
 III. The Greek, comprising — 
 The version of Aquila. 
 
 of Theodotian. 
 ofSymmachus. 
 All translated from the Hebrew ; all of or near 
 the second century ; all exist only in the fragments 
 of the Hexaple or combination of six versions by 
 Origen. 
 
 Tt»? genuineness of the Hebrew text was preserved after 
 i lie destruction of Jerusalem by the sedulous care of 
 learned academies which flourished at Tiberias, Babylon, 
 and other places, from the first to the twelfth centuries. 
 The date of the Masora is generally fixed about the fifth 
 century. This work consisted of a most minute enume- 
 ration of the sections, verses, words, and letters of the 
 Scriptures ; which has been so successful in fixing the 
 semiine reading, that although there were discovered up- 
 wards of 800 discrepancies between the Oriental and Oc- 
 cidental Recensions, they all relate, with one single excep- 
 tion, to vowel points, and are of no kind of importance. 
 For an account of the labours of the early Jewish schools 
 of criticism in the interpretation of the Hebrew text, see 
 art Talmud. 
 
 The integrity of the text of the New Testament has been 
 established by the collation, wholly or in part, of 674 manu- 
 scripts, existing either entire or in fragments. These have 
 been classified by modern critics according to recensions 
 »r families, the most simple of whose systems and that 
 144 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 most approved, is Scholz's, who considers all the variations 
 that exist in these MSS. to be resolvable into their having 
 been transcribed from Constantinopolitan or Alexandrian ex 
 emplars. The former he considers to have been from the 
 earliest times the most strict and faithful recension. It 
 was that which was principally used in the liturgical offices 
 of the East; and its fidelity is argued from the exact uni- 
 formity of all the MSS. which can be traced historically to 
 a Constantinopolitan origin. This may be accounted for 
 by the authority inherent in the text received in the centre 
 of the imperial power and of the patriarchal jurisdiction. 
 It is also consistent with the minute care with which the 
 rites of the Constantinopolitan church were enjoined by its 
 missionaries upon their converts ; and also with the char- 
 acter of the Greek fathers, who present much greater ex- 
 actness and uniformity in their quotations of the New Tes- 
 tament than the African. On the other hand, the Alexan- 
 drian copies have been written with a considerable degree 
 of carelessness, and do not appear to have been intended, 
 even in their own country, for reading in public service. 
 They are said to partake in the rash and speculative spirit 
 of the theologians of the Alexandrian church. The formei 
 of these recensions has been adopted in the Syriac, Gothic, 
 and Sclavonic versions. It is that also which forms the 
 basis of our modern texts. The latter was followed by 
 several Latin, the Coptic, and Ethiopic translations. Eras- 
 mus conceived the idea of the Greek text having been pur 
 posely corrupted to suit the Vulgate, and assigns the coun 
 cil of Florence in 1439 as the authority by which this trans- 
 action was effected. This opinion continued to be held 
 under the title of the Fcedus cum Gracis, with more or less 
 discussion till modern times, by which it seems to be very 
 generally rejected as untenable. It is known, on the con- 
 trary, that in the compilation of his translation, which bears 
 the name of the Vulgate, the existing Latin version was 
 corrected by Jerome from the Greek. See Home's Man 
 ual of Biblical Literature, Svo. London, 1839. 
 
 BIBLIO'GRAPHY. (Gr. Pi6\tov, a book, and ypcupw, 
 I describe.) The science of books. The knowledge which' 
 is required to classify books, according to the various sub- 
 jects on which they treat, has been termed intellectual bi- 
 bliography ; that of the external peculiarities of books, their 
 editions, &c, material bibliography. The first branch bor- 
 ders closely on the province of criticism ; for the most 
 valuable bibliographical works, being what are termed in 
 French " catalogues raisonnees," are those in which the 
 lists of books are accompanied with some remarks on (he 
 character of their contents. The second branch of bibli- 
 ography has been of late years cultivated with all the ar- 
 dour attached to a fashionable and somewhat eccentric 
 pursuit. The lovers of rare editions and curious copies of 
 works, from being, to borrow a French term, " bibliophiles," 
 have formed of late a peculiar sect entitled " biblioman- 
 iacs," with whom the fancy for books has become a pas- 
 sion, like those of Dutch speculators for tulips and pic- 
 lures. Many works of novel and curious research in this 
 department of literature have been recently produced to 
 guide their taste, and gratify their appetite. For the pur- 
 poses of the common student, Brunei's Manuel du Li- 
 braire, although by no means complete, is still the. most 
 useful index to general literature. Many books of a similar 
 character exist in English, but none that can be recom- 
 mended as generally valuable ; although some of those de- 
 voted to particular branches of the subject, especially to 
 the learning of early editions, display much curious re- 
 search. Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, although useful, 
 from its double arrangement according to subjects and au- 
 thors, is a very imperfect work. 
 
 The following list contains a selection from among the 
 most valuable works which we possess, in different depart- 
 ments of bibliography. But many of them, from the criti- 
 cal matter which they contain, may be considered to be- 
 long to the history of literature, as well as of books and 
 editions. ' 
 
 I. Introductory Works on the Science of Bibliography. 
 Peignot, Manuel Bibliographique. 1800. 
 Peignot, Dictionnaire Raisonne'e de Bibliologie, 3 vols. 
 
 8vo. 1804. 
 Achard, Cours de Bibliographie, 3 vols. 8vo. Marseilles, 
 
 1807. 
 Home, Thomas Hartwell, Introduction to the Study of 
 
 Bibliography, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1814. 
 Denis, Einleitung zur Biicherkunde, 2 vols. 4to. Vienna, 
 
 1796. 
 Boulard, Traitg Elementaire de Bibliographie, 1806. 
 Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographie und Bibliopholie, 4lo 
 
 Leipzig, 1793. 
 Ebert, die Bildung der Bibliothekars, 8vo. Leipzig, 1820. 
 Hoffmann, Handbuch der Biickerkunde, 8vo. Leipzig, 
 
 1838. 
 Molbech, Ueber Bibliothekroissenschaftuberg von Ratjen 
 
 8vo. Leipzig, 1833. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 U Bibliography of the Oriental and Classical Languages. 
 
 Clarke. Dr. Adam, Hiblioerapliic.il Dictionary and Mis- 
 cellany, 8 vols. l2mo. London, 1802-6, 
 
 Le Long, Bibliotheca Sacra, 2 vols. fol. Paris, 1723. 
 
 Faliriciua, Uibliotheca Grrcca, edited by Harles, 12 torn. 
 4io. Hamburg, 1790. 1809. 
 
 Fbbricius, Bibliotheca Latina. By Ernesti. 3 vols. 8vo. 
 ;74. 
 
 Fabricius, Media et Infimae ^tatis. By Manso. 3 vols. 
 4t0. Palav i 
 
 Jfann-cd's View of the various Editions of the Greek 
 and i; t, 1775. 
 
 Uihdins Introduction i<> the Knowled-;^ of rare and valu- 
 able Edition-: of the Classics, 2 vols. wo. 1827 (last ed.) 
 il of Classical Bibliography, 2 vols. 6vo. 
 
 •.iinn ( 'lassici Biblioteca Portabil- (Boni and Gam- 
 
 !mo, Venice, 1793. 
 
 Br'uggemann, Viewof the English Editions, Translations, 
 
 and Commentaries of the ancient Greek and Latin 
 
 Authors, 2 vols, 8m Stettin, 1798. 
 
 Schieeigger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographic, 
 
 2 vols. Svo. Leipzig, 1S34. 
 Brehrn, Bibliographischcs Handbuch der gesaramten 
 Gr. and Rom. Litteratur. 3 vols. 8vo. Leipzig, 1800. 
 
 ii Litteratur der 
 .•>. Leipzig, 1838. 
 
 , The same, In Latin, 3 vols. Svo. Leipzig, 1836. 
 
 Heben*- i mm editionum Auctorum Classico- 
 
 rum, Svo. Vien . 1838. 
 
 01. Bibliograpfnj of particular Sciences and Branches of 
 
 Lipenius, Bibliotheca; (Theologies, Juridica, Philosophies 
 
 Medics), 8 vols fol. The Juridica by itself has been re- 
 
 printed, with supplements, Sec. in 4 vols. Leipzig, 
 
 177.V 30, and three large supplements. The whole col- 
 
 es iimter the title of Bibliotheca Realis. 
 
 ;. HI 7- 183a 
 
 Meusel, Bibliotheca Histories, 22 vols. 8vo. Leipzig, 
 I80L 
 
 Le Long, Bibliotheque Uistorique do la France, 6 vols. 
 folio, 1768, 177a 
 
 Jirin < Bibliography, Svo. Lond. 1807. 
 
 Murhard, Bibliotheca Mathematics, 5 vols. 8vo. 1805. 
 
 Dryander, Catologus Bibliothecae Historian Naturalis Jo- 
 seph) Hanks (a general account of books on natural 
 history). 4 vols. -■■ 
 
 Lalaivi ie Astronomique, 4to. Paris, 1803. 
 
 Boucher de la Richarderie, Bibliotheque de Voyages, 6 
 -vo. Pans, 1808. 
 
 Martin. Bibliographies] Catalogue of Books privately 
 printed in England, Svo. London, 1834. 
 
 Ilontr, Manual of Biblical Bibliography, Svo. London, 
 
 Millitz, Bibliotheca Botanies, «vo. Berlin, 1839. 
 Ploucquel, Literature Medics Digests, 4 vols. 4to. and 
 
 8uppt Tubing 1808-14. 
 Ptrcheron, Bibliograpbie Entomologique, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Forbes. Manual of Select Medical Bibliography, 8vo. 
 London, 1835. 
 
 Ray, Catalogus Bibliothecffl Medics, 5 vols. 8vo. Am- 
 sterdam, 1830. 
 
 Atkinson, Medical Bibliography, vol. 1. A — B. 8vo. 
 London, 1834. 
 
 Chovlant, Ilandb. der Biicherkunde fur die Aeltere Me- 
 dicin, Svo. Liepzig, 1811. 
 
 '. Bibliography of Modern Nations. 
 
 Watt's Bibliotheca Britannics, 4 vols. 4to. Edin., 1819. 
 This very laborious work contains a mere catalogue of 
 work:',, arranged alphabetically, first under the head of 
 writers, and then of subjects. A more complete, and 
 more critical work on English Bibliography, Js among 
 the greatest disidersta of the present -'ay. Dr. Watt's 
 work contains many foreign articles ; but is chiefly de- 
 voted to English literature. 
 
 Querard, La France Litteraire ; a very valuable catalogue 
 of French works in all departments of literature, 10 
 vols. Bvo. Paris, 1828-1842. 
 
 MazzucheUi, Auiori d'ltalia; a work containing literary 
 history and biography, with bibliographical science. 
 2 t. fol. Brescia. 1753-63. 
 
 Foppcn. Bibliothecs Belgica, 2 vols. 4to. 1739. 
 
 Fournier. Nouveau Dictionn. de Bibliographic, I vol. 
 Paris. : 
 
 Gamba. delle Novelle Italiane in Prose Bibliographia, 
 8vo. Firen., 1836. 
 
 Hemorias. do Litleratura Portugueza, 6 vols. 4to. Lis- 
 bon, 17'/2 ■%. 
 Jtto, The History of Russian Literature ; with a Lexi- 
 con of Russian Authors. Translated from the Ger- 
 man, by Geo. Cox, 8vo. Oxford, 1839. 
 145 
 
 . S/rahl, Gelehrtes Russland, Svo. Leipzig, 18*38. 
 Ersch, Gelehrtes Frankreich, 5 vols. Svo. Hamb., 1806 
 Antonio, Bibliotheca HUpana Vetus et Is'ova, cura Bay- 
 era, 4 vols, folio. Mat., 1788. 
 Wa/mholtz, Bibliotheca Histories Sue-Gothica, 15 vols 
 
 Svo. Stockholm, 1782-1817. 
 Brydges, British Bibliographer, 4 vols. Svo. Londot, 
 
 181014. 
 Lowndes, Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature. 
 
 4 vols. 8vo. London, 1834. 
 , British Librarian. Parts 1-10. 1839-18-11. In 
 
 course of publication. 
 Cotton, Typographical Gazetteer, 8vo. Oxford, 1831. 
 Geysbeck's Bibliog. Diet, of the Poets of the Nether 
 
 buds, vols. 8vo. Amst., 1827. 
 
 . Bibliotheque Anglc-Saxonne, Svo. Paris, 1S37. 
 Petheram, An Historical Sketch of the Progri 
 
 Present State of Anglo-Saxon Literature in England, 
 
 Svo. London, 1840. 
 
 V. Bibliographic(d Works on rare Books, Typographic^ 
 Aiu'i'/uilies, early Editions, 4*c. 
 Vogt, Catalogus Librorum Rariorum, Svo. 1732. 
 
 Gerdesius. Florilegium Librorum Rariorum, Svo. 1731. 
 
 Clement, Bibliotheque Curieuse, on Catalogue Kaisotme 
 des Livres Rares, 4to. 1750-60. A minutely critics' 
 work. 
 
 Bauer, Bibliotheca Librorum Rariorum Universalis, 7 
 vols. Svo. 1770-91. 
 
 Maittaire, Annates Typographic! abArtis interna; On 
 gine, 5 vols. 4to. Hamb.. 1719-41. Severn! supple- 
 ments have been published. 
 
 Panzer, Annates Typographici ab Artis inventte Origine 
 ad Annum 1500. (It is, however, carried down It, 
 1536.) 11 vols. 4to. Nuremb., 17H3. 1 
 
 Ames's Typographical Antiquities, first edition, 17-W: 
 republished by Mr. Huhet in 3 vols. 4to. 1790; and again 
 by Mr. Dibdiii. 
 
 Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana (a catalogue of books 
 in the Spencer library, printed before 1600), 1 \ 
 1814. Well known, like most of the other works o) 
 this distinguished bibliographer, for the minuteness ol 
 its research and extreme beauty of embellishment 
 
 La Serna Santander, Dictionnaire Bibliugraphiquo Choi 
 si du Quinzieme Siftcle, 3 vols. 8vo. 180& 
 
 8, Bibliograpbie Instructive, ou Traite" do la Con- 
 naissance des Livres rares et smgullers, with supplo- 
 ments, hi all 10 vols. Svo. Paris, 1713, 1782. The most 
 practically useful work on the subject. 
 
 Osmont, Dictionnaire des Livres rares, 2 vols. 8vo 
 Paris, 17-86. 
 
 Renouard, Historic de rimprimerie des Aides. Set. 
 Aldinb Editions. 
 
 Pettigrew, Bibliotheca Sussexiana, 2 vol3. 8vo. 
 
 Georgi, Allgemeines Europaisches Bucher-Lexicon. 6 
 vols, folio. Leipzig, 17 K 
 
 Audiffredus, Catalogus et Specimen Historico-Crit. 
 Editionum Italicarum Sacculi xv. 2 vols. 4to. Roma?, 
 1783-1794. 
 
 Hain, Repertorium Bibliographicum in quo libri omnes 
 ab arte typographica invents usque ad annum M. D. 
 typis expressi online alphabetico vel simpliciter, enu- 
 merantur vel adcuratius recensentur, 4 vols. 8vo. Stutt., 
 1831. 
 
 Fischer, Beschrcibung einlger topograph isch en Selten- 
 heiten, 6 vols. 8vo. Nuremb, 18004. (A work of deep 
 and curious resesreh. 
 
 Longman's Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetics; or a descriptive 
 Catalogue of a rich and rare Collection of Early Eng- 
 lish Poetry, 8vo. 1815. By Mr. A, F. Griffiths. 
 
 VL General Bibliographies, and Miscellaneous Works. 
 Dietionnaire Bibliographiquc, 3 vol3. 8vo. Paris, 1790. 
 Brunei, Manuel du Libraire, 3rd and enlarged edition. 
 
 4 vols. Svo. 1820. A work of the greatest utility. 
 
 Three supplementary volumes were published in 1832. 
 Morhcf, Polyhistor Literarius, Philosophicus et Practi- 
 
 cus. first edition by Fabricius, 2 vols. 4to. 1747. 
 Saxii Onomasticon Literarium, 8 vols. 8vo. 1759. 1803. 
 Eberts, Allgemeines Bibliogr. Lexicon, 2 vols. 4to. ; and 
 
 2 Supplements. Leipzig, 1830. The first part has been 
 
 translated into English, and published at Oxford, in 4 
 
 vols. Svo. 1S37. 
 VII. American Bibliography. 
 
 Warden, Bibliothecs Americo-Septentiionalis, Svo. Paris, 
 
 1S20. 
 
 , Bibliotheca Americana, Svo. Paris. 1831. 
 
 Bibliothecs Americana Primordia, 4to. 1713. 
 Bibliotheca Americana, 4to. London, 1789. 
 Meusel, Bibliotheca Historica. Tom. iii. and x. 
 Rich, Bibliotheca Americana, 2 vols. Svo. ; and Sup. 
 Ternaux, Bibliotheque Americaine,8vo. Paris, _1837. 
 Aspimcall, Catalogue of Books relating to America. 
 K 
 
BICALCARATE. 
 
 BICA'LCARATE. (Lat. bis, twice, and calcar, a spur.) 
 When a limb or part is armed with two spurs. 
 
 BICE. In painting, a light blue colour prepared from 
 smalt. From it, by a mixture with yellow orpiment, another 
 colour is formed of a green hue, bearing the same name. 
 
 BI'CEPS. (Lat. bis, twice, and caput, head.) An ana- 
 tomical term, applied to muscles having a double insertion, 
 or which arise by two heads. 
 
 BICO'LLIGaTE. (Lat. bis, twice,co\ligo, I bind together ) 
 In Ornithology, a term signifying the connexion of all the 
 anterior toes by a basal web. 
 
 Bi'COLOR. (Lat. bis, color, colour.) When an animal 
 or part is of two colours. 
 
 BIOO'RNIS. (Lat. bis, cornu, a horn.) In Zoology, 
 when an animal or part has two horns, or two horn-like 
 processes. In Anatomy, when the uterus has two divisions, 
 like horns, as in most quadrupeds. 
 
 BICU'SPIS. (Lat.) A tooth with two points. 
 
 BIDE'NTATE. (Lat. bis, dens, a tooth.) When an 
 animal has but two teeth, as the Delphinus bidens ; or when 
 a part has two tooth-like processes. 
 
 BIE'NNIAL. (Biennis, of two years' duration.) A term 
 applied to plants which grow one year and flower the next, 
 after which they perish ; they only differ from annuals in 
 requiring a longer period to fruit in. Most biennials, if 
 sown early in the spring, will flower in the autumn and 
 then perish, thus actually becoming annuals. 
 
 B1ESTINGS. The name given to the first milk yielded 
 by a cow after calving. 
 
 BIFA'RIOUS. (Lat.) Arranged in two rows. 
 
 BI'FORATE. (Lat. bis, foro, I pierce.) Having two per- 
 forations, as the anthers of a Rhododendron. 
 
 BI'FORINES. Singular bodies lately discovered in the 
 interior of the green pulpy part of the leaves of some Ara- 
 ceous plants. They are minute oval sacs, tapering to each 
 end, where they are perforated ; they are apparently com- 
 posed of two bags one within the other, the space between 
 the bags being filled with a transparent fluid, and the inner 
 bag itself with fine spicule. When the biforine is placed in 
 water it discharges its spicula; with considerable violence, 
 first from one end, and then from another, recoiling at 
 every discharge, and eventually emptying itself, when it be- 
 comes a flaccid motionless bag. Nothing is known of the 
 nature, use, or origin of these bodies. 
 
 BIFU'RCATE. (Lat. bis, furca, a fork.) When a part 
 has two prongs like a fork. 
 
 BI'GAMY. (Lat. bis, twice, and Gr. yafioc, marriage.) 
 The offence of contracting a second marriage during the 
 life of the husband or wife, which, by the law of England, 
 ■3 felony, punishable by transportation for seven years, or 
 imprisonment for two. Bigamy, by the canon law, signified 
 * second marriage after the death of the first wife, or a 
 marriage with a widow ; and incapacitated the party con- 
 tracting. <S"ee Marriage, Law of. 
 
 BIGHT. Part of a rope between the ends ; bight is also 
 a shallow bay or hollow in the line of sea-coast. 
 
 BIGNONIA'CEjE. (So called from Bignon, a French 
 man of letters, and the friend of Tournefort.) A natural 
 order of Didynamous plants, usually having a twining 
 stem, large trumpet-shaped flowers, and a pod-like capsule 
 with winged seeds. Some of them are trees of consider- 
 able size, and furnish timber valuable in the countries 
 where it is produced ; but the greater part are interesting 
 only for the beauty of their flowers, in which respect this 
 order yields to no other. Bignonia venusta, Pan dora,, 
 Oiquinoctialis, cherere, and grandijlora, are probably the 
 handsomest twining plants known. 
 
 BI'JUGATE. (Lat. bis, and jugum, a yoke.) Composed 
 of two pairs of any thing ; a term applied to leaves pinna- 
 ted with two pairs of leaflets. 
 
 B1KII. A deleterious plant inhabiting Nepal, and used 
 by the natives of that country to poison their wells when 
 the British troops invaded it. The Aconitum ferox has 
 been ascertained to be this poison, which, like that of all 
 other RanunculETCeous plants, is volatile ; and although 
 highly dangerous when fresh, socn loses its activity when 
 exposed to the air. 
 
 BILA'BIATE. (Lat. bis, and labium, a lip.) When a 
 flower has all or any of its parts collected into two separate 
 
 fiarcels or lips. Thus a calyx having two of its sepals col- 
 ected into one parcel, and the others into a second parcel, 
 or a corolla with its five petals adhering two and three to- 
 gether, are bilabiate. 
 
 BILAME'LLATE. (Lat. bis, lamella, a plate.) When a 
 part is divided longitudinally into two lamellae. 
 
 BI'LBERRY. A small bush inhabiting the northern 
 parts of Europe in mountainous situations, and bearing 
 small black berries, which are eaten by country people, 
 and are a favourite food of deer. It is the Vaccinlum myr- 
 tillus of Botanists. 
 
 BILDSTEIN. (German.) A mineral composed chiefly 
 of silica and alumina, with a little oxide of iron. It is com- 
 monly seen carved into Chinese figures. 
 BILE. (Lat. bilis ; said to be derived from bis, twice, 
 146 
 
 BILOBATE. 
 
 and lis, contention, as being the supposed cause of angei 
 and dispute.) A fluid secreted in the liver, of a yellow 
 colour, and a nauseous taste, compounded of sweet and 
 bitter ; it sinks in water, and mixes with it in all propor- 
 tions ; it it slightly alkaline, and feels soapy. It contains a 
 peculiar bitter principle, which has been called picromel, 
 and a little free soda and saline matters. According to 
 Berzelius, the solid constituents of bile amount to about 
 one tenth of its weight. 
 
 BILGE. The lower or flat part of the bottom of a ship 
 on which she rests when aground.— Bilge of a cask, the 
 middle part between the ends, in which the bunghole is 
 placed. 
 BILGED. Having the bottom stove in. 
 BILGE WATER. The water that collects in the but 
 torn, by leakage or otherwise. It has usually a peculi.11 
 and offensive smell. When a ship is tight the bilge walti 
 when pumped up is dark ; and in a leaky ship, it comes 
 up quite clear. 
 
 BI'LIARY CALCULI. Are concretions which form in 
 the gall-bladder (gall stones) or bile-ducts. They are gene- 
 rally composed of a peculiar crystalline fatty matter, which 
 has been called cholesterine. 
 
 BILL. A legislative measure introduced into parlia- 
 ment is so called until it has acquired the force of law by 
 receiving the royal assent. Bills are either public or pri- 
 vate; adistinction founded rather on usage and precedent, 
 than on any exact definition. The immediate parliament- 
 ary consequence of the distinction is the payment of cer- 
 tain fees to the officers of the house, which are due by 
 custom on private bills. According to Hatsell, this differ- 
 ence between private and public bills was recognised as 
 long ago as 1607. It is a general rule of parliamentary 
 proceeding, that the same bill or question cannot be twice 
 offered in the same session. But at every stage of a bill, 
 the whole of it is supposed to be before the house ; and 
 consequently if words have been inserted by way of 
 amendment, the sense of the house may again be taken 
 respecting them at a subsequent stage. See Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 BILL OF SALE. In Law, a contract under seal, by 
 which a man passes his interest in goods and chattels to 
 another, and which does not require either valuable con- 
 sideration or actual transfer of the goods to support it, as 
 between the vendor and vendee ; although as between the 
 vendee and the vendor's creditors the absence of such 
 consideration and transfer would in general be held indi- 
 cative of fraud, and invalidate the contract. 
 
 BILL OF HEALTH. A certificate or instrument, signed 
 by proper authorities, delivered to the masters of ships at 
 the time of their clearing out from all ports or places sus- 
 pected of being infested by particular disorders, certifying 
 the state of health at the lime that such ships sailed. Bills 
 of health are of three kinds — clean, foul, and suspected, 
 which are self-explanatory terms. 
 
 BILL OF LADING. A memorandum, subscribed by 
 the master of a ship, acknowledging the receipt of goods 
 intrusted to him for transportation, and binding himself 
 (under certain exceptions) to deliver them to tlie person 
 to whom they are addressed, in good condition, for a cer- 
 tain remuneration or freightage. Of bills of lading there 
 are usually triplicate copies ; one for the party transmit- 
 ting the goods, another for the person to whom the goods 
 are addressed, and the third for the master. 
 
 BILL OF EXCHANGE. See Exchange. 
 
 BILL OF RIGHTS. In Law, the declaration delivered 
 by the two houses of parliament to the Prince of Orange, 
 February 13, 1C88, at the period of his succession to the 
 British throne ; in which, after a full specification of vari 
 ous acts of James II. which were alleged to be illegal, the 
 fights and privileges of the people were asserted. 
 
 Bl'LLET. In Heraldry, a bearing of which the origin 
 is very uncertain ; represented of an oblong square form, 
 sometimes showing the thickness, and always with a flat 
 surface. Billetty, or seme"e of billets, signifies that th» 
 escutcheon or charge is strewed over with these bearings, 
 without regard to particular number or station. 
 
 BI'LLION. In Numeration, denotes a million of mil- 
 lions, and is expressed by 1,0000,0000,0000. The French 
 use the same word to denote a thousand millions. The 
 term is probably a contraction of bis and million; whence 
 the English signification, a million of millions, appears more 
 according to analogy. Thus biquadratic means the squara 
 of a square, or the product of two quadratics. 
 
 BILLS OF MORTALITY, are accounts of the number 
 of births and burials within a certain district in every week, 
 month, quarter, or year. These were first compiled in 
 London, after the great plague of 1593 ; and 'en years after- 
 wards began to be returned weekly. Several of the pa- 
 rishes now included within the metropolis 'on Marylebone 
 and Pancras) are not within the bills o f mortality. Set 
 Mortality. 
 
 BI'LOBATE. (Let. b!s, lofr-<s, a lobe., Wb«n a part i« 
 divided into two lobes, or obtuse jroces^es. 
 
 
BILOCULAR. 
 
 BILO'CULAR. (Lat. bis, locula, a cell.) Having two cells. 
 
 BIMA'CULATE. (Lat. his, macula, a spot.) When an 
 animal, or part, is marked with two spots. 
 
 Bl'MANA. (Bimana, two-handed.) The term applied 
 byCuvierto the highest order of mammalia, of which man 
 is the type and sol.: genus. 
 
 DIME DIAL. In Geometry, when two lines commen- 
 surable only in power (for example, the diagonal and side 
 of a square) are joined together, the sum is irrational with 
 in either of the two lines, and is called by Euclid a 
 huiu did!. 
 
 BI'NARY ARITHMETIC. (Fr. bir.aire, from binus, 
 ■iu<U, or by tiros.) A species of arithmetic, proposed by 
 . and founded on the shortest and simplest pro- 
 gression ; namely, that which terminates with the second 
 •'pher. In the binary nolation, therefore, only two cha- 
 racters are rerjuired, 1 and 0, the zero having the power of 
 multiplying the number it follows by two, as in the com- 
 i lion it multiplies by ten. The number one is re- 
 presented by 1; two, by 10; three, by 11; four, by 100: 
 101; six, by 110; seren, by 111; eight, by 1000; 
 nine, by 1001 ; ten, by 1010, &c. This method of notation, 
 though it may be applied with advantage in the invi sIilm- 
 tion oi some properties of numbers, would be inconve- 
 nient bit common purposes, on account of the great num- 
 ber ol characters required even when the nnmbers 
 to be expressed are small. We will give an exam- 
 ple from the Encyclopedie Methodique of the method of 
 expressing a number by the binary scale, and of finding 
 die value of a number so expressed. 
 
 It is convenient to begin with forming a table of the 
 powers of 2, namely, 20, 2 1 , 2*, 2*, &c. They are 1, 2, 4, 
 U, li), '■'■i, 64, 128. Suppose, now, it were required to ex- 
 number 230 by the binary scale. Seek in the 
 table tie' ver of 2 contained in 230; it is found 
 
 ;o bo 198, which is the 8th number in the table ; hence the 
 ■in will contain 8 ciphers, and the first on the left 
 hiii' I is 1. Subtract 1SH from 230, there remains 102; the 
 hlftml power of 2 contained in this is 64, which is the 
 seventh number in the table. The second cipher will 
 therefore be also 1. Subtract 64 from 102, and there re- 
 But the sixth number in the table is 32, which 
 tied in 38; therefore the third cipher in the ex- 
 is still 1. Subtract 32 from 38, there remains 6 ; 
 leu the fifth number in the table is 16, which is not con- 
 tained In 6; therefore the fourth cipher of the expression 
 13O. The fourth number in the table is 8, which is not 
 contained in 6 ; therefore the fiflh cipher must also be 0. 
 Tie' third number in the table is 4, which is contained in 
 6, therefore the sixth cipher will be 1. Subtracting 4 from 
 6 there remains 2 ; but the serond number in the table ia 
 2, therefore the seventh is 1. The last difference is zero; 
 the last cipher in the expression is 0. Collect- 
 ing all these results, we find the number 230 is expressed 
 in the binary scale by 11100110. 
 
 -oppose it were required to determine the value 
 preasion 110101 in the binary scale. As there are 
 here six ciphers, we look for the sixth number in the 
 above table, and find 32, which is the value of the first 
 cipher. The following cipher represents the fifth number, 
 inaequently equal to 16. The third cipher is 0, 
 and its value nothing. The fourth cipher corn - 
 the third number in the (able, and represents 4. The fifth 
 cipher is 0, and its value nothing. The last cipher corres- 
 ponds to the first number of the table, which is 1. The 
 whr.le expression, Iherefore, 110,101, is equivalent to 32 + 
 16 ■+- 4 + 1 = 53. It has been imagined, though on very 
 slight grounds, that traces of the binary notation arc dis- 
 cernible among the early monuments of China, 
 
 For Information on the subject of ariihinetical scales, 
 see Leslie's Philosophy of Arithmetic. 
 
 BINARY MEASURE. (Let blnurius, belonging to two.) 
 In Music, that in which the rising the hand or foot is 
 equal to that of falling, usudly called common time. The 
 Italians are accustomed aftera recitative to use the phrase 
 a tempo giusto, to indicate that the measure is to be beat i 
 true and correct, which is otherwise conducted in the reci- < 
 tative in order to express passion, &c. 
 
 BI'NAT. (Lat bis, ana natus, born.) When two bodies ' 
 nf the same nature spring from the same point, as often 
 happens in the segments of leaves. 
 
 MINI). (Ger. hiiulen, to fasten together.) In Music, the 
 same as a ligature or tic for the purpose of grouping notes 
 together. 
 
 Bind. The indurated clay of coal mines. Binding in 
 agriculture is tving up sheaves of corn. 
 
 BINE'RVATE. (Lat. bis, nerva, a nerce.) In Entomo- 
 ■vhen the wing of an insect is supported by only two 
 nerves. 
 
 BI'N'NAOLE. The case or stand in which the steering 
 compass is placed ; it is fixed near the tiller or wheel. At 
 night th" compass is illuminated bv a lamp placed over it. 
 
 BI'NOCLE, or BINOCULAR TELESCOPE. (Lat. bi- 
 uus, double, and oculus, the. eye.) A telescope to which 
 147 
 
 BIUGJRAPHY. 
 
 both eyes may be applied at once, and in which, conse- 
 quently, an object may be observed with both eyes at the 
 same time. 
 
 BINO'MIAL. (Lat. bis, twice, and Gr. vo/io;, law.) In 
 Algebra, signifies a quantity composed of two terms, con- 
 nected together by the signs + or— ; thus, a + 6 and 
 e — "> are binomial quantities. 
 
 HINO'MIAL THEOREM. A formula discovered by 
 Newton, of singular use in algebra, by which a binomial 
 quantity may be raised to any power' m, the exponent m 
 being either a whole number or a fraction, positive or ne 
 gative. The formula is this : — 
 
 <.a+b)m =a».+™ am-1 4+ m(m ~ l > a m-2 62 + 
 
 m (m—\) (m— 2) aJn , A3 , m (m—\ ) (m— 2) (m— 3) 
 12 3 12 3 4 
 
 am— 4 b*-\- <tc. 
 
 And the mere inspection of the terms will give a better idea 
 of the manner in which they are successively formed than 
 any explanation. 
 
 When the exponent m is a whole positive number, it is 
 evident that the series has a finite number of terms; sup- 
 pose, for example, m=3, then m — 3=0; and all the terms 
 into which m — 3 enters as a co-efficient become equal to 
 zero, or vanish. But on looking at the series, we find m — 3 
 eniering the fifth term, and it will continue in all the suc- 
 ceeding ; therefore, when m=3 the series can only have 
 four terms ; and, generally, the number of terms of the se- 
 ries exceeds the exponent by one. When m is a fraction- 
 al number, or is negative, the series does not terminate, 
 and will only express approximately the value of (a+b)m 
 when it is convergent; that is to say, when every individual 
 term of the series is greater than that which succeeds 
 it. For example, let the expression to be developed be 
 (xx+yy, which signifies the square root of the binomial 
 (x % +y). Comparing this with the above formula, we hav« 
 evidently — 
 
 (xr+y)I=xri-H«ri— \y 
 
 T 2* ar» 
 a series which goes on for ever; but which, supposing x 
 greater than unity, approach's nearer and nearer to the 
 tru<> value of the root of **+y. as the number of terms in- 
 cluded becomes greater. 
 
 In order to determine whether in any given case the se- 
 ries is convergent, we have only to compare two succes- 
 sive terms of the development of (a+b)m. For example, 
 take the fourth and fifth; rejecting the common factors, 
 
 the fourth is to the fifth as am-3: r H^.am-i b; that is, as 
 
 «_•* h 4 
 
 lto^lZr: 1; therefore the fifth will be smaller lhan the 
 
 4 a 
 fourth, or the series will be convergent if (m — 3)5 is small- 
 er than 4a. In general, let n be the order of any term in 
 the development of (a+6)"> : this term will be to the sue* 
 
 cceding in the ratio of 1 : m ""* : ; and the terms will 
 
 n a 
 always go on decreasing, or the series will be convergent 
 when (m — n-+-l)6 is smaller than na. 
 
 The principal use of the binomial theorem is to find ap- 
 proximate values of the roots of quantities by expanding 
 them into series. The demonstrations which have been 
 given of it are very numerous, and one or other of them 
 may be found in any work on algebra. For one of the 
 neatest and most concise we refer to the article "Algebra" 
 in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th edition. 
 
 BIO'CELLATE. (Lat. bis, ocellus, an eyelet.) In En- 
 tomology, when an insect's wing is marked with two eye- 
 like spots. 
 
 BIO'GRAPHY. (From the Greek word 0ioc, life, and 
 yp&Qoi, I describe.) The history of the life of an individual. 
 Biography, in the progress of literature, appears to be near- 
 ly coeval with history itself. It has been ingeniously de- 
 scribed as " history teaching by example ;" and this mode 
 of instruction was perhaps peculiarly appropriate to early 
 and simple times, in which the relative importance of indi- 
 vidual men to the society in which they lived was greater 
 than it can ordinarily be in periods of more advanced civili- 
 sation. But, although we have notices of many biographi 
 cal writers among the classical authors of Greece, none of 
 their works have been preserved to us (if we except the 
 short narrative of the exploits of Agesilaus by Xenophon, 
 for hiscelebrated Memorabilia of Socrates are rather in the 
 form of a collection of sayings and anecdotes than a me- 
 moir) of earlier date than the Roman Empire. It is to a 
 comparatively late age that we owe all the more interesting 
 works of this description which antiquity has bequeathed 
 to us, some of which are among the most popular rohes of 
 
BIPECTINATE. 
 
 Ibe classical ages — the Lives of Illustrious Men, by Plu- 
 tarch, and Cornelius Nepos ; the Lives of the Casnrs, by 
 Suetonius, a work of which the details are strictly biogra- 
 
 £hical ; and the Lives of the Philosophers, by Diogenes 
 aertius. Biography may be said in strictness to differ 
 from history not merely in the extent of the subject, but 
 also, and perhaps more characteristically, in the mode in 
 which that subject is treated. Thus, in classical literature, 
 the works of Quintus Curlius and Arrian, although devoted 
 exclusively to the actions of a single individual (Alexander), 
 are not usually termed biographies ; not only because the 
 individual, n question was the leader and foremost charac- 
 ter in a course of great public events, but also because 
 those public events form the subject matter of their works, 
 and not the more peculiar details of the personal life of 
 their heroes. They are therefore more accurately deno- 
 minated histories than biographies. On the other hand, 
 the Lives of the Twelve Cctsars by Suetonius form, as has 
 been said, a series of Biographies, although the persons 
 who furnish the subject were, like Alexander, arbiters of 
 the destinies of a great part of mankind ; because the de- 
 tails which they contain are chiefly of a private and per- 
 sonal nature. It is the object of history, among its other 
 lessons, to make us acquainted with the influence which 
 the actions, the characters, and the thoughts of individual 
 men have produced on the course of events affecting soci- 
 ety in general : conversely, it appears to be the province 
 of the biographer to detail the effects which have been 
 produced by external occurrences and circumstances on 
 the character and conduct of individuals. See Memoir. 
 
 BIPE'CTINATE. (Lat. bis, pecten, a comb.) When a 
 part has two margins toothed like a comb. 
 
 BI'PELTATE. (Lat. bis, pelta, a buckler.) When an 
 animal or part has a defence like a double shield. 
 
 BIPU'PILLATE. (Lat. bis, pupilla. a pupil.) In Ento- 
 mology, when an eye-like spot on the wing of a butterfly 
 has two dots or pupils within it of a different colour. 
 
 BIQUADRA'TIC. In Algebra, denotes the power imme- 
 diately succeeding the cube ; that is, the square of the 
 square, or tourth power. 
 
 BIQUADRATIC EQUATION. Is an equation in which 
 the unknown quantity rises to the fourth, but not to a high- 
 er power. An equation of this kind, when complete, is of 
 the form x*+Ax 3 +Bx*+Cx+T)=o, where A, B, C, and D, 
 denote any known quantities whatever. Lewis Ferrari, an 
 Italian geometer, and a pupil of the celebrated Cardan, 
 made the discovery that the resolution of a biquadratic 
 equation can always be reduced to that of a cubic equa- 
 tion. Of the various ways in which this reduction can be 
 effected, the following, proposed by Euler, and explained 
 at length in his Algebra, is perhaps the simplest. The first 
 step of the process is to transform the given equation into 
 another in which the second term is wanting. This can 
 always be done by assuming y — jA=x, and substituting it 
 for x in the proposed equation ; a new equation will result, 
 having the form 
 
 y^+py'+qy+r^o, (1) 
 
 and it is only to the solution of this that our attention need 
 be confined. 
 
 Assume y=z\/a-\-\/b-\-\/c, and suppose a, b, c, to be 
 three roots of the cubic equation i 3 +Pz s +0.z — R=o. By 
 the theory of equations the co-efficient of the second term 
 is the sum of all the roots with their signs changed ; the 
 co-efficient of the third is the sum of the products of the 
 roots combined by pairs ; and the last term is the product 
 of all the roots with the signs changed. We have there- 
 fore a+6+e= — P, ab-r-ac+bc—Q., and abc=zR. From the 
 assumed equation y=\/a-±\/b^-\/c, we get by squaring 
 t, 4 =a+*+ c + 2 (.\Zab-\-\/ac-\-\/bc) ; whence, substituting 
 
 P for a+6+c, and transposing 
 
 y*+P=2 (Vab+Vac+Vbc). 
 Squaring this equation also, we get after reduction y 4 +2P 
 y"+V'='l(ab+ac+bc)+9Vabc (.Va+Vb+Vc), which, on 
 substituting R and y for their values given above, becomes 
 
 y*+Fy*+P*=4Q,+8y\/R, 
 and by transposing 
 
 y«+2iy— 8yi/R+V*-^lQ.=o. (2) 
 
 Now, one of the roots of this biquadratic equation is y=z 
 \/a+y'b-\-\/c ; and a, 6, c, are the three roots of the cubic 
 equation, z 3 -|-Pz 2 +Qz — R=o ; consequently, by resolving 
 the cubic we get the values of a, b,c; and thence y, the 
 root of the biquadratic, becomes known. 
 
 To apply this solution to the proposed equation (1), the 
 co-efficients P, Q, R, of the resolved equation (2), must be 
 determined in terms ofp, q, r. Comparing the two equa- 
 tions, 
 
 y , -rP'j'+7V+r=o, (1) 
 
 BIRD OP PARADISE. 
 
 Q— P*— 4r , R=£_. It follows, therefore, that the roots ol 
 
 16 64 
 
 the proposed equation are expressed generally by y = \/a 
 -\-\/b + \/c, where a, b, c denote the roots of the cubx 
 equation 
 
 z*-rP-Z*+£zlLz-t=o (3) 
 
 2 16 64 
 
 All the four roots of the biquadratic are involved in the ej. 
 pression y = \/a -4- \/b -4- -\/c ; in order to discover each 
 of them in particular, it is necessary to consider the 
 changes of sign of which they admit. As the square roo' 
 of any quantity a may be either -4- \/a or — \/a, each of 
 the three quantities, \/a, \/b, \/c, may have either the 
 sign -4- or — prefixed to it ; whence the formula will give 
 eight different expressions. But as the product of the ttireu 
 roots, \/a, -\/b, \/c, is equal to yli or to — Jy, it is obvi 
 ous that when q is positive, their product must be negative 
 and this can only be the case when either only one oral! 
 three of them are negative. When q is negative Ilie pro- 
 duct must be positive, which can only be the case eithei 
 when all three are positive, or two of them negative. There 
 are consequently only four different expressions for q posi- 
 tive, and four for q negative, which in either case form the 
 four roots of the biquadratic equation. 
 
 The co-efficients of the equation (3) involve fractions; 
 but these may be removed by assuming v=z4z, and sub- 
 stituting for z its value in terms of v. It then becomes 
 more simply, 
 
 v"+2pv''+(p a — 4r)v— o s = o, (4) 
 
 the roots of which are \a, \b, \c. 
 
 The rule for the resolution of a biquadratic equation 1< 
 therefore as follows : — 
 
 Let y 4 -fw 2 +7y+?* = o be the proposed equation 
 wanting its second term. Form the cubic equation v 3 -\ 
 2pv--\-(p'—4r)v — g s =o, and find its roots, which call a, 6, c 
 Then the roots of the proposed biquadratic are, 
 
 when q is negative, 
 y=i(Va + Vb + Vc) 
 y^\(^/a-Vb-\/c) 
 y=H—Va + Vb-Vc) 
 y=h(—V'i — Vb+Vc) 
 
 when q is positive, 
 y=i(— Va— Vb — \/c) 
 y = l(— Va + Vb + Vc) 
 y=i(Vo+Vb- V/c) 
 »/=J(-V/a + Vb— Vc). 
 
 j/«+2Py»— Sylly+P 2 — 4Q=o. 
 
 (2) 
 
 I/> 
 
 ire CInd 2P=p, — 8i/R=7, P s — 4Q=r; whence P=-| 
 14R 
 
 BIRA'DIATE. (Lat. bis, radius, a ray. When a par 
 has two rays. 
 
 BIRCH. A hardy tree inhabiting the north of Europe 
 Asia, and America. The common birch (Belula alba) i» 
 valuable for its capability of resisting extremes of botl 
 heat and cold; its timber is chiefly employed for firewood 
 Its bark is extremely durable. The American birch (B. 
 lento.) produces a hard heavy timber, much used by cabi- 
 net- makers ; and the bark of B. Papyracea is employed hy 
 the NorthAmerican Indians fora variety of useful purposes. 
 
 BI'RDLIME. A glutinous substance extracted by boil- 
 ing the bark of the holly tree ; a similar substance may bo 
 obtained from misletoe, from the young shoots of elder, 
 and some other plants. 
 
 BIRD OF PARADISE. A name originally applied to 
 the species Paradisea apoda, Linn. ; of which the skins, 
 deprived of the wings, the feet, and the tail, have long 
 formed a high-priced article of export from the eastern 
 parts of the world. The value of these mutilated speci- 
 mens of natural history arises chiefly from the extraordi- 
 nary development and light and beautiful structure of the 
 plumes which grow from the scapular and lateral regions 
 of the body ; and these plumes, combined with the velvety 
 texture and brilliant metallic reflections of the ordinary 
 feathers, especially those covering the head, render skins 
 of the Paradisea ornaments highly and justly esteemeG 
 by the fair inhabitants of the most civilised countries. The 
 presence of the remarkable plumage just alluded to, and 
 the constant absence of the ordinary organs of locomotion 
 in the imported specimens, easily gave rise to strange spe- 
 culations as to the nature of the rare bird of the east ; and 
 the older naturalists delighted to describe it as destitute of 
 feet, dwelling constantly in the air, wafted about in the 
 bright beams of the sun independently of the ordinary 
 mechanism of wings, and nourished with dew, and the 
 nectar and even odour of flowers. To beings thus imagin- 
 ed to be raised above the dull earth, to enjoy etherial food 
 and a perpetual habitation in the air, no name could be 
 more appropriate •han Birds of Paradise or Heaven. The 
 march of inquiry has, however, dispelled the fancied attri- 
 butes and false charms of these lovely beings, and has re- 
 stored to them their wings and feet. The latter, indeed, 
 are remarkable for their robustness : they have three toes 
 in front and one behind, as in other Passeres of Cuvier, 
 with the middle toe shorter than the tarsus, the outer toe 
 united to it at its base, and the inner one joined to it for 
 half the length of the first phalanx. The form of the beak 
 corresponds with that which characterises the tribe Coni- 
 rostres of Cuv. ; and their true food, which consists not 
 only of the pulpy and farinaceous parts of fruit, but nlso 
 
BIRD PEPPER. 
 
 of worms, insects, the esgs and young of smaller birds, 
 and even carrion, causes them to be ranked with the family 
 of Omnirore-i, Cnv. In fact, they closely resemble in their 
 hahits our magpies and jays. The principal species of the 
 geuus Paradisea are the Great or Common Bird of Para- 
 dise (Par. apoda of Linnteus); the Royal Bird of Paradise 
 (Par. regia); the Red Bird of Paradise (.Par rubra); the 
 Magnificent Bird of Paradise (Par. magnifica) ; the Six- 
 I Bird of Pai sexesetacea), which is 
 
 rized by three long and threadlike feathers, which 
 grow from each side of the body ; the Superb Bird of Pa- 
 Par. superhn), which is smaller than the preceding, 
 h'H perhaps the most beautiful of the genus; the Small 
 Bird of Paradise (Par. minor), which measures about nine 
 niches from the point of the bill to the end of the tail ; ami, 
 the White Bird of Paradise (Par. alba). 
 HMD PEPPER. The small Capricum, a species of the 
 plan! which afifbrda Cayenne pepper. 
 
 BIRDS. In Heraldry, are said to be rising, displayed, 
 
 • lant, <fcc. according to the different postures in 
 
 ■y are represented Birds of prey, and cocks, 
 
 when beaked and legged of a different tincture from the 
 
 body, are said to 1)" armed of that tincture. 
 
 BIRD'S EVE VIEW. In the Fine Arts, a term used to 
 denote a view arranged according to the laws of perspec- 
 tive, in which the point of sight or situation of the eye is 
 it a very considerable height above the objects 
 viewed and delineated. In Architectural representations, it 
 chiefly for the purpose of exhibiting the disposition 
 of the different courts or quadrangles and roofs of a build- 
 ing. It i> i useful method of representing battles, as also 
 of giving ;i genera] notion of a small district of a country. 
 ■ observed, it is entirely dependent upon the same 
 principles as those detailed in the article Perspective, 
 
 BIRD'S MOUTH. In Architecture, an interior angle or 
 lit across the grain at the extremity of a piece of 
 umber for its reception on the edge of another piece : as a 
 rafter, for instance, is received on a pole plate. Bird's 
 roJ&es also the internal angle of a polygon, its ex- 
 ternal angle being called a bull's nose. 
 
 BIRTH. EVIDENCE OF. By the French code civil it is 
 icquired that a declaration shall be made of every birth to 
 the proper officer, within three days, with production of 
 the child. The "act of birth," setting forth the time and 
 place of the event, sex and name of (he child, and 
 tion of the father, is then immediately drawn op In the 
 presence of two witnesses. 1 register, 
 
 and a copy kept by the parent. (Code Civil, art. 55.) In 
 England, by the 70th Canon, and statutes of G <fc 7 William 
 76., the minister of every pariah la requir- 
 f births. But now, by the recent act 
 iring births, deaths, and marriages, 6 <fc 7 W. 4. c. 
 BO , it is enacted that the p irent, or occupier of a house in 
 which a child is born, may, within 42 days after the birth, 
 give notice to the district registrar; and shall give such in- 
 i on being requested by the district registrar with- 
 > me time. After 42 days, the birth may be regis- 
 ly in presence of the superintendant registrar, and 
 on a peculiar declaration. After six months, registration 
 of a birth cannot take place. Certified registers of births, 
 as well as deaths, are to be forwarded after a certain time 
 to the superintendant registrar, and copies of registers to 
 il register office. (Sects. 19. 21,22,23. 33, 34.) 
 BIRTH, or BERTH. OF A SHIP. The ground or space 
 in which she is anchored, and which is said to be a good 
 i bad birth ; also, an apartment, as the midship- 
 man's birth ; also, the space allotted a seaman to sleep or 
 h unmock in. 
 BIS. (LaL twice.) In Music, a word placed over passages 
 which have dots postfixed to one bar, and prefixed to a sub- 
 sequent bar, signifying that the passage between the dots 
 is to li" twice played. 
 
 BI'SCUIT. (Fr. bis, lirice, and cuit, baked.) In Sculp- 
 pecles of porcelain, of which groups and figures 
 in miniature are formed, which are twice passed through 
 the furnace or oven. It is executed without glaze upon it. 
 . , this term is applied to earthenware and porce- 
 lain, after it has been hardened in the fire, and before itre- 
 the L r ! a/.e : in this state il is permeable to water. 
 BISE'TOUS. (I.at. bis. seta, a An's//c. ) In Zoology, when 
 i ■ or part is furnished with two bristle-like appen- 
 
 BISE'XUAL. (Of two sexes.) Is a term applied to 
 
 flowers which contain both stamens and pistil within the 
 
 mi • 'nvelop: it is the same as the word hermaphrodite 
 
 IIV. 
 
 BI'BHOP. (A word contracted from the Greek Jwioxoa-oc, 
 •opus, signifying literally an overseer.) In all de- 
 lomlnatioos of Christians which admit the episcopal form 
 rnment, the bishop is the superior of the three or- 
 ders, standing in rank and office distinct from the presbyter 
 or priest. (See art. Episcopacy.) This distinct office con- 
 nisls in the power of ordination, confirmation and conse- 
 149 
 
 BISSEXTILE. 
 
 cration. none of which ceremonies may be performed by 
 an inferior clergyman. The clergy of a diocese are sub 
 jected also to the ecclesiastical authority of their bishop, 
 who alone institutes to benefices, licenses curates, and has 
 considerable discretionary power in requiring the resi- 
 dence of his clergy on their cures, and in superintending 
 the discharge of their duties in them. 
 
 The mode of the appointment to bishoprics varies in 
 gjitferent establishments. In early times the bishop was 
 generally elected by his clergy. In the middle ages the 
 pope assumed in most cases the absolute nomination, 
 which claim has been given up in later times in many 
 Catholic countries, where the king or clergy recommend, 
 and the holy father only ratifies the appointment. In Eng- 
 land the appointment is virtually in the hands of the sove- 
 reign, who upon the demise of the bishop receives from 
 the dean and chapter intimation of the event, with a re- 
 quest for permission to supply the vacancy. The king ac 
 cords bis permission to that effect, and at the same time 
 recommends a person to their choice — a recommendation 
 which is equivalent to a command, as it cartnot be waived 
 without incurring the severe penalties of a praemunire. 
 
 BI'SML'TH. A brittle, yellowish-white metal, of a crys- 
 talline texture. Its specific gravity is 10- ; it fuses at 476°, 
 and at a red heat il sublimes in close vessels. It conducts 
 heat less perfectly than most of the other metals. When 
 strongly heated it bums with a bluish white flame, and is 
 rapidly oxidized. Its equivalent upon the hydrogen scale 
 is 71 ; and it tonus only one salifiable oxide, lb 
 of which is 79. When nitrate of bismuth is dropped into 
 water a white powder is thrown down, formerly called 
 Viagistery of bismuth or pearl white: it is a subnitrate. A 
 brown peroxide of bismuth is obtained by fusing (lie protox- 
 ide with caustic potash. Some of the' alloys" of bismuth 
 are remarkable for their fusibility : a compound of 8 parts 
 of bismuth, 5 of lead, and 3 of tin, melts in boiling 
 water, and is commonly called fusible rncl/U. I 
 bismuth are not common ; but it occurs natii ■■• 
 bined with oxygen, sulphur, and arsenic. The Germans 
 call it trismuth. 
 
 BI'SON. The trivial name of certain species of the 
 I.inna'm genua Bos, which differ from their congeners in 
 ' v bisun), or fifteen (Bos Americana*), 
 instead of thirteen pairs of ribs. The common bison of 
 the north of Europe (Bos bison), and the American 
 or bouassus (Bus Americanus), are the only known 
 this group. 
 
 BISIMNO'SIIS. (I.-; bis, spina, a spine.) When an 
 or pari i- armed with two spines. 
 
 BISSEXTILE. (Lat. bis, twice, and sextilis, sixth.) The 
 name given to the year which contains 366 days. Th 
 endar used In all European countries Is founded on i' 
 the Romans, as reformed by Julius Ciesar. Iii the calen- 
 dar of Coesar, the length of the year was fixed at 305.^ 
 days ; and in order that the year should always begin wit) 
 the beginning of a day, it was directed that every fourll 
 year should contain 30(3 days, the other years having eac.l 
 305. The additional day, which thus occurred every fount. 
 year, was given to February, the shortest month, and wb« 
 inserted in the calendar between the 24th and i">tli 
 In the peculiar method of reckoning the days of the niotit. 
 adopted by the Romans, namely, of reckoning backwards, 
 from the 1st of the succeeding month, it would have been 
 very inconvenient to have interrupted the order of nume- 
 ration ; accordingly the 24th, which was called sexto Calen- 
 dar Murtii, was reckoned twice, and the supernumerary or 
 repeated day called bis sexto Calendas. Hence the term 
 bissextile. In English, leap year has the same signification. 
 
 In the Julian calendar every fourth year was bissextile , 
 but this supposes the year to be 3G5J^ days, which errs in 
 excess by 11 minutes 1035 seconds. Accordingly in the 
 course of a few centuries, the error will amount to days, 
 and cause the commencement of the year to change its 
 
 filace with respect to the seasons. When the Julian ca- 
 endar was introduced, the equinox fell on the 25th of 
 March ; in 1582, when the calendar was reformed by Pope 
 Gregory XIII., it had fallen back to the lllh ; and as it was 
 then supposed that the error of the Julian calendar 
 amounted to three days in 400 years, it was ordered that 
 the intercalary day should be omitted in all the years which 
 terminate centuries, excepting those which are multiples 
 of 400. The Gregorian rule of intercalation is therefore as 
 follows :— Every year of which the number is divisible by 4 
 is a leap year; excepting the centesimal years, which are 
 only leap years when divisible by 4 after suppressing the 
 two zeros. Thus 1000 was a leap year; but 1700, 1800. 
 and 1000, which would be bissextile in the Julian calen 
 dar, are common years in the Gregorian. 
 
 This regulation, though it would for a ong time preserve 
 the commencement of the year at tlje same place In the 
 seasons, Is not yet quite correct. It supposes the length of 
 the year to be 365 days 5 h. 48 in. 12 seconds, which is too 
 great by 2238 seconds ; an error which amounts to a day 
 in 3366 years. As this number 3806 approaches to 4000, it 
 
BISTORT. 
 
 was proposed by Delambre to correct the Gregorian rule 
 by making the year 4000 and all its multiples common 
 years. Should our present calendar continue to be in 
 use 2000 years hence, posterity may then begin to con- 
 eider whether they will adopt this suggestion. See Cal- 
 endar. 
 
 BI'STORT. The root of the Polygonum bistorta, an 
 Indigenous plant ; it is used in medicine as a powerful as- 
 tringent. 
 
 BI'STRE. In Painting, a dark brown colour, made from 
 the soot of dry wood, whereof for this purpose beech is 
 preferable. 
 
 BI'SULCATE. (Lat. bis, twice, sulcus, a fissure.) In 
 Mammalogy, a term signifying a foot resting upon two hoof^ 
 ed digits. 
 
 BIT. That part of the bridle which goes into the mouth 
 of a horse. 
 
 BI'TTER PRINCIPLE. This term has been applied to 
 certain products of the action of nitric acid upon animal 
 and vegetable matters of an intensely bitter taste. See 
 Carbazotic Acid. 
 
 BI'TTERN. See Ardea. 
 
 Bittern. The residue of sea water after the, common 
 salt has been separated by evaporation. It contains muri- 
 ate of magnesia, which gives it a bitter taste. 
 
 BiTTER SALT. Sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom 
 tilt. 
 
 BITTER SPAR. A Mineralogical term, generally ap- 
 j lied to certain crystallized varieties of dolomite, or double 
 carbonates of lime and magnesia. It occurs in rhomboidal 
 crystals, consisting of about 55 per cent, of carbonate of 
 lime and 45 of carbonate of magnesia, sometimes with 
 traces of iron and maganese. 
 
 BITU'MEN. (From mrvs, the pitch tree; because it re- 
 sembles pitch.) A variety of inflammable mineral sub- 
 stances, which, like pitch, burn with flame in the open air, 
 is included under this term ; such as naphtha, pitroleum, 
 and asphaltum. 
 
 Bitumen. Mineral pitch. 
 
 BITU'MINOUS SHALE. An argillaceous shale impreg- 
 nated with bitumen : it commonly accompanies coal. 
 
 BIV A'LVES. (Lat. bis, two, and valva, a valve.) A term 
 commonly applied to the Lamellibranchiate Acephalous 
 Molluscs, on account of the structure of their shell, which 
 consists of two parts or valves, joined together by an elas- 
 tic ligament at the cardo, or hinge. The testaceous cover- 
 ing of the Palliobranchiates is also composed of two valves 
 or shelly pieces ; but these are never joined by elastic lig- 
 ament. 
 
 BI'VOUAC. (Fr.) A term in the Military art, employed 
 to denote the system by which soldiers on a march, or in 
 expectation of an engagement, remain all night in the open 
 air, in contradistinction to the systems of encampment and 
 cantonment. This word is derived from the Lat. bis, twice, 
 and the German wache, a guard, and signified originally 
 the guard which was selected from the body of a regiment 
 to keep watch during the night. 
 
 BIXA'CEjE. A small natural order of plants, so called 
 after the genus Bixa, the genus which produces the sub- 
 stance called arnotto, with which English cheeses are dyed 
 of their peculiar reddish ochre colour. The species are 
 all trees or shrubs inhabiting the tropics. 
 
 BLACK. (Sax. blac ) In Painting, the darkest colour 
 of all ; whereof the different sorts are lamp black, ivory 
 black, Frankfort black, Spanish black, and Hart's black. 
 
 BLACK BIRD. See Turdus. 
 
 BLACK CAP. This term is generally applied and un- 
 derstood to signify a species of frugivorous warbler (.Cur- 
 ruca atracapilla of Bisson); but it is also occasionally given to 
 the great titmouse (Parus fringillngo),\ho marsh titmouse 
 (Panes pahistris), the black-headed bunting (Bmberiza 
 schmmilzis), the stoneehat (Rubetra rubicola), and even to 
 tli;.' black-headed gull. 
 
 BLACK COCK. The nameof anative species of grouse 
 (Tetrao.) 
 
 BLACK FLUX. A mixture of carbonate of potash and 
 charcoal, obtained by deflagrating tartar with half its 
 waisht of nilre. 
 
 BLACK JACK. A term applied by the miners to cer- 
 tain sulpliurets of zinc : the ore is also called blende. 
 
 BLACK LEAD. See Plumbago and Graphite. 
 
 BLACK LETTER. Is the name now applied to the old 
 English or modern Gothic letter, which was introduced in- 
 t.i England about the middle of the fourteenth century, and 
 became the character generally used in MS. works before 
 the art of printing was publicly practised in Europe. On 
 the application of that art to the multiplying of books, about 
 (lie middle of the fifteenth century, the block books, and 
 .subsequently those written with moveable types, were in 
 this character, to imitate writing, and were disposed of as 
 manuscripts ; and so perfect was the imitation, that it re- 
 quired great discrimination to distinguish the printed from 
 Hie written. The first printed Bible, known as " the Mentz 
 liible without date," was an instance of this. Fust, the 
 150 
 
 BLAZONRY. 
 
 printer, sold copies in Paris as manuscripts ; and as the de- 
 mand increased on account of their beauty and correct- 
 ness, he not only promptly supplied that increased de- 
 mand, but even lowered the price : this excited suspicion ; 
 and on comparing the copies they were found to be perfect 
 facsimiles of each other, and being produced with such ra- 
 pidity it was held to be totally impossible for the most ex- 
 pert scriptores to execute them with equal accuracy and 
 despatch ; and Fust was accused of producing them by 
 means of magic. To avoid punishment for this crime he 
 was obliged to reveal the process by which they were pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Books printed before the year 1500 are generally in tliia 
 character, and are styled black-letter books. 
 
 BLACK WASH. A lotion composed of calomel and 
 limewater. 
 
 BLA'NCHING. In Gardening, is the whitening of the 
 stems, stalks, or leaves of plants, by tying them together, 
 or earthing them up, so as to exclude the light, and thus 
 to diminish the intensity of their native properties. 
 
 BLA'NK VERSE. In some modern languages, the 
 heroic verse of five feet without rhymes. Blank verse is 
 peculiar to the Italian, English, and German languages ; 
 having been imported into the two latter from the first. 
 In Italian the line is of eleven syllables ; and is used inva- 
 riably in the drama, and frequently in serious poetry, epic 
 or didactic. In English it was also first adopted by the 
 dramatists, and transferred to epic poetry by Milton. The 
 Miltonic verse is constructed with closer attention to the 
 melody of the cadence and effisura than the dramatic: it 
 admits also less frequently of the eleventh syllable, which 
 in English poetry must be regarded as a sort of license ; 
 while Shakspeare and other dramatists occasionally double 
 the short syllable at the end, and thus extend the number 
 to twelve. 
 
 BLAPS. A Fabrician genus of Coleopterous insects, 
 now the type of a family (Blapsida), characterized by the 
 absence of wings; maxillary palpi terminated by a large 
 hatchet-shaped joint, ; body oblong and oval. All the spe- 
 cies are of a dark or black colour, and have the elytra 
 soldered together, and bent down at the sides of the aboo- 
 men so as to embrace that part. There ait tin British 
 species of the genus Blaps proper, which are known by 
 the trivial names of" darkling" or " church yard beetles," 
 and are regarded by the vulgar of this and other countries 
 as insects of evil omen. . 
 
 BLAS'PHEMY. (Gr. (3\aa<pr\nia, probably from 8\ar- 
 rut, I injure; (priori, rumour.) According to its supposed 
 etymology signifies the offence of using injurious language. 
 as calumny, reviling, <fec. ; and in this sense it is used b 
 the New Testament; the word "railinirs," in 1 Tim. vi. 4. 
 being in the original " blasphemies." But in the modern 
 and restricted sense, " blasphemy" signifies the use of in- 
 sulting, or derogatory, or unbelieving language, with re- 
 spect to God and divine things. Under this meaning it has 
 been considered a civil crime in most Christian countries, 
 in imitation of the practice which prevailed among the 
 Jews. (Levit. xxix.) In England, by common law, it was 
 punishable with fine, imprisonment, and other corporal 
 punishment. By 9 W. 3. c. 35. it was first made a statuta- 
 ble offence, and extended so as to comprehend even the 
 mere denial of some fundamental doctrines of Christiani- 
 ty ; and subjected to very severe inflictions. Unitarians 
 were relieved from the penalties of this act by 3 G. 3. c. 
 170. But it is almost obsolete in practice with respect to 
 other offenders. 
 
 BLASTE'MA. In Botany, the axis of growth of an em- 
 bryo ; that is to say, the plumula, the radicle, and the pari 
 which connects them, the cotyledons being removed. 
 
 Blastema. In Anatomy, the homogeneous gelatinous 
 and granular basis of the ovum, in which the organic ele- 
 ments characteristic of the different tissues are deposited 
 in the earlv stages of development. 
 
 BLA'STING. See Mining. 
 
 BLASTOCA'RPOUS. (Gr. BAa<rroc,«gw?i,and Kapirot, 
 fruit.) That kind of fruit which germinates inside the 
 pericarp, as the mangrove. 
 
 BLASTODE'RM. (Gr. /JXaorof, germ, Sepjta, skin.) 
 In Anatomy, the germinal skin or membrane, or that gran- 
 ular membrane or stratum which lies immediately beneath 
 the membrana vitelli of the ovum, and which is the seat 
 of development of all parts of the body of birds. 
 
 BLA'STUS. (Gr. BAaoTavw, / germinate.) A name 
 sometimes given to the plumula and radicle of grasses. 
 
 BLA'TTA. A genus of nocturnal Orthopterous insects, 
 commonly called cock-roaches, or black beetles. In mo- 
 dern Entomology, it forms the type of a family, including 
 many genera. 
 
 BLA'ZONRY. The art of deciphering coats of arms, 
 also, that of expressing or describing a coat of arms in ap 
 propriate language. The word is supposed to be derived 
 from the German blasen, to blow, and to have originated 
 in the ceremonial of tournaments, from which so many 
 other terms and usages in heraldry are derived ; it havin 
 
BLEACHING. 
 
 oeen customaiy on these solemn occasions for the herald 
 to blow a trumpet when he called out the arms of a knight 
 on adhering him into the lists. Blazonry requires a know- 
 ledge of, 1. The points of the shield, which are nine in 
 numhcr (see Points); 2. The field, that is, the tincture or 
 tinctures forming the ground of the coat (see Tincture); 
 devices borne on the field (see Charge) ; 
 l. The ordin i 
 
 BI.EA'CHINO. (Ger. bleichen.) This process consists 
 in a series of operations, by which the natural colours of 
 tances are discharged, so as to whiten them. 
 It in effected either by the action of various solvents, aided 
 by exposure to light, air, and moisture, upon the bleaching 
 aid of chlorine. Cotton la more easily 
 bleached than linen, in consequence of its being originally 
 whiter, and having a leas powerful attraction for the co- 
 louring matter. In bleaching these goods upon the old 
 principle, warm water is first liberally applied to remove 
 the weaver's paste or dressing; they are then bucked, or 
 boiled in a weak alkaline ley ; and after having been well 
 Washed, are spread out upon the grass, so ad to be freely 
 exposed to the joint agencies of light, air, and moisture; 
 the bucking and exposure are alternately repeated as often 
 as necessary ; the goods are soured, thai is, immersed in 
 slightly acidulated by sulphuric acid; lastly, they 
 :v thoroughly washed and dried. By these opera- 
 tions the texture of the goods is to a certain extent im- 
 paired, and much time is required to complete the process, 
 innot be carried on in the winter months. 
 But the exposure upon the bleaching ground is now to a 
 ; and the same elFect is obtained, 
 after the process of bucking, by the action of weak solu- 
 tions of chlorine, or of cliloride of lime, which, if skilfully 
 used, can scarcely be said to injure the goods more than 
 the long-continued exposure. The theory of bleaching 
 has no' u-torily developed ; but, from such ex- 
 
 perimi been made in reference to it, it appears 
 
 to be a process of oxidizemenl, and to depend upon some 
 peculiar influence of nascent oxygen upon the colouring 
 
 The colour of manufactured wool depends partly upon 
 ■id partly upon the appli to it in 
 
 the !• are got rid of in the fulling mill by the 
 
 joint ?<-v,u of fullers' earth an<! soap; the cloth is then 
 well washed and dried, and is tolerably white ; if the slight 
 yellow tint which it retains is objectionable, it is prevented 
 by adding a little stone-blue to the washing water, or by 
 exposure to the fumes of burning sulphur ; this latter me- 
 thod, however, gives it a harsh feel, and if afterwards 
 il - yellowiahneas returns. 
 The colour of raw silk depends upon a natural yellow 
 varnish, which is got rid of by boiling it in white soap and 
 witer. and by repeated rinclnga. Certain articles of wove 
 cotton, such as stockings, are bleached as usual, and fin- 
 ished by the action of sulphurous acid, or the fumes of 
 burning" sulphur. Straw £ also whitened by a similar 
 operation ; and hence bleached siraw hats are apt to have 
 ile sulphurous smell, a good account of bleach- 
 ing will he found in Parketf Chemical Essays. 
 
 BLE'ACHING POWDER. Chloride ol lime, made by 
 exposing slaked lime to the action of chlorine. 
 BLENDE Native sulphuret of zinc. 
 BLE'NNIVB. (Gr. fi\tvva, slime.) In Ichthyology, a 
 genus of Acanthopterygious fishes, of the family of Gud- 
 oida i, remarkable for the quantity of mucus 
 secreted from the skin, and for the viviparous generation 
 ol" some of the species, of which the Blennuis pholis, 
 a species common along the shores of Britain, is an ex- 
 ample. 
 
 BLE'NNOHlllKE'A. (Gr. ffXivva, mucus, ami j>tu, I 
 Jlotc.) An inordinate discharge or secretion of mucus. 
 
 BLE'PUAJUTEa (Gr. 0\t<papov, the eyelid.) Inllam- 
 mation of the eyelids. 
 
 BLIGHT A term in common use for supposed atmos- 
 pherical injuries received by plants. Before effects were 
 traced to their causes with the same care that they are at 
 present, the sudden discolouration of the leaves of plants, 
 their death, or their being covered with minute insects or 
 small excrescences, was called by the general name of 
 Blight ; ari'l this blight was attributed to some mysterious 
 influence in the air, to the east wind, or to thunder, be- 
 cause these states of the atmosphere commonly accom- 
 panied the phenomena alluded to. It is now found that 
 is called blight is in some cases the effect of insects, 
 to the progress of which the dry state of the atmosphere 
 produced by the east wind is peculiarly favourable ; while 
 in other cases, it is caused by parasitical fungi. The ap- 
 pearance of these fungi on corn crops is frequently desig- 
 nated by farmers as the fire blast ; while on peach and 
 other trees in gardens it is called mildew. The sudden 
 death of plants, and also the withering and drying up of 
 part of their leaves and branches, to which appearance 
 the frm blight should perhaps be restricted, are produced 
 by the transpiration of water from the leaves taking place 
 151 
 
 RLOOD. 
 
 with greater rapidity than it can be supplied by the ao 
 sorption of the roots. In very hot weather in '.summer 
 branches of fruit trees trained against walla, or of goose- 
 berry bushes on espaliers, are sometimes withered up in 
 a few minutes from this cause. What countrymen call 
 the blight on standard apple or other fruit Tees in orchards 
 is commonly nothing more than the injuries dont the 
 leaves and buds by the caterpillars of certain moths ; that 
 on thorn hedges, by the caterpillar of the saw fly, or ot the 
 ermine, or of some other moths ; and that on roses, by the 
 aphides or green fly. 
 
 BLIND WORM. An ophidian or serpent-like reptile 
 which is the type of the genus Cecilia (sea that word) 
 The term is also sometimes applied to the slow-worm. 
 See Anguis. 
 
 BLl'NKERS. Expansions of the sides of the bridle of 
 a horse, to prevent him from seeing on either side, but at 
 the same time not to obstruct his vision in front. 
 
 BUS'TER-FLY. .See Cantharis. 
 
 BLOCK. (Teutonic.) In Architecture, a large on- 
 worked mass of marble or other stone. It is also vulgarly 
 used to denote a modillion in a cornice. 
 
 Block. In Navigation, the case that contains the wheel 
 oraheeve of the pulley (which last term is not used at sea). 
 Two or more blocks, with the rope, constitute a tackle 
 (pronounced tacle). Blocks are also the pieces of wood 
 and iron on which, piled up, the ship's keel is supported 
 when she is in dock. 
 
 BLOCKA'DE. In International Law, the right to block- 
 ade the ports of an enemy in war, and to exclude neutrals, 
 is limited by the following recognised principles: 1 The 
 blockade must be substantial, by means of a sufficient 
 force to prevent the entry or exit of vessels ; otherwise a 
 neutral is not hound to respect it. 2. It is essential thai 
 the neutral should have notice of the blockade : otherwise 
 his ship cannot be justly condemned. A counter notice 
 should also be given by the blockading power when the 
 blockade has ceased. In England, a blockade is properly 
 i by the king in council. 
 
 BI.O'CKING COURSE. In Architecture, a finishing 
 course of masonry above a cornice. 
 
 BLOCK TIN. "Tin cast Into blocks or i 
 nerally less pure than grain tin. 
 
 BLOOD. The fluid which circulates in the heart and 
 blood-vessels. When viewed under the ml 
 pears to consist of very minute red globules or 
 floating in a eoiourlees fluid. The average quantity la an 
 adult man is estimated at about 28 lbs. : it is of two distinct 
 colours in tie- arterial anil venous systems ; llorid ied ap- 
 proaching to scarlet in the former, and dark crimson In the 
 litter. Its specific gravity is between 11150 and UNO. 
 When drawn from its vessels it gelatinises or a 
 in the course of a few minutes of common temperature, 
 and soon separates spontaneously into serum at. 
 lum. The serum is a yellowish soapy-feeling fluid, of the 
 -cavity of about 1 030. It exhibits a slight alkaline 
 reaction upon test papers; when heated it becomes opaque, 
 and at 150° it coagulates. It is also coagulated by alcohol, 
 and by most of the acids; acetic acid and ether do not co- 
 agulate it; solutions of corrosive sublimate, ol 
 ol lead, and of chloride platinum occasion precipitate! in 
 it, even when considerably diluted with water. These 
 properties of serum are dependent upon 'he presence of a 
 peculiar proximate animal principle called albumen ; the 
 same substance, and with very nearly the same properties, 
 constitutes the white of egg, the coagulability of which by 
 heat is well known. Besides the above there i.s another 
 most delicate test of albumen in solution, which consists 
 in adding to the liquid suspected to contain it a little stron" 
 acetic acid, and afterwards a few drops of ferrocyanalc vj 
 potash. If albumen be present, a white cloud is produced 
 This is even a more accurate test than corrosive sublimate. 
 White of egg is coagulated by ether, while serum la not. 
 According to Marcet 1000 parts of serum of human blood 
 are composed of water 900, albumen 86-8, muriates of po- 
 tassa and soda 6-6, muco-extractive 4, carbonate of soda 
 10.1, sulphate of potassa 35, earthy phosphates 060. 
 
 The coagulum of the blood is of a more or less firm tex- 
 ture, and has a greater specific gravity than the serum. It 
 contains the colouring particles of the blood ; and when 
 carefully washed, these are carried out of it, and a tena- 
 cious whitish matter remains, which has been termed 
 fibrine, but which, in all essential points, ha3 the proper- 
 ties of coagulated albumen. 
 
 The colouring matter of the blood, hamalosine, may bo 
 obtained by evaporating its aqueous solution at a tempera- 
 ture below 100° ; it then appears almost black, but resumes 
 its red colour when dissolved in water. It is soluble 
 in acids and in alkalies; these solutions are dark-co- 
 loured; but when mixed, so as to become neutral, th 
 hainatosine falls of a bright red colour. Accordingly. 
 when Hie clot of blood is put into acids it becomes brown 
 or blackish, and is very similarly discoloured by alkalies; 
 but most neutral salts render it florid. Dr. Stevens has 
 
BLOOD ROOT. 
 
 «snown that carbonic acid in venous blood is the probable 
 cause of its dingy hue, and that the saline matter of the 
 serum confers the florid red upon arterial blood ; and that 
 by washing the saline matters out of the bright coagulum 
 of arterial blood it gradually loses its brilliancy and resem- 
 bles venous coagulum. 
 
 The following table shows the results of an analysis of 
 human blood by Lecanu (Annales de. Chimie et Physique, 
 vol xlviii.1 , considered quantitively, it must only be taken 
 us a moan >r approximate result. 
 
 Water 780145 
 
 Fibrine 2100 
 
 Colouring matter .... • 133 000 
 
 Albumen ....... 65090 
 
 Fat and oily matter ... • 3740 
 
 Extractive matter 1790 
 
 Albumen combined with soda • • • L265 
 
 Chloride of sodium \ 
 
 potassium / 
 
 ess u £S \ ■ •■• 
 
 Sulphates S anii soda ) 
 
 Carbonates of lime . . 
 
 magnesia ) 
 
 Phosphate of lime f - 2-100 
 
 magnesia f 
 
 iron \ 
 
 Peroxide of iron / 
 
 Loss 2-400 
 
 1000 000 
 
 BLOOD ROOT. The root of the Sanguinaria cana- 
 densis, the juice of which is of a red colour. 
 
 BLO'ODSTONE. A dark green silicious mineral, va- 
 riegated by red spots (heliotrope). 
 
 BLO'WPIPE. An instrument by which a small jet of 
 air is directed laterally into the llame of a lamp or candle, 
 so as to divert it in a long slender cone upon a piece of 
 charcoal or other substance so placed as to receive it. 
 When a flame is thus urged by the blowpipe the extreme 
 heat is just at the tip of the outer white flame, where the 
 combustion is most perfect, and where substances are 
 rapidly burned or oxidized ; whilst the interior blue flame, 
 in consequence of its excess of combustible matter, ab- 
 stracts oxygen from, or reduces, substances. So that seve- 
 ral metals, when thu3 heated before the blowpipe, are al- 
 ternately oxidized and deoxidized by being placed in the 
 outer and inner flame. The blowpipe is of important ser- 
 vice to the chemist in enabling him to ascertain easily and 
 quickly the effects of intense heat upon a variety of sub- 
 stances; and he frequently ha^ recourse to it in order to 
 distinguish metallic and earthy minerals from each other, 
 and to ascertain in a general way the nature of their com- 
 ponent parts : it is, in fact, a most important auxiliary in 
 all cases of qualitative analysis. Several treatises have been 
 written on the use and indications of the blowpipe: the 
 reader is especially referred to Faraday's Chemical Mani- 
 pulation, Sect. IV. § 3. Griffin's Chemical Recreations, 
 Pari I. Blowpipe Analysis. Glasgow, 1838. 
 
 BLU'BliER. The cellular membrane in which the oil 
 or fat of the whale is included. See Whale. 
 
 BLUE. (Germ, blau.) In Painting, the colour of the 
 sky. It is one of the seven original colours, and is of 
 many sorts, whereof the principal are ultramarine, Prus- 
 sian blue, blue bice, and indigo. 
 
 BLUFFS High banks presenting an abrupt form to- 
 wards the sea or river. 
 
 BO'A. A genus of serpents, with the transverse scuta? 
 of the abdomen and tail in a single row, and without a 
 rattle or spur at the end of the tail. Some species attain 
 an immense size ; but the large serpents broueht to this 
 country, and called boa constrictors, are generally Pythons, 
 and natives of Asia. The true boas are from South Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 BOARD. (Equivalent to the French bureau.) A word 
 applied usually to certain individuals in a collective capa- 
 city, who are intrusted with the management of some 
 public office or department. Thus the Commissioners of 
 Customs, the Committee of the Privy Council for the Af- 
 fairs of Trade, the Commissioners of Excise, <fcc, when 
 assem' 1>\. to transact the business of their respective otfi- 
 .ess are staled the Board of Customs, the Board of Trade, 
 the Boarc of Excise, &c. But the term Board is used 
 also in a more general sense, being applied to any individ- 
 uals appointed by competent authority to deliberate on or 
 superintend the operations of any private business or spe- 
 culation. 
 
 Board. (Sax. bord.) In Architecture, apiece of timber 
 of undefined length, more than four inches in breadth, and 
 not more than two indies and a half in thickness. The 
 section of a hoard is, however, sometimes triangular, or 
 rather trapezoidal. one edge beingvery thin. This js called 
 a feather edited hoard. 
 
 HOA'TSVVAIN'. The second of the three warrant offi- 
 152 
 
 BOLTHEAD. 
 
 cersofaman of war; he has charge of the boats, rigging 
 anchors, and cables. It is his duty to turn the hands up, ot 
 summon the whole crew, whenever they are required for 
 any duty. He should fiom the nature of his duties be an 
 active man, and a thorough seaman. The bnatswain a 
 mates assist the boatswain, summon the watches or other 
 portions of the crew to duty, and inflict punishments. 
 
 BOAT. (Sax. bret.) A term used In a general sense to 
 denote any small ship or vessel, whether open or decked, 
 and which may be propelled by oars, or by sails, or by 
 steam. They are accordingly of very different forms and 
 constructions, according to the different purposes they are 
 intended to serve. Under this term are comprehended 
 barges, cutters, pinnaces, yawls, <kc. See Ship ; Steam 
 Navigation. 
 
 BO'BSTAYS. Stays or strong ropes to keep down the 
 bowsprit during the plunging of the ship, and against the 
 upward action of the head sails (jibs, fore-staysail, <fcc), and 
 to sustain the action of the stays or ropes, which keep the 
 foremast, fore-topmast, <fcc, and therefore the main-top- 
 mast, from falling aft. They are necessarily very strong ; 
 they are attached to the bowsprit by collars placed about '.. 
 of its length outside, and to the hull of the ship, by passing 
 through holes in the cutwater or projecting head, and make 
 an angle of about 30° more or less with the axis of the bow- 
 sprit. They are often made of chains. 
 
 BO'DY. In Physics, is a term applied to any portion of 
 matter of which the existence can be perceived by any of 
 our senses. According to the Peripatetics, body is com- 
 posed of matter, form, and privation. In modern physics. 
 body is regarded as an agglomeration of material particles. 
 According to the different forms in which matter exists, 
 bodies may be solid, liquid, or gaseous. 
 
 In Geometry, body is synonimous with solid. Tims 
 we say the five regular bodies, or five regular solids. See 
 Solid. 
 
 BOG EARTH. A soil consisting chiefly of silicious and 
 vegetable fibre ; it is often accumulated in considerable 
 quantity where waters have deposited the mud of boggy 
 places. Many American shrubs and other plants and 
 flowers will only thrive in such or similar soils, so that bog 
 earth is in great request for such purposes. It may, to a 
 certain extent, be artificially imitated by mixing the cuttings 
 of grass with the mud of ponds and a sufficient quantity of 
 sharp sand. 
 
 BOHE'A. A species of black tea. SeeTEA. 
 
 BOI'LING POINT. The temperature at which liquids 
 are rapidly converted into vapour with the phenomena of 
 ebidlition. Thus the boiling point of water is 212° ; of alco- 
 hol, 176° ; of ether, 96° ; of oil of turpentine, 310° : and of 
 mercury, 662° ; these being the respective temperatures at 
 which these bodies continuously pass into the state of 
 vapour. 
 
 BO'LDNESS. (Sax. bald.) In the Fine Arts, that fear- 
 lessness which an artist exhibits in his designs, arising 
 from, and grounded on, a thorough knowledge of the prin- 
 ciples of his art. Its antagonist is tameness or insipidity. 
 
 BOLE. (Gr. /?a>Ao$, a mass.) An argillaceous earthy 
 mineral, generally reddened by oxide of iron ; as is the 
 case in the Armenian bole, which is used in tooth-powder, 
 and to give colour to the fish sauce called essence of an- 
 chovies. 
 
 BOLE'RO. A peculiar species of dance very popular in 
 Spain, and so called from the name of its inventor. 
 
 BOLE'TIC ACID. An acid contained in the juice of the 
 Boletus psendo ignarius. 
 
 BOLE'TUS. (Gr. /?a>Aof, a mass.) A genus of fungi, 
 numerous large species of which sprint: from the sides of 
 trees when the rind is decayed, forming firm fleshy masses, 
 which are generally smooth on the upper side, and pierced 
 with holes on the lower. The spawn of such plants often 
 forms what is called dry-rot, insinuating its fine delicate 
 filamentous ramifications between the tubes of the wood, 
 forcing them asunder, and so destroying the cohesion and 
 solidity of limber. Boletus igniarius and fomentarius are 
 the fungi which, when cut into thin slices, dried, and pre- 
 pared with saltpetre, form common amadou, or the Ger- 
 man tinder of the shops. B. tuberosus is used in Sweden, 
 as a substitute for cork. B. bovinus is said to be a favour- 
 ite food of oxen, deer, swine, and some other animals ; it 
 is even used for human food. 
 
 BOLOGNE'SE SCHOOL. In Painting, sometimes called 
 the Lombard school of painting. It was founded by the Ca 
 racci,and its object was to unite the excellencies of the 
 preceding schools (see Painting); hence it is occasionally 
 called the Eclectic school. Among the principal painters 
 which it numbered were Domenichino, Lanfranco, Cor- 
 regio, Guido, Schidone, Caravagio, Zampicri, Primaticcio„ 
 &c. 
 
 BOLO'GNIAN STONE. A sulphate of baryta, found 
 near Bologna, which, when heated with charcoal, become* 
 a powerful solar phosphorus. 
 
 BO'LTHEAD. A "lobular flask with a tubular neck 
 used in the chemical laboratory. 
 
BOLUS. 
 
 BO'LUS. (Latin, a mass.) A very large pill ; or a med- 
 formed into an olive-shaped mass, not too large to be 
 
 HO Ml?. In Artillery, a hollow ball or shell of cast-iron, 
 rlflce through which it is filled with gunpowder, 
 and Into which, when filled, a fusee is inserted, so adjusted 
 ab falls at the place intended, the fusee 
 in the shell, and blows it to pieces. 
 Iiich is thus produced in a besieged town or 
 wilts of an enemy is often very great. Bombs, or 
 ley are more frequently called, are of all sizes, 
 i 3 inches downwards, and are in general thrown 
 from mortars or howitzers; sometimes from cannon. 
 it to have been first used as part of the regular 
 m Lleriel of an army about the year 1RJ4, in the wars of the 
 The principal art to throwing shells is to 
 to Ike them fall at or near a given point. For this purpose 
 Is calculated, and the charge of powder and 
 i >rtar regulated accordingly. Theoreti- 
 cal rides are of no great use. They must be derived from 
 experiment and practice. 
 BO'MBARDIERS. See Bkachi.sts. 
 BO'MIIA.V (Or. Rofi,3a r .) A genus containing many 
 species of very large trees, whose capsules are filled with 
 • nveloping the seeds. It gives its 
 to the natural order Bombaceai, allied to Malvaceous 
 isoclated with the celebrated Baobab, 
 and in my more gigantic inhabitants of tropical forests, 
 are remarkable for forming on their 
 next the ground ho es, projecting so far 
 
 from uk as to be capable of screening many 
 
 ■ I i unity of cotton yielded by these trees is 
 i . I-, an I often covers the earth around the roots to 
 il feet ; it is unfortunately of too short a 
 manufacturing purposes. 
 BCKMBAZINE. (Or. liopftuf, a sili worm.) A fabric 
 of which tbe warp is silk and the weft (or shoot) worsted. 
 ilefly made In black, and as an article of mourning 
 employed in Norwich, da- 
 I of the bombazine trade, 
 I JO, but at present it is below £100,000. 
 BOMB VESSEL. A ship of war, intended for the bom- 
 bardm wn or place situated on the sea coast. 
 
 They 330 tons burthen, ami carry one 13-inch 
 
 an I one 1" in li mortar, together with two C-pounder guns, 
 ler, and eight SM-pounder carronades, bavins 
 i, with the usual complem 
 ichment of marine artillerymen for (he 
 working the guns. Bee Spearman's Dtilish 
 
 BO'MBIC \('ll). The arid contained in the silk-worm, 
 i its chrysalis state. It is supposed to resemble 
 
 BO'MBYCI'LLA. A genus of omnivorous Passerine 
 
 . of which the Bohemian wax-wing (BambydUager- 
 
 cample, ami an occasional winter visitor of 
 
 BOMHY'I.IUS. A I. in: i rous insects, 
 
 and uow the type of a family (Ii>mhyHitln:), characterized 
 
 length of the oral Instruments, which forma 
 
 rod slender proboscis ; body thick, short, hairy ; tho- 
 
 bboiu; wings extended horizontally; halteres ex- 
 
 iii.e short, approximate, composed of three 
 
 and terminating ob- 
 
 i I slender. The insects of this family 
 
 -ml are very active; they subsist en- 
 
 r of flowers. They are of .small size, 
 
 and ii'. . affording types o'f many genera, o? 
 
 which only Bombylitu proper and Pthiria afford British 
 
 examples. 
 
 DO M It VX. A Linnaean genus of L"pidopterous inserts, 
 
 now the type of a family (Bom/iycidm), including many 
 
 of nocturnal and post-meridian moths. These have 
 
 I under the following sub- families: — Ilepiali- 
 
 ;. irctuda, and Bombycida proper. 
 
 ■ \ \ DE V. In It mi m Mythology, a ;oddess.concern- 
 
 lag whom a great diversity of opinion prevails, even among 
 
 th» writers ofantiquity. On the authority of C. Labeo, she 
 
 - it length upon her 
 
 i, as synonlmous with the Grecian Rhea 
 
 orOyl Bona Dea had two temples at Rome : but 
 
 rally solemnised in the house of the 
 
 In the celebration of these rites only 
 
 !, thereby indicating the peculiar chas- 
 
 But a perusal of the ancient writers 
 
 rmvince the most sceptical that the exclusion of men 
 
 imnlties of the Bona Dea was purely nominal, 
 
 uraeof time the grossest licentiousness 
 
 I during their celebration. (See Cic: pro 
 
 VI.) 
 
 See Bison. 
 
 BOND. (Six bond.) In Architecture, the connection 
 
 af one s'one or brick with another by lapping them over 
 
 each otber in carrying up work, so that an inseparable 
 
 153 
 
 BONE. 
 
 mass of building may bo formed, whicl could not be the 
 case if every vertical joint was over that below it. 
 
 Bond. In Law, a deed whereby the obligor, or party 
 binding himself, obliges himself, his heirs, executors, and 
 administrators, to pay a certain sum of money, called the 
 penalty, to another (the obligee) at a day appointed. There 
 Uiion added, that if the obligor does some particu- 
 lar act the obligation shall be void, or else remain in lull 
 force. In case this condition is not performed, the bond 
 becomes forfeited or absolute at law, and charges the obli- 
 gor while living; and after his dealh the obligation de- 
 scends on the heir, who (in default of personal assets in 
 the hands of the executor or administrator) is bound to dis- 
 charge it, provided he have real assets by descent The 
 condition is usually (although not necessarily) included in 
 the same deed, and at the foot of the obligation. 
 
 A bond without a condition is termed single tor simplex 
 obligalio); and it bccom-s single by forfeiture, oo non-per- 
 formance of the condition. At law. the whole penalty 
 mentioned in the bond was recoverable on such non-per- 
 formance. Buibytheinterpositi.m of equity the obligee 
 was discharged from paying more than the .sum to which 
 tbe obligor was reasonably entitled : viz. his principal, in- 
 , If the bond was for payment of a 
 debt ; or the damages accruing to him. If it was for the per- 
 formance of a stipulated act. But by 4 Ai 5 Ann. c. 16. it 
 was enacted that in case of a bond conditioned for pay- 
 ment of money, the payment of the sum due, with inter- 
 est and costs, even though the bond be forfeited, and suit 
 commenced thereon, shall be a full satisfaction and dis- 
 and on this footing the law now ■ 
 
 A bond on which neither principal nor interest has beeu 
 
 .ill be presumed tO have been 
 
 . I'm length ot time li not, strictly, a legal bar, but 
 only a ground for the jury to presume sal sfaction. 
 
 In a bond where several are bound severally, the obli- 
 gee may, at his election, sue all the obligors together, or all 
 of tin-in apart, ami have several judgments and executions : 
 but he shall have satisfaction but once : lor If it be by one 
 only, that is sufficient to discharge the debt, 
 
 Bond, English. In Architecture, that disposition of 
 bricks in a wall wherein the courses are alternately com- 
 posed of headers, or bricks laid with their 
 towards the faces of the wall, and in the superior and in- 
 ferior courses of stretchers or bricks, with 
 
 their lengths parallel to the faces of the -1-p' — ' ' ' ' 
 walls, as in the margin, in which tbe upper 
 
 is called i ml the lower the stretchlnj 
 
 Bond, Flemish. In Architecture, lliat disposition ol 
 
 bricks in a wall wherein each course has 
 
 headers and stretchers alternately, as in the — ! !— ! 
 
 margin. : — — 
 
 Bond or Lap op a Slate. In Architecture, the distance 
 between the nail of the under slate and the lower edge of 
 the oppei 
 
 DOM) STONE. In Architecture, a stone running 
 tie thickness of a wall at right angl 
 face, for the purpose of binding the wall together In the di- 
 rection of its thickness. 
 
 BOND TIMBER. In Architecture, timber worked in 
 with a wall as it is carried up, for the purpose of tying it 
 together in a longitudinal direction while the work is 
 setting. 
 
 BONE. An important organ in the higherorders of ani- 
 mals (see Anatomy), forming the solid support of their 
 fabric, and protecting the vital organs, such as the brain and 
 the heart and longs, from external pressure and injury. 
 In the human skeleton there are commonly enumerated 
 2(i0 distinct bones. They, however, admit 01 classification 
 under three heads ; namely, long or cylindrical bones, such 
 as those of the extremities ; broad and Jlat bones, such as 
 those of the skull ; and sliort, square, irregular, or snliil 
 bones, such as the vertebr®, and those of the wrist and in- 
 step, and the patella or knee-pan : the first bones are gene- 
 rally filled with marrow, and are admirable specimens of 
 strength of structure with the least possible weight The 
 bones are covered by a membrane called periosteum, by 
 which the ramifications of blood-vessels and nerves pass 
 into the bone. In the growth of a bnm>, the gelatinous or 
 cartilaginous portion, as it has sometimes been called, is 
 first formed, and the earthy or Indurating part is afterwards 
 deposited. We are indebted to Mr. Hatched for our prin- 
 cipal information respecting the proximate chemical com- 
 ponents of bone. (Phil. Tram. 1799 and IfiQft.) 1 
 parts consist of gelatine and albumen ; and the hard por- 
 tion is composed of phosphate of lime and carbonate of 
 lime, with small quantities of other salts. The animal 
 matter of bones amounts on an average to abi ut half their 
 weight, or, when dried, to between 30 and 40 per cent. ; so 
 that they contain a large relative proportion of nutritive 
 matter. The bones, including their animal matter, are the 
 most durable parts of the animal fabric ; hence the propo- 
 sal of storing them up. as occasional sources of nutriment ; 
 for not only is the cartilaginous portion unimpaired, in 
 
BONE DUST. 
 
 bones which have been kept dry for many years, but it has 
 even been found perfect in bones of apparently antedilu- 
 vian origin. The best mode of extracting the nutritious 
 part of bone for human food consists in grinding it fine, 
 and subjecting it with water to a heat of about 220° in a di- 
 gester; or the earthy part may be removed by dilute mu- 
 riatic acid. When dogs and some other animals devour 
 bones, the nutritive part is abstracted by their gastric juice, 
 and the earlhy part is voided in their excrement, forming 
 what was formerly called album gracum. 
 
 When bones are submitted to destructive distillation, the 
 gelaline and albumen which they contain is abundantly 
 productive of ammonia ; hence a copious source of that 
 alkali and its compounds; the residue is a mixture of the 
 earthy part of the bone with charcoal, commonly termed 
 ivory or bone black. For an account of the Economical 
 Uses of Bones, see Aikin's Illustrations of Arts and Manu- 
 factures 12mo. London, 1841. 
 
 BONE DUST, or ground bones, has recently been used 
 with the best effect as a manure. It is usually applied to 
 light or turnip soils, which it has rendered in no ordinary 
 degree productive. For further detailson this curious and 
 interesting subject, see article "Agriculture" in M'Culloch's 
 Statistics. The importation of bones from distant coun- 
 tries to be used as manure is now carried on to a great 
 extent. 
 
 BONE EARTH. The residue of bones which have been 
 calcined so as to destroy the animal matter and carbon, 
 and become converted into a white porous and friable sub- 
 stance, composed chiefly of phosphate of lime. Accord- 
 ing to Berzelius, 100 parts of human bones are composed 
 of 51 04 phosphate of lime, 1130 carbonate of lime, 2 flu- 
 oride of calcium, 1*20 soda and chloride of sodium, 116 
 phosphate of magnesia, and 33*30 animal matter. Albu- 
 men, gelatine, and fat constitute the animal part of bone, 
 the greater part of which remains in the form of a tough 
 cartilage when bones are steeped in dilute muriatic acid. 
 
 BONI'TO. The name of a species of Scomberoid fishes 
 (Tltyinnis pelamis, Cuv.), common in the tropical ocean, 
 and well known to voyagers from its persecution of the 
 flying-fish (Exoccblus volitans), and flying squid {Loligo 
 tagtitalefi. 
 
 BO'NZES. The priests of the religion of Fo are so 
 called by Europeans ; especially in China, the Birman Em- 
 pire, Japan, and other districts of Eastern Asia. 
 
 BO'OBY. The English name of a genus of Pelecanida ; 
 (hey are also called gannets, noddies, and soland geese. 
 
 BOOK. (Ger. buch.) "The general name of almost 
 every literary composition, but in a more limited sense ap- 
 plied only to such compositions as are large enough to form 
 a volume." Short and fugitive pieces are denominated 
 pamphlets, in contradistinction to books, which are of 
 greater length, and embrace more general and permanent 
 topics. To the various sizes and forms in which books appear 
 appropriate appellations have been given ; as folio, quarto, 
 octavo, duodecimo, &c. The materials of which books have 
 been composed have been extremely different in different 
 nations, and in different periods of the progress of civili- 
 zation. Plates of lead and copper, bricks, stone, and wood, 
 were anciently employed for this purpose. At a later pe- 
 riod the bark of trees formed the chief material in the 
 composition of books, as is indicated by the original signi- 
 fication of the term book itself, and its equivalent in some 
 other languages. The materials of books were afterwards 
 derived from the Egyptian plant papyrus ; but as the de- 
 mand for books increased, more durable materials were 
 sought for, and leather, made chiefly from the skins of 
 goats or sheep, was employed for this purpose. Next fol- 
 lowed the use of parchment, on which the ancient MSS. 
 vpere chiefly written : but all these systems were swallow- 
 ed up by the invention of paper {quod vide), which took 
 place about the 13th century, and facilitated the circulation 
 of knowledge to an incalculable extent. The first books 
 were in the form of blocks and tablets ; but when flexible 
 materials came into use, it was found more convenient to 
 roll them up in scrolls, called by the Greeks K6vra\, and 
 by the Romans volumen. 
 
 BOOK-KEEPING. In Commerce, the art of recording, 
 in a regular, concise, and systematic manner, the transac- 
 tions of merchants, traders, or other persons engaged in 
 pursuits connected with money. It has not only the au- 
 thority of experience to recommend it, but that of some of 
 tin- s'mest observers of human affairs: Dr. Johnson re- 
 marks, " that the counting--house of an accomplished mer- 
 chant is a school of method, where the great science may 
 bo learned of ranging particulars under generals, of bring- 
 ing the different parts of a transaction together, and of 
 Knowing at one view a long series of dealing and exchange. 
 Let. no man (the Doctor adds) venture into large business 
 while 1 >r> is ignorant of the method of regulating books; 
 •lever let him imagine that any degree of natural abilities 
 will enable him to supply this deficiency, or preserve a 
 multiplicity of affairs from inextricable confusion." There 
 ire two modes of keeping books of account; the one by 
 154 
 
 BOOK-KEEPING. 
 
 what is termed Single and the ottur by Double Entry 
 Both are in very general use. The system of single entry 
 is chiefly confined to the business of retail-dealers ; it is 
 much the simplest method of book-keeping, consisting 
 only of a day-book and a ledger. In the day-book the 
 dealer enters his sales and purchases, and in his ledger he 
 carries the former to the debit of his customers, and the 
 latter to the credit of the merchants who supply him with 
 goods. By making at any time a list of the some due lu 
 him by his customers, and of those due by him to wholesale 
 merchants, the retail dealer may, after adding to the debts 
 due to him the value of his stock on hand, arrive at an ap- 
 proximation to the real state of his debts and assets. This, 
 however, is but an imperfect and unsatisfactory mode o I 
 book-keeping; and, therefore, in the case of wholesale 
 and mercantile business, where extensive and multifarious 
 transactions have to be recorded, recourse is had to the 
 system of double entry. This system possesses all the 
 advantages of single entry, besides being so complete and 
 comprehensive in its principles, and so certain in its re- 
 sults, as to admit of universal application. It miy witli 
 equal advantage be adopted in the most limited as well as 
 in the most extensive, in the most plain and simple as well 
 as the most intricate and complicated concerns. 
 
 No very authentic accounts exist of the origin of book- 
 keeping. The double entry system appears to have been 
 first practised towards the latter part of the fifteenth centu- 
 ry, in Venice and other towns in Italy, then the great em- 
 porium of the mercantile world, and from this circum- 
 stance it acquired the name of the Italian method of book- 
 keeping. The advantages of the system, and the sound- 
 ness of the principles on which it is based, soon became 
 apparent; for we find it was adopted in England and 
 France early in the sixteenth century, and has continued 
 to be more and more practised down to the present day. 
 
 The great objects of agood method of book-keeping ate 
 to exhibit transactions as they occur, in the most minute 
 detail, and ultimately in the most condensed form ; ad- 
 vancing from the earliest stage to the latest by such clear 
 and lucid steps as at all times to admit of every tact being 
 traced in its progress, and security being obtained at every 
 step a,-ai:ist omission or error. For the attainment of such 
 important objects, no mode of book-keeping has hitherto 
 been devised at all approaching to the perfection of the 
 Italian system by double entry. Every transaction in bu- 
 siness is two-fold; there can be no receipt without a pay- 
 ment, and no purchase without a sale, and consequently 
 by presenting the same event or fact on both sides of the 
 books, whence the name of double entry, the enti \ 
 simultaneous, become corroborative of each other. The. 
 circumstance of every transaction being entered on both 
 sides of the ledger affords one of the most, valuable results 
 derived from the system of double entry, namely, a lesl 
 of accuracy : inasmuch as the entries on the credit side 
 must be equal to the entries on the debit side, otherwise 
 the books will not balance. 
 
 The three principal books required under the Italian 
 system of double entry are, a cash book, journal, and 
 ledger. In the first of these every transaction is recorded 
 where money forms one of its elements, and in practice 
 these transactions are by some book-keepers carried di- 
 rect from the cash book to the ledger without being passed 
 through the journal at all. The journal, how ever, forms a 
 most important part of the system. It exhibits a narrative 
 of every transaction of which an actual transfer of money 
 does not form one of the elements, arranging the facts in 
 as simple and condensed a form as correctness and intel- 
 ligibility will admit of, and the results of those entries in 
 the journal are afterwards introduced into the ledger, 
 which thereby becon. es a sort of key to the detailed histo- 
 ry of every transaction ; whilst at the same time it furnish- 
 es a luminous compendium of the whole. In like manner 
 when the cash transactions are passed through the journal 
 they are at staled periods classed and arranged iii a con- 
 densed form, and thence transferred to the ledger. This 
 plan of introducing the cash transactions into the journal 
 is considered much the best system, though attended with 
 a little more trouble to the book-keeper, as it affords great 
 facilities in balancing the books and testing the accuracy 
 of the ledger, more particularly when the recent im- 
 provements upon the form of the journal, which were ori- 
 ginally suggested by the late Mr. Jones, are adopted. By 
 the plan referred to, the journal is advantageously ruled 
 with four cash columns, two upon the left hand side for 
 entries debtor, and two upon the right for entries a editor ; 
 and all the transactions being connected either with per- 
 sonal and properly accounts or nominal accounts, surf) as 
 charges, profit anil loss, and so forth, they are classed ac- 
 cordingly in the columns on the Dr. or Cr. side of the 
 journal respectively ; and as the debit entries are at all 
 times equal to the credit entries, the aggregate of the two 
 columns on the Dr. side must tally with the aggregate of the 
 two on the Cr. side of Ihe journal. This too is found in 
 practice to be a most useful check against posting the en 
 
BOOM. 
 
 j-ics to wrong accounts in the ledger ; for on balancing the 
 ; v taking the amounts Dr. and Cr. posted to per- 
 sonal and property accounts, and the amounts Dr. and Cr. 
 to nominal accounts in the ledger, and comparing 
 them wiih the total amounts in the corresponding columns 
 of I he journal, it will be seen whether they agree: if they 
 do not, it demonstrates that some entries must have been 
 i-lv pouted, which can then only be discovered by 
 collating ihe books; but if the amounts do agree, then it 
 t least strong presumptive evidence that the whole 
 •nines have been carried to the proper accounts. 
 ice and practice are occasionally suggesting minor 
 ments upon the forms of the cash book, journal, 
 Iger, lo suit particular cases, a3 well as upon the 
 v books required for gathering together the facts 
 preparatory to their being transferred in a condensed form 
 into [he journal ; and indeed an intelligent book-keeper 
 complisl) much by a judicious classification of the 
 the auxiliary books ; but the fundamental princi- 
 ples of 'he Italian system of book-keeping, notwithstand- 
 fBCh occasional facilities and improved arrangements in 
 the working of it, remain perfect and unchanged; and 
 length of time they have successfully withstood 
 all attempt! at innovation or change, it may safely bo 
 affirmed that the system is the best hitherto discovered, 
 '•serving of the utmost confidence and general 
 Lion, 
 We have already stated that the Italian system of 
 book-keeping admits of universal application ; and we may 
 i i vc that it is not confined to merchants' accounts, 
 but is equally applicable to government accounts. In evi- 
 dence of its being so, we may instance the East India 
 Company, where the double entry system is used with the 
 ■ feci success in all the branches ul that great and 
 ] establishment, financial as well as corn- 
 desideratum in a system of book- 
 keeping ; nt accounts is centralization, which 
 lined by a proper and well organized me- 
 thod of condensing the facts or elements of the accounts ; 
 and the Italian system unquestionably affords the most ef- 
 mean.-? of collecting and grouping the widely 
 . nts of government accounts in a concise 
 and Intelligible shape, and ultimately exhibiting them in 
 the clearest and most perfect state of centralization admit- 
 ted of. Several of the ablest ministers of France from the 
 - illy downwards, convinced of the necessity of a 
 tern of book-keeping In tin- management of the 
 public money, and .satisfied of the efficiency and sound- 
 ness of the principles of the Italian method, successively 
 attempted to 11 imem accounts kept on that 
 Bui it was not till the present cenlury that it was 
 tally introduced. It has since, however, fully real- 
 ised all thai was anticipated of it by those great m 
 has been found to answer so completely that it has been 
 ilv adopted in all the different departments of the 
 I quaily beneficial effects, have resulted from the 
 in to ihe public accounts in Holland, 
 and confirmed the advantage of its application to govern- 
 ment business. Similar laudable attempts have been 
 cently made in England by some of the ablest 
 men (among whom Sir Henry Parnell de- 
 irticular notice), lo introduce the Italian mode of 
 book-keeping in the government offices; and from Ihe 
 with which the experiment has been 
 it is to be hoped that in a few years the whole of 
 our public accounts will be placed on one uniform plan of 
 ping by (Inutile enlry,and be thereby rendered as 
 clear and intelligible as the accounts of any merchant in 
 l/Ondon, Instead of being wrapped up, as formerly, in im- 
 urity and useless mystery. 
 BOOM. (Dutch, boom, a me.) A nautical term, signi- 
 lyini: a lonjl pole run out from any part ofa ship lo stretch 
 ins of particular sails: whence jib-boom, main- 
 boom, uuddmgtau-beom, &c. 
 
 Boom. In Marine Fortification, signifies a strong chain 
 or cable stretched across the mouth ofa harbour or river, 
 to prevent Ihe enemy's ships from entering, and having 
 ;i number of poles, bars, &c. fastened to it; whence the 
 
 HOOPS. A genus of fishesof the order Acantliopterygii : 
 
 •cur in the Mediterranean. 
 BOOTES. (Gr. (Sovt, an ox.) One of the constella- 
 
 UORA'ClC ACID. -SVe Boron. 
 BORACI'TE, Native borate of masnesia. 
 Iioi; A'CINA'l K.K Plants resembling the genus Bo- 
 r which they are named. They usually have a 
 mucilaginous sap. in which nitre exists in small quantities : 
 wherefore they decrepitate when thrown upon the fire! 
 id that liquor into which borauo itself is plunged 
 when fresh becomes cooled, and hence the Borago offici- 
 nalis was the principal Ingredient in what was called a 
 •■cool i inkard. Boraglnaceous plants have usually pretty, 
 and sometimes vcrv handsome flowers, arranged in a gy- 
 155 " 
 
 BOROUGH. 
 
 rate manner. Forget-me-not (Myosotis), Bugloss (Echiumi 
 Anchusa, and various species of Lithospcrmvm are well- 
 known favourites either among wild or cultivated plants. 
 Most of them have their leaves covered with asperities 
 whence their old name of Asperijolice ; and some, as An- 
 chusa linctoria, Llthuspermum tinctorium, and several 
 others, vie). I a deep purple dye from their roots. 
 
 BOUA'SSDS. (Gr. Bopaaaoi. theskinofthe dale.) A genus 
 of palm trees, usually called fan palms, because their gi- 
 gantic leaves arc formed of plates radiating from the lop of 
 the petiole, and folded up alter the manner ol a 1 
 Borassusfiabillijormis is an Indian species, with a trunk 
 from thirty to titty feet high, and leaves with from sevi nty 
 to eighty rays. The Hindoos consider it the king ol trees. 
 A most intoxicating liquor is obtained by fermenting its 
 sap, which is also capable of yielding sugar in con 
 quantity under proper management. 
 
 UOR A'TES. Salts of the boracic acid. 
 
 BORAX. This salt is found native in some of the lakes 
 of Thibet and Persia, and is imported from India under 
 the name of tincai, which after purification forms the re- 
 fined borax of commerce. Of lale years borax has been 
 obtained by combining native boracic uciil with soda. Bo- 
 rax forms nexedral prisms, slightly efflorescent, and re- 
 quiring 20 of cold and G of boiling water for solution. 
 When heated, water of crystallization is driven off, and the 
 iy salt fuses into what is called glass o/ borax. 
 
 Crystallized borax consists of 68 boracic acid + 32 soda 
 -f- 90 water. It has upon some tests an alkaline reaction, 
 and has hence been called sub-borate of soda. Borax is 
 chiefly used by workers in metals as a flux : it is also em- 
 it medicine. 
 
 BO'RPKK. In Gardening, a marginal space, always 
 connected with a w,alk or some other object, to which it 
 forms an accompaniment. 
 
 Border, or Borduue. In Heraldry, according to French 
 heralds, an honourable ordinary, which should occupy a 
 third part of the shield. In English blazonry, it has gener- 
 ally been considered as a mark of difference to distinguish 
 one branch of a family from another. It surround, 
 field, is of equal breadth in every part, and occupies one 
 fifth of thi field. Whra mere s a chief on ihe coat, the 
 bordure is supposed to run under the chief; but it passes 
 over other ordinaries, as a fess, &c. 
 
 BORE. A word used to express the sudden rise of the 
 tide in certain estuaries. 
 
 BO'RMAS. In Grecian Mythology, the son of Aslraus 
 and Aurora, and usually worshipped as the god ol the north 
 wind There are few of the minor Grecian divinities ot 
 whom so Strange and multifarious exploils are recordl 
 of Boreas ; and it is interesting to trace to its source the al- 
 legory of all his adventures aud achievements, and thenco 
 to elucidate the causes of his deification. The assiduity, 
 for instance, with which the worship of Boreas was culti- 
 vated at Athens proceeded from gratitude, the north wind 
 having on one occasion destroyed the fleet of the Persians 
 meditating the invasion of Attica. A similar cause 
 induced the inhabitants of Megalopolis to consider Boreas 
 as their guardian divinity in whose honour they instituted 
 an annual festival. With his usual partiality formytholo 
 gical allusion, Milton has given Boreas a place in his Para 
 dise Lost : — 
 
 Now from the north 
 Of Korumbega, ami the Samoed shore, 
 Duis'in;; u.cir brum dungeon, armed with ice, 
 /n<! snow and hail, and stormy gust aii'J [law, 
 13 .re:i« and facias and Arufstes loud, 
 And Thrascias rend the woods and seas upturn. 
 
 Boreas was usually represented with the feet of a serpent, 
 his wings dripping with golden dew-drops, and the tram of 
 his garment sweeping along the ground. 
 
 BO'RON. The base of boracic acid, discovered by 
 Davy in 1>07. It may be procured by heating dry boracic 
 acid with potassium. It is a dark olive-coloured substance, 
 a nonconductor of electricity, insoluble in water, infusible, 
 and of a specific gravity = 2. Heated to redness it burns 
 into boracic acid, which consists of 20 boron ■+■ 48 oxygen. 
 
 Boracic acid is found in the hot springs, and amongst Ihe 
 volcanic products of the Lipari islands, and in the waters 
 of Sasso in the Florentine territory ; it also occurs in some 
 minerals. It may be obtained by adding excess of sul- 
 phuric acid lo a strong solution of borax. Its specific gra- 
 vity is 1 48. In its usual state of scaly crystals it is a hy- 
 drate, composed of 68 dry acid + 27 water. In this state it 
 requires about 30 parts of cold and 3 of boiling water for its 
 solution. It dissolves in alcohol, and the solution bums 
 with a characteristic green flame- It reddens litmus ; bul 
 renders turmeric brown, like an alkali. When its water is 
 driven off by fusing it at a high heat, the anhydrous acid 
 concretes into a glassy substance of the specific dj-avity of 
 1-8. It is a useful Ilux, and was formerly used in medicine 
 under the name of llomberg's sedative salt. 
 
 BCROUGH. A town possessed of certain municipal 
 institutions, of which the name is derived by some from 
 
BOROUGH. 
 
 the Saxon word burg, meaning an inclosed place ; by 
 others from another word of the same language — borg, 
 meaning pledge, which was applied to some of the associ- 
 ations for mutual liability established by the Saxon law. 
 Boroughs, in the sense of the definition above given, must 
 have, in some shape, existed very early in this as well as 
 in other countries ; but the origin as well in constitution as 
 in name of the existing municipal system in England can 
 be traced no higher than Saxon times, and the general and 
 connected history of English boroughs does not begin be- 
 fore the Conquest. 
 
 Accoiding to Doomsday Book there were in England at 
 that time eighty-two boroughs, including cities, differing 
 considerably in the extent of their franchises as well as in 
 their customs and mode of government ; but agreeing in 
 this general character, that they were communities estab- 
 lished chiefly for the purposes of trade, endowed to that 
 effect with certain franchises, such as that of a fair or mar- 
 ket, and possessing as boroughs a special jurisdiction ex- 
 ercised in the borough court-leet, and exclusive of the ju- 
 risdiction of the hundred, with which in the political scale 
 a borough was co-equal. Some of them then held, and all 
 were capable of holding, lands in common ; and in respect 
 if such land they held, as did also each burgess in respect 
 of his own tenement, of some lord, by a species of tenure 
 called burgage tenure, which was in fact only the ancient 
 tenure in common socage, i. e. tenure by rent or service 
 certain, which continued to prevail in boroughs after the 
 general imposition upon other lands of the feudal or milita- 
 ry service. The lordship of the land of the borough, and 
 of the different tenements which it contained, must have 
 belonged in the first instance to the lord of the manor with- 
 in which it was situate ; but all boroughs, in contemplation 
 of law, held their franchises of the king. 
 
 Great obscurity prevails as to what was originally the in- 
 ternal constitution of boroughs, and as to how far it was 
 popular or not, and how far also it was or was not uniform. 
 It is certain that as early as the date of Doomsday Book 
 the proportion between the number of burgesses and that 
 of other inhabitants was very different in different bo- 
 roughs ; though the fact may be reconciled with the notion 
 of a system originally popular (which has all along pre- 
 vailed in some boroughs), upon the supposition that the 
 franchise had either been usurped on the one hand, as has 
 frequently happened in the case of larger communities, or 
 abandoned on the other hand as of little value, on account 
 of the liability that attached tc it of contributing to the com- 
 mon charges. Much perplexity also arises on this subject 
 from the intermixture in the same place of the guild and 
 borough franchises (see Guild), which prevailed to that ex- 
 tent that the guild-merchant, which appears to have been 
 an incorporation, or an association by licence of all trades 
 within the borough, is by some considered as identical in 
 its constitution with the borough itself; and it is certain, at 
 any rate, that the guild-merchant, though it did not in the 
 first instance constitute the borougn, yet in many places 
 usurped its franchises and government, and finally as- 
 sumed its name ; so that, with the exception of burgage 
 tenure, which still prevailed In some few places, and of 
 birth, which was common to both institutions, the other 
 modes of obtaining the freedom of a borough, — i. e. those 
 of apprenticeship, purchase, or gift, — were introduced into 
 the municipal system from the guild-merchant. Distinct 
 from this in their relations and contests with the community 
 of the borough at large were the guilds of particular trades, 
 which succeeded in London in engrossing and parcelling 
 among themselves, under the name of liveries, the whole 
 of the municipal franchises. 
 
 All borough rights, being exceptive, rested either upon 
 charter, or upon prescription, which supposes a charter. 
 Some few of such charters were granted by Saxon kings: 
 but they became much more frequent after the Conquest, 
 the gtyfe and purport of these early documents being sim- 
 ply that of a grant to the men and burgesses of such a place 
 of certain franchises, whether relating to trade, as that of 
 a fair or market, or exemption from toll, or to jurisdiction, 
 such as a commission of the peace and the right of holding 
 sessions, which was first granted to any borough by Rich- 
 ard H. In the reign of Henry VI., a remarkable alteration 
 took place in the style of these royal grants, it being then 
 first that were granted, as it is said, charters of incorpora- 
 tion, strictly so called ; though previous to that time bo- 
 roughs, or the governing bodies that represented them, en- 
 joyed all the privileges of a corporation, and since that 
 time many have continued to enjoy them without any such 
 special grant. From that time forth, however, the history 
 OjT boroughs becomes identical, except as to the parliamen- 
 tary franchise, with that of municipal corporations. These 
 charter.- )f incorporation did not, any more than did those 
 which p eceded them, pretend to regulate fhe internal con- 
 stitution of boroughs. This very generally assumed the 
 form of a government by a small and in great measure 
 Belf-elected body, which had in most cases succeeded in 
 engrossing not only the whole administration, and in a 
 156 
 
 BOS. 
 
 great degree the enjoyment also of the borough fran- 
 chises and properly, but the right also of granting, accord- 
 ing to rules more or less arbitrary, admission into the sub- 
 ordinate body of burgesses or freemen. And even that 
 body, where it existed, which was not always the case, 
 was small in proportion to the whole number of inhabitants. 
 It was the great object of the charters granted by the Tu- 
 dor sovereigns to sanction and confirm the usurpations. 
 if such they were, of these municipal oligarchies, with the 
 view apparently of throwing the representation of boroughs 
 (a right which had been conferred in the first instance by 
 Edward I., had since been extended by fresh grants, and 
 was then becoming of considerable importance) into ihe 
 hands of such as were most likely to be easily guided or 
 controlled, either by the crown itself or by the great lords 
 upon whose support it reckoned, and with whom it became 
 usual about the same time to connect themselves with the 
 boroughs in the neighbourhood of their possessions, under 
 the honorary title of high stewards. The exclusive- system 
 of municipal government, which attained its height during 
 the Stuart dynasty, continued unimpaired till the present 
 time, when it was effectually put an end to by the Act for 
 the Regulation of Municipal Corporations, passed in the 
 year 1835. For an account of which, as well as of the 
 other remarkable incidents in the history of Ihe municipal 
 institutions, which happened from the time of the Tudors 
 to the present period, see title Municipal Corporations ; 
 and for an account of the representation of boroughs, and 
 particularly of the reform in tfieir representation, see title 
 Parliament. 
 
 The account above given of English boroughs, both as to 
 their origin and constitution, applies in all its general fea- 
 tures to Scotch boroughs ; with this qualification, that the 
 government by close corporations was in the latter country 
 more thoroughly and more generally prevalent until the 
 reform in them, which preceded by a year the Municipal 
 Regulation Bill applicable to England ; and resembled ii in 
 almost every thing but this, that it made the qualification 
 for burgesship identical with that required to give a vote in 
 the election of members, namely, the occupancy of a 
 house of the yearly value of JtlO. 
 
 In Ireland the municipal system, as it now exists, is rtf 
 considerably later origin than in Scotland or in England. 
 It vvas transplanted, and gradually introduced from the hit- 
 ter country ; and though with the same names and form of 
 constitution as then existed there, had much more in it of 
 a political character being intended in the first in 
 a support to the English against the Irish, and in later time: 
 to the Protestant against the Catholic, and was so used loth' 
 neglect of functions more properly municipal, which have 
 therefore in many instances been intrusted to other hand- 
 by local acts of parliament. These distinctions of religion 
 and birth aggravated also in other respects the vices of a 
 close and exclusive system, which was there, as in Sen'- 
 land, more generally and thoroughly established |t,an it 
 ever was in England. A measure for the ri 
 tion of the existing municipal corporations of Ireland is 
 now pending before the legislature. 
 
 BOROUGH ENGLISH. In Law, is a customary mode 
 of descent of lands in some ancient boroughs and .Manors, 
 by which estates descend to the owner's younger sun ; or 
 if he has no issue, to his younger brother. See Descent. 
 
 BOS. (Lat. bos, an ox.) A genus of ruminating mam- 
 malj, which is one of the most important in relation to the 
 necessities and conveniences of man. To this genus be- 
 longs the domestic ox, in all its various breeds and va- 
 rieties. With respect to the wild original of our numerous 
 herds there is yet some obscurity; less, however, than 
 hangs over the origin of other domesticated species. The 
 wild caltle which approach nearest to the tame are those 
 which inhabit the forests oft he north-east of Europe; and ihe 
 white ".attle, which are still preserved in a slate of purity 
 at Craven, at Chillingham Park, and in Scotland. These 
 are both referred to the species called Bos taurus. or Bos 
 urus, or Urns Scoticus ; but there is much reason for sup- 
 posing this species to have been the domestic ox reverted 
 to a slate of nature. Another well marked variety of this 
 species is the Brabminy bull ; characterised by the bump 
 on the shoulders and the pendent dewlap. 
 
 The other known wild species of ox are the Gayal of In- 
 dia (Bos gavaus) ; the Yak of the mountains of Central 
 Asia (Bos grunniens); lastly, there are the Buffaloes, 
 which, though anatomically less distinct than the Bisons 
 from the typical Bores, yet differ from the oxen as a group 
 in many points. They have larger horns, which sometimes 
 form a horny covering of great thickness to the whole fron- 
 tal region; and they approach the Pachydermata in the 
 thickness of the skin and the thinly scattered coarse hair. 
 They frequent marshy grounds, and (ced on a ranker and 
 coarser herbage than the ox. The flesh of buffaloes is 
 rank and coarse, and they are used chiefly as be 
 draught or burden. The iwo best marked species are ihe 
 Indian or Arnee buffalo (Bosarnee), and Ihe South African 
 buffalo (Bos coffer). 
 
BOSSAGE. 
 
 IIO'SSAGE. (French.) In Architecture, any projection 
 left unwrought on the face of a stone for the purpose of 
 afterwards sculpturing thereon, the sculpture being usually 
 the 1 tsr thing finished! 
 
 BO'STRICHUS. A genus of Coleopterous, Xylopha- 
 gOUS, tir wood-boring insects, now raised to the rank of a 
 family (Bostrichida), including amongst its numerous ge- 
 nera three which contain species whose ravages have call- 
 ed forth the attention of the legislature both in England 
 and other countries, in consequence of the extensive dcs- 
 trin'ti.iu of valuable timber caused thereby. The species 
 in question are the Bostrichua ligniperda, Scolyttus destruc- 
 inr. and ttmieus typograpttus ; out the two latter are the 
 chievous, and astonish by the amount of damage 
 which is produced by insects of so small a size. The elm 
 lie object of attack to the S. destructor ; while the 
 T. typographic^ restricts its operations to the fir. The fe- 
 males attack the crevices of the bark, and perforate it in 
 ig lateral channels, in which from sixty to eighty 
 eggs are deposited. At the end of fifteen days the larva? 
 are hatched, and forthwith commence the work of des- 
 truction, each gnawing a serpentine gallery between the 
 bark and the wood, and gradually enlarging its burrow until 
 the period when it is ready to pass into the pupa state; 
 r.ing finally become a perfect beetle, it directly 
 bores through the portion of the tree which remains be- 
 tween the Wood and the outer bark, and escapes through a 
 sin ill circular aperture in the latter. This emergence of 
 rt insect takes place in the month of May ; and In 
 ! avourable to their development they appear in 
 and rise to a height exceeding that of the trees, 
 • h»- carrieil by the wind to another and distant 
 part of the forest. The impregnation of the female takes 
 place in the air ; so that wherever they alight they are ready 
 unence the work of destruction. The chief pre- 
 cautions and remedies which experience has suggestedare 
 to cut down the trees which are once attacked, immedi- 
 ately to bark them and to burn the bark, and to remove all 
 felled timber without delay. 
 
 BCHWE'M.IA. A genus of Indian trees belonging to 
 •.he natural order Burseracea), one species of which, B. 
 thurifera, yields the resin called Olibanum, which seems 
 to be a corruption of Luban, the name given by the Hin- 
 doos to this plant. 
 
 HOT. The name of the larva? of the Dipterous insects 
 of the family (Bstrida. (which see). 
 
 BOTANY. (Gr. ffaravij. herb or grass.) That branch 
 of natural history which relates to the vegetable kingdom : 
 noi merely including the nomenclature and classification of 
 I. bul embracing all the phe- 
 nomena of vegetable life in their widest extent. 
 
 Looking only at the tirst principles of the science, it is 
 generally divided into the following heads : — 
 
 graphy, or the Structure (organization)/)/ Plants. 
 ■ important department; it comprehends 
 whatever relates to the various forms of tissue of which 
 plants are anatomically constructed ; it explains the exact 
 lion of all those parts through which the vital func- 
 tions are performed ; and it also teaches the relation that 
 one part bears to another, with the dependence of the 
 whole upon the common system. Without a perfect know- 
 ledge of Organography no systematical arrangement can 
 be understood ; for, being that part of science in which the 
 laws of the symmetry of parts is comprehended, it must 
 the basisof all theory of classifications: and 
 crtptive Botany, which may be called the language 
 of the science, it cannot have any logical precision, or be 
 intelligible, unless the mind is distinctly impressed with 
 the fundamental laws of this branch of study. Physiology 
 -t branch of all natural science, depends so 
 absolutely upon an exact knowledge of the structure of 
 parts, thai Miiy attempt to investigate the important laws of 
 vegetable life must necessarily be abortive without a strict 
 ice with the more important details of organiza- 
 tion. And by this is not meant merely a general idea of 
 external form, or a vague notion of internal anatomv, but 
 the most precise knowledge that the nature of the subject 
 will admit. 
 Connected with this branch of study is what German 
 call Morphology, but which others think it better 
 to consider a section of Organography. The word Mor- 
 phology signifies literally the " science of changesor trans- 
 formations." As applied to botany, it embraces a very in- 
 - subject of inquiry, and one which, to all those 
 who know the importance that attaches to comparative 
 anatomy in the animal kingdom, cannot fail to be peculiarly 
 interesting. Within Hie last thirty or forty years it has been 
 clearly made out that all those parts which are familiarly 
 known under the name of leaves, flowers, and fruit, are 
 constructed, in all cases whatsoever, upon a simple uni- 
 form plan, out of one single organ in different states of mo- 
 dification and combination ; and that there is no other 
 difference between the flower of a rose and that of a net- 
 tle than what arises from modifications and combinations i 
 157 
 
 BOTANY. 
 
 of this organ— which is the leaf. If it be doubted whelhe* 
 considering the anomalous character of some of the lower 
 orders of plants, all vegetables are without exception form- 
 ed upon one and the same plan, it is Impossible not to ad 
 mit that, at least in all Phoenogamous plants, the flowers 
 are composed of the same elements; that these elements 
 are arranged in conformity to a few simple laws, far less 
 variable than their appearance seems to indicate, and the 
 study of which constitutes the basis of the theory of bot- 
 any. These laws are so evident in a great number of cases, 
 that one scarcely pays attention to them ; but curiosity is 
 at once excited when they seem to be violated. Exact ob- 
 servation, however, shows that in such cases they are only 
 masked ; that is to say, an unusual application of two ot 
 three different laws produces an apparent anomaly, which 
 Is >■ asily explained by a reference to the numerous cases of 
 degeneracy, abortion, and cohesion with which the vegc 
 table kingdom abounds. In such instances as this the Dot 
 anist may be compared to the mineralogist, who discovers 
 the primitive forms of crystals by means of their second 
 ary forms. We are so accustomed to talk of plants bearinj 
 leaves and flowers and fruit, and it is so evident to out 
 senses that extremely different organs really do exist under 
 such names, that it seems inconceivable that parts so very 
 dissimilar should all be only leaves in different states ; that 
 the pure white petals of the lily, the rich red flowers of the 
 rose, the sweet-smelling blossoms of the jasmine and the 
 orange, or the long trumpet-shaped corollas of the honey- 
 suckle, should all be leaves; that the stamens in which 
 the fertilizing powder is locked op. the pistils which ere 
 destined to receive the influence of the pollen, the ovula 
 that they contain, and, finally, that the fruit which is the re- 
 sult of the action of the two last, are all so many parts 
 formed out of one common organ, which in a particular 
 and very frequent state is what we call a leaf. Botanists 
 do not mean to say that he who eats an apple, or an oramre, 
 or a peach, is in a state of mental delusion, and that while 
 he fancies himself to be enjoying the pleasure of gratify 
 jug his palate by the most delicious flavours, he is really 
 only chewing the leaves of these plants ; but they assert 
 that those appendages of a plant which are commonly 
 called the leaves have a peculiar anatomical structure, and 
 a certain relation to the stem on winch they are borne, am! 
 being developed according to certain fixed laws, are alwaya 
 arranged upon a certain and uniform plan with respect tt 
 each other; and that all the other organs, whether calyx 
 corolla, stamens, pistils, or fruit, have an anatomical slruc 
 ture essentially the same, bear the same relation to thr 
 nxis that they grow upon, are developed according to th« 
 same laws, are arranged upon the same certain and uni 
 form plan with respect to each other, and, finally, are con 
 stanlly becoming transformed into leaves of the ordinary 
 appearance, thus losing the condition in which they ar« 
 usually found, and reverting to their structural ty;,e. Th« 
 admission of such propositions as these does not rendei 
 our notions of the distinctions between the various organi 
 more obscure than it was before, as son^s would assert ■ 
 but on the contrary it enables us the be'.ter to understand 
 the real nature of the organization <rf any part, and tht 
 plan upon which the most complicated arrangements of 
 these organs have been affected. Fcr example, who is tc 
 explain how it happens that buds occasionally spring front 
 the axilla: of petals or sepals, that anthers are found having 
 ovules, that branches push forth from the centre of pistils 
 that petals become amlieriferous and stamens petaloid 
 unless the proposition is admitted that all those apparentlj 
 different parts are fo.med upon a common plan, the typt 
 of which is a leaf, and are all therefore convertible into 
 each other 1 
 
 Another branch into which the science separates is Phy- 
 siology, or the department which treats of the vital action* 
 of plants. While organography is applicable to objects 
 whether living or dead, physiology solely refers to them in 
 a state of vitality. There is scarcely any part of natural 
 history more difficult than this, if rigorous demonstration 
 is required, nor, at the same time, one upon which there 
 was in former days a greater degree of mere speculation. 
 Like many other of the higher departments of natural 
 philosophy, hypothesis preceded experiment ; so that in 
 the earlier history of botany we find scarcely a trace of 
 those ideas which modern observation has certainly de- 
 veloped in a very remarkable manner. 
 
 In vegetable physiology it is not as in animal— we have 
 not our highest order of beings endued with reason which 
 we can study by aid of our own personal feelings and sen- 
 sations, and from our knowledge of which we can proceed 
 in a descending series to the determination of the vital 
 functions of all other tribes. On the contrary, we are in 
 the same position with regard to plants as a new and totally 
 distinct race of animated beings would be to mollusca and 
 the lowest orders of existing things, supposing such a race 
 to have no knowledge whatever of animal economy be- 
 yond what could be learned from the study of mollusca 
 themselves, to have a class of sensations and a structure 
 
BOTANY. 
 
 wholly unlike our own, ami finally to deduce its notions of 
 the anatomy and vital system of mollusca, not from a com- 
 parison of them with other beings gradually and perhaps 
 insensibly rising in perfection of organization till the relation 
 of one part lo another and the uses of all become more 
 manifest, but wholly from the abstract consideration of the 
 mollusca themselves. In such a case, speculation would 
 most likely precede experimental observation, as was ac- 
 tually the case with plants. 
 
 It was not till after the invention of the microscope that 
 even an imperfect knowledge of vegetable anatomy could 
 be gained ; and only when this great step was taken vege- 
 table physiology began to establish itself upon a sure foun- 
 dation. Consequent upon this discovery has been the 
 accumulation of a considerable amount of positive know- 
 ledge of a world of organized beings having nothing in 
 common with the race of man ; with which we cannot 
 communicate in the slightest degree ; that have no voli- 
 tion by which we may occasionally regulate our judgment ; 
 whose texture is so frail that we cannot anatomise them 
 without the destruction of life ; whose functions are per- 
 formed within an opaque dense covering that excludes 
 every thing from our view ; and which finally are so ex- 
 ceedingly simple in their organization, have so few differ- 
 ent organs with which to execute their functions, that we 
 are lost in amazement at effects so complicated and forms 
 so various being brought about by means that were seem- 
 ingly so inadequate. The world has learned from the ve- 
 getable physiologist, not only that plants breathe, feed, 
 and digest, and how the functions of breathing, feeding, 
 and digesting are carried on ; they have ascertained by 
 what means an increase in their dimensions is brought 
 about, how their want of locomotive power is compensated 
 for, and by what precise means their reproduction and 
 multiplication are so wisely ordained as to be placed be- 
 yond obstruction by any natural impediments. In short, 
 the exact use of every part of every plant, various as their 
 forms and uses doubtless are, has been ascertained ; and 
 we are now entitled to say of plants as of animals, that 
 their kingdom is rendered subject to the power, not only 
 of man's physical energy, but of his mental resources. 
 Perhaps no part of the creation illustrates more forcibly 
 than the vegetable world, the admirable skill and foresight 
 with which all the phenomena of the universe have been 
 adapted by the Great Author of our being to the accom- 
 plishment of the objects for which they have been seve- 
 rally intended. 
 
 Take, for example, vegetable tissue. What can be con- 
 ceived more wisely prepared! The cellular, capable of 
 *reat extensibility, possessing also prodigious compressi- 
 bility, its particles cohering either firmly or loosely ac- 
 sording to circumstances, its sides composed of a most 
 ilelicate membrane, through which fluid and gaseous mat- 
 ter passes readily in every direction, is destined to form 
 the principal mass of the vegetable, and to execute all 
 those functions with which absorption and respiration are 
 connected ; — the fibrous tissue, composed of myriads of 
 threads compactly combined into bundles, dispersed 
 through the cellular substance, how admirably does it sup- 
 ply the place of bones and nerves in the animal economy, 
 . affording strength and solidity and elasticity to the most 
 delicate parts ! While the vascular tissue, exclusively in- 
 tended for the reception and rapid transmission of gaseous 
 matter or of highly attenuated fluid from the roots to the 
 extremities, how wisely is it contrived by its greater size 
 and length, and how carefully is it prepared by its spiral 
 structure, for extending and turning, as the cellular sub- 
 stance develops, to those parts where the peculiar matter 
 that it contains is most required ! Here there is no confu- 
 sion of offices to perform ; each has its peculiar part as- 
 signed it, for which it has been especially destined, and 
 for which it is alone adapted. 
 
 Look at the leaves. The leaves are the organs in plants 
 that correspond with the stomach in animals; that is to 
 say, it is in them that the fluid matter taken up by the 
 roots and injected into them from the stem, is digested 
 and inspissated, and separated into the nutritious and ex- 
 cremental portions. To the naked eye the leaves appear 
 to be merely flat plates of cellular substance traversed by 
 veins ; but examined with a microscope they are at once 
 mien to be constructed upon a most simple plan — of any 
 that can be conceived the most perfectly adapted to the 
 end in view. 
 
 Digestion takes place in leaves chiefly by the absorption 
 of carbonic acid and the respiration of oxygen, and by the 
 evaporation of water ; if this process were to be carried on 
 without any provision against the variations which are con- 
 stantly occurring in the state of the atmosphere, it is easy 
 lo conceive that in excessively dry weather leaves would 
 !ose all their moisture and constantly become parched up, 
 *vhile in wet weather they would be so gorged with mois- 
 '.ure as to burst from distension. In order to prevent the 
 accurrence of this, nature has enclosed leaves in a cuticle 
 9 vircely pervious either to air or moisture; and in this 
 158 
 
 cuticle she has placed numerous mouths, called stomata, 
 which have the power of opening and closing, according 
 to the state of either the atmosphere or of the leaf itself, to 
 regulate the absorption or respiration of either water or 
 air. And in order to expose the tissue lying beneath this 
 cuticle to the greatest possible atmospheric influence, the 
 leaf is not a solid mass, as itappears to be, but is traversed 
 in all directions by passages terminating in the mouths, 
 and opening into cavities, where the air both of absorption 
 and exhalation can freely circulate, and pass in or out so 
 long as the mouths permit it. Nor is this all. Many leaves 
 are constantly submerged beneath the surface of water, 
 where they are never exposed to atmospheric vicissitudes, 
 can never evaporate, and being cut off from the air, can 
 neither absorb carbonic acid from the air, nor discharge 
 oxygen back into it in return. It is therefore obvious that 
 the curious provision that has been made for the regula- 
 tion of the action of aerial leaves would be useless in sub- 
 mersed ones ; and accordingly we find that the latter have 
 neither cuticle, nor mouths, nor cavernous parenchyma. 
 but are thin but solid plates, the whole surface of whose 
 cellular substance is in direct contact with the water, from 
 the air contained in which the leaves must exclusively de- 
 rive their nutriment The employment of the same kind 
 of organ, in different forms, for the purpose of effecting 
 the varied objects that are to be provided for in the vege- 
 table economy, is another and a most remarkable instance 
 of the consummate wisdom and wonderful simplicity that 
 are discoverable in all these things. Upon the birth of a 
 plant one or two leaves are developed, which feed the in- 
 fant until it is strong enough to develop one or two more ; 
 these last, not only like the first proceed without exception 
 from opposite sides of the stem or body, but are so placed 
 as to alternate with the first ; and this goes on with unvary- 
 ing uniformity, as long as growth continues ; so that view 
 a plant in whatever way you will, whether in its earliest 
 state, or at the most advanced period of its existence, it 
 will always be seen to exhibit the same beautiful symme- 
 try as the most highly developed animals : one side coun- 
 terpoises the other; whatever is discoverable on one side 
 equally exists upon the other. If it is necessary that a 
 protection should be formed for securing the young and 
 tender buds against cold, the leaves surrounding the buds 
 suddenly contract into hard scales, perhaps exude some 
 resinous or gummy matter, or clothe themselves in a deep 
 covering of wool, and an impenetrable living shield is thus 
 interposed between the bed and danger. A plant is to be 
 rendered more beautiful to the eye — its leaves again con- 
 tract, the spaces that usually separate them are obliterated, 
 new colours are assumed, and petals are created resplen- 
 dent with brilliant hues or exhaling the softest perfumes 
 Propagation is to be effected — the petals contract into sta- 
 mens, their central substance becomes disintegrated in the 
 form of pollen, and the interior of each grain of the latter 
 is resolved into that living matter of which in a state of co- 
 hesion all nature is composed. A few leaves are rolled 
 together in the form of pistillum, the apex of the midrib 
 becomes denuded, and young buds are developed at the 
 margins. A grain of pollen, the disintegrated tissue of the 
 flowering leaf, falls upon the denuded apex of the fructi- 
 fying leaf, absorbs moisture from it, distends, and finally 
 produces a tube of inconceivable fineness, which abstracts 
 from the pollen its impregnating matter, some of which 
 descends the midrib itito the womb of the leaf, and thence 
 entering the young buds that are developed at its margins, 
 is finally hatched, and appears at last in the form of em- 
 bryo plants. 
 
 Such is the simplicity of the arrangements that are ob- 
 servable in the most perfectly formed^ the most elaborate- 
 ly constructed plants. In the lower orders, the mode of 
 formation, development, and propagation is still more 
 simple. A vesicle elongates and distends until it becomes 
 a tube ; from the end of this tube more are generated that 
 themselves give birth to others, and thus a simple branch- 
 ing plant is formed. In the inside of each tube by degrees 
 a green matter is deposited ; and after a certain period has 
 elapsed is emitted in the form of little green vesicles, like 
 that from which the plant originally sprang, and them- 
 selves capable of developing as new plants. In certain 
 tubes, this dissolution takes place in a much more aston- 
 ishing manner ; not into inert green matter, but into mov- 
 ing particles having all the properties of spontaneous mo- 
 tion and animal existence. Soon, however, the moving 
 particles elongate ; thus losing their power of motion and 
 becoming plants, to whose laws of life they ever after sub- 
 mit. Turpin has seen the Monema comoides resolve it- 
 self into naviculae ; DesmazieVes has shown the plants 
 called Mycodermata, or what we name the mothery film of 
 fermented liquor, to consist of monads growing end to 
 end {Ann. des Sc. x.); and Treviranus (Ann. des Sc. x.) 
 has detailed with exactness the metamorphoses in the life 
 of the compound plant called Batrachospermum glonwra- 
 tum. In this the filaments discharge a green matter and 
 become colourless ; the green matter consists of myriads 
 
BOTANY. 
 
 t>! infusoria, of a round or elliptical figure; tlie latter col- 
 led Ijv lives or sixes into a kind of star, become motion- 
 .'then, and finally are transformed into young in- 
 ol litis undoubted plant. 
 
 are far from being all the divisions into which 
 or the study of the vegetable kingdom, may be 
 edj although they are no doubt among the most 
 these theie is Taxonomy, or the 
 principles of classification. It would be of little use that a 
 • uld know anaiomy, and structure, and compara- 
 tive organization, and have informed himself of all the 
 leading principles of physiology, if he were unacquainted 
 With the names of the objects he had been studying, and 
 were consequently incapable of communicating his know- 
 At least, of whatever use it might be to 
 himself, it could not be of advantage to any one else. But 
 If he £» acquainted with the names of known objects, and 
 if lie understands the rules of classification, he can then 
 render hit Information available to others as well as to 
 And in like manner he can at all times determine 
 what is known about any particular plant that he may have 
 studying ; orif it be a kind previously unknown, he 
 i I its place in the system, and by publishing a descrip- 
 i it, he can fix it there for the information of others. 
 Hut there is another way of looking at the utility of 
 i . which shows that what may to some appear 
 dry and barren subject, is in reality one of the most 
 important branches of the science. No man can know all 
 things relating to such a science as this, — few men can 
 many things; for this reason it is of importance that 
 "is should lie discovered of judging of what is un- 
 known bv what is known; and that by judiciously select- 
 moaerate number of objects for particular study, the 
 inquirer may have a ready and by no means burthensome 
 means of forming a clear knowledge of the whole ve 
 ble kingdom. This is not difficult, if attention be paid to 
 tctrtoe of affinities. Every one must have seen that 
 ■ s of plants are more like each other than they 
 are like different specie3 ; without considering the matter 
 hotanically, every one must, for example, have remarked 
 , radish is more like a turnip than it is like a currant 
 bush, that a pea is more like a bean than an apple, and 
 i cherry blossom is more like an apple blossom than 
 ahorse chestnut. These are rude instances of affinity on 
 I, ami discrepancy on the other; but they are 
 theless perfectly explanatory of what is meant Bo- 
 und that classification may be founded upon a con- 
 Uion of general resemblances and differences; and 
 ■ liit by carefully examining the characteristic organs of 
 . fhoae species may be classed most nearly together 
 the greatest degree of resemblance and the 
 most perfect constitutional agreement. Now this being 
 tse, it follows that a knowledge of one species is to a 
 I a knowledge of many ; and that a correct idea 
 of a single Individual of a group in the classification, pro- 
 vided that individual is well selected, amounts to a know- 
 ledge to a considerable extent of all the other species of 
 oup. For example, in the tribe of Crucifera, 
 consisting of about 900 species, the study of the common 
 I, the mustard, or the cress, will give the student a 
 rery accurate general knowledge of the remaining 899, be- 
 cause they are all close modifications of the same forms. 
 Again, the common potatoe, rightly understood, represents 
 the greater part of Solanacea, or at least of some hundred 
 cles belonging to that tribe ; while the dead nettle. La- 
 tniiun dlbiifn or rubrum, stands as the representative of 
 some 15 or 1600 species called Labiatat. This would be 
 oi eminent importance if its advantage stopped here; but 
 when it is considered that the properties of plants also ac- 
 cord in a very remarkable manner with their structure, 
 and that those which are most closely approximated in a 
 i will most nearly resemble one another in 
 their sensible properties, Ihe advantages to be derived 
 from a study ofthe laws of affinity cannot fail to be clearly 
 perceived. For example, to use the same illustration as 
 Mfbre, any person acquainted with Crucifera would know 
 •here is no instance of a poisonous or deleterious 
 plant in the tribe, a point of great importance to be aware 
 on the contrary, he would know that if they had suc- 
 • ulent roots, they might be employed like the radish, and 
 their leaves are antiscorbutic ; but if he met with an 
 unknown plant, which, from its resemblance to the pota- 
 toe, he knew belonged to Solanacea;, he would at once re- 
 ll as poisonous, or at least suspicious, unless it had 
 tubers filled with facula, when he would except that por- 
 tion, because all facula is wholesome, however poisonous 
 I rees or plants may otherwise be that produce it, pro- 
 Tided the deleterious matter that lies among it is removed 
 by washing, or volatilized by the action of heat. 
 
 It is not, however, any kind of classification that leads to 
 such ends. All artificial systems, as foi ;nsta,:ce that of 
 Linnaeus, are unproductive of such results. It is enly the 
 natural system of botany from which these impi rtant ad- 
 vantages are to be derived. 
 159 
 
 A fourth division of the science is the meaning of the 
 terms employed in the science ; or what was formerly 
 called Terminology, and now more correctly Glossology. 
 This is the least interesting part ofthe subject; but at The 
 same time it is too important to be passed over lightly, be- 
 cause it is impossible either to understand the writings of 
 botanists, or to make oneself intelligible to others, without 
 being correctly informed of the meaning of the terms pe- 
 culiar to the science. The slate of Terminology at any 
 given lime may indeed be safely taken as indicative of the 
 state ofthe whole science ; for in proportion as ideas are 
 multiplied and knowledge rendered exact, are the terms 
 required to express those ideas multiplied and (heir appli- 
 cation rendered definite. A curious exemplification of 
 this is to be found in the Historia 1'Umtarum of Fuchs, a 
 learned botanist of the 10th century. In the glossary pre- 
 fixed to that work are comprehended only 132 terms Ol ail 
 kinds, many of which refer to measures,and are I 
 not appertaining to botany ; and of the remainder 29 be- 
 long to mollifications of stems, 15 to differences of inflo- 
 rescence, G to the fruit, but not one to any other part of 
 the fructification, In the present state of botany, the 
 terms that relate to the seed alone are probably as nume- 
 rous u the whole that are comprehended in Fuchs' Glos- 
 sology. 
 
 Another and very distinct branch of inquiry is into the 
 rules to be observed in describing and naming plants ; or 
 what is called J'/iylogmji/iy. The great object of descrip- 
 tions in natural history is to enable any person to recognise 
 a known species, after its station has been discovered by 
 classification, and also to put those who may not have had 
 the opportunity of examining a plant themselves into pos- 
 session of all the facts necessary to acquire a just DOtiotl 
 of its structure and affinities. It is therefore Important 
 lhat such descriptions should be drawn up according to 
 certain conventional well-known rules, and not ai 
 to the caprice of individuals ; and this not only for the 
 sake of ensuring a uniformity of language, and in all case:. 
 the same order of treating the subject, but also to prevent 
 descriptions being too general, to ensure attention to the 
 most important points of structure, and at the same time 
 to prevent their being more prolix than is really ne 
 The rules of description are more especially intended to 
 guard against the latter evil ; for no mistake Van be more 
 common than to confound prolixity with precision. 
 
 Tin- last branch into which Ihe study of the science may 
 be divided is the application of the preceding sub;. 'els ii 
 the art of discriminating species. This may be Called the 
 Practice of Botany, as the former belonged lo its theory, 
 and is by far the most difficult part of the subject. There 
 is no difficulty in becoming acquainted with Ihe funda- 
 mental principles of the science, because they naturally 
 arise out of each other, and are dependent upon the just 
 appreciation of a few simple laws; the various combina- 
 tions of which, upon principles that it is easy to compre- 
 hend, constitute the the differences that exist between or- 
 gans themselves and their numerous modifications. Hut 
 the practice of botany, although its study is essentially 
 facilitated by an acquaintance with fundamental principles, 
 and indeed cannot be usefully pursued without, yet it has 
 peculiar difficulties of its own. It is often difficult lo recog- 
 nise organs in consequence of the manner in which they 
 are masked by the modifications they have undergone ; 
 their combinations are frequently so intricate that great 
 experience is necessary lo enable an observer to judge of 
 them correctly ; their minuteness is often such as to ren- 
 der indispensable a use ofthe microscope, which requires 
 peculiar dexterity and a good deal of practice ; and finally 
 the number of species is so great, that to bear in mind 
 their distinctions is a heavy tax upon the memory. Diffi- 
 culties of this nature are almost insurmountable by a stu 
 dent who is unaided by the experience of a teacher. 
 
 At what period ofthe world botany first began to be stu- 
 died as a science, has not been satisfactorily ascertained. 
 By some it has been referred lo the highest ages of anti- 
 
 3uity. We are assured that Moses and Solomon and other 
 ewish writers, especially the last, were botanists, and 
 that traces of much knowledge of the science are to be 
 found throughout the scriptures ; but it seems difficult to 
 assign Botany any such antiquity. That in the most re- 
 mote ages man had his herbs and his roots; that he was 
 acquainted with the properties of one plant, and Ihe uses 
 of another: that he gave them names, and that poets de- 
 rived many ofthe beauties of their language from them, — 
 was natural enough ; but this had nothing to do with bota- 
 ny. The first dawn of that science broke from out of the 
 deep investigations of the nature of matter and mind by 
 the philosophers of Greece. How much they knew wo 
 have no accurate means of judging ; but lhat they knew a 
 great deal of vegetable physiology is obvious from their 
 famous paradox, that plants are only inverted animals,— 
 a sentiment which, however strangely it may sound, could 
 only have arisen from an extensive knowledge of the vital 
 phenomena of Vegetation. Nor could the doctrine of Aris- 
 
BOTANY. 
 
 totle, that allorganic matter exhibits a series of successive 
 degrees of development, have been conceived or pro- 
 mulgated, unless the philosophers of his day had possessed 
 a practical acquaintance with vegetation much beyond that 
 ot the ages that succeeded. 
 
 Happy had it been for those ages if, instead of retro- 
 gading in the path of science, or rather stepping out of it 
 altogether, they had only pursued the course commenced 
 by Theophrastus 350 years before Christ. By that natural- 
 ist 'he beginning was made of applying particular terms to 
 [articular modifications of structure; he demonstrated the 
 absence of all philosophical distinction between trees, 
 shrubs, and herbs,— a distinction upon which his succes- 
 sors were fond of insisting ; he speaks clearly of the paren- 
 chyma and the woody fibre of wood, the former of which 
 he calls the flesh ; and he described accurately the differ- 
 ence between palm wood and that of trees with concentric 
 layers; so that in point of fact the discovery of the dif- 
 ference between Dicotyledonous and Monocotyledonous 
 wood was made by Theophrastus above 2000 years ago, 
 although it was never applied to the purposes of systematic 
 division till about thirty years since. Subsequently to this 
 period, botanists almost disappeared for a long season. 
 Those who have been dignified by historians with that title 
 were either pharmacologists, like Dioscorides; or com- 
 pilers, who, like Pliny, knew little themselves, and mis- 
 understood those they copied ; or poets, who drew much 
 of the beauty of their language from the charms of nature ; 
 or geoponical writers, who were acquainted with those 
 parts of husbandry which relate to phvsiological botany. 
 
 With whom the curious arts of budding and grafting, and 
 striking plants by layers, or propagating them by taking 
 advantage of the divisibility which distinguishes the vege- 
 table from the animal kingdoms originated, is now un- 
 known ; but there is reason to believe that the greater part 
 of the modifications of those processes was in the classical 
 ages as well understood as now. That grafting was exclu- 
 sively undertaken, is obvious from these lines of a well- 
 known poet of the Augustan age : — 
 
 Et srcpe aHerius ramos impune videmus 
 
 Verlcre alterius, imiuiaq insita mala 
 
 Ferre pyrum, et prunis lapidosa rubescere coma. 
 
 But, what '/a much more curious, the delicate process of 
 budding was as scientifically performed at that period as 
 by the most skilful gardener of the present century. 
 Nothing can be more precise than the following elegant 
 iescription of R jman budding : — 
 
 Nee modus inserere, atque cculos imponere simplex. 
 Nam qua se medio trudunt de cortice gemma, 
 Et tenues rumuuut nmicus, angusius in ipso 
 Fit nodo sinus ; hue aliena ex arbore germen 
 Ineliiduiit, udoque docent inolescere libro. 
 
 fcgain of crown grafting: — 
 
 Aui rursum enodes trunci resecantur, et alte 
 Finditur in solidum ciineia via : deinde feraccs 
 Plants immiuuntnr : ncc longum tempus et ingens 
 Exiit ad ccclum ramis felicibusarbos, 
 Miraturque novas froudes et non sua poma. 
 
 A cessation of all philosophical inquiry into the nature of 
 vegetation endured about 1700 years, during the whole of 
 which time scarcely a single addition was made to the 
 stock of knowledge left behind him by Theophrastus. But 
 with the revival of letters, a new direction was given to re- 
 searches in natural history. Men ceased to content them- 
 selves with blindly copying the writers of antiquity, and set 
 themselves in earnest to examine the objects of nature 
 that surrounded them. The woods, the plains, the rivers, 
 the ocean, the valleys, and the mountains, were inves- 
 tigated with an ardour that soon made amends for ancient 
 indifference. The first consequence of this was a dis- 
 covery of the worthlessness of the greater part of those 
 writers to whom the world had so long been bound in ser- 
 vile obedience. The spirit of inquiry once excited, men 
 epeedily learned to estimate rightly the greater value of 
 'acts than of assertions; one discovery produced another, 
 and in a few years a new foundation was laid of that im- 
 perfect but beautiful science which constitutes modern 
 ootany. In the early part of the sixteenth century, John 
 Manardi, a native of Ferrara, described the real nature of 
 the anther. He was followed by a long train of writers of 
 various merit, who at first indeed applied themselves ex- 
 clusively to the collection of new species, but subsequently 
 to an examination of the physiological characters of plants, 
 and (o the laws applied by nature to the government of the 
 vegetable kingdom. 
 
 Up to the middle of the seventeenth century, vegetable 
 physiology had been grounded upon observations entirely 
 .ndependent of anatomical investigation. But about this 
 time the accurate inquiries of two naturalists, one an Eng- 
 lishman, and the other an Italian, gave a new feature to the 
 study ; and what was' vague or imaginary in the opinions 
 entertained upon the vital functions of vegetables gave 
 wav to conclusions precise, and supported upon the firm 
 basis of careful observation. The nature of cellular tissue, 
 160 
 
 of spiral vessels, of ducts, of woody t;io - ue ; the composition 
 of the internal parts of plants, and the functions of the 
 whole — excited inquiry, and received reasonable if not ac- 
 curate explanations. Collections of facts ami of ideas ac- 
 cumulated on all hands, and the confusion that had once 
 been caused by ignorance threatened again to overwhelm 
 the science, in consequence of the rapid addition of in w 
 matter which there was no means of keeping in order. 
 Hence systematisls sprung up ; a race of inquirers to whose 
 labours the present advanced state of botany is no doubt 
 much to be ascribed. That the efforts of toe earliest ol 
 these writers should have proved unsuccessful, will excite 
 no surprise : with little knowledge of vegetable physiology 
 or anatomy, for it must not be forgotten that fora long lime, 
 and even now, vegetable physiology and systematic botany 
 were considered as distinct sciences, and with scarcely 
 any notion of the laws of affinity and metamorphosis, they 
 could not be expected to succeed. We should rather 
 wonder at what they did, than at what they omitted to do. 
 Many of them had great merit, especially John Ray, an 
 English deprived clergyman, and Joseph Pitton de Tuurne- 
 fort, a professor of botany at Paris, who flourished in the 
 end of the seventeenth century, and upon whose systems 
 the modern arrangement according to natural orders is 
 essentially founded. This, however, and all others, was for 
 a time eclipsed by another, better adapted to the circum- 
 stances of the times, and emanating from a writer who, 
 having the courage and talent to carry reformation into 
 every branch of natural history, imparted a lustre to his 
 peculiar system of classification which has only now, after 
 the lapse of a century ; fallen into disuse among men of 
 science. 
 
 Charles Linne", or Linnaeus, as he is usually called, was 
 a person exactly adapted to the science of the time in 
 which he lived. The various departments of natural his- 
 tory had not at that time any thing like their present exten- 
 sive range, and might without difficulty be investigated by 
 a single naturalist. They were all equally in need of re- 
 vision and improvement ; they all wanted a settled code of 
 laws to reconcile the fluctuating and jarring opinions 
 which at that lime prevailed, and above all things the 
 nomenclature of natural history required to be reduced to 
 one uniform standard. For this Linnaeus was peculiarly 
 well adapted. Nature had gifted him with a logical accu- 
 racy of reasoning, and a neatness and perspicuity o( ex- 
 pression, which carried with them a charm that the world 
 was not slow to appreciate ; and these produced the strong- 
 er impression, because naturalists had previously been hut 
 little accustomed to them. The opinions of Linnams 
 were received as if oracular, and their faults were lost in 
 the splendour which they drew over the whole of the or- 
 ganic world. But unfortunately Linnaeus knew nothing 
 ofvegetable physiology. His opinions upon this subject 
 are among the most worthless which are recordrd in the 
 history of science ; and consequently his writings lost 
 much of the permanent value which the originality of his 
 ideas and the acuteness of his perception would have 
 otherwise insured them. But notwithstanding this defect, 
 he not only established his famous method of arrangement, 
 which for a long time superseded all others, but laid the 
 foundation, although upon imaginary principles, of the 
 curious laws of morphology, upon which modern botany 
 founds one of its greatest claims to perfection. The notion 
 that all the parts of plants are mere modifications of leaves, 
 faintly shadowed forth by Linnaeus in his Species Planta- 
 rum, became the subject of a special and most original 
 dissertation by the German poet Gbthe, in 1790. This 
 doctrine was believed by the botanists of that day to be 
 worthy only of the poetical fame of its illustrious author; 
 but he lived to see his opinions received, almost without 
 change, by every botanist of reputation. 
 
 After the artificial system of Linnaeus followed the na- 
 tural system of Jussieu. Vegetable anatomy became an 
 important branch of inquiry in the hands of Kieser; the 
 researches of Knight and others gave a new character to 
 vegetable physiology; and the earlier part of the present 
 century has seen the science by these and other means as- 
 sume an entirely new appearance. Our knowledge of the 
 vital functions of plants reposes upon the sure basis of ex- 
 act observation and careful experiments; the theory of the 
 plan upon which the organs of vegetation and fructifica- 
 tion are severally combined into so many numerous forms 
 is settled upon the clearest evidence ; and classifications, 
 to a great degree freed from the trammels of prejudice or 
 narrow views, have assumed that position in science to 
 which their importance, when rightly studied, entitles 
 them. 
 
 The only two botanical arrangements now in use are th 
 Linntean and the Natural. The former is an attempt at 
 classifying plants according to their agreement in some 
 single characters, without reference to their resemblances 
 or differences in any other respect, just as words are sr 
 ranged in a dictierary by the accordance of their initial 
 letters ; the other is a scheme for placing next each other 
 
BOTANY. 
 
 til thosu plants which have the greatest resemblance, and 
 at the greatest distance those which are most dissimilar. 
 this, every kind of structure that plants possess 
 la made use of; distinctions derived from great physiolo- 
 gical peculiarities are considered fundamental, and form 
 subordinate to them are characters derived from 
 ' s of external structure, and they are valued ac- 
 cording 'o their permanence or frequency, <kc. The final 
 ing the making up of the vegetable Kingdom into 
 .'.led natural orders, which are supposed to 
 ■ closely allied to each other than to 
 anv thing in explanation of the details of these 
 
 Uion the reader is referred to the se- 
 parate works that have been published on the subject; 
 can be given in this place only to a very general ac- 
 count of them. 
 
 Tie- in of Linnteus depends upon the num- j 
 
 her and rel uiv.i position or degree of combination of the 
 I lea. It has been so often explained, and is 
 so rapidly falling into disuse, that we shall content our- 
 selves with the shortest possible description of the classes 
 and or L 
 
 men 1 • ... Monandria. 
 II. Stamens 2 - Diandria. 
 
 Ill Stamens 3 • - - Triandria. 
 
 IV. Stamens 4 - - - - Tetrandria. 
 mens 5 - - • l'entandria. 
 
 urns G - ... Hexandria. 
 VII. Stamens 7 • • Heptandna. 
 
 VIII. Stamens 8 • Octandria. 
 
 IX. Stamens 9 • • EnneanJria. 
 
 mens 10 - - - - Decandrla. 
 XI. Btameni 12—19 - - - Dodecandria. 
 XII. Stamens 20 or more, inserted 
 
 into the calyx - - - Icosandria. 
 
 XIII. Stamens 20 or more, Inserted 
 
 into the receptacle - Polyandria. 
 
 XIV. Stamens 2 long and 2 short Didynamia. 
 XV St unena 4 long and 2 short Tetradynamia. 
 
 XVI. Stamens united by their fila- 
 ments into a tube - Monadelphia. 
 
 XVII tiled by their fila- 
 
 ments into two parcels - Diadelphia. 
 XVIII. Stamens united by their fila- 
 ments into several parcels Polyadelphia. 
 
 XIX. Stamens united by their an- 
 thers into a tube - - Syngenesia. 
 >. \" Stamens united with the pistil Gynandria. 
 
 XXI. Stamens and pistils in sepa- 
 rate flowers, but both grow- 
 ing on the same plant - Monoecia. 
 
 XXII Stamens and pistils not only in 
 separate flowers, but those 
 flowers situated upon two 
 different plants - . - Dioecia. 
 
 XXIII. Stamens and pistils separate in 
 
 some flowers, united in 
 others, either on the same 
 plant, or two or three differ- 
 ent ones ... - Polygamia. 
 
 XXIV. Stamens and pistils either not 
 
 ascertained, or not to be 
 discovered with any cer- 
 tainty, insomuch that the 
 plants cannot be referred 
 to any of the foregoing 
 classes .... Cryptogamia. 
 Ttie characters of the orders depend upon the number 
 >f the styles, or of the stigmas, if there be no style, in the 
 first thirteen classes; such are accordingly named, — 
 
 Monosynia style 1 
 
 Disrynia 2 
 
 Trigynia 3 
 
 Tetragyuia 4 
 
 Pentagynia 5 
 
 Hexagynia 6 
 
 Heptagynia 7 
 
 Octogynia 8 
 
 Enneagynia 9 
 
 Decagynia 10 
 
 Dodecagynia 12 
 
 Polyeynia . - - - more than 12 
 In the 14th class, Didynamia, the orders depend upon 
 the nature of the ovary. In Gymnospermia, the first order, 
 '.he ovary is divided into four lobes, from the base of 
 which proceeds a single style, and within each of which is 
 contained a single seed. In Angiospermia, the 2nd order, 
 the ovary is not lobed, and is usually two-celled, and many- 
 seeded. 
 
 In the 15th class, Tctradynamia, the orders are charac- 
 terized by the form of the fruit : Siliquosa have a long 
 }oA ; SUiculoatB have a short one. 
 
 The orders of the 16th, 17th, and 18th classes, Monadel- 
 phla, Diadelphia, and Polyadelphia, depend upon the num- 
 16) 
 
 ber of the stamens, and have the same nomenclature as th? 
 thirteen first chumes. 
 
 The orders of Syngenesia are determined by the ar- 
 rangement of their flowers, and by the sex of their florets : 
 thus— 
 
 Polygamia has flowers crowded together in hen Is. 
 
 1. Polygamic aiquatit has each floret hermaphrodite or 
 furnished with perfect .stamens and pistil. 
 
 2. Polygamia superjlua has the florets of the disk her 
 maphrodite; those ol the ray female only. 
 
 J. Pu.'uxumitifrustranea has the florets of the disk her 
 maphrodite ; those of the ray sterile. 
 
 4. Poijfg dail'll necessaria has the florets of the disk b all' 
 of the ray female. 
 
 iramia segregata " has several florets, either sun 
 pie or compound, but with a proper calyx, included within 
 one common calyx." 
 
 Monogamia has the flowers separate, not crowded in 
 heads. This order is generally abolished by Llmuaan bota- 
 nists, but for no good reason. < 
 
 The orders of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd classes are distin 
 guished by the number, &c. of the stamens. 
 
 The two orders of the 23rd class depend upon whethei 
 the genera are monoecious or discious. 
 
 i eiass. Oryptogatnia, la divided Into orders ao 
 cording to the principles of the natural system, namely, 1 
 Filices ; 2. Musci ; 3 Hepatica; 1. Algte; 5, Fungi. 
 
 With regard to the natural system of botany, that formed 
 by Justed out of tin' views of Ray, Touruefort, and others, 
 in combination with very numerous observations of his 
 own, is the basis of what is at present understood by thai 
 name. It has, however, been much modified by 
 ing systematists, and will undoubtedly undergo many more 
 changes in its details. The view taken of tin- subject by 
 I)e CandoDe, the learned professor at Geneva, is thus sta 
 ted by himself : — "I have established in my 77 
 meniaire, that the proof of a classification of plants being 
 natural is furnished when similar results are arrived at, 
 whether from considerations drawn from the reproduetivt 
 organs or from Motion. Considered with re- 
 
 ference to the organs of reproduction (or fructification), the 
 vegetable kingdom has been divided by LinnSBUS into twi, 
 grand series, the Phanerogamous and the Cryptogamous 
 These series are not merely distinguished because in the 
 first the sexual organs are visible to the naked eye, and is 
 the latter are microscopical. Such a difference, which 
 might depend only Opofl the absolute si/.e of the organ*, 
 could be in itself of little moment ; but it is connected with 
 a real difference of structure. Phanerogamous plants have 
 their organs of fructification arranged upon a more or lei s 
 symmetrical plan, and surrounded by integuments them- 
 selves also arranged symmetrically. Cryptogamous plants 
 have the sexual organs disposed without order, ana sur- 
 rounded by integuments scarcely perceptible, and still 
 more disorderly ; or they have no sexual organs that have 
 been proved to be so." 
 
 Phanerogamous plants have long been divided into Dico- 
 tyledons, or plants whose embryos present cotyledons op- 
 posite or verlicillate upon the same plane, and whose mini- 
 mum is Consequently 2; and into Monocotyledons, whose 
 cotyledons or earliest leaves are alternate, so that the 
 minimum is 1, or that the first, when there are two, is 
 more particularly intended to nourish the young plant. 
 
 Cryptogamous plants should in like manner be divided 
 into two classes, the JEtheogamous and the Ainphigamoiis. 
 For the first 1 take the name of Mthtogumous, invented by 
 Beauvois, but limiting its application. This term, which 
 signifies plants with unusual fructification, suits well 
 enough the class here indicated, and which is character- 
 ised by having sexual organs distinct and visible under the 
 microscope, but formed upon a plan totally different from 
 that of Phanerogamous plants; such are Equisctacee, 
 Ferns, Lycopodiaceae, Mosses, and Hepaticce. I give the 
 second class the name of Amphigama. to Indicate Ore 
 doubtful nature of their fructification; some authors have 
 called them Agamae, but that is, I think, to assert more 
 than is quite certain. The character of Amphigamae is to 
 present to view no sexual organ, even under the micro- 
 scope ; but we cannot affirm that the spores that they pro 
 duce have not received a sort of impiegnation In the very 
 cells which generated them. It is for th j sake of express 
 ing this doubt that I employ the word Amphigamre. Thus 
 with respect to their organs of reproduction, plants are 
 clearlv divided into four great classes. Let us next exam- 
 ine them with reference to their organs of vegetation. 
 The first division that may be established is deduced from 
 the absence or presence of vessels ; and in this view I se- 
 parate plants into two series — the vascular, which have 
 vessels and stomates manifest during their whole life ; and 
 cellular, or those which consist of nothing but ce.lules 
 either throughout their life or in their first foliaceous or- 
 gans. Vascular plants are divided into Exogens, of which 
 the wood increases by the addition of new layers placed 
 on the outside of the older ; and Endogens, whoso trunk 
 T. 
 
BOTANY. 
 
 increases by the addition of new fibres to the centre of the 
 cylinder already formed. Cellular plants, in like manner, 
 are subdivide'd into semi-vascular and cellular. Under the 
 first of these names I comprehend the orders which grow 
 with leafy cotyledons, but composed of cellular tissue only, 
 and destitute of stomates. Eventually they assume or- 
 gans in which vessels and stoniates exist : this develop- 
 ment, which gives them some resemblance to Endogens, 
 takes place rapidly in Equisetacea;, Ferns, and Lycopodi- 
 aceae ; and the observations of anatomists have shown that 
 the same thing occurs, but later and less perfectly, in 
 Mosses and Hepaticae ; so that it is a matter of some doubt 
 whether they ought to be referred to the semi-vascular or 
 ucceeding class. Cellular plants have long been known 
 o be destitute of both vessels and stomates, and to present 
 only a homogeneous mass, where the distinction of stem, 
 leaves, and roots can only be established analogically. 
 
 Looking back at this explanation, it is obvious that the 
 vegetable kingdom may be represented by the following 
 table. 
 
 Divisions formed by Hie 
 Organs of Fructification. 
 I. Phanerogamous, 
 Class 1. Dicotyledons, 
 
 2. Monocotyledons, 
 II. CnypTOGAMOUs, 
 
 3. jEtheogamous, 
 
 4. Amphigamous, 
 
 Divisions formed by the 
 Organs of Nutrition. 
 Vascular. 
 Exogens. 
 Endogens. 
 Cellular. 
 Semi-vascular. 
 Cellular. 
 
 Or, if it is preferred, in this other form, which is almost 
 equally regular : — 
 
 ' Having vessels and sto- 
 [ mates at some period 
 [ of their existence. 
 
 Exogens. 
 
 Endogens. 
 
 Semi-vascular. 
 
 Without either vessels 
 1 or stomates at any age. 
 
 Cellular. 
 
 I. Sexual, beingfurnish- j 
 ed with sexual organs < 
 
 Class 1. Dicotyledons, 
 
 2. Monocotyledons, 
 
 3. ./Elheogamous, 
 
 II. Without distinct sexes, 
 
 4. Amphigamous, 
 Hut notwithstanding the apparent clearness of this sys- 
 tem, and the importance of the arguments upon which rt 
 is founded, it is far from being unobjectionable. In the 
 first place, the distinction drawn between the two classes 
 of Cryptogenic plants is unfounded, both as regards the 
 presence or absence of both vessels and sexes. Ferns and 
 Lycopodiacae, in which the vascular system is most de- 
 veloped, have no more trace of sexes than Fungi ; and 
 
 in the other hand, in Mosses and Hepaticae, in which there 
 is the most distinct formation of something analogous to 
 sexes, there is no trace whatever of a vascular system. 
 The difference, then, between Amphigamae and .55theoga- 
 IH83 falls to the ground, and in fact is analogically bad ; for 
 there are vascular and cellular orders in both the great 
 classes of Exogens and Endogens, which ought therefore 
 themselves to be subdivided into vascular and cellular, in 
 order to form a consistent system : and this difference ap- 
 pears to be connected with a very general tendency, visible 
 in the vegetable kingdom, to produce an impoverished or 
 degraded condition of all great types of structure. Thus, 
 among Exogens, Onagraca? are merely cellular in Hippuris 
 and Myriophyllum. Urticacece in Ceratophylleae, and the or- 
 ders of Callitrichacea? and Podostemaceae are other in- 
 stanres of the same fact; and, in Endogens, Naiadaceae 
 and Pistiacea?, or at least Lemna, are as completely cellu- 
 lar as Algaceae. 
 
 In the next place, circumstances of greater importance 
 are omitted by M. De Candolle from his statement than 
 some of those included in it If Cryptomagic are to be 
 separated from Phanerogamous plants by their vegetation, 
 it is rather by their manner of growth than by any peculi- 
 arity in Iheir vascular system. Phanerogamous plants 
 might be called Pleurogens, from theirgrowingby the sides 
 as well as at the ends, thus increasing symmetrically both 
 in length, density, and thickness. Cryptogamous plants 
 grow either by simple elongation, without increasing ma- 
 terially in density; or they expand irregularly in all direc- 
 tions, and hence have been termed Acrogens. No circum- 
 stance can well he more important than the manner in 
 which impregnation takes place. In common Exogens 
 there is an ovarian covering, through the tapering apex of 
 which, called style, impregnation takes effect by aid of a 
 part called the stigma ; but in other Exogens impregnation 
 is effected by direct contact between the egg or ovule and 
 the pollen : and a simple mode of veining in the leaves, 
 together with a very small development of the vascular 
 system, accompany this. Hence such plants, called Gym- 
 nostperms, ought to be regarded as a class of as much im- 
 portance as Exogens themselves. Again, among plants in 
 some respects participating in the organization of Endo- 
 sens are species called Rhizanths, having a fungoid vegeta- 
 tion, a nearly total absence of the vascular svstem, and a 
 most remarkable method of propagation. With the ordi- 
 nary sexes of Endogens they are said to combine the 
 162 
 
 According to their 
 Fructification. 
 
 I. Having flowers and sex- j 
 es (Phanerogamous), \ 
 
 a. Minimum of cotyle- j 
 
 dons 2, \ 
 
 Class 1. Dicotyledons, 
 2. Gymnosperms, 
 
 b. Minimum of cotyle- < 
 
 dons 1, j 
 
 Class 3. Monocotyledons, 
 
 c. Acotyledons, 
 Class 4. Rhizanths, 
 
 II. Having neither flowers ) 
 nor sexes, \ 
 
 BOTTOMRY. 
 
 spores of Cryptogamic plants, and thus hold a sort of mid- 
 dle station between the two great series of plants recog- 
 nised by Linnaeus. Such a kind of vegetation is far too im- 
 portant to be omitted from consideration in determining 
 the classes, as the fundamental divisions of the vegetable 
 kingdom are termed. 
 
 For these reasons the writer of the present notice has 
 proposed a material modification of De Candolle's state- 
 ment, which may be expressed as follows. 
 Plants. 
 
 According to their 
 Vegetation. 
 
 I. Their axis increasing 
 symmetrically in dens- 
 ity and breadth as well 
 as length (Pleurogens). 
 
 a. Stem in concentric 
 layers (Exogens). 
 
 Veins of leaves netted 
 Veins of leaves netted 
 or forked. 
 
 b. Stem a confused mass 
 of wood and cellular 
 tissue. 
 
 Veins of leaves parallel, 
 and not netted. 
 
 c. Vegetation fungoid. 
 Class 4. Rhizanths. 
 
 II. Theiraxis increasing by 
 simple elongation or ir- 
 regular expansion. 
 
 Class 5. Cryptogamic plants, or Class 5. Acrogens. 
 
 For the details of this system the reader is referred lo 
 
 Lindley's Natural St/stem of Botany, 2nd ed. 
 
 BOTA'NIC GARDEN. A garden devoted to the culture 
 of a collection of plants, with reference to the science of 
 botany. The legitimate object of gardens of this descrip 
 tion appears to be to collect and cultivate, at the public ex- 
 pense, all the species and varieties of plants that can be cul- 
 tivated in the given climate, with or without the aid of 
 glass ; and then to distribute these to private individuals 
 throughout the district by which the botanic garden is sup- 
 ported. The most complete system of this kind ever es- 
 tablished appears to have been that of France soon after 
 the revolution. All the botanical articles that could be pro- 
 cured from other countries were sent to the botanic garden 
 at Paris ; and after they had borne seeds or been propa- 
 gated there, the progeny was distributed among the pro 
 vincial botanic gardens, of which there is one or more ia 
 every department. After being propagated in Hie provin- 
 cial botanic gardens, the seeds or progeny were given out. 
 free of expense, to whoever in the district to which thf 
 garden belonged thought fit to apply for them. As the use- 
 ful species and varieties were as much attended to in these 
 gardens as those which were cultivated only in a scientific 
 point of view, the greatest facilities were thus given to the 
 spread of every useful grain, pulse, culinary vegetable, and 
 fruit, over the whole of France. Something of the same 
 kind may be considered as taking place in Great Britain ; 
 but it is more the effect of accident than the result of de- 
 sign, as the giving out of plants is not considered in Britain 
 as an essential part of the system of management of a 
 royal or government botanic garden. See Loudon's Ency- 
 clopedia of Gardening. 
 
 BO'TANY BAY RESIN. A yellow aromatic resin which 
 exudes from the trunk of the Acarois resinifera of New 
 Holland. 
 
 BOTRYLLA'RIANS, BOTRYLARIiE. (Gr. /Sorpuy, 
 a bunch of grapes.) In Zoology, a family of singular com- 
 pound Tunicaries or Ascidians, in which several distinct 
 individuals are arranged in a circle round a central aper- 
 ture common to the rectum of each, while the mouths are 
 distinct and placed at the circumference. 
 
 BOTRYO IDAL. (Gr. fiorpvs, a bunch of grapes ; ttSos, 
 like.) When a part is clustered like a bunch of grapes. 
 
 BO'TRYOLI'TE. (Gr. fiorovs, a cluster of grapes ; Ai0of, 
 stone.) Botrvoidal silicious^borate of lime. 
 
 BO'TTOM'HEAT. A term applied in Horticulture, to 
 the temperature communicated to certain soils by fer- 
 menting and decomposing substances placed underneath 
 them ; leaves, fresh dung, and the refuse bark of the tan- 
 yard, are often used for this purpose; and the system is 
 applied to pineapples, melons, cucumbers, and othet 
 plants grown in pits or frames. 
 
 BOTTOM RAIL. (Sax. botm.) In Architecture, a 
 term used for denoting the lowest horizontal rail of a 
 framed door. 
 
 BO'TTOMRY. In Commercial Law, is in effect a inort 
 gage of a ship, being an agreement entered into by an 
 owner or his agent, whereby, in consideration of a sum of 
 money advanced for the use of the ship, the borrower un- 
 dertakes to repay the same, with interest, if the ship ter 
 minate her voyage successfully ; and binds or hypothe 
 
BOUDOIR. 
 
 cates the ship for the performance of the contract. The 
 instrument by which this contract is effected is sometimes 
 in th" shape of a deed poll, and sometimes in that of a 
 bund. On bottomry contracts the lender runs the risk of 
 the voyage, and in consideration of the risk the interest he 
 may t.-ike is unlimited. The master has authority to hy- 
 pothecate a ship or its freight (see Respondentia) at a 
 foreign port, in case of necessity, for the purposes of the 
 voyage. In such case, \( the loan be not repaid within ihe 
 •scribed, the agent of the lenders applies to the 
 Court of Admiralty, with certain affidavits, and procures 
 authority to arrest the ship, which may be sold, if neces- 
 sary, under the authority of the court. Where several 
 this description have been made on the same voy- 
 iast lender is entitled to priority of payment out 
 hi i ho proceeds of the sale. 
 
 BOli'DOlR. (Fr. bander, to pout.) In Architecture, a 
 
 small room or cabinet, usually near the bed-chamber and 
 
 room, for the private retirement of the master or 
 
 GET, WATER-BUDGET,. or DOSSER. In He- 
 raldry, a bearing supposed to represent a vessel for carry- 
 in ',' V. 
 
 HOU'LTIN. (Fr.) In Architecture, a name given to 
 t moulding whose section is nearly a quadrant of a circle, 
 . itneter being horizontal, the contour is convex in 
 respect of a vertical to such diameter. It is more usually 
 rg or quarter round. 
 S TY. In Commerce and the Arts, a premium 
 paid by government to the producers, exporters, or im- 
 porters of certain articles, or to those who employ ships 
 in certain trades, when the profits resulting from these re- 
 spective branches of industry are all . -ufficient. 
 Bounties on productiim are usually given in the view of 
 iging the establishment of some new branch of in- 
 igand extending a branch that is be- 
 lieved to be of paramount importance. Bounties on ex- 
 portatitm and importation are granted to Ihe exporters of 
 certain British commodities on their taking oath, or in 
 some cases giving bond, not lo reland the same in Eng- 
 land. Public opinion was formerly very divided as to the 
 re of granting bounties; but ai present the impoii- 
 :h a practice appears to be almost universally ad- 
 1'or it will lie found that in all old settled ami 
 wealthy countries, numbers of individuals are always ready 
 t i embark in every new undertaking, if it promise to be 
 really advantageous, without any stimulus from govern- 
 •i'l if a branch of industry already established be 
 really important and suitable for the country, it will as- 
 he prosecuted to the necessary extent without 
 •uiy encouragement beyond the natural demand for its 
 For further details upon this subject, see the 
 article Tariff. 
 
 BOU'NTY, QUEEN ANNE'S. The produce of the first 
 fruits and tenths due to the crown (»e«art. First Fruits), 
 which were made over by Queen Anne to a corporation 
 established in the year 17<M for the purpose of augmenting 
 poor livings under jE'iOa vear. 
 
 BOUSTROPHE'DON. (Gr. 0oi f , an ox ; crpcfu, I 
 
 turn.) A word descriptive of a mode of writinu common 
 
 among the early Greeks until nearly the middle of the 
 
 fifth century before Christ; viz. in alternate lines from 
 
 right lo left and from left to right, as fields are ploughed in 
 
 furrows having an alternate direction, from whence the 
 
 ■ See Alphabet. 
 
 BOUT. In Agriculture, is one turn or course of a plough 
 
 in ploushing a rid ;e. 
 
 BO'VEY COAL. A species of bituminous wood found 
 
 v Hayfield, near Exeter. 
 HOW. An ancient weapon of offence, made of wood, 
 horn, Steel, or some other elastic substance, by which ar- 
 rows are thrown. The force with which the arrow is pro- 
 rtioned to that with which the bow is bent, 
 mi' I to the quickness with which it recovers its former 
 Hansard's Archery. 
 HOW or BAY WINDOW. (Sax. boga, a 6o»>. ) In Archi- 
 i window projecting from the general face of a 
 ig. of a curved or polygonal form on the plan. 
 BO'WLDERS. Rounded masses of stone lying upon 
 
 . or loosely imbedded in the soil. 
 
 BOWLINE A rope from near the middle of the 
 
 weather edgeor leech of a sail, leading forward. Its use 
 
 is to keep ihe leech forward, that the wind may get at the 
 
 \fter-side of ihe sail when very oblique to its direction. 
 
 HOWS. The two sides of the fore extremity of a vessel, 
 
 I rhoard and larboard bows. 
 HO'WSPRIT. In Naval Architecture, is a kind of mast 
 which rests slopewise on the head of the main stern, hav- 
 ing its lower end fastened to the partners of the fore mast. 
 It carries the sprit-sail, sprit topsail, and jack-staff It is 
 exposed to violent action, especially from being struck by 
 heavy seas, into which the ship, in plunging, dips it ; and 
 (hooch very firmly secured by the bob-stays and side ropes 
 :alled shrouds, is very often carried away or sprung. 
 163 
 
 BRACHYSTOCHRONE. 
 
 BOX. (Ilufoj, the Greek name of the plant.) T -. 
 hard compact wood of Buxus sempervirens, so mucii used 
 by wood engravers, and for the turner's purposes, Thii 
 evergreen bush or small tree is found all over Europe. 
 even upon the chalk hills of England; but it acquires its- 
 largest dimensions in the south. It is from Till 
 the principal part of the wood is imported into I 
 under a duty of £5 a ton : whether orJnot all this is really 
 fu rn i sh ed by Buxus Mii mti v ii «m is not known. It Is not 
 improbable that Buxus balearica, a larger species, too len- 
 der to thrive in this country, may furnish a part at least of 
 that which comes from the Mediterranean. It is said that 
 the wood of this species is coarser and of a brighter yellow 
 than that of the common species. The box plan 
 
 >r its use in gardens as edging to borders ; the kind 
 so employed is a dwarf variety of Buxus sempervireim. 
 
 BOX DRAIN. An under-ground drain, regularly built 
 with upright sides and a fiat stone or brick cover, so that 
 the close section has the appearance of a square box; 
 
 BOX HAULING. In Navigation, is bringing a ship when 
 close-hauled round upon the other tack, when she refuses 
 to tack and there is not room to wear. By throwing the 
 head sails aback she gets stemway ; the helm thereupon 
 being put alee, the ship's head falls rapidly off from the 
 wind, which she soon brings aft; she is then speedily 
 rounded-to with but little loss of ground. 
 
 HO'XING OFF. Throwing the head sails aback to force 
 the ship's head rapidly on" the wind. 
 
 BO'XING THE COMPASS. Repeating the points in 
 order. 
 
 BO'XINGS. See Lining. 
 
 BRA'CCATE. (Bracca, breeches.) In Ornithology, 
 when the feet are concealed by long feathers descending 
 from the tibiae;. 
 
 BRACE. In Sea language, a rope fastened to the ex- 
 tremity of the yard, for the purpose of traversing the sails 
 when it is necessary to change their position. 
 
 Brace. (Fr. embrasser, to embrace.) In Architecture, 
 an Inclined piece of timber used in trussed partitions and 
 in framed roofs, in order lo form a triangle by which the 
 assemblage of pieces composing the framing is stiffened. 
 If a brace is used to support a rafter, it is called a strut 
 When braces are used in roofs and partitions they should 
 d in pairs, and introduced in opposite directions. 
 
 Brace. (Fr. embrasser, lo embrace.) In Music, the 
 line or bracket at the beginning of each set of staves which 
 ties them together in a vertical direction. 
 
 BRACHALY'TRA. (Gr. fipaxvs, short ; t\vTpov,sheath.) 
 The name of an extensive group of Coleopterous insects, 
 including all such as have the elytra so short as not to ex- 
 third ihe length of the abdomen. To this section 
 'lie well-known species called the devil's coach 
 horse iS/nphylinus oleus.) 
 
 BRA'CIIIAL. (Lat. brachium, the arm.) Belonging to 
 the arm ; as brachial nerves, vessels, <fcc. 
 
 BRACIII'NUS. A genua of Coleopterous insects, now 
 the type of a family (.Braehinidat), including those singu- 
 lar beetles which from their defensive anal explosions are 
 termed ''bombardiers." Of these there are five British 
 species, the best known of which is the Brachinus crepi- 
 tans of Linn r 
 
 BRA'CHIOMIS. The name given by Midler to a genus 
 of Rotiferous Infusorial Animalcules, now subdivided into 
 many distinct genera. 
 
 BRA'CHIOPODS, BRACHIOPODA. (Gr. fipaxtov, an 
 arm; novs, a foot.) An order of Acephalous or headless 
 bivalve Molluscs, characterised by having the mantle or- 
 ganised so as to be serviceable for respiration, and by hav- 
 ing two long fleshy, ciliated, spiral arms, or labiate pro- 
 cesses ; whence Cuvier conceived the name, which in his 
 system designates a distinct class of Acephala. See Pal- 
 liobranchiates. 
 
 BRA'CHIUM. (Lat.) In Mammalogy, is restricted to 
 the second segment of the anterior extremity, which is ar- 
 ticulated proximally with the scapula, and distally with the 
 antibrachium. In Entomology, signifies the first pair of 
 legs of Hexapods, the direction of which is usually towards 
 the head. 
 
 BRA'CHYCATALECTIC. (Gr. 0pa X vs, short, and 
 Kara\riKTiKO{, deficient.) A verse wanting two syllables to 
 complete its length (in Greek and Latin poetry). 
 
 BRACHY'GRAPHY. (Gr. Ppax»S, short, and yp&<pw, 1 
 write.) The art of writing by abbreviations. (SmTacht- 
 graphy.) The notae Tironianaj, among the Romans, were 
 a species of short-hand invented by one Tiro, a freedman 
 of Cicero. 
 
 BRACHY'PTEROUS. (Gr. Ppaxvs, short ; trrepov, a 
 wing ) In Ornithology, when the folded wings of a bird do 
 not reach to 'he base of the tail. 
 
 BRACHY'STOCHRONE. (Gr. Ppaxvs, »hort, and 
 Xpovos, time.) The name given by John Bernoulli to the 
 curve which possesses this property, that a body setting 
 out from a given point A, and impelled merely by the force 
 of gravity, will arrive at another point B in a shower time 
 
BRACHYSTOCHRONE. 
 
 by moving fa this curve, than if it followed any other di- 
 rection. The problem of the brachystochrone is famous in 
 the history of the new geometry, ft was first proposed by 
 John Bernoulli in the Leipsic Acta Eruditorum for June 
 1696, in the following terms : — 
 
 " Two points, A and B, being given in the sam? vertical 
 plane ; it is required to assign the path through which a 
 body descending by its own gravity, and beginning to move 
 from the point A, will arrive at B in the least time possible." 
 According to the fashion of that age, it was proposed as 
 a challenge to other mathematicians, ad cujvs soiutionem 
 mathemaiici invitantur ; with the declaration that if no one 
 announced the nature of the curve before the end of the 
 year he himself would make it known. The time was subse- 
 quently extended to a year, within which solutions appear- 
 ed by Newton, James Bernoulli (the celebrated brother of 
 the proposer), and the Marquis de l'Hopital. From re- 
 flecting on this problem, James Bernoulli was led to the 
 discovery and solution of a kindred but much more diffi- 
 cult class of questions ; namely, those relating to isoperi- 
 metrical figures, the investigation of which required a dif- 
 ferent kind of analysis from that with which mathematici- 
 ans were yet acquainted. One of these he proposed in his 
 turn as a challenge to his brother John ; and some mistakes 
 into which the latter fell in the solution of it became the 
 occasion of an angry quarrel between the illustrious broth- 
 ers, which unfortunately was never healed. The prosecu- 
 tion of a similar speculation afterwards led Lagrange to 
 one of the most important theories in the higher mathe- 
 matics — the Calculus of Variations. 
 
 The following is the solution of the problem of the bra- 
 chyttockrone given by James Bernoulli. (Opera, p. 768.) 
 Let A be the point from which the body is to move, B that 
 to which it is to go, and A C D B the path it follows, which 
 by hypothesis is wholly situated in 
 the same plane. It is not necessary, 
 however, that the plane be vertical. 
 Take any small portion of the curve 
 C D ; then it is obvious that if A B be 
 the path through which the body will 
 descend from A to B in the least time 
 possible, it must also pass from C to 
 D in a shorter time than if it fol- 
 lowed any other direction. For, 
 suppose it to pass from C to D by 
 at ether path, C L N D, in shorter time than byCMGD; 
 then it must also pass from A to B in shorter time through 
 A C L N D than through A C M G D, which is contrary to 
 the hypothesis. This being premised, let A H be drawn 
 horizontally through A, C H perpendicular and D F parallel 
 to A H through the points C and D ; also let C F be divided 
 into two equal parts in E, and complete the parallelogram 
 E F D I ; the object is to find the point G in the straight line 
 E I, or (which comes to the same thing) the inclination of 
 the two elements of the curve C G and G D to each other, 
 so that the time of descent through C G+time of descent 
 through G D (which may be thus denoted, t C G+t G D)may 
 be a minimum. For this purpose assume another point L in 
 E I. so that G L may be regarded as infinitely small in com- 
 parison of E G ; and having drawn C L and D L, let L M 
 Mid G N bo respectively perpendicular to C G and D L. 
 Mow, variable quantities, when they are infinitely near their 
 maxima or minima, may be regarded as constant ; there- 
 fore t C L-B L D=t C G+t G D, and consequently t C G— 
 t C L=t L D— t G D. By the theory of the descent of 
 heavy bod163, 
 
 CE:C G=t C E : t C G. 
 and C E : C L=t C E : t C L ; 
 therefore, 
 
 C E : C G— C L ( or M G)=t C E : t C G— t C L. 
 But by similar triangles, 
 
 MG:G L=E G : C G ; 
 therefore, combining the two last proportions, 
 (1) C E : G L=E GXt C E : C GX(t C G— t C L) 
 
 v 
 
 In like manner, 
 
 E F : G D=t E F 
 LD=t.EF 
 
 tGD 
 tLD. 
 
 L D— G D (or L N)=t E F 
 G L=G I : G D ; 
 
 t L D— t G D. 
 
 G DXO L D— t 
 
 EF 
 
 therefore, 
 EF 
 But L N 
 therefore. 
 
 (2) E F (or C E) : G I,=G IXt E F 
 G D). 
 
 From the two analogies (1) and (2), we have now E GX 
 tCE : CGX(t CG— tCL)=GIXtEF iGBYttLD 
 — t G D) ; or, E GXt C E : G IXt E F=C GX(t C G— t 
 C L) : G DX(t L D— t G D). But it was proved that t C G 
 — t C L=t L D— t G D ; and by the laws of falling bodies, 
 
 t C E is reciprocally proportional to VH C, and t E F re- 
 ciprocally as yL" E ; therefore by substitution, 
 
 EG GI 
 
 — === : -4==r = C G : G D, 
 
 1/HC VHE 
 161 
 
 BRAHMANS. 
 
 a known property of the common cycloid ; which, tber« 
 fore, is the brachystochrone, or curve of quickest descent 
 In the modern analysis the investigation of the brachysto- 
 chrone is usually proposed as an example of the method 
 of Variations. 
 
 BRA'CHYURES, BRA'CHYU'RA. (Gr. Ppaxvi, short, 
 and ovpa, a tail.) A tribe of Decapodous Crustacea, in 
 which the tail or post-abdomen is short, and folded beneath 
 the trunk ; commonly called "crabs." 
 
 BRA'CKET. (From brachietto, Ital.) In Architecture 
 a projecting piece for carrying a superincumbent weight 
 In large cornices executed in plaster the series of project 
 ing pieces to which the laths are nailed is called bracketing. 
 
 BRA'CON. A Fabrician genus of Hymenopterous in- 
 sects of the parasitic tribe of Pupivorous Ichneumons : it ':> 
 now the type of a family (Braconida), distinguished from 
 the true Ichneumons by having the maxillary palps five- 
 jointed, and the labial ones either three or four-jointed, and 
 by wanting the internal discoidal cell of the upper wings. 
 The genera of this family are Bracan proper ; Aphidiim, 
 the species of which prey upon the plant-lice ; Stephanie, 
 Cmlinius, Spathius, Perilitus, Ilybrizon, Leiophron, AgathU, 
 Microdua, Ilormius, Ichnentes, Microgasler, and Blacas. 
 
 BRACT. An altered leaf, which is placed at the base of 
 a flower on the outside of the calyx. It is the first attempt 
 made by the common leaves to change into the floral or- 
 gans. In general the bract is small and inconspicuous, 
 but it occasionally arquires a considerable size and a bril- 
 liant colour, as in Sulira comosa and splendens, and the 
 Brazilian pine-apple, and more especially in the various 
 kinds of Arum, where it constitutes the large enveloping 
 leaf, called spath, in which the spadix of those extraordi- 
 nary plants is enveloped. This word forms the adjectives 
 bracliscent, assuming the appearance of a bract; bractial, 
 furnished with bracts ; bractiolate, having little bracts. A 
 cupule is a collection of bracts united into a cup ; an invo- 
 lucre is the same organs arranged in a whorl. The flowers 
 of grasses and cyperaceous plants consist of nothing but 
 little bracts called palea, and glumes. 
 
 BRA'DYPODS, BRADY'PODA. (Gr. KpaSvf. slow, 
 wovs, foot; sloiD-fuoted.) A family of Macronyhous or E- 
 dentate Mammals, including the two toed and three-toed 
 sloths. 
 
 BRA'HMANS. (Bpaxjiavos among the Greeks, Brtthman 
 in the Indian dialects, and Bremm among the Europeans.) 
 The first or highest of the four castes of Hindoos, said to 
 have proceeded from the mouth of Brahm (the seat of 
 wisdom). They form the learned or sacerdotal class ; and 
 its members have maintained a more extensive sway than 
 the priests of any other nation. Their chief privileges 
 consist in reading the Veda or sacred volume, in institut- 
 ing sacrifices, in imparting religious instruction, in asking 
 alms, and in exemption from capital punishment. The 
 whole life of the Brahmans is devoted to the study of the 
 sacred writings, and is divided into four periods. The first 
 begins at the age of seven, when the duty of the young 
 novitiate consists in learning to read and write, in studying 
 the Veda, and in familiarising himself with the privileges 
 of his order. In the second stage of a Brahman's life he 
 is allowed to marry, and to engage in commercial specu- 
 lations. In the third stage, his religious duties become 
 more numerous, and must be rigidly performed. But in 
 the fourth period, the Brahman is admitted to personal 
 communication with the Deity ; and this stage is reckoned 
 so pre-eminently holy, that in a single generation it imparts 
 a greater stock of religious importance than is attainable 
 by any other means in a thousand years. (Menou's Instil.) 
 The origin of the Brahmans is merged in obscurity. While 
 some ancient writers regard them as a branch of the old 
 Gymnosophists (Str. Geo. t. ii. p. 1033.), Diodorus Siculus 
 maintains that they are of much earlier origin. According 
 to the accounts of the best Jewish writers, adopted by 
 Shorestani (an Arabian author of great repute), and sanc- 
 tioned by the authority of the learned Dr. Hyde (Be Rel 
 Vet. Persarum, 31, 32), the progenitor of the Brahmans 
 was the patriarch Abraham, who in their language is styled 
 Brachman or Brahman. But whatever may have been the 
 origin of the Brahmans, it is certain that the whole learn, 
 ing of India was for ages in their hands. Many of the Gre- 
 cian sages travelled into India to learn wisdom in tha' 
 great storehouse of knowledge ; and, among others, Pytha- 
 goras seems to have borrowed from them the greater part 
 of his mystical philosophy ; nay, it is even doubtful 
 whether Aristotle himself did not derive both the materials 
 and the arrangement of his system of logic from the same 
 source. Of ancient Brahminical science the principal re 
 mains are their astronomical and trigonometrical methods, 
 both of which have given rise to frequent and learned 
 discussion. Among the modern Brahmans we look in 
 vain for the deep learning that characterized the ancient 
 members of this order; for, with the exception of meta- 
 physical disquisitions, which have always been a favourite 
 study among them, the learning of the present race of 
 Brahmans is exceedingly meagre, being limited almost 
 
BRAIN. 
 
 •ntirely to the construction of the almanack. Nor is it 
 merely in point of learning that the modern Brahmans 
 nave degenerated from their ancestors. Their morals too 
 arc wofully deteriorated ; and while they are the sole de- 
 positaries and ministers of a religion which in point of 
 purity and sublimity of doctrine yields only to the Chris 
 tain, their conduct is characterized by the most vile and 
 licentious practices ; a spirit of avarice, falsehood and re- 
 is every where visible ; and in many cases super- 
 stition and fanaticism have been exchanged for infidelity 
 and atheism. Hut iu spite of these grievous defects, this 
 m maintains its ground; and neither the march of 
 time, the inroads of the conqueror, nor any of the c 
 thai operate in modifying <>r undermining other institu- 
 tions, have been able to weaken or subvert the intluence 
 Brahmans. Whether Great Britain be destined, by 
 the introduction and dissemination of education and Chris- 
 tianity, ultimately to effect what has hitherto baffled every 
 • for u* to prognosticate; but, assuredly, what- 
 • ssful in eradicating the Urahminical sys- 
 tem, and in substituting in its room a religion whose min- 
 will practise what they teach, will have achieved the 
 brightest moral triumph in the annals of history. (See 
 British India ; Asiatic Jiesearclies, passim ; Cole- 
 'mdoo Mythology; Sir William Joner* History. 
 BRAIN. The chemical examination of the brain of ani- 
 mals was first undertaken by Vauquelin, who found in the 
 human brain 80 water, 7 albumen, 453 white fatty matter, 
 070 red fatty matter, 112 osmazome, 15 phosphorus; 
 . and sulphur, 5'15. An elaborate dissertation 
 upon the composition of brain lias more lately been pub- 
 I by M. Couerbe (Annates de Chim. el Phys. lvi. 160). 
 Ida a large proportion ofcholesterine in it ; and asserts, 
 i examination*, that the propor- 
 tions of phosphorous in the brain of persons of sound in- 
 tellect is from 2 to 25 per cent. ; in the brain of maniacs it 
 is from 3 to 45, and in that of idiots only from 1 to 1 5 per 
 cent. 
 
 Brain, Hitman, Anatomy op. The brain, or the gene- 
 ral mass ni' nervous mailer which occupies llie cavity of 
 the skull, constitutes about one thirty-fifth of the weight of 
 the body : it is divided by anatomists into the cerebrum, 
 which occupies the whole of the superior part of the cavity 
 of thecraaium; the cerebellum, which occupies the lower 
 
 hack part ; and the medulla oblongata, Which is the smallest 
 portion, lying at the base of the cranium, beneath the 
 rum and cerebellum, and, passing out of the great 
 foramen of the occipital. I II were the origin of 
 
 the spinal marrow. The brain is covered by three mem- 
 of which are termed matres, from the old idea 
 hr giving rise to all the- other membranes of the body. 
 Kteraafifeneinbrane, more firm than the others, is 
 termed dura mater : it is very dense and fibrous, and ad- 
 ■ where to the Inner surface of the cranium, to 
 which it is connected by its vessels ; its inner surface is 
 ilh, and ii sends off several folds, or processes, as they 
 which descend between certain portions of the 
 brain. Of these the principal is the superior longitudinal 
 fntr cerebri, which descends from the fore to 
 th.- back part of the skull, between the hemispheres of the 
 brain ; from its posterior termination it sends off a layer or 
 expansion, which extends across the back of the skull, and 
 Med the tentorium, separating the cerebrum from the 
 cerebellum; from the middle of the tentorium another 
 membranous expansion descends between the lobes of the 
 cerebellum, and terminates at the edge of the great occi- 
 pital hole, or foramen magnum; this is termed the falx 
 There arc certain spaces or sinuses formed in 
 the layers of the dura mater, which perform the office of 
 In regard to the blood returning from different parts 
 of the brain, by which any venous pressure upon the sub- 
 Stance of the brain is prevented. 
 
 Winn the dura mater is removed, a thin transparent 
 membrane investing the surface and convolutions of the 
 brain .8 broughl to view, which from the delicacy of its tex- 
 ture has been called the arachnoid membrane ; it is not 
 irently vascular, and does not pass into the depressions 
 between the convolutions; and it is difficultly separable 
 from the third membrane, or pia mater, which is also ex- 
 tremely tender and' delicate, but is highly vascular, and 
 from it* the blood vessels merge into the substance of the 
 brim, ramifying with great minuteness upon its surface: it 
 all the convolutions and cavities of the brain. On re- 
 moving the upper part of the cranium, and turning aside 
 . ! 1 1 r:i ™*ur. the brain is seen, divided longitudinally 
 Into OVOld hemispneres, separate,., as already stated, by 
 •Ix ; upon the under side each hemisphere is seen to 
 be drrlrled info three lobes ; the two anterior lobes rest upon 
 the orbital plates of the frontal bone; the middle lobes lie 
 upon the fossn> formed by the temporal and sphenoid 
 ;; and the posterior lobes rest upon the tentorium. 
 The superficial convolutions of the brain are divided by 
 clefts of about an inch in depth. On cutting into its sub- 
 stance, the exterior part of the brain appears of a different 
 165 
 
 BRAMA. 
 
 colour from the interior, and has been termed the ctnen- 
 lious or cortical substance ; it is greyish brown, very soft, 
 and exhibits no appearance of a fibrous texture. Some 
 suppose that it is glandular, and constituted almost entirely 
 of vessels and cellular membrane ; it covers the whole of 
 the brain, and is about the tenth of an inch in thickness. 
 The inner substance, termed the white or medullary part 
 of the brain, is of a firmer texture, highly vascular, ami 
 when minutely examined appears fibrous, the fibres dc 
 r uniting with each other, and occasionally combining to 
 form commissures. 
 
 > helium, when viewed from below, is of an ellip 
 tical shape, its longest diameter being from side 
 and is divided into two hemispheres separated by the falx 
 cerebelli. In the centre of the upper part of the cerebellum 
 there is a prominence, termed the vermiform process ; and 
 the whole surface is fissured or sulcated, the pia mater 
 passing between the fissured and conveying vesw 
 
 ■. whilst the arachnoid tunic is merely extended 
 over them. 
 
 Such is an outline of the anatomy of the human brain ; 
 the details can only be fully understood by reference h 
 illustrative plates upon an adecpiate scale, which would be 
 incompatible with the plan of this work. 
 
 It has been already stated thai in man the brain averages 
 In weight l-3Sthof the body ; it weighs, In fact, about two 
 pounds and a half: in quadrupeds its relative bulk is remark- 
 ably smaller; iu the doit it averages 1 -120th of the weigh! 
 of the animal ; in the horse l-450lh ; in the sheep 
 and in the ox l-800th. This statement has been adduced 
 to show the direct relation between the bulk of the brain 
 and the quantity of mind, the above animals being ranged 
 in the order of their docility and intelligence. 
 
 On making a vertical section of either hemisphere of the 
 cerebellum, a central wdiite substance becomes apparent, 
 which ramifies in an arborescent form, and is called arbor 
 viice; the raring is grey. In front of the cere- 
 
 bellum is a protuberance, termed pons Varolii or rttbtt 
 annulare ; it is divided by a central groove into two halves, 
 and connected with the "cerebrum and cerebellum 
 two thick white chords called aunt- : the former or crura 
 cerebri, pass from the tuber forwards anil outwards, under 
 the middle part of each hemisphere, in which they are 
 lost : and the latter, the crura cerebelli, are continued back 
 wards and outwards, and terminate in either ben 
 of the cerebellum. The portion of the brain between the 
 tuber annulare and the foramen of the occipital bone i« 
 Called the medulla oblongata, and Is continued into the spinal 
 chord ; on its anterior surface are four contiguous projec- 
 tions ; the two interior ones are called corpora pyramidalii,, 
 and the two exterior corpora oliraria. On carefully re- 
 moving the membranes which cover die medulla oblongata, 
 and gently opening its middle groove, several white bands 
 obliquely from one side to the other, and 
 mutually Interwoven, and are termed the deeueeattng 
 bands. 
 
 The two sides of the brain are mutually connected by 
 commissures or medullary bands, and those of the cere- 
 bellum by the pons varolii. The principle connection of 
 the hemispheres of the cerebrum is by a broad medullary 
 band, called the corpus callosum. The occasional intervals 
 which separate the parts of the brain are termed ventricles, 
 the largest of which are the two lateral ventricles in the in- 
 terior of each hemisphere ; their figure is Irregular, and 
 they are separated by a tender layer of cerebral matter 
 termed the septum lucidum ; they are lined by the pia 
 mater. The middle or third ventricle is a fissure between 
 two convex eminences, situated at the middle and back of 
 the lateral ventricles, and termed thalmni optici. The 
 fourth ventricle, or ventricle of the cerebellum is a cavity 
 between ihe cerebrum, the tuber annulare, and the me- 
 dulla oblongata. 
 
 BRAIRD. In the agriculture and gardening of Scotland, 
 the term braird is applied to the springing up of seeds 
 which, when they come up well, are said to have a fine 
 braird. 
 BRAKE. In Agriculture, a large harrow. 
 BRA'MA. (Hin.) The name of a divinity in the Hindu 
 Mythology, the fables concerning whom are so numerous. 
 that an accurate development of his character has been 
 hitherto unattainable. As we learn from the Sanscrit lex- 
 ilosists, the epithets applied to this divinity are very nu- 
 merous: some of the most usual being "Steayambhu, the 
 self-existent, Parameshti, who abides in the most exalted 
 places, Pitumaha, the great father, Prajapati, the lord of 
 creatures. I.oh'sa,\hc ruler of the world," Ac. But the 
 most distinct account of his nature and attributes is to be 
 found In Coleman's Mythology of the. Hindus, where he is 
 represented as the grandfather of the gods, and equivalent 
 to the Saturn of the Romans. Bralim, the highest divinity 
 of the Hindus, to whose name so deep reverence is attach- 
 ed that it is considered criminal to pronounce it, is said to 
 have given birth to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, simultan- 
 eously ; and to have allotted to the first the province of creat- 
 
BRAN. 
 
 ing, to the second that of preserving, and to the third that 
 (if destroying. Accordingly, ever since the creation of the 
 world Brahma has had little or nothing to do, and it will 
 not be till the tenth avatar or incarnation that his ser- 
 vices will be put in requisition, when this world is to under- 
 go total annihilation. Meanwhile, however, the other 
 deities, Vishnu and Siva, are constantly engaged in their 
 respective duties of preservation and destruction; and the 
 Hindoos, with that recklessness of the future which is 
 common to them with more civilized communities, lavish 
 all their adoration upon those divinities from whom they 
 expect to derive immediate advantage. Hence, through- 
 out all India, the worship of Brahma is neglected; his al- 
 tars are overturned, his temples destroyed ; in short, noth- 
 ing has been left but his name, and even that none of the 
 best. Brahma is usually represented with four heads 
 and four hands, either reclining upon a lote tree (the 
 emblem of creation among the Hindoos), or riding upon a 
 swan. 
 
 BRAN. The husk of wheat which immediately covers 
 the grain, and which remains in the bolting machine. It is 
 gently laxative ; an infusion of it, under the name of bran 
 tea, is frequently used as a domestic remedy for coughs 
 and hoarseness. Calico printers employ bran and warm 
 water with great success to remove colouring matter from 
 those parts of their goods which are not mordanted. 
 
 BRA'NCHLE. (Gr. Bpayx'a. <he gills of aftsh.) The 
 term applied to all vascular organs of an animal body 
 which are destined to submit the circulating fluid in a state 
 af minute subdivision, for the purpose of respiration, to the 
 intluence of air contained in water. 
 
 BRANCHl'Ol'ODS, BRANCHIO'PODA. (Gr. Ppayx'a, 
 gilts ; and ttovs, a foot.) An order of Crustaceans, in 
 which the locomotive extremities fulfil the functions of 
 gills. 
 
 BRANCHIO'STEGANS, BRANCHIOSTEG1. (Gr. 
 Ppayxta, gills; ariyto, I cover.) A tribe of cartilaginous 
 fishes, comprehending those in which the gills are free, 
 and covered by a membrane ; including the sturgeon and 
 chimes ra. 
 
 BKA'NDY. The spirituous liquor obtained by the dis- 
 tillation o. wine. When pure it is perfectly colourless, and 
 only acquires a pale brown or yellow tint from the cask. 
 The deep colour of common brandy, intended to imitate 
 'hut which it acquires from great age in the cask, is gener- 
 ally given by the addition of burned sugar. The average 
 proportion of alcohol in brandy varies from 48 to 54 per 
 cent. The best brandy is made in France, the preference 
 being generally given to that shipped from Cognac. The 
 imports of brandy for home consumption in England, 
 amount to about 1,400,000 gallons a year ; but there can be 
 no doubt that the quantity would be much larger, were it 
 not for the oppressive duty of 22s. 6d. a gallon, with which 
 it is charged. 
 
 BRASS. An alloy of copper and zinc. The proportions 
 vary according to the required colour : four parts of cop- 
 per and one of zinc form an excellent brass. It is usually 
 made by heating copper plates in a mixture of native oxide 
 of zinc, or calamine and charcoal. 
 
 BRA'SSAGE. A sum formerly levied to defray the ex- 
 pense of coinage, and taken out of the intrinsic value of the 
 coin. The term is supposed to be derived from brachio- 
 rum labor. 
 
 BRA'SSART. In Plate Armour, the piece which pro- 
 tected the upper arm, between the shoulder-piece and the 
 elbow. 
 
 BRASSICA'CEiE. (Brassica, one of the genera.) One 
 of the names of Cruciferous plants, which see. 
 
 BRAZI'L NUT. A South American fruit, commonly 
 sold in the markets of London ; it is the seed of a large 
 fruit tree, called Bertholelia excelsa. 
 
 BRAZIL WOOD. A valuable wood, imported from 
 South America and the West Indies, where it is produced 
 by certain species of Cmsalpinia, especially C. echinata 
 and Braziliensis ; large trees with repeatedly pinnated 
 leaves, showy yellow flowers, and long richly coloured sta- 
 mens. It is used for the preparation of a red dye, but the 
 consumption of it in this country is inconsiderable. It 
 fetches from 60 to £80 a ton in the London market, exclu- 
 sive of the duty of £2 a ton. 
 
 BREACH. In Fortification, a gap or opening made in 
 any part of the walls of the besieged place by the cannon or 
 mines of the besiegers. 
 
 BREAD. (Ger. brod.) This important article of food 
 is made of the (lour of different grains ; but it is only those 
 which contain gluten that admit of conversion into a light 
 or porous and spongy bread, of which tcheaten bread fur- 
 nishes the best example. When flour is made into a 
 tough paste or dough by the addition of a little water, rolled 
 out into thin cakes, and more or less baked, it forms bis- 
 cuit. For the formation of bread a certain degree of fer- 
 mentation, not. unlike vinous fermentation, is requisite, care 
 being taken to avoid acetous fermentation, which renders 
 the bread sour, and to most persons disagreeable. If dough 
 166 
 
 BREAD. 
 
 be left to itself in a moderately warm place (between 80 c 
 and 120°), a degree of fermentation comes on, which, how 
 ever, is sluggish, or, if rapid, acetous ; so that to effect thai 
 kind of fermentation requisite for the production of the 
 best bread, & ferment is added, which is either leaven or 
 dough which is already in a fermenting state, and which 
 tends to accelerate the process in the mass to which it is 
 added; or yeast, the peculiar matter which collects in the 
 form of scum upon beer in the act of fermentation. Of 
 these ferments leaven is slow and uncertain in its effect, 
 and gives a sour and often slightly putrid flavour. V east if 
 more effective ; and when clean and good, it rapidly in 
 duces panary fermentation; but it is often bitter, ami 
 sometimes has a peculiarly disagreeable smell and taste. 
 
 All, then, that is essential to make a loaf of bread i^ 
 dough to which a certain quantity of yeast has been added. 
 This mixture is put into any convenient mould or form, or 
 merely shaped into one mass ; and after having been kept 
 for a short time in rather a warm place, so that fermenta- 
 tion may have begun, it is subjected to the process of ba 
 king in a proper oven. Carbonic acid is generated ; ane 1 
 the viscidity or texture of the dough preventing the imme- 
 diate escape of that gas, the whole mass is puffed up by it, 
 and a light porous bread is the result. Along with the car- 
 bonic acid traces of alcohol are at the same time produced, 
 but so insignificant and impure as not to be worth notice ; 
 hence the attempts which have been made to collect it 
 upon the large scale have entirely failed in an economical 
 point of view. Other flour besides that of wheat will, un- 
 der similar circumstances, undergo panary fermentation; 
 but the result is a heavy, unpalatable, and often indigestible 
 bread ; so that the addition of a certain quantity of wheat 
 flour is almost always had recourse to. It is the gluten in 
 wheat which thus peculiarly fits it for the manufacture of 
 bread, chiefly in consequence of the tough and elastic vis- 
 cidity which it confers upon the dough. 
 
 It is well known that home-made bread and baker's bread 
 are two very different things : the former is usually sweet- 
 er, lighter, and more retentive of moisture : the latter, if 
 eaten soon after it has cooled, is pleasant and spongy ; but 
 if kept for more than two or three days, it becomes harsh 
 and unpalatable. The cause of this difference ma) perhaps 
 be obvious from the following details of the operations of 
 the wholesale baker. 
 
 In making his dough he takes the water, or part of it, 
 which he intends :? use, and having slightly warmed it. 
 dissolves in it a certain portion of salt; then he ados the 
 yeast, and then a certain quantity of flour. This mixture 
 is set aside in a warm place, where it soon begins to fer- 
 ment, This process is called setting the sponge ; and ;•< 
 cording to the relation which the water in. it bears to tho 
 whole quantity to be used in the dough, it is called whole, 
 half, or quartern sponge. The evolution of carbonic acid 
 causes the sponge to heave and swell; and when the sur- 
 face bursts it subsides, and then swells again, and so on ; 
 but the baker is careful to use it before this fermentation 
 has communicated sourness to the mass. He then adds 
 to the sponge the remaining quantity of flour, water, and 
 salt which may be required to form dough of proper quali 
 ty and consistence, and incorporates the whole by long 
 and laborious kneadings till the entire mass acquires uni- 
 formity, and is so tough and elastic as to bear the pressure 
 of the hand without adhering to it. It is then left for a few 
 hours, during which fermentation goes on ; and the inflated 
 mass is again kneaded, so as to break down any lumps or 
 
 Eortions which had accidentally escaped diffusion in the 
 rst operation, and to confer perfect uniformity on the 
 whole. The dough is then weighed out into loaves, which 
 are shaped, and put aside in a warm place for an hour or 
 two, during which they swell up to about double their origi- 
 nal size ; they are then put into the oven and baked; du- 
 ring which operation they again enlarge consideraljy in 
 bulk, in consequence of the dilatation of the pre vi i< '"sly 
 generated carbonic acid pent up in the dough ; for, as soon 
 as the mass is exposed to the heat of the oven, the fermen- 
 tation is put an end to. 
 
 If we compare the baked loaf with the flour of which it 
 is composed, we shall find that panary fermentation has 
 produced a considerable change in the latter. The gluten 
 and the starch, which (exclusive of a trace of sugar) were 
 the components of the flour, have mutually acted upon and 
 altered each other ; the toughness and viscidity of the gluten 
 is gone, and the starch no longer forms a gelatinous mixture 
 with hot water; a little sugar is generally formed, as well as 
 alcohol ; but the principal cause of the change in the char 
 acters of the flour is the evolution of carbon and of oxygen 
 in the form of carbonic acid, the production of which is in 
 dependent of the presence of external oxygen (or of ah ; 
 Small quantities of alum are also, it is said, invariably tin 
 by the London bakers, with the view of whitening or 
 bleaching the bread; for it may he observed, that what- 
 ever may be the quality of the flour which is used, home- 
 made bread is always of a comparatively dingy hue. 'Ac- 
 cording to Mr. Accum (0?i t/w Adulteration of Food), the 
 
BREAK. 
 
 requisite Tuamity jf alum for this purpose depends upon 
 (he quality of the Hour. The mealmun, he says, makes dif- 
 rts of flour from the same kind of grain. The best 
 flour iscliietly used for biscuits and pastry, and the inferior 
 kinds of bread. In London no fewer than six kinds of 
 flour are brought into the market; they are call- 
 
 seconds, middlings, coarse midd! 
 ■iiuy. Beans and peas are also, according to the 
 same authority, frequently ground up with London flour. 
 i Ilea! quantity of alum used is from three to four 
 
 • the sack of flour of 240 pounds, 
 r article occasionally employed in bread-making 
 ..lie of ammonia. As it is wholly dissipated by 
 ■ f the oven, none remains in the baked loaf. It 
 the bread light, and perhaps neutralizes any acid 
 been formed (exclusive of carbonic acid); 
 but it is too dear to be much employed. To some kind or 
 il gives a peculiar shortness, and a few of the most 
 ri manufacturers use il largely. The Preach chem- 
 ists have accused the bakers of employing sulphate of cop- 
 per or blue vitriol, for the purpose of Improving the colour 
 n ad ; bnl so dangerous and easily detected an ad- 
 i scarcely be supposed to be common. Accord- 
 in| to Ifr. B. Davy, bread, especially that of indifferent 
 flour, Is materially improved by the addition of a little car- 
 magnesia, in the proportion of twenty to thirty 
 grains to the pound of flour; it requires to be very Inti- 
 mately-mixed with the dough. The most nefarious adul- 
 of bread consists, however, in the addition of cer- 
 less earthy substances, with a view 
 ■ weight ; such as pipe-clay, porcelain clay,- 
 chalk, and plaisterof Paris. These, however, are probably 
 o . though in one instance the writer 
 of this article i. 'mine a quantity of bis- 
 
 •il to the amount 
 of 10 per cent. (See Donovan's Domestic Economy, voL i.) 
 BREAK. (Tent, brache.) In Architecture, any projec- 
 tion from the general surface of a building. 
 
 BREA'KERS. Waves thai break, or fall over, from the 
 shallowness of the water. In a gale, the tops of the seas 
 . break in this way more or less, from the pro- 
 : i f the water ai the surface before the 
 lingly dangerous for open boats. This 
 confounded wttn the falling over of the whole 
 .rf falls over on the beach. 
 BREA'KING JOINT. In Architecture, that disposition 
 and bricks in their courses by which vertical 
 re not allowed to fall over each other. See Dia- 
 ;i.isii and Flemish. 
 BREAKWATER. An artificial bank of stones, or the 
 hull of a vessel, sunk to break the sea before its entrance 
 Into a roadstead or harbour. The breakwater at Plymouth, 
 ork of this kind. It is built across the 
 sound, which it completely defends from a very heavy sea 
 from the channel in southwesterly winds, and which 
 formerly caused t he loss of many ships. It is composed 
 of large stones dropt from vessels constructed for the pur- 
 pose. The sea, which for a time offers serious obstacles to 
 the construction, works the stones together, and washes up 
 shingle and sand, which, with the growth of sea-weed, 
 h late the whole. The outer mole of the harbour of 
 Civita Vecchla, still in good repair, was formed by the Em- 
 peror Trajan exactly in the same way as the breakwater at 
 Plymouth. (Pliriii' Epist. lib. vi. ep. 31.) The break- 
 water at Cherbourg, constructed by Napoleon, is one of 
 itest modern works of this class. 
 BREAM. The name of a soft-finned fish, common in 
 many of the lakes and rivers of England, and one that 
 breeds freely and thrives in ponds, if there be sufficient 
 depth of water. It is the type of a particular subgenus of 
 'lie Carp family (Ci/prhiida), which Cuvier has character- 
 ized under the name of Abrnmis. See Abramis. 
 
 BREATHING. In Nautical language, signifies cleaning 
 th" bottom of a vessel by fire. When the vessel is aground, 
 fire being applied to the bottom loosens the pitch, or com- 
 ion of sulphur and tallow, with which the bottom is 
 sometimes covered to defend it from the worms, and 
 Which is then scraped off. together with the barnacles, 
 veeds, &c. that adhere to it. 
 BREA'STING. Breasting upahedge is cutting the face 
 of it on one side, so as to lay bare the principal upright 
 stems of the plants. 
 BREAST PLOUGH. A kind of spade or shovel, with a 
 at the extremity of the handle, which is ap- 
 plied to the breast, and by which the operator skims off a 
 thin slice of turf from a grassy surface, as if he were 
 ploughing Turf thus obtained is chiefly used in thatching. 
 BREA'OTSDMMER. (From. Sax. breost, and summer ; 
 qui -re, trabs summaria?) In Architecture, a beam which 
 supp ior wall, the beam itself being carried by 
 
 wooden or iron posts. 
 
 BREAST- WORK. In Fortification, an elevation of earth 
 thrown op round a fortified place to protect the garrison 
 from the enemy's fire. 
 K.7 
 
 BRICK. 
 
 BRE'CCIA. (It.) A rock composed of an agglulina 
 tion of angular fragments. 
 
 BREECH OF A GUN. The solid part behind the bore, 
 BRE'ECHING, or BREECH BAM). Part of the liar- 
 ness of a carriage horse, by means of which he is enabled 
 to push the carriage to which he is attached backwards, or 
 .o support its pressure in noing down a hill. 
 BREEZE-FLIES. See (Estrid*. 
 BREHON LAWS. The ancient laws of the Irish are so 
 termed, from an Irish word signifying judges. It is sup- 
 posed that some of the numerous written collections ol 
 these laws which still exist are of great antiquity ; as old, 
 perhaps, as the earlier ages of the Christian Era. Prior to 
 the Anglo-Norman invasion, Ireland was entirely governed 
 by these laws. For an account of the nature of "these laws, 
 see Lord Lyttleton's Henry II. vol. v. p. "-iS, and the au- 
 thorities there referred to. 
 
 HRE'NTUS. A Fabrician genus of Coleopterous insects, 
 belonging to the Weevil tribe, or Cumrfiunida. ; now the 
 type of a family, called Brenlhida, including about eight 
 genera and seventy species. These insects are peculiar to 
 hot climates: only one species, the Brentut IhdUux, Is 
 found in Europe, and this has been referred by Germar to 
 a particular sub-genus, Arrhenodes. all the other species of 
 which are natives of the new world. 
 
 BRE'TTICES. In coal mines, wooden plankings to pre- 
 vent the falling in of the strata. 
 
 I1RF.VE. (Hal.) In Music, a note formed thus N=( with- 
 out a tail, and equivalent to two semibreves, or four mi- 
 nims. It is also that measure of quantity conl lined in two 
 heats of the hand up and two down, but this only in com- 
 mon time with the mark c. 
 
 BRE'VET. In the French, signifies a royal act in writ- 
 ing conferring some privilege or distinction; as brevet 
 d'inveiition, a patent h is applied, in England, to a com- 
 mission giving nominal rank higher than that for which 
 pay is received ; thus, a brevet major serves and draws 
 pay as captain. Ax. 
 
 BRF/VIARY. A book containing the offices of daily 
 prayer according to the usage of the R. C. church. The 
 offices are seven; viz. matins, lauds, first, third, sixth. and 
 ninth vspers, and the compline. Anciently . II Call 
 were required to recite the breviary daily. The injunction 
 is now confined to the clergy ; of whoni it is still strictly 
 • 
 
 BRE'VTPBNNATESL Breripeniies. (Lat. brevis, short ; 
 penna, quill; short quitted.) An epithet applied by Cuvier 
 to distinguish the first family of bis order OraUet (Echea 
 siers); the ostrich is the type of this family. <S>* 
 Cursores. 
 
 BREW INC. See Fermentation. 
 BRl'BERY. In English Law, Is a term comprehending 
 the offences of judges, ministerial officers, <fcc... receiving 
 rewards or considerations to acf contrary to their respec- 
 tive duties, which are severally misdemeanors at common 
 law, anil also punishable under several Statutes. But in its 
 most ordinary signification, H is the giving or receiving 
 money to procure votes at parliamentary elections, 01 
 tions to public offices of trust. The statutes which at pre- 
 sent chiefly regulate the offence of bribery at parliamen- 
 tary elections are 2 G. 2. c. 24., and 49 G.3. c. US. The 
 latter statute Imposes a penalty of j£10CO on any one (if 
 not returned, incapacity to serve in parliament for that 
 place if returned) who "shall give or cause to he given, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, any sum of money, &.c. upon any en- 
 gagement that the person receiving shall procure, or en- 
 deavour to procure, &c, the return of any member," and 
 imposes a fine of JK800 on the person receiving the bribe 
 on such a promise or agreement. The former makes it 
 an offence in any person "to procure or corrupt another to 
 vote ;" and it has been recently held, that the corruption is 
 complete, as far as the corrupter is concerned, by the act 
 of giving the money, whether the voter intended or not to 
 art according to the wish of the briber. 
 
 BRICK. (Dutch, bricke.) In Architecture, a mass of clay 
 earth, sometimes mixed with coal ashes, chalk, and other 
 substances, formed in a mould, and burnt in a kiln or 
 clamp. The earth used for this purpose is of two sorts. 
 The one a stiff clay, with little or no extraneous mixture, 
 which produces a hard red brick; the other a yellowish- 
 coloured fat earth, called loam, which produces a grey- 
 coloured brick. The clay is usually tempered in a clay 
 mill. For the sea coal ashes that are mixed with it in 
 London, thev substitute in the country a light sandy earth. 
 In making trie paste as little water should be introduced as 
 possible. In moulding them, which is done in a wooden 
 mould, a clever workman will mould about five thousand 
 in fifteen hours. The kiln in which they are burnt is 
 a large building, about 13 feet long, 10 feet 6 inches 
 wide, and 12 feet high, furnished with a proper furnace 
 When otherwise burnt, the clamp, as it is called, is formed 
 of the bricks themselves, generally oblong on the P'an, 
 and the foundations made with place bricks. Each 
 course of bricks is laid on a layef -/ bi-ti* <t cinders; 
 
BRICK-LAYING. 
 
 and flues are formed, filled with coals, breeze, and wood. 
 The burning continues from twenty to thirty days. The 
 size of bricks, when burnt, is required by the statute to be 
 BH inches long, 2)i inches thick, and 4 inches wide. The 
 different varieties of bricks are, malms, which are of a yel- 
 lowish uniform colour and texture ; seconds, not quite so 
 uniform in colourand texture as malms ; red and grey slocks, 
 the former being burnt in kilns, both of a quality rather in- 
 ferior to seconds; place bricks or peckings, sometimes 
 called sandel orsamel bricks, which are those furthest from 
 the fire, and rarely well burnt, — these should never be 
 used in a building where durability is required ; burrs or 
 clinkers, which are masses of several bricks run together 
 in the clamp or kiln from the violent action of the fire; 
 fire bricks, of a red colour, about 9 inches long, 4)4 inches 
 broad, and an inch and a half thick, — they are made for 
 use In furnaces to resist the action of the fire, and from 
 having been formerly manufactured in the neighbourhood 
 of Windsor, they are sometimes called Windsor bricks; 
 paving bricks, made for the purpose their name implies ; 
 compass bricks, are circular on the plan, chiefly used in 
 walling wells and the like ; Dutch clinkers or Flemish 
 bricks, chiefly used in stables ; the Dutch clinker is 6 
 inches long, 3 inches broad, and 1 inch thick. (.See Aikin's 
 Illustrations of Arts and Manufactures, 1841.) 
 
 BRICKLA'YING. In Architecture, the act of building 
 with bricks, which is of very great antiquity. Pausanias 
 mentions many structures in Greece which were built of 
 bricks; and in Rome such buildings were very common. 
 The walls of Babylon, attributed by Herodotus to Semira- 
 mis. were also of brick. 
 
 BRICK NO'GGING. In Architecture, brickwork carried 
 up and filled in between timber framing. 
 
 BRICK TRIMMER. (Sax. trimman, to build.) In Arch- 
 .tecture, a brick arch abutting against the wooden trim- 
 mer in front of a fireplace, to guard against accidents by 
 fire. 
 
 BRI'DEWELL. A house of correction for offenders is 
 commonly so called in England. The name is derived 
 from the locality of the ancient London house of correc- 
 tion, which was an hospital, founded by Edward VI. on 
 the site of St. Bride's well, in Black-Friars, a well-known 
 object of pilgrimage in Roman Catholic times. The origi- 
 nal Bridewell is under the control of the lord mayor, and 
 used a3 a receptacle for vagrants, place of punishment for 
 apprentices, &c, within the jurisdiction of the city. 
 
 BRIDGE. (Sax. brigge.) In Architecture, a structure 
 for the purpose of connecting the opposite banks of a river, 
 gorge, valley, &c. &c, by means of certain materials, form- 
 ing a roadway from one side to the other. It may be of 
 stone, brick, iron, timber, suspended chains or ropes; or 
 the roadway may be formed by means of boats. Long 
 previous to the introduction of bridges constructed upon 
 geometrical principles, the modes of crossing rivers by 
 throwing the trunks of trees across (hem, or by suspension 
 of ropes, or twisting together the branches of trees from 
 bank to bank, were so obvious that they must have been 
 resorted to at an early period. The former method, how- 
 ever, could only have been practised over narrow streams, 
 whilst the latter might have been carried to almost any re- 
 quired extent. Mungo Park found this mode employed in 
 Africa ; and in South America rope bridges of bujuco, or 
 thongs made from the hides of oxen, are in use at the pre- 
 sent day. Don Antonio de Ulloa tells us, that over some 
 of the rivers of Peru the bujuco bridges are of such dimen- 
 sions that loaded mules in droves pass over them, and es- 
 pecially on the river Apurimac, forming the high road for 
 the trade carried on between Lima, Cuzco, and other 
 places to the southward. Though such bridges are the 
 contrivance of man in a less civilized state, they are the 
 only means by which many streams whose currents are 
 deep and rapid can be crossed ; and the stupendous sus- 
 pension bridges of the present day are but improvements 
 on the simple scheme of the untutored architect of a sav- 
 age tribe. When a stream is neither deep nor rapid, its 
 breadth seems to present no obstacle to forming a roadway 
 over it. Large stones placed across at intervals, on which 
 other stones or beams of timber maybe laid horizontally, 
 would be the first step. Of this species appears to have 
 been the bridge which, accordins to Herodotus, Nitocris 
 constructed at Babylon over the Euphrates, and which is 
 said by Diodorus Siculus to have been five furlonss in 
 length. Of this sort also are many of the bridges in Chiria. 
 The bridges of the Chinese, however, appear to have been 
 rather too highly extolled in the accounts of Dn Halde and 
 the missionaries, as may be gathered from 'he informa- 
 tion obtained of the Foo chow-foo bridse, during the voy- 
 age of the ship Amherst in 1832. It appears, from the tes- 
 timony of Captain Parish, that the use of the arch with 
 wedge-shaped stones converging towards the centre of the 
 curve must have been known to the Chinese at a very 
 early period. 
 
 In tracing the history of bridges among different nations, 
 we shall see that local causes had great influence on the 
 168 
 
 BRIDGE. 
 
 species of construction adopted by them. A nation may 
 have reached the highest point of art in its other public 
 monuments, and have nevertheless done nothing worthy 
 of our admiration in the construction of a bridge, li: 
 Egypt, for example, inlersected as it is by a large and wide 
 river subject to periodic inundations, the construction of 
 bridges would have been as difficult as it would have 
 been useless. All the intercourse which commerce 
 required was easily carried on by the assistance of 
 boats ; and as respects the passage over the canals which 
 abounded in the country, their depth and breadth were 
 so small as to require none but the most simple ex 
 pedients for connecting their opposite banks, nor any 
 which involved the employment of science. In Greece, 
 no vestige of a bridge occurs whose date is anterior 
 to its occupation by the Romans; but this, had they 
 even been acquainted with the use of the arch, might be 
 accounted for on reasons directly the reverse of those 
 which operated in Egypt. Greece is intersected by no 
 river of any magnitude ; and even those which seem to 
 have some title to the name, are rather mountain torrents 
 than those immense sheets of water, swelled in their 
 course by innumerable tributary streams, that are to be 
 found in other parts of the world. Here scarcely more 
 could be wanted than a single arch, whose abutments 
 would be found in the solid rocks which the stream sepa- 
 rated. 
 
 Following up the history of bridges into Italy, we find a 
 country much watered by large rivers, where the architec- 
 ture of bridges became a necessary study, not only for the 
 accommodation of the cities with which it abounded, but 
 also for the service of the frequent military expeditions of 
 the restless conquerors who occupied its lands. Rome, 
 from its earliest foundation, must have put in requisition 
 considerable skill in bridge architecture over the Tiber, 
 rapid and subject as it is to sudden floods. The earliest 
 bridges here were of timber ; such was that which joined 
 the Janiculum to the Mons Aventinus, and was called the 
 Pons Sublicius, from the sublicm (stakes) of which it was 
 formed. (Liv i. 33.) Without enumerating the bridges 
 of Rome, some of which are still standing to attest the-sci- 
 ence of their architects, we must mention the Pons Narni- 
 ensis, on the Flaminian way, near Narni, and about sixty 
 miles from Rome. It was built by Augustus ; and vestiges 
 of it remain to the present day, one arch above 150 feet 
 span and 100 feet high being still entire. But of works of 
 art, perhaps the most wonderful ever raised was the 
 bridge built by Trajan over the Danube. It consisted of 
 twenty piers, whose height from their foundation was 150 
 feet, and 170 feet apart : its breadth beinir sixty feet. This 
 stupendous work was demolished by Hadrian, the succes- 
 sor of Trajan, under the pretence that it might serve as a 
 Cassage for the barbarians, if they became masters of it ; 
 ut some writers have said it was through envy of the fame 
 that attached to its founder. Over the Tagus in Spain an 
 ancient Roman bridge, near Alcantara, is still partly stand- 
 ing. It consisted of six arches of eighty feet span, extend- 
 ing altogether 600 feet in length, and some of the arches 
 200 feet high above the water. Of the temporary bridges 
 of the Romans, the most famous was that of timber thrown 
 by Crcsar over the Rhine. 
 
 From the fall of the Roman Empire to the revival of the 
 arts, the history of bridge architecture is.-with the e.xcep 
 tion of the Moorish works in Spain, of no interest. It ap- 
 pears from Gautier, who uses the authority of Mag. Agri- 
 cola of Aix, that when the arts began to revive in Europe 
 an order was founded by St. Benezet, under the title of 
 Brethren of the Bridge ; and that under them was begun, 
 in 1176, the bridge at Avignon, consisting of eighteen 
 arches and about 3000 feet in length. During the conten- 
 tions of the Popes in 1385, some of its arches were destroy- 
 ed, and in 1602 three others fell. In 1670 the ice destroyed 
 all but the third pier, which, with the Chapel of St. Nicholas 
 upon it, still remains. In 1354 a bridge of three arches 
 was constructed at Verona, the roadway sloping from The 
 city : the largest of its arches, which are segmental, is 160 
 feet span ; but a still larger arch was built at Vielle-firioude 
 in France, over the Allier, in 1454, of nearly 184 feel span, 
 which is the largest stone arch upon record. Among the 
 most celebrated, bridges of Italy, is that of the Rialto at 
 Venice, whose span is 98X feet. It was begun In 1588 
 and finished in 1591, from the designs of Anionio dal 1'onle 
 (Sansovino's Venice), though by most authors absurdly at- 
 tributed to M. A. Buonarroti. In this city alone there are De 
 less than 339 bridges; but they are mostly of small spans. 
 We must not omit in this place the bridge Delhi SantiSsima 
 Trinita at Florence, by Ammanali, which, as Milizia truly 
 observes, has not been surpassed since the revival of ar- 
 chitecture. It is of three arches, the middle one o( 36 and 
 the two side ones of 86 feet span, the width of the piers 
 being 26 feet 9 inches; the breadth of the carriage and foot- 
 ways between the parapets is 33 feet. It has been usual 
 for writers to call the form of the arches of this bridge 
 cycloidal; but from our own measurements and most 
 
BRIDGES. 
 
 (.articular investigation, we can assert that they are not of 
 :hat form. They are very slightly pointed, after the fashion 
 ?( what is called the Tudor arch of this country ; the point 
 at the summit, which is extremely obtuse, being hidden 
 
 mi's head sculptured on the key-stones. During 
 last centuries, the French have advanced their 
 
 >-. Iiitpcture to very great perfection ; but more par- 
 Ilcu&rly in the latter part of the last century, in winch 
 
 ! Perronet, the father of the modern system of the 
 {ant designs have not since been Improved 
 
 Lher in France or any other country. His is the 
 beautiful bridge of Neuilly over the Seine. It cousisis of 
 live arches, each about 128 feet span and 32 feet rise : it was 
 (wished in 1771, and remains a splendid monument of the 
 
 if iis architect. Some of the more modern speci- 
 mens of their bridges do great honour to the French school, 
 ia which beauty of form is united with sound engineering. 
 In England, the progress of bridge architecture has kept 
 
 i that of the Continent; and if her bridges can- 
 
 I the elegance in design of her lively neighbours, 
 
 mlly equal to them in boldness of conception and 
 
 of the work. Indeed, if the designs of the late 
 
 M Telford and Rennie had been equal to their en- 
 
 | skill, no country in the world would have been 
 ■ with what she would have been able to 
 exhibit. And here must not be forgotten the bridge over 
 the river T.ial", near l.lantrissart, in Glamorganshire, cele- 
 brated for its great span ; the work of William Kdwards, a 
 country mason, in 1755. The chord line is 140 feet, and 
 the versed sine 35 feet. As we can allow but short space 
 for an account of the bridges which within the last eighty 
 vears have been built in that country, we must be content 
 
 with the mention of that over the Thames, called the 
 Southwark bridge, which is a stupendous exhibition of en- 
 gineering skill, and far better in design than many of the 
 other works of the late Mr. Rennie. This bridge is of cast- 
 iron, and consists of three arches, the chord of the centre 
 arch being 240 feet, and its versed sine 24 feet, or one tenth 
 of its span. The frame-work of the arch at the vertex is 
 6 feet in height. We are not aware of any cast-iron bridge 
 whose dimensions exceed those of this bridge, and do not 
 think it therefore necessary to mention minor ones, of 
 which there are many fine specimens in Great Britain. 
 
 Of limber bridges the boldest and most ingeniously con- 
 structed in Europe was that at SchatThausen, in Switzer- 
 land, destroyed by the French in 1791). It was designed 
 and executed by Ulric Grubenmann, a common carpenter 
 of Tueffen, in 1758. The total length of this bridge was 
 364 feet, but it was relieved by a pier in the middle of the 
 river. In America are some extraordinary specimens of 
 timber bridges. Such is the Trenton bridge, over the Dela- 
 ware, built in 1804, by Burr: its chord line is 200 feet, and 
 its versed sine 32 feet, the height or thickness of the tim- 
 ber framing at the crown being only 32 inches. The 
 bridge called the Colossus at Philadelphia, over the Schuyl- 
 kill, lately burnt, was 3411 feet span, with a versed sine or 
 rise of only 20 feet, and the thickness of the timber at the 
 vertex only 7 leet. It was the work of a person named 
 WaiMl| lliseh slhcse two, there are many other lim- 
 ber bridges in America worthy the notice of the reader, 
 which we regret we have not space to notice. 
 
 We here subjoin a table of some of the most celebrated 
 bridges, chiefly in reference to their dimensions, and the 
 relative spans and heights of their arches. 
 
 STONE BRIDGES. 
 
 
 
 
 \Videat Arcb. 
 
 
 
 
 Name of Bridge. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Span. 
 
 Height. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 
 
 
 Vielle-Brioude 
 
 Allier 
 
 Brloude 
 
 183 3 
 
 70 3 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Grenier & Estone 
 
 11 .VI 
 
 Dun 
 
 Danube 
 
 Ulm 
 
 181 2 
 
 22 3 
 
 8egm. of circle 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 (808 
 
 Castle Vecchio 
 
 Adige 
 
 Verona 
 
 159 10 
 
 53 3 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Ellipse 
 
 Unknown 
 
 
 Lavaur 
 
 Agout 
 
 Lavaur 
 
 159 10 
 
 64 8 
 
 Saget 
 
 177:". 
 
 
 Drac 
 
 Grenoble 
 
 150 2 
 
 62 3 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Unknown * 
 
 ion 
 
 Pout y prydd 
 
 Taafe 
 
 Glamorgan 
 
 140 
 
 35 
 
 f circle 
 
 Edwards 
 
 
 Neuilly 
 
 Seine 
 
 Near Paris 
 
 127 10 
 
 31 10 
 
 BufpM 
 
 Perronet 
 
 1771 
 
 
 Seine 
 
 Mantes 
 
 127 10 
 
 38 3 
 
 Ellipse 
 
 Hupeau <fc Perronet 
 
 1 . 88 
 
 | Waterloo 
 
 Thames 
 
 London 
 
 120 
 
 32 
 
 Ellipse 
 
 Rennie 
 
 1816 ' 
 
 {Tongueuuid 
 
 
 Kirkcudbright 
 
 118 
 
 38 
 
 Seam, of circle 
 
 Telford 
 
 1806 . 
 
 prit 
 
 Rhone 
 
 Lanjruedoc 
 
 108 7 
 
 26 6 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Unknown 
 
 1305 
 
 Munich 
 
 lsar 
 
 Munich 
 
 102 3 
 
 17 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 1814 
 
 Orleans 
 
 Loire 
 
 Orleans 
 
 106 7 
 
 29 9 
 
 Blflpae 
 
 Hupeau 
 
 1760 
 
 
 Liffey 
 
 Dublin 
 
 106 
 
 22 
 
 Ellipse 
 
 
 17-.ll 
 
 Montllon 
 
 Durance 
 
 Montlion 
 
 102 
 
 25 6 
 
 Ellipse 
 
 DelberirueCormont 
 
 1805 1 
 
 Vicenza 
 
 Bacchiglione 
 
 Vicenza 
 
 101 2 
 
 29 9 
 
 Bonn, of circle 
 
 Unknown 
 
 ; 
 
 Black friars 
 
 Thames 
 
 London 
 
 100 
 
 41 6 
 
 Ellipse 
 
 Mylne 
 
 1771 i 
 
 Riallo 
 
 Canal 
 
 Venice 
 
 96 10 
 
 20 7 
 
 Sen,,!, of circle 
 
 Ant. da Ponte 
 
 1591 
 
 Holy Trinity 
 
 Arno 
 
 Florence 
 
 95 3 
 
 14 10 
 
 i 
 
 Ammanati 
 
 1509 
 
 Pont <ie la Concorde 
 
 Seine 
 
 Paris 
 
 93 9 
 
 9 8 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 I'eronnet 
 
 1791 
 
 Jena 
 
 Seine 
 
 Paris 
 
 91 6 
 
 10 9 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 la Maude' 
 
 1815 
 
 Sisto 
 
 Tiber 
 
 Rome 
 
 83 4 
 
 41 8 
 
 rele 
 
 Unknown 
 
 1474 
 
 Poote Molle 
 
 Tiber 
 
 Rome 
 
 77 8 
 
 38 10 
 
 Semicircle 
 
 Unknown 
 
 100 B.C 
 
 St. Maxence 
 
 Oise 
 
 St. Maxence 
 
 76 8 
 
 6 3 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Perronet 
 
 1784 
 
 TIMBER BRIDGES. 
 
 Name of Bridge. 
 
 River. 
 
 Place. 
 
 Widest Arch. 
 
 Cuive. 
 
 Architect. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Span. 
 
 Height. 
 
 Colossus 
 
 Piscataqua 
 
 Bamberg 
 
 Trenton 
 
 Writienghen 
 
 Pont Louis 
 
 Freysingen 
 
 Elsingen 
 
 Pont de la Cite" 
 
 Schuylkill 
 Piscataqua 
 Regnitz 
 Delaware 
 
 I^ar 
 
 lsar 
 
 Wertach 
 Lech 
 Seine 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 N. America 
 
 Germany 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 Freysingen 
 
 Bavaria 
 
 BMngen 
 
 Near Augsburg 
 
 Paris 
 
 Ft. In. 
 340 
 250 
 208 
 200 
 198 
 154 
 153 
 139 
 114 
 104 5 
 
 Ft. In. 
 20 
 27 4 
 17 4 
 32 
 30 10 
 13 6 
 11 6 
 
 7 8 
 
 8 9 
 6 2 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Sejfm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Wernwag 
 
 Palmer 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 Burr 
 
 Grubenmann 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 Wiebeking 
 
 Dumoutier 
 
 1813 
 1794 
 1809 
 1804 
 
 1809 
 
 1808 
 1809 
 1803 
 1802 
 
 IRON BRIDGES. 
 
 Name of Bridge. 
 
 River. 
 
 Place. 
 
 Widest Arch. 
 
 Curve. 
 
 Architect. 
 
 Date. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Spaa 
 
 Height. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 Ft. In. 
 
 
 
 
 Boutbwark 
 
 Thames 
 
 London 
 
 240 
 
 24 
 
 Segm. of circle 
 
 Rennie 
 
 1818 
 
 Sunderland 
 
 Wear 
 
 Sunderland 
 
 240 
 
 30 
 
 Seem, of circle 
 
 
 1796 
 
 Build was 
 
 Severn 
 
 Buildwas 
 
 130 
 
 27 Segm. of circle 
 
 Telford 
 
 
 
 rlitz 
 
 Seine 
 
 Paris 
 
 106 
 
 10 6 Segm. of circle 
 
 
 1806 
 
 Brisiol 
 
 Avon 
 
 Bristol 
 
 100 
 
 15 Segm. of circle 
 
 Jessop 
 
 1 
 
 169 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BRIDGING JOISTS. 
 
 We will now proceed to give a short account of the 
 celebrated suspension bridge over the Menai Strait, by 
 the late Mr. Telford, as being the giant of its species, and 
 rendering unnecessary any enumeration of others. It con- 
 sist* of one opening of 500 feet between the points of sus- 
 pension, the height between high water and the under side 
 of the roadway being 100 feet. The platform is 30 feet in 
 breadth. The whole is suspended from four lines of strong 
 iron cables by perpendicular rods 5 feet apart. On the 
 tops of the pillars the cables pass over iron rollers, and are 
 fixed under ground to iron frames, which are retained in 
 their places by masonry. The weight of the whole bridge 
 between the points of suspension is 489 tons. In suspen- 
 sion bridges it has been found that the most trying circum- 
 stances under which they can be placed, as affecting the 
 stability of their equilibrium, is the heavy and measured 
 tread of a long line of infantry, whose feet drop at the same 
 instant of time. 
 
 In the building of bridges, where piers are required in 
 the stream for the support of the arches, it is important to 
 place them as nearly as possible at right angles to the 
 stream or current ; and the piers should be made convex 
 towards the stream, for their better resistance to floods. 
 The position of a bridge, moreover, should not be in a nar- 
 row part, nor one liable to swell with tides or floods, inas- 
 much as the contraction of the waterway increases the 
 depth and velocity of the current, and may thus endanger 
 the navigation as well as the bridge itself. It is usual to 
 construct bridges with an odd number of arches, and this 
 on several accounts ; among which are, that the stream 
 being usually most powerful in the middle, an egress 
 through that part is best provided for by having a central 
 arch; and again, if the bridge be not perfectly horizontal, 
 symmetry is gained by rising from the sides to the centre, 
 and the whole roadway may be made one continued 
 curve. When a bridge is equally high throughout, much 
 saving of centering is made, because the arches being all 
 equal two sets of centres will be sufficient. If, however, 
 the bridge be higher in the middle than at the extremities, 
 the arches on each side the centre one must diminish sim- 
 ilarly, so as to be respectively symmetrical ; and by this 
 arrangement beauty is gained, and the centering for one 
 side equally suits the other. It is desirable to construct a 
 bridge with as few' arches as circumstances will allow, that 
 there may be a free passage for the water, as well as for 
 the vessels that have to pass up and down, not to mention 
 the saving of materials and labour where there are fewer 
 piers and centres. When a single arch can be compassed, 
 no more shutild be permitted. (For the mode of estimat- 
 ing the equilibrium of an arch, see the article Arch.) The 
 piers should be of sufficient solidity to resist the thrust or 
 push of the arch, independent of other arches, so that the 
 centering of an arch may be struck without danger of over- 
 turning the pier left naked ; and the piers should also be 
 spread as much as possible on their bases, and diminish 
 gradually upwards from their foundations. The method 
 of laying the foundations in a river is now usually by means 
 of coffer-dams, which are large enclosures, made by piling 
 round the space to be occupied by the pier, so as to render 
 it water-tight, and then pumping out the water, and keep- 
 ing the space dry till the pier is built up to the ordinary 
 level of the water: but if the ground about be loose, this 
 method cannot well be practised, and recourse is had to 
 caissons, which are a species of flat-bottomed boat, in 
 which the pier is built up to a certain height, and then 
 sunk over the place where it is intended to remain, the 
 bed of the river being dredged out to receive it, or piles 
 driven on which it may lodge when the sides of the chest 
 or caisson are knocked away. In constructing the centres 
 great care must be taken to make them incapable of bend- 
 ing or swerving while the arch is being turned, otherwise 
 the form of the arch will be crippled. 
 
 BRI'DGING JOISTS. See Joists. 
 
 BRIEF. (Lat. brevis, short.) A word applied originally 
 to a small written scroll ; but it is used at present in sever- 
 al significations. In modern German the word brief signi- 
 fies a letter. 
 
 1. In Ecclesiastical Law, letters addressed from the pope 
 to temporal princes or communities on subjects of disci- 
 pline or public affairs, are termed apostolical briefs. The 
 name appears to have originated either in the concise 
 formula with which they begin (" dilecto filio salutem et 
 apostolicam benedictionem"), or in the difference that ex- 
 ists between this smaller kind of instrument and the ample 
 bulla; (bulls) of the popes. Apostolical briefs are usually 
 written upon paper, though sometimes parchment is used. 
 They are sealed in red wax with the seal of the Fisherman 
 (sub annulo Piscatoris), which is a symbol of St. Peter 
 casting a net into the sea. (.Ciampini, Disserlalio de 
 Abbrev. Munere, cap. iii.) 
 
 2. In Law, the term brief is applied to an abridged narra- 
 tion of the facts of a case prepared for trial, with or without 
 a reference to points of law involved in it drawn up for the 
 preliminary instruction of an advocate. 
 
 170 
 
 BROrvERAOE. 
 
 3. The term brief is applied in England to king's letter 
 issued to the archbishops, bishops, clergy, magistrates, am 
 parochial officers, to authorize collections of money at tin 
 doors of the several churches and chapels throughout tin 
 country, in individual cases, wherein application has beei 
 made for such assistance towards the building or repair of 
 a particular church. This custom is supposed to havt 
 commenced after the disuse of papal briefs consequent 01 
 the Reformation. Within the last few years this practict 
 has been dropped, and a king's letter is sent round at cer 
 tain intervals to collect money for the use of the Incorpora- 
 ted Society for the Buildingof Churches generallv through 
 out the country. The last collections were made in 182S 
 when something more than £40,000 was received ; an! ir 
 1834, when the sum collected amounted to rather more 
 than £30,000. 
 
 BRIG. The general term for a vessel having two masts, 
 with a boom mainsail, being otherwise square-rigged : thai 
 is, having her sails brought to yards hung horizontally by 
 the middle. 
 
 BRIGA'DE. This term either implies the union of two 
 or more regiments or battalions in one corps, or of a cer- 
 tain number of men or guns in one subdivision. A brigade 
 of infantry may consist of from one to six battalions, and a 
 brigade of cavalry of two or three regiments. Six pieces 
 of ordnance form a brigade of artillery ; and the horse ar- 
 tillery consists of twelve troops, to each of which is at- 
 tached one such brigade of guns. A brigade of suppers 
 consists of eight men. The commander of a brigade is 
 called a brigadier-general. 
 
 BRl'GANTINE. A name often applied to a small brig 
 of a foreign nation. 
 
 BRIGHT. (Sax. beort.) In Painting, shining with light ; 
 a term applied to a picture in which the lights preponder- 
 ate over the shadows. 
 
 BRILLA'NTE. (Hal.) In Music, prefixed to a move- 
 ment, denotes that it is to be played in a gay and lively 
 manner. 
 
 BRl'MSTONE. See Sulphur. 
 
 BRI'STOL STONES, BRISTOL DIAMONDS. These 
 are small and brilliant crystals of quartz, found in the 
 vicinity of Bristol, and occasionally used for 
 purposes. 
 
 BRI'TISH GUM. When starch is exposed lo a tempera- 
 ture of about 000° it becomes of a brownish colour, and so 
 far altered in its chemical characters as no longer to form 
 a blue colour with iodine : it is also soluble in cold water. 
 In this state it is used, under the above name, by calico 
 printers. 
 
 BRO'ADCAST. Sowing seeds by casting them or scat- 
 tering them abroad, so as to distribute them evenly over trie 
 entire surface of the soil, in opposition to sowing in drills 
 or rows. The operation of sowing broadcast is generally 
 performed by the hand, the operator carrying the seeds in 
 a bag or sowing sheet, or in a basket. There are also ma- 
 chines for sowing broadcast, but they are not much In use. 
 In general, all corns and grasses are sown broadcast ; 
 while pulse and broad-leaved plants, grown for iheir roots 
 or leaves, are sown in drills or rows. The term is some- 
 times applied to planting, but it is more generally restricted 
 to sowing. 
 
 BRO'ADSIDE. A nautical term, signifying the dis- 
 charge of the whole of the artillery on one side of ashipof 
 war. 
 
 BRO'KEN-BACKED. A ship is said to be broken- 
 backed when, in consequence of being loosened from age 
 or injury, her frame droops at either end. 
 
 BliO'KEN- WINDED. A ruptured state of the air cells, 
 chiefly on the edges of the lungs, in the horse, in conse- 
 quence of which the expiration occupies more time than 
 the inspiration of the air, and is laboriously and generally 
 spasmodically effected. It is a disease which may admit 
 of palliation, but not of cure ; the animal becomes grad- 
 ually less capable of exertion, and if urged on, he drops 
 and dies. 
 
 BRO'KER. In Mercantile Law, a person employed 
 about contracting for the disposal of property without be- 
 ing put in actual possession of it, as is the case with a fac- 
 tor. (See Factor.) But all agents answering to this defi- 
 nition are not brokers, nor has the term any very exact 
 legal signification. Particular classes of brokers are, bill 
 or exchange brokers, stock brokers, insurance brokers, 
 pawnbrokers, and brokers who sell or appraise household 
 flirniture for rent. By 8 & 9 W. 3. c. 20. brokers in the 
 city of London must be licensed by the mayor and alder- 
 men, and grant a bond wilh a penalty of JE500 on Iheir ad- 
 mission. According to mercantile usage, if goods within 
 the city of London are sold by a broker to be paid for by a 
 bill of exchange, the vendor, if not satisfied with the sol- 
 vency of the purchaser, has a right within a reasonablo 
 time to annul the contract. 
 
 BRO'KERAGE. The per-centage paid the broker for 
 his trouble in effecting a sale, or in negotiating any particu 
 lar business. 
 
BROMELIACE.E. 
 
 BROME'LIA'CE E. (Bromelia, one of the genera.) A 
 
 us plants inhabiting the tropical 
 
 parts ofthe world, where they grow in the rich vegetable 
 
 upon the branches of trees, to which 
 
 . their twisting slender roots. They usually 
 
 h ml loaves covered with a scurfitiess easily rubbed 
 
 m arranged as to be able to hold the water that 
 
 in their centre. Many of them will grow for 
 
 . when suspended in tin- air, after be- 
 
 re red from their roots. Their flowers are usually 
 
 i purple, and often exceedingly 
 
 genua Anaiassa the bracta and flowers 
 
 ry, that they all grow together into a solid i 
 
 veil- known Writ called the pine apple. 
 
 i curious species of this order, 
 
 i in long grey threads from the branches or 
 
 . and so seldom flowering that it 
 
 r some species of lichen ; it is easily 
 
 •r stuffing mattresses, &c. 
 
 It It o mini odour.) An unde- 
 
 ■covered In 1826 by M. Balard of 
 
 i chemical habitudes it much re- 
 
 n>m!i line, and is srenerallv associated 
 
 ts, but in very initiate quantities, in sea- 
 
 ihea of marine plants. It is usually ex- 
 
 i by the agency of chlorine. Al com- 
 
 i is a very dark reddish liquid, of a 
 
 odour, and emittine red vapour. 
 
 id ron- 
 
 . of its vapour is 55; 100 cubic 
 
 ire and pressure wi 
 
 ; it has bleao 
 
 i [urralent number is about 
 
 '■■ obromic arid 
 
 gas. 10 s of which weigh 81 7 grains. With 
 
 us are 
 
 termi they have not hitherto been applied to 
 
 if them are probably possessed of pow- 
 
 BRO >YX°S> the throat.) The smaller 
 
 ■i ol'iiie bronr 
 BRO i) < «:r iioojx"l, the throat, and <rijXij, 
 
 from its pre- 
 i < called the D 
 ■ease among the in- 
 
 I' (he water of 
 
 no satisfactoi Iodine 
 
 iccessfully in the cars nf 
 
 I'.ircements, but it is a medicine 
 
 villi caution. 
 
 Gr. Ppoyxot, and re/wot, / cut.) 
 
 ■ opening; iiitu the trachea in or- 
 
 iii. hi. 
 
 BRONZE. (It. broazo.) In Sculpture, a material used 
 
 In a mould similar in prin- 
 
 i all plaister casts are produced. 
 
 I'i. m the extraordinary dimensions which involve the 
 
 ^rations of casting in brass 
 
 much intelligence and care on the part of the 
 
 try to produce the facsimile ofthe work 
 
 ir has t n expended. Ttx material 
 
 ." the purpose is a compound chiefly co 
 r, tin, and other metals. The process of pro- 
 on circumstances requirinir much 
 hut the reader will immediately con- 
 ■uh the difficulty of making such a mixture 
 insinuate' itself into every part of the often colossal mould 
 it, it is mi more in reality than many of the large 
 n foundings Which are every day effected; though, 
 ire ofthe human and other animal form 
 lit to conduct such an operation with anv thing like 
 certain attainment of the object without extra- 
 uv means. 
 BRO'NZTTE. A variety of diallage of a metallic or 
 
 colour. 
 BROOM The Spartium scoparium or Cytisus scopariits 
 ••on-branched shrub, native 
 ighout Europe. It is sown extensively 
 r for game, and among the other 
 is as a screen from the win 
 till the more important species can establish 
 them inches, which are tough, are made up 
 
 ilch they have given their name 
 BRO brun.) In Painting, a dark duakr co- 
 
 lour Inclining t. wards red, of various degrees of depth, of 
 in in v sorts. 
 BROWN •' >\\. 'An imperfect kind of coal, which 
 peculiar bituminous odour resembling that of 
 1 ne is sometimes so distinct that 
 
 BRv»VVNTST8. The followers of Robert Brown, who 
 171 
 
 BUCCINUM. 
 
 In the year 15S1 seceded from the English church, and ts 
 tablished a sect upon the principle that every congregation 
 should forma church independent (in matters of discipline 
 and doctrine) of all others. In matters of doctrine he did 
 not differ from the church; to which indeed he returned, 
 and took preferment after some years. The Brownists 
 underwent great persecution under Elizabeth, and retired 
 in considerable numbers to Holland. From them, how 
 ever, have sprung the Congregational Brethren and Inde- 
 pendents, a. Teiy powerful sect in England at the present 
 day. See Independents. 
 
 BROWN BPAR. A magnesbm carbonate of lime tinged 
 by oxide of iron and manganese. 
 
 BRU'OIIUS. A Linntean genus of Coleopterous insets 
 of the tribe ttkjflttopho ra , now the type ol a family (IJru 
 chidm), with the following characters: — upper lip distinct 
 head produced anteriorly into a broad flattened snout , 
 palpi filiform ; antennae filiform or sen lied. 
 
 wing-sheaths not covering the extremity ofthe body. The 
 ts of this family deposit their eggs in the yonng grains 
 or seeds of leguminous plants; the time ofthe hatching of 
 rga Is when the seeds have approa turity, 
 
 and then the larva? begin to feed voraciously upon them. 
 One species, the Bruchus granariia. Infests our peas; and 
 the ravages of this insect, and the Hrnchus pisi, have 
 so extensive as to call for legislative interference ; in 
 
 ••, for example in the year 1780, the sale of DC 
 the market was prohibited, in consequence ofthe dam 
 and unwholesome condition of those • 
 the operations of the species of the Brurhidiz above eked. 
 
 BRU'CIA. A vegeto-alk aloi !. 
 and Caventou in the bark of the Brucea an Hmyttnk 
 and also associated in small relative proportion with 
 strychnia in the nux vomica and St. Ignatius's bean. It is 
 
 BRU'NSWICK GREEN. A pigment obtained by ex 
 
 posing metallic copper to the action of muriate of am- 
 
 It is a compound of chloride and oxide of copper 
 
 It is also generated by the action of sea water upon copper, 
 
 as in the green matter which incrusts the copper sheath 
 
 i lo Painting. 
 
 BRUTA. The term by which I.im iied an 
 
 order of Mammals, mchming the elephant, m 
 
 walrus, with the quadrupeds now forming the order Etit »• 
 • ivier. 
 liltVO'MA A hitter and somewhat poisonous prhn.i 
 
 icted from the root of the B 
 HR'YONY. (Or. fipvr.i, I »ruir rapidly.) A wild climb 
 ing plant belonging to the Oucnrbitaoeom order, with a 
 
 large woody perennial root, and annual Stems, which re. 
 semble those of a goiiid. exc.pt that they are more slen- 
 der, dinging ' means of their t\\ Ming tendrils. 
 The berries are scarlet, with a disagreeable odour when 
 1 ■ ■; have five angular lobes, and are three 
 or four inches broad, With many callous tuhercles. The 
 
 ne violently purgative: thej are now disused, it 
 
 has been known to produce Violent vomiting, tormina, 
 
 profuse watery evacuations, and fainting. Oases are - men- 
 tioned hv Orlila and others where over-doses have proved 
 fatal llrvonine, an active extractive principle, is among 
 I dangerous of vegetable poisons. 
 BU'BO. (Or. fiovSwv, the groin.) \ tumour very fre 
 quently occurring in the glands of the smin, and also in the 
 arm pft. It is often the result of local absorption of irritat- 
 ing matter, as in venereal buboes; or is symptomatic of 
 constitutional disease, as in the plague, scrofula, and some 
 
 ill liONO't'Kl.i",. (f; r . /JovSrov, the. groin, and kijAi?, tu- 
 mour.) A rupture forming a tumour in the ixroin. 
 
 BU'CCANEE'RS. (Fr. boucanier, from tioucan, a word 
 of the Caraib Indians, signifying meat preserved in a pat- 
 ticular manner, which was adopted, together with tbi 
 torn, by the French in the West Indies.) The pirates who 
 infested the coasts of the West Indies and South America 
 during the 17th and ISth centuries were so called. The 
 association of these pirates is said to have comment 
 early as the middle of the 16th ; but in 1625 they obtained 
 possession of St. Kitt's. and afterwards of Tobago, whicl 
 thenceforward became for a long time the head-quarter.- 
 of I he buccaneers, who formed a sort of seafaring republic. 
 composed chiefly of English and French adventurers 
 Their chief object was war acainst the Spaniards, and 
 plunder of their ships and settlements. After the peace 
 Of Ryswiek. in 1897, they gradually disappeared from the 
 y of the Buccaneers of America, by 
 Jam< i Barney, is a well known and entertaining work. 
 Bj French writers these pirates are commonly ealle I 
 'iers , apparently a corruption of the English wont 
 freebooters. 
 
 BUCCINA'TOR. (Lat. buccina, a trumpet.) A mu.\ 
 cle of the cheek called into action In various motions of 
 the mouth, and especially in blowing a wind Instrument. 
 
 BU'CCINUM (Buccinum, a trumpet or shellfish.) Th- 
 
BUCCO. 
 
 name of a Linneean genus of Vermes Testacea, character- 
 ised hy having a shell with a smooth r.on plicated columella, 
 and with a fissure or short respiratory canal' inflected to- 
 wards the left. The mollusca with shells corresponding 
 to this character are ranked amongst the Pectinibranchiate 
 Gastropods by Cuvier, and have been subdivided into the 
 following subgenera -.—Buccinum proper, Brug., of which 
 the whelk, Buc. undatum, is an example ; Nassa. Lam. ; 
 Elntrna, Lam. ; Ancillaria, Lam. ; Dulium, Lam. ; Perdix, 
 Mart. ; llarpa. Lam. ; Purpura, Brug. ; Monoceros, Lam. ; 
 Iticitiula, Lam. ; Cnnclwlepas, Lam. ; Cassia, Brug. ; Morio, 
 Montf. ; Terebra, Brug. 
 
 BU'CCO. (Lat. bucca, cheek.) The name of a genus 
 of Lygodactyle birds, called barbets. The scientific term 
 relates to the tumefaction of the sides of the base of the 
 bill ; the trivial English name is derived from the bristly 
 feathers which surround the base of the bill, and project 
 beneath the chin like a beard. The genus is now the 
 type of a family, including the barbets proper (Bncco), the 
 Brazilian barbets or tamatias (Tamalia), and the barbicans 
 of Buffon, which are limited to the warmer parts of India 
 and Africa. 
 
 BUCENTAU'R. (Gr. 0ovs, an ox; xtvravpos, a cen- 
 taur.) A mythological monster, half man and half ox, as 
 the Greek etymology of the word imports. This was also 
 the name of the state galley of the Venetian doges, in 
 which they annually sailed over a portion of the Adriatic 
 on Ascension Day, and, dropping a ring into the sea, es- 
 poused it in the name of the republic, with the words, 
 " Desponsamus te, mare, in signuin veri perpetuique do- 
 minii." 
 
 BU'CEROS. (Gr. /3ovs, an ox, and icepas, a horn.) A 
 genus of Syndactylous Insessorial birds, remarkable for 
 the prodigious size of the mandibles, the superior of which 
 in some species supports a large horn-like protuberance. 
 The birds of this genus are commonly called horn-bills ; 
 they are peculiar to the old world, and perform the same 
 offices in wild nature as the toucans of America. 
 
 BU'CKA. A strong-smelling leaf imported from the 
 Cape of Good Hope, and used medicinally as an anti- 
 spasmodic. It is produced by Diosma crenata and some 
 allied species. 
 
 BU'CKWIIEAT. (A corruption of beechwheat.) A 
 kind of grain, produced by the Polygonum fagopyrum of 
 botanists. It has a triangular form, and is not unlike beech- 
 mast. In some countries it is cultivated as food for man, 
 and even in this country its flour is said to enter into the 
 composition of the thin cakes called crumpets ; but its 
 chief value is as food for pheasants, which are so fond of 
 it that they may be decoyed from their preserves by its 
 employment. It is said that some estates have been 
 rapidly slocked with this description of game, at the ex- 
 pense of the neighbouring coverts, by the aid of a few fields 
 of buckwheat. 
 
 BUCO'LICS. The Greek term for pastoral poems, 
 meaning literally the songs of herdsmen <06vko\oi). We 
 have considerable remains of this species of poetry in the 
 poems of Theocritus, Bion,and Moschus, and the Eclogues 
 of Virgil. The metre universally employed is the hex- 
 ameter or heroic ; but in pastoral poetry an easier flow of 
 the lines was studieil than in epics, and this was generally 
 accomplished by introducing a larger proportion of the 
 metrical feet called dactyls in the former than in the latter; 
 but no rules were laid down on this point. This species 
 of poetry has been cultivated also by most modern nations, 
 and in England, France, and especially in Germany, with 
 great success. Indeed, the last-mentioned country can 
 boast among others of a Gessner, whose Idyls have been 
 pronounced by some modern critics to be models of pas- 
 toral poetry, combining the most finished harmony of 
 numbers with a simplicity and tenderness of sentiment and 
 expression worthy of Theocritus himself. 
 
 BU'DDHISM. A religion which prevails over a great 
 part of Asia; and, according to the estimates of some 
 geographers, has a much greater number of worshippers 
 than any other form of faith among mankind. China, the 
 peninsula beyond the Ganges, Japan, and various Indian 
 islands, are chiefly peopled by Buddhists. The founder 
 of this religion, according to tradition, was an Indian prince, 
 to whom the title of Buddha, or "The Sage,'' is assigned 
 by his worshippers. The period to which his life is assign- 
 ed is variously estimated, according to a variety of oriental 
 traditions; hut several of them coincide in referring it 
 nearly to the tenth or eleventh century before Christ. 
 Buddhism was expelled from India by the persecutions 
 of the Brahmans, between the fifth and seventh centuries 
 of our era. The doctrines of the Buddhists seem mainly 
 to list on the principle, that the world, and sensible objects 
 contain}'! in it, are manifestations of the Deity, but of a 
 transient and delusive character; that the luman soul is 
 an emanation from Deity ; that after death it will again be 
 bound to matter, and subjected to the miseries and acci- 
 dents of this life, unless the individual to whom it belongs 
 by the attainment of wisdom through prayer and contem- 
 172 
 
 BULE. 
 
 plation succeeds in liberating it from that necessity, and 
 secures its absorption into that divine essence from which 
 it sprang. 
 
 BU'DGET, in a general sense, means a condensed state- 
 ment of the income and expenditure of a nation, or of any 
 particular public department. In England, however, the 
 term is usually employed to designate the speech made by 
 the chancellor of the exchequer when he gives a general 
 view of the public revenue and expenditure, and intimates 
 whether government intend to propose the imposition or 
 repeal of any taxes, &c. 
 
 BU'FFALO. (Lat. bubalis.) A term originally applied to a 
 species of antelope ; but afterwards transferred, in the age of 
 Martial, to different species of the ox. In modern /.oology 
 the Buffaloes, or the " Bubaline group" of the genus IJos, 
 include those species which have the bony core of the horn 
 excavated, with large cells or sinuses communicating with 
 the cavity of the nose ; the horns are flattened, and bend 
 laterally with a backward direction, and are consequentlj 
 less applicable for goring than in the Bisons, or Taurine 
 group of oxen : the head is large, with a narrow but con- 
 vex forehead, and terminates in a broad muzzle. The 
 Buffaloes are of large size, but low in proportion to their 
 bulk ; they have no hunch on the back, and only a small 
 dewlap on the breast : the hide is generally black; ihe tail 
 long and slender. The Buffaloes occupy the warm and 
 tropical regions of the earth; they avoid hills, and prefer 
 the coarse vegetation of the forest and swampy regions to 
 those of open plains; they love to wallow and lie for hours 
 sunk deep in water ; they swim well, and cross the broad- 
 est rivers without hesitation ; their gait is heavy, and they 
 run almost always with the nose horizontal, being princi- 
 pally guided by the sense of smelling. In their combats, 
 they usually strike or butt with the forehead, and when 
 their opponent is thrown they endeavor to crush him with 
 their knees; they trample on the body; and their vindic- 
 tive fury is so lasting, that they will return again and again 
 to glut their vengeance upon the same inanimate corpse: 
 they herd together in small flocks, or live in pairs, but arc 
 never strictly gregarious in a wild state. The females bear 
 calves two years following, but remain sterile the third ; 
 they propagate at four and ahalf years old, and discontinue 
 after twelve. Their extreme aversion to red colours has 
 been remarked both in India and at the Cape. The Aince 
 Buffalo (.Bos Ami) is the species in which the horns attain 
 the greatest size : there is a pair of horns in the British 
 Museum considered by Col. Smith (from whose excelled! 
 description of theRuminantia in the translation of the Ani- 
 mal Kingdom of Cuvier the preceding observations are 
 chiefly derived) to be of the true or Great Arnee : each of 
 these horns measures along the curve from base to tip, sii 
 feet three inches; circumference at the base, eighteen 
 inches. 
 
 BUG. See Cimex. 
 
 BU'GLE HORN. (From bucula, a heifer.) A musical 
 wind brass instrument, latterly improved by keys, so as h 
 be capable of all the inflexions of the scale. 
 
 BUHL. Ornamental furniture, in which tortoise-shelt 
 and various woods are inlaid with brass. The name is th- 
 rived from its inventor. 
 
 BULB. (Gr. (3ov6o j.) A collection of Ileshy scales, ar- 
 ranged like those of a bud, of which the buib is a slight 
 modification, separating spontaneously from the slem to 
 which it belongs, and emitting roots from its base. It is 
 usually found underground, as in the hyacinth; but some- 
 times upon the surface of the stem in the axils of the 
 leaves, as in thebulbiferous lily. The old botanists used tc 
 distinguish two sorts of bulbs, the tunicated and the solid : 
 the former is the only one to which the name is now ap- 
 plied ; the latter is the cormus, as in crocus. 
 
 BULBO'DIUM. A kind of underground stem, resem- 
 bling a rhizoma. 
 
 BU'LBOGE'MMA. A name forthose bulbs which grow 
 on the stems of plants, as in the tiger lily and other species 
 of that genus. 
 
 BU'LBOTU'BER. That kind of stem which the old 
 botanists called a solid bulb, and the moderns mi 
 rally a cormus. It is a round solid underground Rtem, 
 clothed with the withered remains of leaves, and producing 
 buds on its surface, as in crocus. 
 
 BU'LE. (Gr. /JotAi?, a council) By this m 
 Athenian senate was designated, the constitution of which 
 was as follows :— When the people were divided Into foot 
 tribes, each of these, according to the regulation i 
 elected 100 representatives, thus making in all a delibera- 
 tive body of 400 members. But when Cleisthenes increas 
 ed the number of tribes to ten, the complemei 
 senate was raised to 500, fifty of which were sent 
 tribe; when the tribeswere finally increased to t\\. he. I'i 
 more senators were added. All free-born Athi I 
 zens above thirty years of age were eligible to ll 
 but they were obliged to undergo a strict examin 
 their characters and morals. The senate was originally in 
 stitutcd by Solon to be a check on the a>st:mr».j ot (in 
 
BULIMIA. 
 
 whole people (e*jc>r<na), before which, according to the 
 Athenian constitution, no measures were allowed to be 
 brought before they had first met with its approbation. 
 . . ANES 
 RL'l.l'Ml.V (Gr. 0ov, a syllable denoting greatness in 
 compound words, and \iftos, hunger.) A morbid appe- 
 tite lor 
 lil ILKIIEAD. The sea term forany partition, as of wood, 
 
 . or other material. 
 HULL, PAPAL. (LaL bulla.) An instrument, ordinance, 
 ie, equivalent to the proclamations, 
 'tcrs patent, or ukases of secular princes. Bulls 
 are written on parchment, to which a leaden seal is affixed, 
 : for the consecration of bishops, the pro- 
 bation of jubilees, &c. 
 The publication of papal bulls is termed fulmination; audit 
 yoneofthrei era, to whom they are 
 
 led. The boil is thus described by Matthew 
 \iino it,, in. 1967. hi bull. i dominl Papa ital Imago 
 Piiuli a .lexiris crucis in medio bulla; ligurata, ct Petri a 
 
 Dull, Golden. In (ierman History, a term applied par- 
 ti) a statute or enactment of the emperor Charles 
 IV., published a d. 1366, in two diets held in succession at 
 rgaod Melz, forthe purpose of fixing the laws 
 i the emperor, and of regulating the num- 
 ber and privileges of the electors. (Cnarfflratta.) The 
 opy of ibis instrument (which was long 
 
 lartaof the German Empire, and continued 
 ition till its dissolution in 1*K>) is Drew 
 i lias a seal of gold appendant ; 
 
 (in- appellation Golden Hull is derived. 
 BU'LLA. (LaL) A stud or boss, but more particularly 
 an ornament in the shape of a heart, worn round the neck 
 by noble Roman children till they ■■ en years 
 
 old ; when they assumed the manly dress of the toga, and 
 I the bulla as a consecrated offering to the lore* 
 or household gods. 
 
 Du'i.la. (I.at. bulla, a bubble.) A genus of Acerous 
 
 Qaatropodoui Molluake, the shell of which is more or leas 
 
 ir Inflated like a bubble ; having no visible or pro- 
 
 ipire, which is concealed by the large external 
 
 whorl, which is elevated above the rest. The columella 
 
 makes a convex prominence, which gives a crcscentic form 
 
 to the aperture of the shell ; the animal breathes by gills, 
 
 but lias no respiratory tube or siphonj and consequently the 
 
 ■Mrgtn of the aperture of the shell is entire, or without a 
 
 i- canal. All the species of bulla are remarkable 
 
 for a shelly apparatus of three pieces, which converts the 
 
 itomach into a gizzard or triturating cavity. These gastric 
 
 as have been described as a bivalve shell of 
 
 i new genu*. 
 
 BU'LLETIN. (Mod. I.at. bullets.) In Diplomatics, a term 
 
 equivalent to schedule, and variously applied to different 
 
 sorts of public acts. In modern limes, this name has been 
 
 applied, especially In France, to reports of a state of facts 
 
 v authority ; as bulletins of health, bulletins of 
 
 military events, &c 
 
 HI 'I.I. K<N Uncoined gold and silver. 
 
 BULL'S BYE. In Architecture, a small circular open- 
 
 Indow. 
 BULL'S NOSE. In Architecture, the external angle of 
 a polygon, or of two lines which meet at an obtuse angle. 
 
 HI MIIOAT. A boat allowed to attend a ship regularly 
 ta supply the sailors with articles of provisions, clothing, 
 
 mows. Vessels formed of wood, cork, or some light 
 substance, moored or anchored so as to float over a certain 
 spot, in order to indicate the situation of a shoal or sand 
 bank, and mark out the course a ship is to follow. When 
 used for this purpose, buoys are usually close vessels in 
 the form of a cone, of large dimensions, in order that they 
 may be seen from a distance ; and generally painted of 
 some particular colour, in order lhat they may be more 
 readily distinguished from one another. Public buoys in 
 England are placed by warrant of Queen Elizabeth un- 
 der the management of the Corporation of the Trinity 
 House, and the amount of revenue annually collected for 
 their use is between JE1 1,000 and JB12,000. Private buoys 
 . for the purpose of indicating the situation of ships' 
 anchors (to which they are fastened by a rope), in order 
 that the ship may be prevented from running foul of the 
 anchor, and lhat the anchor and cable may be recovered 
 when the latter happens to be broken, or has been cut. 
 
 HLTU.VGA. (Gr. /?o»j, ox; atavw, / eat.) A genus of 
 Cmirostral Passerine birds, of which the African beef- 
 eater (liuphaga A/ricana) is the sole example. It derives 
 its name from its habit of sedulously extracting from the 
 barks of cattle the larva? of asstri and other Dipterous insects 
 which are deposited therein. The French name of this 
 bird, "pique -bceuf," or "cattle- picker," more correctly de- 
 notes the peculiar habits of the bird than the scientific 
 generic term. 
 
 BL"PRE'HTI9. (Lat. buprestis, a noxious intect.) The 
 173 
 
 BURGHERS. 
 
 name of a Linnaean genus of Coleopterous Serricorn in 
 sects, now the type of a family (Buprestidat), including th« 
 most splendid and brilliant beetles. Of this family up 
 wards of a thousand species are known : by the French 
 they are termed " Nichards." 
 
 BU'RDEN. (Fr. bourdon, a staff.) In Music, the drone 
 or bass in some musical instruments, and the pipe c* 
 string that plays it. The bass pipe in the bagpipe last 
 Baited. Hence, that part of a song that is repealed al the 
 end of every stanza is called the burden of it. 
 
 BUR F.AU'. (Fr.) Originally a writing table ; afterwards 
 applied to the office of any public or private functionary 
 When tusiness is transacted. 
 
 BUREAU'CRATIE, or BUREAUCRACY, is the system 
 by which the business of administration is carried on in 
 departments, each under the control of a chief, in contra- 
 distinction to those systems in which the officers of govern- 
 ment have a co-ordinate authority. 
 
 BURETTE. An instrument occasionally used in the 
 chemical laboratory, and in the assay office, for the pur- 
 pose of dividing a given portion of any liquid into 100 or 
 1000 equal parts. (Uay Lussac, Instruction sur VEssaides 
 Chlorure* de Chaux.) 
 
 BU'KGAGE TENURE. In Law, an ancient tenure pro- 
 per to boroughs ; under which tenements are held of the 
 king, or other person, at a rent certain In several 
 boroughs such holdings conferred the electoral franchise 
 previous to the Reform act 
 
 BU'RG-GRAVE. (Germ, burg, castle; graf, count.) In 
 the German Empire, a castellan or lord of a castle, having 
 the right of private justice, imposing taxes, «&c. 
 
 BU'RGHERSand ANTIBI RGHER8. In Ecclesiastical 
 History. Owingtoan undue exercise of patronage, which 
 took place under the authority of the church of Scotland, 
 or to the induction of a clergyman into a parish (Kinross) 
 against the declared sentiments of the co ngregat ion, .; 
 schism took place in the church, which occasioned a ae- 
 cession from that establishment, and ultimately led to 
 what la called the Burgher and Antiburgher denomina- 
 tions. Several clergymen, after years of painful discus- 
 sion, having protested against the violent procedure in 
 question, anjd having thrown off subordination to the ec- 
 clesiastical authorities, were deposed (1740) from the office 
 of the ministry and their parishes declared vacant (Un- 
 ion's Acts of Assembly, sect. Patronage.) These clergy- 
 Mi in number, though cut off from all connection 
 with the church, enjoyed the unabated confidence of their 
 respective us, who almost to a man adhered to 
 
 them. Previously to their final separation from the estab- 
 lishment, namely, in 1733, four of that number had virtu- 
 ally proclaimed their independence, and had constituted 
 themselves into an ecclesiastical court, called the Associ- 
 ate Synod. To the deposed ministers and their adherents 
 the name of Seceders was applied ; and henct t e crigin 
 of the Secession Church in Scotland. And so rajMdrr - : 
 this body increase, that so early as 1745, they formed them- 
 selves into a synod, which consisted of three different pres- 
 byteries. But while their numbers were thus augmented, 
 and while the sphere of their influence was rapidly extend- 
 ing, a breach took place among themselves which was 
 characterised by as much agitation and violence as that 
 which had recently caused their ejection from the estab- 
 lished church. The Secession Synod having instituted an 
 inquiry into the lawfulness of certain oaths, not imposed 
 by parliament, but generally practised, a question arose as 
 to the nature of the oath imposed in royal burghs on per- 
 sons when admitted to the privileges of a burgess. Tho 
 great point of debate was, whether it was lawful for a Se- 
 ceder to swear the following clause : — " I profess and allow 
 with my heart the true religion presently professed within 
 this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof. I shall a- 
 bide thereat, and defend the same to my life's end, re 
 Bouncing the Roman religion called Papistry." The Synod 
 was divided into two parties on this subject. The one con- 
 tended, lhat though iney had condemned the manner in 
 which the established church was at present administered, 
 they had not expressed and did not feel any objection to her 
 standards ; that, in seceding, they had not set up a new 
 religion, but that, on the contrary, they had merely en- 
 deavoured to maintain in their original strictness and purity 
 her constitutional principles both theological and ecclesi- 
 astical. The other party look a totally different view of 
 the question, and insisted that the oath, being administered 
 by members of the established church, must necessarily 
 be taken in the sense in which it was understood by them ; 
 namely, as including all the corruptions and inconsisten- 
 cies that attached to that establishment, and as consequent- 
 ly incompatible with Seceding principles and the solemn 
 testimony they had raised against her errors and back- 
 sliding. This dispute, which commenced at the meeting 
 of the Synod in 1745, continued to be maintained with in 
 creasing acrimony for two years, or till 1747. The party 
 that were in favour of the oath were called Burglitrs , the 
 parly that opposed it were termed Antiburghers. In vair 
 
BURGHERS. 
 
 did the Burghers offer to agree to a declaration discharging 
 Seceders from swearing the oath as inexpedient under ex- 
 isting circumstances. The Antiburghers preremptorily re- 
 fused any compromise, and insisted on an act being passed 
 by the Synod declaring it sinful for a Seceder to adopt the 
 oath. Nay, to such an extent was the controversy carried. 
 and so violent were the opinions entertained on the side of 
 the Antiburghers, that the ministers of this party had mean- 
 while made the oath a test of church communion, and had 
 debarred from the Lord's Table such as maintained its 
 lawfulness. At the spring meeting of the Synod in 1746, 
 the party just named succeeded in carrying a vote to the 
 effect that tiie oath was subversive of Secession principles. 
 The Burghers protested against this decision. But at a 
 meeting of the Synod in the subsequent year, the Anti- 
 burghers, being in a minority in a division on the same sub- 
 ject, withdrew in a body ; Mr. Mair, one of their number, 
 having previously protested that "hereby the Burghers 
 had forfeited all their synodical powers, and that the whole 
 power of the Synod devolved on himself and his party 
 and such as clave to them." Next day, the Antiburghers 
 held a synod composed exclusively of their own adherents, 
 twenty-two in number, including ministers and elders, con- 
 stituted themselves into a distinct and separate sect of 
 Christians, and refused all connection or conference with 
 the opposite party, except on the condition that the latter 
 should appear as penitents at their bar. Nay, they libelled 
 and cited them to this effect ; but as the one party did not 
 recognize themselves as responsible to the other, nothing 
 resulted from the step ; and the two bodies, followed by 
 their respective congregations, constituted themselves into 
 separate and independent churches. (Brown's Hist. Ace. 
 of the Rise and Progress of the Secession.) 
 
 But, while the Secession was thus divided into two con- 
 flicting parties, the Burghers and Antiburghers, they both 
 continued their separation from, and condemnation of, the 
 established church. They adopted, it is true, her stand- 
 ards, namely, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the 
 Catechism, Larger and Shorter, the Directory for Public 
 Worship, and form of Presbyterian government ; but they 
 abrogated patronage unconditionally, and vested the choice 
 of a minister exclusively in the members of each separate 
 congregation. Indeed, the chief practical difference that 
 obtained between the church of Scotland and the Seceding 
 bodies consisted in the one cleaving to patronage, and in the 
 other having abolished that system, and introduced popular 
 election in its stead. Besides, though the church has al- 
 ways been governed by kirk sessions, presbyteries, synods, 
 ami i general assembly, the Burghers and Antiburghers, 
 owing to the comparative paucity of their numbers, never 
 adopted a general assembly. With them the synod was 
 the supreme court, whose authority was final in all religi- 
 ous and ecclesiastical matters. The Seceders also were 
 stricter Calvinists, and adopted more rigid discipline as to 
 admission to church-membership, and to sealing ordinan- 
 ces (baptism and the Lord's Supper), than the church party 
 had perhaps ever done. (lb.) 
 
 Both the Burghers and Antiburghers continued each as 
 rapidly to increase after their separation as the Secession 
 had done when it formed one body ; and the animosity 
 which had characterised their disjunction gradually sub- 
 sided. Indeed, by the time that the generation which wit- 
 nessed this unhappy schism had passed away, all traces of 
 hostility or opposition had disappeared. The burgess oath, 
 too, which had been the cause of their disunion, fell into 
 desuetude or had ceased to be imposed. The views of the 
 two parties being otherwise identical, and both coinciding 
 in their opposition to the established church, it is not to be 
 wondered at that a wish became general among the mem- 
 bers of both parties for a re-union. Overtures to that ef- 
 fect were accordingly made by their respective synods ; 
 and after having had many conferences and much discus- 
 sion on the subject, this happy result was, without any com- 
 promise on either side, effected in 1S20 ; and the two 
 bodies, now united, assumed the denomination of the 
 United Associate Synod of the Secession Church. At that 
 time, the Burgher persuasion comprehended 10 presby- 
 teries, embracing 120 congregations ; and the Antiburghers 
 11 presb) teries, consisting of 141 congregations. Since 
 their union, their conjoint influence and extension have 
 been considerably on the increase ; so that at this date 
 (1841) the Associate Synod comprises no fewer than 360 
 congregations, with an equal number of ministers. They 
 have not hitherto introduced a general assembly ; nor do 
 we hear that they intend to do so. But as they form a nu- 
 merous, so they are a most respectable body of Christians ; 
 and their clergy are eminent not more for professional as- 
 siduity than for learning and talents. They are hostile to 
 the estabV shment of a national church, and are in favour 
 of what is now denominated voluntaryism. They nomi- 
 nate professors of divinity within their own body for the 
 instruction of young men intended for the ministry ; but 
 these young men pursue their philosophical and literary 
 studies at any of the Scottish Universities. Their curri- 
 174 
 
 BURNING GLASSES. 
 
 culum of study, like that of the established church, ex 
 tends to eight years. (M'Culloch's Stat. Ace. of the British 
 Empire, vol. ii. pp. 425 — 7.) 
 
 BURGH MOTE. (Borough meeting.) A Saxon term 
 for the borough court. Bergh mote is the title of a court 
 of miners, held in Derbyshire. 
 
 BU'RGLARY. (LaL burgi latrocinium, robbery commit- 
 ted in a burg or fenced place.) In Law, is the breaking and 
 entering the dwelling-house of another in the night time, 
 with inlent to commit a felony. If the goods were actually 
 stolen, it is usual to add a count for larceny in an indict- 
 ment for burglary. This offence is punishable by trans- 
 portation or imprisonment. 
 
 BU'RGOMASTER. (Ger. burgermeister, chief of tU 
 citizens.) The usual title of the chief municipal officer in 
 German and Dutch towns. In the German free cities, the 
 president of the executive council is styled burgermeister; 
 but in many towns of importance, the title Btadl-director 
 (town-governor) has been recently substituted in its stead. 
 
 BURLE'SQUE. (Ilal. burla re, to jest.) The Italian poesia 
 burlesca signifies merely comic or sportive poetry ; but 
 the term, in French and English, is more commonly re- 
 stricted to compositions of which the humour consists in a 
 ludicrous mixture of things high and low : as high thoughts 
 clothed in low expressions; or, vice versa, ordinary or 
 base topics invested in the artificial dignity of poetic dic- 
 tion. The humour of parody or travestie (see Parody) 
 arises from the burlesque. Burletta, a slight comic musical 
 drama, is derived from the same origin. 
 
 BU'RNET. A British plant, whose leaves have been 
 used as a food for sheep. It grows on poor calcareous 
 soils, where few other plants will succeed ; and in this its 
 principal value consists, together with its being perennial 
 and remaining green all the winter. It is the Poterium 
 sanettisorba of botanists. 
 
 BURNING GLASSES and BURNING MIRRORS. The 
 name given to glasses or mirrors so formed as to collect 
 the sun's rays which fall on them into a point or small sur- 
 face, and. thereby produce an intense heat, and set fire to 
 combustible substances. The point at which the rays 
 meet, and where the greatest heat is produced, is called 
 the focus or burning point. The rays of light or heat may 
 be concentrated either by refraction or reflection : in the 
 former case they must pass through a transparent refract- 
 ing substance, as glass formed inlo a proper shape ; in the 
 latter they fall on a concave polished surface of silvered 
 glass or bright metal. Reflectors made of glass are usually 
 termed mirrors, those of metal sjjecula. 
 
 In preparing a burning glass, the first thing to be con- 
 sidered is the figure necessary to collect all the rays into 
 the smallest possible space. Descartes, in his Optics, 
 showed that a disk of glass, convex on the one side and 
 concave on the other, the convex side being a portion of 
 an elliptic surface, and the concave a portion of a sphere, 
 would cause parallel rays falling on its convex side to con 
 verge in a single point ; but the practical difficulties of 
 forming a glass accurately into this shape are insuperable ■ 
 both sides are therefore ground into portions of a sphere 
 In a refracting mirror the focal length depends on the cur- 
 vature, or the radius of the sphere, and the refractive 
 power of the substance of which the lens is formed ; the 
 focal length in a double convex lens of glass is exactly 
 equal to the radius of curvature. The true form of there- 
 fleeting mirror is parabolic, and this form is frequently at- 
 tempted in metal, which can be cast or hammered nearly 
 into the proper shape ; but, as in the case of the refractor, 
 it is the spherical form only which is attempted in glass. 
 The focal distance is equal to the radius of the concavity 
 at the centre of the mirror. 
 
 Although the forms given by theory could be obtained in 
 practice with mathematical precision, the solar rays could 
 not even then be collected into a single point ; the focus 
 would still have a sensible magnitude. The reason of this 
 is, that the rays which fall on the lens or minor are not all 
 parallel. Those which come from different parts of the 
 sun's disk are very sensibly convergent, forming an angle 
 of 32 minutes of a degree, equal to the apparent diameter 
 of the sun. Hence the focal image must be of such a 
 magnitude that lines drawn from its opposite edges to the 
 centre of the lens or mirror must form an angle of 32'. 
 Supposing, therefore, the glass or mirror to have a proper 
 form, the space covered by the focus will be proportional 
 only to the focal distance, and entirely independent of the 
 magnitude of the lens or mirror. Hence it follows, that if 
 a portion of the exterior edge of the lens or mirror were 
 covered, the magnitude of the focal image would remain 
 unaltered. The figure of the image is also always circular, 
 independently of the shape of the lens ; for example, if 
 one half of the lens were covered, the image would bo 
 round as before, though the intensity of the light would 
 then be reduced to one half. 
 
 In preparing telescopes or microscopes, where distinct 
 ness of vision is the most essential object, it is indispensa- 
 ble that the figure of the lens or mirror be perfectly true 
 
BURSARS. 
 
 in ourumg glasses perfect accuracy of figure is not so much 
 
 required : it is only necessary that tlio rays be concentra- 
 
 Ihe confusion of the image being of no consequence. 
 
 •fleet, however, depending on the numberof rays that 
 
 are brought within the limits of the focus, will necessarily 
 
 unnished by the aberration as well as imperfection of 
 
 \ uen the lens is accurately constructed, and all 
 
 the rav* fall within the focus, the heating power of the solar 
 
 rays is Increased in the proportion of the square of the di 
 
 ameterof the lens to the s<iuare of the diameter of Ihe 
 
 Hut it is found that, supposing the concentration 
 
 ane, a much greater effect is produced by a focus of 
 
 iderable magnitude than a very small one. A glass, 
 
 fur in • inches diameter, with a concentrating 
 
 power of 300, will' produce a much feebler effect than an- 
 
 n .liameterof the same power; the latter 
 
 will Inflame paper in two or three seconds, while the 
 
 former will hardly Inflame it at all. The reason is that 
 
 when meentmted in a very small space it is 
 
 rapidly dispersed Into the surrounding mass; as the focus 
 
 i ihe accumulation increases in a greater ratio 
 
 than the dispersion, and the temperature rises. Hence a 
 
 ■uass of charcoal, or other substance of very 
 
 sting power, is fused much more readily than 
 
 ■ed on all sides to the atmosphere, or imbedded 
 
 in to 
 
 of exciting heat er producing fire by the 
 DtraUon of the sun's rays was known from remote 
 but the most famous recorded achievement of 
 rlns Kind is that of Archimedes, who is reported to have 
 means of mirrors the Roman Heel in the har- 
 ■ use. Considerable doubts have prevailed rc- 
 ingthe truth of the relation, chielly grounded on the 
 nee that although the setting fire to the fleet is 
 Dion, Diodorus Sieulus, Pappus, and 
 others, no mention is made of it by Liw, Poly blue, or Plu- 
 tarch, who are otherwise minute In detailing the mechani- 
 urivancea of Archimedes, and who were not likely 
 t,i [ins over so notable an occurrence without notice. 
 tfs went so far, indeed, as to treat the whole rela- 
 tione, affirming the thing to be impracticable, 
 i perimentally demonstrate 
 ■ lie celebrated Button, who, by a combination of plain 
 ills which must be regard- 
 • i >till greater difficulty. With 108 mirrors, each 
 fire to planks of beech 160 
 •. and with the faint rays of the sun at I'aris in 
 i mih or March. It is not necessary to suppose that 
 modes could not place his apparatus within that dis- 
 ie fleet of Marcellus ; besides, by multiplying 
 the number of glasses, the concentration of the rays may 
 i almost to any extent All this, however, does 
 .'• actual fact related of Archimedes. Button, 
 wiih all the resources afforded by the advanced state of the 
 arts in the middle of the 18th century, and after a number 
 of experiments, succeeded, with considerable difficulty, in 
 meting an apparatus by means of which he could 
 Inflame combustible substances at a considerable distance. 
 The low state of the arts in Ihe time of Archimedes must 
 have rendered the undertaking considerably more difficult. 
 The silence of those historians who have detailed his 
 other mechanical contrivances can hardly be accounted 
 for. supposing the relation to be true. It seems, therefore, 
 that though something of the kind was contemplated, and 
 to a certain extent practised, the effect has been much ex- 
 tied. 
 Among those who have amused themselves, in modem 
 times, with the effects of burning glasses or mirrors, are 
 reckoned Baron Napier, the illustrious inventor of the lo- 
 garithms, Kircher, Dr. James Gregory, Sir Isaac Newton, 
 and numerous others. The most powerful solid lens ever 
 constructed was the work of Mr. Parker, an ingenious Lon- 
 don artist It was made of flint glass, was three feet in di- 
 er, 3} inches thick at the centre, its focal distance 6 
 Inches, the diameter of the burning focus 1 inch, and 
 its we-ght 212 pounds. The rays refracted by this lens 
 were received on a second, the diameter of which in the 
 frame was 13 inches, and its focal length 29 inches. The 
 diameter of the focus of the combined lenses was half an 
 Inch : consequently, by the addition of the second lens, 
 the burning power was increased four times. With this 
 Ions some of the most refractory substances were fused in 
 a very short space of time : for example, 10 grs. of com- 
 rion slate in 2 seconds; 10 grs. of cast iron in 3 Bee. ; 10 
 <rrs. of lava in 7 sec. ; 10 grs. of jasper in 25 seconds, <tc. 
 Ttvs glass was afterwards carried to China by one of the 
 officers who accompanied Lord Macartney, and left at Pe- 
 kin. (For detailed information on this subject, the reader 
 mav consult the article Burning Glasses in the Ency. 
 Brit. 7th edition.) 
 
 BV'RSARS. (..at. bursa.) Originally clerks or trea- 
 surers in convents: in more modern times, persons en- 
 lbled to prosecute their studies at a university by means 
 tf funds derived from endowments. It is a singular cir- 
 175 
 
 cumstance that the latter acceptation of this term originate 
 ed among the Poles, who, even in the 14th century, were 
 accustomed to supply young men of talent with the means 
 of travelling to Germany, and there studying philosophy 
 under the guidance of the monks. This practice was soon 
 adopted by other nations; and there is now, perhaps, no 
 civilised country in which it does nut exist, under the name 
 of bursaries, fellowships, exhibitions, scholarships, ice. 
 TbON endowments are of two kinds: either funds' ing 
 the student with the means of prosecuting Ins studies .'•.ti- 
 ring the academical curriculum ; or enabling him to de- 
 imself. without distraction, to literary pursuits even 
 alter the expiration of this period. The Scottish and the 
 Conlinrnial universities have adopted the former method ; 
 but at Oxtord and Cambridge both kinds prevail. The 
 following statistical observations on this subject, in, refer- 
 ence to the principal universities of England and Ireland, 
 are extracted from a paper compiled by the Hev. il. 1,. 
 Jones, M. A., from the most authentic private as well M 
 public documents, and read at Newcastle in August 1838- 
 I the British Association for the Advancement of 
 Hctooce :— In Oxford there are 24 beads of colleges with a 
 rev. •nio> of £lrt.3:>0i ,V.? fellows with JB1 16,660 ; 393 scho- 
 larships with .£6,030; 199 college officers with .£15,650; 886 
 beaefloee and kneumbenta win £130,500. The revenues 
 of Cambridge, containing 17 colleges, are foran equal num- 
 ber of In. ids £12£60; -i:il fellows, whose revenue is 
 £90,390; 7'.« scholarships with £13,390; 179 college offi- 
 cers with £17,7511 ; 260. prizes of the value of £1,038 ; 69] 
 benefices and incumbents with £93,300. In Dublin the 
 head of Trinity College receives £2,000; 25 fellows, 
 £-r>.im ; 70 scholars, £8,100; 10 ■■(.U.-ne officers, £20,000; 
 62 benefices and incumbents, £9,300. These honours, now- 
 ever, are not open to general competition, bring restricted 
 in most cases, by the will of the testator, to natives of cer- 
 tain COUntriee, or la the alumni of particular ichi 
 
 At Edinburgh University there are but lew bursaries. 
 Geori --pilal (ihe most wealthy institution in 
 
 Edinburgh) grants ten bursaries of £20 per annum each, 
 for four years, to individuals not connected with the hos- 
 pital, who, after a comparative trial before i commit! 
 the governors of the institution, are found duly qualified, 
 I few bursaries of £7 and' £11) each. 
 lived by the city of Edinburgh to students in the first year 
 of their academic. d course; two of £10 each to students 
 Domed Stewart iii the second year, and one of £100 to a 
 student selected 1 1 orn those called M'Pberaon in the fourth 
 year. To these may he added two ancient bursaries in- 
 stituted for the benefit of Poles resident in Scotland, which 
 after lying dormant upwards of a century, were disco' 
 and brought to light in 1887. At St. Andrews, there are 
 several bursaries in the gift of the university : and at Aber 
 dOOB, besides the interest of £7000 devoted to the main- 
 tenance of certain students at that university, there area 
 few valuable exhihilions to Cam br idge. At Glasgow the 
 most Important endowments of this kind are a few exhi- 
 hilions to Oxford ; and those left by Dr. Williamson foi 
 Englishmen not connected with the established church. 
 In Prance and Italy there are no bursaries allowed for the 
 maintenance of students; but any individual, on the pay 
 ment of a trifling sum, may frequent all the lecture rooms 
 of the professors, who of course are maintained by govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But it is in Germany that the system of bursaries is in 
 full vigour. There every faculty in the different univer- 
 sities, every academy, every cloister (for cloisters are still 
 maintained even in the Protestant parts of Germany, though 
 not for the education of priests), every noble family of im- 
 portance, have bursaries, or, as they are called, Freytische 
 (free tables), at their disposal. These vary in value from R 
 to £40 a year, and cease at the expiration of the literary 
 curriculum. As the different bodies or individuals in whom 
 the presentation to these emoluments is vested may select 
 the beneficiary at pleasure, little regard is paid to the real 
 merit or to the necessitous condition of Ihe latter. 
 
 Whether endowments tend to the promotion of science 
 and learning, is a question that is often discussed, but has 
 not hitherto been solved. Those who maintain that endow- 
 ments are prejudicial found their arguments on the well- 
 known axiom of Smith, — that in no employment ought the 
 competition to be increased beyond what it naturally de- 
 mands. Now, as endowments allure into the learned pro- 
 fessions, and particularly into the church, a host of individ- 
 uals who would otherwise have adopted a different occupa- 
 tion, the unavoidable consequence is that the market is 
 glutted, and the supply becomes greater than the demand. 
 Besides, there are, and ever will be, sufficient numbers to 
 work of (heir own accord in the accumulation of learning, 
 and this spontaneous industry will be sufficient to keep up 
 an adequate supply to be distributed throughout the coun- 
 try ; for supply always equals demand, and lemand is al- 
 ways commensurate with the real wants of the people. Oa 
 the other hand, the advocates of endowments, while they 
 admit the correctness of the above- mentioned axiom as a 
 
BURSCHE. 
 
 general rule, maintain that tliere are many exceptions. In 
 every scientific occupation, they allege, the profits should 
 he proportioned to the lime and the labour bestowed in its 
 prosecution. Now, from abstruse studies, such as the high- 
 er branches of mathematics, metaphysics, and classical lit- 
 erature, no adequate remuneration results ; so that none 
 but the wealthy can pursue these studies, and a reference 
 to history will prove that this class has not been the fore- 
 most in classical or scientific attainment. Hence external 
 encouragement is necessary at once to compensate for that 
 want of remuneration to which such studies are exposed, 
 and to divert into this channel a mass of applicable talent 
 which would otherwise be turned to pursuits of more im- 
 mediate profit and attraction. 
 
 BU'RSCHE. (Germ.) A youth, especially a student at 
 a university. 
 
 BU'RSCHENSCHAFT. A league or secret association 
 of students, formed in 1315, for the purpose, as was assert- 
 ed, of (lie political regeneration of Germany, and sup- 
 pressed, at least in name, by the exertions of the govern- 
 ments. (See Howitt's Student Life in Germany.) 
 
 BURSCHEN COMMENT. The code of laws adopted 
 by the students for the regulation of their demeanour 
 amongst themselves, <&c. 
 
 BURSERA'CEA. A natural order of fragrant trees and 
 shrubs inhabiting' the tropical parts of the world. They 
 all are resinous and fragrant, although related botanically 
 to Rhamnaceous plants which have no such properties. 
 Indian frankincense, olibanum, colophon, the balsams of 
 Acouchi, Gilead, and Mican, gum elim, and other similar 
 substances, are obtained from plants of this order ; besides 
 oil, pitch, and turpentine, resembling the vegetable secre- 
 tions bearing those names in Europe. They all have alter- 
 nate unequally pinnate dotless leaves, and racemes or pani- 
 cles of small green flowers. Their fruit is usually a drupe. 
 
 BURTHEN, or ItURDEN, OF A SHIP. The weight of 
 merchandise, <fce she is intended to carry. See Tonnage. 
 
 BU'SHEL. Ar English measure of capacity, containing 
 8 gallons. By act of parliament, 5 George 4. c. 74., the Im- 
 perial gallon is declared the standard measure of capacity, 
 and is directed to be made such as to contain 10 lbs. avoir- 
 dupois of distilled water, weighed in air at the temperature 
 of 62° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, the barometer stand- 
 ing at 30 inches ; or to contain 277 cubic inches and 274 
 thousandth parts of a cubic inch. Consequently the Im- 
 perial bushel contains 80 lbs. of distilled water, or 2818-192 
 cubic inches. 
 
 By the same act the bushel is declared the standard 
 measure of capacity for coals, culm, lime, fish, potatoes, or 
 fruit, and all other goods or things commonly sold by 
 heaped measure, and is prescribed to contain 2815 cubic 
 inches; the goods to be heaped up in the form of a cone to 
 a height above the rim of the measure of at least three 
 fourths of its depth. 
 
 The Winchester bushel, used in England from the 
 time of Henry VII. to 1826, contained 2150.42 cubic inches. 
 The Imperial bushel is therefore to the Winchester bush- 
 el as 2218192 to 2l50-42,or as 1 to -969447. Hence to con- 
 vert Winchester bushels into Imperial, multiply by -909417. 
 See Measures. 
 
 BU'SHMEN. (Dutch, Bosjesmannen, men of the tcood.) 
 A name given by the Dutch colonists to some roaming 
 tribes akin to the Hottentots, in the vicinity of the Cape of 
 Good Hope. The description given by Governor Janssens 
 of this people is very interesting. So deep are they sunk 
 in barbarism as to be unacquainted even with the con- 
 struction of huts or tents : " the burning sky being their 
 canopy, anil the scorching sand their bed." They are of 
 a dark copper complexion, small in stature, and of a sin- 
 gularly malicious, wild, and intractable disposition. 
 
 BUSJ'RIS. In Egyptian Mythology, a fabulons person- 
 age, of whose origin, exploits, and character Apollodorus, 
 Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and other ancient writers 
 have given a most discrepant account. His history is so 
 intimately blended with that of Osiris, that we must refer 
 the reader to that article for further particulars. 
 
 BU'SKIN. (Probably bootikin,or&7/te boot.) A species 
 of covering for the leg, or rather for the ancle and foot: 
 generally used by the English writers as a translation of 
 cothurnus, caliga, and various other Greek and Latin words 
 denoting different kinds of boots, &c. Hence buskin, in 
 the sense of cothurnus, stands for the tragic drama, that 
 apecies of dress having been worn in antiquity by tragic 
 actors, in contradistinction to soccus, the boot or sock worn 
 by comedians, and used for the comic drama. 
 
 Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, 
 
 Nor greater Jonson dares in socles appear. — Dryden. 
 
 BUST or BUSTO. (It. busto.) In Painting and Sculp- 
 lure, the head, breast, and shoulders of the human figure. 
 
 BU'STARD. See Otis. 
 
 BU'TTKR. (Gr. ffovrvpov, from /?o»c, a cow, and rtipoj, 
 cheese or coagulum.) The oily part of milk : 100 parts of 
 cream contain about 4 -5 of butter and 3-5 curd: they are 
 176 
 
 BUTTERFLY. 
 
 separated by the process of churning, during which tha 
 butter aggregates. Butter soon becomes sour and rancid, 
 unless purified by melting and straining it so as to separate 
 adhering curd ; it is generally preserved by the addition 
 ofsalt. Its elain or oily part has been called butyrine. 
 When converted into soap it is said, in addition to the 
 usual products, to afford three odorous volatile compounds, 
 which have been termed by Chevreul the butyric, capric 
 and caproic acids. 
 
 BU'TTERFLY. The common English name of an ex 
 tensive group of insects, as they appear in their last an« 
 fully developed state, when they constitute the most beauti- 
 ful and elegant examples of their class. These insects be 
 long to the order Lepidoptera, and to the section Diurnt 
 of Latreille, or the genus Papilio of Linnaeus. (See those 
 words. See also Naturalist's Library, vols. 10. 14. 18.) 
 
 The changes of an animal form produced by the pro 
 gressive expansion of the enclosed organs of the body, and 
 the successive shedding of the outer case or skin, are in no 
 instance so striking or so extraordinary as in the present 
 group of insects. The changes or metamorphoses, as they 
 are commonly but incorrectly termed, have been a favour- 
 ite theme to the divine and the poet, and a most attractive 
 subject of research to the naturalist. The transition of the 
 humble grub to the gorgeous imago is the subject of the 
 following beautiful passage in the classical work (the In- 
 troduction to Entomology) of Kirby and Spence : — " Were 
 a naturalist to announce to the world the discovery of an 
 animal which for the first two years of its life existed in 
 the form of a serpent ; which then, penetrating into the 
 earth, and weaving a shroud of pure silk of the finest tex- 
 ture, contracted itself within this covering into a body with- 
 out external mouth or limbs, and resembling more than 
 any thing else an Egyptian mummy ; and which, lastly, 
 after remaining in this state, without food and without mo- 
 tion, for three years longer, shoulcl at the end of that 
 period burst its silken cerement?, struggle through its 
 earthy covering, and start into day a winged bird, — what, 
 think you, would be the sensation excited by this piece )f 
 intelligence V The subterraneous locality of the insect in 
 its passive state, and the silken shroud, are, indeed, less 
 applicable to the butterllies than to other insects ; but the 
 circumstances attending the transformations of thesa 
 beautiful objects are not less remarkable than those of the 
 beetles and moths. 
 
 The eggs of the butterfly are deposited on such plants as 
 afford the nutriment most appropriate to the caterpillars 
 that are to be excluded from them ; thus the common 
 white butterfly (Pieris brassicce, Latr.) and. other species 
 oviposit upon cabbages, and hence have been termed Bras- 
 sicari<e: the gaudy peacock-butterfly lays her eggs upon 
 the nettle. The eggs are coated with a glutinous secretion 
 as they are excluded from the parent, and thus provided 
 with the means of adhesion to the leaves or stems of the 
 plants selected. 
 
 The larvae are long and cylindrical, and consist of thir- 
 teen segments, including the head ; they have eight feet, 
 and nine spiracles on each side. Those feet which are 
 attached in pairs to the first three segments of the trunk 
 inclose the parts which are developed into the permanent 
 legs of the future butterfly ; the remaining pairs of feet are 
 membraneous, short and thick, and are finally lost with 
 the moultings of the skin, whence they are called " pro- 
 legs" by Kirby. The sides of the head are studded with 
 twelve simple globular eyes extremely minute, and very 
 unlike the single large compound eye of the perfect insect. 
 The mouth is provided with an apparatus characteristic of 
 the mandibulate class of insects, having a pair of large and 
 strong horny jaws working in a horizontal plane, and re- 
 presenting the " mandibular ;" beneath these a pair ol 
 smaller and softer jaws or " maxillae," and a fleshy lower 
 lip or '• labrum" united to the latter, and which is perfora- 
 ted by the outlets of the ducts of the complicated apparatus 
 for secreting the silk. Such a condition of the " instru- 
 menta cibaria" or mechanism of the mouth is in perfect 
 harmony with the habits of the caterpillar, and with the 
 part assigned to this larva or masked Lepidopterons insect 
 in the great theatre of nature. It is there distined to crop 
 and devour the solid succulent parts of the otherwise too 
 luxuriant vegetation, and must have awns and teeth to per- 
 form its task. In its subsequent and final character the 
 butterfly luxuriates on the exquisitely elaborated juices ot 
 the flower, and has the power to raise itself above the dull 
 earth, and to transport itself through aerial space. 
 
 Where he arriving round about doth fly 
 From bed to bed, from one to other border ; 
 
 And takes survey, with curious busy eye. 
 Of every flower and herb there set h order. 
 
 Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly, 
 Yet none of them he rudely does disorder; 
 
 Ne with his feet their silken leaves deface, 
 
 But pastui es on the pleasure of each space. — Spenser. 
 
 But to exchange a solid for a fluid diet, the instrument* of 
 mastication must be converted into those of suction, and 
 
 : 
 
 >d 
 
BUTTER TREE. 
 
 the mandibulate insect be transformed into the haustellate 
 one. This is effected by an excessive elongation of the 
 maxilla, Which are grooved each on that side which is 
 I toward* Its fellow: and. by the union of their op- 
 1 margins, these grooves are converted into a capilla- 
 ry canal, by which the nectar is pumped up into th« month, 
 when not in action, this siphon is coiled up in a series of 
 Hpiral turns, and is protected by the other parts of the 
 I, which retain their rudimental condition. The 
 i iha are almost always naked, and of an angular form : 
 the* are generally suspended by the tail, and reflect more 
 
 or less of a golden lustre, whence they are termed riuy.<n- 
 
 Reaumur has given th" best account 
 i singular operations by which the butterflies 
 their aurelian cases to the points of suspension, and after- 
 date tli'tnselves from these cases when their 
 npleted. 
 Some butterflies have all their six feet in the imago state 
 well id alike in both sexes ; and the chrysa- 
 
 lis, in addition to the ordinary terminal or posterior attach- 
 ment, is looped up in a horizontal position by a silken band 
 and the body. The internal mania of 
 the hinder lower pair of wings is concave or folded, and 
 ,r<d hooks or spurs are well developed. These are 
 the butterflies: proper, the Pn]nii">u* equites of Linnams. 
 .Iiiih bear red spots on the chest are 
 Linnsoe, and those without red spots on 
 name of the Grecian heroes. Some of 
 I. utterfljr knights have the anterior pair of feet re- 
 idly shorter than the others; and this arrest of de- 
 Blent would seem to be compensated by greater 
 powers of flight. The butterflies of the section thus char- 
 \ imnlmlidm, are also remarkable for the 
 brilliancy of their colouring. Numerous other sections 
 mbdlvisiona have been founded by modern entomolo- 
 -. afforded t>v modifications of the an- 
 tennas, palpi, and other parts. In the u Plebeian" batter^ 
 dies of Linnsus the burra are oval, the chrysalides short, 
 and the tarsal spurs of the imago are extremely small. 
 
 HI ITER TREE. A remarkable plant found by Park 
 in the interior of Africa, especially in Bamharra, yielding 
 from its kernels, by pressure, a white, firm, rich butter, 
 which, even in that climate, will keep well fora yearwith- 
 :. Another species is the I'hulwara tree of India 
 I, whose seeds produce a firm, :<- 
 'ire, of about the consistence and colour 
 of hog's lard : it is used medicinally in rheumatic affec- 
 tions. The Illupie tree of Coromandel(Bas»ia/</««-i/b/ia), 
 and the Madhuca tree of Bengal (Russia latifolia), are 
 other species having similar properties. They are large 
 tropica] trees, belonging to the natural order SapotacetB, 
 and their tim ines of excellent quality. 
 
 BUTTERS, MINERAL. A name given by the old 
 chemists to some of the chloride* on account of their soft 
 nutyraceous texture when recently prepared; such as but- 
 ler of antimony, of arsenic, and of bismuth. 
 
 BUTTERS, VEGETABLE. "The concrete fixed oils, 
 
 such as those of the cocoa and chocolate nuts, of the nut- 
 
 Ate., which arc solid at common temperatures, are 
 
 lisfinguiahed by the above term. 
 
 BUTTON. The found mass of metal collected at the 
 
 bottom of a crucible after fusion, or which remains in the 
 
 cupel in the process of assaying, is called by this name. 
 
 BUTTRESS. (Fr. aboutir, to lie out.) In Architecture, 
 a mass of brickwork or masonry, built to resist the hori- 
 zontal thrust of another mass. Buttresses are much used 
 11 Gothic architecture, to resist the thrust of the vaulting 
 which covers the naves and aisles of cathedrals. When 
 open they are called flying buttresses. 
 
 BUTTS, Short ridge* of different lengths, which neces- 
 sarily occur in the angle of a field when the direction of 
 the ridges is not parallel to one of the sides. 
 BU'ZZARD. SeeFALCo. 
 
 HV'aRD. A piece of leather crossing the breast, used 
 by the men who drag the sledges in coal mines. 
 
 BYLAWS, or BYE LAWS. (The first syllable from 
 the Danish By, town or hamlet.) Orders and 'constitutions 
 of corporations, courts-led and courts-baron, commoners, 
 or Inhabitants of vills, &c, of which the effect is to impose 
 obligations not enforced by common or statute law. The 
 validity of by-laws rests on the authority of the parties 
 making them, established either by immemorial custom, 
 or by their corporate character; for the power of making 
 by-laws is inherent in a corporation. But the superior 
 court of law have the power of annulling a by-law, if it be 
 unreasonable, or in restraint of trade, or imposing a charge 
 without any apparent benefit to the party, Sec. By the 
 Municipal Corporations Amendment Act (5&6W. 4. c. 
 76. s. 90.) by-laws are to be made by the town council of 
 the borough, and to be valid unless disallowed by the king 
 in council within forty days. 
 BYRE. A word used in Scotland for a cow house. 
 BY'RRHUS. A I.innrean genus of minute Clavicorn 
 Coleopterous insects, now the type of a family, including 
 177 
 
 CAABA. 
 
 those pests of museums which feed in the larva state on 
 bird-skins, preserved insects, <kc. The genera in this 
 family are Byrrhus proper, Himplocaria, Oomorphus, Syn- 
 caUiplu, Xuxwle/itlron, ASfridiphorus, TVinedet, and Antkre 
 nus. Of the latter genus there are six British species, oi 
 which the Anthrenus musaorum may be regarded u the 
 tvpe. 
 
 ' liV'SSIl'ERS, Byasifera. (Let Byssus. and fero, I cur 
 ry.) A family of Lamellibranchiate Acephalous Mollusks, 
 comprehending those species which are attached to foreign 
 bodies hv mean* ofa b 
 
 BY'SSOLITE. (Gr. (ivaoos, Jlax, and XiOoj, a stone.. 
 A soft fibrous mineral from the Alps. 
 
 liY'SSl S. (Gr. ffvaoos, fine Jlax.) A fasciculus u| 
 shining semitransparent horny or jjjlky filaments, secn-ied 
 by a gland at tha base of the footin certain Lamellibrnu- 
 chlate Ilivalves, and serving as an organ of adhesion to 
 submarine rocks or other foreign bodies. 
 
 Byssus. A name formerly given to all those filament 
 ous plants which inhabit cellars and other under-ground 
 close places, and on which no fructification is found ; it 
 was also applied to vegetation of a similar kind when found 
 growing in the air. It is now certain that a large number 
 of these snppoaed plants are merely the young slate <d 
 certain kinds of fungi, or other plants of a low organization ; 
 and. although a few specie* are still retained in the genus, 
 M, and others, it is by no means certain 
 that they are really of a different nature. 
 
 BVZA'NTINE HISTORIANS. A series of Greek his- 
 torians and authors, who lived under the Eastern Empire 
 between the 6lh and the 15th centuries. They may be di- 
 vide, l into three classes ; 1. Historians whose works form 
 a continuous history of (lie Byzantine Empire from the 
 fourth century of the Christian era down to the Turkish 
 conquest of Constantinople. They are nearly thirty In 
 number, with various shades of literary merit; but their 
 works constitute the almost only authentic source of the 
 history of that eventful period. 2. General chroniclers oi 
 historians, whose works, embracing a wider range than 
 those of the former, treat chiefly of the chronography of 
 the world from the oldest times. 3. Authors who confined 
 their attention to the politics, statistics, antiquities, man- 
 ners, A:c. of the Romans. These two classes combined 
 amount also to about thirty, and their writings give an ej 
 cellent illustration of the times of which they treat, whethei 
 as historians, chronicler*, antiquaries, or politicians. The 
 works of the Byzan'ine historians. «fcc. were collected and 
 published by order of Louis XIV. in 36 vols, folio. Pari*, 
 1615-1711. Another and more complete edition was pub 
 
 Venice in 17'_".) and the following years. 
 these many of the Byzantine historians were published 
 separately at different places. But all that had previously 
 been done to evince the importance of these historian*, by 
 the publication of their works, was destined to be eclipsed 
 in our own times. The late professor Niebuhr of Bonn, 
 eminently fitted for the task by his attainments both natu- 
 ral and acquired, projected a new edition of the Byzantine 
 Historians (.Corpus Scriptorum Ilistoriai Byzantina, Ed- 
 itio emendatior et Copiosior, Svo. Bonnae, 1828), which lie 
 superintended till his death. Upwards of 39 volumes have 
 already appeared, comprising 38 authors ; the work will be 
 completed in 60 vols. An elaborate review of the merits of 
 this edition may be found in the Foreign Quarterly Review, 
 vol. 10. 
 
 c. 
 
 C, the third letter of the English and most other Euro- 
 pean alphabets, is borrowed immediately from the Latin 
 alphabet, in which it first appears ; but is derived originally 
 from the ncor y of the Greeks. In English it is pronounced 
 like s before e and /, and like k before a, o, u, and may 
 consequently be considered as superfluous in the alphabet, 
 According to orthographers there are few letters so »tl*s 
 ceptible of interchanges as this letter, and much Ingenuity 
 has been expended in exhibiting its convertibility. As an 
 abbreviation, C is used in ancient MSS. for Cains, Cesar. 
 Consul, Civilas, &c. ; and as a numeral for a hundred. Ii 
 was the symbol of condemnation in the Roman tribunals 
 (being abbreviated for Condemno); and was consequently 
 termed litera tristis, in contradistinction to A {\\><^\ for 
 Ahsolvo), symbolical of acquittal, and thence called Ultra 
 salutaris. 
 
 C. In Music, the name of one of the notes in the scale 
 If. is a character also used for the signification of the time. 
 See Music. 
 
 CAA'BA. The famous square stone In the temple ot 
 Mecca, the object of the adoration of, the entire Moham- 
 medan world. According to the tradition of the Arabs, it 
 is the first spot on earth which was consecrated to the 
 M 
 
CABAL. 
 
 .vorship of the Deity, having been presented by the angel 
 Gabriel to the patriarch Abraham on the occasion of the 
 building of the temple. As is well known, Mohammed 
 enjoined all his followers to visit the shrine of Mecca once 
 in 'their lifetime; and to preserve continually on their 
 minds a sense of their obligation to perform this duty, he 
 directed that in all the multiplied acts of devotion which 
 his religion prescribes, true believers should always turn 
 their faces towards this holy place, called Kebla. It may 
 be added, that the eastern authors frequently designate the 
 temple in which the square stone is concealed, with all its 
 appendages, as Caaba. 
 
 OABA'L. (Fr.) In History, was applied originally to 
 the five cabinet ministers of Charles II. — Clifford, Ashley, 
 ISuckingham, Arlington,^nd Lauderdale — whose initials 
 happened to form the word ; and it has since been used 
 for a junto of individuals, who, too insignificant in point of 
 numbers to form a party, endeavour to effect their pur- 
 poses by underhand measures. 
 
 CA'BALA. A Hebrew word signifying the oral tradition 
 which the Rabbins conceive to complete the system of 
 scriptural interpretation. They maintain that it was de- 
 livered in the first instance to Adam, and again to Abraham 
 and Moses, by direct revelation ; but that since the time of 
 Esdras the memories of the priests and elders have suf- 
 ficed to preserve it in all its purity. As the Masora details 
 the literal explanation of the language of scripture, so the 
 Cabala reveals the hidden truths of which it is the symbol. 
 Every sentence, word, and letter of the inspired volume 
 contain, according to these interpreters, a figurative as well 
 as a direct sense. The former is also not uncommonly 
 manifold ; and a word may be interpreted according to the 
 arithmetical power of the letters which compose it. which 
 species of cabala is called gematria ; or according to the 
 meaning of each individual letter, the entire word thus 
 constituting a sentence, which is called iwtaricon ; or fi- 
 nally according to certain transpositions of the letters, 
 which is denoted by the term themurah. What the mys- 
 terious doctrines of the cabala which were thus discovered 
 actually were, is not very clearly ascertained ; but the sys- 
 tem seems to have been an invention of the philosophising 
 Jews of the latter centuries preceding our era, with the 
 view of accommodating the speculations of the Gnostics to 
 the religion of the Old Testament. 
 
 The Christian cabalists in later times practised a kind 
 3f magic under this name, pretending to the power of di- 
 vination by certain combinations of scriptural characters. 
 
 CABA'LLUS. In Mythology. See Pegasus. 
 
 CABIA'I. In Zoology, the name under which the Cap.- 
 bara or water-hog (Ifydrochorus capibara, Erxl.) is de- 
 scribed by Buffon. See Capibara. 
 
 CA'BINET. In Politics, the governing council of a 
 country : from the cabinet or apartment in which the ruler 
 transacts public business and assembles his privy council. 
 In England a few of the ministers only are ex officio mem- 
 bers of the cabinet. The ministers who are raised to this 
 honour are styled by way of eminence Cabinet ministers, 
 and are more immediately responsible for the acts of the 
 sovereign, as well as for public measures. The distinction 
 between the king's cabinet ministers and the rest of his 
 privy council seems not to have been established in public 
 usage in England before the reign of William HI. 
 
 CAB'IRI. In Pagan Mythology, sacred priests or deified 
 heroes, venerated by the Phoenicians originally as the 
 founders of religion. Various opinions have been enter- 
 tained concerning the nature and origin of the Cabiri : but 
 from the multiplicity of names applied to them, together 
 with the profound secrecy observed in the celebration of 
 their rites, an almost impenetrable veil of mystery has 
 been thrown around their history. They seem to have 
 been men who, having communicated the art of melting 
 metals, &c, were deified by a grateful posterity. Their 
 worship was chiefly cultivated in the island of Samothra- 
 cia, whence it was afterwards transferred to Lemnos, Im- 
 bros, and certain towns of Troas. (Slrabo, x. 473.) They 
 were styled the offspring of Vulcan, though their name was 
 derived from their mother Cabera. daughter of Proteus. 
 Their number is variously given. Those who were initia- 
 ted in their rites were held to be secured against all dan- 
 ger by sea and land. Their distinguishing badge was a 
 purple girdle. An ingenious account of the Cabiri has been 
 given by Professor Miiller of Gottingen, in a dissertation ap- 
 pended to his work on Orchomenus, wherein he rejects 
 the Phoenician or oriental origin of the Cabiri, and regards 
 their worship as purely Pelasgic, and down to a certain 
 point the principal religion of the Greeks. 
 
 CA'BLE. (Gr. kcutAiov, a rope.) The rope or chain by 
 which the anchor of a ship is held. Cables in Europe, un- 
 til within a recent period, were usually made of hemp, but 
 of late years iron chains have come much into use. A 
 hempen cable of 12 inches girth, and length 120 fathoms, 
 weighs 30751bs. Since the weights of two cables of equal 
 lengths will be as their sections, or squares of the girths, it 
 ia easy to deduce the following rule for the weight of any 
 178 
 
 CADDICE-WORMS. 
 
 hempen cable :— Multiply the square of the girth in inches 
 by 21-3 (or 21 nearly enough), the product is the weight in 
 lbs. Since also as the breaking strain, or resistance against 
 the force to part the cable, will be as the section, it will be 
 as the weight, and will be found nearly by dividing the 
 weight in lbs. by 100; the quotient is the breaking strain in 
 tons. This rule is of course liable to great uncertainty from 
 the quality or wear of the cable. Chain cables possess 
 great advantages over hempen cables ; they are not liable 
 to be destroyed by chafing on rocky grounds, nor to be- 
 come rotten and insecure from alternate exposure to the 
 air and water; and by reason of their greater weight the 
 strain is exerted on the cable rather than on the ship. In 
 order that the ship may be enabled to let slip her cable in 
 case of necessity, chain cables are furnished with bolls at 
 distances from each other of a fathom or two, which can 
 be readily withdrawn. A chain of which the section is . 
 inch in diameter breaks with 16 tons ; such a chain is 
 equivalent to a 10 inch hemp cable nearly. And the di- 
 mensions of the chain cable corresponding to any hemp 
 cable are therefore easily found by merely dividing the 
 circumference of the hemp cable by 10. The strength of 
 every part of the chain is proved before it leaves the man- 
 ufactory. The first patent for a chain cable was taken out 
 in 180S by Mr. Slater, a surgeon in the Royal Navy. 
 
 CA'BLED. In Architecture, the filling up the lower 
 part of the flute of a column with a cylindrical piece like a 
 cable. 
 
 CABO'MBEjE. (Cabomba, the name of one of the gen- 
 era.) In Botany, the name given by Richard to the natural 
 order now called Hydropellidecb. 
 
 CA'CHALOT. In Ichthyology, a name for the sperma- 
 ceti or sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus, Linn.) 
 
 CACHE'T, LETTRES DE. In France, under the an- 
 cient government, letters signed with the private seal 
 (cachet) of the king. As warrants for the detention of 
 private citizens, they appear to have been rarely employed 
 before the 17th century. In the reign of Louis XIV. their 
 use became frightfully common. But in other respects 
 they had been not unfrequently made use of, even in ear- 
 lier times, to interfere with the course of justice ; as, by 
 way of injunction to a party not to exercise certain authori- 
 ty, or pursue certain legal steps, &c. Lettres de cachet 
 were never so multiplied as under the administration of 
 Cardinal Fleury : not less than 80,000 are said to have been 
 issued, without any legal judgment, in the proceedings 
 against the Jansenists. Fifty-nine are said to have been is- 
 sued against the family Mirabeau in the reigns of Louis XV. 
 and XVI., of which twenty-two against the famous count 
 himself. So scandalously were they abused, that there is 
 an instance of a countess obtaining one for the imprison- 
 ment of her maid, who had repeated some scandal against 
 her ! They were abolished Jan. 15. 1790. 
 
 CACHE'XIA. (Gr. kokos, bad, and tfu, a habit.) A 
 bad state or habit of body ; whence the term cachexia., oi 
 cachectic disorders. 
 
 CA'CHOLONG. A milk-white chalcedony, originally 
 found on the borders of the river Cach in Bucharia. 
 Cholong, in the language of the Calmucks, is said to signify 
 a stone. 
 
 CACHU'NDE. A celebrated Chinese medicine, com- 
 posed chiefly of aromatic stimulants. 
 
 CA'CODjE'MON. (Gr. KaKoSatftuiv, an evil spirit.^ 
 See Djemon. 
 
 CACO'PHONY. (Gr. nano(, bad, and tpotvsi, a sound.) 
 In Rhetoric, a defect of style, consisting in a harsh or disa- 
 greeable sound produced by the meeting of two or more 
 letters or syllables, or by the too frequent repetition of the 
 same letters or syllables : e. g. 
 
 And oft the ear tlie open vowels tire.— Fope. 
 
 CACTA'CE^:. (Cactus, one of the genera.) A small 
 natural order of Exogens, remarkable for their gay and 
 large flowers, and for the grotesque forms of some of the 
 species. They are found wild in hot dry countries, in arid 
 situations, where they are enabled to exist because of the 
 thickness of their skin, which allows very little moisture 
 to be lost through it. Many of the species are like succu- 
 lent Euphorbias, from which they are however known by 
 their not milking when wounded. All the species are 
 harmless; some have eatable fruit ; and one, the Opunfia 
 cochinillifcra, is the favourite haunt of the cochineal 
 insect. 
 
 CA'CUS. In Fabulous History, the son of Vulcan, a 
 robber of Italy, whose dwelling was in the Aventine wood. 
 His exploits form the subject of a fine episode in the 8th 
 book of the JEneid. He was represented as a frightful 
 monster of enormous strength, who, after a long life of 
 crime, was at length slain by Hercules, from whom he had 
 stolen some oxen. To express his gratitude for his victory. 
 Hercules erected the Ara Maxima ; and Evander, with his 
 infant colony of Arcadians, performed divine honours to 
 Hercules astheir benefactor. 
 
 CA'DDICE-WORMS, or CASE-WORMS. The larvre 
 or grubs of the Trichopterous insects are so called, on ac- 
 
CADENCE. 
 
 ;ountof being inclosed in a sheath or case. This is al- 
 ways composed of extraneous substances glued together 
 by a cement excreted from the skin of the grub ; and dif- 
 ferent species of the caddis-worm protect themselves by 
 moans of different materials thus joined together. Some, 
 
 .-s their larva state under water and creep along 
 lorn, combine bits of sticks or rushes with small 
 
 or shells, to make their cases heavier than water; 
 others, which float on the top and gather their food from 
 thence, form a slight and slender tube of a narrow slip of 
 
 lich is rolled r id the body in a spiral direction, 
 
 with the edges so nicely fitting as to seem but one piece. 
 In every case the worm adheres by a pair of hooks at its 
 hinder extremity to the bottom of the sheath, and only 
 
 :s the head and two following segments, the skin 
 <>f which is harder than th:it c o vering the rest of the body. 
 
 uicb creep at the bottom drag themselves along 
 by means of their mandibles. At the conclusion of their 
 as grubs, they moor their case to some large 
 Btone or other fixed and submerged body, and close the 
 outlet by a net-work of silken threads, which prevents the 
 entry of any inimical intruder, but admits the water ne- 
 cessary for respiration. They then cast their outer skin, 
 and for ■ while remain In the usual passive condition of a 
 pupa ; and now the organising energy is vigorously effect- 
 ing the wonderful changes which lead to the full perfec- 
 tion of the insect. But, as it Would be obviously dangerous 
 to the air-breathing imago to be excluded in its first feeble 
 state under water, the pupa here exhibits a locomotive 
 power which is without a parallel in other orders of the 
 m-t.imorphotic insects ; being provided wiihapairof small 
 and slurp hooks at the head, it cuts the threads with which 
 in i previous stale it had confined itself, and creeping out 
 of i If water cists oil* its pupa skin, ami emerges a May-fly 
 or I'liri/ganea. 
 
 < I'DENCE. (Ital. cadenza, in falling.) In Music, the 
 
 on of a song, or of some parts thereof, in certain 
 if the piece, dividing it as it were into so many 
 number* or periods. The cadence fakes place when the 
 parts fail or terminate on a note or chord naturally expect- 
 ed by the ear, just as a period closes the sense in the para- 
 graph o( a discourse. A cadence is either perfect or im- 
 perfect. The former when it consists of two noles sung 
 
 h other, or by degrees conjoined in each of the 
 
 -. the harmony of the fifth preceding that of the 
 key note ; and it is called perfect, because it satisfies the 
 est* more than the latter. The latter imperfect ; that iB, 
 when the key note with its harmony precedes that of the 
 fifth without its added seventh. A cadence is said to t.e 
 Diofcen or interrupted when the bass rises a major or mi- 
 oiil. Instead of failing a fifth. 
 
 T. (Fr.) A pupil in a military academy, whose 
 aim is to qualify himself, by a due course of study, to en- 
 ter the military service or the service of die English Baal 
 
 mpany as an officer of the line, artillery, or engi- 
 neers. In England there are three grand institutions for 
 the education of cadets: Sandhurst for the British line; 
 
 :i for the artillery and engineers; and Addiscombe 
 
 for the Indian army, both line and artillery. The Academy 
 
 hinted by George III. for the purpose 
 
 of affording general and professional instruction to the 
 
 sons of private or military gentlemen, with the view of 
 
 aining commissions in the British army without 
 
 Before the commission is conferred, the cadet 
 
 must undergo an examination before a competent board in 
 
 lice, mathematics, military drawing. &c. The 
 expenses of this academy were formerly defrayed by 
 government; but a change was recently introduced, by 
 which the sons of private gentlemen must pay an annual 
 sum of £196, and the sons of general or odter officers less 
 sums in proportion to their rank. 
 
 The academy at Woolwich was established with the view- 
 er qualifying cadets for the artliery or engineers; and to 
 this institution the master-general of the ordnance has the 
 sole right of granting admission. As the nature of the es- 
 tablishment at Woolwich requires the prosecution of a 
 more strict and professional course of study than at Sand- 
 hurst, the attention of the cadets is specially directed to 
 geography; general history, ancient and modern; modern 
 •■-■ ; military drawing and surveying ; mathematics ; 
 engineering and fortification. After the lapse of four years, 
 generally, the cadets undergo an examination in the above 
 mentioned branches of science; when the most distin- 
 guished are selected for the engineers, the others for the 
 artillery. And here it may be observed, that not merely 
 
 •t academy, but the whole vast establishment at 
 Woolwich, its arsenal, its repository, its laboratory, are com- 
 ponent parts of one and the same great school of military 
 
 college of Addiscombe is established for the edu- 
 cation of officers of the line, artillery, and engineers for 
 the Indian army, the plan of instruction pursued there 
 combines the two systems adopted at Sandhurst and at 
 Woolwich. In order to become a cadet in this institution, 
 179 
 
 CESURA. 
 
 it is necessary to have the promise of a commission 
 from a director of the East India Company; and after a 
 prescribed examination, an appointment is obtained in one 
 of the branches of the Indian army, according to the merit 
 lire of the cadet. We may here incidentally re- 
 mark, that no cadet, even after bein» thoroughly versed in 
 the theory of military science, is suffered to join the engi- 
 neers either of the Queen's service or that of the E. 1. 
 Company, before he has gone through a regular course «f 
 practical instruction in sapping, mining, ami the whole pro- 
 cesses of a siege, as well as in other departments of fleli ! en- 
 gineering, pontooning, the construction of military bridges, 
 to., in the admirable establishment for these purposes at 
 Chatham. ( United Senice Juttr.) 
 
 En France the academies for cadets which existed pre- 
 viously to the French Revolution have been merged in the 
 Polytecnic schools. 
 
 The Dutch possess two institutions of this nature ; one 
 at Breda, the other at Delft. 
 
 In the United States there is one at West Point, on near- 
 ly the same principle as that at Addiscombe. 
 
 In Germany every small state has a military school : 
 while those at Berlin, Vienna, and Munich are on so ex- 
 l Kale as to challenge a comparison with any simi- 
 lar institutions in Europe. In Germany, too, the word cadet 
 has a wider signification than in England, being applied to 
 those persons who, without having frequented a military 
 school, Join the army in the expectation of obtaining a com- 
 mission when they have gained a competent knowledge of 
 the service. 
 
 In Rossis there is a famous academy for cadets, which 
 was instituted by Ann at St. Petersburg in 1728" and since 
 lis foundation has afforded instruction in military science 
 to upwards of 9000 pupils, many of whom have acquired 
 celebrity in the annals of Russian literature. 
 
 CA'DL (In Arabic, a judge.) Among the Turks the 
 inferior judges are styled Cacti. The Spanish Aicayde or 
 is derived from the same root. 
 
 CA'DMIDM. A white metal, much like tin ; it fuses and 
 volatilises at a temperature a little below that at which tin 
 melts. Specific gravity about 9. Its ores are associated 
 with those of zinc. It was discovered in 1818 by Professor 
 Siromeyer of Gottiugen. Its equivalent number is 5G. It 
 forms a yellow salifiable oxide, composed of 56 cadmium 
 + 8 oxygen =04 oxide of cadmium. Its scarcity prevents 
 its employment in the arts, but the oxide has been used as 
 a pigment. 
 
 (' Wd'CEUS. In Antiquity, a rod of laurel or olive with 
 illation of two snakes twisted round it. It was 
 the symbol of peace, and formed the chief badge of the 
 Grecian heralds, whose persons were held sacred. In My- 
 thology, the Caduceus was the symbol of Mercury, thence 
 called Caducifer, to whom it was said to have been pre- 
 sented bv Apollo In return for his invention of the lyre. 
 
 < \M '< lliU/AVIIIATES. (Lat. caducus, fading ; 
 branchiae, gills.) Those Bratrachians which undergo a me- 
 tamorphosis, and lose their branchial apparatus before ar- 
 riving at the period of maturity ; as the frog, toad, sala- 
 mander, and newt. 
 
 CADU'COUB. (Lat. cado, I fall.) In Botany, when a 
 part is temporary, and soon disappears or falls off. 
 
 CfO'CA. (Lat. caucus, blind.) In Comparative Anatomy, 
 the blind processes of the alimentary canal are generally 
 so called. Those in fishes occur at the beginning of the 
 intestines, where they are often numerous and long, repre 
 sentlng the pancreas. In birds they are found near the 
 termination of the intestines, and are generally two in 
 number. In mammals the caecum is commonly single, 
 and situated at the beginning of the large intestines ; it is of 
 enormous size in the herbivorous species with simple 
 stomachs. In the lower animals the intestinal glands which 
 communicate with the intestines generally retain their pri- 
 mitive form of caeca. 
 
 C^E'CUM. (Lat. cascus, blind.) In Human Anatomy, 
 the first portion of the large intestines, in which the ileum 
 terminates by a valve. The caecum is a kind of append- 
 age to the intestinal canal, open at one end only, whence 
 the name blind gut ; it has a small process attached to it, 
 called the appendix caeivermiformis. 
 
 C^'SAR. This title, originally the name of a branch of 
 the Julian family at Rome, was assumed as a mark of dig- 
 nity by the emperors after Nero. It became subse- 
 quently the title of the presumptive heir to the empire, and 
 the next title of dignity after Augustus ; but was superseded 
 in the Greek empire under Alexis Comnenus by that of 
 Sebastocrator. In the West, it was assumed by the em- 
 perors of Germany ; and, in German, " Kaiser" is now the 
 peculiar title of the emperor of Austria, who has succeeded 
 to several of the dignities of the former. 
 
 CESA'REAN OPERATION. The extraction of the 
 child from the womb by an operation. Julius Caesar is said 
 to have been thus brought into the world. 
 
 CiESU'RA. (Lat. caedo, Icut.) In prosody, a metrical 
 break in the verse, occasioned by the separation of thefirst 
 
CAFFEUY 
 
 jyllable of a foot, forming the last of a word, from the next 
 syllable, forming the first of another. In the Latin hex- 
 ameter the principal caesura, without which the line is un- 
 musical, occurs generally after the fourteenth time (each 
 long syllable containing two times, each short syllable one: 
 see Rhythm) ; thus, 
 
 Arma Tirumqne cano | Trojx qu! primus ab oris 
 Sueluncffi vivique lacus ] at frigida Tempe. 
 
 The slight, pause which follows the syllable at which the 
 interruption takes place is termed the caesural pause. In 
 English verse a line is frequently musical without any cae- 
 sura at all; i. e. in which the pause takes place always at 
 the end of a foot. But a caesura in the middle of the third, 
 and in the middle of the fourth foot of an heroic verse, are 
 by no means uncommon, and particularly appropriate in 
 blank verse, in which they represent the two common 
 csesuraj of the Latin hexameter. 
 
 I sing the sofa | I who lately fang 
 
 Of mail's first disobedience | audtlie fruit. 
 
 In the first of these lines the caesura is in the third, in 
 the latter in the fourth foot. 
 
 CAFFE'IN. A bitter crystallizable substance contained 
 in coffee. A portion of it volatilizes during the roasting of 
 coffee. It has not been applied to any use. 
 
 (,'AIIIE'R. (Fr.) Derived by some from the Lat. codex, 
 by others from quaternio. It signifies in its proper sense 
 a number of sheets of paper loosely tied together. In 
 French history, it denotes the reports and proceedings of 
 certain assemblies; as those of the clergy, states general, 
 the notables, &c. The famous cahiers presented by the 
 states general to the king of France at their convocation 
 on the 24th of June, 1789, contain the best account of the 
 then state of France. They were systematized and con- 
 densed In a book in 3 volumes, called "L'Esprit des Ca- 
 hiers," to which the reader is referred. 
 
 CAI'NCIC ACID. A peculiar acid discovered by 
 Pelletier and Caventou in the bark of the cainca root, a 
 Brazilian shrub employed for the cure of intermittent 
 fever. 
 
 CAI'NITES. A strange sect of heretics, who appeared 
 about 159 a. d. They probably originated in some of the 
 various schools of Manicheism ; and, if their doctrines are 
 truly reported to us, they are said to have asserted that 
 the power which created heaven and earth was the evil 
 principle ; that Cain, Esau. Korah, the people of Sodom, 
 and others whom the Old Testament represents as vic- 
 tims of peculiar divine judgments, were in fact children 
 of the good principle, and enemies of the evil. Some of 
 them are said to have published a gospel of Judas on the 
 same principle. The Quintilianists, so called from a lady 
 named Quintilia, of whom Tertullian speaks, were an off- 
 Bet of this sect. 
 
 CK IRA, CA IRA. (Literally, it (the Revolution) shall 
 gj on. ) The burden of a famous revolutionary song, which 
 was composed in the year 1790 in denunciation of the 
 French aristocracy. The tune and sentiments of this song 
 were much inferior to those of the Marseillaise Hymn 
 (" Allons enfans de la patrie"), the object of which was to 
 rouse the French to defend their country against foreign 
 aggression. 
 
 CAIRN. A word of Celtic origin, used to denote the 
 piles of stones of a conical form so frequently found on 
 the tops of hills. &c. in various districts; erected probably, 
 as Sir R. C. Hoare observes, in general, for the mere pur- 
 pose of memorials, although some have assigned to them 
 a peculiar character, as receptacles for the bodies of cri- 
 minals burnt in the wicker images of the Druids, &c. Ac- 
 cording to some antiquaries, cairn is distinct from carnedd, 
 the Welsh name for heaps of stones on the tops of high 
 mountains (Carnedd David, Carnedd Llewellyn, &c), 
 which are said to have been sacrificial. Some cairns are 
 undoubtedly sepulchral. In common language, a cairn is 
 distinguished from a barrow, the former being a heap of 
 stones, the latter a mound of earth ; but in all probability 
 they had for the most part the same object, and the dif- 
 ference of materials was merely occasioned by local cir- 
 cumstances. See Bahrow. 
 
 CAIRNGO'RM STONE. A yellow or brown variety of 
 rock crystal or crystallized silica, from the mountain 
 Cairngorm in Scotland. 
 
 CA'ISSON. (Fr.) In Architecture, a sunken panel in 
 a flat or vaulted ceiling, or in the sofflt of a cornice. In 
 ceilings they are of various geometrical forms, and often 
 enriched with rosettes or other ornaments. Caisson, In 
 bridge building, is a large chest or vessel in which the 
 piers of a bridge are built. This sinking as the work ad- 
 vances, its bottom at last comes in contact with the bed of 
 the river, when the sides are disengaged, its construction 
 being such as to admit of their being thus detached without 
 injury to the floor or bottom. 
 
 CA'JEPUT OIL. A volatile oil obtained by distilling the 
 leaves of the Melaleuca minor, a shrub abundant in Am- 
 boyrta and Borneo, whence the oil is imported. This oil 
 190 
 
 CALCULUS. 
 
 is of various shades of green, highly pungent and aromatic, 
 and powerfully stimulant and diaphoretic. It has been 
 much extolled as a remedy in the Asiatic cholera, but 
 other essential oils are probably as effectual. 
 
 CA'LAMARY. (Calamus, a pen ; theca calamaria, the 
 pen fish.) A Cephalopod ; so called because it has a horny 
 substance shaped like a quill in its back, and contains an 
 ink-bag in its visceral sac: it is the Loligo vulgaris of 
 Cuvier. 
 
 CA'LAMINE. A native carbonate of zinc, Lapis cala 
 minaris. It is a zinc ore used in the manufacture ol 
 brass. 
 
 CA'LAMUS. (Gr. Ka^a/jos, a reed.) A name occasion 
 ally employed in botany for such simple fistular stems 
 without articulations, as occur in rushes and similai 
 plants. 
 
 CA'LAMUS AROMA'TICUS. The rhizoma of the Aco- 
 rns calamus, common over the whole of Europe in moist 
 situations ; it is usually known under the name of sweet 
 flag. An infusion of the root is a good aromatic tonic. It 
 yields a very small portion of essential oil when distilled 
 with water (scarcely exceeding a thousandth part of its 
 weight), which is used by perfumers. 
 
 CALA'THIUM, or CALATHID1UM. (Gr. kolUOos, a 
 cup.) Is a botanical term, employed by some German bo 
 tanists to denote that kind of depressed contracted inflo- 
 rescence which is found in composite flowers. It is in re- 
 ality an umbel with all the flowers sessile. 
 
 CALATRA'VA. ORDER OF, IN SPAIN, so denomi- 
 nated from a castle taken from the Moors, was instituted 
 by Sancho III. King of Castile, in 1158. The kings of 
 Spain are perpetual grand masters of this order of knight- 
 hood. 
 
 CA'LCAR. (Lat. calcar, a sjmr.) This term is applied 
 by botanists to all hollow prolongations downwards of 
 leaves or the parts of a flower. The long hollow horns 
 which hang down from one of the sepals of a Tropoelum, 
 or from the labellum of an Orchis, or the curved bodies 
 enclosed within the hood of an Aconite flower, are de- 
 scribed by this name. 
 
 CALCA'REOUS SOIL. (Lat. calx, lime.) Soil of which 
 lime forms a principal component part. Kirwan alleges 
 that no soil will continue long fertile that does not contain 
 some proportion of lime ; and this has been subsequently 
 proved by what takes place in North America. See lh/j- 
 fin's Essay on Calcareous Manures. Johnston's Agricultu- 
 ral Chemistry. 
 
 CALCEOLA'RIA. (Calceolus, a small slipper.) A genus 
 of beautiful herbaceous or shrubby plants with yellow, or 
 orange, or purple flowers, the lower half of which is shaped 
 sometimes like an old-fashioned slipper. They naturally 
 inhabit rocks, rich plains, and woods, in Chili, Peru, or 
 New Grenada. In this country many of them are hardy 
 enough to live in the open air in summer; and some will 
 even endure our winters, if not very severe. They are, 
 however, all cultivated with most "success if regarded as 
 greenhouse plants. 
 
 CALCINA'TiON. The reduction of substances to cinder 
 or ash. The term is derived from the Latin word calx, 
 quicklime, which, as is well known, is prepared by the ac- 
 tion of heat upon limestone ; and hence the old chemists 
 employed the word calcination to express any supposed 
 analogous change, metallic substances being apparently 
 converted into earthy matter by calcination. 
 
 CA'LCIUM. The metallic base of lime, discovered in 
 1808 by Davy. This substance has hitherto been obtained 
 in such small quantities, that its properties have not been 
 accurately investigated. It is probably a brilliant white 
 metal, highly inflammable, and more than twice as heavy 
 as water. Combined with oxygen it forms lime, which 
 consists of 20 calcium -+■ 8 oxygen = 28 lime. 
 
 CALC-SI'NTER. (German. From kalk, lime, and sin 
 tern, to drop.) The calcareous deposit of certain springs. 
 
 CALC-SPAR. Calcareous spar, or crystallized carbo 
 nate of lime. 
 
 CA'LCULA'TION, CA'LCULUS. (Lat. calculus, a 
 small pebble, the Romans having made use of pebbles in 
 casting up accounts.) In modern language, the term cal- 
 cidus is employed to denote any branch, or any operation 
 of mathematics, which requires or may involve numerical 
 calculation ; and therefore may be applied to the whole of 
 the mathematical sciences, excepting pure geometry. 
 Thus that part of algebra which treats of exponents is 
 called the experimental calculus. In like manner the 
 phrases calculus of definite integrals, calculus of functions 
 calculus of variations, Sfc, are used to denote certain 
 branches of the higher mathematics. See Differential 
 Calculus. Integral Calculus, Variations. 
 
 CA'LCULUS. (Dimin. of calx, a limestone.) In Phy- 
 siology, the general term for inorganic secretions of various 
 kinds, formed in various parts of the body, and bearing in 
 shape or composition a general resemblance to stones. 
 The term calculus is, however, generally confined to urin- 
 ary concretions. See Urine. 
 
CALDARIUM. 
 
 CALDA'RIUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, by 
 some author* used in the same sense as Laconicum, was 
 in apartment in the baths heated forthepurpd 
 
 plration. Vitruvius, however, used the word to signify 
 i hot bath. 
 OALEA / NTHTJM. Pliny's term for copperas. 
 CA'LEMBOURG. A French expression for that kind 
 uf witticism which in England is denominated a pun. A 
 certain Westphaliau Count Calemherg (Kahlcnberg), who 
 I l'.iris in (he reign of Louis XV., and was famous for 
 his blunders in the French language, is said to be the per- 
 ton Immortalized by the employment of his name to de- 
 fies of jeu de mots. 
 CA'LENDAR. A distribution or division of time into 
 oeriods adapied to the purposes of civil life; also a tabic 
 ./ register of such divisions, exhibiting the order in which 
 'fie seasons, months, festivals, and holidays succeed each 
 sther during the year. The word is derived from the 
 indent Latin verb calare, to call. In the early ages of 
 Rom . it m ih.: custom for the pontiles to call the people 
 • r on the first day of each month, to apprise them 
 lays that were to be kept sacred in the course of it. 
 Hence dies calenda, the calends or first days of the differ- 
 ent mouths. 
 
 The calendars in use throughout Europe are borrowed 
 
 from that of the Romans. It omnia is supposed to have 
 
 iken to divide the year in such a manner that 
 
 ceitain epochs should return periodically after a revolu- 
 
 ; the sun ; but the knowledge of astronomy was not 
 
 then sufficiently advanced lo allow this to be done wuh 
 
 ment of the' 
 livided it into 10 mouths— March, April, 
 May, June, Quititili ;.tember, October, Novem- 
 
 ber, and December. March, May. Quintilis, and October, 
 contained thirty-one days each ; the other six contained 
 only thirty. The names Quintilis and S.-xtihs remained 
 in the calendar till the end of the republic, when tin y were 
 into July and August ; the former in flattery of 
 Julius Cesar, and the latter of Aug 
 
 The year of Romulus contained only 304 days. Noma 
 added two months : January lo the beginning of the year, 
 and February to the end. About the year 432 B. c. this 
 ment was changed by the Decemvirs, who placed 
 February after January ; since that time the order of the 
 months nan remained undisturbed. In Ntuna'a year the 
 
 ".' and 30 days alien. 
 pond with Ihe synodic revolution of the moon. The year 
 would therefore consist of 354 days; but one day was 
 added lo make the number odd, as being more lucky. In 
 produce a correspondence with the solar year, 
 Hums ordered an intercalary month to be inserted every 
 s vi. nd year between the 23rd and 24th of February, coo- 
 Itemately of 22 and 23 days. Had this regulation 
 been strictly adhered to, the mean length of the rear 
 would have been 365^ days, and the months would nave 
 continued fur a long time lo correspond with the same sea- 
 sons, lint a discretionary poweroverlhe intercalary month 
 was exercised by the pontiffs, who frequently abused it for 
 the purpose of hastening or retarding the days of the elec- 
 tion of magistrates; and Ihe Roman calendar continued in 
 a state of uncertainly ami confusion till the time of Julius 
 Csaar, when the civil equinox differed from the astrono- 
 mical by three months. 
 
 Under tlie advice of Ihe astronomer S oajgenea, Caesar 
 abolished the lunar year, and regulated the civil year en- 
 tirely by Ihe sun. He decreed that the common year 
 should consist of 363 days; but that every fourth year 
 contain 3GG. In distributing the davs among the 
 months, he ordered that the odd montbe, that is, 
 third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh, should 
 contain each 31 days, and the other months 30; excepting 
 February, which in common years was lo contain only 29 
 days, but every fourth year 30 days. This natural and 
 Convenient arrangement was interrupted to gratify the 
 vanity of Augustus, by giving August, the month 
 named after him, an equal number of davs with July, 
 which was named after the first Ctesar. The inti 
 day, which occurred every fourth year, was Ini 
 tween ihe 21th and 25th of February. According to Ihe 
 peculiar and awkward manner of reckoning adopted by the 
 llomans, the 24th of February was called the sixth before the 
 oalends of March, sexto calendas. In the iulercalary year 
 this day was repeated, and called bis sexto . 
 the term bissextile. The corresponding 
 term, leap year, appears less correct, as it seems to imply 
 ill it a day was leapt over instead of being thrust in. it 
 remarked, that in the ecclesiastical calendar the 
 ry day is still inserted between the 24th and 25th 
 of February. 
 
 Fbe Julian year consisted of 3Go'.; days, and conse- 
 quently differed in excess by 11 minutes 10 35 sec. from 
 the true solar year, which consists of 305 d. 5 h. 48 m. 
 19-62 sec. In consequence of this difference the astrono- 
 mical equinox, in the course of a few centuries, sensibly fell 
 1S1 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 back towards Ihe beginning of the year, tn the time of 
 Julius Cawar it corresponded lo the 25th of March ; in the 
 sixteenth century it had retrograded lo the 11th. The 
 correction of this error was one of ihe purposes sought to 
 be obtained by the reformation of the calendar effected by 
 Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582. By suppressing 10 days in 
 the calendar, Gregory restored ihe equinox to the 21st of 
 March, the day on which it fell at the time of the Council 
 of Nice in 325; the place of Easter and the other ; 
 
 church feasts in the ecclesiastical calendar having I n 
 
 prescribed at that council. And in order that the same 
 Inconvenience might be prevented in future, he 
 the intercalation which took place every fourth y 
 omitted in years ending centuries; that is to say, on ihe 
 100th, 200th, &c. ; excepting on the 400th, and the years 
 which are multiples of 400. The Gregorian rule of inter- 
 in may therefore be expressed as follows: — 
 
 " Every year of which the number is divisible by 4 with- 
 out a remainder is a leap year, exceptins I 
 years, which are only leap years when divisible by 4 after 
 suppressing the two zeros." Thus 1600 was a leap year; 
 1700 and 1800 were common years ; 1900 will be a common 
 year, 2000 a leap year, and so on. 
 
 The Gregorian method of intercalation thus gives 9? in- 
 tercalations in 400 years; consequently 400 years contain 
 400X365+97=146007 days, and therefore the length of one 
 year is 365-2425 days, or 365 d. 5 h. 49 m. 12 sec, which 
 exceeds the true solar year by 22 38 sec, an error which 
 amounts only to one day in 3S66 years. 
 
 If an astronomer were required, without any ri 
 lo established usages, lo give a rule of intercalation by 
 which the commencement of the civil year, while it al- 
 ways coincided with the commencement of a day, should 
 deviate the least possible from the same instant of ihe 
 lolarjear, he would proceed as follows : — The leuglhof the 
 mean solar year being 365-242241 days, the excess above a 
 whole number of days is 242241, which converted In*' 
 continued fraction becomes 
 
 I 
 
 "4+L_ 
 
 ?+J 
 
 1+1 
 4+1 
 7+l_ 
 l+,&c. 
 Whence the following series of approximative fractions l* 
 derived. 
 
 j_ j_ JL JL 8Sl 320 
 
 4, 29, 33, 161, 1160, 1321, Ac. 
 Of these the first gives an hit- I day in -i 
 
 years, which suppose the year lo be ■ 
 
 d gives 7 intercalations in 29 years, and su 
 length Of Ihe year lo be 366 d. 5 h. 47 tn. 36 sec, win. 
 
 somewhat too small. The third fraction, . i - remarks. 
 
 3 3 
 ble, as giving a year which differs in excess from the trui 
 solar by 15-38 seconds ; so that by intercalating 8 times In 
 33 years, or 7 times successively at the i: lurtli 
 
 year, and once at the end of the fifth year, the difference 
 between the civil and solar year would only accumulate lo 
 a day in about 5000 years, while in the Gregorian calendar 
 the-error amounts to a day in 3860 years. Nevertheless 
 the Gregorian rule has this advantage, that leap year is al- 
 ways readily distinguished. 
 
 The Gregorian calendar was received immediately or 
 shortly after its promulgation by all the Roman Catholic 
 countries of Europe. The Protestant states of Germany, 
 and the kingdom of Denmark, adhered to the Julian calen- 
 dar till 1700; and in England the alteration w 
 fully opposed by popular prejudices till 1752. In that . 
 the Julian calendar, or old style, as it was called, was 
 formally abolished by the act of parliament, and the date 
 used in all public transactions rendered coincident with 
 that followed in other European countries, by enacting 
 that Ihe day following the 2nd of September of the 
 1752 should be called the 14th of that month. When the 
 alteration was made by Gregory it was only necessary tt> 
 drop 10 days ; the year 1700 having intervened, which wan 
 a common year in the Gregorian but a leap year In 
 Julian calendar, it was now necessary to drop 11 d 
 The old style is still adhered to in Russia and (he 
 tries following ihe communion of the Greek church ; the 
 difference of date in the present century amounts to twi 
 days. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Calendar. — The adaptation of the civil in 
 the solar year is attended with no difficulty ; but the church 
 calendar for regulating the moveable feasts imposes i 
 ditions less easily satisfied. The early Christians borrowed 
 a portion of their ritual from Ihe Jews. The Jewish year 
 was luni-solar; that is to say, depended on the moon a* 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 vreilan on the sun. Easter, the principal Christian festival, 
 in imitation of the Jewish Passover, was celebrated about 
 the time of the full moon. Differences of opinion, and 
 consequently disputations, soon arose as to the proper day 
 on which the celebration should be held. In order to put 
 an end to an unseemly contention, the Council of Nice 
 laid down a specific rule, and ordered that Easter should 
 always be celebrated on the Sunday which immediately 
 follows the full moon that happens upon or next alter the 
 day of the> vernal equinox. In order to determine Easter 
 according to this rule for any particular year, it is necessa- 
 ry to reconcile three periods ; namely, the week, the lunar 
 month, and the solar year. To find the day of the week 
 on which any given day of the year falls, it is necessary to 
 know on what day of the week the year began. IntheJulian 
 calendar this was easily found by means of a short period 
 or cycle of 28 years (see Cycle), after which the year be- 
 gins with the same day of the week. In the Gregorian cal- 
 endar this order is interrupted by the omission of the in- 
 tercalation in the last year of. the century. But to render 
 any calculation unnecessary a table is given in the prayer 
 books, showing the correspondence of the days of the 
 year and the week for the current century. (<S'ee also Do- 
 minical Letter.) The connection of the lunar month 
 with the solar year is an ancient problem, for the resolu- 
 tion of which the Greeks invented cycles or periods, which 
 remained in use with some modifications till the time of 
 the Gregorian reformation. (See Metonic Cycle, Gold- 
 en Number.) The author of the Gregorian calendar, Lui- 
 gi Lilio Ghiraldi, or, as he is frequently called, Aloysius 
 Lilius, employed for the same purpose a set of numbers 
 called Epacts (for an explanation of the use of which see 
 Epact). It is to be desired that this complicated system 
 of rules and tables were rendered unnecessary by abolish- 
 ina the use of the lunar month, and causing Easter to fall 
 invariably on the same Sunday of a calendar month ; for 
 example, on the first or second Sunday of April. 
 
 New French Calendar. — A new reform of the calendar 
 was attempted to be introduced in France during the pe- 
 riod of the Revolution. The commencement of the year 
 was fixed at the autumnal equinox, which nearly coincided 
 with the epoch of the foundation of the republic. The 
 names of the ancient months were abolished, and others 
 substituted having reference to agricultural labours, or the 
 state of nature in the different seasons of the year. But 
 the alteration was found to be inconvenient and impracti- 
 cable, and after a few years was formally abandoned. 
 (Cyc/.e, Era, Hejira, Year. See Nicolas's Chronology 
 of History.) 
 
 CA'LENDER. A machine for pressing and smoothing 
 cloth and other articles, which when so prepared are said 
 to be calendered. It literally means hot-pressing ; from 
 cater, heat. 
 
 CA'LENDS, in the ancient Roman calendar, were the 
 first days of each month. The Roman month was divided 
 into three periods by the Calends, the Nones, and the Ides. 
 The Calends were invariably placed at the beginning of the 
 month; the Ides at the middle of the month, on the 13th or 
 15th ; and the Nones (novem, nine) were the ninth day be- 
 fore the Ides, counting inclusively. From these three 
 terms the days were counted backwards, in the following 
 manner :— Those days comprised between the calends and 
 the nones were denominated days before the nones ; those 
 between the nones and the ides, days before the ides ; and 
 those from the ides to the end of the month, days before 
 the calends. Hence the phrases pridie calendas, tertio ca- 
 lendas, &c; meaning the second day before the calends, 
 or last day of the month, the third day before the calends, 
 or last but one of the month (the calends or first day of the 
 following month being included in the reckoning), and so 
 on. In the months of March, May, July, and October, the 
 ides fell on the 15th da.y, and the nones, consequently, on 
 the 7th. In all the other months the ides fell on the 13th, 
 and the nones, consequently, on the 7th. The number of 
 days receiving their denomination from the calends de- 
 pended on the number of days in the month and the day 
 on which the ides fell. For example, if the month had 
 thirty-one days, and the ides fell on the 13th (as happened 
 in January, August, and December), there would remain 
 eighteen days after the ides, which, added to the first of 
 the following month, made nineteen days of calends. 
 Hence the 14th day of January was styled the nineteenth 
 before the calends of February ; the following day, or 15th 
 of the month, was Me eighteenth before the cale?ids, and so on. 
 
 CALE'NDULIN. A mucilaginous substance or species 
 of gum obtained from the marigold. 
 
 CA'I.ENTURE. (I.at. caleo.) A delirious fever, pro- 
 fluced by the sun, in which it is common for the patient to 
 imagine the sea to be green fields. 
 
 CA'I.IBER, or CALIPER. (Fr. calibre.) Thethickness 
 or diameter of any round or cylindrical body, as of the bore 
 of a gun or of its ball. 
 
 CA'LICO-PRINTING. The art of producing figured 
 patterns upon calico ; they are transferred to its surface by 
 182 
 
 CALIXTINE&. 
 
 blocks, copier plates, or engraved cylinders, ty which th( 
 colours are directly printeo, or by which mordants are st 
 applied that when the calico is immersed in a colouring 
 bath, the colour only adheres or is produced upon the 
 parts to which the mordant had been previously applied. 
 See Dyeing. .S'ee also Bertholleton Dyeing and Bleaching, 
 edited by Dr. Ere, new edition, 8vo. 1841. 
 
 CA'LiDUCT. (Lat. calidus, hot, and ductus, a convey- 
 ance.) In Architecture, a pipe or Jlue for the distribution 
 of heat In an apartment or house. 
 
 CALIGI'D.fl3. A family of parasitic Entomostracous 
 Crustaceans, belonging to the order Siphonostunia, charac- 
 terized by having the mouth organized for piercing and 
 suction. The parasites of this family prey almost exclu- 
 sively upon fish, and are commonly called fish-lice. Gold- 
 fish are sometimes infested to an almost incredible extent 
 with a species, the Monocidvs foliaceus of Linnanis, which 
 is nearly a quarter of an inch long, having the body covered 
 with a broad round transparent shield, notched behind to 
 give free motion to the tail. The first pair of legs are 
 shaped like a cupping-glass, and for the purpose of holding 
 on ; the four last pairs are formed for swimming and ter- 
 minated each by two long and feathered filaments, proba- 
 bly subservient to respiration. 
 
 CA'LIPER COMPASSES, or simply Calipers, are com- 
 passes with curved legs, for measuring the caliber or di- 
 ameter of cylinders, balls, or other round bodies. Calipers 
 of the best sort are made with a scale having different sets 
 of numbers engraved on it, like a sliding rule, for the pur- 
 pose of exhibiting at once various relations depending on 
 the magnitude of the diameter of the body measured. 
 Thus, as the weights of balls of the same metal are in a 
 constant ratio to the cubes of their diameters the scale 
 may be so graduated and numbered that the observer may 
 read off either the diameter in inches, or the weight in 
 pounds. Other numbers having a less immediate applica- 
 tion are also frequently attached : for example, the de- 
 grees of a circle, the proportions of troy and avoirdupois 
 weight, tables of the specific gravities and weights of 
 bodies, &c. It is obvious that these may be varied infi- 
 nitely, according to the purposes proposed to be accom- 
 plished. This word is probauly derived from the Greek 
 kaWititu, Heave behind. 
 
 CA'LIPH. (Arab, khalifah.) Originally a deputy or 
 lieutenant, but afterwards applied chiefly to the successors 
 or representatives of Mohammed, who exercised the high- 
 est spiritual and temporal jurisdiction over the "Faithful." 
 At first there was little difficulty in determining the right 
 of succession to the caliphat, as it devolved on the imme- 
 diate descendants or relations of the prophet: but in llit 
 course of time violent disputes arose upon this poiu: 
 among several Mohammedan dynasties, and led to Ihe es 
 tablishment of the caliphats of Africa (Fatimide), at 
 Spain (Omayzade), which were contemporary with tl 
 the Abassides of Bagdad. The splendour of the empire 
 founded by Mohammed reached its highest pitch towards 
 the beginning of the ninth century, under the famous 
 Haroun al Rasehid. The period of its decline may be da- 
 ted from the commencement of the tenth century ; and 
 for the last 200 years the appellation of caliph has been 
 swallowed up in Shah, Sultan, Emir, and other titles pe 
 culiar to the east. 
 
 CALl'PPIC PERIOD. In Ancient Chronology, is a 
 correction of the Metonic cycle proposed by Calippus. 
 The Metonic cycle was a period of nineteen solar years, at 
 the end of which time the new moons return again on the 
 same days of the year. The period contained exactly 
 6940 days. Now 6940 days exceeds 235 lunations by only 
 seven horn's and a half. At the end of four cycles, or 76 
 years, the accumulated excess of 7K hours amounts to 
 one whole day and six hours. Calippus therefore pro 
 posed to quadruple the period of Meton, and to deduct a 
 day at the end of it by changing one of the months of 30 
 days into a month of 29 days. (See Metonic Cycle.) 
 The period of Calippus is sometimes referred to as a date 
 by Ptolemv. 
 
 CALI'XTlNES. One division of the Bohemian Refor- 
 mers, who in the 15th century protested against the errors 
 of the church of Rome, and maintained their indepen- 
 dence by force of arms. After the death of IIuss, his to]. 
 lowers split into two principal parties, under the names of 
 Taborites and Calixtines ; of which the latter were the 
 most moderate, and held out chiefly oh the ground of the 
 refusal of the cup (calix) to the laity, whenco they de- 
 rived their name. Their hostility was at length propitiated 
 by indulgence on this point: the church of Rome declar- 
 ing expressly at the same time that the giving or withhold 
 ing of the sacramental wine is a matter of ecclesiastic;!.- 
 ordinance merely, and neither the one nor the other es- 
 sential to the reception of the benefits of the euchorist. 
 The counsel of Basle (1431) says,— Sive sub una specie 
 sive duplici quis communical, secundum ordinationem sen 
 observationem ecclesise, proficit dignfi communicantibns 
 ad salutem. 
 
CALLIGRAPHY. 
 
 The same name is given to the followers of Calixtus, a 
 German divine of the 17th century, who proposed a recon- 
 ciliation between the Roman Catholics, Lutherans. and Re- 
 formed 'lunch, on the basis of the Apostles' Creed. 
 
 CAI.I.l'fiKAl'lIV. (Gr. xdWof, beauty, and yp&foi, I 
 
 irrile.) The art of beautiful writing. The scribes who 
 
 made a profession of copying manuscripts, before the in- 
 
 vention of printing, have been termed Calligraphers. Their 
 
 Med not merely in writing, but also in embellishing 
 
 It with ornamental devices, although illumination 
 
 (which see) was also practised as a distinct employment. 
 
 Among the MSS. of the early part of the middle ages which 
 
 ess, there are some sumptuous specimens of the 
 
 .ut. written in letters of sold, vermilion, &c, and on leaves 
 
 urs, but that fashion went early out of use; 
 
 in. I in general it may be said, that the current writing oi 
 
 calligraphers diminished in beauty and in laborious minute- 
 
 . in Italy, during the centuries immediately 
 
 preceding the invention of printing. 
 
 CALLIO'NYMUS, (Or. kuAAoj, beauty, awl ovoua, a 
 
 utiful spiny-finned iunee, with very 
 
 small gill openings ; ventral fins under tin- throat, and larger 
 
 than the pectorals; head oblong, Battened; eyes placed 
 
 I directed upwards; no teeth on the 
 
 ntermaxillaries capable of considerable protru- 
 
 ■ air bladder. The gemmeous, or 
 
 t (CaUionymus lyra), is a British example of 
 
 ■ms. 
 
 CALLl'OPE (Or. «aXXof. beauty, and oxf/, the voice.) 
 
 tuslly associated with 
 
 Homer in the statui * of antiquity, and thence considered 
 
 . of heroic p 
 
 CAL1 I IKK ll\'< 1. i: (Callitriehe. the only genus.) 
 
 A small cluster of imperfectly organised water plants, the 
 
 natural relation of which la unsettled. By some they tire 
 
 considered allies "t ('rticacea, by others of AModoeeca, 
 
 and others Monocotyledons. 
 
 c vi.I.okiiV'M'III s .v,, chimera. 
 
 i'\'l 1. 1> In Osteology, the matter which unties the 
 
 divided ends of broken bones, it is a secretion of new bony 
 
 CA'LOMBL. The old chemical name of eU 
 
 word is perhaps derived from KcitAos, /<*. r, 
 and ftcXai, Mark. It is prepared by rubbing mercury with 
 which forms a blade mixture, which, 
 pplicatioo nl l"'at, yields a while sublimate of calo- 
 ' in medicine, especially as a purga- 
 tive. It consists of 200 mercury •+■ 3G chlorine = 236 chlo- 
 ride of mercury or calomeL 
 
 CALO'RIC il.it caleo, Iomwarm.) A term applied 
 
 by Hi'- Preach chemists to designate the matter of heat, 'ft 
 
 mated that Ihe phenomena of heat are dependent 
 
 upon the presence of a highly attenuated, mobile, and im- 
 
 ponderable form of matter. <S>cHeat. 
 
 ( \lolMTH RAYS A term applied to the invisible 
 heating rays which emanate from the sun, and from burn- 
 bodies. 
 CALOR'IMETER (l.at. calor, heat, and metrum, a 
 measure.) An instrument for measuring the quantity of 
 ii out by bodies in passing from one temperature 
 to another. 
 CAI.ORIMOTOR. (I.at. calor, heat, and moveo, J put 
 m has occasionally been applied to a 
 peculiar form of the voltaic apparatus composed of one pair 
 of plates of great extent of surface, the electricity of which, 
 when transmitted through good conductors, produces in- 
 tense h 
 
 CA'LOSO'MA. (Or. na\os, beautiful ; oujia, body. ) A 
 genus of most splendid Coleopterous insects, belonging to 
 the family CaraUdtB, or ground beetles. In this genus the 
 tysws are toothless, or rather devoid of notches; the maxil- 
 lary palpes terminate in a larue joint, and the abdomen is 
 There are two British species: Calosoma syeo- 
 o called because its grub insinuates itself into the 
 [resariotis caterpillars, and feeds upon them; and 
 inquisitor. In speculating on the exception 
 which (lie Calosomes present among the Carabidat, in the 
 brilliant colours which are developed in them, an explana- 
 tion seems to he afforded byadhTeTen.ee in their habits: 
 thev frequent trees, and are more exposed to the light than 
 their hole-and-corner conaeners, the ground beetles. 
 
 CALOTYPE is the name given by Mr. II Fox Talbot to 
 his improved Photographic method. The method of ob- 
 taining Calotype pictures is as follows :— Take a sheet of 
 writing paper. Dissolve 100 grains of crystallized 
 nitrate nf silver in 6 ounces of distilled water. Wash the 
 paper with this solution, with a soft brush, on one side, 
 a murk on that side, whereby to know it again. 
 Dry the paper cautiously at a distant fire, or else let it dry 
 span tan eously in a dark room. When dry, or nearly so, 
 dip it into a solution of iodide of potassium, of 500 grains to 
 api-t of distilled water, and let it stay two or three minutes 
 . • i 1 1 1. i . . 1 1 Then dip it into a vessel of water, dry it 
 lit y with blotting paper, and finish drying it at a fire, or 
 '83 
 
 CALVINISTS. 
 
 spontaneously. All this is best done by candlelight The 
 paper s.i tar prepared the author calls wdtted neper. It is 
 scarcely sensitive to light; nevertheless it ought to be kept 
 I from the light. Shortly before this paper is 
 wanted for use, wash a sheet of it with this liquid :— Dis 
 solve 100 grs. of crystallized nitrate of silver in '-' OS. of dis 
 tilled water; add one sixth of its volume oi strong acetic 
 acid: let this mixture be called A. Make a saturated so- 
 lution of crystallized gallic acid in cold distilled water; 
 the quantity dissolved is very small; call this solution It 
 When a sheet of paper is wanted for use, mix together Ihe 
 liquids A and B, in equal volumes, but only mix a small 
 quantity of them at a time, because the mixture will nut 
 keep long without spoiling : call this mixture the Uallu-i ti- 
 trate of silrer. With it wash the iodized paper on thl 
 marked side, by candlelight. Let the paper re 
 minute, and then dip it into water. Then dry it lightly wiiii 
 blotting paper, and at a distance from the lire. The author 
 has named the paper thus prepared Calotype paper, on ac- 
 count of its great utility in obtaining tin- pictures o 
 with the camera obscura. If this paper be kept in a press, 
 it will often retain its qualities in perfection tor three 
 months or more, betas ready for use at any moment ; but 
 this is not uniformly the case. It is best used a few hours 
 after it has been prepared. The Calotyjie paper is sensi- 
 tive tn light in an extraordinary degree, which transcends a 
 handled limes or more that of any kind of photogenic pa 
 per; it will take an impression from simple moonlight not 
 ited by a lens. 
 
 Use of I ike a piece of this paper, and hav- 
 
 ing covered half of it, expose the other halt lo day-light for 
 the space of one second in dark cloudy weather in winter, 
 when there will be a Strong impression upon the paper, but 
 latent and invisible, and its existence not to be suspected 
 by any one. To make it visible, wash the paper once 
 more with the gallonitrate of silver, and then warm it 
 gently before the fire. In a few secon ds, the pari of the 
 paper up.. n which the light has acted begins to darken. ami 
 finally grows entirely black, while the other iiart of ihe pa- 
 per retains its whiteness. This paper is well suited to re- 
 ceive images in the camera obscura. When the aperture 
 of'he leas unountstu one third oft 1 e focal lengtl 
 object is very wiiite, as a plaster bust, A . 
 sufficient to obtain a pretty good image of it, made visible 
 by Washing and wanning. 
 
 Th* Fixing I'rocess. First wash the picture With water. 
 then lightly dry it with blotting-paper, and next wash it 
 with a solution of bromide of potassium, containing loo 
 pains of that salt dissolved in8or 10 ounces of distilled water. 
 After a minute or two it should be again dipped in water, 
 and then finally dried. The picture is in this manner very 
 strongly fixed ; and with this great advantage, that it re 
 mains transparent: an. I that, therefore, there is no diffi- 
 culty in obtaining a copy of it. The Datatype picture ia a 
 negative one. in which the lights of nature an- represented 
 by shades; but the copies are positive, having the lights 
 conformable to nature. A negative calotype KM] 
 tarnish several p osi tive ones, but after a while it mows 
 faint; but it maybe restored by washing by candlelight 
 with gallonitrate of silver, and warming. A second series 
 may now he taken. (.See Brewster's London and Edin- 
 burgh Philosophical Journal, vol. 19, 1841.) 
 
 CA'LOYERS. Monks of the Greek church, who follow 
 tin- rule of St. Basil. 
 
 CALP. An arjrillo-ferruginous limestone. 
 
 CALU'MBA. The root of the Cocculus jxilmnttts. It is 
 dried in slices of a yellowish grey colour, and is generally 
 worm-eaten. It has a bitter and slightly pungent taste, and 
 is very mucilaginous. Calumba root is an esoelli nt tonic 
 medicine, especially in debility of stomach ami intestines: 
 about ten grains of the powder may he taken twice or 
 thrice a day. The Mozambique name of this plant is Ka- 
 lumba. 
 
 CA'LUMET. (Lat. calamus, a reed.) In Modem His- 
 tory, a large beautifully adorned pipe, used by the North 
 American Indians as the emblem of peace. (.Harris'* 
 Voyages, vol. ii. p. 908.) The first notice of the calumet 
 among European writers is to be found in Ferdinand de 
 Soto's account of his expedition through the southern pro- 
 vinces in 1470. See Catlin's North American Indians. 
 
 CA'LVINISTS. The followers of Calvin, the second 
 great reformer of the 10th century, and founder of the 
 church of Geneva. The distinguishing tenets of this cele- 
 brated theologian refer to points both of discipline and doc- 
 trine. He was the first to reject tbe episcopal form of 
 church government, originally, it is said-, with great reluc- 
 tance, and compelled thereto by the want of regularly or- 
 dained ministers ; but he afterwards maintained the exclu- 
 sive divine appointment of the Presbyterian system, which 
 has since obtained favour in Scotland, and among tbe 
 Protestants of France, and has had numerous adherents 
 in England and America. The doctrinal opinions of Cal- 
 vin, however, have not been permanently received among 
 those who have adopted his views inspecting the ministry 
 
CALX. 
 
 On the contrary, in England and Geneva, there are many 
 Presbyterians Arminian in sentiment. It was at the Sy- 
 nod ol Dort, in 1618, that the points in dispute between the 
 Calvinists and Anninians were most, accurately distin- 
 guished, and arranged under five heads, upon which the 
 former party asserted the following opinions: — 
 
 1. Of predestination — that all men have sinned in Adam, 
 and are become liable to the curse ; but that God has by 
 an eternal decree chosen some from the beginning, to 
 whom he should impart faith of his free grace, and conse- 
 quently salvation. 
 
 2. Of the death of Christ— that it is a sufficient sacrifice 
 for the sins of the whole world ; and that some only be- 
 lieve and are saved, whereas many perish in unbelief, 
 arises not from any defect in this sacrifice, but from the 
 perversity of the non-elect. 
 
 3. Of man's corruption — that all men are conceived in 
 sin and born the children of wrath, and are neither will- 
 ing nor able to return to God without the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 4. Of grace and free will — that the influence of the 
 Spirit upon our fallen natures does not force, but only 
 quickens and corrects them, inducing them gently to turn 
 themselves towards God by an exercise of their free will. 
 
 5. Of perseverance— -that God doesnotwholly take away 
 liis Spirit from his own children, even in lamentable falls; 
 nor does he permit them to fall finally from the grace of 
 adoption and the state of justification. 
 
 These opinions, which were laid down at the Synod of 
 Dort, represent the sentiments of the founder of this school, 
 and of the ancient or strict Calvinists. In modern times 
 another class of Moderate Calvinists has arisen, who differ 
 from these in holding lower notions concerning reproba- 
 tion and the extent of Christ's sacrifice. For other subdi- 
 visions among the Calvinists, see articles Sub-Lapsarians 
 and Supra-Lapsakians. 
 
 CALX. A name applied by the alchemists to all pro- 
 ducts of combustion, especially those obtained from the 
 metals, which were supposed to be converted into a spe- 
 cies of earth. 
 
 CALY'BIO. (Gr. KaXvBri, a cottage.) A name adopted 
 by some carpologists, for such a one-celled, inferior, one 
 or few-seeded fruit, enclosed in a cupule, as the acorn of 
 the oak, the mast of beech, &c. 
 
 CA'LYCANTHA'CEjE. (Calycanthus, one of the gen- 
 era.) A small natural order of plants related to Rosacea. 
 They are all shrubs with fragrant flowers, and inhabit 
 North America or Japan. Some of them resemble the ge- 
 nus Milium in their (lowers. 
 
 CA'LYCERA'CEjE. (Calycera, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of plants related to Composita, from which 
 they differ very little, excepting that their seeds are pendu- 
 lous and albuminous, and their anthers half united. The 
 species are woody herbaceous plants, inhabiting the warm- 
 er parts of South America. 
 
 CALY'CULUS. A diminutive of Calyx, which see. 
 
 CALY'MENE. (Gr. KtKa\vnfitvri, concealed.) A name 
 devised to express the obscure nature of a genus. Trilo- 
 bites (fossil crustaceans), to which it is attached, and 
 which is distinguished from all other Trilobites by the fa- 
 culty which the species possesses of rolling, the body up 
 into the form of a ball, in the same manner as the recent 
 genera Spharomu, Armadillo, Glomeris ; viz. by approxi- 
 mating the two extremes of the trunk at the under part. 
 The anterior segment or shield of Calymene is as broad or 
 broader than it is long, and supports two compound promi- 
 nent eyes ; the posterior or terminal segment forms a sort 
 of triangular elongated tail. 
 
 CALY'PSO. (Gr.) In Fabulous History, a daughter of 
 Atlas, according to Homer, but of Oceanus and Thetys, ac- 
 cording to Hesiod, was the queen of the island Ogygia. 
 On this island Ulysses suffered shipwreck ; and Calypso, 
 by the united influence of her love and spells, prevailed 
 on him to remain and share her sceptre. After the lapse 
 of seven years, however, his desire to revisit his native 
 country became irrepressible, and he resolved to forego 
 ids honours in Ogygia. Calypso tried every expedient, 
 offering him even the bribe of immortality, to induce him 
 to remain; but all her efforts proved unavailing, and on 
 his departure she died of grief. The island of Ogygia, 
 placed by Pliny (iii. 10.) off the Lacinian promontory, be- 
 tween the Tarentine and Scyllian bays, has long since 
 been engulfed in the ocean, along with the famous islands 
 oft.be Sirens. 
 
 CALYPTRiE'A. (Gr. xaXvirrpa, a covering.) The 
 name of a genus of Gastropods, naving a patelliform shell, 
 to the concavity of which adheres either a smaller conical 
 shell, like a cup in a saucer, or a semi-circular testaceous 
 process, forming the commencement of a columella. The 
 branchios consist of a single row of long and slender fila- 
 ments. The foot is circular, expanded, and furnished with 
 two anterior processes. The genus, originally established 
 by Lamarck, is now divided into the sub-genera Calypeop- 
 sis, Crepipatella, and Calyptrma. 
 184 
 
 CAMELIDjE. 
 
 CA'LYX. (Gr. xaXuf, a cup.) The name given by bot- 
 anists to the outermost of the enveloping organs of a flow- 
 er. It is usually green, and sometimes bears a great re- 
 semblance to leaves ; but it is also frequently richly co 
 loured, as in the Mirabilis, Salvia sptendens, &c. Thin 
 organ appears to have the office of protecting the moru 
 tender parts lying within it, and is therefore usually pit- 
 sent in flowers ; when absent, its protecting office is al- 
 ways performed by some modification of bracts, as in the 
 Arum and the Willow. If it is adherent to the sales ol the 
 ovary, it is called superior; if partially adherent, half su 
 perior; and if quite free from the sides of the ovary, it is 
 inferior. In systematical botany these differences are oi 
 great importance. 
 
 CAMARl'LLA. (Span.) The little or private chan.bei 
 of the sovereign of Spain (equivalent to the petite apparu- 
 ments of the old French regime) ; but the term is generally 
 applied to his immediate confidants, who are usually all- 
 powerful in the government of the country. In England 
 the term is nearly synonymous with clique. 
 
 CA'MBER. (Fr. cambrer, to bend.) In Architecture, 
 the convexity of the upper and concavity of the underside 
 of a beam, by which it is prevented from becoming straight 
 or concave at top either by its own weight, or by the load- 
 ing it may have to carry. 
 
 CA'MlilLM. (Alow Latin word for liquid which be 
 comes glutinous.) A viscid secretion forn.ed between the 
 liber and alburnum of Exogenous trees in the early spring, 
 when vegetation recommences. It is supposed by some 
 physiologists to be the matter out of which new wood and 
 bark are formed ; by others to be a preparation of organi- 
 zable matter, out of which the horizontal growth of the 
 cellular system, and the vertical growth of the woody sys- 
 tem, may be nourished during their respective develop- 
 ment. It disappears as soon as the new wood and bark- 
 have been completely formed. 
 
 CA'MBRIC. A delicate linen fabric, which was origi- 
 nally manufactured at Cambray. 
 
 CA'MEL. A machine invented by the Dutch for carry- 
 ing vessels into harbours where there is not a sufficient 
 depth of water. It consisted of two large boxes, or half 
 ships, built in such a manner that they could be applied on 
 each side of the hull of a large vessel. On the deck ol 
 each part of the camel a number of horizontal windlassea 
 were placed, from which ropes proceeded, on one side, 
 and being carried under the keel of the vessel, were at- 
 tached to the windlasses on the deck of the other part. 
 When about to be used, as much water as necessary was 
 suffered to run into them; all the ropes were then east 
 loose, and large beams were placed horizontally through 
 the port-holes of the vessel, the ends resting on the camels 
 alongside. When the ropes were made fast, and the ves- 
 sel properly secured, the water was pumped out, on which 
 the camels rose and bore up the vessel. (Beckmau's His- 
 tory of Inventions, vol. iii. p. 337.) 
 
 CAME'LEON, or CHAM^ELION MINERAL. Man- 
 ganesate of potash, obtained by' melting a mixture of pot- 
 ash and black oxide of manganese. When put into water 
 the solution is first green, and then passes through a variety 
 of tints of green, purple, and red, till at length it becomes 
 colourless. 
 
 CAME'LIDiE. (Camelus, a camel.) A family of rumi- 
 nant Mammalia, which deviates from the rest of the order 
 in the presence of two incisors in the upper jaw, and the 
 absence of cotyledons in the uterus and festal membranes. 
 The camel and dromedary of the old world, and the llama, 
 guanacho, and vicugna of the new world, ate the existing 
 species of this family. 
 
 The old world CamelidiB (Camelus) are especially orga- 
 nized for existence in the arid and barren deserts of Asia 
 and Africa. They have a broad, expanded, elastic loot, 
 terminated in front by two comparatively small hoofs, and 
 well defended beneath by a felt of coarse hair. The new 
 world Camelidte (Auciienio) have narrower feet, and the 
 hoofs are bent in the form of claws, adapted to climb the 
 steep passes of the mountain ranges of South America, to 
 which continent they are confined. 
 
 Besides the peculiar characters above mentioned, the 
 camels present a modification in the structure of the sto- 
 mach which is not present in any other family of Bnmin- 
 antia. There are developed from the sides ol the fh\st ca- 
 vity of the stomach or paunch two series of ceils, into 
 which experiment has proved that the water which the an- 
 imal drinks almost exclusively passes, and where it can t,e 
 kept apart from the solid contents of the paunch in aquan 
 tity of several quarts. Surely the final relation of such u 
 modification of structure to the peculiar physical charac- 
 teristic of the localities to which the animal possessing it U 
 confined must force itself irresistibly on the mind. But 
 besides a reservoir of water to meet the exigencies of long 
 journeys across the desert, the dromedary and camel are 
 provided with a storehouse of solid nutriment on which 
 they can draw for supplies long after every digestible part 
 has been extracted from the contents of the stomach : this 
 
CAMELLIA. 
 
 storehouse consists of one or two large collections of fat 
 stored up in ligamentous cells supported by the spines of 
 the dorsal vertebrae, and forming what are called the 
 humps. When the camel is in a region of fertility the 
 hump becomes plump and expanded ; but after a protract- 
 ed journey In the wilderness it becomes shrivelled and re- 
 duced to its ligamentous constituent, in consequence of the 
 sbsorpiion of the fat. Button carried his teleological rea- 
 soning, or the ascription of design, so far as to assert that 
 the humps on the backs of ihe tamel were badges of slave- 
 ry, and intended to adapt them to the burthens of their 
 task-masters ; and he supported this ingenious idea by the 
 unfounded assertion that the dorsal prominences did not 
 belong to the camels in free nature. But the true uses of 
 the fatty humps, as of the water-cells, relate to the exigen- 
 'f the Camelidae of the deserts under every condition. 
 The complete adaptation of the camel for the dreary 
 wastes in which it is destined to exist, is further illustrated 
 by some minor modifications in its structure. The nos- 
 trils are narrow oblique slits, defended with hair at their 
 margins, and provided with a sphincter muscle, like the 
 Is ; so that the animal can close them at pleasure. 
 This action is of great service in excluding the fine and 
 penetrating sand which is drifted along in clouds by the 
 storms of the desert. The expanded sole of the foot, elas- 
 tic as a cushion, prevents the ieg from sinking in the loose 
 surface ; tl,e loin: joints and lofty tread of the camel are 
 equally adapted for a rapid progress along loose sandy 
 plains. Thus to the Arab of the scorching desert the ca- 
 mel is as valuable, and indeed as essential, as the reindeer 
 to the Laplander in his region of perpetual snow. The one 
 animal, like the other, serves, while living, for all the pur- 
 of draught and burden, and supplies his master's 
 family with milk. When dead the Mesh of the camel is 
 eaten, though it is coarser than that of the ordinary Rumi- 
 nanU : Its hide, which approaches that of the Pachyderms 
 in thickness and strength, is applied to the manufactureof 
 saddl' ittchers, shields, and various other arti- 
 
 cles. The finer hair is manufactured into articles of cloth- 
 ing, and the coarser hair is woven into a kind of matting 
 for the covering of tents. By day the camels transport 
 their owner and his familv, with all their property, from 
 place to place. By night the body of the recumbent beast 
 of burden serves as a pillow for his master ; or if the air 
 mels are arranged to windward, so as to 
 form a barrier against the ever-shifting sands. 
 
 tnel is the sole medium of communication be- 
 tween those countries which are separated by extensive 
 deserts ; in the beautifuland expressive met iphorof eastern 
 :. it is " Ihe ship of the desert," and in truth it is the 
 only ship by which the wilderness can be navigated with 
 uty and safety. A Ktout Arabian camel can travel 
 with a loal of 800 pounds at the rate of about three miles 
 in tin; hour. The swifter varieties, as the light dromedary 
 or " mahalry," .ire said to carry a single rider over a space 
 of from 70 to 100 miles in 24 hours, and that for several 
 sion. 
 
 CAME'LLIA. (In honour of Kamel, a Spanish Jesuit.) 
 iltiful genus of evergreen shrubs inhabiting China and 
 Japan. Several species are known; one of which, C. 
 oteifora, furnishes the Chinese with abundance of oil used 
 for various domestic purposes; others are small-flowered 
 and unimportant ; but one, C. japonica, is among the most 
 beautiful species in the vegetable kingdom. It is from this 
 that the multitudes of double varieties, now common or- 
 naments of gardens in the spring, have been obtained by 
 sowing seeds. Most of the varieties originated with the Chi- 
 ; 'l>anese; but many very fine ones have been 
 I In England and Belgium. Thev are usually culti- 
 vated in pots, but are never seen in perfection unless plant- 
 ed in the open ground beneath a CUM roof; under such 
 circumstances they only require to be guarded from severe 
 frost by some kind of heating apparatus. In some parts 
 of England, and even near London, they are occasionally 
 grown in Ihe open air, but with little success. 
 
 CA'MELOPAUD. See Girafpe. 
 
 C WIK'I.OPARDA'LIS. One of the constellations form- 
 e.l by llevelius in the northern hemisphere. It is situated 
 between Ccpheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Ursa Major, Ursa 
 Minor, and Draco. 
 
 CA'MKO. A word of doubtful origin, applied to gems 
 of various colours sculptured in relief. The art of en- 
 graving on gems boasts of high antiquity, having been prac- 
 tised witli various degrees of success by the Egyptians, 
 l, and Romans. It was again revived in Italy in the 
 16th century, and is even at the present day cultivated with 
 treat avidity and considerable success. The cameos of the 
 ancients were usually confined to the agate, onyx, and sard, 
 which, on account of the variety of their strata, were bet- 
 ter accommodated to a display of the artist's talents; but 
 thev are also occasionally found executed on opal, beryl, 
 or emerald, and even on a sort of factitious stone, the 
 VUrwm obstdianumofPlior, distinguished by the modems 
 as the antique paste. (2?ncvc. Metr.) One of the most 
 185 
 
 CAMERA OBSCURA. 
 
 famous cameos is the onyx at present in Paris, called the 
 apotheosis of Augustus. It is one foot in height and ten 
 inches in width. 
 
 CA'MERA LU'CIDA. The name given by Dr. Hooke 
 to an instrument contrived by him for making the image 
 of any object appear on a wall in a light room either by 
 day or by niulit. It is described in the Phi!. Trans, vol 
 xxxviii. p. 741. 
 
 The Instrument now known by the name of Camera Lu- 
 cida is a very ingenious invention of the late Dr. Wolh» 
 ton, for the purpose of enabling any one, without a know- 
 ledge of the rules of drawing or perspective, to delineate 
 distant objects, or trace the outlines of landscapes, &c. 
 with perfect accuracy. It cor. 
 sists of a quadrangular glass 
 prism, a, 6, c. d. by means of 
 which rays of light are bent. 
 by two reflections, into a path 
 at right angles to their pn 
 direction. A ray ol light pro 
 ceedingfrom O enters 1 1 
 M |p jjOf the prism at a, and con 
 
 ■tinues its course in a straight 
 line till it meets the adjacent side of ihe prism at h. and 
 making with it a very acute angle, is wholly reflected In Ike 
 b e. At e it again meets the side of Ihe prism, 
 and is in like manner reflected in the direction c E. The 
 eye being placed al E. sees the Image of the object on the 
 surface of the prism at c, and refers it to P, on a plane 
 M N, which may be covered with a sheet of white paper. 
 The point of a pencil can also be seen on the paper, and 
 thus the accurate outline of the object may be traced. It 
 is easy to see from this the proper form which the crystal 
 should have. Suppose the two reflect qual, then 
 
 the ray will be bent 45° from its original path by the first, 
 and also 45° by the second ; and the four angles which it 
 makes with the faces of the prism at b and e are each 
 22J° ; hence the faces a and d being perpendicular, the 
 faces ii and b must be inclined in an angle equal to three 
 fourths of a right angle, or 67J° ; h and c must make an 
 angle of 135°, or three fourths of two right angle* ; and c 
 and d make an angle of 67J°. By the laws of optics, the 
 size of the picture will bear the same relation to the object 
 delineated, that the distance of the eye from the papei 
 bears to the distance of the object. Hence, in order to in- 
 crease or diminish the size of the picture, the prism i- 
 mounled in a brass frame, supported by brass lubes ca- 
 pable of being lengthened or shortened al pleas* 
 thin brass plate, aflixed to the upper surface ol the prism, 
 and having a small hole in it for the observer to look 
 through, keeps the eye in its proper place, and procures 
 steadiness of vision. A convex lens may be placed met 
 the hole in the brass plate, for the purpose of magnifying 
 the image ; or a concave lens placed before the prism at a 
 will adapt it to short-sighted persons. The instrument is 
 extremely convenient, on account of its portability. 
 
 The construction of the camera Iucida may be varied in 
 several ways. The following was proposed' by professor 
 Amici. A parallel piece of plale 
 glass, efg, is connected with a re- 
 •lectins: speculum A. The ray of 
 flight proceeding from O is reflect- 
 ed from Ihe speculum at a to the 
 plato glass at 6, and there reflected 
 again to theeyeatE. The frame 
 in which the instrument is placed 
 has a rectangular opening at the 
 top, through which the eye receives 
 the image, and is prevented from 
 receiving the rays coming directly 
 from the metallic mirror. The 
 image is referred to a plane below 
 at P, where the pencil is seen through the glass. 
 
 CA'MERA OBSCU'RA, or DARK CHAM BEU. is an op- 
 tical apparatus, by which the images of external objects 
 are thrown on a white surface, and represented in a vivid 
 manner in their proper colours, shapes, &c. Hence the 
 apparatus may be used for the purposes of delineation, as 
 well as the camera Iucida ; but as it is from its construc- 
 tion less convenient, it is chiefly used as a source of amuse- 
 ment, or for explaining the nature of vision. 
 The theory of the Camera Obscura is shortly this. 
 Through a convex lens, or 
 small circular hole at C, the 
 jp light is admitted into a dark- 
 J6 T I ened room or box, so that 
 
 __J" /I ra y s proceeding from an ob- 
 1 r^jject A B, and falling on a 
 white ground within the 
 room, paint an imaze of the object on it in an invert- 
 ed position, a b. But the image is easily restored to 
 its natural position by causing the rays to pass through 
 two convex lenses inserted in a draw tube placed in 
 the opening C Sometimes a mirror D is placed m 
 
CAMERALISTICS. 
 
 the interior of the box, making an angle of 45° with its 
 sides, whereby the image is thrown down on the bottom of 
 the box at a 0, and by means of the reflection restored to 
 its natural position. The best ground for receiving the 
 image is plaster of Paris, formed somewhat concave. 
 The image is viewed through an oblong aperture cut in the 
 box. The most perfect camera obscura is formed by 
 placing an inclined mirror in a revolving frame at the top 
 of a building, by which the rays are thrown down on aeon- 
 vex lens in the roof, and the images of all the surrounding 
 objects received on a table. The images being accom- 
 panied by the motions belonging to the objects, a very 
 pleasing picture is formed. The invention of the camera 
 obscura is usually ascribed to Baptista Porta; it was, how- 
 ever, known to Friar Bacon, in the 13th century. 
 
 CAMERALI'STICS. (Lat. camera, a chamber.) A word 
 that has recently been introduced into the English language 
 to signify the science of public finance. It is of German 
 origin (the equivalent term in that language being Rammer- 
 alien), and derives its signification from certain officers 
 (called Kammerrathe) appointed by most of the petty 
 princes of Germany to superintend their accounts, and dis- 
 burse all payments. 
 
 CA'MERATED. (Lat. camera.) A term applied to the 
 shells of certain Cephalopods which are divided by trans- 
 verse partitions into a series of chambers which are tra- 
 versed by a siphon. Most of the species are now extinct. 
 
 CAMERO'NIANS. The strictest sect of Scottish Pres- 
 byterians ; so called from the Rev. Richard Cameron, one 
 of the most eminent of their leaders. The origin of this 
 sect is briefly told. Charles II., on his restoration in 1600. 
 found presbytery to be the existing national church ; ana 
 though he had, at one time, sworn to maintain that faith, 
 yet thinking it incompatible with monarchical government, 
 he lost no time in superseding it, and establishing episco- 
 pacy in its room. This he did in direct opposition, not 
 merely to his own solemn obligations, but to the principles 
 and predilections of his Scottish subjects. And the result 
 was such as might have been anticipated. The presbyte- 
 rian clergy, though driven from their parishes and deprived 
 of their incomes, continued to preach and hold meetings, 
 or conventicles, as these assemblages were contemptuously 
 called, for the celebration of religious ordinances; and 
 their influence with the people seemed to increase in pro- 
 portion as means were taken to silence or crush them, 
 tinder these circumstances, Charles, finding that rigour 
 failed in producing the effect at which he aimed, and the 
 number of episcopalian ministers being insufficient to fill 
 the vacancies that had been occasioned by his violent 
 change of the national religion, had recourse to a plan, os- 
 tensibly liberal and mild, but which did by no means rea- 
 lize the views which he had anticipated from it. In 1669, 
 he granted what he called an indulgence, or permission to 
 such of the ejected ministers as had meanwhile " lived 
 peaceably and orderly," or, in other words, who had not 
 signalized themselves by holding conventicles, to return 
 to their several parishes (if these were vacant), or to accept 
 presentation to such other parishes as were vacant. A 
 similar indulgence was issued in 1672; but both of them 
 were marked by restrictions and conditions which were 
 any thing hut agreeable to tender consciences. ( Wodrow'a 
 Church Hist. 8vo cd., vol. ii. p. 130-31.) This indulgence 
 emanated solely from the king, and had not been submit- 
 ted to the consideration of the church, and was, in conse- 
 quence, regarded by many as tantamount to a recognition 
 of the royal authority in matters ecclesiastical as well as 
 civil, and as subversive both of the national covenants 
 {Acts of Assembly, apud an. 1649), to which they had sworn, 
 and of presbytery itself, which acknowledged no head but 
 Jesus Christ. Some of the more moderate of the clergy, 
 however, did not think it inconsistent either with their 
 vows or principles to accept it; others complied with it, 
 regarding it as an encroachment on their religious rights, 
 but satisfying their conscience by giving an open testimony 
 against it and the ecclesiastical authority assumed by the 
 King; while there were some who preferred principle to 
 expediency, and peremptorily refused compliance on any 
 terms, and resisted every effort to procure their acquies- 
 cence. These were the persons who were afterwards de- 
 nominated Cameronians. (Wodroio, iii. 202.) 
 
 The Cameronians were influenced in the line of conduct 
 which they pursued solely by conscientious motives. 
 Rather than acknowledge the authority of the king in mat- 
 ters ecclesiastical, or abate one iota of their indefeasible 
 rights and privileges, they were willing to separate from 
 their conforming brethren, and*to encounter all the evils 
 and disabilities which such a step had evidently a tenden- 
 cy to produce. They became at once the object not only 
 of the disapprobation of their indulged brethren, but of the 
 vindictive and cruel rage of a tyrannical government. On 
 the principle that " oppression drives a wise man mad," 
 they pushed their views to the utmost extremity ; and, 
 while they vilified the Presbyterians whose opinions, both 
 religious and ecclesiastical, were more moderate than 
 186 
 
 CAMERONIANS. 
 
 their own, they stigmatized the king and government as 
 unscriptural and Erastian. In short, while they arrogated 
 to themselves absolute liberty of conscience and of judg- 
 ment, they exhibited the greatest intolerance towards 
 others who entertained different sentiments. When per- 
 secuted and proscribed, when many of them were impri- 
 soned, and not a few of them suffered martyrdom, they 
 began to consider their king as a tyrant ; and they publicly 
 declared, that "by his perjury in violating his covenanted 
 vows, by his arbitrary government, and his usurpation over 
 their civil and religious liberties, he had dissolved their 
 allegiance and forfeited all right and title *o the crown ,' : 
 (Laing's Hist, of Scut. vol. iv. p. iii.) They also protested 
 against the succession of his brother, on account of his 
 popery and his breach of covenant to God and the church. 
 To these sentiments Cameron, their leader, and a part; of 
 about twenty others, all armed, gave public utterance in n 
 declaration read at Sanquhar, and affixed to the market- 
 cross of that town. (Wodrow, iii. 312.) This was the sig- 
 nal for more prompt and decisive measures on the perl of 
 government. The party were soon after (20th July, 1030) 
 surprised at Airsmoss, a morass on the confines of the 
 counties of Ayr and Dumfries. Cameron and his brother 
 fell on the field ; while sixteen were taken prisoners, and 
 soon after perished as traitors on the scaffold ; the remain- 
 der of the party, with some peasants who had joined them, 
 fled. But their spirit was not intimidated, nor was their 
 enthusiasm abated. Cargill, who was now their leader, 
 and who was shortly after apprehended and publicly exe- 
 cuted, pronounced at a public meeting of the party at Tor- 
 wood, near Stirling, a solemn excommunication against 
 their persecutors, including the Duke of York and the 
 king himself. (Hind Let Loose, passim : Luing, iv. 112- 
 13.) 
 
 Meanwhile, the Cameronians had formed themselves 
 into a more regular body ; and, in 1681, agreed u) hold 
 quarterly or more frequent meetings, and took ine name 
 of 77te Societies United in Correspondence. They thus 
 acted more in concert ; and their fortitude and zeal be- 
 came, if possible, more intense. They were now alto- 
 gether alienated from the indulged ministers and the gene- 
 ral public; and their meetings for religi ros 
 for the celebration of ordinances were, for the sake of 
 safety, confined to the mountains, or to sequestered and 
 remote spots. They still continued the objects of the 
 most ruthless persecution. But while proscribed ami 
 chased like beasts of prey by the government, no respect 
 being shown to age or sex or condition, and while numbers 
 of them, including their most popular ministers, perished 
 on the scaffold or at the stake, they began to disagree 
 among themselves. Some of them having been dissatis- 
 fied with the language of the Sanqichar Declaration, certain 
 portions of it had been amended or explained. A consid- 
 erable number took offence at the violence of Renwick, 
 now at the head of the party ; and not only separated from 
 them, but published testimonies against some of their pro- 
 ceedings. The one party were averse to unite with such 
 as would not go to the same extreme as themselves ; while 
 the other, more moderate in their principles, were for 
 making common cause with all who held the same gene- 
 ral sentiments, and were exposed to the same persecutions 
 It was at this period (16S7) that Renwick drew up their In- 
 formatory Vindication, which in spirit was the same as 
 the Sanquhar Declaration. But the breach was never 
 healed. It is unnecessary, however, to give a more minute 
 account either of their proceedings or their sufferings. 
 Renwick, who was beheaded in 1688, was the last Scottish 
 martyr. The revolution put an end to the sufferings of the* 
 Cameronians, and to persecution for conscience' sake. 
 (Scotch Worthies, § Renwick, Hackston of Rathillet, &c. ; 
 Hind Let Loose.) 
 
 The services of this proscribed party at this crisis were 
 of an important kind. Suffering as they had long done at 
 the hand of a sanguinary government, and alive as they 
 were to the value of civil and religious liberty, they es- 
 poused the cause of the Prince of Orange with an enthusi- 
 asm and bravery worthy of their character. A regiment 
 of 800 Cameronians was speedily raised ; and their hero- 
 ism as displayed at Dunkeld and other places has extorted 
 the praise of history. A regiment bearing the name still 
 exists. (Laing, iv. 194, 208, 232.) 
 
 But the Cameronians, though they occupy a prominent 
 place in the history of the reigns of Charles, and of James 
 II. his successor, never formed a very numerous body. 
 After the revolution, when they were allowed to worship 
 God according to their conscience without fear or danger, 
 they gradually became an obscure as they were a small 
 sect. Nor did they think of forming themselves into a re- 
 gular church till 1743, when, under the direction of the 
 Rev. M. M'Millan and other leaders, they " formed and 
 established a presbytery in the name of Christ, the alone 
 king and head of the church, under the title of the Re- 
 formed Presbytery." As they became more numerous, 
 they took the title of Hie Reformed Presbyterian Synod 
 
CAMISAKUS. 
 
 But at this moment (1341) the synod consists only of six 
 presbyteries, embracing thirty-five congregations, most of 
 them being very small. 
 
 The nature of the tenets and doctrines of the Camero- 
 nlans may account for their never having become a nume- 
 rous sect. They dented the authority of civil rulers, unless 
 these had sworn and subscribed the national covenants; 
 and of coarse they refused to include the nam*s of such 
 Pilers, even that of the sovereign himself, either in their 
 public or private prayers. They contended that the civil 
 magistrate is bound to suppress error, and to encourage 
 lie religion ; and that the covenants are binding on all 
 nty. These opinions, however, Ihey have gradually 
 led or abandoned. They now pray for the sovereign 
 and civil magistrates, and have virtually renounced the co- 
 venants. They are also in favour of a national church ; 
 and would have no hesitation to unite with the present es- 
 tablished church of Scotland if patronage was abolished, 
 and if the right of electing their own ministers were con- 
 i on the people. They adopt the Westminster Con- 
 i of Faith, and all the standards and formulas of the 
 cbur < Their ministers are strict disciplina 
 
 dans, adopt the Calvinistic creed in its most rigid sense, 
 are peculiarly assiduous and faithful, and as a body the 
 CamerooianJ now form a most unobtrusive, respectable, 
 
 CA'MISARDS. In French History, the Protestant insur- 
 In the Cevennes, after the revocation of the edict of 
 -. were so called, from having worn their shirts over 
 by way of disguise on the occasion of some 
 irnal attac k s. Their principal leader, Cavalier, suc- 
 i capitulation in their favour with 
 the Kr ! ibsequently entered the Eng- 
 
 lish service, and at his death was governor of Jei 
 
 i JA'MLET. A stuff or cloth, consisting of a mixture of 
 wool and silk:, or of wool and camel's hair. 
 CAMO'EVK (Derivation unknown) A Roman ap- 
 
 CAMP. In the an Military, a word of doubtful etymolo- 
 jnifying the station of an army, with its artillery, bag- 
 res, when "it has taken the field for 
 i iry 'i cam] i Involves that 
 
 l»f Ihe military art in all ages and in all countries; and in 
 tc the skill displayed by any nation in the sci- 
 tinv an accurate estimate be 
 i other departments of military 
 r. ir-i- l.i'iii'iiii.ans appear to have been the first 
 people in profane history who directed their attention to 
 this subject Their camps, whenever it was practicable, 
 of a circular form, which was said to possess the ad- 
 • from the centre, where Ihe general with the 
 of the troops lay. help could soonest be afforded to 
 my. The other states of 
 and Carthage borrowed the grand prin- 
 ting and tracing their camps from the Lace- 
 e.commodated the form, the arrange- 
 ment, and disposition of the same to the nature and 
 iund which they intended to occupy, it 
 Romans that the art of castrumelation first 
 tnatic regularity. The form of the Ro- 
 iriably quadrangular; it was surrounded 
 olar intrenchments, and was so admirably arranged 
 and in dividual knew exactly the 
 . and the part to which in- 
 tttention should be directed in the event of alarm. It 
 1 our limits to give an account of the construc- 
 tion of the Roman camps, and of the arrangement of the 
 troops in them. The reader will find ample details and 
 comments upon this subject in Ihe works of Polybius and 
 is. an I in Oeneral Roy's Military Antiquities of the 
 i Cyctopadia contains an 
 able account of the different systems of castrametation. 
 
 Camp. la , a heap of turnips, potatoes, or 
 
 other roots, laid up fer preserving through the winter; in 
 tees called a pie, and in others a bury. 
 CAMPAI'GN. (Fr.) An uninterrupted series of mili- 
 
 i;i the field. <S'ee War. 
 
 CAMPANI'LE. (It. campana, a hull.) In Architecture, 
 
 ly a tower for containing a bell or bells. Though 
 
 the word his been adopted in the English language, and 
 
 id to the bell towers of churches, it more properly 
 
 igs to those towers near churches, but detached from 
 
 (hem, to be seen in many of the cities of Italy. The prin- 
 
 ■ are the Campanile of Cremona, which is of 
 
 inordinary height of 396 feet j that of Florence, 208 
 
 ligh, built from the design of Giotto; the Garisendi 
 
 built in 1110, which is 147 feet high, and 
 
 rt oft.-u caIIpiI .If MitlanUti, In honour of this person. They 
 .ire n -o icnown by Ihe name of Hiltt People, from the circumstance that, 
 tilt within II* l.t«t fifty years, they held public worship almost exclusive- 
 ly in the flpeij air on the side of some hill, ill honour of their persecute*! 
 of Charles II. This practice they have now laid 
 aside, anrl avail themselves of stone edifices tor churches liie other sects. 
 
 187 
 
 CANAL. 
 
 is 8 feet 8 inches out of an upright; and very near to it in 
 the same city another tower, bearing the name of Asinelli, 
 327 feet in height, and leaning from the perpendienlar3 feet 
 8 inches, but which, seen, as it always is, in company with 
 the first, seems to lean but little. The last we shall name 
 is that which is commonly called the leaning tower of 
 Pisa, and perhaps the most remarkable of all. It is lul 
 feet high, and overhangs 12 feet 9 inches. Its general form 
 sses elegance, and is that of a cylinder encircled by 
 8 tiers of columns over each other, and each with an en- 
 tablature. The columns are all of marble, and the upper 
 tier is recessed back. 
 
 CAMI'A'Nl.'LA. (Lat. campana, a bell) Avery large 
 genus of hardy herbaceous plants and annuals, inhabiting 
 the temperate parts of both the eastern and western hem- 
 ispheres, but most abundant in the latter. They have blue 
 or white flowers, often of considerable size, on which ac- 
 count most of the species are favourites in gardens. In 
 M. Alphonsode Candolle's account of the genus, published 
 in 1830, after separating from it several groups, l'<2 species 
 are enumerated. The only useful plant among them is 
 C. ru/mtvutui l! e radish like sort of which is sometimes 
 eaten under ihe nam* of Hampton. 
 
 CAMPE'ACIIV WOOD. Logwood. Brought from 
 Campearhy, in Ihe hav ofHondui 
 
 CAMPHE'NE, or CAMPHOGEN. A term applied by 
 chemists to a hydrocarbon, composed often atoms of car- 
 bon =60, and eight of hydrogen = 8 ; it is therefore re- 
 presented by the equivalent number 68. It is identical with 
 pure oil of turpentine ; and camphor is its protoxide, that 
 substance being composed of 68 camphogen •+- 8 oxygen ; 
 camphor is therefore represented by the equivalent num- 
 ber 76. 
 
 CA'MPIIOR. A concrete volatile and highly odorous 
 substance, obtained by distillation from the Laurus cam- 
 phora, or camphor laurel, which is a native of Japan. It is 
 also found ready formed in the wood of the Dnabalmop* 
 ramphorn, a tree which flourishes in Borneo and Sumatra. 
 What is called crude or rough camphor is in small grey 
 pieces ami crystals; it is purified by sublimation, and is 
 found in commerce in circular cakes weighing about 8 lbs. 
 each, white, translucent, and son. i and crystal- 
 
 line in texture. Camphor is chiefly used in medicine: it 
 dissolves very sparingly in water, and the solution is called 
 campluir julep ; it dissolves abundantly in alcohol, forming 
 camphoratiil x;,irit nf wine. 
 
 CA'MPHORATES. Compounds of camphoric acid. 
 
 CAMPHORIC ACID. An acid obtained by boiling 
 camphor in nitric acid. It consists of 60 carbon, 8 hydro. 
 gen, and 5 oxygen ; or of one atom of camphor anJ four 
 of oxyzen. 
 
 CA'MPULl'TROPOUS. (Gr. A-a/jjrrco, / curve, and 
 rpcira), I turn.) In Botany, a name given to such ovules 
 as bend down upon themselves till their apex touches the 
 base. They are extremely common in plants, and are 
 more particularly those in which a raphe exists ; the latter 
 being a bundle of vessels, whose office is to maintain a 
 communication between the base of the nucleus and the 
 base of the seed 
 
 CANA'L. (Lat.) An artificial channel filled with wa- 
 ter, formed for the purposes of draining, of irrigation, of 
 supplying towns with water, or of inland navigation. Illus- 
 trative of the first, may be cited the canal which extends 
 from the Fucine Lake (now Lake Celano) into the river 
 I.iri ; of the second, the canals with which ancient Egypt 
 was intersected; of the third, the artificial aqueducts of 
 antiquity, or in modern times the New River, by which 
 London is in a great measure supplied with water from 
 Hertfordshire ; but it is to channels for the purpose of in- 
 land navigation that the term canal is usually confined. 
 
 That the importance of canals as a means of inland navi- 
 gation attracted attention even in the earliest ages, is mani- 
 fest from the " fossa? Philistinse," large canals (Pliny, iii. 
 16.) at the south of the Eridanus in Liguria, the origin of 
 which is ascribed by Mr. Bryant to the Canaanites, who at 
 an early period migrated from Philistia ; as well as from 
 the grand designs of the Cnidians, a people of Caria in 
 Asia Minor, to dig a channel through the isthmus which 
 joined their territory to the continent. {.Bar. ii. 78.) The 
 attempt, too, of the Egyptians at a later period to unite the 
 Nile with the Red Sea by a canal has been often recorded, 
 though it is difficult at the present day to discover the least 
 traces of its existence. The Greeks, who received the 
 first principles of commerce and the arts from the Egyp- 
 tians and Phoenicians, and who, improving upon the mo- 
 dels transmitted to them, afterwards reached an unexam- 
 pled pitch of civilisation, conceived the maenificent design 
 of making a navigable passage from the Ionian Sea into the 
 Archipelago, by cutting a canal across the isthmus of Co- 
 rinth. This undertaking, however, proved abortive: and 
 though the attempt was again renewed by several of the 
 Roman emperors, it still remained without success. In 
 the reign of Augustus, Drusus succeeded in excavating a 
 canal from the Rhine to the Issel, and formed, as we are 
 
CANAL. 
 
 told by Pliny, a new mouth from the Rhine to the sea. A 
 canal between the Rhine and the Maese, supposed to be 
 that now commencing at Leyden was passing Delft to its 
 junction with the Maese at Sluys, and likewise formed by 
 the Romans. But, as has been often observed, it was by 
 bending nations under the same yoke, and not by uniting 
 them in commercial ties, that the Romans sought to extend 
 international communications: hence their canals were 
 usually formed for the purposes of draining or of warfare. 
 There can be little doubt, however, that it was the Ro- 
 mans who introduced into their provinces the models of 
 internal communication which in modern times have un- 
 dergone such immense improvement, and which have 
 been converted to a purpose nobler than conquest— the in- 
 terchange of the productions of labour. 
 
 There is no country in the world where the advantages 
 of canals are more appreciated than in China. From time 
 immemorial the rivers that intersect that vast empire have 
 been united by innumerable canals ; and the Grand Canal 
 is said to be the most stupendous work of the kind that 
 has ever been executed. (Raynal, Hist. Phil. i. 102.) Rus- 
 sia, too, exhibits a remarkable degree of enterprise in the 
 construction of canals for the purpose of inland naviga- 
 tion ; and though innumerable difficulties peculiar to that 
 country for a long period impeded the progress of works 
 of this description, that empire is now traversed by an un- 
 broken line of water communication from St. Petersburg 
 to the Caspian Sea. 
 
 The canals constructed during the period of the glory 
 of Italy are very numerous ; but though many of these 
 are navigable, their primary object has been to communi- 
 cate to both banks of the Po the various productions of the 
 country. 
 
 In the Netherlands, the construction of canals com- 
 menced in the 12th century, when Flanders became the 
 commercial entrepot of Europe ; and to the large share 
 which canals possess in its economical arrangements is to 
 be ascribed chiefly the prosperity of Holland in the present 
 day. From the structure of that country, canals are form- 
 ed with peculiar facility ; and there is not. a town or a vil- 
 lage which is not furnished with a canal of greater or 
 smaller dimensions. France has from a distant period ex- 
 ercised its skill in the construction of canals for inland 
 navigation. The first was the canal of Briare, which opens 
 a communication between the Loire and the Seine, and 
 then between Paris and the western provinces, and is of 
 'immense importance in inland commerce. Omitting many 
 works of this kind, completed, in progress, or projected in 
 <hat country, the canal of Languedoc maybe mentioned, 
 which was intended to unite the Mediterranean with the 
 Atlantic, and was considered a stupendous undertaking. 
 (I is 150 miles long, is supplied by a number of rivulets. 
 md is provided at proper intervals with 114 locks and 
 sluices. 
 
 A reference to the earlier history of Spain, Sweden, 
 and Denmark, and to the more recent accounts of Austria, 
 Prussia, and above all America, will show to what extent 
 these several states have endeavoured by Ihc construction 
 of canals to develop internal resources, and to distribute 
 universally the productions of labour. 
 
 It is a singular circumstance that Great Britain, general- 
 ly foremost in the race of civilisation, and possessing so 
 many natural means for the formation of canals, from its 
 insular position and its numerous rivers, was the last coun- 
 try in Europe to avail itself of its advantages. It is true 
 that at different periods of her history the import- 
 ance of inland navigation was deeply felt, and various ex- 
 pedients were adopted for removing obstructions in the 
 rivers of that country, with the view of facilitating internal 
 commerce ; but it was not till the middle of the last century 
 that the construction of canals began to enter into the sys- 
 tem of British economy. In the year 1755 an impulse was 
 given to the progress of British industry by the project, 
 which originated with the Duke of Bridgewater, of form- 
 ing a canal between Worsley and Manchester; a project 
 which was altered and extended by three successive acts 
 of parliament to admit of greater comprehensiveness in its 
 execution, and has formed the basis of every succeeding 
 plan of canalisation in England. The example then set by 
 the Duke of Bridgewater was speedily followed: the targe 
 amount of capital in England, which is ever ready to be 
 invested in undertakings that are likely to prove profitable, 
 soon found its way into this channel, and in a short time 
 the country became intersected with navigable canals. 
 
 The section of a canal is usually a trapezium, of which 
 two sides are parallel and horizontal, and the other two 
 equally inclined to the horizon. The inclination depends 
 on the nature of the soil. It is least in tenacious earth, 
 and greatest in loose soil; but no soil will maintain itself, 
 unless the base of the slope exceeds its height at least in 
 the ra|k) of four to three In loose soils the base requires 
 to be twice as great as the height. 
 
 A canal is usually confined between a bank on one side, 
 and a towing path on the other, the breadth of whose up- 1 
 
 per surface must be sufficient for a road on which the ani- 
 mals employed in draught may easily pass. This requires 
 the breadth of the upper surfaee to be at least 9 feet. The 
 usual rule for the other bank is to make the breadth at to; 
 equal to the height, measured from the bottom of the ca- 
 nal: but in this case there should be a berm of a foot, oi 
 a foot and a half, at the level of the water, which increases 
 the thickness of the bank at bottom, and prevents the wash 
 of the banks from falling into the canal. T>> prevent the 
 entrance of rain-water, a counter-ditch is formed on the 
 outside of each of the banks. The profile of a well-con- 
 structed canal will therefore present the following figure : 
 Towing 
 
 Path Bank 
 
 \_J \ Canal 
 
 The dimensions of navigable canals must depend on the 
 size of the vessels intended to navigate them. In ordei 
 that they may permit two vessels to pass each other Willi 
 freedom, the breadth at bottom is usually made twice as 
 great as the breadth of the beam of the vessels : the depth 
 requires to be at least one foot more than the vessel's 
 draught of water. 
 
 The bed of a canal must be absolutely level, or have no 
 more slope than is necessary to convey water to replace 
 that which has been wasted. Hence, when a canal inter- 
 sects a sloping country in a series of channels at different 
 levels, means must be provided to enable vessels to pass 
 from one level to another. This is commonly effected by 
 means of a lock. 
 
 The invention of locks as a means of carrying a canal 
 through an undulating country has given an entirely new 
 feature to the inland navigation of Europe. Various na- 
 tions have claimed the honour of this invention : but i; 
 would appear that the controversy which has arisen on the 
 subject is not yet settled. " A lock is a chamber, formed 
 of masonry, occupying the whole bed of the canal win Ti- 
 the difference of level is to be overcome. This c 
 is so contrived that the level of the water which it contains 
 may be made to coincide with either the upper or lowe i 
 level of the canal. This is effected by two pairs o 
 one of which pairs is placed at each end of the chambci 
 of the lock. By this means, while the gates at the lowei 
 end of the chamber are opened, and those at the uppei 
 end are closed, the water in the chamber will stain! at the 
 lower level of the canal ; and, on the contrary, when the 
 lower gates are closed, and the upper gates are opened, the 
 level of the water in the lock will coincide with the level 
 of the water in the upper part of the canal. In the first 
 case, a boat may be floated into the lock from the lowei 
 part of the canal; and if then the gatf he closed, anil 
 water is admitted into the lock from tie tipper level until 
 the surface of the lock is in a line witn the water above, 
 the boat will be floated up, and on the opening of the up- 
 per gates may be passed onward. By reversing the course 
 of procedure, boats may be as readily conveyed from the 
 upper to the lower level." See Lock. 
 
 The supply of water required for maintaining a canal de- 
 pends on the lockage or quantity wasted in passing a vessel 
 through the locks, on the evaporation from the surface, 
 and on the leakage. It has been found by experiment that 
 the annual quantity of evaporation from the canal of Lan- 
 guedoc is 32 inches ; that is to say, the body of water re- 
 quired to supply this waste is equal to a parallelepiped 
 whose base is the whole surface of water in the canal, and 
 whose altitude is 32 inches: in most calculations it has 
 been customary to take this altitude at 36 inches. With 
 respect to the leakage, when the soil is porous the inner 
 surface of the banks may be lined with an earth reten- 
 tive of water, or a portion of the middle of each bank 
 may be built up with earth of this character. The opera 
 tion of lining a bank with clay, or earth retentive of moist- 
 ure, is called puddling. 
 
 The advantages derived from canals are now so gene- 
 rally known and acknowledged, as to render it almost su- 
 perfluous to allude to the question. The beneficial effects 
 of canals are felt in a greater or less degree by all classi s 
 of society : by their means the manufacturer is enabled to 
 collect his materials and his fuel with less labour and ex- 
 pense ; the farmer obtains a supply of manure nt 
 rate, and a ready conveyance of his produce to the most 
 profitable market; and the merchant is enabled to extend 
 his commerce by exporting greater quantities and varieties! 
 of guods from places remote from the sea, and by moiv 
 easily supplying a wider extent of inland country 
 tides of foreign produce. In short, general arguments m 
 favour of canals are superseded by the rapidly Imprnvinjf 
 and thriving state of all the cities, towns, and villages in 
 their neighbourhood ; while the great works of every kind 
 to which they have been conducted, and to which a latft 
 
CANALICULATE. 
 
 portion of them owe their rise, are their best recommen- 
 dation. Some years ago, when the formation of railroads 
 became a favourite speculation, no small degree of alarm 
 was experienced by those interested in the prosperity of 
 canals, lest they should diminish in importance, or in fact 
 be entirely superseded by tho introduction of railroads. 
 Experience has. however, hitherto shown that the fears 
 entertained on this subject were perfectly groundless ; lor, 
 as railway* are constructed chiefly for the expeditious 
 transport of passengers and goods, and from the expense 
 incurred in their construction ami maintenance a higher 
 levied in order to pay the proprietors, 
 this mud.- of conveyance is not likely to interfere with that 
 iption of goods which form the chief traffic of canals, 
 and for which cheapness, not expedition of transport, is re- 
 I. (For detailed information on the subject of canals, 
 the reader is referred to Phillips's General History of In- 
 '.ami Navigation ; and to Nic/iols, Priestley, and Walker's 
 Bittorical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, $c. of 
 Great Eh 
 
 CANAU'CULATE. (Lat. canalis. a water pipe.) In 
 lid of a surface when it has a longitudinal im- 
 pressed line or channel. 
 
 Canaliculate. (Lat. canalis, a water pipe.) Is said 
 of leaves or other parts when the edges are so much 
 turned upwards as to produce the appearance of a channel 
 or gutter. 
 
 f ' WU.I'I'KR v (Lat. canalis, a canal; fero, I bear.) 
 Tie- ttame of a tribe of Zoophagous Univalves, or Gastro- 
 of which the shell is characterized by a long straight 
 canal terminating its mouth. 
 
 CAN.VKV BIRD. Two distinct species of finch (Car- 
 duelis) appear to have afforded the different varieties of 
 singing turd familiarly known by this name. The one 
 which is best known in its wild state is the Carduelis cana- 
 rfaofCuvier, and is very abundant in Madeira, where its 
 characters and habits have been observed with much at- 
 tention by Dr. Hiineken. u It builds," says this natural- 
 ist, '• in thick bushy high shrubs and trees, with roots, 
 moss, feathers, hair, Ac; pairs in February; lays from 
 four to six pale blue eggs ; and hatches five, and often six 
 times in the season. It is a delightful songster, with, be- 
 yond doubt, much of the nightingale's and sky-lark's, but 
 none of the wood-lark's song." — "A pure wild song from 
 an island canary, at liberty, in full throat, in a part of the 
 country so distant from the haunts of men that it is quite 
 unscij unequalled, in its kind, by any thing I 
 
 have ever heard in the way of bird-music." The canary- 
 bird was brought into Europe as early as the 16th century, 
 and is supposed to have spread from the coast of Italy, 
 where a vessel, which was bringing to Leghorn a number 
 of these birds besides its merchandise, was wrecked. As, 
 however, they were males chiefly which were thus intro- 
 I, they were for some time scarce ; and it is only of 
 late years that their education and the proper mode of 
 treating them have been known. See Bechstein on Cage 
 Birds. 
 
 CANA'STER. The rush basket in which tobacco is 
 packed in Spanish America ; whence canaster tobacco. 
 
 CA'N'Cr'I,. (Fr. canceller.) In Printing, is the sup- 
 
 preaaion of a leaf or more of a book, owing to some error 
 
 of importance having escaped detection, or some fact being 
 
 misstated, or some new discovery being made, or some 
 
 ing taken place in the author's arrangements 
 
 after that part of a work has been printed, and substituting 
 
 for the portion cancelled a corrected leaf, <kc. which is 
 
 y distinguished by one of the following signs at the 
 
 *i t, X, I, as a guide to the book-binder. 
 
 CANCELLA'RlA. (Fr. canceller.) A Lamarckian ge- 
 nus of Trachelipod Testacea, having the shell oval or tur- 
 ret.-, I; base of the aperture sub-canaliculate; canal very 
 short ; columella plicate ; the plaits usually transverse, 
 varying it; number; lip internally furrowed; operculum 
 horny. The reticulated Cancellaria (Cancellaria reticu- 
 lata, Lam.) is a well-known species, from the Atlantic 
 
 OA'NCELLATE. (Lat. cancelli, lattices.) Is a term 
 applied to leaves consisting entirely of veins, without con- 
 necting p irenchyma ; so that the whole leaf looks like a 
 plaie of open network. Instances of this kind occur in Hy- 
 dro%eton fenestralis, but are extremely rare. 
 
 CA'NCER (Lat.) The Crab. The fourth sign of the 
 zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of June, when 
 ha reaches his greatest northern declination. The par- 
 allel circle through this point is called the Tropic of Cancer. 
 
 Cancer. The I.innasan generic name for the modern 
 Brachyurous family of Crustaceans. 
 
 Cancbr. A disease chiefly attacking the glands, consist- 
 ing of a schirrous tumour terminating in an ill-conditioned 
 and deep ulcer, generally attended by excruciating pain. 
 When the cancerous character of a tumour is once ascer- 
 tained, its extirpation, where practicable, is the only 
 chance of effectual relief. The large blue veins which 
 ramify round a cancer of the breast were compared by old 
 
 CANDIDATI. 
 
 authors to the claws of a crab, whence the name of this 
 disease. 
 
 CANCRO'MA. A genus of GraUatores or wading birds 
 belonging to Cuvier's family of Pressirostres, or com- 
 pressed-billed waders, including only one known species, 
 the Boalbill; so called from the form and siructure of the 
 bill, which characterizes the genus. The bill is flatten. I 
 or depressed, not compressed; and is composed of two 
 boat-shaped or spoon-shaped mandibles, with their conca- 
 vities applied towards each other, the upper one having a 
 strong and sharp tooth near the point. The BoatbiU in- 
 habits the banks of the Orinooko, and other large rivers of 
 South America which are subject to flooding in the rainy 
 season. 
 
 CANDELA'BRUM. (Lat. candela, a lamp or candle.) 
 A stand or support on which the ancients placed a lamp. 
 Candelabra varied in form, and were highly decorated with 
 the stems and leaves of plants, parts of animals, flowers, 
 and the like. There was no article of ancient furniture in 
 which more taste and elegance were displayed than in the 
 designs of candelabra. The etymology of the word would 
 seem to assimilate the candelabrum to our candlestick ; it 
 is, however, quite certain that the word candela was noth- 
 ing more than a lamp, and that the candelabrum was but a 
 support more or less heavy in construction upon which the 
 lamp was placed, or whose top was hollowed out for the 
 reception of oil or some other combustible. The great va- 
 riety observable in ancient candelabra was not so depen- 
 dent on the caprice of the artist, as on the different uses to 
 which they were first applied. Before the employment of 
 oil the mode of illuminating an apartment was by means 
 of dry wood burnt on braziers (basins for holding fuel) sup- 
 ported by tripods. The Greeks, always delighting to pre- 
 serve some reminiscence of an ancient usage, thence ad- 
 hered to the triangular form in this article of furniture, and 
 their example was imitated by the Romans. Generally 
 speaking, there are two species of candelabra : those which 
 ending upwards in the form of a brazier, so nearly approach 
 the form of a portable altar as to be almost confounded 
 with it. This species must be classed with the tripod, ami 
 there seems ground for believing that it was used only In 
 temples or in small chapels. Of this sort was that carried 
 off by Verres; and Cicero informs us that in Sicily every 
 house was supplied with one in silver. Of this species al- 
 so are those most frequently sculptured in friezes, usually 
 accompanied by genii and instruments of sacrifice. The 
 other species of candelabra, whose accessaries and orna- 
 ments are of the same character as in those first described, 
 are much higher, and of marble. Of this kind Rome fur- 
 nishes an abundance of examples; but, as Winkelman ob- 
 serves, not one has been found in bronze. 
 
 The marble candelabra exhibit as much variety in- the 
 forms of the vase or brazier, which it is their principal end 
 to support, as in the body and base of the support itself. 
 Sometimes they are capricious to excess, the foliage, con- 
 trivance, and design being such as to display more skill 
 than propriety of taste. Others, however, there are which 
 are exquisite models of form, taste, ornament, and execu- 
 tion. The museum at the Vatican contains possibly the 
 finest collection in Europe of this species. There is one 
 to be seen there upwards of seven feet high, resting on 
 griffins' or lions' paws. The general form of its shaft is 
 that of a baluster, which supports a vase shaped basin ; it 
 is highly decorated with foliage and bassi-rilievi of bac- 
 chantes. The British museum presents some specimens; 
 beautiful, but not of the first class. For full information on 
 this species, the reader should turn to the splendid works 
 of Piranesi. Lachausse thinks that marble candelabra 
 were used in temples more for the purpose of adding 
 splendour to the service than of lighting it ; but it seems 
 probable that many with which we are acquainted, such as 
 those that were found in the bathsof Titus, where numbers 
 of the apartments did not receive the light of day, actually 
 held artificial light. The most curious specimens of can- 
 delabra, as respects form, use, and workmanship, are those 
 excavated at Herculaneum and Pompeii. These are all of 
 bronze ; and that they were employed for domestic pur- 
 poses is proved from the representation, on an Etruscan 
 vase, of one which serves to give light to the guests assem- 
 bled round a banquet table. They are slender in their pro- 
 portions, and perfectly portable, rarely exceeding five feet 
 in height. It is to be observed, that none of the candelabra 
 hitherto found exhibit any appearance of a socket or of a 
 spike at top, from which an inference of the use of candles 
 could be drawn. 
 
 CANDIDA'TI. (Lat. candidus, white.) In Roman An- 
 tiquities, so called from their being arrayed in white gar- 
 ments, were the aspirants for public offices. In this dress 
 they canvassed the different tribes, harangued the people, 
 extolled their own exploits, and as the case might happen, 
 exhibited the wounds which they had received in the ser- 
 vice of their country. The forms of election among the 
 Romans were remarkably strict. Every candidate for 
 public offices was compelled to pass two years in proba- 
 
CANDLEMAS. 
 
 nonary service ; and even then his appointment, which 
 could only be ratified by numerous and imposing so- 
 lemnities, did not generally take place until he had spent 
 five months as magistrate elect in familiarizing himself 
 with the duties of his office. Notwithstanding the severity 
 of the Roman laws against corruption, the practice of bri- 
 bery was constantly resorted to, and a full purse and fair 
 promises went far to supply tl»e want of ability and in- 
 tegrity. 
 
 CA'NDLEMAS. A church festival, held on the 2nd of 
 February, to commemorate the purification of the Virgin. 
 The name probably arose from the number of lighted 
 candles used in the processions of the day ; or perhaps 
 from a custom of consecrating candles on that day for the 
 rest of the year. This practice was abolished in England 
 in the second year of the reign of Edward VI. 
 
 CA'NDLES. These are an important article of irnnufac- 
 ture, and may be composed of a variety of mater/Js : the 
 principal are, — 1. Wax candles, which are made by pour- 
 ing melted wax over the wicks, which for the c xivenience 
 of turning and placing them successively over the caul- 
 dron, are usually attached to the circumference of a hoop ; 
 when of a proper thickness, they are rolled smooth upon a 
 table, and the ends are cut and trimmed. It is in conse- 
 quence of this method of manufacture, that when we cut 
 a wax candle we observe it composed of successive layers 
 or coats. Attempts have been made to cast wax candles 
 in moulds, but those which are thus made never burn so 
 well »s those which are poured. 2. Spermaceti candles, or 
 mixtures of wax and spermaceti. This material forms a 
 very good and cleanly candle ; but in consequence of its 
 ready fusibility and hardness when concrete, it does not 
 admit of being carried about without spilling the melted 
 material. The fused portions also, which run down the 
 candle, are apt to curl and fall upon the table. 3. Composi- 
 tion candles. This term was originally conferred by a 
 manufacturer who had a large stock of spermaceti candles 
 on hand which were of a dirty hue, and which therefore 
 were unsaleable ; he advertised them under the above 
 name, and they were soon disposed of, under the notion 
 of their being composed of some new combination of ma- 
 terials. The term has since been applied to various mix- 
 tures ; but what are now sold under the name of composi- 
 lion candles are chiefly mixtures of spermaceti, tallow, and 
 t little resin, and occasionally wax. 4. TalXovs candles, 
 vliich are either cast upon the wick in pewter moulds, or 
 Qiade by dipping the wicks, attached in rows to proper 
 rames, into melted tallow. 5. Stearine candles. Under 
 his term we may include cocoa-nut oil candles, and a few 
 )thers made of the stearine, or what may be compared to 
 lie spermaceti of the vegetable oils. The stearine, or 
 rather the stearicacid of tallow, is also now extensively 
 employed for making candles. 
 
 A candle may be considered as a portable gas apparatus, 
 <nd its philosophical history involves a number of very 
 jurious points, which we can only superficially advert to 
 nere. The combustible material, in a state of fusion, is 
 drawn up in successive portions by capillary attraction into 
 the heated part of the wick, the texture, materials, and di- 
 mensions of which are matters of much importance. If 
 the wick be too large, the candle flares and smokes, pro- 
 ducing a peculiar suffocating smell in the room, and often 
 wanling snuffing, as we constantly see in badly made mould 
 candles ; if. on the contrary, the wick be too small, the 
 candle burns dimly and gutters, in the former case, un- 
 burned carbon soon collects in the upper part of the flame, 
 and if not removed is apt to fall into the cup of the candle, 
 where it forms a kind of second wick, rapidly melting 
 away the tallow and disfiguring the candle, and occasion- 
 ally, where candles are inadvertently left burning, falling 
 upon the table and setting fire to any thing within its reach. 
 This evil miy to a great extent be prevented by inclining 
 the candle at an angle of about 45 degrees, so as to keep 
 Hie upper part of the wick out of the flame. In this way 
 ihe air has access to it, and the charcoal which otherwise 
 collects into a head is burned as soon as deposited. 
 Where it is required to keep a common tallow candle 
 burning during the night, the necessity for snuffing, and 
 the risk of mischief, may be prevented by so inclining it ; 
 and candlesticks have been contrived for the purpose, 
 which are useful and effective, but very unseemly. 
 With good wax the wick is more easily adjusted to the 
 wants of the flame, and the necessity of snuffing to a great 
 extent prevented ; but adulterated wax is often more 
 troublesome than tallow. Great care is also requisite in 
 selecting the cotton for the wicks of candles, which should 
 he of such a nature as to leave no ash, or scarcely any, 
 when burned. The wick is occasionally impregnated with 
 different substances, and sometimes so platted as to curl 
 out of the flame ; but the details of these contrivances 
 would be foreign to the object of this work. The follow- 
 ing table contains the results of some experiments made 
 by Dr. Ure, with a view of ascertaining the relative inten- 
 sities of light and the duration of different candles :— 
 190 
 
 CANIS. 
 
 B 
 
 — -o 
 II 
 
 o • 
 
 11 
 
 c 
 Z a 
 
 Iff 
 
 > 5) 
 
 5 © fi 
 
 = — ii 
 
 3 2 C 
 
 c 
 
 ° .J 
 
 s -a 
 
 c .- 
 
 C"" 
 
 C '— 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 c 
 ^ Q e 
 
 g— s, 
 
 V 
 
 10 Mould 
 
 5h. 9 m. 
 
 682 
 
 132 
 
 12-25 
 
 66 
 
 5-70 
 
 10 Dipped 
 
 4 36 
 
 672 
 
 150 
 
 1300 
 
 66'5 
 
 5-26 
 
 8 Mould 
 
 6 31 
 
 856 
 
 132 
 
 10-50 
 
 59-5 
 
 6-60 
 
 6 Ditto 
 
 7 2i 
 
 1160 
 
 163 
 
 14-66 
 
 66 
 
 5 00 
 
 4 Ditto 
 
 9 36 
 
 1787 
 
 186 
 
 20-25 
 
 R0 -9 
 
 3-00 1 
 
 Argand oil flame 
 
 - - 
 
 512 
 
 69 40 
 
 1000 
 
 1 
 
 In reference to the above table, it appears from Dr. 
 Ure's experiments that one-eighth of a gallon of good oil, 
 weighing 6010 grains, or 13 and 110th ounces avoirdupois, 
 lasts in a bright argand lamp 11 hours 44 minutes. The 
 weight of oil it consumes per hour is equal to four times 
 the weight of tallow in candles eight to the pound, and 3 
 and l-7th times the weight of tallow in candles six to the 
 pound ; but, its light being equal lo that of five of the lat- 
 ter candles, it appears from the above table, that two 
 lbs. weight of oil, value one shilling, (sterling), in an ar- 
 gand lamp, are equivalent in illuminating power to 3 lbs. of 
 tallow candles, which cost about three shillings, sterling. 
 The larger the flame in the above candles, the ureater the 
 economy of light. (Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry.') In 
 reference to the comparative cost of coal gas, oil, tallow, 
 and wax, it appears that the cost of a lamp fed by gas, and 
 giving the light of seven candles, will be about one penny 
 sterling per hour; of an argand lamp fed with spermaceti 
 oil, about threepence, of mould candles about threepence 
 halfpenny, and of wax candles about one shilling. Ninety 
 cubic feet of good coal gas, value about one shilling ster- 
 ling, will produce the light of about 10 wax candles for 
 one hour. 
 
 CANE'LLA. (Dim. of canna, a reed.) The bark of the 
 Canella alba, imported from the West Indies in quilled 
 pieces of a pale buff colour, and a biting aromatic flavour. 
 It is occasionally used in medicine. 
 
 CANE'LLE.E. (Canella, one of the genera.) A small 
 natural order of plants, supposed to be related to Clusi- 
 acem ; but very imperfectly known. They consist of South 
 American shrubs or trees ; one of which, Cunella alba, is 
 aromatic, and yields the wild cinnamon of the West In- 
 dies. The bark of that species is used medicinally against 
 scurvy. 
 
 CANE'PIIOR^E. (Gr. xavriQopos, bearing a basket.) In 
 Architecture, figures of young persons of either sex, bear- 
 ing on their heads baskets containing materials for sacri- 
 fice. They are frequently confounded with caryatides, 
 from their resemblance in respect of attitude and the 
 modern abuse of their application. See Caryatides. 
 
 CA'NES VENA'TICI. The Greyhounds. One of the 
 constellations formed by Hevelius in the northern hemi- 
 sphere. It is represented on the celestial globes and charts 
 by the figures of two dogs, which are also distinguished 
 by the names of Asterion and Chara. 
 
 CANI'CULAR DAYS, or DOG DAYS. The name given 
 to certain days of the year, during which the heat is usu- 
 ally the greatest. They are reckoned about forty, and are 
 set down in the almanacs as beginning on the 3d day of 
 July, and ending on the 11th of August. In the time of the 
 ancient Astronomers, the remarkable star Sirius, called al- 
 so Canicula, or the Dog Star, rose heliacally, that is, just 
 before the sun, about the beginning of July ; and the sultry 
 heat which usually prevails at that season, with all its disa- 
 greeable effects, among which the tendency of dogs to be- 
 come mad is not one of the least disagreeable, were as- 
 cribed to the malignant rage of the star. Owing to the 
 precession of the equinoxes, the heliacal risinH of S'rius 
 now takes place later in the year, and in a cooler seas<ti ; 
 so that the dog days have not now that relation to the par- 
 ticular position of the Dog Star from which they obtained 
 their name. 
 
 CANI'CULAR YEAR. The ancient solar year of the 
 Egyptians ; so called because its commencement was de- 
 termined by the heliacal rising of the Dog Star. The Egyp- 
 tians chose this star for their observations, either on ac- 
 count of its superior brightness, or because its heliacal 
 rising corresponded with the annual overflow of the Nile. 
 At a very early period of history the Egyptians had per- 
 ceived that the solar year contains 365X days ; for theit 
 common years consisted of 365 days, and every fourth 
 year of 366, as in the Julian Calendar. 
 
 CANI'NES. (Lat. canis, a dog.) The pointed, often long 
 teeth, which succeed the incisors;. called denies cam hi, or 
 laniarii. 
 
 CA'NIS. (Lat. canis, a dog.) The name of a genus of 
 Dieitigrade Mammalia, restricted in the modern systems 
 of Zoology to the species of dog, wolf, and jackal : but by 
 Linnteus applied in a wider sense to include the fox and 
 hyena. With respect to the latter animal its enormously 
 
CANIS. 
 
 developed anal scent-glands, its brief coition, and its mane 
 indicate it to belong to the family of the skunks and genets 
 than to that of the dogs, while the prickly tongue 
 and dentition of the hyena approximate it to the cats. The 
 are generically distinguished from the dogs by the 
 pupils of the eye, which during the day have the form of 
 a vertical fissure, by their less notched upper incisors, and 
 by their longer and more bushy tail. The tnie characters 
 of the genus cam* are six incisors and two canines in each 
 jaw. six molars on each side of the upper jaw, and seven 
 molars on each side of the lower jaw, making in all forty - 
 two teeth, of which there are twenty in the upper and 
 twenty-two in the lower jaw. The first three molars in the 
 upper, and the first four molars in the under jaw, are 
 trenchant and pointed or lacerating teeth ; the succeeding 
 molar in the upper jaw is very large, with two sharp cut- 
 ting points towards the outer edge, and a small tubercle on 
 merside interiorly; the others are smaller, and all 
 furnished witli tubercles: the first of these tuberculate mo- 
 lars in the upper jaw is very large. In all the wild varie- 
 : the species of canis the mnczle is elongated, and the 
 ire carried erect; the tongue is unprovided with eoti- 
 cul.ir spines ; the fore feet have five toes, the hind feet four 
 only; both are armed with non-reiractile claws; the cav 
 cum is cylindrical, and coiled upon itself; the anal glands 
 are of moderate size ; the coitus is prolonged. The dog 
 (CanUfamiJiaris, I..) is distinguished from the wolf and 
 jackal by his recurved tail; but the varieties, as to size, 
 l, colour, and quality of the hair, are almost infinite, 
 mplete, singular, and useful con- 
 made by man over the brute creation ; each in- 
 divii! ; I to his particular master, assumes his 
 
 manners, knows and defends his property, and remains 
 
 • I to him till death ; and all this neither from con- 
 straint nor want, but solely from the purest gratitude and 
 
 friendship. The swiftness, strength, ami scent of 
 e rendered him man's powerful allv against all 
 other animals, and have perhaps mainly contributed to the 
 iahmeni of society. Some naturalists think the dog is 
 a reclaimed wolf, and others that he is a domestical''! 
 1; nevertheless, those dogs that have become wild 
 neither into the one nor the other species. 
 i I those that belong to savages, as the 
 . resemble, it is true, the wolf in the shape of the 
 il pricked ears, rough and thick hair, long 
 II- 1 bunging gait; moreover, they never bark, 
 itter a sharp cry or long melancholy howl, like the 
 jackal and wolf; yet they are plainly distinct from both. 
 Ltaqnimaux dog* present the first tracesof a deviation 
 from the wild type; the figure of the legs is more deter- 
 mine!, and their pace bolder and more rapid : still they 
 elr near relationship to the wolf in their sharp 
 . and inability to bark. The Esquimaux 
 ;>!e of Kamtschatka use these dogs as beasts of 
 draught: six or seven dogs will draw a sledge laden with 
 eight or ten hundred weight at the rate of seven or eight 
 miles an hour, and will easily, under these circumstances, 
 perform a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day, when the 
 snow is hard and smooth, and the road level. The dogs 
 
 • mplovcd have a simple harness of deer or seal skin 
 : round the neck by one bight, and another for each of 
 
 the forelegs, with a single thong leading over the back, 
 and attached to the sledge as a trace. "Though they ap- 
 . ' says Captain Parry, "to be at first sight huddled to- 
 •r without regard to regularity, there is in fact consid- 
 erable attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in 
 the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is 
 allowed by a longer trace to precede the rest as leader, and 
 to whom, in turning to the right or left, the driver usually 
 s himself." 
 n -wfoundlanii dog may be regarded as the next re- 
 move from the Esquimaux variety. Thpse fine and saga- 
 - animals are employed in their native island to draw 
 Ige* and carts laden with wood and fish, and to render 
 many other useful services performed elsewhere by the 
 The readiness with which the Newfoundland dog 
 I the water, his aptitude to fetch and carry, and his 
 rftil and active swimming, have been the means of 
 ■rving the lives of many human beings. Another va- 
 riaty nfdog nearly allied to the Newfoundland breed, and 
 raging to the same subdivision (AvicuJarius, Linn., or 
 spaniel-tribe), has been trained by the benevolent monks 
 ot situated near the top of the mountain of 
 BL fternard, to hunt outand extricate such unfortunate 
 trareUenaa may have been buried under the snow-drifts 
 c r avalanches, while attempting the neighbouring dangerous 
 between Switzerland and Savoy. One of these noble 
 animals was decorated with a medal in commemoration 
 of his having saved the lives of twenty-two persons, who 
 rnusi otherwise have perished. In the museum at Berne 
 is still preserved the stuffed skin of "Barry," another of 
 these dogs, together with the bottle and collar which he 
 bore in his lifetime ; for the good fathers, with a provident 
 :are to afford every chance of escape to the unfortunate 
 191 
 
 CANNIBALS. 
 
 travellers, fasten a flask of spirits about the neck of the dog 
 before he starts on his search. Barry having discovered a 
 boy whose mother had been destroyed by an avalanche, 
 unhurt and asleep in the hollow of a glacier, and almost 
 stiff with cold, delivered to him the bottle suspended from 
 his neck; and when he had refreshed himself, found 
 means to induce him to mount upon his back, and thus 
 carried him to the gate of the convent. This dog had been 
 the means of rescuing from death upwards of forty persons 
 before he was superannuated; when he was sent to 
 the remainder of his days, on a pension, in a more genial 
 climate at Berne. 
 
 In our own country the shepherd's dog offers the exam 
 pie of one of the purest races of the domesticate! I animal, 
 and that which, in its straight ears, its hair, and tall, ap- 
 proaches nearest to the original stock. The sagacity of 
 this variety in the peculiar department in which his ser- 
 vices are rendered to man is well known, and has been il- 
 lustrated by a hundred interesting anecdotes. The 
 herd's dog, though outwardly resembling in many points 
 the "dingo," possesses a greater cerebral development, 
 which coiiiiuues to increase together with intelligence In 
 the spaniel and barbet. Guided by the form of the cra- 
 nium, we should associate the spaniel anil its immediate 
 varieties with the Shepherd's dog, the wolf dog, the New- 
 foundland and Mount Bt. Bernard's dog, and the Esqui- 
 maux dogs in one family (Sngaces). 
 
 A comparison of the crania indicates a closer affinity of 
 lingo" with the family Pugnaces, including the mas- 
 tiff and Danish dog, than with the Sagocts. Afterthe pug- 
 naceous mastiff ami ii - varieties, as the bulldog, remarka- 
 ble for the shortness and strength of its jaws, come the 
 hound, the pointer, and the terrier In the order of cerebral 
 development. The varieties of this family ( Venantes) dif- 
 fer between themselves chiefly in the size and proportions 
 of the limbs; the greyhound is longer and more lank, its 
 frontal afamses an smaller, ami its scent weaker. 
 
 The bandy-legged turnspits, ami the small pel dogs, as 
 the pugs, poodles, Italian greyhounds, king Charles's i 
 &c, are the most degenerated productions of the genu-. 
 and exhibit the most striking instances of that power to 
 which man subjects all Datura, 
 
 With some ex cepti o ns among this latter anomalous groub 
 all the domestic varieties of the genus Confsare easily and 
 naturally referable to one or other of the three great tribes 
 above mentioned, of which the mastiff, the hound, and the 
 spaniel may be regarded as the several types, and which 
 we have named Purnace*, Venaitet, anil Sagaoa, (rote 
 their prominent aptitude respectively for the combat, the 
 chase, and those more varied and complicated services 
 which seem to demand for their fulfilment a greater 
 amount of intelligence in our canine auxiliaries. 
 
 In all the varieties of the dog the following circumstances 
 in his economy are constant : — He is born with his eyes 
 closed; he opens them on the tenth or twelfth day ; his 
 teeth commence changing in the fourth month ; and his 
 full growth is attained at the expiration of the second year. 
 The period of gestation Is sixty-three days, and from six to 
 .twelve pups are produced at a birth. The dog is old at fif- 
 teen years, and seldom lives beyond twenty. His vigi- 
 lance and bark are universally known. (.See Naturalist's 
 Library, vols. 25 and 28,— Dogs, by Lieut. Col. Hamilton 
 Smith ; Bell's British Quadrupeds, 8vo., 1837.) 
 
 CA'NIS MA'JOR. (Lat.) The Greater Dog. One of 
 the 43 constellations of Ptolemy, in the southern hemi- 
 sphere, and underthe feet of Orion. Sirius, the brightest 
 of all the fixed stars, belongs to this constellation. 
 
 CA'NIS MINOR. The Lesser Dog. Is also one of Pto- 
 lemy's 48 constellations. It is in the northern hemisphere, 
 just below Gemini. Its most conspicuous star is Procyon, 
 of the first magnitude. 
 
 CA'NNELL COAL. (Perhaps cavdle coal, from the 
 flame with which it burns.) A species of coal found in 
 most of the English collieries, especially at Wigan in Lan- 
 cashire. It is difficultly frangible, and does not soil the fin- 
 gers ; when burning it splits and crackles, but does not 
 cake, and leaves 3 or 4 per cent, of ash. It Is sometimes 
 worked into ornamental utensils, like jet. 
 
 CA'NNIBALS, or ANTHROPOPHAGI. Persons that 
 devour human flesh. The ancient authors, but especially 
 Herodotus, have recorded instances both of individ- 
 ual and national addiction to this revolting practice, as in 
 the case of Polyphemus, the Massagetae, and the Isse- 
 dones : and though there is unquestionably a large portion 
 of fable grafted on these traditional facts, it would be rash 
 wholly to reject an account which the testimony of subse- 
 quent history so strongly corroborates. In the middle ages 
 it was customary for parties engaged in hostilities to make 
 mutual accusations of cannibalism ; but there is sufficient 
 ground for believing that such allegations originated more 
 in a desire, natural, perhaps, to sworn enemies in those 
 rude times, of fixing upon each other the most barbarous 
 practices, than in any actual perpetration of this deed on 
 either side. At the present day cannibalism is practised 
 
CANNON. 
 
 By some of the Indian tribes of North America, the Battas 
 of Sumatra, and the New Zealanders ; though it must be 
 admitted, to the honour of humanity, that the most violent 
 passions, such as revenge or hatred, or the pressure of 
 want, must be in operation before even the wildest savage 
 will indulge in so horrible a banquet. 
 
 CA'NNON. A military engine for projecting balls, 
 shells, &e. by the force of gun-powder. The principal 
 parts of a cannon are, 1. The breech, which 
 is the solid metal from the bottom of the bore c 
 
 or concave cylinder to the extremity of the 
 cascabel, a. 2. The trunnions, b b, which pro- 
 'ect on each side, and serve to support the can- 
 non in equilibrio, their axis being in the vertical 
 plane passing through the centre of gravity, but 
 intersecting it below that point. 3. The bore or b 
 cylindrical cavity. This in several sorts of can- 
 non is made of smaller diameter towards the 
 breech, thus assuming the shape of two cylin- 
 ders united by a portion of a spherical surface. 
 The smaller part of the bore is of such a length 
 as to receive the maximum service charge of 
 gun-powder, and is called the chamber. The 
 entrance of the bore, c, is called the mouth or muzzle. 
 
 Cannon are made either of cast iron or brass, the latter 
 being an alloy of copper and tin in the proportion of about 
 10 parts of copper to 1 of tin, and called gun-metal. This 
 has a greater tenacity than iron, but is objectionable on ac- 
 count of its greater density and higher price, besides being 
 liable in rapid service to soften and droop at the muzzle, 
 whereby it is rendered unserviceable. Since the advan- 
 tage of using smaller charges of gun-powder was disco- 
 vered, cast iron, though possessing less tenacity than gun 
 metal, has been substituted for ship, garrison, and batter- 
 ing guns. But the smaller species of cannon (field-pieces) 
 continue to be made generally of brass : for by reason of 
 the rapid cooling of the iron in small masses its strength is 
 considerably impaired, so that it is difficult to be procured 
 of the requisite quality. 
 
 Cannon were formerly cast with a cave or hollow, but 
 they are now always cast solid ; experience having shown 
 that when cast solid they are stronger, and less liable to 
 burst ; that the metal is freer from honeycombs ; and that 
 the bore can be rendered more perfect, and its axis made 
 to coincide more accurately with that of the piece. In 
 boring cannon, the gun itself is made to revolve about the 
 bit or borer, the size of which is successively increased. 
 
 In service cannon are mounted on carriages, by which 
 they may be removed from place to place. They are sup- 
 ported on the carriage by the trunnions, about which they 
 move as on an axle ; and the form of the carriage is such 
 as to admit of their being elevated or depressed a few de- 
 grees above or below the horizontal plane. See Gun, Gun- 
 nery, Howitzer, Mortar. See Greener on* Gunnery ; 
 and Wilkinson's Engines of War. 
 
 CA'NNON BONE. In Farriery, signifies the single 
 metacarpal or metatarsal bone of the horse. 
 
 CA'NNON METAL. Bronze ; an alloy of copper with 
 eight or tender cent, of tin. 
 
 CANOE'. A boat, made of a single trunk of a tree hol- 
 lowed out. Some are made of pieces of bark fastened 
 together ; these should be properly called boats. They 
 are of various sizes, and are generally propelled by one, or 
 if large by two or more paddles, like wooden shovels. 
 
 CA'NON. (Gr. navuv, a rule.) A word of various sig- 
 nifications, of which we can only enumerate the princi- 
 pal. 
 
 1. In cathedral and collegiate churches there are canons 
 who perform some of the services, and are possessed of 
 certain revenues connected with them. These are, strict- 
 ly speaking, residentiary canons : foreign canons are those 
 to whom collegiate revenues are assigned without the ex- 
 action of any duly. 
 
 2. The laws and ordinances of ecclesiastical councils are 
 called canons. 
 
 3. The canon of scripture signifies the authorized and 
 received catalogue of the sacred books. The canon of the 
 Old Test., as received by the Romanists, differs from that 
 of the Protestant churches in regarding as inspired those 
 books which we reject under the term Apocrypha. The 
 catalogue received by the Jews themselves, which we 
 adopt, was first enlarged by the Council of Carthaire to 
 the extent in which it is held by our opponents, and that 
 decision was formally confirmed by the Council of Trent. 
 In the canon of the New Test., however, the agreement of 
 Christian churches may be considered unanimous. There 
 exist a series of enumerations of the sacred books of the 
 latter covenant in the writings of the first four centuries, 
 the general agreement of which, and the satisfactory rea- 
 sons which can be assigned in most cases of omission — 
 there are no additions— distinctly mark the universality of 
 the judgment of the early churches in this matter. 
 
 Ca'non. In Music, a perpetual fugue. This original 
 method of writing this was on one line, with marks there- 
 192 
 
 CANTON. 
 
 on, to show where the parts that imitate were to begin ana 
 end. This, however, was what the Italians more particu- 
 larly call cunone chiuso (shut), or canone in corpo. 
 
 CA'NONESS. A description of religious women in 
 France and Germany. Their convents were termed 
 colleges. They did not live in seclusion. The college of 
 Remiremont was the oldest establishment of this order in 
 France. Similar noble monasteries still exist in Germany, 
 and the revenues and dignities of some Delong to Protestants. 
 
 CANO'NICAL HOURS. Stated times of the day sei 
 apart, more especially by the Romish church, for devo- 
 tional purposes. In England the canonical hours are from 
 8 to 12 in the forenoon, before or after which the ceremo- 
 ny of marriage cannot be legally performed in any parish 
 church. 
 
 CA'NONIZA'TION. A ceremony in the Romish church, 
 by which holy men deceased are enrolled in the catalogua 
 of saints. The privilege of canonizing was originally com- 
 mon to all bishops, and was first confined to the Pope by 
 Alexander III. in 1170. When it is proposed to canonize 
 any person, a formal process is instituted, by which his 
 merits or demerits are investigated. Hereupon the beatifi- 
 cation of the person in question is pronounced by the Pope, 
 and his canonization follows upon the production of testi- 
 mony to miracles performed at his tomb or by his remains. 
 The day of his death is generally selected to be kept in his 
 honour, and is inserted as such in the calendar. The last 
 instance of canonization took place in 1S03. 
 
 CANO'PUS, or CANOBUS. (Gr. Kavuiros, the name 
 of a place in Egypt.) A bright star of the first magnitudo 
 in the rudder of Argo, one of the southern constellations. 
 As its declination is about 52/£° south, it is not visible in 
 in our hemisphere beyond the 40th degree of latitude. 
 
 CA'NOPY. (Gr. Kavoirctov.) In Architecture, an orna- 
 mented covering over a seat of state, and in its extended 
 signification any covering which affords protection from 
 above. 
 
 CANT. In sea phrase, to turn over or round j a cant is 
 also a piece of wood laid on the deck for the support of a 
 bulk-head. 
 
 CANTA'TA. (It. cantare, to sing.) In Music, a song oi 
 composition intermixed with recitative, usually for a single 
 voice with a thorough bass. 
 
 CANTHA'RIDES. (Gr. KavOapos, a beetle.) Spanisl. 
 flies. The Cantharis vesicatoria, or blistering fly. These 
 insects are chiefly brought from Astracan and Sicily : they 
 should be free from mould and dust, of a peculiar but not 
 very strong or nauseous odour, and of a brilliant golden 
 green colour. These flies furnish us with the only ready 
 and certain means of raising an effective blister upon the 
 skin, for which purpose they are reduced to powder, 
 mixed with ointment or lard, and spread thinly upon a 
 piece of leather, which is then applied to the part affected. 
 Their operation is very different in different habits, and 
 constitutions: sometimes they produce much local pain 
 and inconvenience, and great general excitement and irri- 
 tation of the urinary organs ; at others they are compara- 
 tively quiet in their action ; and the blister being applied at 
 bed-time, is found in the morning to have raised the cuti- 
 cle with a large quantity of serous fluid underneath it, and 
 the patient has scarcely been aware of its agency. The 
 object of applying a blister is generally to transfer internal 
 inflammatory action to the surface ; and in deep-seated in- 
 flammations, and painful affections of the viscera and larg- 
 er joints and muscles, they are often astonishingly effective. 
 But blisters should not be incautiously applied : they some- 
 times produce troublesome sores, and are followed by eri- 
 sipelatous inflammation. Care should also be taken to 
 confine them, by a margin of adhesive plaster or other 
 means, to the part upon which they are intended to operate, 
 as they sometimes are displaced, and give rise to awk- 
 ward accidents. When cantharides are taken internally, 
 they are violently stimulant to the urinary and generative 
 organs. 
 
 CA'NTHUS. (Lat.) The corner of the eye, where the 
 upper and under eyelids meet. 
 
 CANTILE'VER. (Probably from canterii labrum, the 
 lip of a rafter.) In Architecture, a piece of wood framed 
 into the front or side of a house, and projecting from it, to 
 sustain the eaves and mouldings over them. 
 
 CA'NTO. -See Soprano. 
 
 CA'NTO-FE'RMO. (Ital. firm song.) In Music, the 
 subject song. Every part that is the subject of counter- 
 point, whether plain or figured, is called by the Italians 
 canto fermo. 
 
 CA'NTON. In Heraldry, an ordinary formed either at 
 the dexter or sinister chief of the escutcheon, by two lines 
 meeting at right angles, proceeding from the top or sides 
 of the shield. By the word canton is always understood a 
 canton dexter, unless otherwise expressed. 
 
 Canton. (Gr. navQos, an angle ; or Lat. centum, a hun- 
 dred.) In Geography, originally a quarter ot 4 city regard- 
 ed as separated or detached from the rest but applied 
 chiefly at present to the twenty-two districts of which 
 
CANTONMENT. 
 
 Switzerland is composed, and which, though forming a 
 confederate union like the United States of America, are 
 governed each by a separate judicature and particular laws. 
 
 CANTONMENT. In the art Military, that distinct situ- 
 ation which soldiers occupy when quartered in different 
 parts of a town, for want of barracks or caserns to contain 
 them. 
 
 C.VNVAS. (Ital.) A very clear unbleached cloth of 
 hemp or flax, woven regularly in little squares, chiefly 
 used to make sails for shipping. Besides serving for vari- 
 ous domestic purposes, such as for the ground of tapestry 
 >voik, canvas forms the cloth on which painters usually 
 draw their pictures. 
 
 CANZONE (Latin, Provencal, and Italian, cantare, to 
 ring ) A kind of lyric poem. Adopted, with some alter- 
 ation, from the poetry of the Troubadours, it found its way 
 into Italy in the thirteenth century. It is divided, like the 
 Greek strophic ode, into stanzas, in which the number and 
 place of rhymes, and metre of verses respectively corres- 
 pond. The last stanza, commonly shorter than the others 
 (the epodns of the ode), is called congtdo, or ripressa (in 
 old French I'envoy), and consisted, generally, of a valedic- 
 tory address to the canzon itself. This form of poetry was 
 adapted by Petrarch to the expression of many different 
 veins of thought — sonorous, elevated, and heroic. The 
 ric ode, somewhat more regular than the canzon, 
 was introduced by Chiabrera. The canzonet was a sort 
 of canzon in short verses, a favourite form with the poets 
 of the fifteenth century. 
 
 i WZONE'TTA. (Dimin. of canzone.) In Music, a 
 short song. The Neapolitan canzonet has two strains, 
 each of which is, like the French vaudeville, sung twice 
 over. The Sicilian canzonet is in a species of jig-time, 
 with six or twelve quavers in the bar. Sometimes both 
 are rondeaus, and repeat the first strain for an ending. 
 
 CAOUTCHOUC. This curious substance is the inspis- 
 sated juice or sap of several plants : the principal supplies 
 are from South America, and are derived from the Sipho- 
 nia tUutica (Hevea caoutchouc), and probably from other 
 Euphorbiaceous plants. It is often termed gum elastic and 
 fmiimi rubber, lis general properties and uses are well 
 known. Among its more recent applications are those of 
 elastic wove fabrics, formed of caoutchouc stretched into 
 tnd covered with cotton ; and various water-proof 
 clothing, which la made by interposing a layer of caout- 
 chouc between two folds of the cloth, and then forcibly 
 uniting them by pressure. For this purpose the caout- 
 chouc is dissolved by coal naphtha, and in that state 
 brushed over the surfaces which are to be united. 
 
 Caoutchouc is a compound of carbon and hydrogen ; 
 •'•il it fuses, and afterwards remains viscid*; when 
 ' to destructive distillation at a high temperature, 
 lour fifths of its weight of a highly inflammable 
 and very light volatile oily liquid (hydrocarbon); which 
 has been called cnoutrhoucine, and which is a good solvent 
 of the unaltered caoutchouc. Washed sulphuric ether 
 - caoutchouc, and it is also soluble in several es- 
 sential oils; hut of these latter solutions the greater num- 
 ber leave it in a sticky state on evaporation. 
 
 CAPA'CITY FOR HEAT. Experiment shows that dif- 
 ferent quantities of heat are required to raise different bo- 
 dies to the same temperature, and those substances which 
 require (lie largest quantity of heat to be raised to a given 
 temperature are said to have the greatest capacity for heat. 
 See Specific Heat. 
 
 CAPE. (Lat. caput, a head.) In Geography, is the term 
 us''d to indicate the extreme point of a promontory, or of 
 that portion of land which juts out into the sea beyond the 
 general line of the coast ; as Cape Taenarus or Matapan, 
 the most southern part of Europe ; the Cape of Good 
 Hope, the most southern part of Africa; Cape Horn, the 
 southern extremity of America, ice. On rocky and much 
 indented coasts capes generally terminate in acute angles, 
 whence they are sometimes denominated points ; and if 
 the portion of the land which projects is small or not 
 high, the appellation ness in England, and in Scotland that 
 of mull, is assigned to it, as Sheerness, the Mull of Gallo- 
 way. 
 
 CAPE'LLA. A star of the first magnitude in the left 
 shoulder of Auriga. 
 
 CA'PERS. The buds or unexpanded flowers of the 
 Cappiirh sptnona. in common use as a pickle. 
 
 CA'PIAS AD RESPONDENDUM. In Law, a writ for 
 •he commencement of personal actions to arrest a party 
 who is at large or already in custody of a sheriff. 
 
 CA'PIAS AD SA'TISFA'CIE'NDUM. (Shortly called 
 ea. sa.) In Law, a judicial writ of execution which issues 
 out o.i the record of a judgment, where there is a recovery 
 in the courts of Westminster, of debt, damages, Ac. By 
 this writ the sheriff is commanded to take the" body of the 
 defendant in execution. This is the highest execution 
 which can be had against a defendant, and no other can be 
 afterwards had against his lands or goods, unless he die in 
 custody. 
 
 193 
 
 CAPILLARY ACTION. 
 
 CAPI'BARA. The largest known Rodent quadruped. 
 It is of aquatic habits, and frequents the rivers of South 
 America. It is the type of the genus Hydroihar 
 fying "water-hog," by which name it is sometimes known 
 CAPILLA'IRE. . Simple syrup flavoured with orange 
 flowers, or orange flower water, generally goes under thi* 
 name, which is derived from the mucilaginous syrup di- 
 rected in old Pharmacopoeias to be made of the Aaianhmi 
 capitl'ts veneris. 
 
 CAPl'LLAMENTUM. (Lat. capillus, a hair.) An old 
 name of the filament of a flower. See Filament. 
 CAPI'LLARY. Long and slender, like a hair. 
 CAPI'LLARY A'CTION. (Lat. capillus, a hair.) U . 
 a very narrow glass tube, open at both ends, is inserted i'i 
 a vessel containing water, the water immediately rises in 
 the tube, and remains suspended at some height above ■ 
 level in the vessel If the same tube is plunged into mer- 
 cury, the mercury in the tube stands at a lower lei 
 in the vessel. These effects are moat conspicuous when 
 the width of the bore" of the tube is so small as to n 
 a hair; whence the cause of the phenomena i 
 termed capillary action, from the Latin capillus, which 
 signifies a hair. 
 
 The operation of the same forces which cause ihe ele- 
 vation of water and depression of mercury in glass tubes, 
 gives rise to a multitude of other phenomena with which 
 everyone is familiar. If a piece of sugar, or sponge, or 
 blotting paper, is brought into contact with water at one 
 extremity, the fluid immediately passes through it and 
 moistens its whole substance. A mass of wetted thread 
 or cloth, hanging over the edge of a basin from the water 
 within it, will empty it as a siphon would. The rise of the 
 oil in the wick of a lamp, of the sap in trees, the funitiotis 
 of the excretory vascular system in plants and animals, 
 depend on the same causes. Capillary action is, in short, 
 only an instance of the operation of that species of attrac- 
 tion which is exerted among the elementary particles nf 
 nyitter within very small or insensible distances, which is 
 called molecular attraction, and which gives rise to some 
 of the most important phenomena of the physical work I : 
 such as the vibrations of solid bodies, the refraction <u 
 light, and chemical actions of all kinds. 
 
 The phenomenon of the elevation of water in narrow 
 tubes began to attract the attention of experimental Dftilfl 
 sophers about the beginning 01" the last century ; but n- ■: 
 ther the method of calculating the effects of the forces n 
 erted among the elementary molecules of matter, uoi 
 their mode of operation, was then understood, and conse- 
 quently no satisfactory theory was proposed. Two facts 
 however, of considerable importance were established by 
 Hauksbee. The first is, that the ascent of the liquid is 
 quite independent of the thickness of the tube ; and the 
 second, that K two rectangular plates of glass having their 
 edges joined in a vertical line, and forming a very acute 
 angle with each other, are dipped into water, the fluid 
 which rises between them takes the form of the equilate- 
 ral hyperbola. On considering the phenomenon attentive- 
 lively, it was easy to see that as the height of the fluid be- 
 tween the plates at any point in the curve was inversely 
 proportional to the distance of the plates at that point, it 
 must follow that in capillar)' tubes the ascent would be 
 inversely proportional to the diameter of the tube. The 
 theory of the phenomenon, however, still remained unex- 
 plained. 
 
 Dr. Jurin ascribed the ascent of the liquid to the attrac- 
 tion of the ring of the tube immediately above it. But this 
 was merely a vague explanation, and is now known to be 
 altogether erroneous. Clairaut, in his celebrated work on 
 the Figure of the Earth, was the first who analyzed exactly 
 the different forces which concur in elevating the liquid in 
 a capillary tube, and reduced the phenomena to the ordi- 
 nary laws of the equilibrium of fluids. Some of his sup- 
 positions respecting the nature of the forces in action were 
 erroneous; for example, he supposed the attraction of the 
 internal surface of the tube on the liquid to be exerted not 
 only at a sensible distance, but to extend even to the diam- 
 eter. He failed to prove from theory that the ascent must 
 be inversely proportional to the diameter of the tube ; but 
 he showed that several hypotheses might be made with 
 respect to the law of attraction from which that law of as 
 cent would follow; and he demonstrated a very remarka- 
 ble result, namely i that if the attraction which the particles 
 of the tube exercise on the fluid and the attraction which 
 the particles of the fluid exercise on each other follow Ihe 
 same law, and differ from each other only in intensity, 
 the fluid will rise in the tube when the first of these attrac 
 tions exceeds half the second. The error of Dr. Jurin' 
 hypothesis was first clearly pointed out by Professor Les- 
 lie, in a paper inserted in the Philosophical Magazine, in 
 1802. Mr. Leslie's argument was shortly this : If the ring 
 of the lube immediately above the liquid in a capillary 
 tube attract it upwards, how does it happen that the ring 
 immediately below the surface does not attract it down- 
 wards, in which case the forces would be balanced, and 
 N 
 
CAPILLARS ACTION. 
 
 there would be no elevation 1 The fact is, that as the ac- 
 tion of the molecules of the tube is confined within very 
 narrow limits, its direction must be at right angles to the 
 sides of the tube. Nor is it difficult to conceive how a la- 
 teral action may yet cause a perpendicular ascent. It is 
 a fundamental property of fluids, that any force impressed 
 in one direction is propagated equally in every direction ; 
 the tendency of the fluid, therefore, to approach the glass 
 will occasion it to spread over the internal cavity of the 
 tube, and consequently to mount upwards. Mr. Leslie's 
 explanation, though correct in principle, served in no way 
 o advance the theory ; indeed little notice appears to have 
 
 een taken of it till its importance was pointed out by Mr. 
 vory. Another important fact was discovered by Dr. 
 Young, who showed, in a paper on the Cohesion of Fluids, 
 in the Phil. Trans, for 1805, that the angle made by the 
 surface of the fluid with the sides of the tube is invariable, 
 the fluid and the materials of the tube remaining the same, 
 and being supposed homogeneous. 
 
 lint a complete exposition of the theory of capillary phe- 
 nomena was reserved for Laplace. In two Supplements 
 to the Mecanique Celeste, published in 1806 and 1807, La- 
 place, assuming the force of molecular action to extend 
 only to insensible or imperceptible distances, determin- 
 ed the separate influences of the cohesive attraction of the 
 molecules of the fluid to each other, and the adhesive force 
 with which they cling to the tube. This analysis of the 
 forces by which the capillary phenomena are produced 
 conducted him to an equation in which the whole theory 
 is included. It consisted of two parts : the first belonging 
 to those points of the surface of the fluid whose distance 
 from the sides of the tube is greater than the radius of the 
 sphere of molecular action ; and the other belonging to 
 those points of the surface which are in immediate contact 
 with the sides of the tube, or at least within the sphere of 
 the action of its molecules. The first term is general, and 
 the same for all surfaces ; the other varies with the curva- 
 ture in each particular case. Mr. Ivory afterwards showed 
 that, of the two quantities which enter into the formula of 
 Laplace, the one denotes the direct pressure caused by the 
 attraction of a fluid mass bounded by a plane ; and the 
 other the derivative force acting laterally, which is a neces- 
 sary consequence of the direct pressure. (Ency. Brit. art. 
 " Capillary Action.") 
 
 The latest and most important work on capillary action 
 is by Poisson. Nowvelle Theorif. de V Action Capillaire, 
 1831. Its object was to correct the theory of Laplace by 
 supplying an important omission in the physical data, 
 namely, the rapid diminution of density which takes place 
 near the free surface of the fluid, and near the sides of the 
 tube. Now this circumstance, though it had been entirely 
 overlooked by all former inquirers, is not only essential to 
 the right investigation of the effects of capillary action, but 
 it. is demonstrated by Poisson that if there was no diminu- 
 tion of density near the superficial parts of the liquid, the 
 surface would remain plane and horizontal, and there would 
 neither be elevation nor depression in the capillary tube. 
 The molecular forces, therefore, which produce the ca- 
 pillary phenomena, are modified not only by the curvature 
 of the surface, according to the previous theory, but also 
 by the particular state of liquids at their.surfaces. 
 
 The power of supporting the fluid column depends en- 
 tirely on the width of the tube at its upper extremity. If 
 the tube bulge out below, the water will not rise in it spon- 
 taneously ; but if plunged into a basin till the water reach- 
 es the capillary part, and then lifted up, the water will re- 
 main suspended at exactly the same height as }n a tube 
 having the same capillary bore throughout. The lower and 
 wide part of the vessel may consist of metal, or any other 
 substance, different from glass. It is sufficient that the 
 cavity terminate above in a capillary glass tube. 
 
 The phenomenon of the depression of mercury in ca- 
 pillary tubes may be considered as the inverse of that of 
 the elevation of water. The molecules of water have a 
 greater attraction for glass than for each other ; those of 
 mercury, on the contrary, attract each other more power- 
 fully than they are attracted by glass. If a drop of mer- 
 cury, adhering to the edge of a plate of glass, is presented 
 ffo a massof the same fluid, it immediately leaves the glass 
 and unites with the mass. When a plate of glass is plung- 
 ed into mercury, the mercury is depressed, and forms a 
 convex surface on both sides of the plate. In a glass tube 
 the surface of mercury is always convex, provided the in- 
 side of the tube be perfectly clean, and the mercury free 
 from impurities. All these phenomena clearly indicate 
 the excess of the mutual attraction of the particles of mer- 
 cury above their adhesion to the sides of the glass. 
 
 From some experiments made by Casbois at Metz, it 
 appeared to result, that mercury purified with great care 
 forms a concave surface in the interior of a glass tube, and 
 consequently rises above the level, like an aqueous fluid. 
 It is now generally admitted, however, that these experi- 
 ments were fallacious, in consequence of the inner surface 
 of the tube having been lined with a slight, and perhaps 
 
 m 
 
 CAPITULATION. 
 
 imperceptible, oxydation produced by the 1 oiling of the 
 mercury. In preparing barometers, it has been the cus- 
 tom to boil the mercury in the tube ; when this operation 
 is performed, great caution is requisite to prevent the oxy- 
 dation from taking place. 
 
 The form of the surface of the fluid in the tube indicate? 
 the relation of the cohesive force of its particles to their 
 attraction for the tube. The attraction of water to glass is 
 superior to half the cohesion of the aqueous particles to 
 one another ; consequently water within a capillary tube 
 assumes a concave surface, and rises. Mercury, on the 
 other hand, assumes a convex surface, and is depressed . 
 because its molecules attract one another with a force 
 more than double that with which they adhere to glass. 
 The radius of curvature of the bounding surface at the 
 middle point is proportional to the width of the tube. It 
 is stated by Professor Leslie as the result of his experi- 
 ments, that the depression of mercury in capillary tubes 
 may be estimated at unity divided by 68 times the diame- 
 ter expressed in inches. Hence if the width of the bore 
 is one fourth of an inch, the depression of the mercury is 
 one seventeenth of an inch. On this account it is necessary, 
 in accurate barometric observations, to apply a correction 
 for capillary action, which is less in proportion as the di- 
 ameter of the tube is greater. The best treatises on this 
 subject have already been referred to ; viz. that of Laplace, 
 in the Mecanimte Celeste, tome iv. ; of Mr. Ivory .in the 
 Encyclopedia Brilamiica ; and of Poisson, Nouvelle Theorie 
 de I' Action Cupillaire. 
 
 CAPI'LLARY VESSELS. (Lat. capillus, a hair.) A- 
 natomists give this term to the minutest ramifications of 
 the arteries and other vessels. 
 
 CAPILLI'TUM. (Lat. capillus, a hair.) A kind of 
 purse or net in which the 6pores of Trichia and similar 
 fungi are retained. 
 
 CA'PITAI,. (Lat. caput, a head.) In Architecture, the 
 head or uppermost member of any part of a building ; but 
 it is generally applied in a restricted sense to that of a 
 column or pilaster of the several orders, as in the figures 
 here given, in which it will be seen that the Tuscan capi 
 tal (No. 1.) consists of an abacus or square shelf at the top, 
 and thereunder an ovolo or quarter round, and under that 
 a neck terminated by an astragal or fillet, which latter is 
 
 always considered as part of the column itself. The Ro- 
 man Doric capital (No. 2.) here given hasan abacus, ovolc, 
 and neck like the last ; and also in addition three annulets 
 under the ovolo, and a cvma or ogee with its fillet over the 
 abacus. The Grecian Doric, however, has only a square 
 abacus, ovolo, and small fillets. The Ionic (No. 3.) capital 
 consists of three leading parts : an abacus, composed of an 
 ogee and fillet ; a rind, which forms the scrolls ; and an 
 ovolo and astragal at the lower part. The Corinthian and 
 Composite capitals (Nos. 4. and 5.) consist of an abacus 
 (see Abacus) of peculiar form, and are decorated with 
 leaves. 
 
 Capital. In Political Economy, that portion of the 
 produce of labour saved from immediate consumption 
 which is employed to maintain productive labourers, or to 
 facilitate production. (See Political Economy.) In Com- 
 merce, and as applied to individuals, capital is understood 
 to mean the sum of money which a merchant embarks 
 in any undertading, or which he contributes to the com- 
 mon stock of a partnership. 
 
 CAPITA'TION. (Lat. caput, head.) A tax imposed on 
 the population by the head ; e. g. on every one, or every 
 male, every one above a certain age, &c. (See Poll- 
 Tax.) In France, the ancient capitation is now replaced 
 by personal and other direct contributions. 
 
 CA'PITE. In Law, tenure in capite (Ang. in chief) sig- 
 nifies in the language of feudal law a direct holding of the 
 king, the ultimate sovereign, without the intervention of 
 any mesne lord. In England, tenants in capite were either 
 by knight-service or socage ; which were converted into 
 socage by the act 12 Ch. II. c. 24., abolishing feudal tenures. 
 
 CA'PITE CENSI. In Roman Antiquity, the lowest 
 rank of Roman citizens; so called because they wer* 
 rather counted by their heads than by their estates. (Aid. 
 Gell. lib. vii. cap. 13.) 
 
 CAPI'TULATION. In its original sense, a writing drawn 
 up in several capitula or heads. In the language of Mili- 
 tary Law, the articles of surrender, when a garrison oi 
 other force surrenders to an enemy on terms, and not at 
 discretion. In Ecclesiastical History, articles sworn by 
 bishops and other prelates on admission to their dignities 
 were styled capitulations. So also was the oath tendered 
 first to Charles V., and then to the emperors of German* 
 
 
CAPNOMANCY. 
 
 who succeeded him, by the electors, termed the election 
 capitulation (wahl capitulation). 
 
 CA'PNOMA'NCY. (Gr. xazvos, smoke ; uavTCta, pro- 
 phecy ) Divination by smoke was practised among the 
 ancients, both by throwing on the fire seed of poppy and 
 other herbs, and observing the figures which might be 
 fancied in the smoke; and by observing the smoke of 
 sacnfi 
 
 CA'PNOMOR. (Gr. Kcnrvos, smoke, and uotpa,part.) An 
 oily substance of a pungent and rather agreeable odour ob- 
 tained from the tar of wood. 
 
 kPONNIE'RE. In Fortification, a passage leading 
 from one work to another, protected on each side by a 
 wall or parapet, generally of earth, sloping to the bottom 
 of the ditch. When a passage is thus protected on one 
 side onlv, it is called a demi-caponniere. 
 
 CAPPA'RIDA'CEjE. (Capparis, one of the genera.) 
 A Batumi order of Exogenous plants, consisting of annuals, 
 perennials, bushes, and trees, inhabiting the warmer parts 
 of the new world. They have all a powerful pungent or even 
 acrid tuste, and have been in some cases used as substi- 
 tutes for the common mustar.1; in others they have proved 
 sevr,' poisons. In general their flowers are very beauti- 
 ful, on account not only of their size, but of their longsilk- 
 =mens, which are often gaily coloured. The common 
 caper-bush, a native of rocky places in the North of Eu- 
 rope, is a species of the genus Capparis, and yields the 
 il A'-rbuds which, pickled in vinegar, are sold in the shops 
 as an agreeable sauce for various dishes. 
 
 ' ' M'RK'LLA. A genus of Crustaceous animals belong- 
 ing to the order Lamodipoda, found commonly on sea- 
 weed. Montague, who describes a species of Ihis genus 
 in (he seventh volume of the Linrutan Transactions, says 
 the female differs In possessing several plates or valves 
 beneath the body, situated between the two pairs of fins, 
 the use of which is to carry and protect its eggs or young; 
 at which lime they extend very considerably, and form a 
 k:il of pouch distended with ova, fifteen or twenty of 
 which are eaaily distinguished between the transparent 
 plates. In this part a very strong pulsation is visible. While 
 examining a female under a water microscope, the author 
 was surprised to observe not less than ten young ones 
 crawl from the abdominal pouch of the parent, all perfectly 
 formed, and moving with considerable agility over the body 
 of the mother, holding fast by their hind claws and erecting 
 their heads and arms. The characters of the genus, or 
 rather family ( CapreUidar), are, body of narrow linear form : 
 eyes composite, and placed behind ; legs long and slender, 
 and variable in number, the last joint of the second pair 
 being often toothed on the under side. 
 
 CAPRE'OLUS. (The tendril of a vine.) The old bo- 
 tanical name of the tendril of a plant; the term cirrhus is 
 now preferred. 
 
 PRI'CCIO. (Ital. ichim, fancy.) In Music, a term 
 ipplied lo certain pieces, wherein the composer gives way 
 to his fancy, without confining himself to particular mea- 
 sures or keys ; called also Fantasia. 
 
 CA'PRICO'RNS. (Lai. capricomus.) The name of 
 »he three divisions of Tetramerous beetles ; including 
 hose which have the antenna? filiform or setaceous, and 
 (enerallv exceeding the length of the body; eyes lunate, 
 • ncioalng the base of the antenna?; jaws very robust, 
 with short palpi ; thorax often spined at the sides ; the 
 •hree basal joints of the tarsi dilated, and cushioned on 
 'he under surface ; the third deeply cleft at the extremity, 
 uid receiving the minute ball at the base of the slender 
 *nd long terminal joint. This division comprehends four 
 treat families, — Piionicke,Cerambycidce, Lamii'! /;, and Lep- 
 luriihv,; and corresponds very nearly wilh the Linnaean 
 penera Orwnbyx, Necydalis, and Leptura. The offices of 
 Ihe Capricorn beetles in the economy of nature is to re- 
 strain the excessive multiplication of vegetable species in 
 the warmer climates of the globe. The larvae reside with- 
 in the wood or beneath the bark of trees. 
 
 CA'PRIOO'RNUS. (Lat.) The Wild Goat. The tenth 
 
 i the Zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of 
 
 :nher, at (he winter solstice. The parallel circlepass- 
 
 Inx through the first point of this sign is called the Tropic 
 
 icorn. 
 ' Oa'PRIFO'LIA'CE^;. (Caprifolium, one ofthe genera.) 
 \ rather large natural order of plants, consisting of twining 
 and erect shrubs, and herbaceous or woody plants, and 
 '■ven of trees, with simple or pinnated leaves, and flowers 
 of most, dissimilar forms, but all monopetalous. The most 
 common plants belonging to this order are the woodbine, 
 the St. Peter's wort, the Tartarian and fly honeysuckle, 
 ■he numerons species of viburnum, and the elder-tree. 
 These all agree with the natural order Cinchonacea in 
 most respects, except the absence of stipules at the base 
 
 of the leaves. 
 
 CAPRIFO'I.IUM. (Lat. capra, a goat, and folium, a leaf.) 
 Is the genus to which the wild honeysuckle (C pericly- 
 iitenum) belongs. It consists of twining shrubs inhabiting 
 
 CAPTAIN. 
 
 the northern hemisphere exclusively, and in most cases 
 having long tubular flowers of singular sweetness. Many 
 species are known to botanists, the most interesting of 
 which are those from the north of India, China, and Ja- 
 pan, the fragrance of which is superior to that of all others , 
 of these C. fltxuosum, now common in gardens, is the 
 best. 
 
 CA'PROIC ACID. (Lat. capra, a goat.) One of theacida 
 formed during the saponification of butter; it has a rank 
 goat like odour. 
 
 CATROMYS. (Gr. nawpos, a boar, and pivs, a mount-.) 
 The name of a genus of Rodent Mammalia, exclusively 
 confined to the island of Cuba, where they go by the name 
 of Houtias. 
 
 They have four moftrs on each side of each jaw, in 
 which the enamel is so folded as to form three angles on 
 the outer margin and one on the inner, in the upper teeth ; 
 the reverse in the lower teeth. The liver is remarkably 
 subdivided in the rodents of this genus 
 
 CA'PROS. (Gr. xairpos. a boar.) A name applied by 
 Lacipede to a subgenus of Acanthopterygious fishes, 
 which he separated from the dories (.Zeus), and of which 
 the boar fish (Zeus oper, Linn.) may be regarded as the 
 type. A specimen of this fish has been taken at Mount's 
 Bay, and another near Bridgewater, but is rare as a British 
 species. 
 
 CA'PSICUM. (Gr. /canno. / bite ; from its pungency.) 
 The berry or seed-vessel of different species of capsicum. 
 The larger pods of the Capsicum annuum, and the smaller 
 ones of the C. baccalum or bird pepper, when powdered, 
 form the Kyan pepper of commerce, so well known as a 
 powerful condiment, and often useful as a stimulating me- 
 dicine. Kyan pepper is often grossly adulterated with 
 common salt, and occasionally red lead and earthy pow- 
 ders are said to be added to it : it often has a disagreeable 
 rancid odour, owing to its being sprinkled with oil lo pre- 
 vent its dust affecting those who powder and sift it. 
 
 CA'PSTAN, sometimes called CAPSTERN. (Fr. ca 
 bestan.) A strong massive piece of timber, in the form of 
 a cylinder or truncated cone, round 
 which a rope la coiled ; and being turn- 
 ed by means of bars or levers, it affords 
 an advantageous mode of applying pow- 
 er to overcome an obstacle. The cap- 
 stan is chiefly employed in ships, where 
 it is used for weighing anchors, hoisting 
 sails, &c. It is generally placed verti- 
 cally, the lower end being let down through the deck of 
 the "ship, and the levers inserted in holes in the head or 
 top ; so that the force of the men can be exerted continu- 
 ously, and that there may be no necessity for removing the 
 levers from one hole to another, as is the case when it is 
 placed horizontally. The power of the capstan may be 
 greatly increased by adapting an arrangement of wheel 
 work to it— an improvement which has been adopted for 
 several years past in the English navy. 
 
 CA'PSULA. (Dim. of capsa, a box.) This word is ge- 
 nerally applied by botanists to all dry fruits which are de- 
 hiscent, whether they are many-seeded or few-seeded, 
 simple or compound ; and in sucn cases some expletive i'. 
 is added to indicate the particular nature cf the fruit. Thus 
 Capsula circumscissa is cut round by a circular Une divid- 
 ing it into two parts ; C. siliquifornus is long and taper, like 
 the pod of a mustard-plant ; C. baccata is when the peri- 
 carp is succulent ; C. tricoccea, when a dry capsule bursts 
 into three separate closed pieces. Sometimes, for special 
 carpological purposes, the word capsula is limited in its ap- 
 plication to such dry compound fruits as open by valves, 
 and have an indefinite number of seeds ; as in Digitalis, 
 Scrophularia, the common lilac, &c. 
 
 CA'PSULE. In Chemistry, a small shallow evaporating 
 vessel or dish. 
 
 CA'PTAIN. In the Army, the commander of a troop 
 of cavalry or of a company of infantry. The price of a 
 captain's commission is different in different branches of 
 the British service : in the life guards, for instance, it is 
 .£3,500; in the dragoons £3,225; in the foot guards with 
 the rank of lieut.-colonel, .£4,800 ; in the infantry £1,800. 
 The full pay of a captain in the life and foot guards is 153. 
 a day, in horse regiments 14s. Id., and in the infantrj 
 lis. Id. 
 
 Captain. In the Navy, is the title of the officer com 
 manding a ship of a certain size. The title of post captai n 
 which was the proper rank of captain, and answered to 
 colonel in the army, has been for some time in disuse 
 The captain is next in rank above the commander : he rises 
 by regular succession to the rank of admiral ; under the 
 condition, however, that he must at some time have com- 
 manded a ship of the line. 
 
 The heads of small parties or gangs of men in certait 
 stations of the ship are also called captains ; as of the fore 
 castle, the tops, &c. The pay of a captain in the navy va- 
 ries with the rate of the ship, from £61 7s. per month fora 
 first-rate, to £26 17s. for a sixth-rate. 
 
CAPTIOJN. 
 
 OA'PTION. (Lat capio, Italce.) In Law, a certificate , 
 signed by commissioners, to testify their execution of any 
 commission in law or equity. Also, the act of taking a 
 man into arrest. The caption of an indictment is the de- 
 signation of the style of the court before which the jurors 
 make their presentment. 
 
 CAPTI'VITY. In Sacred History, a punishment which 
 God nilicted upon the Jews for their vices and infidelity. 
 The first captivity was that of Egypt, from which the 
 Israelites were delivered by Moses ; then followed six 
 captivities during the government of the judges ; but the 
 greatest and most remarkable were those of Judah and 
 Israel, which happened under the kings of those different 
 kingdoms. 
 
 CA'PUCHLNS. In Ecclesiastical History. See Fkan- 
 
 OISCANS. 
 
 CA'PUT MO'RTUTJM. The inert residue of the distilla- 
 tion and sublimation of different substances. When sul- 
 phate of iron, for instance, or green vitriol, is distilled at a 
 red heat it leaves a residue of red oxide of iron, which the 
 old chemists called caput mortuum vitrioli. These resi- 
 duary products were represented in alchemical writings 
 by the symbol of a death's head and cross bones. 
 
 CAR. (Lat. carrus, a cart.) Any rude cart. The Irish 
 car is a one-horse cart, with very low broad wheels, used 
 for carting out manure and carting home grain in the 
 case of soft peaty soils. The Irish jaunting car is a kind 
 of one-horse chaise, commonly without springs, in which 
 the people sit back to back, and with their faces looking 
 sideways. 
 
 CARABI'DJE. (Lat. carabus.) A family of Pentame- 
 rous beetles, characterized by having a bilobed upper lip, 
 smooth jaws (maxilla), an entire tooth in the centre of the 
 notch of the mentum or chin process, and dilated tarsi in 
 the males. The majority of the British species have the 
 elytra soldered together. The Carabidce, generally defend 
 themselves by discharging from the extremity of the body 
 an acrid fluid, and emit a fetid odour. They are amongst 
 the most ravenous of beetles, and prey on other insects, for 
 which they lurk beneath stones, the bark of trees, &c. 
 
 CA'RABINE. (It carabino.) Called also Petronel. A 
 fire-arm used by cavalry, smaller in the bore and shorter 
 in the barrel than a musket. The soldiers who use this 
 species of arms are called Carabineers. 
 
 CARAGA'NA. (Carachana, the Mogul name.) A genus 
 of pretty hardy shrubs, inhabiting the Russian dominions 
 in Asia. C. sibirica, altagana, and chamiagu are common 
 in the shrubberies of this country, where they flower in 
 the months of June and July. C. jubata is a singular 
 scrubby plant, with the branches closely covered by the 
 leafy, spiny, ragged petioles. 
 
 CARA'NNA. A resin brought from South America, of 
 an aromatic odour ; formerly used in plasters. 
 
 CA'RANX. (Derivation unknown.) A genus of spiny- 
 finned fishes, belonging to the Scomberida or mackerel 
 family; but differing from the true mackerel in having a 
 series of scales, with ridges or keels in the middle, ranged 
 along the lateral line. From this resemblance they are 
 commonly termed " bastard mackerel." 
 
 CARA'SSjE. The bony vault which protects the upper 
 part of the body of the Chelonians, or tortoises and turtles, 
 and which results from the union by suture of the dilated 
 and flattened parts of the vertebrae and ribs. The analo- 
 gous part of the body of the crab is also called carassae ; 
 but this is not composed of corresponding parts to those of 
 the tortoise, but of a calcified integument. 
 
 CA'RAT. "The fruit of the tree called Kuara is a red 
 bean, which seems in the earliest times to have been used 
 for a weight of gold. This bean is called carat (Bruce's 
 Travels.) Morin derives the word from the Arab kyrat, 
 a weight; which lie thinks is from the Greek Kepartov, a 
 small weight." (Todd's Joknson.) A carat is a weight of 4 
 grains, used in weighing diamonds. The term carat is 
 also used in reference to the fineness of gold ; in express- 
 ing which the mass spoken of is supposed to weigh 24 
 carats, of 12 grains each; and the pure gold is called fine. 
 Thus, if gold be said to be 22 carats fine (or standard), 
 it is implied that 22 24ths are pure gold, and 2-24ths 
 alloy. In the process of assaying gold, the real quantity 
 taken is very small, generally from 6 to 12 grains ; and 
 this is termed the assay pound. It is subdivided into 24 
 carats, and each carat into 4 assay grains, and each grain 
 into quarters ; so that there are 384 separate reports for 
 gold. When the gold assay pound is only 6 grains, the 
 quarter assay grain only weighs l-64th of a grain. This 
 will give an idea of the accuracy required in the weights 
 and scales used for such delicate operations, See Alloy 
 nnd Assay. 
 
 CA'RAVAN. (Pers. carvan, a trader.) A company of 
 merchants, travellers, or pilgrims, who associate together 
 in many parts of Asia and Africa, that they may travel 
 with greater security through deserts and other places in- 
 fested with robbers or exposed to other dangers. The 
 commercial intercourse of Eastern and African nations 
 106 
 
 CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 has from the remotest ages been chiefly earned on by 
 means of caravans, as the governments that have sprung 
 up in those continents have seldom been able, even if they 
 had had the will, to render travelling safe or practicable lor 
 individuals. Since the establishment of the Mohammedan 
 faith, religious motives, conspiring with those of a less ex- 
 alted character, have tended to augment the intercourse 
 between different parts of the Eastern world, and to in- 
 crease the number and magnitude of the caravans. Mo- 
 hammed, as is well known, enjoined all his followers to 
 visit Mecca once in their lifetime ; and in obedience to a 
 command so solemnly enjoined and sedulously inculcated, 
 large caravans assemble lor this purpose in every counlry 
 where the Mohammedan faith is established. There air.e 
 four regular caravans which proceed annually to Mecca ; 
 the first from Damascus, composed of pilgrims, travellers, 
 and merchants, from Europe and Asia ; the second from 
 Cairo, for the Mohammedans of Barbary ; the third In in 
 Zibith, near the mouth of the Red Sea, where those of 
 Arabia and India meet; the fourth from Babylon, where 
 the Persians assemble. Every caravan is under the com- 
 mand of a chief or aga (caravanbachi), who has frequently 
 under him such a number of troops or forces as is deemed 
 sufficient for its defence. When it is practicable Ihey en- 
 camp near wells or rivulels, and observe a regular disci- 
 pline. Camels are almost uniformly used as a means of 
 conveyance, in preference to the horse or any other ani- 
 mal, on account of their wonderful patience of fatigue, and 
 their peculiarity of structure, which so admirably tits them 
 for travelling through desert wastes. (See Camel.) For 
 further details on the subject of caravans the reader may 
 consult M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary, and the au- 
 thorities there referred to. 
 
 CARAVA'NSERA. A large public building, or inn, ap- 
 propriated for the reception and lodgment of caravans in 
 the desert. Though serving in lieu of inns, there is thia 
 essential difference between them, that the traveller finds 
 nothing in the caravansera for the use either of himself or 
 his cattle, but must cairy all his provisions and necessaries 
 with him. Caravanseras are also numerous in cities, 
 where they serve not only as inns, but as shops, ware- 
 houses, and even exchanges. 
 
 CA'RAWAYS. The fruit or seed of the Curum carni, 
 an indigenous umbelliferous plant. English caraways are 
 more plump and aromatic than the Dutch or foreign, 
 which are apt to be mouldy and of little flavour. Tncy 
 yield about 3 per cent, of essential oil when carefully dis- 
 tilled with water. They are a good addition to purgative 
 and other remedies to prevent griping and flalulency ; but 
 their chief consumption is among gingerbread bakers, con- 
 fectioners and pastrycooks. 
 
 CARBAZO'TIC ACID. A crystallizable acid and bittei 
 substance, composed of carbon, azote, and oxygen ; »b 
 tained by the action of nitric acid on indigo and some other 
 vegetable and animal substances. It is the bitter principle 
 of Welter. 
 
 CA'RBON. (Lat. carbo.) This term is used in chem- 
 istry to signify the pure combustible base of the varieties 
 of charcoal and other carbonaceous matters ; Ihe diamond 
 is pure carbon in a crystalline form. Carbon is an ele- 
 mentary substance, which combines with oxygen in twe 
 proportions, forming carbonic acid and carbonic oxide. 
 
 CA'RBONATES. Salts containing carbonic acid. They 
 are recognised by the effervescence which is excited when 
 they are put into dilute muriatic acid. Carbonate of lime 
 is one of the most important of these compounds, forming 
 the varieties of marble, limestone, calcareous spar, chalk, 
 &c. Carbonate of lime consists of 
 
 Lime - • 1 atom = 28 • - 56 
 
 Carbonic acid • 1 - = 22 - .44 
 
 1 50 100 
 
 Carbonate of potash and carbonate of soda are also impor- 
 tant salts. (See Potash, Soda.) Carbonate of ammonia 
 is used in medicine ; it is a white pungent salt, commonly 
 known under the name of smelling salt. Spirit of harts- 
 horn is a solution of impure carbonate of ammonia, od 
 tained bv distilling bone or horn. 
 
 CARBO'NIC ACID. This important compound is oh- 
 tained when any form of carbon, such as the diamond or 
 pure charcoal, is burned in oxygen gas. It consists t/t 6 
 carbon-|-16 oxygen=22 carbonic acid ; or of 
 
 Carbon 1 atom . . 6 - • 27 27 
 Oxygen 2 16 • - 7273 
 
 1 22 10000 
 
 100 cubical inches of carbonic acid gas weigh 47 3 grains. 
 Under a pressure of 36 atmospheres, at the temperature 
 of 32°, it becomes liquid; and when the pressure which 
 retains it in the liquid state is removed, the rapidity ofthi 
 evaporation, and the sudden and enormous expansion of 
 the vapour, are such as to produce a degree of cold undei 
 which the acid solidifies, forming a white concrete sub- 
 stance possessed of very extraordinary properties. Mr 
 
CARBONIC OXIDE. 
 
 raraday was the first who liquefied carbonic acid, but it 
 was first described as a solid by M. Thilourier. 
 
 At common temperatures and pressures water absorbs 
 its own volume of carbonic acid ; under a pressure of 2 at- 
 mospheres it dissolves twice its volume, and so on. Car- 
 bonic acid imparts briskness and a slightly pungent and 
 sour taste to water thus impregnated with it : it also con- 
 fers the effervescent quality upon many mineral springs. 
 Carbonic acid is recognized by its rendering lime-water 
 turbid. It extinguishes flame and suffocates animals ; 
 hence the miners call it clto/ce damp. Carbonic acid is 
 contained in marble, chalk, and all the varieties of lime- 
 stone, from which it is extracted by strong heat, as in the 
 process of burning lime ; or by the action of stronger 
 acids, in which case the carbonic acid escapes with effer- 
 vescence. Mountains of limestone, therefore, are great na- 
 tural repositories of carbonic acid. This gas is also pro- 
 duced during the respiration of animals, and is evolved in 
 ■ss of fermentation. 
 
 CARBO'NIC OXIDE. A gas composed of 
 
 Carbon latom ... 6 428 
 
 Oxygen 1 8 57 2 
 
 4 14 1000 
 
 10!) cubical inches weigh 30-2 grains. It is fatal to animals, 
 and extinguishes flame ; but it burns in contact with air, 
 and forms carbonic acid. It is obtained by passing carbo- 
 nic acid over red-hot charcoal, or by healing a mixture of 
 chalk or pounded marble ami iron or zinc filings to red- 
 ness. It is not absorbed by water. 
 
 CA'RBONI'PEROUS. (Lat carbo, coal, and fero, / 
 bear.) K geological term, generally applied to beds or 
 strata containin 
 
 CA'RBOY. A large globular bottle of green glass pro- 
 tected by basket-work. Carboys are seldom used, except 
 for containing certain acids and other highly corrosive li- 
 quids likely to act upon stone-ware. A carboy of oil of 
 : lually contains about 160 lbs. of that acid, or 12 
 gallons of water. 
 
 CARBO'NCLE. The ancient name of a gem, probably 
 corresponding with our precious garnet. 
 
 Carbuncle. A hard circumscribed inflammatory tu- 
 mour, which g en e r ally arises on the neck or back, and 
 soon forms a fetid discharge, and acquires a tendency to 
 gangrene. It is a kind of malignant boil, spreading under 
 the skin, and producing a morbid inflammatory action of 
 trading parts. 1'oultices and free incisions to let 
 out the matter, and afterwards emollient fomentations, are 
 the most effective remedies. This disease is called an- 
 thrax, from the Creek, signifying a burning Coa] ; of which 
 carbuneuiu*. from euro In diminutive. 
 
 CA'R BURETS. In Chemistry, the generic term for 
 compounds of carbon with the simple combustibles. 
 
 Carburet op Sulphur. A liquid compound of carbon 
 and sulphur, obtained by passing ihe vapour of sulphur 
 over red-hot charcoal. It was formerly termed alcohol of 
 sulphur. It forms compounds, which have been termed 
 carbn su/f burets. 
 
 CA'RBORETTED HY'DROGEN. Under this term 
 chemists describe two gaseous compounds of carbon and 
 hydrogen ; the one they call light hydrocarbonate, the 
 other olefiant gas. 
 
 Light 'carburetter! hydrogen is evolved abundantly in 
 some coal mines, where it is known under the name of 
 fire damp, and is the cause of those tremendous explo- 
 sions which were so frequent before the invention of the 
 safety lamp by Sir II. Davy : it is also evolved by the mud 
 at the bottom ofstagnapt waters, where it results from the 
 decay of vegetable matter. This gas is much lighter than 
 atmospheric air, 100 cubical Inches weighing between 17 
 and IS grama. It burns with a yellow flume, is la 
 and not absorbed by water. It consists of 6 carbon + 2 
 i When mixed with three volumes of oxygen, 
 or with eight or ten of common air, it explodes with great 
 violence when inflamed, and produces water and carbonic 
 acid. 
 
 Olefiant gas received its name from its property of form- 
 ing, when mixed with chlorine, a liquid of an oily appear- 
 . is obtained by distilling a mixture of alcohol with 
 bulk of sulphuric acid, and may be collected over 
 water; which, however, absorbs about one eighth of its 
 volume of the gas. It has a slightly ethereal odour ; it extin- 
 is unrespirable ; burns with a dense white 
 light ; and when mixed with three or four volumes of ox- 
 KSfl or tea or twelve of air, it detonates on the approach 
 of flame with great violence. It is nearly of the same spe- 
 cific gravity as atmospheric atr; and from the quantity of 
 OXTgea required to convert its elements into carbonic 
 acid and water, it is shown to consist of two atoms of car- 
 Don and two of hydrogen, its equivalent being 11 ; or of 
 one volume of carbon vapour and two volumes of by. 
 drogen. so condensed as to form one volumeof olefiant gas. 
 
 CA'RCASS. In Artillery, a hollow case formed of ribs 
 •f iron, covered with cloth, or sometimes iron with holes 
 197 
 
 CARDUELIS. 
 
 in it. The carcass, being filled with combustible materials' 
 is thrown from a mortar into a besieged place with a view 
 to set the buildings on fire. 
 
 CA'RCERES. (Lat. career, a prison.) In Ancient Ar- 
 chitecture, the cells at the end oi a circus, in which were 
 stationed the chariots and horses that contended for the 
 prizes, so that they might be able to start simultaneously 
 at the given signal. 
 
 CARCE'RULUS. (La*, dim. of career, a little j rimm.) 
 A name given by botanists to such fruits as those of the 
 lime tree, the Tropaolum, &c. ; which Consist of a small 
 number of dry indehiscent few-seeded cells cohering 
 round a central axis. 
 
 CARCINO'MA. (Gr. napKivos, a cancer.) A cancerous 
 tumour. 
 
 CA'RDAMOMS. Seeds of the Alpinia cardamumum. 
 These seeds are imported from Bengal: there air seve- 
 ml varieties; but. those pods which are small, short an.! 
 thick, and heavy, are preferred. The seeds themselves 
 are very pungent and aromatic; the containing ci 
 quite insipid. Their chief use is in medicine, especially 
 in combination with cathartics and bitters. They yield an 
 essential oil by distillation, to which their virtues are to be 
 ascribed. 
 
 CA'RDIAC. (Gr. xapSia, the heart.) Belonging to or 
 connected with the heart. The superior opening of the 
 stomach Is called the cardia, or cardiac end, from its prox- 
 imity to the hi 
 
 CA'RDIA'CEANS, or CARDIACEA. (Lat. canlium, 
 a cockle.) A numerous and beautiful family of Lamelli- 
 branchiate Dimiary Bivalve Molloaka, Including those spe- 
 cies in which the 'mantle is open anteriorly for Ihe foot; 
 and also has two distinct orifices, one for respiration, the 
 other for excretion, as in the cockle {Cardium edule). 
 The shell is characterized by having at the hinge irregular 
 primary teeth, bolh in form and situation, and generally 
 accompanied by one or two lateral teeth. The genera 
 composing this family arc Iiocardia, Hiatella, t'u, 
 Cardita, Cardium. 
 
 CARDIA'LGIA. (Gr. Kaoita, and oXyoj, pain.) Anxi 
 ety and pain about the region of the stomach, frequently 
 attended by a sense of gnawing and heat, and hence called 
 heartburn.' It is a common symptom of indigestion, and 
 accompanied by salt and acid eructations. Afler excess 
 in eating and drinking, a lit of heartburn may often be pre- 
 vented by a teaspoonful of carbonate of magnesia, taken 
 in cinnamon or in soda water, at bed time ; SO or 30 grains 
 of bicarbonate of soda in cold chamomile tea la also an ef- 
 fective preventive. Where the disease is symptomatic 
 of organic mischief, these antacid remedies must be cau- 
 tiously administered. 
 
 CA'RDINAL. (Lat cardo, ahinge.) An epithet imply 
 ins importance ; in which sense it is applied to the princi- 
 pal virtues, the four points of the compass, &C. ; and in 
 theological language originally to parish churches, as dis- 
 tinguished from chapels and oratories ; from whence it 
 was transferred to the clergy who ministered in such 
 churches. In later times the epithet was restricted to the 
 seven bishops of Rome, and the sees within its territory, 
 and the clergy of the eight-and-twenty principal churches 
 of that city : from whence the college of cardinals takes 
 its origin. The number of which this college consisted 
 has varied in the course of time. It has for some centu- 
 ries been limited to seventy ; of whom six are bishops, 
 fifty presbyters, and fourteen deacons; and the election 
 of the pope, which is performed by these personages as- 
 sembled in conclave, is thus concurred in by the three or- 
 ders of clergy through their representatives. The period 
 at which this election was confined to the cardinals is va- 
 riously staled. Borne have asserted that such was the 
 case as early as 1058; others not before 1562. It is now 
 understood that the pope must be chosen from among this 
 body. The cardinals are distinguished by a scarlet hat, 
 and a short purple mantle worn over the rochet. Their 
 rank is next to that of the pope, to whom they form a 
 political and ecclesiastical council. For further details on 
 the duties of cardinals, see CONSiSTonir/M and Conclave. 
 
 CA'RDINAL POINTS. (Lat. cardo, a hinge.) In Geo- 
 graphy, the east, west, south, and north points ofahe hori- 
 zon. In Astrology, the cardinal points are those of the 
 rising and setting of the sun, and the zenith and nadir. 
 (Compass.) 
 
 CA'RDIOID. (Gr. Kapiia, heart, and udof, form.) An 
 algebraic curve, so called from its resemblance to a heart- 
 
 CARDITIS. Inflammation of the heart. 
 
 CARDOO'N. A kind of artichoke. The Cynara cat 
 diinculus. 
 
 CARDUE'LIB. (Lat. carduus, a thistle.) A genus of 
 Conirostral Perchers (Insessures) or Passerine birds, of 
 the finch tribe 'Fiivgiliideb), including the goldfinch (Car- 
 duelis elegans), aberdevine (Carduelis spinus), and other 
 British siskins, the habits of which are less arboreal than 
 in the true finches, and which feed principally on the seeus 
 of the thistle and other composite plants. 
 
CAREENING. 
 
 CAREE'NING. The laying of a ship over to get at leaks 
 or injuries in the bottom. This is commonly called heav- 
 ing down. To careen implies also to heel or lie over gen- 
 erally. Heaving down is never practised with a large ship, 
 except where there are no docks, as the great forces 
 which must be applied to the mast heads to get her over 
 are liable to strain the hull. 
 
 CA'RET. (Lat. careo, 1 am wanting ) In Grammar, a 
 character in this form a, denoting that something has been 
 omitted, and is interlined. 
 OARIA'MA. See Dicholophos. 
 
 CA'RICATUTIE. (Lat. caricare, to load or charge.) 
 In l'ainting, an exaggerated representation of any object, 
 in which any natural defects are overcharged, so as to 
 make it appear ridiculous. 
 
 CARI'CHIUM. (Lat. carex, sedge.) A genus of land- 
 snails, so called from their habitat among sedge, wet 
 leaves, grass, &c. Of these sedge-shells, Carichium mini- 
 mum is British, and may be found about Acton. 
 CA'RIES. A decayed bone or tooth. 
 CARI'LLON. A tune performed upon bells. 
 CARI'NA. (Lat. carina, the keel oj a boat.) In Botani- 
 cal language, is the sharp thin back of any organ ; the 
 back of a leaf folded up if thin and sharp, the winged rim 
 that occupies the back of certain fruits, the sharp-backed 
 part of a glume or bract, all bear this name. It is also ap- 
 plied to the two anterior petals of a Papilionaceous flower, 
 which adhere by their lower edges into a body something 
 like a boat. 
 
 CARINA'RIA. (Lat. carina, a keel.) A genus of He- 
 leropodous Mollusks, characterized by having the viscera, 
 as the heart, liver, branchiae, generative organs, &c, pro- 
 truded from the body, and encased in an extremely fra- 
 gile, beautiful, sub-transparent, symmetrical, compressed 
 shell. The summit of the shell is slightly involuted, but 
 never enters the aperture ; the convexity of the shell is 
 terminated by a single keel. 
 
 CA'RINATE. (Lat. carina, a keel.) In Zoology, when 
 a surface has a longitudinal elevated line, like the keel of a 
 vessel. 
 CA'RMELITE. See Orders, Mendicant. 
 CA'KMINE. A brilliant lake, made of the colouring 
 matter of the cochineal insect combined with alumina and 
 a little oxide of tin. 
 
 CA'RMINATIVE. (Lat. carmen, a verse or charm.) 
 Medicines which allay flatulency, and pain of the stomach 
 and bowels arising from it. 
 
 CARNA'LION. (Lat. carneus, flesh-coloured.) A fa- 
 vourite florist's plant, obtained by art from the wild Dia?i- 
 thus caryopliyllus. Its flowers are deliciously fragrant ; and 
 although in the unimproved state they are a uniform deep 
 red, they have been rendered beautifully striped and va- 
 riegated by successive changes in the hands of the garden- 
 er. The most successful cultivators of carnations are the 
 Germans, who possess some hundred varieties, and sup- 
 ply the principal part of the seed used in other parts of 
 Europe. These varieties are arranged in three classes, 
 flakes, binaries, and priccotees : the first have ten colours in 
 their flowers, and broad stripes ; the second have irregu- 
 lar spots and stripes, and not fewer than three colours; 
 the last are spotted or dotted with scarlet, red, purple, &c. 
 upon a white or yellow ground. 
 
 CARNA'TION GRASS. (Lat. caro,ftesh.) Any coarse 
 species of carex is so named in the north of England and 
 Scotland. 
 
 CARNA'TIONS. (Lat. caro, flesh.) In Painting, the 
 parts of a picture which represent the naked limbs, &c. 
 
 CARNE'lA. (Gr. Kapvtia.) A festival observed in 
 most of the cities of Greece, and especially at Sparta, in 
 honour of Apollo, surnamed Cameius. The festival last- 
 ed nine days, and was conducted in imitation of the 
 method of living in camps; for nine tents were erected, 
 in each of which nine men of three different tribes lived 
 uine days. 
 
 CARNE'I.IAN. A red or flesh-coloured calcedony. The 
 finest specimens come from India, and are in great request 
 lor seal-stones, heads, &c 
 
 CAR'NEONS. (Lat. caro, fiesh.) A soft fleshy sub- 
 stance. » 
 
 CA'RTv'IVAL. (Lat. carni vale, farewell to meat.) A 
 festival celebrated with much merriment and revelry in 
 Catholic countries, and especially at Rome and Venice, 
 during the week before the commencement of Lent; de- 
 riving ils Italian name from the farewell to flesh or meat 
 which introduces the great fast of the church. 
 
 CARM'VORA. (Lat. caro, flesh, and voro, I devour.) 
 The second tribe of Cuvier's order Fera, (Camassiers), 
 including those species of which the teeth are peculiarly 
 adapted for destroying living prey, and for tearing, divi- 
 ding, or bruising flesh. They have incisors in each jaw, 
 two long and pointed canines; and the molars are never 
 beset with small conical points or tubercles, as in the in- 
 sectivorous tribe of the same order. The carnivorous 
 tribe is divided into those which tread on the sole of the 
 198 
 
 CART. 
 
 foot (Plantigrades), and those which ran on the last joints 
 of the toes (Digiti grades). 
 
 CAROCO'LLA. (Lat. c&ro, flesh ; and Gr. acoXAij, glue.) 
 A genus of land-snails, so named from the tenacity with 
 which their fleshy foot adheres to limestone rocks. The 
 variegated carocolla (Cur. lapicida, Lam.) is a native 
 species, and has been found on Juniper Hill, Box Hill, 
 Surrey. 
 
 CA'ROMEL. Sugar melted till it acquires a brown co- 
 lour and exhales a peculiar odour. 
 
 CARO'TIl). An artery of the neck. There is one on 
 each side of the cervical vertebra which supply the head 
 with blood. If these vessels are tied, the animal becomes 
 insensible ; hence the term, from napoo), I put to steep. 
 
 CARP. <S'ee Cyprinus. 
 
 CA'RPADE'LIUM. (Gr. xapiros, fruit, and ci/aoj. 
 plain.) A little-used name, applied in botany to all inrie 
 hiscent, many-celled, inferior fruits, with a single seed in 
 each cell ; as in Umbelliferous or Apiaceous plants. 
 
 CA'RPEL. (Gr. Kapnos. fruit.) A name contrived by 
 modern botanists to denote the separate pistils out of 
 which a fruit, consisting of more pistils than one, is com- 
 posed. In its most simple state a fruit consists of a one- 
 celled ovary, and a style and stigma, united into a pistil, a5 
 in the plum ; but in most cases several such pistils are 
 formed within the same flower, and are united in various 
 ways into one compound body, to which the name of pistil 
 is also applied. In the latter case the single pistils are 
 called carpels. The pistil may nevertheless consist of 
 one carpel only. The theory of the structure of the fruit 
 of plants turns upon the relative position which carpels 
 bear to each other in their united state; and upon then: 
 correspondence in this respect with leaves, of which they 
 are undoubtedly modifications. 
 
 CA'RPENTER. The third warrant officer on board 
 a man of war. He has the charge of the boats. It is his 
 duty, with his mates, to attend constantly to the state of 
 the well, in order that a leak may be immediately re- 
 ported. 
 
 CA'RPENTRY. (Lat. carpentum, carved wood.) In 
 Building and Architecture, an assemblage of pieces of tim- 
 ber connected l.y framing cr letting them into each other, 
 as are the pieces of a roof, floor, centre, &c. It is distin- 
 guished from joinery by being put together without the use 
 of other edge tools than the axe, adze, saw, and chisel; 
 whereas joinery requires the use of the plane. The lead- 
 ing points to be attended to in sound carpentry are, 1st. 
 The quality of the timber used ; 2nd, The disposition of 
 the pieces of timber, so that each may be in such direc 
 tion, considered with reference to the fibres of the wood, 
 as to be most capable of performing its office properly ; 
 3rd, The forms and dimensions of the pieces; 4th, The 
 manner of framing the pieces into each other, or otherwise 
 uniting them by means of iron or other metal. 
 
 CA'RPET. An ornamental covering for the floor. The 
 manufacture of carpets is carried on in great perfection in 
 this country. The principal varieties are the Brussels, 
 Axminster, Wilton, Kidderminster, and Venetian. They 
 are cenerally composed of linen and worsted. In some 
 the pile is cut so as to give the carpet the character of vel- 
 vet ; as in the Wilton carpets. Kidderminster or Scotch 
 carpets are entirely fabricated of wool. 
 
 CA'RPET WAY. Any strip or border of green sward 
 left round the margin of a ploughed field. 
 
 CA'RPOBA'LSAMUM. (Gr. aapizoi, fruit, and Pa\aa- 
 pov, balsam.) The exudation of the fruit of the Amysia 
 Gileadensis ; a variety of balm of Gilead. 
 
 CA'RPOLITES. (Gr. Kaprro's, fruit, and Xi0oj, a stone.) 
 Fossil fruits and seeds. 
 
 CARPO'PHORUM. (Gr. Kapnos, fruit, and <j>tpu>, 1 
 bear.) The name of the central column, which, in the 
 fruit of the Geranium, the Euphorbia, or Apiaceous plants, 
 bears the ripe carpels, and holds them together when they 
 attempt to separate at maturity. 
 
 CA ; RREL, or QUARREL. The arrow used in cross 
 bows, the head of which was four-sided ; a cross-bow bolt. 
 
 CA'RRONADE. A kind of sliort iron gun, which is at- 
 tached to its carriage by a joint and bolt underneath the 
 piece, instead of trunnions. It is only in this respect ami 
 in its dimensions that it differs from other guns or howit- 
 zers. The name is derived from Carron,a village in Stir- 
 lingshire, where this gun was first made. 
 
 CARSE LAND. Alluvial soil in a state of an tion. 
 
 CART. An open box, placed upon two or more wheels. 
 and constructed with shafts, so as to admit of being drawn 
 by one or more horses. In agriculture, carls are used foi 
 carting or carrying from one point to another soils, ma- 
 nures, and produce. For this purpose there are the close 
 cart, single or double, that is, for one or for two horses ; 
 the corn cart, single or double, constructed of open work, 
 and used for carrying hay, and for conveying corn in the 
 sheaf from the field to the rickyard, &c, and the stone c* 
 quarry cart, consisting of a strong bottom and low wheels, 
 for conveying large stones. Besides these, there are tin 
 
CARTE BLANCHE. 
 
 three-wheeled cart, with low wheels, for carting soil, 
 stones, 4c, to a short distance; the timber cart, which is 
 nothing more than two pairs of wheels and axles joined by 
 a pole, and used for conveying large trunks of trees from 
 the place where they have been felled to the place where 
 they are to ba manufactured ; and the box cart, or cart 
 with close bottom and sides, which is used for conveying 
 soils, manure, and small articles, commonly constructed 
 so as to admit of discharging the load by elevating me end 
 of the box and lowering the other; and to carts having this 
 contrivance the term coup cart is applied in Scotland, and 
 till cart in England. 
 
 CARTE BLANCHE. (Fr.) A paper containing nothing 
 hut the signature of the party who grants it, in order that 
 Ibe party to whom it has been delivered may insert such 
 conditions as he chooses to prescribe. This term is used 
 in a general sense to express an unlimited authority dele- 
 gated by one individual to another: thus a general is said 
 to have a carte blanche, when his sovereign has granted 
 liiin permission to use his own discretion in conducting the 
 operations of war. 
 
 CA'RTEL. In Military language, an agreement for the 
 exchange of prisoners. Also, a challenge to fight a duel. 
 S. cartel ship is one commissioned, in time of war, to carry 
 proposals oi anv kind between belligerent (lowers. 
 
 CARTE'BIAN PHILOSOPHY. The philosophical sys- 
 tem of Rene* des Cartes (born 159G), a native of France, 
 perhaps the most original thinker that country has pro- 
 duced. Des Cartes was the contemporary of Bacon, and 
 exercised an equally powerful influence, though in a man- 
 ner widely diilVr.'iit, on the progress of philosophy in Eu- 
 r< ■ i > < - . Both equally undertook the task of demolishing the 
 «_■ 1' I scholastic system, and of substituting in its place a 
 more living spirit of philosophy. But what Bacon strove 
 to accomplish by calling men's attention to experiment and 
 observation of nature, Des Cartes proposed to attain by 
 the search for a first and self-evident ground of all know- 
 This he finds in the art of consciousness, involving 
 necessarily the idea of self or mind. (Cogito ergo sum.) 
 I usness is theacl of thought, constitutes the essence 
 
 of the soul, and is that which distinguishes it from matter. 
 !SS are of three kinds. 
 — acquired, compounded, and Innate. Of the last sort is 
 of God, or the Absolute Being, which, as being the 
 ground of all reality, is itself its own demonstration. God, 
 the Author of the universe, upholds it in its rourse by his 
 perpetual co-operation, or, in Cartesian language, assist- 
 \:l physical phenomena Des Cartes endeavoured 
 ml for by his celebrated vortices — motions excited 
 die source of all motion. The singular mixture 
 of philosophical depth and extravagant hypothesis that pre- 
 vails in the writings of this philosopher obtained for him, 
 ns might have been expected, a large number of warm ad- 
 and of equally violent opponents. Among the 
 former may be enumerated the celebrated Pascal, Male- 
 branche, and Spinozn. The two latter deviated indeed in 
 many important points from the views of Descartes; but 
 the main features of his philosophy are preserved alike in 
 Um religions mysticism of the one and the systematic 
 pantheism of the other. 
 
 CA'RTHAMUS. ,sv» ■ Sapfiower. 
 
 CARTHTJ'SIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a religious 
 order, instituted by St. Bruno in 1806 : so called from their 
 original seat, Chartreuse. They followed the rule of the 
 tines (quod vide), with the addition of various aus- 
 and employed themselves in the same literary and 
 cal pursuits. Soon after their institution the Car- 
 were introduced into England, where in the lapse 
 of lime they succeeded in establishing nine houses of their 
 order, among which was the Charter-house in London. 
 (See Hitloire des Ordres Monas'ir/ues, vol. vii.) 
 
 CA'liTTLAGE, CARTILACO. (Lat. caro, flesh.) A 
 • ■. Intermediate between bone and 
 and having the chemical properties of condensed 
 albumen. Ii is commonly called eristie. 
 
 CARTILAOI'NEANS, CART1LAGINEL A sub-class 
 
 . in which the endo-skelelon never passes beyond 
 
 uditi6n of gristle or cartilage. See Chon- 
 
 BBOFTERYGII. 
 
 CARTOO'N. (It. cartone.) In Painting, a sketch made 
 "fii for tapestry. The name is also given to large 
 on coarse or other paper for fresco subjects; in 
 ~e. when the siucco is setting the outlines are 
 pricked through on to it so that a correct outline may be 
 ously obtained. We subjoin the following account 
 ■nous of Raffaelle at Hampton Court.— These ce- 
 lebraled works, originally thirteen in number, are a mag- 
 nilnenl series of coloured designs, representing the ori- 
 gin, B&netion, economy, and progress of the Christian re- 
 Thev were made originally for the copies la tapes- 
 
 wre believe, annually exhibited in the colonnade of 
 
 hi. wrought at Arras by command of Leo X. 
 
 at an expense of 7000 crowns of gold. These were 
 
 carried off at the plundering of Rome in 1527 by the Span- 
 
 199 
 
 CARYATIDE&. 
 
 ish army ; but Montmorenci, the French general, found and 
 restored them to their former station. In our own days 
 they were again carried oft' when the French seized the 
 government of Rome, and were afterwards purchased by 
 that excellent pontiff Pius VII. 
 
 Seven of the original pictures were purchased by 
 Charles the First, and are now preserved at the royal pa- 
 lace at Hampton Court. Richardson (llieory of Painting) 
 gives a historical and critical description of them, and con- 
 siders them better calculated to convey a true notion of the 
 genius of Raffaelle than even the loggia of the Vatican. 
 The object that Charles had in view when lie purchased 
 the seven cartoons above mentioned, was to supply the 
 manufacture then at Moriiake with subjects oi a higher 
 character than Francis Cleyre, its superintendent, could 
 invent ; and there is evidence that some of them ■ 
 lually copied there, and that they are still preserved, pro- 
 bably at Petworth. 
 
 In whatever light, says Fuseli. we consider their inven 
 tion — as parts of one whole relative to each other, or inde- 
 
 Cendenl eacA o/" the rest and as single subjects, — there can 
 e scarcely named a beauty or a mystery of which the 
 cartoons furnish not an instance or a clue. They are pois- 
 ed between perspicuity anil pregnancy of moment : tho 
 Death of Ananias, the Sacrifice al Lyslra, Paul on theAreo- 
 
 fagus, will furnish us with conclusions for the remainder. 
 ii Paul announcing his God from the height of Ar< 
 the same sagacious critic observes that enthusiasm and 
 curiosity make up the subject. Simplicity of attitude in- 
 vests the speaker with sublimity; the parallelism of his 
 action invigorates his energy; situation gives him com- 
 mand over the whole ; the light in which he is placed at- 
 tracts the first glance; he appears the organ of a supe- 
 rior power. The assembly, though selected with charac- 
 teristic art for the purpose, are the natural oflspring of Che 
 place and moment. The involved meditation of the Sto- 
 ic, the Cynic's ironic sneer, the incredulous smile of the 
 I picurean, the eager disputants of the academy, 
 . I attention ol Plato's school, the rankling malice 
 of the Rabbi, tie mysterious glance, repeat in 
 
 louder or in lower tones the novel doctrine ; but whilst ru- 
 nd fixed prejudice, tell, 
 ponder on, repeat, reject, discuss it, the animal ed 
 of Dionysius and Damans announce the power of its ten- 
 ets, and — what the artist chiefly aimed at — the established 
 belief of immortality. We have selected the above as a 
 specimen of the critical examination which the reader 
 may apply to the remaining six of this extraordinary se- 
 ries of pictures, in which the power of combining the dra- 
 ma with pure historic fact has never been surpassed. 
 
 The cartoons have been several times engraved ; first 
 by Qrlbelin in the reign of Queen Anne; then by Dorigny ; 
 and afterwards by inferior artists, most probably from the 
 engravings themselves of those that preceded (hem. They 
 were likewise engraved on a small scale by Fittler, and 
 mop- recently in a superior style by Holloway. The late 
 Prince Hoare. Esq., secretary for foreign correspondence 
 to the Royal Academy, was possessed of a very fine car- 
 toon by Raffaelle, the subject of which was the Murder of 
 the Innocents. 
 
 CARTOU'CH. (It. cartoccio.) In Architecture, the 
 same as modillion (which see), except that this term is used 
 almost exclusively to signify the blocks or modillions ap- 
 plied at the eaves of a house. Some have used the term 
 to denote the ornament of the key-stone of an arch, which 
 seems to represent a scroll of paper partly unrolled. 
 
 CARTOU'CHE. A Military term, signifying a strong 
 case or box for holding balls. 
 
 CA'RTRIDGE. A case of paper or pasteboard holding 
 the exact charge of a firearm. Those of cannon and mor- 
 tars are sometimes of tin or wood, but most frequently 
 flannel, bags of this material being found the most con- 
 venient. 
 
 CARU'NCLE. (Dim. of caro, flesh.) A naked soft 
 fleshy excrescence, often ornamenting some parts of the 
 head of birds; as, e. g. the caruncle on the cere of the 
 king vulture (Vultur papa, Lin.). 
 
 CARU'NCULA. (Him. of caro, flesh ; a little piece of 
 flesh.) A small protuberance found near the hiluni upon 
 the seed of Euphorbia lathyris and other plants. 
 
 CA'RYA. (Gr. xdpvov, a nut.) The genus of plants 
 which includes the hickory nut of North America; a tree 
 of the greatest value, for its tough elastic wood, as well as 
 for the nuts, which resemble walnuts, except that their 
 shell is not furrowed, and which are much eaten and press- 
 ed for their oil in their native country. There are several 
 species of Carya ; but C. alba, the white hickory, a hardy 
 ornamental tree in England. Is the most valuable. 
 
 CARYA'TIDES. (Gr. icaova, a nut tree.) In Architec- 
 ture, figures used instead of columns to support an emab- 
 lature. The origin of them, according to Vitruvius. is as 
 follows— "Carya, a city of Peloponnesus, took part with 
 the Persians against the Grecian states. When the coun- 
 try was freed from its invaders, the Greeks turned their 
 
CAHYOCAR. 
 
 trms against the Caryans, and upon the capture of the city 
 put the males to the sword, and led the women into cap- 
 tivity. The architects of that time, for the purpose of per- 
 petuating the ignominy of this people, instead of columns 
 in the porticos of their buildings, substituted statues of 
 these women, faithfully copying their ornaments, and the 
 tlrapery with which they were attired ; the mode of which 
 they were not permitted to change." The writer of the 
 articles on art in this work was the first author on archi 
 tecture who endeavoured to show the want of truth in this 
 account, and that on two grounds : — first, because the cir- 
 cumstance is not mentioned by any of the Greek histori- 
 ans; and secondly, because long previous to the time as- 
 signed by Vitruvius, figures of men, women, and animals 
 were employed for this purpose. They appear to have 
 acquired their name from their 2 
 
 employment in temples to Diana, 
 by whom the Lacedaemonians are 
 supposed to have been made ac- 
 quainted with the story of Carya, 
 turned into a nut tree by Bacchu3, 
 who at the same time trans- 
 formed her sisters into stones, 
 and thence worshipped under the 
 name of Caryatis. From their 
 employment in temples dedica- 
 ted to the goddess, they were 
 used in other buildings as repre- 
 sentations of the nymphs who 
 assisted at the mysteries of the 
 patron goddess. The figure No. 
 1. here given is a Caryatid, from 
 the Pandroseum at Athens ; No. 2. is a Canephora (see 
 that word). When figures of the male sex are used they 
 are called Persians. 
 
 CARYO'CAR. (Gr. Kapvov, a hard shelled fruit.) A 
 genus of trees inhabiting the forests of tropical America, 
 especially Guayana ; one of them, found in woods near 
 Mariquita, is said to attain the height of 240 feet. The 
 Saouari (vulgarly called Sawarrow) nuts of the shops, a de- 
 licious fruit, with a large soft buttery kernel, are the seeds 
 of Can/ocar glabrum and other species. Properly the name 
 Saouari applies to Cdryocar butryosum. 
 CA'RYOPHY'LLIA. See Madrepore. 
 CA'RYOPHYLLA'CEOUS. (Lat. caryophyllus, the 
 link), is sometimes said of corollas consisting of 
 petals having long claws dilating into abroad limb, as in the 
 garden pink. 
 
 C.V'RYO'PSIS. (Gr. Kapvov, a nut, and o\pt$, resem- 
 btatnce.) The technical name of the grain of corn. It is an 
 at one-celled fruit, with a membranous pericarp 
 adhering firmly to the seed. 
 
 CASCAIU'LLA. (Span. dim. of cascara, bark.) The 
 bark of the Croton eleulheria, imported for medical use 
 from Jamaica and the Bahama Islands. It is bitter and aro- 
 matic, and when burned it diffuses an odour much resem- 
 bling that of musk. 
 
 CASE. (Lat. casus ; from cado, I fall.) In Grammar, 
 thai Modification of a noun which designates the relation 
 in which a substance is conceived to exist in regard to 
 some other substance. This end is commonly attained in 
 language by changes in the termination of nouns. In Eng- 
 lish there are but three cases; the nominative, the genitive 
 or possessive, and the accusative or objective case ; the 
 last only in pronouns. All other varieties of relation are 
 expressed by prepositions. See Grammar. 
 
 Case. (Fr. easse.) Is the receptacle for the types, 
 from which the compositor gathers them separately, and 
 arranges them in lines and pages to print from. They are 
 always in pairs; one of which is styled the upper case, 
 and is divided into ninety-eight boxes or recesses of equal 
 size, in which are deposited the capitals, small capitals, 
 accented letters, figures, &c. ; the other is styled the lower 
 case, and is divided into fifty-four boxes or recesses of 
 unequal size, containing the small letters, spaces, &c, the 
 letters most in use having the largest boxes assigned to 
 them. The cases are two feet nine inches long, one foot 
 four inches and a half broad, and a full inch deep. 
 
 CA'SEIC ACID. A peculiar acid extracted from 
 cheese. 
 
 C A'SEMATE. In Fortification, a vault or arch of stone- 
 work in the flank of a bastion, serving as a battery. 
 
 CA'SEMENT. (It. casamento.) In Architecture, a 
 portion of a window sash hung on hinges. It is used also 
 to denote the moulding called ascotia, which see. 
 
 CASE'RNS, or CAZERNS. Huts erected on the ram- 
 parts, or between the ramparts and the houses, of fortified 
 towns, serving as temporary lodgings for the soldiers on 
 duty. 
 
 CASE SHOT, or CANISTER-SHOT, signifies musket 
 balls, stones, pieces of iron, &c. put into cases or tin can- 
 isters, and discharged from pieces of ordnance. 
 
 CA'SEUM. (Lat.) The basis of cheese. The purified 
 turd of milk. 
 
 200 
 
 CASTANEA. 
 
 CASH. In Commerce, the ready money, bills, drafts, 
 bonds, and all immediately negotiable paper in an individ- 
 ual's possession. 
 
 CASSAMU'NAR. A root brought from the East Indies, 
 and formerly used in medicine as a warm bitter. 
 
 CASSA'TION, COURT OF. The highest judicial insti- 
 tution in France ; so termed from possessing the power to 
 i quash (casser)the decrees of inferior courts. It is a court 
 of appeal in criminal as well as civil cases. The tribunal 
 of cassation was first introduced, as a court wholly inde- 
 pendent of the king and his council, in 1790. This court 
 has a president, and three presidents of sections; but the 
 minister of justice, as keeper of the seals (garde den 
 sceaux), has the right of presiding in cases where it sits on 
 appeal from the cours royales. The three sections arc, — 
 1. Dcs requetes, which decides on the admissibility of peti- 
 tions of appeal in civil cases; 2. De cassation civile; 3. De 
 cassation criminelle. The decision of the court of cassa- 
 tion has the effect of sending back the case to the inferior 
 courts. If, alter a decision has been reversed, a second 
 court decides the same case in the same way, on appeal 
 being entered again the court of cassation must either re- 
 peat its reversal by the unanimous consent of all the three 
 sections, or it must request an authentic explanation of the 
 law from the government; and, after a third conflicting 
 decision, such authentic explanation becomes absolutely 
 necessary. The inferior judges of the three sections of 
 the court of cassation are styled counsellors. 
 
 CASSA'VA. A species of starch obtained from the roots 
 of the Jatropha manihot. 
 
 CA'SSIA. (From the Arabic.) The bark of (he Laurus 
 cassia; its flavour somewhat resembles that of cinnamon, 
 and it yields an essential oil, which is pungent and stimu- 
 lant. 
 
 CASSI'DEOUS. (Lat. cassis, a helmet.) When the up 
 per petal of a flower is dilated into a broad helmet-shaped 
 leaf, ari in the genus Aronitum. 
 
 CASSI'DIDjE. (Lat. cassis, a helmet.) A family of Te- 
 tramerous Coleopterans, generally known by the name of 
 tortoise-beetles, distinguished by having straight short fili- 
 form antenna;, inserted close together in the upper surface 
 of the head ; mouth situated on the under surface of the 
 head, with strong and broad mandibles ; legs short, with 
 the tarsi flattened, the third joint deeply cleft, receiving 
 between its lobes the terminal joint ; margins of the thorai 
 and elytra much dilated, so as to give the insects the ap- 
 pearance of small tortoises. The larva of the Cassidida is 
 remarkable for an apparatus, or anal fork, by which it col- 
 lects and forms of its excrements a kind of parachute, or 
 defensive covering. 
 
 The genera of Cassidida are, Alurnus, Hispa, Chulepus_ 
 Imatidium, and Cassida ; the latter is the only indigenous 
 genus, and of this the most common example is the Cas 
 sida e'/neslria of Fabricius. 
 
 CA'SSIOPE'IA. One of the constellations of the north 
 ern hemisphere. 
 
 CA'SSIS. (Lat.) A genus of Gastropodous Mollusks 
 separated by Lamarck from the Linnaean genus Bucrivum, 
 and including the species of which the shells are common- 
 ly called "helmets." The nacreous or inner layer of 
 these shells are exquisitely sculptured by Italian artists in 
 imitation of antique cameos ; the different coloured strata 
 resembling the onyx and other precious stones. 
 
 CA'SSIUS, PURPLE OF. So called from its inventor. 
 A beautiful purple used in porcelain painting, and for 
 staininir glass. It is formed by immersing tin in a solution 
 of gold. It is probably a mixture of oxide of tin and finely 
 divided gold. 
 
 CA'SSOWARY. (Casuarius, from the Malay word cas- 
 suwaris.) A genus of Coursers or Struthious birds, inhab- 
 iting the island of Java, in which the wings are shorter 
 than in the ostrich, and are armed with strong spnes, for 
 the purpose of combat or defence. The head is sur- 
 mounted by a bony protuberance covered with horn. 
 
 CASSYTHA'CEjE. (Cassytha, the only genus.) A 
 most singular natural order of plants, having the fructifica- 
 tion of Lauracea:, and the manner of growth and neneral 
 appearance of a llhipsalis, or rather a Cuscuta. They in- 
 habit the tropical parts of the world. 
 
 CAST. In Sculpture. See Moulding. 
 
 CASTA'NEA. (Castana, a city of Thessaly.) A genu* 
 of trees or shrubs, related to the oak, and producing for 
 fruit the seed-like nuts called chesnuts in this country 
 The common Spanish chesnuts, of which upwards of 20 r 
 000 bushels are annually imported from the south of Eu- 
 rope, are the fruit of C. vesca; a much smaller nut is ob- 
 tained in North America from the C. pumila, or the 
 Chinquapin chesnnt. The timber of the common Spanish 
 chesnut is good and durable, more so than that of the oak. 
 when the latter is young; but it is a mistake to suppose 
 that the ancient roofs and beams occasionally found in 
 buildings of the Norman era, and which carpenters call 
 chesnut, are the wood of this tree. Such instances all be- 
 long to the kind of oak called Quercus sessili/lora. Th« 
 
CASTANETS. 
 
 genus Costarica differs from Quercus, among other things, 
 ng ttie nuts enclosed in a spiny closed-up cup, in- 
 stead of a shallow open one; but in the East Inde 
 both )aks and chesnuts assume very remarkable forms, 
 approach each other sometimes so nearly in this 
 particular, thai it is difficult to distinguish them. 
 
 WKTS. (Fr. castagnettes.) Small wooden or 
 ivory musical instruments, played by being lied to the fin- 
 gers, ami thus rattled by dancers to the time of the music 
 They are chiefly used in Spain. 
 CASTE. A term borrowed from the Portuguese settlers 
 in India, which is used to denote the hereditary classes in- 
 to which the population of Hindoostan is divi. led, accord- 
 ing to (he religious law of Brama. The origin of these 
 a is detailed in the sacred book which con- 
 ordinance* of Mono. Ac curding to this authority, 
 ili' Brahmin, the Cshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra 
 BfAU respectively from the mouth, the arm, the thigh, 
 >ii of Brahma. 1. The class of Brahmins, or 
 priests, whose name signifies scripture, are far exalted 
 above the rest in honour and privilege, and should be de- 
 voted entirety to prayer and meditation, or at least to the 
 iied concerns of life. Many Brahmins, however, 
 do in fai eolar pursuits, not only as ministers 
 
 of sovereign princes (an office for which, according to the 
 ortllnancei above cited, they are indeed peculiarly fitted), 
 but also, in Guzcrat and other parts of Western India, as 
 merchant*, or In the lower employment of messengers 
 and porters ; while many enter the Company's service as 
 ildiers. These, however, are Brahmins of the 
 I Meond classes (Brachmachari and Grihasl'ha), 
 ! married men who as yet live in the world; 
 from which two higher classes, Vanaprastha and Sunny- 
 eed: from these spring the various 
 orders of fanatics with which India swarms. 2. The Ksha- 
 triya. er soldier caste, whose name indicates protection. 
 Tu this belong not only the high military classes, but in 
 some parts of India whole tribes, as the Seikhs, Ac. 3. 
 vi. or commercial class (wealth). 4. The Sudra, 
 •I tillers of the soil (labour). These are deeply 
 degraded below not only the Brahmins, but the other two 
 ■ n the readingof the Vedas or sacred books 
 is forb dilen to them. Besides these four grand divisions, 
 he Hindoos have many subdivisions of caste, and no fewer 
 than thirty-six are reckoned which are all inferior to the 
 Bodra. 1 .I, according to the mythological his- 
 
 tory of the Hindoos, from the " Ilnrren Sunker" or mixed 
 weeding from the confusion of castes which look 
 place under Ihe reign of a wicked and irreligious monarch. 
 Finally, the I'ariahsand some other races are considered 
 as having no caste at all, and mere outcasts from humani- 
 ze system of caste, which confines em- 
 ployments to hereditary classes, are to be found in the In- 
 stitutions of many coyntries, and in Ihe history of many 
 more. That the Egyptian nation was thus divided, is well 
 known ; and it is supposed that similar institutions prevail- 
 ed in the ancient Assyrian empires. If Plato can be relied 
 on as an authority, the Athenians in the first ages of their 
 commonwealth were divided into five classes of the same 
 description — priests, handicraftsmen, shepherds and hunt- 
 ers, ploughmen, soldiers. And it is said that the Cretans 
 were divided, according to the laws of Minos, in the same 
 flans. 
 CA'STELLATED. (Eat. castellum, a castle.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, a building in style of a castle. 
 
 CAWING. (Dan. kaster, to throw.) In Architecture, 
 a term need to denote the bending of the surfaces of a 
 wood from their original stale, caused either by 
 the gravity of the material, or by its being subject to un- 
 equal temperature, moisture, or the uniform texture of the 
 material. Called also Warping. 
 
 Casting. In Foundery, the running of liquid metal into 
 a mould prepared for that purpose. See Foundery. 
 
 1NG OF DRAPERIES, fa Painting, the disposi- 
 tion of the folds of the garments wherewith the figures in 
 a picture are clothed. Carlo Miratti thought that the dis- 
 of drapery was a more difficult art than even that of 
 the human figure, and that a student might be more 
 easily taught the latter than the former. Inferior painters 
 enter into the minute discriminations of quality in drapery ; 
 r Joshua Reynolds has well observed in his Fourth 
 , with the historical painter "the clothing is 
 neither woollen nor linen, nor silk, satin, nor velvet : It la 
 :v : it is nothing more." 
 CA'HTINO OFF COPY. In Printing, is to ascertain 
 y how many pages in print a given quantity of 
 i ipt copy will make; or how many pages a given 
 quantity of printed copy will make when the size of the 
 hook and the type are changed : also when a given quantity 
 of manuscript copy is delivered, with directions that it is 
 to make a certain number of pages in print, to determine 
 of the page and the size of the type. This is usu- 
 • by composing a line or two of the copy, when, 
 ■apposing a line and a half of it makes a line of print, it 
 
 CATACHRESIS. 
 
 oecomes a mere arithmetical question. Supposing there 
 are 12,000 lines of copy, it will make 8,000 lines in print, 
 which, at 34 lines to a page, will be 333 pages, and with the 
 title, short pages, <tc. equal to 14 sheets in 12mo. ; about 
 the general quantity in a volume of modern novels. 
 
 CA'STLE. (LaL castellum ; or Sax. castel.) In Archi- 
 tecture, a building fonified for military defence ; also a 
 house with towers, usually encompassed with walls and 
 moats, and having a donjon or keep in the centre. The 
 principal castles of England at present are, the Tower of 
 London, Windsor, Norwich, <fcc. ; but at one time those of 
 Harwood, Spofford, Kenilworth, Warwick, Arundel, and 
 others might have vied with them in importance. The 
 characteristics of a castle are its valla (embankment*) ano 
 fossa? (ditches) ; from the former of which the walls rise. 
 usually crowned by battlements, and flanked by circular or 
 polygonal bastions at the angles formed by the walls ; these 
 tatter were pierced for gates with fixed or draw bridges 
 and towers on each side; the gates, which were of con- 
 siderable strength, were further guarded by descending 
 gratings, called portcullises; all the apertures were as 
 small as they could be made, consistently with internal 
 lighting. The component parts of a castle were, the foss 
 or mote, with its bridge ; the barbican, which was in ad- 
 vance of the castle, being a raised mound or tower, the 
 outer walls having terraces toward* the castle, wiih their 
 bastions, as above mentioned ; the gate .house, flanked by 
 towers, and crowned with projection*, called machicola- 
 tions, through which heavy materials or molten lead 
 were dropt on the assailants entering the gateway ; the 
 outer ballium, or area within the castle, which was sepa- 
 rated from the inner ballium by an embattled wall with a 
 cate-hou.se, and in which the stables and other offices usu 
 ally stood ; and the inner ballium, for the residence of the 
 owner or governor and his retinue ; (his. at one corner, oi 
 in the centre, had a donjon or keep tower, which was the 
 strong hold of the place, wherein was a state apartment ; 
 a well and a chapel ; the former usually, and the latter fre- 
 quently, are found in ancient castles. 
 
 For further information on the subject the reader is re- 
 ferred to King's Mun. Antiij. lol. 1 vols; the A rchcuologia 
 in several places; Leland's Collect, vol. ii. ; Hi/i>.'/ui//t's Jin- 
 ctent Castles of England and Wales, &c. &c. 
 
 CA'STOR. The generic name of the beaver. (Castor 
 fiber, Linn. ) 
 
 Castor. A peculiar concrete substance, contained in 
 oval pouches situated near the anus of the Castor Jlhir or 
 tamer. There are four of these pouches ; two contain a 
 species of fat; while the two larger ones include in iht.r 
 membranous cells a viscid fetid substance, which is the. 
 cos/or of the Materia Medica. It is imported from Russia, 
 Prussia, and Poland, and from Canada ; the latter, known 
 in trade under the name of New England castor, is very 
 inferior. Il is said to be an antispasmodic. 
 
 CA'STOR AND PO'LLUX. The name given to a me- 
 teor which sometimes appears at sea, attached to the ex- 
 tremities of the masts of ships under the form of balls of 
 fire. When one ball only is seen, it is called Helena. The 
 meteor is generally supposed to indicate the cessation of 
 a storm, or a future calm ; but Helena, or one ball only, to 
 portend bad weather. 
 
 CA'SUA'RINA'CEiE. (Casuarina, one of the genera.) 
 A curious natural order of plants, inhabiting New Holland, 
 some parts of India, and the South Sea Islands, with long 
 slender creeping branches, resembling those of Equisetum, 
 and bearing scales only in the place of leaves. The order 
 is nearly allied to Myricancem, and belongs to the most im- 
 perfect forms of Exogenous vegetation. 
 
 CA'SUIST, CA'SUISTRY. In Theology, a casuist is a 
 doctor charged with the decision of cases of conscience. 
 The Jesuits were distinguished for the cultivation of this 
 mixed subject of theology and ethics; which was admira- 
 bly calculated to promote the crafty policy of that order. 
 The science of casuistry, however, has been cultivated in 
 the Protestant as well as the Papal church ; and until very 
 recently there was a professor of casuistry at Cambridge. 
 (See Mayer's Bibliotheca of Casuists.) 
 
 CAT. See Feus, or Feline, 
 
 Cat. A ship employed in the coal trade. 
 
 Cat. Tackle by which the anchor is raised to the cat- 
 head. See falconer's Diet. 
 
 CA'TABA'PTISTS. (Gr. Kara, against, and 0airri$io, 
 I baptize.) In Ecclesiastical History, a general term to de- 
 signate all the sects which have denied the necessity of 
 baptism generally, or have opposed infant baptism. See 
 Baptists, Quakers, Socinians, <fcc. 
 
 CA'TACA'USTICS. (Gr. /cara/caiio, I burn.) In Optics 
 or Geometry, are the caustic curves formed by the reflec- 
 tion of the rays of light, and so called to distinguish them 
 from the diacaustic, which are formed by refracted rays. 
 See Caustic. 
 
 CA'TACIIRE'SIS. (Gr. Kara, in the sense of beside, and 
 Xpn<"(, use.) In Rhetoric, a figure by which a word is used 
 in a sense analogous to its own. See Metaphor. 
 
CATACLESIUM. 
 
 CA'TACLE'SIUM. (Gr. Kara, against, and k\cio>, / en- 
 close.) A name applied sometimes to such fruit as that of 
 Mirabilis, which consists of a membranous indehiscent pe- 
 ricarp enclosed within a hard pericarp-like tube of the calyx. 
 
 CA'TACLY'SM. (Gr. KaraK^vojios, an inundation, a 
 deluge.) Geologists apply the word to signify the various 
 great inundations which they conceive to have occurred at 
 different periods in the history of the globe. 
 
 CA'TACOMBS. (Gr. Kara, against, and kvjiSos, a hollow 
 place.) In Architecture, subterraneous places used for bu- 
 rying the dead. The hypogsa, crypta, and cimeteria of 
 the ancients were used for the same purpose. In some 
 cities those vast excavations were made use of for other 
 purposes than those of sepulture ; at Syracuse, for instance, 
 the same cavern served for a prison as well as a public 
 cemetery. It has been said that in the early ages of 
 Christianity they also served as places of devotion. The 
 most celebrated for their extent are those of Rome, Naples, 
 Syracuse, &c. ; and the more modern ones of Paris, which 
 have been formed by quarrying for the stone with which 
 the city is built. 
 
 CA'TACOU'STICS, or CATAPHO'NICS. (Gr. /cora, 
 about; aKOvoi, I hear ; <pu>vtti>, I speak.) The science of 
 reflected sounds; or that part of acoustics which treats of 
 the properties of echoes, or in general of sounds which do 
 not come to the ear directly, but after having been reflected 
 by some substance. See Echo and Sound. 
 
 CA'TAFA'LCO. (Hal. a scaffold.) In Architecture, a 
 temporary structure of carpentry, decorated with painting 
 and sculpture, representing a tomb or cenotaph, and used 
 in funeral ceremonies. That used at the final interment 
 of Michael Angelo at Florence was of the most magnificent 
 description, and perhaps unequalled as to the art employed 
 on it by any used before or since. 
 
 CA'TALE'CTIC. (Gr. Kara^KTiKog, deficient.) In 
 Greek and Latin poetry, a verse wanting one syllable of its 
 proper length : acatalectic, a verse complete in length ; hy- 
 percatalectic, having one syllable too many ; brachycatalec- 
 tic, wanting two syllables. 
 
 CA'TALEPSY." (Gr. KaraXau^avoi, I seize.) A disease 
 in which the functions of the organs of sense and motion 
 arc tuspeoderl, whilst the heart continues to pulsate. The 
 patients are said to be in a trance ; and in this state they re- 
 main for some hours, or even clays. Ammoniacal and 
 etherial stimulants are the most effectual restoratives. 
 
 CA'TALOGUE RAISONNE'. In Bibliography, a cata- 
 logue of books, classed under the heads of their several 
 subjects, and with a general abstract of the contents of 
 works where the title does not sufficiently indicate it; thus 
 serving as a manual, to direct the reader to the sources of 
 information on any particular topic. The want of alpha- 
 betical arrangement is supplied by an index at the end. 
 The catalogue of the French Bibliothcque Royale (10 vols, 
 fol. 1739-53) is said to be the best work of this description, 
 as far as it extends. 
 
 CA'TAMARA'N. A sort of raft used chiefly by the In- 
 dians on the Coromandel coast for the purposes of fishing. 
 It is composed of three pieces of wood lashed together, 
 the middle piece being longer and broader than the others; 
 and it is almost the only kind of boat that can live in the 
 surf that prevails on that coast. Catamaran was also the 
 name given to the floating batteries with which the French 
 at the commencement of the present century meditated 
 the invasion of England. 
 
 CATAME'NIA. (Gr. Kara, according to, and nr/v, a 
 month.) The monthly uterine evacuation. 
 
 CA'TAPE'TALOUS. (Gr. Kara, against; utraXov, a 
 petal.) When the petals of a flower are held together by 
 stamens which grow to their bases, as in the mallow. 
 
 CA'TAPIIRA'CTED. (Gr. xaratppaKTos.) Covered 
 with a hard callous skin, or with horny or bony plates or 
 scales closely joined together. Among the ancients, 
 cavalry equipped with complete defensive armour were 
 termed equites cataphracti. 
 
 CA'TAPLASM. (Gr. Kara7r\acr<T0>.) A poultice. 
 
 CA'TAPULT. (Gr. Kara, against, and jrsXr?/, a shield.) 
 A military engine used by the ancients for throwing stones, 
 long darts, or javelins. The catapult is often confounded 
 with the balista; but the latter engine seems to have been 
 chiefly used for the purpose of propelling stones, while the 
 former more frequently was employed with other missiles. 
 Their size and construction were various, but the princi- 
 ple of action was the same in all ; namely, the elastic force 
 with which twisted rope uncoils itself. 
 
 CA'TA.RACT. (Gr. Karappao-aw, J confound.) An opa- 
 city of the crystalline lens of the eye, producing confused 
 or indistinct vision, or total blindness, according to the less 
 or greater extent of the thickening: it is sometimes rapid, 
 and often very slow in its progress. It is distinguished 
 from gutta serena by the visible opacity of the lens, and by 
 the iris contracting upon exposure of the eye to light. 
 This disease is curable either by depressing or extracting 
 the lens, operations which are performed with wonderful 
 dexterity by some of our oculists. 
 202 
 
 CATEGORY. 
 
 CATA'RRH. (Gr. Karap'pto), J flow down.) The com 
 plaint commonly called a cold in the head, generally at, 
 tended by running from the eyes and nose, sneezing 
 hoarseness, and commonly ending in cough. It is pro- 
 duced by sudden changes of air or temperature, and by 
 exposure to draughts of air. In its usual form domestic 
 remedies relieve it, — diluents, mild aperients, and absti- 
 nence from wine and animal food ; but when attended by 
 fever, headache, tightness about the forehead, and difficult 
 breathing, it often requires more serious attention, lor, i( 
 neglected, it may lead to much mischief. 
 
 CA'TARRHINES, Catarrhina. (Gr. Ka-a, at, and civ, 
 nose.) A tribe of Quadrumanes, including those which 
 have the nostrils approximated, and the intervening sep 
 turn narrow ; as in the apes of the old world. 
 
 CATA'STROPHE. (Gr. Karacrpt^oi, I overturn.) In 
 modern literary language, the final event of a drama or ro- 
 mance, to which the other events are subsidiary. The 
 vtpnrcTeia, or revolution, indicated by Aristotle as one of 
 the parts of the drama, was a change in the fortunes of the 
 principal personages of the play ; as, the fall of CEdipus 
 from sovereignty into extreme misery and banishment, in 
 the CEdipus Tyrannus. Some such change is generally 
 involved in the idea of a catastrophe : thus, marriage is 
 the ordinary catastrophe of a comedy or a novel, as some 
 disastrous change is that of a tragedy. 
 
 CA'TCH-DRAlNS. Open drains across a declivity to 
 intercept surface water. The term is sometimes also ap- 
 plied to under drains across a declivity. 
 
 CA'TCHWORK-MEADOWS. Grass land with very 
 regular surfaces, subjected to irrigation, the water as it de- 
 scends the declivities being intercepted by catchdrains. 
 
 CA'TECHISM. (Gr. xarrixiw, I instruct.) A form of 
 instruction by question and answer, appropriated by gene- 
 ral usage to instruction in religious subjects, and more 
 especially to the set forms which most churches have au- 
 thorised for the instruction of children in the elements of 
 religion. The English church catechism is intended to be 
 an exposition of the vow made at baptism, and till the lime 
 of James I. consisted only of the renunciation or repetition 
 of the baptismal vow, the creed, and the Lord's Prayer. 
 The latt»r portion, exjl lining the n iture of 
 was added after tho conference as Hampton Court. The 
 catechism of the Council of Trent, or Caiechismvs ad Pa- 
 rochos, was set forth by the Roman Catholic divines lor the 
 use and direction of the clergy, and contains an ample ac- 
 count of the whole sum of the Romish doctrines. It was 
 approved by Pius V., and published in 156G. (See Bing- 
 ham's Antiq. b. x. ch. 1, 2.) 
 
 CA'TECHU. A Japanese word, signifying the juice o! 
 a tree. The extract of the Acacia catechu, an astringent 
 substance, consisting of tan and extractive matter, im- 
 ported chiefly from Bengal and Bombay. Its principal use 
 is in medicine. 
 
 CATECHU'MEN. (Gr. Kartixov/icvos.) lie who learns 
 the elements of any science , one who is undergoing a 
 course of religious instruction with aview to his admission 
 into the church. The Christian society in the early ages 
 was divided into two classes, Fideles and Catechumeni , 
 the former being those who had been admitted by baptism 
 into the entire privileges of the church, the latter such as 
 were preparing for that admission. 
 
 CA'TEGOREMA'TIC. (Gr. Karriyopea, I predicate.) 
 In Logic, when a word is capable of being employed by it- 
 self as a term, or predicate of a proposition. 
 
 CATEGO'RICAL PROPOSITION. (Gr. Karnyoptw, 
 I declare something of another.) In Logic, a proposition 
 which affirms or clenies, absolutely and without any con 
 dition, that the subject does or does not agree with the 
 predicate. (See Proposition.) Categorical propositions 
 are said to be pure (those which simply assert one thing 
 of another), and modal (those which assert one thing of 
 another under a certain mode or form). But this is a dis- 
 tinction arising out of the poverty of language only, and no 
 essential difference between the two classes ; e. g. " the 
 king reigns" is a pure categorical proposition ; " the king 
 reigns justly" is said to be modal. But it is evident that if 
 our language had a single word to express the whole idea 
 (to reign justly), the latter would be called pure likewise. 
 All cases of modal categoricals may probably be resolved 
 into similar instances of the deficiency of words to express 
 complicated notions. 
 
 CA'TEGORY. (Gr. Kamyopia.) In Logic and Meta- 
 physics, a Greek word, signifying originally (hat which 
 may be said or predicated of a thing ; a general term in re- 
 ference to a less general one which is included under it. 
 By Aristotle, from whom the word, and its corresponding 
 Latin term predicate, was borrowed by the schoolmen, it 
 was applied to denote the most general of the attributes 
 that may be assigned to a subject. Of these he attempted 
 an enumeration, under the name of substance, quantity, 
 quality, relation, place, time, condition, state or habitude, 
 action, and passion. The word has been revived in mo- 
 dern times by Kant, to express the most general of the 
 
CATENARIAN ARCH. 
 
 modes in which a thing can be raised from an object of 
 i an ojbject of intellect ; or, in other words, the 
 forms or conditions which must pre-exist in the under- 
 standing, in order that an act of intelligence may take 
 Par an account of these see art. Kantian Philo- 
 sophy. The difference between the categories of Kant 
 and those of Aristotle is this, that the latter are mere gen- 
 ins from experience, which may consequently be 
 multiplied indefinitely ; whereas the former result from a 
 dly exhaustive analysis of the human understand- 
 ing u it lain llaelf, or formally, that is, apart from all con- 
 sideration of its object-matter. 
 
 CATENA'RIAN ARCH. (Lat. catena, a chain.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, .hi arch whose form is that of a chord or chain 
 suspended from two fixed points at its extremities. 
 
 r\Ti;'\\ll\ | Lit. catena, a chain.) The curve into 
 
 chord or flexible chain of uniform density and 
 
 thickness tonus itself when suspended or allowed to hang 
 
 in two points. This curve was first noticed by 
 
 Galileo, who proposed it as the proper figure for an arch 
 
 of equilibrium; but he imagined it to be the same as the 
 
 Sits line nature was first demonstrated by James 
 lemoulU, and its various properties soon alter pointed out 
 by John Bernoulli. Huygens, and Leibnitz. It is interest- 
 ing on account of the' light it throws on the theory of 
 arches, and also by reason of its application to the con- 
 struction of suspension bridges. 
 
 The equation of the catenary may be found as follows : 
 let v and li be the points of suspension, and C the lowest 
 point in the curve. Draw C D per- 
 icular to the horizon, and A. 
 h any two points P and p ve- ?W i 
 
 ry near each other, draw PD and $ 
 pil perpendiculartoCD; draw also 
 Pr parallel to CD, and let PS be 
 
 nt at P. Now, the chain ^- ^ r" — E 
 
 having assumed this form, the equi- 
 lihrinin would not be disturbed by supposing the part CP 
 to become rigid. In this case it would be kept at rest by 
 three forces ; namely, the tension at its two extremities, 
 ion at C is e.rer'ed in uV di- 
 ll at Pin the direction PS or fp, 
 hi the vertical Pr. These three forces are 
 , l.v the principles of mechanics, proportional to 
 p r, p V. and Pr: that is, making C D=x, DP=y, and CP 
 st, proportional to the differentials of these quantities, or 
 to di, dy, dz. Hut the tension C E (arising from the part 
 of the chain C H) is constant ; suppose it therefore equal to 
 o, and the chain being uniform, the weight of C P is pro- 
 portional to its length, or to z ; therefore we have 0:2= 
 dy : di, or ads=zdjf, which is the diffe rential equation of 
 On substituting \/dz* — dx l for dy, and inte- 
 ■rating, there results **+2 ojt=z*, which is an equation 
 the arc and the absciss. The curve cannot be 
 'I by a simple algebraic equation between the ab- 
 1 ordinate, and is consequently of the mechanical 
 kind. The constant quantity a is cafled the parameter ; 
 and one of the most remarkable properties of the curve is, 
 that the rectangle contained by the parameter and an or- 
 equal to the natural logarithm of the ratio of the 
 parameter to the sum of the parameter, the absciss, and 
 the arc. 
 CATE'NL'LATE. (Lat. catena, a chain.) When a sur- 
 >ents a series of elevated ridges or oblong tuber- 
 cles resembling a chain. 
 
 ERP1LLAR. The name of the larva of Lepidop- 
 terous bo 
 
 CATHAJU. (Gr. KaQapoi, pure.) An oriental sect of 
 Christians. See 1'auliciaxs. 
 
 CATHARTIC. (Gr. xaOatpoj, I purge.) That which 
 increases the action of the bowels. The term is common- 
 ly applied to medicines which do this with some degree of 
 violence: among the milder cathartics, jalap, senna, calo- 
 mel, and saline purges are the most used ; those which 
 arf drastic are croton oil and elaterium. 
 
 CATHA'RTIN. The active or purgative principle of 
 senna. 
 
 CATHEAD. A Nautical term, signifying a strong in- 
 clined piece of timber projecting from either bow of a 
 ship, to which the ring of the bower anchor is secured. 
 The block or pulley hooked to the ring is called the cat- 
 block, the rope the cat-fall. 
 
 CATHETjRAL. (Gr. icaQc&pa, a seat or throne.) The 
 principal church of a diocese, in which is the throne of the 
 The term cathedra was originally applied to the 
 seats in which the bishop and presbyters sate in their as- 
 semblies, which were held in the rooms in which Ihe 
 worship of the first Christians was also performed before 
 1 I liberty to erect temples for that purpose. In 
 after-times the choir of the cathedral church was made to 
 terminate in a semicircular or polygonal apsis ; and in the 
 recess thus formed were placed the throne of the bishop 
 in the centre, and seats of an inferior class for presby- 
 ters In modern cathedrals the bishop's throne is in 
 203 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 the choir, and generally on the south side. (Bingham 
 viii. 6. 10.) 
 
 CA'THETA, and CATHETUS. (Gr. Kaderos, let down.) 
 In Architecture, a vertical line falling from the extremity 
 of the underside of the cymatium of the Ionic capital 
 through the centre of the volute. 
 
 CATHETER. (Gr. nadirim, I thrust into.) A tube 
 which may be introduced by the urethra into the bladilei 
 for the purpose of drawing off the urine. 
 
 CATHOLIC. (Gr. kclOoXikos, universal.) A wort 
 which occurs in the New Test, in the titles of certain ui 
 the Epistles, — those of James, Peter, and John,— signifying 
 that they are addressed to the whole or universal body ol 
 Christians, and not to a particular section of them. Hencf 
 the term has been used in later times to distinguish tin 
 church of Christ from all heretics and schismatic-, a 
 has been assumed by particular churches either to sepa 
 rate themselves from all others, as the Romish ; or to in 
 elude themselves as individual members of the univer 
 sal body, represented under different and subordinate 
 local names, as the English episcopal church. The Ro 
 mish church appeals to the decisions of Ihe Council of 
 Trent for its most complete and definite rule of faith, am 
 allows no one to be a member of the Catholic churcl 
 who rejects any of the tenets therein enforced. (See art 
 Roman Catholic.) The English church considers it 
 self a member of the Catholic, but passes no judgment ai 
 to what variations from its own formularies incus the gui.' 
 of heresy and incapacitate from such incorporation. Se> 
 
 CATHO'LICON. (In old Pharmacy.) An universa 
 medicine. 
 
 CATKIN. The English name of the inflorescence o.' 
 the poplar, willow, and similar trees. A catkin is a close 
 spike, composed of scales overlapping each other, and falLi 
 off the parent plant as soon as its office of flowering or 
 fruitini: is accomplished. 
 
 CATO'PTRICS. (Gr. Karoirrpov, a mirror; compound- 
 ed of nara and /hrrojiat, I see.) Is that part of the science 
 of optics which treats of the laws of reflected light, and the 
 phenomena of vision produced by reflection. For details 
 cted with this Interesting branch of natural philoso- 
 phy, see the terms Mirhor. Optics, Reflection. 
 
 The principal authors who have treated of Catoptrics 
 are, Euclid ; Alhazen and Vitellion, in the 11th ma 18th 
 centuries; James Gregory, in his Optica Promota; liar- 
 row, Smith, Tacqunt, and all modern writers on the sub- 
 ject of Light or Optics. 
 
 CAT'S-EYE. A beautiful siliceous mineral (probably 
 quartz), penetrated by fibres of asbestos, which, when pol- 
 ished, reflects an effulgent pearly light, much resembling 
 the mutable reflections from the eye of a cat. Hence the 
 Anglicised French lerm chatoyant. 
 
 CAT'S TAIL GRASS. In Botany, valuable meadow 
 grass, usually forming part of all goo'd lowland pastures. 
 It is the Phleum jn-atense. a plant with a soft narrow cylin- 
 drical head, resembling that of the meadow foxtail. 
 
 CATTLE. Domesticated animals of the cow kind, 
 which are found accompanying man in every civilized 
 country, and in every climate. The native country of the 
 type of British cattle is supposed by some to be Asia, and 
 by others to be Africa ; but in this case, as in all others 
 where an animal or a plant has beeu long in a state of do- 
 mestication, the origin of the species is involved in obscu- 
 rity. When the tame cattle of any country are allowed to 
 run wild and breed in that country, uncontrolled by man, 
 the habits which belong to the animal in its savage state 
 become, in the course of three or four generations, modi- 
 fied according to the natural supplies of food and the char- 
 acter of the climate. Hence, though cattle are not indige- 
 nous to Britain, South America, or the Sandwich Islands, 
 we have in the former country a breed of wild cattle in 
 one or two gentlemen's parks, as at Chillingham in North- 
 umberland, which are quite different from Ihe wild cattle 
 of the fertile soils of South America, as these again are dif- 
 ferent from the wild cattle of the Sandwich Islands, though 
 all undoubtedly the descendants of tame animals. Those 
 in the Sandwich Islands, in particular, are known to be the 
 offspring of the tame cattle that were left there by Vancou- 
 ver, and which can now be only caught alive by entrap 
 ping (hem in disguised pits; into one of which the unfor- 
 tunate botanist Douglas fell, and was gored to death by a 
 bull who happened to be in it at the time. The domestic 
 cattle of Britain may be divided into two races: those'.; 
 large size adapted for the plains, and those of smaller size 
 adapted for the mountains. Of each of these classes tKer« 
 are several breeds; such as the Highland and the Welch 
 cattle, among the latter; and the Lancashire, the York- 
 shire, and Ihe Herefordshire cattle, among the former. 
 There is also an intermediate breed, adapted for mode- 
 rately hilly countries ; such as the Galloway and Fife 
 breeds in Scotland, and the Alderney and Guernsey cattle 
 in England. The best beef brought to the London market 
 is that of cattle of the Highland breed fed in English pas- 
 
CATULUS. 
 lures, or on turnips. The best milk cow fir general pur- 
 poses is the Ayrshire ; the best for cream and butter, the 
 Alderney; and the best for immense quantities of milk, 
 the Lancashire. Hence the latter are generally employed 
 in public dairies, the Ayrshire by farmers and cottagers, 
 and the Alderney by Ihe higher classes. See Lib. Useful 
 Knowledge, Fanner's Series— Cattle. Low's Illustrations 
 of the Breeds of Domestic Animals. 4to. 1842. 
 
 CA'TULUS. (Lat. catulus, the young of any thing.) 
 The old botanical name of the catkin of a plant, which 
 see. 
 
 CAU'DA. (Lat ) That portion of an animal which is 
 supported by vertebra: behind the sacrum ; or which, as in 
 fishes, have inferior spinous processes. In Entomology it 
 signifies that part of the abdomen which becomes suddenly 
 slender, and terminates in a long jointed tail, as in the 
 scorpion. 
 
 CAU'DAT. (Lat. cauda, a tail) When the apex of 
 any organ in a plant is prolonged into a long slender 
 point; this is not of rare' occurrence, and is more especi- 
 ally common in Araceous and Aristolochiaceous plants. 
 
 CAU'DEX. (Lat. caudex, a trunk.) The Linnajan 
 name of what is now more generally called the axis 
 of vegetation ; the woody centre round which the leafy 
 and leaf-like organs are arranged. The caudex ascendens 
 was the stem, the c. descendens the root of a plant. 
 
 CAUDI'CULA. (Lat. dim. of caudex.) A thin, elastic, 
 semitransparent process of the pollen masses of Orchida- 
 ceous plants, by means of which the pollen is brought in 
 contact with the stigma or stigmatic gland. Itsexact nature, 
 use, and oriuin are unknown. 
 
 CAUL. The trivial appellation of the amnion when it 
 comes away in child-birth. It is regarded by the super- 
 stitious as a charm against shipwreck. 
 
 CAULI'COLUS. (Lat. caulis, a stalk ) In Architecture, 
 the small stalk under the volutes of the Corinthian capital, 
 which it seems to support. 
 
 CAULI'CULUS. (Dim. of caulis, a stem.) In Botany, 
 the slender part which connects the cotyledon of a seed 
 with the radicle. It is usually considered a part of the ra- 
 dicle, but recent observations seem to show that it is rather 
 an extension of the stem. Its office is to lengthen rapidly 
 when germination takes place, and thus to bring the true 
 radicle into contact with the earth upon which it has to 
 feed. 
 
 CAU'LINE. (Lat. caulis, astern.) Any thing thatgrows 
 to, or springs from, the stem of a plant. Cauline leaves 
 are those which grow upon the stem, prickles such as are 
 borne by the same part, and so on. 
 
 CAULK, or CALK. To stuff the seams or openings be- 
 tween the planks of a ship with oakum, which is rope un- 
 twisted into its original state of fibre. The oakum is forc- 
 ed in by a caulking chisel and mallet. It has been found 
 necessary, when a ship has worked Ihe oakum out of the 
 seams, to fill them with rope. Caulking affords fixedness 
 to the whole frame, and is therefore a great support. The 
 quantity of oakum used in a large ship is very great; in a 
 large three-decker it is near 30 tons, or upwards of four 
 tables. 
 
 When the seams are caulked, melted pilch is poured on 
 ;he seams of the decks out of a pitch ladle ; in other places 
 it is laid on with a pitch mop : this is called paying the 
 seams. 
 
 CAULOCA'RPOUa (Gr. K av\o S , Vie stem of a plant, 
 ind icapiroc, fruit.) A name applied by De Candolle to 
 such plants as, like trees and shrubs, annually produce 
 llowers and fruit on their branches without perishing. 
 
 CAUSE. Four kinds of causes have been distinguished 
 by logicians :—the material, the efficient, the formal, and the 
 final. The material cause of a thing is that out of which 
 that thing is made ; in other words, that which is the 
 ground of the possibility of a thing's coming into exist- 
 ence : e. g. the marble out of which a statue is made. 
 The efficient cause is that in which resides the moving 
 power requisite in order to render the possible existence 
 actual; as the sculptor. The final cause of the thing is 
 that very thing in its completeness ; as the statue when 
 made. The formal cause is that which must supervene to 
 the matter,, in order to give the thing its precise individual 
 existence as that thing and no other; as the shape which 
 (he sculptor communicates to the marble. This distinc- 
 tion is derived originally from Aristotle, with whom, how- 
 ever, it is rather a metaphysical'than a logical determina- 
 tion. See Aristotelian Philosophy. 
 
 In popular language, ihe final cause is synonymous with 
 the purpose to which any object is supposed to contribute, 
 though that, purpose be wholly external to the thing caused. 
 
 CAU'STIC CURVE. (Gr. kuioi, I burn.) In the Tran- 
 scendental Geometry, is the name given to the curve to 
 which the rays of light, reflected or refracted by another 
 curve, are tangents. Caustics are consequently of two 
 kinds, catacaustics and diacaustics : the former being caus- 
 tics by reflection, and the latter caustics by refraction. Ca- 
 tacaustics are generated thus : Suppose rays, as B M, B M' 
 204 
 
 mK. 
 
 fig. 2. 
 
 CAViEDIUM. 
 
 fig. 1. &c. (fig. 1.) to issue from a luminous 
 
 point B, and to be reflected by the 
 curve A M D, so that the angle of in- 
 cidence equals the angle of reflec- 
 tion: the curve line H F F', which 
 touches all the reflected rays (pro- 
 duced, if necessary), is called the 
 catacauslic, or caustic by reflection. 
 Diacaustics are produced in a way 
 entirely similar. Thus : Suppose 
 rays, B M, B M', &c. {fig. 2), issu- 
 ing from a luminous point B, to be 
 refracted by the curve A M M', so 
 that the sines of incidence are to 
 the sines of refraction in a constant 
 given ratio ; then the curve II F F', 
 which touches all the refracted 
 rays, is called the diacaustic, or 
 caustic by refraction. 
 The term caustich&s been applied to these curves because 
 the rays of light being collected along the curve in a greater 
 quantity than elsewhere.heat is produced, particularly if the 
 collection of rays is considerable. In parabolic mirrors, 
 when the luminous rays strike the mirrors in a direction 
 parallel to the axis, the caustic merges in a single point, 
 which is the focus of the mirror. All the conic sections 
 have this property, that luminous rays issuing from one fo- 
 cus are reflected by the curve into the other focus ; but. in 
 respect of all other curves, the several reflected pencils 
 are collected, not into a single point, but into a series of 
 brilliant points or foci, the assemblage of which forms a 
 bright curved track, or caustic, which is mathematically 
 defined as above. 
 
 The attention of geometers was first called to this species 
 of curve lines by Tchirnhausen, who demonstrated some 
 of their properties to the Academy of Sciences of Paris in 
 1682. One property, common to all of them, is remark- 
 able; namely, that when the curves by which they are 
 produced are algebraic, the caustics are rectifiable ; In 
 other words, straight lines can be found to which they are 
 equal. In fact, any portion H F of the catacaustic ( fig. I) 
 is equal to the difference between the sums of B M and 
 M F, and B A and A H ; or II F=B M+M F— (B A+A H, 
 In the diacaustic (fig. 2), we have for the length of the 
 curve II F=A H — M F — n (B M — B A), where n is the con- 
 stant ratio of the sine of incidence to refraction. If, there- 
 fore, the lengths of the radii and tangents can be expressed 
 algebraically, the length of the caustic can also be exhibit- 
 ed by an algebraic expression. This circumstance having 
 been noticed before the invention of the infinitesimal cal- 
 culus, excited much interest among mathematicians, be- 
 cause it was then generally imagined that no curve line 
 could be rectified. 
 
 The catacaustic may be experimentally exhibited by ex- 
 posing the inside of a smooth bowl, containing any liquid 
 not diaphanous (milk, for example, or still belter, ink) to 
 the sunbeams, or any strong light. The caustic, which in 
 this case is an epicycloid, will appear beautifully delineated 
 on the surface of the fluid. Another experiment, proposed 
 by Sir David Brewster, exhibits the curves still more strik- 
 ingly. Take a plate of polished metal, thin enough to be 
 bent easily into a concave form, and place it perpendicular- 
 ly on a sheet of white paper. If we expose this apparatus 
 to the sun, holding the plane of the paper in such a man- 
 ner that it may pass near the sun, without, however, inter- 
 secting it, the caustic will be exhibited on the paper as a 
 well-defined curve of light. The interior part will be more 
 brilliant than the exterior, and the light will diminish gra- 
 dually and very rapidly at a little distance from the caus- 
 tic. By varving the size of the plate, and bending it into 
 curves of different shapes, all the different kinds of cata- 
 caustics, with their points of inflexion, &c, will be beauti- 
 fully developed. (Brewster's Optics, Cabinet Cyclopedia.^ 
 This subject being intimately connected with the cor, 
 sideration and dispersion of the rays of light by reflecting 
 and refracting surfaces, is of great, importance in practical 
 optics. (De fa Hire, Traite des Epieycloides ; Smith's Op- 
 tics; 3. Bernoulli, Opera Omnia, vol. iii. ; L'Hopital, Ana- 
 lyse des Infinimenis Petits ; Gergonne, Annates des- Mathe- 
 matiques ; De la Rive. Dissertation s-ur les Caustiqves , 
 Ency. Met. art. " Light.'") 
 CAU'STIC LUNAR. Fused nitrate of silver. 
 CAU'STICS. Substances which corrode and destroy 
 the texture of the skin and of organized bodies. 
 
 CAU'TERY. The ancients divided cauteries into actual 
 and potential. The former term is applied to red-hot iron ; 
 the latter to pure potash. 
 
 CAU'TIONARY. In Scottish Law, is the obligation by 
 which a party becomes surety for another ; answering to 
 the English term guarantee. It is defined by Stair, "the 
 promise or contract of a man not for himself but another." 
 The guarantor is termed "cautioner." 
 
 CAVJE'DIUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, an open 
 quadrangle or court within a house. The cavajdia descnb- 
 
CAVALIER. 
 
 ed by Vitruvius are of five species ; Tuscanicum, Corinthi- 
 am, Tetrastylon (with four columns), Displuviatum (un- 
 covered), and Testudinatum (vaulted). Though some au- 
 thors make the cav;edium Ihe same as atrium and vestibu- 
 lum, it was essentially different. 
 
 f'A'VALIER. In Fortification, a sort of interior bastion, 
 several feet more elevated than the principal bastion of the 
 fortress in which it is formed. The use of the cavalier is 
 twofold : it serves either to defilade the works from the 
 fire of an enemy or an adjacent height, or to command 
 the trenches of the besiegers. Cavaliers are sometimes 
 constructed In the gorges, or on the middle of the curtain, 
 and their form is the semicircular; but when they are 
 within the bastion they are now built with straight faces 
 an I tonka parallel to those of the work in which they are 
 French cavaF.jrs are works raised by the besie- 
 gers on the glacis cf a fortress, for the purpose of enabling 
 them to direct a fire of musketry into the covered way. 
 
 Cavalier (derived probably from the Latin word cabal- 
 
 ■k horse), was used originally in a general sense 
 
 her; but the term has acquired historical 
 
 m its having been applied to the adherents 
 
 oft; laries I. in contradistinction to the Roundtieads (quod 
 
 porters of the parliament. 
 
 i ' \ v U.RY. (Fr.) A body of soldiers furnished with 
 r war. This arm can boast of high antiquity, and 
 is so peculiarly useful and necessary for a great variety of 
 i-, that it has in all ages been held by the greatest 
 generals in hish estimation. The efficacy of cavalry arises 
 principally from its adaptation to speedy movements, 
 which enables a commander to avail himself immediately 
 moment when the enemy exposes a weak 
 point, or when disorder appears in his ranks, for complet- 
 ing his defeat by disconcerting him by a sudden attack. 
 It is singularly useful in protecting the wings and centre of 
 an army, for furnishing detachments, for escorts, for form- 
 ing block rcepting the supplies of the enemy, 
 
 for foraging, for procuring intelligence, for covering a re- 
 The successful services which troops of this 
 description have performed, ami the number of decisive 
 advantages which have been obtained by means of them 
 in the most important battles of which history ancient and 
 modern furnishes the details, prove incontestably the utili- 
 ty of this arm. The use of cavalry, however, is necessa- 
 rily limited by the nature of the ground. Open and level 
 countries are favourable to its operations: in forests, in 
 mountainous districts, on a marshy soil. <kc. it is but of 
 little avail. Among the Greeks and Romans, the cavalry 
 i" led as the most respectable class of troops, and 
 Its ranks were supplied especially from the elite of the 
 nobility. In the middle ages a similar feeling seems to 
 have prevailed ; for, in the early French monarchy, and 
 in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain, the men of wealth 
 sod noble birth distinguished themselves in the field from 
 those of inferior rank by being well armed and mounted 
 on horses ; and from the mode of warfare then practised, 
 as well as from the peculiarities adopted in the organiza- 
 tion of troops, cavalry constituted almost the only efficient 
 arm of battle down to the introduction of standing armies. 
 
 The invention of gunpowder, and the subsequent em- 
 ployment of artillery in the field, deprived the heavy- 
 ivalry of those times of all the advantages it pos- 
 ter the infantry, and rendered its movements 
 awkward and inefficient. It was reserved, however, for 
 Guslavus Adolphus to show the real utility of this arm by 
 discovering the services on which it should properly be 
 employed, and by stripping il of all unnecessary encum- 
 to supersede by rapidity of motion the value it 
 formerly possessed in weight. Since that time cavalry 
 has often turned the scale of fortune in war : the battle of 
 Rossbach, for instance, in 1757, one of the most brilliant 
 I either of ancient or modern times, was entirely 
 decided by this arm. 
 
 gforfem cavalry consists of two grand classes— heavy 
 ami H^ht horse ; which are again susceptible of further 
 subdivisions, according to the purposes to which they are 
 subservient. The British cavalry consists of two regiments 
 of life guards, the royal regiment of horse guards, seven 
 regiments of dragoon guards, and seventeen regiments of 
 light dragoons, of which four are called hussars and four 
 lancers. (For the history, use, accoutrements, and arms 
 of these different branches, see the separate articles.) A 
 regiment of cavalry is divided into four squadrons, and 
 each of these into two troops. A troop consists of 80 men ; 
 and to each troop there is attached a captain, a lieuteaant, 
 and a cornet. 
 
 CAVATl'NA. (It. dimin. of cavata, cut off.) In Music, 
 a species of air, generally short, and having neither a re- 
 peat nor second strain, often inserted in obligato recita- 
 tives. The sudden changes from recitative to a measured 
 movement and the reverse are useful in producing ex- 
 pression. 
 
 CA'VEA. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, the subter- 
 ranean cells in an amphitheatre wherein the wild beasts 
 205 
 
 CELIBACY. 
 
 were' confined in readiness for the fights of the arena. V\ 
 the end, the amphitheatre itself, by synechdoche, wal 
 called c^ea; in which sense it is employed by Ammianur 
 Marcellinus : '-Alter in amphitheatraii cavea cum adftitu 
 rus spectaculis introiret." Lib. xxix. cap. 1. 
 
 CA'VEAT. In Law, a notice or caution given by a 
 party interested to a judge or other officer, in order to 
 stay proceedings by him ; as, in the spiritual cdurts, a ca- 
 veat is put in to stop the granting of probate or administra 
 tion. 
 
 CAVE'TTO. (Lat. cavus, hoUow.) In Architecture, a 
 hollowed moulding, whose profile is a quadrant of a circle, 
 it is principally used in cornices. 
 
 CA'VIA. The Linntean generic name of a Cuvierian 
 family of Rodents, including the guinea-pig,— Agouti, Paca, 
 and Capibcra. 
 
 CAVLA'RE. The salted roe of the sturgeon, much es- 
 teemed by the Russians as an article of food ; it is an oily 
 unwholesome article. 
 
 CA'VICORNS, Cavicornia. (Lat. cavus, hollmo, and 
 cornu, horn. ) The name of the tribe of Ruminants com- 
 prehending those which have the horns hollowed out like 
 a sheath and implanted on bony processes of theos frontis, 
 as in the antelope. 
 
 CA'VITARIES, Entozoa cavitaria. (Lat. cavitas, a hol- 
 low.) Intestinal worms, or Entozoa, which have, an intes- 
 tinal canal floating in a distinct abdominal cavity. 
 
 CAY'MAN, or CAIMAN. A name, says Marcgrave, ap- 
 plied to the crocodiles by the negroes of Congo. Accord- 
 ing to Bontius it was originally derived from an eastern 
 dialect (per lotam Indiam cayman audit). It appears, 
 however, that Marcgrave is correct; for the negroes in 
 the West Indies have been heard to call the crocodiles 
 which they have seen there for the first lime caiman ; and 
 the name has been diffused over the new continent by the 
 negroes, and applied to most of the American species in- 
 discriminately. It is restricted by Cuvier to the alligators. 
 See Alligator. 
 
 CE'DRELA'CE^;. (Cedrela, one of the genera.) A 
 very important, though small, natural order of plants, al- 
 lied to Meliacem, from which they differ in having winged 
 indefinite seed. Most of the species are trees of large 
 size. Swietenia tnahogani yields mahogany, in the woods 
 of the Spanish main ; Chlororylon stciettnia, Indian satin- 
 wood ; while the yellow wood and the cedar of New Hol- 
 land are the produce of others. In general their bark is 
 fiowerfully astringent ; that of Soymidafehrifuga and ma- 
 mgany itself is a potent febrifuge ; that of Cedrela toona is 
 a most valuable tonic in the Malayan archipelago; and 
 Khaya senegalensis yields a similar remedy for the dan- 
 gerous fevers of the Gold Coast. 
 
 CEILING. (Fr. ceil, a canopy or covering.) In Archi- 
 tecture, the upper horizontal or curved surface of an apart- 
 ment opposite the floor, usually finished with plastered 
 work. In executing ceiling the best mode is that in which 
 the setting coat is composed of putty and plaster, techni- 
 cally called gauge. Common ceilings are executed with 
 plaster without hair, the same as the finishing coat in walls 
 left for paper. 
 
 CELASTRA'CEiE. (Celastrus, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of shrubby Exogens, formerly confounded 
 with Tiliamnaceee, but separated by Brown, chiefly because 
 of the relation that the stamens bear to the petals and the 
 different aestivation of the calyx. Allied, according to 
 lirongniart, to Malpighiaceat, through Hippocratece, a small 
 onler which scarcely differs from this order. Celastracem 
 are natives of the warmer climates, especially of the tro- 
 llies, and their general characters appear to be of a stimu- 
 lating aerid nature : none of any popular interest. 
 
 CE'LERES. (Lat. celer, stcifl.) In Ancient History, 
 the body of cavalry instituted by Romulus when he settled 
 the constitution of Rome. They consisted of those among 
 the citizens who were rich enough to furnish a horse. 
 They are said to have been 300 in number, and to have 
 been subdivided into three centuries, under the name of 
 Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres ; but this seems to pro- 
 ceed on the false supposition that the three tribes known 
 by these names were among the institutions of Romulus. 
 The number of the centuries of the Celeres v*s raised to 
 six by Tarquinius Priscus: this was the origin of the 
 Equites or knights, who in after-times formed a separate 
 class of citizens. 
 
 CE'LIBACY. (Lat. caslebs, unmarried.) The legal 
 condition of unmarried persons. This condition was sub- 
 jected by the laws of the Roman emperors to a variety of 
 penal consequences. The most remarkable of their en- 
 actments, and that on which the subsequent jurisprudence 
 on this subject was in a great measure founded, was the 
 Lex Julia or Papia-PoppaM, enacted under the authori- 
 zation of Augustus. By these laws unmarried persons 
 could receive nothing by will from strangers, and were 
 subjected to many other legal disabilities (see Law, Ro- 
 man) ; from which, however, they were successively re- 
 lieved by later laws passed in the decline of the empire, 
 
CELL. 
 
 and especially .after the mistaken zeal of the Christian di- 
 vines of that age had invested celibacy with attributes of 
 sanctity. It was at an early period in the history of the 
 Christian church that ministers were exhorted to celibacy 
 by those who laid claims to a higher degree of sanctity. 
 At the Council of Nice, in a. d. 325, the proposition to en- 
 force it as a general law was rejected. But at that of 
 Aries, in 340, it was adopted ; married persons being in- 
 deed held admissible into the church, but only on the 
 terms of separating from their wives on ordination. It had 
 become the common practice of the Latin church in the 
 reign of Gregory the Great (end of the 6th century), and 
 was more fully enforced, after a period of relaxation, in 
 the 11th. It was proposed to the Council of Trent by 
 Charles V. (in the interim), that married priests should re- 
 tain their wives ; but this was rejected. In the Greek 
 church, celibacy was ordained for bishops at the council 
 ofTralle, a. d. 695; but clergymen below the degree of 
 episcopacy are allowed to marry. Hence the higher dig- 
 nities of that church are necessarily filled by monks. 
 
 CELL. (Lat. cella.) In Ancient Architecture, the part 
 of a temple within the walls; also called the naos. The 
 part of the temple in front of the cell was called the pronaos, 
 and that in the rear the posticum. 
 
 CE'LLAR. (Fr. cellier.) In Architecture, the lower 
 story of a building, when wholly or partly under the level 
 of the ground. 
 
 CE'LLEPORES, CELLEPORiE. (Lat. cella, a cell; 
 porus, apore.) A genus of flexible cellular Polyps, inclu- 
 ding those in which each of the cells is pierced with a 
 minute pore. 
 
 CE'LLULAR TISSUE. A substance consisting of little 
 bladders or vesicles of various figures adhering together 
 in masses. It constitutes the principal part of all plants, 
 and may be regarded as an organic basis, into which other 
 kinds of tissue are introduced, or from which they are 
 created. It exists exclusively in the embryo of a plant un- 
 til vitality has been excited, and new forms of tissue devel- 
 oped in consequence. See Botany. 
 
 CEME'NT. (Lat. cementum.) In Architecture, the 
 medium for causing the adherence of stones or bricks to 
 each other, formed of lime, sand, and water. The best 
 cement is obtained from limestone, in preference to chalk ; 
 and the sand best adapted to the formation of it is that of 
 a river, called drift sand. 
 
 Cement. In Anatomy, the substance which joins toge- 
 ther the plates of compound teeth, like those of the ele- 
 phant, and which fills up the folds and cavities in the teeth 
 of Ruminantsand Pachyderms; and which also covers all 
 that part of a simple tooth which is not coated with enam- 
 el. The cement is characterized, like true bone, by the 
 presence of the Purkinjian corpuscles. 
 
 Cemjnt, Parker's. See Septaria. 
 
 CEMENTA'TION. When a solid body is surrounded 
 by the powder of other substances, and the whole heated to 
 redness, ^ie process is termed cementation. Iron is said 
 to be converted into steel by cementation with charcoal. 
 
 CE'METERY. (Gr. utiftat, I lie dead.) In Architec- 
 ture, an edifice or area where the dead are interred. The 
 most celebrated public cemeteries of Europe are those of 
 Naples, one near Bologna, of Pisa, and the more modern 
 Parisian one of PBre la Chaise. That of Pisa is particu- 
 larly distinguished by the beauty of its form and architec- 
 ture, which is early Italian Gothic. It is 490 feet long, 170 
 feet wide, and 60 feet high, cloistered round the four sides, 
 and contains 50 shiploads of earth, which the Pisans 
 brought from Jerusalem. It was long matter of complaint 
 and regret that England possessed no public cemeteries ; 
 and in the year 1832 a company was formed in London 
 with the view of supplying this desideratum. The land 
 selected for the first experiment contains in extent about 
 50 acres, and is situated at Kensal Green on the south of 
 the Harrow road. This receptacle for the dead is denom- 
 inated "All Souls Cemetery ;" and whether we regard the 
 "ood taste or the public spirit displayed by its projectors, 
 it is well entitled to the support of the community. (See 
 the British Cyclopaedia.) Since that time various cemete- 
 ries have been designed and formed in different parts of 
 the country ; »nd there is every ground to believe that, in- 
 dependently of other advantages, the benefits which can- 
 not fail to accrue to the health of large towns, particularly, 
 from schemes of this nature, will ultimately lead to their 
 sreneral adoption. In the Companion to the British Alma- 
 nac for 1839, there is an excellent description of the Nor- 
 wood and Highgate cemeteries, and some of the previous 
 numbers of the same publication contain an account of 
 all similar works in England then in progress or com- 
 pleted. 
 
 CENO'BIO. A term invented by Mirbel to denote a 
 regular fruit, divided from the base into several acephalous 
 pericarpia; that is to say, pericarpia not marked on the 
 Kiitnmit by the stigmatic scar, the style having been insert- 
 ed at their base, as in Lahiata, Boraginaceai. 
 
 CE'NOTAPH. (Gr. Ktvos, empty, and ratios, a sepul- 
 206 
 
 CENTRAL FORCE. 
 
 chre.) In Architecture, a monument erected to the mem 
 ory of a p?rson who lies interred elsewhere. 
 
 CE'NSOR. In Ancient History, the title of two Roman 
 magistrates originally created for the purpose of taking the 
 census, or register of the number and property of citizens. 
 But their powers were much increased subsequently, 
 when they had the inspection of the morals of the citizens 
 committed to them, with authority to degrade senalors 
 and knights from their respective orders, and remove 
 other citizens from their tribes, depriving them of all 
 their privileges except liberty; which was termed ma- 
 king them jErarians. They had also the power of making 
 contracts for public buildings and the supply of victims for 
 sacrifices. 
 
 The office of censor was not a permanent one, but was 
 renewed from time to time, as its functions were felt to be 
 needed in the state. It was always filled by consulars of 
 the highest merit, and was esteemed an honour even 
 greater than that of the consulate itself; no person migh 
 be twice invested with it; and if one of the censors died, 
 another was not substituted in his room, but his surviving 
 colleague was obliged to resign. The office of censor was 
 abolished under the emperors, who, however, exercised 
 the greater part of its functions. It was attempted to be 
 revived in the person of Valerian by Decius, but he was 
 cut ofTbefore he could accomplish his purpose. 
 
 CE'NSUS. In Ancient History, a population return of 
 the Roman citizens, including a valuation of each man's 
 property, and a registration of his tribe, family, children, 
 and servants. 
 
 The secondary senses of the word are, a tax levied ac- 
 cording to the above-mentioned valuation ; and the amount 
 of any individual's property. A senator's census was the 
 amount of property necessary for a member of the senate, 
 which was equal to between JE6000 and £7000 of our mo- 
 ney ; but this was raised by Augustus to about jE10,000. A 
 knight's census was something more than JE3000. 
 
 The term census, in modern political phraseology, sig- 
 nifies an enumeration of the inhabitants of a country ; such 
 as has taken place in England by an act of parliament in 
 1801, 1811, 1821, 1831, 1841. 
 
 CE'NTAURS. In Greek Mythology, a fabulous race of 
 beings, half man and half horse, who are said to have in- 
 habited part of Thessaly, and waged constant war with the 
 hostile tribe oi'Lapitha?. 
 
 CENTAU'RUS, the CENTAUR. One of the fortyeight 
 ancient constellations formed by Ptolemy, situated in the 
 southern hemisphere, and under the tail of Hydra. The 
 Centaur is represented as half man, half horse ; the human 
 part only of the figure is visible above our horizon. 
 
 CE'NTERING. (Lat. centrum.) In Architecture, the 
 temporary woodwork or framing on which any vaulted 
 work is constructed ; sometimes called also a centre. 
 
 CE'NTIGRADE DIVISION. The division into grade* 
 or degrees by hundredth parts. A unit of any denomina- 
 tion being divided into 100 equal parts, forms a centi- 
 grade scale ; but the term most frequently occurs in sci- 
 entific works, in reference to the French division of the 
 scale of the thermometer. The fixed points of the ther- 
 mometric scale are the points at which water freezes on 
 the one hand, and boils on the other; the distance be- 
 tween these two points being divided into 100 degrees, 
 the centigrade scale is formed. In Fahrenheit's scale, 
 which is usually applied to the thermometer in this coun- 
 try, the same distance is divided into 180 degrees ; a de- 
 gree of the centigrade scale is therefore greater than a de- 
 gree of Fahrenheit in the proportion of 180 to 100, or of 9 to 
 5. Any number of degrees, therefore, on the centigrade 
 scale, being multiplied by 9 and divided by 5, will give the 
 equivalent number of degrees of Fahrenheit. But in com- 
 paring temperatures expressed by the two scales, it is ne- 
 cessary to recollect that the zero of Fahrenheit's scale is 
 not placed at the freezing point, but 32° below it. An ex- 
 ample will best show how this is to be taken into account. 
 Let it be required to express on Fahrenheit's scale the 
 temperature corresponding to 10° centigrade. Here 10 X 
 9 -f- 5 = 18 ; to this add 32, and we have 18 + 32 = 50 ; so 
 that 10 degrees of the centigrade scale correspond to 50 de- 
 grees of Fahrenheit's. 
 
 CE'NTIPEDE. (Lat. centum, a hundred, and pes,/oor.) 
 The name of the Myriapodus insects belonging to the ge- 
 nus Scolopendra of Linnreus. They are wingless ; and the 
 largest species possess, when full grown, more than fifty 
 and less than two hundred pairs of feet. 
 
 CE'NTO. (Gr. Ktvrpwv, a patchwork cloak or garment.) 
 A word employed to designate a collection of separate 
 verses from the works of one or more poets, arranged so 
 as to form a distinct poem. The only classical example 
 of a cento left to us is that of Ausonius, who composed a 
 nuptial idyll out of Virgilian verses ; in which, however, 
 the words'are also perverted into a new meaning. In his 
 prologue to Ihis piece Ausonius describes the cento, and 
 gives rules for its composition. 
 
 CE'NTRAL FORCE. The power or energy in virtu« 
 
CENTRAL FORCE. 
 
 ol which bodies in motion tend to approach, or recede 
 from, a centre. Hence central forces are of two kinds ; 
 centrifugal (Lat. fugere, to avoid), when the moving body 
 tends to recede from the centre;* and centripetal (Lai. 
 petere, to seek), when the body tends to approach it. 
 
 It is a general law of matter, that all bodies tend to move 
 in a straight line ; consequently, when a body moves in 
 a curve, there must necessarily be some force which acts 
 upon it, and deflects it from the rectilinear direction, and 
 constrains it to move in the curve; and if this force were 
 removed, or its action suspended, the body would imme- 
 diately fly off in a straight line, forming a tangent to the curve 
 at the* point in which it was moving when the force ceased 
 to act A stono whirled rapidly round the hand in a sling 
 affords a familiar illustration. The effort with which it 
 tends to fly off is the centrifugal force ; the reaction of the 
 hand, rommunicated through the string, may be regarded 
 as a centripetal force, which confines the stone to its circu- 
 lar path. When the string is let slip, the centrifugal force 
 is not counteracted, and the stone flies off in the direction 
 of the tangent. 
 
 The laws of central forces, of the greatest importance in 
 the theory of the planetary revolutions, were first proposed 
 by Huygens, in his celebrated work, entitled Hurologium 
 Oscillatorium. The case which it is most important to ana- 
 lyse is that of a body moving in the circumference of a cir- 
 cle with a uniform velocity. To find an expression for the 
 centrifugal force of a body revolving uniformly in a cir- 
 cle, let r = the radius of the circle, v = the velocity of the 
 body, and let A B be the arc described in the 
 infinitely small time t; we have then ct tie 
 space described being as the velocity and the 
 time of description) AB = tl. But A B being 
 by hypothesis a very small arc, may be con- 
 sidered as equal to its chord, which is a mean 
 proportional between the diameter 2r, and 
 the versed sine A C. Hence. A C 2r = A B* 
 v* t* 
 
 = v* 1*, and consequently A C = —^ . Now A C is the ef- 
 fect produced by the central force, or rather the accelerat- 
 ing force exerted in the direction of the centre (that which 
 prevents the body at A from flying off in the direction of 
 the tangent A D), in the time t ; and the accelerating force 
 being measured by the quotient which is obtained by divid- 
 ing twice the space described by the square of the time 
 (see Dynamics, Force), the accelerating force in the direc- 
 
 2 AC 
 lion of the centre becomes — n~ . Calling this central force 
 
 ' v* 
 
 r , acd substituting for A C its Taltte, we find/= — ; that is 
 
 to say, the central force of a body describing a circle with 
 a uniform velocity is directly proportional to the square of 
 the velocity, and inversely as the radius of the circle. 
 
 Thij expression may be put under a different form. Let 
 f = lhe time required to describe the whole circumference 
 
 2»r, and we have 2 rr=vt ; whence r = — r-' anclcon - 
 
 4»« r ' 
 
 sequently _/"= — n — ; whence the central force is directly 
 
 as the radius of the orbit, and inversely as the square of 
 the periodic time. 
 
 If the law of the force be such that its intensity is reci- 
 procally proportional to the square of the distance from the 
 centre, then the squaresof the periodic times of two bodies 
 describing different circles about the same centre are pro- 
 portional to the cubes of the distances. For let F and./ be 
 tin- two forces, V and v the velocities of the two bodies, 
 R and r the radii of their circles, and T and t the times re- 
 spectively ; then, by what has been already shown, 
 V» v* 
 
 f =r'/=t; 
 
 but by hypothesis, F : / : : r* : R* ; 
 V» 
 
 therefore, 
 but 
 
 R * r 
 V« : v* 
 
 r* : R«; 
 
 R« r« 
 
 T a : J? 
 
 therefore, T* : t* : : R« : r> ; 
 
 or the squares of the times are as the cubes of the radii. 
 This remarkable property was discovered by Kepler to 
 belong to the planetary orbits. See Kepler's Laws. 
 
 When a point is urged by one accelerating force only, 
 cxistantly directed towards a fixed point, the path will be 
 a plane curve, and the areas described around this point by 
 the radius vector are proportional to the times employed 
 in describing them. Suppose the time to be divided into 
 equal portions, and that in the first portion of time the 
 body, in virtue of the projectile force impressed on it, 
 describes the line A B. Ir no otherforce acted upon it, in the 
 second portion of time it would describe B C = A B ; there- 
 207 
 
 fore, on drawing the radii A S, B S, OS, to 
 the centre of force, the triangles A S B and 
 B S C would be equal. But suppose the 
 central force acting on the body while it 
 would move from B to C to act instan- 
 taneously at B, so as to cause the body to 
 descend through B V ; draw V I) parallel 
 and equal to B C, and join B I), then at 
 the end of the second portion of time 
 the body will be at D. Now as the cen- 
 tral force acts in the direction B V in the 
 plane of A SB, the body must continue 
 to move In that plane ; and on joining C D and S D, the tri- 
 angle B D S, on account of the parallel lines, is equal to 
 B C 8, and therefore equal to A B S. In like manner it may 
 be proved that if E be the point at which the body arrives 
 at the end of the third instant, the triangle D E S is equal to 
 A B S. Suppose, therefore, the number of the triangles to 
 become infinitely great, and their areas infinitely small, the 
 path of the body will become a curve line; and the ele- 
 mentary spaces being proportional to the elements of the 
 time, their sums or integrals must continue to have the 
 same proportion. (Aetrfon's Principia, Sect. II.) 
 
 From (his proposition it follows, that when a body des- 
 cribes a curve in virtue of a central force, the centrifugal 
 force at every point varies as the cube of the distance from 
 the centre, whatever the nature of the force by which it is 
 attracted to the centre may be. For let A B and a b be the 
 two arcs described at different points of the 
 curve in the infinitely small lime t, then by 
 the proposition just demonstrated, A S B = 
 I a86. But make BC and 6c respective!; 
 n perpendicular to S A and S a, then A S B = J 
 ' A8VBC, and «S4=}aSX*c; hence 
 ASX»C = oSX*cand BC : 6c' :: 
 a 8* : A S'. Now BC' = 2ASXAC 
 (the square of A C being neglected as infi- 
 nitely small), and 6 c* = 2 a S X a <" ' therefore, A SX 
 AC : aSX ac : : a &* •' AS*, and consequently 
 
 AC:ac: : jt^jj : j^gr 
 
 But A C is the measure of the centrifugal force at A, an i 
 
 a c is its measure at a ; therefore, denoting the distances 
 
 ■ iiits by Rand r, we have the centrifugal force 
 
 at A to the centrifugal force at a, as — : — Hence we 
 
 R' r* 
 may perceive the reason why a body in moving round u 
 centre of force may alternately approach to, and recede 
 from, that centre, as the planets in describing elliptic orbits 
 about the sun. Suppose the attractive force, like gravity, 
 to vary inversely as the square of the distance from the at- 
 tracting point : if the planet approached 10 times nearer to 
 the sun, the attractive force would be augmented 100 times ; 
 but the centrifugal force would become 1000 times greater, 
 and consequently there must be some point at which this 
 force will overcome the former, and determine the planet 
 again to recede. 
 
 The doctrine of central forces has its principal applica- 
 tion in astronomy. By the comparison of a great number 
 of planetary observations, Kepler discovered that each of 
 the planets, while its distance from the sun is variable, 
 moves in such a manner that a straight line drawn from it 
 to the sun describes equal areas in equal times. But this 
 is the law by which bodies move under the influence of a 
 central force (as is demonstrated above). It follows, there 
 fore, that the force by which the planets describe their or- 
 bits is a central force, and directed to a point within the 
 orbit. Newton demonstrated that the velocities of a body 
 at different points of the curve which it describes about 
 a centre of force, are inversely as the perpendiculars drawn 
 from the centre to the tangents at these points. The com- 
 parison of this proposition with the elliptic motion of the 
 planets leads directly to the conclusion that the forces hy 
 which the planetary motions are sustained are directed 
 to the centre of the sun, and vary inversely as the square; 
 of the distances of the planets from that body. 
 
 Mathematicians have investigated the orbits which bo 
 dies must describe under various hypotheses respecting 
 the law of the central force, and they have found tha' 
 there are only two cases in which a system of bodies lik« 
 the sun and planets, mutually attracting each other, could 
 permanently exist. One of these is an imaginary case, in 
 which the force varies directly as the distance of the body ; 
 the other is the case presented by nature, in which the 
 force follows the inverse ratio of the square of the distance. 
 In all other cases the mutual action of the bodies would 
 produce permanent derangements, which at length would 
 of necessity subvert the system. 
 
 When the force varies inversely as the square of the dis- 
 tance, the orbit which is described about a fixed centre 
 must necessarily be one of the three conic sections; but 
 it will depend upon the velocity with which it is at first 
 projectel whether the orbit be an ellipse, a parabola, or an 
 
CENTRE. 
 
 Hyperbola. If the central force were supposed to vary as 
 the inverse cube of the distance, a body would describe a 
 circle in one particular case, namely, when the velocity of 
 projection is equal to that which would be acquired by fall- 
 ing from an inhnite distance, and then applied in a direc- 
 tion at right angles to the radius vector. In all other cases 
 it would describe a spiral. If the central force diminishes 
 more rapidly than the inverse cube of the distance, the or- 
 uit would in all cases describe a spiral ; so that if the solar 
 force acted according to a law of this sort, every planet 
 would at length either fall into the sun, or fly off to an infi- 
 nite distance. (Principia, Book I. See also Herschel's 
 Astronomy, Cab. Encyc.) 
 
 CE'NTRE. (Lai. centrum.) This term has numerous 
 applications in Geometry and Mechanics : thus, centre of 
 a circle, or of an ellipse, is the middle point of any diame- 
 ter; centre of a curve is the point where two diameters in- 
 tersect each other ; and in mechanics we speak of centres 
 of attraction, conversion, equilibrium, gravity, percussion, 
 oscillation, &c. 
 
 Centre of Attraction, also called Centre of Gravita- 
 tion, is the point to which bodies tend in consequence of 
 the action ot gravity. 
 
 Centre of Conversion is the point in a body about 
 which it turns when a force is applied to any part of it, or 
 unequal forces to its different parts. For example, sup- 
 pose a rod laid on a table to be struck near one extremity 
 in a direction perpendicular to its length ; the rod will turn 
 round, but there will be one point in it which remains at 
 rest, or about which, as a centre, the other points turn. 
 This point is the centre of conversion. 
 
 Centre of Equilibrium of asystem of bodies isapoint 
 such that if the system were suspended from it, the whole 
 would remain in equilibrium. Thus, the fulcrum or point 
 of support of a lever is its centre of equilibrium. 
 
 Centre of Gravity. A term employed in Mechanics 
 to denote a certain point in the interior of a body, or sys- 
 tem of bodies connected with each other in an invariable 
 manner, so situated that any plane whatever which passes 
 through it divides the body into two segments of which 
 the weights are exactly equal. Hence, if the centre of 
 gravity of any body or system of bodies be sustained, the 
 whole will remain at rest ; for the weights on both sides of 
 a vertical plane passing through the point of support being 
 equal, the body can have no tendency to angular motion. 
 
 Let there be a system of bodies A, B, C, D, E, placed 
 horizontally in the same straight line, 
 
 S A B O C D E 
 
 and connected with each other in an invariable manner ; 
 and suppose O to be the centre of gravity of the system : 
 by the definition of the centre of gravity, if the system is 
 supported at O, the weights on both sides of O, or the ef- 
 fort which the bodies make to tum about that point on op- 
 posite sides of O, will exactly counterbalance each other, 
 and the whole will remain at rest. But the effect of A in 
 taming the system about O depends on the quantity of 
 matter in A, and its distance from O, or the length of the 
 arm of the lever at the extremity of which it acts. The 
 whole effect of the body A is therefore proportional to the 
 mass of A multiplied into the length of the line O A. The 
 same reasoning obviously applies to each of the other bo- 
 dies, B, C, D, and E ; consequently, taking these letters to 
 represent the masses of the bodies respectively, we have, 
 by the definition, 
 
 A O A + B O B = C O C + DO D + E O E. 
 
 Now suppose it were required to determine from this pro- 
 perty the position of the centre of gravity of the united bo. 
 dies, or its distance from a given point S in the same 
 straight line : on making SAeo, S B = 6, S C = c, 8D 
 = d, S E z=e, and the unknown distance SO = x, we shall 
 haveOA=i-a,0 B = r-J,OC=c-i,OD = (i-*, 
 and OE = ( — x. Therefore by substitution, 
 
 K(.x — a)+B(x — 6) = C(c — *) + D(d— i) + E(e- x); 
 and by transposition, 
 (A+B+C + D + E)x=aA-f6B + cC + dD + eE; 
 
 sA+JB+cC+dD+eE. 
 
 whence * = A+B-t-C + D + E > 
 
 that is to say, the distance of the centre of gravity of the 
 given system from a given point is equal to the sum of the 
 products of all the masses into their distances from the 
 point divided by the sum of the masses. 
 
 It is obvious, from the equation now given, that the effect 
 of all the bodies to produce motion about the point S, is 
 the same as if they were all united in their common centre 
 of gravity O. It is also obvious that the form of the equa- 
 tion will be exactly the same, whatever may be the num- 
 ber of bodies belonging to the system ; and as every body 
 may be regarded as composed of elementary particles, 
 the reasoning which applies to a system of particles, con- 
 
 208 
 
 s 
 
 
 r 
 
 1, 
 
 !•' 
 
 L r 
 
 
 
 
 ~T 
 
 
 . -^ 
 
 S 
 
 ^± 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 CENTRE OF GRAVITY. 
 
 nected with one another in an invariable manner, also ap- 
 plies to solid bodies of any kind. 
 
 The bodies composing the system have been supposed 
 to be arranged in a straight line ; but the centre of gravity 
 will be found precisely in the same manner, whatever 
 their relative situations may be. Suppose them to be sit- 
 uated all in the same plane, and that their centre of gravity 
 is O, the position of which it is required to find. Let P Q 
 be any straight line, in the same plane 
 with the bodies, passing throus:!! O; 
 then in order that there may be no 
 tendency to motion about the line 1' 
 Q, the sum of the products of ajl the 
 bodies on one side of P Q into their 
 respective distances from that line, 
 must be equal to the sum of the pro- 
 ducts of all the bodies on the other 
 side of P Q into their respective dis- 
 tances. If. therefore, S T be a straight line parallel to P Q. 
 and if the distances of A, B, C, &c. from S T, be denoted 
 respectively by a, b, c, &c, and the distance of O from 
 the same line by x, then we shall have as before, 
 aA + 6B-fcC + &c . 
 * — A + B + C -f <fcc. ' 
 This does not yet give us the centre of gravity ; but it gives 
 its distance from a given straight line S T, and consequent- 
 ly gives the position of the straight line P Q, in which the 
 centre of gravity is situated. If then we draw another 
 line S' T', and denote its distances from A, B, C, <fec, by 
 a', b', c', &c, respectively, and put x' equal to its distance 
 O Q, from O, we shall have 
 
 / a' A + b' B + c' C + &c. . 
 x — A + B + C + &C. ' 
 and consequently the position of another straight line P' Q' 
 passing through the centre of gravity, and parallel to S'T'. 
 Therefore, the centre of gravity is given by the intersec- 
 tion of the two straight lines P Q and P' Q'. 
 
 Lastly, suppose the bodies composing the system not to 
 be situated all in the same plane. In this case, the situa- 
 tion of each of the given bodies must be referred to three 
 planes given in position ; and it is most convenient to as- 
 sume three planes which intersect each other at right an- 
 gles; one of them horizontal, and consequently the other 
 two vertical. Let the distances of the given bodies A, B, C. 
 &c. from the given horizontal plane be respectively a, b, e, 
 &c. ; their distances from one of the vertical planes a', b', 
 c', &c. ; and from the other, a", b", c", &c. ; then, if we 
 take 
 
 aA-f-6B+cC + &c. 
 x — A+B+C+&C ' 
 the centre of gravity is in a horizontal plane, at the dls 
 tance x from the given horizontal plane. 
 
 , a' A + A' 11 -f c' C + <fcc. 
 
 Take also x' = A + B + C + &c. — , and the cen- 
 
 tre of gravity is in a plane parallel to the first of the two 
 given vertical planes, and distant from it by the line x". 
 
 In the intersection of these two planes, take a point 
 distant from the second vertical plane by a quantity x" — 
 
 a"A + 6"B + c"C + &c. , v , 
 
 . , y, . q ■ & : this point will be the centre 
 
 of gravity of the given bodies. 
 
 In the notation of the differential calculus, these formu- 
 las are expressed as follows : — Let dm be the element of 
 the mass, the co-ordinates of which, referred to three rec- 
 tangular planes, area:, y, z; and let the distances of the 
 centre of gravity of the mass from the same planes be re- 
 spectively X, Y, Z; then the position of that centre is do 
 termined by the three equations : 
 
 ■y Pxdm y fydm ~ fzdm 
 
 */ m «/ m J tn 
 
 The determination of the centre of gravity of solids In 
 general requires the application of the integral calculus, 
 and is sometimes effected with considerable labour; there 
 are, however, many particular cases in which it is known 
 immediately, and requires no calculation. Thus, the cen- 
 tre of gravity of a sphere or ellipsoid is evidently at the 
 centre of the figure ; that of a parallelopiped is at the com 
 mon intersection of its four diagonals ; that of a cylinder 
 with parallel ends at the middle of its axis. The centre 
 of gravity of a circle or ellipse is also at the centre of the 
 figure; and that of a parallelogram at the intersection of 
 its diagonals. The centre of gravity of a straight line is at 
 the middle of the line, whence we easily find that of the 
 perimeter of any polygon. "When the body can be divi- 
 ded into two parts, their common centre of gravity may 
 be found by dividing the distance between the centres of 
 gravity of the two parts in the reciprocal proportion of their 
 weights. This principle may be extended to bodies which 
 are more complex. Thus the centre of gravity of two por- 
 tions being determined, they may be conceived to be unl 
 
CENTRE OF GYRATION, AND OF OSCILLATION. 
 
 ted in that point, and connected with a third portion, and 
 the centre of the three portions found. All these again 
 may be supposed collected in this last point, and made to 
 balance against a fourth position, and their common cen- 
 tre of gravity computed. In this way the process may by 
 successive steps be carried to any extent, and whatever 
 order is followed the result will be always the same." 
 (Leslie's Elements of Nat. Phil. ) 
 
 The centre of gravity of a triangle is in tt straight line 
 drawn from any one of its angles to bisect the opposite side, 
 and at die distance of two-thirds of the whrle line from the 
 vertex. The centre of gravity of a pyramii ;s in the straight 
 line drawn from the vertex to the centre of gravity of the 
 and at three-fourths of the distance of this line from 
 the vertex. The centre of gravity of a hemisphere is in 
 r, and at the distance of five-eighths of the ra- 
 dius from the summit 
 The centre of gravity of irregular bodies may be found 
 v in various ways, if the body be poised in 
 two different positions on a sharp edge, the vertical drawn 
 from tin' point <>f intersection will pass through the centre 
 of gravity. Or if a loose thread or string have its ends fast- 
 ened to two distinct points of the K udy, and the body bo 
 thus suspended in two different positions from a fixed 
 point, the verticals let fall from this •till cross in the centre 
 of gravity. 
 
 It is a remarkable property of the centre of gravity, that 
 if a plane figure be generated by the revolution of a given 
 line, or a solid by the revolution of a given plane figure, the 
 area in the first case, or the volume in the second, is equal 
 to the product of the generating quantity into the length of 
 the lio .f gravity. This property, 
 
 which is frequently of use in determining the quadrature 
 of curves and tlie cubaturc of solids, is called Gutdin's 
 theorem ; though it is found in the Collections 0/ Pappus. 
 
 Another elegant geometrical property of the centre of 
 gravity is, that in any given plane the sum of the squares 
 of the distance! of any number of physical points from their 
 common centre of gravity, is less than the sum of the squares 
 of their distances from any point in the circumference of 
 a circle described about that centre, by the square of the 
 radius multiplied by the number of those points. Hence 
 it follows that the sum of the squares of the distances of 
 any number of points from their common centre of gravity 
 is always B minimum. 
 
 For a complete explanation of the method of applying 
 
 the calculus to the determination of the centre of gravity 
 
 . we refer to the Traile de Mecanique of Poisson, 
 
 torn. i. The subject necessarily occupies a part of every 
 
 work OD sialics. 
 
 Ckhtre op Gyration of a body, or system of bodies, Is 
 a point in which, if the whole mass were collected, a force 
 applied at any distance from the axis of suspension would 
 communicate to the mass thus collected the same angular 
 velocity that it would have communicated to the system in 
 ltd first condition. 
 
 It is evident from the definition that the point in question 
 must have this property, that if the whole mass were united 
 in it, the moment of inertia, or the power of resisting the 
 effort of any force, will be the same as the moment of in- 
 ertia of the body in its first slate. Let, therefore, 
 A, B, and C be a system of bodies, connected in 
 an invariable manner, and turning about an axis P. 
 Let a, I), and c be the respective distances of A, B, 
 and C from P ; and conceive X to be another body 
 placed at a distance x from the axis, such that its 
 moment of inertia Is equal to the moment of iner- 
 tia of A. Then, by the principles of mechanics, 
 the moment of inertia of A is A-a*, am./ that of X 
 is Xx* ; therefore, by hypothesis, Xr' = A a*. 
 In like manner, conceive another body Y to be placed at 
 the distance x from the axis, such that its moment of in- 
 ertia is equal to that of B, or such that Y-x' = B-b* ; and 
 a third body Z be placed at the same point, such that Zt' 
 ss C-c*. Taking the sums of these equals we have (X -f 
 Y + Z) x' = A a* + B.6' + Cc'. Now in this equation 
 we are at liberty to give either to X + Y + Z or to x any 
 value we please. Let us then suppose X + Y + Z = A 
 •+■ B+ C (which is evidently the same as supposing all the 
 matter in the svstem united at the point whose distance is 
 r), and we shall have 
 
 x— / Aa* + B-6« + C-c» \j 
 ~ \ A + B + C / 
 
 to express the distance of the centre of gyration from the 
 axis. 
 
 Cbntrk op Oscillation is that point in a body, oscil- 
 fating about a fixed axis, into which, if the whole mass 
 *ere collected, the body would vibrate through a given 
 ingle by the force of gravity in the same time as in its first 
 condition. 
 
 In order to find the point having this property, conceive 
 the weights A, B, and C fixed to a slender inflexible rod, 
 vibrating about the point 8, the centre of oscillation being 
 209 
 
 atO. In every position of the system, the tangents to the 
 arcs which the bodies respectively describe make equal 
 angles with the horizon ; consequently the bodies 
 are all urged by the same proportion of the total 
 force of gravity. But if the bodies had not been 
 connected with each other, their descent through 
 Jg similar arcs. A E, B F, C H. in the same interval 
 of time, would require the accelerating forces to 
 | F be proportional to those arcs, or to S A, S B, s- 
 C. Let S O, therefore, represent the accelerat 
 ing force atO; then AO and B O will denoK 
 the excess of the force by which A and If ar< 
 respectively accelerated, and C O th 
 of the force by which C is retarded. But the effects ■>! 
 these forces on the motion of the system must he propor- 
 tional to the weights of the bodies; and by the principles 
 of the lever, they must also be proportional to the respei 
 tive distances of the bodies from the point of suspension. 
 They are consequently represented by A • S A • A O, II • S 
 B • B O, and C • S C • C O. But the accelerating action al 
 the centre O must necessarily be equal to that of retarda- 
 tion ; consequently ASAAO + BSBBO = CSC- 
 C O. Now let 8 A = a, S B = b, 8 C = c, and S O =/, 
 and the equation becomes by substitution A • a ( f — a) -f- 
 B • b If— b) = C • c (c — /), or (A • n + B • 6 -f C • c)/ 
 = A • a* + B • 6' + C • c* ; whence 
 
 / = 
 
 A • a* + B • 0« + C • c 
 A-o + B-6 + C-c 
 
 that is to say, the distance of the centre of oscillation from 
 the point of suspension, or the length of the simple pendu- 
 lum which vibrates in the same time with the compound 
 body, is found by taking the sum of the products of the 
 weights into the squares of their distances from the axis of 
 the pendulum, and dividing this sum by the sum of the 
 products of the weights into their distances simply. 
 
 Though the system has here been supposed to be formed 
 of separate bodies, the principle is universal, and applies 
 to bodies of any form. Let d m represent an element of 
 the body, and x its distances from the point of suspension, 
 
 fx*dm 
 *•»/« /x dm' 
 
 It may be remarked, that the denominator A • a + B • A 
 + C • c is equal to (A + B + C) ■ S G, the point G being 
 the centre ofgravity of the bodies. Now if we denote the 
 distances of A, it. and C from the centre ofgravity a by 
 a, ff, y respectively, and make 8 G = A, we shall have a 
 z=h — a, 6 = A — /?. and c = h + y ; whence by involution 
 and substituting in the numerator, anil observing that A a 
 + B (i — C y = 0. we shall find A • n« + B • 6' + U. e* 
 = h*(k + B-r-C)+A-a' + B /?*+ C • y* ; therefoie 
 since OG = SO — SG =/— h, 
 
 O G = A-^ + B-jg'-rrC-y' 
 (A + B + C) 8 G 
 
 an equation which gives the distance of the centre of oscik 
 lation from the centre ofgravity. 
 
 This last equation indicates a very remarkable property 
 of the centre of oscillation. As the two quantities OG and 
 S 6 may change places without disturbing the equality, it 
 follows that the centre of oscillation and the point of sus- 
 pension are interchangeable ; in other words, if the system 
 were suspended from O, it would vibrate exactly in the 
 same time as when suspended from 8. This property was 
 noticed by Huygens, and was first practically applied to the 
 purpose of finding the length of the seconds' pendulum by 
 Captain Kater. The application is made as follows : — Let 
 a bar of iron, for example, about four feet long, be sus- 
 pended from a point A, at the distance of four or five inches 
 from one of its extremities, and observe the number of vi- 
 brations it makes in a given time. Then suspend it from 
 another point B, near its other extremity, and let the point 
 of suspension B be moved backwards or forwards till it 
 makes exactly the same number of vibrations in agiven time 
 as when suspended from A. Then the distance between 
 A and B is the length of the isochronous simple pendu- 
 lum. 
 
 On comparing the three expressions for the centre of 
 gravity, the centre of gyration, and the centre of oscillation, 
 it will be seen that the distance of the centre of gyration 
 from the axis is a mean proportional between the distances 
 of the centres ofgravity and oscillation. 
 
 The method of determining the centre of oscillation of 
 compound pendulums was first, given by Huygens in his 
 celebrated work Horologium Oscdlatorium. His demon- 
 stration, however, was founded on an indirect principle, 
 which was rather assumed than proved. It consists in 
 this, that if several weights attached in any manner to an 
 inflexible rod or pendulum descend by the action ofgravi- 
 ty, and if at any instant they were detached or disengaged 
 from each other, each of them, in virtue of the velocity it 
 had acquired during its descent, would mount to such a 
 height that the common centre of gravity of all of them 
 O 
 
CENTRIFUGAL. 
 
 would reach exactly the same height as that from which it 
 descended. The first direct demonstration on the princi- 
 ple of the lever was given by James Bernoulli, in the 
 Memoirs of the Academy of Paris for 1703. An interesting 
 history of this problem may be found in the first volume of 
 Lagrange's Mecanique Analytique. 
 
 Centre op Percussion. The point in a solid body, 
 or system of bodies, into which, if the whole matter were 
 supposed to be collected, the effect produced by striking 
 against another body would be the greatest possible ; or 
 it may be defined to be the point in the axis of a moving 
 body at which, if stopped by an immoveable obstacle, the 
 ody would rest in equilibrio, without inclining to either 
 
 de, or acting on the centre of suspension. 
 
 When the percutient body revolves about a fixed axis, 
 the centre of percussion is at the same point with the 
 centre of oscillation ; but when it moves with a parallel 
 motion, the centre of percussion is the same as the centre 
 of gravity. 
 
 Centre op Pressure, of a fluid against, a surface, is 
 that point at which if a force were applied equal to the 
 pressure, and acting in an opposite direction, the surface 
 would remain at rest. 
 
 Centre op Rotation. The point about which a body 
 circulates. It is the same as the centre of motion. 
 
 Centre of Spontaneous Rotation. The name first 
 applied by John Bernoulli to the point about which a body, 
 all whose parts are at liberty to move, and which has been 
 struck in a direction not passing through the centre of 
 gravity, begins to turn. 
 
 CENTRI'FUGAL. (Lat. centrum, and fugio, I retreat.-) 
 A term employed in describing the inflorescence of plants, 
 when, in a head of flowers, the central one opens first, and 
 those of the circumference last. It is also used by car- 
 pologists in describing seeds when the apex of an embryo 
 is turned away from the centre of a fruit. 
 
 CENTRI'FUGAL FORCE. The force by which a body 
 in rotation tends to recede from the centre of motion : 
 Centripetal Force, that by which a body in motion is 
 urged towards a centre, and compelled to describe a 
 curve instead of a straight line. See Central Force. 
 
 CENTRI'FUGAL MACHI'NE. A machine moved by 
 the centrifugal force of water; frequently called, from its 
 inventor, Barker's Mill. It consists of a hollow metal cy- 
 linder or pipe of metal placed upright, and resting on a 
 pointed steel pivot at A. The pipe is widened or extended 
 into a funnel shape at the top B, and is kept in its position 
 by a vertical steel axis C D, passing through a frame at the 
 top. Towards the lower extremity, two or more small 
 pipes A E, A F, with closed external ends, are inserted at 
 right angles to the axis. In the side of each of these an 
 orifice is made as near as possible to the end, and on oppo- 
 site sides, so that water from them may spout horizontally 
 in opposite directions. Water is con- 
 veyed into the funnel at the top, through 
 the pipe G, in such quantities that the 
 tube is kept constantly full, while the 
 discharge is going on at the orifice near 
 the extremities of the horizontal pipes. 
 In this state of things the resistance or 
 reaction generated by the water issuing 
 from the side holes is such as to throw 
 the vertical pipe, with its arms and 
 axis, into rapid rotatory motion ; and 
 this axis may communicate its motion 
 or power to wheelwork or machinery, 
 or to a mill-stone connected with its 
 upper end. (See Library of Useful Knowledge, '• Treatise 
 on Hydraulics ;" also Ferguson's Lectures, by Brewster; 
 or Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia, " Hydrostatics and 
 Pneumatics.") A machine of the same construction, but 
 having the arms at the upper end, and turned rapidly by 
 means of a wheel and pinion, was invented by a Mr. Ers- 
 kine for raising water. Centrifugal Machine is also used 
 synonymously with Whirling Machine. 
 
 CENTRI'NG. See Centering. 
 
 CENTRI'PETAL. (Lat. centrum, and peto, Iseek. ) A 
 term employed in describing the inflorescence of plants, 
 when in the unfolding of a head of flowers, those at the 
 circumference open first, and those in the centre last. It 
 is also used by carpologists in describing seeds when the 
 apex of an embryo is directed towards the centre of a 
 fruit. 
 
 CENTRI'SCUS. (Gr. Kcvrpts, aspine.) Agenus of Acan- 
 thopterygious fishes, having the foremost dorsal placed 
 far backwards, and with its first spine remarkable for its 
 length and strength ; the mouth is slender and elongated, 
 whence they have obtained the name of "sea-snipes." 
 
 CE'NTRUM. (Gr. Ktvrpov, centre.) A term applied 
 by Fries technically to designate the typical division of 
 the groups of species and genera, in his circular arrange- 
 ment of Fungi. Many generic names are compounded, 
 having this word for their root, as Ccntrogaster, Centroto- 
 phus, Centropristis, and Centronotut, all genera of spiny- 
 210 
 
 CEPHALO-THORAX. 
 
 finned fishes ; Centropus, a genus of birds, allied to tht 
 cuckoos, &c. 
 
 CENTU'MVIRI. In Ancient History, Roman judges 
 chosen three from each of the thirty-five tribes, so that 
 properly there were 105; but they were called cenhimviri. 
 or the hundred, from the round number. The principal 
 causes that came under them were those concerning tes- 
 taments and inheritances. In the time of Augustus they 
 formed the council of the praetor ; but afterwards their 
 number was increased to 180, and they were divided into 
 four councils, which, however, were sometimes combined 
 into two courts, or even into one. Ten persons (decemviri) 
 were appointed, five senators and five equites, to assemble 
 these councils and preside in them in the absence of the 
 praetor. 
 
 CE'NTURIES. (Lat. centuriaj.) In Ancient History, 
 the divisions in which the Roman people voted at the 
 Comitia Centuriata. They were instituted by Servitis 
 Tullius for the purpose of throwing political power into the 
 hands of the plebeians. The patricians were represented 
 by six centuries of knights, and twelve centuries of knights 
 were added to these from the plebeians. The rest of the 
 plebeians and clients were divided into five classes, accord- 
 ing to the amount of their property ; the lower limits of 
 each being respectively 100,000, 75,000, 50,000, 25,0^0, 12,- 
 500 asses. The first of these, classes was subdivided into 
 eighty centuries ; the next three into twenty each; and the 
 last into thirty. The centuries of each class were again 
 separated into two equal numbers of old and young. By 
 this distribution the preponderance was given to property, 
 though the rich classes were of course outnumbered by 
 the poorer. Besides these centuries there were divisions 
 in other bodies that went by the same name, as in the army 
 half a maniple was called a century. 
 
 CENTU'RION. In Ancient History, an officer in the 
 Roman army, who had the command of half a maniple, or 
 one sixtieth part of a legion. The word centurion signifies 
 the commander of 100 men ; but this number was in fact 
 seldom complete, as the legion generally fell far short of 
 its full complement. One of the two centurions of each 
 maniple had a precedence before the other ; and the cen- 
 turion of the first century of the first maniple of the Tria- 
 rians presided overall the others, and had the charge of 
 the eagle or chief standard of the legion, which gave him 
 the privilege of ranking with the knights. The badge of a 
 centurion was a vine rod. 
 
 CEPHALA'NTHIUM. (Gr. jcs^aXij, the head, and tyOoi, 
 a flower.) A term invented by Richard to express the 
 head or capitate inflorescence of a composite plant. 
 
 CEPHA'LIC. (Gr. Kityn.\r\, the head.) Medicines used 
 for the relief of diseasesof the head are frequently termea 
 cephalic remedies. 
 
 CEPHALI'TIS. Inflammation of the brain, 
 
 CEPHALO'DIUM. (Gr. *t0aXij, ahead.) In Botany, ; 
 term used by systematic writers on lichens, and signifying 
 the figure of a convex shield without an elevated rim : it it 
 called also a tuberculum. 
 
 CE'PHALO'PHORA. (Gr. kc6u\v, the head, and <pt(tu. 
 I bear.) A name substituted by lie Blainville in hissysteu. 
 of Malacology for the " Cephalopoda" of Cuvier. 
 
 CEPHA'LOPODS, Cephalopoda. (Gr. KC<pa\ti, the head. 
 and irovs, the foot.) A class of Molluscous animals hevin;, 
 the head situated between the body and the feet; ther.< 
 latter organs consist of a number of fleshy processes 
 which project forwards from the circumference of t!i; 
 head, and more or less conceal the mouth. The Cepha 
 lopods are the first class of Mollusca in the system of Cuvier, 
 and the most highly organized of invertebrate animals 
 They alone present indubitable rudiments of an internal 
 skeleton, developed for the purpose of protecting a brain 
 and lodging organs of sight, and, in most of the existing 
 species, organs of hearing. In these also there are dis- 
 tinct hearts, both for the systemic and pulmonary circu- 
 lations ; and highly complicated digestive, secretory, respi- 
 ratory, and generative organs. The sexes are in distinct 
 individuals. All the species are marine. The principal 
 features of the organization of this class of Invertebrata 
 are described by Aristotle, and their habits were better 
 understood by that ancient author than by modern natu 
 ralists of the present day. The Cephalopods are described 
 and grouped together in the Historia Animalium, under 
 the name of " Malakia." 
 
 CE'PHALOTA'CEjE. (Cephalotus, the only genus.) 
 A small natural order of Exogens, allied, according to 
 Labillardiere, to Rosacea, according to Brown to Fran- 
 coacem and Crassulacem. Its affinity appears, however, to 
 be greater with Dionea than with the previous orders. II 
 consists of a single species, with pitcher like bodies mixed 
 with its leaves ; it is' a marsh plant inhabiting New Hoi 
 land. 
 
 CE'PHALO THORAX. (Gr. xs<pa\n, the head, ard 
 ■SoipaJ, the chest.) The first segment of Arachnidans and 
 Crustaceans, which includes the head and thorax of in 
 sect's 
 
CEPOLA. 
 
 CE'POLA. (Der. unknown.) The name of a genus of 
 spiny-finned fishes, including the common riband-fish (Ce- 
 rubescens) of the British coasts. 
 CERA'CEU8. (Lat. cera, tcax.) In Botany, waxy. 
 Applied to the substance of such bodies as have the texture 
 and colour of new wax, as the pollen masses of particular 
 kinds of Orchis. 
 CE'ltAMBY'CIDiE. A family of Capricorn beetles, 
 rized by antennas generally exceeding the length 
 •>f the body; a large and distinct labium; strong horny 
 mandible* ; maxilla: terminated by two distinct hairy lobes ; 
 mcy-shaped, with the antenna? situated in the con- 
 cavity ; body generally long and narrow. The numerous 
 insects of this vegetable-feeding family are arranged in 
 many subgenera, of which the following are indigenous : 
 Acuntlwemus, iljifiifm iMWlfll. CalluHum. Ceratnbyx, Clytus, 
 Lamia, mus, Obrium, Pogonocherus, 
 
 and Stenopterus. One of the most remarkable 
 i I' our country is the musk-beetle (Ct-umbyx mos- 
 chaltis of Linnaeus, Callichrotna of Latreille), which, when 
 alive, disseminates an odour resembling sometimes that 
 
 ■j( III'' IlltO Of !• 
 
 CE'RASIN. Cherry-tree gum. A generic name given 
 ''i those kinds of gum which swell and soften, but do not 
 reariilv dissolve in water. 
 
 CERA'STES. (Or. xtpaf, a horn.) The name of a ge- 
 nus of poisonous serpents, characterized by having a 
 pointed recurved horny process standing up over each 
 eye : the horned vipers, as they are termed, are peculiar 
 
 I :ra. 
 
 CK'RATE. (Gr. *rjoo{, or Lat. cera, icax.) An oint- 
 i' rail v compounded of wajtand oil or spermaceti. 
 CERAT1UM. (Gr. Ktpae, a horn.) A one-celled, na- 
 il, superior'linear fruit; dehiscent by two valves 
 separating from the replum ; the seeds attached to two 
 spoon placenta? adhering to the replum, and alternate 
 with the lobes of the sligma. It differs from the Siliqua in 
 the lobes of the stigma being alternate with the placenta, 
 not opposite. 
 
 CE'RATOPHYLLA'CEjE. (CeratopbvUmn, the only 
 penus ) A small natural order of Exogens, allied, accord- 
 mi t<> Kichard, to Coni/em, but to which it seems to have 
 no kind of affinity. According to De Candolle it should be 
 par Hippuria and Myriojihylium, from which it 
 iperior ovary; according to Agardh it be- 
 Flvxituet: it3 affinity, however, appears to be 
 I rticocece, of which it may be regarded as a 
 •ion. The order consists but of one genus, which 
 is found in the ditches of Europe, being constantly sub- 
 and floating with its long green leaves after the 
 i: .inner of a Conferva. The embryo appears to be deci- 
 dedly Polycotyledonous ; otherwise the plant would cer- 
 tainly be referred to Xaiodacea. 
 
 CERATO'PHYTES. Ceralophyta. (Gr xtpac. a horn, 
 and AvTov. a plant.) A name applied by Cuvier to a fami- 
 iiiriferous Polyps, comprehending those in which 
 the internal axis resembles horn or wood. 
 CE'RATRIN. The bitter principle of Iceland moss. 
 CE'RBERUS. In Mythology, a monster usually repre- 
 sented as the guardian of the entrance to the infernal re- 
 gions, and described by the ancient authors as possessing 
 tiftv, or even a hundred heads. 
 CERCATUjE. (Gr. xtOKOt, a tail.) A family of Infu- 
 soria, havinn an enlarged body with a slender tail-like ap- 
 
 The body of the true Cercaria of vi 
 InfiiMores is rounded, that of the Zoosperms or animal- 
 cules of the seminal secretion is flattened. .See Zoo- 
 
 SPEDME8. 
 
 CERCOTPIDJE. See Cicadellans. 
 
 CE'RCOPITHE'CUS. (Gr. Kcpxos. a tuil, and 5ti0ijxo{, 
 an ape.) The name of the genus of Quadrumanes, inclu- 
 ding those which have long tails, tut not prehensile ; or 
 innkeys" of the old world. 
 
 CERE. (Lat. cera, tear.) In Ornithology, the naked 
 i rally coloured skin which covers the base of the 
 hill in some birds, as in those of the hawk tribe (Falcon- 
 itln . ) 
 
 CE'REAL GRASSES. (Lat. ceres, corn.) Grasses 
 which produce the bread corns; such as wheat, rye, bar- 
 lev, onts. maize, rice, and millet. 
 
 CEREBE'LLUM. (Lat. dim. of cerebrum, the brain.) 
 The little brain ; the posterior of the medullary masses 
 tvluch compose the brain of vertebrate animals. It is a 
 wngle orcan. See Brain. 
 
 CERE BRUM. (Lat.) The third medullary mass of 
 the brain, counting from behind forwards ; it is divided in 
 the mesial line into two lateral lobes or hemispheres, and 
 is the only part of the cerebral organ whose development 
 bears relation to the intelligence of the species. 
 
 CEREMO'NIAL OF EUROPEAN POWERS, compri- 
 ses— 1. The particular titles due to sovereigns in different 
 states; the imperial title being considered as expressing 
 some sort of superiority over the royal, and having been 
 in consequence assumed by various kings in their public 
 
 m 
 
 CEROSTROTUM 
 
 acts (as the King of England since the union of the crowns) 
 2. The acknowledgment of sovereign titles, the right tc 
 confer which was formerly claimed by the Popes as theii 
 own prerogative, but they are now assumed by princes, 
 and confirmed by the acknowledgment of other sover- 
 eigns. 3. The respective prerogatives of different sover- 
 eigns ; which species of precedence is that which has oc- 
 casioned the greatest amount of discussion and dispute 
 when sovereigns, or their representatives, have been 
 broughl together. In 1504, Pope Julius 11. arranged the 
 rank of European powers in the following order : 1. The 
 Roman Emperor ; 2. The King of Rome ; 3. France ; 4. 
 Castile ; 5. Aragon ; 6. Portugal ; 7. England ; 8. Sicily ; 9. 
 Scotland ; 10. Hungary ; 11. Navarre ; 12. Cyprus; 13. Bo- 
 hemia ; 14. Poland ; 15. Denmark ; 16. Republic of Venice ; 
 17. Duke of Britanny ; 18. Burgundy; 19. Elector of Bava- 
 ria; 20. Saxony; 21. Brandenburg; 22. Archduke of Aus- 
 tria ; 23. Duke of Savoy ; 24. Grand Duke of Florence ; 25. 
 Duke of Milan ; 26. Bavaria ; «27. Lorraine. This arrange- 
 ment, however, gave birth to repeated contests. At pre 
 sent, whore precedence is not considered as established 
 between rulers of equal dignity, each concedes to the 
 other precedence at home; and when they meet on the 
 lerritory of a third party, they take precedence alternately 
 until some arrangement la effected. 
 
 CE'RE.MOMKS. MASTER OF THE. An officer of the 
 king's household instituted by James I. for the more hon- 
 ourable reception of ambassadors and strangers of quality . 
 it is his duly to attend and regulate all matters of etiquette 
 in the drawing room and the levee, and on all occasions 
 where the slate of a court is to be maintained. 
 
 CEREO'PSIS. The generic name of an Australian 
 goose, characterized by a green cere-like naked membrane 
 covering Ihe upper parts of the base of the bill. It has bred 
 frequently in England, and there is every probability that 
 it will ultimately become naturalized. 
 
 CE'RES. One of the four new or telescopic planets 
 which revolve between Ihe orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It 
 was discovered bv Piazzi on the 1st of January, 1801. Ceres 
 is a very small planet, its apparent diameter, according to 
 Bchroeter, being only 3-48", which at its mean distance 
 correspond! to about 1C00 miles; but according to 8ir W. 
 Herscnel its apparent diameter is only 35", or 160 miles. 
 The difficulty of distinguishing its real disk, on account of 
 the nebulosity by which it is surrounded, accounts for 
 the discrepancy. Its mean distance from the sun is rather 
 more than three limes the distance of the sun from the 
 earth. See Planet. 
 
 Ceres. In Mythology, the Latin goddess correspond- 
 ing io the Grecian Demeter (A^(jri7p), was the patroness 
 of tillage. She was Ihe daughter of Saturn and Rhea, and, 
 by Jupiter, mother of Proserpine. The most remarkable 
 thing connected with this goddess was the celebration of 
 the Eleusinian mvsteries, over which she presided. 
 
 CE'REUS. (Lat. cera, tcax.) In Botany, a colour, sur- 
 face, or texture which resembles lhat of wax. 
 
 CK'RIN. The portion of wax which dissolves in boiling 
 alcohol. Also a peculiar waxy substance obtained by boil- 
 ing grated cork in alcohol. 
 
 CERI'NTHIANS. Followers of Cerinthus, a heretic of 
 the first or second century, who embraced certain gnosti- 
 cal views respecting the natures and relations of God the 
 Father and Son. He conceived the supreme God to be 
 Ihe father or originator both of the Deity from whom pro- 
 ceeded the O. Test: and of Christ; that the God of the 
 Jews was also the creator of this world ; and that his do- 
 minion over it was superseded by the mission of Christ, 
 who was a son of the supreme Deity residing in a human 
 body. See Gnostics. 
 
 CE'RIO. A tei m invented by Murleel to denote the 
 fruit called a Carynpsis, which see. 
 
 CE'RITE. A siheious oxide of cerium. 
 
 CE'RIUM. A metal named after the planet Ceres, and 
 discovered in 1803 by Hisinger and Berzelius in a Swedish 
 mineral termed cente, and since found by Dr. Thomson in 
 Allanite, a mineral from Greenland. It is said to be a 
 white brittle metal, very difficult of fusion, and volatile 
 when intensely heated ; but we are scarcely acquainted 
 with it in its metallic state. Its equivalent number appears 
 to he 48. on the hydrogen scale. 
 
 CE'RINL'S. (Lat. cera, vox.) In Botany, waxy yel- 
 low; a term used in describing colour, to denote a dull 
 yellow with a slight mixture of reddish brown. 
 
 CERO'MA. (Gr. xfiptopa.) hi Ancient Architecture, 
 the apartment in a bath or gymnasium in which persons 
 anointed themselves with a composition of oil and wax. 
 
 CEROPLA'STIC. (Gr. xripos, tcax, and :rXa<rTi<r?! rcx*>)< 
 the. art of the modeller or carver.) The art of modelling in 
 wax, one of very high antiquity. From the testimony of 
 Pliny we learn that Lysistratus, the brother of Lysippus, 
 was the first that used wax for modelling the human fi- 
 gure. He lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and 
 was a native of Sicvon. _ 
 
 CEROSTRO'TU'M, or CESTRO'TI'M. (Gr Ktifiot 
 
CERTPIIA. 
 
 war, and orpuros, spread.) A species of encaustic paint- 
 ing, executed chiefly on horn or ivory with a particular 
 sort of stylum called a cestruin, which was pointed at one 
 end and flat on the other. The cestrum was heated, and 
 with it the lines of the subject were burnt in, and wax in- 
 troduced into the furrows made by the heated instrument. 
 (See Pliny, lib. xi. cap. 37., also lib. xvi. cap. 48. ; also- 
 Saimas. ad Solin. p. 231.) Doors were sometimes orna- 
 mented with this species of painting. Auso?iius, Epigr. 
 26. v. 10.— 
 
 Cerisinurens januarum Uraina, 
 Etatriorum pegmata. 
 
 CE'RTHIA. (Gr. KipOets, part of Ktipoi, 1 clip or shear.) 
 A genus of Anisodactyle or uneven-toed Tenuirbstral or 
 slender-billed Passerine birds, commonly known by the 
 name of Creepers. The common tree-creeper {Certhia 
 familiaris, Linn.) is a well-known native species. 
 
 CE'RTIORATU. In Law, is an original writ issuing out 
 of Chancery or the King's Bench, directed to the judges 
 or officers of inferior courts, commanding them to certify 
 or return the records of a cause depending before them. 
 By this writ indictments and many other proceedings may 
 be removed from any inferior court of jurisdiction into the 
 King's Bench. It lies generally in all judicial proceedings 
 in which a writ of error does not lie ; but not, in common 
 cases, to remove a cause out of an inferior court after 
 verdict. 
 
 CE'RULIN. Indigo which has been dissolved in sul- 
 phuric acid. 
 
 CERU'MEN. (Lat. cera, wax.) The secretion which 
 lines the external auditory canal. It consists of albumen, 
 .in oily matter, a colouring matter, soda, and phosphate of 
 lime. 
 
 CE'RUSE. (Lat. cerussa. ) Carbonate of lead, the basis 
 of white oil-paint. It is commonly called white lead. 
 
 CERVl'NUS. (Lat. cervus, a stag.) In Botany, fawn- 
 coloured. 
 
 CE'RVrX. (Literally the lower part of the neck.) An 
 obsolete botanical term, superseded by that of Rhizoma, 
 which see. 
 
 CE'SSIO BONO'RUM. In the Civil Law (and in the 
 modern jurisprudence of France, Spain, Holland, and 
 Scotland), a yielding up on the part of an insolvent trader 
 of his estate and effects to creditors, under the authority 
 of the competent court ; analogous to the assignment of 
 estate and effects under a fiat in bankruptcy in England. 
 See as to the several regulations respecting the cessio bo- 
 norum in these different countries, Burgees Commentaries 
 en Colonial and Foreign Laics, iii. 890. &c. 
 
 CE'STOI'DEANS, Cestoidea. (Gr. words, embroidered, 
 and ciSos, likeness ; riband like.) The name of an order 
 of Sterelminlha, or Parenchymatous Entozoa, including 
 those which are commonly called tape-worms. 
 
 CESTRA'CE^I. (Cestrum, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, a very small group of plants, most usually com- 
 bined with Solanacea, but by some botanists separated on 
 account of their straight embryo, foliaceous cotyledons, 
 and valvate corolla. Some of the species have fragrant 
 flowers, especially at night ; others emit an unpleasant 
 odour. Some are astringent, others are said to be poi- 
 sonous. 
 
 CESTRA'CION. (Gr. Ktarpaiot, the name of a fish.) 
 In Ichthyology, a genus of sharks, characterized by having 
 two kinds of teeth, disposed in oblique subspiral rows; 
 those at the anterior part of the jaws are pointed, and 
 adapted for seizing or grappling shell-fish, &c. ; those at 
 the middle and back part of the jaws are flattened for 
 crushing the same : the fishes of this genus are also re- 
 markable for the large spine placed in front of the first 
 dorsal fin. Only two existing species of this genus are 
 known, one of which is called "the Port Jackson shark;" 
 the fossil remains of Cestracions are numerous. 
 
 CE'STRUM. (Lat.) In Painting, a tool used by the an- 
 cients in executing the species of pictures called cerostroti. 
 See Cerostrotum. 
 
 CETA'CEANS, Cetacea. (Gr. acjjtoj, a whale.) An or- 
 der of Mammals living in the sea or large rivers, and 
 shaped like fishes for moving habitually in the watery ele- 
 ment, having the posterior part of the spine disencumbered 
 erf a sacrum and hinder extremities to allow the tail to have 
 a due freedom and extent of motion. They breathe air, 
 have warm blood, and a double circulation, Jike the rest 
 of the class to which they belong ; they are consequently 
 compelled to resort to the surface for the purpose of res- 
 piration ; and the tail-fin is accordingly horizontal, and not 
 vertical, as in true fishes. 
 
 CE'TE (Gr. icijroj, awWe.) The name of the sixth 
 order of Mammalia in the Systema Natural of Linnaeus, 
 containing those marine species which are devoid of hind- 
 er extremities. The group corresponds with the carnivo- 
 rous group of the modern Cetacea, the manatee being as- 
 sociated in the Linnaean system with the elephant. 
 
 CE'TIC ACID. The result of the action of alkalis upon 
 eetine. 
 
 212 
 
 CHALLENGE. 
 
 CE'TTNE. Pure spermaceti. 
 
 CE'TUS. (Gr. kijtoj, the whale.) One of Ptolemy'* 
 forty-eight constellations, in the southern hemisphere. 
 
 CEVA'DIC ACID. An acid contained in the seed of 
 the Yeratrum sabadilla. 
 
 CEVADI'LLA. See Sabadilla. 
 
 CE'YLANITE. A mineral found in rounded grains or 
 small crystals, nearly opaque, and cf a dark blue or black 
 colour: it was first observed in the sand of the rivers of 
 Ceylon. 
 
 CHABA'SIE. A variety of zeolite. (From a Greek 
 word signifying a particular kind of stone.) 
 
 CHACO'NE, or C1ACONE. (Spanish.) In Music, a 
 kind of dance resembling a saraband, of Moorish origin. 
 The bass of it consists of four notes, which proceed in 
 conjoint degrees, whereon the harmonies are made with 
 the same burden. Some have derived this dance from 
 cieco, a blind man, its supposed inventor. 
 
 CHAFF. The husk or withered calyx of grasses, and 
 more especially of the bread corns. The term is also ap- 
 plied to straw or hay cut into very short lengths, and used 
 for mixing with corn, roots, or other food for horses or 
 cattle. This kind of chaff, in greater lengths, is also used 
 for mixing with mortar on some parts of the Continent, 
 more particularly in Germany and Russia; and it is used 
 as a substitute for hair in making plaster for rooms. 
 Both stubble and cut hay were used by the ancient Egyp 
 tians in making bricks. 
 
 CHAFF OF THE RECEPTACLE. A term used by 
 some botanists to denote the bracts which are stationed 
 upon the receptacle of Composite flowers, between the 
 florets ; they have generally a membranaceous texture 
 and no colour, and are usually called Pales. 
 
 CHA'FFY, PALEACEOUS. When a surface is co 
 vered with small, weaK, erect memnranous scales, re 
 sembling the chaff of corn, as the receptacle of many 
 Composite plants. 
 
 CHAI'LLETIA'CE-S:. (Chailletia, one of the geneia.;, 
 A natural order of shrubby arborescent Exogens, placed 
 by De Candolle between Homaliacea. and Anuilariacea , 
 agreeing with the former in the presence of glands round 
 the ovary, but differing in its superior ovary, with the pla- 
 centa in the axis, and in many other characters. Its affin- 
 ity, however, appears to be greater with Rhamnaceai, with 
 which it agrees in habit. It inhabits the hotter parts of 
 the world, and some species are said to be poisonous. 
 
 CHALA'ZA. (Gr. x a ^ a $ a i ' n tne sense of aknob.) In 
 Botany, the vascular disk caused by the expansion of the 
 vessels of the raphe, upon reaching the base of the nu- 
 cleus of an ovule, after passing up the side of the latter. 
 
 CHALA'ZjE. (Gr. x a ^ a $ a i hail.) A name applied to 
 the two membranous twisted chords attached to near the 
 poles of the yolk of an egg, and serving to maintain it in 
 such a position that the cicatricula shall always be upper- 
 most, and consequently nearest the source of heat during 
 the process of incubation. 
 
 CHALCE'DONY. A semitransparent silicious mineral, 
 apparently formed by the infiltration of silicious matters 
 originally in a state of solution. It is of various colours, 
 and often banded. The finest specimens are said to have 
 been originally found at Chalcedon in Asia. 
 
 CHAL'CI'DICUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, ac- 
 cording to Festus so named from Chalcis, a city in Eubcea. 
 A term used by Vitruvius to denote a large building appro- 
 priated to the purpose of administering justice, or accord- 
 ing to others the tribunal itself. 
 
 CHALCO'GRAPHY. (Gr. x<*X*°Si brass, and ypafat, 
 I write.) The art of engraving on copper or brass. 
 
 CHA'LDRON. (Lat. chaldarium ; Fr. chaudron,whenco 
 also cauldron.) A measure containing 36 bushels heaped 
 measure. 
 
 CHALK. (Germ, kalk.) Earthy carbonate of lime. It 
 forms an important geological feature of England, the 
 chalk hills which form the white cliffs of the shores hav- 
 ing conferred the name of Albion upon the island. Geo- 
 logically considered, it is an important feature among the 
 secondary rocks. The cretaceous formation is character- 
 ized by peculiar fossils, and especially by containing flints. 
 The ranges of chalk hills in the south of England are very 
 extensive, and the landscape which they constitute pecu 
 liar for the smooth and rounded outline of its hills, their 
 monotony of surface, and the singular cup-shaped conca- 
 vities and deep hollows in which their sides abound. Be- 
 tween Dunstable and Shaftesbury the chalk hills attain an 
 elevation of nearly 1000 feet above the level of the sea. 
 Between Lewes in Sussex and Alton in Hampshire there 
 are several similar elevations. 
 
 CHALK STONES. The concretions formed in the 
 joints of persons who have long suffered from gout were 
 once supposed of a chalky nature, and acquired the above 
 name. They are chiefly composed of uric acid in combi- 
 nation with soda. 
 
 CHA'LLENGE. In Law, an exception to jurors who 
 are returned to serve on a trial. See jury. 
 
CHALYBEATE. 
 
 CHALY'BEATE. (Gr. vaX»0».) The Chalybes were 
 i Scythian people who dug iron. Medicines and mineral 
 waters containing iron are called chalybeate*. 
 
 CHA'MA. (Or. *<!&», I gape.) The cockle. 
 
 t'MAMA'CEANS. (Lat. chamacea.) In Conchology, 
 the family of Acephalous Lamellibranchiate Mollusks, of 
 which the genus (Jhama y or clam-shells, is the type. The 
 group is characterized among bivalves by having the mantle 
 perforated by three apertures ; one for the passage of the 
 foot, another for the respiratory currents, and a third for 
 the escape of the excrements. 
 
 CHAMELEON, Chameleo. (Gr. Kajial\euv, a lizard.) 
 A geims of Saurian reptiles with small tubercular scales, 
 and the tail and feet organized for clinging to the branches 
 iif trees. The chameleons subsist not on air, as poets feign 
 and the uninformed believe, but on flies and other insects, 
 Which are caught by means of a remarkably long ami ex- 
 tensible tongue, terminated by a finger-shaped process like 
 the elephant's proboscis, and which (he chameleon can 
 dart upon its prey with great rapidily. The rete mticosum 
 or coloured layer of the skin contains two kinds of pigment, 
 situated in different layers ; the deeper seated layer is of a 
 deep green or violet red colour, the superficial pigment is 
 of a grayish colour; the deep-seated pigment is contained 
 in branched cavities, and is moveable, producing by its 
 )>.i rtiti accumulation and varying proportions with the su- 
 perficial layer the changes of colour for which the chame- 
 leon has in all ages i n remarkable. 
 
 <II vM.K'I.K.ON MINERAL. A compound of manga- 
 nesic acid and potash, which presents a variety of tints 
 when dleeolTed in water. 
 
 CHA'MBER. (Fr. chambre.) In Architecture, proper- 
 ly a mom faulted or arched ; but now generally used in a 
 more restricted sense to mean an apartment appropriated 
 to lodging. With the French the word has a much more 
 extensive meaning; but with us the almost only use of it, 
 beyond what is above stated, Is as applied in a palace to the 
 room in which the sovereign receives the subject, which 
 <s called the Presence Chamber. 
 
 ClfA'MBERLAlN. (Fr chambellanj Germ, kammer- 
 nerr.) A high officer in all European courts. Originally 
 Me chamberlain was the keeper of the treasure-chamber 
 {camera, in the 10th century); and this meaning of the word 
 I preserved, in the usages of the corporations of I.on- 
 donand other places, where the chamberlain is the officer 
 who keeps the money belonging to the municipal body. 
 But, in modern times, the court officer styled chamberlain 
 nas the charge of the private apartments of the sovereign 
 or noble to whom be is attached. In England, the lord 
 chamberlain, or king's chamberlain, is one of the 
 •hie.' treat officers of the king's household. He has the 
 control of all the officers above stairs, except the precinct 
 •fthe be lchamber, which is under the government of the 
 crnom o' the stole. Under him are the vice-chamberlain, 
 lord oftl.e bedchamber, 4.C. ; the chaplains, officers of the 
 wardrobe, physicians, tradesmen, artizans, and others re- 
 tained in his majesty's service are in his department, and 
 •worn into office by him. He is commonly one of the high- 
 est nobility of the country ; in virtue of his situation he pre- 
 cedes dukes. The emblem of office appropriated to the 
 thamberlain in European courts is a gold key, generally 
 suspended from two gold buttons. 
 
 The Lord Great Chamberlain op England (not of the 
 Household) is the sixth great officer of state. This office 
 ••longed for many centuries to the noble family of De Vere, 
 Earls of Oxford; afterward to that of Bertie, Lords Wil« 
 toughby de Eresby and Dukes of Ancaster. In that line it 
 oecame vested in coheiresses, by whom the present deputy 
 chamberlain (Lord Gwydir) is appointed. 
 
 • lU'MBRE ARDENTE. In French History, a name 
 given to the tribunal which was instituted by Francis I. for 
 the purpose of trying and burning heretics; and also the 
 extraordinary commissions established under Louis XIV. 
 for the examination of prisoners, and under the regent 
 Duke of Orleans against public officers charged with cer- 
 tain offences against the revenues, and those guilty of fraud 
 in the muter of Law's hank. 
 
 CIIVMBRE DES COMPTE3. (Chamber of Accounts.) 
 In French History, a great court established for various 
 purposes ; as for the registration of edicts, ordinances, let- 
 ters patent, treaties of peace, <fcc. The sovereign chambre 
 des comptes was at Paris : there were also inferior courts 
 in ten provincial cilies. 
 
 CIIVMFER. (Fr. chamfrein.) In Architecture, the 
 edge of anythingoriginally right-angled cut aslope or bevel, 
 bo that the plane it then forms is inclined less than a right 
 ang\e to the other planes wilh which it intersects. 
 
 'II \ MOMILE FLOWERS. The flower-heads of the 
 
 A-Uhentis nohilis, or common chamomile. They are used 
 
 in medicine in consequence of their bitter extract, which 
 
 •s strengthening, and of their essential oil, which is aro- 
 
 id rtimulant. 
 
 CHAMP l>R M \RS. In French History, the public as- 
 cemblies of the. Franks, which were held in the open air, 
 213 
 
 CHANCELLOR. 
 
 and annually in the month of March ; from whence the 
 name. Under Pepin and some of his successors they were 
 termed Champs de Mai An extensive open space in Paris, 
 appropriated to various public solemnities, is termed the 
 Champ de Mars ; a name which seems also intended to re- 
 call the ancient Campus Martius, or public field of Rome. 
 CHA'MPERTY. In Law, is a species of maintenance, 
 being a bargain with the plaintiff or defendant in a suit for 
 the "campi partitio," or division of the land or thing in 
 dispute between the party, if he prevails at law, and the 
 champerter, on the latter's bearing the expense of the suit. 
 It is a punishable offence both by common law and by 
 statute. 
 
 CHA'MPION. (From the Italian campione, derived 
 fromcampo, field; or from the ancient Germarf and Gothic 
 kempe, kiempe, a warrior; whence some have derived 
 also the Spanish campeador, a title of the C'id.) One who 
 fights a public combat, or engages to do so, in his own or 
 another man's quarrel. On the issue in a writ of right, trial 
 by batile might formerly be demanded; and In this case 
 (*ee Wager op Battle), each party appeared in the field 
 by his champion. The judicial combat in criminal cases 
 might in some countries, although not in England, be fought 
 by a champion for either of the parties, if an ecclesiastic, 
 woman, or child. The office of champion of the crown of 
 England is of great antiquity ; the manor of Scrivelsby in 
 Lincolnshire having been held from time immemorial in 
 erand serjeantcy, on condition that the lord thereof shall 
 be the king's champion. This manor was long held by the 
 Ikmily of Marmion ; it passed, in the 20th year of Edward 
 I., to the family of Dymocke, in which it has since con- 
 tinued. The champion appears in Westminster Hall at 
 the coronation, between the courses of the royal banquet, 
 incomplete armour; his challenge is proclaimed by the 
 herald, waging battle with any person who shall deny or 
 gainsay the title of the king, t'hree times; and the cham- 
 pion throws down his gauntlet. In 1821. at the coronation 
 of George IV., it was decided that this office could be per- 
 formed by deputy ; and W. Dymocke being in orders, his 
 place was supplied by his elde'st son. 
 
 CH WE. A term applied to events that are supposed 
 to happen without any known or necessary cause ; or ra- 
 ther, of which the cause is such that they may happen in 
 one way as well as another. Thus, when a piece of money 
 is tossed up into the air, as no reason can be given why it 
 should fall on one side rather than on the other, it is said 
 to be an even chance which of the sides shall turn up. For 
 an account of this branch of mathematics, sometimes called 
 the Doctrine of Chances, see Probability. (See De Mor- 
 gan's Theory of Probabilities.) 
 
 CHA'NCEL. (Lat. cancellus.) In Architecture, the 
 part of the choir of a church between the altar and the lat- 
 tices (cancelli) or balustrades that enclose it. This is the 
 strict meaning ; but in many cases the chancel extends 
 much further into the church, the original divisions having 
 been removed for the greater accommodation of the cou 
 gregation. 
 
 CHA'NCELLOR. (Lat. cancellarius.) A high officer in 
 many European states. The cancellarius under the Roman 
 emperors is supposed to have been a notary or scribe, and 
 his title to have been derived from the cancelli or railing 
 behind which he gate. In ecclesiastical matters, every 
 bishop had (and continues to have) his chancellor, the prin- 
 cipal judge of his consistory. The chancellor of France 
 began to be an officer of importance under the Frankish 
 kings, especially after the office of referendary had become 
 merged in his, about the ninth century. In 1223 he was 
 made the first minister of the crown, and rank next after 
 the princes of the blood was assigned to him. The offices 
 of chancellor and keeper of the seals were frequently 
 united. 
 
 Chancellor, Arch, op the Empire. This office, under 
 the elective empire of Germany, belonged to the arch- 
 bishop elector of Mentz. The archbishop of Cologne was 
 titular arch-chancellor of Italy, the archbishop of Treves 
 of Gaul and Arlea. 
 
 Chancellor op a Diocese. The keeper of the seals 
 of an archbishop or bishop. This office now includes those 
 of official principal, whose duty is to hear and decide mat- 
 ters of temporal cognizance determinable in the bishop's 
 court; and vicar-general, who exercises the jurisdiction 
 properly spiritual. 
 
 Chancellor op the Exchequer. The highest finance 
 ministerof the British government. This office is from its 
 nature necessarily entrusted to a commoner, and is com- 
 monly united to that of first lord of the treasury when the 
 premier happens to be below the peerage. The chancel- 
 lor, as an officer of the Court of Exchequer, has precedence 
 above the barons of that court. 
 
 Chancellor op a University. The head of the cor- 
 porate bodies by whom he is elected. He exercises exclu- 
 sive jurisdiction in all civil actions and suits where a mem- 
 ber of the university or privileged person is one of the par- 
 ties, except in cases where the right to freehold is concerned 
 
CHANCELLOR, CHANCERY. 
 
 The duties of the respective chancellors of Oxford and 
 Cambridge are in nearly all cases discharged by a vice- 
 chancellor. 
 
 Chancellor, Chancery. The office of chancellor is 
 the most ancient as well as the highest of all judicial olii- 
 cus in England ; for though tiie superior antiquity of 
 his jurisdiction has been questioned, the establishment of 
 the office itself was certainly prior to the institution of any 
 existing court of justice, the name as well as some of the 
 functions, which were borrowed from the '•cancellarii" of 
 the later Roman emperors, having been introduced into 
 the country within the first three centuries that followed 
 the dissolution of the Western Empire. 
 
 In addition to his judicial functions, which are various 
 and extensive, the chancellor is now by virtue of his office 
 privy councillor, and when a peer, speaker of the House of 
 Lords ; over all the members of which, with the excep- 
 tion of the archbishop of Canterbury, he then has prece- 
 dence in lank. As chief conservator of the peace, he has 
 the nomination of all magistrates throughout the kingdom; 
 •and he is the patron of all livings of the crown under the 
 value of twenty marks in the king's books, lie has also 
 the right of appointment to almost all the offices in the Court 
 of Chancery, particularly to the office of master ; and has 
 very great influence over the appointment of any of the 
 other judges both of common law and equity. He still re- 
 tains also the title of keeper of the king's conscience, a duty 
 originally incident to his situation in the king's chapel, over 
 the service of which he presided ; and this office may per- 
 haps have afforded a ground for that part of his jurisdic- 
 tion which professes to remedy what is contrary to equity 
 and good conscience. It is further his duty to issue the 
 writs for the convocation of parliament ; and all acts there 
 passed, as well as many records and documents affecting 
 the rights of individuals, — as to the latter in order to their 
 validity, — are enrolled and kept in chancery, under the im- 
 mediate care and custody of the master of the rolls, him- 
 self an officer of that court. The custody of the great seal 
 is the peculiar and essential mark of the chancellor's dig- 
 nity ; and by delivery of that and the proper oaths taken the 
 office is created, with all such of its rights as can be exer- 
 cised by a chancellor not being a peer. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the chancellor is of various sorts. And, 
 first, as to his common law jurisdiction. By this is meant 
 that part of the chancellor's jurisdiction which is regulated 
 by the same principles, and exercised according to similar 
 forms, as the«jurisdiction of the other courts of common 
 law. This is by far the most ancient branch of the chan- 
 cery judicature, and seems to have been originally incident 
 to the nature of the chancellor's office, whose chief busi- 
 ness it was to advise the sovereign on the subject of grants, 
 charters, and letters patent, and to authenticate them by af- 
 fixing the great seal after the introduction of that symbol. 
 Out of this naturally arose a jurisdiction in all matters be- 
 tween the crown and its grantees, and the right to repeal or 
 cancel all grants, charters, and letters patent, which should 
 afterwards appear to be contrary to law, or in other re- 
 spects improperly obtained. In like manner the chancel- 
 lor had jurisdiction in other matters arising out of commis- 
 sions under the great seal ; such as returns made in pur- 
 suance of inquiries under such commissions as to the right 
 of the crown to goods or lands of the subject either by es- 
 cheat, forfeiture, or any other cause ; these were legally 
 called offices. 
 
 To the same court also belonged originally, in the time 
 of feudal tenures, jurisdiction in the case of wardship, and 
 some other matters arising out of such tenures between 
 the crown and its tenants in capite ; but it should be ob- 
 served, that as this court has not the power of summoning 
 a jury, it can in no case try an issue of fact. It is called 
 the Court of the Petty Bag, literally from the size of the 
 hag in which its writs are deposited. To the common law 
 department of chancery belongs also the issuing of origi 
 nal writs; that is to say, precepts addressed to the party 
 complained of, stating the nature of the complaint made 
 against him, requiring him to do justice to it, or show cause 
 to the contrary ; such writs being originally the first and a 
 necessary step in all causes which were tried before either 
 of the great courts, or in the "aula regia," before its divi- 
 sion into separate courts. 
 
 In this department of his office the chancellor was as- 
 sisted by officers named cursitors, whom he was empow- 
 ered to nominate for that purpose, and upon whom the 
 whole business of devising writs soon devolved. The 
 chancery has hence been called OfficinaBrevium, or work- 
 shop of writs; and it is, or was, in respect of the neces- 
 sity of such writs, the foundation or fountain head of all 
 justice ; but tiiis necessity, which had in practice long been 
 satisfied by a fiction, has been in terms dispensed with by 
 the 2d \V. IV. c. 3i). The receptacle in which these writs 
 were kept was called the Hanaper,— literally a basket ; and 
 hence the office from which they issued was called Hana- 
 per Office. 
 
 But by far the most extensive as well as most important 
 214 
 
 branch of the chancellor's jurisdiction is the equitable ; In 
 deed, it is that branch alone which is commonly meant by 
 the term chancery. In this department of his office the 
 chancellor is assisted by the master of the rolls and the 
 vice-chancellor ; the first of which is a very ancient ofice, 
 and the second was established by act of parliament in the 
 53d year of George III. ; who, though they each sit in sepa- 
 rate courts, and exercise their jurisdiction severally, yet 
 together with the lord chancellor constitute one court of 
 chancery, in which all orders and decrees, though most 
 commonly made either by the master of the rolls or the 
 vice-chancellor, require the signature of the chancellor 
 bin self, to whom an appeal also lies from the decisions of 
 either of the two inferior judges ; but such appeals are in 
 strictness of speech rehearings, the chancellor being by 
 legal fiction supposed to be present in every department of 
 the Court of Chancery. The hearing of such appeals, and 
 of incidental applications, called motions, in original causes, 
 constitutes the ordinary business of the lord chancellor, 
 it not being the usual practice to bring causes in the first 
 instance before him. 
 
 The general object and character of this equitable juris- 
 diction is to supply, in civil matters, the deficiencies of the 
 other courts of justice, whether those deficiencies consist 
 in the imperfections of the machinery of those courts, or 
 in their too rigid adherence to peculiar forms, whereby 
 certain classes of rights become excluded from the benefit 
 of their protection. The origin of this equitable jurisdic- 
 tion is generally sought for in that remnant of judicial 
 power which is alleged to have been lefi in that part of the 
 " aula regia" which is not included in either of its subdi- 
 visions (see King's Bench, Common Pleas), and of which 
 residuary part the chancellor was certainly, since the sup- 
 pression of the office of justiciary, the principal member, 
 and was thus easily enabled to assume whatever judicial 
 power was left undelegated to the other courts. That such 
 remnant of power was adequate lo all purposes to which il 
 was moulded, is inferred from the supreme and compre 
 hensive nature of the "aula regia" itself, which must V- 
 supposed to have been invested originally with fuli pox-e 
 to do conplete and perfect justice, and of which the ren 
 
 1 ant therefore still r< lained ...i undefine I i ure of tx\ 
 
 thority sufficient to supply what should prove, on exper 
 ence, to be wanting in the other courts. This view of th. 
 subject is strengthened by the fact that the Court of Ex 
 chequer, which was not a part of (he aula regia, but a col 
 lateral and equal court, or rather perhaps the aula regia it 
 a different shape, has also its equitable jurisdiction, as ii 
 that were a necessary part of all complete systems of ju 
 dicature. Possibly also the idea of paramount and univer 
 sal authority annexed to the right of framing writs in all ac 
 tions, or, in other words, of devising remedies for ever) 
 species of wrong, may have laid the foundation in Iheon 
 for this supplemental code, asit was certainly the discover} 
 of a new writ, or a new application of an old one. whief 
 practically enabled the chancellors to carry their equitabii 
 views into effect. 
 
 This was the writ of subpoena: ». writ returnable h 
 chancery, and calling upon the person to whom it was th 
 rected to appeal there, and answer upon oath i 
 plaint that was made against him. The invention of Ihi- 
 writ is attributed to John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury 
 who was chancellor in the reign of Richard II. .; and it i 
 upon the power thereby acquired that rests even now th. 
 equitable jurisdiction of the chancery. 
 
 Similar in principle to this is the equitable jurisdiction c. 
 the Court of Exchequer; which is concurrent with ;hato 
 the Court of Chancery in all matters of equitable relief 
 though it can only be called into action by a fiction state*: 
 in the pleadings, and which it is not allowable to deny— <\\a 
 the plaintiff is a debtor of the crown, and will by depriva 
 lion of the right for which the suit is brought be less able 
 to satisfy such debt. Wherever, therefore, in the coursi 
 of this or other articles, the words equity or courts of e quit \ 
 occur, they must be taken as applying to the principles anc 
 jurisdiction as well of the Exchequer as of the Chancery 
 
 The usual division of the objects of equitable jurisdic 
 lion is into Trust, Fraud, Accident, Agreement, and Ac 
 count. 
 
 As courts of equity take into their consideration a fat 
 greater variety of circumstances than do courts of law, an '. 
 as evidence of no fact not suggested by the pleadings i.. 
 admissible, the written pleadings are necessarily mort 
 copious and important than they are at law ; and there i:- 
 further this most essential difference, that the pleadings oi. 
 the part of the defendant, i. e. his answer, are upon oath. 
 With regard to evidence the same general rules prevail ii. 
 equity as in law, and to the admissibility of proofs, the re 
 levancy of facts, and the competency of witnesses, anc 
 even the propriety of the questions (hat may be put: bu 
 the manner of taking evidence is different, for with feu 
 exceptions, and those as to very simple facts, evidence ii 
 equity is taken either urfder a commission to examine e 
 by the official examiners in London, and is produced h* 
 
CHANCE-MEDLEY. 
 
 tore the court in a written shape. Where special applica- 
 tions are made during a cause for something to !• 
 Ui.it cause, or as may sometimes bo done, when applica- 
 tions lor an order of the court are made without Institu- 
 ting a suit, the evidence adduced is by affidavit. The hear- 
 ing of such applications, which is either upon written pe- 
 titinii or by motion upon written notice, constitutes a great 
 part of the business of the court. Evidence of facts not 
 1 in the first instance to the interposition of the 
 court, is usually taken in the master's office upon a refer- 
 snee made to him. The Court of Chancery has also ju- 
 risdiction in the guardianship of infants and the manage- 
 ment of charities; and the lord chancellor personally lias, 
 by special delegation from the crown, jurisdiction in the 
 case of lunatics, which is exercised according to the forms 
 Id common law jurisdiction of the court upon 
 commission issued. 
 
 ppellate jurisdiction of the chancellor in bank- 
 ruptcy is stated under that title. 
 
 CHANCE-MEDLEY. (A corruption of the French 
 citaude melee). In Law, signifies originally a casual affray 
 or ri.it, accompanied with violence, but without delibera- 
 tion or preconceived malice ; but is applietl at pp 
 particular kind of homicide,— viz. the killing of another in 
 self-defence in a sudden encounter, without malice pre- 
 pense. 
 
 CHANGE OF SEED. In Agriculture, the practice of 
 produced la a different soil and climate 
 from that in which it is to be grown as a crop : and which 
 i.; foood td be soni' times beneficial and someliim s injuri- 
 ous, according as the new seed may bare been matured in 
 a better or worse climate and soil than those in which it is 
 ■ own. 
 NNEL8 OF A SHIP. Strong narrow platforms 
 of thick plank, projecting from the outside of the ship, 
 abreast each mast, t" extend the shrouds, and thereby in- 
 port of the rigging. 
 
 CHANT, (Fr. chanter, tu sing.) In Music, an ecclesi- 
 astical song usually adapted to the psalms and litanies. 
 I ive been several sorts, of which the first was the 
 
 Ambrosiau. Invented by St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, 
 i chant, which was Introduced by Pop? 
 , is still in u. o in the Roman church, and is the 
 foundation of all that is grand and elevated in music. 
 
 (II v'NTRV. (Lat. cantaria.) A little chapel or altar, 
 commonly in some church endowed (before the Reforma- 
 tion) with* revenues for the maintenance of a priest to per- 
 form prayers for the soul of the founder and others. 
 Chantries were dissolved in England by 1 Ed. 6, c. 14. 
 
 f.'MA'PEL. (Lat. capella. ) In Architecture, a building 
 for religious worship, erected separately from a church, 
 and served by a chaplain. In Catholic churches and Pro- 
 testant cathedrals, chapels are usually annexed in the re- 
 cesses on the sides of the aisles ; tiiese are also called 
 chantries. 
 
 I'iiam!.. (Fr. chapelle.) In Printing is the junction 
 oi tin- workmen in an office for the purpose of promoting 
 and enforcing order and regularity in the business, the 
 preservation of the materials, the arrangement of the 
 price of any doubtful work, and the care of the lights. 
 These objects are accomplished by fines. 
 
 Moxon, who published his work on printing in 1GS3, says, 
 " every J'rintinehouse is by the custom of time out of 
 mind, called a c/uifipel." It is supposed that the term ori- 
 ginated from the circumstance of Caxton, on the introduc- 
 tion of the art into England, practising it in a chapel at- 
 tached to Westminster Abbey. 
 
 i is termed " the father of the chapel," and 
 d ; the workmen are styled "members of the 
 chapel ;" and this association takes cocnizance of all offen- 
 ces, real or imaginary, committed within the office, and 
 the offender by inflicting a fine in proportion to 
 the offence. The process of calling a chapel is by giving 
 r a halfpenny and desiring him to summon a 
 chapel, stating to him the object; the father then directs 
 i urneyman to announce to all the members 
 the time when it will be held ; when the subject is dis- 
 . and the decision taken by vote. 
 
 It is an axiom that the chapel is always right, conse- 
 quently there is no appeal from its decision, and to dispute 
 tins would subject the party to its displeasure. It baa vari- 
 I ■ of enforcing obedience to its dictates. See Sa- 
 vage's Dictionary of Printing. 8vo. 1841. 
 
 Chapel. A place of divine worship, either connected 
 with a private establishment, as a nobleman's house, a 
 College, &c. : or subsidiary to a parish church for the sake 
 of additional accommodation (in which case it is called a 
 chapel of ease) ; or a meeting house belonging to a Dis- 
 senting congregation. 
 
 CHA'PI.AIN. (Lat capellanus.) Properly the minis- 
 ter of a chapel. The privilege which the king and nobility 
 enjoy of appointing private chaplains arises from the an- 
 ions of using domestic chapels for family worship. 
 
 The limitations under which this privilege may be exer- 
 215 
 
 CHARACTER, 
 cised are set forth in certain statutes of Henry VIII. Undci 
 Dg law u nobleman's chaplain may hold twe bene 
 but the chaplain of a judge, &c. only one: on 
 which, however, he is not obliged to reside. . 
 
 CIIA'PLET. (Hal. ciappellelto.) A string of beads 
 used by Roman Catholics to count the number of their 
 prayers : these prayers consist for the most part of Ave 
 Marias, Paternosters, and Credos. Another name for the 
 - Rosary. The invention of the practice is gener- 
 ally attributed to St. Dominic. 
 
 Chaplet. (Fr. chapelet.) In Architecture, a moulding 
 carved into beads, olives, and the like. 
 CUA'PTER. (Lat. capitulus : from caput, head.) The 
 i canons in a cathedral or collegiate church, of 
 which the dean is the head, which forms the council of 
 p, and in which his election rested before Henry 
 VIII. ; since whom the power of the chapter in this par- 
 ticular (in the English church) has become merely nomi- 
 nal. See art. Bishop. 
 
 CIIA'PTER-HOUSE. (Lat. capitulum.) In Architec- 
 ture, the apartment (usually attached) of a cathedral or 
 church in which the heads of the church or the 
 meet to transact business. 
 CHARA'CEjE. (Chara, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of Acrogens entirely destitute of a vascular system, 
 and composed almost exclusively of tubes ; placed by Lin- 
 t to Lichens and to Phaenogamous plants; by 
 Jussieu and De Candullc, with Naiadacea ; by Brown, at 
 the end of Hydrocliaracea ; by Leman, to Jfaloragea ; by 
 Von Martina, Ag.mlh, and Wallroth, to Conferva \ and 
 finally admitted as a distinct order by Richard, Kunth, Oe 
 . Adolphe Br o gn to t, Greville, Hooker, and others : 
 ■ if but two genera, which Inhabit the li 
 s alt waters of most countries. They are remarkable for 
 the distinctness with which the rotation of their fluids 
 in ay he se.ii iiiiilir the microscope. In the opinion of 
 i in writers the insalubrity of the neighbourhood 
 of Roma is owing to the great quantity of chara which in- 
 habits all the pools, and renders them intolerably offen- 
 
 .she. 
 
 CHA'RACTER. (Gr. \apaKrnp) In the Fine Arts, a 
 
 . 
 ra ad In m inotl l r. In phytic* as In inoials,*arid also in 
 the fine arts, there are three species of character . 
 tial, Distinctive or Accidental, and Relative. Essential 
 ekarOBtm is that type, stamped by nature on all her works; 
 that great indication observable in the general dh 
 the three kingdoms of nature; those distinctions of differ- 
 
 • < ot beings, of sexes and ages ; in short, oi ill 
 a external marks which prevent the conlusion of 
 
 one species with another. Distinctive or accidental char- 
 acter is that dependent on particular circumstances ; on 
 all those varieties of development which a vast number of 
 
 • invisible causes stamp on the same species, ac- 
 cording to the difference of the elements which modify 
 their forms and the influences which some actions may 
 have upon ihem. Relative character is a more particular 
 indication of certain faculties relative to the different pro- 
 perties with which nature has endowed certain species or 
 individuals, in which may be recognized the purposes to 
 which they are more especially destined. In morals, es- 
 tentiai character consists in that uniformity of general hab- 
 its which forms the peculiar instinct of each species ol 
 luings, and which indicates uniformly their inclinations, 
 their predominating tastes, and those propensities which 
 can never be changed by accidental causes. Distinctive 
 character is that which peculiar habits of organisation, 
 circumstances, social institutions, and all those exceptions 
 which in the very order of nature become suitable to an 
 individual or one of the same species, being in fact but a 
 modification of essential character. Relative character 
 is the impression or development in a particular manner 
 of certain qualities suited to a certain end, or to a certain 
 mode of existence, indicating to what purposes the beings 
 in question are suited, and manifesting a co-relation be- 
 tween what the species appears and that for which it is 
 adapted. 
 
 The arts are and indeed can be but the result of nature 
 in all countries, of the nations that inhabit them, and oi 
 the individuals of which a nation is composed. Nature 
 influences nations, nations men, and men the arts. These 
 are governed either mediately or immediately by an influ- 
 ence more or less dependent on the great natural causes 
 of climate, government, and education, which constitute 
 the essential character of every country ; on secondary 
 and political causes, in which nations differ; and on par- 
 ticular causes, which modify individuals. The arts do but 
 imitate this process: according to the particular spot in 
 which they spring up, their imitation embraces either na 
 Hire in general or parts of nature ; either material forms 
 and the sensible images of things, or the moral affection* 
 and intellectual ideas of things"; but of whatever kind the 
 imitation be, to whatever object it may be directed, the 
 arts are but the faithful mirrors which reflect in every 
 
CHARACTERISTIC. 
 
 '.ountry tlic physical and moral qualities of nature, of na- 
 tions, and of the individuals of which the latter are com- 
 posed. Before judging, therefore, of the imitation, it be- 
 comes necessary to judge of the model ; and before we 
 can ascertain in what the character of the arts consists, we 
 must know on what its character depends in nature. We 
 have beeT thus particular in giving some general notions 
 of character, which must be felt beiore we can be qualified 
 to judge of the character of the arts in any country. The 
 character peculiar to himself which an artist imparts to 
 his work is but a modification of the foregoing principles : 
 more easily, perhaps, may be understood that distinctive 
 character which a work of art requires that it may seem 
 proper and suitable to its end. That character which 
 marks species was well understood by the ancients; and 
 if we may trust Martial, Phidias excelled in catching it. Of 
 his fishes the poet says, " Adde aquam, natabunt." 
 
 CHARACTERISTIC OF A LOGARITHM. The same 
 as index or exponent ; meaning the figure prefixed to the 
 logarithm, or preceding the point, and which indicates the 
 integer places or figures in the number to which the loga- 
 rithm corresponds. 
 
 CHA'RACTERS. (Gr. xapa/crij/>, « mark.) In Music, 
 the conventional forms in musical writing and printing 
 used for the signs of clefs, notes, rests, &c. 
 
 CHARA'DE. (Fr.) A species of riddle, the subject of 
 which is a name or a word that is proposed for solution 
 from an enigmatical description of its several syllables 
 taken separately as so many individual words, and then 
 from a similar description of the whole name or word. A 
 charade can only be called complete if the different enig- 
 mas which it contains are brought into a proper relation 
 to each other, and as a whole unite in an epigrammatic 
 point. The following charade, which we borrow from the 
 Dictiumiaire de I'Academie Francaise, may be regarded 
 as a good specimen of this species of riddle: — il My first 
 makes use of my second to eat my whole ;" the solution 
 being chlendent, or dog's grass. The word charade, like 
 the term caiembourg (quod vide), has been applied to this 
 sort of amusement, from the name of its inventor. 
 
 CHARA'DRIUS. (Lat.) A bird mentioned by Pliny. 
 The name of a very interesting genus of wading birds, or 
 Grallalures, including the British plover and allied species. 
 In modern Ornithology, the Linneean genus which inclu- 
 ded the long-legged plover (Ilimantopus), the stone cur- 
 lew (CEdicnemus), and other species, is raised to the rank 
 of a family called Charadriadcb. 
 
 CHA'RCOAL. A form of carbon, obtained by burning 
 wood with the imperfect access of air, or by heating or 
 distilling it in iron cylinders so constructed as to allow of 
 the collection of the volatile products ; among which are 
 tar, and pijroligneous acid, which is impure vinegar. 
 Glial coal, exclusive of its important use as a fuel, is pos- 
 sessed of some curious and valuable properties. It is a 
 very bad conductor of heat; and hence powdered char- 
 coal is used to surround tubes and vessels which are re- 
 quired to retain their heat. It is not injured by air and 
 moisture ; hence stakes and piles are superficially charred 
 to preserve them. It is infusible ; and provided air be 
 carefully excluded, it undergoes no change in most intense 
 heats. It absorbs air and moisture, and also the colouring 
 and odoriferous parts of many animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances Tainted flesh and putrid water are thus sweet- 
 ened by the action of powdered charcoal, especially by 
 what is called animal charcoal, obtained by burning bone, 
 or the clippings of hides, leather, &c. Coloured vegetable 
 solutions filtered through well burned charcoal are mate- 
 rially decoloured by it : when burned in oxygen or air, it 
 is converted into carbonic acid. (See Diamond and Car- 
 bon.) Common charcoal intended merely for fuel is pre- 
 pared by cutting pieces of wood from 1 in. to 3 in. in diam- 
 eter into lengths of from 1 ft. to 3 ft., forming them into a 
 conical pile, and covering them with turf or clay ; leaving 
 two or three small holes, close to the ground, for li'ditin" 
 the wood, and boring through the turf in the upper part of 
 the cone, a few other small holes for the escape of the 
 smoke. The pile being lighted at the several holes along 
 the bottom, continues burning with a slow smouldering 
 flame for a week or two, and is allowed to cool before the 
 iurf is removed. In the case of very hish winds, the holes 
 tc the windward are stopped, to prevent combustion from 
 going on with too great rapidity. Charcoal obtained by 
 distilling beech-wood, log-wood, willow, and other woods 
 .which are free from resin, is called cylinder charcoal. The 
 charcoal employed in the manufacture of gunpowder is 
 njw always so prepared. 
 
 CHARDS. The footstalks and midrib of artichokes, 
 cardoons, and the white beet, are so called. In the case 
 of the artichoke and cardoon, the leaves are tied up, and 
 the light excluded by straw ropes or by soil, in order to 
 blanch the chard, and deprive it of its natural bitterness ; 
 after which, when dressed, it becomes an agreeable vege- 
 table. The leaves of the white beet, not being naturally 
 bitter dc not require blanching to render them fit for use. 
 216 
 
 CHART. 
 
 CHA'RFRON, or CHAMP- FREIN. In Plate-armoui , 
 plates of steel or pieces of leather, to protect tne face of a 
 horse. 
 
 CHA'RGE. In Gunnery, is the quantity of powder and 
 weight of ball with which guns are loaded. For proving 
 cannon, the charge of powder is equal to the weight of the 
 ball; but for service it is about one half, or more frequent- 
 ly about one third the weight of the ball. Dr. Hutton in 
 his Mathematical Dictionary states that different charges 
 of powder, with the same weight of ball, produce different 
 velocities in the ball, which are in the sub duplicate ratios 
 of the weight of powder; and when the weight of powder 
 is the same, and the ball varied, the velocity produced is 
 in the reciprocal sub-duplicate ratio of the weight of the 
 ball ; which is agreeable both to theory and practice. He 
 states also, that from many experiments made by him on 
 this subject, he found the length of the charge producing 
 the greatest velocity in guns of various lengths of bore, 
 from 15 to 40 calibers, to be as follows : — 
 
 Length of bore in Length of charge for 
 
 calibers. greatest velocity. 
 
 15 3-ltiths. 
 
 2C 3-12ths. 
 
 316ths. 
 3-20ths. 
 
 (See Greener on Gunnery.) 
 
 Charge. In Heraldry, signifies the various bearings, 
 i. e. ordinaries and figures, depicted on the escutcheon. A 
 shield is said to be charged with the bearings depicted on 
 it ; and so is an ordinary or other charge, when it bears 
 another device upon it. 
 
 Crargb and Overcharge. In Painting, a term applied 
 to any exaggeration of character, expression from colour, 
 &c. 
 
 CHARGE' D'AFFAIRES. The third or lowest class of 
 foreign ministers, according to the regulations adopted at 
 the congress of Vienna. 
 
 CHA'RITY, SISTERS OF. The name by which an in- 
 stitution of females is known in France, whose office is to 
 attend the sick, and who form a similar society to that, of 
 the Beguins in Flanders. -See Beguins. 
 
 CHA'RLES'S WAIN. A name sometimes given by as- 
 tronomical writers to the constellation Ursa Major, or 
 Great Bear. It has sometimes been applied to the Little 
 Bear. 
 
 CHA'RLOCK. A common name in the north of Eng- 
 land for one of the most common weeds, Raphanwrth 
 phanis.'rum. The plants when young are remarkably like 
 those of the common turnip ; but they are easily distin- 
 guished by the taste, which is hot and bitter ; while that of 
 the turnip is mild. Cold wet lands are more subject to 
 the charlock than warm calcareous soils. As sheep are 
 remarkably fond of the plant, they are frequently turned 
 into corn fields where it abounds, in which case it is found 
 that they do not touch the corn while any of the charlock 
 remains. That excellent husbandman, Mr. Lisle, having 
 sown charlock seed and turnip seed at the same time, 
 found that the latter came up in three days, while the 
 charlock required ten. The seed, when buried in the soil 
 to a certain depth, will retain its vital properties for an un- 
 known length of time ; grass lands that have not been 
 ploughed within the memory of man, having, when broken 
 up, produced abundance of this plant. 
 
 CHA'RON. (Gr. x"! ""-) In Mythology, the ferryman 
 of hell, who conducted the souls of the departed in a boat 
 across the Stygian lake to receive judgment from CEacus, 
 Rhadamanthus, and Minos, the judges of the infernal re- 
 gions. He received an obolus from every passenger, for 
 which reason the ancients used to put that piece of money 
 in the mouths of the dead. He was said to be the son ol 
 Erebus arid Night. 
 
 CHA'RRED WOOD. Wood, the outer surface of which 
 has been carbonized by burning, in order to preserve it 
 from decav when it is buried in the soil. 
 
 CHA'RRING OF POSTS. The practice of carbonizing 
 by burning that portion of the surface of wooden posts 
 which is to be inserted in the ground. The object is to 
 prevent the posts from decaying, more especially at the 
 surface of the ground, or, as the common phrase is, be- 
 tween wind and water. The practice is common in most 
 parts of Europe, and even in Russia and Sweden, though 
 timber is there so abundant. 
 
 CHART. A hydrographic map for the use of naviga- 
 tors, being a projection of some part of a coast on a plane 
 surface. Charts as well as ordinary maps may be con- 
 structed on any of the principles by which a spherical sur- 
 face is represented on a plane ; but they are generally laid 
 down according to Mercator's projection, in which the me- 
 ridians, and consequently also the parallels of latitude, are 
 represented by parallel straight lines, the degrees of longi. 
 tude on all the parallels being equal to those of the equa 
 tor, and the degrees of latitude being increased from the 
 equator towards the pole, so as to bear always the same 
 
CHARTACEUS. 
 
 ratio lo the degrees of longitude which they do on the 
 sphere itsejf. See Map and Projection. 
 CHAIU'A Cl'.l S (LaL charta, paper.) Papery; indi- 
 
 • paper like texture and surfstance of most leaves. 
 CHA'RTA, MA'GNA. in English History. The "Great 
 Charter of the Realm" was signed by King John in 1215, 
 and confirmed by Ins successor Henry III. It is reported 
 to have beet) chiefly drawn up by the Earl of Pembroke 
 and Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Its most 
 Important articles are those which provide that no free- 
 Btao shall be taken or imprisoned or proceeded against, 
 
 by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law 
 t»fthe land," and thai no scutage or aid should be imposed 
 in the kioL'doin (except certain feudal dues from tenants 
 
 ■own) unless by the common council of the king- 
 dom The remaining and greater part of it Is directed 
 of the king's power as feudal superior. 
 CHARTE. (LaL charta, paper.) In French History, 
 originally used to indicate the rights and privileges granted 
 by the French kings to various towns and communities; 
 but applied at present to the fundamental law of the French 
 monarch bed on the restoration of Louis XVIII. 
 
 in 181 !• The Ohurtt consists of 69 articles, and is founded 
 on principles analogous lo those of the British constitu- 
 tion, as embodied originallv in the Magna Charta, and sub- 
 tequeollyexteodedlnlbe Bill of Rights. As is well known, 
 it was lbs violation of an article of the Charle by the Min- 
 
 Charles X. that led lo the revolution of 1830, the 
 expulsion of that monarch from the throne, and the estab- 
 lishment of the present dynasty. Since that time IheCharte 
 has undergone a few modifications, the chief of which con- 
 sists In the abolition of the hereditary peerage. (Seethe 
 Almanac Royal et National, published annually.) 
 CHA'RTER PARTY. (Pr. parti, dressed) In Mercan- 
 
 is defined to beacontract, bv which the owner or 
 
 i a ship hires or lets the whole or a principal part 
 ;«f it to a freighter for the conveyance of eoods, under cei 
 tain specified conditions, on a determined voyage to one or 
 more places. A charter-parly is generally under seal ; but 
 a printed or written instrument signed by the parties, 
 called a memorandum of a charter-parly, is binding if no 
 Charter-party be executed. A voyage may be performed 
 in part under a charter-party, and in part under a parol 
 agreement ; but the terms of a charter-party cannot be al- 
 tered by parol evidence, although they may be explained 
 The instrument expresses the freight 
 to be paid, and generally, but not necessarily, the burden 
 together with some usual covenants, and 
 others at the discretion of the parlies. 
 
 CHA'RTULARY. In Diplomatics, a collection of the 
 charters belonging to a church or religious house. 
 
 CHASE. (Fr. chassis.) In Printing, an Iron frame six 
 tenths of an inch in thickness, in which pages are wedged 
 up to secure the letters from separating or dropping out in 
 the process of printiu are of different dimen- 
 
 icordmg to Ihe number of pases in a sheet, and 
 
 of the paper: in the printing of books there are 
 two bars fixed across at right angles, called crosses, so as 
 to divide the chase into quarters for greater security. The 
 thickness is always the same, however large the chase, 
 being lower than the types, for the purpose of keeping the 
 margin of the paper clean. 
 
 Chase. A row or rank of plants or trees, and more es- 
 pecially of hedge plants; also an extent of waste or forest 
 
 Chase. In Nautical language, pursuit ; also the vessel 
 pursued. 
 
 CWA'SER. The vessel pursuing. Also guns at the 
 head and stern for firing when in chase. 
 
 CHA'StNG, or ENCHASING. In Sculpture, the art of 
 embossing or in iking basal nlievi in metals. The work is 
 punched out from the back, and then cut on steel blocks 
 or puncheons, and cleared with small chisels and gravers. 
 
 (HAT POTATOES. Small potatoes, only fit for giving 
 to pig-i or boiling for poultrv. 
 
 CHAT WOOD. Small sticks and spray, only fit for fuel. 
 
 CHAU'NTRY. ,SV>* Chapel. 
 
 CI I A V A HOOT. The root of the Oldenlandiaumhellala, 
 I upon the Coromandel coast as a red dye stud". 
 
 CHEESE. The curd of milk compressed into solid 
 ol different sizes and shapes; and, when intended 
 for keeping, salted and dried, and sometiiies coloured and 
 flavoured. It is almost always made from the milk of 
 cows, hut occasionally from that of ewes, and sometimes, 
 though very rarely, from the milk of goats. The following 
 are the principal British cheeses: — Brickbat, formed of 
 new milk and cream, chiefly in Wiltshire, in the autumn, 
 ao'l sold in little square pieces about the size of brickbats. 
 ClicMcr, round thick cheeses, weighing about 150 or 200 
 pounds, with a spongy appeaiance, and the eyes or vesicles 
 filled -.villi a rich oil. Cheshire, large round thick cheeses, 
 commonly weighing from 100 to 200 pounds each; solid, ho- 
 uogeoeoua, and drv and friable rather than viscid. They 
 are made from the whole of the milk and cream ; the 
 217 
 
 CHEIRONECTES. 
 
 morning's milk being mixed with that of the preceding 
 evening previously warmed. Derbyshire, is a small white 
 rich cheese. Dunlop, originally made in Ayrshire, but 
 now general throughout Scotland, is large, round, white 
 buttery, and weighs from 30 to 60 pounds. This and the 
 Derbyshire cheese are very much alike in form, colour, 
 and flavour. Gloucester, large, round, and mild ; buttery 
 rather than friable. There are two kinds, Ihe single and 
 double Gloucester ; the single is made of the milk de- 
 prived of about half the cream, and the double of the milk 
 with the whole of the cream. Green or Sage cheese may 
 be nude of any of the other kinds, by mixing the milk be- 
 fore it has curdled with a decoction of sage leaves, among 
 which some put a few flowers of marigold and leaves of 
 parsley. In the Highlands of Scotland the loaves or seeds 
 of lovage are added to the sage, which communicate a 
 very Strong llavour. Lincolnshire is made of new milk 
 and cream ; it is quite soft, not above 2 inches thick, and 
 will not keep more than two or three months 
 the weight is jjenerally from 30 lo 50 pounds ; the curd is 
 dved yellow with arnolto or saffron ; and though not a rich 
 cheese, it is considered a good keeper. Soft or Slipcoat 
 is a small suft rich cheese, which might alii est be mis- 
 taken for butter, if it were not white, and which must be 
 eaten in a week or two after making. Stilton, so named 
 from the town in Huntingdonshire where it was first 
 brought into notice, but which is made principally in Lei- 
 cestershire, It is solid, rich, buttery, and white; "and, un- 
 like all tl sees which have been mentioned, 11 
 is twice as high as it is broad. It is much improved bv 
 keeping, and is seldom used before it is two years old. it 
 is the dearest of all English cheeses, the price being gene- 
 rally to that of Chester as 2 to l, or 2 to 1{. In order to In- 
 duce premature decay and the consequent appearance of 
 age in these cheeses, it is said the makers soup 'imes bury 
 them in masses of fermenting straw. CW/etiAam, so nainc-d 
 from a town in Cambridgeshire ; it differs chiefly from'.he 
 cream cheese of Stilton in being flat, broader, and supe- 
 riorly flavoured. The flavour is said lo be owing to Ihe 
 rich grasses which grow on the fens. Suffolk, or skim- 
 milk, is round and thin, weighing from 25 to 30 pounds 
 each, and is the best keeping cheese made in England. 
 Wiltshire resembles the Cheshire; but is poorer, and of 
 inferior flavour It is apt to become scurfy, to prevent 
 which it is generally coated over with red paint York- 
 shire, or cream cheese, is the same as the slip-coat chet se, 
 already mentioned 
 
 Foreign Cheeses. — The most remarkable of these are 
 the following: — I'armeaan is chiefly made at Parma and 
 other places in I.omhardy, of the curd of skimmed milk 
 hardened by heat. Its flavour is said to be owing to the 
 rich pastures of that part of Italy, where all plants, from 
 the greater quantity of bright sunshine than in Britain 
 have doubtless their aromatic properties greatly tni 
 Swiss chtese is of various kinds ; but the chief sorts are the 
 
 or Jura cheese, and Scbabaiegeror green 
 the iast is flavoured with the seeds and leaves of Ihe me|j. 
 lot (SietiUttia qflciTtalis) airman cheeses are of different 
 kinds: but none are celebrated, unless we except that of 
 Westphalia, which is made up into round balls or shor* 
 cylinders, under a pound weight each. The peculiar fla- 
 vour which this cheese acquires arises from Ihe curd be 
 ing allowed to become putrid before it is compressed. In 
 Holland very good cheese is made, particularly Ihe Edam 
 and Gouda cheeses; the former is very sail, and keeps 
 well at sea. In many pails of the Continent, and even in 
 the interior of Poland and Russia, there are imitations of 
 English cheese made; but what may be called the indi- 
 genous cheese of the Russian empire is nothing more than 
 salted curd put into a bag and powerfully pros 
 taken to market as soon as it is made, in the same mannei 
 as butter is. In some places, instead of a press, the whey 
 is forced out of the curd by putting it into a long cloth mid- 
 way between the two ends, while a person at each end 
 twists the cloth in an opposite direction, and thus wrings 
 out the whey. In some miserable Russian villages the 
 curd is exposed for sale in small lumps, retaining the 
 marks of the fingers, which shows that no other pressure 
 lias been employed than what can be given with the hand. 
 In France the Roquefort cheese is the most esteemed, 
 and next that of Neufchatel. The former somewhat re- 
 sembles Slilton, but is much inferior; and the latter is a 
 cream cheese, seldom exceeding a quarter of a pound in 
 weight. (.SVe Johnston's Lectures on Agricultural Chem- 
 istry. Part IV.) 
 
 CHEESE-MITE. See Pi ophila. 
 
 CHEETAH, or CHEETA A Mahratta vernacilar 
 name, applied both lo the Felis jubata and the Fehs leo- 
 pardus. It is to the former species, or hunting leopard, 
 that the term is confined in England. 
 
 CHEI'RONE'CTES. (Gr. x«'Pi hand < and »"'X & >. \ 
 swim.) A genus of spine-finned fishes, having the pectoral 
 fins supported, like short feet, upon peduncles. By means 
 of this organization the cheironects can creep over the 
 
CHEIROPTERA. 
 
 mud or sand when left dry by the receding tide ; they also 
 propel themselves along by short leaps, and in this way 
 seize upon insects which may be hovering about ; whence 
 they have obtained the name of frog -fishes. The gill cavi- 
 ty is large, but the outlet very small, and the quantity of 
 water which can thus be retained enables the cheironects 
 to remain out of water longer than fishes in general can 
 do. Tlie term Cheironectes is applied by Illiger to a genus 
 opossum having the hinder hands webbed. Some natu- 
 ralists adopt this application of the term, and apply to the 
 genus of fishes so called by Cuvierthe name Antennarius, 
 originally given to the cheironects by Commerson. 
 
 CHEIRO'PTERA. (Gr. X et P> a hand, and irrtpov, a 
 wing.) An order of Mammalia, characterized by having 
 the anterior extremities, and especially the hands, so mo- 
 di£ed as to serve the office of wings, the fingers being ex- 
 treme^ lengthened, and connected together by a thin mem- 
 brane. Of this order the common tat ( Vespertilio muri- 
 nus) may be regarded as the type. The order includes 
 very numerous and diversified spec ks, which have been 
 grouped by De Blainville, who has devoted an especial 
 study to them, into three principal divisions. Of these the 
 first includes the largest species, called •' flying-foxes :" 
 they are, however, vegetable-feeders, and are characterized 
 by having the ears and nose of a simple form ; the two in- 
 nermost fingers of the hand armed with claws, and of the 
 ordinary structure ; the tail, and the web of skin connect- 
 ing the hind-legs, and called the " interfemoral" web, very 
 short, or wanting : and lastly, by having the molar teeth 
 separated by intervals, and of simple structure. These 
 bats are distributed over the warmer latitudes of the old 
 continent, and extend to the islands of the Pacific ocean. 
 The second division has the nose complicated by various- 
 ly shaped and grotesque membranous foliations ; the first 
 or innermost digit alone retains its ordinary structure and 
 armature ; the molar teeth are beset with sharp tubercles ; 
 and the food of these species consists of insects, or the 
 blood of higher organized and larger animals. The vam- 
 pire-bats of South America belong to this group, which also 
 includes the horse-shoe bats (Rhinolophi), and other genera 
 distributed over aU parts of the old world. The third di- 
 vi. in of as the nose constantly simple; the 
 
 other chancters as in the second. It includes the bats 
 properly so called, which are uniformly insectivorous, and 
 of small size. ' 
 
 CHE'LA. (Gr. xiMi pincers.) The first pair of forci- 
 pated extremities of the crab, lobster, and other crusta- 
 ceans. 
 
 CIIE'LICERES. (Gr. x'A'Ji pincers, and xtpas, a horn.) 
 Tiie term applied by Latreille to two appendages of the head 
 of the Arachnidans, or spiders and scorpions, which ap- 
 pendages he considers as representing the mesial antenna? 
 of the Decapod Crustacea, here converted into manduca- 
 tory organs. 
 
 CIIELO'NIANS, Chelonia. (Gr. xtXbjyi}, a tortoise.) 
 The order of Reptiles, including the tortoises, terrapenes, 
 and turtles; characterized by the body being inclosed be- 
 tween a double shield or shell, out of which extend the 
 head, tail, and four extremities. The land tortoises have 
 the power of retracting all these parts within the shell. 
 
 CHEMISTRY. (The word is probably derived from the 
 Coptic root ehems or hhems, signifying obscure or secret. 
 The German word geheim is apparently of the same 
 origin.) 
 
 Chemistry is a department of science, the objects of 
 which are to investigate the nature and properties of the 
 elements of matter, and their mutual actions and combina- 
 tions; to ascertain the proportions in which they unite, 
 and the modes of separating them when united ; and toin- 
 
 ?[uire into the laws and powers which preside over and af- 
 ect these agencies. As an art, chemistry may be traced 
 to a very remote period ; but it can scarcely be said to 
 have existed as a science previous to the commencement 
 ot the seventeenth century : and in tracing its early history 
 we shall find the principal materials upon which it is found- 
 ed in the works of Bacon, Boyle, Hooke, Mayow, and 
 Newton. 
 
 As induction from experiment is the exclusive basis of 
 chemical science, little progress could be made in it till the 
 futility of the ancient philosophical systems had been ex- 
 posed, and their influence annihilated, and till the neces- 
 sity of that form of severe experimental inquiry had been 
 «3tablished which " first procures the light, and then shows 
 the way by its means." Upon such foundations, laid by 
 Bacon, the other philosophers whose names have been 
 mentioned proceeded to bring together and arrange the 
 materia. s which had been furnished by their predecessors, 
 »nd were thence led into that train of true philosophical 
 reasoning and research which served as an emulatory ex- 
 ample to their immediate successors, and which has led in 
 our limes to the gigantic results of modern discovery. 
 
 It is well known that the alchemists had accumulated a 
 number of valuable but isolated chemical facts, and that 
 they had explored with considerable diligence the abstract 
 218 
 
 CHEMISTRY. 
 
 properties and mutual agencies and relations of the greater 
 number of natural products; but, with few exceptions, 
 they neglected their useful and obvious applications, and 
 wasted their labours upon unattainable ami chimerical ob- 
 jects. Their discoveries and inventions, as Lord Bacon 
 justly and forcibly observes, "are well represented in the 
 fable of the old man who left an estate to his children 
 buried, as he said, in his vineyard, which therefore they 
 fell to dig and search for with great diligence; whereby. 
 though they found no gold in substance, yet they receiv- 
 ed an abundant vintage for their labour. So assuredly 
 has the search and stir to make gold produced a great 
 number of fruitful experiments." 
 
 Alchemical speculations, including the attempts at the 
 conversion of mercury into gold, and the search after an- 
 tidotes and universal remedies, ware vigorously carried mi 
 during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; and many 
 amusing accounts of the professors and adepts of those 
 periods have been handed down to us by the chemical 
 historians of the time. Those who are curious upon these 
 subjects may consult Mangetus, Bibliot.heca Chemica, and 
 the Theatrum Chemicum of Elias Ashmole: the latter con- 
 tains '"several poeticall pieces of our famous English philo- 
 sophers, who have written the hermetique mysteries in 
 their owne ancient language," but their perusal is labour lust; 
 not so, however, with Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, Van llel- 
 mont, and Glauber, in whose writings we not only find the 
 materials so happily worked upon by Hooke and Mayow, 
 but which also abound in announcements of important 
 practical discoveries, and in hints to which many of the 
 improvements of modern times may be plausibly traced. 
 
 Basil Valentine of Erfurt was born about the year 1400 ; 
 his writings, although tinctured with the follies of alchemy, 
 are full of shrewd and intelligent remarks: he was the 
 discoverer, apparently, of nitric and of sulphuric acid, 
 and of many antimonial preparations, which are fully 
 described in his Triumphal Chariot. Philip Hochener, 
 more commonly known under the name of Paracelsus, 
 and who died in 1541 at Sallzburgh, in the forty third year 
 of his age, is chiefly celebrated for the boldness and assi- 
 duity with which he introduced chemical preparations into 
 the practice of medicine ; he did little, however, as a dis- 
 coverer. Van Helmont, one of the soundest writ 
 period, was the first who seems to have paid attention to 
 the nature of gaseous bodies, and to the distinction between 
 permanent gases and vapours: the word gas first occurs 
 in his works ; and under the term gas sitvestre, h 
 to allude to what was afterwards termed^ed air. None, 
 however, of these early practical chemists come into com- 
 petition with Glauber. He was an active experimentalist, 
 and an acute reasoner; and in reference to his discoveries 
 we may enumerate among them the distil lat on of muri- 
 atic acid from a mixture of sulphuric acid and common 
 salt; the purification of the residuary sulphate of soda, 
 which he termed sal mirabile, and which still bears his 
 name : the production of ammonia by the d stillation of 
 bone, and its conversion into sal ammoniac, by the addition 
 of spirit of salt ; the preparation of sulphate of ammonia, 
 which he terms secret sal ammoniac ; the form ition of blue 
 vitriol by the action of sulphuric acid upon the green rust 
 of cipper; the composition of numerous earthy, alkaline, 
 and metallic salts ; and lastly, the evolution ot vinegar du- 
 ring the destructive distillation of wood, for which he des- 
 cribes and delineates the distillatory apparatus, under the 
 name of "a press for extracting the juice ol wood," and 
 the uses of which, together with those of the oil of tar and 
 other products, he describes at length, closing his discourse 
 with a statement of his apprehension that he shO be by- 
 many disbelieved ; but "it contented me," he says, "that 
 I have written the truth, and lighted a candle to my neigh- 
 bours." Glauber also published a pamphlet, entitled " 77<c 
 Consolation of Navigators ; in which is taught bote they 
 who travel by sea may preserve themselves from hunger 
 and thirst, and also from those diseases which are won!, to 
 happen in long voyages: written for the health, comfort, 
 and solace of all those who travel by water for the good of 
 their country." The sensible plan of employing extract 
 of malt as a portable vegetable diet, and diluted muriatic 
 acid to quench thirst, is here recommended ; and many of 
 the medicinal uses of that acid are dwelt upon, among 
 which are some that, have been claimed as recent discov- 
 eries. On the whole, there is no author, contemporary 
 with Glauber, who has written so much to the purpose, and 
 who, as it were, anticipated so many of our modern scien- 
 tific improvements. 
 
 Reverting to the names of Boyle and his eminent associ- 
 ates, we are reminded of the origin of the Royal .Society of 
 London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, which 
 was incorporated bv Charles II. in the year 1G6'2, ami of 
 which Boyle and Hooke were active and distinguished 
 members. Boyle died in 1691. His station in life, his mild 
 and prepossessing disposition, his strict honour ami integ- 
 rity, anil the unaffected earnestness with which he pro- 
 moted experimental inquiry, teoded lo shed a lustre oo 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 ■ their character with the world, and 
 
 to draw into their precincts many who without such an ex- 
 
 ive passed their lives in that listless inaetivi- 
 
 imon with those upon whom fortune smiled : 
 
 among these Mr. Boyle mule many converts. 
 
 Essays on the successfulness and unsuccessful- 
 Experiments, and the Preface to his Phil 
 
 inline spirit of experimental research; 
 
 : important aspect assumed abool this time 
 
 Is perhaps chiefly due to Dr. Robert Booke 
 
 (born in the Isle of Wight in 1635, and died in London in 
 
 kmong his views and discoveries which bear upon 
 
 chemical philosophy, the most important 
 
 :: to the phenomena of combustion, and to 
 
 '. hich the air performs in that process; his notions 
 
 markable for their boldness as 
 
 dfflering from the prevailing theories of the day. and for 
 uperseding the objections to winch 
 -vere liable. From the hints contained in 
 : he alchemists, it appears that the phenome- 
 ri were referred to a subtile and highly vola- 
 :iple, which, agitated and expanded by heat, pro- 
 • -Afire. When metal* were exposed to the 
 heat the greater number of them were 
 their appearance, and, losing their brilliancy, be- 
 came converted into an earth like powder or calx. It was 
 admitted that in this process the particles of the 
 ■ ■re thrown into violent vibrations, and in 
 that way transformed into heat and light. Rut it Kit! been 
 also remarked that in certain cases of combustion, and 
 , as regards the metals, the phenomenon was at- 
 by an actual ini . :ht in the burning body, 
 
 ill was incompatible with the theory which 
 ! the conversion of the combustible into heat and 
 the evolution of that principle of inflammability 
 her and St ihl and the chemists of that 
 school was termed phlogiston. About the year 1630 a re- 
 ' Vance relating to this subject, 
 Rev, * physician of Perigord. Le Bran had melted 
 ounces of lead, and found that in six hours 
 1 into calx; bi» that <nste :d 
 \ lost phlogiston, or any other ponderable matter, 
 it had actually increased in weight to the extent of many 
 Puzzled by this result, he consulted Hey as to its 
 tely undertook an experimental In- 
 quiry, which led him to refer the increase in weight in this 
 and si ml ho fixation of air. This inference 
 
 |y supported by the researches of Boyle and of 
 he former found that no combustible would hum 
 under the receiver of the air-pump, and conse- 
 
 qaently that the presence of air was requisite ; and Hooke, 
 finding that however intensely charcoal was heated, it 
 wool. I not burn when air was excluded, infers "that air is 
 the universal dissolvent of inflammable bodies, and that 
 -Union generates heat, Which we call fire." But 
 id this, and attributes the power of 
 supporting combustion to a principle in the atmosphere, 
 '•like unto, or the very sine as, that which is fixed in salt- 
 erved the power of that salt as a sup- 
 porter of combustion. His words are as follow: — "The 
 18 parts of the air are but few, and hence the atmo- 
 i rits which have much phlegm mixed 
 with them, and become soon glutted ; whereas saltpetre 
 abounds more in those solvent particles, and hence a little 
 will dissolve a great sulphurous body quickly and violent' 
 er solvents, though hut weak, quickly con- 
 . ly if the supply be renovated, so air 
 applied to a shining body by a bellows will dissolve it as 
 rapidly ■ Prom all which he concludes that 
 
 there is no element of fire, but thai flame results from the 
 mutual chemical action of the combustible upon a part of 
 isphere. {Bboke's Mierographia.') Hooke also al- 
 ihe part performed by air in the process of respi- 
 ind in his Lampas, published In 1677, has given a 
 beautiful explanation of the burning of a candle. He attri- 
 ■ light and heat to the action of the air upon the 
 f the flame, and shows that the inte- 
 rior of the fl imp is not luminous, by the simple expedient 
 of viewing its section through a thin piece of glass or of 
 mica. 
 
 doctrines of Hooke were further illustrated by 
 vow (born in Cornwall 1645, died in London 1679), 
 who not only experimentally corroborated them, but pointed 
 tion between combustion and respiration, 
 i it that part of the air concerned in the sun- 
 port of 11 ime was also essential to the life of animals. He 
 • nnder a bell-glass, and when it would no 
 longer burn, he found that on rekindling it it was Immedi 
 ned by the same air; he then placed a mouse 
 inffned portion of air, and it soon manifested the 
 lewal; he then put the mouse under the same 
 bell-glass with the candle, and found that it only lived half 
 the tint" thai it had survived without the candle; he then 
 reversed the experiment, and endeavoured to burn a can- 
 •219 
 
 die in air which had been breathed, and finding that it went 
 out, he concluded that the ■' nitro-aerial particles" of the air 
 were as essential to respiration as to combustion, and that 
 they were in I oth cases alisurbed; and he even refers ani- 
 mal lira! to the influence of the air upon the blood. 
 
 Rut Mayow's claim to a distinguished place in the history 
 of chemistry is not merely founded upon the sagacity with 
 which he followed up these views; he was the first won 
 distinctly expounded the nature of chemical uffintly, and 
 who taught i;s independence of those mechanical forms of 
 the particles of matter to which it had been referred, and 
 ■bowed, contrary to the prevailing tenets, that in cases ol 
 combination the particles of the acting bodies were not an 
 nihilaled, but that they still existed in the compound, and 
 .in be elicited from it with all their former power! 
 and properties. These notions he illustrates by a series ol 
 extremely apposite experiments ; and proceeds to explain 
 decomposition upon the principle of inequality in the respec- 
 tive attractive forces of the acting bodies, a doctrine which 
 was afterwards verified and further explained by 
 
 i isterly sketch of a theory of chemical attraction, 
 given in the queries to the third book of Optics, is nearly 
 in the language and entirely in the spirit of his pre.!. 
 The theory of combustion and of affinity, thus established 
 upon the basis of experiment by Hooke and Mayow, con- 
 stitute ihe foundaiion upon which most of the superstruc- 
 ture of modern chemistry rests ; the former was extended 
 and embellished by Lavoisier, and the latter has gradually 
 risen into the atomic and equivalent doctrine. There are 
 three principal points connected with the vast exlension 
 and importance of chemical science as we now find it, to 
 which it becomes necessary therefore to allude; namely, 
 the investigations relating to the philosophy of hoot, those 
 connected with pneumatic chemistry , and those establishing 
 the connection of electrical and chemical phenom 
 
 i not till towards the middle of the sevenle. 
 
 tury that such perfection was given to the construction of 
 the thermometer as to enable it to be used as an accurate 
 and comparative measure of temperature. Dr. Halley 
 seems to have been the first who applied the uniform tem- 
 perature of boiling water to obtain one fixed point for its 
 graduation; the constant temperature of water in the act 
 Ing seems also to have been noticed about the same 
 time by the Florentine academicians, and by Newton ; and 
 | thus determined and ascertained, 
 together with the causes of their occasional discrepancies, 
 the graduation of the thermometer became easy, especial 
 ly when the advantages of mercury had been pointed out 
 
 by Halley, together with the mod.' of sealing it in the ther- 
 mometer tube. (Sre Thermometer.) Rut the great and 
 important step in the philosophy of heat was the conse- 
 ol Dr. Black's discovery of the state in which heat 
 exists in liquid* and vapours, and upon which he founded 
 his beautiful theory of latent heat. This theory n 
 tisfictory solution of a multitude of natural and artificial 
 
 phenoin.-na previously unexplained or unobserved, and laid 
 the foundation of those wonderful improvements in the 
 theoretical and practical construction of the steam engine 
 which were soon afterwards carried into effect by Wait. 
 
 Dr. Black was born in 1728 on the banks of the Garonne, 
 and educated M Belfast, and afterwards at Glasgow: in 1766 
 he was appointed to the chemical chair in the university 
 of Edinburgh, where he died in 1799. He not only made 
 the grand discovery of Ihe latency of heal, but he enriched 
 chemistry with other discoveries; among which that of 
 the presence of carbonic acid in the mild earths and alka- 
 lies, and the cause of their causticity, was especially per 
 feet and important. These facts, including also the dis 
 COVenr of carbonic acid, or, as it was then called, fixed uir. 
 were first published in 1756; his ideas respecting the com- 
 binations of heat with ponderable matter were perfected in 
 1761. 
 
 Another and distinct set of inquiries, having important 
 bearings upon the philosophy of heat, had its origin with 
 
 otine academicians towards the end of th 
 teenth century, and was afterwards sagaciously followed 
 up by Bcbeele, Leslie, and others ; it relates to the pheno- 
 mena of radiation, to the manner in which heat is propa- 
 gated through space, and to those of its emanation from 
 luminous and incandescent bodies, and to its connection 
 with light. 
 
 Pneumatic Chemistry had its origin in the experiments 
 ofHooke and Mayow, and was subsequently extended by 
 Hales, and more especially by Priestley. Mayow obtained 
 hydrogen gas by lie' action of iron on dilute sulphuric acid, 
 and observed the formation of nitro is gas during the action 
 of aquafortis upon the same metal ; but it was not till Ihe 
 commencement of the last century that the distinctive 
 characters of the gases and their importance as chemical 
 agents began to be duly appreciated. Connected also with 
 tbi* subject is the rise and progress of the chemical physi- 
 ology of vegetation. Dr. Stephen Hales was born in Kent 
 in 1677. and fHed at Teddington in 1761. He began the 
 communication of his researches to the Royal Society ir 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 1/17, and in 1727 published his " Statical Essays, containing 
 an essay towards a natural history of vegetation, of use to 
 those icho are curious in the culture and improvement of 
 gardening ; also a specimen of an attempt to analyse the air 
 by a great variety of chemico-statical experiments, which 
 were read at several meetings before the Royal Society." In 
 1733 a second volume of these Essays was published, con- 
 taining " 1/amastatics, and experiments on the stone of the 
 kidney and bladder." In his various experimental re- 
 searches detailed in these essays, Dr. Hales describes 
 many curious facts, and shows much ingenuity in the con- 
 trivance of apparatus; but he furnishes a striking instance 
 of the facility with which the mind is led away from the 
 true path of discovery by preconceived opinions; for hav- 
 ing predetermined that the various gaseous products which 
 he obtained were mere modifications and contaminations 
 of common air, he missed much that was fairly within his 
 grasp. He observed, for instance, that air was absorbed 
 Juring the combustion of phosphorus in close vessels, but 
 he examined none of the products ; he collected the air 
 evolved during the destructive distillation of wood, and 
 found it fatal to animals ; from Newcastle coal he obtained 
 ine third of its weight of gas ; and from nitre, 180 times its 
 bulk; but he did not leisurely examine any of these por- 
 lucts. He found that iron filings and oil of vitriol would 
 not evolve gas unless water was present ; but instead of 
 stopping to examine the properties of the hydrogen gas 
 which he thus obtained, he hastens on to irrelevant obser- 
 vations, being more eager to multiply experiments than to 
 examine their results. In the same way he details with 
 minute accuracy the quantity of the air generated during 
 the distillation of blood, tallow, sal ammoniac, and many 
 other substances, without drawing a single useful infe- 
 rence. In his experiments on respiration too, he obtained 
 results of extreme interest, and is often upon the verge of 
 most important discoveries; but instead of being incited 
 by the novelty of his results, and the extent of the field of 
 investigation opened by his researches, he drops them 
 upon the occurrence of the slightest difficulty. His exam- 
 ination, however, of the motion of the sap in vegetables 
 was pursued upon a more regular and satisfactory plan ; 
 he ascertained the quantity of matter imbibed and per- 
 spired by several plants and trees ; the proportion daily 
 lost by the leaves, and their influence upon the absorptive 
 powers of the root; and the relation of various states of 
 the atmosphere as to temperature and moisture upon these 
 functions. He endeavoured to confer different flavours 
 upon fruits by impregnatina the soil with perfumed waters, 
 and lie found' that the odorous particles were rejected by 
 the living vessels, but that they affected the dead parts of 
 the tree ; he compares the functions of the leaves of ever- 
 green with those of deciduous shrubs and trees ; he no- 
 tices the effect of cutting a ring of bark off the branch of a 
 tree in promoting the growth of its leaves and fruit ; and, 
 lastly, shows that air is sometimes absorbed or inspired by 
 plants, and gives some interesting views relative to the ger- 
 mination of seeds. 
 
 When it is recollected that Hales wrote at the com- 
 mencement of the last century, that few models of good 
 scientific composition were then extant, and that a pom- 
 pous and obscure style was prevalent among most of his 
 contemporaries, we must admire the perspicuous and un- 
 adorned manner in which he details his facts and obser- 
 vations. He has in this respect all the merit which be- 
 longs to Boyle without, his diffusiveness: and a pleasing 
 vein of sound and unaffected morality accompanies his ar- 
 guments, and leads him, whilst endeavouring to unveil the 
 mysteries of nature, to direct our attention with becoming 
 modesty to the extreme penury of man's wisdom, when 
 compared with the admirable adjustments of causes and 
 effects discoverable in the lowliest works of the Creator. 
 
 Hut all hough Mayow, Hooke, and Hales had done much 
 towards establishing the. interest and importance of gas- 
 eous chemistry, it is to Dr. Joseph Priestley (born at Field- 
 head, near Leeds, 1733; died in Pennsylvania, 1804) that 
 we owe the principal progress in this branch of our science. 
 He directed his attention to it with a degree of activity and 
 skill then peculiarly his own, and in the number of his dis- 
 coveries left his contemporaries far behind, while he cer- 
 tainly rivalled them in their interest and importance, which 
 is the more surprising when we reflect that he generally 
 seems to have considered his philosophical studies as sub- 
 ordinate to his more severe and serious occupations. He 
 first turned his attention to chemistry about the year 17C8. 
 He used to amuse himself with experiments on fixed air 
 and on artificial mineral waters ; and one experiment, as 
 he says, leading to another, he soon collected those mate 
 rials which he laid before the Royal Society in 1772, under 
 the title of Observations on different Kinds of Air. It was 
 on the. 1st of August, 1774, that he made the great discove- 
 ry upon which so much of the subsequent progress of 
 chemical science has depended, namely, that of oxygen 
 gas. He obtained it by exposing a quantity of red precipitate 
 of mercury to the actios of the sun's rays concentrated 
 
 upon it by a lens ; the red precipitate was contained in » 
 flask filled up with mercury, and inverted in a basin con- 
 taining the same metal. " I presently found," he says, 
 "that by means of this lens air was expelled from it very 
 readily. Having got several limes as much a« the bulk of 
 my materials, I admitted water to it, and found that it was 
 not imbibed by it. ; but what surprised me more than 1 can 
 well express was that a candle burned in this air with a re 
 markably vigorous flame, very much like that enlarged 
 flame with which a candle burns in nitrous air exposed to 
 iron or liver of sulphur; but, as 1 got nothing like this re- 
 markable appearance from any kind of air besides this par- 
 ticular modification of tjitrous air, and I knew no nitrous 
 acid was used in the preparation of the mercuriua colcina- 
 tus, I was utterly at a loss how to account for it." He then 
 goes on to show that red lead and nitre also affords oxygen 
 at a red heat, and calls it, consistently with the theory of 
 combustion which was then prevalent, dephlogisticated air, 
 regarding it as common air deprived of phlogiston, and 
 consequently possessed of a powerful affinity for that im- 
 aginary principle. 
 
 Shortly after the discovery of oxygen, Priestley ascer- 
 tained that plants had the power of purifying air which 
 had been vitiated by the respiration of animals, and that 
 oxygen was evolved by aquatic plants in water containing 
 carbonic acid. Nitrous and nitric oxide, muriatic acid, 
 and ammonia were also amongst his gaseous discoveries. 
 In 1772 Dr. Rutherford had demonstrated that a large por- 
 tion of the atmosphere consisted of a peculiar gas differing 
 from fixed air, yet, like it, extinguishing flame and unfit 
 for respiration ; to this component part of the atmosphere 
 Dr. Priestley gave the name of phlogisticated air, and point- 
 ed out the means of ascertaining its relative proportion to 
 the oxygen of the air by the agency of nitrous gas. 
 
 Another celebrated name connected with the progress 
 of this department of chemical science is that of Caven- 
 dish. In 1776 he presented the Royal Society with a dis- 
 sertation on inflammable, fixed, and nitrous air. The two 
 latter gases had been well described by his contempora- 
 ries ; but nothing very precise was known respecting in- 
 flammable air, till its sources and properties were de- 
 scribed in Cavendish's masterly paper. He found that it 
 was the lightest known substance, and in conjunction with 
 Watt he showed that by combustion with oxygen water 
 was the only result; hence the term hydrogen subsequent- 
 ly applied to this gas. Cavendish also discovered the 
 composition of nitric acid ; and by passing a succession o< 
 electric sparks through common air, and through artificial 
 mixtures of oxygen and nitrogen, he succeeded in effect 
 ing their combination, and in producing that acid. 
 
 Two capital and extremely important steps were thus 
 made in chemical science, chiefly by the joint labours of 
 Priestley and of Cavendish; namely, the composition of 
 the atmosphere and of water; and about the same linn 
 Scheele (born at Stralsund in 1742, and died at Kbpii/g 
 near Stockholm in 1786), in his disserlalion on Manganese, 
 made known the exislence of chlorine, or, as he then 
 termed it, of dephlogisticatcd muriatic acid gas. His " Ob- 
 servations and Experiments on Air and Fire," and on 
 "Heat and Light," are also masterly productions, and con- 
 tributed, in conjunction with the labours of his eminent 
 contemporaries, to invest chemistry with a degree of in- 
 terest and importance which gave it an entirely new 
 and distinct aspect, and an elevated rank in physical 
 science. 
 
 It was at this period that Lavoisier and his associates in 
 Paris undertook that celebrated reform of chemical no- 
 menclature which ended in the banishment of phlogiston, 
 and introduced a logical precision before unknown into 
 the precincts of chemistry. Lavoisier experimented upon 
 a magnificent scale, and with a degree of statical accuracy 
 which stamped his researches with a new and valuable 
 character. By a series of beautiful experiments lie de 
 termined the relative proportions of the elements of the at- 
 mosphere and of those of water; he rejected all support- 
 ers of combustion except oxygen, and regarded it as the 
 sole source of the heat and light evolved during that pro- 
 cess ; he endeavoured to prove that gases were constituted 
 by the union of ponderable bases with caloric, or the matter 
 of heat, and examined, upon a splendid scale and will. 
 princely apparatus, the results of the combustion of sul 
 phur, phosphorus, carbon, and the metals; he inferred 
 that oxygen was the universal acidifying principle ; and 
 by a series of well conceived researches he demonstrated 
 the identity of charcoal and the diamond, and showed that 
 when burned in oxygen they yielded carbonic acid gas. 
 Lavoisier was also the first who examined with requisite 
 accuracy the products of the distillation of animal and ve- 
 getable substances; he also inquired with more success 
 than any of his predecessors info the phenomena of fer- 
 mentation, and, by examining the contents of certain vege- 
 table juices, previous to and after that process, he drew 
 some curious and important conclusions respecting the 
 changes that take place ; he also extended and corrobo 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 rated Sc/,ee\e's views as to the importance of the chemical 
 agencies of light. 
 These, anil a variety of other details are embodied in 
 r'a Elemens de Chimie, which appeared at Paris in 
 work which eminently displays the extent and per- 
 spicuity of his views as a theoretical and experimental 
 her, and which contains a masterly refutation of 
 gistic doctrines. Theabstract facts, however, upon 
 Which this refutation rests may be traced toMayow, Hooke, 
 i . ,iiiil Scheele. It has been stated that the pro- 
 
 atures of the French theory were its explanation 
 of the phenomena of combustion and of acidification, the 
 ing deemed essential in both cases. 
 That air is the food of fire was known at a very remote 
 period : that it causes the increase of weight sustained by 
 tic ination was shown by Uey early in 
 Dteenth century ; that a part only of the atmos- 
 phere, identical with a matter contained "in saltpetre, is 
 concerned in the support of flame, was explained by 
 Hooke in 1957 ; and that the vital, or igneous spirit, as 
 he terms it, contributes to the formation of acids was as- 
 •Med by Mayow in 1674 Here therefore, without even 
 infringing upon the eighteenth century, we have, in ex- 
 Mil, the principal facts and arguments requisite 
 for the construction of the French theory ; and if to these 
 we add the discovery of oxygen by Priestley, and of the 
 composition of water and of nitric acid by Watt and Caven- 
 ■■ li.it then becomes of its title to originality 1 
 The influences of the researches connected with the 
 hy of heal and of those relating to the production, 
 .-. and constitution of the gases, upon the improve- 
 ment and extension of chemistry, wil! now be apparent j 
 of the most fertile sources of its recent progress is 
 of a dietinel and remarkable origin, namely the discovery 
 of the chemical influences of electricity. 
 In 1790 Qalvaol of Bologna ascertained that certain spas- 
 convulsive contractions might be produced by 
 the action of electricity upon fhe nerves of a recently killed 
 animal ; and that if the sciatic nerve of a frog be laid bare 
 and touched with a piece of zinc, whilst at the same time 
 the muscle is touched with gold, similar effects to those of 
 electricity are produced whenever the metals were brought 
 into contact, or connected together by conductors of elec- 
 tricity : if nonconductors were used, no spasms ensued. 
 !' anted for these and similar effects by assuming 
 
 that the nerves and muscles were in opposite electrical 
 states, and that the spasms were the consequence of their 
 annihilation or discharge. 
 
 Volta, on the other hand, finding that two different me- 
 tals were essential, referred the phenomena to the electro- 
 Bower of the metals ; and following up this idea, 
 he soon succeeded in producing that extraordinary form 
 of electro-generative apparatus which is now known under 
 the name of the Voltaic pile or battery, consisting of alter- 
 nations of two metals with an intervening fluid : zinc, cop- 
 per, and diluted acids are the substances now generally 
 resorted to. It has lately been shown by Faraday that Chi- 
 lian is the exclusive source of the electricity 
 of these Voltaic arrangements; but their history and the 
 theory of their phenomena will be given elsewhere. 
 
 In the year 18U0 the chemical potters of the Voltaic pile 
 were first observed in regard to the decomposition of water 
 and certain saline solutions, by Messrs. Nicholson anil 
 Carlisle ; these were more accurately investigated in 1800 
 i'-c and Berzelius ; and in 1806 Sir H. Davy com- 
 municated his celebrated lecture " On some chemical 
 Agencies of Electricity" to the Royal Society. He had 
 ly (1801) given a paper to the Society containing an 
 account of some galvanic combinations formed by the ar- 
 rangement of single metallic plates and fluids, analogous 
 ilvanic apparatus of Volta ; but it was not till the 
 publication of the Bakerian Lecture above alluded to that 
 the importance of electro- chemical science could be appre- 
 ciated It contains a masterly outline of the subject ; and 
 s present a fine specimen of experimental inquiry, 
 especially in reference to the manner in which he traces 
 out the decomposing powers of an electrical current in ef- 
 fecting the separation of the elements of water, the skill 
 with which the conflicting results of other experimental- 
 ists: are examined and explained, the caution with which 
 • eds from experiment to theory, and the sagacity 
 wild which he employs theoretical views as the source of 
 new experimental inquiries. Following the path which he 
 had thus opened for himself, it led him on to the most im- 
 portant an 1 extraordinary results, among which were the 
 decomposition of the alkalis and earths, and the discovery 
 of an entirely new class of metals. 
 
 But the eradication of established errors is perhaps a 
 more difficult task than the promulgation of new theories ; 
 and in this Davy rendered a memorable service to che- 
 mistry by his several papers on " Oxymuriatic Acid," in 
 which he successfully establishes the views of Scheele re- 
 garding its nature, and refutes and subverts those of the 
 French school, and which had been sanctioned by th'j 
 231 
 
 chemists of Europe : he demonstrates the existence o* 
 acids without oxygen, and lays the foundation of the theory 
 of the hydracids. 
 
 To these masterly researches Davy added a third series, 
 of equal if not superior importance ; those relating to the 
 saji ly lamp. His first paper upon this subject is printed in 
 the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, and wa3 followed 
 by four others. Finding that flame would not recede 
 through tubes of very small diameter, the idea occurred to 
 him of constructing a lamp which should have no connec- 
 tion with the surrounding air except by capillary tubes ; and 
 he inferred from previous experiments that such a lamp 
 might safely be employed in coal mines infested by fire 
 damp. He then endeavoured to ascertain the extent to 
 which the tubes might be shortened without interfering 
 with this principle of safety, and was thus led to cut them 
 down, till their transverse section resembled a series of 
 This approached so closely to vnr gauze that 
 he was induced to try how far that tissue would prevent 
 the pnataje of flame ; and finding it effectual, he employed 
 it in the construction of his lamp, and ultimately adopted 
 the simple and efficient arrangement now in general and 
 successful use During the experimental investigations 
 upon which the discovery of the safety lamp was founded, 
 Davy ascertained a number of curious facts respecting the 
 constitution and temperature of flame, which, with other 
 parts of his general inquiry, are not less ingenious than 
 original. In November, 1 DO, Sir H. Davy became presi- 
 dent of the Koyal Society, and continued io contribute pa- 
 pers as heretofore, some of them upon subjects of much 
 interest, ably and philosophically discussed : among them 
 the essays on the modes of protecting the copper sheath- 
 ing of ships deserve especial notice; they have furnished 
 hints for the preservation of iron and other corrodible me- 
 tals from the influence of air and water, and promised to 
 lead to results of great practical importance. In the course 
 of the year 1827, h^i health became seriously impaired ; 
 he passed the greater part of the year 1828 in Italy, and 
 terminated his memorable existence at Geneva in May, 
 1320, in the fitly-second year of his age. 
 
 We have now briefly sketched the principal circum- 
 stances in the history of chemistry bearing upon its origin 
 and progress as a science, without, however, adverting to 
 the labours of contemporaries ; it remains to add a short 
 notice respecting the art of Analysis and the important 
 consequences of which the prosecution cf that branch of 
 the science has been productive. 
 
 Analysis was first scientifically pursued by Bergman ol 
 Sweden He was born in 1735, and died in 1784, in conse- 
 quence, as is said, of too intense application to his studies. 
 The use of tests for the discovery of certain substances 
 held in aqueous and other solutions, is first particularly 
 dwelt upon by Boyle. He used vegetable colours for the 
 detection of acids and alkalis, and noticed the cloudiness 
 produced by nitrate of silver in solution of common salt. 
 
 In 1667 Du Clos undertook an examination of the min- 
 eral waters of France, and in 1686 Hierne published some 
 clever experiments upon the same subject in Sweden. In 
 1726 Boulduc used spirit of wine to precipitate the salts 
 insoluble in that menstruum ; in 1775 Vend pointed out 
 the existence of fixed air in the waters of Sellers, Spa, 
 and Pyrmont ; Lane, in 1769, showed the method of imita- 
 ting chalybeate springs; and in 1772 Priestley published di- 
 rections for saturating water with fixed air. The above 
 and other tests were particularly examined, their accuracy 
 compared, and the best modes of applying them pointed 
 out by Bergman ; his dissertations on the waters of Upsal, 
 on sea-water, and on the artificial preparation of medicated 
 waters, each exhibit proofs of his skill as an analyst, and 
 accuracy as an experimenter. He also turned his atten- 
 tion to the analysis of minerals ; his essay, entitled De 
 Minerarum, Dodmasia Humida, must be considered as 
 the parent source of that branch of analytic chemistry so 
 successfully followed up, though upon a limited scale, by 
 Scheele, and in the improvement and extension of which 
 Klaproth passed his long and laborious life. Klaproth 
 was born at Wernigerode in Prussia in 1743, and died 
 at Berlin in 1817. He published 207 essays in his 
 " Contributions lowardsthe Chemical Knowledge of Min- 
 eral Substances." Another eminent name among chemi- 
 ical analysts is that of Vauquelin who died at an advanced 
 age in Paris in 1829. He was originally a peasant boy, in 
 Normandy, and afterwards was employed in Fourcroy's 
 laboratory, where he not only acquired great dexterity in 
 the ordinary duties of his situation, but became an expert 
 and original analyst. He afterwards rose to high eminence 
 in his profession ; and his numerous and important con- 
 tributions and discoveries are lasting monuments of his 
 skill and industry. 
 
 Among the improvers of analytical chemistry in Eng- 
 land, Chenevix, Howard, and Tennant deserve particu- 
 .ar mention ; but to none is this part of the science mere 
 deeply indebted than to Dr. Wollaston. With him and 
 Davy all that is practically useful in the theory of definite 
 
 j^&rdz^ 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 pioportionals, or, as it is often called, (he Atomic Theory, 
 may be said to have originatea ; though (he facts upon 
 which it is founded were chiefly furnished by the German 
 analysts, and by Higgins of Dublin. 
 
 We have in another place given some account of this 
 important subject, and have endeavoured to explain the 
 facts upon which it is founded, and the results to which it 
 leads: its promulgation with us is mainly attributable to 
 Wollaston's suggestions contained in his paper " On a Sy- 
 noptic Scale of Chemical Equivalents," brought before the 
 Royal Society in November, 1813. Many years previously 
 he had established the important doctrine of multiple pro- 
 portions in a paper "On Superacid and Subacid Salts." 
 He now showed the practical applications of which the the- 
 ory was susceptible ; and, by connecting the scale of equiva- 
 lents with Gunter's sliding rule, has put into the hands of 
 the chemist an instrument infinite in its uses, and equally 
 essential to the student, the adept, and the manufacturer. 
 
 There remains to be noticed a distinct branch of chemis- 
 try of extreme interest and importance, but beset with pecu- 
 liar difficulties ; namely, that relating to organic substances. 
 Some progress was made in it by Scheele ; but it has chiefly 
 been enriched by the labours of modern and contemporary 
 philosophers, and in their hands has assumed an entirely 
 new aspect. The composition of organic bodies may be 
 viewed in two ways ; either as relates to their ultimate ele- 
 ments, or to their proximate groups. The former are re- 
 markably few in number, and are almost exclusively con- 
 fined to four ; namely, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 
 nitrogen. These, by their varied and extraordinary union, 
 give rise to innumerable secondary products or proximate 
 principles. That the same elementary forms of matter 
 should give rise to such infinitely varied products, merely 
 in consequence of the varying proportions in which they 
 are combined and the circumstances under which they 
 have been presented to each other; that food and poisons, 
 alkalis and acids, sweets and bitters, and, in short, the 
 most opposite and dissimilar qualitief, should arise out 
 of such causes— is extremely remarkable ; and although 
 every day is adding to our information, and clearing diffi- 
 culties from this department of chemistry, it is but in its 
 infant state. 
 
 In looking at the present state of chemistry, it must be 
 allowed that it exhibits a most promising aspect; the study 
 of its abstract principles is calculated to keep the curiosity 
 constantly on the alert, and awaken an intense and peculiar 
 interest; and it is quite impossible to glance at its recent 
 progress, and at the extraordinary discoveries which are 
 daily rewarding the labours of its skilful cultivators, with- 
 out anticipating most important consequences. Should its 
 progress during the ensuing century only equal that of the 
 past, it must lead to results deeply affecting the interests 
 and welfare of mankind ; but as it has hitherto acquired 
 strength with its progress, its wonders may be expected to 
 accumulate in a much higher ratio. We already seem to 
 be on the brink of some great discovery connected with 
 those powers and properties of matter which we call elec- 
 trical. Their association with, and convertibility as it 
 were into, heat, light, and magnetism, and their identity 
 with the cause of chemical affinity, have already been 
 turned to great account ; and it is only necessary to assume 
 the possession of a more unlimited command than we at 
 present enjoy over the production or evolution of this ex- 
 traordinary agent, less dependent and scanty means of 
 summoning it into existence or activity, and a more inti- 
 mate acquaintance with its forms and qualities, to confer 
 the highest interest upon our speculations. Its chemical 
 powers would then be perpetually called into action as a 
 substitute for the more sluggish or circuitous and difficult 
 methods of ordinary decomposition. Its single application 
 to the evolution of oxygen and hydrogen from water would 
 alone work wonders ; whilst the facility of its conveyance 
 and transmission, its ubiquity, and its varied attributes in 
 those different states which for want of more explicit 
 knowledge of their cause have been termed quantity and 
 tension, seem to point it out as of unlimited application to 
 human uses. Through its instrumentality telegraphic com- 
 munication has not only been accelerated, but rendered 
 independent of weather, ani equally facile by night as by 
 day ; and even in the present state of this invention there 
 *eems no reason against such conveyance of our thoughts, 
 wants, and wishes, so as to transmit them over the globe with 
 a rapidity as much beyond all previous experience, as the 
 travelling on a rail-road exceeds that of a common car- 
 riage 
 
 Connected, therefore, with the progress of the higher 
 departments of chemical science, and indeed intimately 
 interwoven with it, is the advancement of its application to 
 all the aits of life. It is often supposed that the successful 
 applications of chemistry to the arts have been rather the 
 result of accident or chance than the consequence of those 
 apparently abstract studies, and curious rather than useful 
 discoveries, as they are called, in which the truly philoso- 
 phical chemist is engaged, and in which his labours termi- 
 222 
 
 nate ; but experience justifies no such conclusion. There 
 can be no doubt that Black's researches into those effects 
 of heat which are connected with changes in the state and 
 form of bodies, and especially with the constitution of 
 vapour, led Watt into that train if reasoning by which his 
 improvements in the steam engine were ultimately effected. 
 Most of the wonders of modern chemistry must be referred 
 to Galvani's experiments on a dead frog. They led Volta 
 to the construction of the electric pile; and v in the hands 
 of Davy and his successors, what important conqui 
 been attained, and what extraordinary consequences are 
 daily flowing from a source so apparently unpromising and 
 irrelevant! Independent of the new agents which have 
 been placed in the hands of the experimentalist, arid of 
 the new and important theoretical considerations which 
 arise out of them, the whole aspect and character of a greal 
 department of physical science has been wonderfully 
 changed, extended, and improved ; the cause of magnetism 
 has been developed ; and a power no less extraordinary 
 and applicable to human uses than light and heat, perhaps 
 indeed the parent of both, is gradually showing us its mys- 
 terious relations. Of two great practical consequences 
 have these inquiries already been productive ; namely, the 
 electrical telegraph, and the preservation of metals from 
 corrosion. That others are upon the eve of their develop- 
 ment cannot be doubted ; and in proportion as our know- 
 ledge of this agent and consequent power over it is extend- 
 ed, those ends must certainly be attained which we have 
 above ventured to anticipate. 
 
 From other departments of this science we are constant- 
 ly acquiring similar benefits: the progress of gas illumina- 
 tion, the great improvements in metallurgic operations, in 
 the arts of dyeing and calico-printing, in the manufacture ol 
 cements, in the preservation of timber from dry-rot, in gild- 
 ing and silvering the metals, are only a few of the cases in 
 point; even the difficult and apparently isolated researches 
 into the relative proportions of the ultimate elements of 
 the proximate organic products, and the application of the 
 atomic theory to those researches, have not been fruitless, 
 considered in reference to what are termed their practical 
 results and popular and useful applications. The brewer 
 and the distiller are reaping the benefits of such inquiries ; 
 the conversion of starch, and even of wood, into sugar, are 
 the practical consequences of theoretical inferences; from 
 the destructive distillation of ligneous matter we are al- 
 ready furnished with our chief supply of vinegar, and with 
 a liquid which, as a combustible and a solvent, has to a 
 great extent superseded the use of alcohol, and may pos- 
 sibly take its place at no very remote period as an intoxi- 
 cating stimulant : the saw-dust of certain woods has been 
 shown susceptible of conversion into nutriment : and the 
 analysis of bone points it out, when properly prepared, as 
 almost equal to its weight of flesh as an article of human 
 food. In short, of the arts of life the greater number are 
 dependent upon chemical principles; many of them, anc 
 perhaps the most important, are exclusively so ; others 
 though apparently mechanical, involve chemical princi 
 pies : hence the great and growing importance of chemica. 
 science as a branch of general education bearing upoj 
 political economy, and upon the prosperity of the arts and 
 manufactures. 
 
 Having given this outline of the rise, progress, uses, and 
 applications of chemical science, we must refer to other 
 articles for more explicit information upon the different 
 heads that have been alluded to. In reference to further 
 details respecting the history of this department of know- 
 ledge, especially as relates to alchemy and to the history of 
 chemical inventions, we may refer to Dr. Thomson's I/is- 
 tory of Chemistry, and to the prefatory chapter of Mr. 
 Brande's Manual. 
 
 The extent necessarily occupied by chemistry in a map 
 of human knowledge will be evident from the brief defini- 
 tion of the science given at the outset of this article ; for it 
 not only leads us to inquire into the composition of every 
 product of nature and of art, but to examine the elements 
 of all the forms of matter, and the laws which govern their 
 mutual actions and reactions. The questions which a 
 chemist propounds to himself, in examining any newly 
 discovered substance, involve therefore a long train of in- 
 quiries, which can only be answered and worked out by 
 multiplied experiments ; for it is impossible to move on- 
 wards in this science except, upon the basis of experimental 
 research. Accordingly, when a body of unknown nature 
 is presented to us, we endeavour first to ascertain whether 
 it be a simple or a compound substance. If simple, to what 
 class of elementary bodies does it belong : is it combustible 
 or incombustible ; is it electro-negative or eloctro-positive • 
 how is it affected by heat; what are its relations to othei 
 forms of matter ; what its powers of combination ; what 
 are the proportions in which it unites with other substances; 
 what are its characters and those of its combinations as a 
 chemical and physiological agent; what are its uses in th« 
 arts and in medicine? If it be a compound substance, we 
 inquire into the nature and number of its component parts" 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 arc they new, or are they known elements; in what pro- 
 are they combined ? We also, as before, exam- 
 ine its thermal and electrical relations, and its useful ap- 
 us. These, and many other questions which arise 
 in ttie course of chemical investigation, involve as it were 
 sever il distinct branches of inquiry, and lead us to con- 
 template chemistry under two points of view; namely, as 
 an independent science, which embraces the whole field 
 of chemical knowledge, and investigates the chemical re- 
 (f bodies without reference to any extraneous con- 
 siderations — this is pure, theoretical, or philosophical chem- 
 istry; and secondly, as a science having certain objects in 
 :cmmon with others, as with mineralogy, medicine, physi- 
 3ij;;y, and the arts — this beins apj>lied chemistry. 
 
 'ject then so extensive and complicated as chem- 
 istry, systematic arrangement is of the utmost importance 
 t idenL In the broad principles of ar- 
 
 nl most writers agree ; but in minor details each 
 generally pannes a path of his own. It would be useless, 
 even if it were possible, to enumerate the details of these ar- 
 tits as adopted by the leading didactic writers on 
 ; but the basis "upon which they are foundedde- 
 serves a few words of explanation. 
 
 Table of the Simple Substances, with their Symbols and 
 Equivalent or Combining Weights. 
 
 . 
 
 Kquirt- 
 
 NviiiS"!. 
 
 Svmli •]. 
 
 EqniT»- | 
 
 
 (nil, Hy. 
 
 U ran tie. 
 
 lenu, Ox- i 
 
 
 lrogcn 1 
 
 
 liut. 
 
 y»en I. j 
 
 1 Aluminum 
 
 10 
 
 at. 
 
 Al. 
 
 1-25 
 
 2 Antimony 
 
 65 
 
 ant. 
 
 Sb. 
 
 8125 
 
 3 Arsenic 
 
 33 
 
 ar. 
 
 As. 
 
 4 75 
 
 4 11 irium 
 
 69 
 
 ha. 
 
 Ba. 
 
 8-625 
 
 B llismuth 
 
 72 
 
 bi. 
 
 in. 
 
 9- 
 
 6 Boron 
 
 20 
 
 bo. 
 
 n. 
 
 25 
 
 7 Hromine 
 
 78 
 
 b. 
 
 Br. 
 
 9-75 
 
 8 Cadmium 
 
 56 
 
 cad. 
 
 Cd. 
 
 7- 
 
 9 Calcium 
 
 20 
 
 col. 
 
 Ca. 
 
 2 5 
 
 10 Carbon 
 
 6 
 
 car. 
 
 C. 
 
 0-75 
 
 11 Cerium 
 
 4S 
 
 ce. 
 
 Ce. 
 
 6- 
 
 nine 
 
 36 
 
 c. 
 
 CI. 
 
 4-5 
 
 13 Chromium 
 
 28 
 
 chr. 
 
 Cr. 
 
 3 5 
 
 bait 
 
 30 
 
 cob. 
 
 Co. 
 
 3 75 
 
 IS jlumbium 
 
 185 
 
 Cut. 
 
 Ta. 
 
 23125 
 
 16 Copper 
 
 32 
 
 em. 
 
 Cu. 
 
 4- 
 
 17 Fluorine 
 
 18 
 
 f 
 
 F. 
 
 2-28 
 
 H Glucium 
 
 18 
 
 |» 
 
 G. 
 
 2-25 
 
 
 200 
 
 an. 
 
 Au. 
 
 25- 
 
 20 Hydrogen 
 
 1 
 
 h. 
 
 II. 
 
 0125 
 
 21 Iodine 
 
 125 
 
 i. 
 
 I. 
 
 15-625 
 
 •£i Iridium 
 
 96 
 
 ir. 
 
 Ir. 
 
 12- 
 
 23 Iron 
 
 28 
 
 /«• 
 
 Fe. 
 
 35 
 
 
 104 
 
 t 
 
 Pb. 
 
 13- 
 
 i". Lithium 
 
 10 
 
 L 
 
 1-25 
 
 26 Magnesium 
 
 12 
 
 mag. 
 
 Mg. 
 
 1-5 
 
 87 M uiganese 
 
 23 
 
 man. 
 
 Mn. 
 
 3-5 
 
 ory 
 
 200 
 
 *#■ 
 
 Hg. 
 
 25- 
 
 ilybdenum 
 
 48 
 
 mol. 
 
 Mo. 
 
 6- 
 
 30 Nickel 
 
 28 
 
 nic. 
 
 Ni. 
 
 3.5 
 
 31 Nitre 
 
 14 
 
 n. 
 
 N. 
 
 175 
 
 num 
 
 100 
 
 OS. 
 
 Os. 
 
 12-5 
 
 . ,-en 
 
 8 
 
 0. 
 
 O. 
 
 1- 
 
 34 Palladium 
 
 54 
 
 pal. 
 
 Pd. 
 
 6-75 
 
 35 Phosphorus 
 
 16 
 
 P- 
 
 P. 
 
 2- 
 
 M Platinum 
 
 96 
 
 pin. 
 
 PI. 
 
 12- 
 
 ;? Potassium 
 
 40 
 
 po. 
 
 K. 
 
 5- 
 
 idiom 
 
 45 
 
 Th. 
 
 R. 
 
 5 625 
 
 nium 
 
 40 
 
 se. 
 
 Se. 
 
 5- 
 
 10 Silicium 
 
 8 
 
 si. 
 
 Si. 
 
 1- 
 
 ver 
 
 110 
 
 ag- 
 
 Aq. 
 
 13-75 
 
 13 Sodium 
 
 u 
 
 io. 
 
 Na. 
 
 3- 
 
 :tium 
 
 44 
 
 sir. 
 
 Sr. 
 
 55 
 
 11 Sulphur 
 
 16 
 
 s. 
 
 S. 
 
 2- 
 
 46 Tellurium 
 
 32 
 
 tel. 
 
 Te. 
 
 4- 
 
 46 Thorium 
 
 60 
 
 th. 
 
 Th. 
 
 7-5 
 
 47 Tin 
 
 58 
 
 sta. 
 
 Sn. 
 
 7-25 
 
 ;iium 
 
 24 
 
 ti. 
 
 Ti. 
 
 3- 
 
 49 Tung 
 
 100 
 
 tu. 
 
 W. 
 
 12-5 
 
 hum 
 
 63 
 
 va. 
 
 V. 
 
 8-5 
 
 J51 Uranium 
 
 217 
 
 ur. 
 
 u. 
 
 2712 
 
 52 Yttrium 
 
 32 
 
 y- 
 
 Y. 
 
 4- 
 
 53 Zinc 
 
 32 
 
 zn. 
 
 Zn. 
 
 4- 
 
 154 Zirconium 
 
 30 
 
 zir. 
 
 Zr. 
 
 3 75 
 
 The objects of chemistry are all included under one or 
 other of the following heads ; namely. — 
 
 1. The general powers and properties of matter. 
 
 2. The chemistry of elementary substances. 
 
 3. The chemistry of compounds. 
 
 And each of these require several subdivisions. Thus, un- 
 der the first head, we include attraction and affinity, heat, 
 light, and electricity ; under the second head are included 
 223 
 
 the chemical history and properties of the ponderable 
 elementary substances, and their mutual rew:tions, which of 
 course leads on to the third head ; namely, to the chemi- 
 cal history and properties of compound bodies. To render 
 the systematic arrangements of the elements and their 
 compounds intelligible, it will be necessary to enumerate 
 the former, and point out such of their characters as j'-e 
 connected with their classification. 
 
 Every substance upon our globe contains one or more oi 
 the fifty -four elementary or simple bodies, above enumerat- 
 ed : some of them are of extremely rare occurrence, others 
 abundant and always with and about us. It will be observed 
 that by far the greater number of them come under the de- 
 nomination of metals ; of the others, oxygen, hydrogen, 
 carbon, and nitrogen, are by far of most frequent occur 
 rence, as will be obvious when it is recollected that air and 
 water ami and animal products include two 
 
 or more of the Ust-mentinned substances. 
 
 The equivalent or combining proportions of these ele- 
 ments, although mentioned under individual substances in 
 this work, are also above enumerated (see the articles Ap-, 
 fixity. Atomic Theory, and Eq.uivai.exts), and also th« 
 symbols by which they are represented. 
 
 on of the physical and chemical proper 
 ties of tin- preceding elements of matter leads as to rlnsslfj 
 them according to their analogies. The greater number 
 of them possess the characters of metals. Several 
 ble the metals in certain respects, but are in others widely 
 different; these therefore have been termed metalloids. 
 A few are distinguished by entering into peculiar and dis- 
 tinct saliie is, of which ill may be 
 taken as the tj -herefore have been termed 
 halogens. And lastly, three of the elements are only 
 known in the In SWUM form; they have neither been liqui- 
 fied bos solidified, hut whenever they are isolated they 
 present themselves as permanent gases; hence they have 
 I gaudytee. This Is the classification of the 
 elementary bodies suggested by Berzelius, and it repre 
 sents them as follows : — 
 I. 
 
 Gazolytes. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 The metals, by far the most numerous of the elementary 
 bodies, are themselves the subjects of various classifica- 
 tions, anion:; which the following is perhaps the most con 
 venient; they are arranged marly In the order of theii 
 respective attractions for oxygen : — 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Halogens. 
 
 Metalloids. 
 
 Metal*. 
 
 Chlorine. 
 
 Sulphur. 
 
 
 Iodine. 
 
 Phosphorus. 
 
 
 Bromine. 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 
 Fluorine. 
 
 Boron. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 IIL 
 
 Potassium. 
 
 Manganese. 
 
 Copper. 
 Lead 
 
 Bodlum, 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Lithium. 
 
 Zinc 
 
 Antimony. 
 
 Calcium. 
 
 Tin. 
 
 Bismuth. 
 
 Barium. 
 
 Cadmium. 
 
 Uranium. 
 
 Strontium. 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 Titanium. 
 
 Magnesium. 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 Cerium. 
 Tellurium. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 Mcreurr. 
 
 Glucium. 
 
 Molybdenum. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 Zirconium 
 
 Chromium. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Yttrium. 
 
 Vanadium. 
 
 Platinum. 
 
 Thorium, 
 
 Tungsten. 
 
 Palladium. 
 
 Aluminum. 
 
 Columbium. 
 
 Rhodium. 
 
 Silicium. 
 
 Osmium. 
 Iridium. 
 
 The substances in the last division have been but imper- 
 fectly examined, and silicium should perhaps rather be 
 regarded as a metalloid than a metal. 
 
 In one or other, then, of these classes each elementary 
 body will find a place, but the arrangement only relates to 
 the simple substances; the classification of their combina- 
 tions, which are almost indefinite, is a much more intri- 
 cate and difficult subject, and it would be impossible here 
 to give even an outline of the different plans which have 
 been pursued or suggested. As far, however, as the 
 teacher of chemistry is concerned, none of the systematic 
 arrangements of compounds can be conveniently adopted ; 
 his best plan, therefore, is to develope their history and 
 properties as he proceeds. Having, for instance, discussed 
 the abstract properties of oxygen and hydrogen, he pro- 
 ceeds to the compound which they form, and which is wa- 
 ter; then he proceeds to the third element, nitrogen, and 
 its combinations with those previously described; thus, 
 nitrogen and oxygen form five distinct compounds, name- 
 ly, protoxide and binoxide of nitrogen, and hyponilroua. ni- 
 trous, and nitric acids. Nitrogen also combines with hy- 
 drogen to form ammonia, and ammonia combines with 
 nitric acid to form the salt called nitrate of ammonia In 
 a stale of mixture, nitrogen and oxygen constitute the grea) 
 bulk of the atmosphere. 
 
CHENOPODIACEiE. 
 
 From this brief notice of the mode of dealing with the 
 three elementary bodies of the first class, the reader will 
 readily understand the method of applying the same prin- 
 ciple to the entire list; the student will thus be conducted, 
 step by step, from the simplest to the most complicated 
 chemical combinations. It is always convenient, however, 
 in adopting this plan, to exclude the products of organiza- 
 tion, and to consider them apart, under a separate head, 
 entitled organic chemistry, which is of course subdivided 
 into the chemistry of vegetable and of animal products. 
 
 If, having studied chemistry upon this plan, we look back 
 upon the path which has been traversed, we shall immedi- 
 ately see that the compounds may be grouped into classes, 
 related to each other by certain analogies both of proper- 
 ties and composition. Thus we have the class of oxides, 
 or combinations of oxygen which are not acid ; of chlo- 
 rides, iodides, &c, and of acids ; and these again subdivid- 
 ed into oxyacids, and hydracids ; and lastly, the numerous 
 class of salts, or compounds of the acids with salifiable bases. 
 
 When compound bodies are susceptible of electro-che- 
 mical decomposition (or electrolytes) the elements al- 
 ways tend to one or other pole ; in other words, they are 
 either separated at the point or surface at which the (pre- 
 sumed) electrical current enters, or at the surface at which 
 it leaves the electrolyte ; hence the arrangement of the 
 elements into electro-negative bodies, or those which 
 tend to the anode, and electropositive bodies, or those 
 which tend to the cathode (using the terms anode and ca- 
 thode in reference to the ingress and egress of the electric 
 influence) ; oxygen, the halogens, and sulphur are anions, 
 or electro negatives ; hydrogen, and probably all the met- 
 als, are cathions, or electro-positives. A good arrangement 
 of the elementary bodies is founded upon such properties; 
 and although there are several whose electrical relations 
 have not hitherto been accurately determined, the electro- 
 chemical arrangement is that which will probably be most 
 generally adopted. Among the numerous modern Trea- 
 tises on Chemistry the following may be considered as the 
 most valuable: Kane's Elements of Chemistry ; Graham's 
 Elements ; Turner's do. ; Thomson's Inorganic Chemis- 
 try ; Thomson's Vegetable Chemistry; Brande's Manual; 
 Daniell's Chemical Philosophy; Hoblyn's Manual; D. B. 
 Reid's Elements ; and the Works of Berzelius, Dumas, 
 Liebig, Kaspail, Thenard, Mitscherlich, Ure; and Fara- 
 day's Chemical Manipulation ; Parnell's Elements of Che- 
 mical Analysis. 1842. 
 
 CHE'NOPODIA'CEiE. (Chenopodium, one of the ge- 
 nera.) A natural order of herbaceous Exogens, distin- 
 guished with difficulty from Amarantacea by their herba- 
 ceous calyx : from Phytolaccaeca by their solitary carpel, 
 and the stamens never exceeding the number of the seg- 
 ments of the calyx, to which they are opposite. They con- 
 sist of weeds Inhabiting most parts of the world, abound- 
 ing least within the tropics ; and they possess few sensible 
 properties. Chenopodium anthelminticum produces the 
 wormsecd oil of the shops; but in consequence of their in- 
 sipidity the species are often used for food, as in the case 
 of spinach, &c. Chevalier has remarked the curious fact 
 of Chenopodium vulvaria exhaling pure ammonia during its 
 
 CHE'CIUY, CHE'CKY, or CHE'aUERED. In Herald- 
 ry, a term used when a field or charge is divided by trans- 
 verse lines, paleways and fessways, into equal parts or 
 squares of different tinctures. 
 
 CHERT. A silicious mineral approaching the charac- 
 ters of flint. 
 
 CHE'RUBIM. See Seraphim. 
 
 CHEVA'L DE FRISE. A large and strong piece of 
 timber, traversed with wooden spikes, pointed with iron. 
 It is laid in a breach to impede the advance of cavalry. 
 
 CHEVALIE'R. (Fr. cheval, a horse), is used synony- 
 mously with the Eng. knight, Lat. eques, and Germ.Ritter. 
 
 CHEVRE'TTE. In Artillery, an engine used for raising 
 guns or mortars into their carriages. 
 
 CHE'VRON. In Heraldry, one of the nine honourable 
 ordinaries. It may be defined as consisting of the lower 
 half of a saltire(seeSALTiRE), brought to a point on the up- 
 per side ; and the object from which its name is derived 
 accurately resembles it in shape ; chevron, in old French, 
 meaning the support of a roof formed by two rafters lean- 
 ing against one another. A chevron standing on one side 
 of the escutcheon is said to be tourny, dexter, or sinister. 
 
 CHE'VRONEL. In Heraldry, an ordinary of the same 
 shape with the chevron, but containing only half its dimen- 
 sions. 
 
 CHI'AN TURPENTINE. A species of turpentine 
 brought originally from the island of Chios : it is the pro- 
 duce of the Pistacia terebinthus. 
 
 CHIA'RO SCURO. (It. clear obscure.) In Painting, the 
 art of so disposing the lights, both positive and reflected, 
 and the shadows of a picture in such a manner, that the 
 objects may stand out and be naturally relieved from one 
 another. Its name, however, seems mrre naturally to 
 224 
 
 CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 point to those parts of represented objects which, though 
 in shadow, have the intensity of such shadow lessened by 
 the reflection of a light body against them. It is a brunch 
 of the doctrine of Sciography. 
 
 CHl'CA. A red colouring matter used by some tribes of 
 American Indians to stain the skin: it is extracted from a 
 species of Bignonia. 
 
 CHICKEN POX. (raricella oC medical writers.) An 
 eruptive disease, which though frequently very mild in its 
 attack, is often also violent and attended by much fever. 
 The eruption consists of smooth vesicles of various sizes, 
 which afterwards become whitish and straw coloured ; 
 about the fourth day they break and scab off, seldom leav- 
 ing marks, or at least not more than a few. upon the most 
 delicate parts of the face, or where they happen to have 
 been large or accidentally scratched or "irritated. In very 
 wnrm weather the fluid in the vesicles becomes yellow, anil 
 apparently purulent, so as closely to resemble smallpox 
 in appearance; and under some circumstances the erup- 
 tive fever has not only been considerable, but preceded by 
 delirium. The distinctive or diagnostic characters by which 
 we distinguish chicken-pox from small-pox are, — 1st, the 
 comparative mildness of the preliminary fever, which in- 
 deed is often unobserved in strong and merry children, 
 and nothing known of the complaint till the spots are ob- 
 served about the face and breast: 2d, the rapidity with 
 which the eruption attains matjirity and proceeds through 
 its stnges, the scabs forming crusts about the fourth or fifth 
 day, which does not happen in the inMIl-pox till the tenth 
 or eleventh: 3d, the fluid in the vesicles is usually trans- 
 parent, or only milky, whereas in small-pox it has a puru- 
 lent appearance from the commencement. Like the small- 
 pox, it very rarely attacks the same individual more than 
 once. In the treatment of this disease little else is in most 
 cases requisite than to keep the patient cool, to abstain 
 from meat, to give diluents and mild aperients, and occa- 
 sionally, at the commencement, a dose of calomel and 
 rhubarb. In bad cases, the whole body is covered with 
 eruption, in mild ones there shall only be a very few vesi 
 cles; and it not uncommonly happens that where several 
 children have it in succession, one or two will escape with 
 little else than slight restlessness and very trivial febrile 
 symptoms. It is, however, by no means so trifling a dis- 
 ease as many writers have represented it, and if not closely 
 watched over, may be mistaken for small-pox. 
 
 CHIEF. (Fr. chef, head.) In Heraldry, the upper part 
 of the escutcheon, divided into three points, dexter, mid- 
 dle, and sinister. A chief, as an ordinary, is a less remov- 
 ed to the upper part of the escutcheon. Charges, in the 
 situation of the chief, are described as "in chief." 
 
 Cin'LBLAIN. An inflammatory swelling, of a purplish 
 colour, produced by exposure of the extremities to cold ; 
 it is generally attended with itching, and often with shoot- 
 ing pains. Children, especially those of a scrofulous habit, 
 and old persons, sutler most from chilblains; but they are 
 not unfrequently produced at all times by holding the 
 hands or feet to the fire after they have been exposed to 
 great cold ; in which case, the difference of temperature is 
 such as actually to burn the part, for few persons are aware 
 of the high temperature excited by the radient heat of a com- 
 mon fire upon substances held near it. Warm socks and 
 gloves are the best preventives against this affection, and 
 the itching and pain are generally relieved by moderately 
 stimulating applications: such as equal parts of solution 
 of acetate of ammonia or of vinegar and spirit of wine, or 
 of oil of turpentine and soap liniment. If the part should 
 break or ulcerate, stimulating dressings, such as the resin 
 or elemi ointment, are most serviceable, or in some cases 
 mild escharotics. 
 
 CHI'LIAD. (Gr. x'^'af. o thousand.) An assemblage of 
 things grouped or ranged by thousands. The word is chiefly 
 used by the early computers of logarithmic tables, who ex- 
 pressed the extent of the table by saying it contained the 
 logarithms of so many chiliads of absolute numbers. 
 
 CAl'LIASTS. In Ecclesiastical History, believersin the 
 second advent of Christ to reign a thousand years on earth. 
 See Millennium. 
 
 CHILOGNA'THES, Chilognatha. (Gr. xnAoS. o Up, and 
 yvados, a jaw.) An order of the class Myriapoda or Cen- 
 tipedes, in which the two mandibles and the tongue nre 
 united together to form a large lower lip. 
 
 CHILO'MA. In Zoology, the upper lip or muzzle of a 
 quadruped is so called when it is tumid, and continued un- 
 interruptedly' from the nostril, as in the camel. 
 
 CHI'LOPODS, Chilopoda. (Gr. xriAoS, a 1! P' aml ™v{, 
 afoot.) An order of the class Myriapoda or Centipedes, in 
 which the lower lip is formed by a pair of feet. 
 
 CHI'LTERN HUNDREDS. In Politics. The tract an- 
 ciently called the Chiltern Hundreds extends through part 
 of Buckingham and Oxford shires. The steward of these 
 hundreds was an officer appointed by the crown to keep 
 the peace there. As members of parliament, strictly speak- 
 ing cannot resign the'r seats, the mode of abandoning them 
 
CHIMiERA. 
 
 ■ by accepting a nominal office (such as this stewardship) 
 under the crown, which vacates the seat of the party tak 
 hit' it. 
 
 CHIMiE'RA. In Mythology, a fabulous monster, slain 
 by Bellerophon in Lycia. According to the lines in the 
 Iliad, vi. Lai. (which, however, are suspected of spurious- 
 had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and tail 
 of a serpent. (See Heyne's observations on this | 
 Many other forms were assigned to the Chimaera, the poets 
 having vied with ;ach other in representing it as the per- 
 •oolfic&tion of at that is horrible and terrific. It has usu- 
 »Ly been depicted as vomiting forth flames : — 
 
 Tremenrto 
 
 Flamma chimsre.— Hot. Oil. IV. 2. 15. 
 
 From this fabulous story is probably derived the appli- 
 cation of the term chimera, in nearly all the modern lan- 
 guages of Europe, to any wild or incongruous fancy arising 
 in the mm. I 
 
 CBULSRJL In Ichthyology, the name of a genus of 
 >siegous cartilaginous fishes; the best known spe- 
 cies, which inhabits the northern seas, and has occasionally 
 been taken on the English coast, is sometimes called "king 
 of the herrings." 
 
 CIII'MNEY. (Fr. cheminee.) The place in a room 
 where the fire is burnt, and from which the smoke is car- 
 ried away by means of a conduit called a Hue. Chimneys 
 are usually made by projection from a wall, and recess in 
 the same from the floor, ascending within the limits of the 
 projection and recess. That part of the opening which 
 faces the room is properly the fire place, the stone or mar- 
 ble under which is called the hearth. That on a level with, 
 and la front of it, is called the slab. The vertical sides of 
 the opening are called jambs. The head of the foreplate 
 resting on the jambs is called the mantle ; and the cavity or 
 hollow from the fire-place to the top of the room is called 
 the funnel. The part of the funnel which contracts as it 
 ascends is termed the gathering, or by some the gathering 
 of the wings. The tube or cavity of a parallclogrammatic 
 form on the plan, from where the gathering ceases up to 
 the top of the chimney, is called the Jlue. The part be- 
 tween Jt.a gathering and the flue is called the throat. The 
 part il the wall facing the room and forming one side of 
 the funnel parallel thereto, on the part of the wall forming 
 the sides of the funnels, where there are more than one, is 
 the breast. In external walls that side of the funnel oppo- 
 site the breast is called the back. When there is more 
 than one chimney in the same wall, the solid parts that di- 
 flde them are called withs. And when several chimneys 
 are collected into one mass, it is called attack of chimneys. 
 The part which rises above the roof for discharging the 
 smoke into the air is called a chimney shaft, wnose hori- 
 zontal upper surface is termed the chimney tap. 
 
 The eircings were formerly placed at right angles to the 
 face of the wall, and the chimney was finished in that 
 manner; but Count Rumford showed that more heat is 
 obtain ori from the fire by reflexion when the covings are 
 placed in an oblique position. He likewise directed that 
 the fin; itself should be kept as near to the hearth as pos- 
 sible, and that the throat of the chimney should be con- 
 structed much narrower than had been practised, with a 
 view to prevent the escape of so much heated air as hap- 
 pened with wide throats. If the throat be too near the fire, 
 the draught will be too strong, and the fuel will be wasted ; 
 and if it be too high up, the draught will be too languid, 
 and there will be a danger of the smoke being occasionally 
 beat back into the room. Before Count Rumford directed 
 his attention to this subject, smoky chimnpys were very 
 common ; but by studying his principles, these at present 
 seldom occur. See Firf.pi.acb. Grate, Stove. 
 
 CHIMPANZEE, CHIMPANSE, or QUIMPESE'. Na- 
 tive names of the African orang (Simia troglodytes, Blum.). 
 It is of a black colour, and attains the height of between four 
 and five feet, measured in a straight line from the vertex to 
 the heel. This species, which of all the brute creation 
 approaches nearest to man, lias been hitherto taken alive 
 to England only in a young state ; and a knowledge of the 
 osteological structure of the adult has been but very recent- 
 y acquired. 
 
 It differs from the Asiatic or red Orang not only in 
 colour, but in the greater size of the external ears, the 
 more prominent ridge above the eyes, the relative short- 
 ness of the arms, and the greater development of the thumb 
 of the hind foot, which has constantly two phalanges and 
 a nail. 
 
 The principal osteological differences are the following: 
 — The cranium is flatter and broader in proportion to the 
 face. The supraciliary ridges are more developed ; and 
 the great interparietal and lambdoidal crests, which render 
 so remarkable the skull of the adult orang, are wanting. 
 The interorbital space is broader. The occipital foramen 
 has a more central position. The antericr condyloid fora- 
 men is single on each side, while in the orang it is double. 
 I*he intermaxillary sutures are obliterated before the de- 
 ^luous incisors are shed. The incisive and canine teeth 
 
 CHIVALRY. 
 
 are of smaller proportional size. There are thirteen pan* 
 of ribs instead of twelve pairs, as in the orang ; and conse- 
 quently there are thirteen dorsal vertebra?. The sternal 
 bones form a single row. The chimpanzee further dif- 
 fers from the orang-utan in the non- division of the pisiform 
 bone of the wrist ; and in the depression at the head of the 
 femur, corresponding to the interarticular ligament of the 
 hip-joint, which is wanting in the orang. 
 
 The habits and deportment of the chimpanzee, as ob- 
 served in those young specimens which have been taken 
 alive to England, are of peculiar interest, from the high ile 
 gree in which inquisitiveness, perception, main 
 docility are manifested; and by the gravity and consilient 
 tion with which many even of its ludicrous and playful ac 
 lions are performed. It is probable, however, that In lh« 
 adult much of this intelligence gives way to the fiercer 
 trails of the brute nature. The negroes which inhabit the 
 forests in the interior of Africa have a general, and doubt- 
 less well founded dread of the great ')lack ape. Vague ac- 
 cotints are repeated in succeeding systems of natural his- 
 tory of the gregarious habits of the chimpanzee ; its policy 
 as shown in the construction of rude huts, and other but 
 much less probable feats. The truth is, however, that we 
 have much more certain knowledge of the habits of the 
 duck-billed platypus of Australia than of the adult chim- 
 panzee, which is the most interesting of all the Mammalia, 
 from the close approach which it makes to the human 
 species. See Martin's Man and Monkeys, 8vo. 1841. 
 
 CHTNA ROOT. The root of the Smilax China, so 
 called because imported from China. It was formerly used 
 in the same cases in which sarsaparilla is now given. 
 
 CHINCHl'LLA. The generic appellation founded on 
 the South American or local name ''chinchille," or ''little 
 chinche," and applied to a genus of gnawing Mammalia 
 or Rodents, peculiar to the South American continent. Il 
 is from a species of this genus (Chinchilla lanigera) that 
 the grey fur is obtained, which has been so much prized in 
 Europe for many years ; but the exact nature of the animal 
 itself has been only very recently ascertained, by the ex- 
 amination of specimens which have been procured for the 
 menagerie of the Zoological Society. 
 
 CHI'N COUGH See Whoopiko Cough. 
 
 « II1NF/SE ARCHITECTURE. -See Architecture 
 
 CHINTZ. A peculiar pattern upon printed calicos, in 
 which flowers and other devices are printed in five or six 
 different colours, upon white and coloured grounds. A 
 good chintz pattern in fast colours is one of the most sur- 
 prising and difficult efforts of the art. 
 
 CHIR A'GRA. (Gr. \ tl ?i tne band, and aypa, a seizure.) 
 Gout in the hands. 
 
 CHI'ROGRAPH. (Gr. x"P, and yP'ty^t I write.) In 
 Diplomatics, a species of instrument contrived for the pur- 
 pose for which indentures were devised ; viz. the enabling 
 different parties to retain authenticated counterparts of the 
 deed. Some word (commonly the word chirographum, 
 whence the name) was written between the two copies on 
 the same sheet, and cut through lengthwise when they 
 were divided. 
 
 CHIRO'LOGY. (Gr. %tip, and \6yoc, discourse.) The 
 language of the fingers ; sometimes called dactylology, from 
 i&KTv\o(, the finger. 
 
 CIH'ROMANCY, or PALMISTRY. (Gr. x">, and 
 udvrcta, divination.) The imaginary art of divination by 
 the lines of the hand. According to the science of Chiro- 
 mancy, the lines on the palm of the hand are divided into 
 principal and inferior : the former are five — the line of life ; 
 the line of the liver, or natural mean ; the line of the brain ; 
 the thoral line, or line of fortune ; the dragon's tail, or dis- 
 criminal line, between the hand and the u:m. Various 
 other modes of divination were practised by observation 
 of the hand and its parts ; onychomancy (from onyx, a 
 nail), dactylomancy (from the fingers), Ac. The practice 
 of chiromancy, once defended and explained by grave and 
 learned authors, is now chiefly left to be exercised by the 
 gipsies. See Borrow's Zincali, 8vo. 1S42. 
 
 CHIRO'NOMY. (Gr. x«<>. and v6/io(, law.) The sci- 
 ence which treats of the rules of gesticulation, or pantr.. 
 mime, and oratorical action. 
 
 CIH'TON. (Gr. x^otv, a garment.) The name of \ 
 genus of Gastropodous Mollusks, which have a series ot 
 testaceous symmetrical pieces implanted in the back part 
 of the manlle. 
 
 CHI'VALRY. (From the French chevalier, knight.) 
 The usases and customs pertaining to the order of knight- 
 hood. The general system of manners and tone of senti- 
 ments which the institution of knighthood, strictly pursued, 
 was calculated to produce, and did in part produce, during 
 the middle ages in Europe, is comprehended in ordinary 
 language under the term of chivalry. This imaginary in 
 stitution of chivalry, such as it is represented in the old ro 
 m, Hires, had assuredly no full existence at any period in 
 the usages of actual life. It was the ideal perfection of a 
 code of morals and pursuits which was in truth only par- 
 tially adopted ; and bore the same relation to the real uf« 
 
CHIVALRY. 
 
 ot the middle ages, which the philosophical excellence 
 aimed at by the various sects of antiquity bore to the real 
 conduct of their professors. But, in both instances, a sys- 
 tem of abstract perfection was propounded in theory, which, 
 although the defect of human nature prevented it from 
 being reduced into practice, yet exercised a very important 
 influence in modelling the minds, and even controlling the 
 actions, of those who adopted it. The vivifying principle 
 of ancient philosophy was ideal virtue ; that of chivalry, the 
 ideal point of honour. 
 
 The origin of chivalry has often been traced to the Ger- 
 man tribes; nor has its spirit ever penetrated very deeply 
 into the usages of any country in which these tribes have 
 not either produced the ancestors of the great body of the 
 nation, or at least the conquering and governing class, 
 which transfused its habits and sentiments into that body. 
 Thus Germany and France, and England, whose gentry 
 derive their origin from both, have been the countries most 
 distinguished for the prevalence of this institution. The 
 martial spirit of the Spaniards was indeed partly animated 
 by it; but in their country it always bore something of the 
 character of a foreign importation, modified by the circum- 
 stances of their juxtaposition with the Arab race. In Italy, 
 it existed only among those classes which imitated the 
 manners of France and Germany, and never entered into 
 the general character of the natives, notwithstanding the 
 popularity of the poetical romances of chivalry. Among 
 the Sclavonic nations it has never prevailed extensively ; 
 although the feudal constitution of Polish society derived 
 a certain tincture from it, it never penetrated into Russia. 
 It has been often remarked, that it is only within the last 
 two or three generations that the nobility 'of that country, 
 by their intercourse with the nations of Western Europe, 
 have derived something of the spirit of the chivalrous code, 
 so far as it still subsists among ourselves: the point of 
 honour, and its peculiar concomitant the usage of the duel, 
 were scarcely known in Russia before the present century. 
 
 Chivalry originated in the feudal attachment of warriors 
 to the person of their king or chief, which has been so often 
 described as characteristic of the ancient Germans. Hence 
 the English word knight, which, when the Norman "che- 
 valiers" were first known among us, was spontaneously 
 used as the translation of their title, signifies in its origin 
 our "knit," or attached to another, — a servant or attendant. 
 At what precise time the devotional character was added 
 to the oriainal martial impress of national usages, and the 
 compound system of chivalry were thus produced, it is not 
 easy to ascertain. It has been said that the investiture of 
 the knight was purely military until the reign of Charle- 
 magne; and it may be supposed that the wars of the Franks 
 against the Saracens first blended the ardour of war and 
 religion together, and that the Crusades completed the 
 union. At the latter period were instituted the two cele- 
 brated military orders of monks, the Templars and Hos- 
 pitallers, (see those articles,) the code of whose govern- 
 ment combined monastic .and knightly usages. After 
 valour and devotion, the third characteristic feature of chi- 
 valry was gallantry to the fair sex; and the source of this 
 sentiment also has been traced to the habits and feelings 
 of the Northern tribes, among whom woman was looked 
 on with a much more exalted sense of her dignity than in 
 the most civilized countries of antiquity. It is needless to 
 add, that this romantic feeling, however high its precepts 
 may have sounded in theory, degenerated into licentious- 
 ness in actual life. M. de Sainte Palaye, the learned French 
 historian of the usages of chivalry, has brought instances 
 enough to prove the extreme depravation of manners which 
 prevailed, even at those courts and at those periods in 
 which the spirit of chivalry was most prevalent. If the 
 Crusades communicated to chivalry its devotional charac- 
 ter, it is in the poetry of the Troubadours about the same 
 period, in the 12th and 13!h centuries, that we find its pecu- 
 liarity of devotion to the female sex first developed. But 
 in their verses it does not appear clothed with the romantic 
 purity with which it was afterwards invested by the writers 
 of the heroic f-des of chivalry ; and still less in those of the 
 contemporary French writers of the Fabliaux, from whose 
 compositions we draw the most authentic monuments 
 which we possess in this curious branch of antiquarian re- 
 search. The knight, or even the esquire, was bound to 
 follow a single lady and dedicate himself to her service ; 
 but little delicacy is either intimated or enjoined in the rela- 
 tions which subsisted between them, and his devotion to her 
 was considered as entitling him to every recompense love 
 could bestow. 
 
 The 14th century was the brilliant period of chivalry; 
 when its usaces. originally formed in the manners of the 
 people, had become Caed and embellished by the fictions 
 of tne writers of romances; and when princes and chief- 
 tains, forming their idea of the institution rather from the 
 descriptions contained in them than from real life, sought 
 to bring back their courts and camps to the likeness of those 
 ideal models of perfection. It may be more truly said that 
 the romances of chivalry were the prototypes of that state 
 226 
 
 of courtly society which existed in the reigns of Kd 
 ward III. and Richard II., and of which Froissart has left 
 us such accurate and lively representations, titan that ex- 
 isting manners and sentiments furnished the subject-matter 
 of those romances. These fictions, of which the heroes 
 were taken from among a long list of fanciful personages, 
 in whose history a little tradition of past wonts was blended 
 with a much larger proportion of fab e, represented the 
 knight not only as devoted to the service of his religion, his 
 lord, and his mistress, but also as consecrated to the general 
 service of the oppressed and maintenance of right nil ovei 
 the world. There can ^e little doubt that the peculiai 
 ceremonies which, in the 14th and 15th centuries, accom- 
 panied the creation of a knight, — the vow of chivalry, the 
 watching, prayer, and fasting, &c, — were borrowed by ro- 
 mantic imaginations from such fabulous recitals, which 
 were read and related in every courtly company. In the 
 reign of Edward III., the romantic part of chivalry, as we 
 have said, was more closely transfused into real manners 
 than at any period eitherpreceding or subsequent. Before 
 that period, the manners of the knights and dames had ex- 
 hibited but little of that polish and refinement, their senti- 
 ments but little of that generosity, which were the subjects 
 of so much imaginary description ; and, in later times, chi- 
 valry gradually decayed. Its usages were maintained with 
 even more of magnificence than before ; its various rites, 
 titles, and distinctions subsisted for a long period in most 
 European countries, and partly remain to this day; but the 
 spirit of feudal devotedness was quenched by the multipli- 
 cation of mercenary troops; adherence to a feudal lord was 
 superseded by the more general feelings of national patriot- 
 ism (which, singularly enough, was almost wholly omitted 
 in the chivalric code.) and the extravagances into which 
 the imaginary point of honour had led its votaries fell into 
 discredit and ridicule. 
 
 It is, therefore, to the 14th century, and especially to that 
 part of its chronicles preserved by the true annalist of chi- 
 valry, Froissart, that we must .look for the period when the 
 line between real society and that represented in romances 
 was most nearly broken down. When the usages of chi- 
 valry were most flourishing, all men of noble birth, (except 
 the highest) were supposed to pass through three orders or 
 gradations. They first lived as pages in the train of nobles 
 and chiefs of high rank ; next, as esquires, they attached 
 themselves to the person of some individual knight, tc 
 whom they were bound by a strict law of obedience, and 
 for whom they were bound to incur every danger, and, if 
 necessary, sacrifice their lives ; and, thirdly, they were 
 promoted to the rank of knighthood. (For the different 
 orders of knighthood see Knight.) It is sufficient to ob- 
 serve here, that however great the distinction might bo 
 between knights in point of rank and wealth, custom es- 
 tablished a species of equality among all of the same order, 
 which may be said to subsist among gentlemen of the pre- 
 sent day. They formed, all over Europe, a common cor- 
 poration, as it were, possessing certain rights, and owing 
 each other certain mutual duties and forbearances. They 
 were united, not by the ties of country, but by those of 
 feudal obedience, which attached every knight to the ban- 
 ner of his liege lord, from whom he held his fee ; but little- 
 or rather no dishonour attached to knights who were under 
 no such feudal tie, if they chose their own chieftain wher- 
 ever they thought fit: they were free adventurers, whose 
 order was a passport in every service ; and in the actual 
 conflict, the hostility of knights was moderated by usage. 
 Thus, it was dishonourable in any knight to take a knight's 
 life if disarmed, and not to set him free when a prisoner on 
 receiving a fitting ransom. Manny and Chandos, the two 
 most celebrated of Edward III.'s knights, were attached 
 wholly to the banner of their sovereign, and not to that of 
 their country ; and although the French constable Duguesc- 
 lin, the third among these mirrors of chivalry, appears to 
 have been devoted to the cause of France as well as that of 
 his master, this double loyalty found few imitators. In 
 peace, also, knights of all countries were welcome visitors 
 at the courts of chivalric sovereigns; and all enjoyed the 
 privilege of presenting themselves at the tournament, and 
 contending there for the prize. 
 
 With regard to the point of honour, which forms the most 
 important feature in the usages of chivalry, see some de- 
 tails under the article Duel. The principal objects to 
 which it related were, religious belief; fealty to the feudal 
 superior; devotion to some one selected lady; anil, finally, 
 the general character for honour and courtesy which it was 
 incumbent on a knight to maintain; for although his imag.- 
 nary duties, as a knight errant, to avenge wrong ami suc- 
 cour the oppressed on every occasion, were not of course 
 very strictly put in practice, yet his vow to perform those 
 duties attached to his character a certain degree of sm-red- 
 ness which it was necessary to maintain. Chivalrous 
 honour was chiefly supported in two ways ; first, by the 
 single combat or duel, whether on account of serious pro- 
 vocation or by way of trial of strength ; secondly, by the 
 performance of vows, often of the most frivolous and ex 
 
CHLAMYPHORE. 
 
 trnvagant nature. These latter were generally undertaken 
 for the honour of the ladies. Many historical instances of 
 these absurd yet daring follies are preserved by Froissart. 
 They, with other usages of knighthood, were long pre- 
 served among those who aimed at the reputation of chi- 
 valry; after these usages had ceased to form a part of the 
 ordinary customs of society. Thus, the instances which 
 ■art relates of knights riding alone up to the barriers 
 iced cities, ice. were imitated in after-limes, and at 
 -personal Hazard, by such romantic personages as 
 Lord Herbert of Cherbury, whose feats performed in ri- 
 valry with the French champion Balagny are mentioned 
 in bis Memoirs. But the vows'did not only relate to mar- 
 tial achievements, but to others of a more extravagant and 
 jiTe character. We need only refer to Monstrelet's 
 narrative of the company called "Galois" of knights and 
 -, who bound themselves, for love of each other, to 
 ■■: a particular code of usages; of which a part con- 
 sisted in wearing thick clothes in summer and thin in win- 
 ter, tn show that the power of their love rendered them in- 
 sensible to the difference of seasons ; a vow which was 
 maintained with such perseverance, that the greater part 
 of the devoted company actually died of cold. (See also 
 the J/iniori/ of the Vow cf the Heron Sainte Palaye, vol. 
 iii.) The commencement of extravagances, however, was 
 rather a sign of the decline of the true spirit of chivalry. 
 1: decayed with the progress of mercenary armies and the 
 i ■ of feudal institutions through the 15th century; in 
 tli ■ ltiih, it was little more than a lively recollection of past 
 . which knights such as Bayard and sovereigns such 
 incia I. and Henry Yin. strove to retire; and finally, 
 it bees -hed amid religious discords, leaving as 
 
 its only relic the code of honour, which is still considered 
 nduct of the gentleman. 
 CHI.A/MYPHORE. Chlamyj'horus. (Or. xKapvs, a 
 cloak, and <pinto, I carry.) A name given to a small spe- 
 cies of Armadillo, which is covered by its coat of mail as 
 by a cloak. The animal is not above 6 inches long, and, 
 like the rest of its genus, inhabits exclusively the continent 
 i'h America. It is interesting from the analogy of its 
 skeleton and coat of mail to those of the gigantic extinct 
 megatherium. 
 
 CHLENA'CEiE. (Gr. %\aiva, a cloak. All the names 
 belonging to this order are compounded of this Word, used 
 in a figurative sense for an Involucrum.) A natural order 
 of shrubby or arborescent Exogens, allied to Malvacea, on 
 :ut of their monadelphous stamens and involucrated 
 ira, but referred by Jussieu to the vicinity of Ebena- 
 it, however, appears, from their imbricated calyx, 
 lar flowers, and albumen, that they have the greatest 
 affinity with Cistacex. They are all natives of Madagas- 
 car; beautiful in their flowers, but of no known use ; and 
 are, in fact, but little known even to botanists. 
 
 C'HI.O'KAL. (From the first syllables of chlorine and 
 alcohol.) A liquid composed of chlorine, carbon, and oxy- 
 gen, obtained by the action of chlorine upon alcohol. 
 
 CHLORANTHA'CEiE. (Chloranthus, one of the gen- 
 era.) A small natural order of apetalous Exogens, nearlv 
 allied to Saururacea and Piperacea; from both of which 
 it differs in warning a sac to the embryo, and in having a 
 pendulous ovule and opposite leaves with intermediate sti- 
 pules. Blume places these plants near to Opercular ■inem. 
 They are natives of the hotter parts of the world, and ap- 
 pear lo possess stimulating properties of great importance. 
 Chloranthus officinalis and brachystachys, although not offi- 
 cinal in Europe, are believed to be among the most power- 
 ful of stimulation agents. 
 
 CHLO'RATES. Combinations of chloric acid with sali- 
 fiable bases. Of these salts the chlorate of potash is best 
 known ; it was formerly called oxi/muriate of potash. 
 When mixed with combustibles, such as sulphur or char- 
 coal, and some of the metals, it forms highly explosive 
 compounds, which ignite by a blow or by friction, or upon 
 the contact of sulphuric acid. A mixture of this salt with 
 . or with sulphuret of antimony, is used for tipping 
 the matclies which inflame when dipped into sulphuric 
 icid, or when briskly drawn through a piece of emery 
 taper Chlorate of potash consists of 70 chlorine acid -f 
 IS potass* = 124 of the chlorate. 
 
 CHLO'RIDES. Combinations of chlorine, correspond- 
 Dg with the oxides. Common salt :s a chloride of sodium ; 
 hat is, a binary compound of chlorine and sodium. Where 
 'here are two chlorides of the same base, the relative pro- 
 portions of chlorine in them are almost invariably as 1 to 
 C ; hence the terms protochloride and bichloride. Caloretl 
 and corrosive sublimate are the protochloride and bichlo- 
 ride of mercury. The latter is frequently termed per- 
 chloride. In calomel 200 of mercury are combined with 36 
 of chlorine, and in corrosive sublimate with twice 36 
 or 72. 
 
 CHLO'RINE. (Gr. %X&>poc, green.) This ga3 was dis- 
 covered in 1774 by Scheele, who called it dephlogisticated 
 muriatic acid; the French nomenclaturists afterwards 
 termed it oxygenated muriatic acid, conceiving it to be a 
 
 CHOANITES. 
 
 compound of oxygen and muriatic acid. This erroneous 
 view of its nature was corrected in 1809 by Sir II. Davy, 
 who gave it the present name, indicative of its colour. 
 Chlorine is a simple substance, existing at common tem- 
 peratures and pressures in the gaseous slate; but when 
 subjected to a pressure of about four atmospheres it be- 
 comes condensed inlo a yellow transparent liquid, which 
 is a nonconductor of electricity. 100 cubical nches of 
 chlorine, at mean temperature and pressure, weigh he 
 tween 70 and 77 grains : water absorbs twice its volume, 
 and acquires a yellow colour, and the peculiar suffocating 
 odour of the gas. When humid chlorine is exposed to a 
 temperature of 32°, it assumes a crystalline form ; this hy 
 drate of chlorine consists of 1 equivalent of chlorine = 3t> 
 •+- 10 of water = 9 X 10 or 90. Chlorine is not only unre- 
 spirable, but very injurious when breathed, even If largely 
 diluted : a taper burns in it with a red smoky flame, and is 
 soon extinguished. Some of the metals, when finely divi- 
 ded, spontaneously take fire in chlorine, such as brass 
 leaf, or powdered antimony. A remarkable property of 
 chlorine is its power of destroying almost all vegetable and 
 animal colours ; hence the important application of this 
 gas and of some of its combinations to the art of bleaching. 
 It also destroys the putrid odour of decomposing vegetable 
 and animal substances, and infectious effluvia of all kinds, 
 whence its use in fumigation, and in preventing the spread 
 of infectious and contagious matter, and purifying noxious 
 atmospheres. 
 
 The great natural source of chlorine is common salt, 
 which contains it in the proportion of about 60 per cent. It 
 is procured by decomposing common salt by the joint 
 agency of sulphuric acid and peroxide of manganese. The 
 best proportions are 3 parts of salt and 1 of oxide of man- 
 ganese ; these are well mixed, and put into a retort with 2 
 parts of sulphuric acid previously diluted with 2 of water. 
 Chlorine Is evolved, and its extrication is quickened by 
 the application of a gentle heat. Chlorine may also be ob- . 
 tained from a mixture of muriatic acid with hull' its weight 
 of black oxide of manganese. The gas may be collected 
 over water, and should bo preserved in bottles with glass 
 stoppers; if left in the contact of water, it is soon absorbed. 
 See Muriatic Acid. 
 
 CHLORI'ODINE, or CHLORIO'DIC ACID. A com 
 pound of chlorine and iodine. 
 
 CHLO'RITE. (Gr. x^wpoc.) An earthy mineral of a 
 green colour, often found in the cavities and veins of slate 
 rocks. 
 
 CHLO'RO. (Gr. vXoipoj.) A term used in the compo- 
 sition of botanical and other scientific words formed from 
 the Greek, to iudicate a clear lively green colour without 
 any mixture. 
 
 CHLO'ROCARBO'NIC ACID. A compound formed 
 by exposing a mixture of chlorine and carbonic oxide to 
 the action of light. 
 
 CHLO'ROCYA'NIC ACID. A compound of chlorine 
 and cyanogen. 
 
 CHLORO'METER. (Gr. x^ u P°ti an<1 ut-?ov, a mea- 
 sure.) An instrument for the purpose of testing the de- 
 colouring or bleaching powers of chloride of lime, by 
 which the relative values of different samples of that im- 
 portant bleaching and disinfecting compound may be as- 
 certained. 
 
 CHLO'ROPHAITE. (Gr. x^upoc, and (paios, black.) 
 A mineral, which when recently broken is green, but after- 
 wards becomes black. 
 
 CHLO'ROPHANE. (Gr. x*> u P°Si aml <j>aivu), Ishine.) 
 A species of fluor spar, which, when heated, shines with 
 a beautiful pale green light. 
 
 CHLOROPHYLL. (Gr. x*up°(, and ^v\\oy, a leaf.) 
 The green colouring matter of the leaves of plants. 
 
 CHLORO'SIS, (Gr. fcXwpoc), or ETIOLATION. In 
 Botany, is a species of constitutional debility ; the affected 
 individual being pale, and destitute of a healthy green : the 
 stems are weak, long, and slender; no flowers are pro- 
 duced ; and the plant is readily killed. It is believed that 
 this malady is exclusively produced in plants by want of 
 sufficient light. 
 
 Chlorosis. (Gr. xXo>poc.) In Medicine, a disease 
 giving a peculiar sallowness lo the countenance, hence 
 called the green sickness. It chiefly affects young females ; 
 its symptoms are extremely various, but generally refera- 
 ble to imperfect or suppressed menstrual evacuation. 
 Tonics, chalybeates, aloetics, sea and cold bathing, and 
 slight electric shocks passed through the pelvis, together 
 with due amusement and exercise, are among the princi 
 pal remedial agents. 
 
 CHLO'ROXA'LIC ACID. A compound obtained by 
 exposing acetic acid and^phlorine to bright sunshine. Its 
 elements are in such proportion, that it may be rega-ded 
 as a compound of 1 equivalent of hydrochloric acid and I 
 of oxalic acid. 
 
 CHLO'RURETS. Compounds of chlorine. Set Chlo- 
 rides. 
 
 CHO'AMTES. (Gr. x°<""l> a funnel.) A genu3 cf ex 
 
CHOCOLATE. 
 
 tlnct Zoophytes, so called on account of their fossil skele- 
 ton or polypary presenting in general a funnel-shaped 
 figure, though sometimes they are globular or subcylindri- 
 cal. This genus holds an intermediate place between 
 Alcyonium and Ventriculites : it is distinguished from the 
 former by having a central cavity at the upper part, and 
 from the latter by not having an outer reticulate surface. 
 One species, the Choanites konigii, is found in abundance 
 in the loose flints beneath the turf near the nice course at 
 I. ewes in Sussex, and appears to have been common in the 
 upper beds of the chalk. 
 
 CHO'COLATE. A term said to be compounded of two 
 Indian words, choco, sound, and alia, water, from the noise 
 made in its preparation. Chocolate is made by triturating 
 the roasted cocoa nut into a paste in a heated mortar, sugar 
 and some aromatics being occasionally added ; the oily 
 matter of the nut gives it whilst hot a due consistence, so 
 that it is cast in tin moulds, in which it concretes, on cool- 
 ing, into cakes. It is a rich article of diet, and apt to dis- 
 agree with weak stomachs. 
 
 CHOIR. (Gr. xopoj.) In Architecture, the part of a church 
 in which the choristers sing divine service. In former 
 times it was raised sejparate from the altar, with a pulpit 
 on each side, in which the epistles and gospels were sung, 
 as is still the case in several churches on the Continent. It 
 was separated from the nave in the time of Constantine. In 
 nunneries, the choir is a large apartment, separated by a 
 grate from the body of the church, where the nuns chant 
 the service. This term is used also in music to signify a 
 band of singers in different parts. 
 
 CHOKE DAMP. A term applied by well-diggers and 
 miners to carbonic acid gas. 
 
 CHO'LAGOGUE. (Gr. x°^l> bile, and ayw, I evacuate.) 
 A term applied by ancient medical writers to certain pur- 
 gative remedies which produce bilious evacuations. 
 
 CHOLE'DOCHUS. (Gr. xoX;/, and Ssxoftai, J receive.) 
 One of the ducts of the liver is called the ductus communis 
 cfioledochus. 
 
 CHO'LERA (Gr. xoX/j, ar| d P £tJ , I Jlow.) A disease 
 accompanied by vomiting and purging, with great pain and 
 debility, and apparently arising from excess of acrimony 
 of bile: it is most common at the close of summer and 
 beginning of autumn, and seems to be produced by cold, 
 suppressed perspiration, indigestible fruits, &c. It general- 
 ly commences with a sense of pain about the bowels, fever, 
 thirst, an irregular pulse, and severe vomiting and purging 
 of bilious matter : in favourable cases these symptoms 
 subside in a few days with the aid of opiates, mucilaginous 
 diluents, and mild aperients followed by tonics ; but in se- 
 vere cases great exhaustion ensues, attended by depression 
 of spirits, anxiety, hurried respiration, cold sweats, hiccup, 
 low and fluttering pulse, and the patients rapidly sink, and 
 are sometimes carried off within twenty-four hours. In 
 such cases warm fomentations sometimes relieve the pain, 
 and effervescent saline draughts check the sickness, and 
 enable the stomach to bear large doses of opiujra. 
 
 Cho'leba, Abia'tic. The term Asiatic or Spasmodic 
 Chqlera has been applied to a new and most appalling form 
 of pestilential disease, which seems to have been but indis- 
 tinctly known prior to the year 1817. It made its appear- 
 ance in August that year at Jessore, after having previously 
 raged to a formidable extent in the south of Bengal, and 
 thence it spread over a great part of Asia, carrying off mil- 
 lions of human beings. In 1823 it broke out at Astracan, 
 but did not at that time extend further into Russia ; in 1828, 
 however, it appeared at Orenburg, and during the autumn 
 of that year and the spring of 1829 it spread over a consider- 
 able part of the Russian dominions. It raged at Moscow 
 in September, 1830 ; and having been apparently carried by 
 the Russian army into Poland, it propagated itself through 
 different parts of Europe, and reached England. The 
 symptoms of this, as of other disorders, vary considerably 
 at different times and in different individuals ; but as our 
 object here is briefly to describe the characteristic features 
 of the disease in their unalloyed form, we shall omit all 
 unnecessary details, and place before our readers a short 
 account of its effects in its worst and by no means uncom- 
 mon form. 
 
 The first circumstance that strikes us in regard to the 
 attacks of this disease is their suddenness. A person in 
 apparent health feels slightly giddy, chilly, or sick, and in 
 the course of two or three hours sinks into a state of extra- 
 ordinary and alarming debility ; the countenance assumes 
 a deadly paleness, and the skin feels and looks like that of 
 a corpse ; the pulse falls, flutters, and is almost impercep- 
 tible ; a livid circle surrounds the sunken eyes ; the tongue 
 is slightly furred, and the breath cold. Under this exces- 
 sive and extraordinary prostration the patients sometimes 
 die in the course of a very few hours ; otherwise it is suc- 
 ceeded by vomiting and purging, the voided matters re- 
 sembling turbid whey, and being in fact a serous fluid with 
 floating shreds or flocculi of coagulated albumen ; and now 
 cramp assails the extremities, and afterwards the abdo- 
 men, producinsi spasms of varying but sometimes of ex- 
 228 
 
 CHOLERA, ASIATIC. 
 
 treme violence ; great pain and heat about the region ol 
 the stomach, and intolerable weight and anguish round the 
 heart, are complained of, with much thirst and anxiety ; the 
 voice falters, and the unfortunate sufferer asks frequent 
 ly, in plaintive and broken whispers, for cold water ; the 
 secretions of urine, bile, and saliva appear, in this state of 
 things, as if entirely suspended ; the evacuations have a 
 singular fetor, and the breath and perspiration have that 
 peculiar odour which announces the rapid approach of 
 death. Towards the close of this horrid scene, the respi- 
 ration becomes very slow, the tendons of the extremities 
 quiver, the sufferer is unable to swallow, insensibility suc- 
 ceeds, and after one or two long and convulsive sobs In 
 dies. The mind, even at last, is scarcely ever much dis 
 turbed ; but towards the close the patient sinks into a stuh 
 of apathy, and appears desirous of being left to his fate 
 Attacks of this kind generally prove fatal in from four ti 
 eight hours. 
 
 If from this extreme case we turn to what may be term 
 ed milder forms of the disease, the same general train o! 
 symptoms are observed ; but they are less rapid in thei 
 succession, and there is more time and opportunity to re 
 sort to the resources of art. The attack begins with sick 
 ness or purging, succeeded by uneasiness and heat abou, 
 the pit of the stomach ; the matters which are thrown of 
 from the stomach and bowels gradually assume the appear 
 ance of rice water; the countenance shrinks ; the constric 
 tion of the thorax and cramps and spasms follow ; and it 
 the course of twenty-four to thirty six hours the patiew 
 dies, in many instances delirious or comatose. 
 
 Those who survive seventy -two hours generally recover 
 as far as the primary symptoms are concerned ; the spasm* 
 and difficulty of breathing give way, the natural warmth of 
 the body is restored, and the pulse returns to something 
 like its natural standard. The most favourable symptom* 
 are sleep, perspiration, return of the secretion of urine and 
 of bile, accompanied by proportionate improvement in tho 
 pulse and aspect of the features; but, even under these 
 apparently and really favourable symptoms, fever of a low 
 or continued character may ensue, — it indeed sometimes 
 immediately follows the blue stage or collapse ; and it not 
 relieved by a critical perspiration on the second or third 
 day, the pulse quickens, the face is flushed, there is drowsi- 
 ness and suffusion of the eyes, stupor, a foul mouth, and 
 other symptoms of mixed ortyphus fever, which terminate 
 fatally from the fourth to the eighth day, or even later, in 
 those very individuals who had been saved in the first or 
 cold stage. 
 
 The appearances observed on dissection of those who 
 died within eight or ten hours were, a relaxed and pale 
 state of the stomach and intestines ; absence of bile and oi 
 faeces in the intestines ; an empty and contracted bladder , 
 congestion in the venous circulation of the large vessels ; 
 the gallbladder full of bile, but not passing into the intes- 
 tine. In more protracted cases other appearances occa- 
 sionally occurred, more especially serous effusion upon and 
 in the brain, with congestion of the vessels, and otherusual 
 appearances of febrile disease. In all cases the blood pre- 
 sents a more or less morbid appearance, and is often of a 
 very dark colour and increased consistence, so as to have 
 been compared to tar. 
 
 The pathology of cholera is as yet most imperfectly un- 
 derstood ; nor has it been satisfactorily ascertained whether 
 it is or is not contagious ; the general opinion, however, if 
 in favour of its contagious nature, and there cannot be the 
 least doubt of the propriety of enforcing the most rigid pre 
 cautionary measures founded upon such an opinion. 
 
 Details respecting the medical treatment of cholera would 
 be out of place in this work ; and the plans to be pursued 
 vary so much with circumstances, as to render it impos- 
 sible to condense into small limits a general view of this 
 important subject. 
 
 Emetics are among the earliest measures which should 
 be put in practice ; they should be such as act certainly and 
 rapidly, and conjoined with stimulants, such as essential 
 oils and capsicum. Bloodletting has been adopted by 
 many practitioners in the early stages of the disease. Its 
 favourable effect is to cause the pulse to rise ; if it produce 
 faintness, it must be immediately put a stop to, and should 
 be followed by the application of warm air, and other dry 
 warmth. Large doses of calomel, with or without opium, 
 are resorted to to remove local congestion, and especially 
 to stimulate the liver; and these means are assisted and 
 the general powers of the system kept up by ether, ammo 
 nia, brandy, and volatile oils, in such quantities and forms 
 as the particular circumstances of the respective rases 
 may point out. If the irritability of the stomach continues, 
 flannels soaked in very hot water, and then sprinkled with 
 oil of turpentine, should be applied to the region of the 
 stomach and abdomen. 
 
 The great object of all those remedies applicable to the 
 first stage of the disease is to enable the system to rally 
 from its depressing effects, to bring about reaction, and to 
 stimulate the nervous and vascular systems : but then the 
 
CH0LESTER1NE. 
 
 almost circumspection is required in reference to the inju- 
 rious effects which this plan will induce, if carried too far. 
 Here, however, the symptoms ate usually those of typhoid 
 or continued fever, and are to be treated accordingly, great 
 attention being always paid to the state if the biliary and 
 urinary secretions, and to the evacuations from the bowels. 
 
 Besides the treatment founded upon the above outline, 
 other and 7ery dissimilar plana have been adopted, founded 
 upon the change which the blood appears to surfer in this 
 le. It has been by some presumed that in all cases 
 of cholera, the saline matters of the blood, along with a 
 large quantity of its water, are thrown off by the intestines, 
 xmstituting the characteristic serous discharge above ad- 
 rerted to ; and that the residuary blood becomes thick and 
 black, in consequence of the deficiency of its salts. Dr. 
 us therefore proposed the administration of large 
 <! net of common salt, occasionally mixed with nitre and 
 chlorate of potash; and from this plan the best effects 
 have, according to some, resulted, while in the hands of 
 Other! it has entirely failed. The truth is, that in the worst 
 attacks of the disease the approach of death is so quick 
 that there is scarcely time for any thins to take effect; and 
 Where it is less rapid, the symptoms must guide the treat- 
 amongst these it must be confessed that there are 
 seldom any which wsuld justify the prudent practitioner 
 in drenching the bowels with salt and '.rater. 
 
 Hut the bolder advocates of what has been termed the 
 saline treatment of cholera have gone a step further, and 
 have dared to inject saline solutions into the veins; how 
 far such extraordinary means are justifiable, will appear 
 from the following statement. (Pereira, Elements of Ma- 
 teria. Medico, part i. 313.) ••This plan was, I believe, first 
 practised by Dr. Latla, (Med. Gaz. x. 257.) The quantity 
 of saline solution which has been in some cases injected is 
 enormous, and almost incredible. In one case 120 ounces 
 were injected at once, and repeated to the amount of 330 
 niin.es in twelve hoara. In another, 376 ounces were 
 thrown into the veins, between Sunday at eleven o'clock 
 a. m. and Tuesday at four r. m ; that is, in the course of 
 fifty-three hours, upwards of 31 pounds. The solution used 
 consisted of two drachms of muriate and two scruples of 
 carbonate of soda to CO ounces of water. It was at the 
 temperature of 108° or 110° Fahr. In another series of 
 cases 40 pounds were injected in twenty hours ; 132 ounces 
 in the first two hours ; 8 pounds in half an hour ! The im- 
 mediate effects of these injections, in a large majority of 
 cases, were most astonishing ; — restoration of pulse, im- 
 provement in the respiration, voice, and general appear- 
 ■iii' a, return of consciousness, and a feeling of comfort. 
 In many instances, however, these effects were only tern- 
 , and were followed by collapse and death." 
 
 The reports as to the ultimate benefit of this treatment 
 in cholera are so contradictory, that it is difficult to form a 
 correct estimate of it. " That it failed in a large proportion 
 of cases after an extensive trial, and greatly disappointed 
 some of its stanchest supporters, cannot be doubted. Dr. 
 GrUfla states that all the published cases of injection which 
 he can find recorded amount to 282, of which 221 died, while 
 61 only recovered ; but he thinks that the average reco- 
 veries from collapse by this method of treatment far ex- 
 ceeded the amount of any other treatment in the same 
 district and under the same circumstances." (Med. Gaz. 
 zxii. 319.) 
 
 A vast quantity of matter has been published in reference 
 to the history, symptoms, and treatment of pestilential 
 cholera. Among those works upon (he subject, the general 
 reader may consult the following with advantage; namely, 
 the Reports published by order of Government under the 
 superintendence of the Medical Hoard ; History of tlu Epi- 
 demic Cholera, by B. Hawking, M. D., ice. ; Mr. 'Bell's Let- 
 ter to Sir If. Halford; the Rejwrt of Org. Russell and Bar- 
 ry ; Dr. James Copland on Pestilential Cholera ; and a pa- 
 per in l\3 Ninety-first Number of the Quarterly Reviexe 
 for Not imber, 1831. 
 
 CHOJE'STERINE. (Gr. X oXi7, and ercpeoi, solid.) The 
 matter which forms the basis of most gall stones. 
 
 CHONDROXOGY. (Gr. %ovipoc, a cartilage, and Xoyoc, 
 a discourse. ) The history of cartilages. 
 
 CHO'NDROPTERY'GIANS, Chondropterygii. (Gr. 
 ypviooc, a cartilage, and nrepv!-, a fin; gristly finned.) 
 The name of Cuvier's last order of "fishes, characterized 
 by the gristly nature of all the spines which support the fins 
 The whole internal skeleton in this order is cartilaginous 
 
 CHORA'GIC MONUMENT. (Gr. xopij.) In Grecian 
 Architecture, a monument erected in honour of the Clio- 
 ragus who gained the prize by the exhibition of the best 
 musical or theatrical entertainment at the festivals of Bac- 
 chus. The Choragi were the heads of the ten tribes at 
 Athene who overlooked and arranged the games at their 
 owr. expense. The prize was usually a tripod, which the 
 victor was bound publicly to exhibit, for which purpose a 
 building or column was usually erected. The remains of 
 two very fine monuments of this sort, viz. those of Lysi- 
 erates and Thrasyllus, are still to be seen at Athens. 
 229 
 
 CHOUANS. 
 
 CHORD. (Gr. x°P^l, 'Ae string ofahjrf.) In Music, 
 a combination of wo or more sounds heard contempora- 
 neously, forming a concord or a discord between them. 
 
 Chord. In Geometry, is the straight line which joins 
 the two extremities of the arc of a curve ; so called from 
 the resemblance which the arc and chord together have to 
 a bow and its string, the chord representing the string. 
 The chord of an arc is equal to the size of half the arc ; 
 hence, to find the length of the chord of any given arc 
 multiply the diameter by the sine of half the arc. Tables 
 of chords are given in some of the older works on trigo- 
 nometry ; but they have been superseded by the ; 
 sines, which are much more convenient for trigonomt. in- 
 cal calculations. 
 
 CHOREA. (Gr. \opot, a chorus ; the ancient accompa- 
 niment to dancing.) The disease commonly called St. 
 Vitus's dance. It shows itself by convulsive motions of 
 the limbs, face, head, and trunk, varying extremely in ex- 
 tent and violence ; the speech is often more or less affected, 
 and frequently the mental energies become grievously im- 
 paired. It is most common in early life, as from the age 
 often or twelve to puberty ; and makes its approach grad- 
 ually in persons chiefly of debilitated constitutions: the 
 appetite is generally ravenous at first, and the bowels cos- 
 tive ; various convulsive motions then ensue, and only 
 cease during sleep, which, however, is seldom sound. 
 This is one of those diseases which require especial atten- 
 tion in its early stages, and which even in its slightest 
 forms, when •oca habitual, is very difficult to manage. 
 Tiie leading treatment consists in the judicious adminis- 
 tration of aperients and brisk purges, so as to clear the sto- 
 mach and bowels thoroughly of all irritating matters ; the 
 constitution may at the same time be strengthened by ton- 
 ics and chalybeates, with occasional stimulants ; and some 
 of the more urgent spasmodic symptoms may be some- 
 times cautiously encountered by opium, camphor, hen- 
 bane, and ether. Cold bathing also has Us advantages 
 when circumspectly resorted to; and the mind must be 
 diverted by change of air and scene. This die; should be 
 very regular, nutritive, and never in excess. In tills BOSt 
 plaint much will depend upon the exertions of the patient 
 himself, who, though relieved of the more urgent symp- 
 toms, will often retain relics of his disorder through a long 
 
 life. 
 
 CHO'REPI'SCOPI. (Gr. xupa, a country place, and 
 itriaKoiroi, a bishop. ) Country bishops : persons appointed 
 by the bishops la the early periods of Christianity to super- 
 intend the rural districts which appertained to their dioce 
 ses, but which were at an inconvenient distance from the 
 city in which they abode themselves. The class of chore- 
 piscopi is represented as holding a middle rank between 
 the bishops and the presbyters. 
 
 CHO'RION. (Gr. xup<*. « receptacle.) The external 
 membrane which envelopes the fa!. m in uterO, between 
 which and the amnion there is a gelatinous fluid. Its in- 
 terior surface is smooth, but exteriorly it is shaggy and 
 
 ('IIOKO'GRAPHY. (Gr. x<o<;a, district, and ypafw, 
 I describe.) The description of a district, in contradistinc- 
 tion to geography (the description of the earth or of coun- 
 tries) ami topography (the description of particular spots.) 
 
 CHO'ROID MEMBRANE OF THE EYE. The second 
 tunic of the eye lying under the sclerotic, with which n 
 has a vascular connection ; it commences at the optic 
 nerve, and passes forward with the sclerotic to the begin- 
 ning of the transparent cornea, where it firmly adheres to 
 the sclerotic by a cellular membrane, forming a white 
 fringe called the ciliary circle; it then recedes from the 
 sclerotic and cornea, forming a round coloured disc called 
 the iris, and its posterior surface is termed uvea. The 
 choroid membrane is very vascular, and its external stel- 
 lated vessels are called vasaverticosa. Its internal surface 
 is covered by a Mack pigment. 
 
 CHO'ROID PLE'XUS. A plextis of blood-vessels situ- 
 ated in the lateral ventricles of the brain. 
 
 CHO'RUS. (Gr. x 6 P°i) A band of singers and dan- 
 cers who performed odes in honour of the gods, particu- 
 larly Bacchus. The chorus formed an important part of 
 the Greek tragedies and early comedies, which were in 
 lerspersed with odes. There were likewise several othei 
 choruses besides these, as (he Dithvrambic ; and the ex- 
 hibition of these was one of the public burthens imposed 
 on the richest private citizens of Athens. It was called 
 the choregia (xop^yia). See Drama, and Choraoic Mon- 
 ument. 
 
 Chorus. In Music, the joint performance of music by 
 the whole of the members of the orchestra. 
 
 CHOU'ANS. In French History, the royalist insurgents 
 on the right bank of the Loire during the revolution when 
 the Vendeans rose on the left, were thus popularly named ; 
 according to some, from the cry of the screech-owl (chat- 
 huant), an imitation of which was a signal during their 
 nightly meetings. They were for the most, part brigands, 
 and their object rapine rather than civil war. After the 
 
CHREMATISTICS. 
 
 f 1830, they made a transient reappearance in 
 i.. neighbourhood of Nantes and Le .Mans. 
 
 UHREMATI'STICS. {Gr. xplltara, tcenJIh.) The sci- 
 ence of wealth ; a name given by Continental writers to 
 the science of political economy, or rather to what in their 
 view ..■■ portion of the science. They consider 
 
 onol.iy as a term more properly applicable to 
 mgc of subjects which comprise lie material 
 i.tj and citizens, and chrematislies (by which 
 they mean nearly the same science which M'Culloch and 
 moi\ other English writers describe as political economy) 
 i ranch of it. See especially M. de Sismondi, 
 '■■t stir V Bconomie Politique. See also Chrysologv. 
 CHRESTO'MATHY. (Gr. xPiaroi, useful, and fxav- 
 Oavbi, 1 learn.) According to the etymology, that which it 
 is useful to learn. The Greeks frequently formed com- 
 monplace books by collecting the various passages to 
 Which, in the course of reading, they had affixed the mark 
 X (XPlvros)- Hence books of extracts chosen with a view 
 to utility have received this name. 
 
 CHRISM. (Gr. xpio-^a, from XP tbi i 1 anoint.) The oil 
 which is used both in the Greek and the Roman churches 
 in the administration of baptism, confirmation, ordination, 
 Lin 1 extreme unction. 
 
 CHRI'STENDOM. A word sometimes employed in 
 such a sense as to comprehend all nations in which Chris- 
 tianity prevails : more commonly, all realms governed un- 
 der Christian sovereigns and institutions. Thus European 
 Turkey, although three fourths of its inhabitants are Chris- 
 tians, is not in ordinary language included within the term 
 Christendom. The history of the fortunes of Christianity, 
 hi respect of its geographical extension, presents remark- 
 able periods of advance and decline. After the conversion 
 of Constantino, and the gradual decay of Paganism, Chris- 
 tianity continued to spread, but chiefly in the direction of 
 east and south, for more than three centuries, the barbari- 
 onqucrors of the Roman provinces soon adopting it. 
 About t he middle of the seventh century, Christendom 
 comprehended Europe south and west of the Rhine and 
 Danube; Africa north of the Great Desert; Abyssinia; 
 parts of Nubia ; Asia to the Euphrates ; Armenia, and part 
 of Arabia ; and that small colony in southern India which 
 subsists lo this day. The Saracen power rose by conquest 
 from this extensive empire. In little more than a century, 
 Christendom was deprived of nearly all its Asiatic provin- 
 ces, of which the faithful inhabitants were reduced to a 
 tributary condition : of the whole of northern Africa, in 
 which they were exterminated or converted : and of Spain. 
 Sicily, the latest conquest of the Saracens, was occupied by 
 them about 830. Hut just at the same epoch, or that of 
 sst decline, Charlemagne began to extend the limits of 
 Christendom in the north j anil the second period of ad- 
 vance extends through the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, 
 in which " the reign of the gospel and the church was ex- 
 tended over the north : Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Sax- 
 ony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia." (.Gibbon, 
 chap. 55.) From that time to the 16th century, Christianity 
 gradually reconquered Spain on the ono hand ; while, on 
 the other, the newly arisen power of the Turks wrested 
 from it the remainder of its Asiatic territories and the Eu 
 ropean provinces of the Greek empire. Since that period 
 no important changes have taken place in the relative ex- 
 tent of Christendom and Islamism : but the vast conti- 
 nent of America, as far as it has been colonized, has been 
 added to the former, and the rapid increase of its commu- 
 nities in numbers and civilization has greatly enhanced 
 their comparative importance. The number of Christians 
 Inhabiting Europe and America, and scattered in the other 
 parts of the globe, may perhaps be estimated conjecturally 
 as follows :— 
 
 Roman Catholic church - - 144,000.000 
 
 Reformed churches - - - 60,000,000 
 
 Greek and other Oriental churches - 66,000,000 
 
 270.000,000 
 CHRISTIA'NITY. The religion of Jesus Christ from 
 the period when the disciples " were called Christians first 
 in Antioch" (Acts, xi. 26.) down to the present day, the 
 main doctrines of the gospel, and the great moral princi- 
 ples which it reveals and confirms, have been preserved 
 without interruption in the church. But notwithstanding 
 this substantial unity, it cannot be denied that the character 
 of the religion has been very materially coloured through- 
 out all its history by the circumstances and genius of dif- 
 ferent nations and ages. The first marked forms of opin- 
 ion which acquired consistency among the general body of 
 Christians tended, in two very different directions. The 
 Juii/iiiing Christims clung to the ordinances of the elder 
 religion, and strove to teach the separation from itasslight- 
 sibie ; under the names of Nazareans, &c, they 
 existed as late as the fourth century, but ceased after the 
 first to exercise any very extensive influence on the church. 
 The speculative C iristians placed figurative interpretations 
 both on the external facts and mysteries of the religion, or 
 'A°>0 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 sought to connect it with the philosophical and theurgicai 
 systems of the ancient world. Apollos of Alexandria was 
 the first teacher, it is commonly said, who introduced this 
 speculative tendency into Christianity; and St. Paul. while 
 he does not condemn Apollos, dwells on the evils produced 
 by those who from his teaching deduced as it were a .- 
 rate body of doctrine (I Cor. hi.). In this way arose.— 1. 
 The early heretics the Nicolaitanes and followers of Ce 
 rinthus, and the Gnostics, professors of the " knowledge 
 falsely so called" (xi/iv&udWjioi yvojoi;) of St. Paul. 2 Al 
 a later period, the ManichKans, who imported into Chris 
 tianily the notion of the rival principles of good and evil, 
 which continued for many ages to possess adherents. 3. 
 Within the church itself, the Alexandrian school oj theology. 
 which has exercised a more permanent influence. This 
 school, in the second and third centuries, became partially 
 tinged with the sentiments of Platonic philosophy ; and 
 was characterized by the acute and refining spirit of the 
 East. Like the Gnostics, its chief doctors encouraged the 
 notion of a mystical or second meaning in the revelations 
 of the faith, of which the key was in the possession of the 
 learned only (Clemens, Origen, &c.) In the mean time, 
 the main body of believers, comparatively unaffected by 
 the influence of science and speculation, was gradually ac- 
 quiring new views of a different and more positive charac- 
 ter. During the first three centuries after the apostolical 
 times, the opinions respecting the authority of the priest- 
 hood, attachment to forms and ordinances, the honour paid 
 to individual purity of life (and especially to constancy un- 
 der persecution), gradually and steadily increased and 
 strengthened. In the West, and particularly in Africa, 
 these tendencies became peculiarly strong. The Montan- 
 i3ts, Donatists, and Novatians separated successively from 
 the church, on the score of its defection from an imaginary 
 standard of personal purity ; and when Africa began to 
 have a school of theology of herown (Tertullian, Cyprian, 
 and others, to Augustine), this was the direction of its la- 
 bours. In that theology all is dogmatical, nothing specula- 
 tive. Every thing is taken in its most literal and naked 
 sense: God himself is not personal only, but Invested a! 
 most with the attributes of a human agent. Both docl 
 and ordinances are as definite as possible, and the utmost 
 rigour of practice enjoined. The history of the African 
 church affords a momentous commentary on their strain- 
 ings after imaginary perfection. After two centurh 
 discord and decay from the time of Augustine, it wai 
 subdued but obliterated by the first assault of the Moham- 
 medans. The early heretics had entertained theoretical 
 notions respecting the inferiority of Christ to the Father: 
 but the Arians, in the last half of the 3d century, were the 
 first to preach it as the doctrine of the church, and seek t-> 
 confirm it by appeal to antiquity. The council of Nice 
 (a. d. 325) condemned this opinion ; and by the concurring 
 declarations of bishops from all parts of Christendoo 
 forded the strongest testimony to the fact, that the Catho- 
 lic sentiment of the church had always been opposed to it. 
 But the Arians, and other sects differing from the church 
 by various shades of opinion on the same subject, continu- 
 ed to subsist until the 6th century, during which these con- 
 troversies partly died away in the West, amidst the misery 
 and barbarism of the age, and partly were extinguished by 
 the authority of the church. It was thus that the govern- 
 ors of the church were first driven to protect its funda- 
 mental doctrines by reducing them to formal propositions 
 embodied in creeds and the canons of councils (especially 
 the six (Ecumenical or general, which were held from 
 a. d. 381 to 680). Thus, in the West, speculation was ef- 
 fectually subdued. In the East, it still lingered in vain bur 
 refined distinction respecting the nature and relations of 
 the persons of the Trinity (the Nestorian, Monophysito. 
 and Monothelite heresies). Meantime a new ami most im- 
 portant feature of Christianity was developing itself. A 
 solitary believer, who left the world and retired into the de- 
 serts of Egypt (Antonius, a. d. 311), set an example which 
 was followed by innumerable Christians with a fervour 
 alike contagious and irresistible. The calamities of the 
 empire, and the wretched state of society, seem to have 
 aided the mistaken tendencies of devotion In producing 
 this carelessness of life and its duties. It is scarcely possi- 
 ble to exaggerate the evils produced by the spirit of mona- 
 chism in tiie4thand 5th centuries: the contempt for all the 
 social habits and social virtues; the ferocious zeal, some- 
 times venting itself against Paganism and sometimes 
 against brethren; the unregulated, wandering, nntameabte 
 disposition which it engendered, and which the spirit of the 
 age dignified with the title of celestial piety. Whatevei 
 Christianity may owe to the great fathers of the churcl 
 Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Basil, Chrysostom. we must 
 not forget the encouragement which they all administered 
 to this destructive error, far more mischievous than any ol 
 the heresies which they combated. At length, when the 
 evils of this anarchical system had become almost Intoler- 
 able, arose the lawgivers of monachism in the West. Be- 
 nedict (A. d. 529) and still more Cassiodorus, strove to 
 
CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 bring religions persons under a temperate and liberal rule 
 of government : their attention was called to what they had 
 hitherto despised as secular pursuits, especially agriculture 
 and literature, together witha more regulated piety; and thus 
 nonachism, which in a time of declining civilization had 
 powerful]; accelerated decay, became, in a time of bar- 
 a. an agent of preservation and improvement. In A. t>. 
 710. the separation between the Greek and Western church- 
 es, which had long been provoked by the gradual usurpations 
 Roman bishop over the latter, became really complete 
 tgh the controversy respecting Images, although not 
 formally acknowledged until the middle of the 1 lth century. 
 nt, as those corruptions of Christianity 
 which, according to Protestants, disfigure both the Greek 
 and Roman Catholic churches, are evidently anterior to it, — 
 those peculiar to the latter posterior. Thus, the honour 
 pud to saints, relics, dec, the adoration of the Virgin 
 Mary (which seems to have been partly a result of the 
 irian controversy), monachism, <fcc, are common to 
 both, and therefore ancient: the exclusively Unman tenets, 
 Itausubslantiatlon, papal infallibility, purgatory, &c, are 
 accounted by Protestants comparatively modern doctrines, 
 to which the whole church has never agreed; while celi- 
 . which the Roman pontiffs with great difficulty suc- 
 . on the whole clergy in the 11th century, 
 ih ■ Greek church only by the higher digni- 
 d centuries after this separation, the ex- 
 ternal history of Christianity in the West presents us with 
 little more than tie and disputes of monastic 
 
 orders, the strife of erclesiastical dignitaries with each 
 other and with temporal sovereigns, the growth of super- 
 stitious observances among the laity, the union of the re- 
 ligious with the military spirit, and the increasing power 
 of the pope; yet,u ■■*, the impar- 
 
 tial observer miv discern the great principles of religion 
 still preserved, and still Working beneath the surface of 
 la tl purification. The 12th century was 
 a period of revival in the West, both in point of learning 
 and religion. The military spirit of devotion found ample 
 employment in the The rise of the scholastic 
 
 philosophy (a. d. 1 100) gave a new and peculiar character 
 
 \mong the lo ' 
 ful spirit oi i n rapidly to extend I 
 
 ■i illy in Italy snd the south of Prance, A strictness 
 of life amounting almost to asceticism, a revolt rather 
 • the; wealth and temporal supremacy of the clergy 
 than their doctrines, were the first characteristics of the 
 reforming sects : but to these was soon added an addiction 
 tenets and observances. The Cathari, Wal- 
 ilenses. All dl partook more or less of these 
 
 common peculiarities; but how far they had really adopted, 
 If al all, those Minichasan opinions (derived through the 
 medium of the 1* niliciaus, a sect which long subsisted in 
 I. ist.) with which they were charged by their oppo- 
 nents, will probably never be ascertained These sectaries, 
 in their hostility to the Catholic priesthood, had to a great 
 ir province as religious advisers of the 
 poor and unin-tructed with prayer, preaching, and even 
 auricular confession. It was this peculiar form of the 
 Impending d laser which induced the church (after it had 
 openly condemned the new doctrines) to give ample en- 
 couragement to the institution of the Mendicant orders (in 
 the beginning of the 13th century), one of the most import- 
 ant events In the history of Christianity. These bodies 
 met t ou their own ground, by the assumption 
 
 of asceticism, poverty, and the popular practices which 
 hid availed the former. They were also employed by the 
 church in the sterner task of putting down by force hereti- 
 cal opposition, and completed the extirpation of the Albi- 
 - in by the sword of the Crusaders. But they 
 aded their hostility to learning and science, and to all 
 the established institutions of the time, and became as 
 much hated by the secular priesthood (or parish clergy, so 
 1 in distinction to those who have renounced the world 
 are bound by monastic rule, called regulars), and by 
 i and wealthy orders, as by the heretics themselves. 
 Under the influence of persecution the development of the 
 ■. i; checked. From the middle of the 13th century to 
 nd of the 14th the church of Rome met with little 
 opposition from sectaries, and underwent little change in 
 i set of doctrine and discipline ; but during the same 
 1 the increasing power of princes, the long removal 
 of the seat of papal power from Rome, and various other 
 es, sensibly diminished its temporal authority. In the 
 next century, the same causes continued to act, while the 
 revived energy of reforming sects (Lollards, Hussites, &c.) 
 and tiie rapid spread of literature and learning, proved still 
 more hostile to its spiritual power. Thus the way was 
 prepared for the great events of the Reformation. To 
 trace the history of Christianity from that period onwards, 
 would be impossible within our present limits. Ii may be 
 sufficient to direct the reader to the general outline of 
 lli ■ most marked events, omitting those of a nature 
 merely political or ecclesiastical. In the Roman Catholic 
 231 
 
 CHROMATICS. 
 
 church, the definite establishment of her doctrine* by the 
 council of Trent, which met A. D. 154(3; the foundation of 
 the order of Jesuits, its rapid increase in power and infiu- 
 i the gradual decline of the other monastic orders; 
 is, and condemnation of Jansenism in 
 1-' ranee, in the 17th and 1 St. U centuries; the suppression of 
 the Jesuits, in 1773, and overthrow of other monastic orders 
 in France at the revolution, — an example since followed in 
 other countries ; the revival of the Jesuits. 1814. In Re- 
 formed countries, the early division of Protestants into Lu- 
 theran and Calvirust, besides many subordinate sects; the 
 foundation of the church of England under Edward VI , 
 partaking in some degree the character of the two ; the 
 rapid advance of Calvinism and kindred opinions in the 
 17lh century in England, Holland, and Scotland ; their de- 
 cline in the first of these countries by the re-establishment 
 of the church in 1CG0, and the prevalence of A rminiau sen- 
 timents within it. and on the Continent of Europe by a 
 gradual tendency to a more liberal system of theology ; the 
 establishment of the three confessions (Roman Catholic, 
 Lutheran, and Reformed or CalvUlist) on an equal footing 
 in Germany by Ihe peace of Westphalia. 1648; the gradual 
 approach of Pi icially Lutheran, divines to- 
 
 wards what has been c died the rationalist system of religion 
 in the last part of the lstli century J the rise of Methodism 
 in England, and ofcognate systems on the Continent; the 
 Onion effected by tb< present, king of Prussia and other 
 German ween the Lutheran and Calvinistic 
 
 bodies in their n Milman's Hit- 
 
 tun/ of Christianity ; .Wan lei's History of the Planting and 
 tian Church ■ Meander's History of 
 the Christian Religion and Church during the three first 
 centuries; Archbishop Whately's Kingdom of Christ.) 
 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, SOCIETY FOR PRO- 
 MOTING. This society was founded in the year 1699 for 
 the objects which the name imports, ft promotes these 
 objects principally by the diffusion of religious and moral 
 iias also circulated vast numbers of copies of the 
 Bible and Testament, and of the Book of Common Prayer 
 and other authorized expositions of faith. It is entirely 
 supported by li I church, and is a powerful 
 
 engine for 'he instruction of the people in the princ 
 that body. 
 
 CHROMATIC. (Gr. xpuua, colour.) In Music, the 
 introduction of semitones between each of the tones in the 
 diatonic scale. 
 
 CHROMATICS. (Gr. xP"ua.) That part of optics 
 which treats of the colours of light and of natural bodies. 
 This is a very important branch of physical science, and 
 one which of late years has been prosecuted with great 
 assiduity. Until Newton undertook his memorable experi- 
 ments on the refraction of light, the cause of the different 
 colours of bodies had never received any satisfactory ex- 
 planation: such, indeed, was the difficulty which the an- 
 cients attached to this subject, that Plato considered it to 
 he an usurpation of the rights of the Deity to attempt the 
 tion of this mystery of nature. The discovery of 
 the difference of refrangibility in the coloured rays of the 
 solar spectrum afforded a clue to the solution of the prob- 
 lem ; ant Newton demonstrated, by a series of decisive 
 experiments, that colour depends not on any modification 
 of light acquired by reflection or refraction, but is inherent 
 in the light itself; the solar beam being composed of rays 
 of all ihe colours contained in the spectrum, which arc 
 differently affected in passing through refracting media. 
 This hypothesis of the existence of different species of lu- 
 minous molecules is founded on the other hypothesis, that 
 light is a substance emitted from the sun or luminous body, 
 and is indeed a necessary consequence of that theory ; for 
 if colour depended merely on a difference of the masses, 
 or of the initial velocities of the particles, it would follow 
 that Ihe dispersion of the rays, in passing through a prism, 
 would always be proportional to the refraction, which, as is 
 well known, is contrary to experience. 
 
 Colours of the Solar Spectrum. — Let a beam of solar light 
 be admitted through a small aperture in the window shutter 
 of a darkened room, and it 
 
 will form on the opposite 
 wall, or on a screen, a cir- 
 cular image of the sun. But 
 if a prism, P, be interposed, 
 the refracted beam. Instead 
 of forming a bright white 
 spot, will produce an oblong 
 image, A B, called the solar spectrum, the sides of which 
 are terminated by two vertical straight lines, and the ends 
 by semicircles. This lengthened image consists of seven 
 principal colours, which melt into each other by insensible 
 gradations; namely , red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, 
 and violet, arranged in the order now written, the red being 
 at the lower end B. Newton, by whom thi? experiment 
 was first performed, conceived these to be produced by so 
 many distinct species of homogeneous light coexisting in 
 the solar beam, and that all ither shades of colour are 
 
CHROMATICS. 
 
 produced by blending them together in certain propor- 
 tions. As it is impossible to define the limit at which one 
 colour ends and another begins, and as l he spectrum is in 
 fact composed of an infinite number of different shades, 
 the above division is entirely arbitrary. Another observer 
 of the phenomenon for the first time would probably have 
 fixed on a greater or smaller number. Newton, it appears, 
 was intiuenced by a fanciful idea that an analogy, or rather 
 identity of ratios, subsists between the divisions of the 
 spectrum formed by the seven colours which he assigned 
 to it, and those of the musical scale. But the resemblance 
 wi.it h suggested this analogy to Newton was purely acci- 
 dental, and depended, as has since been found, on the 
 nature of the substance of which his prism was formed ; 
 for though the colours are invariably arranged in the same 
 order, they expand very differently, according to the na- 
 ture of Ihe refracting substance; and, consequently, the 
 relative magnitudes of the spaces which they occupy in 
 the spectrum are entirely altered. Tobias Mayer, in an 
 essay, De Affimtate Colorum (Opera inedita, 1775), re- 
 gards all colours as arising from three primitive colours, 
 red, yellow, blue. But a mixture of red and green in cer- 
 tain proportions produces a colour which, so far as the eye 
 can judge, is perfectly identical with the yellow of the 
 spectrum ; and a mixture of green and violet also pro- 
 duces a perfect blue : hence it was suggested by Dr. Young 
 that the innumerable shades of the spectrum are all com- 
 pounded of red, green, and violet. Sir David Brewster, 
 however, inferred from experiments on the absorptionof 
 light in passing through coloured media, that green and 
 violet are both compound colours, separable by prisms of 
 coloured glass ; and he adopts the hypothesis of Mayer, 
 that the three simple homogeneous colours are red, yellow, 
 and blue. He supposes the solar spectrum to consist of 
 three spectra of equal lengths ; a red spectrum, a yellow 
 spectrum, and a blue spectrum. The primary red spec- 
 trum has its maximum of intensity about the middle of the 
 red space in the solar spectrum ; the primary yellow, 
 about the middle of the yellow space ; and the primary 
 blue has its maximum between the blue and the indigo 
 space ; the two minima of each of the three spectra coinci- 
 ding at the two extremities of the solar spectrum. From 
 this view of the subject it follows that red, yellow, and blue 
 light exist at every point of the solar spectrum ; and that 
 as a certain portion of red, yellow, and blue constitutes 
 white light, the colour of every point of the spectrum may 
 be considered as consisting of the predominating colour at 
 any point mixed with white light. 
 
 The existence of three primary colours in the spectrum, 
 and the mode in which they produce by their combination 
 the seven secondary or compound colours which are de- 
 veloped by the prism, are illustrated by Sir D. Brewster 
 as follows: — Let M N be the pris- 
 matic spectrum consisting of three 
 primary spectra of the same lengths. 
 M N, viz. a red, a yellow, and a 
 blue spectrum. The red spectrum 
 has its maximum intensity at R; 
 and this intensity may be represented by the distance of 
 the point II from M N. The intensity declines rapidly to 
 M and slowly to N, at both of which points it vanishes. 
 The yellow spectrum has its maximum intensity at Y, the 
 intensity declining to zero at M and N; and the blue has 
 its maximum intensity at B, declining to nothing at M and 
 N. The general curve which represents the total illumi- 
 nation at any point will be outside these three curves, and 
 its ordinate at any point will be equal to the sum of the 
 three ordinates at the same point. Thus the ordinate of 
 the general curve at the point Y will be equal to the ordi- 
 nate of the yellow curve, which we may suppose to be 10; 
 added to that of the red curve, which may be 2; and that 
 cf the blue, which may be 1. Hence the general ordinate 
 will be 13. Now, if we suppose that 3 parts of yellow, 2 of 
 red, and 1 of blue, make white, we shall have the co- 
 lour at Y equal to 3 + 2+1, equal to 6 parts of white 
 mixed with 7 parts of yellow; that is, the compound tint 
 at Y will be a bright yellow, without any trace of red or 
 blue. As these colours all occupy the same space in the 
 spectrum, they cannot be separated by the prism ; and if 
 we could find a coloured glass which would absorb 7 parts 
 of the yellow, we should obtain at the point Y a white 
 light, which the prism would not decompose. (Brewster's 
 Optics, in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, p. 74.) 
 
 Datk Lines in the Spectrum. — One of the most curious, 
 and, with reference to the theory of Unlit, one of the most 
 important optical discoveries of modern times, is the 
 existence of a great number of dark lines, or fixed rays, 
 in the solar spectrum, parallel to one another, and perpen- 
 dicular to its length. These dark lines were first per- 
 ceived by Dr. Wollaston ; but it was Frannhofer, a cele- 
 brated optician of Munich, who first accurately described 
 the phenomenon, and pointed out the uses to which it 
 could be applied. In order to perceive these lines, con- 
 siderable management is necessary. The prism employed 
 
 must be perfectly free from veins, and tl-e light must e 
 ter and emerge from it at equal angles; it is necessai 
 also to employ a telescope. They are distributed very unt 
 qually through the spectrum, and the whole numbe 
 amounts nearly to 600. Seven groups, which are more 
 
 easily perceived than the others, and which are distributed 
 over the principal colours of the spectrum, have been dis- 
 tinguished by Fraunhofer by the letters B, C, D, E, F, G, 
 H. Of these B is in the red space, near its outer end. C, 
 which is a single line, and blacker than others Contiguous 
 to it, is near the limit of the red next the orange. D is in 
 the orange, and near Ihe yellow; it is composed of two 
 lines of equal darkness very close to each other, and is 
 easily distinguished. E is in the green, and consists of 
 seven or eight rays. F is in the blue, G in the indigo, and 
 II in the violet. Besides these there are several other 
 very remarkable groups, particularly one in the green, be- 
 tween E and F, which is composed of three strong lines. 
 The circumstance which renders Ihe discovery of these 
 lines extremely important is, that they always preserve 
 the same relative positions in respect of the boundaries of 
 the coloured spaces; and though their distances vary with 
 the nature of the prism by which they are produced, theii 
 number and order remain absolutely invariable, so long as 
 the light proceeds from the same source. For an account 
 of the spectra formed by different lights, see Brewster' t 
 Optics, p. 87. 
 
 Colours of Natural Bodies. — The separation of light into 
 different colours by refraction having been established as 
 an optical fact, a different task remained, viz that, of show- 
 ing in what manner refraction could take place so as to 
 produce the permanent colours of natural bodies. Newton 
 proved that the colour of any body is not the result of any 
 quality inherent in that body, or in the particles by which 
 it may be tinged, but is merely a property of the light in 
 which they happen to be placed. The peculiar colours of 
 bodies are only exhibited in a white light. If they are 
 viewed by simple and homogeneous light of any colour, 
 they appear of the colourof that light and no other. Thus 
 the leaf of a plant, for example, which in the white light of 
 day appears green, if illuminated by homogeneous rwi 
 light, appears red ; if by homogeneous yellow light, yellow, 
 and so on. Hence we conclude that one body is red, and 
 another violet, because the one is disposed to reflect the red 
 or least refrangible rays, and the other the violet or most 
 refrangible. But the difficulty consists in explaining ihe 
 cause of this disposition or transient condition of the body, 
 which renders it fit to reflect rays of one colour and absorb 
 those of another. Newton has attempted, in his Treatise 
 of Optics, to refer it to the constitution or elementary 
 structure of hodies. The principles or propositions on 
 which his theory are founded are the following: — 1. Bodies 
 that have the greatest refractive powers reflect the greatest 
 quantity of light; anil at the confines of equally refracting 
 media there is no reflexion. 2. The least parts of almost all 
 natural bodies are in some, mee.sure transparent. 3. Between 
 the particles of bodies are many pores or spaces, either emp- 
 ty or filled with media of less density than the particles. 4. 
 The particles of bodies, and their pores or spaces between 
 the particles, have some definite size. 
 
 Upon these principles, Newton thus explains the origin 
 of transparency, opacity, and colour. Transparency he 
 considers as arising from the particles and their intervals 
 or pores being too small to cause reflexion at their common 
 surfaces, so that all the light which enters transparent 
 bodies passes through them without any portion of it being 
 turned from its path by reflexion. Opacity in bodies arises, 
 he thinks, from an opposite cause ; viz. when the pans of 
 bodies are of such a size as to be capable of reflecting the 
 light which falls on them, in which case the light is Mopped 
 or stifled by the multitude of reflexions. The colours of 
 natural bodies have the same origin as the colours of thin 
 plates or soap bubbles ; their transparent particles, accord- 
 ing lo their several sizes, reflecting rays of one colour and 
 transmitting those of another. For if a thinned or plated 
 body, which, being of an uneven thickness, appears all 
 over of one uniform colour, should be slit into tinea. ts. or 
 broken into fragments of the same thickness with the 
 plate or film, every thread or fragment should keep its co- 
 Four; and, consequently, a heap of such threads or frag- 
 ments should constitute a mass or powder of the same 
 colour which the plate exhibited before it was broken; 
 and the parts of all natural bodies being like so many frag. 
 mentsofaplate, must, on the same grounds, exhibit tin 
 same colour. (See Newton's Optics, book ii. : or Brews- 
 ter' s Life of Newton, p. 81.) 
 Such are the general principles of the Newtonian theorv 
 
CHROMIUM. 
 
 ol colours ; but there are numerous classes of phenome- 
 na, some of which were known in the time of Newton, 
 but many more which have been discovered since, of 
 which they fail to afford any explanation, and to which, 
 indeed, they are wholly inapplicable. The ingenuity of ils 
 warmest supporters has not yet been able to explain by this 
 theory the total absence of all reflected light from the par- 
 ticles of transparent coloured media, such as coloured 
 genu, coloured glasses or fluids, Sec. For these reasons, 
 sod many others depending on optical phenomena Dot 
 lected with colours, philosophers have of late years 
 manifested a disposition to abandon the theory of the emis- 
 f ion .if light, and » return to that of Iluygens, who sup- 
 light to be produced by the vibrations or undulations 
 "I an ethereal fluid of great elasticity, which pervades all 
 ■pace and penetrates all substance. See Light. 
 
 Without enteriHg into the subject of the propagation of 
 tight, it may be sufficient to remark, that the ordinary phe- 
 nomena of colours may be explained on the principle of 
 absorption. Every substance, how opake soever it may be, 
 transmits light, at least through a very small thickness ; thus 
 gold when reduced into thin leaf is translucent. From this 
 fact it is assumed as a principle, that every particle of pon- 
 derable matter has the faculty of absorbing or extinguish- 
 ng ■ determinate fraction of the luminous rays which fall 
 )n it or pass very near it, the remainder being reflected 
 or transmitted. This fraction varies with the colour or 
 species of colour of the incident luminous rays, and with 
 the nature of the particle. For light of the same colour 
 M •■ may suppose it constant, whatever be the number of in- 
 cident rays : so that the intensity of a homogeneous light, 
 : has traversed a diaphanous plate composed of equi- 
 distant particles of the same nature, will diminish in a ge- 
 ometrical, when the thickness of the plate increases in an 
 ariihmrllral, progroislon White li^'ht falling on the sur- 
 face of an opake body is not totally reflected at the surface, 
 for, as has been just remarked, no substance is perfectly 
 opake; ;i portion of the incident light therefore penetrates 
 the ssperncies of every body on which it falls, and is re- 
 flected by particles beneath the surface, and, in conse- 
 quence of this interior reflection, is again emitted from the 
 medium. But whilst the ray is thus penetrating and escap- 
 ing from the body, the different colours of which it is com- 
 posed suffer unequal absorptions ; and on the totality of 
 absorptions depends the compound colour of the re- 
 i ray. or the natural colour of the body. In this 
 manner are explained the effects produced by coloured 
 ea, the lilue colour of the sky, and the various tintsof 
 great masses of water. 
 
 The phenomena of the colours of thin lamina, as soap 
 bubbles, plates of mica, and of striated and grooved sur- 
 are among the most difficult of explanation ; and it 
 is hen that the undulating theory, which accounts for them 
 by the interference of the light reflected from ttie second 
 surface of the plate with that reflected from the second, 
 possesses itsgreatest advantage. For further information on 
 this ■abject, see the terms Interference, Light, Re- 
 fraction. 
 
 CHROMIUM, <Gr. xp<>>ita, colour.) A metal discovered 
 by Vauqnelin in 1797. It exists chiefly in two native com- 
 pounds ; the one formerly called red lead of Siberia, which 
 is a chromate of lead ; the other, a compound of the oxides 
 of chromium and iron. Chromium is a whitish, brittle, 
 and very infusible metal; sp. gr. 55. When heated with 
 nitre it is converted into chromic acid. Its equivalent num- 
 ber is 28. It forms two compounds with oxygen, — a green 
 oxide, and a red peroxide ; the latter being sour, and com- 
 bining with salefiable bases, is called chromic acid. The 
 oxide consists of 28 chromium + 12 oxygen ; and chro- 
 mil- acid of 28 chromium +24 oxygen. Chromic acid is 
 of a red colour, and forms a variety of coloured compounds, 
 some of which are much used in the arts ; such as the 
 chromate and bichromate of potash, largely manufactured 
 for the use of calico printers, and the chromates of lead, 
 employed as yellow and red dyes and paints. The oxide 
 of chroma is green, and furnishes a valuable colour for 
 porceiaiu and in enamel. Chromic acid gives colour to the 
 ruby, and the green of the emerald is due to oxide of 
 chroma. 
 
 UMRO'NIC. (Gr. x. 00 "°£> time.) Diseases of long du- 
 ration are termed chronic, in opposiiion to those of more 
 rapid progress, which are called acute. 
 
 CIIIIO'NICLE. In Literature, an historical register of 
 events in the order of time. Most of ihe historians of the 
 middle ages were chroniclers who set down the events 
 which happened within the range of their information, ac- 
 cording lo the succession of years. 
 
 CIIRO'NICLES. The name of two books in the canon 
 of tcriptire. They consist of an abridgment of sacred 
 history from ils commencement down to the return of the 
 Jews i'rom the Babylonish captivity, and are called by the 
 iBkptuaginl rapa\eiirouci>a (lit. things omitted), because 
 ihey contain niany supplemental relations omitted in the 
 other hi»-^.rical books. It lias been generally supposed 
 233 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 that the Chronicles were compiled by Ezra, though cir- 
 cumstances are not wanting to diminish the probability of 
 this conjecture. Eichhorn (Einleitung, vol. ii.) gives as 
 his reasons for attributing them to Ezra their similarity in 
 point of style, idiom, and orthography to the books of 
 Kings and Ezra; while the opponents of this view base 
 their opinion on the discrepancies that occur throughout 
 Chronicles and Kings, in regard to facts, dates, numbers, 
 names, and genealogies. (For a learned exposition of this 
 subject, see the Penny Cyclopaedia, and the authorities 
 there referred to.) 
 
 CIIRO'NOGRAM. (Gr. XP^oi, time, and y&atbv, 1 
 '.) An inscription comprehending a date, which 
 may be read by selecting all or some of the numeral let- 
 ters, which are frequently written in these curious trifles in 
 larger characlers than the rest ; as, 
 
 "ChrlstVs DVX ergo trlTMphVs." 
 (A medal of Gustavus Adolphus.) Sometimes united with 
 an anagram ; as one in honour of General Monk, 
 " George IVs MonCe DVx de AumarLe ;" 
 which may be read, 
 
 "Ego Regem reduxi, Ano. Sa. MDCLVV." 
 
 CIIUONO'LOGY. (Gr. \povoi, and Aojoj, discourse.) 
 Literally, the doctrine of time : is the science which treats 
 of the various divisions of time, and of the order and suc- 
 cession of events. 
 
 in order to ascertain and register the intervals of time 
 D* different events, two things must necessarily he 
 assumed : — 1st, An epoch or fixed point in time to which 
 all events, whether preceding or succeeding, may be re- 
 ferred; and 2nd, A measure or definite portion of time, 
 by which the intervals between the fixed epoch and other 
 events may be estimated. Of these the first is entirely ar- 
 bitrary, and the second arbilrary lo a certain extent; for 
 though certain periods are marked out by the recurrence 
 of natural phenomena, a choice of these phenomena must 
 be made. It is on account of the arbitrary nature of these 
 two elements, on which all chronological reckoning de- 
 pends, that so much confusion and uncertainty exist re- 
 specting the dates of historical events. 
 
 The diversity of epochs which have been assumed as 
 the origin of chronological reckoning, is a natural conse- 
 quence of the manner in which science and civilization 
 have spread over the world. In the early ages the differ- 
 ent communities cr tribes into which mankind were i!i- 
 videil began to date their years each from some even) r. 
 markable only in reference to its own individual history, 
 but of which other tribes were either ignorant, or regarded 
 with indifference. Hence not only different nations, but 
 almost every individual historian or compiler of annals, 
 adopted an epoch of his own. Events of local or tempo 
 rary interest were also constantly occurring in every 
 community which would appear of greater importance 
 than those which were long past, and consequently be 
 adopted as new historical dates. The foundation of a 
 monarchy or a city, or the accession of a king, were events 
 of this class ; and accordingly are epochs of frequent oc- 
 currence in the ancient annals. Religion also came in lo 
 increase the confusion caused by political changes. Soon 
 alter the introduction of Christianity, the various seels be- 
 gan to establish eras, commencing with events connected 
 with the appearance of Christ ; but no regard was given to 
 uniformity. In like manner, the Mohammedans employ 
 dates having reference to the origin of their faith. All 
 these circumstances have conspired to render it a task of 
 extreme difficulty for modern historians to ascertain the 
 order of the political occurrences of ancient limes. 
 
 But it is not merely the number of chronological epochs 
 and the various origins of eras that have caused the per- 
 plexity ; the measure by which long intervals were com- 
 pared varied in different countries, and in different ages, 
 and hence arises another source of confusion In arranging 
 the order of time. In the scripture history, the lapse of 
 time is frequently estimated by generations or reigns of 
 kings. Some of the historians of early Greece reckoned 
 by the succession of the priestesses of Juno ; others by 
 that of the ephori of Sparta; and others again by the nr- 
 chons of Athens. Even when the length of the solar year 
 began to be used as the measure of time, uniformity was 
 not obtained. The length of the solar year is a fixed ele- 
 ment in nature, and liable to no variation. But neither the 
 commencement or termination of the year is marked by 
 any conspicuous sign. Its precise length can only be as- 
 certained by a long-continued series of astronomical ob- 
 servations. Rude nations were therefore unacquainted 
 with it ; and even when it had become known with con- 
 siderable accuracy, it was still necessary to form a civil 
 year, and adapt it to the seasons, the solar year not being 
 composed of an exact number of days. Most nations had 
 recourse to intercalations (see Calendar) for this purpose. 
 The ancient Egyptians followed a purely solar year, which 
 consisted of exactly 365 days. Its commencement there- 
 fore, fell one day earlier with respect to the season* every 
 four vears. and in the period of about 14<>0 years wesid 
 
CHRONOMETER. 
 
 successively fall on every day in the year, and a whole year 
 be gained in the reckoning. The civil year of the Jews, 
 the Greeks, and many other nations, was regulated partly 
 by the sun and partly by the moon, which rendered its ad- 
 justment still more complicated and difficult. The Moham- 
 medan year is purely lunar; and we can only pass from 
 their calendar to the Gregorian, which is used in Christian 
 ;ountries, by first finding the number of days from the 
 commencement of their era to any given event, and then 
 turning them back into Gregorian years. (-S'ee Hegira.) 
 The Chinese, Hindoos, and some other Asiatic nations, have 
 epochs and methods of reckoning peculiar to themselves. 
 
 For these reasons, and numerous others that might easily 
 be adduced, it is very seldom that the precise interval be- 
 tween the events mentioned in ancient history and modern 
 dates can be determined with any degree of certainty, and 
 great discrepancies exist among the computations of differ- 
 ent chronologers. A remarkable instance of this occurs 
 with regard to the computations made to determine the 
 epoch of the creation of the world from the scripture his- 
 tory. Desvimioles, in the preface to his Chronology of 
 Sacred History, mentions that he had collected upwards 
 of two hundred different calculations, the shortest of which 
 reckons oidy 3483 years between the creation and com- 
 mencement of the common era, and fhe longest 6984 ; the 
 difference being no less than thirty-five centuries. The 
 most important, works on chronology are, Usher's. Annates 
 Veleris el Novi Teslamenti ; Newton's Chronology ; Blair's 
 Chronology and History of the World ; I'tayJ air's Chrono- 
 logy ; Tables Chronologiques del'Histoire Ancienne et Mo- 
 derne, by Thouret ; and above all others, L'Art de Verifier 
 les Dates ; Nicolas's Chronology of History, in Lardner's 
 Cyclopaedia. 
 
 CHRONO'METER. (Gr. xpovoc, time, and pcrpov, 
 measure.) A watch of peculiar construction, and great per- 
 fection of workmanship, used for determining geographical 
 longitudes, or other purposes where time must be measur- 
 ed with extreme accuracy. The chronometer differs from 
 the ordinary watch in the principle of its escapement, 
 which is so constructed that the balance is entirely free 
 from the wheels during the greater part of its vibration ; 
 and also in having tne balance compenp .ted for variations 
 of temperature. Marine chronometer \, generally beat half 
 seconds, and are hung in gimbals, '.l boxes about six or 
 eisht inches square. The pocke' chronometer does not 
 differ in appearance from the o' Jinary watch, excepting 
 that it is generally a little larger. Chronometers are of im- 
 mense utility in navigation ; find ships going on distant 
 voyages are usually furnished ivith several, for the purpose 
 of checking one another, and also to guard against the 
 effects of accidental derangement in any single one. The 
 accuracy with which some of the better sort of chronome- 
 ters have been found to perform is truly astonishing; the 
 error in a two months' voyage not exceeding two or three 
 seconds. (See Dent on the Construction and Management 
 of Chronometers.) 
 
 CHRY'SALIS. (Gr. xp^ooi, gold.) The second state of 
 a Metabolian or changeable insect, in which it becomes in- 
 active, takes no food, and is inclosed in a transparent cover- 
 lag, which in many instances reflects a metallic lustre; 
 whence the name. 
 
 CIIRY'SOBA'LANA'CEvE. (Chrysobalanus, one of 
 the genera.) A natural order of shrubby or arborescent 
 Exogens, chiefly inhabiting the hotter parts of the world. 
 They are very nearly related to Rosacea, from which they 
 differ in having a style proceeding from the very base of 
 the ovary, and irregular stamens and petals. The species 
 are of little importance. The fruit of Chrysobalanus icaco 
 is eaten in the West Indies under the name of the cocoa 
 plum, and that of some others is used in other countries in 
 a similar way. 
 
 CHRYSO'BERIL. This mineral occurs in small round- 
 ed masses, and in crystals ; it is very hard, transparent or 
 translucent, and of different shades of greenish yellow. It 
 is employed in jewellery. It has been brought from Bra- 
 zil ; and is associated in the sand of the Ceylonese rivers 
 with rubies and sapphires. The cymopAane of Hauy, which 
 is a species of chrysoberil, consists of alumina 76 7, glucina 
 173, oxide of iron 55. 
 
 CHRYSOCHLORE. (Gr. xpv<">S, gold, and xXupoc, 
 green.) A species of mole, Chrysochloris capensis, inhabit- 
 ing the Cape of Good Hope, the fur of which reflects most 
 brilliant metallic hues of irreen and gold. 
 
 CHRYSOCO'LLA, The Greek name for borax. 
 
 CIIIIYSO'GRAPHY. (Gr. xpwoj, gold, and ypa<po), I 
 write.) The art of writing in letters of gold : a sumptuous 
 fashion, practised by the writers of manuscripts, chiefly in 
 '.he early part of the middle ages, when the leaves of parch- 
 ment which contained the writing were also dyed with 
 purple and other colours. 
 
 CHRY'SOLITE. (Gr. xpvtroc. and Xiflos, a stone.) A 
 crystallized mineral, often of a golden yellow colour. It is 
 a ferriferous silicate of magnesia, and is sometimes used 
 in jewellery. 
 
 231 
 
 CHYLE. 
 
 CHRYSO'LOGY. (Gr. XP va °S> S otd > md \oyoc, dt* 
 course.) A name by which some continental writers dis- 
 tinguish that branch of political economy whit h relates to 
 the production of wealth. 
 
 CHRYSO'MELA. (Gr. xpvaoc, gold, and fiXay, black.) 
 The name of a Linnrean genus of Coleopterous insects, 
 now the type of an extensive group, divisible into three 
 families; viz. the Chrysomelidat, proper, characterized by 
 having t he antenna; remote from each other at the base ; 
 Cassididce, having the antenna? arising close together, but 
 concealed at the base by the thorax ; and Gaitracidce, 
 having the antenna; close together at the base, but nol 
 concealed by the thorax. The characters which these 
 three families possess in common are. a small body of an 
 oval or rounded form; antenna; seldom so long as the 
 body ; legs of a moderate length, but rather thickened ; 
 and tarsi with the three basal joints dilated and spongy 
 beneath, forming a kind of cushion. The insects of the 
 present tribe are of sluggish habits, and feed upon the 
 leaves of various vegetables, both in the larva and imago 
 state, being characterized in the latter period by their 
 brilliant metallic tints ; whence their name. The larva of 
 one of the British species (Eumolpus vitis, Fabr.) preys 
 upon the young buds and leaves of the vine, and by its 
 attacks upon the footstalk of the grape bunch so injures 
 the nutrient vessels as to cause the destruction or de- 
 terioration of the fruit. In the wine countries of Europe 
 the ravages of this insect are often very serious, and much 
 dreaded. 
 
 CHRY'SOPRASE. (Gr. xP^aonpaixos.) A pale green 
 silicious mineral, generally semitransparent. It is tinged 
 by oxide of nickel, and much esteemed for ornamental 
 purposes. 
 
 CHURCH. (Gr. Kvptaxov, from xnptoy, Lord.) A build- 
 ing dedicated to the Lord. The word church, however, is 
 not confined to this signification, but answers to all the 
 senses in which ckkXtjo-io (Fr. eglise) is used in the New 
 Testament, which from its original meaning of a convened 
 assembly, is employed, 1st, to denote the whole body of 
 true believers, or the visible church; 2nd, in addition to 
 these, the spirits of the just made perfect, or the invisible 
 church ; "rd, any ^u; . t ;ation f Christian - i.i 
 in a single place, or the body of believer.- resident io a 
 town or district. ; and 4th, the edifice in which they meet, 
 for divine worship. To these we may add a fifth sense ol 
 the modern term church, when it is applied to a distinct 
 religious community ; as the Romish, the English, the Lu- 
 theran, &c. The true definition of the visible church has 
 been a matter of much controversy. The English church, 
 In her 19th article, explains it to be "a congregation ol 
 faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached 
 and the sacraments duly administered, according ti. 
 Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity ar .> 
 requisite to the same." What these necessary requisites 
 are is not dogmatically laid down, whence many comma 
 nities come to be comprehended in the visible church by 
 English divines which the Romish and other authorities 
 exclude. Many sects, however, extend the pale still fur- 
 ther, not considering the reception of the sacraments as 
 any test of churchmanship, but referring it solely to the 
 earnest belief and moral conduct of individuals. 
 
 Church. In Architecture, a building dedicated to the 
 performance of Christian worship. Under the art. Archi- 
 tecture an account is eiven of the Basilica; which were 
 first used for the assembly of the early Christians, to 
 which the reader is referred. Among the first of the 
 churches was that of St. Peter's at Rome, about the year 
 326, nearly on the site of the present church ; and it is 
 supposed that the first church of St. Sophia at Constanti- 
 nople was built somewhat on its model. That which was 
 afterwards erected by Justinian seems in its turn to have 
 afford er I the model of St. Mark's at Venice, which was 
 the first in Italy constructed with pendentives and a dome, 
 the former affording the means of covering a square 
 plan with an hemispherical vault. The four most celebra- 
 ted churches in Europe erected since the revival of the 
 arts are, St. Peter's at Rome, which stands on an area of 
 227,069 feet superficial ; Sta. Maria del Fiore at Florence, 
 sfandins on 84,802 feet. ; St. Paul's, London, which stands 
 on 84,025 feet; and St. Genevieve at Paris, 00.287 feet. 
 The churches on the Continent are usually ranged under 
 seven classes : Pontifical, as St. Peter's, where the pope 
 occasionally officiates; Patriarchal, where the govern- 
 ment is in a patriarch ; Metropolitan, where an archbishop 
 is the head; Cathedral, where a bishop presides ; Collegi- 
 ate, when attached to a college ; Parochial, attached to a pa- 
 rish ; and Conventual, when belonging to a convent. 
 
 CHU'SITE. (Gr. x voi i Ip° ur -'> A verv fusible mineral 
 found near Limbonrg. 
 
 CHYA'ZIC ACID. From the initials of carbon, hydro 
 gen, and azote. A term applied to the compounds of hy 
 drocvanic acid. 
 
 CHYLE. (Gr. x v ^°* ■) The nutritious fluid prepared 
 from the chyme, and imbibed by the lacteals to be con 
 
CKYLOPOIF/riC. 
 
 the thoracic duct anil venous system. It contains 
 about 10 per cent, of solid matter. In oost mammals it is 
 while; in birds transparent, except i'i some lbs! live on 
 ants and insects, as the wood-pecker, which has been ob- 
 served lo '•>■'■ opake; it is white in the crocodile, but colour- 
 transparent in oilier reptiles and in fishes. (See 
 tutry.) 
 ( .IV l.Oi'OlE'TIC. (Gr. x«*°S, and irotea, I make.) 
 led in»the forni;iiion of chyle; hence the 
 enum, and liver are termed chylopoietic 
 
 ' I1V.MIC. (Or. x v l* Si juice.) The pulpy layer of nu- 
 Yltious digested matter which adheres to the inner surface 
 of the intestine, and yields the chyle by admixture with 
 t etion. 
 CIBO'RIUM. (Gr. KtSwniov.) In Architecture, an in- 
 rection open on each side, with arches, and hav- 
 me of ogee form carried or supported by four 
 :olumns. It is also used to denote the coffer or case which 
 contains the 1 ' 
 CICA'DA. (I. at. a grass hopper.) The name of a Lin- 
 us of insects, celebrated in all ages for their 
 power irill chirp. 
 
 El cantu querulc rumpem arbuiia cfesrie, 
 
 C/'eur'ica, [il. 
 
 uings Virgil ; which Dryden renders, 
 
 WiitMi creaking grati-hoppcr* on ttirubs complain : 
 
 it is evident that Virgil alluded to the insectsof 
 tiie present genus, which habitually frequent shrubs and 
 trees, and feed on their juices, having a peculiar apparatus 
 for piercing the bark and sucking out the juice. They are 
 therefore more accurately described by Lord Byron, as 
 
 The shrill Cicada, people of the pine. 
 The manna of the shops is the inspissated juice of the 
 Fraxinus ornus, poured out from the wounds inflicted by 
 the Cicada omi. The organ of sound U peculiar to the 
 
 i is situated on each side of the under and ante- 
 rior part of the abdomen. The insects referable lo the 
 Linnaean genus Cicada are now separated into three fami- 
 '."•enV?"', and Cereofridfr. 
 
 :s after the 
 skinning over of a wound. 
 
 RO'NE. (Ital.) A name originally given by the 
 IUirans to those persons who pointed out to travellers the 
 interesting objects with which Italy abounds; but applied 
 
 ly at present to any individual who acts as a 
 ruide. This application of the term Cicerone has pro- 
 bably its origin in the ironical exclamation, "E un Cice- 
 rone'' (he is a Cicero), being elicited Irom the traveller by 
 i known garrulity of the Italian guides. 
 CICHORA'CE.E. (Gr. *»x<upi|, name of the herb 
 Cichory.) One of the four divisions of Composite, a very 
 extensive order of herbaceous or shrubby Exogens. The 
 plants belonging to this division have a milky juice, and 
 form a connecting link between Composites and Cumpanu- 
 lacecb. They inhabit the whole world, and are character- 
 ized by all the florets of the flower heads being alike and 
 ligulate. Lettuce, succory, and endive are familiar exam- 
 ples of Cichoruccm, which are generally bitter, with a so- 
 
 lality i ' :S< nibling that of opium. 
 CICI'NDELA. (Lat. cicendela, a gloie-teorm.) Aname 
 applied by Linnaans to a genus of beetles, which is placed 
 at the head of the order Coleop/era, from the circumstance 
 of the outer lobe of the maxillae being converted into an 
 additional pair of feelers, called internal maxillary palpi. 
 The mandibles are very strong, and armed with strong 
 • teeth ; the maxilla are terminated by a moveable spur ; 
 the eyes are large and prominent ; and the wings gener- 
 ally we'll developed Endowed with such powers of per- 
 ception, locomotion, and destruction, it may be readily 
 inferred that these insects are a cruel and predatory race. 
 Like the carnivora of a higher class, they are remarkable 
 for the beauty of their colours, and were termed by Lin- 
 naeus the tigers of the insect world. The species referable 
 to the Linnaean Cicindela are extremely numerous, and 
 are divided into twenty sub-genera; of which one only is 
 British, and to this the term Cicindela is restricted. 
 
 CICISBE'O. (Ital.) A word synonymous with cavalier 
 tercenle, and applied to a class of persons in Italy who 
 attend on married ladies with all the respect and devotion 
 of lovers. Tormerly the establishment of a fashionable 
 lady was not considered complete without a cicisbeo, 
 whose duly it was lo accompany .her to private parlies 
 and public amusements, to escort her in her walks, and in 
 sb'irt to be always at her side ready for her commands. 
 Tl.i.i practice is now, however, on the decline. Though 
 the ofh< e of a cicisbeo has been the subject of frequent 
 
 . it has not been without its advocates and ad- 
 mirers. Among others. Barelti has taken great pains to 
 vindicate this custom In his Account of the Manners, c)-c. 
 of Ittdy, vol. i. c. 8. lie ascribes it In a spirit of gallantry 
 derived from the ages of chivalry, and much heightened 
 and refined bv the levivalof the Platonic philosophy in 
 235 
 
 CINCHONA. 
 
 Italy about the 13th century, and by the verses of Pettaicb 
 and his numerous imitators. 
 
 CICO'NIA. (Lat. a stork.) A genus of wading birds of 
 the tribe Cultrirostres oi Cuvier; including the white stork 
 (Ciconia alba), the black stork (Ciconia 7iigra), and the 
 American stork {Ciconia magnnri). 
 
 CID. (Arab, seid, lord.) The name given to an epic 
 poem of the Spaniards which celebrates the exploits of 
 their national hero, Roderigo Diaz, Count of Bivar. It is 
 supposed to have been written in the t3th century, abou. 
 150 years after the hero's death ; but unfortunately the an 
 thor's name has not been transmitted to posterity. (Set 
 Suitthey's Chronicle if the Cid, and Lockhart's Spanish 
 Ballads. Am. ed., 184-'.) 
 
 CI'DER. A fermented liquor made from the juice ol 
 apples. Cider is made in all the temperate climates ol tlio 
 world which are not sufficiently warm for maturing the 
 grape, and where the cold is not so great as to reduce the 
 inhabitants to only the beer produced by a fermented de- 
 coction of grain. Cider is formed by grinding or crushing 
 the apples when ripe, either in a circular stone trough by 
 a stone roller turned by a horse (which is the common 
 practice in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, dsc), or be- 
 tween tinted or spiky, and afterwards between smooth 
 rollers of wood or iron, driven by men (as practised in De- 
 vonshire, and in most places where cider is made on a 
 small scale). The apples, includingthe core and th 
 being reduced to a pulp by crushing or grinding, the man 
 is put into a hair cloth and powerfully pressed ; and the 
 liquor which runs from it is put into casks, where it is al- 
 lowed to ferment, the casks being freely exposed to the air 
 In the shade ; the progress of the fermentation la then care- 
 fully watched, and as the sediment has subsided the liquor 
 is racked oft"; on the proper time being chosen fordoing 
 
 mis the excellence of the cider. The I 
 other circumstances being the same, is that in which the 
 fermentation has gone on slowly, and where the vinous fer- 
 mentation has not gone so far as to become acetous. The 
 check to fermentation consists in rackingoff from one cask 
 lo another. Before winter the casks are removcl 
 lar, and by the following spring the liquor is fit for use, or 
 for bottling. Tin. principal cider c< [landare 
 
 Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Devonshire. The 
 tershire and Herefordshire cider will keep from 
 twenty to thirty years ; while the best Devonshire cider 
 will rarely keen more than five or six years. 
 
 CI'LIA. (Lat. cilium, un eyelash.) The hairs which 
 grow from the margin of the eyelids; the trim I 
 plied lo microscopic filamenlsor plates which project from 
 animal membranes and are endowed with quick vlbratile 
 motion. In most of the lower animals the respiratory 
 function is effected by means of the vibratile cilia; many 
 animalcules and the gemmules of the Acritefl move by a 
 similar mechanism; and it has recently been ascertained 
 that vibratile cilia have a share in the performance of some 
 important functions in the highest classes of the animal 
 kingdom, where they have been detected on the membrane 
 lining the female generative and respiratory passages, and 
 the ventricles of the brain. 
 
 Cilia. In Botany, long hairs situated upon the margin 
 of a vegetable body, as on the leaves of the tiemprrricum 
 tictorum. 
 
 CI'LURY. (Lat cilium.) The ciliary ligament of the 
 eye is the circular portion that divides the choroid mem- 
 brane from Ihe iris, and which adheres to the sclerotic 
 coat. The ciliary processes are the white folds at the mar- 
 gin of the urea in the eye, which proceed from it to the 
 crystalline lens. 
 
 CI'LIATED. (Lat. cilium.) A term used in describing 
 the surface of an organ, to denote the presence at the mar- 
 gin of fine hairs resembling the eyelash, as in the leaves of 
 Lvziila pilosa. 
 
 CI'LIOGRADE, Ciliograda. (Lat. cilium and gradior, 1 
 proceed.') The name of atribe of Acalephans orsea nettles, 
 comprehending those which swim by means of cilia. 
 
 CI'MFX. (Lat. cimex, a bug:) A Linnaean genua of 
 Ilemipterous insects, now subdivided into the following 
 families, — Pantatomidm, Coroidce, Lygoidm, Cypridee, Ci- 
 micida, fieduviida, Acanthidtz, Hydrometridai. Each of 
 these families includes sevtral genera, and each genus 
 comprises many species; in all the month consists ol one 
 lengthened and jointed proboscis, including several fine 
 sharp bristle-like processes, which are employed in wound 
 tag the vegetable or animal substances on the juices ol 
 which these insects feed. The bed-bug (Cimex lectula 
 rius) may be regarded as a type of this extensive tribe ol 
 insects. 
 
 CI'MOLITE. A mineral found in Ihe island of Cimola 
 in amorphous earthy masses: it is a hydrated silicate ol 
 alumina. 
 
 CINCHO'NtA. The generic name of certain trees yield 
 ing a bitter febrifuge bark, the virtues of which are to be. 
 ascribed to the presence of the vegetable alkaloids cahed 
 cinclionia and quinia. 
 
CINCHONACEJE. 
 
 Three species of cinchona bark are directed in the Lon- 
 don Pharmacopoeia to be kept for medical use ; namely, 
 the pale, yekow, and red barks. The first of these is fur- 
 nished by C. condaminea, and contains cinchonia; the 
 second, yielded by C. lanceolata, produces quinia; and the 
 third, whose origin is not ascertained, possesses a mixture 
 of the two. 
 
 CINCIIONA'CEjE. (Cinchona, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of shrubby or arborescent Exogens, almost 
 exclusively inhabiting the tropics and the hotter parts of 
 the world. They are in some respects allied to Composi- 
 te, from which their distinct stamens, bilocular or plurilo- 
 cular ovary, and inflorescence, distinguish them. They are 
 divided from Apocynacea by the aestivation of the corolla, 
 the presence of stipules, and the inferior ovary ; although, 
 according to Brown, there exists a genus in equinoctial 
 Africa which has the interpetiolary stipules and seeds of 
 Cmc/tonacea, and the superior ovary of Apocynaceas, 
 thus connecting the two orders. They are most nearly re- 
 lated 10 Cuprifoliacem, being only separated from them by 
 their interpetiolary stipules. Brown describes a tribe called 
 Opercularinea as having but one seed, and the number 
 
 • of stamens unequal to the lobes of the corolla ; thus oc- 
 cupying, as it would seem, an intermediate position be- 
 tween CinchunaceiB and Dipsacecb. Powerful febrifugal 
 properties in their bark or emetic in the roots are the great 
 features of this order, the most efficient products of which 
 are cinchona and ipecacuanha. Many of the plants of the 
 order are fragrant and of great beauty ; but, with the ex- 
 ception of the Gardenea, Lucula, and a few others, the 
 handsome kinds are hardly known to cultivators. 
 
 CI'NCTUKE. (Lat. cingo, I surround.) In Architecture, 
 the ring, list, or fillet at the top and bottom of a column, 
 which divides the shaft of the column from its capital and 
 base. 
 
 CINE'REOUS. (Lat. cinis, ashes.) Grey ; the colour 
 of wood-ashes. 
 
 CI'NGULUM. (Lat. cingulum, a girdle.) In Zoology, 
 is technically applied to the neck of a tooth, or to that 
 more or less distinct constriction which separates the 
 crown from the fang. The term cingula is also given to 
 the transverse series of bony pieces connected together by 
 tegumentary flexile joints, as in the middle part of the ar- 
 mour of the armadillo. 
 
 CI'NNABAR. An Indian name, given, according to 
 Pliny, to a m xture of the blood of the dragon and ele- 
 phant, and other substances of similar colour. It is now 
 exclusively applied to the red pigment called vermilion. 
 It is a bisutphuret of mercury, composed of 200 mercury -4- 
 32 sulphur. 
 
 CI'NNAMON. The bark of the Cinnamcmum zeylani- 
 cum. This tree is a native of Ceylon, whence the finest 
 cinnamon is obtained; it is of an astringent and highly aro- 
 matic and warm flavour, and yields by distillation an ex- 
 tremely fragrant and pungent volatile oil, kept for pharma- 
 ceutical use under the name of oil of cinnamon. An in- 
 ferior kind of cinnamon is often met with In commerce, 
 which is remarkably deficient in flavour. 
 
 CI'NNAMON STONE. (So called from its colour.) A 
 sili;ate of lime, alumine, and oxide of iron, from Ceylon. 
 It o. 'curs massive and in rounded pieces in the sand of 
 rivers ; some of these are occasionally cut and polished for 
 jewellery. 
 
 CINQUE PORTS, or FIVE PORTS. The seaport towns 
 of Dover, Sandwich, Hastings, Hithe, and Romney ; to 
 which throe others were afterwards added, viz. Winchil- 
 sea, Rye, and Seaford. These towns are incorporated, 
 wiih peculiar privileges; are under the government of a 
 lord warden, to whom writs for the return of members to 
 parliament from them are directed ; and the members so 
 returned are termed Barons of the Cinque Ports. 
 
 CPPIIER. (Heb. saphar, to number.) The character 
 in numeral notation, which, standing by itself, signifies 
 nothing, or the privation of value. When combined with 
 other numeral characters, its use is to determine their posi- 
 tion with regard to the unit's place, and consequently the 
 power often, by which their absolute values must be seve- 
 rally multiplied to produce the number they are intended 
 to represent. 
 
 Cipher is sometimes used in common language to signify 
 any arithmetical character ; hence the verb to cipher, which 
 signifies to perform an arithmetical operation. This term, 
 which is found in all European languages, wr.s no doubt in- 
 troduced into Spsin by the Saracens, along with the Arabic 
 figures, which appear to have come into use among the 
 astronomers in the thirteenth or early in the fourteenth 
 century (for the time of their first introduction is not cer- 
 lainly known), and to have been gradually circulated over 
 Europe in the almanacs. 
 
 CI POLIN. A green marble with white zones, some- 
 what like the section of an onion. 
 
 CI'RCINNATE. (Lat. circino, Imake a circle.) A term 
 used in describing the .-estivation of flowers, and the direc- 
 tion of plants in general, •„ denote those which are rolled I 
 236 
 
 CIRCLE. 
 
 spirally downwards, so that they are bent like Ihe head of 
 a crosier ; as the shoots of young ferns, the inflorescence 
 of Boraginaceous plants, the leaves of the Sundew. 
 
 CI'RCLE. (Lat. circulus.) In Geometry, a plane fi- 
 gure contained by one line, which is called the circumfer- 
 ence, and such that all straight lines drawn horn a certain 
 point within the figure to the circumference are equal to 
 one another. The point which possesses this property is 
 called the centre of the circle. The straight line and the 
 circle are the only figures admitted into plane or i lemen- 
 tary geometry, all questions in that branch of mathematici 
 depending on the intersections of straight lines with straight 
 lines, of straight lines with circles, or of ciicles with cir- 
 cles. This distinction was established by the ancient geo 
 metricians, who regarded the other geometrical figures a« 
 formed by the intersections of planes with solids, and 
 thence denominated problems, for the solution of which 
 the properties of other figures than the straight line and 
 the circle were required, — solid problems. Tne algebraic 
 analysis points to a different distinction. An equation be- 
 tween two indeterminate quantities, neither of which rises 
 above the first degree, represents a straight line. When 
 cither or both of the indeterminate quantities rise to the se- 
 cond degree, the equation may represent a circle, an el- 
 lipse, an hyperbola, or a parabola. The circle thus be- 
 longs to the same class of curve lines as those which have 
 been termed conic sections ; and in fact a cone may be 
 cut by a plane so that the section shall be a circle, as well 
 as any one of the other three curves. 
 
 The circle derives its chief importance from its applica- 
 tion to trigonometry, or the measurement of angles. In- 
 stead of directly comparing angles with one anolher, it is 
 more convenient to compare the arcs (described with the 
 same radius) contained between the sides of the angle. 
 The numerical relations of different angles, or the corres- 
 ponding arcs, are expressed as follows : — The circle is di- 
 vided into four equal parts, and the four portions of the 
 circumference thus formed serve as the measure of four 
 right angles, which comprehend the whole space about 
 the centre. Each of these quarters of the circumference 
 is divided into 90 equal parts, called degrees. The whole 
 circumference, therefore, contains four times 90, or 360 de- 
 grees. This division, adopted in the most ancient times, 
 appears sufficiently capricious; nevertheless it is very 
 convenient, inasmuch as the number 360 contains many 
 primes, and consequently permits many subdivisions inlc 
 parts expressible by whole numbers. Thus, the half con- 
 tains 180 degrees ; the third, 120; the fourth, 90; the fifth, 
 72; the sixth, 60; the eighth, 45; thetenth,36; the twelfth; 
 30; the fifteenth, 24, &c. In order to measure smaller 
 parts of an angle than a degree, the degree is subdivided 
 into 60 minutes or primes, and the minute into 60 seconds. 
 Since the decimal arithmetic came into general use, the 
 sexagesimal division is not carried farther than seconds in 
 expressing angular magnitude, the parts of a second befng 
 now always represented by decimals. The whole circum- 
 ference of the circle contains 2I,G00 minutes or 1,296,000 
 seconds. 
 
 The rectification of the circle, or the determination of 
 the ratio of the circumference to the diameter, is a prob- 
 lem which has exercised the ingenuity of mathematicians 
 in all ages. It cannot be expressed in finite numbers ; but 
 numerous series have been invented from which it may 
 be computed to any required degree of precision. Archi- 
 medes, in his treatise De Dimensione Circuit, proved that 
 if the diameter is expressed by 7, the circumference is 
 very nearly 22. A nearer ratio, which is generally used in 
 ordinary measurements, is 113 to 355; and it has the ad- 
 vantage of being easily remembered, the numbers being 
 formed of the three first odd numbers, each repeated. 
 Vieta carried the approximation to 10 places of figures, 
 and Van Ceulen to 36. Mr. Abraham Sharp computed the 
 ratio to 72 places of figures ; and finally De Lagny. in the 
 Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, extended it 
 to 128; an example of patient industry without a use. 
 Supposing the diameter 1, the first thirty-six figures by 
 which the circumference is expressed (or the ratio found 
 by Van Ceulen) are 
 
 314159,26535,89793,23846,26433,83279,50288. 
 
 Of the series by which the circumference is expressed 
 in terms of the diameter, one of the simplest is 
 
 c = 4 X (1 - S+f- \ TH4-TT+ T3-T5+, &c.) j 
 but the following is better adapted for calculation, 
 
 1-3-5 
 
 c = 4X(l--L J- LL._ 
 
 2 3 — 2 4-5 _ "24-6-7 — 2-4-6-89 
 
 , &c.) 
 
 The areas of circles, as of plane similar figures, are to 
 one another in the ratio of the squares of their diame- 
 ters. If the diameter is unit, the area is X of the circum- 
 ference, and is expressed by the decimal -7853981633974183, 
 &.c. to sixteen places. This is nearly in the proportion 
 of 14 to 11, which was the approximation given by Archi- 
 
CIRCUITS. 
 
 Archimedes. Some of the series by which the ratio of 
 the area of a circle to the square of its diameter is ex- 
 ire curious. Ttie fullowing was given by Dr. Wal- 
 lia iii his Arithmetic of Infinities • — 
 
 2X4X4xeX6X8X L &c- 
 
 3X3X&X5X7X7X.&C. 
 
 This is the same as |Xf jXjfXi &<=., the denomina- 
 ng the squares of the odd numbers, and the nume- 
 rators differing from the denominators by unity. Since 
 the invention of the infinitesimal calculus the discovery of 
 ■ortea for the rectification and quadrature of the circle is 
 ii nutter ol comparative facility. A number of them may 
 I in Euler's Introductio in Analysin Inftnttorum. 
 
 Cl'RCUITS. (Lat. circumeo, J go round.) In England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland, divisions of the kingdom appointed 
 of assize; two of whom go each circuit 
 twice a voir, to deliver the gaols and try issues at nisi pn- 
 . divided into six circuits— Home, Midland, 
 Oxford, Norfolk, Western, Northern; Wales into the 
 North and Sooth Welah circuit*. A single judge travels 
 each of the Welsh circuits, and these two meet at Chester 
 to transact tb« business of that county. The judges choose 
 their own circuits; the three chiefs, and the puisne judges, 
 of K -niority. making their election. The circuits 
 are alter Hilary and Trinity Terms, and vary in their dura- 
 li.m from three to seven or eight weeks. (Set Courts, 
 BUMBIOK; and Assize.) The circuit or assize towns in 
 iande« have been fixed by immemorial usage, but 
 srme changes have recently been made by the authority 
 of the privy council. Barristers at the common law bar 
 choose their circuits on first embarking in their profession, 
 and etiquette allows of only one subsequent change. The 
 Insolvent eommiaaioaera also make circuits thrice a year 
 through the kingdom fur the discharge of debtors. 
 
 CTRCULAR INSTRUMENTS. The name given to any 
 astronomical or nautical instrument for measuring angles, 
 in which the graduation extends round the whole circum- 
 ference, or to 360°. Formerly it was thought sufficient to 
 carry the divisions over a portion of a circle only, whence 
 the quadrants, sextants, and octants, once so common ; but 
 experience has shown that entire circles (especially where 
 the instruments are of considerable size) have a great ad- 
 vantage over graduated segments ; and hence, excepting 
 the sea sextant, the latter are now seldom used. The 
 principal circular instruments used in astronomy are atti- 
 tude and azimuth circles, mural circles, reflecting circles, 
 and repeating eircl'.a. The altitude and azimuth circle, as 
 its num.; implies, ia used for measuring the altitudes and 
 azimuths of stars; it is consequently composed of two 
 
 Graduated circles, one vertical and the other horizontal. 
 "his is a sort of universal instrument, being applicable to 
 almost all the purposes of astronomy. The mural circle is 
 so called because it is supported by means of a long axis 
 passing into a tcall, the plane of the circle being parallel to 
 the wall. The instrument is placed in the meridian, and 
 I for determining the polar or zenith distances of ce- 
 lestial objects. (.See Mural Circle.) The reflecting cir- 
 cle carries a mirror, by means of which an object is seen 
 by reflected vision ; another object is viewed directly ; the 
 two are brought to coincide, and the angular distance be- 
 tween them is measured by the inclination of the mirror 
 to the axis of the telescope. (See Sextant.) The repeat- 
 ing circle, or multiplying circle, is so contrived that the ob- 
 server is enabled to repeat or multiply the observation, by 
 reading it oft* successively on different parts of the gradu- 
 ated limb. A number of values being thus found, the 
 mean of the whole is taken as the correct result. This in- 
 strument is sometimes called Borda's circle, from the 
 name of its improver. See Bepeatino Circle. 
 
 CI'RCULAR PARTS. In Trigonometry, the name given 
 to a proposition invented by Lord Napier, and demon- 
 strated In his Mirifici Loganthmorum Canonis DescripUo, 
 which gives all the relations between the parto o; a nght- 
 angled spherical triangle, in two formula?. It is this :— In 
 any right-angled spherical triangle, let 
 
 a and b denote the sides, c the hypo- 
 
 thenuse. and A and B the angles oppo- 
 site to a and b respectively. Take the 
 
 two sides, and the complements of the 
 
 hypothenuse and of the two angles, and 
 
 write them in order round a circle, as 
 
 in the annexed diagram; then, if any 
 
 one part be called the middle part, the 
 
 two next to it are the adjacent parts, and the other two 
 
 the opposite parts; and the two following rules will hold 
 
 good : — 
 1. The sine of the middle part is equal to the product 
 
 of the tangents of the adjacent parts. 2. The sine of the 
 
 middle part Is equal to the product of the cosines of the 
 
 appetite parts. Thus, 
 
 Sin. a = tan. 6, tan. (90— B). 
 Bin. a = cos. (90°— A) cos. (90°— c). 
 237 
 
 CIRRHOUS. 
 
 CIRCULATING DECIMALS. Are decimals in which 
 two or more figures are constantly repeated in the same 
 order; thus, 09,09,09, &c. ; 234,234,234, &c. ; 1425S7, 
 •I 12587, 1, &c. A decimal of this sort is equal to a vulgar 
 fraction of which the numerator is the period or circulating 
 figures, and the denominator as may nines as there are 
 figures in the numerator. 
 
 CIRCUMCI'SION. The initiatory rite of the Jewish cove- 
 nant ; which, as is recorded, was first enjoined to Abraham 
 by God, and after his posterity had neglected it during thoil 
 wanderings through the desert, was solemnly renewed 
 upon the passage of the Jordan. (Josh. v. 1 — 10.) 
 
 This custom of cutting off the foreskin has been long 
 prevalent among Eastern nations. Herodotus refers to it 
 as the practice of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, and ai 
 borrowed from them by the Phoenicians and Syrians. It 
 does not appear, however, to have been considered by 
 these nations in the light of a religious ceremony. It is 
 enforced by the Koran upon all the disciples of Mahomet, 
 whether from an idea of salubrity vulgarly attributed to it 
 in the East, or merely as a distinguishing rite. 
 
 CIRCU'MFERENTOR. An instrument used by sur- 
 veyors lor taking angles. It consists of a graduated brass 
 circle and an index all of one piece, and carrying a mag- 
 netic needle suspended above the centre of the circle. 
 The index being directed to an object, the angle which it 
 makes with the magnetic meridian is noted. The index 
 is then directed to the second object, and the angle it 
 makes with the same meridian observed in like manner. 
 The difference (or sum, as the case may be) of the two 
 observed angles gives the angle between the two ob- 
 jects. It Is evident that only a very rough approximation 
 can be obtained in this manner. For the purposes of sur- 
 veying, a pocket sextant is a far preferable instrument. 
 
 CI'RCUMFLE'XUS. A muscle of the palate : the term 
 is also applied to arteries which wind round bones or 
 joints. 
 
 CI'RCUMPO'LAR STARS. Are those stars which at 
 any given place move round the pole, or complete their 
 diurnal circles, without setting. The number of stars so 
 circumstanced increases with the latitude of the place or 
 the elevation of the pole above the horizon. 
 
 CIR'CUMSCI'SSILE. (Lat. circumscindo, / cut round. ) 
 A mode of dehiscence observed in the fruit of some plants ; 
 it occurs by a transverse circular separation of the sides 
 of the ovary, as in Anagallis, Hyoscyamus, and is analo- 
 gous to the transverse articulations found in the leaf of the 
 orange or the pod of ornithopus. 
 
 < rKCUMSCRI'PTION. (Lat. circumscriptio,a6onnda- 
 ry.) The line representing the two edges of a leaf, i. e. ill 
 margin ; it is also used to denote the figure represented fc? 
 the margin of any other body. 
 
 Cl'RCUMVALLATlON. (Lat. circum, about, and va! 
 lum, a rampart.) In Fortification, a trench or bulwark 
 thrown up about a camp or besieged city, composed of the 
 earth dug up from the ditch and of sharp stakes planted 
 in it. 
 
 CI'RCUS. A straight long narrow building, whose 
 length to its breadth was generally as five to one. It was 
 divided down the centre by an ornamented barrier called 
 the spina, and was used by the Romans for the exhibition 
 of public spectacles and chariot races. There were sev- 
 eral of these at Rome, of which the most celebrated was 
 the Circus Maximus. 
 
 Julius Cassar improved and altered the Circus Maximns ; 
 and that it might serve for the purpose of a naumachia, 
 supplied it with water. Augustus added to it the celebra- 
 ted obelisk now standing in the Piazza del Popolo. No 
 vestiges of this circus remain. Besides these were at 
 Rome the Circi of Flaminius, near the Pantheon ; Agona- 
 lis, occupying the site of what is now the Piazza Navona : 
 of Nero, on a portion whereof St. Peter's stands ; Florus, 
 Antoninus, and Aurelian, no longer even in ruins; and 
 that of Caracalla, which was 738 feet in length, and is suffi- 
 ciently perfect in the present day to exhibit its plan and 
 distribution in the most satisfactory manner. 
 
 The spectacles exhibited in the circus were called the 
 Circenslan Games, and consisted chiefly of chariot and 
 horse races. The Romans were passionately fond of them, 
 and more particularly of the chariot races, which excited 
 so great an interest in the times of the emperors as to di- 
 vide the whole population of the city into factions, known 
 by the names of the colours worn by the different chariot- 
 eers. The disputes of these factions sometimes led to 
 serious disturbances, and even bloodshed. 
 
 Cl'RRHOUS. (Lat. cirrus, a tendril.) A term used in 
 describing the apices of bodies, to indicate those that are 
 terminated by a spiral or flexuose filiform appendage, 
 arising from an elongation of the costa, as in the leaf ot 
 Gloriosa lupercha. It is also applied to modifications o. 
 branches, inflorescence, the petiole, &c. when such parts 
 assume the state of a twisting body, which enables tne 
 plant belonging to it to raise itself upon neighbouring ob- 
 jects. 
 
CIRRIPEDS. 
 
 CI'RRIPEDS, Cirripedia. (Lat. cirrus, and pes, afoot ; 
 cunyfouied.) A class of fixed homogangliate animals, 
 characterized by having a number of long, curled, articu- 
 lated, setigerous processes, analogous to the feet of the 
 Crustaceans, which project from the central aperture of 
 the multi valve shell protecting the body. These animals 
 are commonly called barnacles and acorn-shells. See 
 Lepadites and Balanites. 
 
 CI'RROUS Furnished with tendril-like appendages. 
 
 Cl'RSOCE'LE. (Gr. Kipaos,a diluted rem, and Kt]\r>, 
 u tumour.) A morbid enlargement of the spermatic veins 
 a the groin. 
 
 CI'SSOID. In Geometry, a curve line of the second 
 order, invented by Diodes, with a view to the solution of 
 the famous problem of the duplication of the cube, or trie 
 insertion of two mean proportionals between two given 
 straight lines. Its name is derived from from kiocos, icy ; 
 because the curve appears to mount along its asymptote 
 ns ivy climbs- on the tall trunk of a tree. The curve is 
 described as follows : — 
 
 From A, one of the extremities of the diameter of a 
 circle, draw a straight line, AC (or a c), 
 to meet the tangent through the other 
 extremity, and make C P equal to the 
 intercepted chord A D; the point P will 
 trace the cissoid. The line A C may be 
 conceived to turn on both sides of the 
 diameter A B till it falls into the position 
 of a tangent to the circle at A. The 
 curve, therefore, consists of two infinite 
 branches, which approach always nearer 
 to the tangent C B c without ever meeting 
 t, whence this line is an asymptote to the 
 lissoid. The point A being taken for the 
 origin of the co-ordinates, and the diame- 
 ter A B as the axis of the abscissa, the 
 equation of the curve is x" = (a— x) v", a being the diame- 
 ter of the generating circle. One of the most remarkable 
 properties of the cissoid is, that the whole space lying be- 
 tween the double branches and the asymptote is equal to 
 triple the area of the generating circle. A method of de- 
 scribing the cissoid mechanically by the motion of a rec- 
 tangular rule, is given in Newton's Universal Arithmetic. 
 
 CIST. (Gr. KiCTr),achest.) In Architecture and Sculp- 
 ture, a chest or basket. It is a term usually applied to the 
 mystic baskets employed in processions connected with 
 the Eleusinian mysteries. They were originally of wicker 
 work, and when afterwards made of metal the form and 
 texture were preserved in imitation of the original mate- 
 rial. When sculptured on antique monuments it indi- 
 cates some connection with the mysteries of Ceres and 
 Bacchus. 
 
 CISTA'CE>E. (Cistus, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of shrubby or herbaceous Exogens inhabiting chiefly 
 the cauntries of the south of Europe and North America. 
 They are distinguished from Violaceai by their indefinite 
 stamens and inverted embryo; from Bixacem by the last 
 character, by their mealy albumen, habit, and not having 
 the leaves ever dotted ; from Hypericacea. by the latter 
 character, and the structure of the fruit. They are allied 
 to Papaveracea, by the genus Dendromecon; but their true 
 station appears to be in the vicinity of Linacea, to which 
 they approach by the genus Lechea. They are often plants 
 of great beauty, but possess no sensible properties, except- 
 ing the Cistus creticus and a few others, which yield the 
 resinous balsamic substance called gum laudanum. 
 
 CI'STERN. (Lat. cisterna, from Gr. /tforn.) In Archi- 
 tecture, a reservoir or receptacle of water for public or 
 domestic use. When made of brick or stone it is com- 
 monly called a tank. 
 
 CI'STVAEN. A species of stone receptacle, often found 
 in barrows (generally at the east end), containing the bones 
 of the persons interred there. Cistvaens are commonly 
 three stones placed on edge, like the three sides of a box, 
 with a stone cover. Some which are styled cistvaen3 by 
 Sir R. Hoare and other antiquaries are, however, not se- 
 pulchral. 
 
 CITA'TION. (Lat. cito, / call.} In Ecclesiastical Law, 
 an act whereby the defendant, on the application of the 
 plaintiff, is commanded to appear in court on a certain clay 
 in order to enter into a suit. In the Civil Law, reference 
 to an authority or precedent in the course of a pleading is 
 termed a citation ; and hence the common use of the word 
 in thesame sense with quotation, allegation of instances, &c. 
 
 CI'TR ATES. The salts of citric acid. 
 
 CITRE'NE. A crystalline compound of hydrogen and 
 riaibon, obtained from he essential oil of lemons. 
 
 CI'TRIC ACID. »i.at. citrus, the lemon.) The pure 
 acid part of lemon and lime juice ; it is also found in other 
 fruits. Crystallized citric a'cid is largely prepared for do- 
 mesti c u se. 
 
 CVTx, (Lat. civitas.) A borough or town corporate, 
 wmch is or has been the seat of a bishop, or the capital of 
 his see , and it differs in no respect but that of superior 
 
 CLASSIC 
 
 dignity from another borough. Some cities and a few 
 boroughs are counties in themselves. 
 
 Cl'VET. A brown semifluid matter contained in a gland 
 near the anus of the Vivcria civelta or civet cat ; its odoui 
 is offensive unless extremely diluted, and then in combi- 
 nation with other perfumes it adds to their energy, 
 
 CI'VIL ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture. 
 
 CIVI'LIAN. One learned in the Civil or Roman law, 
 particularly a member of the " College of Doctors »l Law 
 exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Court*" to 
 England and Wales, in which courts the civil law is recog- 
 nized. (See Law, Civil.) Practice as an adw 
 those courts is confined to members of this college, who 
 must have taken the degree of Doctor of Law in jhc uni- 
 versity of Oxford or Cambridge. 
 
 CI'VIL LIST. The term formerly applied to the list 
 of all the expenses of the government, or "of all the heads 
 of public expenditure, excepting those of the army, the 
 navy, and the other military departments ;" but confined 
 at present by the act 1 W. 4. c. 25. to expenses proper for 
 the maintenance of her majesty's household. In England 
 the civil list is fixed in the first session of parliament after 
 the accession of the sovereign, and is then understood to 
 be granted for the whole period of his reign. 
 
 CLAMP. (From the French.) In Architecture, a pit ce 
 of wood fixed to another with a mortise and tenon, or a 
 groove and tongue, so that the fibres of the piece thus 
 fixed cross those of the other, and thereby prevent it from 
 casting or warping. 
 
 Clamp. In Brickmaking, a large mass of bricks, gene- 
 rally quadrangular on the plan, and 0, 7, or 8 feet high, ar- 
 ranged in the brick field for burning, which is effected by 
 flues prepared in stacking the clamp, and breeze or cinders 
 layed between each course of bricks. 
 
 CLAN. (Said to be derived from the Gaelic clann, de 
 scendants or issue.) The clans of the Scottish Highlands 
 are tribes consisting of many families all bearing the same 
 surname, which according to tradition descend from a 
 common ancestor. But it is more probable that most 
 clans were formed of an aggregate of different families, 
 the inferior standing to (he superior in the same sort of re- 
 lation as the Roman clients to their patrons, and by de- 
 grees assuming the same name. Some clans, however, 
 are divided into branches, each possessing a distinct sur- 
 name. The chieftainship of every clan descends regularly 
 through heirs male ; but in the earliest times of their his- 
 tory the rights of primogeniture were not very distinctly 
 defined. The Gaelic clans occupy the northern and west- 
 ern with part of the central shires of the country. A Gaelic 
 manuscript lately discovered containing genealogies of the 
 Highland clans, and supposed to have been written about 
 the year 1440, should seem to carry back the antiquity of 
 the singular institution of clanship even to a remoter period 
 than was previously believed. 
 
 CLA'RET. This term is applied to several of the Bour- 
 deaux wines ; it is derived from the Latin claretum, from 
 clarere, to be clear. See Wine. 
 
 CLA'RINET. (It. clarino.) A wooden musical wind 
 instrument, whose mouth partakes of the trumpet form, 
 and is played by holes and keys : said to have been in- 
 vented about the year 1G00 by John Christopher Denner of 
 Leipsic. Like the oboe it is played with a reed mouth 
 piece, though it is of somewhat different form. 
 
 CLA'SSES. In Ancient History, this term is particu- 
 larly applied to the division of the Roman people made by 
 Servius Tullius for the purpose of distributing them into 
 centuries. See Centuries. 
 
 CLA'SSIC. (Lat. classis, a class.) In the Fine Arts, a 
 term denoting such an arrangement of a subject thai all 
 the accessories or parts are suitable to the general design, 
 and such that nothing be introduced which does not strictly 
 belong to the particular class under which it is placed. 
 
 Classic. In Antiquity, the Roman people were divided 
 into classes, and the highest order were by pre-eminence 
 termed classici. Hence the name came to signify the 
 highest and purest class of writers in any language; al- 
 though, down to a comparatively recent period, the term 
 was used merely to denote the most esteemed Greek and 
 Latin authors. Nothing marks more strongly the increased 
 attention to, and appreciation of, modern literature, thai) 
 the now universal application of the term to modern lan- 
 guages also, and the establishment in this manner of a line 
 between those authors whom we regard as models and au- 
 thorities in point of style, and those who are not so highly 
 esteemed. An author is said to be classical if public opin- 
 ion has placed him in the former order: language, or an 
 expression, to be classical, if it be such as has been use 1 
 in a similar sense and under similar rules of construction 
 by those authors. The epithet classical, as applied to an- 
 rient authors, is determined less by the purity of their style 
 than by the period at which they wrote. Thus we speak 
 of the classical age of Greek or Latin writing. With re 
 spect to the former, the classical age begins with Homer 
 the earliest Greek writer wuh whom we are acquainted 
 
CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 The purest age of Greek classical literature may be said to 
 it the time of Hie Macedonian conquest, or about 
 300 b. c. ; but, in a wider sense, it extends to tlie time of 
 • lines, and embraces a much larger catalogue of 
 authors; while the centuries subsequent to that time pro- 
 duced a few, who by the purity of their si vie deserve to be 
 vith earlier classics. The Latin classical period is 
 shorter : its earliest writer is Plautus, and the language m iy 
 i liaN i lost its classical character about I he same time 
 v Itb ihe Greek, i. e. the reigns of the Antonines; although 
 this limit is arbitrary, and some later writers (even down 
 to Claudia n) are generally included among classics. With- 
 i a there is a more restricted period 
 of the purest Latinily, comprising the age of Cicero and 
 that of Aususms. 
 
 OLA'88IF1CATION. (Eat. classis, a class.) In the 
 Fine Arts, an arrangement by which objects of the fine 
 m ; as, for instance, in galleries 
 igs, die works should be arranged in schools, each 
 school being subject to a chronological order of the mas- 
 lam, 1 i Numismatology, the coins should be arranged by 
 . an. I these again in chronological order of the 
 'is; and the like of other branches of the arts. 
 Classification, in Natural History, denotes the ar- 
 nl or assortment of various objects into those se- 
 noted by appellatives which are called ge- 
 nera and species. For classification in Botany, Zoology, 
 Medicine, Chemistry, <fcc, see the separate articles. 
 
 CLAU'SA. (I.at. clausus, shut.) A name given by Cu- 
 vier to a family of Acephalous bivalves, comprehending 
 nch have the mantle open at one end, or near the 
 middle, for the passage of the fool, and prolonged at the 
 end into a double lube for respiration and ex- 
 cretion. 
 CL.VUSI'LIA. (Lat clausus.) A genu3 of land-snails, 
 -•• the aperture of the shell is closed inter- 
 nally by a spiral lid. Manv species of this genus are na- 
 tives of Great Britain. The rugose or dark close-shell 
 (Clausilia rugosa, Drap.) is not uncommon at Charlton, 
 where it may be found under stones. Clausilia biplicata, 
 found at Battersea. 
 CLA'VATE. (Lat. c lava, aclu b.) Club-shaped ; as when 
 a body is linear at the base, but towards the apex growing 
 gradually broader. 
 
 CLA'VICLE. (Lat. clavicula, from elavis, a key.) The 
 
 bene situated between the sternum or breast bone and the 
 
 acromion process of the scapula or blade bone. The 
 
 erium is the largest mammal which possesses this 
 
 bone. 
 
 CLA'VUS. (Lat. clavus, a nail.) In Agriculture, an ex- 
 crescence from the grains of rye, of a brown or blackish 
 colour. It is a»parasific;il fungus, called .Sp-rmoedia cl<ivi(-i, 
 I iluahle agent in exciting Uterine action during la- 
 bour. A severe pain in the forehead compared to the driv- 
 1112 of a nail into the skull has been called clavus by medi- 
 cal writ 
 
 CLAW, or UNGUIS. The narrow part at Ihe base of a 
 
 petal which takes the place of the footstalk of a leaf, of 
 
 which it is a modification. 
 
 CLAY. In Chemistry, a term generally applied toavari- 
 
 tlastic earthy compounds of different colours, and 
 
 uch attraction for water. They are essential in the 
 
 manufacture of pottery, and consist of silica, with variable 
 
 quantities of alumina, and generally some oxide of iron. 
 
 Ci.av. In Agriculture, one of the most common ingre- 
 dients that enter into the composition of soils. Indeed, it 
 may be asserted that no soil whatever will maintain its fer- 
 tility for any length of time without a duo proportion of 
 clay in its composition. The most fertile soils in Ihe world 
 are the alluvial deposits on the banks of rivers ; and these, 
 in an agricultural sense, all belong to clayey soil. In many 
 he clays of agriculture are intimately united with 
 calcareous earths, and in others with sand ; but in botli 
 ese earths are in a state of such minute division, 
 that tlie mixture has all the appearance and the mechani- 
 cal properties of a strong clay, and they are treated by cul- 
 n-cordingly. Among the most tenacious clays of 
 Britain are those of Middlesex ; and these, when examined, 
 are found in many cases to contain a considerable propor- 
 tion of lime, and in others of sand. The best wheats are 
 everywhere, both in Britain and on the Continent, grown 
 on calcareous clays ; and also the best fruits and flowers 
 of the Rosaceous kind, such as apples, pears, plums, cher- 
 ■s, &c. ; but it is remarkable that the grape, when 
 grown on clayey soil, produces neither high-flavoured 
 fruit, nor eood wine. (See Morton on Soils. Johnston's 
 Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, Part 2.) 
 
 CLAYEY SOIL. Soil in which clay is the principal 
 earthy ingredient. Soils of this description when first sub- 
 jected to cultivation are expensive to labour, and uncertain 
 in their produce ; but after they have been drained, culli- 
 rated, limed, and manured for two or three generations, 
 they oecome the most fertile of all soils, producing im- 
 mense crops of wheat, beans, clover, rye-grass, &c. 
 «19 
 
 CLIENTS. 
 
 CLE. V 'RING OF LAND. Removing such objects as 
 impede the progress of the plough; such as stones, bushes, 
 hillocks, and other obstructions. 
 
 CLEF. (Fr.) In Music, a mark prefixed to a staff, show- 
 ing the tone or key in whichu piece of music begins; or 
 it is a letter or other sign marked on a line, which deter- 
 mines the name of all those of the degree whereon it is 
 placed. A clef is always placed on a line, never on a 
 space. 
 
 CLE'FT-fiRAFTlNG. A mode of grafting, in which 
 the scion is inserted in a cleft made in the stock. See 
 Grafting. 
 
 CI.F.I'SY'DRA. (Gr. K~\ixpvlpa, from /cXhttgj, I conceal, 
 and iiuip. wafer.) Water clock: an ancient instrument 
 for measuring time by the gradual emptying of a large ves- 
 sel of water through an orifice of a determinate magni- 
 tude. Clepsydras were first brought into use in Egypt un- 
 der the reign of the Ptolemys, and seem to h 
 common in Rome, though the'y were employed chiefly in 
 winter; in summer sun-dials were used. Though clep- 
 sydras are attended with several inconveniences, the prin- 
 cipal of which is the unequal rapidity of the flow caused 
 either by a variation in the depth of the water in the con- 
 taining vessel, or of temperature, or barometric pressors, 
 they are nevertheless susceptible of considerable accura- 
 cy ; and before the invention of clocks and watches, astro- 
 nomers had no other dependence than on them for mea- 
 suring small portions of time. At present they are aban- 
 doned, because pendulum clocks and watches are much 
 more convenient, as well as infinitely more exact. In one 
 case has the revival of their use been proposed ; namely, 
 for the accurate measurement of very small intervals of 
 time by tho flowing of mercury from a small orifice in the 
 bottom of a vessel kept constantly filled to a Axed height. 
 The stream is intercepted at the moment of Doting any 
 event, and diverted aside into a receiver, into which it 
 continues to run till the moment of noting any other event, 
 when the intercepting cause is suddenly removed. The 
 stream then flows in its original course, and ceases to run 
 into the receiver. The weight of mercury received, com- 
 pared with the weight of that which passes through the 
 orifice in a given lime, observed by the clock, giv. 
 terval between the events. This ingenious application of 
 the principle of the clepsydra is due to the, late Captain 
 Eater. 
 
 CLE'RGY. The ecclesiastical body as distinguished 
 from the laity. The word clergy seems to be derived 
 from Gr. xX/}poc, a lot or inheritance ; Lat. clems, whence 
 clericus, a clerk or clergyman ; plur. clerici, whence clerge, 
 clergy ; and is supposed to allude to a custom, whe 
 ever, was never general, of choosing the clergy by lot : or 
 as St. Jerome says, to signify that the clergy are the lot 
 and portion of the Lord, or Ihe Lord il their lot. Perhaps 
 the true derivation is rather to be traced from the lots 
 (»rXr)poi) by which the apostles chose Matthias to be one 
 of their number. (Acts, 11. 26.) 
 
 Clerk (Lat. clericus) is still the legal appellation of a cler- 
 gyman. The clergy being exclusively the learned part of 
 the community in the middle ages, the word hence came 
 to signify an educated person; and thus acquired the 
 sense of a scribe or writer in France and England. 
 
 CLI'ENTS. (Lat. cliens, from the old word cluo, 1 hear 
 or obey.) In Ancient History, a numerous body of the Ro- 
 man citizens, so termed relatively to their patrons or pro- 
 tectors. This relation was in many respects similar to that 
 of a serf to his feudal lord, but bore a much milder form. 
 It was the duty of the patron to watch over the interests 
 of his clients and protect them from aggression, and ap- 
 pear for them in lawsuits. He also frequently made them 
 grants of land on lease. In return the client was bound to 
 defend his patron, and contribute towards any extraordina- 
 ry expenses he might be subject to ; as the portioning his 
 daughters, the payment of a fine imposed by the state, &c. 
 He might not appear as accuser or witness against him in 
 judicial proceedings, a prohibition which was reciprocal. 
 If he committed any offence against his patron, he was 
 obliged to submit to him as his judge ; and in ancient times 
 it appears that the power of life and death was held by Ihe 
 latter. On the other hand, his security against oppression 
 at the hands of his patron lay in the injunctions and au- 
 thority of religion, which rendered the bond of union invi- 
 olably sacred, as that between father and son. The origin 
 of this relation cannot now be traced ; but it seems to have 
 existed, with various modifications, throughout. Italy and 
 Greece. In Rome it appears at the foundation of the city 
 by Romulus, when every family not included among the 
 patricians was obliged to find itself a patron from theft 
 number. The body of clients was afterwards increased 
 by the institution by which foreigners, who, as allies of 
 Rome, had a share in its franchise, might choose them- 
 selves patrons on their coming to settle in the city. The 
 obligations of clients were hereditary') and could not be 
 shaken off unless through the decay of the family of the 
 patron. This body alone in earlier times furnished arti. 
 
CLIMACTERICAL YEAR. 
 
 zans and shopkeepers; they had votes in the Comitia 
 Centuriata ; and though generally confounded with the 
 plebeians, were undoubtedly perfectly distinct from them, 
 as we continually meet in history with instances of their 
 joining the patricians in opposition to the former ; and 
 when some of the plebeian houses became powerful, they 
 themselves attached bodies of clients. 
 
 It has been seen that among the other duties of a Roman 
 natron towards his client was that of maintaining his 
 cause gratuitously in legal proceedings. Hence the term 
 '•client" has become appropriated in modern times to 
 one 1 whose cause is prosecuted or defended and his person 
 represented by an advocate. The custom of practising 
 gratuitously as" advocates long prevailed among the Roman 
 patricians ; and from it the usage was derived, which still 
 obtains among ourselves, of considering the fee of a coun- 
 sel as " quiddam honorarium," a gratuity, which cannot 
 be legally claimed. At present, the etiquette of the Eng- 
 lish bar appears to be this— that a barrister cannot refuse, 
 without strong grounds for such refusal, to undertake any 
 cause which is offered him ; that he cannot refuse, with- 
 out reasonable excuse, to plead gratuitously the cause of a 
 client who sues regularly " in forma pauperis ;" or to de- 
 fend a prisoner, if called on to do so by the court ; and 
 that he can receive no instructions with a fee except 
 through the medium of a regularly authorized agent of his 
 client (attorney or solicitor). An application to a barrister, 
 with the customary fee, to undertake a cause in which he 
 is not yet instructed, is called a "retainer," and secures 
 his services for the client. An application to undertake 
 all causes for a particular client is a general retainer. 
 
 CLIMACTE'RICAL YEAR. (Gr. KktuaKrnp, from 
 «X(/xaJ, ladder, scale.) Certain years in the life of man 
 have been from great antiquity supposed to have a peculiar 
 importance, and to be liable to singular vicissitudes in his 
 health and fortunes. This superstitious belief is said to 
 have originated in the doctrines of Pythagoras. The well- 
 known notice of the climacterical year sixty-three, sup- 
 posed to be particularly dangerous to old men, in a letter 
 of Augustus Caesar preserved by Aulus Gellius, evinces 
 its prevalence among the Romans. This year has been 
 called by some astrological writers " heroicus," as having 
 been peculiarly fatal to great men. The virtue of this year 
 seems to consist in its being a multiple of the two mystical 
 numbers, seven and nine. It is certainly singular that 
 usage should have attached in all countries peculiar dis- 
 tinctions to those years which are denoted by compounds 
 of the number seven. Thus fourteen has been fixed for 
 various purposes as the epoch of puberty, twenty-one of 
 full age ; thirty-five i3 selected by Aristotle as the period 
 when the body is in its highest physical vigour. The same 
 author supposes the vigour of the mind to be perfected at 
 forty-nine: sixty-three is the grand climacterical year; 
 seventy the limit of the ordinary age of man. Bodinus 
 says that seven is the climacterical number in men and 
 six in women. The term climacteric disease has more 
 lately been applied to that declension of bodily and vital 
 powers which is frequently observed to come on in the 
 latter period of life, and from which many persons again 
 rally so as to attain extreme old age. 
 
 CLI'MATE. (Gr. K\t)ta. from k\ivo>, I incline.) Among 
 the ancient geographers was applied to denote that obli- 
 quity of the sphere with respect to the horizon which gives 
 rise to the inequality of day and night. They divided the 
 space comprehended between the equator and the pole 
 into thirty parts, which they denominated Climates or In- 
 clinations ; viz. twenty-four between the equator and polar 
 circle, and six between the polar circle and the pole. The 
 first are called half-hour climates, because from one to 
 another the longest day receives an augmentation of half 
 an hour; the second are called month climates, because at 
 the two parallels between which any one of them is com- 
 prehended the difference of the time of perpetual sunshine 
 is one month. The first half-hour climate reaches from 
 the equator to that parallel of latitude where the length of 
 the longest day is twelve hours and a half; the second 
 ends at the parallel where the longest day is thirteen 
 hours, and so on. If, therefore, from the number of hours 
 in the longest day at any particular place we subtract 
 twelve, the number of half hours remaining will indicate 
 the climate in which that place is situated Thus, the 
 longest day at London being a little more than sixteen 
 hours and a half, London is situated in the tenth cli- 
 mate. 
 
 The first month climate extends from the polar circle to 
 the parallel under which the sun continues above the hori- 
 zon during a month ; the second reaches from the first to 
 the parallel where the sun continues visible during two 
 months ; and so on to the poles, at which the sun is alter- 
 nately visible and invisible during half the year. 
 
 Instead of the divisions which we have now described, 
 
 Ptolemy adopted climates corresponding to the increase 
 
 of a quarter of an hour in the length of the longest day. 
 
 The spar.e from the equatoi tc the polar circle would thus 
 
 •J40 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 be divided into forty-eight instead of twenty-four zones , 
 but as these in the higher latitudes became very narrow, 
 he carried the quarter-hour climates only to the twenty- 
 fourth, that is, to the parallel at which the longest day is 
 eighteen hours. From eighteen to twenty hours he pro- 
 ceeds by half hour climates; from twenty to twenty-four 
 hours the breadth of the climate is estimated by the differ- 
 ence of a whole hour in the length of the day. The de- 
 termination of the parallels at which the different climates 
 begin and end is equivalent to this problem ■ — Having 
 given the length of the longest day to find the latitude oi 
 the place? The tangent of the latitude is equal to the sine 
 of the excess of the semi-diurnal arc above a quadrant 
 multiplied into the cotangent of the obliquity. 
 
 Climate, in its most ordinary and general acceptation, 
 embraces all those modifications of the atmosphere by 
 which our organs are sensibly affected ; such as tempera- 
 ture, humidity, variations of barometric pressure, the tran- 
 quillity of the atmosphere or the effects of winds, the in- 
 tensity of electric pressure, the purity of the air or its mix- 
 ture with gaseous emanations more or less salubrious ; 
 and lastly, the habitual diaphaneity of the atmosphere, — 
 that serenity of the sky so important on account of the in- 
 fluence which it exercises not only on the radiation of tho 
 ground, on the development of organic tissues in vegeta- 
 bles and the ripening of fruits, but also on the ensemble of 
 moral sensations which mankind experience in the differ 
 ent zones. There are two getieral causes on which the 
 climate peculiar to any country principally depends— 1st, 
 its distance from the equator; and 2nd, its altitude abovn 
 the level of the sea; but their effect is generally modified 
 by many circumstances exerting a partial influence. 
 Among these may be enumerated the configuration and 
 extent of the country ; its inclination and local exposure ; 
 the direction of the chains of mountains by which it is in- 
 tersected or which are in its vicinity ; the nature of the 
 soil as it is more or less favourable to radiation and evap- 
 oration ; the proximity to, or distance from seas ; the ac- 
 tion of winds blending the temperatures of different lati- 
 tudes; and even the changes produced by cultivation. 
 The appreciation of all these causes, which modify the re- 
 sults deduced from the consideration of latitude and eleva- 
 tion alone, and the effect produced by their combined op- 
 eration, constitutes the science of climatology. 
 
 Effect of Geographical Position. — The principal part of 
 the temperature enjoyed by any country depends on the 
 heat which it receives directly from the sun. In estima 
 ting the amount of solar heat received by any given space 
 on the surface of the earth in the course of a whole year, 
 we may suppose the sun to remain constantly in the equa- 
 tor, because the excess of heat above the mean in summer 
 is exactly balanced by its defect in winter. Now, the ef- 
 fect produced on any given portion of the surface will de- 
 pend on the number of rays that fall on that surface, and 
 on the obliquity of their direction with respect to it. But 
 the number of rays falling on a zone of any given breadth, 
 a degree for example, is proportional to the cosine of its 
 latitude ; and the effect of a single ray in consequence of its 
 oblique impact is diminished also in proportion to the co- 
 sine of the latitude ; the diminution of the mean tempera- 
 ture, therefore, in going from the equator to the poles, 
 must be proportional to the square of the cosine of the lat- 
 itude. It hence follows that the variations of the mean 
 temperature must be most rapid about the middle latitude 
 of45° ; and this result of theory agrees perfectly with ob- 
 servation. Within the temperate zone the character of 
 the climate changes rapidly. Thus in the south of France, 
 and in Italy, nearly under the 45th parallel the region of 
 the vine is found contiguous to that of the olive and fig-tree 
 On the other hand, very little increase of heat is observed 
 from the tropic to the equator; and at the other extremity 
 of the arc, from the arctic circle to the highest latitude that 
 has been reached, the intensity of cold is not greatly aug- 
 mented. The law of the square of the cosine «ives a var- 
 iation of only about eight degrees of Fahrenheit' s scale 
 from the polar circle to the pole. In the system of cli- 
 mates of westeni Europe, the mean temperature at the 
 latitude of 45° is about 13° or 13-5° of the centigrade scale 
 (55° to 56° of Fahrenheit). The mean temperature under 
 the equator ought therefore io be, by the theory, 26° or 27° 
 (centigrade); and at any other place it will be found by 
 multiplying the constant number 27 into the square of the 
 cosine of the latitude 
 
 Effect of Altitude.— That a greater degree of cold pre- 
 vails in the upper regions of the atmosphere than at low 
 levels would be manifest by the snowy covering of the 
 summits of very elevated mountains in all latitudes, even 
 if no direct experiments had been made on the tempera 
 ture that prevails there. These, however, have been 
 made in great number; and the constant and regular 
 decrease of the temperature in ascending above fhe~sur> 
 face of the earth, to such altitude at least as can be reach- 
 ed, has not only been fully established, but the law accord, 
 ing to which the decrease takes place determined with 
 
CLIMATE. 
 
 considerable certainty. According to theory the decre- 
 ments of heal in ascending the higher regions should follow 
 the same proportion as the decrements of the density ; but 
 this law is greatly disturbed by local peculiarities. The 
 variation of temperature at different altitudes is the simul- 
 taneous effect of three general causes,— 1st, the absorption 
 of light in their passage through the atmosphere, 
 which is much greater in the dense strata near the surface 
 of the earth than in the upper regions; 2d, the radiation 
 from the surface ; and 3d, the ascending current ; the two 
 producing a greater effect on the strata near the 
 Any circumstance, therefore, which modifies 
 I nisi also modify the law which connects 
 me rtecre ise of heat with the elevation. It will be slower 
 above the surface of the sea or a country covered with 
 'now than above a desert destitute of vegetables, or a sur- 
 I ll will he more rapid above the sloping 
 i conical mountain than over a cordiltera which 
 plains of great magnitude elevated in stages above 
 one another. Nevertheless at grpat altitudes the disturb- 
 ing Influences of these causes become insensible, and a 
 very considerable degree of uniformity in the temperature 
 v prevails. In the torrid zone, Humboldt, from a 
 mi any observations, found that between the alti- 
 tudes of 3000 and 5800 metres (9840 and 19,006 feet) an in- 
 ' ion, amounting to 101-1 metres, produced 
 a diminution of 1° of the centigrade thermometer. This 
 corresponds 1<J 349 English feet for 1° of Fahrenheit. Pro- 
 eaUeC&aey. Brit. art. " Climate") estimates that 
 the diminution of temperature of 1° of Fahrenheit's 
 an ascent of 300 feet. But this will 
 ■ moderate elevations. At the altitudes of 
 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, 4 miles, and 5 miles, the increase 
 an corresponding to I* Fan. will be respectively 
 t. The allowance of 1° of 
 100 yards of ascent is, however, a rule of 
 i. and in ordinary cases may be taken as a 
 "Ximation. 
 
 —The form of the limits of any large 
 mass of I rained by its contact with the ocean, 
 
 iter or less extent cf coast it possess- 
 es in proportion to its area, exercises a considerable influ- 
 ence mi the climate. The small amount of variation in 
 the temperature oftheorean tends to equalize the periodic 
 distribution of heat among the different seasons of the 
 year, and the proximity of a great mass of water mode. 
 ■ is action on the winds the heat of summer and 
 the cold of winter. Hence the great contrast between the 
 c.imate of islands and coasts, and the climate of the inte- 
 rior of vast continents. Europe presents a remarkable ex- 
 ample of this contrast. From Orleans and Paris to Lon- 
 don, Dublin, Edinburgh, and even farther north, the mean 
 temperature of the year decreases very little, notwith- 
 standing the increase of latitude; while In the eastern 
 part of the Continent each degree of latitude, according to 
 It, produces a variation of 1-1° Fah. In the mean 
 temperature. A small island, a tongue of land, or an in- 
 dented coast, in contact with a great mass of water, which 
 preserves in winter a considerable portion of the heal ac- 
 quired during the summer, possesses a more moderate 
 climate, mild winters, and fresher summers, and in the 
 higher latitudes a somewhat higher mean temperature, 
 than the interior of great continuous masses of land under 
 the same latitude. The diminution of the mean annual 
 •ire from the western shores of Europe to beyond 
 the meridian of the Caspian is remarkable. Amsterdam 
 and Warsaw are situated very nearly under the same pa- 
 rallel of latitude, that of the first being 52° 22', and that of 
 11'; hut the mean annual temperature of 
 lam Is 53-4° Fah., while that of Warsaw is only 
 i itude of Copenhagen is 55° 41', and that of 
 Kas m 66° 48* : hut the mean annual temperature of Co- 
 penhagen is 45-7°, that of Kasan 37-6°. The climate of a 
 country is inlluenced not only by its horizontal configuration, 
 but also by its relief, or vertical configuration. Mountains af- 
 fect the adjacent climate ofthe plains in various ways — by the 
 reverberation of heat from naked rocks ; by affording shelter 
 from certain predominating winds; and by giving rise to 
 descending currents of cold air from the higher regions of 
 the atmosphere, in consequence of the disturbance of the 
 equilibrium of heat produced by the radiation from their 
 I summits. The local exposure of a country also, 
 or its inclination to or from the equator, which may be in- 
 cluded under the title configuration, has a powerful influ- 
 ence on its mean annual temperature. Generally speak- 
 ing, the local exposure is connected with and depends upon 
 the position of the mountain chains, and both conspire to 
 increase or diminish the mean temperature at the same 
 time. Fir example, when the general inclination of an 
 extensive tract of country is towards the south, the north- 
 ern side is bounded by ranges of mountains; so that while 
 the sun's rays fall upon it at a less oblique angle, it is 
 sheltered from the cold winds blowing from a higher 
 latitude. 
 
 241 
 
 Climate of Eurot*.— la a general view, Europe may ne 
 regarded as a peninsular prolongation of the ancient con- 
 tinent, broken and intersected by numerous arms of the 
 ocean, and by inland seas. The predominating winds are 
 from the west; and these, for the whole ofthe western 
 portion, are sea winds, greatly softened bv blowing over a 
 mass of water, of which the superficial temperature, even 
 in the month of January, at the parallels of 45° and B0° 
 does not fall below 48° and 51° of Fahrenheit. It Is placed 
 directly north of an immense tract of tropical laud (Afhrv 
 and Arabia), which by its diurnal radiation contributes 
 powerfully to elevate the temperature. On the northern 
 side the cold belonging to the latitude is mitigated bj tin 
 merous favourable circumstances. A very small ponini, 
 of land lies within the polar circle ; and the whole of il . 
 northern extremity is separated from the polar ico by a 
 zone of open sea, the temperature of which is maintained 
 at a considerable elevation in consequence of Its commu- 
 nication with the Atlantic ocean, and of the existence of 
 the gulf stream, which conveys a portion of the tempera- 
 ture of the golf Of Mexico into the polar seas. 
 
 Climate of Aria. — The circumstances which contribute 
 to render the climate of Europe mild and temperate are 
 nearly all reversed in respect of Asia. Its northern bound- 
 ary extends beyond the parallel of 70°, and in some places 
 reaches to 75°. In every part il extends to the winter limit 
 of the polar ice, and only a very narrow zone of water is 
 interposed between the ice and the land during the short 
 summer of these high latitudes. The north winds, not ob- 
 structed by any chain of mountains, blow with unmitigated 
 severity over an icy plain, extending northward to the pole, 
 and eastward to the point of maximum cold, which appears 
 to be situated near the meridian of Behring's straits. The 
 reftigerattag influence of these winds is not counteracted 
 by arid deserts on the southern side of the continent. 
 From the meridian of the Ourals to that of Cape Tchou- 
 kotski, through 140 degrees of longtitude, there is no land 
 under the equator, excepting the inconsiderable portion 
 formed by the islands or Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and 
 Gilolo ; consequently the Asiatic countries situated in the 
 temperate zone are not warmed by ascending currents of 
 heated air, such as those which rise from the deserts of 
 Africa and are so beneficial to Europe. The position ofthe, 
 great mountain chains and the general elevalion of tly>' 
 country also powerfully contribute to diminish the tempe- 
 rature. The Himalaya and Kuen-lnn, through a great ex 
 lent of the continent, present an effectual barrier to the 
 warm winds which come from the equator. Elevated 
 plains and groups of lofty mountains accumulate, and pre- 
 serve the snow till late in the summer, and give rise to ile 
 seendlng currents of air which cool down the temperature 
 of the circumjacent countries. Lastly, Asia being bounded 
 on the western ante by Europe, the west or predominating 
 winds are land w;i: Js for the greater part of the continent, 
 and their severity is increased by the great enlargement of 
 the land towards the north. (Humboldt, Fragmms Asi- 
 otiques ; DanielVs Meteorological Essays ; Murray's Ency. 
 of Geography; Eorrcy on the Climate of the United States. 
 
 CLl'MAX. (Or. xXi'uaj, gradation.) In Rhetoric, a 
 figure by which several propositions, or several objects, 
 are placed before the mind of the hearer or reader in such 
 an order that the proposition or object calculated to pro 
 duce the least impression shall strike it first, and that the 
 rest shall follow in regular gradation. Anti-climax is the 
 converse figure, in which the ideas sink in succession. 
 This forms a principal cause of that vice of composition 
 of which so many ludicrous illustrations have been given 
 inder the name of Bathos. 
 
 CLIXAN'TIIIUM. (Gr. K\ivt),abed,andavdo(,ajoiccr 
 A term used to express the receptacle of a composite 
 plant. It is the dilated apex of a flowering branch covered 
 over by small flowers enclosed within an involucre. 
 
 CLI'NICAL. (Gr. xXivrj) This term is generally useo 
 medically; a clinical lecture, for instance, is the instruction 
 which tho teacher gives his pupil at the bedside of tho 
 patient. 
 
 CLI'NIUM. (Gr. kXivti.) A term occasionally used in 
 botany to denote the summit of a floral branch, of which 
 the carpella are the termination. It is the same as the 
 torus of the modern French school, and one of the parts 
 called receptacle by Linnaeus, as in the strawberrv. 
 
 CLI'NKERS. See Bricks. 
 
 CLI'NOID. (Gr. kXivti, and ttios, likeness.) This term 
 has been improperly applied to certain processes of the 
 sphenoid hone. 
 
 CLINO'METER. (Gr. kXivoi, I bend, and ucrpov. a mea- 
 sure.) An instrument for measuring the dip of minera. 
 strata. (Geo!. Trans, vol. iii.) 
 
 CLI'O. iGr. *Xt((j, / celebrate.) In Mythology, the 
 muse who was usually supposed to preside over history, 
 thoiijrh she sometimes invaded the province of her sister 
 Calliope, the goddess of epic poetry. In his magnificent 
 ode (Book 1. Ode 12.) addressed to Augustus, Horace in- 
 
CLOACA. 
 
 voices Clio as the patroness of the flute or the lyre, or in 
 other words of lyric poetry : — 
 
 Guem virum aut heioa lyra vcl acri 
 
 Tibia sumes celebrate, I lio, &c 
 
 Clio. In Zoology, applied by Linnaeus to a genus of 
 Vermes, and by Cuvier to a genus of Pteropodous Mollusks ; 
 one species of which, the Clio borealis, abounds in the 
 northern seas ; and although not exceeding an inch in 
 length, it forms a great proportion of the food of the whale- 
 bone wjiale, Balotna mysticetus. 
 
 CLOA'CA. (Lat.) The excrementory cavity in which, 
 n birds, reptiles, many fishes, and some mammals, the 
 iitestinal canal, urinary ducts, and genital passages ter- 
 
 inate. 
 
 CLOCK. See Hot.0LOgy. 
 
 CLOl'STER. (.Lat. claustrum.) In Architecture, an 
 arcade or colonnade round an open court. 
 
 CLOSE. In Music. See Cadence. 
 
 Close. A small field, enclosed or hedged about. 
 
 CI.O'SE HAULED ; that is, the tacks close down, the 
 sheets aft, the yards braced sharp up, and the bowlines 
 hauled, Hie ship making her progress as near the direction 
 of the wind as she can. 
 
 CLO'SERS. In Architecture, the pieces (or bats), less 
 or greater than half a brick, that are used to close in the 
 end of a course of brickwork. In English as well as Fle- 
 mish bond (see Bond), the length of a brick being but nine 
 inches and its width four inches and a half, in order that 
 the vertical joj^>. may be broken at. the end of the first 
 stretcher, a quarter brick (or bat) must be interposed to 
 preserve the continuity of the bond ; this is called a queen 
 cluser. A similar preservation of the bond may be ob- 
 tained by inserting a three-quarter bat at the angle in the 
 stretching course ; this is called a king closer. In both 
 cases a horizontal lap of two inches and a half is left for 
 the next header. 
 
 CLOUD. A visible mass or collection of minute parti- 
 cles of water suspended in the atmosphere. Clouds differ 
 from fogs or mists only in occupying a more elevated posi- 
 tion ; in all cases the origin is the same, namely, the va- 
 pours which rise from collections of water, and indeed from 
 ihe whole surface of the earth. These aqueous vapours 
 are condensed, in the higher and colder regions of the at- 
 mosphere, and thus lose their transparency and become 
 visible. Clouds differ very greatly in respect of form, 
 magnitude, density, <fcc. These differences depend on the 
 quantity of vapour of which they are composed, and the 
 situations which they take as they unite with one another ; 
 Mid are determined in a great measure by the direction 
 and velocity of the motion communicated to them by Ihe 
 wind. The height at which they float in the atmosphere is 
 determined by their specific gravity, and consequently 
 varies with their density. Thin light clouds are observed 
 higher than the summits of the loftiest mountains, while 
 those which are dense and thick rise only to a small dis- 
 tance above the surface of the earth. It is very difficult to 
 determine their average elevation : it is supposed to be be- 
 tween two and three miles, but it varies at different times 
 of the year. 
 
 Clouds were distributed by Mr. Luke Howard into three 
 primary formations, — the Cirrus, the Cumulus, and the 
 Stratus. But besides these he admitted four other varie- 
 ties, — the Cirro-cumulus, the Cirro-stratus, the Cumulo- 
 stratus and the Cumulocirroslratus or Nimbus. The Cir- 
 rus consists of fibres or curling streaks, which diverge in 
 all directions. It occupies the highest region, and is fre- 
 quently the first cloud which is seen after a continuance of 
 clear weather. The Cumulus is a convex aggregate of 
 watery particles, increasing upwards from a horizontal 
 base, and assuming more or less of a conical figure. The 
 Stratus consists of horizontal layers, and comprehends 
 fogs and mists. It is the lowest of the clouds, its under 
 surface usually resting on the earth or water. The Cirro- 
 cumulus is intermediate between the cirrus and cumulus, 
 and is composed of small well-defined masses closely ar- 
 ranged. The Cirro-stratus, intermediate between the cir- 
 rus and stratus, consists of horizontal masses separated 
 Into groups, with which the sky i3 sometimes so mottled 
 as to suggest the idea of resemblance to the back of the 
 mackerel. The prevalence of the cirro-stratus is usually 
 followed by bad weather. The Cumulostratus, or twain 
 cloud, partakes of the appearance of the cumulus and 
 stratus or cirro-stratus. The Nimbus, or rain cloud, is 
 that into which the others resolve themselves when rain 
 falls. 
 
 The above nomenclature is sufficiently fanciful ; never- 
 theless it enables the meteorologist to convey more pre- 
 cise ideas in describing the diversified forms under which 
 masses of clouds present themselves and their connection 
 with the changes of the weather. These forms are, how- 
 ever, frequently so indefinite and shapeless, that it is diffi- 
 cult, if not impossible, to refer them to any one of the pre- 
 ceding modifications. A tendency, however, to one or 
 other of them may in general be traced. (Howard's Ar- 
 242 
 
 COAL. 
 
 rangement and Nomenclature of Clouds, in the 10th anu 
 17th vols, of the Philosophical Magazine ; roster on Atmo- 
 spheric Phenomena ; Murray's Encyclopedia of Geography, 
 r». 168; Companion to the British Almanac tor 1630, <fcc. 
 See also Datton's Meteorological Essays 17*13 ) 
 
 CLOU'TED or CLO'TTED CREAM. The cream pro- 
 duced on the surface of milk by setting a pan of new milk 
 on a hot hearth is so named. It is chiefly used as a kind 
 of entremet, and, when mixed with new milk, is eaten 
 along with fruit pies, strawberries, raspberries, &c. : it is 
 also eaten without milk, spread on bread. 
 
 CLOVES. (Lat. clavus, a nail.) The smaller bulb* 
 formed in the axilla; of the scales of a mother bulb, as it 
 garlic. 
 
 Cloves. The unexpanded flower-buds of the Caryo- 
 phyllus aromaticus, a low branching tree cultivated in Ihe 
 Dutch settlements in India. The finest cloves are from 
 Amboyna; they are of a bright brown colour, extremely 
 fragrant, and hot and acrid upon the tongue ; they abound 
 in essential oil, which may be pressed out of their pores 
 by the nail, and which is generally obtained by distillation 
 with water, to the amount of from 15 to 20 per cent. It is 
 sold in commerce under the name of oil of cloves, and 
 chiefly used in medicine, and occasionally in perfumery. 
 The fruit of the clove tree was employed in old pharmacy 
 under the name of anthophylli. 
 CLUBS. See Societies. 
 
 CLUB MOSS. (Lycopodium clavalum.) The seeds of 
 this moss, which are very minute, and resemble an impal- 
 pable yellow powder, are used in theatres to imitate light- 
 ning ; when thrown across a flame, they produce a sudden 
 flare : they contain a peculiar oil. 
 
 CLUMP. A mass of trees or shrubs, or both, generally 
 roundish and compact in its outline, and always small as 
 compared with extensive plantations. The word appears 
 to have been first used in planting and gardening in ihe 
 time of the celebrated landscape gardener Brown, about 
 the middle of the 18th century. Brown distributed his 
 clumps at irregular distances over the entire surface of 
 any piece of ground that was intended to be made a park ; 
 surrounding the park at the same lime with a belt ol plan- 
 tation. The intention of Brown in planting these clumps 
 was to nurse up a few trees in each clump, which should 
 remain as groups or single objects after all the other trees 
 of the clump were removed ; but as thinning and the re- 
 moval of the boundary fence of these clumps very seldom 
 took place, they have grown up in most cases deformities 
 rather than beauties. The term clump as applied to a 
 plantation has long since become one of reproach. 
 Clump. The compressed clay of coal strata. 
 CLYPEA'STER. (Lat. clypeus, a buckler, and astrum 
 a star.) A genus of sea-urchins (Echinida>) of a flattened, 
 shield-like form, with a submarginal vent. This genus is 
 termed Echinanthus by Klein. 
 
 CLY'PEATE. (Lat. clypeus.) Shield-like : it is the 
 same as scutate. 
 
 CLY'SSUS. An alchemical name for Ihe water obtain- 
 ed by deflagrating nitre with charcoal: the vessels were 
 generally burst in the operation ; but when it succeeded 
 the few drops of water obtained were highly prized for 
 medical use. 
 
 COACE'RVATE. (Lat. con, together, and acervus, a 
 heap.) Accumulated. A term applied by older physiolo- 
 gists to certain secrelions or excretions long retained. 
 
 COADJU'TOR. In Ecclesiastical matters, the assistant 
 of a bishop or other prelate (in some instances even of a 
 canon or prebendary, but the latter usage was irregular). 
 These assistants, in France and other countries, were in 
 stituted by the pope. A coadjutor was equal in rank to the 
 dignitary whose functions he might on occasion supply ; 
 hence the coadjutor of a bishop was himself consecrated a 
 bishop in partibus infidelium. The celebrated Cardinal de 
 Retz was known by the title of the Coadjutor of Paris dur- 
 ing the most active period of his career, having the adminis- 
 tration of the temporalities of that see, which belonged to 
 his uncle the Archbishop de Retz. Coadjutors usually 
 succeeded their principals in their dignilies; and hence 
 arose an abuse which tended towards making ecclesiasti- 
 cal dignities hereditary, nephews and other relatives of 
 bishops being named their coadjutors. The institution of 
 coadjutors to bishoprics is preserved by the French con- 
 cordat of 1801. 
 
 COA'DUNATE. (Lat. con, ad, and una, together.) Two 
 or more parts joined together. 
 
 COAL. (Germ, kohle.) This highly important substance 
 is found in beds orstrata in that group of the secondary rocks 
 which includes the red sandstone and mountain lime- 
 stone formations, and which is commonly called the car- 
 boniferous group, or coal measures. From the peculiarities 
 of their deposition they are often spoken of under the 
 names of coal basins, and coal fields. There are two or 
 three points, and those of much theoretical Importances 
 respecting (lie origin of coal, on whicl geological authori- 
 ties are nearly unanimous. The one is, that our present 
 
COBALT. 
 
 wOHl is exclusively of vegetable origin, formed apparently 
 I the destruction of vast forests ; and the prodigious 
 quantities of timber drifted by some of the great rivers of 
 world into the present ocean render it not improbable 
 that a similar formation may now be carrying on in the 
 depths of certain parts of the sea. Secondly, from the 
 nature of the preserved vegetables it appears probable that 
 the climate of these parts was not merely tropical, but ul- 
 tratropical. It may also be inferred that the coal strata 
 deposited in the neighbourhood, and often probably 
 upon the verge, of extensive tracts of dry land; for the 
 that are found in coal strata are often like those of 
 our submarine forests, as far as position goes. And, 
 • . the deposits of coal appear afterwards to have been 
 •I'd. and often singularly dislocated and contorted by 
 M acting from below, and probably of a volcanic na- 
 ture. 
 
 In some coal fields there are appearances which justify 
 term coal basin : they are of limited extent, frequently 
 dip as it were to a common centre, and consist of various 
 beds i>t sandstone, shHe, and coal, irregularly stratified; 
 and sometimes mixed with conglomerates, showing a me- 
 chanical origin. 
 
 That these deposites have taken place, and that the 
 Change of wood into coal lias often been effected under 
 pressure, and often under pressure and heat, seems 
 lit from the appearance of some of the vegetable 
 ■> and also from the manner in which the carburet- 
 'pes in the form of blowers and eructa- 
 from the strata, as if pent up in their cavities under 
 . and even sometimes, perhaps, in a li- 
 quid form. 
 
 I then are often many beds and seams of coal 
 In one field, it is seldom that many of them are worked. 
 They are generally of uniform thickness through a great 
 extent, bul are sometimes subject to irregularities. When 
 less than two feet thick they are seldom worked to any 
 extent. The nature of the upper stratum, or stony 
 •r of the run/, is very Important : if compact, it is se- 
 cure from falling, and keeps out water; if loose, the ex- 
 • incurred in supporting it absorbs the profits of the 
 coal 
 
 ■post coal mines in England are those of North- 
 rland and Durham, which are worked nearly 10U0 
 leet beS.w ihe surface. The thickest bed of coal is said 
 to be at Wood Mill Hill colliery' hi Staffordshire, and to 
 feet From 6 to 9 feet is the average thickness 
 ■ most productive seams. The coal generally most 
 Died is that of the northern districts, — Northumber- 
 land, Durham, and Yorkshire. It abounds in bitumen, 
 softens and swells in the fire, and throws out jets of 
 dame; it coheres, and therefore turns hollow and re- 
 l poking; it furnishes cinders, and but little ash. 
 Most of the coal from the west of England blazes and 
 bums briskly, being much more easily kindled than the 
 other: it requires no poking, because it has no tendency 
 to cake; it affords no cinders, and leaves a dusty white 
 ash. Culm contains scarcely any bitumen ; it abounds in 
 earthy matter, and somewhat resembles bad coke. 
 
 Coal is the most valuable of all the mineral substances 
 from which Britain derives her prosperity, and, indeed, 
 may be regarded as the main support of the whole system 
 of British production. It fuses the metals, produces the 
 steam which sets the machinery in motion, and, in short, 
 may be said to render all the resources of that country 
 available for use. The annual consumption of coal, 
 throughout the British Empire, is estimated at 08,575,000 
 I ide gives occupation to nearly 200,000 
 
 'is. In 133S, the total quantity of coal shipped was 
 ■n.-i: of which, from tiie T.ue and Wear. 
 Wales, 1,228,300; Whitehaven, 395,000.' 
 The export was i.Vi-i'J.117 tons, chiefly to Ireland, France, 
 the Netherlands. Germany, Denmark, British America, 
 and tli'- United States, The imports into London in 1^39 
 amounted to 2.638,250 tons, carried by 7,500 vessels. (See 
 Holland's History and Description of Fossil Fuel, the Col- 
 lieries, and Coal Trade of Great Britain. Svo. 2nd edi- 
 tion. 1941.) 
 
 CO' B ALT. (Germ, kabold, a c/ertV. ) A term applied to 
 Ibis metal bj the German miners, who considered it unfa- 
 vourable to ti>e presence of the more important metals. 
 
 Cobalt is a brittle metal of a reddish grey colour; its 
 specific gravity is 78. It fuses at a temperature a little 
 below that reqi ired for the fusion of iron. It is magnetic. 
 When heated red hot, and freely exposed to air, cobalt 
 tbsorbs oxygen. Its equivalent number is 30 ; and the sa- 
 lifiable, or protoxide of cobalt, consists of SO cobalt + 8 
 oxygen = 38 ox'de of cobalt. The oxide of cobalt is nearly 
 black: but when in the state of hydrate, or when largely 
 diluted by fusion "with glass or borax, it produces its char- 
 acteristic blue colour; and as this colour is permanent at 
 very high temperatures, it is an invaluable article in the 
 manufacture of porcelain and pottery, all the blue colours 
 of which are derived from oxide of cobalt. When fused 
 243 
 
 COCHLEAR. 
 
 with glass it communicates a blue tint without impairing 
 its transparency. A very deep blue glass o!" th 9 kind 
 when finely powdered acquires a pale and brilliant colour, 
 and is called smalt. Impure oxide of cobalt is known in 
 commerce under the name of zaffre. Cobalt is said by 
 Stromeyer to exist in all meteoric iron, although in very 
 small quantity. In its ores it is always associated wilt) 
 arsenic, and Zaffire is prepared by roasting these native ar- 
 seniurets of cobalt. 
 
 CO'BBLES. Lumps of coal from the size of 
 that of a football. 
 
 COBI'TIS. (Lat. cobio, a gudgeon.) A genu- 
 finned fishes, belonging to the Cyprinidce- or carp family ; 
 and characterized by a small head ; an elongated body : 
 the skin covered with small scales ; ventral fins placed 
 far backwards, with one small dorsal fin above them ; 
 mouth small and toothless; gill-openings very small, and 
 with three rays. Of this genus the loche (Cobitis barbatu- 
 la) inhabits the clear running streams of Britain. The 
 pond loche (.Cobitis fossilis) is a larger species. It is re- 
 markably sensitive to atmospheric changes, and when 
 confined in a glass-globe may be observed to sink to the 
 bottom in a state of quiescence Then the weather is cold 
 and gloomy; hut in bois'.erous weather it comes to the 
 surface and swims about with great rapidity. It also swal- 
 lows air, which it discharges from the vent, partly con- 
 verted into carbonic acid gas. 
 
 CO'BLE. A small boat or canoe, used chiefly on the 
 rivers and lakes of Wales, and the borders. 
 
 CO'B WALLS Walls formed of mud mix 
 straw ; not uncommon in some districts of England. 
 The best cob- walls are in Somersetshire. 
 
 COCCINE'LI.A. (Dim. of Lat. coccinus, crimson.) A 
 genus of Trimerous Coleopterous insects, including many 
 small species, usually ornamented with scarlet sp< 
 familiarly known as ladybirds, lady-cows. <5cc. In France 
 these small beetles are dedicated to the Virgin, and called 
 Betes de la Vierge. They are, in fact, of great service to 
 Ihe agriculturist, and especially to the hop-grower ; for 
 troy the Apttidrs,oT plant-lice, in vast numbers, 
 feeding on them both in the larva and perfect lb 
 
 CO'CCOLITE. (Gr. kokkos, a grain, and Aifloj, stone ) 
 A mineral of a concretional or granular texture. 
 
 COCCOO'N. The silken case which the larva ofcer 
 tain insects spin for the purpose of a covering dui 
 period of their metamorphosis, and which some spiders 
 prepare as a protection to their ova during then 
 ment of the young. The cod or coccoon of the silk- worm 
 is a well-known example of the most valuable of these pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 CO'CCULTJS INDICUS. The fruitof \hzMenisperivi> n 
 cocculus, imported from the East Indies. It contains a 
 
 finom principle, which has been termed picrotoxia. 
 t is often used to poison fishes : a few handfuls of it 
 ground into coarse powder, and thrown into a pond, 1 
 the fish, in the course of a few hours, to the surface in an 
 intoxicated or poisoned siate ; but if quickly removed into 
 fresh water, they recover. It is sometimes added to ale 
 to increase its stupefying quality. 
 
 CO'CCUM. 'Gr. KOKKOJv.apomegranatestone.) A term 
 invented by Gajrlner to denote a pericarp of dry elastic 
 pieces or cocci, as in Diosnia, <fcc. 
 
 CO'CCUS. (Lat. coccus, scarlet cloth.) A name given 
 by Linnaeus to a genus of Hemipterous insects, including 
 the Mexican species, the cochineal insect (Coccus cacti. 
 1..), which feeds on Cuetem, and which affords the well- 
 known fine red dye. 
 
 CO'CHINEAL. The Coccus cacti. This valuable in- 
 sect was first introduced into Europe about the year 152 I. 
 It is imported from Mexico and New Spain. It feeds on 
 several species of cactus. It is small, rugose, and of a 
 deep mulberry colour. They are scraped from the plants 
 into bags, killed by boiling water, and dried in the .su:!. 
 Those are preferred which are plump, of a peculiar sil- 
 very appearance, and which yield a brilliant crimson when 
 rubbed to powder. Cochineal is sometimes adulterated 
 by the admixture of a manufactured article composed of 
 coloured dough. This is detected by the action of 1 
 water, which dissolves and disintegrates the imitation, but 
 has little effect upon the real insect. The principal com- 
 ponent of cochineal is a peculiar colouring matter, which 
 lias been called carminium and cochinelia. It is obtained 
 by digesting the powder of cochineal first in ether, which 
 takes up fat, and then in alcohol, which dissolves the co- 
 chinelia. Acids change its colour from crimson to an 
 orange red, and alkalies turn it violet. When mixed with 
 recently precipitated aluminous earth, it forms a beautiful 
 lake. Cochineal yields a brilliant scarlet dye, which is 
 produced by fixing the colouring matter of the insect by n 
 mordant of alumina and oxide of tin, and exalting the co- 
 lour by the action of superlartrate of potash. 
 
 CO'CHLEAN. (Lat. cochlear, a spoon.'' A term used 
 in d'-vribing the aestivation of a flower, to express one 
 pier '-?ing larger than the others, and hollowed like a 
 
COCHLEARE. 
 
 helmet or bowl, covering all the others, as in Aconitum, 
 <fcc. 
 
 COCHLEARE. A spoon ; the bowls of spoons being 
 formerly made of the shape of a cockle shell, and often 
 fluted. 
 
 CO'CIILEA'TE. (Lat. cochlea, a shell, a cockle.} A term 
 used in describing the general form of bodies, to denote 
 any that are twisted in a short spire, so as to resemble the 
 convolutions of a snail-shell; as the pod of Medicago coch- 
 If.uia. It also means a concave body like that of one of the 
 valves of a cockle-shell, as in Epidendrum cochleatum. 
 
 CO'CKET. In Commerce, a scroll of parchment, 
 signed and delivered by the officers of the custom-house 
 '.o merchants upon entering their goods, to certify that 
 their merchandise is customed and may be discharged. 
 
 CO'CKLEO AST. That part of a hop-kiln or oast where 
 ihe fire is made. 
 
 CO'CK-LOFT. The highest loft, or garret, in any 
 building. 
 
 CO'CKNEY. A contemptuous appellation of a citizen 
 of London. Various derivations have been assigned to 
 this word, all of which are more distinguished for ingenuity 
 than probability. But whatever may be the origin of the 
 term, its antiquity cannot be disputed, as it is mentioned 
 in some verses generally attributed to Hugh Bagot, Earl of 
 Norfolk, in the reign of Henry II. : — 
 
 Were I in my castle at Bungey, 
 
 Upon the river of Waverney, 
 
 I would m care for the king of C'ockeney (i. «• of London). 
 
 CO'CK-PIT. The after part of the orlop deck, or deck 
 below the lower deck, and altogether below the water. 
 Here, in line-of-baltle ships, are the cabins of several of 
 the officers. The cock-pit is appropriated to the use of the 
 wounded in time of action. There is also a fore cock-pit 
 in the fore part of the ship, and sometimes an after cock- 
 pit. 
 
 Cock-Pit is the name given to the place where game 
 cocks fight their battles. The room in Westminster in 
 which her Majesty's privy council hold their sittings is 
 called the cockpit, from its having been the site of what 
 was formerly the cockpit belonging to the palace at 
 Whitehall. 
 
 COCY'TUS. (Gr. k(okvt6;, lamentation ; from kukvg), 
 I bewail.) In Mythology, the river of Lamentations, which 
 was one of the streams that washed the shores of trie my- 
 thological hell, and prevented the imprisoned souls from 
 returning to the earth. Milton alludes to it thus (Par. Lost, 
 book ii): 
 
 Cocytus named of lamentations loud 
 Heard on the rueful stream. 
 
 CO'DA. (It. coda, a tail.) In Music, the passage at the 
 end of a movement which follows a lengthened perfect 
 :adence. In some cases it consists of merely one phrase, 
 in others it is carried to a great extent. At the conclusion 
 of a canon or fugue, it often serves to end the piece which 
 might otherwise be carried on to infinity. 
 
 CODE (from the Latin codex, a manuscript), signifies, in 
 the language of jurisprudence, any collection of laws di- 
 gested and reduced into an orderly arrangement, whether 
 by public authority or by the private labour of learned men. 
 But in the ordinary sense, the word Code is only used to 
 signify a compilation of laws by authority. Five collections 
 of Roman laws are designated by the title of codes : — that of 
 Sextus Papirius, which only exists in fragments discovered 
 by various authors, but which contained the laws of the 
 Roman kings ; the Gregorian, the compilation of an un- 
 known author, about the reign of Constantine ; the Hermo- 
 genian, of which the author is also doubtful, and the date 
 nearly the same ; the Theodosian, framed under the order 
 of the emperor Theodosius the younger, and containing the 
 constitutions of the emperors from the time of Constantine 
 to his own (from which, until the greater works of Justinian 
 became publicly known in modern Europe, the juriscon- 
 sults of the dark ages drew the greater part of their know- 
 ledge of Roman law) ; and, lastly, that of Justinian, A. d. 529. 
 Of the codes of Jaw now recognised in modern states the 
 most remarkable are, in order of time — the code of Frede- 
 ric the Great of Prussia ; that of Catherine of Russia, con- 
 fined to criminal jurisprudence; that of Joseph II. of Aus- 
 tria ; and the Code Napoleon in France. This title, though 
 sometimes given in general language to all the digests of 
 law made under that emperor, is appropriated by French 
 lawyers to the greatest of his works, the Code Civil. The 
 project for this code was drawn up, in 1801, by five com- 
 missioners, by them reported to the Court of Cassation, 
 and thence carried to the Conseil d'Etat; in that body it 
 was fully discussed, clause by clause. Besides the Code 
 Civil, the written French law comprises five other codes ; 
 viz. the Code Penal ; the two Codes of Procedure, civil and 
 criminal ; the Code de Commerce ; and, finally, the Code 
 Forestier, or collection of laws relative to the administra- 
 tion of the woods, published in 1827 under Charles the 
 Tenth. 
 
 244 
 
 COFFER-DAM. 
 
 CODE'INE, or CODEIA. (Gr. Kutia, the poppy head.* 
 An alkaline substance, discovered in 1832 by Robiquet in 
 opium. It was at first confounded with morphia. 
 
 CODE'TTA. (Dimin. of coda.) In Music, a short pas- 
 sage which connects one section with another, and not 
 composing part of a regular section. 
 
 CO'DEX. A manuscript : in its original sense (Latin) 
 the inner bark of a tree, which was used for the purposes 
 of writing. The word was thence transferred by the Ro- 
 mans to signify a piece of writing, on whatever material j 
 e. g. with the stylus on tablets lined with war, or on a roll 
 of parchment or paper. In modern Latin, a manuscript 
 volume. Codex rescriptvs or palimpsestua is a manuscript 
 consisting of leaves, from which some earlier writing has 
 been erased in order to afford room for the insertion ol 
 more recent. Many such codices exist; and from the 
 imperfect nature of the erasing process, the earlier writing 
 has in some instances been restored. Considerable frag- 
 ments of classical works, previously considered as lost, 
 have been thus recovered by the Abate Mai from among 
 the contents of the Ambrosian Library at Milan. 
 
 CO'DICIL. (Lat. codicillus, diminutive of codex, a 
 manuscript.) In Law, an addition or supplement to a will, 
 for the purpose of altering, explaining, or adding to its con- 
 tents. Of codicils, as of wills, the latter prevails where it 
 contains provisions contradictory to those of a former. 
 By the recent Wills Act (1 Vict. c. 26.), every codicil must 
 be executed in the same manner as is thereby made re- 
 quisite in the case of a will ; viz. signed by the testator in 
 the presence of two witnesses at one time. See Will. 
 
 COEFFICIENT. In Algebra, a number or known 
 quantity prefixed as a multiplier to a variable or an un- 
 known quantity. Thus, in the equation a am -j- G b X" =o, 
 a is the multiplier or coefficient of jm, and 6 6 is the coeffi- 
 cient of xo. When no number or coefficient is prefixed, 
 unity or 1 is understood. See Equation. 
 
 COXACA'NTHIDjE. (Gr. koiXoc, Iiollmr, and aKavdos, 
 a spine.) A family of Ganoid fishes in the system of 
 Agassiz ; so called on account of the species composing 
 it being armed with hollow spines. The following inte- 
 resting fossil genera, Holoptychius and Calacanthus pro- 
 per, belong to this family. 
 
 Cffi'LELMI'NTHA. (Gr. koiAoc, and l\fnvs, a icorm.) 
 The name of a class of Entozoa including part of the cavi- 
 tary intestinal worms of Cuvier, or those which are char- 
 acterized by having an alimentary canal contained in a 
 distinct abdominal cavity. 
 
 COSLE'STINE. A mineralogical name of swphate »j 
 strontia (from its blue lint). 
 
 COi'LIAC. (Gr. xoiXia, the belly.) A painful specie* 
 of diarrhosa has been by some medical writers called the 
 caliac passion. The cceliac artery is the first hranch of the 
 aorta in the abdomen. 
 
 COSNA'CtJLlJM. (Lat.) In ancient Architecture, the 
 eating or supper room of the Romans. In the early peri- 
 ods of the Roman history, the upper story of their houses, 
 which rarely consisted of more than two, seems to have 
 been called by this name. 
 
 CQSNA'TIO. (Lat.) In ancient Architecture, an apart- 
 ment for taking refreshment in the lower part of the Ro- 
 man houses. 
 
 CCENO'BIO. (Gr. koivos, common, and /?o;, life.) A 
 name invented by the French botanists, to distinguish that 
 class of fruits which consists of two or more carpels 
 separate at the apex and united at the base, from the mid- 
 dle of which a single style arises. It occurs in Lamiacese, 
 &c. 
 
 COI'NOBITE. (Gr. koivos, and 0ios, life.) One who 
 lives under a rule in a religious community, as distinguish- 
 ed from an anchoret or hermit, who lives in solitude" See 
 Anchoret. 
 
 COS'NURE, Coznurus. (Gr. koivos, and ovpa, a tail.) 
 The hydatid which infests the brain of sheep is so called, 
 because the dilated cyst is the common termination or 
 basis of attachment of many heads and bodies. The dis 
 ease called " staggers" is produced by this parasite. 
 
 CO'FFEE. The berries of the Coffea arabica. These, 
 when roasted, powdered, and infused in boiling water, 
 yield the well-known beverage called coffee. It is exhila- 
 rating, and operates upon many persons as an aperient. 
 See Capfein. 
 
 CO'FFER- (Sax. cofre.) In Architecture, a sunk panel 
 in vaultsTand domes, and also in the soffit or under side of 
 the Corinthian cornice, usually decorated in the centre 
 with a (lower. 
 
 CO'FFERDAM. In Architecture, and Bridge-build- 
 ing, a case of piling, water-tight, fixed in the bed of a 
 river for the purpose of laying the bottom dry for a space 
 large enough to build the pier on. Coffer-dams are formed 
 in various ways, either by a single inclosure or a double 
 onef with clay or chalk rammed in between the two to pre- 
 vent the water from coming through the sides. They are 
 also made either with piles only, driven close together, and 
 sometimes notched or dovetailed into one another; or 
 
COGNIZANCE. 
 
 it the water Is not very deep, by piles driven at a distance 
 of live or six feet from each other, and grooved in the 
 sides with boards let down between them in the grooves. 
 In order to build in coffer-dams a very good natural 
 bottom of solid earth or clay is required ; for though the 
 sides be made water-tight, if the bed of the river be of a 
 loose consistence, the water will ooze up through it in too 
 treat a quantity to permit the operations to be carried on. 
 It It aim ist needless to remark that the sides must be very 
 J, and well braced in l he inside to resist the pressure 
 of the ambient water. (Ilutton's Tracts, vol. i.) 
 
 COGNIZANCE, Conusance. In Law, an acknowledg- 
 ment of a fine, of taking a distress, <tc. It also signifies 
 , i\ver which a court has to hear and determine a par- 
 ticular species of suit. 
 
 COGNO'MEN. In Antiquities, the last of the three 
 names by which all Romans, at least those of good family, 
 designated. It served to mark the house (see I-'ami- 
 lia) to which they belonged, as the other two names, viz. 
 nnomen and nomen, served respectively to denote 
 liii' individual and the class (we Gens) to which his family 
 belonged. 
 
 <<m;NO'VIT. (Lat.) In Law. is a confession whereby 
 n defendant admits that the plaintiff's cause of action against 
 him is just (cognovit actionem), and suffers judgment to be 
 -! him without trial. 
 COHE'SfON. (I.at. cohaereo, I hold together.) In Na- 
 tural Philosophy, is the force or attraction with which the 
 particles of homogeneous bodies are kept attached to each 
 . or with which they resist separation. Cohesion is 
 from adhesion ; the latter term denoting 
 •tractive force existing between two different bodies 
 brought into contact, as a drop of water on a plate of glass; 
 or between two bodies of the same matter, as two lumps 
 of lea 1, when their smooth surfaces have been pressed to- 
 gether. The three different forms which matter assumes, 
 -solid, liquid, and gaseous.— are determined by the degree 
 • f cohesive force existing among the elementary particles. 
 In solids tin it, and, in lact, is that which cau- 
 
 ses soliditv ; in liquids it is less powerful, but still suffici- 
 ently manifest in the dmj>s or globular form assumed by 
 small quantities of water or mercury poured on a table. 
 In the case of aeriform fluids it may be regarded as nega- 
 particles having a tendency to repel each other. 
 The cohesive force of the elementary particles of matter 
 • in the distances of the particles from each other; 
 but of the law according lo which its intensity increases or 
 diminishes nothing is known, excepting thai the force de- 
 rapidly as the distance increases, and vanishes al- 
 when the distance becomes so great as to be ap- 
 preciable to the senses. 
 It is a problem pf very great importance to determine 
 live power of the materials employed in mechani- 
 cal structures. Numerous experiments have been made 
 for this purpose; and their results have not only a practi- 
 cal utility, but throw much light on the constitution of bo- 
 dies. When a bar of metal, a beam of wood, or a rope, is 
 stretched lengthwise, the tension which it bears, or the co- 
 hesive power evolved, is equal to the accumulated attrac- 
 tion of all the particles in any transverse section. The 
 longitudinal distension which takes place before disrupture 
 is at first proportional to this attraction, bul afterwards in- 
 in a mere rapid progression. " A bar of soft iron 
 will stretch uniformly by continuing to append to it equal 
 weights tilt it be loaded with half as much as it can bear : 
 beyond that limit, however, its extension will become 
 doubled by each addition of the eighth part of the disrup- 
 tive force. Suppose the bar to be an inch square, and 1000 
 inches in length ; 36.000 lbs. avoirdupois will draw it out 
 one inch, but 45,000 lbs. will stretch it 2 inches, 54,000 lbs. 4 
 inches, 63,000 lbs. 8 inches, and 72,000 lbs. 16 inches, where 
 it would finally break." (Leslie's A'at. Philosophy.) 
 
 The following is a tabular view of the absolute cohesion 
 
 of the principal kinds of limber employed In building and 
 
 carpentry, showing the load which would rend a prism of 
 
 an inch square, and the length of the prism which, if sus- 
 
 l. would be torn asunder by its own weight : — 
 
 Teak .... 12,915 lbs. — 36,049 feet 
 
 Oak .... 11,880 —32.900 
 
 Sycamore - - • 9.630 — 35,800 
 
 Beech .... 12,225 —38,940 
 
 Ash .... 14,130 — 42.080 
 
 Elm .... 9,720 — 39.050 
 
 Memel fir • - - 9,540 — 40,500 
 
 Christiana deal - - 12,346 — 55,500 
 
 Larch . - - • 12,240 —42,160 
 
 The above numbers must be regarded as only approxi- 
 mative, and representing the average cohesive force of the 
 different kinds of wood specified; for the force differs 
 greatlv in different specimens of the same sort, and even 
 in different parts of t lie same timber. Thus in the tables 
 given by Pre/eseor Harlow of experiments on the direct 
 cohesion of different woods, we find the weight required 
 245 
 
 COINAGE. 
 
 to tear asunder a prism of an inch square varying as un- 
 der:— Fir, from 11,000 to 13,448 lbs. : ash, from 15,784 to 
 17,850 lbs. ; oak, from 8,889 to 12,008 lbs. ; teak, from 
 14.662 to 15,405 lbs. ; pear, from 8,834 to 11,537 lbs &c. 
 (Harlow on the Strength of Materials, 1837.) 
 
 The metals differ more widely from each other in their 
 cohesive strength than the several species of wood or ve- 
 getable fibres. According to the experiments of Mr. 
 George Rennie in 1817, the cohesive power of a rod an 
 inch square of different, metals, in pounds avoirdupois, 
 with the corresponding length in feet, is as follows :— 
 
 Cast steel .... 134,256 lbs. — 39,455 feet 
 
 Swedish malleable iron - 7^,064 — 19,74d 
 
 English ditto - - - 55,872 — 1 9.740 
 
 Cast iron .... ig^og — 6.110 
 
 Cast copper .... 19,072 — 5.093 
 
 Yellow brass - - • 17,958 — 5;i80 
 
 Cast tin .... 4,736 — 1405 
 
 Cast lead .... 1,824 — 
 
 It is difficult to measure directly the cohesion of fluids 
 (and it is very considerably affected by the temperature) : 
 but an approximation may be derived from the magnitude 
 of drops, and the thickness of liquid sheets, heaped upon 
 a horizontal surface. In this view, says Professor Leslie, 
 let us trace the formation ofadropof water as it slowly 
 collects at the end of a capillary siphon. The mutual at- 
 traction of the particles always rounds the under part of 
 the pendant fluid, which continues to lengthen till its accu- 
 mulating weight begins to overcome the cohesion of the 
 particles. Hut this force being 75 grains for each horizontal 
 square inch, while a cubical inch of water weighs 2C21 
 grains, must correspond to the pull of a cylinder of 18 
 inch high, which will influence also the breadih of (be pen 
 dant liquid. Bevi nd this limit a separation will ensue, 
 when the cylinder merges into a sphere a little wide r. or 
 about 2-10ths of an inch diameter. 
 
 The cohesion among the particles of alcohol 
 phuric acid being respectively the fifth part ol 
 grains, the weight of a cubic inch of each of t! 
 drop of them should measure 17 of an inch in diameter. 
 The cohesive force of quicksilver at the ordinary tempera- 
 ture amounts to 312 grains on each horizontal Inch, v 
 a cubic inch of it weighs 3424 grains ; the drop must sepa 
 rate when its mean depth approaches to the 9- 100th part 
 of an inch. (Elements 0/ Nat. Philosophy, n. 369.) 
 
 With respect to the ultimate agent by which the effects 
 of cohesion are produced, it is remarked by Dr. T. Y 
 that if it is allowable to seek for any 'han a 
 
 fundamental property of matter, appearances extremely 
 similar might be derived from the pressure of a 1111 Ivi 
 medium of great elasticity. But aU suppositions founded 
 on such analogies must be considered as merely conjectu- 
 ral) and our knowledge of every thins which relatel lolbi 
 intimate constitution of matter, partly from the intricacy 
 of the subject, and partly for want of sufficient ex peri no 
 is at present in a state of great uncertainty and impi 1 
 tion. ( Young's Lectures on Nat. Philosophy, vol. i. p. 630.) 
 <S'ee Strength of Materials. 
 
 COIIOBA'TION. The repeated distillation of (he same 
 liquid from the same materials. The term was invented 
 by Paracelsus. 
 
 CO'HORT. The tenth part of a Roman !• 
 Legion.) The Praetorian cohort was a body of picked 
 troops who attended the general, and was fh 
 by Scipio Africanus. 
 
 COI'NAGE. Under this term we shall give 
 line of Ihe proceedings in reference to the manufactui 
 coin, as carried on in the Royal Mint of London. 
 
 When a parcel of gold is brought to the mint in ii 
 they are deposited with the master's assay -E 
 makes an assay of each ingot; and when he is ready in 
 deliver his reports upon them, the importers are requ 
 to attend at the mint, where the weigher and teller reads' 
 over the said reports to them. They are then 
 die journals of the master, comptroller, and master's firs-t 
 clerk and inciter; and a mint bill is given to the Impoi 
 certifying the weight, fineness, and value of thi 
 signed by the deputy master, comptroller, and king's (01 
 queen's) clerk, which bill is returned upon the. delivery o 1 
 (he bullion to the importers in Ihe state of coin. The I ' ! 
 lion is then delivered to the mclter, who, guided by the as 
 sayer's report, adds either alloy or fine gold (when elthei 
 are required), so as to reduce the mass to standard Jinenesi 
 (thai is, 22 parts of pure gold and 2 of alloy), and melts an.' 
 casts the metal into bars of convenient form for roll 
 each bar, when intended for coinage in sovereigns. I 
 an inch and a half by one inch square, and ahoi 
 in length, and weighing about 26 pounds. A piece is ther. 
 taken from each extremity of each bar and delivered to the 
 king's assay-master, whose duty it is to ascertain that the 
 said bars are of standard fineness before he allows them 
 to be delivered to the money ers, who next receive them 
 for the purpose of coinage. 
 
COINS. 
 
 These preliminary operations are nearly the same as 
 regards silver bullion. 
 
 When the moneyers, or responsible manufacturers of 
 the coin, receive bars from the inciter, they are rolled and 
 drawn into plates of proper thickness, which require to be 
 most nicely adjusted, so that a piece of proper size punch- 
 ed out of any part of the plate may have the exact weight 
 of the intended coin ; the blanks are then cut out of these 
 plates, which are thus reduced to the state of scissel, and 
 remelted (under due checks and precautions), to be again 
 cast into bars. The blanks (amounting to about two thirds, 
 md the scissel to one third of the weight of the original 
 plate of metal) are next annealed, and passed through the 
 marking machine, by which the edge of each piece is made 
 smooth and a little raised ; they are then cleaned orblanched 
 by being put for a few minutes into a hot and very dilute 
 sulphuric acid, after which they are thoroughly washed 
 and dried, and are ready to be stamped or coined. This 
 operation is performed in presses moved by mechanical 
 power, and consists in placing the blanks between tvvo steel 
 dies, upon one of which is engraved the obverse and upon 
 the other the reverse of the coin, so as to give an impres- 
 sion in relief; while the spreading of the piece in a lateral 
 direction is prevented by the rising of a collar at the mo- 
 ment the blow is struck, in which collar is engraved the 
 milling, which is thus transferred to the edge of the piece 
 at the same moment that the impressions of the dies are 
 taken upon its two surfaces. The coining presses at the 
 mint aie attended by boys, who only have to fill a tube or 
 sp sciea of hopper with the blanks ; the operation of laying 
 the blank upon the dies, and again throwing it off when 
 scamped, being effected by the machinery connected with 
 the press, thus preventing the risk of crushing the fingers 
 of the persons who used to be employed in this depart- 
 ment before these layers on, as they are technically called, 
 were adopted. In the coining room at the mint there are 
 eight presses, each adapted for every species of coin ; 
 each press strikes upon an average GO pieces per minute, 
 or 3600 per hour ; so that in the day's work of 10 hours 
 r-ach press produces 36,000 pieces; and the eight presses 
 (supposing, which is rarely the cas<% that they are all in 
 use) stamp 233,000 pieces daily. The money when thus 
 completed is weighed up in what are called journey weights 
 tot delivery to the importers of the bullion ; the gold in 15 
 lbs. and the silver in 60 lbs. troy. But, before any coin is 
 .suffered to pass out of the mint, it is inspected as to its 
 workmanship ; and if any journeys are faulty or imperfect 
 in this respect, they may be cut and returned to the 
 moneyers for recoinage. The weight and fineness of the 
 money are also ultimately examined and insured by the 
 process of piling, which consists in taking promiscuously 
 from every journey weight of cojn a pound in tale, which 
 is delivered by the weigher and teller to the king's assay- 
 master, who carefully weighs it, and declares aloud the 
 minus or plus upon each pound (if it be not standard or ex- 
 act), which is recorded by the king's assayer, by the comp- 
 troller, and by the king's clerk. This determines whether 
 the moneyers have made the money within the remedy al- 
 lowed upon the pound troy ; but, as the remedy upon the 
 pound is divided among the number of pieces in it, the 
 comptroller weighs several of the pieces individually, and 
 if they are not within the allowed limits, can, in conjunc- 
 tion with the other check officers assembled on this duty, 
 return the coin to the moneyers to be remelted and re- 
 coined at their expense. From the same pound weight of 
 gold or silver the comptroller also takes two pieces, one of 
 which is handed to the king's assay-master to assay, in 
 order to prove that the metal has undergone no deteriora- 
 tion in any of the processes of its manufacture; the other 
 piece is sealed up in a packet and consigned to th e pix box, 
 which is locked by the separate keys of the check officers, 
 where it remains until the trial, of the pix oy jury before 
 the king or certain of his council, which usually takes 
 place once every three or four years in the Court of Ex- 
 chequer at Westminster. 
 
 The term journey weight is applied at the mint to the 
 weight of certain parcels of coin, which were probably 
 Considered formerly as a day's work. The journey of 
 gold is 15 troy pounds, which is coined into 701 sovereigns, 
 or 1402 half sovereigns. A journey of silver weighs 60 lbs. 
 troy, and is coined into 792 crowns, or 1581 half crowns, or 
 3%U shillings, or 7920 sixpences. 
 
 COINS. "See Numismatics. Money. 
 
 COKE. The charcoal obtained by heating coal with the 
 feet access of air, or by its distillation. The former 
 is usually called oven coke ; the latter gas coke, being abun- 
 dantly produced in gas-works. The weight of coke usual- 
 ly amounts to between CO and 70 per cent, of the coal em- 
 ployed. Coke is a valuable fuel for many purposes in the 
 
 COf/CinCUM. (From Colchis in Armenia, where the 
 i < said to have abounded.) This term is generally ap- 
 plied to the cormu.sor bulb of the Colchicum autumnale, or 
 meadow saffron, a plant common in England, and largely 
 246 
 
 COLEOPTERANS. 
 
 collected for medical use. It was much employed form- 
 erly as a diuretic in dropsy ; then fell into disusfc ; and 
 more recently again largely prescribed for the cure of 
 gout, it having been ascertained that the celebrated French 
 remedy for gout called Eau medicinale d'Husson was a 
 tincture of colchicum. Its efficacy may probably be ascrib- 
 ed to the presence of a peculiar alkaloid, which has been 
 termed colchicia. When the cormi are intended for medi- 
 cal use, they should be dug up in summer (July), and im- 
 mediately cut into thin transverse slices, placed separately 
 upon paper, and dried by a very gentle heat. The best 
 preparation is the wine of colchicum, made by infusing an 
 ounce and a half of the bulb prepared and dried as above. 
 and coarsely powdered, in 12 ounces of sherry, for six or 
 seven days, shaking it daily: then filter it for use. The 
 dose is from 20 drops to 1 drachm, taken at bed-time x. a 
 little water. 
 
 COLCO'THAR. A red oxide of iron, being the residue 
 of the distillation of green vitriol or sulphate of iron. 
 
 COLD. In Natural Philosophy. See Heat. 
 
 Cold. In Medicine. See Catarrh. 
 
 CO'LEOPHY'LLUM. (Gr. koAsoj, asheath,and (]>v\\ov, 
 a leaf) A term introduced into botany, to indicate a mo- 
 nocotyledonous structure, the young leaves being evolved 
 from within a sheath, while those of Dicotyledons are al- 
 ways naked. 
 
 COLEO'PTERANS, Coleoptera. (Gr. ko\cos, and xrtpov, 
 sheath-winged.') The name of the order of insects com- 
 prehending those in which the first pair of wings have the 
 consistence of horn, and serve as defensive coverings to 
 the second pair, or true wings, which are of large size, and 
 are folded transversely when not in use. 
 
 By means of this mechanism the Coleoptera are enabled 
 to burrow in the soil, or bore the trunks of trees, with- 
 out injury to their delicate organs of flight, which are the 
 true or second pair of wings ; these being of ample sizo 
 are peculiarly folded, being bent at nearly right angles, 
 so as to pack up in small compass beneath the elytra or 
 wing-covers when the beetle is at rest. In some species 
 the membranous wings are wanting, but the elytra are al- 
 ways present. ; although in this case, as th?y ar» nev«r >v- 
 quired to be expanded for flight, they Bare generaTy soldi r- 
 ed together by a straight suture at the middle line. In or- 
 dinary cases the inner straight margins of the wing-rovers 
 are simply but accurately applied to each other. 
 
 The Coteopterans are of all the orders of insects the 
 most numerous. and the best known. Their singular loans 
 the brilliant and agreeable colours which many of them pre 
 sent, the large size of some of the species, the solid con- 
 sistence of their teguments, which renders their preserva 
 tion easy, and the regular series of affinities traceable 
 through several of the groups, all combine to render them 
 objects of particular interest and attention. 
 
 The head supports two antennse of various forms, but 
 almost always consisting of eleven joints. They have two 
 compound eyes, but no ocelli. The mouth is composed of 
 six principal pieces ; of which four, called the mandibnloe 
 and maxillae, move transversely In pairs, while the remain- 
 ins; two are fixed, and close the mouth vertically. The up- 
 permost of the two vertical pieces is called the latrum; 
 the lowermost is termed the labium, and is itself subdivid- 
 ed into the mentum and lingua, and together with the max- 
 illae, or the lowest of the vertical pieces, supports a pair of 
 articulated processes, called palpi or feelers. 
 
 The anterior segment of the thorax, or manitrunk, sup- 
 ports the first pair of feet, and greatly surpasses in extent 
 the two other segments which form the alitrunk. The ab- 
 domen is sessile, and united to the trunk by a great part of 
 its breadth. It is externally composed of six or seven 
 wings. 
 
 The tarsi vary as to the number of their joints, in some 
 Coleoptera having but three, in others four, in others five ; 
 modifications upon which Latreille founds his primary di- 
 vision of the order. See Pentamera, Tetrambra, Tf.j 
 mera. 
 
 The Coleoptera underco a complete metamorphosis. 
 The larva resembles a worm ; the head is encased In a 
 firm horny substance ; the mouth is analogous in the nam 
 her and functions of its parts to that of the perfect insects - 
 it has also generally six feet, but some species have instead 
 only simple tubercles. When perfect the larva generally 
 burrows in the earth, and excavates an oval cell, Within 
 which it undergoes its change into an inactive pupa; this 
 is generally of a whitish colour, with the wings and lcz* 
 folded upon the breast. The habitation and manner of 
 life of these insects varies much, both in their immature 
 and perfect stages. The affinities of the Coleoptera to th>- 
 Orthoptera are of a closer and more manifest nature than 
 can be traced between the Coleoj>tera and any olher onJei 
 of the mandibulate insects. The gen'is Forficu'a forms the 
 intrrvfninglink. It was formerly placed by Linntens tithe 
 end of the Coleoptera, and was subsequently referred by 
 Latreille to the order Orthoptera ; but now constitutes the 
 type of an order apart and intermediate to these two. The 
 
COLEOPTILUM. 
 
 absence in some ants of the wings, sting, and ocelli, has 
 
 led Mr. Macleay to suspect that these Uymenoptera make 
 
 an approach in I lie Colrojitera. Mr. Kirby would place the 
 
 Gttrtjmptera in juxtaposition with the Coleoptera, observing 
 
 nil' .rphosis in the former " being different from 
 
 thai and Ilemiptera, and nearer to that of the 
 
 lis seems its most natural station, considered 
 
 rophorous order." 
 
 COLEO TTIl.t :.M. (Or. ko'Xcos, a sheath, and titi\ov, a 
 
 /gather.) A lennsometimesappliedto the young leavesof 
 
 'Cotyledons, from the circumstance of their always 
 
 . developed within a sheath, while those of Dicotyfe- 
 
 .■iked. This is, however, a mistake both 
 
 in fact and tl 
 
 CO'LEORHl'ZA. (Gr. xoXtoc, a sheath, and 'oi^a, a 
 niot.) A term invented by Mirleel to denote the slieath 
 within which the radicle of monocotyledonous plants is 
 
 CO'LIC. (Gr. kioXov, the colon; one of the large intes- 
 . l<i the seat of which the principal pain is generally 
 ' red.) There are many varieties of this complaint, and 
 it arises Irorn various causes, and exhibits different symp- 
 • if cure are to evacuate the 
 1 1 tiv the least irritating means, and, when the lower 
 intestines are loaded, by the use of glysters; opiates and 
 may In' resorted to to allay spasms, and 
 warm mentations are often necessary. There 
 
 is a peculiar disease called lbs painters' colic or dry belly- 
 is to arise from the absorption of lead 
 into the system, and which therefore commonly attacks 
 plumbers, painters, and makers of while paint and other 
 ■ and preparations In which lead is used; the per- 
 ' in the lead mines and furnaces are 
 [ to it. It is often named from certain places in 
 which it is peculiarly prevalent ; as Poictnu, Devonshire 
 colic, 6lc. It begins with restlessness and uneasiness 
 about the stomach, nausea, and obstinate eosUveness. 
 There is a general spasm of the bowels, often accompanied 
 i, which is somewhat relieved by pressure; 
 and ibis circumstance enables us to distinguish the com- 
 plaint in question from inllammation of the bowels; into 
 which, however, it runs, if not timely relieved by opiates, 
 emollient glysters, warm bath, and gentle aperients, espe- 
 cially castor oil when it will lie on the stomach, by which 
 mis allayed and the bowels evacuated of their 
 hardened sad irritating foeces. This is the acute state of the 
 : but it often occurs in a chronic form, in which 
 as and constipation of the bowels are followed by 
 I 1 delirium, epilepsy, paralysis, especially of the 
 tnd wasting away of the muscles. This disease 
 terminates fatally if not timely relieved, and above all the 
 patlenl should be cautiously removed from all contact with 
 lead, and allowed fresh air and a nutritious but not stimu- 
 lating diet. 
 
 COLLA'PSE. (Lat. collator, / shrink down.) A wast- 
 ing of the body ; or a sudden and extreme depression of 
 ngth and energies. 
 CO'LLAR. (Lat. collie.) In Architecture, an horizon- 
 tal piece of timber connecting two rafters. 
 
 Collar. In Ornithology, the coloured ring round the 
 neck of birds. In Malacology, the thickened secreting 
 margin of the mantle in the testaceous Gastropods. 
 
 Collar, sisslfies a peculiar badge worn round the neck 
 by knights of different orders. It consists of a gold chain, 
 I, <fcc, to which is attached the badge of the order 
 of knighthood ; and it is worn at court chiefly on state oc- 
 casions, which are thence called collar days. 
 
 COLLAIU'NO. (Fr. collarin.) In Architecture, that 
 part of the Tuscan and Roman Doric columns on the upper 
 part of the shaft encircling them like a small collar. The 
 more proper name is an astragal. 
 CO'I.LECT (Lat. con, together, and lego, / read,) sig- 
 the 'lerivation of the word implies, a prayer read 
 together with other parts of the Church of England service, 
 cither usually or on a particular occasion. 
 
 COLLECT A'NEA, is applied, in Literature, to a selec- 
 tion of passages made from various authors, usually for the 
 purpose of instruction. 
 
 COLLE'CTORS. In Botany, dense hairs covering the 
 styles of some species of Composite, &c. : and acting as 
 to clear the pollen out of the cellsofthe anthers. 
 OO'LLEGE. (Lat. collegium.) According to the pri- 
 mary meaning of the word, any society or number of per- 
 sons' bound together by the same laws and customs (Col- 
 team, colleagues). Among the Romans not only societies 
 I with a character resembling that of modern cor- 
 . jug certain political rights in common (as 
 a of augurs, pontifices, <fcc), were termed Col- 
 legia ; but bodies of men who appear to have had no bond 
 of union except common employment (as the collegia 
 opifieunl. or colleges of the different trades) were also thus 
 ted. Hence has originated the erroneous notion 
 guilds of modern Europe were derived from simi- 
 lar Institutions among the ancients, by attributing to the 
 247 
 
 COLLEGE. 
 
 last-mentioned collegia a corporate character, which it is 
 not sufficiently proved that they possessed; although some 
 of these bodies, as we learn from the fragments of the 
 lawyer Gaius, did in effect hold common property, and had 
 their affairs administered by by-laws of their own. In 
 England many corporate bodies are termed Colleges ; e. g. 
 the colleges of physicians and Burgeons, of heralds, Ax. 
 &c. A college, in the academical meaning of the word, 
 signifies an academy established for academic purposes 
 under royal or private foundation, endowed with revenues, 
 and subject to a private code of laws. Where such a so- 
 ciety possesses within itself all the means of instruction 
 and the rights and faculties which are incident to a univer- 
 sity, the terms University and College are in el. 
 vertible, and indiscriminately used. Thus, Trinity College, 
 Dublin, affords a specimen of an institution called indis- 
 criminately by either title. On the other hand, the univer- 
 sities of Oxford and Cambridge are composed of a number 
 of colleges united together under the same discipline and 
 government, and in which those powers peculiarly belong- 
 ing to a university arc wielded by one class of authorities, 
 the functions of the colleges superintended by another. 
 The Scottish universities, not being in the strict sense of 
 the words endowed societies (*'. e. not possessing a regular 
 body of fellows and scholars receiving stipends), cannot be 
 properly termed collegiate bodies. 
 
 The early history of colleges is somewhat obscure ; al- 
 though there can be no doubt that they were originally 
 In the various universities of the middle ages, with 
 similar objects and from the same charitable motives. The 
 first students at these universities assembled together 
 under no common bond of union, except that of academic 
 study and discipline, and lodged as suited their own con- 
 Next, hostels or boarding-houses were estab- 
 lished (in the first instance, it is said, by the religious 
 orders for students of their own fraternities), in which 
 the scholars lodged together under certain superintend- 
 ence. Charitable individuals afterwards endowed these 
 liostels, for the purpose of providing poor scholars with 
 free lodgings. Finally, to these endowments were ad led 
 (by gifts or bequests) stipends for all or a certain number 
 of .the scholars fr< , 
 
 thus the foundation of a college was completed. Th< 
 tinction of Is om ancient usages is still 
 
 preserved at Oxford, where societies endowed for the 
 maintenance of fellows and scholars are termed Coll 
 — societies unprovided with such endowments, Halls. Bui 
 at Cambridge there is no distinction between Colleges and 
 Halls. At t lie university of Paris fifteen collegi 
 are said to have been founded in the 13lh century ; and Me 
 whole number, in the course of time, amount i .1 to eighteen 
 greater and about eighty lesser. Itut these institution-. 
 assumed a different shape from that which they took in 
 England. The greater colleges became appropriated to 
 particular faculties, or departments of a faculty. Thus, Ibr 
 example, the Borbonne was the college of the theoli 
 faculty ; and, in process of time, the lectures and disputa- 
 tions of most of the faculties became confined to the walls 
 of those colleges which were exclusively devoted to Ihem. 
 ii oi e the university became, in fact, a collection of acade- 
 mies for instruction in particular subjects, and its cor)" 
 character for purposes of education vanished altogether as 
 early as the 15th century. (See Maiden on the Origin of 
 Universities, and the authorities there cited.) 
 
 The name and institution of colleges were derived by the 
 English universilies, together with most of their other pe- 
 culiarities, from Paris ;~but their history is very different. 
 The colleges now subsisting in both these universities 
 were constituted by royal or private munificence ; either 
 as original foundations, or (more commonly) by the endow- 
 ment of formerly subsisting halls or hostels with stipends 
 for students. They were all formed on the same principle, 
 consisting of a head (variously termed master, principal, 
 provost, &c); of a body of higher graduates (generally 
 termed fellows); and another of inferior graduates (schol- 
 ars), who, according to the terms of the several founds 
 tions, were or were not eligible as a matter of right to the 
 fellowships. The colleges were thus founded simply for 
 the purpose of assisting scholars in their progress through 
 the university, not for that of conferring instruction. All 
 those of Catholic foundation, it must be added, were in 
 tended to supply the church with ministers ; hence the still 
 subsisting regulations prohibiting the marriages of fellows. 
 In the course of time independent members, t. e. members 
 not upon the foundation nor sharing in the endowments, 
 were admitted to reside within the walls of the colleges ; 
 and the task of superintending, and finally of instructing 
 them, was gradually transferred from the university nufho- 
 rities to those appointed by and resident within the col- 
 leges. And, by the present constitution of our nation;'! 
 universities, the only powers retained by the university 
 as such are ofa general character, as of conferring degrees 
 and other honours, ice. &c. ; while the function of educe 
 tion for the purpose of qualifying for those degrees has 
 
COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. 
 
 entirely passed into the hands of the colleges of which that 
 university is composed, every member of the university 
 being now, by usage which has acquired the force of law, 
 also member of some college or hall. And, with respect 
 to discipline and government, the power is shared between 
 the university, which through its vice-chancellor and proc- 
 tors exercises a general superintendence ; and the col- 
 leges, which by their own officers maintain order within 
 their own walls. A college, therefore, in the sense in which 
 the term is applied at Oxford and Cambridge, has a double 
 character, — 1. as an endowed society ; 2. as a house of ed- 
 ucation. In the first sense, the college is composed of the 
 head, fellows, and scholars. It is under the government, 
 of the original laws framed by its founder, with such varia- 
 tions as in some cases time has introduced ; but alteration 
 is always jealously watched. According to the tenure of 
 these statutes, the head is either chosen by the fellows 
 from among themselves, or in some instances appointed 
 by the crown or other authority. The fellows, again (who 
 are mostly, hut not universally, graduates who have passed 
 the lowest degree, that of Bachelor of Arts), and the scho- 
 lars, who are admitted when undergraduates, are either 
 chosen from particular localities, schools, &c. &c, ac- 
 cording to the will of the founder, or elected according to 
 merit after free competition between members of the col- 
 lege or of the university at large. Every college is finally 
 under the superintendence of a visitor, generally some 
 high ecclesiastical functionary. 2. As a place of education, 
 the college receives within its walls not only fellows and 
 scholars, but also (in the great majority of instances) inde- 
 pendent members, limited in number only by the extent 
 of the lodging which it can afford ; it being usual at Oxford 
 (although not at Cambridge) that every student on entering 
 the university should not only belong to a college or hall, 
 but reside within its walls. The undergraduate members 
 of the college are under the superintendence of the tutors. 
 These are, in general, resident fellows, appointed by the 
 head to perform this office. In some colleges each tutor 
 has under his special control a certain number of under- 
 graduates ; in others the tutors divide among them, not the 
 students, but the different branches of instruction which 
 are to be communicated. Such is a very general outline of 
 the system of English colleges ; but each of these founda- 
 tions is exclusively governed by its own laws and usages, 
 end no compichensive description will apply without ex- 
 ception to all. Oxford has nineteen colleges and five halls ; 
 Cambridge seventeen colleges or halls. In both universi- 
 ties the oldest are supposed to have existed from the mid- 
 dle of the 13th century ; the greater part were founded be- 
 tween that period and the Reformation, but a few are of 
 Protestant foundation. 
 
 COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. In Scottish Law, a term 
 applied to the supreme civil courts, composed of the lords 
 of council and session ; together with the advocates, clerks 
 of session, clerks of the bills, writers to the signet, &c. 
 /S'ee Sf.ssion. 
 
 CO'LLECT. -See Collum. 
 
 COLLIMA'TION. (Lat. collimo, / aim at.) The line 
 of collimation, in a telescope, is the line of sight, or the 
 straight line which passes through the centre of the object 
 glass and the intersection of the wires placed in its focus. 
 The errur of collimation is the difference between the 
 actual line of sight and the position which that line ought to 
 have in reference to the instrument. 
 
 COLLIMA'TOR. Captain Katergave the name of float- 
 ing collimator to an instrument invented by him for ascer- 
 taining the horizontal point. It consists of a small telescope, 
 furnished with cross-wires in its focus, and fastened hori- 
 zontally on a flat iron float, which is made to swim on 
 mercury, and which of course, when left to itself, will al- 
 ways assume one and the same invariable inclination to the 
 horizon. If the cross-wires of the collimator be illuminated 
 by a lamp placed in the focus of its object glass, the rays 
 from them will issue parallel, and consequently be in a fit 
 state to be brought to a focus by the object glass of any 
 other telescope, in which they will form an image as if 
 they came from a celestial object in their direction, »'. e. at 
 an altitude equal to their inclination. By transferring, then, 
 the collimator still floating on a vessel of mercury from 
 one side of a circular instrument to the other, we are fur- 
 nished with two quasi-celestial objects, at precisely equal 
 altitudes, or opposite sides of the centre ; and if these be 
 observed in succession with the telescope of a circle, 
 bringiiiix its cross to bisect the image of the cross of the 
 collimator, the difference of the two readings on the limb 
 will be twice the zenith distance of either; whence the 
 horizontal or zenith point is immediately determined. 
 Another form of the collimator has the telescope placed 
 vertically, whereby the zenith point is directly ascertained. 
 (Phil. Trans. 1828; Pearson's Practical Astronomy, vol. ii.) 
 
 COLLIQUATIVE. (Lat. colliqueo,/w»c«.) Excessive 
 evacuations are bo termed, which appear to melt down the 
 strength and substance of the body. 
 
 COLLUSION. (Lat. colltsio, from collido, / strike 
 24S 
 
 COLLISION. 
 
 against.) In mechanics, the action of one body impingmj 
 against or striking another with a certain degree of force 
 In order to explain the phenomena which take place when 
 two bodies in motion impinge against each other, we sup 
 pose the bodies either perfectly non-elastic, or perfectly 
 elastic, and that they move in a medium which oilers no 
 resistance. As none of these suppositions have place ex- 
 actly in nature, the results deduced from them must in 
 practice undergo certain modifications. 
 
 In the case of non-elastic bodies, let us suppose, first, thai 
 the body A strikes against another body B, which is either at 
 
 , rest or is moving in thesame direc- 
 
 e- — ,__ g 5; tion with A toward C, but with a less 
 
 velocity. The body B presents an 
 obstacle to the motion of A; part of the force of A must 
 therefore be expended in overcoming the obstacle, thai is to 
 say, in causing B to move with a velocity equal to its o\\ n. 
 But when the quantity of motion necessary lcJrtliispurpo.se 
 has been communicated, B no longer opposes the motion ol 
 A; so that both bodies have the same velocity alter the 
 shock. Now, since a body cannot impart force to another 
 without losing precisely an equal quantity itself, the sum ol 
 the forces, or moments, must remain the same alter as before 
 collision ; but it has just been shown that the velocities ol 
 both bodies are the same after the shock ; therefore (this 
 momentum being measured by the product of the mass 
 into the velocity) the sum of the moments is distributed 
 betwen the two bodies in the proportion of their masses, 
 and the common velocity is found by dividing the sum 
 of the moments before the impact by the sum of their 
 masses. 
 
 Let us next consider the shock of two bodies moving in 
 opposite directions. If the forces by which they are ani- 
 mated are equal, they will destroy each other at the instant 
 of collision ; if they are not equal, the greater will destroy 
 the smaller, and the two bodies will then move in the di- 
 rection of that whose moment was the greater, and the two 
 moments will be equal to the difference of the momenta 
 before the impact. In this case also the velocity alter the 
 impact is the same for both bodies, and equal to the differ- 
 ence of the moments divided by the sum of the masses, 
 and the remaining force is distributed between the two 
 bodies in proportion to their respective masses. 
 
 In the case of elastic bodies, the results are modified by 
 a new force being brought, into action. Let an ivory ball A 
 strike against another B advancing in the same direction 
 but with a less velocity. The first effect of the collision is 
 to produce a momentary union of the two balls, and to 
 compress or flatten the impinging surfaces; the next is the 
 effort of the bodies to recover their figure, and when lh» 
 elasticity is perfect (as it is here supposed to be) the com- 
 pressed surfaces are restored with a force exactly equal to 
 that by which they were displaced. This restoring force 
 produced by the elasticity is called the recoil, and iis effect 
 is to double precisely the effeel that would be produced if 
 the bodies were non-elastic. When the balls A and 1! come 
 into closest union, they take a common velocity, A losing 
 exactly as much as B gains. But in recovering their 
 figure, the loss of A's velocity and the gain of B's velocity 
 are each doubled. In order, therefore, to obtain the actual 
 velocities of the impact, we may estimate the velocities 
 that would be gained or lost by each if non-elastic, and add 
 or subtract this to or from the common vlibcity they would 
 have upon the same hypothesis. 
 
 If the masses of the two bodies are equal, their velocities 
 are interchanged. If only one of the equal bodies be in 
 motion, it will come to rest after the impact, and the other 
 will move forward in the direction in which the first was 
 moving, and with the same velocity : if they move in op- 
 posite directions, each will return in the contrary direction 
 with the velocity the other had. Whether the bodies be 
 equal or unequal, the difference of their velocities, or their 
 relative velocity, will be the same in amount both before 
 and after the impact. 
 
 A result of this theory, which at first sight appears para- 
 doxical, is, that when several elastic bodies increasing in 
 magnitude are arranged in the same straight line, touching 
 each other, and one smaller than the least of them strikes 
 against the least, each will in turn be reflected, and com. 
 municate to the succeeding one a greater quantity of mo. 
 tion than it has itself. This increase of momentum l s 
 greatest when the masses of the bodies increase in geome. 
 trical progression. 
 
 In all cases of collision the state of the centre of gravity, 
 whether at rest or in motion, remains the same alter the 
 impact as before. If it was at rest, it remains in that 
 state; and if it was in motion, it continues to move in the 
 same direction and with the same velocity, notwithstand- 
 ing the impact. This i» the case both in respect of non 
 elastic and elastic bodies; and it is a constant law in what 
 ever manner the bodies act on each other, and whatever b« 
 their respective natures. (For a full and elemen 
 planation of this subject, see Maclauriv's Account of 'Set* 
 ton's Principia.) 
 
OOLLUM. 
 
 CO'LLUM. (Lat. collum, the neck.) That part of the 
 
 ixis of a plant whence the stem and root diverge. In the 
 
 beginning it js a space which there is no difficulty in dig- 
 
 ihing, so long as the embryo or young plant has not 
 
 iy considerable change ; but in the process of 
 
 ternally obliterated, so as to become a mere 
 
 in itti r "i ll "j . 
 
 COLLUTOR1UM. (Lat colluo, / teash, and so, the 
 A lotion forrincinz the mouth. 
 ■l.LY'RIL'M. (Gr. kioXwu, / check, and j>o»c, a de- 
 fluxion.) Lotions intended to check inordinate dis- 
 Tne term is now exclusively applied to eye- 
 
 irn'.ti •- 
 
 CO'LOBDS. (Gr. ko\o[3os, mutilated.) A genus of 
 
 tailed Quadrumanes, or monkeys; so called be- 
 
 fore hands are deficient in. an. I. as it were, 
 
 mutilated of, a thumb. In this respect the Colubi, which 
 
 are exclusively limited to the African continent, resemble 
 
 the spider monkeys (Ateles) of South America: but they 
 
 have not ,i prehensile tail to compensate for the imper- 
 
 : ol the hinds; their long caudal appendage is, on 
 
 the contrary, terminated by a tuft of hairs. The Colobi 
 
 differ also from the Ateles in having five molar teeth in- 
 
 on each side of each jaw, and in having cheek- 
 
 poachee, 
 
 GO'l.OGVNTIL (Gr. ku>\ov, the colon, and kivico, 1 
 
 move ) Tnis term is applied in the Materia Medica to 
 
 ili'; pitii of bitter apple, the fruit o{ the Cueumis co- 
 
 ■his, which is violently purgative. It is imported 
 
 dried, and generally peeled, from Turkey: it is rarely 
 
 . but one of the most valuable purgatives is 
 
 the c o m pound extract of colocynlh, which is a combina- 
 
 tins drag with aloes, scammony, cardamum seeds, 
 
 aii'l ■ 
 
 i.OCY'NTIN. The bitter purging principle of the 
 •i///. 
 
 (Gr.) This name is given to the greater 
 part of the large intestines : the colon passes upwards to- 
 wards the liver, forming the transverse arch which de- 
 ll upon the left side, forming its sigmoid flexure ; 
 % in.' pelvis, it passes Into the rectum. 
 COLON. In Grammar. See Punctuation. 
 COLONNA'DE. (Lat. columna.) In Architecture, a 
 of columne placed at certain intervals, called inter- 
 columui itions. from each other, varying according to the 
 ■ ml the order employed. 
 • OMEL. The commander of a regiment or battal- 
 ion of troops : he is the highest in rank of field officers, and 
 liately subordinate to a general of division. The 
 a origin. The lieutenant-colonel is im- 
 itcly under the colonel, assisting in his duties, and 
 
 itute when required. 
 ".ON'Y. (Gr. avoiKia, Lat. colonia.) Colonies are 
 - its formed in foreign countries by bodies of 
 .-. ho voluntarily emigrate from, or are forcibly sent 
 abroad by, their mother country. Various motives have, 
 at different periods, led to the formation of colonies, 
 iii'-s, as in the case of most of the Greek colonies 
 of antiquity, they were formed by citizens driven from 
 their native country by the violence of political factions ; 
 sometimes, as in the case of the Roman colonies, they 
 were formed for the purpose of bridling subjugated pro- 
 vinces: the latter, indeed, were a species of camps or 
 military stations, forming, as it were, the advanced posts 
 of iliat mighty army which had its head-quarters at Rome : 
 and sometimes, again, as In the case of the Phoenician 
 colonies, and of most of those established in modern 
 times, (hey have been formed for commercial purposes, 
 or in the view of enriching the mother country, by open- 
 ing new markets from which she might, if she chose, 
 exclude foreigners. 
 
 The nature of the connection that has existed between 
 colonies and their mother countries has been exceedingly 
 various. Most of the Greek colonies being founded by 
 private adventurers, who received no assistance from the 
 government of the parent state, were really independent ; 
 the duly which they owed to their metropolis being such 
 only as is due to kinsmen and friends, and not that due by 
 subjects to their rulers. The Roman colonics, on the 
 other hand, being founded by the state for an important 
 political purpose, always maintained an intimate connec- 
 tion with, and dependence upon, Rome. They formed 
 the great bulwarks of the empire ; nor was the conquest of 
 any province ever supposed to be completed till colonies 
 -tablished in it, and roads had rendered it ac- 
 ble to the legions. The colonies established for com- 
 raeniil purposes have generally been subjected to such 
 M were deemed most for the advantage of the 
 Dt state. Their growth has thus in many instances 
 been retarded ; and they have been rendered less service- 
 able to their founders than they would have been had they 
 bean treated with greater liberality. 
 
 The very narrow limits within which this article must 
 be compressed make it necessary that we should limit 
 249 
 
 COLONY. 
 
 our statements to a few remarks, having more particular 
 reference to those questions of colonial policy most inter- 
 esting to the English reader. 
 
 The advantages supposed to result from that monopoly 
 of the colony trade which all modern countries possessed 
 of colonies have endeavoured to enforce, seem to be alto- 
 gether imaginary. The ties of kindred, and the identity of 
 language, customs, and manners, give the merchants of 
 the mother country great advantages, and enable them, 
 provided (heir goods be about as cheap as those of others, 
 to supply the colonial markets in preference to every one 
 else. But all attempts to establish a monopoly in favour 
 of the mother country, by prohibiting the importation ol 
 the produce of other nations into the colony, are necessa- 
 rily either useless or prejudicial, not merely to its inter- 
 ests, but even to those of the mother country- If the latter 
 can produce the articles required by the colony as cheap 
 or cheaper than others, she will command the supply of 
 the colonial markets, without any interference whatever; 
 and if she cannot do this, unless by excluding the cheaper 
 products of others, then it is plain the goods sent to the 
 colony can only be produced by diverting a portion of the 
 capital and industry of the mother country Into compara- 
 tively disadvantageous channels, or into businesses in 
 which she is excelled by others: it is plain, too, that no 
 artificial monopolies can tie maintained, except in the case 
 of ftua&ll and easily guarded colonies. The British mer- 
 chants nave at present the supply of by far the greater 
 part of the manufactured goods required by her Nortli 
 American possessions ; because the goods they send to 
 them are generally cheaper than those sent there by other 
 parties. But were competitors capable of underselling 
 her merchants lo appear in the field, they would have very 
 little difficulty indeed in depriving them of these markets. 
 Cheap goods are sure to make their way through every 
 barrier; and the frontier of her North American colonies 
 is so very extensive, and the impossibility of guarding it ao 
 obvious, that the smallest saving in point of expense 
 would occasion the clandestine Introduction of prohibited 
 goods in unlimited quantities. In such a case custom- 
 house enactments are good for nothing. Ail the tyran- 
 nic:^ regulations and sanguinary piinisliiii.ui of Spain 
 and Portugal were unable to prevent their transatlantic 
 possessions being deluged with the prohibited enmmodi- 
 ties of Britain, France, and Germany. The ability to sup- 
 ply it with comparatively cheap goods is the only means 
 by which it is possible to preserve ony market. It is this 
 that secures for England at this moment the same superi- 
 ority in the markets of the United States that she possessed 
 in them when they were her dependencies ; and the mo- 
 ment we lose this advantage we shall not merely lose their 
 market, but, with it, the markets of all our colonies. 
 Nothing, therefore, can in reality be more futile than to 
 found colonies, or to retain them in a state of unwilling 
 dependency, in the view of monopolising their trade. If 
 we can undersell others, we shall command their markets 
 without any sort of interference ; and if we cannot do 
 this, the attempt to force upon them comparatively dear 
 goods is sure to be defeated ; or if, unhappily, it should 
 have a partial success, it would be injurious alike to the 
 mother country and the colony. 
 
 A colony might be advantageous, and might contribute 
 to increase the wealth of the mother country, if it yielded 
 a greater revenue than was required for its government 
 and defence: but this is rarely the case. Most colonies 
 require a heavy outlay on their first foundation ; and when 
 they attain to any considerable importance, all attempts to 
 make them contribute directly to increase the income ol 
 the mother country are very apt to excite discontent, and 
 probably even rebellion: an unfortunate attempt of this 
 sort led, in fact, to the American war. To obviate all 
 chance of any such disastrous event occurring in future 
 we have distinctly renounced all pretensions to make oui 
 colonies contribute any thing, unless it be towards defray 
 ing the expense of their local government and militia. All 
 the troops and squadrons required for their protection and 
 security are furnished gratuitously by England ; and, in- 
 stead of deriving any revenue from our colonial posses- 
 sions, they cost us annually, in time of peace, a dined 
 outlay of about 2,500,000/. (Official Account. 18th efAu- 
 gust, 1836.) In time of war, or when dissatisfaction pre- 
 vails in any important colony, the direct outlay may be 
 twice or three times as great. 
 
 A colony may, however, be advantageous in a pecuniary 
 point of view, even when it costs the mother country a 
 considerable direct outlay, provided it afford great facili- 
 ties to individuals for making fortunes, with which to re- 
 i turn to the mother country. A large sum is annually 
 brought in this way into England from India; but our 
 colonial possessions are, in this respect, of little advantage. 
 I Few, comparatively, of those individuals who acquire pro- 
 i perty in the N. American colonies return to England; and 
 j but few situations under the colonial government give Ihe 
 means of acquiring fortunes. 
 
COLONY. 
 
 If a cole ay enjoy a natural monopoly of any product or 
 article in extensive demand, it is supposed that, by Saying 
 a heavy duty on its exportation, a considerable advantage 
 may be made to accrue to the mother country : but this 
 does not really appear to be the case. Ceylon possesses a 
 monopoly of the trade in cinnamon; but the enormously 
 high duty (3s. per lb.) laid on the article when exported has 
 restricted the demand for it to the narrowest limits, and 
 reduced its culture, and the revenue derived from it, to a 
 comparatively trilling amount. Most of our readers have 
 no doubt heard of the immense profits made by the Dutch 
 in spices, of which the possession of the Moluccas gave 
 them the monopoly, llut these high profits were wholly a 
 consequence of the limitation of the quantity sold ; and to 
 prevent a fall of price by an increase of the supply brought 
 to market, the Dutch occasionally destroyed a portion of 
 the produce ! There is no longer, however, so much even 
 as the shadow of a doubt that they were heavy losers by 
 this oppressive and shortsighted policy. The sales were 
 confined to an amount hardly sufficient to employ the cap- 
 ital even of a single merchant ; and the total sum realized 
 by the government is not supposed to have amounted to 
 the tenth part of what it would have risen to had the trade 
 been left free, under a moderate duty. 
 
 When a nation derives the whole or any considerable 
 portion of any important article from abroad, it is necessar- 
 ily exposed, especially when the supply comes from one or 
 a few foreign countries, to the risk of more or less incon- 
 venience, from an interruption of the friendly intercourse 
 subsisting with such countries. When such important ar- 
 ticles are furnished by a colony, their supply is compara- 
 tively secure; and, in such cases, colonial possessions may 
 be very valuable. At this moment any interruption of the 
 trade between England and the United States would most 
 probably, by interfering with the supply of raw cotton, be 
 productive of the most calamitous results ; and there can 
 be no doubt that if the whole, or any considerable part of 
 the supply of cotton, were derived from a colony, it would 
 be an important advantage. This, however, is not the case. 
 It is not improbable but that, at some future period, India 
 may yield abundant supplies c r cotton ; bat at present the 
 cotton she sends to Europe is .leither considerable iii 
 amount nor of good quality. 
 
 It was long supposed that the West Indian colonies were 
 peculiarly valuable from their furnishing Great Britain with 
 a secure and abundant supply of sugar, an article now be- 
 come a necessary of life, and yielding a very large revenue. 
 We doubt, however, whether there was ever any good 
 foundation for such an opinion ; but, whatever may have 
 been the case formerly, there is none now. Sugar is not 
 produced in one or a few countries only ; but is a staple 
 product of almost all intertropical regions ; and it is now 
 largely produced even in the northern parts of Europe. 
 (See Sugar.) So far, indeed, is it from being true that Eng- 
 land is indebted to her West Indian colonies for abundant 
 supplies of sugar, that the fact is nearly the reverse. Foreign 
 sugar is, and has long been, excluded from her markets by 
 oppressive discriminating duties; and were these repealed, 
 and the duties on all sugars placed on the same level, it is 
 exceedingly doubtful whether she would continue to de- 
 rive any considerable portion of her supplies of sugar from 
 her sugar colonies in the west. 
 
 Great stress is frequently laid on the advantage of colo- 
 nies established in unoccupied countries, in affording a 
 field for the ready and beneficial employment of the sur- 
 plus or unemployed population that occasionally abounds 
 in old settled and densely peopled countries; neither can 
 there be a doubt that this is of very material importance. 
 But it is pretty obvious that, having founded a colony, it is 
 unnecessary to retain it in a state of dependence if it wish 
 to become free, to realize the advantage referred to. La- 
 bour, in such colonies, is always in great demand, and a 
 regard fur their own interests always disposes the colonists 
 to give every fair facility to the immigration of labourers. 
 Notwithstanding the advantages occasionally held out by 
 the British government to encourage emigration to her 
 North American colonies, the great current of emigration 
 has always been directed to the United States; and, even 
 of the emigrants that sail from Great Britain to Canada, 
 scarcely a fourth part remain in the province, but imme- 
 diately leave it for the contiguous states of the Union. It is 
 idle, therefore, to attempt to excuse the policy of attempt- 
 ing to retain colonies in a state of reluctant dependence on 
 the mother country, on pretence of their affording a profit- 
 able outlet for poor or unemployed persons. The interest 
 of the settlers will keep this outlet open, and will secure 
 every real advantage that could, in this respect, be derived 
 from the most complete colonial domination. 
 
 We beg, however, that it may not be supposed, from any 
 thing now stated, that we regard the foundation of colonies 
 as inexpedient; on the contrary, their establishment has 
 been highly advantageous to that as it has been to most old 
 settled countries in all ages. It is not their foundation, pro- 
 vided they be placed in proper situations and judiciously I 
 250 ' 
 
 managed, but to the needless interference with then 
 government, the trammels imposed on their industry, the 
 prevention of their free intercourse with other people, and 
 the attempt to govern them after they are able ana deter- 
 mined to govern themselves, that we object. A nation thai 
 founds a colony in an unoccupied country, or in a country 
 occupied only by savages, extends by so doing the empire 
 of civilization to, it may be, an indefinite degree. Such 
 colony not only forms a desirable outlet lor the re- 
 dundant or unemployed population of the mother coun- 
 try, but it forms a new and rapidly increasing market 
 for its products and those of other countries. No one 
 can doubt that Europe has been signally benefitted by the 
 discovery and civilization of America; but the advantage* 
 thence arising, how great soever, would have been incom- 
 parably greater, but for the various impolitic regulations 
 imposed by the mother states on their colonies. The 
 British colonies, though fettered in various ways, enjoyed 
 a much greater degree of freedom than those of any other 
 country ; and, in consequence, their progress, both before 
 and since the sera of their independence, has been pro- 
 portionally rapid. The colonies of Spain, on the other 
 hand, though occupying the finest provinces, had their 
 progress thwarted by the blind jealousy and short-sighted 
 rapacity of the mother country, and were kept as much 
 as possible in a state of pupilage. The government 
 was entirely administered by natives of Old Spain ; the 
 colonists were carefully excluded from every office of 
 power and emolument; one colony was prohibited from 
 trading with another ; and had foreigners presumed to set- 
 tle amongst them, they would have been liable to capital 
 punishment. In consequence their progress was very slow^ 
 and when at length they succeeded in throwing off the 
 galling yoke of the mother country, they became, from 
 their inexperience in self-government, a prey to all sorts 
 of disorders. It is very questionable whether her South 
 American colonies were of the least service to Spain ; and 
 it is, at all events, certain that they have not conferred 
 either on her or on other countries a tenth part of the be- 
 nefit they would have done had they been treated with 
 greafe'- l-berality, and permitted freely to avail themselves 
 of all the advantages of their situation. 
 
 The American war seems to have decided, in so far as 
 experience can decide any thing, the question as to the 
 policy of retaining colonies in a state of dependency that 
 are determined to govern themselves. No colonies were 
 ever reckoned half so valuable as those which now form 
 the republic of the United States ; and it was generally sup 
 posed that their emancipation would be decisive of the 
 fate of Britain, — that her sun would then set, and forever! 
 But has Great Britain really lost any thing by that event 1 
 Has her trade, her wealth, or her power, been in any de- 
 gree impaired by the independence of the United States'! 
 The reverse is distinctly and completely the fact. The no 
 tion that Grea*. Britain could have continued for any length 
 of time to retain such rapidly growing countries in a state 
 of dependence, or that we could have been advantageously 
 united in a federal union with vast regions situated in 
 another hemisphere, is too wild and extravagant to require 
 examination. But notwithstanding its independence Eng- 
 land has continued, and will necessarily contin ue in all time 
 to come, to reap all the advantage she can reasonably 
 claim as founder of this mighty empire in the wilderness. 
 Englishmen will necessarily always command a preference 
 in the American markets. And while England is disen- 
 cumbered of the impossible task and enormous expense 
 attending the government and defence of all but boundless 
 countries 3,000 miles distant, her intercourse with them 
 grows with their growth ; and she is as much benefitted and 
 enriched by them as she would have been had they con- 
 tinued in the same state of dependency as Australia or the 
 Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 The previous remarks are not, of course, meant to apply 
 to such dependencies as Malta or Gibraltar. These arc 
 not colonies, but naval stations, necessary for the accom- 
 modation of British ships of war and merchantmen, and 
 serving also as secure depots for her produce. Every 
 commercial and maritime nation that takes a just view of 
 its real interests will always take care to possess itself of 
 some such strong-holds. 
 
 Neither are the previous remarks m*ant to apply to the 
 conquest and occupation of foreign countries, in the view 
 of increasing national opulence and power. Such policy 
 may be either good or bad, according to the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances affecting each particular case. Our remarks 
 apply only to colonies strictly so called : that is. to the ease 
 of foreign territories, peopled principally or wholly by emi- 
 grants, or by the descendantsof emigrants, from the mother 
 country, and not held as a mere military station. 
 
 Sometimes, in order to carry on a trade with a colony, ii 
 Is necessary to give its products peculiar advantages in the 
 markets of the mother country ; and consequently at the 
 expense and to the prejudice of the consumers in the latter. 
 We rather think that no small portion of the trade of England 
 
COLONY. 
 
 with the West Indies is forced In this way ; and that were 
 ..mating duties on foreign sugar abolished, she 
 i derive a considerable part of her supplies from other 
 era. Hut whatever may be the case with the West 
 (rade, this, at all events, is the case with the Canada 
 trade. It employs a large number of ships and seamen, 
 and seems to a superficial observer highly valuable. In 
 truth and reality, however, it is very much the reverse. 
 Two-thirds and more of this trade is forced and fictitious; 
 origi.. oppressive discriminating duty of 45s. a 
 
 load imposed on timber from the north of Europe, over 
 a;id above what is imposed on that brought from a British 
 emenl in North America ! '1 rtoresortto 
 
 Canada) whence she imports an inferior article at a compa- 
 ratively higli price. The disadvantages of this impolitic 
 numerous and glaring. To a manufacturing 
 great mercantile and warlike navy, timber 
 it indispensable ; and yet, instead of supplying herself 
 with it where it may be found best and cheapest, >he loads 
 the superior and cheaper article with an exorbitant duty ; and 
 •■ most she can to make her houses and ships 
 ll and her machinery constructed of what is inferior 
 and dear! But the mischief does not stop here. By re- 
 to import the timber of the north of Europe, she 
 ll limits the power of the Russians, Prus.^m us. 
 to buy her manufactured goods ; 
 while, by forcing the importation of timber from Canada, 
 ilhdrawstbe attention of its inhabitants from the most 
 mployment they can carry on,— that is, from 
 dtivation of the soil, — and make them waste their 
 tnparativelv disadvantageous pursuits! Such, 
 in a less or a greater degree, is the uniform result 
 of all attempts to interfere with the natural order of things, 
 B a trade, whether with a colony or a foreign 
 country matters not, thai would not otherwise be carried on. 
 Hut the existing state of her relations with Canada affords 
 matter for serious, and not very pleasant reflection : 
 •hat colony is not, and never has been, of advantage to 
 Canada timber reduced to 
 ime level as those on Baltic limber, we question whe- 
 tnd to possess a single article that could 
 exported to Great Britain or that she 
 not buy cheaper and better elsewhere. It no doubt 
 itlet for emigrants, and is in so far useful ; but 
 in ah i Is its occupation has always been, and 
 
 v. ill most probably continue to be, productive of little ex- 
 v. I even as respects emigration, it is, as already 
 explained, by no means clear that tie: field would be at all 
 narrowed by Canada becoming independent, or connected 
 with the United States. 
 Hut useless as Canada has been to England in time past, 
 innection with it will, in all probability, become much 
 i come. We shall not stop to in- 
 whether the Canadians have good grounds for the 
 ii that prevails so generally amongst them. It 
 igh to know that it exists ; and that nothing but the 
 ; a large British army is able to maintain a 
 nominal ascendency in that province. While this state of 
 things continues, the prosperity of the colony must be at a 
 (ration to it will cease or be greatly narrowed ; 
 he distresses in which the settlers will be involved will 
 additional strength to the party wishing to break off 
 onnection with the mother country. The people of 
 Britain would do well to reflect dispassionately on the state 
 of the Canadian question. There are not, perhaps, a dozen 
 of sense in the empire, who are not ready to admit 
 that in some ten or twenty years Canada will be independ- 
 ent, or be in - it li the United States. But if so, 
 what should be the policy of England in the mean time 1 Is 
 she resolved to maintain an army of 10,000 or 15,000 men in 
 Canada ?— to expend, directly and indirectly, some three or 
 four millions a year in preserving a mere nominal ascend- 
 in a colony her connection with which is really a loss? 
 If such he her determination, it may be doubted whether 
 she has profited much by the dear-bought experience af- 
 forded by Hie American war. National j)ride may prevent 
 Iter relinquishing this costly and barren dominion ; but 
 good sense, and the most obvious views of expediency, 
 would seem to suggest the policy of voluntarily anticipating 
 what there is every reason to think must in the end neces- 
 sarily happen, and of providing for the independence of 
 Canada under a system of friendly and mutually beneficial 
 relation - 
 
 The explanation given by Dr. Smith in the Wealth of 
 
 halumt (book iv. cap. 7.) of the causes of the rapid growth 
 
 and prosperity of colonies founded in advantageous silua- 
 
 , though impugned by Sismondi {Etudes sur I'Econo 
 
 mie Politique, ii. cap. •• Colonies") and others, seems to be 
 
 consistent alike- with principle and historical evidence. 
 
 i a colony is founded in an uninhabited or but thinly 
 
 pled district, each colonist gets a large extent of the best 
 
 [and ; he has no rt nt, and hut few if any taxes to pay ; and 
 
 being able In procure supplies of manufactured articles 
 
 251 
 
 from the mother country, or one equally advanced, he 
 applies all his energies to agriculture, which under the cir- 
 cumstances is most productive. The demand for labour 
 in such colonies is very great; for the high rate of wages, 
 combined with the cheapnessof the land, speedily changes 
 the labourers into landlords, who in their turn become the 
 employers of fresh labourers. In consequence, population 
 and wealth advance with unusual rapidity ; and in some 
 instances, as in that of the United States, they have con- 
 tinued for a lengthened period to go on doubling e;ery 
 twenty or five and-twenty years! 
 
 But in stating that the facility of obtaining supplies of for 
 tile and unoccupied land is the principal cause of the rapii 
 progress of new colonies, it is not meant to affirm that it ii 
 the only cause. An advantageous situation for the prose 
 cution of commercial pursuits, and great superiority it- 
 navigation, may enable a colony to advance at its ouiset 
 though without any considerable extent of territory, will 
 even more rapidity than if it enjoyed an unlimited com 
 maud of fertile land. This seems to have been the princi 
 pal cause of the speedy extension of the Greek colonies i» 
 antiquity. The most famous of these, as Syracuse am 
 Agrigentum in Sicily, Tarentum and l.ocri in Italy, anc 
 Ephesuaand ttflelua in Aala Minor, were amongst the pi in 
 cipal emporia of the ancient world. They were all sca-por 
 towns; wire founded in the most advantageous situation!- 
 for carrying on an extensive commerce, and owed, in fact 
 their wealth and greatness mainly to trade and navigation 
 Owing, however, to the limited extent of then terrttoria 
 acquisitions, a consequence partly of the difficulty of sub 
 doing the Indigenous population, and partly of the neigh 
 bourhood of other colonies founded by rival states, tl.ei- 
 power rested on no very broad or solid foundation; so thai 
 the fall of the capital city and the annihilation of the state 
 were all but synonymous. 
 
 The colonies founded In modern times have been placed 
 undervcry different circumstances. The countries in which 
 they were planted were either so very thinly inhabited as 
 to be almost deserts, or they were occupied by a feeble and 
 inferior race unable to oppose any effectual obstacle to the 
 diffusion of the colonists ; so that the latter easily spread 
 them, elves over a largo extent of country,and have had in 
 general more of an agricultural than of a commercial cha- 
 racter. But while this has given them greater strength, it 
 has not, after the difficulties attendant on their first estab- 
 lishment were got over, in any degree impeded their pro- 
 gress, but the contrary. The most nourishing of the colo- 
 nies of antiquity will not bear to be compared in respect 
 of rapidity of growth, magnitude and power, with the United 
 States; and the slower progress of the Spanish and Portu- 
 guese colonies is not owing to the colonists having distri- 
 buted themselves over a wide extent of country, but to the 
 ve interference of the mother country with their 
 domestic arrangements, and the vexatious restrictions laid 
 on their intercourse with foreigners. 
 
 A vi rv great degree of equality prevailed among the free 
 settlers in Greek colonies; and in consequence the lands 
 acquired by the colonists were distributed amongst them in 
 nearly equal portions. But in modern times it is very dif- 
 ferent. Ow ing to the vast extent and almost desert state of 
 the countries in which they have been principally planted, 
 the poorest individuals have generally succeeded in ac- 
 quiring slips of land ; while the superior class of colonists, 
 or those who had influence with the colonial government, 
 or with that of the mother country, frequently succeeded 
 in getting grants of vast tracts of land, not in the view of 
 cultivating, but of holding them till in consequence of the 
 increase of population in the vicinity they had acquired a 
 considerable value. These large reserves, by interrupting 
 the communications between different parts of the colony, 
 and increasing the difficulty and cost of conveyance, have 
 frequently proved not a little injurious to its interests. Hut 
 there are various ways in which an abuse of this sort might 
 be obviated ; and perhaps the best would be to apportion 
 the land according to the available capital of the settlers, it 
 being stipulated that no individual should receive above a 
 certain number of acres, and that it should revert back to 
 the public unless certain improvements were effected upon 
 it within a specified time after the grant was made. 
 
 But not satisfied with attempting to put down an abuse o.' 
 this son, we are now told that all the difficulties incident to 
 colonization have originated in the too great dispersion of 
 the colonists; and that to obviate them, and to ensure to 
 all new colonies the acme of prosperity, we have merely 
 to compel the colonists to keep close together by exacting 
 a high price for the surrounding waste or unoccupied lain: . 
 in other words, bv making the colony as like an old settle. 1 
 country as possible ! Perhaps such a crude project was 
 hardly worth notice. If, on the one hand, the price set on 
 the waste land were inconsiderable, it would not prewpj 
 the i 
 entailii 
 
 suited from the making of lnju_— 
 the other hand, the price demanded for the land wer« 
 
 waste land were inconsiderable, it would not prevein 
 purchase of large tracts of land on speculation, arid the 
 ailing on the colony all the disadvantages that have re- 
 ted from the making of injudicious grants ; and if, on 
 
COLOPHON. 
 
 oretty high, it would go far to oppose an insuperable ob- 
 stacle to the progress of the colony. Rich men do not 
 leave their native country to expose themselves to the in- 
 conveniences and hardships attending the establishment 
 of new settlements in the wilderness. This, if it be done 
 a* all, must be done in time to come as in time past, by 
 individuals in straitened circumstances, and anxious to 
 improve their fortunes. But to exact a high or consider- 
 able price for land from such persons would, by sweeping 
 away the whole or a considerable portion of their capital, 
 deprive them of the means of clearing and cultivating the 
 land, and proportionally retard their progress and that of 
 the colony. The plan of letting lands by fine is admitted 
 by every one who knows any thing of agriculture to be one 
 o f the worst that can be devised ; and this colonization 
 project is bottomed on the same principle, and will no 
 doubt be as pernicious. 
 
 It is said that in consequence of the exaction of a price 
 for the land, and the concentration of the colonists, their 
 employments, being more combined and divided, will be 
 prosecuted w^th a great deal more success than at present. 
 AH this, however, proceeds on the false and exploded as- 
 sumption that the colonists are not, like other individuals, 
 the best judges of what is for their own advantage. Dr. 
 Smith says truly that it is the highest impertinence for 
 kings and ministers to attempt to direct private people how 
 they should employ their capitals. But it is, if possible, a 
 still greater impertinence to attempt to direct them where 
 they shall employ them. A regard to their own interest 
 will draw people sufficiently together ; and to enact regu- 
 lations in the view of concentrating them still more, is in 
 every respect as contradictory and absurd as it would be 
 to set about increasing the public wealth by regulating the 
 sort of employments to be carried on, and the countries 
 with which, and the commodities in which, to deal. 
 
 We have already sufficiently explained the principal 
 cause of the rapid progress made by some of the Greek 
 colonies: it should, however, be borne in mind that these 
 colonies had great numbers of slaves, who carried on most 
 part of the more common employments. Hence, in Sy- 
 racuse or Tarentum, every rich individual might have as 
 many obsequious servants as he pleased, an*! all sorts of 
 luxurious accommodations were to be had in the greatest 
 profusion. But in those modern colonies where slavery 
 is abolished, the different ranks and orders of men are 
 more nearly assimilated, less by the depression of the rich 
 than by the elevation of the poor. What is wanted in re- 
 finement and attention is far more than compensated by 
 the well-being and comfort of the lower classes. 
 
 It is a part of this new project, on the supposed excel- 
 lence of which much stress is laid, that the sums got by 
 the sale of lands in the colony are to be expendedln de- 
 fraying the expense attending the conveyance thither of 
 labourers. This is a species of bait held out to tempt capi- 
 talists lo buy Und, by making them believe that though 
 'and be artificially dear, labour will be artificially cheap, 
 ind that on the whole they will be very well off! This, 
 however, is merely attempting to repair an injury done 
 She capitalists, by inflicting a still more serious injury on 
 the labourers. In a colony where a large portion of the 
 capital is swallowed up in the purchase of land, the de- 
 mand for labour must be comparatively limited ; and this 
 limited market is to be glutted by throwing upon it crowds 
 of paupers transported gratis from England ! We say 
 crowds of paupers ; for few labourers, aware of the facts 
 of the case, who can afford to pay for a passage to the 
 United States, will voluntarily go to a colony where land 
 is to be artificially raised to a high price, and labour artifi- 
 cially reduced. The whole scheme seems, in fact, to be 
 little else than a tissue of delusions and contradictions, 
 and it says little for the discernment of the public that it 
 should have attracted any notice. 
 
 It is true that the Americans sell their unoccupied lands ; 
 but they sell the richest and finest lands in the valley of 
 the Mississippi at $1} an acre, whereas Great Britain 
 exacts 5s. an acre for the worst land at the antipodes, or in 
 that terra incognita called Southern Australia ! If these 
 regulations be intended to divert the current of voluntary 
 emigration from her own colonies to the United States, 
 they do honour to the sagacity of those by whom they 
 were contrived, and there is not a word to be said against 
 them ; but in all other respects they seem to be as impolitic 
 and absurd as can well be imagined. (Forfunher informa- 
 tion on this important subject, see St. Croix, de VEtat et 
 iu Sort des Anciennes Colonies ; the art. " Colony" in the 
 Jhiiyclopaidia Britannica; and M'Culloch's Commercial 
 Dictionary, and Edition of the Wealth of Nations.) 
 
 (JO'LOPHON. In Bibliography, the postscript con- 
 tained in the last sheet of an early printed work (before 
 the introduction of title-pages,) containing the printer's 
 name, date, <kc, is so termed; from a fanciful allusion to 
 a Greek satirical proverb, in which the people of Colo- 
 phon, in Asia Minor, are reproached with being always the 
 hindmost. 
 
 COLUMBA. 
 
 COLO'PIIONITE. A variety of garnet of a restnou* 
 fracture. 
 
 COLO'PHONY. (Gr. Ko\v<pavia, the city whence it 
 was first brought.) The dark-coloured resin which re- 
 mains after the distillation of oil of turpentine. 
 
 COLO'SSAL. (From Colossus, a very large statue at 
 Rhodes.) In the Fine Arts, a term applied to any work 
 of art remarkable for its extraordinary dimensions. It is, 
 however, more applied to works in sculpture than in the 
 other arts. It seems probable that colossal statues had 
 their origin from the attempt to astonish by size at a period 
 when the science of proportion and that of imitation 
 were in their infancy. Colossal statues of the divinities 
 were common both in Asia and Egypt. By the descrip- 
 tion of the palace or temple attributed to Semiramia it 
 abounded with colossal statues, among which was one of 
 Jupiter forty feet in height. In Babylon we learn from 
 Daniel that the palaces were filled with statues of an enor- 
 mous size, and in the present day the ruins of India pro- 
 sent us with statues of extraordinary dimensions. The 
 Egyptians surpassed the Asiatics in these gigantic monu- 
 ments, considering the beautiful finish they gave to such a 
 hard material as granite. Sesostris, according to history, 
 appears to have been the first who raised these colossal 
 masses, the statues of himself and his wife, which lie 
 placed before the temple of Vulcan, having been thirty 
 cubits in height. This example was imitated by his suc- 
 cessors, as the ruins of Thebes sufficiently testify. The 
 taste for colossal statues prevailed also among lite Greeks. 
 The statue of Apollo at Rhodes, executed by Cnares, B 
 disciple of Lysippus, has indeed given this species of art 
 the name it bears ; and the great Phidias contributed sev. 
 eral works of this order. The colossus at Tarentum by 
 Lysippe was no less than forty cubits in height ; and the 
 difficulty of removing it, rather than the moderation of the 
 conqueror, prevented Fabius carrying it off with the Her- 
 cules from the same city. But the" proposition made to 
 Alexander of cutting Mount Athos into a statue, in one of 
 whose hands a city was to be placed capable of holding 
 ten thousand inhabitants, whilst in the other he was to 
 hold a vessel pouring out the torrents from the mountain. 
 exceeds all others in history. Before the lime of the 
 Romans colossal statues were frequently executed in Italy. 
 The first monument of this nature set up in Rome was 
 one placed in the capitol by Sp. Carvilius after his victory 
 over the Samnites. This was succeeded in after-times by 
 many others, of which those now on Monte Cavallo, gait! 
 to be of Castor and Pollux, are well known to most per- 
 sons. In modern times the largest that has been erected 
 is that of S. Carlo Boromeo at Arona near Milan. This 
 gigantic statue is upwards of sixty feet in height. 
 
 COLOSSE'UM. »S'ee Amphitheatre. 
 
 COLO'STRUM. The first milk after delivery. A it. v 
 ture of turpentine with the yolk of egg. 
 
 CO'LOUR. (Lat. color.) In Painting, that quality o( a 
 body which affects our sensation in regard to its hue. Lo- 
 cal colours are those which are natural to a particular object 
 in a picture, and by which it is distinguished from oi her 
 objects. Neutral colours are those in which the hue is 
 broken by partaking of the reflected colours of the objects 
 which surround them. Positive colours are those un- 
 broken by such accidents as affect neutral colours. (See 
 Field's Chromatography, 8vo. 1841 ; Goethe's Theory oj 
 Colours, translated by Eastlake, 8vo. 1840.) 
 
 CO'LUBER. A Linna'an genus of serpents, including 
 all those in which the subcaudal scale-plates or scuts arc 
 arranged in pairs. This extensive group are now subdi- 
 vided into numerous subgenera. 
 
 CO'LUM. A term, now obsolete, denoting that part of 
 the ovarium from which the ovula arise ; commonly called 
 the Placenta. 
 
 COLU'MBA. (Lat. columba, a pigeon.) A genus of 
 birds which form the transition from the Passerine to the 
 Gallinaceous orders. They fly well; live in a state of 
 monogamy ; build their nests in trees or in the crevices 
 and fissures of rocks ; and lay but few eggs at a time, ge- 
 nerally two ; their (ail is composed of twelve quill-feathers ; 
 so far the Columbaj resemble the Passerine birds. But 
 their beak is vaulted ; the nostrils perforated in a broad 
 membranous space, and covered with a cartilaginoui 
 scale, which even forms a bulge at the base of the bill ; 
 the sternum is deeply and doubly notched ; a dilated crop 
 is developed from both sides of the oesophagus; the sto- 
 mach is a true gizzard; and the lower larynx has only a 
 single pair of muscles : all these important modifications 
 of structure indicate the close affinity of the Dove tribe i. 
 the Gallinaceous birds. And it may be further remarki d 
 that although the pigeons lay but few eggs at each brood 
 they breed frequently, and at short intervals. The mi!. 
 assists his male in the business of incubation and rearing 
 of the young, which are at first supported by a milky se- 
 cretion prepared from the glandular coat of the crop, and 
 regurgitated, together with the macerated grain. Tin' I.iu- 
 na?an genus is subdivided into numerous but unimportant 
 
COLUMBA NOACHI. 
 
 terized by the greater or less length of 
 I, and Hie proportions of the feet and tail. (See No- 
 ■ try, vol. 9.) 
 SOACHI. (Noah's Dove.) A small con- 
 itilhern hemisphere, near the hinder feet 
 Major, formed by Halley. 
 COLL'MUA'KH M. (Lat.) In Architecture, a pigeon- 
 house From the similarity the arched and 
 
 re headed recesses in the wallsof cemeteries, which 
 were made to receive the cinerary urns, were also called 
 Col u in 
 (in I '.MlllA. A bitter crystalline principle, obtained 
 i root. 
 MIUl M. A metal discovered by Mr. Hatchett in 
 n a mineral from Massachusetts in North America. 
 ieen found in ;i Swedish mineral called tanta- 
 lite. bin its ores are extremely rare. It is acidifiable, and 
 has been termed columbic acid. 
 COLUMELLIA'CJBJB. (Columellia, one of the genera.) 
 An nil-, in.- n iiural order of shrubby or arborescent Exo- 
 inhabiling Mexico and Peru ; distinguished from 
 Jaeminacect, to which order they have been referred, by 
 having an adherent ovary, a perigynous disk, undivided 
 inferior capsiile wtth polyspcrmous cells. Of 
 y little Is known. 
 CO'LTJMN. (Lat. columna.) In Architecture, a mem- 
 ber of an order whose section through the axis is usually a 
 in ni an elongated parabola. It is circular on every 
 
 ■ <>f its plan, and consists of a base, shaft or body, and 
 a capital, h differs from a pilaster, which is square on the 
 plan. The use of the column is to support the entablature. 
 
 ' DBR. 
 
 I.I Ki;s in Astronomy, two imaginary great circles 
 of the celestial sphere intersecting in the poles of the 
 world ; one passing through the equinoctial points of Aries 
 and Libra, and the other through the sol.siili.il points of 
 Cancer and Capricorn. Tor this reason the first is called 
 the equinoctial, and the second the solstitial colure. The 
 name Colure, derived from Gr. xoXovpoi (cauda truncus, 
 r ect), is supposed to have been given to those circles 
 because a portion of them is always concealed from view 
 under the horizon. Hut this is the case with every other 
 meridional circle as well as the colures. 
 
 CO'LZ.V, OIL OF. The oil expressed from the seed of 
 the llrassica oleracea, a species of cabbage. Colza oil is 
 much used in France and Belgium for burning in lamps 
 and other purposes. 
 
 < i >'M.V (Gr. Koun, hair.) The assemblage of branches 
 forming the head of a forest tree. Also used to denote 
 bracts that are empty and terminate an inflorescence, as in 
 Salvia horminum. 
 
 Coma. (Gr. Ko>ua, a swoon.) Lethargy, or unnatural 
 drowsiness : whence the term comatose. 
 
 »1dA BERENI'CEa (Literally Berenice's hair.) A 
 constellation of the northern hemisphere, between the tail 
 of the Lion and Bootes. See Constellation. 
 
 COMB, or COOMB. A measure of corn, commonly 
 four Winchester bushels. 
 
 <Omb, or Combe, in the western counties of England, 
 signifies a .sm.ill valley. The same ancient word of Celtic 
 ■ion is used in Wales (cwm), and in the Alps be- 
 tween France and Piedmont (combe), in the same sense. 
 
 COMBINATION. (Lat. con, and binus, double.) In 
 
 Algebra, signifies the disposition or arrangement of any 
 
 Ejects or symbols in all possible ways. The 
 
 two principal problems that occur in the theory of combi- 
 
 ■ are the following : — 1st, Any number of things with 
 •imber in each combination being given ; to find the 
 
 number of combinations. 2d, To find the number of alter- 
 ations which any number of quantities can undergo when 
 combined in every possible variety of ways. In the solu- 
 tion of the first problem we have to consider that in com- 
 bining tilings by pairs, two things, a, 6, admit of one combi- 
 nation only, viz. a b ; three things, a, b, c, admit of three, 
 viz. ab, ac, be ; four admit of six, viz. ab, ac, ad, be, bd, cd ; 
 five admit of ten, viz. ob, ac, ad, ae, be, bd, be, cd, ee, 
 de. Generally, if n denote the number of things, the 
 formula which expresses the number of all their combi- 
 nations by pairs is — —— — Thus, if n = 5, then — — - 
 
 6 ■ 5 * ^ 
 
 = 10 ; i f n = 6, then = 15 is the number of combina- 
 tions. 1 ' 2 
 
 When the things are combined by threes, the number 
 of combinations that can be made out of a given number n, 
 
 is - X — 2~ X — ~— • If combined by fours, the number 
 
 , ... . n n— 1 n— 2 „**— 3 
 of combinations is -X X ~ o - X ~7~' and s0 on - 
 
 The number of combinations of all sorts that can be 
 
 made of n things (that is, by first taking the things one ata 
 
 time, then taking them by twos, then by threes, and so on) 
 
 in 2a— 1. Thus, all the possible combinations or selections 
 
 263 
 
 COMBINATION. 
 
 that can be made of three things are 2' — 1=7, vi? a«V, at 
 aCjbc, a, 6, c. 
 
 The second problem requires us to take into account no, 
 only the different combinations of the things themselves, 
 but also the order of their arrangement. Adm tting this 
 element of variation, 
 
 Two things may be varied by pairs in four ways : thus, 
 iui. ab, ba, bb. 
 
 Three quantities, taken by pairs, may be varied nine 
 ways ; thus, aa, ab, ac, ba, ca, bb, be, cb, cc. 
 
 Generally the number of variations by pairs which can 
 be made of n things is equal to n* ; when taken by threes, 
 the number of variations is n' ; when by fours, the number 
 of changes is n 4 , and so on. Hence the whole number 
 of changes in n things, taken by ticos, by thrtes, by fours, 
 and so on to n, is the sum of the geometrical series n -4- 
 
 wi — 1 
 »* + »' + n * + nn = r X «• Thus, if n—o, the 
 
 number of possible changes is 
 
 6 s — 1 
 
 X 5=3905 ; and if n 
 
 =24 (the number of letters in the alphabet), the iheorem 
 gives 13917242888S72529994251284934O22U0, a number con- 
 sisting of 34 digits. See Permutation. 
 
 Combination. In Law, may take place for the per- 
 formance of any unlawful act, and is punishable before 
 such act is executed. But the word has been commonly 
 used in a particular sense; viz. that of a combination 
 among workmen to demand wages at a particular rate; 
 which was an unlawful act prior to the 6 G. 4. c. 129. re- 
 
 f waling former statutes. Workmen are now at perfect 
 iberty to form such combinations; but penalties are enacted 
 by the statute against such as use threats or violence to- 
 wards those who refuse to join in them. And the offence 
 of administering unlawful oaths (whether preparatory to a 
 combination among workmen, or for any other purpose) 
 remains unaffected by the statute. 
 
 Combinations to raise wages, or " strikes," have formed 
 for the last fifty years the most embarrassing difficulties 
 with which British manufacturers, and the labouring 
 classes themselves, have had to contend ; and it can 
 scarcely be said that the repeal of the combination laws in 
 1824 has produced much effect cither to encourage or di- 
 minish them. On this subject we shall make an extract 
 from a note, or rather a dissertation on " wages of labour," 
 in Mr. M'Culloch's Edition of Smith's Wealth of Nations, 
 in which the tendency of combinations to fetter commer- 
 cial operations is set forth with a brevity and perspicuity no 
 where surpassed. 
 
 " The repeal of the act against voluntary combinations in 
 1 824 was a just and wise measure. If any number of per- 
 sons choose to combine to refuse to work, except for a cer- 
 tain amount of wages, or for certain hours per day, or week, 
 to forbid them would seem to be a most oppressive inter- 
 ference with one of the distinguishing privileges of free 
 labourers. It was found too that practically the laws 
 against such combinations were good for nothing, and that, 
 instead of putting them down, they gave them a secret 
 character, and made them be easily perverted to other and 
 more objectionable objects. But when workmen have 
 power to refuse to employ themselves on terms of which 
 they disapprove, they have got all, in this respect, to which 
 they are entitled. None of them have any right to dictate 
 to their fellows ; or to any that because they object to cer- 
 tain stipulations in the terms offered by such and such em- 
 ployers, no one else shall be allowed to accept them. A 
 pretension of this sort strikes at the very foundations of so- 
 ciety ; and if tolerated might enable juntos of designing 
 individuals to inflict irreparable injury, not only on the 
 employers of labour, but on the manufacturers of the coun- 
 try, and consequently on the lasting interests of the labour- 
 ing class. We need not, however, be surprised to learn 
 that this is what numbers of workmen in various places 
 have attempted to do ; and that combinations have been 
 formed, not for the legitimate purpose of refusing to work 
 except on certain conditions, but for preventing other work- 
 people who may disapprove of, or not choose to insist on, 
 these conditions, accepting the terms offered by their em- 
 ployers. The measures taken to enforce this most unjus- 
 tifiable pretension have in some instances been of a very 
 obnoxious description, and have evinced the existence of 
 a very dangerous spirit. Nothing should be omitted that 
 may serve to root out and suppress combinations for such 
 illegal ends. They are completely subversive of that se- 
 curity essential to the prosecution of all industrious under- 
 takings; and are, at bottom, as hostile to the interests ol 
 those that enter into them as they are to the interests ol 
 every one else." (For further details on this subject, see 
 A. Smith, Book i. chap. 8. ; the Parliamentary Debates of 
 the Year 1824 ; Torrens on Wages and Combinations, Lon 
 don, 1834 ; Edinb. Review, vol. 39. 59.) 
 
 CO'MBRETA'CE^:. (Combretum.one of the genera. 
 A natural order of shrubby or arborescent Exogcns, aL. 
 living within the tropics, and placed indifferentlv in the 
 
COMBUSTION. 
 
 vicinity of Santalacece and Elmagnaceat, or of Onagracem 
 and Myrtaceat. They all possess an astringency, and some 
 are employed in dyeing. Some are polypetalous, some 
 apetalous. They are especially distinguished by their con- 
 volute embryo. 
 
 COMBU'STION. This term is generally applied to the 
 phenomena exhibited by burning bodies, and which depend 
 upon the rapid union of the combustible with the oxygen 
 of the air. The evolution of heat and light which attends 
 this process announces intense chemical action ; and we 
 consequently find that combustion is always attended by 
 the production of new compounds. See Heat. 
 
 CO'MEDY. (From the Greek words Kio/iri, village, and 
 ui&r\, a song ; because the original rude dialogues, intermix- 
 ed with singing and dancing, out of which the early Greek 
 comedy arose, were sung by rustic actors at village festi- 
 vals.) A species of drama, of which the characteristics 
 in modern usage are, that its incidents and language ap- 
 proach nearly to those of ordinary life ; that the termina- 
 tion of its intrigue is happy ; and that it is distinguished by 
 greater length and greater complexity of plot from the 
 lighter theatrical piece entitled a farce. The original Attic 
 comedy was a burlesque tragedy in form, in substance a 
 satire on individuals, and founded on political or other mat- 
 ters of public interest. The modern comedy is derived 
 from the new comedy of the Greeks, of which Menander 
 and Philemon were the principal authors, and which has 
 been preserved to us through the Latin imitations of Plau- 
 tus and Terence. See Drama. 
 
 CO'MET. (Gr. Kour/Ttis, from Koutt, hair.) The name 
 given to a numerous class of celestial bodies belonging to the 
 solar system. The luminous point which shines with great- 
 er or less brilliancy at the centre of a comet is called its nu- 
 cleus. The nucleus is generally surrounded by a nebulosity, 
 or luminous aurora. The train of light, of greater or less 
 extent, with which most comets are accompanied, is called 
 the tail. Formerly this name was only applied to the lu- 
 minous train when it fell behind the comet in its diurnal 
 motion ; if it preceded the comet, it was called the beard; 
 but this distinction has disappeared in modern works on 
 Astronomy. 
 
 The ancients gave the name of comet to every nebulous 
 star or meteor which was observed to pass successively 
 through different constellations. Modern astronomers ap- 
 ply the name, notwithstanding the etymology, to stars 
 which have neither nebulosity nor tail. According to them, 
 the distinctive characters of a comet are, 1st, that it pos- 
 sesses a proper motion ; 2d, that it traverses space in a 
 curve so elongated that in the distant parts of its orbit it 
 ceases to be visible. The proper motion distinguishes 
 comets from those new stars which occasionally appear, 
 and become extinguished without changing their place in 
 the sky. The elongated form of the orbit establishes a 
 distinction equally marked between the comets and the 
 planets. 
 
 Orbits of Comets. — Some of the ancient philosophers 
 regarded comets as simple meteors, engendered in the at- 
 mosphere. In order, however, to be convinced that they 
 occupy a far more remote situation, it is only necessary to 
 compare simultaneous observations at very distant places 
 on the earth. Tycho Brahe was the first who showed that 
 their true place is in the planetary regions : since the time 
 of Tycho, it has been discovered that they revolve about 
 the sun according to regular laws, similar to those which 
 govern the planetary motions; and that their orbits are 
 very elongated ellipses, having the sun in one of their 
 foci. 
 
 Comets are only visible during the short time they are 
 near the perihelia of their orbits. But an elongated ellipse, 
 and a parabola having the same summit and focus, only 
 begin to diverge sensibly at a considerable distance from 
 the common summit. In order, therefore, to represent 
 the different positions of a comet during the short time it 
 is visible, we may in general without any inconvenience 
 substitute a parabola for an ellipse. If it happens that the 
 orbit cannot be represented by a parabola, we conclude 
 that the ellipse is not very elongated. Now, by means of 
 three positions of a comet seen from the earth, all the ele- 
 ments of its parabolic orbit may be determined. These 
 elements are, 1st, the line of the nodes ; 2d, the inclina- 
 tion of the orbit to the plane of the ecliptic ; 3d, the peri- 
 helion distance, or least distance of the comet from the 
 sun, expressed in parts of the earth's semidiameter; 4th, 
 the instant of the passage throush the perihelion ; 5th, the 
 longitude of the perihelion. When these elements are 
 known, the path of the comet is completely determined ; 
 and it is only necessary, in addition, to indicate the direc- 
 tion of the motion, that is to say, whether it is in the order 
 of the signs, or the contrary. 
 
 The proper motion of all the planets is performed from 
 west to east in the order of the signs ; comets, on the 
 other hand, appear to traverse the heavens in all directions 
 indifferently. Of 129 comets whose orbits have been de- 
 termined there are 68 whose motion is direct, and 61 whose 
 254 
 
 COMETS. 
 
 motion is retrograde, and their orbits intersect the ecliptic 
 at all possible angles. Out of the whole number there are 
 only three whose returns to the sun in successive revolu- 
 tions have been verified by observation. These are, 1st, 
 Halley's comet, of which the period is about seventy-five 
 and a half years ; 2d, Encke's, whose period is about three 
 and one third years; and 3d, Biela's, which performs its 
 revolution in six years and about eight months. 
 
 Halley's Comet. — Newton was the first who submitted 
 the motion of a comet to calculation, and pointed out a 
 method of determining its orbit from three of its observed 
 positions. Halley applied Newton's method to a great 
 number of comets, of which the positions bad been ob- 
 served; and on comparing the resulting elements, per- 
 ceived that the comet which appeared in 1682 moved near- 
 ly in the same orbit as one which had been observed in 
 1607, and another which had been observed by Apian in 
 1531. As the interval between these successive apparitions 
 was nearly the same, namely, about seventy six years, the 
 identity of the three comets appeared to Halley to be es- 
 tablished, and he accordingly predicted its return in 1759. 
 Clairaut, a celebrated French mathematician, computed 
 the time at which it would arrive at its perihelion ; and his 
 results were confirmed by observation, the comet actually 
 passing its perihelion within about a month of the time 
 predicted. 
 
 The computation of the comet's return to its peiihelion 
 is a work of great difficulty and labour; for in consequence 
 of the attractions of the larger planets, the path of the 
 comet is considerably changed at each revolution, and all 
 these changes or perturbations, as they are called, must be 
 computed from the theory of gravitation. 
 
 The reappearance of this comet in 1835 was expected 
 with great interest. Its perturbations in the previous revo- 
 lution were calculated by Damoisean and Pontecoulant in 
 France, and by Rosenberger in Germany, and the time of 
 its perihelion passage fixed for the month of November in 
 that year. Damoisean's calculation gave the 4th, Ponte- 
 coulant's the 7th, and Itosenberger's the 3d of the month. 
 The comet, true to its appointed laws, became visible 
 about the end of August, in the part of the heavens pre- 
 dicted ; and it appears from the comparison of the numer- 
 ous observations that were made of it, to have actually 
 passed its perihelion on the 16th of November. The po- 
 sition of its orbit was such that it could scarcely be seen in 
 Europe after the passage, on account of its proximity to 
 the horizon; but it was then caught by the astronomers of 
 the southern hemisphere, and continued to be observed by 
 Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope till the end 
 of March, 1836, when its increasing distance from the earth 
 rendered it invisible. For some weeks it continued visible 
 to the naked eye, but its splendour was not very remark- 
 able. 
 
 Encke's Comet.— Two other comets have more recently 
 been identified as having been seen in preceding revolu 
 tions about the sun. One of these is called Encke's comet, 
 from Professor Encke of Berlin, who first computed its 
 elliptic elements. Its orbit is very elongated, the eccen- 
 tricity being nearly = 815, and inclined to the ecliptic in 
 an angle of about 13° 22i'. The period of its revolution is 
 1207 days, or about 3 and l-3d years. Though this comet 
 was not recognized as periodic till 1819, it had frequently 
 been observed in previous revolutions— in 1785, 17%, 1801, 
 and 1805. From the ellipse calculated by Encke, its return 
 was predicted in 1822. On this occasion it was invisible in 
 Europe, but was observed at Paramatta in New South 
 Wales. In the subsequent returns of 1825, 1828, and 1832, 
 it was observed in the principal observatories both in the 
 northern and southern hemispheres. In comparing the 
 intervals between the successive returns to its peri- 
 helion, it is found that the period of this comet is con- 
 tinually diminishing. This is exactly the effect that would 
 be produced if it moved through a resisting medium ; for 
 the resistance, by diminishing the actual velocity, dimin- 
 ishes the centrifugal force, in consequence of which the 
 solar attraction preponderates, and the comet is drawn 
 nearer to the sun, and completes its revolution in a shorter 
 time. Accordingly, as there appears no other way of ac- 
 counting for the observed acceleration, it seems now to be 
 the general opinion of astronomers that an el hereal medium 
 pervades the regions of space, of sufficient density to affect 
 the motions of comets, though so rare as to offer no sensible 
 resistance to the denser masses of the planets, whose pe- 
 riods of revolution have continued exactly the same since 
 the epoch of the first astronomical observations. If this 
 medium really exists, the comet must ultimately fall into 
 the sun, unless it is dissipated altogether: an event which 
 seems not improbable, from the observed fact of its having 
 been less conspicuous at each reappearance. 
 
 Biela's Comet.— -The third periodic comet at prtsenl 
 known was discovered by Biela, an Austrian officer then 
 residing at Prague, in February, 1826 ; and by M. Gambart 
 of Marseilles in April of the same year. It has been iden 
 tified with comets observed in 1772, 1789, 1795, 1S46, &c 
 
COMET. 
 
 it performs its revolution in 240; days, in an ellipse inclined 
 
 iiptic, in an angle of 13° 33' 15", having an eccen- 
 74701, its greater semi-axis being 3-66706. Its 
 
 .rition took place, in accordance with calculation, 
 
 and its next return will be in 1846. It is a small 
 
 aving no tail, and presenting no appearance of a 
 solid nucleus, but only a slight increasing density towards 
 the centre ; and small stars were seen through it. Its orbit, 
 by a singular coincidence, nearly intersects that of the 
 earth ; and had the earth, at the time of the comet's pas- 
 en a month in advance of its actual place, 
 it would have passed through or very near the comet. 
 
 Effects of the Action of the Planets on the Orbits of Comets. 
 — Comets in passing near the larger planets are drawn aside 
 from their paths, and have their orbits sometimes entirely 
 changed In June, 1770, a comet was discovered by Mes- 
 sier; and as soon as three observations had been obtained, 
 the elements of its parabolic orbit were determined. The 
 comet continued visible for a long time, and it was found 
 ; arabolic elements could not be made by any com- 
 bination t<> represent the observations. It followed, there- 
 
 I the orbit could not be a parabola. I.cxell under- 
 took the computation of an elliptic orbit, and found, in fact, 
 that the comet was describing an ellipse, of which the 
 LXis was only equal to three times the diameter of 
 
 -trial orbit.'and would consequently complete its 
 revolution in about five years and a halt He accordingly 
 
 I its return at the end of that period ; nevertheless, 
 the comet did not appearat the expected time, and, though 
 very conspicuous in 1770, has never been seen since. On 
 examining the catalogues, no trace was found of a comet 
 describing the same orbit having been seen before. The 
 i. therefore, occurred, in what manner was this 
 
 us appearance and disappearance to be explained! 
 The solution was found in (he disturbing inlluence of Jupi- 
 ter. On submitting to calculation the action of this planet 
 on the enmet, it was found, in th<> first place, that In the 
 year 1767. before the comet bad approached Jupiter, the 
 elHpltc orbit which it described corresponded to a revolu- 
 tion, not of five, but of fifty years; anil in the second place, 
 
 und thai in 177'.'. when getting beyond the sphere 
 
 of attraction of the same planet, the orbit in which it then 
 
 inly be described in twenty years. Previ- 
 
 ,r<'7 it moved in so wide an orbit that it could not 
 
 from the earth: the attraction of Jupiter threw it 
 into the orbit in which it was observed by Messier. On a 
 second approach to Jupiter, it was again deflected from its 
 path, and thrown into an orbit in which it was invisible as 
 at first. 
 
 Physical Xature of Comets. — Notwithstanding the atten- 
 tion which has been given to the observation of comets 
 
 r they make their appearance, nothing whatever 
 is known of their physical constitution ; nor has any ration- 
 
 i plausible explanation been offered of the volu- 
 minous appendage denominated ihe tail. The following 
 remarks or Sir John Herschel on this subject are extreme- 
 ly Interesting. 
 
 "The smaller comets, such as are visible only in tele- 
 scopes, or with difficulty by the naked eye, and which are 
 by far the most numerous, offer very frequently no appear- 
 ance of a tail, and appear only as round or somewhat oval 
 vaporous masses, more dense towards the centre ; where, 
 however, they appear to have no distinct nucleus, or any 
 thing which seems entitled to be considered as a solid body. 
 Stars of the smallest magnitudes rerr.ain distinctly visible, 
 : by what appears to be the densest portion 
 if their substance ; although the same stars would be com- 
 pletely obliterated by a moderate fog, extending only a few 
 yards from the surface of the earth. Whenever powerful 
 
 •s have been turned on these bodies, they nave not 
 foiled to dispel the illusion which attributes solidity to that 
 more condensed part of the head which appears to the 
 naked eye as a nucleus; though it is true that in some a 
 very minute stellar point has been seen, indicating the ex- 
 istence of a solid body. 
 
 " It is in ad probability to the feeble coercion of the elastic 
 power of their gaseous' parts by the gravitation of so small 
 a central mass, that we must attribute this extraordinary 
 ment of the atmosphere of comets. If the earth, 
 retaining its present size, were reduced by any internal 
 (■flange (as by hollowing out its central parts) to one thou- 
 sandth nan of is actual mass, its coercive power over the 
 atmosphere would be reduced in the same proportion, and 
 
 luence the latter would expand to a thousand times 
 it bulk; and indeed much more, owing to the still 
 further diminution of gravity by the recess of the upper 
 part from the centre. 
 
 That the luminous part of a comet is something in the 
 nature of a smoke, fog; or cloud, suspended in a transpa- 
 rent atmosphere, is evident from a fact which has been 
 often noticed ; viz. that the portion of the tail, where it 
 tomes up to and surrounds the head, is yet separated from 
 t by an interval less luminous, as if sustained and kept off 
 from contact bv a transparent stratum, as we often see one 
 365 
 
 layer of clouds laid over another, with a considerable space 
 between. These, and most of the other facts observed in 
 the history of comets, appear to indicate that the structure 
 
 of a comet, as seen in section in the di- 
 
 S rection of its length, must be that of a 
 
 ( 'f =3i ^_ hollow envelope, of a parabolic form, 
 
 KSSsZ'' enclosing near its vertex the nucleus 
 
 — and head, something as is represented 
 
 in the annexed figure. Tins would ac- 
 count for the apparent division of the tail into two lateral 
 branches, the envelope being oblique to the line of afghl at 
 its borders, and therefore a greater depth of illuminated 
 matter being there exposed to the eye. In all probability, 
 however, they admit great varieties of structure, and among 
 them may very possibly be bodies of widely different physi 
 cal constitution. ' {Astronomy; Cabinet Cyclopa-dia, p. 304.) 
 
 From the same authority we extract the following state 
 ment respecting the actual dimensions of some of the most 
 conspicuous comets : — " The tail of the great comet of 1680, 
 immediately after its perihelion passage, was found by 
 Newton to have been no less than 20,000,000 of leagues in 
 length, and to have occupied only two days in its emission 
 from the comet's body ! — a decisive proof this of its being 
 darted forth by some active force, the origin of which, to 
 judge from the direction of the tail, must be sought in the 
 sun itself. Its greatest length amounted to 41,000,000 
 i length much exceeding the whole interval be- 
 tween the sun and the earth. The tail of the comet of 1769 
 d 16.000,000 leagues, and that ol the great comet of 
 1811, 36,000,000. The portion of the head of this l.i-t com- 
 prised within the transparent atmospheric envelope which 
 separated it from the tail was 180,000 leagues in diameter. 
 It is hardly conceivable that matter once projected to such 
 enormous distances should ever be collected again by the 
 feeble attraction of such a body as a comet — a considera- 
 tion which accounts for the rapid progressive diminution 
 of the tails of such as have been frequently observed." 
 (Ibid. p. 311.) 
 
 It is extremely probable that the comets are merely col- 
 lections of gaseous matter, of which a part may I 
 pated in space at every revolution | but further observations 
 are wanted to make tiiis hypothesis certain. In 1682 Hal- 
 ley's comet appeared as room) and clear as Jupiter; in 1769 
 it was not visible to the naked eye; in 1>36 it v. 
 sufficiently visible, but it was then in a much more favour- 
 able position than in 17">'.i. 
 
 In former times comets were regarded as preternatural 
 appearances, betokening the displeasure of the superior 
 powers, and accordingly viewed with the terror and appre- 
 hension naturally excited by harbingers cf indefinite and 
 unavoidable calamity. Since they have been discovered to 
 be component parts of the solar system, their appearance 
 excites no other interest than that 'which astronomers feel 
 to determine their orbits, and to deduce from their physi- 
 as they are calculated to atford 
 ' the constitution of the universe. 
 
 COMETA'RIUM. An astronomical toy, intended to re- 
 present the motion of a comet about the sun. Any instru- 
 ment capable of describing an elongated ellipse may be 
 called a cmn-.tai ium. See Elliptic Compasses. 
 
 COMI'TIA. In Ancient History, the assemblies of the 
 Roman people, which were of three kinds, distinguished 
 bv the epithets, Curiata, Centuriata, and Tributa. 
 
 1. The Comitia Curiata were the assemblies of the patri- 
 cian houses or pojmlus; and in these, before the plebeians 
 attained political importance, was vested the supreme 
 power of the state. The name Curiata was given because 
 the people voted in curia, each curia giving a single vote 
 representing the sentiments of the majority of the members 
 composing it; which was the manner in which the tribes 
 and centuries also gave their suffrages in their respective 
 comitia. After the institution of Hie Comitia Centuriata, 
 the functions of the curiata were nearly confined to the 
 election of certain priests, and passing a law to confirm the 
 dignities imposed by the people. 
 
 2. The Comitia Centuriata were the assemblies of the 
 whole Roman people, including patricians, clients, and ple- 
 beians, in which they voted by centuries. By the consti- 
 tution of the centuries, these comitia were chiefly in the 
 hands of the plebeians, and so served originally as a coun- 
 terpoise to the powers of the comitia curiata, for which 
 purpose thev were first instituted by the lawgiver king 
 Servius Tullius. These comitia quickly obtained the chief 
 importance, and public matters of the greatest moment 
 were transacted in them ; as the elections of consuls, pra> 
 tors, and censors, and the passing laws and trials for high 
 treason. 
 
 3. The Comitia Tributa were the assemblies of the ple- 
 beian tribes. They were first instituted after the expulsion 
 of the kings; and in them were transacted matters pertain- 
 ing to the plebeians alone, as the election of their tribunes 
 and a?diles. ' 
 
 CO'MMA. (Gr.) In Music, the smallest of all the sub- 
 divisions, being about the ninth part of a tone. 
 
COMMANDER. 
 
 Comma. In Grammar. See Punctuation. 
 COMMA'NDER. In the Navy, otherwise called mas- 
 ter, an officer next in rank above lieutenant, corresponding 
 with major in the army. 
 
 COMMANDER IN CHIEF. The officer in whom is 
 vested the supreme command of all the land forces of the 
 British Empire. This officer is appointed by the ministry 
 of the day, whose confidence he is supposed to enjoy, and 
 he is assisted in the discharge of his duties by several 
 subordinate officers, such a3 the adjutant-general, the 
 quartermaster-general, &c. (see these terms), who are 
 each at the head of a particular department. 
 
 COMMA'NDERY, or PRECEPTORY. According to 
 the usages of some orders of Knights, a district attached 
 to a manor or chief messuage under the control of a mem- 
 ber of the order, who receives the income of that district 
 arising from the estates of the order, taking out of it his 
 own pension, and accounting for the rest. 
 
 COMMELINA'CEjE. (Commelina, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of herbaceous Endogens, chiefly inhabit- 
 ing the East and West Indies. Brown remarks that the 
 order greatly differs from Juncacecs both inhabit and struc- 
 ture, and agrees better with Restiacem, having but little 
 affinity with Palms ; and Agardh adds, that it agrees with 
 Orchidacea. in the structure of the stamens and seeds, but in 
 what respect he does not state. The species are very often 
 mere weeds, but occasionally are beautiful flowering plants. 
 A common example is the Tradescantiavirginica. 
 
 COMME'NDAM. (Lat.) A term of the Canon Law. 
 A person to whom custody of a void ecclesiastical benefice 
 is committed by the superior, without the profits apper- 
 taining to it, was said to hold the benefice in commendam, 
 i. e. entrusted to his care ; but by various devices the re- 
 striction on the receipt of profits was evaded, and the hold- 
 ing benefices in commendam became a mode of enjoying 
 pluralities. By the English law, no one can hold in com- 
 mendam without license from the crown. An ordinary 
 case is where clergymen promoted to bishoprics with in- 
 sufficient revenues are allowed in this manner to retain the 
 profit? of livines. 
 
 COMME'NSURABLE. Quantities, in Geometry, are 
 said to be commensurable when they have some common 
 measure or divisor, which divides each of them without 
 leaving a remainder. Thus a yard and a furlong are com- 
 mensurable magnitudes, because a foot is a measure or 
 aliquot part of each of them, being contained in the yard 
 three times, and in the furlong 660 times. Fractional num- 
 bers and surds are also said to be commensurable when 
 they have a common measure of the same kind as them- 
 selves. Thus § and f are commensurable, being each di- 
 visible by }& ; and so are 2\/2 and 3 \/ 2, being each mea- 
 sured by v"2 
 
 CO'MMENTARY. (Derived from the Latin verb com- 
 miniscor, I call to mind.) In Literature, a word used in 
 different significations : — 1. ,In the same sense with me- 
 moirs, as a short narrative of particular events and occur- 
 rences, composed by an actor or spectator of those events 
 with the professed object of calling back the circumstan- 
 ces to his own mind ; e. g. the Commentaries of C»sar. 
 2. Critical observations on the text or contents of a book. 
 These are either in the form of detached notes, containing 
 remarks on particular passages ; or they are embodied in 
 what is termed a running commentary, or series of re- 
 marks written and printed in a connected form. 
 
 CO'MMERCE (from commutatio mercium), is the ex- 
 change of one sort of produce or service for some other 
 sort of produce or service. 
 
 Exchanges of this description have their rise in the na- 
 ture of man and the circumstances under which he is 
 placed, and their origin is coeval with the formation of so- 
 ciety. The varying powers and dispositions of different 
 individuals dispose them to engage in preference in par- 
 ticular occupations; and in the end every one finds it for 
 his advantage to confine himself wholly or principally to 
 some one employment, and to barter or exchange such 
 portions of his produce as exceed his own demand, for 
 such portions of the peculiar produce of others as he is 
 desirous to obtain and they are disposed to part with. 
 The division and combination of employments is carried 
 to some extsnt in the rudest societies, and it is carried to 
 a very great extent in those that are most improved ; but 
 to whatever extent it may be carried, commerce must be 
 iqually advanced. The division of employments could 
 not exist without commerce, nor commerce without the di- 
 vision of employments : they mutually act and react upon 
 each other. Every new subdivision of employments oc- 
 casions a greater extension of commerce ; "and the latter 
 cannot be extended without contributing to the better di- 
 vision and combination of the former. 
 
 In rude societies, the principal business of commerce, or 
 the exchange of one sort of commodities for some other 
 sort, is carried on by those who produce them. Individu- 
 als having more of any article than is required for their 
 i)wn use endeavour to find out others in want of it, and who 
 256 
 
 COMMERCE. 
 
 at the same time possess something that they would tile* 
 to have. But the difficulties and inconveniences insepar 
 able from a commercial intercourse carried on in this way 
 are so obvious as hardly to require being pointed out. 
 Were there no merchants or dealers, a farmer, for ex- 
 ample, who had a quantity of wheat or wool to dispose of, 
 would be obliged to seek out those who wanted these com- 
 modities, and to sell them in such portions as might suit 
 them ; and having done this, he would next be forced to 
 send to, perhaps, twenty different and distant places, be- 
 fore he succeeded in supplying himself with the various 
 articles he might wish to buy. His attention would thus be 
 perpetually diverted from the business of his farm ; and 
 while the difficulty of exchanging his own produce for that 
 of others would prevent him from acquiring a taste for im- 
 proved accommodations, it would tempt him to endea- 
 vour to supply most things that were essential by his own 
 labour and that of his family ; so that the division of em- 
 ployments would be confined within the narrowest limits. 
 The wish to obviate such inconveniences has given rise to 
 a distinct mercantile class. Without employing themselves 
 in any sort of production, merchants or dealers render the 
 greatest assistance to the producers ; they collect and dis- 
 tribute all sorts of commodities they buy of the farmers 
 and manufacturers the things they have to sell; and bring- 
 ing together every variety of useful and desirable articles 
 in shops and warehouses, individuals are able, without 
 difficulty or loss of time, to supply themselves with whatever 
 they want. Continuity is in consequence given to all the 
 operations of industry ; for, as every one knows before- 
 hand where he may dispose to the best advantage of all 
 that he has to sell, and obtain all that he wishes to buy, an 
 uninterrupted motion is given to the plough and the loom. 
 Satisfied that they will have no difficulty about finding mer- 
 chants for their produce, agriculturists and manufacturers 
 think only how they may improve and perfect their respec- 
 tive businesses. Their attention, no longer dissipated upon 
 a variety of objects, is fixed upon one only. It becomes 
 the object of every individual to find out machines and 
 processes for facilitating the separate task in which he 
 is engaged ; and while the progress of invention is thus im- 
 measurably accelerated, those who carry on particular bu- 
 sinesses acquire that peculiar dexterity and sleight of hand 
 so astonishing to those who live in places where the divi- 
 sion of labour is but imperfectly established. Facility of 
 exchange is, in truth, the vivifying principle, the very soul 
 of industry ; and no interruption is evergiven to it without 
 producing the most ruinous consequences. 
 
 The merchants, or dealers, collect their goods in differ- 
 ent places in the least expensive manner; and by carryinj 
 them in large quantities at a time they can afford to sup- 
 ply their customers at a cheaper rate than the latter could 
 supply themselves. Not only, therefore, do they, by en- 
 abling every employment to be carried on without interrup- 
 tion, and the divisions of labour to be perfected, add pro- 
 digiously to the powers of industry, and, by consequence, 
 to the wealth of the community, but they also promote the 
 convenience of every one, and reduce the cost of mer- 
 chandising to the lowest limit. According as commerce 
 is extended, each particular business becomes better un- 
 derstood, better cultivated, and carried on in the best and 
 cheapest method: where it is far advanced, the whole soci- 
 ety is firmly linked together; every man is indebted to every 
 other man for a portion of his necessaries, conveniences, 
 and enjoyments ; every thing is mutual, and reciprocal ; 
 and a large country becomes in effect, from the intimate 
 correspondence kept up through the medium of the mer- 
 cantile class, like a large city. 
 
 The annihilation of the class of traders would deprive 
 society of all these advantages. The difficulties that would 
 then be experienced in selling and buying would oblige 
 every one to attempt, in so far as possible, directly to sup- 
 ply his own wants ; the division of employments would be 
 contracted on all sides, and Great Britain would gradually 
 relapse into a state little, if at all, superior to its state at the 
 Norman conque«t. 
 
 The celebrated Italian economist, the Count di Verri.has 
 defined commerce to be the conveyance of commodities 
 from place to place (transporto delle mercanzie da un luogc 
 a luogo). This definition has been adopted by M Say, who 
 contends that commerce does not consist in exchanges, but 
 in bringing commodities within reach of the consumer! 
 (i7 consist e essenliellement a placer unproduit. a laportee di 
 ses consommateurs). But this is plainly to confound the 
 means with the end ; the preparations for an exchange with 
 the exchange itself. The conveyance of commoditiea 
 from place to place is necessary to enable commerce 
 to be carried on ; but unless they be conveyed in the 
 view of being sold or exchanged for other commodi 
 ties, and unless that exchange actually take place, there 
 is no room or ground for considering the conveyance 
 in the light of a commercial operation. It is obvious, 
 too, that though the Count di Verri's definition were 
 not erroneous in this respect, it is not sufficiently compre 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 pensive. Suppose that a hat manufactory is establish- 
 ed in Regent street, and that a shop is attached to it, 
 where the hats are sold ; no one doubts that those employ- 
 ed in tins shop are engaged in a commercial undertaking, 
 and yet they have nothing to do with the carriage of com- 
 modities. Whatever, therefore, may be the particular sort 
 of commerce carried on, whether the commodities have 
 been brought from a distance or produced on the spot, it3 
 object and end is an exchange ; when this end is not at- 
 tained, no act of commerce can be said to have taken 
 
 roneous definition of commerce which M. Say 
 baa adopted has hindered him from rightly appreciating 
 its influence. " In commerce," says he, "there is a ge- 
 nuine production, because there Is a modification produc- 
 tive of utility and value. The merchant, after buying a 
 commodity at Its current price, sells it asain at its current 
 price; but the last price is greater than the former, be- 
 cause the merchant has brought the commodity into a sit- 
 uation which has really augmented its price, and the soci- 
 ety la enriched by this augmentation " (Coura d'Econo- 
 mie Politi'/ue, t. ii. p. 213.) llut though this be true, it is 
 not the whole truth, nor even the greater part of it. Sup- 
 pose that a hat maker and a shoe-maker live in contiguous 
 houses ; if the one exchange his hats for the other's shoes 
 society will not certainly gain much by the change in the 
 locality of the commodities, but it will notwithstanding be 
 materially benefitted by the transaction ; for, in conse- 
 quence of the exchange, each tradesman will be able to 
 confine himself to his own business : the hatmaker will 
 not be obliged to waste his time in clumsy attempts to 
 make his own shoes, nor will the shoe-maker he compelled 
 to make his own hat. It is in this that the jteculiar advan- 
 ;" commerce consists. What an individual gives for 
 anything is, speaking generally, the fair equivalent of what 
 ■ i-ility of exchanging allows every one, 
 y seen, to apply bis entire time and en- 
 me one department ; and in this way occasions 
 the production of an incomparably greater quantity of all 
 sorts of wealth than it would otherwise be possible to pro- 
 due. 
 
 The mercantile class has been divided into two leading 
 —the wholesale dealers and the retail dealer* 
 . like the divisions in other employments, has 
 grown oot of a sense of its utility. The wholesale mer- 
 chants buy the goods at first hand of the producers; but 
 1 of disposing of them to the consumers, they gene- 
 rally sell them to the retailers or shopkeepers, by whom 
 re retailed or distributed to the public in such quan- 
 •nd in such a way as is most suitable for them. The 
 interest of all parties is consulted by this division. Had 
 the wholesale dealers attempted also to retail their goods, 
 they could not have given that undivided attention to any 
 ;' their business so necessary to ensure its success. 
 A. retailer should be constantly at his shop; not merely 
 that he may attend to the orders daily sent to him, but that 
 he may learn all that transpires with respect to the situa- 
 tion of his customers, their wants, and their circumstances. 
 Hot wholesale dealer! being obliged to attend to what is 
 going on in different and distant quarters, cannot give this 
 minute attention to what happens in their immediate vi- 
 cinity ; and though they could, the capital required to 
 carry on a wholesale business would not be sufficient, for 
 that purpose, were the business of retailing joined to it 
 Were there only one class of merchants, the capital and 
 the number of individuals employed in commercial under- 
 takings would not probably be less than at present; but 
 the merchant, being obliged to apply himself principally to 
 one department, would have to leave the chief share of the 
 other to servants ; a change which, as every one knows, 
 would be productive of the most mischievous conse- 
 quences. 
 
 There can, therefore, be no doubt that the separation in 
 question has been highly advantageous. The classes of 
 merchants, like those of artificers, are mutually service- 
 able to each other and to the public. Without this subdi- 
 vision, commerce would have been impeded in its opera- 
 tions; particular branches of it would have been compara- 
 tively neglected ; nor would any branch have been carried 
 en with the same economy and attention with which all 
 are now conducted. 
 
 In a highly civilized country like Great Britain, the trade 
 In every commodity in considerable demand, as corn 
 sugar, tea, timber, &c, affords employment for a separate 
 class of traders. But for all purposes of general inquiry, 
 it is sufficient to consider commerce under three heads' 
 viz. : — 1. The Home trade, or that carried on between in- 
 dividuals of the same country ; 2. Foreign trade, or that 
 carried on between individuals of different countries; and 
 3. The Colony trade, or that carried on between the in- 
 habitants of any particular country and its colonists. We 
 subjoin a few remarks upon each of these heads. 
 
 I. Home Tirade. — It has been already seen that the vary, 
 lag capacities and dispositions of different individuals oe- 
 257 
 
 casion the introduction of a division of employments, ana 
 the practice of exchange or barter. But the externa} cir- 
 cumstances under which different individuals are placed 
 vary still more than their natural powers or tastes One 
 set inhabit a rich fertile plain, suitable for the growth of 
 corn and other culmiferous crops. Another set inhabit a 
 mountainous district, the soil of which is comparatively 
 sterile, but which is well fitted for rearing cattle ; another 
 set are planted upon the margin of a river, or arm of the 
 sea, abounding in every facility for carrying on the busi- 
 ness of fishing ; and so on. Now it is so obvious, that 
 though the individuals belonging to any particular district 
 had not established a division of labour amongst themselves, 
 it would be highly for their advantage to establish one with 
 those occupying other districts, the productions of which 
 are materially different. When the inhabitants of New- 
 castle (Eng.) apply themselves principally to the coal 
 trade, those of Essex to the raising of wheat, and those of 
 the highlands of Scotland to the raising of cattle and wool, 
 each set avail themselves, in carrying on their employ- 
 merits, of the peculiar powers of production conferred by 
 Providence on the districts they occupy ; and by axchang 
 ing such portions of their produce as exceed their own 
 consumption, for the surplus articles raised by others, iheii 
 wealth and that of every one else, is Immeasurably inci 
 ed. It is in this territorial division of labour, as it has been 
 happily designated by Colonel Torrens, that the main ad- 
 vantage of commerce consists. In commercial countries. 
 each individual may not only enter at pleasure, on such 
 pursuits as he deems most advantageous, but the entire 
 population of districts and provinces are enabled to turn 
 their energies into those channels in which they are sure 
 to receive the greatest assistance from natural powers. 
 Suppose England were divided into separate parishes, or 
 even counties, surrounded respectively by Bishop Ilerke- 
 ley's wall of brass, and having no Intercourse with each 
 other, in what a miserable situation would they be ! In- 
 stead of 1,500,000, London could not under such circum- 
 stances contain 15,000 inhabitants ; and these would be 
 exposed to numberless privationsof which we have not the 
 slightest idea. Unless the territorial division of labour 
 were carried to some extent, the division of employments 
 amongst individuals occupying the same district, could he 
 but very imperfectly established, and would be of eompa- 
 ratively little use. It is only when one is able both togmtl 
 fy his taste and to avail himself of the varying capacities 
 of production given to different districts that the benefits 
 of commerce can be fully appreciated, and that it bet omen 
 the most copious source ol wealth as well as the most 
 powerful engine of civilisation. 
 
 " With the benefits of commerce," says an eloquent 
 writer, "or a ready exchange of commodities, every Indi 
 vidual is enabled to avail himself to the utmost of the pe- 
 culiar advantage oC his place; to work on the peculiar ma- 
 terials with which nature has furnished him ; to humour 
 his genius or disposition, and betake himself to the task in 
 which he is peculiarly qualified to succeed. The inhabit- 
 ant of the mountain may betake himself to the culture of 
 his woods, and the manufacture of his timber, the owner 
 of pasture lands may betake himself to the care of his 
 herds; the owner of the clay pit to the manufacture of his 
 pottery ; and the husbandman to the culture of his fields, 
 or the rearing of his cattle ; and any one commodity 
 however it may form but a small part in the whole accom- 
 modations of human life, may, under the facilities of com- 
 merce, find a market in which it may be exchanged foi 
 what will procure any other part, or the whole ; go that the 
 owner of the clay pit, or the industrious potter, without 
 producing any one article immediately fit to supply his 
 own necessities, may obtain the possession of all that he 
 wants. And commerce, in which it appears that, com- 
 modities are merely exchanged, and nothing produced, is 
 nevertheless, in its effects, very productive ; because it, 
 ministers an encouragement and facility to every artist in 
 multiplying the productions of his own art, thus adding 
 greatly to the mass of wealth in the world, in being the oc- 
 casion that much is produced." — (Ferguson's Principles of 
 Moral and Political Science, vol. ii. p. 424.) 
 
 II. Foreign Trade. — The trade carried on between indi- 
 viduals of different countries is founded on precisely the 
 same circumstances — the difference of soil, climate, and 
 productions, on which is founded the trade between differ 
 ent districts of the same country. One country, like one 
 district, is peculiarly fitted for the growth of corn ; another 
 for the cultivation of the grape ; a third abounds in mine 
 rals ; a fourth has inexhaustible forests ; and so forth :- - 
 
 Hie legetes, IllicTeniunt felicius uvs, 
 
 Arborei fetm alibi, atque tnjussa vireacunt 
 
 Graminii. Nonne Tides, croceoi tit Tmolui odoraa 
 
 India mittit ebur, molle» tua thura Sabfel } 
 
 AtChalyhes nudi ferrum, virosaque Pontm 
 
 C'astorea, Eliadum palmas Epiros equarum? 
 
 Continuo has leges sternaque fcdera certis 
 
 ImiKHuimatiira locis. — Gear. lib. i. tin. 51 
 
 Providence, by thus distributing the various articles suit 
 R 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 able lor the accommodation and comfort of man in differ- 
 ent countries, has evidently provided for their mutual in- 
 tercourse. In this respect, indeed, foreign trade is of far 
 more importance than the home trade. There is infinitely 
 less difference between the products of the various districts 
 of the most extensive country, than there is between the 
 products of different and distant countries; and the estab- 
 lishment of a territorial division of labour amongst the 
 latter must therefore be proportionally advantageous. 
 
 " As the same country is rendered richer ty the trade of 
 one province with another; as its labour becomes thus 
 infinitely more divided, and more productive than it could 
 otherwise have been; and as the mutual interchange of all 
 those commodities which one province has and another 
 wants multiplies the comforts and accommodation of the 
 whole, and the country becomes thus, in a wonderful de- 
 gree, more opulent and more happy ; so the same beau- 
 tiful train of consequences is observable in the world at 
 large, — that vast empire, of which the different kingdoms 
 may be regarded as the provinces. In this magnificent 
 empire, one province is favourable to the production of one 
 species of produce, and another province to another. By 
 their mutual intercourse, mankind are enabled to distribute 
 their labour as best fits the genius of each particular coun- 
 try and people. The industry of the whole is thus render- 
 ed incomparably more productive ; and every species of 
 necessary, useful and agreeable accommodation is ob- 
 tained in much greater abundance and with infinitely less 
 expense." — (.Mills's Commerce Defended,p. 38.) 
 
 But to enable the advantages of foreign commerce to be 
 rightly appreciated, it will be proper to consider it under 
 the following heads : — viz. 1. Its influence in supplying us 
 with useful and desirable articles, of which we should 
 otherwise be wholly destitute ; 2. Its influence in multiply- 
 ing and cheapening the peculiar productions of our own 
 country ; 3. Its influence in making us acquainted with 
 foreign discoveries and inventions, and in exciting inven- 
 tion by means of competition and example ; and, 4. Its in- 
 direct influence upon industry, by increasing the sources 
 of enjoyment. 
 
 1. With respect to the first of these influences, or the 
 effect of commerce in furnishing every people with com- 
 modities not otherwise attainable, it is too obvious and 
 striking tc require any lengthened illustrations. Great 
 Britain is as abundantly supplied with native products as 
 most countries ; and yet any one who reflects for a moment 
 on the nature and variety of the articles we import from 
 abroad, must be satisfied that we are indebted to trade for 
 a very large part of our superior accommodations. Tea, 
 sugar, coffee, wine, and spices ; silk and cotton, the mate- 
 rials of our most extensive manufactures ; gold and silver ; 
 and an endless variety of other highly important articles, 
 are sent to us by foreigners. And were the importation 
 put an end to, what a prodigious deduction would be made, 
 not from our comforts and enjoyments merely, but also 
 from our means of supporting and employing labourers ! 
 If foreign commerce did nothing more than supply us with 
 so many new products, it would be very difficult to over- 
 rate its value and importance. 
 
 2. But such is the beneficent influence of commerce, 
 that while it supplies an endless variety of new produc- 
 tions, it multiplies and cheapens those that are peculiar to 
 every country. It does this, by enabling each separate 
 people to employ themselves, in preference, in those de- 
 partments in which they enjoy some natural or acquired 
 advantage, and by opening the markets of the world to 
 their productions. When the demand for a commodity is 
 confined to-a particular country, as soon as it is supplied 
 improvement is at a stand. The subdivision and combina- 
 tion of employments is. in fact, always dependent upon 
 and regulated by the extent of the market. Dr. Smith has 
 shown, that by making a proper distribution of labour 
 among ten workmen, in a pin manufactory, 48,000 pins 
 might be produced in a day ; and since his time the num- 
 ber has been nearly doubled. But had the demand not been 
 sufficient to take off this quantity of pins, the divisions and 
 improvements in question could not have been made ; and 
 the price of pins would in consequence have been com- 
 paratively high. This principle holds universally. The 
 most important manufacture carried on in Great Britain — 
 that of cotton — is entirely the result of commerce. Sup- 
 posing, however, that cotton wool had been a native pro- 
 duct, we could never have made such astonishing advances 
 in the manufacture had we been denied access to foreign 
 markets. Notwithstanding the splendid discoveries in tha 
 machinery, and the perfection to which every department 
 of the trade has been brought, the vast extent of 'he market 
 has prevented its being giulted, and has simulated o>'.r I 
 manufacturers and artizans to persevere with Unabated ar- i 
 dour in the career of improvement. Our cotton «niils It'.ve I 
 been constructed, not that they might supply the Minif.j I 
 demand of Great Britain, but thtM thiy thigh*, isupp); the i 
 demand of the whole world. And in c^r.iequepes; of '.iie J 
 extraordinary subdivision of labour, and the scope "wen 'j \ 
 
 258 
 
 the employment and improvement oi machinery by ttie 
 unlimited extent of the market, the price of cotfons has 
 been reduced to less, probably, than a fourth part of what 
 it would have been had they met with no (fuilet in foreign 
 countries. The hardware, woollen, leather, and oilier 
 manufactures, exhibit similar results. The access their 
 products have had to other markets has led to important 
 improvements in their production ; so that, as was previ- 
 ously stated, commerce not only supplies us with avast va- 
 riety of new and desirable articles, but it also cheapens the 
 staple productions of the country, and renders them more 
 easily attainable by the great mass of people. 
 
 3. The influence of commerce in making the people of 
 each country acquainted with foreign inventions and dis- 
 coveries, and in stimulating ingenuity by bringing them into 
 competition with strangers, is obvious and powerful. It 
 distribules the gifts of science and art, as well as those of 
 nature. It is the great engine by which the blessings of 
 civilization are diffused throughout the world, the inter- 
 course to which it gives rise making every one acquainted 
 with the processes carried on and the inventions made in 
 the remotest corners of the globe. Were any consider- 
 able improvement made in any important art either in Chi- 
 na or Peru, it would be very speedily understood and prac- 
 tised in England. It is no longer possible to monopolize 
 an invention. The intimate communication that now ex- 
 ists amongst nations renders any important discovery, 
 wherever it may be made, a common benefit. The inge- 
 nious machine invented by Mr. Eli Whitney, of the United 
 States, for separating cotton wool from the pod, has been 
 quite as advantageous to the English as to the Americans ; 
 and the inventions of Watt and Arkwright have added to 
 the comforts of the inhabitants of Siberia and Brazil, as 
 well as of England. The genuine commercial spirit is 
 destructive of all sorts of monopolies. It enables every 
 separate country to profit by the peculiar natural powers 
 and acquired skill of all the others ; while, on the other 
 hand, it communicates to them whatever advantages it 
 may enjoy. Every nation is thus intimately associated 
 with its neighbours. Their products, their arts, and their 
 sciences, are reciprocally communicated ; and the emula- 
 tion that is thus excited and kept up, forces routine to give 
 place to invention, and inspires every people with zeal to 
 undertake, and perseverance to overcome, the most for 
 midable tasks. It is not possible to form any accurate no- 
 tions as to what would have been our state at this moment 
 had we been confined within our own little world, and de 
 prived of all intercourse with foreigners. We know, how 
 ever, that the most important arts, such as printing, glass 
 making, paper-making, &c, have been imported Iron? 
 abroad. No doubt we might have invented some of thes» 
 ourselves ; but there is not the shadow of a ground lo 
 supposing that we should have invented them all ; an* 
 without foreign example and competition, we could hardl; 
 have carried any of them beyond the merest rudiments. 
 
 4. The influence of commerce upon industry, by its ir 
 creasing the number of desirable articles, though not quit< 
 so obvious, perhaps, as the influences already specified, ii 
 not less powerful and salutary. Industry is in no resper. 
 different from the other virtues, and it were idle to expec" 
 it' should be strongly manifested where it does not brir./ 
 along with it a corresponding reward. In the early stage-. 
 of society, before artificial wants have been introduced, an* 
 men are satisfied if they can avert the attacks of hunger, 
 and procure an inadequate defence against the cold, in 
 dustry is confined within the narrowest limits ; and pro 
 vided the mildness of the climate renders clothing an? 
 lodging of little importance, and the earth spontaneously 
 pours forth an abundant supply of fruits, the inhabilar.ti. 
 are immersed in sloth, and seem to place their highest en 
 joyment in being free from occupation. Sir William 
 Temple, Mr. Hume, and some other sagacious inquirers 
 into the progress of society, have been struck with thii 
 circumstar.ee, and have justly remarked that those nation! 
 that have laboured under the greatest national disadvuu 
 tages have made the most rapid advances in industry. 
 
 Eut in civilized and commercial societies, new products 
 and new modes of enjoyment, brought from abroad, or 
 invented at Uome, stimulate the inhabitants to com inued 
 exertions. Their acquired tastes and the wants which 
 civilization introduces, and custom and cxarcpie render 
 universal, become infinitely more numerous, a^.ii as or 
 gent as the tastes or w&nts of those that are l":>s advanced. 
 The passion for luxuries, conveniences, ?.id er.joymenis 
 wher. once excited, becomes quite i'llimUaKe. Tie gr;ui- 
 fication of one desire leads immediately to the formation 
 ofwother. "Tho natural flights of the human mind arc 
 not froro pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope." 
 The happiness of a civilised nation is no', placed in indu- 
 ien'.e prep.joycafl-.it, hu'. in con'.inued eiertion ; in devising 
 Kew contrivances '.o <-.ve:cocie new difficulties ■ in extend 
 ip^ stCl f'-.rtrrsr 'up jo'-n^aries of science, and increasing 
 their com rnar.d iv.i' '.i.x'jries and enjoyments. The re- 
 Eiart of th;: '.dI-j UaUy is as true as it is forciblv ex- 
 
COMMERC-. 
 
 pressed : — " X'est on que riche ? On veut ctre grand. 
 A* est on que grand? (Jn veut itre riche. Est on et riclie 
 et grand 7 On veut etreplus riche et plus grand encore." 
 ((Euvres, t. iv. p. 76.) 
 
 Without commerce this progress would never be real- 
 ized. The commodities possessed by particular nations 
 are but few, and may be obtained with comparatively little 
 labour. Generally speaking, a man may easily supply 
 himself with corn, cloth, and beer ; and if the utmost ex- 
 ertions of ingenuity and the most laborious efforts of in- 
 dustry could only furnish additional quantities of those ar- 
 ticles, they would very soon cease to be made. Men do 
 not practise industry and economy for their own sakes, but 
 for the advantages that result from them ; and the more, 
 consequently, that these advantages are multiplied, that is, 
 the greater the variety of wants they are made to supply, 
 and of gratifications they are made to command, the greater 
 will be Hie energy displayed in their prosecution. "iLe 
 travail de la fuim," as Raynal has well observed, "et tou- 
 jour* borne comrne elle ; mais le travail de Vambition croit 
 avfc ce vice (vertuj) mime." 
 
 And hence the true way to render a people industrious 
 is to endeavour to inspire' them with a taste for the luxu- 
 ries and enjoyments of civilized life ; and this will be al- 
 ways most easily done by giving every facility to the culti- 
 vation of foreign commerce. The numberof new articles, 
 or, in other words, of new motives to stimulate, and new 
 products with which to reward the patient hand of indus- 
 try, is then prodigiously augmented. The home producers 
 exert themselves to increase their supplies of disposable 
 articles, that they may exchange them for those of other 
 countries and climates ; and the merchant, finding a ready 
 demand for such articles, is stimulated to import a greater 
 variety, to find out cheaper markets, and thus constantly 
 to apply new incentives to the vanity and ambition, and 
 consequently to the industry of his customers. Every 
 power of the mind and body is thus called into action ; 
 and the passion for foreign commodities— a passion which 
 some shallow moralists have ignorantly censured — be- 
 comes one of the most efficient causes of industry, wealth, 
 ami civilization. 
 
 IV. Colony Trade. — For some remarks on this head, the 
 i-i referred to the article Colonies. 
 
 Principle and Influence of lleslrii lions on Commerce. — 
 Tiie commercial intercourse carried on between the inhab- 
 of different districts of the same country, and those 
 nf different countries, is founded on the principle which 
 prompts each member of the same family, or each inhab- 
 itant of the same village, to apply himself to some one busi- 
 lt would therefore seem that that freedom of com- 
 merce which is universally admitted to be productive of the 
 most beneficial consequences when established between 
 the occupants of different districts of the same country must 
 ,ually beneficial when established between those of 
 different countries. It appears to be generally believed, 
 that to occasion a commercial intercourse, nothing more is 
 necessary than to remove such legal or physical obstacles 
 as may interpose to prevent it. But this is not by any 
 means enough. A of Yorkshire does not sell to or buy 
 from B of Kent, merely because there is nothing to hinder 
 him from doing so ; he must further believe that his interest 
 will be promoted by the transaction : unless he do this, the 
 utmost facility of ex '.hanging will be offered to him in vain; 
 nor will the finest roads or the speediest conveyances oc- 
 casion the least intercourse. We neither buy nor sell for 
 the mere pleasure of the thing. We do so only when we 
 believe it will be a means of promoting some end, of pro- 
 curing some peculiar advantage for ourselves, that we could 
 not so easily procure in any other way. If any one sup- 
 posed he could better attain his object in entering upon a 
 commercial transaction with some particular individual by 
 entering upon a similar transaction with some one else, or 
 by any other means, he would most certainly decline en- 
 gaging in it. We may, and often do, make a false estimate 
 of what is for our advantage ; but its promotion is the main- 
 spring of our actions; and it is it, and it only, that we have 
 in view when we buy of a particular individual, or resort to 
 a particular market, in preference to others. 
 
 Unless therefore it could be satisfactorily established that 
 princes and rulers have a better understanding of what has 
 a tendency to promote the wealth and industry of their 
 subjects than themselves, it is difficult to see on what ground 
 any restriction on the freedom of commerce is to be vindi- 
 cated. The person who buys French wine or Polish corn, 
 does so only that he may benefit himself; and the fair pre- 
 ranptSon is that he does what is right. Human reason is, 
 no doubt, limited and fallible ; we are often swayed by pre- 
 judice, and are apt to be deceived by appearances. Still, 
 however, it is certain that the desire to promote our own 
 purposes contributes far more than any thing else to ren- 
 der us clear-sighted and sagacious. " Nul sentiment dans 
 Vhomme," says M. Bav, " ne tienl son intelligence evtillce 
 aiifa.nl que lint* ret personnel. 11 donne de V esprit aux plan 
 simp'r.s.'' 'I he principle, that individuals are, speaking 
 
 generally, the best judges of what is most beneficial foi 
 
 themselves, is universally admitted to be the only one that 
 can be safely acted upon. No writer of authority has lat- 
 terly ventured to maintain the exploded and untenable doc- 
 trine, that governments may advantageously interfere to 
 regulate the pursuits of their subjects. It is their duty to 
 preserve order, to prevent one from injuring another ; to 
 maintain, in short, the equal rights and privileges of all. 
 But It is not possible for them to go one step further, with- 
 out receding from the principle of non-interference, and 
 laying themselves open to the charge of acting partially by 
 some, and unjustly by others. 
 
 The statesman," says Dr. Smith, "who should attempt 
 to direct private people In what manner they ought to em- 
 ploy their capitals, would not only load himself with a most 
 unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could 
 safely be trusted not only to no single person, but to no coun- 
 cil or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so 
 dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and 
 presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it." 
 (Wealth of Nations, p. 200.) 
 
 In every discussion as to any point ci public economy ? it 
 is essential to bear in mind that the legislature abandons its 
 duty, or rather acts in direct opposition to it, the moment it 
 begins to legislate in the view of promoting the interest of 
 particular classes. Thequestion neverought to be, whether 
 any proposed measure or regulation has a tendency to 
 benefit agriculturists, manufacturers, or merchants ; but 
 whether its tendency be to benefit the public. Certain in- 
 dividuals or classes may be benefitted by what is prejudicial 
 to others ; but it would be a contradiction to contend that 
 a system of policy which enriches A by impoverishing B 
 can be publicly advantageous ; and it is upon this latter 
 consideration that the attention of the legislature should 
 always be fixed. Whatever has any tendency to increase 
 the security of property, to perfect the divisions of labour, 
 to stimulate industry and ingenuity, and to increase the 
 wealth and comforts of all classes, deserves the encourage- 
 ment of government. But when it goes further, and inter- 
 feres to prohibit individuals from carrying on certain 
 branches of trade that others may be promoted, it arro- 
 gates to itself that authority the assumption of which is so 
 justly censured by Smith. Such prohibition is, in fact, 
 quite subversive of the right of private property ; for thai 
 right is violated, not merely when a man is unjustly de- 
 prived of any part of his fortune, but also when he is pre- 
 vented from disposing of it in any way, not hurtful to others, 
 he may think fit. 
 
 It does not therefore appear, considering this question on 
 general grounds, that there is so much as the shadow of a 
 foundation for those commercial restrictions that make so 
 prominent a figure in the policy of all modern nations. If 
 it could be shown that statesmen and ministers were the 
 beef ledges of the means by which those subject to their 
 authority might improve their condition, the case would be 
 different But no such pretension is set up, and, if it were, 
 it would be universally scouted. We may safely leave the 
 conduct of individuals to be determined by their own pru- 
 dence and sagacity. They act under the most serious re- 
 sponsibility ; and we have the best attainable security, the 
 plain and obvious interest of the parlies, that they will, i:i 
 the peculiar circumstances under which they are placed, 
 follow that course which is most advantageous for them- 
 selves, or, in other words, for the community. All systems 
 of policy that would regulate the pursuits of private persons 
 according to the views of government must be arbitrary 
 and violent in their nature, and any attempt to act upon 
 them could not fail to be productive of the most mischiev- 
 ous consequences. A wise government will confine its 
 efforts to the maintenance of that order of things which 
 nature has established. It will not mix itself up with the 
 affairs of its subjects, but will leave them to pursue their 
 own interest in their own way ; to bring their industry and 
 capital into the freest competition with those of others ; and 
 will interpose only when they swerve from the rules of jus- 
 tice. Freedom and security are all that is ne< 
 stimulate industry, and to insure the most rapid advance- 
 ment in the career of improvement. 
 
 We cannot, however, feel any surprise that the*e prin 
 ciples should have been so widely departed from, and that 
 commerce, and indeed most sorts of industry, should be ev 
 erywhere subjected to restrictions and regulations. They 
 originated in a comparatively unenlightened age, before the 
 genuine sources of public wealth and the limits of proper 
 interference on the part of governments had been explored 
 and defined. The fallacies on which most of them are 
 founded, however obvious they may now seem, were not 
 speedily or easily detected ; and, after their hollowness has 
 been exposed, the return to a better system is the work of 
 extreme difficulty. Every regulation affecting the employ- 
 ment of capital and industry, though always injurious to 
 the public, is, for the most part, productive of advantage to 
 a greater or smaller number of individuals. The moment 
 that any change is proposed, these persons lay before gov- 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 rwnent the most exaggerated representations of the in- 
 juiy that would result from the abolition or modification of 
 Jie regulation ; and not satisfied with this, they most com- 
 monly enlist a portion of the press into their service, and 
 availing themselves of all the aid that sophistry and inge- 
 nuity can supply, labour to make the public believe that 
 the regulation complained of is a national benefit, and that 
 they are interested in its support! This device has very 
 often been attended with the most complete success ; and 
 it is to this circumstance, more than any thing else, that 
 the tenacity with which erroneous theories in commerce 
 are supported is to be ascribed, and that sophisms, that 
 have been again and again exposed, are put forward anew 
 with as much seeming confidence as if they had never been 
 questioned. 
 
 All the great branches of industry carried on in every 
 country depend on peculiarities of soil or climate, or on the 
 genius of the people, and not on custom-house regulations. 
 What should we have to fear from the abolition of all pro- 
 hibitions'? We export the produce of every one of our 
 principal manufactures, as cotton, wool, iron, leather, &c, 
 to every market in the world ; fo that the possibility of our 
 being injured by the admission of similar articles from 
 abroad is quite out of the question. Admitting, however, 
 that the abandonment of the protective system might, force 
 a few thousand workmen to abandon their employments, 
 it is material to observe that equivalent new ones would, in 
 consequence, be opened to receive them, and that the 
 aggregate demand for their services would not be in any 
 degree diminished. Suppose that, under a system of free 
 trade, we imported a part of the silks and linens we now 
 manufacture at home ; it is quite clear, inasmuch as neither 
 the French nor Germans would send us their commodities 
 gratis, that we should have to give them an equal amount 
 of British commodities in exchange , so that such of our 
 artificers as had been engaged in the silk and linen manu- 
 factures, and were thrown out of them, would, in future, 
 obtain employment in the production of the articles that 
 must be exported as equivalents to the foreigner. It is idle, 
 therefore, to pretend that the repeal or modification of a 
 restrictive regulation can ever be a means of diminishing 
 the demand for labour. We may, by giving additional free- 
 dom to commerce, change the species of labour in demand, 
 and make it be employed more profitably, but we cannot 
 lessen its quantity. Should our imports this year amount 
 to ten or twenty millions more than they did last year, we 
 shall, it is certain, have to pay them by exporting an equally 
 increased amount of our peculiar products. And there- 
 fore if exportation be desirable, and the most ardent ad- 
 mirers of the restrictive system admit it to be such, impor- 
 tation must also be desirable, for the two are indissolubly 
 connected ; and to separate them, even in imagination, in- 
 fers a total ignorance of the most obvious principles. Com- 
 merce, whether carried on between individuals of the 
 same or of different countries, is founded on a fair princi- 
 ple 01 reciprocity ; buying and selling are in it what action 
 and reaction are in physics, equal and contrary. Those 
 who will not buy from others render it impossible for 
 others to buy from them. Every sale implies an equal 
 purchase, and every purchase an equal sale. Hence to 
 prohibit buying is exactly the same thing, in effect, as to pro- 
 hibit selling. No merchant would ever export a single bale 
 of goods were he prevented from importing a greater value 
 in its stead. But it is impossible he can do this if foreign 
 commodities be excluded. In whatever degree, therefore, 
 an unrestricted trade might lead us to receive commodities 
 from other countries, in the same degree it would render 
 them customers for our commodities, would promote our 
 manufactures, and extend our trade. To suppose that 
 commerce may be too free, is to suppose that labour may 
 be turned into too productive channels, that the objects of 
 demand may be too much multiplied and their price too 
 much reduced ; it is like supposing that our agriculture 
 may be too much improved, and our crops rendered too 
 luxuriant. 
 
 It is often affirmed, thoush we believe without the least 
 foundation for the statement, that had it not been for re- 
 strictions on importation, several manufactures that now 
 furnish employment for a considerable population would 
 most probably never have existed amongst us. But sup- 
 posing this statement to be admitted, it would not form any 
 valid objection to the principle now laid down. It is quite 
 as much for the advantage of communities as of single fa- 
 milies to respect the principle of the division of labour. 
 The interests of every people will always be best promoted 
 by addicting themselves, in preference, to those branches 
 of industry in which they have a superiority over others; 
 for it is by this means only they can ever fully avail them- 
 selves of their peculiar facilities of production, or employ 
 themselves and their capital most beneficially. 
 
 When importation from abroad is restricted, that some 
 new or incipient manufacture may be promoted, govern- 
 ment assumes, though perhaps unconsciously, that it 
 knows better than its subjects what is the most profitable 
 260 
 
 line for them to engage in. Never was there an assump- 
 tion more entirely unfounded. Individuals are always on the 
 alert to find out wha! are the most advantageous businesses 
 in which to embark; and though they sometimes, no 
 doubt, form erroneous conclusions, the chances are ten to 
 one in favour of their being right. Were it otherwise the 
 number of well-advised and prosperous undertakings en- 
 tered upon in all tolerably well governed countries would 
 not, as is the case, infinitely exceed those of a contrary 
 description. But though it were different, the interference 
 of government would not certainly abate the evil. How- 
 ever well intended, all attempts to introduce or extend 
 some particular business cannot fail of being productive of 
 immediate injury to others ; and, should the object ever 
 be realized, it would most probably not be found in be a 
 national benefit, but the reverse. If, instead of directly 
 producing linens, a manufacturer finds it more profitable to 
 produce cottons or hardware, and to exchange these with 
 the Germans for linen, how ridiculous would it be to at- 
 tempt to promote the public interests by shutting out fo- 
 reign linens, and compelling them to be produced at home ! 
 It is not disputed that the linen manufacture might be 
 somewhat promoted by such a measure ; but it admits of 
 demonstration that otherand more advantageous businesses 
 would sustain a corresponding depression. Governments 
 may depend upon the fact, that their subjects are incom- 
 parably better informed with respect to these matters than 
 they can ever be. It is not possible for them, do what they 
 will, to interfere to encourage one set of producers, with- 
 out at the same time, and by the same act, proportionally 
 discouraging some other set. Their obvious duty is, there- 
 fore, to abstain from all interference with the legitimate 
 pursuits of individuals. To the clamourers for protection 
 they may always answer, that they would be happy to 
 meet their wishes, provided they could do so without in- 
 juring others, but that being impossible, they feel them- 
 selves bound not to interfere, but to allow every one to reap 
 the profit or abide the loss of the speculations into which 
 he may enter. 
 
 We have not entered in this article into any investigations 
 with respect to that great class of exchanges which consist 
 in the rendering of labour or services for money or com- 
 modities. The laws by which they are governed may be 
 more appropriately stated under the head Labour. It is 
 sufficient here to observe, that prohibitions are to the full 
 as injurious and inconsistent when applied to .his 
 description of exchanges as to the exchange of commo- 
 dities. 
 
 Our object in this article has merely been to lay befor* 
 the reader a brief view of the principles that govern com 
 mercial transactions, and of the mode in which commerce 
 contributes to increase private and public opulence. To 
 have entered into a detail of the various ways in which 
 commerce may be facilitated, would have engaged us in 
 discussions that would have added too much to the length 
 of this article ; and the reader is, therefore, referred for 
 information on these points to the articles Banks, Colo- 
 nies, Exchange, Money, Roads, Weights and Mea- 
 sures, &c. 
 
 We subjoin some tables, derived from official sources, 
 illustrative of the nature and extent of the commerce of 
 Great Britain during the last few years : — 
 
 I. An Account of the Real or Declared Value of the prin- 
 cipal Articles of British and Irish Produce and Manu- 
 facture exported in 1838. 
 
 Articles. 
 
 Declared Value, 
 1838. 
 
 Coals and Culm 
 Cotton Manufactures 
 
 " Yarn 
 Earthenware - 
 Glass .... 
 Hardwares and Cutlery - 
 Linen Manufactures 
 
 " Yarn 
 Metals ; viz. Iron and Steel 
 Copper & Brass 
 
 Tin in Bars, &c. 
 Tin Plates - 
 
 Silk Manufactures - 
 Sugar, Refined 
 Wool, Sheep's or Lamb's 
 Woollen Manufactures - 
 » Yarn- - • 
 
 Total of the above articles 
 
 L 
 
 484,305 
 16,700,468 
 
 7,430,582 
 670,985 
 376.524 
 
 1,507,478 
 
 2,919,719 
 655,699 
 
 2,530,903 
 • 1,226,258 
 156,150 
 103,230 
 434,749 
 223,372 
 778,031 
 550,506 
 432,067 
 
 5,792.156 
 365,657 
 
 43,338,839 | 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 II Account of the Quantities of the principal Articles of Foreign and Colonial Merchandise imported into, exported 
 from, and retained for Consumption in the United Kingdom, with the Nett Revenue accruing thereon, during the 
 Years ending 5th January, ls:J7 an 1 1338. 
 
 . ... 
 
 Description 
 
 ftu unities 
 
 imported. 
 
 Quantities exported. 
 
 Quantity retained for 
 Consumption. 
 
 Kelt Rei 
 
 enut. 
 
 of Merchandise. 
 
 1836. 
 
 1837. 
 
 1836. 
 
 1837. 
 
 1&3S , 
 
 1837. 
 
 1836. 
 
 I*>7. 
 
 Ashes, pearl and pot cwts. 
 
 152,955 
 
 147,329 
 
 19,137 
 
 18,810 
 
 130,176 
 
 128,09S 
 
 L 
 
 Gross rev. 
 
 L \ 
 
 193 
 
 jross rev. 
 
 Barilla and alkali - — 
 
 i 
 
 "0,214 
 
 102,135 
 
 1,680 
 
 3,441 
 
 97,202 
 
 1 
 
 91,404 
 Drawbacks^ 
 repayments. 
 
 9,678 
 \ 5,5321 
 
 8,995! 
 4,019 
 
 4,146| 
 
 4.976, 
 
 Bark for tanning or dyeing — 
 
 772.119 
 
 7S6.730 
 
 3,345 
 
 8,003 
 
 784.819 
 
 781,113 
 
 25,855] 
 
 26,458 
 
 Coffee, viz. : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 British plantation - lbs. 
 
 18,877,912 
 
 15,184.413 
 
 108,493 
 
 329,017 
 
 17,532.731 
 
 17,138,158 
 
 ) ! 
 
 
 India & Mauritius — 
 
 9,906,710 
 
 9,960,006 
 
 3j82£96 
 
 1,320,255 
 
 
 9^05,634 
 
 } 691,616 
 
 696,645 
 
 Foreign plantation — 
 Totals 
 Cocoa - - lbs. 
 
 5,270,215 
 
 11,278,096 
 
 6,950,370 
 
 6,411,703 
 
 2.23-1 
 
 3,169 
 
 i 11,165 
 
 13,922 
 
 34,054,837 
 
 36,412,514 
 
 10,681,758 
 
 8,000,975 
 
 24,947,090 
 
 26,316,961 
 
 278B£M 
 
 11853,000 
 
 332,587 
 
 933,276 
 
 1,130,168 
 
 1,416,613 
 
 Husks and shells — 
 
 425,648 
 
 511,75? 
 
 16,800 
 
 . 
 
 304,144 
 
 481,170 
 
 Cotton wool from foreign 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 countries, viz. : — 
 0. States of America lbs. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 289,615,692 
 
 320.651,716 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Brazil ... — 
 
 27,001,272 
 
 •2fV.ilo.115 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Turkey and Egypt — 
 
 5,426,721 
 
 7,881,540 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oilier foreign countries — 
 Cotton wool from British 
 
 6,734,413 
 
 4.616J829 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 possessions, viz. : — 
 K. Indies and Mauritius — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 75,957,887 
 
 51,577,197 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 British West Indies, the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 growth of — 
 
 1,312,806 
 
 1,199,162 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 BmishWesl Indies, im- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ported from • - — 
 
 401,531 
 
 396.540 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Other British possessions — 
 
 Total quantities 
 
 Indigo - - • lbs. 
 
 835 
 
 23,654 
 
 
 
 
 
 430,006 
 36^56 
 
 450,658 
 29,889 
 
 406,959,057 
 
 40736,783 
 
 31,739,763 
 
 39,722,031 
 
 363,684,232 
 
 368,445,035 
 
 7,710,544 
 
 6,545.873 
 
 3,691.951 
 
 3.587.561 
 
 2440,396 
 
 2,226. 194 
 
 Lac dye — 
 
 663*75 
 
 1,011,674 
 
 200,975 
 
 133,959 
 
 620.248 
 
 423,335 
 
 1,717 
 
 1,140 
 
 od - • tons 
 
 12,881 
 
 14,699 
 
 4.3V, 
 
 3^10 
 
 12,361 
 
 12,023 
 
 2,473 
 
 2,543 
 
 Madder - - • cwts. 
 
 108J90B 
 
 84,841 
 
 364 
 
 622 
 
 106,446 
 
 78,830 
 
 10,712 
 
 8.037 
 
 Madder roots • • — 
 
 85,251 
 
 109.235 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 84,101 
 
 100,503 
 
 2,114 
 
 2,532 
 
 Flax and tow, orcodilla of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 llax and hemp • — 
 
 1,529,1 1C 
 
 1,000,865 
 
 16,789 
 
 6,970 
 
 1.511,428 
 
 993.654 
 
 6,441 
 
 4,234j 
 
 Currants ... — 
 
 196,561 
 
 217,921 
 
 5,738 
 
 17,8*1 
 
 175.771 
 
 174,842 
 
 194,821 
 
 19oVj93| 
 
 Lemons and oranges ■ chests 
 
 26SJ364 
 
 949)880 
 
 1,455 
 
 1,536 
 
 349,661 
 
 311,490 
 
 52^26 
 
 62.431! 
 
 BsJsJns • - • cwts. 
 
 I82£86 
 
 169.590 
 
 36,496 
 
 11.526 
 
 156,194 
 
 152,162 
 
 117,095 
 
 114,095] 
 
 Hats of straw - - No. 
 
 14,042 
 
 26,228 
 
 16,172 
 
 1-2.714 
 
 3,437 
 
 5,624 
 
 1,009 
 
 l,632| 
 
 PUttlng • f straw - lbs. 
 
 42,890 
 
 30,862 
 
 11,846 
 
 7,546 
 
 29,681 
 
 23,962 
 
 24,558 
 
 20,003 
 
 Hemp, undressed - cwts. 
 
 586,032 
 
 773,621 
 
 38,105 
 
 16,574 
 
 567,892 
 
 651,613 
 
 2,482 
 
 2,/66; 
 
 Hides— buffalo, bull, ox, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cow. or horse, viz. : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Untanned, - - — 
 
 352.061 
 
 338,652 
 
 37,795 
 
 46,649 
 
 330,214 
 
 290.739 
 
 45,769 
 
 36,482 
 
 Tanned, • • lbs. 
 
 70,410 
 
 87.673 
 
 32^05 
 
 19,903 
 
 63.010 
 
 63,895 
 
 794 
 
 
 Leather gloves ■ • pairs 
 
 1,490,999 
 
 14266,920 
 
 31,405 
 
 18,894 
 
 1,459,363 
 
 1,218,470 
 
 27,507 
 
 22,923 
 
 Molasses • • • cwts. 
 
 528,306 
 
 582383 
 
 1,600 
 
 1.611 
 
 657,082 
 
 592,019 
 
 295,645 
 
 266,324 
 
 Oil— Olive - • • galls. 
 
 2,6S2,0I6 
 
 1,721,914 
 
 150,561 
 
 209,472 
 
 L844,022 
 
 1,496.656 
 
 46,514 
 
 34.986 
 
 Palm - • • cwts. 
 
 277,017 
 
 223,337 
 
 34,379 
 
 16,732 
 
 231,357 
 
 211,919 
 
 14,678 
 
 13,299 
 
 Train, spermaceti, 
 and blubber • tuns 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 19.4=i9 
 
 21,803 
 
 1,365 
 
 393 
 
 18,722 
 
 20,878 
 
 1,292 
 
 14,370 
 
 Saltpetre and cubic nitre cwts. 
 
 279,902 
 
 349,'.M) 
 
 38,444 
 
 36,959 
 
 231.134 
 
 240,222 
 
 6,045 
 
 6.339 
 
 Flax and linseed bushels 
 
 3.3Tt.2l5 
 
 3,321,0^9 
 
 1,371 
 
 6,879 
 
 3,179,097 
 
 3.381,643 
 
 19,905 
 
 21.118 
 
 Silk, raw - • - lbs. 
 
 4,453,081 
 
 4,146,481 
 
 113,600 
 
 345,971 
 
 4.239,254 
 
 3,520,105 
 
 18,072 
 
 15,454 
 
 Waste and knubbs — 
 
 L608&89 
 
 943.281 
 
 87,645 
 
 21,268 
 
 1.524.968 
 
 '876,456 
 
 712 
 
 389 
 
 Cassia lignea • - — 
 
 837,413 
 
 984,674 
 
 633,083 
 
 760,141 
 
 ' 89,396 
 
 105.485 
 
 2,242 
 
 2.642 
 
 Pepper ... — 
 
 7,724.932 
 
 5,291,993 
 
 4,151,569 
 
 4,768,86( 
 
 2,794,491 
 
 2,625,075 
 
 99,134 
 
 65,621 
 
 Pimento ... — 
 
 3,269,233 
 
 2,113,300 
 
 2,337,982 
 
 1,376,645 
 
 400,914 
 
 335,406 
 
 6,359 
 
 4,193 
 
 ■agar, viz. : — 
 
 
 
 Haw. 
 
 Haw. 
 
 
 
 
 
 West India - - cwts. 
 
 3,600,517 
 
 3,305,238 
 
 C 278,098 
 
 448,382 
 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 1 jaat India & Mauritius — 
 
 720,997 
 
 912,967 
 
 } Refined. 
 
 Refined. 
 
 1 3.488,399 
 
 3,954,81( 
 
 4,184,165 
 
 4,760,565 
 
 Ign ... — 
 
 327.647 
 
 265,073 
 
 / 248,644 
 
 227.807 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tallow - — 
 
 1,186.364 
 
 1,314,649 
 
 18,709 
 
 52.375 
 
 1.314,035 
 
 1,289,514 
 
 207,789 
 
 203.977 
 
 Tea .... lbs. 
 Timber, viz. : — 
 
 49,307,701 
 
 36,973,981 
 
 4,269,863 
 
 4,716,218 
 
 49,142,236 
 
 30,625,206 
 
 4,674,535 
 
 3,223,840 
 
 Battens & b. ends. gt. hun. 
 Deal and deal ends — 
 Masts, 6 and under 8 
 
 17,247 
 
 15,983 
 
 80 
 
 128 
 
 15,677 
 
 14,451 
 
 152,596 
 
 133.806 
 
 69,318 
 
 72^32 
 
 1,022 
 
 946 
 
 68.300 
 
 66,651 
 
 647,581 
 
 580,570 
 
 inches in diameter No. 
 
 8,414 
 
 9,474 
 
 345 
 
 199 
 
 9,247 
 
 9,763 
 
 2,780 
 
 2,865 
 
 Masts, 8 and under 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 inches in diameter — 
 
 3,381 
 
 3,628 
 
 268 
 
 1« 
 
 3.291 
 
 3.444 
 
 2,119 
 
 2,313 
 
 Masts, 12 and upwards loads 
 
 2,649 
 
 4,273 
 
 35 
 
 19 
 
 3.200 
 
 4,077 
 
 3,443 
 
 4,571 
 
 Oak planks - - — 
 
 3,046 
 
 1,966 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 2,871 
 
 2,193 
 
 11.490 
 
 8,813 
 
 Staves - - gt. hund. 
 
 93,695 
 
 85,721 
 
 2,124 
 
 1,63? 
 
 90,811 
 
 84,454 
 
 57,334 
 
 51,693 
 
 Fir, 8 in. sq. & upw'ds. loads 
 
 622,680 
 
 579,96C 
 
 460 
 
 816 
 
 612,865 
 
 581,03C 
 
 545,074 
 
 456.38a 
 
 Oak, ditto - • — 
 
 25,684 
 
 31,65f 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 26.062 
 
 30.94C 
 
 31.318 
 
 41.205] 
 
 12.073 
 10,938 
 
 Uneuumerated, ditto — 
 
 39,422 
 
 48,484 
 
 72 
 
 80 
 
 39.314 
 
 48.026 
 
 • 10,043 
 
 Wainscot logs, ditto — 
 
 4,212 
 
 5,59C 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 3,988 
 
 4.02C 
 
 i 10,954 
 
 261 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 Description 
 
 
 Quantities imported. 
 
 Quantities exported. 
 
 Quantity retlined fot 
 Consumption. 
 
 ... . ... _ — , 
 
 Nett Revenus 
 
 
 
 1S36. 
 
 1537. 
 
 1836. 
 
 1837. 
 
 183G. 
 
 1837. 
 
 1836. 
 
 1S37. 
 
 Tobacco, viz. : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L. 
 
 L 
 
 Unmanufactured 
 
 lbs. 
 
 32 232.007 
 
 27,144,107 
 
 12,319,405 
 
 17,341,587 
 
 22,150,78b 
 
 22,321,489 
 
 
 
 Manufactured or cigars 
 
 — 
 
 168,668 
 
 632,180 
 
 432,661 
 
 302,869 
 
 158,182 
 
 144,385 
 
 1 3,397,102 
 
 3,417 663 
 
 Snuff 
 
 — 
 
 • 13,580 
 
 4,153 
 
 3,496 
 
 3,472 
 
 508 
 
 351 
 
 
 
 Wool, sheep and lambs' 
 
 — 
 
 64,239,977 
 
 48,370,708 
 
 613,707 
 
 2,831,352 
 
 60,366,415 
 
 42,515,899 
 
 189,521 
 
 118.168 
 
 Wine, viz. : — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cape - • imp. galls. 
 
 5S0,275 
 
 618,105 
 
 10,8f6 
 
 6.766 
 
 541,511 
 
 500,727 
 
 74,435 
 
 08.854 
 
 French 
 
 — 
 
 533,241 
 
 725,140 
 
 99,112 
 
 106,935 
 
 352,(63 
 
 438,594 
 
 96,534 
 
 120,28(; 
 
 Portusal - 
 
 — 
 
 4,039.235 
 
 2,693,365 
 
 381,026 
 
 199,518 
 
 2,878,359 
 
 2,560,252 
 
 
 
 Spanish - 
 
 — 
 
 3,164,244 
 
 2.802,585 
 
 645,822 
 
 492,345 
 
 2,388,413 
 
 2,278,262 
 
 [ 1,622,994 
 
 1,497,957 
 
 Madeira - 
 
 — 
 
 2X3,979 
 
 289,400 
 
 152,368 
 
 148,107 
 
 133,673 
 
 111,376 
 
 Other sorts 
 
 Totals of W 
 
 ne 
 
 805,109 
 
 904,885 
 
 335,320 
 
 381,122 
 
 515,193 
 
 502,319 
 
 ) 
 
 
 9,406,083 
 
 8,033,480 
 
 1,674,524 
 
 1,334,793 
 
 6,809,212 
 
 6,391.531 
 
 1,793,963 
 
 1,687,097 
 
 III. Account of the Real or Declared Value of the various Articles of the Manufacture and Produce of the United King- 
 dom exported to Foreign Countries in 1828, and during each of the Eight Years ending with 1837; specifying their 
 Value, the Countries to which exported, and the Value of those annually shipped for each. 
 
 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 
 Countries to widen 
 exported. 
 
 
 
 
 1828. 
 
 1S30. | 1831. 
 
 1832. 
 
 1833. 
 
 1S34. 
 
 1835. 
 
 1836. 
 
 1837. 
 
 
 L. 
 
 h. 1 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 Russia 
 
 1.318,936 
 
 1,489,538 
 
 1,191,565 
 
 1,587,250 
 
 1,531,002 
 
 1,382,300 
 
 1,752,775 
 
 1,742,433 
 
 2,046,592 
 
 Sweden 
 
 42,699 
 
 40,488 
 
 57,127 
 
 64,932 
 
 59,549 
 
 63,094 
 
 105.156 
 
 113,308 
 
 101,121 
 
 Norway 
 
 53,582 
 
 63,926 
 
 58,580 
 
 34.528 
 
 55.038 
 
 61,988 
 
 79,278 
 
 79,469 
 
 72,413 
 
 Denmark - 
 
 111,880 
 
 118,813 
 
 92,294 
 
 93,396 
 
 99,951 
 
 94,595 
 
 107,979 
 
 91,302 
 
 103,448! 
 
 Prussia 
 
 179,145 
 
 177,923 
 
 192,816 
 
 258.556 
 
 144,179 
 
 136.423 
 
 188,273 
 
 160,722 
 
 131,536' 
 
 Germany - 
 
 4,394,104 
 
 4,463,605 
 
 3,042,952 
 
 5,068,997 
 
 4,355.548 
 
 4,547,100 
 
 4,602,966 
 
 4,463.729 
 
 4,898,016' 
 
 Holland • 
 
 Belgium 
 
 ? 2,142,736 
 
 2,022,458 
 
 2.082,530 
 
 2,7S9,398 
 
 ( 2,181,893 
 ) &S6.429 
 
 2,470,207 
 750,059 
 
 2,648,102 
 
 818,487 
 
 2,509,622 
 839,276 
 
 804,917 
 
 France 
 
 498,938 
 
 475,884 
 
 002,688 
 
 674.791 
 
 848,333 
 
 1,110,885 
 
 1,453,636 
 
 1,591.381 
 
 1,643^04 
 
 Portugal, Proper 
 
 945,016 
 
 1,106,695 
 
 975.991 
 
 540,792 
 
 967,091 
 
 1,600,123 
 
 1,554,326 
 
 1 ,085^34 
 
 1,079,816 
 
 Azores 
 
 27,940 
 
 23.029 
 
 41,638 
 
 77,920 
 
 54,430 
 
 63.275 
 
 49.717 
 
 53,574 
 
 50.405' 
 
 Madeira 
 
 89,809 
 
 
 38,960 
 
 2&Q33 
 
 33,411 
 
 38,455 
 
 40.082 
 
 52.16S 
 
 40.044: 
 
 Spain & Balearic Islands 
 
 • 301,153 
 
 607,068 
 
 597,84S 
 
 442,926 
 
 442,837 
 
 325.907 
 
 405.005 
 
 437.076 
 
 286,638 
 
 Canary Islands - 
 
 38,152 
 
 42,020 
 
 33,283 
 
 21,053 
 
 30,507 
 
 30,686 
 
 24.308 
 
 40.370 
 
 41. VIM' 
 
 Gibraiiar - 
 
 1,038,925 
 
 292,760 
 
 367,285 
 
 461,470 
 
 385,400 
 
 460.719 
 
 602,680 
 
 756;411 
 
 906.166J 
 
 Italy and Italian Islands 
 
 2,176.149 
 
 3,251,379 
 
 2,490,376 
 
 2,361,772 
 
 2,316,260 
 
 3,282,777 
 
 2,420,171 
 
 2.921,406 
 
 2,406,066 
 
 Malta • 
 
 239.458 
 
 189,135 
 
 134,519 
 
 90,994 
 
 135,438 
 
 242,696 
 
 136,925 
 
 143,015 
 
 103,080 
 
 Ionian Islands - 
 
 41,078 
 
 56,903 
 
 50,883 
 
 55,725 
 
 33,915 
 
 94,498 
 
 107,804 
 
 109,123 
 
 124,405; 
 
 Turkey and Continen- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tal Greece (exclusive 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 of the Morea) - 
 
 1S5,842 
 
 1,139,616 
 
 888,654 
 
 915,319 
 
 1,019,004 
 
 1,207,941 
 
 1,331,669 
 
 1,775,034 
 
 
 Morea ifc Greek Islands 
 
 335 
 
 9,694 
 
 10,446 
 
 10,149 
 
 25,914 
 
 37,179 
 
 28,834 
 
 12,003 
 
 15.-131 ' 
 
 Egypt (Ports on the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mediterranean) 
 
 35,302 
 
 110,227 
 
 122,832 
 
 113,109 
 
 145,647 
 
 153,877 
 
 £69,225 
 
 216,930 
 
 2£0JJ80{ 
 
 Tripoli, Barbary, and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 Morocco 
 
 13,745 
 
 1,138 
 
 426 
 
 751 
 
 2.350 
 
 14,823 
 
 29.040 
 
 29,322 
 
 C4,0O7( 
 
 Western Coast of Africa 
 
 191.452 
 
 252,123 
 
 234.768 
 
 290,061 
 
 329,210 
 
 320.4S3 
 
 292,540 
 
 407,186 
 
 312.938 
 
 Cape of Good Hope • 
 
 218,049 
 
 330,036 
 
 257,245 
 
 292,405 
 
 346,197 
 
 304,382 
 
 326,921 
 
 482,315 
 
 488.814 
 
 Cape Verd Islands 
 
 5,856 
 
 1,710 
 
 215 
 
 
 146 
 
 530 
 
 575 
 
 413 
 
 751 
 
 St. Helena 
 
 31,362 
 
 38.915 
 
 39,431 
 
 21,230 
 
 30,041 
 
 31.015 
 
 31,187 
 
 11,041 
 
 9.645 
 
 Isle of Bourbon 
 
 35,1S8 
 
 10;042 
 
 
 
 
 7.091 
 
 
 
 3,795 
 
 Mauritius - 
 
 185,972 
 
 161,029 
 
 148,475 
 
 103,191 
 
 83,424 
 
 149.319 
 
 196,669 
 
 260.855 
 
 349.488 
 
 Arabia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 6,049 
 
 16,358 
 
 787 
 
 East India Company's 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Territories & Ceylon 
 
 4,250,582 
 
 3,895,530 
 
 3,377,412 
 
 3,514,779 
 
 3,495,301 
 
 2,578,509 
 
 3.192,692 
 
 4,285,829 
 
 3,612,975 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '842,852 
 
 1,074,708 
 
 1.326,388 
 
 078,375 
 
 Sumatra and Java 
 
 189,200 
 
 102,102 
 
 285,296 
 
 150,606 
 
 471,712 
 
 410.273 
 
 353,892 
 
 234,852 
 
 313,791 
 
 Phillippine Islands • 
 
 300 
 
 71,220 
 
 39,513 
 
 102,284 
 
 185,298 
 
 76,018 
 
 129,743 
 
 51,778 
 
 33,608! 
 
 New South Wales, Van- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Diemen'3 Land, and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 Swan River - 
 
 443,839 
 
 314,677 
 
 398,471 
 
 466,238 
 
 558,372 
 
 716,014 
 
 696,345 
 
 835,637 
 
 921,568 
 
 New Zealand, and South 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sea islands 
 
 2,487 
 
 1,396 
 
 4,752 
 
 1,570 
 
 936 
 
 
 2,087 
 
 
 
 Ports of Siam - 
 
 
 10,467 
 
 
 
 
 19,742 
 
 
 
 
 British North American 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 | 
 
 Colonies 
 
 1,691,044 
 
 1,857,133 
 
 2,089,327 
 
 2.075,725 
 
 2,092.550 
 
 1,671.069 
 
 2.158,158 
 
 2.732.291 
 
 2,111.035 
 
 British West Indies - 
 
 3,289,704 
 
 2,838,448 
 
 2,581,949 
 
 2,439,808 
 
 2,597.589 
 
 2,680,024 
 
 3,187.540 
 
 3,786.453 
 
 3,456745 
 
 Hayti 
 
 248,328 
 
 321,793 
 
 376,103 
 
 543,104 
 
 381,528 
 
 357,297 
 
 365,798 
 
 251,663 
 
 171,050 
 
 Cuba and other Foreign 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 West Indies - 
 
 569.728 
 
 618T029 
 
 663.531 
 
 633,700 
 
 577,228 
 
 913,005 
 
 787,043 
 
 987,122 
 
 891.713 
 
 U. States of America - 
 
 5,810,315 
 
 6,132,346 
 
 9,053,583 
 
 5,468,272 
 
 7,579,699 
 
 6,844,989 
 
 10,568,455 
 
 12,125,005 
 
 
 Mexico 
 
 307,029 978,441 
 
 728,858 
 
 199,821 
 
 421,487 
 
 459.610 
 
 402,820 
 
 254,822 
 
 620,200 
 
 Guatemala 
 
 6,191 
 
 
 
 
 3,700 
 
 30.366 
 
 15.244 
 
 704 
 
 7S 
 
 Colombia - 
 
 261,113 
 
 216,751 
 
 ^ 248.250 . 
 
 121,826 
 
 199,906 
 
 132,242 
 
 185,172 
 
 170,151 
 
 Brazil 
 
 3,518,297 
 
 2,452,103 
 
 1,238,371 
 
 2,144,903 
 
 2,575,680 
 
 2,460,679 
 
 2,630,767 
 
 3,030,532 
 
 1,824,082 
 
 States of the Rio de la 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 Plata 
 
 312,389 
 
 632,172 
 
 339,870 
 
 660,152 
 
 515,362 
 
 831,564 
 
 658,525 
 
 697,334 
 
 698,1341 
 
 Chili .... 
 
 709,371 
 
 540.626 
 
 651,617 
 
 708,193 
 
 816,817 
 
 896,221 
 
 606.170 
 
 861,903 
 
 626.5461 
 
 Pero .... 
 
 374,615 
 
 368,469 
 
 409,003 
 
 275,610 
 
 387,524 
 
 299,235 
 
 441,324 
 
 606,332 
 
 476,374; 
 
 Isles of Guernsey, Jer- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sey, Alderney, & Man 
 
 329,428 
 
 344,036 
 
 324,634 
 
 317,496 
 
 335,934 
 
 300,665 
 
 351,012 
 
 318,609 
 
 330,017 
 
 Totals - 
 
 36,812.756'.3S,271,597 
 
 37,104.372130,450,594 
 
 39,667,347141,049,191 
 
 47,372,270 
 
 63,368,572 
 
 42,070,744 
 
 262 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 IV. Account specifying tlie different Articles, and tho Real 
 or Declared Value of each, of the Produce and Manufac- 
 ture :f the United Kingdom, exported to 1 
 daring each of the Three Years ending with 133i'. 
 
 Species of Exports. 
 
 1835. 
 
 1836. 
 
 1 GREAT BRITAIN. L- 
 
 Alum ... - 1,359 
 Apparel. Slops, and Ne- 
 
 Clothing • - 49-1,801 
 Arms and Ammunition 407,490 
 i and Hams - 27,573 
 I Beef and Pork, salted 104,782 
 aid Ale • • 225,641 
 1 II. inks, printed • - 148,098 
 and Copper Man- 
 ufactures - - 1,093,919 
 Broad and Biscuit - 5,405 
 Butter and Cheese • 178,65/ 
 Cabinet and Upholstery 
 
 Wares • • 51,003 
 Coals and Culm • 242,746 
 79,541 
 , nn.MeaU&FIour 25,109 
 Cotton Manufactures 16,393,170 
 « Yarn - • 5,706,563 
 Cows and Oxen - 1,415 
 Earthenware of all sorts 539,990 
 Fish of all sorts • 217,652 
 Glass of all sorts - 636,928 
 Haberdashery and Milli- 
 nery • • ■ 516,775 
 Bardwaraa wdCutlerj 1,831,766 
 Heaver and Felt 135.048 
 " of all other sorts 27,437 
 Hops - • - - 16,616 
 Horses - • • 99,465 
 Iron and Steel, wrought 
 
 and unwrought - 1,610,939 
 
 Lard ... - ll.-W 
 • ■ 
 r, wrought 
 
 unwrought - - 278,978 
 
 S.iddlcry and 
 Harness - • 73,348 
 Linen Manufactures - 2,838,050 
 [ " Yarn - - 216,635 
 Machinery &■ Mill-work 307,316 
 Mathematical and Opti- 
 cal Instruments • 25.00-1 
 
 Mules 
 
 In-tniments 60,810 
 Oil, Train, of Greenland 
 
 Fishery • • • 39,074 
 
 Painters' Colours - 169,861 
 
 Plate Ware, Jew 
 
 ellery, and Watches 231,900 
 
 ■ Potatoes - - - 5.95 1 
 
 142.412 
 
 Saltpetre, British refined 20,284 
 
 Is of all sorts • 8,549 
 
 , Silk Manufacture! • 973,479 
 
 1 Soap and Candles - 248,803 
 
 Spirits - - • 16,866 
 
 Stationary of all sorts 257,877 
 
 refined - - 851,745 
 
 Tin, unwrought • j 32,290 
 
 " and Pewter Wares 
 
 and Tin Plates - 381,069 
 
 Tobacco (minufactured) 
 
 and Snuff - - 13,594 
 
 Ton-ues - - - 2,422 
 
 Umbrellas and Parasols 45,462 
 Whalebone 
 
 Wool Sheep's - - 387,834 ! 
 
 " of other sorts - 45,030 
 Woollen and Worsted 
 
 Yarn - - - 309,091 
 
 Woollen Manufactures 6,836,735 
 
 All other Articles - 1,031, 112 
 
 1837. 
 
 Total real or declared "\ 
 
 Value of the Produce 
 
 Manufacture off 
 
 : the U. K. exported | 
 
 from Great Britain to I 
 
 '• Foreign Parts J 
 
 I 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Total Exports from, 
 • 
 
 ; Total from the United 
 ! Kingdom 
 
 263 
 
 L. 
 
 604.863 
 411.286 
 42.319 
 136,898 
 264,560 
 178,03-1 
 
 1,072.002 
 
 8,184 
 
 205,858 
 
 76,511 
 
 329,760 
 
 84,475 
 
 31,297 
 
 18,482 666 
 
 6,120,326 
 
 3,072 
 
 837,493 
 
 551,599 
 
 BLBBO 
 2270,830 
 
 147,907 
 41,753 
 11,788 
 98,302 
 
 2340,207 
 
 221.931 
 
 316,322 
 
 93388 
 
 3,249,053 
 
 315,608 
 
 300,852 
 
 25,030 
 6366 
 76,120 
 
 5,636 
 210,811 
 
 338^69 
 
 4,915 
 
 171,463 
 
 14,411 
 
 8,920 
 
 916.777 
 
 276.222 
 
 24,297 
 297,945 
 697,920 
 
 61,847 
 
 387,528 
 
 13,654 
 3,599 
 62.336 
 10,550 
 323,549 
 39,967 
 
 359,690 
 7,636,117 
 1,293,932 
 
 46,926,370 
 
 445,900 
 
 47,372,270 
 
 L. 
 
 2,761 
 
 533,301 
 289,142 
 35,840 
 119,117 
 268J236 
 147,430 
 
 1,166,082 
 
 9,991 
 
 179,073 
 
 67,357 
 
 34,781 
 13,632,146 
 6,966,936 
 
 0.1D7 
 563,082 
 185,120 
 475,995 
 
 414,687 
 1,460,404 
 
 104,000 
 46,290 
 lu.547 
 75,215 
 
 2,003,708 
 
 250,306 
 
 87.037 
 2, 109,897 
 
 415,726 
 493,298 
 
 27,259 
 5,104 
 71,618 
 
 5,700 
 151,307 
 
 257,726 
 
 7,030 
 
 190,444 
 
 19,393 
 
 7.466 
 
 503.653 
 
 230.835 
 
 10,485 
 197,489 
 602377 
 
 74,657 
 
 371,518 
 
 13,124 
 3,744 
 39,464 
 6,347 
 185,350 
 10,076 
 
 337,140 
 4.654,397 
 1,113,069 
 
 53,015,431 
 
 333,141 
 
 53,368,572 
 
 41,911,898 
 
 353,040 
 
 42,274,938 
 
 COM Mi iJS'-FJELD LANDS. ■ 
 
 (See McCutlocli's Commercial Diet. ; see also the Treatise 
 on Commerce by the same author, from which part rf the 
 above article has been abstracted.) 
 
 CO'MMISSARY (Let committo, / entrust), is used in 
 various ways as nearly synonymous with deputy. In mili- 
 tary affairs, the parties who provide clothing, <tc. for the 
 army are styled commissaries ; and the whole body of offi- 
 cers belonging to this department, the commissariat. 
 COMMISSION. In the Army. See Arm v. 
 Commission. In the Navy, the title of the appointment 
 or warrant of officers of the rank of lieutenant and above, 
 to hold their office. The commission is signed by the 
 lords commissioners of the Admiralty. 
 
 Commission, in Law, an appointment, usually by war- 
 rant or letters patent to one or more as commissioners, to 
 perform certain duties specified in the instrument. In this 
 mode many of the highest judicial or ministerial function 
 aries of the realm are appointed ; thus, the judges of the 
 superior courts hold several commissions, as of oyer and 
 terminer, gaol delivery, <fce. And high offices of state, 
 when not regularly filled, are often entrusted to commis- 
 sioners for the time being, and said to be put in commis- 
 sion ; thus the custody of the great seal is put in commis- 
 sion in the absence of a lord chancellor and lord keeper. 
 The Treasury and Admiralty have of late times been usu- 
 ally entrusted to commissioners, no lord high treasurer or 
 lord Mfh admiral having been appointed. The Court of 
 High Commission consisted of persons appointed under 
 letters patent to examine into matters of ecclesiastical ju- 
 risdiction, under slat. 1. I'Mz. c. 1. (abolished 16 Car. 1.) 
 Magistrates or justices of the peace are appointed by 
 means of a commission occasionally renewed, commonly 
 termed the commission of the peace. 
 
 COMMISSU'RjE. A term applied in Anatomy to certain 
 parts of the brain which cross from one of its sides to the 
 other. (.See Brain.) In Botany, it signifies the place of 
 junction of two carpels. 
 
 COMMITMENT. In Law, the sending to prison of one 
 charged with any crime. It appears to have been the an- 
 cient usage that whoever could lawfully arrest a person Tor 
 felony or treason could also send or bring him to the com- 
 mon gaol; bu. since the Habeas Corpus Act it is the uni- 
 form practice that offenders are committed by the warrant 
 in writing of a justice of the peace. The privy council and 
 secretary of state can also commit in cases of treason. A 
 commitment in writing must declare the authority of him 
 who make! it, and also the nature of the offence with 
 which the pert; is charged. • 
 
 COMMITTEE, in the language of Parliament, is eitliei 
 a committee of certain members, or a committee of the 
 whole house. (See Parliament.) Select coniviiitn<: are 
 bodies appointed by open nomination or by a peculiar 
 mode of election for the transaction of business, oil her ac- 
 cording to the standing orders, or by accustomed n 
 All private bills are referred in the first instance to select 
 committees. Joint commilteesm former times consisted of 
 bodies deputed by the two houses, and met for the purpose. 
 of adjusting differences, sometimes after free conferences 
 had failed. They were free from the forms observed in 
 conferences. As in the latter, the Lords deputed only half 
 the number of members sent by the Commons. They 
 have been lone disused. 
 
 CO'MMODORE. A naval officer having the temporary 
 rank of rear-admiral ; the senior captain of several ships is 
 called the commodore bv courtesy. 
 
 CO'MMON. (Lat. communis.) In Law, is the right 
 which one person has of taking a part of the produce of 
 land, while the whole property in the land is vested in 
 another. Common of pasture is either, 1. Common ap- 
 pendant, which is the right of the tenant of a manor to pas- 
 ture his beasts on the lord's waste ; 2. Common amnir tenant, 
 annexed to land by grant of prescription ; 3. Common in 
 gross, a right severed from the land. 
 
 When a common is under pasture all those who have a 
 right of pasturage may turn out on it a certain number of 
 animals, according to the extent of the enclosed grounds 
 which they cultivate. When the common consists wholly 
 or partly of arable land, this arable land is formed into 
 ridges, generally with a narrow riband or balk of turf be- 
 tween each ridge, or between each two or three ridges. 
 The right of cultivating these ridges is distributed among 
 the holders of the enclosed lands of the parish, according 
 to the extent of their possessions ; and in order that there 
 may be no partiality, and that every one may have as much 
 interest in preserving his neighbour's ridge as his own, the 
 ridges which any individual has the right of cultivating do 
 not lie together, but are distributed among the ridges of his 
 neizhbours. . , 
 
 CO'MMONABLE LANDS. A common in which the 
 greater part of the land is arable. 
 CO'MMON-FIELD LANDS. When the whole of • 
 1 common belonging to a parish is not in a ring fence, biC 
 lies in different places, these places are called common 
 I fields. 
 
COMMON MEASURE. 
 
 CO'MMON MEASURE. In Arithmetic, is a number 
 
 which divides two or more other numbers without leaving 
 a remainder. 
 CO'MMON PLEAS, or COMMON BENCH, COURT OF. 
 
 In Law, was originally that branch or side of the aula regia 
 in which civil causes' between subjects were tried. It was 
 separated and rendered stationary, while that portion of 
 the court from which the Kind's Bench is derived followed 
 the pers m of the king by a provision of Magna Charta. 
 This cot it has concurrent jurisdiction with the other two 
 superior common law courts (see Courts, Superior) in 
 personal actions and ejectments. But it retains exclusive 
 •-■risdiction over all other mixed, and all real actions or 
 "pltis of land. These, however, have now nearly fallen 
 into disuse. (S<e Pleading.) The Court of Common 
 Pleas has one chief and four puisne' jo< '._ 
 
 COMMON PRATES BOOK. The name given to the 
 collection of all the offices of regular and occasional wor- 
 ship according to the forms of the church of England. The 
 basis of this book is to be found in the King's Primer, set 
 forth iit 1646 by Henry Vlll , which was intended to con- 
 vey instruction to the people in the most important parts 
 of'lhe church service ; but contained little more than the 
 
 . Lord's Prayer, Commandments, and Litany. This 
 Primer underwent two revisions and republications under 
 Edward VI . whose second Liturgy approaches very uear 
 in its contents to that which exists at present. It was at 
 that review that the Sentences, Exhortation. Confession, 
 and Absolution were prefixed to the Daily Service ; the 
 Decalogue was introduced into the Communion Service ; 
 and certain remnants of the Komish customs were finally 
 abolished. M the sign of the cross in confirmation and ma- 
 trimony, the anointing of the sick, and the prayers for the 
 dead. 
 
 On the accession of Elizabeth, another review of the Li- 
 turgy was instituted : but the alterations effected were little 
 more than in the selection of the lessons. At the review 
 in the reign of James L, after the conference with the 
 Presbyterians at Hampton Court, no change of importance 
 was introduced, except the addition of the explanation of 
 the Sacraments in the Catechism. Again, when on the 
 restoration of Charles II. a conference had been held with 
 the Dissenters at the Savoy, the subject of the Common 
 Prayer Book was reconsidered in convocation. The ser- 
 vice's, for the 30th of January and 29th of May were then 
 added, as also the Form to be used at Sea. A few trilling 
 alterations were ma. le also in the other services ; but these 
 were the la<t that have been effected. On the accession 
 of William 111. another revision took place, and a consider- 
 able number of alterations were proposed and supported 
 by many of the bishops and clergy; but they were re- 
 el by convocation, and have never since been revived 
 by authority. The following is a chronological list of the 
 revision of'lhe Prayer Book in which anv alterations have 
 talced place. It is taken from the JRet. T. V. Short's His- 
 tory of Hie Church of England. 
 
 1Mb. The King's Primer. 
 
 IMS. The Communion Service. 
 
 1649. First Liturgy of Edward VI. 
 
 1.V0. Firs: Ordination Service. 
 
 leSS Second Liturgy of Edward VL 
 
 1662. Second Ordination Service. 
 liturgy of Elizabeth. 
 
 1604. Altcraiions introduced by James I. 
 
 1633. Alterations introduced by Charles L 
 
 1661. Last Revision ; authorized Liturgy. 
 
 COMMONS IIOISE OF. See Parliament. 
 
 CO MMON TIME. In Music, that in which every mea- 
 sure or bar contains one semibreve, two minims, four 
 crotchets, eight quavers, and so on. 
 
 CO'MMONWEALTH. See Republic. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. In History the 
 form of government established in England on the death 
 of Charles I. in ltVIO, and which existed during the protec- 
 torate of Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, until the 
 abdication of the latter in 1659. The substitution of a de- 
 mocratic. il f..r a monarchical form of government was pro- 
 vided for and enjoined by two successive charters. The 
 first charter of the commonwealth was drawn up in De- 
 cember, 16.">3, by the council of officers, who, on the volun- 
 tary resignation of the parliament in the early part of the 
 same year, had declared Cromwell " Protector ;" it was 
 •styled the "Instrument of Government." The second 
 charter, called the •• Petition and Advice," was framed in 
 May. 1657, by the parliament which the protector had as- 
 sembled in the previous year. Uuder the first charter, as 
 has been well observed, the English government may be 
 classed among republics with a chief magistrate at its 
 head ; under the second, it became substantially a mon- 
 archy, and Oliver Cromwell from 1657 to the period of his 
 death was de facto King of England. (Hallam's Constit. 
 History, 421 ) On the demise of Cromwell, the succession 
 of his son Richard was at first cordiallv recognized : but 
 264 
 
 COMPANY. 
 
 soon afterwards discontents and cabals having sprung op 
 in the country, his inability or disinclination to govern in- 
 duced him to abandon the protectorship after "a reign of 
 eight months ; and on the 29th of May, 1659, the restore 
 tion of the monarchy under the old regime was effected by 
 the triumphal entry into London of Charles II. It would 
 be out of place to give here a detailed view of the slate oi 
 England during the commonwealth. Suffice il to observe. 
 all authors have concurred in opinion, that, whatever were 
 the defects of the home government, arising partly from 
 the ambition of (he protector, and partly from the stub- 
 bornness and opposition of his councils, the energy and 
 decision which Cromwell maintained in every department 
 of the slate not only laid the foundation of England's mari- 
 time greatness, but raised her to a pitch of prosperity ihal 
 has rarely, if ever, been equalled. 
 
 COMM'l"N10N. is used in various ways in the general 
 sense of participation : — 1. A person is said to be ir. 
 munion with a church, who declares his acquiescence in 
 its doctrines and participates in its worship ; and heme 
 the term communion is used sometimes for a church. 
 2. Communion is confined emphatically to participation hi 
 the Eucharist. {See Eucharist.) 3. The Communion 
 of Saints, an article of the Apostles' Creed is variously ex- 
 plained. 
 
 COMMUTATION. In Astronomy, the angle of com 
 mutation of a planet is the angle formed at the earth by a 
 straight line drawn from the earth to the sun and the or- 
 thographical projection on the plane of the ecliptic of the 
 straight line which joins the earth with the planet. It is 
 measured by the difference between the sun's longitude 
 and the geocentric longitude of the planet. 
 
 CO MM1 TATION OF TITHES. Set Tithes. 
 
 OI >MO BE. Ending in a tuft or kind of brush. 
 
 COMPAfHON. The hut or covering over a tedder (or 
 staircase) in a ship. 
 
 COMPANY tl'r. compagnie), in its most general sense. 
 means any two or more individuals associated for any 
 common object, whether of business or pleasure. 
 
 In its more limited sense, however, and that in which it 
 is usually understood in this country, the term company 
 means an association of individuals lor the prosecution of 
 some industrious undertaking. Such associations m 
 of very various descriptions, inasmuch as the terms of the 
 association or partnership may be varied in an infinil 
 ways. Generally, however, they may be said to be either 
 private or public companies ; that is, according to the law 
 of England, companies with not more than six partners 
 and with more than six ; and public companies may 
 farther be divided into joint stock and regula'ed companies, 
 and these again into incorjwrated and unincorporated com 
 panics. 
 
 I. The principle on which associations for industrious 
 purposes are established is too obvious to require much 
 illustration. All great results are brought about by co- 
 operation, and could not be effected otherwise. Isolated 
 man is comparatively feeble and helpless ; the capacity ol 
 associating for a common purpose is. in fact, the niain 
 source of Ins power, and the principal distinction between 
 him and the lower animals — Quo alio J ;uam 
 quod tnutuis juramur tfficiis ? One man has capital with- 
 out skill, and anolherskill without capital: if such p< 
 
 act independently, they will be able to effect little or no- 
 thing ; but if they combine their efforts, and the capital ol 
 the one b-' applied and directed by the skill of the other, 
 ihe effect of tneir exertions will be incomparably greater. 
 But this is not all. Many of the greatest and most import- 
 ant works undertaken fn modem times could not have 
 been attempted by one individual, how opulent or skilful 
 soever. Some of them require a vast outlay ; while the 
 returns being frequently remote and contingent, no single 
 individual, and, indeed, no small number of individuals, 
 would be willing to put (heir fortunes to hazard by en- 
 gaging in them. But such undertakings are readily and 
 advantageously carried on by large associations : for, in 
 that case, individuals being called upon only to subscribe 
 comparatively small sums to the common stock, they can 
 afford to lose them without, in most instances, suffering 
 any material inconvenience ; while the aggregate amount 
 of the subscriptions may, notwithstanding, amount to a 
 verv large sum, and be adequate to the greatest under- 
 takings. In fact, some of the most gigantic works 
 entered upon either in this or any other country have 
 been accomplished by the joint contributions of the sub- 
 scribers of 100V. share's. It is true that wealthy individuals 
 usually subscribe for a number of such shares: but this 
 does not affectthe principle of the system which is to dis- 
 tribute the risk according to the ability of the indiv .1 ia!s 
 associated. 
 
 II. In private companies the business is usually con- 
 ducted by one or more of the partners on the pri.-.ciples 
 laid down in the deed of partnership. The rights and 
 obligations of the partners as respects each other arc, Ol 
 course, mainly determined by this deed : as respects lh« 
 
COMPANY. 
 
 public. th» law regards the act of one partner as the act of 
 impart; : and each partner is bound, without any re- 
 gard in the sum he has subscribed to the company's stock, 
 it of his fortune, for the debts and on- 
 if tin- firm. Certain formalities are neo 
 withdrawal of a partner; such as advertizing In the 
 ■. and the Bending of special information of the fact 
 odlvldual* in the habit of dealing with the company. 
 
 R 1N0.HSHIP. 
 
 Ill I'alilic companies may, as already stated, be cither 
 joint stock or regulated; and those again may be either 
 or unincorporated. 
 
 1. By a joint stock company is meant a company the 
 . of which is subscribed by a certain number of per- 
 sons in shares of a certain amount. Thus, supposing that 
 
 association is to be formed for carrying on the 
 i or insurance, for excavating a dock or 
 tructing a railway, and that its capital is 
 . «>0<. to be subscribed in shares of 100V. 
 id (unless exceptions be made in tin' 
 conditions under which the company is to be formed) who 
 can command 1007. may become a partner of this associa- 
 tion, and will be registered in the company's books as the 
 holder of a share of KXV of the company's stock. It is 
 iiiv nt Instance*, to allow 
 individual's to transfer their stock or shares to others, who 
 succeed to all the rights and obligations of their predeces- 
 n lich shares or portions of stock fetch in 
 the market depend*, of course, on the real or supposed 
 "inpauy's affairs: if it bo known or supposed 
 luruhlng and prosperous condition, and pay- 
 ing ■ or dividend on its stock, the latter may 
 sell for 10, -it, 60, or 100 per cent, or upwards of advance ; 
 whereas If h be known or supposed to be In an unprospcr- 
 ondttlon, its shares may not bring a third or a tenth 
 pan of their original i 
 
 The affairs or companies of this description are usually 
 conducted by salaried officers, who are appointed by and 
 act under the orders of a board of directors chosen by the 
 ootnp ing to the conditions in their deed 
 
 of association. The partners In such companies are all In- 
 dividually liable, without regard to the magnitude of their 
 stock or shares, for the entire debt* and obligations of the 
 company. 
 At common law no action can be raised by or against 
 companies without making all the shareholders par- 
 ■tiou. Hut the obvious and insuperable Inoon- 
 nee* that would result from the enforcement of this 
 rule have made It be enacted, by the 1st Victoria, cap. 73, 
 thai the crown may at pleasure grant to joint stock associa- 
 patent, authorizing them to sue and be sued in 
 the name* ol particular officer* of their own ; without, how- 
 government judge proper, incorporating the 
 ting the liability of the different partners 
 lebts. 
 
 2. When joint stock companies are incorporated by royal 
 charier, or by letters patent, the liability of the partners is 
 limited to the amount of their stock, and they cease to be 
 
 usible beyond that amount. This is the case with 
 joint stock associations ; as the banks of Eng- 
 land. Scotland, and Ireland ; the East India Company, 
 the I: -urance, and a few more. But 
 
 i nment has hitherto been, and that for the best reasons, 
 very chary of granting charters of incorporation. It It dif- 
 ficult, in (act. to Imagine a rase In which they ought to be 
 granted, Individual* are always ready to embark, without 
 stipulating forany restriction of their liability, in any scheme, 
 however hazardous, that holds out any promise of even a 
 moderate return. And this unlimited responsibility of the 
 partners is, in all ordinary cases, the only security worth a 
 pinch of snuff on which the public can ever rely for pro- 
 i against the fraud or misconduct of the managers of 
 ioint stock companies. 
 
 The grand distinction between unincorporated and incor- 
 porated joint stock companies is, that in the case of (In- 
 former, the law looks only to the Individual* forming the 
 association : while, in the latter, it looks only to the corpo- 
 rate bo ly.and pays no attention to the individuals of which 
 it is made up. On judgment against an incorporation, exe- 
 cution can only pass on the corporate property ; and sup- 
 posing ii to become insolvent, the partners can only, as 
 already stated.be called upon to make good the amount of 
 the stork of the incorporation standing in their names. But 
 quite otherwise with an unincorporated joint stock 
 . my : should it become insolvent, the partners, to use 
 •he words of Lord Eldon, are severally liable for the whole 
 hi I eneagementsof the company, even "fo their last 
 and their last acre." 
 We have already sufficiently explained (see art. Banks) 
 the advantage* that would result from the periodical publi- 
 cation of the names of the partners in joint stock compa- 
 The public are clearly entitled to know who the 
 parties are that embark in such concerns. Nothing on 
 which it would be prudent to place much reliance can be 
 2C5 
 
 COMPARISON, DEGREES OF. 
 
 learned from prospectuses and professions Without 
 knowing who the partners really are. the public have no 
 moans of forming any fair estimate ol the character of any 
 
 ilioii, or Of tin- credit to which it may be justly en- 
 tilled. But we doubt whether it would be prudent to carry 
 interference with joint slock companies farther than this. 
 It is excessively difficult, and in most cases quite impos- 
 sible, to enforce such regulations in regard to such compa- 
 
 s would 8erve to disclose the real stale of I heir affairs, 
 provided they had an interest in concealing it ; and it is 
 needless to say, that the leading of the public to depend on 
 regulations that cannot be carried Into affect, is one of the 
 most likely means that can be resorted to for the encourage- 
 ment of imposture and fraud. 
 It. Regulated companies consist of a number of uncon- 
 
 l individuals or associations engaged in the same 
 
 business or department of trade, under condition of their 
 
 conforming to regulations laid down for their common 
 
 guidance. Such companies have boon mostly formed for 
 
 i ■•sortition of the trade with distant and peculiarly situ 
 
 ■ onirics. Their principle is not to exclude individual 
 competition, but merely to make the different parties en- 
 I in the trade observe the same general raffs. Com- 
 panto* of tins description were at one lime common ; but 
 they have now mostly fallen into desuetude, though it be 
 easy to imagine circumstances in which they might be ad- 
 vantageously revive, I. 
 
 4. CiriV eo mpani m, of which there are many in the city 
 of London and other large towns, are In reality guilds or 
 fraternities. Originally they consisted of the parties ear 
 rjuiL' on a peculiar trade or profession; and in most in- 
 stances they gradually acquired the privilege of prescribing 
 
 the condition* and limitations under which individuals not 
 belonging to the fraternity mighl obi on have to engage In 
 its peculiar trade within the precincts of the city or borough 
 to which it belonged. In more modern tun 
 the injurious influence of such restriction* on the free ex- 
 ercise of industry became ot wlOttS i and in consequence 
 the powers formerly exercised by civic companies or guild* 
 over individuals not free of their society, who attempted to 
 carry on the same trade, have been either wholly repealed 
 or grossly modified. At present, therefore, the ompanies 
 in question exist principally as charitable Institutions, or SJ 
 incorporated associations, having, in many in 
 management of large amounts of properly appropriated 
 for the use of their poorer brethren, or for some similai 
 purpose. 
 
 Company. In the Army, a body of men. forming 
 of the chief divisions of a battalion of infantry. In Ihi 
 guards and artillery, a company consists of 120 men. 
 but in all other infantry regiments of 100. A company In 
 the infantry corresponds to troop in cavalry regiments; 
 and is under the inspection of a captain, ■ lieutenant, and 
 an ensign, besides the non-commissioned officers; with 
 the exceptions of the artillery, engineers, marines, and the 
 rifle brigade, in which second If SMHsiai/i are substituted 
 for ensigns. 
 
 COMPARISON, or SIMILE. In Rhetoric, appears to 
 differ from Metaphor (which see) only in form ; the resOBV 
 blance being stated in the first case, implied m the second. 
 This is the sense In which the term Comparison is used 
 and defined by Aristotle, in his Art of Rhetoric. Frequently 
 the same idea furnishes at the same time ik th comparison 
 and metaphor ; as in the following line, " They melted from 
 the field as snow." The word " melted" Is used by trans 
 ferring the property of the snow to a multitude of individu- 
 als; so far, therefore, the phrase is a metaphor; but the 
 additional words, "as snow." transform ii into a direct 
 comparison. Perhaps, however, it might be more correct- 
 ly said, in this instance, that the predicate ■•molted" is 
 transferred by the figure termed Efypallage from thesnoic 
 to the multitude, both words being used as subjects in the 
 same sentence. The comparison, being as it were a meta- 
 phor resolved and rendered more (lowing and less concise, 
 (s more appropriate to poetry than to prose composition. 
 In fact, the only figures of this description which are gem • 
 rally admissible in prose writing are illustrations; i. e. argu- 
 ment! drawn from analogy in the form of compart 
 (See Illustration.) It will generally be found thai iu 
 every language the earliest writers, especially the poets 
 are the most addicted to the use of comparisons and met* 
 phors of a highly figurative and bold character, as is espe. 
 cially observable with respect to the sacred poets, aid tn 
 Homer; while as language advances in cultivation the me 
 taphor comes more and more into ordinary use, and forms, 
 as it were, the basis of composition, while at the same time 
 it gradually loses the energetic and poetical cast which at 
 first distinguished it. 
 
 COMPARISON, DEGREES OF. Those varieties in the 
 inflexions of adjectives which denote the degree in which 
 a quality is possessed by a substance, either generally co- 
 in reference to one or more other substances. In English 
 there are only two degreesof comparison, commonly named 
 the comparative and the superlative. The first compare 
 
COMPARTMENTS. 
 
 two conceptions only, as "John is taller than Charles." 
 The second either compares one conception with a definite 
 number of others as "John is the tallest of all the four;" 
 or expresses general superiority, as l - the fairest of women." 
 
 COMPA'RTMENTS. (Hal. compartimenti.) In Archi- 
 tecture, the subiivisional parts of larger divisions for orna- 
 ment, to which alone this term is properly applicable. 
 
 CO'MPASS. A name given to instruments contrived to 
 indicate the magnetic meridian, or the position of objects 
 With respect to that meridian. According to the purposes 
 to which the instrument is chiefly applied, it becomes the 
 mariner's compass, the azimuth compass, the variation com- 
 vans, each particular application requiring some peculiarity 
 >f construction ; but whatever modifications it may re- 
 ceive, the essential parts are the same in all cases. These 
 are a magnetized bar of steel, called the needle, having 
 fitted to it at its centre a cap which is supported on an up- 
 right pivot, made sharp at the point in order to diminish 
 the friction as much as possible and allow the needle to 
 turn with the slightest force. The mariner's compass has 
 a circular card attached to its needle, which turns with it; 
 and on the circumference of which are marked the de- 
 grees, and also the 32 points or rhumbs, likewise divided into 
 half and quarter points. The pivot rises from the centre 
 of the bottom of a circular box, called the compass box, 
 which contains (he needle and its card, and which is cover- 
 ed with a glass top to prevent the needle from being dis- 
 turbed by the agitation of the air. The compass box is 
 suspended within a large box, by means of two concentric 
 brass circles or gimbals ; the outer one being fixed by hori- 
 zontal pivots, both to the inner circle which carries the 
 compass box, and also the outer box, the two gets of axes 
 being at right angles to each other. By means of this ar- 
 rangement the inner circle, with the compass box, needle, 
 and card, always retain a horizontal position notwithstand- 
 ing the rolling of the ship. 
 
 The notation of the mariner's compass is as follows : — 
 The circumference being divided into the four quadrants 
 by two diameters at right angles, the extremities of these 
 diameters are the four cardinal points (cardo, a hinge), 
 marked N., S., E., W. (north, south, east, west). Bisect- 
 ing each of the quadrants, the several points of bisection 
 are denoted by placing the two letters at the extremities of 
 the quadrant in juxtaposition. Thus, N. E. (north-east) 
 
 4.'^ c- ,. •?" % . y 
 
 
 denotes the point which is halfway between north and east; 
 and so with N. W., S. E., S. W. (north-west, south-east, 
 soulh-west). Let the octants next be bisected ; the points 
 of division are denoted by prefixing to each of the above 
 combinations first the one, and then the other of the two car- 
 dinal points of which it is formed. Thus N. E. gives N. N. 
 E. and E. N. E. (north north-east, and east north-east) ; and 
 so in respect of the others. Sixteen points have thus been 
 named. Let the distances be again bisected, then each of 
 the points so found is expressed by that one of the preceding 
 points already named to which it is nearest, followed by the 
 name of the cardinal point towards which its departure 
 from the nearest point leads it, the two being separated by 
 the letter b (by). Thus, the point half way between N. 
 and N. N. E. is N. by E. (north by east) ; that which is 
 halfway between N. N. E. and N. E. by N. (north-east by 
 north), &c. The whole of the thirty-two points are thus 
 distinguished in the figure. 
 
 The principal requisites of a compass are intensity of 
 directive force, and susceptibilily. The first of these is 
 obtained by constructing the needle of the material and 
 form best suited to receive and retain the magnetic virtue. 
 A number of experiments on this subject were made by 
 Ooulomo, and more recently by Captain Kater, an account 
 of which is given in the Phil. Trans, for 1821. Captain 
 Kater found that the kind of steel capable of receiving the 
 greatest magnetic force is shear steel ; and that the best 
 form is that of a lozenge or rhomboid (fig-), cut out in the 
 266 
 
 COMPOSITE NUMBERS. 
 
 middle, so as to diminish the extent of surface in proportion to 
 the mass, it being found that the directive force of the needle, 
 when magnetized lo saturation, de- 
 pends not on the extent of surface, 
 but on the mass. Beyond a certain 
 limit (about five inches) no ad- 
 ditional power is gained by increas- 
 ing the length of the needle; and needles exceeding a very 
 moderate length are apt to have several consecutive polen 
 the effect of which is to produce a great diminution ot d 
 rective force. On this account short needles, made very 
 hard, are to be preferred. 
 
 Like many other of the most valuable arts of life, t lie origin 
 of the compass is entirely unknown. By some writers ilia 
 ascribed to Flavio Gioja, who lived in the 13th century ; yet 
 Guyot de Provence, who lived a century earlier, speaks "l 
 the loadstone, to which he gives the name of murinelti. or 
 mariner's stone, as useful to navigation. Others pretend that 
 itwas invented in France ; but there seems to be no other rea- 
 son for this supposition than the fact that from time im memo- 
 rial the north point of the compass card has been distin- 
 guished and ornamented with njteur de lis. For a reason 
 of a different kind, but perhaps of the same degree of 
 weight, Dr. Wallis and others have supposed the invention 
 to belong to England, the name compaes, which is given 
 to the instrument by most European countries, being used 
 in England to signify a circle. The term bussola in Italian 
 and bmissole in French, has also been supposed to be de 
 rived from our term box, by which the compass Is fre- 
 quently designated. Gilbert, in his celebrated work De 
 Magnete, affirms that Marco Polo brought the invention to 
 Europe from China, about the year 1200. It appear* very 
 probable that the Chinese were acquainted with the direc- 
 tive property of the loadstone at an early period. Their 
 method is lo place it on a small piece of cork and set it to 
 float on water. The art of communicating the magnetic 
 virtue to steel, and suspending the needle on a pivot, is un- 
 doubtedly an European invention. 
 
 The azimuth compass, being intended to show the bear 
 ing of objects in respect of the magnetic meridian, has its 
 circle divided merely into degrees, instead of the rhumbs 
 used in navigation, and is provided with sights to allow the 
 angles to be taken more accurately. 
 
 The variation compass, is designed to exhibit the diurnal 
 changes in the deviation of the magnetic from the true me- 
 ridian ; and the needle is generally made of much greater 
 length than the mariner's compass, in order to rentier mi- 
 nute variations more sensible. See Magnetism. 
 
 COMPITA'LIA. (Lat. compitum, a street.) A lioman 
 feast celebrated in honour of the Lares and Penates. Fa- 
 der Tarquinius Superbus, it is said that human victims were 
 sacrificed at this solemnity. The gods invoked at it Were 
 termed Compitales, as presiding over the streets. 
 
 CO'MPLEMENT. (Lat. compleo, J fill up.) What is 
 wanted to complete or fill up some quantity or thing. 
 Thus, the complement of an angle is what is wanted to 
 make the angle a quadrant or 90°. Complement of a num- 
 ber is what is necessary to be added in order lo make the 
 number 1, or 10, or 100, or, in general, 1 with zeros. In 
 Geometry, the complements of a parallelogram are the 
 two spaces which, with the parallelograms about the diago- 
 nal, make up the whole parallelogram. 
 
 COMPLU'VIUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, an 
 area in the centre of the Roman houses, so constructed 
 that it might receive the waters from the roofs. It is also 
 the gutter or eave of a roof. 
 
 COMPO'SITiE. In Botany, the largest of all known 
 natural groups of plants; and so called because the old 
 botanists who invented the name regarded the flower-heads 
 as compound flowers. They answered lo the Synxeneaia 
 polygamia of Linnreus, and are positively characti 
 having capitate flowers, syngenesious anthers, and an in- 
 ferior ovary with a single erect ovule. In the most recent 
 account of this order, by M. De Candolle, nearly 801 spe- 
 cies are enumerated in about 900 genera, and the subject 
 is not nearly exhausted; they exist all over the world 
 where vegetation can develope, and are sometimes trees, 
 although more generally herbaceous plants or shrubs. 
 Although medical species, the chamomile, wormwood, 
 southernwood, elacampane, and opium lettuce are con- 
 spicuous; of esculents, the order contains the artichoke, 
 the Jerusalem artichoke, the lettuce, succory, and endive ; 
 and among ornamental plants, the aster, dahlia, cor. opsis, 
 sunflower, &c. But by far the greater part of this large 
 assembly consists of species which are either weeds or of 
 no known use. The reader who wishes to become ac- 
 quainted with this order must consult De Catidolle's Pro- 
 dromus Regni Vegetabilis, vols, v., vi., and vii. 
 
 COMPOSITE NUMBERS, in Architecture, are numbers 
 which can be divided by some other number greater than 
 unity. They are consequently opposed In prime number*, 
 which admit of no divisor. In Music, composite number* 
 are such as are composed by the multiplication of the 
 prime integers, 2, 3, 5. 
 
 
COMPOSITE ORDER. 
 
 COMPOSITE ORDER. In Architecture, one of the 
 five orders ol architecture, and, as its name imports, com- 
 posed of two others, the Corinthian and the Ionic. Its 
 
 vase with two tiers of acanthus leaves, like the 
 Corinthian ; hut instead of stalks, the shoots appear small 
 Ihere to the vase, bending round towards the middle of 
 the face of the capital ; 
 the vase is terminated by 
 a fillet, over which is an 
 
 'wned by an 
 ovolu. The volutes roll 
 ihomselvesoverthe ovolo 
 to meet the tops of thj 
 upper row of leaves, 
 whereon they seem to 
 The corners of the 
 abacus are supported by 
 an acanthus leaf bent up- 
 wards. The abacus re- 
 sembles that of the Co- 
 rinthian capital (see Cap- 
 ital.) In detail the Com- 
 posite is richer than the 
 Corinthian, but less light 
 and delicate. Its archi- 
 trave has usually only 
 two fate 183, and the cor- 
 nice varies from the Co- 
 rinthian in having double 
 modillious. The column 
 is ten diameters high. 
 The print i pal examples of 
 this order are the Tem- 
 ple of Uacchus at Rome, 
 the arch of Septlmiua 
 Several, those of the 
 Goldsmiths and of Tims, and that in the baths of Dio- 
 cletian. The example here riven is from the arch of 
 Titus, which is considered a fine specimen of the order. 
 
 COMPOSITION. In Law, an agreement made between 
 
 tli'- parson, wil i he consent of the 
 
 ordinary and the patron, that" such lands shall be discharged 
 
 from the payment of tithes, by reason of some land or 
 
 e given to the parson iu satisfaction 
 
 an agreement, since the 13 Eliz. c. 10., is 
 
 Dot good bra looser term than three lives or twenty-one 
 
 I ' mij>u<iiiiim signifies also the agreement between 
 
 a bankrupt after his last examination and nine tenths of 
 
 bit creditors for the satisfaction of their claims, and has 
 
 Img the fiat of bankruptcy. 
 
 Composition. In the Fine Arts, that combination of 
 
 al parts, wherebv a subject isagreeably presented 
 
 to the mind, each part being subordinate to the whole. 
 
 ! sVENTION. 
 
 Composition. In Music, the art of disposing and ar- 
 ranging musical sounds into airs, songs, dec, either in one 
 parts, for voices or instruments, or both. Zarlino 
 defines it to he the art of joining and combining concords 
 ugether, which are the matter of music. 
 
 COMPOSITION OP FORCES or MOTION. In Me- 
 signifies combining or uniting several forces or 
 and determining the result of the whole. If a 
 body is solicited by two forces which act in the same di- 
 rection, the resulting force, or resultant, is equal to the sum 
 of both ; that is to say, the effect produced is the same as 
 would be produced by a single force acting in the same di- 
 rection, and equal to their sum. If the two forces act in 
 opposite directions, the resultant is equal to their differ- 
 ence, and the body will move in the direction of the 
 greater. If the lines of direction of the two forces make 
 an angle with each other, the resultant will be a mean force 
 in an intermediate direction. Thus, if the two forces be 
 represented in intensity and direction by the two sides of 
 a parallelogram, then the resultant is represented in in- 
 tensity and direction by the diagonal of the parallelogram 
 which passes through the angle formed by those two sides. 
 Principles of Mechanism. 8vo. 1841.) 
 
 COMPOSITOR. (Fr. compositeur.) In Printing, the 
 workman who arranges the types in lines and pages, and 
 prepares them for being printed off. 
 
 COMPOSTE'LLA, ST. JAMES OF, or ST. JAMES OF 
 THE SWORD. An ancient order of knighthood in Spain, 
 the chief of the four military orders (Compostella, Cala- 
 trava, Alcantara, Manresa); probably founded either by 
 Alphonsn IX. of Castile (1158, 1214), or Ferdinand II. of 
 Leon (U57, 1188). It originally began from the voluntary 
 Ion of certain gentlemen to defend the great road 
 leading to the celebrated shrine of St. James at Compos- 
 tella. Pope Alexander III. gave the order its rules of 
 government. The order possessed at one period eighty- 
 four com manderies, with two cities and numerous burghs 
 and villages. The knights take the vows of poverty, obe- 
 dience, and conjugal ci-.astity , to which they add a fourth, 
 2G7 
 
 CONCETTI. 
 
 "to defend and maintain the immaculate conception of the 
 Holy Mother of Jesus Christ." 
 
 CO'MPOUND INTEREST, is interest charged not only 
 on the principal, but also on the interest forborne. Thus, 
 if money is invested so that the interest is not paid as it be- 
 comes due, but successively added to the capital, the capi- 
 tal is said to accumulate at compound interest. Let r = 
 the amount of JE1 for 1 year; that is to say, = JE1 with its 
 interest added to it ; then the amount of £1 at the end of 2 
 years will be r* ; at the end of 3 years, r s ; al the end oft 
 years, r* ; and so on. The law of England does not allow 
 compound interest to be charged on money lent. 
 
 COMPRE'SSIHILITY. The quality of bodies in virtue 
 of which they can be reduced to small dimensions. All 
 bodies, in consequence of the porosity of matter, are com- 
 pressible, though liquids resist compression with immense 
 force. 
 
 CO'MPTONITE. A mineral found in ejected masses on 
 Vesuvius ; named after Lord Compton, who first brought 
 it to England in 1818. 
 
 COMPURGATION. An ancient mode of trial both in 
 civil and criminal cases. In the latter, by the law of the 
 Saxons (whiclfWilliam the Conqueror confirmed in this 
 respect, at least as to its main features), the accused 
 party was allowed to clear himself by the oath of as 
 many of his neighbours to his innocence as amounted in 
 collective worth, according to the legal arithmetic of the 
 Anglo-Saxons, to one pound {see Wereoild), if he could in 
 the first instance (being a villein) obtain the testimony of 
 his lord that he had not been previously convicted. If 
 otherwise, he is bound to undergo ordeal, or wage his law 
 with a greater number of compurgators. Compurgation 
 in criminal cases was abolished in general by Henry II. 's 
 assizes, the ordeal being enforced in lieu of it. Rut it was 
 retained as a special franchise in some boroughs, to which 
 those assizes did not extend ; and the last instances of it 
 on record are to be found in the rolls of the hundred court 
 of Winchilsea, in the reign of Henry VI. (See Sir >'. 
 Palgrave on the British Commonwealth. A singular usage 
 of the same description long remained in the ecclesiasti- 
 cal courts, by which convicted clerks, allowed their clergy 
 livered up to the ordmar; purge 
 
 themselves by the oaths of compurgators, which' was 
 abolished by 18 Eliz. c. 7. Wager of law, in civil cases, 
 lay in some personal actions only, and In incidental tra- 
 verses in real actions (see Blackstone, lib. iii. c. 23.); and 
 in these cases, although many technical difficulties prevent 
 defendants from availing themselves of it, it is not yet abo- 
 lished. 
 
 COM3, COOMS. COOMES, or CHIVES. The points of 
 the radicles of malted grain, which after kiln-drying drop 
 off during the process of turning. They are sold by malt- 
 sters under the name of malt dust, and are considered ex- 
 cellent manure. 
 
 CONCE'PTACLES. (Lat. conceptaculum, a receiver.) 
 The cases containing the reproductive organs of such 
 plants as ferns, in which they are produced from the back 
 of the leaves, growing in the form of spots at the anasto- 
 moses, margins, or extremities of the veins, and then col- 
 lectively called Sori. The conceptacles are also termed 
 Capsules, Thecse, and Sporangia. 
 
 CONCEPTA'CULUM. (Lat. a receiver.) A term in 
 Botany, denoting a one valved fruit opening longitudinally 
 on one side, and distinct from the seeds. It is a folliculus 
 without any attachment between the placenta and the ven- 
 tral suture, as in Asclepias. 
 
 CONCETTION. (Lat. concipere, to conceive.) In 
 Mental Philosophy, that faculty or act of the mind by 
 which we combine a number of individuals together by 
 means of some mark or character common to them all. 
 We may observe, for instance, that equilateral isosceles 
 and scalene triangles all agree in one respect, that of having 
 three sides ; and from this perceived similitude we form 
 the conception triangle. 
 
 CONCERTA'NTE.(It.concentare,/oconfnre.)InMusic, 
 a term expressive of those parts of a musical composition 
 that sing or play throughout the piece, as distinguished 
 from those that play only occasionally in particular places. 
 
 CONCE'RTO. (It.) In Music, a piece composed for 
 a particular instrument, which bears the greatest part in it, 
 or in which the performance is partly alone and partly ac- 
 companied bv other parts. 
 
 CONCETTI. (It. ; rendered by English writers on rhe- 
 toric, conceits.) Ingenious thoughts or turns of expression, 
 points, jeux d'esprit, <fec. in serious composition. In the 
 16lh century, the taste for this species of brilliancy, often 
 false and always dangerous, spread rapidly in the poetical 
 composition of European nations, especially in Spain and 
 Italy ; where the name of concetti was applied rather in a 
 good than a bad sense, the critical taste being much per- 
 verted. Tasso is not free from concetti. After his time 
 they became offensively prominent in Italian poetry for a 
 century afterwards : Marino and Filicaia offer strong ex- 
 amples. In France, the mode of concetti was equallypre 
 
OONCHIFERS. 
 
 valentin the l"th century, ami was peculiarly In vogue with 
 the fair critics of the Hotel Kambouillet, so well known by 
 Moliere'a " Pr€cieusea Ridicules. " In England, Donne 
 and Cow lev are instances of a style full of concetti. 
 
 i i> NCiill'h'RS (Lat. concha, a shell, and kro, I carry. ) 
 A ii.-me applied by Lamarck, Schweigger, and I.alreilleto 
 ail molluaks which are protected by a bivalve shell. 
 
 CO'NCIIOID. (Gr. xoyxiy " *tell, and itioc, form.) 
 
 The name given to a curve invented by Nichomedes for 
 
 Dlulicn of the two famous geometrical problems of 
 
 antiquity,— the duinication of the cube, and the triplication 
 
 of an angle. It is constructed as follows: — 
 
 Let 1' be a given point through „ 
 
 which any straight line is drawn 
 to cut or meet another straight line , 
 f 1) given in position ; if a segment 
 Ali (or Alt' j of a given length be 
 taken on either side of C D, the 
 point II (or H') will trace the 
 conchoid, The curve has different forms, according to the 
 different relative positions of the point li with respect to 
 the pole 1' ami the given straight line C D. .The conchoid 
 is a curve of the fourth order, the equation between the 
 rectangular co-ordinates (the origin being placed at A in the 
 straight line perpendicular to CD) being s* y* = (a' — y*) 
 (6 ■+■ y* ), in which A IJ = a, and A V (perpendicular to C D) 
 
 CONCIIO'I.OGY. (Gr. Koyxi, a shell, and Xoyoc, a dis- 
 course.) The science of shells : that department 
 lacology which treats of the nature, formation, physiologi- 
 cal relations, and classification of the hard parts or skele- 
 tons of the molluscous animals. 
 
 As Osteology, inasmuch as it relates to the nature, devel- 
 (■; iii> nt, and physiological subserviencies of the skeletons 
 rate animals, is a science in the strict accept- 
 ation of the term, so also is Conchology under the like 
 applications ; but as no naturalist has yet conceived a clas- 
 ition of vertebrate skeletons independently of the 
 softer organs of the body which they support and protect, 
 and a- .Ming that the complex internal skele- 
 
 tons of tin' Vertebrates ire closely related to their general 
 structure anil habits, the classification of these parts would 
 not in all cases tally with the natural arrangement of the 
 animals to which they belonged, therefore still less scien- 
 tific must he a classification of shells merely, apart from 
 a consideration of the molluscous animals by which they 
 i -reteil. For shells, instead of consisting, like bones, 
 of living organized substance permeated by blood-vessels, 
 absorbents, and nerves, are mere inorganic laminated, con- 
 cretionary, or crystalline deposits of calcareous earth, more 
 combined with albuminous matter: they are also 
 formed in the skin, and are appendages to the dermal sys- 
 lent, which in all classes of animals is the principal seat 
 iety. In many cases, therefore, there exists very 
 little correspondence between the structure or even the 
 presence of a shell and the general character of the organl- 
 cation of a mollusk; and the absence of uniformity be- 
 tween the condition of the shell in closely allied species is 
 exemplified in the highest as well as the lowest classes of 
 the molluscous sub .kingdom. The argonaut, the poulp 
 ( Uctopus), the calamary, the cuttle-fish, and the spirula, 
 all possess the same peculiar and highly developed or- 
 ganization ; and in a classification founded on general 
 structure, and expressive of the true affinities of its ob- 
 jects, they must rank in the same order of their class. 
 Hut the sheila of these mollusks present respectively the 
 following conditions:— the first, a simple, external, light, 
 clastic, subtrausparent, but calcareous discoidal univalve ; 
 the second, two internal, friable, subtransparent styles ; 
 composed of hardened albumen ; the third, an elongated, 
 feather-shaped, horny plate ; the fourth, an internal, com- 
 pressed, oval, laminated, friable, calcareous mass; the 
 fifth, an elongated, cylindrical, conical shell, twisted spi- 
 rally in the same plane, divided into chambers bv calca- 
 partitions, perforated by a siphon, and partly inter- 
 nal, partly external, in its situation. Now, in a system of 
 Conchology, understood as the classification of shells in 
 the abstract, these productions would necessarily be 
 dispersed into five widely different groups; and in 
 like manner, the small, thin, and fiat plate, which is 
 buried in the substance of the mantle of the slug, would 
 be far removed from the large external spiral shell of the 
 ■naiL 
 
 But no conchologist groups together his shells strictly 
 and exclusively, according to their resemblances; all (he 
 testaceous productions of the Cephalopods, now that the 
 real affinities of these mollusks are known, are arranged 
 in the same group, notwithstanding their striking discre- 
 pancies of texture and form, and in their relative size and 
 position to the bodli bricators: so likewise with 
 
 the shells or their rudiments of the air-breathing Gastro- 
 poda, or of the Pteropodoui Mollusca. In short, every 
 purely ronchological system must undergo modifications 
 corresponding with the progress which is made in the 
 
 CONCHOLOGY. 
 
 Knowledge of the true natural affinities of Ihe molluscous 
 animals ; and the progress of Conchology is therefore es- 
 sentially connected with that of Malucology, under which 
 term an outline of the most approved classification of the 
 Mollusca and their shells will be found. 
 
 Under the present head will be briefly |r 
 points which relate to Conchology as a science ; viz. the 
 development, structure, configuration, and physio! 
 subserviencies of shells 
 
 The formation of a shell commences with the exudation 
 of layers of albumen from the outer surface ol 
 or skin of the embryo mollusk, which is generally followed 
 by the admixture of rhombic or prism* te par- 
 
 ticles of the carbonate of lime: and this first-formed stieL' 
 of the embryo constitutes the nucleus of the shell of the 
 mature mollusk. The nucleus is developed 
 before the embryo quits the egg-coverings, but it is never 
 "coeval with the first formation of the animal ;" it i 
 ceded by several distinct stages in the development ol the 
 embryo. The subsequent growth of the shell del 
 upon the deposition ol fresh layers to the inner mri 
 the circumference of those previously formed ; I. even.) 
 which the new-formed layers extend in proportions which 
 determine the figure of the future shell. 
 
 Sometimes Ihe calcifying margin of the mantle extends 
 outwards at an obtuse or right last-formed 
 
 margin o<" the shell ; and after having d loare- 
 
 ous plate in this position, is retracted and absorbed, to be 
 again similarly produced and extended after ordinary 
 growth has proceeded to a certain extent. It is to till 
 riodical growth of the mantle and plethoric condition 
 of ihe calcifying vessels that the ridges on the exterior of 
 the shell in the Venus plicata among Bivalves, and in the 
 Sealana pretiosa among Univalves, are due. Should the 
 mantle, instead of being uniformly exl 1 out- 
 
 wards a number of detached tentaculiform calcifying pro- 
 cesses, these will form a row of spines corresponding in 
 length and thickness to the soft parts on which they are 
 moulded ; and as the calcifying proce< 
 posit shelly material during the progress of their absorp- 
 tion, the spines, which were at first hollow, thus become 
 solidified, and are soldered to the margin of the sin II 
 This development of calcifying proce^ nta ol 
 
 the mantle and spines may likewise alternate with periods 
 of the ordinary formation of the shell ; and tl 
 riorof the shell may become bristled with rows ofsj 
 as in some species of Spondylus, an.! in the Mu) 1 1 crassi- 
 spina. 
 
 The most simple form of shell is the rone, which may 
 be much depressed, as in the genus Umbrella; or ex- 
 tremely el. >vated an Ihe DtntaHum; or 
 of more ordinary proportions, as in the limpets (Patella). 
 The apex of the cone is oblique and excrntric ; diri 
 in the limpets, the argonaut, and the nautilus, 
 head, but in most other mollusks towards the o 
 tremity of the body. A shell m. 
 In the Inopercular Univalves ; oroftw In the 
 Opercular Univalves and most Hivalves ; or ol I 
 as in Terehratula ; or of lour or more pieces, as in tome 
 of the Pkolades and the Multlvalvea proper, or chitons. 
 With respect to the operculum, this part is sometimes cal- 
 careous, but it consists frequently of albuminous mem- 
 brane only, or is horny ; thus presenting the condition 
 which (he univalve shell iiself presents in certain genera, 
 as Aplysia, Loligo, &c. 
 
 The conical univalve shell Is generally spirally convolu- 
 ted ; sometimes, as in the Nautilus (fig. 3), in the same 
 plane, more usually in an 
 oblique direction, as in fir. 
 1 and 2. As a gem. 
 the spiral unlvalvi 
 viewed in the 
 which its inhabitant would 
 carry it if it were moving 
 forwards from rat 
 v.r. i- n the 
 
 own wards, from led 
 
 to right, the spire being di- 
 
 obliquely t< 
 
 il <«, fig. 1. im 
 
 nut). In cert. mi genera, aa 
 in, Physo, trt< 
 
 direction : su 
 
 trol. Some -, 
 linns, Partula, and 
 are sinistral ; and 
 marine shell- sinistrorsus, also exhibit II 
 
 of the ordinary disposition of tl 
 around which ihe spiral cone is wound is termed tl ■ 
 lumella mes simple, sometimes pli 
 
 as In the Valuta mnsica (fig. 2) ; It is ateo sometimes so Id. 
 
■••flOLOGY. 
 
 hollow: when the Utter, its aperture U termed 
 
 s umbilicus if. fig 1.) The opening forming the bane 
 
 ■I univalve is bouoded by an inurr Up a\ and an 
 
 oner Up offeri a amootb convex surface, 
 
 er which the foot or locomotive diak of the mo B a a fc 
 
 de*to reach the ground 
 
 :in, (he aperture of the shell l« entire ; 
 
 ken by a notch, or perforated by one or 
 
 >rc boiea; or a ponton of it u produced into a canal or 
 
 >t»on <c fig \) : or :i may presents 
 
 oppoatle to the nation. These ■ 
 
 ml of I ho 
 
 wlwtoajat, In 
 
 sllsof which _ 
 
 grooved aiplioo, woold really mdto als a 
 17 asttsral tribe of MoUuaca. every apeoea of which be 
 grit be assured waa aquatic and marine, and breathed 
 (ilia having a pectinated structure, to 
 lich th- w»ier 1. conducted by a fleshy tube. \\ . r. .1 
 e correUl...n between the .heU and .U inhabitant to hold 
 '• 
 
 Ir.ane reverse of am to frequently lb* cm*. 
 
 ■mm, which to p ri ssal to oar- 
 tow consisting of Isyers of 
 
 us of the respiratory organ*: tbua the 
 OLUntoj together all the spiral univalve 
 a part of the roargin waa either notched or 
 
 are 11. 
 
 lot all 1 ha species to whic h 
 
 to the IffMBBJtoa of the 
 ■ll Mm t.y burrowing 
 I they alan commonly Una 
 mooth and co m pa ct cales- 
 Thto calcareous tube. In 
 tow and thlcknaaa, aa in 
 rio of Umarck. In the 
 • AtptrgWum both valves, 
 ha totter, present* » 
 
 >.».-. I fill, m.tv. «hirh re 
 >f a watering pot. N 
 ■traat than do thoae 
 t the organisation ol 
 itially the MM. la a clsa- 
 im tube, of the iWnftW 
 
 r to dif- 
 the am 
 ■gajaagsL 
 
 of bivalve shells, it may bo observed. Drat, that In all Ace- 
 ■hnbms Molluaea which breathe by diatinctly developed 
 smnoastsd gllla (/. smstisrswrain ta\ one valve corresponds 
 .'• other to the right tide) of the animal ; but in 
 •i.loui Bivalves, one valve ia applied to the 
 ventral, ami the other lo the dorsal aspect of the animal. 
 
 In nil tl>e l.amelUbraaehtols Bivalve* which are free, the 
 two valve* are symmetrical, and the ahell la termed t<pii- 
 volt* ; in alt ihoee which adhere by one of their valvea lo 
 foreign bodies, thto valve la deeper and larger than the un- 
 attached valve : each ahella are termed iwevwiro/re. Of 
 thoa* eesphatons which an attached to foreign bodies oy 
 
 ■mi of a byssos, tone, aa TVidonaa, Sasicara, am 
 
 1 equivaJve, 1 
 
 and both valvea are notched, ti 
 form the hole for the peaeage of the byaaua ; while others 
 aa the F u rtimu , Avicula, and Ptda, are inequtvalve, tlu 
 byaaua uaseing through a groove ia the right valve. 
 
 Uwtotohvjfeolwtatowatowd pwatotoatow Hm iwwto 
 
 tion of ahella, defined eeveral poinia requisite to be notice. 
 ia the outer and inner aurface of a bivalve ahell, but th< 
 pintl es* satthHs, which hi* companion of the bivalve ae 
 lected for iltoatratlna todaeed him to attach to those parts 
 have been ab— doner! and change -II of th< 
 
 twwwnaj cockle ( Cn rsama ssasts) bs evamtosd, each valvt 
 
 will be MM (.> It t,r.-lur.-.| int.. aaOMWj prolliinrr-- 
 
 bent towards, and nearly meeting at, that part by wl 
 the valvea are Joined togetlier. Tbeae prominencaa 
 termed the sawcone s . The apex, or beak of the un 
 
 m 
 
 apex,i 
 rsrrsspnnds W the apex of the univalve shell, and ia ih« 
 point at which the development of the bivalve commence* 
 When the apex to directed to the transverse j-i . 
 ahell, and an placed that a btoeetton of the shell in thai 
 plane through the apiece shall divide the vah •■ 
 equal paru, the ahell to lermed lasaintirnf : of thla form 
 the common arallop 1 iVc/en 1 1. an exani|..- U • 
 a eimitor divtsisa, a slight difference la obaen . 
 two valve*, the shell is t.-rm^.l SaaVtsasftolsra. : tog wt.rrr 
 the dtOerence ia well marked.it is an imoouUmleral bivslve. 
 Wh.11 the apei it b-i.r, ». to*WWMafi the ssjggL .-it of 
 
 war sr as ptoas, it to ahraya d s r sstod more or Waa to 
 
 the anterior part of the atiell; tfauch a Bivalve ahell 
 aa a C to toara a or JsaaaraJto be held before the observer, 
 with the umbonea directed forwards and the hinge above,- 
 in the po*iuon, in fact, la which the living animal would 
 ptoee itself if a were creeping forwarda from the obse rvr , 
 —the right v.. 
 count** t «»rrr*i|h >i\- 1 with 
 the right h.vn.l Of the 
 
 observer, and the toil 
 
 With the |r|| 
 
 to the toft valve of ■ 
 Cbtaeraa .- a ia the up 
 
 rr or dorsal margin, 
 the lower or ven 
 tral margin, c the an- 
 tenor, d the poatertot 
 margin, e the apex of 
 the umbo, / the lu- 
 nule ) Now, if a Ill- 
 valve In which the 
 •pice* have a epiraj 
 twist, aa an lasmrrffii 
 or Iheertu, be placed 
 in the above position, 
 and compared with (ha 
 univalve sheUof a Con 
 Wstotfli or I*urjjura, 
 it will be seen that the 
 left valve correspond*. 
 with the ordinary of 
 dextral spiral Univalve, 
 right valve to 
 the perverse or sinis- 
 tral Univalve. Instan- 
 ces, however, have 
 been met with where 
 the character* of the 
 valvea of (he Bivalve 
 - ersed, like the 
 occasional exceptions 
 in Ihe " perverse" sinistral Univalves before mentioned. 
 
 When ihe circumference or margin of one valve fife ex- 
 actly at every part to that of ha follow, it ia mid to be 
 ** regular," or entire ; but If it be notched at any part, so 
 as not lo come into contact with the corresponding part ol 
 the oppoeite valve. It to " irregular," or emarginate. 
 
 With respect tothe outer surface of a Bivalve, (he parts 
 called aswicaei and apiem have already been defined, and 
 the upper or dorsal and anterior margins of the valve de- 
 termined I if we continue our examination of (lie exterior 
 aurface of the Bivalve, we shall find, in mo»( raac*, ante- 
 rior to the aplce*, a depression of variable extent and 
 depth. This is the " lunula" (/ fig. 5): it mav bo cordi 
 form, or creaeentic, lanceolate, oval, oblong, deep, super- 
 ficial, kA. Behind ihe apicea i* another depression, longer 
 and narrower than Ihe lunule, and which ia called Um '• fin- 
 ■ore" ig, fig. 5), and its margins lips. Behind the fissure 
 there ia sometimes a email depression, called the " suture" 
 (A, fig. 6). The general more or leaa convex surface of 
 earn valve is railed the " venter," or belly, which lermi 
 natea In the limb, circumference, or margin. 
 
 The moat important part of the margin ia tint which ie 
 modified to form the joint or hinge upon which the two 
 valvea open and shut. This part ia called the " cardinal 
 edge," and generally presents certain prominences and 
 depressions, the projections of one valve interlocking with 
 
CONCHOLOGY. 
 
 the depressions of the other. The projections of " teeth," 
 together with the cavities or " cardinal pits," are very regu- 
 lar in their formation in each genus and species of Bivalve. 
 What is of more importance is, that every modification in 
 the structure of the hinge is generally found to coincide 
 With some recognizable and more or less important differ- 
 ence in the organization of the soft parts; so that coneho- 
 legista have justly attached great value to the characters 
 derivable from the hinge, especially for the purpose of ge- 
 neric distinctions. When the teeth are situate beneath the 
 apex or centre of the hinge, they are called cardinal ; when 
 they are removed from the centre of the hinge, they are 
 named lateral te/jtn («, fig. 6) ; when two only are present, 
 one is called anterior, the other posterior ; when there are 
 three, they are distinguished respectively as the anterior, 
 median, and posterior teeth ; but when the hinge is com- 
 posed of a great number of teeth, it is said to be " serial," 
 is in Area. The direct medium of union of the two valves 
 '•s a dense fasciculus of elastic albuminous fibres, generally 
 >( a brown colour, called the "ligament," or "elastic liga- 
 ment." The fibres of this part are attached by their ex- 
 tremities to the two valves, which, in most cases, present a 
 particular depression for their reception. The ligament is 
 tlways so long as to prevent the actual closing of the valves, 
 except when its elasticity is overcome by a certain force, 
 as by that of the contraction of the adductor muscle or 
 muscles ; thus the inorganic power of elasticity is made 
 'he direct antagonist of a vital and muscular contraction ; 
 and as the patent condition of the bivalve shell is that which 
 the exigencies of the animal most constantly require, it 
 is assigned to a force which can act without ever causing 
 fatigue, while the occasional or protective action of forci- 
 bly closing the valves is due to an action under the imme- 
 diate control of the will or instinctive sensation. The modi- 
 fications of the internal surface of a bivalve shell are, per- 
 haps, the most interesting and important; as they relate 
 immediately to the structure of the soft parts, and bespeak 
 the general nature of the organization of the animal. 
 Hence they afford the characters by which the habits and 
 structure of an extinct genus may be to a great extent 
 determined. 
 
 The adductor muscles leave well-marked impressions on 
 the inner surface. If there be but one muscular impres- 
 sion on a valve, then it belongs to a " monomyary" or " uni- 
 muscular" Bivalve ; and if neither valve of a fossil shell 
 presenting this character have been immediately attached 
 to foreign bodies, then the laws of co-existence warrant the 
 inference that the constructor of such a Bivalve possessed 
 a byssus, and the muscular organ called the foot; but that 
 the foot was developed only to the extent adapted to serve 
 as an instrument for moulding the soft fibres, and regulat- 
 ingthe attachment of the byssus. 
 
 If each valve of a bivalve shell exhibit two muscular im- 
 pressions, it proves the species to be"dimyary" or"bi- 
 muscular" (k is the anterior, and I the posterior muscular 
 impression in the Cytherea, fig. 6) ; if, moreover, there be 
 a thin small muscular depression beneath the cardinal 
 hinge, we have then an indication that the animal possessed 
 a large foot, organized to serve as a locomotive or burrow- 
 ing fleshy organ, the retractive muscle of which was in- 
 serted in the above depression. The line continued be- 
 tween the impressions of the two adductors indicates, by 
 its depth and breadth, the development of the muscular 
 margin of the mantle, and is called the paUial impression 
 (m, fig. 6). If this line be continued uninterruptedly, pa- 
 rallel witli the margin of the valve, we may be assured that 
 the animal was either without siphons, or had them of very 
 small size ; but if the pallial line be broken by an angular 
 notch (m, fig. 6) continued inwards before its junction with 
 the posterior muscular impression, then it may be certain- 
 ly inferred that the animal had well developed muscular 
 tubes or siphons for respiration, with all the concomitant 
 powers and habits. Thus the general organization of the 
 soft and perishable fabricator of a bivalve shell may be as 
 certainly determined by the evidence of its fosselized en- 
 during case, as that of a vertebrate species by the structure 
 of its skeleton. The more immediate affinities of the Bi- 
 valve are revealed by the modifications of the hinge. 
 
 It sometimes happens, however, that the whole of the 
 internal or nacreous stratum of a fossil bivalve shell is des- 
 troyed, especially if it have been imbedded in porous 
 chalk ; and as the muscular impressions and the articular 
 structure of the hinge are composed exclusively of the in- 
 ner stratum of the shell, the means of determining the na- 
 ture and affinities of the animal in that case are lost; and, 
 unless the observer were acquainted with the texture and 
 structure of the bivalve shell, he would run the risk of 
 mistaking the part of a decomposed Bivalve for the whole 
 of some nondescript " Arcadian" species, as those Bivalves 
 nre termed in which the hinge is naturally wanting. 
 
 Each valve of a bivalve shell consists of two strata, dis- 
 tinct in texture and in their organs of formation: the in- 
 ternal stratum is deposited in nearly parallel layers, by the 
 central and posterior parts of the mantle ; it forms the 
 270 
 
 CONCORDANCE. 
 
 smooth iridescent lining of the shell called " mother ol 
 pearl ;" the outer stratum is secreted by the thick glandulai 
 margin of the mantle, and consists of conical fibres, rest- 
 ing obliquely by their apices, or narrower ends, upon the 
 nacreous laminae. The thickness of the two strata of the 
 shell always preserves an inverse ratio, the outer one being 
 thinnest at the umbo, and thickest at the margin ; the inner 
 one the reverse. 
 One hundred parts of oyster shell give — 
 
 Of carbonate of lime - - 983 
 Phosphate of lime • 1-2 
 
 Insoluble animal matter 0.5 
 
 1000 
 
 Most univalve shells are composed of three strata, which 
 consist of layers of rhombic or prismatic crystals, different- 
 ly arranged in the adjoining strata. The chief difference 
 of structure depends on the relative quantity of the animal 
 to the earthy constituents of the shell. 
 
 Hunter discovered that the molluscous inhabitants of 
 shells had the power of absorbing a part of the shell previ 
 ously formed ; a fact which has been confirmed by subse- 
 quent observers, and which gives rise, in several species, 
 to singular modifications in the form and structure of the 
 shell in the progress of growth. Another change of form is 
 due to the physical decomposition or destruction of a pari 
 of a shell: this occurs to the apex of certain Univalves, aflet 
 they have been evacuated by their original occupant, in the 
 widening and lengthening the shell to accommodate it to an 
 increase of bulk. Such shells are said to be " decollated," 
 as in Cerilhium decollatum, Helix decollala, &c. An analo- 
 gous partial decomposition always obtains in many Untunes 
 and Anodonta,, of which the "umbones" are then said to 
 be "decorticated," the external coloured layer or bark of 
 the shell being worn away. There is no general law or 
 uniformity in the mode in which the inhabitants of either 
 univalve or bivalve sheila dispose of that pari of their cal- 
 careous abode which they evacuate in the progress of theii 
 growth. In the decollated shells, the vacated spire is par- 
 titioned off by the formation of a thin nacreous plate ; and 
 its walls being thin and fragile, it is then broken away, as 
 above described. In Vermetus gigas, the vacated portions of 
 the tube are successively partitioned off, and a series of 
 concave plates or septa developed; but the part of the shell 
 thus divided into chambers, or " camerated," is retained. 
 The Spondylus varius, among Bivalves, offers an aualogous 
 structure. In the pearly nautilus, the vacated portion of 
 the shell is converted into a series of chambers by the de- 
 velopment of calcareous septa in greater number and regu- 
 larity than in any Gastropodous Univalves; and the parti- 
 tions are perforated by a membranous tube or siphon, and 
 the deserted chambers are converted, by the superaddition 
 of this part, into a hydraulic machine, perfectly adapted to 
 the habits and exigencies of the animal. The like structure, 
 with various modifications, obtains in the extensive, but 
 mostly extinct, race of "Siphoniferous" Cephalopoda. In 
 the argonaut, the vacated spire of the shell is not partitioned 
 off, but is retained in full communication will) the inhabited 
 pari, and made subservient to the reproductive economy 
 of the species. In the Magilus antirjuus, the posterior part 
 of the shell, as it is deserted, is progressively filled up with 
 a dense, solid, subtransparent crystalline deposit of car- 
 bonate of lime. A deposit of similar calcareous material, 
 in a less degree, fills up the deserted spire of the shell in 
 some species of Cassis, Mitra, Triton, &c. : and in the 
 long "turreted" shells of the Terebra, Cerithia,, &c. Iho 
 deposition of this dense material in the vacated apex is the 
 preventative, instead of the cause, of decollation. i.See 
 Sioainson's Treatise on Malacology, in Lurdrter's Cycluj ■(!■■ 
 dia ; Reeves' Conchologia Systematica, 4to. 1842.) 
 
 CO'NCLAVE. (Lat. con, together, and Gr. k\u<o, 1 shut 
 up.) The assembly of cardinals for fhe election of a pope. 
 It begins the day following the funeral of the deceased pon- 
 tiff. The cardinals are locked up in separate apartments 
 and meet once a day in the chapel of the Vatican (or other 
 pontifical palace), where their votes, given on a slip of 
 paper, are examined. This continues until two-thirds of 
 the votes are found to be in favourof a particular candidate. 
 The ambassadors of France, Austria, and Spain have each 
 the right to put in a veto against the election of one cardi- 
 nal, who may be unacceptable to their respective courts. 
 
 CONCLUSION. In Logic, that proposition which is in- 
 ferred from certain former propositions, termed the pre- 
 mises of the argument. 
 
 CO'NCORD. (Lat. concordia.) In Music, the relation 
 of two sounds agreeable to the ear either in succession or 
 consonance. 
 
 CONCO'RDANCE. (Lat.) A biblical index, in which 
 all the leading words used in scripture are ai ranged alpha- 
 betically, and a reference made to the various places in 
 which they occur, for the purpose of enabling the siudept 
 to collate with facility one passage with another in the view 
 of determining its meaning. The importance of this class 
 of works was early appreciated, and a vast deal of labour 
 
CONCORDAT. 
 
 has been expended in compiling ihem. Concordances 
 have been made of the Greek Seplu.igint, the Greek Tes- 
 tamtnt, the Latin Vulgate, and the English Old and New 
 merits: a lull list ol which will be found in Watt'* 
 itlieca Britannica, and in Orme's liiblio. BMica. The 
 first Concordance was compiled by Cardinal Hugues de St. 
 Cher, who died in 1262. The best English Concordance is 
 thai of Cruden, which appeared in 1737, and still maintains 
 its ground as an authority. 
 
 ( HMO'RDAT. An agreement or convention upon 
 ecclesiastical matters made between the Pope and some 
 temporal sovereign, as that between Pius VII. and Bona- 
 parte in 1802, by which the Roman Catholic religion was 
 re-established in France ; on which occasion the Pope re- 
 cognized the new division of France into 00 sees, instead 
 much greater number which had azisted before the 
 revolution, the payment of the clergy from the national 
 revenues, and the appointment of the bishops by the civil 
 authority! Originally the term was applied to agreements 
 • l ween bishops, abbots, priors, Sec. 
 i <if Ihe French church were first established by 
 the pragmatic sanctions of Saint Louis (1268), and Charles 
 VII. CI 439). In 1516 a concordat between Francis I. and 
 Leo X. divided the privileges of the church between 
 them, and the king assumed the nomination of bishops. 
 The siaies of Orleans restored their election to the chapters 
 in 156J. The pragmatic sanctions were still considered as 
 forming the base of ecclesiastical law in France down to 
 ilution. 
 * ') NGRETE. ( I. it. cincresccrc, fc> coalesce in one mass.) 
 In Architecture and Engineering, a mass composed of stone 
 chtppl ited together through the medium 
 
 of lime and sand, usually employed In making foondat to ns 
 where the soil is of itself too liLilit or bony, or otherwise 
 insufficient for Ihe reception of the walls. Tlie employment 
 rete in this country owes perhaps its introduction to 
 Mr. George Semple, the engineer who erected the Essex 
 bri I-"- al Dublin, and who in 1776 published a Treatise on 
 Building In Water; but there is no doubt it was well known 
 hi architects, if not lo those of higher 
 antiquity. The riemputa of Palladio. and the instructions 
 in Albe'rti's 3d Hook, chap, viii., clearly point to what is 
 i! i •-• t concrete. The essential quality of concrete 
 seems to be that the materials used should be of small di- 
 mensions, so thai the cementing medium may act in every 
 direction round them, and that the latter should on no ac- 
 count be more in quantity than is necessary for that pur- 
 Architects and engineers hive much varied the pro- 
 pi irtiona of lime and sand used. If the lime, which should 
 ! ground to powder, be good stone lime, such as 
 that from Dorking, used in the neighbourhood of London, 
 it will b".ir three or four times its measure by bulk of sand. 
 .and the ballast or gallou, as the stone chippings 
 arc called, should be thoroughly tamed over and mixed 
 together. If the foundations be wet, the mixture will want 
 very little if any water; indeed sometimes the ballast only 
 is wetted, and then covered over with the lime and sand. 
 It is then filled into the barrows, and run on to be dropped 
 from a stage into the foundations. This latter operation 
 should be performed at as great a height as possible above 
 the level of the trench, in order that the whole of the differ- 
 ent particles of the composition may be compressed toge- 
 ther so as to occupy the least possible space. The stones 
 oyed should not exceed the size of a common hen's 
 egg The mass very quickly sets and becomes extremely 
 hard. On the lop of it, which is kept as level as possible, 
 a tier of what is called Yorkshire stone landings is laid, and 
 very often throughout the lengths a chain of timber is buried 
 in the footings, whose durability is requisite only while the 
 Is settling; over the landings and timber thus laid, 
 the latter, it is to be observed, occupying but a very small 
 portion of the thickness of the footings, and quite buried in 
 them, the walls are carried up. (See Davy on Artificial 
 and Totten on Mortars, Cements, (Jr.) 
 CONCRETE TERM, in Logic, is so called when the 
 notion derived from the view taken of any object is ex- 
 1 with a reference to, or in conjunction with, the 
 I thai furnished the notion ; as " foolish," or " fool." 
 i the notion is expressed without any such reference, 
 died an abstract term; as "folly." (See Whatelt/'s 
 Logic, p. 124.) 
 
 CONCU'SSION. (Lat. concntlo, / shalce.) A term 
 generally applied to injuries sustained by the brain, inde- 
 pendent of fracture of the skull, as from blows and fV.lls. 
 More or less insensibility, sickness, impeded respiration, 
 and irregular pulse, are the first symptoms ; but these sub- 
 side, and the sufferer often becomes more easy and collect- 
 ed ; yet, although the symptoms apparently abate, danger- 
 ous inflammation may be going on, and a fatal termination 
 ensue. In all accidents of this kind, where, as is commonly 
 said, persons are stunned, the most cautious treatment 
 should be adopted, and no lime lost in obtaining skilful 
 professional aid. 
 CONDENSATION. The rendering a body more dense, 
 271 
 
 CONE. 
 
 compact, or of greater specific gravity, by bringing its par 
 tides into closer union. The lerm is commonly applied to 
 the conversion of vapour into fluid by distillation or other 
 wise. See Gas. 
 
 CONDE'NSEK. An instrument for reducing an elastic 
 fluid of a given mass into a smaller volume. The pneu 
 malic condenser is a syringe by which a large quantity of 
 air may be forced into a given space. It is constructed on 
 the same principle as the air-pump : only the valves are dis- 
 posed in the contrary order, that is, lo open inward instead 
 of outward. 
 
 CONDITION. In Law, has been defined in the most 
 general sense, "A restraint annexed to a thing, so that by 
 the non-performance the party shall receive loss, and by 
 the performance advantage." It is most commonly need 
 to signify a term whereon a grant is made : e. g. grant of an 
 estate to A., on condition that the grantee shall pay such a 
 sum on such a day, or else his estate shall cease. Condi- 
 tions of this description maybe implied by law: as, where 
 tenant for life enfeoffs a stranger in fee simple, he forfeits 
 his estate for the breach, as it is said, of the implied condi- 
 tion not lo grant a greater estate than his own. Conditions 
 are precedent, when an estate Is gained on the performance 
 of them ; MtoefHeitt, when the condition is to be perform- 
 ed after the acquisition of the estate which is lost by its 
 non-performance. Hut the distinctions between these two 
 classes are numerous and minute. In general, where a con- 
 dition is of such a nature that compensation can he made 
 for its non-perlorm nice, equity will relieve Ihe party break- 
 ing it from the consequences of the breach on making such 
 compensation. 
 
 CONDITIONAL. PROPOSITION, in Logic, is one which 
 asseiis the dependence of one categorical proposition on 
 another: e.g. "If the wind changes, it will rain." The pro- 
 position from which the other results is termed the Antece- 
 dent; the resulting proposition the Consequent. A condi- 
 tional syllogism is one in which the reasoning depends on 
 a conditional proposition. It is of two sorts, constructive 
 and destructive; as, 1. If A=B, then C=D; but A=B, 
 therefore C=D. 2. If A=B, then C=D ; but C is not equal 
 to D, therefore A is not equal to B. The connection between 
 the antecedent and consequent of a conditional proposition 
 is termed the Consequence. 
 
 CONDOTTIE'KI. (It. lenders) In Italian History, a 
 class of mercenary adventurers in the 14th anil 15th centu- 
 ries, who commanded military bands, amounting to armies, 
 on their own account, and sold their services foriemporary 
 engagements to sovereign princes and slates. One of Ihe 
 earliest anil most famous among those leaders was the 
 Englishman Sir John llawkwood. who commanded in va- 
 rious Italian wars about Ihe time of Edward III. The 
 bands under command of the Condottieri were well armec 
 and equipped. Their lenders had in many instances con- 
 siderable military skill ; but as they took no interest in na- 
 tional contests, except to receive pecuniary advantages, the 
 wars between Ihem became a sort of bloodless contests, in 
 which the only object of each party was to take as many 
 prisoners as possible for Ihe sake of the ransom. This 
 singular system of warfare was only put an end to by the 
 more serious military operations of the French, who in- 
 vaded Italy under Charles VIII. Although many Condot- 
 tieri acquired much honour as well as emolument, one only 
 attained to high rank and independent power ; this was 
 Francesco Sforza, originally a peasant, who in 1451 made 
 himself duke of Milan, and transmitted that sovereignty to 
 his descendants. 
 CONDU'CTOR. In Electricity. See Electricity. 
 CO'NDUIT. (Fr.) In Architecture, a passage of very 
 narrow dimensions, usually subterranean, for the purpose 
 of secret communication between apartments, many of 
 which exist In ancient buildings. Also a pipe for the sup- 
 ply of water to any place. 
 
 CO'NDYI.E. (Gr. kovSv\os, aknuck'e.) The rounded 
 head of a bone. 
 
 CONDY'LOPEDS, Cnndylopoda. (Gr. kovSv\oc. and 
 vovs, a foot.) A name applied By Latreille to that subdivi- 
 sion of Encephalous articulate animals which have jointed 
 feet: the Acephalous f'irripeds are excloded from (his 
 group, which consequently includes the Myrlapods, Insects, 
 Arachnidans, and Crustaceans. 
 
 CONE. In Geometry, a solid body, having a circle for 
 its base, and terminating in a point, which is called its ver- 
 tex. The cone may be described as fol- 
 lows : — Suppose a fixed point A without 
 the plane of the circle BCD, and through 
 the point A let a straight line A B indefi- 
 nitely produced on both sides be drawn, 
 and carried round the circumference of 
 the circle BCD; the two surfaces ABC 
 D and Abed generated by this motion 
 are the surfaces of two opposite or verti- 
 cal rones. The circle B C I) is called the 
 base of the con", and the straight line A O 
 drawn finm its vertex to the centre of the 
 
CONE OF RA¥&. 
 
 base is called its axis. If the axis is perpendicular to the 
 plane of the base, the cone is said to be right ; if the axis 
 is inclined to the plane of the base, the cone is oblique. 
 Some of the principal properties of the cone are the follow- 
 ing • — The area or surface of a right cone, exclusive of its 
 base, is equal to a triangle of which the base is equal to the 
 periphery of the base of the cone, and altitude equal to the 
 slant side of the cone ; or equal to the sector of a circle 
 whose radius is the side of the cone, and its arc equal to 
 the circumference of the base of that solid. It is much 
 more difficult to determine the surface of an oblique cone, 
 which cannot be reduced to the measure of the sector of 
 u circle. The solid contents of a cone, whether right or 
 oblique, are equal to one-third of a cylinder having the 
 same base and altitude. The centre of gravity of a right 
 cone is distant from the vertex f of the axis. Sometimes 
 the name cone is given to other solids than those whose 
 surfaces are produced by the motion of a straight line about 
 the circumference of a circle. It is applied generally to 
 all bodies which can be formed in the same manner, as- 
 suming any curve whatever for the circumference of the 
 base. The beautiful relation which connects the cone, 
 the sphere, and the cylinder, namely, that they are to each 
 other in the proportion of 1,2, and 3, was discovered by 
 Archimedes. 
 
 CONE OF RAYS. In Optics, includes all the rays which 
 fall from a luminous point, or from a single point of a lu- 
 minous object, upon a given surface ; for example, the ob- 
 ject glass of a telescope. 
 
 CONFEDERACY. (Lat. con, together, foedus, a league.) 
 In Politics, an alliance of independent states for a common 
 object: sometimes also, but less properly, of individuals. 
 
 CONFEDERATION, THE GERMANIC, was formed 
 at the congress of Vienna : the instrument by which it is 
 constituted bears date June 8, 1815. This union was 
 framed to supply the want of the ancient imperial govern- 
 ment, dissolved in 1S06. The constituent members are 
 thirty-four monarchical states and four free cities, which 
 enter the confederation as equal and independent. The 
 diet of plenipotentiaries, which forms the representative 
 body of the league, is permanent, and sits at Frankfort-on- 
 the-Maine. When this diet meets as a general assembly 
 (plenum) six states, viz. Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, 
 Hanover, Wurtemberg, have four votes each ; five other 
 states three each ; four two ; the rest one ; making seventy 
 in all. But in the making of fundamental laws, admission 
 of new members into the confederacy, and on religious 
 questions, unanimity is required. In the ordinary assem- 
 bly of the diet, the votes are so apportioned as to make 
 only seventeen in all : this is the assembly in which pro- 
 positions are discussed, which are decided without discus- 
 sion in the plenum. This ordinary diet manages the ge- 
 neral affairs of the confederation. Austria presides in both 
 diets. The principal objects of the confederation are, the 
 examination of disputes between its members; mutual 
 protection ; reciprocal assistance towards securing internal 
 tranquillity ; the establishment of constitutions of estates in 
 all the states ; the establishment of certain central courts 
 of appeal ; legal equality of Christian sects; an interna- 
 tional community of civil rights in some points ; and finally, 
 the regulation of the condition of mediatized princes and 
 states. See Mediatization. 
 
 CO'NFERENCE. In English Parliamentary usage, a 
 meeting of certain delegated members of the two houses 
 to discuss the provisions of a bill respecting which there 
 is a disagreement between them ; usually on the subject 
 of amendments introduced by one and rejected by the 
 other. The principal rules relating to conferences are, 
 1. That a conference must be demanded by that house 
 which is in possession of the bill. 2. It is the privilege of 
 the House of Lords to name the time and place at which 
 the conference shall be holden. 3. The house which asks 
 the conference must in its message clearly express the 
 subject matter respecting which it is to be holden. 4. It is 
 usual for the house desiring the conference to appoint a 
 committee to draw up reasons to be offered in support of 
 the measure which the house has adopted. These rea- 
 sons are communicated by its managers (t. e. delegates) 
 to those of the other house ; and it is irregular for any 
 member to go beyond these reasons, or to speak anything 
 except by way of introduction to their delivery. 5. If the 
 teasons alleged on both sides fail in producing agreement 
 between the houses, what is termed a free conference is 
 demanded ; usually after two conferences have been hold- 
 en without effect. In a free conference the managers are 
 not tied down to follow a particular line of instructions 
 (although they may have received such instructions from 
 their house), but may discuss the provisions of the mea- 
 sure in a more liberal manner. 
 
 Conference has also been the frequent denomination of 
 meetings of divines for ecclesiastical purposes. The con- 
 ferences of Hampton Court (1604) and the Savoy (1660), 
 between the clergy of the church of England and Puritans 
 and Presbyterians, are well known in English history. 
 272 
 
 CONFIRMATION. 
 
 The annual meetings of Wesleyan preachers are styled 
 conlerenccs. 
 
 CONFE'SSION, AURI'CULAR, (Lat. auricula, ear), 
 is accounted by the church of Rome part of the sacrament 
 of penance. It must be made to a priest, who is under 
 solemn obligation not to reveal it ; and must be of every 
 mortal sin. The Roman Catholics cite several passages 
 of scripture, particularly Matt. iii. 6, Acts xix. IS, and 
 James v. 16, as indirectly establishing this usage; which, 
 however, as an authorized practice of the church, does nut 
 appear to be older than about a. d. 1215. Confession is 
 also prescribed by the Greek church. Among Protestants, 
 the Lutherans for sometime retained it ; but conlessiori 
 to God alone is recognized in our church as preparatory 
 to absolution. (See especially Bingham, Orig. EccL, book 
 xviii. c. 4 ) 
 
 CONFESSION OF FAITH. A formulary setting 
 forth the opinions held by a religious community. The 
 most important documents of this nature published prior 
 to the Reformation are the Apostles', the Nicene, and the 
 Athanasian creeds. (See these articles.) Since that period 
 the Romanists refer, 1. To the decrees' and catechism of 
 the council of Trent, as containing a complete exposition, 
 accompanied by an elaborate defence, of their opinions ; 
 2. To the Creed of Pius IV., published in 1564, which 
 begins with a statement of the Nicene creed, and proceeds 
 to declare briefly and explicitly the additional tenets of the 
 Romish church ; 3. The exposition of the Catholic faith 
 by Bossuet, as having been sanctioned by the Pope, is 
 considered of secondary authority. 
 
 The most authentic symbol of the Greek church is that 
 which was drawn up in 1642 by Mogila, the metropolitan 
 of Kiovv. It was approved with great solemnity by the pa- 
 triarchs and principal clergy of that communion. 
 
 The reformed churches have in almost all cases drawn 
 up summaries of their peculiar tenets, and requirn their 
 ministers to express their assent to them. The church of 
 England requires subscription upon ordination to the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, and the three articles of the 36th 
 Canon which relate to the supremacy of the King, <tc. 
 The Book of Common Prayer and the Homilies are also 
 authorized statements of the doctrine of this community. 
 
 The symbolic books of the Lutheran church are numer- 
 ous: the principal are, the Confession of Augsburgh, drawn 
 up by Melancthon in 1530 ; the articles of Smaicald by 
 Luther (1538); the Great and Little Catechisms of Luther 
 (1529); and the Form of Concord (15711). The original 
 symbol of the Scotch church is called the General Con- 
 fession of the true Christian Faith, which was adopted by 
 the King and nation, together with the Solemn League ani 
 Covenant, in 1581. A second was drawn up in 1660 by 
 some of the principal ministers, in consequence of an ordei 
 in parliament for that purpose. The Confession of the 
 Westminster Assembly (in 1643) was declared in 1690 by 
 an act of parliament to be the national standard of faith ir 
 Scotland. 
 
 In this country the imposition of formularies for sub 
 scription which are conceived in other than the words o-' 
 scripture has frequently been made a ground of dissent 
 and separation from the English church. The Presby 
 terians also and Independents have suffered many seces- 
 sions upon this ground, which is maintained as a cleai 
 deduction from the Protestant principle of the right ol 
 private interpretation. It may be answered, that a church, 
 like the Romish, which forbids private interpretation, 
 might reasonably enough express its belief in the words 
 of scripture, the meaning of which in its mouth would be 
 sufficiently intelligible ; but that a Protestant church, on 
 the contrary, must paraphrase the language of the Bible 
 to make itself understood, and that its alternative must be 
 between a confession of this nature and none at all ; an<\ 
 the impracticability of the latter course has been shown 
 by the experience of several minor sects in this country 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 CO'NFESSOR. (In Greek, ouo\oynrris.) In Ecclest- 
 astical History, the title given to those who have under- 
 gone persecution for Christianity short of death. They 
 were peculiarly honoured in the primitive church, to- 
 gether wi:h the memory of those who had actually suf- 
 fered (martyrs). Cyprian, Epist. 37. (See Gieseler'a 
 Eccl. Hist. 1st Period, 2nd Division, ch. 3.) 
 
 CONFIGURATION. In Astronomy, denotes the pod 
 tion which the planets occupy relatively to each other. 
 
 CONFIRMATION. The laying on of hands by the 
 bishop, for the conferring of the grace of the Holy Spirit ; 
 a rite by which a person arrived at years of discretion 
 takes upon himself the performance of the baptismal vow 
 made for him by his sponsors. This ceremony is derived 
 from the practice ol the Apostles, of whom we read (Acts. 
 viiL 16. xix. 16.) that after certain disciples at Samaria 
 and Ephesus had been baptized, they laid their hands 
 upon them, and the Holy Ghost came upon them. The 
 descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles themselvea 
 on the day of Pentecost is considered also as an examoU 
 
CONFLICT OF LAWS. 
 
 of confirmation succeeding baptism. In the early ages 
 this ceremony seems to have been accompanied very 
 generally with the unction of the forehead. This cere- 
 mony is retained by the Roman Catholics, who consider 
 confirmation a sacrament. 
 
 CU'NFLICT OF LAWS. The opposition between 
 the municipal laws of different countries, in the case of an 
 individual who may have acquired rights or become sub- 
 ject to duties within the limit of more than one state. In 
 the language of Mr. Burge (Colonial and foreign Late, 
 1. 5.). " the right or claim which is in contestation before 
 a .indicia! tribunal may present a conflict between the 
 laws of the country in which he was born, or had a domi- 
 cile, or had taken up a temporary residence, or in which 
 his property, the subject of the claim, was situated, or in 
 which the act, instrument, or testament on which the 
 claim is founded was executed, or in which the contesta- 
 tion takes place. In this conflict of laws it becomes an 
 important branch of jurisprudence to ascertain which 
 should be selected, and the principles on which the se- 
 lection is to be made." The following are among the 
 principal works on this subject: — Rodenburg on the Con- 
 flict of Statutes, an Essay appended to his treatise De 
 Jure Conjugum; Hortius, De Collisione Legum ; Doul- 
 lenois, De la Pcrsonnalile et de la Rialiti des Lois ; the 
 American judge Story's treatise on the Conflict of Lavs; 
 and the above cited work of Mr. Burge, Commentaries on 
 Colonial and foreign Laws generally, in their Conflict 
 tritk each other and with the Law of England, 4 vols. 8vo. 
 
 CO'N FLUENT. (Lat. confluens, flowing together.) 
 Running together. Applied to eniptive diseases in which 
 the pimples or pustules are not detached, but so numerous 
 as to form confluent patches, or even to cover Ihe whole 
 surface of the body ; hence the term confluent smallpox. 
 
 > < lOlITV, OCCASIONAL. The participation of 
 one in any of the observances (more particularly sacra- 
 ments) of a church from which he dissents. Much con- 
 troversy existed among the English Dissenters, especially 
 in the reign of Queen Anne, with respect to the lawfulness 
 of occasional conformity. 
 
 CONGE'. (Fr.) In Architecture the same sort of 
 moulding as the echinus or quarter-round ; aUo a term 
 used for the cavetto ; the former being called the swelling 
 conze". the, bitter the hollow conge". 
 
 CONGE D'ELIRE. (Fr. leave to choose.) The king's 
 writ or license to the dean and chapter to choose a bishop 
 in the time of vacancy of the see ; a mere formal pro- 
 eroding. 
 
 CO'NGENERS. Species belonging to the same genus. 
 
 CONGESTION. When there is an unnatural accu- 
 mulation of blood in the capillary vessels of any part of 
 the sanguiferous system, the organ in which it takes place, 
 and the functions of which are disturbed, is said to suffer 
 under congestion : it induces a morbid condition of the 
 vessels of the part affected, which when once established 
 is difficult of removal. Congestion of the brain, liver, or 
 lungs, is a frequent effect of fevers, though generally con- 
 upon a previous morbid condition of the organs. 
 
 CONGLOMERATE. (Lat. conglomcro, I keep togeth- 
 tr.) In Anatomy, glands which are made up of many 
 small glands, the ducts of which unite into one, as the 
 salivary glands, are so called. In Botany, the term is ap- 
 plied to flowers closely compacted upon one footstalk. 
 
 Conglomerate. In Geology, a rock composed of peb- 
 bles cemented together by another mineral substance, 
 either calcareous, silicious, or argillaceous. 
 
 CONGREGA'TION. (Lat. congrego. from con, togeth- 
 er, and grex, a flock.) At Oxford and Cambridge the as- 
 sembly of masters and doctors is so called, in which the 
 ordinary business of giving degrees, &c. is transacted. 
 
 Congregation. In Ecclesiastical language, properly an 
 assembly of the people for the purpose of divine worship. 
 Companies of religious persons, forming sub-divisions of 
 monastic orders, are styled in the church of Rome congre- 
 gations. For an account of the congregations of cardinals 
 at Rome, a species of committees for the transaction of 
 business of the see of Rome, one Enc. Metropol., art. 
 " Congresation." The " Congregation of the Lord" was 
 an appellation assumed by the hist Scotch Presbyterian 
 Dissenters, in contradistinction to the Church of England, 
 which they styled the " Congregation of Satan." They 
 first came into notice in 1557, under the Duke of Argyle, 
 and were at a later period led by John Knox. 
 
 CO'NGREGA'TIONALI'STS. A sect of Protestant 
 Dissenters, who arose in this country as early as the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, when Robert Brown maintained that 
 •very society of Christians meeting in one place for reli- 
 gious worship under its own laws and ministers formed a 
 legitimate and independent congregation. The Congrega- 
 tionalists have been called from their founder Brownists, 
 and in later times Independents. They form a powerful 
 body in England, and are very numerous in America. 
 Each congregation appoints ita own ministers by vote, 
 273 
 
 CONIC SECTIONS. 
 
 and can remove them at pleasure, and reduce them to Uie 
 rank of laymen. They believe in the Trinity, predestina 
 tion, total depravity, particular redemption, effectual 
 grace and final perseverance ; and maintain that every 
 congregation of visible saints furnished with a pastor is 
 under no other ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatever. (See 
 A'ea/e's Hist. Puritans.) The number of Independent 
 congregations in England and Wales was stated in 1836 to 
 be about 1840. (M-Culloch's Statistical Account of the Br 
 Empire.) 
 
 CO'NGRESS. (Lat. congredior, I go together.) In l\.ii 
 tics, a meeting of the sovereigns of states, or their repro 
 sentatives, for the purpose of arranging intern a 
 matters. The first general European congn-s 
 the conclusion of the thirty years' war in Germany, a 
 Miinster and Osnabriick, 1648, which was followed by the 
 peace of Westphalia. Remarkable general congn 
 have been — 1. of the Pyrenees, 1609; 2. of Alx-u 
 pelle, 1668; 3. Nimeguen, 1676; 4. Ryswick, 1693 
 Utrecht, 1713 ; 6. Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748; 7. Tescben, 
 8. Paris, 1782; 9. Versailles, 1785; 10. the Hague, 1790; 
 11. Rastadt, 1797; 12. Erfurt, 1808; 13. Vienna, 181 1. 
 eluded at Paris. 1815 ; 14. Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818; 15. Tiop- 
 pau, 1820; 16. Laybach, 1821; 17. Verona, 1822. 
 
 Congress is also the title of the national legislature of 
 the United States of America. It consists of a house of 
 representatives, and of a senate. The former is composed 
 of members chosen every second year. The qualification 
 of electors is the same with that required in their respec- 
 tive states for electors to the lower house in the state legit; 
 lature. The number of representatives is apportioned 
 according to the population of each state, and is altered 
 every ten years, when the census is taken by authority. 
 In making this estimate, the slave population is reckoned 
 only at three-fifths of its amount. There cannot be more 
 than one representative for 60,000 free persons. The 
 senate is composed of two members from each stale : the 
 senators are chosen for six years by the legislature of the 
 state. The house of representatives chooses its own 
 speaker: the vice-president of the United States is, ex 
 officio, president of the senate. Bills for revenue purposes 
 must originate in the house of representatives ; but are 
 liable to the proposal of amendments by the senate. The 
 senate has the sole power of trying impeachments; but 
 can only convict by a majority of two-thirds of the mem- 
 bers present, and its sentence extends only to removal 
 from office and incapacitation for holding it. The regulai 
 meeting of congress is on the first Monday in December 
 annually. Every bill which passes the two houses is sent 
 to the president for approval or disapproval ; in the tatter 
 case, he returns it, with his reasons, to the house. In which 
 it originated : if, on reconsideration, it is passed again by 
 a majority of two thirds in each house, it becomes law. 
 The powers of congress arc strictly limited, and separated 
 from those of the various state legislatures, by the constitu 
 tion. 
 
 CCNIC SE'CTIONS. In Geometry, lines formed by 
 the intersections of a plane with the surface of a cone, 
 which assume different forms, and acquire different pro- 
 perties, according to the different positions of the plane in 
 respect of the axis of the cone. There are five species : — 
 
 1. If the cone be cut by a plane passing through ils ver- 
 tex, the common intersection of the conical superficies 
 and the plane will be two straight lines meeting in the 
 vertex. 
 
 2. If the intersecting plane be parallel to the base, or, in 
 the case of the oblique or scalene cone, if it be so situated 
 as to cut off from the vertex a cone similar to the original 
 cone, the section will be a circle. 
 
 3. If the intersecting plane be parallel to a plane which 
 touches the cone, the section will be a parabola. 
 
 4. If the intersecting plane pass through both sides of 
 the cone, and is neither parallel to the base nor to the 
 plane of a subcontrary section, the section will be an 
 ellipse. 
 
 5. If the intersecting plane have such a position that, 
 when produced, it meets the opposite cone, the section is 
 a hyperbola. 
 
 These five are the only lines which can be formed by 
 the common intersection of a plane and the surface of a 
 cone, and they all equally arise from that intersection ; but 
 as the straight line and the circle form the peculiar subject 
 of elementary geometry, their properties are usually 
 treated apart ; and the three last, namely, the parabola, the 
 ellipse, and the hyperbola, considered as the curves espe- 
 cially designated by the term Conic Sections. 
 
 Some of the principal and distinctive properties of the 
 curves are easily deduced from this mode of generation. 
 Let V A C B be the cone, and C D E the section made by 
 a plane parallel to the plane which touches the cone in the 
 line V A ; then, by the definition, C E D is a parabola. 
 Now let P Q be the intersection of the plane which touches 
 the cone in V A with the plane of the base A C B ; then 
 P Q being a tangent to the circle A C B D. is perpen iicu 
 .S 
 
X)NIC SECTIONS. 
 
 Jar to A B, the diameter of that circle, and consequently 
 C D, which is parallel to P Q,, is also perpendicular to 
 A B; therefore C F is 
 equal to F D. In F E 
 take any point G, through 
 which let there pass a 
 plane H L K, parallel to 
 the base A C B, intersect- 
 ing the plane C E D in 
 the straight line L G M ; 
 then L M will be parallel 
 to C D, and perpendicu- 
 lar to H K, and L G equal 
 to G M. We have there- 
 fore, from the property 
 of the circle, C F2 = 
 A F • F B, and LG8=HGGK; therefore since by rea- 
 son of the parallels V A and E F the line A F is equal H G, 
 CP:LGi::FB:GK. But F B : G K : : E F : E G ; 
 therefore C F2 : L G2 : : E F : E G ; consequently, since 
 C F and E F are constant quantities, the ratio of L G2 to 
 E G (or of L M* to E G) is constant ; whence we infer that 
 in the parabola the square of any ordinate L G is equal to 
 the rectangle of the corresponding absciss E G into a con- 
 stant quantity. From this all the other properties of the 
 curve may be deduced. It is in fact the common equation 
 of the parabola. <See Parabola. 
 
 For the ellipse and hyperbola, let E M F L be the sec- 
 tion ; through V draw a plane parallel to E M F L, and let 
 P Q. be its intersection with the plane of the base. Through 
 
 O, the centre of the base, draw 
 
 C 8 perpendicular to P Q, 
 
 meeting the base in A and B. 
 
 Let E F be the intersection of 
 
 the plane ELM with the plane 
 
 A V B, which passes through 
 
 the axis of the cone ; and in 
 
 E F take any point G, through 
 
 which let a plane HMKLbe 
 
 drawn parallel to the plane of 
 
 the base, the line L M being its 
 
 intersection with the plane E L 
 
 M. Lastly, through the- points 
 
 E and F let E N and F O be 
 
 drawn, meeting the opposite 
 
 sides of the cone in N and O. 
 
 Because of the similar triangles, 
 
 we have E G : G K : : E F : F O, 
 
 and F G : G II : : F E : E N, 
 
 therefore EGGF:GKGH::EF2:FOEN. 
 
 Now E F2 and the rectangle FO'EN are constant 
 quantities, independent of the position of the point G; and 
 G K • G II = G L2 (L M being parallel to P Q, and there- 
 fore perpendicular to HK); consequently the rectangle 
 E G • G F is to the square of G L in a constant ratio. This 
 property furnishes an equation to the ellipse and hyper- 
 bola, from which all the properties of those curves may be 
 deduced. See Ellipse and Hyperbola. 
 
 The mutual relations of all the curves to each other may 
 be rendered sensible by supposing the plane V P Q to re- 
 volve about an axis passing through V parallel to P Q, and 
 the intersecting plane E M L to accompany it in its revolu- 
 tion, always maintaining its parallelism. Suppose the re- 
 volution to commence when the plane V P Q. is parallel to 
 the base ; in this position the intersection of the cone with 
 E M L is a circle. When V P Q changes its position, and 
 becomes inclined to the plane of the base, the section E M 
 F L (fig. 2) becomes an ellipse. As the plane V P Q. con- 
 tinues to revolve, the ellipse becomes more and more 
 elongated, till at length P Q touches the plane of the base 
 {fig. 1), when the curve, instead of returning into itself, 
 exhibits two infinite branches, and passes into the parabola. 
 The revolution continuing, the line P Q. falls within the 
 base of the cone (fig. 3); the section EML still presents 
 infinite branches, but its axis E G now meets the opposite 
 cone in F, the vertex of another section entirely similar 
 and equal to E M L ; whence the hyperbola has two pairs 
 of branches, whiSh, from the opposite cones, are called 
 opposite hyperbolas. Suppose that in this position (while 
 P Q. falls within the base) the distance between the two 
 planes VI'Q and E M L is diminished ; as the distance 
 274 
 
 diminishes the curvature of the hyperbolic branches will 
 also diminish ; and when the distance vanishes the curva- 
 ture vanishes, and the two branches pass into a system of 
 two straight lines intersecting each other in the apex of 
 the cone. 
 
 The sections of the cone were first studied by the geo- 
 metricians of the school of Plato. They admitted, how 
 ever, only the right cone into their geometry ; and they 
 supposed the section to be formed by a plane perpendicu- 
 lar to it3 side. Consequently the three sections were 
 formed from three different cones, the angles ai the vertex 
 being right, acute, or obtuse. The parabola was produced 
 from a right-angled cone, the ellipse from an acute-angled 
 cone, and the hyperbola from an obtuse cone. Apollonius 
 of Perga, according to Eutocius, was the first who showed 
 that the three sections may be obtained from every cone, 
 whether right or oblique, and whatever the angle of its 
 apex, the species of the curve depending on the different 
 inclinations of the plane of the section to the cone itself. 
 It has, however, been established that Archimedes, who 
 flourished about forty years prior to Apollonius, was ac- 
 quainted with the fact that the three sections may be de 
 rived from the sam^> cone. Pappus, in his Mathematical 
 Collections, ascribes to Apollonius the names by which 
 the three sections are designated: the term Parabola, 
 however, occurs in the writings of Archimedes 
 
 Although the three curves were first noticed as resulting 
 from the sections of the cone, they still decidedly belong 
 to plane geometry ; and their genesis may be defined, and 
 all their properties investigated, without having any refe- 
 rence whatever to the solid. Accordingly many geometers 
 in modern times, have treated fhe curves as generated by 
 the motion of points on a plane ; and this method has un- 
 doubtedly the advantage of relieving the student from the 
 difficulty of conceiving the positions and intersections of 
 different planes, and following out the relations of the lines 
 drawn on them, which become so complicated when re- 
 presented on the same surface. Dr. Wallis of Oxford, and 
 the celebrated De Witt, seem to have been the first who 
 adopted this method, which has been followed by Decha- 
 les, De La Hire, Boscovich, Dr. Simson, and many others. 
 The ancient mode of defining them from the sections of 
 the cone is seldom adopted in the recent treatises. 
 
 Various definitions of the curves in piano have been pro- 
 posed. The parabola is usually defined from this proper- 
 ty, that the distance of any point in the curve from the 
 focus is the same as its distance from the directrix. For 
 the ellipse and hyperbola the property which has been 
 most generally assumed as the definition is, that if any 
 point be taken in the curve, and straight lines be drawn 
 from it to the two foci, the sum of those lines in the case 
 of the ellipse, and their difference in the case of the hy- 
 perbola, is a constant quantity. This property seems to 
 have been chosen rather from considerations respecting 
 the facility of the description, of the curves by mechanical 
 means, than from any peculiar advantage which it affords 
 for the investigation of their other properties. It does not 
 indicate the relationship of the three curves, and is in fact 
 not applicable to the parabola, which has only one focus. 
 On this account Boscovich selected a property which gives 
 a definition applicable alike to all the three sections, and 
 from which the general properties common to all of them 
 are established by the same demonstration. It is this — r 
 point and a straight line being given by position on a plane, 
 another point which moves in such a manner in the same 
 plane that its distance from the given point has to its (lis 
 tance from the given straight line a constant ratio, describe* 
 a conic section. When the constant ratio is a ratio of 
 equality, the curve traced out by the moving point is a pa 
 rabola ; when a ratio of minority the curve is an ellipse 
 and when a ratio of majority an hyperbola. This genera! 
 definition of the conic sections has also been adopted by 
 Thomas Newton, Walker .of Nottingham, and Professor 
 Leslie, in their respective treatises. 
 
 The different properties of the conic sections may also 
 be investigated by the modern algebraic analysis; and as 
 all the curves are derived from the same cone, so all their 
 equations are included in one general equation, of the se- 
 cond degree, between two variables. The equation of the 
 second degree between the two variables x and y, in its 
 most general form, is 
 
 Ay* + Bzy + Cifl + Vy + E* + F = 0, 
 which, by assigning certain values to the constant cor ffi- 
 cients A, B, C, D, E, F, or assuming certain relation* to 
 exist among them, becomes the equation of an ellipse, an 
 hyperbola, a parabola, a circle, or that of a system of two 
 straight lines ; and it may be demonstrated that whatever 
 be the values of the coefficients, it can only express one 
 or other of those curves. (See Diot's Essai de Geometric 
 Analytique; Hamilton's Analytical System of the Conic 
 Sections ; or the Traiti Analylique des Sections Coniqutt, 
 $c. by the Marquis de l'Hopital.) 
 
 The conic sections have acquired a remarkable interest 
 
C0NID1A. 
 
 In modern times on account of their use in natural philoso- 
 
 Chy and astronomy. A body projected in space, and urged 
 y a central force wbich varies inversely as the square of 
 the distance, must describe a conic section ; and all the 
 planets move in ellipses about the sun. The knowledge 
 of the properties of the ellipse doubtlessly facilitated the 
 discovery of the true nature of the planetary orbits ; and 
 hence it has been said, with some appearance of truth, 
 that to the seemingly barren speculations of the Greeks 
 relative to the sections of the cone we are indebted for the 
 sublime theories of Kepler and Newton A considerable 
 number of the most interesting properties of the curves 
 are demonstrated in the first Book of the Principia, where 
 Newton lias considered the method of solving this problem 
 light lines and points being given by position on a 
 piano, to describe a conic section which shall pass through 
 the iriven points and touch the given straight lines. 
 
 on the conic sections are exceedingly numer- 
 ous ; in fact there is no part of the mathematics which has 
 been more siudied by geometricians, both ancient and 
 a, than the properties of these curves. To the an- 
 Uiey furnished an excellent field for the exercise of 
 their elegant geometrical analysis; and the more difficult 
 investigations of series for their quadrature arid rectification 
 have given occasion to some of the most elegant applica- 
 tions of the modern calculus. The following are some of 
 the principal geometrical treatises — Apollonii Pergai Coni- 
 >kc, Oxford, 1710, by Dr. Halley ; Vivi- 
 ani's two works— 1. De Muxitnis et Minimis GeomttricaDi- 
 vina'io. 2. De Locis Solidis Secunda Divinatio Geometrica ; 
 De La Hires Section's Conica, Paris, 1086 ; Hamilton, De 
 Sectionibus Conici* Tructaius Geomelricus, Dublin, 17."W; 
 Siinson's Treatise. In Latin and English ; Robertson's ditto ; 
 A short Treatise on the Conic Sections, by the Rev. T. New- 
 ton, Cambridge, 17LU ; Walter's Treatise, London, 1794; 
 Leslie's Treatise on Lines of the Second Order; A Geo- 
 metrical Treatise on the Come Sections, by Professor Wal- 
 lace. Edinburgh, 1837, &c. &c. 
 
 iNI'DIA. (Gr. Korn, dust.) A term sometimes used 
 icrlblng lichens, to denote the bodies which constitute 
 [he powdery matter called soredia, lying upon the surface 
 of thethallL Hy others they are called the propagula. 
 CON1/FBRJ5. (Lat) In" Botany, a natural order of ar- 
 ■ iii or shrubby Gymnosperms, inhabiting most parts 
 .if the world, and usually both resinous and evergreen. 
 I'neir real organization was, for a long period, but little un- 
 tod, until Brown discovered that the ovules of the en- 
 ire order are naked. No other race of plants can be 
 named of more importance to mankind than this, — first, for 
 their resinous secretions, as turpentine, pitch, Canada bal- 
 sam, &c. ; and secondly, for their timber, which is used 
 under the names of fir, pine, deal, cedar, sandarach, and 
 many others. All the kinds of fir, cedar, juniper, pine, 
 savin, cypress, and arbor vitse, are species of genera be- 
 longing to this order, which appears from geological evi- 
 dence to have existed in great abundance among the earli- 
 est vpgelation that clothed the surface of our planet 
 
 CONIRO'STERS, Conirostres. (Lat. conus, a cone, and 
 rostrum, a beak.) A tribe of Insessorial birds or perchers, 
 including those which have a thick robust conical beak, as 
 the crows ami finches. 
 
 CONISTE'RUJM. (Gr. icovio-rnpiov.y In Ancient Ar- 
 chitecture, a room in the gymnasium and palaestra, where- 
 in the wrestlers, having been anointed with oil, were 
 sprinkled over with dust, that they might lay firmer hold 
 of their antagonists. 
 
 CO'NITE. (Gr. kovic, powder.) A silicious carbonate 
 of lime, found associated with certain zeolites, in the form 
 of a white powder. 
 
 CONJOINT DEGREES. In Music, a term used of two 
 or more notes which immediately follow each other in the 
 order of the scale. 
 
 < oV.IOINTTETRACHORDS. In Music, two tetra- 
 chords or fourths, in which the same note is the highest of 
 one and the lowest of the other. 
 
 CONJUG A'TION. (Lat.) In Grammar, is to verbs what 
 declension is to substantives — the sum total of the inflexions 
 which thev admit, corresponding to the various circum- 
 stances of time or mood under which an action is con- 
 ceived U> take place. 
 
 CONJUNCTION. In Grammar, that part of speech 
 which expresses the relation of propositions or judgments 
 to each other. See Grammar. 
 
 CONJU'NCTIVE MOOD. That modification of the 
 verb which expresses the dependence of the event intend- 
 ed on certain conditions. See Grammar. 
 
 CONNARA'CE;E. (Connarus, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, a natural order of shrubby or arborescent Exogens 
 .nhabiting the tropics, and only distinguished with certainty 
 from Leguminosat by the radicle being remote from the hi- 
 lum : they approximate very closely to the Caesalpineous 
 section of Leguminota; but their want of stipules and re- 
 gular dowers will usually be sufficient to distinguish them 
 from the great mass of the Papilionaceous section. 
 276 
 
 CONSIDERATION. 
 
 CONNI'VENT. (Lat. conniveo, / wink.) A term used 
 figuratively by botanists in describing the direction of or 
 gans, to denote a gradual inward direction, as in many pe 
 tals. It is the same as converging. 
 
 In Anatomy, the term is applied to those valvular folds of 
 the lining membrane of canals which are so disposed as to 
 retard, while at the same time they permit, and, as it were, 
 connive at, the passage of the contents of such canals as 
 the " valvulae conniventcs" in the human intestine. 
 
 CO'NNOISSEU'R. (Fr. connoitre, to know.) In the Fine 
 Arts, one who is versed in a knowledge of the fine arts. 
 His qualifications are so numerous, that very few sound 
 connoisseurs have appeared ; and in nine cases out of ten 
 these come under the description of a well-known Italian 
 author of being " conoscitori senza cognizione." 
 
 CONOHE'LIX. A genus of shells, intermediate be- 
 tween the Cones and Volutes. 
 
 CO'NOPS. (Gr. Kwvoixp, a gnat.) A Linna;an genus of 
 Dipterous insects, characterized by having an elongated, 
 slender, pointed proboscis. It is at present subdivided into 
 the genera Bucentes, Prosena and Stomorys, Myopa, Zodi- 
 on, and Conops proper : the larvae of the latter subgenus 
 are developed within the abdominal cavity of the humble 
 bees, and other Hymenoptera. 
 
 CONSCIENCE, COURTS OF, and of REQUESTS, are 
 courts for the recovery of small debts. The jurisdiction of 
 these courts in London and other places arises out of vari- 
 ous statutes, beginning with 1 J. I. c. 14., their original ap- 
 pointment having been by order in council under Henry 
 VIII. The jurisdiction of the London Court of Conscience 
 is extended by 39 & 40 G. III. c. 101. to the recovery of 
 debts not exceeding £5, and in South walk and many other 
 places by subsequent statutes. 
 
 CO'NSCRIPT. (Lat. conscribo, / enrol together with 
 others.) Patres Conscripti, or Fathers Conscript. A title 
 of the Roman senators; properly of those who were added 
 to the senate subsequently to the expulsion of the kings. 
 
 CONSCRI'PTION. The compulsory enrolment of in- 
 dividuals for military or maritime service, taken from the 
 population at large. The conscription, in the Roman com- 
 monwealth, was made not by lot, but by arbitrary selec- 
 tion by the consuls from among the bulk of the citizens 
 when a levy was required. In France the conscription was 
 established during the revolution, before which period the 
 armies of that country had been recruited by voluntary en- 
 listment. The word is first used in a law of 1793. Ac- 
 cording to the law as at present established, all citi/.ens are 
 liable to the conscription at the age of twenty. Each arron- 
 dissemenl has its contingent allotted to it out of the total 
 number required for the service, and this number is filled 
 up by lot from the youths liable to the conscription. There 
 are, however, various claims of exemption recognised by 
 the law. The legal duration of the service is seven years. 
 
 CONSECRA'TION. (Lat. sacer, holy.) The act of set- 
 ting apart a person or thing to the service or worship of 
 God : thus a newly built church is consecrated with certain 
 ceremonies, varying in different communities. The admis- 
 sion of a bishop to his office is called his consecration. 
 
 CONSE'NTIAN GODS. A term by which the Latins 
 distinguished their twelve chief deities— Juno, Vesta, Mi- 
 nerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Nep- 
 tune, Vulcan, and Apollo. The origin of these deities was 
 Italian, and distinct from those of the Greeks; but as the 
 literature of Rome took its tone and colour from Greece, so 
 its mythology was mixed up with that of the latter country, 
 those deities whose functions most resembled each other 
 being confounded, till the above names became regarded 
 as nothing more than the Latin appellations of the Greek 
 divinities. 
 
 CONS'ERVATORY. In Horticulture, is a glazed struc- 
 ture, in which exotic trees and shrubs are grown in a bed 
 or floor of soil. It is distinguished from an orangery by its 
 having a glazed roof, while that of the latter is opaque ; and 
 from a greenhouse by the plants being planted in the free 
 soil, and thus growing up from the floor, while in the green- 
 house the plants are grown in pots placed on shelves, or on 
 a stage or series of shelves, rising one above another. 
 Above a century ago, for example, in the time of Evelyn, 
 the term conservatory was applied to those garden build- 
 ings now called orangeries, and in modern horticulture em- 
 ployed only for the preservation of exotic plants, such as 
 orange trees, &c, which are in a dormant state during 
 winter. The greenhouse and the modern conservatory 
 were then not in existence. They are exclusively employ 
 ed for the preservation of plants which are in a growing 
 state during winter. The largest conservatory in the world, 
 at the present time (1841), is that erected at C.iatsworth in 
 Derbyshire, for palms and other tropical plants, which 
 covers above an acre of ground, and is sixty feet hlgli- 
 There are very handsome conservatories for Cape and 
 Australian plants at Alton Towers, and other places (See 
 Loudon's Knrt/clovchdia of Gardening.) 
 
 CONSIDERATION. In Law, is the material cause or 
 a contract, without which it is not binding on the •*suls 
 
CONSISTORY. 
 
 Consideration is said to be either expressed or implied. 
 An express consideration is where the motive or induce- 
 ment of the parties to the contract is distinctly declared by 
 ts terms ; as where a man bargains to sell his land for 
 £100. It is implied, where an act is done, or a legal de- 
 mand forborne, at the request of another, without an ex- 
 press stipulation : in which case, the law presumes an 
 adequate compensation for the act or forbearance to have 
 been the inducement of the one party, and the offer of the 
 other ; as where a person comes to an inn and makes use 
 of it, intention to pay for the accommodation is presumed. 
 Consideration is also either " valuable," that is, for money 
 or an equivalent; or it is "of natural affection," certain 
 degrees of relationship affording in some cases sufficient 
 consideration for a gift. 
 
 CONSI'STORY. (Lat. consistorium, said to have been 
 the private councillors of the Roman emperors. ) An assem- 
 bly of ecclesiastical persons ; also certain spiritual courts 
 are so called which are holden by the bishops in each dio- 
 cese. At Rome the consistory denotes the judicial court 
 constituted by the college of cardinals. The representative 
 body of the reformed church in France is styled Consistory ; 
 a title and assembly originated by Calvin. There is now, 
 or should be, according to law, a consistory for every 60U0 
 Protestant souls, consisting of the pastor or pastors, and 
 from 6 to 12 elders. The consistory names the pastor. 
 There are now 83 reformed consistories in France (not in- 
 cluding the Lutheran churches.) 
 
 CONSI'STORY COURT. The chancellor of every arch- 
 bishop and bishop is the judge of this court in England, and 
 a commissary is appointed for places remote from the con- 
 sistory. <S"ee Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 
 CO'NSOLE. (Ital.) See Ancones. 
 
 CONSOLIDATED FUND. Down to 1816, the ex- 
 chequers of Great Britain and Ireland were kept separate, 
 certain portions of the public revenue arising in each king- 
 dom being especially appropriated to the discharge of the 
 interest on its own debts, and other peculiar purposes. But 
 on January 5th, 1816, the separate exchequers were con- 
 solidated into one ; and an act was at the same time passed 
 consolidating certain portions of the joint revenue of Great 
 Britain and Ireland into one fund, hence called the Consoli- 
 dated Fund, and providing for its indiscriminate application 
 to the payment of the public debts, civil lists, and other 
 specified expenses of both kingdoms. Some portions of 
 revenue are not included in this fund ; but it embraces by 
 far the largest part of the public income. Thus, in 1838, of 
 a total nett income of 47,333,460/., the consolidated fund in- 
 cluded no less than 44,144,438/. : the expenditure on account 
 of the peculiar charges to be defrayed by the fund during 
 the same year amounted to 31,742,918/., leaving a surplus 
 of 12,401,570/. applicable to other objects. (Fairman on the 
 Funds, 7th ed. p. 895 ; Pari. Paper, No. 849. Sess. 1839, 
 <fcc.) 
 
 CO'NSONANCE. (Lat. consonans, sounding together.) 
 In Music, the agreement of two sounds simultaneously 
 produced, the one grave and the other acute. 
 
 CONSONANT. -See Letter, Vowel. 
 
 CO'N SORDI'NI. (Ital.) In Music, a direction to per- 
 form the passage, if on a pianoforte, with the dampers 
 down, or on a violin with the mute on ; it is usually written 
 short, C. S. 
 
 CONSPIRACY. (Lat. conspiratio, agreement.) In Law, 
 is in the strictest sense an agreement of two or more per- 
 sons falsely to indict one, or procure him to be indicted, for 
 felony ; who, after acquittal, may have his writ of conspi- 
 racy. In a more general sense, many species of combina- 
 tions to injure another are termed conspiracies ; as to pro- 
 cure one to be arrested, to defraud under certain circum- 
 stances, &c. Conspiracy is $.n indictable offence ; and two 
 at least of the persons indicted must be found guilty to 
 produce a conviction, as otherwise the offence is not proved 
 against any one. Combinations of workmen to regulate 
 the rate of wages, prior to the 6 G. 4. c. 129, were common- 
 ly termed conspiracies. 
 
 CO'NSTABLE. A high officer in the monarchical estab- 
 lishments of the middle ages. (Lat comes stabuli, count 
 of the stable.) In France, the first dignitary under the 
 crown, commander-in-chief and supreme military judge. 
 In that country the office was abolished in 1627, as confer- 
 ring powers too dangerous in the hands of a subject. In 
 England the last permanent lord high constable was Edward 
 Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, whose office was forfeited 
 to the crown by his attainder in 1522 ; since which time it 
 has-only been occasionally conferred on particular emer- 
 gencies. The title is supposed to have originated in the 
 Lower Empire. (Ducange, Gloss.). 
 
 Constable. A constable is an officer particularly charged 
 with the preservation of the peace, either within the hun- 
 dred, where he is called high constable, or within the parish 
 or tything, where he is called petty constable, and where he 
 has generally superseded the tything-man. The duties of 
 the high constable respecting the preservation of the peace 
 are now merely nominal : but he is still of use to represent 
 276 
 
 CONSTELLATION. 
 
 the hundred in certain legal actions, and to perform certain 
 ministerial offices connected with the administration of jus 
 tice, as, for instance, the return of jurors, which originally 
 devolved upon the bailiff of the hundred. The functions of 
 petty constable are still of great and daily importance. It 
 is his business, in the first place, to interfere upon his own 
 authority, and if necessary by apprehension of the offender, 
 whenever a breach of the peace or other more serious 
 offence is committed in his presence, or whenever lie has 
 sufficient information of a felony ; and, in the next place, to 
 execute all such warrants apparently and upon the face of 
 them legal as shall be committed to his hands by competent 
 authorities. He has a right, when impeded in the execu- 
 tion of his duty, to call upon bystanders for assistance, anc" 
 has the power in case of sickness or disability to appoint a 
 deputy to execute warrants in his stead. Constables were 
 anciently appointed, and still might legally be so, by the 
 jury of the leet; but high constables are now appointed 
 either at quarter sessions or by the justices of the hundred 
 out of sessions, and petty constables are annually sworn in 
 to the office at quarter sessions for each parish upon pre 
 sentment of the vestry ; and the person so presented is 
 compellable under the penalty of fine and imprisonment, 
 except in recognized cases of disability or exemption, to 
 serve the office. A special constable is a person appointed 
 to act as constable upon a particular occasion ; and any two 
 magistrates have, in case either of actual or apprehended 
 riot, the power of calling upon all persons who would be 
 liable to serve as petty constables to act as special con 
 stables, and their refusal is punishable in the same manner 
 as in the case of the former office. Constables are frequent- 
 ly appointed in pursuance of particular acts of parliament, 
 as the police constables in London. (Burns' Justice, tit. 
 " Constable ;" Viner's Abridgment.) 
 
 CONSTELLA'TION. (Lat. con, together; Stella, a star.) 
 In order to distinguish with greater facility the different 
 stars, it has been the practice of observers, from time im- 
 memorial, to separate them into groups or clusters, which 
 have received the name of constellations, and been repre- 
 sented by the figures of men or animals, or other sensible 
 objects to which they were fancied to have some resem- 
 blance. Hipparchus called them Asterisms; Aristotle and 
 Hyginus, Bodies; Proclus, Animals ; others, Meteors ; but 
 the term Constellation has been long established by general 
 usage. The origin of these figures and names is involved 
 in impenetrable obscurity. By most authors the twelve 
 constellations of the zodiac are supposed to have been es- 
 tablished about 1700 years before our era, either by the 
 Egyptians or the Chaldeans. Dupuis supposes them io 
 have had an incomparably more ancient origin, and that 
 their names are significative of the climate of Egypt at the 
 epoch when the solstice was in Capricorn ; that is, about 
 15,000 before Christ. But even on this hypothesis, namely, 
 that the names of the zodiacal constellations, or signs, as 
 they are frequently called, are significative of the seasons, 
 it may be supposed that reference was made to the sign 
 opposite to the sun, instead of that which the sun occupied ; 
 in which case the origin of the names would be referable 
 to an epoch preceding our era by about 2000 or 3000 years. 
 This arises from the motion of the equinoctial points, which 
 regress or go backward annually among the stars, accom- 
 plishing half a revolution ill about 12,500 years. 
 
 Hipparchus was the first who constructed a catalogue of 
 the stars from exact, observations. It has been preserved 
 to our own times in the Almagest of Ptolemy, and contains 
 1022 stars, distributed among 48 constellations ; namely, 12 
 in the zodiac, 21 to the north of the zodiac, and 15 to the 
 south. Stars which were not comprehended in any of the 
 constellations (and it is evident that there must be many 
 such) were called by a Greek term signifying unformed; 
 that is, not entering into the furms of the constellations. 
 Several have been added in modern times, as the stars of 
 the southern heavens became better known. A much 
 better idea may be formed of the figures and relative posi- 
 tions of the constellations by inspecting a common celestial 
 globe, than from any description, however detailed. 
 
 The 48 constellations of Hipparchus are as follows: — 
 
 In the zodiac 12 — i4n'es, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, 
 Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricomus, Aquarius, 
 Pisces. 
 
 In the northern hemisphere 21— Ursa* Minor (the Little 
 Bear), Ursa Major (the Great Bear), Draco (the Dragon), 
 Cepheus, Bootes, Corona Borealis, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus 
 (the Swan), Cassiopeia. Perseus. Auriga (the Waggoner), 
 Ophiucus or Serpentarius, Serpeits, Sagilta (the Arrowy 
 Aquila (the Eagle), Vclphinus (the Dolphin), Equuleus (the 
 Horse's Head), Pegasus, Andromeda, Triangulum (the 
 Triangle). 
 
 In the southern hemisphere 15— Cetujs (the 'Whale), 
 Orion, Eridanus, Lepus (the Hare), Canis Major (the 
 Great Dog), Canis Minor (the Little Dog), Argo (the Ship), 
 Hydra, Crater (the Cup), Corvus (the Crow), Centaurus 
 Lupus (the Wolf), Ara (the Altar), Corona Australis (th 
 Southern Crown), Pisces Australis (the Southern Fish) 
 
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 
 
 To the above 48 constellations of Hipparchus, 12 near the 
 south pole were added by Bayer, and represented in his 
 Urunometria, the first edition of which appeared in 1608. 
 These were, Indus (the Indian, or Indian Triangle), lints 
 (the Crane), Phoenix, Apis or Musca (the Bee), Triangu- 
 lum (the Southern Triaimle), Avis Indica(the Bird of Para- 
 disc), Pavo (the Peacock), Pica Indira (the Toucan). Hy- 
 drus (the Hydra), Dorado, Pisa's Volans (the Flying Fish), 
 Chameleon. The two constellations, Coma Berenices (Be- 
 renice's Hair) and Anlirwus, were formed by Tycho Bra- 
 ht: ; the first comprehending some of Ptolemy's unformed 
 stars near .Leo, and the second of others near Aquila. They 
 are given in the catalogue of Uiccioli, published in his As- 
 tronomy Reformed in 1605. 
 
 In the Ptanisplutrium Stellatum of Bartschius, published 
 in 1624, the eight following constellations are found, and 
 said to have been formed by the moderns in that part of 
 the heavens which ia visible in Europe — CamelopardaJis 
 (the Giraffe), Tigris, Jordnnus, Vespailhe Wasp), Othtmba 
 Noachi (Noah's Dove). M'/noceros (the Unicorn), Uhombus 
 (the Rhombus or Rhomboid), Gallus (the Cock). The 
 ■tame constellations are met with in the Celestial Charts of 
 Royer, published in 1079, with the exception of Gallus. 
 Vespa is also changed into Lis (the Flower-de-luce), and 
 Crux (the Cross) added. 
 
 In the Charts of Hevelius, entitled Firmament um Sobies- 
 cianum, and published in 1690, we find 10 new constella- 
 tions — Canes Venalici (the Greyhounds. Asterion, and 
 Chara), Lacerta (the Lizard), L"0 Minor (the Little I. ion. in 
 place ofJordanus, mentioned above), Lynx (instead of 7Y- 
 irris). .Sextans (the Sextant of Urania), Scutum Sobiescian- 
 um (Sobieski's Shield), Triangulum (the Little Triangle), 
 Vidpecula et Anser (the Fox and Goose), Cerberus, and 
 Mens Motnalus. 
 
 To the above Cor Caroli (the Heart of Charles II.) was 
 added by Flatnsteed, and liobur Carolinum (the Oak of 
 Charles) by Halley. 
 
 Notwithstanding the additions already made to (he con- 
 stellations in the southern hemisphere since the time of 
 Ptolemy, Lacaille found so many clusters of unformed 
 stars, while observing at the Cape of Good Hope, that he 
 added to the list no fewer than 14 new constellations, (o 
 which he gave the following names — Officina Scidptoria 
 ,rhe S, -ulptor's Workshop), Fornax CAymi'ca (tie 
 cal Furnace), Horologium (the Clock), lietiodus Rliomboi- 
 dalis (ihe Rhomboidal Net), Caelum Sra/ptoriiiin(\\ic Grav- 
 er). EquuUus Pictoris (the Painter's Easel), Pyxis \auti- 
 PS (the Mariner's Compass), Octans HaHttmsu (Hadley'a 
 Octant), Machina Pneumatica (the Air Pump). Circinus 
 i pass), Quadra (the Square), the Telescope, the 
 yip, and Table Mountain. Some still more recent 
 ad litions have been proposed, particularly by Bode ; among 
 which are the Honours of Frederic, the Sceptre of Bran- 
 denburg, Ilerschel's Telescope, &c. ; but they do not seem 
 to be generally used in astronomical catalogues. 
 
 If the question were to be asked, What good purpose 
 can be served by this multiplication of arbitrary divisions 
 and fantastic names! we apprehend that no very satisfac- 
 tory answer could be given. Astronomers doubtless find 
 it convenient to classify the stars under certain divisions ; 
 but when the number of divisions becomes so great as to 
 be remembered with difficulty, the advantage disappears. 
 The arbitrary nature of the divisions also leads to great in- 
 convenience, inasmuch as they are liable to much uncer- 
 tainty, and frequent change of boundary. Not only have 
 the names in several instances been changed, but it seems 
 to have been a common practice with astronomers and 
 chart-makers to take stars from one constellation and give 
 *.hem to another, without any other rule than that of pleas- 
 ing their own fancies. On this account it is frequently ex- 
 Temely difficult to identify stars (particularly in the south- 
 ern hemisphere) in the different catalogues. It is to be 
 vished that the whole of the constellations (excepting per- 
 haps the 48 of Hipparchus and Ptolemy) were obliterated 
 .'rom our celestial charts and globes, and that observers in 
 describing the places of the stars would confine themselves 
 o a simple statement of theit right ascensions and declina- 
 •ions, at least until some better arrangement and nomen- 
 clature shall have been devised and agreed upon. Excel- 
 'ent maps of the Stars, with the Constellations, coloured, 
 lave been published by the Society for the Diffusion of 
 Useful Knowledge: six plates, each 23 inches square, ed- 
 lei I bv Sir Wm. Lubbock. 
 
 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. Tn French History, the 
 Irst of the national assemblies of the revolution; elected 
 n 1783 as the states-general, dissolved in 1791 after pro- 
 vlaiming the constitution of that year. 
 
 CONSTITU'TION'. The collective body of the funda- 
 nental laws of a state: either contained in written docu- 
 aents, or established by prescriptive usage. Constitutions 
 lave been divided into three kinds by political writers : — 
 - Those granted (octroyCes) by monarchs to their sub- 
 ects; 2. Those springing out of rights enjoyed indepen- 
 dently by the people, or classes of the people, which in 
 
 CONSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 monarchical countries are recognised by the sovereign in 
 his contract with the people ; 3. Those founded on con* 
 pact between sovereign powers, i. e. federal constitutions. 
 In a certain sense, all states in which the power of a sove- 
 reign over his people, or classes of his people, is limited 
 by law or legal usage in any particular, may be said to pos- 
 sess pro tanto a constitution ; but, in ordinary language, 
 only a government in which the power of legislation, or 
 that of granting and withholding supplies to the r 
 is vested in the people, or a body of representative 
 by them, or by a class of them, is termed constitutional, 
 Constitutions have again been divided into— 1. Those in 
 which legislative power is exercised directly by the peo- 
 ple (as in some small modern commonwealths, and in all 
 the free states of antiquity); and, 'J. Represantal 
 stitutions. The last again, as prevailing in modern Europe 
 and America, has been divided historically into— 1. Those 
 which have originated from compact between several Inde- 
 pendent interests, as the sovereign, clergy, nobles, anil 
 commons, in feudal kingdoms; 2. Those formed ;initici 
 ally, in modern times, on the model of the British consti- 
 tution ; which, although arising out of the sam> 
 which produced the feudal constitutions, assumed in the 
 course of time a different and more comprehensive cha- 
 racter. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONS. In Roman Law, decrees of regu 
 lar authorities, as praetors, &c. ; more particularly decrees 
 of the emperors, whether by decree, edict, or letter. 
 
 Constitutions, Apostolical. An ancient code of re- 
 gulations respecting the doctrine and discipline of the 
 church, said by some to have been promulgated by the 
 Apostles, and collected by Clemens Romanus. They ap- 
 
 gear to have been at one time admitted into the canon of 
 cripture. Their authenticity has been a subject of much 
 dispute. They have been printed together with the so- 
 called Canons of Ihe Apostles. (See Cotelerii Patres Apos- 
 tefiWi vol. i. ; Krabbe's Dissertations on the Ajmstol. Con- 
 ttitutiotu and ''mums, Bamb. and Gotting. 1829; iliescicr. 
 Bed mat. 1 Period, 3 Dir. i 66. 
 
 CONSTRI'CTOR. (Lat. constringo, I squeeze.) A name 
 applied to the larger serpents, which overcome and des- 
 troy a struggling prey by throwing themselves round it in 
 overlapping folds, and crushing it by their muscular force. 
 The Boa Conttrietor, properly so called, is a native of South 
 America, having anal hooks, and a single row of subcaudal 
 scuta). 
 
 CONSTRUCTION. (Lat. con, wit*, and struo, / pile 
 up.) In Architecture, literally Ihe building up from the 
 architect's designs; but amongst architects it is more par- 
 ticularly used to denote the art of distributing the different 
 forces and strains of the parts and materials of a building 
 ulific a manner as to avoid failure and ensure du- 
 rability. 
 
 CONSTRU'CTION OF EQUATIONS, in Algebra, is the 
 representing of the roots of equations by means of the in- 
 tersections of geometrical lines. The roots of any alge- 
 braic equation may be represented by the intersection of a 
 straight line with a curve of the same dimensions as the 
 proposed equation, the roots of the equation being the or- 
 dinates of the points of intersection. An equation of any 
 degree may also be constructed by means of two curves, 
 whose dimensions, multiplied together, produce the di- 
 mensions of the given equation. Thus, a quadratic equa- 
 tion may be constructed by the intersection of a straight 
 line with a circle, or with any conic section ; a cubic equa- 
 tion by the Intersection of a straight line with a line of the 
 third order; a biquadratic by the intersection of a straight 
 line with a line of the fourth order, or by means of two 
 conic sections. 
 
 CO'NSUBSTA'NTIA'TION. The term by which Lu- 
 ther expressed the opinion which he held upon the nature 
 of the elements in the Eucharist, as distinguished from 
 Transubstantiation, the doctrine of the Romanists. The 
 latter assert, as the word they use implies, that the 
 bread and wine are changed into the body and blood, and 
 lose their former substance, although they retain its ap- 
 pearance miraculously to the senses. The Lutherans de- 
 ny this change ; but affirm that while the bread and wine 
 do still remain in their natural substance, the body and 
 blood are at the same time transfused into them, and thus 
 that both are actually partaken of together. Calvin says, 
 "I assert that the body of Christ is really (as the usual ex- 
 pression is), that is, truly given to us in the sacrament, to 
 be the saving food of our souls— the Son of God offers 
 daily to us in'the holv sacrament the same body that he 
 once offered in sacrifice to his Father, that it may be our 
 spiritual food. If any one ask me concerning the manner, 
 I will not be ashamed to confess that it is a secret loo high 
 for my reason to comprehend, or my tongue to express. 
 A reformer of the English church would have, said proba- 
 bly that the Romanist is decidedly in error, for the mystery 
 that he maintains exceeds even the literal interpretation ot 
 the scripture language. Upon the truth of the Lutheran 
 hypothesis he would decline to express an op nion, not de 
 
CONSUL. 
 
 nying the possibility bf consubstantiation, but neither pre- 
 suming to define the manner of Christ's presence in the 
 elements ; and he would rather recognize in the language 
 of Calvin a right appreciation of the verity of our Saviour's 
 expressions, and a just perception of the nature of a 
 mystery. 
 
 CO'NSUL. In Politics, a public officer whose functions 
 partake of the diplomatic and commercial characters. 
 Such officers appear to have been first employed by the 
 Italian republics, to protect their merchants engaged in 
 trade in the cities of the Levant. The consuls of European 
 states in that region, and in Africa, are at the present time 
 officers of more importance than those established in the 
 cities of Christendom : as they exercise, according to trea- 
 ties, civil jurisdiction over the citizens of their respective 
 states. In general, the consul is not regarded as a minister 
 sr diplomatic functionary, and is subject to the civil author- 
 ities of the place where he resides. A resident English 
 merchant, acting here as consul of a foreign country, is not 
 exempt from arrest on mesne process. English consuls 
 are now under the regulations of stat. 6 G. 4., by which 
 they are made salaried officers, and the fees which they 
 are still allowed to take are specified. (See MCalloch's 
 Cum. Diet.) 
 
 CO'NSULARS. The title given to Roman citizens who 
 Bad been dignified with the office of consul, and conse- 
 ritently were honoured with a certain precedence in the 
 senate. 
 
 CO'NSULS. The supreme magistrates of Rome after 
 th.8 expulsion of the kings. Their number was two, and 
 the period of their office one year; but there was no re- 
 striction as to the number of times the same individual 
 might be elected. The power of the consuls was nearly 
 the same as that of the kings ; i. e. they were the supreme 
 executive officers, but had no legislative authority. In time 
 of war it was highest ; they then levied the armies, and led 
 them in person against the enemy. The consuls were 
 originally chosen only from the Patricians, but afterwards 
 from the Plebeians also. The age required by law was 43 
 vears ; but besides this it wa3 requisite to have passed 
 throuirh the inferior offices of qusestor, ajdile, and prajtor. 
 They were elected at the Comitia Centuriata, some months 
 before their entrance into office, which took place at differ- 
 ent periods of the year at different times, but finally in Jan- 
 uary, during which interval they were termed consules de- 
 signati, or appointed consuls. Soon after their entrance 
 into office they cast lots about the provinces to fall to the 
 shareof each, the superintendence of which was conferred 
 on them by the senate. Under the emperors the nominal 
 office of the consulate was preserved, but its substantial 
 power destroyed ; the elections also became merely forms, 
 the emperor appointing whom he pleased. Then too the 
 custom was introduced of having several sets of consuls in 
 one year ; those admitted on the first day, however, gave 
 their names to the year, and were distinguished from the 
 others, who were termed suffecti (i. e. substituted), by the 
 title ordinarii (i. e. regular). Persons also were sometimes 
 dignified merely with the title without enjoying the office, 
 and were then styled honorary consuls. Under Justinian 
 (a. u. 1294) the year ceased' to be denominated by the 
 name of the consul. 
 
 Consuls, in French History, were the persons (Bona- 
 parte, Sieyes, and Ducos) to whom, after the dissolution 
 of the Directory in November 1799, was entrusted the pro- 
 visional government of the country, and at whose sugges- 
 tion it was agreed that France should be permanently sub- 
 ■ected to consular authority. According to the constitution 
 framed on this suggestion, Bonaparte, Cambaceres, and 
 Lehrnn, called first, second, and third consuls, were elected 
 • by the conservative senate each for ten years, and invested 
 with different degrees of authority But the senate having 
 pissed various decrees curtailing the powers of the second 
 and third consuls and augmenting those of the first, by which 
 the government was gradually assimilated to a monarchy, 
 after the lapse of four years and a half an easy transition 
 was made from the consular to the imperial form ; the title 
 of emperor was substituted for that of consul, and the exer- 
 cise of the sovereign authority, which indeed had been only 
 nominally shared with his colleagues, delegated exclusively 
 to Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 CO'NSULTA'TION, (Eat.) in ordinary Legal language, 
 is a meeting of the counsel engaged by a party to a suit, for 
 the purpose of deliberating on the best mode of proceeding 
 in the case. 
 
 Consultation, Writ op. In Law, a writ granted by the 
 king's court, whereby u cause which had been removed 
 into such court by prohibition out of the ecclesiastical court 
 is returned thither again. It is so called because it issues 
 in consequence of the judges, on consultation, having found 
 that the suggestion on which the proposition was granted is 
 false or not proved. See Prohibition. 
 
 CONSUMPTION. (Lat. consumo, I waste awaij.) This 
 term is commonly applied to a diseased state of the lungs, 
 attended by emaciation, debility, cough, hectic fever, and 
 278 
 
 CONTINGENT. 
 
 purulent expectoration. It may be produced by a variety 
 of causes ; but hereditary disposition and scrophulous habit 
 are leading causes which predispose to its most alarming 
 form, namely, that which arises from tubercles in the lungs. 
 Its first symptoms are cough; at first dry, but afterwards 
 attended by mucous expectoration, difficult breathing, lassi- 
 tude, and impaired appetite. These are succeeded by more 
 copious expectoration of viscid or purulent matter, some 
 times streaked with more or less blood ; greater difficulty 
 of breathing, pain in the side, especially on coughing or 
 taking a full inspiration ; and inability to lie with equal com 
 fort upon both sides ; the emaciation becomes more percep- 
 tible ; and the pulse, at first not much affected, becomes 
 full, hard, and quick ; frequent flushings and fever of a re- 
 mittent character ensue, attended by chills and red sedi- 
 ment in the urine, but the tongue is not much altered, and 
 the mouth is usually moist ; the bowels, at first irregular, 
 become habitually relaxed ; profuse perspirations, attended 
 by extreme debility and rapid emaciation, follow; the legs 
 swell ; and the patient sinks, generally retaining the senses, 
 and even in hope and spirits to the last. In the early treat- 
 ment of this disease the tendency to inflammatory action 
 must be most cautiously encountered by bleeding, cupping, 
 or blisters; the bowels gently opened by saline aperients ; 
 and the cough and irritability quieted by opium, henbane, 
 or hemlock, and by small doses of expectorants. Tonics 
 and acids require to be given with the utmost prudence; 
 and after all little except palliation can be effected. The 
 diet must from the beginning be scrupulously attended to, 
 and should be mild and nutritive, but not stimulant ; and 
 sometimes a temporary benefit results from change of air; 
 but where the disease is once established its effect is un- 
 certain, and it is in many cases worse than injudicious to 
 advise change of climate. The inhalation of vapours of 
 chlorine and iodine, in very minute quantity, has appeared 
 to give in some cases a little temporary relief; in others it 
 has proved decidedly mischievous ; in none permanently 
 useful ; and we must with regret assume (hat there has 
 been some mistake in the supposed cures of established 
 and constitutional consumption. In its very early periods, 
 change of country, diet, habit, and occupation will sometimes 
 seem to suspend its progress ; it has also been checked by 
 other diseases, and not unfrequently it lies dormant in fe- 
 males who breed quickly; but at a later period it again 
 shows itself, and proceeds to its fatal end. (See Clarke on 
 Consumption, 8vo. 1841.) 
 
 CO'NTACT, ANGLE OF. In Geometry, the angle made 
 by a curve line with its tangent. Euclid has demonstrated 
 that the angle made by the circle with its tangent is smaller 
 than any rectilinear angle, and that no straight line can be 
 drawn between the circle and tangent without cutting the 
 circle. Innumerable circles may, however, be made to 
 pass between them. Formerly the angle of contact afforded 
 geometers a fruitful source of metaphysical controversy. 
 See an excellent account of the writings of Wallis, Pefcta- 
 rius. Clavius, Vieta, and others, on this subject, in the notes 
 to Camerer's Euclid, Berlin, 1S24. 
 
 CONTA'GION. (Lat. contagies.) The propagation of 
 specific diseases from person to person. Contagious poisons 
 communicate the property of producing similar poisons: 
 the smallpox is a characteristically contagious disease. By 
 some writers the term has been limited to diseases requir- 
 ing actual contact for their communication ; but contagious 
 matter appears often transmissible by the air, hence the 
 terms immediate and mediate contagion. Where diseases 
 are propagated through the medium of the air, they are 
 generally called infectious. 
 
 CONTE'MPT. In Law, disobedience to the rules, orders, 
 or process of a court of competent authority. Contempt in 
 court is punishable by fine and imprisonment : for contempt 
 out of court an attachment may be granted. Contempt of 
 the king's prerogative, by refusing to assist him in the ex- 
 ercise of his lawful authority, <fcc. is a high misprision or 
 misdemeanor. 
 
 CO'NTEXT. (Lat. contextus.) The general series of a 
 discourse; when we cite a particular passage, we mean by 
 its context the parts immediately preceding and following 
 it, which determine or affect its sense. 
 
 CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. In Modern History, the 
 celebrated plan of the Emperor Napoleon for excluding the 
 merchandise of England from all parts of the Continent. It 
 was commenced by the decree of Berlin, issued 21st Nov. 
 1806, which declared the British islands in a state of block- 
 ade, and made prisoners of war all Englishmen found in 
 the territories occupied by France and her allies. The 
 blockade thus instituted was far from complete ; and in the 
 course of events licenses were expressly granted by the 
 government for its evasion, and became a source of reve- 
 nue. Some writers have affirmed that British commerce 
 lost by this decree and those which followed it more than 
 60 millions sterling in 18 months; but this is an enormous 
 exagzeration. 
 
 CONTINGENT. (Lat.) In Politics, the proportion 
 (generally of troops) furnished by one of several conlr*cl» 
 
CONTINUAL PROPORTIONALS. 
 
 ing powers in pursuance of an agreement. The Germanic 
 diet has fix - 1 the contingents of the several states forming 
 that confederacy to its army by the stipulations of 1814. 
 
 CONTI M AL PROPORTIONALS Quantities are 
 paid to be continual proportionals, or in continued propor- 
 tion, when the first la to the second as the second to the 
 third as tl e third to the fourth, and so on. 
 
 CONTI NUED BASS. In Music, the same as thorough 
 bass. It receives the name from its continuation through 
 iho whole of a composition. 
 
 CONTfNUED FRA'CTIONS. In Arithmetic, a spe- 
 cies of fractions first proposed about the year 1670 by Lord 
 Brounker, President of the Koyal Society, and improved by 
 Dr. Wallis; but which have acquired their greatest value 
 by their application, in the hands of the Continental mathe- 
 maticians, to the solution of numerical equations, and of 
 problems in the indeterminate analy.-is. Their nature will 
 be most easily understood from a numerical example. 
 
 Let it be required to convert the fraction j- ^ jj into a con- 
 tinued fraction. The value will not be altered by dividing 
 both terms by the sarin' Dumber. Assume 27, which is 
 contained in the numerator 108, and on dividing the de- 
 nominator by it there will result the compound quotient 
 
 51;!. The given fraction therefore becomes - J.4, or 
 
 4 . . 
 
 5+.M. Again, dividing the fraction £ ^ by the greatest 
 
 measure of its numerator, namely 7, it will be changed 
 
 into_ 6 , or — , c- Wherefore the original fraction is 
 
 now transformed into _ , 2 , - It is, however, more 
 
 6+a + 7 ' 
 
 convenient to divide by such numbers as will render the 
 
 numerators all units. Thus, let the fraction be £~1-' 
 
 1 » J - 
 Divide both terms by 237, and there results ,131 Di- 
 viding again the terms of the last fraction by its numerator 
 131, there arises = «, . Dividing again by 96, the fraction 
 
 |:l 'l 61 
 
 ySf 5 T is converted into -i 5 Lastly, -— - = 4 1 Collect- 
 
 237 1 
 ing all the fragments, we now get 2^=? , 
 
 It is easy to see how the continued fraction is reconstructed 
 info its equivalent simple fraction, by following the reverse 
 process. 
 
 By decomposing a fraction in this manner a series of 
 derivative fractions is obtained, which constantly approach 
 to the true expression, and exhibit the successive ap- 
 proximate values in the lowest terms. Taking the last 
 
 example, ^87; if we stop with the first term of the 
 
 992 1 
 
 expansion, we find for the approximate value 3, which is 
 considerably too small ; if we take in two terms, we find 
 g. 1— yi which is a little too large. Admitting three 
 
 1 _U 
 
 terms, we get 3 jLL, i — 38- which is again too little, but 
 
 nearer the true value than the last In this manner we 
 approach nearer and nearer at every successive step ; 
 
 Analysis 
 French translation of Euler's Algebra.} 
 
 CONTINU'lTY, LAW OK. A principle of considerable 
 use in Investigating the laws of motion, and of change in 
 
 and which may be thus enunciated: — Nothing 
 passes from one state to another without passing through all 
 
 if-diate states. Leibnitz claims the merit of having 
 first made known this law; but in so far as motion at least 
 is concerned, it is distinctly laid down by Galileo, and as- 
 cribed by himto Plato. But though a perception of its truth 
 seems lo have been felt long before, Leibnitz was certainly 
 the first who applied the principle to test the consistency 
 of theories, or supposed laws of nature. The argument on 
 which he attempted to establish it a priori is, that if any 
 change were to happen without the intervention of time. 
 tin' thing changed must be in two different conditions at 
 006 and the same inslant, which is obviously impossible. 
 Arejiarkable application of the law of continuity was made 
 D] John Bernoulli in an Essay on the Laws and Communi- 
 cation of Motion, which gained the prize of the Academy 
 OJ Science* of Paris in 1724, to prove that perfectly hard 
 rannot exist ; because, in the collision of such 
 bodies, a finite change of motion must take place in an in- 
 stant, an event which, by the law now explained, is impos- 
 «ible. This conclusion was objected to by D'Alembert and 
 \Iaclaurin, who on accountof it were disposed to reject the 
 27a 
 
 CONTRACT. 
 
 law of continuity altogether ; but the difficulty is got over by 
 supposing (which on various grounds is extremely probable) 
 that there is no real contact, and that bodies begin to acton 
 each other when their surfaces, or what seem to be their 
 surfaces, are yet at a distance. 
 
 CONTO'RNIA'TI. In Numismatics, medals supposed 
 to have been struck about the period of Constantine the 
 Great and his immediate successors; they are of bronze, 
 with a tlat impression, and marked with peculiar furrows. 
 (It. contorni, whence their name.) They bear the figures 
 of famous emperors or celebrated men. Their object is 
 uncertain ; but they have been supposed to be tickets of 
 admission to the public games of the circus in Rome and 
 Constantinople. 
 
 CONTOUR. (It. contorno.) In the Fine Arts, the exter- 
 nal lines which bound and terminate a figure. The beauty 
 of contour consists in those lines being flowing, lightly 
 drawn, and sinuous. They must be carefully and scien- 
 tifically drawn, which cannot be effected without a thorough 
 knowledge of anatomy. 
 
 CO'NTRABA'ND. (It. contra. against; bando, an edict 
 or proclamation.) Ii Commercial language, goods exported 
 from or imported ii to a country against us laws. Contra- 
 band of war, such 1 rticles as a belligerent has, by the law of 
 nations, the right o preventing a neutral from furnishing to 
 his enemy. Articles contraband of warare, in general, arms 
 and munitions of war, and those out of which munitions of 
 war are made : all these are liable to be seized : but very 
 arbitrary interpretations have been affixed to the term by 
 powerful states, when able to enforce them by arms. Thus 
 provisions BM Mid Contraband of war when it is the object 
 to reduce the enemy to famine. But with respect to these 
 and other articles not in their nature contraband, it seems 
 to be the practice that the belligerent should purchase them 
 from the neutral for a reasonable equivalent, instead of 
 confiscating. 
 
 ( 11M I; All V'SSO. (It.) The largest of the violin species 
 of string and bowed instruments, whereof it forms the low- 
 est bass, usualiv called the double bass. 
 
 CO'NTllACT. In Civil Law, the term usually applied 
 to such agreements, whether express or implied, as create, 
 or are Intended to create, a legal right, and corresponding 
 liability ; such right not attaching to the possession of the 
 subject matter ol the contract, except in equity, and that 
 indirectly, but subsisting both in equity and law against the 
 contracting party. 
 
 The conditions essential to the legal validity of a contract 
 relate either to the competency of the parties, the sufficiency 
 of the consideration or inducement, the nature of the thing 
 contracted for, the fairness of the transaction, or, lastly, to 
 the form of the agreement. 
 
 And, first, as to the competency of the parties. The party 
 to be sued must have been at the time of the contract of 
 sound mind, and, unless it was for the supply of neces- 
 saries, of full age; and if a woman, she must have been 
 unmarried, subject as to the latter condition (o some excep- 
 tions established either by local custom or by the doctrines 
 of equity. 
 
 Secondly, as to the sufficiency of the consideration on the 
 part of the person suing, — it must have been either future 
 marriage since performed, or money, or something capable 
 of being estimated in money; or some act. whetherof per- 
 formance or abstinence, whereby some undoubted advan- 
 tage, though not capable of being exactly valued, accrues to 
 the party sued. 
 
 Thirdly, the act contracted for must be neither contrary to 
 written law, nor to public policy ; and it must be beneficial 
 to the party seeking either performance or compensation, or 
 to some one on whose behalf he gave the consideration. 
 
 Fourthly, there must have been neither fraud (either by 
 concealment or misstatement) nor compulsion on the part 
 of the plaintiff in obtaining the agreement; and fraudulent 
 acts subsequent to the agreement having reference to it are 
 also sufficient lo deprive the guilty party of all right under 
 it. Some circumstances are in equity considered either as 
 conclusive evidence of fraud, or as substantive acts of coer 
 cion, which are not strictly of such a nature, and are not so 
 deemed at law. 
 
 Lastly, as to the form of the agreement. Where it relates 
 to an interest in land of three years' duration or more, or to 
 goods of the value of 10/. or upwards, unless there be earnest 
 or delivery, or where it is an agreement as surety, or where 
 it is upon marriage as a consideration, it must be in writing; 
 though the want of a written instrument may be supplied 
 in equity by partial performance, that is. by acts evidently 
 done in pursuance of the alleged contract. 
 
 Contracts are sometimes implied either in the whole 
 from the acts of the parties, as from the ordering of goods 
 a contract to pay for them ; or in part, and as incidental to 
 the principal agreement, as, in the case of a lease, a con 
 tract by the tenant to use fairly and take due care of the 
 thing leased. And at law some obligations not arising in 
 any manner from contract are, as regards the mode of en- 
 forcing them, placed on the same footing as those which do 
 
CONTRADICTORY PROPOSITIONS. 
 
 arise from contract; the remedy, and not the right, being 
 assimilated by statute. 
 
 Such are the general requisites to the validity of agree- 
 ments; but at law the extent of the right and liability 
 arising under them varies according to their form : agree- 
 ments being there divided into those under seal, which 
 are called agreements by specialty, and those not under 
 seal, which are called simple contract or parol agreements, 
 including not only such as are merely verbal, but such as 
 are written and unsealed. The first sort alone are binding 
 upon the land, and that only when the heir is named ; and 
 they possess this farther advantage over agreements by 
 simple contract, that being executed as the deed of the con- 
 tracting party, a sufficient consideration will always be im- 
 plied in their favour, unless an insufficient one be actually 
 stated on the face of them. Again, agreements both by 
 specialty and simple contract are either to pay a sum cer- 
 tain actually stated in the agreement, or a sum uncertain 
 to depend upon the value of the thing received ; or they 
 are agreements to perform certain acts. In the first case, 
 the remedy is by action of debt either on b> nd or covenant, 
 or upon simple contract, as the case may I :. In either of 
 the latter cases the remedy is by action foi breach of cov- 
 enant where the agreement is under seal, r by action of 
 assumpsit where it is by simple contract ; ti.e relief given 
 in each of the two last-mentioned sorts of action being 
 compensation in damages for the injury accrued from 
 non-performance of the agreement. See Action. 
 
 The remedy in equity, where there is any, is in all cases 
 alike — specific performance of the act agreed to be done ; 
 and such relief will be given to the same extent and against 
 the same parties, whether the contracting party himself or 
 his real or personal representatives, without any distinction 
 between agreements under seal and those which are not so. 
 
 But though courts of equity have jurisdiction in all cases 
 of agreements, at least in all such as do not constitute an 
 actual debt at law, yet the exercise of that jurisdiction is 
 subject to certain rules, a matter of discretion ; for the 
 reason that the denial of the equitable relief will not leave 
 the party without some remedy, namely, that of damages 
 at law: and on this account specific performance can only 
 be obtained in equity in those cases where pecuniary 
 damages would not afford to the disappointed party an 
 adequate compensation. Thus such relief will not be 
 granted In any of those cases where the inducement to the 
 bargain or agreement was merely the expectation of profit, 
 as it is in agreements for the sale or purchase of personal 
 chattel-; ; and other circumstances also are a bar to equita- 
 ble relief, which are no defence to an action at law, as, for 
 Instance, the want of mutual liability, apparent laches, and 
 Indifference in following up the agreement; or particular 
 Consequences of collateral hardships arising to one party 
 from actual performance ; or the impropriety in equity of 
 the agreement, as where performance would be a breach 
 of trust. And on the other hand, though the equitable 
 jurisdiction is founded upon a supposed legal right, there 
 are cases in which the right having been lost at law, as by 
 default in literal compliance with the terms of the agree- 
 ment, will yet be enforced in equity. 
 
 Contract, Original or Social. In Politics, that 
 which is supposed to exist ab initio, according to some 
 theories of government, between the sovereign power and 
 the subject. So prevalent was this doctrine at the period 
 of the revolution of 1688, that the Convention Parliament 
 pronounced James II. to have broken the " original con- 
 tract between the king and the people." The original con- 
 tract, with the reciprocity of rights and duties which it en- 
 genders, is clearly a supposition having no historical foun- 
 dation in the annals of any people ; but it is, nevertheless, 
 the only hypothesis in which men can consistently pro- 
 ceed in framing a theory of government which shall satisfy 
 at once the moral and economical wants of society. 
 
 CONTRADI'CTORY PROPOSITIONS. In Logic, are 
 those which having the same terms differ in quantity.and 
 in quality. Contrary Propositions are two universals with 
 the same terms, the one negative and the other affirma- 
 tive- See Proposition. 
 
 CONTRA'LTO. (It.) In Music, the part immediately 
 below the treble ; called also the counter tenor. 
 
 CO'NTRAST. (Fr. contraste.) In the Fine Arts, an 
 opposition of lines or colours to each other, so contrived 
 that the one gives greater effect to the other. By means 
 of contrast energy and expression are given to a subject, 
 even when employed on inanimate forms. All art is in- 
 deed a system of contrast : lights should contrast with 
 shadows, figures with figures, members with members, 
 and groups with groups. It is this which gives life, soul, 
 and motion to a composition. 
 
 CO'NTRATENO'RE. In Music, the same as Contralto, 
 which see. 
 
 CO'NTRA VALIDATION. (Lat. vallum, trench.) In 
 Fortification, a trench guarded by a parapet, formed by 
 the besiegers between their camp and the place besieged, 
 to secure themselves and check the sallies of the garrison. 
 
 aao 
 
 CONVENTION. 
 
 : The line of conlravallation is thus, as the name implies, 
 a sort of counter fortification. 
 
 CONTROL, BOARD OF, or BOARD OF COMM1S 
 MISSIONERS FOR THE AFFAIRS OF NDIA, is con 
 stituted under the authority of Mr. Pin's c ilebrated Act, 
 passed in 17S3. It consists of such membei - of the privy 
 council as his Majesty is pleased to appoint, of whom ttiti 
 two principal secretaries of state and chance lor of the ex- 
 chequer always form three. The president is usually a 
 cabinet minister. The controlling functions if the board 
 consist in revising all despatches prepared by the court of 
 directors and addressed to the governments in India. It 
 also has the power of requiring the court to prepare de- 
 spatches on a given subject, and revising and altering 
 them. The board is divided into six departments,— ac- 
 counts, revenue, judicial, military, secret political, ami 
 foreign and public. The names of the first four indicate 
 their duties: the third has three subdivisions, — the secret 
 departments, respecting confidential communicatii 
 dressed (as the act prescribes) by the local go\ ernments to 
 the secret committee of the court of directors, and vice 
 versa; the political, comprising general correspondence 
 respecting native chiefs and states ; the foreign, respecting 
 foreign Europeans and Americans resorting to India. The 
 public department takes charge of commercial, ecclesias- 
 tical, and other miscellaneous affairs. The salary of the 
 president of the board is 3600/., that of a paid commis 
 sioner 1200/., of the secretary 1500/. 
 
 CONTROLLER. (Fr. controleur.) An officer ap 
 pointed to control or oversee the accounts of other offi- 
 cers, and to certify whether the matters confided to his 
 care have been controlled or examined. In England, 
 there are several public functionaries of this title, as the 
 controller of the mint, customs, stationery, &c. 
 
 CO'NTUMACY. (Fr. contumace, staMx/rn.) In Scotch 
 Ecclesiastical Law, a wilful disobedience to any lawful 
 summons or judicial order. It is punished by imprisonment. 
 
 CO'NUS. (Gr. Kwvos, a cone.) A term in Botany, de- 
 noting that form of inflorescence called astrobilus or cone, 
 which is a spike, the carpels of which are scale like, spread 
 open, ami bear naked seeds. Sometimes the scales are 
 thin, with little cohesion ; but they often are woody, ami 
 cohere into a single tuberculated mass. 
 
 Conds. The name of a Linnsean genus of Vermes Tes- 
 tacea, characterized by the conical form of the shell, the 
 base of which is formed by the spire, which is accordingly 
 flat, or very slightly projecting ; the aperture is narrow am. 
 rectilinear, or nearly so, without any enlargement or pli- 
 cation. The genus is retained without subdivision, and 
 forms partof the Buccinoid family of the Peclinibranehiatc 
 order of Gastropods in the system of Cuvier. 
 
 CO'NVENT. (Lat. conventus, from convenio, / come 
 together.) A religious house, inhabited by a society of 
 monks or nuns. See Monachism. 
 
 CONVE'NTICLE. (Lat., diminutive of conventus. j 
 An assembly for the purpose of divine worship: first used 
 in a contemptuous sense for the meetings of the followers 
 of Wicliffe (stat. 2 H. 4. c. 15.) and since applied to the 
 places of meeting of petty sects and of Dissenters In 
 general in the Conventicle Act, 1C Car. 2., repealed by 52 
 G. 3. c. 155. Originally the word had no such peculiar 
 application, but was used by the fathers and ancient writers 
 for a church. 
 
 CONVE'NTION. In Political language, this name has 
 been applied to assemblies of national representatives 
 meeting on extraordinary occasions without being con- 
 voked by the legal authority. Two parliaments have been 
 so called in English history. The first, that which met in 
 April. 1660, and restored Charles II. to the throne— the 
 Lords assembling by their own authority; and the Com- 
 mons, by virtue of writs issued in the name of the keepers 
 of the liberties of England, by the authority of parliament. 
 The second, that which met in 1688, each house by its own 
 authority, and on the summons of the Prince of Orange ; 
 which declared King James II. to have abdicated the 
 crown, and transferred it to William and Mary. In French 
 History, the name Convention is applied to that assembly 
 which met after the legislative assembly had pronounced 
 the suspension of the royal functions, in September, 1788, 
 and proclaimed the republic, at its first sitting. This body 
 dissolved itself on the establishment of the Directory, in 
 October, 1796. The Scottish assembly which met on the 
 flight of James II. was entitled the Convention of Estates In 
 the United Slates, meetings of the people of separate states, 
 by specially chosen representatives, to review and a in rod 
 the state constitutions, have been termed Convent ons. 
 
 Convention, Military. A treaty between military 
 commanders concerning terms for a temporary cessation 
 of hostilities ; generally between a victor and a defeated 
 general, for the evacuation of a district or position by IBS 
 latter. Such, at least, were the two most celebrated con- 
 ventions of modern times: that of Closter-Seven (1757), 
 between the Dukes of Cumberland and Richelieu; ilia! 
 of Cintra(1808), between Junot and the English generals. 
 
CONVERGENT-NERVED 
 
 CONVE'RG ENT-NER VED. A term used in describ- 
 frig the venation of leaves, to denote cases where the ribs 
 form ;i curve and meet at the point, as in Plantago Ian- 
 aetata. 
 
 CONVE'RGING SERIES. In Analysis, ar<» series of 
 which every succeeding term is smallei than the preced- 
 [iiently, tend to a certain limit. It 
 converging series which admit of summation. 
 
 CO'NVERSE. In Geometry, a proposition is said to be 
 the converse of another when the conclusion of the first 
 las the supposition in the second, the conclu- 
 sion of the second agrees with the supposition of the first. 
 Thus, the fifth proposition of the first boolc of Euclid af- 
 firms that if the two sidesof a triangle be equal, the angle* 
 at the base are equal ; and the sixth affirms that if the 
 eagles at the base be equal, the two sides are equal. The 
 ire the converse of the fifth. 
 
 CONVE'RSION. In Logic, a proposition is s.iid to be 
 converted when the terms are so transposed that the sub- 
 made the predicate, and vice versa. All logical 
 conversion is illative; i.e. the truth of the converse fol- 
 lows (ram thatofthe original. Conversion is either -'sim- 
 ple" or " per accidens." Universal negatives (denoted by 
 the siga B)aad particular affirmatives (l)can be converted 
 simply, retaining both quantity and Duality: thus, '• No 
 nan is a rebel ;" " No rebel is a virtuous man." 
 Conv ersi on per arcidens changes either quantity orquali- 
 (v. I niversal affirmatives (A) are converted by changing 
 the quantity ; as, " All oaks are tn-es ;" " Some trees are 
 Dftka." Particular negatives (O) by changing the quality, 
 considering the negative as attached to the predicate In- 
 the copula: ifaa proposition is thua changed Into 
 i. — "Borne poets are aot learned:" ''Some not learned 
 I) men are poets." See Proposition. 
 
 CO'NVKIIT. (Let) A person who changes his reli- 
 gion. Individuals, of what i.iuh soever, who abandon their 
 own creed and embrace Christianity are called converts, in 
 contradistinction to apostates, applied generally to Chris- 
 tians who adopt another religion. History, both sacred 
 and prof mi-, has transmitted in us many instances of sud- 
 den conversion, in which the hand of a miraculous provi- 
 dence may cleans be traced. Among the most remarka- 
 iiu mentioned the conversion of 300J Jews on the 
 day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and that of Paul the apos- 
 tle, (he '-in leror Constantine, and Clovia, king of Franca. 
 
 CONVEY' ANCE. (From convey.) In Law, a deed 
 which paaaaa land from one to another, (See Real Pro- 
 perty, Law of.) A conveyancer is a lawyer, whose 
 consists in advising and preparing such deeds. 
 It is not pecooeery to be called to the bar to practise as a 
 conveyancer; hut most conveyances take thai step soon 
 inning their business, and frequently combine it 
 with that of equity draftsmen. 
 
 CONVI'CTION. At Common Law, is the finding of 
 one guilty of an offence byline verdict of a jury ; and may 
 lake place where one is outlawed, or appears and con- 
 i is found guilty on the inquest. (See Jury, Ver- 
 oict.) By various statutes summary proceedings, without 
 the intervention of a jury, are authorized for the trial and 
 conviction of minor offenders. Such are those before 
 commissioners of excise, ice. for breaches of the revenue 
 laws, and before justices of the peace for various disor- 
 derly offences. The party charged must be summoned to 
 Mend ; and a conviction by a magistrate must be in writing, 
 and should state the whole of the evidence for and against 
 the defendant. 
 
 CONVOCATION. (Lat. con voco, I coil together.) In 
 English Ecclesiastical Law, the council of the church, 
 derived, first, from the custom of the bishops assembling 
 their diocesan clergy for the sake of considering spiritual 
 matters; and, secondly, of the archbishops holding con- 
 vocations of the clergy of a whole province. Convoca- 
 tions were first assembled in England under the king's 
 authority by Edward L, who summoned them by their 
 provinces, for the sake of obtaining subsidies from the 
 clerical body. They met in each province in two houses 
 — one of the suffragan bishops; the other of deans, arch- 
 . and representatives of the inferior clergy. The 
 taxation of their own body was withdrawn from convoea- 
 in 1664 ; and, on the other hand, the privilege of voting 
 knights of the shire was then conceded to ecclesias- 
 tics. As the power of enacting canons had been already 
 virtually abolished by statutes of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, 
 and Charles II., there now remained no business for con- 
 vocaiion to transact ; and it was only in the reigns of Wil- 
 liam III. and Anne, when attempts were made by the 
 high church party to impart fresh activity to it as an eccle- 
 siastical tribunal, that its meetings were attended with any 
 historical importance. 8ince that period it has become 
 customary to prorogue convocation every year immediate- 
 ly upon lis assembling. The rights and history of the con- 
 vocal ion are treated of at length in several writings of the 
 learned Bishop Gibson, especially his Synodus Anglicana, 
 Lond. 170-2. 
 
 281 
 
 CO-ORDINATES. 
 
 Convocation, House of, in the University of Oxford 
 is the assembly which enacts, amends, &c. laws and stat- 
 utes ; elects burgesses, many professors, and other offi- 
 cers, &c. It is composed of all members of the university 
 who have at any time been Regents (see Regents), and 
 who, if independent members, have retained their names 
 on the books of their respective colleges. The power ol 
 convocation at Oxford to make statutes is limited: in the 
 first place, the royal statutes cannot be explained or 
 amended without royal license; and, in the next place, 
 with respect to all other laws and statutes, no proposition 
 can be entertained in convocation unless it has been first 
 submitted to the hebdomadal meeting of heads of houses, 
 by whom it must be in the first instance sanctioned or 
 rejected. 
 
 CONVO'LVULA'CEjE. (Convolvulus, one of the gen- 
 era.) A natural order of herbaceous or shrubby Exogens, 
 twining and producing a milky juice when wounded. 
 They are very abundant in the tropics, and possess par- 
 l ilities in their roots, depending upon a peculiar 
 resin, ol which scammony and jalap, yielded by the Con- 
 volulus Scammonia and Ipomna purga, may be taken as 
 examples. Many of these plants are objects of striking 
 beauty ; some, which unfold their pure, white, magnificent 
 Mowers at night only, are called in tropical countries Belle 
 d<: Xuii | others expand only beneath a warm and brilliant 
 sunshine. The. Lignum Rhudium of the old pharmacolo- 
 gists is produced by an upright bushy species, called 
 liretreria sropai in. 
 
 CO'NVOY. (Fr. convoy er, to conduct.) In Navigation, 
 the term applied to designate a ship cr slips of war, ap- 
 pointed by government, or by the corr.rr.arder in chief on 
 a particular station, to escort or protect the merchant ships 
 pror eiiina to certain ports. Convoys are mostly appointed 
 during war; but they are sometimes also appointed dur- 
 ing peace, for the security of ships ravigating seas infested 
 with pirates. For an account of the various regulations 
 and conditions rolative to convoys, see M-Culloch's Com 
 Diet. 
 
 Convoy, in the Military service, signifies a detachment 
 of tr.ops appointed to guard suppbes of provisions, ammu- 
 nition, or money, In their progress to a distant • ■>ti of any 
 country, or to an army in the field, against an att--. k which 
 might be made upon them cither by the peasantry or by 
 parlies of ihe enemy. 
 
 CONVU'LSION. (Lat. convello, I pull together.) A 
 writhing and agitation of the limb", and involuntary action 
 of the muscles in general. The fits vary much in extent 
 and violence, sometimes attacking the whole body, and at 
 others confined to particular parts ; in the former case the 
 mind is affected, but it often remains in the latter undis- 
 turbed : they also vary in duration, lasting from a few 
 minutes to some hours. They are sometimes preceded 
 with dizziness, double or disturbed vision, and coldness, 
 and are followed by great languor ; but at others they come 
 and go without much disturbance. Teething, worms, and 
 overloaded bowels are common causes of convulsive at- 
 tacks in children; and these are relieved by freely and 
 timely lancing the gums, and by the administration of pro- 
 per purges. In puerperal convulsions bleeding and opiates 
 are the usual remedies ; and in cases when- convulsive 
 attacks arise from violent affections of the mind, the ex- 
 citing causes must be studiously avoided. Warm baths, 
 bleeding, and nervine stimulants are the usual medical 
 aids ; and where there is difficulty of swallowing, a glyster. 
 composed of half a pint of gruel with a drachm of tincture 
 of opium and two drachms of tincture of assafcelida, has, 
 in adults, proved eminently useful. Cold effusions often 
 do harm. The after-treatment consists in the judicious 
 use of tonics and nervous stimulants, and in avoiding all 
 obvious exciting causes. 
 
 COO'LER. An apparatus used by brewers and distil- 
 lers for cooling worts. The coolers generally consist ot 
 very shallow vessels exposing great surface, and placed in 
 the high and airy parts of the brewery : the cooling is 
 sometimes assisted by fans, which agitate Ihe air over their 
 surfaces. Worts are also occasionally cooled by causing 
 them to traverse metal pipes, which are surrounded by a 
 counter-current of cold water. 
 
 CO-O'RDINATES. (Lat. con, together, and ordino, 7 
 arrange.) In Analytical Geometry, the system of lines to 
 which points under consideration are referred, and by 
 means of which their position is determined. The posi 
 tionofa point on a plane is absolutely determined if we 
 know its distances, measured in a given direction, from 
 two straight lines given by position in the same plane. In 
 like manner, the position of a point in space is determined 
 by its distances from three straight lines given by position, 
 provided any one of them be not in the same plane with 
 the other two. The use of co-ordinates was introduced 
 into geometry by Descartes, for the purpose of facilitating 
 the investigation of the properties of curve lines. For the 
 sake of convenience, they are generally chosen at ngru 
 angles to each other, and are then called rectangular co 
 
COPAIBA. 
 
 ordinates. In plane geometry, one of them is the absciss, 
 and the other the ordinate. The geometry of three dimen- 
 sions requires one abseiss and two ordinates ; the first hori- 
 zontal, and the second vertical. The point from which they 
 all proceed is the origin of the co-ordinates. 
 
 COPAI'BA or COPIVl BALSAM. An exudation from 
 the Copaifera officinalis, a South American tree ; it is a li- 
 quid resin, and yields by distillation a considerable quantity 
 of a pungent volatile oil. A small teaspoon fill taken twice 
 a day in a glass of water proves diuretic, and is of use in 
 the cure of gleet and the latter stages of gonorrhoea. A 
 larger dose is aperient, and has been of service in the treat- 
 ment of haemorrhoids. 
 
 CO'PAL. (An American name applied to clear gums?) 
 This substance is often improperly called gum copal. It is 
 a peculiar resin, very difficultly soluble in alcohol ; hard, 
 Brittle, and inodorous : its specific gravity varies from 1 04 
 lo 113. It is the produce of the Rhus copallinum and of 
 IheElaocarpus copaliferus of the East Indies : a third kind 
 sf copal is also brought from the Coast of Guinea. It is 
 used in varnishes. 
 
 COPA'RCENARY. (Lat. con, and particeps.) In Law, 
 an estate is said to be held in coparcenary, and the tenants 
 termed coparceners, where it descends from an ancestor 
 to two or more persons. Sisters are coparceners at com- 
 mon law ; tenants in gavclkin by custom. No right of sur- 
 vivorship exists between coparceners. They may agree, 
 or any one may force the rest to make partition. 
 
 CO'PING. (Sax. cop, the head.) In Architecture, the 
 upper covering or top course of a wall, usually of stone, 
 and wider than the wall itself, in order to let the rain water 
 fall clear from the wall. 
 
 CO'PPER. (Cuprum, a corruption of Cyprium, from 
 the island of Cyprus, whence it was formerly brought.) 
 This metal was known at a very remote period ; and in the 
 early ages of the world, before iron was in use, copper was 
 the chief ingredient in domestic utensils and instruments 
 of war. It is an abundant metal, and is found native, and 
 in many ores ; of these the most important are the varie- 
 ties of pyrites, which are sulphurets of copper and iron. 
 The richest mines are those of Cornwall. It occurs in 
 veins, traversing the primary rocks of that county ; it is 
 chiefly transported to Swansea to be smelted, in conse- 
 quence of the deficiency of coal in Cornwall. The ores 
 are repeatedly roasted and fused to drive off the sulphur, 
 and the oxide of copper is ultimately reduced by the joint 
 agency of heat and carbon. Copper is distinguished by its 
 colour. Its specific gravity is 86. It is ductile and malle- 
 able, and requires a temperature equal to about 2000° of 
 Fahrenheit's scale for its fusion ; that is, nearly a white 
 heat. Exposed to air and moisture, copper gradually be- 
 comes covered by a green rust; heated red-hot it absorbs 
 oxygen, and is superficially converted into a black oxide, 
 which is the basis of the principal salts of copper: it con- 
 sists of 32 copper and 8 oxygen. It forms blue or green 
 ealts with the acids; of these the sulphate of copper, or blue 
 vitriol, is a good example. The salts of copper are poison- 
 ous; and in consequence of the use of copper vessels for 
 culinary purposes, food is sometimes contaminated by 
 them. It is detected when in very minute quantities by 
 the bright blue colour produced by the addition of liquid 
 ammonia, and by a brown precipitate with ferrocyanate of 
 potash. A clean plate of iron dipped into a solution con- 
 taining copper becomes covered with the latter metal in a 
 metallic state. 
 
 COPPERAS. Green vitriol, or sulphate of iron. 
 
 CO'PPERPLATE. In Engraving, a plate of copperhigh- 
 ly polished on which an engraving is made. 
 
 CO'PPICE. Woods which are cut down at stated periods 
 to be manufactured into poles, rods, stakes, faggots for fuel, 
 oark for the tanner, or charcoal. When wood of this kind 
 basno standard trees, it is called simply a coppice, or copse 
 wood ; but when it has standard trees interspersed through 
 .t, it is called a wood. When coppices are cut down for 
 hoops, rods, and small stakes for manufacturing into crates, 
 hoops, wicker hurdles, &c, the period at which they are 
 cut varies from six to ten years, according to the soil. 
 When they are cut down for poles for hops and similar pur- 
 poses, the periodical cuttings are commonly between twelve 
 and fourteen years apart ; and when they are cut down 
 chiefly for the sake of the bark, they are seldom cut often- 
 er than from fourteen to twenty-one years. A country 
 abounding in coppice wood generally abounds also in sing- 
 ing birds, which are comparatively rare in countries where 
 all the woods are of the pine and fir tribe. 
 
 COPRO'PHAGANS, Coprophaga. (Gr. Koirpo;, dung, 
 and tyayai, I eat.) A section of Lamellicorn beetles which 
 live in ami upon the dung of animals. 
 
 CO'PVLA. (Lat. a bond or tie.) In Logic, that part of 
 the proposition which affirms or denies the predicate of the 
 subject. The only true logical copula is the present tense 
 of the verb to be, with or without the negative sign, " is " or 
 "is not." 
 
 CO'PY. (Fr. copie.) In the Fine Arts, a transcript from 
 282 
 
 CORCULUM. 
 
 an original work of art. When an artist copies his own 
 work, it is called a duplicate or \double. 
 
 Copy. In Printing, is the subject matter to be printed, 
 whether it be an original work in manuscript or a reprint : 
 in the first case it is termed manuscript copy, or written 
 copy ; in the second printed copy. 
 
 CO'PYHOLD. In Law, is a species of customary estate, 
 said to be held by copy of court roll ; i. e. where the tenant's 
 title is evidenced by a copy of the rolls of a manor made 
 by the steward of a lord's court. Customary estates are 
 those which exist in real property subject to the custom of 
 manors ; and their peculiar characteristic is, that all aliena- 
 tions of them must be transacted, in part at least, in the 
 lord's court, the ordinary mode of alienations being by sur- 
 render to the lord and admittance of the new tenant. The 
 peculiar tenure called copyhold is derived from the tenure 
 in villain socage, as it was termed, held formerly under a 
 manor. This" was in its origin a mere permissive tenure 
 by serfs attached to the soil ; and copyhold estates are still 
 expressed in legal phraseology to be held ; 'at the will of 
 the lord by the custom of the manor." With respect to 
 the incidents of dower, and other characteristics, they are 
 frequently governed by the custom of the manor; but where 
 this is not the case, they are under the same rules which 
 govern the transmission and alienation of freehold property. 
 By the Reform Act, copyholders for life, or a greater estate 
 to the amonnt of 107. per annum, are admitted to the exer- 
 cise ofthe electoral franchise in counties. The best treatises 
 on the law of copyholds are those of Watkins and Scriven. 
 CO'PYRIGHT. In Law, the right of property in a lite- 
 rary composition vested in the author. By 54 G. 3. c. 156. 
 s. 4. the term of copyright in an author and his assignee 
 extends to twenty-eight years absolutely, and for the life of 
 the author if he survive that period. Neglect to enter a 
 work at Stationers' Hall does not affect copyright. Every 
 assignment of copyright must be in writing. The author 
 or assignee of a pirated work has his remedy by action ; 
 or chancery will grant an injunction to restrain the sale of 
 pirated copies, and produce an account of such copies 
 printed and sold. The act above mentioned required that 
 eleven copies of every work should be delivered at the ex- 
 pense of authors and publishers, on demand in writ trig, for 
 the use of a few favoured public and private libraries in the 
 United Kingdom ; but by the 6 & 7 Will. 4. cap. 110. the 
 number was reduced to five. In France, copyrights con- 
 tinue for 20 years after the death of the author. Inmost 
 of the German states, they are perpetual ; and to prevent 
 spurious copies being introduced from other states, a late 
 resolution of the Diet has declared that a copyright secured 
 in one state is good in all. Both in England and on the Con- 
 tinent, various other com positions, such as engravings, etch- 
 ings, prints, maps, charts, and sculpture of all kinds, receive 
 from statute a protection analogous to that of literature. 
 
 CO'RACLE. A boat made of wicker-work covered with 
 leather, used chiefly by the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 CO'RACOID. (Gr. Kopa%, a crow, and tiiot.form.) A 
 name first applied to a small process of the blade-bone of 
 apes and man, on account of its resemblance to the beak 
 of a crow ; and now extended to a large flattened bone 
 passing from the shoulder-joint to the sternum in birds, 
 reptiles, and monotremes, and of which the process above 
 mentioned is the rudimental representative. 
 
 CORALLl'NA. A name applied by Linna?us to agenus 
 or group of marine organized bodies of arborescent habit, 
 with jointed stems, supported on a kind of root, divided 
 into branches, which are likewise jointed. Neither pores 
 nor polypes are distinguishable on the surface of these be- 
 ings ; their chief purpose in the economy of nature is to 
 prepare during life, and precipitate by their decay, fine 
 particles of carbonate of lime or chalk : they thus lend 
 their aid to the Lithophytous corals in covering submerged 
 land with the elements of a fertile soil, which the expansive 
 subterranean forces may afterwards convert into dry land. 
 
 CORALLl'NES. The name commonly applied lo the 
 tubular or nudibrachiate order of Polyps which havcan ex- 
 ternal jointed calcareous or horny covering : the true na- 
 ture of these plant-like animals was discovered by our coun 
 trvman Ellis. See Tubulifera. 
 
 CO'RBEILS. In Fortification, little baskets filled with 
 earth, about a foot and a half high, and from eight inches 
 to a foot in diameter, which are~set on a parapet or else- 
 where to afford cover from the fire of an enemv. 
 
 CO'RBEL. (From the Fr. corbeille, a basket.) in Archi- 
 tecture, a projecting bracket, often sculptured like a modil- 
 lion, sometimes in the form of a basket, for the purpose of 
 supporting a superincumbent object, also for receiving the 
 springing of an arch. A corbel table is a projecting battle- 
 ment, parapet, or cornice, resting on corbels. 
 
 CO'RCULUM. (Lat. cor, the heart.) An old name for 
 what botanists now call the embryo of a plant. It was not, 
 however, applied with much precision ; for the plumula 
 and radicle alone of such seeds as the bean and almond 
 were called the corculum, while the term shouid have in- 
 cluded the cotyledons also. 
 
CORDATE. 
 
 OO RDATE (Int. cor, the heait; literally htartuhaped.) 
 A [i-rni UMd in describing the general form of organs, to 
 denote any thin? having two round lobes at its base, the 
 resembling the heart in a pack of cards ; as the leaf 
 ■• eordifolia. 
 COR'DIA'CEjE. (Cordia, one of the genera.) A na- 
 tural order of arborescent Exogcns, inhabiting the tropics 
 • ■I both hemispheres. They are nearly allied to Convol- 
 vu'nncb, from which they are separated by their inverted 
 embryo and drupaceous fruit. They were formerly asso- 
 I with Boraginacea; but their plaited cotyledons and 
 cHchotomoua style caused them lobe removed. The flesh 
 of the fruit is succulent, as seen in the Sebesten plums, 
 the produce of the Cordia myxa and Sebes/ena ; but other- 
 ire of no value. It has been asserted that the 
 Wood from which the mummy cases of the Egyptians 
 were made was that of Cordia myxa; but there is no 
 doubt that it was really produced by FHcua sycomorua. 
 
 CO'RDON. In Fortification, a row of stones jutting out 
 between the rampart and base of the parapet. A line of 
 drawn round a town or tract of country, so as to pre- 
 venl ingress or ecreaa, is also called a cordon. 
 
 CO'RIA'RIA'CEjE. (Coriaria, one of the genera.) A na- 
 tural order of shrubby- Exogens, inhabiting Chile, Peru, the 
 (■•mth of Europe, anil a few other places. Placed by I)e 
 Candolle directly after Ochnacea ; an order with which 
 they no doubt agree in some respects, but they differ from 
 them very essentially in being apocarpous. Some botan- 
 Ider Ihem apetalous, and allied to Phytoloccoctm ; 
 (he question of their affinity is still unsettled. Their sen- 
 sible properties are of a poisonous nature. 
 
 CORIA'NDER. The second of the Coriandrum sati- 
 vum, (Or. Kopis, a bug, the odour of the fresh plant re- 
 sembling that of a bug.) It is a native of Europe, culti- 
 vated on account of its seeds, which are occasionally used 
 in medicine ; they have a peculiar perfumed flavour, with 
 some bitterness, and form one of the ingredients of curry 
 powder. 
 
 CORI'NTHIAN ORDER. In Architecture, one of the 
 five orders of architecture. The capital (see Arcuitec- 
 
 turb) is a vase elegantly co- 
 
 r vcrodwiih an abacus, and sur- 
 rounded by two tiers of leaves, 
 one above the other; from 
 among which stalks spring 
 out, terminating at their sum- 
 mits in small volutes at the ex- 
 ternal angles and centres of 
 the abacus. The capitals of 
 the Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic 
 orders appear added to the 
 tops of the shafts; but the Co- 
 rinthian capital seems to grow 
 out of the column, varying in 
 height from a diameter and 
 one sixth of the lower part of 
 the shaft to one diameter only ; 
 such last being the height of 
 the capitals of the temple at 
 Tivoli. The entablature of 
 this order is variously deco- 
 rated. The architrave is usu- 
 ally profiled, with three fascia 
 of unequal height, though in 
 some specimens there are 
 only two. The frieze is often 
 sculptured with foliage, and 
 the cornice decorated both 
 with modillions and dentils ; 
 the former having a sort of baluster front with a leaf un- 
 der them ; and the latter, which are cut into the body of 
 the band, being occasionally omitted, as are sometimes 
 even the modillions. The principal remaining ancient ex- 
 amples of the order at Rome are in the Temple of Mars 
 Ultor, Portico of Severus, the Forum of Nerva, Temple of 
 Vesta, Basilica of Antoninus, the Pantheon, <fec. &c 
 
 CORK. (Corrupted from Lat. cortex; Germ, kork.) 
 The barkof the Quercuasuber,a. speciesofoak growing in 
 the southern provinces of Spain, France, and Italy. When 
 rasped cork is digested in water and alcohol, it leaves from 
 70 to 80 per cent, of insoluble matter, which has been 
 called auberins, and which, by the continued action of ni- 
 tric acid, is converted into suberic acid. 
 
 CO'RMUS. (Gr. xopfiot, a stem.) The dilated base of 
 the stem of Endogens, intervening between the roots and 
 the first buds, and forming the reproductive portion of such 
 plants when they are not caulescent ; as in the genera Col- 
 chicum. Crocus, &c. It is a short roundish rhizoma. 
 
 CORN. The seeds of certain grasses which have been 
 used as food, for man or animals, from time immemorial 
 are called corn ; and those which are used exclusively or 
 principally by man are called the bread corns. The term 
 corn is also sometimes applied to the seeds of other plants 
 which can be uround into meal and used as food, such as 
 283 
 
 COR1N. 
 
 the seeds of the buckwheat, the quinoa, and those of cer 
 tain leguminous plants, which, however, are more properly 
 denominated pulse. That which constitutes any kind of 
 seed a corn seems to be its having been generally ground 
 into meal, and used a3 human food ; because seeds which 
 are ground or crushed, and not used as food, or, if con- 
 sidered as food, are not used in the state of bread, such as 
 the seeds of the oil plants, of mustard, &c, are never 
 called corns. The principal bread corns of temperate cli- 
 mates are wheat, rye, oats, and barley; those of warm 
 climates arc maize, rice, and millet ; and those of cold cli- 
 mates oats and barley. 
 
 It may be worthy of remark, that all bread corns are an- 
 nual plants, and from that circumstance far better adapt ;j 
 for universal cultivation than if they had been perennials, 
 or even biennials. An annual plant may indeed be said to 
 belong to no country in particular, because it completes its 
 existence during the summer months ; and in every part 
 of the world there is a summer. Hence, we find the same 
 corns ripening their seeds within the frigid and the torrid 
 zone; and though the quality of the grain of barley and 
 wheat grown in Lapland is far inferior to that grown in the 
 south of Spain, or on the plains of India, yet it is still such 
 as to be made into wholesome bread and invigorating fer- 
 mented liipior. Had the bread corns been perennials, they 
 must necessarily have required to live through the winter 
 in every country in which they were grown, as well as 
 through the summer; and such of them as might have 
 been adapted to the winters of cold climates, when taken 
 to warm climates would have been so far weakened by be- 
 ing kept in a growing state throughout the year as in a few 
 years to have ceased to exist: while the perennials of 
 warm climates, such as the south of Spain and Italy, could 
 not have lived through a single winter in Russia or Lapland. 
 For the same reason, that is, because they are annuals, 
 and require little more than to be sown and reaped, the 
 bread corns are in an especial manner the domestic 
 
 fdants of man in an early stage of civilization. A people 
 ike the wandering Arabs, who live in lenls, and change 
 their encampments annually oroftener, may conveniently 
 reap their crop, raise their tents, and carry their seed con- 
 about with them, till they find a suitable spot where they 
 can pitch their tents and take their next crop. This, how- 
 ever, could not be done by a people who, in addition to 
 corn and pulse, depended for the food of themselves and 
 cattle on the production of roots, such as the turnip and 
 the potatoe ; and these accordingly are plants character- 
 istic of a settled people, in a higher degree of civilization 
 and a greatly advanced state of agriculture. The capacity 
 of any country for growing corn may be said to be accord- 
 ing to the flatness of iis surface, provided it be neither too 
 hot nor too cold, too wet nor too dry ; and hence the im- 
 mense plains of Russia and Tartary are eminently calcu- 
 lated for raising food for man. The perennial grasses and 
 trees also grow better in plains than any where else ; but 
 they will thrive on the steep declivities of hills, which, if 
 subjected to tillage in order to grow corn, would have the 
 surface soil washed away by rains and thawing snows. 
 
 Value of tlie Produce of Corn.— In agricultural coun- 
 tries, not in a very high state of civilization, the culture of 
 corn is the principal employment of the great bulk of the 
 community ; and in all considerable countries, how far so- 
 ever they may be advanced in arts and refinement, its cul- 
 ture is always' by far the most extensive as well as the most 
 important branch of national industry. No great country, per- 
 haps,ever existed, the population of which was so extensively 
 engaged in manufactures and commerce as that of Great 
 Britain. Still, however, we employ about a third part of our 
 inhabitants in agriculture; and of these, fully three fourths 
 are directly or indirectly engaged in the raising of corn. Un- 
 fortunately, there are no accounts on which it would be safe 
 wholly to rely of the ordinary produce of corn either in this 
 or any other great country. That produce has, however, 
 been estimated in the Commercial Dictionary at 52,000,000 
 quarters (of which 12,000,000 are wheat), for Great Britain 
 and Ireland : and it is believed, by those best acquainted 
 with such subjects, that this estimate is rather within than 
 beyond the mark. But supposing it to be accurate, and 
 taking the average price ol the different descriptions of 
 corn at 35s. a quarter, the total value of the corn annually 
 produced will amount to the sum of jE91,000,000 sterling, 
 or to nearly three times the total annual value of the cot 
 ton manufacture! This is sufficient to evince the para- 
 mount importance of agriculture as a source of wealth as 
 well as a means of subsistence. 
 
 Corn Laws. — This superior importance of corn as an 
 article of culture, and the dependence" so generally placed 
 upon it as an article of food, are the causes why the trade 
 in it has been so very generally subjected to regulation. It 
 is long even before the most enlightened portion of an in- 
 structed community become satisfied of the advantage of 
 permitting the supply of corn or any indispensable article 
 to be adjusted, like that of other less important things, by 
 the unfettered competition of private individuals. It seems, 
 
CORN. 
 
 at first sight, reasonable to suppose that the most likely 
 way to secure plenty at home is to impose restrictions on 
 exportation. But in truth and reality, this is very far from 
 being the case. How fertile soever, no country that im- 
 poses restrictions on exportation need hope to escape 
 perpetually recurring scarcities ; for wherever free expor- 
 tation is prevented, the excess of supply that occurs in 
 plentiful years being thrown wholly upon the home market, 
 depresses prices to such an extent as to be ruinous to the 
 farmer; and thus, by injuring agriculture and lessening 
 the quantity of land in corn, never fails to occasion a scar- 
 city on the occurrence of a deficient harvest. In Great 
 Britain, however, the policy has long been to give every 
 facility to exportation, and even to fay restrictions on im- 
 portation. This has arisen from our legislature being 
 principally composed of individuals dependent on and 
 connected with the land ; and whose interest consequently 
 has led them to endeavour to secure as high a price as 
 possible for its produce. But it is needless to add that this 
 policy is, if possible, even more objectionable than the 
 other. Instead of being publicly advantageous, high prices 
 are, in every instance, distinctly and completely the re- 
 verse. The less the sacrifice of money or of labour for 
 which corn or any other article can be procured, so much 
 the better. But to make sure that the price of corn, or of 
 any thing else, will be fixed at the lowest limit at which 
 the required supply can be obtained, all that is necessary 
 is to abolish all restrictions, whether on exportation or im- 
 portation. Freedom is the parent of abundance, cheap- 
 ness, and equality of price ; restriction, of scarcity, detr- 
 ness, and uncertainty. Any interference with the trade in 
 corn, or with any other great department of trade, that has 
 not the removal of natural or artificial restraints for its 
 object, is not only inconsistent with the best established 
 principles, but is sure to be pernicious. In this, as in all 
 other things connected with national industry, the short 
 and only safe rule is to leave individuals to pursue their 
 own interest in (heir own way. 
 
 Our limits forbid our attempting to make any enumera- 
 tion of the various statutes that have been passed at dif- 
 ferent periods for regulating the trade in corn. Down to 
 the Revolution, the policy was to restrict exportation ; 
 but from that period the contrary policy has been pursued, 
 and the legislature has pretty uniformly endeavoured to 
 facilitate exportation, and to prohibit or fetter importation. 
 It was not, however, till about 1770 that the restrictions on 
 importation began to have much practical influence. But 
 about that time, population having begun rapidly to advance, 
 in consequence of the extraordinary impulse given to 
 manufacturing industry by the inventions and discoveries 
 of Watt, Arkwright, Wedgwood, and others, the price of 
 torn in England began to rise above its price on the Conti- 
 nent ; and from being an exporting we became an occa- 
 sionally, or rather a pretty constantly, importing country. 
 Had there been no restrictions on importation, our prices, 
 it is plain, could not have exceeded those of the adjoining 
 Continental states by a greater sum than might have been 
 required to defray the cost of importing into this country. 
 The restrictions, however, overturned this natural prin- 
 ciple ; and in deficient years added materially to the dif- 
 ference between our prices and those of the Continent. 
 This difference attained to its greatest height during the 
 late war, owing to the formidable difficulties it threw in the 
 way of importation. During the last six years of that con- 
 test, prices in England (after allowing for the depreciation 
 of the currency) were fully double their amount in the 
 principal Continental markets. 
 
 At the close of the war, in 1814 and 1815, the renewed 
 Intercourse with the Continent led to a great importation 
 of corn, which occasioned such a sudden and heavy fall of 
 prices as was productive of much severe distress amongst 
 the farmers. Parliament endeavoured to obviate this by 
 increasing the restrictions on importation, a device which 
 had, in part, the anticipated effect. But since 1820, the 
 influence of improved communications and of ameliora- 
 tions in agriculture has been so very great, that, notwith- 
 standing the vast increase of population, prices have been 
 progressively falling, and were, in 1835, lower than in any 
 previous year since 1787. Practically, therefore, the in- 
 fluence of the restrictions has been materially diminished, 
 and a much greater effect is now usually ascribed to them 
 in ordinary years than they really exert. No doubt, how- 
 ever, they tend materially to aggravate the scarcity and 
 suffering originating In a deficient harvest, and are, there- 
 fore, highly objectionable. 
 
 The existing duty on foreign corn, or that imposed by 
 the act 9 Geo. 4. cap. 60., is not invariable but fluctuates 
 indirectly as the price in the home market ; being 24s. 8d. 
 on wheat, when the price is at 62«. and below 63s. a quar- 
 ter, decreasing as the price advances till it reaches 73s., 
 when the duty is Is. only. This fluctuating scale of duty 
 materially adds to the proverbial risk and uncertainty of 
 the corn trade ; for, supposing a merchant orders a quan- 
 tity of foreign corn when prices are at a certain level, il 
 284 
 
 they fall before it arrives, he not only loses in consequence 
 of the decrease of price, but is further charged with a 
 corresponding increase of duty ; whereas, on the other 
 hand, had the price advanced, he would have gained not 
 merely by its increase, but by the fall in the rate of duty ! 
 The effect of the present system is, therefore, precisely 
 Ihe reverse of what it should be were it founded on sound 
 principles, inasmuch as it aggravates the loss arising from 
 a bad, and increases the profit of a successful, speculation ! 
 Under its operation, the foreign corn trade is rendered 
 little better than gambling on a great scale. 
 
 But in recommending the policy of a free trade in corn, 
 we do not mean to contend that it would be either just or 
 expedient always to admit of importation free of duty. In 
 certain circumstances this may be the proper caurse, but 
 not in all. No duty should ever be laid upon foreign corn 
 on pretence of protecting industry at home, as that is, in 
 fact, taxing the other classes in order to secure a doubtful 
 benefit for the agriculturists. But if agriculture be more 
 heavily burdened than any other great department of in- 
 dustry carried on at home, a constant duty should be laid 
 on foreign corn imported, to balance the excess of duty 
 falling on the agriculturists. This is not to favour the 
 latter, but to do them justice. It has been denied that the 
 British agriculturists are in this predicament ; but were 
 this the place for entering upon such investigations, it 
 would not be difficult to show that they are in fact more 
 heavily taxed than the manufacturers or traders; and that, 
 on that account, they are entitled to claim that a fixed and 
 invariable duty should be laid on all foreign corn when im- 
 ported, corresponding to the excess of taxation by which 
 they are affected. Those who may wish for further in- 
 formation as to the interesting topics now merely glanced 
 at, and others we have not been able to notice, are referred 
 to the article " Corn Laws" in the new edition of the En- 
 cyclopedia Britannica, the art. " Corn Laws" in the Com- 
 mercial Dictionary, and the note on the same subject in 
 M'Culloch's edit, of the Wealth of Nations, 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 We subjoin the estimate of the produce of corn given in 
 the Commercial Dictionary, and an account of the average 
 prices of British wheat from 1771 to 1837, both inclusive 
 Cousumption of Wheat and other Grain in the United 
 Kingdom, in a Year, Six Months, a Month, a Week, ifcc. 
 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Other Grain. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 A year . 
 
 12,000.000 
 
 40.000,000 
 
 52,000,000 
 
 Six months . 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 20,000.000 
 
 26,000,000 
 
 Three months 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 10.000,000 
 
 13,000,000 ' 
 
 Six weeks 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 5,000.000 
 
 6,500,000 
 
 One month 
 
 1,000.000 
 
 3,333.333 
 
 4,333,333 i 
 
 Two weeks . 
 
 500,000 
 
 1,606.606. 
 
 2,166,666 
 
 One week 
 
 250,000 
 
 833,333 
 
 1,083.333 
 
 One day 
 
 35,714 
 
 119,048 
 
 154,762 J 
 
 Account of the Average Prices of British Wheat per Win- 
 chester Quarter, in England and Wales, since 1771, as 
 ascertained by the Receiver of Corn Returns. 
 
 1771 
 1772 
 1773 
 1774 
 1775 
 1776 
 1777 
 1778 
 1779 
 17R0 
 1781 
 1782 
 1783 
 1784 
 1765 
 17S6 
 1787 
 
 L. 
 
 2 7 2 
 2 10 8 
 2 11 
 2 12 8 
 2 8 4 
 
 1 18 2 
 
 2 5 6 
 2 2 
 1 13 8 
 
 1 15 8 
 
 2 4 8 
 2 7 10 
 2 12 8 
 2 8 10 
 2 U 10 
 
 1 18 10 
 
 2 1 2 
 
 Years. Wheal. 
 
 1788 
 1789 
 1790 
 1791 
 1792 
 1793 
 1794 
 1795 
 1796 
 1797 
 1798 
 1799 
 1800 
 1801 
 1802 
 1803 
 
 L. ». 
 2 5 
 2 11 
 2 13 
 
 8 11 
 11 8 
 
 2 10 
 
 3 7 
 5 13 
 5 18 
 3 7 
 2 16 
 
 1804 
 
 1805 
 
 law 
 
 1807 
 1S08 
 1809 
 1810 
 1811 
 1812 
 1813 
 1814 
 1815 
 1816 
 1817 
 1818 
 1819 
 
 15 10 
 14 9 
 4 1 
 13 
 
 Account of the Average Prices of British Wheat per Im- 
 perial Quarter, in England and Wales, since 1820, as 
 ascertained by the Receiver of Corn Returns. 
 
 1820 
 1821 
 1822 
 1823 
 1824 
 1825 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Years 
 
 L. «. it. 
 
 
 3 7 11 
 
 1326 
 
 2 16 2 
 
 1827 
 
 2 4 7 
 
 1828 
 
 2 13 5 
 
 1829 
 
 3 4 
 
 1830 
 
 3 8 7 
 
 1831 
 
 2 18 
 
 2 16 
 
 3 
 3 6 
 3 4 
 3 6 
 
 
 Years. 
 
 i. 
 
 
 U 
 
 1832 
 
 'J 
 
 1833 
 
 B 
 
 1834 
 
 3 
 
 1835 
 
 3 
 
 1836 
 
 4 
 
 1837 
 
 2 18 8 
 2 12 11 
 2 6 2 
 
 1 19 4 
 
 2 8 6 
 2 15 10 
 
CORNACEjE. 
 
 CORNA'CE.E. (Comus, one of the genera.) A natu- 
 ral order of arborescent or shrubby Exogens, inhabiting 
 temperate climates, and formerly confounded with Capri- 
 foliar'.'!: from, which they are easily distinguished by being 
 polypetalous. They appear to possess medicinal proper- 
 ties, since t lie bark of C.Jlorida and sericea is said to rank 
 amongst tiie best tonics of North America. The common 
 id is a familiar instance of this order. 
 CO'RN'nRASH. A rubbly stone, forming a soil cele- 
 brated in Wiltshire for the growth of corn. 
 
 CO'RNEA. (Lat. cornu, a horn.) The transparent 
 membrane of a horny texture which forms the anterior 
 part of the eyeb ill. In vertebrates it is simple : in insects 
 it is sub livided into numerous hexagonal segments. 
 
 CO'RNET. (It. cornetta, asmailjlag.) A commissioned 
 officer in a troop of Mors.', corresponding in rank with the 
 ensi.ru of a battalion of infantry. His duly 13 to carry the 
 Standard, near the centre of the front rankof the squadron. 
 Corniw. Iii Music : a thrill wind instrument formed of 
 woo! v lich appears to have been in use in the earliest 
 tim ■■-. an I rem lined so till about the commencement of 
 the I8lh century, when it was displaced by the oboe. For 
 a representation of this instrument see Mersenne'a Km-- 
 monic I 'nir-iselle. 
 
 CORNET- A-l'ISTONS. (Fr.) A brass wind musical in- 
 strument, of (ha French horn species, but capable of much 
 in from the valves and stoppers (pistons) 
 wilh which it is furnished, and whence it derives its name. 
 CO'RNICE. (Kr. corniche.) In Architecture, the upper 
 fan entablature (see Entablature), con- 
 leveral members. The cornice used on a pe- 
 i ili" cap of the pedestal. 
 CORN- Tbli lenfngs of the cuticle of the toes, of a 
 horny texture, arising from continued pressure over a pro- 
 jection of bone. .One of the best and simplest remedies 
 for this painful disorder is to wear upon the toe or part af- 
 fected a piece of leather, spread with diachylon or other 
 emollient plaster, and having a hole in it corresponding 
 with the size of the corn. By this means all pressure 
 upon the corn isavoidnd. (See Sir B. Brodie' a Lecture on 
 and Bunions, Medical Gazette, 13th Feb. 1336.) 
 CO'RXSTONE. A provincial name for a species of red 
 limestone. 
 
 CORNU AMMONI8. A name sometimes applied to 
 the fossil shells called Ammonites. 
 
 CO'RNUA. (Lat. cornu, a horn.) In Zoology, hard and 
 more or less elongated processes projecting from the head. 
 The term is usually applied to such processes in the class 
 Mammalia, to which they serve as weapons of offence and 
 defence. These weapons consist either of bone, when 
 they are called "antlers;" or of horn, or of bone and horn, 
 or lastly of bone and hairy skin. The first kind of horns 
 arc peculiar to the deer tribe ; the second to the rhinoce- 
 ros; the third to the sheep, ox, and antelope tribes; and 
 the fourth to the giraffe. The bony horns, antlers, cerata, 
 or cornua eolida, as they are technically termed, during the 
 whole period of their formation resemble the horns of 
 the giraffe, inasmuch as they are covered with a hairy and 
 highly vascular integument: the bony material of these 
 processes is in fact secreted by the vessels of that integu- 
 ment, so that their co-existence is essential a^long as growth 
 firoceeds. When their growth is completed, and the ant- 
 crs have arrived at their characteristic size and figure 
 (which in the elk and Wapiti deer are truly remarkable), 
 the determination of blood to the parts gradually lessens ; 
 the vessels shrink ; the circulation in the formative mem- 
 brane is at length suppressed ; and the tegument then 
 shrivels, dries, cracks, and is rubbed off by the instinctive 
 actions which the deer now almost ceaselessly performs 
 with his newly acquired and consolidated antlers. The 
 skin and periosteum of the head, once continuous with 
 those of the antler, now terminate at an abrupt line at the 
 base of the antler, from which a ridge of bone, or " burr," 
 as it is termed, is developed, apparently for the purpose of 
 defending the margin of the persistent integument ; for 
 when this is continued, as in the Mtint-jac deer, half way 
 np the antlers, the burr is developed immediately above 
 its termination, or at the middle, and not at the base of the 
 antlers Some physiologists have conjectured that the 
 use of the " burr" was to compress the vessels of the peri- 
 osteum of the antler, and that its formation was deferred 
 to near the completion of the antler : but observation shows 
 that it commences at an earlier period of growth; and 
 sound physiology teaches that the cessation, like the com- 
 mencement of the growth of the horn, must be the result 
 of deeper and more constitutional operations. The most 
 remarkable fact in the economy of antlers is that they are 
 iced and renewed annually, the fall of the horns being 
 concomitant with the shedding of the hair. The attempts 
 to assign the final cause of this phenomenon have not been 
 very successful. In the axis deer, e. g. the bucks do not all 
 shed their horns at the same time, but at different periods 
 of the year. In the rein-deer the branches which project 
 forwards from the base of the horn, or the brow antlers, 
 285 
 
 CORONA. 
 
 are habitually used to scrape away the snow which con- 
 ceals the lichens on which they principally feed. The fe- 
 male, therefore, needs antlers as much as the male, and 
 she has them ; but this is a rare and singular exception, 
 for the females of other species of deer are destitute of 
 these ornamental weapons. True horns, or those which 
 consist either partly or entirely of horny material, are 
 commonly present in both sexes, and the bony basis is hol- 
 low. The term cornua cava is, however, usually applied 
 to all horns consisting of bone and horn, and reciprocally 
 the ruminants having such horns are termed "hollow- 
 horned." But this extension of the term seems to have 
 arisen from a consideration of the external horny sheath 
 alone, which is but a part, and that not the most essential, 
 of the horn. The horn or horns of the rhinoceros consist 
 of an agglutination of horny fibres, which are attached 
 only to the integument; the integument adhering with 
 more than usual firmness at this part to the roughened sur- 
 face of the bone beneath. The horn of the rhinoceros dif- 
 fers from that of other mammalia in being situated upon 
 the median line of the forehead ; so that when there are 
 two they are placed one behind the other, and not laterally 
 and symmetrically, as in the ruminants. 
 
 A few ruminants have naturally two pairs of horns ; and 
 this was the case with a great extinct species, Sivcithirium, 
 whose remains have been discovered in the Himalayan 
 mountainous regions, where the small Antilope nuadricornia 
 still exists. Horns are characterized in zoological des- 
 criptions according to their position, as Cornua nasalia, 
 frontalia, parietalia, &c. : or according to their direction, 
 as Cornua prona, turned forwards ; reclinata, turned 
 back ; incurva, bent inwards; vara, bent outwards ; redun- 
 ca, with the apices curved forwards ; lyrata, when they re- 
 present the horns of the ancient lyre ; i'yra/a, when spirally 
 twisted ; or according to their period of existence, as cornua 
 perennia, when they last the life-lime of the animal ; or 
 cornua dr.cidua, or annua, when annually shed : lastly, 
 horns are termed cornua oisea, cornua solida, cava, accord- 
 in,' to their structure, as above described. For the pecu- 
 liarities of the giraffe's horns, see Giraffe. 
 
 Certain species of many other classes have parts pro- 
 jecting from the head, analogous in form or structure to the 
 cornua of the mammalia. The frontal protuberance of 
 the emeu, hornbill, and helmeted curassow consists of 
 bone covered with a sheath of horn : the kamichi or horned 
 screamer, is a still more remarkable example of a bird so 
 armed. In reptiles we find horned toads, vipers, and igu- 
 anas. Fishes present divers simulations of true horns. 
 In mollusca retractile feelers or eye-stalks are commonly 
 called " horns," as in the snail ; but the appendages which 
 would come under the general definition of our present 
 term arrive at their maximum relative size, variety, and 
 singularity of form in the class of insects. 
 
 CO'RNUCO'PIA. (Lat. cornu, a horn, and copia, plenty.) 
 In the Fine Arts, an ornament representing a horn, from 
 which issue flowers, fruits, leaves, and the like. The origin 
 of the cornucopia lias been variously given. Some au- 
 thors have traced it to the infant days of Jupiter, whose 
 nurse, Amalthea, when one of her goats had broken ofT a 
 horn against a tree, presented it to the god wreathed with 
 tlowers and filled with fruit. Hence it became the emblem 
 of Plenty among the ancients, in which light it is regarded 
 also by many modern nations. The cornucopia Is found 
 very frequently in the types of ancient coins, particularly 
 upon those of Sicily. (See the medal of Arsinoe.) 
 
 CORO'LLA. (Lat. corolla, a garland.) That envelope 
 of a flower which is placed next within the calyx. It is 
 usually more richly coloured and larger than the latter, but 
 is extremely variable in this respect. Owing to its being 
 in many plants one of the most striking parts of the flower, 
 it is much employed by botanists in their systematical ar- 
 rangements, and by the French school has been taken as 
 the means of forming fundamental characters of the sub- 
 classes in the great Dicotyledonous division ; but there is 
 no doubt that its importance for this purpose has been 
 much overrated. Theoretically considered, the corolla is 
 composed of modified leaves, with the ordinary organiza- 
 tion of which its parts or petals correspond as much as can 
 be expected of rudimentary organs ; its physiological ac- 
 tion is to absorb oxygen, without decomposing carbonic 
 acid, in which respect it agrees with leaves in their morbid 
 state in the autumn. The corolla has been described by 
 Lamarck as a diseased state of the foliage. 
 
 CCROLLARY. (Lat. corollarium, signifying originally 
 a gratuity or donation presented to a person over and above 
 what was strictly his due.) In its mathematical sense, this 
 word is used to designate a consequence drawn from some 
 proposition already demonstrated without the aid of any 
 other proposition. Thus, supposing it demonsirated that if 
 a triangle have two equal sides, it has also two equal angles ; 
 it would then follow, as a corollary, that if the three sides 
 of a triangle are equal, its three angles are also equal. 
 
 CORO'NA. (Lat.) In Architecture, the flat, square, 
 massy member of a cornice, very frequently called the 
 
CORONA AUSTRALIS. 
 
 irip or larmier. Its situation is between the cymatium 
 above and the bed moulding below, and its use to carry the 
 water drop by drop from the building. 
 
 CORO'NA AUSTRALIS and CORONA BOREALIS. 
 (The southern crown and northern crown.) Two of the old 
 sonstellations of Ptolemy ; the first in the southern, and 
 the second in the northern hemisphere. 
 
 CORO'NA DENTIS. In Zoology, the exposed part of a 
 tooth, which projects beyond the alveolus and gum. 
 
 CORONA'MEN. In Zoology, file superior margin of a 
 hoof, called in veterinary surgery lfie coronet. 
 
 CO'RONARY. (Lat. corona, a crown.) Coronary ves- 
 sels and ligaments are those which spread round certain 
 viscera, bones, &c. 
 
 CORONA'TION. See King. 
 
 CORONER (Lat. coronator), is the title of an office es- 
 tablished in Saxon times, of which the holder was, as his 
 name indicates, in a peculiar manner the officer of the 
 crown, whose private rights of property, whether arising 
 by escheat, wardship, or consisting in demesne, it was his 
 business to maintain and superintend in the county for 
 which he acted. Connected in some degree with this char- 
 acter is the more important if not the sole function which 
 he now exercises: that of holding inquests on the bodies 
 of such as either die or are supposed to die a violent death. 
 (4 Edw. I. st. 2.) For which purpose he is empowered to 
 summon jurymen out of the neighbourhood, and witness- 
 es. Should violent death be occasioned by any personal 
 chattel, it is forfeited as a deodand to the crown; but juries 
 are now in the habit of assessing a small sum of money in 
 lieu of the chattel or its full value. {See Deodand.) The 
 coroner was originally in some sort the colleague and as- 
 sistant of the sheriff, and in his default might still act as 
 sheriff in the execution of writs, which in such case would 
 be directed to him. The coroner is still, as the sheriff was 
 formerly, elected by the freeholders of the county ; but the 
 office, which was once strictly honorary, has lost much of 
 the dignity which belonged to it, and is now held by per- 
 sons, usually either surgeons or attorneys, whose object in 
 accepting it is the profit to be derived from fees. There 
 are generally several coroners in the same county. (Jervis 
 m Coroners.) 
 
 CO'RONET, or CORO'NA. This word is employed by 
 botanists to express certain appendages of the corolla, which 
 are arranged within it in a circle, and which not unfrequent- 
 ly give a very peculiar appearance to the flower in which it 
 is found. In the Narcissus it is a cup ; in Symphytum it 
 consists of five glandular narrow processes; in Asclepias 
 it is a thick fleshy ring extended into bended lobes. In all 
 cases the coronet is a modification of sterile stamens. 
 
 CO'RONET. In Heraldry, an inferior crown belonging to 
 the British nobility. The figure of John of Eltham, second 
 son of Edward II., who died in 1331, affords the earliest 
 representation of this ornament. Barons do not appear to 
 have borne them earlier than the reign of Charles II. The 
 time at which the coronets of the present orders of nobili- 
 ty were respectively distinguished in the existing fashion 
 cannot be ascertained. 
 
 CO'RONET-BONE. The second of the consolidated 
 phalanges of the horse's foot. 
 
 CO'RPORAL. (Fr. caporal, from capo, a head.) A non- 
 commissioned officer in a battalion of infantry immediately 
 under the Serjeant ; his business is to place and relieve the 
 sentinels, and at drill he has charge of a squad. In the 
 ranks he does the duties of a private, but his pay is some- 
 what higher. 
 
 CORPORATION. (Lat. corpus, body.) A body politic 
 or incorporate ; consisting of a person or persons having 
 power to take and grant, <fcc. to himself or themselves and 
 their successors. Corporations, in English Law, are divid- 
 ed, — 1 . Into sole and aggregate. Sole corporations are such 
 is consist of a single person who is constituted a corpora- 
 tion by law, for the purpose of enjoying certain advantages 
 and incurring certain duties, transmissible to his succes- 
 sors. Such is the parson of a living in respect of his bene- 
 fice; a bishop, in respect of the ecclesiastical rights and 
 property of his see ; the king, &c. Corporations aggregate 
 are such as consist of more individuals than one, and are 
 kept up by a perpetual succession of members. 2. Into 
 ecclesiastical and lay. Parsons, bishops, deans and chap- 
 ters, are instances of the former. The latter are again sub- 
 divided into civil and eleemosynary. Among the first are 
 trading companies and municipal corporations; among the 
 latter, hospitals, colleges in the universities, and similar es- 
 tablishments (which, however, were anciently esteemed 
 ecclesiastical). 
 
 By the law of England, corporations are erected only 
 with the king's consent, express or implied ; and may exist 
 by prescription, by letters patent, or by act of parliament. 
 Bishops, parsons, &c, may indeed be said to exist as cor- 
 porations by force of the common law ; but some ancient 
 municipal bodies, such as the corporation of London, are 
 m a stricter sense corporations by prescription. Corpora- 
 tions by act of parliament may be created either expressly, 
 
 CORPORATIONS. 
 
 or by implication ; as, where a body is to take lands by suc- 
 cession, this constitutes them a corporation. But the ordi- 
 nary mode by which they are erected is'by the king's let- 
 ters patent or charter of incorporation ; persons exercising 
 the power of founding corporations by a grant of their cwn 
 (as the chancellor of the university of Oxford) being for 
 this purpose only delegates of the king. 
 
 The chief incident of a corporation is the power of taking 
 by succession. This power is, however, confined in the 
 case of sole corporations to estates of freehold; corpora- 
 tions aggregate only can take goods and chattels by succes- 
 sion. Grants by a corporation aggregate must be by deed 
 under their common seal, which is necessary to give valid- 
 ity to most of their acts. A corporation has essentially the 
 power of making by-laws to bind its own members, which 
 are valid so far as they are not contrary to the laws of the 
 kingdom. Corporations ecclesiastical and eleemosynary 
 may, moreover, be subject to rules or statutes imposed by 
 the king or the founder ; civil corporations only to the com- 
 mon law and theirown by-laws. In aggregate corporations, 
 the act of the majority is the act of the whole. 
 
 The common law capacity of corporations to take lands 
 has been, however, materially narrowed by statute. Thus 
 a devise of lands to a corporation by will is bad, except for 
 charitable purposes. And, in consequence of the Statutes 
 of Mortmain (see Mortmain), a corporation, whether lay 
 or ecclesiastical, must now have a license from the king in 
 order to purchase. 
 
 All corporations are said to be subject to visitation. The 
 visitor of ecclesiastical corporations is the ordinary (see 
 Ordinary) ; the visitor of lay corporations is the founder. 
 In eleemosynary corporations this right, therefore, is in the 
 founder and his heirs, or in such person as he has appoint- 
 ed : in civil corporations, the king is visitor, and exercises 
 that jurisdiction in the King's Bench; where alone misbe- 
 haviour of such corporationsor their officers can be inquired 
 into, chiefly by means of the processes termed mandamus 
 and quo warranto (which see). A corporation is dissoluble, 
 1. By act of parliament ; 2. In the case of an aggregate cor- 
 poration, by the death of all its members; 3. By surrender 
 of its franchises into the hand of the king ; 4. By forfeiture 
 of its charter through negligence or abuse of the franchise. 
 CORPORATIONS, MUNICIPAL. These bodies, which 
 have acted so imporlant a part in the history of modern 
 Europe, originated in the Italian and provincial towns sub 
 ject to the Roman sway. Under that empire the govern- 
 ment of the towns was in many respects independent of 
 the central authority, or only controlled by it in the last 
 resort ; and as the municipal institutions of the Romans 
 remained undestroyed ihrough the long period of the dark 
 ages, the free cities which arose in the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries in Italy, France, and elsewhere, did in fact only 
 preserve their ancient systems of internal policy in the new 
 character of republican constitutions. (See especially 
 Savigny on Roman Jurisprudence in the Middle Ages.) 
 
 In England we have no record of the internal constitution 
 of our towns prior to the Saxon times, and during those 
 times our information is extremely scanty and imperfect. 
 The magistracy in Saxon towns appears to have been elec- 
 tive; that in Danish hereditary. In Domesday Book we 
 find in every town (eighty-two in all, in those parts of the 
 record which%emain to us) a certain number of persons 
 mentioned as " burgesses ;" a number sometimes equalling, 
 sometimes falling far short of the houses enumerated. It 
 has been supposed that at this early period all free inhabi- 
 tants paying scot and lot were burgesses ; a supposition 
 which can neither be easily proved nor controverted. Bo- 
 roughs at this period were exempt from the immediate ju- 
 risdiction of the sheriffs of the counties in which they were 
 situate : they possessed their own hundred courts, leets 
 and view of frankpledge ; but they were liable for various 
 duties to the king, who was usually lord of the leet, t. e. ex- 
 ercised jurisdiction iu the borough ; and to the lord of the 
 soil, also, if there were any. It became usual after' the 
 Conquest for the king to let the fees and revenues thus due, 
 together with the right of appointing the officers of justice, 
 to the burgesses in general ; and by this species of enfran- 
 chisement the borough became an independent municipal- 
 ity. But a free borough was constituted by having, in 
 addition to those powers, exemption from the king's tolls, 
 granted to its burgesses by royal charter. Such continued 
 to be, in substance, the condition of English boroughs for 
 several centuries. Burgessship was gained, either by resi- 
 dence simply, with payment of scot and lot, or, iu some 
 cases, by apprenticeship, constituting a title of admission 
 to the guild merchant or trading community of the borough, 
 which by degrees became identified with the borough it- 
 self; or, as in London, by admission into the guilds of the 
 several trades, an alteration which appears to have taken 
 place in that city as early as the thirteenth century. 
 
 During all this period no one seems to have doubted the 
 capability inherent in the burgesses of a town, as a com- 
 munity, to take and enjoy lands, tolls, oi other heredita- 
 ments, to themselves and their successors. But about the 
 
CORPORATIONS. » 
 
 jeriod of the reigns of Henry V. and VI. the increasing 
 subtlety of our legal system, and more particularly the no- 
 tions introduced by the study of the civil law, appear to 
 have occasioned the custom of granting charters in a new 
 form. It appears to have been thought that the power of 
 holding lands in succession, and the right of suing and being 
 sued by a common name, could not in strictness be en- 
 joyed, except by a body constituted for those very purposes 
 by the king's grant. Hence originated charters or let- 
 ters of incorporation. These seem to have been first gran t- 
 ed to eleemosynary foundations ; afterwards, and first in 
 the reigns before mentioned, they were granted to the men 
 or burgesses of towns jointly with the mayor, bailiff, or 
 other chief officer ; and thus municipal corporations in the 
 strict legal sense were first constituted. 
 
 But previously to this time it is probable that a great change 
 had taken place, in most towns, in the character of the 
 class of "men" or "burgesses" to whom these charters 
 were granted. As the privileges of burgess-ship became 
 more valuable, additional difficulties were thrown by the 
 governing body in the borough in the way of its acquisition. 
 While the old household right remained in some places, it 
 was lost in others : in its stead, or by its side, arose the 
 rights of freemen of a guild or trade ; those of the holders 
 ol particular tenements, which alone were recognized as 
 conferring on their occupant the title of burgess; those of 
 freeholders in cities, counties of themselves, &c. And 
 hence the variety of the old parliamentary franchise (see 
 Parliament), as members of parliament were elected by 
 the burgesses. Hence the corporations, which were consti- 
 tuted by the charters of Henry VI. and Edward IV., were 
 already very different bodies from the general mass of 
 dwellers in a town. Hut close corporations, properly 60 
 called, were not established until the reigns of the Tudors, 
 when the first " governing charters" were granted ; that is 
 to say, charters which, disregarding the old common law 
 system, by which every burgess had a share in corporate 
 rights, and thepower of electing his magistrates, established 
 I rules for the internal regulation of a borough. By 
 these new charters the powers of municipal government 
 were usually vested in a mayor and common council ; the 
 latter consisting of councillors and aldermen ; the former 
 of whom were selected in various ways, by the whole of 
 the council or the aldermen ; the aldermen mostly nomi- 
 nated by and out of the rest of the council. In these bodies 
 the control over the town funds, the civil and criminal ju- 
 risdiction of the town, and police authority within its limits, 
 became vested. The freemen, as well as the common- 
 alty, thus ceased to be members of the governing body j 
 but the former retained the extensive pecuniary advanta- 
 ges which in many places belonged to them. 
 
 The causes of this revolution, and of the gradual change 
 by which the municipal bodies became more and more ex- 
 clusive in their character, are chiefly to be found in the 
 Carliamentarv franchise enjoyed by most of the corporate 
 Draught. When the House of Commons became an im- 
 portant body in the empire, the crown, as well as the noble- 
 men and the powerful individuals to whose estates the bo- 
 roughs were contiguous, had a strong and direct interest in 
 controlling the nomination of members. This was much 
 more easily effected by the agency of select bodies, such 
 as the corporators, than by influencing the votes of an in- 
 dependent cojfcunily. Hence, while in the larger places 
 the corporation, usually devoted to the interest of its patron, 
 exercised a decisive or a strong authority in controlling 
 elections, in many smaller boroughs the elective franchise 
 became in effect confined to the corporation itself by means 
 of the freemen who were closely associated with it. Thus 
 the system of close corporations, established under the 
 Tndorm, acquired continually more strength and more ex- 
 clusiveness : although the committee of privileges presided 
 over by Mr. Serjeant Glanville, in the reign of James I., 
 resolved that charters of the crown were inoperative so far 
 as they assumed to alter the parliamentary franchise of a 
 borough. The governing bodies in the previous reign seem 
 also to have assumed in many places the power, which has 
 been since so liberally exercised, of admitting to the rights 
 of freemen, or burgesses, whom they pleased, either by 
 free gift or purchase. The great bulk of the property of cor- 
 porations, both that enjoyed by themto their own use, and 
 that of which they were trustees for charitable purposes, 
 ssems to have been acquired after the first charters of in- 
 corporation were granteda nd previously to the Revolution. 
 In the reign of Charles the Second, when the corporate 
 bodies In the larger towns had become for the most part 
 attached to the Whig interest, and hostile to the court, they 
 were attacked by the crown through the famous writs of 
 quo warranto. These were writs issued out of the King's 
 Bench to the municipal bodies, to inquire by what right 
 they exercised their jurisdictions and enjoyed their fran- 
 chises; and the object was to contest the validity of the 
 ancient charters, or at least to terrify them into surrender- 
 ing them into the king's hands, and receiving new ones 
 from him. Many such surrenders were actually made, 
 2S7 
 
 CORPUSCULAR ACTION. 
 
 and new charters granted : these, however, were recalled 
 | by a proclamation of James II., and the old ones regrantea 
 or revived ; and this proclamation was allowed, after the 
 [ Revolution, to have the force of law. A few boroughs how- 
 ever, did not accept the restoration of their charters', and 
 | remained without a corporation. Fiom the period of the 
 j Revolution, little or no change of importance took place in 
 , the constitution of the towns or their governing bodies, 
 until the passing of the Municipal Reform Act in 1835. By 
 this act (5 4 6 W. 4. c. 76.) the municipal franchise is made 
 Uniform all over the kingdom. In order to enjoy it, an in- 
 dividual must have occupied a house, warehouse, count- 
 ing-house, or shop, within the borough, for three years; and 
 must have been rated to all poor rates in respect of such 
 premises during the whole of such time ; and must tc en- 
 rolled on the burgess list, which is framed by the overseers 
 of the parishes and revised every year by the mayor anj 
 assessors. He must also have resided within seven miles 
 of the borough during that lime. There are also provisions 
 for the cases of successive occupancy and change of resi- 
 dence. These burgesses form the electoral body. They 
 choose,— 1. The councillors ; of whom thenumber is limit- 
 ed by the act, according to - the number of wards of which 
 each borough consists (this number being also specified by 
 enactment, and varying from one to sixteen). No person 
 can be qualified as a councillor, or alderman, unless he is 
 a burgess possessing a certain amount of property (1000/.), 
 or a rating at 30/. per annum, in boroughs having four wards 
 and upwards ; 500/., or 15/. per annum, in boroughs not 
 having that number. One third part of the councillors go 
 annually out of office. 2. The council, i. e. the mayor, 
 existing aldermen, and councillors, jointly elect every year 
 the aldermen from among the qualified burgesses; half of 
 whom go out of office every third year. 3. The council- 
 lors and aldermen together elect out of their own united 
 body the mayor, wlu.se office is annual. The mayor, al- 
 dermen, and councillors together form the council. The 
 town-clerk, treasurer, &.c. are appointed by the council 
 during pleasure. 
 
 Willi regard to existing rights, freemen are retained, so 
 as to enjoy their rights of property and parliamentary fran- 
 chise ; but they can no longer be made by gift or purchase ; 
 and they must be inhabitants of the borough. The income 
 arising out of the corporation properly is to form a borough 
 fund ; which is to be applied, subject to existing claims, to 
 the payment of salaries and other municipal expenses, pro- 
 secutions, maintenance of the gaol, &c. 4c. ; and it the mod 
 be insufficient for these purposes, the council can impose 
 a rale to supply the deficiency. Wherever a municipal 
 corporate body, either sole or in conjunction wiih oilier 
 persons, had lands, &c. in trust to charitable uses, the 
 trusts are gradually transferred by this act to the new coun- 
 cils' j but every corporation possessed ol advowsoos, or 
 rights of nomination to benefices in the church, is required 
 to sell such advowsons, &c. under the direction of the ec- 
 clesiastical commissioners. Where the watching of the 
 town was regulated by local acts, these acts are repealed, 
 and the corporation is directed in all places to appoint a 
 committee lor the purpose of superintending that duty ; 
 and wherever the lighting is not regulated by local acts, 
 that also is placed under the management of the corporation. 
 With respect to jurisdiction, the council of every borough 
 now having a separate court of quarter sessions, or desi- 
 ring to attain one, may appW to the king to retain or to 
 acquire it; on which the king may, if he pleases, ap- 
 point a recorder to be paid by the town, being a barrister 
 of five years' standing. This officer is to hold the court of 
 quarter sessions of { he peace, in which he is to be sole 
 judge. Borough courts of record are to be retained as 
 heretofore, and those in which a barrister of five years' 
 standing acts as judge have power to try personal actions 
 to the amount of 20/. The king is empowered to grant a 
 commission of the peace to all boroughs named in Sche- 
 dule A of the act. and to such boroughs named in Sche- 
 dule B as he shall see fit, on petition of their council. The 
 mayor and recorder to be justices of the peace ex officio ; 
 the others named by the crown. The council also are di- 
 rected, if they think fit, to petition for the appointment of 
 salaried police magistrates in (heir borough, stating the sa- 
 lary which they are willing to pay; on which ihe crown 
 will appoint such officer or officers, being barristers of not 
 less than five years' standing. The history of municipal 
 corporations has been often "written, and generally with 
 much party spirit and unfairness. Those who wish to study 
 it In the only authentic records, viz. charters and other 
 documents, will find the most abundant collection of them, 
 chronologically arranged, in Messrs. Merewethcr and Ste- 
 phen's History of Borovghs, 1836. 
 
 CORPU'SCULA VERMIFO'RMIA. (Lat. corpus-colum. 
 diminutive of corpus, body, &ni\ vermiformis, u-orm shaped. 
 In Vegetable Anatomy, are synonymous with strangulated 
 or necklace-shaped ducts, a kind' of spiral vessel found 
 chiefly in the knots and contracted parts of stems. 
 CORPU'SCULAR A'CTION. The power or influence 
 
CORPUSCULAR PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 which the minute particles, or atoms, or corpuscles of mat- | 
 ter, exercise on each other, and which is the cause of all 
 chemical chanzes. 
 
 CORPU'SCUL AR PHILO'SOPH Y. A system of physics 
 in which all the phenomena of the material world are explain- 
 ed bv the arrangement and physical properties of the cor- 
 puscles or minute atoms of matter. A doctrine of this sort 
 was anciently taught in Greece by Leucippus and Democri- 
 tus. and is described in the beautiful poem of Lucretius. 
 
 CO'RPUS JURIS. (Lat. body of law.) Corpus Juris 
 Romani, the collection of the authentic works containing 
 the Roman law as compiled under Justinian. The Corpus 
 Juris comprehends the Pandects, the Institutes, the Code, 
 and the Novels or Authentics, i. e. the later constitutions of 
 Justinian ; to which, in some editions, are added afew issued 
 by his successors. M. Beck has lately published at Leip- 
 zig the most complete edition. There are likewise publica- 
 tions styled Corpus Juris Canonici,Germanici, Feudalis, &c. 
 
 CORRE'CTiON. (Lat. corrigo, Jcorrect.) In the Fine 
 Arts. With the Italians the word, correzione, is used to 
 denote an exact acquaintance with the different proportions 
 of the parts of a body or design generally : but with us the 
 term is applied to those emendations of inaccuracies or 
 alterations of first thoughts, which they call pentiinenti, to 
 be seen under the surface of the finished picture, and 
 which are accounted indications of its originality. 
 
 CORRECTING, in Printing, in the first instance, is to 
 amend and put right the errors in the types that the com- 
 positor may have made, and any defects in his workman- 
 ship ; in the next, it is the correcting of the proof sheets 
 of a work by the author or editor, in the orthography, the 
 punctuation, the language, and in making such alterations 
 as may appear to him necessary. The following explana- 
 tion of the marks which are in general use by printers for 
 this purpose, with the annexed specimen, will enable a 
 gentleman who has to superintend a work through the press 
 to correct the proof sheets in a way that will be clearly under- 
 stood by the printer, and will tend to promote correctness 
 by preventing those mistakes that occasionally occur, owing 
 to his not clearly comprehending the marks on the proof. 
 
 1. Where a word is to be changed from small letters to capi- 
 tals draw three lines under it, and write caps, in the margin. 
 
 2. Where there is a wrong letter draw the pen through 
 that letter, and make the right one opposite in the margin. 
 
 3. A letter turned upside down. 
 
 I. The substitution of a comma for another point, or for 
 i letter put in by mistake. 
 
 5. The insertion of a hyphen. 
 
 6. To draw the letters of a word close together that stand 
 apart. 
 
 7. To take away a superfluous letter or word the pen is 
 6truck through it and a round top d made opposite, being 
 the contraction of deleatur, to expunge. 
 
 8. Where a word has to be changed to Italic draw a line un- 
 ler it, and write ltal. in the margin ; and where a word has 
 to be changed from Italic to Roman, write Rom. opposite. 
 
 0. When words are to be transposed three ways of mark- 
 ing them are shown ; but they are not usually numbered 
 except more than three words have their order changed. 
 
 10. The transposition of letters in a word. 
 
 II. To change one word for another. 
 
 12. The substitution of a period or a colon for any other 
 point. It is customary to encircle these two points with a line. 
 
 13. The substitution of a capital for a small letter. 
 
 14. The insertion of a word, or aletter. 
 
 15. When a paragraph commences where it is not in- 
 tended, connect the matter by a line, and write in the mar- 
 gin opposite run on. 
 
 16. Where a space or a quadrat stands up and appears, 
 .iraw a line under it and make a strong perpendicular line 
 in the margin. 
 
 17. When a letter of a different size to that used, or of a 
 different face, appears in a word, draw a line either through 
 it or under it, and write opposite w. /"., for wrong fount. 
 
 18. The marks for a paragraph, when its commencement 
 has been omitted. 
 
 19. When one or more words have been struck out, and 
 it is subsequently decided that they shall remain, make dots 
 under them, and write the word stet in the margin. 
 
 20. The mark for a space where it has been omitted 
 between two words. 
 
 21. To change a word from small letters to small capi- 
 tals make two lines under the word, and write sm. caps, op- 
 posite. To change a word from small capitals to small let- 
 ters make one line under the word, and write in the mar- 
 gin lo. ca. for lower case. 
 
 22. The mark for the apostrophe; and also the marks 
 for turned commas, which designate extracts. 
 
 23. The manner of marking an omission, or an insertion, 
 when it is too long to be written in the side margin. When 
 this occurs it may be written either at the top or the bottom 
 of the page. 
 
 24. Marks when lines or words do not appear straight. 
 
 288 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 "I 
 
 CORRECTING. 
 Antiquity , like every other ^cahd 
 quality that attr/cts the notice a 
 
 of Mankind, has undoubtedly Q 
 votaries that reverence it, not itat 
 from reason/ but from preju- 
 dice. _some seem to admire 
 indiscriminately whatever has 
 been long preserved, without 
 considering that time has some, 
 times co-operated with chance: 
 all perhaps are more willing to 
 honour /^resenr^han/past^ ex- faj 
 
 cellence ; and the -the- mind 
 
 i // 10 
 
 contemplates gen^/s through [ul 
 
 the shades of age, as the eye ' 
 
 views the sun through artificial ju^v&Wf 
 
 opacity/ j(he great contention %JQj fy 
 
 of criticism is to find the faults 
 
 of the moderns, A the beauties aovJ/ 
 
 o f the ancients.) nim. on/ \. 
 
 (While an aut/or is yet living, /<y 
 
 we estimate"his powers by his lf) i 
 
 worst performances ; and when 
 
 he is dead A (To works, however, $rcaJc,°r 
 
 of which/the excellence is not ^^ 
 
 5/4 1 Q 3. .9 
 
 gradual 
 
 but absolute and deri- M 
 
 nite]and\comparative ; to works, ,/ 
 raised notmipon principles de- fa 
 
 19,, 2 l . 
 
 rflonstrative) and scientific, but ,wi 
 a/pealing /wholly to observa- % / 
 tion" and ^experience, nojpther fi y 
 tesj/can be\ applied than length Jm. (0p* / 
 of deration I and continuance of / 
 
 esjfem.~/ Uffltof y 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 The preceding specimen when corrected would be as 
 follows : — 
 
 * I'lQUITY, like every other quality that attracts the 
 notice of m inkind, has undoubtedly votaries that reverence 
 U, not from reason, but from prejudice. Some seem toad- 
 mire indiscriminately whatever has been long preserved, 
 wiiliout considering that time has sometimes co-operated 
 with chance: all perhaps are more willing to honour past 
 than present excellence ; and the mind contemplates ge- 
 nius through the shades of age, as the eye surveys the sun 
 (trough artificial opacity. The great contentionof criticism 
 is to find the faults of the moderns, and the beauties of the 
 ancients. While an author is yet living, we estimate his 
 powers by hi w irst performances; and when he is dead, 
 we rate them by his best. 
 
 To works, however, of which the excellence is not ab- 
 solute and definite, but gradual and comparative ; to works, 
 not raised upon principles demonstrative and scientifick, 
 but appealing wholly to observation and experience, no 
 Other test can be applied than lbngth of duration and con- 
 tinuance of esteem. 
 
 CORRESPO'NDENCE. (Lat. con,with, respondeo, Ian- 
 itoer.) In the Fine Arts, the fitting or proportioning the parts 
 of a design to each other, so that they may be correlative, and 
 that t igmay pervade the whole composition. 
 
 CO'RRIDOR. dial, corriloro.) In Architecture, a 
 gallery or open communication to the different apartments 
 of a house. 
 
 CORROSIVE SUHI.IMATE. The bichloride of mer- 
 cury, composed of 200 mercury ■+• 72 chlorine. It is an 
 acrid poison of great virulence : the stomach-pump and 
 emetics are the surest preventives of its deleterious effects 
 when accidentally swallowed ; white of egg has also been 
 (band serviceable in allaying its poisonous influence upon 
 the stomach. Its specific gravity is 52. It requires 20 parts 
 of colli water, hilt only 2 of boiling water, for its solution. 
 See Mercuiiv. 
 
 CO Itliii.vn: (Lat. ruga, wrinkle.) In Zoology, the 
 surface of an animal is so called when it rises and falls in 
 parallel angles more or less acute. 
 
 CO'RSAIR. (Ital. corsaro.) A term used in the south 
 of Em '-r parts for a pirate or his ship. 
 
 The corsairs of Barbery were commissioned by their 
 princes to attack ihe merchant ships of hostile countries. 
 
 OO'RTES. (.S'e» States.) The old assembly of the 
 estates in Leon, Castile, Arragon, and Portugal. These 
 estates were framed, as elsewhere, of nobility, dignified 
 clergy, and representatives of the towns. In Arraiion, 
 they were presided over by a high officer, termed Justiza, 
 with powers in some respects sufficient lo control the mo- 
 narch. The origin of popular representation in the cortes 
 of the several kingdoms out of which that of Spain was 
 finally formed, is assigned to a date as early as the 12th 
 century ; but the deputies sent by the towns were irregu- 
 larly summoned, frequently did not attend, and the num- 
 bers which appeared for each town frequently bore no 
 proportion to the relative size of the different places. In 
 the 11th century the power of the cortes seems to have 
 been at its height, after which it gradually decayed, and 
 under the government of Ferdinand and Isabella was re- 
 duced almost to a nullity. (See Prescott's Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, vol. i. : Hallam's Middle Ages.) After the time 
 of Philip II., the cortes of Spain were only occasionally 
 convoked on the accession of kings, and their sittings were 
 a mere form. In 1311, during the French invasion, they 
 were convoked at Cadiz, and conducted the affairs of that 
 kingdom during the war of independence. In 1814, Ferdi- 
 nand VII dissolved them, and declared all their decrees 
 null. In 1820, the cortes met again, and adopted a new 
 constitution ; in 1821, the people of Portugal followed the 
 same example: both constitutions were overthrown in 
 1823; the first by the French invasion, the latter by a 
 counter revolution. The later events of Spanish and 
 Portuguese history have again called these national as- 
 semblies into existence. 
 
 CORTI'CIFERS, Corticiferi. (Lat. cortex, bark, fero, 
 I carry.) Those Polyps whose uniting fleshy substance 
 Is spread, like the bark of a tree, over a central calcareous 
 or corneous axis. 
 
 CO'RTILE. (Ital.) In Architecture, an open quad- 
 rangular or curved area in a dwelling-house, surrounded 
 by the buildings of the house itself. 
 
 CO'RTINA. (Lat. cortina, a kind of table.) A term used 
 in describing Fungi, to denote that portion of the velum 
 which adheres to the margin of the pileus in fragments. 
 
 CORU'NDUM. A crystallized or massive mineral of 
 extreme hardness, and composed of nearly pure alumina ; 
 it is usually almost opaque, and of a reddish colour. It is 
 allied to the sapphire. 
 
 CORVE'E. (Fr.) In Feudal Law, the obligation of the 
 inhabitants of a district to do certain services, as the repair of 
 roads, &c, for the sovereign or the feudal lord. Some spe- 
 cies of corvfie were performed gratis : others for a fixed pay, 
 but generally below the value of the labour performed. 
 
 COSMOGONY. 
 
 CO'RVUS. (Lat. the raven.) A Linnaean genus of birds, 
 now the type of a family (Corridas), belonging to the Coni- 
 rostral division of the Passeres of Cuvier ; and including, 
 with the Crows proper, the Rollers (Coracias) and Birds 
 of Paradise (Paradisea). 
 
 Co'rvus. In Astronomy, one of Ptolemy's constella- 
 tions, in the southern hemisphere. 
 
 CORYBA'NTES, (Gr.) in Grecian Mythology, were the 
 priests of Cybele ; so called either from Corybas, the sor 
 of that goddess, or from the frantic gestures with which 
 their devotions were accompanied; the term Corybantcs 
 signifying literally "shaking the head violently." They 
 used to beat brazen cymbals in their sacred rites , 
 
 Acuta 
 Si gominant Corybaniea era. Hor. Od. I. 1C. s. 
 
 and their whole religious proceedings were characteriz.il 
 by such extravagant fanaticism as to have enriched the 
 Greek language with several terms expressive of matin?** 
 or frenzy. 
 
 CORYCE'UM. (Gr. k6pvkos.) In Ancient Architec- 
 ture, an apartment in a gymnasium whose exact destina- 
 tion is not known. 
 
 CORYDA'LEA. An alcaline principle, from the Cory- 
 dalis tuberosa and Fumaria cara. 
 
 CO'RYMBI'FER/E. (Lat. corymbas, a flat- headed kind 
 of inflorescence, and fero, I bear.) One of the divisions of 
 the great group of Composite admitted by Jussieu. It com- 
 prehends those plants which, like the Chrysanthemum 
 and the Aster, have the capitula furnished with a ray ; and 
 those others which, like Artemisia, although destitute of a 
 ray, are similar to such plants in the majority of their cha 
 raster* 
 
 CORY MRUS. (Lat.) In Ancient Sculpture, the cluster 
 of ivy leaves, berries, garlands, ice, with which vases were 
 encircled. 
 
 Cory'mbus. In Botany, a form of Inflorescence con- 
 sisting of a central axis, developing lateral pedicels, the 
 lower ones of which are so long that their flowers are 
 elevated lo the same level as that of the uppermost. 
 
 CORYPIKE'NA. (Gr. xopvf, a helmet, and <paivo>, 1 
 show.) A genus of spiny-finned fishes, so called from the 
 head being crested like a helmet. It belongs to the 
 Mackerel family (Scomberoids) ; and includes the true 
 dolphin, or changeable coryphene (.Cunjjihoena hijmnris). 
 The genus is now raised lo the rank of a family, Including, 
 with Coryphana proper, the subgenera Centrolopus ami 
 Leptopodes. 
 
 CO RYPIKE'US. (Gr. Kopvfn, summit.) The leader 
 of the chorus in ancient dramas ; by whom the dialogue 
 between the chorus and the other actors of the drama was 
 carried on, and who led in the choric song. 
 
 CORY'ZA. (Gr. xopv^a.) A copious running from the 
 nose. 
 
 CO'SECANT and COSINE. The secant and sine of the 
 complement id' an angle or arc ; the prefix co being merely 
 the abbreviation of complement, first introduced by Gunter. 
 
 COSME'TIC. <<Gr. Kocrpco), I adorn.) Remedies to 
 remove freckles and pimples from the face and to improve 
 the complexion. 
 
 CO'SMICAL. (Gr. noo/toc, the world.) This word 
 occurs frequently in the ancient astronomy, in which it is 
 used lo denote a particular position of a planet or star, at 
 its rising or setting, in respect of the sun. A star is said to 
 rise cosmically when it rises at the same instant that the 
 sun rises ; and to set cosmically, when it sets with the sun. 
 Cosmical is opposed to achronycal, which signifies that a 
 star rises at the instant the sun sets, and vice versa. The 
 cosmical and achronycal risings of a star are invisible tc 
 the naked eye, because the light of the sun in the horizon 
 effaces that of the star. 
 
 COSMO'GONY. (Gr. koouo;, world, and yovos, birth.) 
 The science which treats of the origin of the universe. 
 If we except the cosmogony of the Indians, the earliest 
 extant is that of Hesiod, which is delivered in hexameter 
 verse. The first prose cosmogonies were those of the 
 early Ionic philosophers, of whom Thales, Anaximenes, 
 Anaximander, and Anaxagoras are the most celebrated. 
 In modern times, a Theory of the World has been pro- 
 duced by Burnet. We do not include in this list of cos- 
 mogonies the researches of modern geologis'a, or the 
 systems to which they have led. They may be said to 
 hold the same place in relation to the old cosmogoners, 
 which the astronomer or the chemist occupies in reference 
 to the astrologers and alchemists of ancient times. 
 
 The different theories which have been formed to ac- 
 count for the origin of the world may be comprehended 
 under three classes : — 1st, Those which suppose the world 
 to have existed from eternity under its actual form. Aris- 
 totle embraced this doctrine ; and conceiving the existing 
 universe to be the eternal effect of an eternal cause, main- 
 tained that not only the heavens and the earth, but all ani- 
 mate and inanimate beings are without beginning. 2d, 
 Those which consider the matter of the universe eter- 
 nal, but not its form. This was the philosophical sys- 
 T 
 
COSMOGRAPHY. 
 
 tern of Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, and indeed most 
 of the ancient philosophers and poets, who feigned the 
 world either to be produced by the fortuitous concourse of 
 atoms existing from all eternity, or to have sprung out of 
 the chaotic form which preceded its present state 3d, 
 Those which ascribe both matter and its form to the direct 
 agency of a spiritual cause. 
 
 CO.SMO'GRAPHY. (Gr. Koo-pos, and ypaQw, I write.) 
 The science which treats of the construction, figure, and 
 arrangement of all the parts of the world ; and therefore 
 comprehends astronomy, geography, and geology. 
 
 COSMO'LOGY. (Gr. icoa/ios, and \oyo$, a discourse.') 
 See Cosmogony. 
 
 COSMO'POLITE. (Gr. koituos, and jtoAij, a city.) A 
 itizen of the world : one who makes the world his country. 
 
 COSMORA'MA. (Gr. koouos, and hpaw, I see.) A spe- 
 eies of picturesque exhibition, consisting of a number of 
 drawings, generally about eight or ten, which are laid hori- 
 zontally round a semicircular table, and reflected by mir- 
 rors placed opposite to them diagonally. The spectator 
 views them through a convex lens placed immediately in 
 front of each mirror. The pictures are illuminated by lamp 
 light; but the lamps are so placed that they cannot be re- 
 fleeted by the mirrors, and are therefore invisible to the 
 spectator. 
 
 COSS. When algebra was first introduced into Europe, 
 it was called the Rule of Coss; probably from the Italian 
 Regola di Cosa, the Ride of the Thing; the unknown 
 quantity being termed cosa, the thing. Hence Cossic Art, 
 Cossic Numbers, &c, found in some of the old authors. 
 
 COSSA'CKS. A people inhabiting those parts of the 
 Russian empire which border on the northern dominions 
 of Turkey, Poland, and the southern confines of Siberia. 
 Both the name and origin of this people are involved in 
 great uncertainty. They seem to have nothing Russian in 
 their origin and character, and are probably a mixed Cau- 
 casian and Tartar race. They form a sort of independent 
 republic, paying no taxes to Russia, but cheerfully contribu- 
 ting their numerous and valuable contingent of troops ; and 
 are well known as the most harassing light troops that ever 
 exercised a predatory warfare in the train of any army. 
 
 Their dress is a short vest in the Polish style, largetrow- 
 feers of a deep blue colour, and a black sheepskin cap. 
 Their arms consist of a sabre, long spear, musket, a pair of 
 pistols, and a long whip, which they apply to their enemy 
 as well as their charger's back. They are mostly members 
 of the Russian Greek Church, and are described as a hospi- 
 table, generous, and disinterested people. Their numbers 
 have not been estimated for nearly a century, when they 
 amounted to 955,228 males. 
 
 CO'STA. (Lat. C03ta, arib.) A term formerly confined 
 to that bundle of vessels which passes directly from the 
 base to the apex of a leaf; but which is better extended to 
 all the main veins which proceed directly from the base 
 to the apex, or to the points of the lobes. 
 
 CO'STAI,. (Lat. costa.) Belonging to the ribs. 
 
 CO'STARDMO'NGER. (From cosFard, a large apple.) 
 An itinerant dealer in apples. The word is often written 
 costermonger, and applied to hawkers and pedlars who sell 
 fruit. 
 
 CO'STATE. (Lat. costa, a rib.) In Botany, a term ap- 
 plied in two ways, in describing the venation of leaves : 
 either to indicate the presence of but one rib, as in most 
 leaves ; or in speaking of cases where three or more ribs 
 proceed from the base to the apex of a leaf, and are con- 
 nected by cross veins. The latter are frequently called 
 nerves, or nervures. If a leaf has its ribs all distinct from 
 the very base, it is called tricostate, quinquecostate, and so 
 on ; but if the ribs are united at the base in a distinct man- 
 ner, the term becomes triplicostate, quintuplicostate, &c. 
 
 Costate. In Zoology, the surface of the whole or part 
 of an animal is so termed when it has several broad elevat- 
 ed lines. 
 
 COSTS. In Law, the expenses to which parties are put 
 in the prosecution and defending of actions. Costs are to 
 be considered either as between attorney and client, i. e. 
 the expenses and fees which the attorney is entitled to re- 
 cover from his client ; or as between party and party, i. e. 
 that portion of the expenses to which a successful party 
 has been put in his suit, which he is entitled in certain cases 
 to recover from the unsuccessful one. Costs in the latter 
 sense are not given by the common law. The statute of 
 Gloucester (6 E. 1. c. 1. s. 2.) first enacted, that the de- 
 mandant should recover from the tenant the cost of his 
 writ, if successful ; and that this provision should extend 
 to all cases where a man recovers damages. By a liberal 
 construction of this statute the costs of the writ are under- 
 stood as the costs of the action, and its benefit is extended 
 to plaintiffs in most cases where they would have been en- 
 titled to damages before that statute. In other cases, the 
 plaintiff is not entitled to costs, unless they are expressly 
 given by statute. In assumpsit, covenant, and debt, if the 
 plaintiff have a verdict, but the damages or debt and dama- 
 ges be under 40s., the judge may deprive him of any more 
 290 
 
 COTTAGE ALLOTMENTS. 
 
 costs than damages by certifying to that effect on the record, 
 under 43 Eliz. c. 6. s. 2. In actions for assault and battery, 
 and trespass, wherever the damages given by a jury do not 
 amount to 40s., the plaintiff (by several statutes) is allowed 
 no more costs than damages, unless the judge shall certify 
 that assault and battery was sufficiently proved ; or, in tres- 
 pass, that the title to land came in question. The certificate 
 may be granted at the trial, or within a reasonable time af- 
 terwards. Where, out of several issues, some are found 
 for the plaintiff and others for the defendant, the plaintiff 
 is now only entitled to costs on those issues on which he 
 may succeed, and the costs of the defendant's issues will 
 be deducted from his. The defendant's right to costs rests 
 also on several statutes, principally 23 II. 8. c. 15. Double 
 and treble costs are given by some statutes in particular 
 cases ; and they follow by implication where double and 
 treble damages are given. Double costs, in practice, mean 
 single costs and one half their amount in addition : treble, 
 the same, with one half of these last. Costs are taxed as 
 between party and party by officers of the court : and re- 
 coverable by action, execution, or attachment. As between 
 attorney and client, the attorney has a right of action for 
 costs; but his bill isliable to taxation by officers of the court, 
 under certain restrictions. Costs in equity are within the 
 discretion of the court, except in certain cases; as where 
 no answer is made to a bill exhibited, or an insufficient 
 answer, &c. 
 
 COSTU'ME. (It.) In Painting and Sculpture, this word 
 has become used chiefly as a term denoting the particular 
 sort of dress suitable to the subject, according to the time 
 in which the action is supposed to have taken place ; but 
 the word has a more general signification, inasmuch as it in- 
 cludes the keeping of all the accessories, ornaments, uten- 
 sils, &c. of such forms and colours as historical knowledge 
 proves them really to have possessed. 
 
 COTE' DROIT, COTE' GAUCHE. See Deputies, 
 Chamber op. 
 
 COTERIE. An old French word, supposed to be derived 
 from the Lat. quot, how many, signifying literally a society 
 or company. In the 13th or 14th century, when merchants 
 were about to embark In any commercial enterprise, they 
 formed a coterie or company, each contributing his quota 
 of goods or money, and deriving his quota of profit. But 
 the term soon acquired a more extended signification, in 
 which, however, the original meaning is still perceptible, 
 being applied to any exclusive society in which interesting 
 subjects (chiefly literary and political) are discussed, each 
 member being supposed to contribute his quota or share of 
 information for the general edification or amusement. 
 
 COTI'SE. (Fr. cote", side.) In Heraldry, a diminutive 
 of the bend, being one half the width of the bendlet; gene- 
 rally borne in couples, with a bend or charges between 
 them. A bend, fess, &c. between two cotises, is termed 
 cotised. 
 
 CO'TTABUS. (Gr. KOTraSos.) A celebrated Greek 
 game. It consisted in throwing wine from cups into little 
 basins of metal suspended in a particular manner, or float- 
 ing in a large vessel of water; so that dexterity might be 
 shown in throwing it without spilling, in producing a par- 
 ticular sound, <fec. The cottabus was so favourite a sport, 
 that rooms were built expressly for its performance, styled 
 cottaheia. 
 
 CO'TTAGE ALLO'TMENTS, are those portions of 
 ground which are allotted to the dwellings of country la- 
 bourers for the purpose of being cultivated by them as gar- 
 dens. Sometimes these allotments are placed adjoining 
 the dwellings, in which case they are more commonly 
 called cottage gardens ; but at other limes they are placed 
 at a distance from the cottage, and form small portions of 
 a large enclosure ; and to this kind of cottage garden the 
 term allotment is more properly applied than to the other. 
 The object in both cases is to afford resources to the cotta- 
 ger ; and to enable him, by growing vegetables and roots of 
 various kinds, not only to supply his own family, but to keep 
 pigs, rabbits, poultry, &c. Such being the uses of cottage 
 allotments, the advantage of each cottage having its garden 
 surrounding it, instead of at a distance, is sufficiently ob- 
 vious. In the latter case, the cottager must necessarily 
 lose much time in travelling backwards and forwards from 
 his house to his garden ; and his wife and children will often 
 be prevented from employing themselves in it. In such a 
 garden he cannot grow fruits, because they would be com- 
 paratively unprotected ; nor can it be worth his while to 
 grow flowers in a place where they would not prove an orna- 
 ment to his dwelling. On the supposition that the cottager 
 has his pigstye close to his dwelling, the food for the pigs 
 must be brought home from the allotment ; and the ma- 
 nure made by them, which is one of the advantages ol 
 keeping pigs, must be carried out again. It. is well known 
 to all persons of any experience on this subject, that by f&i 
 the most valuable part of the manure made by (he cottager 
 such as soapsuds. &c, may be included under the term 
 liquid manure; and this, when the allotment is at a dis 
 tance, may be considered as entirely lost, the cottager bein. 
 
COTTON. 
 
 without either conveniences or time for carrying it out. In 
 piint of usefulness, therefore, a cottage allotment in a field, 
 .it tho distance of a furlong or less from the cottage, is not 
 worth half what it would be if adjoining the dwelling ; 
 while in point of enjoyment to the cottager, and of orna- 
 ment to the roadside, it is hardly worth anything. A cot- 
 tage allotment is therefore a miserable substitute for a cot- 
 tage garden. On the other hand, the labourer who has a 
 lease of a comfortable cottage surrounded by a garden, 
 If the latter should not be larger than the eighth part 
 of an acre, has within his reach all the essentials of happi- 
 ness possessed by the richest landed proprietor. He can 
 grow good and wholesome vegetables and fruits: he may 
 have his live stock of pigs, poultry, rabbits, and bees ; he 
 may ornament his house front, and the borders of his 
 , with shrubs and fiowers ; and he has the wages of 
 his labour for the purchase of those comforts and luxuries 
 which his garden does not afTord. In the culture and man- 
 agement of this spot, he has constant occupation of the 
 most agreeable and useful kind for his leisure hours 
 throughout the year; and, in short, whatever the farmer 
 or country gentleman has on a large scale, he has on a 
 small one. In quiet possession of this little garden, which 
 be regards as his own, he learns to respect himself, acquir- 
 ing at the same time a taste for accumulating property. 
 •,me, it is to be hoped, is not far distant when the hum- 
 blest country labourer will possess such a cottage atid gar- 
 den ; but it is necessary that the country labourer should 
 ro previously a taste for these comforts by seeing 
 them possessed by others of his class ; ami for this we 
 ni'i ■ look partly to the country labourers themselves, part- 
 ly to the government for the establishment of a system of 
 universal education which shall raise the taste of the hum- 
 b!"st part of society, and partly to the humanity and sym- 
 pathetic feeling of the lauded proprietors ; because it is to 
 them we must look, in the first instance, for building the 
 cottage and accompanying it with garden ground. 
 
 COTTON. (Qmmmh. Lin.) A species of vegetable 
 wool, the produce of the Gossyjrium herbaceum, of which 
 there are many varieties. The kinds of cotton met with in 
 the market are usually designated by the names of the places 
 from winch they are brought; but practically, they are all 
 divided into the two great classes of long and short stapled. 
 Its goodness depends on its colour, and the length, strength, 
 and fineness of its fibre. Its price varies, according to 
 1'nlity, from 2s. to id. per lb. The general chemical cha- 
 rs Of Cotton are those of lignin. It is peculiarly sus- 
 ■ile of combination with certain metallic oxidc3 or 
 : whence the facility with which it is locally dyed, as 
 in the process of calico printing. 
 
 i OTTON MANUFACTURE. In modern times cotton 
 has attained to an importance among vegetables second 
 only to that of corn, and which could not have been so 
 much as dreamed or in former ages. The manufacture of 
 cotton wool into articles of use and ornament appears, in. 
 deed, to have been carried on in India from the remotest 
 antiquity ; but it ha3 not made any very great progress in 
 the East, and obtained no footing worth mentioning in Eu- 
 rope, till last century. 
 
 The truth is, that this manufacture, though it now affords 
 employment and subsistence to many hundreds of thou- 
 sands of persons in this and other countries, is almost 
 wholly a consequence of discoveries and inventions made 
 in Great Britain and the United States, since the middle of 
 last century. Previously to that period the manufacture 
 was everywhere confined within the narrowest limits. 
 Owing to the difficulty of separating the wool from the 
 seed, its price, so long as this operation had to be perform- 
 ed by the hand, was naturally high: while the cost of its 
 spinning and weavine by the wheels and looms in use pre- 
 viously to 1760 added so much to its jjrice, that cotton ar- 
 ticles were suited only to the use and demand of the better 
 classes of society ; and it seems unreasonable to suppose 
 thatthe manufacture should havebeen materially extended 
 without a greatly increased facility of production. But in 
 this respect the most signal and extraordinary improve- 
 ments have been made. The Jenny invented by Hargreaves 
 In 1767 enabled one individual to spin 80 or 120 threads with 
 about the same facility that a single thread had been previ- 
 ously spun. The jenny, however, was fitted only to spin 
 the softer descriptions of yarn or that used as weft, being 
 unable to give the thread the firmness ami hardness re- 
 quired in that used as warp. But this deficiency was soon 
 supplied : The genius of Arkwright completed what Har- 
 greaves had begun, by inventing the spinning frame, — that 
 wonderful piece of machinery which spins any number of 
 threads of any degree of fineness and hardness, leaving to 
 man merely to feed the machine with cotton, and to join 
 the threads when they break I Nearly at the same time 
 that the spinning department was thus wonderfully im- 
 proved, Dr. Cartwright, a clergyman of Kent, invented the 
 power-loom, a machine which has already gone far to su- 
 persede weaving by the hand, and which will, no doubt, in 
 the end bring about this desirable result. While these ex- 
 291 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 Inordinary inventions were being made, Watt was perfect- 
 ing- the steam-engine, endowing it with capacity to engrave 
 a seal, to give motion to the most ponderous machinery, 
 or to lift a ship like a bauble in the air; and was thus not 
 only supplying the manufactures with a new power appli- 
 cable to every purpose, and easy of controul, but with one 
 that might be placed In the most convenient situations, and 
 amid a population trained to industrious habits. 
 
 Belli, however, something more was necessary to com 
 plete this astonishing career of discovery Without a 
 vastly increased supply of the raw material at a lower price 
 than it had previously brought, the inventions of Har- 
 greaves, Arkwright, and Watt would have been of compa- 
 ratively little value. Luckily, however, what they did for the 
 manufacturers, Mr. Eli Whitney did for the cotton growers. 
 This extraordinary person, a native of the northern states 
 of America, invented a machine by which cotton wool is 
 separated from the seed with the utmost facility and ex- 
 pedition. Previously to 1790 the United States did not ex- 
 port a single pound weight of raw cotton. In 1792 they ex- 
 ported the trifling quantity of 138.3'iS lbs. Whitney's in- 
 vention came into operation in 1793 ; and in 1794. 1,601,760 
 lbs., and in 1796, 6,276,306 lbs. were exported ! And so as- 
 tonishing has been the growth of cotton in the interval, oc- 
 casioned by this discovery and the discoveries made in 
 England, that in 1838 the exports from the United States 
 amounted to the prodigious quantity of 595,952,297 lbs. ! 
 
 A cotton mill is probably, all things considered, the most 
 astonishing triumph of skill and ingenuity. All the various 
 operations, from the carding of the wool lo its conversion 
 into a texture as fine almost as that of the gossamer, is per- 
 formed by machinery. Each of the workmen at present 
 employed in a cotton mill superintends as much work as 
 could nave been executed by two or three hundred work- 
 men 60 or 70 years ago, and yet, instead of being diminished, 
 the numbers employed have increased even in a still great- 
 er proportion ! It would be curious to investigate how 
 many persons in the old and new worlds directly depend 
 for subsistence on the inventions and discoveries of Har- 
 greaves, Arkwright, Watt, Whitney, and the other founders 
 and improvers of this great manufacture. They certainly 
 amount to several millions ; at the same time that there is 
 hardly an individual in any country, how remote or bar- 
 barous soever, who is not indebted to them for an increase 
 of comfort and enjoyment. 
 
 " It is impossible to estimate the advantage to the bulk 
 of the people, from the wonderful cheapness of cotton 
 goods. The wife of a labouring man may buy, at B retail 
 shop, a neat and good print as low as Ad. a yard ; so that, 
 allowing 7 yards for the dress, the whole material shall only 
 cost 2a. 4d. sterling. Common plain calico may be bought 
 for 2i<£ a yard ; elegant cotton prints for ladies' dresses 
 sell at from lOd. to Is. 4d. per yard, and printed muslins at 
 from Is. to 4s., the higher priced having beautiful patterns, 
 in brilliant and permanent colours. Thus the humblest 
 classes have now the means of as great neatness, and even 
 gaiety of dress, as the middle and upper classes of the last 
 age. A country wake in the 19th century may display as 
 much finery as a drawing room of the 17th ; and the pea- 
 sant's cottage may, at this day, with good management, 
 have as handsome furniture for beds, windows, and tables, 
 as the house of a substantial tradesman 60 years since." 
 (Blaines's Hist. Cotton Manufacture, p. 358.) 
 
 The following statements give a view of the progress of 
 
 the manufacture in Great Britain : — 
 
 Account of the Imports of Cotton Wool, and of the official 
 
 Value of the Cotton Goods exported from Great Britain 
 
 in the following Years, from 1697 to 1764, both inclusive 
 
 Year*. 
 
 Raw Cotton 
 Imported. 
 
 Official 
 Value of 
 British Cot- 
 ton Goods 
 exported. 
 
 Veais. 
 
 Raw Cotton 
 imported. 
 
 Official 
 Value of 
 British Cot- 
 ton Goode 
 exported. 
 
 1697 
 1701 
 1710 
 1720 
 
 lb.. 
 
 1,976,369 
 
 1,985,868 
 
 7 I5.0O8 
 
 1.972J805 
 
 L. 
 
 5,915 
 23.253 
 
 6,698 
 I6J200 
 
 1730 
 1741 
 1761 
 1764 
 
 lbs. 
 1,545,472 
 1,645,031 
 2,976,610 
 
 3.S7II,:;'.I:2 
 
 L. 
 13,524 
 
 20,709 1 
 45,986 ! 
 200,354 1 
 
 The spinning jenny was invented in 1767, and Arkwright 
 took out his first patent for spinning by rollers in 1769. The 
 influence of these and numberless other inventions on the 
 trade is exhibited in the following table : — 
 
 ■ 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Yeara. 
 
 Cotton 
 
 Cotton 
 
 
 imported. 
 
 exported. 
 
 imported. 
 lbs. 
 
 exported. 
 
 lb,. 
 
 
 II,-. 
 
 lb*. 
 
 
 1781 
 
 5,198,778 
 
 96,788 
 
 1810 
 
 132.488.935 
 
 8,787.109 
 
 1785 
 
 18.400,384 
 
 407,496 
 
 1811 
 
 91,676,535 
 
 1,266.867 
 
 1790 
 
 31,447.605 
 
 844,154 
 
 1812 
 
 63.025.93ti 
 
 1,410,912 
 
 1795 
 
 26.401,340 
 
 1,193,737 
 
 1813 
 
 50.966,000 
 
 — 
 
 1800 
 
 56,010,732 
 
 4,416,610 
 
 1814 
 
 60.060,239 
 
 6.282,437 
 
 1805 
 
 59£«2.40f 
 
 804,243 1815 
 
 99.306 343 6.780,393 
 
COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 The subjoined statement, taken from the circular af Messrs. George Holt and Co., cotton brokers at Liverpool 
 dated the 31st December, 1840, gives a very complete view of all the more important particulars respectino the British 
 cotton manufacture in the undermentioned years, from 1816 to 1840, both inclusive. 
 
 Statement of the Consumption, Exportation, &c. of the different sorts of Cotton Wool, in and from Gitat F itain. 
 in different Years, from 1816 to 1840, both inclusive. 
 
 A»erage Weekly Consumption. 
 
 Upland 
 
 Orleans and Tennessee 
 
 Sea Island 
 
 Total United States 
 Brazil .... 
 Egypt .... 
 East India 
 Demerara, West India, &c 
 
 Total 
 Packages annually consumed 
 Average weight of packages 
 
 consumed, in lbs. 
 Weekly consumption in pack 
 
 ages, average 346 lbs. • 
 Average weight of packages 
 
 imported, in lbs. 
 Packages exported 
 Lbs. weight annually import 
 
 ed, in millions and tenths 
 Lbs. weight consumed, do. 
 Lbs. weight in ports, 31st of 
 
 Dec. do. 
 Lbs. weight in Gt. Britain, do 
 Average price per lb. of up 
 
 lands in Liverpool 
 Do. do. Pernam 
 
 Do. do. Surats ■ 
 
 990 
 
 4,036 
 1,589 
 
 207 
 G56 
 
 6,488 
 337,400 
 
 263 
 
 5,122 
 
 256 
 
 29,300 
 
 939 
 
 887 
 192 
 
 ISirf. 
 26d. 
 \5±d. 
 
 2,918 
 
 1,192 
 
 409 
 
 4,519 
 2,408 
 
 1,518 
 534 
 
 8 979 
 466,900 
 
 258 
 
 6,945 
 
 249 
 28,400 
 
 1439 
 120-3 
 110 5 
 
 127 
 
 Hid. 
 15|d. 
 
 3,713 
 
 2,442 
 
 360 
 
 6,515 
 2,502 
 
 891 
 1,096 
 
 527 
 
 11.531 
 
 599,600 
 
 278 
 
 9,634 
 
 270 
 72,800 
 
 222-4 
 166-8 
 107 
 
 115-5 
 
 11 -6d. 
 151d. 
 8-9d. 
 
 5,452 
 
 4,756 
 
 460 
 
 10,668 
 
 3,602 
 
 50S 
 
 940 
 
 284 
 
 16,002 
 932,100 
 
 14,320 
 
 300 
 
 33,400 
 
 2612 
 2476 
 914 
 
 •1188 
 
 6 9d. 
 
 5,! 
 
 7,823 
 
 354 
 
 14,073 
 2,339 
 
 446 
 1,069 
 
 421 
 
 18,348 
 954,100 
 
 333 
 
 18,348 
 
 331 
 102,800 
 
 361-7 
 3181 
 733 
 
 89 6 
 
 101(7- 
 
 14. Id. 
 
 7|d. 
 
 4,438 
 
 10,223 
 
 310 
 
 14,971 
 
 2.433 
 
 779 
 
 1,639 
 
 461 
 
 20.333 
 
 1,057,300 
 
 346 
 20.333 
 
 5,505 
 
 11,742 
 
 317 
 
 5,464 
 
 9,915 
 
 265 
 
 17.564 
 
 2,460! 
 
 781 
 
 1,760 
 
 639 
 
 23,204 
 1,206,600 
 
 346 
 
 23,204 
 
 3<< 350 
 
 123,40.)' 103,300 
 
 40S-.il 501-0 
 
 365-7 416-7 
 
 821 110 1 
 
 115 6 
 
 7d. 
 9fd. 
 
 4-aw. 
 
 160-9 
 
 Id. 
 
 i *75d. 
 
 5d. 
 
 5.34G 
 
 13.S54 
 
 392 
 
 15,644 
 2,373 
 
 548 
 2,142 
 
 723 
 
 21,430 
 1,114,400 
 
 343 
 
 20,764 
 
 348 
 117,300 
 
 388-6 
 
 381-7 
 
 98-5 
 
 125 8 
 
 rid. 
 
 lOd 
 5fd. 
 
 19,09! 
 1,444,! 
 
 540! 
 2,227-' 
 
 260 
 
 24,063 
 1,251,300 
 
 354 
 
 24,063 
 
 365 
 119,700 
 
 583-4 
 458-9 
 162-9 
 
 207 01 
 
 6d. 
 9id. 
 dd. 
 
 N. B. — Messrs. Holt & Co. estimate the average weight of the packages imported in 1840* ."iS Vs. per bag Upland ; vlf 
 lbs. Orleans and Alabama; 330 lbs. Sea- Island; 171 lbs. Brazil; 215 lbs. Egyptian; 342 hi rti't Indian; and 166 .'bs. 
 West Indian. 
 
 We subjoin from Burns's Glance, — a tabular statement, annually published at Manci 
 drawn up with great care, — an account of the cotton spun in Great Britain and Ireland in 
 England was disposed of, with several other interesting particulars. 
 
 Statement of Cotton spun in England, Scotland and Ireland, in 1838; showing the Quantity of 
 
 that spun in England was disposed of. 
 
 Number of Bags 
 consumed. 
 
 938,168 
 147,392 
 40,273 
 94,463 
 16.519 
 
 1,236,820 
 
 Arerage weight of 
 Bags in lbs. 
 
 373 
 171 
 284 
 363 
 316 
 
 346 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 American Cotton .... 
 
 Brazil ditto 
 
 Egyptian ditto .... 
 
 East India ditto .... 
 
 West India ditto .... 
 
 Total number of bags consumed - 
 
 Allowed for loss in spinning, If oz. per lb. 
 
 Total quantity spun in England and Scotland • • • . • • . • 
 
 Deduct quantity spun in Scotland 
 
 Total quantity spun in England in 1838 
 
 How disposed of. 
 
 Exported in yarn during the year 
 
 Ditto in thread 
 
 Ditto in manufactured goods -..--••••• 
 
 Estimated quantity of yarn sent to Scotland and Ireland 
 
 Exported in mixed manufactures, not stated in the above-named articles, con 
 sumed in cotton banding, healds, candle and lamp wick, waddings, flocks, cal 
 ender bowls, paper, umbrellas, hats, and loss in manufacturing goods - 
 
 Balance left for home consumption and stock, 1st January, 1839 
 Ditto ditto ditto 1838 • 
 
 Ditto ditto ditto 1837 - 
 
 Ditto ditto ditto 1836 • 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Gross weight of cotton spun in Ireland in 1838 
 
 Allowed for loss in spinning, If oz. per lb. 
 
 Toatl quantity of yarn spun in Ireland in 1838 
 
 Total weight it 
 
 349,936,664 
 
 25,204,032 
 
 11,437.532 
 
 34,291,884 
 
 5,220,004 
 
 426,090,116 
 46,603,606 
 
 and Admitted Ju be 
 oil ho:v that spun ix 
 
 t -Ov-H-ced, and how 
 
 113,753,197 
 2,362,983 
 
 120,784,629 
 6,875,952 
 
 16,753,000 
 84,133,283 
 
 I r . s. 'v con su mptisn of 
 '..»., describing each 
 
 63,657,902 
 43,486,686 
 49,932,800 
 
 4,412,860 
 482.656 
 
 3,930,204 
 
 13,041.36 
 
 2,834.24 
 
 774.25 
 
 1,816.36 
 
 317.35 
 
 23,785 
 
 379,486,510 
 34.823,406 
 
 344,663,044 
 
 344,663,044 
 
 In 1832 the quantity spun was 222,596,907 lbs., giving a 
 weekly supply of 4,280,709 lbs. Mr. Burns estimates the 
 quantity spun per spindle, per week, at 8J oz., making the 
 total number of spindles employed in England and Wales, 
 in 1832, 7,949,208. Those employed in Scotland, during the 
 same year, are estimated, in the same way, at 381,020. Mr. 
 Burns further calculates the number of looms employed in 
 England and Wales, in 1832, at 203,730. The consumption 
 of flour in the manufacture is much greater than anv one 
 292 
 
 not pretty well acquainted w*lSi it would readily suppose. 
 The average quantity required for each loom is estimated 
 at 4 lbs. per week ; making the total annual consumption in 
 England and Wales, in 1832, 42,301,584 lbs. or 215,824 bar- 
 rels of 196 lbs. each !, 
 
 The places whence the supply of raw cotton is derived 
 and the quantity furnished by each, are seen in the follow 
 
 ing table : — 
 
COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 Account of the Quantities of Cotton Wool imported into the United Kingdom during the Seven Pears ending wntx 
 1838; specifying the Quantities brought from different Countries, the Total Quantities exported, and the Quantities 
 left for Consumption.— (Compiled from Pari. Papers.) , 
 
 Countries 
 
 Cotton wool from foreign countries, viz. 
 
 United States of America 
 
 Brazil 
 
 Turkey and Egypt 
 
 Other foreign countries 
 Cotton wool from British possessions,viz 
 
 East Indies and Mauritius 
 
 British Went Indies, the growth of 
 Ditto ditto, imported from 
 
 Other British possessions 
 
 Total quantities imported 
 Quantities exported 
 
 Left for consumption 
 
 183.'. 
 
 1833. 
 
 lbs. lbs. 
 
 756,753 237,500.7581-269 
 109,560' 28,463.821 
 ,113,890 987,262 
 598,048 1,696,108 
 
 35,178,625 
 
 1,708,764 
 
 331,664 
 
 896,832,526 
 
 18,027,940 
 
 886^04^86 
 
 32,755,164 
 
 1,653,166 
 
 431,696 
 
 162,862 
 
 17,303,882 
 
 1834. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 203.075 
 
 19,291,396 
 
 855,167 
 
 2,26o,*">2 
 
 32,900,866 
 
 1,672,211 
 
 624,314 
 
 47,545 
 
 24.461,963 
 
 286^92,955'302,4 14,462 
 
 1S36. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 284,455, "12 289 
 
 24,986,409 27 
 
 6,738,966 5 
 
 5,207.389 6 
 
 41,474,909 75 
 
 1,495,517 1 
 
 319,753' 
 
 24,203 
 
 lbs. 
 
 615,692 
 
 .501,272 
 
 420.721 
 
 734,413 
 
 957,887 
 
 312,806 
 
 401,531 
 
 8,736 
 
 303,656,837 326,875,425 363,702,963 400,959,057 
 ~ 32,779,734 31,739,763 
 
 1S37. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 320,651,716 
 
 20,940,145 
 
 7,881,540 
 
 4,616,829 
 
 51.577,197 
 
 1,199,162 
 
 396,540 
 
 23J054 
 
 407,286,783 
 39,722,031 
 
 330,923,229 375,219,294 1307,504,752 177,21 >0.HM 
 
 lecount of the Exports of Cotton Goods and Yarn from the United Kingdom in 1S37 ; specifying the Quantity ami 
 declared Value of those shipped for each Country. 
 
 Countries to which exported. 
 
 Russia .... 
 
 Sweden 
 
 Norway . . 
 
 Denmark 
 
 Prussia 
 
 Germany 
 
 Holland 
 
 Belgium 
 
 France 
 
 Portugal, Proper . 
 
 Azores . 
 
 Madeira . 
 Spain and the Balearic Islands 
 
 Canaries 
 Gibraltar 
 
 Italy and the Italian Islands 
 Malta .... 
 Ionian Islands 
 Mores and Greek Islands 
 Turkey 
 
 .Syria and Palestine 
 Egypt .... 
 Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and 
 
 Morocco 
 Western Coast of Africa 
 Cape of Good Hope 
 St. Helena 
 Mauritius 
 E. I. Co.'s Territories & Ceylon 
 Sumatra, Java, &. other Islands 
 
 of the Indian Sea 
 Philippine Islands 
 
 China 
 
 N.S. Wales, VanDieman's Land, 
 & other Australian Settlem'ts, 
 British N. American Colonies 
 British West Indies 
 
 Hayti 
 
 Cuba and other Foreign West 
 
 Indian Colonies 
 Uni'ed Stales of America 
 Stales of Central and S.America 
 
 Mexico . 
 
 Columbia 
 
 Brazil 
 
 States of II. de la Plata 
 
 Chili 
 
 Peru 
 Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Al 
 derney, Man, dec. 
 
 Totals 
 
 YarJi. 
 
 980.779 
 
 62,939 
 164,634 
 45,992 
 
 14,203,855 
 
 16,332,581 
 
 865,339 
 
 1,169,753 
 
 15,966.118 
 
 541,605 
 
 519,315 
 
 151,380 
 
 47 1. HI? 
 
 24.9/0.411 
 1,108,032 
 
 9,054 
 
 23,727.090 
 
 5,140 
 
 5,559,900 
 
 2,920680 
 
 607.843 
 
 2,293J943 
 
 18,816 
 
 3J)53£08 
 
 46,306,175 
 
 5,952,848 
 473,370 
 
 8,519,245 
 
 1,275,348 
 6.319,804 
 19,695492 
 1,246,463 
 
 6,798,703 
 5,471,768 
 
 2,713,901 
 1,436,663 
 
 2537,191 
 10,923,196 
 7,825,718 
 3,655,774 
 
 633,704 
 
 Declared 
 Value. 
 
 £40,203 
 
 1,717 
 4,081 
 1,033 
 
 294^78 
 341,448 
 32,271 
 23,6S3 
 268,189 
 11,789 
 6.255 
 4,047 
 
 310.777 
 
 21.038 
 
 26,314 
 
 250 
 
 482,438 
 
 330 
 
 107,125 
 
 41,552 
 15,783 
 
 54,567 
 
 519 
 
 78,395 
 
 1,040,018 
 
 144,962 
 
 10.075 
 
 193,075 
 
 36561 
 161,392 
 417,560 
 
 28,421 
 
 148/124 
 
 187,585 
 
 55,651 
 32,630 
 436.192 
 207,714 
 150,492 
 68,013 
 
 38,975 
 
 Printed or Dyed 
 Cotton*. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 145,760 
 
 48 562 
 347,809 
 71,569 
 
 28,967,374 
 
 11,588,241 
 
 1,998,160 
 
 1,269,924 
 
 15.7-K2I0 
 
 731.946 
 
 649J964 
 
 206,986 
 
 436,699 
 
 12,681,183 
 
 17,631,057 
 
 562,773 
 
 841.686 
 
 67,794 
 
 9,423,139 
 
 693,240 
 
 253.009 
 4,365,569 
 3,136,936 
 5,326 
 2,237,689 
 17,847,458 
 
 2,620,300 
 
 613,421 
 
 2,445,178 
 
 1,335,325 
 
 7,950,884 
 17,998,452 
 1,612,897 
 
 11,966,502 
 12,010,067 
 
 4,227,065 
 2,675,164 
 23.380,427 
 9,200,258 
 9,356,800 
 5,641,351 
 
 159,300 
 
 £7,690 
 
 1,850 
 
 9,90-1 
 1,369 
 
 713.771 
 322,400 
 
 35,529 
 
 309,712 
 
 18,740 
 
 12,767 
 
 6494 
 
 12,234 
 
 375.307 
 
 481.915 
 
 171364 
 
 19,955 
 
 2,664 
 
 288,230 
 
 ' 23,207 
 
 4,892 
 
 119,540 
 
 80483 
 
 141 
 
 73,556 
 
 483,231 
 
 97,620 
 17,695 
 79,300 
 
 44,889 
 222,001 
 465449 
 
 53,270 
 
 293.865 
 407,237 
 
 143.805 
 
 58,136 
 
 551,258 
 
 287,667 
 
 240,267 
 165,804 
 
 4,334 
 
 Hosiery 
 ltd small 
 W «r«a. 
 
 £9,106 
 
 708 
 
 1,682 
 
 1824263 
 
 50,205 
 
 102£33 
 93,768 
 
 21,0-1 
 
 638 
 
 1,068 
 
 221 
 
 924 
 
 17,271 
 
 40,910 
 
 2,808 
 
 790 
 
 33 
 
 2,297 
 
 349 
 
 407 
 
 391 
 
 9,389 
 
 19 
 
 7,749 
 30,444 
 
 5,931 
 1,115 
 1,012 
 
 15,609 
 39.068 
 43,812 
 
 2,751 
 
 11,608 
 117,572 
 
 13,339 
 4,085 
 26.987 
 18;818 
 18.217 
 14,300 
 
 21,323 
 
 Twin and Yarn. 
 
 Pounds. 
 
 24,108,593 
 
 734.336 
 
 197,700 
 
 57,470 
 
 4,924 
 
 31.272.007 
 
 1&993JJ72 
 
 67,397 
 
 94,707 
 
 323.262 
 
 17,840 
 
 1,868 
 
 1.071 
 
 225,939 
 
 8,776,028 
 
 176.260 
 
 897,988 
 
 1,800 
 
 3,527,538 
 
 660700 
 
 2.982 
 9,314 
 
 10,400 
 8,478,021 
 
 127,620 
 
 • 1,873,965 
 
 13,625 
 260.732 
 
 55,549 
 
 6.250 
 219,712 
 
 2,654,867 
 
 188,283 
 
 560 
 
 5,734 
 
 7,255 
 
 230,164,256 6,085,789 245,209,407 6,042,200 912,192,103,455,138 6,955,942 20,590.123 
 
 Toial 
 Declared 
 
 Y„luu. 
 
 41,3721 
 
 395; 
 
 899 
 
 468 
 602,293 
 
 781 i 
 14,3071 
 
 4,4871 
 
 144,489 
 12,488 
 
 256,371 
 28,885 
 377,295 
 
 453,800 
 725,753 
 
 65,008 
 
 Owing partly to our having had the start in the career of 
 liscovery, but more to our command of all but inexhausti- 
 ble supplies of coal, so Indispensable to the cheap and ad- 
 vantageous supply of steam as amoving power, and to the 
 enterprise and invention of our capitalists, engineers, and 
 workmen, we have continued to keep that lead in the man- 
 ufacture we early acquired. At this moment it affords em- 
 ployment to not fewei than 1,500,000 individuals in this 
 country ; and constitutes, in fact, the grand source of our 
 293 
 
 manufacturing prosperity, and (he principal element of our 
 commerce. 
 
 Manchester, or rather Lancashire, is the grand seat of the 
 English cotton manufacture ; and next to it Cheshire, Not- 
 tinghamshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Cumber- 
 land, are its principal seats. Glasgow and the surrounding 
 district is the seat of the manufacture in Scotland. In Ireland 
 it is principally confined to Belfast ; but there it is of very 
 limited dimensions, and is said to be ralher on the decline. 
 
COTTUS. 
 
 With the exception of those employed in hand-loom 
 weaving, the condition of the labourers employed in the 
 cotton trade is eminently satisfactory. It has not only made 
 a vast addition to the field of employment, but it has in- 
 creased the comforts of those engaged in it. The stories 
 once so current as to the cruelties practised upon arid the 
 hardships endured by the children and young persons cm- 
 ployed in cotton factories, were, though not wholly with- 
 out foundation, grossly exaggerated: — they never, indeed, 
 existed in the first-class mills ; and since the system began 
 of excluding children under 9 years of age, limiting the 
 hours of employment, and appointing inspectors, abuses 
 have been wholly put an end to. 
 
 The value of the cotton manufacture of Great Britain is 
 greater than that of all Europe besides. And provided 
 tranquility be maintained at home, and we continue to be 
 exempted from that political agitation that is the bane of 
 industry and the curse of every country in which it pre- 
 vails, we have nothing to fear from foreign competition. 
 Our natural and acquired advantages for the prosecution of 
 manufactures and trade are vastly superior to those of 
 every other country ; and though foreigners do excel 
 us in a few departments, and may come to excel us in 
 others, so that the character and species of the manufac- 
 ture may in consequence be partially changed, there is 
 not so much as the shadow of a foundation for supposing 
 liiat its amount will be at all affected. On the contrary, it 
 is all but certain it will continue to augment with the aug- 
 menting wealth and population of the innumerable nations 
 with which we have commercial relations. 
 
 It is impossible to frame any accurate estimate of the 
 total value of the cotton goods and yarn annually produced 
 In Great Britain. In the Commercial Dictionary they are 
 estimated at about 34,000,000/. and we are inclined to think 
 that this is not far from the mark. Mr. Baines, in his elab- 
 orate work on the history of the Cotton Manufacture, gives 
 the following estimate of the number of people employed, 
 and the value of the manufacture. 
 
 Estimated Yearly Value of the British Cotton 
 
 Manufacture. 
 
 Wages of i £ 
 
 237.000 * operatives engaged in spinning and pow- 
 
 er-loom-weaving .... 6.044.000 
 
 250.000 1 hand-loom weavers, at 7s. per week each 4,375,000 
 45,000 callico printers, at 10s. per week each 1,170,000 
 
 159,3001 lace workers (including 100,000 employed 
 in embroidery, and 30,000 in mending, 
 pearling, drawing, and finishing) • -1,000.000 
 £1,000 makers of cotton hosiery - - 505,000 
 
 Bleachers, dyers, calenderers, fustian-cut- 
 ters, machine-makers ; makers of steam- 
 engines, cards, rollers, spindles, shuttles, 
 looms, and reeds : smiths, joiners, builders 
 of all classes, mill-wrights, carriers, car- 
 ters, warehouse-men, &c. &c. say 4,000,000 
 Raw material (spun in 1833) 283,675,200 lbs.H at 7d 
 per lb. ..... 8,244,693 
 
 Profits of capital, sums paid for materials of ma- 
 chinery, coals, flour for dressing, and other out- 
 goings.'! 6,000,000 
 
 JK3 1,338,693 
 In the Commercial Dictionary the capital employed in 
 the manufacture is estimated at 3-1,000,000/.; which Mr. 
 Baines thinks is very moderate. 
 
 CO'TTUS. (Gr. /corn?, a head.) A genus of spiny- 
 finned fishes ; so called on account of the large size of the 
 head. It includes two British species, viz. the Falherlash- 
 er (Cottus bubalis,) and the Sea Scorpion ( Coitus scorpio) ; 
 both of which are dreaded by fishermen on account of the 
 painful and dangerous wounds which they inflict by means 
 of the spines with which the gill-covers are armed. 
 
 * Mr. Stanway, from the Returns of the mill owners, ascertained that 
 67,819 mill operatives in England received 141,6: 5/. 5s. 7 3-id. as wages 
 for a month of four weeks: at the same rate. 237,000 mill operatives, 
 the number in the United Kingdom, would earn 6,434,453/. per year. 
 But as wages in Scotland are 10 percent, and in Ireland 15 or 53 per 
 Cent, lower than in England, and as two weeks' wages in the year 
 ought to be deducted for holidays, the amount of wages paid will be 
 about 6,044 ,0007. 
 
 t In my estimate of the number of weavers I have not reckoned the 
 winders, draw-boys, &c. who assist them, and who must amount to a 
 mat many thousands ; but, in the supposed average of their wages, I 
 include those earned by the assistants of ttie weavers as well as by the 
 weavers themselves. The sum of 7s. per week for the gross wages of 
 all hand-loom weavers is, I am convinced, a fair estimate. The calcu- 
 lation is for 50 weeks in the year. 
 
 * The wages paid to the women and children employed in embroidery, 
 flgftnding, & c - the ' ace . must be extremely low. Air. Felkin estimates 
 the whole value of the lace manufactured In England at 1,850,650/.; de- 
 duct the cost of the yarn, 635.000'. and there remains the sum of 1,215.- 
 i;3C ; of which, probably, 1,000,0LW. consists of wages to the work- 
 penp'e. 
 
 f| Th.2 quantity stated by Burns in the Commercial Glance. 
 
 ] I " adopt this sum from Mr. M'Culloch, thinking it a moderate 
 
 294 
 
 COUNCIL. 
 
 COTYLE'DON. (Gr. kotiXj;, a hollow ) In Botany, the 
 seminal leaf of a plant This organ forms a part of tne 
 embryo, and is what nourishes the plumula and radicle at 
 their first period of development, before they are able 
 to subsist upon the organizable matter absorbed by the 
 latter from the earth Exogenous plants have gener- 
 ally two cotyledons, Endogenous as generally one only ; 
 but there are exceptions in both cases. The latter class of 
 plants seldom elevate their cotyledon above ground, and 
 never convert it into a green leaf-like body, but usually 
 leave it behind them within the integuments of the seed ; 
 the former frequently raise their cotyledons above the soil 
 in the form of small green leaves, as in the garden radish ; 
 but there are very numerous exceptions to this, as in the 
 pea, the oak, the chesnut, &c. 
 
 COTYLE'DONS. (Applied by Aristotle to designate 
 the sucking-cups of the arms of the Dibranchiate Ccpha- 
 lopods.) In Comparative Anatomy, the cup-shaped vascu- 
 lar productions of the chorion in Ruminants, serving the 
 office of a placenta, are so called. 
 
 COTY'LTFORM. (Gr. xorv'Xri, a dip.) A term used in 
 describiuc: the general form of organs to denote a rotate 
 figure with an erect limb. 
 
 COUCH. A layer or heap of barley, moistened and 
 prepared for malting; also the name of that part of the 
 malting floor on which the barley is spread out. 
 
 COUCHANT. (Fr.) In Heraldry, a term applied to a 
 beast when represented as lying on the ground. 
 
 COD'CHIKG. In Agriculture, clearing land from couch 
 grass (Triticum repens), which iseffected by first pulver- 
 izing it, and then, in very dry weather, collecting the couch 
 by harrows, or by a horse rake, such as that used for col- 
 lecting stubble, and which so applied is called a couch 
 rake. 
 
 Cou'ching. One of the operations to restore vision in 
 cases of cataract : it consists in depressing the opaque lens, 
 so as to remove it out of the axis of vision. 
 
 COUGH. This term is applied to a spasmodic action ol 
 the respiratory organs, occasioning a sonorous expulsion 
 of air from the lungs: it is very commonly symptomatic 
 of other affections ; and some nosologists have considered 
 that it is always so, and never idiopathic. Many cases til' 
 cough depend upon the extension of catarrh to the trachea 
 and bronchia?, which become loaded with mucus or phlegm 
 the efforts to expel which constitute coughing. Others art 
 perhaps referable to a vitiated secretion ; and others to im 
 perfect action of the absorbents, by which the nntura. 
 mucous secretion remains and accumulates in the ail 
 vessels,and by evaporation becomes inspissated and irri 
 tating; this appears to be one of the causes of the rirj 
 cough to which old people are subject. The treatment o, 
 catarrhal cough consists in allaying irritation by demul- 
 cents, such as mucilaginous drinks and lozenges, which, 
 acting upon the glottis, sympathetically affect the trachea 
 and its ramifications : amongst these extract of liquorice, 
 and lozenges made of it and equal parts of gum trugacanlh, 
 are very effectual. Stimulants and full tliet are to be 
 avoided, and inflammatory symptoms carefully guarded 
 against; for these are not untrequenily brought on by the 
 violence of a cough. It is not unfrcquenlly necessary to 
 call in the aid of sedatives, expectorants, and aperients. 
 Amongst the former small doses of Dover's powder, or 
 of equal parts of it and extract of henbane, are very 
 serviceable ; and it is not uncommon to observe a trouble- 
 some cough disappear after a brisk dose of physic. An 
 emetic will also sometimes effect its cure ; so that coughs 
 have been by some considered as symptomatic of a vitiated 
 state of stomach and bowels. Where a cough periodically 
 returns at night, and is not inflammatory, a dose of lauda- 
 num sufficient to induce sound sleep will often, as it were, 
 break the habit and relieve it. Sedatives, conjoined with 
 stimulating expectorants, such as squills, animoniacum, 
 benzoic acid, &c, are often effectual in relieving the 
 coughs of old age ; and in these, and what are called 
 nervous coughs, much relief is experienced by administer- 
 ing mild opiates in the form of lozenges, so that tl ey may 
 pass gradually over the neighbourhood of the affected pari, 
 in consequence of the slowness with which they are dis- 
 solved in the mouth and swallowed : lozenges of sugar, 
 liquorice, or tragacanth, with about two grains of extract 
 of poppies in each, are useful in such cases. Where 
 coughs are symptomatic of inflammatory action, of asthma, 
 &c, they often require modes of treatment which have 
 more particular reference to their exciting causes. 
 
 COU'LTER. (Lat. culter, the coulter of a plough.) In 
 Agriculture, an iron blade or knife inserted into the beam 
 of a plough, for the purpose of cutting the ground and fa- 
 cilitating the separation of the furrow-slice by the plough- 
 share. See Plough. 
 
 COU'MARIN. A crystalline odoriferous principle ex- 
 tracted from the tonka bean, which is the seed of the Cou- 
 marouna odorata. 
 
 COU'NCIL. In Church History, an assembly cf pre- 
 lates and other suiritual oersons for the regulation of ec 
 
COUNCIL, PRIVY. 
 
 cieslastlcal matters. Such councils are either national, or 
 oecumenical ; the latter being those in which the whole 
 body of the clergy throughout the world is represented, 
 ami are convened for the settling of points of universal in- 
 
 The Roman Catholics hold that the decision of oscume- 
 ineral councils are infallible, and fur the most part 
 allow their superiority to the popes Uwntrtw* This su- 
 periority was first asserted at the Council of Pisa, in which 
 I -inning anti-popes were deposed ; and confirmed 
 by the proceedings of those of Constance and Basil. Since 
 that lime the popes have been very unwilling to convene a 
 general council, and that of Trent is the only one that has 
 ibled in later times. 
 The Protestants allow the authority of general councils 
 tn matters which do not contradict Scripture, and attach 
 ice to the four first councils ; viz. of Nice, 
 nople L, Bpheeua, ■nd Chalodon. But they 
 m nut mi that a general council can only be called of a tem- 
 poral prince, which prerogative is assigned by the Roman- 
 ists to the pea 
 
 infallibility they strongly deny, anil appear to re- 
 duce that assumption to an absurdity by asking— 
 
 1. What is the proof of infallibility existing in the church 
 at all I 
 
 2. Supposing it to exist, how can it be shown that the 
 church his been truly represented in any council? Or, 
 
 3. How tan it be shown thai the infallibility resides in a 
 bare majority rather than the minority, when a difference 
 ot opinion |ir 
 
 COU'NCIL, PiU'VY. The principal council belonging 
 to the king of England. In its origin it appears as a small 
 permanent committee, or minor council, consisting of 
 member! lelected by the king himself out of the great 
 council of the kingdom. The latter body is supposed to 
 been originally composed of all the immediate tenants 
 of the crown : and U was occasionally summoned as late 
 as the reign of Kic II., and seems then to have comprised 
 nearly all the prelates, nobles, and bannerets of the king- 
 dom, "et aittres sagrs " When the privy council was 
 formed out of it has not been ascertained. It appears in 
 early rolls of parliament as :' ■• permanent or continual 
 council ; and as its powers under the Plantagenet kings 
 were very exten Ive, to parliament exercised considerable 
 Influence in controlling the appointment of its members, 
 although alwaya vested in the crown as an essential prero- 
 gative The privy council under these sovereigns usually 
 consisted of the five great officers of state, the two arch- 
 bishops, and from ten 10 fifteen other individuals, spiritual 
 or temporal. It sat continually as a court, both to expedite 
 the executive part of the administration, and to provide 
 equitable relief in cases submitted to it. thus controlling the 
 court-: of common law. (See Sir F. Palgrare's Essay on 
 the Original Autlwrily of the King's Council, 1834 ; and the 
 Preface to the liecords of the P. C, edited by Sir II. Nico!a3.) 
 There were also under the Tudors councils, portions of the 
 privy council, exercising like powers in various parts of 
 England. The increasing power of parliament on the one 
 hand, and the extended equitable jurisdiction of the lord 
 chancellor on the other, gradually encroached upon the 
 ancient dignity and importance of both the councils. The 
 decline in power of the privy council was, however, ex- 
 tremely gradual. The Star Chamber and Court of Re- 
 ilved in the reign of Charles I . were both com- 
 mittees of the privy council. By stat. 16 C. 1. its direct 
 jurisdiction in England in civil cases was taken away- 
 Privy councillors are made by the king's nomination, 
 without patent or grant. Their number, having greatly in- 
 creased under the Tudor princes, was restricted by Charles 
 II to thirty ; but soon became indefinite again, and hassoco- 
 tinued. But no privy conncillors attend except such as are 
 specially summoned. The privy council continues in office 
 six months after the demise of the crown, unless sooner 
 dissolved by the successor. The separation of the func- 
 tions of the privy council from the more important politi- 
 cal duties of the cabinet council seems to have been 
 chiefly effected in the reign of W. III. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the privy council is of several sorts: 
 I. The king in council may issue proclamations binding on 
 the subject, if consonant to the laws of the land. He is- 
 sues also orders in council for the temporary regulation of 
 various matters relating to trade and international inter- 
 course. 2. The privy council has power to inquire into 
 offences against government, and commit offenders to 
 take their trial according to law. 3. Appellate jurisdiction 
 in the last resort from all his Majesty's dominions, except 
 ' Britain and Ireland, is vested in the privy council. 
 By 3 & 4. W. 4. c. 41. a judicial committee of the privy 
 council is constituted, to which are entrusted appeals from 
 tK' prize and admiralty courts, and courts in the planta- 
 tions abroad, and all other appeals which might before 
 have come before the king in council. The judicial com- 
 mittee may direct feigned issues to be tried at common 
 law. The lord president of the council is the fourth great 
 296 
 
 COUNTY. 
 
 officer of state. The office must probably have been co- 
 temporaneous with the origin of the council itself; but the 
 title is comparatively recent. It was created by lien. VIII., 
 and revived by Charles II. in favour of the Earl of Shaftes- 
 burv. 
 
 COU'NCII. OF STATE. A political and judicial body 
 of very indefinite powers In the French monarchy, both 
 before and since the Revolution. 
 
 COU'NSELLOR. (I,at. consiliarius.) In Law. a per- 
 son retained by a client to plead his cause, who is also said 
 to be of counsel for him. For the regulations by which 
 the admission to practise as a counsellor is restricted in 
 England, see Barrister. 
 
 < ( >UNT. (Lat. comes, a companion ; or according to a 
 fanciful conjecture of some etymologists, from comedere, 
 to rat with, because the holders of this dignity had the pri 
 vilege of dining with the emperor.) A title of dignity in 
 most of the continental stales of Europe, equivalent in 
 rank to the British earl and the German grqf. This title 
 has been in existence since the time of Augustus, who is 
 said by Dion Cassius to have thus designated all the officers 
 of his household. Under the Lower Empire and the first 
 two races of the Frank kings, this title of count was given 
 to officers of various degrees, and was at first attached to 
 the office, and not to the person; but In the progress of 
 time, when feudalism had introduced inheritance instead 
 of election as a fixed rule in succession, it became subject 
 to the same law as the higher titles of kings and dukes, 
 and conferred hereditary privileges on its possessor. (.See 
 Kecdalism.) The term count has in most of the states 
 where it is in oae degenerated into a mere title, to which 
 no political Importance la attached. "In the Papal states it 
 may be bought for no considerable sum, and in most of the 
 German states the sovereign may confer it as a mark of 
 honour and esteem." Though the title count has never 
 been introduced into Britain, the wives of earls have from 
 the earliest period ot its history been designated as count- 
 esses. (For further Information on this subject, see Dutil- 
 left Ret tie France.) 
 
 Count. In Law. See Declaration. 
 COli'.NTERFORT. (Fr. centre, against, and fort. 
 stnmg.) In Architecture, a buttress or pier built against 
 and at right angles to a wall to strengthen it. 
 
 COU'NTERGl'ARDS, in Fortification, are small ram- 
 parts with parapets and ditches, to cover some part of the 
 body of a place. They are generally made before the bas- 
 tions, sometimes before 'he ravelins. 
 
 COU'NTERMAHK. In Numismatics, a stamp frequently 
 seen on ancient coins, often obliterating a large part of the 
 impression. The countermark is generally a figure or in- 
 scription ; and some antiquaries have considered that their 
 use was to augment the value of the money ; others, that 
 it was only struck on money taken from an enemy. 
 
 COUNTERPART. In Law, when the parts of an in 
 denture are interchangeably executed by the several 
 parties, that part which is executed by the grantor is 
 termed the original, and the rest are counterparts. If each 
 part is sinned bv all parties, they are duplicate originals. 
 
 COU'NTERPOINT. (It. contrapunto.) In Music, a 
 composition of several parts. The name originated in the 
 circumstance of the notes being formerly placed one 
 against or over the other, and without any stems. 
 
 COU'NTERPROOF. In Engraving, an impression ob- 
 tained from another impression while it is yet wet from a 
 copper plate, in which the design is in the same direction 
 as in the plate itself. They are made chiefly for investi- 
 gating the state of a plate; and of some prints the coun- 
 terproofs are more valuable than the prints, where the 
 drawing from the picture has not been reversed on the 
 copper. 
 
 COU'NTERSCARP. In Fortification, the slope or talus 
 of the exterior side of the ditch, towards the country. 
 The interior slope is called escarpe. Sometimes the whole 
 covert way, with its parapet ana glacis, are termed coun 
 tersrarp. 
 
 COUNTERSIGN. In Diplomatics, the signature of a 
 public officer to the charter of a king, prelate, <tc, by way 
 of certificate " Obtulit," " recognovit," " relegit et sub- 
 scripsit," are common additions, in charters of the middle 
 ages, to the name of the countersigner. 
 COU'NTER-TE'NOR. In Music. See Tenor. 
 COU'NTY. A county is in England that district of ter- 
 ritory which was anciently subject to the government of 
 an earl or ealdorman, from whose Latin title comes the 
 term isderived. The Saxon word corresponding to county 
 was shire, meaning division, which is therefore not applies 
 to such counties as were originally distinct sovereignties 
 such as Kent, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk 
 The division of the kingdom into counties, which, In 
 common with many other of our earlier institutions, is 
 commonly attributed to Alfred, though itwas probably ol a 
 date far anterior, was in ancient times chiefly of use in 
 marking the limit* of different jurisdictions. To eacn 
 countv belonged a couuty court, which it was the uuty ol 
 
COUNTY COURT. 
 
 die thanes and other freeholders lo attend and do suits at, 
 though it seems the ihanes only took part in the adminis- 
 tration of justice. Such court was originally held by the 
 earl and bishop, the latter assisting in respect of the eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction belonging to the court ; or in their ab- 
 sence by the sheriff, upon whom the right to preside in the 
 county court, either in person or by deputy, as well as the 
 other civil functions of the earl, have long since devolved. 
 Considered in hs judicial character, the county court was 
 ihe great court baron or civil court of the county, and was 
 originally competent to the trial of almost all civil actions 
 arising within such county. The criminal jurisdiction be- 
 longing to the county, which is now vested in the magis- 
 trates at quarter sessions, was anciently exercised by the 
 sheriff in his tourn (see title Tourn). The boundaries of 
 a county serve also to mark the limits of the jurisdiction, 
 both civil and criminal, which other courts or judges exer- 
 cise within each county severally by commission from the 
 crown (see Venue); and within which limits also are con- 
 fined the ministerial functions of the sheriff as executor of 
 the writs awarded by either of the great courts. 
 
 The division into counties is also lor some purposes, par- 
 ticularly thai of representation in parliament, political; and 
 it is in ihe county court that the election of members of 
 parliament takes place, and that other political acts of the 
 men of the county are done ; for county meetings convened 
 and presided over by the sheriff are, properly speaking, 
 holdings of the county court. What has been said of coun- 
 lie.s in England applies without qualification, save as to the 
 time of the institution, to Wales, and, with very little qual- 
 ification, to Ireland and Scotland ; the most important point 
 of difference being the greater extent of the jurisdiction and 
 power of the sheriff in the latter country. There are in 
 England 40 counties, in Wales 12, in Scotland 32, and in 
 Ireland 32. 
 
 A. County Palatine, of which description there are now 
 two in England, viz. Durham and Lancaster, is a county in 
 which all jura regalia, i. e. the whole rights of sovereignty 
 in judicial matters, belonged to the earl of such county ; 
 but these privileges are now reduced to the possession of 
 courts of their own, corresponding in number and jurisdic- 
 tion to the King's courts at Westminster, whose jurisdiction 
 s not excluded by theirs, and whose writs may be so framed 
 as to run within the limits of the county palatine. 
 
 COU'NTY COURT. The County Court properly so call- 
 ed i.s a court baron, not of record, for civil causes, held by 
 Ihe sheriff in each county. This court can only hold pleas 
 where Ihe debt or damage is under 40s., except by virtue 
 of Ihe writ called ofjusticies, which is a special precept to 
 flie sheriff to do justice between parties in the same manner 
 lis it might be done in the courts of Westminster. Causes 
 .no removed out of this into the higher courts by writ of 
 reeordarl. (For the extension of the powers of the sheriff 
 by sialute to try personal actions ot greater amount, see 
 Sheriff; Read's County Courts ; Greenwood on Courts; 
 Watson's Sheriffs.) 
 
 COUNTY RATE. See Rate. 
 
 COU'PLED COLUMNS. In Architecture, columns half 
 a diameter apart. See Arjeosystylos. 
 
 COUPLING BOX. A strong iron cylinder, by which 
 the shafts of machinery are connected. 
 
 COURIERS- (Fr. courir, to run.) A name given in or- 
 dinary language to the bearers of public despatches or pri- 
 vate intelligence by express. The institution of persons to 
 convey intelligence with celerity and regularity is coeval 
 with the earliest history of civilized nations. By the Per- 
 sians they were styled ayyapoi, by the Greeks rjp'epoSpopot, 
 and by the Romans cursores ; and the duties of the ancient 
 couriers seem to have been wholly analogous to those of 
 the moderns, and were performed chiefly on horseback ; 
 though the original derivation of the name would lead loan 
 opposite supposition. In the middle ages couriers were 
 known by the appellation trottarii, or trotters; and hence 
 perhaps originated the English term running footmen, of 
 whom history makes mention in the 17th and 18th centuries. 
 
 COURSE. (Lat. cursus.) In Architecture, a continued 
 level range of slones or bricks of the same height through- 
 out the face or faces of a building. See Bond. 
 
 COURSE OF CROPS. The rotation or succession in 
 which crops follow one another, in a prescribed course of 
 cropping. The rule is to follow a crop grown for its seeds 
 or roots by one grown for its leaves or stems. 
 
 COU'RSERS, Cursores. (Lat. curro, I run.) An order 
 of birds, including those which are disabled from flight by 
 the restricted development of the wings, but which possess 
 superior powers of running from the compensating size and 
 strength of the legs: the ostrich, rhea, casowary, emeu, 
 and apteryx are examples of this order. 
 
 COU'RSES. The lower square sails, as the foresail and 
 mainsail. 
 
 COU'RTESY. (Fr. courtoisie, Hal. cortesia.) It was at 
 the courts of princes and great feudatories that the min- 
 strels and troubadours of the middle ages especially de- 
 lighted to exercise their art ; and it was there, also, that the 
 296 
 
 COURTS, SUPERIOR. 
 
 peculiarities of chivalrous life and manners were chiefly 
 exhibited. Hence courtesy wasageneial term, expressive 
 of all the elegance and refinement which the society of 
 those times had attained ; in fact, it was synonymous with 
 all the genller parts of chivalry itself: and it is in this sense 
 that it is used both by the early trouveres and romancers, 
 and also by popts of a later age, when affecting the use nl 
 chivalrous language, as in the first lines of the great poem 
 of Ariosto : — 
 
 I,e donne, i cavalier, l'arme, gli amori, 
 Le cortexie, 1 'audtici imurese io canto. 
 
 The transition from this wider meaning to that in which it 
 is now employed is obvious enough. It may be sufficient 
 to refer to the very ingenious theories of Signor Rossehi 
 respecting the secret meaning attached to this (among other) 
 words of frequent occurrence in the poems of the Italian 
 canzonieri of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. (In 
 femo di Dante, 1827, vol. ii. p. 430, &c.) 
 
 COURT PLASTER. Black silk varnished over with a 
 solution of isinglass, which is often perfumed with benzoin 
 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE, are divided by the rules ni 
 English law into courts of record and not of record. Th 
 former have power to make up their acts and judicial pro 
 ceedings in the form technically called a record, as evidence 
 of their judgment. All courts having power to fine or Im- 
 prison are said to be impliedly courts of record ; but this 
 seems questionable. 
 
 The courts termed Superior are divided into those of 
 Law, Equity, Ecclesiastical, Maritime, Prize or Internation- 
 al, and Courts of Appeal and Error. They are, — 
 
 Three Superior Courts of Common Law (see Courts. 
 Superior), being— 
 
 1. The Court of King's Bench. <SVe King's Bench. 
 
 2. The Court of Common Pleas. &e Common Pleas 
 
 3. The Court of Exchequer. See Exchequer". 
 Four Superior Counsof Equity (see Chancery), being— 
 
 4. The High Court of Chancery. 
 
 5. The Rolls Court. 
 
 6. The Vice Chancellor's Court. 
 
 7. The Equity side of the Court of Exchequer. 
 
 8. The Ecclesiastical Courts. See Ecclesiasticaj 
 
 Courts. 
 
 9. The Court of Admiralty. See Admiralty-. 
 
 10. The Prize Court. See Admiralty. 
 
 11. The Courts of Bankruptcy. See Bankruptcy. 
 The Courts of Error and Appeal are — 
 
 12. The Exchequer Chamber, from the Superior Com- 
 
 mon Law Courts. <S'ee Exchequer Chamber. 
 
 13. The Privy Council, and Judical Committee of the 
 
 Privy Council, which are Courts of Appeal 
 from the Ecclesiastical Courts, Admiralty, and 
 also from the decisions of various Colonial Ju 
 dicalures. 
 
 14. The High Court of Parliament See Parliament. 
 Inferior Courts are numerous, both of record and not of 
 
 record ; being for the most part local jurisdictions of very 
 various extent and authority. To these belong the Courts 
 of Conscience and Requests, Courts Baron, Hundred 
 Courts, Borough Courts, and County Courts, in which the 
 sheriff presides. 
 
 COURTS, SUPERIOR. The three superior common 
 law courts of England are the Court of Kina's Bench, of 
 Common Pleas, and of the Exchequer. For ihe origin ana 
 history of each court, and its peculiar jurisdiction, see those 
 separate heads. 
 
 For several centuries, by means of various admitted fic- 
 tions, these three courts have exercised a concurrent juris- 
 diction in all personal actions (see Actions); and ihe prac- 
 tice of all three is, in material points, the same. They sit 
 during term, at Westminster. The different branches ol 
 jurisdiction of the three superior courts are, I. That of 
 the full court in banc, during term only, when four judges 
 sit together in each ; 2. Of the Practice or Bail Court (cre- 
 ated by the 1 W. 4. c. 70. s. I., which as yet has been brought 
 into operation in the King's Bench only, in which a single 
 judge disposes of some less important mailers of business') ; 
 3. Of a single judge at chambers, where also points of 
 minor importance in the conductof a cause are decided and 
 directions given ; 4. Of the master or prothonotarles, offi- 
 cers to whom various matlersof fact, as compulations, &c, 
 are referred ; 6. Of the judge at Nisi Prius and on ihe cir- 
 cuit, for the trial of issues in fact; 6. Of thesheriff in each 
 county, who may be considered as an officer of the supe- 
 rior courts for the purpose of trying issues directed to him 
 under 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 42. 
 
 The course of proceeding in the superior courts is eithei 
 formal or summary. Formal proceeding, in persor.alne. 
 tions, is the regular course of a trial, whether the issue, oi 
 question tried, be one of fact or law. The party complain- 
 ing, or plaintiff, having brought the defendant into court in 
 person, or constructively, by preliminary process, entitles 
 his declaration, or the form of statement of his grievance 
 (see Pleading), as of one of the three courts, the same in 
 which the writ for commencement of the action is said w 
 
COURT BARON. 
 
 Be 'tturimble. The defendant then pleads ; and all the 
 
 'n iii pleadings, or preparatory statements in writing, 
 
 arc entitled of the same court ; in which also the record, or 
 
 parchment roll containing ihe authentic entry of the whole 
 
 ■ding, is made up. The question eventually raised 
 between the parties will turn out to be either of law, or of 
 fact. Fhe former, being raised on what is termed a de- 
 murrer (see Pleading.) is argued at Westminster before 
 the full court, and the judgment in law is conclusive of the 
 If the question be of fact, it must be tried by a jury. 
 
 pleadings are dated at London or in Middlesex, as in 
 local actions they most be if the question arise in those 
 districts, acid as in transitory actions they may be all cases 
 i'l.KADiNt:,) the jury will be summoned accordingly, 
 and the case tried before a judge of the court in which the 
 actien is brought, at nisi pri'us (see that head,) either during 
 term or in the sitting* after term. If, on the other hand, 
 the date, or venue, as it is termed, be in any other county, 
 the parties proceed totrial at (he assizes (the plaintiff bring- 
 ing down the record from Westminster, by which m 
 it is in his option to proceed to trial or not.) In this case a 
 jury is summoned in like manner before the judges of 
 
 . by virtue of their commission of oyer and terminer. 
 In SOD ial at bar is granted on application ; 
 
 In which case the cause is tried by a jury before the full 
 coiiri, at such lime as the court may fix for convenience. 
 It a party imagines himself to have grounds for being dis- 
 satisfied wilb the result of a trial, as, that the judge has 
 summed up the evidence improperly to the jury, or that 
 DSalerial testimony has been illegally rejected, he may 
 irt at Westminster for a new trial, or lo set 
 aside tie- verdict, according to the circumstances of the 
 case ; and such motion is made before the full court In 
 term On tl,e bsHS of the trial judgment is awarded, de- 
 claring that the plaintiff either has, or has not, entitled 
 bun-. -if to the remedy prayed : and costs are given with 
 the judgment; after which I he successful party may sue 
 in, unless there be an appeal by writ of error, 
 which only lies on matter of law arising on the lace of the 
 proceedings. 
 Summary proceeding* are of very miscellaneous charac- 
 id are tiy affidavit, motion, rule nisi (i. e. unless 
 
 i ; shown unmet the rule on a certain day ; when, if 
 no cause, or insufficient cause, is shown, the rule is made 
 
 He ; and if made absolute, followed by demand of 
 performance, and this performance enforced by means of 
 
 ment lor contempt of court). Hy these means the 
 . ive authority to give directions and en- 
 oud 1 1 urns during the progress of a suit- Among sum- 
 in uv proceedings may also be enumerated Ihe leave given 
 on motion, 10 amend various formal defects in pleadings. 
 COl'IlT BARON. A Court Baron, so called either from 
 the loi I or I) iron who presided over it, or from the free- 
 iiii-'i, in ancient times also called barons, who were its 
 suitors and judge*, was a court having its origin apparently 
 in n. 'lions of a patriarchal jurisdiction, properly and in Ihe 
 first in-tance incident to every manor, in which it was held 
 by the lord of the manor or his steward, who. assisted by 
 Ihe freeholders of the manor, there decided on the purely 
 civil controversies which arose between them. A court 
 baron also belonged to every hundred and county (see 
 '.hose titles) : and in many cases also to particular franchi- 
 ses or lordships, which might include several manors. 
 Courts baron, from the inferiority of their judges, and from 
 
 Sects of their jurisdiction, which a party might defeat 
 by removal of the cause to ahighei tribunal, nave long fall- 
 en into disuse; except in minors of ancient demesne, 
 where the jurisdiction was, and in some respects still is, in 
 the first instance exclusive, the lord of such manors having 
 once been the king ; and except in manors containing 
 land of copyhold or customary tenure. See Copyhold. 
 
 COURT- MARTIAL. A court for trying and punishing 
 the military offences of officers and soldiers. Courts-mar- 
 tial, in our law, are bound by the same rules and principles 
 of evidence as court* of law. Their jurisdiction is confer- 
 red by the Mutiny Act (1 W. & M.) which is annually re- 
 newed. The crimes cognizable by them are designated by 
 the Mutiny Act and Articles of War. The persons liable to 
 martial law are officers, soldiers, and persons serving with 
 the army in the field : and receiving pay as a soldier sub- 
 tects the receiver to it ; but officers on half-pay are not 
 liable. Ihe judgments of courts-martial are open to the 
 'probation of the king or his commanders-in-chief; and 
 nre likewise liable to reversal by the Courtof King's Bench. 
 
 eta of a court-martial, like those of other courts insti- 
 lutel by statute with particular powers, may become the 
 subject of application to the courts at Westminster for a 
 
 litiun. Naval courts martial have their jurisdiction 
 
 iefiuecl by the Ihirty-six articles of war, embodied in 22 G. 
 
 I c 23, and 19 G. 3. c. 17., and are composed of admirals, 
 
 is and commanders. (See M' Arthur on Courts 
 
 Har&al ; Kennedy on O. M.; James, Collection of Proceed- 
 
 C Vf, 1820; Tyller on Military Law.) 
 
 COU'SSINET. (Fr. a cushion.) In Architecture, the 
 
 297 
 
 COVENANTERS. 
 
 crowuing stone of a pier, or that which lies on the capital 
 of the impost ami under the sweep. Its bed is level below 
 and inclined above, receiving the first rise or sprint of tho 
 arch or vault. This word is also used for the ornament in 
 the Ionic capital, between the abacus and echinus or quarter 
 round, winch serves to form the volute, and is thus called 
 because its appearance is that of a cushion or pillow seem- 
 ingly collapsed by the weight over it, and boun I with a 
 strap or girdle called the baltheus. 
 
 COVE. An inlet on a rocky coast. It is a lerm nearly 
 synonymous with harbour : the word cove being generally, 
 though not always, used' when the indentation on the coatt 
 is too shallow or narrow to admit first-class vessels. 
 
 CO'VENANT. In history the famous bond of associa- 
 tion adopted by the Scottish Presbyterians in 1G38. It was 
 framed on the model of a similar declaration, which had 
 been twice solemnly subscribed in the early period of the 
 Reformation : but in more violent language, and with more 
 specific obligation to support the kirk, together with a pro- 
 hibition and abjuration of the Anglican liturgy and articles. 
 The founders of the Solemn League and Covenant were 
 Alexander Henderson, leader of the clerey, and Archibald 
 Johnston of Wariston, an advocate. (See Liang's History 
 ■•id, vol. iii.) A new religious covenant between 
 the two kingdoms was framed in 1643, and taken by the 
 English Mouse of Commons and assembly of divines at 
 Westminster. Charles II. subscribed the Scottish cove- 
 nant on his coronation in 1651 ; but on his restoration it 
 was declared null by act of parliament, and burned by Un- 
 common hangman, It formed, however, the watch-word 
 and bond of union of the discontented parly, or Covenant- 
 ers, as they were called, in the rebellions of his reign. 
 
 Covenant. In a theological sense, a promise made by 
 God to man upon certain conditions : the two grand dis- 
 tinctions of which are emphatically designated the Old and 
 New Covenant or Testament; in each of which certain 
 temporal or spiritual benefits are promised to man upon 
 the performance of duties therein pointed out. 
 
 Covenant. In Law, is an engagement under seal to do 
 or lo omit a direct act. Covenants are of many different 
 species, as in fact and in law, implied and express, ic; and 
 according lo their subject matter, or express .--'ipulation, 
 they are binding respectively on the heirs, execu 
 assigns, or executors and assigns only, of the covenantor. 
 
 Covenant is also a form of action, which lies where a 
 party claims damages for breach of a covenant or ccntract 
 under seal. 
 
 COVENA'NTERS. The great body of the Scottish 
 people, at the era of the Reformation, adopted thi 
 teriau faith and polity as established by Calvin at Geneva, 
 and as introduced into Scotland by Knox, and recom- 
 mended and enforced by his eloquence. Aspresbytcrian- 
 ism was thus closely associated in their minds with their 
 deliverance from what they regarded as the degrading au- 
 thority of popery, the people of Scotland have ever been 
 distinguished for their cordial and unflinching adherence 
 to this new faith. But though it was the object of public 
 veneration, it never succeeded in gaining permanently 
 either the affection or countenance of the court. On tho 
 conlrary, the successive monarchs by whom Scotland was 
 governed from the Reformation in 1500 till the final estab- 
 lishmenl of presbytery as the national church in 1690, re- 
 garded it with disfavour, and did all in their power, either 
 by open persecution, or by private intrigue, lo undermine 
 and destroy it. They regarded it, being a republican bier- 
 archy, as incompatible with royal authority; and James 
 VI. declared that " presbytery and monarchy could no 
 more agree than God and the devil." But though, owing to 
 royal favour, episcopacy, or " black prelacy," as it was 
 contemptuously called by Ihe presbyterians, occasionally 
 predominated, it was as often superseded by presbytery. 
 The latter, after having been for some time displaced by 
 prelacy, gained the superiority in 1592 ; from which time 
 till 1606 it was established as the national religion. At ibis 
 latter period, however, episcopacy obtained the mastery, 
 which it enjoyed for upwards of thirty years. But though 
 (his polity, being favoured by the influence of the court, 
 so long maintained Ihe ascendency, it continued as ob- 
 noxious as ever to the great body of the Scottish people. 
 Indeed, so obnoxious was it known to be, that though epis- 
 copacy legally prevailed, it was thought prudent for some 
 time nominally and formally to rule the church by means 
 of the ecclesiastical judicatories peculiar to presbytery. 
 But the people were not so easily deceived : nor could any 
 consideration induce them either to forego the ecclesiastical 
 polity which was so dear to them, or look on its rival with 
 the least degree of toleration or favour. Matters at length 
 came to a crisis on this subject. Charles I. having intro- 
 duced that arbitrary judicatory in matters religious and ec- 
 clesiastical, the High Commission Court, and having at- 
 tempted to introduce the Book of Canons and (be Liturgy or 
 Service Book, the public voice was aroused, and public in 
 dignation was generally and unequivocally expressed, par- 
 ticularly in Edinburgh, where a very serious tumult took 
 
COVENANTERS. 
 
 place (July, 1637) on a Sunday, on occasion of an attempt 
 being made (according to royal proclamation) to read the 
 liturgy It) ihe church of St. 'Giles. Supplications against 
 the liturgy issued from almost every quarter of the coun- 
 try, from all classes of the people, and from the great ma- 
 jority of municipal corporations, and were carried by the 
 principal men or the kingdom to be presented to the privy 
 council. These supplications were not attended with the 
 success which it was hoped they would have experienced. 
 But the supplicants or the public were not to be driven 
 from their purpose. The supplicants, who had flocked to 
 Edinburgh in great numbers, could not long remain there. 
 But the most effectual means were adopted to keep up an 
 organized opposition to the royal procedure in this matter. 
 Four tables, as they were called, were formed. One table 
 consisted of nobility, another of gentry, a third of clergy- 
 men, a fourth of burgesses ; thus representing all ranks 
 and classes of the people. There was also a general table 
 composed of representatives from the four subordinate ta- 
 bles, which received suggestions from these, and decided 
 on what steps it was necessary to adopt. One of the first 
 acts they passed was the production of the Covenant ; and 
 hence all those who either then orafterwards subscribed it, 
 or gave in their adherence to it, were denominated Cove- 
 nanters. (Baillie's Letters, i. passim ; Laing's Hist . of 
 Scotland, iii. ; Cork's Hist, of the Church, iii. ; Acts of 
 General Assembly. 
 
 The origin of the Covenant in Scotland may be traced to 
 the Reformation, during the progress of which it was re- 
 newed several times; and it evidently had a reference to 
 the covenants so frequently adopted by the children of Is- 
 rael, and by which they bound themselves to adhere to that 
 religion which the Almighty had established among them. 
 
 The Covenant to which we at present more immediately 
 refer, is in many respects a renewal of the Covenant which 
 >vas subscribed in the year 1580, 1581, and 1590, but so 
 modified and enlarged as to embrace the circumstances 
 under which the church was placed at the interesting crisis 
 indor review. It inveighed not merely against popery, as 
 the former Covenant had done, but "against the danger of 
 the true reformed religion (that is, the presbyterian faith 
 and polity as established in 1592), of the king's uonoiir, and 
 of the public peace of the kingdom, by the manifold inno- 
 vations and evils" so generally prevalent. The subscribers 
 also profess, and " before God, his angels, and the world, 
 solemnly declare, that, with their whole heart, they agree 
 and resolve all the days of their life constantly to adhere 
 unto and to defend the foresaid true religion." "We 
 promise and swear," t:> use their own words, "by the 
 great name of the Lord 3ar God, to continue in the profes- 
 sion and obedience of t\3 foresaid religion; and that we 
 shall defend the same, and resist all these contrary errors 
 and corruptions, according to our vocation, and to the ut- 
 termost of that power that God hath put in our hands, all 
 the days of our life." (Vide the National Covenant ap- 
 pended to the Westminster Confession of faith, p. 483. 
 edit. 1815.) 
 
 These expressions, however unequivocal or strong, are 
 not more energetic than others in the same document. 
 They showed that the persons by whom they were uttered 
 were in earnest, and that nothing could satisfy them but 
 the abolition of the High Commission Court, and the re- 
 vocation of the canons and liturgy; in other words, the 
 total and unconditional abrogation of prelacy. They in- 
 sisted on the questions that existed between them and the 
 king being immediately submitted to a free General As- 
 sembly of the Kirk, and to parliament. 
 
 Meanwhile the tables invited all Ihe supplicants to repair 
 from the country to attend a solemn meeting, which was 
 to be held in Edinburgh in honour of the Covenant. The 
 supplicants having obeyed the summons, the Covenant 
 (1st March, 1(338) was solemnly subscribed and sworn, amid 
 prayers and with uplifted hands, by the nobility, gentry, 
 clergy, and burgesses ; by thousands of all classes, of both 
 sexes, and of every age. Nor was this all. Commission- 
 ers were immediately despatched with copies of it 
 throughout Scotland ; and in a few weeks every district of 
 the country, with some partial exceptions, submitted to the 
 Covenant.* 
 
 The nation was now divided into two parties, — the Cove- 
 nanters, a name originally imposed by their adversaries, 
 
 •Si perr.r.aciously was subs;ription of the Covenant inds'ed on, that 
 bo s.udent . ould enter college, or take a decree there, and no person 
 could lie admitted to the Lord's Supper, without having first subscribed 
 this oblig-uion Not only were such persons as professors and teachers, 
 b tt eve * human being of whatever rank, bound to subs ribe under the 
 rUk of all ecclesiastical censure." Those " susjrected of papistry" 
 were s .mmonet before the church courts, with a view of inducing them 
 to sign the covenant : and if they refused, they were ordered to be 
 proceeded aga'nst and tried as disaffected pet sons. Every university, 
 synod, presbytery, and parish were obliged t<> have each a copy of the 
 Covenant in 4to,, " with some blank paper, whereupon every body may 
 be obliged to sign " Subscriptions of the Solemn Lcagut ind Covenant, 
 afterwards to be spoken of, was prosecuted with almost equal zeal. 
 (Acts of Asxemhhi, apud annas 1639-43,) 
 
 and the No?i- Covenanters ; the latter being a small, feeble 
 and scattered body. (Baillie's Letters; Livingstone's MS 
 Life.) 
 
 Charles, seeing the formidable position assumed by th< 
 Covenanters, and the influence which they possessed, wat 
 at length willing to recal the liturgy and the canons, and tr 
 make considerable concessions for the sake of peace 
 But it was too late : no compromise could now be accept 
 ed ; nothing could satisfy the Covenanters but the extirpa- 
 tion of prelacy : nothing that fell short of this would be at 
 all listened to. Nay, so far did they carry their condem- 
 nation of the bishops, that they had not only preferred an 
 accusation against them a3 the authors of the innovations, 
 but had, meanwhile, applied for an interdict, prohibiting 
 them from having a seat in the privy council. The pre- 
 lates, indeed, finding that they were the object of public 
 odium, and that their influence was nearly gone, volunta- 
 rily withdrew from the council. The king, after much 
 temporizing and intrigue, found himself obliged, however 
 reluctantly, to agree to the meeting of the General Assem- 
 bly on the terms which the Covenanters had proposed, — 
 namely, that lay-elders should, as in the best days of pres- 
 bytery, be recognized as constituent members of the infe- 
 rior ecclesiastical courts, and eligible as members of as- 
 sembly ; that not only should the bishops, the former offi- 
 cial moderators (presidents) of presbyteries, not be replaced, 
 but that these dignitaries might be legally prosecuted by the 
 Assembly, and their usurpations restrained, if not their 
 order entirely suppressed. (lb.) 
 
 The Assembly accordingly met at Glasgow in November, 
 and continued its sittings (for thirty days) as its inalienable 
 right, even though the royal commissioner, the Marquis of 
 Hamilton, had meanwhile declared the meetings dissolved. 
 It embraced in the list of its members the most eminent 
 of the nobility and gentry as lay-elders. It not only an- 
 nulled the canons, liturgy, the High Commission Court, 
 and other innovations, but it abolished episcopacy itself, 
 and declared it. as having been from the first both illegal and 
 unscriptural. Of the prelates, fourteen in number, of 
 whom the Scottish hierarchy had consisted, eight were ex- 
 communicated, four deposed, and the remaining two mere- 
 ly suspended from their ecclesiastical functions. Nor did 
 the Assembly stop here ; for, while it abolished p, elacy, it 
 re-established presbytery as it had existed previously to 
 the late innovations, with all the privileges, liberties, powers, 
 and jurisdictions which it had formerly enjoyed. (Acts of 
 Assembly, 1638.) 
 
 The proceedings of this Assembly, particularly its con- 
 temptuous and summary mode of dealing with the favour- 
 ite hierarchy of the king, could not be agreeable to Charles. 
 These proceedings were, on the contrary, so obnoxious to 
 him, that, on the Supplication voted at the conclusion of its 
 meetings being presented to him, he expressed himself as 
 deeply offended, and declined to return any answer to it. 
 "When the Covenanters," says he, "have broken my 
 head, they will put on my cowl." This injudicious eon- 
 duct on the part of the king brought matters to a crisis. 
 Both parties prepared for war; a step, however, which the 
 Covenanters, who always professed the greatest loyalty, 
 adopted with reluctance. So devoted, however, were the 
 people to what they regarded as a righteous cause, that the 
 expense on the side of the Covenanters, who included in 
 the list of their adherents almost every individual in Scot- 
 land, was defrayed by a general voluntary assessment. In 
 raising both men and money the clergy took an active 
 part; and contributions for carrying on the war were levied 
 by them from their respective flocks to an extent scarcely 
 credible. "We sent from Stranraer," says John Living- 
 stone, then minister of that parish, " our fourth fencible 
 man, viz. 15 men. The town was but little and poor; all 
 the yearly rent was estimated at 2000 merks Scots " * *. I 
 propounded to my flock the condition of the army, and 
 desired they would prepare their contribution to be given 
 after sermon ; at which time we got 45/. sterling," or nearly 
 the half of the whole income of the place. (MS. Life, p. 
 34.) Nor was the spirit which pervaded the army less in- 
 teresting or enthusiastic than that which characterized the 
 whole body of the Covenanters. " Every company," says 
 an eye-witness, "had fleeing at the captain's tent door a 
 brave new colour, stamped with the Scottish arms, and the 
 motto, For Clirist's Crown and Civennnt, in golden 
 letters." (BaiUie, i. 174.) Every regiment was attended 
 by a chaplain. " I carried myself," says Dr. Baillie, who 
 attended the army in the capacity of a chaplain, " as the 
 custom was, a sword and a couple of Dutch pistols at my 
 saddle." "Our soldiers grew inexperience of arms, in 
 courage, and favour daily. Every one encouraged another : 
 the sight of the nobles and their beloved pastors daily 
 raised their hearts. The good sermons and prayers, morn- 
 ing and evening, under the roof of heaven, to which their 
 drums did call them for bells, the remonstrances very fre- 
 quent of the goodness of their cause, of their conduct 
 hitherto by a divine hand, made them as resolute for tvi'e 
 as could be wished." " Had you lent your ear, in fie 
 
COVENANTERS. 
 
 morning, or especially at even, and heard in the tents the 
 
 sound oi some .-in^iti:; psalms, some praying, and some 
 
 >e would have been refreshed." (lb.) 
 
 the spirit under the influence of which the I 
 
 ed and carried on the war with their sovereign. 
 
 Of the hostilities thai ensui d it is unnecessary here tog ve 
 
 a farther account than to say, that the Covenanters, I 
 
 I lined Hie only baitle that was fought, Just no time in 
 making proposals of peace These propose J 
 ed by the kn^ ; and a treaty was concluded (Jane. 1C39) 
 four mouths after the commencement of the war. Of this 
 (realy the most important clause was, that, as the king would 
 net ratify the enactments of the Assembly of Glasgow, and 
 as the Covenanters would not annul them, a free General 
 mbly should be held in the ensuing mouth of August, 
 au>! a parliament immediately afterwards; to the decision 
 of which courts every dispute between the contending par- 
 ties was to be referred. This Assembly met accordingly ; 
 and its proceedings, as might have been expected, were ex- 
 actly ofthe same character as those of the former; and 
 uch was the progress of public opinion, that the Earl 
 of Traquair, the royal commissioner, not only did not re- 
 ratify them, but consented to subscribe that obnox- 
 ious bond, The Covenant, which was ordained, under the 
 penalty of ecclesiastical censure, to be subscribed by all 
 ranks. The members of the privy council, besides, gave 
 to the Covenant the sanction of their authority, and attach- 
 ed their signatures to it. (lb.) 
 
 The in this Assembly were, if possible, more 
 
 obnoxious to Charles than those of its predecessor: and 
 afraid lest the parliament, which had already met, should 
 exhibit a similar spirit, he lost no time in proroguing it. Hut 
 nothing could now arrest the march of public sentiment; 
 and in the parliament, which met in June 1010, in direct op- 
 position to the wishes of the king, who had determined to 
 prorogue it, every enactment of the General Assembly re- 
 specting the Covenant and the presbyterian faith obtained 
 anctlon of that supreme court, and became the law of 
 the land. 
 
 Thus the Covenanters, after an arduous struggle of three 
 their object fully gained ; namely, their favourite 
 lastical polltj I, and the validity and au- 
 
 thority of the Covenant recognised by the legislature. 
 Their history from this date (which will be found more at 
 length under the article Presbyterians) becomes that 
 of the presbyterian church in Scotland, and is interwoven 
 with the annals of their country. Charles, offended with 
 the triumph ofthe Covenanters, again declared war against 
 them ; but after a short campaign, unfavourable to the roy- 
 alists, peace was restored (1641). The king having, mean- 
 while, alienated the affections of his English subjects, and 
 a civil war having, in consequence, broken out, the Cove- 
 nanters, on the repeated and urgent application of the par- 
 liament of England, made common cause with them, and 
 lookup arms for the third time against royal authority. 
 Bui along with a civil league the Scots succeeded (1643) in 
 carrying a religious covenant, known in history under the 
 name of the Solemn League imil Covenait ; an obligation 
 which was long revered in huth divisions of the island, and 
 the main object of which was to accomplish uniformity of 
 religious doctrine and church government in both king- 
 Nor was this object long in being, so far, attained : 
 a presbytery, as it existed in Scotland, having obtained the 
 sanction of the famous Assembly of Divines met at West- 
 minster (1643-9), and having been afterwards ratified by 
 the English parliament, was recognised as the national 
 church of both portions of the empire. Presbytery, how- 
 ever, was introduced into England rather as an experiment 
 than a permanent institution. Besides, it was not syste- 
 matically adopted except in London and Lancashire ; and 
 it rapidly declined, having been, to a considerable extent, 
 superseded by Independency. But at the Restoration 
 episcopacy triumphed over both these forms, and has since 
 prevailed as the established church in England. (Solemn 
 League and Covenant appended to the Westminster Con- 
 fession of Faith, edit. 1815 ; Acts of General Assembly ; 
 IVodrow, Daillie, Laing.) 
 
 Though the presby terians had, meanwhile, differed some- 
 what in opinion as to some public matter, and though they 
 were not all equally zealous in favour of the Covenant, yet 
 the importance of this obligation was never lost sight of. 
 On the martyrdom of Charles I. the Scots refused to re- 
 cognise the right of his son, Charles II., to the throne, till 
 he consented to subscribe the Covenant, and to guarantee 
 and uphold the presbyterian church. Cromwell, though he 
 allowed them the free exercise of their religion, never was 
 the object of their affections and confidence, inasmuch as 
 ho was a sectary, and a friend to toleration, which lat- 
 ter they had uniformly condemned. But the Protector, 
 whilo he tolerated the presbyterian faith, deprived it of 
 some of its most valuable attributes. He not merely in- 
 terdicted the meetings of the General Assembly, but pro- 
 hibited the tender of the Covenant or any similar obliga- 
 tion, and divested some of the ecclesiastical penalties, such 
 399 
 
 COW POX. 
 
 as excommunication, of their terrors by depriving them of 
 their civil effects.* But a worse fate yet awaited the Cove- 
 nant. At the Restoration, not only was episcopacy restored 
 and presbytery superseded as the national church ; but by 
 a sweeping act, called the Act Rescissory, passed in 1661, 
 all the parliaments that had been held since 1640 were de- 
 clared null and void ; thus rendering invalid those acts, in 
 confirmation both of the Covenant and of presbytery, to 
 which the late king had assented, and which Charles 11. 
 himself had sworn to maintain. From this period ihe 
 Covenant may date its decline. It continued, indeed, to 
 be regarded as sacred by perhaps the most valuable, If not 
 the most numerous, portion of the clergy and people,- ol 
 those who would submit to no compromise, and who, In 
 consequence, were the objects, during the reigns of Charles 
 and his brother James, of the most ruthless persecution. 
 Nay, so far did some of these parties carry their opinions. 
 that they did not regard any person entitled to homage as 
 kine unless he had "covenanted," or affixed his signature 
 to the Covenant. The party by which such a principle wa ; 
 professed are known in history under the # name of Came- 
 ronians : a body which, though now much'reduced both in 
 numbers and importance, and who have moderated or 
 changed their sentiments on this subject as well as on 
 others, still exist in Scotland as a distinct religious sect. 
 (See Cameronians.) At the Revolution, when presbytery 
 was revived in Scotland and established as it now obtains, 
 no mention was made of the Covenant either in the Gene- 
 ral Assembly or inferior courts. It seems lo have been al- 
 lowed to fall into desuetude, no steps having been taken 
 with regard to it. It now exists only as a matter of history ; 
 though, as just said, the Cameronians may be regarded as 
 the successors and descendants of the Covenanters of ihe 
 17th century, (lb.) 
 
 CO'VERTS. In Ornithology. "The lesser coverts" 
 (tectricea primm) are small feathers which lie in several 
 rows on the bones of the wings. The " greater coverts" 
 Ueetrices secunda:) are the feathers that lie immediately 
 over the quill-feathers and the secondaries. "The under 
 coverts" are the feathers tint line the inside of the wings. 
 
 CCVERTURE. In Law, the legal condition of a mar- 
 ried woman. See Marbiaqe, Law op. 
 
 CCKVERT WAY, or COVERED WAV. In Fortifica- 
 tion, a road or space of ground on the outer edge of the 
 diich, level with the adjacent country, and ranging all 
 round the works. It i- I 30 feel broad, and is 
 
 protected by the glacis. Sometimes It is called the corridor. 
 
 CO'VEV. An old bird wllh her young ones; but gene- 
 rally used to»desi»iia!e a number of partridges or other 
 game, it also in some countries signifies B COTer for 
 game. 
 
 CO'VIX. In Law, a compact between two or more, lo 
 deceive or prejudice others in certain cases ; as, if tenant 
 for life or in tail conspire with another party, to the intent 
 that such party may recover lands held by the tenant to 
 Ihe prejudu f him in reversion. 
 
 COW'HAGE, COWITCTL This term 13 generally ap- 
 plied to tin; hairs or spicula; which cover the seed pods of 
 the Mucuiia prurient, a climbing perennial plant, which is 
 a native of the East and West Indies. An electuary formed 
 by dipping the pods Into treacle, syrup, or despumated 
 honey, and then scraping them, has long been used as a 
 vermifuge; but it is often a very troublesome remedy, 
 from the excessive itching which it produces when it 
 ouches the unprotected skin, and there are other more ef- 
 fectual means of expelling worms. 
 
 COW'-KEEPER. A person whose business it is fo keep 
 a stock of cows for supplying the public with milk and 
 cream. The principal cow-keepers of the metropolis have 
 their establishments in the suburbs, where they are con- 
 nected with pasture fields, in which the animals are turned 
 out a portion of every day throughout the year, excepting 
 when the ground is covered with snow, or when it rains 
 very hard. The cows are feil in the house with grains, 
 mangold wurzel, hay, tares, and other kinds of nourishing 
 food; and as the animals get air and exercise, their milk 
 may be considered wholesome. There are many cow- 
 keepers, however, in the metropolis, who keep only a few 
 cows in confined back houses, and even in dark cellars , 
 and, while they feed them with rich food, give Ihem no 
 exercise at all : hence the milk of such cows cannot be 
 considered as wholesome. 
 
 COW POX. This disease was proposed in the year 
 
 • The General Assembly had met annually from the yiar 1C"8 to 1' 45 
 inclusive It sometimes met without having the sanction of the kin", or 
 without his majestv being represented in it, as is usual, by a commit 
 sini.fr. Not merely the Covenanter*, but Presbyterians In genera), laid 
 it down a* a principle, that the church courts are, in matters ecclesias- 
 tical and religious, independent of civil authority, and ^responsible in it^ 
 Accordingly, in |i;33, the Assembly continued its sittings even after tli.-jd 
 been dissolved bv the royal commissioner. Cromwell in 1G53 caused the 
 General Assembly, then sitting, to be summarily dismissed, and interdict- 
 ed in meeting In future In this instance, the Assembly had Implicitly 
 to nbev. Tin. judicatory did mil again meet till after the HeTolirtlon 
 ( QaiUie , .i Letters, i). 369-70 ) 
 
COWRIES. 
 
 179S as a substitute for, and preventive of, the small pox, by 
 Dr. Jenner; and subsequent experience, as well as the ex- 
 tent to which the inoculation of it, or vaccination, as it is 
 called, is carried throughout the civilized world, furnish 
 well-grounded hopes of the ultimate extinction of one of 
 the severest visitations of the human race. Small bluish 
 vesicles, surrounded by inflammation, elevated at the edge 
 and depressed in the centre, and containing a limpid fluid, 
 occasionally appear upon the teats of the cow, the animal 
 being at the same time somewhat indisposed : a similar 
 disease is transferable under certain circumstances to the 
 hands of the milkers ; and persons who had so received it 
 were found to be in many instances unsusceptible of small 
 pox, both natural and inoculated. There is a disease of 
 the horse's heel called grease, which appears to have pro- 
 duced similar effects upon the hands of farriers, and is per- 
 haps the origin of the cow's disease : but it is from the lat- 
 ter animal that the matter is most certainly effective, ami 
 from which it is transferred to the human race, where it 
 produces similar pustules ; and the fluid of these may again 
 be transferred with the same effects from one human sub- 
 ject to another. Whether by continuous circulation through 
 human subjects the virus, as it is called, gradually loses its 
 preventive efficacy, is an important question, and one upon 
 which there are differences of opinion ; but it would pro- 
 bably be more safe if more frequently derived from its 
 original source upon the cow's teat. It seems useless here 
 to discuss the various objections which have been raised, 
 and the suspicions which have been thrown out against the 
 permanent efficacy of this preventive, since the most ex- 
 tended and unbiassed experience of the most skilful ob- 
 servers seems amply to have proved that ichen the pustule 
 has gone through its regular stages, the person is afterwards, 
 during the whole period of life, unsusceptible of natural 
 and of inoculated small pox, the exceptions to this state- 
 ment being so few as either to be referable to imperfcct 
 vaccination, or to idiosyncracy ; and though it is not pre- 
 tended that cases of small pox after vaccination are as rare 
 as of small pox after small pox, yet it is well known that the 
 latter do occur, and, in short, that there is no rule without 
 exceptions. In doubtful cases vaccination should always 
 be repeated ; and as no inconvenience results from a repe- 
 tition of its inoculation, and the disease is not infectious by 
 effluvia, it may be performed at certain intervals, or may 
 even be tested as to its efficacy by variolous inoculation ; 
 although to the latter there are certainly serious objections, 
 if we look to its ultimate extermination. In inoculating pa- 
 tients for the cow pox the matter should be taken from a 
 healthy child, at about the 6th or the Sth day, at which time 
 the pustule is well formed ; and it should oe immediately 
 transferred upon the point of the lancet from the pustule 
 to the arm, and inserted by a small oblique puncture under 
 the cuticle, one place in each arm being quite sufficient. 
 If this direct mode cannot be followed, the virus intended 
 for inoculation may be transferred between two pieces of 
 plate glass, one of which is slightly indented for its recep- 
 tion ; when slid over each other they are air-tight, and the 
 edges may be secured by a strip of moist gold-beaters' skin 
 or very thin bladder. If it is necessary to moisten the 
 virus, this should be done with as small a portion as possi- 
 ble of tepid water, not exceeding the temperature of 100°. 
 Lancet points which have been armed, as it is called, can- 
 not be long depended upon, and are apt to be rusted and to 
 irritate the arm. About the third day after inoculation the 
 puncture generally becomes red and elevated, but the pe- 
 riods of its incipient progress are very uncertain ; it then 
 continues to enlarge and become vesicular; and is in full 
 perfection about the eighth or ninth day, at which period 
 also the surrounding circle of inflammation or areola is at 
 its height. About the eleventh or twelfth day this declines, 
 and the centre of the pustule becomes brown, and gradually 
 dries up into a dark-brown circular scab, depressed in the 
 centre. During the progress and scabbing off of the pus- 
 tule great care should be taken to avoid all external injury ; 
 all irregularities in its progress should also be carefully 
 watched ; and if much inflammation comes on spontane- 
 ously two or three days after inoculation, and especially if 
 suppuration ensues, the probability is that the operation 
 has failed ; and in all cases where there is the least doubt 
 the inoculation should be repeated, although, if one of the 
 pustules has gone through the above described progress, 
 the failure or irregularity of the other is of no consequence. 
 Tlie cow-pock is seldom attended by any symptoms re- 
 quiring medical aid ; but generally there is a slight drowsi- 
 ness and febrile symptoms, with some restlessness, and 
 occasionally sickness, about the second and third days; but 
 these symptoms are immaterial to the preventive efficacy 
 of '.he virus, which can only be judged of by the appear- 
 ance and progress of the pustules, to which therefore it is 
 necessary to pay close attention. 
 
 COWRIES. (Germ, kouri.) Small shells brought from 
 the Maldives, which pass current as coin in smaller pay- 
 ments in Hindostan, and throughout extensive districts in 
 Africa : 100 are equivalent to a penny. 
 300 
 
 CRAYONS. 
 
 COY'POU. A nodent quadruped ; the myopotarnus of 
 geologists. .See Nutria. 
 
 CRAB. See Cancer. 
 
 CRA'BRO. (Lat. crabro, a hornet.) A genus of Hv- 
 menoplerous insects, belonging to the section Aculeala or 
 sling bearers, and to the subsection Fossores or borrowers. 
 The hornet ( Crabro vulgaris) is the type of this genus, 
 which is now raised to the rank of a family (CrabrodilHb), 
 including two groups of subgenera. In one of these groups 
 all the species have their fore-legs provided with strong 
 spurs, for the purpose of excavating in decayed wood, or 
 burrowing in sand, to form cavities in which their eggs are 
 deposited ; the insects of the other section have the fore- 
 legs unarmed, and form no burrows, but deposit their eggs 
 in the nests of 'other species. The true hornets {Crabro') 
 excavate their retreat in wood, and feed their larvae with 
 the caterpillars of small moths found upon theoak,as wel/ 
 as with flies. 
 
 CRA'DLING. (Sax. cradel.) In Architecture, the tim 
 ber ribs in arched ceilings and coves to which the laths foi 
 the plaistering are nailed. 
 
 CRAFT. See Trade and iVessel. 
 
 CRAG. A provincial name applied in Norfolk and Suf- 
 folk to certain accumulations of gravel. 
 
 CRAMP. Spasmodic or involuntary contraction of some 
 of the muscles, often attended with great pain ; it is com- 
 mon in the muscles of the leg and foot, especially afterany 
 extraordinary exertion of them, and is sometimes brought 
 on apparently by irritation in the slomach of indigestible 
 food. When cramp seizes the calf of the leg, it usually 
 goes off upon placing the limb in an erect posture and rub- 
 bing the affected part : those subject to it find much relief 
 by applying opiate liniments. If it arises from indigestion, 
 lir from indulgence in acescent drinks or champagne, mild 
 bitters with magnesia, taken at bed time, will generally pre- 
 vent its recurrence. 
 
 Cramp. (Dutch, kramp.) In Architecture, a piece of 
 metal, bent or dovetailed at each end, for the purpose of 
 holding two blocks of any material firmly together. 
 
 CRANE. (Sax. cran.) In Mechanics, a machine for 
 raising heavy weights, and depositing them at some dis- 
 tance from their original place ; for example, raising bales 
 from the hold of a ship, and depositing them on the quay. 
 A jib or transverse beam, inclined to the vertical in an angle 
 of 40° or 50°, is constructed, which, by means of a collar, 
 turns on a vertical arbor. The upper end of the jib carries 
 a fixed pulley, and the lower end a cylinder, which is put 
 in motion by a wheel and pinion, or cog wheel, or merely 
 with a handle. The weight is made fast to a rope which 
 passes over the pulley and is wound round the cylinder. 
 On turning the cylinder, the weight is raised as far as ne- 
 cessary ; the jib is then turned on its arbor till the weight 
 is brought immediately over the spot where it is to be de- 
 posited ; when, by withdrawing the moving power, il Is al 
 lowed to descend by its own gravity. Cranes may be con- 
 structed of immense power. They are generally turned 
 by human force ; sometimes, however, by a steam engine. 
 
 CRA'NGON. (Gr. xpayytj, a cray- fish.) The name of 
 the genus of Macrourous Crustaceans, including the com- 
 mon shrimp (Crangon vulgaris, Fabr.) This species 
 abounds most on sandy coasts, and is caught by means of 
 a large open net fixed to the end of a Ions stick. 
 
 CRANIO'LOGY. See Phrenology. 
 
 CRA'NIUM. (Gr. Kpaviov, the skull.) Sometimes ap- 
 plied to the entire bony compages o>f the head of the ver- 
 tebrate animals ; but, in Human Anatomy, is restricted to 
 that portion of the skull which surrounds the brain. 
 
 CRANK. A mechanical contrivance for changing a re- 
 volving into an alternate motion. An iron axis is bent in 
 some part of its length out of its rectilinear direction. As 
 the axis turns the bent part describes the circumference of 
 a circle, and gives a reciprocating motion to a piston or rod 
 attached to it. 
 
 Crank. (Germ, krank, sick.) In Nautical language, a 
 ship is said to be crank, when by the form of Its construc- 
 tion, or by want of a sufficient quantity of ballast or cargo, or 
 by being loaded too much above, it is incapnble of carrying 
 sail without being exposed to the danger of oversetting. 
 
 CRAPE. A species of gauze made of raw silk woven 
 without crossing; it is stiffened with gum-water. 
 
 CRASSULA'CEJE. (Crassula, ope of the genera.) A 
 natural order of herbaceous or shrubby Exogens, growing 
 in hot, dry, and exposed situations - ; remarkable for the 
 succulent nature of their stems and leaves. They have an 
 affinity with Penlhorum and with lllecelrracem, through 
 TUlma; and possess refrigerant abstergent properties, 
 mixed at times with a good deal of acridity. 
 
 CRA'TER. (Gr. a large cup or boicl, used in anliquity 
 during a repast, for holding mixed wine and water.) The 
 mouth of a volcano, which see. 
 
 CRAYO'NS. Coloured cylinders used for drawing upon 
 paper; they are usually made of a fine pipe-clay, coloured 
 with metallic pigments or carmine. Crayons containing 
 plumbago are styled solid lead pencils. 
 
CREAM. 
 
 CUEAM. (Fr. creme.) A semifluid yellowish substance 
 which collects on the surface ol" milk, and which is made 
 into butler by the process of churning. When the milk of 
 any animal la allowed to stand for some time, it spontane- 
 ously undergoes certain changes ; this substance rises to 
 the surface, and forms a thin stratum, which is called cream, 
 and which consists chiefly of oily particles ; while the milk 
 below, which of course is thinner than it was before the 
 cream separated from it, is of a pale bluish colour, and con- 
 sists of curd, coagulum, or the matter of which cheese is 
 Wuen cream is kept forsome days it gradually be- 
 comes thicker, and partia.ly coagulated ; and if put into a 
 iinen hag and suspended from the ceiling of a cool room, 
 It Will acquire the consistence of cneese ; and this is one 
 among other moles of making cream cheeses. When 
 cream is shaken by churning, it is resolved into its compo- 
 nent parts, and hence we have butter and buttermilk. In 
 order to make butter it is not always necessary that the 
 cream should be separated from the milk; but whether 
 separated or not, the process is facilitated by allowing the 
 liquid to stand for some time, during which a part of the 
 .i'>l in the serum is changed into an acid, which 
 shortens the process of churning by facilitating the sepa- 
 ration of the butter from the milk. When either cream or 
 milk is churned without having previously become sour, 
 la much more tedious; and sometimes, from 
 Oaaaea not easily accounted for by the dairy -maid, it is un- 
 tnd the milk is said to he bewitched. The true 
 can-' the wantof acidity ; because it has been 
 
 (bund that the addition of a small portion of vinegar will 
 re the charm, and cause the almost immediate ap- 
 pearance of butter. Cream, when separated from milk 
 ami kept till it has become acid, is frequently mixed with 
 milk newly drawn from the cow ; and this eaten with 
 is one of the most delicious preparations of the dairy. 
 Costorphin cream, so called from a village of that name in 
 the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, is made by putting the 
 milk of three or four days together with the cream into a 
 I, and allowing It to remain there till it has become 
 sour and coagulated. The whey is then drawn off and 
 fresh cream added ; and when it is brought to table it is 
 eaten with sugar, and in the strawberry season with that 
 fruit. Devonshire cream is simply sour curd, or sour cream 
 eaten with fresh milk, or frcsti cream, with or without the 
 addition of sugar. Devonshire scalded or clouted cream 
 is milk and cream heated to the boiling point, and suffered 
 to cool, when the cream will be found to have separated 
 from the milk, and when skimmed off may either be made 
 into butter or eaten with fresh cream and sugar. Common 
 clotted cream is simply milk and cream in a coagulated 
 state, and sour. When the clotted cream is broken and 
 I, and the whey drawn off, the mass may be turned 
 into cheese by artificial pressure, by which the whey is 
 asperated In . ; or by suspending it in aporous 
 
 nag, in a cool airy situation, when it will be separated by 
 See IluTTEn. Cheese. 
 BD1 'NTIALS, LETTERS OR The instrument in 
 the form of a letter, from one monarch to another, which 
 constitutes the evidence of the title of a minister at a 
 foreign court to the power which he exercises. There 
 are two sorts of credentials : the one sealed, drawn up 
 and countersigned by the minister of foreign affairs; the 
 other open, signed only by the king. Unless the minister 
 be mentioned expressly in his credentials as an ambassa- 
 dor, he has only a right to the observances due to foreign 
 ministers of inferior rank. 
 
 CRE'DIT, in Political Economy, is a term used to ex- 
 press the lending of wealth, or of the means of acquiring 
 wealth, by one individual or set of individuals to another. 
 The party who lends is said to give credit, and the party 
 who borrows to obtain credit. Hence credit may be de- 
 fined to be the acquisition by one party of the wealth of 
 another in loan, according to conditions voluntarily agreed 
 on between them. 
 
 Very exaggerated notions are commonly entertained of 
 the influences of credit ; but, in fact, all operations in 
 which credit is given or acquired resolve themselves into 
 a new distribution of wealth already in existence. The 
 " magical" effect that is every now and then ascribed to 
 credit is quite imaginary. A party who purchases goods 
 payable at some future date obviously acquires the com- 
 mand of so much of the capital of the seller of the goods 
 as their value amounts to, in the same way that a party 
 who discounts a bill acquires the command of a correspond- 
 ing portion of the capital of the discounter. Wealth is not 
 created by the issue of bills; and all that their negotiation 
 does is to transfer already existing property from one in- 
 dividual or party to another. 
 
 In the great majority of cases loans are made by indi- 
 viduals who wish to retire from business, or who have 
 more capital than they can advantageously employ, to 
 imiividuals entering into business, or who wish to extend 
 their concerns and to acquire a greater command of ca- 
 pital. The probability is, that capital will bo more likely 
 301 
 
 CRESCENT. 
 
 to be efficiently employed by the latter than by the former 
 class of persons; and the advantage of credit, in a na- 
 tional point of view, consists in that circumstance Loans 
 made to prodigals or spendthrifts, or to individuals who 
 expend them on unprofitable undertakings, are, in so far, 
 publicly injurious; but, speaking generally, these bear but 
 a very small proportion to the other class of loans, or those 
 made to individuals by whom they are advantageously ex- 
 pended. 
 
 Public credit is the phrase used to express the trust or 
 confidence placed in the state by those who lend money 
 to government. 
 
 The interest or premium paid by the borrowers to the 
 lenders depends on a great variety of circumstances, — 
 partly on the rate of profit that may be made by the em- 
 ployment of capital at the time, partly on the duration of 
 the loan and the security for its repayment, and partly on 
 the facilities given by the law for enforcing payment. The 
 only way, indeed, in which a government can advantage- 
 ously interfere to encourage credit is by simplifying the 
 administration of the law, and by giving every facility for 
 carrying the conditions of contracts into effect. 
 
 CRE'DITOR. See Bankruptcy. 
 
 CREED. Any brief summary of Christian belief; but 
 more especially either of the three confessions commonly 
 called the Apostles', Nicene. and Athanasian. The term 
 is derived from the word credo, / believe; in like manner 
 as paternoster, avemaria, &c, are prayers named from 
 the first word of these formulas in the Latin tongue. 
 
 CREEK (Sax. crecca, said to be derived from the Lat. 
 crepido), is a shore or bank on which the water beats, run- 
 ning in a small channel from any part of the sea. It is also 
 applied to any part of a largo river which is resorted to as 
 a harbour or landing place by small craft. In the United 
 States, the term creek is used as synonymous with our 
 English words brook or rivulet. 
 
 CREEL. A kind of basket; such, for instance, as is 
 used by anglers. 
 
 CRE'MOCA'IU'irM. (Or. Kptftau, I suspend, and 
 nap-tuts, fruit.) A two to five-celled inferior fruit, the cells 
 of which are one-seeded, indehlscent, dry, perfectly close 
 at all times, and when ripe hanging separate from a com- 
 mon axis, as in umbelliferous plants. 
 
 CREMO'NA. A general designation of the violins made 
 at Cremona in Italy, during the 17th and 18th centuries, 
 chiefly by the family Amatl. (See Violin.) Cremona 
 is also a name erroneously given to a stop in the organ ; 
 being nothing more than a corruption of krumhorn, an 
 ancient wind instrument, which it was originally designed 
 to imitate. 
 
 CREO'LE. (In Spanish, Criollo.) A name given to the 
 descendants of whites born in Mexico, South America, and 
 the West Indies ; in whom the European blood has been 
 unmixed with that of other races. The various jargons 
 spoken in the West India islands by slaves, <&c. are called 
 Creole dialects. 
 
 CRE'OSOTE, or KREASOTE. A colourless, transpa- 
 rent, oily liquid, separable from wood-tar: it appears to be 
 the principle to which the antiseptic power of wood-tar, 
 smoke, and crude pyrolignous acid is owing. Hence Its 
 name, from xpeag, flesh, and ow r ii>, I save. 
 
 CRE'PITUS. (Lat.) The crackling noise which is 
 produced upon pressing cellular membrane when it con- 
 tains air. 
 
 CRESCE'NDO. (It.) In Music, a direction to the per- 
 former to increase the volume of sound from soft to loud ; 
 marked thus <. 
 
 CRE'SCENT (Lat. cresco, I increase), in Heraldry, is a 
 bearing in form of a half moon. When the horns are 
 turned towards the chief or upper part of the shield, it 
 is called crescent, In contradistinction to the terms in- 
 crescent and decrescent ; in the former of which the horns 
 are turned to the right, and in the latter to the left side 
 of the shield. The crescent is frequently used to distin- 
 guish the coat armour of a second brother or junior family 
 from that of the principal branch. As is well known, the 
 crescent, or, as it is usually designated, the crescent mon- 
 tant, has become the symbol of the Turkish empire, 
 which has thence been frequently styled the Empire of 
 the Crescent. This symbol, however, did not originate 
 with the Turk3. Long before their conquest of Constan- 
 tinople the crescent had been used as emblematic of 
 sovereignty, as may be seen from the still existing medals 
 struck in honour of Augustus, Trajan, and others, and it 
 formed from all antiquity the symbol of Byzantium. On 
 the overthrow of this empire by Mohammed II., the Turks, 
 regarding the crescent which every where met their eye 
 as a good omen, adopted it as their chief bearing; and it 
 has continued ever since to decorate their minarets, their 
 insignia, their dress, and in short every thing appertaining 
 to their empire. Crescent ha3 also been applied to three 
 orders of knighthood : the first of which was instituted by 
 Charles I., king of Naples and Sicily, in 1268 ; the second 
 by Rene" of Anjou, in 1448; and the third by the sultan 
 
CREST. 
 
 Selim in i801, two years after the battle of Aboukir. The 
 last-mentioned order is still in existence, and is remarka- 
 ble for the fact that none but Christians are eligible for ad- 
 mission. 
 
 CRE'ST. (Lat.) In Heraldry, the ornament affixed to 
 t^e helmet, being a personal or hereditary device. War- 
 riors bore insignia peculiar to themselves in this manner 
 among the classical ancients. The earliest instance of the 
 heraldic crest in England is said to be that of Edmund 
 Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster (about 1260). The crest 
 is, in modern blazonry, a figure placed upon a wreath, 
 coronet, or cap of maintenance, which surmounts the coat 
 of arms. It is not unfrequently a repetition of some bear- 
 ing in the shield itself; as, the crest of Castile is a castle. 
 
 CRETA'CEOUS. (Lat. creta, chalk.) Composed of 
 chalk. In Geology, the cretaceous group of rocks includes 
 the upper strata of the secondary series, immediately below 
 the tertiary deposits, and resting upon the oolitic group. 
 (See Fitton, in Geol. Trans., 2d Series, vol. iv.) 
 
 CRE'TINS. A name applied in the Valais and else- 
 where to a class of idiots, who are also generally afflicted 
 with goitres, which see. 
 
 CItlli. Sometimes applied to a rack for hay or straw 
 for cattle, and sometimes to a manger for corn or chaff"; 
 also to a small enclosure in a cowhouse or shed for calves 
 or sheep. 
 
 CRIB BITING. Biting the manger or crib ; a bad habit 
 among horses, brought on by uneasiness occasioned by 
 diseases of the teeth, or by roughness in the person who 
 currycombs them. 
 
 CRIBBLE. A coarse sieve, or screen, for sifting sand, 
 gravel, or corn ; the term is also applied to a sort of coarse 
 meal. 
 
 CRI'COID. (Gr. Kpuos, a rins, and ttSot, appearance.) 
 Annularor ring shaped. A cartilage of the larynx is hence 
 called the cricoid cartilage. 
 
 CRI'NO. A cuticular disease, supposed to arise from 
 the insinuation of a hair-worm, under the skin of infants. 
 
 CRINOI'DEANS, Crinoidea. (Gr. Kpivov, a lily, and 
 eiSo;, appearance.) A name given by Miller to an extinct 
 family olEchinoderms, having a radiated, lily-shaped disc, 
 supported on a jointed stem. Whan this stem is cylin- 
 drical, the species are termed Encnnites; when it is pen- 
 tagonal, I'entacriniles. See those words. 
 
 CRI'SIS (Gr. Kpioit, a decision), may be defined, in its 
 most extended signification, as a decisive point in any im- 
 portant affair or business ; but it is used more particularly 
 in a political sense, to denote a certain conjuncture of 
 affairs in which, from what cause soever it may have ori- 
 ginated, the ordinary operations of government are so fet- 
 tered or deranged as to lead to some important change in 
 the policy or institutions of a country. Like many ex- 
 pressions of similar import, the phrase " political crisis" 
 admits of an almost endless variety of shades of meaning, 
 being applicable at once to a change of ministry, the aboli- 
 tion of a constitution, a revolutionary insurrection, and the 
 dethronement of a sovereign. Hence this expression 
 will be better interpreted by the feelings, predilections, or 
 prejudices of each individual, than by any definition of 
 which it is susceptible. In France, a " crise politique," as 
 it is called, is synonymous with the terms coup d'etat, 
 emeute, revolution, insurrection, <fcc. In Medicine, certain 
 symptoms which announce a favourable or an unfavoura- 
 ble termination of a disease are called critical symptoms, 
 and the period at which they show themselves the crisis 
 of the disease. In the progress of fevers these symptoms 
 have been supposed to show themselves at certain de- 
 finite periods, which therefore have been called critical 
 days. 
 
 CRITICISM (Gr. icpivh), 1 judge), has been defined 
 "the art of judging with propriety concerning any object, 
 or combination of objects." In a somewhat more limited, 
 but stiil extensive meaning, its province is confined to 
 literature, philology, and the fine arts; and to subjects of 
 antiquarian, scientific, or historical investigation. In this 
 sense, every branch of literary study, as well as each of 
 the fine arts, has its proper criticism as an appendage to it. 
 The elements of criticism depend on the two principles of 
 Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object 
 of study in every one of its pursuits : Beauty, in letters 
 and the arts ; Truth, in history and the sciences. The 
 office of criticism, therefore, is, first to lay down those 
 forms or essential ideas which answer to our conception 
 of the beautiful or the true in each branch of study ; and, 
 next, to point out by reference to those ideas the excel- 
 lences or defects of individual works, as they approach or 
 diverge from the requisite standard In each particular. 
 Thus, historical criticism teaches us to distinguish the true 
 from the false, or the probable from the improbable, in 
 historical works ; scientific criticism has the same object 
 in each respective line of science ; while literary criticism, 
 n a ger.eral sense, has for its principal employment the in- 
 vestigation of the merits and demerits of style or diction, 
 according to the received standard of excellence in every 
 3(» 
 
 CROCODILES. 
 
 language; and, in poetry and the arts, criticism develops 
 the principles of that more refined and exquisite sense of 
 beauty which forms the ideal model of perfection in each. 
 Taste is the critical faculty ; that perception of the beauti- 
 ful in literature and the arts, for the acquisition of which, 
 perhaps, some minds have superior natural powers ihaii 
 others, but which can in no instance be fully developed 
 except by education and habit. (See ^EsTHETict.) Among 
 the classical ancients, the criticism of Beauty was carried 
 to a high degree of perfection. Less encumbered will) a 
 multitude of facts and things to be known than ourselves 
 their minds were more at leisure, and more sedulously 
 exercised in reflecting on their own notions and percep 
 tions; hence the astonishing progress which they made in 
 the fine arts; and hence, in literature, they valued more 
 the beauty of the vehicle in which sentiments were ion 
 veyed,and the moral orpoelical beauty of those sentiment? 
 themselves, thar 1 the objective branches of study which it 
 is the principal purpose of literature, in our days, to con- 
 vey easily and precisely to the mind. And as the criticism 
 which antiquity has left us consists almost wholly of such 
 as relates to literature and the arts (in history they had, as 
 far as we know, few critical spirits, in the sciences almost 
 none), the name is still confined, in its most popular signifi- 
 cation, to those provinces of research. The crilicism of 
 Truth is of later growth ; but as it is regulated for the most 
 part by similar rules and principles, and as minds which 
 possess the faculty of judgment in a high degree in the one 
 are generally capable, if exercised, of forming right appre- 
 hensions in the other, they may be considered as nearly 
 allied in the more essential respects. For although it is 
 true that in scientific investigation great knowledge of the 
 individual subject is required to constitute a critic, and in 
 the fine arts the most gifted mind will require much edu- 
 cation and practice to judge of beauty ; yet it is equally 
 true in both of these branches of study, however widely 
 differing from each other, that knowledge alone (excep' 
 perhaps in purely abstract science, in respect of which the 
 name of criticism seems hardly applicable) will not make 
 the critic, and that the habit of discriminating and judging 
 correctly is a distinct faculty or compound of faculties in 
 the mind. Among a host of works which may be consulted 
 with advantage on this subject, are Blair's Lectures on 
 Belles Lettres ; Campbell on Rhetoric ; Whately on Rhetoric ; 
 Knight and Alisun on Tasle ; Laharpe, Cours de la Litter a- 
 lure ; La Cretelle, Traite de la Rhetor ique ; Horn and 
 Menzel's History of Polite Literature ; and Schlegel's Mis- 
 cellaneous L'ssays, &c. <S'e« Belles Lettres and Rhe- 
 toric. 
 
 Criticism, in a more limited sense, is a branch of belies 
 lettres. Essays written for the purpose of commending 
 or discommending works in literature or the arts, and 
 pointing out their various merits and defects, are works in 
 the critical department. Thus the term " periodical crili- 
 cism" is used to express the body of writing contained in 
 the various works under the name of magazines, reviews, 
 &c, which are periodically published in most literary 
 countries. 
 
 CRO'CKETS. (Fr. crochet, a hook.) In Gothic Archi- 
 tecture, ornaments resembling curved and bent foliage 
 running up on the edge of a gable or pinnacle. They are 
 of two varieties : the earliest are formed by a simple curve 
 turning downwards, as in the gables and spires of Lincolr 
 cathedral; the later have the point of the leaf returned 
 and pointing upwards. Sometimes animals are substituted 
 in the place of leaves. 
 
 CRO'CODILES. (Gr. KporoottXoj.) A name first ap- 
 plied by Herodotus to the crocodile of Egypt, because that 
 animal resembled a small lizard of the same name (StclUo 
 of the moderns), which is now known in Greece under 
 the name of Koslurdylus. The Egyptian and other species 
 of crocodile were confounded by Linnaeus under the name 
 of Laccrta crocodilus ; but the crocodiles are distinguished 
 from all other Saurian reptiles, or Lacerta of Linnaeus, 
 bv the following characters : — They have a long and pow- 
 erful tail, which is flattened in the vertical direction, to 
 serve as the principal means of propelling the body through 
 water with the swiftness required in the pursuit of fish, 
 which form the principal prey of the crocoiile. The ex- 
 tremities are short, and comparatively of little use in 
 aquatic progression, except in guiding and changing the 
 direction of the motion, for which purpose they are always 
 webbed or half-webbed. The fleshy tongue is attached 
 by its entire marginal circumference, as in most fishes, to 
 the inner side of the lower jaw, and is not extensible, as is 
 the case in all true lizards. The tecih are simple, coni- 
 cal, sharp- pointed, large, lodged in distinct sockets, and 
 arranged in a single row; which structure and disposition 
 are in relation with the carnivorous habits of the crocodile. 
 Lastly, the intromittent organ of the male is single. 
 
 To these essential differences between the crocodiles 
 and lizards may be added the following characters, which 
 are common to" all the crocodiles:— 
 
 1. The fore-feet have five toes ; the hind-feet four toes. 
 
CROFT. 
 
 2. Three toes only on each f .ot arc armed with claws ; 
 jtj thai there are two toes in front and one behind which 
 
 claws. 
 
 3. The whole of the tail and the upper and under parts 
 of the body are covered with square scuta; or plate-scales ; 
 &nd the greater number of those on the back are traversed 
 longitudinally by a more or less prominent ridge. 
 
 4. The sides of the body are covered with small round 
 
 I'he ridges on the scales of the tail form at its base 
 two prominent lateral series, or dentated keel-like cre3ts, 
 which converge and blend into one at the posterior part 
 of the tail. 
 
 6. The tympanum or drum of the ear is protected by 
 two moveable flaps. 
 
 7. Toe eyes are provided with three eyelids. 
 
 8. Two little pouches containing a substance of a musky 
 odour. Their anatomy also affords some characters which 
 are common to all the species, and very well distinguish 
 their skeleton from that of other Saurian*. The ventricles 
 of the tot intercommunicate. The vertebra; in 
 
 support a series of spurious ribs, which 
 are directed backwards, and the extremities of each over- 
 lapping the next in succession prevent the animal from 
 taming the head to the side. This structure, it will be 
 seen, is in admirable accordance with the aquatic habits of 
 urge piscivorous reptiles ; since, in order to displace 
 the fluid medium through which they move, it is essential 
 that the head should be firmly 1 trunk. It is 
 
 for this reason that the vertebra; immediately behind the 
 head in fishes bear ribs; and the cervical vertebra; of the 
 although they accord in their number anil in the 
 • ■ of ribs with those of other mammalia, are modi- 
 fied so as to answer the same end as the costo-cervical 
 vertebra; of crocodiles and fishes, being compressed from 
 before backwards, and anchylosed sometimes into a single 
 
 CROFT. A small field adjoining the dwelling house and 
 kitchen garden. The term is also sometimes applied to 
 common field lands. 
 
 CRO'MLECII, orCROMI.EH. In British Antiquities, 
 large flat stones laid across others in an upright position; 
 very commonly found in pans of Wales, in Devonshire 
 and" Cornwall, and other exposed districts of England, as 
 well as in some continental countries. Cromlechs are 
 ; by antiquaries to have been constructed 
 According to some (see Fosbrooke's 
 Encyclopaedia of Antiquities, fi08.) there is a difference be- 
 tween the cromlechs of. the Unions and those of nations 
 of Germanic descent ; the former being inclined stones, 
 pS for the purpose of allowing the blood shed in sa- 
 e to run off; the latter thick round stones, standing 
 i ill hillocks and covering caves. 
 CROP OUT. A mining and geological term, expressing 
 the rising up or exposure at the surface of a stratum or 
 strata. 
 CROPS. ROTATION OF. See Agriculture. 
 CRO'SIER. The staff of an archbishop, surmounted 
 by a cross, and thereby distinguished from the pastoral 
 staff or crook of a bishop. This staff, according to Poly- 
 d-ire Virgil, was given to bishops wherewith to chastise the 
 vires of the people ; and was called baculus pasloralis, in 
 neir pastoral charge and superintendence over 
 their flock, as well as from its resemblance to the shep- 
 herd's crook. Many authors contend that the crosier is de- 
 rived from the lituus or augural staff of the Romans. 
 
 CROSS. (I.at. crux.) A gibbet made of two pieces of 
 wood laid upon each other at any angle. Originally, it was 
 nothing more than a tree ; but it afterwards assumed a 
 variety of forms, of which the following are the most usual 
 examples, X T +• The cross was used as a very general 
 instrument of punishment by almost nil the nations of 
 antiquity, from the earliest period of their history. Among 
 the Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and especially the 
 Carthaginians, it appears to have been the usual military 
 punishment {Vol. Max. ii. 7; Iferod. iii. 125 — 159.); and 
 ' was not unknown to the Greeks, the crucifixion of 
 2000 Tyrians by Alexander after his capture of their city 
 abundantly testifies (Quin. Cur. 44. ; Just. 18. 3.) But in 
 no part of the ancient world was this punishment so gene- 
 rally resorted to as in the Roman empire. Under the 
 early monarchical government of Rome, it extended in- 
 discriminately to every rank (Liv. i. 26.) ; but latterly it 
 came to be regarded as the most infamous of deaths, and, 
 save in cases of sedition, was inflicted only on slaves or 
 the vilest malefactors. The disgust and horror in which 
 this punishment was held by the Romans is evident from 
 the expressive epithets applied to it by Cicero, " crudelis- 
 timumet lelemmatn" (.most foul and brutal),!i3 weliasfrom 
 the phrases used synonymously with the instrument of 
 punishment itself; such as "arbor infelix," " infame lig- 
 »um," &c. From the multiplicity of conflicting details 
 icspecting the punishment of the cross, it is clear that 
 here was but litde uniformity observed in carrying it into 
 303 
 
 CROSSES, STONE. 
 
 effect. By the Roman law the culprit, or, as he was 
 called, the ci'uciarius, was scourged previously to the cru- 
 cifixion, either in the pratorium or on the way to the place 
 of execution. On his arrival there he was stripped of his 
 garments, and then either nailed by the hands and feet to 
 the cross, or, as sometimes happened, only fastened to it 
 by ropes. In order to hasten death, it was the practice to 
 break the legs or to pierce the body of the sufferer with a 
 spear or other sharp instrument ; but this was not always 
 done ; and instances have occurred of persons, who, after 
 being suspended for some considerable time on the cross, 
 were taken down and survived. By the Jewish law, it was 
 ordained, that the body of the culprit should be removed 
 from the cross on the day of his execution ; but the 
 Romans frequently allowed it to hang till it dropped piece- 
 meal to the ground and nothing remained. " siuffixorum 
 corpora cmcibus,'' says Seneca, " in suam sepulluram de- 
 fluunt." In general, the cross was erected near some 
 great road or highway, in order to indicate more distinctly 
 the ignominy of the culprit and the severity of his death. 
 
 After Jesus Christ had, by an unjust sentence, suffered 
 on the cross, and by his death made atonement for the 
 -ions of mankind, the cross, from being an object 
 of horror, became, as it were, the symbol of the Christian 
 world, and in the end came to be regarded even with su- 
 perstitious vencraiion. Constantine. from respect for 
 these feelings, abolished the punishment of crucifixion 
 throughout the Roman world. 
 
 The Apostles make use of the term cross as expressive 
 of the sufferings to which the faithful must submit in at- 
 testation of their belief, which Ihev liken figuratively to 
 those of our S.iviour in his death. Tertullian says that the 
 early Christians were accustomed on every occasion of 
 daily life, fronletn cruris signaculo terere, to make the sign 
 with the fingers upon l/te forehead. This extravagant pro- 
 fuseness in The use of a symbol naturally led to supersti- 
 tion ; and the cross appears to have become the object of 
 actual adoration as early as the 4lh century, when that prac- 
 tice is made a reproach against (he Christians by Julian. 
 The allegation of the later Romanists, that it is not the 
 wood of the cross, but Christ figuratively present, thai is 
 worshipped by them, appears (o have been put forward oc- 
 casionally at this time, but sometimes not without reproof 
 from the ccclesiasiical authorities. In the Romish church 
 there are certain festivals observed to this day in memory 
 of circumstances connected with the cross ; as the Inven- 
 tion or Discovery and the Exaltation of the Cross : the 
 former commemorates toe supposed discovery of the true 
 cross by the Empress Helena, the latter its restoration to 
 Calvary by Heraclius. 
 
 Cross. In Heraldry, an ordinary, formed by lines drawn 
 palewise, and (esswise, inclosing (if bounded by the es- 
 cutcheon) one fifth of the shield, or one third if charged. 
 A cross gules is termed the cross of St. George. A plain 
 cross is one the extremities of which do not reach to the 
 circumference of the escutcheon, but are "couped,"orcut 
 off in a straight line. There are many other kinds of 
 crosses not reaching the circumference of the escutcheon 
 known in heraldry ; the following are only a few, most 
 commonly used in bearings : — A cross crosslet is one crossed 
 on each arm. Such a cross between four plain CFOMH is 
 termed a Jerusalem cross. A cross fiory has three points 
 at each end. A Maltese cross has arms increasing in 
 breadth towards the end, with double points. \crossfitchy 
 has the lower limb pointed, as if to fix in the ground. A 
 patriarchal cross, the insignia of patriarchs or archbishops, 
 is plain, having two bars, the upper smaller than the lower. 
 A cross moline terminates in representations of the ends of 
 the fer-de-moulin, or milrind. It is the difference of the 
 eighth son of a family. 
 
 Cross. An instrument formerly used in surveying for 
 laying out perpendicular lines, but now seldom employed. 
 It consists of a brass cross or circle, divided into four 
 equal parts by two diameters at right angles to each other. 
 At each extremity of these diameters perpendicular sights 
 are fixed. The instrument is mounted on a staff to fix it 
 in the ground, and its use is to find the point in a given line 
 or direction through which a straight line drawn to an object 
 at some distance will be perpendicular to the former line. 
 
 CRO'SS-BOW. A weapon usedifcr shooting with, before 
 the invention of fire-arms. All weapons having the bow 
 attached to a stock were called cross-bows ; and some of 
 the larger sort were furnished with instruments for bend- 
 ing the bow. 
 
 CRO'SS-BREED. The offspring of parents of two dif- 
 ferent breeds. 
 
 CRO'SSES, STONE, in Architectural Antiquities, are 
 of various descriptions, according to the occasion or pur- 
 pose of their erection. They are said to have originated 
 in the practice of marking the Druid stones with a cross, 
 at the period of the conversion of the Celtic tribes to 
 Christianity. Preaching crosses are generally quadrangular 
 or hexagonal, open on one or both sides, and raised on 
 steps. They were used for the delivery of sermons in th*- 
 

 CKOSSETTES. 
 
 open air; such was flae famous Paul's Cross in London. 
 Market crosses are well known. Weeping crosses were so 
 called because penances were finished before them. 
 Crosses of memorial were raised on various occasions ; 
 sometimes where the bier of an eminent person stopped 
 on iis way to burial, in attestation of some miracle per- 
 formed on the spot : such are the well-known crosses of 
 Queen Philippa. Crosses served also as land-marks ; they 
 are especially set up for this purpose on the lands of the 
 Templars and Hospitallers. 
 
 CROSSE'TTES. (Fr.) In Architecture, the returns 
 on the corners of door cases or 
 window frames; called also ears, 
 elbows, ancones, prothyrides. In 
 architectural construction, they are 
 l he small projecting pieces in arch 
 stones which hang upon the adjacent stones — a, a, a, a. 
 
 CRO'SS-FURROW. A furrow or open trench cut across 
 other furrows to intercept the water which runs along 
 them, in order to convey it to the margin of the field where 
 it may find ils way to an open ditch or some other general 
 drain. 
 
 CRO'SS-STONE. So called from the intersection of its 
 crystals. It is a species of harmotome, found in great 
 beauty at Andreasberg. (See Andreasbergolite.) It is 
 composed of 49 percent, of silica, 16 alumina, 18 baryta, 
 and 15 water. 
 
 CRO'TALUM. (Gr. xpora\ov.) An ancient kind of 
 castanet, used by the Corybantes or priests of Cybele. 
 This instrument must not be confounded with the modern 
 crotalo,a. musical instrument used chiefly by the Turks, 
 and corresponding exactly with the ancient cymbalum. 
 
 CRO'TALUS. (Lat. crotalum, a castanet or rattle.) A 
 genus of poisonous serpents, including those which are 
 furnished with a rattle at the extremity of the tail. 
 
 CRO'TCHET. (Fr. crochet.) In Music, one of the 
 notes or characters of time, equal to half a minim. 
 
 CRO'TCHETS, in Grammar, more frequently called 
 brackets, are certain marks or hooks in which words or 
 phrases are included, thus [ ], by way of distinguishing 
 them from or of illustrating the context. 
 
 CRO'TON OIL. The expressed oil of the seeds of the 
 Croton tiglium ; formerly called Grana tiglia, and Molucca 
 grains. The tree is a native of Ceylon, and of Malabar 
 and the Molucca Islands. Its seeds are very purgative ; 
 and their expressed oil so drastic, that a single drop will 
 often prove violently operative, completely emptying the 
 bowels and exciting a copious watery secretion from them. 
 The most active form for its exhibition is made into a pill 
 with bread crumb ; it may also be rubbed with a little mu- 
 cilage of gum arabic, and given in a liquid form ; but it al- 
 ways requires much caution in its administration. 
 
 CROUP. An inflammation of the larynx and trachea, ac- 
 companied by difficulty of breathing and cough, and by a 
 peculiar shrillness of voice and wheezing ; there is also 
 generally more or less expectoration of purulent and filmy 
 matter, which is thrown out upon the affected part and con- 
 tinually threatens suffocation. This disease is most com- 
 mon in infants, and in children from three to nine years 
 old ; it is of rare occurrence, in its acute form at least, after 
 twelve years of age. In the successful treatment of this 
 distressing and dangerous disease, every thing depends 
 upon promptitude in the application of remedies calculated 
 to subdue the local inflammatory action. This is to be done 
 either by leeches to the region of the trachea, by cupping, 
 or by bleeding m the jugular vein ; by the cautious applica- 
 tion of external irritants of rapid action, such as a piece of 
 lint dipped in strong acetic acid, which, however painful, 
 is sometimes of service ; by blisters, and by the exhibition 
 of large doses of calomel: there is a difference of opinion 
 as to the employment of emetics. The inhalation of steam 
 is useful where it can be resorted to, but in young children 
 it is impracticable. In spasmodic croup the wheezing and 
 sense of suffocation appear to depend upon spasmodic ac- 
 tion of the larynx or epiglottis : like the former it attacks 
 infants and children, but comes on and goes off very sud- 
 denly, returning at intervals, during which the patient is 
 comparatively easy. In weakly and irritable children it 
 sometimes appears a consequence of teething. An emetic, 
 calomel purges, warm bath, diaphoretics, and a blister, are 
 the leading remedies ; bleeding should be avoided. There 
 is a kind of croup which sometimes attacks children of 
 weakly constitutions, and which appears symptomatic of 
 irritation in the stomach and bowels, for it is relieved by 
 purging, and disappears as the constitution improves. 
 Another form of this disease is called chronic croup. It is 
 attended by cough and the expectoration of tough mucus, 
 sometimes apparently membranous or tubular, occasion- 
 ing difficulty of breathing and suffocation. This disordered 
 state of the trachea and bronchial membranes may occur 
 at all periods of life : it is relieved, and often cured, by 
 using the inhaler with warm water, by expectorants with 
 Bmdl doses of sedatives and mercurials, and by occasional 
 surging. 
 
 304 
 
 CRUDE. 
 
 CROWN. (Lat. corona.) In Heraldry. Among the 
 ancients, and especially in the Roman republic, :rowna 
 were presented to citizens as marks of distinction for va, 
 iant or otherwise meritorious exploits. From this usag*. 
 the crown has been adopted as a bearing by modern 
 heralds. Nine species of the crown are enumerated in 
 heraldry ; some of which, however, have not been intro- 
 duced into modern arms, and are only known from the 
 description left of them by the ancients : — 1. The Eastern 
 Crown, imitated from that which appears on coins of 
 Greek oriental sovereigns, and borne by those who have 
 distinguished themselves in the East : the East India 
 Company's arms have this Crown. 2. The Triumphal 
 Crown, which, after being borne by Julius Cassar, became 
 the Crown Imperial. 3. The plain Circlet or Diadem. 
 4. The Obsidional Crown, given among the Romans to 
 those who had performed exploits in the defence of forti- 
 fied places. 5. The Civic Crown, for saving the life of a 
 citizen. 6. The Crown Vallary, to soldiers who had first 
 entered the enemy's trench. 7. The Mural Crown, to sol- 
 diers distinguished in besieging armies. 8. The Naval 
 Crown, common in English coats of augmentation. 9. The 
 Crown Celestial. 
 
 Crown. In Architecture, the uppermost member of the 
 cornice ; called also corona and larmier. 
 
 CROWN or DEMESNE LANDS (Terra, Dominicales). 
 The lands, estates, or other real property belonging to the 
 crown or sovereign. These were anciently very extensive 
 in this and most other European countries. The rents and 
 other payments arising from them formed during the mid- 
 dle ages an important part of the revenue of our English 
 kings ; and they still form an important part of the revenue 
 of several Continental sovereigns. These lands have been 
 acquired by various means, such as purchase, succession, 
 forfeiture, &c. Having been regarded for a lengthened pe- 
 riod as the private property of the crown, and as being con- 
 sequently at the free disposal of the sovereign for the time 
 being, but little providence has been displayed in their ma- 
 nagement. A grant of crown lands was, indeed, the ordi 
 nary method in which our sovereigns used formerly to gra- 
 tify their favourites; and, in consequence of the magnitude 
 and improvidence of such grants, the crown estates in this 
 country have been reduced within very narrow limits. Par- 
 liament frequently interposed to check this profusion, hut 
 without effect till after the Revolution, when the lavish 
 grants of crown lands, made by William III. to the Ben 
 tinck and other families, occasioned so much dissatisfaction 
 that the practice was put an end to. This was done by W,< 
 act 1 Ann, st. 1. cap. 7., which declared that all future grat ,i.- 
 or leases of lands from the crown for a longer term than 
 31 years, and of houses for a longer term than CO years, 
 should be void. 
 
 The crown estates, forests, manorial rights, &c. not 
 granted away, have now become, in consequence of ar- 
 rangements to that effect, the property of the public ; and 
 are administered by a department specially appropriated 
 to that purpose, called the " Woods and Forests." Theii 
 total nett revenue in 1838 amounted to 38S,642/., collected 
 at an expense of 10J per cent. Of late years a consider- 
 able extent of crown lands, consisting of old forests and 
 chaces, have been enclosed and planted with forest trees, 
 with a view to the supply of timber for the navy. 
 
 Certain land3, manorial rights, &c, with the sum paid as 
 commutation for the loss of the tin duties, are the private 
 property of the prince of Wales, as duke of Cornwall ; and 
 when there is no prince of Wales, of the crown. 
 
 CRU'CIBLE. (Lat. crucio, / torment ; because, in the 
 language of old chemistry, the metals were tortured by fire 
 to yield up their various virtues.) A vessel, generally 
 made of very refractory earthenware, in constant use in 
 the chemical laboratory for performing fusions of metals 
 and other substances. 
 
 CRUCI'FER^. (Lat. crux, across; the flowers being 
 in the form of a Maltese cross.) A natural order of Exo- 
 gens, inhabiting most temperate countries. They are allied 
 to Capparidacea, but differ in their tetradynamous stamens ; 
 and also to Papaveracece and Fumariacea>, but are distin- 
 guished by, their seeds, and having no albumen. They are 
 characterized essentially by their deviation from the ordi 
 nary symmetry observable in the relative arrangement ot 
 the parts of fructification of other plants. Linnteus divid 
 ed this order into Siliquosai and SilicuhsiB, from the forms 
 of their fruits ; butmore recently divisions have been found 
 ed upon the nature of the plicature of the cotyledons, and 
 the position of the radicle with respect to them. They 
 possess universally antiscorbutic and stimulant properties 
 combined with an acrid flavour; and their seeds uniformly 
 abound in a fixed oil,— properties of which cress, mustard 
 and rape may be taken as representatives. 
 
 CRU'CIFIX. The figure of Christ upon a cross ; also a 
 cross with the figure of Christ upon it. 
 
 CRUDE. (Lat. crudus.) In Painting, a term applied t; 
 a picture when the colours are rudely laid on, and do no 
 blend or harmonize. 
 
CRUISE. 
 
 CRUISE. (Germ, kreutzen, to cross.) A voyage within 
 certain limits, for the purpose of meeting with enemy's 
 ships, pirates, &c, or for mere exercise. 
 
 CRU'OR. (Lat. gore.) The red coagulum of the blood, 
 which appears as the blood cools. 
 
 CRU'PPER. A roll of leather put under a horse's tail, 
 Mut connected with the saddle by a strap and buckle, for 
 .he purpose of preventing the saddle from being cast for- 
 ward on the horse's neck by the action of riding. 
 
 CRURAL. (Lat. crus, the leg.) Relating to the leg, or 
 ihaped like a leg or root 
 
 CRUSA'DES. (Lat. crux, cross.) In the European His- 
 tory of the Middle Ages, wars undertaken by confedera- 
 f chiefs and soldiers with a religious object. Those 
 which were engaged in by great part of the nations of Eu- 
 rope for the recovery of Palestine from the infidels are 
 nv >ro frequently denoted by this peculiar name. The term 
 derived from the sacred symbol of the cross, 
 which was borne by the warriors engaged in it over their 
 arms : the colour of the cross often served to designate the 
 nation of the soldier ; as, the white cross on a red ground, 
 :e ; the red cross on a white ground. England. The 
 principal crusades for the conquest of Palestine were — I. 
 Tii" Brat, a. d. 1096, excited by the preaching of Peter the 
 Hermit and the encouragement of Pope Urban IL.in which 
 ret of Boulogne headed the Christians, who made 
 thi mselves masters of Jerusalem and great part of Pales- 
 -'. The second, a. d. 1142, in which Conrad III. of 
 i my and Louis VII. of France led armies to complete 
 the conquest of Palestine, but without success. 3. The 
 third, a. n. 1139, was occasioned by the capture of Jerusa- 
 lem by sultan Salad in ; Frederic II. of Germany, Philip 
 Augustus of France, and Richard Casurde Lion of Eng- 
 land, were the chief among the confederate monarchs: the 
 capture of Acre was almost the only fruit of this great ex- 
 
 Sedition. 4. The fourth crusade was conducted by the 
 incof Hungary, Andrew 11., in 1217. 5. The fifth was 
 conducted by Frederic II. of Germany (Barbarossa), who 
 recovered Jerusalem, but for a short time. 6. The sixth, 
 A. d. 12 K by Saint Louis, king of France, against Egypt, 
 but without success. Among other wars which have been 
 at various times denoted by the name of Crusades, that 
 i Raymond count of Toulouse and his heretical vas- 
 sals the Afblgools, of which the first leader was the famous 
 Simon de Mnntfort, is the most memorable. (See Albi- 
 oknses.) Whether the Crusades exercised a beneficial 
 Influence on the state and condition of society, is a ques- 
 tion which has long engaged the attention of the learned ; 
 and, as is the case with every subject of a purely specula- 
 tive character, different opinions have been entertained re- 
 specting it at different times. In the seventeenth century, 
 when the question came first to be agitated, these extraor- 
 dinary expeditions were generally regarded as having been 
 in the highest decree favourable to the intellectual, com- 
 mercial aol political interests of the world ; but in the suc- 
 ceeding century there arose a host of inquirers, at the head 
 of whom was Voltaire, less dazzled by the brilliancy which 
 romance had thrown around these enterprises than the phi- 
 losophers of the preceding age, by whom they were repre- 
 sented as mere ebullitions of superstition, fanaticism, and 
 barbarism, which, how strongly soever they agitated the sur- 
 face of society , in no degree contributed to its permanent im- 
 provement. And it was not until Robertson published the in- 
 troduction to his Charles V-, in which he expressed his con- 
 viction that the Crusades had exercised a most favourable 
 influence over the progress of freedom and the advance- 
 ment of the human mind, that a ch?ck was given to these 
 unfavourable views, and that the interest and importance 
 formerly attached to the Crusades began to be revived. 
 With the view of stimulating inquiry into this grand his- 
 torical question, the French Institute, in the year 1806, with 
 its usual enlightened spirit, proposed it to the learned of all 
 countries as a subject of general competition ; and the 
 prize was awarded jointly to the essays of Ileeren and 
 Choiseul d'Aillecourt, which have since been published. 
 These essays form the groundwork of the more elaborate 
 researches of Michaud, and of the numerous other treatises 
 upon this subject with which the literature of France, 
 England, and Germany has since been inundated; and 
 along with all the most recent discussions upon this ques- 
 tion, which it has been our fortune to see, manifest a sin- 
 gular coincidence of opinion respecting the tendency of 
 the Crusades, which, in spite of some strong drawbacks 
 and disadvantages, they consider as having materially con- 
 tributed to the revival of European learning and civiliza- 
 tion. There are few disputed subjects of which it is more 
 difficult to form a correct estimate than the influence of 
 the Crusades, whether we regard the distant period when 
 they look place, the insufficiency of contemporary history, 
 the different phenomena and consequences by which they 
 were accompanied in different countries, or, above all, the 
 difficulty of assigning to these enterprises their own pecu- 
 liar effects, amid the multiplicity of other causes, more 
 powerful, perhaps, though less apparent, which were then 
 306 
 
 CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 
 
 operating on society. As our limife necessarily preclude 
 us from entering upon *this interesting inquiry, we must 
 content ourselves with merely glancing at the chief argu- 
 ments which have been adduced on both sides of the 
 question. Some of those who maintain that the Crusades 
 exercised a beneficial influence over the interests of ko 
 ciety, scruple not lo trace to them the origin of almost all 
 the civilization which modern Europe at present enjoyi 
 But those who take a more reasonable view of the matter, 
 reckon among the advantages which resulted from 
 enterprizes the general intercourse which they tended i.. 
 establish between nations that might otherwise have long 
 remained strangers lo each other; the removal of inter. 
 national contentions and prejudices, which the union of 
 nearly all the European states in pursuit of a comin< 
 ject tended lo effect ; the impulse which they gave to com- 
 mercial enterprize throughout the world, more especially 
 in Italy, and subsequently to the revival of literature and I he 
 fine arts in that country ; the general diffusion of more lib- 
 eral modes of thinking and acting on political and religious 
 questions ; and finally the breaking up of the feudal system. 
 which, as is alleged, laid the foundation of the civil liberty 
 at present enjoyed by all the communities of Europe. On 
 the other hand, those who advocate the negative side of the 
 question allege that the Crusades were begun in lolly, pro- 
 secuted without skill, and ended in defeat. They caused, 
 it is maintained, a waste of life and labour beyond example, 
 without any advantageous return. For two centuries they 
 afflicted almost every family in Europe with the most pain- 
 ful privations; and withdrew the attention of its inhabit- 
 ants from the peaceful pursuits of industry to marauding 
 expeditions undertaken in a spirit of religious fanaticism, 
 and evincing in their conduct a disregard for the most ob- 
 vious principles of justice. Agriculture, commerce, arts, 
 and education were neglected by all ranks, under a general 
 distemper of the imagination, which represented the re- 
 covery of the Holy Land from the possession of infidels as 
 the most sacred and urgent of duties. In this Quixotic at- 
 tempt, (hey sacrificed the flower of successive generations, 
 and the strength and ornament of their respective coun- 
 tries. It is contended too by those who take this view ,i 
 the matter, that the absence of the principal sovereigns 
 from their kingdoms gave full scope to all sorts of faction 
 and disturbance at home ; and that though the power of 
 some of the greater barons was broken by the debts and 
 obligations they contracted during these expeditions, the 
 anarchy inseparable from the feudal system was greatly 
 augmented, and the progress of good government greatly 
 retarded. Without attempting lo determine the precise 
 degree of weight that should be attached to these conflict- 
 ing statements, it is abundantly clear that there has been, 
 on both sides, a vast deal of exaggeration; and though it be 
 obviously absurd to ascribe to the Crusades the superior 
 wealth, civilization, and freedom of modern Europe, it is 
 at the same lime sufficiently clear that their beneficial in- 
 fluence, in various respects, countervailed to a considerable 
 extent the improvement, anarchy, and war in which they 
 involved the greater part of Europe and Asia. In addition 
 to the prize essays already referred to, the reader may 
 consult the elaborate and important work of Michaud I' His- 
 toire des Croisades, and his Biblivgraphie des Croisades; 
 with WiUceris Geschichte der Kreuzziige ; llaken's Uemal- 
 de der Kreuzziige ; the art. " Croisades" in the Encyclo- 
 pedic des Gens du Monde, Sec. &c. 
 
 CRU'SCA, ACCADEMl'A DELLA «Stee Academv. 
 
 CRU'STA. (Lat.) In Gem Sculpture, a gem engraved 
 for inlaying on a vase or other object. 
 
 CRUSTA'CEANS, Crustacea. (Lat. crusta, a Itard co- 
 vering.) A class of free articulate animals, with articulated 
 limbs, a branchial respiration, and a dorsal ventricle or 
 heart. 
 
 CRY'OLITE. (Gr. icpvof, ice, \iOos,stone.) A rare mi- 
 neral from Greenland. It is a double fluoride of sodium 
 and aluminum. It readily fuses in the flame of a candle, 
 whence its name. 
 
 CRYO'PHORUS. (Gr. xpvoc, and Qtpoi, J hear.) The 
 frost-bearer or carrier of cold ; an instrument contrived by 
 Dr. Wollaston for freezing water by its own evaporation. 
 (Philos. Trans. 1813, p. 71.) 
 
 CRYPT. (Gr. Kpvirros, I hide.) In Architecture, the 
 under or hidden part of a building. It is used also to de- 
 signate that part of the ancient churches and abbeys ap- 
 propriated to the monuments of deceased persons. (See 
 Dugdate's Monasticon.) 
 
 CRY'PTA. (Gr. */>oirr<o.) In Botany the round re- 
 ceptacles for secretion present in the leaves of some plants, 
 as in the orange and myrtle. •" 
 
 CRY'PTiE. (Gr. xpvirroi.) Little rounded excrescences, 
 in which the minute ramifications of the arteries terminate 
 in the cortical part of the kidneys. 
 
 CRYPTOGA'MIC PLANTS (Gr. Kpwrros, concealed, 
 
 and ya/tof, marriage), are those which never produce 
 
 flowers or sexes, but which are multiplied without the aid 
 
 of sexual intercourse. Linnaeus gave them heir namt 
 
 U 
 
CRYPTOGRAPHY. 
 
 upon the supposition Jhat they in fact do possess sexual 
 organs, although he was unable \o discover them ; and 
 since his time Hedwig and others have endeavoured to 
 show that sexes do exist in them, although in a concealed 
 and anomalous state. In fact, it appears that in Merchant!- 
 ana, Mosses, Jungermanniacea, and some others, the re- 
 productive organs are of two sorts, and it is not altogether 
 unreasonable to call the one male and the other female ; 
 but at the same time it must be confessed that if such parts 
 are rightly named, they are exceedingly dissimilar to the 
 organs so called in Phanerogamic plants, and that the ut- 
 most which can be conceded to them is, that one contains 
 a male principle and the other a female principle. From 
 the recent observations of Agardli, Morren, Leveille, 
 Klotzsch, and others, it is not improbable that two such 
 principles exist, although in a state of intimate intermix- 
 ture, even in plants like Fungi and Alga,. The principal 
 natural orders of Cryptogamic plants are Ferris, Mosses, 
 Equisetacea, Lycopodiacea, Ckarucea, Hepatica, Lichens, 
 Alga, and Fungi. In these orders we have the greatest 
 variation in the organ of vegetation, some of the ferns 
 forming trees 50 or 60 feet high, while many Alga and 
 Fungi are vesicular and microscopic. Among the latter, 
 vegetable life approaches so nearly to that of animals that 
 distinctions fail, and it is no longer possible to say that lo- 
 comotion is the peculiar property of the one and fixation 
 that of the other ; for in numerous Alga the seeds have 
 an undoubted spontaneous power of motion in water until 
 they begin their growth as young plants. Cryptogamic 
 plants are connected with Gymnosperms through Lycopo- 
 diacea and Equisetacea, with Rhizanths through Fungi, 
 and perhaps with Endogens by tree ferns; they do not ap- 
 pear to have any immediate relation to Exogens. 
 
 CRYPTO'GRAPHY. (Gr koottos, and ypafa, Iwrite.) 
 Also termed Polygraphy and Steganography. The art of 
 writing in a manner intelligible only to those admitted into 
 the secret of the method, either by conventional signs (ci- 
 pher), or by other contrivances. 
 
 CRY'PTO PORTICUS. In Ancient Architecture, a con- 
 cealed portico ; also one that for coolness is enclosed on 
 every side. Some of them were sunk some way into the 
 ground. 
 
 CRY'STAL, Crystallus. (Gr. upvoraWos, ice.) This 
 term was originally applied to those beautiful transparent 
 varieties of silica, or quartz, known under the name of 
 rock crystal. When substances pass from the fluid to the 
 solid state, they frequently assume those regular forms 
 which are generally termed crystals. 
 
 CRYSTALLINE LENS. The lens of the eye, placed 
 in a depression upon the anterior part of the vitreous hu- 
 mour. See Eye. 
 
 CRYSTALLIZATION, ChrystaUography. (Gr. Kpva- 
 tx\),os. a crystal, and ypa<j>o), 1 describe.) The doctrine of 
 the relation of crystalline forms, and of the origin and 
 structure of crystals. Natural as well asartificial crystals oc- 
 cur in an infinite variety of forms ; but they may generally 
 be referred to some primary figure, of which these vari- 
 elies may be regarded as modifications. The structure of 
 crystallized bodies is most easily illustrated by reference 
 to natural crystals, but the theory applies to all crystallized 
 bodies ; it assumes the existence of some definite primary 
 figure, which by various truncations may be modified into 
 its secondary forms. 
 
 The varieties of calcareous spar may be referred to as 
 presenting one of the easiest illustrations of the mechani- 
 cal texture of crystals, and of the modifications of which 
 a definite primary figure is susceptible. Calcareous spar 
 occurs in more than a hundred different forms, all of 
 which, by careful mechanical division, are reducible to 
 an obtuse rhomboid, whose faces are inclined to each other 
 at angles of 105° 5' ; this, therefore, is called the primary 
 form of calcareous spar. 
 
 The secondary forms are presumed to be derived from 
 the primary forms in consequence of decrements of parti- 
 cles taking place upon the edges, or angles, or both, of the 
 primary form. Thus, if the primary form were a cube, it 
 might be reduced to a secondary octahedron by decre- 
 ments, or truncations, in the direction of the planes pro- 
 duced by the removal of its solid angles ; and by a similar 
 operation a primary octahedron might become a secondary 
 cube. 
 
 The doctrine of the relations and conversions of these 
 forms is, properly speaking, a branch of solid geometry ; 
 but its practical applications to chemistry have in fact ren- 
 dered crystallography a subsidiary branch of those depart- 
 ments of science. By a careful examination of the forms 
 and modifications and texture and fracture of crystals, the 
 chemist and mineralogist are in many cases enabled to de- 
 termine their nature or composition ; and in some cases a 
 strict examination of such forms may supersede analysis, 
 or other more circuitous methods. 
 
 When we attempt by cautious mechanical means to dis- 
 sect a crystal, we find that it will only yield kindly and af- 
 ford smooth surfaces when broken or divided in certain 
 306 
 
 CUBIC EaUATIOW. 
 
 directions. A cube of fluor snar, for instance, will only 
 give way under such circumstances in the direction of its 
 solid angles or corners; and pursuing the division in such 
 directions an octahedron will be the resulting figure ; and 
 each slice which is removed may be further divided into 
 oetahedra and tetrahedra. The new and smooth surfaces 
 resulting trom this division or cleavage of the crystal are 
 called its cleavage planes, the line produced by the meet- 
 ing of two planes is called the edge of the crystal, and the 
 meeling of any two lines or edges forms zplune m 
 solid angle is produced by the meeting of three or more 
 plane angles, Different crystallographers have assumed va- 
 rious primitive forms as the bases of their respective sys 
 terns of crystallization. Hauy assumed six (Traite de Mi 
 neralogie) ; Mr. Brooke enumerates fifteen primary forma 
 (Familiar Introduction to CrystaUograpliy) ; and almost 
 each author upon this subject has adopted different views 
 as regards the number of fundamental forms and the 
 modes of derivation of secondary figures. In Germany 
 the system of crystallography of Mohs is generally adopt- 
 ed. (See Haidenger's Translation of Mo/is' Mineralogy.) 
 But any detailed account of these different systems and 
 theories would be inconsistent with our present object. It 
 may be observed, however, that the theory of crystallization 
 is greatly simplified by assuming all secondary forms as 
 resulting from the aggregation of primary spherical or 
 spheroidical molecules. (See a paper on this subject by 
 Dr. Wollaston, in the Philosophical 'Transactions for 1813 ; 
 and Mr. Daniell's interesting confirmations of the hypo- 
 thesis in the first volume of the Quarterly Journal of Sci- 
 ence and the Arts.) 
 
 The process of crystallization is resorted to for many use- 
 ful and important purposes in the chemical arts : it is the 
 principal means by which various saline products are ob- 
 tained in a state of purily ; for, in the act of crystallization, 
 they throw off foreign substances and acquire definite com- 
 position. It is thus, for instance, that nitre is purified foi 
 the manufacture of gunpowder; and that the common and 
 other salts with which crude nitre is contaminaied are got 
 rid of, a crystal of nitre being of necessity a definite com- 
 pound of 54 parts of nitric acid combined with 48 of potassa. 
 Nitre furnishes an instance of what is termed an anhydrous 
 crystal ; it retains none of the water in which it had been 
 dissolved, and from which it is deposited. There are, 
 however, many sails, the crystals of which are hydrous 
 and in such cases the quantity of water which they con- 
 tain always bears a cerlain definite quanlilalive relation to 
 the elements of the salts. Sulphate of magnesia, for in- 
 stance, or Epsom salt, forms prismatic crystals, which al- 
 ways contain 51-2 per cent, of uater of crystallization : they 
 are constituted of20partsof magnesia, 4fJof sulphuric acid, 
 and 63 of water. 
 
 CTE'NOIIRA'NCHIATA. (Gr. ktci s, a comb, and 0pay 
 X«i, gills.) A name substituted by some naturalists fof 
 Pectinibranchiata ; applied by Cuvier to that order of Gas- 
 tropods which breathe by means of pectinated gills. 
 
 CTENOI'DES. (Gr. Krets, and tiSos, form.) A name 
 given by Agassiz to one of his orders of fishes, character- 
 ized by scales composed of layers will) pectinated or toothed 
 posterior margins. These combs overlapping one anolher 
 give a rough feel to the skin : the scales are horny or bony, 
 without enamel. The Ctenoid order includes the following 
 families: — Chetodontes, Pleuronectes, Percoides, Polyacan- 
 thes, Scienoides, Sparoides, Scorpenoides, Aulastomes. 
 
 CU'BATURE, is the measurement of the contents of a 
 solid body, or finding a cube equal to it. 
 
 CUBE. (Gr. kv0os, a die.) In Geometry, a solid body 
 bounded by six equal squares. The cube is one of the five 
 regular Platonic bodies, which, being placed beside each 
 other, fill up the space about a point. It is also called the 
 hexaedron, on account of its six sides. The duplication of 
 the cube, or the finding of the side of a cube containing 
 exactly twice as much matter as another given cube, was a 
 celebrated problem among the geometers of antiquity, but 
 which cannot be solved by means of the straight line and 
 circle, the only lines which the ancients admitted into their 
 geometrical constructions. (See Duplication of the 
 Cube.) In arithmetic, cwfees, or cubic numbers, are numbers 
 formed by the multiplication of any number into itself 
 twice : thus 8 and 27 are cubes ; the first being equal to 
 2X2X2, and the second to3X 3 X 3 - 
 
 CITBEBS. The berries of the Piper nibeha, or Java 
 pepper. They have a bitter and aromatic flavour, and con- 
 tain volatile oil and resin: they are stomachic; and given 
 in a dose of from one to two drachms in powder, two oi 
 three times a day, have proved curative in certain forms of 
 gonorrhoea. 
 
 CU'BIC EQITA'TION. In Algebra, is an equation which 
 involves the cube or third power of the unknown quantity. 
 Like equations of anv other degree, cubic equations are 
 eilher pure or adfecteil : the pure containing only the cube 
 of the unknown quantity; and the adfected containing the 
 square or simple power, or both, of that quantity. A pure 
 cubic equation is of this form, x s =a; where a is any 
 
CUBIC EQ.UATION. 
 
 number whatever, positive or negative, and the value of x 
 Hid by extracting the cube rout of the number a by the 
 arithmetical rule. 
 It might seem, at first sight, that the only value which x 
 can have in the equation x 3 = ais x = ^a ; but on further 
 consideration it will be seen that there are two more values 
 of x, or at least two other sets of symbols by which the 
 value of x may be represented, which equally satisfy the 
 equation. On substituting n 3 for a, the equation becomes 
 x* = n*, or x* — n* = o; but* 3 — n 3 is resolvable into the 
 two factors (x — »!) X (*'+« + "*), therefore the equa- 
 tion is satisfied either by making* — n = o, or x* -f- x n 
 -j- n* = o. The first gives * =»; ; and on solving the quad- 
 ratic x* + x n + n" = o, the following values of * result, 
 namely, x — \ ( — n+ V — 3n*) = J n ( — 1 + V _3, and 
 ar = J ( — n — V_3n')=}n( — 1 — V — 3). The three 
 roots of the equation x 3 — n* =o are therefore x = n, 
 i=Jn(-l + V_3), i=}n(_l- VII) ; and 
 inclusion is easily verified by raising each of these 
 three e xpr e wlo ni to the cube, or by multiplying all three 
 her: in either case the result will be n'. It may be 
 remarked that the first expression only for x is real, the 
 two latter are imaginary. 
 
 A complete cubic equation has the form x* ■+• Ax* + Bx 
 + C=o, where A, B, and C denote known quantities, po- 
 sitive or negative. Now it is always possible, by assuming 
 x= y— J A, to transform an equal ion of this form inlo another 
 in which the second term shall be wanting, and which shall 
 hive the form y' ■+■ a y + 6 = o ; the coefficients a and 6 of 
 this last equation being also known, and depending on 
 of the former equation. If, therefore, we can suc- 
 ceed in finding the value or values of y from this equation, 
 ^f x will also become known in consequence of the 
 i x = y — \ A. 
 In order to discover the roots of the equation y'-fa y+6 = 
 o, suppose y lobe composed of two parts, u and v, or assume 
 V = « + r. The equation then becomes by substitution, 
 u» + 3u» u + 3ut>* + u« " 
 + 
 
 uv' + v* ) 
 ■au + av> =o : 
 
 which, as It contains two indeterminate quantities, may be 
 divided into any two parts at pleasure. Let it be resolved 
 into the two, u*+v'+b=o, 
 
 3u* v + 3uv* +au + av — o. 
 The last of these is the same as 
 
 (3 m v ■+■ a) (m ■+■ v) = o, 
 which may be salisfied either by making u + v = o, or 
 3iit + a = «. Hut the supposition that u -f-t> = o is inad- 
 . tince u + v =y ; for if we suppose y = o, then on 
 account of the original equation, y 3 -f-a y + 6 = o, it would 
 be necessary to suppose also o = o, which is inconsistent 
 with ihe hypothesis. To determine u and v, therefore, 
 we have only the two equations, 
 
 u'+u 3 + 6 = o, 3«e + a = o; 
 the first of which gives u* +v* = — b, and the second uv 
 = J a, whence u* v* s J^ a'. On substituting in the first 
 of these two last equations ihe value of v % deduced from 
 
 a* 
 the second, we find u' + vf— j = — b, fmm which u* is ob- 
 tained by the solution of a quadratic. The solution gives 
 u* =— i 6 ± Vj'i °' + t ** J whence, and from Ihe equa- 
 tion u« + u» = — b, u« = — i 6 + \/ J T a' + } 6', t>» 
 
 --ib-\/^a'+ib\u= V-t6 + -/^ T a' + i6', 
 
 t> = ^_ 16— VV? a 3 +|6'; huty=« + r, therefore 
 
 y= : V-ib+V7^+^+ ^-\b-^^a*+\b*. 
 Having obtained a value of y in terms of a and 6, which 
 sati>fi"s ihe equation y 3 + ay + 6 = o. that equation is 
 resolved ; but, as in the case of pure cubic equations, two 
 other values of y may be found, each of which also sa- 
 tisfies the equation. For the sake of abridging, let P = 
 
 and let also p = H— I + V — 3), ? = J ( — 1 — V — 3) ; 
 then «' = P, and v' = Q ; and in consequence of what 
 was shown above, u and v have each these three values : 
 u = ^P,«=p^P, u = qyV. (m) 
 
 v = ^Q, v = p yQ., v = q y<k- (n) 
 
 To determine in what manner these equations must be 
 combined in order to give the corresponding values of y 
 (= u + v), we must recollect that uv = j a ; but P Q = 
 7 V a«, or ^P Q = i a ; therefore u v = ^P Q- But it is 
 obvious that p q = 1 ; In order therefore to preserve these 
 relations, we must combine the first of the equations (m) 
 307 
 
 CUIRASS, 
 with the first of (n), the second ot (m) with the third ot 
 (n), and Ihe third of (wi) wilh the second of (n). H^nce 
 the three values of u + r, or y, are y = ,yP + ,yQ, « = t, 
 
 yP + qyd<y = qyP+py<z. ^ Tr " * 
 
 The first of these three formulae was intended by Nicho- 
 las Tartalea and Scipio Ferreus independently about the 
 same time ; but having been first published by Cardan, is 
 generally known by the name of Cardan's Rule. 
 
 In applying the above formula for the resolution of a 
 cubic equation, it is necessary to extract the square root 
 of the quanlity J^ o 3 + \ 6'. Now, as a and 6 may have 
 any values whatever, if it happen that a is negative, ami 
 such that JL a 2 is greater than J 6', the quantity J- a" -+ 
 i 6* becomes negative, and the extraction of its square 
 root impossible. This circumstance gives rise to what 
 is termed the irreducible case, and long continued to 
 puzzle algebraists, the three roots of the equation ap- 
 
 C earing all under an imaginary form. It has been found, 
 owever, from a more profound analysis of the nature of 
 cipiations, that in this case (that is, when a is negative, and 
 _• a* greater than \ 6*) all the three roots are real, not- 
 withstanding their imaginary form. In fact, every equa- 
 tion of the third decree must have at least one real root : 
 when the irreducible case occurs, all the roots are real ; in 
 the other case, one root is real, and the other two imaginary. 
 
 CUBI'CULUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, strictly 
 a bed room'; but with the Romans applied in a more ex- 
 tended sense to the balcon or tent provided to cover the 
 emperors at the public shows. 
 
 CU'BIT. (Lat. cubitus.) In Architecture and Sculpture, 
 a linear measure of the ancients, equal to the length of the 
 arm from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, 
 usually considered about 18 English inches. The geome- 
 trical cubit of Vitruvius was equal to six ordinary cubits. 
 
 CU'BITIIS. The fore arm ; the larger bone of which is 
 called the os cubiti. This term is said to be derived from 
 cubo, I lie down, from the ancient custom of leaning on that 
 part of the arm when in the recumbent posture at meals. 
 
 CU'CULINJE. A name given by Latreille to a family of 
 bees, distinguished by the absence of the femoral plates 
 for transporting pollen, and which are consequently com- 
 pelled to resort to the combs of other bees in order to <U-- 
 posit their eggs: hence they may be regarded, like the 
 cuckoo, as a kind of parasite. 
 
 CU'CTJI.US. (Lat. cuculus, a cuckoo.) A most interest- 
 ing genus of Passerine birds, belonging to that group Which 
 is characterized by having the toes situated two before and 
 two behind (Zygodactyli); and so named from including 
 as the typical species the common European cuckoo (.Cu- 
 culus canorus). The cuckoo is a migratory bird ; it arrives 
 In England in the month of April for the purpose of breed- 
 ing. It differs from almost every other bird in not con 
 structing a nest, nor under any circumstances hatching it- 
 own eggs ; but deposits them in the nests of other birds, 
 as the hedge-sparrow. The unfledged young have a re- 
 markable instinct, which impels them to unceasing efforts 
 to expel their helpless companions from the nest, which 
 they effect by pushing them in the hollow of their back 
 to the verge of the nest, and tilting them over, until they 
 at length monopolize all the care and provision of the fos- 
 ter-parent. The young cuckoos of the year do not leave 
 this country till the month of September. 
 
 CUCU'RBITA'OEJE (Cuciirbita, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of Exngens, inhabiting the hot countries ol 
 both hemispheres. They are placed by Auguste de St. Hi 
 laire and De Candolle between Myrtaceot, to which Ihey ap- 
 pear to have little affinity, and Pussifloracecb, to which they 
 are so closely allied that they differ only in the sinuous 
 stamens, unisexual flowers, inferior fruit, and exalbumin- 
 ous seeds. St. Hilaire also insists upon their affinity will: 
 Onagracem, with which, including Combrelacem, they agree 
 in some respects. The order isone of the most useful in 
 the vegetable kingdom, comprehending the melon, the 
 choco, and the various species of gourd ; all valuable as 
 the food of man. Colocynth is the pulp of Cucumis colo- 
 cynthis, which is so drastic as to be classed by Orfila 
 among his poisons. The root of Bryonia possesses a 
 powerful purgative property, but is said to become whole- 
 some if properly cooked ; and the perennial roots of all 
 the order appear to contain similar bitter drastic virtues: 
 especially of the Momordica elaterium, which has an active 
 poisonous principle called elatine. 
 
 CUIRA'KS. (Fr. cnir, leather.) A covering for the 
 breast ; originally, as the nnme denotes, of leather, also ol 
 quilted linen, cloth, &c. The cuirass of plate-armour suc- 
 ceeded the hauberk, hacquetnn, &c. of mail, about the 
 reign of Edward III. ; and from that period the surcoat, 
 jupon, &c. which were usually worn over the coat of mail, 
 began to be laid aside. From that period the cuirass or 
 breast-plate continued to be worn, and was the last piece of 
 defensive armour laid aside in actual warfare. There were 
 cuirassiers in the English civil wars, and in the French ser- 
 vice nearly to the end of the 17th century : after this po- 
 
CUISSES. 
 
 aod, the cuirass was generally laid aside, until it was again 
 employed by some ol Napoleon's regiments, and it is now, 
 in most services, worn by some regiments of heavy ca- 
 valry. 
 
 CUISSES, CMSSOTS, CUISSARTS, &c. In Plate Ar- 
 mour, the pieces which protected the front of the thigh. 
 
 CULDE ES. A religious order, whose origin is attribut- 
 ed to St. Columba, an Irish monk of the 6th century, who 
 evangelized the western parts of Scotland, and founded a 
 famed monastery in Iona. The word is probably contract- 
 ed from cultores Dei. See Jamieson's Hist. 
 
 CU'LEX. (Lat. agnat.) A Linna^an genus of insects, 
 having the common gnat {Culex pipiens, L.) for its type ; 
 but now raised to the rank of a family (Culicida), includ- 
 ing the genera Megarhina, Sabetftes, CEdes, Aropheles, and 
 Culex proper : the two Utter are British. 
 
 CU'LINARY VEGETABLES. Plants cultivated in gar- 
 dens, and sometimes in fields, for culinary purposes. They 
 may be classed as — leaf plants, such as the cabbage tribe, 
 spinaceous plants, salads, pot and sweet herbs ; stalk plants, 
 such as asparagus, tart rhubarb, sea kale, &c. ; roots, such 
 as the turnip, carrot, potato, &c. ; seeds, such as the pea 
 and bean ; fruit, such as the cucumber, gourd, <fcc. ; and 
 the entire plants, such as the onion, leek, mushroom, &c. 
 They may be otherwise arranged, as — the cabbage family ; 
 the leguminous family ; esculent roots ; spinaceous plants ; 
 aliaceous plants; asparaginous plants; acetarious plants; 
 pot herbs, sweet herbs, plants used in tarts and confection- 
 ary, and edible fungi. 
 
 CULI'NUS. A term introduced by Linnaeus to denote 
 the stem of Graminacece, which has a peculiar organiza- 
 tion. The term is now used by few writers. 
 
 CU'LLET. The term given to broken glass brought to 
 the glass-house for the purpose of being melted up with 
 fresh materials. 
 
 CULM. A provincial synonym of anthracite. Mineral 
 carbon, glance coal, columnar coal, are-terms also applied 
 to this species of coal, of which Kilkenny coal furnishes 
 an example. 
 
 Culm. In Agriculture, the stem of grasses. 
 
 CULMINA'TION. (Lat. culmen, the top.} The pas- 
 sage of a celestial body over the meridian, or the highest 
 point of its diurnal circle. 
 
 CULTIVA'TOR. An implement of the horse-hoe kind, 
 chiefly used in working fallows. It consists of a framed 
 sometimes of wood and sometimes of iron, into which a 
 number of coulters, or tines, are introduced ; which, when 
 the instrument is drawn along lands already ploughed, 
 penetrate to the bottom of the furrow, and thoroughly pul- 
 verize the soil. One of the best of these implements for 
 using on a large scale is Finlayson's harrow ; but it requires 
 six horses to work it properly. On a small scale, and for 
 working with two horses between rows of plants, Wilkie's 
 grubber is an excellent implement ; as is that known as 
 Kirkwood's cultivator. 
 
 CU'LTRATE. (Lat. culter, a ploughshare.) Coulter- 
 shaped, as when a body is straight on one side and curved 
 on the other. 
 
 CU'LVEIIT. An arched channel of masonry built be- 
 neath the bed of a canal, for the purpose of conducting 
 water under the canal. If the water to be conveyed has 
 nearly the same level as the canal, the culvert is built in 
 the form of an inverted siphon, and acts on the principle 
 of a water pipe. This word also signifies any arched 
 channel for water under ground. 
 
 CU'L VERIN. A cannon equal to an 18-pounder ; a demy- 
 ciUverin is a 9 pounder. 
 
 CU'MIN SEED. The seed or fruit of the Cuminum 
 eyminum. It is imported from Sicily and Malta. It forms 
 an ingredient in curry powder, and in some kinds of cheese ; 
 it has also been used medicinally, but is unimportant. It 
 has a very peculiar odour, and a bitter and aromatic taste. 
 In poultices and plaisters, it is supposed to promote the 
 dispersion of indolent tumours. Some of the Roman 
 poets allude to its power of producing pallor and languor. 
 
 CU'NEATE. (Lat. cuneus, a wedge.) An animal or 
 part is so called which has the longitudinal diameter ex- 
 ceeding the transverse, and narrowing gradually down- 
 wards. 
 
 CU'NEIFORM LETTERS, called Keilschri/ten by 
 the Germans. (Lat. cuneus, a wedge.) The name given 
 to the inscriptions found on old Babylonian and Persian 
 monuments, from the characters being formed like a 
 wedge. This species of writing, as it is the simplest, so 
 it is the most ancient of which we have any knowledge ; 
 and though it is difficult to say by whom or in what coun- 
 try it was invented, its use was common to the Medes, Per- 
 sians, and Assyrians, at the most remote periods of their 
 history. It should seem, however, that the peculiarity of 
 Its form caused it to be employed, like the hieratic charac- 
 ter of the Egyptians, chiefly in monumental inscriptions, 
 there being anothermode of writing in use better calculated 
 for ordinary purposes ; and Mr. Rich conjectures that it fell 
 into disuse soon after Alexander's cenquest of Persia, 
 
 ;ias ' 
 
 CUPID. 
 
 when neither the Persians nor the Babylonians had any 
 monuments to erect or events to record. The native 
 princes, says that ingenious traveller, who wrested the 
 throne of Persia from his feeble successors, adopted the 
 Greek language and character in their coins and inscrip- 
 tions ; and all recollection of the cuneiform writing must 
 have perished during the long period in which they held 
 the sceptre of Iran. 
 
 About seventy years ago, a few specimens of inscriptions 
 existing at Persepolis having found their way into Europe, 
 the attention of the learned was directed to the subject; 
 and many German philologists, at the head of whom' was 
 the celebrated Tychsen, applied themselves to the task of 
 deciphering and translating these inscriptions with an un- 
 rivalled energy and enthusiasm. It was not, however, till 
 the commencement of the present century, when Dr. 
 Grotefend of Hanover engaged in the pursuit, that the 
 mystery in which this species of writing had for so many 
 centuries been involved began to be cleared up, and the 
 foundation laid of a more satisfactory and philosophical 
 mode of explication. As might be expected on a subject 
 on which so much wing may be given to the imagination, 
 the most diverse and extraordinary theories have been pro- 
 pounded respecting it, many of them supported by ingeni- 
 ous reasonings, and displaying great learning and research ; 
 but as the general opinion inclines to regard Dr. G rote fend 's 
 theory as based on the most solid foundation, and as the 
 most likely to lead to important results,we shall limit our- 
 selves to giving a brief summary of his views. According 
 to him this mode of writing is formed of two radical signs, 
 — the wedge and the angle, — susceptible, however, of about 
 thirty different combinations ; and consists of three va- 
 rieties, distinguished from each other by a greater or less 
 complication of the characters. It is of Asiatic origin ; is 
 written from right to left, like the Sanscrit; differs from 
 the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, inasmuch as it is alpha- 
 betic, not ideographic ; and, finally, with a few considerable 
 modifications, forms the basis of most of the Eastern lan- 
 guages. The views of Dr. Grotefend received striking confir- 
 mation from the researches of Mr. Rich, whose valuable 
 Memoirs, enriched as they are with numerous inscriptions 
 found at Babylon and Persepolis, cannot fail to give con- 
 siderable impulse to the prosecution of this intricate study. 
 A full exposition of this species of writing would prove one 
 of the most valuable accessions to modern literature, as it 
 would throw a flood of light upon many points of the man- 
 ners, customs, and civil polity of many Eastern nations now 
 enveloped in the most profound obscurity, and rescue their 
 ancient history from the gross fictions by which it is disfigur- 
 ed in the modern literature of Persia. But upon this subject 
 we are far from entertaining very sanguine hopes. Apart 
 from the collateral benefits which have flowed from the 
 prosecution of this study, and which have exhibited them- 
 selves chiefly in the greatly increased desire that exists 
 throughout Europe to obtain a knowledge of the Eastern 
 languages, the only direct results by which it has been hith- 
 erto followed may be stated to be the translation of a few 
 minor inscriptions, and the establishment of a canon so ex- 
 tremely arbitrary, that it is very problematical if the labours 
 of others in the same field can be materially benefitted by 
 it. To all who have read the paper of Dr. Grotefend ad- 
 dressed to the university of Gottingen two years ago, in 
 which all that has been done on this subject is exhibited 
 with much perspicuity, it must be matter of painful regret 
 to observe that the immense amount of labour and learn- 
 ing expended upon it has been attended by such incom- 
 mensurate results ; and a study which has proved so un- 
 productive even to its most enthusiastic disciple will scarce- 
 ly be found to improve in the handsof others, who, whatever 
 be their qualifications, can never be expected to surpass the 
 gentleman in question either in learning, ingenuity, or de- 
 votion to the subject. For further information on this sub- 
 ject, the reader is referred to Rich's Memoirs, which con- 
 tain innumerable specimens of the cuneiform writing. 
 
 CU'NONIA'CEjE. (Cunonia, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of arborescent or shrubby Exogens, inha- 
 biting South America and the East Indies; allied so very 
 intimately to Saxifragacem, that they are only distinguish- 
 ed by their arborescent habit and interpetiolar stipules. 
 The bark of some species is used for tanning leather. 
 
 CU'PEL. A shallow earthen vessel, somewhat of a 
 cup shape, geuerally made of bone earth. It is used in 
 the assays of the precious metals, which are fused upon a 
 cupel with lead. Cupellation means the refining of gold or 
 silver upon a cupel. 
 
 CU'PID. (Lat. Cupido.) The Roman name of the Gre- 
 cian god of love Eros ('Epws)- There were three divini- 
 ties, or rather three forms of the same deity, with this ap- 
 pellation (Cic. de Nat. Dear. 3. 23); but the one usually 
 meant when spoken of without any qualification was the 
 son of Mercurv and Venus. Like the rest of the gods, 
 Cupid assumed different shapes ; but he is generally re- 
 presented as a beautiful child with wings, blind, und carry- 
 ing a bow and quiver of arrows, with which he transpierced 
 
CUPOLA. 
 
 the hearts of lovers, inflaming them with desire. Among 
 the ancients he was worshipped with the same solemnity 
 as his mother Venus ; his influence pervaded all creation, 
 animate and inanimate; and vows and sacrifices were 
 daily offered up at his shrine. Statues of Cupid formed 
 among the ancients great objects of vertu. Praxiteles is 
 said to have derived great honour from his statues of this 
 divinity ; and in his orations against Verres, Cicero has 
 given celebrity to one statue of Cupid by this artist, which 
 formed an object of peculiar veneration to the Thespians. 
 
 CU'POLA. (It) In Architecture. See Dome. 
 
 CU'PPING. (From the cup shape of the glasses used 
 in its performance.) In this operation a cup-shaped glass 
 is used, into which the large flame of a spirit lamp is 
 momentarily introduced, so as to expel a great part of its 
 air by dilatation ; it is then instantly applied to some part 
 of the body, which is forced into it by the external pres- 
 sure ; and on removing the glass a circular red mark is 
 left, from the propulsion of the blood in the small vessels 
 of the part : this is called dry cuffing. It is generally fol- 
 lowed up by making a number of incisions in the part by 
 means of an instrument called a scarificator, from which 
 the blood oozes, and from which a considerable portion 
 may be drawn by again applying the capping glass. Cup- 
 ping, when well performed, is not a very painful or disa- 
 ration, and is an excellent mode of local blood- 
 letting. When the operator is not dexterous, it is not 
 only painful, but often dangerous in its consequences. The 
 bleeding may generally be easily stopped by a piece of lint 
 or soft rag ; but this should he looked after, as instances 
 have occurred of persons bleeding to death from the 
 wrounds of a acarifii 
 
 CUPt : U'FEU,K (I.at . cupa, acvp./ A natural order of 
 arborescent or shrubby Exogenous plants, inhabiting all 
 temperate and some hot climates. They are distinguished 
 by their amentaceous flowers and peculiarly veined leaves 
 from all European trees; anil from other plants by their 
 opetalous superior rudimeiftary calyx, fruit enclosed in a 
 husk or cup; and by their nuts, which contain but one 
 cell and one or two seeds, in consequence of the abortion 
 of the remainder. These plants are akin to Belulucea and 
 Salicacem, from which they are diitingoiahed by the pre- 
 sence of a calyx and the reining of the leaves. They are 
 nearly allied to UrticaceeD ; but differ in their many-celled 
 ovary, pendulous ovules, and superior calyx. This order 
 comprehends the oak, hazel, beech, chestnut, and horn- 
 beam. — well known valuable forest trees. 
 
 CURACO'A. A liqueur which derives its name from 
 the island of Curacoa: it is prepared in great perfection by 
 the Dutch. It derives its flavour from Seville orange peel, 
 with a small quantity of cinnamon and mace. 
 
 CI i: \>sow. -SfceCRAx. 
 
 CU'RATE. (Lat. curare, to take care.) Properly an in- 
 cumbent who has the cure of souls ; now generally re- 
 stricted to signify the spiritual assistant of a rector or vicar 
 in his cure. Curates form the lowest order of the clergy ; 
 and are divided into two classes, perpetual and stipendiary. 
 "Perpetual curates are such as are appointed to the 
 churches of those parishes in which the tithes were ap- 
 propriated to some monastery before the statute 4 II. 4. 
 making it necessary to endow a vicar, or which had from 
 some cause or other escaped its operation:" or they are 
 such as officiate in some chapel: in either of which cases, 
 their salary is usually paid by some fixed payment, or by 
 a portion of the tithes appropriated for their maintenance 
 at the foundation of the chapel. Stipendiary curates are 
 such as are appointed by the vicar or rector to officiate at 
 their churches in their stead. The salary of stipendiary 
 curates is defrayed by the party who appoints them ; ami 
 by the 57 Geo. 3. c. 90. it must in no case be under 90/. ; 
 and where the population of the parish amounts to 500, 
 with certain restrictions, \~M. (See M'Culloch's Slat. 
 Brit. Empire, vol. ii. 280. 2d ed.) 
 
 CURA TOR (Lat.), in a general sense, signifies a per- 
 son who is appointed to take care of any thing. Among 
 the ancient Romans, there were officers in every branch 
 of the public service to whom this appellation was given : 
 thus we read of Curator es frumenti, viarum, operum jrub- 
 licorum, Tiberis, «&c. &c. ; i. e. persons who distributed 
 corn, superintended the making of roads and the public 
 buildings, or were conservators of the river. Curator, in 
 the Civil Law, is the guardian of a minor who has attained 
 the age of fourteen. Before that aire, minors are under a 
 tutor. The guardianship of persons under various dis- 
 abilities, and of the estate of deceased or absent persons 
 and insolvents, is also committed to a curator. This title 
 is derived from the ancient Romans, by whom, as was re- 
 marked above, it was given to various officers who acted 
 as superintendents of different departments of the public 
 service. In learned institutions, the officer who has charge 
 of libraries, collections of natural history, &c. is frequently 
 styled curator. 
 
 CURB ROOF. (Fr. courber, to bend.) In Architec- 
 ture, a roof in which the rafters, instead of continuing 
 309 
 
 CURRENT. 
 
 straight down from the ridge to tne 
 walls, are at. a given height received 
 on plates, which in their turn are sop- 
 ported by rafters less inclined to the 
 horizon, whose bearing is, through 
 the medium of the wall-plate, directlv 
 on the walls. It presents a bent ap- 
 pearance, as in the diagram, whence it derives its name. 
 
 CURCU'LIO. (Lat. curculio, a tceevil.) A Linntean ge- 
 nus of Coleopterous insects, now the type of an extensive 
 family,— Curculionidai, or weevils belonging to the Te- 
 tramerous section of the order. The prolongation of the 
 anterior part of the head, in the form of a proboscis or 
 snout, at once distinguishes the insects of the present fa 
 mily from all other beetles. The number of the C. 
 lionida may be imagined when it is staled that entomolo 
 gists have found it necessary to distribute them into nearly 
 three hundred subgenera. They are all vegetable feeders, 
 and include some of the most dangerous enemies to the 
 vegetable stores of mankind. 
 
 CU'RFEW. (From the French couvre-feu, in modern 
 Latin ignitegium.) The practice of tolling the church bell 
 at eight or some other hour in the evening, to warn people 
 to extinguish their fires, was a very common one in the 
 middle ages. It is difficult to say on what foundation tlie 
 common tradition, that William the Conqueror Introduced 
 it from Normandy to prevent the English from assembling 
 in the evening to plan schemes of rebellion, rests Lord 
 Lyltleton, in his lift of Henry II., discusses the question. 
 It is more probable that the Conqueror enforced a very 
 common police regulation. The real reason of the curfew 
 was to prevent fires. The custom of ringing the evening 
 or curfew bell is still retained in many places. (Sec 
 Brand's Popular An/ii/uitics. vol. ii. p. 136, 137.) 
 
 CU'RIA. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, a court, coun- 
 cil, or senate house. 
 
 CU'RIES, Curia!. A subdivision of the Roman patr.- 
 cian tribes, each of which were divided into ten cun(?. 
 Three curies probably contained originally ten no 
 (gentes) each. These houses were similar to the Scottish 
 clans, in which, though the bond of union was supposed to 
 be that of common bloo.l. yet in reality there was no con- 
 sanguinity betwet o many of (he component families. 
 
 CURL. A disease In potatoes, in which the leaves on 
 their first appearance appear curled and shrunk up ; and 
 laently, as they do not present a sufficient surface to 
 the light to elaborate the sap in a sufficient manner for car- 
 rying on the growth of the plant, it neveracquires strength, 
 and either dies, or produces very imperfect tubers. The 
 cause of the disease In the first instance is generally sup- 
 posed to be the unhealthy state of the set ; but something 
 also may be owing to bad management and improper soil. 
 CU'RKANT. The fruit of two species of Biles; name- 
 ly, B. rubrum, which furnishes the common red and white 
 currants; and the B. nigrum, which produces the black 
 currant. The currants of the grocers' shops are the dried 
 berries of a small species of grape cultivated in Zante, 
 Ceiihalonia, and Ithaca; and in the Morea in the vicinity 
 of Patras. Notwithstanding the heavy duty of 22s. 2d. per 
 cwL, With which this commodity is burdened, they are 
 largely imported into the British empire. The entries of 
 currants for home consumption amounted at an average 
 of the two years ending 1838 to 193,827 cwt., producing an 
 I annual revenue of 189.192J/. 
 
 CU'RRENCY. (Lat. curro, I run.) In Political Eco- 
 nomy, a term sometimes used to express the collective 
 amount of the money, and of the bills, checques, and other 
 substitutes for money, employed in selling or buying, or in 
 the distribution of the commodiiies and services among 
 the different ranks and orders of the community. 
 
 CU'RRENT (Lat. curro), denotes in its most general 
 sense the progressive movement of any object ; but it is 
 applied chiefly to the progressive movement of fluids, espe- 
 cially of air, electricity, and water. 
 
 Currents in the ocean arise from various causes, either 
 occasional or constant. They may be occasioned by an ex- 
 ternal impulsion, for example a gale of wind ; from a dif- 
 ference in* the temperature of different parts of the sea ; 
 from the inequality of evaporation, the melting of the polar 
 ice, or in short any cause tending to disturb the hydrostatic 
 equilibrium. It is difficult in many cases to trace their 
 causes, or to give any satisfactory theory of their existence ; 
 but on account of their importance to navigation they have 
 been observed, especially of late years, with great care. 
 Among those which have a permanent or general charac- 
 ter, there are two which are very remarkable. The first is 
 that of the tropical waters westward round the globe, and 
 the second that which constantly flows from each pole 
 towards the equator. The tropical or westerly current is 
 chiefly confined within the zone extending to about 30° on 
 each side of the equator, and its velocity is estimated by 
 Humboldt at about nine or ten mile3 a day. In the Atlan- 
 tic it separates into two branches : one of which forms the 
 gulf stream; and the other flows along the coast of Brazil, 
 
CURRYING. 
 
 and passes through the Straits of Magellan. The gulf 
 wream flows northward through the middle of the Atlantic, 
 till it reaches the Cape Verd Islands ; it then passes through 
 the Caribbean Sea, between Cuba and the peninsula of 
 Yucatan, sweeps round the Gulf of Mexico, and rushes out 
 by the Bahama Channel ; then, spreading out to a greater 
 breadth, it continues its course along the shores of the 
 United Slates to Newfoundland, where it is deflected east- 
 ward by a current setting in from Baffin's Bay ; and, pass- 
 ing the Azores and Canary Islands, returns in a great mea- 
 sure into itself. Its breadth is 51 leagues in the Bahama 
 Channel, and velocity from 3 to 5 miles an hour. (Mur- 
 i>:y's Geography, p. 186.) The polar currents flow con- 
 stantly from the poles towards the equator, though it is evi- 
 dent that their sources must be supplied by currents in a 
 contrary direction. Their existence is proved by the great 
 masses of ice which are carried every year from the polar 
 seas to tropical latitudes. Oceanic currents, by carrying 
 with them the temperature of the regions whence they 
 flow, contribute in no small degree to modify the tempera- 
 ture of the atmosphere, and give a character to the climate 
 of the countries to which they are contiguous. On the 
 parallel of New York Humboldt found the temperature of 
 the gulf stream 72° of FahrenheiL while out of the current 
 the heat of the ocean at the surface was only 63°. The 
 current which flows along the eastern coast of Africa, and 
 doubles the Cape of Good Hope in a stream 130 miles 
 broad, is from 7° to 8° warmer than the contiguous sea. 
 '!':;<• existence of under currents in the ocean is suspected 
 rather than proved. For currents in the atmosphere, see 
 Winds. 
 
 CU'RRYING. (Fr. corroyer.) The art of dressing 
 skins after they are tanned, for the purposes of the shoe- 
 maker, saddler, and harness-maker, &c. ; or of giving them 
 the necessary smoothness, lustre, colour, and suppleness. 
 The operation of currying is performed in two ways ; either 
 upon the flesh, or on the hair, or, as it is technically called, 
 the grain; and consists chiefly of four processes, which 
 require great experience and dexterity. The reader will 
 find in Dr. Ure's Dictionary of Arts, 4"c. a full account of 
 this curious operation, accompanied by a wood cut illustra- 
 tive of the singular tools and manipulations which it re- 
 quires. 
 
 CU'RSITORS. (Lat. curro, 1 run.} Officers in the 
 Court of Chancery, whose duty it is to make out original 
 writs. They are called also clerks of the course (clerici 
 de cursu) ; and are 24 in number, forming a peculiar cor- 
 poration. Cursitor Baron is the name of an officer in the 
 Court of Exchequer, who administers the oath to all high 
 sheriffs, under sheriffs, bailiffs, and all the functionaries of 
 the customs. 
 
 CURTAI'L STEP. (Lat. curtus, short.) The lower step 
 in a flight of stairs ending at its outer extremity in a scroll. 
 Pei haps taking its name from the step curling round like a 
 cur's tail. 
 
 CURTA'NA. The sword (as it, is called) of Edward the 
 Confessor, which has its edge blunted as an emblem of 
 Mercy. It is carried between the swords of justice tem- 
 poral and justice spiritual ; and borne before the kings of 
 England at their coronation. 
 
 CU'IITATE DISTANCE. A term employed in astro- 
 nomy to denote a planet's distance from the sun reduced 
 lo the plane of the ecliptic. The curtate (or shortened) dis- 
 tance is therefore equal to the true distance multiplied by 
 the cosine of the planet's heliocentric latitude. 
 
 CU'RTESY or COURTESY OF ENGLAND, in Law, 
 is the right of a husband who has married a wife seised in 
 fee simple or fee tail general, or heiress in special tail, and 
 has issue male or female born alive, and which by possi- 
 bility may inherit, to hold her lands after her death for his 
 life. (>S"ee Marriage, Law of.) Thus, four things are 
 said to te necessary to give an estate by the curtesy, — 
 marriage, seisin of the wife, issue, and death of the wife. 
 
 CU'RULE MAGISTRACIES, in Ancient History, were 
 those of the greatest dignity in the Roman state ; and were 
 distinguished from all others by the privilege enjoyed by 
 the persons who held them of sitting on ivory chairs (sella 
 curules) when engaged in their public functions. The cu- 
 rule magistrates were the consuls, prstors, censors, and 
 chief sedilea ; which last, on account of this privilege, were 
 called curule rediles, to distinguish them from the plebeian. 
 
 CU'RVATURE. The continual flexure or bending of a 
 line from the rectilinear direction. The curvature of a 
 circle is greater in proportion as the radius issma.Ier; and 
 the curvature of any other curve at a given point is mea - 
 sured by comparing it with a circle which osculates it, or 
 forms with it a contact of a particular kind at that point. 
 Osculating Circle, and Radius op Curvature.) 
 The determination of the curvature of curve lines requires 
 I tie aid <>( the differential calculus. 
 
 CURVE. In Analytical Geometry, a line of which no 
 
 ooosecutive points are in the same direction or straight 
 
 line. The general theory of curve lines, and of the figures 
 
 bounded by them, forms an extensive and important nart 
 
 310 
 
 CURVE. 
 
 of mathematical science, and in fact properly constitutes 
 what is called the high or transcendent geometry. It will 
 easily be understood, however, that the curves which form 
 the object of geometrical speculation are those only of 
 which the succession of points observes a regular law, ca- 
 pable of being expressed by a mathematical formula ; not 
 those which are formed irregularly by the hand, for exam- 
 ple, like letters in writing. 
 
 Although the ancient geometricians had bestowed some 
 attention on the subject of curve lines, and in addition to 
 the conic sections had investigated some of the properties 
 of a few other curves, as the cissoid, the conchoid, partic- 
 ular kinds of spirals, and perhaps others whose names may 
 have been forgotten: yet their researches had only led 
 them to the knowledge of a small number of particular 
 propositions deduced from a laborious consideration of 
 the circumstances of each individual case, and not admit- 
 ting of extended application. The general methods of in- 
 vestigation which the modern geometer can apply with so 
 much greater advantage are owing to the progress of alge- 
 bra, and the happy invention by Descartes of the method 
 of defining curves by algebraic equations. 
 
 Let M N be a curve, and A B, A C two straight lines in 
 the same plane, to which all its points are referred ; then 
 A B and A C are the axes of the curve. Take a point P in 
 the curve, and draw P O. parallel to A C ; the line AQ is 
 called the absciss of the point P, and is denoted by x ; and 
 P Q, the ordinate, and denoted by y. Now 
 c I 3" if for any given value of A Q. a correspond- 
 ing value ofPQ. can be assigned, that is, If 
 P Q. can be expressed in terms of A Q. and 
 known quantities, that expression is called 
 the equation of the curve, and all its pro- 
 perties can be thence deduced by means 
 
 A- 4 K of algebraic transformations without any 
 
 reference to the diagram. 
 
 The first use of this method of defining curve lines by 
 means of an equation between the absciss and ordinate is 
 to enable us to divide them into classes, of which all the 
 individuals have some properties in common. Descartes 
 divided them into two great classes, — geometrical and me- 
 chanical. It. is now usual to indicate the same distinctions 
 by the terms algebraic and transcendental. Algebraic 
 curves are those in which the relation between the absciss 
 and the ordinate is expressed by an algebraic equation 
 transcendental curves are those in which the relation be 
 tween x and y is not expressed by an algebraic, but by a 
 differential equation ; that is, by an equation between d 3 
 and d y. There is still a class which may be regarded a. 
 intermediate between these two ; namely, exponentia. 
 curves, or those in the equation of which one or both o! 
 the unknown quantities enters as an exponent. Such, foi 
 example, is the equation y= a*. 
 
 In order to form an ideaof a curve of which the equation 
 is given, it is necessary to suppose the equation resolved ; 
 that is to say, that the value of y is found in terms of x and 
 given numbers. This being found, we take all the positive 
 values of x from to -f infinity, and also all the negative 
 values to — infinity. The corresponding ordinates or values 
 of y will give all the points of the curve ; the positive or- 
 dinates being taken on one side of the axis of the abscissa, 
 and the negative on the opposite side. 
 
 Algebraic curves are divided into different classes oi 
 orders, according to the degree of the equation which ex- 
 presses the relation between their co-ordinates. Straight 
 lines are denominated lines of the first order, because tin 
 equation of a straight line being of the form = A -f- B i 
 -j- C y, is only of one dimension ; that is to say, it con- 
 tains no powers or products of the variables x and y 
 Lines of the second order are those of which the equatior 
 rises to two dimensions. The general form of this equa- 
 tion is, 
 
 = A+ B x + C y + D *' + E xy+ F y* ; 
 and the curves which it includes are the conic sections; 
 that is, the circle, the ellipse, the hyperbola, and the para- 
 bola. These curve lines are the simplest of all, because 
 lines of the first order are not curves; hence they are 
 sometimes called curves of the first order. Following out the 
 analogy, lines of the third, or those whose equation rises to 
 the third degree, are curves of the second order, and so on. 
 
 The dimension of the equation of a curve line is not al- 
 tered by changing the origin or position of its co-ordinates, 
 or in making any transformation of its axes. It follows, 
 therefore, that a line of the nth order can never be inter- 
 sected by a straight line in more than n points, because the 
 ordinates can never have more than n real values. This 
 follows from the general theory of equations; and in fact 
 all the properties of any curve line being deducible from 
 its equation, a complete theory of algebraic equations of 
 any degree includes the theory of lines of that order. In 
 this way it is proved that all lines of any order of which the 
 number is uneven have necessarily at least two infinite 
 branches ; for in this case one at least of the co-ordinates 
 is raised to an uneven power in the equation — for example. 
 
CUSCUTACE.E. 
 
 me 3d, the 5th, &c. ; and therefore will have at least one 
 real value, whatever value (which may be increased in in- 
 finitum, positively and negatively) may be given to the 
 other coordinate. 
 
 We have mentioned that the lines of the second order 
 include only the circle and the conic sections. Newton, In 
 his Enumeratio Linearum Tertii Ordinis, reckons 72 ipe- 
 ties of lines of die third order, or curves of the 2d degree. 
 As the order is more elevated the number of genera and 
 species becomes more numerous. The subdivisions into 
 genera and sjiecies are, however, founded on some arbi- 
 trary properties, and consequently are not made uniformly 
 by different authors. Cramer, in his Analyse des Lignes 
 Courbes, found fourteen different genera of curves of the 
 third order ; and Euler (Introductio in Analysin Infinito- 
 rum) sixteen. The whole number of curves belonging to 
 this order has been supposed to amount to some thousands. 
 
 Curves of Double Cuivalure. — Hitherto we have spoken 
 only of curves on a plane ; but if they are traced on sur- 
 fuses which an not plane, they will have a double curva- 
 ture ; that which belongs to the line itself, and that of the 
 surface on which it is traced. In order to investigate the 
 properties of a curve of this sort, it must be supposed to be 
 projected on two different planes perpendicular to each 
 other; the projections will be two ordinary curves having 
 a common axis and different ordinates. One of these 
 curves will be defined by an equation between x and y, and 
 the other by an equation between x and:; so that the 
 equation ot a curve of double curvature is composed of 
 two equations, each containing (wo variables, of which one 
 is common to both equations, and taken on the line of in- 
 tersection of the two planes of projection. 
 
 Curve Surfaces. — A curve surface is represented alge- 
 braically by an equation containing three variables ; for ex- 
 ample, r, y, and z. It is geometrical when its equation is 
 algebraic, and expressed in finite terms; and mechanical 
 when the equation is differential, and not algebraic. Curve 
 (surfaces are also class _ r to the dimensions of 
 
 the variables in their equations When the variables are 
 only of the second degree, the surfaces are of the second 
 order; when the variable co-ordinates rise to the third de- 
 gree, they are surfaces of the third order, and so on. 
 
 The most complete treatise on the theory of curve lines 
 is that of Cramer, Introduction a V Analyse des Lignes 
 Covrbes; but more or lesson the subject is contained in 
 every work treating of the application of algebra to geome- 
 try. For curve surfaces, and curves of double curvature, 
 nt may consult Lacroix's large work. Traitc du 
 Calcul Differential et du Calcul Integral; or the Applica- 
 tion de I' A imli/se it la Geometric of Monge. 
 
 ( I si'i |\'< K.i; iCusiula, one of the genera.) A 
 very small natural order of Exogens, consisting of but one 
 genus, Inhabiting all the quarters of the globe, anil related 
 ea ■ ,- hut distinguished by the imbricate co- 
 rolla, which does not fall off alter flowering, the spiral em- 
 bryo, an. 1 the parasitical habit Common dodder, a curi- 
 td-like twining plant, found on heaths, belongs to 
 rder, 
 
 CU8P. (i.at. cuspis, point.) In Astronomy, expresses 
 the points or horns of the moon. In geometry the word 
 bused to denote the point or corner formed by two parts 
 of a curve meeting and terminating there. 
 
 Cusp. In Architecture, a term applied by Sir James 
 Hall, in his Origin of Gothic Architecture, to the spear- 
 thaped ornaments appended to the several points of tre- 
 foil. ipiatrefi.il, &e. arches ; but this term, it is to beobserv- 
 11 generally adopted bv architects. 
 
 f'isrVKIA BARK. See AnoustVha. 
 
 (I '8PIDATE. (Lat euspiS.) In Itotany, a term used 
 ibing the apex of a body, when it gradually tapers 
 into a rigid point. It is also used sometimes lo express ab- 
 ruptlv acuminate, as the leaf of many Ruin. 
 
 CI STAKI) APPLE. A term applied in the West In- 
 dies lo tlie fruit of the Anona reticulata. 
 
 01 'STOM, (Fr. coutume), in Law, signifies generally a 
 right or law not written, but established by long us 
 render a custom valid it has been said that the following 
 qualities are requisite:— 1. Antiquity; i.e. that it shall have 
 been used as far back as time of legal memory, that is, the 
 fiist yearof Richard I. 2. Continuance without interrup- 
 tion; 3. Without dispute. 4. It must be reasonable ; and 5. 
 Certain. 6. Compulsory. 7. Customs must be consistent 
 with each other. Customs in derogation of the common 
 law must be construed strictly. General customs, relating 
 to all England, are determinable by the judges; but local 
 by a jury. An exception to this rule is to be found 
 In the Custom nj the City of London, which, if questioned, 
 ilished by certificate of the mayor and aldermen ; 
 with the exception of those customs from which the cor- 
 poration Itself claims a benefit. Customs (coutumes). in 
 the law of France, were the laws relating both to moveable 
 and immoveable properly peculiar to different districts of 
 the kingdom before the Revolution. Districts governed by 
 ■vustoins were commonly termed pays coutumiere, in con- 
 311 
 
 CUTTING. 
 
 tradistinction to the remainder of the realm, which being 
 under the civil law was termed pays de droit Ilomain The 
 pays coutumiers embraced all the north of France. The 
 valid coulumes were estimated at 140 general, or compre- 
 hending districts, and 360 local, belonging to towns and 
 places; but the enumeration was not exact. Theeotttiune 
 de Paris was the most important of all ; and it was a gene- 
 rally recognized principle that when a case was unprovided 
 for by local custom, that of Paris was to be applied in ati 
 Works Containing the customary law of a particular di.» 
 triet are styled Coutumiert. 
 
 CU'STOMARY FREEHOLD, in Law, is a superior kind 
 of copyhold ; the tenant holding, as it is expressed, by copy 
 of court roll, butnotat the will of the lord. See Copyhold. 
 
 CU'STOMS. (Lat. portoria.) In Finance, duties charged 
 on the importation or exportation of certain commodi- 
 ties ; that is, on their being brought into, or sent from, a 
 country. Such duties were levied in antiquity, and form 
 an important part of the revenue of this and most other 
 modern states. Down to the rera of the Revolution, cus- 
 toms duties were charged indiscriminately on most com- 
 . whether exported or imported; hut since the 
 epoch in question they have been almost exclusively laid 
 on imported articles ; those laid on exports being, in most 
 instances, imposed rather to check or prevent the exporta- 
 tion of the articles, than in the view of raising revenue. 
 
 Were this tie- proper place for such investigations, it 
 might be easily shown that moderate customs duties are 
 about the least exceptionable of all taxes. They are col- 
 lected with the greatest possible facility, involruu no in- 
 quiry Into the circumstances of individuals, as is the case 
 with taxes on income or properly ; nor any interference of 
 any sort with the processes carried on in the arts, as is the 
 case with certain excise duties. By allowing imported 
 goods to be lodged in bonded warehouses, under the joint 
 locks of the king ami the importer, the revenue is protect- 
 ed, without its t.' iy for the importer to pay the 
 duties till the goods be withdrawn for consumption, so thai 
 but little additional capital is required to be at the command 
 of the Importing merchant because of the articles in which 
 he deals being subject to duties, and but little addition is 
 the price of the goods on account of 
 the profits accruing to the dealers on the duties. 
 
 Customs duties should not be carried to such a height 
 as to give any overpowering stimulus to smuggliie. 
 then contradict and defeat the very purpose for which they 
 are intended. Our finance ministers have not. however, 
 been sufficiently alive to this obvious consideration. There 
 can be no articles better fitted to bear customs duties than 
 tobacco and spirits; but the duties with which they are 
 loaded are so extravagantly high, that they occasion a great 
 deal of smuggling, with its accompanying crime and de- 
 moralization, and would certainly be agood deal more pro- 
 ductive, were they effectually reduced. The existing 
 brandy and geneva are, perhaps, the very worst 
 in our tariff; bat they would be about the very best, were 
 they reduced from 22s. W. to 8s. or 10s. a gallon. 
 
 We subjoin an account of the gross and nett amount of 
 the customs duty collected in each of the great divisions 
 of the United Kingdom in 1837 and 1838. 
 
 England 
 Scotland 
 Ireland 
 
 Total 
 
 Grow Receipt. 
 
 1837. 
 
 Gi-om Receipt, 
 1838. 
 
 Nett Receipt, 
 1837. 
 
 Nett Receipt, 
 1838. 
 
 L. «. 
 
 1 9, 321, '.'24 15 
 1,626,291 19 
 1,945,849 3 
 
 L. «. 
 19,555,250 15 
 1,666,999 
 
 1,951,507 17 
 
 L. ». 
 17,471,469 10 
 1,40-2920 fi 
 1,682; 169 7 
 
 L. i. 
 17,734,405 17 
 1,3.0,000 18 
 1,693,776 
 
 22,893,465 17 
 
 23,203,157 12 
 
 20,5311,559 3 
 
 20,754,182 15 
 
 CU'TICLE. (Lat. cutis, skin.) In Anatomy, the scarf 
 skin. The exterior membranous covering of the body. In 
 its chemical characters it resembles nail, quill, Ac, and 
 has the properties of a condensed form of albumen. 
 
 Cu'ticlb. In Botany, the thin vesicular membrane that 
 covers the external surface of vegetables, and adheres 
 firmly to Ihe cellular substance beneath it. It acts in plant? 
 as a means of preventing a too rapid perspiration, and is 
 furnished with respiratory openings called stomata. 
 
 CU'TLERY. A term used to designate all kinds of sharp 
 and cutting instruments made of iron or steel, as knives, 
 forks, scissors, razors, &c. The principal seat of the 
 manufacture of British cutlery is Sheffield ; and the articles 
 made there are held in the highest estimation in all parts 
 of the world. See Hardware. 
 
 CU'TTER. A vessel with one mast and a bowsprit, of 
 considerable breadth in proportion to her length. The dis- 
 tinction between a cutter and other vessels of one mast, 
 which are called sloops, is, that in the cutter the jib has no 
 stay lo support it. 
 
 CU'TTINC. An excavation made through land, to con- 
 duct a road through it on a level lower than that of the 
 surrounding land. See Railroad. 
 
CYANIC ACID. 
 
 CYA'NIC ACID. A compound of 26 cyanogen + 8 
 jxygen = 34 cyanic acid. 
 
 OY'ANITE. (Gr. Kvavos, blue.) A massive and crystal- 
 lized mineral. It has a pearly lustre, is translucent, and 
 of various shades of blue : it is a silicate of alumina, with 
 a trace of oxide of iron. Only found in primitive rocks. 
 
 CYA'NOGEN. (Gr. icvavos, and yiyvouai, J am pro- 
 duced ; because it is an essential ingredient of Prussian 
 Jablue.) Cyanogen is a gas of a strong and peculiar odour, 
 ""resembling that of rubbed peach leaves ; it is obtained by 
 heating cyanuret of mercury. Under a pressure of between 
 3 and 4 atmospheres it becomes a limpid liquid. It ex- 
 tinguishes a taper, is highly poisonous and unrespirable, 
 and burns in contact of air with a rich purple flame. Water 
 absorbs between 4 and 5 times its volume of the gas. It is 
 composed of carbon and nitrogen in the proportions of 12 
 carbon + 14 nitrogen = 26 cyanogen ; it is therefore a bi- 
 carburet of nitrogen. Mixed with oxygen it explodes by 
 the electric spark, and is resolved into carbonic acid and 
 nitrogen gas. It combines with hydrogen to produce the 
 hydrocyanic or prussic acid : it forms with the metals cy- 
 amtreis or cyanides. 
 
 CYANO'METER. (Gr. Kvavos, and utrpov, mea- 
 sure.) An instrument contrived by Saussure for de- 
 termining the deepness of the tint of the atmosphere. 
 A circular band of thick paper or pasteboard is divided 
 into 51 parts, each of which is painted with a different 
 shade of blue, decreasing gradually from the deepest blue 
 formed by a mixture of black, to the lightest formed by a 
 mixture of white. The coloured zone is held in the hand 
 of the observer, who notices the particular lint which cor- 
 responds to the colour of the sky. The number of this 
 tint, reckoned from the lightest shade, marks the intensity 
 at the time of observation. 
 
 CYANO'SIS. (Gr.) In Medicine, the blue disease. A 
 blueness of the body occasionally arises from malforma- 
 tion of the heart. The whole of the body, and especially 
 its exposed parts, becomes a blue or lead colour, in conse- 
 quence of the administration of nitrate of silver. 
 
 CY'ANU'RETS. Compounds of cyanogen. When 
 Prussian blue is boiled in water with red oxide of mercury, 
 and the solution filtered, it yields white or pale buff crystals 
 of cyanuret of mercury. 
 
 CYANU'RIC ACID. A crystallizablc acid, obtained by 
 decom prising urea bv heat. 
 
 CYilE'LE (Gr. KvjifiXn), in Mythology, was originally 
 the Phrygian goddess of the earth. When her worship 
 was introduced among the Greeks, they confounded her 
 with Rhea, as did the Latins with their Ops. Her rites, 
 like those of the Asiatic deities, in general were celebrated 
 with great excitement ; her priests, who were called Galli, 
 Coryhantes, Curetes, &c, running about with bowlings 
 and clashing of cvmbals. 
 
 CY'CADA'CE^E. (Cycas, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, a very small natural order of arborescent Gym- 
 oosperms, inhabiting the tropic3 of Asia and America. 
 They were formerly referred by Linnasus to the Palms; 
 but in 18S5 Brown showed the analogy between Cycadacea 
 aud Conifera, and hence their present station. Adolphe 
 Brongniart also proved the affinity by finding the vessels 
 contained in the wood of both orders to be, as he says, of 
 the same structure. The only remarkable quality in (ho 
 order is i he production of a kind of sago by the soft centro 
 of Cycas circinalis. 
 
 CY'CLANTHA'CEJE. (Cyclanthus.oneofthegenera.)ln 
 Botany, a natural order of Endogens, inhabiting the tropics 
 of the western hemisphere, and alliedto Pandanacece, from 
 which their plaited leaves and spiral flowers divide them. 
 
 OY'CLAS, SINGLETON, <fcc. An article of dress worn 
 both with and without defensive armour, which came into 
 fashion about the reigns of Edward II. and III. in England. 
 It was a mantle or surcoat without sleeves, of silk, cloth, 
 &c, reaching to the knees before and to the calves of the 
 legs behind. It was succeeded by the japon or gyppon, 
 a shorter kind of surcoat. 
 
 CY'CLAS. (Gr. kvk\os, a circle.) A genus of fresh- 
 water air-breathing Gastropods or snails, so named on ac- 
 count of the more or less rounded circumference of the 
 shell in all the species. Of these thefollowingare natives 
 of Britain : — the river cycle (Cyclas rivicola, Leach), the 
 largest species of which is not uncommon in the smaller 
 streams communicating with the Thames; the horny cycle 
 (C. cornea, Lam.), common in ditches near Battersea; 
 cupped cycle (Cyclas calyculata, Drap.) ; lake cycle (Cy- 
 clas lacustris, Drap.) 
 
 CY'CLE. (Gr. kvk\oc.) The revolution of a certain 
 period of time which finishes and recommences perpetu- 
 ally. Cycles were invented for the purposes of chronology, 
 and for marking the intervals in which two or more periods, 
 of unequal length, are each completed a certain number of 
 times, so that both begin exactly in the same circumstances 
 as at first. The cycles used in chronology are three ; the 
 cycle of th'sun, the cycle of the moon or Metonic cycle, and 
 the cycle of indiclion. 
 312 
 
 CYCLOID. 
 
 The cycle of the sun, or solar cycle, is a period of time 
 after which the same days of the week recur on the same 
 days of the year. If the number of days in the year were 
 always the same, this cycle could only contain seven years , 
 but the order is interrupted by the intercalations. In the 
 Julian calendar the intercalary day returns every fourth 
 year, and the cycle consequently contains 4 X 7 = 28 years ; 
 after which period the Dominical letters return in the same 
 order, or the first day of the year and of every month falls 
 again on the same day of the week. The origin of this cycle 
 is unknown ; it is supposed to have been invented about the 
 time of the Council of Nice (325) ; but the first year of the 
 cycle is placed by chronologists nine years before the com 
 mencement of the Christian era. Hence the year of th 5 
 cycle corresponding to any given year in the Julian calen- 
 dar is found by the following rule -.— Add nine to the date, 
 and divide the sum by twenty-eight ; the quotient is the 
 number of cycles elapsed, and the remainder is the year of 
 the cycle. Should there be no remainder, the proposed 
 year is the 28th, or last of the cycle. In the reformed ca- 
 lendar this rule can only apply from century to century ; 
 for the order is interrupted by the omission of the interca- 
 lary day every hundredth year, and is not restored till the 
 end of four hundred years. See Dominical Letter. 
 
 The cycle of the moon is a period of 19 solar years, after 
 which the new and full moons fall on the same days of the 
 year as they did 19 years before. This cycle was invented 
 by Meton, a celebrated astronomer of Athens, and the 
 chronological period which he founded on it is celebrated 
 in history under the name of the Metonic cycle. The 
 Metonic cycle contained exactly 6940 days, which ex- 
 ceeds the true length of 19 solar years by nine and a half 
 hours nearly. On the other hand, it exceeds the length of 
 235 lunations, or synodic revolutions of the moon, by seven 
 hours and a half only. The framers of the ecclesiastical 
 calendar, in adopting this period, altered the distribution of 
 the lunar months, in order to accommodate them to the 
 Julian intercalation; and the effect of the alteration was 
 that every three periods of 6940 days was followed by one 
 of 6939. The mean length of the cycle was therefore G939J 
 days, w^.ich agrees exactly with 19 Julian years. A table, 
 therefore, showing the days of the new and full moons for 
 19 years, would serve to show the days of these phenome- 
 na for any year whatever when its number in the cycle is 
 known. The number of the year in the cycle is called the 
 golden number; either because it was so termed by the 
 Greeks, who, on account of its utility, ordered it to be in- 
 scribed in letters of gold in their temples, or more proba- 
 bly because it was usual to distinguish it by red letters in 
 the calendar. The cycle is supposed to commence with 
 the year in which the new moon falls on the 1st of January. 
 This happened in the year preceding the commencement 
 of our era ; hence to find the number of any year in the 
 lunar cycle or the golden number of that year, we have this 
 rule: — Add one to the date, and divide by nineteen; the 
 quotient is the number of cycles elapsed, and the remainder 
 is the year of the cycle. Should there be no remainder, 
 the proposed year is the last or 19th of the cycle. 
 
 Cycle of indiclion, or Roman indiclion, a period of 15 
 years; not astronomical, like the two former, but entirely 
 arbitrary. Its origin and the purpose for which it was estab- 
 lished are alike uncertain; but it is conjectured that it 
 was introduced by Constantine the Great, about the year 
 312 of the common era, and had reference to certain judi- 
 cial acts that took place under the Greek emperors at stated 
 intervals of 15 years. In chronological reckoning, it is 
 considered as having commenced on the 1st of January ol 
 the year 313. By extending it backwards to the beginning 
 of the era, it will be found that the first year of the era cor- 
 responded with the 4th of the cycle. In order, therefore, 
 to find the number of any year in the cycle of indiction, 
 we have this rule : — Add three to the dale ; divide the sum 
 by fifteen, add the remainder is the year of indiclion. See 
 Calendar. 
 
 CY'CLIC CHORUS. The chorus which performed Ihe 
 songs and dances of the Dithyrambic Odes at Athens. 
 They derived their name from the circumstance of their 
 dancing round the altar of Bacchus in a circle (kvk\o0, and 
 were thus distinguished from the square (Ttrpayiovos) cho 
 ruses of tragedy. 
 
 CY'CLIC POETS. (Gr. kvk\os.) This term was ap. 
 plied to a succession of Epic poets who followed Homer, 
 and wrote merely on the Trojan war and the adventures 
 of the heroes immediately connected with it, keeping, as it 
 were, to one circle (kvk\os) of subjects. None of their 
 works have come down to us. 
 
 CY'CLOBRA'NCHIANS, Cyclobranchiala. (Gr. «-u*Ao{, 
 and 0payxta, gills ) The name of an orderof hermaphro- 
 dite Gastropodous Mollusks, including those in which the 
 branchiae consist of little tufts or pyramids attached in a 
 circular arrangement to the inner surface of the margin cf 
 the mantle. 
 
 CYCLOI'D, or TROCHOID. (Gr. ku/cXoj, or rpo\oi 
 teheel ; and £i<5os, form.) In Geometry, one of the tran 
 
he f n 
 
 tiffins 
 
 a a e 
 
 CYCLOIDES. 
 
 icendenlal curves, described by a point P in the circum- 
 ference of a circle which rolls along an extended straight 
 line A B until it has completed a revolution. Some of the 
 properties of the curve are obvious from this definition. 
 The line A B, which is called the 
 base of the cycloid, is equal to the 
 circumference of the generating 
 circle ; and C D, which is the axis 
 af the cycloid, is equal to the di 
 amcier. " In any position E P F of ' 
 the generating circle, A E is equal 
 to the arc E P, A Q, Die absciss = A E — Q E = art E P 
 
 i 1', am) P Q the ordinate =1 — cosine of E P. 
 It is also easy to prove that the whole length of the cycloid 
 A D B is equal to four times C D, and the whole area or 
 space between the curve and its base triple that of the gen- 
 erating circle. A portion of the curve I) P, counted from 
 its summit, is double of F P, the supplemental chord of 
 
 B P J and !•' P is also a tangent to the cycloid at P. 
 The curve has many other remarkable properties which 
 have been discovered by more recondite investigations. 
 Its i n v o lut e, or the curve formed by unfolding a thread or 
 flexible line from its convex side, is a cycloid equal and 
 similar to the original. If a heavy body descends by the 
 force of gravity in an inverted cy- 
 cloid, the velocity which it acquires 
 is exactly proportional to the length 
 
 of the cycloidal arc P D; so that P 
 from whatever point (P, 1") it may 
 fill, it will arrive at the low- 
 est point 1) in precisely the same time. If a body is lo de- 
 scend by the force of gravity from a point A to another 
 point I> not in the same vertical, it will accomplish thepas- 
 Mfa in a loss time by describing the cycloid A P D than by 
 moving in the straight line A I), or in any oilier path what- 
 
 Ske It.'tACIIYSTOCHRONB. 
 
 The cycloid may be made to assume an endless variety 
 of forms b) placing the tracing point not in the circum- 
 ference of the generating circle, but without or within it, 
 ill in the same plane. When the tracing point is 
 Without the circle, the curve has its base shortened, and is 
 called the curtate or contracted cycloid. If the point is 
 within the circumference, the curve is called the prolate or 
 in/Irri,;/ cycloid. 
 
 i ive afforded finer scope for the exercise of 
 modern geometry than the cycloid. Its properties sue- 
 ■ (I the attention of Roberval, Fermal, Dcs- 
 cartea, raacal. Bloatae, Wren, and Wallis. Huygens recti- 
 Bed t lit- curve so early as 1657 ; and having afterwards dis- 
 covered in laoohrootam, or the remarkable property that 
 all bodies gilding along it will descend from any point in the 
 likewise that it produces a similar cycloid 
 . by Ha development, he applied these discoveries to the 
 Improvement of the pendulum, and showed how a perfect- 
 ly synchronous vibration could be procured, theoretically 
 by causing a flexible rod to vibrate between cy- 
 cloidal cheeks. Its property of being the line of swiftest 
 it was discovered by John Bernoulli in 1697. 
 CYCI.Ol'DES. (Gr. xtixAoj.) A name given by Agassiz 
 to one of his orders of fishes, the species composing which 
 log composed of simple layers with smooth mar- 
 gins, but often ornamented on their exterior surface with 
 different figures impressed upon all the layers: these are 
 of horn or bone without enamel; the scales of the lateral 
 line, instead of being flat, are funnel-shaped ; the contracted 
 pan applied against the disk of the scale forms the tube 
 by which the mucus exudeB which covers the fish. The 
 included in the Cycloid order are, Labroides, 
 Muges, Atherines, Scomberoids, Gadoids. Gobioids, Mit- 
 renoide. Lucioids, Salmonoids, Clupeoids. and Cyprinoids. 
 OY CLOI'iE'DI A. (More correctly Encyclopaedia, from 
 -: words Iv kvk\o> iraiiua ; instruction inacircle.) 
 A work containing definitions or accounts of the principal 
 subjects in one or all departments of learning, art, or sci- 
 ence, lis arrangement may be either according to divi- 
 sions Into the various sciences, &c, or the subjects may 
 be arranged and treated in alphabetical order. The En- 
 tydopidie Franfoise, or Dictionnaire Encyclopcdique, and 
 the Encyclopaedia Britannica, have been the most cele- 
 brated works of this species; but the earliest appears to 
 be the Lexicon Technicum of Harris, published in 1706. 
 The great French work, the Encyclopedic Methodique, con- 
 sists, not of one, but of a series of encyclopedias or dic- 
 tion iries. See DICTIONARY, ENCYCLOPAEDIA. 
 
 CYCI.O'PEAN. An epithet applied to certain huge 
 atructnrea, the remains of which are found in many parts 
 of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, the architecture of which 
 :ly different in style from that which prevailed 
 during the historical ages. The epithet originated in the 
 Grecian tradition that assigned these edifices to the gigan- 
 tic Mnngth of the Cyclops. It is most probable that they 
 were leaily raised by the Pelasgians, the predecessors or 
 of the later Greeks ; and a gradual progress may 
 be (raced in them from the extreme of rudeness to a de- 
 313 
 
 CYNICS. 
 
 gree of symmetry that indicates an approach to the ele- 
 gance of Grecian architecture. 
 
 CYCJLO'PES. (Gr. kvk\oc, circle, and wuV, eye.) In 
 Mythology, a race of gigantic beings fabled by' the Greeks 
 to dwell in Sicily, where they assisted Vulcan in forging the 
 thunderbolts of Jupiter. They had only one eye, round, 
 and situated in the centre of the forehead. The most ce- 
 lebrated among them was Polyphemus, whose exploits 
 have formed a prolific theme for the poets of antiquity. 
 His attachment to the nymph Galatea, is happily described 
 in an idyl of Theocritus; and the 9th book of the Odyssey 
 contains a graphic account of his savage propensities, anc 
 of the loss of his eye by the stratagem of Ulysses. 
 
 CYCLO'SIS. (Gr. kvkXoc.) A term applied by Schultz 
 to that general motion of latex or the vital fluids of plants, 
 which passes through vessels of a peculiar kind, and which 
 are diffused through the system of plants without interrup- 
 tion ; in distinction lo rotation, or the movement of fluids 
 in different cellsj as in Cham, Valisneria, &c. According 
 to this physiologist, the phenomenon of cyclosis is confined 
 to the highest forms of vegetation, while thai of rotation is 
 characteristic of the more imperfect orders of plants. 
 
 CY'CLOSTO'MA. (Gr. kdkXoj, and arofia, a mouth.) 
 A genus of air-breathing Gastropods or snails; so called 
 on account of the circular form of the aperture of the shell. 
 Colostoma elegans and Cycl. prodnctum are both natives 
 of England. 
 
 CY'CLOSTO'MES, Cyclostnma. (Gr. <ci»cAo$,and oro/ia, 
 amouth; rouniltnouthed) A tribe of cartilaginous fishes, 
 including those in which the mouth la surrounded by a 
 circular lip, forming a large sucker, as in the lamprey. 
 
 CY'GNUS. (Lat. the sican.) In Astronomy, one of the 
 old constellations in the northern hemisphere. 
 
 Cy'gni.'8. In Ornithology. SeeBwAX. 
 
 CY'LINDER. (Gr. kvXivSoj, I roll ) In Geometry, a 
 solid which may be conceived to be formed by the revolu- 
 tion of a rectangular parallelogram about one of its sides. 
 The surface of a cylinder, not including the two ends, is 
 equal to the rectangle formed by multiplying the circum- 
 ference of its base into its altitude ; and the >olid content is 
 equal to its altitude multiplied into the area of its base. 
 The cone, the sphere, and the cylinder have a remarkable 
 relation lo each other, first discovered by Archimedes : 
 namely, that the cone is one-third of the cylinder, having 
 the same base and altitude ; and the inscribed sphere two 
 thirds of the cylinder; or the cone, the sphere, and the 
 cylinder are to each other as the numbers 1, 2, and 3. 
 
 CYLI'NDROH). (Gr. KvXivSpov, cylinder, and liiof, 
 form.) A solid which differs from a cylinder in having 
 ellipses instead of circles for its ends or bases. 
 
 CY 'Ma, or CYMATIEM. (Gr. xvua, atcave ) In Archi- 
 "V — lecture, a moulding, taking its name from its 
 
 \ contour Tesembling that of a wave, being hollow 
 
 ^ - in its upper part, aiid swelling below. Of this 
 
 moulding there are two sorts; the cyma recta, just de- 
 
 r scribed ; and the cyma reversa, whose upper part 
 
 >. swells, whilst the lower is hollow. Ily the work- 
 ' — men these are called ogees. 
 
 Cyma. (Gr. Kvnpa, a fetus.) In Botany, a form of in- 
 florescence consisting ol a solitary flower seated in the ax- 
 illa of dichotomous ramifications, as in Sambacus. This 
 term is also sometimes improperly used, in place of coma, 
 to express the head of a forest tree. 
 
 CY'MBALS. (Gr. xvftSa'Xov, (rom KV/iSot. hollow.) Brass 
 musical instruments ol percussion, played in pairs by strik- 
 ing one against the other. They are circular, about six or 
 eight inches diameter, attached to leather mountings, by 
 which they are held. Cymbals are musical instruments 
 of great antiquity, though there is considerable doubt as to 
 who was the inventor. They were employed by the Greeks 
 in the festivals of Cybeleand Bacchus, and indeed by near- 
 ly all the nations of antiquity. The cymbals and the crotola 
 (which see) were used together. 
 
 CY'MBIUM. In Natural History, a name given by many 
 writers to a kind of sea-shell, commonly called the gondola. 
 It belongs to the genus concha globosa, or dolium. 
 
 CYN A'PIA. A cry stallizable alkaline base obtained from 
 the AZlhusa cynapium. 
 
 CY / NARA / CE./E. (Cynara, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, one of the divisions of the great group of Composite;, 
 admitted by Jussieu. It contains the thistle, the artichoke, 
 and similar plants, having their capitula surrounded by a 
 hard spiny or lacerated involucrum, and long equal tubular 
 florets with an inflated limb. They are also called Cynaro- 
 cephala. 
 
 CYNAROCEPHALJE. See Cynaraceje. 
 
 CYNARRHO'DIUM. (Gr. KVwv,adog,an(\ po6ov,arose.) 
 In Botany, a fruit with distinct ovaria, and hard indehiscent 
 pericarpia enclosed within the fleshy tube of the calyx, as 
 in Rosa. 
 
 CY'NICS. A sect of philosophers among the Greeks, so 
 called from their snarling humour, and their disregard of 
 the conventional usages of society ; the name being derived 
 from kvwv a dog. It is difficu t to give any satisfactory 
 
CYNIPS. 
 
 Recount ol the tenets of this sect, as during all the period 
 of its existence it was in a state of constant fluctuation, 
 and, like most of the philosophical systems of antiquity, de- 
 rived its character and complexion from the peculiar tem- 
 perament and disposition of those who embraced it. Hut 
 amid all the follies and incongruities by which it was dis- 
 figured, and which exhibited themselves chiefly in a con- 
 temptuous neglect of all science and art, and of all the com- 
 forts and charities of life, it is impossible not to admit that 
 its grand aim was to inculcate the love of rigid virtue and a 
 contempt of pleasure. On this point the testimony of 
 Horace, — himself a zealous adherent of the school of Aris- 
 tippus, the very opposite of the cynical sect, — even wore 
 there no other, must be held to be conclusive ; and, accord- 
 ing to his opinion, the aim of the cynical philosophy was to 
 induce every man to become 
 
 Virtutis verae custos, rigidusquesatetles. 
 This sect was founded by Antisthenes, a disciple of So- 
 crates, who sought to imitate his master in carelessness of 
 outward splendour and contempt of riches ; but his indif- 
 ference to these things soon degenerated unhappily into a 
 love of ostentation, shown by a display of poverty. Thus 
 he and many of his followers rejected not only the conve- 
 niences but the common decencies of life, and lived in 
 rags and filthiness ; while they sneered bitterly at the rest 
 of the world, instead of endeavouring to teach it to culti- 
 vate the pure reason of which they professed themselves to 
 be the only followers. Of this sect was the famous Dioge- 
 nes, whose meeting with Alexander the Great is too well 
 known to require being noticed in this place. 
 
 CY'NIPS. (Gr. kvg), I am pregnant.) A Linnsoan 
 genus of Hymenopterous insects, belonging to that section 
 which has not a poisonous sting. The ova of this genus 
 are deposited in living trees, and the irritation excited by 
 their presence gives rise to the formation of the excres- 
 cences called galls. 
 
 CY'NOMORIA'CEjE. (Cynomorium, one of the ge- 
 nera.) In Botany, a natural order of Rhizanths, at present 
 but little known. One species is a native of Malta, and 
 was formerly supposed to possess great medicinal powers 
 as an astringent: it figures in old officinal catalogues under 
 the name ol" Fungus mdiicnsis. 
 
 CY'NOSA'RGES. A sort of academy in the suburbs 
 of Athens, situated near the Lyceum ; so called from the 
 mythological story of a white dog (,kvvo$ apyov), which, 
 when Diomus was sacrificing to Hercules, the guardian of 
 the place, carried oft" part of the victim. Besides possess- 
 ing several temples erected in honour of Hercules, Alc- 
 mene, am] other mythological personages, it was chiefly 
 famed for its gymnasium, in which foreigners or citizens 
 of half blood used to perform their exercises; and as be- 
 ing the place where Antisthenes instituted the sect of the 
 cynics, and taught his opinions. 
 
 CY'NOSURE. (Gr. kvcov, a dog, and ovpa, a tail) Li- 
 terally the tail of a dog, applied by some philosophers to 
 the constellation Ursa Minor, by which the ancient Phoeni- 
 cians used to be guided on their voyages : whence it has 
 been borrowed by the language of poetry, in which it sig- 
 nifies " a point of attraction :" 
 
 Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
 
 The cynosure of neighbouring eyes. L' Allegro, 79. 
 
 CY'NTHIUS and CY'NTHIA. In Mythologv, sur- 
 names given by the ancient poets to Apollo and Diana: 
 from Cynlhus, a mountain of the island of Delos, on 
 which thev are fabled to have been born. ( Virg. Eclog. 6. 3 : 
 //or, O. I. III. 28) 
 
 CYPERA'CEiE. (Cyperus, one of the genera.) A na- 
 tural order of Emlogens, inhabiting the marshes, ditches, 
 streams. &o. of all countries. They closely resemble 
 Graminacctz ; but are distinguished from them by the 
 stems being solid and angular, not round and fistular, and 
 by there being no diaphragms at the articulations. They ap- 
 proach Juncacea and Restiacem, but are known at once by 
 the sheaths of their leaves not being split. The entire or- 
 der has lately been re-arranged by Nees Von Estenbeck 
 and Kunth. Their sensible properties are unimportant. 
 Carex arennria affords one of the European substitutes 
 for sarsaparilla. 
 
 CYPHE'LL.rE. (Gr. icvfos, a tubercle.) A term used 
 in describing lichens, to denote pale tubercle-like spots on 
 the under surface of the thallus. 
 
 CY'PHER, or CIPHER. In Diplomatic affairs, " an oc- 
 cult manner of writing, legible to those only who possess 
 the key or secret." This art, in a variety of forms, has 
 been more or less practised in every civilized country ; and 
 has been cultivated by the moderns in particular to such a 
 degree as to have acquired the importance of a distinct 
 acience,underlhe names Cryptography, Polygraphy, Steno- 
 graphy, &c. To give a general exposition of the principles 
 of the art, it would be necessary to enter into minute de- 
 tails inadmissible in a work of this kind ; but the reader 
 will find In Rees's Cyclopaedia a full and learned disquisi- 
 tion on the subject. 
 314 
 
 CYSTICS. 
 
 CY'PHONISM. (Gr. nv<pa>v, an instrument of punish- 
 ment.) A species of punishment frequently resorted to by 
 the ancients, which consisted in besmearing the criminal 
 with honey, and then exposing him to insects. This pun- 
 ishment was carried into effect in various ways, bin chiefly 
 by fastening the sufferer to a stake, or extending him on tho 
 ground with his arms pinioned. 
 
 CYPR-iSE'A, Cowry. The name of a Linnsean genus of 
 the Venues Testacea, characterized by a subovate smooth 
 shell, with a linear aperture extending from one end of the 
 shell to the other, and transversely furrowed ordentated 
 in the mature state. The genus is retained without subdi- 
 vision, and forms pari of the Buccinoid family of the Pec- 
 tinibranchiate order of Gastropods of the system of Cuvier. 
 This genus is remarkable for the difference of form 
 which exists in the young and old states of the shell: in 
 the former the lip is thin, and the aperture wide, but the 
 mantle is progressively developed until its lobes extend 
 over the columella on the one side and the lip on the oppo- 
 site side of the aperture, covering them with successive 
 layers of nacreous shell, and at length diminishing the 
 aperture to a narrow linear form. One species of cowry 
 (Cyprcea mojieta, L.) is commonly used by the natives of 
 certain parts of Africa and other semi-barbarous nations as 
 amedium of monetary exchange. 
 
 CYPRI'NUS. (Lat. cyprinus, a carp.) A Linnsean ge- 
 nus of abdominal fishes, now the type of a family of Mala- 
 copterygians in the system of Cuvier, and of Cycloid fish- 
 es in the system of Agassiz ; including the genus Cyprinus 
 proper, or carps ; Barhus, or barbels ; Gooto, or gudgeons; 
 Tenca, tenches ; Abrama, breams ; Leucise?is, minnows ; 
 Cirrhinus; Lobes; Catastomus; and Gonorhynchus. 
 
 CY'PSELA. (Gr. Kv\l/e\r), a heehive.) In Botany, one- 
 seeded, one-celled, indehiscent fruit, with the integuments 
 of the seed not cohering with the endocarp : in the ova- 
 rium state evincing its compound nature by the presence 
 of two or more stigmata ; but nevertheless unilocular, and 
 having but one ovule. Usually called an Achenium. 
 
 CYRE'NIANS. The philosophers of a school founded 
 at Cyrene, a Grecian colony on the northern coast of 
 Africa, by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates. They held, 
 wit.ii the B ilcuri ins thai pla ire was the o ly g,->od and 
 pain the only evil, and were not at suc.i pains as the lattei 
 to prove that the first could only attend on virtuous con 
 duct; they also differed from them in not considering ab- 
 sence from pain of itself to be a pleasure of the highest 
 order. But though these philosophers held thai pleasure 
 should form the ultimate object of pursuit, and that it was 
 only in subserviency to this that fame, friendship, and oven 
 virtue are to be desired, still there were many points in their 
 philosophy calculated to command general sympathy. It 
 is impossible not to admit that, with all the defects of the 
 system, its object, as Dryden says in reference lo Horace* 
 is to render iis happy in relation to ourselves, agreeable 
 and faithful to our friends, and discreet, serviceable, and 
 well-bred in relation to those with whom we are obliged to 
 live and converse. Perhaps the best view of the philoso- 
 phy of this sect, is to be obtained from the Satires and 
 Epistles of Horace, in which the versatility ol" disposition, 
 politeness of manners, and knowledge of the world that 
 distinguished the Cyrenians, are set forth with great clear- 
 ness, and with all the ardour of an enthusiastic disciple. 
 The grand principles of Aristippus are thus happily de- 
 scribed in the couplet — 
 
 Omnis Aristippum decuit color et status et res, 
 Tentantem majora, fere prasentibus fequum : 
 
 and the poet's own partiality for this system of philosophy 
 and its accommodating character, are thus exhibited : — 
 
 Nunc in Aristippi furtim pnecepta re!nbor, 
 Kt mihi res non me rebus subjimgere conor. 
 
 CY'RTANDRA'CE,E. (Gr. Kvpros, crooked, and avvp, 
 a male; Cyrtandra, the name of one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of Monopetalous Dicarpous Exogens, in- 
 habiting the tropics, and closely allied to Gesneracem, Big- 
 noniacem, and Peduliaceas ; from the former differing only 
 in never producing an inferior ovary, their deeply lobed 
 placental, their siliquose fruit, and the want of albumen ; 
 from Bignoniaccai. by their habit, their minute apterous 
 seeds, one-celled ovary, with two double parietal placentas; 
 from Peduliacew, in nothing except their minute indefinite 
 seeds, and the membranous not woody texture of the fruit 
 and placentae. 
 
 CY'STIBRA'NCHIANS, Cystibranchia. (Gr. Kvertc, tin 
 bladder, and ffpayxta, gills.) A family of Isopodous Crus- 
 tacea,, comprehending those which have the branchiae 
 lodged in vesicular cavities. 
 
 CY'STIC OXIDE. (Gr. *v<rric.) A species of urinary 
 calculus, composed of a peculiar animal matter. 
 
 CY'STICS, Cystica. (Gr. *u<rric) Rudolphi thus de- 
 nominates the order of Entozoa, in which the body is ter- 
 minated by a cyst peculiar to one individual or common to 
 many. The hydatid in the brain of sheep, and the parasite 
 which produces measly pork, are examoles of this order. 
 
CYSTITIS. 
 
 CYSTITIS. (Gr.«wrnj.) Inflammation of the bladder, 
 C Y'STOCK'LE. (Gr. averts, and Kit\n, a tumour.) A 
 
 r rupture formed by a protusion of the bladder. 
 CYSTOTOMY. (Gr. averts, and reftvat, 1 cut.) The 
 l .>f cutting into the bladder lor the extraction of a 
 stone or other extraneous substance. 
 
 t'Y THKIi.F/A. In Mythology, a name given to Venus, 
 from 1 1 io island Cythera, wt)ere she was worshipped with 
 veneration. (Ovid. Fast. iv. 285.) 
 CYTINA'CEJS. (Cytinus, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, a natural order of Khizanths Inhabiting the south 
 pe, the Cape, and Guinea. They are very little 
 Known, ami have no sensible properties of importance. 
 Pelletier says that Cytinus has the property of precipitating 
 1 1 containing tannin. 
 CYZICE'NUB. In Ancient Architecture, a large hall 
 I with sculpture; and so called from the inha- 
 bitants of Cyzicus, who were celebrated for their mag- 
 nificence in bu 
 
 CZ'AR, ZAR, or TZAR. A title given to their monarch 
 by several Sclavonic tribes. In Russia, Ivan II. adopted 
 in 1579 (he title of Czar of Moscow. The eldest son of the 
 czar mi termed Oxarovics: but after the death of Alexis, 
 the murdered aon of Peter I., this title was no more used, 
 until revived by Paul I., in 1799, in favour of his second 
 son, and lh«) late grand duke of Constantino. The consort 
 of the emr aror of Russia is styled Czarina. 
 
 D. 
 
 I). The fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and those 
 derived from it, is the medial of the order of dentals or 
 palau dentals ; and is susceptible of various interchanges, 
 particularly in the German and English languages. As an 
 abbreviature, D has several significations : thus, I), stands 
 .-.Ml) Doctor ol Medicine,- D l> Doctorof 
 Divinilv, Sec. Amon',' Roman writers. I), la used for Di- 
 
 ■■ Roma.i 
 epitaphs Manibus; but, on other occasions, 
 
 io, or Dii Magnis. As a Roman numeral. 
 ondred : in this case it is more correct to write IC. 
 
 I>. In Music, the note on the third line in the bass or F 
 clef, on the fourth space in the tenor clef, on the third 
 space in the countertenor clef, and on the fourth line in 
 the treble or G clef. 
 
 DA CA'I'O. (It.) In Music, usually written short, D. C. 
 An instruction to the performer in such airs as end with 
 the first strain, that the song must be begun again and end- 
 ed with the first part. 
 
 I>\'< BLO. One of those generic terms which Dr. 
 L until by transposing the leitersof the name of the 
 
 typical or Linnxan genus from which the species so de- 
 signated were dismembered j in the present case, the 
 word w obtained from Alcedo, and is applied to a large 
 Australian species of Passerine bird, nearly allied to the 
 her. 
 
 DACRYO'MA. (Gr. laxpvw, lireep.) Adisease of the 
 lachrymal duet of the eye, by which the tears are prevent- 
 in into the nose, and therefore trickle over the face. 
 
 DACTI'LIOGLYPH. ((Jr. 6o.ktv\ios, a ring; and 
 y\vpu>, to engrave.) In ancient gem sculpture, the inscrip- 
 flhe name of the artist on a <:<'in. 
 
 DACTILIO'GRAPHY. (Gr. <5a<cruAioc, and ypad>cd, to 
 write.) In gem sculpture, the science of gem engraving. 
 
 DA'CTYL. (Gr. SaarvXoi, the finger.) The name of a 
 metrical foot In Greek and Latin poetry, consisting of a long 
 and two short syllables ; as in the word ciinnXnU. In the 
 English and German languages, where accent determines 
 quantity, the word dactyl means an accented followed by 
 two unaccented syllables; as in quantity, lie/iliche. 
 
 DA'CTYLI. Priests of Cybele in Phrygia; so called, 
 according to Sophocles, because they were five in number, 
 thus corresponding with the number of the fingers (lax- 
 rvXot), from which the name is derived. Their functions 
 appear to have been similar to those of the Corybantesand 
 Curetes, other priests of the same goddess in Phrygia and 
 
 DA'CTYI.O'LOGY. (Gr. SaxrvAos , a finger, and \oyof, 
 discourse.) The art of spelling words by placing the fin- 
 is to signify the letters of the alphabet 
 
 DACTYLO'PTEROUS. (Gr. dWuXoc, and rtrcpov, a 
 icing ur fin; finger-finned ) A fish is said to be so when 
 the inferior rays of its pectoral fin are partially or entirely 
 free. The terra DarJylnpterus has been applied by Lace- 
 pede to a genus of Gurnards, remarkable for the great ex- 
 pansion of their pectoral fins. The most common and best 
 known aperies of this genus inhabits the Mediterranean, 
 and is the Trigla volitans of Linnseus. or the flying pur- 
 nsrd, It Is sometimes confounded with the true tlying-fish 
 (Exocalut.) 
 
 315 
 
 DAGUERREOTYPE. 
 
 DA'DO. (It. a die.) In Architecture, the die, or ttiat 
 part in the middle of the pedestal between the base and 
 cornice. It takes its name from >eing a cube like a die. 
 
 D.E'DALUS. In Fabulous History, the great grandson ol 
 Erecluheus king of Athens, is celebrated as the most an- 
 cient statuary, architect, and mechanist of Greece. To 
 him is ascribed the invention of the saw, the axe, the plum- 
 met, and many other tools and instruments ; and to such ? 
 degree did he excel in sculpture, that his statues are fabled 
 to have been endowed with life. For the alleged murder 
 of his nephew he was obliged to quit Athens, whence he 
 repaired to Crete, then under the sway of Minos, by whom 
 he was favourably received. Here he constructed the fa- 
 mous labyrinth, on the model of the still more famous one 
 of Egypt j but having assisted the wife of Minos in an in- 
 trigue with Taurus (see Minotaur), he was, by a strange 
 fatality, confined to this very labyrinth along with his son 
 Icarus. By means, however, of wings, which he formed 
 of linen or feathers and wax, Daedalus and his son contrived 
 to make their escape. The former pursued his aerial 
 journey, and arrived safely in Sicily ; but the latter having 
 soared too near the sun, in consequence of which the wax 
 that fastened the wing was melted, dropped into and was 
 drowned in the sea (thence called the lcariun). In Sicily 
 Daedalus continued to prosecute his ingenious labours, and 
 lived long enough to enrich that island with various works 
 of art. From the plastic powers of Dsedalus, the ancient 
 poets used to regard his name as synonymous with inge- 
 niou»,as in the phrase Dadaleumupua ; and in a somewhat 
 similar sense Lucretius applies it to the earth, in order to 
 describe its vernal vegetation, — 
 
 — — - — tihi suave* Djedala Callus 
 Submjtiit (lores. 
 A few years ago the name of Daedalus, which had been ap- 
 propriated by various artists in the history of Grecian art, 
 was assumed by the constructors of some Ingenious auto- 
 mata, in memory of the grand impressions which the 
 works ol I produced. 
 
 DA'GON. (Hob. r% dag, nfish.) One of the principal 
 divinities of the ancient Phoenicians and Syrians, and more 
 especially of the Philistines. The origin, attributes, and 
 even the sex of this divinity, are all wrapt in the most pro- 
 found obscurity ; but the sacred writers concur in assigning 
 to him such a degree of authority as must place him on a 
 level with the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans. The 
 reverence In which he was held by the Philistines, and the 
 remarkable circumstances attending his downfall, will be 
 found fully detailed in Judges, c. 16., and i Samuel, c. v. ; 
 but we cannot refrain from transferring to our pages Mil- 
 ton's graphic sketch of the leading features of his history :— 
 — Next came one 
 Who mourned In earnest when the captive ark 
 .M.mmil his brute image, head and hands lopt off 
 In his own temple, on ttie grunsel edge, 
 W1..U he fell flat, and shamtd bis worshippers . 
 Dagon his name, sea monster, upward mmi 
 And downward fish ; y. t had his temple high 
 Reared in Aftotus, dreaded through the coast 
 Of Palestine, in (iath and Ascalon, ( 
 
 And Accarou and Gaza's frontier bounds. 
 
 The Samson Agonistes, as is well known, exhibits tne 
 great importance of this divinity ; and the 
 
 solemn feasts, 
 
 With sacrifices, triumph, pomp, and games, 
 
 celebrated to his honour bv the Philistines. 
 
 DAGUE'RREOTYPE. The name given to a process late- 
 ly introduced by Daguerre, an ingenious French artist, by 
 which the images from the lens of a camera obscura, as is 
 supposed, are fixed on metal plates, it has been our good 
 fortune to see several of the productions of this surprising 
 discovery, and we regret that words cannot convey the im- 
 pression they made on us. With the exception of local 
 colour, they present nature herself to the spectator. The 
 qualities of objects are so clearly expressed, that silk could 
 not in the representation be mistaken for satin, nor marble 
 for plaster. The sky is given with as different an expres- 
 sion of quality from stone as that substance is from the 
 ground on which it stands. The productions we saw were 
 nearly uniform in size, being about 10 inches by perhaps 
 6 or 7; and notwithstanding the small space within which 
 the views are confined, we could by means of a lens count 
 the strands in a rope. This extraordinary discovery must 
 not be confounded with that of an ingenious gentleman (Mr. 
 Talbot) of this country, in which what in nature is in light 
 becomes a dark space in the representation, and the parts 
 that are dark are exhibited in masses of light. In Da- 
 guerre's discovery the objects are lighted as they are in 
 nature, with all the sparkling effects which the sun scatters 
 on them : the intensity of tone in the foregrounds is ba- 
 lanced by the aerial effects in the distances; in short, the 
 only step wanting to rival the original is to impart to these 
 selfcreated pictures that which the father of tolour, tne 
 sun, bestows upon all things beneath him, namely, colour. 
 Mr. Talbotfs process has been made known by a paper 
 
DAIRY. 
 
 read before the Royal Society, and some have called his 
 specimens Photopenic pictures. See Photogenic. 
 
 DAI'RY. (Dey, milk, obsol. "Eng.) An apartment in a 
 house, or a separate building, for the purpose of holding 
 milk and manufacturing it into butter, cheese, or other dai- 
 ry produce. On a small scale, where butter only is made 
 from milk, the dairy may be a room in the north side of 
 the dwelling-house ; or it may form one of the offices con- 
 nected with the kitchen court. The requisites fur the 
 room to contain the milk are — an equal temperature 
 throughout the year, viz. between 48° and 55° ; sufficient 
 ventilation to carry off all bad smells and impurities in the 
 air; and the exclusion of flies and other insects. An equa- 
 ble temperature is maintained by thick or by hollow walls, 
 and by double windows. In winter the temperature is 
 somewhat raised by the warm milk, and in summer it is 
 cooled to the degree required by ventilation and the evapo- 
 ration of water poured on the floor. The ventilation is 
 effected by opening the glazed sashes of the windows, and 
 supplying their places by wire shutters, aud indeed one of 
 the best modes of arranging the windows of a dairy is to 
 have wooden shutters outside for closing in the most se- 
 vere weather in winter; next, a fixed frame of wirework to 
 exclude the flies ; and within this, at three or four inches 
 distance, the glazed sash, which should be made to open. 
 A dairy on a large scale is most conveniently arranged as 
 a detached building; in which case, it contains a milk- 
 room, a ehurning-room, and a dairy scullery, or place for 
 scalding the utensils. If cheese is to be made, a room will 
 be required for the cheese press and another for drying 
 the cheeses. 
 
 The quantity of milk raised in the vicinity of London for 
 the supply of the inhabitants, aud the revenue derived 
 from the sale of it, show the importance of this article. In 
 his valuable work on cattle, their breeds, &c, " Mr. Youatt 
 estimates the number of dairy-cows, at present kept in 
 London and its environs, at 12,000; affording, on Mr. Mid- 
 dleton's hypothesis, an annual supply of 38,400,000 quarts 
 of milk. Now, as milk is sold by the retailers at from 3d. 
 to4d. a quart, after the cream is separated from it, and as 
 the cream is usually sold at from 2s. Cd. to 3s. a quart, and 
 there is reason to suspect that a good deal of water is in- 
 termixed with ihe milk, we should hardly be warranted in 
 estimating that the milk, as obtained from the cow, is sold 
 at less than 5d. a quart, which gives 800,CKX'i. as the total 
 price of the milk consumed in the city and its immediaie 
 vicinity." (M'Culloch's Statistics, 2d ed. vol. i. p. 490.) 
 
 DA'IS. (Fr.) In Architecture, the platform or raised 
 floor at the upper end of a dining hall, where the high 
 table stood ; also the seat with a canopy over it for those 
 who sat at the high table. 
 
 DALMA'TICA. A long white gown with sleeves; worn 
 by deacons in the Roman Catholic church over the alb and 
 stole. It was imitated from a dress originally worn in Dal- 
 matia, and imported into Rome by the emperor Commo- 
 dus, where the use of it gradually superseded the old Ro- 
 man fashion of keeping the arms uncovered. A similar 
 robe was worn by kings in the middle ages at coronations 
 and other solemnities. 
 
 DA'MAGE FEASANT. In Law, a beast is said to be so, 
 when found in another person's ground without his leave 
 or licence ; in which case the tenant may distrain or im- 
 pound it: but at his own peril, if the accident have hap- 
 pened through his own negligence in not repairing the 
 fences of his close. Possession, without title, is sufficient 
 to empower the tenant to distrain damage- feasant. Proper 
 notice is, however, to be given; and if the owner of the 
 estate tender amends, it is unlawful to detain them. 
 
 Da'MAGES. (Lat. damna.) In English Law, the re- 
 compence awarded by a jury to a plaintiff, in certain forms 
 of action, for the loss or damage he has sustained by the 
 injury committed by the defendant. At common law, 
 damages are recoverable in personal and mixed actions. In 
 actions upon the case, trespass, &c, a certain amount of 
 damages, sufficient to coverall the hurt really sustained by 
 the plaintiff, is alleged or laid in the declaration ; and it is 
 the duty of the jury to inquire the real amount of damages, 
 and assess it accordingly. In the action of debt, where the 
 amount due is something certain, the damage laid is now 
 merely nominal, for the injury supposed to be done by the 
 detention of the debt; the jury, therefore, award a nomi- 
 nal sum only. Damages are also allowed in actions upon 
 a variety of statutes, and sometimes double or treble da- 
 mages ; in which case the plaintiff is entitled to twice or 
 three limes the amount awarded by the jury. 
 
 DA'MASK. (From Damascus, where it was anciently 
 mute.) A woven fabric produced by a particular con- 
 struction and management of the loom, in which are re- 
 presented various figures of flowers, fruit, leaves, &c. The 
 chief seat of this manufacture is Dunfermline in Fifeshire, 
 and I.ishurneand Ardoyne near Belfast. The best damasks 
 are of linen ; those of cotton are cheaper, but less elegant 
 and durable. 
 
 DAMASKEE'NING. The art of inlaying iron and steel 
 31 fi 
 
 DARIC. 
 
 with gold and silver, originally practised at Damascus in 
 Syria. 
 
 DAMA'SSIN. A species of woven damask with gold 
 and silver flowers. 
 
 DAME (probably a corruption of the Lat. domina, a 
 mistress), was formerly a title of honour, and is still used 
 in the English law to denote the wife of a knight or baronet. 
 Dame was also the designation of nuns of the Benedictine 
 and certain other ancient orders. 
 
 DA'MPER. An iron plate sliding backwards and for- 
 wards in a groove, and so arranged as to enlarge or con- 
 tract, and occasionally close the chimneys of furnaces, 
 steam boilers, <fcc, so as to increase or diminish the draught 
 of air through the fire, and consequently regulate the in- 
 tensity of the combustion. 
 
 DAMPS. (Germ, dampf. vapor.) The noxious exhala- 
 tions of mines and excavations. The carburetted hydrogen 
 of coal mines is called Fire Damp ; carbonic acid is term- 
 ed Choke Damp. 
 
 DA'NOING (Germ, tanzen), may be defined to be a 
 graceful movement of the figure, accompanied by gestures 
 and attitudes indicative of certain mental emotions, and by 
 measured steps in harmony with a piece of music arrang- 
 ed for the purpose. The great antiquity of dancing is at- 
 tested by history, both sacred and profane. It consisted at 
 first, probably, of nothing more than gesticulation and 
 moving in a procession ; in which sense it formed part of 
 the celebration of the religious rites of the ancient Hebrews 
 and Egyptians. But the Greeks, who are confessedly in- 
 debted to the Egyptians for the elements of their religion 
 and literature, though these were afterwards refined by 
 them to such a degree as nearly to obliterate all traces of 
 their origin, soon polished and improved these sacred rites, 
 and introduced them into all the festal ceremonies of which 
 their elegant mythology was composed. In this they were, 
 as usual, imitated by the Romans. If we believe Scaliger, 
 the early bishops of the church were styled prasules, be- 
 cause (as the word literally implies) they led off the dance 
 at their solemn festivals ; and this practice continued in 
 the church till the 12lh century. Almost every country 
 can boast of its national dances peculiar to the inhabitants ; 
 which it is rare to see so well performed when adopted by 
 others. Of these the best known to us are the tarantella 
 of the Neapolitans, the bolero and fandango of the Span- 
 iards, the mazowf.k and krakowiaque of Poland, the cosaque 
 of Russia, the redowac of Bohemia, the quadrille and co- 
 tillon of France, the tcaltz and gallopade of Germany, and 
 the reel of Scotland. 
 
 DA'NEGELT. A tribute of twelve pence laid by the 
 Danes upon the Anglo-Saxons upon every hide of land 
 throughout the realm. 
 
 DA'NNEBROG. An ancient Danish order of knight- 
 hood, supposed to have been founded in 1219 ; revived in 
 1693. and reconstituted in 1808. 
 
 DANS. Small trucks or sledges used in cord mines. 
 
 DA'PHNE. (Gr. Aa^i/q.) In Grecian Mythology, a 
 nymph of Diana, the daughter of the river god Peneus. 
 She was beloved by Apollo ; but she resisted all his at- 
 tempts to excite in her a mutual attachment, and at last be- 
 took herself to fl ; ght. On being hotly pursued by the god, 
 she invoked the earth to swallow her up, when her prayer 
 was granted, and she was immediately changed into a 
 laurel tree, which was ever after sacred to Apollo, and re- 
 garded as the symbol of fame and glory. 'Oxidi. Met. 1. x.) 
 
 DA'PHNIA. A genus of the Entomostracous or lower- 
 organized Crustaceans, belonging to the order Branchio- 
 poda, and the section Lophyropoda. The most common 
 species and type of this genus, Monocidus pulex of Lin- 
 nteus, is a favourite and interesting microscopic object. 
 Its body is compressed, oval, and enclosed in a large bi- 
 lobed carapace; the two lobes being connected together 
 along the back and open below, resembling a bivalve shell. 
 The head is prolonged into a snout, and provided with a 
 single central compound eye. The chief organs of swim- 
 ming are the modified antenna?, which have a lung basal 
 joint, supporting two jointed branches beset with long 
 bristles. It is by the sudden contraction of these organs 
 that the little animalcule propels itself through the water 
 by a series of jerks. The true legs are ten pairs, very small, 
 having a respiratory vesicular organ attached to the second 
 joint; the first eight pairs have the terminal joint dilated 
 and hairy. The eggs are incubated in a kind of marsupial 
 pouch, situated towards the dorsal aspect of the lower end 
 of the body: in five days the young are excluded. The 
 Daphniapulex is extremely prolific ; and as it assumes a 
 rose-red colour in summer time, the swarms which abound 
 in stagnant water often impart to it so deep a colour as to 
 give rise to a suspicion and popular belief that it is occa- 
 sioned by blood. 
 
 DA'RIC. A Persian gold coin (so called by the Greeks, 
 from Darius, the name of several Persian sovereigns)) hav- 
 ing upon the obverse an archer crowned and kneeling upon 
 one knee, and on the reverse a quadrata inrusa, or deep 
 cleft. The weight of the dario is about 130 grams. 
 
DAROO TREE. 
 
 DAROO' TREE. The Ficus sycamorus, or Egyptian 
 sycamore. 
 
 DARTER. Certain web-footed birds of the Pelican 
 family are so called. See Plotds. 
 
 DASH. (Etym. uncertain.) In Music, a small mark, 
 thus ', denoting that the note over which it is placed is to 
 be performed in a short and distinct manner. 
 
 Dv'SYPRO'CTA. (Gr. Saovs, hairy, and jrpcjxrof ; 
 I .at. anus.) The subgeneric name applied by Illiger to the 
 Agiiuti and Aeouchi, which before were included in the 
 great genus Carta of Linnaeus. 
 
 DA 8YPUS. (Gr. iaavt, and irovj, afoot.) A name 
 
 ■ arid very appropriately applied by the Greeks to 
 
 hut transferred by Linnxus to the genus including 
 
 the Armadillos. This genus is subdivided in modern sys- 
 
 i< proper, 'I'atusia, ami Prionodon. The 
 
 remains of a gigantic extinct animal of the armadillo kind 
 
 •!>• bei ii discovered in South America, and called 
 
 - e that word. 
 
 DA'SYURE. (Gr. iaavf, and ovpa, a tail ; hairy-tailed.) 
 I I of Carnivorous Marsupials, compre- 
 
 bending those which have hairy tails combined with digiti- 
 grade feet, and a dental formula of— incisores ~, canini (i 
 Bolarea aporil A, molares veri | = 42. 
 
 DATA. (I.at. things ginn.) A term used in geometry 
 to denote certain things or quantities determined by the con. 
 ditions of the problem, and at the same time known as as- 
 signable. According to Simson (Preface to Euclid's Data), 
 a thing is said in general to .be given which is either actually 
 exhibited or ran be found out ; that is, which is either known 
 by hypothesis or can be demonstrated to be known; so 
 that in the analysis or Investigation of a problem, from the 
 things thai are laid down to be known orgiven, by the help 
 of known propositions other things are demonstrated to be 
 given, and from these other things are again shown to be 
 given, and so on, until that which was proposed to be found 
 out in (he problem is demonstrated to he given. When 
 this is done the problem is solved, and its composition is 
 made and derived from the compositions of the data which 
 were made use of in the analysis. 
 
 In the language of the ancient mathematicians, geome- 
 trical quantities are given in species, magnitude, or position. 
 Thus, a triangle is given in species when its three angles, or 
 the ratio- are known. A straight line is given 
 
 in magnitude when we know its length, or the area of a 
 triangle of which the three sides are given. And lastly, a 
 line is given in position when we know its inclination to 
 another given line. The Book of Data, ascribed to Euclid, 
 is the first in order of the ancient treatises on the geometri- 
 cal analysis. There are numerous editions of this work. 
 of Sanson and Ilorsley are the best 
 
 DATE. In Diplomatics, the notation of the time and 
 place of the delivery or subscription of an instrument. 
 The word is derived from the common formula at the foot 
 of in-ti uincnts, "datum" or "data," given at such a place 
 and time. Dates of time are distinguished into definite 
 and indefinite. The former mark specially the year, and 
 sometimes the month, day, &c. ; the latter only contain a 
 general reference to some period of time. Thus many in- 
 struments of the earlier part of the middle ages are dated 
 only " Rcgnante Domino nostra Jesu Christo ;" and very 
 often the date contained only mention of the reigning 
 prince, without reference to the years of his reign. De- 
 tes are various in ancient charters and deeds. The 
 Christian Greeks dated generally, down to the fall of Con- 
 stantinople, by the year of the world; beginning their year 
 at the l-t of September. The date used in the oldest 
 Latin charters is commonly that of the Indirtion (see 
 Indigtion), which is also frequently added in the Greek. 
 The«Christian era (under the several names of year of 
 grace, of the incarnation, of the reign of Christ, of the na- 
 tivity, &c. A-c.) began to be in common usage in royal 
 charters In France about the reign of Hugh Capet; in 
 Spain ami Portugal not until the 13th and 14th centuries. 
 In England, the Saxon kings frequently dated by the in- 
 carnation ; but deeds and charters under the Plantagenet 
 Icings generally bear the year of the reigning prince. 
 
 DA'THOLITE, or DATOLITE. A mineral composed 
 of silica, lime, and boracic acid ; a borosilieate of lime. It 
 occurs in Norway, in the Tyrol, and in the Hartz. It be- 
 comes opaque when heated. 
 
 DATIVE CASE. (Eat. dativus, from do, Igive.) That 
 Inflexion of a noun which denotes participation in the ac- 
 tion of the verb which accompanies it. See Grammar. 
 
 DATU'RIA. The poisonous principle of the Datura stra- 
 monium. It belongs to the class of crystallizable alkaloids. 
 
 DAU'PIIIN. The well-known title of the heir appar- 
 ent to the crown of France, before the Revolution, was 
 that of the counts or lords of Vienne in Dauphine", from 
 the 12th century, or an earlier period : its origin cannot 
 be ascertained. From the last male of that ancient house 
 the title passed to his heirs, the house of Burgundy ; and 
 from them to the family of La Tour Dupin, of whom 
 317 
 
 DEAD WATER. 
 
 Humbert II. surrendered his principality in 1349 to Charles 
 grandson of Philip of Valois: from which period the 
 principality of Dauphine continued to be the apanage, and 
 the title of Dauphin the appellation of the king's eldest 
 son. The name of the province is derived from the title 
 of its lords. 
 
 DA'VIT. A piece of timber used in managing the 
 anchor. 
 
 DA'VITE. A name given to a fibrous sulphate of 
 alumina found in a warm spring near Bogota, in Columbia. 
 
 DAVY'NE. A white or brown crystallized mineral 
 found in cavities of some of the lapideous masses ejected 
 by Vesuvius. 
 
 DAY (Lat. dies; Germ, tag.), in its most common ac- 
 ceptation, denotes the interval of lime during which the 
 sun remains above the horizon ; and is opposed to night, 
 which denotes the time the sun is below the horizon. In 
 this sense it is sometimes called the artificial day. But 
 the term day is also generally used to denote the time in 
 which the earth makes a complete revolution with respect 
 to the celestial bodies, and consequently expresses differ- 
 ent intervals, according as the body with which the earth's 
 rotation is compared is fixed or moveable. 
 
 The Astronomical or Solar Day, called also the Apparent 
 Day, is the time that elapses between two consecutive re- 
 turns of the same terrestrial meridian to the centre of the 
 sun. Astronomical days are not of equal length, for two 
 reasons; 1st, the unequal velocity of the earth in its orbit, 
 in consequence of which the apparent daily motion of 
 the sun is greater in winter than in summer ; and 3d, the 
 obliquity of the ecliptic, in consequence of which the 
 sun's apparent daily motion in right ascension (that is, in 
 the plane of the earth's equator) is less at the equinoxes 
 than at the tropics. The astronomical day commences at 
 noon, and is counted on, through the 24 hours, to the noon 
 following. 
 
 The Civil Day, or Mean Solar Day, is the time employ- 
 ed by the earth in revolving on its axis, as compared with 
 the sun, supposed to move at a mean rate in its orbit, and 
 to make 3652425 revolutions in a mean Gregorian year. 
 In this mode of reckoning time, the days are all of the same 
 length ; and noon, or any given hour of the civil day, some- 
 times precedes and sometimes comes after apparent noon, 
 or the corresponding hour of the astronomical day. Most 
 nations, at least in modern times, have agreed in placing 
 the commencement and termination of the civil day at 
 mean midnight. 
 
 The Sidereal Day Is the time that elapses between two 
 successive culminations of the same star. This interval 
 of time has always remained of the same invariable length, 
 as is proved by the most ancient astronomical observations. 
 It is divided into 24 sidereal hours; and these are again 
 subdivided Into sidereal mlnutesand seconds. This mode 
 of reckoning time, during the day, is now universally 
 adopted by astronomers in their observatories; although 
 the commencement of the day is still determined by the 
 apparent culmination of the sun. 
 
 DE'ACON. (Gr. Siaxovos, a minister or servant.) A 
 minister of religion, holding, in Protestant churches, the 
 lowest degree in holy orders. The first appointment of 
 deacons is mentioned in Acts vi., where the Apostles direct 
 the congregation to look out seven men of honest report, 
 upon whom they may lay their hands. Their office at this 
 time seems to have been chiefly the care of the poor and 
 the distribution of the bread and wine in the love feasts. 
 We learn, however, from the example of Philip. Acts viii., 
 that they also had authority to preach. In the English 
 church it is customary to require a candidate for deacon's 
 orders to have completed his 23d year. As a deacon he is 
 not capable of holding any benefice, and may only officiate 
 as a curate, chaplain, or lecturer. It is generally under- 
 stood that a deacon may not read the Absolution : he may 
 not administer the sacrament alone, but in assisting the 
 priest may offer the cup to the communicants. 
 
 DEAD BEAT. In Clockwork (called also dead scape- 
 ment, or scapement of re]>ose), a peculiar kind of scape- 
 ment invented by Mr. George Graham about the year 1700, 
 with a view to lessen the effect of the wheel work on the 
 motion of the pendulum ; and acquired its name from the 
 circumstance that the seconds' index stands still after each 
 drop, whereas the index of a clock with a recoiling scape- 
 ment is always in motion, hobbling backward and lorward. 
 See Horology. 
 
 DEAD LIGHTS. Strong wooden posts or shutters put 
 over the glass windows of the cabin in bad weather, as a 
 defence against the sea. 
 
 DEAD RECKONING. A term used in navigation to 
 express the estimation that is made of a ship's place with- 
 out having recourse to observation of the celestial bodies. 
 It is made by observing the way she makes by the log, and 
 the course on which she has been steered, making allow- 
 ance for drift, leeway, &c. , 
 
 DEAD WATER. The water that closes in with a ship a 
 stern. 
 
DEAFNESS. 
 
 DEA'FNESS. An imperfection of the sense of hearing, 
 arising from a variety of causes, some of which are inex- 
 plicable ami incurable, and others ascertainable and sus- 
 ceptible of relief or entire removal. When the organ of 
 hearing is imperfect in its functions, either at birth or in 
 childhood, dumbness or imperfect articulation attends it; 
 for speech is an imitative faculty, and an infant born deaf, 
 cannot attempt those motions of the organs of voice which 
 gradually attain perfection by practice : he consequently 
 becomes incapable of communicating his ideas througli 
 that medium. 
 
 The external ear, though tending by its form and situ- 
 ation to improve and perfect the sense of hearing, is in no 
 way necessary ; for it may be cut off without producing 
 deafness. A common cause of deafness arises out of im- 
 perfections or obstructions in the passage leading from the 
 external ear down to the membrane of the tympanum. 
 This passage is partly cartilaginous and partly bony ; and 
 from its oblique direction it is difficult so to see into it as 
 to ascertain the seat or cause of the obstruction. In some 
 persons, however, when placed in a proper position, so 
 that the sunshine or other strong light may be properly 
 directed into it, a little management enables us to ex- 
 amine nearly its whole extent. In some cases of con- 
 genital deafness thi3 passage is closed by a membrane, 
 which, if near the external orifice, is easily detected, and 
 may be divided or removed ; but, if deeply seated, it may 
 escape observation till the child attains a certain age, or 
 should begin to talk : for till that time the deafness of in- 
 fants often passes unobserved. Under these circumstances, 
 and where the malformation exists in both ears, the child 
 will be dumb as well as deaf ; for although the organs of 
 speech may be perfect, if those of hearing are inert he is 
 incapable of imitating sounds: in this case, therefore, a 
 timely operation may effect the double benefit of giving 
 both hearing and speech. Where the passage to the tym- 
 panum is more extensively obliterated or malformed, the 
 cases become of course more complicated, but yet often 
 admit of entire cure by a skilful and timely operation. 
 
 The presence of foreign bodies in the aural passage is a 
 common cause of imperfect hearing, and sometimes it is 
 obstructed by accumulations of hardened wax. These 
 causes of deafness may in most cases be relieved or 
 removed by syringing the ear with warm water, which 
 should be forcibly injected, and so directed as to reach 
 the membrana tympani. Insects or worms in the ear 
 may be washed out in the same way, or killed by the in- 
 troduction of a few drops of olive oil, or of camphorated 
 oil. 
 
 Another cause of deafness is deficient secretion of wax, 
 occasioning a dryness of the tube of the ear. It is relieved 
 by greasy applications, and by the cautious use of stimu- 
 lants, such as olive oil, to which a few drops of oil, of tur- 
 pentine, or of compound camphor liniment, or of spirit of 
 ammonia, have been added. 
 
 In cases of inllammation of the tympanum followed by 
 suppuration, more or less deafness ensues, dependent upon 
 the extent of the mischief going on, and requiring prompt, 
 and generally antiphlogistic treatment : the pain, especially 
 at the outset of the disorder, is often intense, and the dis- 
 charge purulent and often offensive. 
 
 Lastly, hardness of hearing often appears to depend 
 upon imperfection in the functions of the auditory nerve, 
 and from obstructions in the Eustachian tube. The deaf- 
 ness that attends a violent cold is frequently dependent 
 upon the latter cause, and goes off as the secretions of the 
 part return to their natural state. 
 
 DEAL. (Sax. delan, to divide.) In Architecture, the 
 small thicknesses of timber into which a piece of timber 
 of any sort is cut up; but the term is now improperly re- 
 stricted in its signification to the wood of the fir tree cut up 
 into thicknesses in the countries whence deals are import- 
 ed, — viz. Christiana, Dantzic, &c. Their usual thickness 
 is three inches, and their width nine. They are purchased 
 by the hundred, which contains 120 deals, bo their thick- 
 ness what it may, and reduced by calculation to a standard 
 thickness of one inch and a half, and a length of twelve 
 feet. Wltole deal is that which is one inch and a quarter 
 thick, and slit deal is half that thickness. 
 
 DEAN. (Lat. decanus.) An ecclesiastical dignitary in 
 cathedral and collegiate churches, being the head of the 
 chapter of canons or prebendaries, and forming together 
 with them a council to advise the bishop in the affairs of 
 the see. (.See Chapter.) hi England there are, properly 
 speaking, three classes of ecclesiastical presidencies to 
 which the title dean belongs ; deans rural, deans of cathe- 
 drals, and deans in peculiars. Rural doans were originally 
 binef.ccd cleniymen appointed by the bishop to exercise 
 a certain jurisdiction in districts of his diocese remote from 
 his personal superintendence. They seem to have been 
 equivalent in many respects to the chorepiscopi of the 
 early church, and many parts of their office are now dis- 
 charged by tlie archdeacons. By degrees this office fell 
 into disuse; and though rural deans are still occasionally 
 318 
 
 DECANTATION. 
 
 employed in visitations, to examine into the state ot repaii 
 of churches, and performance of divine service, their func- 
 tions have fcr many years become almost obsolete. Deans 
 of cathedrals have already been noticed. The third spe- 
 cies of deans, or deans in peculiar, are those of " particu- 
 lar parishes and churches, or rural districts that nave 
 jurisdiction within themselves, and are not under the ordi- 
 nary of the diocese." These peculiars are of different 
 kinds; and their functions consist sometimes of jurisdic- 
 tion united to spiritual cure, as the dean of Battel in Sussex, 
 and sometimes of jurisdiction only, as in the case of the 
 Dean of the Arches, London. 
 
 DEATH WATCH. See Anobium. 
 
 DE'BACLE. (Fr. debacler, to unbar.) A rush of wa- 
 ters, breaking down all opposing barriers, and carrying 
 away and dispersing the broken fragments of rocks. 
 
 DEBE'NTURE. A custom-house certificate entitling 
 the exporter of goods to a drawback or bounty. Also, an 
 instrument in use in some government departments, by 
 which government is charged to pay to a creditor or his 
 assigns the sum found due on auditing his accounts. 
 
 DEBRI'S. (Fr.) In Geology, the fragments of rocks, &c. 
 
 DEBT, in Law, is a species of contract, whereby a chose 
 inaction, or right to a certain sum of money, is mutually 
 acquired and lost : usually divided into debts of record, 
 debts by special contract, and debts by simple contract. A 
 debt of record is a sum which appears to be due by the 
 evidence of a court of record ; such as debt on judgment 
 or recognizance. Debt by specialty is where a sum is ac- 
 knowledged to be due, or becomes due, by instrument 
 under seal; such as a covenant, bond, &c. Both these 
 species of debts, being contracted by a man for himself and 
 his heirs, attach on his lands and tenements, and bind 
 them in the hands of his heir or devisee. Debt by simple 
 contract is either by parole or by written obligation unseal- 
 ed ; within which class fall bills of exchange arid promis- 
 sory notes. 
 
 Debt is also a personal action of contract, in which the 
 plaintiff seeks the recovery of a debt; I. e. a liquidated or 
 certain sum of money alleged to be due to him. See Ac- 
 tion. 
 
 DEBT, NATIONAL. See National Debt. 
 
 DEBUT, (Fr.), in its most general acceptation, is applied 
 to the commencement of any undertaking, or to the first 
 step made in a public career ; but it is confined more par- 
 ticularly to the language of the theatre, in which it signifies 
 the first appearance of an actor, or his first appearance on 
 any particular stage. 
 
 DE'CADE. (Lat. decas, from Gr. Scxa, ten.) A word 
 used by some old writers in a general sense for the num- 
 ber ten, or an enumeration by tens ; but more peculiarly 
 appropriated to the number of books into wltich the history 
 of the Roman Empire by Livy is divided, each division 
 consisting of ten books or decades. It was also the name 
 given lo the space of ten days, which in the French repub- 
 lican calendar was substituted for the ordinary week. The 
 tenth or last day was termed decadi. Thus, except in bis- 
 sextile years, the whole number of decades was thirty-six 
 and a half: the daysof the half decades, falling at the close 
 of the year, were at one time called sansculotlidcs, and after- 
 wards complementary ; and dedicated respectively to Virtue, 
 Genius. Labour, Opinion, and Recompence. 
 
 DE'CAGON. (Gr. itna, ten, and yotvia, an angle.) A 
 geometrical figure, having ten sides and ten angles. If the 
 sides and angles are all equal, the figure is a recular deca- 
 gon, and inscribable in a circle. Euclid, in the Fourth Book 
 of his Elements, shows that the side of a regular decagon is 
 equal to the greater seument of the radius of the circum- 
 scribing circle divided by a medial section, or so that the 
 rectangle contained by the whole radius and one of the parts 
 is equal to the square of the other part; consequently, if 
 we denote the radius by r, and the side of the decagon by 
 s, we shall have the proportion r:s::s:r — s ; whence s a 
 -j- r s=r r', and by solving the quadratic s = hr (\/5 — 1). 
 If the radius is unit, s = i.<\/ 5 — 1) = 4 I 8034 ; and the 
 area = 7-694209 X s a , or 7094209 of the square of the side. 
 
 DE'CALOGUE. (Gr. Seica, ten, and \oyos, discourse or 
 catalogue.) The commandments which were delivered by 
 God to Moses upon Mount Sinai (Exod. xx.) That th^ir 
 number was understood by the Jews to be ten appears from 
 Exod. xxxiv. 28. ; but they differed from us in the manner 
 of dividing them, considering our two first as one, and 
 separating the last into two. The same method is adopted 
 by the Romish church, professing to follow the authority 
 of St. Ausustine. (See Catechism ad Parochos.) 
 
 DE'CA'MERON. (Gr. itKa, ten,a.\t\ Jlncpa, day.) The 
 name given by Boccaccio to his celebrated collection of 
 tales: they are supposed to be narrated in turn, during ten 
 days, by a party of guests assembled at a villa in the coun- 
 try to escape from the plague which raged at Florence in 
 
 im 
 
 DECA'NDROUS. (Gr. Stica, and avtjp, a male.) A 
 plant bavins ten stamens. 
 DECANTA'TION. The pouring off a clear liquid from 
 
DECAPITATION. 
 
 Its subsidence or residue; it is often resorted to in the 
 chemical laboratory instead of filtration, the clear super- 
 natant liquor being poured or syphoned off from precipi- 
 tates, which may thus be repeatedly washed or edulcorated, 
 so as to free them from all soluble matters. 
 
 DECAPITA'TION. (Lat. decapitare, to behead.) A 
 mode of punishment of great antiquity, having been prac- 
 tised by the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and some other 
 ancient nations. Among the Continental nations of modern 
 times, it has long been the ordinary punishment inflicted 
 on all capitally convicted criminals. During the early pe- 
 riod of English history, it was the usual mode of punishing 
 felons; but it afterwards became a punishment appropri- 
 ated only to criminals of the highest rank, and even to this 
 day it is considered as the most honourable death which a 
 capital offender can undergo. The last instance of the in- 
 fliction of this punishment in England occurred in 1745, 
 soon after the rebellion in Scotland had been quelled. 
 
 DE'CAPOD, Decapoda. (Gr. Sua, and iro«$, afoot ; ten- 
 footed.) A name applied by Dr. Leach to a tribe of Ce- 
 phaiopods. including those which have ten locomotive and 
 prehensile appendages proceeding from the head; two 
 of which ari; always longer than the rent, and are called 
 tentacles. Also applied by Covier to designate an order of 
 Crustaceans, comprehending those which have ten thoracic 
 feet. 
 
 DECA'PTERY'GIANS, Decapterygia. (Gr. icxa, ten, 
 and :rript)£. pinion.) A name given by Schneider to an ar- 
 tificial division of fishes, including those which have ten fins. 
 
 DE'CARBONIZATION OF (AST IKON. This pro- 
 cess is resorted to in order to convert cast iron into steel, 
 or by a further decarbonization to reduce it to the 6tate of 
 malleable iron ; hence, many articles which were formerly 
 exclusively manufactured of wrought iron are now cast, 
 and afterwards decarbonized, such as horseshoes, &c. ; and 
 In other cases various cutting instruments are cast, and 
 afterwards brought to a propi y a similar pro- 
 
 ie articles to be decarbonized are packed in finely 
 powdered hematite, or native oxide of iron,'and exposed 
 for a sufficient time to a high red heat It is often neces- 
 sary to mix iron filings or turnings with hematite: these 
 substances, thus applied, gradually abstract the excess of 
 carbon in cast iron, and reduce it to a state analogous to 
 that of steel ; or, by a longer coniiuuance of heat, tu that 
 of soft iron. In some cases, however, the process seems 
 rather to affect the texture and mechanical properties than 
 the composition of the iron, and is therefore more analo- 
 gous to a nneal ing. 
 
 DE'CASTYLE. (Gr. itna, ten, and orv\o(, a column.) 
 In Architecture, a building having ten columns on a front 
 or flank. 
 
 DE'CASYLLA'BIC, having ten syllables. In the Ger- 
 man and English languages the ordinary heroic verse is 
 decasyllabic; but a short syllable is sometimes added at 
 the end by way of variety, and this, in consequence of the 
 structure of those languages, takes place more frequently 
 in the former than the latter. In the Italian heroic verse 
 the eleventh syllable is almost uniformly added, and hence 
 it is more properly to be termed an hendecasyllabic. In 
 French versification the decasyllabic line is appropriated 
 to light compositions, especially tales. 
 
 DECE'MBER (Lat. decern, ten), was the tenth month in 
 ihe calendar of the ancient Romans, who began the year 
 with March. 
 
 DECE'MVTRI. (Lat. ten men.) Properly any body of 
 ten men appointed for particular purposes. But that which 
 is especially known by this name was the commission 
 elected from the Roman patricians in the 302d year after 
 the foundation of the city, and invested with all the su- 
 preme powers of the state, for the purpose of drawing up 
 f laws founded, according to Roman tradition, on 
 the most approved institutions of Greece. They presented 
 to the people anumberof laws engraved on ten tables, con- 
 taining a summary of the privileges to be enjoyed by the 
 ind the crimes to be punished, <fec. At the same 
 time they informed the people that their plan was incom- 
 plete ; and accordingly a new commission, to which the 
 is were admitted, was appointed for the next year, 
 with the same powers; the result of which was the addi- 
 tion of two more tables to the former ten, thus making up 
 the famous twelve tables, which were the foundation of all 
 Roman law in subsequent times. The second decemvi- 
 ratc did not demean itself with the same moderation as 
 the first, but sought to prolong its power, and at the same 
 time proceeded to some violent acts of despotism, which 
 so exasperated the people as to make its dissolution 
 necessary. 
 
 Besides these extraordinary commissions, there was a 
 body of decemviri chosen for judicial purposes, to preside 
 over and summon the centumviri, and to judge certain 
 causes by themselves. There were likewise decemviri ap- 
 pointed from lime to lime to divide lands among the military. 
 
 DECE'PTIVE CA'DENCE. In Music, a cadence in 
 which the final close is avoided by varying the final chord. 
 3>9 
 
 DECLARATION. 
 
 DECITJUOUS. (Lat. decido, I fall off.) In Zoology, a 
 term applied to parts which have but a temporary existence, 
 and are shed during the life-time of the animal, as certain 
 kinds of hair, horns, and teeth. 
 
 Deci'duous is applied, in Botany, to plants whose leaves 
 fall oifin the autumn, in contradistinction lo evergreens. 
 
 DE'CIMAL ARITHMETIC, is the common system of 
 arithmetic, in which the scale of numbers proceeds by 
 tens. <S"ee Arithmetic. 
 
 DE'CIMAL FRACTIONS, are fractions which have for 
 their denominator 10, 100, 1000, &c, or in general some 
 power of 10. The use of decimal fractions is merely an 
 extension of the ordinary scale of arithmetical notation. 
 Setting out from the unit's place, the first figure to the left 
 (in the expression of any whole number) denotes so many 
 tens, the second to the left so many hundreds, the third 
 so many thousands, and so on ; so that in the numbei 
 765, for example, each unit of the six is the tenth part of 
 each unit of the 7, and each unit of the 5 a tenth of each 
 unit of the 6. In like manner, in the expression of a deci- 
 mal fraction, setting out from the unit's place, the first 
 figure to the right expresses so many tenth parts, the 
 second to the right so many hundredth parts, the third so 
 many thousandths, and so on ; so that each figure, as be- 
 fore, expresses parts, which are each ten times smaller 
 than those expressed by the figure immediately preceding. 
 By expressing fractions' in this manner, the operations of 
 addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are ex- 
 actly the same as in integer numbers. 
 
 hi order to distinguish the integral from Ihe fractional 
 
 Cart of a numer n, a point or comma is placed 
 
 etween them. Various marks have been used for this 
 purpose at different times ; but the poinl la now most com- 
 monly employed, and, according to the practice of Sir Isaac 
 Newton, it should always be placed near Ihe top of the 
 figure, thus 2 48, which prevents it from being confounded 
 Willi the ordinary marks of punctuation. 
 
 Decimal fractions appear to have been introduced by 
 Regiomontanns, about the year 1464 ; hut Stevlnus was Ihe 
 first who wrote an express treatise on the subject in his 
 Practique (f Arithmetiqtte, published in 1582. They arc 
 now universally employed in all arithmetical calculations ; 
 and it is much to be regretted that a decimal division of 
 weights, measures, money, Ac. has not been adopted in 
 all civilised countries, by which the reduction of fractional 
 parts from one scale to another would be obviated, and all 
 the appliraiions of arithmetic lo the ordinary purposes of 
 life greatly simplified. A subdivision of weights and mea- 
 sures on this principle was adopted in France at the time 
 of the Revolution, but has not been imitated by other 
 countries. 
 
 DECIMATION. (Lat.) In Roman History, the se 
 lection by lot of one man out of every ten, who was put to 
 death as an example to, or satisfaction for, the rest. If an 
 army, legion, or century, as the case might happen, had 
 quitted Its post, raised a mutiny in the camp, or otherwise 
 failed in its duty, it was assembled before the general ; the 
 lots were cast into an urn ; so many were drawn as formed 
 Ihe tenth part of the number of the offenders, and the un- 
 lucky drawers were put lo the sword. This practice has 
 been occasionally recurred to in modern limes; as by the 
 Spanish general Cuesta, after Ihe battle of Talavcra. 
 
 DECLAMA'TlON (Lat. declamatio), signified, among 
 the ancients, the art of speaking indifferently upon both 
 sides of a question : a species of intellectual exercise re- 
 sorted to by the rhetoricians of Greece and Rome, as the 
 best means of acquiring facility in public speaking. In 
 modern limes the meaning of declamation is different in 
 different countries. In Germany, and in most parts of ihe 
 Continent, it Is often used in a sense nearly synonymous 
 with recitative. In France and England, especially the 
 latter, it is sometimes applied to any grand oratorical dis- 
 play, either in the pulpit, at the bar, in the senate, or on the 
 stage, in which the voice, gesticulation, and the whole de- 
 livery of the speaker are in perfect keeping with the sub- 
 ject matter of his address. But it is employed most usually 
 in a disparaging sense, to indicate the use of forced empha- 
 sis, inflated language, and violent gestures, to withdraw the 
 attention of the auditors from the weakness or fallacy of 
 the reasoning. .See Eloquence. 
 
 The Romans employed the term dedamare only in the 
 Rense of to plead or practise at Hie bar, as in the verse of 
 Horace (Epis. 2. 2.),— 
 
 Dum tu declamae Rome ; 
 but that they at the same time assiduously cultivated the 
 art of declamation in the sense of recitation, is evident 
 from Ihe following couplet, in which Martial has happily 
 illustrated the great importance of a good delivery :— 
 
 ftuem rccitas mem eft, O Fidentine, libellut J 
 Sect male quum recitas, incipit cese tuus 
 
 DECLARATION. In Law, a legal specification, on 
 record, of the cause of action, by a plaintiff against a de- 
 fendant. See Pleading. 
 
DECLENSION. 
 
 DECLE'NSION. (Lat. declinatio, from declino, I de- 
 flect.) In Grammar, the changes of termination in nouns, 
 corresponding to the various relations in which substances 
 are conceived to stand. See Case and Grammar. 
 
 DECLINA'TION (TRCLES, are small circles of the 
 sphere, parallel to the equator, in which the stars perform 
 their apparent diurnal revolutions. 
 
 DECLINA'TION OF A CELESTIAL BODY, is the 
 angular distance of the body north or south from the equa- 
 tor, and is measured on the great circle which passes 
 through the centre of the body and the two poles, and is 
 consequently perpendicular to the equator. The place of 
 a star in the heavens is determined Dy means of its right 
 uscension and declination ; the right ascension being the 
 angular dislance, measured on the equator, between the 
 first point of Aries and the point in which the meridian of 
 the star intersects the equator. Right ascension and de- 
 clination thus correspond to longitude and latitude on the 
 surface of the earth. In the analytical theory of the planets 
 it is often necessary to define the place of a planet or comet 
 with reference to the ecliptic, or plane of the earth's annual 
 motion ; and the early astronomers unfortunately adopted 
 for this purpose the terms longitude and latitude, which, 
 as the same terms are appropriated to terrestrial objects in 
 a different sense, is the cause of considerable embarrass- 
 ment to beginners. The student of astronomy must there- 
 fore remember that in speaking of celestial objects, decli- 
 nation and right ascension have reference to the equinoc- 
 tial, or plane of the earth's diurnal rotation ; while latitude 
 and longitude refer to the ecliptic. 
 
 The declination of a star is said to be north when the 
 star is north of the equator, and south when the star is 
 south of the equator. 
 
 DECLINA'TION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE. The 
 axis of a magnetic needle, that is, the straight line which 
 joins its poles, does not coincide with the astronomical me- 
 ridian, but deviates from it more or less, sometimes to- 
 wards the west, and sometimes towards the east. This de- 
 viation is called the Declination of the Needle. 
 
 It was formerly imagined that the magnetic needle, 
 when freely suspended, took a direction exactly north and 
 south at all places on the earth ; and Columbus is said to 
 have been greatly astonished when he observed, in his me- 
 morable voyage for the discovery of the New World, in 
 1492, that the needle of his compass did not point to the 
 true north. The same fact was observed by Sebastian 
 Cabot about the year 1500; but notwithstanding its great 
 importance to mariners, the first tables showing the amount 
 of the declination at various places were only prepared in 
 1599 by the Dutch navigators at the orders of the Prince of 
 Nassau. In 1622, Gunter, professor of geometry at Gre- 
 sham College, made the important discovery that the decli- 
 nation is not constant. He found it to be 6° 13' to the east 
 at London in that year; whereas in 1580 it had been observ- 
 ed by Robert Norman to be 11° 15' also to the east. 
 
 The following table of observations, made at Paris, will 
 be sufficient to give an idea of the changes which the de- 
 clination of the needle has undergone at different epochs : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Declination. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Declination. 
 
 1580 
 
 11° 30' East. 
 
 1805 
 
 22° 5' West. 
 
 1618 
 
 8 
 
 1813 
 
 22 28 
 
 1663 
 
 
 
 1814 
 
 22 34 
 
 1678 
 
 1 30 West. 
 
 1817 
 
 22 19 
 
 1700 
 
 8 10 
 
 1819 
 
 22 29 
 
 1767 
 
 19 16 
 
 1822 
 
 22 11 
 
 1780 
 
 19 55 
 
 1824 
 
 22 23 
 
 1785 
 
 22 
 
 1825 
 
 22 22 
 
 From this table it appears that since 1580 the declination 
 has varied more than thirty degrees. In 1663 it vanished. 
 From the date of the first observations till 1320, it has ad- 
 vanced progressively westward; but since that time it 
 appears to have assumed a retrograde movement towards 
 the east. (Pouillet, Elemens de Physique, t. i. p. 462.) 
 
 DECOLLATION. (Lai. de, of, and collum, the neck.) 
 A word synonymous with beheading; used chiefly in re- 
 ference to the decapitation of John the Baptist, to the 
 festival instituted by the Romish church in his honour, and 
 to the celebrated picture of Mabuse (Walpok's Anecdotes 
 of Painting, vol. i. p. 82.) which represents this subject. 
 This word is used by Fabyan so far back as the year 1350. 
 
 DECOMPOSITION, CHEMICAL. When compounds 
 are resolved into their elements, or when the chemical 
 constitution of substances is altered, they are said to be 
 decomposed; and when, in this operation, new products 
 are formed, such products are called the results of decom- 
 position. Thus, ammonia Is the result of the decompo- 
 sition of most animal substances; earburetted hydrogen 
 gas is the result of the decomposition of pit-coal, &c. 
 
 Chemists use the terms simple and compound, or single 
 and double decomposition, to distinguish between the less 
 and more complicated -,ases When a compound of two 
 320 
 
 DECREE. 
 
 substances is decomposed by the intervention of a third, 
 which is itself simple, or which acts as sucn, the case is 
 one of simple decomposition : water, for instance, is a 
 compound of oxygen and hydrogen. When the metal 
 potassium, which is a simple body, is thrown into it, it is 
 decomposed; the hydrogen is liberated in the form of gas, 
 and the oxygen combines with the potassium to form po- 
 tassa. Such a case is often tabularly represented as fol- 
 lows; and the annexed numbers are the equivalents of the 
 acting bodies, or the respective weights which are required 
 for perfect decomposition. 
 
 Water 9. 
 
 j Hydrogen 1. 
 
 Oxygen 8 + potassium 40. 
 
 Potassa 4S. 
 
 This shows that when 9 parts by weight of water are de- 
 composed by 40 parts of potassium, 48 parts of potassa (or 
 oxide of potassium) are formed, and 1 part of hydrogen 
 liberated. 
 
 When two new compounds are produced, the result is 
 called double or complex decomposition. Thus, when po- 
 tassa (composed of potassium and oxygen) and hydro- 
 chloric acid (composed of hydrogen and chlorine) react 
 upon each other, chloride of potassium (composed of 
 chlorine and potassium) and water (composed of hydrogen 
 and oxygen) are the results. These, with their respective 
 equivalents, are shown in the following diagram. 
 Water 9. 
 
 Hydrochloric J Hydogen 1 + oxygen 8. . 
 acid 37. | C hlorine36 + potassium40. > 
 
 C hloride of potassium 76. 
 
 This table, therefore, shows that 37 parts by weight of 
 hydrochloric acid and 48 of potassa produce, by mutual 
 decomposition, 76 parts of chloride of potassium and 9 of 
 water. 
 
 A knowledge of the mutual decomposing powers of dif- 
 ferent substances, or, in other words, of their relative affini- 
 ties, constitutes the skill of the practical chemist See in 
 reference to this subject the articles Affinity, Equiva- 
 lents, and the general article on Chemistry. 
 
 DECO'MPOSI'TION OF FORCES. In Mechanics, sig- 
 nifies the same thing as the Revolution of Forces. Any 
 force whatever may always be decomposed or resolved 
 into several others, the resultant of which is equal to the 
 given force. For example, a force represented in intensity 
 and direction by the diagonal of a parallelogram, may be 
 resolved into two others of which the intensities and direc- 
 tions are respectively represented by the sides of the same 
 parallelogram. See Composition of Forces. 
 
 DECO'MPOSI'TION OF LIGHT. The separation of a 
 beam of light into the different rays which exhibit the pris- 
 matic colours. See Light. 
 
 DE'CORATION. (Lat. decorare, to adorn.) In the Fine 
 Arts, adornment, ornament, embellishment. It is a com- 
 bination of ornamental objects, which a desire for variety 
 brings together in all sorts of forms for embellishing those 
 subjects which are the objects of art. The decoration of 
 any work should be confined strictly to the development 
 of impressions which the mass itself is intended to create ; 
 its object being merely to multiply the relations it has, by 
 presenting new images which spring from the original bare 
 design. Decoration in all the arts, except on particular 
 occasions, should be used with a sparing hand. Once 
 commenced it becomes difficult to know when to cease. 
 
 DECOY. A device by which aquatic birds, chiefly 
 ducks, are enticed from a river or lake, up a narrow wind 
 ing canal or ditch, which, gradually becoming narrower, at 
 last terminates under a cover of net work of several yards 
 in length. The birds are enticed by the smoothness of the 
 turf on the margin of the canal, which tempts thejn to 
 leave the water, and begin to dress their plumage. When 
 so engaged at some distance up the canal, they are sud- 
 denly surprised by the decoy man and his dogs, who have 
 been concealed behind a fence of reeds; and having again 
 taken the water, they are driven up by the dogs till they 
 enter within the net work which terminates the decoy, and 
 are then easily caught. 
 
 DECRE'E, Decretah. (Lat. decerno. / decide.) De- 
 creta or decrees, in the Civil Law, are the decisions of 
 emperors on cases submitted to them, forming a part of 
 their constitutions. Decretals were the decrees of popes, 
 having the same authority in canon law as decrees in civil. 
 They retained this authority in most Catholic countries 
 until the 14th century. Several compilations of them are 
 in existence. The false decretals of Isidore, a spurious 
 collection framed with a view to extend the papal power. 
 
DECREMENT. 
 
 irifess to contain the decrees of popes during the first 
 three centuries: they were forged in the 9th. 
 
 Decree. In Law, the judgment of a court of equity on 
 any bill preferred. Either party may petition the court fur 
 a rehearing, before it is signed and enrolled. After that 
 form has been gone through, a bill of review may be had 
 upon apparent error in judgment on the face of the decree. 
 It may also be appealed against in the House of Lords. In 
 Scottish law, various legal subjects and sentences are 
 Sty 1 ed decreets. 
 
 DE'CREMENT. (Lat. decresco, Idecrease) The small 
 part by which a variable quantity becomes less and less. 
 It is opposed to increment ; but these terms arc now sel- 
 dom used bv mathematicians. 
 
 DECRE'PITATION. (Lat. decrepito, I crackle.) The 
 crackling noise which common salt and many other sub- 
 make when thrown into the fire. 
 
 DECU'RION. The Latin name for the commander of 1 
 ten men. A military decurion was a cavalry officer, who 
 originally commanded ten soldiers, orone third of a turma ; 
 but afterwards the same name was preserved, though the 
 command was extended to the whole turma. Municipal 
 decurions were magistrates in the municipal towns, an- 
 ing to senators at Rome. In later times also certain 
 officers of the imperial household used this title ; as de- 
 enriona of thr> chamberlains, Ac. 
 
 DECUSSATU8, Decussate. Applied to the arrange- 
 mrnt of bodies in pairs that alternately cross each other; 
 as the leaves of many plants. 
 
 DEDICA'TION. (Lat.) In Literature, a complimenta- 
 ry address to a particular person, prefixed by an author l" 
 his work. Dedications arose out of the dependent liliuv 
 (ion in which authors have too frequently been placed in 
 reference to their powerful or wealthy patrons ; and, at no 
 very distant time, were often rewarded by pecuniary pre- 
 sents. The custom of dedicating works was in use at a 
 I. The brightest ornaments of Roman 
 literature, Horace, Virgil, Cicero, and Lucretius, were 
 among the number of those who practised it. At the pe- 
 riod or the revival of letters in Europe, few works were 
 published without dedications J many of which are re- 
 markable fur their elegance and purity of style, and from 
 the Interesting matter which they contain are of far more 
 value than the treatises to which they are prefixed. Hut 
 the practice became gradually perverted ; and many of the 
 authors of the succeeding generations employed them 
 chiefly with the view of securing the patronage of the great 
 Dedications were most abused in France under Louis XIV., 
 and in England from 1070 to the accession of George III. 
 Dryden was a great dedicator, and Johnson wrote dedica- 
 tions for money. Comeille got 1000 tools d'ori for the 
 dedication of Cinna. Some of the most beautiful dedica- 
 tions with which we are acquainted, are those prefixed to 
 the different volumes of the Spectator, by Addison ; and in 
 more i the poetical dedications with which each 
 
 canto of Sir Walter Scott's Marmion is prefaced. A corn- 
 history of dedications would prove a valuable acces- 
 sion to modern literature, as they would throw a flood of 
 light upon the history, character, and attainments of many 
 distinguished persons which are now involved in obscurity. 
 A few such works are in existence ; but they are only ac- 
 ile to the learned. See De Dedica. Lib. ret. Lat. by 
 i. (I.eip. 1715.) Commtnta. de Dedica. Lib. by Tacke. 
 (Wolfenbiittel, 1733.) 
 
 DiroiMlS POTE8TATEM. In Law, a writ or com- 
 mission given to one or more private persons, for the speed- 
 ing an act appertaining to a judge or some court. When 
 the commission of the peace is renewed, a writ of dedimus 
 potestatem is issued out of chancery, directed lo some an- 
 cient justice, to swear in a justice newly inserted. 
 
 DEED. A deed, in Law, i3 a writing sealed and delivered 
 by the parties. If made by one party only, it is termed a 
 deed poll ; if by several, an indenture. The formal parts 
 of a deed of conveyance are, first, the date and names of 
 the parties ; secondly, the recitals, in which the intention 
 of the parties and former transactions with reference to the 
 same property are recounted, so far as necessary ; then 
 the operative part. This expresses, first, the consideration 
 for which the deed is made (which for many sorts of deeds 
 is now merely nominal); then the conveyance by and to 
 the several parties ; then the parcels, or description of the 
 tenements and their legal adjuncts; then what is termed 
 the habendum, beginning with the words "to have and to 
 hold," expressing the quantity of estate conveyed ; then 
 the declaration of uses, which limits or modifies the enjoy- 
 ment to one or more parties, according to the stipulations 
 previously made ; then the declarations of trusts, if any, 
 that is, of equitable interests created in the property ; and 
 lastly, the covenants for title. These covenants stand in 
 the place of the ancient warranty, a clause by which the 
 grantor warranted and secured to the grantee the thing 
 
 { [ranted ; arising out of the feudal custom, whereby if a 
 ord had thus warranted a fief, and the tenant was after- 
 wards evicted, the lord was bound to recompense him 
 321 
 
 DEER. 
 
 with another fief of equal value. The covenants relating 
 to the title secure to the grantee a pecuniary cod pensation 
 for any damage he may suffer contrary to their stipulations. 
 Besides the covenants for title, such as may be demanded 
 by the peculiar circumstances of the case, — as in a lease 
 the covenants for repairing, payment of rent, &c, — cove 
 nants in general, when broken, give the covenantee an ac- 
 tion for damages against the covenantor ; or if he be dead, 
 against his executor or administrators to the extent of bis 
 personal property in their hands; or if the covenant be 
 with him, his heirs and assigns, the remedy extends to the 
 heir or grantee of the covenantee. 
 
 Lastly, the conclusion of a deed contains its execution 
 and date. It must be signed and sealed by the gnu 
 and also by the grantee, if any engagement or covenant i.- 
 entered into by him. It is usual fur witnesses to att- 
 deed ; but this is not necessary, unless where a power 
 having been given to be executed by deed the terms o 
 power require such attestation. There are several s| 
 of deeds; some having effect at common law, others under 
 the (Statute of Uses; some creating an estate termei 
 ginal or primary ; some enlarging, restraining, transferring, 
 or extinguishing estates already created, which are called 
 secondary or derival 
 
 DEER. The English generic name for the ruminating 
 quadrupeds with deciduous horns, or antlers; whii 
 pendages form, in fact, the essential character of ihe 
 Cerrus of Linnaeus. (See Cornua.) Deer are an; 
 cally distinguished from other ruminants by the absence of 
 a gall bladder. 
 
 The species of deer may be primarily divided into two 
 groups, of which one includes those with antlers more or 
 less flattened, the other those with rounded antlers. The 
 elk ( Cervus alces, L.) is the most characteristic species of 
 the first group, and forms the type of the subgenus Alces 
 of modern systems. It equals or exceeds the horse in 
 bulk ; has a short body, with a still shorter neck, raised on 
 long stilt like legs. The muzzle is lone, broad, and over- 
 hangs the mouth like a square shaped lapel : it is very 
 muscular, and is of essential service to the animal in de- 
 taching the lichens and mosses from the trunks ol 
 and other places within its easy reach. The long kef 
 the elk particularly adapt it to the marshy and swampy 
 forests which it chiefly frequents, in the northern parts of 
 both the European and American continents. The sliders 
 of the elk appear first in the form of dags or uubrat 
 ■ pointed stems ; these are succeeded by a stem or Leum 
 \ supporting a few short branches. At five years he puts no 
 antlers in the form of a triangular plate, suppoited on n 
 I pedicle, and notched along the outer margin. Afterwards 
 the bony plate increases in its expanse, and Ihe paints I" 
 Itween the notches are developed into long branches or 
 litwgs, of which a single antler sometimes sends off as 
 ' many as fourteen ; and the pair will then weigh about fifty 
 pounds. The female elk goes with youog rather longer 
 i km eight months. 
 
 i The rein-deer (Cervus tarandus) differs from the rest of 
 Ihe genus in the presence of antlers in both sexes, and in 
 Ihe great development of the brow-antlers, or branches 
 which extend forward over the forehead from the base of 
 . Ihe beam. The antlers are retained through the winter: 
 i and, as it is understood that the brow-antlers are used lo 
 I iletnch Ihe frozen snow, which at that season c< vers the 
 ! lichen rangi/erinus, and other species on which the rein- 
 ' deer feeds, the necessity of the singular exception in fa- 
 vour of the female rein-deer becomes obvious. Herant- 
 I. is are, however, always smaller than those of the male. 
 The rut takes place in mid-winter, and the period of gesta- 
 tion is about six months: as in most other species of deer, 
 one fiiwn is produced at a birth. The rein deer is a native 
 of the most northern parts of Europe and America. To 
 the Laplander it serves all the ordinary offices of the beast 
 of draught, and supplies him with the rich variety of nutri- 
 ment, clothing, and useful implements, which man in more 
 favoured climes obtains from other species of the valuable 
 order of Ruminantia. 
 
 The third species of deer referable to the flat-homed 
 group is that which the ancients termed platiceros, and 
 which now forms the ornament of the English park ; the 
 fallow deer (Cervus damas, Linn.) In the technical Ian- 
 una^e of the hunter, the male fallow deer is called a " buck,'* 
 the female a "doe," and the young a " fawn." The buck- 
 fawn of the second year, which is characterized by having 
 simple dags, is a " pricket." In the third year a brow- 
 antler is put forth, and the young buck is termed a "sorel." 
 In the fourth year he is a " sore," and the summit of the 
 beam presents a bifid expansion. At the fifth year the ex- 
 panded summit of the beam is formed, and begins to de- 
 velop siiR2s, and the fallow deer is then a " buck of the 
 first head." At each subsequent year the branches of the 
 expanded beam increase in length to a certain perioJ, after 
 which they lose their size and regularity. The period of 
 gestation in the fallow doe is eight months. 
 Of the species of deer of which the beam of the under 
 X 
 
DEFECATION. 
 
 gives a rounded form in section, the red deer (Cervus ela- 
 phus) and the roe-buck (.Cervus capreolus) are indigenous 
 species. 
 
 The male red deer, in the language of " the noble art of 
 venerie, " is called a " hart," and the female a " hind." 
 She goes with young about a week longer than the fallow 
 doe ; and brings forth in May a single fawn, rarely two. 
 The young of both sexes are at first styled " calves." The 
 male differs from that of the fallow deer in putting up at 
 six months a pair of rudimental antlers, in the form of cy- 
 lindrical knobs, called " bossets." In the second year 
 they assume the condition of "dags," and the wearer is 
 called a " brocket." In the third year two or three branches 
 or " tynes" are developed, and the young deer becomes a 
 "spayad." In the fourth year the summit of the beam 
 expands into the crown or "surroyal," and the deer is now 
 distinguished by the name of "staggard." In the fifth 
 year the term " stag" is applied to him in a limited and 
 technical sense. At the sixth year he is a " hart," and 
 his designation is not afterwards changed; but at this pe- 
 riod he is particularly distinguished as a " hart of ten," 
 and is not considered fair game till his seventh year, when 
 the hart is said to be "palmed" or "crowned," in refer- 
 ence to the full development of his antlers. The antlers 
 or "attire" are shed very soon after pairing; at this pe- 
 riod, when the hart has "lost his attire," he retreats to 
 the shadiest or most unfrequented part of his range. New 
 antlers begin to grow very soon after the old ones are shed, 
 and they are completed in the month of August. The 
 skin, or " velvet," which protected the vascular periosteum 
 during their growth now dries, and is rubbed off against 
 the trees or any resisting body; this act is technically call- 
 ed "burnishing." The harts during this period form a pe- 
 culiar and distinct association. The hinds form another 
 group, and go also into retirement with their calves, to 
 which they attend with a high degree of instinctive mater- 
 nal solicitude. The "brockets," and the " brockets' sis- 
 ters," constitute a third association. 
 
 The roebuck is the smallest species of European deer; 
 the male is monogamous, and the female brings forth two 
 fawns. In our own island they are now confined to the 
 Scottish mountains. 
 
 The largest species of round-antlered deer in America 
 is the Wapiti (Census strongyloceros) ; that of Asia is the 
 great Rusa (Cervus hippelaphus), which is noticed in the 
 writings of Aristotle. In South America there is a singular 
 group of small deer, called prickets or brockets, on ac- 
 count of the antlers never being developed beyond the 
 simple condition of "dags," such as characterize the 
 brocket age of the red deer. 
 
 DEF^ECA'TION. (Lat. de, and fmx, dregs.) The sepa- 
 ration of the dregs and impurities of liquors. 
 
 DEFAMATION. See Libel. 
 
 DEFAU'LT. (Fr. deTaut.) In Law, is in a general sense 
 the omission of any act which a party ought, to do in order 
 to entitle himself to a legal remedy. Such is, for example, 
 non-appearance in court on a day assigned. If a plaintiff 
 in an action make default in appearance, he is non-suited ; 
 if a defendant, judgment by default passes against him. 
 Suffering judgment by default is taken for an admission 
 of the contract alleged by the plaintiff. 
 
 DEFEA'SANCE. In Law— 1. A collateral deed, made 
 at the same time with a deed of conveyance, containing 
 conditions on the performance of which the estate created 
 by the deed of conveyance may be defeated. 2. A defea- 
 sance on a bond, recognizance, or judgment recovered, is a 
 condition which when performed defeats a bond, &c. (see 
 Bond), contained in or indorsed on the instrument itself. 
 
 DEFE'CTIVE FIFTH. In Music, an interval contain- 
 ing a semitone less than the perfect fifth. It is also called 
 semidiapente, and flat, lesser, or diminished fifth. 
 
 DEFE'NDER OF THE FAITH. (Fidei Defensor.) A 
 title bestowed on Henry VIII. of England by Pope Leo X. 
 on the occasion of lhat monarch's publishing his writing 
 against Luther. When at the Reformation Henry sup- 
 pressed all the monasteries and convents in England, the 
 pope deprived him of this title ; but in the thirty-fifth year of 
 his reign it was confirmed by parliament, and it has been 
 since constantly assumed by the sovereigns of England. 
 
 DE'FERENT. (Lat. defero, / carry away.) In the 
 Ptolemaic system of the universe the planets move in cir- 
 cular orbits, the centres of which are carried round in the 
 circumferences of other circles. These secondary circles 
 are called the deferents, as carrying the orbits : those in 
 which the planets move being the epicycles. The system 
 of epicycles and deferents was invented by Hipparchus for 
 the purpose of explaining the eccentricities, perigees, and 
 apogees of the planets. See Epicycle. 
 
 DEFI'CIENT NUMBERS, in Arithmetic, are numbers 
 such that the sum of their aliquot parts is less than the 
 numbers themselves. Thus, 8 is a deficient number ; be- 
 cause its aliquot parts, 1, 2, 4, when added together, make 
 only 7. In like manner the number 16 is deficient, its 
 narU being 1, 2, 4, 8, the sum of which is 15. 
 
 DEGREE. 
 
 DEFILADING. See Fortification. 
 
 DEFI'LE. In Fortification, a narrow way, through which 
 troops can pass only \njile, or a small number abreast. 
 
 DE'FIMTE PROPORTIONALS, hi Chemistry. See 
 Atomic Theory and Equivalents. 
 
 DEFINITION (Lat.), literally laying down a boundary, 
 signifies, in Logic, an expression which explains any term 
 so as to separate it from every thing else, as a boundary 
 separates fields. By the schoolmen definitions are divided 
 into nominal and real, according to the object accomplithed 
 by them, whether to explain merely the meaning of the 
 word or the nature of the thing; and, on the other hand, 
 they are divided into accidental, physical, and logical, ac- 
 cording to the means employed by each for accomplishing 
 their respective objects, whether it be the enumeration of 
 attributes, or of the physical or the metaphysical parts of 
 the essence. (Whately's Logic, pp. 141-2.) 
 
 DEFLAGRATION (Lat. deflagro, / burn.) A chemi- 
 cal term applied to sudden and rapid combustion : when 
 a mixture of charcoal and nitre is thrown into a red hot 
 crucible it burns with a kind of explosion, or deflagrates. 
 
 DEFLE'CTION OF THE RAYS OF LIGHT. When 
 a luminous ray passes very near an opaque body it is 
 deflected, or bent from its rectilinear course, towards the 
 surface of the body, and the deflection is greater in pro- 
 portion as the distance of the ray from the body is less. 
 This phenomenon was first observed by Grimaldi,and was 
 carefully examined by Newton, who gave it the name of 
 diffraction. 
 
 DE'FTER DAR, literally Bookkeeper. The title given 
 by the Turks to the chancellor of the exchequer and his 
 two coadjutors or deputies in the finance department. 
 
 DEGLUTITION. (Lat. de, and glutio, I swallow.) In 
 Physiology, the act of swallowing food. This operation is 
 performed by mechanism of the most extraordinary and 
 complicated kind, in which the consentaneous actions of the 
 various muscles of the tongue, the soft palate, the pharynx, 
 the larynx, and the oesophagus or gullet, are concerned, 
 partly by voluntary and partly by involuntary impulse. 
 
 There are, as it were, four openings at the back part of 
 the mouth, three of which, during deglutition, must be per- 
 fectly but temporarily closed ; whilst the fourth, namely, 
 that through which the food is to pass towards the stomach, 
 must be open and without impediment. The openings 
 which are to be closed are those which communicate with 
 the nose, with the ears, and with the lungs ; but, as far as 
 the latter is concerned, it follows of course that respiration 
 can only be suspended for a very short time, and that there- 
 fore the moment the morsel is swallowed, or has passed 
 over the larynx, the communication between it and the 
 nose must again be free. 
 
 When food is properly masticated, a sufficient quantity 
 is collected upon the tongue, which is then so pressed 
 against the palate by a muscular action proceeding from the 
 tip of the tongue backwards as to propel it towards the 
 pharynx, or upper end of the gullet; at this moment the 
 soft palate, previously hanging like a pendulous veil at the 
 back of the mouth, is drawn into a horizontal position, so 
 as to form a continuation, as it were, of the bony part of 
 the palate, and at the same time to close the nasal canals. 
 No sooner does the portion to be swallowed reach the 
 pharynx, than it is embraced, as it were ; while the base 
 of the tongue, the os hyoides, and the larynx, are raised 
 forward to meet it, and hurry it over the opening of the 
 glottis towards the oesophagus. The instant the larynx is 
 raised the glottis is firmly closed ; and as soon as the mor- 
 sel has passed over it the larynx descends, the epiglottis is 
 raised, and the glottis opens again to allow air to enter the 
 lungs. Thus it is, therefore, that the food is limited to the 
 direction of the oesophagus, and neither passes into the nasal 
 canals, nor into the Eustachian tubes, nor into the larynx, 
 all the concurrent actions in this period of theact of deglu- 
 tition being simultaneously and involuntarily performed 
 By the contraction of the pharynx the morsel is delivered 
 into the oesophagus, and propelled by the muscular struc- 
 ture of that tube towards the stomach. In the upper part 
 of the oesophagus, the fibres relax immediately after the 
 passing of the food, but the inferior portion remains con 
 traded for some moments after the food has entered the 
 stomach. The due admixture of saliva with the food, and 
 the lubrication of the various and complicated parts over and 
 through which the food passes, by mucous secretion, tend 
 materially to facilitate the progress of the alimentary pellet. 
 
 DEGRE'E. A distinction of rank in universities: in 
 its proper use denoting a certain amount of proficiency in 
 the faculty or science of which it is entitled ; but, by 
 modern usage, frequently conferred either of right to mem- 
 bers of the university of sufficient standing, or merely as 
 an honorary distinction. The origin of degrees at the uni- 
 versities of Paris and Bologna, the two most ancient in 
 Europe, appears to have been only the necessary distinc- 
 tion between those who taught and those who learnt. The 
 former were styled (such was at least the case at Paris} 
 doctors or teachers, and masters, as a token of respect, in- 
 
DEGREE. 
 
 discriminately. At what time the distinction between these 
 two degrees arose we cannot ascertain ; but about the 
 middle of the 13th century wc find, at Paris, doctors and 
 masters simply as graduates, and not necessarily connected 
 with the business of teaching ; those who were so being 
 called regent masters, or simply regents. (See Regent.) 
 The degree of Bachelor, the lowest in the several faculties, 
 is certainly of French origin ; from whence it has been 
 argued that the whole system of academical titles is so 
 likewise. Degrees still continue to bear the same names, 
 and, with some variation, the same relative academical 
 rank, in most European countries; but the mode of grant- 
 ing them, and their value at different universities as tokens 
 of proficiency, vary greatly. At Oxford and Cambridge 
 degrees are given in arts, divinity, law, medicine, and 
 music ; but among all these the lowest degree in arts, viz. 
 that of bachelor (B. A.), is the only one conferred on a sub- 
 stantial examination, and the only one which is attained by 
 proceeding through a regular academical course of study. 
 The higher degrees in arts, and those in the other faculties, 
 are attained simply by residence and the performance of 
 a few unimportant exercises. Honorary degrees, in the 
 English universities, are generally conferred in civil law. 
 
 A considerable difference of opinion exists upon the 
 question how far the possession of degrees forms a valid 
 test of ability to exercise any of the teamed professions ; 
 and though at first sight nothing might appear more pre- 
 posterous than to question the necessity of some such 
 test being exacted from those to whom the lives and for- 
 
 millions of human beings are in a peculiar manner 
 intrusted, — physicians and lawyers, — still there are many 
 who maintain that " degrees have always been, and must 
 continue to be, utterly worthless." Among those who 
 entertained this opinion may be mentioned Dr. Smith; 
 whose sentiments on this subject, though pretty distinctly 
 indicated in the Wealth of Nations, are fully detailed in a 
 letter to Dr. Cullen, which the reader will find in Mr. 
 M'Culloch's edition of that work, 1 vol. Svo. But those 
 who wish to see this question fully examined in all its 
 bearings, should consult a note, or rather dissertation, "On 
 the Value and Proper Mode of conferring Literary and 
 Scientific Degrees," in the same edition of the work now 
 referred to, in which the author contends that it is not 
 against the principle of degrees, so much as the mode of 
 conferring them, that the chief objections may be urged. 
 The value of a degree, it is there contended, must always 
 depend on the disinterested character of the parties who 
 confer it. Now, when it is remembered that, till very re- 
 cently, in every university, those in whom was vested the 
 privilege of granting degrees are the identical parties en- 
 gaged in preparing the candidate for receiving them, who 
 are thus, as it were, called upon to form an estimate of 
 their own handiwork, it will be sufficiently obvious that the 
 system hitherto pursued in awarding academical distinc- 
 tions must he wholly inadequate as a test of literary or 
 scientific merit. This being the case, it might seem almost 
 unaccountable that so little success should have attended 
 the many efforts that have been made to place the grant- 
 ing of degrees on a sounder and more satisfactory footing. 
 Mil it not matter of notoriety that to divert into a new 
 channel ihe current of popular feelings or prejudices 
 which ha.-; been flowing for ages in a particular direction is 
 almost impracticable, even after the benefits of the change 
 have been clearly and unequivocally demonstrated. Some 
 
 is as to the inadequacy of degrees appear to have 
 been entertained a few years ago in many of the Cerman 
 states. There the hare possession of a degree was former- 
 ly sufficient to authorize members of the legal or medical 
 profession to engage in the exercise of their several duties; 
 but a change has been since effected, which has at once 
 infused new life into the educational establishments of the 
 country, and has been attended with great advantage to all 
 classes of the people. This change consists in the estab- 
 lishment of boards composed of gentlemen eminent for 
 their attainments, and wholly unconnected with the busi- 
 ness of education, whose duty it is to ascertain by a rigid 
 examination the qualifications of those who have already 
 obtained degrees in the faculties of law and medicine, and 
 thus to determine whether the degree has been properly 
 conferred ; and unless the diploma obtained at the uni- 
 versity be stamped with the authority of these different 
 boards, the possessor of it is prohibited from engaging in 
 the exercise of his profession. In this way the degree, 
 which was formerly regarded as the atwi or end of the 
 student's ambition, is now looked upon simply as a means 
 of attaining it, inasmuch as it confers no direct privileges, | 
 and does not necessarily secure professional honour or 
 emolument, though it form the sole passport to both. A 
 somewhat similar course relative to the granting of degrees 
 was adopted in this country on the establishment of the 
 London University ; with this peculiarity, that while in 
 Germany the different faculties of the universities retain 
 the privilege of conferring degrees, which, however, are 
 of little value, unless confirmed by the authority of the 
 323 
 
 DEGREE OP LATITUDE. 
 
 boards alluded to, in the London University .nis right is 
 vested in the board to the entire exclusion of the profes- 
 sors. Whether this system will work well remains yet to 
 be seen; but, to use the words of Mr. M'Culloch, " if we 
 mistake not, its formation will mark the commencement 
 of a new era in the history of education." 
 
 Degree. In Algebra, a term applied to equations to de- 
 note the highest power of the unknown quantity. Thus, 
 if the index of the highest power of the unknown quantity 
 is 4, the equation is said to be of the fourth degree. 
 
 Degree, in Geometry and Trigonometry, is the 3G0th 
 part of a circumference, or of four right angles. Every 
 circle, whether great or small, is considered as divided into 
 360 parts or degrees, each degree being subdivided into 60 
 minutes, and each minute into 60 seconds. This division 
 of the circle has been employed since the most remote 
 ages. It is not certainly known what gave occasion to the 
 adoption of the arbitrary number 360 ; but it most probably 
 had reference to the space described by the sun in one 
 day in performing his annual revolution in the ecliptic, the 
 number 360 being taken instead of 365. as being more con- 
 venient for arithmetical operations on account of its con- 
 taining a great number of divisions. The Chinese divide 
 the circle into 365J equal parts; so that the sun describes 
 daily an arc of one Chinese degree. An attempt was made 
 by the French philosophers, at the period of the Revolu- 
 tion, to introduce into works of science a division of the 
 circle better adapted to our decimal arithmetic (the quad- 
 rant or right angle being divided into 100 degrees, the de- 
 gree into 100 minutes, and so on); but though the system 
 was adopted by some writers of the first order of merit 
 (for example, Laplace in the Mecanique Celeste), and ex- 
 tensive tables were computed for the purposes of astro- 
 nomical calculation, it never came into general use, and 
 now appears to be entirely abandoned. It may be remark- 
 ed, that a division of this sort was recommended long ago 
 by some of the most eminent mathematicians, Slevinus, 
 Wallis, Briggs, Gellibrand, Newton, and others. 
 
 Degree. In Grammar. See Comparison. 
 
 DEGRE'E OF LATITUDE, on the surface of the earth, 
 is the distance an observer must advance along the meri- 
 dian, to the north or south, in order to produce a variation 
 of one degree in the altitude of the pole. Ever since it 
 was discovered that the earth is round, the exact measure- 
 ment of a degree of the terrestrial meridian has been a 
 problem of extraordinary interest, inasmuch as it leads di- 
 rectly to a knowledge of the earth's dimensions. In 
 modern times the problem has acquired a still greater im- 
 portance, in consequence of the discovery of the earth's 
 ellipticity; for it is by the comparison of the lengths of 
 meridional degrees at different latitudes that we are en- 
 abled to ascertain accurately the true figure of the earth, 
 which enters as an element into many of the most inte- 
 resting inquiries of physical astronomy. 
 
 When we consider the great irregularities of the actual 
 surface of the earth, and that the length of a degree de- 
 pends on the radius of the circle on which it is measured, 
 it will readily appear that terrestrial degrees at different 
 places, if measured on the external surface, must be ex- 
 ceedingly unequal. In order to obviate the effects of 
 superficial irregularities, and to reduce all the degrees to 
 the same radius, the surface of the sea is supposed to be 
 continued all round under the continents, and it is to this 
 surface or level that all the measurements must be referred. 
 This being understood, the general principle on which the 
 measurement of degrees of the terrestrial meridian must 
 be accomplished are readily perceived. Two stations 
 being assumed on the same, or nearly the same meridian, 
 the distance between them must be found with great ex- 
 actness in feet, yards, or some known linear measure. 
 Having ascertained the itinerary distance, the latitude of 
 each of the stations must be determined ; the difference 
 of the two latitudes is the length of the celestial arc inter 
 cepted between the two stations; and by comparing this 
 with the terrestrial measure, the number of yards or feet 
 corresponding to a degree becomes known. It i3 evident 
 that, in order to obtain a result of any value, all these 
 operations must be executed with the greatest care and 
 precision. An error of a single second in the celeslial arc 
 corresponds to about 100 feet on the ground, and a long se- 
 ries of astronomical observations must be made to obtain 
 the latitude of any place true to a second. On this account 
 it is necessary to measure an arc of considerable length, 
 two or three degrees at least ; because the error in the de- 
 termination of the latitudes is the same, whether the arc 
 be long or short, and in the case of a long arc its influence 
 becomes lesa sensible. But the exact measurement of a 
 line extending two or three degrees on the surface of the 
 earth, by the direct application of rods or chains, is perhaps 
 altogether impracticable, on account of the irregularities 
 of the ground and many other circumstances which render 
 an operation of this sort, when carried on even for a few 
 miles, an affair of great difficulty. Hence it becomes ne- 
 cessary to have recourse to other methods. A level piecs 
 
DEGREE OF LATITUDE. 
 
 of ground ts selected near the meridional arc proposed 'o 
 be measured. On this a straight line A B is traced in any 
 direction, and its length 
 accurately found by the 
 application of rods of 
 metal, or sometimes of H 
 wood or of glass. The 
 groundadjoining ihe arc 
 to be measured is then 
 formed into triangles by 
 means of signals, C, D, E, F, K, erected at convenient dis- 
 tances, or on remarkable points of the country ; and the 
 angles which the signals make with each other determined 
 by a theodolite or other appropriate instrument. The sides 
 AC and BC are then deduced from the measured base AB, 
 and thence successively the sides of the other triangles ; 
 and in this manner the whole distance between the stations 
 which form the terminal points of the arc is determined by 
 a series of trigonometrical calculations. The reductions 
 for differences in the levels of the signals must next be ap- 
 plied, and also for their altitude above the level of the sea ; 
 and it is obvious that these reductions cannot be made 
 without having at least an approximate knowledge of the 
 dimensions of the earth, and without making some hy- 
 pothesis respecting its figure, though the dimensions and 
 figure of the earth are elements that can only be deduced 
 from the measurement and comparison of degrees. 
 
 From this general description it will be readily inferred 
 that the measurement of terrestrial degrees depends on 
 astronomical operations of very great nicety, and that the 
 attempts made in ancient times could lead only to rude 
 approximations with respect to the dimensions of the 
 earth, supposing its figure to be spherical. Eratosthenes 
 who lived in the 3d century before Christ, is the first with 
 the detail of whose operations we are acquainted who 
 undertook to determine the length of a meridional arc on 
 correct principles. Having observed the difference of the 
 sun's altitude at the summer solstice U Alexandria and 
 Syene in Upper Egypt, and having found, by means with 
 which we are unacquainted, the Itinerary distance between 
 the two places, he inferred the circumference of the earth 
 to be 250,000 stadia, and consequently the length of a degree 
 694J stadia. Posidonius, some time after, measured in a 
 similar manner the arc between Alexandria and Rhodes, 
 and inferred the length of the degree to be 66flf stadia. 
 Ptolemy, in his Geography, assigns 500 stadia as the length 
 of a degree of the meridian ; but as we are unacquainted 
 with the precise value of the stadium, we cannot form any 
 correct idea of the approximation attained in these ancient 
 measures. In the 9th century, the Arabian caliph Alma- 
 moun ordered a degree to be measured on the plains of 
 Mesopotamia. His mathematicians arrived at the exact 
 value given by Ptolemy ; a circumstance which, as it could 
 scarcely have happened if they had operated indepen- 
 dently, has led to the suspicion that they merely adopted 
 the conclusion of the Greek astronomers. In modern 
 times the measurement of terrestrial degrees has been 
 justly regarded as of the greatest scientific importance. 
 About the middle of the 16th century, Fernel made a rough 
 measurement of the distance between Paris and Amiens 
 by counting the revolutions made by his coach wheel, 
 and concluded the length of the meridional degree to be 
 364,960 English feet. Norwood, in 1635, measured the dis- 
 tance between London and York, and found the length of 
 the degree to be 367,176 feet. But the first who employed 
 the method of triangulation for obtaining the length of a 
 terrestrial arc was Snell, a native of Holland. The appli- 
 cation of the telescope to instruments for measuring an- 
 gles, by Picard, was an invention which gave a far greater 
 accuracy and certainty to operations of this kind than 
 could before be attained : and the discovery by Richer of 
 the flattened form of the earth at the poles, and the conse- 
 quent inequality of the meridional degrees, invested the 
 subject with a new and unexpected interest. In the year 
 1735, the Academy of Sciences of Paris, to decide the im- 
 portant question of the spheroidal form of the earth, resolv- 
 ed that two arcs of meridian, the one at the equator and 
 the other as near the pole as possible, should be measured 
 with all the accuracy which the improved state of astrono- 
 my admitted of. Accordingly, Bouguer, Godin, and Con- 
 daminc were despatched to Peru ; Maupertuis, Clairaut, 
 Lemonnier, and some other associates, to Lapland, — for 
 the execution of this purpose. The latter party accom- 
 plished their mission, and returned to Paris within 16 
 months ; Bouguer and his companions had to contend with 
 great difficulties and hardships, and were detained not less 
 than ten years. The result was, that the length of the de- 
 gree of the meridian at the equator, reduced to the level 
 of the sea, was found to be 56,753 toiseg, or 362,912 English 
 feet; and inLapland, under the parallel of 65J°, to be 57,437 
 toises, or 36,729 feet, exceeding the former by 684 toises. 
 
 Since these memorable expeditions several arcs of me- 
 ridian have been measured in different countries, and all 
 the rosultg concur in proving that the degrees increase in 
 324 
 
 length as we proceed from the equator to the pole, agree 
 ably to the theory of hydrostatic equilibrium, which re. 
 quires an accumulation of matter in the equatorial regions 
 of the earth, in order to counterbalance, by its attraction, 
 the effect of the centrifugal force of rotai ion. Lacaille, in 
 1751, measured a degree at the Cape of Good Hope ; and 
 the result is interesting on account of the locality, as no 
 other operation of the kind has yet been undertaken in the 
 southern hemisphere. In the same year an arch was mea- 
 sured in the Roman slates by Maire and Boacovich ; 
 another by Liesganig in Hungary in 1762; one in North 
 America by Mason and Dixon in 1764; and one by Becca- 
 ria in Piedmont in 1777 ; but the results cannot be regarded 
 as entitled to much confidence in comparison of those ob- 
 tained from the more extensive and accurate operations 
 that have been since executed in France and England, and 
 also in India. The French philosophers, in 1792, having 
 chosen for the unit of their new system of weights and 
 measures a fractional part of the terrestrial meridian, it 
 was resolved to measure the arc extending through the 
 whole of France from Dunkirk to Barcelona. This splen- 
 did undertaking was confided to two astronomers ol die 
 highest eminence, Mechain and Delambre, by whose 
 spirited exertions it was carried through in the face of ob- 
 stacles of the most formidable kind, arising from the po- 
 litical slate of the country at that time. Every precaution 
 that profound theory or eminent practical skill could sug- 
 gest was adopted to secure the accuracy of the results. 
 In 1806 the triangulation was extended from Barcelona 
 through Spain to the coasts of the Mediterranean ; and sub- 
 sequently, after the death of Mechain, who fell a victim to 
 his exertions, by Biot and Arago to lite Balearic Isles. The 
 whole, thus extended from Dunkirk on the north to 
 Formentera on the south, comprehends 12° 22'. The 
 English arc, connected with the trigonometrical survey of 
 the kingdom, which has been carried on since 1790 under 
 the direction of the Board of Ordnance, reaches from Dun- 
 nose in the Isle of Wight to Burleigh Moor in Yorkshire ; 
 nearly 4 degrees. Though no doubt is entertained that the 
 result of this measurement is of a high degree of accu- 
 racy, it must be confessed that our confidence arises rather 
 from the great excellence of the instruments employed 
 than the science or skill of those to whom the operations 
 were entrusted. It is deserving of remark that bolh the 
 French and English arcs present this anomaly, that when 
 portions of them taken at particular places are considered 
 separately, the length of the degrees appears to increase 
 on going southward. Two arcs of meridian have been 
 measured in India. The first extends only a degree and a 
 half; but the second is the longest which has been mea- 
 sured in any country, and includes about 16 degrees. It 
 was begun, and about 10° executed, by Colonel Lambton ; 
 and the remainder was conducted by Captain Everest. 
 The details of Colonel Lambton's operations are given in 
 the Asiatic Researches (vols. viii. to xiii.); those of Capt. Ev- 
 erest in his Account of the Measurement (fan Arc of the Me- 
 ridian between the Parallels o/18° 3' and 24° 7'. Lend. 1830. 
 Some portions of meridional arcs have more recently 
 been measured in Europe ; but. as our limits will not per- 
 mit us to enter into further details, we shall content our- 
 selves with giving the following table of the results of those 
 which appear to be deserving of confidence : — 
 
 No. 
 
 Meridional Arcs. 
 
 jArc measured by Bou- 
 guer, recomputed by 
 
 | Delambre 
 
 First Arc measured in In- 
 
 | dia by Col. Lambton, 
 
 from Trivandeporum 
 
 | to Paudree 
 
 Second Indian Arc by 
 | Col. Lambton and Cap- 
 tain Everest, from Pun- 
 | nae to Kulliampoor — 
 FrenchArc fromDunkirk 
 I to Formentera by Me- 
 I chain and Delambre .. 
 English Arc from Dun- 
 I nose to Burleigh Moor.. 
 Arc measured in Hano- 
 | ver by Gauss, from Got- 
 
 tingen to Allona 
 
 'Arc measured in Lithua- 
 | nia by Struve, from Ja- 
 i cobstadt to Hockland . . 
 Arc measured in Sweden 
 } by Svanberg, from Mai- 
 I torn to Pahtawara 
 
 Ampli- 
 tude or 
 length 
 of Arc. 
 
 3° V 3" 
 
 1 34 56 
 
 15 57 39 
 
 12 22 12 
 3 57 13 
 
 2 57 
 335 6 
 
 1 37 20 
 
 Latitude 
 
 of middle 
 
 point. 
 
 Lengthv 
 
 of 
 Degree 
 
 in 
 
 English 
 feet. 
 
 1°31'0"S. 362,809 
 
 12 32 21 N. i 362,988 
 
 i 
 
 16 8 22 ! 363,040 
 
 44 51 
 
 52 E5 45 
 
 52 32 17 
 58 17 37 
 66 20 11 
 
 \ 364,644 
 365,032 
 
 365,30' 
 
 365,377 
 
 365,697 
 
DEGREE OF LONGITUDE. 
 
 fc> the pi eccding table the numbers are exhibited as if the 
 whole trcs had been measured at once, and the latitudes 
 only observed at each extremity ; but in fact, in the three 
 -. latitudes were observed at several intermediate 
 stations, and consequently so many more independent 
 measures obtained. Thus the second Indian arc consisted 
 of five partial arcs, the French ol six, the English of three, 
 and Struve's of two ; so that there are in the whole twenty 
 ^dependent determinations of the meridional degree. 
 Combining the results of these twenty measurements by 
 methods well known to mathematicians so as to deduce 
 • probable mean values, the dimensions and ellip- 
 icity of the earth are found to be as follows :— 
 
 Kuglbh feet Mile 
 
 Equatorial diameter 
 
 Polar diameter 
 
 Difference of diameters • 
 
 Elliptic! ty, or difference of diameters ) 
 divided by greater • • $ 
 
 Assuming these as the true elements of the earth's mag- 
 id figure, the following table is calculated, showing 
 li of a degree of the meridian at every 10th degree 
 
 Of latitude. The formula from which the calculation is 
 
 made is the following : — Let a be the equatorial semidia- 
 
 metcr of the earth, e the ellipiicity, / the latitude of the 
 
 place, and d the length of a decree at the latitude I ; then 
 
 d = a (I — e + 3 e Biii a /) 3600 sin. I" 
 
 41,843,33O=?0Ul 87 
 8=7898-63 
 133,542= 26-24 
 1 
 302-020 
 
 Length of Degree 
 in Kngliih feet. 
 
 363.61 1 
 364*233 
 
 Latitude. 
 
 80 
 
 n 
 
 bo 
 so 
 
 Length of Degree, 
 in Kngliah feel. 
 
 864,862 
 365,454 
 366,937 
 866,263 
 366,861 
 
 DEGREE OF LONGITUDE, on the earth, is a degree 
 of the equator, or of any of its parallel circles. If the earth 
 is a regular spheroid of revolution, the circles parallel to 
 the equator, and consequently the degrees of those circles, 
 must diminish regularly as their distance from the equator 
 increases, according i" a law derived from the nature of 
 the e lipse. Hence, if we know the measured lengths of 
 a degree of two or more small circles in different latitudes, 
 we are in possession of data sufficient to determine t lie 
 dlameterj and ellipticlty of the earth. The measurement 
 of degrees of longitude, therefore, in reference to the de- 
 tenninatioD of the earth's figure, is of equal importance 
 With the measurement of degrees of the meridian, and has 
 accordingly beenexecuted in various instances. The geo- 
 I operations required In ihe one case are the same as 
 in the other ; but on account of Ihe great difficulty of de- 
 .ermiuing the astronomical longitudes with the necessary 
 accuracy, the results have never been regarded as equally 
 satisfactory. Supposing the equatorial diameter of the 
 rarth, as indicated by the meridional degrees, to be 
 
 41,&43,330 English feet, and the ellipticity = gQo „ c the 
 
 following table shows the length of a degree of longitude at 
 erery tenth degree of latitude. 
 
 Latitude. 
 
 Degree of Leacltodt. 
 
 in Engluh feci. 
 
 Latitude. 
 
 Degree of Longitude 
 in Eugliab feet. 
 
 
 10 
 20 
 
 30 
 40 
 
 355,152 
 359.040 
 343,263 
 316,493 
 280,106 
 
 50 
 60 
 70 
 SO 
 90 
 
 235.171 
 
 183,029 
 
 126,254 
 
 63,612 
 
 
 
 DEGRL'ES. In Music, the small intervals of which the 
 concords or- harmonical intervals are composed. 
 
 DEHI'SCENT. (Lat. dehisco, I gape.) A term applied 
 fruits which separate regularly round their axes, 
 either whollv or partially, into several pieces. 
 
 DEIFICATION. See Apotheosis. 
 
 DEI GRATIA {by the grace of God). A Latin formula, 
 usually inserted in the ceremonial description of ilr iile 
 if a sovereign. It was used originally by the clergy. 
 
 DEILE'PIIILA. (Gr. ict\n, evening, and 6i\tw, I lore.) 
 A subgenus of hawk-moths (Sphingidm) belonging to (lie 
 alar or evening tribe of Lepidopterous insects. 
 They are characterized by wings entire and acute; antlia 
 /ather elongated ; antennas short, and clubbed in the male. 
 One snecips, Deil. celerio, feeds upon the vine. 
 
 DEINOTIIE'RIUM. (Gr. leivoc, terrible, Snptov, mid 
 beast.) The name of a fossil genus of gigantic Pachy. 
 dorms, chiefly remarkable on account of its enormous 
 tusks, which projected downwards from the lower jaw 
 instead of the upper, as in the elephant and walrus. 
 
 DEISM, or THEISM. (Lat. Deus; Gr. Ocos, God.) 
 Belief in the existence and attributes of God coupled with 
 325 
 
 DELPHI, ORACLE OF. 
 
 disbelief in any express revelation of his will. There exist 
 various shades of opinion among Deists, which the reader 
 will find pointed out in Clarke's learned workon the Attri- 
 butes ; but general usage has assigned this word a meaning 
 synonymous with sccjitic or freethinker : hence it is re- 
 garded as a term of reproach. In its original accepation, 
 tkeist was directly opposed in meaning to atheist ; but these 
 terms are now frequently, though very incorrectly, em- 
 ployed without distinction to designate an unbeliever in 
 Duty. 
 DEJEUNER (Fr. breaifast.) A term wholly natural 
 ized In almost all the languages of modern Europe, not ex- 
 cepting the English, signifying the morning meal The 
 materials of which it is composed vary of course with tin; 
 climate and usages of different countries ; but it is worthy 
 of remark that in France itself this term is rapidly lo 
 if indeed it has not already lost, its original .; 
 being used, particularly by the fashionable world, t 
 nonymoiis with the English luncheon. 
 
 DEL CREDERE COMMISSION. In Mercantile Lav,. 
 a term derived from the Italian (credere, to trust), whic 1 1 
 denotes a commission grantetl by a merchant to a factor lo 
 dispose of goods ; the factor, for the consideration of an 
 additional percentage, agreeing to guarantee the solvency 
 of the purchaser. See Factor. 
 
 DELEGATES, COURT OF. Formerly the highest ec- 
 clesiastical court of appeal in England: in ordinary case^ 
 composed of three rommon law judges and three civilians ; 
 in special cases a fuller commission is sometimes issued. 
 In case of a division of opinion, or where no common law 
 judge is in the majority, a commission of adjuncts was is- 
 sued. Appeal lay to it from the archiepiscopal courts. Its 
 powers are transferred by2ct3 W. 4. c. 92. to the privy 
 council. 
 
 DELEGATION. In the Civil Law, the act by which a 
 debtor transfers to another person the duty to pay, or a 
 creditor makes over to a third party the right to receive 
 payment 
 
 DELFT WARE. A coarse species of porcelain, origin- 
 ally manufactured at Delft in Holland, whence its name. 
 DE'LIAN PROBLEM. Sir. Duplication of thb Cube. 
 DE'LICACV. (Lat. delieUB.) In the Fine Arts, minute 
 accuracy as opposril ,ir force: slenderness of 
 
 proportion, great finish, and softness are its characteristics. 
 DELIQUE'SOBNCE. (Lat deliquesco, lo melt down.) 
 When certain saline substances are exposed to air, they 
 absorb so large a quantity of moisture as to run down into 
 a liquid -• uesce. , 
 
 DELI'RIUM TRE'MENS. A disease of the brain, re- 
 sulting from the excessive and protracted use of spirituous 
 liquors; it is therefore almost peculiar to drunkards. It 
 begins with excessive irritability, loss of sleep, frightful 
 dreams and visions, and a multiplicity of the ordinary de- 
 lusions of insane persons, ending in furious madness. The 
 hands are usually, but not always, tremulous. By careful 
 treatment, and more especially by the judicious use of 
 opium, pati»nts have recovered from this disease ; but, for 
 obvious reasons, it is difficult to manage, and subject to re 
 lapses. Bleeding should in almost all cases be, if possible, 
 avoided. 
 
 DE'LITE'SCENCE. (Lat. delitescere, to lie hid.) In 
 Surgery, when a tumour very suddenly and unexpectedly 
 subsides, it is said to terminate in delitescence. 
 
 DE'LPHI, ORACLE OF; so called from Delphi, the 
 capital of Phocis, the most famous of all the oraclesof an- 
 tiquity, sacred lo Apollo. The origin of the oracle at Del- 
 phi is wrapt in obscurity. By some authors it is ascribed 
 lo chance ; but many incline to believe that it owed its origin 
 to certain exhalations, which, issuing from a cavern on 
 which it was situated, threw all who approached it into con- 
 vulsions, and during their continuance communicated the 
 power of predicting the future. Be this as it may, these 
 exhalations were soon invested with a sacred character; 
 and as their reputation extended, the town of Delphi insen- 
 sibly arose around ihe cavity from which they issued. The 
 responses were delivered by a priestess, called Pythia, who 
 sat upon a tripod placed over the mouth of the cavern ; and 
 after having inhaled ihe vapour, by which she was thrown 
 into violent convulsions, gave utterance to the wished-for 
 predictions, either in verse or prose, which were then in- 
 terpreted by the priests. Originally the consultation of the 
 oracle was a matter of great simplicity ; but in process of 
 time, when the accuracy of Ihe predictions became known, 
 a series of temples, each more magnificent than its prede- 
 cessor, was erected on the spot. Immense multitudes of 
 priests and domestics were connected with the oracle ; and 
 to such a height of celebrity did it attain, that it wholly 
 eclipsed all the other oracles of Greece. 
 
 The position of the oracle was the most favourable that 
 could well be imagined. Delphi formed at once the seat 
 of the Amphictyonic Council and the centre of Greece, 
 and, as was universally believed, of the earth. Hence, in 
 every case of emergency, if a new form of government 
 was to be instituted, war to be proclaimed, peace con- 
 
DELPHIN. 
 
 DEMARCATION. 
 
 eluded, or laws enacted, it came to be consulted, not only haps the safest and wisest course to acquiesce in the general 
 
 iiy the Greeks, but even by the neighbouring nations; and 
 thus the temple was enriched by an incredible number of 
 the most valuable presents and the most splendid monu- 
 ments, and the town of Delphi rose to be one of the most 
 wealthy and important of the cities of Greece. 
 
 As it was well known that the riches of all Greece were 
 concentrated in the temple at Delphi, tliis sacred reposi- 
 tory became frequently an object of plunder. But in spite 
 of all tiie rapacity to which it was exposed, the oracle con- 
 tinued to utter its responses long after the seat of empire 
 had been transferred from Greece to Rome; and it was 
 only when Constantine the Great removed the sacred tri- 
 pods to adorn the hippodrome of his new city, that the re- 
 sponses of the oracle ceased to be delivered. For a view 
 of the characteristics of oracles in general, and the influ- 
 ence which they exercised over the nations of antiquity, 
 see the article Oracle. 
 
 DE'LPHIN. In Literary History, a name given to the 
 edition of the Latin classics, prepared and commented 
 upon by thirty-nine of the most famous scholars of the day, 
 at the suggestion of Louis XIV., for the benefit of the 
 young prince (in usum Delphini) under the superintendence 
 of MoOtauaier his governor, and his preceptors Bossuet 
 and Huet. 
 
 DELPHI'NIA. A vegetable alkaline base, obtained from 
 the seeds of the Delphinium stapliisagria or stavesacre. 
 
 DELPHI'NUS. (Lat. a dolphin.) The Dolphin, one of 
 Ufa ancient constellations of the northern hemisphere. 
 
 Delphinus. This term is restricted in modern Zoology 
 to those species of Cetacea which have teeth in both jaws, 
 ill simple, and almost all conical. They are the most car- 
 nivorous in proportion to their size. The Linna?an genus 
 
 principle, that as scripture was given for a very different 
 purpose than that of conveying physical knowledge, so the 
 endeavour to torture its brief language into exact accordance 
 with our discoveries, real or imaginary, in that branch of 
 inquiry, is both vain and unreasonable. But since much 
 controversy has been expended on the subject, it may be 
 worth while to observe, that in the instance of the deluge 
 the chief difficulties have arisen not from any endeavoui 
 of infidel writers to confute scripture by the aid of | 
 but through the over eagerness of the advocates of religion 
 to seize on each hasty generalization made in the progress 
 of an advancing science, in order to press it into the service 
 of their own opinions. Thus the cause of revelation has 
 been defended by physical arguments where no defence 
 was called for; and these arguments have been necessarily 
 abandoned afterwards by those who advanced them. We 
 need not here speak of the notions which have been pro- 
 pounded by speculative geologists respecting the proximate 
 causes of the deluge; such as Burnet (Telluris Theoria 
 Sacra), Newton, &c. ; and Dr. Geddes, whose Ingenious 
 theory is that, it was produced by a sudden increase of the 
 central beut expanding the volumes of water supposed to 
 be contained in cavities of the globe,breaking up its surface 
 from within, and then submerging it under an inundation 
 of hot water. More general interest has been excited by 
 the imaginary proofs which from time to time geology has 
 been supposed to furnish of the fact of a universal delnge. 
 Thus the discovery of fossil shells in inland strata, and 
 near the summits of the highest mountains, was at one 
 time offered as conclusive evidence ; and some infidel 
 writers were reduced to the absurd shift of representing 
 them as lusus natura, or accounting, like Voltaire, for those 
 
 Delphinus is now subdivided into Hyperoodon, of which the \ found on the Alps by supposing them to have been thrown 
 great, bottle-nose dolphin is the type ; Delphinapterus, re- away by pilgrims on their journey ! But when, in the course 
 presented by the beluga ; Phocana, represented by the of discovery, it was known that these fossil relics arc to be 
 common porpesse ; and Delphinus proper. found scattered through an infinite variety of solid strata 
 
 DE'LTA. The Greek letter A; and, in antiquity, the formed apparently by" partial deposition, one reposing be- 
 lower portion of Egypt, comprised between the E. and W. rieath another, so as to form the whole superficial crust of 
 branches of the Nile and the sea, was from its resemblance the globe, the impossibility of considering them as the re- 
 to the above letter called the Delta. And hence if any suits of any great convulsion became evident, and the ar- 
 large river, before it enters the sea, diverges and forms two gument founded on them fell to the ground. A similar in- 
 sides of a triangle, the sea being the base, the strand or al- stance of over-hasty conclusion has been exhibited in more 
 luvial land included by the three lines is called a delta; as recent limes. Some geologists imagined themselves to 
 the delta of the Rhone, the Danube, Ganges, &c. have discovered proofs of a general convulsion, atl 
 
 DELTO'ID. Of the shape of the Greek letter delta, A. by a rapid passage of water over the surface of the whole 
 The term is used in anatomy and botany. earth, at a period subsequent to the deposition of the last 
 
 DE'LUGE. (Lat. diluvium.) In the 1650th year after tertiary strata. This notion is to a certain extent countp- 
 the creation (according to ordinary chronology), in the nanced by Cuvier (Theory of the Earth, Dr. Jameson's 
 GOOth year of the life of Noah, and on the 17th day of the translation, pp. 11. 13. &c), and by Dr. Buckland {Reliquia 
 second month (November, according to some commenta- Diluviana, 1823.); and it is unfortunate that Dr. Sumner 
 tors), the waters began to rise upon the earth. They ap- (Records of the Creation) should have adopted it as Ihe 
 pear to he represented as swelling upwards by some up- foundation of an argument in favour of revelation IW 
 heaving force (the fountains of the great deep were broken more recent investigations have shown that it is impossible 
 up), and descending also in continual rain for forty daysand to distinguish these supposed traces from those of local 
 nights. All the mountains " that were under the whole 1 disturbance. 
 
 heaven" were covered ; "all flesh perished that moved on On the whole, the question may perhaps be summed 
 theearth," wilhtheexceptionol'Noahandhisfamily,andthe U p thus: many writers (Cramer. Von Hoff, &c.) have 
 animals which entered with him into the Ark. The waters contended that the scriptural deluge was local only, ex- 
 remained 150 days; and then '-returned from off the earth tending over the then inhabited portion of the earth; but 
 continually :" and the Ark rested on Ararat on the seven- it is to be regarded as universal, and the expressions of 
 teenth day of the seventh month; and on the first day of the Bible taken in their literal sense, geology (in its pre- 
 the first month of the following year "the face of the sent very imperfect state) affords us no insight into the 
 ground was dry," but not completely drained of the watei possible causes of such a convulsion. But on the suppo- 
 for nearly two months longer. Such is a very concise sition of its having been produced by a sudden miraculous 
 abridgement of the account of this great catastrophe con- interference with the order of nature, no such information 
 taint il in the 7th and 8th chapters of Genesis. Two sub- was to be expected from science. Neither does geology 
 jects connected with it require a brief discussion — the pa- afford any distinct evidence of a universal deluge; but, 
 rallel traditions of ancient mythology; and the confinna- looking at the manner in which that deluge is recorded 
 tion which the Mosaic account has been supposed by some to have taken place, and the short period of its duration, 
 to receive from the discoveries of modern geological sci- jt is difficult to see how many permanent results which it 
 ence, which others have represented as directly opposed may have produced could be distinguished from 
 to it. i the innumerable local inundations of which the surface 
 
 As to the first, the belief in the destruction of mankind j of theearth furnishes such manifest testimony. The points 
 hy a deluge in the earliest times, and of the escape of one I of contact between natural science and revelation arc in 
 individual and family under circumstances resembling reality few or none; it is the jealousy of believers on ihe 
 those recorded in sacred history respecting Noah, is a re- one hand, and the cavils of scepticism on the other, which 
 markable feature in the traditionsof a great variety of na have given rise to the very unmeaning controversies which 
 lions. The Fo-ki of the Chinese, the Satyavrata of the exist upon the subject. 
 
 Indians. Xisuthrus or Seisithrus among the Assyrians, I DE'MAGOGUE. (Gr. <5i?/ioj, people, and aytoyos, leader.) 
 Deucalion and Ogyges among the Greeks, — all present One who directs or leads the people in political mailers. 
 
 striking features of analogy to the patriarch of scripture : 
 even tfie Mexicans had their traditional deluge. These 
 fragments of early belief are collected very copiously in 
 the third volume of Bryant's Ancient Mythology. (See also 
 Russell's Connexion of Sacred and Profane History, vol. ii.) 
 It is undoubtedly true that some of these deluges may have 
 been local inundations only ; as, for example, the natural 
 features of the Thessalian plain seem to account conclu 
 lively for the tale of Deucalion. Still the universality ol 
 these traditions, ami their general agreement as to circum 
 stances, seem to point to some common source of infor 
 mat ion. 
 With regard to ecological theories of the deluge, it is per 
 326 
 
 In its original acceptation it was considered as a most 
 honourable designation, having been applied to Solon, De- 
 mosthenes, and in fact to many of the most illustrious 
 characters of antiquity ; but it is now almost invariably 
 used in a bad sense. The oldest and most satirical of all 
 portraits of the demagogue is traced by Aristophanes in 
 his play of the Knights, in the character of Cleon. 
 
 DEMA'ND. In Political Economy. See Supply and 
 Demand. 
 
 DEMARCAT'ION. (Fr.) A term used to designate 
 the line or boundary by which one object is separated 
 from another. The word was first introduced in M93, 
 when Pope Alexander VI.. in order to put an end to the 
 
DEMESNE. 
 
 dispute, which prevailed between the crowns of Spain anil 
 Portugal, relative to their Indian discoveries and conquests 
 by virtue of his pontificial authority drew through the 
 ocean at) Imaginary line, by which the dominions of both 
 were defined ; and thus originated the expression 
 line of demarcation. It is only in this phrase that the 
 word' is employed to this day in all the languages of Eu- 
 
 DKMF.S'NK. (Lat. terra dominicalis.) In Law, origi- 
 nally that portion of the lands belonging to a lord which 
 was held in his own occupation. Hence it is sometimes 
 Inguish those parts of a manor which the lord 
 hai in Ids own hands, or those of lessees al rack-rent, from 
 those which are in the hands of freeholders and copyhold- 
 er-;. See AlfClBNT Demesne. 
 
 DBKETER. (Doric Gr. da, the earth, and primp, a 
 mother ) The Greek appellation Ceres (quod vide). 
 
 DK'.MI (Fr.) A word signifying ha'f. frequently used 
 in the composition of English words, being equivalent lo 
 i .>-' mi. 
 
 DF.'MIDITO'NE. (Gr. iirovoc.) In Music, a minor 
 third See TmiiD. 
 
 DE'MIGODS. A general appellation of the inferior di- 
 vinities of Greece and Rome, more particularly of such of 
 the mixed offspring of divinities an 1 mortals as were after- 
 I. Of th.se the number was almost incredi- 
 ble ; and though their worship was not cultivated with 
 such • solemnity as that of the superior gods, 
 
 it prevailed to a greater or less extent in every quarter of 
 the ancient world, and formed a large part of the heathen 
 myth' 
 
 'DF.'MII.UNE, in Fortification, is a work placed before 
 the curtain. 
 
 DBTtflQTJAVER. In Music, a note equal in duration to 
 half a qu 
 
 DF/MITINT. In Painting, a tint representing the mean 
 or medium between light and shade; by some called a 
 half tint 
 
 liDMIU'RGIJS, Demiurge (Gr. Snf'ovpyos ; (rominjtoc, 
 people, tnyov, work.) In the original sense of the word, as 
 used by classical authors, an artificer employed in ordina- 
 Ddlerail In the language of Platoniat writers, it de- 
 notes an exalted and mysterious agent, by whose means 
 supposed to have created the universe. Hence the 
 Detninrgas, • r l.<gos, as the same imaginary agent is term- 
 ed m the Timmus of Plato, is identified bv the Platonizing 
 th the second person in the Trinity. 
 
 DI'.MO't'UACY. (Gr. ir\ftot.jwoplf, and Kpartb), Igor- 
 cm ) A government is usually termed a democracy in 
 ll the whole of the people, or a large proportion of it, 
 M.iy either directly or by representatives. 
 ling to Bome political writers! the term is strictly ap- 
 propriate only where "a majority of the adult males" share 
 in the government In Aristotle's view of governments, de- 
 • perversion of the imaginary system, which 
 he terms Politeia, or commonwealth par excellence; in 
 which the majority are supposed to govern forthegoodof 
 the whole, while In democracy they govern for their own. 
 
 DE'MOGO'RGON. (Gr. iaintav, ademon, and yopyns, 
 tcrrihle) In Mythology, a mysterious divinity of antiquity, 
 if whose origin, attributes, and history no satisfactory ac- 
 count can be given. In consequence of the obscurity in 
 which they are enveloped. By some writers be is resard- 
 the author of creation ; others consider him to have 
 been a famous magician, to whose spell all the inhabitants 
 ' ; but all concur in viewing him as 
 an object rather of terror than of worship : hence in tlitf 
 J'ararlisa Lost (Hook 2.), Milton speaks of 
 
 the dreaded name 
 
 Of Demogorgon. 
 For further information the reader is referred to one of 
 the most learned works of any age or country, the Diction- 
 noire <l n Trevous. 
 DE'MOISELLE. In Zoology. See Grindae. 
 DE'MON. (Gr. Satfitov, a spirit.) The existence of in- 
 visible beings of superior powers and intelligence to man- 
 kind, though inferior lo the Deity, has been an article of 
 belief among all heathen nations. They have varied, how- 
 ever, in the dispositions they have assigned lo them. The 
 .--. from whom we derive the term in Scriptural Ian- 
 -. applied it originally to the deified spirits of departed 
 heroes, whom they supposed to have some influence in 
 promoting the good of mankind, and considered there« 
 fore as objects of adoration. The manner, however, in 
 i demons are represented in Scripture as evil spirits 
 Inflicting injury on men at the suggestion of the Father of 
 Evil, is conformable to the oriental notion upon such points ; 
 except, indeed, that in th« Scriptures the general supre- 
 macy of God, who suffers evil to exist, is maintained, in 
 opposition to the eastern dogma of the eternal and equal 
 sonflict of the good and the evil principles. The early 
 re. indulged in much speculation upon these subjects; 
 !/iil in modern limes the literal interpretation of the agency 
 327 
 
 DEMO^OLOGY. 
 
 of demons as referred to in Scripture has been frequently 
 called in question. The demons, like the fairies and goblins 
 of other mythologies, are represented with various charac 
 ters of beneficence, malice, and wanton mischief. They 
 were sometimes distinguished by the names Cacodemon 
 and Agathodemon (from xaxoi, bad, and ayaOos, good), ac- 
 cording as their influence was evil or beneficent. 
 
 DEMO'NIACS. Persons possessed by or under the in- 
 fluence of demons or devils, of whom mention is made in 
 some passages in the New Testament. Some divines have 
 supposed that such influence was permitted to the powers 
 of evil at one particular time fur the greater manifestation 
 of our Lord'3 authority in rebuking them : but it is certain 
 that the idea of demoniacal possession was very ancient 
 among the oriental nations; and those to whom it seems 
 incredible that it should have been grounded on fact, must 
 be content with interpreting such passages of Scripture as 
 a concession to the opinions and feelings of the Jewish 
 
 DEMONO'LOGY. (Gr. iatjtw, deity or damwn, and 
 \oyoc, discourse.) The belief in an intermediate race of 
 beings, between deity and humanity, has been a prevalent 
 feature in almost every popular creed ; and all tradition or 
 speculation respecting it may be said to fall under the gene- 
 ral term of Demonology. Among the early oriental na- 
 tions. eanectaUjf the Persians and Egyptians, tbe science 
 of astronomy appears to have been essentially connected 
 with this branch of superstition ; the heavenly bodies were 
 honoured as daemons or celestial intelligences. This an- 
 cient belief appears to have had much influence on the 
 Jewish rabbinical writers ; and out of it, connected with 
 what is revealed to us in the Old Testament of the exist- 
 ence and attributes of angels, they framed their peculiar 
 mythology. 
 
 The Greek word iaifiuv, dmmon, is said to be derived 
 from Sarifiojv, knotting or intelligent. In the earliest 
 monuments of the language, its signification is vague and 
 uncertain. In Homer it generally signifies a deity : iai- 
 uoviov is anything godlike, wonderful, which may have 
 been communicated or inspired by a deity ; but, in the 
 Odyssey, some traces are to be found of the meaning 
 "fortunate'' or " unfortunate" attached to ;he word. In 
 Hesiod, however, wo have an express mythological ac- 
 count of the daemons, — as spirits, in a state between mor- 
 tality and divinity, peaceful and favourable to man : he de- 
 scribes them as of different orders. The mortals who liver 
 in the golden age have become daemons of the first rank 
 those of the silver age have inferior honours, and are mor- 
 tal, although their life is prolonged toa length of many hun 
 dreds of human generations. The heroes form a still infe- 
 rior class of intermediate spirits. In popular language, 
 when hero-worship became widely spread in Greece, the 
 words hero and d.emon were used without much distinc- 
 tion ; but the more recondite difference appears to have 
 been this, — the hero was the departed worthy himself, 
 such as he had once lived on earth ; the daemon was his 
 immaterial part, converted into a sort of abstract principle, 
 — a spiritual agent of good or evil, favourable or unfriendly 
 to mankind. It is in this sense also that the inferior deities 
 themselves are designated as daemons. Thales is said tc 
 have defined more accurately the difference between gods, 
 heroes as the souls of deceased mortals, and daemons pro- 
 perly so called ; ami in Plato's theology the daemons oc- 
 cupy an important place — as intermediate spirits, closely 
 watching over, directing, and recording the actions of mor- 
 tals. Ily later writers they were divided into many classes: 
 some ministers of punishment and revenge, some freeing 
 from evils already befallen (XixrioO, some warding off their 
 approach (aXcf<<ci*oO. &c. It was in Egypt and Syria, 
 under the Ptolemies and Seleucidae, that the Grecian phi- 
 losophy and mythology came in contact with those of the 
 Rabbis; and from that union a new mixed system of dae- 
 monology took its origin. Hence, in the Greek of the New 
 Testament, the word iatpoviov is taken, without addition 
 or qualification, as an evil spirit, and rendered by our trans- 
 lators "devil." 
 
 Analogous to the daemons of the Greeks were the genii 
 of the Romans ; but there were peculiar and characteristic 
 features about the belief in the latter which show it to be 
 of a different origin, probably derived from the Etruscans, 
 who, as some antiquarians believe, drew their mythology 
 from the ancient source of Samothrace. The genii of the 
 Romans were an innumerable host of spirits : every man. 
 house, or city, had an attendant genius. The genius of 
 every mortal is mortal as himself; accompanies him into 
 life, and conducts him in all its vicissitudes. In this sense, 
 the genius was a favourable companion : to enjoy the good 
 things of life is represented as "indulging" or gratifying 
 the genius; abstaining from them, as "defrauding" hun. 
 Wine and flowers are appropriate offerings to him. But 
 he is also " vultu mutabilis, albus et ater:" he is the com- 
 panion of the mischances as well as the pleasures of life ; 
 ■unless, as the difficulty appears sometimes *o nave , l ? een 
 solved, the individual had his pair of genii good and bad. 
 
DEMONSTRATION. 
 
 And this loiter should appear to have been the popular be- 
 lief anion? the Etruscans, as far as we can collect it, in a 
 subject Where all is vague and indistinct ; and it is impos- 
 sible accurately to separate the abstract creations of philo- 
 sophers and poets from the substantive objects of general 
 belief. The Etruscans represented the evil genius as a 
 dark and frightful figure, attending a mortal on one side, 
 who is protected or followed on the other by a child or 
 youth — the usual emblem of the good genius. The genius 
 is often represented on vases and in ancient paintings as a 
 winged figure : and a genius holding a torch downwards is 
 the emblem of death. 
 
 The daemons of the middle ages were simply fallen an- 
 gels or devils, according to the sense of the word in the 
 New Testament; and hence demonology, in the language 
 of modern writers, generally signifies the history of the 
 supposed nalure and properties of such evil spirits, and 
 of the modern superstition respecting compacts between 
 them and mankind. See Magic, Witchcraft. 
 
 DEMONSTRATION (Lat. demonstro, / show), was 
 used by the old writers to signify -'any manner of showing 
 either the connection of a conclusion with its premises, or 
 that of a phenomenon with the asserted cause ; but it now 
 means, In philosophical language, only that process by 
 which a result is shown to be a necessary consequence 
 of the premises from which it is asserted to follow, on the 
 supposition that those premises are admitted, either as 
 matter of fact, or of intuitive evidence, or of previous de- 
 monstration." Demonstration is also used in ordinary 
 language as synonymous with proof: thus it is often said 
 that " evidence amounts to riemonslration." 
 
 Demonstrations, in a Military sense, are manoeuvres 
 practised lor the purpose of misleadingthe enemy. 
 
 DE'MOS. (Gr. (5rj/jof.) In Ancient History, a borough 
 or ward ; an Attic word, deriding one of the districts into 
 which Attica was divided, and which in early times were 
 bound together by the ties of common blood,' but were not 
 united closely into one nation till Ihe time of Theseus, who 
 fixed oti Athens as the nucleus of the state. 
 
 DEMU'RRAGE. In Mercantile Law, the delay which 
 a merchant makes in loading or unloading a ship, beyond 
 Ihe time specified in his charter-party, or other agreement, 
 with the owners; in which it is usually stipulated that he 
 shall pay at a certain rate per diem for such extra time, 
 Which payment is also termed demurnuo. 
 
 DEMU'LCENTS. (Lat. demulceo. Isoothe.) Medicines 
 which sheathe and defend sensible parts from the action 
 of irritating matters; they are chiefly mucilaginous sub- 
 Btances, such ns gum, starch, &c. 
 
 DEMD'RRER. (From the I .at. demoror, / delay.) In 
 Law, an issue between plaintiff and defendant on matter 
 of law. It confesses that the facts are true as stated by the 
 opposite party, but denies the legal consequences inferred 
 by the opposite party from these facts. Demurrers are 
 either general or special. (See Pleading.) Demurrersin 
 equity are of the same nature with those at law. Demurrer 
 may be also lo an indictment in criminal cases. 
 
 DEMY. See Paper. 
 
 DENA'RIUS. A Roman silver coin worth ten asses 
 originally, and afterwards considered equal to eighteen 
 asses, when the weight of the latter coin was reduced to 
 one ounce. 
 
 Originally the denarius was -rij-of a pound of silver, but 
 Its weight varied. Its value is considered equal to 7jd. of 
 English money. 
 
 There was also a gold denarius equal in value to twenty- 
 five silver ones. 
 
 DENDRO'DOA. (Gr. SevSpov, a tree, and conv, an egg.) 
 The name of a subgenus of Ascidians, or fixed tunicated 
 Mollusks, suggested by the ramified form of the ovarium ; 
 but this structure is not peculiar to the species included in 
 the genus so designated. 
 
 DE'NDROMYS. (Gr. IcvSpov, and j<t>£, a mouse.) A 
 South African genus of Rodentia, nearly allied to the true 
 mice, but differing in the habits of the species, which fre- 
 quent the branches of trees, in which they construct their 
 nest and bring forth their young. 
 
 DE'NDROPHIS. (Gr. SevSpov, and o^ij, a serpent.) A 
 genus of harmless serpents of the great family of Colubers, 
 remarkable for their long and slender body. 
 
 DE'NIZEN. (Welsh dinassdyn, man of the city.) In 
 Law, an alien born, who has received ex donatione regis 
 letters patent to make him an English subject. He may 
 take lands by purchase and devise ; but cannot enjoy offices 
 and trusts, <fcc, or receive a grant of land from the crown. 
 
 DENOMINA'TOR. A term used in Arithmetic, in speak- 
 ing of fractions, to denote the number of parts into which 
 the unit or whole is divided. Thus, for example, in the 
 fraction -^ (seven twelfths) of a foot, 12 is the denomina- 
 tor, and indicates that the unit or one foot is divided into 12 
 equal parts ; and 7, the numerator, shows how many of 
 these parts aie lo be taken. The denominator always indi- 
 cates unity, for the whole is equal to all its parts. A frac- 
 328 
 
 DENTES. 
 
 tion may always be regarded as a whole number, wnose 
 unit is a part of the primitive unit, which part is expressed 
 by the denominator. Thus, in the fraction y ? of a foot, 
 the foot is supposed to be divided into ticelflhs'or inches, 
 and ^L expresses the same thing as 7 inches, or the par- 
 ticular unit, an inch, taken seven times. 
 
 DENOTEMENT. (Fr.) A term completely naturalized 
 in England : used to designate the development of the plot 
 or story in a novel or play, and in short in every department 
 of literature. 
 
 DE'NSITY (Lat. densus, thick), is used in Physics lode- 
 note the quantity of matter which a body contains under a 
 given or determinate surface ; for example, a cubic foot. 
 The quantity of matter in any body is called its mass, and 
 is measured by the weight of the body, to which ii i.s al- 
 ways proportional. Hence the density of any body is great 
 in proportion as its weight is great and its volume small; 
 or, Ihe density of bodies are direclly as their masses, and 
 inversely as their volumes. It follows also from tin 
 nition, that if two bodies have the same volume, their <:< n- 
 sities are directly as their masses or weights; and thai if 
 two bodies have the same mass or weight, their densities 
 are respectively in the inverse ratio of their volumes. The 
 density of a body is also proportional to ils specific gravity. 
 DE'NTAL FO'RMULA. (Lat. dens, tt tooth.) A nota- 
 tion used losignify the numberand kind of teeth of a mam- 
 miferous animal, and usually forming the main element in 
 its generic character. Thus the cats, or genus t'elis, are 
 characterized by incis.^ ; canin.l, i;pra;mol.^,2; mo!.-, ■' 
 = 30; which signifies that they have six incisures in both 
 the upper and Ihe lower jaw; one canine looth on each, 
 side of both jaws; two praomolares, or false molare.s, on 
 each side of each jaw ; two true molares on each side of the 
 upper, and two on each side of the lower jaw. The dental 
 formula of man is — incis. 4 • canin. f ; prcemol. «i -2 i mo- 
 lares, «. if = 32. ' 
 
 DENTA'LILM. A genus of Mollusks inhabiting elon 
 gated univalve shells, resembling an elephant's tu?k in 
 miniature, whence the name. 
 
 DEN'TATE. (Lat. dens.) In Zoology, the margin of a 
 part of an animal is so termed when it is cut into teeth 
 whose S'des are equal, or nearly so. 
 
 DENTATUS (Lat. dens.) Toothed; applied lo the 
 margins of bodies furnished with sharp teeth with concave 
 edges. 
 
 DE'NTES (Lat. the teeth), properly so called, are parts 
 peculiar to the vertebrate animals, composed of gelatin, 
 hardened principally by the phosphate of lime, and are 
 fixed to Ihe bones of the mouth. They serve to catch, kill, 
 hold, pierce, cut, or crush the objects of food, and are va- 
 riously shaped accordingly. Substances composed of soft- 
 er material, generally horn, perform the analogous cilices 
 in Ihe invertebrate animals, and are generally called teeth ; 
 horny material is substituted for teeth in n few fishes, In clie- 
 lonians. birds, whales, and the Omithorhynchns paradoxus. 
 In fishes the teeth may be siluated ort the Intermaxillary, 
 maxillary, mandibular, palatine, vomerine, pterygoid, hy- 
 oid, or pharyngeal hones; in a few instances they are im- 
 planted in sockets or "alveoli," orthey may he fixed to an 
 osseous base which is attached by ligamentous substance 
 to the oral bones; but most commonly ihey are immedi- 
 ately anchylosed, or joined by a direct continuation of bony 
 substance, to the bones themselves which encompass the 
 mouth. 
 
 In reptiles the teelh may be. found on the palatine, pte- 
 rygoid, or vomerine, as well as on the maxillary and inler- 
 maxillary bones. They are generally anchylosed, or con- 
 fluent with the substance of the jaws ; but in the plesio- 
 saurs and crocodiles are implanted in sockets. 
 
 In mammals the teeth are confined to the maxillary and 
 intermaxillary bones, are always implanted in sockets, and in 
 this class only may be so fixed by more than one fang or root. 
 Teeth generally consist of three distinct substances ; viz. 
 ivory, enamel, and bone, or caementum, also called crusla 
 petrosa. 
 
 The texture of the ivory is minutely tubular, that of the 
 caementum of combined tubules and cells; and the earthy 
 material is arranged principally in these cavities, which 
 have definite arrangement and proportions in each species 
 of animal. The enamel consists of hexagonal filamentary 
 crystals. 
 
 In the human suhject the teeth are called, according 
 to their figure, "incisors," "canines," "bicuspids* and 
 "molars;" Ihe same terms have been transferred to the 
 teeth of Ihe mammalia generally, except that those which 
 are analogous to the bicuspids in man are called "pre- 
 molars," or spurious molars. A tooth is divided into i 
 crown, a neck, and a fang or fangs. 
 
 The vascular bodies concerned in their development are 
 called "pulp" and "capsule:" the ivory or body of the 
 tooth is formed by the former the enamel and cement ara 
 due to the latter organ. 
 
DENTILS. 
 
 hi mosl cases when the pulp has secreted as much ivory < 
 «s forms the full sized crown of the tooth, it begins to di- j 
 minish in size ; and as it continues to exercise its function j 
 taring the progress of its absorption, a gradually decreasing 
 fans: is the result : when the absorption of the pulp, instead j 
 
 ._: general, proceeds from two or three parts, a cor- | 
 number of fangs are extended from the crow-n. j 
 
 metimes the pulp retains its full size and activity j 
 daring the lifetime 01 the animal, in which case the part of i 
 
 ili lodged in the socket presents the same size and j 
 form as the protruded crown, of which it is a direct con- i 
 tinuaiion. The fore teeth of the rat, beaver, and other 
 rodents, are familiar examples of these constantly growing 
 teeth. Hut this is not the only mode in which excessive 
 wear and tear of the teeth is provided for. In the elephant 
 when one grinder is worn down it is poshed out, and re- 
 
 I by a second of subsequent formation ; these sue- | 
 cessional teeth, or " dents de remplacement," as they are i 
 termeil by the French anatomists, are formed in the ele- 
 phant, each m a cavity at the back part of the iaw, behind 
 the tooth which they are destined to succeed. In other 
 animals .mam, the teeth which suit the size of the jaws 
 when young are pushed out by others which are propor- 
 tioned to the size of the full-grown jaws ; these, which arc 
 termed "permanent teeth," succeed the "deciduous teeth" 
 in the vertical direction, being developed in the substance 
 of the jaws above the deciduous teeth in the upper, and 
 below the deciduous teeth in the lower jaw. As the de- 
 ciduous series of teeth are generally developed in the 
 mammalia at the period when the young animal is suck- 
 lirn. tli.v ; ,re commonly called "milk" teeth; but as in 
 some rodent* deciduous teeth are formed and shed before 
 birth, lliev might be termed "uterine" teeth. Thus teeth 
 I each other in the horizontal or vertical direc- 
 tion. In the human subject all the deciduous teeth are 
 . ■ riieally ; but the additional teeth follow each 
 other from behind forwards. In mammalia a tooth has not 
 more than one successor in the vertical direction, but in 
 reptiles and fishes there may be many such. 
 
 a singular but constant fact, that in mammalia the 
 permanent molar always presents a more simple crown 
 than the deeMaoua one which it has replaced; thus, in 
 
 he qnadrlcuspld milk grinders are succeeded by the 
 permanent bicoepidea. 
 
 DE'NTILS. (Lai. denies, teeth.) In Architecture, small 
 square blicksor projections in the bed mouldings of the 
 cornices In the Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, and occa- 
 
 . Doric orders. Their breadth should be half their 
 height; and, according to Vitruvius. the intervals between 
 them should be two thirds of their breadth. In the Grecian 
 order* they are not used under modillions. 
 
 DE'NTfRCSTRES. (Lat. dens, and rostrum, a beak.) 
 
 The name of a tribe of Insessorial birds, characterized by 
 
 having a notch and tooth-like process on each side of the 
 
 margin of the upper mandible. In connection with this 
 
 nization the Dentiroslral birds manifest rapacious 
 
 and prey on smaller and weaker birds. The butcher- 
 
 elong to this tribe. 
 DENTITION. (Lat. dens.) The cutting of the teeth. 
 At birth the ' of pulpy rudiments buried in the 
 
 gum ; and it is not till the third or fourth month that thev 
 
 lo assume shape and hardness. At this period chit- 
 generally become fretful; the saliva Hows copiously, 
 and they are fond of biting upon any thing hard and cold; 
 the turns become turgid ; there is more or less fever, fre- 
 quently a congh ; and a rash appears, commonly called the 
 red gum. These symptoms generally subside in the course 
 of a fortnight or three weeks, and the child remains 
 tolerably free from uneasiness till the seventh or eighth 
 mouth, when the sums become tender ; and often so much 
 so, at some particular spot, that the slightest touch or 
 ure produces extreme pain : the gums become more 
 red and swollen, but paler at the upper part, which, just 
 before the tooth appears, becomes blistered. During these 
 periods an increased flow of saliva and a lax state of bowels 
 are favourable symptoms; but where the local irritation 
 is eonsid rable, the gums should be freely lanced, and any 
 excessive diarrhrjca should be very cautiously checked : 
 small doses of magnesia, or of chalk julap with dill water, 
 and occasionally with a little powdered rhubarb, will gene- 
 rally be sufficient for this purpose. When involuntary* 
 
 is of the jaws and face, or more general convulsions, 
 
 le, »rid are not relieved by the loss of blood which 
 
 ■ally follows proper lancing of the gums, or where 
 
 there is drowsiness and oppressed respiration, a leech or 
 
 two lo the temples, and a small blister to the back of the 
 
 . i r behind the ear, must be promptly resorted to ; and 
 
 any slnesishness of bowels prevented, or even anticipated, 
 
 by a Itille calomel and rhubarb, or some other active purge. 
 
 very mild opiates, very cautiously administered, may 
 
 afterwards prove necessary; but the administration of 
 
 in anv form to young children requires the utmost 
 caution, and syrup ofpoppies and other soothing remedies 
 should never be entrusted to the nurse. The period of 
 329 
 
 DEPILATORY. 
 
 teething in children cannot be too scrupulously watched 
 over, as the irritalion which then ensues seems not un- 
 frequently to lay the foundation of water in the head, espe- 
 cially where there is a predisposition to that disease.' 
 
 DENUDATION. (Lat. denudo, 1 lay bare) In Ge- 
 ology, the removal of part of the land, so as lo by bare 
 inferior strata. 
 
 DENUDA'TTja (Lat.) Naked. In Botany, applied If. 
 the polish or texture of bodies, and denoting the reverse 
 of hairy, downy, or any similar term. 
 
 DEO'BSTRUENTS. Medicines which remove obstruc- 
 tions. The term is often used in reference to the removal 
 of ulandtilar complaints. 
 
 DE'OUAND. (Lat. Deo dandum, to be given to God.) 
 At Common Law, every personal chattel which has been 
 the immediate occasion of the death of a human being is 
 forfeited to the king on the finding of a coroner's inquest ; 
 to be applied as alms by his almoner. Where a thing no; 
 in motion is the cause of death, it has been held that tin- 
 part only which was the immediate cause is forfeited ; as 
 the wheel of a cart, where a man meets his death by climb- 
 ing on the wheel at rest and falling from it : if in motion, 
 the wlele; as, the whole cart, where the wheel gi 
 lnm. However, juries have tor a long time past taken on 
 tloinselves to assess a sum of money, as the value of the 
 thing forfeited; which has become in practice very arbi- 
 trary, nnd usually, but not always, trifling. In this way co- 
 roners' juries have to a certain extent usurped a power 
 which Hie principle of the law by no means entrusts to 
 them ; viz. of imposing a fine where they believe inch 
 gence lo have cau.M-d death. Uy ;( «fc 4 W. 4. c. 99. s. *'.!. 
 coroners are lo make out and transmit to the treasury an 
 account of deodands. 
 
 DEONTO'LOOY. (Gr. ilov, due, and >(5vo$, discourse.) 
 The science of duty ; a term assigned by the followers of 
 Jeremy llentham to their own doctrine ol i tbics, which is 
 founded on the tendency of actions to promote happiness. 
 (See Ben/ham's Deontology, init. ; also Mr. Whew ell's Pre- 
 face to iS'ir James Macintosh's Dissertation on Ethics, 
 Edinb. 1898; and art. Ethics uxlhis work.) 
 
 DEPARTMENT, <l'r. departir, to divide.) In Geo- 
 graphy, a territorial division of the kingdom r>f France. 
 Ilefore the first revolution, France was divided i. 
 neralilies, or governments, each of which was sul 
 according to local custom into districts, bearing 
 names; and the laws regulating property In each were 
 subject to extremely complicated varieties. The plan of 
 a new division into more convenient portions was first con- 
 ceived by the Constituent Assembly in 1787, and carried 
 into effect in 1790. Mirabeau proposed the formation of 
 1£0 departments ; but the actual number formed was £0, 
 afterwards increased by subdivision to 63. M. Belleyme, 
 geographical engineer, was the chief agent in the work. 
 In tracing the limits of the departments, t lie subsisting di- 
 visions of provinces and generalities were maintained lo 
 a certain extent; but the chief object was to render them 
 nearly equal on an average repartition of size and popu- 
 lation, so that the more populous departments are in ge- 
 neral smaller; but the division is by no means uniform. 
 The names of the departments are chiefly taken from 
 rivers, mountains, or other well-known geographical ob- 
 jects. In 1808, the number was increased by conquest to 
 127, including 12 for the colonies. These lust were sub- 
 sequently retrenched; but in 1811, when the empire ex- 
 tended from Rome lo Hamburg, the total Dumber was 
 130. At present France has 86 departments. Each is 
 administered by an officer named by the government with 
 the title of Prefect, and subdivided into arrondissments 
 and cantons. 
 
 DEPA'RTUBE. A nautical term, used to denole the 
 ( distance a ship has gone to the east or west ol 
 c the meridian from which she departed. The 
 difference of meridians being first found in de- 
 grees, the departure must be estimated by the 
 number of miles in adegree of the parallel ol 
 latitude where the ship is. In MereatoT'a 
 Sailing, the departure is represented by Ihe 
 base A B of a right-angled plane triangle. 
 B A A H C; of which the angle at C opposite- the 
 
 base is called the course, and the hypothenuse B C Is tl e 
 distance sailed. Hence the theorem for finding the de- 
 parture :— As radius is to the sine of the course, so is Ihe 
 distance run lo the departure. 
 
 DEPHLEGMATION. The operation of freeing spirit 
 of wine and certain other fluids from the water which they 
 usually contain. A. very strong and pure spirit is often said 
 to be hishly dephiegmated. 
 
 DEPHLOGIsiTICA'TION. (Lat. de, dovn ; and Gr. 
 AUyieros, lit. burned.up.) A term applied by the older 
 chemists to certain processes by which they imagined that 
 phlogiston was separated from bodies. They regarded 
 oxvgen as common air deprived of phlogiston, and hence 
 called it depKtogisticaled air. . 
 
 DEP1 LAI ORY. (Lat. die, from, and pilus, hair.) *n. 
 
DEPLOY. 
 
 application which removes hair from any part of the body. 
 The celebrated Turkish Depilatory is a mixture of 7 parts 
 of quicklime and 1 of orpiment. The latter ingredient is 
 prubably useless ; for when powdered quicklime is made 
 into a thin paste with water, and applied by a camel-hair 
 pencil to any part till it produces a tingling or burning sen- 
 sation, on wiping it off with a wet sponge, the hah", especi- 
 ally if it be soft and delicate, is removed with it. 
 
 DEPLOY. (Fr. deployer, to expand.) In the art Mili- 
 tary, the expansion of a body of troops previously com- 
 pacted in column, so as to present a larger front ; generally 
 for the purpose of performing some evolution, or of form- 
 ing into line, or of directing an attack in some quarter least 
 expected by the enemy. 
 
 DEPORTA'TION. In French law, a punishment equi- 
 valent to transportation in English. It is ranked as third in 
 degree ; after capital punishment, and condemnation to 
 the galleys or public labour (travaux force's) for life. De- 
 portation for political offences was a common punishment 
 at one period during the French revolution ; especially 
 after the fall of Robespierre and his party. It was then 
 usually executed by conveying the criminals to Cayenne 
 in South America. 
 
 DEPOSITION. In Law, the testimony of a witness, 
 put down in writing, in answer to interrogatories legally 
 exhibited for that purpose. In the court of chancery such 
 depositions form the established medium of proof; and 
 the interrogatories are exhibited, in London by the ex- 
 aminers, in the country by commissioners appointed for 
 that purpose. Depositions in civil actions, in the courts 
 of common law, are regulated by the stat. 1 W. 4. c. 22. 
 By 7 G. 4. c. 64. the examination of the prisoner and wit- 
 nesses before a magistrate on a charge of felony must be 
 taken down in writing, and returned to the court. If duly 
 taken, these depositions are evidence at the trial under 
 certain restrictions. 
 
 DEPO'T (Fr.), is used to designate a place where all 
 sorts of military stores and provisions are kept, or where 
 recruits are received and trained. It is also applied to that 
 portion of a regiment which remains at home when the 
 rest is ordered upon foreign service. 
 
 DEPRESSED. (Lat. deprimo, / depress.) In Zoology, 
 the whole or part of an animal body is so called when its 
 vertical section is shorter than the transverse. 
 
 DEPRESSION OF EQUATIONS, in Algebra, is the 
 reduction of equations to a lower degree, by dividing them 
 by one or more of their component factors. It is only in a 
 few cases that equations, whose roots are unknown, can be 
 thus depressed. 1st, When some particular relation sub- 
 sists between two (or more) of the roots; for example, if 
 anequation contain equal roots these may be found, and the 
 equation reduced as many dimensions lower as there are 
 equal roots. 2d, If two roots of an equation be of the form 
 ■4- a, — a, differing only in their signs, they may be found, 
 and the equation depressed. 3d, If the equation is reci- 
 procal, that is to say, such that its form is not changed by 
 changing x into - , then it is susceptible of depression. The 
 
 methods by which these classes of equations are depress- 
 ed, are to a certain point to be regarded as a branch of the 
 transformation of equations, since the general object of the 
 theory is to make the solution of an equation depend on 
 the solution of another more simple. (See Bourdon's Al- 
 gebra.) 
 
 ' DEPRE'SSION OF THE HORIZON, or DIP OF THE 
 HORIZON, in Nautical Astronomy, denotes the depres- 
 sion or dipping of the visible horizon below the true hori- 
 zontal plane, and which arises from the circumstance that 
 the eye of the observer is not placed on the same level 
 with the surface o'f the sea, but at some distance above it. 
 Hence in observing the altitude of the sun or a star above 
 the horizon with the sextant, the altitude appears greater 
 than it really is. Let a = the radius of the earth, and 
 x = the height of the eye above the horizon ; then the co- 
 
 a 
 sine of the angle of depression = —7—. At the height 
 
 of 10 feet this amounts to about three minutes of a degree. 
 
 DEPUTA'TION (Lat.), is applied to a certain number 
 of persons selected from a company or body, and appoint- 
 ed to lay before a sovereign, an assembly, a minister, or 
 other public functionary, a statement of the views of the 
 selecting party relative to any question, or to prosecute any 
 affair in their name. 
 
 DE'PUTIES, CHAMBER OF. The lower of the two 
 legislative chambers in France. The right of election to 
 the Chamber of Deputies is in persons of 25 years of age, 
 paying 200 francs of direct contributions ; t. e. the land 
 tax, personal tax, door and window tax, and a few others: 
 otficers in the army and navy, and members and corres- 
 pondents of the Institute, are only required to pay 100 
 francs. The list of electors is made out by the mayors of 
 the communes annually, and revised by the prefect; sub- 
 sequent claims are judged by the prefect in council, and, 
 vu the last resort, by the Cour Royale. There are 469 
 330 
 
 DERMATOBRANCHUS. 
 
 members of the chamber, each elected by a separate 
 electoral college : the election is by ballot. To be eligible 
 to the chamber, the candidate must be thirty years of *ge, 
 and pay 500 francs of direct taxes. The total number 
 of electors in 1838 39 amounted to 197,598. The duration 
 of the chamber is triennial. 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies is divided into nine bureaux; 
 which are renewed every month. To these bureaux ques- 
 tions are referred by the chamber; as well laws proposed 
 by the king or the house of peers as propositions of indi 
 vidual members. The bureaux report on the question, 
 after separate discussion in each, before the general us- 
 cussion in the chamber begins. Except in case of dissolu- 
 tion, measures commenced in one section pass on to the 
 next in the same stage in which they have been lelt. Tho 
 vote on a proposed law is secret, on any other proposition 
 open. 
 
 The " cote droit," ''cote gauche," and the "centres," 
 form the three grand divisions of which the Chamber of 
 Deputies is composed. When the three chambers of the 
 States-General of 1789 were consolidated into one by the 
 designation of the National Assembly, the most distin- 
 guished members of the aristocratic and republican par- 
 ties were in the habit of silling together, for the purpose 
 of communicating more easily with one another: the for- 
 mer occupied the benches to the right, the latter those to 
 the left of the president's chair : while the centre benches, 
 or those fronting the president's chair, were filled by those 
 who held various intermediate shades and modifications 
 of opinion. This custom remains in force at the present 
 day, and nothing can exceed the nicety with which each 
 variety of political opinion is grouped in the French repre- 
 sentative assembly. The cote droit, or the side to the right 
 of the president's chair, is occupied by those members 
 who incline to favour the royal prerogative ; the cotg 
 gauche, on the other hand, is set apart for those who are 
 more in favour of popular ascendency ; while those mem- 
 bers who, with considerable difference of opinion among 
 themselves, generally support the ministers, occupy the 
 "centres" (centre droit et centre gauche), which may thus 
 be termed the ministerial benches. But, it has been judi- 
 ciously remarked, "as in every great political party there 
 are shades of opinion, some being more warm and violent, 
 and others more moderate, discriminating, or cautious, so 
 both the cote" droit and the cote gauche are generally sub- 
 divided into three sections each. The more zealous royal- 
 ists take their seats at the outer extremity of their side of 
 the house towards the president, and are styled the " ex- 
 treme droit;" the ullra liberals sit on the corresponding 
 seats on the opposite or left side, and are styled the '• ex- 
 treme gauche." For a more minute view of this arrange- 
 ment, and an account of the various changes which these 
 different divisions have undergone, see the Encyclopedie 
 des Gens du Monde, and the Penny Cyclop, art. " Cot€ 
 Droit." 
 
 DE'RBYSHIRE SPAR, Fluor Spar. It is of various 
 colours ; and the large nodules, which are peculiar to 
 Derbyshire, are often beautifully veined, and admit of 
 being turned in the lathe into vases and small columns. A 
 fine variety of this spar occurs in Cumberland, in cubic 
 crystals of a pale seargreen colour. The cube is the most 
 common form of the crystals of floor ; but it also occurs in 
 octohedra, some fine specimens of which have been found 
 associated with galena in Ihe mine of Beer Alston upon 
 the Tamar. It consists of fluorine and calcium. 
 
 DERM. (Gr. deppa, skin.) The true or organized layer 
 of the tegumentary covering of animals. It is composed 
 of a close and irregular network of whitish fibres, consist- 
 ing of condensed cellular tissue, whence it is also termed 
 " corium," and is everywhere traversed by capillary arte- 
 ries and veins, absorbents and nerves ; and, in the mam- 
 malia, with the roots of the hairs and the ducts of the su- 
 dorific follicles : it is covered with the "rete mucosum" 
 and "epiderm." The derm is of considerable thickness 
 in the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, &c. ; whence 
 the name " Pachyderma," applied to the order containing 
 these allied quadrupeds. 
 
 DERMA'PTERANS, Dermaptera. (Gr. tiepita, and 
 tttcoov, a wing; skin-winged.) An order of insects dis- 
 membered from the Orthoptera of Latreille, and including 
 those which have the elytra wholly coriaceous, and always 
 horizontal; the two membranous wings are folded longi- 
 tudinally, and the tail is armed with a forceps. This order 
 is represented by a single Linnsean genus,— viz. Forficula, 
 or earwig ; insects which are common in damp places, and 
 often found in numbers under stones, and beneath the 
 bark of trees : they do much damage in gardens by prey- 
 ing upon the fruit. The English common name, and alsc 
 the French, "pierce-oreille," relate to a habit absurdly 
 attributed to these insects of penetrating the ears. 
 
 DE'RMATOBRA'NCHUS. (Gr. ieppa, and (Jpayxia, 
 gills.) A genus of Gastropods, or snails, in which the bran- 
 chiae consists, as in Scyllaa, of ramified productions of 
 skin. 
 
DERMATOLOGY. 
 
 DERMATO'LOGY. (Gr. Stpfia, and \oyoc, a discourse.) 
 
 or history of the skin and its diseases. 
 
 DERMESTES. (Gr. itpaa, and tvd'tj, I eat; skin de- 
 
 vomers.) The name of a Linnsean genus of Clavicorn Co- 
 
 leop^ noted for their ravage* on dead animal 
 
 ■ubst tally the preserved skins of animals, and 
 
 Which ,-ntly the pests of a museum. The old 
 
 a subdivided in modern entomology into 
 
 tenera. The " bacon-beetle," {Dermeates lar- 
 
 danus) is the type of that to which the term Dermtstes is 
 
 DE'RMOMRA'NCHIATES, Dermobranchiata. (Gr. dtp- 
 
 ua. and 3payx ia i g<U s on lhc skin.) The name of a family 
 
 ,,f<;, mprehending those which respire by 
 
 . ernal branchiae or gills, having the form of 
 
 membraneous plates, filaments, or tufts. 
 
 DE'RMOSKE'LETON. fGr. Scppa, and OKt\tr6v, the 
 dried remains of a body, or the skeleton ; skin-skeleton.) A 
 term applied to the coriaceous, crusfaceoua, testaceous, or 
 , Integument, Mich as rovers most invertebrate and 
 son)'- nnals ; it serves more or less complete- 
 
 ly the offices of protecting the soft parts of the body, and 
 as a fixed point of attachment to the moving powers. 
 
 DE'RRH'K, in Nautical language, used in a variety of 
 meanings, but chiefly for a tackle used at the outer quar- 
 ters of a mizenyard, consisting of a double and 6ingle 
 block connected by a fall. 
 
 DE'RVISE. (From a Persian word signifying poor.) 
 The name of certain CHH.M of religious persons among 
 the Mohammedans of Turkey and Asia. They live partly in 
 -tones, partly alone, either stationary or wandering ; 
 and belong to a great variety of orders, of which there are 
 thirty -tw<> (it is said) within the Turkish empire only. It is 
 imrjo I mine the period to which the origin of 
 
 the dermises is to be referred. As in most other countries, 
 there has existed in Persia from time immemorial a class 
 of enthusiasts, who, impressed with the conviction that po- 
 verty is the only passport to virtue, and that the privations 
 of this world will be commensurately compensated in the 
 world to come, have voluntarily renounced alt the com- 
 forts, luxuries, and charities of this life, and devoted them- 
 selves entirely to religious exercises. In most instances, 
 however, such enthusiasts have been more famed for the 
 theory than the practice of sanctity ; and the dervises do 
 not appear 10 form an exception to the rule. Their public 
 are disfigured by the grossest fanati- 
 cism and buffoonery ; and their private life is said to be 
 marked l»v great hypocrisy and licentiousness. (D'lhrbe- 
 lot. I Ml 
 
 DESCANT. (It. descanto.) In Music, composition in 
 U parts. It is either plain, which consists in the or- 
 derly placing of many concords answering to simple coun- 
 terpart, figurate or florid, wherein discords are em- 
 ployed ; or double, where the parts are so contrived that 
 the treble or any high part may be made the bass, and the 
 contrary. 
 
 DESCE'NT. In Law, if a person die seised in fee-simple, 
 Otherwise than as a joint tenant (see post), of lands or tene- 
 ments which be has not disposed of by will, they will de- 
 i In bis heir. Such seisin is cither actual possession 
 or virtual ; as, possession by the tenant of achattel interest, 
 whose possession is always held to be the same with that 
 of the remainderman, or reversioner, who is to succeed 
 him. If a person have become possessed by purchase of 
 lands or tenements in fee-simple, of which, from the nature 
 of the estate, he cannot obtain seisin (as a remainder ex- 
 pectant on a particular estate of freehold), these likewise 
 descend to the heir in case of his intestacy. It is well 
 known that by the common law of England the rules of 
 descent were different from those obtaining in other coun- 
 tries ; that a direct lineal ancestor could in no case inherit 
 from his descendant; that brothers and sisters of the half 
 blood, i. e. sprung from another mother, or from another 
 father, were also excluded from the succession. These 
 rules have now (by 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 106. ) been wholly re- 
 moved or modified ; so that the law of descent recognizes 
 in succession the following heirs: — 1. The eldest or only 
 son, or his issue. 2. The younger son, or his issue. 3. 
 The daughter, or, if more than one, all the daughters as 
 coparceners (see post) and their issue ; such issue claiming 
 per stirpes, not per capita, i. e. claiming only the share of 
 their respective mothers. 4. In default of lineal descend- 
 ants, the nearest lineal ancestor now succeeds, in prefer- 
 ence to any person who would have been entitled to in- 
 herit either by tracing his descent through such lineal an- 
 cestor, or in consequence of there being no descendant of 
 such lineal ancestor; e.g. a father inherits before a brother, 
 a grandfather before an uncle, &c. 5. In default of father, 
 brothers, or sisters of the whole blood and their issue, 
 then the inheritance devolves on the eldest brother or sis- 
 ter of the half blood by a different mother, the half blood 
 following the sime rule where the inheritance devolves 
 on th. tof any other ancestor. 7. On failure of 
 
 male ancestor-* on I he paternal side and their descendants, 
 331 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE GEOMETRY. 
 
 female paternal ancestors and their descendants. 8. On 
 'allure of these, the mother, her ancestors, — first male, 
 then female,— and their respective descendants. 9. The 
 half blood follow always next after any relation in the same 
 degree of the whole blood and his issue, if the common 
 ancestor be a male ; next after the common ancestor, if a 
 female : so that the brother by the half blood on the part 
 of the mother inherits next after the mother. Descent is 
 always traced from the first purchaser; but the last owner 
 is presumed to be the first purchaser unless the contrary 
 can be proved. In some particular localities the custom 
 of gavelkind prevails, by which all the sons inherit equally 
 from the father. By the custom of borough English, the 
 youngest son is heir. Bastards cannot inherit, nor can an 
 alien ; but a natural born subject may derive his title 
 (under certain restrictions) through alien ancestors. 
 
 Descent, in Mechanics, is the motion of a body towards 
 the centre of the earth caused by the attraction of gravity. 
 The following are the laws of descent of bodies: — 
 
 I ,ivy bodies, in an unresisting medium, fall with a 
 uniformly accelerated velocity. 
 
 2d. When the action of gravity is uniform, the space 
 passed over in a given time is exactly half that which 
 would he passed over in the same time by the velocity ac- 
 quired at the end of the time if continued uniformly. 
 
 3d. The spaces passed over in different times are pro 
 portioned to the squares of the velocities, or the squares 
 of the times. 
 
 4th. The time of the oblique descent of a body down any 
 chord of a circle, drawn from the uppermost or lowermost 
 point of the circle, is equal to the time of descent through 
 the diameter of the circle. 
 
 6th. The times of descent through all arcs of the same 
 cycloid are equal. 
 
 6th. It is found by experiment that a heavy body near 
 the surface of the earth, when allowed to descend by its 
 own gravity, falls through 16,'s feet in the first second of 
 time ; consequently, by the 2d law, it acquires a velocity 
 in that time which would carry it through 32 feet in a 
 second, if gravity ceased to act. See Attraction, Ac- 
 celeration 
 
 DESCRIPTION (Lat. descriptio), in Rhetoric, is used 
 to designate such a strong and lively representation of any 
 object as places it before the reader in a clear and satis- 
 factory light. The execution of this task, as is universally 
 admitted, is attended wilh great difficulty, and requires no 
 ordinary powers. Indeed, such b the Importance which 
 some critics of eminence attach to ihe possession of this 
 quality, that they have erected it Into a standard whereby 
 to estimate the productions of genius in every department 
 of literature ; and though such a test may seem somewhat 
 arbilrary, yet when we consider the powers indispensably 
 requisite to form a good description, we shall not be sur- 
 prised to find that amid the galaxy of brilliant productions 
 in other departments wilh which our literature is adorned, 
 there are so few authors who have attained eminence in 
 this. A good description, according to Dr. Blair, is simple 
 and concise ; it sets before us such features of an object 
 as on the first view strike and warm the fancy ; it gives us 
 ideas which a statuary or a painter could lay hold of and 
 work after them— one of the strongest and most decisive 
 trials of the real merits of description. Hence among the 
 qualities essentially necessary, and without which, indeed, 
 even mediocrity is unattainable in this walk of literature, 
 are an eye conversant with nature in all her aspects, a 
 strong imagination wherewith to catch her grand and pro- 
 minent features, and great simplicity and clearness of 
 style to transmit the impression unimpaired to the ima- 
 gination of others. 
 
 There is no species of composition, prose or poetical, 
 into which description does not enter in some shape ; but 
 the term has been borrowed from literature generally, and 
 applied more particularly to those poetical productions 
 which are devoted exclusively to the description of nature, 
 such as Milton's Allegro and Thomson's Seasons. Hence, 
 although Shakspeare may with great justice be styled a 
 descriptive poet, from the exquisite descriptions of nature 
 with which his unrivalled plays are interspersed ; yet as 
 his chief excellence lies in pourtraying the character and 
 passions of man, he does not fall, properly speaking, within 
 this category. By no writer, either of antiquity or modern 
 times, was the faculty of description possessed in a more 
 eminent degree than by Sir Walter Scott. All his de- 
 lineations of natural scenery are executed with an un- 
 rivalled fervour of imagination ; while at the same time 
 they are marked by such traits of character and truth thai 
 every object is brought distinctly before the mind, and 
 might without difficulty be transferred to canvass by the 
 artist's pencil. Under the head "Descriptive Poetry," in 
 Blair's Lectures on the Belles Lettres, the reader will find 
 an admirable account of the characteristics of this species 
 of composition, with a critical notice of the most celebrated 
 descriptive poets of all asres and countries. 
 
 DESCRI'PTIVE GEO'METRY. A term first employed 
 
DESERT. 
 
 by Monge, and subsequently by olher French geometers, 
 to express that part of science which consists in the appli- 
 cation of geometrical rules to the representation of the 
 figures, ami the various relations of the forms of bodies, 
 according to certain conventional methods. It differs from 
 ordinary perspective, inasmuch as the design or represen- 
 tation is made in such a manner that the exact distance be- 
 tween the different points of the body represented can 
 always be found, and consequently all the mathematical 
 relations resulting from the form and position of the body 
 may be deduced from the representation. 
 
 In the descriptive geometry, the situation of points in 
 space is represented by their orthographical projections on 
 two planes, at right angles to each other, called the planes of 
 projection. It is usual to suppose one of the planes of pro- 
 jection to be horizontal, in which case the other is vertical ; 
 and the projections are called horizontal or vertical, ac- 
 cording as they are on the one or the other of these planes. 
 
 According to this system, any point whatever in space is 
 represented by drawing a perpendicular from it to each of 
 the planes of projection : the point on which the perpen- 
 dicular falls is the projection of the proposed point. As 
 contiguous points in space form a line, so the projections 
 of those points, which are also contiguous, form a line in 
 the same manner, which is the projection of the given line. 
 
 Hence as two projections only are required for the deter- 
 mination of a point in space, they are also sufficient for 
 the determination of any curve whatever, whether of single 
 or double curvature. 
 
 The same mode of representation cannot be employed 
 with regard to surfaces ; for as the projections of the con- 
 tiguous points of a surface cover a continuous area on both 
 planes of projection, there is nothing to indicate that any 
 particular point on one of the planes of projection corres- 
 ponds to one point more than another on the second plane, 
 and consequently that it belongs to one point more than 
 another in space. But if we conceive the surface which 
 is to be represented to be covered with a system of lines 
 succeeding one another according to a determinate law, 
 then, by projecting these lines on each of the two planes, 
 and marking the correspondence of the one projection with 
 the other, the projections of all the different points of the 
 surface will have an evident dependence on each other, and 
 the surface will be rigorously and completely determined. 
 
 Some elementary surfaces may, however, be represent- 
 ed in a much more simple way. The plane, for example, 
 is completely defined by the straight lines in which it in- 
 tersects the two planes of projection. These lines are 
 denominated the traces of the plane. A sphere is also 
 completely defined by the two projections of ils centre, and 
 the great circ.e which limits the projections of its points. 
 A cylinder is defined by its intersection (or trace) with one 
 of the planes of projection, and by the two projections of 
 Dne of its ends. A cone is represented by its intersection 
 with one of the planes of projection and the two projec- 
 tions of its summit. 
 
 The most immediate application of descriptive geometry 
 is the representation of bodies, of which the forms are 
 susceptible of rigorous geometrical definition. Sculpture, 
 architecture, painting, and all the mechanical arts, the ob- 
 ject of which is to give to matter certain determinate 
 forms, borrow from descriptive geometry their graphical 
 procedures, by the aid of which all the parts of an object 
 are faithfully represented in relief before the object itself 
 is executed. Hut it was chiefly in consequence of its ap- 
 plication to civil and military engineering, and to fortifica- 
 tion, that this branch of geometry received a distinctive 
 appellation, and was considered of so much importance as 
 to form one of the principal departments of study in the 
 Polytechnic school of France. The best systematic works 
 written on the subject are those of Monge, Hachette, Val- 
 ine, and Leroi. A good general idea of the methods of 
 procedure may be obtained from the small work of Lacroix, 
 Complement des Elemens de Geometric 
 
 DE'SERT. (Lat. desertum.) A term generally used to 
 designate an uninhabited place or solitude ; in which sense, 
 as has been judiciously remarked, it is equally applicable 
 to the fertile plains watered by theMatanon,and the sandy 
 wastes of Lybia, but applied more particularly to the vast 
 sandy and stony plains of Africa and Asia. In every re- 
 gion of the globe plains are to be found of greater or less 
 extent, which, though marked by strong features of resem- 
 blance in their grand outlines, exhibit with the different 
 latitudes in which they are placed a corresponding variety 
 of character, and according to the distinguishing pecu- 
 liarities of each are known by different appellations. Thus 
 we have the steppes of Europe, the deserts of Asia and 
 Africa, the savannulis of the Mississippi and the Missouri, 
 and the pampas and llanos of South America. (See these 
 different articles.) 
 
 The most striking feature of Africa consists of its im- 
 mense deserts, which have in all ages presented to the spe- 
 culations of the geographer objects highly worthy of atten- 
 tion. Of these the chief is the Sahara, or the Desert, so 
 332 
 
 DESIGN. 
 
 called by way of eminence. This prodigious zone of sand 
 stretches, with few interruptions, from the shores of the At- 
 lantic lo the confines of Egypt, and comprehends in its 
 length and breadth a superficies of about 2,200,000 square 
 miles. The sand raised by the burning wind called the 
 simoom is trequently in a state of motion, and as it sweeps 
 along in its careerof desolation bears a strong resemblance 
 to the waves of a tempestuous sea. This immense ex- 
 panse, however, is by no means a uniform surface of loose 
 sand. In many parts the dreary waste is broken by low 
 hills of naked sandstone, or by tracts of arid clay, and oc- 
 casionally it is enlivened by verdant isles or oases, which 
 serve as resting-places for the caravans that traverse these 
 dismal regions. (.Traill's Physical Geog.) But for these 
 oases, indeed, the Sahara would be wholly impassable. It 
 presents, says Malte Brun, no traces of a beaten path, 
 and the caravans that traverse it, directing their way by the 
 polar star, describe a tortuous road in order to profit by the 
 oases, which are represented as brilliant with vegetation, but 
 which probably owe a greal part of their reputation to the con- 
 trast they form with the absolute barrenness of the desert. 
 
 As we have elsewhere remarked (see Camel and Cara- 
 van), the camel is the sole medium of the communication 
 between those countries which are separated by extensive 
 deserts. In the beautiful and expressive metaphor of east- 
 ern speech, it is " the ship of the desert ;" and in truth it 
 is the only ship by which the wilderness can be navigated 
 with certainty and safety. 
 
 The great deserts of Africa are only separated from those 
 of Asia by the valley of the river.Nile, and I lie Bed Sea. 
 But upon this subject we cannot refrain from transferring 
 to our columns the remarks of Dr. Traill, who lias sketch- 
 ed with a masterly hand the grand outlines of the Asiatic 
 deserts. " Soon after quitting the Nile, the traveller by the 
 route of Suez encounters sand, which is continued into the 
 centre of Arabia, where it forms the desert of Nedsjed, 
 extending to the valley of the Euphrates. The sandy zone 
 then inclines northward, enters Persia, and forms the saline 
 deserts of Adjemi, Herman, and Mekran ; it is turned 
 north-east by the valley of the Indus, passes through Can- 
 bul and Little Bukharia, till it joins the vast deserts of Cobi 
 and Shamoo, which occupy so large a portion of Central 
 Asia between the Altaian and Mustag chains, and reach to 
 the confines of China. The sandy zone, thus traceil 
 throughout the breadth of the ancient continent from West- 
 ern Africa to the 120° of east longitude, has been comput- 
 ed to cover an area of 6,500,000 square miles; but the Asi- 
 atic portion of this tract includes many chains of moun- 
 tains and fertile valleys. It is characterized by the occur- 
 rence of arid wastes of sand or clay, sometimes with saline 
 incrustations on the surface, and is remarkably deficient In 
 considerable rivers: except the Nile, the Euphratui 'lie In- 
 dus, and the Oxus, there are no large rivers in a region which 
 embraces almost a fourth partof both Africaand Asia. This 
 portion of Central Asia forms a series of elevated plains, 
 6000 miles in length from east to west. Some of these plains, 
 says Humboldt, are covered with herbage ; others produce 
 only evergreen saliferous plants, with fleshy and jointed 
 stems ; but a great number glitter from afar with a saline 
 efflorescence that crystallizes in the semblance of lichens, 
 and covers the clayey soil with scattered patches like new- 
 fallen snow." (.Physical Geog. pp. 21,22.) Under the head 
 Mirage will be found some account of the so-called singu- 
 lar optical illusion so often seen in the desert. 
 
 In Scripture, the term desert bears a wholly different in- 
 terpretation from that usually attached to it In profane 
 writings. It has been fully shown by Reland (Palest. 1. i. 
 p. 375.) that the Hebrew "OID. (midbar), the eprjfiof of the 
 Greeks, and the desertum or soliludo of the Latins, bear no 
 analogy to each other ; the first being appropriated almost 
 exclusively to those thinly peopled districts of the Holy 
 Land which yielded pasturage for cattle, and were remark- 
 able at once for their beauty and the luxuriance of their 
 vegetation. 
 
 DESE'RTER. (Lat.) An officer, soldier, or sailor, who 
 absents himself from his post without permission, and with 
 the intention not to return. The crime of desertion has 
 In all ages and countries been regarded with peculiar detes- 
 tation. In Greece and Rome, the deserter, during war, suf- 
 fered death; during peace, was deprived only of civil 
 rights: a sound and enlightened distinction. The military 
 code of Great Britain inflicts "death or such other punish- 
 ments as may be adjudged by a general court-martial" on 
 deserters; thus leaving a proper discretionary power for 
 the exercise of lenity in cases where the motives to the 
 crime may bear the most favourable construction. 
 
 DESICCA'TIVES. (Lat. de. and secus, dry.) In Mate- 
 ria Medica, applications which dry up the secretion of 
 membranes, ulcers. &c. 
 
 DESIDERA'TUM (Lat. wished for), is used to signify 
 something wanted to improve or perfect any art or sci- 
 ence, or to promote the advancement of any object or 
 stodv whatsoever. 
 
 DESI'GN. (Fr. dessin.) In all the Arts, the idea formed 
 
DESIGNATOR. 
 
 n the mind of an artist on any particular subject, which 
 he endeavours to transfer to some medium for the pur- 
 pose of making it known to others. It is sometimes loosely 
 and improperly used synonymously with drawing. 
 
 Every work of design is to be considered either In rela- 
 tion to the art that produced it, to the nature of its adap- 
 tation to the end sought, or to the nature of the end it 
 is destined to serve ; thus its beauty is dependent on the 
 Wisdom or excellence displayed in the design, on the fit- 
 ness or propriety of the adaptation, and upon the utility of 
 considerations of design, fitness, and utility, 
 have become the three great sources of beauty of form. 
 This beaut; frequently arises from the combined power 
 of these 
 
 Every work of art supposes unity of design, or some par- 
 .posed by the artist in its structure or corn- 
 In forms considered simply as expressive of 
 OMign, t!i" only possible sign of unity of design is uni- 
 ir regularity, by which the productions of chance 
 1 from those of design ; and without the 
 sis. variety becomes contusion. In every 
 beautiful work of art, we are not satisfied with mere de- 
 sign,— we miisl have elegant design, of which tl 
 
 v ; it is this which in general distinguishes 
 from plain forms, and without it uniformity is 
 dull and insipid. 
 The a; i are usually considered those of 
 
 and Architecture; to which, under 
 heads, the reader is referred for further in- 
 lion. 
 DE81 '(JN.VTOR. (Eat.) In Roman Antiquities, a spe- 
 of the ceremonies, whose duty it was to 
 assign to each person his proper place in the theatres and 
 nolle spectacles. Officers with this appella- 
 tion were employed among the Romans on every occasion 
 of public display, ami la all domestic solemnities, whether 
 of a joyful or mournful character. But the chief occupa- 
 tion of the designator consisted in arranging and marshalling 
 the funerals of distinguished persons ; and in this capa- 
 city he was attended by a troop of inferior officers, all ar- 
 rayed in black, whose part it was, among other duties, to 
 keep off the crowd, like the lictors of the magistrates. In 
 this brief and elegant description of the insalubrity of 
 Rome during the autumnal season (Epis. i. 7), Horace 
 thus graphically introduces the designator and his at- 
 tendants : — 
 
 diim ficus prima cabrq-ic 
 
 Deaitpialorem decorai lictoribut atris. 
 
 DE'SPOT. <{Gr. 6e<7ir6Ttis, master.) A name applied to 
 sovereign princes possessing absolute authority. The well- 
 known address of the slave to Ilippolytus, in Euripides — 
 " O king, for it is fitting to call only the gods despots" 'mas- 
 ters) — shows the distinction which the republican spirit of 
 ihe Greeks took between the two titles. The later Greek 
 emperors took the title of despot: which was afterwards, 
 about the eleventh century, given to the son or nearest re- 
 lation of Ihe reigning prince. 
 
 DE'SPOTISM. In Politics, absolute and irresponsible 
 government by a single Individual or despot. In popular 
 language, all governments are called despotical that are 
 v one individual whose decisions are not 
 controlled by any representative assembly or recognized 
 subordinate authorities. Thus, we are in the habit of say- 
 ing that the emperors of Austria and Russia and the king 
 i are despotical or absolute sovereigns; meaning 
 by this, that all legislative and executive measures seem to 
 proceed from their free will. Dut the abstract idea of des- 
 potism goes farther than this ; and means a government 
 .■ individual with unlimited power over the lives 
 and fortunes of his subjects. The prophet Daniel, in his 
 description of the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar, 
 has given what is perhaps the best account of this species 
 of government. "All people, nations, and languages, 
 trembled and feared before him : whom he would he slew, 
 and whom he would he kept alive : whom he would he set 
 up, and whom he would he put down." (Chap. v. 19.) 
 
 But though this gives a vivid idea of what is understood 
 by a pure despotism, it can be regarded only as a popular, 
 or rather poetical account, sf a government where the 
 sovereign is possessed of great power. The truth is, that 
 a purely despotical government never had, and never can 
 have, any existence in fact. How absolute or despotical 
 soever, all sovereigns must conduct their government so 
 as to procure the concurrence and support of a large, or, 
 at all events, a powerful portion of their subjects. A des- 
 pot is, after all, merely an individual, and becomes quite 
 povirless when those masses of individuals, in whom the 
 ability to coerce others really resides, disapprove of his pro- 
 ceedings. The praetorian bands in antiquity, the janissa- 
 ries of Constantinople, and the grenadiers of Petersburg, 
 must, at least, be led by opinion. But though the sanction 
 of the instruments employed in his government be indis- 
 pensable to the existence of a despot, it is but seldom that 
 he dares trust to it only. The most absolute and tyranni- 
 333 
 
 DETACHED. 
 
 cal of the Roman emperors, when they Wished to get rid 
 of any obnoxious individual, dared not to order him to be 
 executed, but were obliged to suborn false evidence, and 
 to proceed against him according to legal forms : and so it 
 is in all countries. Were the most absolute sovereign of 
 whom we have any certain accounts openly to seize on tho 
 property of any individual in his dominions, or to put him 
 to death, without being able to assign some apparently satis- 
 factory grounds for doing so, the foundations of his power 
 would be shaken to the very centre ; and the repetition of 
 such conduct would most likely occasion his deposition. 
 The strength of absolute governments, when they embark 
 in oppressive courses, depends on their being able to con- 
 ceal or pervert the real facts of the case, so that the vic- 
 tims of their tyranny may be made to appear to be the 
 victims of their justice. We may be assured that no ruler 
 of any country emerged from the merest barbarism ever 
 could, for any considerable period, openly commit on his 
 own responsibility any gross injustice towards any consid- 
 erable portion of his subjects. Those who have done so 
 have rarely, if ever, failed to expiate their folly and tyranny 
 by some signal punishmenr. 
 
 Neither the government of Prussia nor Austria, nor even 
 that of Russia, can be justly called despotical. Their rulers 
 are controlled to a very great extent by the force of public 
 opinion ; and are influenced by a much more lively feel- 
 ing of responsibility than the sovereigns of limited mo- 
 narchies, or of countries in which the legislative functions 
 are divided. It is this fear of their subjects that makes 
 them so anxious, by laying restrictions on the freedom of 
 the press, to conceal their conduct, or to obtain a favourable 
 judgment upon it. There can be no despotism, nor any 
 considerable approach towards despotical government, 
 where the press is free and the people instructed ; and it 
 is to their influence in securing the freedom of the press, 
 and consequently in enlightening public opinion, and mak- 
 ing the bulk of the people acquainted with their real inter- 
 ests, that the advantage of representative assemblies and 
 of a popular form of government is mainly to be found. 
 
 DESQUAMA'TION. (Lai. squama, scale.) The sepa- 
 ration of lavers or scales from the skin or bones. 
 
 DESSE'RT. A word, of doubtful etymology, signifying 
 the last service at dinner, consisting of fruits and confec- 
 tions, Ac. The modern desert is probably equivalent to 
 the tnensa secundat of the Romans. If we believe Con. 
 greve, the term came into use among the French about the 
 commencement of Ihe 17th century, and was soon adopted 
 into and naturalized in most of the European languages. 
 
 In all the countries of Europe the splendour of the des. 
 sert has ever since the period of its introduction kept pace 
 with the progress of refinement and civilization, and by 
 many gastronomes the qualities and arrangement of a des- 
 sert are looked upon as the most valid test of all that is 
 A! tic in taste and refined in elegance. 
 
 DRSTE'MPER. (Fr. deTtrempe.) In Painting, a pre- 
 paration of opaque colour ground up with size and water, 
 used in scene painting. This species of painting is also 
 cilled.when practised on a small scale, body colour paint- 
 ing. Destemper painting differs from fresco painting in 
 that the latter is performed while the walls are still wet, 
 whilst the former requires that they should be dry. 
 
 DE'STINY. (Eat. destinare, to appoint.) An inevitable 
 necessity depending upon a superior cause. This doctrine 
 has, under a variety of names, been embodied in almost 
 all the religious systems of antiquity ; and even in modern 
 limes, with a few modifications, it has been largely adopted 
 by many sects of the Christian church. (See Predesti- 
 nation, Necessity.) Destiny was called by the Romans 
 Fatum (see Fates), and by the Greeks Kvayvn, Necessity, 
 or Motpa, a Part, as if it were a chain or necessary series 
 of things indissolubly linked together. According to many 
 of the heathen philosophers, destiny was a secret and In- 
 visible power or virtue, which with incomprehensible wis- 
 dom regulated all the occurrences of this world which to 
 human eyes appear irregular and fortuitous. The Stoics, 
 on the other hand, understood by destiny a certain conca- 
 tenation of things, which from all eternity follow each 
 other of absolute necessity, there being no power able to 
 interrupt their connection. 'Rees's Cyclo.) To this in 
 visible power even the gods were compelled to succumb 
 Jupiter and Venus are represented by the poets as vainly 
 attempting to withdraw Coesar from his impending late : 
 but, as Seneca observes, it is thus that the Ruler of all 
 things, in writing the book of destiny, has prescribed the 
 limitation of his own power: "Scripsit fata; sed sequitur, 
 semper paret." ,. . 
 
 DESTRUCTIVE DISTILLA'TION. A term applied 
 to the distillation of organic products at high temperatures, 
 by which the ultimate elements are separated or evolvecl 
 in new combinations. The destructive distillation or coal 
 is resorted to for the production of gas, and that ot Done 
 for the production of ammonia, and of wood for tne ior- 
 mation of vinesar. . . , m 
 
 DETA'CHED. (Fr. detacher.) In Painting, a term ap- 
 
DETACHMENT. 
 
 plied to all objects in a picture which appear to stand out 
 from those by which they are surrounded. It arises from 
 a due knowledge of aerial and linear perspective. 
 
 DETA'CHMENT (Fr. detachement), in Military lan- 
 guage, is a certain number of squadrons of cavalry and bat- 
 talions of infantry, selected from the main body of an army 
 for the purpose of being employed in some particular duty, 
 such as in foraging, escorting, &c. 
 
 DETA'ILS. (Fr. detail.) In the Fine Arts, the parts 
 of a work as distinguished from the whole as a mass. They 
 must always be so kept under as not to interfere with the 
 general effect of the work ; neither must they be overla- 
 boured, lesl, instead of aiding, they embarrass the work of 
 which they form parts. 
 
 DETE'NTS, in Clock-work, are the stops which lock 
 and unlock the machinery in striking. 
 
 DETE'RGENTS. (Lat. detergo, / wipe away.) Medi- 
 cines which remove viscidily, and cleanse sores 
 
 DETERMINATE PRO'BLEM '- »-— 
 
 DEW. 
 
 In Geometry, is a 
 problem which admits of one solution only, or a limited 
 number of solutions ; and is opposed to an indeterminate 
 problem, which admits of an indefinite numberof solutions 
 DETERMINATION OF BLOOD. In Medicine and 
 Surgery, when there is apparently a more copious and 
 rapid flow of blood to any part, it is said to suffer under a 
 determination of blood ; as to the brain, liver, &c. 
 
 DE'TINUE, in Law, is a personal action of contract, and 
 lies where a party seeks to recover goods and chattels, or 
 deeds and writings, detained from him. 
 DETONATING TUBE. A stout glass tube used In 
 (pi the chemical laboratory for the detonation of gase- 
 r,oJ-L ous bodies. It is generally, as represented in the 
 annexed cut, graduated into centesimal parts, and 
 perforated by two opposed wires, for the purpose 
 of passing an electric spark through the gases 
 which are introduced into it, and which are con- 
 fined within it over water or mercury. When a de- 
 tonating tube is used over either of these fluids, the 
 smallest possible quantity of explosive gas should 
 be introduced into it, as in consequence of the ex- 
 pansion which ensues, a portion is apt to be forced 
 out at the moment of the explosion. The tube, 
 when used, should be firmly held : a spring is 
 sometimes substituted for the grasp of the hand, but it is 
 inconvenient. 
 
 DF.TONA'TING POWDER. A term applied in Chem- 
 istry to fulminating mercury and silver, and to other com- 
 pounds which suddenly explode when struck or heated. 
 Some of these compounds have lately been much used for 
 (he Ignition of gunpowder in percussion locks. 
 
 DETONA'TION. When chemical combination or de- 
 composition is sudden and attended by flame and explo- 
 sion, it is often said to be effected by detonation. If a 
 mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen be inflamed by the 
 electric spark or by a taper, it burns rapidly and with ex- 
 plosion, and is said to detonate. When a grain or two of 
 phosphorus is mixed with chlorate of potassa and struck 
 with a hammer, the mixture detonates. 
 
 DETRI'TUS. A geological term applied to deposits 
 composed of various substances which have been com- 
 minuted by attrition. The larger fragments are usually 
 termed debris; those which are pulverized, as it were, 
 constitute detritus. Sand is the detritus of siliceous rocks. 
 DEUCA'LION. One of the most famous personages 
 of antiquity, the son of Prometheus, and king of Thessaly. 
 The story of the deluge with which Thessaly was inundat- 
 ed during his reign, the preservation of Deucalion with his 
 wife Pyrrha, and the mode by which, in compliance with 
 the injunction of the oracle, they repeopled the world, are 
 too well known to require being dwelt upon in this place. 
 The grand features of the flood of Deucalion, which, as 
 recorded by Ovid and other writers of antiquity, bear so 
 striking a resemblance to the scriptural account of the de- 
 luge, are common to the history or the traditions of almost 
 all nations, how remote or barbarous soever. The great 
 Indian poem Mahabarada, for instance, contains a graphic 
 description of a flood, by which, with two exceptions, the 
 whole human race was overwhelmed ; and M. Humboldt 
 found on the banks of the Orinooko a similar tradition, 
 which had prevailed among the barbarous natives from 
 time immemorial. In that beautiful ode dedicated to Au- 
 gustus (Book I., 2.). in which richness of imagery and 
 elegance of language vie with the loftiest tone of morality, 
 Horace thus alludes to the flood of Deucalion : — 
 Terruil gentes. grave ne rediret 
 Sjcculum Pyrrhx novu monstra qnssts, 
 Orone cum Proteus pecus egit altos 
 Visere montes, &c. 
 The date assigned to Deucalion by Euseblus is 1541 b. c, 
 Dy the Parian marbles seven years earlier : but many of 
 the statements concerning him are so obscure, while oth- 
 ers are so manifestly mythological, as to leave considera- 
 ble doubts of his having ever existed. See Deluge. 
 DEUS EX MACHINA. A scholastic expression, bor- 
 334 
 
 rowed from the stage. In conformity with the mytholo- 
 gical belief of the age, the tragic poets of Greece, and 
 especially Euripides, instead of bringing about their catas- 
 trophe by natural means, often resorted to a more conve- 
 nient expedient— the intervention of a diviniiy. Bui when 
 any such intervention, contrary to the maxim of Horace, 
 
 Nee deus intersit rim diguus vindice nodus, 
 took place without an adequate cause, it was injurious to 
 scenic effect; and hence the expression deus ex mat hina 
 originated, the divinity in such a case being nothin* more 
 than a machine. This expression has also been applied by 
 analogy to those philosophers who, unable to solve a dilfi- 
 culty by ordinary means, have immediate recourse to the 
 aid of a supernatural power. 
 
 DEU'TERONOMY. The name given to the last book 
 of the Pentateuch. The term is composed of two Greek 
 words, devrepos, second, and vo/toc, law ; and is equivalent 
 to the Mischna of the Hebrews, who thus designaled the 
 book of Deuteronomy, from its containing a recapitulation 
 of the laws and ordinances scattered over the other books 
 of Moses. See Pentateuch. 
 
 DEUTEROPA'THIA. (Gr. iivrcpov, second, and irafloc, 
 disease.) A sympathetic, affection of any part : as a head- 
 ache from an overloaded stomach, or sickness from an in- 
 jury of the head. 
 
 DEU'TOXIDE. A term applied in Chemistry to cer- 
 tain compounds containing one atom or prime equivalent 
 of base in combination with two of oxvgen ; in this sense 
 the word is synonymous with binoxide. It is sometimes 
 indiscriminately applied to the second degree of oxidize- 
 ment of which bases are susceptible. 
 
 DE'VIL. (Gr. Sia/lo\os, an accuser), lit. one " who ac- 
 cuseth us before God day and night." (Rev. xii. 10.) The 
 word bears the same sense as Satan, and is applied in the 
 New Testament to the evil principle, the adversary of man 
 referred to throughout the books of the Old and New Tes- 
 tament under various names and titles, as Satan, Lucifer, 
 Belial, Apollyon, Abaddon, the Man of Sin, the Tempter; 
 and described as an angel who fell from heaven with many 
 inferior spirits, being cast down from thence by God for 
 his pride and rebellious spirit. From that time he is said 
 to have had permission to try and tempt mankind, in 
 which he succeeded in the persons of our first parents, 
 thereby introducing sin and sorrow into the world. He is 
 represented in Job and Zechariah as standing in the pre- 
 sence of the Lord, seeking permission to tempt men. It 
 is manifest that the character herein attributed lo the De- 
 vil is identical with lhatof the Evil Principle in the Gnostic 
 and Manichean philosophy, and in the oriental system of 
 religion generally ; excepting, indeed, that the scriptures 
 always maintain the inferiority of the evil to the good ; but 
 it may also be reasonably inferred that it was held by the 
 Jews anterior to their captivity in Babylon, and the contact 
 into which they then came with the Magian superstitions. 
 Although the serpent who tempted Eve in Paradise is not 
 expressly said to be this Satan or Devil, nor is he at all 
 mentioned by name by Moses, yet the character of the 
 Evil Principle is there vividly delineated ; he is character- 
 istically mentioned in the Psalms, the Book of Job, and the 
 Chronicles. 
 
 DEVI'SE, or DEVICE. (Fr. deviser, to invent, icilt, or 
 imagine.) In Heraldry, ihe lerm Devise is popularly used 
 in the same sense as armorial bearings (which see) ; but. it 
 is more strictly employed to signify a symbol, consisting 
 of a representation of some visible object, and in many 
 instances a motto appropriate to it, used, not by way of 
 heraldic bearing, but according to the fancy of the inventor : 
 sometimes for the motto alone. Monograms are also a 
 species of device. From the word deviser, in its ancient 
 signification of to will, is derived th.e Norman French de- 
 vise, a bequest of real property by testament, which is 
 still retained in our law. 
 
 Devise, in Law, is a gift of lands by a last will and testa- 
 ment. Lands held in fee-simple became devisable, where 
 not so by special custom, by the statute 34 & 35 H. 8. c. 5. 
 By 3 <fc 4 W. & M. c. 14. devises were made void against 
 specialty creditors. Estates pur auter vie are devisable by 
 stat. 29 C. 2. c. 3. A will of lands formerly only operated 
 on those lands of which the testator was possessed at the 
 time of publishing it. (See Will.) In a devise, Ihe words 
 are, in general, more liberally construed than in alienation 
 by deed. But by the recent Statute of Wills (1 Vic. c. 26.) 
 every will is held to speak, both as to real and personal 
 property, as if executed immediately before the death of 
 the testator. 
 
 DEW. (Germ, thau, moisture.) The deposition of 
 water from the atmosphere, occasioned by cold. The 
 phenomena of dew have been considered by all writers on 
 meteorology, from Aristotle downwards ; but they were 
 first successfully investigated by the late Dr. Wells, wno 
 gave the true theory of the meteor in an admirable essay 
 on the subject, first published in 1814. 
 The circumstances which influence the production of 
 
DEW. 
 
 Jew are the following : — Dew is never abundant except 
 during calm and serene nights. It is, however, frequently 
 abservei in small quantities both on windy nights, if the 
 sky is clear, and on cloudy nights, if there is no wind ; but 
 it is never seen on nights both cloudy and windy at the 
 same lime. If, in the course of the night, the weather, 
 from being calm and serene, should happen to become 
 windy and cloudy not only will no more dew be formed, 
 but that which has been already formed will disappear, 
 or a> least diminish considerably. In calm weather, if the 
 sky be partially covered with clouds, more dew will appear 
 than if it were entirely covered, but less than if it were 
 entirely clear. A slight motion of the air is rather fa- 
 vourable than otherwise to the formation of dew. On two 
 :i tally calm and serene, the quantities of dew de- 
 may be very unequal. If rain has fallen recently, 
 it will be formed in abundance ; on the contrary, very little 
 will be formed in nights otherwise favourable, if the wea- 
 ther tiu been dry for some time previously. In general, 
 whatever tends to increase the quantity of moisture in the 
 ere will contribute to render the deposition of dew 
 more abundant. Dew is commonly more plentiful in 
 spring ami autumn than in surani'T; the reason is, that 
 the differences of the temperatures of the day and night 
 ■ r in the former seasons of tlie year than in the 
 latter. It is always most copious on those clear and calm 
 nights which are followed by misty or foggy mornings; 
 tin- formation of the fog showing that the atmosphere had 
 previously contained much moisture. Dew has been ob- 
 served to he unusually plentiful on a clear morning suc- 
 ceeding a cloudy night. The notion that dew is only form- 
 ed in the morning and evening is incorrect ; bodies are co- 
 vered with dew at all hours of the night, provided the sky 
 be serene. In this country dew probably begins to appear 
 upon grass, in places shaded from the sun during clear and 
 r.tlni weather, soon after the heat of the atmosphere has 
 declined ; that is, three or four hours after midday. Grass 
 is frequently felt to be moist, in dry weather, several hours 
 before sunset; but, on the other hand, dew is scarcely 
 ever known to be present in such quantity upon grass as 
 .o exhibit visible drops before the sun is very near the 
 horizon, or to be very copious tilt some time after sunset- 
 Other circumstances being equal, less dew is formed 
 during the first half of the night than during the second, 
 although the air at midnight has already lost a certain por- 
 tion of its moisture. 
 
 Polished metals are, of all bodies, those which attract 
 quantity of dew. This property of metals is suf- 
 ficiently remarkable to have led some respectable philo- 
 sophers to affirm that they are never welted by dew. Dr. 
 Well--, however, observed it to form on gold, silver, copper, 
 tin, platina, iron, steel, zinc, and lead ; but when dew does 
 form on these metals, it commonly only sullies the lustre 
 of their surfaces ; and even when!: is sufficiently abundant 
 to gather into drops, these are almost always small and 
 Indistinct. Dew which has been formed upon a metal 
 will often disappear, while other substances in the neigh- 
 bourhood remain wet; and a metal which has been pur- 
 posely wetted will often become dry, though similarly 
 exposed with bodies that are contracting dew. This in- 
 aptitude of the metals to attract dew is communicated to 
 bodies of a very different nature which touch or are near 
 r example, wool laid upon a metal will acquire 
 much less dew than an equal quantity laid upon grass in 
 the immediate vicinity ; and, conversely, bodies on which 
 the meuls are laid have an influence on the quantity of 
 dew which the latter will attract. The metals do not all 
 ie formation of dew with the same force. Dr. 
 Wells one night saw platina distinctly dewed, while gold, 
 silver, copper, and tin, though similarly situated, were en- 
 tirely dry ; and he several times saw these four metals free 
 from dew, while iron, steel, zinc, and lead were covered 
 with it. 
 
 Difference in the mechanical state of bodies, though the 
 other circumstances be similar, has an effect on the quan- 
 tity of dew which they attract. Thus, more dew is formed 
 upon fine shavings of wood, than upon a thick piece of the 
 same substance. It is chiefly for a similar reason that fine 
 raw silk, fine unwrought cotton and flax, were found by 
 Dr. Wells to attract somewhat more dew than the wool 
 he employed, the fibres of which were thicker than those 
 of the other substances just mentioned. 
 
 The quantity of dew which is precipitated on bodies 
 does not depend solely on their nature and constitution, 
 but also on the situation in which they are placed with re- 
 gard to surrounding objects. As a general principle, it 
 may be affirmed that whatever tends to diminish the por- 
 tion of the sky which can be seen from the place which 
 the body occupies, diminishes the quantity of dew with 
 which the body will be covered. 
 
 Of the Cold connected with the Formation of Dew.— The 
 
 temperature of grass covered with dew is always lower 
 
 than that of the surrounding air. On calm and clear nights, 
 
 Dr. Wells very frequently found the grass 7 8, or 9 de- 
 
 335 
 
 grees, and on one occasion 14 degrees, colder than tl e air 
 about 4 feet above the ground. He also observed that in 
 places sheltered from the afternoon sun, but still open to 
 a considerable portion of the sky, the difference between 
 the temperature of the grass and the air begins to be sen- 
 sible as soon as the heat of the atmosphere begins to di- 
 minish. In analogous circumstances, a similar coldness 
 continues on grass, in still and serene mornings, for some 
 time after the rising of the sun. In cloudy nights, particu 
 larly if there was wind, the grass was never much colder 
 than the air; sometimes it was even warmer: but in calm 
 weather, very high clouds, though sufficiently extensive 
 and dense to conceal the sky, would yet frequently allow of 
 the grass being several degrees colder than the air. If the 
 night became cloudy, after being very clear, the tempera- 
 ture of the grass immediately became higher. The tem- 
 perature of metals sometimes falls from 2 to 4 degrees 
 below that of the surrounding air; when this takes place, 
 other bodies, such as wool, swan-down, the leaves of plants 
 &c, are considerably colder than the atmosphere. The 
 substances which are most easily covered with dew are 
 those which are cooled down the quickest when exposed 
 to a clear sky. Of all substances tried by Dr. Wells, swan- 
 down exhibited the greatest cold ; in general, the most 
 productive of cold are the filamentous and tlowny. Snow, 
 also, is one of those bodies which acquires a temperature 
 very considerably lower than the atmosphere. 
 
 Theory of Dew.— Dr. Wells's experiments show that the 
 most perfect analogy subsists between the faculty which 
 bodies possess of attracting moisture from the atmosphere, 
 and the other properly which they have of acquiring, in 
 calm and clear nights, a temperature much below that of 
 the surrounding air. But is the cold which is observed on 
 bodies covered with dew the cause or the consequence of 
 the precipitation of the fluid I The latter opinion was 
 maintained by Dr. Wilson of Glasgow, in a paper on hoar- 
 ted in the first volume of the Transactions of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh. But it lias been clearly estab- 
 lished by Dr. Wells that the cold is the cause of the dew ; 
 for he found, 1st, that in certain circumstances bodies 
 would become colder than the air without being dewed, 
 whence it is obvious that the cold could not be the effect 
 of the dew ; and, 2d, that when dew was formed, its quan- 
 tity and the degree of cold that appeared with it, at ilitrer- 
 ent times, were very far from being always in the same 
 proportion to each other. He also invariably found that 
 bodies became collier before dew began to appear on them. 
 The formation of dew is therefore a phenomenon pre- 
 cisely of the same kind as the precipitation of moisture 
 which takes place on the outside of a vase into which a 
 liquid colder than the air is poured. But this is a pheno- 
 menon of which the most complete and satisfactory ex- 
 planation has been given. It is well known that atmo- 
 spheric air, at every different degree of temperature. 
 can contain only a determinate quantity of water, and that 
 the quantity is greater as the temperature is higher. Con- 
 ceive then a stratum of air coming into contact with a solid 
 body colder than itself: the contact cools itdown to slower 
 temperature, and immediately a portion of its water is 
 precipitated. A second stratum of air succeeds the first, 
 is cooled down in its turn, and abandons that portion of its 
 moisture which its decreased temperature does not permit 
 it to retain. The phenomenon is repeated with great 
 rapidity, and in a short time the cooling body is covered 
 with small drops, or even a continuous sheet of moisture. 
 As soon as it was proved that bodies exposed to the clear 
 sky acquire a temperature lower than that of the atmo- 
 sphere, the origin of the moisture with which their sur- 
 faces become covered could not be mistaken. 
 
 In order to render this theory complete, it only remains 
 to explain the cause why bodies, when exposed to the sky 
 in clear and calm nights, become colder than the surround- 
 ing atmosphere. Since the laws of the radiation of heat 
 were established by the experiments of Sir John Leslie, 
 and Count Rumford, the rationale of this phenomenon has 
 been well understood. During calm and serene nights, the 
 upper parts of the grass radiate their heat into the regions 
 of empty space, from which they receive back no heat in 
 return ; its lower parts, from the smallness of their con- 
 ducting power, transmit little of the earth's heat to the 
 upper parts, which at the same time receiving only a small 
 quantity from the atmosphere, and none from any other 
 lateral body, must remain colder than the air, and condense 
 into dew its watery vapour, if this be sufficiently abundant, 
 in respect of the decreased temperature of the grass. 
 
 This explanation is grounded on the hypothesis of M. 
 Prevost of Geneva respecting the constant radiation of 
 heat by bodies in contact with the atmosphere, even at the 
 time when they are exposed to the influence of bodies 
 warmer than themselves : but the hypothesis has not been 
 universally admitted; and Sir J. Leslie, on the contrary, 
 ascribes the effect to the descent of cold air from the 
 upper regions of the atmosphere. " The application of the 
 ajthrioscope," he remarks, " has not ot ly ascertained the 
 
DEWBERRY. 
 
 fflflstence, but measured the intensity, of the cold pulses 
 which are at all times darted downwards from the succes- 
 sive strata of air, though often partially intercepted by 
 clouds, or more completely obstructed by low fogs. It may 
 be computed that in fine bright evenings those cold pulses, 
 rained from the sky, are sufficient alone to depress the 
 temperature of the ground, according to the seasons, some- 
 times eight degrees, but generally about three degrees of 
 Fahrenheit's scale. The blades of grass, thus chilled from 
 exposure, cool in their turn the damp air which touches 
 them, and cause it to drop its moisture." (Ency. Brit. art. 
 " Dew.") The theory of Dr. Wells has also been exam- 
 ined by Mr. Blackadder, in the Edinburgh Philos. Journal, 
 Nos. XXI., XXVII., and XXVIII. ; and more recently by 
 Van Roosbroek of Ley den in his Theorie de la Jtosee, Rot- 
 terdam, 1836. 
 
 It may be added, that among all the phenomena con- 
 nected with the formation of dew, there is not one which 
 does not admit of a satisfactory explanation on the prin- 
 ciple established by Dr. Wells ; namely, that dew is never 
 deposited on the surface of bodies till they have been pre- 
 viously cooled down by their radiation towards space. 
 
 DEWBERRY. The fruit of the Rubus cassias, so term- 
 ed from the resemblance of the bloom or waxy secretion 
 upon it to dew. 
 
 DEW POINT. The degree indicated by the thermo- 
 meter when dew begins to be deposited. It varies with 
 the degree of the humidity of the atmosphere. 
 
 DEXIA'RI^E. A family of Dipterous insects, which 
 subsist chiefly on the juices of flowers. The typical ge- 
 nus is Dexia, Mirgen ; the other genera included in the 
 family are Zcuxia, Dinera, Scotiptera, Rutila Gymnoslyla, 
 Omalogaster, and Prosena. 
 
 DE'XTRINE, in Chemistry, means the soluble or gum- 
 my matter into which the interior substance of starch glo- 
 bules is convertible by diastase, or by certain acids. It Is 
 remarkable for the extent to which it turns the plane of 
 polarization to the right hand, whence its name. The 
 term is also applied to starch which by exposure to heat 
 has been rendered soluble in cold water. 
 
 DEY. (Derived by some from the Turkish da'i, a ma- 
 ternaiuncle.) A Turkish title of dignity, given to the gov- 
 ernors of Algiers (before the French conquest), Tunis, and 
 Tripoli. The (ley is chosen for life from among the chief 
 authorities of the place, with the approbation of the Turk- 
 ish soldiery. At Tunis the equivalent title of bey is more 
 usually substituted for dey. This term is admitted by all 
 philologists to be of very great antiquity ; though it is im- 
 possible to assign any precise date to its introduction. The 
 reader will find in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclop. much 
 valuable information respecting this title, and the regencies 
 in which it is in use. 
 
 DIABE'TES. (Gr. Sta, through, and fiatvapat, I pass.) 
 An immoderate flow of urine. There are two varieties 
 of this disorder: the one is merely a superabundant dis- 
 charge of ordinary urine, and is termed diabetes insipi- 
 dus ; in the other the urine has a sweet taste, and conlains 
 abundance of a peculiar saccharine matter: it is called 
 diabetes mellitus. This disease usually attacks persons 
 of a debilitated constitution towards the decline of life, and 
 generally without any obvious cause. Thirst and a vora- 
 cious appetite are its first symptoms; the urine gradually 
 increases in quantity ; and then there is a sense of weight 
 and uneasiness in the loins, emaciation, cedematous legs, 
 and hectic fever. The quantity of urine which is voided 
 sometimes far exceeds that of liquid and solid food taken 
 together ; so that it has been supposed that the solids of the 
 body are, as it were, melted down, and flow off in the form 
 of water and sugar. In diabetes mellitus the quantity of 
 saccharine matter is generally such, especially where the 
 disorder has been of long standing, as materially to in- 
 crease the specific gravity of the urine ; and this accord- 
 ingly forms a useful criterion of the state of the disease, 
 for whatever tends to diminish the specific gravity of the 
 urine is at the same time diminishing its saccharine con- 
 tents : an hydrometer therefore is useful in determining 
 this point. The specific gravity of healthy urine does not 
 exceed 1020, and contains about 380 grains of solid matter in 
 the pint ; that of diabetic urine sometimes attains a spe- 
 cific gravity of 1040 to 1050; in which case, as appears 
 from Dr. Henry's table (.Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, 
 vol. ii.), it contains from 766 to 960 grains of solid matter 
 in th? pint. The cause of this disease is unknown ; but it 
 has been shown that there are no traces of sugar in the 
 blood of persons who are voiding it abundantly by urine ; 
 so that the idea of its formation in the stomach, and subse- 
 quent separation in the kidneys, is untenable. Nor has 
 dissection thrown much light upon the subject, for in some 
 cases no morbid state of the viscera is observed ; in oth- 
 ers, however, the kidneys are flabby, pale, and enlarged, 
 or more vascular than they should be : the lacteals are 
 also sometimes thickened, and the mesenteric glands en- 
 larged. There are very few cases on record of the cure, 
 or even of the relief, of confirmed diabetes. Where it is 
 888 
 
 SUN DIAL. 
 
 symptomatic of hysteria, dyspepsia, or hypochondriasis, 
 the usual remedies for those affections are useful ; but 
 where it is idiopathic, and saccharine, nothing ha3 proved 
 decidedly serviceable. Strict abstinence from vegetable 
 food of every kind, and the free exhibition of opium, are 
 the only plans which have held out hopes of success ; but 
 there are very few cases upon record in which these seem 
 to have been permanently successful. 
 DIACAU'STIC CURVE (Gr. 6ia, through, and kouo, 
 1 burn), in the higher 
 Geometry, is the caustic 
 by refraction. It is gene- 
 rated as.- follows : — II 
 rays P m issuing from 
 a luminous point P be 
 refracted by the curve 
 A m B, so that the sines 
 of incidence are to the 
 sines of refraction in a 
 given ratio, the curve C 
 D H, which touches all the refracted rays, is called the 
 diacaustic, or caustic by refraction. See Caustic. 
 
 DIA'CHYLUM, or DIACHYLON. (Gr. ita, and %v\os, 
 juice.) A celebrated plaisterof former days made of the 
 juices of several plants; the term is still retained, and 
 applied to common plaister, made by boiling hydratec 
 oxide of lead with olive oil. 
 
 DIACO'DIUM. (Gr. ita, and xwdi'a, a poppy.) A pre 
 paration of the poppy. Syrup of white poppies was for 
 merly called syrup of diacodium. 
 
 DIA'COPE. (Gr. <5ia, and kotttu, I cut.) A genus of 
 spiny-finned fishes of the perch tribe, allied to Serranus , 
 but distinguished by a notch at the lower part of the preo- 
 perculum, to which a projecting tubercle is adapted. 
 
 DIACOU'STICS. (Gr. ita, and ukovui, I hear.) That 
 branch of physics which treats of the properties of sound 
 refracted in passing through media of different densities. 
 See Sound. 
 
 DIACRl'TIC MARKS. (Gr. itaKptvo), I distinguish.) 
 In Palaeography, marks used to distinguish letters between 
 the forms of which much similarity exists. Thus n and u 
 are distinguished in German running hand by the mark „ 
 over the latter letter. 
 
 DIADE'LPHOUS. (Gr. ita, and JiXo'nc, a trcmb.) A 
 term applied to stamens the filaments or which have coa- 
 lesced into two masses, as in Fumaria and many legumi- 
 nous plants. 
 
 DI'ADEM. (Gr. itaitjpa, from ito>, I bind.) Originally 
 a fillet wound round the temples, probably imported into 
 Greek costume from the East. It was the symbol of royalty 
 among various oriental nations. The diadem of Bacchus, 
 from the representation in ancient statues, &c, was a broad 
 band, which might be unfolded so as to form a veil. Con- 
 stantine the Great was the first Roman emperor who used 
 the diadem ; after his time, it was set with rows of pearls 
 or precious stones. 
 
 DIjE'RESIS. (Gr. itatpu, I divide.) In Grammar, the 
 resolution of a diphthong, or a contracted syllable, into two 
 syllables: as, in Latin, aura'i for aurse,&c. ; and, in English, 
 the resolution of the last syllable of participles by a sound 
 of the final e: beloved, cursed, &c. See Metapi'akm. 
 
 DIAGNO'SIS. (Gr. itaytyvojCKM, 1 distinguish.) The 
 art of distinguishing one disease from another. The cha- 
 racteristic symptoms of diseases, by which they are recog- 
 nized, are termed their diagnostic symptoms. 
 
 DIA'GONAL. (Gr. ita, through, and ywvta, angle.) A 
 straight line drawn through a figure, joining two opposite 
 angles. The term is chiefly used in geometry, in speaking 
 of four-sided figures; but it is also properly applied with 
 reference to all polygons of which the number of sides is 
 not less than four. Euclid uses the term diameter in the 
 same sense ; but modern geometers use diameter only 
 when speaking of curve lines, and diagonal when speaking 
 of angular figures. 
 
 DI'AGRAM. (Gr. itaypappa ; from ita, through, and 
 ypa(pa>,Iwrite.) The figure or scheme drawn for the il- 
 lustration of a mathematical proposition, or the demon- 
 stration of any of its properties. It is also used in olhel 
 branches of science, and in the fine arts, for the genera' 
 purposes of illustration. 
 
 DI'AGRAPH. (Gr. ita, and ypa<po>, I describe.) A name 
 given by the French artists to a recently invented instru- 
 ment used in perspective. Fora minute description of its 
 properties we beg to refer the reader to the Encyclopedic 
 des Gens du Monde, and to the paper of M. Gavard, the in- 
 ventor, recently published at Paris. 
 
 DI'AL, or SUN-DIAL. (Lat. dies, day.) An instrument 
 for showing the hour of the day by means of the sun's 
 shadow. The invention and use of sun dials are of the 
 highest antiquity. According to Herodotus, the Greeks 
 learned the use of them from the Chaldeans ; and the first 
 of which history makes mention is the hemisphere of Be- 
 rosus, who is supposed to have lived about 540 years before 
 Christ. The sun-dial and the clepsydra were the only in 
 
DIAL. 
 
 wrumencs known to the ancients for the measurement of 
 time. 
 
 In constructing a sundial, the object is to find, by mcan3 
 of Ins shadow, the win's distance at any time from the me- 
 ridian. When this distance is known, the hour is also 
 known, provided we .suppose the sun's apparent motion to 
 be uniform, and that during the whole course of a day he 
 rcle parallel to the equator. Neither of these 
 ,,.ns is, in fact, accurately fulfilled, but the error 
 win.- h «: to is of small amount ; and it is, more- 
 
 -ulficiently obvious that the use of a dial is not to ra- 
 the linur with astronomical precision, but merely to 
 i approximation as is necessary for the pur- 
 • f civil life. 
 
 usually constructed on an immoveable surface, 
 mid ., mite number ol different constructions, 
 
 ,,ll (i, lie nature of the surface and lie position 
 
 with regard to the equator of the earth. The general prin- 
 . however, are the same in all, and depend on the 
 simplest element! of geometry and astronomy. The first 
 part that claim* attention is the style or gnoiium, or axis of 
 the dial which is usually a cylindrical rod, or the t dge of 
 a thiu plate of metal. The stylo must be directed pc-rpen- 
 dieul.irly to the terrestrial equator; in which direction it 
 tn.iv be considered, on account of the smallness of the 
 of the distance of the --'in, 
 melding with the axis of the diurnal rotation ; conse- 
 ly the plane which passes through the style and its 
 iW on the surrounding surfaces, and which always 
 i through the centre of the sun. will be an hour 
 - and turn with the sun as the suu turns round the 
 • f the diurnal motion. All that remains 
 »o be done, In addition, is to discover, and describe, for the 
 different hours of the day, the intersections of this variable 
 hour plane with the surface on which the dial is to be con- 
 structed. On these intersections the shadow of the style 
 will I. very day at the same hour; because at 
 
 must have returned to the same 
 •I) Ins distance from the equator may be 
 ■ nt. 
 
 in these considerations it is manifest that the whole 
 theory of dialling is comprehended in the solution of this 
 ••Twelve planes all intersecting each 
 iraight line, and making with each other 
 equal angles of 15°, being given in position ; to find (he 
 intersections of those planes with any surface whatever, 
 also given In form and position." The surface which in- 
 tersects the hour planes may be of any kind whatever, but 
 IS it is generally a plane; ami when its 
 position with respect to the common intersection of the 
 bowr planes (which is the slyle of the dial) and to any one 
 of those planes is given, the traces or intersections, which 
 •■.re in this case all straight lines, are the hour lines on the 
 dial, and easily calculated by the ordinary rules of trigo- 
 nometry or geometry. . 
 According to the position of the plane of the dial with 
 respect to the horizon of the place, the dial is horizontal, 
 vertical, or inclined. The simplest case of all is that in 
 which the plane of the dial is parallel to the axis of the 
 earth (or passes through the poles) and perpendicular to 
 the meridian of the place. In this case the style is also 
 parallel to the plane of the dial, v|nlxxx|lxII „ ,„ lv 
 and the hour lines are parallel 
 straight lines, whose distances 
 from the meridian, er twelve hour 
 line, are respectively proportional 
 to the tangents of the angles which 
 the hour planes mako with the 
 plane of the meridian. Let d be VI " «««** i II 111 iv 
 the shortest distance ot the slyle from the plane of the 
 dial ; then the distance of the hour line of xi and i from 
 the hour line of xn is equal to d X tan. 15°. The distance 
 of the hour line of x and n from xn is d X tan. 30° ; the 
 distance of ix and m is d X tan. 45° ; and so on, the hour 
 line of xn being the intersection of the plane of the meri- 
 dian in which the slyle is with the plane of the dial. This 
 is railed a Polar Dial. 
 
 The most common construction is the Horizontal Dial, 
 or thai in which the plane of the dial is parallel to the 
 horizon, and consequently 
 makes with the style an angle 
 equal to the latitude of the 
 place. At the equator, this is 
 the same as the polar dial, 
 which has just been de- 
 rribed -but at all other places, 
 the hour lines intersect each 
 other in the point in which 
 the style intersects the plane 
 of the dial, which point is 
 called the centre, and the an- 
 gles they make with one an- 
 other, or with the xn hour 
 line, depend on the latitude. 
 337 
 
 • 
 
 JL 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 7 
 
 are computed from this theorem : — As is the radius to riie 
 sine of the latitude, so is the tangent of the hour from noon 
 (reckoning 13° to the hour) to the tangent of the hour 
 angle at the centre. Or, putting A s the hour from noon, 
 / s latitude of the place, and x = the hour angle at the 
 centre of the dial; then the formula for computing the 
 hour lines is tan. x = tan. A sin. /, the radius being unit 
 From this formula the following table is computed, show 
 ing the angles which thedifferent hour lines of a ho ri nontal 
 dial make with the meridional line, at the latitude of I.o.i 
 don, or 51J . 
 
 M0HNIN3. AFTERNOON. 
 
 XI. 1. . . 11° 51' 
 
 X. II. . . 24 19 
 
 IX. III. 38 3 
 
 VIII. IV. . . 53 35 
 
 VII. V. 71 6 
 
 VI. VI. . 90 
 
 After the horizontal dials, the construction most ire- 
 quently employed is that in which the plane of the dial U 
 vertical ; for example, when fixed on the wall of a house. 
 In this case, the positions of the different hour lines de- 
 pend on the latitude of the place and on the aspect of the 
 dial ; that is to say, its position with respect to the meridian. 
 If the dial is perpendicular to the meridian, it is a south 
 dial, or north dial, according as it faces the south or north 
 (The vertical south dial is represented 
 in the annexed figure.) When not 
 perpendicular to the meridian, the 
 vertical dial is said to be declined. The 
 formula for the hour lines of a south 
 vertical dial differs from that for a 
 horizontal dial in no respect excepting 
 that the sine nf the latitude is changed 
 into the cosine, the cause of which 
 will be obvious when it is considered 
 that the plane of the dial in [Kissing 
 from the horizontal to the south vertical direction preserves 
 its inclination to the different hour planes unaltered ; while 
 the angle which it makes with the style, or the axis of the 
 earth, is the complement of the angle it made with the 
 same line in its former position. Let y, therefore, be the 
 hour angle at the centre of the dial ; and putting, as before, 
 h = the hour from noon, and / = the latitude, the fori 
 for the south vertical dial is tan. y = tan. h cos. / ; whence 
 it follows that a horizontal dial constructed for any given 
 latitude will be a south vertical dial for any place of which 
 the latitude is the complement of the latitude of the former 
 place, — a property which was discovered by the ArabUnn. 
 The hour lines of the vertical north dial are found exact'* 
 in the same way as those of the south dial. 
 
 When the face of the vertical dial is exactly cast or i .<• 
 actly west, its plane is in the meridian, and consequently 
 parallel to the vertical plane in which the style is. The 
 hour lines, therefore, as in the polar dial, are all parallel to 
 each other Let d be the height of the style above the 
 plane of the dial, h' the hour from 6 o'clock, and x the dis- 
 tance of that hour line from the hour line of vi, which is the 
 intersection of the prime vertical with the plane of the 
 dial; then x = d tan. h' : the same formula as was given 
 for the polar dial. 
 
 When the vertical dial does not face directly one of the 
 four cardinal points, it Is called a declining vertical dial, 
 and the investigation of the hour lines is somewhat more 
 complicated. 
 Let / denote the latitude of the place, 
 
 d the declination of the dial, reckoned from the east 
 
 towards the south, 
 h the hour angle from noon, 
 y the hour line angle on the dial. 
 Find these two auxiliary quantities, viz. an angle P, and 
 the tangent of an angle Q. (of which only the logarithm is 
 required), such that 
 
 sin. I tan. d. .._ « _ cot. / sin. P 
 
 Their respective positions 
 
 tan. 1' = ! 
 
 rad. 
 
 tan. Q = 
 
 sin. d 
 
 then, the forenoon hours on the west declining dial, ano 
 the afternoon hours on the east, will be found f rom the 
 formula 
 
 ,. n y- tan. Q sin, h 
 cos. (X + P) 
 and the morning hours on the east declining dial, anu tlio 
 afternoon hours on the west, by the formula 
 
 ,. w y _ tan.Qsin.A 
 
 COS. (X — P) 
 
 The formulae which have now been given are sufficient 
 to enable any one who has a slight knowledge of loga- 
 rithmic computation to trace the hour lines of any one of 
 the dials which has been described with great facility. It 
 is therefore unnecessary to explain the geometrical me- 
 thods of construction by the rule and compasses, which 
 Y 
 
DIALECT. 
 
 are besides less accurate, and more liable to be misun- 
 derstood. Of the mechanical operations necessary to be 
 executed, such as fixing the style and placing the plane of 
 the dial in the true vertical or horizontal position, it is 
 unnecessary to speak, as they will readily suggest them- 
 selves to any one who has a clear conception of what is 
 required to be done. The only thing that requires ex- 
 planation is the method of finding the meridian line with- 
 out having recourse to any of the more delicate operations 
 of astronomy. The method generally practised is as fol- 
 lows: — Assume a point in the plane of the dial through 
 which it is intended the meridian line shall pass. With 
 this point as a centre, describe several concentric circles ; 
 then fix a pin or wire in the same point, perpendicular to 
 the plane, and of such a length that the extremity of the 
 shadow shall fall within the circles (or come of them) at 
 midday. Observe the time when the extremity of the 
 shadow reaches some one of the circles in the forenoon, 
 and mark the point where it crosses the circle. In the 
 afternoon mark the point where it again crosses the same 
 circle, and divide the arc between the two points thus 
 ■narked into two equal parts ; the straight line which joins 
 the point of bisection with the centre is the meridian line 
 required. For greater security, the passage of the shadow 
 over several circles may be marked ; and if the points of 
 bisection of the different arcs do not lie in the same straight 
 tine with the centre, a point must be chosen which occu- 
 pies a mean position among all the others, and the straight 
 line passing through it may be regarded as the true me- 
 ridian. This method is sufficiently accurate for the pur- 
 poses of a dial. Two plummets suspended over the meri- 
 dian line will indicate the plane of the meridian in space. 
 Its intersection with any vertical plane may be found by 
 the eye. 
 
 It will be observed that the time indicated by a dial is 
 solar time or true time, and agrees with mean time, or that 
 which is shown by a well-regulated clock, only on four dif- 
 ferent days of the year. In order to find the mean time 
 from the dial, it is necessary to apply a correction called the 
 Equation of Time. (See the term.) 
 
 It has been supposed tint the style is formed by a wire, 
 >r t lie straight edge of a thin plate; but a slit in a plate 
 properly placed, allowing a line of light to pass, will evi- 
 dently answer the purpose. Sometimes a small hole is 
 preferred ; and the hour lines, instead of being described 
 Ml a plane surface, are sometimes described on the sur- 
 face of a sphere, or a cylinder or a cone. The reader may 
 find a description of some curious dials in Brewster's 
 edition of Ferguson's Lectures. For the history of dialling, 
 see Delambre, Astronomie Andenne, tome ii. ; Montucla, 
 Uistoire des Mathematiques, tome i. The writers on the 
 subject are very numerous. For a concise and perspicu- 
 ous treatise we may refer to the article in the Encyclopedia 
 Brilannica. 
 
 Dl'ALECT. (Gr. Sia\tKTO{, from iia, signifying divi- 
 sion, and \lyo>, I speak.) In the philosophical sense of 
 the word, any variety of a common language. Hence 
 Herman, English, Swedish, &c. are all strictly said to be 
 dialects, as coming all of them from the same original 
 stock. Commonly, however, we limit the application of 
 the term dialect to the varieties of a national language ; and 
 speak of the dialects of English, French, &c. In Greek 
 the four dialects (Doric, Ionic, ^Eolic, Attic) were the four 
 written varieties of the language, each possessing a litera- 
 ture of its own. In this respect no modern tongue pre- 
 sents a parallel to the Greek ; inasmuch a3, in all, one dia- 
 lect has been arbitrarily adopted as the standard of polite 
 writing and conversation, and the written works which are 
 extant in the other dialects are regarded merely as excep- 
 tions to the general rule. 
 
 DIALE'CTICS. (Gr. iiaXiyojxai, I converse or debate.) 
 This name was originally used by Plato as synonymous 
 with metaphysics, or the highest philosophy. Strictly 
 speaking, it can only be regarded as a preparatory disci- 
 pline for such investigations, or at most as a scientific 
 method of prosecuting them. The most splendid exam- 
 ples of dialectical subtilty that exist are to be found in the 
 Dialogues of Plato, especially in those entitled Parmenides, 
 the Statesman and Sophist. Aristotle expresses himself 
 with some contempt of dialectics. It is certain, however, 
 that its own logic owes its existence to the dialectical exer- 
 cises of the Platonic schools ; and that it may, in one point 
 of view, be regarded as a body of canons and directions for 
 their legitimate use. (See Platonic Philosophy.) In 
 modern times various systems of dialects have been pro- 
 pounded in different countries ; but by no philosophers, 
 cither ancient or modern, has this science been more suc- 
 cessfully cultivated than by the Germans, who, among a 
 host of other names more or less distinguished, can 
 boast of a Ficlue, Kant, Leibnitz, Hegel, Schelling, and 
 Schlegel, as the propounders each of a peculiar dialectical 
 system. 
 
 DIA'LLAGE. (Gr. <5iaXXayij, difference.) A mineral 
 of a foliated structure easily divisible in one direction, its 
 338 
 
 DIAMETER, 
 
 natural joints and fractures exhibiting a very different lustre 
 and appearance. 
 
 DI'ALLING LINES, or SCALES. Graduated lines on 
 rules or circles to facilitate the construction of dials. They 
 usually consist of two lines of tangents, and a line of lati- 
 tudes. Such contrivances are of no great use ; the readiest 
 and best method is to compute the angles of the hour lines 
 from the trigonometrical formula? : When the angles are 
 known, they can be set off by means of a scale of chords, 
 or by any of the other methods employed in practical 
 geometry. 
 
 DIA'LOGISM. (Gr. iia\oyos, from iia, through, and 
 \oyo(, speech.) In Rhetoric, a mode of writing which con- 
 sists in the narration of a dialogue ; i. e. in which the con- 
 versation of two or more persons is reported, without their 
 being actually introduced as personages speaking ; in 
 which, therefore, the sentence is framed or governed by 
 the third person instead of the first. A speech by a single 
 person, or the species of conversation held by a person 
 with himself (thinking aloud), when reduced into the nar- 
 rative form, is also, although somewhat incorrectly, termed 
 by French literary writers dialogism. 
 
 DI'ALOGUE. (Gr. iia'Xoyot.) In Literature, a compo- 
 sition or part of a composition in the form of a conversa- 
 tion between two or more persons. The dialogue was the 
 form most generally adopted by the ancients for the con- 
 veyance of instruction, and was considered equally appli- 
 cable to the most grave and philosophical, and to the most 
 ludicrous and comical subjects. Thus it was adopted by 
 Plato, Cicero, and Lucian, with equal success. Plato chose 
 this form for the conveyance of his philosophical senti- 
 ments ; because real conversation had been the mode by 
 which his master, Socrates (who left no writing), gave in- 
 struction to the Athenians. In the Dialogues of Plato, 
 Socrates is himself introduced as the chief interlocutor. 
 Among modern writers the philosophical dialogue has hern 
 frequently employed for the same purpose, more especially 
 by the French, to whose language and mode of thought it 
 should seem to be peculiarly suited. Among other eminent 
 persons of that country who have enriched its literature 
 with this species of composition are, Fenelon ; Paschal, in 
 his Provincial Letters; Bouhours, in his Entretiens d' 
 Ariste el d' Eugene; Fontenelle, in his Dialogues of t fie 
 Dead, and Plurality of Worlds ; Galiani, Sur te Commerce 
 des Grains, &c. In England this method of composition 
 has been less frequently practised ; and, perhaps, with the 
 exception of Berkeley and Hurd, has rarely succeeded in 
 the hands of those who attempted it. Both the Germans 
 and Italians have attempted to impart a knowledge of their 
 different philosophical systems in this manner. Among the 
 latter may be mentioned Machiavelli and Algarotti ; and 
 among the former, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Schelling, and 
 Herder ; though the labours of none of these distinguished 
 persons in this department of literature are so important 
 as to require any particular notice in this place. It has 
 long been a questioo of dispute as to the class of subjects 
 for the discussion of which this mode of writing is chiefly 
 adapted, and upon this point various opinions have been 
 entertained. Upon this question it is not our intention to 
 enter ; but we cannot refrain from citing here the opinion 
 of a gentleman as to its peculiar fitness for conveying philo- 
 sophical instruction, whom few will venture to gainsay on 
 such subjects. "There are some subjects," says Mr. 
 Hume, " to which dialogue writing is peculiarly adapted, 
 and where it is preferable to the direct and simple method 
 of composition. Any point of doctrine which is so obvious 
 that it scarcely admits of dispute, but at the same time so 
 important that it cannot be too often inculcated, seems to 
 require some such method of handling it ; where the 
 novelty of the manner may compensate the triteness of the 
 subject, where the vivacity of conversation may enforce 
 the precept, and where the variety of lights presented by 
 various personages and characters may appear neilhei 
 tedious nor redundant. Any question of philosophy, on 
 the other hand, which it so obscure and uncertain that 
 human reason can reach no fixed determination with re- 
 gard to it, if it should be treated at all, seems to lead us 
 naturally into the style of dialogue and conversation. 
 Reasonable men may be allowed to differ where no one 
 can reasonably be positive ; opposite sentiments, even 
 without any decision, afford an agreeable amusement ; and 
 if the subject be curious and interesting, the book carries 
 us in a manner into company, and unites the two greates, 
 and purest pleasures of human life, study and society." 
 
 The dramatic dialogue differs from the philosophical, in- 
 asmuch as its subject is one of action. The wUole of 
 modern dramas is dialogue, with the exception of occa 
 sional monologue or soliloquy. (For a learned account o/ 
 the dialogue, see the Encyclo. des Gens du Monde.) 
 
 DIA'METER. (Gr. iia, through, and jitrpov, a mca 
 sure.) A straight line passing through the centre of a geo- 
 metrical figure, as that of a circle, ellipse, or hyperbola. 
 Many figures have diameters, though they have, properly 
 speaking, no centres; in this case, the diameter is the 
 
DIAMOND. 
 
 straight line which bisects all the parallel chords. Some 
 geometers extend this definition, and apply the term dia- 
 meter to the curve lines whicli pass through the points of 
 bisection of all the parallel chords of other curves. In this 
 sense every curve has a diameter. In astronomy the ap- 
 parent diametersof the celestial bodies are estimated by the 
 number of seconds in the angles they subtend at the eye. 
 The apparent diameter (which is measured by the micro- 
 i ), compared with the distance of the body, gives its 
 real diameter ; for the distance of the sun or a planet is to 
 its real diameter, as radius to the sine of the angle sub- 
 tended by the apparent diameter of the body. 
 
 Diameter. In Architecture, the measure across the 
 lower part of the shaft of a column, which is usually divided 
 into sixty parts, called minutes, and forms a scale for the 
 ment of all the parts of an order. 
 
 DI'AMOND. (A corruption of adamant; from Gr. o, 
 priv., and 6 t/iato, J conquer, from its extreme hardness and 
 difficulty of fracture.) The most valuable of the precious 
 stones. Diamonds were originally discovered in Bengal, 
 ainl in the bland of Borneo. About the year 1720 they 
 (baud in Brazil. They always occur in a detached 
 state in alluvial soil. The pnmilive crystalline form of the 
 di .linoud is a regular octahedron, of which there are numer- 
 ous modifications. Diamonds are found of all colours: 
 those which are colourless, or whicli have some very de- 
 cided tint, are most esteemed; the latter, however, are 
 rare. Those which are slightly discoloured are the least 
 vahiable. The diamond is the hardest known substance, 
 and can only be polished by its own dust or powder. 
 ot of splitting or cutting and polishing this gem, 
 though probably of remote antiquity in Asia, was first in- 
 troduced into Europe in I486 by Louis It •■rgln-m of Bruges, 
 who accidentally discovered that by rubbing two diamonds 
 together their surfaces might be abraded. They are cut 
 chiefly into two forms, ruse and brilliant: the latter have 
 the finest effect, but require the sacrifice of a larger por- 
 tion of the gem ; so that the weight of an ordinary polished 
 diamond often does not exceed half that of the rough gem. 
 The largest known diamond is probably that mentioned by 
 Tavernler, in poweation of the great mogul: it was found 
 in Oolconda in 1560; is of the size of half a hen's egg, and 
 • w.igh 900 carats. Among the crown jewels of 
 da is a magnificent diamond, weighing 195 carats: it is 
 if a pigeon's egg, and was purloined from a brah- 
 uiiniial idol by a French soldier; it passed through several 
 hand*, and was ultimately purchased by the Empress Ca- 
 Uterine for the sum of 90,00W. and an annuity of 4000/. 
 Perhaps the most perfect and beautiful diamond hitherto 
 found is a brilliant brought from India by a gentleman of 
 the name of Pitt, who sold it to the regent Duke of Orleans 
 for the sum of 100,0007. It weighs about 136 carats, or 514 
 grains. 
 
 That the diamond is combustible, was first proved by 
 the Florentine academicians in IC94, who found that when 
 exposed to the heat of the sun concentrated in the focus of 
 a large lens, it burned away with a blue lambent flame. 
 The products of its combustion were first examined by La- 
 voisier in 1772, who showed that when it was burned in air 
 or oxygen it produced carbonic acid : subsequent experi- 
 ments liave shown that nothing but carbonic acid is thus 
 formed ; and hence it is proved that the diamond is char- 
 coal or carbon in a pure and crystalline form. 
 
 DIA'NA. In Mythology, the Latin name of the goddess 
 known to the Greeks by the name of Artemis (*Aprt^i(), 
 the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and sister of Apollo. 
 She was the virgin goddess of the chase, and al-o pn 
 over health. The sudden deaths of women were attributed 
 to her darts, as those of men were to the arrows of Apollo, 
 in later limes she was confounded witn> various other god- 
 --, as Hecate, I.ucina, Proserpina, and I. una. In the 
 two last of these characters she was said to appear in the 
 aether world and in heaven respectively, while on earth 
 the assumed the character of Artemis ; whence she was 
 tailed the three- formed goddess. Her power and func- 
 ;ions in these characters have been happily expressed in 
 the couplet— 
 
 Terret, luetrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana 
 Ima, mprema, feraa, sceptro, fulgore, ingiua. 
 
 Hhe was generally represented as a healthy activo maiden 
 in a huntress's dress, with a handsome but ungentle ex- 
 pression of countenance. The homage rendered to Diana 
 was so extensive that the silversmith who remarked that 
 she was worshipped in all Asia and the world, can scarcely 
 be accused of exaggeration. A catalogue of the various 
 places where temples were erected in her honour would 
 comprise every city of note in the ancient world. Among 
 others may be mentioned Ephesus, Abydos, Heraclea, 
 Aulis, Eretria, Samoa, Bubastus in Egypt, Delos (whence 
 she was termed Delia), and Mount Aventine at Rome. But 
 of all her temples, that at Ephesus was the most celebrated. 
 It was erected at the joint expense of all the states of Asia ; 
 and according to the accounts of ancient authors, A must 
 339 
 
 DIASTASE. 
 
 have surpassed in splendour all the structures of antiquity 
 and fully deserved to be regarded as one of the wonders of 
 the world. A small statue of the goddess, or, as she wai 
 termed by her votaries, the ''Great Diana of the Ephesians,'' 
 which was commonly supposed to have been sent from 
 heaven, was here enshrined and adorned with all that wealth 
 and genius could contribute. The fatcof this temple is well 
 known. On the day that Alexander theGreatwas born, it was 
 set on fire by Eratostratus ( Vol. Max. 8. 14.), from a mnrbif 
 desire to transmit his name even with infamy to posterity 
 This edifice was afterwards rebuilt on a plan of simi 
 magnificence ; and it remained in full possession of i:.- 
 wealth and reputation till the year 260 a. d., when it wai 
 completely destroyed during an invasion of the Goths. 
 
 DIA'NA, TREE OF. A name given by the old chemists 
 to the crystallized silver which is separated when mercury 
 is put into a solution of nitrate of silver. 
 
 DIA'NDROUS. (Gr. Sic, double, and avnp, a man.) A 
 term applied to any plant having but two stamens. 
 
 DIAPA'SON. (Gr. lia, through, and vai,all.) In Mu 
 sic, an interval used by most authors to express the octave 
 of the Greeks. By one of the boldest metaphors with 
 which we are acquainted, Dryden has beautifully availed 
 himself of this expression in the well-known stanza of his 
 first Ode to St. Cecilia's Day : — 
 
 From harmony, from hearenly harmony 
 
 Thu iiuiTcrul frame began ; 
 From tiarmoiwr to harmony 
 
 Through all the compaai of the oo'.ei it tan, 
 
 The diapiuoa doting full in mua. 
 
 For an account of the diapason in the organ pipes, see 
 Oroan. 
 
 DIAPE'NTE. (Gr. ita, and nevrt, five.) In Music, an 
 ancient term signifying a fifth. 
 
 DI'APER. A woven linen ornamented with patterns, 
 and used for towels and table linen ; it sometimes resem- 
 bles an inferior kind of damask. It is said to have been 
 originally manufactured at Ypres in Flanders; whence the 
 term d'Ypres, corrupted into diaper. 
 
 DIA'PIIANOUS. (Gr.jia, and >f,aivw, Ishine.) A term 
 applied to bodies which permit the light to pass through 
 their substances. It is the synonyme of translucent. A 
 body which allows the forms of objects to be seen through 
 it is transparent. 
 
 DIAPHO'NICS. (Gr. ita, and tpwvtt, sound.) The duo- 
 trine of refracted sound. See Sovnd. 
 
 DIAPIIORE'SIS. (Gr. Statpopcw. I carry through.) A 
 perspiration ; hence also diaphoretics, medicines which 
 promote perspiration. 
 
 DI'APHRAGM. (Gr. 3ia, and (pparroi, I divide.) This 
 term is applied to the straight calcareous plate which di- 
 vides the cavity of certain shells into two parts only ; its 
 more common signification relates to the muscular and 
 tpndinous partition which separates the chest from the ab- 
 domen in mammalia. 
 
 DI'APIIRAGMATI'TIS. Inflammation of the diaphragm, 
 or of its peritonaea! coats. The treatment is the same as 
 that of pleurisv and peritonitis. 
 
 DIARRHOEA. (Gr. iia^tto, I fine through.) A purs- 
 ing or looseness of the bowels. There are several varie- 
 ties of diarrhoea, depending upon different causes, and con- 
 sequently requiring in many instances distinct modes ol 
 treatment. In general it is necessary first to remove of- 
 fending and irritating matters from the bowels by means 
 of aperients; rhubarb, from its astringent tendency, is the 
 purgative usually employed ; afterwards astringents with 
 warm aromatics, and the occasional addition of some form 
 of opium, are prescribed and continued till the inordinate 
 laxity of the bowels is quelled. Where diarrhoea is con- 
 nected, as it often is, with excess of acidity in the stomach, 
 magnesia, chalk, or carbonated alkalis are united to the 
 other remedies. 
 
 DIARTHRO'SIS. (Gr. articulation.) The moveable 
 connection of bones. 
 
 DI'ARY. (Lat. diarium, literally a daily allowance; 
 from dies, a day), signifies properly a note-book or re- 
 gister of daily occurrences, in which the writer has a prin- 
 cipal share, or which have come under his own observa- 
 tion, or have happened in his own time. The term diary 
 is equivalent to the French journal, the Italian diario and 
 giornale, and the German Tagebuch. 
 
 DIASCHI'SMA. (Gr. Siaax^o>, I cleave.) In Music, an 
 interval consisting of two commas. 
 
 DI'ASPORE. A laminated mineral, composed of 80 
 alumina, 18 water, 3 oxide of iron. A small fragment de- 
 crepitates when heated, and is dispersed in numerous 
 fragments; hence its name, from the Gr. iiaciretpoi, 1 
 scatter. 
 
 DI'ASTASE. (Gr. ha, and tarnut, I set.) A peculiar 
 substance generated during the germination of barley, 
 wheat, &c, which tends to accelerate the formation of 
 sugar during the fermentation of worts. It is precipitated 
 from infusions of bruised malt by alcohol. It is the pnn- 
 
DIASTEM. 
 
 pie which by its reaction on starch tends to develop 
 Mgat in the processes of germination and malting. 
 
 DI'ASTEM. (Gr. Siaarippa.) In Ancient Music, a sim- 
 ple Interval as distinguished from a compound one; to 
 which latter was given the name of a system. 
 
 DIASTE'MA. (Gr.) In Zoology, the vacant space oc- 
 curring In the dental series by the absence of the canine 
 or ianiary teeth. 
 
 DIA'STOLE. (Gr. Sia, and trrcXXco, I stretch.) The di- 
 latation of the heart and arteries. 
 
 DI'ASTYI.E. (Gr. Sia, and otpXoj, a column.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, that mode of arranging columns in which the 
 intercolumniation or space between the columns consists 
 of three diameters, oraccording to some of four diameters. 
 
 DIATE'SSARON. (Gr. Sia, and rec-capa, four.) In 
 Ancient Music, the interval of a fourth. 
 
 M'ATHE'RMAL, or DIATHERMANOUS. (Gr. Sia, 
 and Sepun, warmth.) A term applied to certain substances, 
 such as transparent pieces of rock salt, &c, which suffer 
 radiant heat to pass through them, much in the same way 
 as transparent or diaphanous bodies allow of the passage 
 of light. 
 
 DIA'THESIS. (Gr. Siaridrtixi, I dispose.) A particular 
 state of constitution predisposing to certain diseases : such 
 as inflammatory, nervous, and putrid diathesis ; uric dia- 
 thesis, in which there is excess of uric acid thrown off by 
 the kidneys ; goaty diathesis, &c. 
 
 DIA'TONI. (Gr. Sia, and rovos, an extension.) In An- 
 cient Architecture, the angle stones of a wall, which were 
 wrought on two laces, and which, from stretching beyond 
 the stones above and below them, made a good bond ortye 
 to the work. 
 
 DIATO'NIC. (Gr. Sta, and rovos, a tone.) In Music, a 
 term denoting the natural scale of music, which proceed- 
 ing by degrees includes both tones and semitones. It in- 
 cludes the intervals formed by the natural notes, as well as 
 those produced in transposing the natural. 
 
 DIAZENE'TIC. (Gr. Sia^svyvvp. , 1 separate.) In the 
 Ancient Greek Music, a term applied to the tone disjointing 
 two fourths, one on each side of it, and which joined to 
 either made a fifth. 
 
 DIAZO'MA. (Gr. Sia, through, and fw//a, a cincture.) 
 In Ancient Architecture, the landings or resting places 
 which encircled the amphitheatre at different heights, like 
 so many bands or cinctures ; whence the name. 
 
 DI'BBLE. In Agr. and Hort., a cylindrical piece of wood 
 from one to two inches in diameter, and from 1 ft. to 2 ft. 
 in length, having a cross handle at one end, and brought to 
 a conical point at the other, for the purpose of making holes 
 in the ground to receive plants or seeds. Dibbles which 
 are used for planting potatoes or beans are commonly from 
 two to two and a half feet in length, with a peg inserted 
 near the ground in order that the operator may press it in 
 with his foot. 
 
 DIBO'THRIANS. Dibothri. (Gr. d.s, Mice, $uOr,iov, a 
 pit ; two-pitted.) The name of a division of tape-worms, 
 Including those Bot/iriocephalans which have not more than 
 two pits or fossa? on the head. 
 
 DIBRA'NCHIATES, Dibranchiata. (Gr. oi$, and (Spay- 
 \ia. gills; two-gilled.) The name of the order of Cephalo- 
 poda which includes those with two gills, and which are 
 also characterized by having three distinct hearts; an ap- 
 paratus for secreting and emitting an inky fluid ; cephalic, 
 arms, never exceeding ten in number, solid, and supporting 
 acetabular, and in short all the chief characteristics which 
 are usually ascribed to the entire class of Cephalopods. 
 The same term (Dibranches) is applied by Latreille to an 
 order of the class Cirripedia, comprehending those species 
 which are similarly characterized by having two gills. 
 
 DICASTE'RIUM. (Gr. Sikti, justice.) In Ancient Archi- 
 lecture, the name of a tribunal or hall of justice in Athens. 
 
 DICE COAL. A species of coal easily splitting into 
 cubical frasments. 
 
 DICERA'TES, Dicerata. (Gr. Sis, double, and Kcpat, 
 horn; two-horned.) A name applied by De Blainville to a 
 family of the order Paracephalophora Polybranchiata, com- 
 prehending all such Gastropodous Mollusks as have two 
 tentacles on the head. The term Diceras was previously 
 anplied by Lamarck to a fossil genus of Bivalves. 
 
 ' DICHO'TOMOUS, Dichotomus. (Gr. Sixorop.os.) Sig- 
 nifies the division of an object by repeated bifurcation, so 
 that the branches are always in pairs. 
 
 DICIIO'TOM-Y. An artificial system, in which natural 
 objects are arranged according to the above mode of di- 
 vision. 
 
 DI'CIIROISM. (Gr. Si(, double, and xp w /' a ) colour.) 
 A term in Optics, used to designate a properly possessed 
 by several crystallized bodies of appearing under two dis- 
 tinct colours according to the direction in which light is 
 transmitted through them. Thus the muriate of palla- 
 dium appears of a deep red colour along the axis, and of 
 a vivid green when viewed in a transverse direction. Sir 
 D. Brewster states (.Optics, Cab. Cyclopedia) that in ex- 
 amining this class of phenomena, he found them to depend 
 310 
 
 DICTIONARY. 
 
 on the absorption of light, being regulated by the incl.na- 
 tionof the incident ray to the axis of double refraction, and 
 on a difference of colour in the two pencils formed by 
 double refraction. 
 
 DICO'LOPHUS. (Gt . Six*, separately, and \nfos, a 
 crest.) The name of the genus of wading birds (Gratia- 
 tores), including the cariama, which is characterized by 
 a tuft of feathers projecting from the crown of the head in 
 two directions. 
 
 DICOTYLE'DONS. (Gr. Sis, double, and kotvXtiSwv, a 
 seed-leaf.) One of the primary classes of the vegetable 
 world, consisting of all those plants that have their embryo 
 furnished with two cotyledons, or with a greater number 
 arranged on the same plane. These plants are also called 
 Exogens. 
 
 DICTA'TOR. In Ancient History, a Roman magistrate 
 appointed on special occasions to supersede the consuls. 
 The first dictator was elected some years after the expul- 
 sion of the kings, on the occasion of a war with the Latins, 
 while a dangerous sedition was feared at home; but the 
 period is very uncertain. Dictators were appointed also for 
 mere ceremonial objects, as for holding comitia. But the 
 purposes for which the dictator was appointed differed so 
 materially at different times, and the opinions of later his- 
 torians respecting the extent of his authority are so con- 
 flicting and unsatisfactory, that more obscurity still exists 
 upon this subject than almost any other within the compass 
 of Roman antiquities. According to Niebuhr, the object 
 aimed at in the institution of the dictatorship was to evade 
 the Valerian laws, and to re-establish the unlimited author- 
 ity of the patricians over the plebeians; for the appeal to 
 the commonalty granted by these laws was from the sen- 
 tence of the consuls, and not from that of this new magis-. 
 trate. But this unlimited power did not extend over the 
 patricians. The form of their election was precisely sim- 
 ilar to that of the kings, who were appointed by the senate, 
 while their authority was confirmed by a decree of the 
 curies. Originally the dictator continued in office only six 
 months; but at a later period this salutary ride was ne- 
 glected. Sylla and Julius Ceesar, the last dictators, were 
 nominated perpetual dictators ; the former in the year 81 
 b. c, the latter after the battle of Pharsalia. The title was 
 subsequently offered to Augustus by the people, but de- 
 clined ; and it was never afterwards assumed by the Roman 
 emperors. An officer called magister equitum, appointed 
 sometimes by the dictator, sometimes by the senate, and 
 sometimes by the people, was always in attendance on the 
 dictator. (See Niebuhr's Rom. History, and Ersch and 
 Gruber's Encyclo. ) 
 
 DI'CTIONARY (Mod. Lat. dictionarium), either signifies 
 a collection of words in one or more languages, with their 
 peculiar significations, arranged in alphabetical order ; or 
 it may be applied in a more extended sense to any work 
 which professes to communicate information on an entire 
 subject, or an entire branch of a subject, under words or 
 heads digested in order of the alphabet. Hence dictiona- 
 ries may be said to be of two sorts, of words, and of facts or 
 thiiigs ; in the former sense the term dictionary being 
 equivalent to lexicon, in the latter to encyclopedia. 
 
 Dictionary of words. — The ancients have left us no mon- 
 uments of this species of literature ; and, with a few bril- 
 liant exceptions, all the attempts that took place at the early 
 period of the Christian era, and during the middle ages, 
 are comparatively incomplete. It was not till after the in- 
 vention of printing, when a taste for the classic literature 
 of antiquity became general, that some laborious men, 
 in the view of elucidating the Greek and Roman authors, 
 and of facilitating the investigations of others, undertook 
 the task of compiling dictionaries. Under the head Lexi- 
 con will be found a succinct, notice of the chief perform- 
 ances in this department of literature; and we shall here 
 restrict ourselves to the remark, that the history of ancient, 
 and, with a few modifications, of modern lexicography, 
 presents the singular phenomenon, that it is only when the 
 language of a country is on the decline, or at all events has 
 attained such a degree of perfection as to be apparently 
 unsusceptible of further improvement, that dictionaries be- 
 gin to be compiled. " No one," says an able writer, " thinks 
 of writing a dictionary till the language he intends to illus- 
 trate has become a study ;" and this is seldom the case till 
 the age of its purity and vigour has gone by, till the phrase- 
 ology of its original authors has become in some decree 
 obsolete, and the caprice or ignorance of later writers has 
 diversified or corrupted the' significations of words. In 
 modern times the honour of possessing the best dictiona- 
 ries belongs to Italy, France, and England. These are the 
 Vocabuiario degli Academici delta Crusca, extended in the 
 latest editions to 6 vols. fol. ; the Dictionnaire de I'Acade- 
 mie Francaise, 2 »ols. 4to., to which a supplementary 
 volume has been recently added ; and Johnson's Dictionary, 
 2 vols. fol. 1755; — works unrivalled in plan and execution, 
 and which, notwithstanding the cavillings of certain philo- 
 logists, will long remain standards in their respective lan- 
 guages. The Spaniards also possess a dictionary of con- 
 
DICTIONARY. 
 
 sulerable reputation, entitled Diccionario de la Lengua 
 Castellana, compues'.o par la Real Academia Espanoia, 6 
 vols. |o|. 17v*ti ; but the Germans, perhaps from tlv 
 above adverted to, that the resources of their language 
 u is universally admitted, not yet been adequately 
 developed, do not possess any dictionary of acknowledged 
 authority. 
 
 Dictionaries ofjai U or things are of two species ; being 
 
 either devoted to Beparate or single branches of science, 
 
 an. or literature, or embracing the whole circle of the arts 
 
 a'H sciences. Of the former, the Historical and Critical 
 
 mart/ of Bayle, and the Diclionnaire de la Bible, by 
 
 D '.u Calmet, may serve as specimens; and of the latter, 
 
 pedie Francaise.and the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 
 'I hat the idea of comprising all the sciences in a 
 
 single work was not unknown in antiquity is evident from 
 
 cpression zy<VK\tos watSeia, which was used to signify 
 
 such a course hi Instruction as should embrace all the sci- 
 
 ences. The earliest approximation to this species of lite- 
 
 ■ is to he found In (he work of Varro, Rentm Hum. ft 
 
 i Antiquitalet, of which nothing remains but the 
 
 and in the Histuria Xatura'ijoi Pliny, who has em- 
 
 I in that work all the result* of his multifarious 
 
 as an 1 va<t erudition. But the term Ennjrhjttedia is 
 
 siid in have been firs: applied to works of this description 
 
 nil' of the Arabian writers of the middle ages, and 
 
 olarly bv Aifarablua, whose general treatise on the 
 
 ■! under this designation. Towards 
 
 the lOtb and the commencement of the 17th 
 
 Ihere appeared in Europe several similar trea- 
 
 ■i ■• title, of which the most celebrated was 
 
 i. fol. ; but none of these produc- 
 
 ti mis can b- properly term < or encyclopaedias, 
 
 merely collections of treatises resembling rather such 
 
 ■ menu of General Krvncleilgc, ic ., than 
 
 corresponding to the modern notion of an encyclopaedia. 
 
 mblance to the works in question is pre- 
 
 .■> Hittoricum Sacrum et 
 
 Profnnum of liofmann, 1077, in 2 vols, fol., and followed 
 
 In 1083 by a supplement of equal extent; the form of 
 
 •Thick served fir a model to nearly all suc- 
 
 ig dictionaries or encyclopaedias. (.Penny C^e.) It 
 
 might to assert that Hnimannbor- 
 
 I the notion of his Lexicon from Bacon's theory of 
 
 ''.iryrlopcedian Tree, as set forth in the Novum Orga- 
 
 Leyden, I860) ; but, as M. Guizot has observed, there 
 
 can be bide doubt thai the great abundance of dictionaries 
 
 end encyclopaedias which the whole" s since 
 
 witnessed is in some degree owing to thai eminent philo- 
 
 ' lisificalion Complete et Ilaiaonnie of human 
 
 knowledge. 
 
 joined list contains a selection of the most valua- 
 ble productions in i tent of literature which have 
 ■ e thai time, arranged according to the place 
 and date of their publication. 
 
 Great Britain. 
 1. Lexicon Technicum, or Universal Dictionary of the 
 Arts and Sciences, 2 vols. fol. ; the first published 
 1701, the second in 1710. A supplementary vol. was 
 afterwards added. 
 
 rs's Cyclopedia, 2 vols. fol. 1728. This work 
 (tended In a 7th edit, to 4 vols. fol. 1773-85, by 
 Dr. Rees, who afterwards re-edited the work in 45 
 vols. 4 to. (Sec infra.) 
 
 3. An Univ. History of Arts and Sciences, &.C., by Dr. De 
 
 ion, 3 vols. fol. 1745. 
 
 4. Barrow's New and Universal Dictionary of Arts and 
 
 ices, 1 vol. fol. 1751 ; with a soppl. vol. 1751. 
 
 5. A N ew and Complete Diet, of Arts and Sciences, by a 
 Society of Gentlemen (commonly called Owen's Dic- 
 tionary, from the name of the publisher), 4 vols. 8vo. 
 1754. 
 
 6. The Complete Diet, of Arts and Sciences, 3 vols, fol 
 
 1766, by the Rev. Ben. Croker, Dr. Thos. Williams, 
 and Sam. Clark. 
 /. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3 vols. 4to. 1771. The fifth 
 edition of this work, completed in 1814, was extended 
 to 20 vols. ; and a supplement in C vols., under the 
 editorship of Mr. Napier, added in 1824. A seventh 
 edition of this work, in which the supplement is incor- 
 porated, was published during the past year, 1842. 
 3. The English Encyclopaedia, 10 vols. 4to. 1795-1803. 
 9. The Cyclopaedia, commonly known by the name of 
 
 Itees's Cyclopaedia, 1802-19. 45 vols. 4to. 
 (0. British Encyclopedia, 6 vols. 8vo. 1807-9. 
 II. Encyclopaedia Londinensis, 24 vols. 4to. 1810-29, by 
 
 John Wilkes. 
 I > Brewster's Edin. Encyclop. 18 vols. 4to. 1310-30. 
 
 ■io'.'ia, or New Diet, of Arts and Sciences, 12 vols. 
 8»o. 1813-16. By Mason Good, Gregory, and Bos- 
 worth. 
 It. Hurrowe's Modern Encyclopaedia, 10 vols. 4to. 1816. 
 15. Encyclopaedia Edinensis, 6 vols. 4to. 1316. 
 Ml 
 
 16. Encyclopaedia Perfhensis, 23 vols. roy. 3vo. : complete* 
 in 18W. 
 
 17. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, 1818. Not yet com- 
 pleted. 
 
 18. Oxford Encyclopaedia, 6 vols. 4to. 1828; to which a 
 supplement in 1 vol. was added in 1831. 
 
 19. The London Encyclopaedia, 24 vols. 8vo. 1526. 
 
 20. Partington's British Cyclopaedia, 10 vols. 8vo. 1833-36. 
 
 21. Penny Cyclopaedia, large 8vo. 1333, now in course of 
 publication. 
 
 France. 
 
 1. Dictionnaire Universe! Francaiset Latin, known bv the 
 name Diclionnaire deTrevoux, 1704. 3 vols. fol. 'The 
 fifth and last edition, Paris, 1771, was augmented to 
 8 vols. fjl. 
 
 2. Encyclopedic ou Dictionnaire raisonue'e dea Sciences, 
 des Arts, et des Metiers, par Diderot et d'Alembert, 
 35 vols. ful. 1751-30. The original series consisted ol 
 23 vols., of which 11 were plates. A si 
 
 vols, was afterwards added, one of which i 
 of plates; besides a "Table Analytique" of t), 
 work, compiled by M. Monchon, in 2 vols. A 
 of encyclopaedias of more or less reputation was pub- 
 lished in Frame Immediately after the "Encyclo 
 peMie" of Diderot and D'Alembert; but as they are all, 
 to a greater or less extent, mere abridgments of, or 
 compilations from, this great work, we do not think 
 them worthy of notice in this catalogue. 
 
 3. Encyclopedic, ou Dictionnaire Universe! raisonue'e des 
 Connaissancea humaines, par le Profeaseur d 
 Yverdiui, 1770-75. 42 vols. 4lo. ; besides a sup. of 
 6 vols 
 
 4. Encyclopedic M&hodique, &c, 1782, 1832, 201 vole. 
 4to., including 47 vols, of plates. In this work every 
 art or science is treated of in a separate volume or se- 
 ries of volumes ; so that it forms in fact a collection of 
 dictionaries. 
 
 5. Dictionnaire des Sciences et des Arts, par Lu: 
 3 vols. Bvo 
 
 6. Encyclopedic Mod. rue, &c, par M. Courlin, 1823, dec 
 
 7. Encyclopedia des Dames, par une SociCte" des Dames. 
 
 Tans. 1821, Ac. 
 
 8. Dnii. 'iiu . n. .,|.. la Conversation etde la Lecture. Pans. 
 1834-9. 52 vols. 8vo. or 104 livraisons. 
 
 9 Encyclopedia des Gens du Monde. Paris, 1833, Ac. 
 Of this valuable and popular work 30 parts or 
 8vo. have already appeared, bringing it down to letter 1 
 Germany. 
 
 1. Grosse vollst&ndige Universal Lexicon, von Zedler, 
 
 i. 64 vols svo. ; with a sup. Another edition 
 was published 1751-64 in 4 vols. fol. Halle and !.<■■■ 
 
 2. Dei ■ lopedie, Ac, 1778-1801. by Koester 
 and Rous. Of this work 23 vols. 4tO. appeared, bring- 
 ing it down to letter K. 
 
 3. Eronomischc Encyrlopedie, by Krunilz, Floerke, an • 
 Korte, 1774. I - Bvo. Berlin. 
 
 4. Conversations Lexicon, 1796-1809, 6 vols. 8vo. ; beside 
 a sup ipteted a 
 Leipsig, 1824, in It) vols , wilh 2 of a sup. ; tini 
 
 time there have appeared several editions of this work 
 materially augmented. An English translation ol ll 
 with the addition of much valuable Informatii 
 completed at Philadelphia, in 13 vols 8vo. I 
 under the superintendence of Dr. Liebner; and a re 
 publication of this American work, wilh considerable 
 improvements, has been recently completed 
 gow, in 6 vols. 
 
 5. Allgemeine Encyclopedic der Wissenschaflen urm 
 Kiinsle, von Ersch und Gruber, ISIS, <tc. Lei| 
 
 vols. 4to. of this work have already appeared. 
 
 vided into sections, of each of which A, H, and O an 
 
 the commencement. 
 
 6. Gehler's Physicalisches Wurterbuch, neu bead 
 von Brandes, Gmelin, Horner, Muncke, Pfaff 9 vols 
 Rvo. Leipsig, 1825-40. As the title implies.it is con 
 fined to general physics, and physical astronomy ; bu 
 its great value renders it worthy of a place in this cata 
 logue. 
 
 7. Haus-Lexicon, or Vollstandiges Ilandbuch praktischei 
 Lebens-kentnisse fiir alle stande, 8 vols. 8vo. Leipsiu 
 1835-37. 
 
 8. Damen Conversations Lexicon, 10 vols, small 3vi. 
 Adorf, 1835-38. 
 
 Besides these, there are no fewer than 19 Encyclo 
 paedias of greater or less extent in course of pub! 
 tion in Germany ; but it has not been our fortune to see 
 any of them, with the exception of the Conversations 
 Lexicon der Geienwart, which forms a species of sup- 
 plement to the Conversations Lexicon above specified 
 Italy. 
 1 Dizionario Scientifico ex Curiosa, Sacra, Profana. by 
 G. P. Pinati. 10 vols. fol. Venice 1746-61. 
 
DICTIONARY. 
 
 '£, Encyclopedia Italiana. Naples, 1788. 
 
 3. Encyclopedia Methodica Critica Ragionnata delle belle 
 Arli, by Pietro Zani. Parma, 1818-20. 
 But another branch of the same encycloptedian tree, 
 which, as already remarked, yielded such brilliant fruits 
 in the hands of Ducange, Bay le, and Calmet, has taken deep 
 root in Europe, and more especially in this country, and 
 has greatly contributed to the diffusion of knowledge; viz. 
 the compilation of dictionaries appropriated to separate 
 branches of literature, science, or art. A mere catalogue 
 of these would swell this notice to a size wholly incom- 
 patible with our limits, as there is scarcely a department 
 of human knowledge in which works of this class have not 
 been published within the last fifty years. It is not our in- 
 tention to enter upon a discussion o'f the positive or com- 
 parative merits of the works referred to, though there ex- 
 ist pernaps few more fertile fields for criticism ; but, if we 
 take into consideration the extreme difficulty of compiling 
 a good dictionary, and the acquirements essential to the 
 individual who undertakes it, we shall not be surprised if 
 but a few only of the vast number of dictionaries with 
 which the literature of this and other countries is inun- 
 dated be respectably executed. It may be true that the 
 qualities of brevity, precision, and distinctness, without 
 which no work of this class is even tolerable, do not belong 
 to the highest order of intellect; though they are, perhaps, 
 quite as rarely to be met with as its more showy attributes ; 
 but it is easy to see that to give interest to a work of this 
 nature, and to present the reader with satisfactory informa- 
 tion in a perspicuous and compendious form, a more than 
 ordinary share of ability is indispensable. Montesquieu 
 said of Tacitus that he abridged all, because he knew all. 
 But though a thorough knowledge of the subject be indis- 
 pensable, that is not enough to enable an individual to make 
 a good dictionary. He must be able to split it into its ele- 
 ments; to treat each part as if it were separate and inde- 
 pendent, and the reader wished to study it only ; and at 
 the same time to preserve all the parts in due subordina- 
 tion to each other, and to the plan of the work. The judg- 
 ment, tact, and variety of research and learning, to say no- 
 thing of the labour, necessary to give permanent interest 
 and real value to a work of this sort in any of the great 
 departments of human knowledge, may be more easily 
 imagined than described ; and hence the extreme fewness 
 of such works. But even the inferior class of dictionaries 
 have many recommendations : and though mostly com- 
 piled at second-hand from other works, and with but little 
 unity of plan or execution, still, if they be tolerably accu- 
 rate and precise, they cannot fail to be of great utility. We 
 are aware, indeed, that this position has been denied ; and 
 that it has been contended that the general prevalence of 
 dictionaries has exercised a baneful influence upon the 
 literature of the age, inasmuch as, by making people satis- 
 fied with the information which they contain, they tend to 
 generate a taste for superficial learning, and thus, by dis- 
 couraging all reference to more elaborate treatises, strike 
 at the root of original thought and profound erudition. 
 Those, however, who adopt this line of argument, quite 
 overlook the main objects which dictionaries are calcu- 
 lated to serve. Such arguments would have some weight 
 had it been ever contemplated that the mathematician 
 should study mathematics, the philosopher philosophy, the 
 divine theology, or any professional man the subjects that 
 form the basis of his profession, in a dictionary only. But 
 this is by no means the case. The grand object aimed at 
 in such works, is to place within the reach of persons en- 
 gaged in the business of active life a mass of well-digested, 
 accurate and readily accessible information upon subjects 
 not connected with their own immediate pursuits, such as it 
 might be exceedingly difficult for them to procure else- 
 where ; while even to the learned, or to those who have 
 access and leisure to refer to more extensive depositories 
 of human knowledge, they serve as convenient manuals 
 or reference books. But upon this subject we cannot do 
 better than transfer to our columns an eloquent passage 
 from the elaborate paper of M. Guizot on encyclopaidias 
 (Paris, 1826), to which we beg to refer the reader for a clear 
 and learned exposition of the merits of this species of lite- 
 rature. " Parleraije enfin de leur utilite" commune et pra- 
 tique, de l'abondante instruction, des innombrables en- 
 seignemens qu'elles fournisse nt, et qui s'appliquent a tant 
 de circonstances, a tant de besoins de la vie 1 Dans les 
 grandes villes, au milieu de toutes les facility's, de toutes 
 ies richesses de la societe" humaine, on oublie trop qu'une 
 multitude de families independantes, aisfies, dont le travail 
 n'absorbe point le temps ni les faculty's, vivent dans une 
 situation toute differente, celles-ci a la campagne, cellesla 
 dans de petites villes, eloigners de toutes ces ressourcea 
 do la science et de l'industrie qui se pressent autour de 
 nous. C'est la qu'on apprend a connaitre le prix de cette 
 science domestique qui se transporte en quelques volumes 
 dans la solitude la plus profonde. Sans doute elle est in- 
 complete et fautive ; on se trompe souvent dans l'applica- 
 canon qu'on en faif ; mais a tout prendre, elle eclaire et 
 342 
 
 DIDELPHYS. 
 
 dirige plus souvent encore ; elle diminue les embarras, les 
 ennuis de l'isolement ; elle rassure les imaginations ; elle 
 etablit enfin, entre des milliers d'individus disperses et les 
 grands foyers de la science, une sorte de lien intellectuel 
 dont Pimportance et les effets se laissent diflicilement ap- 
 precier." Such, then, being the purposes contemplated 
 by works of this class, and such the acknowledged benefits 
 that accrue from them, so far from the number and va- 
 riety of works which have been published in the course oi 
 the last and present century under the title of dictionaries 
 and encyclopaedias, occasioning any surprise, we are al- 
 most warranted in anticipating that, owing to the gradual 
 progress of human knowledge, the progressive augmenta- 
 tions to the stock of polite literature, and the number and 
 rapidity of the inventions and discoveries which are con- 
 stantly enriching the arts and sciences, this species of pub- 
 lication will continue to increase, and that, in a word, the 
 literature of every country will gradually assume more and 
 more of the dictionary form. 
 
 DI'CTUM. (Lai. something said.) A word used in com 
 mon parlance to signify the arbitrament or award of a judge. 
 
 DPCTYOTIIE'TON. (Gr. iurvov, a net, and Tifiij/ii, 1 
 place.) In Ancient Architecture, masonry worked in 
 courses like the meshes of a net. Also open lattice work 
 for ad milting light and air. 
 
 DIDA'CTIC. (Gr. SiSacKU), I teach), in the schools, 
 signifies every species of writing, whether in verse or 
 prose, whose object is to teach or explain the rules or prin- 
 ciples of any art or science. Thus to this class of litera- 
 ture belong the writings of Aristotle on grammar, poetry, 
 and rhetoric ; Longinus's Treatise on (he Sublime ; and the 
 Institutions of Ciuintilian, &c. But the term has been 
 borrowed from scholastic phraseology, and appropriated 
 more exclusively to all poetical writings devoted to the 
 communication of instruction on a particular subject, or 
 of a reflective or ethical character, thence called didactic 
 poetry. Were this the place for such investigations, it 
 might be easily shown that the didactic must have been 
 among the first species of poetical composition ; and that 
 the writings of the earliest poets of whom profane history 
 makes mention, such as Orpheus and Linus, might with 
 propriety be classed under this category. But be this as it 
 may, this species of poetry has been in use from a very re- 
 mote period, and there is scarcely any nation in which it 
 has not taken root. Among the most celebrated poems of 
 this species may be reckoned in ancient times that of Lu- 
 cretius, De Return Natura, in which the Epicurean system 
 of philosophy is explained ; Virgil's Georgics, which has 
 almost always served as a model to the didactic poets of 
 succeeding ages ; and Horace's Art of Poetry ; and in more 
 recent times, Pope's Essays on Criticism and Man ; I)u 
 Fresnoy's Art of Painting (see Mason's translation in the 
 Literary Works of Sir J. Reynolds); Vida and Boileau's 
 Art of Poetry; Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination ; 
 Armstrong's Art of Preserving Health ; Somerville'sCAnre; 
 Dyer's Fleece; Young's Universal Passion, &c. The 
 reader will find in Blair's Lectures, vol. iii., a full exposi- 
 tion of the nature and characteristics of this species of 
 poetry, and a critical notice of the most famed didactic 
 poems of all ages and countries. 
 
 DIDA'CTYLE. (Gr. <5ij, dou Me, and 6oktv\os, the fin- 
 ger ; two-fingered, or two-toed.) This epithet is applied to 
 various animals, as to the ruminants among quadrupeds 
 (by Kiein) ; to the ostrich among birds ; to the amphiuma, 
 an amphibious reptile with two digits on each extremity ; 
 and to certain insects, as the Pleiophorus didactylus and 
 Gryllotalpa didactyla. 
 
 DIDASCA'LIA. (Gr.) A term in use among the Greek 
 writers of antiquity, and till within the last century among 
 almost all the nations of modern Europe, applied to the re- 
 presentation of dramatic pieces, or to critical notices of the 
 stage, and of every thing appertaining thereto. The only 
 paper with this designation, now in existence, is, as far as 
 we know, that published at Frankfort, which enjoys a large 
 circulation. 
 
 DI'DORON. (Gr. SiSopwv.) In Ancient Architecture, 
 a brick whose length was one foot, and its breadth one half 
 its length. 
 
 DIDE'LPIIYS. (Gr. Sis, double, and it^ipvs, womb.) A 
 generic name originally applied to the opossum, and al! 
 other quadrupeds which like it have a duplicature of the 
 integument of the abdomen forming a pouch, in which 
 the prematurely born young are received, protected, and 
 nourished, as in a second womb, until their growth is ad- 
 vanced to a stage corresponding to that of the newborn 
 young in the ordinary mammalia. In modern systems the 
 term is, singularly enough, restricted to that group of Mar- 
 supials in which there are certain species deficient in tht 
 abdominal pouch. The genus Didelphys, or true opos- 
 sums, are characterized by the following dental formula — 
 incisores y canini •§, molares spurii £, molares veri |, 
 = 50; and by having the hinder foot provided with s 
 thumb, and a prehensile tail. 
 
DID US. 
 
 DI'DL'S. The generic name for the dodo or dronte. 
 Birds of this kind were liiscovered by the Portuguese in 
 ■ ■n the island now called Mauritius, where they were 
 ed by the Dutch in 159S, and in the early 
 >f the following century. Original figures of the bird 
 veu in I)e liry (Quinta pars India Orientals, tfc, 
 mdci.); by Clusius, in his Exotica, 1605; by Herbert, In his 
 'J'rarels. 1634; by Bontius (Piso's edition, 1658); ami by 
 v, in his celebrated picture of "Orpheus charming 
 now in the museum at the Hague. The last 
 Bgure is the best; it was painted, as were the other figures 
 >iic species in the same picture, from studies of the 
 living animals preserved at that time in the celebrated me- 
 nttgerie of Prince M.mrice of Nassau. It is highly proba- 
 ble that the same dodo was the subject of the painting of 
 which the oni" now in ItM British Museum is a copy. 
 
 - tliis pictorial evidence there exist a head and a 
 i| the dodo in the Aslimoh an Museum at Oxford, and 
 of the dodo in the British Museum. The following 
 Uooghby's translation of the ordinal description of 
 - in,, i i,ii I by Clusius: — ''The dodo is called by Clu- 
 ' iallus gallinaceus peregrinut. by Nieroniherg Cygnus 
 nirii/!/itnx. By ll'iitius Drtmtt. Tliis exotic bird, found by 
 li : ders m the island called by the Portuguese 
 ra or Verne, that is the Swan Island, and Mauritius 
 l by the low Dutch, of thirty Biles compass, famous 
 especially for black ebony, did not exceed a swan in big- 
 hut was of a far different shape, for its head was 
 erest, covered as it were witli a certain membrane resem- 
 bling a bood ; besides, its bill was not Hat arid broad, but 
 thick and long, of a yellowish colour next the head, the 
 point being black. The upper chap was hooked; the 
 nether bad a bluish spot in the middle, between the yellow 
 and black part. They reported that it is covered with Ihin 
 and short feathers, and wants wings, instead whereof it 
 hath only four or five long blark feathers ; that the hinder 
 pari of tin- body is very lat and lleshv, wherein for the tail 
 were tour or five small curled feathers, twirled up together, 
 of an ash colour. Its legs are thick rather than long, whose 
 upper part, as far as the knee, is covered with black fea- 
 thers; the lower part, together with the feet, of a yellowish 
 colour; its li into four toes, three (and those 
 
 the longer) standing forward, the fourth and shortest 
 backward, all furnished with black claws. After I had 
 composed and writ down the history of this bird, with as 
 much diligence and faithfulness as 1 could, I happened to 
 see in the house of Peter Pauwius, primary professor of 
 physic in (lie university of Leyden, a leg thereof cut off 
 at the knee, lately brought over out of Mauritius his island. 
 It was not very long from the knee to the bending of the 
 foot, being but little more than four inches, but of a great 
 thickness ; so that it was almost four inches in compass, 
 and covered with thick set scales; on the upper side 
 broader, and of a yellowish colour; on the under (or back 
 side of the leg) lesser and dusky. The upper side of the 
 toes was also covered with broad scales, the under side 
 wholly callous. The toes were short for so thick a leg ; 
 for the length of the greatest or middlemost toe to the 
 nail did not much exceed two inches, that of the other toe 
 next to it scarce came up to two inches; the back toe fell 
 something short of an inch and a half; but the claws of all 
 were thick, hard, black, less than an inch long; but that 
 of the back toe longer than the rest, exceeding an inch. 
 iiirrs in their dialect give this bird the name 
 Walghvogfl, that is, a nauseous or yellow bird ; partly be- 
 cause after long boiling the flesh became not tender, but 
 continued hard and of difficult concoction (excepting the 
 breast and gizzard, which they found to be of no bad relish), 
 partly because they could get many turtledoves, which 
 were much more delicate and pleasant to the palate. 
 Wherefore it was no wonder that in comparison of those 
 they despised this, and said they could be well content 
 without it. Moreover they said that they found certain 
 stones in its gizzard ; and no wonder, for all other birds as 
 well as these swallow stones to assist them in grinding their 
 meat." Thus far Clusius. 
 
 Now, with respect to the parts of the bird which still 
 remain to us, we infer that the head, from the sudden 
 rising of the cranium above the face, and the form of the 
 anterior extremity of the lower jaw, as also from the nos- 
 trils being covered with an arched scale, did not belong to 
 a vulture or any other Accipitrine bird ; while in the pre- 
 sence of the cere at the base, and the forward position of 
 the nostrils, it resembles the rhea and apteryx among the 
 Struthious birds. The apteryx, however, deviates more 
 t'rom the typical Slruthionidai in the shape of the bill and po- 
 hiiion of the nostrils than does the dodo. With respect to the 
 toot is tlif Hritish Museum, this differs from that of the vul- 
 tures in the form and disposition of the tarsal scales, in the 
 shortness of i he middle toe, and the bluntness and straighter 
 figure of the claws; while in all these respects it agrees 
 with the foot of the apteryx and the Gallinaceous order. 
 e M those naturalists who, like Mr. Gray of the 
 Rritish Museum, still reject the evidence in proof of the 
 343 
 
 DIET. 
 
 Struthious nature of the dodo, and deny its existence aJ 
 any period, are compelled to imagine that the bird repre- 
 sented in the original figures above quoted was made up by 
 joining the head of a bird of prey to the legs of a Gallina- 
 ceous bird. The analogies of ornithology, however, by no 
 means sanction the rejection of the multiplied, and, if we 
 except Legual's narrations, consistent evidence, of the 
 actual existence of the Struthious dodo. Whoe ?er inspects 
 the painting by Savery, above mentioned (which seems 
 hitherto to have escaped the attention of the naturalists 
 who have written on the dodo), must feel a conviction that 
 its original was no factitious or artificial specimen. Neither 
 the head nor the feet still preserved in our museums can 
 be referred to an albatross, a penguin, a vulture, or any 
 other known existing species; while they closely cor 
 respond (allowing for the absence of the horny sheath of 
 the bill) with the original figures of the dodo. We have 
 therefore no hesitation in concluding that in other respects 
 those figures are equally faithful representations of the ex- 
 tinct Struthious form in question. Such also appears to be 
 the conclusion to which the learned writer of the article 
 '• Dodo" in the Penny Cyclopedia arrived ; in whose words 
 we shall conclude the present notice : — "If the picture in 
 the British Museum and the cut in llontius be faithful re- 
 presentations of a creature then living, to make such a 
 bird a bird of prey, a vulture in the ordinary acceptation of 
 the term, would be to set all the usual laws of adaptation 
 at defiance. A vulture without wings I How was it to be 
 fed 1 And not only without wings, but necessarily slow 
 and heavy in progression on its clumsy feet. The Vul- 
 turidct are, as we know, among the most active agents in 
 removing the rapidly decomposing animal remains in 
 tropical and intertropical climates ; and they are provided 
 with a prodigal development of wing to waft them speedily 
 to the spot tainted by the corrupt incumbrance. Hut no 
 such powers of wing would be required by a bird appointed 
 to clear away the decaying and decomposing musses of 
 luxuriant tropical vegetation— a kind of vulture lor vege- 
 table impurities, so to speak ; and such an office would not 
 be by any means inconsistent with comparative slowness 
 of pedestrian motion." 
 
 DIDY'NAMOl.'.S. (Or. Sit, twice, and Swa/ii;. purer.) 
 A term applied to flowers having four stamens, ot which 
 two are short and two are long. 
 
 DIE (Fr. d€), in Coinage, is the instrument by which the 
 impressions are given upon the various denominations of 
 coin. The following is an outline of the die manufacture. 
 as conducted in her Majesty's mint: — The engraver ti lecls 
 a forged plug of the best cast steel of proper dimensions [or 
 his intended work ; and having carefully annealed it. and 
 tinned its surfaces smooth in the lathe, proceeds to en- 
 grave upon it the intended device for the coin ; the Queen's 
 head, for instance. When this is perfect the letters are put 
 in, and the circularity and size duly adjusted ; it is I hen 
 hardened, and is termed a matrix. Another plug of suit 
 steel is now selected ; and the matrix being carefully ad- 
 justed upon it, they are placed under a very powerful 
 lly-press. and two or three blows so directed as to com- 
 mence an impression of the matrix upon the plug; this is 
 then annealed, and the operation repeated till the plug re- 
 ceives a perfect impression of the work upon the matrix. 
 This impression is of course in relief , the oiiginal work 
 upon the matrix being indented, and produces what is 
 termed the punch. This, being duly shaped in the 
 lathe, is hardened, and is employed in the production of 
 impressions in soft steel or dies, which, being properly 
 turned and hardened, are exact fac-si?}iiles of the original 
 matrix, and are used in the process of coinage. When a 
 pair of dies are made of good steel duly hardened and 
 tempered, and are carefully used, they will sometimes 
 yield from two to three hundred thousand impressions be- 
 fore they become so far worn or injured as to require to be 
 removed from the coining presses. 
 
 DI'ERESl'LIS. A term invented by Mirbel to denote a 
 many-celled superior fruit ; the cells being dry, indehiscent, 
 few-seeded, and cohering by a common style round a com- 
 mon axis — Ex. Malta. 
 
 DIE'SIS. (Gr.) In Music, an interval less than a com- 
 ma. The harmonical diesis is the difference between a 
 greater and a less semitone. 
 
 DI'ET. (Lat. dies, a day; Germ. Reichstag.) A name 
 given to the principal national assembly in many countries 
 of modern Europe. 
 
 By the usage of the German Empire, two diets were sum- 
 moned every year by the emperor, besides such as were 
 convoked on extraordinary occasions. There were three 
 chambers— 1. Thatof the electors (see Electors). 2. That 
 of the sovereign princes, divided into two spiritual and four 
 temporal benches. The counts of the empire voted col- 
 lectively in four benches or divisions, and not as invlividu 
 als ; the prelates and the abbots in two. 3. The chamber 
 of the imperial cities, divided into the Rhenish and the 
 Swabian benches. The diets, together with the emperor, 
 exercised the prerogatives of sovereignty. A decree of 
 
DIET DRINK 
 
 O.f diet was termed a recess of the empire. The diet of 
 the modern Germanic Confederation is a meeting of pleni- 
 potentiaries, permanently assembled in the city of Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Maine. There are two diet3 : one termed ple- 
 num, in which the thirty-eight sovereign members of the 
 confederacy have seventy votes divided between them ; the 
 other the lesser or ordinary, in which their votes amount 
 together only to seventeen. In the latter assembly propo- 
 sitions are brought forward and discussed, which are de- 
 cided in the other without discussion. On some funda- 
 mental questions unanimity is required, in order that any 
 proposition may be adopted; in other cases a majority of 
 two thirds is necessary. Austria presides in both diets, and 
 has the casting voice in the lesser. 
 
 The diet of Hungary is composed of the king (Emperor 
 of Austria) and the estates. The latter consists of the 
 higher clergy, the magnates, the two courts of appeal, and 
 two representatives from each chapter, county, city, and 
 privileged district. They are divided into two chambers, 
 called fabuko. 
 
 The diet of Switzerland is composed of the representa- 
 tives of the cantons, and manages such affairs as by the 
 federal constitution are exempted from the jurisdiction of 
 those several independent states. It is held every two 
 years, alternately at Zurich, Berne, and Lucerne, which 
 are termed the presiding cantons (vorort). The schultheiss 
 or governor (chief executive magistrate) of the presiding 
 canton is landamman of Switzerland for the time being. 
 Each canton has one vote in the diet. 
 
 From a very remote period, down to 1832, Poland en- 
 joyed a national assembly, or diets, which were of two 
 sorts, ordinary and extraordinary. The ordinary diet was 
 held every two years, and usually at Warsaw; though it 
 was expressly enacted that every third meeting should be 
 convened at Grodno, in Lithuania. The duration of its 
 sitting was restricted to six weeks, and could not, under any 
 pretext, be protracted beyond this period. The diet was 
 composed of a selection from the nobility, who formed 
 what was called the senate, and of the deputies returned 
 by each of the palatinates and districts of the country. 
 The number amounted to about 400. The period of its 
 meeting was fixed by the king, who presided over its de- 
 liberations ; except during an interregnum, when the bu- 
 siness of summoning the diet devolved on the archbishop 
 of Guesna. The erlraordinary diets differed from the 
 ordinary chietly in this, that there was no stated period for 
 the former being summoned together, that they were con- 
 voked only to listen to propositions from the throne, and 
 lasted only f iur days. • 
 
 As is well known, the throne of Poland was not heredi- 
 tary, but elective; and, on the occasion of choosing the 
 sovereign, the Polish diets were held in the open country, 
 and were attended by all the nobility on horseback, armed 
 and equipped as if for battle. On this subject the reader 
 is referred to a work of great ability, by De la Birardiere, 
 entitled Histoires des Dietes de Potogne, pour les Elections 
 des Ruis,d»puis 1572 jusqu'en 1674 (8vo. Paris, 1679.) Diet- 
 ines was the name given to the particular assemblies of the 
 Polish nobility in which deputies were elected to serve in 
 the ordinary diets, and to represent the wishes and interests 
 of their constituents. In these dietines every gentleman 
 possessing an estate of three acres had the right of voting, 
 and every deputy was chosen by the majority of suffrages, 
 (bee Dunham's History of Poland.) 
 
 DIET DRINK. Alterative decoctions taken in consider- 
 able quantities ; such as decoction of sarsaparilla, sassafras, 
 dandelion, &c. Lisbon diet drink nearly resembles the 
 compound decoction of sarsaparilla of the London Pharma- 
 copoeia. 
 
 DIETE'TICS. (Gr. Stairasw, to nourish.) That part of 
 medicd science which relates to the diet or ordinary food. 
 See Digestion and Food. 
 
 DIEU ET MON DROIT. (Fr. God and my right.) The 
 motto of the royal family of England. It was first assumed 
 by Richard I., to intimate that he held his sovereignty from 
 God alone, and not in vassalage to man ; and it should 
 seem that it fell into desuetude among the immediate suc- 
 cessors of that prince, and remained so till the reign of 
 Edward III., by whom it was revived when he first claimed 
 the crown of France. Since that period, if we except the 
 reigns of Elizabeth, William III., and Anne, the first and 
 last of whom used the motto " Semper eadem," and the 
 second, though only in his private capacity, " Jemaintien- 
 dray," Dieu et man droit has always formed the royal motto 
 of England. 
 
 DIFFERENCE. In Logic, one of the predicables. It 
 is that particular quality which distinguishes the subject 
 from all others, when contemplated from that point of view 
 In which we are then regarding it ; and is said, logically, 
 <o he part, of the essence of the subject. The genus, to- 
 gether with the difference, is said logically to make up the 
 species ; the species, with the difference, to make up the 
 lower species, or the individual :— e. g. To the genus metal 
 iilii the difference ''susceptible of magnetic attraction," 
 344 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS 
 
 and we obtain the species iron, which is distinguished from 
 all other metals by the existence of that peculiarity. See 
 Logic. • 
 
 Difference, in Arithmetic and Algebra, is the excess 
 of one quantity over another, or that which remains when 
 one quantity is taken from another quantity of the same 
 kind. In the higher mathematics the theory of Finite Dif 
 ferences forms an extensive branch of analysis, which i.~ 
 usually explained in treatises on the Differential and Integ- 
 ral Calculus. (See the treatises of Euler, Bossut, Lacroix, 
 &c. ; or the Appendix by Sir J. Herschel to the English 
 translation of Lacroix's smaller work.) 
 
 DIFFERENCES. In Heraldry, devices borne on the 
 escutcheon to indicate the part of a family to which the 
 bearer belongs. This has been effected by various me- 
 thods, — at present by what are termed brisures, marks el 
 filiation, or of cadency ; being small charges placed con 
 spicuously in the shield. The eldest son bears a label of 
 three points; the second, a crescent; the third, a mullet ; tht 
 fourth, a martlet; the fifth, an annulet or small ring; the 
 sixth, a fleur-delys; the seventh, a rose; the eighth, a 
 cross moline; the ninth, a double quatrefoil. The family 
 of the second son repeat these differences on their own 
 paternal mark of filiation : — e. g. the second son's first 
 son bears a crescent ensigned with a label, and so on of 
 the rest. Females do not bear differences. 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL (diminutive of Difference), in the 
 higher Mathematics, denotes a quantity infinitely small, or 
 less than any assignable magnitude. See Differential 
 Calculus. 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS. The name by which 
 one of the most important branches of the higher mathe- 
 matics is usually designated. 
 
 In confining ourselves to a very general view of the sub- 
 ject, it may be said that the object of the differential cal- 
 culus is to find the ratios of the differences of variable 
 magnitudes, on the supposition that these differences be- 
 come infinitely small ; an hypothesis which gives rise to 
 considerable abbreviations in the general calculation of 
 differences. But it is here necessary to attend to the par- 
 ticular signification in which the terms infinite, infinitely 
 small, are used in the language of the calculus. Every 
 magnitude which forms the subject of matheniittical rea- 
 soning is susceptible of augmentation or of diminution 
 without limit. We may therefore always conceive a 
 quantity to become so great as to exceed any finite assign- 
 able quantity of the same nature as itself; or so small as 
 to be less than any finite assignable quantity also of the 
 same nature as itself : in the former case the quantity is 
 said to be infinite ; in the latter, infinitely small. In this 
 sense it is obviously not necessary to attribute a real and 
 physical existence to an infinitely great or infinitely small 
 quantity: it is sufficient to imagine that if we attribute to 
 any quantity which enters into a question a value as great 
 or as small as we please, there always exists, beyond this 
 limit, a quantity of the same kind still greater or still 
 smaller, and which in this sense is infinitely great or infi- 
 nitely small in comparison of any other finite quantity of 
 the same kind. So that a finite magnitude may be regarded 
 as nothing, or zero, in comparison of one infinitely great ; 
 and an infinitely small magnitude as nothing, or zero, in 
 comparison of a finite magnitude. 
 
 The infinitely small quantities which come under con- 
 sideration in the differential calculus are called differen- 
 tials. The differential of a magnitude or variable function 
 is expressed by writing the letter d before the magnitude 
 or function: thusdar signifies the differential of the vari- 
 able magnitude x, d (x y) the differential of the product of 
 the two variables x and y, and so on. Instead of using the 
 letter d, the English mathematicians formerly indicated the 
 fluxion of a quantity (which is equivalent to the differential) 
 by placing a dot over it ; thus x represented the fluxion of 
 
 x, and x y that of the product xy; but this notation was 
 found in the progress of the calculus to be inconvenient, 
 and has been disused by all the modern writers. Thr 
 letter d was introduced by Leibnitz, and it has been adopted 
 by all the Continental writers since the origin of the cal- 
 culus as the svmbol of differentiation. 
 
 The principles upon which the doctrine of ki0" nr-lfllMl 
 quantities can be best established have been rNe subject 
 of much dispute among mathematicians, ?\id various 
 methods ofdeducing the fundamental theorems have been 
 proposed, of which the principal are— the ".ifferential me- 
 thod of Leibnitz, the Newtonian method oj fiusions, New 
 ton's method of prime and ultimate ratios lol lowed in the 
 Principia, D'Alemberfs method of limit. Lagrange's me- 
 thod of derivation, and Landen's residual analysis. TIk 
 principles and general procedure of Leibnitz's method 
 (which, properly speaking, is the differencial calculus) may- 
 be explained as follows : — 
 
 The differential of a variable quantity may be def.neu 
 to be the Infinitely small difference between two successive 
 statos of the same variable, and the object of the calculus 
 
Is to find this differential for all possible cases; that is to 
 say, for all the possible functions of the proposed variables, 
 such as x, y, z, <fcc, of which the particular differentials 
 are expressed by dx, dy,dz, <tc. Before explaining how 
 this is done, it is necessary to examine into the distinction 
 that must !>e made between the operation by which an or- 
 dinary or finite difference is found, and that to which we 
 confine ourselves when the difference is infinitely 
 . ora differential. If we consider the proposed sys- 
 tem or function in any two determinate states different 
 from each other, the difference of the two values of the 
 ity taken in the two states will be determinate, 
 i onsequently cannot be supposed as small as we 
 that no part of its expression can be omitted; 
 but if the two states of the function approach indefinitely 
 •;her, the difference of the two values of the 
 ible may be rendered as small as we please. It 
 tlieu becomes a differential, and is in fact nothing more 
 than the ordinary difference simplified by the suppression 
 of the quantities which in its expression may be regarded 
 as infinitely small in comparison of the other quantities of 
 which it is composed. Such is the general principle of 
 differentiation. (Caroot, Reflections stir la M&taphytique 
 du Oaleui Infinitesimal, Paris, 1913.) 
 
 icral principle it follows evidently that in 
 order to differentiate a quantity, or any function whatever 
 of a quantity, or of . everal combined quantities, which 
 function we shall represent by <p (x, y, z, &.C.), it is only 
 necessary to consider it in its second state ; that is to say, 
 when x, y, t. Sec. having become respectively x-4-dx, 
 y+dy.s + dz,icc, the function itself becomes $(x + dx, 
 y + dy, z + dz, &c); to subtract the primitive value of 
 the function from its value thus increased, which will give 
 for the finite difference of the proposed function. 
 
 f (x + dx, y + dy, z + dz, &c.) — f (x, y, z, Ac.) ; 
 and, lastly, to pass from this difference to the differential 
 by neglecting those quantities which in the development 
 are infinitely small in comparison of those to which they 
 are to be added, or from which they are to be taken away. 
 general rule will be better understood by showing its 
 application to some particular examples. 
 
 1. Let it be proposed to differentiate the sum a -f-6 
 + * + y. composed of constant and variable quantities. 
 ruing to the general formula, the constants o and b 
 Inve mo differential ; and those of x and y are dx and dy 
 respeftv.lv; therefore the differential of the proposed 
 that is. d (a-f-o + x + y) is a + b + (x + d x) + 
 <■!/■¥ dy)~ (a -\-b-\-x + y), which becomes on reduction 
 '•' ■'' + '/ n Hence ■, the differential of any sum whatever of 
 constants and variables is equal to the sum of the differen- 
 tials of the variables alone. 
 
 il tie required to differentiate x — y. Here we 
 ' x — y) = (x + dx) — (y + dy) — (x — y); or after 
 reduction, d (x—y) = dx — dy, ; whence the differential 
 of the difference of any two variables is equal to the differ- 
 ence of their differentials. 
 
 Lei it be proposed to differentiate the product x y. 
 By the formula we have d (x y) = ( x + d x) (y -j- dy) — 
 xy = xdy + ydx + dxdy; but it is necessary to re- 
 mark that the last term dxdy is infinitely small in com- 
 parison of each of the two others, as will be evident on di- 
 vidlng it by either of them, for the quotient is obviously an 
 infinitely small quantity. The third term must therefore 
 he neglected; whence the formula becomes d (xy) = 
 x d y + y d z. In like manner d(xy z) = ry dz + xz dy 
 + y z d x; ami so on for the differential of the product of 
 any number of variable quantities. 
 
 4. Let it be proposed to differentiate the fraction — . 
 
 y 
 
 By the general formula the difference will be X+ — f- 
 
 y -\- dy y ' 
 which being reduced to a common denominator, becomes 
 ydx — xdy 
 — y— — jy; and on leaving out the quantity ydy, which 
 
 Is infinitely small in comparison of y a with which it is 
 
 I . , , x ydx — xdy 
 joined, we have d — =- -r -. 
 
 y y 
 
 5. Let it be proposed to differentiate the function xm . 
 
 In this case the general formula gives (x + d x)m xm '. 
 
 Expanding (x + dx)m by the binomial theorem, we get 
 (xm + m xm-l dx-if i(m— l)xm-2 dx" -f <fcc.) — xm 
 or m xm-l d x + \ (m — 1) xm-2 d x" + &c, for (he dif- 
 ference. But d x* being infinitely small in comparison of 
 dx, the term into which it enters as a factor (and all the 
 
 ling ones which are multiplied by d x", dx 4 , &c.) 
 
 in ist be rejected. We have therefore simply, for the dif. 
 fcrential, dxm =w , X m— t d x. It will easily be under- 
 stood that m maybe any quantity, whole or fractional, posi- 
 tive or negative. 
 
 6. Let it be proposed to differentiate the expression ax, 
 in which a is a constant quantify, and r a variable expo- 
 nent According to the general principle the differential ia 
 
 345 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS. 
 
 ax-Hx _ ax, or ax • odx _ a x, or ax (adx _*i) Assume 
 a =1 + b, and we shall have odx = (1 + b) d x . w i, eilce by 
 the binomial theorem, ' 
 
 dx ^zl + dxb' ( -^z}l^±^) 
 2 ■ 3 
 
 a<^x = :l + dx6 + dx6 , 
 
 + &c. ; and as the quantity d x, being infinitely small in 
 comparison of the finite numbers I, 2, 3, <fcc, must be re- 
 jected, the equation, on transposing the first term of the 
 second member, becomes 
 
 Substituting this value of odx _ i j n the expression ax (a<>x 
 — 1), and writing a — 1 instead of 6, we have for the dif- 
 ferential of the proposed function 
 
 dax = axdx( (a— 1) — J(a — l)'+J(a-l)'-&c. ) 
 Or, making the constant factor (which is the Napierean 
 logarithm of the number a) = M, 
 
 dax = Maxd x. 
 7. Let the proposed function be log. y. Make x = lo<r y • 
 then dx = d log. y; and by the general definition of a To<r a '- 
 rithm, we have always, whatever may be the value of a, 
 the base of the system, y = a*. Hence d yz=dax; and 
 substituting for d ox its value M ax d x, given in the last pa- 
 raaraph, we have dy = M ax d x. Substituting, therefore, 
 y for ax, and d log. y for d x, we find ultimately 
 
 dlog.y=<y 
 ' y My 
 
 a Let it be proposed to differentiate sin. x, x being an 
 arc of a circle of which the radius is 1. By the general 
 principle d sin. x = sin. (x + dx> — sin. x; whence7by the 
 common trigonometrical formula, d sin. x = sin. xcos dx 
 ■4- cos. x sin. dx — sin. x. Now if we recollect that dxis 
 an infinitely small arc, it will be obvious that its cosine dif- 
 fers from unity only by an infinitely small quantity, which 
 therefore must be rejected. The formula consequently 
 becomesd sin.x = sin. x + cos. x sin. dx — sin.x = cos. i 
 sin. dx. A.gain,dx being infinitely small, ii differs from its 
 sine only by an infinitely small quantity, which must there- 
 fore be rejected. Hence sin. dx = dx, and we have 
 dsin. x = cos. xdx. 
 
 By the same process of reasoning we find d cos. x=- 
 
 sin.xdx, anddtan.x= — _!_.. it | s unnecessary to 
 
 give more examples: tho method of applying the general 
 principle is obvious. 
 
 Hitherto we have considered the system of variable 
 quantities in two successive states only ; but it may be con- 
 sidered successively in two, three, four, or any number of 
 consecutive states, all differing infinitely little from each 
 ol r j- r i 8 , considera ''on gives rise to successive orders 
 of differentials, derived from each other by a continued 
 repetition of the same operation. By differentiating a 
 function of any variable quantities we obtain a derivative 
 function, in which the corresponding' quantities differ infi- 
 nitely little from their values in the original function. 
 Another differentiation gives a second derivative function, 
 and so on ; so that we obtain as many successive orders of 
 differentials as operations are performed. But it is to be 
 remarked, that the infinitely small differences between the 
 quantities in the first derivative system and the correspond- 
 ing quantities in the original function, are not the same as 
 the infinitely small differences between the quantities in 
 the second derivative system and the corresponding quan- 
 tities in the first; and those between the second and third 
 systems are again different from those between the first 
 and second. Hence it follows that these differentials are 
 themselves variable, and consequently, like all other vari- 
 able quantities, have their differentials. If therefore we 
 retain the symbol das the characteristic of the differential 
 of any species of variable, the expression ddx will denote 
 the quantity by which dx is augmented in passing from the 
 first derivative state to the second, exactly in the same man- 
 ner as dx represents the increase of x in passing from the 
 original to the first derivative state. In like manner dddx 
 will express the augmentation which ddx receives in pass- 
 ins from the second system to the third, and so on. 
 
 The quantities d x, d d r, d d d x, &c. are called the first, 
 second, third, &c. differentials of x. In the tame manner, 
 dy, ddy,dddy,&c. are the firsjj second, third, <fcc. differ- 
 entials of y. Instead of writing d dx,dddx, &c, it is 
 usual to write d'x,d'x, <&c. And this notation is not 
 merely preferred on account of the abbreviation ; it is ab 
 solutely necessary in many cases for the sake of carrying 
 on the investiuation when many successive differentials of 
 the same variable are necessary to be considered. But 
 these symbols must be carefully distinguished from dx 3 , 
 d x , &c., which are likewise abbreviations, but which at 
 the same time denote real powers of dx, signifying re- 
 spectively d x d x, d x d x d x, <kc. ; and they must also bo 
 distineuishedJrom the quantities d(x)*, d (x) a , &c, which 
 
PO. R B 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS. 
 
 are the differentials of the powers x % , x 3 , <fec. of x, while 
 d x 3 , d x*, &c. are the powers of the differentials. 
 
 From these considerations it follows that the differen- 
 tials of all orders are differentiated in the same manner as 
 any other variable, and consequently no particular rules 
 are required for this purpose. For example, the differen- 
 tial of x y is x dy + y d x ; and on differentiating this dif- 
 ferential, we find dxdy + xd* y+dydx + yd*x. Dif- 
 ferentiating a third time, we get, on adding the similar 
 terms, 3 did* y + 3 dy d* x + x d 3 t/-f yd* x, and soon. 
 
 In the application of the calculus, it is very important to 
 observe, that when different variables are connected by 
 equations we are always at liberty to assume the differen- 
 tial of one of the variables to be constant; and this con- 
 stant differential then becomes a term of comparison, and 
 serves to regulate all the others. For instance, in con- 
 sidering a curve line, we may suppose the successive in- 
 finitely small increments of the absciss to be all equal ; in 
 this case d x is invariable, and consequently d* x s 0. 
 But the increments of the ordinate, which correspond to 
 these equal increments of the absciss, are not equal, and 
 consequently the differentials of dy (or d 2 y) are not zero ; 
 and the law according to which d y varies in passing from 
 one point to another, while d x remains constant, is pre- 
 cisely that which will make known the nature of the curve. 
 In other words, the nature of the curve will be determined 
 by the relations be'.vrssn the successive differentials dy, 
 d' y, d 3 y, &c. of the variable y. 
 
 Having now endeavoured to explain the general princi- 
 ples of the calculus, we shall give a few examples of its 
 application to the theory of curve lines, the first subject to 
 which it was applied by its inventors. 
 
 Let A M N be a curve line, which we may regard as a 
 polygon of an infinite number of sides. Let one of these 
 sides M N be produced till it 
 meet the axis A B in T, and 
 draw M P perpendicular to A 
 B ; then M T is the tangent and 
 T P the subtangent. Through 
 N, the other extremity of the 
 side M N, draw N Q, parallel 
 to M P, and draw M O parallel 
 to A B. Now, since M N is 
 
 supposed to be infinitely small, M P and N Q. are infinitely 
 near each other; consequently M O is the differential of 
 the axis AP = f, and N O the differential of the ordinate 
 M P = y; whence MO = rfi, and N O = dy. But the 
 two triangles M N O and M T P are similar, therefore 
 NO:OM::ft*P:PT; that is, d y : dx : : y : P T ; 
 
 whence P T = y — , an equation giving the value of the 
 
 subtangent, and consequently the position of the tangent 
 itself. It therefore only remains to determine the value of 
 
 y -. — from the equation of the curve. As an example, let 
 
 it be required to find the subtangent of the common para- 
 bola, the equation of which is y a = ax, a being the semi- 
 parameter of the axis. Differentiating the equation of the 
 
 d x 2 v 
 curve, we get 2 y d y = a d x ; whence -j— = — - , and the 
 ' & 3 3 dy a ' 
 
 dx 2 v 9 
 subtangent y — =: -^— . Substitute in this expression 
 
 i x for y*, and we have .ie subtangent = 2 x, a well- 
 Known property of fne parabola. 
 
 The position of the normal is found in a similar manner. 
 Draw M R through M perpendicular to M T and meeting 
 A P in R ; then M R is the normal, and P R the subnormal. 
 Because T M R is a right angle ; therefore P R : P M : : 
 
 dx 
 P M : P T ; that is, P R : y : : y : y -=-, consequently the 
 
 subnormal P R = y--^. Let the curve, for example, be an 
 
 ellipse, the equation of which is b* x* + o' y* = a' b', the 
 co-ordinates being referred to the centre. The differential 
 of this equation is 26 s xdx + So? y dy s 0, whence we 
 _ , d y 6' x 
 
 find -j^ = r- ; 
 
 dx ay 
 
 y dx~ a" x 
 
 The differential calculus applies with like facility to the 
 determination of the radii of curvature and the involutes 
 of curve lines, to the Aiding of maxima and minima, in- 
 vestigations respecting series, and numerous other inqui- 
 ries; in all of which it affords a singular facility in resolv- 
 ing questions, the solutions of which without its aid could 
 only be obtained with great labour and difficulty. 
 
 The differential calculus was invented by Leibnitz ; but 
 reduced to a systematic form, and greatly extended, by the 
 two celebrated brothers James and John Bernoulli. Some 
 years, however, before Leibnitz fell on the discovery, the 
 method of fluxions, with which the differential calculus 
 agrees in every respect excepting its notation and theman- 
 346 
 
 and consequently the subnormal 
 
 DIFFRACTION. 
 
 ner in which the principles are usually explained, had beca 
 invented and applied by Newton. This circumstance gave 
 rise to a dispute, which was long carried on with great 
 acrimony, between the mathematicians of England on the 
 one hand, who put forward the claims of Newton for the 
 honour of the invention, and those of France and Germany 
 on the other, who gave the merit of it to Leibnitz. It was 
 established beyond doubt that Newton was in possession 
 of his method before it had been thought of by Leibnitz ; 
 the only question, therefore, was whether Leibnitz received 
 such hints or information respecting the nature of New- 
 ton's method as were sufficient to guide him to its disco- 
 very. Of this there is no evidence, and extremely little 
 probability ; accordingly mathematicians have Ions agreed 
 in recognizing the claim of Leibnitz to be regarded as an 
 independent inventor. The notation introduced by New- 
 ton was followed generally by British mathematicians till 
 some years after the beginning of the present century ; 
 but that of Leibnitz and the Bernoullis is now universally 
 adopted. 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL COEFFICIENT, in Analysis, is the 
 ratio of the differential of any function of a variable quan 
 tity to the differential of the variable. Let x and y denote 
 two quantities related to each other by the equation y = 
 a x 1 -\- b x •{■ c, then y is a function of the variable x; the 
 
 differential coefficient is ~; and we have — — 2ax+b. 
 
 dx' dx n 
 
 It is to be observed that the differential coefficient is not to 
 be considered as an algebraic fraction, but merely a sym- 
 bol, showing (in the present instance,) that the function y 
 has been differentiated with respect to x, and of which the 
 two parts d y and d x have no independent meaning. 
 
 DIFFERENTIAL THERMOMETER. An ingenious 
 instrument, of great use in experimental philosophy, for 
 measuring very small differences of temperature ; invent- 
 ed and first applied by Sir John Leslie, though the idea of 
 an instrument of the same kind seems to have long before 
 suggested itself to Stnrmius. The differential thermometer 
 is described by Leslie, in his Experimental Inquiry into 
 the Nature and Propagation of Heat, nearly as follows : — 
 Two gl?ss tubes of unequa' lengths, each terminating in a 
 hollow ball, and having their bores somewhat widened at 
 the other ends, a small portion of sulphuric acid tinged 
 with carmine being introduced into the ball of the longer 
 tube, are joined together by the flame of a blow-pipe, and 
 afterwards bent into nearly the shape of the letter U ; 
 the one flexure being made just below the joining, where 
 the small cavity facilitates the adjustment of the instru- 
 ment, which, by a little dexterity, is performed by forcing 
 with the heal of the hand a few minute globules of air from 
 the one ball into the other. The balls are blown as equal 
 as the eye can judge, and from four tenths to seven tenths 
 of an inch in diameter. To one of 
 the legs of the thermometer a scale 
 is attached ; and the liquid contained 
 in the tube is so disposed that it 
 stands in the graduated leg opposite 
 the zero of the scale, when both halls 
 are exposed to the same tempera- 
 ture. From this construction of the 
 instrument, it is easy to see that it is 
 affected by the difference only oi 
 heat in the two balls. As long as both 
 balls are of the same temperature 
 whatever this may be, the air con- 
 tained in the one will have the same 
 elasticity as that contained in the 
 other ; and consequently the inter- 
 ceded coloured liquid, being thus 
 pressed equally in opposite direc- 
 tions remain stationary. But if, for instance, the ball which 
 holds a portion of the liquor be warmer than the other, the 
 superior elasticity of the confined air will drive it forwards, 
 and make it rise in the opposite branch above the zero, to 
 an elevation proportional to the excess of elasticity or of 
 heat. Sulphuric acid is chosen as the liquor best adapted 
 to the purpose ; because it is not vaporizable, and conse- 
 quently does not by its vapour affect the pressure of the 
 air above it. The carmine is used to render it more easily 
 visible. 
 
 DIFFRA'CTION. In Optics, a species of deviation or 
 inflexion which the rays of light undergo in passing very 
 near the extremities of any opaque body. This phenome- 
 non was first observed by Grimaldi, who described the 
 principal appearances with sufficient accuracy ; but it was 
 Newton who first attempted to explain its cause by thr; 
 general properties of light. His experiments are detailed 
 in the last book of his Optics. In order to exhibit the phe- 
 nomena of refraction, let a beam of solar li»ht, reflected 
 horizontally, be admitted into a dark chamber through a 
 small round hole, and received on the white horizontal 
 wall. If the hole has a sensible diameter, the image of fho 
 sun thrown on the wall will suffer no sensible alteration 
 of colour; but if we place in the axis of the beam of light, 
 
DIFFUSION OF GASES. 
 
 and at a distance of 5 or 6 feet from the hole through 
 wbich it il admitted, a metallic plate, having a puncture 
 tnxl'' in it by the point of a very fine needle, and intercept- 
 ill other light than that which pusses through the punc- 
 ture, the appearance on the wall will no longer be a cir- 
 cular spot of white light only ; it will be surrounded with 
 several concentric coloured rings, covering a space far ex- 
 ceeding in extent that which the solar beam would have 
 occupied if the rays of which it was composed had followed 
 their rectilinear direction. It is obvious therefore, both 
 from the colours and the space occupied by the light, that 
 the different rays have been reflected or bent in different 
 degrees, and in a manner quite analogous to what takes 
 when light passes through a glass prism. By sub- 
 stituting a very narrow slit for the puncture in the me- 
 tallic plate, or several punctures or slits very close to each 
 Other, and arranged in a certain manner, some of the most 
 tn-uuti tul phenomena ofoplics arc exhibited. The pheno- 
 nf diffraction have been much studied of late years, 
 fording a teslhy which to try the truth of the rival theo- 
 At present the result is in favour of the theo- 
 ry of undulation, inasmuch as it has afforded a satisfactory 
 explanation of all the phenomena without exception, See 
 Lioiit 
 
 DIFPCBJON OF GAJSEP. When two gaseous bodies 
 wliu- li do not act chemically upon each other are mixed 
 ler in any relative proportions they gradually diffuse 
 them vivos through each other; so that after a sufficient 
 time has elapsed for the purpose, whatever may have been 
 their relative densities, they are found intimately blended : 
 the h iea not fall, nor does the lighter one float 
 
 has appropriately represented gaseous 
 M acting as vacua to each other. Professor Gra- 
 ham's researches have lately thrown much new light upon 
 inject, and he has dclermined the laws of gaseous 
 diffusion by a series of well conceived experimental inqui- 
 ry. (See GnJunn's Elements of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 71; 
 and Quarterh) Journal of Science, N. 8., vol. v.) 
 
 DIG \'MM\. (Gr. 6i(, double, and yappa (T), so called 
 
 from its representing two gammas, one set above another, 
 
 F i The name given to the form of that letter in the 
 
 ■ nds in appearance 
 
 generally to the Latin F. 
 
 A mere outline of the controversies that have prevailed 
 among the learned respecting the form and power of the 
 digamm i, the mode of its pronunciation, and the purposes 
 which it served in the early language of Greece, would oc- 
 cupy more spare than our prescribed limits admit of; and 
 we mast content ourselves with referring the reader to the 
 article " Digamma" in the Encyc. Metrop., and Ersch and 
 Gruber's AH gem. Encyc, in which the discussions on this 
 r display great learning and research. This letter 
 rs to have occupied the sixth place in the alphabet, 
 and was most prevalent in the /Eolic dialect ; though some 
 grammarians contend that it was common to all the dia- 
 ece in their more ancient mode of pronunci- 
 ll has often been expressed by B, and sometimes 
 by T, A. O, 4>. and X; and it is now almost universally 
 to have had the force of F, V, or the English 
 \v. \- the Latin language approximated more nearly to 
 : - .lie ili m to any of the other Grecian dialects, the use 
 of the digamma is very prevalent in many Latin words, 
 and the facility with which it was there interchanged for 
 i at the commencement and in the middle of words, 
 will he at .nice apparent from the following examples: — 
 Gr. lap, spring, JEol. Ftap, Lat. ver ; Gr. lairzpos, evening, 
 Vttnetpos, I. at. vesperus; Gr. otvo(,uine, IEo\. Fomot, 
 Lat. viiium ; Gr. ojov, an egg, JEn\. ojFov, Lat. ovum, &c. 
 Kid I'* edition of Dane's Miscellanea Critica, pp. 
 175 — -13"); and Buitmann's Greek Grammar.) 
 
 DIGA'STRIC .MUSCLE. (Gr. St;, and yaoTt\p, belly.) 
 A double muscle, situated externally between the lower 
 jaw ami mastoid process; it is attached to the os hyoides 
 in toe human subject at the middle of its course. It pulls 
 the lower jaw downwards and backwards ; and when the 
 jaw3 are shut it draws the larynx, and with it the pharynx, 
 upwards in the act of swallowing. 
 
 DI'GEST. Several compilations of the Roman Law 
 have been so called ; but the best known is that which was 
 made by order of the emperor Justinian. It is also termed 
 the Pandects, from the Greek words itav, all, and isxtoBai, 
 Tire; signifying the general nature of the collection. 
 • ire of this great compilation was entrusted by the 
 •ror to Tribonian, with seventeen associates. It was 
 . ated in three years, and published a. d. 533. It con- 
 he best decisions and opinions of former jurists, col- 
 I. it is said, from more than two thousand volumes; 
 and follows the same arrangement as the code of the same 
 emperor, which had appeared in 529. The Pandects of 
 Justinian, according to the commonly received story, were 
 nsglected in the Eastern Empire shortly after the decease 
 i. f that emperor, and were wholly lost in the West until the 
 accidental discovery of a MS at Amalfi in 1130. But this 
 radilion is now generally believed to rest on no solid foun- 
 347 
 
 DIGRESSION. 
 
 dation. See Law, Civil. (See also Gibbon, cap. 44.; 
 Sarigny on the Roman Late.) 
 
 DIGE'STER. A strong iron or copper vessel wi'.h a 
 tightly adjusted lid, furnished with a safety valve, in which 
 bodies may be subjected to the action of high-pressure 
 steam. 
 
 DIGE'STION. The general process by which food is 
 converted into chyme in the stomachs of animals, and bv 
 which it is rendered fit for the production of chyle, and 
 ultimately of blood. The term digestion is also more gene- 
 rally applied to the entire functions of the intestinal canal. 
 The phenomena of digestion, though exclusively chemical, 
 are also under the immediate influence of vitality, and are 
 consequently perfectly different from any changes which 
 the food suffers out of the body ; hence the unsatisfactory 
 conclusions of the older physiologists, who considered at- 
 trition, fermentation, and similar mechanical and chemical 
 processes as sufficient to account for the extraordinary 
 changes that are produced. It has been clearly ascertained 
 that the influence of the nervous system is essential to the 
 due performance of the functions of the stomach ; and 
 that when the brain, cr the nerves that supply that viscus, 
 are either injured or divided, digestion is either impaired 
 or altogether suspended, and the food then ferments and 
 putrefies instead of digesting. It haa been said that the 
 transmission of a current of electricity through the nerves 
 is equivalent to their connection with the brain, and that 
 under such circumstances the stomach, notwithstanding 
 the division of its nerves, continues its functions ; but 
 these, and other statements in which electricity is said to 
 be equivalent to the nervous and cerebral agency, require 
 much more extended experimental proofs than they have 
 hitherto received, before they can be admitted as true in- 
 terpretations. 
 
 Digestion. In Surgery, this term was formerly applied 
 to the treatment by which wounds or ulcers were brought 
 Into that state In which they form healthy pus : the reme- 
 dies or applications promoting this object wero termed 
 digestives. 
 
 DI'GGING. The operation of moving earth with a spade. 
 In gardens where ihe soil is loose the main object of dig- 
 ging is to mix the soil by burying the surface, and bringing 
 what is below to the top. and in that case a spade with a 
 large blade may be used , but In digging firm ground spades 
 can only be used which have narrow blades, as these may 
 be more easily made to penetrate the ground. 
 
 l)I'GIT(Lat. digitus, finger), in Arithmetic, signifies one 
 of the ten symbols, 0, 1, 2, 3, dec, by which all numbers are 
 expressed. By astronomers the term is used in speaking 
 of eclipses, to denote the twelfth part of the diameter of 
 the sun or moon. ThU3, the eclipse is said to be of ten 
 digits, if ten parts out of twelve of the diameter are con- 
 cealed. It is convenient to employ this mode of defining 
 the maenitude of an eclipse. 
 
 DIGITA'LIA. A vegetable alcaloid, procured from the 
 leaves of the digitalis. See Foxglove. 
 
 DI'GITICRADE.S, Digitigrada. (Lat. digitus, a digit , 
 gradior,/u>«/&.) The carnivorous quadrupeds, which walk 
 on the extremities of their digits. An artificial group of 
 Carnivora is so called in the system of Cuvier. 
 
 DI'GLYPII. (Gr. iif, twice, and vXu^w, J carve.) In 
 Architecture, a projecting face with two panels sunk 
 thereon. 
 
 DI'GNITARY, in the Canon Law, signified originally a 
 person who held an ecclesiastical benefice ordignity, which 
 gave him some preeminence above mere priests and 
 canons. To this class exclusively belonged all bishops, 
 deans, archdeacons, &c. ; but it now includes all the pre- 
 bendaries and canons of the church. 
 
 DIGRE'SSION (Lai. digredi, to diverge), signifies any 
 details introduced into a work, which are either altogether 
 foreign from Ihe immediate subjects of which it treats, or 
 not absolutely necessary to the progress or development 
 of the story. It will at once be perceived from this defi- 
 nition that, as a general rule, digressions are to be carefully 
 avoided, from their tendency to withdraw the attention of 
 the reader from the chief points of the story or the question 
 under discussion. There are, however, some departments 
 of literature in which the use of digressions is not only ad- 
 missible, but even advantageous. On this subject, how- 
 ever, no definite rules can be laid down for the guidance 
 of the author; but there can be little doubt that if intro- 
 duced properly and without effort, managed with good 
 taste, and confined within reasonable limits, digressions 
 have the effect of relieving the mind from the fatigue of a 
 too long sustained attention, and of imparting life and in- 
 terest to a subject that may be naturally dry and uninte- 
 resting. The Essays of Montaigne exhibit more clearly 
 than any similar productions with which we are acquainted 
 the admirable uses to which digressions may be turned in 
 the hands of a master. Many of the writings of Sterne, but 
 more especially his Tristram Shandy (which contains an 
 eulogium upon digressions), supply the happiest examples 
 of their effects ; and in our times The Doctor, Sec. of whict 
 
DILAPIDATION. 
 
 five volumes have already been published, owes its prin- 
 cipal attractions to the digressions with which the story is 
 interlarded. *?ee Episode. 
 
 Digression, in Astronomy, denotes the apparent dis- 
 tance of the inferior planets Mercury and Venus from the 
 sun. Mercury is never seen at a greater distance than about 
 9.3° from the sun; this is called its greatest digression: but 
 on account of the great eccentricity of the planet's orbit, 
 the limit is subject to considerable variation. The greatest 
 digression of Venus is about 47£°, and it admits of a varia- 
 tion only amounting to about 20° 48' between its extreme 
 values. When the digression of an inferior planet attains 
 its maximum, the visual ray along which it is seen is a tan- 
 gent to the oroit, and the planet appears for some days 
 nearly stationary. The term elongation is also used to de- 
 note a planet's apparent distance from the sun; but elon- 
 gation is applied indifferently to any planet, whereas di- 
 gression is usually confined to the two inferior ones. 
 
 DILAPIDATION, chiefly in Ecclesiastical Law, is where 
 an incumbent of a benefice suffers the parsonage house or 
 outhouses to fall down or be in decay for want of neces- 
 sary repairs, or commits any wilful waste of the inheritance 
 of the church. Proceedings against an incumbent for di- 
 lapidations must be in the spiritual court. Against his 
 executors, the remedy is either by proceeding in that court, 
 or the successor may have an action of debt or on the case 
 for damages at common law. 
 
 DILATA'TION. See Expansion. 
 
 DILE'MMA. (Gr. <5ij, twice, and \fjptpia,' an assump- 
 tion; a tiro fold assumption.) In Logic, a species of argu- 
 ment in the form of a complex conditional syllogism. (See 
 Syllogism.) It has been divided by logical writers into— 
 1. The simple constructive dilemma, in which the major 
 premiss contains several antecedents all with the same 
 consequent ; the minor premiss grants that some one of 
 these antecedents is true; and the conclusion infers that 
 the common consequent is true : e. g. If A is B, C is D; 
 and if X is Y, C is D ; but either A is B or X is Y, there- 
 fore C is D. 2. The complex constructive dilemma, in 
 which the several antecedents have each a distinct con- 
 sequent; and it being granted that one antecedent is true, 
 it follows that one consequent is true : e. g. If A is B, 
 C is D ; and if X is Y, E is F ; but either A is B or X is 
 Y, therefore either C is D or E is F. 3. The destructive 
 dilemma, properly so called, has several antecedents 
 with each a different consequent; and by denying the 
 consequents disjunctively (i. e. denying that one or the 
 other consequent is true) in the minor premiss, we pro- 
 ceed in the conclusion to deny the truth of one or the other 
 antecedent : <■>. g. If A is B, C is D ; and if X is Y, E is F ; 
 but either C is not D or E is not F, therefore either A is 
 not B or X is not Y. Evecy dilemma may be reduced into 
 two or more simple conditional syllogisms. 
 
 In the ordinary sense of the word, a dilemma is an ar- 
 gument in which two or more propositions are pressed 
 upon the mind in such a manner that by granting which 
 we will, we are compelled to infer the same conclusion. 
 One of the most celebrated dilemmas is that of the philo- 
 sopher Protogoras in reference to his pupil Euathlus ; for 
 an account of which we beg to refer the reader to the 
 Athenian Letters, vol. i. p. 149. 
 
 Dl'LETTA'NTE. (It.) A term wholly naturalized in 
 France, England, and Germany ; signifying an amateur, 
 chiefly of music, but also of the kindred sciences. There 
 has existed in England, since the year 1760, a society called 
 the Dilettanti Society, which was originally instituted by 
 gentlemen who had travelled in Italy, simply for social 
 purposes, and for perpetuating in each other's company 
 the pleasure they had derived from their residence in that 
 classic country : but its objects soon become materially 
 extended ; and it has acquired universal celebrity by the 
 liberality with which it has devoted its funds to the pur- 
 poses of science and art. The society still exists, and 
 meetings of it are occasionally held. Some of the most 
 famous travellers in Greece and Asia Minor, among whom 
 we may mention Chandler, have been sent out at the sole 
 expense of the Dilettanti Society ; and many works illus- 
 trative of the art and science of the classic regions of an- 
 tiquity, which would otherwise in all probability never 
 have seen the light, have under their auspices been given 
 to the world. 
 
 DI'LIGENCE. In Scottish Law, a general term, com- 
 prehending the process of law by which persons, lands, or 
 effects are seized in execution or in security for debt. 
 It is divided into that against the heritage, that asainst the 
 moveables, and that against the person of the debtor; of 
 each of which there are several species. (See Inhibi- 
 tion, Adjudication, Poinding, Sequestration, Horn- 
 ing.) Diligence is also the name of the warrants issued 
 by courts for enforcing the attendance o£witnesses, or the 
 production of writings. 
 
 DILLENIA'CETE. (Dillenia, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, a natural order of chiefly arborescent Exogens, 
 inhatiting the hotter parts of the world. Allied to Magno- 
 348 
 
 DIOPHANTINE ANALYSIS. 
 
 liacece; from which they are distinguished by their wan 
 of stipules, and the quinary arrangement of the parts of 
 fructification. They differ from JRanunculacece, to which 
 they are also akin, in their persistent calyx and habit, and 
 are universally characterized by the presence of an aril. 
 Their properties are generally astringent. 
 
 DILL SEED. The seed of the Anethum graveolens, or 
 common dill. This plant is grown for the supply of the 
 medical market with seeds: they are warm aromalics, with 
 something of the caraway flavour, and yield dill uater and 
 an essential oil when distilled with water. Dill water is a 
 useful remedy in flatulency and gripes of children. 
 
 DI'LUENTS. (Lat. diluo, / wash auay.) Water and 
 aqueous drinks, winch increase the secretion of urine and 
 the perspiration, and ap|)ear to dilute the fluids of the body, 
 are medically spoken of as diluents. 
 
 DILU'VIUM. (Lat.) The accumulations of gravel, &c. 
 supposed to have been the consequence of the deluge. 
 
 DI'MERANS, Dimera. (Gr. Sis, two, finpo;, thigh.) The 
 name of a section of Celeopterans, comprehending those 
 which have apparently only two joints in each tarsus; this 
 structure, however, does not in point of fact exist, there 
 being always a third rudimental tarsal joint. 
 
 DIMINISHED IN'TERVAL. In Music, one that is de- 
 fective or short of its just quantity by a lesser semitone. 
 
 DIMINTJE'NDO. (It.) In Music, an instruction to the 
 performer to lessen the volume of sound from loud to soft, 
 usually marked thus >. 
 
 DIMINU'TION. (Lat. diminutio.) In Music, a division 
 of a large note into smaller ones ; as a semibreve into two 
 minims, four crotchets, &c. 
 
 Diminu'tion. In Architecture, the gradual decrease of 
 the diameter of a column as it rises. See Entasis. 
 
 DIMI'NUTIVE (Lat.), in Grammar, is applied to words 
 which, by (he addition of one or more syllables to those 
 from which they are derived, soften the meaning or dimi- 
 nish the force and effect thereof. Every language is in a 
 greater or less degree susceptible of diminutives; but in 
 this respect, as is well known, the Italian language sur 
 passes all those both of ancient and modern times. 
 
 Dl'MITY. A cotton cloth of a thick texture, and g< --tic- 
 rally striped or otherwise ornamented in the loom ; it \s 
 chiefly used for articles of female dress, and for bed furni- 
 ture or window curtains, and is very rarely dyed. 
 
 DIMYA'RIAS, Dimyarice. (Gr. dty, twice, //uwv, a urns- 
 cle.) All those bivalves or conchifers are so called which 
 have two distinct and separate adductor muscles, and con- 
 sequently two corresponding muscular impressions on each 
 valve. 
 
 DI'OCESE. (Gr. tiioiKTiats, a government.) The terri 
 torial extent of a bishop's jurisdiction, embracing several 
 paraecia? or parishes. As in early times the Christian con- 
 verts were most, numerous or most easily collected into 
 a congregation in large towns, so in these towns did the 
 bishop reside and minister to the faithful in his cltui el 
 sisted by his priests and deacons. When the numberofbe. 
 lievers required the accommodation of additional temples, 
 or congregations were formed in the neighbouring villages, 
 the bishop was wont, to appoint priests for Iheir service, 
 and the districts inhabited by these subsidiary congregations 
 would become the parishes of his diocese. 
 
 DI'ODON. (Gr. <5(j, and oSovf, a tooth; two-toolhed.) 
 The name of agenusof Plectognatliic fishes with undivided 
 jaws, each with a single and continuous dental plate. 
 
 DIONY'SIA. (Gr. ra Aiovvaa.) In Ancient History, 
 the festivals of Dionysus or Bacchus, but more particularly 
 those that were celebrated in Attica, which were three in 
 number, distinguished by the following titles: — I. The 
 Country Dionysia (tTi Kar' ayfiovs). 2. Those in Llmnae 
 (a part of the city of Athens, where they were held), which 
 were also called Lensean (to. \avaTa, from Arji'oj, a irine- 
 press), or Anthesteria (AvOecrriipia, from Anthesterion, the 
 name of the Attic month corresponding to our January, in 
 which they were celebrated) ; and 3. The Great Dionysia 
 (ra fiiyaXa)- At all of these festivals the chief amuse- 
 ments consisted in the representation of stage plays; but 
 the last was most celebrated, as then, before the face of all 
 Greece, the great tragic contests were held, no expense 
 being spared to render the decorations and accompani- 
 ments as splendid as art could make them : for on these 
 exhibitions a great portion of the revenues drawn from 
 the tributary states was expended, besides the private pro- 
 perty of the persons appointed to superintend them, they 
 being not only under the protection of the state, but a prin- 
 cipal object of its care. (See Bazckh's Public Economy of 
 Athens.) 
 
 DIOPHA'NTINE ANA'LYSIS. A branch of algebra, 
 which treats of certain classes of indeterminate question* 
 relatina to square and cube numbers, rectangular triangles 
 &c. The name is derived from Diophanlus, a mathema 
 tician of Alexandria, who is supposed to have lived In the 
 third century of our era, and who examined and resolved 
 a great number of questions of this nature in his relebrated 
 treatise on arithmetic. Of this work, which exhibits tha 
 
DIOPSIS. 
 
 state of algebra among the Greeks, there are two editions: 
 
 one by Bachet at Paris, in 1621 ; the other at Toulouse, in 
 
 which is enriched by some valuable notes of Fermat. 
 
 ig example will serve to illustrate the nature of 
 
 the Diophantine problems ; the object of which, in general, 
 
 Is to find commensurable numbers that satisfy conditions 
 
 m iv be satisfied by an infinity of indeterminate 
 
 nam it were required to find three numbers, 
 
 such tint tiic sunt of the squares of the two first is equal to 
 
 the square <>f the third; that is, to find x, y, and z, such 
 
 that x' 1 + y % = z*. The solution may be as follows :— Let 
 
 —*i + u, then :' = i'+2iti + '<", and x* + y' = x* 
 
 _y* — «*'. 
 
 9m 
 
 -t- u*, or y* = 2 x u + u', whence x = '- 
 
 we may choose for y and m any numbers we please, 
 so that y' — u* is divisible by 2 u (which will be the case 
 if ire make u = 1, and y any odd number whatever). For 
 exam;.!' 1 . If we suppose y = 3, and u= 1, we have x = 4, 
 an 1 ; = x-f i/ =5 ; so that the three numbers are 3, 4, and 
 • ice x* -f-y»=z*, it is obvious that x and y may re- 
 present the two sides of a right angled triangle, of which 
 its the hynothenose. The student of the indeterminate 
 analysis will find this subject very fully and perspicuously 
 ud volume of Ruler's Algebra. 
 DtO'PSlS. ((Jr. 6ia. through, and <oip, an eye.) The 
 nun D us insects, remarkable for 
 
 having I antenna situated at the extremity of 
 
 mcles ri.-ini: from the sides of the head, 
 ■i il h ng, in some species, the entire length of the body. 
 DIOPTRICS. (Gr. Siotrrpov. something transparent; 
 from iia. through, andoxrofiai, /s<?e.) "A branch of Optics, 
 of which the object is to investigate ami explain the effects 
 of the refraction of light when it passes through different 
 , <fcc. Its principal application is 
 to the contraction of telescopes and microscopes, and 
 other instruments which require the use of refracting 
 lenses. The term is not much used by modern writers on 
 tens to which it refers being under the 
 general head of Refraction. See Lens, Lioht, Optics, 
 Refraction. 
 
 DNMIA'.MA. (Gr. Sta, through, and 6pao>, Tsee.) Amode 
 of painting or scenic, representation, invented by two 
 French artists. Daguerre and Iloulon, and recently brought 
 forward as a public exhibition in all the principal cities of 
 
 The peculiar and very high degree of optical illusion pro- 
 duced by the diorama depends upon two principles; the 
 mode of exhibiting the painting, and the manner of pre- 
 : it With respect to the first of these, the spectator 
 and the picture are placed in separate rooms, and the 
 picture viewed throngn an aperture, the sides of which are 
 continued towards the picture, so as to prevent any object 
 picture room from being seen excepting the painting 
 Into tiie room in which the spectator is placed no 
 admitted excepting what comes through this aper- 
 ture from the picture; he is thus placed in comparative 
 darkness, anil also (which contributes to the effect) at a 
 considerable distance from the picture. The picture room 
 is Illuminated from the roof, which is glazed with ground 
 . and the picture so placed that the light falls on it at 
 a proper angle to be reflected towards the aperture. The 
 roof, which is invisible to the spectator, is provided with an 
 apparatus of folds or shutters, by which the intensity of 
 the illumination may be increased or diminished at plea- 
 sure, and so mndified as to represent, with great effect and 
 accuracy, the different accidents of light and shade, or the 
 changes of appearance depending on the state of the at- 
 m ..sphere ; as bright sunshine, cloudy weather, or the ob- 
 scurity of twilight. 
 
 The second principle consists in painting certain parts of 
 the picture in transparency, and admitting a stream of light 
 upon it from behind, which, passing through the picture, 
 produces a brilliancy far surpassing what could be obtained 
 by illuminating the picture in the ordinary way, and renders 
 the relief of the objects represented much stronger and 
 more deceptive. Hence, the diorama is peculiarly adapted 
 for representing architectural objects, as the interiors of 
 cathedrals, &c. 
 
 In order to render the exhibition more attractive, it is 
 usual to present more scenes than one. This may of 
 course be effected by removing one picture and substitu- 
 ting another: but with a view to prevent the illusion from 
 heing impaired by the accidents incidental to scene-shift- 
 log, a different method is sometimes resorted to. In the 
 diorama in the Regent's Park, the room in which the spec- 
 tator is seated i?a rotunda about 40 feet in diameter, which 
 tunes round a vertical axis by means of machinery placed 
 tr.der the floor. There are two picture rooms contiguous 
 to each other, each containing a view ; and when the 
 scene is to be changed, the rotunda is turned round until 
 the aperture in front of the spectators, which was first op- 
 posite to the opening into one of the picture rooms, is placed 
 directly opposite the opening, into the other. This con- 
 349 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 trivance, however, it will be observed, is incependent oi 
 the principles peculiar to the diorama. 
 
 DIOSCOKEA'CEjE. (Dioscorea, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Endogens, inhabiting the tropics, and 
 agreeing with Si7nlacea by the genus Tamus, in having an 
 inferior fruit ; but differing from it by the threefold char- 
 acter of inferior ovary, capsular fruit, and the albumen 
 having a large cavity. The mealy tubers of Dioscorea, un- 
 der the name of yams, form an important food in all tropi- 
 cal countries. 
 
 DIP, in Magnetism, is the angle which a magnetic needle 
 makes with the plane of the horizon, when poised on its 
 centre of gravity and at liberty to turn in the vertical plane. 
 See Dipping Needle. 
 
 Dip. In Geology, when strata are inclined, the angle 
 which they make with the horizon is called the angle of 
 dip or inclination, and the point of the compass towards 
 which they slope is called the dip of the strata. 
 
 DIP OF THE SEA HORIZON. The apparent angular 
 depression of the visible horizon, caused by the height of 
 the spectator above the surface. To find it, multiply the 
 square root of the height in feet by 1-063 ; the result is the 
 dip in minutes (of a degree) and decimals. 
 
 The actual dip observed is generally less than the true or 
 abstract dip by -,-^ on the average ; but this is again affect, 
 ed by the temperature of the sea ; when the sea is warmer 
 than the air the horizon appears lower than its place by 
 theory, and the contrary when the sea is the colder. 
 
 DI'PHTHONG. (Gr. <J($, double ; and (pOiyyonai, 1 
 sound,) has usually been defined to be a double vowel, or 
 the union of two vowels pronounced together, so as only 
 to make one syllable. If, however, this definition be more 
 narrowly examined, it will be found to be deficient in two 
 of the most essential qualities of a good definition— preci- 
 sion and accuracy. If, says Mr. Walker, a diphthong be 
 two vowel sounds in succession, they must necessarily 
 form two syllables, and therefore by the very definition 
 cannot be a diphthong : if il be such a mixture of two vow- 
 els as to form but one simple sound, it is improperly called 
 a diphthong ; nor can any such simple mixture exist. Per- 
 haps the best definition of a diphthong, although even that 
 is tar from embracing all the peculiarities of this class of 
 letters, is to be found in Smith's Scheme fur a French and 
 English Dictionary, to which we beg to refer the reader. 
 
 DI'PHYAN.S, Diphyes. (Gr. <J«f, two, and <pvri, an off- 
 spring.) A family of Acelaphans, comprehending those sin- 
 gular species in which two distinct individuals are always 
 conjoined, one being lodged in the concavity of another. 
 DI'PLOE. (Gr. Jin-Xow, / double.) The homy or 
 spongy substance between the tables of the skull. 
 
 DIPLO'MA. (Gr. <J(irXti\ua, from SirrXoc, double.) Every 
 sort of ancient charter, donation, bull, ic. is comprehend- 
 ed by writers on diplomatics under the name diploma. 
 The term is derived from the earliest charters of donation 
 with which we are acquainted, those of the e^rly Roman 
 emperors having been inscribed on two tablets of copper 
 joined together so as lo fold in the form of a book. Writ- 
 ings of earlier date than the fifth century are generally on 
 leaves of the papyrus, or Biblos jEgyptiaca ; those of a 
 later period, on parchment. The form and character of 
 the diploma granted by the sovereigns, prelates, nobles, &c. 
 of modern Europe, varied from age to age ; and the know- 
 ledge of these variations forms an important branch of the 
 science of diplomatics. 
 
 DIPLO'MACY, in its most restricted sense, is used to 
 express the art of conducting negotiations or arranging 
 treaties between nations by means of their foreign minis- 
 ters, or written correspondence ; but, in its most extended 
 signification, it embraces the whole science of negociation 
 with foreign states as founded on public law, positive en- 
 gagements, or an enlightened view of the interests of each. 
 Hut, upon this subject, we cannot do better than embody in 
 our pages some remarks from the Introduction to Marten's 
 Manuel Diplomatique, in which a distinct view is exhibit- 
 ed of the importance and main objects of diplomacy. 
 
 Diplomacy, says that able statesman, must be placed in 
 the foremost rank of the useful sciences. The fate of na- 
 tions, in the present state of the world, depends greatly on 
 their relations with others ; and these again are materially 
 influenced and determined by the nature of their foreign 
 policy, that is, by the success with which they have cultiva- 
 ted and applied the principles of this science. Diplomacy 
 embraces — 
 
 1. The law of nations, by which the relations of one 
 state with another are determined both in peace and war. 
 
 2. The political principles of individual states, as de- 
 duced from a regard to their peculiar interests ; and a 
 knowledge of the way in which these interests may be re- 
 conciled with, and made subservient to, the law of nations. 
 
 3. An acquaintance with the privileges and duties of di- 
 plomatic agents. 
 
 4. The conduct of negotiations, or the course to be pur- 
 sued in treating of the interests of different states. 
 
DIPLOMATICS. 
 
 5. The moral and physical statistics of each power. 
 
 6. The political and military history of the states having 
 diplomatic relations ; and the projects, tendency, and policy 
 of their respective governments. 
 
 7. The various systems of government, supremacy, con- 
 cession, retention, equilibrium, centralization, confederacy, 
 &c, that may be brought into operation. 
 
 8. The art of composing diplomatic despatches. 
 
 To this multifarious information the diplomatist should 
 unite the powers of calculation and application peculiar to 
 strong minds, — the " tact des convenances," which may be 
 felt, but cannot be expressed, — circumspection, address, 
 and perfect integrity. The combination of these various 
 
 ?iualities will procure for the diplomatist such a character 
 or sagacity, rectitude, and straightforwardness, and will 
 sooner or later obtain for him an ascendency over the 
 minds of others, and give great weight to his opinions. 
 
 It must be remembered that the diplomacy of every na- 
 tion is more or less within the range of casualties ; being 
 subject, to the versatility inseparable from human affairs, 
 the fickleness and passions of man, and the uncertainty of 
 events; — an unlooked-for death, a change of ministry, 
 treacherous designs, undue influence from any quarter, a 
 false calculation, corruption, — each of these causes may 
 change the policy or course of agovernment; and this will 
 more or less affect every other government, in proportion 
 to the extent of its influence. In addition to these numer- 
 ous causes of variation, if ambitious projects be entertained 
 by any great power, diplomacy becomes still more intri- 
 cate and difficult. Every state desires to be protected 
 against the storm which its rulers imagine they can prog- 
 nosticate, and of whose bursting they are apprehensive. 
 Again, we must remark that the schemes of a government, 
 how admirably soever contrived, have often miscarried, 
 either from subordinate persons or those intrusted with 
 putting them in execution having misapplied or misunder- 
 stood the instructions of their superiors. 
 
 From what has been said, it will be easily understood 
 that, in diplomacy, false estimates are frequently formed 
 of the merits of original plans or designs from looking at 
 their results only. The diplomatist is of course exempted 
 from all responsibility in regard to operations mixed up 
 with the events of war;— he is answerable only for the suc- 
 cess of his projects under the conditions on whicli he pro- 
 posed them. 
 
 A diplomatist of moderate capacity, if favoured by cir- 
 cumstances, may accomplish much more than the man 
 c'f genius who has to contend with adverse fortune ; but 
 this difference of success makes no change in their relative 
 ability, and those acquainted with the circumstances readily 
 discriminate between sagacity and accident. 
 
 Diplomacy has been practised in substance ever since 
 mankind have been formed into independent states, though 
 it is difficult to ascertain the precise period at which the 
 term came into use. The system, however, of the regu- 
 lar and uninterrupted residence of foreign ministers during 
 peace at the European courts, as at present practised, is 
 said to have originated with the Cardinal de Richelieu. 
 Before that time embassies had been only sent on special 
 occasions, but attended with much greater show and reti- 
 nue than has been the fashion in modern times ; while the 
 substantial business of states at the neighbouring courts 
 was transacted by agents of a lower stamp and character. 
 Diplomatic agents are now ranked, in Europe, in the fol- 
 lowing order, according to the regulations of the Congress 
 of Vienna: — 1. Ambassadors; 2. Envoys extraordinary 
 and ministers plenipotentiary; 3. Ministers resident; 4. 
 Charge's d'affaires ; 5. Secretaries of legation and attaches : 
 the latter, however, have no precise diplomatic character, 
 and are only considered by courtesy as attached to the 
 legation. 
 
 Among the best works on this important subject are the 
 Traite complet de Diplomatie, ou Theorie generate des Re- 
 lations exterieures des Puissances de I'Europe, par M. le 
 Comte de Garden (Paris, 1833), 3 vols. 8vo. ; and De Wic- 
 quefort's Ambassadeur et ses Functions (Ed. Opt.), 1746, 12 
 vols. 4to. See also the Manuel Diplomatique, by Von Mar- 
 ten (Paris, 1825); Flassan's Hist. Gen et Raisonn. de la 
 Diplom. FYancaise, 7 vols. (Paris, 1811); and Von Marten's 
 (senior) Grundriss einer Diplom. Geschichte der Europ. 
 Slaatshandcl, #c. (Hamburg, 8vo). 
 
 DIPLOMA'TICS. The science of deciphering ancient 
 writings, assigning their date, &c. The name is derived 
 from diploma, which see. Writings of earlier date than 
 the fifth century were mostly on the leaves of the papyrus, 
 or Biblos AEgyptiaca. Parchment appears to have been 
 first generally used in that century ; and the oldest docu- 
 ments bearing the character of diplomas which we pos- 
 sess do not extend to a higher antiquity. Not long after 
 the general adoption of parchment, a variety of substances 
 and colours began to be used in writing, as vermillion, pur- 
 ple, gold and silver ; but this sumptuous fashion did not 
 long remain in use. The science of diplomatics teaches 
 the different styles and forms adopted in ancient public 
 350 
 
 DIPPING NEEDLE. 
 
 documents ; the titles, rank, &c, of public officers whose 
 names are subscribed to them ; the knowledge of the ma- 
 terials used in writing in different ages, of the different 
 characters used in successive periods and in various coun- 
 tries ; and the several kinds of diplomas or public instru- 
 ments. 
 
 This science is said to owe its origin to a Jesuit of An 
 twerp, named Papelroch, who devoted himself arduously 
 to the research and exposition of old diplomas about the 
 year 1075 ; but the honour of having reduced it 10 a science, 
 and established it on a sure and more satisfactory founda- 
 tion, is due to Mabillon, whose learned work, Dere Diplo- 
 matica, was given to the world in 1681. The principles 
 laid down by Mabillon, however, were more fully developed 
 about the middle of last century, in one of the most elaco 
 rate works of which the literature of any nation can boast 
 the Nouvcau Traite de Diplomatique ; and which has left 
 little to be done by subsequent labourers in this field be 
 yond the duty of translation, compilation, or abridgment. 
 From the above statement of the objects of this science, it 
 will be at once perceived that it is of immeuso utility. It 
 has greatly facilitated the researches of the historian, the 
 politician, the divine, the political economist; and has con- 
 tributed to the elucidation of points in the history of na- 
 tions which might otherwise have been for ever buried in 
 obscurity. We subjoin a list of the most important works 
 on this interesting science, arranged according to the date 
 of their publication ; from which it will be seen that t lie 
 French and Germans have prosecuted this science with an 
 energy and enthusiasm to whicli, considering its vast im- 
 portance, our national literature presents a most humiliat- 
 ing contrast. Besides the work of Papelroch above re- 
 ferred to, entitled the Propylmum, there are, Mabillon, De 
 re Diplomatica, 6 vols. fol. (Paris, 1681), to which a supple- 
 mentary vol. was added in 1704 ; Historia Diplomat ice, by 
 Maffei, 4to. (Mantua, 1727: this work may be regarded as 
 merely a supplement to Mabillon) ; Citron. Waltheri Lexi- 
 con Diplom. 3 vols. fol. (Golting. 1745-7) ; Ileumann von 
 Teulschenbrunn, Commenta. de re Diplom. Rigum, iyc, 
 4to. (Nuremberg, 1745) ; Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique, 
 by the Benedictine monks Toussaint and Tassin, 6 vols. 
 4to. (Paris, 1750-65) ; De Vaine's Diction. Raixtmnee de 
 Diplomatique, 2 \ols. 8vo. (Paris, 1774: this work is intended 
 chiefly to aid beginners in the science) ; Gatterer, Abriss 
 der Diplomatik, 8vo. (Gotting. 1798); Schmnemann's Pro- 
 lusio de Jinibus Arlis. Diplom. Pract. Regundis ; and his 
 Versuch eines Vollstiind. Systems der AUgem. besonders iil- 
 tern Diplomatik, 8vo. (Gutting. 1802). 
 
 DIPLONEU'RANS, Diploneura. (Gr. liit%o%, doubie, 
 and vcvpov, nerve.) A name applied by Rudolphi to that 
 division of the animal kingdom comprehending the species 
 which have two nervous systems, viz. the ganglionic or 
 sympathetic, and the cerebro-spinal ; the series so desig- 
 nated corresponds with the Vertebrata of Cuvier. 
 
 DIPLO'PIA. (Gr. iivXos, double, and oxrofiai, I see.) 
 Double vision. This affection occasionally is symptomatic 
 of nervous irritability, worms, indigestion, hysteria, &c. 
 
 DIPLO'PTERA. (Gr. SiirXos, double, and irrtpov, a 
 wing ; doubled wing.) The name of a division of Aculeate 
 Hymenopterous insects, comprising those species of wasp 
 which have the upper wings folded or doubled up longitu- 
 dinally when at rest. 
 
 DIPLO'ZOON. (Gr. JiirAoj, double, $aiov, an animal; 
 double animal.) The name of a very singular parasitic 
 worm, which infests the gills of the bream, and which ap- 
 pears to be formed of two distinct bodies united in the 
 middle, so as to present the appearance of a St. Andrew's 
 cross, each half of the animal containing precisely the 
 same organs : viz. the alimentary canal, a sanguiferous and 
 a generative system. 
 
 DIPNEUMO'NEANS, Dipneumonea. (Gr. Sis, twice, 
 and irvLVjioiv, a lung; twolunged.) A term applied to a 
 section of spiders (Araneidm), including those which have 
 only two pulmonary sacs. 
 
 DI'PPEL'S OIL. An empyreumatic oil, produced dur- 
 ing the destructive distillation of bone. 
 
 DI'PPER. A name commonly given to the water-ouzel 
 and other species of the genus Cinclus. 
 
 DI'PPING NE'EDLE. An instrument for showing the 
 direction of the magnetic force of the earth. It is a mag- 
 netic needle, furnished with an axis at right angles to its 
 length, and passing as exactly as possible through its cen- 
 tre of gravity, about which it moves in a vertical plane. 
 When a needle thus mounted ^is placed any where not on 
 the magnetic equator, it dips, or points downwards ; and if 
 the vertical plane in which it moves coincides with the 
 maanetic meridian (which is always known by means of a 
 variation compass), the position which it assumes shows at 
 once the direction of the magnetic force ; and the intersec- 
 tion of two or more directions, found by making the expe- 
 riment at different places, indicates the place of the mag- 
 netic pole. Though the principles on which the dipping 
 needle acts are abundantly simple, its practical construc- 
 tion is found to be exceedingly difficult. It must be ao 
 
DIPSACEjE 
 
 curately balanced on its axis; the axis must be placed ex- 
 actly horizontal ; the friction must be diminished to the 
 utmost extent possible; and the adjustments can only be 
 wtien the needle is perfectly free from magnetism, 
 and also s-'cured from the effects of the magnetic influence 
 of the earth. It must be subsequently magnetized, and 
 during this process much care is required to guard against 
 derangement. The simple construction is represented in 
 the annexed figure. The needle D d consists of a flat 
 oblong piece of steel, tapering to a point at both ends, 
 and having a slender cylindrical axis passed through its 
 centre of gravity. The axis moves 
 freely in circular holes made in the 
 lateral horizontal bar.s HA, which sup- 
 port a vertical circle C C, graduated 
 lor the purpose of showing the inclina- 
 tion of the needle to the horizon. The 
 stand S T, to which the circle is fixed, 
 is provided with levels, and adjusted 
 to horizontally by means of screws. 
 But in the most improved form of 
 ictioo of the dipping needle, the 
 axia, instead of being a cylinder, is a knife edge, resting 
 perpendicularly, like t lie supports of a pendulum, on two 
 ''.no's. A needle thus supported, however, must 
 Hilly make small oscillations; consequently it must 
 be so adjusted that when it points in the direction of the 
 magnetic force, the knife edges maybe perpendicular to 
 the agate planes. The mean value ,,'f [he angle of the dip 
 therefore be known previously to its construction ; but 
 it is the best adapted, on account of its delicacy, for ascer- 
 taining the minute variations of the dip at (he same place. 
 The angle of the dip, like that of the variation, changes its 
 a the same place, following of course the mo- 
 tion of the magnetic poles, which, from the observations 
 t>y Seoresby. Parry, Ross, and others, in high lati- 
 tudes, appear to have a motion westward, the annual 
 amount of which is about 11' 4". In the summer of 1931, 
 in an excursion from the vessel in which 
 his party were so long detained in the polar seas, reached 
 on the continent of North America, which had been 
 ealcol tied to be the position of the magnetic pole. There 
 he found the dip of the needle to be 89° 59', within one 
 minute of the vertical; and compass needles suspended in 
 toe most delicate manner possible exhibited no polarity 
 ^■•r. The latitude of this spot is 70° 5' 17" north, 
 audits loogito.de 96° 46' 45" west (For a description of 
 MM other forms of the dipping needle, see Brewster's 
 nn Magnetism.) 
 DIPSA'CEiE. (Dipsacus, one of the genera.) In Ho- 
 ler of herbaceous Exogens, chiefly in- 
 habiting the south of Europe and a few other countries. 
 I to CompasUa; but differing in their stamens 
 b. in' distinct, and their ovule pendulous. They are dis- 
 tinguished from CalyceracetB in the latter having connate 
 anthers and alternate leaves; and from Valerianacete by 
 their capitate flowers, and the presence of albumen. Their 
 properties are unimportant. Dipsaciis fullonum is em- 
 ploye.! mecha n ically, for the sake of its hard stiff bracts, in 
 the process of dressing woollen cloths. 
 
 DI'PSAS. (Gr. a viper.) This term has been applied 
 
 by Lanrenli to a genus of Colubrine serpents; and by 
 
 Dr. Leech to a genus of fresh-water Bivalves, intermediate 
 
 to Unio and Anodonta. 
 
 DIPTERA'CEJS. A natural order of arborescent Exo- 
 
 ■ nlv found in India ami the Indian Archipelago, very 
 mar to JCUnocarpea ; but distinguished by the petals not 
 being fringed, and in the want of albumen. They are also 
 allied to MidEocece, in the contorted aestivation of the corolla 
 and the crumpled cotyledons; but differ in the stamens be- 
 ing either distinctor partially combined, their long, narrow, 
 2-celled anthers, and pendulous ovules. Illume traces an 
 affinity with Guttiferai in their resinous juice, compound su- 
 perior ovary, drupaceous fruit, numerous long anthers, irre- 
 gular coloured calyx, and single exalbuminous seed; but 
 from this order the stipules and the .estivation of the co- 
 rolla abundantly distinguish them. The order is chieflv 
 mirked by the enlarged foliaceous unequal segments of 
 
 dyx investing the fruit. To it belongs the camphor 
 tree ( Dryoba!anops camp/wra), which also yields the cam- 
 phor oil of Borneo and Sumatra, and a timber called sal, 
 •• and most extensively used in India; while other 
 vield pitch. 
 DI'PTERAL. (Gr. inzrtoos, double-winged.) In Archt- 
 e, a temple which hada double range of columns on 
 
 ■ fits flanks. 
 
 Dl'PTERANS, Diptera. (Gr. Stxrcpos.) An order of 
 ■ i having for their main and most conspicuous cha- 
 racter two wings only corresponding to the anterior pair, 
 and two short clubbed appendages, called halteres or ba- 
 lancers, and which seem to be the rudiments of the poste- 
 rior pair in four-winged insects. The Dipterans are also 
 distinguished by having the mouth in the form of a sucker, 
 composed of from two to six lancet-shaped elongated scales, 
 351 
 
 ' DISCHARGE. 
 
 inclosing a canal upon the upper surface of a fleshy tongue 
 or proboscis. The larvae or maggots of the Dipterous in- 
 sects have frequently a membranous head ; and always 
 have the stigmata, or breathing pores, confined to the se- 
 cond and terminal segments of the body. In some species, 
 as the blowfly, the eggs are hatched within the body of the 
 parent ; in others, as the forest fly (Hippobosca), the larva 
 undergoes its metamorphosis in the parent's body, and the 
 young are excluded in the form of pupa. 
 
 DIPTERY'GIANS, Dipterygia. (Gr. in, twice, and 
 irrepv^ a fin ; two-finned.) A family of fishes compre- 
 hending those which have but two fins. 
 
 DIP'TYCH. (Gr. iinrvxov, two-fold.) Among the Ro- 
 mans, a tablet of wood, metal, or other substance, used for 
 the purposftof writing, and folded like a book of two leaves : 
 when the blok consisted of several leaves, it was termed 
 TroXiirrvx ", or manifold. The diptychs of antiquity 
 were employed especially for public registers. The sacred 
 diptycha of the Greek church were double catalogues, con- 
 taining on one siile names of the living, on the other those 
 of the dead, which were rehearsed during the office. 
 
 DI'PIIS. (Gr. ii(. and irovj, afoot.) The general name 
 for the Jerboas or Rodent animals, in which the hind-legs 
 are disproportionately developed, and chiefly serve for lo- 
 comotion. The numerous species referable to the Lin- 
 mean genus are now divided into the subgenera Alactaga, 
 Orr/n'llun. Diput proper, &c. ; and form the family Dipo- 
 dida ; the Gerbilli, however, are more nearly allied to the 
 Muridce. 
 
 DIPY'RE. (Gr. iif, and m>p, fire ; i. e. a mineral dou- 
 bly susceptible of the action of fire.) This mineral was 
 originally confounded wiih picnite. It is found in the West- 
 ern Pyrenees. When heated before the blowpipe, it first 
 becomes phosphorescent, and then fuses : characters by 
 which it is distinguished from picnite. It occurs in white 
 or reddish white transparent or translucent crystals, of a 
 prismatic form; its specific gravity is 2-63. It is hard 
 enough to scratch glass. It is a silicate of alumina and 
 lime. 
 
 DI'RECT. (Lat. dirigo.) In Music, a character used at 
 the end of a staff, to direct the performer's no- 
 tice to the succeeding note at the beginning of 
 — the following staff. 
 
 DIRE'CTOR. A common surgical instrument ; it is 
 generally made of silver, and resembles a grooved probe. 
 Its use is to flirect the knife, and protect the parts under- 
 neath from its edge or point. 
 
 DIRECTORS. In Commerce, the name given to the in- 
 dividuals composing the board of management of a Joint 
 stock company ; as the Bank of England, the E. I. Co.,"&c. 
 
 DIRE'CTORY. In French History, the name given by 
 the constitution of 1795 to the executive body of the 
 French republic. It consisted of five individuals, called 
 directors, who were selected by the council of elders from 
 a list of candidates presented by the council of five hun- 
 dred. One of these directors retired every year,and was suc- 
 ceeded by another elected on the same principle. To the 
 Directory was entrusted the superintendence of the home 
 and foreign departments, the finances and the army, and 
 the appointment of the ministers of state and other public 
 functionaries. Its policy was at first moderate anti con- 
 ciliatory ; but after a short interval it had recourse to mea- 
 sures which produced wide-spread dissatisfaction, and it 
 was at length overthrown on the ascendency of Bonaparte 
 after an existence of four years. (For the history of the 
 Directory, see Memoiresde Gohier, Paris, 1824.) 
 
 Directory, signifies also a book containing the names 
 of the inhabitants of a town, arranged in alphabetical order, 
 together with their places of abode, &c. It is likewise ap 
 plied to a book containing directions for public worship, or 
 other religious services. 
 
 DIRE'CTRIX. In Geometry, the name given to a cer- 
 tain straight line perpendicular to the axis of a conic sec- 
 tion ; anil it is a property of these curves that the distance 
 of any point of the curve from the directrix is to the -lis 
 tance of the same point from the focus in a constant ratio. 
 The term is also sometimes applied generally to any line, 
 whether straight or curved, which is required for the de- 
 scription of any curve. 
 
 DIRGE. (A contraction of dirige, used in the old for- 
 mula of the Catholic service for the dead— Dirige, Domine, 
 Deus.) A funeral song or hymn. 
 
 DISABI'LITY, in Law, signifies a state which renders a 
 person incapable of enjoying certain legal benefits ; as, the 
 state of an alien renders him incapable of taking lands, that 
 of infancy of making valid contracts, and so forth. Disa- 
 bility, it is said, may happen in four ways : by the act of 
 the ancestor, of the person, of God, or of the law. 
 
 DISC, or DISK. (Lat. discus.) In Astronomy, the face 
 of the sun, moon, or a planet, such as it appears to us pro- 
 jected on the sky. The forms of the celestial bodies being 
 spherical, their projections are circular planes. 
 
 DISCHA'RGE. (Fr. discharger.) In Architecture, a 
 term used to signify the relief or distribution of a weight 
 
DISCIPLE. 
 
 or load to be borne ; thus discharging arches are those 
 used in any wall over a lintel to discharge the lintel of the 
 weight which would be otherwise borne by it. 
 
 DlSCl'PLE. (Lat. discipulus.) Literally, one who 
 learns the principles of any science or liberal art from 
 another; but the term is used in a eulogistic sense, more 
 particularly to signify the followersof any renowned teacher 
 or philosopher, whose spirit they have imbibed along with 
 a knowledge of his peculiar tenets. 
 
 DISCIPLINE (Lat.) signifies, primarily, instruction or 
 government ; but it is applied figuratively to a peculiar 
 mode of life, in accordance with the rules of some profes- 
 sion or society. It is also used to designate the punish- 
 ments employed in convents, and those which enthusiasts 
 undergo or inflict upon themselves by way of mortification. 
 
 DISCIPLINE, BOOK OF, in the Church of Scotland, 
 is a common order, drawn up by the General Assembly in 
 1650 for the reformation and uniformity to be observed in 
 the discipline and policy of the church. In this book epis- 
 copal government is set aside, Kirk sessions are established, 
 the observance of saints' and other holy days is condemned, 
 and other regulations for the internal government of the 
 church are prescribed. It is called the First Book of 
 Discipline. 
 
 DISCIPLINE, MILITARY. The obedience to and exer- 
 cise of the laws of military men and matters: bravery 
 may gain a battle, but the final event of war is essentially 
 dependent upon discipline. " Discipline is the right arm 
 of a general, and money is his shield." 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE SECRET, or DISCIPLI'NA 
 ARCA'NI. A name given by theological writers to a sys- 
 tem supposed to have been in force in the primitive church, 
 by which its most important and mysterious doctrines 
 were concealed from the mass of believers, and fully de- 
 veloped only to a select class. When at the beginning of 
 the Reformation the Roman Catholics were urged with 
 the silence or ambiguity of the fathers of the first four cen- 
 turies upon many principal points of their doctrine, they 
 met the objection by declaring it to be the constant custom 
 of the primitive church, enjoined by the apostles them- 
 selves (for which they quoted 1 Cor. iii, 1, 2.), to throw a 
 veil of mystery, or preserve entire silence, upon all such 
 awful and incomprehensible subjects. The opinions of 
 Protestants upon this qnestion have certainly been far from 
 uniform ; but all allow probably that in the 4th century the 
 practice alluded to was prevalent : the usage of the 3d is 
 more equivocal, and there are few who attach any weight 
 to the defence set up by their adversaries by appealing to 
 the two first. 
 
 The following we are disposed to consider a fair repre- 
 sentation of the subject. 
 
 The apostles and evangelists say very little directly and 
 systematically concerning the principal doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity. We may suppose that in their private teaching 
 they were more express, and that some particulars assumed 
 a more definite shape from their connection with apostolic 
 tradition, than would have been the case had they been de- 
 rived to us from the language of the Holy Scriptures merely. 
 But the comparatively private and temporary occasions of 
 the writings of most of the apostles may account for this 
 want of precision, without supposing that they purposely 
 concealed their ultimate conclusions. The ene or two pas- 
 sages upon which a contrary opinion is grounded certainly 
 refer only to the spiritual progress of a believer, and not to 
 any advance in the knowledge of forms and results. The 
 writings of the Fathers of the first two centuries may, we be- 
 lieve, be pronounced entirely clear of any passage which 
 can fairly be appealed to by the advocates of the Disciplina. 
 In the third Clemens of Alexandria is considered to fur- 
 nish the strong-hold of the theologians of that party ; but 
 although he makes a very marked and accurate distinc- 
 tion between the perfect and imperfect Christian, he founds 
 it not upon superior knowledge of the doctrines, but upon 
 an advance In purity and spiritual conduct. This is what 
 he denominates true gnosticism, which he is at great pains 
 to distinguish from the spurious and heretical : and even 
 herein he appears to be speaking only from his own indi- 
 vidual notions, or at least from those only of the Alexan- 
 drian school of theology, and not from any recognized 
 opinions and usages of the church. 
 
 It is to be observed that the primitive church was wont 
 to make some trial of the candidates for baptism, causing 
 them to pass through a course of religious instruction, in 
 which they were led by certain steps from the elemental to 
 the more complete knowledge of their duties preparatory to 
 that initiatory ceremony. This is no more than would be 
 practised even now in the case of an adult convert; butsuch 
 cases in these times are extremely rare, and hardly admit 
 of a definite formal custom. But in the first four centuries 
 the conversion of adults was the most prominent object of 
 Christian solicitude : it was this that most drew the atten- 
 tion of the church ; it was this therefore which naturally 
 became the subject of formal ceremonies and practices. 
 Accordingly in process of time, when the clergy began to 
 352 
 
 DISCOURSE. 
 
 feel the strength of their position, and to cherish the ambi- 
 tious views which were prompted by it, this practice was 
 an instrument fitted to their hands. They made a mystery 
 of that which was before only a second step in knowledge, 
 and excited the awe or curiosity of their hearers by check- 
 ing themselves ostentatiously when hovering on the holders 
 of a doctrinal subject, with such phrases as iaaatv, ol 
 ue\ivr]jiivoi,the initiated understand me, &c. ; and probably, 
 by the rhetorical flourishes with which they screened theii 
 real meaning, deceived themselves, or at least posterity, 
 into the exaggerated notions whose shape and system were 
 finally confirmed at the Council of Trent. 
 
 DISCLAIMER, in Law, is a plea containing an express 
 denial or renunciation of some claim which has been made 
 upon or by the party pleading. It is more especially taken 
 for the denial, by an alleged tenant, of his tenancy. Such 
 disclaimer is punishable at common law by the forfeiture 
 of the land, it, on writ of right sur disclaimer brought, the 
 lord succeed in proving the tenancy. 
 
 DI'SCOBOLES, Discoboli. (Gr. Juntos, a auoit ; pd\\a>, 
 I throw.) Those who played at quoits (discus) in anti- 
 quity. In Ichthyology, this word is applied to a family of 
 pectoral or subbrachian fishes ; comprehending those 
 which have the ventral fins confluent, and forming a sucto- 
 rioti8 disc beneath the throat. 
 
 DI'SCOID. (Gr. 6i<ritotiSris.) This term is applied to 
 those univalve shells of which the whorls are disposed 
 vertically on the same plane, so as to form a disc ; as in 
 the pearly nautilus and planorbis. 
 
 DISCONTINUANCE. In Law, an injury to real pro- 
 perty, which consists in the keeping out the rightful owner 
 of an estate by a tenant whose entry was at first lawful, 
 but who wrongfully retains the possession afterwards: as, 
 where tenant in tail makes a feoffment in fee-simple for 
 life or in tail. In this-case the heir in tail, remainderman; 
 or reversioner, is put to his writ : so alienations made by 
 husbands seised in right of their wives, or by ecclesiastics 
 seised in right of their church, work a species of discon- 
 tinuance. 
 
 DI'SCORD. (Lat. discordia.) In Music, the relation of 
 two sounds which the ear receives with displeasure, 
 whether used in succession or consonance. 
 
 DISCO'RDIA. In My thology, a malevolent deity, daugh- 
 ter of Night, and sister of Erinnys, the Parcn\ and Death. 
 She is represented as having been banished from heaven 
 by Jupiter, on account of the broils she perpetually occa- 
 sioned. This was the goddess who, from disappointment 
 at not being invited to the marriage of Thetis and Peleus, 
 threw into the midst of the assembly the golden apple, 
 with the inscription detur pulchriori (let it be given to the 
 fairest) ; which, as is well known, occasioned the famed 
 contest between the goddesses Juno, Minerva, and Venus, 
 and ultimately led to the Trojan war, and the destruction 
 of Troy. The ancient poets represent this divinity with a 
 pale and ghastly look, a dagger in her hand, and her hair 
 entwined with serpents ; and Milton graphically describes 
 her as 
 
 Discord, with a thousand various mouths. 
 
 DI'SCOUNT. An allowance made for the payment of 
 money before it is due, and is equivalent to the interest of 
 the principal sum diminished by the discount during the 
 time that must elapse before the money becomes payable. 
 The proper meaning of discount, and the rule for comput- 
 ing it, will be best understood from an example. Suppose 
 the rate of interest to be 4 per cent., and that A holds a bill 
 of 104/. payable a year'hence. Suppose, also, that B has a 
 sum of 1007. in hand, which he wishes to layout at. interest 
 for one year. At the end of the year A's bill becomes due, 
 and he receives 104/. B also receives back for principal 
 and interest 104?. It is therefore clear that if at the com- 
 mencement of the year A had given B his bill, and received 
 from B his 1001., neither party would have gained or lost 
 by the transaction. Hence a bill of 104/, payable a year 
 hence, interest being 4 per cent., is equivalent to 100/. in 
 hand ; and the difference between the amount of the bill 
 and its present value, viz. 41., is the discount. Now the dis- 
 count on 104/. having been found, the discount on any other 
 sum is found by simple proportion. If we observe that 4 
 is the rate per cent, of interest, and that 104/. is the present 
 worth plus the discount, the truth of the following rule for 
 the computation of discount will be apparent: — "As 100/. 
 with the rate per cent, added is to the rate per cent., so is 
 the principal sum to the discount." This rule supposes 
 the time of payment to be one year ; if it is less or more, 
 the result must be diminished or increased in proportion 
 to the time. Bankers and mercantile people, however, in- 
 stead of computing discount in this correct way, reckon it 
 in the same manner as simple interest, by which, in large 
 transactions, they obtain a very considerable advantage. 
 At 4 per cent, interest is 1 in 25, whereas discount is only 1 
 in 26. 
 
 DISCO'URSE. (Lat. discurreie, to discuss.) In Rheto- 
 ric, signifies in its widest acceptation a series of sentences 
 and arguments arranged according to the rules of art, with 
 
DISCOVERY. 
 
 Ine view of producing some impression on Ihe m.nd Of 
 feelings of those to whom it is addressed. In Logic, this 
 term is applied to the third operation of the mind, 
 
 monly called reasoning. See Logic. 
 
 DISCO'VEKY. lu Law, the act of revealing i 
 
 f any matter by a defendant in his answer Is a bill in 
 Chancery. See Chancery. • 
 
 DISCRETE PROPOSITION (Lat. discretus, separated,) 
 : n Arithmetic, is a proportion in which the ratio of the 
 dents to the consequents is different from the ratio 
 nf Hi.- consequent of the first pair, of terms to the ante- 
 cedent of the second. Thus, the proportion 2 : 3 : : 4 : 6, 
 proportion ; for the ratio of 2 to 3, or of 4 to 6, 
 is different from the ratio of 3 to 4. I 1 .re fore 
 
 mtinual, a continual proportion being that In 
 i the ratio of every two contiguous numbers is the 
 ioui : thus. 2 : 4 : : 8 : 16. 
 
 DISCRETE QUANTITY. A term applied to quantities 
 of which the component parts have a separate and distinct 
 nee. Thus, numbers are discrete quantities, being 
 composed of separate units. 
 
 Dl'SCUS. (Gr. SioKog.) The ancient quoit, which con- 
 listed of a heavy circular mass of iron, sometimes perfo- 
 :m the middle. In the ancient game, the players did 
 not try to hit a mark, but to throw the quoit to the m i 
 
 le distance. There is a discus preserved in the' 
 
 Intiquesal Paris, in which holes are provided 
 
 for the i hum!) and fingers. The practice of throwing 
 
 is mentioned by Homer among the sports which occurred 
 
 funeral of Patroclus ; and Pindar celebrates Castor 
 
 and lolaus as skilful launchers of the discus. 
 
 D1BCUTIENT. (Lat. discutio, / destroy.) Remedies 
 which repel or resolve tumours. 
 
 DI'SDIAl'A'SON. (Gr. <5if, twice, and iiavaow, through 
 r.'i > In Music, two octaves or a fifteenth. 
 
 DUSEA'SE. (Dig, and ease.) Any morbid state of the 
 body generally, or of any particular organ or part of the 
 l.o.iv. disease. By medical writers the term 
 
 disease is defined as implying " a deviation from the natural 
 and healthy actions of the whole system or of any indi- 
 viduil part;" and they are in the habit of designating 
 certain forms of disease by the following terms, namely : 
 - \iy/nired, which are not congenital or hereditary, but 
 derived front causes evidently operating afterbirth. Acute, 
 which are severe, but of comparatively short duration. 
 Asthenic, attended by manifest depression of the vital 
 powers. ( /ironic, which are of long duration. Congenital, 
 whhh are born with the individual. Constitutional, which 
 more or less affect the whole system. Contagious; this 
 term should be confined to those diseases only which are 
 communicable from one to another by contact, either per- 
 sona. :r intermediate: it is presumed, for instance, that 
 die plague is a truly contagious disease, and that it can only 
 he transferred from one individual to another by actual 
 bodily contact, or through the medium of bedclothes or 
 irlicles of apparel. The term " contagious disease" is, 
 nowever, often misapplied to those which are infectious, 
 nr communicable through the medium of the atmosphere. 
 Endemic, diseases which are either peculiar to particular 
 places, or which are especially prevalent in certain districts 
 only. Epidemic, diseases which are generally diffused 
 i whole country; they may generally be traced to at- 
 mospheric causes, and are commonly of an infectious 
 character : influenza and cholera often prevail in this way. 
 Exanthema! ous, are those diseases which are accompanied 
 hy an eruptive fever, such as measles, small-pox, &c. 
 Hereditary diseases are such as prevail in families, and are 
 transmitted by parents to their offspring; gout and scrofula 
 furnish examples. Idiopathic or primary diseases are 
 ;hose which are not dependent upon or symptomatic of 
 others ; certain affections of the head, for instance, may 
 arise immediately from disease of the brain, or tney may 
 bs mediately connected with disordered states of the 
 1 1 eh : the former are idiopathic, the latter symptomatic 
 Intercurrent diseases are those which arise in individuals 
 from incidental causes during the prevalence of endemic 
 or epidemic sickness. Intermittent diseases are marked 
 by a regular cessation and recurrence of symptoms; the 
 patient, during the interval, being, to all appearance, free 
 from disorder : the various forms of ague are characteristi- 
 cally intermittent. Local diseases are opposed to those 
 which are constitutional ; they are presumed to be limited 
 to some particular organ : the term " chronic disease" is 
 sometimes misapplied in this sense. Malignant diseases 
 are those which are of a highly dangerous and intractable 
 character, and the symptoms of which are generally very 
 fonnidablo from the first; various forms of fever, rapidly 
 depressing the vital energies, are said to assume a malig- 
 nant type : hence also the term malignant, as generally 
 applied to the Asiatic cholera. Local diseases are frequent- 
 ly malignant, such as cancer and ill-conditioned ulcers : 
 all these are opposed to the mild forms of the same mala- 
 dies. Periodical, diseases which recur at fixed periods, as 
 ki autumn, winter, 4c. Puerperal diseases incident to 
 363 
 
 DISPERSION. 
 
 women soon after child-birth. Specific diseases are thos* 
 ' which are marked by some disordered vital action not 
 tse in general, but peculiar to the indivi 
 dual case. Sporadic di sea ses are those arising from ad- 
 ventitious causes affecting the individual. Sthenic > I isea.se> 
 narked by the activity of the vital powers, directly 
 ed to those which are asthenic. 
 
 DISINFECTING LIQOUR. Solution of chloride of sode, 
 I orof chloride of lime. 
 
 ! DISJUNCTIVE PROPOSITION, in Logic, is a pre,,,. 
 sition compounded of two or more categorical prop i-. 
 [ lions, so stated as to imply that some of them mil 
 true:— thus, ''Either A = B, or C = D." A disjunctive. 
 in which the two propositions are not naturally connected 
 together in such a manner as to warrant their being pro- 
 posed as alternatives, is nugatory and absurd in sen - 
 though not incorrect in logical form. If one or moreol ihe 
 ■rical antecedent propositions be denied, we Infer thai 
 the remaining one, or, if there are more than one, some 
 one of those remaining, is true: e. g. "Either A = It. 01 
 C = D ; but A is not equal to B, therefore C = D." A 
 poem is either good, bad, or indifferent : but It is not good , 
 therefore, it is bad or Indifferent. There are different 
 forms of the disjunctive syllogism, founded on the disjunc- 
 tive proposition. 
 
 DISK. In Botany, a term applied to certain bodies or 
 projections, situated between the base of the stamens and 
 the base of the ovarium, but forming part of neither, and 
 taking a variety of forms. The disk is usually supposed to 
 consist of rudimentary stamens, since an anther has been 
 noticed to grow from that of Pczonia moutan, and in other 
 cases manifest indications aro observable of a tendency to 
 assume l he form of those organs. 
 
 DISLOCATION. (Lat. dislocare, to put out of place., 
 \ BurgJcaJ term, synonymous with luxation. ''When the 
 ulicular surfaces of bones are forced out of their proper 
 -i ii iii they are said to be dislocated or luxated. A con- 
 siderable share of anatomical knowledge is required to de- 
 lect the nature of these accidents ; and it is much to he 
 lamented last students neglect to inform themselves sufli- 
 ienily upon the subject. (See Sir A. Cooper's Essays, 
 . p. 2.) 
 
 DISO MUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Sculpture, a tomb made 
 for the reception of Ihe remains of two persons. 
 
 DI'SPART, in Gunnery, is the difference between the 
 •emidlameter of the base ring at the breech of a gun am 
 that of the ring at Ihe s<vell of the muzzle. 
 
 DISPENSARY. A place where medicines are mad< 
 op and distributed; but used more generally for a cliarita 
 ble institution, where the poor are supplied with medicines 
 and advice. Insliiutions of this nature are of compara- 
 tively recent oriein ; though they are now to be met will. 
 in every town of any importance both in this country and 
 nn the Continent In London there are one or more dis- 
 pensarieeu each district; and to every dispensary there 
 are always attached one or more physicians, surgeons, and 
 apothecaries, whose duty it is respectively to prescribe and 
 dispense medicines to the poor, and to visit them in their 
 own houses in the event of their being too ill to attend per- 
 sonally at the institution. In most cases dispensaries are 
 supported by voluntary contributions. 
 
 DISPENSATION. In Law, a licence granted by the 
 bishop to a clergyman within his diocese to omit some par- 
 ticular of his duly ; as, to hold two or more benefices, or 
 to reside out of his parish. The name is peculiar to eccle- 
 siastical law, and was formerly applied to the licences 
 granted by Ihe papal authority for several purposes ; as, to 
 marry within the prohibited degrees, Sec. 
 
 DISPE'NSATORY. A word synonymous with Pharma- 
 copoeia (which see) ; signifying a book which describes the 
 history, preparation, and composition of medicines. 
 
 DISPE'RSION. In Optics, a term used to denote the 
 angular separation of the constituent rays of linht when de- 
 composed by the prism. In consequence of the unequal 
 refrangibility of the different rays, a beam of light admitted 
 through a small hole or slit in the shutter of a darkened 
 room, and refracted by passing through a prism, forms an 
 elongated image or spectrum ; the red rays, which are Ihe 
 least refracted, occupying one end of the spectrum, and the 
 violet rays, which suffer the greatest refraction, occupying 
 the other end. The rays therefore, after refraction, are no 
 longer parallel ; so that the index of refraction (or the ratio 
 of ihe sine of incidence lo the sine of refraction) is different 
 for each ray ; and Ihe difference of the indices for the ex- 
 treme rays is called the dispersion of the light. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, who first examined the prismatic co- 
 lours, was led by some imperfect experiments to suppose 
 the dispersion proportional to the refraction; but it was 
 soon discovered that although the colours in spectra form- 
 ed by prisms of different substances are always arranged 
 in the same order, they do not occupy the same relative 
 lengths,— a prism of flint glass, for example, giving propor 
 lionally less red and more violet than a prism of crowr 
 glass ; and that suDstances, for which the index of refrac 
 Z 
 
DISPLUVIATUM. 
 
 tion of the middle ray of the spectrum is nearly the same, 
 pro luce spectra of different lengths, or different amounts 
 of dispersion. It is on this property, namely, the irration- 
 ality of the refractive and dispersive powers of different 
 substances, thai the methods of forming achromatic lenses 
 depend : had the supposition of Newton been correct, it 
 would have been impossible to produce an image by re- 
 fraction unaccompanied by the prismatic colours. See 
 Achromatism. 
 
 The difference between the indices of refraction of the 
 extreme rays of the spectrum formed by a prism of any 
 substance is called the coefficient of dispersion with respect 
 to that substance, or simply the dispersion; and the dis- 
 persive power is the quotient which is obtained by dividing 
 the coefficient of dispersion by the mean index of refrac- 
 tion diminished by unity. The mean index is that of the 
 ray which corresponds to the middle of the spectrum. As 
 these terms are of frequent occurrence in scientific works, 
 we shall illustrate the definitions by an example. Accord- 
 ins to Sir D. Brewster, the index of refraction of diamond 
 for the extreme violet ray is 2467, and for the extreme red 
 ray 2411 ; the difference of these two bodies is -056, which, 
 therefore, is the coefficient of dispersion for diamond. 
 Again, t lie mean index, or mean of the above two numbers, 
 is 2439, which diminished by unity becomes 1439; there- 
 fore the dispersive power of diamond is -056 divided by 
 1-439, or -0388. 
 
 For a table of the dispersive powers of a great number 
 of different substances, see Brewster's Optics, in the Ca- 
 binet Cyclopedia ; but we may remark, that as this table 
 appears to have been constructed before the discovery of 
 Fraunhofer's method of determining the indices of refrac- 
 tion by means of the dark rays in the spectrum, it rests 
 on data subject to great uncertainty. See Refraction ; 
 also Light, Optics, and Spectrum. 
 
 DISPLUVIA'TUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, a 
 place in which the rain is conveyed away in two channels. 
 A cavtedium displuviatum, according to Vitruvius, was an 
 open court exposed to the rain. 
 
 DISPOSITION. (Lat. dispositio.) In Architecture, one 
 of the six essentials of the art. It is the arrangement of 
 the whole design by means of ichnography (plan), or- 
 thography (section and elevation), and scenography (per- 
 spective view); and differs from distribution, which signi- 
 fies the particular arrangements of the internal parts of a 
 building. 
 
 DISQUISITION. (Lat.) An inquiry into the nature 
 and properties of any problem, question, or subject, in the 
 view of gaining or communicating correct information re- 
 specting it. 
 
 DISSE'CTION. (Lat. disseco, I cut asunder.) Signifies 
 literally the cutting to pieces of any organized body with 
 a view to elucidate its structure and functions. See Ana- 
 tomy. 
 
 DISSE'ISIN. In Law, a species of wrongful ouster or. 
 putting out of him who is seised of the freehold in lands; 
 it is either single disseisin, or disseisin by force, more pro- 
 perly termed deforcement. 
 
 DISSE'NTERS. Persons who dissent on religious 
 grounds from the usages and formula of the established 
 church in England. Roman Catholics, however, are ge- 
 nerally referred to as a distinct class, and the term Dis- 
 senters applied to Protestants only. 
 
 The first dissenters from the church of England were 
 the Puritans, who, at the beginning of the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, complained of the use of the surplice, the sign of 
 the cross in baptism, and some other relics, as they es- 
 teemed them, of popery. The laws of Elizabeth, how- 
 ever, required their attendance at church under severe 
 penalties ; and no opportunity was allowed them, even 
 though they held episcopacy itself in abhorrence, of form- 
 ing separate sects or congregations. Perhaps the first dis- 
 tinct sect of dissenters were the Brownists, who adopted 
 very extreme opinions on the subject of church govern, 
 ment, and against whom the punishment of death was 
 enacted, as denying the queen's supremacy in ecclesias- 
 tical matters. On the accession of James an attempt was 
 made by the puritanical party within the church to obtain 
 a relaxation in some points of doctrine and discipline; but. 
 the conference at Hampton Court, which was convened 
 upon that occasion, separated without effecting more than 
 a few trifling alterations in the services. The penal laws 
 continued in force, and Dissenters were not recognized as 
 a distinct body by the state. They may be said to owe 
 their origin in this sense to the assembly of divines con- 
 vened by authority of parliament at Westminster in 1643, 
 when a body of 120 clergymen and 30 laymen met and 
 established the Presbyterian forms of doctrine and govern- 
 ment, as set forth in the book called the Directory. The 
 Independent party did not entirely accede to this settle- 
 ment, and created some disturbances during the Protec- 
 torate. At the Restoration, the Presbyterian clergy were 
 ejected on St. Bartholomew's-day, 1662, by the Act of TJni- 
 foimity, which re-established the Liturgy, and was attend- 
 354 
 
 DISTEMPER. 
 
 ed with some circumstances of aggravation and harshnew. 
 Two thousand non-conforming clergy were thereby eject- 
 ed from their benefices. The Corporation Act, requiring 
 attendance on the sacrament preparatory to accepting mu- 
 nicipal offices, was also passed at the beginning of this 
 reign; and the Test Act followed, which excluded Dis- 
 senters in like jnanner from all places of trust and profit 
 under government. These laws were repealed by 9 G. 4. ; 
 and Dissenters are now required only to make a declara- 
 tion, according to the form of the act, that tiiey will not 
 exercise any influence they may possess by virtue of such 
 office to injure or weaken the church by law established. 
 The Act of Toleration (I W. <& M.) had' long since abro- 
 gated the penal laws of Elizabeth against Dissenters, ex- 
 cepting Papists and such as deny the Trinity. 
 
 DISSE'PIMENTS. In Botany, the partitions that are 
 formed in ovaria by the united sides of the cohering car- 
 pella, and which separate the inside into cells ; also called 
 sepa. 
 
 DISSERT A'TION. (Lat.) An oral or written examina- 
 tion of any question or subject under some general or 
 particular view. Perspicuity, simplicity, and methodical 
 arrangement are the most essential qualites of a good dis- 
 sertation. 
 
 DI'SSIDENTS. In modern European History, a term 
 applied in Poland to those dissenters from the established 
 religion (Catholic) who, under the old republic, were allow- 
 ed the free exercise of their faith : including Lutherans, 
 Calvinists, and Greeks, but excluding various minor sects. 
 Their rights were fixed by the Religious Peace (pax dissi- 
 dentium) of 1573, but they were infringed upon in the ISth 
 century by various princes. They were supported in de- 
 manding the repeal of these restrictions by Russia and 
 Prussia (in 1766,) and hence those powers acquired one of 
 their favourite pretexts for interference in the affairs of the 
 Polish nation. Their rights were restored in 1775, with 
 some exceptions; but after the Russian conquest they 
 were placed on the same footing with the Catholics. 
 
 DI'SSONANCE. (Lat. dissonans, discordant.) In Music, 
 a false consonance or concord. The same as discord. 
 
 DISTE'MPER. A disease of the dog. The distemper 
 in dogs is commonly considered as a catarrhal disorder, 
 and in general a running from the nose and eyes is one of 
 the first and leading symptoms ; it is usually accompanied 
 by a short dry cough, and succeeded by wasting of the flesh 
 and loss of strength and spirits. The nasal defluxion, 
 which is at first watery, becomes after some days, or per- 
 haps weeks, mucous and purulent, loading the eyes and 
 obstructing the nostrils ; the cough becomes more distress- 
 ing, and is attended by an effort compounded of coughing 
 and vomiting : the listlessness, wasting, and loss of appe- 
 tite also increase. 
 
 If the disease be virulent, symptoms of affection of the 
 brain are its frequent concomitants, attended by fits, and 
 great debility and paralysis of the extremities, or by con- 
 vulsive twitchings resembling St. Vitus's dance ; and such 
 is the induced irritability of the animal at this period, that 
 an angry menace, or the sight of another dog in a fit, 
 will often bring one on : and fondling and encouraging a 
 dog under these primary attacks will shorten their duration, 
 or altogether check them. If they continue, and increase 
 in violence and frequency, they commonly prove fatal. 
 " When the epileptic fits," says Mr. Blaine, " have gained 
 their full hold on the dog, a partial or toral mental aliena- 
 tion takes place ; when total, the poor brute is often per- 
 fectly phrenitic; he waters and dungs unconsciously ; he 
 tears up the ground, bites every thing around him, and 
 not unfrequently himself also. When the fit is over, 
 he shakes himself, and looks and acts as usual, unless the 
 attacks have been very violent and long-continued, when 
 they leave him greatly exhausted and dispirited." In 
 some of these attacks the dog walks round and round, un- 
 conscious of every thing about him. In such cases, the 
 unfortunate animal is often supposed to be mad, and is 
 frequently sacrificed accordingly ; " but the suddenness ol 
 the seizure ought to inform the looker-on of the total im- 
 possibility of its being rabies, which is always in the worst 
 cases marked with some recollection, some knowledge, 
 and which never exhibits the indiscriminate fury which 
 characterizes epilepsy." 
 
 Inflammation of the lungs is by no means an unfrequent 
 consequence of distemper ; and the bowels are always 
 more or less affected by diarrhoea and dysenteric dischar- 
 ges, often indicating ulceration of the intestinal canal, and 
 accompanied by bloody mucus and extremely offensive 
 evacuations. 
 
 Protracted cases of distemper are sometimes attended bv 
 a pustular eruption on the abdomen and chest, accompn 
 nied sometimes by an hepatic affection, called by sport* 
 men the yellow disease, from its giving the whole surface ol 
 the body a yellow hue : these are almost always fatal symp- 
 toms. 
 
 The danger and fatality of this disease depend upon so 
 many causes that itjf extremely difficult to piognosticate 
 
DISTICH 
 
 the results ; young dogs and puppies seldom survive, and 
 it is generally fatal to weakly ami delicate dogs, and more so 
 in town than in the country. Early in the disease a single fit 
 is not alarming ; bul one or more tits in the advanced stages 
 are seldom followed by recovery ; impatience of light, 
 red eyes, pneumonic attacks, and obstinate diarrhoea, are 
 all bail symptoms ; ami spasmodic lw : .tctiings, a .yellow 
 tinge of the skin, and a pustular eruption, arc in almost 
 the forerunners of death. 
 Laxatives, emetics, and occasional bleeding, are the 
 leading remedies in the early stage of this disease ; obsti- 
 nate diarrhoea should be checked by astringents; and 
 u a. in bathing and antispasmodics must be resorted to quell 
 the violence of the fits. 
 The distemper is communicated by the contact of the 
 ised catarrhal secretion, and it may also be given by 
 its inoculation ; inoculation has indeed been proposed as a 
 mitigation of the disorder, and it has been asserted that 
 vaccination is a preventive. lint it has been proved by 
 Mr. Blaine that vaccination is quite Inefficacious ; and thai 
 inoculation with the matter of distemper is equally ineffi- 
 cient in mitigating the complaint, even when it is bonowed 
 i the mildest forms. Many dogs, indeed, which have 
 taken the disease by inoculation have had it with peculiar 
 severity, and several have .sunk uud< r it. (S,-e lllaint's 
 Canine Pathology.) 
 Distemper. In Painting. Sie Distemper. 
 DISTICH. (Gr. cicnxov.) A couplet of verses. In 
 nguages, distich is applied 
 poetry consisting of two lines, in hexameter and 
 pentameter verse. 
 
 DISTICHI'ASIS. (Gr. o"i$, twice, and anxof, a rote.) 
 A double r< ■ the innermost of which excite 
 
 a constant irritation of the eye. The term trichiasis is ge- 
 nen.llv applied to this malformation. 
 
 Dl'aTICHOOa. (Gr.) A term applied to the arrange- 
 ment of organs in two rows, the one opposite to the other, 
 ti v grasses. 
 DISTILLATION. (I.at.) The evaporation and subse- 
 quent condensation of liquids by means of a still and refri- 
 or ol a retort and receiver. 
 
 iscovery of the art of distillation is generally as- 
 
 I to the alchemists; but it was doubtlessly known in 
 
 more remote ages to the Arabians, and by them probably 
 
 from nations further east. 
 
 The process of distillation, though in continual use in the 
 
 chemical and pharmaceutical laboratory, is carried on 
 
 ensive scale for the production of ardent 
 
 a in the distilleries. Under the words Alcohol, 
 
 Brandy, Fermentation, Wine, &c. will be found some 
 
 la bearing upon the nature, sources, and production 
 
 of spirituous liquors ; in the present article, therefore, we 
 
 shall limit ourselves to an outline of the different pro- 
 
 b which are more exclusively conducted in the llnlish 
 
 distillery. 
 
 There" are two distinct operations in the production of 
 ardent spirits: the one is the conversion of certain vegeta- 
 ble principles into alcohol; and the other, the separation of 
 the alcohol from the othor substances with which it is ne- 
 cessarily blended during its production. 
 
 The vegetable principle which is essential to Ihc forma- 
 tion of alcohol is sugar; and this is sometimes used direct- 
 ly, as where molasses and analogous saccharine products 
 are subjected to immediate fermentation ; or it is indirectly 
 obtained by subjecting amylaceous grains to certain pro- 
 ■ y which the starch they contain is first a 
 jar, and then that sugar afterwards alcoholized. 
 
 In our distilleries the latter alternative is adopted; and 
 various kinds of grain, but chiefly barley, wheat, and rye, 
 with more or less malt, are subjected to the operation of 
 masking. For this purpose the ground grain and the 
 malt are duly mixed, and iulused under constant 
 agitation in a proper quantity of Lot water in the mash-tun; 
 the wort is then run ofT, ami fresh water added, till the 
 soluble materials of the grain are extracted. 
 
 In this way the mixed worts or trash is obtained, which 
 is afterwards to be subjected to fermentation; but in the 
 v the operator is not, as in the brewery, left to his 
 own judgment or convenience, but enforced to conform 
 to the excise laws, which are of a very peremptory and 
 often of a very unscientific character. By these laws the 
 <iis:iller is restricted in the density of his worts to specific 
 gravities between 1050 and 1090; and in Scotland, between 
 1030 and 1075. It is presumed that at those specific gra- 
 vities, which are called 50 and 90, and 30 and 75, the actual 
 quantity of saccharine or saccharifiable matter contained in 
 each barrel (or 36 imperial gallons) amounts respectively 
 to from 47ilbs. to 851bs., and from 281bs. to 79^ lbs. 
 
 When the wash above alluded to is adjusted as to density, 
 it is run into the fermenting vats, where, mixed with a 
 small quantity of yeast, it is subjected to the process of 
 fermentation, which continues from six to ten or twelve 
 days, the time required for its completion varying with 
 
 DISTILLATION. 
 
 the mass of liquid and with the temperature of the atmo- 
 sphere. 
 
 During mashing, as well as during fermentation, the 
 starch passes into sugar, and the sugar into alcohol; the 
 consequenceof which is that the wash gradually decreases 
 in density or attenuates; and as soon as this "attenuation 
 hM reached its maximum, which may be determined bv 
 the hydrometer, it should be distilled, in order to pn 
 the access of acetous fermentation. 
 
 In all large distilleries there are two sets of stills : one foi 
 the purpose of distilling from the wash 
 nically called low wines ; and the other for redistilling (o: 
 rectifying) the low wines. In these distillations there 
 passes over along with the first and last portions of the spi- 
 rits a peculiar volatile oil of a disagreeable flavour and 
 odour, and rendering the weaker spirit milky. These por- 
 tions are called faints, and are carefully turned into sepa- 
 rate receivers as soon as the appearance of the runnings 
 from the worm end indicates their presence. 
 
 The quantity of alcohol which maybe obtained from a 
 quantity of sugar will depend upon the skill and care 
 with which mashing, fermentation, and distillation have 
 been respectively conducted ; theoretically, 100 pounds of 
 sugar are convertible into about 51 of alcohol and 49 of car 
 bonic acid. The quantity of alcohol to be procured from 
 different kinds of grain will also depend upon the same 
 causes, and upon the quantity of sugar, and of starch and 
 gum convertible into sugar, which each may contain. Ac- 
 cording to Ilermstxdt 100 pounds of starch should yield 35 
 pounds of real alcohol ; and 100 pounds of the following 
 grains should yield the following quantities of spirit of the 
 specific gravity of 0-9427 ; that is, of spirit containing 45 per 
 cent, of real alcohol ; namely, wheat 40 to 45 pounds, rye 
 36 to 42, barley 40, oats 36, buckwheat 40, maize 40. 
 
 Sometimes malt only is used in the distillery, in which 
 case the distiller calculates in obtaining two gallons of 
 whiskey of proof strength from each bushel of malt 
 
 What is meant by the term proof spirit will appear obvi- 
 ous from the following extract from a report of a commit- 
 tee of the Royal Society respecting the improvement of the 
 hydrometer. " With regard to the substance alcohol upon 
 which the duty is to be levied, there appears to be no rea- 
 son, either philosophical or practical, why it should be 
 considered as absolute (that is, pure). A definite mixture 
 of alcohol and water is as invariable in its value as absolute 
 alcohol can be. It is also invariable in its nature ; and can 
 be more readily and with equal accuracy identified by that 
 only quality or condition to which recourse can be had in 
 practice, namely, specific gravity. A diluted alcohol is that, 
 therefore, which we recommend as the only exclseable 
 substance ; and as on the one hand it will make no differ- 
 ence in the identification, and on the other will be a great 
 commercial advantage, it is further recommended that the 
 standard be very nearly that of the present proof spirit. 
 The proposition, therefore, of your committee is, that 
 standard spirit be that which, consisting of alcohol and 
 water alone, shall have a specific gravity of 92 at the tem- 
 perature of 62° Fahrenheit. This standard Is rather 
 weaker than the old proof spirit in the proportion of nearly 
 11 gallon of the present proof spirit per cent. Hut this dif- 
 ference is trifling compared with the convenience resulting 
 from the adoption of the specific gravity 0-92. instead of 
 that of the present proof spirit, which is 0-918633. It may 
 be interesting hereafter to ascertain what proportion 'of ab- 
 solute alcohol enters into the composition of the recom- 
 mended standard spirit, but the point possesses not the 
 slightest practical importance in reference to the present 
 question." 
 
 The proof spirit of commerce, and that of the Pharma- 
 copoeia, is generally stated to be of the specific gravity of 
 0-920 at 62°, and is considered as a mixture of equal 
 weights of absolute alcohol of the specific gravity of 0791 at 
 60° and of water. The rectified spirit of commerce, or 
 rather that of the Pharmacopoeia, is directed to be of the 
 specific gravity of 0838 at 60°, and may be regarded as a 
 mixture of about 82 parts of absolute alcohol and IS of 
 water. 
 
 The inquisitorial regime, observes Dr. Ure, imposed by 
 law upon our distilleries might lead a stranger to imagine 
 that our legislators were desirous of repressing by every 
 species of annoyance the fabrication of the fiery liquid 
 which infuriates" and demoralizes the lower population of 
 these islands. But, alas ! credit can be given them for no 
 such moral or philanthropic motive. The necessity of the 
 exchequer to raise a great revenue, created by the waste- 
 ful expenditure of the state on the one hand, and the efforts 
 of fraudulent ingenuity on the other, to evade the payment 
 of the high duties imposed, are the true origin of that re- 
 gime. Examinations in distilleries are constantly making 
 by the officers of excise. There is a survey at six o'clock 
 in the morning, when the officers take their accounts and 
 gauges, and make calculations which occupy several hours. 
 At ten o'clock they again survey, going over the whole pre- 
 mises, where they continue a considerable time, frequently 
 
DISTOMA. 
 
 till the succeeding officer comes on duty ; at two in the 
 afternoon another survey takes place, but not by the same 
 people ; at six in the evening the survey is repeated ; at 
 ten there comes another survey by in officer who had not 
 been engaged in any of the previous surveys of that day. 
 He is not relieved till six o'clock next morning. In addi- 
 tion to these regular inspections, the distilleries are sub- 
 ject to frequent and uncertain visits of the surveyor and 
 general surveyor. " We are never," says Mr. Smith, the 
 eminent distiller of Millbank, "out of their hands." 
 
 There can be no doubt that all the operations of our dis- 
 tilleries would he susceptible of infinite improvement by 
 an alteration in the excise laws. As these at present stand, 
 the duty is charged from calculations— 1. On the quantity 
 and density of the wash ; 2. On the quantity and density 
 or strength of the low wines, or first products of distilla- 
 tion ; 3. Upon the quantity and strength of the spirit, or, 
 in other words, of the alcohol actually produced. It is pre- 
 sumed, in reference to the wash, that the alcohol which 
 it will afford by fermentation will be directly as its density 
 (without reference to the nature of the matter which it 
 holds in solution). In low wines, and in the spirits, the 
 proportion of alcohol is inversely as the density, and the 
 duty is charged in conformity with experiments upon the 
 composition of mixtures of alcohol and water of different 
 densities. 
 
 Nothing need be said here of the mode of judging of the 
 value of the wort by its attenuation during fermentation, nor 
 of the fallacies to which the different operations are liable, 
 and we are well aware of the danger and difficulties of 
 meddling with so important a branch of the revenue ; but 
 it is impossible for any scientific person to visit our distil- 
 leries without at once seeing much that is susceptible of 
 safe and effectual alteration ; or to peruse the multitu- 
 dinous documents, and the evidence which has been 
 brought before the commissioners of revenue inquiry and 
 before the parliamentary committees, bearing directly or 
 indirectly upon this subject, without an anxious wish that 
 some remedy should be found for the evils which are there 
 set forth. In every point of view two things seem highly 
 desirable, and apparently not unattainable ; the one is 
 that the materials employed as sources of spirit, and the 
 mode of conducting the operations of the distillery, should 
 be, as far as possible, entirely unshackled; the other (a 
 necessary consequence), that the duty should be levied 
 upon the ultimate product at the worm end ; or, in other 
 words, upon the quantity cf absolute alcohol actually pro- 
 duced, and that the charge should be made in reference to 
 that alone. 
 
 In reference to further details regarding the operations 
 of the distillery and their influence upon the revenue, the 
 reader is referred to Dr. lire's Dictionary of Arts and 
 Manufactures, art. " Distillation ;" and to M'Culloch's 
 Dictionary of Commerce, art. " Spirits," which is enrich- 
 ed with numerous tables. See also the article Spirits in 
 this work. 
 
 DI'STOMA. (Gr. Sis, twice, and oropa, mouth.) The 
 name of a genus of Trematodous intestinal worms, in- 
 cluding those which have two suckers or organs of adhe- 
 sion, of which the anterior alone is a true mouth ; and the 
 posterior or larger disc is situated on the ventral aspect of 
 the bndv, a little way behind the mouth. 
 
 DISTO'RTION. (Lat. distorqueo, / turn awry.) An 
 unnatural deviation of shape or position of any part of the 
 body, producing visible deformity. 
 
 Some distortions are exclusively dependent upon dis- 
 ordered actions of the muscles or nerves, or both ; cer- 
 tain kinds of lameness, for instance, arise from a want of 
 due sympathy between the flexor and extensor muscles, 
 or from an unnatural contraction of one or more muscles 
 in consequence of the inefficiency of their opponents ; 
 hence various paralytic distortions, squinting, wry neck, 
 and some forms of what is termed club-foot. 
 
 The most common cause of distortion, however, is dis- 
 ease of the bones, which, being sometimes deficient in 
 their hardening or earthy principle, are incapable of sup- 
 porting the weight of parts which they are designed to 
 bear, or of sustaining pressure or muscular action, with- 
 out more or less flexure. Of this kind is the disease 
 called rickets (from pax'S. the spine), in which it has been 
 presumed, though erroneously, that the vertebrae are the 
 chief seat of the mischief. Besides rickets, there are other 
 cases of curvature of the spine, the causes of which are by 
 no means very obvious, more especially those of the ter- 
 pentine or lateral curvature, which is not unfrequent 
 among delicate girls in the higher and middling classes of 
 life, though of very rare occurrence among tbe lower or- 
 ders. This disease is usually observed about the ninth or 
 tenth year, and the symptoms are generally traced in the 
 following order :— 1. The child makes frequent attempts 
 to prevent the dress falling off one shoulder ; 2. One shoul- 
 der appears higher than the other; 3. One of the collar- 
 bones, or one side of the breast-bone, appears fuller than 
 the other; 4. One hip appears to project; 5. One leg ap- 
 350 
 
 DISTORTION. 
 
 pears shorter than the other; 6. There is a peculiarity in 
 the manner of walking, one foot being swung round and 
 the shoulder thrown forward. When the girl reaches the 
 age of twelve or thirteen (for this disease is very rare in 
 boys), she becomes evidently twisted, and the spine is 
 found to have assumed a serpentine form. In reference 
 to the treatment of this kind of distortion, it appears that 
 very opposite methods have been successful ; thus, some 
 patients have been confined for months to the same posi- 
 tion; another violently exercised ; another shampooed and 
 acupuncturated ; a fourth, relies on artificial supports, 
 such as stays and bandages ; a fifth is leeched or blistered : 
 and many are told to attend only to the general health 
 The truth is, that distortion may depend upon different 
 causes, and different remedies may be required in its dif- 
 ferent stages of progress. The serpentine curvature of tbe 
 spine generally originates in muscular debility ; and there- 
 fore, at its commencement, is appropriately treated by 
 attention to the general health, by proper exercises anil 
 tonics. As the disease, however, proceeds, the muscles 
 and ligaments acquire a certain form, and then artificial 
 supports may be appropriately resorted to. In a yet more 
 advanced stage, the vertebra? themselves become altered 
 in form ; and hence the spine may require to be stretched, 
 and kept so during a considerable part of the twenty-four 
 hours, so as to allow the bones to resume their natural 
 form. When the ribs and sternum have become much 
 displaced and misshapen, methods of compressing and re- 
 modelling them must be adopted ; and lastly, when what 
 is called anchylosis, or permanent bony deformity, has 
 taken place, palliations and preventives of further mischief 
 can alone be resorted to. 
 
 In all cases where there is a tendency to distortion, its 
 early progress should be watched with the utmost solici- 
 tude, and preventive means steadily and perseveringly 
 adopted. When a girl is eight or ten years old, she should 
 not be confined to the school room, and to a walk once or 
 twice a day, but she should be induced by amusing and 
 romping games lo use active exercise, and especially such 
 as brings the muscles of the trunk into play ; she should 
 not be kept long at the piano forte, and her chair should be 
 made so as to support her. If she has a tendency to lean 
 to one side, she should be allowed to learn her lessons in a 
 recumbent posture, and not constantly admonished to " hold 
 herself up." By attention to Ihese simple rules at a very 
 early period of this tendency to distortion, its further pro- 
 gress may be possibly prevented ; but if the girl becomes 
 listless, lounging, and pallid, appearing awkward In her 
 gait, and the clothes slip off of one shoulder, the spine is 
 probably becoming distorted ; and in this case she should 
 not be allowed to sit erect without using some artificial 
 support, such as an arm-chair, or chair crutch, and she 
 should read always lying down ; while by the help of pro- 
 per stays and a belt support should be given io the loins, 
 while the upper part of the chest is left free. No shoulder- 
 straps, collars, or back-boards, should be used to push in 
 the projecting shoulder, unless the loins be at the same 
 time supported ; for in the majority of cases a sinking of 
 the lumbar part is the cause of the inequality of the shoul- 
 ders. The child should, in this stage of the disorder, be a 
 good deal in the open air; not walking sedately, but, if pos- 
 sible, skipping about ; and when she comes in, should not 
 lounge on a chair, but lie down ; or if out-of-door exercise 
 is inadmissible, she should play at battledore and shuttle- 
 cock, and use a skipping rope. But whatever exercise be 
 used, it should never be carried to fatigue. The child 
 should sleep on a firm hair mattress with scarcely any 
 pillow : she should have good nourising diet ; occasional 
 warm aperients and alkaline tonics may be proper; and 
 cold bathing or sponging. By scrupulously following up 
 the preceding plan, the general health is improved, and the 
 tendency to distortion often diminished : but constant care 
 for months, and even years, can alone ensure its removal 
 Where the spine ha3 acquired a decided twist, a variety of 
 mechanical contrivances, and many different plans of treat- 
 ment, have been proposed and used with more or less suc- 
 cess, with a view of correcting the deformity, or prevent- 
 ing its increase and improving the figure. For an account 
 of these we must refer to the authors who have expressly 
 treated upon these subjects, and especially to the sensible 
 tract of the late Mr. John Shaw, from which we havs 
 abridged the preceding remarks. 
 
 There is another kind of distortion, differing entirely 
 from the preceding ; namely, angular curvature of thf 
 spine. It generally proceeds from the scrofulous ulcers 
 tion of the bodies of the vertebrae ; it is attended with para- 
 lysis of the lower extremities, and is often fatal. Similai 
 disease often occurs in the other bones and joints of ,h« 
 body. 
 
 There are a variety of deformities resulting from othel 
 causes than those above adverted to ; namely, from gout, 
 rheumatism, and various chronic and local affections, 
 which, however, do not come under the general term of 
 distortions: nor can we properly refer to this head a *» 
 
D1STRACT1LE. 
 
 nety of real deformities which are chiefly the consequence 
 of dress and fashion ; such as those which result from wear- 
 ing stays, bandages, ill-made and tight shoes, and the like. 
 IMS i'R.v'CTlLE. In Botany, a term invented by Rich- 
 ard to denote a connective which divides into two unequal 
 .us, one of which supports a cell and the other not, as 
 in Salvia, 
 
 DISTRE'SS, in Law, is the taking of a personal chattel 
 out of the possession of a wrongdoer into the custody of 
 '.lie party Injured, to procure satisfaction for the wrong 
 committed. 
 
 Distress may be had for various kinds of injuries, and 
 is a means of enforcing process, or the performance of 
 certain acts In various eases. But the most usual injury 
 v licli a distress may be taken is that of non-payment 
 of r.'iit. Distress for rent is said to be incident to the re- 
 i il it ni iy be taken for rent reserved upon a 
 gill in tail, lease for life, years. &c, though there be no 
 clause of distress in the deed, if the reversion is in the 
 party distraining. Distresses are to be of things valuable, 
 Wherein someone Ins a property. But various species 
 raoual chattels are exempt from distress, especially 
 the utensils and instruments of a person's trade and pro- 
 !i. if in actual use. otherwise they are not privileged. 
 All distresses for rent must be made by day, and on the 
 ut if any tenant fraudulently removes goods 
 Dram off the premises, the landlord may within thirty days 
 seize such goods wheresoever found, unless they are sold 
 for a valuable consideration before the seizure. Persons 
 ;., train for rent may sell the distress for payment of 
 li', if the tenant or owner fails to replevy, with 
 sufficient security, within live days after taking the distress 
 ami giving the tenant nut ice of the cause. In this case the 
 ole is bound to assist ; the goods are to be appraised 
 by two ■worn appraisers ; and the overplus, if any, left in 
 ■ hands for the use of the owner. 
 DISTRICT. A territorial division. This term was for- 
 merly used in Prance, and particularly in the year 1790, 
 when by the law i the whole country was di- 
 
 ■ 1 1 1 1 it is still common to many of 
 intinental states. The county of Lincoln is divided 
 into three districts ; Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland. 
 mity, and in all probability 
 owe their origin to the distinct natural features by which 
 • • characterized. 
 DTTHYRA'MBIC (JDK. (Gr. JiOopa/i/Joj.) A species 
 of Greek lyrical poem in honour of Bacchus, which derived 
 me from Dithyrambus, (A<0upa/i/?oy), one of the ap- 
 pellations of that deity : a word of uncertain meaning and 
 The style of this poetry was very bold, often 
 ;.' into bombast; so much so indeed as to become 
 rbial for the latter quality. The most celebrated 
 rambic writer was l'indar; none of whoso compost- 
 in this line, however, have come down to us, or' hi- 
 ther known poems of this class. In modern 
 times the term is indiscriminately employed to designate 
 of an impetuous and irregular character. See Ode. 
 Dl'TONE (Gr. Jiroi/oj.) In Music, an interval con- 
 f two tones. 
 DPTRIGLYPH. (Gr. <5is, twice, rpeis, three, and 
 yAu^cj. I carve.) In Architecture, an arrangement of in- 
 tercolumoiations in the Doric order, by which two tri- 
 glyphs are obtained in the frieze between the triglyphs 
 i over the columns. 
 Dl'TTO. In ]$o.ik keeping, more usually contracted 
 into Do, signifies Ike game as that which precedes it. It is 
 derived from the Italian word ditto, signifying the said. 
 
 DI'TTY. (Fr. dilie.) A word of great antiquity in the 
 English language, signifying most usually a simple or pas- 
 toral song. Thus Hilton says — 
 
 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, 
 Tempered to the oaten flute ; 
 Kougti satyr* danced, &c. 
 
 Shakespeare, Dryden, and many of the old classic Eng- 
 lish writers, have repeatedly given importance to this word. 
 
 DIURE'SIS. (Gr. Jiovpijo-iy. a discharge of urine.) An 
 e How of urine. iS'ee Diabetes. 
 
 DIURE'TIC, signifies literally any thing which increases 
 the secretion of urine. The term is usually applied to 
 certain medicines which act especially upon the kidneys, 
 such as squills, turpentine, and some of the neutral salts; 
 wl it frequently happens that during an inordinate flow of 
 urine derived from such causes watery fluids are absorbed 
 from other parts, and, as it were, transposed to the kidneys ; 
 tmoii this principle is founded the use of diuretics in dropsy. 
 There are some alteratives which operate as diuretics, es- 
 pecially when they are taking a favourable operation upon 
 the system : this seems especially to be the case with sar- 
 ■aflarilla. Water and other diluents and liquids, when 
 taken in excess, also operate as diuretics; as far, at least, as 
 txere increase in the flow of urine is concerned. 
 
 DIU'RNaL (Lat. dies, a day), is the name given to 
 the book containing those canonical hours of the Roman 
 Catholic breviary which are to be said during the day. It 
 337 
 
 DIVINE RIG1J I'. 
 
 is intended especially for the clergy u» :he Romish church, 
 and consists generally of lour volumes, one for each sea- 
 son of the year. 
 
 DIU'RNALS. (Lat ditirnus, by dsjf.) A tribe of Rap. 
 toria! birds, including those which fly by day and have la- 
 teral eyes : also a family of Lepidopterous insects, which 
 have a similar period of activity. 
 
 DIVA'N. A word common to many of the eastern lan- 
 guages, signifying in Turkish the audience-chamber of the 
 vizier, or supreme judicial tribunal. The divan of the ca- 
 liphs was a court for the relief of petitioners, oves which 
 those monarchs presided in person. The Turkish divan. 
 as is well known, is the great council of the empire. 
 
 It would seem that the earliest acceptation in which this 
 word was employed is that of a muster-roll or military day- 
 book ; and we find it used, especially by the ancient Arabs, 
 who borrowed it from the Persians, to signify a collection 
 of poems by one and the same author, arranged in alpha- 
 helical order; thus we hear of the Divan («. e. the collected 
 
 fioems) of Sadi, the Divan of Haiti/., 6cc. The word divan 
 s also among the Turks a common appellation for a saloon 
 or hall which serves for the reception of company, for the 
 transacting of business, or for occasional repose ; hence in 
 all probability the term is employed in all modern lan- 
 guages to signify a sofa. 
 
 DIVA'RICATE. (Lat. divarico.) In Zoology, when the 
 divisions of a part spread out widely. 
 
 DIVE'RGENT. (Lat. divergo.) In Zoology, when the 
 branches form a right angle with the stem ; as the snags 
 of certain antlers, the divisions of certain Polypiaries, &c. 
 
 l)l\ 'K'RGING. In Botany, used in describing the vena- 
 tion of leaves, to denote the angle which is formed by th»> 
 miilrib and one of the primary veins, when it is betwect 
 20° and 40°. 
 
 Dl'VIDEND. (Ut. divido, I divide.) In Arithmetic 
 the number or quantity given to be divided. Dividend, ii 
 Commerce, is the name given to the payment madi 
 iurs out of the estate of a bankrupt, and to the annual Inte 
 rest payable upon the national debt and other publli 
 
 DIVINA'TION. (Lat.) The art of foretelling future 
 events. A singular and ever active feeling of curiosity has 
 in all ages induced mm. kind to cast an anxious look ti> 
 wards futurity in the desire of penetrating its mysteries, 
 originally either by serious reflections on the past, by ■ 
 comparison of tin- past with the present, or bj Inl 
 more or less satisfactorily deduced from the prob 
 currence of events. Rul mankind did not rest here : since 
 the remotest period of antiquity, divination formi 
 lar science, intimately allied to religion, and furnished 
 with peculiar rules and regulations, more or less skilfui 
 and ingenious, in proportion to the state of civilization of 
 the people by whom it was practised. But of alt the ua 
 lions of antiquity there were none who, notwithstanding 
 their great learning and refinement, cultivated the science 
 of divination with such enthusiasm as the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans. Independently of their credulity with regard to augu- 
 ries and oracles, which may be termed the higher 
 divination, the most trillim: incidents supplied them With 
 the occasion to indulge in this propensity ; and there was 
 nothing in the wide range of human affairs from which 
 they did not derive tokens of futurity. To cumin 
 or even the chief objects gf divination among the ancients. 
 would far exceed our prescribed limits. Under : 
 ent heads, as Belomancy, Neckomancy,&c , the 
 will find a notice of the principal of them ; and for the rest 
 he may consult with advantage Cicero, De Divinatione 
 See Oracle. 
 
 DIVINE RIGHT, THE, OF KINGS, In Politics, means 
 the absolute and unqualified claim of sovereigns on the 
 obedience of the people; insomuch thai, although they 
 may themselves submit to restrictions on their authority, 
 yet subjects endeavouring to enforce those restrictions by 
 resistance to their unlawful acts are guilty of a sin. This 
 doctrine, so celebrated In English constitutional history, 
 has been asserted on very different grounds. Hobbes 
 (De Civ.) deduced the absolute authority of kings from the 
 supposed social contract, whereby men parted absolutely 
 with their natural rights in exchange for protection. But 
 the fashionable political writers and theologians of the 
 times both of Charles I. and II. (in the latter I 
 Robert Filmer, author of the Patriarcha, may be more es- 
 pecially cited, on account of his having been directly an 
 swered by Leslie), maintained that government had an ex 
 istence before property, and before any suppost 
 contract could took place ; thatitoriginatedin the patriarchal 
 sway, which was succeeded by the regal, and that no othet 
 was authorized by Scripture. See also the Convocatior. 
 Book of 1603; Archbishop Leslie on t.'ie Pov.er of the 
 Prince ; Sherlock's Case of Resistance to Supreme Pinr.eim, 
 1681 ; Mackenzie's Jus liegium, 1683. The same princ: 
 pies were practically adopted by the Jacobites, when they 
 maintained the divine right of the expelled sovereign, and 
 afterwards of his descendants, by hereditary title. As to 
 the views of modern high church 'SJivines on the subject- 
 
DIVING. 
 
 see Dr. Pusey's Sermon on the 5th of November, 1837. See 
 Non-resistance. 
 
 DI'VING. The art of descending in water. Indepen- 
 dently of the valuable native productions which are found 
 at the bottom of the sea, such as pearls, coral, sponges, &c, 
 the treasure which is so frequently carried down in wrecked 
 vessels makes it an object of importance to be able to de- 
 scend to the bottom and remain there long enough to exe- 
 cute the operations necessary to recover it. But without 
 the assistance of some mechanical apparatus, it is ex- 
 tremely little that even the most practised divers can per- 
 form. A minute and a half, or two minutes, is the longest 
 time that a diver, in general, can remain underwater. Be- 
 sides, on account of the loss of weight in water, the power 
 which a man can exert is extremely small, unless borne 
 down by a load which would entirely prevent him from 
 rising again to the top. For these reasons, numerous pro- 
 jects have been brought forward to assist the natural powers 
 of the body, and render diving an art of more extensive 
 utility. In all these projects, the principal object aimed at 
 is to supply the diver with fresh air and light, and leave 
 him the free use of his arms, and the power of walking 
 within a moderate range at the bottom. Borelli contrived 
 an apparatus which he called a diving bladder; the bladder 
 being of brass or copper, about two feet in diameter, to 
 contain the diver's head, and fastened to a goat skin cover- 
 ing exactly fitted to the shape of the head. Art apparatus 
 of this kind was successfully used by Mr. Deane on the 
 west coast of Scotland, at Spithead, and at Donaghadee, 
 where he brought up an immense number of dollars and 
 various otherarticles from a vessel which had been wrecked 
 there more than thirty years before. 
 
 The^rincipal part of Mr. Deane's apparatus consists of 
 a helmet of thin sheet copper, which covers the head of the 
 diver, large enough to admit of free motion, and furnished 
 with three eye-holes, covered with glass protected by 
 brass wires. The helmet comes pretty well down over 
 the breast and back, and is fastened by rivets to a water- 
 proof canvass jacket so tightly that no water can pene- 
 trate. A leather belt passes round the diver, to which are 
 attached two weights, one before and the other behind, each 
 abdit 40 lbs. The belt is supplied with a buckle in'front, 
 which, in case of any accident happening, can be instantly 
 undone. The diver is supplied with fresh air by means 
 of a flexible water-proof pipe, which en- 
 ters the helmet, and communicates with 
 an air-pump, wrought above in the barge 
 from which he descends. This pipe 
 passes under the left arm of the diver, 
 and enters the back of the helmet, being 
 SO contrived that the fresh air is made 
 lo impinge on the glasses; which in a 
 great measure prevents their being dim- jj/ ■sicjj 
 med by the moisture of the breath. wr^T HVsr'i, 
 From the back part of the helmet there is also led an 
 eduction pipe, to allow the escape of the breathed air. A 
 signal line passes under the right arm to communicate 
 with attendants at the surface. The diver descends from 
 the side of the vessel, either by meansofa ropeor wooden 
 ladder, loaded at the lower end, the weight being kept at 
 a little height above the ground. When the diver descends 
 to the bottom, the weight is let down, and the rope allowed 
 to become slack, to prevent the motion of the boat from 
 obstructing him. His motion is rendered steady by heavy 
 weights attached to his feet: and he carries a line in his 
 hand, that he may, when necessary, guide himself back to 
 the rope. A waterproof dress covers h'is body entirely ; 
 and he is thus enabled to remain under water five or six 
 hours at once, all the while perfectly dry. (See Popular 
 Encyclopaedia, art. "Diving.") 
 
 DIVING BELL. An apparatus by means of which per- 
 sons are let down and enabled to remain under water, and 
 execute various operations ; such as levelling or clearing 
 the bottoms of harbours, preparing a foundation for build- 
 ings, bringing up sunken materials, &c. The principle of 
 she diving bell depends on the impenetrability of atmo- 
 spheric air, and may be illustrated by a very familiar ex- 
 periment. Bring the edge of an inverted tumbler, or any 
 close vessel, to the surface of water, and, keeping the 
 month horizontal, press it down in the water. It will be 
 seen that, though some portion of water ascends into the 
 tumbler, the greater part of the space remains empty, or 
 only filled with air; and any object placed in this space, 
 though surrounded on all sides with water, would remain 
 perfectly dry. In fact, the quantity of air remains the same, 
 but is compressed into a smaller volume, in proportion to 
 the depth to which it is made to descend. Now, if we 
 conceive a vessel of wood or iron, sufficiently capacious 
 to hold several men, to be suspended by a chain, and low- 
 ri\l by means of weights attached to it to any moderate 
 depth under water, it is evident that they may remain 
 there for a considerable time, and perform any operation 
 ;.h:it could be executed on land in the same confined space. 
 Hie machine, however, as thus described, is liable to two 
 358 r 
 
 DIVING BELL. 
 
 great defects, which must be obviated by other con- 
 trivances before any great advantage can be derived from 
 it. In the first place, as the air by its compressibility al- 
 lows the water to enter the lower part of the bell, the dry 
 space is not only diminished, but the bottom on which the 
 bell rests, and where the operations are to be carried on, 
 is also covered with water to a proportional depth. In the 
 second place, the air within the bell, by repeated respira- 
 tion, soon becomes mephitic, and unfit to support life ; so 
 that it is necessary to elevate the apparatus after short in- 
 tervals, to admit a fresh supply. 
 
 It is tiit known at what period the diving bell was invent- 
 ed. Beckman, in his History of Inventions, mentions that 
 at Toledo, in the sixteenth century, two Greeks, in the 
 presence of the emperor Charles V. and several thousand 
 spectators, let themselves down under water in a larj;e in- 
 verted kettle with a burning light, and rose again without 
 being wet. George Sinclair, the author of Satan's Invisi- 
 ble World Displayed, in his work entitled Ars Kara et 
 Magna Gravitalis et Levitatis, mentions some attempts 
 that were made, about the year 1665, to raise, by means of 
 a diving bell, the treasure from the ships of the Invincible 
 Armada that went to the bottom near the Isle of Mull in 
 the Hebrides, and describes the kind of bell that was em- 
 ployed. But, on account of the defects to which we have 
 alluded, the diving bell continued to be of very little use 
 till the time of Dr. Halley, who contrived a means of intro- 
 ducing fresh air into the bell while under water, and of al- 
 lowing the mephitic or breathed air to escape. The bell 
 he made use of he describes as having been of wood, con- 
 taining about 60 cubic feet in its cavity, and Of the form of a 
 truncated cone, whose diameter at the top was three feet, 
 and at the bottom five. This was coated with lead, so 
 heavy that it could sink empty, and the weight so distri- 
 buted about its bottom that it could only descend in a per- 
 pendicular direction. In the top a clear glass was fixed, to 
 let in the light from above, and a cock to let out the air that 
 had been breathed. To supply the air to the bell he caused 
 a couple of barrels, of about 36 gallons each, to be cased 
 with lead so as to sink empty, each of them having a bung- 
 hole in its lowest part, to let in the water as the air in them 
 condensed on their descent, and to let it out again when 
 they were drawn up full from below. To a hole in the up- 
 permost part of the barrels a trunk or hose was fixed, !ong 
 enough to fall below the bung-hole, and kept down by a 
 weight, so that no air could escape by the hose till its end 
 was raised up. The barrels thus prepared were let down 
 by the side of the bell. A man slationed on a stage sus- 
 pended from the bell was ready to take up the hose ; an ), 
 as soon as their ends were brought to the surface of the 
 water in the barrels, all the air that was included in the up- 
 per parts of them was blown with great, violence into tl.r- 
 bell, while the water entered at the bung-holes below am 
 filled the barrels. By means of this contrivance the ai; 
 was not only kept fresh, but another great advantage was 
 gained ; namely, that by admitting a sufficient quantity of 
 it the whole of the water was expelled from the inside of 
 the bell, and the bottom of the sea laid dry. 
 
 By means of this contrivance for the admission of fresh 
 air, it was now possible to remain for any length of time 
 under water; but the use of the apparatus was still found 
 to be attended with some inconveniences, and even con- 
 siderable danger. The divers within the bell having no 
 power over it, its rising or sinking depends entirely upon 
 the people at the surface of the water; and as the bell, 
 even when in the water, has a considerable weight, there is 
 always a possibility of the chain by which it is raised break- 
 ing, which would inevitably be attended with the destruc- 
 tion of the divers. Another danger, still more lo be appre- 
 hended, is, that if the mouth of the bell in ils descent 
 should come upon a sunken ship, or a rock projecting ab- 
 ruptly from the bottom, it might be overset before any sig- 
 nal could be given lo those above. These defects were 
 obviated by the very ingenious contrivances of Mr. Spald- 
 ing of pjdinbnrgh. In orderto avoid the risk of being upset 
 when the bell descends on a rocky or uneven bottom, he 
 suspended a considerable weight, which he called a ba- 
 lance weight, below the bell, by a rope passing over a pul- 
 ley fixed in the inside; and the other weights attached to 
 the bell being so adjusted that they could not sink it with- 
 out the balance weight, as soon as the latter rested on the 
 ground the bell remained suspended in the water. In case 
 of the mouth of the bell being caught by any obstacle, the 
 balance weight is immediately lowered, till it rests on the 
 bottom; and as the bell, when thus relieved, is buoyant. 
 the divers, having disengaged it from the rock, have it iu 
 their power either to descend by pulling in the rcpe, or c- 
 allowing it to run to ascend to the surface. Another con 
 trivance of Mr. Spalding deserves mention. He divided 
 the bell into two compartments, the one above the other 
 and communicating by means of a stopcock. The dives 
 are stationed in the lower one, and the weights are so ad- 
 justed that when the cavity above is empty the bell is buoy^ 
 ant ; when it is filled with water, the bell sinks. Immeui- 
 
DIVINING ROD. 
 
 itcly above the partition are some slits in the sides of the 
 hell"; anil at the top is an orifice, which can be opened or 
 il pleasure. Suppose now, this orifice being open, 
 quired to be lowered ; as it descends, the wa- 
 iter! at the slits, and the air escapes by the orifice. 
 i the apparatus is entirely under water, and the cavity 
 qnently comoletely filled, let the orifice be shut. 
 The bell will now continue to descend ; but if the stopcock 
 communicating with the upper compartment be opened, 
 r will rush from the under to the upper, and displace 
 a quantity of the water, and the apparatus will be lightened 
 whole of the water so displaced. The divers have 
 it thus in their power to regulate the descent or rise as 
 they please. By admitting a certain quantity of air into the 
 r cavity, the descent of the bell is arrested ; by admit- 
 •t quantity it becomes buoyant, and rises to the 
 top. This method of constructing the diving bell has not, 
 ver, been adopted. 
 The greatest Improvement on the divine bell, since that 
 le by the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, and 
 ig down a continued stream of air by 
 means of an air-pump through a flexible tube; and this 
 plan ii now always adopted. En the jrear 1788, Smeaton 
 acted a diving bell to be used in the operations then 
 contemplated at Ramsgatc harbour on a new and im- 
 proved plan i' a bell-shaped vessel sunk by 
 ■ ;. his apparatus consisted of a square chest of cast 
 id a naif feel long, l"'ir and a half feet high, and 
 feet wide, affording sufficient room for two men 
 .;ist of such a thickness that its own 
 it was sufficient to sink it; and its thickness was 
 r- the mouth or lower part, to nrevent it from 
 This construction of the diving bell 
 i he men within it no power of raising or sinking it; 
 hut as i tie apparatai was made to be used at a place where 
 the nature of the bottom waa known, this advantage was 
 not considered of greal consequence; and, in fact, it is 
 found by experience that it is better to leave the bell to be 
 entirely Raided from above. On account of the facility 
 with which water conveys sound, the strokes of a hammer 
 on the inside of the bell' can he heard at a great distance ; 
 and i Bring through the water has a peculiar 
 character, which cannot be mistaken. By previous ar- 
 rangement any directions can he given in this manner. 
 For Instance, one blow may denote more air; two, stand 
 fast; three, heave up; four, lower down, and so on. With 
 easive improvements, the diving bell is found to 
 be a most important machine in all the great operations to 
 be performed under water. It was used with great ad- 
 vantage by Mr Ronnie in the construction of the various 
 harhours he projected ; and it has recently been success- 
 fully employ d in deepening the Clyde between Glasgow 
 and Greenock, and improving the navigation of the river. 
 1 ' ving Bell," in the new edition of the 
 Encyclopedia Britanmca. 
 DIVI'nim; ROD. See Rabdomancy. 
 DrVT81BlLITY. The property which all bodies possess 
 of being separable into parts. It was a question formerly 
 much agitated among philosophers, whether matter is divi- 
 sible in infinitum ; or whether a certain term does not 
 exist beyond which the particles are reduced to simple 
 atoms incapable of further division. The question is inca- 
 pable of direct solution, and fortunately is of no importance 
 to science; but the extent to which the actual subdivision 
 of bodies has been carried in many cases in the arts may 
 well be considered as prodigious. "In the gilding of buttons, 
 5 grains of sold, which is applied as an amalgam with mer- 
 cury, is allowed to each gross ; so that the coating left must 
 amount to the UO.OOOlh part of an inch in thickness. If a 
 piece of ivory, or white satin, be immersed in a nitro-muri- 
 ate solution of gold, and then exposed to a current of hydro- 
 i -;. it will become covered with a surface of gold hardly 
 exceeding in thickness the ten-millionth part of an inch." 
 
 ■'The solution of certain saline bodies, and of other co- 
 loured substances, exhibits a prodigious subdivision and 
 dissemination of matter. A single grain of the sulphate of 
 ler, or blue vitriol, will communicate a fine azure tint 
 to five gallons of water. In this case the copper must be 
 attenuated at least ten million times; yet each drop of the 
 liquid may contain so many coloured particles, distinguish- 
 able by our unassisted vision. Odours are capable of a still 
 wider diffusion. A single grain of musk has been known 
 to perfume a room for the space of twenty years. Animal 
 matter likewise exhibits in many instances a wonderful 
 subdivision. The milt of a codfish when it begins to pu- 
 trefy has been computed to contain a billion of perfect In- 
 -o that thousands of these living creatures could be 
 lifted on the point of a needle. But the infusory animal- 
 cules display in their structure and functions the most 
 transcendent attenuation of matter. The Vibrio undula, 
 found in duck weed, is computed to be ten thousand mil- 
 lion times smaller than a hemp seed. The Vibrio lineola 
 occurs in vegetable infusions, every drop containing my- 
 riads of these oblong points. The Monas gelatiiwsa, dis- 
 359 
 
 DOCKET. 
 
 covered in ditch water, appears in the field of a micros.-, -.pe 
 a mere atom endued with life, millions of theui playing 
 like sunbeams in a single drop of liquid." {Leslie's Na- 
 tural J'h ikisuphy. ) 
 
 DIVISION. (I.at. divido, Idivide.) One of the four fun- 
 damental rules of arithmetic, the object of which is to find 
 how often one number is contained in another. The num- 
 ber to be divided is the dividend, the number which divides 
 is the dirisor, and the result of the division is the quotient. 
 Division is the converse of multiplication. 
 
 Divi'sion. In Music, a dividing or separation of the in- 
 terval of an octave into a number of lesser intervals. 
 
 Divi'sion, in Logic, is the enumeration of several things 
 signified by a common name; thus, tree is said to be di- 
 vided into oak, ash, elm, &c. A common term may be 
 divided in several ways", according to the various points o( 
 view in which it may be regarded for the purpose of quali- 
 fication. Thus a bookbinder may divide books into folios, 
 quartos, &c. ; a librarian into theological, historical. Arc. 
 
 Division, in the art Military, signifies generally a certain 
 proportion of an army, consisting of cavalry and infantry 
 together or separately, that is, under the order of a briga- 
 dier or other general officer ; but, in a more restricted 
 sense, it is applied to any number of men on military duty 
 detached from an established body, as a division of artil- 
 lery, pioneers, <tc. The divisions of an army are the 
 number of the brigades and squadrons of which it consists; 
 the divisions of a battalion are the several platoons into 
 which a regiment or battalion is divided either in marching 
 or firinc. (J<i?nes's Mil. Diet.) 
 
 DIVO'RCE. (From the modern Latin word divorttare. 
 tn turn or put uira;/.) The Jewish law of divorce Is founded 
 on the directions given In the 24th chapter of Deuteronomy; 
 but the permission therein contained is subject to many 
 sand formalities in modern practice. In Greece, 
 in classical times, the practice of divorce seems to bava 
 varied in different states ; at Sparta it appears to have been 
 unusual, in Athens ureal facilities were afforded hv the 
 law. In republican Rome great strictness in this bianch 
 of morals prevailed (bra long period, although pat 
 less impeded in pursuing a divorce by the difficulties im- 
 po< ed bv .he law dim I y public opinion. Bui In 
 period of the republic, and under the emperors, divorce 
 became extremely common, and was obtained with equal 
 ease by either sex. Our Saviour's declaration to the Pha- 
 risee, in the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, became the 
 foundation of the law on this subject in Christian coun- 
 tries, and divorces were consequently allowed in one par- 
 ticular case only ; but after the Roman church hail et ected 
 matrimony into a sacrament, they became, as they now 
 are in Catholic countries, wholly impossible: the only 
 dissolution of marriage being in cases where It Is void ab 
 initio. In must Protestant countries, the facility of divorce 
 has been so much restored in latter times as to approxi- 
 mate to the heathen practice. In England divori 
 cido matrimonii, on the ground of adultery, can only tie 
 obtained by act of parliament; divorce a metua et ten, 
 commonly termed separation, by sentence of the spiritual 
 court. See Marriagi;, Law of. 
 
 DO. In Music, a syllable used by the Italians instead of 
 ut, than which it is by ihctn considered more musical and 
 resonant. 
 
 DOCE'TaS. (Gr. Sokciv, to seem.) One of the earliest 
 heretical sects; so called from the reality of our Lord's 
 incarnation, and considering him to have acted and sutfered 
 only in appearance. Some divines have conceived (hat the 
 express declarations of the nature of Christ in St. John's 
 writings were specially directed against these opinions. 
 
 DO'CIMA'STIC ART. (Gr. SoKiua^, I prove.) The 
 art of assaying minerals or ores, with a viewol determining 
 the quantity of metal which they contain. 
 
 DOCK. (Probably from the Gr. iexopai, Irecehe.) An 
 artificial basin for the reception of ships. Docks are of 
 two sorts, wet and dry : the former are used for the pur- 
 pose of loading and unloading a ship's cargo out of the in- 
 fluence of the tide, and are constructed with gates, which 
 when shut keep the ship constantly afloat at low water; 
 the latter are intended for the building, repairing, or ex- 
 amination of ships, which are admitted into them at flood 
 tide, and are so called because they are either left dry by 
 the ebbing of the sea, or rendered so by the use of great 
 flood gates or of pumps. The reader will find in the 
 Commercial Dictionary a full account of all the docks of 
 Great Britain, with remarks on their utility, history, <fcc. 
 A naval dock is a place provided with all sorts of naval 
 stores, timber, and all the requisite machinery for ship- 
 building. The principal naval docks of Great Britain are 
 Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, Sheerness, Woolwich, 
 and Deptford. It is in these docks, and particularly the 
 three first, that ships of war are laid up in time ol peace. 
 
 DOCKET, DOCQUET, or DOGGETT (I.at. docu- 
 mentum), in Law, is an abridged entry of an instrument 
 or proceeding on a small piece of paper or parchment. 
 Exemplifications of decrees in chancery, fiats in hank 
 
DOCTOR. 
 
 ruptcy, and other instruments, are thus docketed for pur- 
 poses of reference. 
 
 DO'CTOR. or TEACHER. This title of learned dis- 
 tinction was first adopted in the twelfth century. The 
 degreee of Doctorate, succeeding and superior to that of 
 Master in European universities, was first conferred at 
 Bologna ; by the university of Paris, in 1145, on Peter 
 Lombard ; in England, it is supposed, in the reign of King 
 John. Before this time, if the appellation of Doctor was 
 used, it was only in its plain sense of "teacher," and as 
 synonymous with master. The degree of Doctor is con- 
 ferred, in the English universities, in each of the three 
 faculties of divinity, law, and medicine, — but not in that of 
 arts, — and in the science of music. The Continental degree 
 of Doctor of Philosophy is unknown among us. 
 
 Do'ctor. A thin plate of steel used in scraping the 
 colour or mordant off the copper plates employed in calico 
 printing ; the term is probably a corruption of the word 
 abductor. 
 
 DO'CTORS' COMMONS, is the popular name for the 
 courts and offices occupied by the body incorporated in 
 1768 under the title of "The College of Doctors of Law 
 cxercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts," and 
 which are situate on the southern side of St. Paul's Church- 
 yard. The college consists of a president (the dean of the 
 arches for the time being), and of those doctors of lax* who 
 having regularly taken that degree in either of the univer- 
 sities of Oxford or Cambridse, and having been admitted 
 advocates In pursuance of the rescript of the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, have been elected fellows of the college in 
 the manner prescribed by the charter. See Courts, Ec- 
 clesiastical. 
 
 DO'CTRINAIRES. In Politics, a cant word, originally 
 applied in France to a section of politicians who occupied 
 a place, in the first chambers after the restoration of 1815, 
 between the deputies of the centre, who generally sup- 
 ported ministers, and the extreme left, which always op- 
 posed them. The chief men of this party were systematic 
 writers and speakers on government, who sought to estab- 
 lish a frame of constitution somewhat more resembling that 
 of England than any which has hitherto subsisted in France. 
 The nickname given to them implied that they were con- 
 sidered by the public as theorists: they were, in fact, the 
 same class which Napoleon used to term Ideologists. They 
 supported the Due de Cazes when in office ; afterwards they 
 were generally in opposition unlil 1830, since which time se- 
 several of their leaders have held office at different times. 
 Royer Collartl, De Broglie, the young Baron de Siael, Gui 
 zot. &c, were among the chief public men commonly call- 
 ed Doctrinaires; but this, like other party nicknames, has 
 been, and is, employed in a very arbitrary manner. 
 
 DO'CTRINE (Lat. doceo, i/eacA). signifies, in its most ex- 
 tended sense, any thing that is taught either as a matter of 
 faith or practice ; and accordingly the term is applied more 
 particularly to various theories that have been embraced 
 and enforced in philosophy and religion : hence we hear of 
 St. Augustine's doctrine of grace, Newton's doctrine of co- 
 lours, &c. 
 
 DOCUMENTS. (Lat. doceo, / teach.) In Law, writ- 
 ten instruments adduced for the purpose of evidence. See 
 Evidence. 
 
 DO'DEOADA'CTYLUS. (Gr. <5w(5s*a, twelve, and 
 danTvXos, a finger.) The portion of the small intestines 
 called duodenum, its length being about the breadth of 
 twelve fingers: this at least may be the case in some ani- 
 mals to which the dissection of the earlier anatomists, who 
 gave this name, was limited. 
 
 DODE'CAGON. (Gr. ScoStxa, and vwvia, an angle.) 
 A regular polygon of 12 equal sides. If the side of a do- 
 decagon be represented by 1, the area is = 3 X (2-\-\/3) 
 = 1 1-196 nearly. In general, the area of the figure is equal 
 to the square of its side multiplied by the constant number 
 11-196. 
 
 DO'DECAHE'DRON. (Gr. <Ws/ca, and I6pa, seat.) 
 One of the five Platonic bodies or regular solids ; its surface 
 being composed of 12 equal and regular pentagons. The 
 surface of a dodecahedron is found by multiplying I he square 
 of iis side or linear edge into the number 20 64578: and its 
 solidily by multiplying the cube of its side by 7 66312. 
 
 DODECA'NDROUS. (Gr. iuiitna, and avnp, a male.) 
 Any plant having twelve stamens. 
 
 DODECA'STYLE. (Gr. ludexa, and trrvXos, a co- 
 lumn.) In Architecture, a building having twelve columns 
 on a front or flank. 
 
 DODO'NA. In Antiquity, the seat of the most ancient, 
 ami one of the most celebrated oracles of Greece, sacred 
 to Jupiter. By some writers its origin is attributed to Deu- 
 calion, who is said to have built the town of Dodona where 
 it stood ; but according to the traditions of the priestesses 
 of the temple, it was founded by a dove, which, perching 
 on the branch of an oak, recommended in a human voice 
 that a temple should be erected to Jupiter in that place. 
 Die situation of the oracle was in an extensive forest, the 
 oaks of which are said to have been endowed with the gift 
 360 
 
 DOGMA. 
 
 of prophecy ; and the oracles were most frequently de- 
 livered by three priestesses, who expounded the will of the 
 divinity. That the responses of this oracle were received 
 with singular veneration, may be inferred from the number 
 of votaries by whom it was frequented, and the costly pre- 
 sents which adorned the temple and its precincts. This 
 oracle continued to utter responses till the time of Augus- 
 tus, when it ceased. (Strabo, vii.) See Oracle. 
 
 DO'DRANS. (Lat.) A measure equal to about nine 
 inches, being the space between the end of the thumb and 
 of the little finuerwhen both are fully extended. It is about 
 equal to the palm. 
 
 DOC See Canis. 
 
 DO'G BELTS. A term used in some coal mines for a 
 strong broad piece of leather round the waist, to which a 
 chain is attached, passing between the legs of the men 
 drawing the dans in the low works. 
 
 DOG DAYS. -See Canicular Days. 
 
 DOGE. (Probably a corruption of the Lat. dux, a 
 leader.) The title of the supreme executive magistrate in 
 the republic of Venice. The origin of this office dates as 
 far back as 697 ; when, owing partly to the dissensions and 
 intrigues that resulted from the annual election of the 
 seven tribunes by whom the affairs of Venice had been 
 previously administered, and partly to so divided an autho- 
 rity being found inadequate to the conduct of the rapidly 
 increasing powers of the state, the Venetians resolved to 
 replace the tribunes by a single chief magistrate, who 
 should hold office for life. This magistrate, whom they 
 called the Doge, was clothed with almost regal authority. 
 In him was vested the power of convoking assemblies, ol 
 declaring war or concluding treaties; of commanding the 
 armies of the stale; of appointing the military tribunes 
 and the judges; of hearing appeals and deciding defini- 
 tively on all matters at issue ; of collecting the citizens in 
 their different islands, and in the quarters or districts of 
 Venice, for the purpose of choosing their parish priests or 
 bishops; of judging all matters concerning the clergy in 
 all causes, both civil and criminal; and of awarding eccle- 
 siastical punishments, investing the bishops, and installing 
 them in their churches. (And. Dandolo apvd Galliciuli. 
 Chron. i.) But notwithstanding these apparently vast 
 powers which were vested in the doge at the first institu- 
 tion of the office, the slightest glance at the history of Ve- 
 nice, which for more than eleven centuries, with a few in- 
 terruptions, continued to be governed by doges, will abun- 
 dantly prove that though the Venetians allowed lour cen- 
 turies to elapse before they attempted to fix the bounds or 
 control the exercise of the sovereign authority by any legal 
 enactments, they never ceased to regard with jealousy the 
 chief magistrate of their own appointment and approval, 
 and at last succeeded in limiting and restricting his power, 
 so as to render him a mere state pageant of the grand 
 council, in which resided the supreme executive authority. 
 The history of the doges is so incorporated with that of the 
 Venetian republic as to be wholly inseparable from it ; and 
 a bare outline of the various phases which they exhibited 
 during a career unrivalled for duration and brilliancy in 
 the annals of human society, would be incompatible at 
 once with our limits and the design of this/work. The 
 reader will find ample information on this subject in Da- 
 m's Historic de la Republique de Venise. (8 vols. 8vo. Pa- 
 ris) ; the Quarterly Review, vol. 31 ; and Edinburgh Re- 
 view, vol. 46 (See Bucentaur.) Doge was also the title 
 given to the chief magistrates of Genoa, who were elected 
 from the senatorial body. The doges of Genoa held office 
 originally for life, as at Venice; but from 1528 down to 
 1797, when that form of Government was abolished by the 
 French, they remained in office only two years, and their 
 authority was exceedingly circumscribed. 
 
 DO'GMA. (Gr. Soxetv, to seem.) Literally, a conclu- 
 sion founded upon experience. In Theology, dogma has 
 been defined to be a fundamental article of belief derived 
 from acknowledged authority, and is usually applied to 
 what are considered as the essential doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity, deduced either from the Scriptures or from the fa- 
 thers of the church. (See Theology.) There are, how- 
 ever, many other dogmas peculiar to the different sects 
 into which Christianity is divided. Thus the bulls and de- 
 cretals of the pope, together with all the councils both Of 
 earlier and later times, are regarded by the Roman Catho- 
 lics with as much veneration as the authority of the Scrip- 
 tures and th/3 holy fathers. The Greek church, on the 
 other hand, acknowledges the authority only of the earlier 
 councils, in addition to that of the Scriptures and the fa- 
 thers; and the Lutheran and other Protestant churches 
 have embodied their dogmas in their respect're confes- 
 sions of faith and other ecclesiastical stanlai as. Dogma- 
 tic theology, as this branch of divinity is called, in contra- 
 distinction to moral and scholastic theology, forms an im- 
 portant object of study in many of the Continental uni- 
 versities. In the Protestant universities of Germany, there 
 are chairs set apart for th* 1 history of dogmas, or, as it is 
 termed, Dogmatik ; in which the origin and nature of the 
 
DOG STAR. 
 
 dogmas Of the various Christian sects are examined, and 
 the merit of the arguments by which they are supported 
 respectively canvassed. Among the ancient physicians, 
 the dtigmntisla founded their practice upon conclusions or 
 opinions drawn from certain theoretical inferences, which 
 :hey conceited might be logically defended or proved. At 
 present n dogmatist is one who is fond of strong assertions 
 not always founded upon correct reasoning. 
 DO'G STAR. A name popularly given to Siriits, a star 
 magnitude, in the constellation Cam's Major 
 (the Greater Dog), and the brightest fixed star in the fir- 
 
 III llll 
 
 DO'GWOOD. A name applied to two different plants : 
 in England to any of the shrubby species of Cornus ; in 
 the West Indies to the Piscidia erythrina. The former 
 are of little interest, except as ornamental shrubs; the lat- 
 in- is i powerful narcotic, the real value of which in medi- 
 cine his still 10 be determined- 
 
 DOLA'BRIPOEH. (Ut. dolabra, a hatchet.) In Zool- 
 whote '<r p.irt is shaped like a hatchet, as the 
 four of certain Bivalves. 
 
 DO'l.f i: dr.) In Music, an instruction to the per- 
 former thai the music is to be executed softly and sweetly. 
 
 DO'LERITB. A trap-rock composed of augite and 
 
 DOLICHOTIB. (Or. do'Xixof, lor.%, and wy, an ear.) 
 The name applied by F. Carter to the subgenus of Cavies, 
 tci which the Patagonian hare (Carta Patachun.) belongs. 
 
 DOLLAR AtMonr. 
 
 DO'LOMfTE M agmate n marble, or granular magne- 
 trbonaie of I after Dolomieu. 
 
 D< » I, I'll IN This term is applied, in common language, 
 to two inhabitanta of the ocean of widely different habits 
 and organisation : by naturalists it is generally used to 
 signify the dotphtfl of the ancients, which is a cetaceous 
 mammal of the genus Delphis of Linn;eus ; by poets it is 
 applied to the COrjrplteiM (Coryphthna Hippurus, Linn.), 
 a Bah long celebrated for the swiftness of its swimming, 
 and the brilliant and beautiful colours which it successively 
 in the act of death. 
 
 DOM [Lftt dominus, a lord), in the middle ages, was a 
 till" originally possessed by the pope, and at a somewhat 
 later period by the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic 
 church. In more recent times, it formed a distinguishing 
 title of certain monastic orders, such as the Benedictines, 
 <fec. ; and ii appears to have been equivalent to the don of 
 mi. iris. Hi" von of the Germans, and the de of the 
 French. Mabillon and Calmet are always spoken of as 
 Dom M ibiHon and Dim Calmet. 
 
 DOMAI'N (Let dominicum, from dominus, lord; in 
 legal language, demesne), signifies properly that portion of 
 niil possessions of a lord which he retains in 
 I. is own occupation. Thus, the lands retained in posses- 
 sion of Hie crown, and not granted out to the great feudal 
 lords, were styled domains in France. Ancient demesne, 
 l law, is a peculiar tenure by which certain lands 
 1 of the crown, being such as are evidenced by 
 Domesday Book to have been in the possession of King 
 Confessor. 
 
 DOME. (Lat. domm ) In Architecture, the spherical 
 or other figured concave ceiling over a circular or polygo- 
 nal building. A surbased or diminished dome is one that is 
 segmental on its section ; a surmounted dome is one that is 
 higher than the radius of its base. The forms of domes 
 me, both in plan and section. In the former, they 
 are circular and polygonal ; in the latter, we find them 
 semicircular, and semi-elliptical, segmental, pointed, some- 
 times in curves of contrary flexure, bell-shaped, <fec. 
 -t cupola on record is that of the Pantheon at 
 Borne, which was erected under Augustus, and is still per- 
 fect. We here subjoin a list of the domes whose dimen- 
 sions entitle them lo notice. 
 
 Domes. 
 
 Feet diam. 
 
 Feet high. 
 
 Pantheon at Rome . 
 
 142 
 
 143 
 
 i at Florence, Sta. Maria del 
 
 
 
 Finre ...... 
 
 139 
 
 310 
 
 St. Peter's at Rome . 
 
 139 
 
 330 
 
 iia at Constantinople . 
 
 115 
 
 201 
 
 of Caracalla (Ancient) . 
 
 113 
 
 116 
 
 St. Paul's, London . 
 
 112 
 
 215 
 
 Dom« of the Mosque of Achmet . 
 
 92 
 
 120 
 
 f f the Medici 
 
 91 
 
 199 
 
 Ha 1 it istery at Florence 
 
 86 
 
 110 
 
 Church of the Invalids at Paris 
 
 80 
 
 173 
 
 Minerva Medica at Rome 
 
 78 
 
 97 
 
 i deila Salute, Venice . 
 
 70 
 
 133 
 
 levieve at Paris (Pantheon) . 
 
 67 
 
 190 
 
 Duomo at Sienna . 
 
 57 
 
 148 
 
 Duomo at Milan . 
 
 57 
 
 254 
 
 St Vitatts at Ravenna 
 
 55 
 
 91 
 
 V ,1 de Grace at Paris . . 
 
 56 
 
 133 
 
 k, Venice . 
 
 44 
 
 
 361 
 
 
 
 DONATIVE. 
 
 DO'MESDAY BOOK (Liber Judiciarius, or Censualit 
 Anglias.), according to Hume, the most valuable piece of 
 antiquity possessed by any nation, was framed by order of 
 William the Conqueror (1031-6), and contains a general sur- 
 vey of mostof the lands in England, their extent in each dis- 
 trict, their proprietors, tenures, value ; the quantity of mea- 
 dow, pasture, wood, and arable land which they contained; 
 ami. in some counties, the number of tenants, cottagers, 
 and slaves of all denominations who lived upon them. It 
 consists of two volumes; one in fol., the oilier in 4to. : the 
 former comprehending 31 counties, the latter those only of 
 Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. The counties of Northumber- 
 land, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, were not 
 comprehended in this survey, probably on account of their 
 then wild uncultivated state. Nordoes Lancashire appear un- 
 der its proper name ; but Furness and the northern part of 
 that county, as well as the south of Westmoreland and part 
 of Cumberland, are included within the West Riding of 
 Yorkshire. Though in several respects the Information 
 contained in Domesday Hook is inaccurate and defective, 
 still in a variety of interesting particulars it serves admira- 
 bly to illustrate the ancient slate of England. The publica- 
 tion of Domesday Book was undertaken by order of Geo. 
 III. in 1707, and was completed under the superintendence 
 of Mr. Ahraham Farley, in 1783, The original isdeposited 
 in the Chapter House at Westminster, where it is open to 
 inspection. Sir II. Ellis has published a useful introduc- 
 tion and index lo it. Two volumes of Records supple- 
 mentary to It k, framed for a similar purpose, 
 and of a nearly contemporary dale, were published in 1816 
 by the Commissioners upon the Public Records. The term 
 Domesday is of doubtful origin: the first syllable seems 
 derived Irom doom, judgment. 
 
 DO'MIOILF. In Law, the place where a person has his 
 home. Personal property, on the decease oiThe owner, is 
 distributable according to the law of the country in which 
 he was domiciled at the time of his death ; not according 
 to the law of the country in which the property is situate. 
 Residence for forty days constitutes a domicile as to juris- 
 diction in Scotland. 
 
 DOMI'NICAL LETTER. For the purpose of exhibit- 
 ing the day of the week corresponding to any given day of 
 the year,the framersof the ecclesiastic a noted 
 
 the seven days of the week by the first seven letters of the 
 alphabet. A, B, C, D, E, F,and G; and placed these Ii 
 in a column opposite to the days of the year, in racfa a 
 manner thai \ .stood opposite the Istof January or first day 
 of the year, B opposite the 2d, and so on lo O, which stood 
 opposite the 7th : after which A returns to the Sih, and so 
 on through the 365 days of the year. Now if one of the 
 day3 of the week, Sunday, for example, falls opposite to 
 E, Monday will be opposite F, Tuesday G, Wednesday A, 
 and so on; and every Sunday through the year will be re- 
 presented by the same letter E, every Monday by F, and so 
 on. The letter which represents Sunday is called ihe Do- 
 minical Letter, or Sunday Letter. As the number of days 
 in the week and the number in the year are prime to each 
 other, two successive years cannot begin with the same 
 day ; hence the Dominical Letter changes every year. 
 This mode of representing the days of the week has now 
 fallen nearly into desuetude, and Ihe initial letter of the 
 name of the day is placed in our almanacs opposite the 
 day of the monlh. 
 
 DOMI'NICANS. Friars of the order of St. Dominic 
 instituted at the beginning of the 13lh century. See art. 
 Orders, Mendicant. 
 
 DO'MINO. (Hal.) A long loose cloak of black silk, fur- 
 nished with a hood removable at pleasure, and worn chiefly 
 at masquerades by persons of both sexes by way of gene- 
 ral disguise. See Masquerade. 
 
 DON. (Lat. dominus.) ASpanish and Portuguese title, 
 which the king, the princes of Ihe blood, and the highest 
 class of the nobility prefix to their names. The ladies of 
 rank have the predicate donna. The title was originally 
 equivalent to that of knight. 
 
 DO'NATISTS. A religious faction, which arose in Af- 
 rica in the beginning of the 4th century in opposition to 
 Cecilianus, bishop of Carthage. The Numidian bishops 
 were indignant at a slight received from him at the time 
 of his consecration, and declared him informally appoint- 
 ed, on account of their absence from the ceremony. They 
 also accused him of unworthy conduct during the Diocle- 
 tian persecution. There are two persons of the name of 
 Donatus celebrated as leaders of (his party. Their cause- 
 was heard before several councils (those of Aries, Milan, 
 and Carthage), in all of which they were pronounced 
 schismatics. The Donatists, however, continued to be a 
 powerful faction for more than 100 years, and raised at va 
 rious times great wars and commotions. The name of 
 Circumcelliones was given to the numerous bands of coun- 
 try people of the lowest ranks who took up arms in their 
 cause. St. Augustin was most successful in bringing pub- 
 lic opinion to bear against the Donatists. 
 DO'NATIVE. in Law. is a benefice merely given 
 
DONJON. 
 
 and collated by the patron, without presentation or in- 
 duction. 
 
 DO'NJON, or DUNGEON. Originally a fortress on a 
 hill : from the Celtic dun, height. The central building or 
 keep of an ancient castle ; frequently raised on an artificial 
 elevation. 
 
 DOOR. (Sax. dor, Gr. Svpa.) In Architecture, the gate 
 or entrance of a house. The door frame is the surround- 
 ing case into and out whereof the door shuts and opens. It 
 consists of two upright side pieces or posts and a head, 
 generally fixed together by mortices and tenons, and 
 wrought, rebated, and beaded. 
 
 DORA'DO. (Span, gilt.) A southern constellation, 
 formed bv Bayer: called also sometimes the Sword-fish. 
 
 DO'RIO ORDER. In Architecture, one of the five or- 
 ders. The true origin and birthplace of this order is not 
 satisfactorily known. The example here given is from the 
 temple of Theseus at Athens. The principal points in 
 which the Grecian differs from the Roman Doric are, that 
 it stands at once on the pavement of the building without 
 socle, tori, or fillets ; and that it presents a more pyramidal 
 section than the other, from the 
 great diminution given to it. Its 
 flutes too are never deeply sunk ; 
 the capital has no astragal, but 
 only some small annulets to se- 
 parate it from the shaft. The en- 
 tablature is so subdivided that the 
 architrave and frieze are each 
 more than a third of its height, 
 the remainder being given to the 
 cornice, which has a band under 
 the mutulus. The mutulus pro- 
 jects forward under the corona, 
 over which i3 generally placed an 
 ovolo fillet, with another larger 
 ovolo and fillet thereover. The 
 column is usually five or six di- 
 ameters high. The principal ex- 
 amples of the order are in the 
 Parthenon, temple of Theseus, 
 Propylaeum, portico of the Agora 
 at Athens, the temple of Minerva 
 at Sunium, one at Corinth, temple 
 of Apollo and portico of Philip in 
 the isle of Delos, &c. &c. The 
 Roman Doric varies considera- 
 bly from that above described. 
 From the diagram it will be seen 
 that (he triglyphs are always placed over the centre of the 
 column, and the metopse should always bean exact square. 
 It follows thence that the intercolumniations are always 
 regulated by the tri- 
 glyphs. Sometimes it is 
 placed on a plinth, at 
 other times on a pedestal 
 sparingly decorated with 
 mouldings. Though it 
 occasionally, as in this 
 example, has an Attic 
 base, it is more common- 
 ly used with only atoms 
 and astragal. The capi- 
 tal is formed with a neck 
 and astragal under the 
 ovolo, and acyma-rever- 
 sa and fillet on the aba- 
 cus. The only pure an- 
 cient example of this or- 
 der is that of the theatre 
 of Marcellus at Rome. 
 The flutes are without 
 fillets between them, as 
 in the Grecian Doric, and 
 are twenty in number. 
 Of the moderns, by far 
 the most successful in 
 his profile of the order, 
 which they have made 
 what may be called Ital- 
 ian Doric, is Palladio, 
 from whom the example here given is selected. 
 
 DORI'PPE. A genus of the short-tailed Decapod Crus- 
 taceans, belonging to the tribe Nolopoda. The species of 
 this genus exist at great depths in the sea, and it is probable 
 that they use the small feet, which are directed towards 
 the back, to cover themselves with foreign bodies for con- 
 cealment: they have been found in the Mediterranean, 
 Adriatic, and Indian seas. i 
 
 DO'RMER. (Lat. dormio, I sleep.) In Architecture, a 
 window placed on the inclined plane of the roof of a house, 
 whose frame is placed vertically on the rafters. 
 
 DO RMITORY. (Lat. dormio, J sleep.) In Architecture, 
 a large sleeping apartment capable of containing many beds. 
 
 DOWER. 
 
 DO'RNOCK. A stout figured linen, named after tho 
 town in Scotland where it was originally manufactured. 
 
 DORSIBRA'NCHIATES, Dorsibranchiala. (Lat, dor- 
 sum, back; branchiae, gills.) A name given by Cuvier to 
 an order of Anellidans, or red-blooded worms, compre- 
 hending those which have the gills projecting from the 
 middle part of the back or sides of the body. The Nereis, 
 or sea-centipede, is an example of this order 
 
 DORT, SYNOD OF. An assembly of Protestant divines 
 convoked at Dort in 1618-19, by the States-general, under 
 the influence of Maurice, Prince of Nassau, in which the 
 tenets of the Arminians on the five points relating to elec- 
 tion, redemption, original sin, effectual grace, and perse- 
 verance, were condemned by the adherents of Calvinism. 
 This national synod consisted of thiriy-ei^lit Du 
 Walloon divines, five professors from different universities, 
 and twenty-one lay elders; but besides these there were 
 ecclesiastical deputies present from most of the states of 
 the United Provinces, and from the churches of the Palati- 
 nate, Hesse, Switzerland, Bremen, England, and Scotland. 
 This synod was opened on Nov. 13, 1618, and continued 
 till May 29th in the following year, during which period it 
 held 180 sessions ; but long before these sessions had come 
 to a close, the Arminians were pronounced guilty of pes- 
 tilential errors, and condemned as corruptnrs of the Hue 
 religion. For minute details of the proceedings of Ibis ce- 
 lebrated synod, the reader may consult Bratult's History of 
 the Reformation in a?id about the Low Countries (London, 
 1720-22), and the usual authorities in ecclesiastical affairs. 
 It was at this synod that the project of obtaining a transla- 
 tion of the Bible into Dutch was first started. The execu- 
 tion of this task was entrusted to some of the most learned 
 men of the time ; and after the lapse of 19 years their 
 labours were given to the world in what has been since 
 known as the Dort Bible. (See Townley's Illustrations of 
 Biblical Literature.) 
 
 DOSI'THEANS. The name of a religious sect which 
 sprung up in the first century of the Christian era. Their 
 principal tenets consisted in believing in the divine mission 
 of their leader, Dositheus, from whom they derived their 
 name, and in rejecting the authority of the prophets by de- 
 nying their inspiration. This sect remained in existence 
 till the 4th century; but with regard to its history, there 
 exists but little authentic information. 
 DOTTREL. See Numerius 
 DOU'BLE BASS. See Contrabasso. 
 DOU'BLE STARS. See Stars, Double. 
 DOUBLOO'N. See Money. 
 
 DOUCHE. (Fr.) A jet or current of water directed 
 upon some part of the body. An apparatus for this pur- 
 pose is to be found in most bathing establishments. Steam 
 or vapour is also sometimes applied in the form of douche. 
 DO'VECOT. A structure for keeping tame pigeons; 
 the only essential difference between which and a com- 
 mon poultry-house is, that the entrance for the birds must 
 be raised to a considerable height from the ground, be- 
 cause pigeons fly higher in the atmosphere than most other 
 birds. 
 
 DO'VER'S POWDER. A compound of ipecacuanha, 
 opium, and sulphate of potash. It is the pulvis ipecacu- 
 anhas compusitus, or compound powder of ipecacuanha ol 
 the present Pharmacopoeia. Ten grains, which is the 
 average dose, contain one grain of opium and one of ipeca- 
 cuanha. It is an excellent sedative and sudorific. 
 
 DO'VE-TAIL. (From its spreading like a pigeon's tail.) 
 In Architecture, a joint used by carpenters in connecting 
 two pieces of wood by letting one piece into the oilier, in tho 
 form of the expanded tail of a dove. It is the strongest 
 method of joining masses, because the tenon or piece ol 
 wood widens as it extends, so that it cannot be drawn out. 
 because the tongue is larger than the cavity through which 
 it would have to be drawn. The French call tiiis melhod 
 queue d'hironde, or swallow's tail. 
 
 DOW'AGER (Fr. douairiere), seems to signify a 
 widow who either enjoys a dower from her deceased hus- 
 band, or who has property of her own brought by her to 
 her husband on marriage (dowry), and settled on herself 
 after his decease. In the language of etiquette the lerm is 
 applied to a widow lady, to distinguish her from the wife of 
 her husband's heir having the same title. 
 
 DOW'ER (Lat. dotarium, from dos), in Law, is de- 
 fined to be the estate for life a widow acquires in a certain 
 portion of her husband's real property after his death. 
 Dower by the common law entitles her to a third part of 
 all the lands and tenements of which the husband was 
 seised in fee-simple or fee-tail at any time during the co- 
 verture. Hence this species of dower could not be affected 
 by the husband's conveyance of the lands, unless by fine or 
 recovery in which the wife joined, or by his devise. Bui 
 the law in this respect has undergone material alterations 
 by the provisions of the 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 105. Dower by 
 custom varies in different districts. There were oilier ob- 
 solete species of dower, now abolished by the statute 
 already mentioned. A married woman may be deprived 
 
 
DOWLAS. 
 
 : to dower by attainder of her husband for trea- 
 i herself for treason and felony ; bj divorce a vinculo 
 nonii; by elopement from the husband and living 
 with an adulterer, which incapacity may be removed by 
 •diation with the husband. In order to prevent the 
 inconveniences occasioned by this right, which materially 
 impeded the conveyance of property, various modes of 
 barring, i. e. defeating, the right to dower were invented 
 il ingenuity. Of these the most usual in practice 
 II is the limitation of a separate estate (com- 
 monly, although incorrectly, called a jointure) to the wife 
 i'ii marriage. This estate must be "a competent livcli- 
 hood of freehold for the wife, of lands and tenements, to 
 lake effect in profit or possession presently after the death 
 of the hushand, for the life of the wife at least." This 
 <>f barring dower derives its efficacy from the provi- 
 of Uses, 27 H. 8. c. 10. But now by 3 
 & 1 \V. 4. c. 10.3. dower may be barred by a simple decla- 
 ration in tin; deed by which land is conveyed to the hus- 
 or in any deed executed by him; or by declaration 
 ill, or by any devise jf real estate to her. 
 DOWLAS. A course kind of linen. 
 DOWNS, hare been defined to be banks or elevations of 
 wind which the sea gathers and forms along its shores, and 
 serve it as a barrier. The word is derived from the 
 rlurie. which see. The term is also applied to lame 
 of poor naked hilly land, which serve chiefly for the 
 Crazing of sheep, thence called Down sheen. Downs is 
 n :o the well-known road for snipping in the 
 ■ nnel, which possesses excellent anchorage, 
 time of war forms the place of rendezvous for the 
 navy. 
 DOWRY, although often confounded with dower, has a 
 different meaning; namely, the dos mulieris or marriage 
 • i brought by the wife to her husband. The word, 
 ification. 
 DOXO'LOGY. (Gr. Sofa glory. \oyo;, discourse.) A 
 form of pralM or glorification. The greater and lesser 
 as they are distinguished by the liturgical wri- 
 hymn sung by the angels at the Nativity, 
 i <>n high," Ac; :.. ' the ihorter farm, 
 ••Glory bi to I he Father," Ac. The last clause in to" 
 Lord's Prayer, as it is recorded by St. Matthew, the genu- 
 ; o! which has been sometimes questioned, is also 
 frequently called the Doxology. 
 
 DR IlCBM. There are two drachms in our system of 
 weights ; namely, the avoirdupois drachm, which is the 
 nth part of the avoirdupois ounce ; and the apothe- 
 caries' drachm, which is the twelfth part of the troy ounce, 
 |uivalent to sixty troy trains: the latter drachm is the 
 ch I* retained in common use. 
 Kit V'CIIMA. (Gr. ipaxjtfi) An Athenian silver coin 
 of the value of six oboli, or about 7\d. of our money. Other 
 had drachmm of different values, but the above 
 rally referred to. There was also a weight of 
 ly equivalent to 2 dwt. 7 gr. troy weight. 
 DRa'CO. (Lat the Dragon.) One of the ancient con- 
 stellations in the northern hemisphere. 
 
 DRA'CO MlTIOATlia An alchemical name of ca/c 
 mil : corrosive sublimate was probably called draco or the 
 
 DRACCNIN, or DRAOINA. The colouring matter of 
 th" resin called dragon's blood. 
 
 DRA'GOMANS. The Interpreters attached to European 
 i consulates in the Levant. The dragoman of 
 tlie Sublime Porte is an important Turkish officer, who 
 form- the medium of communication between his own go- 
 vernment and tin" embassies of foreign countries. 
 
 DRA'GON. (Gr. Spaxtav.) in Fabulous History, one of 
 the most famous mythological creations of antiquity and 
 the middle ages. The position which this being occupies 
 in fabulous history presents one of the most singular phe- 
 nomena of the human mind, as its existence was firmly 
 lited among the ancients of almost every nation, botli 
 In the eastern and western regions of the earth. It occurs 
 in the sacred allegories of the Jews, and in the legends of 
 the Chinese and Japanese; and the pages of the classic 
 of Greece and Rome teem with representations of 
 the dragon. Thus the dark retreats of their gods and their 
 I groves were defended by dragons: the chariot of 
 Ceres wis drawn by them ; and a dragon kept the garden 
 of the Kesperides. In Scandinavian mysteries, the dragon 
 was the minister of vengeance under their vindictive gods 
 it's Deutsche Mythologie) ; and the ancient Bri- 
 enslaved in the trammels of Druidic superstition, en- 
 vil a similar notion of its nature. (Rees's Cyclopa- 
 ilia.) 'f to- allegory of the Dragon has even found a place 
 among many nations who have embraced Christianity. In 
 '. 10k of Revelations (chap. 20,) the angel is represent- 
 / • bold on tin: dragon, that old serpent, which 
 d.'vil;" and hence in painting and statuary, the tri- 
 umph of Christianity over infidelity and heathenism iasome- 
 bya dragon pierced or trampled under 
 tout. This representation forms also theattribute of differ- 
 363 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 ent saints in the legends of Christianity, more especiait, 
 of St. Michael, St. George, and St. Margaret the Martyr. 
 The dragon of antiquity was a species of monstrous ser- 
 pent with wings and feet ; and he seems to have possessed 
 many qualities in common with the most famed terrors of 
 ancient Greece, such as the 
 
 Gorgnnt and hydras and chimxraa dire, 
 with which he was in all probabiliy intimately allied. 
 
 Dragon. In Zoology, this term is applied to a genus oi 
 small Saurian reptiles, characterized by two lateral aliform 
 productions of the skin supported upon the first six pairs of 
 ribs ; which, instead of bending round the thorax, are elon- 
 gated and directed outwards for that purpose. 
 
 DRA'GON BEAM. In Architecture, an horizontal | 
 of timber on which the hip or angle rafters of a roof pitch. 
 It is framed into a short diagonal piece, which lies the 
 plates at the internal angles of a roof. 
 
 DRA'GON FLY. A common name for the Neuropter- 
 ous insects belonging to the genus Agrion or Lobellula. 
 
 DRAGONNA'DBS. d'r.) The name given to the per 
 
 seditions instituted by Louis XIV. and his successor against 
 
 the French Protestants, from the coercive measures (parce 
 
 qu'on y employait les dragons) which were put in force to 
 
 their conversion. 
 
 DRA'GON'S BLOOD. A deep red resin used in colour- 
 ing varnishes ; it is the produce of the Pterocarpus draco, 
 and is imported from India. 
 
 DRAGOO'NS (Fr. dragon; probably from the Lat. dra- 
 conarius, the beater of a standard upon which was repre- 
 sented the figure of a dragon), is the name given to a spe- 
 cies of cavalry trained and armed to act either on fool or 
 on horseback, as emergencies may require. The origin of 
 this species of troops has been ascribeil by Pere Daniel to 
 the Marechal de Brissac ; but there can be but little doubt 
 that a sort of soldiers answering exactly to the definition 
 above given of dragoons was in use among the ancient Ro- 
 mans. At present dragoons form part of the military force 
 of all the powers of Europe. The first regiment of dra- 
 goons in this country was raised in 1681, ami called the 
 Royal Regiment of Dragoons of North Britain, now the 
 in England, thi i species of troops is of two 
 sorts, — Dra^'U' is sUBply, and IJragoon guards : the dif- 
 ference between them consisting in this, that the accoutre- 
 ments and horses of the latter are somewhat heavier than 
 those of the former. See Cavalry. 
 
 DRAl'MNC. The art of freeing the surface of the soil 
 from superlluous water, considered witli reference to culti- 
 vated vegetables, and the health of man and animals. 
 Water may become superlluous by being collected in the 
 natural hollows on the surface, and thus forming bogs; by 
 being retained in the surface stratum, in consequence of 
 a retentive subsoil; or by oozing through a moist subsoil 
 to the surface stratum, in consequence of supplies from 
 subterraneous sources. Water collected in bogs, or marshy 
 places, remains there, because it has no natural outlet, 
 neither by an opening or hollow along the natural surface, 
 nor by the porosity of the subsoil, in consequence of which 
 the water might sink into it and disappear. The obvious 
 mode of draining in the first case is by a trench or drain, 
 so deep as to draw the water from the lowest parts of I he 
 hollow, bog, or marsh. Where water is retained In the 
 surface soil in consequence of a retentive subsoil, as in 
 the case of clays and many loams, the most effective mode 
 is to cut a number of small drains parallel to and at short 
 distances from one another; and by the tops of these 
 drains reaching within an inch or two of the bottom of the 
 surface soil, which in cultivation is turned over by the 
 plough, they absorb the superfluous water that pa 
 through this soil and carry it off. Or, should the land be 
 in pasture, the tops of the drain should be brought within 
 an inch or two of the grassy surface, so as to intercept the 
 water, both oozing laterally from the surface soil, and ver- 
 tically from among the leaves of the gras3. It may be ob- 
 served also that pasture lands on this description of reten- 
 tive soil may be more readily drained when laid into 
 ridgea, and an underground drain formed under each fur- 
 row or surface drain. This, however, is not essential ; ami 
 though furrows or surface drains would be no deformity 
 in field culture, yet in lawnj and parks the appearance of 
 furrows would destroy the continuity and evenness of sur- 
 face, which in lawn.? is one chief source of beauty. To 
 drain the surface soil, where it is supplied by water from 
 the subsoil, requires some knowledge of the strataof which 
 the subsoil is composed. In general the strata composing 
 the subsoil lie over one another in a direction more or less 
 approaching to horizontal ; and when the natural inclina- 
 tion of the surface i3 everywhere parallel to this strata be- 
 neath, the water, if it oozes out of the subsoil at all, will 
 generally do so equally throughout the subsoil ; and in 
 such cases numerous drains at no great distance are re- 
 quired to carry it off, precisely as in the case of draining 
 soils with retentive subsoils. But when the line of surface 
 does not correspond with the line of substrata, but inter- 
 sects this line, then water will generally be found oozioi. 
 
DRAMA. 
 
 out at the line of intersection, technically called the crop- 
 ping out of the strata. The quantity of water which will 
 issue from these sections orcroppings out of broken strata 
 will depend on a great variety of circumstances, into which 
 it is unnecessary hereto enter; because in all cases the 
 mode of draining is the same, viz. that of forming a drain 
 parallel lo the line of fracture of the strata. This drain 
 in some cases is not required to extend the whole length 
 of the line of the fracture ; because if the strata have a 
 double inclination, so as it were to conduct the water lo one 
 angle or point, a drain at that angle or point will carry off 
 the whole of the superfluous water contained in the strata. 
 The subsoil in some cases is composed of strata in a nearly 
 vertical position, and in others of strata alternately depress- 
 ed and elevated, so that a section through them would 
 form a serpentine line ; and sometimes the subsoil is com- 
 posed of strata the layers of which have been broken up 
 and jumbled together. All these, and other cases, are to 
 be drained in one or more of the above described modes; 
 that is, accumulated water, whether in the soil or above it, 
 is to be let off by cuts or drains made at the lowest points 
 if accumulation ; and surface soil saturated with water, 
 whether from greater atmospherical supplies than can be 
 carried off by evaporation or can sink into the subsoil, or 
 whether it arise from sources in the subsoil, is to be carried 
 off by numerous drains close to one another, and the tops 
 of which are within a few inches of the cultivated soil, or 
 of Ihe permanent clothing of grass or other herbage. 
 
 DRA'MA (from the Greek word ipa.ua, an action or thing 
 done; derived from the verb Spaio, I act or do), has been 
 defined a species of poem in which the action or narrative 
 is not related, but represented. The invention of the drama 
 is one of those which should seem to proceed most natu- 
 rally from the ordinary customs and feelings of men. 
 There is a species of dramatic action which seems almost 
 instinctive ; we naturally imitate the tone and gestures of 
 others in reciting their sayings or adventures, or even in 
 adopting their sentiments. Yet some nations appear never 
 to have taken the farther step of doing, methodically and 
 with design, what all do involuntarily. In the accounts 
 which we possess of the ancient Egyptians, for example, 
 we have no trace oflheir having possessed dramatic repre- 
 sentation. But among a great number of tribes, wholly in- 
 dependent of each other, we find something approaching 
 to the dramatic art intermingled with their common or so- 
 lemn customs, and generally connected with religious ob- 
 servance. This was especially the case in Greece, whence 
 Ihe name and substance of the drama have been chiefly 
 derived hy the modern European nations. 
 
 The history of the development of the dramatic art in 
 Greece is well known : its elements were found in the reli- 
 fioxu festivals celebrated from the earliest ages in that 
 country. The feasts of Bacchus in particular had sacred 
 choruses or odes ; these were afterwards intermixed with 
 episodic narrations of events in mythological story, recited 
 by an actor in the festival with gesticulation : thence again, 
 the next step was to introduce two actors with alternate 
 recitation ; and thus were produced tragedy (rpayioStd, 
 the song of the goat, from the animal which was led about 
 in those festive processions) ; and comedy (Koj/tojlta, the 
 village song,) which differed from the former in that the 
 dialogue of the interlocutors was satirical, and not mytho- 
 logical. The early Greek tragedy was a dramatic repre- 
 sentation of some scenes or events recorded in the na- 
 tional traditions, the actors personating those who played 
 a part in these events, together with a chorus or band of 
 singers, representing such persons as might naturally be 
 supposed to have been bystanders at the occurrence (cap- 
 tive women, old men, or counsellors, &c), who sang at in- 
 tervals, during the representation, hymns to the gods, or 
 songs appropriate to the scenes passing in representation : 
 while the Attic comedy, in its first invention, must be re- 
 garded as a parody on tragedy, in which the personages 
 were either real characters introduced for the purpose of 
 satire, or ludicrous personifications. jEschylus, the oldest 
 tragic writer (with the exception of Phrynichus, his cotem- 
 porary), carried the Greek drama at once to nearly its 
 highest state of perfection. Sophocles and Euripides in- 
 troduced additional actors into the dialogue (which at first 
 admitted only two at the same time), and turned the naked 
 recitals of events which form the substance of the plays 
 of ./Eschylus into something more nearly resemblina the 
 modern idea of a plot, with contrasted characters and inci- 
 dents leading to the accomplishment of a main action. 
 Many trasic writers, the whole of whose works have been 
 lost, flourished alter Euripides in Athens and Alexandria ; 
 nut they <lo not seem to have altered the character of the 
 »rt which they received from their predecessors. The 
 'ate of comedy was different: the old Attic comedy was a 
 political or philosophical satire in action, which in form 
 was a burlesque on the tragedy. Afterwards, passing 
 through the intervening stage of the middle comedy, of 
 which we know little, the art acquired in the new comedy 
 of Menander and Philemon a character somewhat an- 
 3G4 
 
 proaching to that in which it is at present cultivated ; a nar 
 rativo in representation of scenes and incidents in ordinary 
 life of a light or ludicrous character. 
 
 The dramatic art among the Greeks aimed at produc- 
 ing an impression upon the spectators by three different 
 means; which, according to modern phraseology, we may 
 denominate poetical effect, dramatical effect, and theatri- 
 cal effect. The poetry of the Greek drama was of the 
 highest order , but it forms a topic to be considered apart. 
 Dramatical effect is the proper subject of the dramatic art; 
 and, in judging of the efforts of the Greek mind in this 
 direction, we are assisted not only by the study of tin- dra- 
 matic poems which we possess, but by the rules of criti- 
 cism delivered to us by Greek authors, and especially by 
 Aristotle. From these it appears that the parts or charac- 
 teristics of a tragedy, essentially divided, were held to be 
 the fable or story, the manners, the style, the sentiment, 
 the music, and the diction: that the fable should consist 
 of an entire action, namely, one principal event and the 
 auxiliary events ; and that the proper emotions to be ex- 
 cited by the action are terror and pity : that its parts of 
 quantity, according to the division of form, were the pro- 
 logue, being that part of the tragedy which precedes thi 
 parode or first entry of the chorus; the episode, being all 
 those several parts which are included between the several 
 choral odes ; the exode, the part which follows the last 
 choral ode; and the chorus itself, or the Intervening odes, 
 which also admit of various subdivisions. Formally con- 
 sidered, the arrangement of the old comedy nearly resem- 
 bled that of tragedy ; in the new, the chorus was altogether 
 omitted. The unity of action was a remarkable character- 
 istic of the Greek drama, although widely different from 
 that peculiar quality which modern critics have character 
 ized by the name : it should rather be termed unity of sub- 
 ject, inasmuch as in many of our remaining tragedies, and 
 especially those of ^Eschylus, there is little or no trace of 
 what we term a plot, i. e. a main incident at which we 
 arrive through subordinate incidents tending to its accom- 
 plishment. The unity of time, — viz. that Ihe imaginary 
 duration of the action should not exceed twenty- four hours: 
 and that of place, — namely, that the scene in which the 
 events occur should be the same throughout, — are inven- 
 tions of French critics, not warranted by the remains Gj 
 Greekart,in which both are not unfrequently violated ; but, 
 although not rules of Grecian discovery, they arc easily 
 rendered applicable to the simple and severe form of Ihe 
 Greek tragedy. 
 
 In considering the theatrical effect of the Greek drama, 
 we must remember that the tragedies were originally re- 
 ligious solemnities ; the theatre, a vast building open at the 
 top, calculated for the accommodation of several thousand 
 spectators ; the scene, <fcc. proportionally large. Dramatic 
 representations were, at Athens, the offering of wealthy 
 men lo the people: he who contributed the expensi 
 entertainment was said, iicrayctv, to bring in the |i 
 poet who produced it, SiiaoKciv, to teach ir. i. e. teach the 
 actors to perform it. Acomplete representation consisted 
 of four pieces by the same author; a triology, or three 
 tragedies, narrating successive events in the same series 
 of mythological tradition; and a fourth piece, termed a 
 satyric drama, of which the chorus consisted of satyrs, and 
 the mythological subject was treated in a manner approach- 
 ing to burlesque. The features of the actors were ex- 
 aggerated by masks, their height increased by dress, their 
 powers of voice aided by acoustic contrivances, in order 
 to suit the colossal dimensions of the theatre. The whole 
 vocal part was rhythmical ; the choral odes were sung, 
 and accompanied by the choric dance, in which the actors 
 composing the chorus took part, subjected to very peculiar 
 rules; the narrative part of the performance was spoken 
 in a peculiar modulated voice, resembling probably the 
 recitative of the modern opera. As lo the metrical cha- 
 racter of the ancient Greek drama, the metre used in Ihe 
 dialogue was the iambic trimeter, varied occasionally with 
 the anapaestic and trochaic, chiefly where the other dra- 
 matis persona? conversed with the chorus, or the members 
 of the chorus itself took part in the action ; the choral odes 
 were composed in a great and very artificial variety of 
 metre. 
 
 Latin Dratna.—The early Etruscans possessed dramatic 
 representations, whence the Romans derived seme peculiar 
 national entertainments (see Mian); but, with this slight 
 exception, their drama consisted merely in the first in- 
 stance of translations, afterwards of close imitations of the 
 Greek. Accius and Pacuvius transferred to the Roman 
 stage the tragedy of the three Attic poets: Plautus Mid 
 Terence the new comedy of Menander. Of these writer* 
 Terence is the only one who appears to have deviated, and 
 that slightly, into original invention : in the degene 
 the Roman empire even this adscititious taste ceased in t ■■ 
 cultivated, and the theatres were entirely occupied by 
 farcical buffoonery, or shows and sports on a gigantic scale. 
 Among an infinite variety of works which treal of tie 
 classical drama, may be cited the first volume of Schiegel 
 
 
DRAMA. 
 
 on Dramatic Art and Literature. A catalogue of them will 
 be found at the enrl of the 4th edition of the Tfieatre of the 
 Cambridge, 1*36. See also Edin. Rev., vol. 49. 
 
 wo.— Before proceeding to the dramatic art 
 of modern Europe, derived as it is from that of Greece, 
 two oriental nations may be noticed which possess a 
 national drama or their own. In China, theatrical enter- 
 tainments form one of the most popular amusements, and 
 theatrical writing has been cultivated from a very early 
 period. The Chinese drama comprises pieces which we 
 should terra both tragical and historical plays, tragi- 
 comedies, and comedies both of intrigue and of manners; 
 together with abundance of low, pantomimic, and farcical 
 repres alar drama, however, there 
 
 appears to be less of what we should term connected than 
 e action : many of them are, as it were, dra- 
 matized memoirs or biographies of individuals, real or 
 fictitious ; ttie representation of some is said to require 
 ays. It is remarkable that, of all national dramas, the 
 Chini se appears to be the only one in which we can trace 
 Kinal connection with religious observance. (Morri- 
 son, lloro; Linica; Abel Sttntuat ; Memoirs of the Acad, 
 des Inscriptions, &c.) 
 
 Hindoo Drama. — The Hindoo plays which now exist 
 are written for the most part in Sanscrit, although not a 
 living language at the period when they were composed ; 
 mlxi d, however, with other dialects, which, according to 
 
 II . are respectively appropriate to different 
 
 if a play. They seem to have been appropriate to 
 tin' . i,'d persons, and acted only on 
 
 solemn occasion*. Thry are few in number; about sixty 
 only are known: some containing long mythological nar- 
 ratives, other! much complicated incident of a domestic 
 character, in a strain of tragedy alternating with comedy, 
 like the romantic drama of modern Europe. The dra- 
 matic art appears to have flourished in India during a 
 period of several ages, ending about the 1-lth or 15lh cen- 
 turies of our era. Dramatic criticism was also much cul- 
 tivated; and the most minute and artificial rules are laid 
 down by Hindoo commentators as to the conduct of a 
 piece, the requisite ethics, the formal arrangement, and the 
 character which must be introduced. The Hindoo drama 
 is so widely different from the Creek or Chinese, that it 
 nded, like them, as a spontaneous offspring of 
 national genius. ( Wilson's Specimens (if the Thtatre of the 
 Hindoos, 2 vols. 8vo. 1835.) 
 
 Itrn European Drama. — For many centuries after 
 the downfall of the Roman empire, the dramatic art ap- 
 pears to have been entirely lost. lis first revival in the 
 middle ages was owing to the .soli trinities of the church, 
 into which dramatic interludes were introduced in various 
 countries of western Europe, representing at first events in 
 biblical history or the li\es of the saints, and afterwards in- 
 termingled with allegorical fantasies. (See Mysteries, 
 Moralities.) The framers of these early pieces were 
 monks, and the monks were the only preservers of clas- 
 sical learning ; but whether we can infer from these facts 
 that the idea of these rude representations was suggested 
 or their details improved by classical associations, it is not 
 easy to pronounce. At the period of the revival of litera- 
 ture, however, the dramatic art was called nearly at once 
 into life in the four principal countries of western Europe ; 
 Italy. France, Spain, and England. In the two first of these 
 countries it arose simply classical, and unmixed with any 
 original conceptions, or with the sentiments and fashions 
 of the middle ages; in the two last it partook largely of 
 both, and was also immediately derived from the mys- 
 teries and moralities above mentioned : hence, in a histo- 
 rical view, arose the distinction, so elaborately explained 
 by modern critics, between the classical and romantic 
 drama. 
 
 Itfilian Drama. — Originated in close imitation of clas- 
 sical models. The Sofonisba of Trissino (1515) is not ab- 
 solutely the oldest Italian play, but the first which served 
 as a model for subsequent composers. Rucellai and many 
 others followed in the same track ; Bibbiena, Machiavel, 
 Ariosto, as closely imitated the model of the Terentian 
 comedy. The pastoral drama of the 16th century, of 
 which Tasso and Guarini were the most celebrated writers, 
 furnished the first novelty in this branch of literature ; but 
 these are rather poetical than dramatical compositions. 
 The true national theatre of Italy arose in the 17th century, 
 in the musical drama (opera), to which Melastasio, early in 
 the 18th, communicated all the charms of poetry ; but since 
 the period of that writer, the operatic part of the dramatic 
 art has again been wholly disconnected from the literary, 
 and Ire words only serve as vehicles for the music. While 
 the higher classes were devoted to the opera, the lower 
 found their national amusement in the commedie dell' 
 arte; comedies performed by masqucd characters, which 
 gradually became fixed in the well known persons of Har- 
 lequin, Pantaloon, Brighella, &c, who improvised their 
 parts : Goldoni, in tne middle of the 18th century, succeed- 
 ing in establishing a regular comic drama in possession of 
 965 
 
 the stage ; while his rival, Gasparo Gozzi, took up the com 
 medie dell' arte as models, and founded upon them a series 
 of amusing extravagances. But since the period of these 
 two spirited writers comedy has fallen almost completely 
 into disrepute. At the end of the ISth century Alficri, a 
 bold and severe genius, produced tragedies in which the 
 ancient classical form (with the exception of the chorus) 
 was again reverted to, instead of the French imitations o( 
 it which had long been current in Italy as well as the rest 
 of Europe ; and several dramatic poets have since appeared, 
 who have adopted the same model. (Ginguene, Liltera- 
 ture ltulienne; Tiraboschi; Walker on Italian Tragedy, 
 1709; On the Revival if the Diama in Italy, 1806; Etc- 
 coluni, Hist, of the Itat. Theatre.) 
 
 French Drama.— The early French tragic writers, from 
 the beginning of the 16th century down to Corneille in the 
 middle of the 17th, produced nothing but unsuccessful and 
 somewhat barbarous imitations of the Greek tragedy. The 
 first pieces of this kind represented on the French stage 
 had prologues and choruses. Corneille had studied and 
 loved the Spanish drama ; and without introducing much 
 of its varied form and incident, he transfused a portion of 
 its boldness and romantic sentiment into the French Ihe- 
 aire, together with a power of energetic declamation pecu- 
 liarly his own. Racine, on the other hand, was a pure ad- 
 mirer of antiquity ; but with a lasle and delicacy of feeling 
 which until his time had been very rarely found to accom- 
 pany classical knowledge. The French tragedy grew up 
 with these two great writers as models, and Boileau as its 
 legislator. A peculiar and rigorous system of criticism was 
 introduced, affecting both the form and the substance of 
 dramatic writing; and this system became eslablished in 
 the minds of the French public, as the natural and not the 
 conventional rule of beauty. It would be impossible to 
 enter into an examination of the rules of the French 
 drama ; suffice it to say, that they banished from the tragic 
 stage all except heroic characters and passion ; required 
 perfect simplicity of plot, uniformity of language, and, in 
 addition, the observance of the before-mentioned technical 
 unities of place and time. These rules have ever since 
 been scrupulously followed, wiihout deviation, on the re- 
 gular French stage, and many of the greatest names in 
 dramatic literature have voluntarily subjected themselves 
 to their restraints. The French comedy, however, is infi- 
 nitely more national and characteristic than the French 
 tragedy : it originated in that of Spain, and was carried at 
 i nee to a high degree of perfection by Moliere. — rejecting 
 the extravagance of the Spanish drama, confining itself 
 within certain definite limits governed by analogy to those 
 established for tragedy, and retaining satire instead of ad- 
 venture as its leading principle. Since that period the 
 French comic stage lias been, beyond all coniradiction, not 
 only the best, but the model from which that of all other 
 nations has been wholly derived. Of the present stale of 
 Ihe French drama it is difficult to speak with precision : hut 
 the national or regular stage seems to be every day losing 
 in popularity, while the altempts to establish a new one on 
 what is termed in France the romantic model have hitherto 
 met with very partial success. (Laharpe, Cours de Liltera- 
 ture ; Correspondance de Grimm, passim ; Voltaire, Dis- 
 course on Tragedy ; Schlegel.) 
 
 Spanish Drama.— Spain commenced her literary career 
 more independent of foreign aid than any other country. 
 Her dramatic art appears to have originated as early as the 
 14lh century ; which produced satirical pieces in dialogue, 
 and one complete dramatic romance by an unknown au- 
 thor (La Celestina), in addition to the mysteries and mi- 
 racle plays, which were exhibited in Spain even more 
 plentifully than elsewhere. The early Spanish comedies 
 of the 16lh century were conversations, like eclogues, be- 
 tween shepherds and shepherdesses ; with occasional in- 
 terludes of negroes, clowns, and Biscayans, the favourite 
 subjects of popular jest. But the Spanish drama owed to 
 one great author. Lope de Vega, what our own owed lo his 
 contemporary, Shakspeare, — a rise at a single bound from 
 insignificance to great richness and variety ; lie created, 
 moreover, nearly all its numerous divisions, and has left 
 examples of each. The name comedy, in Ihe early Span- 
 ish stage, implied no ludicrous or satirical representation, 
 but simply a play of adventure, Comedias divinas, or 
 spiritual comedies, were subdivided into lives of saints, 
 and pieces of the holy sacrament (autos sacramentales) : 
 the comedies of human life into heroic, answering to the 
 tragedy of our early English dramatists, although even less 
 regular in form ; and comedies of domestic adventure 
 (comedias de capa y espanda, — of cloak and sword). Be- 
 sides these, the interludes which were played between the 
 prologue and ihe piece (sayneteres) possess a distinct cha- 
 racter as literary compositions. Almost all pieces have 
 one favourite invariable character, the gracioso or buffoon. 
 Calderon, a greater poet than Lope, and his equal in dra- 
 matic power, is the only other great name in the Spanish 
 drama. Subsequent writers may all be classed as imitators 
 either of their own older poets, or of the favourite dra- 
 
DRAMATURGY. 
 
 niatists of the French school. (Bouterweck's Hist, of Sp. 
 Literature; Quail. Rev., vol. 38; Sismondi, Lit. du Midi 
 del' Europe; Schlegel.) 
 
 English, Drama. — For the semi-religious representations 
 out of Which the English drama arose, see Mystery 
 Uld Morality. One of the latter, The New Custom, was 
 printed as lale as 1573; by which time several regular tra- 
 gedies and comedies, tolerably approaching to the classical 
 model, had appeared. But a third species of exhibition 
 soon look possession of the stage, the historical drama, 
 in Which the successive events of a particular reign or por- 
 tion of history were represented on the stage ; and, to- 
 gether with it, arose the English tragedy and comedy. Our 
 first dramatic poets (those before Shakspeare) were schol- 
 ars ; hence they preferred the form of the ancient drama, the 
 division into acts, &c. But they were also writers, who 
 strove for popularity with the general class of their coun- 
 trymen ; hence, instead of imitai ing classical simplicity, and 
 confining themselves to a peculiar cast of diction and senti- 
 ment removed from the ordinary course of life, they in- 
 vented a species of composition which intermingled po- 
 etical with ordinary life and language. Comedy, again, be- 
 came in their hands a representation of adventures, dif- 
 fering from those of tragedy only by ending generally in a 
 happy instead of an unhappy exit, and not materially either 
 in the characters or language. Thus the distinctions which 
 they established between tragedy, comedy, and tragi-co- 
 medy, are little more than adventitious ; and the Shak- 
 spearian drama, properly considered, must be looked on 
 as a miscellaneous compound, in which actors, language, 
 and sentiments, of a character far removed from those of 
 ordinary life, alternate with those of a low and even a bur- 
 lesque character. There is no tragedy in Shakspeare in 
 which comic scenes and characters are not introduced: 
 there is only one comedy (The Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor) without some intermixture of sentiment approaching 
 to tragic. It continued to be the chief national literature, 
 as well as the favorite national amusement, down to the 
 period of the civil wars, when the opinions and legislation 
 of the prevailing party put a stop to dramatic representa- 
 tion altogether. Duringthe interval thus created the old 
 English art was unlearned altogether, and the new drama, 
 on the model of the French, introduced almost at once on 
 thfl return of Charles II. and his courtiers from the Conti- 
 nent The distinction between tragedy and comedy was 
 then first substantially recognized: the former confined to 
 heroic events and language, the latter to those of ordinary 
 Hut tragedy, subjected to foreign rules, ceased en- 
 tirely to flourish: and Ot way, the last writer of the old 
 English drama, who wrote partly on the ancient model, al- 
 though after the Restoration, is also the last tragic poet of 
 England who still occupies the stage; with the exception 
 of Rowe. and of a few authors of that peculiar species of 
 composition, the domestic tragedy, in which the distresses 
 and melancholy events of common life are substituted for 
 those of an heroic character. Comedy, on the other hand, 
 obtained possession of the national taste and stage ; and 
 although the charm of poetry and romantic adventure, 
 which had belonged to the old drama under either name, 
 was denied to the modern comedy, it soon attained a high 
 degree of excellence as well as popularity. The last 
 comedies in verse were written shortly after the Restora- 
 tion ; since which time, with the exception of a few insu- 
 lated attempts to revive the older form, it has been en- 
 tirely framed on the French model. The main element of 
 a modern comedy is satire ; but it admits of a subdivision 
 into comedy of intrigue and comedy of manners, — the for- 
 mer being chiefly directed to the development of a plot, 
 the latter to the delineation of manners; although these 
 qualities ought, properly speaking, to be united to consti- 
 tute a good play. The most distinguished of our dramatic 
 writers in the former line are, amongst many, Congreve, 
 Vanbrugh, Farquhar, Colman, Sheridan : in the latter, the 
 writings of Shadwell and Foote, perhaps, afford the most 
 remarkable instances of that less popular form of comedy 
 which almost neglects the interest of plot, and confines 
 itself to a satirical representation of prevailing vices and 
 follies. (See Edin. Rev. vol. 38; Prolegomena to Ma! one 
 and Boswej^s Shakspeare ; Hazlilt's Lectures ; Coleridge's 
 Remains ; Collier, Hist, of Eng. Dramatic Poetry. ) 
 
 German Drama. — The modern German drama is 
 rounded on the old English model ; and, although the last 
 in order of time, has risen to a high degree of excellence, 
 the stage in Germany being incomparably more national 
 and popular at the present time than in other European 
 countries. While France, England, and Spain have to 
 look back two hundred years for those names which form 
 the glory of theirdramatic literature, Lessing, Schiller, and 
 Goethe are writers only of the past generation. 
 
 DRAMATU'RGY. (Gr. Spa/ia, and epyov, work.) The 
 science or art of dramatic poetry and representation; a 
 word used bv German writers. 
 
 DRAM TIMBER. See Baulk. 
 
 DRA'PERY. (Fr. draperie.) In Painting and Sculp- 
 366 
 
 DREAMS. 
 
 ture, the clothing applied to the human figure &'ce Cast- 
 ing op Drapery. 
 
 DRA'STIC MEDICINES. (Gr. SpaoriKOi, effective.') 
 A term chiefly applied to purgatives and some other re 
 medies which are rapid and powerful in their operation. 
 
 DRAUGHT OF WATER. The depth of Hie lowest 
 point ol the ship : as the keel is seldom exactly horizontal, 
 the draught of wa'er is taken forward and aft. A ship ol 
 the largest size draws nearly 30 feet. 
 
 DRAWBACK. In Political Economy. When a duty 
 is laid on an article produced in a country that is suitable 
 for the foreign market, it is usual, on its being entered for 
 exportation, to remit or pay back the duty to the exporter : 
 and hence the technical phrase drawback. The policy o( 
 a measure of this sort is, in most cases, obvious. It is 
 rarely for the public advantage to impose a duty on an ar- 
 ticle about to be exported; the inevitable effect of such 
 duty is, by proportionally increasing the price of the arti- 
 cle, to lessen the foreign demand for it ; and its probable 
 effect is, in most instances, entirely to exclude it from the 
 foreign markets. Except in a few rare cases, one country 
 has seldom so great an advantage over others in the pro- 
 duction of commodities as would justify the imposition ol 
 a duty on their exportation, without incurring an extreme 
 risk of making them be supplied from some other quarter. 
 This, however, is a result to be deprecated in every point 
 of view. And hence in every case in which the exporting 
 country has no ascertained or decided superiority over 
 others in the production of commodities on which duties 
 are laid at home, there can be no question as to the expe- 
 diency of drawbacks. These must not, however, exceed 
 the amount of duty charged ; for when they do this, the 
 excess becomes, in fact, a bounty. 
 
 DRAWING. (Sax. dragar, 'to draw along.) In the 
 Fine Arts, the art of representing any object by means of 
 lines circumscribing its boundaries. Drawing is of course 
 the foundation of every thing in art, including within it a 
 knowledge of perspective anatomy, and proportion, and 
 when acquired giving, as Sir Joshua Reynolds observes, 
 "a proportionable power of drawing correctly what we im- 
 agine" The human figure is the principal, perhaps the 
 only object, upon which a student should he first employed ; 
 for he who can correctly draw that will not be at a loss in 
 representing any thing else he may wish. Sir Joshua ob- 
 serves, that he who endeavours to copy nicely the figure 
 before him, not only acquires a" habit of exactness and 
 precision, but is continually advancing in his knowledge of 
 the human figure ; and though he seems to superficial ob- 
 servers to make a slower progress, he will be found at last 
 capable of adding ("without running into capricious wild- 
 ness) that grace and beauty which is necessary to be given 
 to his more finished works, and which cannot be got by the 
 moderns, as it was not acquired by the ancients, but by an 
 attentive and well compared study of the human form." 
 
 DREAMS, (German, Traume,) may be defined to be 
 those trains of ideas which occupy the mind, or those 
 imaginary transactions in which it is engaged, during sleep. 
 Dreams constitute some of the most curious phenomena of 
 the human mind, and have in all ages presented to philo- 
 sophers a subject of most interesting investigation. The 
 theory of dreams embraces two distinct classes of phe- 
 nomena, physical and psychological : the former relate to 
 the question as to how the body is affected in a state of 
 sleep (see Sleep,) how the body in that state affects the 
 mind, and how this affection operates to the production of 
 the phenomena of dreams ; the latter comprehend an in- 
 quiry into the laws which regulate the train of ideas that oc- 
 cur during sleep, and the mode in which these laws ope- 
 rate, together with an examination of certain psychological 
 appearances peculiar to that state. To both these classes 
 of phenomena the attention of some of the most distin 
 gnished philosophers, both ofantiquity andof modern times, 
 has been directed ; and much labour and ingenuity have 
 been expended in endeavouring to ascertain the origin and 
 nature of dreams, and to account for the various pheno- 
 mena by which they are accompanied. To give 
 outline of the various theories that have been propounded 
 on this subject, would be wholly incompatible, with our 
 limits. The system of condensation on which works of 
 this species must be constructed is, as will be easily under- 
 stood, but little suited for metaphysical disquisitions, in 
 which, to use a remark of Horace, brevity so easily dege- 
 nerates into obscurity ; but in the present Inslance this Is 
 perhaps the less to be regretted, for of all those speculator* 
 questions which are said to lie beyond the reach of human 
 inquiry, there is none on which the opinions of philoso- 
 phers are more conflicting and unsatisfactory than the the- 
 ory of dreams. Among a multitude of other efficient causes, 
 dreams have been ascribed to direct impressions on the 
 organs of sense during sleep,— to the absence of real im- 
 pressions on the senses,— to a disordered state of the di 
 »estive organs, — to a less restrained action of the mental fa 
 culties,— to the suspension of volition while the powers of 
 sensation continue,— and to the succession and unequal re 
 
DREDGING MACHINE. 
 taxation ami cessation of it -> different senses at the com- 
 l nt and daring the time of sloop. (Encijc. Edin.) 
 remotest period of antiquity, dreams have also 
 ■ i supernatural agency. The records of bis* 
 I profane, abound in instances of 
 dreams which it is impossible to account for on any other 
 lis than tint of a supernatural interposition; and, 
 as has been well observed, though there can be no doubt 
 (hat many dreams which have been considered superna- 
 reveating facts and scientific truths, may now be 
 explained by means within our own knowledge, it can just 
 as little be doubted that many well authenticated dreams 
 are utterly inexplicable by ordinary or natural means. This 
 belief in the supernatural character of dreams is common 
 nation in a greater or less degree ; but it prevails 
 pecially in the countries of the East, where, from 
 time immemorial, there has existed a class of persons 
 •■■uliar occupation consists in the interpretation aud 
 explanation of dreams. Those who wish for comprehen- 
 sive details on this subject may consult the writings of 
 Lucretius, Democrilus, &c; and among ourselves, 
 . Beattie, and Stewart ; 
 and si ill more recently, those of Abercrombie and Mac- 
 nish, which are extremely valuable for the numerous in- 
 ; extraordinary ([reams with which their theories 
 are Illustrated. The Penny Cyclopadia, also, contains an 
 ipon dreams, which exhibits great metaphysical 
 acumen. (Sea Tlie Royal Hook of Dreams.) 
 DRE'DGING MACHINE, A machine for clearing out or 
 ig the beds of navigable rivers, harbours, canals, 
 
 i iv.d of deposili d matters. 
 5SING. A term applied to gum. starch, and other 
 ■liffenuig or preparing silk, linen, and other 
 
 DUE'S Uchilecture, mouldings round doors, 
 
 Wind ows, and the like. 
 
 DRIFT, rle which the line of a 
 
 ion makes with the meridian, when she is driven 
 
 rid or waves and not governed by the helm. It 
 
 nee to which she is carried in a given 
 
 time in that dirt 
 
 Dript. (Sax. drifan.) In Architecture, the horizontal 
 
 nidi an arch exerts with a tendency to overset the 
 
 DRILL. In Mechanics, a small instrument of steel for 
 rig metals or hard substances. Its action is pro- 
 duced by communicating to it a very rapid rotation by 
 if adrill-bou:. 
 DutLL. In Agr., a machine for sowing agricultural seeds 
 soma! tines worked by the hand alone, and some- 
 times hv the addition of a horse. 
 
 DRILL HUSBANDRY. In Agr , the cultivation of arable 
 land, by sowing the crops in row* ; the advantage of which 
 is, that i' itroying the weeds, and stirring the 
 
 soil in the intervals between the lines of plants. As this 
 if cultivation requires some implements and ma- 
 chines not in use in the commoner kinds of farming, and 
 as it is besides belleradapted for some soils than for others, 
 • i generally used as the obvious advantages attend- 
 ing it would lead us to expect. 
 DKII' In Architecture, the same as Corona, which see. 
 DRIPPING EAVES. (Dan. dripper, to drop.) In Archi- 
 tecmre, ihe lower edgesof a roof wherefrom therein drips 
 or drons to the ground. 
 DRI'VINQ NOTES. In Music, such notes as connect 
 n ite of one bar with the first of the following one, 
 make only one note of both. They are also used 
 In the middle of a measure, and when a note of one part 
 terminates in the middle of the note of another, in which 
 case it is called binding or legature. Driving notes are 
 also called syncopation, when some shorter note at the 
 beginning ofa measure or half measure is followed by two, 
 three, or more longer notes, before any other occurs equal 
 to i hat which occasioned the driving note to make the num- 
 ber even; for instance, when an odd crotchet succeeds 
 two or three minims, or an odd quaver two or more 
 crotchets 
 DROITS OF ADMIRALTY. The perquisites resulting 
 rom ihe seizure of the property of an enemy at 
 
 th mmencement of a war, and attached to the office of 
 
 tnrd-hiith-admiral, or to the crown when that office is va- 
 cant. These perquisites were originally vested in the 
 in, to enable him to provide for the expense of de- 
 fending the realm, and clearing the seas of pirates; and 
 their value and importance will be at. once perceived from 
 the following brief statement. In 1798, one ship which had 
 been captured brought 55,000/. ; in 1800, another brought 
 ; in 1904, one captured ship was worth 105.000/. ; 
 and in 1305, several taken at once netted 155,000/. During 
 war, also, the Dutch ships at one seizure brought 
 1,030.000/ ; the Spanish ships, 2.200,000/.; and so large 
 were the sums made at one and the same moment in this 
 rich fund that the crown one year, after paving many hun- 
 dred liiousands to captors, and large sums to different 
 367 
 
 DROWNING. 
 
 branches of the royal family, gave a million out ci the re- 
 sidue to the public service. \l-hl,n. Rtr. vol. xxxiii. p. 482.) 
 By the civil list introduced on the accession of William IV., 
 it was arranged that all the droils of admiralty which might 
 accrue during his reign should be paid into the exchequer 
 for the benefit of die public service ; and the civil list of 
 her present Majesty has made no alteration in that ar- 
 rangemeor. See Paiza Money. 
 
 DROMEDARY. Ste Uamelus. 
 
 DROPS. (Sax. droppan.) In Architecture, the frusta 
 of cones in the Doric order, used under the triglyphs in 
 the architrave below the tcenia Th»y are also used in the 
 under part of the mutuli or modillions of the order. In the 
 Greek examples they are sometimes curved a little in- 
 wards on Ihe profile. 
 
 DROP SERENE. (LaL gutta serena.) See Amaurosis. 
 
 DRO'PSY. (Or. vSotp, tcaler.) An unnatural collection 
 of water] fluid in any part of the body. When it takes 
 place in the cellular membrane, it constitutes anasarca , 
 when jn the cavity of the abdomen, ascites; in the cavity 
 of the cranium, hydrocephalus ; in the scrotum, hydrocele; 
 in the uterus, hydromelra ; and in the cheat, hydrolhorax 
 Dropsy may arise from a variety of morbid actions, either 
 of ihe secerning or absorbing vessels. When the fluid 
 which lubricates the internal surfaces and cavities of the 
 body is secreted in excessive quantity, or is not adequately 
 removed by the absorbents, it may so accumulate as to 
 constitute the various forms of ihis disease; it may there- 
 fore arise out of excessive as well as of defective action ; 
 it may also result from a variety of other causes connected 
 with organic lesion or derangement, both vascular and 
 nervous. The treatment of dropsy will of course vary with 
 the cause of the disease : it sometimes requires d< 
 and at others tonics; and local accumulation of fluids is 
 often susceptible of removal by remedies which stimulate 
 the absorbents to increased action, or which excite the ex- 
 cretories of the intestines or promote the flow of urine. 
 Dropsy la ■ common symptom of a broken constitution 
 and failure of the powers of life. 
 
 Dro>sy. In Botany, a disease peculiar to succulent 
 plants, arising from an excessive introduction of water Into 
 in. It produces rapid rottenness, and can only be 
 stop) by destroying all the parts affected by it, and expos- 
 ing ihe Individual to a very dry atmosphere. 
 
 DROSCafETER. (Gr. ipoaoc, detc, and ptrpov, mea- 
 sure.) Any instrument for measuring the quantity of dew 
 thai collects on the surface of a body exposed to the open 
 air during the night. The first instrument for this purpose 
 was proposed by Weidler. It consisted of a bent balance 
 which marked in grains the preponderance which a piece 
 of glass of certain dimensions, laid horizontally in one of 
 the Scale*, had acquired from the settling and adhesion of 
 the globules of moisture. A simpler and more convenient 
 drosometer would be formed on the principle of the rain 
 gauge ; and in order to facilitate the descent of the dew 
 down the sides of the funnel into Ihe tube, a coat of deli- 
 queate salt of tartar may be spread over the shallow surface. 
 Dr. Wells, In making his celebrated experiments on dew, 
 exposed a small quantity of wool to the open sky, and the 
 difference in its weight when laid down and taken up show- 
 ed the quantity of moisture it had imbibed in the interval. 
 
 DROW'NING. When a person is submerged under 
 water, suffocation ensues, not in consequence of the access 
 of water to the windpipe or lungs, but merely from the ex- 
 clusion of air, the mechanism of the glottis, or upper 
 portion of the windpipe, being such as to prevent, by the 
 pasmodic closure of the epiglottis, the entrance of more 
 than a very trifling and accidental quantity of water. Un- 
 der these circumstances, however, an attempt is made to 
 inspire, which is followed by the reaction of expiration, and 
 consequently a little air is thrown out, and the residuary 
 quantity in the lungs still further diminished ; access n't 
 oxygen to the blood is therefore effectually cut off, the aera- 
 tion of the blood is prevented, and venous blood circulates 
 in the arterial system, the right side of the heart becoming 
 loaded with it, and the pulmonary vein returning it to the 
 right cavities of that organ. The consequences of the mm- 
 aeration of the blood thus ensuing upon the vital fund ions 
 is their suspension arid rapid extinction; so that in the 
 course of four or five minutes after the access of air has 
 been cut off, death ensues, although some of the organic 
 functions may and do continue for a much longer period. 
 When therefore a person has been perfectly submerged in 
 water for the space of five minutes, perfect insensibility 
 ensues, and the functions upon which life more immedi- 
 diately depends cannot be restored. 
 
 In consequence, however, of the struggles made by a 
 drowning person, and of their chances of occasional gasps 
 of air, and of the varying quantity of air which the lungs 
 may contain, we must not despair of the possibility of re 
 suscitation, even when the body has been for fifteen or 
 twenty minutes in the water, although it must be confessed 
 that after four or five minutes' submersion the chances of 
 recovery are very remote. 
 
DRUGGET. 
 
 The state of alarm and agitation into which persons fall- 
 ing into the water, and who cannot swim, are thrown, and 
 their ignorance in general of the means which should be 
 resorted to upon such an emergency, as well as want of 
 presence of mind to adopt them, lead to neglect of those 
 obvious measures by which immediate dangers might be 
 averted. They should endeavour to recollect that the spe- 
 cific gravity of the human body when the lungs are filled 
 with air, is less than that of water, and that consequently 
 l he body has, under such circumstances, a natural tenden- 
 cy to iloat; and that if the head can then be so placed as 
 to keep the mouth or even the nostrils above water, respi- 
 ration may be continued. They should also remember 
 that by a forced inspiration a much larger quantity of air 
 may be drawn into and retained in the lungs than in a com- 
 mon or natural inspiration ; and that therefore the blood will 
 continue longer aerated, and consequently a longer period 
 will elapse before a second attempt at inspiration need be 
 made, and before insensibility or the cessation of the vital 
 functions will ensue. II, for instance, while breathing as 
 usual, we suddenly hold our breath, we shall find ourselves 
 forced to make an inspiration in the course of from a quar- 
 ter to half a minute; but if we previously make two or 
 three forced respirations, so as to cleanse the lungs in the 
 first instance of foul air, and then take a forced inspiration, 
 we shall be able to hold breath for more than a minute, and 
 sometimes even for two minutes. It is upon this princi- 
 ple, that skilful divers are enabled to remain under water 
 for a period that sometimes appears almost incredible ; 
 and it the depth of water be considerable, and the air sup- 
 plied from a diving bell, its degree of condensation or di- 
 minished bulk will of course enable a given volume to 
 oxygenate the blood more effectually than the same vo- 
 lume at common atmospheric pressure. 
 
 Such, then, is an outline of the physiology of drowning ; 
 it naturally leads to the important question as to the most 
 effective means of restoring suspended animation in such 
 cases. It of course follows from what has been said, in 
 the first place, that not a moment is to be lost in getting the 
 body out of the water, and removing it with the utmost 
 speed to any place where further means can be resorted 
 to ; and now air should be thrown into the lungs, and arti- 
 ficial respiration should be attempted with as little loss of 
 time as possible, for till the blood has an opportunity of 
 being aerated, the return of the vital functions is of course 
 impossible. The body should also be immediately stripped 
 of the wet clothes, which should be cut off or otherwise 
 removed with the utmost speed ; and warm blankets should 
 be at hand as wrappers, and warm towels for rubbing and 
 drying the body. Artificial respiration, together with 
 warmth and friction, carefully, however, and moderately 
 employed, are the first and most essential remedies. Much 
 has been said of the advantage in these cases of electricity ; 
 and, if possible, it should certainly be resorted to : slight 
 shocks should be passed through the region of the dia- 
 phragm, the heart, and along the course of the spine ; and 
 various forms of the magneto-electric machine seem parti- 
 cularly well adapted to these purposes. The truth is, that 
 the means to be adopted in all these cases are few and 
 simple ; but unless they are immediately at hand, and in- 
 stantly available, they will fail, even under the most favour- 
 able circumstances. Yet, where even a glimmering of 
 hope remains, they should, even under unfavourable cir- 
 cumstances, be as speedily and completely as possible 
 resorted to ; for there are on record extraordinary cases 
 of resuscitation, when every thing appeared to militate 
 against a successful issue. 
 
 But in these cases it is not only important to know what 
 to do, but also what to avoid. Nasal stimulants, such as 
 ammonia, aromatic vinegar, and other pungent and volatile 
 applications, should be avoided: they can be of little use 
 under the most favourable circumstances, and in the most 
 judicious hands ; and if unskilfully employed, may do in- 
 finite mischief. The warm- water bath is a bad substitute for 
 warm air and friction ; it interferes with the latter, and with 
 the use of electricity, and places the body in a constrained 
 and unfavourable position. In these days it is scarcely 
 necessary to point out the extreme absurdity of holding the 
 body with the head downwards, to allow the water to run 
 out by the mouth, or of the still more dangerous use of to- 
 bacco, especially the injection of tobacco smoke, — means 
 calculated to put the life of a healthy person in jeopardy, 
 and every way suited to render all attempts at the restore- 
 lion of suspended animation ineffectual. 
 
 DRU'GGET. A coarse and flimsy woollen texture, 
 chiefly used for covering carpets. It was formerly exten- 
 sively employed as an article of clothing by the poorer 
 classes, more especially of females ; but this and similar 
 fabrics are now almost wholly superseded by cotton goods, 
 which induce greater cleanliness, and are less liable to re- 
 tain infectious and contagious poisons. 
 
 DRU'IDS. The priests of the Celtic inhabitants of an- 
 cient Gaul and Britain. Our classical information respect- 
 ing them is chiefly derived from Julius Caesar; Strabo, 
 368 
 
 DRY ROT. 
 
 Tacitus, Pliny, Lucan, and other authors, have also left us 
 particulars respecting them. On those slender foundations 
 very extensive superstructures have been raised bv the 
 imagination of English and French antiquaries. ' The 
 classical name of Druid was derived by the Latins from 
 ipvs, an oak ; but is more probably of Celtic origin. The 
 doctrine of the Druids was not committed to writing, but 
 retained by memory in the form of verses; of which the 
 Welsh Triads are supposed, with some probability, to re- 
 tain the form and vestiges. There appears to have been 
 much of fraud and vulgar delusion mixed up in the reli- 
 gious rites whtfh they practised. The gods whom they 
 worshipped, according to classical writers, were Jupiter 
 (Taranis), Apollo (Belenus), Mars (Hesus), and several 
 others, whom they believed to be the same with person- 
 ages of the Grecian mythology. The sacrifice of human 
 victims is uniformly represented as a part of their worship. 
 Their places of worship were chiefly consecrated groves, 
 of one of which Lucan has given a fine description in the 
 second book of his Pharsalia. The rock-altars, cromlechs, 
 cist-vaens, and other relics of antiquity, which are scattered 
 over the surface of parts of England and France, are attri- 
 buted by antiquaries for the most part to the Druidical age. 
 Claudius and other Roman emperors issued severe edicts 
 against the Druids, but did not succeed in extirpating them. 
 This was only effected by the general introduction of 
 Christianity ; and some suppose that the celebrated Cul- 
 dees of Scotland and Ireland were converted Druids. 
 
 DRUM. (Dan. tromme.) In Architecture, the upright 
 part of a cupola either above or below a dome. The same 
 term is used to express the solid part or vase of the Corin- 
 thian and Composite capitals. 
 
 Drum. In Music, an instrument of percussion, formed 
 by stretching a piece of parchment over each end of n 
 cylinder formed of thin wood, or over the top of a caul- 
 dron-shaped vessel of brass ; the latter is hence called a 
 kettle drum. The large drums which are beaten at each 
 end are called double drums, and are used chiefly in mili- 
 tary bands. Kettle drums are always used in pairs; one 
 of which is tuned to the key note, the other to the 
 fifth of the key. It is principally used for military pur- 
 poses, especially for exciting the soldiers under the fatigue 
 of march or in battle. The drum is supposed to be an 
 eastern invention, and to have been brought into Europe 
 by the Arabians, or perhaps the Moors. The kettle drum, 
 the bass drum, and tambourine, are common in the East. 
 
 DRUM OF THE EAR. See Ear. 
 
 DRUPE. In Botany, a one-celled, one or two seeded, 
 superior, indehiscent fruit ; the outer coat is soft and fleshy, 
 and separable from the inner endocarpium (stone;, which 
 is hard and bony : the whole proceeding from an ovarium. 
 which is perfectly simple. The peach, plum, apricot, cherry, 
 are examples of this. 
 
 DRY. (Sax. drig.) In Painting, a term applied to a 
 painting wherein the outline is too strongly marked, and the 
 colours of the objects do not unite with those by which 
 they are surrounded. In sculpture it is used in speaking 
 of a work wherein there is a want of luxur jusness and ten- 
 derness in the forms. 
 
 DRY'ADS. (Gr. Spv(, an oak.) In the Heathen Mytho- 
 logy, a kind of imaginary female deities whom the ancients 
 believed to inhabit the woods and groves. 
 
 DRY DISTILLATION. This term is applied to the dis- 
 tillation of substances per se, or without the addition of wa- 
 ter : thus if we put wood into a retort or other distillatory 
 apparatus, and subject it to heat, it yields tar, vinegar, wa 
 ter, and various gaseous and other matters, which are called 
 the products of its dry or destructive distillation. 
 
 DRY'ING OIL. This term is generally applied to lin- 
 seed and other oils which have been heated with oxide of 
 lead : they are the bases of many paints and varnishes. 
 
 DRY ROT. A disease which attacks wood, rendering 
 it brittle, and destroying the cohesion of its parts, is known 
 by this name. It occurs among the timbers of ships, 
 where it sometimes commits the most serious damage, and 
 in damp ill-ventilated houses. It is usually ascribed to the 
 attacks of fungi, especially to such as Polyporus destructor 
 and Meruliits lachrymans y whose filamentous spawn or thal- 
 lus appears upon the surface, overspreading it like a lough 
 thick skin of white leather; and there is no doubt of its be- 
 ing often connected with the appearance of such funsi. 
 But dry rot is certainly, in some cases, to be identified wilh 
 the presence of fungi of a more simple kind than those just 
 mentioned ; especially of such as belong to or resemble the 
 genus Sporotrichum. 
 
 The destruction of timber by such plants is effected ir 
 part by the disintegration of the tubes of the weed, in con- 
 sequence of the introduction between them of the fine fila- 
 mentous spawn of the fungi, and in part by the dampness 
 which is thus conveyed to the interior of the wood, where 
 it soon produces decomposition. It is not, however, cer- 
 tain that dry rot is always caused in this manner ; on the 
 contrary, the term appears to be frequently applied to cases 
 of spontaneous decomposition of timber without the pre- 
 
DRYSALTER. 
 
 sence ol Aiiijii, or when the appearance of the latter takes 
 place long after the commencement of the disease. 
 
 When dry rot produced by fungi has once made its ap- 
 pearance, there is no means of arresting its progress with- 
 out removing the whole of the diseased and neighbouring 
 pans; and even then it will probably again break out, un- 
 less means can be taken to introduce a circulation of fresh 
 air among the parts liable to the affection. Forif limber is 
 allowed to remain in a damp situation, and in the dark, it 
 i favourable a nidus for the seeds of fungi, that 
 they are almost certain to vegetate upon it: utn 
 
 en previously taken to render the limber 
 permanently unsuiled to their growth. This end appears 
 to have been attained by -Mr. Kyan, who has obtained a pa- 
 tent for pickling timber, as a preventive of the dry rot, and 
 ir this purpose a solution of corrosive subli- 
 mate. Tins salt of mercury is a well known vegetable 
 il any animal jelly, upon which fungi will quickly 
 appear in the form of mnuldiness, is mixed with a minute 
 quantity of corrosive sublimate, no fungi will in that case 
 be produced ; so that both theory and experience are in fa- 
 vour of Mr. Kyau's process. It is not improbable that the 
 of dry rot might even be arrested in the buildings 
 where- u occurs, if the timbers could be got at and well 
 washed with the same soln 
 
 Although dry rot generally fixes itself upon timber, it will 
 
 I any form of vegetable Batter, The paper hang. 
 
 -, nelly composed of cotton and linen thread, 
 
 lonally overrun in houses which have been long 
 
 slim up and neglected; and the mildew which destroys 
 
 ..■jh of canvass is only another form of dry rot, the 
 
 which is altered by the special circum- 
 
 stance* under which the fungus is developed, or by the 
 
 fungus itself. 
 
 DRY'SAl.TLR. A dealer in salted or dried meats, anil 
 iorials used in pickling, sailing, and preserving 
 various kinds of food ; hence drysalicrs usually sell a num- 
 ber ■ : aces ami miscellaneous drugs. 
 
 DRY'STOVE A glazed structure for containing the 
 plants of dry arid climates; such as the cactuses, mesem- 
 bryanthemams, aloes, and other succulents of Africa. 
 
 1)1' A I. ISM. A name given to those systems of philoso- 
 phy which refer all existence to two ultimate principles. 
 Dualism is a main feature in all the early Greek cosmogo- 
 nies, and is that which distinguishes them from the eastern 
 speculations on similar subjects, which mostly regard all 
 rom a single principle. The dualistic 
 s was, doubtless, originally suggested by the ana- 
 logy of male and female in animal existence. The earliest 
 forms under which the theory appeared are, as might be 
 expected, rude in the extreme. The Orphic poets made 
 the ultimate principles of all things to be Water and Night ; 
 by others .-E'lier and Erebus, Time and Necessity, are 
 levorallv deemed worthy of litis distinction. (.Brandts, 
 Omch. oW I'/hI. i. p. 71 ; Arist. Mclaph. xix. 3.) The an- 
 cient Greek and Roman mythology was evidently construct- 
 ed on this principle. (.See Varro, De Re Ruslica, i. 2.) In 
 its more philosophic form, the dualistic theory was main- 
 tained among the ancients by Pythagoras aad many of the 
 Ionian school ; among the moderns, chiefly by Descartes. 
 (See arts. Ionic Philosophy, Cartesian Philosophy.) It 
 -.pressed generally as the assumption of the co- 
 eternity and simultaneous development of the formative 
 with the formed, of the nalura naturans with the natura 
 naturata. So the system of philosophy which regards 
 matter and spirit as distinct principles is a species of dual- 
 ism, as opposed to materialism. 
 
 In Theology, the doctrine of the two sovereign principles 
 of good and evil (s<-e Manicheism) is also dualistic; and 
 the high Carrlnlatie theory may be said to be a species of 
 duali-m, viz. that all mankind are divided, in the eternal 
 foreknowledge of God, and by his arbitrary decree, into 
 two classes. — the elect and reprobate. 
 
 DU'AL NUMBER, in Grammar, is the name given to 
 that form of the verb and substantive by which, in the an- 
 cient Greek, Sanscrit, and Gothic, and the modern Lithua- 
 nian languages, two persons or things are denoted, in con- 
 tradistinction t< > plural, which expresses an indefinite num- 
 ber of persons or things. For full discussions on the nature 
 and peculiarity of the dual number, see Buttmann and 
 Matl/uii's Greek Grammar; see also the Penny Cyclop., 
 and the authorities there referred to. 
 
 DU'BBING OUT. A term used by plasterers to signify 
 the bringing of an uneven surface to a plane by pieces of 
 tiles, slate, plaster, or the like. 
 
 I»t 'AT, UUCATOON. See Money. 
 
 DUCK. See Anas. 
 
 DUCKBILL. See Ornithorhynchus. 
 
 DUCTI'LITY. (Lat. duco, I draw.) A property of cer- 
 tain bodies, in consequence of which they can be drawn 
 out at length without suffering any interruption of the con- 
 tinuity of their constituent particles. The term ductility is 
 frequently confounded with malleability, or that property 
 of bodies through which different forms can be given to 
 MS 
 
 DUEL. 
 
 them by pressure or percussion. In general ductility Ci> 
 pends, ia a greater or less degree, on the temperature. 
 Some bodies, wax for example, are rendered ductile by a 
 small degree of heat; while glass requires a violent heal 
 before it acquires ductility. Some of the metals — for ex- 
 ample, gold, silver, lead, i.e. — are ductile under all known 
 temperatures. 
 
 "The ductility of some metals far exceeds that of any 
 other substance. The goldbeaters begin their operations 
 with a riband an inch broad and 150 inches long, which had 
 been reduced, by passing it through rollers, to about tie- 
 800th part of an inch in thickness. The riband is cut inio 
 squares, which are disposed between leaves of vellum, an I 
 beat by a heavy hammer till they acquire a breadth ol 
 at/out three inches, and are thus extended to ten limes 
 their former surface. These are again quartered and 
 placed between the folds of goldbeaters' skin, and stretched 
 out by the operation of a lighter hammer to the breadth of 
 five inches. The same process is repeated, sometimes 
 more than once, by a succession of lighter hammers ; so 
 that 376 grains of gold are thus finally extended into 2000 
 leaves of 3-3 inches square, making in all SO books, con- 
 taining each of them 26 leaves. The metal is consequently 
 reduced to the thinness of the 282,000th part of an inch, 
 and every leaf weighs rather less than the fifth part of a 
 grain. A particle of gold, not exceeding the 500,000th part 
 of a grain, is hence distinctly visible to the naked eye." 
 
 "It has been asserted that wires of pure gold can be 
 drawn of only the 4000th part of an inch in diameter ; but 
 Dr. Wollaston, by an ingenious procedure, has lately ad- 
 vanced much farther. Taking a short cylinder of silver, 
 about the third part of an inch in diameter, he drilled a fine 
 hole through its axis, and inserted a wire of platinum only 
 the 100th part of an inch thick. This silver mould was now 
 drawn through the successive holes of a steel plate, till its 
 diameter was brought to near the 1500th part of an inch ; 
 and consequently the internal wire, being diminished In 
 the same proportion, was reduced to between the 4000lh 
 and 5000th part of an inch. The compound wire was then 
 dipped in warm nitric acid, which dissolved the silver, and 
 left untouched its core, or the wire of platinum. By pass 
 ing the iocrusted platinum through a greater number of 
 holes wires still finer were obtained, some of them only 
 the 30,000th part of an inch in diameter. The tenacity of 
 the metal, before reaching this limit, was even c.on.-i- 
 dcrable; a platinum wire, of the 18,000th pan of an inch in 
 diameter, supportinz the weight of a grain and a third " 
 (Leslie's Elements of Nat. Philosophy.) 
 
 Glass, when well softened by the fire, becomes as ductilrt 
 as soft wax, and may be spun out into threads of greater 
 fineness than any hair, and which bend and wave like hair 
 in the wind. The method of producing these threads Is 
 exceedingly easy. Two workmen are employed ; the first 
 holds the glass over the flame of a lamp ; the second ap- 
 plies a hook to the metal In fusion, which, when drawn 
 back, brings with it a thread of glass, still adhering to ihe 
 mass; the hook is then fitted on the circumference of a 
 wheel, which, being turned round, draws out the thread, 
 and winds it about its rim. Some of these threads are 
 scarcely larger than that of a silkworm, and are surprising- 
 ly flexible. 
 
 DUCTS. Those membraneous tubes in the internal 
 anatomy of plants which have conical or rounded extre 
 mities ; their sides being marked with transverse lines, or 
 rings, bars, or dots, arranged spirally, and being incapable 
 of unrolling. 
 
 DU'EL (Lat. duellum, a conflict between two indivi- 
 duals ; in the original use of the Roman word, between two 
 states), signified originally a trial by battle resorted to by 
 two persons as a means of determining the guilt or inno- 
 cence of a person charged with a crime, or of adjudicating 
 a disputed right ; but in more modern times it leased to 
 signify a hostile meeting between two persons, arising from 
 an affront given by one to the other, and for the purpose 
 (as is said) of affording satisfaction to the person affronted. 
 
 The practice of the duel, as a private mode, recognized 
 only by custom, of deciding private differences, seems to 
 be of comparatively recent, date, and descends by no very 
 direct transmission from the ancient appeal to the judicial 
 combat as a final judgment in legal disputes. That it ori- 
 ginated with the feudal system is abundantly clear, if it 
 were only from the fact that in Russia, where that system 
 was never known, the custom of the duel was unheard of, 
 until introduced by foreign officers, even wilhin the memory 
 of the present generation. But it is certain that many an- 
 tiquarian writers have confused together two very different 
 institutions : the appeal to arms, as an alternative for the 
 trial by ordeal or by compurgators, appointed by tradi 
 tionary usage from the earliest periods of Germanic his- 
 tory ; and the voluntary challenge or defiance, resorted I 
 for the purpose of clearing disputes involving the honoii 
 of gentlemen. This last custom was first elevated to the 
 dignity of an established institution by Philip 1c Bel of 
 France, whose edict rogulating the public combat between 
 2 A 
 
DUEL. 
 
 nobles bears the date of 1303 : the best comment on which 
 may be found in the spirited and accurate representation, 
 by Shakspeare, of the quarrel between Mowbray and 
 Bolingbroke. 
 
 The duello, in this its high and palmy state, when fa- 
 voured by princes and tolerated by the church, became 
 the subject of many fantastic regulations, partly framed on 
 the imaginary code of chivalry, and partly on the precepts 
 of the civil law. Thus, in a curious treatise on this sub- 
 ject by Dario Attendoli, an officer of the Italian wars (print- 
 ed in 1665), we find it laid down that not less than twenty 
 days must elapse between the receipt of a cartel or chal- 
 lenge and the answer; because such was the time required 
 to elapse, in civil suits, between the plaintiff's charge and 
 the defendant's first pleading. Three, four, or five months 
 must then be allowed to the champions for preparation. 
 The combat must take place in lists, and under the eyes 
 of the sovereign authority of the city selected by the chal- 
 lenger. The strictest equality of rank must be observed be- 
 tween the parties; a rule which appears to have been 
 tolerably well attended to, and must have saved the shed- 
 ding of much unnecessary blood. But, while every pre- 
 caution was taken to render such duels not easily to be 
 pngaeed in on light grounds, it was part of the same code 
 that they should be carried through in serious earnest. In 
 another curious Italian book of problems concerning the 
 duel (of the same date), the question is put, "Whether a 
 prinee will do well or ill in separating two champions, when 
 both shall be so weakened by loss of blood as to appear 
 unable to continue the combat 1" and resolved in the nega- 
 tive. And if the vanquished had his life spared him, he 
 was bound to consider himself the prisoner of his con- 
 queror, and devoted to his service, until released by death 
 or by positive permission ; although Attendoli intimates 
 that, in his opinion, the limitation of thirty years, accord- 
 ing to the maxims of the civil law, ought to apply to this 
 servitude. 
 
 The particular regulations of these Italian laws of honour 
 are of the most curious and pedantic minuteness. Atten- 
 doli has favoured us with several common precedents of 
 challenges and answers. The commencement of the car- 
 tel, "per injuria di fatti," for injury in deeds, runs as fol- 
 lows :--"I.,M., having been by thee, N., enormously beaten 
 with a stick (superchievolmente con un bastone percosso) 
 at Rome, on the ultimo, after an evil fashion, from be- 
 hind, I not being aware of thee, and in time of peace, say 
 to thee that thou hast done basely and wickedly, and as a 
 traitor and vile cavalier." To this cartel are appended 
 the signatures of, four witnesses, who affirm themselves 
 to have been present at the administering of the bastina- 
 do. The cartel was to be publicly placarded in the 
 street.-;; as was also the answer, or, if the adversary de- 
 clined the combat, a statement of his refusal. In this latter 
 case, it was debated whether it were not allowable to hang 
 up a likeness of the person declining to fight; but this sin- 
 gular species of posting, although we are told it was not 
 uncommon, is reprobated as unbecoming a gentleman. 
 The distinctions as to persons are not less amusing. (See 
 e. g. question 3d of the Book of Problems in the treatise of 
 Attendoli above referred to.) 
 
 The fashion of the public duel seems never to have pre- 
 vailed to any extent in England. Although Ihe ancient Ju- 
 dicium Dei was so interwoven with our laws that, at a com- 
 paratively late era, the whole court of Common Pleas would 
 occasionally adjourn in full term to Smithfield or Bank- 
 side, to see the long-contested intricacies of a "writ of 
 right" brought fairly to issue in a match at singlestick ; 
 yet the stern necessity of washing out affronts in blood, 
 whether in open or private quarrel, does not seem to have 
 been strictly adhered to until the latter part of the reign of 
 tiueen Elizabeth. Then the imaginations of the young no- 
 bles of the court, heated with the favourite study of chivalry, 
 readily adopted the sanguinary practice of foreign realms. 
 At this period appeared the famous Treatise of Honour of 
 Vincentio Saviolo — a fierce and punctilious Italian, a fencing 
 master by profession, bred in (he wars of Italy, and deeply 
 versed in the science of the public duello, then a favourite 
 theme of reminiscence, although no longer known in prac- 
 tice, as will be presently shown! This little work, published 
 in 1594.— now little known to us, save by the famous quar- 
 rel in Shakspeare's As You Like It, concerning the cut of 
 the courtier's beard, which seems intended as a parody on 
 some parts of it, — appears to have been adopted by the 
 gallants of the time as a standing book of reference in all 
 cases of supposed insult. Saviolo resolves all quarrels into 
 the lie, — that is, he supposes the original insult to be fol- 
 lowed, either expressly or impliedly, by a regular series of 
 replies and retorts, until one or the other party is reduced 
 to give the lie direct; which, like the phrase "stupid 
 youth" (dummtr junge), in some German universities, was 
 immediately followed by the appeal to arms. 
 
 That ordinary commolioner the He, 
 
 The father of most quarrels in this climate, 
 
 appears to have been raised to this "bad eminence" by 
 370 
 
 Francis the First, the great guide of his day in matters ol 
 chivalry, who first gave it as his opinion, that the lie could 
 under no circumstances be brooked by a man of honour. 
 Attendoli holds that the virtue of the insult lies mainly in 
 the word lie ; and that any circumlocution, however plain, 
 greatly deprives it of its effect. This, however, Saviolo 
 stoutly denies ; and maintains that an imputation on the ve- 
 racity of a party, in whatever words it may be couched, is 
 equally deserving of resentment. The lie, being a matter 
 of so great importance, became the subject of much nice 
 distinction ; insomuch that a note to Dr. Moore'.s Essay on 
 Duelling informs us, that they enumerated thirty-two dif- 
 ferent ways of giving the lie in the latter part of the six- 
 teenth century. Saviolo, however, contents himself with 
 the division into the lie direct and lie circumstantial ; each 
 of which he sub-divides into general and special; besides 
 a fifth sort, which he calls "fictitious" or "sham" lies. 
 These, he says, seem to have originated from the custom 
 that he who receives the lie direct, or last retort, being of 
 necessily the challenger, has the choice of weapons; to 
 gain which advantage it was not unusual for one who sought 
 a quarrel to address his enemy with, " If you say I am a 
 scoundrel, you are a liar;" by which means they suppose 
 that the latter was put to the necessity of making a direct re- 
 ply. In opposition to this notion, Vincentio shows divers 
 honourable devices by which an ingenious duellist, when 
 assailed in this manner, may retort on his adversary, so as 
 to throw the burden of the last word on him. Paris de 
 Puteo, a Neapolitan lawyer, is said to have practised chiefly 
 in this branch of business, and to have answered cases on 
 the point of honour put to him from all parts of Europe. 
 
 Yet, however extravagant the foolery of these early wri- 
 ters may seem on a matter of such serious nature, it must 
 be confessed that, retaining as they did much of the old 
 opinion, refined into a sentiment, respecting the immedi- 
 ate interposition of God in the judicial combat, the true 
 point of honour was far safer in their hands than in the less 
 scrupulous ones of the professed duellists of modem 
 times. Saviolo does not hesitate earnestly to inculcate on 
 his pupil the duty of maintaining no cause except that 
 which he seriously believes to be just and true, and of 
 submitting to any humiliation rather than fight in defence 
 of a falsehood. A fine, although somewhat extravagant 
 illustration of this chivalric principle, may be found in the 
 old play of A Fair Quarrel, by Middleton and Rowley. 
 Captain Ager, the hero of the piece, is saluted by his colo- 
 nel on the occasion of some dispute with the appellation of 
 "son of a whore." A challenge follows, and the lime and 
 place are fixed ; but the captain cannot satisfy his consci- 
 entious honour without repairing to his mother, and ac- 
 quainting her, although indirectly, wilh the provocation hft 
 has received. She, suspecting his meaning, and fearing 
 for his life, in a moment of weakness falsely intimates the 
 imputation to be a true one. The captain's mind is instantly 
 made up — he will not fight in a bad quarrel ; but, for his 
 mother's sake, he will not divulge the reason. His two se- 
 conds arrive, and he hears, with seeming equanimity, theii 
 expostulations, and at last their insults, declaring that al- 
 though he is ready to follow them to the field, he will not 
 fight a stroke. But, being branded on that account by his 
 adversary with the epithet "coward," he thankfully seizes 
 on the opporlunity afforded him by this fresh insult ; draws 
 in "a fair quarrel," and overthrows his opponent. 
 
 In 1547, Henry II. of France issued an edict absolutely 
 prohibiting the judicial or public combat. This decree 
 was produced by the death of his favourite. La Chaiaigne- 
 raye, in consequence of wounds received in the lists in 
 the presence of Henry himself. By a curious coinci- 
 dence, the abolisherof one of the grand Institutions of the 
 feudal aaes was destined, in his own person, to be l he cause 
 of the disuse of another: he was slain in a tournament, 
 and that knightly exercise was no longer practised at courts 
 after that melancholy event. The public duel survived 
 some time longer in Italy, as may be seen by the dates of 
 the treatises quoted above. lis abolition in France was by 
 no means followed by the good effects which the statesmen 
 of those days probably anticipated from it. Debarred from 
 public conflict, the gentlemen of France were at Ihe same 
 time freed from its r manifold restraints ; and private duels, 
 conducted with a ferocity and sanguinary spirit hilherlo 
 unheard of, became prevalent to the most astonishing de- 
 gree. The wars of religion, prosecuted with a degree ol 
 bitterness perhaps unexampled in the history of any nation, 
 added public causes of dispute to those of an hereditary 
 and personal nature. Even the ordinary laws of honour, 
 which seem inseparable from the practice, were neglected. 
 We find in Brantome, that there were duellists who prided 
 themselves on the advantages which they had taken of 
 their anta"onists, and were not esteemed the less in society 
 for havins done so. Not only had individuals and families 
 their quarrels ; we are told that there were regiments in 
 the same service, of which the officers were bound lo fight 
 one another whenever they met. The duellist seems to 
 have usurped, with the fair sex, the attentions usually paid 
 
DUENNA. 
 
 to the soldier. We have the testimony of Lord Herbert 
 of Cherbury, himself a vain and cold-blooded quarreller, 
 for the honour in which the ladies of Trance held the brave 
 Balagny — an ordinary man, in a threadbare doublet and 
 breeches, with neither figure, wit, nor fortune to re- 
 tnend liim; but whose testimonials consisted in the 
 fact of liis having killed eight or nine of his friends in sin- 
 gle combat. 
 
 It was about the reign of Henry III. also, that the san- 
 guinary custom of the seconds taking part in the quarrel of 
 their principals seems first to have become establish. .1. 
 a custom which only gradually wore out in the beginning 
 of the last century. When such bloody practices were rife 
 in all parts of France, we are scarcely tempted to doubt 
 the extraordinary assertions we find in the writers of those 
 . -that one hundred and twenty gentlemen were killed 
 in duels, in a single Preach province, in six months ; that 
 in the reign of Henry IV. four thousand fell in two years; 
 that this strange species of mania cost France more gen- 
 tle blood than thirty years of civil war. Henry IV. issued 
 ■ duelling ; Louis XIII. proceeded against it 
 at one time with such severity, that we are told that wound- 
 ed duellists were dragged at once from the field to the gib- 
 bet ; but this unwarrantable violence, as usual in such cases, 
 had no effect. The evil at length produced a remedy by 
 its on I i the minority of Louis XIV. the Duke 
 
 mours, a prince of the blood, fell with two of his four 
 . a quarrel with another grandee of the court. 
 this deplorable event, many noblemen and gentle- 
 men of undoubted courage entered Into a voluntary com- 
 pact to abstain from duelling. Louis JUV.. when of age. 
 approved .it their resolution, and seconded it by several 
 To the honour of this prince it should be remem- 
 I 'hat during the whole ol his life he laboured firmly 
 and temperately to correi I nd with no ordinary 
 
 success. Tins he effected, not merely by the force of 
 hut by exhibiting in his own demeanour, and encour- 
 in his courtier*, that mixture of dignity with gentle- 
 vtii.-ii most rpadily turns away wrath and repeja 
 imiliarity. One of his expedients, however, it must 
 t>e admitted, seems to our modern ideas not very likely to 
 ittain the object proposed. This was the establishment of 
 . : of chivalry,— the members of which were the mar- 
 f France,— which was to decide on all questions in 
 Ottoman might conceive his honour to be in- 
 Mat this singular sort of arbitration was at 
 fist very efficacious ; although in Mercier's time (the reign 
 ds XVI.) he tells us (as we might naturally suppose) 
 i who should have resorted to the court to re- 
 aii insult WOUld only have incurred ridicule in addi- 
 tion to (he disgrace of not personally resenting it. Various 
 laws relating to the duel have been since mad.' in Trance, 
 but have, f.ilh'n into disuse for the most part. Whether 
 slaying in a duel be murder, is a point on which there has 
 been a continual conflict between the courts of cassation 
 anil the royal courts since 1817, when it was raised in the 
 case ol' De Pollgny and Rosay. Hut the legal question is 
 of comparatively small importance, from the licem 
 sumed by juries in that country. A civil action lies on be- 
 half of the friends of the slain man. 
 
 In England, the first attempt made to introduce legisla- 
 tive enactments in aid of the common law for repressing of 
 duels is said to have taken place in 1713 ; when, after the 
 celebrated duel of Duke Hamilton and Lord Mohun, a hill 
 for that purpose was brought into the Common-, but lost 
 on the third reading. A provocation or challenge to light 
 is a high misdemeanour. In Scotland, as late (we believe) 
 as the middle of the 16th century, licences f _ir duelling 
 were granted by the crown, ami formed a source of reve- 
 nue : death in a duel without licence w ;s murder. (See 
 Pitcfii'rn's Criminal _ Trials ) The n»W codes of Bavaria 
 and Pru-si a contain a number of provisions, with perhaps 
 too much minuteness of distitu- ; on, against duels, challen- 
 ges, <fce. The common punishment is imprisonment for a 
 shorter or longer term. 
 See as to duels, in addition (o former works on the sub- 
 Fougeroux de Campigneulles, Ifisloire des Duels, 3 
 vols. 8vo. 1831 ; in which most authorities are collected, al- 
 though it is a compilation including many anecdotes, ice. 
 of no authenticity. For modern legislation on the subject, 
 the article " Duel," In Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopedia, 
 miv he consulted with advantage. 
 
 Dl-K'NNV (Span, duena.) The chief lady in waiting 
 on the queen of Spain In a more general sense, it is ap- 
 plied to a person holding a middle station between a gov- 
 erness and companion, and appointed to take charge of the 
 junior female members of Spanish and Portuguese fami- 
 lies. 
 
 DUET. (Lai. duo, firo.) A piece of music composed 
 for two performers, either vocal or instrumental. 
 
 DUGO'NG, or DUYONG. The name of a herbivorous 
 
 ceutceoun animal characterized by two large permanent 
 
 incisive tusks in the upper jaw, and four molar teeth above 
 
 and below, the grinding surface of which exhibits a rim of 
 
 371 
 
 DUNES. 
 
 cementum surrounding a slight excavated centre* of ivory. 
 The upper lip is beset with numerous strong bristles, and 
 similar ones are found more sparingly scattered over the 
 body. The anterior exlremilies are fin-like, and without 
 nails. The caudal fin is broad, and of a crescendo figure. 
 One species (Haiicore Indicus, Cuv.) inhabits thi 
 the Indian Archipelago. A second dugong has been re- 
 cently discovered in Ihe Red Sea (.Haiicore tabernuculi, 
 Iluppel.) but which is at most only a variety of the prece- 
 ding. The fabled mermaid seems to have been founded 
 on the dugong. 
 
 1)1 KE. (From the Latin dux, leader or com: 
 The title of Duke is said to have originated in the usages 
 of the Lower Empire, where it was given to the 
 governors of provinces. From thence it was borrowed by 
 the Franks, who adopted, in many respects, the titles anil 
 distinctions of the empire. Charlemagne is said to have 
 suffered it to become obsolete, but the emperor Louis cre- 
 ated a duke of Thuringia in 647. In course of time, ac- 
 cording to the usual progress of feudal dignities, (he title 
 became hereditary. In Germany the dukes became the 
 chief princes of the empire; this title being proper to all 
 the secular electors, and to most of the greater feudato- 
 ries. In other countries their dignity became merely titu- 
 lar. In Italy and Trance dukes form the second rank in 
 (he nobility, being inferior (o princes: in England they 
 form (he first. The litle was not known in Ihe latter coun- 
 try until the reign of Edward III. ; and the word dux is 
 used by writers before that period as synonymous with 
 count or earl. In the eleventh year of the latter monarch 
 the dignity of Duke of Cornwall was bestowed on his eld- 
 est son, Edward the Black Prince. In the year 1351, his 
 third son, John of Gaunt. Earl of Lancaster, was created 
 Duke of Lancaster for life, furnishing the next instance of 
 this dignity. In neither of these instances, nor in any 
 subsequent one, according to Sir H. Nicolas (Introduction 
 to Ihe Peerage, vol i. p lx.wii.), was (he dignity thus cre- 
 ated a dukedom by tenure : it has always remained a per- 
 sonal tide only, and descendible according to the limita- 
 tion-: of ihe charter. 
 
 DULCAMA'RA. (Lat. dulcis, steeet, and amarus, Utter.) 
 The common woody nightshade, the stalk of which is used 
 in medicine to furnish a decoclion which is somewhat nar- 
 cotic and diuretic, and has a very peculiar bitter sweet fla- 
 vour. It has been recommended in chronic rheumatism, 
 and as an alternative in some cutaneous cases, but is not 
 much depended upon. 
 
 DU'LCIMER. (Etym. uncertain.) A musical instru- 
 ment, of what description is unknown, but probably of the 
 wind species, in use among (he Jews. 
 
 DU'MBNESS. (Ap/tonia of medical writers; from a, 
 privative, and <po>vn, roice.) This term is generally ap- 
 plied to persons who are either born deaf, or become so 
 in early infancy; the consequence of which is that (he or- 
 gans of speech have never been called in(o duo action, 
 their functions being at first imitative in respect to sounds, 
 and the numerous muscles of the tongue, glottis, <tc. con- 
 cerned in speech remain inactive ; for persons who even 
 in very early life become deaf are not rendered dumb, the 
 organs of speech having been once called into activity, and 
 having once acquired their peculiar powers and consenta- 
 neous actions. Dumbness may also arise from injury to 
 the lingual nerves, or from great general or local debility ; 
 in which case blisters, stimulants, tonics, and other reme- 
 dies, may be resorted to for Ihe restoration of speech. It 
 is remarkable that the loss of the tongue, and even of part 
 of the palate, does not necessarily occasion dumbness; 
 this has happened from disease, and among barbarous na- 
 tions the tongue was occasionally extirpated; yet cases 
 are on record showing that even under such circumstances 
 speech was more or less perfectly retained ; and there is 
 an account in the Memoires de I'Academie des Sciences for 
 1718 of a girl who was born without a tongue, and yet ac- 
 quired the faculty of speech. The case of Margaret Cul 
 ling, related in Ihe Philosophical Transactions (1742) by Dr. 
 Parsons, may also be consulted in reference to this subject. 
 
 DII'MUS. In Botany, a low and much-branched shrub. 
 
 DUNES. (Ang. Six. low hills ) Hills of moveable sand, 
 which are met with along the sea.coast in various parts of 
 Great Britain, Ireland, and the Continent. The mode of 
 their formation and progress is exceedingly curious. In 
 various districts the sea deposits on the beach a quantity of 
 fine sand, which is carried forward by Ihe wind till it meets 
 with some obstruction in the shape of large stones, roots 
 of trees, or other obstacles, when it gradually accumulates 
 into mounds or hillocks, " whose general appearance, size, 
 and distribution depend on those of the obstacles to which 
 they owe their existence." When these mounds have at- 
 tained a certain elevation they are urged forward upon the 
 land ; for, as Cuvier observes, " le meme vent qui eleve le 
 sable du rivage sur la dune jette celui du sommet de la 
 dune a son revers oppose - .'' The direction which they 
 take depends chielly on that of the wind ; and their inroads 
 upon the land are attended by the most destructive effects 
 
DUNKERS. 
 
 One jf [lie departments of Fiance, the Landes, has been 
 neatly overwhelmed by their progressive advance. The 
 quantity of moveable sand which the sea annually deposits 
 .mi that coast has been estimated at upwards of 3,000.000 
 square feet, and its annual progress inland at about 72 feet. 
 In that department the dunes advance in a north-easterly 
 direction ; and it has been calculated, with apparently suf- 
 ficient exactness, that unless their progress be arrested, 
 they will have reached Bordeaux in 1500 years. During the 
 violent hurricanes which frequently occur in these regions, 
 the whole mass of sand of which the dunes are composed 
 appears to be in agitation ; and such is the rapidity with 
 which they then advance, that entire villages, fields, and 
 gardens are almost instantaneously engulphed, and the as- 
 pect of whole districts changed within four and twenty 
 hours. The progress of the dunes, however, as already 
 remarked, is in general slow and steady. Thus the town 
 of Mimizan, after struggling for more than the fourth part 
 of a cenlury against their encroachments, is now almost 
 buried beneath them ; and such have been their destruc- 
 tive effects upon a village of Britanny, that nothing is visible 
 of it except a small part of the church steeple. As will be 
 easily imagined, the means of arresting the progress of the 
 dunes forms a most interesting and important inquiry. For 
 this purpose various measures have been recommended; 
 but by tar the most efficient means hitherto adopted con- 
 sists in planting close together, so as to form, as it were, a 
 line of defence against the sand, such trees and shrubs as 
 are known to thrive in a barren soil. This process, where- 
 ever it has been tried, has been found not only to fix the 
 dunes, but at the same time to form a simple and secure 
 barrier against all further encroachment of the sand. 
 
 DU'NKERS. A Christian sect, which formed itself into 
 a soeiety under peculiar rules in Pennsylvania in the year 
 1724. The origin of their name is unknown. They prac- 
 tise abstinenceand mortification, under the idea that such 
 austerities are meritorious in the sight of God, and effect- 
 ive, first in procuring their own salvation, and further in 
 contributing to that of others. They form a society strictly 
 connected within itself, and hold love feasts, in which all 
 assemble together ; but their devotions and ordinary busi- 
 ness are carried on in private, nor do they recognize a com- 
 munity of goods. They also deny the eternity of future 
 punishments ; conceiving that there are periods of purga- 
 tion, determined by the sabbath, sabbatical year, and year 
 of jubilee, which are typical of them. 
 
 DU'NNAGE. Any light or loose material, as wool, &c, 
 used as a bed in the stowage of heavy articles. 
 
 DUODE'CIMAL. (Lat. duodecim, twelve.") Proceeding 
 by twelves. The term is given to a rule or operation of 
 arithmetic, by which the contents of any surface or solid 
 are found by multiplying together its linear dimensions, 
 expressed in feet, inches, and lines, and is consequently 
 much used by artificers in finding the contents of their 
 work. The rule is also called cross multiplication, from 
 the manner In which the operation is usually performed, 
 and which is as follows : Suppose it were required to find 
 the superficial content of a plank 12 feet 9J inches long, and 
 3 feet 7 inches broad. Set down the two dimensions under 
 each other, placing feet under feet, inches under inches, 
 <fcc , and for the half inch put down its equivalent 6 lines, 
 as in the following example : — 
 
 12 9 6 
 3 7 
 
 33 4 6 
 
 _7_5_6£ 
 
 45 10 Oi 
 12 
 
 120£ 
 Now, since the feet are conceived to be units of measure, 
 the inches are so many 12ths of unity, and the lines so 
 many 12ths of a 12th, or 144th parts of unity. The units 
 consequently form the first column, the 12ths the second, 
 and the 144ths the third. Multiplying therefore the first 
 line by 3 feet or 3 units, we get 38 feet, 4- 12ths of a foot, and 
 6144ths of a foot. Next, multiplying the upper line by 
 7-12ths, we get first the 6 lines or G-144ths, multiplied by 
 712ths, equal to 42-172Sihs, which is equal to 3*144ths. 
 Then the 9-12ths multiplied by the 7-12ths give 63144ths, 
 which added to the 3J make 66|-114ths, or 5-12ths and 6§- 
 144ths ; therefore 6| is placed in the third column, and the 
 5-12ths carried on. Lastly, the 12 units multiplied by the 
 7-12ths give 84-12ths, which added to the 5-12ths make 
 89-1 2ths, and this is equal to 7 units or feet and 5-12ths; 
 consequently 7 is placed in the first column and 5 in the 
 second. Adding the two products together, we get 45 feet, 
 10-12ths of a foot, and £144ths of a foot. But in square or 
 superficial measure the 144th part of a foot is an inch ; and 
 10-I2ths= 120-144lhs; consequently the result of the ope- 
 ration is 45 sq. feet and 120J sq. inches. 
 
 The operation is itself much simpler than the description 
 or explanation, which is found embarrassing to beginners ; 
 it would therefore, perhaps, be better to reject the rule al- 
 372 
 
 DWARFING TREES. 
 
 together from elementary books of arithmetic ; and, re- 
 garding the inches and lines as parts of a foot, to perform 
 the operation by the ordinary rule of practice ■ 
 
 DUODE'CIMO. (Lat.) a. book is said to be in duodecimo 
 (abbreviated 12mo.), when every sheet being six times 
 folded makes twelve leaves or twenty-four pages. 
 
 DUODE'NUM. (From duodenus, consisting of ttcelre.) 
 The commencement of the intestinal canal, forming a di- 
 vision, which in some animals is about as long as the 
 breadth of twelve fingers. This term, introduced by the 
 older anatomists, is still applied to that portion of the in- 
 testines, though the measure is generally inapplicable. 
 
 DU'PLICATE RATIO, is the ratio of the squares of two 
 quantities, or the square of their ratio. Thus the ratio of 
 a 3 to 6 s is the duplicate of the ratio of a to b. If there be 
 three quantities in continued proportion, the first is to the 
 third in the duplicate ratio of the first to the second: — thus 
 if a, b, c be continual proportionals, that is, if a : b : : b : c 
 then a is to c in the duplicate ratio of a to b. 
 
 DUPLICATION OF THE CUBE. A celebrated pro 
 blem of the ancient geometry. While a plague was deso- 
 lating Athens, a deputation was sent to consult the oracle 
 of Apollo at Delos, who returned for answer that the plague 
 would cease when they had doubled the altar of the god. 
 The altar was cubical, consequently the problem was to 
 find the side of anolher cube of twice the solid contents. 
 As this problem requires the solution of a cubic equation, 
 it cannot be solved by plane geometry ; but Hippocrates of 
 Chios reduced it to another ; namely, the insertion of two 
 mean proportionals between two given straight lines, a pro- 
 blem which several of the ancient geometers, particularly 
 Archimedes, Eutocius, Pappus, and Nicodemes, discover- 
 ed methods of constructing by means of the higher curves. 
 Among the modern geometers who have not disdained the 
 same inquiry, are the illustrious names of Newton and 
 Huygens. See Montvcla, Histoire des Mathematiques. 
 
 DU'PPER, or DUBBER. A globular short-necked ves- 
 sel made of buffalo's hide, in which castor oil is imported 
 from India. Each dupper holds about 80 lbs. of oil. 
 
 DU'RA MATER. A thick membrane enveloping the 
 brain and adhering to the inner surface of the cranium. 
 See Brain. 
 
 DURA'MEN. (Lat.) The fully formed central layers 
 of the wood of Exogenous trees ; what is called in common 
 language the heart wood. It is only the gapwood solidified 
 by the introduction of various secretions into the interior 
 of the cells or tubes of which such wood is composed. 
 
 DU'RESS (Lat. duritas, hardship), in Law, is such con- 
 straint, either actual or by threats occasioning a reasonable 
 fear, as will invalidate legal acts done by a party suffering 
 it. Duress of imprisonment must be by illegal imprison- 
 ment. Duress perminas, by threats, is interpreted to mean 
 such threats as occasion fear of life or limb. 
 
 DUTCH GOLD. Copper, brass, and bronze leaf is 
 known under this name in commerce ; it is largely used 
 in Holland for ornamenting toys and paper. 
 
 DUTCH SCHOOL. In Painting, this school, generally 
 speaking, is founded on a faithful representation of nature, 
 without attention to selection or refinement. The ideas 
 are usually low, and the figures local and vulgar. Its merit 
 lies in colouring and drawing with extreme fidelity what 
 was before the eye of the artist. The pothouse, the work- 
 shop, or the drunken revels of uninlellectual boors, seem 
 to have furnished its principal subjects. The great appear- 
 ance of reality infused into its productions induced Hage- 
 dora to call it the School of Truth. Notwithstanding ils de- 
 ficiency in all that tends to raise the mind, it has gained an 
 unspeakable lustre from its great head, Rembrandt van 
 Rhyn, to whose name may be added those of De Leide, 
 Heemskirk, Polemburg, Wouvermans (an exception to our 
 general observations), Gerard Dow, Mieris, and Vande- 
 velde, &c. 
 
 DUU'MVIRI. A general appellation, among the ancient 
 Romans, given to any magistrates elected in pairs to per- 
 form any function or class of functions. The chief Duum- 
 viri were the Duumviri Sacrorum, to whom were entrusted 
 the care and the interpretation of the Sibylline books. The 
 Duumviri Municipales had almost consular power in the 
 municipal cities. The Duumviri Navaleswere officers ap- 
 pointed to man, entiip,and command the Roman navy. 
 
 DWA'RFING TREES. Dwarf trees may be produced 
 in three different ways : by grafting on dwarf slow-growing 
 stocks, as, for example, the pear on the quince; by plant- 
 ing in pots of small size filled with poor soil, by which the 
 plant is starved and stunted ; and by causing a portion of 
 the extremity of a branch to produce roots, and then-cut- 
 ting it off and planting it in a pot or box of poor soil. This 
 last is the Chinese method, and is thus performed :— The 
 extremity of a branch two or three feet in length, in a fruit 
 or flower-bearing state— for example, the points of the 
 branches of a fir tree bearing cones, or of an elm bearing 
 blossom buds— being fixed on, a ring of bark is taken off at 
 the point where it is desired that the roots should be pro- 
 duced. The space thus laid bare is covered with a ball of 
 
DWARF WALL. 
 
 IB0I9I day, \v' iioli is kept moist by being covered with 
 , which is occasionally watered. In the course of two 
 or throe months in some trees, and of a year or two in 
 others, roots are protruded into the ball of clay. The 
 branch may then be cut off below the part from whence 
 the roots have been protruded, and the branch being plant- 
 ed in a pot of poor soil, and kept sparingly supplied with 
 water, it will remain nearly in its present state for many 
 years; producing leaves, and perhaps flowers, annually, 
 but never shoots longer than a few lines. 
 
 DWARF WALL. (Sax. dweorh.) In Architecture, a 
 low wall, not so high as the story of a building in which it is 
 uaed 
 
 DYEING. The object ofthis beautiful art is to fix cer- 
 tain colouring matters uniformly and permanently in the 
 fibres of wool, silk, linen, cotton, and other substances. 
 There are a few dyeing materials which impart their co- 
 lour to different stuffs without any previous preparation, 
 and these have been technically termed substantive co- 
 lours ; by far the greater number, however, of colouring 
 materials, only impart a fugitive tint under such circum- 
 stances, and require that the stuff to be dyed should under- 
 go some previous preparation, in order to render the co- 
 permanent; that Is, capable of resisting the action of 
 air, light, and water. The substance applied with this in- 
 tention is called a base or mordant, and must possess an 
 affinity for the fibre of the stuff on the one hand, and for 
 the colouring materials on the other. The mordant often 
 eff-cts another important object ; that of changing or ex- 
 alting the colour at the same time that it fixes it. The 
 principal mordants are aluminous earth and oxide of iron, 
 and these are usually applied in the state of acetates. As 
 an instance, we may mention the mode of dyeing calico 
 red by means of madder, a decoction of which, if applied 
 to the unprepared goods, would only give them a dirty red 
 tinge, neither agreeable nor permanent. If the calico be 
 prev, ! through a weak solution of acetate of 
 
 alumina, and then dried at a high temperature, and after- 
 wards washed, a portion of the alumina is retained in che- 
 mical combination with the fibre of the calico; and when 
 thus prepared and submitted to the action of a hot decoc- 
 tion of madder, and again wished, it comes out of a fine 
 red, which is fixed in consequence of the attraction of the 
 alumina for the peculiar principle which gives colour to 
 the madder. If the mordant be oxide of iron instead of 
 alumina, the colour which is then produced is purple ; and 
 various shades and colours are obtained by mixing mor- 
 dants, by using more or less of them, and by applying the 
 coloured solutions in various states of concentration. Some- 
 times articles are dyed by a similar precipitation of colour- 
 S I metallic oxides in the'fibre ; thus yellow is obtained by 
 ling cloth impregnated with acetate of lead through a 
 solution of chromate of potash : a double decomposition 
 ensues, and yellow chromate of lead is precipitated in and 
 combined with the vegetable or animal fibre. Blues are 
 produced by passing the goods previously mordanted with 
 bran through an acidulated solution of ferrocyanate of pot- 
 ash ; these are generally called chemical colours, though 
 not in fact more so than the others. Scarlet is exclusively 
 1 ■ luced by the colouring matter either of the cochineal 
 i 'l" the lac insect, which is fixed by oxide of tin, or by 
 ; i na.and heightened by the action of tartar. 
 
 'A'ne chemical principles of the art of calico printing are 
 the same as those of dyeing, but the details are more dif- 
 ficult and complicated ; and in consequence of the combi- 
 nation of a great variety of colours upon the same ground, 
 the process is sometimes extremely refined and intricate ; 
 so that a rich, varied, and pleasing pattern, thus effectively 
 produced, may be considered as a triumph of practical 
 skill over theoretical difficulties, which is scarcely rivalled, 
 and certainly not excelled, in any other of the arts. It is 
 obvious that calico printing is in the abstract a topical dye- 
 ing; and much discrimination and taste are requisite in the 
 contrivance of the pattern, its general design, and the co- 
 lours In which it is exhibited. In this art the mordants, 
 and sometimes the colours, are applied either by blocks, 
 upon which the pattern is designed in relief, or by copper 
 plates, which are engraved, or by cylinders or rollers. If 
 the aluminous mordant be printed by one block and the 
 iron mordant by another, and a mixture of the two by a 
 third, and the piece thus prepared be then passed through 
 a madder bath, and properly cleansed and bleached, the 
 colour will only adhere to the mordanted places, and it will 
 bo red where the aluminous earth only has been applied, 
 [ urple with the mixed mordant, and black with the iron ; 
 :f the same three mordants be used with a decoction of 
 Jvifrcltron bark, the resulting colours will be yellow, olive, 
 and brown ; and in this way a great variety of colours may 
 be produced. Sometimes copperplate and block printing 
 are combined ; a fine running pattern being printed by the 
 plate or cylinder over the whole surface, which serves as 
 , a groundwork, and upon which other figures are printed 
 by blocks. Sometimes the mordant and colour are both 
 applied at once by means of a block, and rendered fixed 
 373 
 
 DYNAMOMETER. 
 
 and permanent by exposing the goods for some time to 
 steam. Some beautiful effects are also \ reduced by print- 
 ing the pattern upon a mordanted ground with some sub- 
 stance which will resist the colour, and so produce a 
 white pattern upon a coloured ground. The same effect 
 is sometimes brought about by discharging the colour by 
 the topical application of certain bleaching materials. 
 
 DYKE, or DIKE. When amass of unstratified or ig 
 neous rock, such as granite, trap, or lava, appears as if in- 
 jected into rents and fissures in the stratified rock, so as tc 
 intersect the strata, it is called a. dyke. Dyke is al 
 name given to a mound of earth, stones, or other male- 
 rials, intended to prevent lowland from being inn: 
 by the sea, &c. ; as the dykes of Holland. 
 
 DYNA'MICS (Gr. ivvajiis, force, or potcer), signifies 
 literally the doctrine of force or power; but as fol 
 power is known to us in no other way than by its effect, 
 that is, by the motion which it produces in the boi 
 which it acts, and is measured by that motion, dynamics 
 may be defined to be the science which treats of the tno 
 tion of bodies. It is, however, usually restricted to those 
 circumstances of motion in which the moving bodies are 
 at liberty to obey the impulses communicated to them : 
 the opposite cases, or those in which the bodies, whether 
 by external circumstances, or by their connection wit! 
 another, are not at liberty to obey the impulses given, be- 
 ing comprehended in the science of mechanics. Thus, 
 the motion of a stone falling freely to the ground, or of a 
 celestial body in its orbit, belongs to dynamics; while that 
 of a body descending an inclined plane would properly be 
 long to mechanics. 
 
 The theory of varied motions, and of the accelerating 
 forces which produce them, is founded on two general 
 laws : 1st, That all motion impressed on a body is by its 
 nature uniform and rectilinear; and 2nd. That different 
 motions impressed either simultaneously or successively 
 on the same body, are compounded In such a manner that 
 the body is found at every instant in the same point of 
 space in which it would have been found in c< 
 of the combination of the motions had they existed 
 rately. Thus, if a body be acted on by two forces at the 
 same Instant, one of winch acting alone would cause it to 
 move uniformly over A B, and the other acting alone would 
 cause it to move over A C at right angles to A B in the 
 lime; the Telocity of the body in the one of these 
 directions will not be changed by the force impelling it In 
 the other. With regard to the first of these laws, it is evi 
 dent that a body in motion, not subjected to the action o' 
 any new force, will continue lo move in the prolongation 
 of the straight line in which it moves at any given instant. 
 since there is no reason why it should deviate from its rec- 
 tilinear direction rather to one side than theother; but the 
 uniformity of Its motion cannot be asserted h priori : it is 
 only by induction and experience that we come to be per 
 suaded that the velocity with which any body is impressed 
 will not diminish of itself, nor the body finally come to 
 rest unless it is impeded by some external causes. The 
 second law, which involves the theory of the composi- 
 tion of forces, has been demonstrated by several m 
 matic'ians, particularly Daniel Bernoulli, D'Alernbert, 
 Laplace in the Mecanique Celeste, and Poiinon in his ex- 
 cellent Traite de Mecanique ; but all these demonstrations 
 are too difficult to be accounted elementary. 
 
 The science of dynamics is due entirely to the moderns, 
 and its foundations were laid by the celebrated Galileo 
 Before him no one had considered the forces which act 
 on bodies, excepting in the case of equilibrium; anil al- 
 though the acceleration of falling bodies, and the curvili- 
 near motion of projectiles, had been attributed to the con- 
 stant action of terrestrial gravity, no one had yet succeeded 
 in determining the laws of these common phenomena. 
 Galileo first made this important step in advance, and 
 thereby opened a new and boundless field for the pro| 
 of mechanics. Huygens added to Galileo's theory of tin- 
 acceleration of falling bodies the theories of the motion o( 
 pendulums and of centrifugal forces, and thus prepared 
 the way for the great discovery of universal gravitation 
 In the hands of Newton mechanics became a new science , 
 and the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus at length 
 enabled geometers to express all the laws and circum- 
 stances of the motion of bodies by analytical equations 
 The investigation of the forces which produce the pheno- 
 mena of the material world, or of the mutual action of the 
 different parts of matter on each other, now form Indeed 
 the principal object of mathematical studies. The best 
 systematic treatises on Dynamics are to be found in Lit- 
 grange's Mecanique Analylique, and Pois.son's Trail p. d< 
 Mecanique. Of late years several valuable elementary 
 treatises have appeared in our own language. See Foi.ce, 
 Mechanics, Motion. 
 
 DYNAMOMETER. (Gr. Svvapt;, potcer, and perpov, 
 measure.) An instrument for measuring power of any 
 kind, as the strength of men and animals, the force of ma- 
 chinery, the magnifying power of a telescope, &c. An in- 
 33 
 
DYNASTIDiH. 
 
 strument for measuring animal force was Invented by Mr. 
 Graham many years ago, ami afterwards improved by Des- 
 agulien ; but as it consisted of wooden works, it was too 
 heavy and bulky to be conveniently used for ordinary pur- 
 poses. Leroy, of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, pro- 
 posed a dynamometer, which consisted merely of a tube of 
 metal often or twelve inches in length, placed vertically on 
 • s stand, and containing a spring in its interior, which indi- 
 cated by its compression the amount of the force applied. 
 The instrument was in fact the same in principle as the 
 common spring balance. 
 
 The most convenient dynamometer is that of Ilegnier, 
 which is described in Calder 5. of the Journal de VEcole 
 Poll/technique. It consists of an elliptical steel spring of 
 about 12 inches in circumference, and the force is applied 
 either by pressing the two vertices of the axis minor against 
 each other, or by drawing in opposite directions the two 
 ends of the axis major. In both cases the sides of the 
 spring are made to approach each other ; and thus Ihey 
 move an index which marks the degree of approximation 
 on a semicircular scale. By means of this machine the 
 mean force is ascertained which a man can exert with the 
 right hand, or with the left, or with both together, and in 
 various positions of his body. Some interesting results 
 relating to the average strength of men at different ages, 
 and of different weights and sizes, have been deduced by 
 M. Quetelet of Brussels, from numerous experiments 
 with this dynamometer. See Strength op Animals. 
 
 DYNA'STlDiE. (Gr. owacrrijj, a master.) A family of 
 beetles, including the giants of the Coleopterous order. 
 They are remarkably powerful insects, excavating burrows 
 in the earth and in putrescent timber, upon the latter of 
 which they principally feed. 
 
 DY'NASTY. (Gr. Sv^aarsia, from Swdorris, a lord or 
 chieftain.) A race or family of sovereigns in succession. 
 
 DYSjESTHE'SIA. (Gr. Svs, an adverb signifying in 
 composition badness or difficulty, and aicOavofxai, 1 J'eel.) 
 Impaired sense of touch. 
 
 DY'SENTERY. (Gr. Svt, and tvrepa, bowels.) A dis- 
 ease of the bowels, endemic in many climates in the au- 
 tumnal months, and frequently arising from marsh miasma, 
 bad diet, exhaustion and fatigue : its symptoms are loss of 
 appetite, sickness, pain about the bowels, and a frequent 
 ineffectual desire to evacuate their contents, which when 
 passed are mucous, fetid, and bloody, with small indura- 
 ted lumps. It is often accompanied by intermittent and re- 
 mittent fever, especially in hot and damp countries. In 
 this country dysentery is generally a mild disorder, and not 
 infectious; and is commonly cured by gentle aperients, 
 such as castor oil, or salts and manna, to cleanse the bow- 
 els, and opiates to allay irritation. The chronic symptoms 
 which remain are treated with mild tonics, especially vege- 
 table hitters, such as infusion of calumba, angustura, or 
 cascarilla. The contagious dysentery of camps, attended 
 by remittent or typhoid fever, is an alarming and fatal dis- 
 ease : its treatment requires much consideration and skill, 
 and consists in judiciously meeting the various symptoms 
 as they arise. Aperients, diaphoretics, and nauseants, 
 succeeded by tonics, are leading remedies ; and the febrile 
 symptoms must be treated according to their inflammatory 
 or putrid tendency. 
 
 DYSPE'PSIA. (Gr. dvs, ant, ncirro), J digest or concoct.) 
 Indigestion. This is a complaint from which few entirely 
 escape, which assumes an infinite variety of shapes and 
 symptoms, and which arises from many causes. In the 
 higher ranks of society, and amongst the luxurious and 
 opulent, it is a common consequence of over eating, or of 
 indulgence in difficultly digestible orover-stimulaling food, 
 or of want of due exercise and general bodily and mental 
 exertion. In others it results from mental anxiety and la- 
 nour associated with a sedentary life ; from the fatigues of 
 business or the influence of debilitating passions. In the 
 lower orders it is the constant result of indulgence in spirit- 
 uous liquors, combined in many instances with want of 
 proper food, the means which ought to be applied to pro- 
 curing it being disposed of in the gin shop. 
 
 The symptoms of dyspepsia vary, therefore, in thediffer- 
 ent grades of life. The epicure loses his relish for the 
 Most refined dishes, becomes bloated, plethoric, heavy, 
 and perhaps apoplectic ; the lady of fashion suffers from 
 headaches, flatulence, occasional giddiness, and dimness 
 of sight; she becomes indolent, capricious, and full of fan- 
 cies, or, as the old physicians used to say, she has the va- 
 pours ; the studious man feels the intensity of his mind 
 blunted, loses his appetite, or at least all enjoyment of 
 meals, sleeps ill, and dreams much, gets whimsical and 
 discontented with himself and his friends, and becomes a 
 hypochondriac ; the lower classes at first take their glass of 
 i of rum because they find it a cheap stimulant, little 
 thinking of the misery they are laying up for future years ; 
 this stimulant soon becomes habitual, and they not only 
 feel miserable and heartbroke,n without it, but the single 
 glass soon loses its efficacy, and the dose must be gradually 
 increased till they degenerate into regular tipplers, the as- 
 374 
 
 E. 
 
 pect and characters of whom it were needless to describe, 
 as they may be daily and hourly studied in those hells of 
 temptation and iniquity, the gin shops of London,— where it 
 is curious and instructive, but humiliating and alarming, to 
 witness the various grades of mental and bodily disease in 
 the men, women, and even children, who there immolate 
 to Satan. 
 
 Complicated as are the symptoms of dyspepsia, and nu- 
 merous as are the remedies and modes ol treatment pro- 
 posed for its relief or cure, they really resolve themselves 
 into a few simple rules. In tire majority of cases, cS/i- 
 ivence is the first and most essential step : the epicure must 
 abstain from the luxuries of the table, eat ittid drink 
 with moderation, rise betimes, and use due exercise ; the 
 woman of fashion must revert to regular hours, that is. 
 the night and the day must be employed as intended by 
 nature, and not in inverted order; the philosopher and the 
 scholar must occasionally, and often frequently and assidu- 
 ously , divest themselves of their mental labours, and resort 
 to amusements and occupations of a more trivial character. 
 Those among the lower orders who have once acquired the 
 habit of dram drinking are incurable ; for such is the de- 
 pression of mind and body, and such the gnawing restless- 
 ness that want of the accustomed stimulus occasions, that 
 without it they become miserable and inconsolable, and 
 usually fall a sacrifice to mental or bodily disease, or to 
 both combined: here, therefore, prevention is the only 
 cure. The medical treatment of dyspepsia generally re- 
 solves itself into that of such of its particular symptoms 
 or consequences as are most prominent ; the inactivity of 
 the bowels is to be opposed by proper aperients properly 
 administered ; the debilitated stomach to be strengthened 
 by mild tonics, antacids, and stimulants; the mental symp- 
 toms often yield to the same treatment, and often require 
 local depletion, or diffusible stimulants, such as ammonia 
 and ether; and lastly, change of air, of scene, and of oe 
 cupation, are often indispensable, under which head sea 
 bathing and courses of mineral waters may be included. 
 The above observations are of course inapplicable to all 
 cases of dyspepsia resulting from structural disease, which, 
 though often an effect, is also a frequent cause of symptoms 
 of indigestion; indeed, fciieit tire the sympa 
 stomach that it is apt to be affected by any aberration from 
 health. 
 
 DYSPIIA'GIA. (Gr. Svs, and Qayu, I eat.) Difficulty 
 of swallowing. Paralysis, stricture of the oesophagus, en- 
 larged tonsils, relaxed uvula, a debilitated state of the mus- 
 cular coat of the pharynx and cesophagus, spasm of the 
 organs concerned in deglutition, inflammation, are amor!s 
 some of the leading causes which occasion difficulty of 
 swallowing ; it isalsoan attendantupon hysteria, hypochon 
 driasis, tetanus and trismus, and hydrophobia. The treat- 
 ment will depend upon the prevailing cause, and is noticed 
 under other articles. 
 
 DYSPNOEA. (Gr. Svs, and m/cu, I breathe.) Difficulty 
 of breathing. This is generally a symptomatic affection, 
 and commonly attends upon various morbid affections of 
 the lungs, heart, &c. It occasionally happens that persons 
 in full health are seized with an attack of difficulty of res- 
 piration ; where this occurs in nervous irritable habits it 
 generally goes off by perfect quiet, with the help of a little 
 ether or ammonia; if in full habits, bleeding is sometimes 
 requisite. Persons who are subject to these attacks should 
 keep themselves as quiet and tranquil in body and mind 
 as possible, and should avoid excess of food and wine, and 
 even all stimulating diet. A recumbent poglure, and sud- 
 den change of air, — as going out of a warm into a cold 
 room, or into the open air, — will often relieve an accidental 
 attack of dyspnoea. 
 
 DYSU'llIA. (Gr. iv c, and ovpov.urine.) Dysury. Dif- 
 ficulty in voiding the urine. A common symptom in cases 
 of gravel, inflammation of the urinary organs, spasm, and 
 stricture. The nature of the relief must depend upon the 
 exciting cause. 
 
 E. 
 
 E. The fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and in those 
 derived from it. In the Latin language it is often inter- 
 changed with j and o ; and in the Greek with a, o, and oc- 
 casionally u. In most languages e admits of great vari- 
 ety in its pronunciation, and, in French and English parti- 
 cularly, surpasses every other letter in the alphabet in this 
 quality : as a Latin numeral E signifies 250— 
 
 E quoqtie dncentos et quiiiqimginta tenebit. 
 
 E. In Music, the third note or degree of the diatonic 
 scale, corresponding to the mi of the French and Italians. 
 In the bass clef it is that on the third space of the staff, in 
 the tenor on the first space, in the counter tenor on thn 
 fourth line, and in the treble clef that on the first line 
 
EA'GLE. 
 
 EA'GLE. In Ornithology. See AauiLA, Falconid.e. 
 Ea'gls. In History, ihe symbol of royalty: as being, 
 : : to Philosrratus, the king of birds. Hence, in the 
 ; iklasan and Egyptian king are style 
 
 • was borne as a statiilard by many nations of an- 
 The first who assumed it, according to Xenophon 
 
 10.), were the Persians, from whom (in all proba- 
 ough the medium of the Greeks) it was borrowed 
 1 >m ins at an early period of their history, but first 
 is their sole ensign in the consulate of C. Marina. 
 {Pan. x 1.) Previously to that period they had used as 
 standards wolves, leopards, eagles, and other animals, in- 
 irding to the humourof their generals. The 
 Roman o lior silver figures in rilievo, about 
 
 and were borne on the tops of spears, 
 wit!i their wings displayed, and frequently with a thunder- 
 bolt in their talons. When the army marched the eagle 
 was always visible to the legions ; and when it encamped, 
 the eagle was always placed before their prcEtorium or tent 
 meral. The eagle on the summit of an ivory staff 
 i the symbol of the consular dignity. In modern 
 1 the tricolor flag, which at the out- 
 the first French Revolution had become the stand- 
 ard of Fiance, to be surmounted with an eagle; and thus 
 itandard of the consular and imperial 
 [Y an this circumstance, and from the almost an- 
 of victory so long pursued bv the 
 MaM, the expi < of Napo- 
 
 i metaphorically to the armies 
 
 under his command. After the battle of Wat 
 
 I In France by the Mcur do lvs, thean- 
 
 f the Bourbon rede. Eagles are frequently 
 
 found on ancient coins and medals; where, according to 
 
 Spanheii - nblematlc of divinity and providence, 
 
 to all other antiquaries of empire. They are 
 
 medals of the Ptolemies of 
 
 Ice of Syria. An eagle, with the Word 
 
 -is of an emperor. 
 
 In Heraldry, a hearing of frequent occurrence, 
 
 and particular! sovereigns as the emblem of 
 
 from having been borne on the legionary standard 
 
 tomans. The eagle of Rus la Is or, with 
 
 • dii ilayed, sable, each ducally crowneri of the 
 Bold; the wnoi<* imperially crowned, beaked, and meni- 
 
 les. The eagle of Austria is also displayed with 
 ; ; the Prussian eagle has one only. The Ameri- 
 cans h iv" a lopte I in eagle of a peculiar species belonging 
 to their continent as the device of the Union, which is im- 
 on their gold coins. 
 EA'GLE, BLACK. A Prussian order of knighthood, 
 Ibnnded In 1701 ; united with the order of the Red Eagle, 
 or order of Sincerity, instituted by the Margraves of Bay- 
 
 i; \'<;l.E STONE. A term applied by the old pharma- 
 ceutists to globular clay ironstone, which they called lapis 
 alites. 
 
 EA'GLE WOOD. A fragrant wood, used by the Asiatics 
 for burning as incense. The Malayan name is Agila, 
 whence the Portuguese name Pao d Agila. 
 
 EAR. (Germ, ohr.) The external ear is formed of a 
 pliant cartilage covered by a thin skin, and having appro- 
 priate nerves and muscles; its various cavities and projec- 
 N0OS have received distinctive names from the anatomist. 
 The curved and irregular passage which leads to the in- 
 ner ear Is called the meatus auditorium, and in the adult 
 is more than an 
 inch in length; 
 it. is lineil with 
 a peculiar secre- 
 tion called ceru- 
 men. The tym- 
 panum separates 
 the external from 
 the internal ear; 
 it is closed by a 
 membrane call- 
 ed the membra- 
 na tymvani or 
 drum of the ear, 
 upon the inner 
 of which 
 a nerve called the 
 chorda tympani 
 ramifies, and to 
 the centre of 
 which is affixed 
 the process of a 
 little hammer- 
 shaped bone, 
 called the mal- 
 leus, and 'which, 
 together with the incus, the os orbiculare, and the stapes, 
 forms a chain of communication between the tympanum. 
 and the fenestra ovalis; these small bones are supplied 
 375 
 
 EARTH. 
 
 with appropriate muscles. The vslibule is a small cavity 
 in the petrous portion of the "temporal bone, having a ilttlc 
 spiral cavity called the cochlea connected with it, and three 
 cylindrical cavities, or tubes, bent in a semicircular form, 
 two of which are horizontal and one vertical. The le cavities 
 contain a liquid ; and in them the auditory nerve, which 
 proceeds from the fourth ventricle of the brain, ramifies 
 and terminates. It is obvious that vibration of the tympa- 
 num, occasioned by undulations of the air, may lie com- 
 municated through the bony chain above mentioned to the 
 fluid in the vestibule, and thence to the acoustic nerve ; 
 but any further uses of this extraordinary and complicated 
 mechanism are beyond our knowledge. In the annexed 
 diagram a represents the external ear, b the external mea- 
 tus, c the tympanum, d the malleus, e the incus, f the 
 stapes, g the semicircular canals, and h the cochlea. 
 
 EA'RINGS. Small ropes fastened to cringles (loops) in 
 the upper corners, and also to the leec/irs of sails, for the 
 purpose of fixing the leeches of the sail to the yard. The 
 first or head earings fix the corners of the sail permanent- 
 ly, (he second are used only in reefing, 
 
 EARL. A title of dignity, derived from the Anglo- 
 S axons. It denoted at first any person of noble race, (see 
 Palgrate's Rise of the E. Commonwealth) ; and there 
 seem to have remained in popular language traces of this 
 ancient use of the name down to a late period. After- 
 wards some of the S axon earls were hereditary, and some 
 OVernors of extensive districts. After the Con- 
 ■ J it to of earl was used by the English to express 
 the French title of count (in Latin comes); to which again 
 the word graf (identical in origin with the English reeve) 
 furnishes an equivalent In Germany. Id nee the wife of an 
 earl is still styled countess. In writings earlier than the 
 age of Stephen, the Latin word consul la also u- 
 nonymous. It has been supposed (and the explanation is 
 supported by Mr. Cruise, On Dignities, p. 17,) that the 
 dignity of an earl was originally annex''! to the pi 
 of a certain tract of land, and thai there were th l 
 of earldoms— one. when the dignity was annexed to the 
 possession of a whole county with jura regalia, in which 
 case the county was a county palatine, as Chester. Pem- 
 broke, and Durham; t ha ' no 
 possession of the county, an d 
 
 the third penny or third part of the sum arising from pleas 
 in the county court; the third, where a tr.ic; of land was 
 granted to hold as a county, "per servitlnm unlus comi- 
 tates.'' But this is an opinion open to eorttroversj ; tod il 
 may be doubted whether there are any settled principles 
 as to the creation or descent of earldoms earlier than the 
 reign of Edward III., when they were granted by letters 
 patent to the earl and the heirs of his body. Ea 
 like baronies, gradually became converted from territorial 
 to merely titular honours. These two were the only titles 
 in the Enirlish peerage, until the creation of Ihe dnchy of 
 Cornwall In the 11th year of Edward III. (See 
 Synopsis nf thr !'■■ •■■■ .'" England.) 
 
 EARL KA'RSHAL OF ENGLAND. One ..f the great 
 officers of state, who regulates all great ceremonies, lakes 
 cognizance of all matters relating to honour, arms, and 
 pedigree, and superintends the proclamation of peace or 
 war. The court of chivalry, curia tniUtatia (now almost 
 forgotten), was formerly under his jurisdiction : he is still 
 at the head of the herald's office, or college of arms. 
 Camden, in his discourse concerning the etymology, anti- 
 quity, and office of earl marshal, alleges that it was first 
 introduced in the reign of Richard II., who conferred it on 
 Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, his pred 
 having been styled only Marshals of England. Various 
 limitations have been made in the grants of this office from 
 time to time ; but it is now hereditary In the family of 
 Howard, and enjoyed by its head, the Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 EA'RNEST (Lat. arrhte ; Fr. arrhes), in Law. Is a part 
 of the subject of a contract, as money or goods, transferred, 
 in order by such deliver)' to pass the property in the whole, 
 or in some other way to confirm the contract. By the 
 Statute of Frauds, 29 C. 2. c. 3, no contract for sale of 
 goods of the value of 10/. or more is good unless In writing, 
 or unless such earnest be given or taken. 
 
 EA'R RINGS. (Germ, ohrringe.) Well-known orna- 
 ments worn by women, and sometimes by men, in all ages 
 and countries. They have assumed an endless variety of 
 forms ; but consist generally at present of a simple ring, to 
 which are attached pendant jewels, such as pearls, dia- 
 monds, or other precious stones. In the middle ages they 
 were termed pendants, to which article the reader is re- 
 ferred for full information. 
 
 EARS. In Architecture. See CnosETTES. 
 
 EAR SHELL. See Haliotis. 
 
 EARTH. (Germ, erde, Lat. terra.) The name of the 
 planet which we inhabit. It is the third In order from the 
 sun, Its orbit embracing the orbits of Mercury and Venus, 
 but being within the orbits of all the other planets. The 
 earth is endowed with a double motion : first, a motion of 
 rotation about an axis passing through its centre; and 
 
EARTH. 
 
 .-secondly, a motion of revolution about the sun. It is the 
 first of these motions which produces the phenomena of 
 day and night, and the apparent diurnal revolution of the 
 celestial bodies. The time in which the earth's rotation is 
 performed is measured by the interval which elapses be- 
 tween two transits of the same fixed star over the meridian 
 of any place; and this interval is always precisely the same, 
 fur astronomers have proved that it cannot have varied so 
 much as three times the thousandth part of a second since 
 the jate of the first astronomical observation, that is to 
 say, during the last two thousand years. It is called the si- 
 dereal day, and forms a perfectly uniform measure of time. 
 
 The revolution of the earth about the sun is performed 
 in an elliptic orbit, which lies all in one plane, and has the 
 sun in one of the foci. The eccentricity of the orbit, or 
 the distance of the foci from the centre, is 01679 parts of 
 the mean distance of the earth from the sun ; so that if we 
 take the mean distance for unity, the greatest distance of 
 the sun is 101679, and the least 0-98321. The mean dis- 
 tance la nearly 95 millions of miles. The motion of the 
 earth in its orbit is not uniform ; being most rapid when it 
 is at \ls perihelion, or point nearest the sun, and slowest at 
 its aphelion, or greatest distance from the sun. This ine- 
 quality of Hie angular motion of the earth about the sun 
 gives rise to an inequality in the lengths of the apparent 
 solar day, which is the interval of time between the suc- 
 cessive transit! of Ihe sun over the same terrestrial meri- 
 dian. If ihe earth moved uniformly in its orbit, accom- 
 plishing its annual revolution in the same time it does, Ihe 
 Interval between any two consecutive transits of the sun 
 over the same meridian would always be the same. This 
 Interval is called the mean solar day. The time in which 
 tin- earth performs a revolution in its orbit, with respect to 
 the fixed stars, or points in absolute space, is 365-2503612 
 mean solar days, or 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, 9-6 
 seconds. This is called the sidereal year. 
 
 The plane which contains the earth's orbit is called the 
 pine- of the elliptic. The axis of the earth's diurnal rota- 
 tion is nut perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, but 
 makes with it an angle of 66° 32' 4"; whence the equator 
 of the earth is inclined to the ecliptic in an angle of 
 23° 27' 56". This inclination, which is called the obliquity 
 of the ecliptic, gives rise to the phenomena of the seasons. 
 I i fact, as the two planes intersect always at the centre of 
 the earth, it is evident that if, while the earth is carried 
 round its orbit, its axis of rotation remains always parallel 
 to itself, the sun must rise above the equator during one 
 half ot the revolution, and fall below it during the other. 
 Now this is what takes place: — the earth's axis of rotation 
 rves its parallelism, or points always towards the 
 same star; and the sun in consequence at one period of 
 ttie year is 23° 27' 56" to the north of the equator, and at 
 ippoaite season of the year is precisely the same dis- 
 tance to the south of it. The straight line formed by the 
 Intersection of the planes of the equator and ecliptic does 
 not preserve the same position on the ecliptic; it has a 
 slow motion westward, or contrary to the order of the 
 ■tans, and retreats at the rate of 501" annually ; so that 
 wle i, i lie sun appears to return to the equator the sidereal 
 revolution has not been quite completed : there remains 
 an arc of 50'1". The time in which the sun, or, to speak 
 correctly, the earth, describes this arc is 20 minutes, 19 9 
 seconds; consequently the periodical return of the seasons 
 is shorter by 20m. 199 sec. than the true sidereal revolu- 
 tion of the earth round the sun. But the revolution of the 
 seasons forms what is called the equinoctird or tropical 
 year; whirl), therefore, is equal to 365-2-122414 mean solar 
 davs. or 365 d. 5 h. 48 m. 497 sec. 
 
 The figure of the earth is that of an oblate spheroid of 
 revolution, the axis of the poles being to the diameter of 
 the equator in the ratio of 301 to 302. The equatorial di- 
 ameter is nearly 7925 English miles, and the polar diameter 
 about 7898 miles. (See Degree.) The mean radius of 
 the earth is 3950 miles. Hence, supposing the earth to be 
 a sphere, its whole surface would contain about 197,663,000 
 square miles. 
 
 The knowledge of the true figure and dimensions of the 
 earth lias been obtained by a combination of the results of 
 mathematical theory with the actual measurement of de- 
 grees, and observations of Ihe length of the seconds' pen- 
 dulum at different places on its surface. As a great portion 
 of the surface of the earth is covered by the sea, the ge- 
 neral figure must be such as will satisfy the conditions of 
 hyiirostatic equilibrium. If the earth were fluid, and had 
 no motion of rotation, its figure would be that of a sphere ; 
 but the rotation gives rise to a force which tends to cause 
 every particle to recede from the axis, and which is pro- 
 
 gortlonal to the distance of the particle from the axis. 
 [once the attraction of the whole mass on any particle is 
 to B certain extent counteracted by the centrifugal force of 
 rotation, and the attraction is most diminished at the equa- 
 torial \ arts, where Ihe distance from Ihe axis is the great- 
 est. Hence, in order that equilibrium may be restored, an 
 accumulation of matter must take place round the equator, 
 376 
 
 so that the mass will bulge out in that region, and become 
 flattened at the poles. These theoretical considerations 
 only render the spheroidal form of the earth probable ; but 
 they are fully confirmed by experiments of different kinds. 
 If the earth is an oblate spheroid of revolution, the force 
 of gravity at its surface must increase on going from the 
 equator towards the poles; and the increase must be ex- 
 actly proportional to that of the square of the sine of Ihe 
 latitude Now it has been found by swinging an invariable 
 pendulum at a great number of places, that the increa 
 gravity from the equator to the poles docs follow this law. 
 Anomalous results, indeed, appear; but they are only 
 such as might be expected a priori from local Irregulari- 
 ties of the surface, which, however, bear a much smaller 
 proportion to the whole mass of the earth than the protu- 
 berances on the skin of an orange to its diameter. Ano- 
 ther method of determining the exact form of the earth Is 
 by measuring the length of degrees of Ihe meridian. Sup- 
 posing the meridian to be an ellipse, the degrees of latitude 
 must become longer and longer as we recede from the 
 equator, and the augmentation must be proportioned lo the 
 square of the sine of Ihe latitude. This has likewise been 
 found, by numerous measurements undertaken for the 
 purpose, to hold true ; so that theory and experiment fully 
 concur in proving the general form of the earth to be that 
 of an oblale spheroid of revolution. 
 
 On account of the large proportion of the earth's surface 
 which is covered with water, and the comparatively small 
 height to which the dry land rises above the level, if is evi- 
 dent that the figure of the earth cannot deviate much from 
 that which is required for the hydrostatic equilibrium. It 
 is computed that the proportion of water to land over the 
 whole surface is as 2 to I ; that is to say, two thirds of the 
 whole surface is covered with water, the surface of which 
 must be in equilibrium. The altitude of the highest moun- 
 tains on the earth above the level of the sea is supposed to 
 be about 26,000 feet, or nearly five miles. Hut ihe mean 
 radius of Ihe earth, as we have already stated, la nearly 4000 
 miles; consequently the greatest superficial inequalities do 
 not exceed thi 800th part of the radius. In general they 
 amount to but a smalt part of this quantity. 
 
 The Tnass of the earth compared with that of the sun is 
 nearly as 1 to 355,000. Its mean density, which has been 
 ascertained by observing the effect of mountains in deflect- 
 ing the plumb-line from the perpendicular (Attraction 
 op Mountains), and by experiments on the attraction of 
 leaden balls, is to that of water as 5J to 1. The centrifugal 
 force at the equator is to that of gravity as -00346 to 1 ; and 
 the force of gravity there is such thai bodies fall through 
 16 -L feet in the first second of time. If the rotation of the 
 earth were 17 limes more rapid, the centrifugal force at the 
 equator would be just equal to the attractive force, and bo- 
 dies would have no weight. 
 
 From a knowledge of the form of Ihe earth, and of its 
 mean density, we are enabled lo form some conjecture re 
 specting its interior constitution. Newton demonstrated 
 that if Ihe earth were a homogeneous mass, or of equal 
 density throughout, the ralio of its polar to its equatorial 
 diameter would be that, of 230 to 231 ; that is, the Bllipticlty 
 would be = T^A-p But the ellipticity found from the actual 
 measurement of degrees is, as we have seen, considerably 
 less than this fraction ; consequently the earth is not homo- 
 geneous. Huygens, on the other hand, adopting the hypo- 
 thesis that the'tiensity increases regularly from the surface 
 to the centre, at which point it is infinite, found the ralio 
 of the diameters to be that of 578 to 579. The true com- 
 pression considerably exceeds that given by this ralio ; and 
 therefore, since it lies between the results of the two hypo- 
 theses, we infer that the density increases towards the 
 centre, but that the density at the centre is not infinitely 
 great. 
 
 Considering that Ihe mean density of the whole earth ij 
 only about five and a half times that of water, and lhat Ihe 
 materials of which Ihe crust of the earth is composed are 
 all compressible in a greater or less degree, go thai even at 
 no very great depth the density of the different substance! 
 must be greatly increased by the mere pressure of the su- 
 perincumbent materials, some philosophers have sup] 
 that the effects of pressure must be counterbalanced by the 
 expansive force of a great heat subsisling in the Interior of 
 the earth ; and others that the earth is not solid, but merely 
 a hollow shell of inconsiderable thickness. Il has been 
 calculated that at the depth of 35 miles, air. subjected to the 
 pressure of a column of matter of the mean density of that 
 at the surface of the earth, would acquire the density of 
 water; that at the depth of 173 miles, water itself, which is 
 eminently incompressible, would acquire Ihe density of 
 marble; and at the centre, marble would have B denVt* 
 119 times greater than at the surface. Hut the compara- 
 tively small mean density of the miss proves that none of 
 these c(\'<-'i>i take place. The hypothesis which supposes 
 the earth to be hollow in Iho Interior, is contrary to i 
 analogy ; and as It can be demonstrated from astronomical 
 
EARTH. 
 
 • rations that the density must increase in descend- 
 
 r-urface to a depth equal at least to one fourth 
 nfinitely probable that this density con- 
 ■ ilie centre; but that a very high 
 in the interior of the earth, in I 
 Icta the materials resist (he effects of il M 
 • in ttie pressure to which 
 I arguments which have been brought forward 
 high temperature of the Interior parts of the 
 •■ central heat, are drawn from the following 
 •i stances: — 
 1 Tin :mm of the earth, nearly spherical, and flattened 
 ■lion, togelh' r .rular disposi- 
 
 materials about the 
 
 have original •■ ilmd, if not 
 
 ate ; so that Hi'- ci - must 
 
 ty to obey the forces bus iik m m their 
 attraction and from the rotation of the 
 and hi ranee themselves in the position of equilibrium 
 
 her agent than heat to which we can attribute 
 
 ' such substances as compose the greater part 
 
 M of the earth. 2 The phenomena of 
 
 I springs, and earthquakes, receive a very aim- 
 
 of the 
 
 ;moo, anil that the consoli- 
 
 or crust still proceeds, though at an ex- 
 
 now appears to be 
 
 • increase of temperature 
 take . ' mines 
 
 . after passing (he depth at which the Influ- 
 
 isea to be fell, furnishes a direct 
 
 of the earth. 
 
 \ i*is as to the rate at whir h this increase 
 
 lake> ' mean results of a number of expert- 
 
 mines of Cornwall, and different 
 
 many, give an increase of 1° of 
 
 • verv 15 yards of vertical 
 ' passing the stratum of constant temperature. 
 
 rease, nnil supposing it to be eon- 
 
 • of heat at the centre will 
 
 wood's pyrometer. The 
 
 of 100° of Wedgewood, which is sufficient to 
 
 a lavas ati'l rocks, 
 
 M Conller, 
 Vrmot'r* of Ihe Jioynl Academy of Sciences of 
 
 * 1 V7> ha. collected a ,-oat number of 
 
 • >n that the ; 
 roncluston ihat the mean thickness of 
 • arlh does not exceed 60 i 
 
 farth, 
 
 eof its figure 
 
 iiion of gravity from the poles to 
 
 potties)* has been proposed, and 
 
 nslsls in supposing a pri- 
 
 of all the materials of the earth in a 
 
 . water But if we consider that the fluidity 
 
 [tiids. Is an effect of heat ; that it 
 
 t merely a partial fusion of the 
 
 of the whole mass of the earth ; and 
 
 ' all the water on the globe does not 
 
 i a fiOthoiisandih part of that of the 
 
 materials, the insufficiency of this hypothesis will be 
 
 appar. 
 
 ■ r manner the earth may have taken its ex- 
 isting foim. there arc abundant proofs that its surface has 
 great revolutions. The masses 
 of sand and gravel, and beds of limestone composed of 
 shells and corals. Which sre found in the interior of contl- 
 iii. I even to the summits of the highest mountains, 
 plainly show that Die present land was once immersed 
 'he waters of the ocean. The remains of ani 
 nd plants belonging to tropical countries, found in 
 ', indicate an entirely different disposi- 
 i climates from that which now exists. The appear- 
 mineral strata, twisted, ami dislocated, and 
 n minder, also aifbro nndentsbta evide nt * that the 
 h have taken place on the surface of the earth 
 tx en brought about by the silent action of the 
 • ■ in daily operation, but by the ol 
 som violent force which has shaken the globe to 
 i »■ rertre. Whether these convulsions have been 
 an internal or external force ; by the action 
 • :iving up the solid crust ot the earth, 
 and rai<mg mountains from the depths of the ocean ; or 
 ■ comet, changing the axis of the earth's 
 ng the pre-existing equilibrium, 
 waters towards the new crt'iaior, — can 
 v thing more than matter of speculation and 
 All that science makes known on the subject 
 lime of the first recorded astronomical 
 . that Is to say, during the last two thousand 
 1 the earth have been at precisely the 
 urface as at Hie present day. See Gr- 
 
 * VKT. 
 
 377 
 
 EARTHQ.UAKE. 
 
 Earth. In Agriculture, earths arc distinguished Irom 
 soils by their being without organized matter in their com- 
 position. Though scarcely any such earths are found, on 
 or near the ground's surface, yet the distinction is of use 
 in speaking of soils. Thus we say a soil, the basis ol 
 which is earth, of sandstone, or of chalk. ,v .-. 
 
 Earth. In Chemistry, this term is applied to certain in- 
 soluble metallic oxides of abundant occurrence in rock* 
 and soils, such as silica and alumina, l.ime, magnesia, 
 baryta, and stroulia have been called alkaline earths, their 
 tenon on vegetable colours being similar to Ihat of tin 
 alkalis. 
 
 EARTHENWARE. See Pottery. 
 
 EARTH M TO, are various subterranean substances 
 
 produced by plants. In England the name is given to the 
 
 nut of ConoplaUum Jtrruomim, an umhellilrrous plum I in 
 
 lo the round tuber of Cyprus roluriflim. and other 
 
 is ; in China lo the subterranean 
 
 : Arachis hypogaa, a It guminous plant ; and in other 
 
 ■ i cs to similar pods pn a I 'oandzeia, 
 AnrpiJearpaa, dec. : or to the small tubers ol Cyperaceous 
 plants. 
 
 EARTHQUAKE. One of the most formidable pheno- 
 lie. As the name implies, n consists of a vio- 
 lent agitation of the earth, accompanied by various other 
 mens more or less singular ami destructive in their 
 effect n in character, as the fol- 
 
 lowing enumeration of concomitant circumstances, gleaned 
 from the accounts of various earthquakes that have oc- 
 cnirt'tl in ancleol ami m s, will sufficiently 
 
 evince. Earthquake* are usually preceded by a g> I 
 stillness in the air, am) an unnatural agitation of the waters 
 lakes. The shoe k comes on with a dl • p 
 rumbling noise, like that of a carriage over a tough pave- 
 < a tremendous ttpkkMon a ilitt- 
 
 ■ mes heaves the ground perpenolciilat 
 
 and sometimes rolls It from Ml la I I single 
 
 shocks of an earthquake seldom hut longer than a minute, 
 but they frequently folio* it intervals 
 
 for a considerable hocks 
 
 whole cities at on< 
 
 also, whole Islands are frequently sunk ami nevt 
 raise.! .f rivers is changed ; sens . v- i ;: 
 
 land, forming gulfs, bays, and straits; sometimes disrupt- 
 ing the land into islands, and som. hm. ... ...mug Ih'in M 
 
 • nent. 
 There is no portion of the earth's surface, whether il he 
 land or water, that is not Bort Of less subject 10 earth- 
 quakes ; and records of their destructive effects haw- bssjfl 
 
 particu 
 
 were almost do 
 Syria 
 
 ibrooah every age. i 
 
 is that which. III A It. 63. 
 
 SB son an. I Pompeii li. the fourth and 
 ■ roost t iv ill/- ■ world 
 
 •to. I hy these awful visitations. Thrace, 
 Imor. according lo contemporary histo- 
 rians, snffert rely. <>n it ■ unary, 
 a. d. 447, subterranean thunders were heard from the 
 Black to Ihe Red Sea, and the earth was convulsed without 
 intermission, for the space of six months ; anil in I'hrvgia, 
 many cities and large tracts of ground were swallowed up. 
 On the 30th of May, a. d ol Antioch was ovi-r- 
 whelmed by a dreadful earthquake, and 260,000 of its in- 
 habitants are said to have I in its ruins. 
 
 In the year 1316, Asia Minor and Egypt w. re violently 
 shaken ; and In the following year severe earthquakes 
 were experienced in Cyprus, i Italy. 
 
 In 1692, the island of Jamaica was visited by a terrible 
 earthquake, in which enormous masses of earth were de- 
 tached from the Blue Mountains ; and vast quantities, of 
 timber, hurled from their Hanks. .Ijacent sen, 
 
 like floating islands. It was during this earthquake that the 
 city of Port Royal, with a large tract ol adjacent land, stink 
 Instantaneously Into Ihe sea. In Ihe following year 
 earthquakes occurred in Sicily, which destroyed Catania 
 and 140 other towns and villages, with 100,000 of their in- 
 habitants. 
 
 Since Ihe records of history, there have been no earth 
 quakes equal in intensity to those which ravaged different 
 parts of the world In Ihe eighteenth century. Passim: 
 the convulsion which in 1746 nearly laid waste Lower Peru, 
 and those by which in 1750 the ancient town of Conccpcion 
 in Chili was totally destroyed, we come to 1755, when the 
 city of Lisbon was almost wholly destroyed by one of the 
 most destructive earthquakes which ever occurred in 
 Europe. It continued only six minutes ; but such was the 
 violence of the convulsion, that in that short space upwards 
 of 60,000 persona are said lo have perished. The pheno- 
 mena that accompanied it were no less striking The sea 
 first retired and laid the bar dry ; it then rolled in, rising 
 
EARTHQ.UAKE. 
 
 fifty l'cot or more above its ordinary level. The largest 
 mountains In Portugal were impetuously shaken from their 
 very foundations : and some of them opened at their sum- 
 mits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, 
 huge masses jI them being thrown down into the subjacent 
 valleys. But .the most remarkable circumstance which 
 occurred in Lisbon during this catastrophe was the entire 
 subsidence of the new quay, called Cays de Prada, to 
 which an inmense concourse of people had fled for safety 
 from the falling ruins. From this hideous abyss, into 
 Which the quay sunk, not one of the dead bodies ever float- 
 ed to the surface ; and on the spot there is now water to the 
 depth of 100 fathoms. This earthquake excited great at- 
 tention from the incredibly great extent at which contem- 
 porary shocks were experienced. The violence of the 
 shocks, which were accompanied by a terrific subterra- 
 nean noise, like the loudest thunder, was chiefly felt in 
 Portugal, Spain, and northern Africa ; but the effects of the 
 earthquake were perceived in almost all the countries of 
 continental Europe, and were even experienced in the 
 West Indies, and on Ihe Lake Ontario in North America. 
 Ships at sea were affected by the shocks as if they had 
 struck on rocks: and even at some of the Scottish lakes, 
 Loch Lomond in particular, the water, without the least 
 apparent cause, rose to the perpendicular height of two 
 feet four inches against its banks, and then subsided be- 
 low its usual level. During the next twenty years, various 
 earthquakes occurred in different parts of the world, at- 
 tended with more or less destructive consequences. In 
 1759, Syria was agitated by violent earthquakes, the shocks 
 of which were protracted for three months, throughout a 
 space of 10,000 square leagues, and levelled to the ground 
 Accon, Saphat, Balbeck, Damascus, Sidon, Tripoli, and 
 many other places In each of these places many thou- 
 sands of the inhabitants perished ; and in the valley of ilal- 
 beck alone, 20.000 men are said to have been victims to the 
 convulsion. In 1766, the island of Trinidad and great part 
 of Columbia were vi6lently agitated by earthquakes. In 
 1772, the lofty volcano of Papandayang, the highest moun- 
 tain in Java, disappeared, and a circumjacent area, fifteen 
 tailes by sir, wm swallowed up. In 1783, the north-eastern 
 part of rficilv un I ihe sour em portion of OalDbria were 
 convulsed by violent and oft-repeated shocks, which over- 
 threw the town of Messina, and killed many thousands of 
 its inhabitants, as well as many persons in Calabria. In the 
 same year the islands of Japan, Java in 1786, Sicily and the 
 Caraccas in 1790, Quebec in 1791, and the Antilles and 
 Peru in 1797, were violently agitated by convulsions of this 
 kind. 
 
 Since the commencement of the present century, vari- 
 ous earthquakes have occurred both in the Old and New 
 World. In 1811, violent earthquakes shook the valley of 
 the Mississippi, by which lakes of considerable extent dis- 
 appeared, and new ones were formed. In 1812, Caraccas 
 was destroyed, and upwards of 12,000 of its inhabitants 
 Duried in the ruins. In 1815 the town of Tombora, in the 
 island of Sumbawa, was completely destroyed by an earth- 
 quake, which extended throughout an area 100 miles in 
 diameter, and destroyed 12,000 persons. In 1S19, a violent 
 earthquake occurred at Culch, in the Delta of the Indus, 
 by which, among other disastrous consequences, the prin- 
 cipal town, Bhooit. was converted into a heap of ruins. In 
 1822. Aleppo was destroyed by an earthquake. In the same 
 year Chili was visited by a most destructive earthquake, 
 from which the coast for 100 miles is stated to have sus- 
 tained an elevation of from two to four feet, while about a 
 mile inward from Valparaiso it was raised from six to seven 
 feet. In 1827, Popayan and Bogota suffered severely from 
 earthquakes, daring which vast fissures opened in the ele- 
 vated plains around the latter city. In 1835, the town of 
 Concepcion. in Chili, was entirely demolished by an earth- 
 quake. In 1837, the countries along the eastern extremity 
 of the Mediterranean, especially Syria, were violently agi- 
 tated by an earthquake, which caused great damage to the 
 towns of Damascus, Acre, Tyre, and Sidon, and entirely 
 destroyed Tiberias and Safet. Such are some of the most 
 violent earthquakes that have occurred within the period 
 of authentic history. The reader will find in Poggendorfs 
 Annalen lists of the different earthquakes that have taken 
 place within the last twenty years; and from these it will 
 be observed that scarcely a month elapses without being 
 signalized by one or many convulsions in some part of the 
 globe Shocks of earthquakes have at different times 
 been felt in various parts of Britain, and more particularly 
 in Scotland ; but they have all fortunately been so insig- 
 nificant, compared to those which have been experienced 
 in other countries, that we shall refrain from entering into 
 any details respecting them. 
 
 But though history supplies us with so large a catalogue 
 of well-authenticated earthquakes, it is surprising that so 
 little was done by the ancients either in investigating their 
 causes or noticing their effects. It is only within the last 
 century and a half, says Mr. Lyell, since Hooke first pro- 
 mulgated his vi>ws respecting the connection between 
 378 
 
 EASTER. 
 
 geological phenomena and earthquakes, that the perma- 
 nent changes effected by these convulsions have excited 
 attention. Before that time the narrative of the hisiorian 
 was almost exclusively confined to the number of human 
 beings who perished, the number of cities laid in ruins, the 
 value of property destroyed, or certain atmospheric ap- 
 pearances which dazzled or terrified the observers. The 
 creation of a new lake, the engulphing of a city, or the 
 raising of a new island, are sometimes, it is true, adverted 
 to, as being too obvious or of too much geographical in- 
 terest to be passed over in silence. But no researches were 
 made expressly with the view of ascertaining the amount 
 of depression or elevation of the ground, or any particular 
 alterations in the relative position of sea and land ; an i 
 very little distinction was made between the raising of soil 
 by volcanic ejections, and the upheaving of it by forces 
 acting below. The same remark applies to a very large 
 proportion of modern accounts; and how much reason wo 
 have to regret this deficiency of information appears from 
 this, that in every instance where a spirit of scientific in- 
 quiry has animated the eye-witnesses of these events, facts 
 calculated to throw light on former modifications of the 
 earth's structure are recorded. Upon these questions, 
 however, it is notour present intention to enter, as they will 
 be more appropriately treated of under the heads Ge- 
 ology and Volcano ; to which articles we must refer the 
 reader for an account of the various theories that have been 
 maintained in regard to the origin or cause of earthquakes, 
 as well as fora view of the grand permanent changes which 
 these convulsions have produced on the surface and in 
 the internal structure of the earth's crust. See UukeveWs 
 Introduction to Geology ; Lyell's Geology ; Traill's Physical 
 Geography ; and Phillips's Geology. 
 EA'IlWlG. See Dermaptera Forficitla. 
 EA'SEL. (Germ, esel, an ass.) In Painting, a wooden 
 frame used for supporting a picture during the progress of 
 its execution. 
 
 EA'SEL PIECES. In Painting, pictures whose size is 
 small enough to be painted on an easel. 
 
 EA'SEMENT. In Law, a convenience which one man 
 has of another, his neighbour, by grant or prescription. 
 Easements were included in the Roman taw under the tit e 
 servitutes; such are a way over the lands of another, or a 
 water-course. 
 
 EAST. (Germ. Ost.) The point of the horizon at which 
 the sun rises at the time of the equinoxes; or the point de- 
 termined by a perpendicular to the meridian dravfh towards 
 the quarter of sunrise. The east is one of the four cardinal 
 points of the compass. 
 
 EA'STER. (Ger. Ostern.) The festival which is held 
 in commemoration of our Lord's resurrection. The term 
 seems to be derived from a Saxon word signifying rising. 
 The Jews celebrated their passover, hi conformity with 
 the directions given them by Moses, on the 14th 'lay of the 
 month Nisan, being the lunar month of which the 14th day 
 either falls on, or next follows, the day of the vernal equi- 
 nox. In the year of our Lord's crucifixion this fell on a 
 Friday : the resurrection, therefore, took place on the first 
 day of the next week, which from thence Is denominated 
 the Lord's day. The primitive Christians in their desire 
 to celebrate this anniversary fell into two different systems. 
 The Western churches observed the nearest Sunday to the 
 full moon of Nisan, taking no account of the day on which 
 the passover would be celebrated. The Asiatics, on the 
 other hand, following the Jewish calendar, adopted the 14th 
 of Nisan upon which to commemorate the crucifixion, and 
 observed the festival of Easter on the third day following, 
 upon whatever day of the week that might fall ; hence 
 they obtained the name of Quartodecimantes : the former 
 appealed to the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, the lat- 
 ter to that of St. John. 
 
 The dispute which took place upon this point in the 2d 
 and 3d centuries of our era is remarkable, as connected 
 with perhaps the first, event which can be brought to bear 
 upon the question of the primacy of the Roman bishop ; 
 and it is the more interesting as both parlies are accustomed 
 to claim it as a testimony in favour of their own views. 
 Victor, bishop of Rome, wrote an imperious letter to the 
 Asiatic bishops, requiring their conformity to the Western 
 rule ; which was answered by Polycrates, bishop of Epho- 
 sus, in the name of the rest, expressing their resolution to 
 maintain the custom handed down to them by their ances- 
 tors. The Roman bishop thereupon broke off communion 
 with them ; but he was rebuked by Irenteus of Lyons, and 
 it was agreed by his meditation that each party should re- 
 tain its customs. Such continued to be the practice till the 
 time of Constantine, when the Council of Nice determined 
 the matter by the followina canons : — 
 
 1. Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday. 
 
 2. This Sunday must follow the 14th day of the paschal 
 moon ; so that if the 14th day of the paschal moon falls on 
 a Sunday, then Easter must be celebrated on Ihe Sunday 
 following. , ' 
 
 3. The paschal moon is that moon of which the 14th 
 
 
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 any either falls on, or next follows, the day of the venial 
 equinox 
 
 4. The 2lst day of March is to be accounted the day of 
 the vernal equinox. 
 
 w unions, it is necessary to observe, are those of 
 il calendar, which are determined arbitra- 
 i'r cycle in the Julian calendar, and by 
 means of the table of epacts in the Gregorian) ; so that the 
 line Easter without ambiguity. The new 
 tr are in general one or two days, 
 lomelimea even three days, laitr that the astronomical or 
 i moons; and the 14th day of the moon is accounted 
 the foil moon, although the opposition takes place more fre- 
 .SVe Calendar, Epact. 
 BAST INDIA COMPANY. A famous joint stock asso- 
 .• established to carry on the trade between 
 I Ibe East Indies, or rather with the coun- 
 twan) of the Cape of Good Hope. It was 
 -.1 by royal charter in 1600, and continued, not- 
 hing repealed efforts to open the trade, to enjoy the 
 privileges originally conceded till 10>-v At that 
 period the power of the crown to restrain the freedom of 
 trade without the sanction of parliament having, been de- 
 val association obtained an act of parliament in 
 its favour; but after a variety of negotiations, which it is 
 specify, the two corporations were joined 
 tinder the name of "The l uued Company of Mer- 
 aa appellation which 
 nued to the present day, In 1708 the United 
 Company was secured by parliament in the exclusive pri- 
 tward of the Cape of 
 Good II (agellaoj and this privilege, 
 
 with some modification*, was confirmed and prolonged by 
 of parliament down to 1814. By the act 53 
 I In 1813, the Bast India Company's 
 ii wed for twenty years; but it then received 
 modifications, by which a restricted Inter- 
 nal] British merchants with the whole 
 -; the monopoly of the 
 trade between England and China being, however, retained 
 
 ncessions 
 
 lor the act of 1S33, by which, though the 
 
 Company's charter was prolonged till 1354, not only was 
 
 the monopoly of the China trade abolished, but an end 
 
 t to thi Company's original character of a com- 
 
 mercnri 
 
 But it la not a- a commercial association so much as a 
 great territorial power, that the East India Company has 
 hed. The first establishments of the 
 E in India, as of other European nations, arose out 
 
 of the all litj of providing armed factories or 
 
 strongholds, where the adventurers might warehouse their 
 de in safety for the purpose of carrying on 
 (heir intercourse with the natives ; but the factories speedily 
 lied into fortifications, and the garrisons into 
 Tor a while the power of the English and French 
 was pretty nearly balanced In India; hut the talents and 
 of tli" famous Lord Clivegave us a decided supe- 
 riority over every competitor, foreign or native, and ex 
 mr sway over some of the largest and finest por- 
 tions of the Mogul empire. The po'icy of Clive, whether 
 il were really approved by the succeeding governors-gene- 
 ral of our Indian dominions, or were forced upon them by 
 lew short intervals excepted, been 
 steadily followed up; and with such signal success, that 
 our Indian empire comprises at present the whole of 
 ii from the Himalaya Mountains to Cape Comorin, 
 with a population of above 120 millions ! 
 
 The most exaggerated accounts have been at all times 
 current In Europe of the extraordinary wealth of India, and 
 of the importance of the commerce with that part of the 
 world. Alter the victories of Lord Clive, the most sanguine 
 expectations began to be entertained, not only of a vast in- 
 crease of trade with India, but that we should draw from 
 her an immense amount of surplus revenue, or tribute. 
 Perhaps it is not going too far to say that these expectations 
 have been entirely disappointed. Great abuses existed in 
 the government of the Bengal provinces when conquered 
 by Cl;ve ; the servants of the East India Company making 
 ones by (lie oppression of the natives and the ruin 
 of the country.' But, notwithstanding the eradication of 
 (he abuses in question, the immense additions that have 
 n made to our empire, and the oppressive taxes 
 laid on the natives, it is not very clear that England has 
 hitherto derived any direct revenue from India. The dis- 
 tance of the country, and the totally dissimilar language 
 iind customs of the people, are very greaTobstacles to our 
 governing it with the economy necessary lo make it yield 
 liderable amount of surplus revenue. The East 
 impany always contended that the profits made by 
 their monopoly of the China trade were necessary to enable 
 onducl the iiovernmentof India. But, though there 
 are strong gronndi on which to impeach the accuracy of 
 diis statement, still it is abundantly clear that the surplus re- 
 379 
 
 venue we have derived from India, supposing there has been 
 any such, has been comparatively inconsiderable ; and quite 
 trifling, indeed, compared with our own anticipations, and 
 Willi the notions entertained by others of its magnitude. 
 
 Until 1815 and 181(5, when the continued fall in the price 
 of cotton goods, caused by the astonishing discoveries and 
 inventions of Arkwright, and the other founders and im- 
 provers of the cotton manufacture, enabled us to export 
 cottons lo India and lo undersell the natives, the trade be- 
 tween this country and India was of the most limited de- 
 scription. Previously to the opening of the trade in 1613-14 
 (he total amount of the exports of all sorts, including the 
 important item of military stores, by the East India Com- 
 pany and by private traders in the Company's ships, did 
 not amount to 1,400,0004. a year; and even on this a con 
 biderable loss is believed to' have been incurred ! But such 
 has been the increased demand for British cottons, that the 
 value of those exported to India amounts, at present, to 
 above 2,500,0007. a year, and the whole of our exports id ber 
 to near 4,000,0007. Even this, considering the vast extent 
 of India, is hut a trilling export ; it is, in fact, less than hall 
 the amount of our exports to the Doited S 
 
 The restricted amountof our commerce with India may, 
 
 f>erhaps, be in some degree ascribed to its having been so 
 ong monopolized by the East India Company. But this 
 will not explain the small surplus of Indian revenue; for, 
 however ill fitted to serve as a commercial engine, the 
 East India Company has governed India with singular dis- 
 cretion ; and has made the most praiseworthy efforts lo en- 
 force economy in all departments of the administration, 
 and to appoint the best men to all situations of power and 
 emolument in that country. The patronage of India has 
 always been less jobbed and abused than that of England ; 
 and there are few governments thai ha\e mi de m< >>■ vigo- 
 rous exertions to repress abuse, and lo protect the rights 
 of their subjects. 
 
 Under the act 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 85., to which we have al- 
 luded above, for continuing the charter till 1854, the func- 
 tions of the East India Company have been rendered wholly 
 political. She is to continue to govern India, with the con- 
 currence and under the supervision of the Board of Con- 
 trol (see Control, Board op) nearly on the plan laid down 
 in Mr. Pitt's act, in 1784, by v.-hxh the Board of Control 
 was constituted. All the real and personal properly belong- 
 ing to the company on the 22d of April, ls^4. is vested in 
 the crown, and is to be held or managed by ihe company 
 in trust for the tame ; subject, of course, lo all claims, debts, 
 contracts, Ac. already in existence, or that may hen 
 be brought into existence by competent authority. Tin* 
 company's debts and liabilities are all c harmed on India. Th» 
 dividend, which is to continue at 10J percent , is to be paid 
 in England out of the revenues of India; and provision is 
 made for the establishment of * security fund fox its dis- 
 charge. The dividend may be redeemed by parliament, 
 on payment of 200/. for 100/. slock, any time afler April, 
 1874 ; but it is provided, in the event of the company being 
 deprived of the government of India in 1854, that they may 
 claim redemption of the dividend any time thereafter upon 
 3 years' notice. (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. S5.) 
 
 Company's Stock — forms a capital of 6,000,0007., into 
 which all persons, natives or foreigners, males or females, 
 bodies politic or corporate (the Governor and Company of 
 the Hank of England only excepted), are at liberty to pur- 
 chase, without limitation of amount. Since 1793, the divi- 
 dends have been 10£ per cent., to which they are limited 
 by (he late act. 
 
 General Courts. — The proprietors in general court as- 
 sembled are empowered to enact by-laws, and in oilier re- 
 spects are competent to the complete investigation, regula- 
 tion, and control of every branch of Ihe company's con- 
 cerns ; but, for the more prompt despatch of business, the 
 executive detail is vested in a court of directors. A gene- 
 ral court is required to be held once in Ihe months of 
 March, June, September, and December, in each year. 
 No one can be present at a general court unless possessed 
 of 500/. stock; nor can any person vote upon Ihe determi- 
 nation of any question who has not been in possession of 
 10007. stock for the preceding 12 months, unless such 
 stock have been obtained by bequest or marriage. Per- 
 sons possessed of 1000/. stock are empowered to give a 
 single vote; 3000/. are a qualification for two votes; 
 6000/. for three votes ; and 10,000/. and upwards for four 
 votes. There were 2003 proprietors on the company's 
 books in 1825; of these, 1494 were qualified to give single 
 votes; 392, two votes; 69, three voles; and 48, four votes. 
 Upon any special occasion, 9 proprietors, duly qualified by 
 Ihe possession of 1000/. slock, may, by a requisition in 
 writing to the court of directors, call a general court; 
 which the directors are required to summon within 10 days, 
 or, in default, the proprietors may call such court by notice 
 affixed upon the Royal Exchange. In all such courts the 
 questions are decided by a majority of voices; in case of 
 an equality, the determination must be by the treasurer 
 drawing a'lot. Nine proprietors may, by a requisition In 
 
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 writing, demand a ballot upon any question, which shall not 
 be taken within 24 hours after the breaking up of the gene- 
 ral court. 
 
 Court of Directors. — The court of directors is composed 
 of 24 members, chosen from among the proprietors, each 
 of whom must be possessed of 2000/. stock; nor can any 
 director, after being chosen, act longer than while lie con- 
 tinues to hold stock. Of these, 6 are chosen on the second 
 Wednesday in April in each year, to serve for 4 years, in the 
 room of 6 who have completed such service. After an in- 
 terval of 12 months, those who had gone out by rotation are 
 eligible to be re-elected for the ensuing 4 years. Formerly, 
 no person who had been in the company's civil or military 
 service in India was eligible to be elected a director until 
 he had been a resident in England two years after quitting 
 the service; but this condition no longer exists; and all 
 civil or military servants of the company in India, suppos- 
 ing they are otherwise eligible, may be chosen directors 
 immediately on their return to England, provided they have 
 no unsettled accounts with the company ; if so, they are 
 ineligible for 2 years after their return, unless their accounts 
 be sooner settled. (3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 85. § 28.) The di- 
 rectors choose annually, from amongst themselves, a 
 chairman and a deputy-chairman. They are required by 
 bylaws to meet once in every week at least ; but they fre- 
 quently meet oftener, as occasion requires. Not less than 
 13 can form a court. Their determinations are guided by 
 a majority. In case of an equality, the question must be 
 decided by the drawing of a lot by the treasurer: upon all 
 questions of importance, the sense of the court is taken by 
 
 ballot. The company's officers, both at home and abroad 
 receive their appointments immediately from the court", to 
 whom they are responsible for the due and faithful dis- 
 charge of the trust reposed in them. The patronage is, 
 nevertheless, so arranged, as that each member of the 
 court separately participates therein. 
 
 Secret Committee.— The principal powers of the court of 
 directors are vested in a secret committee, forming a sort 
 of cabinet or privy council. All communications of a con- 
 fidential or delicate nature between the Board of Control 
 and the company are submitted, in the first instance at 
 least, to the consideration of this commitlee; and the direc- 
 tions of the board, as to political affairs, may be transmitted 
 direct to India, through the commitlee, Without being seen 
 by the other directors. The secret committee is appointed 
 by the court of directors, and its members are sworn to se- 
 crecy. 
 
 The territorial possessions of the East India Company 
 are divided into the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras, 
 and Bombay, at each of which the executive gouininrni is 
 administered by a governor and three councillors, the go- 
 vernor of the Bengal presidency being at the same lime 
 governor-general of India. In their several presidencies, 
 the governors and their councillors possess the privilege of 
 enacting and enforcing laws; subject, however, in some 
 cases, to the concurrence of the supreme court of judica- 
 ture, and, in all cases, to the approval of the court of di- 
 rectors and the board of control. 
 
 We copy the following tables of Revenue, &c. from Mr 
 M'Culloch's Statistics, vol. ii. p. 519. 
 
 An Account of the Total Annual Revenues and Charges of the British Possessions in India under the East India Com- 
 pany, from 1809-10 to 1829-30 ; showing also the Nett Charge of Bencoolen, Prince of Wales Island, and St. Helena, the 
 Interest paid on account of Debts in India, and the Amount of Territorial Charges paid in England.— (.Pari. Papers, No. 
 22. Sess. 1830, and No. 306. Sess. 1833.) 
 
 Years. 
 
 Total Gross 
 Revenues of 
 
 Total 
 
 Charges in 
 
 India. 
 
 
 
 Territoiial charges paid in England. 
 
 General Result. 
 
 Charg* of ! Interest on 
 Bencoolen, Debts. 
 &c 
 
 Cost of 
 
 Payments, 
 
 Total. 
 
 Borpini 
 
 Surplus 
 
 
 
 
 Stores. 
 
 &c. 
 
 
 RhV£t,ue. 
 
 L. 
 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 L. 
 
 1809—10 . 
 
 16,464,391 
 
 13,775,577 
 
 203,361 
 
 2,159,019 
 
 190,128 
 
 867.097 | 1,057,225 
 
 
 
 1810—11 . 
 
 16,679,198 
 
 13,909,983 
 
 199,663 
 
 2,196,691 
 
 217.703 
 
 901,688 
 
 1,119,391 
 
 
 736,530 ; 
 
 1811—12. 
 
 16,605,616 
 
 13,220,967 
 
 168,288 
 
 1,457,077 
 
 154,998 
 
 922,770 
 
 1.077,768 
 
 651,516 
 
 1 
 
 1812—13 . 
 
 16,459,774 
 
 13,659,429 
 
 201,349 
 
 1,491,870 
 
 193,784 
 
 1,184.976 
 
 1,37^,768 
 
 - I 271.624 | 
 
 1813—14 . 
 
 17,228.711 
 
 13,617,725 
 
 209,957 
 
 1,537,434 
 
 64,257 
 
 1,148,156 
 
 1,212,413 
 
 651,108 
 
 
 1814—15 . 
 
 17,231,191 
 
 14,182,454 
 
 204,250 
 
 1,502,217 
 
 129,873 
 
 1,064,223 
 
 1,194,596 
 
 147,077 
 
 
 1815-16 . 
 
 17,168,195 
 
 15,081,587 
 
 225,558 
 
 1,584,157 
 
 81,903 
 
 1,199,952 
 
 1,281,885 
 
 
 1,004.992 1 
 
 1816—17 . 
 
 18,010,135 
 
 15,129,839 
 
 205,372 
 
 1,719,470 
 
 194,374 
 
 1,071,176 
 
 1,265,550 
 
 . 
 
 310,096 
 
 1817—18 . 
 
 18^05,266 
 
 15.844,964 
 
 219,793 
 
 1,753,018 
 
 81.941 
 
 1,094.701 
 
 1.176,642 
 
 
 689.152 
 
 1818—19 . 
 
 19,392,002 
 
 17,558,615 
 
 210,224 
 
 1,665,921 
 
 133,102 
 
 1,150,378 
 
 1,280,540 
 
 . 
 
 
 1819—20 . 
 
 19,172,506 
 
 17,040,848 
 
 142,049 
 
 1,940,327 
 
 265,055 
 
 1,150,391 
 
 1,415,446 
 
 
 1,466.16] 
 
 1820—21 . 
 
 21,292,036 
 
 17,520,6 1 2 
 
 220,043 
 
 1,902,585 
 
 228.058 
 
 1,072,106 
 
 1,300,164 
 
 348.0^,2 
 
 
 1821—22 . 
 
 21,753,271 
 
 17,555,668 
 
 207,816 
 
 ), 932,835 
 
 202,735 
 
 1,175,149 
 
 1,377,884 
 
 979,060 
 
 
 1822—23 . 
 
 23,120,934 
 
 18,083,482 
 
 154,761 
 
 1,694,731 
 
 204,147 
 
 1,354,960 
 
 £559,107 
 
 1,528 S53 
 
 
 1823—24 . 
 
 21.238,623 
 
 18,902,511 
 
 257,276 
 
 1,652.449 
 
 395,276 
 
 758,590 
 
 1,153.866 
 
 
 7-27.479 
 
 1824—25 . 
 
 20,705,152 
 
 20,410,929 
 
 279,277 
 
 1,460,433 
 
 414,181 
 
 1.166.078 
 
 1 ..'. -o.jr>9 
 
 - 
 
 3,025,746 
 
 1825—26 . 
 
 21,096,960 
 
 22,346.365 
 
 214,285 
 
 1,575,941 
 
 740,728 
 
 1,076,504 
 
 1,817,232 
 
 
 4,856.867 
 
 1826—27 . 
 
 23.327,753 
 
 21,424,894 
 
 207,973 
 
 1.749.068 
 
 1,111,792 
 
 1,318,102 
 
 2,429,894 
 
 - 
 
 2,484.076 
 
 1827—28 . 
 
 22,818,184 
 
 41,778,431 
 
 272,014 
 
 1,958,313 
 
 805.016 
 
 1,255,125 
 
 2,060,141 
 
 
 3,250,715 
 
 1828—29 . 
 
 22,692,711 
 
 19,298,622 
 
 250,794 2,121,165 
 
 449.603 
 
 1,517,802 
 
 1,967,405 
 
 . 
 
 
 1829—30 . 
 
 21,662,310 
 
 18,300,715 
 
 213,304 3,007,693 
 
 293,873 
 
 1,454,867 
 
 1,748,740 
 
 - 
 
 608.142 
 
 Abstract View of the Revenues and Charges of India for the Years 1831-32, 1832-33, 1833-34, and (by estimate,) 1834-35 
 I 
 
 Bengal - 
 Agra 
 
 Madras - 
 Bombay • 
 
 Total revenues 
 of India - 
 
 Deficiency of or- 
 dinary reve- 
 nue. 
 
 1S31-32 I 1832-33. 
 
 ~~L. L~ 
 
 9,474,084 9,487,778 
 
 3,222,155 2,969,956 
 
 1,401,916 1,497,30S 
 
 14,198,155 
 
 207,581 
 
 13,955,642 
 
 ia33-34. 
 
 L. 
 
 8,844,241 
 
 3,235,233 
 1,600,691 
 
 264,332 
 
 13,680,165 
 
 1834-35. 
 
 L. 
 
 5.445,100 
 3^57 .900 
 3,301,982 
 1,503,782 
 
 (3,908,764 
 
 14,405736 14,219,374«13,6S0,165 
 
 578,336 
 
 Bengal 
 Agra 
 Madras 
 Bombay 
 
 Total Charges in 
 India 
 
 Charge on account 
 of St. Helena - 
 
 Charge on account 
 of india in Eng- 
 land • 
 
 Total charges of 
 
 India 
 Surplus of ordinary 
 revenue - 
 
 1S31-32. 
 
 7,535,170 7,687,228 
 
 12,831,929 
 94,152 
 
 1,476,655 
 
 14,405,736 
 
 3,174.347 
 
 2,034,710 
 
 12,896,285 
 95,553 
 
 1,227,53C 
 
 14,219,374 
 
 14.487,100 
 
 114,405,736 14,219.374 
 
 1833-34. 
 
 L. 
 
 7,018,449 
 
 3,258,996 
 
 1,968,045 
 
 12,245,489 
 91,641 
 
 1,293,637 
 
 13,680,767 
 
 49,396 
 
 13,680.166 
 
 l?34-35 ! 
 
 12,313,246: 
 
 10,9m 
 
 2,162,S«;S: 
 
 N.B. The Comparn 
 In'X 1834, amounted 
 
 380 
 
 realized in 1834-35 the sum of I0,G79,223'. by the sale of commercial asset?. The debts of the Coin]); 
 to 34,463,483/., bearing an intereat of 1 ,754.545;. a year.—; Pari. Paper, No. 3:0. Sess. 1836. ) 
 
 iv iu Indu 
 
 
 14. 487.10 0, 
 
 c 3 Ul 
 
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 ubioin the following table, exhibiting the extent and population of India, which we copy from the second edition of 
 Mr H unlfton'a Indian Gazetteer. Some later accounts have been published as to the population of particular provinces; 
 believe that this is the most accurate statement that has hitherto been framed, embracing the whole country. 
 
 Bengal, Bahar. and Benares ...---•- 
 
 Additions in Hindustan since A. D. 1765 ...... 
 
 Gurwal, Kumoon, and the tract between the Sutuleje and Jumna 
 
 Total under the Bengal presidency ..... 
 Under the Madras presidency ....---- 
 Under the Bombay presidency - - ■ • • * ". 
 
 Territories in the Deccan, &c, acquired since 1815, consisting of the Peishwa's do- 
 minions, &c, and since mostly attached to the Bombay presidency 
 
 Total under the British government ..... 
 
 British Allies and Tributaries. 
 The Nizam -----•-•-•• 
 poor Raja ......-•- 
 
 Tli.- Kim: oiOmie 
 
 eowar ....••••■■•« 
 
 K..mIi. (.500; Boondee, 2,500; Bopaul, 5,000 
 
 • 
 ira Raja .......... 
 
 Travaneore, 6.000; Cochin, 2,000 
 
 Under the Rajas of Jondpour, Jeypoor, Odeypoor, Bicancere, Jesselmere, and other 
 B ilcar, Ameer Khan, the Row of Kutch, Bhurtpoor, Macherry, 
 , in. rous Other petty chiefs. Seikes, Gonds, Bheels, Coolies, and Catties, all 
 Comprehended within the line of British protection • 
 
 Total under the British government and its allies 
 
 Independent States. 
 The N'epaul Raja .....••-.. 
 
 The La; inject Singh) ....... 
 
 The Ameers ofSinde ....••-•• 
 
 The dominions of Sindia ........ 
 
 The Cabul sovereign, east of the Indus ..••••• 
 
 Grand total of Hindostan ...•••• 
 
 India beyond the Ganges.— British Acquisitions in 1824 and 1825. 
 Countries south of Rangoon, consisting of half the province of Martaban, and the 
 
 provinces of Tavoy, Ye, Tenasserin, and the Mergui isles 
 The province of Arracan .-.•-•■-- 
 Countries from which the Burmese have been expelled, consisting of Assam and 
 
 the adjacent petty states, occupying a space of about .... 
 
 Total 
 
 Britith Square 
 Mile*. 
 
 183,000 
 148,000 
 
 18,000 
 
 325,000 
 154,000 
 11,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 663,000 
 
 75.000 
 20,000 
 18,000 
 14,000 
 27,000 
 14.000 
 8,<XXK 
 
 883,000 
 
 1,103,000 
 
 53,000 
 50,000 
 24,000 
 10,000 
 10,000 
 
 i^bojjoo 
 
 12.000 
 11,000 
 
 54,000 
 
 Population. 
 
 39.000.000 
 
 18,000,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 57,500,000 
 15,000,OOC 
 2,500,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 83,000,000 
 
 10,000.000 
 3.000,000 
 3,000,000 
 2,000,000 
 1.500,000 
 3,000,000 
 1,500,000 
 1,000,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 183/100,000 
 
 2.000JXM 
 3,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 I 
 4,000.000 
 1,000,000 I 
 
 i:»,i,ooo,ot>o 
 
 51.000 
 100,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 77.010 
 
 301,000 
 
 | vsv. The sea phrase Tor a ship that moves over the 
 sea without jerking or straining. 
 
 EAU 1)1" COLOGNE. A perfumed spirit originally pre- 
 pared at Cologne, and principally used as a perfume ; 
 though many imaginary medical virtues have also been 
 ascribed to it. Various recipes have been published for 
 the preparation of ean de Cologne, some of them extremely 
 complicated. (See Ure'e Dictionary nf Arts and Manu- 
 factures, art. " Eau de Cologne.") The following affords 
 a good imitation of the original article: — Take of alcohol 
 one pint; of the oils of bergamot, orange- peel, and rose- 
 mary, each one drachm ; of bruised cardamom seeds one 
 drachm ; orange flower water one pint : distil one pint from 
 a water-bath. 
 
 EAU DE I.UCE. A strong solution of ammonia, scent- 
 ed and rendered milky by the addition of a little mastic and 
 oil of amber. It is considered an effective remedy in India 
 against the bites of poisonous snakes. 
 
 EAVES. (Fr. eaux.) In Architecture, the lowest edges 
 of the inclined sides of a roof which project beyond, the face 
 of the wall so as to throw the water off therefrom, that be- 
 ing their office. 
 
 EBBING OF THE TIDE. The reflux of the tide. See 
 Tide. 
 
 EBENA'CEjE. (Ebenus, one of the genera.) A natu- 
 ral order of shrubby or arborescent Exogens chiefly in- 
 habiting the tropics. They are allied to Oleaceai, with 
 which they agree in the placenlation of their seeds; but 
 are distinguished by their alternate leaves, and axillary 
 usually unisexual flowers. They are more closely related 
 to Aquifoliaceai ; but differ in the number of their stamens 
 and in their divided sexes. Some species are remarkable 
 for the hardness and blackness of their wood, known un- 
 der the name of ebony and iron wood ; others, as the Kaki 
 of China, yield an eatable fruit; all are beautiful objects 
 when growing. 
 
 E'BIONITES. An ancient sect (referred by Mosheim to 
 the second century), who believed in Christ as an Inspired 
 messenger of God, but considered him to be at the same 
 time a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary. They main- 
 tained also the universal obligation of the Mosaic law, and 
 381 
 
 rejected the authority of St. Paul. The origin of their 
 name is uncertain, some deriving it from that of their sup- 
 posed founder ; others deduce it from a Hebrew word sig- 
 nifying poor, and suppose the tide to be given to them in 
 reference either to the poverty of the class to which they 
 mostly belonged, or the meanness of their doctrine. (See 
 Gieseler's Eccl. Hist, b: i. c. 3.) 
 
 E'BONY. See Ebenaceje. 
 
 EBULLITION. (Lat. ebullitio, bubhlingup.) The mo- 
 tion produced in a liquid by its rapid conversion into 
 vapour. 
 
 ECCHYMO'SIS. (Gr. t/rveto, 1 pour out.) The extrava- 
 sation of blood into the cellular membrane which results 
 from blows and bruises. 
 
 ECCLE'SIA. (Gr. txitXriiTta.) In Ancient History, the 
 great assembly of the Athenian people, at which every free 
 citizen might attend and vote. This assembly, though nomi- 
 nally possessed of the supreme authority of the state from 
 the earliest times, yet having no fixed times of meeting, 
 was but seldom convened at all ; so that the archons, who 
 who were elected from the body of nobles or eupatridas, 
 had virtually the whole management of the state. But the 
 regulations of Solon, which appointed it to meet regularly 
 four times in every period or thirty-five days, besides ex- 
 traordinary occasions on which it might be convened, call- 
 ed it into active energv. Solon, however, restricted the 
 subjects discussed in the Ecclesia to such as had before 
 passed through the senate of five hundred ; but when the 
 democratic spirit of after-times prevailed, this rule was not 
 at all .strictly observed. The magistrates who had the man- 
 agement of these assemblies were the Prytanes (see Pry- 
 tanes), the Prohedri (see Prohedri), and Epistates (see 
 Epistates). The first of these sometimes convened the 
 people, and hung up in a conspicuous place a programme 
 giving an account of the matters to be discussed. The 
 Prohedri proposed to the people the subjects on which they 
 were to decide, and counted the votes. The Epistate, who 
 presided over the whole, gave the liberty of voting, which 
 might not be done before his signal was given. 
 
 The forms of their proceedings were as follow: — First 
 an expiatory victim was sacrificed, and his blood carried 
 
ECCLESIASTES. 
 
 and sprinkled routvl the bounds of the assembly. Then 
 the public crier demanded silence, and invited all persons 
 alv:ve fifty years of age to speak ; after that, any one who 
 p>eased. After the subject was discussed, they proceeded 
 to vote on the crier's demanding of them, " whether they 
 would consent to the decree proposed to them ?" The 
 voles were commonly given by show of hands, but on some 
 occasions by ballot. When the suffrages had been ex- 
 amined and their numbers declared, the Prytanes dis- 
 solved the assembly. In order to incite the people to at- 
 tend the Ecclesia, a small pay of one or three oboli was 
 given for early appearance ; and a rope, rubbed with ver- 
 nilion, was carried through the Agora, to mark such as 
 igzed behind, who were accordingly fined. 
 
 ECCLE'SIA'STES. One of the canonical books of the 
 Old Testament, so called from the Greek word signifying 
 a preacher. Solomon is generally supposed to be the au- 
 thor of this book, though various opinions have been enter- 
 tained on the subject; and indeed the whole queslion of its 
 author, date, and design is involved in such difficulty, 
 " that the labours of critics and commentators serve rather 
 to perplex than to assist the inquirer." (Holden onEccles.) 
 
 ECCLE'SIA'STIC. Something pertaining to or set apart 
 for the church ; in contradistinction to civil or secular, 
 which regards the world. Ecclesiastics are persons whose 
 functions consist in performing the service or in maintaining 
 the discipline of the church. See Clergy. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. The ordinary Ecclesi- 
 astical Courts in England and Wales are, beginning with 
 the lowest, — 
 
 1. The Peculiar Courts, which are very numerous; Royal, 
 Arcliiepiscopal, Episcopal, Decanal, Sub-decanal. Preben- 
 dal, Rectorial, and Vicaria] ; with jurisdiction frequently 
 extending only to a single parish, and sometimes limited 
 only to a part of the matters usually subject to ecclesias- 
 tical cognizance. 
 
 2. The Archdeacon's Court, generally subordinate, with 
 an appeal to that of the bishop. 
 
 3. The Courts of Commissaries, especially appointed by 
 the bishop. 
 
 4. The Diocesan Court of every bishop within his re- 
 spective diocese. 
 
 5. The Provincial or Arcliiepiscopal Courts. 
 
 These, in the province of Canterbury, which contains 
 twenty-two dioceses, are — 
 
 (1.) The Court of Peculiars, which takes cognizance of 
 matters arising in some particular deaneries. 
 
 (2.) The Prerogative Court. This court has authority in 
 the matter of all wills or administrations of property left 
 by persons having bona notahilia, that is, personal estate to 
 a certain amount, within several dioceses of the province. 
 It grants administration to the effects of all such persons 
 dying intestate, and probate of wills. 
 
 (3 ) The Court of Arches, or Supreme Provincial Court 
 of Appeal. It also may take original cognizance of causes, 
 by letters of request from the inferior courts ; and it has a 
 separate jurisdiction of its own in suits for legacies. 
 
 The province of York, including four dioceses besides 
 that of Sodor and Man, has two courts; the Prerogative 
 Court, and the Chancery or Court of Appeal. 
 
 A suit is commenced in the Ecclesiastical Courts by a 
 process, sued out by the party complaining, and served on 
 the other party by an officer of the court. The party cited 
 may appear either in person or by his proctor, who dis- 
 charges duties similar to those of the attorneys in common 
 law courts. A party disobeying citation may be pronounced 
 contumacious, and imprisoned by an attachment out of the 
 lord chancellor's court. 
 
 In case the party cited appear to show cause against his 
 citation that the court has no jurisdiction, or that he is not 
 amenable to it, this preliminary objection is heard upon 
 petition and affidavits. If the judge decide against the de- 
 fendant c-n the question of jurisdiction, the latter may ap- 
 ply to the courts of common law for a prohibition. 
 
 If the cause proceed to trial, the plaintiff's first state- 
 ment of facts is termed, in criminal cases, articles ; in tes- 
 tamentary causes, an allegation ; in other civil proceed- 
 ings, a libel. Every subsequent plea in all cases is called 
 tin allegation ; and every allegation is divided into separate 
 heads or articles; so that witnesses are produced and ex- 
 amined, not as to the whole allegation, but as to such spe- 
 cial facts as may be within their knowledge. Where a 
 plea has been admitted, a certain time, or term probatory, 
 is allowed to the party making it to examine his witnesses. 
 
 The witnesses are either brought to London, or exa- 
 mined in the country by a commission. The depositions 
 are taken in private, and in writing, by the examiners of 
 the court; who. on view of the allegations, examine the 
 witnesses by such questions as they judge most proper to 
 elicit the truth. The cross-examination is conducted by 
 means of interrogatories, delivered by the adverse party 
 to the examiner, and by him addressed to the witness. 
 The examinations are kept secret until publication passes ; 
 after which either party is allowed to except, by a plea 
 
 ECCLESIAST ICALCOURTS. 
 
 called an exceptive allegation, to the credit of an adverse 
 witness. 
 
 When the cause is heard, the judge first peruses and 
 carefully considers all the pleas and evidence, and then 
 hears the case argued by counsel. Judgment is given in 
 open court; and execution enforced by the compulsory 
 process of contumacy, significovit, and attachment. Such 
 is a very general view of the ordinary process of these 
 courts. 
 
 If either party be condemned in costs, the other party's 
 bill is taxed by the registrar. But the costs due by a party 
 to his own proctor cannot be recovered in this court, and 
 must be sued for by an action at law. 
 
 The law of the Ecclesiastical Courts is administered by 
 men associated, as a distinct profession, for the practice of 
 the civil and canon laws. They are incorporated as " the 
 college of doctors of law." Every advocate must have 
 taken that degree in the university of Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge. From the college of advocates thf. archbishop 
 selects the judges of the provincial courts. 
 
 The jurisdiction of these courts may be considered as 
 threefold: — 1. In causes of a purely spiritual nature per- 
 taining to the discipline of the church ; 2. In mixed causes, 
 partaking of a spiritual and civil nature ; 3. In causes of 
 a purely civil nature. 
 
 1. The first of these branches arises out of the natural 
 power exercised by every church to correct its communi- 
 cants by censures and discipline submitted to. Under rhis 
 class falls the cognizance of offences committed by the 
 clergy themselves by neglect of duty, immoral or here- 
 tical delinquencies, suffering dilapidations, &.c. ; also by 
 laymen, in brawling and other indecent conduct in churches 
 and churchyards, in neglecting to repair churches, in cases 
 of incest, incontinence, defamation. All these, except the 
 last, are termed " causes of correction." The punish- 
 ments inflicted are monition, penance, excommunication, 
 suspension ab ingressu ecclesias, and (in the case of cler- 
 gymen) suspension from office and deprivation. In tire 
 case of laymen a great part of this jurisdiction lias fallen 
 into disuse ; and the real penalty, whenever a cause is tried, 
 consists, for the most part, in the payment of costs by the 
 guilty party. The terrors so long attached to the process 
 of excommunication (the only one by which ecclesiastical 
 courts can enforce a sentence), are now matter of history. 
 By the common law a person excommunicated was inca- 
 pacitated from any legal act, and was, moreover, on certi- 
 ficate from the bishop, liable to imprisonment until recon- 
 ciled to the church ; but now, by statute 53 George 3. chap- 
 ter 127., the writ de contumace capiendo is substituted for 
 the old writ de excommunicato capiendo in cases of con- 
 tempt ; and in the few cases in which excommunication is 
 still pronounced as a sentence, the court is empowered to 
 assign a term of imprisonment, not exceeding six months. 
 2. Causes of a mixed description are suits for tithes, 
 church rates, seats in churches, and faculties ; which con- 
 cern the temporals or external possessions of the church. 
 The subtraction of tithes or other ecclesiastical dues may 
 be complained of in the Ecclesiastical Courts ; but if any 
 question of law arises on the defence, as where modus or 
 prescription is relied on against a claim of tithe, either 
 parly may apply for a prohibition from the King's Bench, 
 as the Ecclesiastical Court has not authority to decide the 
 point of law. Suits of this description are consequently 
 of rare occurrence. The Ecclesiastical Court exercises 
 jurisdiction to enforce the payment of church rates ; but 
 where the amount to be recovered does not exceed 10/., 
 and the validity of the rate is undisputed, two justices 
 may enforce payment by distress. 3. Exclusive property 
 in a seat in the body of the church can bo claimed only in 
 virtue of a faculty, that is, a grant from the ordinary (or 
 immediate ecclesiastical superintendent); or of a prescrip- 
 tion, that is, immemorial usage, presumed to be founded 
 on a faculty. But the courts of common law intrrfere, — 
 1. Where the pew is claimed as annexed to a house ; 2. In 
 all cases of prescription, in which a prohibition will be 
 granted to remove the cause from the ecclesiastical tribunal 
 in order to have the prescription tried by a jury. Causes 
 of a purely civil nature, although in their origin supposed 
 to possess something of a spiritual character, are rrsia- 
 meutary and matrimonial. And these constitute the hulk 
 of the business transacted in the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 The jurisdiction of these courts over wills is of very an- 
 cient date in England; while it either ceased at an early pe- 
 riod or was never held valid in other Christian countries. 
 The distribution of the personal effects of persons who 
 died intestate was entirely at the discretion of the ordi- 
 nary. This is one of the rights confirmed to the prelates 
 by Magna Charta. The absolute power of the ordinary 
 was first limited by Edward I., in whose reign he was com- 
 pelled to discharge the intestate's debts ; and in the reign 
 of Edward III. he was obliged to divide them, by means 
 of administrators, among the kindred of the deceased, in 
 proportions which were finally determined by the Statute 
 of Distributions. See Administration. 
 
 
ECCLESIASTICUS. 
 
 As a natural consequence of their power to distribute in- 
 ctfl. the bishops acquired a jurisdiction over 
 wrills, both lo determine their validity, and to decide dis- 
 puii'.s respecting bequests of personal property: hence 
 ,i- minting probate of trills, and suits for legacies. 
 Vim.) The courts of common law exercise exclu- 
 i risdiction over all testamentary devises of real estate ; 
 the ecclesiastical courts possess a similar power over be- 
 of personal estate ; but courts of equity have no au- 
 thority to determine the validity of a will of any description 
 of property. Hence, in a devise of land, a judge and jury 
 determine on a viva voce evidence; in a bequest of per- 
 . . the judge of the ecclesiastical court on depositions 
 ed Into writing; and when the will relates both to 
 ltd personal estate, there may be a double trial and 
 conflicting determinations. 
 
 Matrimonial causes form the next and most important 
 branch of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. {See Makiiiage, 
 Law op.) Directly, the ecclesiastical courts have the sole 
 of the validity of a marriage; but indirectly, 
 immon law courts assume this jurisdiction whenever 
 the question arises in a civil or criminal proceeding before 
 them. 
 
 l.l. BlA'STiCUS. An apocryphal book, composed, 
 
 generally supposed, by Jesus the son of Siracn, and 
 
 admitted by the Romish church into the canon of the Old 
 
 ment This hook was originally written in Syro-Chal- 
 
 id consists cjiiclly of meditations relating to religion 
 
 ondoet of human life. It displays but 
 
 : lor methodical arrangement ; but the style is 
 
 lelical, and the sentiments so profound, that 
 
 'hi/or, No. GO.) has pronounced it one of the 
 
 ino-i brill inl nun :il treatises on record. 
 
 i:ci iil'llO'Tlf.'S. (Gr. Ik, out, ami xotrpoc, excrement.) 
 
 ii formerly applied to mild aperient medicines. 
 K'i'llKA. (Gr. t)x co >< I sound ) In Ancient Architecture, 
 ■ I earth in the form of a bell, used 
 in die construction of theatres f. <r the purpose of reverbe- 
 be Bound of the performer's voice. They were dis- 
 tributed between the seats; and arc described in the fifth 
 'i Viiruvius, who states that Mummius introduced 
 them In Rome, after the taking of Corinth, where he found 
 ■ lienl used in the theatre. 
 E'CHELON (Fr.), in the art Military, signifies the posi- 
 ■ my. when Its divisions are so formed as to 
 nd one another in the form of steps. 
 BClIt'DNA. In Grecian Mythology, the daughter of 
 the sea-nymph Callirhoe, or of Tartarus and 
 i monster thai devoured travellers: parent, accord- 
 Qealod, of those well-known terrors of ancient 
 herns, the Hydra, the Sphinx, and the Ne- 
 mean Hon. Hence some suppose the name to represent a 
 general type of monsters and terrific phenomena. 
 : i 'n.v a. In Zoology, a name proposed by Cuvier for 
 Australian quadruped*, baring the general form 
 of an ant-eater, but covered with spines. The Echidna, 
 like the Ornithorhynchus, deviates in a remarkable manner 
 from the typical structure of the mammalia in general in 
 the organization of the generative and osseous systems, and 
 i". rnis with it a family or order called Monolrema. (8ee 
 that word.) In the male of the Echidna, as in the Orni- 
 Ihorhynchus, the hind foot is armed with a curved spur, 
 perforated like the fang of a viper by the duct of a poison 
 gland, whence probably the reason for the name. Among 
 the colonists of Australia, the Echidna is generally known 
 by the name of the porcupine. It frequents sandy locali- 
 ties, lives In burrows, and feeds on ants and other insects, 
 y means of a long and adhesive tongue. 
 ECHINATU8. in Botany, signifies bristly. 
 ECHI'NOCO'CCXra (Gr. txtvof, a spine, and kokkoc, 
 a cyst.) A genus of Hydatids or Cystic Entozoons, of which 
 one species (Echin. hommis) is recorded by Rudolphi as 
 ■ on illy the human subject. 
 BGHl'NODERMB, Echinoderma. (Gr. fxivoc, a hedgehog, 
 and leo/ia, shin.) A name applied to a class of inverte- 
 aoimals, which have acrustaceous or coriaceous inte- 
 ii. most commonly armed with tubercles or spines. 
 l.f'UINO'PORA. (Gr. extfoc, a spine, and wopos, a 
 
 A subgenus of Madrepore*. See that word. 
 
 BCHI'NUS (Gr. txtvof). The generic name of the 
 
 irchins, which constitute the type of the class Echino- 
 
 dmna. The I.innrcan genus is now subdivided into many 
 
 iera; some of which have their names compounded 
 
 ii and some other word, as Echinobrissus, Echi- 
 
 nncidaris, Echlnnclypeus, Echinoconics, Echinocorys, Echi- 
 'inns, Echinodiscus, EcJiinoampas, Eclunomelra, 
 Ecmtxmeus, Echinorodon, <&c. 
 
 Echinus. In Architecture, the same as the ovolo or 
 piarter round, though the moulding is only properly so 
 called when carved with eggs and anchors. (See Anchors.) 
 It is the shell or husk of the chesnuf, though the ornament 
 does not seem to bear much resemblance to it. 
 
 E'CIIO. (Gr. nx", sound ) A sound reflected from a 
 distant surface, and repeatei' to the ear. When sound in 
 383 
 
 ECLECTICS. 
 
 its passage through the atmosphere meets an obstacle, the 
 molecules of air in vibration are reflected in the same 
 manner as elastic bodies, and communicate to the contigu- 
 ous molecules a vibratory motion, which is propagated in 
 the direction determined by the inclination of the opposing 
 surface to the original direction in which the sound reaches 
 it, the angle of incidence being equal to the angle of reflec- 
 tion. Though Hcho is a simple consequence of the redac- 
 tion of sound, several conditions must be fulfilled before it 
 can be produced. In the first place, it is necessary that the 
 ear be situated in the line of liie reflection ; and in order 
 that the person who emits the sound may himself hear the 
 echo, this line must be perpendicular to the reflecting sur- 
 face, at least if there is only one reflecting surface ; but if 
 there are several such surfaces properly disposed, the 
 sound may be brought back by a series of successive re- 
 flections to the point from which it emanated. In the se- 
 cond place, it is necessary that the opposing surface be at a 
 certain distance from the ear ; for if the direct and reflect- 
 ed sound succeed each other with great rapidity, they are 
 in some measure confounded, and the echo cannot be dis- 
 tinguished. Hi-nce large rooms and vaulted caves have a 
 strong rtsorumc", but no echo is produced by them ; the 
 proximity of the walls rendering it impossible to distin- 
 guish the reflected sounds. 
 
 Observation proves that sound passe s through theatmo- 
 sphere at the rate of about 1125 feet in a second ; hence a 
 person placed at half that distance, or 512 feet from the re- 
 flecting surface, would hear the echo exactly one second 
 after the sound was emitted by him, and the echo would 
 repeat as many distinct sounds as the ear ran distinguish 
 in a second. The utmost number of sounds which any 
 car can distinguish in a second perhaps does not exceed 
 ten ; hence the least distance of the reflecting surface from 
 the point whence the sound is emitted must be about 50 
 liit. in orderlhatan echo may be produced. 
 
 Every thing which is capable of reflecting sonorous 
 pulses may cause an echo ; whence the wall of a house, or 
 the rampart of a city, a wood, rocks, or mountains, produce 
 echoes. Unless, however, the surface which reflects the 
 sound is of considerable extent, ihe echo will be too feeble 
 to be heard. A certain degree of concavity in the surface, 
 by which several diverging rays of sound are collected ana 
 concentrated at the point where Ihe echo is audible, if not 
 absolutely essential, is at least highly favourable to the pro- 
 duction of echoes. It is a property of the ellipse, that every 
 sound proceeding from one of its foci, and impinging 
 against the curve, is reflected into the other focus ; whence 
 two persons placed in the two foci of an elliptic chamber 
 may converse with each other in a whisper, and lluir 
 voices not be heard by those who are in the other parts ot 
 the room. Hence also walls or buildings approaching to 
 the elliptic form return sounds with great distinctness and 
 force. In the whispering gallery of St. Paul's, the faintest 
 sound is conveyed from one sound of the dome to the 
 other, but is not heard at any intermediate point. In Glou- 
 cester cathedral a gallery of an octagonal form conveys a 
 whisper 75 feel across the nave. Some echoes are remark- 
 able for their frequency of repetition. An echo in Wood- 
 stock Park repeats 17 syllables by day and 20 by night. 
 Southwell (Phil. Trans. 17(JC) describes an echo in the 
 Simonetta palace, near Milan, which repeated the report of 
 a pistol 60 times. In Birch's History of the Royal Society, 
 an account is given of an echo at Boaneath, near Glasgow, 
 that repeats a tune played with a trumpet three times, com- 
 pletely and distinctly. 
 
 Ecuo, in Architecture, is a term often applied, though 
 improperly, lo certain vaults and arches, usually of an eclip- 
 tic or parabolic form, made for the purpose of producing 
 artificial echoes. 
 
 ECIIO'METER. In Music, a sort of scale or rule, mark- 
 ed with lines, which serve to measure the duration ol 
 sounds, and to ascertain their intervals and ratios. 
 
 ECLE'CTICS. (Gt. Ik\Iyu>, I pick out.) Those philo- 
 sophers who endeavour to select from the systems of va- 
 rious schools those doctrines alone which are true, and to 
 present these in the form of an entire whole. An eclectic 
 spirit, it is evident, can only arise at a period of some ma- 
 turity in philosophical speculation. Whether or not it i3 to 
 be regarded as an evidence of the decay of original power 
 in the age in which it appears, must depend on the less or 
 greater coherence in the system when completed. In one 
 sense of the word, Plato and Aristotle may be regarded as 
 eclectics. They both availed themselves largely of the la- 
 bours of their predecessors. Plato, in particular, compre- 
 hended in his scheme of philosophy the whole of more 
 than one foregoing system ; as the doctrine of Heraclitus 
 of the perpetual flux of sensible objects, and Ihe conse- 
 quent uncertainty of sensible impressions. Hut in the 
 hands of these great thinkers the discerpta membra are re- 
 united, and endued with a principle of vitality as constituent 
 parts of a harmonious whole. The same cannot be said 
 of others who have adopted a similar method ; especially 
 of most of those to whom tfce term eclectic has been mora 
 
ECLIPSES. 
 
 peculiarly applied. These philosophers lived chiefly un- 
 der the Roman empire. The most celebrated among them 
 may be said to have-been Epictetus(A. d. 90) and Plutarch. 
 The latter, in particular, a man of great and various endow- 
 ments, may yet be taken as a striking insiance of a false 
 eclecticism. His great object, in his philosophical writings, 
 seems to have been to reconcile the profound speculations 
 and pure morality of the philosophers witluhe fanciful in- 
 ventions and the gross theology of the poets and priests of 
 Greece, Italy, or Egypt. 
 
 A far more favourable specimen of the eclectic spirit has 
 been afforded us in modern times in Ihe person of M. Vic- 
 tor Cousin, without doubt the most able and ingenious 
 thinker of modern France. See his Lectures on the Hist. 
 of Philosophy, in which eclecticism is presented under its 
 lairest guise, and vindicated with the utmost vigour of style 
 and acuteness of thought. 
 
 ECLI'PSES (Gr. eWciipis, from txXtnroj, I faint 
 away or disappear), taken in a general sense, are those phe- 
 nomena which exhibit the obscuration of astronomical lumi- 
 naries, and may be divided into two kinds, in reference to 
 the circumstances under which they are presented ; viz. 
 1. When the obscuration is caused by an interception of 
 the light received by the luminary from the sun ; as in the 
 cases of eclipses of the moon, eclipses of Jupiter's satel- 
 lites, &c. 2. When the obscuration is caused byaniMer- 
 ception, either totally or partially, of the light transmitted 
 from the luminary to the spectator ; and this kind consists 
 of eclipses of the sun, occultations of stars and planets by 
 the moon, and the transits of Mercury and Venus over the 
 disc of the sun. 
 
 The most popular and generally interesting objects are 
 the eclipses of the sun and moon ; and their causes and 
 aspects will here deserve some explanation. The earth 
 and moon, being opaque bodies, are illuminated by the sun ; 
 and, just as we observe with small opaque bodies on the 
 surface of the earth which are within the range of ocular 
 examination, they cast their shadows in directions which 
 are opposite to the sun. As the figures of the bodies are 
 nearly spherical, and as the sun is the largest, it is plain that 
 these shadows must be very nearly of a conical form. The 
 moon is eclipsed when it becomes involved in the shadow 
 3f the earth, and so deprived of the light it is accustomed 
 to receive from the sun ; and this can take place only at 
 the time of full moon, or when the moon is in opposition 
 to the sun. Let S represent the sun, E the earth, and n' t n 
 
 its conical shadow, into which the rays of the sun do not 
 enter. This shadow must evidently be a portion of the 
 larger cone T t T' which envelops both bodies. Suppose 
 the plane of the paper to be the plane of the ecliptic, or the 
 plane in which the earth moves round the sun, and let 
 d d ' represent a portion of the path of the moon round the 
 earth, the arrows indicating the direction of her motion. 
 Conceive also by means of cross tangents T P (f , T' P ([ ' 
 the two opposite and circumscribing cones T P T', (I ' P fl 
 to be drawn. The latter of these cones, (J ' P (J , is called 
 the penumbra! cone; and the space Nnn' N', projected 
 beyond the earth, is called the earth's penumbra. It is evi- 
 dent that any position within this penumbra is at least par- 
 tially deprived of the light of the sun ; for if we imagine a 
 spectator to be in that position, it is obvious that the inter- 
 position of the earth would act as a partial screen and ob- 
 scure a portion of the sun's disc from his view. It is also 
 evident that a greater portion of the disc of the sun would 
 be hidden from this supposed spectator as his position ap- 
 proaches nearer to the earth's shadow ; and that if we sup- 
 pose him to enter the shadow, he will become totally de- 
 prived of the light of the sun, the disc of the sun in this case 
 being entirely hidden by the intervention of the earth. 
 From this observation it follows that as the moon advances 
 in the penumbra from (J to m her disc will receive less 
 and less light from the sun, and its brightness will gradually 
 diminish ; also, as soon as a portion of the moon's disc en- 
 ters the shadow, that portion becomes totally deprived of 
 the light of the sun, and is, in other terms, darkened or 
 aoljpaed. If in the course of the eclipse only a part of the 
 moon's disc enters the earth's shadow, it is called ^.partial 
 eclipse ; but if the moon is totally darkened by the whole 
 disc entering the shadow, it is called a total eclipse. It is to 
 be understood in the diagram that the orbit of the moon, or 
 the path she describes round the earth, is not in the plane 
 of the ecliptic or the plane of the paper, but inclined to it 
 at an angle always greater than 4° 57' and less than 5° 21'. 
 This is the reason why eclipses of the moon do not happen 
 384 
 
 at every full moon, for they can only take place when the 
 moon s elevation above the ecliptic at full moon happens 
 to be less than the semidiameter of the section of the earth's 
 shadow through which she passes. In the course of a year 
 there may be three eclipses of the moon, which is the 
 greatest number that can happen; but there must always 
 necessarily be two. 
 
 At the time of new moon, or when the moon is between 
 the sun and the earth, her shadow or penumbra may full 
 on the disc of the earth at certain places, and prevent either 
 all or part of the light of the sun from reaching those 
 places on the earth's surface. This circumstance pro- 
 duces the phenomenon of a total or partial eclipse of the 
 sun, which is limited to the portion of the earth on which 
 the moon's shadow or penumbra happens to fall. The 
 shadow of the moon does not always reach so far as the 
 earth. In the two following diagrams, annexed by way 
 of illustration, the former represents thn case in which it 
 does reach, and the latter represents tho case in which it 
 ft-*. 
 
 does not reach, the surface of the earth. The shadow ol 
 the moon in the first diagram falls upon a portion of the 
 earth's surface between m and to'; and the inhabitants, if 
 any, of that portion, will evidently, from what has been 
 said before, have the sun's disc wholly covered by the in- 
 tervention of the dark body of the moon, and therefore 
 Jig- 3- 
 
 T 
 
 have presented to them a total eclipse of the sun. But in the 
 second diagram, where the shadow of the moon does not 
 reach the earth, if we suppose the dark conical shadow 
 ntn' to be produced into the small opposite cone mtm' 
 meeting the surface of the earth, it will be obvious, after a 
 slight consideration, that any supposed spectator within 
 this latter cone, or any inhabitant of the portion mm' of 
 the earth, will perceive the dark body of the moon wholly 
 within the disc of the sun, and intercepting only an interior 
 part of his light; the unobscured part of the sun which cir- 
 cumscribes the disc of the moon will consequently present 
 the appearance of a beautiful luminous ring or annulus, 
 and the eclipse exhibiting this aspect is commonly called 
 an annular eclipse of the sun ; the cone m t m' may be simi- 
 larly called the annular cone. It does not always occur, 
 during the progress of an eclipse of the sun, that either the 
 dark shadow of the moon or the annular cone will fall on 
 the earth's surface, and it very rarely happens that either 
 of them fall on a»f defined spot, such as London or Edin- 
 burgh. For the occurrence of an eclipse on the parlh, it is 
 only necessary that the moon's penumbra Nnn'N' shall 
 be projected against a portion of the terrestrial surface, as 
 an inhabitant of that portion will at least have a part of the 
 disc of the sun intercepted by the moon. When neither 
 the moon's shadow nor the annular cone meets the earth 
 in the course of an eclipse, and consequently only a part of 
 the sun's disc is obscured to terrestrial vision, it is called a 
 partial eclipse of the sun, and in that respect it is similar to 
 a partial eclipse of the moon. If in the two diagrams we 
 suppose, as before, the plane of the paper to be the plane 
 of the ecliptic, the position of the moon must not neces 
 sarily be considered to be in that plane. The north pole of 
 the earth will be directed upwards at an angle of about 23° 
 28', and the arrows will represent the direction in which 
 the earth revolves about its axis; the moon proceeds round 
 the earth in the same direction, and carries her penumbra 
 across the earth's surface with a much greater velocity than 
 the earth's rotation. It follows, therefore, that the arrows 
 indicate also the direction in which the phenomena of the 
 eclipse pass geographically over the earth, viz. from west 
 to east ; and that different places will have the eclipse at a 
 later or earlier time, according as they are more to the east 
 or west. Eclipses of thn sun occur more frequently than 
 eclipses of the moon. In the course of each year there 
 must be two at least in some parts of the earth ; but there 
 cannot possibly be more than four, — a number that some- 
 times, though very seldom, happens. 
 
 Calculation of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon.— It is here 
 chiefly intended to explain methods by which the times o( 
 
ECLIPSES. 
 
 beginning and ending of any phase or appearance may be 
 predicted for a particular place on the earth. For these 
 calculations it is necessary, first, to ascertain the longi- 
 tudes and latitudes of the sun and moon by means of the 
 solar and lunar tables. Those of the sun may be deter, 
 mined from the revised tables of Carlini, which form the 
 supplement to the Milan Ephemeris for the year 1833 ; and 
 •hose of the moon may be calculated from the tables of 
 Borckhardl or Damoiseau. With the help of the tables, 
 the hourly variations of the same quantities, as well as the 
 horizontal parallaxes and scmidiameters of both bodies, 
 are to bo calculated. The results so found will be ele- 
 ments from which the phenomena of the eclipse may be 
 determined for any stated place on the earth ; but their 
 computation is necessary only for eclipses that occur at 
 r«mote periods, since all these calculations are accurately 
 i and registered in the Nautical Almanac, a work 
 regularly published three or four years in advance. The 
 positions are there likewise reduced to the plane of the 
 equator, so as to determine the places of the bodies by 
 their right ascensions and declinations, which are more 
 readily applicable to the calculation of all the circum- 
 stances of an eclipse; besides, the right ascensions and 
 declinations of the moon are given with the utmost pre- 
 cision for every hour, which adds considerably to the 
 facility of these calculations. It will here be the more ge- 
 nerallv useful and interesting, therefore, to describe me- 
 thods'by which, with the use of the Nautical Almanac, the 
 circumstances of an eclipse may be predicted, as it will 
 appear from any given Bpot on the earth's surface. 
 
 In the diagram {fig. 1.) join E m, E ([ . 8 n, and denote 
 E m n'= the moon's horizontal parallax, by P, 
 
 E S n = sun's by *, 
 
 T n S = sun's semidiameter, by a ; 
 
 then the angle M E m is the semidiameter of the section 
 of tho earth's shadow traversed by the moon, as it would 
 be seen from the centre E ; and the angle M E d is the 
 similar semidiameter of the penumbra. To determine 
 lidiameter of the section of the shadow, we have 
 to E f = E to n — E f to = E to n — (SnT — »Sl) = E«u 
 .SnT: that is, the semidiameter of the shadow 
 = I'J-t — w. This value, however, is affected by the at- 
 mosphere of the earth, which absorbs those rays of the 
 sun that would pass near to the surface, and thus makes 
 the shadow of the earth to appear sensibly larger. To 
 take this effect into account, it is the usual practice of 
 astronomers to increase the value given by the preceding 
 repression by one-sixtieth, or to add as many seconds as 
 then: are minutes in the radius of the section. The actual 
 formula employed in this calculation is therefore 
 
 Semid. of shadow = ^ (P + it — a). 
 
 By adding to this the angle to E <[ = mn fl = TnT = 2<r, 
 we have also, 
 
 Semid. of penumbra = g^ P + ir — <r)+2<r. 
 
 Let the circle II H' K represent the section of the earth's 
 >w through which the moon passes during the eclipse ; 
 P Q a portion of the circle 
 of declination which passes 
 through the centre 8 and 
 the north and south poles, 
 P being towards the north, 
 and S towards the south ; 
 A B a portion of the parallel 
 of declination, which also 
 passes through S; OR, in- 
 tersecting P Q. in c, the line 
 or orbit described by the 
 centre of the moon in passing through the shadow; M her 
 position when she first comes into contact with the shadow, 
 and begins to be eclipsed at H ; m her position at the mid- 
 dle of the eclipse, or time of greatest obscuration ; and M' 
 her position at leaving the shadow when the eclipse ceases. 
 In the figure, for the sake of convenience, the shadow is 
 supposed to be fixed; and hence the motion of M is not 
 considered to be the entire motion of the moon, but the 
 motion with which she passes through the shadow, or, as 
 it is called, the relative motion of the moon. This relative 
 motion is equal to the difference between the motion of 
 the moon and that of the shadow. But as the centres of 
 the sun and shadow must always be in opposite points 
 of the sphere, as seen from the centre of the earth, the 
 motion of the shadow will be just the same as that of the 
 sun. 
 
 At any assumed time T, near to the time of opposition, 
 let a be the position of M, and draw a b parallel to A B ; at 
 this ir.stant let a denote the difference between the right 
 ascensions of the moon and shadow ; also let r = S b, and 
 y=ab. Then, from what has preceded, 
 
 Right ascension shadow — right ascension + 12h. 
 
 Declination shadow = declination with a contrary 
 name. 
 
 385 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 ■> 
 
 -it 
 
 
 ECLIPTIC. 
 
 a = right ascension shadow — right ascension (f 
 
 x=: declination (I — declination shadow 
 
 = declination (J -f- declination I 
 
 But as a b = y may be considered to be part of a parallel 
 of declination, and as a is the spherical angle it sjbtends 
 from the pole, it Is evident that y = a V cos. ([ 's declina- 
 tion. We must therefore first calculate the following quan- 
 tities : — 
 
 Right ascen. shadow = right ascen. ? -£ I2h. 
 
 y = (right ascen. shad. — that of d ) X c °s. d. 's deu. 
 
 hourly mo. y = (hor. mo. flJs right ascen. — that of 
 X cos. fl 's dec. 
 
 * = ([ 's dec. + 0's dec. 
 
 hourly mo. x = hor. mo. ([ 's dec. -f- hor. mo. 6 's dec. 
 
 It will be here observed that hourly mo. y denotes the 
 decrease of y, while hourly mo. * denotes the increase 
 of x. in one hour. 
 
 If i denote the angle e I 8 or m 8 c, which is the inclina 
 tion of the relative orbit O R with the parallel A B, we find 
 also, 
 
 hourly mo. x 
 
 tan. »' = 
 
 hourly mo. y 
 
 hourly motion in the orbit O R = 
 
 hourly mo. y 
 
 Again, in the right-angled triangle a b 8, knowing the sidea 
 8 b =*, and ab=zy, we calculate the angle aS 6 and the 
 distance 8 a. The difference of the angles 8 a 8 b, to 8 r, 
 gives the angle a 8 to; and in the right-angled triangle a Sto, 
 knowing also the side a 8, we find the other two sides a m, 
 8 m, the latter of which is the nearest distance of the cen- 
 tres of the moon and shadow. The distance S M, at the 
 beginning or ending of the eclipse, is found by adding 
 the semidiameter of the moon to that of the shadow ; 
 hence, in the triangle M 3 to, knowing also the side 8 to, 
 we find the sideM m = to M' ; and by subtracting and add- 
 ing the value of a to, before found, we get the distances 
 Ma, oil'. Knowing therefore these distances, and the 
 hourly motion in the orbit O R, we find the times employed 
 by the moon in traversing thc-m : the formerof these limes, 
 subtracted from the time originally assumed at which the 
 elements were taken, will therefore give the time of the 
 beginning of the eclipse; and, similarly, by adding the tat- 
 ter, we get the time at which the eclipse will terminate. 
 The times thus found will be for the meridian oftJreen- 
 wich, and will require reducing for the longitude of the 
 place. 
 
 To those who are not familiar with algebraical opera 
 tions, a rough sketch of the figure, drawn by the hand, 
 will indicate most distinctly the way in which the several 
 angles and lines ought to be combined in the process of the 
 calculation. 
 
 For an eclipse of the sun the relative positions of the 
 sun and moon are not independent of the observer's posi- 
 tion, like those of the moon and the earth's shadow. In 
 the calculation of an eclipse of the sun, we must first ap- 
 ply the effects of the relative parallax to the right ascen- 
 sion and declination of the moon to get her exact position 
 with respect to the sun, as she will appear to a spectator at 
 the place for which the calculation is proposed to be made. 
 (See the article Parallax.) By subtracting ami add- 
 ing the hourly motions, given in the Nautical Almanac, 
 we obtain the values of the quantities for an hour before 
 and afterthetimeof conjunctionin right ascension. Then, 
 after calculating and applying the effects of parallax to the 
 moon, we find the quantities x, y, in the same manner as 
 for an eclipse of the moon, only substituting the sun in 
 place of the sections of the earth's shadow. The half dif- 
 ferences of the quantities so computed for an interval ol 
 two hours will show their apparent hourly motions ; and 
 with these the remaining calculation, for either time, is pre- 
 cisely the same as has already been described for an. 
 eclipse of the moon. It is only further to be observed, 
 that as the apparent relative motion of the moon is not 
 very uniform, the results will be most accurate when they 
 are close to the times assumed. If a very accurate calcu- 
 lation of the beginning or ending be required, it will, for 
 this reason, be necessary to repeat the calculation for a 
 single assumed time close to the occurrence of the phase; 
 and for this purpose we may adopt the hourly motions in 
 the first calculation. In these cases, greater accuracy is 
 to be obtained by interpolating the right ascensions and de- 
 clinations from the running ephemeris than by inferring 
 them from the list of elements. 
 
 ECLI'PTIC. In Astronomy, the great circle of the 
 heavens which the sun appears to describe in his annual 
 revolution. It has been called the ecliptic, because eclipses 
 only happen when the moon is in the same plane, or very 
 near it. The ecliptic, from time immemorial, has been con- 
 ceived to be divided into twelve equal parts, called signs,— 
 Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, 
 Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. But the signs 
 of the ecliptic are not to be confounded with the sign* of 
 the zodiac, which denote the places occupied by certain 
 9.B 
 
ECLIPTIC DIGITS. 
 
 constellations, and consequently never alter their position 
 in the heavens. The signs of the ecliptic denote merely 
 arcs of 30° ; and as they are reckoned from the intersec- 
 tion of the equator and ecliptic, which is not a fixed point, 
 their limits are not, in all ages, determined by the same 
 stars. 
 
 The ecliptic is the circle to which longitudes and latitudes 
 in the heavens are referred, as right ascensions and decli- 
 nations are referred to the earth's equator. 
 
 The angle which the plane of the ecliptic makes with the 
 plane of the equator is called the obliquity of the ecliptic. 
 It is to the oblique position of these two planes that we owe 
 the vicissitudes of the seasons. If the equator coincided 
 with the ecliptic, the days and nights would always be equal 
 at all parts of the earth, and there would be no summer or 
 winter. 
 
 The obliquity of the ecliptic at the present time (Jan. 1, 
 1840) is 23° 27' 36-52". (.Nautical Almanac ) This quan- 
 tity, besides being subject to a periodic variation of about 
 18 , arising from the nutation of the earth's axis, is affected 
 by a secular inequality, of which the period is not ascer- 
 tained. By comparing the observations of the present 
 times with those made in former ages, it is found that the 
 obliquity has continued to undergo a slow progressive di- 
 minution, the rate of which appears to be about 45" in a 
 century, amounting to a fourth of a degree since the time 
 of Hipparchus. The planes of the ecliptic and equator 
 have consequently been approaching each other during the 
 last 2000 years ; but though mathematicians have not yet 
 ventured to assign the limit of this approach, it cannot ex- 
 ceed a certain small quantity ; and, after a few thousand 
 years more, the two planes will begin again to recede. The 
 diminution of the obliquity is caused by the action of the 
 other planets, particularly Venus and Jupiter, on the earth ; 
 in virtue of which action the plane of the earth's orbit is 
 drawn, as it were, near to the planes of these two planets. 
 See Nutation, and Precession op the Equinoxes. 
 
 ECLIPTIC DIGITS. See Digits. 
 
 ECLIPTIC LIMITS, are the greatest distances at which 
 the moon can be from her nodes, in order that an eclipse 
 of the sun or moon may happen. When the moon is 
 within those limits at the time of the new or full moon, an 
 eclipse certainly happens ; but when the moon is beyond 
 those limits, an eclipse cannot happen. The limits for an 
 eclipse of the sun are about 17°, and for an eclipse of the 
 moon about 12°. 
 
 E'CLOGUE. (Gr. ixXiyr], a selection.) In the original 
 meaning of the word, the select or choice pieces of an au- 
 thor; or extracts collected out of former works, such as 
 were termed in Latin excerpta. It is not known how this 
 title was originally given to the pastoral poems of Virgil ; 
 but from the circumstance of their being so named, the 
 word ecloeue in modern usage is applied to that species of 
 poetry. The persons who are introduced conversing in 
 eclogues, or whose adventures are recounted in them, are 
 shepherds ; that is, for the most part, imaginary person- 
 ages, whose sentiments, and the external circumstances 
 anions: which they live, belong rather to an ideal age of 
 gold than to the realities of modern life ; and their loves 
 constitute the main and proper- subjects of the eclogue. 
 Nevertheless various writers (Gay, &c. among ourselves) 
 have endeavoured, but with little success, to give an air of 
 greater reality to pastoral poetry, and give their rustics more 
 of the costume and diction of actual clowns ; but the re- 
 sult has been a species of burlesque, not at all answering 
 to our conceptions of pastoral poetry ; nor can we easily 
 imagine that the personages of Theocritus, although the 
 earliest and therefore the simplest of pastoral poets, are 
 correct resemblances of the Sicilian rustics among whom 
 the writer lived. The eclogues of Virgil are of various 
 descriptions: some of them only have the true character 
 of pastorals ; others contain occasional poems on public 
 and private events of the day, very slightly enveloped in 
 the pastoral costume. The characteristics of this species 
 of poetry, as assumed by the moderns, are, first, the re- 
 presentation of nature in soft and quiet scenes of cultiva- 
 tion ; secondly, a slightly dramatic turn either of action or 
 narration ; thirdly, characters whose sentiments and lan- 
 guage are confined within certain peculiar limits: thus, any 
 strong emotion, virtue, or vice, would be an unfit topic for 
 a pastoral poet to dwell upon. Among ourselves, Spenser, 
 Philips, and a few others, may be named as pnsloral poets 
 in the strict sense of the word ; others, as Milton in his 
 Lycidas, have assumed the pastoral costume in order to 
 convey a very different class of ideas. It is worthy of re- 
 mark, that this species of composition is among those 
 which have wholly disappeared in the present day : we 
 have had no pastoral poet since Gay and Collins ; and Ges- 
 ner, in Germany, is the latest author who has acquired any 
 degree of celebrity in this line. See Idyll, Bucolic. 
 
 ECO'NOMV, POLITICAL. See Political Economy. 
 
 ECTHY'MA. (Gr. ckOvoi, I break ottt.) An eruption 
 of pimples or small pustules common in young persons 
 after having overheated themselves, or eaten indigestible 
 386 
 
 EDICT. 
 
 and greasy things. Analogous eruptions are seen upo 
 infants, especially those who are ill-nursed. Proper diet, 
 mild aperients, especially small doses of rhubarb and mag 
 nesia, eenerally carry them off. 
 
 ECTRO'PIUM. (Gr. tKrot-mo, I evert.) An unnatura 
 eversion of the eyelids, arising from tumefaction of th 
 inner membrane, or from a contraction of the skin cover 
 ing the eyelid. 
 
 ECZE'MA. (Gr. CK r eo). I boil out.) An eruption of the 
 skin frequently observed in irritable habits, and sometimes 
 mistaken for the itch: it is not pustular, but consists of 
 small vesicles, often forming patches or blotches, and 
 producing, as they die off, a desquamation of the cuticle. 
 Alteratives and cooling local applications are the remedies 
 usually resorted to for the relief of this complaint. 
 
 E'DDA. The ancient collection of Scandinavian poetry 
 in which the national mythology is contained. There are 
 two Eddas : the older is believed to have been reduced to 
 writing, from oral tradition, in Iceland, between a. d. 1050 
 and 1133. It was recovered and published in Denmark in 
 1643. The new Edda, supposed to have been composed 
 200 years after the former, is an abridgment of it, with a 
 new arrangement of its parts. It was translated by Re 
 senius in 1640, and is thence called the Resenian Edda. 
 The authenticity of these monuments of an early age has 
 been doubted in recent times, but the latest researches of 
 critics (the brothers Grimm and others) seem to go far 
 towards establishing it. (See the Penny Cyclopaedia.) 
 
 E'DDY (Sax. ed, water, and ea, backwards), is the water 
 of a stream or tide which, in consequence of striking 
 against some obstacle, is thrown backwards, and runs in a 
 direction opposite to that of the general current. More 
 frequently, however, the term is used to denote the whirl- 
 ing or circular motion caused by the meeting of two oppo- 
 site currents: and, in this sense, it is also applied to a 
 similar motion of the atmosphere. See Whirlpool, 
 Whirlwind. 
 
 EDE'NTALS, Edentata. The name of an order of 
 Mammals, including those genera in which the dental ap- 
 paratus is more or less incomplete : the incisive teeth are 
 almost always deficient. 
 
 E'DICT. (Lat. edico, / speak out.) An instrunVnt 
 signed and sealed by a despotic prince to serve as a law to 
 his subjects. In ancient Rome, the ordinances of the 
 magistrates, but especially of the two praetors, prator ur- 
 bonus and prabtor peregrinus, were so called. Previously 
 to the time of Augustus, the grand principles of Roman 
 law were exceedingly ambiguous and undefined ; and to 
 remedy this defect in some measure, the praetors used to 
 publish, on their accession to office, edicts or rules for 
 regulating the practice of their courts, as well as for their 
 own guidance in the decision of doubtful cases. A juris- 
 diction, however, thus vague and arbitrary in its nature, 
 being constantly abused, it was enacted by the Corneliar. 
 Law (b. c. 56), that the praetor of the year should be com- 
 pelled to adhere to the spirit and letter of his first procla 
 mation. The edicts of the preceding praMor were not 
 binding on his successor. If the latter confirmed them, 
 they were styled edicta Vetera, or tralatitia; in contradis- 
 tinction to edicta nova, those framed by himself. (See 
 Prjetor.) Under the emperor Hadrian, a digest of the 
 best decisions of the praetors from the earliest times was 
 made by Sylvius Julianus, collected into a volume called 
 Edictum Perpetuum, or Perpetual Edict, ratified by the 
 emperor and senate, and fixed as the invariable standard of 
 civil jurisprudence. 
 
 The Edict of Milan was a proclamation issued by Con- 
 stantine after the conquest of Italy (a. d. 313), to secure to 
 the Christians the restitution of their civil and religious 
 rites, of which Ihey had long been deprived, and to estab- 
 lish throughout his extended dominions the principles of a 
 wise and enlightened toleration. 
 
 The most famous edict of modern history is the Edict 
 of Nantes, issued by Henry rv. in 1593, to secure to the 
 Protestants the free exercise of their religion. This act, 
 after continuing in force nearly a century, was repealed by 
 Louis XIV. ; and, as is well known, its revocation led to a 
 renewal of the persecutions and bloody scenes which pre- 
 viously to the issuing of this edict had been enacted against 
 the Protestants. The depopulation caused by the sword 
 was also increased by emigration. Above half a million 
 of her most useful and industrious subjects deserted 
 France, and exported, together with immense sums of 
 money, those arts and manufactures which had chiefly 
 tended to enrich the kingdom. About 50.000 refugees 
 passed over into England; and there can be little doubt 
 that their representations of the cruelties perpetrated by 
 the King of France tended to excite the suspicions of the 
 English against their own Roman Catholic sovereign, and 
 in some degree accelerated the advent of the Revolution 
 of 1688. See Huguenots. 
 
 In the French law, the term edict has a wide significa- 
 tion, beinz applied equally to the most momentous and the 
 most trifling proclamations of the government. 
 
KDINGTONITE. 
 
 ti'DIN'GTONTTE. A mineral found near Dumbarton 
 in small greyish-white translucent prisms, composed of 
 silica, alumina, lime, water, and probably some alkali. 
 
 EDl'TION (from the Lalin verb edere, to give out or 
 publish), means simply the (indefinite) number of copies 
 of a \v"rk printed at one time, before the types are dis- 
 tributed by the compositor. Any one who prepares for 
 publication the writings of another is said to edit them, and 
 is called the editor. In literary language, since the in voli- 
 tion of printing, the editor of a work revises, adds notes, 
 for the press, Ac. <kc. : the publisher is the book- 
 seller who negotiates the sale of the impression. Some- 
 times (hut especially in classical works) the edition goes 
 generally by the name of the printer or publisher, some- 
 times by that of the editor. Thus, we have the Aldine and 
 Elzevir Classics, Ac, the houses of Aldus and Elzevir 
 having been concerned both in printing and publishing ; 
 while lientley's Horace, I/eyne's Homer, Ac, are so de- 
 nominated from the name of the editor. In bibliographical 
 works, edilio princeps signifies the earliest printed edition 
 of an author ,- editio optima, that which is generally re- 
 garded as the best, 4c. 
 
 E'DITORS, are of different species:— 1. Those who 
 merely republish a text, or content themselves with adding 
 notes and commentaries to it. 2. Those who superintend 
 the publication of a work, receiving the manuscripts from 
 one or more contributors ; seeing that the object of the 
 work is attained, that the language is correct, the illustra- 
 tions appropriate, and the facts accurately staled, and that 
 all the parts of the work are properly adjusted and mado 
 subordinate to each other. 
 
 E'DRIOPHTHA'LMA. (Or. cipaiof, fixed, and o<p9a\- 
 fiof,aneye.) The name under which the Malacostracous 
 nth sessile eyes are grouped together. 
 
 EDUCA'TION (Lat. educhre), in ils most extended sig- 
 nification, may be defined, in reference to man, to be the 
 art of developing and cultivating the various physical, in- 
 tellectual, and moral faculties; and may thence be divided 
 into three branches — physical, intellectual, and moral edu- 
 cation. This definition is by no means complete; but it 
 is us^d merely as indicative of the manner in which this 
 subject has generally been discussed. Under physical 
 education is included all thai relates to the organs of sen- 
 sation, and the muscular and nervous system. Intellec- 
 tual education comprehends the means by which the 
 ; the understanding are to be developed and im- 
 proved, and a view of the various branches of knowledge 
 which form the objects of instruction of the three depart- 
 ment! into which we have divided education. Moral edu- 
 cation embraces the various methods of cultivating and 
 regulating the affections of the heart. 
 
 The wide extent of this subject, and the infinity of col- 
 lateral questions with which it is nvxed up, would prevent 
 us from entering into any details respecting it, even if the 
 difficulty of communicating any satisfactory information 
 upon so boundless a theme within our limits did not pre- 
 clude us from the attempt. The influence which educa- 
 tion has exercised in humanizing the world is universally 
 acknowledged. Its importance has been recognized by 
 lera and legislators in every age; and by all the 
 nations, both of antiquity and modern limes, which have 
 become distinguished in history, it has been regarded as 
 f element in the attainment and promotion of 
 civilization. The reader will find, in the writings of Plato, 
 Plutarch, and (Juintilian, among the ancients, and in mo- 
 dern limes of Locke, Rousseau, Basedow, Niemever, Ren- 
 tals, Ac, a view of the chief systems that have 
 been proposed or adopted in reference to this subject ; and 
 for an account of the comparative merit of the different 
 and the innumerable controversies that have been 
 maintained in regard to them, he may consult the Edin. 
 and Quar. Reviews, passim, and the other periodical pub- 
 lications of England. 
 
 EDU'LCORA'TION. (Lat. edulcoro, I purify or sweeten.) 
 A chemical term applied to the cleansing of substances, 
 especially pulverulent precipitates, by the repeated affu- 
 sion of water, so as to remove atl soluble matters, and ren- 
 ler them free from taste and smell. 
 
 EFFE'CT. (Lat. efficio.) In the Fine Arts, that quality 
 in works of art whose nature is to give particular efficacy 
 to other qualities, so as to bring them out and to attract the 
 eye of the spectator. 
 
 Effect. See Keeping. 
 
 EFFE'NDI. A Turkish word signifying lord or supe- 
 rior ; applied to legal, ecclesiastical, or other civil func- 
 tionaries, in contradistinction to ago, the name by which 
 high military personages are designated. See Reis Ef- 
 fbjoi. 
 
 EFFERVE'SCENCE. (Lat. effervesco.) The escape 
 of gaseous matter from liquids, as in the act of fermenta- 
 tion. All liquids from which bubbles of gas rapidly escape, 
 so as to resemble boiling, are said to effervesce. 
 
 EFFIGY. (Lat. effigies.) In Painting and Sculpture, 
 the representation ot an individual. 
 387 
 
 EISTEDDFOD 
 
 EFFLORES'CENCE. (Lat. effloresco, Ifower.) The 
 spontaneous crumbling down of transparent crystals, in 
 consequence of the loss of water. 
 
 El-Tl.U'VIl M. (Lat. eflluo, / spread abroad.) The va- 
 pours arising from putrefying matters. 
 
 ElTL'fjlO.N. (Lat. effundo, 1 pour out.) In Surgery, 
 the escape of a fluid from the vessel naturally containing 
 it ; thus when the chest is wounded blood may be effused 
 into the cavity of the pleura, and in injuries of the head 
 blood may be effused upon the brain. 
 
 EGEON. See Pontoptulus. 
 
 E'GERAN. A variety of garnet found near Eger in Bo 
 hernia. 
 
 EGO. (Germ, ei.) The ovum of birds and oviparous 
 animals. The changes which ihe hen's egg undergoes 
 during incubation have been described by Sir E. Home in 
 the Phitotophicai Transactions for the year 1822 (page 339), 
 and illustrated by a beautiful series of plates after Bauer's 
 drawings : the same volume also contains a valuable paper 
 by l)r. rrout on the same subject, but chiefly in reference 
 to the chemical changes of the egg during that process. 
 The specific gravity of new-laid eggs at first rather exceeds 
 that of water, varying from 11)80 to 1090; but they soon be- 
 como lighter, and swim on water, in consequence of eva- 
 poration through the pores of the shell. When an egg is 
 boiled in water, and suffered to cool in the air, it loses about 
 32 hundredths of a grain of saline matter, together with a 
 trace of animal matter and free alkali. The mean weight 
 of a hen's egg is about 875 grains, of which tho shell and 
 its inner membrane weigh i-37 grains, the albumen or 
 white 529-8 grs., and the yolk 2518 grs. The shell con- 
 tains about 2 per cent, of animal matter and 1 per cent, of 
 tho phosphates of lime and magnesia, the remainder be- 
 ing carbonate of lime, with a trace of carbonate of niagne- 
 sis. When the yolk of a hard-boiled egg is digested in 
 repeated portions of strong alcohol, there remains a white 
 residue having the leading characters of albumen, but con- 
 taining phosphorus in some peculiar state of combination ; 
 the alcoholic solution is yellow, and deposits a crystalline 
 fatty matter, and when distilled leaves a yellow oil. The 
 albumen of the egg contains sulphur. The use of the 
 phosphorus is to yield phosphoric acid to form the bones 
 of the chick; but the source of the lime with which it is 
 combined is not apparent, for it has not been detected in 
 the soft parts of the egg, and hitherto no vascular com 
 munication has been discovered between the chick and 
 the shell. 
 
 The trade in eggs is of great value and importance ; 
 the number of eggs imported into England from various 
 parts of the Continent, for the year ending Jan. 5, 1S39. 
 was 83.745,723; and the gross amount of duty received for 
 the same was 29,1 1W. 
 
 E'GLANTINE. (Fr. eglantier.) The old English name 
 of the sweet-briar rose. The term is improperly applied 
 by Milton to the honeysuckle. 
 
 EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture. 
 
 EGYPTIAN BEAN. The fruit of the Nelumbium spe- 
 ciosum has been so called : it has been regarded as the for- 
 bidden bean of the disciples of Pythagoras. 
 
 EGYPTIAN PEBBLE. A species of agate or jasper. 
 
 E'IDER-DUCK. The species of duck tribe so called is 
 one of the largest and most valuable of the Anatidas, and, 
 from certain modifications of the beak and sternum, con- 
 stitutes the type of a subgenus, called Somateria. The 
 common eider {Somateria moUissima) frequents in great 
 numbers the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Shetland isles. It i3 
 defended from the cold of the dreary northern coasts by 
 the development of an unusual quantity of the finest down 
 beneath its dense exterior plumage, which is equally well 
 adapted to form an impenetrable barrier to the wet. The 
 down of the eider constitutes its chief value, as it com- 
 bines with its peculiar softness, fineness, and lightness so 
 greata degree of elasticity that the quantity of this mate- 
 rial which might be compressed and concealed between 
 two hands will serve to stuff a coverlet. 
 
 As the female plucks from her own body a quantity of 
 her finest down to line her nest, the Orcadians avail them- 
 selves of this instinct, and take an early opportunity to rob 
 the nest of both eggs and down. She then begins to lay 
 afresh, and envelops her eggs with another layerof down ; 
 and if this be removed, the male is said to contribute hie 
 own down when the female can afford no more. Lastly, 
 when the brood of ducklings is hatched, the nest is again 
 visited and the down removed. Thus a considerable quan- 
 tity of the valuable material furnished by the eider-duck 
 is obtained independently of that which is plucked from 
 the slaughtered birds. Besides the clown and eggs, th* 
 islanders turn the skins and flesh of the eiders to profit; 
 while these bird3 cost them no expense, as they feed en- 
 tirely on sea-weed and other natural productions of the 
 ocean. 
 
 EISTE'DDFOD. (Welsh, from eistedd, to sit.) The 
 assemblies or sessions of the Welsh bards were so termed. 
 (-See Bard.) They were held, according to Pennant (Tour 
 
EJECTMENT. 
 
 in Wales), at different places for the minstrels of then- 
 respective neighbourhoods ; at Caerwys, at Aberfraw in 
 Anglesea, and Mathravel in Powys. The judges were 
 appointed by commissions from the Welsh princes, and 
 after the Conquest from the English kings. The last was 
 issued in 1568. But the Gwynnedigion and Cambrian So- 
 cieties have lately revived the old custom ; and annual 
 meetings for the recitation of prize poems, and for per- 
 formances on the harp, are now held under the name of 
 Eisteddfod. 
 
 EJE'CTMENT, in Law, is a personal action in the 
 form of trespass, in which a tenant for years claims dam- 
 ages for his expulsion from land demised to him ; and it 
 has become the usual form of trying questions of right to 
 real property by a singular fiction. The party claiming 
 land or its appurtenances not in his possession is the real 
 plaintiff, through the means of a fictitious tenant (the cele- 
 brated John Doe), who complains of being ejected from 
 his farm by the defendant. The defendant justifies by dis- 
 puting the plaintiff's title to let the land ; and if the plaintiff 
 succeeds, he recovers not only nominal damages for his 
 ejectment, but also the land itself for the term of Doe's 
 supposed demise, and in fact for the term of his own right. 
 
 EL-EAGNA'CEvE. (EiiEagnus, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of shrubby arborescent Exogens inhabiting 
 the entire northern hemisphere down to the equator, hav- 
 ing leprous leaves, superior fruit, tubular calyx, and apeta- 
 lous flowers. They are distinguished from Thymelacea 
 by the ovule being erect, from Proteaceat by the valvate 
 calyx and the dehiscent fruit of the latter, and from San- 
 talacea. by the superior ovary. The berries of some spe- 
 cies are eaten in Persia and Nipal. 
 
 ELjEOTE'RIUM. (Gr. i \atov, oil.) In Ancient Archi- 
 tecture, an apartment in the ancient baths wherein the 
 bathers anointed themselves after leaving the bath. 
 
 ELAI'DIN. A fatty matter produced by the action of 
 nitric acid upon certain oils, especially upon castor oil. 
 
 ELAI'N. (Gr. tXaiov, oil.) That portion of fat or oil 
 which retains a liquid state ; it may be pressed out of hog's 
 lard and other solid fats, and separated from oils by expos- 
 ing them to cold and subsequent pressure. 
 
 ELAIO'DIC ACID. (Gr. e\aiov, and tiSos, form.) One 
 of the compounds produced during the saponification of 
 castor oil. 
 
 E'LAOLITE, (Gr. tkatov, and Xi0oj, stone.) A brittle 
 mineral, of a greasy lustre, crystalline in its texture, of va- 
 rious shades of grey, green, and red, and composed of silica 
 and alumina, with about 18 per cent, of potash. It is found 
 in Norway, and when chatoyant is sometimes used for ring 
 stones. 
 
 E'LAPS. A subgenus of vipers. See Vipera. 
 
 ELA'SMOTHE'RIUM. (Gr. £An<r//os, a plate, and Oitp, 
 a beast.) The name of an extinct Pachydermatous ani- 
 mal, which forms the type of a new genus, characterized 
 by the laminated structure of its teeth, and intermediate 
 between the horse and rhinoceros. 
 
 EI.ASTI'CITY. (Gr. iXaarrj, a spring; from eXavvw, 
 I draw.) In Physics, that property which certain bodies 
 possess of recovering their primitive form and dimensions 
 after the external force by which they have been dilated or 
 compressed or bent is withdrawn. 
 
 The theory of elasticity must be deduced from some hy- 
 pothesis respecting the constitution of matter. The sim- 
 plest and most general view which can be taken of the 
 subject is, that all matter is composed of indefinitely small 
 parts or molecules acted upon by attractive and repulsive 
 forces. The attractive forces result from the action of 
 the molecules on each other; the repulsive forces from 
 the caloric with which the molecules are combined. From 
 the combined action of these two forces, the attraction 
 of matter and the repulsion of caloric, the different forms 
 of matter and its varied physical properties may be ex- 
 plained.. 
 
 This view of the constitution of bodies supposes that the 
 molecules are not in contact, but at a certain distance from 
 each other, which, though it is to be regarded as infinitely 
 small in comparison of any distance appreciable by our 
 senses, admits nevertheless of increase and diminution. 
 When a body is in a state of rest, the opposite forces which 
 any two of its contiguous nf<olecules exercise on each other 
 are in equilibrium. The energy of the forces also depends 
 on the distance between the two molecules, or, in mathema- 
 tical language, is a function of that distance. If the distance 
 be increased within the limits of the action of the forces, both 
 forces are diminished ; and if the distance is diminished, 
 both are increased, but not in the same proportion. If the 
 interval at which the two forces balance each other be di- 
 minished, the repulsive force becomes stronger than the 
 attractive force, and the two molecules are repelled from 
 each other; on the contrary, if the distance be increased, 
 the attractive force acquires the superiority, and the mole- 
 cules are. drawn towards each other. 
 
 Let us now suppose a solid body, of which all the mole- 
 cules are in a state of equilibrium, to receive the impres- 
 388 
 
 ELASTIC CURVE. 
 
 gion of an external force. The operation of the force :s to 
 produce a change in the distances of the molecules at the 
 surface, in consequence of which the equilibrium is dis- 
 turbed, and the molecules thrown into a state of vibration 
 This vibration is communicated to the interior molecules, 
 and the body, under the action of the external force, un 
 dergoes a certain change of form. The molecules at the 
 surface, which receive the impulse, transmit it to those in 
 the interior of the body, and are reacted on by them with 
 an equal force. In this manner the action is propagated 
 through the whole mass, until it is destroyed by anothel 
 exterior force, or by the resistance of an obstacle to th« 
 motion of the body itself. 
 
 From this hypothesis respecting the constitution of 
 matter, analytical expressions may be deduced to repre- 
 sent the motions or the equilibrium of the molecules of a 
 body acted upon by an external force which is not so great 
 as to exceed the limits of its elasticity, or to produce a 
 change in the distance of the molecules ereater than the 
 radius of the sphere of molecular action. These equations 
 contain a numerical coefficient, which is constant for the 
 same body, but variable for different bodies : and which has 
 no influence on the law of elasticity, though it serves to 
 measure its effects. It is therefore called the modulus of 
 elasticity, or coefficient of elasticity ; and is of the same na- 
 ture and order of magnitude as the cohesive resistance 
 which bodies oppose to rupture on being crushed, and may 
 therefore be expressed as so many pounds acting on a 
 square inch of surface. The modulus of elasticity for each 
 particular body must be determined by experiment, and 
 has only been ascertained in a few instances. 
 
 Elasticity is perfect when the body exactly recovers its 
 primitive form, afier the force by which it is bent or com- 
 pressed or dilated has been removed, in the same time as 
 was required for the force to produce the alteration. This 
 perfect elasticity is, however, not found in any of the bodies 
 of nature; the aeriform fluids or gases are Ihose whose 
 elasticity approaches the nearest to it. Hard bodies, even 
 tempered steel and ivory, possess it in a less decree : in 
 fluid substances the elastic force is greatly diminished ; and 
 in soft bodies, as butler, moist clay, it entirely disappears. 
 In solid bodies the elastic force is, in general, diminished 
 by use, or by a long-continued application of a straining 
 force. Abow which has been long bent, or a spring which 
 has been long compressed, willnot entirely recover its 
 original form. < In many cases the elasticity of a body can 
 be augmented by producing a closer aggregation of the 
 molecules. The metals, for example, are rendered more 
 elastic by hammering them cold, or by alloys. Iron and 
 steel acquire a greater elasticity by tempering ; that is, by 
 producing a sudden contraction of their volumes when 
 they have been expanded by heat. 
 
 The principal phenomena of elastic bodies are the fol- 
 lowing :— 1. That an elastic body (the elasticity being sup- 
 posed perfect) exerts the same force in endeavouring to 
 restore itself as that with which it was compressed or bent. 
 2. The force of elastic bodies is exerted equally in all direc- 
 tions, but the effect chiefly takes place on the side on 
 which the resistance is the least. 3. When an elastic 
 solid body is made to vibrate by a sudden stroke, the vi- 
 brations are performed in equal times, to whatever part of 
 the body the stroke may be communicated. Thus, sono- 
 rous bodies always emit sounds of the same pitch ; and the 
 difference of the pitch depends on the greater or less fre- 
 quency of the vibrations of the sonorous body. 4. A 
 body perfectly incompressible cannot be elastic, Iherefore 
 bodies perfectly solid can have no elasticity ; and hence, 
 also, the small degree of elasticity belonging to the liquids 
 which are eminently incompressible. See Collision, Per- 
 cussion, Strength op Materials; also Atmosphere, 
 Hydrodynamics, Pneumatics, and Vapour. 
 
 ELA'STIC CURVE. In Mechanics, the figure assumed 
 by an elastic plate or lamina, one end of which is fixed 
 horizontally in a vertical plane, and the other loaded wilh a 
 weight which tends by its gravity to bend the plate. This 
 was the manner in which the curve was conceived to bo 
 formed by James Bernoulli, who first investigated its pro- 
 perties; but a more general view may be taken of its for- 
 mation. Let the lamina M N be fixed at the point M in 
 such a manner that, however it may be bent, 
 the direction of the tangent MT shall be con- 
 stant ; and let it be submitted to the action of 
 any number of forces acting in the same 
 plane,whichwill be theplaneof the curvature. 
 Let P be the resultant of all the forces acting 
 in the direction O M, the axis of y, and Q the resultant of 
 all those acting in the direction O N, the axis of x ; and let 
 the distances of the directions of the forces P and Q from 
 the axes of the co-ordinates be respectively p and q. The 
 curve at any point m, the co-ordinates of which are x and 
 V, is kept in equilibrio by the action of three forces, namely, 
 P and Q,, which are exerted in turning the lamina round 
 the point m, and the elasticity E, which may iherefore be 
 considered as acting in the direction perpendicular to tn t, 
 
ELATER. 
 
 the tangent at m. But the aclion of P on the point m is 
 equal to the product of that force by its distance from the 
 ordinate of m parallel to its direction, which distance is 
 v — x. The action of P is therefore equal to P ( p — x) ; 
 and, in the same manner, the action of Q. is equal to Q 
 n— y). Hence, since the elasticity is equal to the sum of 
 Jiese two, we have the equation 
 
 P(p — x) + Q.(q — y) = E. 
 It is now necessary to mike a hypothesis respecting the 
 manner in which the elasticity E varies from point to point 
 in the curve. The law usually assumed is, that the force 
 cf elasticity at any point is proportional to the tension, or 
 inversely as the radius of curvature at that point; hence 
 if r denote the radius of curvature, and E be the elasticity 
 at the point where r = 1, the general equation of the elastic 
 curve becomes 
 
 P(p-*) + Q(j-y)=iE. 
 Let f'x = ~ , and f'x = ~- ; then, by the known ex- 
 
 dx 
 
 I f'x 
 pression for the radius of curvature, we have - = — ^ 3 
 
 The differential equation of the curve therefore becomes 
 
 To take a simple case, let us suppose the lamina so situ- 
 ated that the tangent M T is parallel to the 
 
 v in which situation the force Q, I ^ 
 
 ; and also let the force P be 
 that, resulting from the gravity of a weight 
 suspended from the extremity N of the 
 lamina; then, if / = the length of the la- 
 mina, we shall have 
 
 Let us further suppose the curvature to be very small, 
 
 In which case, /' x = -~ will be very small, so that its 
 
 square may be neglected. We have then, on substituting 
 for f" x its value, 
 
 P«-*; = E^. 
 
 The integral of this is 
 
 P«x-J*')=E^; 
 
 and a second integration gives 
 
 y — A= — %-z<?lx 
 
 ■*'), 
 
 2 -3E 
 k being a constant, and equal to the distance O M. 
 
 ■ stic curve is the same as that which a perfectly 
 flexible line would form itself into, if supported at its two 
 extremities and loaded with a fluid of uniform density 
 filling the whole cavity of the curve ; or it is the figure as- 
 sumed by a spider's thread fixed at its extremities and 
 blown bv the wind. 
 
 E'LATER. (Or. eXarrtp, leaper.) A Linnsan genus 
 of Coleopterous insects, now the type of an extensive 
 family of the Serricorn Coleoptera. The Elateridm may 
 be distinguished from the other Serricorn beetles by the 
 presence of a strong, short, and often slightly curved spine, 
 
 ig from the posterior margin of the presternum, 
 and of a depression just above the origin of the second 
 pair of legs adapted for the reception of the preceding 
 spine. An Elater may be recognized on a distant view 
 from the particular use'tn which it puts the above described 
 sternal modifications. If a beetle be seen to fall upon its 
 back, and instead of making the ordinary attempts to set 
 itself upon its legs, bends its head towards i'.s tail, raising 
 this part, and then suddenly springing into t!ie air. and re- 
 peating the aclion until it has fallen upon its feet, such a 
 beetle may be recognized at once as a species of one or 
 other of the numerous subgenera of the Elaterida. This 
 leap is due to the rebound occasioned by the sudden disen- 
 gagement of the sternal spine from its socket. One of the 
 species of Elater proper (Elater noctilucits) is the com- 
 mon fire fly of the tropical parts of America. Its lumino- 
 sity is emitted by two round convex yellow spots situated 
 at the sides of the thorax. The Elalerida, generally are 
 
 le feeders; the larvte devour decayed timber; the 
 perfect insects feed on flowers or other soft and living parts 
 of refetabj.ee. 
 
 ELa'TERES. In Botany, the loose spiral fibres that 
 are contained, together with the sporules, in the concepta- 
 clcs of Jungermaunia and Morchantia. 
 
 ELATE'RIUM. (Or. tXavvtiv, to stimulate.) This sub- 
 stance, commonlv called extract of elaterium, is obtained 
 from the fruit of the Momordica elaterium, or squirting 
 encumber, which, if gathered a little before it ripens and 
 the jiice gently expressed, deposits a green sediment, 
 which is collected and dried. In the dose of from one 
 389 
 
 ELECAMPANE. 
 
 eighth of a grain to a grain, good elaterium operates as a 
 drastic purge, bringing away from the bowels a large 
 quantity of watery secretion ; it is seldom prescribed ex- 
 cept with a view of diminishing the collection of fluid in 
 cases of dropsy. 
 
 Elaterium. In Botany, a term invented by Richard to 
 denote that kind of fruit which is found in Euphorbia, con- 
 sisting of three or more carpels, consolidated when young, 
 but bursting with elasticity when ripe. 
 
 E'LBOVV. The sea phrase for the half twist in the ca 
 bles by which the ship is moored, caused by her stringing 
 the wrong way. (.See Hawse.) Also a term for a sudden 
 turn in a line of coast or course of a river. 
 
 ELBOWS. (Sax. elboga.) In Architecture, the anight 
 sides which flank any panelled work, as in windows below 
 the shutters, Sec. 
 
 ELCA'JA. An Arabian tree, the fruit of which is emetic, 
 and is employed in an ointment for the cure of the itch : 
 it is the Trichilia cmetica of botanists. 
 
 E'LDERS. Certain laymen who, according to the con 
 stitution of the Presbyterian church, form a council of 
 which the minister is the moderator, and discharge the 
 functions of a spiritual court. They also assist the minis- 
 ter in the management of the concerns of the parish, at- 
 tending to the interests of the poor, like the deacons of the 
 primitive church . Among the Jews, elders were those 
 persons most distinguished for age, rank, and wealth, who 
 formed the council of the people. jS'tePRESBYTinis. 
 
 EL DORA'DO. (Span, the golden region.) The Mate 
 given by the Spaniards to an imaginary country. 
 in the 16th century to be situated in the interior of South 
 America, between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon, and. 
 as the name Implied, abounding in gold and all manner of 
 precious stones. After the Spanish eonqtl 
 and Peru, the most exaggerated accounts of the wealth 
 and riches of the newly acquired territory were circulated 
 and believed. A new region was fabled to exist far BUT- 
 passing the wealth and splendour of Peru ; e.\; 
 were fitted out for the purpose of discovering it ; and 
 though all Mich Uiempla proved abortive, the rumours of 
 its existence continued to be believed down to the begin- 
 ning of last century. The term baa now passed into the 
 langu tge of poetry, in which U is used to express aland of 
 boundieee wealth and felicity, like the ancient Elysium or 
 the Mohammedan Paradise. (See a learned article on 
 " Sir Waiter Baieejh," In vol. Ixxii. of the Edin. flemew, 
 which contains a resume of all the speculations that have 
 been entertained upon this subject.) 
 
 ELEA'TIC PHILOSOPHY. A system owing its origin 
 to Xenophanes, a native of Elea (in Latin Velia), who lived 
 about the year b. c. 530. The most celebrated of his fol- 
 lowers were Parmenides and Zeno, also natives of Elea. 
 The dialectical character of the principal systems of an- 
 tiquity may be said to owe its existence to the Eleatics. 
 The tendency of their speculations was the direct contrary 
 of that which distinguishes the Ionic school. While the 
 latter fixed their attention on outward nature, and strove 
 to discover the laws which regulate its progress, Xeno- 
 phanes and his disciples confined their thoughts to what 
 thev conceived to be the only objects of real knowledge— 
 the'ideas of God, or Being as it is in itself. The work] of 
 succession and change, which they designated under the 
 title ofthat which becomes (rd Yiyv6pevov), they held to be 
 utterly vain and illusory ; the very conception of change 
 itself seeming to them to involve a contradiction. Time, 
 space, and motion they regarded as mere phantasms, ge- 
 nerated by the deceiving senses, and incapable of scientific 
 explanation. They were consequently led to distinguish 
 between the pure reason, the correlative of Being, and in 
 one sense identical with it, and opinion or common under- 
 standing, the faculty which judges according to the im- 
 pressions of sense. Parmenides, in particular, was the 
 author of a philosophical epic, the two books of which 
 treated respectively of these two modes of thinking. For 
 a full account of all that can be gathered from remaining 
 fragments of this rigid system of rationalism, the reader 
 must consult the German writers on the subject ; in par- 
 ticular Brandis and littler, in their histories of philosophy. 
 Frequent allusion is made both by Plato and Aristotle to 
 the Eleatic doctrines, the authors of which are mentioned 
 by both those philosophers in terms of evident respect and 
 veneration. Plato has made their system the subject of a 
 whole dialogue, entitled the Parmenides; perhaps the most 
 striking specimen of dialec'ic subtlety which Grecian phi- 
 losophy affords. Many valuable remarks on the nature 
 and Influence of the Eleatic doctrines are to be met with 
 in Mr. Thirl wall's Tlistnry of Greece, vol. ii. c. 12. 
 
 ELECA'MPANE. The vulgar name of the Inula HeU- 
 nium. It is an aromatic bitter, and was formerly regarded 
 as expectorant ; whence the monkish lifte, 
 Enula campana redilit pracordia sana 
 
 A coarse candy, composed of little else than coloured 
 sugar, is sold under the name of elecampane. 
 
ELECT. 
 
 ELE'CT. (Lat. electus.) Some functionaries are so 
 termed during the period between their appointment and 
 gome act which is necessary to ratify it ; as, a bishop after 
 election and before consecration. 
 
 ELE'CTION, in Law, is when a man is left to his own 
 free choice to take or do one thing or another, which he 
 pleases ; as, where a man has two forms of action by which 
 he moy recover his right, it is within his election to choose 
 that according to which he will proceed; or where, as in 
 some cases, he has an election between several parties, 
 against any of whom he may prosecute his suit. Where 
 there are coparceners of lands,on partition the eldest sister 
 has the election. 
 
 Ele'ction, in Theology, is the choice made by God of 
 certain individuals of the human race to enjoy peculiar 
 privileges and blessings. In the Old Testament election is 
 spoken of as national, not individual. The Jews were the 
 chosen people of God (Deut. iv. 37., Is. Ixv. 9., and in pas- 
 sages too numerous to be cited). And that the " elect" or 
 chosen of God, of whom the inspired writers of the 
 Epistles speak, and to whom they often address them- 
 selves, are in some instances only persons called to partake 
 in the benefits of the Christian dispensation, appears to be 
 admitted on all hands (1 Pet. i. 1, 2. ; 1 Pet. ii. 9.) But an 
 opinion arose from very early limes in the church, that in 
 other passages (Rom. ix. 18. 24., Eph. 1, &c.) the election 
 spoken of is a predetermined choice, not to the immediate 
 blessings of the covenant, but to eternal life; that God, by 
 arbitrary will, selects a number of persons without respect 
 to foreseen faith or good works, and infallibly ordains to 
 bestow upon them eternal happiness through the merits.of 
 Christ. This doctrine is of course opposed to that of uni- 
 versal redemption ; namely, that every man is enabled (if 
 he will) to obtain salvation through those merits. It is cer- 
 tain that the doctrine of election — something resembling 
 which is attributed to the Basilidians, Valentinians, and 
 other early heretics— cannot easily be traced in the writ- 
 ings of any father of the church before Augustine, who em- 
 braced it with all the ardour of his eager disposition, but 
 appears to have varied much in his opinions respecting it. 
 It is most rigidly laid down in his treatise De Dono Perse- 
 veranlia. Calvin, in modern times, was its great reas- 
 sertor, and declared it in a dogmatical manner : " We were 
 elected from eternity, before the foundation of the world, 
 from no merit of our own, but according to the purpose of 
 the divine pleasure." (Inst. iii. c. 15. s. 5.) It became a 
 fundamental article of belief in Calvin'istic churches. The 
 synod of Dort was expressly convened to vindicate the 
 doctrines of election and predestination against Arminian 
 lenets (1615). The language of the Church of England, on 
 thi-i as on other controverted points, admits of a variety of 
 interpretations; but during the prevalence of Calvinism in 
 ii; ■ higher clergy, and especially in the university of Cam- 
 bridge, uniler Archbishop Whitgift, an attempt was made 
 to define her tenets more strictly. The Lambeth articles, 
 agreed to in 1595 by a portion of the clergy, assert that 
 ; 'God from eternity hath predestinated certain men unto 
 life, certain he hath reprobated." But these were never 
 authentically received by the church. See Calvinism, 
 Predestination. 
 
 ELECTIVE AFFINITY signifies the order of preference, 
 as it were, in which substances combine; fhns, if nitric 
 acid be added to a mixture of lime and magnesia, it will 
 elect or choose to combine with the lime in preference to 
 the magnesia. See Affinity. Chemical. 
 
 ELECTIVE GOVERNMENTS are those in which all 
 functionaries, from the highest to the lowest, are chosen 
 bv the suffrages of a grea'er or less number of citizens. 
 Of these the government of Athens in antiquity, and in 
 modern times that of the United States, will serve as exam- 
 ples. When the functionaries of an elective government 
 are chosen by a very great number, it. is identical with a 
 democracy; and when by a comparatively small number, 
 either with an aristocracy or an oligarchy. 
 
 ELE'CTORS. (Germ, chur- or kur-fiirsten.) Those 
 princes of the old German empire who had a voice in the 
 election of the emperor. These were originally (A. D. 
 1256) seven : Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, — ecclesiastical ; 
 and Bohemia, Brandenburg, Saxony, and the Elector Pala- 
 tine. — lay ; but to these Bavaria was added soon after their 
 institution. In 1692 this dignity was conferred on the dukes 
 of Brunswick-Luneburg, who were afterwards styled elec- 
 tors of Hanover; and, at different periods during the last 
 century, on the princes of Salzburg, Wurtemberg, Baden, 
 and Hesse Cassel. But on the dissolution of the German 
 empire in 1806, the title of elector was merged in that of 
 king, grand duke, &c. &c, by all the German states except 
 Hesse Cassel, whose sovereign is still designated elector. 
 The electors had various privileges, both general and 
 special. 
 
 ELE'CTRIC FISHES. The species of the class Pisces 
 are so called which have the power of discharging electric 
 shocks ; the most remarkable are the Torpedo, Gymnotus, 
 and Silurus, or Mu'apterurus eleciricus. 
 390 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 ELECTRI'CITY. (Gr. ijXwrpoj/, amber, the substanco 
 in which the property of attracting light substances after 
 friction was first observed.) 
 
 This truly extraordinary power of matter, independent of 
 the interest that always belonged to it, has of late years ac- 
 quired much importance from its influence over chemical 
 phenomena, and its connection with those of magnetism. 
 When a clean glass tube is rubbed with the dry hand, ot 
 with a piece of silk, it attracts and repels any light, gubstan 
 ces, — such as feathers, bran, or little pieces of paper,— 
 which are brought near it; a stick of sealing wax robbed 
 upon dry flannel exhibits the same appearances, and to a 
 superficial observer seems to be exactly in the same state 
 as the glass ; and they are said to be electrically excited 
 But, on more close examination, it is found that when light 
 bodies are attracted by excited glass, they are repelled by 
 excited sealing wax, and rice versa, so that the glass and 
 wax are said to be in opposite electric states ; and hence the 
 terms vitreous and resinous or positive and negative elec- 
 tricity. But these two states are always coexistent ; thus 
 when glass is rubbed by silk the glass becomes positive, 
 but the silk bocomes negative ; and in the case of sealing 
 wax rubbed by flannel the wax is negative, but the flannel 
 is positive. 
 
 A similar excitation of electricity is seen in an infinity of 
 other cases ; as when we rub a cat's back with the hand 
 or a piece of silk riband is drawn briskly between the fin- 
 gers, or a sheet of paper rubbed with India rubber, or s 
 metal rod with a silk handkerchief. These, and other ex- 
 traordinary phenomena connected with them, are hypo 
 thetically referred to the presence of a peculiar form ol 
 matter called the electric fluid ; it is supposed to apper 
 tain to all matter, but to become evident only when in re- 
 dundance or deficiency. When glass is rubbed with silk 
 the equilibrium of the electric fluid is disturbed, the silk 
 imparts it to the glass; and hence the former, losing elec- 
 tricity, becomes minus or negative, and the latter, acquiring 
 electricity, becomes plus or positive. This is commonh 
 called " Franklin's Theory," having been proposed andde" 
 fended by that celebrated electrician. Others have as 
 sumed the, existence of tito fluids as essen'ial to the expla 
 nation of electrical phenomena ; both equally subtile, elas- 
 tic, and universally diffused, and each highly repulsive as 
 to its own particles, and attractive of those of the opposite 
 kind. Electrical quiescence is referred to the combination 
 of these fluids, and their consequent mutual neutralizaiion ; 
 and electrical excitation is the consequence of either . 
 free or in excess. It is supposed that they are sepal 
 by friction, and by all those other causes which give rise 
 to the appearance of free electricity. Eitherof these h) po- 
 theses may be adopted as facilitating the explanation of elec- 
 trical phenomena, and as conferring meaning on terms which 
 would otherwise be unintelligible : of the two the simplest, 
 or that which refers the phenomena to one fluid, is per- 
 haps the most generally applicable. Both are apparency 
 equally consistent with facts ; but the existence of any 
 fluid, or form of matter, as the cause of electrical pheno- 
 mena, is at best extremely problematical 
 
 There are tw r o series of distinct phenomena represented 
 by electrified bodies ; the one seems to result from the 
 accumulation of electricity upon the surface of bodies ; 
 they are commonly included under the term electricity of 
 tension, and are well exhibited by ttie common electrical 
 machine and its prime conductor. It affects all neighbour- 
 ing bodies, and they are thrown by it into a polar electrical 
 state by what is termed induction : it has a tendency to 
 pass off in sparks through the air, or gradually to escape 
 from points. The thunder storm furnishes a magnificent 
 specimen of this state of electricity. The other slate of 
 sensible electricity is that exhibited by electricity in motion ; 
 as when a current of electricity is passing through a wire 
 or other conducting medium : in this case a vast quantity 
 of electricity may be concerned in the phenomena without 
 any apparent intensity ; but whilst the current is continu- 
 ous, it produces magnetic phenomena of a most extraor- 
 dinary character ; and when the perfect conductor is 
 broken by the intervention of certain oilier media, they 
 suffer in some cases chemical decomposition, and in others 
 become heated, and even ignited. The phenomena of elec- 
 tricity in motion are best exhibited by the Voltaic, apparatus. 
 
 In all electrical experiments remarkable differences are 
 observed in respect to the transfer of the electric fluid 
 through different bodies : some, such as the metals, allow 
 its free and nearly unimpeded passage through their sub- 
 stance ; while others receive and retain it more superfi- 
 cially, such as glass, resin, and other substances which ex- 
 hibit attractive and repulsive powers when rubbed. Hence 
 the division of bodies into conductors and nonconductors. 
 
 Many most important electrical phenomena depend ap- 
 parently upon induction, a subject which has been ably 
 studied by Faraday. (Phil. Trans.) We shall here cntei 
 into such details only as are required to render some of 
 the principal terms employed in discussing electrical phe- 
 nomena intelligible. 
 
<±> 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 If P-f- represent a metallic sphere in a highly positive 
 electric state, and N P a metallic con- v 
 
 auclor in its vicinity insulattd upon a (y 
 glass stein ; it will be found that the 
 extremity N of N P is negative, whilst 
 tl e other extremity P is positive, and 
 '.hat these opposite electricities are 
 greatest at the extremities of the con- 
 ductor, and gradually diminish towards the centre line C, 
 Which is neutral. This extraordinary stale of excitation in 
 N P is entirely dependent upon the proximity of P + ; for 
 if P + be withdrawn, N P loses all appearance of elec- 
 tricity ; and the degree of excitement in it is directly pro- 
 portional to the extent to which P-f- is excited, and (within 
 certain limits) In its nearness to N ; 60 that fluctuations in 
 lectricitT of N P will be observed in proportion as 
 1'+ is bin utility wards or removed from N, provided they 
 are not brought into contact, and that no spark passes. 
 phenomena have been theoretically explained upon 
 tpposidon that the free electricity in P + disturbs the 
 equilibrium of the natural electricity ol "N 1', and by repel- 
 ling it from N to P leaves the former minus and the latter 
 plus. Or. if we assume the existence of two electric fluids, 
 then the free positive electricity of P + repels the po 
 fluid of N P rind attract* its negative fluid, throwing it into 
 an electro-polar state. It N P, Instead ol being insulated, be 
 connected by its extremity P with the ground, the accumu- 
 lation at 1' ia prevented whilst N retains its deficient or nega- 
 tive stale ; or. upon the other theory, the positive fluid at P 
 is neutralized by a supply of negative fluid fr..m the earth ; 
 and If, I this by momentarily touching 
 
 N 1* with the finger, ire suddenly remove P +, the insula- 
 lated I P will be left with an excess of negative 
 
 electricity. 
 
 It will be obvious from the above statement that when 
 light bodies, especially if they be conductors, are attracted 
 by electrified surfaces In their vicinity, they are thrown by 
 induction into opposite electrical states; and when the 
 hand is brought near the excited conductorof the electrical 
 machine, it becomes negative, and remains so till the 
 equilibrium is restored bv the passage of a spark; which 
 phenomenon is supposed tii be the result of the combina- 
 tion of I .ric fluids. 
 
 Many important phenomena of electrical accumulation 
 are explained hv reference to "the principles of in- 
 duction, and among them the action of the Ley- 
 den jar or phial. A thin glass jar or bottle, A, is 
 coated inside and out, to within three or four 
 inches of its mouth, with some conducting sub- 
 stance ; tin foil, being especially convenient for 
 the purpose, is generally used ; and a metallic rod 
 projecting B few inches from the aperture, and 
 surmounted by a brass ball, B, communicates with ( *WB! 
 ating. 
 
 When the ball is applied to the prime conductor of the 
 electrical machine, and the outer coating communicates 
 with the ground, the interior acquires a positive and the 
 exterior a negative charge ; and on making a communica- 
 tion by means of a conductor between the inner and outer 
 the electricities are annihilated with the produc- 
 tion of a bright spark and explosion, and by a most disa- 
 greeable sensation, called the electric shock, if the body 
 be made part of the circuit. When several jars are so ar- 
 lial their interior and exterior coatings are all se- 
 eonnectcd, the assemblage constitutes the electri- 
 '■•ry. 
 
 In the common electrical machines, electricity is excited 
 by \ no friction of the plate or cylinder of glass upon the 
 or rubbers ; and the glass becomes positive, and 
 communicates the same slate to the opposed conductor, 
 generally termed the prime conductor of the machine ; the 
 rubber becomes negative, and is sometimes connected 
 with a second conductor. 
 
 The annexed figures represent the two common forms 
 of the electrical machine. The 
 first is the cylinder machine, com- 
 monly called Nairne's machine. 
 B Is the glass cylinder, which is 
 o revolve upon its axis by 
 the multiplying wheels F, C, the 
 necessary friction for the electric 
 •ion being produced by the 
 ■on and silk flap 1). A A are 
 the positive and negative conduc- 
 tor-, : the latter, bearing the cush- 
 ion, is adjusted as to Its requisite 
 pressure upon the cvlinderby the 
 screw at E. The conductors are 
 respectively supported and insu- 
 lated by the glass pillars G G, which should be coated with 
 lac varnish; and the axis of the cylinder rests upon the 
 pillars II II, which are also of glass. The second figure 
 represents the plate machine, usually termed Cuthbertson's 
 machine, in which A is the prime conductor, borne by a 
 391 
 
 ELECTRO-MAGNETISM. 
 
 stout glass stem which is attached 
 to the frame of the machine. B B 
 are the upper and lower pairs of 
 cushions, by which, together with 
 the silk flaps C C, the necessary 
 friction is obtained. E is the disk 
 of plate glass which is made to re- 
 volve upon its axis by the winch F. 
 In this machine, as the cushions 
 or rubbers are not insulated, the ne- 
 gative electricity cannot be sepa- 
 rately accumulated or exhibited, as 
 in the cylinder machine. 
 
 There are many other and high- 
 ly important causes of electric ex- 
 citation than those above adverted to; such as contact ol" 
 different metals (see Galvanism), chemical action (nee 
 Voltaic Elf.ctricity), change of temperature (see Ther- 
 mo-Elbcthicity), and magnetism (ste Magnetism and 
 Electro -Magnetism). 
 
 ELE'CTROCHEMWTRY. That branch of chemical 
 science describing the especial applications of electricity 
 as a chemical agent. 
 
 BLE'CTRODK. (Gr. nXcuroov, and bio;, a icay.) The 
 surfaces by which electricity passes into and out of other 
 media have been called by Mr. Faraday electrodes. The 
 term has also sometimes been derived from r)\tKTpov, am- 
 ber, and tttioc, like, and applied to substances which, like 
 amber, become electric by friction. 
 
 BLE'CTRO-DTNA'MICa (Gr. ^Xwrpo^and tvvautc, 
 power.) The phenomena ol electricity in motion. 
 
 (Gr. n\eitraoir,nml Aucj, I set free.) 
 Substances susceptible of direct decomposition by liie ac- 
 tion of the electric current: hence, also, the verb electro- 
 lyze; i. e. to resolve compounds into their elements by 
 the agency of electricity. Faraday has shown that in many 
 rases of electrolysis, the evolution of elements 
 is the consequence of ■ secondary action ; the sulphur, 
 for instance, which is thus evolved at the negative polo 
 from sulphuric, acid, is the result of the evolution of hy- 
 drogen at that pole ; in all cases of true electrolytic action 
 sulphur appears a 
 
 ELECTRO MAGNETISM. When a current of electri- 
 city is traversing any substance, or when electricity is in 
 motion, magnetism is at the same time developed. This 
 fact was first observed by Professor Oersted of Copenha- 
 gen, and has become the source of an important series of 
 discoveries included under the above term. The excita- 
 tion of magnetism depends upon quantity of electricity, 
 and is best observed in the wire which closes the voltaic 
 circle, especially of one or more pairs of large plates. If 
 a magnetic needle be brought near a wire through which au 
 electric current la passing, it will immediately deviate 
 from its usual position, and assume a new one, depen- 
 dent upon the relative position of the needle and the wire. 
 On placing the electric wire above and parallel to the mag- 
 net, the pole next the negative end of the battery always 
 moves to the west; and when the wire is placed under 
 the needle, the same pole turns to the east. When the 
 electric wire is on the same horizontal plane with the nee- 
 dle, no declination takes place ; but the magnet shows a dis- 
 position to move in a vertical direction, the pole next the 
 negative side of the battery being depressed when the 
 wire is to the west of it, and elevated when it is to the east. 
 The magnetic phenomena of a wire transmitting electri- 
 city are such as appear to depend upon the circulation of 
 magnetism at right angles to the electric current, so that if 
 m N P represent the wire transmit- 
 
 , c ting a current of electricity in the 
 
 " E^= 1 -— J 1, direction of the horizontal darts, a 
 
 current of magnetism will be estab- 
 lished in the direction of the vertical dart, appearing to 
 move round the axis of the electric current ; hence the 
 term vertiginous or rotary magnetism, applied to these 
 phenomena ; and hence the motion of the pole of the 
 magnet round the electric wire, or of the electric wire 
 round the pole of the magnet, when they respectively are 
 so arranged as to be able to move freely in any direction. 
 If a steel needle be placed ! n contact with the electric wire, 
 and parallel to it, it acquires opposite magnetisms upon its 
 two sides ; but if it be placed at right angles to the connect- 
 ing wire, it becomes polar, and 
 __i^sS^^S : '5l' permanently magnetic. If the 
 
 7 H ( ( /■ 1'.' 1 \ y a \T' s electric wire be twis,e d into a 
 ^^^430335^' spiral, and the steel needle placed 
 rl i ' ■ within it (as in the cut), it is re- 
 
 tained there, and becomes a more powerful magnet in con- 
 sequence of the repetitions and direction of the electric 
 and magnetic currents, as will be evident from the annexed 
 figure, where o represents a glass tube with the wire tip 
 conveying the electric current twisted round it; the darts 
 at the'endsof which show the ingress and egress of the 
 electricity, and the transverse darts Ihe direction of the 
 magnetic current. If the cylinder round which the wire 
 
ELECTROMETER. 
 
 conveying the electric current is twisted be of steel, it be- 
 
 conies a permanent magnet; if of pure soft 
 
 iron, it becomes a temporary magnet, so long 
 
 as the electric current is in motion, and s and 
 
 n are powerfully opposed poles. If the bar 
 
 bo bent, as in the annexed cut, a powerful 
 
 horse shoe magnet is obtained when the ends 
 
 v n of the copper wire twisted round it are 
 
 connected with the voltaic eircle ; and a single 
 
 pair of plates is sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 ELECTRO'METER. (Gr. TjAacr/iov, and ptrpov, a mea- 
 sure.) An instrument for ascertaining the presence and 
 Intensity of electric excita- 
 tion. The simplest form of 
 electrometer consists of two t -^— , .^ 
 
 very small pith balls sus- J] ' A 
 
 pended from a small con- I / t 
 
 ductor by very fine wire or -/*L 
 
 thread ; upon the principle 'Hi> 
 that bodies similarly electri- 
 fied repel each other, these 
 diverge upon the reception of very minute quantities of 
 electricity. Two thin slips of gold leaf are also similarly 
 applied ; and, to prevent the influence of the agitation of 
 the air upon them, they are suspended in any convenient 
 way uudera glass shade. The other forms of electrometers 
 generally act upon the same principle, being respectively 
 adjusted to the varving degrees of quantily and intensity 
 
 ELECTRO'PHORUS. (Gr. ri\eKTpov, and <pcp(a, I 
 carry.) This instrument consists of a tlat smooth cake of 
 resin A, which is rendered negatively electrical by friction ; 
 a plate of brass with a glass handle is then placed upon 
 it, and becomes electropolar by induction. 
 The brass plate, having been touched by the 
 finger whilst lying upon the resin, is after- 
 wards lifted off by its glass handle, and gives 
 a spark of positive electricity. The same 
 operation may be indefinitely repeated. This 
 instrument is sometimes a convenient substitute for the 
 electrical machine, and is elegantly applied to inflame a 
 jet of hydrogen gas in Volta's inflammable air lamp. 
 
 ELE'CTROPO'LAR. A term applied to conductors, 
 one end or surface «jf which is positive, and the other nega- 
 tive ; a state which they commonly exhibit when under the 
 influence of induction. 
 
 ELE'CTROSCOPE. (Gr. »jA£<crpoi>, and okokzo), Isee.) 
 An instrument for rendering electrical excitation apparent 
 by its effects. The gold leaf electrometer, and other simi- 
 lar arrangements, are electroscopes. 
 
 EI.E'CTRTJM. (Gr. ri\cKrpov.) A term applied by the 
 ancients to various substances ; but especially to the sub- 
 stance now called amber, or to a certain metallic alloy con- 
 sisting of four pans of gold and one part of silver. (See 
 Pliny, lib. xxxiii. and xxxvii.) 
 
 ELE'CTUARY. (Lat. electoarium.) This term is ge- 
 nerally applied to powders which are mixed up with syrup, 
 so as to be of about the consistency of treacle. The con- 
 fections of the present Pharmacopoeia are substituted for 
 the former electuaries. 
 
 ELE'DONE. (Gr. t\eSovr>.) A name applied by Aris- 
 totle to a genus of Malakia or Cephalopods having a single 
 row of suckers on each arm, and without any musky 
 odour: it is applied in modern zoology to the same genus. 
 
 E'LEGANCE. (Lat. elegantia.) In the Fine Arts, a 
 quality Indicating grace and lightness, but especially the 
 latter. In painting and sculpture it greatly depends on 
 good selection and delicacy of execution, and these again 
 upon taste. Heaviness, and leanness or extreme lightness, 
 are the boundaries between which elegance is a mean. 
 
 ELE'GIT (Lat. he has chosen), in Law, is a writ of exe- 
 cution, which lies for one who has recovered debt or 
 damages ; or upon a recognizance in any court against one 
 not able in his goods to satisfy the same, directed lo the 
 sheriff, commanding him to make delivery of a moiety of 
 the party's land, and all his goods except beasts of the 
 plough. The creditor holding the moiety of the land until 
 satisfaction is termed tenant by elegit. 
 
 E'LEGY, is the name given in modern times to a species 
 of poetical composition of a mournful character. But 
 though this signification of the term tallies with its ety- 
 mology (Gr. e, and Xtvtiv, to cry alas), the expression 
 elegy among the Greeks, with whom it originated, and 
 among the Romans, by whom it was assiduously culti- 
 vated, had a much wider signification. Thus among the 
 former it embraced equally the warlike verses of Tyrtffius, 
 the melancholy effusions of Mimnermus, and the moral 
 and political aphorisms of Theognis and Solon ; and among 
 the latter it comprehended the miscellaneous themes of 
 Ovid, Propertius, Tibullus, and Catullus. The form of 
 verse in which it was composed was the alternate hexame- 
 ter and pentameter. (.See Pentameter.) In modern 
 times almost all the nations of Europe have practised this 
 species of composition ; but if we except the Elegies of 
 Hammond, Milton's Lycidaa, and Gray's Elegy among our- 
 392 
 
 ELEVATION 
 
 selves, and Matthisson's Elegie among the Germans, i< 
 does not appear with great success. 
 
 E'LEMENTS. The old chemists applied t^'s term li 
 certain imaginary principles or essences of matter; suck 
 as fire, water, earth, and air. The elements of the alche- 
 mists are salt, sulphur, and mercury. The term element 
 is now used as synonymous v/i\h simple or undecompound- 
 ed body ; that is, a substance which we cannot resolve inn; 
 simpler forms of matter. Tne present list of elements in- 
 cludes all the metals, and the following substances— oxygen, 
 chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, hydrogen, nitrogen, sul- 
 phur, phosphorus, carbon, selenium, and' boron ; aiuoi.m 
 ing in all to fifty-four, exclusive of the imponderable forms 
 of matter. See Equivalents, Chemical 
 
 E'LEMI. The resinous exudation of the Amyris elemi- 
 /era, brought from the West Indies: it yields a volatile oil 
 on distillation. It is used in ointments, giving them a gently 
 stimulating character, and adding to their viscidity. Th>' 
 compound elemi ointment of the Pharmaeopo.'ii is a go«>d 
 preparation of this kind, and resembles the yellow baaiiicon 
 of old pharmacy. 
 
 ELE'NCHUS. See Sophism. 
 
 ELEPH ANTI'ASIS. A disease which chiefly affects the 
 legs and feet, which become rough, scaly, and swollen, and 
 have been compared to the feet of the elephant ; the skin 
 gets thick, unctuous, and insensible, and the limb occa- 
 sionally attains an enormous size. 
 
 E'LEPHANT, WHITE. A Danish order of knighthood 
 of great antiquity: the number of knights is limited to 
 thirty, besides members of the royal famTly. 
 
 E'LEPIIAS, or ELEPHANT. (Gr. cbtibas, an elephant.) 
 The generic, name of the most gigantic ol existing quadru- 
 peds. They are characterized essentially by having grind- 
 ers composed of alternating vertical plates of ivosj^ enamel, 
 and cKmentum, and two tusks in the upper jaw : they are 
 also the only living Mammalia which have a proboscis or 
 trunk longer than the head. It is inferred frost the struc- 
 ture of the skull that the extinct Mastodons, which have 
 grinders of a more simple structure, also possessed a long 
 proboscis; and accordingly Cuvier includes die genus Ele- 
 phas and Mastodon in a particular family of Pachyderms 
 called Proboscidians. Of the true genus Elsphaslltere ate 
 two living and a greater number of extinct species. The 
 Indian elephant (Elephas Indicus, Cuv.) differs from the 
 African species in its greater size, in the skull being higher 
 in proportion to its length, and with a more concave fore- 
 head. The Indian elephant has also comparatively smaller 
 ears ; the skin is of a paler brown colour; and it has (our 
 nails on the hind feet instead of three. The elephant will 
 breed in confinement ; its period of gestation is twenty 
 months and some days. It brings forth one young at a 
 birth, which derives ils nourishment from two nipples 
 placed on the inner side of the setting in of the fore-legs. 
 The perpendicular height of the Indian elephant, measured 
 from the top of the shoulder, has not been found to exceed 
 ten feet six inches: the ordinary height is from seven to 
 nine feet. The Indian elephant varies as lo the length ol 
 the tusks; their ends only are visible exlernally in ihe fe- 
 males, and there is also a race (Mooknah) in which they 
 are straight ami short in the males. In other races the 
 males have (he tusks long and curved, especially in that 
 called " Dauntelah." The anecdotes of the docility, saga- 
 city, and tenacious memory of the elephant are numerous 
 and generally known. The characteristics of the African 
 elephant may be inferred from the account of those of the 
 Indian species. It is usual to describe it as having a fore- 
 head convex instead of concave; but Ihe projection is 
 caused by the nasal bones, which are higher placed than 
 in the Indian species ; and the true front la in reality con- 
 cave in the African species, but in a less degree than in the 
 Indian. The chief external character of the African ele- 
 phant is his huge ears. It is a remarkable fact that no Af- 
 rican nation has ever subdued the elephant, or made it 
 available for any useful purpose. For an account of the 
 fossil elephants, see Mammoth. 
 
 ELEUSI'NIAN MYSTERIES. The secret religious 
 rites performed every year in honour of Ceres and Proser- 
 pine at the Attic town of Eleusis. To these mysteries all 
 Greeks of both sexes, if unpolluted by crime, were admit- 
 ted ; and as persons thus initiated were considered to bo 
 peculiarly under the protection of the gods and to enjoy their 
 favour, it was a privilege much sought after. It has been 
 thought that many passages of ancient classical writers re- 
 fer in a covert manner to these mysteries, and the doc- 
 trines disclosed in them : Ihus, the whole sixth book of the 
 JEneid has been inlerpreted by Warburton and others as 
 an allegorical exposition of them, a notion controverted by 
 Gibbon in one of his early works. See Mysteries. 
 
 ELEVA'TION. (Lat. e,/rom, and levo, 1 raise.) la 
 Architecture, a geometrical representation of a building 
 measured vertically in respect of Ihe horizon ; by the an- 
 cient architects called the orthography. It is only in this 
 sense that it is technically used by architects ; in general 
 terms it is the height of a building above the ground. 
 
ELEVATOR. 
 
 Elevation, in Astronomy, denotes the angular height 
 or the altitude of a celestial object above the horizon. 
 Thus, elevation of the pole denotes the arc of the meridian 
 intercepted between the pole and the horizon. 
 
 Elevation, in Perspective, is sometimes used for the 
 scenography or perspective representation of the whole 
 oojeei or building. 
 E 'LEVATOR. A surgical instrument for raising de- 
 
 d portions of the skull. 
 
 ELFS, or FAIRIES. Imaginary beings, honoured more 
 
 i ularly by the northern nations, in whose mythology 
 
 a prominent place. They were divided into 
 
 two classes — the good and the had ; and their exploits have 
 
 given rise to a multiplicity of delightful stories. (See Mid- 
 
 summer- Night'* Dream ; and Grimm's Deutsche Mytholvgie, 
 
 p. 869 ) See Fairies. 
 
 El. (U.N MARBLES. A collection of ancient bas reliefs, 
 statues, <ko., which were chiefly decorations of the Parthe- 
 non at Alliens, and are now deposited with some additions 
 at the British Mnsniim Mr. Harrison, a northern archi- 
 tect of great abilities, suggested to Lord Elgin in 1797, at 
 the period of Mis nomination to the embassy at Constanti- 
 nople, the removal of these celebrated works. But it was 
 not till some time after Lord Elgin's arrival that the minis 
 len of the Poste were prevailed on to allow him to detach 
 any portion of the marbles ; and about eighty cases arrived 
 in England in 1*1-J. In 1816 the collection was purchased 
 by government under a recommendation of a committee 
 of the House of Commons, at, if we rightly recollect, the 
 sum of .£35,000. They are without question the finest pro- 
 ductions of sculpture in the world. 
 
 El. I Ml.NY'TlON. (Lat. elimino, / put out.) A term 
 us' (1 by writers on algebra to denote that operation by 
 which any number n of equations being given, containing n 
 unknown quantities, a single equation is deduced from 
 them romsinlnt only one unknown quantity ; so that, by 
 resolving this equation, we find the value of the unknown 
 quantity it contains, and thence, by successive substitu- 
 tions, tin- values of all the other unknown quantities. To 
 eliminate a quantity is therefore to cause that quantity to 
 ■ from an equation. 
 ELIUUA'TION. (Eat.) The separation of two metals 
 by fusion. 
 
 EU'SION. (Lat. elido.) In Grammar, the cutting off 
 ji suppressing of a vowel at the end of a word, for the 
 sake of euphony or the measure of the verse. The use 
 of the elision was confined chiefly to the languages of 
 and Rome. 
 El.l'XIR. (Arab.) A term applied in old pharmacy to 
 r tinctures: a mixture of an aromatic 
 tincture with sulphuric acid was called elixir of vitriol. 
 ilchemist8 applied the term elixir to various solutions 
 employed in the art of transmutati m. 
 EI.K Set Cbrvds. 
 
 EI.EA'GIC ACID. An acid obtained by Braconnot from 
 gall nuts, and differing from the gallic acid : the term is de- 
 rived from the word^oUe, reversed. 
 
 El. 1. 1 PSE. (Gr. tAXtiuVij, defect.) One of the conic 
 sections, produced by cutting a cone by a plane passing ob- 
 liquely through its opposite sides. (See Conic Sections.) 
 Toe ancient Greek geometers gave this name to the figure, 
 among its other properties, one is, that the squares 
 of the ordinate* are less than the rectangles under the re- 
 ibscissa and the parameter, or differ from them 
 in defect. 
 
 Though the ellipse was first suggested to geometers from 
 
 considering the sections of the cone, it may be defined in 
 
 various ways, and all its properties investigated without any 
 
 reference to the solid. We subjoin some of these defim- 
 
 Uich are, in fact, so many different properties of 
 
 ■ipse. 
 
 1. If two points F and / be given in a plane, and a point 
 
 D be conceived to move around them in 
 
 such ■ manner that the sum of the two 
 
 distances I) Fand I)/ is always the same, 
 
 th" point D will describe upon the plane 
 
 an ellipse A D B. The points E and / 
 
 are the foci of the ellipse ; and the point 
 
 C, which bisects the distances between 
 
 the foci, is its centre. The line A a is the major or 
 
 Irarisverse axis; and B b, which passes through the centre, 
 
 and is perpendicular to A a, is the minor or conjugate axis. 
 
 From ihis definition it is obvious how the curve maybe 
 
 I mechanically. Having fixed two pins F and / 
 
 in the plane, let the ends of a thread be fastened to the 
 
 two pins ; then, moving a style or pencil within the thread. 
 
 keep it always stretched, the point of the style 
 
 will describe the ellipse. 
 
 B. Let F be a given point, and M N a straight line given in 
 
 if another point D move on the same plane so 
 
 : stance D F from F shall have always to the per- 
 
 pcndieular D E, or its distance from the given line M N, 
 
 the constant ratio of two given lines X and Y, of which X 
 
 '.* leas than Y, the point D will describe an ellipse. The 
 
 393 
 
 ELLIPSOID OF REVOLUTION. 
 line If N is called the directrix, and its distance from the 
 centre C is such that C G is a third proportional to C F and C 
 A. It is obvious that F A is to A G in the given ratio of X to Y. 
 
 3. It is also a properly of the ellipse that the rectangle 
 under A II and H a is to the square of the ordinate II Din 
 the raiio of the square of C A to the square of C B. From 
 this properly the common algebraic equation of the ellipse 
 is derived Let C A =«, C B = 6, C II = x, and II D = 
 y ; then A II • II a : H D* : : a* : 6», that is, (a — x) (a + x) 
 
 : y* : : o» : 6", or o» — x* : y» : : a s : 6 s , whence y» = -„ 
 
 («• — **)• This equation may be put under the following 
 
 x' w* 
 elegant form, —, •+■ '-j = 1. 
 
 a o* 
 
 4. Let M N, P Q. be two straight lines intersecting eacn 
 other in C; then if a straight line B A 
 of a given length be carried along the two 
 straight lines M N, P Q, any point D in 
 A B (or in A B produced) will describe an 
 ellipse the centre of which is at C. It is 
 on this principle that elliptic, compasses 
 and lathes for turning ovals are con- 
 structed. 
 
 6. If a movfng or generating circle roll along the concave 
 circumference of a fixed circle in the same plane, ami the 
 radius of the former be half that of the latter, anv given 
 point in the plane of the generating circle, within or with- 
 out it, will describe an ellipse. This very remarkable pro 
 perty of the ellipse, by which the curve i~ shown to be an 
 epicycloid, was applied by Professor Wallace of Edinburgh 
 to the invention of an ingenious instrument for describing 
 an ellipse by continued motion. The construction of the in- 
 strument is as follows : — 
 "a and 6 are two wheels, the axes of which turn in 
 holes c o. near the ends of the connect- 
 ing bar d. One of the wheels h must 
 D be just half the diameter of the other a, 
 I {/')/) which may be of any size, ami a hand e 
 16 ' e I /goes round them outside ; an arm cp 
 is attached to the wheel /,. and admits 
 of being lengthened or shortened bv 
 sliding along its surface in a socket which m he any 
 where on the wheel. Suppose now that the wheel a is 
 fixed or kept from turning, and that the bard is turned 
 round the centre o, carrying at its other extremit. 
 wheel 6 ; the action of the band ef will then turn this • 
 round its centre c; and while the bar makes one revolu- 
 tion round the centre of the fixed wheel, the other w! I 
 
 will make (wo revolutions about its centre, and the point p 
 in the sliding bar will describe the ellipse." 'Wallace'.- 
 Conic Sections.) 
 
 6. The ellipse is the curve in which the planets perform 
 their revolutions about the sun, and its properties enter 
 into almost every investigation connected with physical as- 
 tronomy. In these investigations it is found most conve- 
 nient to define the curve by means of an equation between 
 the radius vector, that is, a line drawn from the focus to 
 the curve, and the angle which it makes with the trans- 
 verse axis. This is called ihe polar equation to the ellipse, 
 and is found as follows:— Let F D the radius vector (see 
 the first diagram) = r, C A = a, C F the eccentricity = e, 
 and the angle A F D, which is called the anomaly = 6 ; 
 
 then r = — ; . 
 
 a + ecos. 
 
 It is a property of the ellipse, that if a circle be described 
 upon either axis, and from any point of that axis an ordi- 
 nate be drawn both to the circle and ellipse, then the ordi- 
 nate of the circle is to the ordinate of the ellipse as that 
 axis to the other axis. Hence the whole area of Ihe circle is to 
 the whole area of the ellipse in the same proportion, and 
 consequently the area of an ellipse is a mean proportion d 
 between the areas of the two circles described upon its 
 transverse and conjugate axes. Hence, to find the area of 
 an ellipse, multiply the two axes together, and multiply the 
 product by -7854. See Circle. 
 
 The whole length of the periphery of an ellipse is ex- 
 pressed by the following series : 
 
 /, 1 . l'-3 
 
 l«-3*-5 
 
 i . l*-3*-5»-7 . , \ 
 
 Sir 
 
 V 2 s " 2 3 -4 a " 2 3 -4 a -6 a 
 where 2tr denotes the circumference of the circle de- 
 scribed about the greater axis, and e is the eccentricity; 
 that is, e a = 1 — 6', 6 being the semi-axis minor, and the 
 semi-axis major being unit. 
 
 ELLI'PSIS. (Gr. iWeliru, I omit.) In Grammar and 
 Rhetoric, the omission of a word or part of a sentence, 
 which is left to be supplied by the imagination of the hearer 
 or reader. 
 
 ELLIPSOID. (Gr. eXAtiuVtc, and eiSot,form.) A geome- 
 trical solid, of such a nature that every section of it made 
 by a plane produces an ellipse. 
 
 ELLIPSOID OF REVOLUTION, called also the Sphe- 
 roid, is the solid generated by the revolution of an ellipse 
 about its lesser axis. 
 
ELLIPTIC COMPASSES. 
 
 ELLIPTIC COMPASSES. An instrument for describ- 
 ing an ellipse" by continued motion. An instrument of this 
 kind has been described under Ellipse. Various contri- 
 vances for effecting this purpose are described in the Ex- 
 ercitationes Mathematical of Schooten, 
 
 ELLIPTI'CITY op the TERRESTRIAL SPHEROID. 
 A term used by Clairaut and other writers on the figure of 
 the earth, to denote the deviation of the earth's form from 
 that of a sphere. Clairaut employed the term to denote the 
 difference of the two axes divided by the smaller: most 
 other writers understand by it the difference of the axes 
 divided by the greater. Thus, let a = the equatorial dia- 
 meter, b the polar diameter, e = the elliDticity ; then e = 
 a — b 
 , whence b = a (.1 — e.) 
 
 ELM. A valuable genus of trees, confined to the colder 
 pans of the northern hemisphere, but common to both 
 the old and new world. Most of the species are trees of 
 considerable size, and produce a timber useful for many 
 common purposes in which great strength and durability 
 are not required ; but some of them are small bushes of 
 no known value. In Great Britain there are several spe- 
 cies in a wild state, the most valuable of which are called 
 the Welsh, the Hertfordshire, the Huntingdon, and the 
 smooth-leaved ; in other countries of Europe and Asia 
 many peculiar species exist, but they have been little ex- 
 amined by botanists. The elm is valued for the rapidity 
 of its growth, ils hardiness, and its capability of thriving 
 in poor soil unfit for tillage. The word seems to be an 
 alteration of ulmus, its Latin name. 
 
 ELOCU'TION (Lat. eloquor, I speak out), signified ori- 
 ginally, as the derivation of the word imports, the act of 
 choosing and adapting words and sentences to the ideas to 
 be expressed ; but it is more frequently employed to de- 
 note the just and graceful management of the voice, coun- 
 tenance, and gesture in speaking; in which sense it is sy- 
 nonymous with what is termed a good deliver;/ or pronun- 
 ciation. See Declamation, Eloquence. 
 
 E'LOGE. (Gr. tvXoyia, Ang. eulogy.) A term applied 
 in France to the panegyrical orations pronounced in honour 
 of illustrious deceased persons, and narticularly of mem- 
 bers of the Roytl c .d othti academies. Form :iy . o- 
 cretaries of the various French literary institutions used to 
 compose and pronounce the eloge; but this duty is now 
 performed by the new member elected in the room of the 
 deceased. This practice is no doubt open to censure; 
 but it has been the means of giving to the world many in- 
 teresting biographical sketches, which would never other- 
 wise have appeared. Elcge is also applied to any species 
 of biographical writing in which praise predominates over 
 censure, and has been much cultivated by French and 
 Italian authors. 
 
 ELONGA'TION, in Astronomy, is the apparent dis- 
 tance of a planet from the sun. The greatest elongation 
 of Mercury amounts to about 28§ degrees, and that of 
 Venus to about 47° 48'. With regard to the superior pla- 
 nets, the elongation may have any value from to 180°. 
 
 E'LOQUENCE. (Lat.) The art of clothing the thoughts 
 in the most suitable expressions, in order to produce con- 
 viction or persuasion. In its primary signification, elo- 
 quence (as indeed its etymology implies) had reference to 
 public speaking alone ; "but as most of the rules for public 
 speaking are applicable equally to writing, an extension of 
 the term naturally took place; and we find even Aristotle 
 (R/ie. book iii.), the earliest systematic writer on the sub- 
 ject whose works have come down to us, including in his 
 treatise rules for such compositions as were not intended 
 for public recitation. A still wider extension of the term 
 was contended for by the ancient rhetoricians, who in- 
 cluded under it all kinds of literary productions (such as 
 treatises on law, logic, &c), and whatever might be neces- 
 sary to illustrate and explain them. In the following ob- 
 servations we shall confine ourselves chiefly to the etymo- 
 logical meaning of the word, and shall give a brief sketch 
 of the history, the objects, and the divisions of eloquence. 
 The invention of eloquence is ascribed by the Egyptians 
 and the fables of the poets to the god Mercury ; but no 
 certain account can be given when or by whom this art 
 first began to be cultivated. If we may judge from the 
 julogiums which Homer pronounced upon Ulysses and 
 Nestor for their attainments in eloquence, it must have 
 r>een very early in high esteem among the Greeks. Hat 
 though, from time to time, there arose in Greece many 
 listinguished writers upon eloquence, it does not appear 
 .hat the practice of the art was combined with the theory 
 for public purposes till the time of Pisistratus, who owed 
 to his rhetorical acquirements his elevation to the throne. 
 Passing from Pericles (the next in order to Pisistratus), 
 who was distinguished at once as a general, a statesman, 
 an! an orator, we find many eminent names during the 
 Peloponnesian war immortalized for their eloquence by 
 the pen of Thucydides. In the succeeding age arose the 
 school of rhetoricians, or sophists, as they are called, 
 who endeavoured to graft upon eloquence the subtleties 
 394 
 
 ELOQUENCE. 
 
 of logic ; and among the earliest and most eminent of tins 
 school were Gorgias, Isocrates, and Isaus, of whose pub- 
 licly delivered orations there are still ten extant. It was 
 in this age that Grecian eloquence attained its highest per- 
 fection by the genius of Demosthenes, to whom the palm 
 has been conceded by the unanimous consent of ancient 
 and modern times. Various are the writers that have en- 
 deavoured to point out the beauties of Demosthenes; but 
 by none are the peculiar qualities and distinguished pro- 
 perties of his style more vigorously and happily (though 
 briefly) pourtrayed than by Hume, who, throwing aside his 
 usual calm and dispassionate manner, thus describes it: — 
 " It is rapid harmony exactly adjusted to the sense : it is 
 vehement reasoning without any appearance of art : it is 
 disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, involved in a continued 
 stream of argument; and of all human productions, the 
 orations of Demosthenes present to us the models which 
 approach the nearest to perfection." After this period, 
 Grecian eloquence declined rapidly ; and though in the fol- 
 lowing ages there flourished among others Hermagoras, 
 Athena?us, Apollonius, Caecilius, and Dionysius, their 
 names have been almost without exception rescued from 
 oblivion by a work which may be regarded as the last ex- 
 piring ray of Grecian eloquence — the incomparable treatise 
 of Longinus on the Sublime. 
 
 In consequence of the all-absorbing spirit for military 
 glory with which the ancient Romans were animated, it 
 was long before they found leisure to appreciate the ad- 
 vantages of eloquence ; and even so late as the year of the 
 city 592, when, by the industry of some Greeks, the liberal 
 arts began to flourish at Rome, the senate passed a decree 
 banishing all rhetoricians from the country. But a few 
 years afterwards, when Carneades, Critolaus, and Diogenes 
 were sent as ambassadors from Athens to Rome, the Ro- 
 man youth were so charmed with the eloquence of their 
 harangues, that the study of oratory formed thenceforth a 
 branch of a liberal education. Men of the highest rank 
 were now seen teaching and learning respectively the art 
 of eloquence; and such was the impetus given to this study, 
 that it made the most rapid advances, and was ;it last 
 crowned by the appearance of Cicero, to whom critics have 
 
 •.: urre ; '"• assignii ■•-. ran'' infi rlor only to t' at of De- 
 mosthenes. That many illustrious orators existed at Rome 
 prior to the age of Augustus, we learn from the work of 
 Cicero, De Claris Oratoribus. In this treatise Cicero, in 
 detailed notices and liberal eulogiums, has given immor- 
 tality to the very men whose works were thrown inlo ob- 
 scurity by the splendour of his own : as Quintilian says of 
 Menander and his predecessors — atque ille quidem omni- 
 bus ejusdem operis auctoribus abstulit nomen, et fnlgorc 
 quodam sua? claritatis tenebrasobduxit. The mighty scale 
 on which every thing was conducted at Rome, and the 
 enormous interests so- frequently at stake, were never so 
 wonderfully exhibited as in the age of Cicero ; and the un- 
 paralleled exigency found or created in him a talent for 
 profiting by its advantages or coping with its difficulties 
 In the succeeding ages of the Roman empire, the despotic 
 character of the government checked the growth of the 
 rhetorical art; but the names of Tacitus, Quintilian, and 
 Pliny are an earnest of what might have been achieved in 
 this arena, had circumstances permitted the development 
 of their talents. 
 
 During the middle ages, though the practice of eloquence 
 may, as far as we know, be said to have lain dormant, the 
 theory formed part of the scholastic study, as may be seen 
 from the old doggrel hexameter, which served to fix the 
 monastic studies in the memory — 
 
 11 Granim. (Grammatical loquitur ; Dia. (Dialectice) vera docet ; 
 Rhet. (Rhetorice) verba colurat." 
 
 With regard to the early history of eloquence in England, 
 there are found, indeed, the names of several distinguished 
 men who in former times directed the resolutions of our 
 parliament ; but no pains were taken lo preserve their 
 speeches; and, as Hume observes, the authority which 
 they possessed seems to have been owing lo their expe- 
 rience, wisdom, or power, more than to their talents for 
 oratory. It was not until the close of the last century (a 
 period which, it mav be said, Hume did not live to see), that 
 an era arose in the history of British eloquence, which the 
 genius of Chatham, Pitt, Burke, Fox, and Sheridan has 
 consecrated and immortalized. 
 
 We can only allude to the history of eloquence in othei 
 countries. The little opportunity afforded lur a display of 
 forensic or senatorial eloquence by the different govern- 
 ments of Germany has almost entirely checked its growth 
 in that country ; and the same remark is applicable to Italy, 
 Spain, and Portugal ; all of which, however, have been rich 
 in the eloquence of the pulpit. The only two countries in 
 the world whose orators can be put in competition with 
 those of Britain, are France and America. To the pulpit 
 oratory of the former, the illustrious names of Bnssuet, 
 Bourrlaloue, and Massillon have given enduring celebrity; 
 while the popular character of their respective institutions 
 
ELOaUENCE. 
 
 I i host of forensic and senatorial speakers wor- 
 thy a prominent place among the orators of antiquity, and 
 ■ii limes. The pulpit orators of England are too well 
 known to be noticed here. 
 
 • ments of eloquence are usually comprised under 
 the four following divisions — invention, disposition, elocu- 
 oid delivery. The first has reference to the character 
 of the thoughts or ideas to be employed ; the second to 
 their arrangement (usually called ihe parts of a discourse, 
 — consisting ol the exordium or introduction, the narration, 
 proposition, the proof or refutation, and the perora- 
 tion : see these terms) ; and the third and fourth have re- 
 spect to word-, style, utterance action, &c. 
 The Greeks divided discourses according to their con- 
 is relating to precept (XoyovO, manners (»j0»i), and 
 feelinzs (iraOn), and as therefore calculated to instruct, to 
 . and to move. The Romans distinguished three 
 kinds of eloquence : — the demonstrative, occupied with 
 praise or blame, and addressed to the judgment; the de- 
 liberative, which acts upon the will by persuasion or dis- 
 suasion ; and the judicial or forensic, which was used in 
 iin2 or attacking— a division originally laid down 
 by Aristotle, De Rketorica. In our own times, a division 
 somewhat similar has been made ; and the bar, the senate, 
 and the pulpit are the three grand theatres for the exhi- 
 bition of oratory. With recard to the distinguishing charac- 
 teristics of these three kinds of eloquence, the reader will 
 find ample information on this head by consulting Blair, or 
 Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric. The following is a 
 summary of their views. In popular assemblies, the great 
 object to be effected by the orator is persuasion : the 
 speaker aims at determining his audience to adopt some 
 line of conduct, as good, fit, or useful; and in order to ac- 
 complish this object, he must address himself to all the 
 principles of action in human nature. — to the passions, to 
 the heart, as well as to the understanding. At the bar, on 
 the other band, it is not persuasion, but conviction, that the 
 r aims at producing. There it is not the speaker's 
 badness to persuade the judges to what is good and use- 
 ful, but to show them what is just and true. Hence it is 
 chiefly »o the understanding that his eloquence is to be ad- 
 l. Hence. a!>o. i, ■ eloquence of ihe bar is consi- 
 dered by most rhetoricians of a moro limited kind than 
 that of popular assemblies. In many instances, however, 
 the eloquence of the har has a much wider scope than such 
 writers have conceded, and the trial by jury admits of the 
 most impassioned appeals to be found in the annals of mo- 
 dern eloquence. With rezard to the eloquence of the pulpit, 
 though it appears at. first view to be possessed of many 
 qualities advantageous to oratorical display, such as the 
 dignity and sublimity of the subject, the large and mixed 
 audience, and the leisure of the speaker for premeditation, 
 these will be found to be counterbalanced by many disad- 
 vantages ; e. g, the triteness of the subject, and the diffi- 
 culty experienced by the speaker to' excite attention. 
 Besides, ;lt !, »' har, or in the senate, the orator addresses 
 ma which are forbidden ground to the preacher; and 
 if at any time the litter makes an incursion into those re- 
 lie is in danger of assuming a tone inconsistent with 
 the diznity and the charity of his profession. The fierce 
 invective, the terrible crimination, the bold and unexpected 
 retort, the cutting sarcasm, the cool and dignified irony, on 
 the one hand. — and, on the other, the skilful flattery, the 
 exquisite artifice, with which the baser as well as the no- 
 bler passions of the audience are wrought into a subservi- 
 ence of the purpose of the orator; all these fall more or 
 • ithin the province of the bar and the senate, but are 
 beyond the sphere of the pulpit orator. With all these re- 
 strictions, however, the subjects to which pulpit eloquence 
 may : are surficientlv extensive to admit of 
 
 great oratorical display ; and as to convince the intellect and 
 force the unwilling homaze of the reason, as well as to 
 awaken the conscience and to arouse the imagination, are 
 the objects of preaching, the pulpit orator may, by the 
 choice of his subject, at one time be arzumentative and 
 ratiocina'ivo, at another declamatory and impassioned. 
 
 It is admitted on all sides (bat, in modern times, elo- 
 quence has not been invested with so much importance, or 
 cultivated with so much care, as amonz the ancients. For 
 the cause of this alleged inferiority of modern as compared 
 with ancient eloquence, no satisfactory reason has been 
 hitherto assigned, and even Hume has confessed his in- 
 ability to solve the problem. Perhaps one cause of the 
 ascendency of the ancient orators lies in the difference of 
 the m°ans employed in ancient and modern limes to gain 
 the consent of the audience. Among the ancient3, the • 
 violent and passionate expressions, accompanied by 
 what Cicero calls the " snpplosio pedis," and the " per- 
 cussio frontis vel femoris," were not only admissible, but 
 were even necessary, in order to produce an effect upon 
 the audience. Among the moderns, such violence of ges- 
 ture, except on the stage, would excite nothing bat laughter. 
 Those orators are now-a-days more esteemed who aim at 
 convincing the understanding than at captivating the feel- 
 395 
 
 EMANCIPATION. 
 
 ings ; and this is a characteristic that pervades every spe- 
 cies of modern eloquence. Again, if we look to the pecu- 
 liarities of ancient law, the tribunals of justice, and the 
 legislative assemblies of the Greeks and Romans, we may 
 perceive, perhaps, the superior arena of the ancients. The 
 great scope for eloquence in ancient times, as has been 
 observed by an able writer in the Quarterly Review, arose 
 from a circumstance that with us would be considered 
 a vice — the blending of the legislative with the judicia. 
 powers. When the legislature is employed, as in England 
 in eslablishinz. from the contemplation of a whole 
 cases, a general principle for deciding on every future 
 ease that may be referable to that class; and whan the 
 judicial power is only occupied in ascertaining to what 
 previously established legal class any particular cast 
 belongs, and what the decision of the law is regarding 
 that class : in this state of things, there is scope. 
 for the exercise, of the most useful and respectable pow- 
 ers of eloquence. — the clear, strong, anil elegant de- 
 velopment of ratiocination, and of the information and the 
 views of a comprehensive mind ; and this is all. Hut when, 
 as was the case in Greece and Rome, the written laws are 
 few and vaguely expressed ; when the judges exercise an 
 ; equitable jurisdiction, in the application of 
 which they are not bound by any regulation of their prede- 
 cessors; still more, when the tribunal is invested with a 
 direct legislative power, the question is no lonzer to be 
 decided by argument and the application to general prin- 
 ciples alone, but the individual passions and interests of 
 the lodges are let loose ; and then all the higher and more 
 perilous faculties of the orator are called forth to rule in 
 this war of elements, and direct the storm as may suit his 
 purpose, — whether to sweep away falsehood and oppres- 
 sion, or to hear down the barriers of truth, law, an- ! 
 (Hee Whately's Rhetoric; Campbell's Rhetoric; Cicero, 
 De Oratore ; and the works already mentioned.) 
 
 ELUTRIA'TION. (Lot. elutrJo, / cleanse.) The sepa- 
 ration of substances by washing them in large quantities of 
 water, so that the heavier particles fall to the bottom, and 
 the lighter ones, remaining some time suspended, are gra- 
 dually deposited in a finely divided state. 
 
 ELYD6'R1C PAINTING. (Gr. cXaiou. oil, and CcW 
 water.) In Painting, a species of painlins with a vehicle 
 composed of oil and water, invented by M. Vincent of Mont- 
 petit. Its object is to add the fresh appearance of water 
 colours and the extreme finish of miniature painting to Ihe 
 mellowness ofoU colours. Not, however, having seen any 
 specimen of it, we are unable to state from our own 
 knowledge whel bjects hava been attained 
 
 KI.V'SIUM. or the ELY8IAN FIELDft (Gr. r,\voia 
 wlSta.) In Mythology, the region to which the smiis of 
 the virtuous were said by the poets to be transported after 
 death. They are variously represented as a part of the In- 
 fernal realms, or islands situated in Ihe Western Ocean be- 
 yond the Columns of Hercules. The enjoyments of the 
 blessed spirits in this abode were held to consist in the 
 same pursuits that were their delight on earth, carried on 
 in a calmer and happier climate: beautifully described in 
 the well-known passage (Odyss. iv. 563) — 
 
 AXXa a' is nXvaiov wtiwv tcai irapara yairis, &c. 
 Thus admirably rendered by the late A. Moore : — 
 
 Thee to the Klysian plain*, earth's farthest end, 
 Where Hh.ul.imniithii." dwells, the gods shall tend ; 
 There mortals easiest pass the careless hour ; 
 There neither winter conies, nor snow, nor shower ; 
 But ocean ever, to refresh mankind, 
 breathe, the shrill spirit of the western wind. 
 
 A tract on the coast of Campania was also termed the 
 Eh/sian Fields. 
 
 E'LYTRUM. (Gr. eXvrpov, a sheath.) The superior or 
 first pair of wings in four- winged insects are so called when 
 they are of a coriaceous and hardly flexible texture, and 
 serve as a protective covering to the second pair; as in 
 beetles. 
 
 EMANATION, SYSTEM OF. In Philosophy. See 
 Pantheism. 
 
 KMA'NCIPA'TION. (Lat. from manenpo, / sell, or de- 
 liver over the tangible property in anything.) By the an- 
 cient Roman law, the son stood in the relation of a slave to 
 the father. By a fiction of that law, the son might be freed 
 from this relation by being three times sold (mancipatus) 
 by the father. Hence the enfranchisement of the son de- 
 rived from this ceremony the name of emancipation. In 
 course of time, various modes of emancipation, both tacit 
 and express, became recognized by the Roman jurispru- 
 dence. The word, in countries following that law, siz- 
 nifies the exemption of the son from the power of the 
 father, either by express act, or by implication of law. By 
 the present civil law of France, majority (and with it eman- 
 cipation) is attained at 21 years of age; and the marriaze of a 
 minor emancipates him. (See Code Civil, lib. 1. eh 3.) In 
 ordinary language, emancipation is used in a general sensa 
 to signify the enfranchisement of a slave, or the admissior 
 of particular classes to the enjoyment of civil rights 
 
EMARGINATE. 
 
 EAIA'RGINATE. In Zoology, when the margin of a 
 part is broken by an obtuse notch, or the segment of a 
 circle. 
 
 EMARGl'NULA. A subgenus of Gastropodous Mollusks, 
 dismembered from (he genus Patella of Linnaeus, and 
 characterized by a shell of a simple conical form, but 
 iiaving a narrow fissure extending from the margin to near 
 the summit. 
 
 EMBA'LMING. (Lat. balsamum, balm.) A process 
 adopted by the ancient Egyptians, chiefly ior the preserva- 
 tion of dead bodies from putrefaction. The term is derived 
 from the use of balsamic substances in the operation ; in 
 addition to these, saline substances and tanning materials 
 seem also to have been used. See Mummy. (See Gran- 
 ville, in Phil. Trans. ; and Pettigrew upon Mummies.) 
 
 EMBA'NKMENT. In territorial improvement, an em- 
 bankment is a mound of earth or a wall, or a structure 
 composed partly of a wall and partly of a bank of earth, to 
 protect lands from being overflown by rivers or the sea. 
 Embankments appear to have been coeval with the culture 
 of corn crops ; because these, it appears, were first grown 
 on the alluvial soils which border large rivers, and to pro- 
 tect the crops from the overflowing of these rivers after 
 heavy or long-continued rains, the cultivator would natu- 
 rally throw up a bank of earth. This appears to have been 
 done in Egypt at the most remote period of which there is 
 any record. In modern times, embankments are employ- 
 ed, not merely to protect lands under cultivation, but to en- 
 close land (hat is occasionally overflown by rivers or the sea, 
 and render it fit for the purposes of husbandry. This has 
 been done to a greater extent in Holland than in any other 
 country. There are also immense embankments in Italy, 
 particularly in Lombardy. In Britain, we have the em- 
 bankments of the Thames near London, which have been 
 in existence since the lime of the Romans ; many in Lin- 
 colnshire, formed during the time of Cromwell, and some 
 of them many centuries before ; and one of the most re- 
 cent is that at Tre Madoc in Caernarvonshire, by which 
 upwards of 4000 acres were recovered from springtides, 
 and in great part rendered fit for the plough. Embank- 
 ments are attended with immense expense ; but as the soil 
 gained or protected is generally of the best quality, a judi- 
 cious embankment is commonly considered as paying 
 about the same rate of interest as a landed estate. 
 
 EMBA'RGO. A restraint or prohibition imposed by the 
 public authorities of a country on merchant vessels or other 
 ships, to prevent their leaving its ports. Embargoes are 
 usually imposed only in time of war, or in apprehension of 
 an invasion; in which cases the gowernment employs the 
 ships under embargo in armaments, expeditions, and trans- 
 portation of troops, &c. When it is found necessary to 
 slop the communication of intelliaence between any two 
 places, an embargo is laid upon all ships, both foreign and 
 under the national flag. 
 
 E'MBASSY. See Ambassador. 
 
 E'MBER DAYS, in the Romish calendar, are certain 
 fasts appointed by Pope Calixtus for imploring the bless- 
 ing of the Almighty on the fruits of the earth, and upon the 
 ordinations performed in the church at these times. They 
 occur four times a year, or once in each of the four sea- 
 sons ; being the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after 
 the first Sunday in Lent, after the Feast of Pentecost or 
 Whitsunday, after the festival of Holy Cross on the 14th of 
 September, and after the festival of St. Lucia on the 13th 
 r>f December. The weeks in which the ember days fall 
 ire called ember weeks. The word embers sinnifies ashes, 
 Chicb the primitive Christians strewed on their heads at 
 hese so lem n fasts. 
 
 EMBERI'ZA. (Lat.) The name of a genus of Passe- 
 'ine birds, characterized by having the upper mandible 
 larrower than the under one, with the edges turned in- 
 wards, and with a hard knob on the palate : the entire bill 
 Has the usual short strong conformation of the Conirostral 
 Tibe of Passerine birds. It is now the type of a family, 
 subdivided into minor genera, under the name of Emberi- 
 tida. or Buntings. 
 
 EMBE'ZZLEMENT, in Law, is a felony, consisting of the 
 same class of acts which would in any other case amount 
 to larceny, when committed by one employed as a clerk 
 :>r servant, and by virtue of his office, on the goods and 
 chattels of his employer. 
 
 E'MBLEM. (Gr. tufiXnua ; from ev and flaWeiv, to 
 'brow in.) Literally, something inserted. This term has 
 carious significations; but it is used most frequently in 
 English to signify a figurative representation, which by the 
 power of association suggests to the mind some idea not 
 expressed to the senses. In Bibliography, books consisting 
 of a series of plates, containing emblematic subjects, with 
 explanations, generally in verse, in Latin or modern Ian- 
 linages, are termed books of emblems. They were fash- 
 ionable in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The 
 best known is the Emhlemata Alciati, by Andre Alciat, a 
 French lawver, which went through many editions. 
 
 EMBOLI'SMIC (Gr. tujfJaXXo), I insert), in Chrono.Dgy, 
 396 
 
 EMBRYO. 
 
 signifies the same thing as intercalary, and is chiefly ap 
 plied to the additional months required to fill up the lunat 
 cycle. See Cycle and Epact. 
 
 EMBO'SSING, Embossment. (Fr. bosse, a protuberance.) 
 In Architecture and Sculpture, the raising or forming in 
 rilievo any sort of figure, whether performed with a chisel 
 or otherwise. It is a kind of sculpture, in wnich the 
 figures rise from the plane on which they are formed; 
 and as they are more or less prominent, they are said to be 
 in alto, mezzo, or basso rilievo. 
 
 EMBOUCHU'RE (Fr.), signifies the mouth of a river: it 
 is used also for the mouth piece of a musical instrument. 
 
 EMBRA'CERY. (Norm. Fr. embraserie.) In Law, the 
 offence of endeavouring to corrupt or influence a jury ; 
 punishable by fine and imprisonment. 
 
 E'MBRASU'RE. In Fortification, an opening made in 
 the wall or parapet of a fortified place, or breast-work of a 
 battery, through which the guns are fired. The embra- 
 sures are usually made about two and a half feet wide at 
 the interior extremity, and eight or nine feet at the exte- 
 rior; and the sole or lower surface is at the height of about 
 two and a half feet above the platform on which the car- 
 riage of the gun is placed; but their forms and dimen- 
 sions are of course varied, according to their position rela- 
 tively to that of the point against which the fire is to be 
 directed. 
 
 E'MBROCATION. (Gr. cufipexu, 1 moisten.) A fluid 
 application to any part of the body when painful or in- 
 flamed. 
 
 EMBROI'DERY. (Fr. broderie.) The name given to 
 the art of working figures on stuffs or muslins with a nee- 
 dle and thread. All embroidery may be divided into two 
 sorts, embroidery on stuffs and on muslin: the former is 
 used chiefly in church vestments, housings, standards, ar- 
 ticles of furniture, &c, and is executed with silk, cotton, 
 wool, gold and silver threads, and sometimes ornamented 
 with spangles, real or mock pearls, precious or imitation 
 stones, &c. ; the latter is employed mostly in articles of 
 female apparel, as caps, collars, &c, and is performed 
 only with cotton. In Germany this division is indicated by 
 the expression weisse (white or muslin), and hunte Stiike- 
 rei (coloured or cloth) embroidery. The embroidery of 
 stuffs is performed on a kind of loom or frame ; that of 
 muslin by stretching it on a pattern already designed. 
 The modes of embroidering stuffs or muslin with the 
 common needle are extremely various ; but a minute de- 
 scription of these processes would be as difficult as i! 
 would be uninteresting to the general reader. They con- 
 sist for the most part of a combination of ordinary stitches ; 
 but no limit can be assigned to their number or variety. 
 The art of embroidery was well known to the ancients. 
 As early as the time of Moses we find it practised success- 
 fully by the Hebrews ; and long before the Trojan war 
 the women of Sidon had acquired celebrity for their skill 
 in embroidery. At a later period, this art was introduced 
 into Greece, probably by the Phrygians (by some consi- 
 dered as the inventors); and to such a degree of skill did 
 the Grecian women attain in it, that their performances 
 were said to rival the finest paintings. In our own times 
 the art of embroidery has been cultivated with great suc- 
 cess, more especially in Germany and France ; and though 
 for along period it was practised only by the ladies of these 
 countries as an elegant accomplishment, it is now regarded 
 as a staple of traffic, and furnishes employment for a large 
 portion of the population. In England also it appears to 
 have taken deep root, as it now forms an accomplishment 
 of which almost every lady is in possession. About seven 
 years ago a great impetus was given to the cultivation of 
 this art, both on the Continent and in England, by the in- 
 vention of a machine which enables a female to execute 
 the most complex patterns with 130 needles, all in motion 
 at once, as accurately as she could formerly do with one. 
 But as no account of this remarkable, invention which we 
 might give could be intelligible without the aid of illustra- 
 tions, which would be out of place in this work, we must 
 refer the reader to Dr. Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Qx. for 
 full information respecting it. One such machine with 130 
 needles is estimated to perform daily the work of 15 hand 
 embroiderers employed in the ordinary way. Many of 
 them are now mounted in Germany, France, and Switzer- 
 land ; and in Manchester there is one factory where they 
 do beautiful work. (Seethe Art of Needlework, edited by 
 the Countess of Wilton. Lond. 1840.) 
 
 E'MBRYO. (Gr. efuBpvov, from ppvo), 1 bud forth.) In 
 Botany, a fleshy body occupying the interior of a seed, 
 and constituting the rudiment of a future plant. It is di- 
 vided into three parts;— viz. a plumula or growing point, a 
 radicle or root, and a cotyledon or cotyledons. It is the 
 vegetable foetus ; and is so tenacious of life under particu- 
 lar circumstances, that there are well-attested instances ol 
 its having preserved its vitality much beyond 1000 years. 
 The term is also applied to the foetus in utero before the 
 fifth month of pregnancy, because its growth has been 
 compared to the budding of a plant. 
 
EMBRYOTOMY. 
 
 EMBRYOTOMY. (Gr. tpffpvov, thefmtus, and rtjivw, 
 I cu< ) The operation of catling the foetus out of the womb. 
 
 E'MERALD. (Fr. emeraude.) A mineral of a beauti- 
 ful gecn color, which occurs in prismatic crystals, and is 
 much valued for ornamental jewellery. The finest are ob- 
 tained from Peru. It consists of 65 silica, 16 alumina, 13 
 giucina, about 3 oxide of chromium (which is the colour- 
 ing matter), and a trace of lime. ( Vauijuelin.) The mines 
 from which the ancients obtained emeralds are said to 
 ed in Egypt, near Mount Zabarah. (Caillaud). 
 
 EME'RJTL (Lat.) The name given to the soldiers and 
 other public functionaries of ancient Rome, who had re- 
 tired irom their country's service. On these occasions the 
 ■ .•re entitled to some remuneration, resembling 
 our half-pay ; but whether it was a grant of land or of 
 money has not been accurately ascertained. 
 
 EME RSION. (I.aL emergo, I sink.) In Astronomy, 
 
 the reappearance of the sun, moon, or planets, or of a star, 
 
 from behind the celestial body by which it has been 
 
 The phenomena of immersions and emersions 
 
 are of considerable use in determining the longitudes of 
 
 E'MERY. (Fmah Cape Emeri in the island of Naxos.) 
 . of corundum; amorphous, compact, and gene- 
 rally opaque. It is characterized by excessive hardness; 
 and its powder is used for cutting and polishing glass, 
 gems, and all hard substances : it scratches and wears 
 down nearly all minerals except the diamond. 
 EMETICS, (Gr. t^itcj, / vomit) Medicines which 
 i vomiting. The only vegetable emetic in general 
 use is ipecacuanha, from ten to twenty grains of which is 
 tie chief mineral emetics are the tartrate of an- 
 timony and potash, or emetic tartar, sulphate of zinc, and 
 sulphate if copper. When it is merely wished to evacuate 
 the contents of the stomach in cases where it is disordered 
 by Improper food, twenty grains of ipecacuanha in an ounce 
 ife and good emetic; it generally operates 
 in ten or twenty minutes, and its action maybe assisted 
 by Chamomile tea or warm water. At the beginning of 
 fevers or Inflammatory disorders, an emetic is often ad- 
 vantageously administered, and then ten or fifteen grains 
 ■i.mh.i with half a grain or a grain of emetic tartar 
 in an oonoe and a hall of water is to be preferred : the per- 
 spiration which the vomit induces should be kept up by 
 remainini in bed, and by warm drinks or other proper re- 
 medies. Where poisons have been swallowed, the stomach 
 is often insensible to these means, especially where large 
 doses of opium are concerned ; and then half a drachm of 
 sulphate of zinc or of sulphate of copper may be dissolved 
 in three ounces of warm water, and a third part of the solu- 
 tion taken i-very ten minutes till it operates. In such cases, 
 however, the stomach-pump is principally to be relied 
 upon. When emetics are given in small doses, they pro- 
 duce nausea, and to this extent they have proved useful in 
 tnorrhage of the lungs and stomach. Emetics 
 should be avoided in all plethoric habits, and where there 
 «re any symptoms announcing fulness of the vessels of 
 in hernia, in the advanced stage of pregnancy, 
 and in active, inflammations. They should also be given 
 with the utmost caution to young children ; and when given, 
 •■■■i an ha should be resorted to. Old chronic pains 
 and obstinate rheumatism are sometimes relieved by an 
 emetic. 
 
 ; I : TIC TA'RTAR. A triple salt, composed of oxide 
 of antimony, potasea, and tartaric acid. It is soluble in 
 eighteen parts of cold and in three of boiling water. In the 
 dose of from half a grain to two grains it operates as a pow- 
 erful rairin' tod sudorific; in smaller doses, it acts upon 
 the BOWels, and is diaphoretic. 
 
 E'METTNE. A substance discovered in 1817 by Pel- 
 letier in ipecacuanha. It is white, pulverulent, and bitter; 
 easily soluble in hot water and alcohol, and intensely 
 emetic. It i-xists in ipecacuanha to the amount of about 
 16 per rent., and appears to be the sole cause of its emetic 
 properi v. 
 
 EMIGRATION. (Lat.) Migration is the movement of 
 an individual or a number of people from one place of re- 
 sidence to another : emigration, their abandonment of 
 their former home ; immigration (a word of modern coin- 
 age), their settlement in their new one. Emigration is, 
 in modern times, chiefly regarded in the light of a mode 
 of relieving a country or district labouring under excess 
 of population. The prejudices which formerly existed 
 against it, on account of the loss of inhabitants thus sus- 
 tained by a country, have long been removed, both by 
 severe necessity, and by the progress of economical know- 
 ledge. The power of reproduction in the human race is 
 sc great, that the vacuum occasioned by any practicable 
 amount of emigration is speedily filled. It was long ago 
 observed that those provinces in Spain from which the 
 most constant emigration to America was going on (Bis- 
 cay, Aslurias, &c.) were among the best peopled. The 
 subject of emigration, considered in an economical light, 
 has been amply discussed by Hir W. Horton (1835 *c.) by 
 
 EMPHASIS. 
 
 Col. Torrens, and by Mr. G. Wakefield (on Colonisation, 
 1830, in which there are some curious calculations as to 
 the effect produced on the movement of population by the 
 emigration of a comparatively small number of marriage- 
 able persons : England and America, 1837.) Emigration 
 from our islands has for two centuries been chiefly directed 
 to North America : of late years, the Cape of Good Hope 
 and Australia have begun to absorb a small portion of our 
 surplus population. In 1831, agovernment commission on 
 i migration was formed, with a view to the regulation of the 
 practice ; by which officers were appointed both at home 
 ami in the North American colonies to watch over the in- 
 terests of emigrants and furnish them with necessary in- 
 formation. With reference to Australia, tlley established, 
 for the first time, the useful principle of disposing of the 
 public lands by sale, in order to form a fund for emigration. 
 The following table, showing the number of emigrants whe 
 have left the United Kingdom from 1825 to 1837 inclusive 
 is taken from the Journal of the London Statistical Society 
 i. 159. 
 
 1825 
 1826 
 
 1827 
 1828 
 1S29 
 
 14,891 
 20,900 
 8&O0S 
 
 31,193 
 
 1830 
 1881 
 
 1833 
 ISM 
 
 56,907 
 83,160 
 103,140 
 62,527 
 76,222 
 
 1835 . 44.478 
 
 1836 . 75,417 
 
 1837 . 72,034 
 
 In all 694,969 
 
 Of these there went, in 1837, 
 
 29,884 to the North American colonies. 
 36.770 to the United States. 
 
 326 to the Cape of Good Hope. 
 5,05-1 to the Australian colonies. 
 The number in the same year from England was 40,502 
 
 Scotland . 4,779 
 
 Ireland . 26,753 
 
 The control of this important department is now (1841; 
 transferred to three officers, entitled Commissioners of 
 Colonial Lands and Emigration. 
 
 E'MINENCE. A title of honour borne in Europe by 
 various dignitaries at different times ; but appropriated to 
 cardinals by a papal decree of the year 1630. 
 
 E'MIR. (In Arabic, chief or lord.) The khalifs took the 
 title of Emir-al-Mumenin, — chief or commander of the 
 Faithful. The title is now given by prescriptive usage to 
 those who are considered to descenj from Mohammed, by 
 his sonin law All and daughter fatten (see Scheri?, a title 
 having the same application). But when joined to another 
 word expressive Oi a particular command or office, it is a 
 common title of dignity ; as, Emir-al- Omrah —a title given 
 by the Turks to viziers and pachas, &c. See Mirza. 
 
 HMME'NAGOGUE. (Gr. Cjturivios, monthly, and ayo>, 
 I move.) Medieines which promote the menstrual evacu- 
 ation. 
 
 EMO'LLIENTS. (Lat. emollio, J soften) Medicines 
 which are supposed to relax the living animal fibre. 
 
 E'MPEROR (Lat. imperator), was originally merely the 
 title of a Roman general ; but, on the fall of the republic, 
 it was particularly applied to the head of the state. The 
 authority of the Roman emperors was formed principally 
 tiy the combination of the chief offices of the old republic 
 in a single person ; besides which, some extraordinary 
 powers were conferred. Thus, Octavius held the titles ol 
 emperor, proconsul, and tribune, pontifex maximus or 
 high priest; and was invested with perpetual consular au- 
 thority, and also that of the censorship. Besides this, he 
 was termed prince of the senate, and Augustus, which de- 
 signation descended to his successors; but he was much 
 more moderate in his use of titular dignities than his suc- 
 cessors, contenting himself with substantial power. The 
 provinces of the empire were divided between the senate 
 and emperor, who appointed their governors, distinguished 
 by the respective titles of proconsul and propraslor ; but 
 this division threw all the armies into the hands of the lat- 
 ter, as he took for his share the frontier provinces. The 
 emperors appointed their own successors, who were dig- 
 nified with the title of Cassar, and in later times enjoyed a 
 share in the government. Dioclesian first divided the care 
 of the empire with a second Augustus in the person of 
 Maximian, and each of these colleagues associated with 
 himself a Caesar. After the court was removed to Con- 
 stantinople, the old titles and forms of the republic vanished 
 by degrees, and the emperors assumed the style of oriental 
 princes. 
 
 Charlemagne assumed the title of emperor after his co- 
 ronation at Rome ; and from his time this title (in German 
 kaiser) was claimed exclusively, in western Europe, by the 
 rulers of Germany. On the dissolution of the German 
 empire in 1805, the title passed to the emperor of Austria, 
 and, in the same year, Napoleon assumed it in France : the 
 czars of Russia claimed it in the reign of Alexander. 
 
 E'MPHASIS. (From the Greek preposition tv, and fn/", 
 I speak.) In Elocution, the stress laid on particular words 
 or syllables in the pronunciation of a sentence, in order to 
 express or enforce a meaning. It is divided by some 
 writers into emphasis of fcrce, which we lay on almost 
 every significant word ; and emphasis of sense, which w 
 
EMPHYSEMA. 
 
 ay on particular words, to distinguish them from the rest 
 of tlie sentence. 
 
 EMPHYSE'MA. (Gr. eu^voaai, Iinflatt.) A collection 
 of air in the cellular membrane, rendering the part tense 
 and elastic, and crepitating when pressed. 
 
 EMPHYTEUSIS (Gr. i/ztpvTtvois, from fvrov, aplant ; 
 a contract conveying the right of cultivation.) In the Civil 
 Law, a contract by which houses or lands are given to be 
 possessed for ever, or for a long term, on condition they 
 shall be improved, and a small annual rent or pension 
 {canon emphyteuticus), either in money, grain, or any other 
 thing, reserved and made payable to the grantor as a re- 
 cognition of his paramount title. The grantor is said to re- 
 tain the dominium directum, the grantee to acquire the 
 dominium utile. The Scottish grant in feu-farm resembles 
 the emphyteusis. From this word (pronounced in the 
 lower age of Lalinity emphytefsis) it is supposed that fief 
 (fevodum, feodum) is derived. 
 
 E'MPIIIE. (Lat. imperium.) Originally the territory 
 or extent of land under the command and jurisdiction of 
 an emperor. The dominions under the sway of ancient 
 Rome were the first to which the term empire was applied : 
 they consisted of two grand divisions, — the Empire of the 
 East, or, as it was afterwards called, the Lower Empire ; 
 and the Empire of the West. The former admitted of va- 
 rious subdivisions in reference to the different dynasties to 
 which it was subject ; and the latter became, about the end 
 of the 9th century, the German or Holy Roman Empire. 
 In all these cases the sovereign or chief person in the em- 
 pire was named the emperor. But the term empire has 
 in several instances been employed to designate a large 
 extent of dominion, without reference to the title of the 
 ruler or sovereign of a country : thus we hear of the em- 
 pire of Persia, Hindostan. &c. The dominions of the 
 Queen of England are invariably designated the British Em- 
 pire ; and the epithet "imperial" is officially prefixed to 
 the parliament of the United Kingdom. The term empire 
 was applied from 1S04 to 1814 to the dominions of France, 
 including all the countries then incorporated with it by the 
 conquests of Napoleon. 
 
 EMPI'RIC. (Gr. tjxnupiKOi.) One whose knowledge 
 .s founded on experience. The empiric school of medi- 
 cine wag opposed to the dogmatic; it appears to have ori- 
 ginated with Serapion of Alexandria. The empirics con- 
 sidered the foundation of medical science to rest upon ex- 
 perience, derived either directly from experiment or from 
 chance and imitation. They were, however, a pretending, 
 and generally ignorant sect ; so that the term empiric is 
 generally applied to quacks and pretenders, without refer- 
 ence to its strict etymology, which should have limited it 
 to the study of medicine, in accordance with the principles 
 of Lord Bacon's philosophy. 
 
 EMPLE'CTION. (Gr. £/j7rX«w, I entangle.) In Archi- 
 tecture, a method of constructing walls, in which, accord- 
 ing to Vitruvius, the front stones were wrought fair, and the 
 interior left rough and filled in with stones of various sizes. 
 EMPO'RIUM. ((Jr. tpnTopiov.) A Greek word wholly 
 naturalized in England, signifying a city or place where 
 great commercial transactions are made. This word has 
 been in use in England upwards of three centuries. 
 
 EMPROSTHO'TONOS. (Gr. tuirooadtv, forwards, and 
 rcivu), I draw.) A spasmodic action of the muscles, by 
 which the body is involuntarily drawn forwards. 
 
 EMPYE'MA. (Gr. tv, in, and irvov, pus.) A collection 
 of purulent matter in the cavity of the thorax. This is an 
 occasional termination of pleurisy, and is attended by dif- 
 ficulty of breathing and inability to lie on the side opposite 
 that which is affected ; an external swelling is sometimes 
 perceptible, and the matter has occasionally been let out 
 by making an opening between the sixth and seventh ribs. 
 EMPYRE'AL AIR. Oxygen gas. 
 
 EMPYREU'MA. (Gr. tpirvptvoi, / kindle.) A burned 
 odour. Hence, the oils obtained by distilling various or- 
 ganic substances at high temperatures are called empyreu- 
 matic oils. 
 
 EMU. A three-toed Struthious bird, peculiar to Austra- 
 lia, differing from the rhea of South America in the extreme 
 shortness of its wings, and from the cassowary of Java in 
 the absence of the horny projection on the head. 
 
 EMU'LGENT. The artery and vein of the kidney are 
 30 called. 
 
 EMU'LSION. (Lat. emulgeo, I milk.) A milky liquid ; 
 is almond emulsion. 
 
 EMU'NCTORIES. (Lat. emungo, I drain off.) The ex- 
 cretory ducts of the body. 
 
 E'MYDINES, Emydina. A section of Chelonian rep- 
 riles or tortoises, having the genus Emys as the type. 
 
 EMY'DO-SAI RIANTS, Emydosauria. (Gr tpvs, and 
 cavpo;, a lizarrl ) The name of an order of the class Rep- 
 tiliix, including the tribe of Crocodiles (Crocodiliens, Cuv.), 
 which form part of the order Sauriaofthe Regne Animal. 
 ENA'LIOSAU'RIA. (Gr. tv, in, k\f, the sea, and aavpos, 
 n lizard.) A name applied to the entire group of extinct 
 Baurians, in the organization of which paddles, like those 
 393 
 
 ENDOGENS 
 
 of the whale or turtle, were combined with the head anu 
 trunk of a crocodile. See Ichthyosauh, Pi.ekiosach. 
 
 ENA'MEL. (Fr. enemail.) A semitrauspareiiL or opaque 
 glass. Common glass fused with oxide ol tin is converted 
 into enamel. It is often variously coloured. 
 ENAMEL OF TEETH, fee Teeth. 
 ENAMEL PAINTING. (Fr. en email.) In Painting, the 
 art of painting with vitrifiable colours on thin plates of me 
 tals which are melted on to it. This art is of extremely 
 high antiquity ; it was practised by the Egyptians to a con- 
 siderable extent, and by the Etruscans from the lime of 
 Persenna. After lying dormant, or at least in little vogue. 
 for centuries, it was renewed in Italy under the pontificate 
 of Julius II. The various colours used are prepared from 
 oxides of different metals, melted with some vitrescent 
 mixture laid on with a fine brush, the medium being oil of 
 spike or some other essential oil : and it is not difficult to 
 conceive, says Mr. Aikin, " how much the difficulties of 
 this nice art are increased, where the object is not merely 
 to lay a uniform coloured glazing on a metallic surface, but 
 also to paint that surface with figures and other designs 
 that require extreme delicacy of ou^ne, accuracy of 
 shadowing, and selection of colouring. We enamel painter 
 has to work, not with actual colours, but with mixtures 
 which he knows from experience will produce certain co- 
 lours after the operation of the fire." This work requires 
 several firings. The outline is first burnt in, after which 
 the parts are filled up gradually with repeated burnings to 
 the last finishing touches. 
 
 ENARTHRO'SIS. (Gr. tv, in, and apOpov, a joint.) The 
 ball and socket joint. 
 
 ENCA'MPMENT, in Military affairs, signifies the posi- 
 tion occupied for an indefinite period by an army, with all 
 its artillery, stores, baggage, &c, either for the purposes of 
 exercise or warfare. 
 
 ENCANTHIS. (Gr. tv y in, and KavOot, the angle of the 
 eye.) A small tumour or excrescence growing Irom the 
 inner angle of the eye. 
 
 ENCA'RPUS. (Gr. tv, and xapiros, fruit.) In Archi- 
 tecture, the festoons on a frieze, consisting of fruits, flowers, 
 leaves, &c. 
 
 ENCAU'STIC PAINTING. (Gr. tv, and kovctikos, 
 burning.) In Painting, a method of painting used by the 
 ancients, the precise mode of executing which is by no 
 means sufficiently explained. From Pliny's account, it 
 seems that the colours were made up into crayons through 
 a medium of wax, and, the subject being previously traced 
 with a metal point, were melted on the picture as they 
 were used. The picture being finished, a varnish of melted 
 wax was spread over all. The colours thus not only ob- 
 tained considerable brilliancy, but the work was also pro- 
 tected from the weather. It was lastly well polished. The 
 attempts to revive this art, which, after all, if we may draw 
 our conclusion from Pliny's account, seems lo have been 
 but a clumsy process, have not been attended with success- 
 ENCE'PHALOCE'LE. (Gr. tyitt<pa\os, the brain, and 
 Kn\n, a tumour.) Hernia of the brain. There are two 
 kinds of this disease : one occurs in young infants, before 
 the skull is completely ossified ; the other presents itselt 
 after the destruction of a part of the skull in consequence 
 of disease, accident, or the operation of the trepan. 
 
 ENCE'PHALON. (Gr. tv, in, and KMpaXq, the head.) 
 The brain. The contents of the cranium. 
 
 ENCHA'NTMENT. The name given to the charms or 
 ceremonies to which magicians have recourse in the prac- 
 tice of their art. It is derived from the Lat. in, and canlare, 
 to sing; and is so railed because the formulre used in 
 magic were usually written in verse and designed to be 
 suns. See Magic, Demonoi.ogy. 
 ENCHASING. See Chasing. 
 
 ENCHIRI'DION. (Gr. tyxupit'ov, from h, in, and 
 X£t/>, the hand.) In Literature, a brief and useful compila- 
 tion ; a manual. The ethical treatise of Epictetus is termed 
 his Enchiridion. 
 ENCLI'TICS. See Particles. 
 E'NCRINITES. See Crinoideans. 
 ENCYCLOPEDIA. See Cyclopedia, Dictionary. 
 ENCY'STED. A term applied lo tumours which are 
 inclosed in a sac or cyst. 
 
 ENDE'CAGON, or UNDECAGON. (Gr. tvStxa, eleven, 
 and ycovta, angle.) A plane geometrical figure bounded 
 by eleven sides. If the sides are all equal, and the length of 
 each be supposed = 1, the area of the figure is 9-36564. 
 
 ENDE'MIC. (Gr. tv, amongst, and itijxos, the people.) A 
 disease peculiar to a certain class of persons, or to a cer- 
 tain district. Thus agues or intermittent fevers are ende- 
 mic in low countries, — the goitre in the Alps, the plica Po- 
 lonica in Poland. See Epidemic. 
 
 E'NDOCA'RPIUM. (Gr. tvSov, within, and Kitprof, 
 fruit.) A term invented by Richard to denote the inner 
 coat or shell of a fruit. 
 
 E'NDOGENS. (Gr. tvSov, and ytwopai, 1 grow.) One 
 of the primary classes of plants, so called because their 
 stems grow by successive additions to the inside. Th»"- 
 
UNDOPHYLLOUS. 
 
 are usually known by the veins of iheir leaves running 
 parallel with each oilier, without branching or dividing, 
 lilies, the asparagus, and similar plants, belong to 
 this class, which in warm countries contains trees of 
 large size, such as palms and screw pines. 
 
 ENDOPHY'LLOUS. (Gr. evdov, and ^t»XAov, a leaf.) 
 A term invented by Dumortier to denote the young leaves 
 of Monocotyledons, from their being evolved within a 
 sheath, while those of Exogens are not so enclosed. 
 
 ENDOPLEU'RA (Gr. 'tviov, and i:\tvpa, the side.) In 
 Botany, the internal integument of a wed, 
 
 E'NDORHI'Z.E. (Gr. tv6iv, and piCa,aroot.) A term 
 
 invented by Richard for the embryo of Monocotyledons, in 
 
 which the rauic./e has to rupture the integument at the base 
 
 I prior to entering into the earth, appearing as if it 
 
 came from within the mother root. 
 
 ENDORSEMENT. See Exchange. 
 
 B'NDOSl'PHONITEa (Gr. tviov, internal ; ci<po>v,a 
 tube.) A genus of extinct Cephalopoda, with chambered 
 convolute dlseoida] sheila, having the siphon placed at the 
 inner side of the turns, as in the Bpirtlla. The Endosipho- 
 nites characterize the slate rocks of the Cambrian system, 
 and have not vet been observed in the Silurian formation. 
 
 ENDOBMO'BE. (<;r. tviov. and wopos. impulsion.) The 
 transmission of gaseous bodies, or vapours or liquids, 
 through membranes or porous substances from without 
 inwards. 
 
 ENDOSPE'RMIUM. (Gr. tviov, and oittppa, seed.) A 
 term invented bv Richard to denote the albumen of seeds. 
 
 E'NDOSTOME. <(;r. tviov, and aropa, the mouth.) The 
 passage through the inner integument of a seed immedi- 
 ately below the part called the foramen. 
 
 E'NDOTHE'CIUM. The fibrous cellular tissue lining an 
 anther. 
 
 ENDOWMENTS. See Foundation. 
 
 i:\i.i i> See .t.neid. 
 
 MA. (Gr. ivqptiv, to inject.) A medicine inject- 
 ed into the reciuin. A clyster. 
 
 ENFEOFFMENT. See Feoffment. 
 
 KM'll.A'DE. A term used in military language to de- 
 note a fire of artillery or musketry in the direction of the 
 enemy's line. A trench or parapet is said to be enfiladed 
 When guns are so placed that the shot can be fired into it in 
 a direction parallel to its length. 
 
 ENFRANCHISEMENT (French, franchise, freedom or 
 right), in Law, is the act of incorporating a person into any 
 society or bodv politic ; as where one is made a citizen or 
 free burgess of a town corporate. In feudal usage, a villein 
 vna sml to be enfranchised when he was made free by his 
 lord ; and hence is derived the popular signification of the 
 term. For enfranchisement of laud, see Cofyhold. 
 
 ENOA'OED COLUMNS. In Architecture, columns at- 
 tached to wails, by which a portion of them is concealed; 
 they neverstand less than one half out from the walls. 
 
 BNG ^'GEMENT, signifies eithera battle by sea or land; 
 applied more frequently to the former, being sy- 
 nonymous with action. An engagement between two ships 
 la called simply an action : between fleets, a general action. 
 As the object is to get possession of the enemy if possible, 
 efforts are made eilher to disable him by cannonading, or, 
 as is the practice of the English, to board him at once. 
 The conquered vessel strikes (hauls down) her colours, 
 which are afterwards replaced by those of the enemy 
 hoisted over them. 
 
 E'NUINK, in Mechanics, is used to denote generally 
 any kind of machine in which two or more of the simple 
 mechanical powers are combined together. 
 
 ENGINEERING. (Fr. engine.) Strictly, the art of 
 % engines ; but latterly applied in a more extended 
 sense, not only to that art, but to all manufacturing and 
 building operations in which engines are used. It is divid- 
 ed Into two branches, Military and Civil. 
 
 Military engineering, as a science, implies a knowledge 
 of the construction and maintenance of fortifications, and 
 all buildings necessary in military posts ; aud hence in- 
 cludes a thorough instruction on every point relative to the 
 attack and defence of places. The science also embraces 
 the surveying of a country for the various operations of 
 war, and consequently an acquaintance with mathematics 
 and facility in drawing. When at a siege the engineer has 
 surveyed a place, he reports to the commander the weak- 
 est places, and those in which approaches may be made 
 with most success. He draws the lines of circumvallation 
 and contravallation ; marks out the trenches, places of 
 arms, batteries, and lodgments ; and in general directs the 
 workmen in these operations. He should possess a prac- 
 tical and theoretical knowledge of gunnery. In regard to 
 the marine branch of military engineering, it requires of 
 course a general acquaintance with the construction of ves- 
 sels, jetties, moles, and other buildings of that description. 
 
 Civil engineering, as its name imports, does not include 
 
 those branches above named which specially belong to the 
 
 art of war; but relates to the forming of roads and bridges, 
 
 railroads, the construction of machinery for all purposes, 
 
 399 
 
 ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 the formation of canals, aqueducts, harbours, drainage of a 
 country, &c. Till the year 1700, civil engineering »a» little 
 cultivated in England as a distinct occupation ; at that pe- 
 riod, manufactures began to be extended by the enterprise, 
 the capital, and science of a number of individuals eminent 
 for their deep knowledge and persevering industry. New 
 and more appropriate situations were chosen for carrying 
 them on than the small towns in which ihey had been seal- 
 ed, and where combinations and corruption made the wages 
 of the v/orkman extravagant. Internal navigation was con- 
 sequent upon this change : communication lioni harbours 
 to warehouses, and the converse, as well as facility of 
 transport from factory to factory, became absolutely neces- 
 sary. Hence a system of canal navigation and aqueducts, 
 which perhaps will not be entirely superseded even hy the 
 more modern railroad. Previous to the above pi t 
 few jetties and piers of defence were thrown out in our 
 seaports, affording to the mariner little better protection 
 than nature herself: they have since become harbours of 
 refuge ; some of them are capable of holding large navies. 
 The application of the steam engine to almost every purpose, 
 independent ofita importance in manufactures, has smooth- 
 ed the difficulties formerly experienced in forming works 
 under water, and has now made rapid strides towards mi 
 perseding all animals of draught. To give the faintest out- 
 line of I lie science of practical engineering would be to 
 write treatises on mathematics, mechanics, hydraulics, 
 hydrostatics, and the other branches of natural philosophy : 
 the reader must therefore seek lor information under t tic 
 separate beadi of science involved in it. 
 
 ENGLAND, CHURCH OF. The period al which Chris- 
 tianity was first preached in this country has not been set- 
 tled with any certainty; but there was certainly a liiiti^li 
 church existing in the island at the lime of the mission of 
 Augustine, in the year 597, to convert the Saxons 
 British church, however, at that time, had shared the late 
 of the general British population, and had been peal up by 
 the pressure of the heathen invaders within narrow limits 
 at the extremities of the island. It can hardly he thought 
 to have retained sufficient vigour to have effected the con- 
 version of the barbarians, and would probably have died 
 out but for the seasonable reinforcement from Rome. 1( 
 such be the case, we must allow that Christianity in Hri- 
 tain owes at least its second foundation to the Romii 
 but this foundation took place at a i on p iralivel) put 
 and possibly the influence of the nncoiitaminaii d religion 
 of the Britons may have had its effect iu preserving to the 
 Saxons a very modified form of popery. Certain it is, as 
 has been shown from existing homilies by Anglo Sunn 
 prelates, that some of the principal novelties ol the Ro- 
 manists were unknown to or repudiated by the English 
 church, at least up to the time of Edwanl the Confessor. 
 
 The intercourse with France, which began to take place 
 in that reign, and the superstitious temper of the monarch, 
 prepared the way for the introduction ol the Roman power : 
 it was furthered hy the necessities of the usurpers Wil- 
 liam and Stephen. Under Henry II. royalty took the 
 alarm, and a fierce struggle took place, in which the papal 
 authority was eventually victorious. Under John, the tri- 
 umph of Romanism was completed, when ihe crown of 
 England was actually given into the hands of Innocent III. 
 But at that very time the seeds of the Reformation were 
 being sown among the lowest classes ; sects of strolling 
 fanatics were constantly appearing and passing away ; mis 
 guided themselves, but drawing the attention of the people 
 to the errors of the church; and at length, under ihe im- 
 pulse given by the learning of Wiclif, taking a definite and 
 lasting shape under the name of the Lollards. A general re- 
 formation in opinion was almost at hand, when Henry VIII. 
 threw off the supremacy of the Pope. But while he en- 
 couraged the reformers by that step, he checked them by 
 severe enactments upon points of belief; and, as far as he 
 is concerned, it may be doubted whether he at all assisted 
 the development of the Reformation. The Church of 
 England was first reformed by law on the accession of 
 Edward VI. ; but many points of doctrine and discipline 
 were left untouched; and the enactments of Elizabelh, by 
 which its whole constitution was finally settled, followed 
 rather than preceded the expressed convictions of the na- 
 tion. (For the variations that have since taken place in 
 the services of the church, see art. Common Prayer.) 
 The government of the Church of England is episcopal, 
 and the bishops sit in the House of Lords by virtue of the 
 temporal baronies into which their benefices were con- 
 verted by William the Conqueror. This constitution was 
 subverted on the success of the Great Rebellion, and pres- 
 byterianism established in its stead ; but the episcopal form 
 was restored in 1660 with Ihe return of Charles II. 
 
 ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. We have already, un- 
 der the article Architecture, given a general view of the 
 rise and progress of Gothic Architecture. Our purpose in 
 this place is to enter into details respecting its subdivisions 
 in this country. Without disrespect to the later writers 
 who have differently arranged and named the styles, we 
 
ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 hink none more convenient than that used by the Rev. 
 Oeo. Millers (in his description of the cathedral church of 
 Ely) for giving the reader a succinct and satisfactory view 
 of some of the examples which England affi irds. We pro- 
 pose, therefore, to subdivide the styles into five, periods : — 
 1st Period, or Anglo-Saxon, which may be comprised from 
 .\. d. 600 to 1056, that is, from the conversion of the Sax- 
 ons to the Norman Conquest; 2d Period, or Norman, from 
 lOGG to nearly 1200, comprising the reigns of William I., 
 William II., Henry I.. Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I. ; 
 3d Period, or Early English, from 1200 to 1300. or during 
 die reigns of John, Henry lit, and Edward I. ; Ath Period, 
 or Ornamented English, 1300 to 1460, comprising the latter 
 portion of the reign of Edward I., that of Edward II., Ed- 
 ward III., Richard II., Henry IV., Henry V.,and Henry VI. ; 
 5th and last Period, or Florid English, by some called the 
 Tudor Style, from 1460 to the dissolution of the religious 
 houses in 1537, comprising the reisns of Edwards IV. and 
 V.. Richard III., Henrys VII. and VIII. 
 
 Ducarel, in his Norman Antiquities, enumerates the 
 churches in England anterior to the Norman Conquest ; 
 among which appear those of Stukely in Bucks, Barfres- 
 ton in Kent, and Avington in Berks. Other examples are 
 to be found in Waltham Abbey ; the transept arches of 
 Southwell, Notts; the nave of the abbey church of St. 
 Alban, Herts ; nave of St. Frideswide, Oxford, &c. The 
 principal characteristics of this the First Period are, arches 
 (1) 6f semicircular form, frequently quite plain, (I) 
 occasionally decorated with various sorts of mould- 
 ings, both on the face and soffit; often double, 
 triple, or quadruple, each projecting beyond the 
 face of the other, with a moulding on the semi- 
 circular edge or arris, and resting on columns. The 
 columns are always single, and on the plan circular, 
 hexagonal, or octagonal ; placed on a square plinth, 
 and so low in proportion to their height as to be not more 
 than 3£ diameters high. The shafts are sometimes orna- 
 mented with spiral fluted or other work. The capitals are 
 indented, or rather engrailed, with fis- 
 sures of different lengths and forms 
 variously sloped off, or hollowed out 
 towards the top. (2) They are often 
 decorated with rude imitations of vo- 
 lutes and leaves, being exceedingly 
 varied in their composition. — Win- 
 dows, semicircular- headed, extremely 
 narrow, being sometimes not more than six or eight inches 
 wide to a height of little more than three feet ,and splayed or 
 levelled off on the inside through the whole thickness of the 
 wall. — Walls of great thickness, without external buttresses. 
 — Ceilings open-timbered, with a few specimens of vault- 
 ing in crypts. — Ornaments very sparingly used, except to 
 capitals and shafts of columns. — Plan rectangular and pa- 
 rallelogrammic, being usually divided into a body and 
 chancel separated by an ornamental arch. The chan- 
 cel occasionally as broad as the nave, and at the east- 
 ern part ending in a semicircle. In large churches 
 there is a nave and two side aisles, the latter being divided 
 from the former by ranks of columns ; but no transepts 
 appear till the latter part of the period, that is, about 970, 
 when they were generally adopted, with a square tower 
 over their intersection with the nave of the church, and 
 rising a little above the roof. At this date also towers be- 
 gan to appear at the west end, for the reception of bells. 
 The churches of this period were of small dimensions, and 
 it seems doubtful whether they were ever higher than one 
 tier of arches with a range of windows above. 
 
 Of the Second Period, or Norman Style, many more 
 examples remain than of those in the First Period; as in 
 the nave, aisles, transept, and west front of Tewkesbury ; 
 the nave and west front of Malmsbury ; Wimborn minster ; 
 Dunstable; St. Cross in Hampshire; Romsey in the same 
 county, <fec. Also in the cathedrals of Ely; western towers, 
 and nave, choir, and round tower, called Becket's Crown, 
 at Canterbury ; nave and choir at Norwich ; transept and 
 choir at Hereford, chapterhouse at Chester; presbytery 
 at Chichester; transept at Peterborough, <&c. The cha- 
 racteristics of this style are, arches, generally semicircular, 
 as in the diagram (3) here given of the nave 
 of Gloucester cathedral, and of much larger 
 dimensions than those of the preceding pe- 
 riods ; their ornaments less minute. They 
 are sometimes without ornament at all, and 
 their soffits are always plain. In the second 
 tier two small equal arches are comprised 
 -^"^ under one larger one, with a column between, 
 from which they spring, thus (4):— In (4) 
 
 the third tier there are generally three 
 together, the central one being higher 
 and wider than those on the sides, and 
 usually opened for a window- The 
 three, however, only occupy a space 
 equal in width to the lower arch. The 
 arches, which serve for the decoration 
 400 
 
 of entrance doorways, are richly ornamented with mould- 
 ings, foliage, representations of men and animals of gro- 
 tesque forms fantastically put together. The pointed arch 
 began to creep in about the end of this period, though but 
 sparingly; and it may sometimes be seen capriciously in- 
 termixed with the semicircular arch, and alternating with 
 it: when these appear they are usually sharp-poiifted.— 
 Columns. These are of large diameter compared with 
 their intervals; the shaft is circular, hexagonal and some- 
 times octagonal on the plan: fluted, lozenged, reticulated, 
 and otherwise sculptured. Sometimes they are square on 
 the plan, and then they are accompanied by portions of co- 
 lumnsor pilasters applied to them. Sometimes fourcolumns 
 are connected together, with or without angular pieces. 
 They are much higher in proportion to their diameters than 
 the Saxon columns above described ; and though their capi- 
 tals are not unfrequently quite plain, they are more com- 
 monly decorated with a species of volute, or with plants, 
 flowers, leaves, shells, animals, &c. The bases stand on a 
 strong plinth adapted on its plan to the shape of the com- 
 bined forms. — Windoies. These are still narrow, and semi- 
 circular, headed ; but they are higher, and often in groups of 
 two orthree together. — Ceilings always of timber, except in 
 crypts; in which they are vaulted with stone, with plain 
 groins, frequently moulded, and with ornamented edges ; 
 /\ s\ /\. y\. DUt tnev are un i vers ally without 
 (5) ^*\^\x\r\; tracery: the White Tower of Lon- 
 /gs r-i rpri rpp r— , r- don, however, affords an example 
 0=1 1 HJ L=U iyj of a centre aisle covered with 
 (7\ '^fT77'^v7\ : C~7/ vaulting- — The wafls are of extraor- 
 *■' > =S, A—A Z ^—A {£=. dinary thickness, with but few but- 
 (8) E E E E tresses, and those of small projec- 
 /g.. cr i_i-_jL-UJI__L3 tl0n ' usually without ornament. — 
 fcsaEZEaGJsaij The ornamente employed were, the 
 (10) '^7^X7^777' chevron or zigzag moulding (5): 
 - y -^~^ e -'-^-- the embattled frette (6) ; the trian- 
 gular frette (7) ; the nail head (8) ; 
 the billet (9); the cable (10); the 
 wavy (11); the nebuly (12); and 
 some others. Many of these were 
 used in the preceding period, as well as many which have 
 received no names. Ranges of small arches also appear: 
 these rest on brackets, sometimes with carved heads, along 
 the upper part of a building, just below the eaves or battle- 
 ment, and have received the name of a corbel table. (13)— 
 (Y3) Plans in this period are always with 
 
 transepts and a tower at the inter- 
 
 |^-v / r ~"\ /— n /~\ | section, rather loftier than before, 
 U y y ]( y and without spires; there are usually 
 ™ tiersof arches one above the other, 
 and the eastern ends are semicircular. Though much ot 
 the Saxon style is retained, there is, from the larger dimen- 
 sions of the edifices of this period, a much more impres- 
 sive air of magnificence than has hitherto appeared. In- 
 deed, the larger dimensions alone have by some been 
 thought to be the only criterion for distinguishing the Nor- 
 man and Saxon styles ; but this cannot be depended on 
 inasmuch as many of the former buildings are of small ex- 
 tent. 
 
 The Third Period, or Early English Style. — It was not 
 till towards the close of the reign of Stephen, that the first 
 transition from the Anglo-Norman style appears to have 
 taken place. As we have before hinted, it is discoverable 
 in the arch, which, from being semicircular, became point- 
 ed ; a circumstance, though often investigated by antiqua- 
 ries, still in obscurity. There is, however, another remark- 
 able feature exhibited in the transition ; the transformation, 
 namely, of single massive pillars into clusters of small 
 ones. Specimens of this style may be seen in the conven- 
 tual edifices of Westminster Abbey, Tintern Abbey in 
 Monmouthshire, Ripon and Beverley minsters in York- 
 shire : and in the cathedral of Lincoln, the nave and arches 
 beyond the transept; in York, the north and south tran- 
 septs ; in Well3, the tower and western front ; in Ely, the 
 presbytery ; in Oxford, the chapterhouse ; in Worcester, 
 the transept and choir ; and in Salisbury throughout. The 
 characteristics of the style are, arches sharply pointed, and 
 lofty in proportion to their span. In the upper tiers two 
 or more are comprised under one, and finished with tre- 
 
 (14) 
 
 (15) 
 
 foil (14), or cinquefoil (15) 
 a h^ads, instead of points. — 
 /\ I \ The columns (16) on which 
 > S O the arches rest are ex- 
 I) II tremely slender in respect 
 -I L J L of their height, and usu- 
 ally consist of a central shaft surrounded by 
 several smaller ones. The base assumes the 
 general form of the cluster, and the capital is 
 often decorated with foliage of extremely ele- 
 gant formation. — Windows tall, narrow, and shaped at the 
 top like the head of a lancet ; hence some writers, among 
 whom Dallaway, have called this style the lancet Gothic 
 They are divided by one or at most two plain mullions, 
 finished at their upper extremities with some simple orna 
 
ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 merit, such as a trefoil. — Roofs are high-pitched, and the 
 ceilings vaulted, affording the first examples ofarches with 
 cross springers only, which, after a short period, diverged 
 Into many more, rising from the capitals of the columns, 
 and almost overspreading the whole of the vaulting; the 
 longitudinal line which reigned along the apex of the vault 
 being decorated with bosses of flowers, figures, and other 
 fancies. — The wails now lessen in thickness; but they are 
 strengthened externally with buttresses, leaning as it were 
 against them, for the purpose of counteracting the thrust 
 exerted by the vaults of the ceilings, which the walls and 
 piers could not by their own gravity resist. The buttresses 
 «[■• . moreover, aided in their office by being surmounted 
 with pinnacles, adorned with crockets at their angles, ami 
 crowned with a finial flower.— The ornaments, though nu- 
 merous, are simple and elegant. The mouldings have not 
 Om \anety found in the preceding period, being usually 
 cut into a combination of leaves and flowers, placed com- 
 monly round the sides of arches, and especially of win- 
 dows ; but the columns are sometimes completely, as 
 it were, embroidered with them. The spandrels of the 
 arches are often covered with trefoils, quatrefoils, cinque- 
 foils, roses, mullets, bosses, patera, &c. The pinnacles of 
 ehrines are high and acutely formed, often with niches un- 
 der them containing statues ; similar niches are also fre- 
 quently used on the west and eastern fronts, their heads 
 being extremely sharp. These ornaments, however, are 
 not so profusely used in large as in small edifices, or in 
 ridded to old ones. — The plans arc generally similar 
 to those of the Second Period; hut the lowers rise to a 
 great height, and lanterns and lofty spires are very fre- 
 
 ?|tient accompaniments to the structure. In the transition 
 rom the second to the third style, it will naturally occur to 
 the reader that the architect left one extreme for another, 
 though it has been contended that the latter has its germ 
 in the former. He that as it may, the period of which we 
 are now •peaking was undoubtedly the germ of the suc- 
 ceedlflg Styles by no very forced or unnatural relationship. 
 The Fourth Period, or Ornamented English Style. — Ex- 
 amples of this style are, the Chapel of Merton College, 
 i ; New College Chapel in the same city ; St. Ste- 
 phen's. Chapel, Westminster, so injured by the conflagra- 
 tion of the houses of parliament as to be now no longer in 
 existence ; St. Mary's, in York ; choir of Tewkesbury, in 
 Gloucestershire ; Magdalen College, Oxford ; Eton College 
 Chapel, Bucks; and the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick : 
 also in the cathedrals of Exeter; nave and choir of Litch- 
 field throughout; naves of Worcester and 
 - (lire and tower of Norwich ; spire 
 of Salisbury ; nave and choir of Bristol ; the 
 I !iapel and Louvre at Ely; choir of 
 ster; Bishop Beckington's additions 
 at Wells and at Lincoln, from the upper 
 transept to the great east window. Its 
 characteristics are, that the arches are less 
 acute, changing in form, and more open. 
 (17) In the columns the central and de- 
 tached shafts are now brought into one 
 general combination. — The windows are not only larger, 
 bu; divided into several lights by a number of mullions, 
 which constantly branch out at the top into leaves, flowers, 
 wheels, fans, and numberless other forms. Though, how- 
 ever, these expanded considerably during the reigns of 
 the two first Edwards, they grew narrower and sharper in 
 proportion to their height during the reign of Edward III., 
 when the head was often formed of lines scarcely curved 
 above the haunches. The eastern and western windows 
 were of large dimensions, and theirglass splendidly painted. 
 The ceilings were constructed with vaulting of very highly 
 decorated parts, whose principal ribs, spreading out from 
 their springings on the imposts, covered the whole surface 
 with tracery, much subdivided, and ornamented with beads, 
 bosses, and a multitude of other devices, which were 
 elaborately painted and gilt. — The ornaments are not so 
 pure in line as in the previous style ; but they are more 
 varied and studied. Niches covered with tabernacles, for 
 the reception of statues, every where abound ; tiers of orna- 
 mental arches; pinnacles, not so lofty and tapered, but 
 adorned with leaves and crockets, with much sculpture, 
 painted and gilt, constantly occur; as also screens, carved 
 stalls, panelled ceilings, and other ornaments in carved and 
 painted wood. 
 
 The Fifth Period, being the Florid English or Tudor 
 Style (18), is very completely exhibited in (18) 
 Henry the Seventh's Chapel at Westminster, 
 King's College Chapel at Cambridge, and * 
 St. George's Chapel at Windsor,— edifices 
 well known to most persons in this country. 
 Examples are to be found also in the Lady 
 Chapel of Gloucester Cathedral, Alcocke's 
 Chapel at Ely, the exterior of the choir at 
 Winchester, the Lady Chapel at Peterborough, 
 and the north porch at Hereford. In the 
 Tudor style, it seems as though this species of archi- 
 401 
 
 ENGRAVING. 
 
 tecture having culminated, was now destined to set in 
 a blaze of uncontrolled splendour of ornament. Simpli- 
 city was superseded by the dazzle of minute decoration, 
 which was exhausted by the caprice of its inventors. I: 
 has therefore as well received the name of Florid, as its 
 other name of Tudor ; the latter from having been intro- 
 duced and carried to its utmost pitch during the power of 
 the family of that name. Its arches are universally Hat and 
 wide in proportion to their height. — The windows are much 
 more open than in the last, flatter at the top, divided in the 
 upper parts by transoms, which are almost constantly 
 crowned with miniature embattled work. — The ceiling 
 spreads out into such a variety of parts that the whole Bur- 
 face seems covered with a web of delicate sculpture or em- 
 broidery thrown over it; and from different intersections 
 of this ribbed work clusters of pendent ornaments hang 
 down, as Mr. Millers observes, like "stalactites in caverns." 
 The flying buttresses are equally ornamented, and 1 1 
 ternal surfaces of the walls are one mass of delicate sculp- 
 ture. The ornaments, as may be deduced from what we 
 have above noticed, are lavish and profuse: fretwork, 
 figures of men and animals, niches and tabernacles, ac- 
 companied with canopies, pedestals, and tracery of the 
 most exquisite workmanship, carried this style to the sum- 
 mit of splendour, and perhaps had no small share in pro- 
 ducing the extinction it was doomed to undergo. 
 
 The beautifully limber framed roofs, of which many ex- 
 amples still exist, appear to have originated, as applied to 
 great halls, about the reign of Edward III. About 1400 
 they were employed in churches, wherein prior to that 
 date stone vaulting appears to have been more common. 
 The Norman castles had their keeps and halls vaulted wiih 
 stone, as was the case in those in North Wales built by 
 Edward I. 
 
 Our limits preclude us from adverting to many fine spe- 
 cimens of ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland ; but the 
 abbeys of Melrose and Kelso, founded by David I., as well 
 as those in Dryburgh and Jedburgh, all in Roxburghshire, 
 show that the art was carried to as great perfection north 
 of the Tweed as in the southern parts. Iloslin and Ilolv- 
 rood Chapels, for richness and variety of ornamental earr- 
 ings (the first erected by Sir William St Clair), cannot be 
 exceeded. Its plan is without parallel in any other speci- 
 men of the fifteenth century. The latter was finished by 
 James, the second of that name, in 1440 ; and is a beautiful 
 specimen, with flying buttresses, more ornamented than 
 any even in England. 
 
 It would be impossible here to enumerate the palaces 
 and private Gothic buildings of this country, of which parts 
 still exist in the remains of the ancient palace at West- 
 minster, Eltham, Kenilworth Castle, Hampton Court, and 
 in many other places. A desire to renew it has appeared 
 in this country of late years ; but we doubt whether such 
 will be attended with success. The habits of the people, 
 one of the principal stimulants in architectural style, seem 
 to us rather out of joint for the purpose. The following 
 list exhibits the dimensions of the different cathedrals in 
 England, rearranged from the Rev. Mr. Dallaway's Dis- 
 courses upon Architecture. 
 
 
 
 Internal 
 
 
 
 Total Internal Length lu Feet. 
 
 
 Breadth of 
 Tranaept. 
 
 
 Choir. 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 B. H. 
 
 Old St. Paul's .... 
 
 m 
 
 248 
 
 166 
 
 42 88 1 
 
 Winchester .... 
 
 546 
 
 186 
 
 138 
 
 - 78 i 
 
 
 617 
 
 178 
 
 101 
 
 73 70 1 
 
 Canterbury .... 
 
 514 
 
 154 
 
 i:>0 
 
 74 80 i 
 
 
 4'J.i 
 
 222 
 
 131 
 
 - 99 i 
 
 
 4<> 
 
 •Mi 
 
 227 
 
 
 
 
 Westminster .... 
 
 189 
 
 152 
 
 — 101 
 
 Peterborough .... 
 
 480 
 
 203 
 
 138 
 
 — 78 
 
 Salisbury .... 
 
 46a 
 
 210 
 
 140 
 
 — 84 
 
 
 •120 
 
 176 
 
 117 
 
 33 71 
 
 Gloucester .... 
 
 420 
 
 144 
 
 140 
 
 — 86 
 
 Chichester .... 
 
 40I 
 
 131 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 Norwich .... 
 
 4II 
 
 191 
 
 166 
 
 — , — 
 
 Litchfield .... 
 
 4ll 
 
 88 
 
 110 
 
 — 67 
 
 Worcester .... 
 
 410 
 
 130 
 
 136 
 
 — 74 
 
 Exeter 
 
 .1(10 
 
 140 
 
 131 
 
 — 69 
 
 Wells 
 
 m 
 
 135 
 
 106 
 
 — 67 
 
 Hereford (ancient) . 
 
 370 
 
 140 
 
 106 
 
 — 64 
 
 
 34fl 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — — 
 
 Rochester .... 
 
 306 
 
 122 
 
 160 
 
 — _ 
 
 
 213 
 
 
 
 137 
 
 71 — 
 
 Bath 
 
 210 
 
 126 
 
 — 
 
 — — 
 
 
 17.". 
 
 128 
 
 100 
 
 — — 
 
 
 154 
 
 102 
 
 60 
 
 - 37J 
 
 ENGRAl'LMENT. The ring of dots round the edge of 
 a medal. 
 
 ENGRAVING. (Sax. grafan, to dig.) The art of pro- 
 ducing by incision or corrosion designs upon blocks of wood, 
 plates of metal, or other materials, from which impressions 
 2C 
 
ENGRAVING. 
 
 or prints upon paper or other soft substances are obtained 
 by pressure. Engraving, as an art, seems to have nearly 
 the same relation to design and painting as typography 
 bears to written language ; and its utility and great import- 
 ance must be obvious to every one from its capability of 
 giving a boundless circulation to representations of the most 
 valuable examples of the arts and of objects connected with 
 science. By some authors it is placed among the represen- 
 tations (jailed monochromes (/iovoxpoifiaroO- Xylography, 
 or wood-engraving, was the earliest method practised ; but 
 its origin is involved in obscurity. If we might rely on Du 
 Halde (.Description, fyc. de I' Empire de la Chine, Ho. 1736), 
 it is possible that it was known in China 1120 years before 
 Christ; though we think its invention is of a much later 
 period, as the Chinese were not acquainted with the 
 art of making paper till 95 b. c. It has been stated that 
 this art was introduced into Europe from China through 
 the intercourse of the Venetian merchants with its in- 
 babitanta; for it is proved that engraving on wood had 
 been practised in that part of Italy which borders on the 
 Adriatic as early as the 13th century. The first wood en- 
 gravings in Europe of which any tiling is known wilh cer- 
 tainty were executed in 1385, by a brother and sister of a 
 noble family of the name of Cunio. They represent the 
 actions of Alexander; and though doubts of their authen- 
 ticity are expressed by Heinecken, Mr. William Young 
 Ottley, the author of the elegant and learned History of 
 Engraving, to which we are much indebted, thinks other- 
 wise. But for the accidental discovery by a Venetian ar- 
 chitect of the name of Temanza of a decree of the magis- 
 tracy of Venice, in 1441, we might have been without posi- 
 tive proof of the practice of the art in Italy previous to 
 1467, and the Germans might still have continued to claim 
 the honour of its introduction into Europe. This decree, 
 dateil 11th October, 1441, states in substance that the art 
 and mystery of making cards and printed figures had fallen 
 to decay owing to their extensive importation : and in or- 
 der that the native artists might find encouragement rather 
 than foreigners, it was ordered that no work of the said 
 art, printed and painted on cloth or paper, — viz. altar- 
 pieces or images and playing cards, and whatever other 
 work of the s«id art is done with a brush and printed, — 
 should be allowed to be brought into the city, on pain of 
 forfeiting the works, besides a pecuniary penalty. This 
 decree plainly indicates that wood engraving was practised 
 in Venice as early as the commencement of the fifteenth 
 century. In Germany and the Low Countries, the early 
 block books seem to have existed as early as 1420, and to 
 have given Guttenburg the hint for using moveable types. 
 At Rome, in 1467, a work intituled Meditationes Johannis 
 de Turrecremala, issued from the press of Ulric Han, em- 
 bellished with wood engravings, in which the design and 
 execution of an Italian artist aire evident. The decorations 
 of the work of Valturius by Matteo Pasti, of Verona, pub- 
 lished five years afterwards, exhibit considerable spirit and 
 accuracy ; and before the end of the fifteenth century the 
 art had been carried to great perfection, as may be proved 
 by the delicacy and purity with which the designs are en- 
 graved in the celebrated Hypnerotomachia of Colonna. 
 (See Architecture.) At this period, however, the dis- 
 covery of copper-plate engraving had been made, and to 
 this the more ancient art yielded place. Maso Finiguerra, 
 a goldsmith and sculptor of Florence, and pupil of Masac- 
 cio, about the middle of the fifteenth century, seems from 
 the most authentic accounts to have been the person to 
 whom the world is indebted for the discovery. In his time, 
 and for a considerable period previously, it was the prac- 
 tice to decorate church and other plate with works in 
 niello, which were designs hatched with a steel point upon 
 gold or silver, then engraved with the burin, and run in, 
 while hot, with a composition called niello,— a compound 
 of silver, lead, copper, sulphur, and borax, which was 
 more easily fusible than silver, and of a black colour. The 
 superfluous part of this niello which remained above the 
 surface of the plate was then rubbed otf with scrapers, 
 and cleaned away with pumice-stone, leaving the engraved 
 design on the plate with all the effect of a print. In order 
 to preserve copies of their designs, the artists were in the 
 habit before filling the design with the niello to take im- 
 pressions of the plates with earth, over which liquid sul- 
 phur was poured, and from which, when cold, the earth 
 was removed. But Finiguerra carried his practice beyond 
 this ; for with a mixture of soot and oil he filled the cavi- 
 ties of the engraving, and by pressing damp paper upon it 
 with a roller, obtained impressions on the paper, having, 
 as Vasari says, all the appearance of drawings done with a 
 
 Een, "venivano come designate di penna." Bartsch, in 
 is Essay on the History and Discovery of the Art of tak- 
 ing Impressions from Engravings, prefixed to the thir- 
 teenth volume of his work Le Peinteur Graveur, very un- 
 willingly admits the invention to have originated with Fini- 
 guerra, though he claims for the Germans the merit of ap- 
 plying it to practice for the multiplication of copies of pic- 
 tures, &c. • but to this the opposing arguments of Mr. Ott- 
 402 
 
 ley are so powerful that we apprehend the subject is net 
 likely to be again mooted. Finiguerra was followed by 
 Baccio Baldini, a goldsmith of Florence, who, according 
 to Vasari, employed Sandro Botticelli to design for him. 
 Mr. Ottley doubts, however, the inference that might be 
 drawn from this passage; and indeed it does not appear 
 likely that such an artist as Botticelli could have resigned 
 himself to employment in such works as Baldini would be 
 constantly requiring. Baccio's works were numerous, 
 and are of course much sought after by collectors. Bot- 
 ticelli, a painter of eminence as well as an engraver, was a 
 native of Florence, where he was born in 1437. He is 
 spoken of with praise by Vasari, and especially for his pic- 
 ture at San Pietro Maggiore, of the assumption of the Vir- 
 gin : among the works he engraved from his own designs 
 are subjects illustrative of Dante, and a number of prints 
 of prophets and sybils. His death occurred in 1515. Con- 
 temporary with him flourished Antonio del Pollajuolo, and 
 rather later Gherardo and Robetta, who advanced the art ; 
 though it was still dry in execution, and more to be ad- 
 mired for correctness of drawing and design than for any 
 attempt at relief or effect. There can be no doubt that at 
 this period the art was practised at Rome, though the Ve- 
 netian state and other parts of the north of Italy furnished 
 a more abundant supply of artists, — of whom Francesco 
 Squarcione. Andrea Mantegna, Girolamo Mocetto, Marcello 
 Fogelino, Montagna, Bramante the architect, Altobello, 
 Gio. Bat. del Porto, Giovanni Maria, and Giovanni and An- 
 tonio de Brescia, were among the most eminent. The 
 works of Mantegna exhibit great marks of improvement 
 on the Florentine school, and are characterized by a vigour 
 and facility of execution which might naturally be expected, 
 considering the rapid strides towards perfection made in 
 the other arts. 
 
 In Germany and the Low Countries the art of engraving 
 had made extraordinary progress during the fifteenth cen- 
 tury ; and the name of Martin Schoen or Schongauer must 
 not be forgotten. This artist, who was also a painter and 
 goldsmith, was the father of the German school of engrav- 
 ing. He was a native of Culmbach in Franconia, and born 
 about 1420. He began the practice of the art when it was 
 in its infancy, and succeeded in carrying it to a great degree 
 of perfection. His death occurred at Colmar in 1436. Va- 
 sari relates that Michael Angelb, when young, was so 
 pleased with a print by Schongauer, representing St. An- 
 thony tormented by devils, that he copied it in colours. 
 Albert Durer, the most celebrated of the early engravers 
 of Germany, was born at Nuremhurg, in 1471. Skilled in 
 many arts, and a painter of no ordinary powers, it is aston- 
 ishing that, in a life not exceeding fifty-eight years, he 
 should have succeeded so eminently in that of engraving 
 that he has even hardly been surpassed. On copper as 
 well as wood his works exhibit specimens of executive ex- 
 cellence, which the experience of centuries has not been 
 able to surpass. Durer is supposed to have been the in- 
 ventor of the art of etching, at least no etchings are known 
 before those which are extant from his hand. Of the 
 works he has left, which are very numerous, his wood en- 
 gravings are the most free and masterly. Following Albert 
 Durer were Aldegrever his pupil, Hans Beham and his 
 brother Bartholomew, Altdorfer, Binck, Goerting, Penz, 
 and Solis. Hans Holbein, who, according to some was a 
 native of Basle, and according to others of Augsburg, bo- 
 sides acquiring celebrity as a -painter, is known as an en- 
 graver on wood, executed many pieces; the best known 
 and most remarkable of which are the fifty-three prints 
 called the "Dance of Death," first published about 1530. 
 Of the Dutch and Flemish schools Lucas van Ley den must 
 be considered the head. Born in 1494, at the place whence 
 he derives his name, he was the contemporary and friend 
 of Albert Durer; to whom, though inferior in design, he. 
 was superior in composition. His works, which were both 
 on wood and copper, are few in number. The Low Coun- 
 tries furnished a host of engravers, among whom we think 
 it unnecessary to name more than the Sadelers ; Rloemart, 
 who laid the foundation of the principles upon which lines 
 become capable of expressing quality, colour and chiaro- 
 scuro, which the French engravers afterwards improved; 
 Goltzius and his pupils; Muller; and Lucas Kiliau : the 
 three last, though they handled the graver with great 
 freedom and dexterity, fell into boundless absurdity and 
 extravagance, which, however, were tempered and cor- 
 rected by Mathieu and Saenredam. In the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century the two Bolswerts appeared, whose 
 style was much improved by the instructions of Rubens. 
 Vosterman, Pontius, and Peter de Jode the younger, were 
 of this school, which is distinguished for the success and 
 correctness with which it transferred the picture to the 
 copper. Rembrandt, notwithstanding all his faults and 
 absurdities, claims a special notice in this place as an en- 
 graver. The Descent from the Cross, and the print called 
 "Hundred Guilder Print," are extraordinary efforts of art. 
 His portraits and landscapes are full of nature, expression, 
 and character ; and it is difficult to say whether he is mot* 
 
ENGRAVING. 
 
 -.uocesslul in his sunshine effects, thsi) in (he sober solemn 
 twilignt with whicli his varied subjects are enveloped, 
 Vandyke has left a few specimens of etchings worthy of 
 •lis name. Jegher, Lutma, and above all the family of the 
 Vischers, exhibited great excellence in the art, which con- 
 tinued to advance under the hands of Waterloo, Jacob 
 Ruysdael, and Paul Potter; the last of whom, in his etch- 
 ings of animals, displayed a scientific acquaintance with 
 drawing and anatomy till his time unpractised. 
 
 . -t now return to close the brief account of the 
 Italian school, in which the appearance of Marc Antonio 
 Raimondi forms the most splendid era. Born at Bologna 
 38, he became the pupil of Raibolini, an artist of 
 that city. His master in the art of engraving is, however, 
 unknown. We first hear of him at Venice, whither Albert 
 Durer went to institute proceedings against him for pirat- 
 ing his prints, which had been copied by Raimondi with 
 such wonderful accuracy that they were sold for the 
 Hut the proper sphere for Marc Antonio was 
 hither he soon beat his steps. There his merit 
 soon gained him the friendship and esteem of Raffaelle, 
 then in the plentitude of his glory, by whom he was em- 
 ployed to engrave from his designs. His first plate from a 
 design by RafTUelle was the Lucrctia, soon after which he 
 executed the Judgment of Paris. His engravings after this 
 .master are very numerous; and though free from the 
 blandishments of style, chiaroscuro, and local colour which 
 the art has received since his lime, such was his knowledge 
 of drawing, such the beautiful character that pervades his 
 works, that he is entitled to the highest rank in the art to 
 which excellence has ever attained. Sirutl considers him 
 one of the most extraordinary engravers that ever lived. 
 His school attracted to Rome artists from all parts ; among 
 whom may be Numerated Marco de Ravenna, QioUo Bo- 
 kgosllno de Musis, Enca Vico, and Nicolo Beatrici. 
 Some of the German artists whom we have named above 
 — viz. Beluun, Penz, and James Binck — resorted to Rome 
 for the benefit of his instructions. On the death of Raf- 
 faclle, he execuied engravings of some of the works of Gi- 
 ul.o Rom mo. His lust print the Battle of the Lapithae, is 
 dated 1">39 Some of the principal pupils of Marc Antonio 
 ieen named; to them may be added Georgio 
 itnmonly culled Mantuanus, and others of his 
 family. Many of the Italian painters were extremely suc- 
 u engraving, among whom Titian etched many 
 ll none cultivated the art with more success 
 latino Caracci, who studied under Cornelius Cort, 
 engraver, born at Hoorn in 1536. His design and 
 i are equally lobe admired ; and had he but con- 
 centratod his lights more, ami attended to local colour, he 
 would have been exceeded by none. In the seventeenth 
 century Delia Bella, Callot (who, though born in France, 
 belong! to the Italian school), Guercino, Salvator Rosa, and 
 • mlinued the reputation of the art. At the tatter 
 end of this century was born Antonio Canalctti, originally 
 a scene painter, like his father Bernardo. His etchings 
 opened an entirely new field in architectural engraving, 
 and may be considered almost if not quite the first in 
 whicli fine sparkling effects of light are introduced, and in 
 which the darkest shadows partake of the transparency 
 and clearness which nature herself exhibits. Piranesl, who 
 was born in Venice, and died In 1770, appeared about the 
 middle of that century : be was one of the most surprising 
 architectural engravers that have ever existed, whether we 
 t the astonishing power or number of his works. 
 His use of the etching needle surpassed all that has been 
 done before or since ; and in our own lime Volpa'o of Flo- 
 rence, who, besides his other works, engraver', almost all 
 the celebrated performances of Canova with a delicacy, 
 grace, and correctness of the first order. 
 
 The French school commenced about the middle of the 
 sixteenth century with Noel Garni r, who was followed by 
 many clever artists; but till the time of Louis XIV. it can- 
 not be said to have been highly distinguished. At that epoch 
 w have Gerard Edelinck, who, though born at Antwerp, 
 belongs properly to the French school, and Gerard Audran. 
 Th" former of these, who worked entirely with the graver, 
 carried what is called colour in engraving to a much greater 
 e of perfection than had ever before been practised. 
 But facility was amazing, and portrait and history were 
 equally the subjects of his burin. The name of Audran, 
 not less from the circumstance of the family having pro- 
 duced six engravers, than for Gerard Audran, who en- 
 graved the well known Battles of Alexander after Le Brun, 
 is conspicuous in the history of the art ; his name, how- 
 ever, will descend to posterity with greater lustre from his 
 iviiiiis after the Italian Bchool, and particularly those 
 of Nicolo Poussin. Gerard Audran was born at Lyons in 
 1640. and died in Paris in 1703. John Audran, the last of 
 the family who exercised the art, and nephew of Gerard, 
 died in 1756. Nanteuil, the three Drevets, of whom Peter 
 was the most eminent, Le Clerc, Chereau, Cochin, Beau- 
 vais, Simonneau Dupuis, and many other masters, belong 
 to this period ; but Balechon and Wille, towards the mid- 
 403 
 
 die of the century, outstripped all (hat had been done by 
 their predecessors. Wille was a German ; but his resi- 
 dence having been chiefly at Paris, he is always ranked 
 among the French engravers. His extraordinary powers 
 in imitating the qualities of objects, and particularly ot satin, 
 the smoothness of effect he produced, and his extraordi- 
 nary clearness in the use of the graver, entitle him to a 
 place of the first rank in the French school, which, since 
 the age of Louis XIV., has been more distinguished for its 
 great mechanical skill, than for grace, correctness, and 
 beauty in the higher departments of the art. 
 
 Till the middle of the seventeenth century England was 
 indebted to foreign artists for the embellishment be- 
 stowed upon the typographical works she produced, as 
 well as for such engravings, either in history, portrait, or 
 landscape, as the taste of the nation required. Among the 
 artists who visited England and made it their permanent 
 or temporary residence were the Passes, Vaillant, Hondius, 
 Vosterman, Hollar, Blooteling, Dorigny, and several others. 
 Payne, who died about 1648, and Faithorne, who executed 
 many historical pieces and portraits in a masterly manner, 
 were the earliest English engravers deserving mention. 
 William Faithorne, son of the last named, was eminent as 
 one of the earliest mezzotinto engravers ; a species of en- 
 graving of English invention, if the editor of Wren's Pa- 
 centulia can be relied on, and discovered, according to him, 
 by his eminent relation, Sir Christopher Wren. This in- 
 vention, which is usually attributed to Prince Rupert, is 
 claimed by Heineken for Lieutenant Colonel Siegen, who 
 was a Hessian officer, from whom Heineken says Prince 
 Rupert learned the secret, which he brought to England on 
 his return with Charles II. After the two Whites, father 
 and son, appeared Vertue, who was born in 1634. He was 
 the scholar of Vandargucht, and from the numerous works 
 he brought out must have been an artist of great industry 
 and facility. The larger portion of his labours was con- 
 fined to portraits. Venue died in 1757, and left behind him 
 a History of Painting and Painters in England, which was 
 published by Horace Walpole in 4 quarto volumes. The 
 works of Pond and Knapton can only be mentioned as con- 
 tinuing the history, though occasionally they possess some 
 spirit ; but Vivares, a Frenchman by birth, belonging, how- 
 ever, to the English school, and indeed the founder of it 
 in landscape engraving, has shown in his engravings from 
 the pictures of Claude talents, ihe precursors of that pre- 
 eminence in landscape engraving which this country has 
 not only improved upon but exclusively possessed. Wool- 
 lett carried execution to a far greater extent than Vivares, 
 uniting with that engraver's spirit all the elegance, clear- 
 ness, and delicacy of the French school ; and to these 
 Woollett superadded every beauty that mechanical skill 
 could effect. John Browne was a contemporary worthy of 
 Woollett, whose works after Salvator, Both, and others are 
 well executed. Sir Robert Strange distinguished himself 
 by his great mechanical skill, whence resulted beautiful 
 execution, by the breadth he preserved in the effects he 
 copied, and by the delicacy he imparted to flesh in a man- 
 ner that has never been equalled. His principal engravings 
 are from the Italian painters, especially Titian, Guido, and 
 Corregio, and reflect great honour on the English school, 
 which since his time has never been deficient in producing 
 artists of the first elass. Strange was a native of one of the 
 Orkney Islands, where he was born in 1721, and died in 
 1792. Since his time the names of artists of talent might 
 be here supplied to a very great extent ; we shall merely 
 mention those of Basire, Bartnlozzi, Rooker, Heath, Byrne, 
 Bromley, Lowry, Earlom, Raphael, Smith, &c. In the 
 present day Ihe demand of prints for the embellishment of 
 bonks has produced talent which perhaps might be more 
 nobly employed in works of a higher order. In the enu- 
 meration of masters it will be seen that the name of Ho- 
 garth does not find a place, — for which our reason is that 
 his engravings partake more of the nature of pictures trans- 
 ferred at once to copper, often without proceeding through 
 the intermediate stage. w 
 
 Engraving on Wood, or Xylography. — In this branch of 
 the art the material used is a block of box or pear-tree 
 wood, cut at right angles to the direction of the fibres, its 
 thickness being regulated by the size of the print to be ex- 
 ecuted. The subject is drawn on the block with a black- 
 lead pencil, or with a pen and Indian ink, taking care that 
 the whole effect is represented in the lines so drawn. The 
 whole of the wood is then cut away, except where the lines 
 are drawn, which are left as raised parts ; in which point it 
 is that this mode of engraving differs so essentially from 
 copperplate engraving, wherein the lines are cut out or 
 sunk in the metal, instead of being raised from it. Thn 
 impressions from wood blocks are taken in the same man- 
 ner as from printing types. 
 
 Engraving on Copper is performed by cutting lines re- 
 presenting the subject on a copper-plate by means of a 
 steel instrument ending in an unequal-sided pyramidal 
 point, such instrument being called a graver or burin, w.tb.. 
 out the use of aquafortis ; whichmode will be seen below 
 
ENGRAVING. 
 
 under the art. Etching. Besides the graver there are 
 other instruments used in the process ; viz. a scraper, a 
 burnisher, an oil stone, and a cushion for supporting the 
 plate. In cutting the lines on the copper the graver is 
 pushed forward in the direction required, being held in the 
 hand at a small inclination to the plane of the copper. The 
 use of the burnisher is to soften clown lines that are cut too 
 deep, and for burnishing out scratches in the copper : it is 
 about three inches long. The scraper, like the last, is of 
 steel, with three sharp edges to it, and about six inches 
 long, tapering towards the end. Its use is to scrape off the 
 burr, raised by the action of the graver. To show (he ap- 
 pearance of the work during its progress, and to polish off 
 the. burr, engravers use a roll of woollen or felt called a 
 rubber, which is put in action with a little olive oil. The 
 cushion, which is a leather bag about nine inches diame- 
 ter filled with sand for laying the plate on, is now rarely 
 used except by writing engravers. For architectural sub- 
 jects, or in skies, where a series of parallel lines are wanted, 
 an ingenious machine was invented by the late Mr. Wilson 
 Lowry, called a ruling machine, the accuracy of whose 
 operation is exceedingly perfect. This is made to act 
 on an etching ground by a point or knife connected with 
 the apparatus, and bit in with aquafortis in the ordinary 
 way. 
 
 Etching is a species of engraving on copper or other me- 
 tals with a sharp-pointed instrument called an etching nee- 
 dle. The plate is covered with a ground or varnish capa- 
 ble of resisting the action of aquafortis. The usual method 
 is to draw the design on paper with a black-lead pencil ; the 
 paper being damped and laid upon the plate, prepared as 
 above, with the drawing next the etching ground, is passed 
 through the rolling press, and thus the design is transferred 
 from the paper to the ground. The needle then scratches 
 out the lines of the design ; and aquafortis being poured 
 over the plate, which is bordered round with wax, it is al- 
 lowed to remain on it long enough to corrode or bite in 
 the lines which the etching needle has made. Etching 
 with a dry point, as it is called, is performed entirely with 
 the point without any ground, the burr raised being taken 
 off by the scraper. Etching with a soft ground is used to 
 imitate chalk or black-lead drawings. For this purpose the 
 ground is mixed with a portion of tallow or lard, according 
 to the temperature of the air. A piece of thin paper being 
 attached to the plate at the four corners by some turner's 
 pitch and lying over the ground, the drawing is made on 
 the paper and shadowed with the black-lead pencil. The 
 action of the pencil thus detaches the ground which ad- 
 heres to the paper, according to the decree to which the 
 finishing is tarried : the paper being then removed, the 
 work is bit in in the ordinary way. Stippling is also exe- 
 cuted on the etching ground by dots instead of lines made 
 with the etching needle, which, according to the intensity 
 of the shadow to be represented, arc made thicker and 
 closer. The work is then bit in. Etching on Steel is exe- 
 cuted much in the same way as in the process on copper. 
 The plate is bedded on common glazier's putty, and a 
 ground of Brunswick black is laid in the usual way, through 
 which the needle scratches. It is then bit in, in the way 
 above described. 
 
 Mezzolinto Engraving. — In this species of engraving the 
 artist, with a knife or instrument made for the purpose, 
 roughs over the whole surface of the copper in every di- 
 rection, so as to make it susceptible of delivering a uniform 
 black, smooth, or tlat tint. After this process the outline 
 is traced with an etchine needle, and the lightest parts are 
 scraped out, then the middle tints so as to leave a greater 
 portion of the ground, and so on according to the depth re- 
 quired in the several parts of the work. 
 
 Aquatinta Engraving, whose effect somewhat resem- 
 bles that of an Indian-ink drawing. The mode of effecting 
 this is (the design being already etched) to cover the plate 
 with a ground made of resin and Burgundy pitch or mastic 
 dissolved in rectified spirit of wine, which is poured over 
 the plate lying in an inclined position. The spirit of wine, 
 from its rapid evaporation, leaves the rest of the composi- 
 tion with a granulated texture over the whole of the plate, 
 by which means a grain is produced by the aquafortis on 
 the parts left open by the evaporation of the spirit of wine. 
 The margin of the plate is of course protected in the usual 
 Way. After the aquafortis has bitten the lighter parts they 
 are stopt out, and the aquafortis is again applied, and so on 
 as often as any parts continue to require more depth. For- 
 merly the grain used to be produced by covering the cop- 
 per with a powder or some substance which took a granu- 
 lated form, instead of using the compound above mention- 
 ed ; but this process was found to be both uncertain and 
 imperfect. In the compound the grain is rendered finer or 
 coarser, in proportion to the quantity of resin introduced. 
 This mode of engraving was invented by a Frenchman of 
 the name of St. Non, about 1662. He communicated it to 
 Jean Baptiste le Prince, who died in 1781, from whom it 
 was acquired by Paul Sandby, who introduced it through 
 the medium of Mr. Jukes into England. It has been prac- 
 404 
 
 ENHARMONIC SCALE. 
 
 tised in this country with much greater success than else 
 where. 
 
 Etching on Glass. — The glass is covered with a thin 
 ground of beeswax: and the design being drawn with the 
 etching needle, it is subjected to the action of sulphuric 
 acid sprinkled over with pounded flour or Derbyshire spar. 
 After four or five hours this is removed, and the glass 
 cleaned off with oil of turpentine, leaving the parts covered 
 with the beeswax untouched. This operation may be in- 
 verted by drawing the design on the glass with a solution of 
 beeswax and turpentine, and subjecting the ground to the 
 action of the acid. 
 
 Engraving on Stone, or Lithography (Xc6o j, a stone, and 
 ypcupctv, towrite or draw). A modern invention, by means 
 whereof impressions maybe taken from drawings made 
 on stone. The merit of this discovery belongs to Aloys 
 Senefelder f a musical performer of the theatre at Munich 
 about the year 1800. The following are the principles nn 
 which the art of lithography depends: — First, the facility 
 with which calcareous stones imbibe water; second, the 
 great disposition they have to adhere to resinous and oily 
 substances; third, the affinity between each other of oily 
 and resinous substances, and the power they possess of re- 
 pelling water or a body moistened with water. Hence, when 
 drawings are made on a polished surface of calcareous 
 stone with a resinous or oily medium, they are so adhesive 
 that nothing short of mechanical means can effect their se- 
 paration from it, and whilst the other parts of the stone take 
 up the water poured upon them, the resinous or oily parts 
 repel it. Lastly, when over a stone prepared in this man- 
 ner a coloured oily or resinous substance is passed, it will 
 adhere to the drawings made as above, and not to the 
 watery parts of the stone. It was formerly thought that 
 this country did not possess a sort of stone like that of Ger- 
 many suitable to the purposes of lithography ; this, how- 
 ever, is now known to be erroneous, as the neighbourhood 
 of Bath abounds with it, being the white lias, which lies 
 immediately under the blue. It is also found in Scotland. 
 The ink and chalk used in lithography are of a .sapona- 
 ceous quality : the former is prepared in Germany from 
 a compound of tallow soap, pure white wax, a small quan 
 lity of tallow, and a portion of lamp-black, all boiled to- 
 gether, and when cool dissolved in distilled water. The 
 chalk for the crayons used in drawing on the stone it a 
 composition consisting of the ingredients above mentioned, 
 but to it is added'when boiling a small quantity of potash. 
 After the drawing on the stone has been executed and is 
 perfectly dry, a very weak solution of vitriolic acid is pour- 
 ed upon the stone, which not only lakes up the alkali from 
 the chalk or ink, as the case may be, leaving an insoluble 
 substance behind it, but it lowers in a very small degree 
 that part of the surface of the stone not drawn upon, and 
 prepares it for absorbing water with greater freedom. 
 Weak gum water is then applied to the stone, to close its 
 pores and keep it moist. The stone is now washed with 
 water, and the daubing ink applied with balls as in print- 
 ing ; after which it is passed in the usual way through the 
 press, the process of watering and daubing being applied 
 for every impression. 
 
 There is a mode of transferring drawings made with the 
 chemical ink on paper prepared with a solution of size or 
 gum tragacanth, which being laid on the stone and passed 
 through the press leaves the drawing on the stone, and the 
 process above described for preparing the stone and taking 
 the impressions is carried into effect. 
 
 In Germany many engravings are made on stone with 
 the burin, in the same way as on copper; but the very 
 great inferiority of these to copper engravings makes it im- 
 probable that this method will ever come into general use. 
 
 Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of the art of li- 
 thography is the extraordinary number of copies that may 
 be taken from a block. As many as 70,000 copies or prints 
 have been taken from one block, and the last of them nearly 
 as good as the first. Expedition is also gained, inasmuch 
 as a fifth more copies can be taken in the same time than 
 from a copper-plate : and as regards economy the advan- 
 tage over every other species of engraving is very great. 
 
 Zincography.— This art, which is of very recent introduc- 
 tion in this country (so much so, indeed, that but few spe- 
 cimens are as yet to be seen), is similar in principle to 
 lithography, the surface of the plates of zinc on which it is 
 executed being bit away, leaving the design prominent or 
 in relief. We have seen some beautiful examples of this 
 art, but varying little in their appearance from those of 
 stone engraving. 
 
 ENGRO'SSING. The writing of a deed over fair, and 
 in proper legible characters. Among lawyers it more par- 
 ticularly means the copying of any writing upon parchment 
 or stamped paper. In statute law, engrossing means the 
 buying up oflarge quantities of any commodity in order to 
 sell it again at an unusually high price. See Fokestaix- 
 ISO. 
 
 ENHARMO'NIC SCALE. In Music, a scale in which 
 the modulation proceeds by intervals less than semitones/ 
 
ENIGMA. 
 
 .T>dt is, nv quarter tones, having two dieses or signs of rais- 
 ing or lowering the voice. 
 
 BN1 UMA. (Gr. atvtypa ) A proposition put in obscure 
 or ambiguous terms to puzzle or exercise the ingenuity in 
 discovering its meaning. In the present day, the enigma 
 is only a jeu d'esprit, or a species of amusement to beguile 
 ■ leisure hour; but formally it was a matter of such impor- 
 tance that the eastern monarchs used to send mutual em- 
 bassies for the solution of enigmas. Every one remembers 
 the enigma which Sampson proposed to the Philistines for 
 solution ; ani the still more famous enigma of the Sphinx 
 (quod vide), he source at once of the elevation and ihe 
 misfortunes of fEdipus. About the 17th century the enig- 
 ma, which had been for centuries neglected as a species 
 of literary display, again came into favour; and in France 
 particularly it was cultivated with so much zeal, that seve- 
 ral gruid treatises were dedicated to its history and charac- 
 teristics. The best enigmas with which we are acquainted 
 were written by Schiller, and have been incorporated in 
 his works. Even in the present day the periodical litera- 
 ture of Trance and Germany does not disdain this species 
 of writing ; though, as was before observed, it is now em- 
 ployed generally for amusement, and rarely to convey 
 m iril I nstruc tion. 
 
 r.M.l'STMENT, in Military and Naval affairs, means a 
 voluntary engagement to serve asa private soldier or sailor, 
 either for a fixed or unlimited period. Unlike the armies 
 of the Continental nations, whose ranks are generally sup- 
 plied by conscription, the troops of the British army in all 
 ■i.irtments, whether of the line, artillery, or East In- 
 dia Company, are obtained by voluntary enlistment. About 
 a century ago, it was usual to engage recruits for the pe- 
 riod of three years ; but the present practice is to enlist 
 either for an unlimited period, as during the continuance 
 of a war, or for certain defined numbers of years, which 
 vary in Ihe different classes of troops. For the infantry 
 the period is seven years; for the cavalry ten years; for 
 the artillery twelve years; and for the East India Com- 
 pany for an unlimited time or twelve years, provided the 
 recruit be upwards of eighteen years of age, otherwise the 
 difference between hll age and eighteen years is added to 
 each period. (Penny Cyclo) Uy an act passed in 1819, 
 called the Foreign Enlistment Act. no British subject was 
 allowed to enter foreign service without permission from 
 the crown; and though this act WW recently suspended 
 for three successive years in favour of the troops raised in 
 thn country for the service of the Queen of Spain, it is 
 re in full operation. 
 
 The navy of Great Britain is also manned by voluntary 
 Uaent; Ibongh in time of war, or other great emer- 
 gencies, impressment (quod vide) is often resorted to for 
 obtaining adequate supplies. The period of engaging to 
 serve in the navy was, by an act passed in 1835. limited to 
 five years; after which the sailor is entitled, under certain 
 beneficial restrictions, to his discharge, with the privilege, 
 however, of re-enlisting for a similar period. 
 
 I'.'NNEAGON. (Gr. Ivvta, nine; yoivia, angle.) A 
 plane geometrical figure bounded by nine sides. When 
 the figure is regular and the side supposed = 1, the area 
 is r. i - 
 
 EN \ IvV'NDROCS. In Botany, having nine stamens. 
 
 ENNUI', a French term wholly naturalized in England, 
 signifies a kind of listlessness or inaptitude for mental ex- 
 ertion ; or it may be more scientifically defined as that un- 
 easiness or languor which prevails during the absence of 
 mental impressions. The Italian word noja corresponds 
 to the French ennui. 
 
 ENROLLMENT (in legal orthography, more properly, In- 
 rolment), signifies in law the registering or entering of any 
 document or lawful act in the rolls of.the chancery, or su- 
 perior courts of common law, or in the records of the 
 quarter sessions. Such inrolment Is rendered necessary 
 in different cases by statute ; as a deed of bargain and sale 
 in order to pass lands must be inrolled in one of the courts 
 of record at Westminster, or bv the clerk of the peace in 
 any county, by 27 H. 8. c. 16. Every deed before it is in- 
 rolk'd is to be acknowledged to be the deed of the party 
 before a master in chancery, or a judge of the court in 
 which it is inrolled. 
 
 ENSE'MBLE. (Fr.) In the Fine Arts, a term denot- 
 ing the masses and details considered with relation to each 
 other. 
 
 E'NSIGN. The national flag carried by a ship. Men of 
 war carry a red, a white, or a blue ensign, according to the 
 colour of the flag of the admiral in command of the station. 
 Ships do not display their ensigns at sea, except in meeting 
 strangers, on which ships show their national ensign. In har- 
 bour the ensign is not shown before 8 A. m., nor after sunset. 
 
 The ensign hoisted with the upper corner (or in British 
 ships the union of the crosses of St George and St An- 
 drew) downwards, is the signal of distress. 
 
 The English ensign is a red, white, or blue flag, having 
 the union in the upper corner next the mast. 
 
 E'nsios. The lowest commissioned officer, subordinate 
 405 
 
 ENTHYMEME. 
 
 to the lieutenants, in a regiment of infantry. An ensign is 
 appointed to each company, and the junior ensigns cany 
 the colours of the regiment. In the artillery and in the 
 rifle brigade a second lieutenant takes the place of an 
 ensign. 
 
 ENTA'BLATURE. (Fr. entablement.) In Architec 
 lure, the whole of the parts of an order above the column. 
 The assemblage is divided into three parts: the archi- 
 trave, which rests immediately on the column j the frieze 
 next, over the architrave, being the middle member; aud 
 the cornice, which is the uppermost part. The first aud last 
 are variously subdivided in the different orders. See Order. 
 
 ENTAI'L. See Fee Tail. 
 
 E'NTASIS. (Gr. cyra^i;.) In Architecture, a delicate 
 and almost impercepible swelling of the shaft of a column, 
 lo be found in almost all the Grecian examples, adopted to 
 prevent the shafts being strictly frusta of cones. This re- 
 finement, which is alluded to in the second chapter of the 
 third book of Vilriirius, was first observed in execution 
 by Mr. Allason in 1311 in the Athenian edifices. 
 
 ENTE'LECIIY. (Gr. a-TfA*x"«; from ivrcXhs, per- 
 fect, and txu* I hold.) A peripatetic term, invented by 
 Aristotle in order to express an object in its complete ac- 
 tualization, as opposed to merely potential existence (to 
 Swauci ov.) S?e AmsTOTELiAN Philosophy. 
 
 ENTEf.Ml'NTHA. (Gr. cvros, within, and IXpivf, a 
 worm.) A name synonymous with Entozoa, and applied 
 fo the same heterogeneous group of invertebrate animals. 
 
 See C03LEI.MIN TIIA aild SrERELMINTHA. 
 
 ENTERITIS. (Gr. tvrcpa, the intestines.) Inflamma- 
 tion of the bowcl-i. This disease is frequently occasioned 
 by incautious exposure to cold, by acrid substances or 
 hardened faeces in the bowels. Its symptoms are, pain 
 over the abdomen ; thirst, heat, and excessive restlessness 
 and anxiety ; sickness ; obstinate constipation ; and a hard, 
 small, and quick pulse. The pain increases as the disease 
 proceeds, especially about the navel ; there is great diffi- 
 culty in voiding the urine, which is small in quantity and 
 high-coloured; and the abdomen is so tender as not to en- 
 dure the slightest pressure. It often terminates in a few 
 hours in mortification of a part of the intestinal canal ; in 
 which case the pain suddenly ceases, the belly becomes 
 tumid, the pulse sinks rapidly, and the countenance ac- 
 quires a peculiar ghastliness : it also proves fatal during 
 the inflammatory stage. Favourable symptoms are, a 
 gradual diminution of pain and of tenderness on pressure, 
 natural evacuation by the bowels, moist skin, equal and 
 firm pulse, and a copious discharge of urine depositing 
 abundance of red sediment. This is a disease which re- 
 quires prompt and decided treatment, more especially as 
 relates to bleeding, which should be carried as far as the 
 strength will allow upon the first accession of Ihe inflam- 
 mation. Leeches should be applied over the abdomen, and 
 the patient should be put in a hot bath, or fomented with 
 hot water: the lower bowels should be evacuated by a 
 glyster of castor oil and gruel ; and small doses of saline 
 purgatives, or of calomel and cathartic extract, should be 
 administered to clear the bowels. The stomach, however, 
 is very apt to reject these remedies, and sickness should 
 be avoided : it must be quelled by the effervescing draught, 
 with a very few drops of tincture of opium. In some cases 
 pretty large doses of calomel and opium have been given 
 with success. When the urgent symptoms give way, and 
 the bowels have been cleared, diaphoretic saline medi- 
 cines and gentle aperients may be used, and a mild nou- 
 rishing diet allowed ; but great care is requisite in ascer- 
 taining that all relics of the inflammatory action are got 
 rid of, and that it is not lurking in some one spot in a 
 chronic form. 
 
 E'NTEROCE'LE. (Gr. cvrcpa, the bowels, and KrjXij, 
 tumour.) A hernia or rupture, the contents of which are 
 a portion of intestine. 
 
 ENTERODE'LA. (Gr. tvrtpa, and in\ot, manifest.) 
 The name given by Ehrenberg to a section of his class 
 Polygastriea, comprehending those which have a complete 
 alimentary canal terminated by a mouth and anus. 
 
 E'NTEROEPI'PLOCE'LE. (Gr. tvrcpa; iitinXoov, the 
 amentum; Kn\tt, tumour.) A hernia or rupture containing 
 both intestine and omentum. 
 
 ENTERO'LOGY. (Gr ) A treatise on the bowels. 
 
 ENTHYME'ME (Gr. Iv, and Svuof, mind; something 
 understood in the mind and not expressed), in Logic, is 
 commonly defined to be an argument having one premiss 
 expressed, the other understood. (See Logic, Syllogism.) 
 This is the character under which the universal form of 
 reasoning, or syllogism, generally presents itself in con- 
 nected writing. For example, the following argument, if 
 drawn out in the correct logical form, would stand thus. 
 "All tyrants deserve death; but Caesar is a tyrant, there- 
 fore Caesar deserves death." But in the rapid diction of 
 oratory, or poetry, it would probably be expressed either, 
 "All tyrants deserve death, therefore so does Csssar;" in 
 which case the minor premiss, " Caesar is a tyrant," is 
 suppressed : or, " Caesar is a tyrant, therefore he deserves 
 
ENTOMOLOGY. 
 
 aeath, \,y suppressing the major premiss. Instances may 
 be cited in which the enthyrneme consists merely of one 
 of the premisses expressed, while both the other premiss 
 and the conclusion are to be supplied by a rapid exercise 
 of thought. Tbus in the well known words, " But Brutus 
 says be was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man," 
 the last of these propositions contains a complete argu- 
 ment, — "what honourable men say is to be believed: 
 Brutus is an honourable man, therefore what Brutus says 
 is to be believed." 
 
 ENTOMO'LOGY. (Gr. cvropa, insects, and Aoyoc, a 
 discourse.) The science of insects : the history of the or- 
 ganization, habits, properties, and classification of those 
 articulated animals which are distinguished by the pre- 
 sence of antenna: and of breathing organs, composed of 
 ramified tracheae with or without air-sacs. The name in- 
 sect, from its etymological signification of an animal insect- 
 ed or divided into sections, is applicable to the greater part 
 of the Articulate sub-kingdom, but is now restricted to 
 those species characterized as above. The presence of 
 highly developed organs for breathing air, together with 
 peculiar and complex organs of sensation, is associated, as 
 might be expected, with active powers of locomotion ; and 
 most insects, besides having articulated members for ter- 
 restrial progression, for leaping or climbing, swimming or 
 diving, are endowed with wings, and are capable of rapid 
 and extensive flight. The power of traversing space is 
 given in greater fulness and perfection to the class of in- 
 sects than to any other created beings on our planet. A 
 peculiar condition of the breathing organs, and a peculiar 
 animal tissue (chitine), which combines great strength, 
 elasticity, and levity, coexist in insects, and in insects only. 
 If, therefore, the highest of living created animals contain 
 the characteristic structures of all lower forms, as some 
 transcendental anatomists assume, then man is not the 
 acme or apotheosis of animal organization ; for neither 
 anastomosing tracheae nor a particle of chitine is present in 
 his system ; nor does he possess a thousandth part of the 
 locomotive energies of certain insects. 
 
 Those insects which have more than six articulated legs, 
 and have the segments of the trunk free, without distinc- 
 tion of thorax and abdomen, which undergo no other me- 
 tamorphosis than acquiring an increased number of seg- 
 ments after exclusion from the egg, and which lastly pos- 
 sess neither compound eyes nor wings, are separated by 
 some zoologists as a distinct class, under the name Myria- 
 poda, which see. 
 
 In the Hexapod insects, the body is divided into a head, 
 thorax, and abdomen ; the head supports a pair of antenna:, 
 and contains a pair of compound, and often also simple 
 eyes; the mouth is provided with a labium, labrum, mandi- 
 bular, and maxillae ; the labium and maxilla: also support 
 peculiar feeling organs, called palpi. Sometimes these 
 parts of the mouth, which are termed collectively trophi, 
 or oral organs, are distinct, and adapted to mastication : 
 the insects' thus characterized constitute an extensive pri- 
 mary division of the class termed Mandibulata. Those 
 insects in which the trophi are so modified as to form an 
 instrument of suction are included in the primary division 
 called Haustellata. 
 
 The Hexapod insects were divided by Linna:us into the 
 following orders : — 
 
 1. Coleoptera. Wings four, the upper hair hard, with a 
 
 straight suture. Ex. : Beetles and earwigs. 
 
 2. TTemiptera. Wings four, the upper pair moderately 
 
 hard and incumbent. Ex. : Bugs, locusts, tree-hop- 
 pers, plant-lice, <&c. 
 
 3. Lepidoptera. Wings four, covered with scales. Ex. : 
 
 Moths and butterflies. 
 
 4. Neurnptera. Wings four, membranaceous ; anus un- 
 
 armed. Ex. : Dragon-flies, May -flies, <fce. 
 
 5. Hynmioptera. Wings four, membranaceous ; anus acu- 
 
 leate. Ex. : Bees, ants, saw-flies, &c. 
 
 6. Diptera. Wings two ; halteres two, in place of the pos- 
 
 terior wings. Ex. : Flies. 
 
 7. Aptera. Wings none. In this order Linnaeus included 
 
 not only true Apterous insects, as fleas, but also centi- 
 pedes, spiders, crabs, lobsters, &c. ; or the articulate 
 animals now forming the classes Myriapoda, Arach- 
 nida, and Crustacea. 
 There is not, perhaps, any class of the animal kingdom 
 which has been the subject of more numerous and various 
 attempts at classification than that of insects. We have 
 just seen that I, inneeus adopted the locomotive system as 
 the basis of his method Fabricius, his pupil, proposed a 
 system founded on modifications of the structure of the 
 mouth. I.atreille endeavoured to form a natural classifica- 
 tion of those most numerous animals from a considera- 
 tion of their entire organization. His latest system is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Sub-class I. Aptera. No wings ; simple eyes in most. 
 A. No metamorphosis, but simple moulting, without a 
 season of torpidity ; mouth in some a simple sucker, 
 in others mandibulate. 
 40G 
 
 ENTREPOT. 
 
 Order 1. TTiysanura. 
 
 2. Anoploura (or Parasita). 
 
 B. A complete metamorphosis; larva: apodal; pupae 
 torpid ; mouth haustellate, composed of an articulate 
 sheath containing three seta?, with two scales at their 
 base ; body much compressed ; the species saltatory 
 and parasitic. 
 
 3. Aphaniptera (or Siphonaptera). 
 
 Subclass II. Ptilota. Wings, but sometimes not developed 
 as such ; two compound eyes, to which in many are 
 added simple eyes. 
 
 A. Two wings covered by two elytra, either crustacecus 
 or coriaceous. 
 
 a. Mandibles and maxilla: ; elytra of the same consis 
 tence. 
 
 4. Coleoptera. 
 
 5. Dermaptera. 
 
 6. Orthoplera. 
 
 b. No mandibles nor maxilla: ; mouth haustellate, com 
 posed of an articulate sheath, including four setae ; 
 elytra membranous at their extremity in most. 
 
 7. Hemiptera. 
 
 B. Wings four, or two ; not covered by elytra. 
 
 a. Mandibulate ; wings four, membranous, and generally 
 transparent ; a small scale (tegulum)at the base of the 
 two anterior wings. 
 
 8. Neuroptera. 
 
 9. Hymenoptera. 
 
 b. Haustellate; wings scaly; tegula large, and thrown 
 back. 
 
 10. Lepidoptera. 
 
 c. Two wings ; haustellate. 
 
 1 1 . Strepsiptera (or Rhipipters). 
 
 12. Diptera. 
 
 For the characters of the above orders see the articles 
 under their respective denominations. 
 
 ENTOMO'PHAGA. (Gr. evrojia, insects, and $ayu>, i 
 eat.) A tribe of Marsupial quadrupeds, characterized by 
 having three kinds of teeth — viz. incisors, canines, and mo- 
 lares — in both jaws, and the intestinal canal provided with 
 a moderate-sized coscum. The Opossums (Didelphys), 
 Bandicoots (1 "urameits), and the genera Myrmecobius and 
 Chceropus are associated to form this group; and feed prin- 
 cipally, though not exclusively, on insects. 
 
 E'NTOMO'STRACANS. (Gr. £i/to/;oj, incised, and 
 oarpaKov, a shell.) A division of the class Crustacea, in- 
 cluding those species which are covered with a thin horny 
 tegument in the form of a shell, anil consisting of one or 
 two pieces. 
 
 ENTOZO'A. (Gr. aroj, and ^toov, an animal.) A 
 name given to an extensive series of low- organized inver- 
 tebrate and generally vermiform animals, of which the 
 greater part are parasitic on the internal organs of other 
 animals. They have colourless blood, circulated in the 
 higher organized species in a closed system of vessels, 
 without an auricle or ventricle ; they have no respiratory- 
 organs, no articulated members for locomotion, no organs 
 of sense. The digestive system consists either of tubes or 
 cavities excavated in the parenchymatous texture of the 
 body, and without an anal outlet ; or of a tube with both 
 oral and anal orifices freely suspended In an abdominal 
 cavity. A filamentary nervous system has been recog 
 nized in the higher organized Enlozoa, occasionally compli- 
 cated with a ganglion near the mouth; the generative sys- 
 tem is unisexual, hermaphrodite, or diascious. (For the 
 classification of the Enlozoa, see Intestinalia.) The spe- 
 cies of Entozoa known to infest the human body are the 
 following : — Ascaris vermicularis, Ascaris lumbricoides, 
 Tricocephulus dispar, Botkriocephalvs latus, Taenia solium. 
 in the alimentary cstial ; Distoma hepaticum, in the gall- 
 bladder; Acephalocystis endugena, Echinococcus hominis. 
 in the substance of Hie liver, in the omentum and cavity of 
 the abdomen ; Fihiria 6ro?ichialis l in the bronchial glands ; 
 Strongyhis gigas, m the kidney ; Spiroptera hominis and 
 Strongyhis spiniger, in the urinary bladder; Polystoma 
 pinguicola, in the ovarium ; Trichina spiralis, in the volun- 
 tary muscles ; Cysticercus cellulose?, Filaria medinensis. 
 and Filaria oculi, in the cellular tissue. 
 
 ENTREPOT. In Commerce, the name given in France 
 and some other countries to a warehouse or other place- 
 where goods brought from abroad may be deposited, and 
 from whence they may be withdrawn for export to another 
 country, without, payment of any tax or duty An entrepot 
 is, therefore, synonymous with what is called a free port 
 on the Continent, and in this country with a bonded ware- 
 house; that is, a warehouse in which foreign products are 
 stored under the joint locks of the king and the importcr 
 if such products 'be entered for home consumption, they 
 are free of duty till their entry ; and if they be re-exported 
 to a foreign country, they are exempted from all duty, and 
 merely pay a small sum as warehouse rent. In populai 
 language, however, the word entrepot is frequently em- 
 ployed to designate a sea-port or commercial town which 
 exports the produce of a considerable adjacent territorv. 
 
ENTRESOL. 
 
 and imports the foreign articles required for its supply. 
 Bal Its correct signification is that given above. 
 E'NTRESOL. (Fr.) In Architecture. See Mezzanine. 
 ENTRO'PIL'M. (Gr. tv, in, and rpeneiv, lo turn.) A 
 laming in of the eyelashes and eyelid, so as to Irritate the 
 b.ill oi lice eye. 
 
 E'NTRY, in Law, signifies the taking possession of lands 
 and tenements where a man has title of entry. It is also 
 Mad for a writ of possession. Entry is either actual, made 
 by the party or his attorney ; or an entry in law, by conti- 
 nual claim. Remedy by entry lakes place in ■ 
 abatement, intrusion, and disseisin; not on discontinuance 
 or deforcement. 
 
 i 'NV'ELOPE. In Fortification, a mound of earth, raised 
 to cover some weak part of the works. Envelopes are 
 sometimes raised in the ditch of the place, sometimes be- 
 yond it ; and are in the form of a single parapet, or a small 
 parapet bordered hv another. 
 
 >Vs, ORDINARY and EXTRAORDINARY, be- 
 long la the second order of diplomatic ministers. They 
 ar-' inferior in rank to ambassadors, properly so called; 
 i difference between them being that the latter are 
 held to represent the interests of their sovereign as agents, 
 ler hirf person. See Ambassador. 
 E'OCE'NE. (Gr. ntoc, the morning-, and xati/of, recent.) 
 :y. "This period we shall call Eocene, because 
 :ii« ly small proportion of living species contained 
 in these strata indicates what may be considered the first 
 commencement or dawn of the existing state of the animal 
 To tbJa period the formations first called tertiary, 
 of the Paris and London basins, are referable." (Lyell, 
 >/■) 
 
 I. Ill.ll'll.r.. Sre JEOLIPILE. 
 
 EPA'CRIDA'CEjE. i Kpaeris, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of shrubby Exogens, rhielly natives of Aus- 
 tralia; they differ from Ericea, chielly in the structure of 
 the anther, which is one-celled and destitute of appen- 
 dages. The fruit of Lissanthe sapida, and a few other 
 species, is eaten under the name of the Australian cran- 
 berry ; otherwise there is no plant of any known use in 
 the order, which, however, contains many beautiful spe- 
 cies of the genera K/iacris, Lysinema, Sphenotoma, Sly- 
 phelia, and Dracophyllum. 
 
 E'PACT (Gr. tiratcrot, added or introduced), in Chrono- 
 logy, denotes the moon's age at the end of the year, or the 
 number of days by which the last new moon has preceded 
 the beginning of the year. The common solar year con- 
 
 166 days, and the lunar year of only 354 days : the 
 difference is therelore 11 ; whence, if a new moon fall on 
 the 1st of January in any year, the moon will be 11 days 
 old on the 1st day of the following year, and 22 days old on 
 
 of the third year. The numbers 11 and 22 are 
 the epacts of those years respectively. The 
 
 of 11 to the last epact gives 33 for that of the suc- 
 
 or fourth year ; but as the lunar month never ex- 
 ceeds 30 days, the epact cannot exceed 30; whence 30 is 
 deducted from 33, and the epact is reduced to 3. Of the 
 thirty days thus rejected an emboHsmic or intercalary 
 ■ month is formed, which, consequently, occurs every third 
 year of the lunar cycle, and gives 13 lunar months to that 
 year. In like manner the epacts of all the succeeding 
 
 ; the lunar cycle are obtained; that is to say, by 
 adding successively 11 to the epact of the former year, 
 tod rejecting 30 as often as the sum exceeds that number, 
 tbe leap rears being taken account of by adding one day 
 
 lunar month which contains the 29th of February. 
 Supposing, therefore, the epact of the first year of the cy- 
 cle to be 11, the epacts of all the 19 years of which the cycle 
 la mm posed will be as follows.— 11, 22,3, 14,26, 6, 17, 23, 
 9, 20. 1, 12, 23, 4, 15, 26, 7, 13, 29. But the order is inter- 
 rupted at the end of the cycle; for the epact of the follow- 
 ing year, formed in the same manner, would be 29 -f- 11 — 
 30 =3 10, whereas it ought obviously to be 11, to correspond 
 Witt) the moon's age, all the circumstances being now sup- 
 poiod to be the same as they were at the commencement 
 of the previous cycle. In order lo understand (his, it is ne- 
 cessary to remember that the lunar cycle of the ecclesias- 
 
 ndar is composed in the following manner:— The 
 lunations are supposed to consist of 29 and 30 days alter- 
 nately, or the common lunar year of 354 days ; and, in or- 
 der to make un 19 solar years, six embolismic or interca- 
 lary months of 30 days each are inserted in the course of 
 the cycle, and one of 29 days at the end. Hence it follows 
 that after adding 11 to the epact of the 19th year of the cy- 
 cle, we must reject 29 instead of 30, in order to have the 
 epact of the following year, or the first year of the follow- 
 in:; cycle. 
 
 This method of forming the epacts is adapted to the Julian 
 oalendar, and miirht be continued indefinitely, if the Julian 
 Intercalation were followed without interruption, and the 
 lunar cycle, defined as above, had corresponded exactly 
 with the lunar motions. But the intercalation is subject to 
 correction, and the cycle is not quite exact. Hence the 
 epacts must occasionally be adjusted ; and, generally speak- 
 407 
 
 EPHIALTES. 
 
 ing, an alteration is made on the last year of each century. 
 In the ordinary tables of the church calendar the epacts 
 are therefore given only for a single century ; but as the 
 Gregorian calendar now in use defines precisely the length 
 ol the year, tables, though somewhat mt>re complicated, 
 have been formed, which show the epacts ol every future 
 year in all time to come. They may even be found by 
 means of an algebraic formula of no great perplexity. 
 (See the article " Calendar" in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 niva.) Tlie epacts were invented by Luigi Lilio Ghiraldi, 
 more frequently styled Aloysius Lilius, a physician of Na- 
 ples, and author ol the Gregorian Calendar, for the pur- 
 pose of showing the days of the new moons, and thence 
 the moon's age on any day of the year, and consequently 
 of regulating the church festivals. It is only in ecclesias- 
 tical computations that the epacts are ever employed; in 
 civil affairs the civilized portion of mankind have long 
 since laid aside the use of the lunisolar year, and regulated 
 time entirely by the sun. In the calendar of the Church 
 of England, Easter and the other moveable feasts are de- 
 termined in the same manner as in the old Romish calen- 
 dar, excepting that the golden numbers are prefixed to the 
 days of the full moons, instead of the days of the new 
 moons. The epacts are consequently not used. It is de- 
 sirable that the custom of reckoning time by the moon, 
 which had its origin in ignorant ages, were abandoned, and 
 the civil year adopted for every purpose. See Calendar. 
 Tie- following table shows the epacts corresponding to 
 each year of the lunar cycle during the present century. 
 The year of the cycle is what is usually called the golden 
 number, which is 'found by the following rule : — Add 1 to 
 the date (or year), and divide the sum by 19 ; the quotient 
 will be the number of cycles elapsed since the commence- 
 ment of the era, and the remainder the golden number. 
 See Golden Number. 
 
 Table of Gregorian Eparts. 
 
 Golden 
 W umber. 
 
 Epnet. 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 ■>_> 
 
 ~3 
 
 11 
 25 
 6 
 
 Golden 
 Number. 
 
 Epact. 
 
 Golden 
 Number 
 
 Epact. 
 
 1. 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 1\ 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 XII. 
 
 xin. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 17 
 2S 
 
 9 
 20 
 
 1 
 12 
 23 
 
 XV. 
 
 'XVI. 
 XVII. 
 
 xviii. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 I. 
 
 4 
 15 
 26 
 
 7 
 18 
 
 
 EPA'NAl.K'PSIS. (From the Greek prepoeiljon £iri' 
 and avaXafiftavui, I take up.) In Rhetoric and Composi- 
 tion, a figure by which the word which beginelhe sentence 
 is repeated at the end of it: "Judge not, thai je he not 
 judged " 
 
 EPAU'LE. In Fortification, the shoulder of the bastion, 
 or the angle made by the face and flank. 
 
 EPAli'LEMENT. Aside work hastily raised to cover 
 the cannon or men : also used for a demi-bastion, consist- 
 ing of a face and Hank ; or for the redoubts made on a right 
 line. 
 
 EPAULETTES. (Fr.) Distinguishing ornaments worn 
 both by military and naval officers. In the different armies 
 of the German stales ensigns are not allowed lo wear epau- 
 lettes ; and hence the phrase " to obtain epaulettes," is sy- 
 nonymous with "to become a lieutenant." In the British 
 army all officers with the rank of captain upwards wear two 
 epaulettes; all under that rank only one. 
 
 EPENE'TIC. (Gr. cxaivniKos, from ciraivof, an enco- 
 mium.) The laudatory or "encomiastic" species of ora- 
 tory : a branch of the Epideiclic, according lo the division 
 of Aristotle's De Iihetorica. See Panegyric. 
 
 EPE'NTHESIS. A figure of grammar, by which one or 
 more letters are inserted in the middle of a word ; as in the 
 Latin rettulit for retulit. See Metaplasm. 
 
 EPHEBEI'UM. (Gr. e^os, a youth.) In Ancient Ar- 
 chitecture, the building appropriated for the wrestling and 
 exercises of youth till they had, on their arrival at man- 
 hood, the right to enter the gymnasium. 
 
 EI'IIE'BI. (Gr. e$7i0ot, signifying arrived at the age of 
 puberty.) Applied particularly to the Athenian youth be- 
 tween the ages of eighteen and twenty years. 
 
 EPHE'MERANS, Ephemerince. (Gr. c<priitcpos, daily.) 
 A family of Neuroplerous insects, having the genus Ephe- 
 mera as the type. They are called day-flies, from the en- 
 joyment of their last stage of existence being generally 
 limited to twenty-four hours. 
 
 EPHE'MERIS. (Gr. ciprtpupii ; mi, upon, and fi/iefia, 
 day.) An astronomical table showing the places of a celes- 
 tial body for every day at noon. Ephemerides (the plural) 
 of the planets are computed and published annually for 
 most of the principal observatories of Europe. The most 
 celebrated of these are our own Nuutical Almanac, Iho 
 French Connaissance des Terns, and the Berlin Jahrbuch. 
 
 Ephemeris, in Literature, is a collective name for re 
 views, magazines, and all kinds of periodical literature. 
 
 EPIIIA'LTES. (Gr. apaWopai, I leap upon; from the, 
 
EPHOD 
 
 sensation of something leaping upon the breast.) The 
 nightmare. This affection, consisting of horrid dreams, 
 with a sensation of great pressure upon the body, and of 
 fruitless endeavours to escape and call for help, is gene- 
 rally symptomatic of indigestion, or of over-distension of 
 the stomach. For its relief opening medicine, and some- 
 times an emetic, are often required, and careful abstinence 
 from all that promotes dyspepsia, especially supper eating. 
 E'PHOD. (Heb.) A species of ornament worn by the 
 Hebrew priests. The ephod worn by the high priest, says 
 Calmet, was richly composed of gold, blue, purple, crim- 
 son, and twisted cotton ; and upon the part which came 
 over his shoulders were two large precious stones, upon 
 which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes of Is- 
 rael, six names upon each stone. The ephods worn by the 
 ordinary priests were of fine linen. (See Exod. xxxix.) 
 
 E'PHORI. (Gr. tyopoi.) In Ancient History, the title 
 of a class of magistrates common to many of the Dorian 
 states of Greece, but more particularly known in reference 
 to the political constitution of Sparta. The Spartan ephors 
 were five in number, and were elected annually from the 
 bQdy of the ruling caste, and not from any particular tribe. 
 They originally seem to have exercised a jurisdiction over 
 the Spartans in their civil concerns, the limits of which it 
 is not easy to define ; but their power increased by degrees, 
 till it became supreme in the state. Besides their ju cial 
 authority, I hey exercised a control over the functions of the 
 kings MM the senate, and sometimes recalled the former 
 from their foreign expeditions, and demanded an account 
 of their proceedings. The executve power likewise was 
 almost wholly in their hand3. 
 
 E'PIC. (Gr. tiroi, a verse.) A poem of an elevated cha- 
 racter, describing generally the exploits of heroes. This 
 species of poetry claims a very ancient origin, and is uni- 
 versally allowed to be the most disnified and majestic to 
 which the powers of the poet can be directed. There are 
 various theories regarding the character of an epic poem ; 
 and while some critics claim this title exclusively tor the 
 Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, the JEneid of Virgil, and the 
 Paradise Ims' of Milton, others— and particularly the Ger- 
 mans — embrace in the catalogue of epic writers Scott, 
 Byron, Pope, Moore, and Campbell. Epic poetry has often 
 been compared to the drama; and the essential difference 
 between them is, that description is the province of the 
 former— action of the latter. The emotions which epic 
 poetry excite are not so frequent and violent as those pro- 
 duced by dramatic composition ; but they are more pro- 
 longed, iind more developed by actual occurrences ; for an 
 epic poem embraces a wider compass of time and action 
 than is admissible in the drama. History has generally 
 supplied the best epic writers with themes; but a close at- 
 tention to historical truth in the development of the story 
 is by no means requisite. Fiction, invention, imagination, 
 may be indulged in to an almost unlimited extent; pro- 
 vide I always the poet be careful to preserve what the cri- 
 tics call unity, i. e. provided his work embrace an entire 
 action, or have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is 
 the distinguishing characteristic of the great epic poems. 
 The object of the ^Eneid, for instance, is the establishment 
 of vEneas in Italy ; and amidst all the ramifications of the 
 poem, the great object is kept steadily in view, and every 
 digression from the subject is made powerfully and di- 
 rectly conducive to the progress and development of the 
 tale. According to Aristotle, who has been implicitly fol- 
 lowed by Blair, the essentials of an epic poem consist in 
 the recital of some great event in a poetical form,— the con- 
 trivance of a plot important in itself, and instructive in the 
 reflections which it suggests, filled with suitable incidents, 
 enlivened with a variety of characters and descriptions, 
 and maintaining throughout propriety of character and ele- 
 vation of style. But besides these essential ingredients in 
 epic poetry, there are also what maybe termed accidentals. 
 in which none of the great epic poems are deficient. These 
 are a prescribed and lengthened march, formal addresses, 
 sustained pomp, episodes, and machinery. About the ne- 
 cessity and use of machinery (the introduction of super- 
 natural beings) in an epic poem there are various opinions. 
 The French critics consider it as essential to the constitu- 
 tion of an epic poem, alleging that no poem, though pos- 
 sessed of every other requisite, has any pretension to be 
 ranked in the epic class unless the main action be carried 
 on by supernatural beings. " On peut dire," says Bossu, 
 " en un mot qu'il faut user de machines partout, pnisque 
 Homere et Virgile n'ont rien fait sans cela." To be con- 
 vinced of the error of this critic, we have only to ask our- 
 selves what it is, in the writings of Homer and Virgil, that 
 pleases us most 1 Assuredly, as an ingenious writer has 
 remarked, it is not the councils of Olympus, the wiles of 
 Juno and Venus, or the " animis in coelestibus irm" (how 
 beautiful soever these are all pourtrayed), that awake a 
 chord of sympathy, even after a lapse of two thousand 
 years, in the breast of every one who reads them ; but it 
 is the knowledge of human nature, and the pictures of hu- 
 man feeling which these poems display, that have made 
 
 EPICUREANS, 
 them a " KTripa ei; ati,' : — a work for all time, a possession 
 for eternity. In a word, upon this head we may say, that 
 while, on the one hand, the observance of all these rules 
 regarding machinery alone will never constitute an epic 
 poem ; so, on the other, the absence or violation of them 
 in the hands of a man of geniu3 will never deprive it of 
 that character. 
 
 If the epic is the highest, it is also the most difficult style 
 of poetical composition, and that in which mediocrity is 
 least endurable ; and hence few of the writers of epics d-a 
 the classical model have obtained a high reputation as na- 
 tional poets in any language. Virgil is the earliest imitator 
 of Homer whose epic has been preserved, and the most 
 successful. The other Greek and Latin epic poets conta n 
 passages of great beauty ; but their poems, as wholes, are o: 
 an inferior order. In the English language we have only two 
 epics which can be said to form part of the national literature, 
 and those only in part framed on the classical model: the Pa- 
 radise Lost 'and Regained of Milton. French epics, including 
 even the Henriade of Voltaire, so famous in its time, haw: 
 no place among the chefs-d'oeuvre of the national literature. 
 Of the great Italian poems, only one (the Jenisulem De- 
 livered of Tasso) fulfils the conditions of an epic. The 
 poem of Dante, however sublime in style, has no unity of 
 event or action : those of Ariosto, and the other lloman- 
 zieri, form a class distinguished from the epic by the mix- 
 ture of the serious and ludicrous. The Italia Libcruta of 
 Trissino is simply pedantic. The old German and Spanish 
 national poems, — the Romance of the Cid, and the A'iebe- 
 lungen-Lied, especially the latter, which is closely confined 
 to the conduct of one great action, — although the work of 
 writers unskilled in classical literature, deserve the title oi 
 epic as truly as those of Homer. There is a brief but 
 masterly exposition of the origin and distinguishing charac- 
 teristics of epic poetry in the Penny Cyclopaedia, with re- 
 ference to the chief German authorities on this subject. 
 
 EPICA'RIDANS, Epicarides. (Gr. mi. vfxm, and 
 xapis, a shrimp.) A family of Isopodous or equal footed 
 Crustaceans, which are parasitic upon shrimps. 
 
 EPICE'DIUM. (Gr. tin, and ktjoos, grief.) In Poetry, 
 an elegiac poem on the occasion of a funeral solemnity in 
 honour of some deceased person. 
 
 EPICRA'NITIS. (Gr. iKiKoaivoy, I finish.) In Ancient 
 Architecture, a tile forming the cyma of the cornice. The 
 angular stone forming the vertex of the pediment was call- 
 ed the angular epicranitis. The term is used in the cele- 
 brated Athenian inscription brought to this country by Dr. 
 Chandler, and now in the British Museum. 
 
 EPICURE'ANS. Followers of the tenets of Epicurus. 
 a philosopher who lived from b. c. 337 to b. c. 270, and 
 taught during the latter half of his life at Athens. The 
 name of Epicurean has become the general designation of 
 those who, either theoretically or practically, make plea- 
 sure the chief end of life and the standard ol all virtue. Ol 
 the genuine doctrines of Epicurus himself we have notices 
 in the work of Diogenes I.aertius, who has preserved to us 
 fragments of his very voluminous writings: but for these 
 remains we should be at a loss, amid the conflicting state- 
 ments of his friends and enemies, how to judge of his cha- 
 racter as a man and a philosopher. The private character 
 of Epicurus has, we ddubtnot, been unjustly aspersed ; it 
 will be found, however, on a careful examination of his 
 system, that his merits as a philosopher have been as un- 
 deservedly extolled. Epicurus was the first philosophical 
 teacher who deserted the lofty idea of science which Plato 
 and Aristotle had striven to develop. Truth is, with him, 
 no longer an object worth pursuing for its own sake, but 
 only in so far as it contributes to the piece of mind of its 
 possessors. Hence, though he retains the threefold divi- 
 sion of philosophy into ethics, physics, and dialectics (in 
 Epicurean language, canonic), lie assigns the two latter a 
 place subordinate to the first, and bestows on them a cur- 
 sory and heedless mode of treatment. 
 
 We should greatly wrong Epicurus if we represented 
 the gratification of the sensual appetites to be the object 
 proposed by him to the wise man. The happiness which 
 he regards as the true end of existence is rather a species 
 of quietism, in which the philosopher, protected by his 
 knowledge from all fear of injury from the powers of na- 
 ture, and by the laws from the assaults of his fellow-crea- 
 tures, holds himself open to all the pleasurable sensations 
 which the temperate indulgence of his ordinary appetites, 
 the recollection of past enjoyments, and the anticipation 
 of future, are sufficient abundantly to furnish. In order to 
 support his imaginary wise man in this tranquillity, he 
 deemed it necessary to show that the apprehensions which 
 beset mankind, of death, of the power and anger of the 
 gods, and the like, are wholly unfounded. For this pur- 
 pose he made use of the physical doctrine of Democritus ; 
 a system of atomic materialism, which makes all existen- 
 ces to arise from the concourse of minute particles of mat- 
 ter — thesoulamong Ihe number, which is consequently, 
 at the moment of death, resolved into its constituent ele- 
 ments. The mental philosophy of Epicurus was of a sim- 
 
kJ 
 
 EPICYCLE. 
 
 tat stamp : all our mental powers are resolved into sensa- 
 tion, immediate or recollected ; and sensation, under both 
 its forms, consists in the influx of certain extremely fine 
 films, which are perpetually, as it were, sloughed from 
 external objects, and find their way through the organs 
 a to the soul. The gods of the Epicureans bear 
 no pinion to any part of their system : they are beings 
 ppruii, like men, from the concourse of atoms, and differ- 
 ing fr im them only in their superior blessedness and tran- 
 qtiilUtv, shown in their entire aloofness from the care and 
 government of the world. The followers of Epicurus were 
 numerous, especially among the Romans. Little more, 
 however, than their names are recorded; with the excep- 
 tion of Lucretius, who, in his well-known poem. De lierum 
 Natura. illustrates and defends the physical and religious 
 tenets of his master. In modem times, Gassendi, an ato- 
 mic philosopher of the 17th century, has published an able 
 statement o\ the Epicurean system, under the title oi St/n- 
 taenvi Philotophiea Epicuri. (See also Diogenes Laertius. 
 Vit. Phil 1 x. ; and Cicero's writings gene- 
 
 tally; also Ritter, Geach. der Philoa. b. x. And for • list of the 
 ins, Fnbrlcii liihliuthecaGrcbca, vol. iii. ed. Ilarles.) 
 
 EPIOY'CLE (Or. ciri, upon, and kvkXos, circle), in the 
 Ancient Astronomy, is a circle having its centre on the 
 circumference of another circle. It whs a favourite axiom 
 of the Greek astronomers, that all the celestial motions 
 must be circular and uniform. The phenomena of lie- 
 stations ;uid retrogradations of the planets were apparently 
 inconsistent with this supposition ; and in order to explain 
 them, Apollonius of Perga imagined the Ingenious appa- 
 ratus of rpiryrtes and deferents. He supposed the planet P 
 to move uniformly in the small circle or epi- », — N » 
 cycle PAD, the centre of which is carried uni- / *.&) 
 formly forward along the circumference of the ' 
 large circle or dferent CDF, of which the 
 earth occupies the centre E. Hipparchus, 
 having discovered the. eccentricity of the solar orbit, sup- 
 pose! the motions to be performed in eccentric circles. 
 Ptolemy, the celebrated founder of the system which 
 mers followed till the days of Copernicus, adopted 
 the hypotheses both of Apollonius and Hip. 'archus ; that 
 is, be supposed the earth E to be placed at a small distance 
 from the centre of the deferent circle (which consequently 
 e), and the planet to move uniformly 
 in the epicycle, the centre of which also moves uniformly 
 in the deferent Ily means of these suppositions, and by 
 assigning proper ratios (determined by observation) be- 
 tween tii>- radius of the deferent and the radius of the epi- 
 cycle., and also between the velocity of the planet in its 
 epicycle and the velocity of the centre of the epicycle on 
 the deferent, he was enabled to represent with considerable 
 . indeed with all the accuracy which the observa- 
 tions of ttiat lime rerpiired, the apparent motions of the 
 planets, and particularly the stations and retrogradations 
 Which formed the principal object of the researches of the 
 ancient astronomers. As a first step towards connecting 
 the two sciences of astronomy and geometry, the system 
 of epicycles does infinite honour to its inventors ; and it 
 paght to he borne in mind that it was never given out by 
 Ptolemy as any thing else than a mere hypothesis for re- 
 ig the apparent celestial motions, or, as he ex- 
 r saving the appearances. 
 
 E'PICY'CLOID (Gr. tu-iiruirXoj, and liioc, form), in 
 Geometry, is a curve line which is generated by the re- 
 volution of a point in the circumference of a circle which 
 rolls on the circumference of another circle either exter- 
 nally or internally. Thus, let the 
 circle whose centre is E touch the 
 circle A B F at the point A, and 
 roll along the outside of the cir- 
 cumference ; the point of original 
 contact C, carried round till it re- 
 turn again to the circumference at 
 F, will trace an epicycloid. If the 
 circle revolve on the inside of the 
 circumference, the curve traced 
 ont by the point C will still be of the same kind, though 
 iotnewhat different in form. This is sometimes called the 
 hwiocr/cloid. 
 
 The revolving circle is called the generating circle, the 
 circle on which the revolution is performed the funda- 
 ble, and the portion of the fundamental circle on 
 which the epicycloid rests is called its base. Some of the 
 properties of the curve are easily deduced from these de- 
 finitions. It is evident that the whole base A F is equal to 
 omference of the generating circle ; and when the 
 tadius of the generating circle is any aliquot part of that of 
 the fundamental circle, the epicycloid, after repeated ac- 
 to the circumference of the fundamental circle, 
 diiki return into itself at the same point A. 
 
 The epicycloid assumes a variety of forms, according to 
 
 the relative magnitudes of the fundamental and generating 
 
 circles ; when the two circles are equal, its form Is that of 
 
 the annexed figure. This is one of the caustic curves ; for 
 
 109 
 
 EPIDOTE. 
 
 rays of light, issuing from a luminous point R in the circum- 
 ference of a circle R I A, and 
 reflected from any points I i in 
 the circumference, are tangents 
 to the curve ; consequently ah 
 the reflected rays intersect in 
 the curve which is thus traced 
 out by the assemblage of bril- 
 liant points. When the radius 
 of the generating circle is only 
 half that of the fundamental ci, 
 cle, theexteriorepicycloid forms 
 the caustic of parallel rays. In 
 this case the interior epicy- 
 cloid becomes a straight line, 
 the point C tracing out the diameter of the fundamental 
 circle. 
 
 It is a remarkable property of epicycloids, that when tho 
 diameter of the generating circle is any aliquot part of the 
 diameter of the fundamental circle, I hey are algebraic 
 curves; and the whole epicyclotdal circuits are capable of 
 being expressed geometrically in terms of the diameters 
 of those circles. Thus, let the radius of the generating 
 circle be 1, and the radius of the fundamental circle n ; then 
 the length of the complete arc of the exterior epicycloid is 
 
 expressed by the formula 8 ( ), and of the interior 
 
 epicycloid by 8 ( .). In this case also the epicycloidal 
 
 spaces, or areas, are expressible in terms of the areas of 
 these circles; the surface of the exterior epicycloid being 
 3n + 2 . . . , 3„_ j 
 times, and that of the interior epicycloid 
 
 times the area of the generating circle. In all cases 
 the epicycloid, as above defined, i- but when 
 
 the tracing point is not situated in the circumference 
 of the generating circle, but any where in its plane within 
 or without it, the curve is of a different nature, and tho 
 above properties no longer hold true. In this ease the ex- 
 terior curve is usually called the tpiirocAoid, and ihe inte- 
 rior the hypotroclwid. 
 
 The epicycloid was invented by the celebrate,! Danish 
 astronomer Romer, the discoverer of the progressive nn>i ion 
 of light, who proposed this curve, about the year 107-1. as 
 the proper form of the teeth of wheels, in order to destroy 
 the friction. Newton, in the first edition of the Principui, 
 gave its rectification ; and Halley. In the Philosophical 
 Transactions, No. 218, showed how its quadrature depend! 
 on that of the generating ctr.-le. Tho other principal pro- 
 perties of the curve were dis -.overed and demonstrated by 
 John Bernoulli. 
 
 The term epicycloid is applied to other curves than the 
 above, but described in an analogous manner. If the re- 
 volving circle forms a constant angle with the plane of the 
 fundamental circle, the curve traced out is called a spheri- 
 cal epicycloid. If an ellipse is made to roll on another el- 
 lipse, the generating point traces an elliptic epicycloid, &c 
 
 EPIDE'MIC. (Gr. eir i, upon, and Ar\uo j, people.) An in- 
 fectious or contagious disease, which attacks many people 
 at the same period and in the same country, " rages for a 
 certain lime, and then gradually diminishes and disappears, 
 to return again at periods more or less remote." Thus in- 
 fluenza, scarlet fever, measles, &c, frequently appear as 
 epidemics; that is, are found to prevail In certain parts of 
 a country, while the adjacent districts are wholly free from 
 their ravages. It is essential to the medical notion of an 
 epidemic that it be of a temporary, in contradistinction to 
 a permanent character. It differs from endemic, inasmuch 
 as the latter class of diseases are of a permanent nature, 
 and prevail only among certain people, and in certain dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 EPIDE'RMIS. (Gr. tirt, and Seppa, the true skin.) In 
 Anatomy, the cuticle or scarf skin. It is an albuminous 
 membrane. 
 
 Epidermis. In Botany, the cellular integument, or the 
 exterior cellular coating of the bark, or leaf, or stem of a 
 plant. It is composed of cells compacted together into a 
 stratum, varying in thickness in different species, and is 
 often readily separable by gentle violence. It is believed 
 to be intended by nature as a protection of the subjacent 
 parts from the drying effects of the atmosphere. 
 
 E'PIDOTE. (Gr. tTrt6i6uut, I increase.) A mineral 
 which has received a great variety of names. It occurs 
 crystallized, massive, and granular; its usual colours are 
 varjous shades of green ; its structure is generally fibrous. 
 It is a triple silicate of alumina, lime, and iron. It occurs 
 in most parts of Europe, in America, and in the East In- 
 dies. " L'gpidote emprunte meme des dimensions de sa 
 molecule tin caractere particulier ; il consiste en ce qua 
 l'un des cotes de la base de cette mole'cule est plus e"tendu 
 que l'autre, en sorte que cette base estun paralle"logramme 
 allonge - , au lieu que dans les autres substances (achnote, 
 amphibole. &cj la figure de la base est d'un nombre. 
 
EPIG^EOUS. 
 
 U-est de cette espSce d'accroissement qae j'ai tire" le nom 
 d'epidote." {Hatty.) 
 
 EPIGiE'OUS. (Gr. tin, upon, and yt}, the earth.) In 
 Botany, a term used in describing the situation of bodies 
 to denote any one growing close to the earth. 
 
 EPIGA'STRIC REGION (Gr. tm, and yaartip, the 
 stomach), is that part of the abdomen which is over the 
 Stomach. It is also called the epigastrium. 
 
 E'PIGE'NESIS. In Physiology. See Evolution. 
 
 IMMGLO'TTIS. (Gr. em, and yXoirra, the tongue.) An 
 oval cartilage at the root of the tongue, which closes upon 
 the superior opening of the larynx ; its superior extremity 
 is loose, and elevated by its own elasticity : it closes the 
 aperture of the larynx when the tongue is drawn back in 
 the act of deglutition. Its base has a 'ligamentous attach- 
 ment to the base of the tongue, the thyroid cartilage, and 
 the os hyoides. 
 
 EPI'GONI. (Gr. em, in the sense of after, and ytyvo- 
 fiat, lam born.) The collective appellation of the sons of 
 the seven Greek princes who conducted the first war 
 against Thebes without success. The war subsequently 
 undertaken by the Epigoni to avenge the defeat of their 
 forefathers is celebrated in history. Their capture of 
 Thebes forms the theme of Wilkie's epic poem, the Epi- 
 goniad, which was published about the middle of the last 
 century, and procured for its author great reputation. 
 
 E'PIGRAM. (Gr. ettiypap.ua, an inscription.) In Poe- 
 try, a short poem or piece in verse, which has only one 
 subject, and finishes by a witty or ingenious turn of thought ; 
 or, to use a more general definition, an interesting thought 
 represented happily in a few words. 
 
 The first of these definitions, although tolerably correct 
 as to the modern epigram, differs, as it will be seen, widely 
 from the original sense of the word in Greek. The Greek 
 epigram was, in the first instance, a short collection of line3 
 actually inscribed on a monument, statue, fountain, <fcc. ; 
 and the word was thence transferred to such short poems 
 as might serve for inscriptions : of such the collection 
 termed the Greek Epigram is almost wholly composed. 
 Their general characteristic is perfect simplicity, and the 
 seemingly studied absence of that point which characteri- 
 zes the modern epigram. They are almost wholly in one 
 form of metre, the elegiac. 
 
 In the poetry of classical Rome, the term epigram was 
 Etill somewhat indiscriminately used to designate short 
 pieces in verse ; but the works of Catullus, and still more 
 the well-known collection of the Epigrams of Martial, con- 
 tain a great number which present the modern epigram- 
 matic character : and Martial has, in fact, afforded the mo- 
 del on which the modern epigram has been framed. In 
 this class of composition, and especially where the turn of 
 thought is satirical, the French writers have been far more 
 successful than those of any other nation ; and the term 
 "piquant" seems expressly invented to designate the pecu- 
 liar force of those epigrammatic sallies of fancy of which 
 their literature is full. (See Dr. Johnson's learned Essay 
 on Epigrams.) 
 
 E'PIGRAPH (Gr. emypaQ'j), 1 inscribe), also termed 
 Motto. In Literature, a citation from some author, or a 
 sentence framed for the purpose, placed at the commence- 
 ment of a work or of its separate divisions. 
 
 EPI'GYNOUS. (Gr. em, upon, and yvvr/. afemale.) A 
 term used in botany to denote any organ growing upon the 
 summit of the ovarium. 
 
 E'PILEPSY. (Gr. em\aul3avca, I seize upon.) This 
 disease is also called the falling sickness, from the sudden- 
 ness of its attack. It is attended by convulsive stupor and 
 frothing at the mouth. It comes on by fits, which after 
 lasting a certain time go off, generally leaving a degree of 
 lassitude and drowsiness. Where epilepsy is symptoma- 
 tic of irritation in the primse viae, from worms, or indigesti- 
 ble and noxious food or poisons, or when it arises from the 
 suppression of long-accustomed evacuations, the treatment 
 is sufficiently obvious ; so also in cases where it results 
 from a blow, wound, or fracture, or from diseased bone, 
 it may be relieved by proper surgical aid. Plethoric habits 
 require lowering, and debility indicates the use of tonics. 
 The disease, however, is always indicative of something 
 essentially wrong in the nervous system ; and where it 
 arises from hereditary disposition, or comes on about the 
 age of puberty, where the fits are frequent, and cannot be 
 referred to any apparent cause, an unfavourable opinion 
 must be formed respecting its termination, which, if not in 
 apoplexy, is commonly in mental alienation or imbecility. 
 Yst, the most unpromising cases have in a few rare instan- 
 ces ended well ; that is, they have not recurred after vio- 
 lent pains, or eruptive disorders. It sometimes happens 
 that certain sy mptoms precede the attack ; and among 
 them a sense of coldness proceeding from some part of 
 the body towards the head, and called aura epileptica,vrith 
 palpitation, flatulency, and slight stupor, are the most com- 
 mon. In such cases a brisk emetic, a large dose of opium 
 and ether, a cold bath where it may be ventured upon, or 
 any thing which produces a sudden shock upon the sys- 
 410 
 
 EPISCOPACY 
 
 tern, has prevented the fit. The most effective remedial 
 treatment seems to be that which is directed to the dimi- 
 lately morphia and strichnia, have been recommended ; 
 nution of nervous irritability by sedatives and tonics : a- 
 mong the former opium, ether, henbane, hemlock, and more 
 and as tonics bark, quinia, cascarilla, valerian, and some 
 metallic salts, such as sulphate of iron, zinc, or copper, ar- 
 seniate of potash, or the arsenical solution, and especially 
 nitrate of silver ; but the chance of permanently disfigur- 
 ing the patient by the leaden hue which this last salt often 
 communicates to the skin, should induce practitioners to 
 be most scrupulous in the selection of (his remedy. It is 
 said that a violent scald or burn, or great alarm, as" from a 
 fire, a fall, and such accidents, have sometimes relieved 
 the system of this horrible complaint; and hence perhaps 
 the superstitious notions which have attached to its cure 
 by charms. 
 
 During an epileptic fit, nothing can be done for the relief 
 of the sufferer except taking care that he does not injure 
 himself, and relieving him of any part of his dress which 
 may tend to compress the vessels of the head ; the pa- 
 roxysms, however, are most frequent in the night. 
 
 E'PILOGUE. (Gr. em\oyo$.) In Dramatic Poetry, the 
 closing address to the audience at the end of a play. 
 
 EPI'PIIANY. (Gr. emfavrjg, manifest.) A church fes- 
 tival, signifying the manifestation of Christ, and referring 
 to the appearance of the star which announced our Sa- 
 viour's birth to the Gentiles. It is observed on the 5th of 
 January, being the twelfth day from Christmas. 
 
 EPlPHONE'MA. (Gr. em, upon, and <pu)veoi, I speak.) 
 In Rhetoric and Composition, a short reflection added by 
 way of corollary, or passing remark, to the end of a course 
 of narrative or reasoning. 
 
 EPI'PHORA. (Gr. em, upon, and <pepoy, 1 bear.) In 
 Rhetoric, the emphatic repetition of a word or series of 
 words at the end of several sentences or stanzas. The 
 finest instance of this figure with which we are acquainted 
 in modern oratory occurs in Fox's defence of himself and 
 his measures in the House of Commons after the dissolu- 
 tion of the Coalition Ministry. Anaphora is a similar re- 
 petition at the beginning of several sentences. 
 
 Epi'pkoka. A disease occasioned bj lupcrabw ;:t 
 secretion of tears. 
 
 EPIPHY'LLOUS. (Gr. em, and <pv\\ov, a leaf.) In Bo- 
 tany, something inserted upon a leaf. 
 
 EPl'PHYSIS. (Gr. em, upon, and <j>vuts, nature.) A 
 process of a bone separated at first by a layer of cartilage 
 from that to which it is attached. 
 
 EPIPLOCE'LE. (Gr. emirXoov, the omentum, and xr)\r], 
 tumour.) A hernia or rupture formed by a protrusion nl 
 the omentum. 
 
 E'PIPI.OON. (Gr.) The omentum. 
 
 EPISCE'NIUM. (Gr. em, upon, and c-*!ji<n, ascene.) In 
 Ancient Architecture, the upper order of the scene in the 
 theatre. 
 
 EPI'SCOPACY. (Gr. emaxoTros, an overseer.) The 
 government of a church by three distinct orders of minis- 
 ters — bishops, priests, and deacons. The nature of the 
 argument upon which this constitution is best defended 
 will be most clearly seen in a quotation from Mr. Short's 
 History of the English Church. Speaking of the points at 
 issue between the Presbyterians and the Church party in 
 the reign of Elizabeth, he says, " Were there three dis- 
 tinct orders in the primitive church? and if so, was the 
 right and office of ordaining peculiar to the highest of 
 these 1 !" He then proceeds to argue thus : — " In the apos- 
 tolical history, as contained in the New Testament, these 
 questions are not clearly answered, and there is much in- 
 distinctness about the names of bishop and priest or elder; 
 but if we suppose, by way of hypothesis, that there were 
 bishops, priests, and deacons, we shall find no statements 
 which cannot be easily reconciled with the supposition. 
 As we proceed with ecclesiastical history, those same 
 traces become more decisive, till we find that at an early 
 period the questions are both answered in the affirmative ; 
 and we infer, therefore, that unless it can be shown that a 
 change in this particular took place, we may presume that 
 the same ecclesiastical constitution existed from the time 
 of the apostles. A Presbyterian might argue that in the 
 apostolical history of the New Testament there is nothing 
 which militates against the hypothesis of the two orders 
 only, at least nothing which proves the point ; that. St. 
 James might have been the chief elder, the moderator of 
 the church of Jerusalem ; that Titus and Timothy might 
 have held no higher office than that of dean in a cathedral 
 church, or archdeacon in a diocese ; and that as the pres 
 bytery had the power of ordaining, they, as its superinten 
 dents, were directed by St. Paul to 6et all things in order. 
 But then this hypothesis does not account for the introduc- 
 tion of episcopacy, without even a hint from the historians 
 that any alteration in the church government was effected. 
 When to this it is added, that there never existed a church 
 without episcopacy till the Reformation, the proof seems 
 as strong as moral proof can be, that it is most probable 
 
EPISODE. 
 
 that episcopacy is derived frum the times of the apostles." 
 ■ note — "The argument concerning the name 
 frequently mistaken. There is no doubt that 
 CTTtaKOTTog is equivalent to irpcaSvrcpos in the New Testa- 
 hut then the terms used in the New Testament for 
 bishop are dir6/rro\o; , or ayyc\oi. The concession, there- 
 use »f the name cnloicotroi proves nothing. 
 The Presbyterian is forced to say, that the order equiva- 
 lents that of the apostles does not mow exist in the church, 
 and to explain liyyc\o( by the chief pastor of the church. 
 nt from the names is rather in favourof 
 [i icy." It will be observed that thisdefence mainly 
 relies upon the argument from antiquity and immemorial 
 . and this is the authority to which the episcopalian 
 i pays the highest regard when the Scriptures do not 
 appear to t>e decisive. Hut the Presbyterians and Inde- 
 pendents very generally lake a different ground, and argue 
 in the words ol Dr. Maclaine, the translator of Mosheim— 
 "that Christ, by leaving this matter undetermined, has of 
 [uence hit Christian societies a discretionary power 
 of modelling the government of the church in such a 
 manner as the circumstantial reasons of limes, places, 
 •Vs., may require) and therefore the wisest government 
 of the church is the best and the most divine ; and every 
 iclety has a right to make laws for itself, pro- 
 vided that these laws are consistent with charity and peace, 
 and with the fundamental doctrines and principles of 
 Christianity." 
 
 E'PISODE. In Poetry. From the Greek iiretcoiiov, 
 which in its original sense denotes those parts of a clas- 
 sical drama which are between the entrances, llaoiot, of 
 the chorus ; and thence, by analogy, has the signification 
 Which has adhered to the derivative word in modern use,— 
 an Incidental narrative or digression in'a poem, more or 
 ■■nuecied with the main plot, but not essential toils 
 ■ •iient. 
 EPISPA'STIC. (Gr. trunrau, / ilrntc upon.) A term 
 applied tn substances which raise a blister upon the skin. 
 
 E'PISPERM. (Gr. cki. upon, and aircpua, aseed.) In 
 Botan r integuments of a seed. 
 
 BPTSTATBS. (Or tr-rr-arnf > The title of the pre- 
 sidents of tne two ;reat connciL ,| — ine 
 ia and the senate of the Five Hundred. They were 
 both respectively elected from the number of the prohedri 
 of the eccleata and senate, and their office only lasted one 
 day. The I ttter of these two officers had the post of the 
 t trust, as In his hands were placed the keys of the 
 citadel and public treasury. 
 
 E'l'ISTA'XIS. (Gr. rir iara r au. to drop from.) Bleeding 
 at the nose. In young persons, and where it is produced 
 by accidental causes, this is of no consequence; unless, 
 I. it should be very profuse, and then the topical ap- 
 plication of cold and of styptics, especially a strong solution 
 ■in, or a ping of lint properly introduced, will check 
 It; but when it occurs frequently in advanced life, and is 
 Independent ofnasal disease, it is apt to indicate an alarm- 
 inn fulness of the vessels of the head. It is also a danger- 
 ous omen in disorders of great debility, and more espe- 
 cially in putrid fever. 
 
 EPISTHO'TONOS. (Gr. cirtodiv, foneardg, and tuvoi, 
 | V spasmodic affection, in which the body is bent 
 forwards. 
 
 EPI'STLE. (Gr. ixtoroXn ) The use of this word is 
 now confined in our language to the designation of those 
 written addresses by apostolical writers to their Christian 
 brethren winch are contained in the canon of Scripture : a 
 few others, either spurious or of hinh antiquity, although 
 not recognized among inspired writings, are also so de- 
 nominated. The Epistles of St. Paul, and others contained 
 in the volume of the New Testament, are not arranged 
 according to their date, but, in all probability, according to 
 the views which those who arranged the canon entertained 
 of the relative importance either of the writings them- 
 selves, or of the parties to whom they are addressed. 
 Thus the Epistles of St. Paul to the different churches, and 
 the Catholic Epistles of St. John (». e. addressed to the uni- 
 versal church), are ranked before the Epistles of those 
 saints to individual Christians. An exception to this rule 
 is to be found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is 
 placed last among those of St. Paul, and seems to have 
 been admitted into the canon at a comparatively recent pe- 
 riod. The practice of reading a portion of an Epistle in the 
 service of the church i3 extremely ancient, and said to be 
 noticed bv Justin in his First Apology. 
 
 E'PISTY'LIUM. (Gr. £7rt, upon, and trrvXoj, a column.) 
 In Architecture, the same as architrave, which see. 
 
 E'PITAPH. (Gr. tnt, and raipoc, a tomb.) Literally an 
 inscription on a tomb. As has been well observed, inscrip. 
 ■ions in honour of the dead are perhaps as old as tomb3 
 .hernselves ; though they were by no means bestowed in 
 luch profusion In ancient as in modern time3. Among the 
 Breeks, for instance, this honour was paid only to the 
 »mbs of heroes, as in the case of Leonidas and his gallant 
 jomrades. (.Her. vii. 223.) The Roman3 were the first to 
 411 
 
 EPOCH. 
 
 deviate from this course. Every Roman family who Con- 
 secrated a tomb to their relations had the privilege of in- 
 scribing an epitaph thereon ; and as their tombs were 
 usually situated on the highway, the attention of passers-by 
 was sought to be arrested by the words "sta viator," — the 
 formula with which all their epitaphs were prefaced. But 
 how much soever the epitaphs of the ancient Greeks anil 
 Romans differed in point of number, there were three 
 qualities which they possessed in common — brevity, sim 
 plicity, and familiarity; qualities which a modern critic 
 Boileau, has pronounced to be indispensable in this spe 
 cies of writing. 
 
 At what period sepulchral inscriptions came intc use hi 
 England, has not been precisely ascertained ; though there 
 can be little doubt that this practice was introduced by tin 
 Romans at the period of their invasion of Britain. Durins 
 the first twelve centuries of the Christian era, the monu 
 mental inscriptions of this country were all written in Latin 
 About the 13th century, the French language was adopted 
 and continued to be used for this purpose till the middle ol 
 the 14th century ; at which time monumental inscription* 
 in the vernacular longue became common, though the 
 clergy and learned of that time, as might have been ex 
 till preferred the Latin, as their more familial 
 idiom. The modern English, French, and German epi 
 laphs, of which several collections have been made, are 
 infinitely more numerous than those of any lime or nation, 
 and exhibit every variety of style and sentiment ; from the 
 most chaste and majestic gravity, impressive tenderness, 
 and laconic terseness, to the most puerile epigrammatic 
 conceits, pointed satire, and heraldic prolixity. It would 
 be out of place here to give specimens of all the various 
 kinds of epitaphs included in this category ; but we cannot 
 refrain from citing, in illustration of our assertion, one oi 
 two instances, exhibiting each in an eminent degree th* 
 different characteristics of the class to which it belong3. 
 Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke, by Ven Jonson. 
 
 Underneath thin inMe hearse 
 
 Lie* the subject of all verse ; 
 
 Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother : 
 la, ere thou canst find another 
 
 Epitaph on Robespierre. 
 
 Passant, ne j t ire |»oint mou sorl , 
 Si Je rivals, to serais morl ! 
 
 Epitaph on a French General. 
 
 Sisle, viator ; heroem calcas I 
 
 Slop, traveller ; thou treadesl on a hero I 
 
 E'PITIIALA'MIUM. (Gr. litiOaXauiov.) A nuptial 
 song, sung by a chorus of boys and girls when the bride 
 and bridegroom entered the bridal chamber, and again on 
 the first morning after the marriage. This was the custom 
 In Greece, which was somewhat varied at Rome, where 
 the chorus consisted of girls only, who sang before the 
 door of the nuptial chamber till midnight. The most per- 
 fect examples of this species which antiquity has left us arc 
 by Th eocri tus and Catullus. 
 
 E'PITHET (Gr. Iniderov, something imposed upon 
 another), in Rhetoric and Composition, denotes a term em- 
 ployed in an adjective sense to express an attribute or 
 quality of another substantive term. The abundance and 
 the propriety of epithets form peculiar characl eristics of 
 various poetical styles. In the strict rhetorical sense, epi- 
 thets are only such adjectives as convey a notion already 
 implied in the noun substantive itself, and add nothing lo 
 the sense. Thus, the "glorious" sun is a mere epithet; 
 while the "rising" or the "setting" sun would, as convey- 
 ing some additional idea into the sense of the passage, not 
 be considered as epithets. The former sort, however, are 
 sometimes called in disparagement by writers on rhetoric 
 " oliosa," or idle epithets. 
 
 EPITI'THIDES. (Gr. riri, and TtOnph 1 place.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, the crown or upper mouldings of an entablature. 
 
 EPITOME. (Gr. emriuvo), I cut short.) In Literature, 
 an abridgment : a work in which the contents of a former 
 work are reduced within a smaller space hy curtailment 
 and condensation. In the later classical period, extending 
 through the declining age of the Western Empire, the prac- 
 tice of epitomizing the writings of older writers, especially 
 in history, became very prevalent; and while some regard 
 the works of Justin, Eutropius, ami similar writers, as 
 having preserved lo us much historical knowledge which 
 would otherwise have been lost, others have maintain.'.) 
 that these laborious compilers have done great disscr 
 vice to literature, inasmuch a3 the voluminous works 
 which they abridged being superseded by their more popu- 
 lar and cheaper compendia, in an illiterate age, have from 
 that cause for the most part perished. See Abridgment. 
 
 EPIZO'ANS, Epizoa. (Gr. trci,vpon,Xwov, animal.) The 
 name of a class of parasitic animals, which chielly iniesl 
 fishes and of which the Linntean genus Lemma is the type 
 
 E'POCII. (Gr. liroxn, from circx^ I stop.: In Chrono 
 logy, a fixed point of time from which dates at » numbered 
 
EPODE. 
 
 or at which a new computation begins. It is consequently 
 the commencement of an sera. See JEka. 
 
 E'PODE. (Gr. siroijoj, something added to the ohJj?, or 
 vde.) In the strophic choruses of the Grecian drama, the 
 last portion following the strophe and antistrophe is so call- 
 ed. The name of Epodes, applied to a book of Horace's 
 aoems. merely signifies additional or supplementary odes. 
 
 EPOPEE. See Epic. 
 
 E'POPT. (Gr. ciToirrris, inspector.) A functionary of 
 he Eleusinian Mysteries, which see. 
 
 EPROUVE'TTE. In Gunnery, a machine for proving 
 he strength of gunpowder. A small gun is attached to a 
 frame, which is suspended from a horizontal rod, about 
 which it oscillates like a pendulum. On the gun being 
 fired, the recoil causes the frame to swing ; and the force 
 of the recoil is measured by the angle which the frame de- 
 scribes. In this manner the relative strength of different 
 sorts of gunpowder is ascertained. 
 
 F/PSOM SALT. Sulphate of magnesia; formerly ob- 
 tained by evaporating the water of certain springs at Epsom 
 in Surrey. 
 
 EPU'LIS. (Gr. eiri, upon; ov\a, the gums.) A small 
 tubercle on the gums. 
 
 EPULO'TIC. (Gr. em, and dv\n, a scar.) Applications 
 which promote the skinning over of sores ; hence the epu- 
 lotic ointments of old pharmacy. 
 
 E'QUANT, in the Ptolemaic Astronomy, denotes a cir- 
 cle which was conceived to be described in the plane of 
 the deferent or eccentric, for regulating and adjusting cer- 
 tain motions of the planets, and reducing them to cas.er 
 calculation. 
 
 EQUA'TIONS, ALGEBRAICAL. An algebraical equa- 
 tion is an expression of equality between two quantities in- 
 volving the ordinary symbols of algebra in any munner 
 whatever. The "Theory of Algebraical Equations" forms 
 an important subject or department of analyfiis, and is al- 
 ways understood to embody the discussion of equations 
 when presented in their most convenient form for solu- 
 tion ; and its great object is to djevelop the properties and 
 to evolve the values of the real and imaginary roots. The 
 equations are supposed to be cleared from radicals, and 
 are classed in degrees accord,ng to the highest exponent of 
 the unknown quantity. 
 
 Thus, if x denote the unknown quantity, and co. ci, C2, 
 a, &c. the given numbers or coefficients; 
 
 ci x + co = it. a iimp.e equation, or an equation of the 
 first degree ; 
 
 C2 xi + ci c + co = is a quadratic, or an equation of 
 the second dsgrje ; 
 
 C3 x3 + is x2 + n x + co = is a cubic equation, or 
 an equat'-on ot the third degree ; 
 
 c t x* + e3 & + ci x2 + ci x + co = is a biquadratic 
 equation, or an equation of the fourth degree, &c. &c. 
 
 And Cn X" + C n— I xn—l + C2 X'i + CI X + CO = is 
 
 an equation of the nth degree. 
 
 We shall here consider two or three of the most im- 
 portant and useful general properties of an equation of the 
 nth degree. 
 
 The complete solution of every equation of the nth de- 
 gree must always comprise as many as n roots, real and 
 Ima ginar y, the imaginary roots being of the forms p + 
 q V — 1, p — qV — 1. When a real root is substituted for 
 C in the equation, the involved terms must counteract one 
 another, and cause the result to vanish ; and when an im- 
 aginary root is substituted for x in the equation, both the 
 ceal and imaginary portion of the result must separately 
 vanish. If the substitution ofp + qV —1 causes both the 
 zeal and imaginary parts to vanish, it is evident that the 
 substitution of p — q\/ — 1 will have the same effect, since 
 ihe result will only differ from that of the former in the 
 imaginary terms having changed al their signs. It follows 
 from this remark that if an equation possesses a root of the 
 form p + 5V — 1, it must likewise possess a corresponding 
 maginary root of the form p — q\/ — 1. The roots p + 
 o V — 1, p — jV — 1 are called a pair of imaginary roots i 
 «nd as these roots must thus enter equations in pairs, every 
 equation must have an even number of impossible roots, 
 or else none at all. 
 
 Suppose the roots of an equation to be all real, and let 
 them be denoted by r\, re, re ... . <fec. ; then the equation 
 fill in all cases be produced by multiplying together the 
 factors x — n, x — re, x — re, &c. The equation may 
 Vierefore be put in the form, 
 
 (.r — ri) (x — re ) (x — re ) . ■ . • &c. = . . . (A). 
 
 If, however, the equation likewise contains pairs of ima- 
 
 ::iary roots, p + q V" — 1, p — jV — 1, p' + }' V — j 
 
 r — q' V — 1, &c, it will also embody the facto rs (x — p — 
 
 /V^l)(* — p + j V=l) (*—*' — q 'V^l)(.x-p' + 
 
 / V^-L) &c. ; or ((*— p)i + tfi \ Ux-p'p + j'2 ) &c. ; 
 412 
 
 EQJJATIONS, ALGEBRAICAL. 
 
 and will consequently take the form, 
 
 Or— n)(x— re)(*— re) f(x— p)i + q*\ hx—p'p 
 
 +?'2 \ &c = . . . (B). 
 
 The equation, when thus put in the form (A)or<B) if 
 evidently satisfied when x is made equal to any one ol 
 the roots ri, re, re . . . ■ p + q V"— i, p — q\/ — \ y p' ^ 
 <{"V — l, p' — q' V — i ... & Ci ; al >-j (he idea ic very 
 clearly conveyed how an eq^ati^n of the nth degree may be 
 fulfilled by n different roots, determined by equating the 
 factors severally with zero. 
 
 If the factors of (A) be incorporated by actual multiplica- 
 tion, we shall derive expressions for the coefficients of the 
 equation in lerias of its roots. The operation will be as 
 follow-- 
 
 x* — ri I * + n re 
 — re I 
 
 x.i — ri 
 
 — re 
 
 — re 
 
 x -i + r\ re I x — ri re re 
 + nre 
 + re re | 
 
 — n | 
 
 : — ri re re 
 
 — ri re n 
 
 — n re ri 
 
 — re re ri 
 
 \x + ri re re r* 
 
 jt3 + ri re 
 
 -j-rl r3 
 
 + re re 
 
 + ri n 
 
 + re ri 
 
 + re J4 
 
 By continuing the process we infer, generally, that for 
 any equation in which the highest power of x has the co- 
 efficient unity, the coefficient of the second term is equal 
 to the sum of the roots with the sign changed ; that of the 
 third term is equal to the sum of the products of every 
 two roots ; that of the fourth term is equal to the sum of 
 the products of every three roots with the sign changed, 
 &c. <fcc. ; and the last term co, unaccompanied by x, is 
 equal to the continued product of all the roots, with the 
 proper algebraic sign when the degree of the equation is 
 even, but with the sir' •■< when the degree is odd. 
 
 The consideration u , ..iiion resolved into its sim- 
 ple factors (A) also, amongst other useful matters, suggests 
 the method of eliminating a known root from an equation 
 60 as to descend to another equation of the next less de- 
 gree, which contains the remaining roots. If r\ be the 
 known root, it is only necessary to divide the equation by 
 the factor x — r\ ; and in this operation the occurrence of 
 no remainder will assure us that ri is in reality a true root 
 of the equation. It will therefore be an advantage to as- 
 certain a systematic plan by which the process of division 
 by such a factor may be performed with facility. To pre- 
 serve generality, suppose m to be any number that either 
 may or may not be one of the roots of the equation, 
 Cn Xa + c,i— 1 X"— 1 + Cu— 2 X»r-2 . . . + C2 X* + CI X+C = 
 And on the equation being divided by x — tn, suppose th 
 quotient to be 
 
 c'u— l so— 1 + c'u— 2 *»— ~ . . • + c't x + c'o- 
 Then the actual work of the division will stand thus: 
 
 X—mjCa xa + Cn— 1 X»— '+ Cn— 2 X"— 5+&C. ( c'"~ l Xa— 1 
 
 c'n— 1 xa — me'n— 1 *"- 
 
 C'n— 2 Xa— 1 -f c,i-2 I"— 2 
 c'n— 2 xa— 1 — mc'a—i xa- 
 
 + c'n-2 #°— 
 + &C. 
 
 c'n— 3 Xa-i + &c. 
 
 By equating the several subtractions we hence derive 
 the following relations for determining the coefficients 
 c'n— 1, c'n— 2, &C- ; viz. 
 
 c'n— 1 = Cn 
 
 c'n-2 = Cn— 1 + rnc'n— 1 
 
 C'n— 3 = <"n-2 + '"c'„_2, &C. 
 
 c'o = ci + mc'i 
 and the remainder,? = c'o + mc'o. 
 
 Thus it appears that the coefficient of the pth term of the 
 depressed equation is successively found by adding m times 
 the coefficient of the preceding term to the pth term of the 
 original equation. As an example, let it be required to di- 
 vide the equation 3*3 + Zx* — 48x + 60 = bv x — 3. 
 Coefficients proposed, 3 +3—48+00 
 1 v +9+36 
 
 ■ 36 
 
 3*2 + Vix — 12 I + 24 
 
 Quotient. | Remainder 
 A°Tiin, let it be required to divide the same equation by 
 
 *-"2. 
 
EQUATIONS, ALGEBRAICAL. 
 
 Coefficients proposed, 3 
 
 + 3 —48 +60 
 6+18 —60 
 
 
 3xi + 9x — 30 
 
 Quotient. | Remainder. 
 
 Here the existence of no remainder points out 2 to be a 
 root of the proposed equation, and "Axi + 9 x — 30 = 0, or 
 si + 3x — 10 = to be the depressed equation containing 
 the other two roots, which are therefore 2 and — 5. 
 
 This expeditious method of dividing an equation by a 
 simple factor may be employed with advantage in trans- 
 forming an equation into another, whose roots shall differ 
 from those of the former by any given quantity. Let the 
 proposed equation be 
 
 Ci xl + C3 X3 + C2 x- + ci * + co = 0. 
 
 Suppose that x = x 7 + r, and the subslituiion of this 
 rtJun instead of x will manifestly give a transformed equa- 
 tion, the roots of which will be less than those of the former 
 by the quantity r; and this transformed equation will be of 
 the form, 
 
 C4 x'4 + c'3 x'3 + c's x'3 + c'l x 7 + c'o = 0. 
 Now, if x — t be put for x / , this must return to the origi- 
 nal equation ; and hence the proposed equation is the same 
 M ci (x — r)i + c'3 (x — rfl + c'l (x — rj« + c'l (x — r) 
 + c'o — 0. The following process of successive division, 
 which may be rapidly executed by the foregoing rule, thus 
 furnishes a simple method of arriving at the sought co- 
 efficients : 
 
 g— r)ci(x— r;t +c'j (x— r)l + c 'a (x— r)» + c'l (x— r)+c'p 
 x— r) a (x— r)i + c'-slx— r)» + e'a (x— r) +c't | rem. c'o 
 
 «•—»• ) C4 (x— T)3 + c'3 (x- 
 »— r)c«(x— r) + e^3 | 
 
 -r) + c'a | rem. c'l 
 rem. c'a 
 
 C4 | rem. c's 
 Example : Let it be required to transform the equation 
 x* + 6 x' + 4 x- + 3 x — 105 into another, whose roots 
 shall be 2 less than those of the proposed equation. 
 
 1 
 
 + 5 
 2 
 
 + 4 +3 —105(2 
 + 14 +36 +78 
 
 1 
 
 + 7 
 2 
 
 + IS + 39 1 — 27 = 
 + 13 +72 | 
 
 1 
 
 + j 
 
 + 36 1 +lll=c'l 
 + 22 1 
 
 1 
 
 + 1 2 
 
 + 58 = c'a 
 
 1 I + 13 = c'3. 
 The transformed equation is therefore x'l + 13 x'3 + 
 68 x'2 + 1 1 1 x' — 27 = 0. If the several addends be sup- 
 pressed and performed mentally, the operation will be re- 
 duced to the following : 
 1 
 
 + 5 
 
 + 4 
 
 + 3 
 
 — 105(2 
 
 + 7 
 
 + 13 
 
 + 39 
 
 — 27 
 
 + 9 
 + 11 
 
 + 36 
 + 58 
 
 + 111 
 
 
 + 13 
 
 
 
 
 It is on the principle of this operation that Mr. Horner has 
 founded his general method of evolving the numerical value 
 of a real root of an equation, which consists in similarly di- 
 minishing the equation by the successive digits of the root. 
 
 Some of the most useful properties of equations are here 
 annexed. 
 
 1. If the real roots of an equation, ranged in the order 
 of their magnitudes be ri,r2.r3 . . . ., n being the greatest, 
 n the next in magnitude, Sec. • and if a number a greater 
 than ri be substituted for x, the result will be positive ; if a 
 number b, in magnitude between ri and ra, be substituted 
 for x, the result will be negative, Jcc, and so on with alter- 
 nate signs. 
 
 2. No equation can have a greater number of positive 
 roots than there are changes of sign from + to — and from 
 — to +, in the terms or coefficients of its expression ; nor 
 can it have a greater number of negative roots than of per- 
 manencies of sign in the same terms. 
 
 3. Let p and q be any two numbers, such that q with its 
 sign is greater than p with its sign ; then, if an equation in 
 * has m real roots comprised between p and q, the trans- 
 formed equation in (x — p) will have at least m variations 
 more than the transformed equation in (x — g). 
 
 4. For conciseness let X = denote any equation, and 
 
 let the differential coefficient -^- be denoted by X: then 
 
 ax ' ■■• 
 
 will the real roots of the equation X = be limits to those 
 of the equation Xt = ; that is, the roots of the latter equa- 
 tion, taken in the order of magnitude, will fall severalty 
 between those of the original equation. 
 
 6. Assuming the same notation as in the last, the greatest 
 common measure of the two expressions X, Xt, equated 
 with zero, will determine the values of all equal roots that 
 may be repeated in the equation X = ; if there be no com- 
 mon measure, the roots will be all unequal. 
 
 A very important theorem has been recently discovered 
 413 
 
 EQ.UATION OF TIME. 
 
 by M. Sturm, by which we are enabled, without fail, to as- 
 certain, by a direct process, the nature and situation of all 
 ihe real roots of an equation. It is as follows : Let X = 
 be any equation whose coefficients are real, and whose roots 
 are unequal : and let Xi, as before, be the differential co 
 
 efficient, — , ofx. Let the operation of finding the great- 
 est common measure of X and Xj be performed ; and in 
 the several remainders which successively arise in the 
 
 course of the process change all the signs from + to 
 
 and from — to +. Suppose now that in the several result- 
 ing expressions, 
 
 X, Xi, XL X3, Xm 
 
 two numbers, p, q, such that p<o be successively substi- 
 tuted for x, the results will furnish two series of signs; and, 
 according to Sturm's theorem, the difference between the 
 number of variations of algebraic sign in the first series and 
 that of the second will always express exactly the number of 
 real roots of the proposed equation comprised between p 
 and q. If — oo and + ao be taken for p and q, the tota, 
 number o( real roots may thus be immediately ascertained. 
 For a demonstration of this remarkable theorem, see 
 Young's Treatise on fj'/iuilions. 
 
 EQUA'TION OF TIME, Id Astronomy, denotes the de- 
 ference, expressed in mean solar time, between the true 
 or apparent right ascension of the sun and its mean right 
 ascension. It may be popularly defined as the difference 
 between the times indicated by an accurately constructed 
 sun-dial and a well regulated clock. 
 
 The equation of time arises from the combined operation 
 of all the causes which tend to produce inequalities of the 
 sun's motion in right ascension. The first of these is the 
 eccentricity of the solar orbit, in consequence of which the 
 sun's motion in longitude is unequal. The second is the 
 obliquity of the ecliptic, in consi-quence of which the 
 arcs of the ecliptic and equator, counting from the inter 
 section of these circles to the meridian, are in general un 
 equal. The third cause of the equation of time arise.- from 
 the perturbations of the moon and planets, which sensibly 
 affect the sun's motion in longitude. The different parts 
 of the equation of time are collected and computed in the 
 following manner:— Let N P represent the ecliptic. N Q 
 the equator ; and let N be the intersection of these circles, 
 or the first point of Aries. Take N A to represent the 
 mean motion of the sun in any given 
 time T, reckoning from the vernal 
 equinox ; then, if the sun advanced 
 equably in the ecliptic, his place at 
 
 f £-« the time T would be at the point 
 
 A. But suppose that in conse- 
 quence of the eccentricity of the orbit he would have ad- 
 vanced to B ; then A B is what is called the equation of the 
 centre. Suppose, further, that by the combined action of 
 the planets, during the time T he is carried forward to C ; 
 tnen the true arc of the ecliptic described by the sun is N 
 C. Now, if we pnt 
 
 I = N C, the sun's true longitude, 
 m = N A, the sun's mean longitude, 
 e = A B, the equation of the centre, 
 p=BC, the effect of the perturbations, 
 there will result the equation i = »n + e+p. Througn 
 C let the arc C D be drawn perpendicular to the equator ; 
 (he point D will be that point of the equator which passes 
 the meridian at the same time with the sun. If we now 
 make r = N C — N D ; then r is the reduction of the eclip- 
 tic, and the sun's true right ascension is / — r = N D. Let 
 NF = NA = m; then F is the point of the equator which 
 the sun would occupy at the instant he occupies the point 
 A in the ecliptic if he moved uniformly in the equator, and 
 N F is the sun's mean right ascension. The mean sun 
 would consequently pass the meridian with the point F, 
 whereas the true sun passes it with the point D; therefore 
 at the instant of true noon, when the points C and D are on 
 the meridian, the mean sun is at the distance D F from 
 the meridian. But D F = N D — N F = l — r — mz=e 
 + p — r, which is the equation of time expressed in an 
 arc of a circle. To convert it into mean solar time, we 
 must multiply by 24 hours (corresponding to 360 de- 
 grees); therefore, representing the equation of time by t, 
 we have , l . . _ 
 
 This equation still requires to be corrected for the effect 
 of natation. The variation of the mean longitude re- 
 sulting from the nutation is expressed by the formula 18" 
 sin. (360° — moon's node) = 18" sin. N ; and this reduced 
 to the equator is 18" sin. N cos. a> (&> being the obliquity 
 of the ecliptic.) Consequently the effect on the equation 
 of time, being the difference of the variations on the eclip- 
 tic and equator, becomes 18" sin. N (1 — cos. to). But 18" 
 (1 — cos. a>) being reduced to time, becomes 009925 
 seconds ; therefore, including the correction for nutation, 
 the equation of time becomes finally 
 
 < = tV(« +P — r) + sin. N. X 009925 sec. 
 
EQUATOR 
 
 The last term of this expression is very small, amount- 
 ing when greatest to less than the tenth of a second, and is 
 therefore scarcely sensible. The part depending on the 
 perturbations is also very small, and can scarcely exceed 
 two seconds. The principal parts, therefore, are the two 
 depending upon the eccentricity and obliquity ; and these 
 were known in the time of Ptolemy. 
 
 The equation of time is at its maximum about the be- 
 Sinning of November, when it amounts to about 16 min. 16 
 sec. ; and is sublractive, that is to say, the clock is faster 
 than the dial by that quantily. At four times in the year 
 the equation vanishes, or the clock lime and dial time 
 agree. This happens about the 25th of December, the 
 16lh of April, the 16lh of June, and the 1st of September. 
 But these epochs, depending on the longitude of the sun's 
 perigee, are subject to some variation. The equation is 
 given in the Nautical Almanac for every day of each year. 
 EQUATOR. In Astronomy, the great circle of the ce- 
 lestial sphere, of which the plane is perpendicular to the 
 axis of the earth's diurnal motion. It is called the equator, 
 because when the sun is in its plane the days and nights 
 are exactly equal all over the world. The equator divides 
 the sphere into the northern and southern hemispheres 
 and the apparent diurnal motions of all the celestial bodies 
 are performed in circles which are parallel to it. The right 
 ascensions are measured on the equator ; and the declina- 
 tions on circles which intersect it at right angles. The 
 equator, in the heavens, is often styed the equinoctial. 
 
 In Geography, the equator is the great circle of the ter- 
 restrial sphere which is every where equally distant from 
 the two poles, and divides the earth into the northern and 
 southern hemispheres. Terrestrial longitudes are mea- 
 sured on the equator, or some one of its parallel circles ; 
 commencing from some arbitrary point, which different 
 nations assume variously, most of them adopting the me- 
 ridian which passes through their capital city or principal 
 observatory. Latitudes are counted from the equator along 
 the meridian. 
 
 EQUATO'RIAL. An astronomical instrument, contrived 
 for the purpose of directing a telescope upon any celestial 
 object of which the right ascension and declination are 
 known, and of keeping the object in view for any length of 
 time, notwithstanding the diurnal motion. For these pur- 
 „ poses, a principal axis C D, resting on firm 
 
 supports, is placed parallel to the axis of 
 the earth's rotation, and consequently point- 
 ing to the poles of the heavens. On this 
 polar axis there is fixed, near one of its ex- 
 tremities, a graduated circle A B, the plane 
 of which is perpendicular to the polar axis, 
 and therefore parallel to the earth's equa- 
 tor. This circle is called the equatorial 
 circle, and measures by its arcs the hour 
 jj^fr-^ angles, or differences of right ascension. 
 ijtr^^ The polar axis is pierced at E F, and pene- 
 c trated by the axis of a second circle G H. 
 
 at right angles to it. The axis of the second 
 circle has consequently no connection with any external 
 support, but is sustained entirely by the polar axis. The 
 plane of the second circle G II, which is called the decli- 
 nation circle, and carries the telescope K, is thus in all po- 
 sitions at right angles to the plane of the first or equatorial 
 circle A B. Now it is easy to conceive, from this general 
 description, that when the telescope is pointed to a star, the 
 angle between the direction of the telescope and the polar 
 axis is equal to the polar distance of the star; consequently, 
 when a motion is given to the polar axis without altering 
 the position of the telescope on the declination circle, the 
 point to which the telescope is directed will always lie in 
 the small circle of the heavens coincident with the star's 
 diurnal path ; and hence, if the motion communicated to 
 the polar axis bo just equal to the earth's diurnal rotation, 
 the star will remain constantly, and as long as we please, 
 in the field of the telescope, at least while above the hori- 
 zon. In many observations this is indispensable, and it is 
 an advantage which attaches to no other instrument. The 
 polar axis may be moved by a peculiar kind of clock ma- 
 chinery, adjusted to sidereal time ; and the best and largest 
 cquatorials are now furnished with such an apparatus. 
 Besides relieving the observer from the fatigue of turning 
 the instrument, the motion thus given is perfectly equable, 
 and all those jerks avoided which, when the instrument is 
 turned by the hand, often prove fatal to an observation. 
 (For the method of adjusting the equatorial, see a paper 
 by Professor Llttrow of Vienna in the Memoirs of the Koyal 
 Astr. Society, vol. ii. p. 45.) 
 
 E'QUERRY. (Fr. ecuyer.) In the British Court, a sub- 
 ordinate officer under the master of the horse. The chief 
 equerry is also styled clerk marshal, with a salary of 5007. 
 tier an. There are also four equerries in ordinary, whose 
 .salary is 300/. a year, and an equerry of the crown stable. 
 A queen consort has three equerries. 
 
 E'QUIA'NGULAR FIGURE. (Lat. toquus and angu- 
 lus.) In Geometry, a figure of which all the angles are 
 414 
 
 EQUIPAGE. 
 
 equal among themselves, as is the case with all the regu- 
 lar polygons. Two figures also of the same kind, Inning 
 each angle of the one equal tn a corresponding angle of the 
 other, are said to be equiangular, although when considered 
 separately they may not be equiangular figures. 
 
 EQUILA'TERAL BIVALVE. A shell is so called when 
 a transverse line drawn through (he apex of the umbo bi- 
 sects the valve into two equal and symmetrical parts. 
 
 EQUILA'TERAL FIGURE, in Geometry, is cue thai 
 has all its sides equal to each other. Equilateral figures 
 inscribable in circles are necessarily equiangular; tut the 
 converse does not always hold true. When the number 
 of sides is odd, the equiangular figure inscribed in a circle 
 is always equilateral; but when the number of sides is even, 
 they may either be all equal, or one half equal to each 
 other, and the other half equal to each other, though not 
 to the former, the two sets beine placed alternately. 
 
 EQUILA'TERAL HYPERBOLA, Is that which has the 
 two axes equal to each other, the asymptotes forming a 
 right angle. See Hyperbola. 
 
 EQUILIBRIUM. (Lat. aiquus, equal, and libra, balance.) 
 In Statics, results from the simultaneous action of several 
 forces on a body, or material point, when they reciprocally 
 destroy each other's action, so that the body or point, 
 though free to move, remains at rest. Two equal forces, 
 acting in contrary directions, destroy each other; and when 
 a body submitted to the action of several forces remains 
 at rest, it is necessary that the resultant of one part of the 
 forces be exactly equal and opposite to the resultant of the 
 remainder, or that the resultant of the whole be nothing. 
 The science of equilibrium is thus founded entirely on the 
 composition of forces. See Statics. 
 
 Equilibrium. (Lat.) In the Fine Arts, the just poise 
 or balance of a figure or other object, so that it may appear 
 to stand firmly. Also the due equipoise of objects, lights, 
 shadows, &c. against each other by some striking feature. 
 This quality is obvious in the works of nature, as well in 
 the human form as in landscape. In the latter, for instance, 
 the sun is generally the medium of producing it by strong 
 contrasts of light and shadow. In Architecture, the same 
 means are employed to produce the most striking effects, 
 on the theory of which Le Roy has ably written. 
 
 Equilibrium. In Politics. See Balance of Power. 
 
 E'QUIMU'LTIPLES. The products of quantities mul- 
 tiplied by the same numbers. For example, ba and bb 
 are equimultiples of a and b; and m- n p and ot s n q are 
 equimultiples of p and q. Equimultiples of quantities have 
 to each other the same ratio as the quantities themselves. 
 
 EQUINO'CTIAL. (See Equinox.) The great circle 
 formed by the intersection of the plane of the earth's 
 equator with the sphere of the heavens. This term is 
 chiefly met with in the older books of astronomy, the term 
 equator being now generally given to the same circle. Set 
 Equator. 
 
 EQUINOCTIAL POINTS The two opposite points of 
 the celestial sphere, in which the ecliptic and equator in- 
 tersect each other; the one being the first point of Aries, 
 and the other the first point of Libra. The equinoctial 
 points do not retain a fixed position relatively to the stars, 
 but retrograde or move backwards from east to west with 
 a slow motion, equal to about CO seconds yearly, requiring 
 25,000 years to accomplish a complete revolution. This 
 motion is called the precession of the equinoxes. 
 
 E'QUINOX (Lat. a;quus, and nox, night), in As- 
 tronomy, is the time at which the sun passes through the 
 equator in one of the equinoctial points. When the sun 
 is in the equator the days and nights are of equal length all 
 over the world, whence the derivation of the trim. This 
 happens twice every year; namely, about the 21st of 
 March, and the 22d of September: the former is called the 
 vernal and the latter the autumnal equinox. The equi- 
 noxes do not divide the year into portions of equal length; 
 for in consequence of the sun being at his greatest distance 
 from the earth during the summer months, and his angu- 
 lar motion in his orbit being consequently slower, the 
 interval from the vernal to Ihe autumnal equinox is greatei 
 than that from the autumnal to the vernal. In other words, 
 the sun continues longer on the northern than on the 
 southern side of the equator. At the beginning of the 
 present century, the difference amounted to 7 days 16 hours 
 and 51 minutes. The summer in the northern hemisphere 
 is consequently longer than in the southern by this quan- 
 tity ; and to this circumstance some meteorologists ascribe, 
 in part at least, the higher temperature that is found to 
 prevail in the northern hemisphere under Ihe same paral- 
 lel of latitude. 
 
 E'QUIPAGE (Fr. equipper), in ordinary language, 
 signifies the carriage, horses, and liveries which indicate 
 the fortune or rank of any gentleman when he appears 
 abroad.— Equipage, In marine affairs, signifies the crew 
 of a ship, together with all a ship's furniture, masts, sails, 
 ammunition, &c. In the art military, it denotes all sorts of 
 utensils and artillery, <fcc, necessary for commencing and 
 prosecuting with ease or success any military operation. 
 
EaUISETACE^r.. 
 
 E'QUISETA'CE^E. (Equisetum, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Gymnosperms, inhabiting the ditches 
 and rivers of most parts of the world. They have no de- 
 cided affinity with any known order, but are more like 
 (towering plants than flowerless; and therefore are best 
 considered as a degeneration of Conijerce, to which they 
 have so much resemblance, rather than as a race in af- 
 finity with ferns, with which they have no resemblance. 
 They have no medicinal qualities ; but for economical 
 I are useful for polishing furniture, owing to the 
 quantity of silex contained in their epidermis. They are 
 considered by the farmer, who calls them horsetails, as a 
 sign of heavy, bad, wet land. 
 
 E'QUISE'TIC ACID. A peculiar acid, discovered by 
 Braconnot, existing, combined with magnesia, in the Equi- 
 setum Jluviatile. 
 
 E'QUITANT. In Botany, a term used in describing the 
 vernation of leaves, to denote that they overlap each other 
 parallelly and entirely, without any involution, as the leaves 
 of iris. They seem as if they bestrode each other in op- 
 posite directions, whence the name. 
 
 E'QUITES. In Ancient History, a class of Roman citi- 
 zens, commonly represented by the English word knights, 
 but not answering in all respects to its meaning. The origin 
 of the Equites was the body of Celeres, instituted by 
 Romulus ; and they originally consisted of those who were 
 rich enough to serve in war on horseback, but afterwards 
 they became a distinct order. They were chosen promis- 
 cuously from the patricians and plebeians whose age was 
 above 18 years, and fortune, at least towards the end of the 
 republic, r.ot less than 400 sestertia, or 3229/. The badges 
 of the equites were a golden ring and a robe with a narrow 
 purple border ; and to them were appropriated the fourteen 
 rows of seats in the theatres next the orchestra, where the 
 senators sat. This body disputed with the senate the privi- 
 lege of forming the jury who assisted the praetor in trials ; 
 bat, alter repeated transfers of this office from one to the 
 other, it was finally shared between both. The equites also 
 furnished the farmers of the public revenue, or tnibticant ; 
 but though they had enjoyed this privilege under the re- 
 public, it was only during the empire that they looked to 
 such offices as their birthright. Cicero affirms that the 
 flower of the Roman chivalry, the ornament of Rome, the 
 strength of the empire, lay In these engrossers of the public 
 revenue: "florem equimm Romanorum, ornamentum ci- 
 vitatis, Ormamentnm relpubliee, puhlicanorumordine con- 
 tinent' (Sen Nlebuhr't Roman History.) 
 
 E'QIUTY. (Lat. tequilas.) In Jurisprudence. In the 
 words of Blackstone (Comm. i. 01.), '-Since in laws all 
 cases cannot be foreseen or expressed, it is necessary that 
 when the general decrees of the law come to be applied to 
 particular cases, there should be somewhere a power 
 of defining those circumstances which (had they 
 •seen) the legislator himself would have express- 
 ed." In the same view, Grotius defines equity, as " Cor- 
 rectrix ejus in quo lex propter universalitalem deficit" (De 
 jEquital. I. s. 12.); and distinguishes it from the dispens- 
 Ins power, which does not mitigate law, but dispenses cer- 
 tain persons from the obligation of it. PufTendorf consi- 
 ders it under two heads, — asdeclaringacaseto be excepted 
 out of the general provisions of a law ; and as deciding 
 omitted cases on which the law does not pronounce at all. 
 (Elements, i. 22, 23.) The necessity of some power to 
 modify and apply, with allowances for particular cases, the 
 s'rict rules of law, is necessarily fell in every jurisprudence, 
 and provided for in different ways. Thus in ancient Rome 
 the praetor, "juvare, snpplere, interpretari, mitigore, jus 
 . [vile potuit ; mutare vel lollere non potuit." (.Digest. 1. 1. 1 
 1.7) So, in English law, the judges have constantly as- 
 sumed the authority to pronounce cases to be within the 
 "equity," as it is termed, of statutes or rules, when they 
 are not within its words ; as, for example, action of waste 
 given by the Statute of Gloucester against tenant for life 
 "or years" is extended by equitable construction against 
 tenants who hold for a year or half a year only. But the 
 wonl equity, in English jurisprudence, is now more pro- 
 perly applied to a separate body of law, created and sus- 
 tained on the strength of precedents, and administered by 
 tribunals distinct from the common law courts of the coun- 
 try. The separation of equity from law originated in the 
 v which has already been spoken of; but from the 
 Blrcmnstance of the former being administered by a differ- 
 ent class of functionaries, it has by degrees assumed this 
 distinct shape and substance. By seeking relief in equity 
 is now meant, not so much applying for a mitigation of the 
 strict rules of law, as seeking a remedy before a tribunal 
 having a jurisdiction either concurrent with the courts of 
 law or (in some cases) exclusive, but exercising it accord- 
 ing to a different process and on different principles. The 
 origin of this peculiar system t3 to be traced, in part, to the 
 svstem of uses (see Use, Trust) ; in part to the obvious 
 advantages resulting from the examination of the parties, 
 and compelling discovery on oath in cases of fraud, account, 
 Ac. ; and u> the power, gradually acquired by equity judges, 
 415 
 
 EQ.UUS. 
 
 of compelling the specific performance of contracts wnere 
 courts of law could only award damages for their breach; 
 in part, also, to the peculiar functions imposed by statute 
 and usage on the lord chancellor as guardian of infanta, 
 idiots, and lunatics, superintendent of charities, &c. The 
 general view of the system of equitable jurisprudence as at 
 present existing is given in the articles Chancery and 
 Trust. (See Blac/cstone's Commentaries, vol iii. ; ton- 
 blannue on Equity ; Mitford's Pleadings in Chancery.) 
 
 EQUl'VALENTS, CHEMICAL. A term Introduced into 
 chemistry by Dr. Wollaston to express the system of defi- 
 nite ratios in which substances reciprocally combine, re- 
 ferred to a common standard of unity. If we assume hy 
 drogen as unity.it being the substance which combines 
 i with others in the smallest relative weight or proportions, 
 then all other substances may be represented by certain 
 multiples of that unit, expressed with sufficient precision 
 for all ordinary purposes by whole numbers. (.See Atomic 
 Theory and Affinity.) Thus, upon this system the 
 equivalent number of oxygen will be 8, and that of water 
 will be 9, for 8 oxygen + 1 hydrogen = 9 water ; and the 
 equivalent of potassium will be 40, and of polassa or ox- 
 ide of potassium 48, for 40 potassium + 8 oxygen = 4£ 
 potassa. Upon the same principle the equivalent of hydro- 
 chloric acid, which is a compound of chlorine and hydro- 
 gen, is 37, for it consists of 1 part by weight of hydrogen and 
 36 of chlorine ; or, in other words, of an atom of hydrogen 
 = 1 + an atom of chlorine is 30. The equivalent of sul- 
 phur is 16 : to form sulphuric acid one atom of sulphur = 
 16 combines with 3 atoms of oxygeu (8 X 3) = 24 ; hence 
 the equivalent of an atom of sulphuric acid is hi + 24 =40. 
 These equivalents are often expressed by certain abbrevia- 
 tions, termed chemical symbols; which, as far as single 
 equivalents of the simple substances are concerned, are 
 represented, together with their equivalent numbers, in a 
 table in the article Chemistry. 
 
 E'QUIVALVE. A bivalve is so called when its two 
 valves are of similar size and form. 
 
 EQUl'VOCAL TERM. In Logic, a term which has 
 several significations, applying respectively and equally to 
 several objects. A word is generally said to be employed 
 equivocally where the middle term is used in different 
 senses in the two premises (see Syllogism); or where a 
 proposition is liable to be understood in various senses, 
 according to the various meanings of one of its terms. 
 
 EQUU'LEUS (Lat.), called also Eyuiculus and Equut 
 Minor. The Little Horse ; one of Ptolemy's constellations 
 in the northern hemisphere. 
 
 EauuLEfs was also the name given in antiquity to a 
 species of rack used in extorting confessions. It was ori- 
 ginally practised on slaves, but at a later period it was cm 
 ployed against the Christians. 
 
 E'QUUS. (Lat. a horse.) The generic name of the 
 quadrupeds with a single digit and hoof on each foot, as 
 the horse, ass, and zebra. Of these species the horse is 
 the largest, most docile, most valuable, and most widely 
 distributed over the globe. Of the Mammalia which existed 
 on the earth's surface during the tertiary periods of geology, 
 the horse is one of the few which have been preserved to 
 the present epoch ; and in the American continent, where 
 it once became extinct, along with the Mastodon and Me- 
 gatherium, it now again ranges wild in vast troops, the 
 descendants of the war horse introduced by the European 
 discoverers and conquerors of the so-called " new world." 
 
 The first record of the taming and application of the 
 horse to the purposes of man is in Genesis, 19. ; in which 
 it is written, that when Joseph transferred his father's re- 
 mains from Egypt to Canaan, " there went up with him 
 both chariots and horsemen." The period when the horse 
 is thus indicated as a beast both of draught and burden, is 
 calculated to have been 1650 years before the birth of 
 Christ. Horse and chariot races formed part of the Olym- 
 pic games in Greece, 1450 years b. c. 
 
 The wild horses which inhabit the steppes of Tartary are 
 supposed to be, like those that traverse the pampas of 
 South America, descendants of certain individuals which had 
 escaped from the thraldom of man. The best of the wild 
 Asiatic races are those which inhabit Tsehei kessi. Abassi, 
 and the northern slopes of the Caucasian range. The prin- 
 cipal varieties which Pallas indicates in the Asiatic horse 
 are, first, the " moustachoed horse,"characterized by nume- 
 rous strong bristles on the upper lip ; the " woolly horse," 
 a Russian variety, covered with a crisp woolly hair, and 
 common among the Baschkirs ; a naked or hairless horse, 
 not uncommon amongst the Krim Tartars, who keep i; 
 always clothed ; lastly, the variety delineated by Johnston, 
 in which a woolly mane is continued from the neck along 
 the middle of the back to the tail, and which Pallas saw 
 among the Buracti. 
 
 The wild horses appear to be free from nearly all those 
 diseases to which the domestic breed are prone. They 
 are generally of a pale or greyish brown colour, with brown 
 mane and tail, a whitish muzzle, changing to black about 
 the mouth. They are less than the domestic breed ; with 
 
EQ.UUS. 
 
 a larger head; longer legs; larger ears, with the apices 
 sub-reflecteii ; the forehead is more convex above the 
 eyes ; the hoofs are contracted and sub-cylindrical (un- 
 gules contracts, subajlindracem) ; mane sub-erect, less 
 lax than in the domestic horse; the coat, in winter, looser 
 and sub-undulated along the back (in dorso subuyidutalum) ; 
 the tail not very large. They recognize the presence of 
 man at a great distance when he approaches them to wind- 
 ward, and lly from him with wonderful speed ; they prefer 
 sunny slopes, and avoid forests and steep places. They 
 do not wander beyond the 50th degree of north latitude. 
 Wild stallions attracted by domestic mares are often taken 
 and killed. 
 
 The first change which domestication works upon the 
 form of the wild horse is to increase the bulk of his trunk 
 as compared with his head and limbs. This change is 
 beautifully exemplified in the Arabian, which we must 
 regard as an early, if not first remove, from his wild neigh- 
 bours of the more northern deserts, and which the Bedouin 
 still hunts for the sake of their flesh. The head is not only 
 proportionally smaller, but is remarkable for the breadth 
 and squareness of the forehead, the shortness and fineness 
 of the muzzle, the prominence and brilliance of the eye, 
 and the smallness of the ears. The body is still somewhat 
 light, and narrow at the forepart; but the shoulder is supe- 
 rior in its formation to that in any other breed. The Ara- 
 bian seldom stands more than 14 hands 2 inches. The 
 " Barb," so called from its native country, Barbary, is 
 somewhat smaller than its near ally the Arabian ; it seldom 
 exceeds fourteen hands and an inch ; the shoulders are 
 flat, the chest round, the legs rather long, and the head 
 small and very beautiful. The Barb is remarkable for its 
 fine and graceful action ; but though it is superior to the 
 Arabian in its general form, it has not its untiring spirit or 
 its speed. Our most valuable English varieties of the horse 
 date from the introduction of, and interbreeding with, the 
 Barb and Arabian. 
 
 We have no means of ascertaining the nature or pecu- 
 liarities of the horses which the ancient British charioteers 
 managed with such dexterity in their destructive charges 
 through the disciplined troops of Caesar. They must have 
 been subsequently modified by crossing with the Roman 
 horses. King Athelstan received from Hugh Capet of 
 France several German running horses ; William the Con- 
 queror and his followers introduced the Spanish horse, 
 with the blood of the Barb. The first Arabian horse is re- 
 corded to have been introduced in the reign of Henry I. ; 
 and a greater admixture of Arabian blood was a natural 
 consequence of the return of the Crusaders. King John 
 devoted especial attention to the improvement of his stud ; 
 and he imported one hundred choice stallions of the Flan- 
 ders kind. The size and strength required to carry the 
 warrior clad in the heavy armour of those days led to the 
 frequent introduction in subsequent reigns of the large 
 and heavy war horses of thfl Low Countries. Afterwards, 
 when the nobles derived their amusements more from the 
 sports of the turf and field, they were induced to cross 
 their stately and heavy breed of war horses with those of 
 lighter structure and greater speed ; the latest improvement 
 seems to have been derived from a direct intermixture of 
 the pure Arabian. 
 
 The principal varieties or breeds of English horses are — 
 The hackney or road ho^e. " He should be," Mr. Youatt 
 observes, " a hunter in miniature ; with these exceptions : 
 His height should rersiy exceed fifteen hands and an inch. 
 He will be sufficiently strong and more pleasant for gene- 
 ral work below >'.iat standard. He should be of a more 
 compact form than the hunter, of more bulk according to 
 his height. It is j( essential consequence that the bones 
 beneath the knee should be deep and flat, and the tendon not 
 tied in. The pastern should be short, and less oblique or 
 slanting than that of the hunter or race horse. The foot 
 should be of a size corresponding with the bulk of the ani- 
 mal, neither too hollow nor too flat, and open at the heels. 
 The forelegs should be perfectly straight ; for a horse with 
 his knees bent will from a slight cause, and especially if 
 overweighted, come down. The back should be straight 
 and short, yet sufficiently long to leave comfortable room 
 for the saddle between the shoulders and the huck without 
 pressing on either. Some persons prefer a hollow-backed 
 horse. It is generally an easy one to go. It will canter 
 well with a lady; but it will not carry a heavy weight, or 
 stand much hard work. The road horse should be high in 
 the forehead, round in the barrel, and deep in the chest." 
 
 The origin of the better kind of coach horse, says Mr. 
 Youatt, is the " Cleveland bay," confined principally to 
 Yorkshire and Durham, with Lincolnshire on one side and 
 Northumberland on the other, but difficult to meet with 
 pure in either county. The Cleveland mare is crossed by 
 a three- fourth or thorough-bred horse of sufficient sub- 
 stance and height, and the produce is the coach horse 
 most in repute, with his arched crest and high action. 
 
 There is, or rather was, a breed called, from Us round 
 punchy make, the Suffolk punch. " It stood from fifteen to 
 416 
 
 sixteen hands high, of a sorrel colour; was large-headed, 
 low-shouldered, and thick on the top ; deep and round- 
 chested ; long-backed; high in the croup ; large and strong 
 in the quarters; full in the flanks; round in the legs, and 
 short in the pasterns. It was the very horse to throw his 
 whole weight into a collar, with sufficient activity to do it 
 effectually, and hardihood to stand a long day's work." 
 This valuable breed is now nearly extinct: it is thought in 
 have been produced from the Norman stallion and the Suf- 
 folk cart mare. Excellent carriage horses are obtained l>v 
 crossing the Suffolk breed with a good hunter. 
 
 The best dray horses are produced from the Suffolk 
 punch crossed with the Flanders. 
 
 The breed of English racers is traced authentically to ar 
 Arabian stallion introduced into this country by a Mr. Dar 
 ley, and hence called the "Darley Arabian." Anterior to 
 this period the pedigree of a racer can rarely be carrie 
 back beyond some obscure reference to an Eastern horse. 
 The Darley Arabian was the sire of Flying Childers, and 
 the great grandsire of Eclipse. Eclipse was remarkable 
 for the very great size, obliquity, and lovvness of his shoul- 
 ders; the shortness of his fore-quarters; his ample and 
 finely proportioned quarters, and the swelling muscles o! 
 his fore-arm and thigh. He was, moreover, what is termed 
 a thick-winded horse, and puffed and roared so as to bt 
 heard at a considerable distance ; yet he never had an op- 
 ponent on the turf sufficiently fleet to put his full speed tc 
 the test. Eclipse died at the age of twenty- five years, 
 having begot the extraordinary number of three hundred 
 and thirty-four winners. 
 
 Another stream of Eastern blood was introduced into the 
 swelling veins ;f our thorough-bred horses by a beautiful 
 Barb, called the Godolphin Arabian. 
 
 The hunter, a favourite English variety, includes as 
 much of the blood and high breeding of the racer as is com- 
 patible with the power and endurance demanded by the 
 chase. The author of the excellent work on the horse in 
 the Library of Useful Knowledge, thus describes the good 
 points of a hunter : — " The first points of a gooiT hunter is, 
 that he should be light in hand. For this purpose his head 
 must be small; his neck thin, especially beneath ; his crest 
 firm and arched : and his jaws wide. The head will then 
 be well set on. It will form a pleasant angle with the neck, 
 which gives alight and pleasant mouth." 
 
 The more extreme varieties which we have in England 
 are the ponies and Galloways : of these the Sheltie or Shet- 
 land pony is the most diminutive ; it rarely exceeds nine 
 hands high, and sometimes does not reach seven and a 
 half. His strength is proportionally far greater than his 
 size ; he is perfectly docile, and will fatten on the hardesl 
 fare. 
 
 The dental character of the horse, and of the genua 
 Equus, is thus expressed in zoology : 
 
 Incisors »> Canines ; — ;> Molares =— i = 40; i. e. it has 
 
 6 1-1 6-6 
 
 six incisors or nippers in the front of both the upper and 
 lower jaws, one tusk or canine, and six molars or grinders, 
 on each side of both jaws. They appear in the following 
 order: — The two middle incisors, and the two anterior 
 grinders, come into place at about a week after birth ; the 
 third grinder in the course of the first month ; the two ad- 
 joining incisors before the end of the sixth week ; the two 
 outer incisors between the sixth and ninth month ; making 
 the six incisors above and below, and completing what 
 is termed the colt's mouth. There are also two very 
 small deciduous canines developed about the sixth month ; 
 the fourth grinder generally makes its appearance at the 
 end of the first year; and thus the formula, incisors 
 
 6 4-4 
 
 -' molares -; — ■> is characteristic of the yearling foal. A 
 
 6 4 - 4 
 
 fifth grinder makes its appearance at the end of the second 
 
 year; and now commences the displacement of the first 
 
 set, and the protrusion of the second or permanent set of 
 
 teeth. The deciduous teeth are lost in the order of their 
 
 acquisition ; the two middle incisors of both the upper and 
 
 lower jaws are displaced between the second and third 
 
 years ; the first and second deciduous grinders are shed at 
 
 two years and eight months. A three-year old coll has the 
 
 f>ermanent middle incisors above the gum, but not on a 
 evel with the adjoining deciduous incisors ; they are also 
 characterized by a large and deep groove containing a black 
 substance traversing transversely the working edge of the 
 crown of the tooth ; the sixth grinder is also coming int» 
 place. At three years and a half or little later the adjoining 
 deciduous incisors are shed, and their large successors 
 begin to peep above the gum ; the small lateral incisors 
 are diminished in size and much worn. This gives a very 
 characteristic condition to the mouth. 
 
 At four years the sixth grinder has attained the level of 
 the others; the permanent tusks begin to appear; the se- 
 cond permanent incisors have come into place, and arc 
 marked with a deep fissure extending quite across the 
 edge of the crown ; the corresponding mark in the middls 
 
ERA. 
 
 incisors is worn wider and fainter; the third deciduous 
 grinder is shed. The external incisors are shed between 
 four and a half and Jive years. At fice years their perma- 
 nent successors are in place, with a long deep mark on the 
 inner side of the edge- of the crown. The corresponding 
 mark is much worn in the middle incisors, and to a less 
 degree in the adjoining ones. The tusks are about an inch 
 in length. At six years the mark or fissure on the middle 
 >rs is worn away, but a discolouration on the part re- 
 mains; the mark in the adjoining incisors is shorter, broad- 
 er, and fainter ; and the lateral incisors present the edges 
 of the enamel in a more regular slate, and evidently worn ; 
 the tusks are an inch in length and pointed; the third per- 
 manent grinder has taken its place in the dental series. 
 M seven years the mark is worn away on the four middle 
 incisors in both jaws, and in progress of obliteration in the 
 lateral incisor: the apex of the canine or tusk is blunted. At 
 eight ye'irs the mark is gone from all the lower incisors, 
 and they cease to afford and Indication of the subsequent 
 age of the horse. The tusks are rounded off; the marks 
 11 longer on the incisors of the upper jaw. Of course 
 the marks are obliterated in proportion to the friction to 
 which the teeth are subject : they are sooner lost in a stall- 
 fed horse than in one at grass ; they are prematurely worn 
 away in the crib-bitcr. 
 
 The age of a horse being always calculated from the 
 1st of May, it is very difficult to determine whether an 
 animal be a late foal of one year or an early one of the 
 next. A horse may be made to appear older than he 
 really is by premature extraction of the deciduous teeth ; 
 or younger by imitating artificially the natural marks of the 
 Incisors after they have been obliterated by attrition ; but 
 these frauds are readily detected when all the concomitant 
 conditions of a horse's mouth are scanned by the practised 
 eye. 
 
 Owing to the premature labour to which the horse is in 
 general condemned in this country, and to the present 
 rapid rate of travelling, he has rarely a chance of living 
 out his natural term of existence. A well used horse may 
 last between thirty and forty years. Mr. Percival gives an 
 account of a barge-horse that died in his sixty-second 
 year. Mr. Youatt quotes the record of another horse that 
 received a ball in his neck at the battle of Preston In 1715, 
 and which was extracted at his death in 1758. 
 
 BRA. See Mr*.. 
 
 ERA'SBD, in Heraldry, signifies any thing forcibly torn 
 off, leaving the edges jagged and uneven ; as, a lion's head 
 
 !. &C. 
 
 ERA'STIANS. The followers of Erastus, a German 
 divine : a sect which obtained some notoriety in England 
 in the time of the civil wars. They referred the punish- 
 ment of all offences, civil or religious, to the civil magis- 
 trate ; and asserted that the church had no power to en- 
 force any acts of discipline, nor to refuse the communion 
 of the Lord's Supper to any one who desired it. 
 
 E'RaTO. (Gr. tpws, love.) In Ancient Mythology, the 
 muse who presided over love poetry. (See Caltimacfti 
 Epigramm.) She is frequently confounded with Terpsi- 
 chore; and in the 7th Book of the jEneid she is invoked 
 by Virgil as synonymous with Calliope. 
 
 E'REBU8. (Gr. EJtffof.) According to the classic 
 mythology, the son of Chaos and Darkness, who dwelt in 
 the lowest part of hell, which is frequently called by his 
 name. 
 
 ERETHI'SMUS. (Gr. tptOttttr, to excite.) This term is 
 generally applied to a peculiarly irritable state of constitu- 
 tion, which occasionally results from the use of mercury, 
 and in which there is great depression of strength and irre- 
 gularity ofpulse, anxiety, paleness, and tremors. 
 
 E'RGOT, or CLAVUS, is a disease of the rye, produced 
 by the attack of fungi which take possession of the ovary 
 and destroy it, producing in its room a long, black, hard, 
 hornlike body. It is remarkable for the specific stimu- 
 lating effects it produces upon the uterus, on which 
 account it is much employed in cases of difficult partu- 
 rition. 
 
 ERICA'CE^I. (Erica, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of shrubby Exogens, inhabiting the Cape of Good 
 Hope and many other places. It differs from Vaccinacea 
 and CampanulacetB in the superior ovary ; from Epacri- 
 dacta, in the anther being two-celled ; from Pyrolacece and 
 Monotropacea, in the structure of the seeds, and in habit ; 
 and from all the orders represented by Scrophulariacea. 
 and Gentianaceai in the number of the cells of the ovary 
 agreeing with the lobes of the calyx and corolla. Their 
 general qualities are astringent and diuretic, some few 
 being poisonous. The Arbutus, Andromeda, Kalmia, Rho- 
 dodendron, Azalea, all well known shrubby plants of great 
 beauty . belong to this order. 
 
 ERI'CHTHIANB. See Ebichthus. 
 
 ERI'CHTHUS. (Gr. ijp«, early, and xOwv, '*« earth.) 
 
 A genus of long-tailed Decapod Crustaceans, inhabiting the 
 
 tropical ocean. These Crustacea are remarkable for the 
 
 delicate and often transparent and colourless character 
 
 417 
 
 ERMINE. 
 
 of their large and undivided thoracic shield or carapace, 
 which always is terminated anteriorly in a sty li form ros- 
 trum : they have no moveable rostral plate, and the gills 
 are in general very small and simple, and sometimes 
 wholly inconspicuous. The genus thus characterized is 
 now subdivided into Squillerichthus, Almia, and Erichlaus 
 proper ; and the whole are included under the family name 
 of Erichthians, or Erichthidm, which in the natural system 
 ranks next to the Squillidm, or sea mantises. 
 
 ERI'DANUS. (The river Eridanus.) One of the ai: 
 cient constellations in the southern hemisphere, firs* 
 mentioned by Aratus. 
 
 ERINA'CEUS. (I,at. erinaceus, a hedgehog.) A genus 
 of useful insectivorous Mammals, of which our commi n 
 hedgehog is a well-known and unmeritedly persecuted 
 species. The teeth are small, and form a series of sharp 
 bristling points, well adapted for the crushing of beetles, or 
 cracking the back-bone of a snake ; but quite inadequate 
 to the purpose of self-defence against larger carnivorous 
 quadrupeds. Nature has, however, provided the hed| 
 with a compensatory coat of armour, thickly bristled ovei 
 wilh strong elastic spines, and capable of being drawn In 
 powerful cutaneous muscles over every part of the body 
 When the hedgehog thus puts himself in a defensive atti- 
 tude, he resembles a bristled sphere ; and is capable of 
 enduring hard blows or heavy falls without suffering ma- 
 terial injury. 
 
 Mr. Bell says, in his excellent history of British quadru- 
 peds, "The strength and elasticity of this covering is such, 
 that I have repeatedly seen a domesticated hedgehog in 
 my own possession run towards the precipitous wall of an 
 area, and without hesitation throw itself off; and contract- 
 ing at the same instant into a ball, in which condition it 
 reached the ground from a height of twelve to fourteen 
 feet, after a few moments it would unfold itself and run off 
 unhurt" 
 
 As the food of the hedgehog consists almost entirely of 
 cold-blooded animals, which in our climate almost entirely 
 disappear from the scene of nature in the winter season, 
 the hedgehog must have starved if he had not been en- 
 dowed with the singular property of subsiding into a slate 
 of suspended animation during the period of famine In 
 order, however, to preserve the low temperature which 
 he then possesses, he prepares in some retired hole a sou 
 nest of moss and leaves ; and thus passes his winter " un- 
 disturbed by the violence of the tempest, and only ren- 
 dered still more profoundly torpid by the bitterest frost." 
 All the store of nutriment which he carries with him to his 
 place of hybernation is a thick layer of fat about his vis- 
 cera and beneath his skin, which is slowly absorbed, as 
 the little waste of his inactive life requires, and more ra- 
 pidly during the first few days of his resuscitation in spring. 
 The female produces from two to four young ones in the 
 summer; they are blind, and covered with soft and flexi- 
 ble spines. The hedgehog has thirty -six teeth. The inter- 
 maxillary bones contain six teeth, of which the two ante- 
 rior are longer than the rest, placed wide apart, directed 
 obliquely downwards with a slight convergence. The 
 six upper incisors are opposed to six below, of which the 
 two anterior ones have the same disproportionate size 
 as the corresponding ones above. Of the remaining 
 teeth the four posterior ones on each side of both jaws are 
 large, multicuspidate, true molares. The intermediate 
 teeth are small, wilh two fangs, and represent the spuri- 
 ous molares. 
 
 E'RIOCAULCNEiE. (Eriocaulon, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Endogens, inhabiting the marshes of 
 most parts of the world ; usually combined with Reslia- 
 ceee. It is composed of herbaceous plants, with their 
 flowers growing in close heads, and contains no species of 
 any known use. 
 
 ERIO'METER. (Gr. tptov, wool, and utrpov, a mea- 
 sure.) An optical instrument proposed by the late Dr. 
 Young for measuring the diameters of minute particles 
 and fibres, by ascertaining the diameter of any one of the 
 series of coloured rings they produce. "The eriometer 
 is formed of a piece of card or a plate of brass, having an 
 aperture of about a fiftieth of an inch in diameter in the 
 centre of a circle about half an inch in diameter, and per- 
 forated with about eight small holes. The fibres or par- 
 ticles to be measured are fixed in a slider: and the eri- 
 ometer being placed before a strong light, and the eye as- 
 sisted by a lens applied behind the small hole, the rings of 
 colours will be seen. The slider must then be drawn out or 
 pushed till the limit of the first red and green ring (the one 
 selected by Dr. Young) coincides with the circle of perfo- 
 rations, and the index will then show on the scale the size 
 of the particles or fibres." (.Brewster's Optics, Cabinet 
 Cyclopaedia. ) 
 
 ERI'PIIIA. (Gr. tpiipos.) A genus of short-tailed or 
 Brachyurous Crustaceans, including the Cancer spinifrons, 
 Herbst. ; Cancer conagra, Fabr. ; Bnd other later discovered 
 species. 
 
 ER'MINE. C'This," says Gwillim, "is a little beast 
 2D 
 
ERODED. 
 
 less than a squirrel, that hath his being in the woods of the 
 land of Armenia, whereof he taketh his name.") In Zool- 
 ogy, a species of Mustela, or stoat, differing from the com- 
 mon weasel in being about one third larger, and in having 
 a somewhat broader head and a longer tail. In the sum- 
 mer season the upper part of the head, neck, and body, 
 and the greater part of the tail, are of a pale reddish brown 
 colour ; the under parts white, with a very slight tinge of 
 yellow ; tip of the tail black, and somewhat bushy. In the 
 winter the whole of the body becomes white, slightly 
 tinged with yellow; but the black termination of the tail is 
 permanent. The fur is closer and finer at this season, 
 especially in the colder latitudes, from which countries 
 the ermine affords one of the most beautiful and valuable 
 of furs. When made up the tails are inserted one to each 
 skin, at regular distances, and in the quincunx order; and 
 thus arranged the ermine fur forms the distinctive doub- 
 ling of the state robes of sovereigns and nobles, as well as 
 of their crowns and coronets. 
 
 Ermine. In Heraldry, one of the furs used in blazonry. 
 It represents the skin of that animal white, spotted or tim- 
 bered with black. Ermines is black, spotted or timbered 
 with white. Erminites differs from ermine in having the 
 side hairs of the timberings red. Erminois is the same as 
 ermine, except that the gold is substituted for white. 
 Pean is black, timbered with gold. 
 
 ERO'DED. (Lat. erodo, 1 gnaic.) In Zoology, when a 
 part has its edges irregularly jagged, as if gnawed or eaten. 
 
 ERO'TIC (Gr. epcog, love), is an epithet applied gene- 
 rally to all that relates to the passion of love. Thus what- 
 ever excites that passion, or depicts its effects, is termed 
 erotic. In a more confined sense, this application has been 
 conferred on a certain class of Greek and Latin authors, 
 both in prose and poetry, of whose writings love formed 
 the principal theme. Of these the most distinguished are 
 Achilles Tatius, Heliodorus, Anacreon, Sappho, Ovid, Ti- 
 builus, Propertius, &c. (See the learned work entitled 
 Scriptores Erotici GrcBci, cura Milscherlichii.) 
 
 ERO'TOMA'NIA. (Gr. tpeoc, and pavia, madness.) 
 Mental aberration, supposed to be occasioned by the pas- 
 sion of love. 
 
 ERPETO'LOGY, more properly Herpetology. (Gr. 
 ipscros, areptile, and Xoyoc, a discourse.) The branch of 
 zoological science which specially treats of the class Rep- 
 tilia. This class of animals is characterized by having a 
 heart so constructed as to transmit to the lungs a part only 
 of the circulating mass of blood which it receives from the 
 systenni veins, the remainder being sent again to the body 
 without having been purified in the lungs. There thus re- 
 sults a less amount of reaction of oxygen upon the blood 
 than takes place in Mammalia, and consequently a lower 
 grade of animal heat, and an inferior activity of muscular 
 contraction ; but, as the proportion of venous blood trans- 
 mitted by the heart to the general system varies in differ- 
 ent reptiles with the various modifications of the heart, 
 there is a corresponding difference in the manifestation of 
 their vital phenomena. ' 
 
 As reptiles are thus exempt from the office of preserving 
 the temperature of a circulating fluid many degrees warmer 
 than that of the external atmosphere, they have no need 
 of teguments adapted to retain heat; and are accordingly 
 naked, or covered with scales or hard bony plate3. Their 
 brain is very small, and without the great commissures. 
 The lungs serve more or less as reservoirs as well as de- 
 composers of the atmospheric air; and thus with a certain 
 degree of independence of the general circulation, the rep- 
 tiles are enabled to remain much longer under water than 
 either birds or mammalia. Some species, indeed, have 
 In addition to their lungs gills for breathing water, either 
 during their immature state, or throughout life, and thus 
 are truly amphibious. With a cold blood, low respiration, 
 low sensation, and sluggish habits, is associated an ex- 
 traordinary power of endurance of abstinence and bodily 
 injury. 
 
 Reptiles are either oviparous, or ovoviviparous : they do 
 not incubate. They present a great variety of forms, and 
 constitute altocether a much less natural group than either 
 birds or mammals. The character which Cuvier has as- 
 signed to the Reptilia would not seem to distinguish them 
 from certain fishes with highly developed air bladders, 
 without the additional statement that the organ of smell in 
 the class Reptilia is situated in a canal communicating both 
 with the cavity of the mouth and the external surface. 
 
 Cuvier divides, after Brongniart, the reptiles into four 
 orders, viz. : — 
 
 The Chelonia (tortoises and turtles); of which the heart 
 has two auricles, and the body is supported on four legs, 
 and inclosed between two plates or shields formed by the 
 ribs and sternum. 
 
 The Sauria (lizards and crocodiles) ; of which the heart 
 has two auricles, and the body, supported on four legs, is 
 covered with scales. 
 
 The Ophidia (slow-worms and serpents); of which the 
 heart has two auricles, and the body is without legs. 
 418 
 
 ERROR. 
 
 The Batrachia (frogs, toads, newts, &c.) ; of which th 
 heart has but one auricle, and the body is naked, and sup 
 ported on four, or in a few cases two legs. Musi of thes 
 pass, as they advance to maturity, from the condition of 
 fish breathing by gills to that of a quadruped breathing by 
 lungs. Some, however, never lose their sills. 
 
 Such are the characters assigned by Cuvier (in 1829) tc . 
 his primary divisions of the class Reptilia, but thpy are not 
 a true expression of the organization of the groups so dis- 
 tinguished. The Batrachia, for example, have since been 
 proved to have two auricles, although not so distinct exter- 
 nally as the other reptiles. Some of Cuvier's Sauria, 
 again, have two distinct ventricles; whilst the rest have but 
 one, like the Chelonia and Ophidia. The crocodiles, alli- 
 gators, and gharrials are the higher organized Sauria here 
 alluded to; and since they differ also from the Lacertine 
 Sauria in having a simple undivided tongue and iutromit- 
 tent organ, and a well-marked modification of the tegu- 
 mentary system, they deserve to rank as a distinct order, 
 at the head of the class Reptilia. This order has been 
 termed by Merrem Loricata ; for the skin, in fact, instead 
 of being covered by imbricated scales, is strengthened and 
 protected by several rows of flattened and generally ellip- 
 tical bones, developed between the cuticle and true skin, 
 and often supporting a longitudinal crest; these bones or 
 scuta? are situated chiefly along the back part of the neck, 
 body, and tail. 
 
 Another order of Reptilia is clearly indicated by the re- 
 mains of several large or even gigantic species now extinct, 
 in which the extremities were modified to serve as fins on 
 the plan of the paddles of the Cetacea. These reptiles are 
 chiefly referable to the genera Ichthyosaurus and Plesio- 
 saurus ; they were marine, and of predaceous habits, and 
 constitute the order Enaliosaaria. 
 
 The Chelonia form a third and very natural order. 
 
 Those Saurians of Cuvier which have a heart composed 
 of a single ventricle and two auricles, which have a bifid 
 tongue and double intromittent organ, and which have a 
 scaly and generally imbricated covering, form a fourth 
 order of reptiles, to which the term Squamata has been 
 given. 
 
 The Ophidia of Cuvier constitute the fifth order of rep- 
 tiles. Some naturalists have proposed to unite the serpents 
 with the lizards in the same order, on account of the gra- 
 dual transition traceable in different genera from one to 
 the other group ; but the class of reptiles, by parity of rea- 
 soning, ought to be merged in that of fishes ; and the 
 naturalists who favour the blending of the letrapodal with 
 the apodal reptiles seem to forget that an order is a con- 
 ventional division, a group of convenience, and not an 
 entity circumscribed by nature. To separate the Bat'a- 
 chia as a distinct class from the Reptilia, seems to be an 
 error in the opposite extreme. The viviparous four-footed 
 salamander, breathing air by membranous lungs, and cir- 
 culating blood by a biauricular heart, is thus placed in a 
 distinct class from the four-footed lizard, without any es- 
 sential difference in the pulmonary or sanguiferous sys- 
 tems to warrant the separation ; the only differences that 
 can be urged for such a step are a modification of the 
 tegumentary covering, and a greater development and later 
 continuance of the temporary branchial apparatus, of 
 which traces are met with in the embryos of all the air- 
 breathing Vertebrata; and a modification of the repro- 
 ductive system. The naked integument ; the presence of 
 external gills in the young state; the almost simultaneous 
 fecundation, sometimes without intromission, of numerous 
 ova, — may be grounds for regarding the Batrachiaor Am- 
 phibia as a subclass, or a group somewhat higher than an 
 order; but seem not to warrant their separation from the 
 scaled reptiles as a distinct class, as a group equivalent 
 among Vertebrata to that of birds or mammals. For the 
 subdivisions of the above orders see Loricata, Enalio- 
 sauria, Chelonia, San amata, Ophidia, Batrachia, and 
 also Amphibia. 
 
 E'RPETON. See Herpeton. 
 
 ERRA'TA. (Lat.) The term applied to the faults that 
 have escaped in the impression, or, as the case may be, in 
 the composition of a work ; usually inserted in a list either 
 at the commencement or the end of the book. This man- 
 ner of indicating typographical errors is coeval with the art 
 of printing itself. Various dissertations have been devoted 
 to this subject ; among others maybe mentioned that of 
 Lindenberg, De Errorihus Typographies, which, although 
 of a somewhat impracticable nature, contains many in- 
 genious observations. 
 
 E'RROR. In Law, a writ of error is one which au- 
 thorizes the judges of a superior court to examine a record 
 on which judgment has been given in an inferior court on 
 an allegation of error in pleading a process, &c, and to 
 affirm or reverse the same. It is the common remedy for 
 erroneous judgments in courts of record. Error lies from 
 inferior courts of record, and from the Common Pleas, to 
 the King's Bench ; from each of the three superior courts 
 to the judges of the other two sitting in the Exchequer 
 
ERSE. 
 
 Chamber; from the Exchequer Chamber, and in certain 
 cases directly, to theHosue of Lords. It lies in criminal 
 as well as in civil cases. Writ of error must be brought 
 within twenty years. Correctly speaking, it is applicable 
 only for the reversal of judgments on account of errors in 
 law. and not of fact. 
 
 ERSE. The name given by the English and Scots to the 
 dialect nf Celtic spoken by the inhabitants of the Highlands 
 of Scotland. The term 'is evidently another form of the 
 word Irish. The people speaking the Erse tongue call 
 i*j«mselves Gael (written, but not pronounced, Gaidheal), 
 ana their language Gaelig. The inhabitants of the low 
 country of Scotland, it is remarkable enough, they call 
 Gall, a term which they occasionally apply also to any 
 stranger. England in the Erse language is called Sanson, 
 meaning Saxony, and the people and language Sassonach ; 
 the litter being often called Beurla, which means speech 
 in general, and In this case " the language" par excellence. 
 The Irish are called by the Scots Highlanders Gael, like 
 themselves, with the distinction of belonging to Erin, or 
 Ireland. For the Welsh and their country there appear to 
 be no names known to the Erse language. The Erse 
 or Gaelic has been asserted to be one of the dialects of 
 that Celtic or Gaulish language which is once supposed lo 
 have pervaded nearly the whole western portion of Europe, 
 including France, Spain, and Britain. For such an hy- 
 pothesis, however, there is no good evidence ; and all 
 l'v is wholly opposed to the supposition that a people 
 so rade, so divined, and so scattered as the inhabitants of 
 Europe were 2000 years ago, should have had a common 
 language. The great probability, on the contrary, is that 
 in such times there were in Europe, as there are now in 
 America, in Hindustan, and in the great group of the Ori- 
 ental Archipelago, many languages; a few so closely con- 
 nected as lo amount only to dialects of each other, but the 
 greater number either differing wholly, or agreeing only in 
 a few words, — communicated possibly through the medium 
 of religion, or adopted for convenience by the rest from 
 one tribe or nation, which through good fortune or favour- 
 able position had obtained the start in civilization. The 
 language* supposed to be of the Celtic stock, and of which 
 ■ '• sufficient evidence either by remains or as living 
 tongues, are the Welsh, the Bas Breton or Armorican. the 
 Irish, the Erse or Gaelic, the Manks or language of the Isle 
 ' tn, the Cornish, and the Basque or language of the 
 provinces of the same name in Spain. An examination of 
 pears to prove the truth of the theory we have 
 now suggested. The Welsh and Armorican are but dialects 
 me language, and the same observation holds true 
 of the Irish and Erse. These languages agree respectively 
 wiih each other, not only in grammatical structure, but in 
 that numerous class of words which constitutes the ground- 
 work of every language : viz. prepositions, adverbs, con- 
 junctions, with such verbs, adjectives, and nouns as are of 
 most frequent and familiar use. The Irish and Erse so 
 nearly resemble each other, that after a short familiarity 
 with the pronunciation, the Irish and Scots Highlanders 
 have no difficulty in understanding each other; and the 
 same is said to be the case with the Welsh and Bas Breton. 
 On the other hand, the languages of the two latter are 
 wholly unintelligible to the first, and vice versa. The Manks 
 is but a dialect of the Irish or Erse, and the now extinct 
 Cornish was unquestionably a dialect of the Welsh. Aa 
 to tlio Basque, long supposed to be a Celtic tongue, a care- 
 ful examination of it by the late Baron William Humboldt 
 showed not only that it horo no resemblance to the Welsh, 
 the Irish, or their dialects, but that it had nothing in com- 
 mon with any known language, ancient or modern. 
 
 Re-m-rting the causes which produced a similarity be- 
 tween the languages of Wales and Hiiianv we possess 
 some historical evidence. In the fourth and fifth centuries 
 the Welsh, or people speaking the Welsh language in Bri- 
 tain, emigrated in great numbers lo the opposite shore of 
 the Continent, driven from iheir own'eountry by the tribes 
 of the northern part of the island. Their number was so 
 considerable that they acquired a superiority over the na- 
 tive population of the part of Gaul where they settled, and 
 succeeded ultimately in imposing on it their own name and 
 language. A similar emigration from Ireland, although we 
 have no historical record of it, probably propagated the 
 name and language of the Irish, with their manners, cus- 
 toms, and traditions, over the poor and mountainous por- 
 tion of Scotland which is now the site of the Gaelic or Erse 
 . ■ag n at e, It does not necessarily follow, in this case, that 
 the Highlands of Scotland were without inhabitants when 
 the Irish colonists or conquerors planted themselves there. 
 A primitive race of inhabitants no doubt previously existed, 
 whose name and language were lost in the strength and 
 mulriti'de of the invaders that occupied their country, as 
 happened in America as the result of a British invasion, 
 and in Britain itself as the result of a Saxon one. It may 
 perhaps be said, in this instance, that the emigration is as 
 likely to have taken place from the Highlands of Scotland 
 to Ireland, as from Ireland to the Highlands : but the an- 
 419 
 
 ERYSIPELAS. 
 
 swer to such a supposition is obvious, viz. that conquest is 
 more likely to have proceeded from an extensive and fer- 
 tile country to a poor one destitute of resources, than from 
 the latter to the former. 
 
 Although we have stated that between the Irish and 
 Gaelic on one hand, and the Welsh and Armorican on the 
 other, there is no such connection as would imply an iden- 
 tity of origin, there is still much evidence exhibiting an 
 early and frequent communication, and probably to some 
 extent even an intermixture of races, originating in an un- 
 settled and stirring period of the history of the inhabitant-, 
 of Europe; in such a state of society, in short, as produced 
 within the memory and knowledge of history the migra- 
 tions and invasions of the Gauls, and of the Cimbri and 
 Teutones. The similarity of language lo which we now 
 allude bears no inconsiderable resemblance to that which 
 is ascertained to exist between most of the languages of the 
 great Oriental Archipelago and Pacific Ocean, and which 
 has been satisfactorily traced from Madagascar to Gaster 
 Island. We may take as an example the numerals, which, 
 with few exceptions, are the same in the Irish, Erse, Welsh, 
 and Armorican, just as they are in many, although not in 
 all, the languages of the innumerable nations and tribes oc- 
 cupying the scattered islands which lie between Asia and 
 Australia north and south, Africa, and America west and 
 cast. But the numerals, it should be recollected, are not 
 essential and indispensable portions of rude language ; but, 
 on the contrary, as much comparatively recent inventions 
 as an alphabet, or the Arabian system of notation ; and in- 
 deed an invention, particularly when carried to the length 
 to which it has been in this case, implying a very conside- 
 rable advancement in early society. The system is, as 
 usual, decimul ; and although it contains evidence of rude 
 attempts at local and less perfect plans, is obviously of sin- 
 tie origin. It reckons by ten up to twenty, and then counts 
 by scores up lo a hundred. Thus nineteen is "one and 
 nine," and expressed by the very same words in all Ihe 
 languages. The word for twenty in the two classes of Ian- 
 Iffers. Thirty is expressed by the circumlocution 
 of •' one score and ten," forty by " two scores," and fifty 
 by "two score and ten," &c. One hundred is expressed 
 by the same term in all Ihe languages ; and it is the utmost 
 limit of native enumeration, for a thousand and Ihe num- 
 bers above it are borrowed from the Latin. In the exam- 
 ple of the numerals, then, we discover, what might be 
 looked for, evidence of considerable simplicity and even 
 rudeness in these Celtic languages. 
 
 Of the four languages now spoken of, the Welsh ap- 
 
 fiears to be that which was longest and most cultivated. 
 I was unquestionably a written language in Ihe 10;h cen- 
 tury ; and the perfect alphabet, by which every sound in 
 it is invariably expressed, consisting of sixteen radical and 
 twenty-seven derivative characters, forming in all forty- 
 three letters, is still preserved. The Erse or Gaelic was 
 the least cultivated ; and until late years even the Bible 
 which was used in the Highland churches was no other 
 than the Irish. It first attracted notice after the publica- 
 tion in the English language of the poems of Ossian, said 
 to be derived from it about the middle of the last century. 
 These, It was pretended, were translated from manuscripts 
 in the translator's possession ; but such poems in a written 
 form, it is now sufficiently known, never had any existence, 
 either in the Irish or Gaelic language. Although not com- 
 mitted to writing, or rather not handed down in writing, 
 these poems, committed to memory and handed down 
 from one bard or story-teller to another, still exist in the 
 Highlands of Scotland, and in a dress not remote from that 
 in which they were rendered by Macpherson into English. 
 Their scene is sometimes laid in Scolland, but more fre- 
 quently in Ireland. In short, they are the Iliad and Odys- 
 sey of the Celtic race of the two islands, handed down by 
 tradition only, — what the poems of Homer were in all like- 
 lihood to the Greeks themselves, before the art of writing 
 was known to them. The Erse, although a rude and un- 
 cultivated language, is a nervous and manly one, both as 
 to expression and sound, and well suited to poetry, whether 
 sublime or tender. The range of its sounds is very great; 
 for it possesses twelve vowels, and no less than eighteen 
 diphthongs and triphthongs, with forty-one consonants, in- 
 cluding aspirates. Many of the consonants are guttural ; 
 and of these, as well of the vocalic sounds, there are seve- 
 ral utterly unpronounceable by a stranger : the attempts 
 made to express such a variety of sounds by the Roman 
 alphabet are, of course, both awkward and imperfect. As 
 to the grammar, that of the Gaelic is of complex structure, 
 implying a primitive language which has undergone little 
 change bv admixture with other tongues. 
 
 ERYSI'PELAS. (According to etymologists, from the 
 Gr. epvtadai, to spread, and jrtXac, near — spreading over 
 the neighbouring parts ; but the derivation is doubtful.) 
 Called also St. Anthony's Fire, that saint having miracu- 
 lously cured it. This disease usually commences with 
 fever, followed by an eruption of a very red colour, some- 
 times vesicular, and attended by tumefaction. It com 
 
ERYTHEMA. 
 
 monly attacks the head and face, and is at its height 
 from the third to the sixth day ; but its duration and pro- 
 gress are very variable in different individuals. The fever 
 which attends this form of erysipelas is more or less in- 
 flammatory, and at first cooling diet and aperients are re- 
 quired ; and the local irrilation and itching may be quelled 
 by cooling lotions, or by sprinkling the part with a puff of 
 hair powder, which is sometimes singularly soothing to the 
 sufferer. From the eighth to the twelfth day, the eruption 
 scabs or scales off. If sickness, shiverings, and delirium 
 attend the height of the disorder, nn unfavourable termina- 
 tion may be anticipated. Sometimes suppuration occurs, 
 especially of the eyelids and scalp. The greater number 
 of cases of this disorder have a tendency, in their latter 
 stages, to debility ; and bark, or sulphate of quinine, with 
 other tonics, are indicated. But where inflammatory symp- 
 toms run high, aperients and diaphoretics must be perse- 
 vered in ; and blistering, and even cupping, are necessary. 
 Where erysipelas is attended with typhoid symptoms, 
 t is dangerous from the beginning; and wine, bark, am- 
 monia, and other stimulants, are usually prescribed. 
 
 In that form of erysipelas whicli attacks different parts 
 of the body in successive patches, aperients, diaphoretics, 
 and alteratives are useful ; but in every case of this dis- 
 ease, lotions and ointments should be used with the utmost 
 caution, and warm or cold water, and milk and water, are 
 generally the best applications. There is a variety of ery- 
 sipelas which attacks infants, and which is sometimes 
 alarming from its gangrenous or suppurative tendency. 
 Erysipelatous inflammation is also often a sequel of sur- 
 " gical operations, especially in crowded and ill-ventilated 
 hospitals, where it sometimes spreads among the patients 
 to a very alarming extent. Cleanliness, ventilation, fumi- 
 gation, and, above all, the removal of the affected persons 
 to a better air, are the only chances of eradication. 
 
 ERYTHE'MA. (Gr. spvBpos, red.) All rashes, as they 
 are commonly called, and rednesses of the skin, attended 
 by marked constitutional affection, and very mild forms 
 of erysipelas, come under this denomination. 
 
 ERY'THRIC ACID, applied by Brugnatelli to a red sub- 
 stance obtained by the action of nitric on uric acid. 
 
 ERY'THROGEN. A peculiar substance, discovered in 
 1821, by M. Bizio of Venice, in the gall-bladder of a person 
 who died of jaundice. It was a green tasteless liquid, 
 which became deep purple in nitric acid and ammonia, and 
 when heated in the air produced a purple vapour; hence 
 its name, from tpvdpos, red. He supposes it identical with 
 the colouring matter of the blood. 
 
 ERYTHRO'NIUM. A name originally given to the me- 
 tal since called Vanadium, from the red colour of its acid. 
 
 E'RYX. (Gr.) A genus of serpents with a short obtuse 
 tail and a single series of subcaudal scuta?, as in Boa; but 
 having both the abdominal and caudal scuta? much nar- 
 rower, and the anal hooks inconspicuous. 
 
 E'SCALADE. (Fr.) The scaling of a fortification by 
 means of a ladder is so called. 
 
 ESCAPA'DE. (Fr.") A term almost naturalized in Eng- 
 land, signifying any impropriety of speech or behaviour of 
 which an individual is unconscious. 
 
 ESCA'PEMENT, in Clock and Watch-work, isthe name 
 given to that part of the mechanism by which the circulat- 
 ing motion of the wheels is converted into a vibratory mo- 
 tion, as that of the pendulum of a clock or balance of a 
 watch. Various contrivances are employed for this pur- 
 pose, depending on different mechanical principles, as the 
 dead-beat escapement, the lever escapement, the duplex 
 escapement, the detached escapement, &c. See Horology. 
 ESCA'RP (Germ, scharf, sharp), in Fortification, signi- 
 fies any thing high and precipitous. Sometimes it is used 
 to denote the side of the ditch next the place ; in which 
 case it is opposed to counterscarp, which denotes the side 
 next the country. In a fortress, the escarp is the exterior 
 surface of the revetment wall supporting the rampart. 
 
 ESCA'RPMENT. In Geology, the steep face often pre- 
 sented by the abrupt termination of strata where subjacent 
 beds "crop out" from under them. The two most exten- 
 sive lines of hill which traverse the centre and south of 
 England are formed by the escarpments of the oolite and 
 chalk formations respectively. The first extends through 
 Yorkshire, the West of Lincolnshire, Rutland, Northamp- 
 ton, Warwick, Gloucester, Somerset, Dorset ; being bound- 
 ed throughout on the N. W by the outcrop of the lias for- 
 mation. The latter commences in Yorkshire, rises again 
 in Norfolk, and extends through Cambridge, Hertford, 
 Bucks, Oxford, Berks, Wilts, and Dorset, in a parallel line 
 to the former. 
 
 E'SCHAR. (Gr. lexapa, Vie crust of a scar produced by 
 burning.) When a living part has been burned, it becomes 
 hard, rough, and of a grey colour, forming what is properly 
 called an eschar : it. is a slough produced by fire or caus- 
 tics. The English scar is evidently derived from this term. 
 ESCHARO'TIC3. Applications which form eschars. 
 The term is generally applied in surgery to mild caustics. 
 ESCHE'AT, in Law, happens when tenant in fee-simple 
 420 
 
 ESCURIAL. 
 
 dies without having left any heir to the land, and withou. 
 having incurred a forfeiture to the crown (as for treason.) 
 This case arises on senlence of death for murder; but not 
 for other felonies, which, since 54 G. 3. c. 145., leave the 
 power of disposition of his estate after death to the offender. 
 In this case the land goes to the lord of the fee. There is no 
 escheat of equitable estates. 
 
 E'SCROW. (Fr. ecreu, scroll.) In Law, a deed deli- 
 vered to a third party, to be the deed of the parly making il 
 upon a future condition when a certain thing is performed, 
 until which it has no effect as a deed. 
 
 E'SCUAGE, or SCUTAGE. (Either derived from scu- 
 tum, a shield, or the same word signifying a piece of mo- 
 ney ; which latter denomination of coin, indeed, perhaps 
 originates in the fact of money having been levied undei 
 the name of this tribute.) A pecuniary satisfaction, paid in 
 lieu of military service by tenants in chivalry. There have 
 been doubts among our antiquarian lawyers whether escu- 
 age were, properly speaking, a tenure in itself, or merely 
 an incident to tenure ; but the latter is probably its proper 
 character. Lyttleton says, that tenant by homage, fealty, 
 and escuage is tenant by knight service. The assessment 
 of escuaae was uncertain in amount, and, by Magna Charta 
 and 25 Ed. 1., could only be taken by assent of parliament. 
 Escuage, together with the other appendages of military 
 tenures, was abolished by 12 C. 2. c 24. 
 
 ESCU'RIAL, or EL ESCURIAL. A royal palace of 
 Spain, about twenty-two miles from Madrid, at the foot of 
 the Carpentani mountains, which divide the two Castiles. 
 It was commenced by Philip II., from two motives— the 
 dying injunction of his predecessor Charles V., who was 
 desirous that a tomb should be constructed for the royal 
 family of Spain ; and the other to erect a monument sur- 
 passing all triumphant arches and similar buildings, to 
 commemorate the famous victory of San Quintin, won on 
 the festival of St. Lawrence, to whose intercession the 
 king attributed his success. Its foundations were laid in 
 1563; Giovanbatista of Toledo being the architect whe 
 planned and continued to superintend the building till his 
 death in 1567, when his pupil Giovanni d'Herrera carried 
 on and finished it. As an architectural composition it is 
 unworthy to be attributed, as it has been, to Bramante, Pel- 
 legrini, orVignola. They as well as others may have 
 given designs for it, but such were not selected. It'is con- 
 sidered by Spaniards as entitled to be called the eighth 
 wonder of the world ; and numberless fables are told about 
 the number of its doors, windows, and columns, as well as 
 its cost having been twenty-four millions of ducats, though 
 the expense of erecting it was not quite one fourth of that 
 sum. The whole pile comprises a magnificent monastery, 
 which was given to the fathers of San Girolamo ; of a col- 
 lege, a seminary, and a royal palace. In plan the form 
 resembles a gridiron, the instrument of martyrdom of St. 
 Lawrence, of which that part used for the royal palace is 
 supposed to represent the handle. It is internally disposed 
 into fifteen courts of various dimensions, the largest 
 whereof are ornamented with porticoes and galleries ; and 
 the material employed is a species of granite. The prin- 
 cipal facade, looking towards the west, is 740 feet long, and 
 60 feet high to the cornice. Towers flank the facade at 
 each angle of the edifice 200 feet high. The masses are 
 much cut up by the division of the principal facade into no 
 less than five stories of windows. The elevation to the 
 east is 1100 feet long, and that to the south 580 feet long. 
 The church of the monastery is 364 feet long, 230 feet 
 wide, and 170 feet high ; and is divided and supported by 
 piers 53 feet distant from each other. From the centre a 
 cupola rises of good form exteriorly, but clumsily com- 
 posed inside. Its diameter is 66 feet, and from the pave- 
 ment to the top of the cross the height is 330 feet. The 
 pantheon here is a crypt under the high altar of the church, 
 and is used as the place of sepulture of the Spanish royal 
 family. On extraordinary occasions it is lighted by a su- 
 perb lustre. The staircase leading to this mausoleum has 
 fifty-nine steps, divided by one landing; at the sides of 
 which are two bronze statues, — one of Human Nature 
 stripping herself of the illusions of the crown and sceptre, 
 the other of Hope. On the two inferior landings are two 
 doors, — one leading to the vault, where are laid the re- 
 mains of the infants and infantas, and queens who have 
 had no issue ; the other to the chamber, 36 feet diameter 
 and 38 feet high, where the remains of the kings are de 
 posited. The whole of the building is profusely orna- 
 mented, particularly with paintings from the best master? 
 of Italy, Flanders, Spain, and Germany. The adjacent 
 buildings are worthy of so august a pile. Attached to the 
 monastery by an arched gateway is an edifice called th« 
 Campagna, which has two galleries, each 100 feet long and 
 20 feet wide. This was built by Francesco de Mora, tho 
 successor of Giovanni d' Herrera. Here are the hospitals, 
 granaries, pantries, and other offices ; here also are the 
 gardens, which from being seated on the acclivity of a hill 
 appear hanging. The garden on the south side of the 
 monastery is 8000 feet in circuit. Adjoining the eastern 
 
 
ESCUTCHEON. 
 
 and northern facades is a spacious gallery or esplanade 
 surrounded by a parapet. On this side are the quarters for 
 the guards, the riding school, the aqueduct, &c. &c. Be- 
 yond the outer buildings is the Fresnada, about half a league 
 to the east. This villa is surrounded by a wall, and con- 
 tains courts, gardens, meadows, fountains, trees of all sorts, 
 lakes with islands, fisheries, &c. Here also is a church 
 of fine and simple form, by Francesco de Mora. In 1773 
 many works were executed at the Esrurial for the infants 
 Don Antonio and Don Gabriele by Villaneuva, the then 
 architect of the palace ; indeed from the time of Philip II. 
 all his successors have made some additions to this su- 
 perb edifice, which, like the original fabric, contain great 
 beauties and great defects. 
 
 ESCU'TCHEON, or ESCOCHEON. In Heraldry, a 
 shield on which arms are emblazoned: derived from the 
 French 6cu or ecusson, Italian scudo, Latin scutum. The 
 favourite shape for the purpose of heraldry is that com- 
 monly called the Norman shield; but women, daughters 
 of pireuts entitled to coat-armour, bear their father*! mums 
 on a lozenge-shaped shield. The points of the escutcheon 
 are the parts named in order to express the local position 
 of the charges borne on the field. (.See Charge.) They 
 are nine in number. Escutclteon of pretence is the shield 
 on which a man carries the arms of hi* wife ; in Bog] utd 
 only borne if she is an heiress, ami he has children by her. 
 It is borne in the centre of his own shield, and generally 
 of the same shape. Inescutcheon, an escutcheon borne also 
 within the shield in the middle of the coat (but smaller 
 than an escutcheon of pretence), or in chief. It is a spe- 
 cies of ordinary. 
 
 ESOTE'RIC, opposed to Exoteric. (Gr. low, within, 
 £(r,j, trilhout.) Much dispute has prevailed among the 
 learned as to the precise import of this distinction. By 
 some it was thought that the ancient philosopers had a set 
 of mysterious doctrines which they communicated only 
 to the more enlightened of their disciples, and another 
 more popular doctrine which they promulgated to the mul- 
 titude. In the case of Aristotle, to whose writings the dis- 
 tinction properly applied, this opinion is. to a certain ex- 
 tent, well founded ; except so far as regards the suspicion 
 of intentional concealment implied in it. The exoteric or 
 published writings of that philosopher appear to have been 
 written in the form of dialogues, all of which are lost. His 
 esoteric works, we gather from the synonymous term 
 acroamalic (.aicpoatdai.to hear.) were not intended to su- 
 pereede the necessity of oral instruction to render them 
 intelligible. This agrees well enough with the brevity, the 
 repetitions, and the perplexed arrangement of the 
 Aristotle which survive. (See Ritter, Geach. d. 
 Ph. b be c. I.) 
 
 E'SPALIER. In Horticulture, a substitute for a wall 
 on which to train fruit trees, and sometimes ornamental 
 shrubs. The objects are to expose the foliage of the 
 re perfectly to the light, to prevent the branches 
 from being blown about by the winds, and to economize 
 ■pace by confining them within definite limits. The espa- 
 lier is either constructed of wood or iron ; and commonly 
 of two horizontal rails joined by upright rods, six or eignt 
 inches apart. The most elegant and economical structure 
 of this kind at present in uso is a double espalier formed 
 of hoop iron posts in the shape of the letter A, twenty 
 inches wide at bottom, and six or seven feet high, at which 
 height the hoops meet in a point. Through the hoop iron 
 poets wires are inserted horizontally at six inches apart, 
 and drawn quite light; the result of which is a double sur- 
 face on which to train the trees. (See Loudon's Suburban 
 Gardener, p. 332.) 
 
 ESPA'RTO. (Span.) A species of rush ; the Slipa te- 
 nacissima of botanists. It is found in the southern pro- 
 vinces of Spain. It is made into cordage, much used in 
 the Spanish navy ; and is platted for other purposes, such 
 as m its, shoes. Ac. 
 
 ESPLANA'DE, or GLACIS. In Fortification, the slop- 
 ing of the parapet of the counterscarp or covered way to- 
 wards the open country. 
 
 ESQUI'RE, Ecuyer, Escudcro. (In Latin, armiger.) A 
 well known title of rank ; derived from the French e'en, 
 Lat. scutum, a slu'eld. Some suppose that it has its origin 
 from the Scutaril,a sort of soldiery In the Roman armies ; 
 others derive it from equus, a horse, and suppose that 
 esquire and equerry denoted originally the same thing, viz 
 a groom. But it is generally supposed to have belonged to 
 the shield or armour bearers (armigeri) attached to the 
 person of knights. Tins office, in the times of chivalry 
 was honourable, and generally borne by persons of good 
 family. Hence the term esquire became gradually appro- 
 priated, in England, to a rank above the simple gentleman 
 and below the knight. Younger sons of peers (nowcalled 
 Hononrables). their eldest sons, eldest sons of knights, 
 sheriffs of counties, Serjeants at law, justices of the peace, 
 and doctors of divinity, are esquires by virtue of their res- 
 pective rank or office. Heads of ancient families are con- 
 sidered esquires by prescription ; and hence has originated 
 421 
 
 ESTAFETTE. 
 
 the use of the word, in the present day, as a common aa 
 ditionto the names of all those who live in the rank of gen- 
 tlemen. The king creates an esquire, by putting round 
 his neck a silver collar o(Jf; to which ceremony was for- 
 merly added the putting on of a pair of silver spurs. 
 
 E'SSAY. In Literature, an attempt; a species of com- 
 position. In general, this title is given to short disquisi- 
 tions on subjects of taste, philosophy, or common life. In 
 this sense it has been applied to periodical papers, pub- 
 lished at regular intervals under a collective name, by one 
 or more writers, containing remarks on topics of the day 
 or on more serious subjects. From the appearance of the 
 Taller, in the beginning of the last century, which was 
 chiefly written by Sir Richard Steele, this species of lite- 
 rature continued to be a favourite in England for 
 years, and many similar series of essays were produced ; 
 the best of which are united in one collection under the 
 name of The English Essayists. The most celebrated of 
 these works was the Spectator, to which Addison was the 
 best contributor; and next to it the Rambler, published and 
 almost wholly written bj Samuel Johnson. The tide of es- 
 say has been also adopted, by way of indicating diffidence in 
 the completeness of their work, by various authorsof more 
 extended performances; as by Locke (Essay on the Hu- 
 man Understanding). 
 
 E'SSENCE. (Lat. essentia, from esse, to be or exist.) 
 In Philosophy, a scholastic term, denoting what the Plato- 
 nists called the idea of a species. The school philoso- 
 phers give two significations of the word essence: the first 
 denoting the whole essential perfection of a being, and 
 consequently iis entity, with all its intrinsic and necessary 
 attributes taken together ; the second denoting the princi- 
 pal or most important attributes of any thing. The es- 
 sences of things were held by many to be uncreated, eter- 
 nal, and Immutable. 8et Mktaphvsics. 
 
 E'SSENCE IVORIENT. A term applied to a pearly- 
 looking matter found principally at the base of the scales 
 of the bleak, a small fish of the genus Cyprinus : • 
 to line the interior of glass bubbles or beads, as in the 
 manufacture of artificial pe 
 
 ESSE'NES. A sect among the Jews in the time of our 
 Saviour, of whom an account is preserved to us by Jose- 
 phussnd Phllo, though they are not mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture. They were few in number, and lived chiefly in soli- 
 tude, hiking no part in public affairs, but devoting their 
 lives to contemplation. There were indeed two classes 
 of them, distinguished as the practical and contemplative, 
 who differed in the degree of strictness and austerity which 
 they observed. They believed In the immortality of the 
 soul, and held the Scripture in the highest reverence; In- 
 terpreting it, however, after an allegorical system of their 
 own. (See ntackteood'8 Mag., 1840.) 
 
 ESSE'NTIAI, OILS, or VOLATILE OILS. Under tins 
 term are included all those peculiar compounds obtained 
 by distilling vegetable substances with water, and which 
 pass over along with the steam, ami are afterwards con- 
 densed in the liquid or solid form. They appear to consti- 
 tute the odorous principles of vegetables. Their specific 
 gravity fluctuate! on either side that of water: they are 
 very sparingly soluble in water, and these solutions consti- 
 tute the medicated waters; rose, peppermint, and other 
 waters being such solutions of the respective essential oils. 
 They dissolve in alcohol and form essences, many of which 
 are used as perfumes. When these oils are pure, they 
 evaporate from paper when held before the fire ; but if 
 adulterated with fixed oils, they leave a greasy stain, and 
 seldom dissolve perfectly in alcohol. The more expensive 
 of these oils are frequently adulterated with the cheaper 
 ones, and this fraud can only be detected by an experi- 
 enced nose. Their chief use is in perfumery, on account of 
 their odour, and in medicine they form valuable stimulants. 
 They are inflammable, and are, with few exceptions, com- 
 pounds of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. The essence of 
 turpentine, of lemons, and a few others, are hydrocarbons. 
 
 ESSOI'GN. In Law, an excuse for one who is sum- 
 moned to appear and answer an action or perform suit in a 
 court, <fec, by reason of sickness or other prevailing cause. 
 The first return day in every term was called the essoignday, 
 because the court sate on it to take essoigns ; i. e. excuses for 
 such as did not appear according to the summons of the 
 writ. The essoign day seems to be done away with by the 
 effect of the statutes 11 G. 4., 1 W. 4. c. 70. . and 1 W. 4. c. 3. 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT. See Foundation. 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PORT. A term used by 
 writers on the tides, to denote the interval between the time 
 of high water at any given port and the time of the moon's 
 transit immediately preceding the time of high water, when 
 the moon is in svzvgy ; that is, at the new or full moon. 
 This interval is influenced by local circumstances, and con- 
 sequently different at different places. See Tides. 
 
 ESTAFE'TTE. (Span, estafeta.) Applied originally to 
 military couriers, but now used in all the countries of mo- 
 dern Europe to signify an express. The difference between 
 a courier and an estafette eonsists in this, that while the 
 
ESTATE. 
 
 former must deliver ihe despatches, &c. entrusted to lim 
 
 personally at the place to which they are addressed, in the 
 
 Ihe despatches, letters. &c. to be forwarded are con- 
 
 1 to the care of postillions, who are changed with 
 every relay of horses successively till they arrive at the 
 place of their destination. 
 
 ESTA'TE, in common parlance, is applied to the landed 
 
 property held by individuals; and a man is said to be of 
 
 good or of small estate, according to the magnitude of his 
 
 I property. 
 
 Estates vary exceedingly in sizeTand value in most parts of 
 
 ind. The largest estate in the kingdom may be worth 
 100,000/. or upwards a year; and there are estates of most 
 inferior degrees of magnitude, down to the annual value of 
 AOs. ! In som-3 counties property is more, and in others it 
 is less, subdivided. In Cheshire, the East Riding of York- 
 shire, and one or two other counties, there are compara- 
 tively few small proprietors ; but the latter predominate in 
 most parts of the West of England, in the North, and gene- 
 rally throughout ihe country. On the whole, we believe it 
 may be safely affirmed, that by far the largest portion of 
 the kingdom is parcelled into properties of less than 1000/. 
 a year. It is not difficult to account for the prevalent mis- 
 conceptions on this point. Though few in number, the 
 owners of large estates engross the attention of common 
 observers, and hinder them from fixing their eye on the 
 mast of obscure, pettj land-owners, that constitute the 
 great bulk of the class. Dr. Beeke, whose authority as to 
 such matters Is deservedly high, estimated the total num- 
 ber of proprietors in England and Wales at 200.000; and 
 supposing the gross rental of the kingdom to be 30,000,000/. 
 a year, the average annual income of each, in his capacity 
 Of landlord, will be only 130/. ! and seeing that a few have 
 much more, it follows that many must have good deal less. 
 Hence it is that few lead a more' laborious life, or are more 
 under the necessity of abstaining from luxurious Indul- 
 gences, than the owners and occupiers of small landed 
 properties. Nothing, in fact, can be a greater mistake than 
 to suppose, aa is senerally done, that the landowners are 
 an extremely opulent and an extremely indolent body. 
 The..- may be the characteristics of a few Individuals 
 amongsl then; but it would bequiteas wide of the mark to 
 affirm that they are generally applicable to the entire class, 
 as that they are generally applicable to the classes of manu- 
 facturers and traders. (See M-Culloch's Statistics, vol. ii ) 
 ESTATE FOR LIFE, in Law, is a freehold interest in 
 lauds and tenements, whether enjoyed for the life of the 
 tenant, or for the life of another parly (in which latter case 
 it is termed an estate pur auter vie). This species of in- 
 •••s granted for an uncertain period lim- 
 
 ithin the duration of a life ; as, for instance, an estate 
 granted to a widow during her widowhood. An estate for 
 life is created wherever lands or tenements are given by 
 Beans adequate to the conveyance of a freehold, without 
 any express limitation of an estate. If tenant for life con- 
 *Vf iter than his own by feoffment, fine, or 
 
 recovery, he forfeits his estate; but if he does so by any 
 of those conveyances which are termed innocent, he cre- 
 ates an estate determinable on his own death. Wilh re- 
 spect in estates pur auter vie, it is observable that formerly, 
 when lands were given to A for the life of B., if A. or A.'s 
 assignee happened to die in If .'slifetime, the estate belonged 
 to the first person who could take possession, termed an 
 occupant; but if given to A. and his heirs for the life of B. 
 on the -ui),' .vent, A.'s heir succeeded as special occu- 
 pant. Now. by the Statute of Frauds (29 C. 2. c. 31. s. 12), 
 
 j pur auier vie are devisable: and, if there be no 
 
 i occupant, they go to the executors or administra- 
 tor of the deceased, 
 
 ESTATE FOR YEARS. In Law. an estate limited for 
 t ten.' ol years, or other determinate time, in lands, tene- 
 lereditaments, is a chattel or personal interest ; 
 and, on the death of the owner, devolves, like other per- 
 sonal property, on his executors or administrator. An es- 
 - is properly created or demised by an instru- 
 ment termed a lease : which, at common law, has not full 
 
 [ton until the entry of the tenant. It may also be 
 created by declaration of use, or by devise in a will ; and 
 may be made either to commence immediately, or on a 
 future day and event ; in which latter case, unless there 
 he any particular estate to support it as a remainder, it is 
 called an mteresse termini, until the time arrives for its re- 
 daction into possession. Covenants between the lessor and 
 lessee, relating to the land (which are usually inserted in 
 the lease), are said at common law to run with the land : 
 >ng wilh the term of years, to a parly to whom 
 iveys it by assignment ; but the lessee's cove- 
 pass to a party to whom he conveys part of 
 
 rm by underlease. A tenancy from year to year is a 
 nf estate for vears. 
 ESTATE OF INHERITANCE. In Law, an estate in 
 or fee-tail. (See these articles; and Real 
 PxoHRTY, Law of.) 
 
 lA'TES. POLITICAL. See States. 
 422 
 
 ETHERIA. 
 
 ESTIVATION. A term applied to the parts of a flower 
 when unexpanded : it is used, in connection with various 
 adjectives, to express the manner in which sepals or petals 
 are rolled up. before the flower unfolds. 
 
 ESTO'PPEL. In Law, an impediment or bar to a right 
 of action, arising from a man's own act, or that of one to 
 whom the party estopped is privy. As, if a party is bound 
 by a particular name in an obligation, and afterwards sued 
 by that name on the same obligation, he is estopped, i. e 
 forbidden in law to say in abatement that he is misnamed ; 
 as he cannot say contrary to that which he has admitted by 
 his own deed. All parties to a deed are estopped to say 
 any thing against what is contained in it; and privies are 
 also bound. 
 
 ESTRE'AT. In Law, the extract, copy, or note of some 
 original writing or record, and especially of fines and 
 amercements ; entered on the rolls of the court, to be le- 
 vied by us bailiff or other officer. Fines to the king are es- 
 treated into the Court of Exchequer. Estreats are made 
 out in that court by the remembrancer for the lord trea- 
 surer, and received from him by the clerk of the estreats, 
 who writes them out to be served for the king, &c. Pro- 
 vision is made for the due return, estreating, and levying 
 of fines, &c. in the superior and some other courts by '3 & 
 1 W. 4. c. 99. 
 
 ESTltlCH. The commercial name ofthe finedownof 
 the ostrich. 
 
 ES'TUARY. See jEstuary. 
 
 ETJS'RIO. In Botany, an aggregate fruit, having the 
 ovaries distinct, pericarp indehiscent ; either dry upon a 
 fleshy receptacle, as the strawberry ; or dry upon a dry re- 
 ceptacle, as the ranunculus ; or fleshy upon a dry recep- 
 tacle, as therubus: the parts being achenia or small drupes. 
 
 ET CflSTERA, usually expressed by the sign ij-c, means 
 and so on. 
 
 ETCHING. Sep Engraving. 
 
 ETCHING NEEDLE An instrument of steel with a 
 fine point, for tracing outlines, &c. on the copper plate. 
 
 ETE'ItNITY. An attribute of the Deity, the existence 
 of whom is without beginning or end. It is the immediate 
 consequence of the self existence which we attribute to 
 him. Being the cause of all things, 1.3 :.■ 
 pendent of any cause. 
 
 Eternity being infinite, is inconceivable by onrfini'e un- 
 derstandings; at the same time, we cannot ima 
 infinite being to exist without it. There is a distinction 
 made between an anterior and a jiosterior eternity. The 
 latter belongs to creatures whom God proposes to pre- 
 serve for ever ; the former to himself alone. We suppose 
 God to exist without parts, and also without succession. 1; 
 is an inconsistency in atheism to suppose a soi 
 o( generations from an anterior eternity : nothing that is 
 successive can be actually infinite and eternal. 
 
 ETESIAN WINDS. See Winds. 
 
 E'THAL. A substance formed during the saponification 
 of spermaceti. Chevreul derived the name from the first 
 syllables of ether and alcohol, on account of its analogy to 
 tjioso liquids in point of composition. 
 
 E'THEU. (Gr. aiBr/p.) In Chemistry, this term is ap- 
 plied to a highly volatile, fragrant, inflammable, and intoxi- 
 cating liquid, produced by distilling a mixture of equal 
 weights of sulphuric acid and alcohol. When these liquids 
 mutually act on each other, a series of complicated changes 
 ensue, which terminate in the conversion of alcohol into 
 ether. Ether, like alcohol, may be regarded as a com- 
 pound of hydrocarbon and water; and if alcohol be con- 
 sidered as consisting of one equivalent of defiant hydro- 
 carbon = 14, and one of water = 9. ether may be regarded 
 as constituted of tiro of olefiant hydrocarbon (1-1 X2) = 28. 
 and oneof water = 9: hence, the equivalent of alcohol being 
 14 + 9 = 23, that of elher will be 11X2 = 28 + 9 = 37; and 
 the process of etherificntion maybe stated to consist in the 
 abstraction from alcohol of one half of its elemental water. 
 By some, ether is regarded as the oxide of a peculiar hy- 
 drocarbon, which they term ethule, composed of4 equiva- 
 lents of carbon and 5 equivalents of hydrogen ; and alcohol 
 must in that case be considered as hydrate of ether. 
 
 Ether, or, as it is often called, to distinguish it from analo- 
 gous products obtained by the intervention of other acids, 
 sulphuric ether, is a limpid colourless fluid, of an agreeable 
 odour, and a hot pungent taste. lis specific gravity is about 
 0713, though that of the shops is usually heavier ; ii boils at 
 about 98°, "and freezes at the low temperature of -16° below 
 0°. The specific, gravity of etherial vapour compared with 
 atmospheric air is as 268 to 100. Ether is sparingly soluble 
 in water, which takes up about a tenth of its bulk ; it dis- 
 solves in all proportions in alcohol. The principal use of 
 ether is in medicine. When taken internally, it is stimu- 
 lant ; and it is sometimes applied externally, by reason of 
 the cold produced during its evaporation, as an ingredient 
 in refrigerating lotions. 
 
 ETHE'RIA. (Gr. atOio, I shine.) A genus of Lamelli- 
 branchiate Dimyary Bivalves, with a large ventral muscular 
 plate or foot, as in the Unioncs; but having their shell ad 
 
ETHERIN. 
 
 as in the oyster, to foreign bodies: the hinge Is 
 
 .. irregular, undulated, and callous; the ligament 
 
 I 1 1 etr.it iiij: in a pointed form into the interior 
 
 rtie term Etheria has ;ilso been applied by 
 
 it icrourous Crustacea. 
 
 I) tilt: It IN A name applied by some c 1 . • 
 
 irbon ; ih.it is, to ao hydrocarbon 1 atom or 
 equivalent of winch is constituted a irbon and 
 
 I of hydrogen. It Is obvious thai such a compound may 
 be regarded as the base of ether; its equivalent would be 
 
 ETHICS. ((Jr. i»0o$, custom, moral character.) The 
 
 science the object of winch la to determine what ought to 
 
 be in relation to voluntary action, and to those dispositions, 
 
 • of mind winch tend mediately or 
 
 tely to voluntary action. n our aim 
 
 it the present work, in all articles relating lo ab- 
 
 to such as have 
 
 1 1 1 mailer of loim c.inir.ivcrsy, rather 1" ]<<■ 
 
 ■.Mil a history of the opinions winch have been held 
 i, ami to direct lliem to the works In which those 
 ma i ned with the greatest ability, than lo 
 int oi what appeared to us the cor- 
 ■ ■ particular department of inquiry before 
 definition with which we prelace this article may 
 appear in come degree a deviation from this our practice, 
 nt bj Implical i of certain 
 
 nee before us, which some of our 
 ib judice," W 
 of terms to which it has i 
 eertain modern writers on ethics that no Intelligible meen 
 inu' can be attached. Our answer is, that we can conceive 
 inition, not Including the terms in qui 
 uvalenl8, win. . fy us in assigning to the 
 
 i ethics an Independent existence, or, by Corne- 
 ll] giving to the word which designates it ■ distinct 
 place and a ■ ether the words 
 
 "ought" and '•voluntary" have any meaning or not, must 
 appear from the sequel : it is enough lor our present pur- 
 pose that the majority of moralists have believed them to 
 \ 
 mbject within the limits of specul 
 
 laa been waged with greater 
 i the exception, perhaps, of theol 
 
 ive not far In search for the general 
 reasons of this fact Besides, being a science of pro-emi- 
 nent interest to those who mule high moral feeling and a 
 concern for the interests of their kind wilh ■ c i| 
 speculation, it is a science also the treatment of which is 
 peculiarly liable to be affected by the moral nature and ha- 
 bits of those who lake it in hand' WithoUl taking upon us 
 
 that, to be a good ethical writer, it is necessary lo 
 
 ■ ! man, we think that ihe history of specnlaiion 
 is ui the belief that a partial or confined view of 
 i, for the moat part, ■ corresponding 
 excess or defect in the moral qualities of the person hold 
 leas) where such peculiarity cannot be traced 
 mperfect Intellectual qualifications, or to singu- 
 larly unfavourable circumstances, of tune, place, or educa- 
 
 which have sprung up under such iiillu- 
 
 imfflnnly expire Wilh the circumstances which 
 
 in into being The youthful student may Indeed 
 
 ■ i by the ingenuity or confounded by ihe subtlety 
 
 with which they have been maintained ; but with a person 
 
 in i in I, who has access to writers of larger and 
 
 deeper views, they cannot long maintain a place in his mi- 
 
 denstandirtg, much less in his practical habits, vl 
 
 I these remarks, partly as our justification for 
 from this article all notice of such systems as 
 those ol l'.picurus in am-icul. and Hnbbes, Helvelius, and 
 Muideville in modern times; and partly as mi introduc- 
 tion 10 what we shall make the central point of our obser- 
 ount of the controversy which at present 
 thical speculators in England, We allude, it will 
 he perceived, to the dispute which has for some time pre- 
 vailed between the respective partisans of what have 
 
 heen called Hie "utilitarian" and " sentimental" schools. 
 , rho are acquainted with the most recent records 
 
 ii which have been published on both ildt 
 controversy will see reason to wonder at two things : at the 
 very small' real discrepancy between the parties engaged ; 
 and at the singular vehemence with which they disclaim 
 nil community of opinion, and strive to establish a diffe- 
 rence which 'docs not exist, or to exaggerate one which 
 .i historical examination of the origin and growth 
 so schools will in a great degree explain these two 
 la its ; Inasmuch as it will show that the difference between 
 Is one rather of feeling and habit than of 
 If will also serve as a thead whereon lo hang 
 such notices of past systems as it was necessary la give, 
 In order to Impart to this article the same historical cha- 
 ncier with that possessed by the articles on similar suh- 
 ■ur during the course of this work. We 
 sh ill thus have an opportunity of communicating to our 
 •1JJ 
 
 KTLIICS. 
 
 readers by far the most of what is really important u: 
 English ethical speculation ; and m tl.e attempt which we. 
 shall make to show the essential incompleteness 
 
 . and to indicate the tine central point from which 
 the science of morals ought to be viewed, we shall be ena- 
 bled to introduce an account of some Of the leading lea- 
 ch distinguished the systems of antiquity. We 
 begin with those whom we have named the sentimental 
 moralists. 
 
 The most eminent of these have been men who rave 
 devoted their attention chiefly or entirely to wh.u in iv be 
 called empyiical psychology ; ih.it science, namely, which 
 determines the ss q usnooa of mental phenomena, end their 
 
 dependence on each oilier in the relation of cause and ef- 
 fect ; in one word, to the physics of the mind. In this de- 
 partment of science the most fruitful discovery that has 
 he. -n made is what is commonly Darned the Law 
 s oc ial I on . Tins law, according to winch Hobbeaand Con. 
 dillac attempted to account for the origin ol our perct ptive 
 and intellectual faculties, was applied with bellei 
 
 by Hartley tt) the analysis of our emotive principles, The 
 moral sentiments, the ultimate source of which Hutchison 
 
 held to be benevolence, and Adam Smith sympathy. Hart 
 
 : it still lower, in the simple capacity ol organic 
 pleasure ami pam. fr-.m these original elenn 
 tonne, I, by successive or co ordinati 
 lion, the leeluigs of sympathy, gratitude, resentment, 
 
 shame, and the like ; and. a> the but and most perfect for- 
 mation, i moral approbation or disapprobation. 
 This theory, which must not be, as it frequently Is, con- 
 founded with the selfish theory, is that which I 
 brsied dissertation of the late Sir James Mackintosh, pre- 
 fixed to the Ettcyclopasdia Britannica, is intended to illus- 
 trate. It is in reference to the successive stages el deve- 
 lopment of the associative principle that this elegant work 
 la alone valuable lis author may be considered as end- 
 ing the - .menial morsjisttj in which, in ad- 
 dition lo ihe names gi\en above, may be Inserted lhatol 
 Dr Thomas Brown. The result ot then' speculations Is, 
 that they have established the existence ol amoral faculty 
 in man, as a fad nf natural history: a fact, also, which 
 
 is, as we shall s. e, by no means an Ins ulficaiil ctrcum 
 stance that, of the fivo names we have enumerated, two 
 
 were physicians by profession, and one had dedicated 
 great part of his youth to the study of practical me 
 
 The reputed father of the '•utilitarian" moralists is the 
 
 celebrated Jeremy Bentham. The labours of this unques- 
 tionably powerful thinker were principally devoted to the 
 -iiiion and jurisprudence; to which, also, 
 
 much of the attention of those who profess themselve.-. his 
 followers or admirers has been directed. It is only as aux- 
 iliary to these sciences thai Mr. Bentham has handled the 
 i| morality. The most complete account of the 
 utilitarian principle la to be found in Mr. Austin's work on 
 jurisprudence, This principle is thus enunciated :— "Tho 
 molality or immorality of an act consists in the beneficial 
 or pernicious consequences resulting from It: the molality 
 or immorality of an agent, in the goodness or badness of his 
 intention, the goodness or badness of tho intention being 
 determined by the nature of the consequences which are 
 foreseen, or might be foreseen, as resulting from the act." 
 Here, we me told, we must carefully distinguish between 
 intention and motire ; between foresight of the conse- 
 quences of an action, and the state of mind which causes 
 Ihe action. To quote an instance used by the acute author 
 of a recent work named .1 Fragmtnion Mackintosh, — "A 
 man, to save his family from starving, wires a hare on my 
 estate. My first impulse is to throw him into jail. Before 
 I determine to do so, however, I consider the misery which 
 1 shall bring on the man himself, and the slate of want, 
 wretchedness, and probable demoralization, into which I 
 shall plunge his family. In spite of these foreseen conse- 
 quences, I resolve lo prosecute htm, Here my mutire is Ihe 
 ion of my game, my intention the production of 
 misery and vice in a multitude of my fellow-creatures. 
 The immorality of this act manifestly consists in the inten- 
 tion ; the motive is neither moral nor immoral." Having 
 given this preparatory illustration, we shall extract from 
 the same work what is there denominated "A list of the 
 requisites of a moral act." These are— "I. The motive. 
 There is no act without a motive ; but the motive la ir t- 
 self neither moral nor immoral. 2. 77ie volition. There 
 is no act which is not willed , but Ihe act of willing is 
 neither moral nor immoral. 3. H7m/ is called the external 
 act ; to wit, the lintlili, part or motire. That, like the motive, 
 is In itself neither moral nor immoral Thesamo bodily ope- 
 ration is indifferently a part of every sort of act I' Is, bow 
 ever, a necessary part of every act. 4 The consequences 
 of Die art. An 'act which has no consequences that are 
 materially either beneficial or hurtful is not called a moral 
 act. That alone receives this denomination which has 
 consequences material lo some one or more human be- 
 ings. 5. The expectation of the beneficial consequences m 
 
ETHICS. 
 
 the mitid of the agent. 6. This is not all : it is not enougn to 
 make au act moral that the agent expects from it beneficial 
 consequences to somebody ; it is further necessary that he 
 have no reason to expect from it evil consequences equiva- 
 lent to any other body ; that is. in other words, that he have 
 a conviction of its general utility." 
 
 In order to obviate an objection to the principle so enun- 
 ciated, — viz that it supposes a laborious calculation of con- 
 sequences to precede every moral action, — Mr. Austin, in 
 the work to which we previously alluded (The Province 
 of Jurisprudence Determined), qualifies the statement by 
 the admission that the principle of utility itself requires 
 that our conduct should be guided by general rules, formed 
 according to the principle of utility, and not by an imme- 
 diate appeal to utility itself in each particular instance. 
 Thus qualified, the principle is precisely the same with 
 \ that laid down by Kant, as the "groundland of the pure 
 practical reason:" — "Act so that the maxims of thy will, in 
 each particular instance, may hold equally as the principle 
 ofa universal legislation." And this philosopher, in com- 
 mon with the English utilitarians, regards this principle as 
 a posu^ite which lies at the foundation of morality. Thus 
 explained, it will be seen that there is no theoretical incon- 
 sistency between the utilitarian and sentimental moralists. 
 Sir James Mackintosh expressly admits that the only criie- 
 rion of morality in action, — that is, the only criterion by 
 which right and wrong in human conduct can be deter- 
 mined,— is the consequences of such conduct on the hap-* 
 piness of mankind. It has been with reason objected, that 
 the second department of the two into which he divides 
 the science of ethics, "the nature of those feelings with 
 which right and wrong are contemplated by human be- 
 ings," does not in itself belong to morality at all. It is in 
 truth a part of psychology, and nothing more, and that by 
 his own admission, that the purpose of moral science is 
 "to answer the question 'what ought to be.'" The obli- 
 gation of the rule of action is the same, whatever are the 
 feelings with which we may happen to regard right and 
 wrong : and whatever may be their origin, and the process 
 of their formation. That the nature of these feelings ought 
 to be made au important item in every calculation of the 
 consequences of our actions, would be admitted by any 
 consistent utilitarian who is capable of such considerations, 
 and that in obedience to his own principle. The science 
 of psychology is admitted by such persons to be a valuable 
 auxiliary to that of ethics, and as such has been elaborately 
 treated by Mr. Mill, in Ids Analysis of the Human Mind. 
 This we conceive to be all that Sir James Mackintosh, in 
 the principles of his general philosophy, had a right to 
 claim for that branch of science, to the elucidation of 
 which he has devoted by far the greater part of his disserta- 
 tion. The relalion between utilitarianism and sentiment- 
 a ism may consequently be expressed thus : It is our duty 
 so to frame our conduct, that it may contribute as much as 
 possible to the happiness of mankind. The happiness ofa 
 man consists, as experience proves, not in the gratification 
 of one or two desires, but of as many as possible. But the 
 more faculties a man can exercise the more numerous are 
 his desires, and the greater the happiness of which he is 
 capable ; consequently, it is our duty to contribute as much 
 as we can to the development of the faculties of all with 
 whom we have to do : the means to this end are supplied 
 by the science of experimenlal psychology, including the 
 doctrine of the formation, among other faculties, of the 
 moral sentiments. 
 
 The question now arrives, is this a complete theory of 
 morals 7 We think not; and we will proceed to state our 
 reasons for this opinion. It will be admitted, that in order 
 to conceive of the existence of a particular class of plea- 
 sures, and by consequence of a particular class of facul- 
 ties or desires of which these pleasures are the exercise 
 or the gratification, we must be conscious of the existence 
 of the same class in our own constitution. What is true 
 of one class is true of all. Before, therefore, we can take 
 upon us to determine wherein the greatest happiness of 
 man consists, we must take care that our idea of human 
 nature be a complete one ; we must see to it that we leave 
 out of consideration no element in the constitution of man. 
 Nor is this enough. It will be admitted, as a fact of ex- 
 perience, that the gratification of certain of our desires 
 does, if carried beyond certain bounds, impair and interfere 
 with the free action of certain other equally important 
 sources of enjoyment. Consequently, what is true of the 
 constitution of a slate, is true, likewise, of the constitution 
 of man : the action of its constituent parts requires to be 
 determined by some measure or law which shall appoint 
 to each the sphere and limits of its exercise. The Greek 
 philosophers, who, whatever may be their deficiencies in 
 subordinate inquiries, saw more distinctly than any before 
 or since Ihe true problems which philosophy ought to 
 soKe, have pointed to this law under different names — 
 whether of the chief good, Ihe rule of right, the harmony 
 of the send, or the like— as the great difficulty of ethics to 
 the clearing up of which all other inquiries ought to be re- 
 124 
 
 ETHNOGRAPHY. 
 
 garded as subordinate and tributary. Of all the moralist* 
 of antiquity Plato perceived this with the greatest clear 
 ness. His Republic is meant as an approximation to the 
 determination of this law, alike in the individual and in the 
 state. That we may not be accused of blind veneration 
 for antiquity, we will adduce the most celebrated ethical 
 writer ol the last century in our justification. Those of our 
 readers who have formed their conception of the object* 
 of Bishop Butler's moral writings from the strangely partial 
 view of them taken in Sir James Mackintosh's dissertation, 
 will probably be surprised to hear that his is the name to 
 which we allude. The preface which he has prefixed i" 
 his Sermons is intended as a brief preliminary statement 
 of what he calls "the occasion, scope, or drift" of the de- 
 tached inquiries which follow. Of what this scope or drift 
 was we are bound to accept his own account; and before 
 we can rightly apprehend it, he tells us we must "be- 
 gin by stating to ourselves exactly the idea of a system. 
 economy, or constitution, of any particular nature, or 
 particular anything. We shall, I suppose, find that it is- 
 a one, or a whole, made up of several parts; but yei 
 that Ihe several parts, even considered as a whole, do not 
 complete the idea, unless in the notion of a whole you in- 
 clude the relations and respects which these parts nave to 
 each other. Every work, both of nature and art, is a sys- 
 tem ; and as every particular thing, both natural ami aiiifi. 
 cial, is for some use or purpose out of and beyond itself, 
 one may add, to what has been already brought into the idea 
 of a system, its conduciveness to this one or more ends. 
 Let us instance a watch : Suppose the several parts of it 
 taken to pieces, and placed apart from each other; let a 
 man have ever so exact a notion of these several parts, un- 
 less he considers the respects and relations which they 
 have to each other, he will not have anything like the idea 
 ofa watch. Suppose these several parts brought together 
 and united anyhow; neither will he yet, be the union ever 
 so close, have an idea which will bear any resemblance to 
 that of a watch. But let him view those several parts pat 
 together, or consider them as to be put together in the 
 manner ofa watch ; let him form a notion of tlie relations 
 which those several parts have to each other — all condu- 
 cive in their respective ways to this purpose, showing the 
 hourof theday ; and then hehas Iheideatit "awalch. Thus 
 it is with regard to the inward frame of man. Appetites, 
 passions, affections, and the principle of reflection, consi- 
 dered merely as the several parts of our inward nature, do 
 not at all give us the idea of the system or a nstitution of this 
 nature ; because the constitution is formed by somewhat not 
 yet taken into consideration, namely, by the relations ichic/i 
 these several parts hare to each other." Bishop Butler goes 
 on to remark, that " what in fact or event commonly hap- 
 pens is nothing to this question ;" for, " one may determine 
 what course of action the economy of man's nature requires 
 without so much as knowing in what degrees of strength 
 the several principles prevail, or which of them have ac- 
 tually the greatest influence." But between a machine and 
 a man, says Butler, in allusion to the illustration from the 
 watch, "there is a difference too important ever to be omit- 
 ted. A machine is inanimate and passive: but we are 
 agents. Our constitution is put in our own power. We arc 
 charged with it; and therefore are accouniable for any dis- 
 order or violation of it." The inference which an impartial 
 reader of these quotations, after comparing them with the 
 Sermons on Human Nature, will necessarily draw is this, 
 that not only has Butler's object and purpose been miscon- 
 ceived by Mackintosh, but that it was an object which, con- 
 sistently with the rest of his philosophy, Mackintosh must 
 have held to be unattainable. For it implies two things; 
 first, that in order to complete the rule of human action, 
 we must have an idea of perfect humanity ; secondly, that 
 before such rule can be binding upon man, we must show, 
 not only that he feels himself or may be made to feel him- 
 self, but that he really is, accountable for its violation. 
 Whether these two questions can be adequately disposed 
 of without the introduction of higher, that is, of theological 
 or metaphysical considerations, is a matter which each man 
 must decide according to the tenor of his general philosophy. 
 The former of the two was so distinctly perceived by Aris- 
 totle, that his whole ethical system must be viewed in refer- 
 ence to it ; the latter lies at Ihe root of Ihe moral philosophy 
 of Kant. Until the first is disposed of, the rule of action is 
 implicated in an inevitable circle; without the second.no 
 rule can be shown to be obligatory, and ethics can no longer 
 be distinguished on the one hand from the history of inter- 
 nal, on the other from that of external, phenomena. 
 
 K'THIOPS MINERAL. The black powder obtained by 
 rubhine mercury with sulphur. 
 
 ETIIMOI'D. (Gr. £0/io$, a sieve, and eilos, form.) The 
 ethmoid or cribriform bone. A bone of the head enclosed 
 in the osfrontis, between theorbilary processes; ii is very 
 light and spongy, and consists of a network of convoluted 
 plates. 
 
 ETHNO'GRAPHY. (Gr. lOvoq. nation, and yp&fw. I 
 describe.) The science which treats of the particularities 
 
F.THULE. 
 
 ol nations, describing their customs, peculiarities, &c. Al- 
 though a peculiar name has been given to it, it is in general 
 considered as a branch of the sciences of geography and 
 history. (See Balbi'a Ethnography.) 
 
 ETHU'LE. (Gr. aidnp, and tiXij, principle.) A term 
 applied by Berzelius to the elementary carbon and hydro- 
 of ether ; he regards ether as an oxide of a compound 
 nilvalents ofhydrogen and 4 of carbon. 
 E'TIOLA'TION, or CHLOROSIS, li that condition ol a 
 plant in which all the green colour is absent. Such a state 
 is produced by want of light, and is artificially obtained by 
 keeping plants In the dark, in order to insure their being 
 more tinder and insipid than is natural to them. Etiolated 
 ireen by exposure to light. 
 ETIQUETTE. (Fr. a ticket.) Is the ceremonial code 
 if poHle life, more voluminous and minute in each portion 
 if society according to its rank. The word is derived from 
 the custom nf arranging places at processions. &e. by tick- 
 ets delivered beforehand to applicants. The Byzantine 
 court appears to have carried the practice of ceremonial 
 observances to the most inconvenient and ludicrous extent. 
 Hut of modern courtly etiquette, Philip the Good, Duke of 
 Burgundy, is regarded by some as the founder (see Con- 
 venations Lexicon). His desire to conceal his inferiority 
 in rank (ml a great feudatory only) to the great sovereigns 
 of Europe, whom he equalled in power, induced him to 
 surround Ins presence with a multitude of officers and 
 numberless formalities. At no time, probably, was the 
 spirit of etiquette so predominant and so tyrannical as in 
 u rt of Louis XIV. ; and the Memoir* of St. Simon 
 are full of the most extraordinary proofs of the subjugation 
 of the mindi ol men of sense, wit, and even independent 
 Character in other respects, to its engrossing influence, — 
 then- pride in attaining any little point of precedence, and 
 their mortification in failing of it. The smaller courts of 
 Germany caricatured ihe ceremonial of that of the Great 
 Monarch, and carried its strictness to an absurd extent. 
 At the present day the ancient etiquette of courts is con- 
 tinually losing something of its strictness. 
 
 BTYMO'LOGY. (Gr. Irvpos, true, and \oyo{. descrip- 
 tion, At.r ) The science which treats of the origin or root 
 of Individual words, and of the relation borne respectively 
 by their several meanings to that origin. It is a branch of 
 the general science of philology. See Philology. 
 
 BU'CHARIST. (Gr. eixapiana .) Signifying properly 
 giving of thinks, but generally used in theological language 
 to den unent of the Lord's Supper. The cele- 
 
 bration of this rite is derived from the account given by 
 the Evangelists of the action of our Lord in offering tn the 
 apostles bread and wine, saying at the same time, "Take 
 and eat, this is my body ;" and " Drink ye all of this, for 
 this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for 
 many f<>r the remission of sins;" and adding at the same 
 time, o't as ye shall doit in remembrance of 
 
 me '' Ties commemoration is spoken of in the N. T and 
 by the Fathers as a sacrament and a mystery; it must be 
 siippo re, that there is an interior signification 
 
 conveyed under our Saviour's words — a further effect to be 
 derive, | from the communion in the bread and wine be- 
 sides that which is obvious and external. Under the head 
 of TitANSL'BSTANTiATiON will be found the solution which 
 the Roman Catholics discover for this mystery. Consub- 
 limnltaneous presence of the body and 
 blood with Ihe bread and wine, is the attempt made by Lu- 
 ther to explain Ihe operation of a divine mystery according 
 to the liter d interpretation of Scripture. According to the 
 doctrine of the Anglican church, there is an inward and 
 spiritual grace conveyed in the Eucharist to those who par- 
 take nf it; and it is in this that our church differs from 
 many Protestant communities, who conceive the commu- 
 nion to he nothing more than an outward act of obedience 
 enjoined upon us as a commemorative ceremony, and only 
 Instrumental to our salvation in the same way as any other 
 act of obedience. See Sacrament. 
 
 It Is common in the Fathers to meet with the term sa- 
 crifice applied to the Eucharist, and this has been consi- 
 dered bv the Romanists as favouring their view of its na- 
 ture They appeal also to the prophecy of Malachi, which 
 alludes to a pure offering or an unbloody sacrifice, which 
 shall he offered up to the Lord from the rising to the set- 
 ling of the sun ; and maintain, therefore, that the conse- 
 crated elements are offerings made to God for the sins of 
 the i" ople, iu Ihe same sense as the expiatory sacrifices of 
 the Jewish law, and not merely commemorative tokens. 
 Prom hence follows the supposed necessity of the sacri- 
 fice of the Mass, and its efficacy for the absent, or even 
 and the mediatorial character attributed in the Ro- 
 ni'.sh church to the priest. The Protestants, however, 
 while they ,t„ not deny the applicability of the word sacri- 
 he Eucharist, restrict if to one of the senses which 
 ii nearsin the Hebrew phraseology; and consider the pure 
 offering prophesied by Malachi to be an offering of prayer 
 and thanksgiving. 8ticn as is constantly referred to by the 
 Psalmist; as. CXLI. 2., "Let my prayer be set forth be- 
 425 
 
 EUPATRID-E. 
 
 fore thee as incense, and the rising up of my hands as toe 
 evening sacrifice;" LI. 17., "The sacrifices of God are a 
 broken spirit," &c. The seventh chapter of Hebrews is 
 considered decisive against the mediatorial character ol 
 the Christian priest; and the Eucharist is held by the 
 church of England to be not a propitiatory but a com- 
 memorative sacrifice — a federal act of professing our 
 belief in the death of Christ, and of renewing our bap- 
 tismal covenant with him ; and endued with virtue to 
 confer grace upon those who partake of it sincerely and 
 devoutly. 
 
 EU'CHLORINE. (Gr. ev, very, and jrAoiooc, green.) 
 A name given by Sir II. Davy to Ihe oxide of chlorine, j: 
 consequence of its deep yellow-green colour. 
 
 EUCHO'LOGY. (Gr. tvxn, prayer, and Xey a, / collect.) 
 A book of prayers; synonymous, in the phraseology of the 
 Roman Catholic church, with missal or breviary. 
 
 EU'CLASi:. (Cr. ev, tcetl, and icAaia, I break.) Avery 
 rare mineral, brought in small greenish crystals from Peru 
 and Brazil It is a silicate of glucina and alumina. 
 
 Kli'CRASY. (Gr. ev, and upaais. temperature.') An 
 agreeable well-proportioned mixture of qualities, by which 
 a body is mid to be in good order, and disposed for a good 
 state of hi alth. 
 
 EUDIO'METKR. 'Gr. cvSta, calm air, and pn pov, mea- 
 sure ) This term is generally applied to instruments for 
 facilitating the analysis of atmospheric air, or rather for 
 determining the quantity of oxygen contained in a given 
 volume of air; under the idea that the salubrity of air de- 
 pended upon its relative quantity of oxygen. We DOW 
 know, however, that this is not Ihe case, and that the rela- 
 tion of the oxygen to the nitrogen in the atmosphere is not 
 subject to any discernible fluctuation. 
 
 EU'LAHES. (Or. ev\a(ins, timid.) A genua of Passe, 
 rine birds, belonging to ihe family of thrushes, and distin- 
 guished by having broad strips of naked skin on each side 
 of the occiput, and a bald spot on the cheek. The bill 
 nearly resembles that of a thrush ; their nostrils are round 
 and smooth. The species are termed Muinaies by the 
 French ornithologists; and the Javan moinate (Eulabee 
 javamens) of all birds is said lo imitate most completely the 
 language of man. 
 
 EULI'MA. (Derivation unknown.) A genus of marine 
 shell-clad Gastropods, whose characters are sh'll twin led, 
 acuminate, with many whorls; aperture ovate, acumi- 
 nated posteriorly ; outer lip thickened, and bearing nume- 
 rous obsolete varices or wart-like processes ; operculum 
 homy, thin, and with its nucleus anterior. 
 
 EU'LOGY. (f.'r. ev, trelt, and Xeycj, I speak.) In a ge- 
 neral sense, an encomium pronounced on any person for 
 his meritorious or virtuous qualities; but, in a more re- 
 stricted meaning, it was used in ecclesiastical history to 
 denote any present bestowed on the church after having 
 been blessed or hallowed. 
 
 EU'NICE. (Gr. The nameof a Nereid in Apollodorus.) 
 A genus of Marine Dorsibranchiate Anelliilans, having 
 tufted hranchia, and a mouth armed with three pairs of 
 horny jaws. One species {Eunice gieuntea) attains the 
 enormous length of between four and five feet. 
 
 EU'MJCH. (Gr. evvn, a bed, and exetv^ in the sense of 
 to have the care of.) A term applied to those who have 
 been subjected lo the operation of castration. The for- 
 tunes of such individuals form an eventful chapter in Ihe 
 history of the human race; whether we consider the pur- 
 
 Coses for which the operation was performed, or the runn- 
 ers of those who have undergone it. This practice seems 
 to have originated in the jealousy which prevails in eastern 
 countries. As far back as the time of Herodotus, it was 
 carried to a great extent by the Persians, who not merely 
 intrusted to eunuchs the care of their wives and daughters, 
 but considered them in every respect as more trustworthy 
 than other individuals. In the middle ages the "chief of 
 the eunuchs" was one of the most important functionaries 
 of eastern government ; and the seraglios of these countries 
 are superintended by eunuchs even in the present day. In 
 modern limes the loss of virility is in some countries believ- 
 ed to preserve and improve the voice; and hence, especially 
 in Italy, this operation is practised upon children intended 
 to supply the operas of Europe with singers. Zeal for re- 
 ligion has also caused many persons to undergo this ope 
 ration, in the view of guarding themselves from sensua. 
 pleasures. As early as the third century there arose a 
 class of enthusiasts, who, animated by the example of Ori- 
 gen, not only castrated those of their own persuasion, hu" 
 even all persons on whom they could lay their hands. Se- 
 veral of the Christian Roman emperors instituted severe 
 prohibitions against this revolting practice; and at a later 
 period the Council of Nice excluded from the pale of the 
 church all who, actuated by whatever motives, had allowed 
 themselves to be thus mutilated. 
 
 EUPA'TRIDJE. (Gr. Ivrarpiiai.) In Ancient History, 
 the nobles of Attica, in whose hands in early limes all the 
 powerof government was vested, in consequence of which 
 the lower orders sunk into a low state of degradation, bein 
 
EUPHEMISM. 
 
 particularly oppressed by their debts which the pressure of 
 their circumstances compelled them to incur, and which, 
 if not paid, gave the creditor power over the bodies and 
 liberties of the debtor and his family. These evils were 
 remedied by the legislation of Solon, who reduced the in- 
 terest of debts, and deprived the creditor of his power over 
 the body of the debtor, and at the same time threw the ju- 
 dicial and much of the legislative power into the hands of 
 the people at large or Demus (A»j/*of). The alteralions in 
 the constitution of Athens subsequent to the time of Solon 
 by degrees deprived the Eupatridae of all their political 
 privileges, ami finaliy established an unmixed democracy. 
 
 EU'PHEMISM. (Gr. ivfriutiv, to speak well of a person 
 or thing.) A figure in rhetoric, by which one expression 
 is substituted for another, conveying, through some associ- 
 ation of ideas, an image offensive to the hearer or reader. 
 In classical writers, euphemism often arises from a super- 
 stitious avoidance of certain words and phrases; and 
 among ourselves similar fastidiousness prevails on some 
 points, as in the constant use of the words "deceased" 
 and "departed" for "dead." 
 
 EU'PHONY (Gr. ev, well, and foivii, sound), in contra- 
 distinction to Cacophony (quod vide). That agreeable qual- 
 ity in language which results from happy combinations of 
 the enunciative elements; such especially as, though essen- 
 tially different in their characteristic powers, melt easily 
 into each other, so as to preserve an uninterrupted flow 
 through the respective members of a sentence, without 
 labour to the speaker or offence to the hearer. No rules 
 can be laid down to ensure this agreeable quality in com- 
 position : his taste, ear, and discrimination must be the 
 guide of every writer. 
 
 EUPHORBIA'CEvE. (Euphorbia, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Exogenous plants, inhabitants of almost 
 all parts of the globe; nearly allied to Malvacem and JRham- 
 nacea,, especially agreeing with the former in the starry 
 structure of the hairs, the monadelphous stamens, and the 
 definite number of ovules in three united carpels. Their 
 sensible properties are. on the whole, poisonous and excit- 
 ing, both being of a volatile nature and often dispelled by 
 heat. Thus the stem of Jatrovha manihot, or Cassava, 
 which, when raw is oneol .. most . mt of potcona, 
 becomes a wholesome nutritious food when roasted : in 
 the seeds the albumen is harmless and eatable, but the 
 embryo itself is acrid and dangerous. Independently of 
 the volatile principle there are two others, — viz. 1. Caout- 
 chouc, the most innocuous of all substances, produced by 
 the most poisonous of all families. 2. Turnsol, the bark 
 of several crotons, the wood of Crolon tiglium and com- 
 mon box, — the leaves of the latter, of Cicca dislicha, and 
 of several euphorbias, are sudorific, — and many other spe- 
 cies, amongst which Ricinua may be mentioned, are pur- 
 gative ; the latter produces from its seeds by pressure the 
 well-known castor oil. 
 
 EUPHO'RBIUM. (From Euphorbus, physician to king 
 Juba, in honour of whom the plant was named.) An acrid 
 gum resin, the produce of the Euphorbia officinalis ; it is 
 virulently purgative and emetic, and the dust of it is dan- 
 gerously stimulant to the nose. 
 
 EU'PION. (Gr. cv, very, and ittoiv, greasy.) A very 
 limpid liquid which stains paper like oil, and which exists 
 in the tar produced during the destructive distillation of 
 animal and vegetable substances. Its specific gravity is 
 074, and it boils and evaporates at 340°. It is insoluble in 
 water, but dissolves in ether and alcohol. It is insipid and 
 inodorous, hut highly inflammable. 
 
 ElIRI'PUS. (Gr. tvpiwoc.) In Ancient Architecture, the 
 space which separated the arena from the seats in the 
 circus. 
 
 EURO'PA. In Fabulous History, the daughter of Age- 
 nor, king of Sidon. She is represented as having been of 
 such surpassing beauty that Jupiter became enamoured 
 of her. In order to gain her affection the god transformed 
 nimself into a bull of wonderful whiteness, and while Eu- 
 ropa was gathering flowers in a meadow near the sea shore, 
 mingled with her father's herds. The virgin, attracted by 
 the beauty of the bull, began to caress him ; and at length, 
 in the playfulness of youth, ventured to get on his back. 
 Upon which the bull, taking advantage of her situation, 
 made a retreat towards the sea, through which he carried 
 her in safety. Arrived in Crete, the god resumed his real 
 form, and declared his passion, which was returned ; and 
 from their connection sprang Minos, Rhadamanthus, and 
 .iEacus, the celebrated Elysian judges. The simple state- 
 ment of Herodotus, that Europa was carried off by some 
 Cretan merchants, who, according to some authors, arrived 
 at SMon Tor mercantile purposes with a ship bearing a 
 white bull on its prow, but, according to Diodorus, with a 
 rommander named Taurus (bull), offers one of many pro- 
 bable solutions of this fabulous story. From her, accord- 
 ing to mycologists, the quarter of the globe which we in- 
 habit received its name. The word is possibly derived from 
 Gr. evpvs, large, and ojt//, the eye ; large eyes having been 
 regarded by the Greeks as a mark of great beauty. 
 426 
 
 EVAPORATION. 
 
 EURY'DICE. In Fabulous History. See Orpheus. 
 
 EURY'THMY. (Gr. evpvdfiia, justness of proportion.) 
 In Architecture, the regular, just, and symmetrical measure 
 resulting from harmony in the proportions of a building or 
 order. It is one of the six essentials of Vitrnvius. 
 
 EUSTACHIAN TUBE. Named after the celebrated 
 Italian anatomist Bartholomew Eustachius, who is said to 
 have discovered it, though it is accurately described by 
 Aristotle, who quotes an earlier Greek anatomist, Alcmeon. 
 as having known it. This communication between the ear 
 and the mouth begins in the anterior part of the tympanum, 
 and runs in a bony canal forwards and inwards, terminating 
 with the petrous portion of the temporal bone. It then pro- 
 ceeds, partly cartilaginous and partly membranous, gradu- 
 ally enlarging to its termination behind the soft palate. It 
 is through this tube of communication with the ear that 
 persons who have a perforated tympanum blow tobacco 
 smoke : when the Eustachian tube is stopped or obliterated 
 it produces deafness. 
 
 EUSTA'CHIAN VALVE. A semilunar membranous 
 valve, which separates the right auricle of the heart from 
 the inferior vena cava, first described by Eustachius. 
 
 EUSTA'THIANS. A sect of heretics of the 4th century ; 
 so called from their founder Eustathius, a monk whose 
 opinions were condemned at the council of Gangea. 
 
 EU'STYLE. (Gr. ev, well, crvXos, column.) In Archi- 
 tecture, that species of intercolumniation or space between 
 columns, which, as the name imports, the ancients consi- 
 dered the most beautiful, and which Vitruvius says ex- 
 ceeded all others in strength, convenience, and beauty ; it 
 was two diameters and a quarter of the column in width. 
 
 EUTE'RPE. (Gr. ev, and repiroj, I delight.) In Mytho 
 logy, the muse which presided over wind instruments. 
 
 Si neqne tihias 
 Euterpe cohihet. nee Polyhymnia 
 Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton. (Hot. Ode 1. 1.54.) 
 
 To this muse is ascribed also the invention of tragedy. 
 
 EUTHANA'SIA. (Gr. tv, and Qavaros, death.) Lite- 
 rally, an easy death. By political writers it is employed 
 in various senses to indicate such peculiar theories as have 
 the best tendency to uphold the state or disentangle it from 
 ui.Ticulties. Thus, for instance, it is maintained that the 
 issue of inconvertible paper money is the true euthanasia 
 of public debts in modern countries. 
 
 EUTY'CHIANS. A sect of the fifth century, who ap- 
 pear to have been seduced into an erroneous view of the 
 nature of Christ by the vehemence of their opposition to 
 the heresy of the Nestorians. These latter had asserted 
 the distinctness of the two natures in Christ; the Eu- 
 tychians confounded them together, and supposed l tie hu- 
 man to be merged in the divine. Their originator. Euty- 
 ches, was the abbot of a monastery at Constantinople, aiid 
 was excommunicated in the year 448 by a synod which 
 was convened there for that purpose. This decision was 
 controverted by another council at Ephesus in the following 
 year; but the new opinions were finally condemned by 
 the council of Chalcedon in 451, which established the 
 orthodox doctrine that Christ was perfect God and perfect 
 man, consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity, and 
 with man as to his humanity, the two natures being united 
 in him without conversion, without confusion, and with- 
 out division. 
 
 EVANGE'LICAL CHURCH. (Gr. ivayyeXiov, gospel, 
 literally good tidings : from ev, well, and ayyc\os, messen- 
 ger.) The different Protestant sects of Germany assume 
 this general title, implying their reliance on the Bible alone 
 as the rule of faith : it more especially designates the Lu- 
 theran church. 
 
 EVA'NGELIST. (Gr. IvayyeXicrris.) One who brings 
 good tidings. Hpnce the authors of the Four Gospels are 
 called Evangelists. 
 
 EVA'NTES. Priests of Bacchus ; so called from their 
 usual exclamation during their orgies, " ohe evan." 
 
 EVAPORATION. The conversion of substances into 
 vapour is one of the most important and general effects of 
 heat. During this process, a considerable quantity of sen- 
 sible heat passes into the latent or insensible state. When 
 a vessel of water is placed upon the fire, its temperature 
 gradually rises till it. attains 212° ; then, although it remains 
 upon the fire, and of course receives heat as before, it 
 does not become hotter, but is gradually converted into 
 steam or vapour : so that the effect of heat is not to ele- 
 vate temperature, but to change state or form : (hat is, in 
 the case of water, to convert it into steam. Hence we as 
 sume that steam, though not hotter than water, contains a 
 much larger quantity of heat, and this heat again makes its 
 appearance when the steam is condensed or re-converted 
 into water. At whatever temperature vapour is produced, 
 it is similarly constituted; and that which escapes from 
 water at ordinary temperatures, by the process usually 
 called spontaneous evaporation, resembles the former in 
 all respects: hence it is that evaporation is to surrounding 
 bodies a cooling process ; and that in the converse change, 
 or the return of the vapour to the h.juid state, heat is 
 
 
EVECTION. 
 evoived sod rendered sensible. The same general phe 
 willi all other liquids, and those which 
 lly at common temperatures oftei 
 t,i the prodactloD of a great degree of cold ; sue 
 of wine, or ether. If Ihe latter fluid be suffered to dribble 
 over the bulb of a thermometer, it will cause it to sink be- 
 low the freezing point of water; and by accelerating .-ini!- 
 of evaporation, we obtain most intense degreesof 
 artifici al 
 
 reumstances that principally influence the process 
 of evaporation are, extent of surface, and the state of the 
 air as t" temperature, dryness, stillness, and density. 
 
 EVE'OTION. (Lai. eveho, / raise up.) An inequality 
 of the moon's motion, depending on the position of the 
 -o axis of the lunar orbit in respect of the line of 
 the syzygies, or line joining the sun and earth. When the 
 lies in the same direction with that line, the 
 quantity by which the solar force diminishes the gravita- 
 tion or the moon is greatest when the moon is in the apo- 
 gee, anil ;ast in the perigee. In thi i the orbit, 
 therefore, the difference between the moon's gravitation at 
 land perigee is increased by the solar action, 
 and the orbit consequently appears to have its eccentricity 
 augmented. When the line of the apsides is in I tic quad- 
 Hie contrary happens; the difference between the 
 amount of gravitation at the apogee and perigee is dimin- 
 ished, anil the eccentricity of the orbit appears also to be 
 diminished. The evection is proportional to the sine of 
 twice the angular distance between the sun and moon, di- 
 I by the moon's mean anomaly ; and its greatest 
 vain.' amounts to 1° 20' 29-9". This inequality (sometimes 
 called the second inequality of the moon's motion, the 
 equalion of the centre being Hie ftnt) was noticed by Ilip- 
 parchus, and Ptolemy gave a construction which repre- 
 ral etTects with great accuracy. The term 
 first applied to it byBullialdus. 
 B'VEN KEEL. A ship is said to be on an even keel, 
 properly speaking, when she draws the same water abaft 
 as forward; the expression, however, often implies, though 
 Inaccurately, nol inclined to either side, or upright. 
 
 ! GREEN. Anam» applied to those plants whose 
 upon a stem i le season ; 
 
 • r. urpiifulium. 
 E'VIDENCE. In Law, has been defined "any matter 
 of fact, ihe effect, tendency, or design of which, when pre- 
 sented to tin- mind, is to produce a persuasion, affirmation, 
 or disafiirmation of the existence of some other matter of 
 fact." 
 A witness, in a court of common law, is compelled to 
 attendance, in civil rases, by subpoena, or by ha- 
 beas corpus if the witness be in custody. The reasonable 
 es both of going and returning rau rt be tendered to 
 the witness when he is served with the subpoena. A wit- 
 fusing to attend on subpoena, may be attached for 
 contempt of court, and is liable to an action at riie suit of 
 Ihe parly damaged. In criminal cases, the attendance of a 
 ution is enforced either by subpoena, 
 usually by the magistrates who take the deposi- 
 tions in the first instance binding him over to appear. His 
 i, In a case of felony, are ensured to him by statute, 
 ndant may compelatlendance of his witnesses by 
 subpoena. 
 
 When the witness appears in court, objections may be 
 taken to his competency ; and those arising from his igno- 
 rance or unbelief, or turpitude of character, ought, in the 
 usual course, to be taken before he is sworn. 
 
 Incompetency. — 1. Incompetency from defect of religious 
 principle is where the witness disbelieves or is ignorant of 
 the existence of a God, and ofa future state of rewardsand 
 punishments. Infidels, therefore, are excluded; but no 
 others of whatsoever sect or opinion, 2. Incompetency 
 from turpitude arises from a conviction for treason, felony, 
 ial misdemeanours; but is removed bypardon,or 
 by reversal of the judgment, or by endurance of the punish- 
 ment awarded by the sentence. 3. The next source of in- 
 ncy 's interest ; and the general rule on (his sub- 
 hat a party is disqualified only by a direct and cer- 
 tain interest in the event of the suit. But it will be obvious 
 that the distinctions arising out of so general a proposition 
 are infinitely minute, and create constant difficulty in prac- 
 tice. The following are a few of the leading rules:— 
 
 AH parties to the suit, although but nominal, are excluded 
 from giving evidence. A prosecutor, in a criminal case, is 
 not a party, nor directly interested in the verdict, and is 
 consequently admitted. A person to whom a liability 
 would immediately result from the verdict is incompetent 
 ■ for the party in whose success he is in- 
 ; as, for instance, one who has guaranteed a party 
 nt of the suit ; or a co-partner ; or an agent 
 liable to his principal, in the case where a principal is sued 
 for any damage arising from the agent's neglect. A wit- 
 ness is al it where he has an interest in the 
 record ; tint la to sav, where the judgment of the court, if 
 his party succeeded, would be evidence ofa matter of fact 
 to entitle him to some legal advantage. In criminal pro- 
 42T 
 
 EVIDENCE. 
 
 ceedings, however, no verdict obtained wholly or partly on 
 the testimony of any witness can be evidence foror against 
 that witness in any other proceeding ; and therelore he 
 cannot be objected to on that ground. Some exceptions 
 also to this rule of exclusion arise from the necessity of the 
 case: upon this principle the testimony of ihe servants oi 
 tradesmen, to prove the delivery of goods and payment of 
 money, is daily admitted. 
 
 The objection to competency Is removable in some cases 
 by a release of all liability to the witness. But it is nc.v 
 provided, by 3 & 4 W. 4. c. 42., that whenever a witness is 
 objected to as incompetent on the ground that the verdict 
 would be evidence for or against him, he shall neverihe 
 less be heard ; and his name being entered on the back of 
 the record, the verdict so obtained shall never be used as 
 such evidence. 
 
 All testimony must be given under a judicial oath, with 
 an exception only in favour of Quakers, which is now ex- 
 tended to criminal as well as civil cases. 
 
 Evidence, immediate and mediate. — Besides the exclu- 
 sion of witnesses on the score of competency, large classes 
 of evidence are inadmissible. Admissible evidence must 
 be, in general, immediate : that is, it must convey the ac- 
 tual knowledge or belief of the witness. This rule excludes, 
 as a general proposition, all hearsay ; that is, all narration 
 of the declarations made by others lo the witness. There 
 are, however, several classes of mediate testimony which 
 are admissible. Such arc, general reputation in certain 
 cases; and declarations, made by a party to the suit, which 
 contain admissions contrary to his own interest, Bo, in \a- 
 rious cases, letters or entries made in books are admissi- 
 ble, where Ihey contain similar admissions. Upon the 
 same principle, the confession of a prisoner is evidence 
 (if unextorted by fear or hope? in a criminal case. Depo- 
 sitions of a witness now deceased, but who had formerly 
 given evidence on the same dispute, are admissible. Evi- 
 dence may also be considered as divided into original oi 
 best, and secondary evidence. For instance, the reading 
 ofa document is better evidence of its contents than state 
 merits, either written or oral, respecting them. It is a 
 general rule, that all secondary evidence is excluded, if 
 better evidence (thai la, evidence ofa class which lbs law 
 recognizes as better) happen to be attainable. Other ex- 
 clusive rules rest on grounds of public policy. Thus hus- 
 band and wife arc excluded from giving testimony foror 
 against each other. Communications between an attorney 
 and his client, and, for particular purposes, some other pri- 
 vate communications between parties, are in their nature 
 privileged. and carnal be given in evidence. 
 
 Examination of Witnesses. — A witness, on being admitted 
 in court, is first subjected to the examination of the party 
 in whose behalf he is called, which is termed the exami- 
 nation in chief ; and the principal rule to be observed by 
 the party examining is, that leading questions are not to be 
 asked. What are leading questions, it is not always easy 
 to ascertain ; but questions to which the answer yes or no 
 would be conclusive of the issue fall undoubtedly within 
 this designation. Ail questions which suggest an answer 
 may be considered, In one sense, as leading questions ; but 
 they are not all equally objectionable. The witness is then 
 cross-examined by the opposite, parly. The object of cross- 
 examination is two-fold : to weaken the evidence given by 
 the witness as to the fart in question, either by eliciting 
 contradictions or new explanatory facts; or, secondly, to 
 invalidate Ihe general credit of the witness. In the latter 
 case, it is a general rule, that a wilness may refuse to 
 answer any question, il his answer will expose him to cri- 
 minal liability ; and this, whether immediately or by col- 
 lateral inference. Whether he can refuse to answer a 
 question tending to disgrace him without involving him in 
 danger, is a point which has been frequently debated, but 
 which the general practice of our courts seems to settle in 
 the affirmative. The credit of a witness may likewise be im- 
 peached by the general evidence of others as to his cha- 
 racter. But in tin's case no evidence can be given of par- 
 ticular facts which militate against his general credit ; as 
 this would be in contravention of another rule, that collate- 
 ral issues— questions of fact unconnected with the subject 
 of dispute — shall not be raised during the course of a trial. 
 Reexamination of a witness by the party who first ex- 
 amined iiim. must be directed to such new points only as 
 have been raised by the cross-examination. If it is wished 
 to put a question not connected with these points, the pro 
 per course is for the counsel to apply to the court to put the 
 question for him. 
 
 Evidence. Documentary.— Written instruments, consid- 
 ered as evidence in a court of justice, have been divided 
 into public judicial documents; public non-judicial; pri- 
 vate documents ; and mixed, which are partly public and 
 partly private. The contents of the record of a court oi 
 justice are properly proved by inspection of the record it- 
 self; otherwise by exemplification, or by sworn copy. A 
 copy of a record, under Ihe seal of Ihe Court of Chancery 
 or of one of the King's other courts, is an exemplification : 
 as are also the records of some inferior tribunals. Onis« 
 
EVIL, KING'S. 
 
 copies are evidence, wherever ihe law has entrusted a par- 
 ticular officer with the making of them. Sworn copies are 
 copies proved on oath to have been examined with the 
 original. All public documents, whether judicial or non- 
 judicial, which cannot be removed, can be and usually are 
 proved in this manner. But before it can be read, it must 
 be proved that the original came out of the hands of the 
 officer of the court, or from the proper place of deposit. 
 A copy of a ;jpy is in no case admissible. 
 
 Mixed documents are of a nature partly public and partly 
 private ; such as court-rolls of manors, and corporation 
 books. Examined copies of these are evidence. The 
 books of public companies — as, for instance, the East In- 
 dia Company — are evidence in questions between parties 
 interested in them. Private writings are of two sorts: first, 
 writings to which the person against whom they are offered 
 was party or privy ; secondly, writings of third persons. 
 All documents of the first class are, in general, evidence 
 against the party. And an admission under seal (as a deed 
 or bond) is, in general, conclusive evidence against the ob- 
 ligor, or parly binding himself; that is, he is estopped, or 
 prevented, from offering to rebut it. 
 
 A discussion of the rules which govern the admissibility 
 of written instruments not under seal as evidence would 
 occupy far too wide a field for the present purpose. Oral 
 evidence can in no case be received as an equivalent or 
 substitute for an instrument, where a writing is required 
 by law ; or to give effect to such an instrument, if defective 
 in any particular required by law; or to vary its terms, if 
 it have been appointed, either by act of law or by compact 
 of the parties, as a memorial of the transaction between 
 them. This rule proceeds on the general principle already 
 adverted to, that where the best evidence can be had se- 
 condary testimony shall not be substituted for it. But oral 
 evidence is admissible in various cases, to explain, to re- 
 strict, and to defeat instruments, on the ground of fraud or 
 mistake. 
 
 Entries in writing, as well as declarations by third per- 
 sons, are in general excluded. The cases in which they may 
 be admitted are, either where they serve to explain and ac- 
 company material facts; or, in some cases, on a principle of 
 necessity, where the parly who made them is supposed to 
 have had peculiar grounds of knowledge as to the fact in 
 dispute. In the first category, as a common instance, we 
 may cite declarations of a trader at the time of his quitting 
 his place of business, which are commonly received in 
 evidence on bankruptcy questions. The second may be 
 instanced by entries of bailiffs or stewards, which are re- 
 ceived where the payment of rent is disputed. 
 
 Proof (if Written Documents. — This is effected either by 
 witnesses, by admission of the adversary, or by enrol- 
 ment ; the latter mode of proof being confined to a few 
 classes of documents by virtue of acts of parliament. 
 
 In the first and common mode of proof, the instrument 
 must either be produced, or its absence must be accounted 
 for by loss or destruction (and if either of these negative 
 assertions, as they may be called, cannot be directly proved, 
 evidence of diligent search will be received, and its con- 
 tents may be proved by counterpart or secondary evi- 
 dence); or it must be proved to be in possession of the ad- 
 versary, and that notice was given him to produce it. In 
 the case where the instrument itself is produced, it is 
 either attested or not attested. If the former, the attesting 
 witness must be ca'led ; or his absence must be accounted 
 for, and his handwriting proved ; or it must appear that 
 the instrument is thirty years old, and has come out of 
 proper custody, in winch case its authenticity is presumed. 
 Where a subscribing witness is called to prove a deed, 
 proof of sealing and delivery is required from him; where 
 there are several subscribing witnesses, one is sufficient. 
 Where there are no attesting witnesses to an instrument, 
 the hand-writing of the party binding himself is generally 
 sufficient proof. On the proof of handwriting, — a very 
 difficult matter of evidence,— we can only observe, that it 
 is ordinarily proved by the testimony of a witness who has 
 acquired a general knowledge of Ihe party's hand, either 
 by having seen him write (although but once), or by a cor- 
 respondence with him, or other transactions. It is a gene- 
 rat rule, that evidence by comparison of writings is not 
 receivable ; and this, although a skilled person (as a clerk 
 from the post office) offer his opinion. (For the mode of 
 taking evidence in courts of equity, sec Chancery.) Pub- 
 lic documents, when the originals are not procurable, are 
 commonlv proved by examined copies. 
 
 E'VII,. KING'S. See Scrofula. 
 
 E'VOI.UTE (Lat. evnlvo, Irolt out), in the theory of 
 curve lines, is a curve from which any given curve may 
 be supposed to be formed by the evolution or unlapping of 
 a thread from a surface having Ihe same curvature as the 
 first curve. For example, let B H E be a model of a plane 
 curve made of a solid material having some thickness; 
 and let one end of a thread H E C be fastened to a point B 
 on the edge of the model, and applied along its convexity, so 
 as to coincide with it entirely between B and E, the remain- 
 
 /__L 
 
 EX CATHEDRA. 
 
 ing portion E C of the thread forming a straight line touch- 
 ing the curve at E. Suppose, now, the thread to be gradu- 
 E ally unlapped from the curve B E 
 
 ty< keeping it always tight ; the extre- 
 
 mity C will describe another curve 
 CPD. The curve E II B, by which 
 the curve C P D is generated, is 
 called the evolute o( C P I) ; and Ihe 
 curve C P D is called Ihe involute o( 
 - E II B. All curves in which ihe cur- 
 "■ * valure is neither infinitely great nor 
 infinitely small, may be generated in this way by the evo- 
 lution of a thread from another curve. 
 
 From this mode of generating curve lines it is obvious, 
 first, that P H, the part of the thread disengaged from the 
 arc E II, is a tangent to the evolute at II ; second, that P H 
 is a perpendicular to the tangent to the involute C PI) at ihe 
 point. P ; third, that it is the radius of curvature of C P D 
 at P ; fourth, that the point II is the centre of curvature of 
 C P D at P, and that the evolute E H B is the locus of the 
 centre of curvature of every point in the involute CPD. 
 Hence the problem to find the evolute of any curve is the 
 same as to find the locus of the points which successively 
 form the loci of its centres of curvature. 
 
 Let AQ = r, and PQ = y; then x and y are the coor- 
 dinates of the point P in the curve CPD, the origin being 
 at A. Let also A K = v, and K II = u ; then v and u are 
 the co-ordinates of II, the centre of curvature of C P D at 
 P ; and their values are found from the formula?, 
 
 dy dx* + dy* , dx* + dy 3 
 
 ■x - y J y ; u = y-\ J y ; 
 
 <r y d 2 y 
 
 d x 
 
 in which x is regarded as the independent variable, and y 
 as a functiou of x, Ihe nature of which is detei mined by 
 the equation of the curve C P D. 
 
 Since the radius of curvature II P is the sum of the aro 
 II E and the straight line C E, it follows that II E is the dif- 
 ference of two straight lines; and since it is possible to 
 form innumerable curves whose radii of curvature are ex- 
 pressible in algebraic terms, therefore corresponding to 
 every such curve there is another curve, namely, its evo- 
 lute, which can be exactly rectified. The theory of gene- 
 rating curve lines by evolution was proposed by Huygens 
 before the invention of the differential calculus, and pub 
 lished in his Horologium Oscillatorium. His object was to 
 find the evolute of trie common cycloid, with a view to Ihe 
 mechanical means of causing clock pendulums to vibrale 
 in cycloidal arcs ; for he had already discovered the beau- 
 tiful property of this curve,— that all vibrations in its arc aro 
 synchronous, or performed in equal times, whether the 
 arcs be "real or small. See Cycloid. 
 
 EVOLU'TION. (Lat. evolvo, J unfold.) In Physiology, 
 the theory of generation, in which the germ is held to pre- 
 exist in the parent, and its parts to be unfolded and ex- 
 panded, but not actually formed, by the procreative actf. 
 Theprincipal and most consistent supporters of this theory 
 maintain that tie first created individuals contained the 
 germs of all future possible successors, successively in- 
 cluded one within the other ; and that generation is merely 
 the act of unfolding, or an evolution of the germ : Swam- 
 merdam, Bonnet, Spallanzani, Haller, and Cuvier maintain 
 this theory. 
 
 The theory of evolution is opposed to that of epigenesis 
 generation, in which Ihe germ is held to be actually formed 
 as well as expanded by virtue of the procreative powers ol 
 the parent. Its chief supporlers are Harvey, Caspar Fred 
 Wolff, Blumenbach, and the professors of the modem 
 German physiological school. 
 
 Evolution, in Arithmelic and Algebra, denotes the ex- 
 traction of roots. (<S"ee Extraction.) In Geometry, evolu- 
 tion is the opening or unfolding of a curve. 
 
 E'VOVjE. In Music, the vowels used with Ihe ending 
 notes of the ecclesiastical tones : it is a word, for brevity's 
 sake, formed of the six vowels in the words saculorum 
 amen, which are subjoined to the notes in Antiphonarics, 
 &c, to indicate that those are the ending notes. 
 
 EXACERBA'TION. (Lat. cxacerbo, / grow violent.) 
 An increase in Ihe violence of symptoms of disease; as of 
 pain, or especially of fever. 
 
 EX^'RESIS. (Gr. t\aiato), I remove.) One of the divi- 
 sions of surgery adopted by old writers, and confined to 
 operalions concerned in Ihe removal of parts of the body. 
 
 EXALTA'DOS. In Spanish History, the name of the 
 party attached to what has been vulgarly termed the liberal 
 system of politics, corresponding to the " extreme gauche" 
 of the French, or Whig-radicals among ourselves. 
 
 EXANTHE'MA. (Gr. tlav&ew, I effloresce.) An erup- 
 tive disorder. 
 
 EXARCH. <Gr.t%apxos) The title of the viceroys of 
 ilie Byzantine emperors in the provinces of Italy and Africa 
 alter ihey had been conquered by Justinian. The exarch 
 of the former province fixed Ihe seat of his government at 
 Ravenna. Thev were also styled patricians. 
 
 EX CA'THEDKA. A Latin phrase ; originally applied 
 
EXCELLENCY. 
 
 to decisions rendered by prelates, chiefly popes, from their 
 cathedra or chair: i. e. in a solemn judicial manner. Hence 
 applied to every decision pronounced by one in the exer- 
 cise of his peculiar authority : a professor in his lecture 
 room, a indie from the bench, <fec. 
 
 EXCELLENCY. A title of honour in various Euro- 
 It was borne, successively, by the Lombard 
 kind's ; by some emperors of the West ; by various minor 
 Kalian potentates; and it is now appropriated to persons in 
 '1 execution of certain official services: ministers, 
 some court dignitaries, and ambassadors, but not charge's 
 d'affaires. Governors of English colonies are styled Ex- 
 cellency. 
 
 NTRIC (Lat. ex, out, and centrum, centre), in 
 the Ancient Astronomy, is the deferent circle in the cir- 
 cumference of which the centre of the epicycle of a planet 
 1 forward in its orbit round the earth. It was ex- 
 centric in respect of the earth ; that is, though the orbit of a 
 planet was a cirde described about the earth, the earth was 
 not plaoed at the centre of that circle. In modern astro- 
 nomy, the excentric is the circle which circumscribes the 
 elliptic orbit of a planet. Hence, Excentric Anomaly is 
 the arc of the excentric between the perihelion of the orbit 
 line drawn through the centre of the planet 
 perpendicular to the major axis. See Anomaly. 
 
 EXCENTRPCITY. In Astronomy, the distance of the 
 foci from the centre of the elliptic orbit of a planet or satel- 
 lite, the semi-axis major being regarded a9 unity ; or, it is 
 of the distance between the focus and centre to 
 the semi-axis major. Thus, if a and b denote respectively 
 axes major and minor, and e the excentririty, we 
 have ae = \/a f — 6*. Excentricity is thus to be carefully 
 ihed fromellipticity, which denotes the ratio of the 
 difference of the two axes to the greater. For the excen- 
 i of the differ e nt planet*, see Planet. 
 
 EXCEPTION. In I. aw, a stop nrslay to an action. In 
 common law proceedings, a denial of a matter alleged in 
 bar to an action. In chancery, what is alleged against the 
 sufficiency of an answer. 
 
 EXCE'88, SPHERICAL, in Trigonometry, Is the quan- 
 tity by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical 
 trianzl^ exceeds two right angles. 
 
 EXCHA'NQE, in Arithmetic. Is the finding the value of 
 one commodity or denomination of money in terms of 
 another. When a unit of each denomination is determined 
 in terms of a common standard, all the operations of this 
 rule are applications of the rule ol proportion. 
 
 Exchange. In Commerce, a term used to designate 
 that species of mercantile transactions by which the debts 
 dec to individuals at a distance from their creditors are 
 paid without Hie transmission either of money or goods. 
 
 Among cities or countries having any considerable inter- 
 together, the debts mutually due by each other ap- 
 proach, for the most part, near to an equality. There are 
 at all times, for example, a considerable number of persons 
 In London Indebted to Hamburgh ; but, speaking generally, 
 there are about an equal number of persons in London to 
 whom Hamburgh is indebted ; and hence, when A. of Lon- 
 don has a payment to make to B. of Hamburgh, he does 
 MM remit an equivalent sam of money to the latter; but he 
 the market and buys a bill upon Hamburgh for an 
 nount, — «'. e., he buys an order from C. of London, 
 1 to his debtor D. of Hamburgh, directing him to 
 pay the amount to A. or his order. A. having indorsed this 
 I'T. sends it to B., who receives payment from his 
 neighbour 1) The convenience of all parties is consulted 
 by a transaction of this sort. The debts due by A. to B., 
 ami by I), to C, are extinguished without the intervention 
 of any money. A. of London pays C. of ditto, and D. of 
 Hamburgh pays II. of ditto. The debtor in one place Is 
 substituted lor the debtor in another; and a postage or two, 
 atnl the stamp for the bill, form the whole expenses. 
 
 A bill of exchange may, therefore, be defined to be an 
 • Iressed to some person residing at a distance, 
 directin? him to pay a certain specified sum to the person 
 in whose favour the bill is drawn, or his order. In mer- 
 cantile phraseology, the person who draws a bill is termed 
 . r ; the person in whose favour it is drawn the re- 
 mitter ; the person on whom it is drawn the drawee, and 
 afler he has accepted the acceptor. Those persons into 
 whose hands the bill may have passed previously to its be- 
 ing paid are, from their writing their names on the back, 
 termed indorsers ; and the person in whose possession the 
 bill is at any given period is termed (he holder or possessor. 
 
 The negotiation of inland bills of exchange, or of those 
 drawn in one part of the United Kingdom on another, is 
 almost wholly in the hands of bankers. Many of the banks 
 established in different parts of the country have a direct 
 Intercourse with each other, and all of them have corres- 
 pondents in London. Hence an individual residing in any 
 part of the country who may wish to make a payment in 
 any other part, however distant, may effect his object by 
 applying to the nearest bank. Thus, suppose A. of Pen- 
 zance has a payment to make to B. of Inverness. To send 
 429 
 
 EXCHANGE. 
 
 the money by post would be hazardous; and if there were 
 fractional parts of a pound in the sum, it would hardly be 
 practicable to make use of the post. How then will A. 
 manage? He will pay the sum to a banker in Penzance, 
 and his creditor in Inverness will receive it frcm a banker 
 there. The transaction is very simple. The Penzance 
 banker instructs hi? correspondent in London lo pay to the 
 London correspondent of a banker in Inverness the sum 
 in question, on account of B. ; and the Inverness banker 
 being advised in course of post of what has been done, 
 hands over the money to B. The whole charges are 
 limited to a trifling commission and two-pence for postage ; 
 so that the affair is transacted in the cheapest as well as in 
 the most commodious possible manner. Bills drawn by 
 the merchant of one country upon another are termed 
 foreign bills of exchange, and it is to their negotiation that 
 the following remarks principally apnly 
 
 I. Par of Exchange. — The par of the currency of any 
 two countries means, among merchants, the equivalency 
 of a certain amount of the currency of the one in the cur- 
 rency of the other, supposing the currencies of both to be 
 of the precise weight and purity fixed by their respective 
 mints. Thus, according to the mint regulations ol Great 
 Britain and France, \l. sterling Is equal to !i"> fr. 20 cents, 
 which is consequently said to be the par between London 
 and Paris. And the exchange between the two countries 
 is said to be at a par when bills are negotiated on this foot- 
 ing; that Is, for example, when a bill for 100/. drawn in 
 London is worth 2520 fr. In Paris, and conversely. When 
 II. in London buys a bill on Paris for more than 25 fr. 20 
 cents, the exchange is said to be in favour of London, and 
 against Paris ; and when, on the other hand. \t. in London 
 will not buy a bill on Paris for 25 fr. 20 cents, the exchange 
 is against London, and in favour of Pans. (See table of the 
 Par of Exchange, at the end of this article.) 
 
 II. Circumstances uhich determine the Course of Ex- 
 change. — The exchange is affected, or made lo diverge 
 from par, by two classes of circumstances. First, by any 
 discrepancy between the actual weight or fineness of the 
 coins, or of the bullion for which the substitutes used in 
 their stead will exchange, and their weight or fineness as 
 fixed by the mint regulations; and, secondly, by any sud- 
 den increase or diminution of the bills drawn in one coun- 
 try upon another. 
 
 a. It is but seldom that the coins of any country corres- 
 pond exactly with their mint standard ; and when they di- 
 verge from it, an allowance corresponding to the difference 
 between the actual value of the coins and their mint value 
 must be made in determining the real par. Thus, if 
 while the coins of Great Britain corresponded with the 
 mint standard in weight and purity, those of France were 
 either 10 per cent, worse or debased below the standard 
 of her mint, the exchange, it is obvious, would be at real 
 par when it was nominally 10 per cent, against Paris, or 
 when a bill payable in London tor 100Y. was worth in Paris 
 2772 fr., instead of 2,520 fr. In estimating the real course 
 of exchange between any two or more places, it is always 
 necessary to attend carefully to this circumstance: that 
 is, to examine whether their currencies be all of the stand- 
 ard weight and purity; and if not, how much they differ 
 from it. When the coins circulating in a country are either 
 so worn or rubbed as to have sunk considerably below 
 their mint standard, or when paper money is depreciated 
 from excess or want of credit, the exchange is at real par 
 only when it is against, such country to the extent to which 
 its coins are worn or its paper depreciated. When this 
 circumstance is taken into account, it will be found that 
 the exchange during the latter years of the war, though 
 apparently very much against this country, was really in 
 our favour. The depression was nominal only ; being oc- 
 casioned by the great depreciation of the paper currency, 
 in which bills were paid. (See art. "Exchange," new 
 edition, Ency. Britannica.) 
 
 b. Variations in the actual course of exchange, or in the 
 price of bills, arising from circumstances affecting the cur- 
 rency of either of two countries trading together, are nom- 
 inal only ; such as are real grow out of circumstances af- 
 fecting their trade. 
 
 When two countries trade together, and each buys of 
 the other commodities of precisely the same value, their 
 debts and credits will be equal, and, of course, the real ex- 
 change will be at par. The bills drawn by the one will be 
 exactly equivalent to those drawn by the other, and their 
 respective claims will be adjusted without requiring the 
 transfer of bullion or of any other valuable produce; but 
 it very rarely happens that the debts reciprocally due by 
 any two countries are equal. There is almost always a 
 balance owing on the one side or the other ; and this ba- 
 lance must affect the exchange. If the debts due by Lon- 
 don to Paris exceeded those due by Paris to London, the 
 competition in the London market for bills on Paris would, 
 because of the comparatively great amount of payments 
 our merchants had to make in Paris, be greater than the 
 competition in Paris for bills on London ; and consequently 
 
EXCHANGE. 
 
 die real exchange would be in favour of Paris and against 
 London. 
 
 It is plain, however, that all fluctuations of the real ex- 
 change must be confined within comparatively narrow 
 limits ; and that, though they may be under, they can never 
 exceed, the expense of transmitting bullion from the debtor 
 to the creditor country ; for, if they exceeded this amount, 
 It would plainly be more for the debtor's advantage to trans- 
 mit bullion rather than bills, and the exchange would im- 
 mediately sink to par. 
 
 It is usual to suppose, when the exchange is against a 
 counlry, that it can only be adjusted by an exportation of 
 bullion ; but provided the fall of the exchange be real, and 
 not nominal, — thai is, provided the currency of the coun- 
 try which has the unfavourable exchange be in a sound 
 state, and that it is neither depreciated from excess, nor 
 from the coins being reduced below their mint standard, 
 but that the depression originates in some circumstances 
 affecting the trade of the country, as the occurrence of a 
 bad harvest, the breaking out of a war, &c, — then, in such 
 a case, it may, and most probably will not be necessary to 
 export a single ounce of bullion. Suppose, to illustrate 
 this, that an English merchant has 100/. to pay in Peters- 
 burgh, and that the real exchange is 3 per cent, against 
 England, or that a bill that cost 1031. in London will only 
 fetch 100/. in Petersburgh ; now, suppose that the cost of 
 transmitting bullion to Petersburgh is also three per cent. ; 
 the question is, what will the merchant do 7 If he had no 
 other resource but to send a bill or bullion, it is plain it 
 would be indifferent to him which he sent. But he is not 
 so restricted. He will compare together the prices of ar- 
 ticles in London and Petersburgh : and if he find that there 
 is any exportable article whatever costing in London 100/. 
 that will sell in Petersburgh for 100/. after paying the ex- 
 penses of carriage, he will obviously gain 3/. by exporting 
 it, rather than transmitting bullion or a bill. The fact is, 
 that a nation might cancel a foreign debt of 10 or 100 mil- 
 lions without sending abroad a single ounce of gold and 
 silver: the latter are never exported, unless when it hap- 
 pens to be more profitable to export them than anything else. 
 They always go abroad to find, and not to lose, their level. 
 
 III. A fall of the nominal exchange, that is, a fall of the 
 exchange occasioned by the depreciation of the currency, 
 has no influence whatever over trade. When the currency 
 la depreciated, the premium which the exporter of com- 
 modities derives from the sale of the bill drawn on his 
 correspondent abroad is countervailed by a precisely equal 
 rise in the price of the commodity occasioned by the de- 
 preciation, so that the result is nothing. But it is other- 
 wise when the real exchange is depressed, or when the 
 sums payable to the foreigner exceed those receivable 
 from him. In this case, there is no rise of prices, and the 
 depression of the exchange operates as a stimulus to ex- 
 portation. As soon as the real exchange diverges from 
 par, the mere inspection of a price current is no longer 
 sufficient to regulate the operations of the merchant. If 
 it be unfavourable, the premium which the exporter will 
 receive on the sale of his bill must be included in the esti- 
 mate of the profit he is likely to derive from the transac- 
 tion. The greater that premium the less will be the dif- 
 ference of prices necessary to induce him to export; and 
 hence an unfavourable real exchange has an effect exactly 
 the same with what would be produced by granting a boun- 
 ty on exportation equal to the premium on foreign bills. 
 
 But, for the same reason that an unfavourable real ex- 
 change increases exportation, it proportionally diminishes 
 importation. When the exchange is really unfavourable, 
 
 the price of commodities imported from abroad must be so 
 much lower than their price at home as not merely to 
 afford, exclusive of expenses, the ordinary profit of slock 
 on their sale, but also to compensate for the premium 
 which the importer must pay for a foreign bill, ii ho remit 
 one to his correspondent, or for the discount, added to the 
 invoice price, ifhis correspondent draw upon him. A less 
 quantity of foreign goods will therefore suit our market 
 when the real exchange is unfavourable; and fewer pay- 
 ments having to be made abroad, the competition for 
 foreign bills will be diminished, and the" real exchange ren- 
 dered proportionally favourable. In tSie same way, it is 
 easy to see that a favourable real exchange must operate 
 as a duty on exportation and as a bounty on importation. 
 
 It is thus lhat fluctuations in the real exchange have a 
 necessary tendency to correct themselves. They can 
 never, for any considerable period, exceed the expense of 
 transmitting bullion from the debtor to the creditor coun- 
 try. But the exchange cannot continue either permanently 
 favourable or unfavourable to this extent. When favour- 
 able, it corrects itself by restricting exportation and facili- 
 tating importation ; and when unfavourable, it produces 
 the same effect by giving an unusual stimulus to exporta- 
 tion, and by throwing obstacles in the way of importation. 
 The true par forms the centre of these oscillations ; and 
 though the thousand circumstances which are daily and 
 hourly affecting the state of debt and credit prevent the 
 ordinary course of exchange from being almost ever pre- 
 cisely at par, its fluctuations, whetheron the one side or on 
 the other, are confined within certain limits, and have a 
 constant tendency to disappear. 
 
 This natural tendency, which the exchange has to cor. 
 rect itself, is powerfully assisted by the operations of the 
 bill merchants. 
 
 England, for example, might owe a large excess of debt 
 to Amsterdam; yet, as the aggregate amount of the debts 
 due by a commercial country is generally balanced by the 
 amount of those which it lias to receive, the deficiency of 
 bills on Amsterdam in London would most probably be 
 compensated by a proportional redundancy of those on 
 some other place. Now it is the business of the merchants 
 who deal in bills, in the same way as of those who deal in 
 bullion or any other commodity, to buy them where they 
 are cheapest, and sell them where they are dearest. They 
 would, therefore, buy up the bills drawn by other countries 
 on Amsterdam, and dispose of them in London ; and by 
 so doing would prevent any great fall in the price of bills 
 on Amsterdam in those countries in which the supply 
 exceeded the demand, and any great rise in Great Britain 
 and those countries in which the supply happened to be 
 deficient. In the trade between Italy and this country, 
 the bills drawn on Great Britain amount, almost inva- 
 riably, lo a greater sum than those drawn on Italy. The 
 bill merchants, however, by buying up the excess of 
 the Italian bills on London, and selling them in Holland 
 and other countries indebted to England, prevent the 
 real exchange from ever becoming much depressed. 
 (For further information as to the principles involved 
 in this curious and interesting department of commer- 
 cial and international economy, see the able and ex- 
 cellent tract, entitled Observations on the Course of Ex- 
 change, by William Blake, Esq., and the art. "Exchange" 
 in the new edition of the Encyc. Britannica ; and for the 
 practical details connected with the subject, see Commercial 
 Dictionary.) We subjoin from the latter a table of the par 
 of exchange between London and some of the principal 
 foreign places for the negotiation of bills of exchange. 
 
 Par of Exchange between England and the following places, — viz. Amsterdam, Hamburgh, Faris, Madrid, Lisbon, Leg- 
 horn, Genoa, Naples, and Venice; the same being computed from the intrinsic Value of their principal Coins, by 
 comparing Gold with Gold, and Silver with Silver, according to their Mint Regulations, and to Assays made at the 
 London and Paris Mints. 
 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 Explanations. 
 
 
 
 
 Old Coinage. New Coinage. 
 
 
 
 Mint 
 Regula- 
 
 Assays. 
 
 
 
 Moneys of Exchange. 
 
 Mint 
 
 
 Mint 
 
 
 
 tions. 
 
 
 Regula. 
 
 Assays. 
 
 Regula 
 
 Assays. 
 
 
 Amsterdam, banco 
 
 
 
 tions. 
 
 
 tions. 
 
 
 
 36 8 
 
 36 6-8 
 
 37 3 
 
 3710 5 35 
 
 35 6-5 
 
 ( Schillings and pence Flemish per pound sterling. Agio 
 ( 2 per cent. 
 Florins and stivers per pound sterling. 
 
 Do. current . 
 
 11 45 
 
 11 3-8 
 
 11 8-5 
 
 1111-8 
 
 10146 
 
 1017 6 
 
 Hamburgh 
 
 34 3 5 
 
 35 15 
 
 34 1 
 
 35 1-3 
 
 3211 
 
 3211-5 
 
 Schillings and pence Flemish banco per pound sterling. 
 
 Paris 
 
 25 20 
 
 25 26 
 
 24 73 
 
 24 91 
 
 23 23 
 
 2340 
 
 Francs and centimes per pound sterling. 
 
 Madrid . 
 
 37a 
 
 37 2 
 
 39-2 
 
 39 
 
 41-7 
 
 41-5 
 
 Pence sterling for the piastre or dollar of exchange. 
 
 Lisbon . 
 
 67-4 
 
 675 
 
 6041 
 
 68-33 
 
 64 30 
 
 62-69 
 
 Pence sterling per milree. 
 
 Leghorn . 
 
 491 
 
 490 
 
 46 46 
 
 46-5 
 
 49-60 
 
 495 
 
 Pence sterling per pezza of exchange. 
 
 Genoa 
 
 45-5 
 
 45-5 
 
 46-46 
 
 48-9 
 
 49-4 
 
 52 
 
 Pence sterling per pezza fuori banco.* 
 
 Naples . 
 
 41-22 
 
 - 
 
 41-42 
 
 
 43-9 
 
 
 Pence sterling per ducat (new coinage of ISIS). 
 
 Venice 
 
 46-3 
 
 46 47 5 
 
 49-9 44-6 
 
 461 
 
 Lire piccole per pound sterling. 
 
 " The currency of Genoa has consisted, since 1826, of Lire Italiane of exactly the same weight and fineness as fi ■ 
 *-itb Genoa is now the same u with Paris. 
 430 
 
 i ; so that the par of exchauf 
 
EXCHEQ.UER CHAMBER. 
 
 EXCHEQUER CHAMBER, COURT OF. in Law, is 
 constituted by 1 W. 4. c. 70 ilie proper tribunal for the 
 trial of writs of error from the three superior courts, which 
 before was only partially the case. In this court the writ 
 is tried before the judges, or judges and barons, of the two 
 courts which had not given the former judgment. Error 
 from this court lies in the House of Lords, which is the last 
 and highest appellate tribunal of the country. 
 
 EXCHEQUER, COURT OF, in Law, was originally 
 esiablshed lor the recovery of the king's debts and ordi- 
 nary revenues of the crown. In its modern shape, it 
 ll in lit a combination of eight distinct ancient courts. 
 It acquired concurrent jurisdiction with the other two 
 superior courts in all personal actions (see Courts, 
 Sppeicor) by the fiction of the complaining party being 
 debtor ro the king; a fiction which is now removed. It 
 has exclusive jurisdiction in cases in which the king's 
 s concerned, wliether personal actions, or in- 
 formations filed under the various revenue acts. It has 
 also an equitable jurisdiction ; exclusive with respect to 
 matters connected with the revenue, concurrent with the 
 court of chancery in civil suits. It has also the original and 
 proper equitable jurisdiction in cases of tithes. (See 
 Chancer y.) The chief and four puisne" or younger judges 
 of Ihe Exchequer are termed Bantu. 
 
 Exchequer, Court op (in Scotland), established on its 
 
 present footing by 6 Anne, c. 26., should consist of a chief 
 
 baron and four junior barons (but three only have been 
 
 commonly appointed). It has a privative jurisdiction as to 
 
 lse, and other revenues of the crown. 
 
 EXCHEQUER BILLS, are bills of credit issued by au- 
 thority of parliament They are for various sums, and 
 bear interest (generally from \^d. to 2Jd. per diem per 
 10W.) according to the usual rate at the time. The ad- 
 vances of the Bank to Government are made upon exche- 
 quer bills ; and the daily transactions between the Bank and 
 Government are principally carried on through their inter- 
 vention. Notice of the lime at which outstanding exche- 
 quer bills are to be paid off is given by public advertise- 
 i • In exchequer bills to any 
 other species of stock, even Ihailfh the interest be for the 
 most part comparatively low; becMM the capital may be 
 it the Treasury at the rate originally paid for it, 
 the holders b.-ing exempted from any risk of fluctuation. 
 Exchequer lulls were first issued in 1096, and have been 
 annually issued ever since. 
 
 Account of the Amount of the Exchequer Rills outstanding 
 In each Year since 1815, and the Rate of Interest payable 
 on such Bills. 
 
 Year, 
 
 
 Rats of 
 
 ,,!■■ 
 
 Yeart 
 
 
 R.iic of Inte- 
 
 mM 
 
 Amount 
 
 real on K 
 
 tefai 
 
 eiMv.l 
 
 Amount 
 
 rest on Exche- 
 
 5 Jan. 
 
 outstanding 
 
 quer BilU. 
 
 5 Jtii 
 
 .nl.l.in'luij- 
 
 quer UilU. 
 
 
 
 1 w cent, 
 per diem. 
 
 
 
 Per cent, 
 per diem. 
 
 
 /. 
 
 k. d. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 L 
 
 d. d. d. 
 
 1<U6 
 
 41,141.900 
 
 at 
 
 
 1829 
 
 27,657.000 2 
 
 1S17 
 
 44.650 
 
 n 
 
 
 1830 
 
 25.490,56ffl 2 1| li 
 
 1818 
 
 "I 1 3 2$ 
 
 2 
 
 1831 
 
 27.271.650 1} 
 
 1819 
 
 100 2i 
 
 :'. 
 
 1832 
 
 27,133.350 lj 
 
 1820 
 
 36.900,200 2$ 
 
 a 
 
 Kit 
 
 27.278,000 
 
 Vk 
 
 
 '10 2$ 
 
 a 
 
 1331 
 
 27.906.900 
 
 li 
 
 
 ".in 2 
 
 
 1836 
 
 28,521.650 
 
 9 
 
 
 "-)l 2 
 
 
 1836 
 
 28,976,600 
 
 a 
 
 
 Ml 2 
 
 
 1837 
 
 26,976.000 
 
 14 2 2} 
 
 2§ 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 li 
 
 1836 
 
 24.044.550 
 
 7.994,200 
 
 n 
 
 2 
 
 1339 
 
 24,026,060 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 1840 
 
 19,965,050 
 
 If 
 
 
 37,646,860 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 EXCISE DUTIES, in Revenue and Finance, are duties 
 I on articles produced or manufactured at home, 
 while in the possession of the producers or manufacturers. 
 They were introduced into England by the Long Parlia- 
 ment in 1643, being then laid ou the makers and venders 
 of ale, beer, cider, and perry. The royalists soon after 
 followed the example of the republicans; both sides de- 
 cl;iriitz that the excise should be continued no longer than 
 the termination of the war. But it was found too produc- 
 tive a source of revenue to be again relinquished ; and 
 when the nation had been accustomed to it for a few years, 
 the parliament declared, in 1649, that the impost of excise 
 was the most easy and indifferent levy that could be laid 
 upon the people. It was placed on a new footing at the 
 Restoration ; and notwithstanding Mr. Justice Blackstonc 
 says, that " from its first original to the present time, its 
 very name has been odious to the people of England" 
 (Com., book i. c. 8.), it has continued progressively to gain 
 ground ; and is at this moment imposed on several impor- 
 tant articles, and furnishes nearly a third part of the entire 
 public revenue of the kingdom. 
 
 For the more easy levy of the excise duties, England and 
 431 
 
 EXCOMMUNICATION. 
 
 Wales are divided into about fifty six collections, some oi 
 which are called by the names of panicular counties, 
 others by the names of great towns. Where one counly is 
 divided into several collections, or where a collection com- 
 prises the contiguous parts of several counties, every such 
 collection is subdivided into several districts, wiihin which 
 there is a supervisor; and each disirict is again subdivided 
 into out-rides and foot walks, within each of which there is 
 a surveying officer or gauger. Some excise duties, that 
 were justly objected to, have been repealed within these 
 few years ; and with the exception of the duty on glass, 
 which interferes injuriously with the manufacture, we are 
 not sure that there is one of the existing duties that can be 
 fairly objected to on principle, Ihougn the rate of duty 
 might, in some instances, be advantageously reduced. It 
 has been said, that the excise duties ''greatly raise ihe cost 
 of subsistence to the labouring classes." But this assertion 
 has really no foundation. In fact, Ihe only excise duly that 
 can be said to fail on a necessary of life is that on soap, 
 which produced in 1838 (in Great' Britain) 809,031/. ; but as 
 the population of Great Britain amounts at present to about 
 18.000.000, the soap lax cannot, at an average, impose a bur- 
 den of lid. a year on each individual. If we estimate its 
 annual pressure on a labouring family of five persons at 
 from 2s. 6d. to 3s., we shall not be wiihin but beyond the 
 mark. 
 
 The only faxes, in Ihe various departments of the re- 
 venue, that can be truly said to fall on articles necessary to 
 the labourer, are. besides soap, principally those on tea Bnd 
 sugar, We incline to think that the duties on these arti- 
 cles might be very materially reduced wiihout affecting the 
 revenue; but, however that maybe, it cannot be truly 
 affirmed that ihey entail any grievous harden on th<- l iboar- 
 ing classes. The entire nett produce of the excise duties 
 in Great Britain in 1838 amounted to 12,778.8661 , of which 
 the duties on spirits and malt, that is, on spirits and beer, 
 produced no less than 8 604.1 !">/. In Ireland, during the 
 same year, the excise dulieg amounted to 1,974,566/!, of 
 which Ihe spirit and malt duties furnished above lour fifths, 
 or 1,795,165/. The rate at which this revenue was collected 
 was nearly 6i per cent, in Great Britain, and 9$ per out 
 in Ireland. Now, we are bold lo say, that no equal amount 
 of revenue was ever raised wilh so little inconveri 
 injury to the contributors. Even though they were not re- 
 quired by the public exigencies, the duties on spirits ob- 
 structs pernicious habit, and should not he given up. They 
 are the best of all possible duties; and the only thing to be 
 attended to in their Imposition, is not to carry (hem to such 
 a height as to defeat their obii-ci by Bnootmglog smuggling. 
 We have yet to learn, supposing they are noi carried beyond 
 this limit, that a single good objection can be made to these 
 duties. 
 
 The obscurity and complexity of the excise laws has been 
 justly complained of. It is needless to say, that they ought 
 to be brief, clear, and level to the apprehension of every 
 one. But, so far from this being the case, they are in 
 most instances lengthened, contradictory, and unintelligi- 
 ble. There were at no distant period some 40 or 60 acts in 
 existence having reference to the glass duties, and at this 
 moment from 25 to 30 have reference to the paper duties, and 
 so for the others. It is, in fact, all but impossible for any 
 one to tell what Ihe law really is on many points ; eo that 
 the trader is left at the mercy of the officers, and a wide 
 door is opened to favouritism and fraud. This disgraceful 
 state of things might, however, be easily remedied by get- 
 ting the treasury or the excise lo prepare a short abstract 
 of the law as to each duty, drawn up in the clearest and 
 least ambiguous manner possible, and without any of that 
 verbosity, repetition, and technical jargon that infecls acts 
 of parliament, and renders them all but incomprehensible 
 to ordinary persons. A manufacturer abiding by this ab- 
 stract should be held to have abided by the law. and should 
 not be further questioned on the subject. A measure of 
 this sort might be easily carried into effect. It would bo 
 an immense improvement, and would go far to obviate the 
 only good objection to the excise duties. 
 
 EXCITABI'LITY. A disposition to be arreted by ex- 
 citing causes. It is a term chiefly used in medicine, in 
 reference tp that state of system which is more or less sus- 
 ceptible of morhid excitement. 
 
 EXCOMMU'MCATION. An ecclesiastical censure, by 
 which a man is cut off from communion with his church. 
 The right possessed by any community of ejecting any per- 
 son who contravenes the laws by which it is governed is 
 founded on the original principles of society, and is exer- 
 cised in some shape or other by every sect among Chris- 
 tians. If we suppose, however, one society to be the de- 
 positary of all God's covenants and mercies, and to afford 
 the exclusive means of salvation, excommunication will in 
 such case involve eternal perdition, and must be defended 
 on some hiahergrounds than those of social expediency. 
 An appeal is made to scripture in defence of this practice 
 on the following erounds :— The power of binding and loos- 
 ing is undoubtedly given to the apostles. St. Paul delivers 
 
EXCORIATION. 
 
 over to Satan a heretic, or one who troubled the church ; 
 the sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira seems to have 
 been inflicted upon them by the apostle himself as a pun- 
 ishment for their crimes ; the faithful are charged to keep 
 no company with heretics ; Titus is directed by St. Paul to 
 reject such after the first and second admonition. Upon 
 the authority of these passages many Christian churches 
 have assumed the power of excommunication. Protes- 
 tants, however, do not generally venture to pronounce upon 
 the future condition of a person thus excluded from cove- 
 nanted benefits ; whereas in the forms of excommunica- 
 tion of the Greek and Roman churches, the excommuni- 
 cated person is solemnly devoted to the devil. 
 
 The English church retains a form of excommunication, 
 in cases of adultery, incontinence, heresy, simony, and 
 neglect of public worship, &c. ; the practice, however, has 
 long become obsolete. In English law, excommunication 
 was the ordinary mode by which contempt of the ecclesi- 
 astical jurisdiction was punished and its process enforced. 
 Forty days after sentence the writ de excommunicato ca- 
 piendo issued (called also a significavit, from the recital of 
 the bishop's certificate with which it commenced), under 
 which the party was apprehended by the sheriff. By stat. 
 53 G. 3. c. 127. the legal effect of excommunication is abo- 
 lished, and the writ de contumace capiendo substituted for 
 the former one. 
 
 EXCORIA'TION. (Lat. excorio, I remove the skin.) An 
 abrasion of the cuticle. 
 
 EXCRE'TION. (Lat. excerno, I separate from.) A sub- 
 stance which is rejected from the body as useless. 
 
 EXCU'RRENT. In Botany, a term used in describing 
 the ramification of any body whose axis always remains in 
 the centre ; the other parts being regularly disposed around 
 it, as the stem of Pinus abies. 
 
 EXECU'TION. The carrying into effect of a judgment 
 given in a court of law. Unless execution be taken out 
 within a year and a day after the judgment has been given, 
 the judgment must be revived by writ of scire facias. Exe- 
 cution may be against the person of defendant by imprison- 
 ment, which is under a writ of capias ad respondendum. 
 There are also various writs of execution against the goods 
 of a defendant and against his lands. Criminal execution 
 is in the country directed by the Jtdge of assize who tries 
 the prisoner, and in London by the recorder. 
 
 Execution. In the Fine Arts, the mode of performing 
 a work of art, and the dexterity with which it is accom- 
 plished. 
 
 EXE'CUTIVE. In the theory of Government, that part 
 of the powers of the state which is employed in putting into 
 execution the laws made by the legislative or the decrees 
 of the judicial power. In England, all executive power is 
 supposed to be vested in the king, and in inferior officers 
 by his delesation. 
 
 EXE'CUTOR. In Law, an executor is a person appointed 
 by a testator, and whose appointment is confirmed by the 
 proper ecclesiastical court, to execute his will, and to 
 represent him in his personal rights and liabilities. Thus 
 the rights and liabilities of an executor in his representa- 
 tive capacity (the same as those of an administrator), are 
 those of the testator or intestate, arising, — for or against 
 him — either out of contract, or from injury done to his 
 property, real or personal, or from injury done by him to 
 the real or personal property of another; but the liabilities 
 of an executor or administrator do not overreach the pro- 
 perty or assets which he has received, or might but for his 
 negligence or default have received, by virtue of his office. 
 
 The first and most important duty of executors and ad- 
 ministrators is the payment of debts which attach to the 
 properly in their hands, in the following order; the rea- 
 sonable expenses of the funeral, and the necessary ex- 
 penses of proving the will, or of obtaining letters of admin- 
 istration, being first defrayed. 
 
 1st. Debts due to the crown by record or on specialty. 
 
 2dly. Debts due to the subject by virtue of the judgment 
 of any court of record. 
 
 3dly. Debts acknowledged upon record, as by recogni- 
 zance. 
 
 4thly. Debts due upon specialty, or on account of rent. 
 
 5thly. Debts of the crown not upon specialty or record. 
 
 6thly. Debts by simple contract. 
 
 Creditors of each class are entitled to be paid in full be- 
 fore any thing is allowed to debts of an inferior order ; and 
 as betsveen themselves they are paid pro rata as far as the 
 assets will extend. But an executor will be allowed, upon 
 account, any debt that he may have paid without notice of 
 another debt of a higher class ; and as between creditors 
 of equal degree, he may, before action brought at law, or 
 decree to account in equity, give preference to any. He 
 may also at any time as against creditors of an equal class 
 retain a debt due to himself. 
 
 Next to debts stand, in the first place, specific legacies, 
 
 t. e. gifts of specific parts of personal estate ; and in the 
 
 next place general legacies, that is, gifts of money payable 
 
 out of the general residue of such estate : what remains 
 
 432 
 
 EXHAUSTION. 
 
 after payment of legacies, where there are any, or where 
 there are none after payment of debts, is divisible among 
 the next of kin according to the Statute of Distributions. 
 Specific legacies may be recovered at law; hut the rig I ts 
 of general legatees, and of next of kin, are en forcible 
 only in courts of equity, or in the ecclesiastical courts. 
 
 Most frequently also claims in the nature of debt or le- 
 gacy to which the personal estate of testators or intestate* 
 is subject are prosecuted in courts of equity ; which dn net 
 only, like courts of law, take cognizance of each individual 
 right as brought forward, but will take upon themselves the 
 whole administration of the estate, and retain it in their 
 hands for the purpose of doing justice to all claimants. 
 
 In so doing courts of equity are bound to follow the legai 
 order of priority above stated, so far at least as the assets 
 are legal ; t. e. either recoverable in courts of common 
 law, or arising upon trust direct and proper and co-exten- 
 sive with the legal interest (vide Trust), to which the prin- 
 ciple of mquitas sequitur legem applies. But where there 
 are assets recoverable only in equity, and arising upon im- 
 plied or resulting trusts, these are called equitable ; and in 
 the application of such assets the rule obtains of equality 
 between all debts, the priority of debts to legacies, and 
 among these of specific to general, being still observed. 
 Where there are both legal and equitable assets, creditors 
 availing themselves of their priority against the legal as- 
 sets will not be admitted to any participation in the equitable 
 assets till other creditors shall have received out of them the 
 same proportion of their debts a3 the creditors of a higher 
 degree shall have been already paid out of the legal assets. 
 
 By the recent act of the 3 & i W. 4. real estate not de- 
 vised for or charged with the payment of debts is made 
 assets for the payment of all debts, to be administered by 
 courts of equity according to the legal order of priorities ; 
 but real estate so devised or charged still remains as before 
 equitable assets. Executors and administrators as such have 
 no concern in either case with the application of real assets. 
 
 Many questions arise in regard to legacies, — as to when 
 they are vested, when specific or general, — which it is im- 
 possible to notice within the limits of this summary. 
 
 EXEGE'SIS. (Or. tj, and rjytouai, I lead.) The term 
 applied most usually to the exposition or interpretation oi 
 the Holy Scriptures ; it is also used, however, in an unre- 
 stricted sense. This department of biblical learning has 
 been most assiduously cultivated in modern times, espe- 
 cially by the Germans, as the writings of Micliaelis, 
 Schleussner, Rosenmiiller, Gesenius, &c. amply testify. 
 
 EXE'RGUE. (Fr.) In Numismatics, the basis or lower 
 limb of a coin or medal, when separated by a line from 
 the rest of the face, which usually contains words giving 
 the date, place, &c. of the coin, or other subsidiary mat- 
 ter. <S"re Numismatics. 
 
 EXFOLIA'TION. (Lat. exfolio, I scale off.) The sepa 
 ration of a piece of dead bone from the living. 
 
 EXHALA'TION. See Vapour, Evaporation. 
 
 EXHAU'STION. Iu Geometry, a method of demon- 
 stration employed by the ancient geometers to prove the 
 equality of two magnitudes, by showing that their diffe- 
 rence is less than any assignable magnitude. The ancients 
 employed this method in their difficult researches, particu- 
 larly in the theory of curve lines and surfaces, and in de- 
 termining the areas and volumes which those surfaces con- 
 tain. As they admitted no demonstrations but such as are 
 perfectly rigorous, they did not consider curves as poly- 
 gons of a great number of sides ; but in attempting to dis- 
 cover the properties of any curve, they regarded it as the 
 fixed term or limit to which the inscribed and circum- 
 scribed polygons continually approach, and approach the 
 nearer as the number of their sides is increased. Thus 
 they exhausted, as it were, the space between the polygons 
 and the curve ; and hence this method of procedure was 
 called the method of exhaustion. 
 
 As polygons bounded by straight lines were kn,>wn 
 figures, their continual approach to the curve gave a more 
 precise idea of its properties in proportion as the diffe- 
 rence was diminished ; and by following the law of con- 
 tinuity, an exact knowledge of these properties was at 
 length obtained. But when the properties of the curve 
 were thus divined, as it were, it remained to verify them 
 by a geometrical demonstration ; and this was done by prov- 
 ing that every contrary supposition necessarily leads to a 
 contradiction. This method of demonstration is the re- 
 ductio ad absurdum. 
 
 By the method of exhaustion the ancients demonstrated 
 that the areas of circles of different diameters are to each 
 other as the squares of their diameters ; that the volumes 
 of spheres are to each other as the cubes of their diame- 
 ters; that pyramids of the same altitude are in proportion 
 to their bases ; that the cone is the third of a cylinder of 
 the same base, &c. In the same manner Archimedes de- 
 monstrated that the convex surface of a right cone is equal 
 to the area of the circle whose radius is a mean propor- 
 tional between the side of the cone and the radius of the 
 base ; that the area of a sphere is four times that of one 
 
EXHEDRA. 
 
 o( its great circles ; and that the area o any of its zones 
 is equal to the circumference of a great circle multiplied 
 by the height of the zone. The differential calculus of the 
 moderns is only the method of exhaustion of the ancients 
 reduced to a simple and commodious analysis. (See Mac- 
 laurin's fluxions; and Carnot, Metaphysique du Calcul 
 Infinitesimal.) 
 
 E'XIIEDRA. (Gr. tf, out of, and ISpa, a chair.) In 
 Ancient Architecture, a small room in the baths and other 
 buildings appropriated for conversation. 
 
 EXHIBITION. (Lat. exhibeo, Ishow.) A term ap- 
 plied in modern times to the public display of works of 
 art. This word is also used to denote private benefactions 
 instituted for the maintenance of scholars in the univcrsi- 
 te Bursars. 
 EXHUMATION. (Lat. ex, out of, and humus, the 
 ground) The act of digging up a body interred in holy 
 pound by the authority of the judge. In France the laws 
 enforce exhumation on proof that any person has been 
 kiBed in a duel. 
 
 E'XIGENT. In Law, a writ which lies when the defen- 
 dant in ati action personal, or in an indictment, cannot be 
 <bund ; and where, in the former case, nothing of his can 
 be found within the county whereby he may be attached 
 •ii.-dupon. The writ is directed to the sheriff, to 
 proclaim the absent party on five county court days, one 
 after another; and if he do not answer on the fifth, he is 
 outlawed, 
 
 E'XII.E. (Lat. exsilium, from exsul, one banished ex 
 solo from the soil of his country.) In Roman Law, the pun- 
 ishment of banishment, or, more strictly speaking, the 
 consequence of the interdiction from the use of fire and 
 water, pronounced in early times as a sentence against 
 great offenders, which compelled them to expatriate them- 
 It appears that the direct sentence of exile was 
 Bat known to ■Defeat Roman jurisprudence. {Cicero ad 
 I U i nin) In modern Francs (before the Revolution), 
 there was a distinction between banishment and exile. 
 The former was a punishment assigned by the law, and 
 producing infamy ; the latter a measure of discipline, in- 
 Sated hy the arbitrary act of the monarch (usually through 
 .ettres de cachet). Thus political offenders were fre- 
 juenily exiled to their estates, to a certain distance from 
 court, Ac. 
 EXISTENCE. See Perception, Matbrialism. 
 E'X IT. A word placed in the margin of plays to mark 
 ihe time at which the plaver leaves the stage. 
 
 BXOTJIUM, in Greek Tragedy, signified the end or de- 
 nouement of the play ; or more properly that portion of it 
 (generally the last act) in which the catastrophe is indicated, 
 or the plot begins to be unravelled. 
 :>i 8. Set I'entatecch. 
 EX OFFPCIO. (Lat. by reason of office or duty.) In 
 general language, every act done by an officer either in 
 a of ihe general duty of his office, or in execut- 
 ing some special duty imposed by it, is said to be done ex 
 officio. But, in more strict phraseology, a proceeding ex 
 officio is one taken by an officer of his own will, in execution 
 of what he takes to be the duty of his office ; as, where a 
 justice of the peace demands and takes surety of his own 
 discretion, without the request of the injured party. An 
 ex officio information Is an information at the suit of the 
 king, filed by the attorney-general, without applying to a 
 court for leave. {See Information.) Ex officio criminal 
 informations are employed in cases of libel, sedition, &c, 
 when officially prosecuted. 
 
 EXO'GENOUS. (Gr. «f and yttvouai, I grow.) A 
 term applied to those plants a transverse slice of whose 
 stem exhibits a central cellular substance or pith, an ex- 
 ternal cellular and fibrous ring or bark, and an intermedi- 
 ate woody mass, and certain fine lines radiating from the 
 pith to the bark through the wood, and called medullary 
 rays. They are called Exogens, because they add to their 
 wood by successive external additions ; and are the same 
 as what are otherwise called Dicotyledons. They consti- 
 tute one of the primary classes into which the vegetable 
 world is divided, characterized by their leaves being reticu- 
 lated ; their stems having a distinct deposition of bark, wood, 
 and pith; their embryo with two cotyledons ; and by their 
 (lowers usually formed on a quinary type. 
 
 EXO'MPHALOS. (Gr. t\, and du<pa\6<, the navel.) A 
 hernia or rupture at or near the navel. 
 
 E'XOPHTHA'LMIA. (Gr. tf, an d o<pOa\jxoc, the eye.) 
 The protrusion of the eyeball from the orbit. It is usually 
 the consequence of concussions or blows ; sometimes it is 
 produced by a tumour in the orbit, which gradually pushes 
 the eyeball out of its socket. 
 
 EXOPIIY'LLOIJS. (Gr.tf.and <f>v\\ov,a leaf.) A term 
 invented by Dumortier to be applied to the young leaves of 
 Exosens ; since they are said to be always naked, while 
 those of Endogens sheath each other. 
 
 EXO'PTILES. (Gr. cf,and sr<W, a feather.) A term 
 invented l>y M. Lestiboiidois for Dicotyledonous plants, be- 
 cause their plumula is naked. 
 433 
 
 EXPANSION. 
 
 EXORCISM. (Gr. i^opxigio, I bindor charge upon 
 oath.) The solemn adjuration by which those endowed 
 with certain powers were believed to be able to subject evil 
 spirits to their obedience : more particularly to compel 
 them to leave the bodies of those supposed to be subject 
 to demoniacal possession. The exorcists form one of the 
 minor orders in the church of Rome. 
 
 EXO'RDITJM. (Lat. exordior, / begin an oration.) In 
 Oratory and Literature, the opening part of an oration ; 
 which, according to ancient critics, should be drawn either 
 from the subject itself or from the situation of the speaker; 
 presenting either brief remarks on the general character 
 of the topic on which he is about to deliver himself, or in- 
 sinuations (according to the advice of Cicero), calculated 
 generally to prejudice the audience in favour of the speaker, 
 and against his adversary. 
 
 EXORKIII'Z^E. (Gr. rf, and f>tga,a root.) A term in- 
 vented by Richard to be applied to the embryo of Dicotyl- 
 edons; inasmuch as their radicle always elongates down* 
 wards, directly from the outside of the base of the embryo 
 EXOSMO'SE. (Gr. ef, and oiopoc, impulsion.) The 
 passage of gases, vapours, or liquids through mem- 
 branes or porous media from within outwards. Mr. Du- 
 trochet having found that if two fluids of unequal density 
 are separated by an animal or vegetable membrane, the 
 denser will attract the less dense, through the membrane 
 that divides them : this property he called Endosmose 
 when the attraction is from the outside to the inside ; and 
 Exosmose when it operates from the inside to the outside 
 of the bodv acted upon. 
 
 EXOSTO'ME. (Gr. t\, and aropa, a mouth.) A term 
 invented by Mirbel to denote the passage through the outer 
 intecument of an ovule, commonly called the foramen. 
 
 EXOSTO'SIB. (Gr. ff, from, and oorcov, a bone.) In 
 Anatomy, a swelling or tumour of a bone. 
 
 Exostosis. In Botany, a disease to which the roots and 
 si'ins of trees are subject, when knots or large tumours 
 are formed upon or among the wood. It is caused by a 
 stoppage of growth on the one hand, and an attempt at ex- 
 cessive development on the other. It is from sections of 
 the exostoses of trees that some of the most beautiful wood 
 used by cabinetmakers is obtained. 
 
 EXP'STRA. (Gr. cfoorpa) In Ancient Architecture, 
 a machine for representing the interior part of a building 
 as connected with the scene of a theatre. 
 EXOTERIC. See Esoteric. 
 
 EXOTHE'CIUM. (Gr. rfw, without, and S»;*»), recrp 
 tac'e.) That portion of an anther from which the pollen is In 
 correctly supposed to separate; it is the coatingof the author. 
 EXOTlO. (Gr. tfuruoc, foreign.) Any thing intro- 
 duced to one country from some other country. In gar- 
 dening it is sometimes applied to plants which require 
 protection in winter, or to plants in general which arc not 
 European. 
 
 EXPA'NSION. One of the most common and obvious 
 effects of heat, which expands or enlarges the bulk of all 
 the forms of matter. The expansion of solids by increase 
 of temperature is comparatively small ; but it may be 
 rendered sensible by carefully measuring the dimensions 
 of any substance when cold, and again when heated : an 
 iron bar, for example, fitted to a gauge, which shows its 
 length and breadth, will no longer pass through the aper- 
 tures when heated. Among solids the metals are most 
 expansible and contractile by heat and cold ; but they vary 
 much in this respect, as shown in the following table, 
 which exhibits the change of dimensions which several of 
 them undergo when heated, from the freezing to the boil- 
 ing point of water : — 
 
 Temperature. 
 
 Platinum 
 Steel . 
 Iron . 
 Copper 
 Brass 
 Tin . 
 Lead . 
 Zinc 
 
 32° 212° 
 
 120000 120104 
 
 — 120147 
 
 — 120151 
 
 — 120204 
 
 — 120230 
 
 — 120290 
 
 — 120345 
 
 — 120360 
 
 The average expansion of glass Is very nearly the same 
 as that of platinum. The expansibility of different liquids 
 is also very variable ; ether, for instance, and alcohol, are 
 more expansile than water, and water more than mercury. 
 The expansibility of mercury is applied to a very useful 
 
 furpose in the construction of the common thermometer, 
 n general all liquids expand and contract in pi oportion as 
 they are heated and cooled ; but to this law there is a re- 
 markable and anomalous exception in regard to water. 
 When a large thermometer tube i; filled with water of the 
 temperature of 60°, and placed in a cold situation, or in a 
 freezing mixture of ice and salt, the water goes on shrink- 
 ing in the tube, till it has attained the temperature of about 
 40°; and then, instead of continuing to contract till it 
 I freezes (as is the case with other Uciuids), it slowly expands, 
 2E 
 
EX PARTE. 
 
 and actually rises in the tube until it congeals. In this case, 
 the expansion above 40° and below 40° seems to be equal ; 
 so that water will be of the same bulk at 48° and at 32°. 
 This anomalous expansion of water by cold is productive 
 of some important consequences, considered as a natural 
 operation ; for if water, like other fluids, went on increas- 
 ing in density till it froze, the consequence would be that 
 large bodies of water, instead of being only superficially 
 frozen in winter, would be converted throughout into solid 
 masses of ice. Let us take a fresh water lake as an ex- 
 ample. The eartli being in winter warmer than the air, 
 the heat is withdrawn from the surface of the water by the 
 cold breezes that blow over it ; and the whole body of 
 water has its temperature lowered to 40°, which is the point 
 of its greatest density, and a temperature perfectly con- 
 genial to fish and most other aquatic animals. The cold 
 now continues to operate upon the surface of the water; 
 but, instead of diminishing its bulk, and therefore render- 
 ing it heavier than the warmer water beneath, it expands 
 it, and renders it lighter; so that under these circum- 
 stances a stratum of ice-cold water (at 32°) will be found 
 lying upon the mass of warmer water beneath it (at 40°). 
 The influence of the cold continuing, the surface of the 
 lake will soon freeze, but the water immediately below the 
 superficial covering of ice will be found comparatively 
 warm ; and as water is almost a nonconductor of heat, it 
 will be a long time before the ice attains any thickness ; and 
 the whole body of water, if of any depth, can never freeze 
 throughout, indeed, it will be obvious that the retardation 
 of freezing will be proportional to the depth of water which 
 has to be cooled ; and hence some very deep basins or 
 lakes are scarcely ever even covered by ice. 
 
 As liquids are enlarged and consequently rendered spe- 
 cifically lighter by heat, very different effects are produced 
 by applying heat to different parts of the vessels containing 
 them. If the heat be applied to the bottom of the vessel, 
 it is soon heated equally throughout, and made to boil ; but 
 if the surface only be heated, it may then be boiled and 
 evaporated, while the lower parts remain quite cold. 
 
 Aeriform bodies and vapours are the most expansible 
 forms of matter, and they present an important peculiarity ; 
 for in other substances each individual has its own degree 
 of expansion and contraction, whereas all pure aeriform 
 bodies expand and contract alike ; so that if we accurately 
 determine the expansion and contraction of any one of 
 them, that knowledge applies to all the rest. 100 measures 
 of air, when heated from the freezing to the boiling point 
 of water, suffer an increase of bulk equal to 37 5 parts ; so 
 that 100 cubic feet of air at 32° become dilated to 137J cubic 
 feet at 212°. 
 
 EX PARTE. In Law, of the one part. A commission 
 ex parte in chancery is that which is taken out and ex- 
 ecuted by one side or party alone, on the other party's 
 neglecting or refusing to join. 
 
 EXPECT A'TION OF LIFE. By this term writers on an- 
 nuities and reversions express the mean duration of human 
 life, after a specified age, according to a given table of mor- 
 tality. With regard to an individual of a given age, the 
 expectation of life is the mean number of future years which 
 individuals of that age, one with another, actually live ; 
 those who live longer than that period enjoying as much 
 more life in proportion to their numbers as those who live 
 a shorter time enjoy less. The expectation of life, accord- 
 ing to this definition, differs altogether from what is called 
 the probable life, or the number of years which an indi- 
 vidual has an equal chance of surviving. The latter term 
 denotes the period of lime at the end of which the proba- 
 bility of being alive is equal to the probability of being dead, 
 or is equal to £; and this is manifestly the period in which 
 the number of lives in the table, beginning with any given 
 age, is reduced to one half. For example, if in a given table 
 of mortality we find that 1000 individuals are living at the age 
 of 40, and that of these 500 only are. living at the age of 63, 
 then the probable life of an individual aged 40, according 
 to that table, would be 23 years ; that is to say, it is an even 
 wager whether he will be alive or dead at the end of 23 
 years. The mean life, or expectation of life, is, however, 
 quite different in principle (though in most tables not very 
 different in amount), and depends on the same mathemati- 
 cal probabilities of living over each future year of life, to 
 the last in the table, as are employed in the calculation of 
 life annuities. It is computed as follows : — 
 
 Let the probabilities that a life of a given age will live 
 over, 
 
 1, 2, 3, 4 x years, 
 
 be pi pi ps pi px respectively ; 
 
 than the probability that the life will fail in any given year 
 
 X, IS fix— [ — pj~ 
 
 Now in computing the portion of existence which an in- 
 divid'Ji. may expect to enjoy in respect of any future year 
 x. there are two contingencies to be considered : — 1st, The 
 individual may live over that year, in which case he will 
 enjoy a whole year of life = 1. But the probability of this 
 event is px ; therefore p\r X 1 =.P* >s the portion of time 
 434 > 
 
 EXPIATION. 
 
 he may at present expect to live in respect of that year. 
 2d, Ttife individual may die in the course of that year ; and 
 as the chances of dying at any particular part of the year 
 are equal, we must suppose him to die at the middle of the 
 year; in this case, therefore, he enjoys half ayearof Iife = 
 J. But the probability his death will happen in the xth year 
 
 ispx— l — px ; consequently \(px— l — px "N is the portion 
 
 of time he may hope to live, in respect of that year, on the 
 second contingency. 
 
 Adding the two results together, we gelpx + lCf*~ i— px ) 
 
 = J (px-i -\-p* j for the whole of his expectation of life 
 
 in respect of the :rth year from the present. Substituting 
 successively the numbers 1, 2, 3, &c. for x, in order lo get 
 the expectation for each succeeding year till the last age in 
 the table, and denoting the sum of the expectations by E 
 we find (since po = 1) 
 
 E = i(l + pi + p2 + p3 + &c.) 
 + l(pi +P2+p3 + &c); 
 consequently, 
 
 E = £ -f pi +p2 + p3-f &c (1\ 
 
 Thus it appears that the true value of the expectation of 
 life is equal to the sum of the probabilities of the life en- 
 during through 1, 2. 3, &c. years to the limiting age of Iho 
 table of mortality, increased by £. The labour that would 
 be required to sum this series for every different age is 
 avoided by deducting the expectation of one age from that 
 of the next older, as is usually done in computing annuity 
 tables. Thus, let Ei denote the expectation of life for an in- 
 dividual one year older than the former, and let the proba- 
 bilities of his living over 1, 2, 3, &c. years be respectively 
 51 02 03, &c. ; then we must have 
 
 Ei = § + q\ + 92 + 03 + «kc (2} 
 
 But from the nature of the probabilities in question, 
 pi = piq\ 
 pi = pi 52 
 p\ =.p\ 03, &c. 
 Substituting, therefore, these values in (1), we find 
 
 E = £+pt(l-f 91 + ?i + ?3 -f &c ) (3) 
 
 Whence, on eliminating 71 + 02 + 03 -f &c., from the two 
 equations (2) and (3), we get 
 
 E — i=pi(Ei + i), 
 which is the most convenient form under which the for 
 mula can be put for computation. 
 
 For the explanation of the manner in which the probabil- 
 ities p l ipi, pi, &c, are determined from the ordinary tables 
 of mortality, see Annuity. 
 
 The following table, from Mr. Milne's Treatise on tht 
 Valuation of Annuities and Assura7iccs (vol. ii. p. 565.; 
 shows the expectation of life at every age, according to the 
 law of mortality at Carlisle : — 
 
 Age. 
 
 Expectat. 
 
 Age. 
 
 Expectat. 
 
 Age. 
 
 Expectat. 
 
 Age. 
 
 Expectat.! 
 
 
 
 3872 
 
 26 
 
 3714 
 
 52 
 
 19 68 
 
 78 
 
 612 
 
 1 
 
 44-68 
 
 27 
 
 36-41 
 
 53 
 
 18 97 
 
 79 
 
 5 80 
 
 2 
 
 47-55 
 
 28 
 
 35 69 
 
 54 
 
 18 28 
 
 80 
 
 551 
 
 3 
 
 49-82 
 
 29 
 
 35 00 
 
 55 
 
 17-58 
 
 81 
 
 5-21 
 
 4 
 
 5076 
 
 30 
 
 34 34 
 
 56 
 
 16 89 
 
 82 
 
 4 93 
 
 5 
 
 51-25 
 
 31 
 
 33 68 
 
 57 
 
 16-21 
 
 83 
 
 4 65 
 
 6 
 
 51 17 
 
 32 
 
 33 03 
 
 58 
 
 1555 
 
 84 
 
 4 39 
 
 7 
 
 50 80 
 
 33 
 
 32 36 
 
 59 
 
 14 92 
 
 85 
 
 412 
 
 8 
 
 50-24 
 
 34 
 
 31-68 
 
 60 
 
 1434 
 
 86 
 
 3 90 
 
 9 
 
 49 57 
 
 35 
 
 3100 
 
 61 
 
 13 82 
 
 87 
 
 371 
 
 10 
 
 48-82 
 
 36 
 
 30-32 
 
 62 
 
 13 31 
 
 88 
 
 3 59 
 
 11 
 
 48 04 
 
 37 
 
 29-64 
 
 63 
 
 1281 
 
 89 
 
 3 47 
 
 12 
 
 47-27 
 
 38 
 
 28-96 
 
 64 
 
 12 30 
 
 90 
 
 3-28 
 
 13 
 
 46 51 
 
 39 
 
 23-28 
 
 65 
 
 11 79 
 
 91 
 
 3 26 
 
 14 
 
 45 75 
 
 40 
 
 27-61 
 
 66 
 
 1127 
 
 92 
 
 3 37 
 
 15 
 
 45 00 
 
 41 
 
 26 97 
 
 67 
 
 10 75 
 
 93 
 
 3-48 
 
 16 
 
 44 27 
 
 42 
 
 26-34 
 
 68 
 
 10 23 
 
 94 
 
 3 53 
 
 17 
 
 43 57 
 
 43 
 
 2571 
 
 69 
 
 9 70 
 
 96 
 
 3 53 
 
 18 
 
 42-87 
 
 44 
 
 25 09 
 
 70 
 
 918 
 
 96 
 
 346 
 
 19 
 
 4217 
 
 45 
 
 24 46 
 
 71 
 
 8 65 
 
 97 
 
 3-28 
 
 20 
 
 41-46 
 
 46 
 
 23 82 
 
 72 
 
 816 
 
 98 
 
 3 07 
 
 21 
 
 40-75 
 
 47 
 
 23 17 
 
 73 
 
 7 72 
 
 99 
 
 277 
 
 22 
 
 40 04 
 
 48 
 
 22 50 
 
 74 
 
 7 33 
 
 100 
 
 2-28 
 
 23 
 
 39 31 
 
 49 
 
 2181 
 
 75 
 
 701 
 
 101 
 
 1-79 
 
 24 
 
 3859 
 
 50 
 
 21 11 
 
 76 
 
 6-69 
 
 102 
 
 1-30 
 
 25 
 
 37-86 
 
 51 
 
 20 39 
 
 77 
 
 6-40 
 
 103 
 
 83 
 
 EXPE'CTORANTS. (Lat. expectorare, to expectorate.) 
 Medicines which increase the secretion of the tracheal 
 and bronchial mucus. The term expectoration is applied 
 to any thing cast off from those vessels or from the cells 
 of the luntrs bv spitting or coughing. 
 
 EXPIA'TION (Lat.) signifies, in its most extended 
 meaning, the acts by which a guilty person makes atone 
 ment to religion, morals, or society at large, for any crinv 
 or fault he may have committed, whatever be its nature 
 
EXPILATION. 
 
 or extent. The belief in ilie efficacy of expiation as a 
 means of compensating for a breach of the moral law, 
 formed an important feature in all the religious creeds 
 wiili which we are acquainted. In this respect, there is a 
 wonderful coincidence in the mythological system of the 
 . i lie creed of the Jews, and that of the Christian 
 These ceremonies, of course, were very diversi- 
 fied, and varied with the character of every nation and the 
 nature of the crime which it was intended to expiate, i 
 Among the Greeks and Romans, expiations were some- 
 limes made for whole cities; and, in the more ancient 
 . 10 remove or prevent, or to avert an impending ca- 
 lamity, human victims were immolated. We need here 
 hardly advert to the numerous kinds of expiations In use 
 among the Jews, as the Old Testament is filled with ac- 
 >m ; and under the heads Atonement and Sa- 
 crifice, we have defined the great act of expiation by 
 which the emit of the human race has been atoned for, and 
 onciled to man in the Christian dispensation. 
 I'.M'ILA'TION. In the Roman Law, any injury done 
 to Mm' property of a minor was so designated. 
 
 E'XPLETIVE. (Lat. expleo, I Jill up.) In Composi- 
 tion, chieliy poetical; a word not necessary to the sense, 
 but used merely to fill up the measure of a verse, or give 
 ss to a period. 
 EXPLOSION. (Lat explosio.) In Natural Philoso- 
 phy, a sudden and violent expansion of the parts of any 
 Explosion differs from expansion in this, that 
 whereas the former is always sudden, and only of momen- 
 tary duration, the latter is the effect of some gradual and 
 continued power, acttag uniformly for some considerable 
 lime See Expansion j Matter, Properties op. 
 
 EXl'O'NENT, in Algebra, is used in various senses; 
 thus we say the exponent of a power, the exponent of a 
 rank, the exponent of a ratio. The exponent of a power 
 is a number or algebraic character expressing the degree 
 or elevation of the power to which the quantity is raised. 
 For example, in the expression a*, 4 is the exponent, de- 
 noting that a is raised to the fourth power. Intheexpres- 
 sjn the exponent m is indeterminate, as it may repre- 
 ;<tiy number whatever. The exponent may also be 
 fractional, in which case it denotes not the power, but the 
 
 root of the quantity ; thus a* denotes the third or cube 
 root of a Or it may be negative, in which case it denotes 
 the quotient that ariseB from the division of unit by the 
 quantity raised to that power; for example, o-n is the 
 
 same thing as — . The earliest writers on algebra denoted 
 
 an 
 the powers of numbers by an abbreviation of the name of 
 the power. Harriot repeated the quantity, and for <H wrote 
 aaa a; the present convenient system was introduced by 
 Descartes. 
 
 i'onent of a rank is the number or place of any 
 term in a series; thus, in the series of uneven numbers, 
 1,3. 5. 7. 9, II. 13, 15, Ac, 7 is the exponent of the rank 
 of the term 13, because 13 is the 7th term from the com- 
 mencement. 
 
 \ponent of a geometrical ratio is the quotient 
 that arises from dividing the consequent by the antecedent 
 of the ratio. Thus, in the ratio of 2 to 8, the exponent is 
 ^ = 4; and in the ratio of 8 to 2, the exponent is f = |- 
 mathematicians, however, consider logarithms as 
 the pxnonents of ratios. 
 
 EXPONENTIAL. This term i3 variously applied. The 
 exponential calculus is the method of performing ahehraic 
 Lliotn on exponential quantities, by which is under- 
 stood quantities raised to powers of which the exponents 
 are indeterminate or variable. .Rrponen/ier'curreisa curve 
 defined by an exponential equation, or an equation of the 
 form y=zax, ory = ;rx. Exponential equation is an equa- 
 tion which contains an exponential quantity. Thus y = z* is 
 an exponential equation. The; e equations are commonly 
 resolved by means of logarithms. For example, if we had 
 the equation a* = 6, in which x is the unknown quantity, 
 by taking the logarithms of both sides we should get 
 
 *log a = log. 6, and consequently x = ^— . But this me- 
 
 log. a 
 thod of solution is not always possible ; for in the equation 
 ax-\-h , z = c (and an infinity of others), the value of x can 
 onlv he found bv trial and error. See Logarithm. 
 
 EXrORTA'TION. The act of sending commodities 
 out of one country into another. See Commerce. 
 
 EX POST FACTO. (Lat. literally, by something done 
 afterwards.) A punishment inflicted in consequence of a 
 law made with a view to a particular offence already com- 
 mitted is said to be inflicted ex post facto ; and the phrase 
 "an ex 1 post facto law," is popularly applied to all laws 
 enacted with a retrospective effect, and with intention to 
 produce that effect, which are justly regarded as tyrannical. 
 That species of laws which the Romans termed privilegia, 
 i. e. laws passed in order to impose restrictions on indi- 
 vidual citizens, were frequently ex post facto. The English 
 practice of a bill of pain* and penalties is a species of ex 
 
 EXTRACTION OF ROOTS. 
 
 post facto legislation, and was much animadverted on h 
 the debates which took place on the occasion of its adop- 
 tion against Queen Caroline in 1S20. No ex post facto law 
 can be passed in the U. S. 
 
 EXPOSURE OF CHILDREN. See Foundlings. 
 
 EXPRESSION. (Lat. expressio.) In the Fine Ails, 
 the representation of the various passions of the mind. 
 " Care," saysSir Joshua Reynolds in his Fourth Discourse, 
 " must be taken not to run into particularities. Tlv . 
 pressions alone should be given to the figures which their 
 
 ; ive situations generally produce. Nor is this em 
 each person should also have that expression which men 
 of his rank generally exhibit. The joy or the grief of a 
 character of dignity is not to be expressed in the same 
 manner as a similar passion in a vulgar face." 
 
 E'XTANT. (Lat.) In Literature, something that still 
 exists or is in being. Thus it is said that but part of the 
 writings of Livy, Cicero, Caesar, &c. are extant, lite rest 
 being Inst. 
 
 EX TE'MPORE. (Lat.) A term applied to any thing 
 that is done without premeditation. See Voluntary. 
 
 EXTE'NT, in Law, is a writ of execution (sometimes 
 called an extendi facias), directed to the sheriff, against 
 the body, lands, and goods, or the lands only, of a debtor. 
 Writs of extent were of two kinds— extent in chief, and 
 extent in aid ; to both of which the king was entitled by 
 ancient prerogative, for the purpose of obtaining satisfac- 
 tion of debts originally due to him, or assigned to the 
 crown. The writ of extent in chief is a proceeding by t li- 
 king for the recovery of his own debt, and in which he is 
 the real plaintiff. The writ of extent in aid is also sued c Ul 
 at the instance and for the benefit of the crown against the 
 debtor of a crown debtor; but in this proceeding the kin; 
 is (he nominal plaintiff only. Under this writ Die lands, 
 tenements, and possessions, as well as the person of the 
 defendant, may be taken in execution; and if within seven 
 days he do not liquidate (he debt, a writ of " venditioni 
 exponas is issued to sell the same ;" the crown claiming a 
 priority of satisfaction over every other creditor. 
 
 E'XTRACT. or EXTRACTIVE MATTER. The term 
 extract is applied in pharmacy to the brown substance 
 which remains after the evaporation of certain decoctions 
 or infusions of vegetables ; thus we have extract of bark, 
 extract of rhubarb, and so on. These extracts are usu.'dly 
 mixtures of gum, starch, sugar, or other soluble matters, 
 along with a certain portion of a peculiar vegetable princi- 
 ple of a brown colour, or which becomes so by exposure 
 to air, and which is soluble in water and in alcohol, hut 
 scarcely soluble in ether. It combines with alumina, and 
 is often the basis of brown dyes : it is this principle which 
 chemists call extractive, and which is frequently closely 
 allied in various forms of colouring matter. 
 
 EXTRACT OF LEAD. A term applied to the impure 
 subacetale of lead obtained by boiling litharge in vinegar. 
 It was first used by a surgeon of the name of Goulard, and 
 hence called GouUird's extract of lead. 
 
 EXTRA'CTION OF ROOTS. An operation which 
 consists in finding a certain root of a number or algebraic 
 quantity ; or in finding that number or quantity which 
 multiplied into itself a certain number of times, will pro- 
 duce the given number or quantity. If we take the series 
 of numbers, 
 
 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 
 and multiply each Into itself, we shall obtain the scries ol 
 2d potters or squares, 
 
 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100 ; 
 and multiplying each of these again by its corresponding 
 number in the first column, we get the series of 3a potcets 
 or cubes, 
 
 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729, 1000. 
 
 Taking any one of the first series of numbers, for exam- 
 ple 7, we see that its 2d power (the 1st power is the num- 
 ber itself), or square, is 49, and its 3d power, or cube, 343. 
 Reciprocally, 7 is said to be the 2d or square root of 49, and 
 the 3d or cube root of 343. It is obvious, on inspecting the 
 above series, that out of all the numbers, consisting of one 
 or two digits, there are only nine which are the squares 
 of other whole numbers ; and that of all numbers com- 
 posed of not more than three digits, that is to say, all num- 
 bers up to 999, there are only nine which are the cubes of 
 whole numbers. The roots of all the other whole numbers 
 are not only not integers, but, what is very remarkable, are 
 not expressible by exact fractional numbers, and it is only 
 approximations to'their values that can be found. 
 
 The rules for extracting the square and cube roots of 
 numbers are to be found in every elementary treatise of 
 arithmetic ; but require too many explanations and illus- 
 trations to be introduced here to any good purpose. The 
 extraction of the cube root in particular is an intricate and 
 laborious operation ; and, since any root of a number can 
 be found immediately from a table of logarithms, it is an 
 operation of very little use. It is to be regretted that sc 
 much time as is frequently given to it in our schools shoulri 
 be so unprofitably employed. 
 
EXTRADOS. 
 
 The genera] solution of algebraic equations exceeding the 
 fourth degree, has hitherto resisted the effortsof the greatest 
 mathematicians ; but in ihe case of equations with numeri- 
 cal coefficients (whatever the order of the equation) a 
 value of the unknown quantity, that is, a root of the equa- 
 tion, can always be found by an arithmetical process. A 
 general method of accomplishing this was first given by 
 Vietaj another was proposed by Newton, which has been 
 very commonly employed; but the important discovery 
 by Mr. Horner of Bath of an easy means of performing the 
 arithmetical computations required in Vieta's method has 
 greatly simplified the operation, and in fact rendered the 
 solution of an affected equation of any degree scarcely 
 more laborious than the ordinary process of extracting the 
 cube root. For an account of Horner's method, first pub- 
 'ished in the Philosophical Transactions for 1819, see 
 Young' 8 Theory of Algebraic Equations ; or the Companion 
 to the British Almanac for 1839, in which the reader will 
 find an interesting historical account of the progress of the 
 problem of evolution. 
 
 EXTRA/DOS. The exterior curve of an arch. Ge- 
 nerally the term is used to denote the upper curve of the 
 vi-issoirs, or stones which immediately form the arch. 
 
 EXTRAVAGA'NTES CONSTITUTIONES. In the 
 Canon Law, certain papal constitutions not included in the 
 Corpus Juris Canonici are so called, and comprised in a 
 separate volume. They are those of John XXII. and a few 
 of his successors in the papacy. 
 
 EXTRAVASA'TION. (Lat. extra, external to, and vas, 
 a vessel.) A term applied to fluids when out of their pro- 
 per receptacles or vessels. Thus when blood is thrown 
 out upon the brain, or into any of the cavities of the body, 
 it is said to be extravasated. 
 
 EXTRE'ME. (Lat. extremus.) In Logic, has the same 
 meaning with term, when used in reference to a proposi- 
 tion. The subject and predicate are the two extremes of a 
 proposition, the copula being, as it were, placed between 
 them. In speaking of a syllogism, the extremes are under- 
 stood to mean the extremes or terms of the conclusion. 
 
 Extreme. In Music, a word employed in describing 
 those intervals in which the diatonic distances are increased 
 or diminished by a chromatic semitone. 
 
 EXTREME AND MEAN RATIO. A straight line is 
 said to be divided in extreme and mean ratio when the 
 whole is to the greater part as the greater part to the less ; 
 or when the rectangle contained by the whole line and the 
 smaller segment is equal to the square of the greater seg- 
 ment. Euclid shows how a line may be divided in this 
 manner in the 11th prop, of his 2d book ; and it is by means 
 of this proposition that he constructs the decagon on a 
 given straight line. 
 
 EXTRE'ME ITNCTION. One of the seven sacraments 
 of the Romish church, founded upon the passage in the 
 Epistle of St. James in which he says, "If any be sick 
 among you, let him call upon the elders of the church, and 
 let them pray over him. anointing him with oil in the name 
 of the Lord." (v. 14.) The performance of this ceremony 
 is supposed to purify the soul of the dyingperson from any 
 sins that he may have committed, and which have not been 
 previously expiated by participation in the other means of 
 grace. The Protestants usually answer the textabove cited 
 by continuing the quotation to the next verse, where it is 
 said, " And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the 
 Lord shall raise him up ;" from which they argue that re- 
 ference is made to a miraculous gift which was exercised 
 in the Apostle's time, and has no application to our days. 
 With respect to the usage of antiquity, to which the Ro- 
 manists lay claim, it is answered that the passages to which 
 they refer allude to the ceremony not as a sacrament for 
 the good of the soul, but only as a rite that carried with it 
 health to the body. When the Apostle goes on to say, that 
 the Lord will forgive the sins of the sick man, this evi- 
 dently supposes him to have a lively faith ; and that such 
 faith is the condition of the miraculous cure. 
 
 EXTRE'MITIES. (Lat. extremus.) In Painting and 
 Sculpture, the head, the hands, and the feet. 1 n Zoology, the 
 arms and legs, and analogous members in the lower animals. 
 EXTRO'RSAL. A term used in describing the direc- 
 tion of bodies to denote their being turned from the axis to 
 which they appertain; thus anthers, whose line of dehis- 
 cence is towards the petals, are said to be extrorsaj. 
 
 EXV'VVE. (Lat. cast clothes.) This term was applied 
 by the Roman naturalists and poets to the shed skin of the 
 snake: " Positis exuviis novus coluber,''«ays Virgil. And 
 it is extended in modern zoology to the external layer of 
 the integument of every animal, when it is periodically 
 shed entire or in large portions. The films of mucus 
 thrown off from the external surface of most zoophytes and 
 mollusks may be regarded as exuviae ; also those portions 
 of the snell which are deserted and partitioned off by a 
 new-formed plate, as in the Spondylus varius, and univalve 
 chambered shells ; but the exuvial layers are retained by 
 adhesion to the last secreted portion of the shell. In in- 
 sects the whole integument is shecl generally several times 
 436 
 
 EYE. 
 
 in succession, the last cadysis taking place in the transition 
 from the pupa to the imago, state. In the Crustacea the ex- 
 uvial shell is commonly cast annually ; the cephalolhorax 
 or carapace cracks longitudinally down the back, and the 
 limbs are withdrawn after successive painful efforts ; the 
 lining membrane of the stomach is at the same timn shed. 
 
 Fishes seem to cast off exuvial layers of mucus only ; but 
 in most reptiles the epidermis i3 periodically moulted, 
 either entire or in large coherent masses. In some spe- 
 cies the moulting could only have been detected by careful 
 watching, as the main evidence, the cast skin, is made 
 away with the moment the operation is ended. Mr. Bell 
 thus describes the cadysis of the common toad : — '■ On 
 watching carefully I one day observed a large toad, the skin 
 of which was particularly dry and dull in its colours, with 
 a bright streak down the mesial line of the back ; and on 
 examining further, I discovered a corresponding line along 
 the belly. This proved to arise from an entire slit in the 
 old cuticle, which exposed to view the new and brighter 
 skin underneath. Finding therefore what was about to hap- 
 pen, I watched the whole detail of this curious process. I 
 soon observed that the two halves of the skin thus com 
 pletely divided continued to recede further and further 
 from the centre, and become folded and rugose ; and after 
 a short space, by means of the continued twitching of the 
 animal's body, it was brought down in folds on the sides • 
 the hinder leg, first on one side and then on the other, was 
 brought forward under the arm, which was pressed down 
 upon it; and on the hinder limb being withdrawn, its cuti- 
 cle was left inverted under the arm, and that of the anterior 
 extremity was now loosened, and at length drawn off" by 
 the assistance of the mouth. The whole cuticle was thus 
 detached, and was now pushed by the two hands into the 
 mouth in a little ball, and swallowed at a single gulp." The 
 common snake (Coluber natrix) when in confinement 
 moults as follows : The formation of the new cuticle pro- 
 duces a detachment of the old from the subjacent living 
 parts, and the latter then loses part of its transparency and 
 smoothness. As the cuticle is continued over the cornea, 
 the sight of the serpent is dimmed ; its motions are also in 
 some degree cramped, and it endeavours to free itself of 
 its incumbrance by rubbing the sides of its mouth agains* 
 any rough and hard resisting substance. The old cuticle is 
 thereby detached from the circumference of the month, 
 and is turned back over the head ; and the impediment to 
 vision being thus removed, the snake proceeds with more 
 vigour and rapidity to detach and turn back the cuticle, by 
 repeating the same actions as those with which it com- 
 menced the operation ; and at length it literally creeps out 
 of its skin, which is left inverted, and more or less entire 
 according to the degree of the animal's health and vigour 
 at the time of the operation. The rattle-snake isdescribea 
 as actually inverting and drawing off its own skin. After 
 having nibbed back the cuticle from the head, it throws 
 the posterior part of the body in numerous coils around tha 
 anterior ; one coil is placed in front of the detached part 
 of the integument; and compressing the body strongly, it 
 pushes forward the head and neck, gradually unfolding 
 the coils behind, and stripping off the skin, as it advances 
 forwards. In the warmblooded classes the periodically 
 moulted feathers of birds, and hairs of various species of 
 Mammalia, may be regarded as exuvial deposits; as also 
 the small scales of the scarf-skin which are incessantly cast 
 off in man. 
 
 EYE. In describing the structure of the organ of vi- 
 sion anatomists generally refer to external and internal 
 parts; the former include the eyebrows, or supercilia; the 
 eyelashes, or cilia; and the eyelids, or palpebra. The 
 cartilaginous edge of the eyelids is called the tarsus, in 
 which, and in the inner surface of Ihe eyelids, are small 
 glands which secrete a lubricating serous fluid, called, af 
 ter their discoverer, the glands of Meibomius Near the 
 external comer or canthus of the eye, and in a depression 
 of the frontal bone, are the lachrymal glands (glandules 
 lachrymales) which secrete tears; their ducts open on the 
 inner surface of the upper eyelid. The little projection a' 
 the inner angle of the eye is called the lachrymal carun 
 cle. There are also two small orifices observable at the in- 
 ner angle, one in the upper and one in the lower eyelid, 
 which are called the puncta lachrymaUa; they convey the 
 tears by means of two small tubes to the lachrymal sac, 
 from whence they pass by the nasal duct, which opens un- 
 der the inferior spongy bone into the nose. The conjuno 
 tive membrane of the eye, called also tunica albuginea, or 
 while of the eye, is a membrane which lines the inner eye 
 lids and the fore part of the globe of the eye. The internal 
 parts of the eye are, the sclerotic membrane, which is Iho 
 hard outer case of the globe ; the choroid membrane, which 
 is the interior coat of the sclerotic, beginning around the 
 optic nerve, and proceeding to the margin of the transpa- 
 rent cornea, where it deflects inwardly, forming the iris, 
 the posterior surface of which is called the urea, and 
 its central opening the pupil, which is muscular, admitting 
 of dilatations and contractions so as to modify the quantity 
 
EYE OF A DOME. 
 
 of light admitted into the inner 
 chambers of the eye. The crys- 
 tallint lens is a pellucid body in- 
 cluded in a delicate capsule, and 
 lodged in a concave depression of 
 the front of the vitreous humour, 
 which is a transparent and pellu- 
 cid pulpy texture, filling the ball 
 of the eye behind the lens, and 
 covered externally by the hyaloid 
 or arachnoid membrane. The op- 
 tic nerve enters the back of the 
 eyeball by a perforation in the scle- 
 rotic and choroid coats, and is 
 spread upon the posterior and in- 
 ner surface of the latter, form- 
 ing a pulpy film or nervous matter 
 
 le retina. The eye is moved by six appropriate 
 muscles. In the annexed cut, representing a section of 
 the ball of the eye, a is the sclerotic membrane or coat, b 
 the iris, c the retina, d the optic nerve, e the vitreous hu- 
 Boar, and/ the crystalline lens. See Vision. 
 
 EVE OF A DOME. In Architecture, the circular aper- 
 Itl summit. 
 
 EVE OF A VOLUTE. In Architecture, the circle in 
 its centre. 
 
 EVE'TEETH. The two upper cnspidaii are so called 
 in consequence of the length and direction of their fangs, 
 which extend upwards nearly to the orbit of the eye. 
 
 BYRE, in Law, signifies the court of justices itinerant. 
 The term is in all probability derived from the LaL ii<"r, 
 journey ; as Bracton styles the justices who presided in 
 these courts justiciar ii itinerants. 
 
 F. 
 
 F. The sixth letter of the English and Lalin alphabets ; 
 a labiodental aspirate, "bearing the same relation to the 
 other labiodental aspirate, V, which the letters called 
 tenuet, p, k,t, bear to the media, b, g, d." Il corresponds 
 with the Digamma (quod vide) of the ."Eolian dialect, to 
 which it is closely related both in form and power ; and Is 
 susceptible of a few interchanges, chiefly in the Spanish 
 and Latin languages. 
 
 F, or FA. In Music, the note on the fourth line in the 
 ■lef generally ; but it stands on the third line when 
 kit is Barytone. The ordinary character of the F or 
 
 t>a>.s clefT is 4)-;i which Kepler has much laboured to 
 
 deduce from F itself. 
 
 FA. In Music, one of the syllables invented by Guido 
 Areiiuo to mark the fourth sound of the modern scale of 
 rising thus, ut, re, mi, fa. 
 
 F\BACEA5. (Faba, a bean.) An extensive natural 
 order of plants. Set Leouminos.e. 
 
 FA'BI.E. (Lat. fabula.) In Literature, a term applied 
 originally to every fictitious tale ; but confined in modern 
 ina clas3 of tale3, either in prose or verse, which 
 inculcate a moral precept through the medium of a short 
 fictitious story. In the very ancient Indian Fables of Pilpay, 
 th • Arabian of Lockman, and the Greek of iEsop, the 
 fictitious personages introduced are chiefly animals, endued 
 for the purpose of the story with human faculties and lan- 
 ju age ; and hence modern fabulists have generally intro- 
 duced similar agents in the greater number of their fables. 
 In ibis sense, the fable is synonymous with apologue, ajid 
 i species of the class allegory. Fables are either in prose 
 »r verse ; but if the latter, they will not bear with propriety 
 1 highly poetical or ornamented character. Herder baa 
 divided fables, according to the character of their mean- 
 ing, into three classes : — 1. Theoretic, intended to form or 
 exercise the understanding: 2. Moral, which contain rules 
 for the regulation of the will; 3. Fables of fate or destinv, 
 in which the narrative contains no maxim of self-conduct, 
 is it merely represents a series of contingencies brought 
 in by necessary connection. But it may be doubtful 
 whether every fable, in the sense In which the name is 
 r.illy used, does not belong properly to the second 
 ; the instances cited by Herder as appertaining to the 
 ■irst and third were certainly intended by the inventors to 
 hear a moral meaning. 
 
 FA'BLIAUX. In French literature, the metrical tales of 
 he TrouvSres or earlv poets of the Langue d' Oil, or dia- 
 ect of the north of France ; composed, for the most part, 
 ti the 12th and 13th centuries. 
 
 FACADE. (Fr.) In Architecture, the face or front of 
 »ny building towards a street, court, garden, or other place ; 
 \ term, however, more commonly used to signify the prin- 
 iipal front. 
 
 FACE, in Geometry, denotes in general one of the planes 
 which form the surface of a polyhedron. In Fortification, 
 437 
 
 FACTOR. 
 
 face denotes a line of rampart, or the extent between the 
 outermost points of two adjacent bastions. 
 
 FA'CIAL ANGLE, is that angle which is formed by the 
 concurrence of two ideal lines, one of which passes by the 
 hole in the skull termed the meatus auditorius external to 
 the anterior extremity of the alveolar margin of the upper 
 jaw, while the other extends to the same point from the 
 must prominent part of the forehead. 
 
 FA CIES. (Lat.) In Zoology, a term applied to express 
 the general aspect or external character of an animal, as it 
 appears on a casual or first view ; mostly with reference hi 
 another to which it bears a superficial resemblai. 
 
 In Anatomy, it signifies the anterior part of the skull 
 forming cavities of the orbits, nose, and mouth. 
 
 FA'CIES HI'PPOCRA'TICA. The peculiar expression 
 of countenance which indicates the approach of death ; it 
 has been accurately described by Hippocrates, whence the 
 above common medical term. 
 
 l'A'CINI'. b Architecture, that part of the work it: a 
 building seen by a spectator ; but the term is usually em- 
 ployed to signify a better sort of material which masks an 
 inferior one internally. 
 
 FAC SIMILE (Lat. facere, to make, and simile, like), ex- 
 pressed in French by fais-semblaUe, signifies an exact* and 
 fai< I. fill copy of any writing, engraving, or other work of art. 
 
 FA'CTION. (Lat.) In Ancient History, an appellation 
 given to the different troops or companies of combatants 
 in the games of the circus. Of these tactions there were 
 four, — the green, blue, red, and white ; to which two others 
 were said to have been added by the emperor Domilian, — 
 the purple and the yellow. In the time of Justinian 40,000 
 persons were killed in a contest between two of these 
 factions ; so that they were at last suppressed by universal 
 consent. The term faction is applied, also, to a more 
 general sense, to any party in a state which attempt* with- 
 out adequate motives to disturb the public repose, or to 
 assail the measures of government with uncompromising 
 opposition. In the ancient Greek republics, faction 
 carried to an extent unparalleled in modern time*, •• We 
 may always observe," says Hume (.E*$ajf», vol. i. 423.), 
 "where one party (faction) prevailed, whether the nobles 
 or people (for I can see no difference in this respect), that 
 they immediately butchered all of the opposite party that 
 fell into their hands, and banished such as had been so 
 fortunate as to escape their fury. No form of process, no 
 law, no trial, no pardon." The middle ages were distin- 
 guished chiefly by two factions, the Guelfs and Guibelins, 
 who long kept Italy in a state of alarm. In the present 
 day, in England, the term/ocfion is bandied about between 
 the three great parties ol the country, the Whigs, Tories, 
 and Radicals, being applied indiscriminately by the ad- 
 herents of one party to those of another. See Pahtv. 
 
 FA'CTOR. (Lat. facio.) In Mercantile Law, a mer- 
 cantile agent, who is entrusted with the possession of the 
 properly which he is commissioned to dispose of. Under 
 the law which obtained previously to the passing of the 
 iict 6 G. 4. c. 94. it was field that a factor, as such, had 
 authority to sell only, and not to pledge, the goods of his 
 principal ; and consequently, that a party who had made a 
 bona, fide advance to the factor on the credit of the goods 
 was liable to restore them to the principal without his be- 
 ing bound to repay the advance. By that statute it is 
 enacted, that any person intrusted, for the purpose of con- 
 signment or sale, with goods, &c, and in whose name such 
 shall have been shipped, shall be deemed the true owner, 
 so far as to entitle the consignee to a lien thereon in respect 
 of any money or negotiable security advanced by such con- 
 signee for the use of the person in whose name such goods, 
 &c. shall have been shipped ; provided the consignee has no 
 notice, by bill of lading or otherwise, that such party is not 
 the true owner. Various other provisions are added by 
 the same act, to the effect that persons in possession of 
 bills of lading shall be deemed owners, so far as to make 
 valid contracts; that no person can acquire a security upon 
 goods in the hands of an agent for an antecedent debt be- 
 yond the amount of the agent's interest in the goods ; that 
 persons may contract with known agents in the ordinary 
 course of business, or out of that course, if within the 
 agent's authority ; that persons may accept and take goods 
 in pledge from known agents ; and a right is preserved to 
 the true owner to follow his goods, while in the hands of 
 his agent or agent's assignee, in ca3e of the bankruptcy of 
 such agent or assignee. A factor has a general lien on 
 goods consigned to him, not only for incidental charges, but 
 as an item of mutual account for the balance due to him, 
 as long as he remains in possession. 
 
 In Scotland, the term factor is used synonymously with 
 steward in England. 
 
 Factor, in Arithmetic and Algebra, is the name given to 
 each of the quantities which we multiply into one another 
 in order to form (.facere) a product ; that is to say, to the 
 multiplicand and the multiplier. Factors are otherwise 
 called divisors, especially in speaking of a number which 
 is regarded as the product of several others. 
 
FACTORY 
 
 FA'CTORY. Establishments supplied with machinery 
 or the purpose of carrying on any branch of manufacture, 
 ire usually called factories. Hence we have woollen, cot- 
 on, flax, <&c. factories, according to the different branches 
 of industry carried on in each. Factories on an extensive 
 scale are to be found only in countries far advanced in civi- 
 lization, and where the arts are highly improved. In rude 
 countries, and in the earlier stages of society, manufac- 
 tures are necessarily carried on upon a small scale, with 
 very Imperfect instruments, and little or no division of la- 
 bour. In factories, on the contrary, the most improved 
 machinery is introduced ; every individual has a peculiar 
 task to perform, in the execution of which he cannot fail to 
 acquire the greatest proficiency. We need not, therefore, 
 be surprised to learn that, wherever factories are generally 
 introduced, domestic manufactures are totally superseded, 
 as all classes find it to be more for their advantage to buy the 
 products furnished by the factories than to attempt lo sup- 
 ply themselves with similar products by their own labour. 
 
 Many complaints have been made as to the injurious 
 influence of factory labour on the health of the labourers, 
 and especially of the young persons, employed in them. 
 This, however, is a subject as to which there has been 
 much misrepresentation. Children, that is, young persons 
 between the ages of nine and fourteen years, as well as 
 adults, are largely employed in factories; and, while the 
 health and morals of the latter are said to suffer severely, 
 the former have been described as being stunted in their 
 growth, and rendered decrepit and miserable for life, by the 
 prolonged confinement, drudgery, and ill treatment to 
 which they are exposed. These representations of the in- 
 jurious effects of what has been called white slavery, were 
 at length embodied in a Report of a Committee of the House 
 of Commons in 1832. We believe, however, that we run 
 little risk in affirming that this report contains more false 
 statements and exaggerated representations than any other 
 document of the kind ever laid before the legislature. It 
 made a great sensation ; and the discussions to which it, or 
 rather the proposal that grew out of it, for limiting factory 
 labour to ten hours a day, gave rise, induced government 
 to appoint a commission to inquire, on the spot, into the 
 actual condition of the labourers, and especially of the 
 children, employed in factories. This commission col- 
 lected a great deal of valuable and authentic information ; 
 and much light has since been thrown on the question of 
 factory labour. It were absurd to pretend, as some have 
 done, that the statements and representations as to its per- 
 nicious influence have been proved to be wholly destitute 
 of foundation ; but they have been shown to be very greatly 
 exaggerated. That great inattention to cleanliness, and 
 some very revolting abuses, have existed in some factories, 
 particularly in those of the smaller class, is quite certain ; 
 but the instances of abuse bear but a small proportion to 
 the total number ; and, speaking generally, factory work- 
 people, including non-adults, are as healthy and contented 
 as any class of the community obliged to earn their bread 
 in the sweat of their brow. 
 
 We do not, however, know that we should object to the 
 total exclusion of children, from nine to thirteen years of 
 ace, from factories, provided we had any reasonable secu- 
 rity that they would be moderately wel! attended to and 
 instructed at home. But. no such security is to be looked 
 for. The parents of such children frequently want the 
 ability, oftener the opportunity, and sometimes the wish, 
 to keep them at home in any thing like a decent condition ; 
 to provide thetn with instruction, or to impress on them 
 the importance of habits of cleanliness, sobriety, and in- 
 dustry. Were they turned out of the factories, few would 
 either go to the country or to school. Four-fifths of them 
 would be thrown loose upon the streets, to acquire a taste 
 for idleness, and to be early initiated in the vicious prac- 
 tices prevalent amongst the dregs of the populace in Man- 
 chester, Glasgow, Leeds, and other great towns. What- 
 ever may be the slate of society in these towns, we hesitate 
 not to say that it would hare been ten times worse bat for 
 the factories. They have been their best and most im- 
 portant academies. Resides taking the children out of 
 harm's way, they have imbued them with regular, orderly, 
 and industrious habits. Their earnings are considerable, 
 and are a material assistance to their parents ; at the same 
 time that they make them perform their tasks with a zeal 
 and alacrity that is rarely manifested by apprentices serv- 
 ing without pay, merely that they may learn some art, 
 trade, or mystery. Many factories have also day schools, 
 >r Sunday schools, or both, attached to them, which the 
 children attend. But, independently of this, the training 
 they undergo in factories is of inestimable value, and is 
 not more conducive to their own interests than to those of 
 the public. 
 
 Besides supposing that the health of the population is 
 injured by the extension of manufactures, it has been sup- 
 posed that the extreme subdivision of labour in manufac- 
 turing establishments, and the undivided attention which 
 every one employed in them must give to the single opera- 
 438" 
 
 tion in which he is engaged, has a most pernicious influ 
 ence over the mental faculties. The genius of the mastei 
 is said to be cultivated, but that of the workmen to be con 
 demned to perpetual neglect. •' Many mechanical arts," 
 says Dr. Ferguson (Essay on Civil Society, p. 303), " re- 
 quire no capacity ; they succeed best under a total suppres- 
 sion of sentiment and reason ; as ignorance is the moihei 
 of industry as well as of superstition. Reflection and fancy 
 are subject to err; but a habit of moving the hand or the 
 foot is independent of either. Manufactures accordingly 
 prosper most when the head is least consulted, anil where 
 the workshop may, without any great effort of imagination, 
 be considered as an engine, the parts of which are men." 
 Similar statements have been made by others. Even Dr. 
 Smith, who lias given so beautiful an exposition of the 
 benefits derived from the division of employments, has in 
 this instance concurred with the popular opinion, and has 
 not hesitated lo affirm that constant application to one par- 
 ticular occupation in a large manufactory "necessarily 
 renders the workmen as stupid and ignorant as it is pos- 
 sible to make a human being." Nothing, however, can be 
 more marvellously incorrect than these representations. 
 Instead of its being true that the workmen employed in 
 manufacturing establishments are less intelligent and acute 
 than those employed in agriculture, the fact is distinctly 
 and competely the reverse. The weavers and other me- 
 chanics of Glasgow, Manchester, and Birmingham, possess 
 far more information than is possessed by the agricultural 
 labourers of any county in the empire. And this is really 
 what a less prejudiced inquiry into the subject would have 
 led us to anticipate. The various occupations in which the 
 husbandman has successively to engage, their constant 
 liability lo be affected by so variable a power as the weather, 
 and the perpetual change in the appearance of the objects 
 which daily meet hiseyes, and with which he is conversant, 
 occupy his attention, and render him a stranger to that 
 ennui and desire for extrinsic and adventitious excitemenl 
 which must ever be felt by those who are constantly en- 
 gaged in burnishing the point of a pin, or in performing the 
 same endless routine of precisely similar operations. This 
 want of excitement cannot, however, be so cheaply o r ef- 
 fectually gratified in any way as it may be by cull 
 that is, by stimulating, the mental powers. Workmen in 
 general have no time for dissipation ; and if they had, the 
 wages of labour are too low, and the propensity to save and 
 accumulate too powerful, to allow of any large propor- 
 tion of them seeking to divert themselves by indulging in 
 riot and excess. They are thus driven to seek for recrea- 
 tion in mental excitement ; and their siluation affords them 
 every facility for amusing and diverting themselves in this 
 manner. Agricultural labourers, spread over a wide extent 
 of country, are without the means of assembling, except, or. 
 some rare occasions, for the purpose either of amusement 
 or instruction ; but, by working together, those engaged in 
 manufacturing establishments have constant opportunities 
 of discussing all topics of interest and importance. They 
 are thus gradually trained to habits of thinking and reflec- 
 tion ; their intellects are sharpened by the collision of con- 
 flicting opinions ; and a small contribution from each indi- 
 vidual enables them to establish lectureships and libraries, 
 and to obtain a large supply of newspapers and periodica) 
 publications. But whatever doubt may exist respecting 
 the cause, whether it be ascribed to the better elementary 
 instruction of the lower classes in towns and villages, or to 
 the circumstances under which Ihey are placed in after 
 life, there can be none as to the fact that the intelligence 
 of manufacturing workmen has increased according as 
 their numbers have increased, and as their employments 
 have been more and more subdivided. There is not, we 
 apprehend, any real ground for supposing that they were 
 ever less intelligent than the agriculturists; though, what 
 ever may have been the case formerly, none will now ven- 
 ture to affirm that they are inferior to them in mental 
 acquirements, or that they are mere machines without 
 sentiment or reason. 
 
 No statutory restrictions respecting the employment of 
 children in the mills and factories o? the United Kingdom 
 existed until the year 1302, when an act of parliament was 
 passed (42 Geo. 3.) for the preservation of the health and 
 morals of apprentices and others employed in cotton ami 
 other factories; and directing the magistrates to report whe- 
 ther the factories were conducted according to law ; and to 
 adopt such sanatory regulations as they might think fit. 
 This act wa3 followed, in 1816, by an act, generally called 
 Sir Robert Peel's Act, imposing various regulations on the 
 employment of children in cotton-mills. 
 
 Both of these acts were repealed in 1831 by an act, 1 & ?. 
 Will. 4. c. 39., commonly called Sir John Hobhonse's Act. 
 which provided that in cotton factories, to which alone it 
 related, no child could legally be employed till it had at- 
 tained the age of 9 years; and that no person under 13 
 years of age could be suffered to remain in the factories 
 more than 12 hours in one day ; and that on Saturdays 
 they should only be employed in the factories for 9 hours 
 
FACTORY. 
 
 Account of all the Cottton, Woollen, Worsted, Flax, and Silk Mills or Factories in each County of England and Wales, and 
 in the Kingdom, in the year 1838 ; specifying the Amount and Description of the Moving Power, and the Number, Age, and 
 Sex of the Persona employed in the same : compiled from Returns of the Factory Inspectors, printed by Order of t!is 
 House of Commons in 1839. 
 
 1 
 
 No.of Mills. Moving Power. 
 
 Actual 
 Power 
 
 Persons employed. 
 
 
 
 as 1 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 tTn'te 
 
 Ages 
 
 Ages 
 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Counties. 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Total 
 Horse 
 Power. 
 
 em- 
 ployed. 
 
 * Vis 
 
 of 
 
 Age. 
 
 between 
 
 9 and 
 
 13. 
 
 between 
 
 13 and 
 
 IS. 
 
 Ages 
 
 above 
 
 18. 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 En- 
 gine!. 
 
 Horse 
 Power. 
 
 Wheels. 
 
 Horse 
 Power. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Fe- ' 
 males. 
 
 England- Cotton Mills 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chester 
 
 154 
 
 12 
 
 210 
 
 6,921 
 
 60 
 
 1,726 
 
 8,647 
 
 7,104 
 
 
 1,190 
 
 11,970 
 
 23,192 
 
 17,676 
 
 18,676 
 
 Cumberland 
 
 
 13 
 
 . . 
 
 11 
 
 293 
 
 6 
 
 66 
 
 359 
 
 359 
 
 
 21 
 
 764 
 
 1,200 
 
 720 
 
 1,265 
 
 Derby 
 
 
 76 
 
 7 
 
 56 
 
 960 
 
 91 
 
 2,133 
 
 3,098 
 
 2,763 
 
 
 727 
 
 3,721 
 
 6,014 
 
 4,231 
 
 6,231 
 
 Gloucester • 
 
 
 1 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 
 . 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 
 • 
 
 21 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 
 1,125 
 
 03 1,C 
 
 29,909 
 
 272 
 
 3,558 
 
 33,467 
 
 33,422 
 
 
 7,579 
 
 08,602 
 
 96,962 
 
 69,889 
 
 82,234 
 
 Leicester • 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 36 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 
 - 
 
 102 
 
 142 
 
 54 
 
 190 
 
 Middlesex - 
 
 
 11 
 
 . ■ 
 
 11 
 
 131 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 131 
 
 131 
 
 
 14 
 
 212 
 
 312 
 
 289 
 
 250 
 
 Norfolk • 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 
 • 
 
 54 
 
 76 
 
 6 
 
 124 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 9 
 
 170 
 
 9 
 
 137 
 
 307 
 
 307 
 
 
 34 
 
 564 
 
 862 
 
 454 
 
 1,006 
 
 Salop 
 
 Stafford 
 
 
 1 
 
 - • 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 . 
 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 24 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 4 
 
 139 
 
 14 
 
 357 
 
 496 
 
 496 
 
 
 230 
 
 653 
 
 1,190 
 
 734 
 
 1,344 1 
 
 Surrey 
 
 
 3 
 
 . . 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 . 
 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 
 • 
 
 60 
 
 128 
 
 78 
 
 HO 1 
 
 Warwick - 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 BO 
 
 . 
 
 
 155 
 
 17} 
 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 67 
 
 43 
 
 41 < 
 
 York, ft. of W. Riding 
 
 69 
 
 
 31 
 
 619 
 
 38 
 
 515 
 
 1,134 
 
 1,134 
 
 
 394 
 
 1 fi't'i 
 
 2,177 
 
 2,171 
 
 2,055' 
 
 York, W. Riding 
 Wales. 
 
 100 
 
 • ■ 
 
 67 
 
 1,170 
 
 83 
 
 H0| 
 
 2,150} 
 
 2,07 1} 
 
 
 744 
 
 3,327 
 
 4,172 
 
 3,491 
 
 4,722' 
 
 ...__ | 
 
 1,589 
 
 85 
 
 1,422 
 
 40,599 
 
 572 
 
 9,477* 
 
 50.066} 
 
 47,917 
 
 
 10,942 
 
 81,671 
 
 125.538 
 
 09,800 
 
 118,2861 
 
 Flint .... 
 
 Totals 
 Eng land. — Woollen. 
 Chester 
 
 5 
 
 • • 
 
 7 
 
 103 
 
 5 
 
 140 
 
 248 
 
 144 
 
 
 78 
 
 395 
 
 637 
 
 376 
 
 634| 
 
 1,594 
 
 
 1,429 
 
 40,697 
 
 577 
 
 9,617*. 
 
 50,314} 
 
 48,061 
 
 
 11,020 
 
 82,066 
 
 126,075 
 
 100,242 
 
 118,920 
 
 13 
 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 81 
 
 96 
 
 96 
 
 
 30 
 
 54 
 
 _ 90 
 
 135 
 
 ~39 
 
 Cornwall • 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 45* 
 
 45} 
 
 42 
 
 
 1 
 
 ■ 
 
 117 
 
 9 
 
 197 
 
 Cumberland 
 
 
 tf 
 
 o 
 
 
 . 
 
 15 
 
 135" 
 
 135 
 
 135 
 
 
 53 
 
 105 
 
 116 
 
 176 
 
 98 
 
 Derby 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 31 
 
 37 
 
 20 
 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 31 
 
 4 
 
 Devon 
 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 521 
 
 521 
 
 469| 
 
 
 m 
 
 586 
 
 938 
 
 an 
 
 1,450 
 
 Dors'-t 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 23 
 
 26 
 
 29 
 
 29 
 
 Durham 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 49 
 
 39 
 
 
 21 
 
 37 
 
 31 
 
 31 
 
 A 
 
 Essex 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 • 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 
 96 
 
 29 
 
 49 
 
 843} 
 
 219 
 
 1,623} 
 
 2,472 
 
 1,987} 
 
 
 91 
 
 2,010 
 
 3,314 
 
 2,G77 
 
 2,738 
 
 Hampshire 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 
 - 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 Hereford - 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 Kent - 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 
 . 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 r - 
 
 
 101 
 
 
 61 
 
 1,024 
 
 70 
 
 607 
 
 1,631 
 
 1,631 
 
 
 947 
 
 1,726 
 
 2,274 
 
 3,086 
 
 1,861 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 - 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 • 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 Middlesex - 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 Monmouth 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 10 
 
 25 
 
 25 
 
 19 
 
 
 25 
 
 25 
 
 21 
 
 34 
 
 37 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 91 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 9} 
 
 9} 
 
 
 20 
 
 35 
 
 66 
 
 83 
 
 33 
 
 Northampton 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 Northumberland 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 38 
 
 30 
 
 23 
 
 Oxford 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 108 
 
 114 
 
 113 
 
 
 26 
 
 146 
 
 04 
 
 187 
 
 89 
 
 Salop 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 4 
 
 38 
 
 33 
 
 34 
 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 30 
 
 oa 
 
 4 
 
 Somerset - 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 13 
 
 260 
 
 41 
 
 372 
 
 032 
 
 545 
 
 
 179 
 
 773 
 
 1,181 
 
 1,188 
 
 945 
 
 Surrey 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 as 
 
 2 
 
 36 
 
 72 
 
 il 
 
 
 3 
 
 38 
 
 29 
 
 63 
 
 I 
 
 Westmoreland 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 5 
 
 107 
 
 14 
 
 123 
 
 230 
 
 230 
 
 
 41 
 
 198 
 
 143 
 
 201 
 
 181 
 
 Wilts - 
 
 
 53 
 
 2 
 
 39 
 
 718 
 
 56 
 
 412 
 
 1,130 
 
 807 
 
 
 62 
 
 1,250 
 
 1,916 
 
 1,976 
 
 1,252 
 
 York, ex. of W.Riding 
 
 63 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 2 IS 
 
 52 
 
 424 
 
 672 
 
 672 
 
 
 165 
 
 683 
 
 620 
 
 917 
 
 451 
 
 York, W. Riding 
 Walbs. 
 
 543 
 
 
 362J 
 
 7,492 
 
 191 
 
 2,067 
 
 9,559 
 
 9,302 
 
 ■ 
 
 3,617 
 
 9,558 
 
 12,991 
 
 17,818 
 
 8,362 
 
 1,029 
 
 47 
 
 659J 
 
 10,838 
 
 777 
 
 6,774 
 
 17,612 
 
 16,3091 
 
 29} 
 
 1 
 
 6,613 
 
 17,330 
 
 24,118 
 
 29,157 
 
 17,908 
 
 Brecon 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 . 
 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 31 
 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 46 
 
 43 
 
 34 
 
 Cardigan - 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 Carmarthen 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 
 . 
 
 21 
 
 26 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 
 30 
 
 34 
 
 33 
 
 721 
 
 25 
 
 Denbigh 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 41 
 
 41 
 
 35 
 
 
 27 
 
 66 
 
 103 
 
 146 
 
 60 
 
 Glennorgan 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 51* 
 
 55} 
 
 48} 
 
 
 50 
 
 40 
 
 60 
 
 56 
 
 84 
 
 Merioneth • 
 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 54 
 
 54 
 
 48 
 
 
 18 
 
 60 
 
 66 
 
 75 
 
 501 
 216 
 
 Monteomery 
 
 61 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 66 
 
 262 
 
 284 
 
 253 
 
 
 174 
 
 MB 
 
 187 
 
 507 
 
 Radnor 
 
 Totals. 
 Enolamd. — Worsted. 
 
 3 
 
 1,179 
 
 1 
 
 58 
 
 
 • 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 8 
 
 5C3 f 
 
 10,864 
 
 936 
 
 7,261* 
 
 18,125} 
 
 16,827} 
 
 i 
 
 1 5,943 
 
 17,917 
 
 24,636 
 
 30,113 
 
 78,387 
 
 Chester 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Derby 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 
 64 
 
 32 
 
 39 
 
 Durham 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 116 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 136 
 
 136 
 
 . . 
 
 36 
 
 209 
 
 187 
 
 130 
 
 302 
 
 Lancaster ... 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 1SI 
 
 5 
 
 80 
 
 261 
 
 261 
 
 
 68 
 
 419 
 
 437 
 
 337 
 
 587 
 
 Leicester - 
 
 26 
 
 
 25 
 
 421 
 
 
 . 
 
 421 
 
 409 
 
 . . 
 
 72 
 
 679 
 
 983 
 
 662 
 
 1,072 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 . . 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 
 90 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 102 
 
 192 
 
 . . 
 
 38 
 
 223 
 
 124 
 
 86 
 
 299 
 
 Northampton 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 
 13 
 
 24 
 
 20 
 
 11 
 
 46 
 
 Northumberland 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 75 
 
 I 
 
 25 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 . . 
 
 . 
 
 154 
 
 209 
 
 150 
 
 213 
 
 Salon 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 
 . 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 
 
 25 
 
 32 
 
 44 
 
 22 
 
 79 
 
 Stafford 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 33 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 
 . 
 
 40 
 
 TO 
 
 51 
 
 65 
 
 Warwick - 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 - 
 
 . 
 
 21 
 
 20 
 
 
 . 
 
 32 
 
 104 
 
 56 
 
 80 
 
 Worcester - 
 
 9 
 
 
 3 
 
 10G 
 
 9 
 
 93 
 
 199 19-2 
 
 
 63 
 
 252 
 
 381 
 
 156 
 
 540 
 
 York,ex ofW. Riding 
 
 6 
 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 5 
 
 70 
 
 95 
 
 95 
 
 . . 
 
 57 
 
 11,170 
 
 142 
 
 102 
 
 267| 
 
 \ork.W. Riding 
 
 342 
 
 416 
 
 
 225f 
 
 4,767 
 
 87 
 
 929 
 
 5,696 
 
 5,325 
 
 
 5 4,142 
 
 619 
 
 10,468 
 
 6.890 
 
 19,341: 
 
 .1 
 
 Totals. 
 
 2 
 
 233; 
 
 5.863 
 
 115 i 1,313 
 
 7,176 
 
 6.P57 
 
 
 5 4 529 
 
 13883 
 
 13.217 
 
 8.694 
 
 22,940] 
 
 439 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FACTORY. 
 
 TABLE.— continued. 
 
 1 
 
 No.of Mills. 
 
 Moi 
 
 ing Power. 
 
 
 Actual 
 Power 
 
 Persons 
 
 employed. 
 
 
 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 Unrierl AeeB 
 
 Ages 
 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 & 
 E 
 W 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Horse 
 Power. 
 
 em- 
 ployed 
 
 9 Yr 
 
 of 
 
 Agt 
 
 s between 
 
 9 and 
 
 13. 
 
 between 
 
 13 and 
 
 18. 
 
 Ages 
 
 above 
 
 18. 
 
 
 
 
 En- 
 gines. 
 
 Horse 
 Power. 
 
 Wheels. 
 
 Horse 
 Power. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Fe- 
 males. 
 
 England. — Flax. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 
 9 
 
 . . 
 
 2 
 
 66 
 
 8 
 
 97 
 
 163 
 
 163 
 
 
 16 
 
 144 
 
 206 
 
 57 
 
 309 j 
 
 Derby 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 31 
 
 31 
 
 
 15 
 
 40 
 
 41 
 
 23 
 
 73j 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 51 
 
 51 
 
 45 
 
 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 72 
 
 10 
 
 91 1 
 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 72 
 
 21 
 
 202 
 
 274 
 
 214 
 
 
 19 
 
 250 
 
 387 
 
 113 
 
 543 i 
 
 Durham 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 126 
 
 2 
 
 35 
 
 161 
 
 161 
 
 
 
 164 
 
 258 
 
 100 
 
 3221 
 
 Gloucester 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 63 
 
 
 - 
 
 63 
 
 39 
 
 
 2 
 
 66 
 
 71 
 
 18 
 
 121 
 
 Hampshire 
 
 2 
 
 • - 
 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 34 
 
 3 
 
 P3 
 
 Kent .... 
 
 1 
 
 - . 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 
 - 
 
 37 
 
 38 
 
 37 
 
 
 Lancaster - 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 480 
 
 3 
 
 42 
 
 522 
 
 522 
 
 
 78 
 
 1,392 
 
 1,411 
 
 1,083 
 
 L7J.fi 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 1 
 
 • - 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 29 
 
 19 
 
 4:1 
 
 Middlesex - 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 68 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 70 
 
 56 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 57 
 
 10 
 
 53 
 
 Northumberland 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 74 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 86 
 
 86 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 132 
 
 42 
 
 210 
 
 Salop 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 116 
 
 
 • 
 
 116 
 
 116 
 
 
 101 
 
 342 
 
 358 
 
 369 
 
 432 
 
 Somerset - 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 67 
 
 16 
 
 124 
 
 191 
 
 138 
 
 
 11 
 
 189 
 
 227 
 
 64 
 
 363 
 
 Surrey 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 10 . 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 4 
 
 37 
 
 Westmoreland - 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 70 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 94 
 
 94 
 
 
 32 
 
 213 
 
 204 
 
 185 
 
 264 
 
 York, ex. of W. Riding 
 
 31 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 153 
 
 43 
 
 466 
 
 619 
 
 619 
 
 
 312 
 
 770 
 
 999 
 
 751 
 
 1,330 
 
 York, \V. Riding 
 
 Totals. 
 England. — Silk. 
 Berks 
 
 60 
 
 
 59 
 
 1,709 
 
 3 
 
 32J 
 
 1.741 i 
 
 1,525* 
 
 
 831 
 
 3,396 
 
 3,346 
 
 2,489 
 5,377 
 
 5,084 
 11,194 
 
 178 
 
 11 
 
 125 
 
 3,134 
 
 111 
 
 1,1304. 
 
 4,264* 
 
 3,891 4. 
 
 " 
 
 1,420 
 
 7,260 
 
 7,891 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 . 
 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 30 
 
 
 1 48 
 
 57 
 
 73 
 
 28 
 
 151 
 
 Bucks 
 
 2 
 
 
 o 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 
 8 65 
 
 36 
 
 9 
 
 65 
 
 53 
 
 Chester 
 
 92 
 
 12 
 
 81 
 
 794 
 
 28 
 
 240 
 
 1,034 
 
 786 
 
 ■1; 
 
 A 2,709 
 
 4,154 
 
 4,515 
 
 4,870 
 
 6,962 
 
 Derby 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 178 
 
 2 
 
 64 
 
 1844 
 
 204 
 
 I 
 
 7 640 
 
 S39 
 
 1,690 
 
 1,013 
 
 2.20:: 
 
 Devon ... 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 72 
 
 72 
 
 48 
 
 
 4 79 
 
 119 
 
 203 
 
 62 
 
 343 
 
 Dorset 
 
 6 
 
 . . 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 38 
 
 46 
 
 40 
 
 < 
 
 4 72 
 
 , 92 
 
 125 
 
 37 
 
 296 
 
 Essex • 
 
 7 
 
 
 6 
 
 77 
 
 6 
 
 59 
 
 136 
 
 129 
 
 
 6 233 
 
 561 
 
 641 
 
 204 
 
 1,237 
 
 Gloucester • 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 54. 
 
 54 
 
 H 
 
 
 1 62 
 
 27 
 
 23 
 
 22 
 
 101 
 
 Hampshire - 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 
 3 56 
 
 79 
 
 74 
 
 21 
 
 201 
 
 Hertford - 
 
 6 
 
 
 5 
 
 41 
 
 4 
 
 52 
 
 93 
 
 93 
 
 1 
 
 >6 272 
 
 247 
 
 209 
 
 3G7 
 
 417 
 
 Kent .... 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 
 I 
 
 11 
 
 28 
 
 2 
 
 38 
 
 Lancaster • 
 
 31 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 529 
 
 5 
 
 36 
 
 565 
 
 557 
 
 ! 
 
 >9 1,176 
 
 2,043 
 
 2,283 
 
 1,689 
 
 3,002 
 
 Middlesex ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 
 2 44 
 
 64 
 
 44 
 
 33 
 
 121 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 120 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 120 
 
 t 
 
 '6 329 
 
 990 
 
 929 
 
 163 
 
 2,112 
 
 Nottingham 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 29 
 
 
 8 110 
 
 129 
 
 192 
 
 177 
 
 272 
 
 Somerset - 
 
 24 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 125 
 
 19 
 
 149 
 
 274 
 
 235 
 
 If 
 
 6 560 
 
 559 
 
 780 
 
 406 
 
 1,659 
 
 Stafford 
 
 12 
 
 a 
 
 10 
 
 103 
 
 2 
 
 35 
 
 138 
 
 122 
 
 I 
 
 >S 394 
 
 441 
 
 601 
 
 508 
 
 986 
 
 Suffolk 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 
 9 198 
 
 160 
 
 88 
 
 47 
 
 418 
 
 Surrey 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 8 22 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 44 
 
 Warwick • 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 53 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 65 
 
 58 
 
 
 99 
 
 133 
 
 303 
 
 218 
 
 317 
 
 Wilts .... 
 
 5 
 
 . . 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 26 
 
 44 
 
 39 
 
 
 7 74 
 
 109 
 
 160 
 
 26 
 
 324 
 
 Worcester - 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 3S4 
 
 i 
 
 6 97 
 
 75 
 
 116 
 
 68 
 
 266 
 
 York, W. Riding 
 
 16 
 
 
 11 
 
 193 
 
 5 
 
 66 
 
 259 
 
 270 
 
 
 2 102 
 
 366 
 
 .613 
 
 603 
 
 480 
 
 Totals. 
 Grand Totals. - 
 
 263 
 
 22 
 
 199 
 
 2,309 
 
 110 
 
 928 
 
 3,237 
 
 2,886 
 
 1.0 
 
 55 7,442 
 
 11,304 
 
 13,721 
 
 10,649 
 
 22,G03i 
 
 3,630 
 
 178 2,600 
 
 62,867 
 
 1,849 
 
 20,2504. 
 
 83,117§ 
 
 78,523} 
 
 1.0 
 
 15 30.354 
 
 132.430 
 
 185,540 
 
 155.075 
 
 I94.344I 
 
 Sir John Hobhouse'sAct was repealed, in 1833, by the act 
 3&4 Will. 4. c. 103., which contains the following provisions, 
 compreh ending the whole statutory regulations at present ap- 
 plicable to cotton and other factories in the United Kingdom: 
 
 1. That after the 1st of January, 1834, no person under 
 18 years of age shall be allowed to work in the night : that 
 is, between half-past 8 p. m. and half-past 5 A. M., in any 
 cotton or other factory in which steam, or water, or any 
 other mechanical power, is or shall be used to propel the 
 machinery, excepting in lace-factories. 
 
 2. That no person under 18 shall be employed more than 
 12 hours in one day, nor more than 69 hours in one week. 
 
 3. That there shall be allowed, in the course of every day, 
 not less than 1 J hour for meals to every person restricted 
 to the performance of 12 hours' work. 
 
 4. That after the 1st of January, 1834, no child, except in 
 silk mills, shall be employed who shall not be 9 years old. 
 
 5. That after the 1st of March, 1834, no child, except in 
 silk-mills, shall be employed in any factory more than 48 j 
 hours in any one week, nor more than 9 hours in any day, 
 who shall not be 11 years old ; nor after the 1st of March, 
 1835, who shall not be 12 years old ; nor after the 1st of 
 March, 1836, who shall not be 13 years old ; and that these 
 hours of work shall not be exceeded, even if the child has 
 worked during the day in more factories than one. 
 
 6. That children, and young persons whose hours of 
 work are regulated, shall be entitled to 2 holidays and 8 
 half-holidays in every year. 
 
 7. That children, whose hours of work are restricted to 
 S hours a day, are not to be employed without obtaining 
 a certificate from a physician or surgeon, certifying that 
 they are of the ordinary strength and appearance of chil- 
 dren of the age before mentioned, which certificate is to be 
 countersigned by some inspector or justice. 
 
 440 
 
 8. That it shall be lawful for his majesty to appoint, du- 
 ring pleasure, 4 persons to be inspectors of factories, with 
 extensive powers as magistrates, to examine the children 
 employed in the factories, and to inquire respecting their 
 condition, employment, and education; and that one of the 
 secretaries of state shall have power, on the application of 
 an inspector, to appoint superintendents to superintend ihe 
 execution of the act. 
 
 9. That those inspectors are to make all rules necessary 
 for the execution of the act, and to enforce the attendance 
 at school, for at least 2 hours daily, out of 6 days in the 
 week, of children employed in factories; from whose 
 weekly wages a deduction, not exceeding 1 penny in every 
 shilling, for schooling, shall be made. 
 
 10. That no child shall be employed who shall not, on 
 Monday of every week, give to the factory master a cer- 
 tificate of his or her attendance at school for the previous 
 week. 
 
 11. That the interior walls of every mill shall be white- 
 washed every year. 
 
 12. That a copy or abstract of the act shall be hung up in 
 a conspicuous part of every mill. 
 
 13. That the inspectors shall regularly, once a year, 
 report their proceedings to one of the secretaries of 
 state. 
 
 The act also contains regulations extending the hours of 
 work, where time shall be lost by the want of or an excesi 
 of water in mills situated upon a stream of water ; respect- 
 ing the steps to be taken in order to obtain regular certifi- 
 cates of age for the children requiring them ; respecting 
 the erection of schools where necessary ; and respecting 
 the proceedings to be had before inspectors and magis- 
 trates for enforcing the act, and the right to appeal from 
 their decisions. 
 
FACUL.E. 
 
 FA'CUL^. In Astronomy, certain spots sometimes 
 seen on i he sun's disc, which appear brighter than the rest 
 of his surface. These bright spots, and the variable ap- 
 pearances of the solar disc, have given rise to muchspecu- 
 tation respecting the constitution of the sun. See Bun. 
 
 FA'CULTY. (In the Universities.) In the origin of the 
 university of Paris (which is considered as the model of all 
 European institutions in the middle ages) the seven liberal 
 arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astro- 
 nomy, and music) seem to have been the subjects of aca- 
 demic instruction. These constituted what was afterwards 
 i.iited the Faculty of Arts. Three other faculties— 
 Iboee of divinity, law, and medicine — were subsequently 
 ail led In all these four lectures were given, and degrees 
 
 < [erred by the university. The four faculties were trans- 
 
 planted to Oxford and Cambridge, where they are still re- 
 lainuii : although, in point of fact, the faculty of arts is the 
 only one in which substantia] instruction is communicated 
 in 1 1 1 o academical course. By an anomaly of ancient date, 
 tin' English universities also give degrees in what is not 
 properly a faculty, but only a branch of one of the faculties, 
 viz. music. On the Continent, the faculty of arts is synony- 
 mous with that of philosophy. In England, that of divinity 
 is not wholly distinct from, but superior to, that of arts; 
 degrees in the latter being preliminary qualifications for 
 those in the former. 
 
 FA'CULTY, DEAN OF. In Scotland, the elective pre- 
 of the faculty of advocates, answering to barristers 
 in England. 
 
 FAGOTTO. The same as bassoon, which see. 
 
 FAHI.EUZ. A miueralogical synonym of grey copper 
 ore. 
 
 FA'IIMINITE. A mineral, from Fahlun, in Sweden. 
 It is a hydraicd silicate of alumina. 
 
 FAIE'NCE. (From Faenza, the original place of manu- 
 factun.) In the Fine Arts, pottery embellished with painted 
 designs, Raffaelle in his early days is believed to have 
 been mch engaged on this department of the art; but the 
 matter is very doubtful. It is certain, however, that many 
 of his designs were transferred to porcelain, which hence 
 obtained the name of Raffaelle's ware ; but the date of their 
 execution La posterior to that artist's death. * 
 
 FAI'NTING. See Syncope. 
 
 FAINTS. The impure and weak spirit constituting the 
 first and last runnings of the still. 
 
 FAIR, (Either from the Latin feriae or forum.) A meet- 
 iii!i held at staled times of the year in particular places, for 
 iln purposes of traffic, to which merchants resort with 
 their wares. Fairs, in Christian countries, were usually 
 held on particular festivals; and are so still in England, un- 
 ..ss where they have been fixed to particular days in the 
 Qionth by later grants of privileges. By the English law, 
 the ting's authority only is susposed to confer the privilege 
 of holding a fair, with the court of pie- powder to determine 
 disputes arising there, which is incident to it. Fairs are 
 considered free, unless toll is due to the owners by special 
 grant, or hy custom, which supposes such grant. 
 
 FAI'RIES. Imaginary beings, who occupied a distin- 
 guished place in the traditional superstitions of the nations 
 of Western Europe, and especially in these islands. Their 
 i name is probably derived from " fair," or has the 
 same etymology with that word ; and, although some simi- 
 larity has been traced between them and the Peris of the 
 1*> i-ians (pronounced Feri by the Arabians), it is not pro- 
 bable that the resemblance of name is more than acci- 
 I There is also a distinction between, the fairy of 
 our island and the Fata or prophetic sybil of the Italians, 
 from which last the French Fee is derived ; although the 
 French, in their romantic mythology, have somewhat 
 mingled the characteristics of the two. The British fai- 
 Iso, although they have something in common with 
 the Dwergas or Gnomes of the Scandinavian mythology, 
 are not identical with them; they are in fact peculiar to 
 people of Celtic race, and the notions respecting them 
 prevalent among the Celtic population in Scotland, Wales, 
 ami Ireland tally to a remarkable degree. The popular be- 
 lief, however, was nowhere invested with so poetical a 
 character as in the Lowlands of Scotland, where it forms 
 a main ingredient in the beautiful ballad poetry of the dis- 
 trict Tlie fairies of the Scottish and English mythology 
 are diminutive beings, who render themselves occasionally 
 risible to men, especially in exposed places, on the sides 
 of hills, or in the glades of forests, which it is their custom 
 to frequent. They have also dealings with men, but of an 
 uncertain and unreal character. Their presents are some- 
 times valuable; but generally accompanied, in that case, 
 with some condition or peculiarity which renders them 
 mischievous: more often they are unsubstantial, and turn 
 into dirt or ashes in the hands of those to whom they have 
 been given, Mortals have been occasionally transported 
 ii. in Fairy land, and have found that all its apparent splen- 
 dour was equally delusive. One of the most ordinary em- 
 ployments of fairies, in vulgar superstition, is that of steal- 
 ing children at nurse, and substituting their own offspring 
 
 FALCO. 
 
 in place of them, which after a short time perish or are 
 carried away. The popular belief in fairies has been made 
 the subject of poetical amplification in the hands of so 
 many of our greatest writers, from Shakspeare to Scott, 
 that it is not easy to disentangle the embellishments with 
 which it has been invested from the original notions oa 
 which they are founded. The Fata of the Italians, whe 
 figures in their romantic epics, and from whom the Freud- 
 have made the Fe"e of their fairy tales, is quae a ilifl'eren. 
 personage : a female magician, sometimes benevolent, anc 
 sometimes malevolent, partaking herself of thesupernafa 
 ral character, and peculiarly gifted with the spirit of pro 
 phecy. Such is the FataMorgana, to whom the celebratej 
 optical delusion occasionally produced in the Straits of 
 Messina was formerly attributed by popular belief. 
 
 FAITH. (Cr. iriffriy, Lat. fides.) In Theology. It is 
 observable that the writers of the New Testament employ 
 one and the same word for faith and belief. In most mo- 
 dern languages, the use of two different terms has, per- 
 haps, strengthened the feeling of a difference between the 
 conviction of the heart and that of the understanding: the 
 German, like the Greek, has one only. Faith, in the lan- 
 guage of St. Paul, is "the substance of things hoped for, 
 the evidence of things not seen." Perhaps these strong 
 expressions might be more accurately rendered "confi- 
 dence" In things hoped for (compare 2 Cor. ix. 4. xi. 17.), 
 "conviction" oi things not seen. (Heb. xi. I.) Through 
 this faith, the apostle proceeds to declare, men receive as 
 true things delivered to them on divine authority, to which 
 neither their senses nor their uninsiructed reason bear tes- 
 timony, and endure sufferings and do great actions for 
 God's sake. And without it " it is impossible to plea*-* 
 him." Such faith "wasimputed" to Abraham "forrlghl 
 eousness" (Kom. iv. 21.); and thus, "being justified by 
 faith, we have peace With God through Jesus Christ." 
 (Rom. v. 1.) It is evident from these as well as many 
 other passages in the Epi3tles of St. Paul, that this justifi- 
 cation is attained only by that faith which obeys the com- 
 mand as well as relies on the promise of God ; termed by 
 theologians efficacious or saving faith. Nevertheless, it 
 maybe supposed that these passages were misinterpreted 
 by many of those to whom they were addressed, as con- 
 veying the doctrine of salvation through the mire act of 
 belief. Perhaps they were among those expressions ol St. 
 Paul which, according to St. Peter, those who were unsta- 
 ble "wrested to tin irown destruction ;" since the Apostle 
 James found it necessary to insist so strongly on the in< fli- 
 cacy of faith without works (ii. 17.), or a dead faith (ib. 
 20), and to assert that "by works a man is justified, and 
 not by faith only" (24.) It is needless to state how much 
 theologians, in every age of the church, have been per- 
 plexed by the ethical problem thus presented. Theirdiffi- 
 culties may be thought to arise, in great measure, from the 
 inadequacy of our mental powers to separate the naked 
 act of belief, to which, as far as is perceptible to our facul- 
 ties, no quality of ethical right or wrong can attach, from 
 the moral predispositions which have produced that be- 
 lief, and the influence on the character which results from 
 it; the whole, perhaps, entering into the Apostolic view of 
 faith. In all ages and churches, there has been a tendency 
 in some to insist exclusively on the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith, — a tendency which has sometimes proceeded 
 so far, as in the case of Luther at one period of his life, 
 as to induce them to undervalue or altogether reject the 
 Epistle of St. James ; in others, to postpone it to the other 
 great truth of judgment according to works. But the for- 
 mer characteristic has more particularly marked the te- 
 nets which are commonly called Calvinistic, in which i! 
 is combined with the peculiar doctrine of election ; the lat 
 ter has been apt to prevail In Roman Catholic teaching 
 and to mingle with what is termed Arminianism in Protes 
 tant churches. 
 
 FAKI'R, an Arabic word signifying poor; applied in 
 some Eastern countries to a sect of enthusiasts, who re- 
 tire from the world and devote themselves to religious ob 
 servances. They are chiefly remarkable for their assiduity 
 in "mortifying the flesh," considering no infliction of the 
 body as too severe, provided they can inspire the observer 
 with reverence towards them. There are, however, some 
 classes of Fakirs distinguished for good sense, learning., 
 and piety. 
 
 FALCA'TE. (Lat. falx, a sickle ; sickle-shaped.) In ZoU 
 ogy, when a part is curved with the apex acute. 
 
 FA'LCATED. (Lat. falx.) The moon is said to be fal- 
 cated when her illuminated part appears in the form of a 
 crescent or sickle, which happens when she is in the first 
 and fourth quarters. 
 
 FA'LCIFORM PROCESS OF THE BRAIN. (Lat 
 falx.) A processof the dura mater, which arises from the 
 cry8ta galli and terminates in the tentorium, separating the 
 hemispheres of the brain. 
 
 FA'LCO. (Lat. falco, a falcon.) The name of a Lin 
 na?an genus of Accipitrine Diurnal birds, characterized by 
 a beak crooked, and covered with a cere at the base ; head 
 
FALCONINES. 
 
 closely invested with feathers. To the short Linnasan 
 phrase descriptive of this group of birds of prey may be 
 added, that the supraciliary arch projects above the eye, 
 giving a bold and threatening physiognomy to these rapa- 
 cious birds, the majority of which subsist on living prey. 
 The first plumage differs from that of maturity, which is 
 not acquired before the third or fourth year. The female 
 is generally one third larger than the male. The Linnaean 
 genus is now subdivided into the subgenera Falco, Bech- 
 stein ; Hierofalco, Cuv. ; Aquila, Brisson ; HaUcetus, Sa- 
 vigny ; Pandton, Sav. ; Circatus, Vieillot ; Harpyia, Cuv.; 
 Mcrphnus, Cuv. ; Astur, Bechstein ; Nisus, Cuv. ; Milvus, 
 Bechstein ; Pemis, Cuv. ; Buteo, Bechstein ; Circus, Bech.; 
 Gypogeranus, Illig. 
 
 Of these subgenera the first two form what are termed 
 the " noble" birds of prey, and they are the most courage- 
 ous in proportion to their bulk. This quality is associated 
 with a powerful form of the beak, of which the arch com- 
 mences from the base, and which is armed with a strong 
 tooth on each side near the apex. Their wings are strong, 
 long, and pointed, the second quill-feather being the long- 
 est. It is from this division of falcons that the birds are se- 
 lected for the sport of falconry. 
 
 In the " ignoble" division of the birds of prey, the longest 
 quill-feather of the wing is almost always the fourth, and the 
 first is very short, which gives the wing an appearance of 
 having the extremity obliquely truncated. The bill is not 
 armed with lateral tooth-like processes. 
 
 FA'LCONINES, Falconinas. (Lat falco, a ha.uk.) A 
 subfamily of Accipitrine birds, having the genus Falco pro- 
 per as the type ; and characterized by a beak short, hooked 
 from its base, and toothed near the apex; wings long, sec- 
 ond quill shortest. It includes the genera Ferax and Falco. 
 The term Falconidai is used by some ornithologists in a 
 sense as extended as Diurnal, which see. 
 
 FA'LCONRY. The origin of this celebrated sport has 
 given occasion to much controversy. It has been said that 
 it was unknown to the Greeks; it is, however, described 
 by Ctesias and Aristotle as practised in their time in India 
 and Thrace. Martial and Apuleius present us with plain 
 indications of the knowledge of this pastime among the Ro- 
 mans. In modem Kurcp«, it appears to \. been prac- 
 tised earliest, or at least with must ardour, in Germany: 
 the title of the emperor, Henry the Fowler (a. b. 920), is 
 said to be derived from an anecdote respecting his fondness 
 for it. In the 12th century, it. was the favourite sport of no- 
 bles and knights throughout Europe ; and in that which fol- 
 lowed its rules were reduced into a system by the Emperor 
 Frederic II. (Baibarossa), and by Demetrius, physician 
 ■lo the Greek Emperor Palaeologus. In that court the grand 
 alconer was an officer of distinction ; and the title was bor- 
 rowed from it by the western sovereigns. According to 
 he opinion of Strutt, the sport was not known so early in 
 England as on the Continent ; yet there are traces of it as 
 early as the 8th century. From the commencement, of the 
 17th, we may date its gradual decline. James I., devoted 
 .o hunting, was no admirer of falconry, which up to his 
 dme had been the favourite royal sport. But its final aban- 
 donment, except as the fancy of a few individuals, wasow- 
 ng to the gradual improvement in fire-arms presenting far 
 easier methods of obtaining game. Among the many cu- 
 rious works which exist on this subject, once so universally 
 interesting may be mentioned the treatise De la Faucon- 
 nesie of Charles d'Esperon, Paris, 1605; the celebrated 
 Book of St. Albaris, by the Prioress Juliani Berners, 1486; 
 Latham on Falconry. 1658 ; Ray's Idea of Falconry, pub- 
 lished with Willoughby's Ornithology. The Emperor Fred- 
 eric II. (Barbarossa)did not disdain to give the world the re- 
 sults of his experience in the art, in a~ treatise published in 
 1596 from his MS., under the title Reliqua librorum Frede- 
 rici II. Imp. de arte venandi cum avibus. 
 
 FA'LCULA. (Lat. falx, a sickle.) In Zoology, a claw is 
 so called when it is compressed, elongate, curved, and 
 sharp-pointed. 
 
 FALL. The sea term for the rope of any pully or sys- 
 tem of pulleys. To fall aboard signifies to run foul of 
 another vessel. 
 
 FA'LLACY (Lat. fallo, I deceive), in Logic and Rhetoric, 
 has been defined " any argument, or apparent argument, 
 which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while 
 in reality it is not." Fallacies have been divided into those 
 "in dictione," in the words: and "extra dictionem," in 
 the matter. The latter of these it is not the province of 
 logic to discover and refute ; they being, strictly, instances in 
 which the conclusion follows from the premises, and which 
 therefore depend on the unsoundness of these premises 
 themselves, which can only be detected by a knowledge of 
 the subject-matter of the argument. Logical fallacies, or 
 fallacies in dictione, are those in which the conclusion ap- 
 pears to follow, but in reality does not, from the premises ; 
 and which, consequently, can be detected by one unlearned 
 Ml the subject-matter of the argument, but acquainted with 
 the rules of logic. These are subdivided, however, into 
 .allacies purely logical, », e. vicious syllogisms (see Syllo- 
 442 
 
 FAMILY. 
 
 gism, Paralogism), and fallacies semi-logical ; those, 
 namely, which arise from the employment of a middle 
 term in argument (see Syllogism, Proposition, Middle 
 Term) ambiguous in sense. In rhetoric, a common set of 
 artifices, by which the mind of the reader or hearer is di- 
 verted from the question at issue and fixed on some colla- 
 teral topic, are termed fallacies ; as, where the character 
 of the proposer of a measure is discussed as a reason for 
 or against the measure itself, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 FA'LLING HOME. The term applied to the timbers or 
 upper partsof the sides of aship when they curve Inwards. 
 The old ships fell home, or tumbled in (as it is also called), 
 much more than the modem ones, which approach moro 
 nearly to being wall-sided. 
 
 FA'LLING STARS. See Shooting Stars. 
 
 FALL OF MAN. The disobedience of Adam and Eve 
 as related in the book of Genesis, by which sin and death 
 were introduced into the world. 
 
 The word fail is universally employed in the United 
 States as synonymous with autumn. 
 
 FALLOTIAN TUBE. The name given to a canal or 
 tube, discovered by Fa.lopius, arising at each side of the 
 fundus of the uterus, and terminating in the ovarium. 
 
 FA'LLOW. In Agriculture, lands are said to be under 
 fallow when they are without a regular crop of corn or 
 pulse. A naked fallow is one in which the soil remains a 
 whole year without any crop whatever ; and a turnip or 
 green crop fallow is one in which the lands after being 
 without a crop from harvest till the beginning of summer, 
 and being properly laboured during that period, are sown 
 with turnips or other similar crops in rows, and the ground 
 cultivated in the intervals. Fallowing was practised by the 
 Romans on all soils whatever, and has been continued 
 through the dark ages, in all the cultivated partsof Europe, 
 so as to have become, till lately, a general habit in the 
 treatment of arahle lands. The practice of taking two 
 corn crops, and then allowing the land to rest or lie fallow, 
 was, till the commencement of the present century, pre- 
 valent throughout Europe ; and it is still a very common 
 practice in most parts of the Continent. It appears to have 
 been first broken through by the Flemings about the end 
 of the 10th century ; a.id subsequently in Britain, with the 
 culture of turnips, above a century and a half later. Fal- 
 lows, under the most improved systems of agriculture, are 
 no longer had recourse to in the case of free or easily 
 worked soils, where turnip fallows are made, or drill crops 
 of legumes are substituted ; but in very strong clays they 
 are still found necessary, and this will probably continue 
 to be the case till by "the " frequent drain system," and 
 long-continued culture, the strong clays become friable and 
 fit for the drill husbandry, like the sandy loams and other 
 free soils. 
 
 FALSE CADENCE. In Music, one wherein the bass 
 rises a tone or semitone ,instead of risinga fourth or falling 
 a fifth. 
 
 FALSE KEEL. The timber added below the main 
 keel, both to serve as a defence, and also, by deepening 
 the plane surface, to enable the ship to hold a better wind. 
 
 FALSE'TTO. In Music, that part of a person's voice 
 which lies above its natural compass, and is produced to 
 various extents in different subjects, male as well as female. 
 It rarely extends more than four or five notes above the 
 natural voice, and is produced by diminishing the aperture 
 of the throat. 
 
 FAMI'LIA. (Lat.) A house or family, being a subdi- 
 vision of gens or clan (see Gens). Its members were 
 distinguished by having the last of their three names or the 
 cognomen the same. 
 
 FAMl'LIAR, or FAMILIAR SPIRIT ; mentioned in the 
 book of Samuel in a passage which has produced much 
 observation from commentators. The genius or iaijt6viov, 
 which Socrates and some other celebrated ancients were 
 said to have possessed as a companion, was a species of 
 familiar. In modern Europe and Asia, the belief in 
 familiar spirits forms an important feature in the^ widely 
 spread superstition respecting the magical art. The sub- 
 ject is curiously examined in the article in the Enc. Metri- 
 politana. 
 
 FA'MILY. In Zoology, the group next in value and 
 comprehensiveness above the genus; existing in fact, 
 though under the name of the genus, in the classification 
 of Linnaeus, who indicated the different groups of species 
 therein comprehended by numbers, instead of collective 
 appellations. 
 
 Such divisions of the Linnaean genus occur only in those 
 instances in which an unusual number of species presented 
 themselves to the consideration of the clear-sighted Swede. 
 The progress of modern discovery has added so many 
 new forms to the naturalist's catalogue, as to render neces- 
 sary a corresponding subdivision of most of the Linnaean 
 genera. To these subordinate groups of species distinct 
 names are given, for the sake of convenience ; and in order 
 to designate the natural family which these groups com- 
 pose, the name of the original or typical genus is generallr 
 
 
 
*AV 
 
 etaincd, with the addition ofttic Greek patronymic ida, to the 
 (enilive case. Thus, e. g. the characters of the I.inna?an 
 Mux are applicable lo a vast number of Rodents, 
 which scientific precision requires to be arranged in nu- 
 merous subordinate groups ; these are distinguished by 
 appropriate generic names in modern systems, and the 
 (erm Mun'ilo is applied to the family which they collec- 
 tnpose. 
 PAN, FANNERS, or FANNING MACHINE. A ma- 
 chine for separating the chaff, husks, dust, or oilier light mat- 
 ters fmm seeds which are to be preserved for sowing, or for 
 
 other purpose in general or domestic economy. The 
 air is pin in motion by a wheel, commonly driven by hand 
 wiih leaves or fans instead of spokes, directed in a stream 
 he fanned ; which seeds are placed in a 
 hopper, so regulated as to proportion their descent through 
 the stream of air to the force of the current created by the 
 fan wheel. Before fanners were invented the process was 
 performed by hand in a manner the reverse of what it is 
 now by machinery ; that is, the seeds ami refuse to be 
 separated from them were taken up in shovelfulls, and 
 thmwn to as great a distance as possible through the calm 
 air; when the full bodied seeds, being the heaviest, were 
 found at the greatest distance, and the chaff and other mat- 
 ters nearer, according to their degree of lightness. With 
 the progress of the arts a system of screens and sieves was 
 
 • to the fanning machine; in consequence of wtiich, 
 as it separated the seed from every kind of refuse, it is 
 called a winnowing machine ; and in that case, it not only 
 separates the chaff and other light matters generally "Din 
 the heavy matters, but it parts both according to their lulk 
 and weight ; so that the seed comes from the winnowing 
 machine fit (or being measured up for the market or store 
 room, and the various kinds of inferior products in a state 
 fit for immedia: 
 
 FANA'TIC. (Lat fanum, a temple.) An enthusiastic 
 and visionary person, who, In matters chiefly relating to 
 religion, disregards reason and scripture, and under the in- 
 fluence of his feelings alone adopts the wildest and most 
 extravagant opinions. The term fanatiats was applied an- 
 cient!;, estl (Sfn>r. Antiq Rum. 
 ;> 31J.), who penormed the sacrifices in a wild and 
 extravagant manner; and hence, by an easy transition, has 
 been bestowed in modem limes on those who make pre- 
 tensions to inspiration, or who conduct their worship with 
 extravagance or licentiousness. 
 
 FA'NC'Y. See Imagination. 
 
 FANI) A'NGO. (Spanish.) An air for dancing to, In triple 
 lime, and of a quick and lively character. It is the favourite 
 dancing air of the Spaniards, among whom it is of great an- 
 tiquity. Tl. nally provided with castanets, — a 
 practice borrowed from the Moors,— which serve to mark 
 the time more distinctly than a stringed instrument alone 
 would do. The Spaniards in dancing to this species of air 
 often carry their gestures beyond the bounds of decency. 
 
 FANTA'SIA. (It.) In Music, a species of composition 
 in which the author ties himself to no particular theme, 
 ranging as his fancy leads amidst various airs and move- 
 menl In his definition of this word confines 
 
 Id meaning to extempore composition, and makes this dis- 
 tinction between the Capriccio and the Fantasia; namely, 
 that the former is a collection of singular and whimsical 
 ideas strung together by an excited imagination and written 
 down ne, whilst the latter is an off-hand dis- 
 
 play of whatever comes across the mind at the instant of 
 execution. 
 
 FANTOCCINI. (It. fantocelo, apuppet.) Dramatic re- 
 presentations In which puppets are substituted in the scene 
 for human performers. 
 
 FARCE. (From the French word, which again is de- 
 rived from the Italian, and this from the Latin farcire, to 
 stuff.) In English Dramatic Composition, a short piece 
 of low comic character. The original term seems, like the 
 Lanx Satura of the Romans, which gave its denomination 
 :: the satire, to signify a miscellaneous compound or mix- 
 ture of different things. In modern languages it has borne 
 various significations. Certain songs which were sung be- 
 tween the prayers on the occasion of religious worship are 
 said to have been denominated Farces in Germany, during 
 the middle ages ; whence the word appears to have denoted 
 simply an interlude of any kind. In England, the farce 
 appears to have risen to the dignity of a regular theatrical 
 entertainment about the beginning of the last centurv : 
 since which lime it has formed one of the most popular of 
 our exhibitions, and usually performed, by way of contrast, 
 after a tragedy at the national theatres. The farce is re- 
 stricted to three acts as its limit, but frequently consists 
 only of two or one. Of all the pieces of this class which 
 have successively amused English audiences, none have 
 acquired a permanent literary reputation except those of 
 Poote, — performances in which the licence of the theatre 
 In satirizing living persons was carried to the utmost height. 
 The Fabuln, AtellaneB of the Romans, which appears to 
 have been short dramatic entertainments of a miscellaneous 
 443 
 
 FARMING. 
 
 character, sometimes pastoral, sometimes tragicomic, &c 
 but not so coarse in plan or diction as the Mimes and thcit 
 Exodia, which were satirical dialogues in verse between 
 some set characters or stage- buffoons, appear lo have filled 
 in some respects the place of the modern farce. On the 
 French stage the vaudeville answers to the English farce. 
 .See Vaudeville. 
 
 FA'RCY, or FARCIN, is a disease of the horse which 
 affects the lymphatics ol the skin, either generally pro- 
 ducing a distended appearance of the vessels like moles or 
 buttons, when il is called the bud or button farcy ; or lo- 
 cally, when it is chiefly confined to dropsical accumula- 
 tions in the legs, and is called the water farcy. Both forms 
 of the disease are contagious; and, like the glanders, an 
 allied disease, both are difficult to cure. The button farcy 
 is generally removed by burning off the buttons by caustic's 
 or a red-hot iron, and by the exhibition of mercury ; and 
 the water farcy by the exhibition of mercury alone. Boil 
 diseases are sometimes cured by feeding the animal en- 
 tirely on green food. See Blaine in Encyc. of Agr. 2d edit, 
 page 985. 
 
 IWKl'NA. (Lat far, corn, of which it is made.) Meal 
 or flour, obtained by grinding and sifting wheat and other 
 seeds ; hence the lerm farinaceous food. 
 
 FA'RM. In Agriculture, a farm is a portion of land, 
 with suitable buildings, fences, and other arrangements 
 necessary for carrying on the business of farming, which 
 is let to the farmer or occupier for rent. Farming is no 
 doubt coeval with the invention of property in land; be- 
 cause we may suppose that when a proprietor has taken 
 possession of a portion of territorial surface, and called il 
 his own, he would require the assistance of various per- 
 sons to cultivate it ; and these persons he could only lemu- 
 nerate by giving them a share of the produce. Hence the 
 origin of what on the Continent is called the Metayer 
 system,— in which the landlord supplies the farmer or 
 tenant with the soil, buildings, and the whole or a certain 
 portion of the stock ; while the latter supplies the labour of 
 cultivation and management, and takea as a remuneration 
 the half, or some other measure of the produce. In process 
 of time, as the tenants or farmers began to acquire capital, 
 they furnished the whole of tne live and dead stock, as 
 well as the labour of cultivation and management, and paid 
 the proprietor or landlord a fixed real in money or pro- 
 duce. To enable the tenant or farmer to do this' with the 
 greater security, leases were invented, by which the tenant 
 holding the land for a certain number of years was enabled 
 to layout money for its improvement at the commence- 
 ment of his lease, and to receive il back again in the form 
 of increased produce before its termination. 
 
 At the commencement of this system of what maybe 
 called free farming, all farms were undoubtedly of very 
 limited extent; but with the increase of capital and skill en 
 the part of the farmer they have become greatly enlarged. 
 Much has been written respecting the most profitable size 
 of farms for the public ; but this may safely be left to the 
 interest of the parties immediately concerned. Whatever 
 size of farm brings in the highest rent to the landlord will 
 be the best size for the public ; because the higher the rent 
 the greater the amount of the produce that must be sent to 
 market lo pay it. That there is a natural limit to the size 
 of farms there can be no doubt ; but what this is is a dif- 
 ferent question, and has no connection with the other. It 
 depends on the character of the surface, the kind of farrn- 
 Ing, and the climate. But though there is a natural limit 
 to the size of farms, and which in any given case can be 
 readily defined, there is no limit to the number of farms 
 that an individual may hold but those of his capital and 
 his skill. 
 
 FA'RMERY. The buildings and yards necessary foi 
 carrying on the businessof a farm. Theirsituation should 
 be central to the farm lands, in order that the distance from 
 which the crops are brought from the fields to the farmery, 
 and the manure carted from the farmery to the fields, may 
 be reduced lo the lowest degree ; for when the farm build- 
 ings are on one side of the farm lands, it is evident that the 
 cartage lo or from the more distant fields must be attended 
 with considerable loss of labour and time. The charac- 
 teristic yard of the farmery is the rick yard, and the prin- 
 cipal feature among the buildings is the barn. 
 
 FARMING. The business of farming, or the cultivation 
 of lands held on lease, necessarily varies in different coun- 
 tries and climates ; but one point is common lo them all. — 
 viz. that no article shall be cultivated which shall not fully 
 remunerate the cultivator or farmer within the limits of 
 his lease. Hence, as few leases in any part of the world 
 exceed twenty years in duration, timber trees are never 
 objects of cultivation by farmers , and it is only in particular 
 cases that orchards and vineyards can be planted by them. 
 As a business, farming may be described as that which 
 under ordinary circumstances yields a lower degree of 
 profit than any other mode in which capital and skill can 
 be employed ; but where abundance of capital and extraor- 
 dinary skill are brought to bear on farming, its profits, on 
 
FARROW. 
 
 an average of a long series of years, may perhaps r» \ ■. 
 much inferior to those of commerce and manufactw.se 
 on the average of a very long period. The great advan 
 tages of farming as a pursuit are — 1. That the articles pro 
 duced, being of the first necessity, there is always a market 
 for them at some price, without the necessity of any or of 
 much exertion on the part of the farmer ; 2. The certainty 
 of always havinu a home and the means of existence on the 
 farm ; and 3. The comparative degree of independence 
 which these circumstances are calculated to create in the 
 mind. These advantages, however, depend much on the 
 length of lease, and on the rent being equitable. 
 
 FA'RROW. A sow is said to farrow when shebrings forth 
 pigs ; ami the pigs brought fortn are called a litter or farrow. 
 
 FA'RTHING. A small English copper coin, amounting 
 to one fourth of a penny ; it was anciently styled fourthing, 
 as being the fourth of the integer or penny. 
 
 FA'RTHINGALE. A name given to the hoop of whale 
 bone used formerly by the ladies of this and other Euro- 
 pean countries to spread out the petiicoat to a wide circum- 
 ference. It was introduced into England in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, and continued to be used on state occa- 
 sions down to the commencement cf the present century. 
 (See Strutt's Manners and Customs.) 
 
 FA'SCES. (Lat.) In Ancient History, some of the 
 insignia of authority of the chief magistrates of It me. 
 They consisted of bundles of wooden rods, each enclosing 
 an iron axe so that its head appeared above ; and were 
 used as instruments of punishment, the rods being applied 
 for minor offences, and the axe for capital crimes. They 
 were carried before the magistrates on public occasions by 
 officers called lictors, and the number appointed to each 
 varied for the different magistracies. Thus the civic praetors 
 had two, proconsuls and provincial praetors six, the consuls 
 twelve, and dictators twenty-four. The municipal decein- 
 * virs also had the privilege of having two fasces carried 
 before them in their own towns. 
 
 FA'SCIA. (Lat. a band.) In Architecture, a flat mem- 
 ber in an entablature or elsewhere, like a flat band or broad 
 fillet. The architrave, when subdivided for instance, has 
 three bands, called fasciae ; of which the lower is called the 
 first fascia, (he middle one the second, and the upper one 
 the third. See Ionic and the other Orders. 
 
 FA'SCIA. In Astronomy, bright stripes or belts ob- 
 served on the discs of some of the planets, particularly 
 Jupiter. The fasciae or belts of this planet are sometimes 
 broader and sometimes narrower, and alter their situation 
 on the body of the planet, though they always appear pa- 
 rallel to his equator. See Jupiter. 
 
 Fa'sci^e. In Anatomy, the tendinous expansions of 
 muscles. The fascia lata is a strong tendinous sheath of 
 the muscles of the thigh. 
 
 Fa'SCICULA'RIA. (Lat. fasciculus, a bundle.) A 
 genus of extinct Zoophites, whose calcareous cases are in 
 the form of lubes aggregated together in conical bundles, 
 like those of the organ-pipe coral (Tubifora). The Fas- 
 ciculuria are abundant in the English coralline crag for- 
 mation 
 
 FASCTCULUS In Botany, a form of inflorescence ex- 
 actly similar to that called a corymbus, with the exception 
 of the expansion being centrifugal in place of being cen- 
 tripetal. 
 
 FASCINA'TION. The fact of being charmed, operated 
 upon, or influenced by the look of certain individuals, ge- 
 nerally taken in an evil sense. The word i3 originally 
 derived from the Greek Paaxaivciv (Thencr. Idyl VI.), 
 whence the Latin fascinare. Fascination is the power sup- 
 posed to be possessed by certain persons of working mis- 
 chief to others bv means of a glance of the eye. We find 
 it mentioned in Theocritus; and it was so prevalent among 
 the Romans that it was personified as the god Fascinus, the 
 patron of the evil eye. Virgil alludes to it thus : — 
 Nescio quit tenerot oculus mihi fascinat agnos. 
 
 Eclog. 3. 
 
 It is to this day a common belief among the vulgar in 
 almost all countries ; but probably it is nowhere more ge- 
 nerally retained than in Turkey and the kingdom of Naples 
 and Sicily. In the former country, the Mussulmans deem 
 it necessary to have recourse to a variety of amulets and 
 charms, in order to preserve themselves from the evil 
 eye of an enemy, or of an infidel. In Naples, the evil eye 
 and its fascination (known to them by the name of getta- 
 tura) are subjects of dread and superstitious precaution 
 among all classes of the people. There is a treatise on 
 fascination by Vairus, prior of a convent at Benevento in 
 that country (1580); another by Frommann (1675). 
 
 FA'SClNES (Lat. fascina, fagot), in Fortification, are 
 bundles of fagots, twigs, or branches of trees, which, being 
 mixed with earth, are made use of for filling up ditches, 
 formins parapets, &c. 
 
 FASCIOLA'RIA. (Lat. faseiola, a swathing band.) A 
 
 £eims of Peeiinibranchiate Mollusks, dismembered from 
 
 the rock-shells (Murices) of Linnaeus on account of the 
 
 smooth ban Mike surface of their windings, which have 
 
 444 
 
 FATA MORGANA. 
 
 not any " varices ;" and distinguished from the species ot 
 Fusus in having plaits on the columella, which are oblique, 
 and consequently spiral. 
 
 FA'SHION. (Fr facon ; originally from the Lat. facere, 
 to make or form.) A term used to signify the prevailing 
 mode or taste in any country, the only recognized quality 
 which it possesses being mutability. It may safely be 
 averred that in proportion to the Influence which fashion 
 exercises in any country may its claim to civilization be 
 vindicated, nothing being so characteristic of a rude and 
 barbarous state of existence as a rigid adherence to the 
 customs of antiquity. The term fashion has generally 
 been considered as applicable chiefly to the adornment of 
 the person, in conformity with the prevailing taste as in- 
 troduced by some individual of consideration in society : 
 but it has a much wider signification, being applied to the 
 most trivial kind of conventional usages, a disregard or 
 ignorance of which is sufficient in the eyes of the votaries 
 of this tyrannical goddess to banish the offender beyond 
 the pale of civilized society. The remark which Horace 
 makes on the introduction, disuse, and revival of language 
 is so applicable to the term in question, that we cannot for 
 bear quoting it in this place : — 
 
 Mutta renascentur, qu:a jam cecidere, cadentque 
 Qjitt nunc Bunl in honore vocahula, si volel ubus, 
 Quern penes arbiirium est, et jus, et norma loqnemli. 
 
 An Poetica, y. fli. 
 
 FA'SSITE. In Mineralogy, a variety of augite from 
 Fassa in the Tyrol. 
 
 FA'STI. In Ancient History, the records of the Roman 
 state, in which all public matters, military and civil, were 
 registered by the high priest, according to the days on 
 which they took place. The Fasti of Ovid is a poem giv- 
 ing an account of the Roman year, and the ceremonies at- 
 tached to the different days, with their historical or mytho- 
 logical origin. The first six books, containing the first six 
 months of the year, beginning with January, have come 
 down to us ; the rest are lost. 
 
 FASTI'GIUM. In Architecture, the same as Pediment, 
 which see. 
 
 FA'STING. In a theological sense, the abstaining from 
 food as a religious observance. This practice is recom- 
 mended in the New Testament by the example of the 
 Apostles and early Christians, who are frequently repre- 
 sented as fasting, especially on solemn occasions, such as 
 when Paul and Barnabas are sent forth by the Apostles to 
 preach to the Gentiles. At the same time it must be ob- 
 served, that, during our Saviour's lifetime his disciples were 
 notorious among the Jews for not fasting, as was the com- 
 mon religious practice of the day : from which we must 
 not suppose that Christ did not appoint stated days or pe- 
 riods of fasting, such as among Christians in later times, 
 as well as among the Jews then, have generally degene- 
 rated into heartless ceremonial observances, but left such 
 exercises rather to the judgment and feelings of his disci- 
 ples to be made by them part of their own private devo- 
 tions. The observances, however, of stated fast days pre- 
 vailed very early and universally in the church ; and the 
 Church of England has not hesitated, accordingly, to point 
 out the practice of early antiquity as a guide to its children 
 in this matter. 
 
 In the Romish church, Wednesday and Friday are ob 
 served as fasts throughout the year, those being the days 
 on which our Lord was betrayed and crucified respec- 
 tively. There are a considerable number of fast days that 
 occur also in the course of the year ; and the whole period 
 of Lent is held as a term of abstinence, in which the stated 
 fast days that occur are observed with especial rigour (in 
 imitation of our Lord's forty days' fast in the wilderness. 
 These were periods of real abstinence in the primitive 
 church ; but the little that was eaten does not appear to 
 have been limited in early times, either in kind or quan- 
 tity, by any positive precept. Fasting was practised diffe- 
 rently by churches and individuals. 
 
 The objection then that is brought against the Romish 
 church in this particular, is, first, that it commands ami 
 enforces that which was originally left to the discretion of 
 Christians; and secondly, that by so doing, and by multi- 
 plying the occasions on which such abstinence is enjoined, 
 it causes the practice to be looked upon as a work merito- 
 rious in itself and efficient for the expiation of sins, which 
 was never intended to serve any other use than that of a 
 means towards attaining a godly frame of mind. 
 
 FA'TALISM. The belief in an overruling fate or des- 
 tiny which annihilates free will and controls all human ac- 
 tions. For the philosophical doctrine of fatalism, see Ne- 
 cessity; forthose religious opinions which have assumed 
 a similar character, Election, Predestination. 
 
 FATA MORGA'NA. (called also Castles of the Fairy 
 Morgana, the spectacle being supposed to be under I he in- 
 fluence of the Queen of the Fairies, the Morgan la Fay ot 
 popular legends.) A remarkable phenomenon of mirage 
 or unusual refraction, mentioned by different authors and 
 travellers as seen in the straits of Messina, especially in 
 
 
FATE. 
 
 tnc vicinity ol Reggio ; and which consists in the appear- 
 ance in the air. over the surface of the sea, of multiplied 
 Images of the objects nn the surrounding coasts. It is 
 thus described by Minasi : — "A spectator on an eminence 
 in the <■ ii y "!' Reggio, with his back to the sun and his face 
 to the sea, and when the rising sun shines from that point 
 whence the incident rays form an angle of about 45° on 
 --ees upon the water numberless series 
 of pilasters, arches, castles, well delineated, regular co- 
 lumns, lofty lowers, superb palaces with balconies and win- 
 dows, villages and trees, plains with herds and Hocks, ar- 
 >f men on foot and horseback, all passing rapidly in 
 - sion on the surface of the sea." There can be little 
 donb'. that this description, which has been frequently 
 copied, and even admitted into treatises on optics, has re- 
 eetved considerable embellishment from the aid of the 
 nation. Captain Smyth, in his excellent work on Si- 
 cily, observes, " 1 never met with a Sicilian who had acru- 
 alhj seen any thing more than the loom or 'mirage' come* 
 qoenl on a peculiar stale of the atmosphere ; but which, I 
 iv, I have here observed many times to be nnnsu- 
 Mnnoir descriptive of the Resources, Inha- 
 Hydrography of Sicily and its Islands, p. 109.) 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ]• \TI'. .v. t DMTorr, Necessity. 
 
 PATES. (I. at. fiiium, that vhich is spoken ) In Mytho- 
 
 Ingv, the three sister goddesses named Clotho (Spinster), 
 
 Lai-hosts (Allntier), and Alropos (Unchangeable), whose 
 
 to spin the destinies of men, and break the 
 
 i their appointed hours of death came. They 
 
 were I •" railed PsrCJB by the Latins. Their Greek name 
 
 D ■r*." 
 
 FATHERS OP THE CHURCH. The early Christian 
 writers whose works have thrown light upon the history, 
 doctn -i-rvances of the primitive church, and 
 
 who are thereby entitled to be looked up to by us to a ccr- 
 rtenl as guides and instructors. The period to which 
 the list may be extendi d is, of course, arbitrary. St. Ber- 
 nard in the 12th century is generally styled the last of the 
 l a, The writers of the 1st century, or who were co- 
 temporary with the first disciples, are distinguished by the 
 term Apostolic Fathers. The general character of the 
 writings of these celebrated men, their trustworthiness as 
 witnesses, their authority as Judges iii matters of doctrine 
 and discipline, and the utility of studying their works, have 
 been, unfortunately, discussed by divines of different par- 
 more of pp-judice and the spirit of system than 
 re ot truth. It has been sometimes the fashion to 
 exalt and sometimes to depreciate them : seldom have 
 they been used by learned men of any church for the sim- 
 ple and serious purposes of edification. A voluminous 
 controversy was carried on upon this subject between some 
 Protestants, chiefly of the Calvinist churches, who attacked 
 . and others, both Protestant and Catholic, who 
 nded them, towards the end of the 17th century. On 
 the former side, iwo works of some notoriety were pro- 
 duced. — Daille's Treatise on the Use of the Fathers ; and 
 lUirhiyrnr, Morale des Peres de V Eglise. Among many 
 :v be ciied that of Cellier to Barbeyrac, 1718. 
 In England, Rurnct, Hill, Peter Allix, Reeves (Apologies 
 uf the Early Fathers, with Dissertations, 1709), took part in 
 T • I:, nedictines of Paris, in the 17lh century, pub- 
 I valuable edilionsof the principal Fathers, both Greek 
 and Latin. Nourry, a learned member of that order, pub- 
 lished an Apparatus to Desponl's great collection, the Bib- 
 liotheca Palrum, in which much information is collected. 
 Of late years Mr. Collinson, by his Bampton Lectures (1817), 
 raised anew a spirit of controversy on the subject. At Ox- 
 ford and at Paris, new edilionsof an extensive and valuable 
 character of the Fathers are now in progress. 
 
 FA'THOM. An English measure of length, equal to two 
 yar<!s. or six feet. 
 
 FAT OF ANIMALS. A concrete oil contained in the 
 cellular membrane of animals; it is generally white or yel- 
 lowish, with little smell or taste, and varies in consistency 
 according to the relative quantities of stearine and elaine 
 which it contains. The ultimate elements of animal fat 
 are the same as those of vegetable oils : according to the 
 analysis of Chevreul, 100 parts of human fat are composed 
 of 790 carbon, 11-4 hydrogen, and 9-6 oxygen. Hog's lard 
 and mutton suet are very similarly constituted. 
 
 FA'TTENING DOMESTIC ANIMALS. The difference 
 between feeding and fattening, as far as respects domestic 
 animals, consists in this, that the object of the former is to 
 maintain the animal in a state of health and vigour for the 
 purpose of facilitating its growth to maturity, or if mature 
 keeping it in good working condition ; while the object of 
 the latter is to accumulate on the animal more flesh and 
 fat than is sufficient for either of these purposes, and in 
 general as much as possible, so as to increase the bulk and 
 weight of the flesh and fat in proportion to the size of the 
 bone. Till within these few years, the means used by all 
 fatteners of domestic animals, whether quadrupeds or 
 poultry, were preventing the animals 'rom taking exercise, 
 445 
 
 FEATHERS. 
 
 and gorging them with food. The excessive fat produced 
 by these means, more especially iu sheep and swine, was 
 found to bo both disagreeable and unwholesome ; and ac- 
 cordingly the most approved system of fattening animals 
 of every description, at the present day, consists in not 
 merely supplying them with abundance of food, but also 
 of the means of taking exercise. Hence the farmers in the 
 most enlightened districts, such as Berwickshire, East Lo- 
 thian, dec, instead of lying up their fattening cattle in sta- 
 bles like horses, and placing their food before them, put 
 two or three together in small yards with sheds attached, 
 In which they can run about, cat when they choose, and 
 take shelter from tho rain, the cold, or the sun at pleasure 
 under the open shed. Swine are treated in the same man- 
 ner, and also spring lambs that are fattened for the market. 
 Poultry are no longer kept in coops and crammed, or rab- 
 bits in hutches ; but the former are allowed to take exer- 
 cise in fields sown with various herbs, and the latter are 
 kept in a species of artificial warren, where they can take 
 exercise bv burrowing. 
 
 FAU'CES. (Plural of faux.) The posterior part of the 
 mouth, terminated by the^Aarvn* and larynx. 
 
 FAULT. Id Mining and Geology, a dislocation of strata, 
 whether from a break or slip, or the introduction of some 
 extraneous mass. 
 
 FAUNA. The animals peculiar to a country constitute 
 its fauna. The term is derived frcai the Fauni or rural 
 deities of Roman mythology. 
 
 FAU'NUS. An Italia! rural deity resembling the Grecian 
 Pan, and, like him, endued with the gilt ot prophecy. 
 Mention is sometimes made of several Fauat, who were 
 represented, like the satyrs, with the horns and feet of 
 goats. There was an annual festival instituted to their 
 honour, called Faunalia. 
 
 FAUSSE BRA YE. In Fortification, a low rampar: g->ing 
 
 ?|uite round the body of the place, the height being about * 
 eet above the level ground. • 
 
 FAUX. The orifice of the tube of the corolla, the tub 
 tiring formed by the confluence of the petals. 
 
 FE'ALTY. In Feudal Law, the oath of fidelity (Fr 
 feaute") taken by every tenant on admission to be true It 
 his superior lord. General fealty is that due from the sub 
 ject to the prince; special fealty from tenant to mesne lord 
 Fealty is said to differ from homage in being due to every 
 new ford. The oath, as administered in England, was fixed 
 by slat. 17 E. 2. c. 2. ; but it has long been obsolete, al- 
 though, in copyhold tenements, the memory of it is still 
 preserved by the customary entry of respite of fealty on 
 the admission of a new tenant. 
 
 FEASTS, or FESTIVALS, are days set apart by the 
 church, either for the grateful celebration of the most re- 
 markable events connected with the scheme of redemption, 
 or upon which to commemorate the actions and sufferings 
 of such persons as have been most instrumental in carry- 
 ing forward the designs of God for the salvation of man- 
 kind. This was a practice of the primitive church ; but in 
 process of time (as early as the 4th century) the great num- 
 ber of names which had been introduced into the calendar, 
 and the many corruptions which the honour paid to their 
 memory had engendered, rendered its observation both 
 burdensome and superstitious. Accordingly at the Refor- 
 mation the Protestants directed their attention to the re- 
 trenchment and purification of these ceremonies. The 
 English church retains the festivals of the nativity, circum- 
 cision, manifestation, the death and resurrection and as- 
 cension of Christ, the purification of the Virgin and the 
 annunciation (or Lady-day), Whit Sunday in honour of the 
 Holy Spirit, and Trinity Sunday. Besides these the most 
 remarkable of the Apostles and the Evangelists are com- 
 memorated on their respective days ; and one day is set 
 apart for the remembrance of all the saints. From this 
 calendar, therefore, the names of the martyrs and saints of 
 later ages are excluded (with which the Romish calendar 
 is so crowded), partly from the uncertainty which hangs 
 over the stories of many of them, and partly also in order 
 to cutaway what would otherwise have furnished a danger- 
 ous precedent. Festivals are either moveable or immove- 
 able ; the former depending upon Easter, the latter being 
 fixed to certain days of their respective months. 
 
 FEATHER-EDGED. In Architecture, a term applied 
 to a board whose section is triangular, or rather trapezoidal, 
 one edge being very thin. 
 
 FEATHERS. The term, in Zoology, is restricted to those 
 productions of the dermal system which form the most 
 exterior covering of birds, and which consist of the fol- 
 lowing parts, viz. a quill (.calamus), a shaft (rhachis), and 
 vanes (pogonium externum ct internum). 
 
 The quill is that part of a feather by which it is attached 
 to the skin ; it is nearly cylindrical in form, hollow, and 
 semitransparent, possessing in an eminent degree the op- 
 posite qualities of strength and lightness. The end which 
 is implanted in the skin is more or less obtuse, and is 
 pierced by an orifice called the lower umbilicus. At th* 
 opposite end, where it is continued into the shaft, and mr 
 
FEATHERS. 
 
 at trie meeting of the two lateral vanes, there is another 
 orifice, called the upper umbilicus. The cavily of the 
 quill contains an imbricated series of conical capsules, 
 united together by a central pedicle, forming the membra- 
 nous remains of the original formative pulp. 
 
 The shaft is quadrilateral, with a smooth convex surface, 
 and an opposite concave surface traversed by a longitudinal 
 impression continued from the upper umbilicus. It is 
 covered by an outer layer of firm horny material like that 
 of which the quill is formed, and this incloses a soft elastic 
 substance called the pith. 
 
 The vane consistsof barbs and barbules. 
 
 The barbs are attached to the sides of the shaft, and 
 consist of narrow elongated plates, arranged with their flat 
 sides towards each other, and their margins in the direction 
 of the external and internal sides of the feather. By this 
 disposition they offer much resistance to being bent out of 
 their plane, though readily yielding to any force acting upon 
 them in the lineof the stem. 
 
 The barbules are minute and often microscopic pro- 
 cesses, given off from either side of the barbs, and arranged 
 in a single series, just as the barbs are placed with reference 
 to the shaft. In true feathers, they are short, stiff, and 
 curved in opposite directions on opposite sides of the barb; 
 and the concavities of one series of barbules interlock with 
 those of the adjoining barbs, whereby the whole vane pre- 
 sents a contliuous and resisting surface, as in the quill- 
 feathers of most birds. When the barbules are long and 
 disjoined, the feather is termed a plume ; in the long dorsal 
 plumes of the peacock, the barbules themselves are ciliated. 
 
 In a few instances, as the apteryx and ostrich, the fea- 
 thers are simple. In most birds each feather is complicated 
 by a part termed the accessory plume. This is usually a 
 small downy tuft ; but it varies as to its size both in different 
 species, and even in the feathers of different parts of the 
 body of the same bird. In the body-feathers of the hawks, 
 grrouse, ducks, gulls, &c, the accessory plume is generally 
 well developed, and acquires in some species a size equal 
 to that of the feather from which it is produced. In the 
 emeu this is the case with the whole plumage, and the quill 
 of each feather supports two shafts. In the cassowary 
 there are two accessory plumes, one of which is equal to 
 the size of the original feather, the other is much smaller. 
 
 Feathers vary in form, size, and function, in different 
 puis of the bird, and have accordingly received distinct 
 names in ornithological science. Thus the feathers which 
 surround the external opening of the ear, and which serve 
 to augment the intensity of sound, are termed the auricu- 
 iars. Those which lie above the scapula and humerus are 
 called the scapulars. The small feathers which are ar- 
 ranged in imbricated rows upon the bones of the antibra- 
 chiiim are called the lesser coverts (tectricesprimm); those 
 which line the under or inner side of the wings are the 
 under coverts. The feathers which lie immediately over 
 the quill-feathers are the greater coverts (tectrices secunda). 
 The largest quill- feathers of the wing, which arise from the 
 bones corresponding with those of the hand, are termed 
 primaries (remiges primores); those which rise from the 
 ulna, towards its distal end, are the secondaries {remiges 
 secondarias) ; those which are attached to its proximal 
 extremity are the tertiaries (remiges terliarice, seu parap- 
 terum). The quill-feathers which grow from the phalanx 
 commonly called thumb form what is lermed the bastard 
 wing {alula spuria). The quill-feathers which are implanted 
 upon the os coccygis are called rectrices. 
 
 The development of feathers is always preceded by that 
 of down, which constitutes the first covering of young 
 birds. Each down-fascicle consists of a small quill, sup- 
 porting a bunch of equal-sized finely-ciliated filaments. 
 The down fascicles are succeeded by the feathers, which 
 they guide, as it were, through the skin ; and the feathers 
 of each succeeding plumage serve, during the moult, as the 
 gubt-rnaMa of those which follow. 
 
 The mechanism concerned in the formation of a feather 
 is, as might be expected, of a very complicated character. 
 It consists of vascular parts which secrete the material, 
 and of moulds or capsules, in which the fluid material is 
 thrown into the proper form ; the whole is inclosed in an 
 outer sheath, which is protruded with the new-formed fea- 
 ther from the skin, and which becoming dry and friable 
 from contact with the atmosphere, crumbles away, and 
 leaves the feather free to unfold its beautiful and compli- 
 cated structure. 
 
 Every feather, the eloquent Paley justly observes, is a 
 mechanical wonder: ''their disposition all inclined back- 
 ward, the down about the stem, the overlapping of their 
 tips, their different configuration in different parts, not to 
 mentioi: the variety of their colours, constitute a vestment 
 for the body so beautiful, and so appropriate to the life 
 which the animal is to lead, as that I think we should have 
 had no concepiion of any tiling equally perfect if we had 
 never seen it, or can now imagine any thing more so." 
 For the laws which regulate the varieties and changes of 
 plumage, see Indumentum. 
 446 
 
 FEE TAIL. 
 
 FE'BRUARY. (Lat. februo, I purify, because in that 
 month funeral lustrations were performed at Rome ) The 
 2d month of the year, containing 28 days in common years, 
 and 29 in leap years, the intercalary day being given to it 
 as the shortest month. 
 
 FE'CIALS, or FETIALS. The Roman heralds, whose 
 peculiar office it was to declare war and conclude peace. 
 The former office they performed with the following cere- 
 monies: — They were first sent to demand redress; and if 
 it was not given within thirty-three days, they returned to 
 the confines of the hostile state and threw a bloody spear 
 into them, having proclaimed war according to a given for- 
 mula before not less than three adult witnesses. The fe- 
 cial, who took the oath in the name of the Roman people 
 in concluding a treaty of peace, was called Pater Palratus. 
 The college of Fecials was instituted by Numa, and is sup- 
 posed to have been borrowed from the Greeks. They 
 were probably twenty in number. 
 
 FE'CULA, or FVECULA. (Lat. dim. of feex, a sediment.) 
 When certain vesetable products are bruised and mixed 
 with water, the pulverulent matter which subsides is called 
 the fecula or faxes ; it is commonly of a starchy nature, 
 hence starch is often called fecula. 
 
 FE'DERAL GOVERNMENT. (Lat. faedus, a league or 
 treaty.) A government formed by the union of several 
 sovereign states, each surrendering a portion of its power 
 to the central authority. But the amount of the power thus 
 surrendered varies in different federations. Thus the go- 
 vernment of the German empire as it existed before the 
 French revolution, and that of the United Provinces of the 
 Netherlands, were both termed federal ; and the Swiss 
 cantons, under the present Swiss constitution, have re- 
 tained more of their individual sovereignty, both as to fo- 
 reign relations and as to domestic arrangements, than those 
 of the United States of America, each being at liberty, in 
 some cases, to make treaties with foreign powers, and also 
 having almost unlimited power to modify its own institu- 
 tions ; while the latter states have transferred the whole 
 of their foreign affairs to the general government, and are 
 moreover bound by their articles of union to remain demo- 
 cratic in constitution. The best work on the federative 
 governments of antiquity is that of St. Croix, Des Anciens 
 Gouvernements Federatifs. 
 
 FEE- FARM RENT, in Law, is defined a rent charge in 
 fee, issuing out of an estate in fee of at least one quarlerof 
 the value of the land at the time of its reservation. Some 
 authorities consider the amount as immaterial. No grant in 
 fee farm can be made since the statute of QuiaEmptores. 
 
 FEE'LERS. Organs fixed to the mouth of insects, gene- 
 rally less than the antennae, and often jointed. See Pmj?3. 
 
 FEES. In Law, perquisites allowed to ministers of jus- 
 tice, fixed either by act of parliament or ancient usage. 
 The word fee is derived either from an Ang. Sax. word 
 signifying monet/, or the French foi, faith. 
 
 FEE SIMPLE!, in Law, is an estate of freehold of inheri- 
 tance in lands, tenements, or hereditaments. Tenant in 
 fee simple absolute, or, as it is more briefly expressed, in 
 fee, is one who has the fullest power of disposing of his 
 tenement which the law allows ; and not being disposed of 
 by him either in his lifetime or by devise, it descends to 
 his heirs general. 
 
 An estate to a man and his heirs qualified by a condition 
 or limitation capable of abridging it, as an estate to A. and 
 his heirs on condition of paying a sum of money on a stipu- 
 lated day, and if he fail to do so then to another, is termed 
 a fee conditional ; or, with less propriety of language, a fee- 
 simple conditional. 
 
 FEE TAIL, in Law, arose out of the statute lie Donis, 
 13 Edw. I., which restrained the alienation of lands and 
 tenements by one to whom they had been given, with a 
 limitation to a particular class of heirs. A silt, lor instance, 
 to a man and the heirs of his body, constituted before the 
 statute a fee-simple conditional, which could be alienated 
 as soon as a child was born to the donee : after the statute 
 it became inalienable, until more latitude was given by the 
 invention of certain refined fictions of law. 
 
 A deed creating an estate tail is properly called a gift, and 
 the giver and receiver the donor and donee. Estates tail 
 are general, where only one person's body is specified from 
 which the issue must be derived ; special, where both the 
 progenitors are marked out, as in a gift to A. and the heirs 
 of his body to be begotten upon B. It may also be descen- 
 dible to all the issue, or to male or female issue ; in which 
 case estates are said to be in tail male or in tail female. Half 
 blood is no impediment in the descent of an estate tail ge- 
 neral. Where lands and tenements are given to a man 
 and his heirs in special tail (by a wife named in the grant), 
 and the wife dies without issue, the husband is tenant in 
 tail after possibility of issue extinct ; ami his estate is in 
 most respects equivalent to one for life only. 
 
 Estates tail being contrary to the general policy of the 
 law, legal ingenuity was taxed, in early times, to invent 
 modes whereby they might be defeated; i. e. whereby the 
 donee might destroy the special limitations of the gift, and 
 
FELIS. 
 
 acquire an estate in fee simple without incurring forfeiture. 
 This was done by l^ie fiction of common recoveries {.of which 
 the validity was established in the courts in the reign of 
 Ed 4>, and by that of fines, recognized by statute (4 H. 7. 
 .' EL 8. c. 36.) A simpler process has been substi- 
 tuted for these ancient contrivances by the recent Real 
 Property Act (3 & 4 VV. 4. c. 74.) 
 
 FEI.I3. (Lat. a cat.) The name given by Linnaeus to 
 the genus of Ferine or carnivorous quadrupeds of which 
 mon cat is an example. The essential characters 
 ol this genus repose on the strong, sharp, retractile talons 
 witii which all the four feet are armed, and the correspond- 
 ing destructive nature of the dentary organs. These con- 
 sist of six small incisors in each jaw, the exterior ones 
 larger than the rest; two long and strong laniaries, bound- 
 ing the series of incisors in the lower jaw ; and two in the 
 upper jaw of still greater length and strength, conical, sharp- 
 pointed, slightly incurved, and separated from the incisors 
 by an interval corresponding in size with the summits of 
 the Inferior laniaries, which always pass, when the mouth 
 ad, in front of those of the upper jaw. 
 
 The molar teeth are four in number on each side of the 
 upper jaw, and generally three on each side of the lower; 
 the two anterior in each series are smaller than the third, 
 and furnished each with a single conical pointed middle 
 process. The third molar is the largest in both jaws, and 
 presents a very characteristic form in the lower one being 
 compressed, and terminating in two sharp-pointed tren- 
 ch mt triangular lobes, which play upon the inner surface 
 of three corresponding lobes of the tooth above : the ap- 
 pulsc of the lower carnassial or sectorial tooth is checked, 
 Mid ihe upper gum defended, by an internal tubercle in the 
 upper sectorial. The fourth molar in the upper jaw is 
 placed within the posterior margin of the third, and pre- 
 sents a simple transverse slightly convex plate, affording 
 additional surface for the inferior sectorial to work against. 
 The claws and teeth above described are belter adapted 
 for the seizure and destruction of living animals than are 
 those of any other mammalia ; and the power of wielding 
 these weapons is enjoyed in a corresponding degree of per- 
 fection. There are no quadrupeds in which the muscles 
 of the jaws and limbs are more fully developed. The teeth, 
 as we have seen, are few, though formidable: those of the 
 lower jaw occupy only its anterior half; the rest of the jaw 
 consisting chiefly of a broad and high coronoid, and a strong 
 angular process for the implantation of the immense mus- 
 cles destined for its movements. The skeleton of the fe- 
 line animals presents a light but well-built mechanism : the 
 . though slender, are extremely compact ; the trunk, 
 having to contain the simple digestive apparatus requisite 
 for the assimilaiion of highly organized animal food, is 
 comparatively slender, and flattened at the sides. The 
 muscular forces are thus enabled to carry the light body 
 along by extensive bounds, and it is thus that Ihe largest 
 felines generally make their attack. When the impetus 
 of the spring is added to the stroke of the paw, the lion or 
 tiger has power to fell an ox, or smash the skull of a man 
 at a single blow; and as the strength of the neck corres- 
 
 Cooda with that of the jaws and limbs, they are enabled to 
 ear awav with ease animals bigger and heavier than them- 
 selves, tt fortunately happens that the feline animals have 
 not the instinct of sociality, otherwise what terrestrial spe- 
 cies could withstand a troop of lions or tigers hunting in 
 concert like a pack of wolves 1 "Conscious of their own 
 undisputed superiority," saysthe author of a favourite zo- 
 ological work, "'which secures them against the attacks of 
 other animals, each with his female partner occupies a sol- 
 itary den. which is usually concealed in the depths of the 
 forest. Hence, when pressed by hunger, they issue forth 
 in search of their prey, which they rarely attack with open 
 force ; but stealing on with noiseless tread, or stationing 
 themselves in ambush in such situations as appear suitable 
 to their purpose, watrti with indefatigable patience the ap- 
 proach of their victim. Their motions are peculiarly cha- 
 racteristic of their habits and mode of life. Incapable of 
 long-con! iuupd speed, their usual gait is slow, cautious, 
 and stealthy, with their posterior limbs beneath them, and 
 their ears distended to catch the most trifling noise. Guided 
 hv these organs, the internal structure of which is highly 
 developed, they trace the sound of footsteps to an almost 
 incredible distance, and direct themselves towards their 
 prey with unerring certainty. In this quest the sense 
 of smell, which they possess in a very low degree, affords 
 them but little assistance; their sight, however, is good, 
 and serves them equally well both by day and night, their 
 extremely dilatable pupils adapting themselves with admir- 
 able precision to various intensities of light. To this ob- 
 ject the frequently elongated form of their pupils, the light 
 green or yellow colour of a large portion of the choroid 
 coat of their eyes, and the extent of their nictitating mem- 
 brane, must also essentially contribute. 
 
 "No sooner is the object of their pursuit within reach 
 of their attack, than, suddenly bursting forth from their 
 lurking place, or changing their slow and stealthy pace for 
 447 
 
 FELLING TIMBER. 
 
 a furious and overwhelming bound, they dart with the ve- 
 locity of lightning upon their terrified victim. The great 
 strength and extreme flexibility of their fore-paws enable 
 them at once to dash him to ttie earth, and to seize him 
 with an irresistible grasp. They then proceed to rend him 
 in pieces by the united efforts of their teeth and claws, and 
 gorge themselves upon his lacerated flesh." 
 
 The feline animals or cats constitute a well-defined and 
 circumscribed genus. The leopards, panthers, jaguars, 
 and tigers are the most typical or truly feline species; in 
 these the beauty of colouring, sleekness of skin, elegance 
 of form, craft, suspicion, bloodthirstiness, agility under 
 excitement, and sloth during repletion, are most strongly 
 manifested. The lion combines more robustness of body 
 with the feline attributes; and his pre-eminent stature 
 receives an air of nobility and grandeur from the mane that 
 decorates his head and neck. He has the credit, too, of a 
 greater share of boldness and generosity than the olhet 
 cats. His vocal organs also exhibit a modification of struc- 
 ture not present in the oilier felines, by which he has the 
 power to utter his tremendous roar;— a roar which, when 
 sent forth under the excitement of hunger, scares from 
 their hiding places the timid run. inants which may be lurk- 
 ing within the compass of its fearful reverberations. 
 Among ihe felines, one group is characterized by the short- 
 ness of the tail, and the tuft of hairs on the tip of the ears , 
 this includes the lynxes. 
 
 The cheetah, or hunting leopard, deviates most in the 
 half-reiraclile condition of the talons and the upright car- 
 riage of his body from the true feline character.* ; and with 
 these physical modifications is combined so much of the 
 canine disposition as enables this species to be used in 
 packs for the purposes of the chase. 
 
 The middle sized cats, which lurk in the branches of 
 trees, as the leopards, ocelots, 4c, have a fulvous ground 
 colour, broken by irregular dark spots; a marking which 
 admirably adapts them for concealment amidst foliage. A 
 similar relation of adaptation to the peculiar theatre of their 
 destructive habits may be traced in other species. The 
 tiger, for example, which prowls on the ground, and creeps 
 stealthily toward* bis victim between the stems of the trees 
 and plants Of* the jungle, has his bright ground colour in- 
 terrupted wilh black vertical stripes. The lion, which 
 traverses the parched deserts of Africa, and Ilea in wall to 
 intercept the antelopes which bound in troops from one 
 oasis to another, would be rendered loo conspicuous if his 
 tawny hide were ornamented by the stripes or spots that 
 characterize the feline livery ; these, therefore, which are 
 obvious enough in the earlier periods of his existence, be- 
 come obliterated as he attains to maturiiy. A smaller 
 feline species, the puma, or American lion, which plays 
 the predatory character in a corresponding iheaire of the 
 New World, presents a similar uniformity of colour. 
 
 The feline animals bring forth from two to s-ix young 
 ones at a birth. The domestic cat is the most fertile ; a 
 circumstance which arises from the abundance of food, shel- 
 ter, and protection consequenton heralliance wilh man. Hut, 
 as has been frequently remarked, this, of all domesticated 
 animals, is the least servile or restrained ; and though in- 
 stances of personal attachment are not wanting, the affection 
 of the cat is rather to the house than to its owner. There 
 are many singularities in Ihe nature of the cat, which per- 
 haps our comparatively limited acquaintance wilh the oilier 
 felines 4eads us to regard as peculiar to this species. She 
 is remarkably nervous, and readily startled ; gives out the 
 electric spark when her fur is rubbed contrary to its direc- 
 tion, as is very conspicuous when this is done in Ihe dark. 
 Under the excitement of fear, the same effect is produced 
 on the long hairs of the tail as if a stream of electricity 
 were transmitted through them, and they all stand out from 
 the surface to which they are attached, giving the tail an 
 appearance of treble its usual thickness ; at the same time 
 the back is raised, and the body drawn into its smallest 
 compass. Cats are attracted by peculiar odours, and ex- 
 hibit a violent fondness for catmint and valerian, rubbing 
 their noses and rolling themselves in the latter with signs 
 of great and uncontrollable excitement. Cats are very 
 cleanly, are fond of warmth, and seek a soft place for their 
 repose. They express their satisfaction by a peculiar soft 
 vibrating noise, called " purring." 
 
 FE'LLING TIMBER. In Arboriculture, when a full- 
 grown tree is cut down it is said to be felled ; but this term 
 is never applied to young trees or bushes, undergrowth, or 
 hedges, which are said to be rooted out or cut over. Much 
 has been written respecting the proper season for felling 
 trees ; some arguing in favour of midwinter, and others in 
 favour of midsummer. The question principally turns 
 upon the qnantily and the value of the soft or outer wood 
 in the trunk of the tree to be felled known by foresters and 
 carpenters as the sap. As this sap or outer wood Is Ihe only 
 porilon of the trunk in which the sap or juices of the tree 
 circulate, it is evident that if no value be set upon it the 
 tree may be cut down at any season because the truly 
 valuable part of the trunk, the mature timber, is impep 
 
TELLOW. 
 
 ineabVt.-. to t'ne sap in its ascent through the soft wood, and 
 is therefore in the same state at every season of the year. 
 On the other hand, where much value is attached to the 
 soft or outer wood, where this outer wood is wished to be 
 made as valuable as possible, or where, as in the case of 
 comparatively young trees, the greater part of the trunk con- 
 sists of sap wood, felling ought to take place when there is 
 least sap in the course of circulation. This season is without 
 doubt midwinter, which, all other circumstances being 
 equal, is unquestionably the best season for felling timber; 
 the next best being midsummer, when the sap is chiefly 
 confined to the young shoots the circumference of the soft 
 wood, and the bark : as the worst is the spring, just before 
 the development of the buds, when the tree is fullest of sap, 
 and receiving constantly fresh supplies from the root; and 
 in autumn, immediately before the fall of the leaf, when 
 there is a superabundance of sap, from its being as it were 
 thrown out of employment by the falling of the leaf In ge- 
 neral, all the soft woods, such as the elm, lime, poplar, wil- 
 low, &c, should be felled during winter ; hard woods, like the 
 oak, beech, ash, &c, when the trunks are of large size, and 
 valued chiefly for their heart wood, maybe felled atany time. 
 
 FE'LI.OW. In the colleges of the English Universities, 
 and some other collegiate institutions, the superior mem- 
 bers of the foundations are so termed in general. In some, 
 however, all members of the foundation are fellows from 
 their admission. The usages of different foundations in 
 the two universities vary so materially, that no general ac- 
 count will apply equally to all. The fellows are, in general, 
 graduates ; elected either on free competition, or accord- 
 ing to limitations fixed in the statutes of foundation. Most 
 fellows are obliged to abandon their fellowships if they do 
 not take orders at a certain period : there are, however, 
 lay fellowships in both universities. Fellowships are also 
 vacated in the universities (without exception) by mar- 
 riage ; and by the acceptance of preferment in the church 
 from the college, or in some instances of other preferment 
 of a certain value. From among the resident fellows are 
 selected for the most part the governing officers and tutors 
 of the colleges. The principal or head of the college is 
 generally elected either by the whole or a select body of 
 the fellows. There is a distinction in some colleges be- 
 tween senior and junior fellowships, in point of emolument, 
 which does not exist in others. At Cambridge there is 
 also a distinction between foundation fellowships and bye 
 or appropriation fellowships ; the former only, in most col- 
 leges, entitling the possessor to college offices. The value 
 of fellowships is extremely various; nor do they always 
 maintain the same amount, being generally dependent on 
 corn-rents. The advantages obtained by the fellow are 
 partly in income, partly, if resident, in free lodging and al- 
 lowances towards board. There are fellowships of the 
 value of 500/. or&OO/. per annum, and others of 100/. or less; 
 but a large proportion may be said to average from 150/. to 
 300/. a year. Fellow is also the general title of members of 
 learned academies and societies in Enaland. 
 
 FELLOWSHIP, or PARTNERSHIP. A rule in Arith- 
 metic, of considerable use in balancing accounts among 
 partners in trade. Considered as an arithmetical process, 
 it is simply a method of dividing a number into parts 
 which shalt have given proportions to each other. Fellow- 
 ship is either simple or compound. To simple fellowship 
 belongs a question of this sort: — " A contribution of 20,000/. 
 is levied on three towns, and each is required to pay in 
 proportion to the number of its inhabitants. Now the 1st 
 contains 2000 inhabitants, the 2d 3000, and the 3d 5000 ; 
 what sum iriust each contribute 1" This question is obvi- 
 ously the same as if it had been required to divide the 
 number 20,001 into three parts, having the ratios of 2, 3, and 
 6, which is done by dividing 20,000 by the sum of 2, 3, and 
 5, that is by 10, and multiplying the quotient by each of 
 those numbers separately ; the several results are the sums 
 required. Here 20,000 -j- 10 = 2000 ; and 2000 X 2 = 4000, 
 lor the share of the first; 2000X3 = 6000, for the share of 
 the second; and 2000X5=10,000, for the share of the 
 third. These results are in the given proportions, and 
 their sum amounts to 20,000. 
 
 Compound fellowship is when the parts into which the 
 given number is to be distributed are proportional to more 
 thin one set of numbers. This is usually called fellowship 
 with lime, because in distributing the profits of a mercan- 
 tile transaction carried on by several partners, the share 
 of each must be proportional, both to the amount of the 
 capital he contributed and to the time it was employed. It 
 must therefore be proportional to the product of these two. 
 Hence the rule for compound fellowship :— Multiply each 
 stock by the time of its continuance, the products are the 
 numbers to which the several parts of the sum to be dis- 
 tributed must be proportional ; and with these numbers 
 proceed, as in the case of single fellowship. Both cases, 
 it may be remarked, belong to what is more correctly 
 termed Distributive Proportion. 
 
 FE'LO DE SE. In Law, one who is found by the coro- 
 ner's jury to have laid violent hands on himself, or occa- 
 448 
 
 FEND OFF. 
 
 sioned his own death feloniously. This verdict occasion 
 forfeiture of chattels, real and personal nbut not of lands 
 of inheritance. One found felo de se was formerly buried 
 in the king's highway, with a stake driven through the 
 heart; bi*. since 1823 (4 G. 4 c. 52.), privately buried in a bu- 
 rial ground, between the hours of nine and twelve at night. 
 
 FE'LONY. (A word of uncertain derivation. Sir~H. 
 Spelman derives it from the word fee or fief, and the Teu- 
 tonic lohn, reward or price; that which costs or forfeits 
 land. More probably from the same root with the verb to 
 fail.) In Law, in the general sense, comprises every spe- 
 cies of crime which occasioned at common law the for 
 feiture of lands and goods. Treasons, therefore, are, 
 strictly speaking, felonies, though in common language dis- 
 tinguished from them. The term felony appears, in feu- 
 dal law, to have been synonymous with forfeiture to the 
 feudal lord. The general punishment attached to felony 
 at common law was death ; and if any statute, even now, 
 makes a new offence felony without specifying the punish- 
 ment, the law implies it to be capital. But some Bpecies 
 of felony were not thus punishable at common law ; and 
 the gradual operation of altered opinion upon our code has 
 removed this punishment from all but a few. The princi- 
 pal species of felony are, — 1. Offences against the person, 
 such as murder, manslaughter, rape, &c. ; assault with fe- 
 lonious intent, that is, with intent to injure the sufferer in a 
 greater or less degree. The highest of these offences 
 against the person are still punishable by death. The acts 
 respecting these offences were consolidated by 7 &. 8 Geo. 
 4. c. 31. Some of them, as common assaults, &c, are 
 only misdemeanours. 2. Of offences against property, the 
 great body is comprehended under the ancient appellation 
 of larceny. 3. Embezzlement. 4. Burglary. 5. Mali- 
 cious mischief to property, arson, riotons demolition of 
 churches, chapels, houses, <fcc, are capital offences within 
 this class. 6. Forgery. 7. Numerous offences of a pub- 
 lic nature (many such, however, amount only to misde- 
 meanour) — 1. Either against the king and government, as 
 treason, sedition, embezzlement of the king's stores, <fcc. ; 
 2. Against public justice ; 3. Against the public peace; 4. 
 Against public trade; 5. Against public police and economy. 
 Under this head also are to be ranked some offences relative 
 to game, while others come under the description of larceny. 
 
 FE'LSPAR. (Germ, feldspath.) An important mine- 
 ral composed of silica, alumina, and potash, with traces of 
 lime, and often of oxide of iron. Common felspar is of 
 various shades of white and red ; it forms an ingredient in 
 granite, and is the base of some other rocks. It is often 
 crystallized, and cleaves into rhomboidal fragments. 
 
 FE'LTING. (Germ, filzen.) The process by which 
 different kinds of fur or wool are blended into a compact 
 texture for the manufacture of hats. The anatomical pe- 
 culiarities of the different, hairs or furs are much con- 
 cerned in the perfection of the felt; they must be such as 
 to enable them to interlace and intertwine with each other. 
 Hare and rabbit fur, wool, and beaver, are the chief mate- 
 rials used ; they are mixed in proper proportions, and are 
 tossed about by the strokes of a vibrating string or bow 
 till they become duly matted toeether. 
 
 FEL'UCCA. (Span, faluca ; Fr. felouqner; Ital. feluca.) 
 A small vessel, carrying two masts, and propelled by oars 
 and sails, used chiefly in the Mediterranean and on the ad- 
 jacent coasts for coasting voyages. Small war boats used 
 in the same quarter are also so called. 
 
 FEMME COVERT. In Law, a term borrowed from the 
 French to signify a married woman. 
 
 FEMUR. (Lat. a thigh.) In Vertebrate Anatomy, the 
 first bone of the leg or pelvic extremity; in Entomology, 
 thethird jointoftheleg.and is longand usually compressed. 
 
 Femur. In Architecture, the interstitial space between 
 the channels in the triglyph of the Doric order. These fe- 
 mora are sometimes called the legs of the triglyph. 
 
 FENCE. Any continuous line of obstacle interposed by 
 art between one portion of the surface of land and another 
 for the purpose of separation or exclusion. The kind o. 
 obstacle or material differs according to the animals which 
 are to be separated, excluded, or confined, and the nature 
 of the soil and situation. All fences are either live or dead, 
 or a compound of these. Live fences are hedges ; that is. 
 rows of shrubs placed close together, and pruned on the 
 sides, so as to form a sort of living wall. Dead fences are 
 either stone walls, mounds of earth, or structures of wood 
 or of other materials raised above the ground's surface, or 
 upon ditches excavated in it. The latter are sometimes 
 filled with water. Mixed fences are those in which some 
 kind of dead fence is used with some kind of live ferice ; 
 for example, a ditch with a bank of earth on one side, or a 
 ditch with a wall or a hedge on one side ; the latter the com- 
 monest of all fences. The introduction of fences into 
 agriculture was about as great an improvement in the pro- 
 gress of that art, as that of the principle of the division ol 
 labour into the art of manufacture. 
 
 FE'ND OFF. The sea term for pushing off a boat cr 
 any heavy body, to break the shock or avoid contact 
 
FENESTRATE. 
 
 FENESTRATE (Lat. fenestra, a window), in Ento- 
 mology, signifies ibp naked hyaline transparent spots on 
 the wings of butterflies. 
 
 FF'N LANDS. Lands, the subsoil of which is constantly 
 in a state of saturation with water, and the surface is liable 
 to be overflown by rivers or streams during spring or 
 autumn. The soil of these lands is generally black, light, 
 and rich, to the depth of two or three feet; and as Ihe sur- 
 face water readily filtrates through this soil to the subsoil, 
 fen lands generally produce bulky cropsof grass and corn. 
 As they have very seldom any qalural outlet for drainage, 
 this is generally performed by machinery ; and when this is 
 the case few lands arc more productive. Till lately wind- 
 nulls were employed for draining the English fens; but 
 steam is now frequently had recourse to as the moving 
 power, and the advantages to the cultivator are immense ; 
 he can lay his lands dry at the season when it is 
 most convenient that they should be so, whereas the opera- 
 tion of the windmill is always a matter of chance. Fur an 
 account of the Fens in England, see British Statistics ; and 
 ■ As (ieagraphical Diet., art. " Bedford Level." 
 
 PE'OFpMENT. In Law, a species of conveyance. It 
 was in early times the public and solemn mode of alienating 
 laada and tenements in possession, and was performed by 
 a deed, accompanied by livery of seisin ; which last was the 
 delivery of the land itself, effected by certain symbolical 
 nary words. As secret conveyances to uses 
 gradually prevailed, feoffments fell comparatively into dis- 
 use. '1'ne grantor is termed the feoffor, and the person re- 
 ceiving the feoffee. 
 
 E (Lat. ferus, wild.) The name given by Lin- 
 naeus to the onier of Mammalia comprehending those 
 which subsist more or less exclusively on the flesh of other 
 animals. They are characterized by having three kinds 
 ■■lines, and molars; unguiculate extre- 
 mitiet, without an opposable thumb on the fore foot, but with 
 i of rotation in the forearm. This order corres- 
 pond-; wiih the Inscctivora, and the Plantigrade, Digitigradc, 
 and Pinnlgrade Carnivora of Cuvier's Carnassiert. 
 
 FE'RGUBONITE In Mineralogy, a crystallized com- 
 pound of colambic acid and ytlria with a small quantity of 
 zirconia, and of oxides of tin, cerium, iron, and uranium. 
 Ii has hiiherto only been found in Greenland. 
 
 FE'Rl/E. In Roman Antiquities, solemn religious res- 
 pite moat celebrated were the Feriae Latins (Latin 
 holidays), celebrated on the Alban mount by all the states 
 nfLatlum in common. The deputies of the various cities, 
 with those from Rome, met on the Alban mount, where, 
 under the presidency of the latter, they sacrificed a bull to 
 Jupiter Latiilis, and tinder sanction of this ceremony took 
 oaths to preserve theirmutual friendship and alliance. This 
 festival was originally instituted by the second Tarquin, in 
 whose time and long subsequently it lasted for one day only ; 
 hot in proeessof time it extended to four. It was observed by 
 the consuls regularly before they set out for their provinces. 
 
 PERINEA (Lat. ferus, wild.) The English equivalent 
 of the Carnassiert of the system of Cuvier; but generally 
 employed to designate the group corresponding with the 
 Ft.ro-, of Linnaeus, and excluding the bats {Cheiroptera), 
 which form the first family of Cuvier's Carnastiers. 
 
 FERMENT. (Lat. fcrveo. I boil ) The substance which 
 i.il to Ihe process of fermentation. It is either na- 
 turally present In the fermentable juice, as in the grape ; 
 or it is added, as in the manufacture of beer, where yeast 
 constitutes the ferment. Ferments are of an albuminous 
 or glutinous character ; the presence of nitrogen seems 
 essential in their composition, hence they are classed by 
 chemists among azotised compounds. Their modus ope- 
 randi is still unexplained. 
 
 FE'RMENTATION. (Lat ) When certain vegetable 
 substances are dissolved in water, and subjected to a due 
 temperature (between 65° and 85°), they undergo a series 
 of changes which terminate in the production of alcohol or 
 spirit ; these changes constitute the phenomena of vinous 
 fermentation. Sugar and some ferment are essential to 
 the process ; and during the formation of the alcohol the 
 sugar disappears, and carbonic acid is more or less abun- 
 dantly evolved. The simplest case of fermentation is that 
 of must, or of the expressed juice of the grape, which when 
 exposed, either in close or open vessels, to a temperature 
 of about 70°, soon begins to give off carbonic acid, and to 
 become turbid and frothy ; after a time a scum collecls 
 upon the surface, and a sediment is deposited ; the liquor 
 which had grown warm gradually cools and clears, loses 
 its sweet taste, and is converted into wine. The chief com- 
 ponent parts of must are water, sugar, mucilage, gluten, 
 anil tartar. During the fermentation carbonic acid escapes, 
 the sugar disappears, and with it the greater part of the 
 mucilage ; the gluten chiefly forms the scum and a portion 
 of the sediment; and the tartar, originally in solutionis 
 thrown down in the form of a coloured deposit. It appears, 
 therefore, that the new products, which are alcohol and 
 carbonic acid, are principally formed at the expense of the 
 sugar; and Gay Lussac's experiments have shown that 45 
 449 
 
 FESTOON. 
 
 pounds of sugar are resolved, in the process of lermema 
 lion, into 23 of alcohol and 22 of carbonic acid. Sugar an:, 
 water alone will not ferment; the ingredient requisite to 
 the commencement of the change is the gluten, which ab- 
 sorbs in the first instance a little oxygen from the air, be- 
 comes insoluble, and induces the subsequent changes. The 
 reason why grapes never ferment till the juice is expressed 
 seems to depend upon Ihe exclusion of air by the husk or 
 membranes; and if grapes be bruised in a perfectly i 1. »• 
 vessel, carefully excluding oxygen, the juice nndei 
 change; so that the mere breaking down of the texture < >t tin 
 | fruit is insufficient. But a very short exposure of the pulp 
 to air is sufficient to induce that change in the juice which 
 leads on to fermentation, and which is afterwards ; i :- )•• 
 pendent of the further contact of air, the evolution ol car- 
 bonic acid being exclusively referable to the decomposition 
 of sugar. In beer the alcohol is derived from thl 
 original and produced, of the malt. When wine is exposed 
 to air and a due temperature, a second fermentation en- 
 sues, which is called acetous fermentation, and which nr 
 minates in the production of vinegar. During this procM 
 oxygen is absorbed, and more or less carbonic acid in moM 
 cases evolved ; but the apparent cause of the formation of 
 vinegar is the abstraction of hydrogen from the alcohol, to 
 as to leave the remaining elements in such proportions as 
 to constitute acetic acid. Thus alcohol is theoretically con- 
 stituted ol charcoal, water, and hydrogen: and acetic acid 
 of charcoal and water only : the oxygen of the air, there 
 fore, converts the hydrogen of the alcohol into water, and 
 so effects the change into vinegar. 
 
 IEKMO. See Canto Fehmo. 
 
 PERN ROOT. The root of the Aspidium filix mas, or 
 male fern. About two drachms of the dried root, in pow- 
 der, followed up by a brisk purge, is occasionally given as a 
 vermifuge. It was Madame Nouffers's celebrated specific. 
 
 FERNS. Cryptogamic plants of the highest grade of 
 development, and more especially remarkable for the per- 
 fect manner in which their leaves are formed. See Fji.iceb 
 
 FE'RRO-CYANIC ACID. A compound of 3 aloms ol 
 cyanogen, 2 of hydrogen, and 1 of iron. It is the ftrro- 
 chyazic acid of Mr. Porrelt, the term cfiyatic being com- 
 posed of the initials of carbon, hydrogen, and azote, which 
 are the ultimate elements of hydro-cyanogen. 
 
 FERRUGO. In Botany, a disease of plants, commonly 
 called rust. It is caused by the presence of myriads ol 
 minute fungi, chiefly of the genus Undo, which are to 
 plants what intestinal worms are to animals. 
 
 FE'KRY. (Germ, and Sax. fahren, topass over.) In 
 Law, a right arising from royal grant or prescription to 
 have a boat to carry men and horses across a river, and to 
 levy reasonable toll. The land on both sides ought to be- 
 long to the owner. 
 
 FE'RULA. A genus of Umbelliferous plants, with thin 
 flat fruit, resembling that of Ihe parsnip, and yellow flowers. 
 The species arechielly natives of Persia, where Ihey yield 
 the drug asafcelida. According to Ka?mpferlhis fetid gum- 
 resin isan exudation from Ihe root off. asafmtida; but tnere 
 is no doubt that it is also produced by several other species. 
 
 FE'SCENNINE VERSES (Verses Fescennini), so called 
 from Fescennia, an Etrurian town, where Ihcv first had their 
 origin, were rude extemporaneous pieces of poetry recited 
 by the youth of Latium and Etruria at rustic festivals, espe- 
 cially at harvest home, with gestures adapted to the sense. 
 They consisted principally of raillery and playful rustic a- 
 buse ; a species of humour very much in vogue with Ihe 
 Grecian and Egyptian country people also. The Fescen- 
 nine verse3 are chiefly remarkable from having given rise 
 to satire, the only class of poetry of native Italian growth. 
 
 FE'SCUE GRASS. A valuable grass for meadows and 
 pastures, (fesluca pratensis, Lin.) In deep rich soils 
 somewhat moist it is considered as the most bulky and nu- 
 tritive of all grasses; but in poorer soils it is equalled, if not 
 surpassed, by the rye grass (Lolium perenne). and the mea- 
 dow foxtail grass (Aleopecurus pratensis). The meadow 
 fescue grows to the height of between two and three feel ; 
 but the sheep fescue (.£'. ovana), and several other species, 
 seldom grow above six inches or a foot in height, and are 
 chiefly sown on sheep pastures, and used to lay down lawns 
 and grassy surfaces to be mown in pleasure grounds. All the 
 fescues are perennials ; and they are all natives ol Britain. 
 
 FESS. (Lat. fascia, a wide belt.) In Heraldry one of tho 
 ordinaries. It is bounded by two horizontal lines across the 
 escutcheon, equally distant from the fess point or centre of 
 the escutcheon. A fess not reaching to the sides of the 
 escutcheon is said to be couped(cut) or humetty. The dimi- 
 nutives of the fess are the bar, the closet, and the barulet. A 
 fess with a barulet on each side of it is said to be cotiscd 
 A fess removed to the top of the escutcheon is termed 
 chief, and held to be an honourable augmentation. 
 
 FESTOO'N. (Fr. feston.) In Architecture, a carveal 
 representation tf a wreath or garland of flowers, or leaves 
 and fruit, or all of them, interwoven together; thick in the 
 centre and small at each extremity, where it is fastened, 
 and frequently turned over. 
 2F 
 
FETIALS. 
 
 FE'TIALS. See Fecials. 
 
 FE TICH, Fetichism. The word Fetich is said to be 
 derived from the Portuguese, and appears to have been 
 brought into common usage from the writings of some trav- 
 ellers on the western coast of Africa. It is now comprehen- 
 sively employed to signify any object of worship not repre- 
 senting a living (or rather, perhaps, a human) figure; thus 
 excluding idols, properly so called. This perverted form of 
 religion prevails very extensively among barbarous nations, 
 and especially those of the Negro race. Among the latter, 
 tribes, families, and individuals have their respective Fe- 
 tiches; which are often objects casually selected, or chosen 
 under the influence of some occasional superstition, as 
 stones, weapons, vessels, plants, &c. &c. 
 
 FE'TLOCK. (Quasi footlock, whence the derivation.) 
 In the Manege, a tuft of hair growing behind the pastern 
 joint of horses ; hence the joint where it grows is called the 
 fetlock joint. 
 
 FE'TTERED, in Zoology, is auplied to the feet of ani- 
 mals when they are stretched backward and appear unfit 
 for the purpose of walking, or when they are concealed 
 within the integuments of the abdomen. 
 
 FE'TTSTEIN. (Germ, fat stone.) See Elaolite. 
 
 FEU (Lat. feodum, fief), in Scottish Law, is used in con- 
 tradistinction to ward-holding- or military tenure, to signify 
 that holding where the vassal makes a return in grain or 
 money in lieu of military service. The feu contract is that 
 which regulates the giving out of land, as between superior 
 and vassal ; the rent paid being termed the Jew duties. 
 
 FEU'DAL SYSTEM. (From the modern Latin word 
 feodum or feud ; in English fief or fee.) A body of institu- 
 tions of a peculiar character, introduced into Europe by the 
 German and Gothic tribes which conquered the provinces 
 of Rome, which prevailed for a long period, and has left 
 important traces of its existence in most European countries. 
 The words fief and feud are both, it is conjectured with 
 much probability, corruptions of the Graco-Latin term em- 
 phyteusis (pronounced emphytefsis), signifying a contract 
 whereby an individual acquired the enjoyment of a piece of 
 land without the absolute property in it. Hence by con- 
 traction came fef or fief, and by the addition of a neuter 
 termination fevodum, feudum, feodum. Another derivation, 
 recently suggested, is from the Irish "fuidhur," "fuidh," 
 signifying, in the Brehon Laws, a stranger who enjoyed 
 land within the domains of a clan, and the tenure by which 
 he enjoyed it. It is singular that the word " vassal" is also 
 probably of Celtic derivation. (See Vassal.) The English 
 word " feud" (quarrel or strife) is of an entirely distinct or- 
 igin, being the same with the German fchde. The German 
 equivalent for fief is another original word, lehn. 
 
 It is clear that feudal usages were absolutely unknown to 
 the ancient Romans; but as among that people, and espe- 
 cially in the later times of the empire, there existed certain 
 customs which were analogous in appearance, although not 
 in origin — such as the establishment of military colonies on 
 the frontier, where the tenant of land was a soldier, and lia- 
 ble to be called into active duty; and the cultivation of 
 great part of the empire by coloni, a distinct class of men, 
 raised above the condition of the slave, and yet bound to 
 render services to the proprietor, and in some instances an- 
 nexed to the soil — the barbarians in many instances adapt- 
 ed the conventional language and the laws of Rome to their 
 own native customs ; thus producing a confusion of idiom 
 and practice, of which a better instance cannot be found 
 than the fact already mentioned, that the word "feud" it- 
 self is derived from a legal term of the Greek empire (em- 
 phyteusis). 
 
 The immediate result of the conquest of Gaul, Italy, and 
 Spain by the various barbarian tribes, was the division of 
 the lands (except such portions as were left in the posses- 
 sion of the Roman cultivators and only rendered liable to 
 tribute) between all the armed men of the nation. The 
 shares were undoubtedly unequal even in the earliest of 
 these divisions ; but, however differing in point of wealth, 
 all the free proprietors were equal in rights: all were held 
 liable to serve with the national force when called into the 
 field; all had a voice, at least nominally, in the making of 
 laws and in the choice of a sovereign. These free citizens 
 are called by various names in the legislation of the differ- 
 ent tribes; the Lombard title of Jlrimannus (ehren-mann, 
 man of honour, or heer-man, warrior) seems to have been 
 the most permanent. Such, however, was the general con- 
 stitution of the kingdoms of the Lombards in Italy; the 
 Franks in Gaul ; the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Burgun- 
 dians ; and of the various states which grew up within the 
 limits of Germany itself, after the confusion occasioned by 
 the great migrations had passed away. 
 
 The decay of these aristocratic republics was brought 
 about by nearly the same causes which operate in under- 
 mining all systems founded on equality of rights and classes. 
 The constant wars and vicissitudes to which these govern- 
 ments were subject natirallv raised up among the citizens 
 «0 
 
 FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 some moie powerful than the rest, and converted a great 
 body of the freemen into dependants upon these. The duke* 
 and counts, and other great men, became the actual con 
 trollers of the community: the free cili/.ens, wherever un 
 able to associate for mutual protection, wire subject to 
 innumerable vexations. From the earliest times, and before 
 the fall of the Roman empire, it had been customary among 
 the Germans for the princes and chief men to be attended 
 by a select body of faithful companions, whose dependance 
 on them, and services due to them, were recognised and 
 fixed by general usage. This custom, under the new cir- 
 cumstances of the Germanic and Gothic kingdoms, acquired 
 peculiar force. It became an object of ambition to the 
 chieftains to have as many dependants as possible. With 
 this view, every species of vexation was exercised by them 
 towards the unprotected Arimannus, to induce him to indi- 
 cate Ids own independence, and enrol himself under their 
 command. During the wars and confusions of the eighth 
 and ninth centuries, the foundations of the feudal system 
 were laid by this personal dependance assuming gradually 
 the character of a territorial dependance also. The Ari- 
 mannus was induced to surrender up his free or allodial 
 lands to the king or count, and became his " liegeman" 
 (fidelis), "antrustion" (our English word trust comes from 
 the same origin), "vassal," or "man" (homo, whence ho- 
 magiwm.', homage), receiving back his lands to hold of the 
 superior. This process can only now be traced by insulated 
 documents and historical facts ; but, arising out of the same 
 circumstances in most countries of Western Europe, it took 
 in all of them nearly the same course. It is ably developed 
 by Hallam (in his first chapter on the Feudal System), and 
 Meyer (Institutions Judiciaircs, livre i.). 
 
 The success and energy of Charlemagne arrested for a 
 time the decomposition of the old form of society: his em- 
 pire extended over nearly all those portions of Europe 
 which afterward became feudal ; and his various laws (in 
 the end of the eighth and beginning of the ninth ccn'ury) 
 present us with a remarkable picture of what may be called 
 the slate of transition from the allodial to the feudal system. 
 We find in them that the free proprietors, or Arimanni, still 
 formed a very numerous body ; and that the exigencies of 
 military service fell most heavily upon them. They were 
 obliged to serve at their own cost; while the counts, &c, 
 brought their vassals to the field at their own expense. 
 These laws are full of the vexations endured by the formet 
 class from the powerful military chieftains. On the othei 
 hand, the practice of attaching individuals to the person of 
 the sovereign or superior by the grant of lands (benefices), 
 and the obligations imposed on the inferior by the grant, arc 
 clearly developed. The distinction between al'odial ani 
 feudal lands (though the latter term was not yet used) is as 
 marked as at any subsequent period. But benefices wire 
 not yet hereditary : it is doubted by the most learned wri- 
 ters, Whether or no they were, generally or frequently, pre- 
 carious and revocable. 
 
 The decay of Charlemagne's empire, and the disasters of 
 the two centuries which followed his reign, completed the 
 formation of the feudal system. The great step by which 
 that change was completed was when the benefices or fiefs 
 became, like the former allodial properties, hereditary. 
 There can be little doubt that this change was merely the 
 result of those disastrous circumstances of civil and barba 
 rian wars which during that period relaxed the slight bonds 
 of the Carlovingian monarchy, and rendered every man as 
 far as possible dependant on an immediate superior, and in- 
 dependent of a central authority. The earliest express cre- 
 ation of an hereditary fief is considered to be the donation 
 of the duchy of Aquitaine to Eudes and his heirs by 
 Charles-le-Chauve. The great vassals established their 
 families permanently in the lands which they held of the 
 fisc or royal domain: their liegemen, in turn, were gratified 
 by acquiring the same right in their own subordinate fiefs. 
 There can be no doubt that the nobility of modern Europe 
 owes its origin, in general, to nearly the same period and 
 the same causes: those families which succeeded in acqui 
 ring extensive fiefs, and preserving them for several genera- 
 tions, became noble by prescription. In the mean time, the 
 Arimanni, or allodial proprietors, found their condition be- 
 came worse from generation to generation : they were load- 
 ed with services and dues until, in the tenth century (as is 
 shown bv Meyer), the term " arimannia" became synony- 
 mous with exaction. But, although the feudal system be- 
 came so generally prevalent that the maxim "Nulle terre 
 sans seigneur" (importing that lands were pres>imed feudal 
 until the contrary was shown) became generally received, 
 vet in France and Germany they never became wholly ex- 
 tinct. In some districts of the former country the maxim 
 was reversed, and lands were presumed allodial. (See 
 Hallam.) 
 
 Character and Features of the Feudal System. — This in- 
 stitution is generally supi>osed to have been fully consolida- 
 ted by the commencement of the eleventh ccnturv : the law 
 
FEUDAL SYSTEM 
 
 of Conrad, the Salic, in Lombardy (1039), contains all its 
 main features: llie Assises de Jerusalem, and other compi- 
 lations, show that in a century more it had been invested 
 with all the refinements of a legal system. 
 By the principles of tins system, the king was, in the last 
 t, proprietor of all the feudal lands of his kingdom. 
 u ho were Infeofied of lands directly from the crown, 
 n ed homage and service to tile king, were termed ten- 
 ant.- in chief (in capitc), &c. These, again, infeoffed other 
 interior tenants, who held Immediately of them; and this 
 practice (called subinfeudation) might iie carried on through 
 several gradations. Thus the same individual was a vassal 
 or dependant of the crown, and lord or suzerain with refer- 
 ence to his own vassal who held of him, also termed mesne 
 or mediate lord, a term which comprehended both thi 
 lations. But, although nil perfect fiefs resembled each oilier 
 in their theoretical character, and particularly in their great 
 attribute of military service, yet, in point of fact, tenants 
 holding immediately of the crown stixid in very different 
 degrees of subordination. Thus, in France, the great vas- 
 sals (the Dukes of Normandy, Britany, &c.) were immedi- 
 ate tenants of the crown, but in effect almost independent 
 of it ; while they exercised much stricter sovereignty over 
 their own immediate tenants. But other lands, being the 
 i -:ie of the crown it-elf, were held of it by lesser ten- 
 luits in chief, who stood to the king in the same close rela- 
 tion us tile vassals of the great feudatories did to them. 
 Tims the government of France, at the period when the 
 feudal system was In tin ; . was that of a col- 
 
 lection of independent sovereigns, of whom one, the king, 
 had a certain supremacy over the rest; but each. Within his 
 own domains, exercised an equal authority: and such w.-i ■-, 
 in theory at least, the co n s titu tion of every feudal kingdom. 
 The Ceremonies Died in conferring a fief were chiefly three: 
 J. H, image, by winch the vassal owned the lord's suprema- 
 cy ; but homage per paragium, or simple homage, was un- 
 accompanied by any feudal obligation; homngium Iigcum, 
 or liege homage, implied such obligations: the former only 
 was rendered to the king by the great feudatories above 
 mentioned. (See Hallam's Middle Ages, c. 2, part 1.) 2. 
 The oath of fealty. It. Investiture, or the conveyance of 
 feudal lauds actual or symbolical. The chief obligation 
 of u feudal tenant was military service; but the laws whirl) 
 regulated this essential part of* the contract were so various, 
 that it is not possible to give any comprehensive description 
 of them. In some places every tenant was obliged to serve 
 personally for his net Whether large or small ; in others (as 
 England), the land was divided into a certain number trf 
 -qual parcels, from each of which a soldier's service was 
 lue: the term of service was also variously regulated by 
 The conflicting rights of superior and inferior lords 
 tiie vassal's military service were also never satisfactorily 
 idjusted. When feudality was in its most flourishing state, 
 16 commonly followed the banner of Ins immediate rape 
 ior, even against the crown ; but with the progress of the 
 iyai power, bis obligations were gradually transferred to 
 "ie king as lord paramount: military service was in most 
 adered commutable, in process of time, for an 
 tJQerccmeiii in money. (See Escuaok.) There were other 
 OJcrior obligations Which attached to the military tenures, 
 OOmmonly called feudal incidents. These wen; chiefly, I. 
 Helief* ; i. e., sums of money paid to the lord by tenants of 
 full ago on taking fiefs by descent. '.!. Fines upon aliena- 
 tion, Which were sums paid on alienating a fief; a privilege 
 which was only gradually acquired by feudal ten: it.-, being 
 contrary to the principles of the institution. 3. / 
 i. e., the reversion of the fief to the lord, ou failure of the 
 tenant's heirs or forfeiture. 4. Aids ; sums paid by tenant 
 to the lord on certain specified occasions. And to these may 
 be added the feudal rights of wardship, by which the lord, 
 in some countries, had the eustody of his tenant's person, 
 and the enjoyment of hit lands until he was of full age; 
 and marriage, by which the lord had the right of disposing 
 of such ward's land in marriage, or, if the marriage were 
 rejected, to a sum of money equivalent to the marriage, i. «., 
 aamncb as it was presumed Uie party seeking the marriage 
 would have given the lord for the alliance. Forfeiture of 
 the fief to the feudal lord was incurred by the tenant's vio- 
 iating any of the original conditions of fealty, homage, and 
 military service. But the vassal was protected from the 
 unjiL-t aggression of the lord by that which seems to have 
 been an inherent and necessary condition of the feudal sys- 
 tem ; the judgment, namely, of his peers, without which 
 such forfeiture could not be incurred, supported, as it were, 
 by the right of private warfare, which in the last resort 
 was the resource both of the lord to enforce obedience from 
 the vassal, and the vassal to protect himself against his 
 equal or his superior: on failure of heirs, the fief fell or es- 
 cheated to the lord. Fiefs holden by military tenure were, 
 strictly, proper fiefs. There were also a great variety of 
 tenures by rendering particular stipulated services, created, 
 for the most part, in comparatively late times, which were 
 
 also deemed feudal in their character, and constituted rra- 
 proper fiefs ; such were, especially, tenures by the perform- 
 ance of menial or other personal services, from which arose 
 the English grand serjeanty (which see). All these tenure" 
 were of a higher or noble character; but in some countrier 
 large portions of the land were held either immediately or 
 the king, or mediately of feudal lords, by base or inferio. 
 tenures. Such lands were styled fiefs roturiers in Frencl 
 Jurisprudence: in English, this class of tenures was com 
 prehended under the common term of socage, which com 
 prised both tenures in free or common socage, and those ii 
 villi in socage, from which are derived tenures in ancien: 
 demesne. (See Socage.) 
 
 The division of ranks under the feudal system correspond 
 ed in theory, although not precisely in practice, to the terri- 
 torial division of lands according to their tenures. Th 
 held their fiefs by knight-service were the original nobility 
 of the soil ; nor has the class of gentry, in most countries, 
 any other origin. The l>earing of arms, the distinctive char- 
 acter of simames, &c. &c, became afterwards, in course of 
 time, the distinctive marks of the class of nobility, which no 
 longer adhered so closely to the soil from which it sprang. 
 Tin,-, in France, we find that a noble might, in later times, 
 hold a fief roturier, while a rotuiier might hold a proper 
 fief; although, in such n case, services such as were render- 
 ed by the gentry were of course commuted. But it may be 
 in general observed, that almost the whole soil of France, 
 north of the Loire, was under noble tenures; in the south 
 only were free tenants, not noble — a numerous class. In 
 many parts of Germany the distinction between adelic/ic 
 
 Cter (noble fiefs) and bauer gdter (peasant fiefs) has only 
 tly effaced, Of still subsists: in Prussia it was abol- 
 ished in 1807. In England the course of the feudal system 
 was somewhat different ; the class of free tenants in socage 
 was far more numerous and Influential : hence the yeoman 
 ry of England formed a body of men to which a parallel 
 could hardly be found in any other country. The burgesses, 
 or inhabitants of towns, constituted in feudal r< alms a class 
 apart; and their communities were either really, or by fic- 
 tion, emancipated by royal charters from the tenure by which 
 they were supposed to hold their land either of the king or 
 
 .<■ lord. Lastly, the k 
 consisted of serfs or villeins, attached to the soil in many In 
 stances; but whose state varied so greatly under different 
 i •ircumstances, M to render it impossible to give any general 
 description of their condition. • 
 
 Such is a very brief "and general outline of the complica- 
 ted system of rights and duties which bears the historical 
 name of feudal. It is necessary, however, to add, that this 
 system assumed very different shapes in the different coun- 
 tries in which it prevailed. 1. France was the country in 
 which feudalism had, if not its origin, at least its gre: 
 e\ tension, and was most nearly reduced in practice to i's: 
 theoretical form. Up to the fall of the Carlovingian empire, 
 that country must be regarded as an aggregate of provinces, 
 inhabited by different nations, and governed by a variety of 
 laws, but acknowledging the sovereignty of a monarch 
 whose power was more or less obeyed, according to his own 
 personal talents and other casual circumstances. After the 
 separation of France nnd Germany by the treaty of Verdun 
 in 843, a succession of feeble princes and the invasions of 
 the Normans almost broke up the slender frame of the French 
 monarchy. The governors or masters of extensive provin- 
 ces, who had by this time secured to themselves the heredi- 
 tary sovereignty of their respective benefices, become inde- 
 pendent within their own limits: when feudal royalty was 
 continued under the Capctian kings, these ranked as the 
 great vassals of the crown. Their powers have been classed 
 (by Mr. Hallam) under five heads: 1. the right of coining 
 money; 2. that of waging private war; 3. the exemption 
 from all public tributes except the feudal aids; 4. the free- 
 dom from legislative control; and 5. the exclusive exercise 
 of original judicature in their dominions : of these, the fourth 
 was the most characteristic of the French system. No gen- 
 eral legislative power, vested in an assembly of the nation, 
 seems ever to have existed in France as a whole. This cir- 
 cumstance, which in the first instance seemed to the great 
 vassals their independence, proved in the end the cause of 
 their decay; as, with the gradual increase of the royal pow- 
 ers, the legislative authority of the king himself, ir the ab- 
 sence of any recognised riational council to assist him, ac- 
 quired continually increasing force. Meanwhile, the extra- 
 ordinary power of the great vassals in France in some de- 
 gree weighed down that of the inferior nobility ; the ties of 
 feudal subjection, weakened in the highest relation (that be- 
 tween the great vassals and the crown), were much stronger 
 between the great lords and the lesser barons, chatelains, or 
 vavassors, who depended on them. The king, according to 
 the establishments of St. Louis, could not declare any new 
 law in the territory of his baron without his consent, neither 
 could the baron in that of his vavassor; but, in a partial 
 point of view, the king and the baron, within their respective 
 
 451 
 
FEVER. 
 
 demesnes, exercised a much more real sovereignty thar> that 
 which the former possessed over the latter. It was about 
 the reign of Philippe-le-Bel, in the beginning of the 14th cen- 
 tury, that the feudal system, which had lasted up to that 
 iime from its establishment in the 10th without material in- 
 novation, was in effect overthrown, and that the king of 
 France began to be in reality master of his kingdom. This 
 change was chiefly brought about by the extension of the 
 king's juridical power by means of the parliament ; and last- 
 ly by the convocation of the states-general, as the represent- 
 ative body of the whole nation : the greater fiefs were re- 
 annexed in the course Of events to the crown, with the re- 
 maining power and privileges of their lords. — 2. There can 
 be no question that feudal principles pievailed to a consider- 
 able degree in the polity of the Saxons in England; but 
 when that kingdom was conquered by the Normans they 
 imported with them the entire system, already invested (in 
 the 11th century) with a legal and regular character. Hence, 
 while feudalism grew up from the circumstances of society 
 in France, it may be said to have been transplanted, as to 
 most of its details, into England from a foreign soil. The 
 land was parcelled out, as in France, between higher feuda- 
 tories and inferior tenants holding of them by knight-service. 
 But two circumstances chiefly produced the very different 
 shape into which the system ultimately resolved itself: 1. 
 The existence of the great body of freemen of Saxon descent, 
 who were neither reduced into villenage, nor deprived of 
 their lands, nor yet ennobled by being ranked along with the 
 Norman military tenants. 2. The permanent national coun- 
 cil, which seems to have been every where a peculiarity of 
 the Norman system of government, and which, by taking 
 cognizance of matters pertaining to the general interests of 
 the realm, at once controlled the power of the king and that 
 of the great barons as single and independent chiefs. Thus 
 the country remained, even in the most troubled period of 
 the Plantagenet dynasty, in constant union under some cen- 
 tral authority ; and the feudal principles were modified, both 
 by the common law of the land, and also by various statutes, 
 of which that commonly styled by its first words " Quia 
 Emptores," passed in the reign of Edward II. which put an 
 effectual stop to all farther sub-infeudation, was perhaps the 
 most effectual. — 3. In Germany, ns well as France, the feu- 
 dal usages seem to have grown into a system under the sov- 
 ereignty of the Carlovingian emperors. But in that country, 
 owing, perhaps, partly to the constant danger from foreign 
 invasion on the eastern side, which kept the people more 
 together under the central authority, the sovereigns never 
 lost, during the dark period of the 9th and 10th centuries, so 
 much of their power as those of France. Hence the greater 
 vassals did not acquire such complete independence; but 
 when, after the 11th century, the elective character of the 
 empire was more fully recognised, the imperial power de- 
 cayed ; and that of the vassals rose during the period in 
 which the contrary progress was taking place in France. 
 And as the inferior barons had not been, depressed, as in the 
 latter country, by the overgrown power of the superior, Ger- 
 many presented the example of a country in which the feu- 
 dal system was carried out more completely, and for a great- 
 er length of time, into actual existence than any other; nor 
 is there any in which the frame of society, to the present 
 day, shows so many relics of its long predominance. — i. In 
 Italy the feudal system, under the Carlovingian government, 
 was widely prevalent. The chief cause, in that country, 
 which weakened and brought it to decay, or rather prevent- 
 ed its complete establishment, was to be found in the power 
 and independence of the large towns, which at first effectu- 
 ally resisted, and afterwards broke down, the strength of the 
 nobility. — 5. In Spain feudal tenures were of late introduc- 
 tion, and very partially known, except in the kingdom of Ar- 
 ragon. — 0. In the northern and eastern kingdoms of Europe 
 (Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Bohemia) they were never in- 
 troduced at all, except in some few instances wholly without 
 general effect. 
 
 FE'VER. (Lat. febris.) A disease, one of the most gen- 
 eral symptoms of which is increased heat of the body. The 
 temperature is often actually higher than it should be ; and 
 often the sensations of heat, dryness, and even burning of the 
 skin, are excessive, independent of any proportional increase 
 of thermometric heat. The subject of fever has given rise 
 to an infinity of medical discussion and theory ; and the def- 
 initions of the disease, given by different writers, are not less 
 varied than numerous. In fevers there is generally great 
 onstitutional derangement, unaccompanied by local or per- 
 ceptible organic disease. Fevers generally begin with lan- 
 guor of body and mind ; chilliness, amounting to shivering, 
 though the skin often at the same time feels hot; the pulse 
 is quicker than it should be ; respiration hurried or laboured ; 
 pains are complained of in various parts, and especially 
 about the head, back, and loins; the appetite falls off, or 
 there is nausea and vomiting ; the mouth is dry ; the bowels 
 generally constipated; and the urine small in quantity and 
 deep in colour. These, which constitute the first stage of or- 
 453 
 
 FICTION OF LAW. 
 
 uinarv febrile symptoms, are succeeded by alternate flush 
 ings, a quicker and fuller pulse, rapid alternations of shivei 
 ing and burning heat, and by mental anxiety and wander- 
 ing, which, under a great variety of aspects and modifica- 
 tions, constitute the second stage : they are succeeded by the 
 third stage, in which the leading appearances are a cleaner 
 tongue, a more natural pulse, a moist skin, calm mind, and 
 the urine becomes more copious in quantity, and deposits a 
 sediment as it cools. The symptoms of fever generally un- 
 dergo an increase every evening, which is called an exacer- 
 bation ; and this fluctuation often takes place more than 
 once in the twenty-four hours, the violence of the attacks 
 increasing with their occurrence, and forming what is called 
 a continued fever. After some days, a crisis takes p?nce ; 
 that is, the symptoms either take a favourable or an unfa- 
 vourable turn. If the exacerbation and remission of symp- 
 toms are well marked, and occur once or oftener in the day, 
 the fever is called a remittent ; if the fever leaves the pa- 
 tient after some hours' duration, and returns at stated inter- 
 vals, it is called an intermittent. (See Ague.) Fevers are 
 also variously denominated, according to the prevalent symp- 
 toms, as inflammatory, typhus or putrid, nervous fever, &c. : 
 or according to cutaneous appearances connected with them 
 such as scarlet fever and yellow fever. 
 
 FIARS. A word of Gothic origin, signifying, in Scotland 
 the prices of grain for the current year in the different coun 
 ties, fixed by the sheriffs respectively in the month of Feb 
 ruary, with the assistance of juries. The form of striking 
 the fiars, says Mr. Bell, in his Law Dictionary, is prescribed 
 by the Acts of Sederunt, Dec. 21, 1723, and July 29, 1728. 
 A jury must be called, and evidence laid before them of 
 the prices of the different grains raised in the county ; and 
 the prices fixed by the opinion of the jury, and sanctioned 
 by the judge, are termed the fiars of that year in which 
 they are struck, and regulate the prices of all grain stipulated 
 to be sold at the fiar prices. The fiar prices also regulate 
 the price in contracts concerning grain (the product of the 
 county) to be delivered, and where no price has been other- 
 wise agreed upon between the parties. Having the prices 
 of grain, &c, ascertained in each county has greatly l'acili 
 tated the introduction into Scotland of the practice <>i' letting 
 land for corn rents convertible at the prices of the day. In 
 England, where there are no such authentic local returns, 
 there is great difficulty in converting corn rents into money 
 rents, inasmuch as reference can only be made to the prices 
 in some particular market, or in the kingdom at large ; tht 
 one of which is too limited, and the other too extensive 
 See BelVs Law Dictionary, and the authorities there re 
 ferred to. 
 
 FI'AT. (Lat.) In Law, a short order or warrant of 
 some judge for making out certain processes, &c. 
 
 Fiat. In Bankruptcy. See Bankruptcy. 
 
 FI'BRE. One of the two bases of all vegetable structures 
 It may be compared to a hair in inconceivable fineness, it! 
 diameter often not exceeding 1-1200 of an inch ; also tht 
 name of the finer divisions of roots. 
 
 FIBRI LLiE. In Botany, the minute subdivisions of the 
 root, each being a small bundle of annular ducts, or some- 
 times of spiral vessels incased in woody tissue covered by a_ 
 lax cellular integument, and in direct communication with - 
 the vascular system of the root. The apex is composed of 
 lax cellular tissue and mucus. 
 
 FI'BRIN. A term applied by chemists to the muscular 
 fibre when cleansed by washing from all adhering impuri- 
 ties ; or to the coagulum of the blood when the whole of the 
 colouring matter is washed out of it. It is white, insipid, and 
 inodorous ; its ultimate elements are, according to Guy Lus- 
 sac and Thenard, 
 
 Carbon 53-36 
 
 Hydrogen 7-02 
 
 Nitrogen. 19-93 
 
 Oxygen 1909 
 
 It is merely a form of albumen. 
 
 FI BROLITE. A rare mineral of a peculiar fibrous tex 
 ture, accompanying corundum from the Camatic and from 
 China. 
 
 FI'BULA. A long slender bone of the leg, placed upon 
 the outer side of the tibia, the lower end of which forms the 
 external ancle. 
 
 FICOI'DE^E. A natural order of shrubby or herbaceous 
 Exogens, inhabiting hot sandy plains. They are related to 
 Crassulaceai, Chenopodiacete, and Si/cnacca; and especially 
 to Cactaee(B ; but are distinguished by their embryo being 
 curved round mealy albumen, a superior calyx, and perigyn 
 ous stamens. The succulent leaves of some are eaten, while 
 others vield soda. 
 
 FICTION. In Literature. See Novel, Romance. 
 
 FICTION OF LAW, has been defined, by writers on the 
 civil jurisprudence, to be an assumption of the law upon on 
 untruth in something possible to be done but not done. The 
 utility of such fictions is merely, by substituting the imaginnry 
 for the true state of the case, to pass more rapidly over those 
 
FID. 
 
 parts of the subject which nrc not disputed, and arrive at the 
 points really in issue. Among the more notorious fictions of 
 the English law may be noticed the course of proceedings in 
 the action of ejectment, in which an imaginary tenant brings 
 hi- complaint of having been turned out of possession by a 
 wrongdoer, in order to try the validity of the title of the 
 landlord: that of a common recovery, by which estates tail 
 were bound through a complicated proceeding (removed by- 
 recent statutes, see Fee-Tail), consisting of an Imaginary 
 suit at law. The general rule is, that such fictions are not 
 traversable; i. c., cannot be contradicted by him against 
 whom they are used, so as to defeat the end for which they 
 are invented. And for the same par pens the court will take 
 notice that they are only fictions, if necessary, in order to 
 prevent more technical objectioas to them. 
 
 FID. A short bar of wood or iron put through the heel or 
 lower part of a topmast, and resting by its ends > >n the trestle- 
 trees, and on which the mast is therefore supported. When 
 the topmast is to be got down, it is first lifted to take the pres- 
 sure oil'the fid, which is llien withdrawn. 
 
 I'll), or SPLICING FID, is also a sharp cone of wood for 
 opening the strands of rope. 
 
 FI'DEI COMMI'SSUM. (Lnt. committed or intrusted to 
 faith.) A species of testamentary disposition recognised 
 by the Komau law, by which a testator, in indirect terms, 
 charged his heir to deliver over to a specified ] 
 whole or a part of the goods which he Inherited. Fidei 
 commi-sa were usually adopted as a means of bequeathing 
 t'i person! legally incapable of directly receiving the 
 ridel uiiimiiIm were, as their name Implies, at 
 endanl entirely on the faitli of the heir for their exe- 
 cution; but that execution was rendered compulsory by Au- 
 £iisiu> in some cases; and this became afterwards the general 
 law, the heir being, however, entitled, where he voluntarily 
 anient and charged himself with Its execu- 
 tion, to retain one fourth of the property intrusted to him lor 
 d eliver y. 
 
 FIDE JU'SSOR. In the Civil Law, OSS who engages 
 for the debt of another, promising to pay ii 
 original debtor should make default: who is called in the 
 law •!' England a guaranter. 
 
 II I .'. (Lat. feodum.) The French name for an cstaste 
 in lands held of a feudal superior. In English law language, 
 a/M : also termed a/eudby writers on feudal Jurisprudence. 
 (See Feudal System.) In the legal language of France, a 
 /i/was opposed to an alcu. or estate held allodially, with- 
 out any lord paramount. Various derivations of the word 
 have baeD given ; but the most probable is that which traces 
 it through the steps feodum, feodum, emphyteuticum, from 
 the Gr. tpfvTcvoic, a contract w hereby the use of the land 
 without the property in it was surrendered to a tenant. 
 
 FIELD. In Agriculture, a portion of land enclosed by a 
 fence, or rendered distinct by some line of separation, so as 
 to adapt it for culture. In former times, and until within the 
 last two centuries, almost all the land cultivated with the 
 plough throughout Europe was unenclosed; and the term 
 field was then applied, in Britain at least, to the lands under 
 culture by the plough. Subsequently, when farmers en- 
 closed and subdivided a portion of the lands near the farm 
 yard, these portions were called fields; and the more distant 
 portion which remained open was called open field, or com- 
 mon field ; while grass lands unenclosed were called com- 
 mons. In the present improved state of agriculture, every 
 farm is divided into fields, either simply by lines of demarca- 
 tion, which are sufficient when no animals are to be grazed 
 on the farm; or by lines of separation which will act as 
 i'h at walls, hedges, ditches, &c, where cattle are 
 Co be grazed." Without some regular fixed division of arnblc 
 lands, it would be next to impossible to conduct a rotation or 
 ■n of crops. It is interesting to observe that as agri- 
 ;ulture in a rude state had no fences, so this is also beginning 
 to be the case in agriculture in its most refined form ; because 
 t is found much more advantageous, both for the production 
 rf butcher's meat and manure, to consume the grass and her- 
 bage grown on farm lands in farm yards, with the single cx- 
 ■epfion of that portion which iseaten by sheep; and these are 
 confined to successive portions of grass hind by light netting 
 hurdles, scarcely visible at a short distance. By thus getting 
 rid offences of every description, from a tenth to a fifth will 
 be added to the contents of the greater number of corn farms ; 
 and a very considerable first cost and annual expense will be 
 saved in planting hedges or building walls, and in keeping 
 them in repair afterward. 
 
 Field. In Heraldry, the tincture, or combination of tinc- 
 tures, which forms the ground of the escutcheon on which 
 the device or charge is delineated. Ste Tincture. 
 
 FIE'LDFARE. A bird of the thrush tribe {Turrhis 
 pilaris, Linn.,', which is a seasonal visitant in this island. 
 It makes its appearance about the beginning of October, 
 migrating from the colder northern parts of the Continent in 
 flocks, numerous according to the severity of the season. 
 They, fly in a body; and if alarmed when dispersed over a 
 
 FIGS. 
 
 field in quest of food, they collect together as they fly ofl, 
 and often settle in a swarm on the same tree. They leave 
 us about the latter end of February, or the beginning of 
 March ; and retire to breed in Sweden, Norway, SuaaVaad 
 the northern parts of Asia as far as Kamtschatka. 
 
 FIELD LARK. See Lark. 
 
 FIELD MA'RSHAL. The highest military title in tins 
 and some other countries. It is conferred only on officers 
 distinguished for brilliant military services or exalted st.ation. 
 Thfl term is derived from the m'anchal dc camp in the old 
 French service, and was long in use among the Germans in 
 its present distinguished acceptation before it was adopted i:. 
 this country. There are at present only five field marshals 
 in the British army; the Duke of Wellington, the King of 
 Hanover, the Duke of Cambridge, the King of Belgium, and 
 Prince Albert 
 
 FIELD OF VIEW, in a telescope or microscope, is the 
 space within which objects are visible who,, 
 is adjusted to focus. 
 
 FIE'LDVOLE. A name of the short-tailed field-mouse, 
 or meadow-mouse (Jirricola agrestis, Cuv.). 
 which subsists exclusively on vegetable product! 
 being, like the rest of the rat tribe, extremely prolific, niulu- 
 plies occasionally to sochi degree, even in this country, as to 
 become the UMMI injurious of our wild quadrupeds. "After 
 having followed the labours of the reaper, and taken their 
 share of the harvest, the licldvoles," says Mr. Bell, "attack 
 the newly sown fields, burrowing beneath i 
 robbing the husbandman of his next year's crop; and at 
 length, retreating '" Ihe woods and plantations, commit such 
 us on the young trees as would scarcely be credi- 
 ble, were not the evidence too certain to be doubted. In the 
 years 1813 and 1811 the ire so great in the New 
 
 of Dean, as to create considerable 
 alarm lest the whole of the young trees in those I 
 woods should lie destroyed by them." A timely and assidu- 
 ous attention to restraining the increase of this pernicious 
 species by the aid of terriers, ferrets and tra|>s, is ii 
 on those who have the charge I f young plantati 
 when the numbers of the Beldvole have surpassed the usual 
 bounds, then it is recommended to dig holes about a foot in 
 depth, and the same in diameter, taking care to make them 
 much wider at the bottom than at the top, so that the animal 
 when once in cannot easily gel OOt again. In holes of this 
 kind Mr. Jesse states that at least thirty thousand fieldvolea 
 were caught, in the course of three or four months, in Dean 
 Forest plantations; that number having been counted out 
 and paid for bv the proper officers of the forest. 
 
 FI'FHI FACIAS. In Law, a judicial writ, that lies 
 where judgment i* had for debt or damages recovered in the 
 king's court; by which writ the sheriff is commanded to levy 
 the debt and damages of the goods and chattels of the de- 
 fendant. Tins writ is to be sued out within a year and a 
 day after judgment; or the judgment must he revived by 
 scire facias. 
 
 FIFE. (Germ, pfeifie.) A small w'ooden musical wind 
 instrument of t i i< played by holes, exceedingly 
 
 shrill in tone, and rarely used except in military bands. 
 
 FIETEENTHi In Music an interval of two octaves; 
 also a name given to a stop on the organ, a double octave 
 above the diapason, as its name imports. 
 
 FIFTH. In Music, one of the harmonical intervals or 
 concords. It is the second In order of the concords, the ratio 
 of the chords that afford it being as 3 :2. It is called tho 
 fifth, as containing five terms or sounds between its extremes 
 and four degrees; so that in the natural scale of music it 
 comes in the fifth plnce or order from the fundamental. 
 The ancients called it Diapcnte, and the Italians at present 
 call it Quinta. The imperfect, defective, or false fifth, call- 
 ed by the ancients semi-diapente, is less than the fifth by a 
 lei ii semitone. 
 
 FIFTH-MO'NAKCHY-MEN. A fanatical sect, who 
 formed a principal support of Cromwell during the Protcc 
 torate. They considered his assumption of power as an ear- 
 nest of the foundations of the fifth monarchy, which should 
 succeed to the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the 
 Roman, and in which Jesus Christ should reign with the 
 saints on earth for the space of a thousand years. Upon the 
 restoration of the royal family, and the return of the king- 
 dom to its former principles in church and state, a party of 
 these enthusiasts, headed by a man of the name of Venner 
 made a desperate insurrection in the streets of London, 
 which was put down with the slaughter of a great number 
 of them. 
 
 FIGS (Lat. ficus, a f.^-trce), are the fruit of a small tree 
 with broad lobed leaves, inhabiting the south of Europe and 
 similar latitudes in Asia. This fruit is not of the same nature 
 as the apple, the orange, and other fleshy seed-vessels; but 
 is a hollow receptacle, containing a great multitude of minute 
 flowers, the ripe fruit of which is the seed, as it Is wrongly 
 called, that is imbedded in the pulp. It is remarkable that 
 the fig-tree, although it produces so agreeable a fruit, is in some 
 
 453 
 
FIGURATE COUNTERPOINT. 
 
 measure poisonous, its milky juice being acrid to the taste, 
 anil of the same nature, although less intense, as that of cer- 
 tain Indian Bpecles called F. toxicaria JDccmonum, &c, be- 
 cause of their venomous qualities. The genus Ficus itself 
 is of considerable extent, and its species are among the most 
 noble objects belonging to the vegetable kingdom in tropica) 
 countries, where they often yield caoutchouc of the finest 
 quality. Ficus clastiea is particularly valuable for this pur- 
 pose, as are also various unknown species in the island of 
 Java. The banyan tree, to celebrated for the huge extent 
 of ground covered by single individuals, which carry an 
 enormous canopy of branches and leaves upon columnar 
 trunks provided for the purpose as the tree advances in 
 diameter, is a kind of fig-tree, Ficus rcligiosa. 
 
 FIGURATE COUNTERPOINT. In Music, that which 
 contains a mixture of discords together with the concords. 
 
 FI'GURATE NUMBERS. In Arithmetic, the name 
 given to series deduced from any progression by differences 
 of which the first term is unity and the ratio a whole num- 
 ber, by taking successively the sum of the first two, the first 
 three, the first four, &c. terms of the progression ; and then 
 operating on the new series thus obtained in the same man- 
 ner as on the original progression, in order to obtain a second 
 series, and so on. 
 
 For example, let the progression be that of the natural 
 numbers, the common difference of which is 1 ; then the 
 progression and the different series of figurate numbers suc- 
 cessively deduced from it arc as follows: 
 
 A....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
 B....1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, ,28, 
 C....1, 4, 10, 20, 35, 56, 84, 
 D....1, 5, 15, 35, 70, 12G, 210. 
 The first line, A, is the progression from which the series 
 arises. The second line, B, is the series of triangular num- 
 bers, or polygonal numbers of the first order. Its formation 
 is obvious, each term being the sum of the corresponding and 
 all the preceding terms of the progression; whence, by the 
 theory of series, its general term is, 
 n (n + 1 ) 
 1-2 
 The third line, C, is the series of triangular pyramidal num- 
 bers, and is formed from B in the same manner as the latter 
 was formed from A. Its general term is, 
 n (n-f-1) (?t + 2 ) 
 1-2-3 
 The fourth line, D, is formed from C in the same manner 
 aa C from B, or B from A. Its general term is, 
 n (n + 1) (n-f-2) f> + 3 ) 
 1-2-3-4 
 If the original progression be, 
 
 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 
 the common difference of which is 2 ; then the series of 
 figurate munbers successively derived from it are, 
 1, 4, 9, 10, 25, 36, 
 1, 5, 14, 30, 55, 91, &c. 
 The first of these is the series of square numbers, the second 
 that of quadrangular pyramidal numbers. In like manner, 
 if the common difference of the assumed progression be 3, 
 then the successive sums will be the series of pentagonal 
 numbers; if it be 4, the sums will give the hexagonal num- 
 bers, and so on. The formation of "these different orders of 
 figurate numbers will be readily understood from inspection 
 of the following table: 
 
 Progressions. 
 
 First snins. or polygons of 
 the first order. 
 
 Second sums, or poly- 
 gons of the second or- 
 dt-r. 
 
 1,2.3, 4 
 
 1. 3, 5, 7 
 1, i. 7, 10 
 1, 5. 0. 13 
 
 Tri l, 3, 6. 10 
 Sq. 1, 4, P. 16 
 Pent. I ->. 12. 22 
 
 Ilex. 1. 6. 15, 2S 
 
 1,4, 10. 20 
 1, 5, 14, 30 
 1, 6, 13. 40 
 1. 7, 22. 50 
 
 The names triangular numbers, squares, pentagons, hexa- 
 gons, fee., have been applied on account of certain analogies 
 which the numbers so denoted have with the geometrical 
 figures bearing the same denominations. Thus, in the second 
 column of the above table, which contains the polygons of 
 the first order, the terms forming the first line of series ex- 
 press the different numbers of points which may be placed 
 at equal distances, so as to form an equilateral triangle. 
 The second line or series gives the different numbers of 
 points which may be arranged in squares, the third those 
 whicl. form regular pentagons, the fourth those which form 
 regular hexagons, and so on. In the third column of the 
 table, the first series contains the several numbers of points 
 which may be so disposed as to form a triangular pyramid, 
 the second those which form a quadrangular pyramid, and 
 in on. 
 The different series formed as above possess several curi- 
 45-1 
 
 FILTRATION. 
 
 ous properties, of which one of the most remarkable is, that 
 the general term, and the sum of any number of terms n, 
 can always be expressed rationally in terms of n. In fact, 
 the expression of the nth term of any series is the same as 
 that of the sum of the n first terms of "the series immediately 
 preceding it, or from which it is immediately derived. 
 
 Fl'GURE, in Rhetoric, has been defined, generally, as a 
 mode of speech in which words are changed from their lit- 
 eral and primitive sense. It is almost impossible to give. 
 within the limits of a definition, the precise and numerous 
 meanings of which this term is susceptible; but under the 
 separate heads, such as Antithesis, Metaphor, &c, will 
 be found a notice of the different figures used in composi- 
 tion. In Logic, the word figure is applied to the form of a 
 syllogism with regard to the disposition of the middle term. 
 See Trope. 
 
 Figure, in Geometry, is used in two different senses. In 
 the first sense, it denotes, generally, a space bounded on all 
 sides, whether by lines or by planes ; in the second sense, 
 it signifies the representation (on paper, for example) of the 
 object of a theorem or problem, in order to render the dem- 
 onstration or solution more easy to be understood and fol- 
 lowed. In this last sense, figure is synonymous witli dia- 
 gram. 
 
 All bodies are necessarily enclosed by one or more bound 
 aries, and therefore possess figure: hence figurability U 
 reckoned one of the essential properties of matter. 
 
 For Figure of the Earth, see Earth and Degree ; for 
 Figure of the Planets, see Planet. 
 
 Ay-parent Figure, in Optics, is the figure under which an 
 object presents itself to our view. This depends on the sit 
 uation of the points from which rays of light pass to the eye 
 of the spectator, and may be very different from the rent 
 figure of the object; for a straight line, when placed in a 
 particular direction, will be seen' only as a point, a plane as 
 a straight line, and a solid which presents only one of its 
 faces will appear as a simple surface. (Perspective.) 
 
 FIGURE HEAD. The figure, statue, or bust, on the pro 
 jecting part of the head of a ship, called the cutwater. 
 
 FIGURES, in Arithmetic, are the numeral < .•:•. 
 or ten digits, by which numbers are expressed. They are 
 supposed to be of Indian origin, and to have been introduced 
 into Europe by the Moors of Spain in the 13th century ; but 
 the date of their introduction is much disputed. (Aeith 
 metic.) 
 
 FI'LACER, or FI'LAZER. (Fr. fil, thread.) An offi 
 cer of the court of Common Pleas, who files writs. The 
 filacers (of whom there are fourteen) are mentioned as early 
 as the stat. 10 II. 4. There are also filacers of the (itieen's 
 Bench. 
 
 FILBERT, or FILBERD, the well-known fruit of the 
 cultivated hazel nut, or Corylus avellana, is a seed-vessel 
 enclosed within an involucre or cupule, which is the part 
 commonly called the husk. This organ is of the same na- 
 ture as the cup of the oak, and the prickly case in which 
 the nuts of the sweet chestnut and the mast of the beech arc 
 enclosed. In the filbert it is much larger than in the com- 
 mon nut; and it is this character, together with the length- 
 ened figure of the nut, which distinguishes the two races of 
 nuts and filberts, each of which abounds in varieties. The 
 best known varieties of the filbert are the red, the frizzled, 
 and the white, the latter being the kind most commonly 
 grown in this country. 
 
 FILE. (Germ, feile.) This instrument is formed by cut 
 ting teeth upon a plate or tool of soft steel by the repeated 
 blows of a straight-edged chisel. These teeth either form a 
 single series of straight lines, or they tire crossed by a second 
 series; the former are called single cut, the latter double cut 
 files. Files are required to be extremely hard ; and unless 
 they are carefully and skilfully hardened, they are apt to 
 warp. The best files are made exclusively of cast steel, and 
 are cut by hand, none of the file cutting machines producing 
 unexceptionable toois. 
 
 FI'LIFORM. (Lat. filum, a thread.) In Zoology, when 
 a part is slender, thread-shaped, and of equal thickness. 
 
 FILL. The sea term for bracing a yard which bad been 
 laid aback, so that the wind may act on the after or proper 
 side of the sail. 
 
 FI'LLET. (Fr. filet.) In Architecture, a small square 
 member placed above or below other larger members in an 
 order. The term as used by carpenters and joiners means' 
 a small piece to which boards, joists, or quarters are nailed 
 
 Fl'LLIGRANE, or FILLI'GREE. , (Lat. filum, thread.) 
 In Sculpture, an extremely fine ornamental work of flowers, 
 fruits, &c, formed with gold or silver wire in serpentine 
 layers, or plaited and worked otherwise together and solder 
 ed. It is an eastern invention. 
 
 FILO'SE. (Lat. filum.) In Zoology, when a part end* 
 in a thread-like process. 
 
 FILTRA'TION. (Lat.) The process by which liquid? 
 are separated from substances mechanically suspended In 
 them ; it is also sometimes resorted to to separate coleuring 
 
FIN. 
 
 matters and other bodies which are in a state of solution, 
 and which are removed by the substance or matter tliroujih 
 which the liquids are filtered. Unsized paper is commonly 
 and In the chemical laboratory for the former purpose, and 
 is known under the name of filtering paper; it is properly 
 folded, and placed for support in a glass funnel. In the 
 arts, linen and calico baps of different forms are frequently 
 employed, containing well-burned charcoal or other materi- 
 igh which the liquids requiring purification are suf- 
 a 1 v to trickle. In water filters, the coarser particles 
 are generally collected in a piece of sponge, and the further 
 separation of the more finely divided matters or organic 
 i dieted by layers of sand of various degrees of fine- 
 noai mixed with a proper quantity of Charcoal- (8 
 day's Chemical Manipulation ; and L'rc's Vict, of Arts, <$-e.) 
 i'l.N. (Lat. finna.) A flattened expanded organ, project- 
 ing from the body, and serving as an instrument of locomo- 
 tion in water. 
 
 Many species of the whale tribe possess an immoveable 
 fin upon the back, composed merely of a reflection of Inter- 
 nment over a m md ligamentous cellular mem- 
 brane; the tail fin in the same order lUM a similar structure, 
 but la moved by the action of the muscles upon the caudal 
 vertebra', which are continued through the middle part. 
 iter tins, corresponding to the pectorals In fish, are 
 le of greater variety ol' motion, from being support- 
 ed by a acil es of bones corresponding to those of the fore ex- 
 : other mammalia. In fishes the fins are supported 
 ted filamentary bones or rays, the Datura and num- 
 ber of which afford the zoologists important characters for 
 distinguishing the different group-; and in works of Ichthy- 
 ology a system of Dotation Is employed, which briefly but 
 e characters. Thus the formula of 
 the number of fin-rays in the perch is thus expressed : — 
 D. 15, 1 + 13; P. 14; V. 1 + 5; A. 2 + 8; C. 17. 
 
 Which signifies that I)., the dorsal fin, has in the first fin 15 
 rays all spinous or bony; in the second (in, 1 spinous plus 
 13 that are soft. P., pectoral I'm, 11 rays, all soft. V., the 
 ventral fin, with 1 spinous ray plus 5 that are soft. A, the 
 aural fin, with 2 ipinoui rays plus 8 that are soft. C, the 
 mil or caudal fin, 17 rays. In enumerating the rays, those 
 only which extend from the longest ray in the upper portion 
 to the longest ray In the lower portion, both inclusive, are 
 counted. 
 
 FINALE. (It.) In Music, the last of a series of move- 
 i composition; also the closing scene of each act 
 of an opera bulla. 
 
 FINA'NOE. The revenues of a king or state. The word 
 me from the German finanz ; by others from 
 tile barbarous Latin word financial io, a loan. 
 
 PINCH. Set I'lttNOILLtD*. 
 
 FINK, in Law. as a punishment, is a pectmiary mulct or 
 nmende imposed by a competent jurisdiction. The party 
 thu mulcted for offences against a feudal superior was said, 
 in the language of that jurisprudence, "finem faccre de 
 transgressione cum rege, domino," &c., to make an end of 
 his offence: whence the word is derived, fines are in no 
 
 ■ mined as to amount by common law, and seldom 
 by Statute, except as to their maximum ; but by the general 
 cautions of Magna Charta and the Hill of Rights, i 
 
 lit not to be imposed. Courts of record have in 
 general the power of imposing fines in case of contempt, and 
 also on conviction of offences punishable in this manner. 
 The mode of returning, entreating (i. e., entering on the rolls 
 of n court), and levying fines, is now regulated by 3 & 4 VV. 
 
 FIN !', OF LANDS. In Law, a species of conveyance of 
 record for the settling anil securing lands and tenements, 
 now abolished by stat 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 74; although, as long 
 BS questions can still arise on the validity and effect of fines 
 levied before that period, the legal doctrines respecting it 
 cannot be said to be wholly obsolete. A fine was, in its 
 original signification, nn agreement or composition of a suit 
 (Whether real or fictitious) made between demandant and 
 tenant in respect of lands and tenements, with the consent 
 of the judges, and enrolled among the records of the court. 
 Ilerre, by a common fiction, such an imaginary agreement 
 was employed in certain cases as a mode of conveyance. 
 Its chief properties were — the extinguishment of dormant 
 barring strangers (unless they claimed within five 
 years, under 1 Ric. 3, c. 7) ; and, when levied of an estate 
 In tail, the barring the issue in tail immediately, but not 
 those in remainder or reversion, except when tenant in tail 
 had such reversion in himself. A fine was effected with 
 certain solemnities, as the termination of tin imaginary ac- 
 tion at law. The party conveying was termed the COgniSor 
 or conusor, the party to whom conveyance was made the 
 nogntsee of the fine." A fine, besides its peculiar properties 
 in the settlement of land held in tail, was the usual method 
 whereby a feme covert joined in the sale, settlement, or in- 
 cumbrance of an es'nte; for which, by the stat. 3 & 4 W. 4 
 
 FIIIE BALLS. 
 
 above mentioned, a peculiar deed is substituted, to bo ex« 
 cuted and acknowledged by the married woman sifter ex- 
 amination by commissi 
 
 FINE'SSE (Fr.) may be defined simply as a peculiar ap- 
 titude of discovering, in any business, the best means of at- 
 taining the object in view; or as the power of embracing in 
 (■ne co m prehensive glance the various interests of any sub- 
 jert, together with Ingenuity to devise and tact to carry out 
 tile plan best calculated to obtain success. 
 
 Fl.N'F. STIFF. In Architecture, plaisterused in common 
 ceilings and walls for the reception of paper or colour. It 
 is composed of lime, slaked and sifted through a fine sieve, 
 then mixed with a due quantity of hair and fine sand. A 
 mixture of lime and hair, used in the first coat and floating 
 of plastering, is called cocirsr- stuff. 
 
 rTNGER BOARD. In .Music, the black board atfached 
 to the neck of instruments of the viol class, on which the 
 strings arc pressed by the fingers for the purpose of adjust- 
 ing their lengths, so as to produce the different sounds. 
 
 FFNGERING. In Music, the art of arranging the fingers 
 on instruments of all classes, so that they may be in the best 
 positions for performing the different passages written for 
 such instruments. 
 
 IT'MAL. (Lot finis, the end.) In Gothic Architecture, 
 the top or finishing of a pinnacle or gable, as it is now gen- 
 erally understood ; but in ancient documents an entire pin- 
 nacle is understood by this term. 
 
 Fl NISII. (Lat. firiire, to end.) In the Fine Arts, the 
 last working up of any object of art, whereby it- completion 
 is effected, • 
 
 FTNI8HING COAT. In Architecture, the best coat of 
 stucco work when three coats are used. When in the third 
 coat line stuff i» used for paper, it is called setting. 
 
 FTORJTE. A silicious incrustation, from Fiora in Is 
 chia. 
 
 FIRi: | aid IIk.vt. 
 
 FIRE BALLS (called also Bolides, and Firry Meteors), 
 •logy, an; luminous bodies which suddenly appear 
 in the sky. usually at a great height above the earth, and 
 shoot through die heavens with Immense velocity, and are 
 with di' fall of an afiruli:. 
 ire of frequent occurrence, and numerous descrip- 
 tions of their appearances at different UmeS are to be found 
 in the Transaction* of the lioyal Society ; but by far the 
 most remarkable apparition of the kind on record, is that 
 which was observed in America on the 13th of November, 
 1833, and is described in Vols. xw. and xxvi. of "he Ameri- 
 can Journal of Science, and also the American Almanac for 
 the year 1835. We will give a brief abstract of the relation, 
 which is of extreme Interest ; not only on account of the ex- 
 traordinary nature of the appearances, but also as it seems 
 to indicate that these phenomena, hitherto but little heeded, 
 may serve to make us better acquainted with the constitu- 
 tion of ihe planetary' system. 
 
 "The meteors began to attract notice by their frequency 
 as early as nine o'clock on the preceding evening (Nov. 12) ; 
 the exhibition became strikingly brilliant about eleven, but 
 most splendid of all about four o'clock; and continued with 
 but liitle intermission until merged in the light of day. A 
 few large fire balls were seen even after the sun hail risen. 
 The entire extent of the exhibition is not ascertained, but it 
 covered no inconsiderable |>ortion of the enrth's surface. It 
 has been traced from the longitude of 61° in the Atlantic 
 Ocean, to longitude 100° in central Mexico, and from the 
 North American lakes to the southern side of the island of 
 Jamaica. Every where within these limits the first appear 
 ance was that of fire-works of ihe most Imposing grandeur, 
 covering the entire vault of heaven with myriads of fire 
 balls resembling sky-rockets. On more attentive inspection, 
 it was seen that the meteors exhibited three distinct varie- 
 ties; the first cnn.sisting of phosphoric lines, apparently de 
 scribed by a point; the second, of large fire balls, that at in 
 tervals darted along the sky, leaving numerous trains, which 
 occasionally remained in view for a number of minutes, and 
 in some cases for half an hour or more; the third, of unde 
 fined luminous bodies, which remained nearly stationary for 
 a long time. 
 
 "One of the most remarkable circumstances attending 
 this display was, that the meteors all seemed toemannte 
 from one and the same point. They set out at different dis- 
 tances from this point, and proceeded with immense velocity, 
 describing in some instances an arc of 30° or 40° in less than 
 four seconds. At Poland, on the Ohio a meteor (of the 
 third variety) was distinctly visible in the north-east for 
 more than an hour. At Charleston, South Carolina, another 
 of extraordinary size was seen to course the heavens for a 
 great length of time, and then was heard to explode with 
 the noise of a cannon. The point from which the meteor* 
 seemed to emanate, was observed by those who fixed its po 
 sition among the stars to be in the constellation Leo; and, 
 what is very remarkable, this point was stationary among 
 the stars during the whole period of observation.; _thut is to 
 
 455 
 
FIRE BALLS. 
 
 say, it did not move along with the earth in its diurnal rota- 
 tion eastward, but accompanied the stars in their apparent 
 progress westward. Ii is not certain whether the meleors 
 were in general accompanied by any peculiar sound. A 
 lew observers reported that they heard a hissing noise like 
 the rushing of a sky-rocket, or slight explosions like the 
 bursting of tiic same bodies. Nor does it appear that ;my 
 «ubstance reached the ground Which could be clearly estab- 
 lished to lie a residuum or deposit from the meteors. A re- 
 markable change of weather from warm to cold accompa- 
 nied the meteoric shower, or immediately followed it, in all 
 parts of the United States." 
 
 The particulars which have now been stated afford data 
 for entering on the explanation of these mysterious phenom- 
 ena. And, first, as the meteors appeared to emanate from 
 a point which did not follow the earth's rotation, it is clear 
 that they had not their origin in the atmosphere, but in the 
 regions of space beyond it. The next question that occurs 
 is, what was the distance from the earth of the region of 
 space in which they had their origin 1 It was ascertain- 
 ed that observations made in different latitudes indicated 
 a corresponding parallax in declination ; and these observa- 
 tions being collected and carefully compared, gave an aver- 
 age distance from the surface of the earth of 2238 miles as 
 the height of the meteoric cloud. This estimate must be re- 
 garded only as an approximation — the best, however, that 
 could be derived from data that are imperfect and often dis- 
 cordant. Assuming this result to be nearly correct, it is 
 easy to compute the velocity with which the meteors would 
 enter tin* atmosphere. A body falling from a height of 2238 
 miles by the attraction of gravity alone would acquire, at 
 the distance of fifty miles from the earth (tile supposed 
 height of the atmosphere) a velocity of four miles per sec- 
 ond, which is more than ten times the velocity of a cannon- 
 ball. The meteors, therefore, on entering the atmosphere, 
 would produce a sudden and powerful compression of the 
 air before them. But when the air is suddenly compressed), 
 a great quantity of heat is extricated from it. In the present 
 case, the heat would produce in the falling bodies an in- 
 tense ignltian ; and, if they were combustible, set them on 
 fire. On submitting the subject to accurate calculation on 
 established principles, it is ascertained that the quantity of 
 heat extricated from the air by the falling meteors exceeded 
 that of the hottest furnaces, and can only be compared to 
 those immeasurable degrees of heat produced in the labora- 
 tory of the chemist. And this supposes the meteors to have 
 entered the atmosphere with only the velocity due to the 
 earth's attraction ; hut if we suppose that they had also a 
 relative velocity urising from the earth's motion towards 
 them, they might then enter the atmosphere with a velocity 
 of fourteen instead of four miles per second. In this case, 
 the heat extricated from the air would be proportionally 
 augmented. It is evident that the meteors must have been 
 constituted of very light materials; for, had their quantity 
 of matnr been considerable, with so prodigious a velocity 
 they would have had sufficient momentum to reach the 
 earth, and the most disastrous consequences might have fol- 
 lowed. From the apparent magnitude of many of the me- 
 teors, and their probable distance, it was conjectured that 
 they were bodies of very large size, though of course it is 
 impossible to fix the limits of their magnitude with any cer- 
 tainty. Those masses were only stopped in the atmosphere, 
 and prevented from reaching the earth, by transferring their 
 motion to columns of air, large volumes of which would be 
 suddenly and violently displaced. Now it is a remarkable 
 fact, that the suite of the weather, and the condition of the 
 seasons following the meteoric shower, corresponded to 
 those consequence* of the disturbances of the atmospheric 
 equilibrium, it is from the great and sudden changes of 
 temperature caused by phenomena of this kind that the 
 greatest danger is to be apprehended. 
 
 Theory of Fire Balls. — Various hypotheses have been 
 prOpOBi d to account for these remarkable phenomena. In 
 general, they have been regarded as meteors having their 
 origin In the atmosphere; and electricity, magnetism, hydro- 
 gen gas, have in turn been assigned as their immediate 
 causes. Others again suppose them to be products of nebu- 
 lous matter (perhaps of the same nature as the tails of com- 
 ets), (loafing in the planetary regions, and which, when it 
 happens to lie near the path of the earth in its revolution 
 nbout the sun, will be attracted by terrestrial gravitation. 
 The parallax of the meteors of 1833 indicates, as we have 
 seen, that they proceeded from a point far beyond the limits 
 of the atmosphere. The attentive examination of the cir- 
 cumstances of their appearances leads to other indications 
 of a very remarkable nature. On projecting a diagram to 
 represent the respective planes of the earth in its orbit, and 
 the plane of the body from which the meteors proceeded, it 
 appears that the earth was moving almost directly towards 
 the meteoric body. Now the meteoric cloud remained ap- 
 parently at rest, and of course nearly in the earth's path, for 
 at least two hours. This could not have happened unless 
 456 
 
 FIRE ENGINES. 
 
 it had been moving nearly in the same direction as the earth, 
 and with nearly the same angular velocity round the sun ; 
 for had it been at rest, the earth, carried forward at the rate 
 of 19 miles per second, would have overtaken it in less than 
 two minutes ; and had the angular velocities of the two b< fl- 
 ies not been nearly equal, they could not have remained so 
 long a pparently stationary with respect to each other, iler.ee 
 it is inferred that the body which afforded the meteors wai 
 pursuing its way with the earth round the sun. 
 
 But supposing there is a body, or, which is more probable, 
 a zone composed of myriads of little bodies, whose orbits in- 
 tersect the plane of the ecliptic, is it not probable the canh 
 must encounter some of them every time it passes through 
 the point of intersection 1 A more attentive observation of 
 these meteors than has yet been bestowed on them is perhaps 
 necessary to solve this question. At present the following 
 facts have been collected : On the 12Ui of November, 1799, 
 at Cumana, in South America, thousands of meteors or fal- 
 ling stars were seen to succeed each other during four bonis. 
 Of this exhibition an account is given by Humboldt aid 
 Bonpland. On the 13th of November, 1831, M. Berard. 
 commander of the French brig Loiret, then off the coast of 
 Carthagena ir. Spain, saw a great number of shooting stars 
 and luminous meteors of large size. During more than three 
 hours there occurred, on the average, at least two a minute 
 One of these meteors, which appeared near the zenith, in 
 leaving an enormous train in the direction from east to west, 
 presented a very large luminous hand (equal to half the 
 diameter of the moon), in which several of tile colours of 
 the rainbow were distinctly exhibited. Its trace remained 
 visible during more than six minutes. (Arago, Jlnnuaire for 
 1836.) On the 13th of November, 1832, remarkable exhibi- 
 tions of meteors were seen at Mocha in Arabia ; and on the 
 19th of the same month in various parts of England. On 
 the 13th of November, 1835, a large and brilliant meteor 
 fell near Belley, in the department of the Ain, in France, 
 and set fire to a bam. On the same night a shooting star. 
 larger and more brilliant than Jupiter, was observed at Lille 
 by M. Delezenne ; and, what is very remarkable, a number 
 of extremely brilliant meteors were seen also on the same 
 night, by Sir John Ilerschcl and his assistant at the Cape of 
 Good Hope, who, apprized of the phenomena that had been 
 observed in America, were looking out for their appearance. 
 The attention of observers being now generally called to the 
 subject, the lapse of a few years will probably decide the 
 question, whether the recurrence of the meteors on the same 
 day of the year litis been merely accidental ; or a stream of 
 nebulous matter has a temporary or permanent existence in 
 that part of space through which the earth passes in its 
 annual revolution, about the 13th of November. (.Sec Aero 
 lite, Shooting Stars.) 
 
 FIRE BLAST. A term of very doubtful meaning, like 
 the word blight. In Agriculture it is sometimes applied to 
 plants which are suffering from the mildew fungi, or from 
 minute insects; hut its legitimate use would appear to be 
 applicable only when the delicate parts of plants are too 
 suddenly exposed to a brilliant sun, and the rapid transpira- 
 tion which takes place in consequence dries up and shrivel" 
 their leaves. 
 FI'RE DAMP. The carburetted hydrogen gas of coal mines. 
 FIRE ENGINE. This most useful machine is construct 
 ed in a variety of forms, which nil, however, agree in one 
 principle. It generally consists of a double forcing pump 
 communicating with the same air vessel : and instead of a 
 force-pipe a flexible leathern hose is used, through which 
 the water is driven by the pressure of the condensed air in 
 the air vessel. The annexed diagram 
 represents a section of the apparatus. 
 The pipe T descends into a receiver or 
 vessel containing a supply of watei. 
 " This pipe communicates with two suc- 
 P tion valves V, which open into the pump 
 barrels of two forcing pumps A, B. in 
 which solid pistons P, are placed. The 
 piston rods of these are connected with 
 a working beam F, elongated so that n 
 n number of persons may work at both 
 ends of it at once. Force-pipes t, t. pro 
 ceed from the sides of the pomp barrel 
 above the valves V, and they communicate with an ail ves- 
 sel M, by means of forcing valves V, which also open *p- 
 wards. The pipe descends into the air vessel near the 
 bottom. This pipe is connected with the flexible leathern 
 hose L, the length of which is adapted to the purposes to 
 which the machine is to be applied. The extremity of the 
 hose may be carried in any direction, and may be introduced 
 through the doors and windows of buildings. By the alter- 
 nate action of the pistons, water is drawn through the suction 
 valve, and propelled through the forcing valves, until the air 
 in the top of the vessel M is highly compressed. The pres 
 sure acts on the sin face of the water in the vessel, and forces 
 it through the leathern hose in a continued stream, so as to 
 
FIRE ESCAPE. 
 
 spout from its extremity with a force depending partly on 
 the degree of condensation, and partly on the elevation of 
 the extremity of the hose above the level of the engine. It 
 is to In- considered that the pressure of the condensed air 
 has, in the first instance, to support a column of water, the 
 hcighih of which is equal to the level of the end of the tulie 
 above the level of the water in the air vessel ; and until the 
 pressure exceeds what is necessary for this purpose, no water 
 con (pout from the end of the hose ; and, consequently, the 
 force with which it will so spout will be proportional to the 
 cua ss of the pressure of the condensed air above the weight 
 of tni' column of water, whose height is equal to the eleva- 
 tion of the end of the hose above the level of the water in 
 the air vessel. (Cabinet Cyclopedia, "Hydrostatics and 
 ics," p. 326.) 
 
 Tin fire engine has received various improvements from 
 Bremen, Dickenson, Simpkin, Rnvcntree, Philips, and others. 
 The above description applies to Newsham's engine. Brett* 
 Waite's gleam jirc engine is an application of the i>ower of 
 steam to the working of the tire engine. The mechanical 
 arrangement consists of two cylinders of about six inches in 
 diameter, one of them being the steam cylinder, and the 
 other the water pump; and they are placed horizontally, so 
 thai a parallel motion is easily produced. This engine will 
 deliver 9000 gallons of water an hour at the height of 00 
 feet. The time of getting the machiae into action, from the 
 time uf igniting the fuel (the water being cold), Is only IS 
 minim-. Bams of the Fire Insurance Companies in London 
 have floating engines on the Thames, which are extremely 
 serviceable in cases of tire among the shipping or buildings 
 near the river. 
 
 FIRE F.SCATE. Any machine or apparatus for the 
 purpose of enabling persons to escape from the upper stories 
 of ho us es on fire. The contrivances which have been pro- 
 posed for accomplishing this desirable object are very nniin- 
 iul are of two kinds; the first kind comprising those 
 by means of which the escape is effected without external 
 aid, and the second those requiring the assistance of persons 
 it. Of the first kind the most obvious is a r>>|>o ladder, 
 which may be kept in a sleeping apartment, and used upon 
 occasion by fastening one end of it to a window sill or bed- 
 post. Mr. Maseres contrived an apparatus which consists 
 Of a long rope and an ItilllhlBgB Of Cordage or belts, so dis- 
 posed i- to form a seat; the person about to descend binds 
 ;lie seat, and then lowers himself to the ground 
 by allowing the rope which is fastened to the window-sill to 
 tlide slowly through his hands; an in order that this may 
 be done easily, the rope is made to pass through a series K 
 holes ni a block, liut unfortunately contrivances of this 
 kind can rarely be expected to be of any use; for supposing 
 then at hand when the alarm of danger is given, few |ier- 
 soos can command the coolness and attention which arc 
 requisite lor fixing and adjusting the apparatus; and even 
 then it is only the strong and active who could safely de- 
 scend by such means from a considerable hei-tlit. 
 
 With regard to escapes of the second kind, the object is to 
 enable persons without to establish speedily a communica- 
 tion with an upper room, so as to afford ihe inmates the 
 means of sale descent; or to remove them if necessary, as 
 in the case of the feeble or children. A very portable sort 
 Of ladder, invented by .Mr. Young, is de-eribed in the Trans- 
 actions of the Society of Jlrts for 1813. It consists of a 
 number of cross bars or rounds, connected with ropes, which 
 the sides of the ladder; the ends of the rounds :, r e 
 ; into each other, so as to form a pole, which is readily 
 elevated to a window ; and at the extremity is an iron frame 
 ter mina t in g in hooks which can be lodged In the window-sill. 
 
 When the hooks are properly fixed, a sudden jerk suffices to 
 separate the rounds, which immediately fall into their places 
 When the ladder Is formed and suspended from the frame, 
 nut this apparatus only answers the same purpose as a rope 
 ladder, and is therefore liable to the same objections. Mr. 
 Brady's fire escape, described in Ihe 34th vol', of the same 
 Transactions, consists of a car or cradle, which is made to 
 slide on a slip of plank fixed to n pole, and is governed by a 
 rope. Mr. Ford's escape consists of a spar of timber about 
 35 or 40 feet long, having two projecting arms at the top 
 furnished with prongs, by which a firm bearing against the 
 wall of a house is obtained. A grooved pulley is mortised 
 into the spar near the top, and another near the bottom; 
 over the pulleys runs an endless rope, to which is attached 
 at one point a tnain rope, and at another the semicircular 
 brace of a large grooved roller, which traverses up and 
 down the space between the pulleys. This brace carries on 
 the under side of the spar a book, to which a cradle is 
 attached, whereby persons can be easily lowered to the 
 ground. 
 
 For a description of various other contrivances of a similar 
 kind, we refer to the Transactions of the Society of Jlrts 
 above quoted. 
 
 FI'UF, FLY. A name commonly given to those insects 
 which have the singular property of emitting a luminous 
 
 FISHERY. 
 
 secretion. This pow'er is not confined to insects of one or 
 ganizalion or order. Among the Coleoptera, the it, iter 
 noctilucus and the female glow-worm are conspicuous ex 
 amples. The Fulgoridte, or lantern and candle flies, are 
 also described, but some think apocryphally, as lumirous 
 insects. 
 
 FIRE, GREEK. This fire, which was employed in the 
 wars of the Christians and Saracens in the middle ogee, is 
 said to have been invented during the reign of Constantino 
 l'ogonatus in the year 668 by Callinicus, an architect of 
 lleliopolis. .Naphtha was probably its principal ingredient, 
 which, if skilfully projected and inflamed, creates great 
 havoc and dismay, in consequence of its extreme comhiisti 
 bility and the difficulty of quenching its Sanaa, (See u 
 learned paper on this subject, by Vr. JU'Culloch, in the 
 <{uiirtir/y Journal of Science, vol. xiv.) 
 
 FI'RE LOCK, or FUSIL. A musket or small gun, which 
 is fired with a flint and steel ; and thereby distinguished 
 from the old musket, or matchlock, which was lired with a 
 match. The date of the invention of tire locks is uncertain 
 
 FIRE, ST. ANTHON «"S, See Erysipelas. 
 
 FI'RE-VVORKS. Artificial preparations made of gun- 
 powder, sulphur, and other inflammable ingredii 
 played at public rejoicings mid on other occasions, sy,- 
 
 I'YROTK' l'NY. 
 
 FI'RKIN. A measure of capacity, being the fourth par. 
 of a barrel, or containing ale gallons, or IK Imperial gal- 
 lons ; that is, 3538 cubic inches. 
 
 Fl'RLOT. A dry measure Deed in Scotland, but of dif- 
 ferent capacities, according to the article it is used (or 
 measuring. Tho Linlithgow wheat firlot is to the imperial 
 Inishel M -998 to 1; and the barley firlot to the imperial 
 bushel m l'-ioO to l. 
 
 FIRMAMENT, in the l a ngu age of the old astronomers, 
 is the orb of the fixed stars, or the most reunite of all the 
 celestial spheres. In common language it sonnies the some 
 thing as heaven, or sky. s, e 1 1 k.aven. 
 
 FIRMAN (more properly h'crmdn), in the Persian Ian 
 guage. signifies ■ command, and is the name given in Turkey, 
 Persia, and India to mandates or certificates of the srj ver ehJB, 
 issued for various purposee , Those best known to Europeans 
 are given to travellers, and serve as passports. The Penman 
 has placed at it* betid in Turkey the cipher of the reigning 
 sultan, written in a complicated manner, affixed by the 
 chief secretary of the sign manual. 
 
 FIRST COAT. In Architecture, the laying the ptnstet 
 on the latbfl, or the ren/li -ring, as it is called, on luick when 
 only two coats are used. When three coats are Used, it U 
 called pricking up when upon laths, and roughing in when 
 upon brick. 
 
 FIRST FRUITS. (Annates, or Primitia;.) The profits 
 of every spiritual living for the first year after its avoidance, 
 which the new incumbent paid in Catholic times to the 
 I'oi>e, but since the Reformation to the king. The valuation 
 is that which was made by Henry VIII. The stat. 2 Anne 
 transfers the first fruits and tenths of all livings over 507. at 
 that time to a fund culled Queen Anne's Bounty, for the In- 
 crease of the smaller benefices, which are released from nnv 
 payment of the kind. 
 
 FIRTH. See Frith. 
 
 FISC. (Let. fiscus.) The term used in the Roman law, 
 and laws derived from it, to denote the property of the state. 
 Under the emperors, however, it had acquired the significa- 
 tion of the peculiar domain or treasure of the prince, in con- 
 tradistinction to ararium, tile public treasury. The word 
 confiscation is derived from fisc ; and every lord or body 
 corporate to which things may be confiscated in course of 
 law has, properly sneaking, the right of fisc. Piers, being 
 Originally lands granted to individuals out of the king's do- 
 main, are sometimes termed fisc in writers of the middle 
 ages. See Feudal System. 
 
 FI'SCAL. Something relating to the pecuniary interest 
 of the sovereign, or the community. 
 
 FISH. In Architecture, a piece of wood secured to 
 another to strengthen it. 
 
 Fish. See Pisces. 
 
 FISHERY. The fisheries of the British Islands are partly 
 coast and river, and partly carried on in the open sea at ;• 
 greater or less distance from the shore. Of the former, sal- 
 mon, herring, pilchard, and oyster are most important ; of 
 the latter, cod, turbot, and whale. 1. The salmon fishery 
 has considerably diminished in importance of late years 
 That of Scotland is regulated by 9 G. 4. c. 39. and subsequent 
 acts. 2. The herring fishery, at first almost engrossed by 
 the Dutch, was fostered in 1749 by a tonnage bounty granted 
 on vessels employed in it Under this system the fishery 
 does not appear to have thriven. The bounty was gradually 
 withdrawn, and finally ceased in 1830. The most important 
 seats of the herring fishery at the present day are the coasts 
 of the north-east of Scotland. In 1834, 11,000 boats and 
 82,000 persons (fishermen and boys, coopers, curers, &c.) 
 were employed in this fishery. 3. The pilchard fishery is r 
 2G ** 
 
FISHPONDS. 
 
 limited business, carried on almost entirely on the coasts of 
 Devon and Cornwall. 4. Oysters are found on most parts 
 of our coasts, but the principal seats of the trade of breeding 
 them lor the London market are Kent and Essex. 5. Tur- 
 bot, cod, and mackerel arc the principal articles of the fisltor- 
 03 off the British coasts. Turbot are chiefly caught by 
 Dutch fishermen, and close to the shores of Holland. In 
 1833 a report was made by a committee on the British 
 Channel Fisheries, in which the declining state of those 
 fisheries is much commented upon, and attributeil to three 
 causes: the extensive interference and aggression of the 
 French fishermen on the coasts of Kent and Sussex; the 
 large quantities of foreign-caught fish illegally imported and 
 sold ; and the great decrease and comparat've scarcity of 
 fish in the channel ; which last they attribute to the destruc- 
 tion of spawn. But by far the greatest fishery of cod, hake, 
 ling, &c. is that carried on on the great bank of Newfound- 
 land, and on the neighbouring coasts. The former is now 
 chiefly engrossed by the French and Americans;. but the 
 British fishery, although principally confined to the coasts 
 of Newfoundland and Labrador, is very extensive. Mr. 
 M'Gregor, in his work on the North American Colonies, es- 
 timates the value of the produce, on an average of five years 
 to 1832, at 857,000/. per annum (ii. 596). G. The Greenland 
 whale fishery was engaged in by the English in the 17th 
 century, but not with vigour until encouraged by a bounty 
 in 1740. During the late war it became extremely valuable ; 
 afterwards it declined in importance. In 1815, 146 vessels 
 sailed ; in 1834, 76 only. The southern whale fishery is a 
 more modern branch of the traffic. (See JiPCulloch, Statist, 
 of Great Britain, ii. 21. &c; article "Fisheries," in Ene. 
 Brit., new ed. ; Report of the Committee on the Channel 
 Fisheries, 1833 : the former writer estimates the annual 
 value of the fisheries at about 3,000,000/. per annum.) The 
 coast and sea fisheries are protected by a variety of enact- 
 ments. Fishing vessels are licensed by the commissioners 
 of customs under 6 G. 4. c. 108. As to inland fishing, the 
 law of offences in private fisheries is now consolidated by 7 
 & 8 G. 4. c. 27. Taking or destroying fish in water running 
 through, or inland adjoining or belonging to the dwollin?- 
 houso of the owner of the water, i3 u. Misdemeanoi , ul 
 any water not within this description, but private property, 
 or in which there is a private right of fishing, it is punishable 
 with fine on summary conviction. Angling in the daytime 
 is not within these enactments, but is punishable summarily 
 with less penalty. The right of fishing in a river prima 
 facie belongs to the lord of the manor, who has the owner- 
 ship of both banks. Fishery is said to be either several or 
 free, or common of piscary. The first is in the owner of 
 the soil, or one deriving title from him ; the second is a royal 
 franchise, conveying an exclusive right of fishing in a public 
 river. Common of piscary is a liberty of fishery in common 
 with others in a stream or river the soil whereof belongs to 
 a third person, and resembles other commonable rights. 
 
 FISHPONDS, are ponds made by art, in which different 
 kinds of fish are bred and fattened. In general this is only 
 attempted with fresh-water fish ; but in some places ponds 
 have been formed on the sea shore, and so contrived as to 
 have their waters renewed every tide, and in these sea fish 
 have been kept for use for a considerable time. The fresh- 
 water fish which is the most successfully managed in ponds 
 is the carp. 
 
 FISSI'PARA. (Lat. findo, I divide, and pario, I engen- 
 der.) Those animals are so called which propagate by 
 spontaneous fission, or the detachment of a greater or less 
 proportion of the body, having inherent power of self-support 
 and growth. As the animals which manifest this mode of 
 generation differ widely among themselves in their general 
 organization, the term flssipara cannot be applied to desig- 
 nate any natural group ; spontaneous fission is limited to the 
 lowest classes of animals, as Infusorics, Polyps ; certain 
 worms, as the JVais, &c. 
 
 FISSIRO'STRALS, Fissirostres. (Lat. findo, and ros- 
 trum, a beak.) The name of a tribe of perching birds 
 (Insessores), comprehending those wSich have a very wide 
 gape, as the swallow. 
 
 FISSURE'LLA. (Lat. findo.) Agenusof Gastropodous 
 Moll nsks, having a shell shaped like that of a limpet (Patella), 
 but with a fissure at the apex of the cone, which opening is 
 associated with a different form and arrangement of the 
 breathing organs. 
 
 FI'STULA (Lat. a pipe.) A long sinuous ulcer, often 
 communicating with a larger cavity, and having a small 
 external opening, 
 
 FI'STULA SPIRALIS. In Botany, a term used by 
 Malpighi to denominate that kind of vegetable tissue now 
 called the spiral vessel. 
 
 FISTULI'DANS. Fistulides. (Lat. fistula, a pipe.) A 
 tribe of Echinodermatous animals, comprehending those 
 which have an elongated cylindrical tube-like body. 
 
 FIVE POINTS. The principal points of controversy be- 
 tween the Calvinists and Arminians, which became the 
 458 
 
 FLAME. 
 
 subjects of the decisions of the Synod of Don T^ey *e"tate 
 to predestination, satisfaction, regeneration, grace, and final 
 perseverance. See article Arminians. 
 
 FIXED AIR. The old term for carbonic acid, from its 
 existence in a fixed state in limestone, &c. 
 
 FIXED OILS. The common greasy oils are so termed 
 in consequence of the high temperature which they sus- 
 tain before giving out vapour. 
 
 FIXED STARS. Those which retain the same, or very 
 nearly the same position, with respect to each other. It has 
 been discovered, by the accurate observations of modvrn 
 times, that many of the stars have a proper motion. o<* 
 Stars. 
 
 FI'XTURE, in Law, is a term generally applied to all xr 
 tides of a personal nature affixed to land. This annexation 
 must be by the article being let into or united with the hind, 
 or with some substance previously connected therewith. 
 Thus a barn, built on a frame not let into the earth, is not a 
 fixture ; a brewer's stills, set in brickwork resting on a founda- 
 tion, are fixtures ; and the application of the same principle 
 gives, in every case, the true rule to judge whether anything 
 be a fixture or not. Whatever is thus fixed becomes, by law, 
 parcel of the freehold or realty. It is, therefore, on general 
 principles, not removable; but there are exceptions to this 
 rule established by custom, of which the principal arise out 
 of the right of tenants to remove fixtures set up for pur- 
 poses of trade, and in some instances for ornament and con- 
 venience (commonly called tenants' fixtures), and the right 
 of executors to some fixtures, generally of the same descrip- 
 tion, as against the heir or devisee of the realty. 
 
 FLAG. In Naval affairs, the flags are — the royal stand- 
 ard; the admiralty flag, an anchor on a red ground; the 
 union, or jack, in which are blended together the crosses of 
 St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick : this is carried by the 
 admiral of the fleet. 
 
 FLAGE'LLA. A term used by the older botanists to de- 
 note the twigs or voungest shoots of plants. 
 
 FLAGE'LLANTS. (Lat. flagellum, a whip.) A sect of 
 enthusiasts who first appeared in the middle of the 13th cen- 
 tury, and being then repressed, sprang up again with renew- 
 ed violence I i I iel4th. Beginning first at Cret u in Italy, 
 the contagion of the example spread in a few years through- 
 out Europe ; and every city was infested by multitudes who 
 went naked from the loins upward, and inflicted upon them- 
 selves several daily flagellations, with the idea of obtaining 
 thereby merit in the eyes of God. They formed themselve* 
 into a society, and at first were at least innocent in their be 
 haviour; but as their numbers increased, they gave way to 
 great excesses, and were eventually suppressed by a holy wai 
 proclaimed against them by Pope Clement VI. 
 
 FLAGE'LLUM. In Botany, a trailing shoot of the vine ; 
 sometimes used to denominate that form of stem called a 
 runner. 
 
 FLA'GEOLET. (Fr.) A wooden musical wind instru- 
 ment, played with a mouthpiece, the holes and keys where 
 of are stopped with the fingers, in the same way as the flute. 
 
 FLAIL. A wooden implement for threshing corn by hand. 
 It consists of the handle or haud-stafi', which the labourer 
 holds in his hand, and uses as a lever to raise up and bring 
 down the swipie, or part which strikes the com, and beats out 
 the grain and chaff from the straw. The swipie is joined to 
 the hand-staff' by the caplins or couplings, which are thongs 
 of untanned leather, and sometimes the skins of eels or of 
 other fish. These thongs are passed through holes in the 
 ends of the handle and swipie, and made fast by being sewed 
 together. The flail was in use among the Romans, though 
 the prevailing mode of separating corn from straw among the 
 nations of antiquity was by treading it out with cattle in the 
 open air. In the colder parts of Europe, this could never have 
 been generally the case, for obvious reasons; and hence the 
 flail was the universal threshing implement till the introduc- 
 tion of the threshing machine, which is now taking the place 
 of the flail in all countries where capitalists engage in tann- 
 ing. See Threshing Machine. 
 
 FLAKE WHITE. A term often applied to the purest 
 white lead. 
 
 FLAME. (Germ, flamme.) When the temperature of 
 inflammable gases or vapours is raised very high, and in the 
 contact of air, they are said to burst into flame ; if previously 
 mixed with a due proportion of oxygen, or of atmospheric 
 air, they explode. In the former case the combustion only- 
 goes on at the surface in contact with air, and is quiet and 
 gradual ; in the latter, every particle of the inflammable body 
 being in contact with the supporter of combustion, the in 
 flamination extends instantaneously through the whole math. 
 The nature of flame was first explained by Ilooke in 1677 (Ii 
 his Lampas) ; but the relation of the light to the heat of 
 flames, and the whole philosophy of their constitution, was 
 first developed by Sir H.Davy in his researches published in 
 the Philosophical Transactions between 1815 and 1817. 
 
 All the leading phenomena of flame are well exhibited by 
 a large gas -flame burning from a wide orifice. It presents a 
 
FLAMEN. 
 
 hollow ci "ill light of which are confined to its 
 
 exterior surface. A transverse section of such a flame ex- 
 hibits :i ring of listht surrounding a central unintlained core: 
 the Inflammable gai or vapour may be drawn by a tubetHil 
 of this central portion, as in the annexed figure, 
 where a represents the tube inserted into the 
 central non-luminous pan of the flaBU) and 
 win-re the abstracted inflammable vapour h 
 again kindled at ItB extremity. (See illustra- 
 tions of thi> subject in the papers of Mr. Bym 
 and Mr. Davies, Jinn, of Phil., vols, -v iii- and 
 Mi) 
 
 A Bame may be extremely hot wiihout being proportion- 
 itcly luminous, as is the case with tin' Bama or hydrogen, 
 which is scarcely visible in daylight, but the heat or which 
 SJ shown by introducing into it a piece of tine platinum Wile, 
 
 which Immediately becotnei white hot. and emits abundance 
 of light. The /itfht of all flames is of a similar Origin, and 
 depends DOM teiid matter ignited and rendered incnnde-cei.i 
 by the heat of the flame: thus, if magnesia or lime in line 
 powder lie projected into the tlanie of hydrogen, the lumi- 
 
 rhe flame is Immediately Increaai d. Finely-divided 
 
 ce to winch ail common flumes owe 
 their luminosity. It is derived from the hydrocarbon pro- 
 the decomposition of oil, wax, tallow, &.c, ns con- 
 tained in coal gas; lint as charcoal, unlike magnesia anil 
 mbusahte, it not only renders the dame lumi- 
 nous, I, ut is liurned in the act of SO doing, and pas! 
 well-regulated and perfect flame in Uie invisible form of 
 aarbonk acid gas. 
 
 When flames are cooled, they are at the same time e\- 
 Bhguifhed ; hence B flame cannot he made to traverse or re~ 
 Bede through a metallic tube of small Inire; and hence a 
 flame may, as it were, he bisected by a piece of wire gauze 
 held transversely across it: in which case the smoke, gas, or 
 vapour and charcoal go through, hut not hot enough to in- 
 flame, having been cooled down by their passage through 
 the metallic meshes; hut by applying a Bame to this smoke, 
 it may again be kindled, in this way the upper portion of 
 
 numatiou of the 
 lower ha is prevented by the interposed cooling medium. 
 These e.v beat illustrated by the flame of a gas- 
 
 burner, and the two cases just cited are represented in the 
 annexed figures. 
 
 a 
 
 # 
 
 FLA'ML'N The title applied by the Romans to the 
 i any particular deity, as distinguished from priests 
 in general. Originally Numa instituted three orders of fia- 
 >/., i\in<c of Jupiter, .Mars, and Quirinus (Romulus). 
 But in after tunes this number w:ls much increased by the 
 ds and superstitions, and by the wor- 
 ship paid to deceased emperors. 
 
 FLAMI'NGO. See Phojnicopterus. 
 
 FLANK. (Fr. flanc.) In Architecture, the side of any 
 building. 
 
 Flank, in Fortification, is that part of the bastion which 
 from the curtain to the face ; the flank of one bastion 
 serves to defend the ditch before the curtain and face of the 
 opposite bastion. See Fortification. 
 
 FLANNEL. See Woollen Manufacture. 
 
 FLA SHINGS. (Probably from flaipie, a splash.) In 
 Architecture, pieces of lead or other metal let into the joints 
 of a wall so as to lap over the sutters or ot her conduit pieces, 
 and prevent the splashing of rain injuring the interior works. 
 
 FLAT. In Architecture, that part in the covering of a 
 house of lead or other metal which is laid horizontal. 
 
 Flat. In Music, a character of this form |j, which de- 
 presses the note before which it is placed a chromatic semi- 
 tone. Flats and sharps were originally contrived to remedy 
 the defects of musical instruments whereon temperament 
 was required, the natural scale of music being limited to cer- 
 tain lived sounds, and adjusted to an instrument in many 
 points defective; for we can only proceed from one note to 
 another by a particular order of degrees. Hence, from one 
 note to another, upwards or downwards, we cannot find any 
 interval at pleasure. To supply or remedy this defect, mu- 
 sicians have had recourse to a scale proceeding by twelve 
 degrees, making therefore thirteen notes to an octave, in- 
 cluding the extremes, which, though it does not make the in- 
 struini-nt perfect, leaves little room for complaint. In instru- 
 ments whose sounds are fixed, a sound or note dividing it 
 into two unequal parts, called semitones, is placed between 
 the extremes of every tone of the natural scale; so that we 
 have twelve semitones between thirteen notes in the compass 
 Of an octave. In order, then, to keep the diatonic series dis- 
 tinct the inverted notes answer for the name of the natural 
 
 FLEXIBILITY. 
 
 note r.ext below, with this character #, called a sharp ; or 
 the name of the natural note next above it, with thischarac- 
 ;er |>, called a Sat Thus D \) signifies a semitone below D 
 latural ( ; ). On keyed instruments the short keys are thd 
 lepresentalivcs of these Hals and sharps. The system, how- 
 ever, does not strictly produce what it represents: it is only 
 an approximation. Sm Temperamknt. 
 
 FLAT FIFTH. In Music, an interval of a tilth depress 
 ed by n flat, called by the ancients scmidiapente. 
 
 FLAT FISH See Pleuro.nkctes. 
 
 FLA'TTEN A SAIL. To extend it fore and aft, where 
 by its effect is lateral only. 
 
 FLATTING. In Architecture, a coat of paint, which, 
 from its mixture with turpentine, leaves the work flat, M 
 wiihout gloss. 
 
 FLATULENCY. (Lat. flatus, blast.) A morbid col- 
 lection of gas in the stomach and bowels, commonly symp- 
 tomatic of indiue.stiou or indulgence in certain kinds of vege- 
 table food. V¥am tonics and well seasoned animal food, 
 with weak brandy and water as a beverage at dinner, are the 
 usual and effective remedies. 
 
 FLAX. (Genu. Sachs.) The fibre of the Linum usita- 
 tif.-imum, which is spun into thread and woven into linen 
 te Mures. 
 
 The flax is reaped a little before the seeds are ripe ; it is 
 Stripped, and the stalks are then soaked in- water, or retted 
 (rotted), when fermentation running into putrefaction en- 
 sues, so as to destroy the foreign matters with which the 
 fibres are blended in the plant; the flu is then dl 
 broken or beaten and winnowed, so as to separate the fibrous 
 from the other parts; these are afterwards heckled, and pre- 
 pared lor the spinner. (For an account of these operations, 
 and of the machinery by which they are effected, see lire's 
 Dictionary of .irts, ,',-c, art. •• Flax.") 
 
 FLECHE. In Fortification, a simple redan usually con 
 structed at the foot of a glacis. .Sec Bnu, 
 
 FLEECE, ORDER OF THE GOLDEN. One of the 
 most distinguished among European orders of knighthood. 
 It was founded by Philip 111., duke of Burgundy, in 14:!U; 
 and as by its Inundation his successors were declared to be 
 hereditary grand masters, that tide passed, with the Uurguu- 
 dian inheritance, to the house of Austria; thence, after the 
 death of Charii ■ V., to the .Spanish line of that house: but 
 when the monarchy of Spain passed to the Bourbons sod 
 the Spanish Netherlands to Austria, the archdukes of Aus- 
 tria claimed the grand mastership; and claims are made on 
 it at present both by the Emperor of Austria and King of 
 Spain j the order is consequently conferred both at Vienna 
 and Madrid, and is, in both courts, the highest in point of 
 rank. As its nominal object is the protection of religion, it is 
 rarely conferred on any Protestants, with the exception, by 
 courtesy, of Protestant sovereigns. 
 
 FLEET, in its most extended signification, is applied to a 
 number of ships, pursuing in company either mercai.Iile 01 
 warlike purposes, or both; but it is more generally confined 
 to the different detachments which form the navy of any 
 country, stationed in various parts of the world for the pur- 
 poses of defence, aggression, or intimidation. See Navy, 
 Squadron. 
 
 Fleet. The sea term for shortening any thing, by taking 
 it up, that had been pulled out or stretched. 
 
 FLE'MISH SCHOOL. In Panning, the school formed 
 in Flanders. The works of this school are distinguished by 
 the most perfect knowledge of chiaro-scuro ; high finishing 
 without dryness; by an admirable union of colours well 
 blended and contrasted, and by a flowing, luxurious pencil. 
 Its defects are somewhat similar to those of the Dutch school. 
 The Flemish painters, like the Hutch, represented nature as 
 they found her, and not as she should be. Rubens ami 
 Vandyke (the glory of this school), though men of the great- 
 est genius, were not free from this delect, and the former 
 especially. Teniers was another great master of the school 
 in question ; to it also belong Snyders, S.eenwick, Neels, 
 Schwaneveldt, Van Eyck, &c. 
 
 FLE'TA. The title of an ancient treatise on English law, 
 attributed to the reign of Ed. I., and named (according to 
 tradition) from its composition by a judge in the Fleet prison. 
 
 FLEUR-DE-LIS. In Heraldry, a charge supposed to 
 represent a lily : home from a very early period in the royal 
 arms of France. It is, however, more probably conjectured 
 that the shape of this bearing was intended to represent the 
 iron of a javelin. 
 
 FLEXIBILITY (LaL flecto, / bend.) That property 
 Of hoilirs |n virtue of which, when a sufficient force is ap- 
 plied to them, they change their form, and are bent. Flexi- 
 bility is opposed to stiffness on the one hand, and to brittle- 
 ness on the other; still* bodies being such as resist bending, 
 and brittle those which cannot be bent without a disruption 
 of their parts. Of unorganized bodies the most flexible are 
 the metals; and their flexibility is in general increased by 
 heat, though brass is rendered brittle when subjected to a 
 high temperature. Of organized bodies, young fresh plants 
 
FLEXURA. 
 
 and animal substances (excepting bone) are eminently flexi- 
 ble ; and bodies ot' this class are rendered more flexible by 
 heat and moisture. In many machines where great stability 
 is required, it is often a matter of much importance to be ac- 
 quainted with the flexibility of the component materials, in 
 order to determine the load they can support without yield- 
 ng. (See Cohesion.) Flexibility is only n relative term, 
 for all bodies are more or less flexible; and in bars of wood 
 01 metal the stiffness or resistance to flexure is directly as the 
 breadth and cube of the depth, and inversely as the cube of 
 tlie length. 
 
 FLEXU'RA. (Lat. flecto, / bend.) In Mammalogy, the 
 joint between the antibrachium and carpus, usually called 
 the fore-knee in the horse ; analogous to the wrist-joint in man. 
 
 FLE'XURE. The bending or incurvation of a line or 
 surface. Point of contrary flexure is a term used in analyti- 
 cal geometry to denote that point of a curve at which the 
 curvature passes from convex to concave, or vice versa, with 
 respect of the axis. At this point the radius of curvature is 
 infinite. At the points of the curve immediately preceding 
 and following, the centre of curvature lies on opposite sides 
 of the curve. 
 
 FLINT. Common flints are nearly pure si'ica. They 
 usually occur in irregular nodules in chalk. Their origin is 
 an unsolved geological problem. 
 
 FLINT GLASS, or CRYSTAL. A species of glass which 
 derives its name from flint, because that substance was for- 
 merly employed in its manufacture. It is very extensively used 
 for domestic purposes ; but is chiefly interesting to the philos- 
 opher on account of the property which it possesses of caus- 
 ing agreater dispersion of the rays of light which pass through 
 a prism or lens formed of it than any other of the vitreous 
 compounds. This property renders it invaluable in the manu- 
 facture of the object glasses of telescopes and microscopes ; 
 for by combining a concave lens of flint glass with one or two 
 convex lenses of crown glass, which possesses a much less 
 dispersive power, a compound lens ia formed, in which the 
 prismatic colours arising from a simple refraction are de- 
 stroyed, and the lens rendered achromatic. This construc- 
 tion of object glasses was first discovered by a Mr. Hall, a 
 country gentleman in Worcestershire, about 1729; but the 
 discovery was forgotten, and no farther notice taken of it for 
 nearly 30 years, when it was again brought to light by John 
 Dollond, after a long-continued course of experiments under- 
 taken for the purpose of perfecting the telescope. It is, how- 
 ever, very difficult to prepare flint glass fit for the purposes of 
 achromatic telescopes. This difficulty arises not from the 
 want of sufficient dispersive power in the substance, but 
 from the want of purity or homogeneity ; the slightest im- 
 purity or inequality of composition in the glass giving rise to 
 a streaked or imperfect image by reason of the unequal re- 
 fraction of the rays. The composition of pure flint glass long 
 remained a secret in the family of the Dollonds, and its manu- 
 facture formed a very profitable article of exportation ; for 
 till about the beginning of the present century, no flint glass 
 of good quality was made on the Continent. Of late years, 
 however, a great change has taken place i:i this respect, and 
 Class of the best quality has been manufactured, both in 
 France and Germany, in much larger masses than our Eng- 
 lish artists have yet succeeded in obtaining. This result has 
 been mainly produced by the experimental researches of 
 D'Artigues, Fraunhofer, Cauchoix, Guinand, and Korner. 
 Formerly, an object-glass exceeding five inches in diameter 
 could scarcely be produced. Fraunhofer succeeded in ma- 
 king then) ol nine, and even twelve inches. The object- 
 glass of the large parallactic telescope belonging to Sir James 
 South, at Campden Hill, was manufactured by Cauchoix; 
 it exceeds twelve inches, and is throughout of the utmost 
 parity. The exact proportion of the ingredients which enter 
 into these choice specimens is not known, and probably their 
 excellence depends in part on some accidental circumstances 
 in the preparation. Komer produced some of his best speci- 
 mens by employing the following ingredients: 100 parts of 
 quartz, first treated with muriatic acid ; 80 parts of litharge, 
 or red lead ; and 30 parts of the bitartrate of potash. Flint 
 glass for common purposes is usually made of 120 parts of 
 line white sand, 40 parts of well purified pearl ash, 35 parts 
 litharge or minium, 13 parts nitre, and a small quantity of 
 the black oxide of manganese; the latter ingredient being 
 used to correct the green colour occasioned by the presence 
 of oxide of iron in the sand. The principal difference be- 
 tween this and the glass used for optical purposes consists in 
 the much greater quantity of lead in the latter, and which 
 is introduced for the purpose of increasing its dispersive power. 
 There is a valuable paper on the manufacture of glass for 
 optical purposes, containing the results of an extensive series 
 of experiments upon the subject, made in the laboratory of 
 the Royal Institution, by Mr. Faraday, in the Philosophical 
 Transactions for the year 1830, vol. cxx. See Glass. 
 
 FLOAT BOARDS. The boards fixed to the rim or outer 
 tlrcuinference of undershot wheels, which receive the im- 
 pulse of the water and communicate the motion to the wheel. 
 
 FLOOR CLOTH. 
 
 FLOA'TED LATH AND PLASTER. In Architecture, 
 plastering of three coats, whereof the first is pricking up (.see 
 First Coat) ; the second, floating or floated work ; and the 
 last of fine stuff. 
 
 FLOA'TED WORK. In Architecture, plastering made 
 of a perfectly plane surface, by means of a tool (which is a 
 long rule with a straight edge) called a float. 
 
 FLOA'TING MEADOWS. Meadow lands, the surface 
 of which is flat, adjoining a river or other source of water, 
 with which they can be flooded or covered at pleasure 
 The water is turned on chiefly in the winter season when 
 it is more or less muddy, and leaves a deposit that serves at 
 a kind of manure. It is also useful to vegetation, by pre- 
 serving a higher temperature in the surface soil than it 
 could maintain through the winter, if fully exposed to th« 
 action of the atmosphere ; because, wherever water is in a 
 fluid state, its mean temperature, and that of the bodies im- 
 mediately in contact with it, must be above 32°, and at that 
 temperature the grasses common in British meadow* will 
 grow. There are probably other benefits which grass lands 
 receive from being covered with water during a portion of 
 the winter season, but these have not yet been satisfactorily 
 explained by science. 
 
 FLOA'TING SCREEDS. (Ital., probably from schier 
 ato, ranged.) In Architecture, strips of plaster arranged 
 and nicely adjusted for guiding the floating-rule. See 
 Floated Work. 
 
 FLO A'TSTONE. A porous variety of flint, which floats 
 upon water. 
 
 FLO'CCI. (Lat.) In Botany, the woolly filaments that 
 are found mixed with the sporules of many Gastromyci : 
 the same name is also applied to the external filaments of 
 Byssacea. 
 
 FLOCCILLA'TION. Picking the bed-clothes. This is 
 a very alarming symptom in many acute diseases. 
 
 FLO'CCUS. In Mammalogy, the tuft of long flaccid 
 hairs which terminate the tail. 
 
 FLOETZ ROCKS. A term applied by the German ge- 
 ologists to the secondary strata, because they generally oc- 
 cur in flat or horizontal beds. 
 
 FLOOR. (Saxon, flore.) In Architecture, the pave 
 ment or boarded lower horizontal surface of an apartment 
 It is constructed of earth, brick, stone, wood, or other mate 
 rials. Carpenters include in the term the framed timbei 
 work on which the boarding is laid, as well as the boards 
 themselves. 
 
 Floor. The lower part of a ship's bottom. 
 
 FLOOR CLOTH. This useful and ornamental nianu 
 facture originated in this country about the year 1740, when 
 a manufactory of it was established at Knightsbridge, near 
 London, by Mr. Smith. It was originally made of narrow 
 canvass sewn together like sail cloth, to which Successive 
 coats of paint were applied; but the seams proving incon- 
 venient, a canvass was wove for the purpose, about four 
 yards wide ; it was then extended to seven yards in width, 
 and afterwards to nine, which is the widest at present made. 
 The manufactory at Knightshridgc, now carried on by Mr. 
 Baber, is the largest establishment of the kind ; the common 
 dimensions of the oil cloths produced there being 20 yards by 
 8, and 30 yards by 7, giving therefore entire pieces of 160 
 and 210 square yards without seams. These canvasses are 
 stretched upon frames, and accessible over their whole sur- 
 face by stages erected for the puri>ose : these are the cir- 
 cumstances which render the large dimensions of the manu- 
 factory requisite. The canvass being duly strained, is rub 
 bed over with pumice stone, which renders its surface 
 smooth and even, and then brushed over with a weak solu- 
 tion of size ; when this is dry, the first coat of oil colour is 
 laid on, not with brushes, but with trowels, something in the 
 manner of plastering ; when this is dry a second coat fol- 
 lows it; and in this way seven coats of paint are usually 
 applied in succession, three on the back and four on the 
 front. When the cloth in this state, and of one colour, is 
 sufficiently dry, it is removed from its frame upon a large 
 roller, and carried to the upper part of the building to be 
 printed ; that is, to receive its pattern. This was original!) 
 effected by a process of pencilling; but in the year 1780, Mr 
 Smith introduced the great improvement of block-printing, 
 by which the colours are more correctly laid on, and iu 
 greater body and variety. The printing table, which j> 
 about 30 feet long, 4 wide, and 2 feet 6 inches high, is very 
 firmly constructed of deal timbers laid edgeways and claiu»- 
 ed together, the surface being truely planed ; the roll :( 
 painted cloth is placed underneath it, and ns it is unrolled it 
 gradually passes over the table, where it is printed, and is 
 then drawn forward so as to hang perfectly free while diy- 
 ing, the height of the building being such as conveniently to 
 admit of this, without rolling, doubling, or folding the mate- 
 rial, which In these stages would of course injure it. The 
 colours, which are the usual oil colours very carefully pre- 
 pared, arc put on In succession with wooden blocks, which 
 are made of pear-tree, box, or holly wood, and upon which 
 
 
FLOOR. 
 
 the patterns arc cut in relief; they are about eighteen inch- 
 es squaro, and are applied in succession ore* the whole of 
 the surface of the cloth lying upon the printing table. Every 
 colour is (tut on by a separate block, and much dexterity is 
 required in so placing them that the patterns may correctly 
 interlace and join each other, without in any case overlap- 
 ping or interfering : to effect this, the workman is aided by 
 guide pins, or pitches, as they are termed, which direct him 
 in placing the block. The colours are first brushed or tiered 
 upon hard cushions, from which they arc transferred to the 
 block, and thence to the cloth ; and, though many are often 
 required, it is astonishing how much effect is sometimes ob- 
 tained by the judicious arrangement or mixture of two only, 
 upon n third, which forms the ground, it will be obvious. 
 from what has been stated, that the weight of the finished 
 oil cloth, as compared with the naked canvass, is no unim- 
 Mftanl criterion of its goodness; each square yard when 
 finished weighing from three pounds and a half to four or 
 four and a hall': this distinguishes a good oil cloth from 
 ch are vamped up and stiffened with size and other 
 perishable materials. 
 
 Independent of the common application of oil cloth, it is 
 not {infrequently advantageously employed as a roofing ma- 
 terial, especially lor covering verandas and other light struc- 
 tures. When used for this purpose, the canvass should be 
 made of picked lone flax, and thoroughly saturated with 
 good oil paint ; it will then stand our climate and last for 14 
 of IS 1 
 
 IT.i >i >K. FOLDING or FOLDED. In Architecture, one 
 in which the float boards are so laid that their joints do not 
 appear continuous throughout the whole length of the floor, 
 but in bat s or folds of three, four. tivf. or more hoards each. 
 
 FLOOR, STRAIGHT JOINT. In Architecture, one in 
 which the floor bands are so laid that their joints or edge* 
 form a continued line throughout the direction of their 
 length ; in opposition to folding floor, where the joints end in 
 
 FLORA'LIA. A festival celebrated with some magnifi- 
 cence in honour of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. 
 
 FLORETS. The flowers of a capilulum or anthodium; 
 which are Miinlh-r in size, but not dilferent in structure from 
 ordinary flowers. Those which are placed in the middle of 
 the capitulum are called discoidal, or of the disk; those in 
 the circumference are named radiant, or of the ray. 
 
 FLORIN. w Money. 
 
 FLOfl I'ERRI. A cornlloidal carbonate of lime, often 
 found in veins ofspathose iron ore. 
 
 FLOTA. A name given by the Spaniards to the ships 
 that formerly sailed together, or under convoy, from Cadiz 
 and the other ports of the Peninsula authorized to trade di- 
 rectlv « ith the Transatlantic possession- of Spain. 
 
 IT.< >' ITI.LA. (Span.) Literally a little fleet ; in which 
 sense, however, it is seldom used, being applied almost in- 
 variably to a fleet, how large soever, composed of small ves- 
 sels. Thus tlie term flotilla was given to the immense naval 
 force with which Napoleon meditated the invasion of Great 
 P.ritain. and which consisted of 236.") vessels of every descri|v 
 tion, was manned by about 17,000 sailors, and carried 100,000 
 soldiers, and 10,000 horses. In Spain, the name flotilla is 
 given to a number of vessels appointed to announce to the 
 home government the departure and natvire of the cargo of 
 the flola or mercantile ships from foreign ports on their 
 homeward v oya g e . 
 
 FLOTSAM (floating), Jetsam (Ft. Jeter, to throw), and 
 Lagan (lying), as law terms, are usually joined together. 
 The first, according to Blackstone, designates goods cast 
 from a ship and swimming in the waves; jetsam, goods cast 
 and sunk ; lagan, sunk but tied to a buoy by the owncre. 
 Goods in either of these three predicaments belong to the 
 king, if the owners be not known, and may by him be grant- 
 ed with other franchises. 
 
 FLOW EKLF.SS PLANTS. Those plants that are des- 
 titute of flowers and sexes. They are the same as crypto- 
 gamic, or acrogenout, or cellular plants. 
 
 FLOWERS. The old chemists gave this name to several 
 light flocculent substances obtained by sublimation; such as 
 fhurrrs of sulphur, flowers of benioes, &c. 
 
 FLUE. In Architecture, the long open tube of a chim- 
 ney from the fireplace to the top of the shaft for voidance of 
 the smoke. 
 
 FLU'ENT or FLOWING QUANTITY, in Analysis, 
 is the variable quantity, considered as increasing or diminish- 
 ing. The term denotes the same thing as integral, which 
 is now universally used in its stead, the differential nnd in- 
 tegral calculus having superseded the methods of fluxions 
 and fluents. See Fluxion, Integral. 
 
 FLUID, or FLUID BODY, is that whose parts yield to 
 .he smallest pressure, and are moved among each other 
 without any sensible resistance. Some writers distinguish 
 between fluid and liquid, confining the latter term to those 
 substances which wet, or whose particles adhere to other 
 bodies plunged into them. Thus air, ether, mercury, water, 
 
 FLUOSILICIC ACID. 
 
 alcohol, fee. are all fluids; but water and alcohol are also 
 liquids, because they wet other bodies, while air and mer 
 cury do not. The term liquid is, however, very frequently 
 used in the same general sense as fluid. Fluids arc of two 
 kinds, elastic and non-elastic. The mechanical properties of 
 elastic fluids, comprehending air and the different gases, con 
 stitute the science of Pneumatics ; those of the non-elastic 
 fluids, water, mercury, &c, Hydrostatics and Hydraulics. 
 It is to be remarked, however, that the terms elastic nnd 
 non-elastic are here used in a relative, not in an absolute 
 sense ; for water, alcohol, and probably all other fluids of the 
 same class, are, to n certain extent, compressible and clastic, 
 though they resist compression with a very great force. 
 
 FLUI'DITY (Lat. tluo, / flow), is that state of a sub- 
 stance in which its constituent particles are so slightly co- 
 hesive that they yield to the smallest impressions. The 
 term is usually confined to express the condition of the non- 
 elastic fluids ; and hence it denotes one of the three states 
 in which matter exists ; namely, the solid, the fluid or liquid, 
 and the gaseous. The state of fluidity is best defined as that 
 in which bodies tend to form drops, as this disposition does 
 not belong either to bodies in a gaseous form, or to solid 
 bodies reduced to fine |>owder. The formation of drops ari- 
 ses from this, that the molecules of fluid bodies adhere to 
 each other with a certain force, at the same lime that they 
 glide over one another without any sensible resistance. It 
 is incorrect to say that the molecules of ImkIIcs in a state of 
 fluidity offer no resistance to separation ; for, on bringing a 
 flat disc of glass or metal into contact with the surface of a 
 liquid, a very sensible degree of force is required to separate 
 them. Thnt adhesion astatl among the molecules of fluid 
 bodies is also proved by various other phenomena. Water 
 or mercury on a flat plate of metal collects in globules, and 
 when slowly jioured into a wine glass will remain heaped up, 
 as it were, above the level of the edge. 
 
 Various hypotheses have been framed by philosophers to 
 explain the ■Unreal slates in which matter is found to exist. 
 Confining ourselves to the most general views, we may re- 
 gard all bodies as assemblages of particles constantly main- 
 tained in equilibrium between two forces, an attractive 
 force which tends to unite the particles, and a repul.-ivc 
 force which tends to increase the distance between them. 
 The solid state results from the preponderance of the at- 
 tractive force. Conceive the repulsive force to receive an 
 augmentation until it becomes equal to, or forms an equilib- 
 rium with, the attractive force. When the two forces are 
 thus balanced, the paruclcs exert on each other neither at- 
 traction nor repulsion, and the body is in the fluid state. 
 Lastly, if the repulsive energy be still increased, the particles 
 will be separated from each other to such distances that 
 their mutual attractions will cease altogether to be sensible, 
 and then the body passes into the gaseous state. Hence we 
 may pronounce that there is no natural state of body ; and 
 that fluidity, solidity, the state of vapour, and the aeriform 
 state are only accidental, and determined by the tempera- 
 ture of the medium in which the body is placed. See 
 Crystallization, Capillary Attraction, Gas, &c. 
 
 FLUKE. A name commonly applied to a species of flat 
 fish, or Pleuronectes ; and also to an Entozoon of a similar 
 form (Distoma hepaticum), which infests the ducts of the 
 liver of different animals, especially of the sheep. 
 
 Fluke is also applied in navigation to the broad part of the 
 anchor which takes hold of the ground. 
 
 FLUOBO RIC ACID. A gas obtained by heating to red- 
 ness a mixture of dry boracic acid and powdered fluor spar. 
 Its specific gravity is 2-36. It is colourless, pungent, and pro 
 duces a dense white cloud when it escapes into a moist at- 
 mosphere ; it is resolved by the action of wafer into boracic 
 and hydro-fluoric acids. It acts with great energy upon ani- 
 mal and vegetable substances, and chars them. It is proba- 
 bly a compound of 20 parts of boron and 108 of fluorine, or 
 of one atom of boron and six atoms of fluorine. 
 
 FLUO'RIC ACID. See Hydrofluoric Acid. 
 
 FLU'ORINE. The hypothetical base of the hydrofluo 
 ric acid : it has not yet been obtained in a separate state. 
 
 FLUOR SPAR. This is a common mineral product, 
 found in great beauty in Derbyshire ; hence known in this 
 country under the name of the Derbyshire spar. It is gen- 
 erally crystallized in cubes, but its primitive form is an octa- 
 hedron. It is of various colours, and often beautifully band- 
 ed, especially when in nodules, which are much prized for 
 the manufacture of vases, and occasionally used for beads, 
 brooch stones, and other ornamental purposes. It is proba- 
 bly a compound of fluorine and calcium, hence a fluoride of 
 calcium. The term fluor is derived from the fusibility of 
 this substance, on which account it is sometimes used as a 
 flux to promote the fusion of certain refractory minerals It 
 is manufactured at Matlock and Derby into a great variety 
 of articles. , 
 
 FLU'OSI'LICIC ACID. A gas obtained by applying a 
 gentle heat to a mixture of one part of powdered fluor spar, 
 one of silica, and two of sulphuric acid, in a retort. It is 
 
 461 
 
FLUSH. 
 
 colourless*, pungent, fumes when it escapes into a humid air, 
 and is rapidly absorbed by water. Its specific gravity is 
 about 30; 100 cubic inches weighing nearly 112 grains. It 
 is decomposed by water, and forms silica and hydrofluoric 
 acid. It consists of 8 parts by weight of silicium, and 18 of 
 fluorine, its equivalent (upon the hydrogen scale) being 20. 
 
 FLUSH. (Lat. fluxus.) In Architecture, the continued 
 surface in the same plane of two contiguous masses. 
 
 FLUTE. (Fr.) A wooden musical wind instalment 
 played by holes and keys, stopped and opened with the fing- 
 ers. The lips and tongue are both used in playing it. The 
 octave flute is a smaller but similar instrument, whose pitch 
 is an octave higher than the flute, as its name implies. 
 
 FLUTES, or FLUTINGS. (Fr.) In Architecture, up- 
 right channels on the shafts of columns, usually ending 
 hemispherically at top and bottom. Their plan or horizontal 
 section is sometimes circular or segmental, and sometimes, 
 as in the Grecian examples, elliptical. The Doric column 
 has twenty round its circumference ; the Ionic, Corinthian, 
 and Composite twenty-four. The Tuscan column is never 
 fluted. They are occasionally cabled. (See that word.) 
 
 FLUVIA'LES. (Lat. fluvius, a river.) A natural order 
 of Endogenous water plants common in all extra-tropical 
 countries, and approaching somewhat to flowerless plants. 
 Pollini, according to De Candolle, asserts that spifal vessels 
 do exist in them, while Amici urges the contrary. Agardh 
 refers to this order both Ceratophyllum and Sparganium ; 
 but those genera are nearer allied to Juncaginacca. Their 
 sensible properties are unimportant. Zostera or sea wrack, 
 one of the genera, is used to stuff cushions, and as a materi- 
 al for packinsr. 
 
 FLUX. (Lat. fluo, I flow.) Applied in technical chem- 
 istry to substances which are in themselves very fusible, or 
 which promote the fusion of other bodies. When tartar is 
 deflagrated with half its weight of nitre, a mixture of char- 
 coal and carbonate of potash remains, which is often called 
 black flux : when an equal weight of nitre is used, the whole 
 of the charcoal is burned off, and carbonate of potassa re- 
 mains, which, when thus procured, is called white flux. 
 For flux and reflux of the sea, see Tides. 
 
 Flux. In Pathology, a disease attended by inordinate se- 
 cretion from the bowels. 
 
 FLU'XION (Lat. fluxus, flow), in Analysis, signifies the 
 eame thing as differential, the term being suggested by a par- 
 ticular view of the manner in which variable quantities in- 
 crease or diminish. Newton considered a curve as genera- 
 ted by the uniform motion of a point, the constant velocity 
 of this point being decomposed at every instant into two oth- 
 ers, one parallel to the axis of the abscissa, and the other 
 parallel to the axis of the ordinates. These velocities are 
 what he called the fluxions of the co-O'dinatos ; while the 
 arbitrary velocity of the point which describes the curve is 
 the fluxion of the nrc. Reciprocally, the arc described is 
 called the fluent, of the velocity with which it is described 
 by the moving point ; the corresponding ab=ciss is the fluent 
 of the velocity estimated in the direction of the absciss, and 
 the ordinate the fluent of the velocity of the point estimated 
 in the direction of the ordinate. The same considerations 
 may be extended to the areas bounded by curve lines, to 
 surfaces, and the volumes which they determine, to forces 
 which give rise to motion in bodies, and to the effects which 
 they produce. In fact, the theory is applicable to every 
 thing which forms the object of the mathematical or physi- 
 co-mathematical sciences. 
 
 The method of fluxions is derived naturally from that of 
 prime and ultimate ratios ; for the variable velocity of a 
 point is not the path described by it in a given time divided 
 by this time ; but it is the prime or ultimate ratio of that 
 quotient ; that is to say, the quantity to which that quotient 
 approaches more and more in proportion as the time is sup- 
 posed to be shorter. This observation has occasioned an ob- 
 jection to the method of fluxions— namely, that of introdu- 
 cing into geometry, which is a branch of the pure mathe- 
 matics, the idea of velocity, which belonss to the mixed 
 mathematics; and of defiring an idea which ought to be 
 simple by one that is complex. The objection is frivolous ; 
 the only question of any consequence being whether the 
 theory is more easily apprehended by this manner of exposi- 
 tion than by any other. 
 
 In applying the method of fluxions to mathematical inves- 
 tigation, the procedure is precisely the same as in the differ- 
 ential calculus; from which, indeed, it differs in no respect 
 save that of notation. The method was invented by New- 
 ton ; and the notation which he used was adopted by all 
 English writers, and long obstinately adhered to, although 
 the notation of Leibnitz, the inventor of the differential cal- 
 culus, possesses over it many advantages, particularly in the 
 more abstruse theories of analysis. At length, however, the 
 great number of excellent works which appeared on the 
 Continent, in all of which the differential notation was used, 
 the manifest advantage of uniformity in the symbols etn- 
 uloyed in scientific researches, and the intrinsic superiority 
 462 
 
 FOCUS. 
 
 of the foreign notation, caused that of fluxions to be grada 
 ally abandoned, and at the present time it has entirely dis- 
 appeared in all mathematical works possessing any claim to 
 merit. The first systematic treatise on fluxions In our lan- 
 guage, in which the differential notation was employed 
 throughout, was the article "Fluxions" In the Edinburgh 
 Encyclopedia, which appeared in the year 1815. 
 
 FLY. In Mechanics, an appendage given to machine! 
 for the purpose of regulating and equalizing the motion, as 
 in the windlass, jack, pile-engine, &c. ; and sometimes for 
 collecting force in order to produce a very great Instantane- 
 ous impression, as in a coining press". Generally it is 
 formed of a heavy disc or hoop at right angles to the axis ; 
 sometimes of heavy knobs at the extremities of a bar having 
 the same position. The fly is of great use in all cases where 
 the power, or the resistance, acts unequally in the different 
 parts of a revolution. 
 
 FLY-CATCHER. See Muscicapa. 
 
 FLY'ING BUTTRESS. In Gothic Architecture, a but 
 tress in the form of an arch, springing from a solid mass of 
 masonry, and abutting against the springing of another arch 
 which rises from the upper points of abutment of the first. 
 It is seen in most of our cathedrals, and its office is to act as 
 a counterpoise against the vaulting of the nave. If flying 
 buttresses were, built solid from the ground, it is obvious 
 that they would interfere with the vista along the aisles of 
 the church ; hence the project of continuing a resistance by 
 means of arches. Their stability depends on the resistance 
 afforded by the weight of the vertical buttress from whence 
 they spring. See the diagram, art. Gothic Architecture 
 
 AFTER THR 12TH CtENTURY. 
 
 FLY'ING FISH. The species of two distinct genera of 
 fish, in which the pectoral fins are so developed as to enable 
 them to sustain themselves for a short time in the air, are so 
 called. The more ccumon species are the Exoca? te (Exo- 
 cactus volitans), and the flying gurnard {Dactyloptcra voli- 
 tans). 
 
 FLY POWDER. An imperfect oxide of arsenic, formed 
 by the exposure of native arsenic to the air; when mixed 
 with sugar and water it is used to kill flies. 
 
 FO. The name given by the Chinese to Buddha, by one 
 of those phenomena in literature whereby appellations are 
 introduced from one language into others with which it has 
 little or no affinity. Originally the nams Buddha was ex- 
 pressed in the Chinese language with sufficient exactness bj 
 the term Fo-thnu, pronounced Fdudah ; but, aa is isual ii 
 China with proper names, the last syllable was subsequent 
 ly dropped. According to the Chinese historians, the r? 
 ligion of Buddha was introduced into China in the rei*,->. <>. 
 Ming-ti, of the dynasty of the Hans, about the 04th j-sar o 
 the Christian era ; but there is good reason to believe 'Jin 
 the doctrines of the Indian reformer had been carried thitli 
 er by some of his enthusiastic adherents long before that pe 
 riod, and that it is only to their official recognition by tlu 
 government that this later date refers. This is not the plac* 
 to give an exposition of the religious and philosophical prin- 
 ciples of Fo (see Buddhism) : suffice it to say that the samr 
 principles are adopted by all the Buddhists of the various 
 countries where they are professed, with the exception of a 
 few trifling deviations which the various translations of the 
 Buddhist writings from their original Sanscrit have natural- 
 ly generated. It is only when these writings, or at al! 
 events the chief of them shall have been translated into the 
 languages of Europe (which we have good grounds to sup- 
 pose will soon be the case), that an accurate idea can be 
 formed of the doctrines which they inculcate, and which 
 have exercised so mighty an influence on the largest por- 
 tion of the inhabitants of Asia. (See the Penny Cyclopae- 
 dia.) 
 
 FO'CAL DISTANCE. (Lat. focus, a licarth.) In Op- 
 tics, the distance between the centre of a lens er minor, and 
 the point into which the rays are collected. 
 
 FO'CUS, in Geometry, is npplied to certain points belong- 
 ing to conic sections, which possess very remarkable proper- 
 ties. The focus of the parabola is a point in the axis having 
 this property, that a radius drawn from it to any point in the 
 curve makes the same angle with the tangent at that point 
 that the tangent makes with the axis. Hence a ray of light 
 proceeding from the focus, and reflected by the curve, pro- 
 ceeds in a direction parallel to the axis; or, if parallel rays 
 fall on the concave side of a parabola, they are reflected 
 into the focus. In the ellipse the two foci are situated in 
 the greater axis, at equal distances from the centre; and if 
 from both foci straight lines be drawn to the same point ir. 
 the circumference, the two lines make equal angles with the 
 tangent at that point. A ray of light, therefore, issuing from 
 the one focus, is reflected by the curve into the other focus. 
 In the hyperbola a similar pro)>orty holds good ; with this 
 difference, that whereas in the ellipse the two straight lines 
 fall both on the concave side of the arc. in the hyperbola 
 ore falls on the concave and the other on the convex; in 
 other words, the two lines drawn from the foci to any point 
 
FODDER. 
 
 m the hyperbola diaic equal angles with the tangent on op- 
 pBdh sides nt' it. A ray of light, therefore, proceeding from 
 one focus uf a hyperbola, will be reflected by any point of 
 the curve Into the direction of a ray coming from the other 
 focus and passing through that point In the solar system, 
 the sun occupies one of the foci of the orbits of all the plan- 
 ets and comets. 
 
 Focus, in Optics, is the space into which the rays of light 
 are collected by a burning glass or mirror. On account of 
 the apparent diameter of the sun's disc, the solar rays can- 
 not In collected into a single point, even if we could sup|»ose 
 a lens or mirror to be formed into the perfect shape which 
 geometry requires for that purpose. Tliey cover a certain 
 circular space, which space is called the focus; and its mag- 
 nitude h.-is the same relation to the apparent diameter of the 
 sun, as the Image • >!" any other object formed in the focus of 
 the lens or mirror has to the object itself. Let A C be a 
 
 H ray proceeding from the cen- 
 
 T. l — tre of the sun's due, and B C 
 
 C — — - __^___ A another proceeding from its 
 
 B border; then the angle LCM 
 is equal to the apparent s< imidiameter of the sun, that is 10' ; 
 and If we make the focal distance LC=f, we have the 
 ■emidlametei of the focus L M =/ tan. Iff. Hut die tan- 
 gent of 10' is very nearly =: 1-210; therefore the semidi- 
 umctcr of die focal circle is very marly the 216th part of 
 the focal distance. Hence we derive a rule for finding the 
 intensity of die heat in the focus of a burnl 
 nil the rays which fall on the glass are collected within the 
 focal circle, the intensity of the beat in ili.it circle is to the 
 of tile beat failing mi the glass in the ratio of the 
 area of the glass to that of tin; focal circle. But circles are 
 to each oUier as die squares of their diameters; whence, 
 be diameter of the gloss d, and supposing die light 
 d by unit, the intensity of the 
 light or heat within die focal circle is <tt divided by 
 (1-108)2/^; or it is directly proportional to the square of the 
 diameter of die class, and inversely to the square of the fo- 
 cal distance. For u spherical lens, convex on both sides, 
 the diameter of the local circle ii one eighth of the tiiick- 
 Ihfl lens; but though it cannot be less than ibis 
 quantity, in Imperfect glasses it will considerably exceed it. 
 See Less, Bi'USIm; G 
 
 FODDEK. (Germ, fatter.) In Agriculture, Uie food 
 given to quadrupeds, which consists of the stems and loaves. 
 of plants, such as the culmUerous ^irms of the grasses, the 
 haulm of legumes, potatoes, fcc; '>r, in short, whatever is 
 given as the ordinary food is designated fodder; whereas 
 corn, beans, and other arlicb s, w hirh pro S C Bt nourishment 
 inn more concentrated form, are not included under the term 
 fodder, but rather known as solid food. 
 
 Fodder, is the name of a weight formerly used in the 
 j of lead: it was of various magnitudes, but most 
 commonly amounted to about 2400 lbs. 
 
 FOE'TUS. (Lat feo, / bring forth.) From about the 
 fifth month after pregnancy till the period of its birth, the 
 child in die womb of its mother is termed afaitus. 
 
 FOG. [Dan. fug.) In Meteorology, a dense vapour near 
 the surface of the land or water. Fogs, in general, are the 
 consequence of the nocturnal cooling of the atmosphere. 
 The air- by its rapid cooling, becomes surcharged with mois- 
 ture; a part of" which, being precipitated in the form of a 
 cloud, gives rise to the ordinary fog. During the day the 
 heat of the sun generally disperses the fog, because the 
 quanii y of moisture which the air is capable of holding be- 
 comes more considerable in proportion as its temperature is 
 increased. 
 
 In calm weather the surfaces of rivers, lakes, &.c. are fre- 
 quently in the morning covered with fog. The reason is 
 this. Iiiiring the night the air is colder than the water; die 
 strata of air in conUict with the water are consequently heat- 
 ed, and become saturated with moisture. The mixture of 
 the v:i[iour with the air, together with its elevation of tem- 
 perature, renders the air specifically lighter. It rises in con- 
 sequence, and mixing with the cold air in the superior stra- 
 led, and precipitates its moisture. The cloud or 
 fog resulting from this precipitation can only rise to a small 
 height, because the uniformity of temperature is soon re- 
 stored. Hence it is easy to see how winds, or a great agi- 
 tation of die air, prevent the formation of fogs over tin' sur- 
 face of water. In the equinoctial regions, fogs sometimes 
 continue during a considerable port of the year. Humboldt 
 relates that Lima is often covered with a fog half the year, 
 especially in the mornings and evenings; and that along the 
 whole of diat coast fogs supply the place of rain, which is 
 extremely rare. In the polar seas thick fogs often prevail, 
 even during the warmest months; and they are so dense 
 diat objects frequently cannot be distinguished at die dis- 
 •nnce of a few yards. 
 
 Sometimes, though rarelv, fogs occur of which the cause 
 is not very well understood. In 1783, the whole of Europe 
 A'as covered with a dense fog during nearly two months. 
 
 FONT. 
 
 On die 23d of May, 1822, about five o'clock in the aiternoon, 
 a fog covered 1'aris and the neighbourhood, which had the 
 odour of nitrous gas : it continued about an hour. Dry fogs, 
 or those in which no moisture is present, are supposed to be 
 die vapours and ashes ejected by volcanoes, and diffused in 
 the atmosphere by the winds. 
 
 FOIL. (Fr. feuille, or Lat. folium, a leaf.) This term / 
 is generally applied to varnished metal. Common foil is 
 manufactured as follows: a copper plate covered with a 
 thin layer of silver, is rolled out into sheets under the flatlins 
 mill; the silver surface is then highly polished or covered 
 witli a colourless varnish. The coloured foils are similarly 
 prepared with coloured varnishes. 
 
 FOLD. (Sax. fealdc.) A temporary enclosure for ksteto 
 ing cattle or other agricultural animals together, either, tor 
 the purpose of protection during night, or jointly for pro- 
 tection and feeding. Sometimes, also, sheep ure folded 
 for die purpose of manuring. The barrier of which folds 
 are constructed is commonly wooden hurdles; but some- 
 times, when the fold is only to contain ewes and lambs, 
 netting stretched betw een posts i< made use of, there being a 
 Strong rope lived to die lower parts of the posts close to ihe 
 ground, to which the under edge of the netting is attached, 
 while its upper edge is attached to a rope stretched along 
 the tops of the same posts. The practice of folding sheep 
 on naked fallows, with a view to manuring them, is slill 
 common in several parts of England; but the more im- 
 proved sheep fanners consider that it deteriorates the wool, 
 and Impedes the fattening of the sheep, by keeping them for 
 die greater part of the night wholly without food. 
 
 Fold. In Painting, the doubling or lapping of one piece 
 of drapery over another. 
 
 FO'LIAGE. (Lat. foliatus, liavrd.) In Architecture ai-d 
 Sculpture, a group of leaves of plants and (lowers, so at 
 ranged as to form architectural or sculptural ornaments; .is 
 in friezes, panels, and also in the capital of the Corinthiai 
 order. 
 
 FO'LIATE, in the doctrine of curve lines, j* the name 
 given to a curve of the third order, defined by the equa- 
 tion x?-\-yl—a i y. It is one of the species of defective hv- 
 perbolas, having one asymptote and two Infinite branches; 
 and its figure has some resemblance to a leaf, whence fho 
 name. (See Newton's Enumeralio J.inearum Tcrtii Or- 
 
 FO LIA'TION*. The manner in which the nascent leaves 
 are arranged Within a leaf-bud. 
 
 FO'LIO. (Ital. a leaf), in Account-bonks, sijinifies pare 
 Thus folio 7 — written ebridgedly fo. 7 — denotes the sevent'i 
 page; Folio recto, or Fo Ro, signifies the first page; Fi.'io 
 verso, or Fo V", the sen, ml page of a leaf. A book in folo, 
 or simply a folio, is that where the sheet is only folded in 
 two, each leaf making half a sheet 
 
 FOLI'OLUM. A leaflet borne on the axis of a leaf. 
 
 FO'LKMOTF, among our Savon ancestors, signified nnv 
 popular or public meeting of all the folk or people of a plac. 
 or district ; for instance, of all the tenants at a court leet or 
 court baron, or of all the freemen of the county, or of all the 
 barons of the kingdom. Antiquaries are, however, by no 
 means agreed as to the nature of the folkmote ; some con- 
 sidering it an institution of great, others of minor Import 
 nnce. (See Somner's Jinglo-Saxon Dictionary ; Brad'i'i 
 Introduction to Old English History ; Fabian's Chronicles 
 and Wilk. Taut. .flnsrlo-Sax.) 
 
 FOLLI'CULUS. A one-celled, one or many seeded ont 
 valvcd superior fruit, dehiscent by a suture along its face, 
 and bearing its seeds at the base, or on each margin of th.> 
 suture; differing from the legumen in having but one valve 
 instead of two. 
 
 This term has also other significations, viz. 1. According 
 to Linnteus, any kind of capsule. 2. The cases bearing the 
 reproductive organs of Equisetacea. 3. According to Gart- 
 ner, a double, one-celled, ono-valvrd, membraneous, cori- 
 aceous capsule, dehiscing on the inside, and either bearing 
 the seed on each margin of its suture, or on a receptacle 
 common to both margins; as Jlscltpias, &c. 4. According 
 to VVilldenow, any oblong pencarpium bursting longitudi- 
 nally on one side, and filled with seeds; as Vinca. 
 
 FO'MALHAUT. A star of the first magnitude in Piscis 
 Australia. • 
 
 FOMENTATION. Local bathing with hot water, or 
 medicated decoctions. 
 
 FONT. (Lat. fons.) In Architecture and Sculpture, a 
 vessel generally of stone or marble for containing the water 
 of baptism in the Christian church. Some of the eariv 
 fonts are extremely beautiful, and wrought with extraordi 
 nary richness of decoration. The singular inscription which 
 is frequently found on the walls of baptisteries occurs nhn 
 occasionally on ancient fonts — NIfON ANOMHMATA 
 Mil MONAN OtlN ; which reads equally forwards or 
 backwards; admonishing the reader to cleanse himself from 
 evil deeds not less than use the outward ceremony of bap- 
 tism. 
 
 Atft 
 
FONTANEL. 
 
 FONTANEL. The interstice, or mould, err. it is often 
 called, which exists at birth between the frontal and parie- 
 tal bones : it is closed by bony matter about the end of the 
 third year. 
 
 FOOD. All substances susceptible of digestion and as- 
 similation may come under the denomination of food ; but 
 the proximate principles of organic bodies on which their 
 nutritive powers depend are comparatively few. Hence, 
 although the articles employed in different countries for the 
 support of animal life are almost infinitely various, their sus- 
 taining powers may be referred to certain substances capa- 
 ble of being separated and identified by chemical analysis 
 and tests. Among the proximate elements of vegetable food 
 gluten and its modifications, starch, gum, sugar, and lignin 
 01 woody fibre, are by far the most important ; and among 
 those of animal food albumen, gelatin, and their modifica- 
 tions, together with fats and oils, whicli are common to both 
 kingdoms of nature. 
 
 To illustrate the actual simplicity of our food as compared 
 with its apparent multifariousness and complexity, it may 
 suffice to state, that wheat and almost till the esculent grains 
 consist principally of starch and gluten ; that the same in- 
 gredients are found in many fruits and roots ; that sugar, 
 gum, or a relation of gum which is called vegetable jelly, 
 together with minute traces of aromatic principles which 
 give flavour, and more or less abundance of water, and of 
 vegetable acids, are the chief component parts of apples, 
 pears, peaches, currants, gooseberries, and all analogous 
 tribes of fruits ; a very few also contain oil. Then, as re- 
 gards animal food, the muscular fibres of various animals 
 closely resemble each other in composition and nutritive 
 power; in some cases texture merely, and in others minute 
 additions of foreign matters, confer upon them their relative 
 digestibilities, and their different aspects and flavours: albu- 
 men or fibrine, and gelatin, small proportions of saline bodies, 
 and a large quantity of water are found in them all. 
 
 It often happens that the truly nutritious part of food is 
 so combined with or protected by indigestible matters, as to 
 escape the solvent powers of the stomach, unless previously 
 prepared and modified by various chemical and mechanical 
 agents. Indurated woody fibre, for instance, or liirnin, as 
 chemists call it, will often resist the joint action of the stom- 
 ach and bowels, and pass through the alimentary canal with 
 scarcely any alteration. The husks of many seeds and 
 fruits are composed almost exclusively of this material. 
 This is the case with the kernels of the apple, pear, &c. ; the 
 seeds of the currant, gooseberry, melon, and so on ; the skin 
 or husk of peas, beans, Sec., and of wheat, barley, and oats ; 
 •so that unless the woody part is either broken down by the 
 teeth, or previously removed, the food which it envelopes is 
 protected from the solvent action of the secretions of the 
 stomach. This is in some respects a wise and curious pro- 
 vision in nature; for birds in this way become the carriers 
 of seeds, which pan through them not only undigested, but 
 even retaining their vegetative powers; and in this way un- 
 inhabited and sterile portions of the globe may gradually be- 
 come clothed with verdure, and shrubs and trees. Bones 
 are highly nutritive; but unless broken into very small 
 fragments by the masticatory powers of the animals which 
 eat them, they too would elude digestion. In reference, 
 however, to the food of man, much of its digestibility and 
 nutritious power is referable to the important chemical ope- 
 rations preparatory to its use which are carried on in the 
 kitchen : in other words, cookery is essentially a chemical 
 art; and substances totally unfit, in their raw" state, for re- 
 ception into the stomach, are rendered palatable, digestible, 
 and nutritious by the skill of the cook. And here salt, and 
 a variety of condiments, as they are called, and which are 
 aromatic and stimulant substances, chiefly of vegetable ori- 
 gin, play an important part ; nor must the mere effect of heat 
 be overlooked, for it is most important. Meat, by boiling 
 and roasting, is not only softened in its fibre, but new sulP 
 stances are generated in it. Among these a peculiar ex- 
 tractive matter, and osmazome, or the principle which gives 
 tin agreeable flavour and odour to dressed meat, are especi- 
 ally recognised. Nor are the changes which vegetables suf- 
 fer under the influence of heat less obvious. 
 
 There is another important point in the history of our 
 food, namely, its ultimate composition. We have spoken 
 of starch, sugar, gum, albumen, and other substances as the 
 proximate principles upon which we live ; but what is the 
 ultimate constitution of these secondary products, what are 
 their true elements ? It is curious that four elements only 
 are principally concerned in the production of our food. 
 These are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Among 
 vegetable substances gluten (including vegetable albumen) 
 is the only one which abounds in nitrogen; gum, sugar, 
 starch, and the rest are constituted of carbon, hydrogen, and 
 oxygen only ; and what is very remarkable is, that in all 
 these important principles, and also in lignin, the oxygen and 
 hydrogen bear to each other the same relative proportions as 
 in water, so that they may be figuratively described as com- 
 464 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 pounds of charcoal and water. Now there are two very cu- 
 rious points in reference to that part of the chemical history 
 of our food which has been adverted to: the one is. that no 
 animal can subsist for any length of time upon food which 
 is destitute of nitrogen ; and the other, that a certain mixture 
 of different kinds of food is absolutely essential. An animal 
 fed exclusively on starch, or sugar, or albumen, 01 jelly, soon 
 begins to suffer in health ; peculiar diseases make their ap- 
 pearance, and his existence is paini'ul and brief; but mix 
 these together, and occasionally modify their proportions, 
 and he then thrives and fattens. Magendie's experiments 
 on this subject together with those of Tiedemnnn and 
 Gmelin, well illustrate this fact Thus, geese fed upon gum 
 died on the 16th day, those fed upon starch on the 34th, and 
 those fed on boiled white of egg on the 46th : in all these 
 cases they dwindled away and died as if of starvation. 
 
 Habit, as is well known, will do much in accustoming the 
 stomach to particular descriptions of food ; many persons 
 live exclusively, or almost so, on vegetable, others on animal 
 matters, and particular kinds of diet are forced on the inhab- 
 itants of many regions of the globe ; but, as far as we are 
 concerned, a due mixture of vegetable and animal matter w 
 not only most palatable, but most conducive to health. No- 
 thing is fit for food which has not already undergone organi- 
 zation ; and water, though an essentia] part of the food of 
 all animals, is obviously not in itself nutritious, though it per- 
 forms the extremely important function of dissolving nutri- 
 tive matter, so as to render it conveyable by the lnctoals and 
 other absorbents into the blood. No compound then of ni- 
 trogen, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, which can be formed 
 artificially, can constitute food. Air, water, and charcoal, 
 though involving the elements of our nutriment, are them 
 selves unfit for our support ; and it is only by passing through 
 the hidden processes which are carried on in the vessels of 
 living things, that they are so recombined and modified as to 
 be rendered capable of supporting animal life. It is the ve 
 getable world which commences this wonderful operation. 
 Plants absorb their nutriment from the air and from the soil ; 
 they assimilate inorganic as well as organic matter; they be- 
 come the food of the graminivorous tribes, and from these 
 man derives the great bulk of his animal food. 
 
 In speaking of the composition of food, that of milk, the 
 most important of all food, must not be forgotten ; in it na- 
 ture has wonderfully provided a mixture which, though se- 
 creted by an animal, partakes also of the nature of vegetable 
 food, and it presents a perfect analogy to that coinbinatior 
 of vegetable and animal matter which has been mentioned 
 as most congenial to the palate and stomach. The albumen 
 or curd of milk is a highly elaborated animal principle, 
 abounding in nitrogen, yet, from its attenuated and soluble 
 state, easy of digestion. A second principle of milk is what 
 is termed sugar of milk ; in composition and properties it 
 resembles a vegetable product, and is intermediate between 
 gum and sugar. The third component of milk is butter, par- 
 taking of the nature of vegetable oil and animal fat ; there 
 are certain saline and acid substances in small proportion; 
 and all these matters are either dissolved or suspended in a 
 large relative proportion of water. 
 I. Table showing the average quantity of nutritive matter 
 
 in 1000 parts of several varieties of animal and vegetable 
 
 food. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Apples . . . 
 
 . 170 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gooseberries . 
 
 . . 190 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cherries . . 
 
 . 230 
 
 Mutton . . 
 
 . 290 
 
 Rye . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 240 
 
 
 
 Apricots . . 
 
 . . 260 
 
 
 
 Potatoes . . 
 
 . 260 
 
 Peaches . . 
 
 . . 200 
 
 Chicken . . 
 
 . . 270 
 
 Carrots . . 
 
 . 98 
 
 Grapes . . . 
 
 . . 270 
 
 
 
 Turnips . . 
 
 . 42 
 
 Melon . . 
 
 . . 30 
 
 Haddock . . 
 
 . ISO 
 
 Cabbage . . 
 
 . 73 
 
 Cucumber 
 
 . 25 
 
 
 
 Beet root . • 
 
 . . MS 
 
 Tamarind 
 
 . 340 
 
 
 
 Strawberries . 
 
 . 100 
 
 Almonds . 
 
 . . 6:X) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 White of egg . 
 
 . 140 
 
 1 
 
 
 The above table represents the relative proportion of solid 
 digestible matter contained in 1000 parts of the different arti- 
 cles of food which are enumerated. When blood, for in- 
 stance, is evaporated to dryness, at a temperature not ex- 
 ceeding 212", the residue amounts to 215 parts in 1000, and 
 may be regarded as almost entirely composed of digestible 
 matters; it consists of albumen and colouring matter, with 
 small proportions of saline substances. The different kinds 
 of meat were dried in the same way. The loss of weight 
 during their desiccation is almost wholly referable to water ; 
 and the dry residue composed of albumen or fibrine, with 
 some gelatine, and perhaps traces of fat and of saline mat- 
 ters, represents the true nutritive value. Upon an average, 
 therefore, the nutritive matter in a pound of meat is not 
 more than four ounces. This, however, only applha tt. raw 
 meat ; for when dressed a considerable portion of its consti- 
 tuent water is often dissipated. The nutritive matter of 
 wheat is chiefly starch and gluten, and in this species of 
 grain the gluten is in much greater relative proportion to thr 
 starch than in barley, oats, or rye. In rice th»re is little elar 
 
FOOLS, FEAST OF. 
 
 than starch. There can be little doubt thnt the great vnlue 
 of wheal as an article «f food depends upon this excess of 
 gluten, winch is a nitrogenous substance, and has not inaptly 
 been termed the vegeto-animal principle. In the esculent 
 roots, such as carrots fcc., but cs|>ecially turnips, sugar is 
 the leading nutritive matter; and the common fruits contain 
 sugar, gum, albuminous matter, and acids, together with a 
 highly attenuated form of woody fibre, or lignin, which, in 
 its, is probably digestible. 
 
 The billowing table shows the ultimate composition of 
 those proximate principles which have been above adverted 
 to n.i constituting the nutritive l»art of food: 
 II. Table showing tin- ultimate elementary composition of 
 
 1000 parts of the following proximate principles of animal 
 
 and vegetable food. 
 
 
 Carbon. 
 SI6 
 
 Hydrogen. |Oxy(»i. 
 
 Nitrojcen. 
 
 
 76 
 
 
 ISO 
 
 
 4.-.1 
 
 60 
 
 276 
 
 161 
 
 
 ■>o 
 
 isa 
 
 9S 
 
 
 Curd or milk 
 
 €09 
 
 73 
 
 iii 
 
 203 
 
 Sur*r of iiiiik . 
 
 4 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 78 
 
 820 
 
 14S 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 600 
 
 
 
 419 
 
 66 
 
 .113 
 
 
 
 444 
 
 ■ 
 
 494 
 
 
 Lignin . . . 
 
 SCO 
 
 Mi 411 
 
 
 FOOLS, FEAST OP. A festival anciently celebrated in 
 almost every church and monastery of Prance on Ni 
 
 i/ery absurdity and even indecency was prac- 
 equivalent to the Saturnalia among the Ro- 
 uians, whence indeed U at said lo be derived. Tin.- festival 
 I lions in the different districts where it 
 was celebrated, and acquired various designations according 
 lo the mulufarin - of which it consisted. Thus 
 
 nned "la fftte desdiacres souls, descornards,des in- 
 nocents," • bishops and councils attempted, 
 . al ; but at length about 
 the 5lh century it became less generally observed, and soon 
 total disuse, though its characteristic 
 
 ab-uidii>. S are still maintained in tin- < "aiuival of the present 
 
 ; or full detail- on the Feast of Fools see the Snaf 
 
 clopalic des Gens da Monde, under the head " Fous (Fete 
 .1 the authorities there refi n 
 FOOL'H PARSLEY. An umbelliferous plant, common 
 ground, and SO called from its resembling parsley 
 
 enough in appearance to deceive ignorant persons. It is a 
 i- plant, acting like hemlock upon the human sf> 
 tem ; and is easily known by the involucels having each 
 three leaflets, which are always placed next the circumfer- 
 ence of the umbel. It is IhcJEUiusa cynapium of botanists, 
 OT. (Germ, fuss.) A measure of length. As this 
 term is employed in almost all languages a* a linear meas- 
 ure, it has doubtless been derived from the length of the hu- 
 man foot. Though the denomination is the same, the meas- 
 ure it- tolerably in diflerent European countries. 
 In all of them, however, it is divided, like the English foot, 
 into twelve equal parts or inches. .Src MbasDUS. 
 
 Foot. In Prosody, a measure consisting of two, three, or 
 four syllables, long, "short, or long and short. All the com- 
 binations of which these numbers are susceptible amount to 
 twenty-eight; and such is accordingly the number of feet 
 enumerated by Greek and Latin prosodists, according to the 
 following table 
 
 — -^ — -^ Ditrochceus. 
 *-> — w — Diiambus. 
 
 — *_-w — Choriambtis. 
 w — Antispastus. 
 
 w w Ionicus a minore. 
 
 — — w — . Ionicus a majore. 
 
 — -_, w _- Paeon primus. 
 
 w w Picon secundus. 
 
 w w — w Paeon tertius. 
 w »_, w — Pa-oil quurtus. 
 
 w Epitritus 1. 
 
 Epitritus 2. 
 
 «— --- Pyrrhich. 
 
 Spondee. 
 
 — w Trochee. 
 ^- — lamb. 
 
 w -_. — - Tribrachys. 
 
 Molossus. 
 
 — w -_- Dnctylus. 
 
 w w — Anapasst, 
 
 w — w Amphibrachys. 
 
 — -^ — Amphimacer. 
 
 «^ Bacchaeus. 
 
 w PalimbacchiEus. 
 
 w w w ^ Proceleusmaticus. w — Epitritus 3. 
 
 Dispondeus. w Epitritus 4. 
 
 But by rejecting those which are merely reduplications of 
 disyllabic feet (Proceleusmaticus, Dispondeus, Ditrochaeus, 
 and Diiambus), the number is reduced to twenty-four ; and 
 by also striking off those which are compounds of disyllabic 
 feet (Choriainbiis, Antispastus, two Ionics, four Paeons, and 
 lour F.pitritea), the number of simple feet becomes twelve 
 only . Se e R II v th m . 
 
 FOO'TINGS. In Architecture, the spreading courses at 
 the base or foundation of a wall. 
 
 FO RACE, in Military affairs, signifies the provisions 
 bn >ught by the troops into the camp for the sustenance of 
 the army. Ate., during a campaign. 
 
 FORA'MEN. (Lnt. foro, / pierce.) In Anatomy, a small 
 opening. The foramen ovale is an opening between the two 
 auricles of the heart of the fcetus, which closes at birth 
 2 G 
 
 FORCE. 
 
 Fora'men. In Botany, the opening that exists in the in 
 teguments of every ovulum. 
 
 FORAMl'NIFERS, Jbraminifcra. (Lat. foramen, fero, 
 / bear.) A name applied by D'Orbigny to a tribe of minute 
 shells, which he believed to be formed by Cephalopoda ; they 
 are now proved to belong to a lower-organized class of ani- 
 mals. ScsSVMPI.ECTOMKRAKS. 
 
 FORCE, in Mechanics, is that which produces motion, or 
 a change of motion. Forces may be of different kinds ; but 
 they are all compared and measured by thequnntiti' 
 Don which tbev respectively produce in a given time : in fact, 
 we know nothing whatever of forces excepting through their 
 
 In order to determine what will be the effect of a fbrei 
 upon any given mass of matter, three cbxumstanci • 
 ing the force are necessary to be known ; namely, Its ii ten 
 sity, the place where it acts or its point of application, and 
 its' direction. Its intensity is proportional to the space through 
 which the unit of mass is moved in the unit of time ; there- 
 fore, since the space described is proportional to the velocity 
 (supposed uniform), if the mass remains constant a double 
 force will produce a double velocity; and If the velocity is 
 constant, a double mass must be urged by a double force. 
 Hence the force of the body is proportional to the n 
 to the velocity conjointly. Thus let m and as' be two mass- 
 es, or the quantities of matter in two bodies, and » und »' be 
 the velocities with which they respectively move in conse- 
 quence of the two forces whose intensities are / and /' ; then 
 / i< pro]»>rtional to m c, and/* to m' c'. 
 
 When a body is acted upon by more forces than one, it is 
 obvious that it will not move in the direction or with the ve- 
 locity due to one of the forces alone, but in B direction and 
 with a velocity due to their collective influence. The ef- 
 fect produced by the joint action of the several forces is 
 called their resultant ; and it Is determined both in magni- 
 tude and direction by the follow ing theorem, celebrated un 
 der the name of the Covtporito — " If the lines 
 
 which each of two forces acting singly would havi 
 
 body to describe in a given ti make any angle v. . 
 
 with one another, the line which the body will describe in 
 that time, when both the forces act upon it at the same in- 
 stant is the diagonal Of the parallelogram under the two 
 first-mentioned lines." Thus, let a body at A be acted upon 
 by two forces at the same instant, one of which, if acting 
 alone, would cause it to move over the rj 
 line A 1! in a given lime, and the other 
 acting alone would cau-e it to move 
 over the line A C In the same time ; _ 
 then the direction of the motion re- ^ 
 suiting from the action of both tones will bo thnt of the dl 
 agonal A D of the parallelogram AB11C, and at the er d 
 of the given time the body will be found at 1). The theo- 
 rem may be derived from the principle that the velocity of 
 the body in one of the directions is not changed by the force 
 impelling it in the other; but of this principle it is not easy 
 to give a satisfactory demonstration, without introducing 
 considerations drawn'from the resources of the higher math 
 ematies. (See Poisson, JMsraatoaSi tome i.) 
 
 It is obvious that by means of this theorem the resultant 
 of any number of forces whatever may be found ; for after 
 finding the resultant of any two of the forces, we may con- 
 ceive them to be removed, and their resultant substituted, 
 when the resultant of this and the third force will be the re- 
 sultant of three of the forces. This last resultant may then 
 be combined with a fourth force, and so on till the whole of 
 the forces have been included. This construction is called 
 the polygon of forces. 
 
 As the forces represented by the straight lines A B and A 
 C are compounded into a single force, represented in inten- 
 sity and direction by A D ; so any given force may be re- 
 solved into two others, such that the straight lines by which 
 they are represented form the two sides of a parallelogram 
 of which the line represe n ting the given force is the diagonal. 
 This composition and resolution of forces is of constant ap- 
 pHcation in Mechanics. 
 
 If a body impelled at the same time by three forces re- 
 main at rest, these forces are proportional to 
 the three sides of a triangle formed by draw- 
 ing straight lines parallel to their directions. 
 For, let the three forces acting on the point 
 A be respectively represented in intensity 
 and direction by the three straight lines A 
 B, A C, A E; then by forming the parallel- 
 ogram A B D C, and drawing the diagonal 
 A I), we have the two forces represented by 
 A B and A C equal to the single force re;>- 
 rescnted by A D and acting in the direction 
 A D. But the point A is by hypothesis in 
 equilibrium ; therefore A D must be equnl 
 to A E, nnd in the same straight line with it; 
 since B D U equal to A C, the three forces by which the 
 point A is kcD' ' equilibrium are respectively proportional 
 
 4G5 
 
 whence. 
 
FORCE. 
 
 to the three sides A B, B D, and A D of the triangle 
 AB D. 
 
 Let the three forces be respectively denoted by P, G, and 
 R; then, the sides of a triangle being proportional to the 
 Fines of the opposite angles, 
 
 P : a : B, : : sin. A D B : sin. D A B : sin. A B D. 
 But by reason of the parallel lines the angle A D B is equal 
 toPAC, and A B D being the supplement of C A B their 
 B'ne» are equal ; whence 
 
 P a : R : : sin. D A C : sin. D A B : sin. CAB. 
 From tl as we infer that if a point A be kept in equilibrium 
 by the action of three forces P, Q, and R, each of these for- 
 ces is proiKirtional to the sine of the angle formed by tire di- 
 rection of the two others. It is also a consequence of this 
 proposition that if three forces be in equilibrium they must 
 all act in the same plane, and any two of them must be 
 greater than the third. 
 The resultant of three forces X, Y, Z, applied to the same 
 „ point A in space, and severally represented 
 
 in magnitude and direction by the straight 
 lines A B, A C, A D, is represented by A F, 
 the diagonal of the parallelepipedon, of 
 which the sides are A B, A C, and A D. 
 . B For the two forces X and Y, which are rep- 
 resented by A B and A C, the two sides of 
 the parallelogram A B G C will have for 
 
 their resultant a force P, represented by A G, the diagonal 
 of this parallelogram. And because A D is equ;U and par- 
 allel to G F, the figure A D F G is a parallelogram ; and 
 consequently the two forces P and Z, represented by A G 
 and A D, will have for their resultant a force R, represented 
 by A F, the diagonal of the parallelogram A D F G, which 
 is also the diagonal of the parallelepipedon. 
 
 From this theorem it follows that any force whatever R 
 can always be decomposed into three others, X, Y, Z, re- 
 spectively parallel to three straight lines given in space, pro- 
 vided that no two of them be parallel ; and if each of the 
 three given lines be at right angles to the plane of the other 
 two, and the angles which A F (the direction of the given 
 force R) makes respectively with A B, A C, A D (the direc- 
 tions of the forces X, Y, Z) be denoted by a, b, c, we have 
 then, evidently, 
 
 X=R cos. a, Y=R cos. b, Z=R cos. c, 
 the three angles a, b, c, being connected by the relation 
 cos. 2a+cos. 2i-|-coe. 2 C =1. 
 In t>.3se investigations in mechanics where a number of 
 forces are concerned, it is usual to resolve them all into three 
 forces parallel to three rectangular co-ordinates ; when the 
 resultant of the three sets of rectangular forces will evident- 
 ly be the common resultant of all the forces. If F, F', F", 
 F'", &c. be the forces ; a, a', a", a'", &,c. the angles which 
 they make with one of the three a.xes ; b, b', b", h'", &c. the 
 angles which they make with another of the axes; and c, 
 c', c", c'", &.C. the angles which they make with the third ; 
 and X, Y, Z be the three rectangular forces which are the 
 sums of the components of all the original forces, F, F', F", 
 F'", &c; then, 
 X=F cos. a+F' cos. a'+F" cos. a"-\- F" cos. a'"-|-&c. 
 Y=F cos. 4-j-F' cos. 4'4-F" cos. &"-4-F"' cos. 6"'+&c. 
 Z=F cos. c+F' cos. c'-\-F" cos. e"-j-F'" cos. c '-f-&c. 
 As the three forces X, Y, Z are not situated in the same 
 plane, and can therefore never be in equilibrium so long as 
 any one of them has a real value, in order that the body 
 may remain at rest under the action of all the given forces 
 F, F", F", F ", &c, it is necessary that the three conditions 
 be fulfilled ; namely, X=0, Y=0, Z=;0. 
 
 Forces have different denominations according to the man- 
 ner in which they act ; thus we have Accelerating Forces, 
 Central Forces, Parallel Forces, Uniform and Variable For- 
 ces, &c. See Acceleration, Central Force, Pressure, 
 &c. 
 
 Accelerating Force. — An accelerating force is that which 
 continues to act upon a body after it has been put in mo- 
 tion ; whence the body moves with a variable velocity, and, 
 when the intensity of the force is constant, receives equal 
 increments of velocity in equal intervals of time. We 
 have a familiar example of an accelerating force of this 
 kind in terrestial gravity, under the action of which heavy 
 bodies dropped from a height fall to the ground with a con- 
 stantly accelerated velocity. 
 
 When a body is urged by an accelerating force, the rela- 
 tions bstween the force, the velocity, the space passed over, 
 and the time, are expressed by three equations, which are 
 called the equations of motion, and may be investigated as 
 follows : 
 
 Let t denote the time from the commencement of the 
 motion, v the velocity acquired at the end of the time t, and 
 t the space described by the moving body. During an infi- 
 466 
 
 FORCING. 
 
 nitely small time, d t, the velocity may be regarded as uni- 
 form, and the increment of the space in this time is rf x ; 
 therefore, since the space described by a uniform velocity is 
 proportional to the velocity and time conjointly, we have 
 dx — vdt. (1.) 
 
 Let represent the force which accelerates the body at 
 the end of the time t; since the motion may be regarded as 
 uniform during an infinitely small time, if v be the velocity 
 at the end of the time t, then v + d v is the velocity at the 
 end of the time t -f- d t, and therefore d v is the increment 
 of velocity due to the force during the time d t. Assume F 
 = a constant force which produces a velocity = V in the 
 portion of time which is nssumed as unity (for instance, one 
 second) ; then the velocity generated by F in the time d t 
 will be V d t. Now, since produces the velocity d v in 
 the instant of time d t, and F produces the velocity V d t in 
 the same instant, and since forces are proportional to the 
 impressed velocities, we have therefore : P adv. V d t. 
 Now, suppose F to be the unit of force, and V the unit of 
 velocity, and the proportion becomes : 1 : : d v : d t; 
 whence dvz=<pdt. (2.) 
 
 Differentiating the equation d x — v d t on the supjx>sition 
 that d t is constant, and substituting the resulting value of d v 
 in (2), we obtain dix — <pd V. (3.) 
 
 The three differential equations now found, which define 
 the motion of a body urged by an accelerating force, are 
 usually exhibited as follows: 
 
 d x d v d2 x 
 
 V ~d~t' * ~~ d~t' ^ ~ d~ti 
 
 On eliminating d t from the first and second, we obtain a 
 fourth, v d v = d x, which it is often convenient to em- 
 ploy. These equations, which may be considered as the 
 foundation of the science of dynamics, are easily integrated 
 when the accelerating force i3 supposed to be uniform. 
 Their immediate integrals, taken on this supposition, give 
 the equations of the motion, in vacuo, of bodies accelerated 
 by gravity, the discovery of which sheds so much lustre on 
 the names of Galileo and Newton. See Gravity. 
 
 Living Force, or Vis Viva, is a term frequently used by 
 the mathematicians of the last century to denote the action 
 of a force when it is estimated in such a manner as to be 
 proportional to the square of the velocity. It has beer, sta- 
 ted above that when the masses moved are equal, the mov 
 ing forces are respectively as the velocities. But the effect 
 of'e body in motion may be considered under different as- 
 pects. If we conceive the effect to be measured by the timt 
 which elapses before a resistance of uniform intensity redu- 
 ces the body to rest, then the force is proportional to the 
 velocity simply ; but if, on the other hand, we conceive the 
 effect to be measured by the distance passed over by the 
 moving body while subjected to the uniform resistance, then 
 the force will be proportional to the square of the velocity. 
 These two measures may both be considered as correct' 
 and they are not inconsistent when rightly understood. A 
 warm controversy, however, arose on the subject, in which 
 some of the most distinguished mathematician* of the time 
 took a part ; but when the ambiguity arising irom the use 
 of the word force in different senses was cleared away, 
 both sides were found to be in the right. (See Playfair's 
 Dissertation, Ency. Jirit.) 
 
 FO'RCER. In Mechanics, a solid piston applied to 
 pumps for the purpose of producing a constant stream, or 
 of raising water to a greater height than it can be raised by 
 the pressure of the atmosphere. See PoHP, 
 
 FO'RCIBLE ENTRY AND DETAINER. In Law, a 
 species of offence against the public peace, committed by 
 violently taking or keeping possession of lands and tene 
 ments with menaces, arms, and force, and without authority 
 of law, to the hinderance of him who has right of entry 
 The remedy is, under several statutes, by action ; by the 
 intervention of justices of the peace, who have power. <ni 
 view of the force, to make a record of it, and commit the 
 offender. 
 
 FO'RCING. In Horticulture, the art of accelerating the 
 growth of plants, so as to obtain fruits or flowers at Mamma 
 when they are not produced naturally in the open air. The 
 practice appears to be as old as the Romans; since Pliny 
 informs us that Tiberius, who was fond of cucumbers, 
 forced them to bear fruit in the winter time by growing the 
 plants in boxes kept in houses with talc windows, which 
 boxes were wheeled out during fine days, and always taken 
 into the house again at night or in cold weather. From 
 some epigrams of Martial it has been thought that the Ro- 
 mans had b.ith vineries and peach-houses ; talc (lapis spec- 
 ularius) being used instead of glass. In England, forcing 
 appears to have been practised from a very early ]>criod ; 
 radishes having been raised on dung beds, covered during 
 night by wheat straw, from time immemorial, and cherries 
 having been forced on wooden walls or boarded espalier 
 rails, heated by linings of hot dung at the back, at least 
 from tile time of Charles II., and probably long before. 
 
FORCING-PUMP. 
 
 since it ts certain that melons and cucumbers were grown at 
 Hampton Court for the royal tattle in the time of Henry VIII. 
 At the present time forcing is carried on in Britain, and in 
 analogous climates throughout Europe and North America, 
 chiefly under glass roofs. Structures for forcing are known, 
 as frames, pits, and houses, all of which have glass roofs; 
 but there are also structures for forcing without glass roofs, 
 such as cellars and sheds for growing mushrooms in tin: 
 winter season; and also seakalc, rhubarb, blanched succory, 
 and such other stalks or leaves of plants as are eaten in a 
 ilanched state, and consequently do not require much light. 
 The art of forcing plants must never be confounded with tile 
 .irt of crowing them in artificial climates, though in both 
 cases the principles by which the gardener proceeds are es- 
 sentially the Kiinc ; viz., the art of imitating nature. The 
 difficulty of accomplishing this in forcing is the want 
 € light ; and hence the earlier in the season that any forced 
 Stop is produced, the greater is its deficiency in colour and 
 flavour. Gentle forcing, so as, as it were, to anticipate 
 spring, and bring fruits so far forward as to enable them to 
 profit from the full influence of the sun during our short 
 summers, may be considered as n real advantage, which will 
 never cease to be sought for; and as a case in point we will 
 mention the grape, the fruit of which is never brought to par* 
 fection in this country unless the plants have been partially 
 forced. To force, in any country, the fruits which come to 
 perfection in the open air in that country, such as the apple, 
 pear, cherry, gooseberry, fee., in Britain, and analogous cli- 
 mates on the Continent, can only be wmM ei od as a luxuri- 
 ous waste of wealth, which would be more elegantly and 
 usefully expended in forcing the fruits or in growing the 
 flowers of warm climates, which c:m only be br ou g ht to per- 
 fection in this country under glass. Even this kind of for- 
 - open to criticism, on what may bo called the greatest 
 enjoyment principle. Tor example, there are certain fruits, 
 neb as the mango, the dourion, rnangosteen, fee, which 
 i in this country at an enormous expense, 
 and probably when grown would not be worth eating; while 
 there are certain other fruits, such as the pineapple and the 
 banana, which can be grown in this country at a moderate 
 e to almost as great a degree of perfection as in their 
 • climate. To attempt ginwine the former kind of fruit 
 merely for the sake of overcoming the difficulty of doing so, 
 we hold to be in bad tas te : though we allow that some good 
 :ai_'lit result from it to horticultural science, by calling fi-£th 
 the skill and ingenuity of gardeners; this, indeed, ma^iie 
 ■red n the only permanent benefit which will be^Wo- 
 rluced by forcing. With the [tingjBM of intercommunication 
 by means of steam and railways, it seems highly probable 
 that the fruits of warm climates will cease altogether to be 
 cultivated in cold climates; with the exception of some, such 
 eiirmiiber, melon, banana, fig. fee, which require to 
 lie eaten when freshly lathered. Even at the present time, 
 with the comparatively imperfect communication which ex- 
 this country and the south of Spain and the 
 West Indies, there is no reason why we should not be sup- 
 plied with pines, [.'rapes, and oranges throughout the year. 
 The hothouses of gardens will then be chiefly employed for 
 lb* culture of exotic flowers and exotic plants of curiosity. 
 
 FORCING PUMP. 8m Pomp. 
 
 FORE. The sea term for the part of the ship near the 
 head. 
 
 FORE AND AFT, implies lying in the direction of the 
 iiead and stem ; also, the whole of the vessel general I v. 
 
 FORECASTLE. The upper deck near the head; this 
 was formerly much raised, hence the name. 
 
 FO'REFOOT. A piece of timber at the fore extremity of 
 the keel. 
 
 FO RELAND. In Fortification, a piece of ground be- 
 tween the wall of a place and the moat. Foreland is also 
 used synonymously with promontory, cape, headland, fee., 
 as the North Foreland in Kent. 
 
 FORESHORTENING. In Painting, the representation 
 of anv object presented obliquely to the eye. 
 
 TO'RKST. (In Germ, forst, from whence our word is 
 probably derived, although the ultimate etymology Is un- 
 known. The Saxon word hurst, with which the names of 
 so many places in the south of England terminate, has prob- 
 ably the same origin. In the primitive meaning of the word 
 It probably signified an enclosed space, from which intruders 
 were excluded: hence gome have derived it from the Latin 
 forts.) An extensive surface covered naturally by trees and 
 undergrowth ; as opposed to a plantation, which has been 
 made by art In former times the greater part of every 
 country in the Temperate parts of Europe was undoubtedly 
 covered with forest; and these, by nourishing wild animals 
 of every description, particularly wild swine, afforded a 
 principal part of the food of man. With civilization, how- 
 ever, they gradually disappeared before the spread of exten- 
 sive pastures or arable land. In every country a large por- 
 tion of the forest* belonged to the government, and formed a 
 main source of Its revenue. This is still the case in France 
 
 FORFEITURE. 
 
 and Germany, and till lately it was also the case to a certair 
 extent in Britain. Hence extensive tracts in England still 
 bear the name of forest, though they are now in a Btate of 
 cidtivation, and in a great measure without trees. Many 
 ancient laws and customs are recorded in books respecting 
 the forests of the crown ; but at present, as there are only 
 three or four government forests in Great Britain, these laws 
 and customs are of very little consequence, excepting to 
 those living in their immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 Many of the spots which in England bear the name of 
 forest iiave no appearance of having been covered with 
 trees at any period >ince Britain became inhabited The 
 English forests (with the exception of the New Forett. of 
 which the history is well known) are, however, so amient 
 that we possess no record of their origin. Their number has 
 been reckoned nt 68 ; another enumeration extends them to 
 76, but some of these are propably only parts of the same 
 forest with different names. A forest is created by the king, 
 by a commission issued out of the Court of Chancery ; and, 
 when its laws and ordinances have been framed and officers 
 appointed, it becomes a forest by matter of record. Forests 
 are grantable to subjects; but Savernake Forest in Wilt- 
 shire, held by the Marquis of Aylesbury, is, we believe, at 
 present the only instance. By the ancient forest laws, the 
 Courts of the Forest were — 1. The Justice Scat ; a court of 
 justice in eyre of tho forest, held every third year to take 
 cognizance of trespasses, pleas, and causes. (The last jus- 
 tice seat held in England for any other than mere formal 
 business was for Windsor Forest in 1632.) 2. Tho Swain- 
 Mote, or meeting of freeholders of the forest, held to receive 
 and try presentments against offences in matters connected 
 with the forest laws (in vert and venison) ; which present- 
 ments, 3. The Wood-Mote was held every forty days to re- 
 ceive and inquire into, but not to try. The principal officers 
 of the forest were, its two justices in eyre, warden. 1 1 
 foresters, rangers, fee. ; some of which are still retained. 
 The forest laws are of early date in England ; those of King 
 Canute are the earliest preserved. Under the first reigns at 
 ter the Conquest their severity went on gradually ii - 
 and formed one of the chief oppressions under which the 
 English suffered. But in 1224 the Carta de Foresta, Ranted 
 by Henry III., fixed the limit of these aggressions. The rap 
 ital punishments and mutilations of the former laws were 
 rendered commutable for fines, and the king assented to a 
 new |iernmbulntion of the forests; at which time, and sub 
 seqiiently, portions which had been illegally annexed to for- 
 ests were disafforested. These portions are called Purlieus 
 In 1297, this charter was fully confirmed by Edward I. For 
 an account of the existing forests of this country, see Statin- 
 tic of the Rritish Empire. 
 
 FO'RE-STAFF. A rude instrument, formerly used at 
 sea for taking altitudes; and so called because, in using it. 
 the observer turns his face to the object, instead of tnrnlag 
 his back to the object, as is necessary in using the back-staff. 
 Iloth these instruments have been superseded b\ llic sextant. 
 
 FORESTA LLING THE MARKET, in Law, is defined 
 to be the buying up or bargaining for good3 on their way to 
 the market, in order to dispose of them at a higher price. 
 But all mercantile practices having a tendency to enhance 
 the common price, have been, by a very sweeping intend- 
 ment of the law, included within the same description. 
 Forestnllers are usually classed with ingrossers (those who 
 buy up their commodities to retail), and regraters (said to be 
 derived from Fr. regratter, to scrape over again, from frauds 
 practised in the dressing or scraping of second-hand cloth to 
 sell again). Severe statutes have been passed at different 
 times, from 5 & 6 Ed. 5, downwards, against this alleged 
 offence. They were all repealed by 12 G. 3, c. 71. But it 
 is said that the offence at common law still exists; nor was 
 it until 1827 (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 38) that constables were express- 
 ly relieved from the (obsolete) duty of making presentments 
 of forestalled at the quarter sessions. Although acts of this 
 description have ceased to be subjects of criminal prosecu- 
 tion, it cannot be said that the public prejudice against 
 them is yet wom out; although it is easily understood, and 
 has been often proved, that in no way can the market for 
 most commodities be rendered steady, the purchaser protect- 
 ed from the injurious consequences of excessive dearncss, 
 and the seller from those of glut and over-cheapness, as by 
 the intervention of an intermediate body of wholesale deal- 
 ers between the former and the latter. 
 
 FO'RFEITURE (Lat. forisfactura, expulsion or outlawry), 
 has been defined to be a punishment annexed by law In 
 some illegal act or negligence in the owner of real property, 
 whereby he lores all his interest therein, and they go to the 
 party injured as a recompense for the wrong which either 
 he alone or the public with him hath sustained. Forfeiture 
 is either civil or criminal. Civil forfeiture takes place when 
 rome alienation is made contrary to law. as in mortmain ; or 
 when a particular tenant alienes for a larger estate than he 
 himself hath, as when tenant for life makes a conveyance 
 in fee. Forfeiture for criminal causes takes place in trcasoD 
 
 467 
 
FORFICULA. 
 
 or felony, ar.d for one or two other offences. After judg- 
 ment has been given, and the guilty party is said to be at- 
 tainted, the forfeiture has a retrospective operation to the 
 time when the offence was committed, so as to invalidate all 
 Bales and incumbrances that may have been elfected since 
 that time. Except in treason or murder, the forfeiture is 
 only for the life of the offender; in treason and murder, 
 however, the forfeiture extends to the disinherison of the 
 heir. 
 
 FORFI'CULA. (Lat. forfex, pincers.) A Linnrean ge- 
 nus of insects, now forming a distinct order, Dermaptera, 
 (winch see), and comprehending the subgenera Labidura, 
 Labia, Chelidura, and Forficula proper, of which the labours 
 of modern entomologists have made known numerous spe- 
 cies ; the common earwig (Forficula auricularia) is the type 
 of this group of insects. 
 
 FORGE. (Fr.) The workshop in which iron is ham- 
 mered and shaped by the aid of heat. The term is gener- 
 ally applied to the places in which these operations are 
 carried on upon the comparatively small scale ; the great 
 workshops in which iron is made malleable for general pur- 
 poses being called a shingling mill. A common forge con- 
 sists of the hearth or fireplace, which is merely a cavity in 
 masonry or brickwork well lined with fine clay or brick, 
 upon which the ignited fuel is placed, and upon the back or 
 side of which a powerful blast of air is driven in through 
 the nozzle of a double-blasted bellows, which, in a common 
 forge, is generally worked by a hand lever. Forges are 
 sometimes constructed so as to be portable, when the bellows 
 :a most conveniently placed under the hearth: these are 
 used in ships, and for various jobs on railways, &c. 
 
 FO'RGERY, in Law, is defined to be the fraudulent ma- 
 king or alteration of any record, deed, writing, instrument, 
 register, stamp, &.C, to the prejudice of another man's right. 
 The statutes respecting this offence were consolidated by the 
 act of 1830 (11 G. 4, and 1 W. 4, c. 66), which also, after 
 long and reiterated discussions, finally abolished the punish- 
 ment of death in all cases, except for the forgery of wills 
 and bills of exchange. This last remnant of the ancient 
 code was finally removed in 1832 and 1837 by the statute 2 
 &. 3 W. 4, c. 123, and 1 Vict., c. 84, by which the present 
 punishments are fixed ; varying from imprisonment for vari- 
 ous terms to transportation for life, according to the classifi- 
 cation of the offences comprehended under this general title. 
 
 According to a return contained in the report of the Con- 
 stabulary Force Commission, 1839, the number of persons 
 convicted of forging and uttering forged notes amounted to 
 104 in 1816, from whence it increased to 352 in 1820, fell to 
 134 in 1821, and since that time has diminished to a very 
 small amount. The number of executions in 1812 was 23, 
 in 1818 (the greatest) 24. The last execution for forgery 
 took place in 1829. 
 
 FORLO'RN HOPE, in Military affairs, signifies certain 
 men detached from several regiments or otherwise appoint- 
 ed to assume the initiative in an engagement ; or, at a siege, 
 to storm the counterscarp, mount the breach, &c. They 
 arc so called from the great danger to which they arc inev- 
 itably exposed in such cases. 
 
 FORM. (Lat. forma.) In the Fine Arts, the bounding 
 line of a material object. In Painting, the word is more 
 generally applied to the human form. See Beaut*. 
 
 FORMA'TION. A geological term, applied to a group 
 of deposites or strata apparently referable to a common ori- 
 gin or period. 
 
 FO'RMEDON. In Law, a writ in the nature of a writ 
 of right, which lies for him who has right to lands or tene- 
 ments by virtue of an entail. (See Fee Tail.) Formedon 
 is in the descender, the remainder, or the reverter, according 
 to the estate of the party who sues. 
 
 FORMI'CA. (Lat. an ant.) A Limuean genus of insects, 
 now the type of a very numerous and extensively distributed 
 family (Formicidce), belonging to the order Hymenoptera, 
 and to that section which is negatively characterized by not. 
 being armed with a sting, and by not possessing any instru- 
 ment for piercing the bodies of animals, or the substance of 
 plants, for the purpose of oviposition. 
 
 The procreative economy of these well-known and most 
 Interesting insects is that to which ail their wonderful habits 
 and peculiarities are essentially related; and among those 
 genera which the wisdom of Providence has ordained should 
 form associations for the purpose of multiplying, preserving, 
 and providing for their kind, the ants stand in a prominent 
 and interesting rank, whether viewed as presenting some of 
 the higher traits of animal instinct, or as a living evidence 
 of an all-wise Intelligence, whose mute but incontrovertible 
 orders are thus so implicitly and cheerfully obeyed. 
 
 In every species of insect the parents are relieved from 
 >he charge of providing for their offspring : they neither at- 
 tend to their wants, nor defend them from harm in their 
 immature and helpless state; and this, not from any defi- 
 ciency of natural attachment, but from the brief period of 
 their existence after having attained the state of maturity 
 
 FORMICA. 
 
 adapted for procreation; for at the close of this season the 
 male generally dies before the eggs which he has impregna- 
 ted are excluded ; and the female, whose last care has been 
 to select a proper place for their development, soon dies <tf- 
 ter oviposition. 
 
 In the instincts and habits of which we are about to give 
 a brief notice, the exception to the above rule is more appa- 
 rent than real ; for the individuals which manifest the feel- 
 ings and discharge, the duties of the mother, are but foster- 
 parents, and consist of females with undcve.oped ovaria, and 
 which are consequently unprolific, and are termed neuters. 
 The males perish, and are destroyed by the neuters soon 
 after having fulfilled their office; the prolific females, upon 
 whom, on the contrary, the cares and affections of the neu 
 ters or workers are abundantly lavished, die soon after the 
 ova are matured and excluded. This apparently threefold 
 distinction of sex is peculiar to gregarious insects, as bees and 
 ants. 
 
 Our intelligent countryman Gould describes five species of 
 English ants; viz., 1. The hill ant (Formica rufa, Linn.); 
 2. The jet ant (F. fuliginosa, Latr.) ; 3. The red ant (Myr- 
 mica rubra, Latr. ; Formica, Linn.) ; 4. The common yellow 
 ant (F.flava, Latr.) ; and, 5. The small black ant (Formica 
 fusca, Linn.). 
 
 In incipient societies of ants, as well as humble-bees (Bombi, 
 Latr.) and wasps (Vespm, Linn.), one female lays the foun- 
 dation of the future colony, and the first brood which is 
 hatched is very small. The larvte, when first hatched, are 
 hairy, and continue in the larva state twelve months or more. 
 
 The larva; of the red ant do not, as other ants do, spin a 
 cocoon when they assume the pupa state. The societies of 
 ants, as also of other Hymenoptera, differ from those of the 
 Termites, or white ants, in having inactive larva; and pupa;, 
 the neuters or workers combining in themselves the office 
 of nurses, soldiers, and attendants. These undeveloped 
 females never acquire wings. The female ants are furnish- 
 ed, at their first exclusion, with two pair of wings, which, 
 after swarming in concourse with the males, they almost 
 immediately cast. The office of the perfect or winged fe- 
 male is to provide a constant supply of eggs for the mainte- 
 nance of the population. These are usually the least 
 numerous part of the community. The office of the males 
 (which are also winged during the lime of swarmiig. and 
 are extremely numerous) is merely the propagation of the 
 speojes ; after the season for this is past, they die. Soine- 
 timqn the swarms of a whole district unite their infinite 
 myriads, and, seen at a distance, produce a beautiful and 
 curious effect, from the glancing of their silvery wings. The 
 males and females quit the nests, their nursing places, about 
 the end of July, or later, to the beginning or middle of 
 September. The commotion which these winged individuals 
 create in the nests, before they issue forth to fulfil their 
 proper functions, is excessive. The whole swarm, when un- 
 housed, alternately rises and falls with a slow movement to 
 the height of about ten feet, the males flying obliquely, with 
 a rapid zigzag motion, and the females, though they follow 
 the general movement of the column, appearing suspended 
 in the air, like balloons, seemingly with no individual motion, 
 and having their heads turned towards the wind. 
 
 The noise emitted by countless myriads of these insects 
 does not, however, exceed the hum of a single wasp ; for 
 their wings are weak, and bend to the wind, which carries 
 the swarm irresistibly along. All the males, and the greater 
 part of the females, are destroyed by becoming the prey of 
 birds and fish, and other insectivorous creatures ; for the 
 loss of their wings, only lent them till the swarming season 
 be past, renders them the most helpless and inactive beings, 
 and they fall into the water in shoals, as well as bestrew 
 the land. Dr. Bromley, while surgeon of the ship Clorinde, 
 witnessed a scene which will give some idea of the multi- 
 tudes of these insects which fall a prey to fishes alone. 
 
 " In September 1814," he observes, " being on the deck 
 of the hulk of the Clorinde, my attention was drawn to the 
 water by the first lieutenant (since Captain) Haveitield, 
 observing there was something black floating down with 
 the tide. On looking with a glass, I discovered they were 
 insects. The boat was sent, and brought a bucket full of 
 them on board. They proved to be a large species of ant, 
 and extended from the upper part of Salt Pan Reach out 
 towards the Great Nore, a distance of five or six miles. The 
 column appeared to be in breadth eight or ten feet, and in 
 height about six inches, which I suppose must have been 
 from their resting one upon another." 
 
 These ants were winged, so that they had probably been 
 driven into the water by violent weather. When impreg- 
 nation has taken place, the females alight, and then the 
 neuters have been seen to seize and make prisoners of them, 
 hanging upon their legs to detain them ; leading them back 
 to the formicary, and never quitting them till they are ready 
 to lay their eggs, or become reconciled to state imprisonment, 
 for such it really appears to be. They pay every attention 
 to the royal prisoner's wants or comforts, leading her to the 
 
FORMICA. 
 
 most genial spots in the nest, and regularly feeding her ; but 
 aJl this under a body guard, which, as her power* of loco- 
 motion become Imp I the ovaria, is 
 gradually reduced to one sentinel, who is constantly relieved. 
 The situation of this attendant is remarkable, being mounted 
 on the queen-mother's body ; and its office seems to be that 
 of wailing till the eggs are produced, when it seizes and 
 carries them off to the nura ries, or cells, prepared for llris 
 purpose. One of these queen ants will iay upwards of four 
 or five thousand eggs in a year. 
 
 Gould gives an amusing account of the homaire paid to 
 the fertile mother of the future colony by the working ants. 
 They will press round her, oiler her food, conduct tier by 
 her mandibles through the difficult or sleep passages of the 
 formicary : they even carry her about their city. She is 
 then suspended upon their jaws, the ends of which ore 
 crossed, and, being coiled up. she is packed so close as to 
 Incommode the bearers but little. When she is alighted, 
 others surround and carress her, one after another tapping 
 her on the head with their antenna'. They have a particu- 
 lar way of skipping, leaping, nnd standing upon their hind 
 and prancing with each other. These frolics they 
 use of in congratulation when they meet, and to show 
 their regard for their queen. Some or thcin gently walk 
 over her, others dance round her, and if separated from her 
 will soon collect in B body and enclose her in the midst. 
 Whl i she dies, they have' "been known to pay her the some 
 lh and lick her continually. 
 Dill". . iry in their instincts, vv hicli produces 
 
 some variation in their domestic proceedings, but the general 
 line of conduct is the same throughout. In some nests 
 i female ants have been known to live together on 
 amicable terms, showing none of the spirit of exclusive 
 rivalry so observable in the queen bee. Of all insects the 
 ; perfect mode of communicating 
 with each other. On thi' curious subject, the learned en- 
 tomologists Kirby and Bpence thus express themselves: — 
 "The fact being certain that ants imparl their ideas to ea< h 
 other, we are next led to inquire by what means this is ac- 
 complished. It does not appeal that, like the bees, they 
 omit any significative sounds; their language, therefore, 
 miLsl consist of si;.'. I 'hie of which I shall now 
 
 detail. In Communicating their fear or expressing their an- 
 ger, they nm from one to :uiother in a semicircle, and strike 
 with their head or jaws the trunk or abdomen of the ant 10 
 which they me.ui to give information of any subji | 
 alarm. But those remarkable organs, their antennre, are 
 the principal iustriuncnts of their speech, if it may be so 
 called, supplying the place both of voice and words. When 
 the militiiry ants before alluded to go Upon their expeditions, 
 and are out of the formicary, previously to setting off they 
 touch each other on the trunk with their antenna; and fore- 
 head : this is the signal for marching; far, ■ soon as any 
 one has received it, he is Immediately In motion. If a hun- 
 gry ant wants to be fed, it touches with its two antenna;, 
 moving them very rapidly, those of the individual from 
 which it expects its meal. The helpless larva;, also, of the 
 ants are informed by the same means when they may open 
 their mouths to receive their food. Whether ants, with 
 man and some of the larger animals, experience anything 
 like attachment to individuals, is not easily ascertained ; but 
 that they act as if they felt the full force of the sentiment 
 which we term patriotism, or the love of the community to 
 •which they belong, is evident from the whole series of their 
 proceedings. Distress or difficulty falling upon any member 
 of their society, generally excites their sympathy, and they 
 do their utmost to relieve it." 
 
 The attachment of the neuteurs is continued to the off- 
 spring of the perfect female through the states of ova, larva, 
 and pupa, and even increases at each progressive stage ; 
 their greatest cares are lavi.-hcd on the cocoon, which they 
 may be seen bringing out into the air in fine weather, anil 
 carrying hack again into the nest when the heat is too great, 
 or on the approach of rain, of which they have on instinctive 
 knowledge. It is the cocoons, also, which are the first olj- 
 jects of their solicitude when the formicary is broken in 
 upon ; and although the cocoon is double the size of the 
 neuter itself, yet it bears it away with an agility which shows 
 that the weight is no incumbrance. 
 
 The combats between the ants of neighbouring communi- 
 ties ore generally caused by the instinctive fondness which 
 the workers have for the cocoons, and which they cannot 
 see without attempting to appropriate it as an object of care 
 and attention. In their battles they fight with fierceness 
 and obstinacy, sometimes carrying otf the head of the van- 
 quished upon their antennae, like an American Indian who 
 bears his enemy's scalp about his neck as a trophy ; not that 
 the ant warrior voluntarily carries this troublesome proof of 
 his valour, for he would willingly be rid of such an incum- 
 brance, but tlus is seldom the case while he lives. 
 
 The males and females never light ; the neuters alone at- 
 tacking or defending. Besh'cs their other weapons, ants are 
 
 furnished With the power of ejecting an acrid juice frcm 
 their abdomen, in sufficient quantity ai.d force to repel any 
 small antagonist 
 
 lluber also gives a most terrific accoiu.t r,C the civil wars 
 between ants of the same species, hut i 
 communities. Nothing can exceed the ferocity or pertinacity 
 of these battles. The infuriate creature; tear each other 
 almost to pieces — now Struggling in single combat, tiil ;. 
 third, coming up, puts an end to the affair, by helping ;■ 
 or take the enemy prisoner ! — now fighting in bodies li 
 together, and refusing all quarter, till a reinforcement alten 
 the tide of war, and gives victory to one side. But these 
 battles are frequently renewed day by day. the combatants 
 retiring as night approaches, till the rainy season brings ih«. 
 fierce little citizens to reason, and both parties retire to 
 citadel. It is a curious fact that, though the op] 
 are of one species, each party knows a fellow-ln 
 the wildest part of the action ; for lluber states, that if by 
 accident an ant had attacked a friend, caresses immediately 
 succeeded to blows. M. 1'. Huber states ;:- :. fact tie 
 ling circumstance of certain species of ants (J . 
 and /'. sanguinea, Latr.) procuring slaves which they < 
 olfin predatory excursions while in an infant state. These 
 slaves are of a small black species, and when reared perform 
 the offices which generally devolve upon the neuters or 
 workers in other societies; besides which they have to feed 
 their masters and curry them about tin; nest Indeed, so 
 totally dependant are their masters upon then indefatigable 
 little slaves, that the term should rather be r< \ ■ 
 appears thai ; the community may not venture 
 
 forth from the nest but wi'.h permission of the negroes; and 
 M. P. lluber proved, by experiment, that t!, y would die of 
 starvation if not led by these Indtepensal There 
 
 is likewise a: (the F. cunicularia, L.), which 
 
 arc forcibly carried oil' by the rufesccnt ants; but from their 
 being more en i the negro species, the dep 
 
 tors are obliged tog* with greater' strength of nu i 
 more precaution. The account which M. Huber git 
 tin-.- en in-; ughly curious and interest- 
 
 ing; the em a ,1 tactics, and 
 
 the assailed receiving them with such arrangements, as any 
 but a close obs erv er of Insect economy and habits would 
 declare to be impossible but to human intellect. The F. 
 santruinai is not, however, so helpless and utterly dependant 
 on the black nuts; but will rouse themselves upon on 
 ami protect their slaves, and even transport them to ano'.htl 
 habitation when changing their residence, which is some 
 times tin 
 
 The negro and miner ants, when attacked by the rr.a 
 rauding lelr dwelling, make every effort to ph. c< 
 
 the young brood and the newly excluded females out oi 
 danger, earning them to some distant place of seen: 
 soon as the ala.m is given, and during the combat hum 
 ore so employed ; but when tranquillity is once more restored, 
 they bring back these precious charges, and place them 
 within the walla of the fort, of which they barricade the 
 entrances, nnd place a strong guard near in case of future 
 attempts. To prove how dependant the rufescent ants arc 
 upon their little notable black servant-*, Huber tells of an 
 experiment he made, by shutting up thirty of them i:i :\ 
 glazed box, supplying them with honey iu one comer Of 
 their prison, and placing with them larvae and pupt 
 their own species and that of the negro. At first they made 
 some little exertions in Regard to the young, carrying them 
 from one place to another, but soon seemed to find this too 
 great an effort ; and though food was in the box, most of 
 them died in a few days, rather than he!;) themselves to it. 
 Huber, in commisseration of their wretched condition, then 
 put in a single little negro ant which actively set to work, 
 making a cell in the earth, into which it collected the larva:, 
 and feeding the pupa; ready to emerge, as well as the still 
 surviving neuters. Huber also mentions other experiments 
 tending to the same end, which perfectly succeeded in show 
 ing the vital importance of the to their masters 
 
 under various circumstances, and proved that this curious 
 habit depends on something more than the mere blind at- 
 tachment of the imperfect females for pupa. 
 
 Unmans Speaks of the strange fact of "'ants milking their 
 cows, the Jlphidrs ;" and Huber relates many highly inter- 
 esting particulars in addition. lie says, the ants not only 
 suck the sweet juice which is constantly passing through 
 the body of the Aphides, but make use of their antenna; 
 during the operation, to produce a ready evacuation, patting 
 the Aphides on the sides pretty briskly. They are very 
 jealous of the lasses-ion of these their milch cows, some- 
 times fighting fiercely in their defence, and forming earthen 
 boundaries for their detention. The British species of anl 
 (Formica flava. Gould) is especially fond of collecting herds 
 of the Jlphis radicum in i:s hemispherical formicary, tending 
 the eggs as it would those of its own brood. This yellow 
 ant exceeds all the other species of Aphis-loving Formica in 
 the great number of its 
 
 469 
 
FORMICA. 
 
 It appears, from observations made botli by Gould and 
 Huber, that when a nest becomes overpopulated, or from 
 some other reason, emigrations take place, which are con- 
 ducted in a very interesting and singular manner. A few 
 having apparently made up their minds on the subject, en- 
 deavour, by the usual signs, to induce others to accompany 
 them to the spot chosen for the new encampment ; and 
 having so far succeeded, carry the newly-persuaded recruit 
 upon their mandibles thither, who in his turn goes back with 
 liis conductor to the old nest, and engages a fellow-citizen 
 to accompany him also, and thus by degrees the whole con- 
 gregation emigrate. This emigration does not, in all instances, 
 proceed by dint of persuasion ; for the recruiting ant will, 
 without warning, sometimes seize upon another, and carry it 
 off suddenly to the new site : which rough proceeding does 
 not, however, prevent the ant so removed in joining in the 
 attempt to raise more recruits; for it returns, like the others, 
 and fetches a companion. The turf ants (F. ctespitum, L.), 
 upon these occasions, carry their fellow emigrants in an un- 
 coiled form, with the head downwards. These observations 
 chiefly apply to the great hill ant (F. rufa), though several 
 other species migrate. They will, in case the new settle- 
 ment is at a considerable distance, form temporary colonies 
 by the way, all, however, uniting at last in one principal 
 formicary. 
 
 Ants work during the night as well as by day. 
 
 Our native ants usually make their first appearance in 
 March, and continue in activity till the middle or end of 
 October. They are fond of basking and sporting in the sun ; 
 and their antics, at these limes, are described by the best 
 observers as exceedingly amusing, some appearing to wrestle, 
 and others actually carrying each other on their back in the 
 most playful manner. They are not torpid during the whole 
 winter, but are, in genial and mild days, sometimes to be 
 seen in full activity. Extreme cold causes them to cluster 
 together in compact bodies, as if by this means to preserve a 
 sufficient quantity of animal heat to allow of their occasional 
 return to the labours of life. That ants will attack and kill, 
 for food, insects and animals infinitely larger than them- 
 selves, is very well known : their strength is prodigi 
 pared with their size. Mr. Kirby says, " I have seen an ant 
 dragging a wild bee many times bigger than itself." 
 
 The bite of some foreign ants is very severe. Sir Joseph 
 Banks observed a green secies in New South Wales which 
 inflicted a wound scarcely less painful than that of a bee. 
 One, called the fire ant, is so called from its bite resembling 
 the pain occasioned by a spark of fire. Some ants in Ceylon 
 produce great anguish from their bite. Those species usually 
 round in Great Britain may almost be called harmless in 
 this respect. 
 
 There is a species in Cayenne (Formica bispinosa) which 
 collects from the bombax and .silk cotton tree a sort of lint 
 which the natives value much as a styptic in ca-ses of 
 ruemorrhage ; but though this species benefits man, there 
 are several whose ravages have sometimes more than coun- 
 terbalanced the good produced by these insects. Within 
 the last century, what might truly be called a placue of ants 
 appeared at one period in the island of Granada, in such 
 hosts as to put a stop to the cultivation of the sugar cane. The 
 destruction of this plant is not caused by the ants devouring 
 it, but by their constructing their nests under its roots. At 
 the time of this irruption, their numbers were only to be 
 compared with sand strewed over every place and thing. 
 They descended from the hills, and covered the plantations; 
 and did not confine their attacks to plants, but rats, mice, 
 and even birds, when alighting on the ground, fell a prey to 
 them. Streams of water only opposed their frightful pro 
 gress fir a moment, masses of them rushing, or being im- 
 pelled by the hosts behind, into the water, and only forming 
 by their carcasses a raft or bank for the rest to pass upon. 
 Fire was tried in vain as a barrier to their progress ; such 
 infinite swarms rushed into the blaze as to extinguish it. A 
 reward of 20,0007. was offered to whoever should discover 
 an effectual method of destroying them, but in vain. The 
 standing crops of sugar cane were burnt down, and the earth 
 dug up: but no human means was found effective. At 
 length, in the year 1780, they were annihilated by the tor- 
 rents of rain which accompanied an awful hurricane, which 
 was most fatal in its effects to the other West India islands. 
 But it is only fair to state, after such an account of devasta- 
 vit, that such an occurrence is exceedingly rare ; and that 
 these all-devouring creatures besides being admirable in 
 their household economy anl laws, benefit us by removing 
 und destroying multitudes of Armenling insects and reptiles, 
 «j d in their turn serve as food tee housands of other animals. 
 
 Several species of Mammalltcb foreign countries, are ex- 
 piessly organized for restraining jhe undue increase of this 
 genus of insect (see Myrmacopt iga), having claws of pro- 
 digi his strength for making a breach into the strong walls of 
 the formicaries of the exotic ants, and a long glutinous tongue 
 for sweeping off thousands of the disturbed community. In 
 England, the habitations of the various species of ants are 
 470 
 
 less conspicuous, but not less curious, than the formicaries 
 of tropical countries. They are thus described by Kirby and 
 Spence : — 
 
 "The nest of the large red ants (F. rufa, L.), which are 
 common in woods, at the first aspect seems a very confused 
 mass. Exteriorly it is a conical mount, composed of pieces 
 of straw, fragments of wood, little stones, leaves, grains; in 
 short, of any portable materials within their reach; but, 
 however rude its outward appearance, and the articles of 
 which it cotisists, interiorly it presents an arrangement admi- 
 rably calculated at once for a protection against the exces- 
 sive heat of the sun, and yet to retain a due proportion of 
 genial warmth. It is wholly composed of numerous sir at! 
 apartments of different sizes, communicating with each oili- 
 er by means of galleries, and arranged in separate stories, 
 some very deep in the earth, others a considerable height 
 above it ; the former for the reception of the young in cold 
 weather and at night, the latter adapted to their use in the 
 daytime. In forming these, the ants mix the earth excava- 
 ted from the bottom of the nest with the other materials of 
 which the mount consists, and thus give solidity to the 
 whole. Besides the avenues which join the apartments to- 
 gether, other galleries, varying in dimensions, communicate 
 with the outside of the nest at the top of the mount. These 
 oj)en doors would seem ill calculated for precluding the ad- 
 mission of wet or nocturnal enemies; but the ants .alter their 
 dimensions continually, according to circumstances; and 
 they wholly close them at night, when all gradually retire 
 to the interior, and a few sentinels only are left to guard the 
 gates. On rainy days, too, they keep them shut ; and when 
 the sky is cloudy open them partially. 
 
 " The habitations of these ants are much larger than those 
 of any other species in this country, and sometimes as big as 
 a small haycock ; but they are mere molehills when com- 
 pared with the enormous mounds which other species, ap- 
 parently of the same family, but much larger, construct in 
 wanner climates. Malouet states, that in the forests of Gui- 
 ana he once saw ant-hills which, though his companion 
 would not suffer him to approach nearer than forty pares for 
 fear of his being 3n ycae ' seem '. to him '<■ be 6 
 twenty feet high, and thiny or forty feet in diameter at the 
 base, assuming the form of a pyramid, truncated at one third 
 of its height ; and Stedman, when in Surinam, once passed 
 ant-hills six feet high, and at least one hundred feet !in cir 
 cumference. 
 
 "The nest of Formica brunvca, Latr., is composed wholly 
 of earth, and consists of a great number of stories, sometimes 
 not fewer than forty, — twenty below the level of the soil, 
 and as many above; which last, following the slope of the 
 ant-hill, are concentric. Each story, separately examined, 
 exhibits cavities in the shape of saloons, narrower apart- 
 ments, and long galleries, which preserve the communica- 
 tion between both. The arched roofs of the most spacious 
 rooms are supported by very thin walls, or occasionally by 
 small pillars and true buttresses; some having only one ent- 
 rance from above, others a second, communicating with the 
 lower story. The main galleries, of which in some places 
 several meet in one large saloon, communicate with other 
 subterranean passages, which are often carried to the dist- 
 ance of several feet from the hill. These Insects work 
 chiefly after sunset. In building their nest, they employ w>ft 
 clay only, scraped from its bottom when sufficiently moisten 
 ed by B shower, which, far from injuring, consolidates and 
 strengthens their architecture. Different labourers convey 
 small masses of this ductile material between their mandi- 
 bles; and with the same instruments ihey spread and mould 
 it to their will, the antennas accompanying every movement. 
 They render all firm by pressing the surface lightly with 
 their fore feet; and, however numerous the masses of clay 
 composing these walls, and though connected by no glutin 
 ous material, they appear, when finished, one single layer, 
 well united, consolidated, and smoothed. Having traced the 
 plan of their structure, by placing here and there the foun 
 dations of the pillars and partition walls, thev add succes- 
 sively new portions; and when the walls of a gallery or 
 apartment, which are half a line thick, are elevated about 
 half an inch in height, they join them by springing a flatfish 
 arch or roof from one side to the other. Nothing can he a 
 more interesting spectacle than one of the cities while build- 
 ing. In one place, vertical walls form the outline, which 
 communicate with different corridors by openings made in 
 the masonry; in another, we see a true saloon, whose vaults 
 are supported by numerous pillars; and further on are the 
 cross ways or squares where several streets meet, and whose 
 roofs, though often more than two inches across, the ants are 
 under no difficulty in constructing, beginning the sides of the 
 arch in the angle formed by two walls, and extending them 
 by successive lavers of clay till they meet; while crowds of 
 masons arrive from all parts with their particle of mortar, 
 and work with a regularity, harmony, and activity WhVsb 
 can never enough be admired. So assiduous are they in 
 their operations, that they will complete a story, with ail it* 
 
FORMIC ACID. 
 
 as, vaulted roofs, partitions, and galleries, in seven or 
 right hours. If they begin a story, and, for want of mois- 
 ture, are unable to finish it, they pull down again all the 
 crumbling apartments that are not covered in. 
 
 titer species of ants (F. fusca, L.) are al 
 The societies of JT. fuHrrinnsa, Latr., make their habitations 
 in the tninks of old oaks or willow trees, gnawing the wood 
 Into numberless stories, more or less horizontal. Two other 
 trills of carpenter ants (F. athiops, and F. flava, Latr.) use 
 saw dust in forming their buildings. Some ants form their 
 if the leaves of trees. One of these was observed by 
 Sir Joseph Banks in New South Wales, which was formed 
 by glueing together several leaves as large as a hand. To 
 keep these leaves in a propel position, thousands of ants united 
 their strength ; and if driven away, the leaves spring back 
 with great viole 
 
 FORMIC ACM). A sour liquor which ants eject when 
 Irritated, and which was formerly obtained by bruising the 
 >-■ and distilling them, mixed with water: a peculiar 
 volatile acid passed over. It has been ascertained by Dobe- 
 reiner, that an analogous acid may be artificially obtained by 
 (UsUiling, from ■ capacious retort, a mixture of 9 parts of tar- 
 a'id, :t of peroxide of manganese, and :i of sulphuric 
 acid diluted with . r > of water. The tartaric acid acquires 
 Jen from the oxide of manganese, and is resolved into 
 . carbonic acid, anil formic acid. From the analysi. by 
 I'er/.eiius of formiate of lead, it appears that formic, acid BJ a 
 compound of 2 atoms of carbon, 3 of oxygen, and 1 of hydro- 
 gen; Or of 9 atomi of carbonic oxide and 1 of water. 
 
 FORMICATION. (Lat formica, an ant.) The creep- 
 ing sensation upon the skin, resembling the crawling of ants 
 over diflerent parts of the I 
 
 FO'RMUL \. In Algebra, the expression of a theorem or 
 gener.il rule for the solution of some problem. Thus the 
 area of » f^ai ed in terms of its three sides, a, ft, e, 
 
 and the MDjperimeter, >, by the formula 
 
 V * (« — a) (s — ft) (* — e). 
 
 FORMULA, or FORMULARY, in Medicine, kc, signi- 
 fies a prescription. 
 
 FOKN'F.S. A tern occasionally applied by medical wri- 
 ters t" 
 
 FORNIX. (Lat.) An arch. In Anatomy, this term is 
 applied to a part of the carpus callosum of the brain, which, 
 when viewed in a particular direction, somewhat resembles 
 the shape of a Gothic arch. It is the medullary body, com- 
 posed of two anterior and two posterior crura, situated at 
 bottom and inside of the lateral ventricle, over the third ven- 
 tricle and below the septum hicidum. See Brain. 
 
 FO HSTKRlTi:. A mineral named after Mr. Forster; it 
 forms brilliant and small crystals, eo ioml ssl and translucent, 
 and is found at Vesuvius, accompanied by pyroxene. It 
 contains silica and magnesia, but has not been carefully 
 analyzed. 
 
 FORT. A castle or small fortress; a place of inconsidcr- 
 able extent, fortified by nature or art. Field-fort, or fortlet, 
 is a small fort, principally constructed for the defence of a 
 canv, or for defending a pass or pout. 
 
 FO'RTE. (Ital.) In Music, a direction to the performer 
 
 COte tli*- part loudly to which the word is affixed. It 
 
 is indicated by the simile letter F. If two F I"s, thus, are 
 
 Used, the part is to be played or performed fortissimo, very 
 
 loud. 
 
 FO'RTIFN* ATin.V. also called Military .Architecture, is 
 the art of constructing such works of defence ns may enable 
 a comparatively small number of men to maintain POM 
 of a city or place against the assaults of a superior force. 
 
 The nature of constructions necessary for defence will he 
 determined by the means of aggression. In early ages, 
 when the slim: and the bow formed the principal weapons 
 of offence, men considered themselves sufficiently defended 
 by a single wall or a bank of earth, from behind which they 
 could discharge their missiles against their assailants. In 
 progress of time projecting towers were added, which served 
 the double purpose of increasing the front of the besieged, 
 and of enabling them to attack in flank the besiegers when 
 approaching to scale the wall. The invention of the batter- 
 ing ram rendered no other change necessary than that of in- 
 creasing the thickness and strength of the wall. To aid the 
 of defence, projecting galleries were constructed at the 
 summit of the wall and round the towers, through the 
 pierced Doors ofwhich stones and other missiles were show- 
 ered down on the heads of the assailants. These galleries 
 were called machicoulis or massccoulis, from the French 
 coulcr des masses ; because they served the pur])ose of en- 
 abling the besieged to let fall heavy masses, to which cords 
 were attached, in order that they might be drawn up again 
 and let fall anew when the enemy returned to sap. Aper- 
 tures or loop holes for the discharge of arrows and javelins 
 were made in the battlements, or pierced in the walls; and 
 the defensive means wire completed by surrounding the 
 whole place with a deep moat or ditch. But the Invention 
 nf jntnpowder rendered it necessary to adopt an entirely dif- 
 
 FORTIFICATION. 
 
 ferent mode of defence. Walls of masonry, however thick, 
 can withstand for but a short time the assault of heavy ar- 
 tillery ; hence those successive circumvnllalions and con- 
 structions of earth which constitute the defences of a mod- 
 ern form 
 
 Happily for Great Britain, whose insular situation has ex- 
 empted her from foreign invasion, her internal dissensions 
 have neither been so frequent nor so protracted as to render 
 the art of constructing permanent fortifications of much na- 
 tional importance. It has been on the continent of Europe, 
 Where war has flourished in greater vigour, that the art litis 
 bee- created and chiefly cultivated. A modern fortification 
 consists of a great number of parts, to which, for the purpos- 
 es of description, it IB necessary to give distinct names; am) 
 it would naturally happen that those who first contrived the 
 particular forms of the diflerent parts would designate them 
 by names drawn from their own language. These appella- 
 tions, chiefly of French, but occasionally of Italian origin, 
 have been transferred into our language by the ignorance of 
 translators, and carefully retained through the pedantry of 
 our military engineers; so Hint all our works, without ex 
 caption, which treat of fortification, are obscured by a mass 
 of barbarous jargon, through which it is difficult to catch a 
 glimpse of the few simple principles which determine the 
 forms of all defensive constructions. 
 
 Modern fortifications, though differing in some subordinate 
 details, which differences are dignified by the name of sys- 
 
 emble one another in "all their 
 parts. In order to explain their structure, it will be conve 
 nient to consider them first \\ lthout reference to their form, or 
 the position of the ground lines in respect of each other, but 
 merely as i Inst an army with artillery advancing 
 
 directly fal front. Tlie annexed figure represents a vertical 
 
 of a regular fortification op 'he ground line X Y, the 
 between X and A. 
 The mass of earth A 1! (.' I) V. F G H forms the rampart with 
 its parapet. A I> is the interior slope of the rampart ; B C is 
 the tcrrc-plcin ef the rampart, having a breadth of about 40 
 feet, on which the troops and cannon are placed ; I) E is 
 called the banquette, or step, on which the soldiers mount to 
 fire over the parapet; E F G is the parapet, of a neigh' 
 (about 7 feet) sufficient to protect the men and guns on (he 
 terre-plein, and sloped in the direction F G towards M, the 
 op|Hisite edge of the ditch, so that a man approaching ther; 
 may be seen and fired at; G II is the exterior alone of the 
 parapet; H I is the revetment or wall of masonry ■npporting 
 the rampart, and strengthened by buttresses placed tit small 
 intervals behind it. This must be of sufficient height to pre- 
 vent its being easily scaled ; but yet must not rise higher 
 than the edge of the exterior work at Q, in order that it may 
 not be seen and breached by distant batteries. The exterior 
 front of the rampart, covered with the revetment II K, is 
 called the escarp ; I K L M is the ditch, the dimensions of 
 which will be determined by the nature of the ground, but 
 must be such, in general, that its excavation or deblai must 
 produce sufficient earth or remblai to form the rampart ; the 
 opposite side of the ditch L M is the counterscarp, also sup- 
 ported by a revetment of masonry ; M N is the covered may, 
 a space about 10 yards in breadth, having a banquette NOP, 
 and protected by a parapet P Q, the superior slope ofwhich, 
 Q. R, is called the triads. The use of the covered way is to 
 allow troops to be drawn up, unseen by the besiegers, for the 
 purpose of making sorties ; it also enables the garrison to 
 keep up a closer fire on the approaches of the enemy, and its 
 parapet forms a strong protection to the revetment of the 
 rampart. 
 
 It is easy to see that the strength of a place will be in 
 creased by a succession of such works, so that when the be 
 sieged are driven from one they may retire to the next be- 
 hind it. Sometimes there are three ditches with intermediate 
 works, or rather works raised within the ditch itself, similar 
 to the rampart, though of a less height, in order that the guns 
 on the rampart may range above them. A work of this sort, 
 between the inner and the main ditch, is called a tenaille; 
 that between the main ditch and the outer ditch is called a 
 rare/in. All xvorks outside the ditch are called outworks. 
 
 Before proceeding to construct a fortification, it is ncces 
 sary to lay down a plan. This will differ in some respects 
 according to the system adopted ; but the following descrip- 
 tion, which properly belongs to Vauban's First System, will 
 explain the general method : When the work is regular, the 
 sides are all equal, and therefore the general form will be 
 that of a polygon inscribed in a circle. The first thing to be 
 done is to determine on the number of sides. We shall sup- 
 pose them to be six. and the radius of the circumscribing cir- 
 cle tolie 300 yards, when the construction will be as follows : 
 
 471 
 
FORTIFICATION. 
 
 Lei A B, B C be two sides of a hexagon inscribed in a cir- 
 cle; each of these lines will be equal to tile radius, or 360 
 yards. Ettoect A 1$ in D; draw the perpendicular D E, on 
 
 which set off D E, equal to one sixth of A B, or 60 yards ; 
 draw the lines A E F and B E G, in which take A H and 
 B I, each equal to 100 yards, or live ninths of A D ; make 
 H F and I G each equal to the distance 11 I ; then the line 
 A II G F I B is the principal outline of the front ; and by 
 making the same construction on each of the sides of the 
 hexagon, we obtain the principal outline of the whole for- 
 tiiication, or that by which the first figure of the work is de- 
 fined. 
 
 The part F I B K L is called the baslian, B I and B K are 
 the faces of the bastion ; I F and K L are Us flanks ; F L is 
 the gorge ; G F is the curtain; A F and B G are the lines 
 of defence; B is the flanked angle; I and K are the angles 
 of the shoulder ; G, F, L, and M the angles of the flank. 
 From the points A and B as centres, and a radius of 40 yards, 
 describe circular arcs; if lines be drawn from the opposite 
 angles of the shoulder II I to touch those arcs, the parts of 
 those lines a c, b c, together with the arcs, will represent the 
 counterscarp of the ditch. The curtain is defended by a 
 ravelin, which is constructed thus: From c, the re-entering 
 angle of the counterscarp, set off, on the per|>endicular D E, 
 a line c d, equal to 110 yards, and from d draw d e, d f in 
 tile directions of H and I, to meet the counterscarp; then 
 d e and d /are the faces of the ravelin, and c e and c J' its 
 temigcrges. The counterscarp g h i of the ditch of the rav- 
 elin is parallel to its faces, and rounded off at h. Stairs, call- 
 ed pasde-souris, are constructed to facilitate the descent 
 from the ravelin to the ditch. Besides the ravelin, there is 
 usually another appendage to the bastion and curtain. This 
 is the tenai/lc, represented in the figure by the parts p q made 
 in the direction of the lines of defence; but it has sometimes 
 other forms. The tenaille is made in the ditch before the 
 curtain, with passages between the ends and the flanks of 
 the bastion. It is a low work, having its parapet only about 
 3 feet higher than the level ground of the ravelin, and its use 
 is lo defend the bottom of the ditch by a grazing fire. 
 
 Such are the works which form the envelop of the place 
 fortified; but various other constructions are in most cases 
 added, according to the nature of the ground and other cir- 
 cumstances, for the purpose of protecting or strengthening 
 such parti v. s.re most exposed, or of interrupting the works 
 of the besieger* These additional constructions are either 
 internal or external. Among the former are retrenchments 
 of various kinds, either constructed at the same time with the 
 principal works or thrown up during the siege. They are 
 made behind the ramparts, or the bastions most exposed to 
 attack, their use being to enable the garrison to continue the 
 defence from behind a fresh obstacle when a rampart or 
 bastion has been breached. When a hill or rising ground 
 overlooks any of the works, a cavalier is raised, about ten or 
 twelve feet higher than the rest of the works. This is com- 
 monly placed within the bastion when it has the same form, 
 but sometimes on the middle of the curtain when its form is 
 semicircular. Of the exterior works one of the most impor- 
 tant is the countcrguard, constructed to cover some of the 
 principal parts, as the bastion or 
 the cavalier, in such a manner that 
 ^V^fcSKjI without obstructing their fire it pre- 
 — » vents them from being breached 
 till itself is taken. The counter- 
 guard is constructed parallel with 
 the faces of the work it is destined 
 to cover; and it must be lower 
 than the principal work, though of 
 a sufficient height to screen its re- 
 vetment. A horn-work, represented in the annexed figure, 
 is com]sosed of two branches, and a front composed of two 
 half bastions and a curtain, resembling a front of the body of 
 the place. It is here represented as made before the curtain, 
 but it may be also constructed before a bastion. A crown- 
 Kork is of the same nature as a horn-work, but larger, and 
 having two fronts, which give it somewhat the appearance 
 of a crown. Horn-works and crown-works are constructed 
 where a large' spot of ground lies beyond the fortification 
 which might be advantageous to an enemy, or to cover a gate 
 or entrance into a town. Lunettes, a, a, are placed Tin both 
 472 
 
 !*••» 
 
 L 
 
 sides of the ravelin, and are constructed 
 on lines bisecting the faces of the rave- 
 lin at right angles. A bonnet, b, is a 
 work covering the salient angle of the , 
 ravelin. Tenaillons are similar in con- 
 struction to lunettes, but having one of their faces formed on 
 lines which are the production of the faces of the ravelin, 
 instead of bisecting those faces. The application of all these 
 and other works of a similar description depends on the na- 
 ture of the localities ; and it must be left to the judgment of 
 the engineer to determine in each particular case which is 
 best adapted to the ground. 
 
 We have already alluded to the use and importance of the 
 covered way. In order to increase its strength traverses, or 
 portions of parapet, are thrown across it, which screen it 
 from an enfilading fire, and enable the defenders to dispute 
 its possession foot by foot. Places of arms, or places for as- 
 sembling troops, and protected by traverses and redoubts, are 
 also formed on it at the re-entering and salient angles of the 
 counterscarp. The redoubts serve not only as a place of re- 
 treat, but facilitate the making of sorties upon the enemy's 
 lodgments. 
 
 The descriptions given above belong more especially to 
 that method of fortification which, in the military schools, is 
 denominated Vauban's first system. Marshal Vauban served 
 in the wars of Louis XIV., and in the course of his life direct- 
 ed the construction of thirty-three new fortresses, and the im- 
 provement of three hundred others. From the different con- 
 structions observed in these works have been compiled his 
 three systems ; which, however, in a general view of the sub- 
 ject, may be considered as only differing in points of detail, 
 or in a greater or less degree of complication. In his second 
 system, represented in the annexed figure, he separated the 
 bastions from the body of the place by a ditcli about 40 feet 
 wide, in order that the besieger, after 
 the breach and capture of the bas- 
 tions, might be compelled to renew 'zttf ^^c^- xp^* 
 his operations against his enceinte or tjnr ^v$^~ 
 
 body of the place. The angles of the ^* 
 
 polygon are crowned by pentagonal towers of masonry, call 
 ed tower bastions, to which, in fact, the regular bastions only 
 form counterguards. It was from a desire lo take advantage 
 of these tower bastions, which he found already existing at 
 Landau when called upon to fortify that place, that he was 
 led to adopt the system in question. Vauban's third system 
 does not differ in any matcral respect from the second. He 
 increased the size of the ravelin, and gave 
 it a redoubt. The tower bastions were 
 likewise made larger, and the curtain '*?£y^6 = j ; ^\H 
 which united them was broken inwards, 
 so as to form two small flanks under- 
 neath ; while casements for cannon were constructed, to co 
 operate with those of the tower bastions in the defence of 
 the ditch. 
 
 Coehorn's System. — Contemporary with Vauban was the 
 Baron de Coeliorn, director-general of the fortifications of the 
 United Provinces of Holland. This celebrated engineer is 
 also the author of three different systems, though the third 
 has never been constructed. His methods are only applica- 
 ble in low swampy countries, like Holland ; and the object 
 which he kept principally in view was to throw such obsta- 
 cles in the way of a besieging force that the place could only 
 be approached with great difficulty and hazard. This he 
 sought to accomplish by covering and flanking'* his works 
 more effectually than had previously been done, and by de- 
 priving the assailant of the room necessary for erecting his 
 batteries. An idea of his methods may be formed from the 
 annexed figure, which respresents his first system. It is con- 
 structed on a hexagon ; the sec- 
 ond was on a heptagon, and the 
 third on an octagon. And it may . 
 be remarked of his systems in 
 general, that they differ from 
 Vauban's principally in the great- 
 er width of the ditch (which is nearly twice as wide as in 
 Vauban's systems) and the narrow space between the flanks 
 Coehorn's principles have been adopted in the construction 
 of the fortresses of Nimeguen, Breda, Manheim, Nanmr, and 
 Bergen-op-zoom. 
 
 Cormontaigne' s System.— The methods of Vauban were 
 improved in many essential respects by Cormontaigne, a 
 French officer of engineers, who died in 1750. In the sys- 
 tem which he adopted, and which is 
 here represented, the faces of the bas- 
 tion are made longer than in Vauban's /s«^/^g-T> 
 methods, and the flanks are placed at ^/~~^~r^\^r 
 rfeht tingles with the faces of the oppo- > J^ W 
 
 site bastions. The enlargement of the 
 bastion renders it capable of containing interior retrench 
 ments ; and the flanks, though shortened, are better covered 
 (lis ravelins are also constructed on a larger base, and con 
 tain a larger redoubt, from which the besiegers, can keep w 
 
FORTIFICATIONS. 
 
 a reverse fire on breaches made in Uie collateral bastions; 
 to that ihe assault upon the latter becomes impracticable 
 until the ravelin and its redoubt are both captured. The com- 
 bination round the extremities of the traverses of the covered 
 way are arranged in a zig-zag line ; so that the aaeaags round 
 the extremity of one traverse is defended by the fire Of another 
 in its rear, and tUc advance of the assailants along the cover- 
 ed way thereby checked. In general, Cormonlaigne's sys- 
 C— rig greater defensive proiierties, and is more eco- 
 nomical of materials. 
 Modern System.— The annexed figure represents what is 
 
 called the modern system: it varies but little from that of 
 Cormontaigne. The ravelin is made to cover tlio shoulder 
 of the bastion more effectually by a greater projection, and 
 its faces are retrenched by coupures or cuts through the rain- 
 part, perpendicular to the faces of the bastion, which pro- 
 be enemy from taking the redoubt in the re-entering 
 place of aims without first possessing himself of the redoubt 
 En the ravelin. 
 
 All the q enumerated, however they may 
 
 differ in details, agree in their principal features, and present 
 the same general outline. They may be all included under 
 the name of the bastion system. Some engineers, however, 
 i of whom are Montalembert and 
 . have pointed out delects which appear to be inherent 
 in the system, and proposed to give the polygon a diflerent 
 form. By suppressing the curtain and the tenaille, and pro- 
 ducing the faces of the bastions inward, a line of rampart 
 would be formed presenting limply a succession of salient 
 and re-entering angles. According to this plan, the defence 
 is made to depend on the number of reverse (ires that can be 
 maintained from cosemated (i. e., bomb-proof ) batteries; but 
 as the plan has never been practically carried into ellcct, it 
 hum. it into particulars. In the present state 
 
 of the military art, a fortress can be regarded as nothing more 
 than a means of stemming for a time the torrent of an in- 
 vadii g foree. Bach is the superiority of the means of attack 
 over those of defence, that however strong the works may 
 be, and however skilfully disposed, their [eduction, when 
 1 by adequate means, is, generally speaking, a matter 
 of absolute certainty. The be.-ieging army, sheltered by its 
 trenches from the missiles of the garrison, advances in zig- 
 zag lines parallel to the faces of the ramparts, till it passes 
 (.mi or circumvents all the exterior defences of the place, 
 and arrives at the main wall, where a breach has been made 
 by batteries erected for the purpose. To this covered mode 
 of attack, supported by the ricochet batteries, by which the 
 defenders are driven from the ramparts and the guns dis- 
 mounted, it is perhaps impossible to offer any effectual re- 
 ideed, such is the protection to which the art of 
 attack has been reduced, that even the length of time which 
 any fortress will be able to hold out agates! an enemy pro- 
 vided with the proper train of sappers and miners, and the 
 implements necessary for carrying on their operations, may 
 pitted with the greatest precision. 
 /:>rtijirati<iii.— Field Fortification is the art of con- 
 structing all kinds of temporary works for assisting the opera- 
 tions of an army in the field, and enabling it to maintain 
 gainst a superior force. In the disposition and 
 construction of such works, the engineer must have regard 
 to the nature ot the locality, and endeavour to turn to the 
 account all its natural advantages, as well as the build- 
 enclosures, &c, which may be found on it; and there 
 U no part of his art in which talent and skill are so requisite, 
 or in which he must rely so exclusively on the resources of 
 hi- own Judgment. On account of the endless varieties and 
 accidents of the ground on which he has to act, the observance 
 of ftxed rales is indeed, impracticable: nevertheless there 
 are certain general maxims which apply to the construction 
 of f' > tifications of all kinds, whether temporary or permanent, 
 and which must be observed in all his operations. For ex- 
 ample, works constructed to flank others, must not be at so 
 I distance as to be beyond the effective range of mus- 
 ketry, tin; angles of defence should be nearly right angles, 
 .nnl the salient angles as obtuse as possible. The general 
 nature of defensive works is also the same in all cases, name- 
 ly, a ditch and a parallel ; though, as the pick-axe and the 
 spade are the only implements which an army in the field 
 fan carry abont With it, the depth and w idlh of the ditch and 
 
 the height of the parapet are in field-works necessarily limit 
 ed to what can be effected by these simple means. 
 
 Field-works are usually divided into three classes: 1. 
 Works open at the gorge; 2. Works enclosed all round; 
 and, 3. Lines either continued or with intervals. To the first 
 class belong redans, single and double, lenaillcd heads, and 
 bastioned heads ; to the second, redoubts, star f&rtt, and has- 
 tioned forts ; and to the third, lines of various kinds for de- 
 fending a position. The ratten is the .-im- 
 plest of all works, consisting merely of two 
 lines, A B and A C, forming an angle with 
 each other. It is only employed for such 
 pm poses as defending the avenues of a vil- jj/ 
 I age, bridge, or defile. The length given itjJ 
 is usually about 50 yards. When the redan 
 is thrown out in front of other works it is called a fleche, or 
 arrow. Lunettes are also applied for similar purpe 
 are limned by adding two parallel faces, B I) and (.'■ E, to the 
 redan, at the extremities of its open thinks. The double r» 
 dan, or bonnet de pritrc, consists of two 
 I H and Q 1); and two flanks, A E 
 and C K, usually shorter than tin 
 and allording a reciprocal defence to each . 
 other. The re-entering angle at E should B 
 be a right angle ; if it is less, the two thinks are in danger of 
 being struck by each other's lire; and if it is much greater 
 than a right angle, the defence will be weakened: for it is 
 found by experience that soldiers placed behind a screen in- 
 variably fire strait before them, or at right angles to the 
 screen. When a greater extent of front ki to be fortified, the 
 lines are disponed in the form of bastions or tenailles, and 
 thence called anifiswsa 1 testis and tenailltd ktadi* 
 
 Redoubts are works closed on a 1 ! sides, of a polygonal i>r 
 quadrilateral figure, and usually Hasan . An opening is left 
 in one of the sides, for commuiiicaiioii with the exterior, and 
 a traverse is thrown up within fur pn the Work 
 
 is without flanks, the nttnhejl m l( h Without defence. The 
 angles are sometimes rounded, or cut oil", in order that a 
 lire may be maintained on an assailant advancing in the 
 direction of the diagonal. 
 
 Star forts are enclosed works constructed upon an equi- 
 lateral triangle or a square. In the former case they have 
 six points, in the latter eight. When constructed on a i-quare 
 each of the sides (which may be about 'JO 
 yards long) is divided into three equal 
 parts and on the middle part an equi- 
 lateral tnangk d, which gives 
 the trace of the figure. The object of 
 Ibis work is to remedy the defects id' the 
 redoubt by flanking the angles of the 
 square; but ns a considerable space is 
 consumed by the re-entering angles, it 
 scarcely admits of sullicient troops and artillery being placed 
 in it for its defence. 
 
 Bastioned forts arc constructed in the field on the same 
 principles as in permanent works ; but 
 are only constructed on the square or 
 pentagon. The distance A B, or ex- 
 terior side of the polygon, should not 
 exceed the range of musketry, or about 
 200 yards. They are employed only 
 in fortifying important positions, and 
 require, accordingly, to be constructed 
 
 in a more solid manner than other / I 
 
 works of a temporary nature. * ^~~-4 
 
 The last class of field-works comprehends tote* of va- 
 rious descriptions. Continued lines are constructed to en- 
 close a front, or connect principal works with one another 
 by a continued parapet They .are constructed, according to 
 circumstances, with redans, tenailles, or bastions, placed at 
 certain intervals, seldom exceeding 180 yards. From the 
 descriptions given above, the different forms of the redan Zinc, 
 triniillr. line, and bastion line will be readily conceived. 
 Sometimes they arc formed of a succession of faces and 
 flanks at right angles. In this case they are called lines-en- 
 crcmailliercs. The flanks — -^/^^/^^ 
 
 are about a fourth of the ~* — ~~^-" 
 
 length of the faces, and afford a defence to the ditches. 
 Lines with intervals consist of isolated works, as redans or 
 redoubts, placed at distances which should not exceed 200 
 yards, and so as to afford one another a mutual defence. 
 
 Besides the works now enumerated, various expedients 
 are resorted to in order to prevent, or at least to render more 
 difficult, the approaches of an enemy. Among these are 
 palisades, abatis, trous-de-coup, chevaux-de-frize, crows' 
 feet, &.C. 
 
 The principal authors on Fortification are Errard, Stevinus, 
 Antoine de Ville, Compte de Pagan, Coehorn, Vauban, Mal- 
 let, Belidor, Blondel, Montalembert, Bisset, Bousmard, Car- 
 not, Mouze, &c. For a practical treatise the reader may be 
 referred to the article "Fortification" in the Ency. Metro 
 poiitana. 
 
 2 H 473 
 
FORTRESS. 
 
 FORTRESS Any fortified place. (See the preceding 
 article.) 
 
 FORT1N, FORTRET. A sconce or small fort. 
 
 FORTU'NA. In Mythology, the goddess who presided 
 over the destinies of mankind, and, generally speaking, over 
 all the events of life. She was represented as blind, with 
 winged feet, and resting on a wheel. This goddess was not 
 known in the more ancient systems of the Greek theogony : 
 all the guidance of human affairs, for instance, is intrusted 
 by Homer to Destiny ; but in Italy, and chiefly at Rome, Ac- 
 tium, and Prceneste, her worship was most assiduously cul- 
 tivated. 
 
 FO'RUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, a public mar- 
 ket; also a place where the common courts were kept, and 
 matters of judgment pleaded. The fora of the Romans were 
 large open squares surrounded by porticoes ; parts of which 
 answered for the market-places, other parts for public meet- 
 ings of the inhabitants, and other parts for courts of justice. 
 The forum was also occasionally used for shows of gladia- 
 tors. There were in Rome seventeen; of these fourteen 
 were for the sale of goods, provisions, and merchandize, and 
 called Fora Venalia ; the other three were for civil and judi- 
 cial proceedings, and called Fora Civilia et Judicialia : of the 
 latter sort was the forum of Trajan, of which the Trajan 
 column formed the principal ornament. The forum of the 
 Romans was identical with ayopa of the Greeks. 
 
 FO'SSA (Lat. fossa, a trench), in Zoology, is applied to 
 certain depressions on the external surface; generally the 
 seat of cutaneous glands, as the lachrymal fossa in deer and 
 antelopes, the jugular fossa, inguinal fossa, &c. 
 
 FO'SSA OVA'LIS. A depression in the right auricle of 
 the heart, which in the fcetal state opened into the left auri- 
 cle, forming the foramen ovale. 
 
 FOSSE (Fr.), in Fortification, is the moat or ditch sur- 
 rounding the rampart. Sec Fortification. 
 
 FO'SSIL. (Lat. fodio, / dig.) Literally, anything dug 
 out of the earth. The term is now chiefly confined to or- 
 ganic remains. 
 
 FO'SSIL FARINA. A soft carbonate of lime. 
 
 FOSSO'RES. (Lat. fodio, / dig.) An extensive group 
 of Aculc i te flymenopterous insects, most of the species of 
 which are organized for excavating cells in earth or wood, 
 in which they bury other insects in a wounded and feeble 
 state, and at the same time deposit their eggs ; so that the 
 larva;, when hatched, find a store of food prepared for their 
 sustenance. The Fossorial Hymenoptera are solitary in 
 their habits ; and some species, which have not the requisite 
 structure of the legs for burrowing, are parasitic, and, like 
 the cuckoo among birds, lay their eggs in the nests of other 
 species, at whose expense the young are reared. 
 
 FOSSO'RIAL. (Lat. fodio, / dig.) In Zoology, animals 
 which dig their retreats and seek their food in the earth are 
 so called. The locomotive extremities, which are organ- 
 ized for burrowing, as those of the mole, or mole-cricket, are 
 called " pedes fossorii." 
 
 FO'SSULATE. (Lat. fossa, a trench.) When a surface 
 presents one or more somewhat long and narrow depres- 
 sions. 
 
 FO'THER, or FODDER, A SAIL. This is thrumming a 
 sail ; and covering it with loose stuff, and then passing it un- 
 der the bottom of a ship that has sprung a leak or been 
 aground ; the pressure of the water forces the sail against 
 the bottom, and partly stops the leak. 
 
 FOUGASS. In Fortification, a small mine, from 6 to 8 
 feet under ground. It is derived from the Lat. focata 
 
 FOUL. The term applied to the wind when contrary ; 
 also to the bottom when uneven and rocky. See Anchor, 
 Fall, Hawse. 
 
 FOUNDA'TION. (Fr. fondation.) In Architecture, the 
 lower part of a wall, on which the insistent wall is raised, 
 and always of much greater thickness than such insistent 
 wall. A practice has lately been introduced in this coun- 
 try of laying foundations (if not in water) on a bed of what 
 is called concrete, which is a mixture of rough small stones 
 or large gravel stones with sand and stone, lime and water, 
 with just enough of the lime to act as a cementitious medium, 
 with the best effect. See Concrete. 
 
 FOUNDA TIONS. (Lat. fundo, / institute.) In Politi- 
 cal Economy, the generic name given to institutions establish- 
 ed and endowed by individuals, associations, or the public, 
 for the promotion of what is believed to be, at the time when 
 the foundation is made, some useful or benevolent purpose. 
 In most old-settled and rich countries there are founda- 
 tions for a vast variety of objects. During the Middle Ages, 
 it was very common to bequeath property for the founda- 
 tion of monastic institutions and scholastic establishments. 
 The two great universities of Oxford and Cambridge are no- 
 ble examples of the last species of foundations; and by far 
 the greater number of the grammar and free schools in most 
 parts of England, and indeed of Europe, owe their origin to 
 the same source. A great deal of property has also been 
 bequeathed bv benevolent individuals in this and other 
 
 FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. 
 
 countries for the erection and endowment of hospitals, ot 
 foundations of various descriptions, for the relief and assist- 
 ance of the poor; and not unfrequently also properly is ap- 
 propriated, or foundation instituted, for the amusement and 
 recreation of the public. 
 
 But notwithstanding the large amount of property that has 
 been appropriated in most countries to the establishment of 
 foundations, and their extreme importance in a public point 
 of view, it may appear rather singular that the principles and 
 conditions on which they should be established are far from 
 being well ascertained. No one can doubt that it is highly 
 expedient to allow individuals or associations to institute 
 foundations or to bequeath property for the promotion of bene- 
 ficial public purposes. But, admitting this, the knotty ques- 
 tion arises, how far should the legislature go in authorizing 
 private parties to lay down the conditions under which the 
 property so bequeathed, or the foundation, is to be adminis- 
 tered. If, on the one hand, government interference be car- 
 ried too far, the institution of foundations will be discouraged ; 
 and if, on the other hand, government do not interfere afall, 
 the folly or the presumption of individuals will be allowed lo 
 legislate for all future ages; and a large amount of property 
 may be appropriated for the support of institutions, which, 
 though once believed to be beneficial, experience may prove 
 to be disadvantageous. The regulation of foundations is, 
 therefore, a matter of at least as much difficulty as importance, 
 and involves a great variety of considerations. It is impossi- 
 ble, perhaps, to lay down any principles with respect to il 
 that should apply to all cases ; but some leading positions may 
 notwithstanding be established, that should always be kept in 
 view and referred to. We shall endeavour to state some of 
 these in our articles on Property (Right of), Wills and 
 Testaments, Universities, &c. to which we beg to refer. 
 
 FOU'NDING, or FOUNDRY. The building in which 
 various metals are cast into moulds or shapes. Such of the 
 details of the processes carried on in the respective metal 
 foundries as are consistent with the plan of this work, will be 
 found under the heads of the metals to which they refer. 
 The furnaces used in fusing and founding metals are various- 
 ly constructed, according to the nature of the metal and the 
 quantity to be operated upon; and frequei tly two or more 
 furnaces of different constructions are employed in the same 
 foundry. The wind furnace, blast furnace, and reve: 
 furnace, are the forms which are most generally employed 
 The wind furnace is either square or circular, and varies in 
 dimensions, according to the size of the crucibles which it 
 is intended to contain, and which are placed upon proper 
 supports, resting generally upon the bars or grating of the 
 furnace. It has three apertures ; one above, for the purpose 
 of introducing the crucible and fuel, and which is usually 
 closed by a fire tile or brick ; another below, for the purpose 
 of admitting the air, so as to pass through the grate and fuel, 
 and up the chimney; and the third communicating with the 
 chimney, which should be lofty and supplied with a damper, 
 for the purpose of regulating the draught of air through the 
 fireplace, and consequently also the heat produced. 
 
 The blast furnace differs from the preceding in having no 
 grating, and in the air being supplied by a bellows or blowing 
 machine. The construction of these furnaces is much varied. 
 according to circumstances ; but the largest and most perfect 
 are those employed in the iron works. 
 
 The reverberatory furnace is so constructed, that the flame 
 and hot air are directed into a separate cavity intermediate 
 between it and the chimney : in this cavity, commonly called 
 the hearth, the materials to be fused are placed ; and there is 
 an aperture connected with it by which the fused metal is 
 suffered to run out, or through which it may be removed in 
 ladles for the purpose of supplying the moulds. 
 
 The materials of which the moulds are formed are very 
 various. In some cases, as in stereotype founding, they con- 
 sist of plaster of Paris ; in bronze works for figures and statues, 
 they are made of a mixture of plaster of Paris, sand, and 
 brick-dust, and require the utmost skill and care in their 
 preparation. Iron is usually cast in sand ; brass and other 
 metals in clay ; and very frequently the moulds are made of 
 cast iron. 
 
 FOU'NDLING HOSPITALS. In those ancient nations 
 with the details of whose social life we are acquainted, the 
 practice of exposing new-born infants seems to have heen, as 
 it is at this day in China, a species of legitimate infanticide. 
 Neither Plato nor Aristotle, nor in general any political wri 
 ters of antiquity, condemn it; they merely profess to lay down 
 rules for the preservation of the healthier and stronger, at 
 the expense of the more weakly. Among the Greeks, a more 
 tender mother chose the market-place, or some temple, for 
 the exposure of her child, in order to have ihe chance of 
 some charitable hand succouring it: if its death was desired, 
 it was abandoned in solitary places; and their dramas and 
 romances are full of narratives in which this custom forms 
 the foundation of the interest. Thebes, in republican Greece, 
 is the only state in which the exposure, of children is known 
 to have been forbidden by law. The practice of exposure 
 
F< iC.XDLINi; HOSPITALS. 
 
 was r-« i j i • ■ i ■ • : Ui republics Rome: the law is doubtful. The 
 street caJ L, vi.), and the cetesxn 
 
 called Lacturia (from ihi> circumstance, according la Bome 
 antiquai Ij selected tor the 
 
 Abandoned children were declared by law to be the Slaves 
 or absolute property of those by whom they were brought up; 
 and several were saved from death, not from humane mo- 
 tives, hut that their foster fathers might, by mtntlBtmg their 
 persons and exhibiting them in the streets, derive an in- 
 famous livelihood from the alma given ihem by the passen- 
 gers. At length the progress of Christianity pot an end to 
 those disgusting enormities. The exposure of children was 
 made a punishable offence in A.I). 1174; and their slavery 
 bousbed by an edict of Justinian in olid. 
 Infanticide has most properly been prosecuted with the ut- 
 
 ur, and made B capital olfeiice in almost all modern 
 coui. tries. But it was early ■apposed that were the ex- 
 
 r abandonment of children wholly prohibited, there 
 would, despite- of all that could be done to prevent it, be a 
 
 ;. of infanticide. In consequence of lhe prevalence 
 
 of this feeling, it has been cuslomaiy in the Christian worid. 
 
 from a remote period, to connive at the abandonment of 
 
 children, and to provide means for the support of those that 
 
 abandoned ; and hence the origin of Foundling 
 
 ds. 
 
 'i he Brat distinct trace of nn express foundation for found- 
 In 107U lhe order of Brothers of the 
 ihc express purpose of 
 taking care of 6ick, orphans, and foundlings. Alter that time 
 this species of foundations rapidly multiplied in every part of 
 
 Europe. But while private beneficence was thus exerted in 
 their behalf, the Church, which in the earlier period had un- 
 dertaken the general care of them, K< es to have 
 thrown on the commonalty, in most European countries, the 
 i rei eived into any of 
 the foundations. . gal contests between the reli- 
 gious and civil establi.-hmenls on tins gubji et are to be found 
 in the history of France through the whole lflth century'. 
 The uncertain state of the law rendered their preservation En 
 that country extremely precarious. Patile. in 
 the 17iu century, unde : 
 
 eat Foundling Hospital of I ■. is due to 
 
 his efTorLs. In the provinces, and in mist Catholic countries, 
 and in those under the Greek church, public charity took the 
 some direction. 
 
 It has been customary in these establishments to receive 
 all children brought to them, without inquiring whether they 
 were the fruit of regular marriages or of illicit amours! it 
 seems idle to deny that the multiplication of such establish- 
 ments, by providing a ready way for disposing of children, 
 must have hindred a n\\ cases Of infanticide; but the injury 
 they have done to public morals, ami the waste Of human 
 life that they have occasioned, are ten times greater evils 
 than any they have obviated. It is Ion;.', indeed, since well- 
 infoimed persona in this and other countries were aware of 
 the pernicious tendency of foundling hospitals ; and it is proba- 
 ble that, at no very distant period, they v. ill be everywhere 
 suppressed. In France the multiplication of these hospitals, 
 
 [OOSUrea, has called at last the attention of the pub- 
 lic to the trWhtfuj immorality, mortality, and expense which 
 attend it. In KM), ten years alter is foundation, the great 
 hospiial at Paris admitted 890; in 1750, -1000 ; in 1830, nearly 
 8000. In all France then were nourished at the public ex- 
 
 i".-i, 40,000 children; in 1809,09,000; 1826,118,000. 
 The number is now about 130,000. It varies greatly in the 
 different departments ; being greatest in the north, centre, and 
 SOUlh; least in the- eastern departments bordering on Ger- 
 many, and in the western, or Britanny, La Vendee, ate. 
 And lhe Statistics of France plainly show, as Messrs. Terme 
 and Montfalcon, the authors of the most comprehensive work 
 on the subject, explicitly declare, that it is "not poverty) but 
 luxury, which praduccs exposures." The two great measures 
 for reducing the burden, which have lately been partially- 
 put in execution, are the suppression of the turning-boxes, or, 
 in other words, rendering the abandonment public ; and the 
 removal of the new-born children into another department, 
 which, it is said, always produces, when tried, a great reduc- 
 t'on in the number of exposures. In Italy, Belgium, &c, 
 s'milar Institutions prevail, and a similar increase of burden 
 has of late yean been felt. It has, no doubt, been augmented 
 by the Improvement which has taken place in the manage- 
 ment of these unfortunate creatures. Formerly death soon 
 relieved the institutions of their maintenance. Towards the 
 end of the last century, 80 per cent, of the children are said 
 to have died at Paris in a single year; 90 at Marseilles; 91 at 
 Dublin The mortality is now much diminished; though it 
 is thought that in France nearly GO per cent, still die in their 
 first \ear. The whole number of children annually exposed 
 is said to be, at St. Peteraburgh, about 45 per cent, of those 
 born; Rome, 28; Lisbon, 20; Vienna, 2:!; Paris, 21. In 
 England, Captain Thomas Coram is celebrated for his estab- 
 lishment of lhe Foundling Hospital in 1739. It was extreme- 
 
 FOtLNTAIN OF HERO. 
 
 ly popular at the lime, and for many years was assisted b) 
 lrcqucnt voles of parliament. Similar institutions were pro- 
 jected in other pails of the country; but the Bi urinous in 
 abandonments, and the expense which they OCCa 
 stoned, produced such an alteration In public opinion, that the 
 system of the Foundling Hospital was entirely altered; and, 
 notwithstanding its name, it is now destined merely for the 
 reception Of orphans. Abandoned children in England be 
 come burdens to the' parish in which they are found. 
 
 We may remark, by the way, that the Statements now laid 
 before the reader, as to the mjurious influence of foundling 
 hospitals, strikingly corroborate the principles laid down la 
 the article Foundations, as to the necessity of the legists 
 tun exercising a certain control over the property left to pro- 
 mote what is believed to be at the time a charitable or be- 
 nevolent purpose. (See (lotiraff, Kssai sur U» fin/tSjJ 
 Trouvs, 1819; Quart, liev., vol. xi. ; L'Mbe Gai/lard, 
 lieckerchct, 1837; and the excellent work of Ml -sis. Terme 
 and MonUalcon, already cited, Uittoirt ies Knf. Truucii, 
 18370 
 
 FOUNT. (Fr. for.ds.) The quantity of types of any par- 
 ticular sort in a printing ollice, whether it be gnat or small. 
 Thus a small fount may consist of titty or one hundred 
 pounds weight, eusuuiUng the usual proportion of the various 
 letters of the alphabet; and n large fount of thirty or forty 
 thousand pounds weight, or more. 
 
 FOU'NTALV (Lat. Ions.) By this term is designated 
 any natural or artificial apparatus by means of which water 
 springs up. in natural fountains the ascensional effort is pro- 
 duced by tlie bjrdnstBlfc pie-sure of the water itself; in nrK 
 find fountains it is produced either by the same pn 
 by that of compressed air, or sometimes by machinery. 
 
 The theory of natural fountains is extremely simple, and 
 depends on the well-known property of fluids — lhal, when 
 enclosed in tubes or vessels communicating with one another, 
 lhe fluid rises to the same level in all of them ; and that i;> 
 pressure on the side's of the tube at any point is pro] 
 to the height of the vertical column above that point. Sup 
 pose a b and c d to be two pipes communicating 
 with each other, and that water is poured into 
 • at a ; it will KSOSnd i iiually in both 
 tubes, though they may lie of very different 
 rises, and stand at lhe same level a c. Let us 
 now suppose the tube c d to he cut away at d, «j 
 and let the line /' d be horizontal; then lhe 
 pressure at (/ being the same as at h, the water 
 
 will spring from d with a velocity X — 2y/ g A, >l — 
 
 where g is lhe accelerating force of gravity (equal to 32 feet 
 in a second of time), and h Is the aliunde of the column a b. 
 [See Hydrodynamics.) The water, therefore, If it suffered 
 no resistance from lhe air, or other impediment, would spring 
 up from d to c. 
 
 Now it is precisely on this principle that all natural foun- 
 tains an explained. The rain which falls from the atmo- 
 sphere is absorbed in three different ways. One part of it 
 collects in rills on the surface of the ground ; these unite in 
 stream! or rivulets, which flowing into one another form 
 rivers, and thus it is conveyed to the ocean. A second part 
 is taken up in giving humidity to the soil, from which it is 
 returned to the atmosphere by evaporation. A third portion 
 descends into the earth, through soils of a spongy or porous 
 nature, or through crevices and interstices in the strata, until 
 it meets, frequently at a very considerable depth, with strata 
 through which it cannot penetrate, and is then collected in 
 subterraneous reservoirs. When confined in this manner it 
 is subject to the pressure of the water which lills the channels 
 through which it lias descended; and when this pleasure i 
 sufficient to overcome the resistance of the superincumbent 
 mass of earth, the water breaks the artificial strata, and gush- 
 es forth in a spring. But if the strength of the superincum- 
 bent materials exceed the hydrostatic pressure, the water H ill 
 remain stored up as it were in the subterraneous reservoir. 
 Now if the ground above such a reservoir, or any channel 
 communicating with it, be perforated, the water, having free 
 access to the opening, will rise in it till it attains the level of 
 the highest part of the channels from which it is supplied. 
 If this level is above the surface of the ground, the water will 
 have a tendency to rise ; and when the ascensional force is 
 considerable, it may by proper means be formed into a fount- 
 ain. That subterraneous reservoirs formed in this manner 
 exist in great abundance, and at great depths under the sur- 
 face, we have sufficient evidence in the facility with which 
 water may be obtained in almost all countries from Artesian 
 Well*. 
 
 FOUNTAIN OF HERO. An ingenious hydraulic ma- 
 chine, of which the invention is ascribed to Hero of Alex- 
 andria, who lived about 150 years before our era. Its princi- 
 ple depends on the transmission of the pressure sustained by 
 a body of water in one vessel to that in another by means of 
 the elasticity of air. The essential parts of the apparatus 
 consist of two close v es s el s, A and B, the first placed at 
 some height above the other, and connected by a frame, and 
 
 475 
 
FOUNTAIN. 
 
 of three tubes or pipes, of which the 
 first, a b, descends from a basin C to 
 very near the bottom of the lower 
 vessel B ; the second, c d, rises from 
 the summit of the vessel B to the 
 top of A; the third, ef, rising from 
 the lower part of A to some height 
 above A, and forming the jet at /. 
 Conceive the vessel A to be filled 
 with water, and B with air. In this 
 disposition of the apparatus, let water 
 be poured into the basin C ; this will 
 descend the pipe a b, and gradually 
 fill the vessel B. But as it rises in B the 
 air in that vessel escapes through the 
 pipe c d, and is compressed at the top of A, and, by its spring 
 or elasticity, forces the water fhrotigh the tubes e f, and thus 
 produces a jet at /, which will continue until the vessel A is 
 nearly emptied, or B nearly filled. The force which pro- 
 duces the jet is equal to the pressure of a column of water, 
 the height of which is equal to the difference of the levels 
 of the water in C and B : according to theory, therefore, the 
 water should spout to a height above its level in A equal to 
 that distance. 
 
 The second figure represents the fountain of Hero in an- 
 other form. An apparatus constructed on this principle is 
 employed for draining the water from the mines of Schem- 
 nitz in Hungary. 
 
 Artificial fountains are also produced by means of the elas- 
 ticity of heated air, or of air condensed by any other means. 
 Two different apparatus for this purpose are frequently met 
 with in cabinets of natural philosophy. The 
 first consists of two close vessels of tin, placed 
 the one above the other, the lower one, C D 
 E F, being of a considerable size ; and the 
 upper, A B C D, furnished with a tube or jet, 
 K L, which reaches to near the bottom of the 
 vessel. On applying the heat of a lamp to 
 the lower vessel, the air within it expands, 
 and making its way through the open tube 
 G H is compressed at the top of the vessel 
 A B C D, and thus by its pressure forces the 
 J F water In that vessel through K L, forming a 
 small jet at K. This apparatus being generally constructed in 
 the form of a temple, produces a very pleasing effect. 
 
 The other apparatus to which we have alluded exhibits 
 the appearance of a fire-fountain, and when neatly construct- 
 ed forms an exceedingly elegant toy. On a pedestal of wood 
 or metal, a glass globe with a pretty long neck, from the mid- 
 dle of which spring two branches, A and B, is placed in an 
 inverted position, the globe being first filled with spirits of 
 wine, and the neck well corked. The pressure 
 of the atmosphere prevents the fluid from escap- 
 ing at the orifices of the tubes A and B, while 
 , the temperature is undisturbed ; but on applying 
 , *<Si* i I_ the flame of a taper to the drops which form at 
 these orifices, the globe is heated ; steam is form- 
 ed at the upper part, the elastic force of which 
 JA causes the spirit to spiing from the orifices, and 
 ^/^-^^v- this taking fire heats the globe to a still greater 
 
 degree, and increases the action, so that two 
 
 beautiful jets of burning spirit of wine are produced. As the 
 pressure of steam is very apt to burst the globe, the exhibition 
 of this experiment is attended with some danger. 
 
 FOURTH. In Music, one of the harmonica! intervals; so 
 called because it contains four sounds or terms between its 
 extremes, and three intervals; or as being the fourth in order 
 of the natural or diatonic scale from the fundamental. 
 
 FOVTLLA. In Botany, the matter contained within the 
 grains of pollen. 
 
 FOWLING. The art of catching birds with nets, bird- 
 lime, decoys, or other devices. It is also used for taking 
 birds with hawks, falcons, and other birds of prey; more 
 properly called falconry and hawking. In Latin this sport 
 was called aucupium ; from avis, a bird, and capio, / take. 
 FOX. See Vulpes and Cams. 
 
 Fox. A particular kind of strand made of rope-yarns. 
 FO XGLOVE. The Digitalis purpurea ; a common in- 
 digenous plant, the leaves of which, when carefully dried and 
 powdered, or made into a tincture or infusion, are used in 
 medicine. In small and repeated doses, it lowers the pulse 
 in an extraordinary manner, and produces debility and faint- 
 ing;- combined with other remedies, it forms an ingredient in 
 some powerful diuretics. 
 
 FRACTION, in Arithmetic, is an aliquot part of unity. 
 In order to form a precise idea of a fraction of any unit, we 
 must consider the unit to be divided into a certain whole 
 number of equal parts, of which parts we take one, two, 
 three, &c. : the number of parts so taken is what constitutes 
 the fraction. The expression of a fraction therefore necessa- 
 rily involves two whole numbers ; namely, one to denote the 
 number of parts into which the unit is divided, and the other 
 470 
 
 FRACTION. 
 
 to express how many of these parts are to be taken to form 
 the fraction. The first of these numbers is called the denom- 
 inator, and the second the numerator. Thus, si pen eighths 
 of a foot, five twelfths of a pound are fractions. In the first 
 we suppose the foot or unit to be divided into eight equal 
 parts of which seven are taken ; so that eight is the denomi- 
 nator and seven the numerator. In the second the unit or 
 pound is supposed to be divided into twelve equal parts, of 
 which five are taken ; here twelve is the denominator and 
 five the numerator. From these considerations it results 
 that a fraction is a magnitude referred to a certain part of the 
 principal unit, which part may itself be considered a pa.' fei- 
 ticular kind of unit. Thus the fraction seven eighths of a 
 foot being the same as seven times the eighth part of a foot, 
 this eighth part is a particular unit which the proposed frac- 
 tion contains eight times. Hence two fractions are said to lie 
 of the same kind when their denominators are the same. 
 For example, five twelfVis, six twelfths, eleven twelfths, are 
 fractions of the same kind ; but two thirds and three fourths 
 are fractions of different kinds, because their denominators 
 are different. 
 
 In order to express fractions by the numerical digits, the 
 numerator is placed over the denominator, with a line or bar 
 between them. Thus the fraction three fourths is written 3-4, 
 five twelfths 5-12, &c. Reciprocally 13-15, 17-20, &c, desig- 
 nate the fractions thirteen fifteenths, seventeen twentieths, &c. 
 
 A fraction may also be regarded as the quotient that arises 
 from the division of its numerator by its denominator. For 
 example, the expression seven eighths, or seven times the 
 eighth part of unity, is identical with the expression the eighth 
 part of seven, or seven divided by eight. 
 
 From the definition which we have given of the numera- 
 tor and denominator of a fraction, the following consequen- 
 ces result: — 1. If, without altering the denominator of a frac- 
 tion, we multiply or divide its numerator by any number, the 
 new fraction will be so many times greater or less than the 
 original fraction. 2. If, without altering the numerator, we 
 multiply or divide the denominator of a fraction by any num- 
 ber, the new fraction will be so many times smaller in the 
 former case, and so many times greater in the latter, than the 
 original fraction. 3. The value of a fraction is not altered by 
 multiplying or dividing both numerator and denominator by 
 the same number. It is on these three principles that the 
 practical rules for the addition, subtraction, multiplication, 
 and division of fractions are grounded. 
 
 Addition and Subtraction of Fractions. — In order that two 
 fractions may be added toge'her^or the one subtracted from 
 the other, it is necessary that they both be of the same kind 
 or denomination ; for it is only homogeneous things that ad- 
 mit of amalgamation. The fractions 2-3 and 3-4 cannot lie 
 added together in their present form, because they are of dif- 
 ferent denominations. But fractions can always be reduced 
 to the same denomination, or to a common denominator, by 
 means of the third principle above laid down ; for numbeis 
 can always be chosen such that if we multiply the terms ol 
 each fraction by them severally, the resulting equivalent 
 fractions will have the same denominator. Thus, multiply- 
 ing the terms of the fraction 2 3 by 4, we get the equivalent 
 fraction 8-12; and multiplying the terms of 3 4 by 3, we get 
 the equivalent 9-12. The two proposed fractions are there- 
 fore reduced to the two others, 8-12 and 9-12, the sum of 
 which is 17-12, and the difference 1-12. When any number 
 of fractions are to be added together they are most conve- 
 niently reduced to a common denominator by this rule : — Find 
 the least common multiple of oil the denominators; divide 
 this multiple by each of the denominators one after the oth- 
 er; and multiply the terms of the proposed fractions respect- 
 ively by the corresponding quotients thus found ; the results 
 will be a series of equal fractions, all having the same den< m 
 inator, and this expressed by the lowest possible number 
 When this operation has been performed, the sum or differ 
 ence of the fractions is obtained by placing the sum or differ- 
 ence of their numerators over the common denominator. 
 
 Multiplication of Fractions.— Let it be | multi- 
 
 ply 3-5 by 6-7. As the multiplier 0-7 is equal to six times the 
 seventh part of unit;-, it is obvious that the product must be 
 equal to six limes the seventh part of three-Bfths. Now by 
 the second principle above laid down, the seventh part of 3-5 
 is found by multiplying the denominator by 7; this gives 3-35. 
 And in order to obtain a fraction six times greater than 
 we must multiply the numerator by 0, which gives 18-35 fbr 
 the product required. Hence for the multiplication of frac- 
 tions we have this rule:— Multiply all the numerators to 
 L'cthcr for the numerator of the product, and all the denoaji 
 nators for its denominator. 
 
 As a whole number can always be expressed in the form 
 ef a fraction by placing 1 under it for a denominator, tlii.i 
 rule includes all the different cases. 
 
 Division of Fractions.— -Let it be proposed to divide 3-5 by 
 8-11. Here the divisor 8-11 be'ng equal to eight times the 
 lli'i part of unity, the dividend 3-5 must (from the nature of 
 division) be equal to 8 times the 11th pari of tin' quotient 
 
frIc 
 
 CTURK 
 
 3'it, by the second principle, the 8th part of 3-5 is 3-40, there- 
 iixt 3 40 is the llih part of the quotient required; conse- 
 quently 11 times 3-4U, or 33-40, is the quotient itself. Hence 
 we deduce the general rule lor the division of one fraction by 
 another: Multiply the numerator of the dividend by the de- 
 nominator of the divisor, the product will be the numerator 
 of the quotient ; and multiply the denominator of the dividend 
 by the numerator of the divisor, the product will give the de- 
 nominator of the quotient required. It is obvious that this 
 amounts to the same thing as to invert the terms of the divi- 
 sor, and then proceed as in multiplication. 
 
 Fractional expressions are divided into several kinds: — 
 proper and improper, simple and compound. A proper frac- 
 tion is one whose numerator is less than its denominator, 
 and its rolue consequently less than unity. An improper 
 fractwn \- one whose numerator is equal to or greater than 
 ils denominator, and its value consequently equal to or great- 
 er titan unity. A simple fraction is an expression consisting 
 of one fraction only. A compound fraction is a fraction of a 
 fraction, or a fractional part of some whole or mixed number. 
 And a mind number is an expression constating of a whole 
 and a fraction. 
 
 The fraction* of which we have now spoken are common 
 or vulgar fractions; when the denominators are 10, 100, or 
 in general any power of 10, they become decimal fractions, 
 il Ijv a different notation. See De< iM.a. 
 
 FRAVTURE. ('hat. frango, / break.) In Mineralogy, 
 win -.1 mineral! are broken, they either exhibit a smooth reg- 
 ular surface, to which the term cleavage is generally ap- 
 plied : or tiny give an irregular or uneven surface, termed n 
 fracture Werner, who tirst employed this character in his 
 iption of minerals, divides their various fractures into 
 compact, fibrous, radiated, and foliated. The terms earthy, 
 granular, uneven, hackly, and splint/ nj. the meanings of 
 will be sufficiently obvious, arc employed by other 
 mineral 
 
 Fracturb. In Surgery, this term is limited to broken 
 Such accidi alt of external 
 
 : hut it occasionally happens that the powerful action 
 of certain muscles may cause a fracture, as is frequently the 
 case in regard to the patella or knee-pan. Fractures are dis- 
 tinguished by Burgeons into transverse, oblique, and longitu- 
 dinal, di peinlnig upon the direction in which the bone is bro- 
 ken; ai.d into simple and compound, dependant upon the cir- 
 cumstances with which the injury is accompanied. "By 
 simple fracture surgeons mean a suddenly formed breach in 
 the continuity of one or more bones, without any external 
 wound eomnronleating internally with the fracture; by a 
 ui,l fracture they signify the same sort of injury of a 
 bone or bones, attended with a laceration of the integuments, 
 which laceration may be produced by the protrusion of one 
 or both ends of the fracture through the skin, or by a ball or 
 body which enters or Otherwise wounds the soft parts 
 ■i the same moment that it breaks the hone." 
 
 The history and treatment of fractures is an extensive nnd 
 importanl department of surgery, upon which several treali- 
 i wi itten by very eminent practitioners. An ex- 
 le on the subject will be found in Cooper's Sur- 
 innj, from which work we have borrowed the 
 lion. 
 
 PRAISE. In Fortification, a kind of defence which is 
 formed by driving pointed stakes at a small angle with the 
 i I into the retrenchment of a camp, &c. 
 
 FRAMBfE'SIA. (Framboise, a raspberry.) The vaws; 
 a disease endemic in the Antilles and some parts of Africa, 
 which is attended by cuticular excrescences something like 
 mulberries, which discharge a watery fluid. It is conta- 
 gious, but not dangerous. 
 
 FRAMING. (Sax. framman, to ftrm.) In Architecture, 
 tiie rough timber-work of a house, including floors, roof; par- 
 titions, ceilings, and beams. Generally, any pieces of wood 
 fitted together with mortices and tenons are said to bo fra- 
 med ; as doors, sash frames, sashes, &c. 
 
 FRA NCIIISE. In Law, a species of ircorporeal heredi- 
 tament, synonymous with liberty, which is defined "A royal 
 privilege, or branch of the king's prerogative, subsisting in the 
 hands of a subject. For an account of the nature of the 
 electice franchise, see Parliament. 
 
 FRANCTSCANS. One of the four Mendicant Orders, 
 founded by St. Francis of Assisi.in Umbria, in the year 1209. 
 See art. Orders, Mendicant. 
 
 FRANK. A coin in use in France, equivalent to 9.69d. 
 See Money. 
 
 Frank. A privilege enjoyed by the members of both 
 houses of Parliament, some government offices, and certain 
 public functionaries, of sending and receiving a certain num- 
 ber of letters post free ; abolished Jan. 10, 1840. See Post- 
 
 AOE. 
 
 FRANK ALEU. In Law, an absolute right to real estate 
 .n Lower Canada; and also in Guernsey and Jersey, ac- 
 knowledging no feudal superior, and consequently not a ten- 
 ure. See Allodium. 
 
 FRECKLES. 
 
 FRANKALMOIGN. (From two Norman French words, 
 signifying free alms.) In Law, a tenure by spiritual service, 
 where tin ecclesiastical corporation, sole "or aggregate, hold 
 land to them and their successors of some lord and his heirs 
 in free and perjictual alms. Donations in Frankalmoign are 
 now out of use, as none but the king can make them ; but 
 thev were expressly excepted from the operation of staL 13, 
 
 C - C. '2i. 
 
 FRANKINCENSE (said to be SO called from .ts liberal .lis 
 tribufjon of odour). The gum-resin olibanum, which is the 
 produce of the Bostccllia serrata, and imported from the Le- 
 vant, bears the commercial name of frankincense. When it 
 is burned, or sprinkled upon hot coals, it exhales a very fra- 
 grant nnd diffusible odour. 
 
 FRANKPLEDGE, or FREEBORG (German, burge, 
 pledge). A celebrated Anglo-Saxon usage, which appears 
 to have been of two kinds. 1. That which may be termed 
 seigniorial frankpledge, by which every lord (hlaford) was 
 rendered responsible for the appearance of his own men or 
 dependants, when accused before justice, in the hundred 
 court; when, if the party ahsroniied, the lord became liable 
 to the king in the amount of the "were" or amercement for 
 the offence. 2. Collective or puhlic frankpledge, which is 
 the sense in which the word is most commonly used by mod 
 em writers, is of very ilaxfinj origin, but app e a rs to have ex- 
 isted after the Conquest in the southern and eastern parts of 
 England. The burghers and cruris, or inferior class of free- 
 men, were enrolled in small collective bodies tamed tytbingi 
 or decennaries (in many instances equivalent to the' town- 
 ships), under the superintend! in e of a chief pledge or ty thing- 
 man. The tything thus organized was bound for the ap- 
 pearance of any one of its members under accusation. The 
 "view of frankpledge" originated in the usage of calling to- 
 gether the individuals who were enrolled in each of th'-.-e 
 bodies at certain staled times; which were Usually held at 
 the court leet, but were not (as Blackstone states it) the main 
 object of that institution, since courts leet were held from an 
 early jieriod in the northern parts of England, in which frank- 
 pledge never existed, as well as in the southern. On the 
 view of frankpledge, the members of each tything also tool 
 the oath of allegiance under the Norman kings. (See Tur- 
 ner's JInglo-Sazons ; Sir F. Palgrave's Commonwealth of 
 England; and art. Court Leet.) 
 
 FRANKS. A general appellation conferred by the Turk* 
 and other Asiatic nations on all the Inhabitants of Europe. 
 
 FRATE'RCULA. The generic name for the puffins. See 
 Mormon. 
 
 FRATERNITIES, were associations of laymen in the 
 middle Ages formed for the purposes of general benevolence, 
 and for the discharge of other Christian duties. 
 
 FRAUD, in Law, is the general name for any species of 
 deceit in contracts, either by suppression of truth or assertion 
 of falsehood. The most complete definition of it is that given 
 by Forbes: — "Dolnm malum esse omnem calliditatem, ful- 
 laciam, mnchinationem, an circumveniendum, fallendum, 
 decipiendum alterum adhihitum." (Story's Commentaries 
 on Equity Jurisprudence.) With a view to the provisions of 
 the English law, frauds may be divided into such as are cog- 
 nizable by courts of common law, such as are cognizable in 
 equity only, and such as arc expressly provided against by 
 statutes. It has been laid down as a general principle, that 
 courts of common law can relieve against the consequences 
 of fraud (by making contracts void, fcc.) as well as courts of 
 equity, wherever the fraud is clearly established; and that 
 their inadequacy to pfovide a proper remedy arises only from 
 their inability to attain the necessary evidence. But how- 
 ever this may be, it has long been a general principle, that 
 courts of equity, in the language of Lord Coke, have juris- 
 diction over frauds, covin, and deceits, for which there is no 
 remedy by the ordinary course of law. Hence arises one of 
 the three great branches of equity jurisdiction — trust, fraud, 
 account. (See Chancellor.) The general principles of, 
 that jurisdiction appear to be, that the courts will relieve, by 
 considering acts as performed of which the performance has 
 been fraudulently prevented ; by Mtting aside bai gains made 
 in ignorance of rights, or where there is material conceal- 
 ment of title, value, &c. ; or, finally, misrepresentation in 
 material particulars. Various acts have been made fraudu- 
 lent, so as to produce the consequence of annulling contracts 
 and avoiding conveyances by statutes: e. g., conveyances 
 with intent to defraud creditors, by 13 Eliz.,c. 5; voluntary 
 conveyances, 27 Eliz.,c. 4; various contracts, conveyances, 
 &c. not executed with the formalities required by the Statute 
 of Frauds, 29, C 2, c. 3. Some frauds are of a criminal na- 
 ture, and punishable by indictment; but they nre chiefly 
 such as affect the public, or such as are effected by means 
 of false tokens. 
 
 FRE'CKLES. Small yellow specks and spots which ap- 
 pear upon the face, especially of fair persons much exposed 
 to the weather. The best application is a dilute spirituous 
 lotion (one part of brandy to eight of water), with a few 
 drops of muriatic acid, so as to render it just perceptibly sour. 
 
 477 
 
FREEBOOTERS. 
 
 FREE'BOOTERS. (Germ, freibeuters, Fr. flibustiers.) 
 A name given to tome adventurers of all nations, but espe- 
 cially of France and England, who have obtained a place in 
 history by the courage and intrepidity which they displayed 
 in executing the most difficult enterprises. The origin of 
 their history is merged in obscurity, and it is impossible to 
 ascertain precisely whence their name is derived; but the 
 flibustiers of the French naval historians are identical with 
 '.he buccaneers of our own language. (See Buccaneers.) 
 The South American islands formed the chief theatre of 
 :heir depredations; and such was the relentless hostility 
 with which they visited the Spaniards, that during the latter 
 half of the seventeenth century, which embraced Uie most 
 formidable period of the freebooter's career, their commercial 
 oi>erations in the Indian seas were nearly destroyed. At the 
 commencement of the 18th century, the freebooters sustained 
 in their expedition a series of disasters, which sensibly di- 
 minished their numbers ; and since that period the designa- 
 tion has been applied indiscriminately to any individual who 
 regards "the universe as his property," and appropriates to 
 himself either furtively or forcibly the possessions of another. 
 FREE'HOLD, in Law, is a term which is used in two dif- 
 ferent senses : 1. To express the quantity of estate which a man 
 may have in lands or tenements ; and, 2. To express a tenure 
 by which lands and tenements are held. Thus, an estate of 
 freehold, to satisfy the full acceptance of the term, must be 
 both sufficient in quantity of interest and sufficient in tenure. 
 1. As to quantity of interest, all estates for a term uncer- 
 tain in duration are estates of freehold ; and they are divided 
 into estates of inheritance, and not of inheritance. The first 
 of these are either absolute (fee-simple) or limited (fee-tail, 
 or fee-simple conditional). The second are estates for life, 
 or for an uncertain period limited within the term of a life; 
 as, an estate granted to a widow durante viduitate. Such 
 estate) as this are by the law regarded as estates for life, de- 
 terminable on a given event. 2. With respect to tenure, 
 freehold tenure is derived from the ancient free socage; and 
 lands held by copy of court roll according to the custom of 
 a manor, viz., copyholds, are not within this denomination. 
 But lands held by custom of the manor, not by copy of court 
 roll, are not copyholds, but customary freeholds. 
 
 In order, therefore, to give the privileges or impose the du- 
 ties attached by tile law to freeholders (such as serving on 
 juries, voting at county elections, &c), the estate in respect 
 of which such right or duty attaches must be either for life 
 or a greater interest, and must be held in freehold tenure. 
 
 FREEMA'SONRY. A well-known institution, the origin 
 of which has given rise to much fabulous narrative and idle 
 speculation. Some derive the mysteries of Freemasonry 
 from those of the priests of Eleusis, and these again from 
 Egypt; others from the secret associations of the Templars. 
 (See Templars, Baphomet.) The last opinion was illus- 
 trated at great length by M. Barruel (Mcmoires du Jacobin- 
 isme), who conceived both Freemasons and Jacobins to be 
 the relics of a long-established conspiracy for the subversion 
 of religions and empires. But our distinct historical infor- 
 mation merely amounts to this, that the fraternity of archi- 
 tects or builders in the middle ages extended over all Catho- 
 lic countries, and was especially patronized by the see of 
 Rome. It is to this craft that we owe the magnificent Gothic 
 edifices dedicated to religion, which contrast so strongly with 
 the barbarous efforts of those ages in most other departments 
 of art. It is said that this association was introduced into 
 Scotland in the 13th century, and about the same time into 
 England, it being ascertained that the Abbey of Kilwinning 
 in the former country was raised by this fraternity; and it 
 is believed to have continued to exist, nlthough small in 
 number, in these two countries after it had disappeared from 
 the Continent. The Kilwinning and York lodges are re- 
 spectively the most ancient in either country. But the mode 
 and period in which the association became changed from a 
 mere professional fraternity to a society of persons of all de- 
 scriptions connected by secret symbols, is unknown. It cer- 
 ' tainly excited great attention, and numbered individuals of 
 liiili rank as honorary members, as early as the 15th cen- 
 tury. The Scottish masons appointed St. Clair of Roslin as 
 their hereditary grand-master in 1630; and the office was re- 
 signed by his descendant in 1736, when the grand lodge of 
 Scotland was instituted. In 1725, the first French lodge was 
 established; in 1730, the first American; in 1735, the first 
 German. From that period until the present, while the so- 
 ciety has existed among ourselves as a mere convivial and 
 benevolent association, and has been patronized even by 
 royalty and the nobility, it has been subjected on the Conti- 
 nent to a variety of suspicions; and it is most probable that 
 political intriguers have availed themselves of the secrecy 
 alfbrded by it to further their schemes. Indeed, in this coun- 
 try, the " Royal Arch" degree is said to have been devised 
 by the Scottish Jacobites. Pope Clement XII. excommuni- 
 cated the Freemasons in Spain and Portugal : until recent 
 events, their name was synonymous with that of deists and 
 revolutionists. But the most singular chapter in the history 
 478 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 of the society relates to its fortunes in America ; where 
 has given origin to two violent political parties. The story 
 of the abduction and murder of a certain William Morgan, 
 suspected of having revealed the secrets of the fraternity, 
 made a great sensation in the Union, and is not cleared up 
 atthis day. The reader will find it detailed and Commented 
 on in Miss Martineau's recent work. (See Laurie's Histo- 
 ry of Freemasonry, Edin., 1804; Jlndcrson's ditto; Preston's 
 Illustrations of Masonry ; the Freemason's Quarterly Mag 
 azine ; the German Frcimaurer Encyclopedic, &.c.) 
 
 FREE THINKER. A term, usually of reproach, applied 
 to those who reject the ordinary modes of thinking in mat 
 ters of religion. It is almost synonymous with Deis'. 
 which see. 
 
 FREEZING. See Frost. 
 
 FREEZING MIXTURES. When five parts of jiowdeh 
 ed nitre and five of powdered sa! ammoniac are mixed with 
 sixteen parts of water, the thermometer falls in the mixture 
 from 50° to about 10°; so that in this way a degree of cold 
 much below the freezing point of water may be artificially 
 and cheaply obtained, for the salts may be again procured by 
 evaporation and used repeatedly. When ice or snow can 
 be obtained, the most effective freezing mixture is produced 
 by mixing it with about half its weight of salt; it carries the 
 thermometer nearly to 0°. The utmost degree of cold pro- 
 duced by the skilful combination of the best freezing mix- 
 tures has not exceeded 140° below 0° 
 
 FREIGHT. In Mercantile Law, the sum paid by the 
 merchant or other person hiring a ship, or part of a ship, for 
 the use of such ship or part for a specified voyage, or for a 
 specified time. Freight must be mentioned, eo nomine, in a 
 policy of insurance, and is not covered by a policy on goods. 
 
 FRE'SCO PAINTING. (It. fresco, fresh.) In Painting, 
 a method of painting by incorporating the colours with plas- 
 ter before it is dry, by which it becomes as permanent as the 
 wall itself. This method of painting is extremely ancient 
 It was used by the Greeks, and can be traced even to Egypt. 
 From difficulty of alteration when the colour is once absorb- 
 ed, the greatest precision of design is necessary before com 
 mencing the work. 
 
 FRET, or FRETTE. (Etymology doubtful.) In Archi 
 tecture, a species of ornament consisting of one or more 
 small fillets meeting in vertical _— . __. _ — 
 and horizontal directions. The (ffl fpj T Jl^yjSC 
 section of the channels be- J ^^ L^- 1 g^ ^EMa 
 tween the fillets is rectangular. The subjoined diagram 
 shows two sorts of simple frets; but they are often much 
 more complicated. 
 
 FRETS. The cross bars on the finger boards of stringed 
 instruments of ivory' or brass, by pressure whereon with the 
 finger the string is stopped to produce a certain note in the 
 scale. The use of frets is still continued on the Spanish gui- 
 tar, and was formerly in constant use upon what was called 
 the bass-viol for learners, and taken off when they had 
 learned by practice to measure the accurate distance of the 
 stops. On lutes and viols they were always permitted to 
 remain. 
 
 FRIAR. (Lat. frater, brother.) A brother or member of 
 any religious order; but more exclusively applied to those 
 of the Mendicant Orders, of which the four chief were the 
 Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustines. See 
 Orders, Mendicant. 
 
 FRI'CTION. (Lat. frico, / rub.) In Mechanics, the re- 
 sistance produced by the rubbing of the surfaces of two solid 
 bodies against each other. If the surfaces of bodies were 
 perfectly smooth and polished, they would slide along one 
 another without Buffering any resistance from their contact, 
 and all the simple relations between power and resistance 
 determined by theory in respect of the different machines 
 would hold good without any modification whatever. But 
 this state of perfect polish never exists. The surfaces of all 
 bodies with which we are acquainted, even when most care- 
 fully polished,, retain a greater or less degree of asperity, 
 which prevents them from sliding over one another without 
 impediment; and in many cases the resistance thus created 
 amounts to a large proportion of the whole resistance to be 
 overcome. In order, therefore, to ascertain the real value 
 of the effect of powers applied to machinery, it is necessary 
 to determine the amount of the friction, and to add this new 
 resistance to that which is given by the theory of mechanics. 
 
 The determination of the laws of friction, and its amount 
 with respect to particular substances, have occupied the at 
 tention of many experimental philosophers and mathemati- 
 cians, as Amontons, Elder, Desaguliers, Vince, &c. ; but the 
 first complete set of experiments on the subject was made by 
 Coulomb about the year 1780. His results, though they 
 have been partly modified by subsequent experiments, throw 
 much light upon the subject, and are of great value to the 
 practical engineer. 
 
 There are two modes by which the nature and operation 
 of friction may be ascertained. The first is very simple, and 
 consists in merely placing a heavy body W on a horizontal 
 
FRICTION. 
 
 ,i..uie A 15, and elevating the end of the plane till the body 
 begins to slide. When this motion commences, it is evident 
 th.it the force of gravity just begin to ex- 
 ceed the resistance occasioned by the 
 friction ; and as the gravity is known from 
 the weight of the body and the inclination 
 of the plane, we have thus the means of 
 comparing the friction with a given force. For let A E be 
 Irawit perpendicular to the horizontal line C B ; then, since 
 he weight, the friction, and the pressure make equilibrium, 
 f we take A B to represent the weight YV, the force down 
 lie plane (which is equal to the friction) will be represented 
 iv A F, and the pressure perpendicular to the plane by B E. 
 Benee, putting P = the pressure, F = the friction, and i = 
 A B C, the inclination of the plane, we have P = VV cos. t, 
 F = VV sin. t, and consequently F = P tan. i. The angle i 
 is called the limiting angle of resistance; and tan. i, or the 
 ratio of friction to pressure, is called the co-efficient of fric- 
 tion. 
 
 Bat this method is liable to some uncertainty. Most bod- 
 ies, after having been in contact for HUM lime, require a 
 greater force to originate than to keep Dp ptUUCalve mo- 
 tion ; but it is obvious that the inclination of the plane of 
 descent marks only the initial obstruction. Coulomb ac- 
 cordingly adopted a ditlerent mode of proceeding. His gen- 
 eral method was to draw a sort of loaded sledge along a 
 horizontal bench, by means of weights placed in a dish at- 
 tached to the sledge by a cord passing over a pulley. The 
 sledge was mounted on sliders or the mhitance on which the 
 experiment! were to be made; and corresponding slips of 
 the same or a ditlerent substance placed under the sliders on 
 the beach. This apparatus lias been called a tribometer. 
 The following are some of the results which were obtained : 
 . Winning the pressure as equal to KM) parts the friction 
 of oak against fir was CO in the direction of the fibres, but 
 amounted only to J6 when moved with the velocity of a foot 
 each second; the friction of oak against oak In the direction 
 of the florae was 43, and across them only 27, the elTect being 
 still reduced by motion to 10 ; the friction of fir against tir in 
 the direction of the fibres was 5<>, which sunk to 17 during 
 motion; the friction of elm against elm in the direction of 
 the tiliics was 40, and reduced by motion to 10. On the 
 band, the friction of copper upon oak, lengthwise, was 
 S at the commencement of the motion, but increased to 18 
 when the velocity was a foot in a second ; the friction of 
 iron iqkjn oak with the initial velocity was 11, and was in- 
 creased by the motion to 18. But the mutual friction of 
 metals appeared in general to be scarcely, if at all, affected 
 by motion. In these experiments no unguents were used. 
 
 Where metals rub against wood, it is necessary that the two 
 bodies continue longer in contact. In order that the friction 
 •nay acquire its maximum. In the ease of iron against wood 
 at least 4 or 5 hours must elapse before the momentary in- 
 crease of friction disappears ; whereas in the case of wood 
 -t wood a single minute was sufficient. But the resist- 
 ance appears to increase by contact, though less sensibly, 
 even for several days. The application of grease to the sur- 
 faces of wood produces a similar effect, and the resistance 
 does not attain its maximum till after a very considerable 
 time. At the end of 5 or 6 days the resistance is perhaps 14 
 times greater than it was at the first instant, if the surface of 
 contact is considerable in respect of the pressure; but when 
 the surface is small, the friction reaches its maximum much 
 more quickly. 
 
 An important part of the investigation was to ascertain 
 whether the friction is increased by the velocity of the rub- 
 bing Ixslies. With respect to bodies of the same kind de- 
 scending on inclined planes, Coulomb found that the lime 
 required for pairing over the first half was a little more than 
 double that required for passing over the second. But a 
 body put in motion by a constant accelerating force employs 
 for passing over one space, and over two equal consecutive 
 . times that are to each other in the ratio of y/l : ^/2 
 =100 : 142 ; that is to say, if 100 units of time are consumed 
 in pacing over the first space, 142 will be consumed in pass- 
 ing over the first and second together, and consequently 42 
 in passing over the second. Now this agrees as nearly as 
 lie with the result of the experiments; consequently we 
 infer that a load drawn along a smooth plane by a constant 
 accelerating force (that of a descending weight for example) 
 is uniformly accelerated. But this requires that the friction, 
 at every instant, destroys only a proportional quantity of the 
 force ndded by the constant action of gravity. The conclu- 
 sion, therefore, Is, that, for moderate velocities at least, the 
 resistance due to friction is a constant quantity, and very 
 nearly the same for every degree of velocity. 
 
 Another point of great importance was to ascertain the 
 relation the friction bears to the pressure; for example, in 
 what ratio the friction is increased by doubling or trebling 
 the load. Coulomb found that when wood has been allow- 
 'd to rest on wood for some time, without the intervention 
 any unguent, the resistance occasioned by the friction is 
 
 proportional to the pressure. This resistance for a short time 
 increases rapidly by the contact, but attains its maximum in 
 a few minutes. The friction of wood sliding on wood with 
 any velocity is still proportional to the pressure; but the re- 
 sistance is much less in amount than that which is required 
 to detach the surfaces after some minutes of contact. In the 
 case of oak, for instance, the force required to detach the 
 surfaces after being some minutes in repose is to that which 
 is necessary to overcome friction alone after motion has 
 commenced in the ratio of 100 to 23. The friction of metals 
 on metals is also proportional to the pressure ; but the inten- 
 sity is the same, whether the surfaces have been any length 
 of time in contact, at rest, or are gliding along with a uui 
 form velocity. 
 
 The friction of heterogeneous substances, as wood and the 
 metals, is entirely ditlerent from the above. In the case of 
 wood against wood dry, or of metal against metal, the fric 
 lion of the rabbjng bodies is very little influenced by the 
 velocity; but in the present case the friction increase- 
 sensibly with an augmented velocity. Coulomb Inferred 
 that the friction increased as the natural numbers, when the 
 velocities are increased as the squares of those numbers. In 
 all cases of a hard body rubbing against a very soft sub- 
 stance, the friction increases remarkably with the velocity. 
 
 8ince the friction is in general proportional to the pressure, 
 it follows that it will not be altered by increasing or dimin- 
 ishing the extent of the rubbing surfaces. Nevertheless :los 
 
 • pience fails in the extreme cases. The friction ; 
 sibly diminished when the surl'ares In action are reduced to 
 the smallest dimensions. Thus, while the friction of a ruler 
 of brass against a similar one of iron is expressed by 90, i: 
 was found to be only 17 after the sledge had been mounted 
 on 4 round-headed brass nails. 
 
 On the whole, the following conclusions may be stated OS 
 the general results of Coulomb's experiments respecting the 
 friction of bodies sliding on rcirli other. 
 
 1. Between similar snkstaaees, under similar circumstan- 
 ces, friction is a constant retarding force. 2. Friction is 
 greatest between bodies whose surfaces are rough, and is 
 lessened by polishing them. 3. It is greater between surfa- 
 ces composed of the same material, than between the sur- 
 faces of hiitfirogrmi I. If the rubbing surfaces 
 remain the same, the Motion Increases directly as the pies- 
 sure. 5. If the pressure continue the same, the friction Ins 
 no relation to the magnitude of the surface. 6. The appli- 
 cation of grease in general diminishes the friction, though in 
 verv ditlerent degrees. 
 
 The obstruction which a cylinder meets with in rolling along 
 a smooth plane is quite distinct In its character, and fur inte- 
 rior in ita amount, to that which is produced by the friction 
 of the same cylinder drawn lengthwise along a plane. For 
 example, in the case of wood rolling on wood, the resistance 
 is to the pressure, if the cylinder be small, as 16 or 18 to 
 1000: and if the cylinder be large, this may be reduced to 6 
 to 1000. The friction from sliding, in the same cases, would 
 be to the pressure as 2 to 10, or 3 to 10, according to the na- 
 ture of the wood. Hence, by causing one body to roll on 
 another, the resistance is diminished from 12 to 20 times. It 
 is therefore a principle in the composition of machines thai 
 attrition should be avoided as much as possible, .and rolling 
 motions substituted whenever circumstances admit. 
 
 On this principle depends the advantages resulting from 
 the application of friction wheels and friction rollers. The 
 extremity of an axle C, instead of 
 resting in a cylindrical socket, is made 
 to rest on the circumferences of two 
 wheels, A and B, to the axles of , 
 which, a and b, the friction is trans- / c f~~\ I 
 (erred, and consequently diminished \ \_J \ J \_^ - 
 in the ratio of the radios of the wheel 
 A to the ruilius of the axle a. This 
 ingenious contrivance appears to have first been applied by 
 Henry Sully, in the year 1710. (Descr. Abrcgic d'une Hor 
 oge. fcc, Bordeaux, 1716.) 
 
 The following are deductions from Coulomb's experiments 
 relative to the friction of rolling bodies: 1. Like the friction 
 of sliding bodies, it is a constant force. 2. It is aflected by 
 the nature of the surface so far as polish is concerned ; but 
 is not lessened by the interposition of unctuous substances. 
 3. It is less between heterogeneous than between homogene- 
 ous substances. 4. It is directly proportional to the pressure. 
 5. It has no relation to the magnitude of the surface. 6. It 
 is much less than in the case of sliding surfaces, and varies 
 in the inverse ratio of the diameter of the rolling body. 
 
 The friction of the axle of a wheel or pulley (whether 
 the axle itself turns, or the wheel turns on the axle) is of a 
 different kind from that of a cylinder rolling on a plane. It 
 is less than that of sliding but greater than that of rolling 
 bodies, and follows In all respects the laws of the friction of 
 sliding bodies. A great advantage Is here obtained by grea- 
 sing the surfaces. By the application of fresh tallow the 
 friction is reduced to one half. 
 
 47« 
 
FRICTION-WHEELS. 
 
 Friction is one of the most effectual means of arresting 
 motion. In some machines, especially wind-mills, cranes, 
 &c, it is very important to have 
 the power of suddenly stopping 
 the machine, or tit least of con- 
 trolling its motion. This is ef- 
 fected by means of a strong 
 bridle of wood or iron, a, b, c, 
 fixed at one end, and at the 
 other furnished with a lever, by 
 pressing on which, the bridle is 
 brought into close contact with 
 the broad rim of a wheel which 
 participates in the general motion of the machine. The bri- 
 dle may be made to bear on the whole circumference of the 
 wheel ; and a moderate pressure on the lever will produce 
 a resistance sufficient to destroy the motion almost instanta- 
 neously. 
 
 Coulomb's experiments were also directed to ascertain the 
 resistance arising from the rigidity of ropes when bent 
 round rollers or cylinders. The results are as follow: 1. 
 The resistance of ropes are directly proportional to the ten- 
 sions to which they are subjected. 2. The resistance in- 
 creases with some determinate power of the diameter, and 
 is greatest in ropes that have been strongly twisted, or are 
 coated with tar. 3. The resistances are inversely as the di- 
 ameters of the cylinders about which the ropes are bent. 
 
 When a rope is wound more than once round a cylinder, 
 the resistance increases in a geometrical progression. This 
 principle is frequently applied in practice: thus, in arresting 
 the progress of a vessel, a rope is wound round a post, and 
 a very few turns is sufficient to overcome any force which 
 the rope is capable of withstanding. 
 
 A valuable series of experiments on friction was made 
 some years ago by Mr. George Rennie, the details of which 
 rue given in the Phil. Trans, for 1829. The following are a 
 few of the results : Assuming as before the pressure equal to 
 100 parts, the friction of steel upon ice is 1-4 ; ice upon ice 
 2-8; hard wood upon hard wood 13; brass upon wrought 
 iron 135 ; soft steel upon soft steel 14-6 ; leather upon iron 
 25; granite upon granite 30; yellow deal upon yellow deal 
 35; sandstone upon sandstone 36 ; woollen cloth upon wool- 
 len cloth 43. Some of the conclusions deduced by Mr. Ren- 
 nie are as follow: 1. In fibrous substances, such as cloth, 
 friction is increased by surface and time, and diminished by 
 pressure and velocity. 2. In harder substances, such as 
 woods, metals, and stones, the friction is directly as the 
 pressure, without regard to surface, time, or velocity. 3. 
 Friction is greatest with soft, and least with hard substances. 
 4. The effect of unguents is as the nature of the unguents, 
 with reference to the substances to which they are applied. 
 In the Memoires de V Institut for 1833, two very extensive 
 sets of experiments are described, which were made by M. 
 Morin, at Mctz, under the auspices of the French government, 
 for the purpose of verifying or correcting the results of Cou- 
 lomb. In general, M. Morin's results differ widely in abso- 
 lute amount from those of Coulomb, giving in some instances 
 ratios three times as great; but they point to, and indeed 
 fully establish, the same general conclusions. See Coulomb, 
 Th orie des Machines Simples (Paris, 1821), and Mem. des 
 Savans Etrangcrs, torn. ix. and x. ; Ximenes, Teoria e 
 Practica delle Resist, de Solidi ne , loro Attriti (Pisa, 1782) ; 
 Vince, Phil. Trans., 1785 ; Rennie, Phil. Trans., 1829 ; 
 Morin, Mem. de V Institut, 1833 ; Ency. Brit., art. " Mechan- 
 ics," &c. 
 FRICTION-WHEELS. See the preceding article. 
 FRI'DAY. (Gcrm.Frcitag.) The sixth day of the week. 
 The name is derived from Freya or Friga, a Saxon goddess. 
 It is a fast day in the Romish church. 
 
 FRIE'NDEY SOCIETIES, or BENEFIT SOCIETIES. 
 Voluntary associations of subscribers, for the purpose of form- 
 ing a fund for the assistance of members in sickness, or other 
 occasions of distress. It is supposed by Mr. Turner (in his 
 History of the Anglo-Saxons), that the ancient guilds origi- 
 nated in associations of this description. " Of the various 
 means that have been suggested in this view, and for ena- 
 bling the poor to provide a resource against sickness and old 
 age, none seem so likely to accomplish their object as the in- 
 stitution of friendly societies and savings' banks. The for- 
 mer are founded on a principle of mutual insurance. Each 
 member contributes a certain sum, by weekly, monthly, or an- 
 nual subscriptions, while he is in health ; and receives from 
 the society a certain pension or allowance when he is incapaci- 
 tated for work by accident, sickness, or old age. Nothing, it 
 is obvious, can be more unexceptionable than the principle 
 of these associations. Owing to the general exemption from 
 sickness until a comparatively late period of life, if a number 
 of individuals under 30 or 35 years of age form themselves 
 into a society, and subscribe each a small sum from their 
 surplus earnings, they are able to secure a comfortable pro- 
 vision for themselves in the event of their becoming unfit for 
 labour. Any single individual who should trust to his own 
 480 
 
 FRIGID ZONE. 
 
 isolated efforts would plainly be placed in an infinitely more 
 hazardous position. Whenever an unfavourable contingency 
 exists, the best and cheapest way of obviating its effects is by 
 uniting with others, each subjecting himself to a small priva- 
 tion, so that none may be overwhelmed by any great ca- 
 lamity. However industrious and frugal, an individual, not 
 a member of a friendly society, might not be able to insure 
 his independence; inasmuch as the occurrence of any acci- 
 dent, or an obstinate fit of sickness, might, by throwing him 
 out of employment, and forcing him to consume the savings 
 he had accumulated against old age, reduce him to a state 
 of indigence, and oblige him to become dependant on the 
 bounty of others. Hence the paramount utility of the socie- 
 ties in question. 
 
 u For these and other reasons," says Mr. M'Culloch, " we 
 are glad to find that friendly societies have been very widely 
 introduced. There were enrolled from the first of January, 
 1793, to the commencement of 1832, no fewer than 19,783 
 such societies; of which 16,596 were in England, 769 in 
 Wales, 2144 in Scotland, and 274 in Ireland. The societies 
 existing in 1815 are said to have comprised 925,429 individu- 
 als. We have, however, some doubts as to the authenticity 
 of this statement ; but, if it may be depended on, the socie- 
 ties now in existence must comprise above 1,200,000 mem- 
 bers ! It should also be recollected that the progress of these 
 societies, though great, and most honourable to the labouring 
 population of Great Britain, has been not a little counteracted 
 by the ignorance and mismanagement of their officers, and 
 by the real difficulty of establishing them on a secure founda- 
 tion. The great error has consisted in their fixing too high a 
 scale of allowances. At their first institution they are ne- 
 cessarily composed of members in the prime of life ; there is, 
 therefore, comparatively little sickness and mortality among 
 them. In consequence their funds rapidly accumulate; and 
 they are naturally tempted to give too large an allowance to 
 those members who are occasionally incapacitated. But the 
 circumstances under which the society is placed at an ad- 
 vanced period are materially different. Sickness and mor- 
 tality are then comparatively prevalent. The contributions 
 to the fund decline at the time that the outgoings increase ; 
 and it has not unfrequently happened that the society has 
 become altogether bankrupt; and that the oldest members 
 have been left, at the close of a long life, destitute of ail sup- 
 port from a fund on which they had relied, and to which 
 they had largely contributed. 
 
 "But the errors in the constitution of friendly bjcietiea 
 have been, in a great degree, amended. Variola efforts, 
 several of which have been productive of beneficial effects, 
 have been made by private individuals and associations, and 
 by the legislature, to obviate the chances of their failure, and 
 to encourage their formation on sound principles. Two re- 
 ports, by committees of the House of Commons, on the laws 
 respecting friendly societies, printed in 1825 and 1827, supply 
 a great deal of important and useful information ; and the 
 reports and tables published by the Highland Society are 
 also valuable. There are, doubtless, several important points 
 that still remain to be satisfactorily cleared up ; but, in the 
 mean time, enough has been done to enable government to 
 interfere with effect in assisting the formation of friendly so- 
 cieties on a solid foundation. In this view several statutes 
 have, at different times, been passed ; but the act 10 Geo. 4, 
 c. 50.,repealed all previous statutes, and, with the act 4 & 5 
 Will. 4, c. 40, imbodies the existing law open the subject. 
 All friendly societies, claiming the benefit of these acts, are 
 obliged to submit a statement of their rules and regulations 
 for the approval of the officer appointed by government for 
 that purpose ; and it is only in the event of their being ap- 
 proved by him, and the tables of payments and allowances 
 appearing suitable to the justices, that the society is to be 
 confirmed by the latter, and becomes entitled to the privileges 
 conferred by the act in question. These consist in being al- 
 lowed to invest the funds of the society in government se- 
 curieties at the minimum rate of interest (2irf. per cent, per 
 diem), and in the funds of savings' banks. But it is, of 
 course, open to any individuals, not seeking any connection 
 with government, to establish friendly societies on any terms 
 they mav think proper." (Statistics of the British Empire.) 
 
 FRIEZE. (Ital. fregio, adorned.) In Architecture, the 
 member in the entablature of an order between the archi- 
 trave and the cornice. It is always plain in the Tuscan ; or- 
 namented with triglyphs and sculpture in the Doric ; in the 
 Ionic it is occasionally, in modern or Italian architecture, 
 swelled, in which case it is called a pulvinated or cushionii 
 frieze; and in the Corinthian and Composite it is variously 
 decorated, according to the taste of the architect. 
 
 FRI'GA, or FREYA, in Northern Mythology. See Cdih. 
 
 FRIGATE, is applied to a ship with one covered gun 
 deck, and carrying more than twenty-eight guns. 
 
 FRIGIDA'RIUM. (Lat. frigidus, cold.) In Ancient Ar- 
 chitecture, the apartment in which the cold bath was placed 
 It is sometimes used to denote the bath itself. 
 
 TRI'GID ZONE. The space about either pole of th« 
 
FRINGILLA. 
 
 earth terminated by the parallel of 76< degrees of latitude. 
 At this parallel the sun ;it noon, in the middle of winter, is 
 90 degrees from the zenith ; and consequently, were it not for 
 the refraction, would only be viable for an instant in the hori- 
 zon. Within this parallel the sun continues invisible in win- 
 ter, and continually visible in summer, for a shorter or longer 
 i if time, depending on the distance of the place from 
 the pole, where the sun remains for one half the year above 
 the horizon, and the other half below it. See Zone. 
 
 FEINGI'LLA. (Lat. frineilla, a chaffinch.) A Linntran 
 genus of Passerine birds, characterised by a broad-based, 
 sharp pointed, strong, conical bill : now raised to the rank of 
 n family, PringiiiiSa; including the buntings (Emberiia); 
 the cross-bills (lAixia) ; the grosbeaks ( Coccot hrustes) ; the 
 linnets (Unaria) ; canary-birds (Canaria) ; finches (Cardu- 
 elis) ; and many exotic subgerena of seed and grain-eating 
 Oonirostral birds. 
 
 FRITH, or FIRTH (Lat. fretum, a narrow sea), is a term 
 chieflv applied to a narrow and deep inlet of the sea upon a 
 river, as the Frith of Forth in Scotland. This term corre- 
 sponds to the linrd of the Danes and Norwegians, who, in all 
 probability, borrowed it from the F.nelish. Both Latin and 
 ie are derived not improbably from the same root, 
 fahren, to pass over; whence ferry, ford, flirt (Germ.), as in 
 Frankfurt, Erfurt, Sec. 
 
 FRITT. The materials of glass are first mixed together, 
 and heated, so as to expel water, and induce fusion : the 
 ;- obtained is called Frill. 
 >;. See Hatraciiia and Rana. 
 
 FROND. A combination of stem and leaf in ono orgnn, 
 as in I.rmna. Marchantia, and such plants. Ii is often also 
 i pal m-trees and ferns, which dif- 
 fer in no respect from common leaves. 
 
 FRONDE, WAR OF THE. That maintained by the 
 malcontent partiznns of the parliament in France, under the 
 lOuis XIV., against the covernment of Cardinal 
 Mazarln. The name of Prone [rimg) was given to this 
 war in ee of some incidents of a street qnarrel, 
 
 which have been differently represented. The party op- 
 posed to government was called that of the Fronde; and the 
 word Fmndeurs has hence acquired in the French l angua ge 
 the Signification of discontented politicians. Anion", the best 
 authorities to consult on this iieriod of French history are, 
 Maillv. Esprit d» In Frond*, 2 vols. Parle, 1T7'2; the well 
 known Memoirs of Cardinal tie Reiz ; and those of 0m 
 role. Arost 1718. Sec also other Memoirs in Peti- 
 ■ n, rat Collection. 
 
 FRONS. In (fammalogv, the region of the cranium be- 
 tween the orbits and the vertex. In Ornithology, the space 
 between the base of the bill and the vertex. 
 
 FIM >'\'T A I. RONE. The front bone of the head, which 
 forms the forehe ad. 
 
 FRO'N'TIF.R (Ital. frontiera, I. at. frons), means the boun- 
 dary of a state, or the territories adjacent to the boundary. 
 The beet frontier is the sea; next best, great rivers or moun- 
 tains, as the Rhine, Rhone, Alps, and Pyrenees. Prussia 
 has the worst frontier of any Eur opean state, and will ran a 
 great chance of being annihilated on the occurrence of a 
 Continental w:ir. 
 
 FRO'NTISPI ECE. (Lat. frons, front, and inspicio, / look 
 upon.) In Architecture, the face or fore front of a house; 
 but more usually applied to the decorated entrance of a 
 buDdmg. Tiiis term is also used for the ornamental first 
 pa:" ot a book, being, as the derivation imports, that part 
 which first meets the eye. 
 
 FRONTLET. In Ornithology, the marein of the head 
 behind the bill of birds, generally clothed with rigM bristles. 
 
 FROST, in Meteorology, is the (reefing or congelation of 
 water or the vapours of the atmosphere by cold. Water be- 
 gins to freeze when the temperature of the air is such that 
 the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer stands at 32°. At 
 this temperature ice begins to appear, unless some circum- 
 stance, for example the agitation of the water, prevents its 
 formation. As the cold increases the frost becomes more in- 
 tense, and liquids which resist the degree of cold required to 
 conceal water nt length pass into the solid state. Frost is 
 peculiarly destructive to vegetation. During severe frosts al- 
 most all vegetables fall into a state of decay, and even a 
 moderate degree of frost is sufficient to destroy many of the 
 more tender kinds. The injury which vegetables sustain 
 from frost is ereatest when it is preceded by a thaw or copi- 
 ous rains; for the plants are then saturated with moisture, 
 which, expanding in bulk as it passes into the solid state, 
 pnxlur.es the rupture of the vegetable fibres. Fruits are in 
 like manner destroyed by frost Their watery portion is 
 changed into crvstals of ice, which, occupying a greater 
 space than the fluirt from which they were produced, burst 
 the small vessels in which they nre formed; hence the fruit 
 h de pr iv ed of Its flavour, and, when thaw takes place, falls 
 into putrefaction. 
 
 The hoar front, or white frost, which appears in the morn- 
 ings, chieflv in autumn and soring, is merely frozen dew. It 
 
 a ii 
 
 FUEL. 
 
 is generally the consequence of a sudden clearing up of tn» 
 weather after rain, when a considerable degree of cold i< 
 produced by the rapid ev apora tion. In our European cli- 
 mates, it usually happens that after a fall of rain the wind 
 shifts into a northern quarter, and the atmosphere suddenly 
 clears up. When this takes place during the night, or early 
 in the morning, a strong tudtarJon of heat ftum Hie earth 
 commences, the cooling effect of which is increased by flu 
 copious evaporation from the wet surfaces of the plants and 
 the grass. The influence of evaporation on the phenomena 
 is obvious from this, that the moisture which apples 
 form of dew before sunrise is often changed into rime or lioai 
 frost on the appearance of that luminary. The reason >-. 
 that as the atmosphere begins to be warmed by the sun's 
 rays, the evaporation is accelerated, and consequently the 
 cold at the wet surface of the ground augmented. Hence We 
 see the reason why frosty nights are so much more prejudicial 
 to the tender shoots of plants when they are succeeded by verV 
 bright momines. Hence also hoar frost is formed on 
 plants when the therm ome t e r, placed a few fret above the 
 ground, indicates a temperature three or four degrees above 
 the freezing point. 
 
 Various projects have been proposed at different times to 
 a vert the disastrous effects of the morning frosts on vegeta 
 Hon in spring; but unfortunately, it is only on a very limited 
 scale that any means can be adopted for the purpose. What- 
 ever prevents the formation of dew will protect plants : hence 
 a covering of net or thin srauze will often preserve the blos- 
 soms of wall-fruit. Rut the most effectual means is to check 
 the radiation by screening the plant from the chilling aspec 
 of the clear sky. 8sa I)t: w. 
 
 FRUIT, in fiotnnicnl language, is the ovarium or the pb> 
 tillmn arrived at maturity; but the term is commonly extend- 
 ed to whatever is combined with the ovarium when i; is 
 ripe. It comprehends many kinds of what are commonly 
 called seeds: .-,.- those of com. buckwheat, caraway, par-lev. 
 Ice.. ; as well as the succulent Inflorescence of the pine apple, 
 which is a mass of ovaria and envelopes in a consolidated 
 condition. 
 
 FRUST, orFRUSTlM. (Lat. frustum, cut off.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, a piece cut off from a regular figure, as the shaft 
 of a column is a frustum of a paraNiloid. 
 
 FRU'STUM. In Geometry, the part of a solid next tb? 
 base, formed by cutting off tile top; or it U the part of all, 1 
 solid, as a cone, a pyramid, tec. between two planes, which 
 may be cither parallel or inclined to each other. The frus- 
 tum of n pyramid, when the cutting plane is parallel to the 
 base, is equal to the sum of three pyramids whose bases are 
 — 1st, the lower base or end of the frustum : 'id, the upper 
 base; and 3d, n surface which is a geometrical mean be- 
 tween these two. Hence the solid content of such a frus- 
 tum, whatever be the figure of the base, is founa by this 
 rule: add into one sum the area of the two ends and the 
 mean proportional between them, then one third of that sum 
 will be the area of the base of an equal prism having the 
 same altitude as the frustum ; and consequently this area 
 multiplied into the altitude gives the solid content of the 
 frustum. 
 
 FRU'TEX (Lat. a shrub), is a plant whose branches are 
 perennial, and proceed directly from the surface of the earth, 
 without any supporting trunk. 
 
 FUE'L. (Norm. Fr. fuayl.) Any combustible substance 
 which is used for the production of heat constitutes a spe- 
 cies of fuel ; and in this extended sense of the term, alcohol, 
 wax, tallow, coal gas, oil, nnd other inflammable bodies 
 which are occasionally used, especially in the chemical la- 
 boratory, as sources of heat as well as light, might he in- 
 cluded under it. Rut the term fuel is more properly limited 
 to coal, coke, charcoal, wood, and a few other s ub s tance s, 
 which are our common sources of heat, and as such are burn- 
 ed in crates, stoves, fireplaces, and furnaces of different de- 
 scriptions. 
 
 In this country, coal, from its abundance and cheapness, is 
 
 the commonly employed fuel ; but where wood is abundant. 
 
 I or where its value is little more than that of fellinc it, it is 
 
 used either in its original state or in the form of charcoal. 
 
 But whatever substance is used, the ultimate elements of fuel 
 
 | are carbon and hydrogen ; and the heat which is evolved bv 
 
 their combustion is derived from their combination at hish 
 
 temperntures with the oxygen of the air: the results or pro 
 
 ducts of this combustion are carbonic acid nnd water, these 
 
 escaping into the ntmosphere by the flue or chimney genei- 
 
 i rally attached to furnaces and fireplaces. 
 
 It is essential to good and profitable fuel that it should be 
 free from moisture ; for unless it be dry, much of the heat 
 : which it generates is consumed in converting its moisture into 
 J vapour: hence the superior value of old, dense, and dry 
 wood, to that which is porous and damp ; hence also the 
 greater quantity of heat evolved during the combustion of 
 charcoal as compared with that of wood, for even the driest 
 wood always retains a certain quantity of water; hence also 
 coke gives out more heat than pit coal, partly because it I* 
 
 481 
 
FUEROS. 
 
 absolutely dry, and partly because during the combustion or 
 beating of coal, tar, oil, water, and gas are evolved, all of 
 which carry off a certain proportion of the heat in a latent 
 form. A pound of dry wood will, for instance, heat 35 
 pounds water from 32° to 212°, and a pound of the same 
 wood in a moist or fresh state will not heat more than 25 
 pounds from the same to the same temperature; the value, 
 therefore, of different woods for fuel is nearly inversely as 
 their moisture, and this may be roughly ascertained by find- 
 ing how much a given weight of their shavings loses by dry- 
 ing them at 212°. 
 
 Charcoal is itself very hygrometric, and when exposed to 
 uir increases in weight to the amount of 10 or 12 per cent, in 
 consequence of the absorption of hiunidity : a pound of dry 
 charcoal is capable of raising, when properly burned, 73 
 pounds of water from the freezing to the boiling point. 
 
 The different kinds of pit coal give out variable quantities 
 of heat during their combustion ; upon an average, one pound 
 of coal should raise 60 pounds of water from the freezing to 
 its boiling point. The heating power of coke as compared 
 with coal is nearly in the ration of 75 to 69 : a pound of good 
 coke will heat from 64 to 66 pounds of water from 32° to 
 212° ; its power, therefore, is about nine tenths that of wood 
 charcoal. 
 
 The value of turf and peat as fuel is liable to much varia- 
 tion, and depends partly upon their density, and partly upon 
 their freedom from earthly impurities. A pound of turf will 
 heat about 26 pounds of water from 32° to 212°, and a pound 
 of dense peat about 30 pounds: by compressing and drying 
 peat its value as a fuel is greatly increased. 
 
 The following table, by Dr. Ure, shows the quantity of 
 water raised from 32° to 212° by one pound weight of the 
 
 Combustible. 
 
 Pounds ol 
 Water which 
 a Pound can 
 raise from 32' 1 
 to 212°. 
 
 Pounds of 
 Boiling Water 
 evaporated by 
 onc Pound. 
 
 Weight of 
 Atmospheric 
 
 Air at 32° re- 
 quired tn burn 
 one Pound. 
 
 Dry wood 
 
 Common wood .... 
 
 Oil, wax, or tallow . . . 
 
 3500 
 26 00 
 7300 
 60-00 
 65 00 
 3000 
 7600 
 7800 
 52-00 
 
 6 36 
 472 
 13.27 
 
 to to 
 
 ll-fl 
 6-4S 
 13 SI 
 
 1418 
 9.56 
 
 596 
 
 4-17 
 11-46 
 
 9-26 
 11-46 
 
 4-10 
 14 -58 
 15-00 
 11 CO 
 
 different combustibles enumerated in the first column ; it also 
 allows the number of pounds of boiling water, which the 
 ■ame weight of fuel will evaporate, and the quantity of at- 
 mospheric air absolutely consumed during combustion. The 
 quantity of air, however, as given in the last column, is 
 much less than would be necessary in practice, where much 
 of the air passes the fuel without coming intc contact with it 
 so as to have its oxygen consumed. The heating power 
 also, as represented by this table, can seldom be practically 
 attained. 
 
 FUE'ROS, is the term by which in Spain the peculiar 
 rights and privileges of certain provinces ate distinguished. 
 It corresponds to the old French word for or fors ; and is 
 said to be derived either from the Latin word forum, or (what 
 Is more probable) from the Spanish fuera, which signifies 
 outside or without, thereby indicating the difference which 
 exists between the administration of the provinces in which 
 the fueros prevail, from that of the other constituent parts of 
 the Spanish monarchy. The history of the fueros is lost in 
 their profound antiquity ; but there can be little doubt that 
 their origin may be fairly associated with the political exist- 
 ence of the brave Cantabrians, who were never wholly sub- 
 jugated to the Roman yoke, and who, even when partially 
 vanquished, still maintained their ancient laws and customs 
 inviolate. Be this as it may, it is well known that from 
 their earliest origin the Basque Provinces enjoyed certain 
 privileges unknown to the rest of the Spanish kingdom, and 
 which, though originally not reduced to writing, and exist- 
 ing like our common laws of old in the traditions of the 
 country, were mutually and religiously observed both by the 
 monarch and the people. In this state they remained till 
 the year 1235, when, on the accession of Thibaulr, a French 
 prince, to the crown of Navarre, some misunderstanding hav- 
 ing arisen respecting the nature and extent of the fueros, it 
 became necessary to imbody them in a written code, which, 
 with some considerable enlargement sanctioned by Charles 
 V., was, down to the period of the last revolution, faithfully 
 recognised by all the monarchs of Spain as the magna charta 
 of the Basque Provinces. Though the immunities of the 
 provinces, Guipozcoa, Alava, Biscay, and Navarre, exhibit 
 considerable difference in detail, their main features are 
 marked by a striking uniformity, the form of government 
 which prevails in each province being essentially republican 
 in all its branches. In the province of Biscay, for instance, 
 which, with a few modifications more or less important, may 
 serve as an example for the other provinces, the royal au- 
 thority is purely nominal. The only privilege of the crown 
 483 
 
 FULLERS' EARTH. 
 
 consists in nominating the corregidor, the highest officer in 
 the state ; but even this appointment is subject to the appro- 
 val of certain members (called deputation) of the junta or 
 states, in whose assemblies he has a seal and vote. In th8 
 junta is vested the chief management of aihiirs. Tliis as- 
 sembly forms, with the exception of the American Congress, 
 by far the most popularly constituted representative body in 
 modern times, the right of voting being conferred on every 
 man who possesses a domicile within the lordship ; and its 
 chief duties consist in administering the affairs of the'eom- 
 inonwealth, in collecting the taxes, in providing for the pro- 
 tection and defence of the country, in nominating the official 
 servants of the government, and in forming of Itself a coiut 
 of appeal from the decisions of the corregidor. Of the privi- 
 leges and immunities of the province itself, the following arc 
 the principal: Freedom from paying any imposts but those 
 due from the inhabitants to their own lordship, and which 
 are fixed by themselves, and, additionally, whatever gratui 
 tous contributions may be deemed necessary to meet the ex- 
 traordinary emergencies of the state ; the enjoyment of the 
 privileges of nobility in the Castilian dominions on merely 
 proving a descent from pure Biscayan blood; exemption 
 from appearing before any tribunal beyond the limits of the 
 lordship ; to tolerate no royal intendant or comptroller within 
 the province ; to permit no estanco or royal monopoly, as in 
 the rest of Spain ; exemption from duty on imported mer- 
 chandise ; to have no royal administration, except that of the 
 post-office; to admit no Spanish troops within the territory; 
 to furnish no recruits for the royal army ; to defend their ter 
 ritory with their own means and blood ; and to visit wilh 
 summary punishment all who may be convicted of extortion, 
 or of any attempt to injure or even to interfere with the con- 
 stitution of the province. These details, borrowed chiefly from 
 an able article on this subject in the Monthly Chronicle for 
 Nov. 1839, will convey to the reader some idea of the nature 
 and extent of the fueros, the maintenance of which formed 
 the sole grotmd for the sanguinary hostilities which for the 
 last few years devastated the northern provinces of the 
 Spanish territory ; hostilities which have at length happily 
 been put an end to by the formal recognition of all the rights, 
 privileges, and ancient customs of the Basque Provinces, on 
 the part not only of the Spanish government, but also of the 
 Cortes. (For farther information on this subject, the reader 
 is referred to a masterly resume of a work entitled El Fucrt 
 — Privilegios, Franquezas, &-c, conftrmados por el Rcy Don 
 Carlos, nuestros senor,6,-c. 1762; commenced in The Times 
 of Oct. 14, continued in the same journal 16th Nov. 1839, 
 and ended March, 1840.) 
 
 FUGA, or FUGUE. (Lat. fuga, flight.) In Music, a 
 composition wherein the different parts follow each oilier, 
 each repeating the subject at a certain interval above or be- 
 low the preceding part. 
 
 FU'GLEMAN, or FLUGELMAN. A non-commission- 
 ed officer, appointed to take his place in front of a regiment 
 as a guide to the soldiers in the movements of the drill. The 
 word is derived from the Germ, fliigel, a wing, 
 
 FU'LCRA. (Lat. fulcrum, a prop.) A term invented by 
 Linnasus to denote a tendril, a prickle, a spine, a hook, or any 
 other process by which plants are enabled to support them- 
 selves upon other plants. 
 
 FU'LCRUM (Lat.), in Mechanics, is the fixed point about 
 which a lever moves. See Lever. 
 
 FU'LGORA. (Lat. fulgor, an effulgence.) The generic 
 name of certain singular insects of the order Homvptr.ra, and 
 family Cicadaria, which have the fore-part of the head pro- 
 duced in the form of a snout or large hollow receptacle; and 
 the antenna? inserted beneath the eyes, only three-jointed, 
 and terminated by a slender bristle. It is asserted by one 
 naturalist (Mad. Merian), that the frontal projection emits a 
 bright light; but others who had opportunities of making ob- 
 servations on the " living lantem-fly," as the larger species is 
 called, have not witnessed the exercise of its illuminating 
 powers, if it really possess them. 
 
 The Fulgora lanternaria is a native of South America ; 
 the Fulgora candelaria of China. There are many other 
 species included in the Linnaean generic character, but which 
 now form the subgenera Otiocerus, I.ystra, Ciiius, Paeilop- 
 tera, Issus, Anotia, JDelphax, Fulgora proper, <?-<;., in the fam- 
 ily Fvlgoridat. 
 
 FULGURA'TION. A term applied by the BSBayer to the 
 sudden brightening of the fused globule of gold or silver 
 when the last film of oxide of lead or copper leaves its surface. 
 
 FU'LICA. (Lat. fuliga ; from fuligo, soot.) The name 
 of a genus of Wading birds of the family Microdactyly, now 
 restricted to those who have a strong, moderate-sized, straight, 
 conical, and compressed bill, with a dilated naked plate at 
 the base of the upper mandible ; the toes are furnished at the 
 sides with a scalloped membrane ; the wings middle-sized. 
 The British species, or common coot {Fulicra atra), is well 
 known: all its congeners approach more or less to its sooty 
 or blue-blai.K colour. 
 
 FU'LLERS' EARTH. A mineral essentially composed 
 
FULLING. 
 
 of silica and alumina, wilh about 24 per cent, of water, used 
 in fulling cloth. Like other sift aluminous minerals, it has 
 rty of absorbing grease. It occurs in Hampshire, 
 near Wolnirn in Bedfordshire, and at Nulfield in Surrey; its 
 exportation was formerly forbidden under severe penalties. 
 £n most cases soap is now substituted. 
 
 FULLING. The art of cleansing, scouring, and pressing 
 
 stuff-, cloths •tOCkfngB, &c, to render then stronger, firmer, 
 
 lied milling, because these cloths, &x. 
 
 are intact scoured by a water mill. (See lire's Dictionary 
 
 of Arts, Ac.) 
 
 " FULMINATES. (Lat. fulmen, a thunderbolt.) Corn- 
 founds of the fulminic acid with various bases, nil more or 
 -sed of the property of exploding or detonating by 
 heat or friction. The fulminates of silver and mercury (or 
 fulminating silver and mercury) are objects of manufacturing 
 the firmer being used in detonating bonbons, and 
 tile lattei and importantly as a priming for the 
 
 percussion cape of gun locks, 
 
 FU'LMINATING POWDER. A compound of three 
 par:.- of nitre, two of purified pnnrlnh. and one of flowers of 
 sulphur, carefully mixed and dried before the fire : about 20 
 litis powder heeled upon an iron plate over a slow 
 tire becomes brown and pasty ; n blue flame then appears 
 upon it, and immediately after lbs whole explodes with a 
 stunning report. 
 
 I TL.MIN'A'TION'. used synonymously in a general sense 
 with denunciation ; but applied more peculiarly to the ex- 
 communications or anathemas pronounced by the papal see. 
 
 FULMI'NIC ACID. An odd oompoaed of 3 equivalents 
 g frt W. and 2 of oxygen=16, corresponding there- 
 fore in ultimate composition wilh the cynvic acid. In com- 
 bination witli the oxide of silver and oxide of mercury, this 
 acid constitutes fulminating silver and fulminating mercury. 
 
 FUMA&IA'CEJS. (Fumnria, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of licrbii' -. inhabiting all temper- 
 
 ate climates, and related to Vapavcraccen so nearly as to be 
 incorporated with them by some writers. Their sensible prop- 
 erties are not of any value ; a few are objects of cultivation 
 for theii beauty. 
 
 FUMIGATION. (Lat fumigo.) The diffusion of cer- 
 tain rajoura through the air, fox Ihe purpose of destroying 
 contagion and infection: goods are also fumigated for the 
 same purpose. Arid vapours have' frequently been used for 
 this purpose ; there are, however, very few which are at all 
 effectual, and some of them, such as vinegar, only serve to 
 cover bad smells Without destroying noxious effluvia. There 
 is no substance so certain in its effects as chlorine ; and it is 
 cheap, and easily obtained either from muriatic acid and 
 black oxide of manganese, or from a mixture of salt, sulphu- 
 ric acid, and black oxide. In inhabited rooms it requires to 
 be cautiously used, in consequence of its bad effects upon the 
 respiratory organs ; but even here it maybe so extensively 
 effective in destroying noxious matters, with- 
 out serious injury to persons who breathe the atmosphere. 
 When a room can be shut up it may be freely used, and it 
 should be generated in saucers placed in different parts of the 
 apartment (if a large one) ; and not upon the ground, but 
 upon shelves high up in the room, for chlorine being heavier 
 than air, is thus more quickly and rapidly diffused. Infected 
 clothes and furniture may at the same time be subjected to 
 its action. Of all common diseases, the scarlet fever is that 
 which appears to require the most scrupulous attention to 
 careful fumi gation. 
 
 FUNCTION, in Analysis, signifies any matheiriMical ex- 
 red with reference to its form, and not to the 
 value which it receives by giving particular values to the 
 symbols contained in it. Thus a-f-z and a2-fz2 are both 
 functions of x, though of different forms. In whatever man- 
 ner an expression may be compounl.d of constant and vari- 
 able quantities, it is always called a function of the variable 
 quantities only, because it is only with reference to the man- 
 ner in which the variables enter into the expression that it is 
 . to consider the function. Thus the above expres- 
 sions, as well as the following, a+log. x, fr-f-sin. p x, c*, are 
 all functions of x, the quantities a, b, p, c, being constant, and 
 Independent of x. The calculus of functions may be regard- 
 Ming in the same relation to algebra that algebra 
 occupies with regard to common arithmetic. The definite 
 abstract numbers about which arithmetic is concerned are in 
 ■kjebra laid aside for symbols of general number, thus ena- 
 bling us to express a definite operation performed on an in- 
 definite number. In the calculus of functions the generaliza- 
 tion is carried a step farther; the definite character of the 
 operation is dropped, and indefinite symbols of operation are 
 used, which may be unknown, but determinable by certain 
 conditions ; or arbitrary, or conventionally definite, to denote 
 particular operations. (See " Calculus of Functions" in the 
 F.ney. Metrop-, by Mr. De Morgan ; also Babbage's Element- 
 ary Treatise on the Calculus of Functions ; Lagrange, The- 
 orie des Fonctions Analytiques ; Cauchy, Cours d' Analyse 
 and F.Umens du Calcul Infin. ; Peacock's Algebra, Ice.) 
 
 FUNGI. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL BASS. In Music, the lowest note or 
 root of a chord, which is found by inverting its notes so as to 
 set them in thirds above such root. 
 
 FUNDS, PUBLIC. The name given to the public funded 
 debt due by government 
 
 The practice of borrowing money in order to defray a part 
 of the war expenditure began, in this country, B the reign of 
 William III. In the infancy of the practice it wascustanary 
 to borrow u|hjii the security of some tax, or portion of a t:ix, 
 N't apart as a fund for discharging the principal and interest 
 of the sum borrowed. This discharge was, however, \ery 
 rarely effected. The public exigencies still continuing, the 
 loans were, in most cases, either continued, or the taxes were 
 again mortgaged for fresh ones. At length the practice of 
 borrowing for a fixed period, or, as it is commonly termed, 
 upon terminable annuities, wsis almost entirely abandoned ; 
 and most loans were made upon interminable annuities, or 
 until such time as it might be convenient for government to 
 pay off the principal. 
 
 In the beginning of the funding system, the term fund 
 meant the taxes or funds appropriated to tiie discharge of the 
 principal and interest of loans ; those who held government 
 securities and sold them to others, selling, of course, a corre 
 spending claim upon some fund. But after the debt began 
 to grow large, and the practice of borrowing upon intermina- 
 ble securities had been introduced, the meaning attached to 
 the term fund was gradually changed ; and, instead of si gut- 
 fying the security upon which loans were adv;inced, it has, 
 for a long time, signified the principal of the loans themselves. 
 
 Owing partly, perhaps, to the scarcity of disposable capi- 
 tal at the lime, but far more to the supposed insecurity of the 
 revolutionary establishment the rate of interest paid by gov- 
 ernment in the early part of the funding system was, com- 
 paratively, high. Bit as the country became richer, and th« 
 confidence of the public in the stability of government wat 
 increased, ministers were enabled to take measures for redu- 
 cing the interest, first in 1710, and again in 1749. 
 
 During tile reigns of William III. and Anne, the interest 
 stipulated for loans was very various. But in the reign of 
 George II. a different practice was adopted. Instead of va 
 rying the interest upon the loan according to the state of the 
 money market at the time, the rate of interest was generally 
 fixed at three or three and a half per cent ; the nece 
 variation being made in the principal funded. Thus, suppose 
 government were anxious to borrow, that they preferred bor- 
 rowing in a 3 per cent stock, and they could not negotiate a 
 loan for less than 4J per cent, they effected their object by 
 giving the lender, in return for every .£100 advanced, .£150 
 :! per cent, stock ; that is, they bound the country to pay him 
 or his assignees £4 10s. a year in nil time to come, or other- 
 wise to extinguish the debt by the payment of £150. In 
 queues of the prevalence of this practice, the princi- 
 pal of the debt now existing amounts to nearly two fifths 
 more than the sum actually advanced by the lenders. 
 
 Some advantages are, however, derivable, or supposed to 
 be derivable, from this system. It renders the management 
 of the debt, and its transfer, more simple and commodious 
 than it would have been had it consisted of a great number 
 of funds bearing different rates of interest: and it is con- 
 tended that the greater field for speculation afforded to the 
 dealers in stocks bearing a low rate of Interest has enabled 
 government to borrow, by funding additional capitals, for a 
 considerably less payment on account of interest than would 
 have been necessary had no such Increase of capital been 
 mnde. See National Debt. 
 
 FU'NERAL (Lat funus), may be defined generally as 
 the last rites performed to a deceased person, of whatever 
 nature they may be, whether of interment, burning, em 
 balming, &c. Among the ancients ceremonies of tills na- 
 ture were accompanied by processions, and gladiatorial com- 
 bats, called funeral games ; and were usunlly followed, par- 
 ticularly where the deceased was of high rank or otherwise 
 distinguished, by a discourse, or funeral oration, pronounced 
 in his praise. See Sepulture, Rites or. 
 
 FTJ'NGI. A large natural order of plants of a very low 
 organization, consisting chiefly of cellular tissue, sometimes 
 intermixed wilh flocculent matter, and very rarely with 
 spiral vessels. They inhabit dead and decaying organic 
 bodies, and are also a common pest to living plant", uiwn 
 which they prey in the same manner as vermin and intes- 
 tinnl worms upon animals. A vast number of species are 
 described by writers upon fungi, called mycologists; and 
 they are often of great importance to man either for their 
 use or their mischievous qualities. The common mush- 
 room, the truffle, and morel, are delicacies well known at 
 Little : ergot is valuable in obstetric prnctice as a uterine 
 stimulant; very many of them arc dangerous poisons. 
 Blight, mildcw.'rust, brand, &c, are diseases caused by the 
 ravages of the microscopic fungi ; and, finally, the destruc- 
 tive effects of dry rot are owing to the attacks of Merulius 
 lachrymans and many other species, some of which are mi- 
 croscopic. The bcst'gcneral work on Fungi is Friers Btjs- 
 
FUNGICOLA. 
 
 tema Mycologicum. Numerous species are figured in the 
 works of GreviUe, Bulliard, Sowerby, Corda, and Nees von 
 Esenbeck. 
 
 FUNGI'COLA. (Lat. fungus, a mushroom, and eolo, to 
 inhabit.) The name of a family of Coleopterans, compre- 
 hending those which are found on mushrooms. 
 
 FUNGI'LLIFO RMIS, a Latin term signifying mushroom- 
 keaded, is applied to any bodies having a short thick figure, 
 one end of which is much more dilated than another. 
 
 FU'NGIN. The fleshy part of mushrooms purified by 
 digestion in hot water. 
 
 FU'NGUS, in Surgery, is a term applied to the too luxu- 
 riant formation of flesh about an ulcer, or what is common- 
 ly called proud flesh. 
 
 FUNI'CULAR MACHINE. (Lat. funis, a rope.) In 
 Mechanics, if a body fixed to two or more ropes is sustain- 
 ed by powers which act by means of those ropes, the as- 
 semblage is called the funicular machine, or rope machine. 
 If a rope is stretched horizontally between two points, its 
 own weight alone will prevent it from becoming perfectly 
 straight, whatever force be employed in stretching it ; and 
 a very small force applied at its middle point, at right an- 
 gles to its direction, will be sufficient to overcome a very 
 great resistance at the points to which its extremities are 
 attached. In this manner a very small force may be made 
 to raise a very great weight to a minute height. This meth- 
 od of applying force is familiar to seamen, who frequently 
 have recourse to it in bracing their sails. 
 
 FUNI'CULUS. A prolongation of the placenta in the 
 shape of a cord, to which the ovules are attached. 
 
 FU'NNEL. (Lat. infundibulum.) In Architecture, the 
 ivpper part of a chimney. In common life, it is n trumpet- 
 mouthed utensil, with a pipe fixed to the apex for the pur- 
 pose of conveying liquors into a vessjel without spilling 
 them. 
 
 FU'NNEL-SHAPED. In Botany : used in describing the 
 general form of a calyx, corolla, or other organ, the tube of 
 which is like a funnel or inverted cone ; that is, narrowest 
 at the base and widest at the orifice. 
 
 FUR. (Fr. fourrure.) The coated skins of wild animals, 
 especially of those of high northern latitudes ; such as the 
 wolf, bear, beaver, &.C. The hair or fur is cleansed, and the 
 skin is generally slightly tanned or tawed. The most val- 
 uable furs, such as ermine and sable, come chiefly from 
 Russia. When unprepared, or merely dried, the fur skins 
 go under the name of peltry. 
 
 FURFURA'CEOUS. (Lat. furfur, bran.) A term ap- 
 plied to certain eruptions in which the cuticle peals off" in 
 scales : also to a branlike sediment which is sometimes ob- 
 served in the urine. 
 
 FU'RIES (Furiee), in Mythology, called by the Greeks 
 Erinnycs ('I'pivvvef) and Eumenides {'I'.vuiviSts), were the 
 avenging deities, who punished gods and men for their trans- 
 gressions against tlio.se whom they were bound to esteem and 
 reverence. Their number was not fixed, though sometimes 
 they were considered to be three sisters. The Athenians, 
 who, according to Plutarch (Soton), were particularly ad- 
 dicted to this sort of euphemism, called them also ttuvai &sat, 
 the venerable goddesses, their true names being considered 
 ominous. By this name they were mentioned in the oaths 
 taken at the Areopagus. 
 
 FURL. In Navigation, to roll the sail up and confine it 
 closely to the yard ; the sail being gathered up by the men on 
 the yard, the leech or edge is passed along the yard to the 
 middle or bunt, where the body of the sail, the foot and 
 clews, are collected. In this way the sails of a man of war 
 are removed nearly out of view in an almost incredibly short 
 space of time. 
 
 FU'RLONG. An English measure of length, containing 
 the eighth part of a mile. 
 
 FU RLOL'GH, in Military language, signifies the permis- 
 sion granted to an officer or soldier to absent himself for a 
 given time from military duty. 
 
 FU'RNACE. (Lat. Fomax.) An apparatus wherein is 
 placed a cavity to contain combustible matter, which in va- 
 rious ways is supplied with air to facilitate its combustion. 
 The two classes into which furnaces are divided are air or 
 wind furnaces, and blast furnaces. In the former the air is 
 conducted through the fire by the draught of a funnel or 
 chimney which communicates with it ; in the latter, the ac- 
 tion of bellows or some other pneumatic apparatus supplies 
 the air. The word furnace has generally, however, a more 
 circumscribed application; being applied usually to an ap- 
 paratus for the fusion of metals, or to that used in a chemical 
 laboratory. 
 
 FU'RNITURE. In Printing, the materials used to extend 
 pages of type to their proper length ; also to separate them, 
 when imposed, to a just distance from each other, so that 
 when the sheet is printed and folded the margin shall be 
 regular and uniform. (See Imposing.) It consists of pieces 
 of oak wood planed up to specific thicknesses, and to about 
 half an inch high ; sidesticks and footsticks, which ;ue placed 
 484 
 
 FUTTOCK PLATES. 
 
 at the outside of the pages, and made thinner at one end than 
 the other, to allow the quoin to secure them more effectually ; 
 and quoins or wedges, usually made of beech wood, v\ \ch 
 which the pages are wedged up in a chase. See Chase. 
 
 Fu'rniture. (Fr. fournir, to furnish.) In Architecture, 
 the visible brasswork of locks, knobs to doors, window shut- 
 ters, and the like. 
 
 FU RRING. (Fr. fourrer, to thrust in.) In Architecture, 
 the small slips nailed on joists or rafters, where some Bart) 
 of them are lower than others, or where the surface if not 
 regular, so as to bring the boarding they arc to receive into 
 the same planes. 
 
 FURU'NCULUS. (Lat. furo, / rage.) A boil ; nn in- 
 flammatory tumour, which generally has a central core, and 
 appears in full and healthy habits. Where boils prevail in 
 delicate constitutions, they generally indicate a cachectic state, 
 which is often corrected by a course of sarsaparilla. 
 
 FURZE. A prickly bush, found abundantly iu 
 heaths in England and the more southern countries of Eu- 
 rope, from which it is by some supposed to have been intro- 
 duced; a conjecture rendered probable by its not being able 
 to bear the more rigorous of our winters. Its preference for 
 sterile soil has caused it to be. extensively used for fences in 
 such land, as a cover for game and a shelter for young planta- 
 tions. Its young and tenderer shoots are browsed upon by 
 sheep and cattle. Botanists call it Ulex Europceus, and class 
 it with the Leguminous order. 
 
 FUSE'E. In Watch-work, that part of the machinery 
 about which the chain is wound, and which is immediately 
 acted upon by the mainspring. The use 
 of the fusee is to equalize the action of 
 the spring. In proportion as the spring 
 becomes unwound, its effort continually 
 relaxes ; so that if the first wheel were 
 attached to the barrel, as is often the case 
 in common watches, the inequality of the : 
 impelling power would produce a corre- 
 sponding inequality in the rate of going. In order to correct 
 this, one end of the chain is attached to and wound round 
 the barrel in which the main-spring is contained ; while the 
 other end is coiled about the fusee, which has a conical 
 shape, and is fixed on the axis of the first wheel. The prin- 
 ciple generally adopted for determining the figure of the fusee 
 is, that its radius, at any point to which the chain is a tangent, 
 should be inversely as the tension of the chain iu that posi- 
 tion. Within certain limits this is true; and if we assume 
 with llooke that the force of a spring is proportional to the 
 distance to which it is drawn from the position of rest, and 
 also lay aside all consideration of the length of the chain 
 wrapped about the fusee, it would be easy to show that the 
 fusee should be the solid generated by the revolution of the 
 equilateral hyperbola about its asymptote. This conclusion 
 is, however, by no means correct ; but though the subject has 
 been treated by several eminent mathematicians, very little 
 practical advantage has been derived from the theoretical in- 
 vestigations. In fact, a moderate approximation to the true 
 figure (whatever that may be) is all that can be attained in 
 practice, and all that is necessary. 
 
 FU'SIBLE METAL. An alloy of eight parts of bismuth, 
 five of lead, and three of tin It liquefies at a temjierature 
 below 212°. 
 
 FU'SIBLE SALT OF URINE. A name by which the 
 old chemists designated the anunonio-phosphate of soda, ob- 
 tained by the evaporation of urine. 
 
 FUSIL (Fr. fusee), in Heraldry, is a bearing of a rhomboi- 
 dal figure more slender than the lozenge ; its upper and lower 
 angles being more acute than the two middle ones. 
 
 Fusil. A light musket nearly similar to a carabine, but in 
 general more neatly finished. The fusil was originally used by 
 officers attached to light companies ; and in the British army it 
 has given its name to several regiments called Ihe fusilier j 
 The bore is usually calculated for balls of eighteen to the 
 pound ; and the length of the barrel is from thirty -four to 
 thirty-eight inches. 
 
 FUST. The same as Frust, which see. 
 
 FU'STIAN. (Fr. fustaine.) A thick twilled cotton, of 
 which velveteen, corduroy, and thickset are varieties. (See 
 Velvet.) Fustian is generally dyed of a deep olive or lead 
 colour. 
 
 Fustian, in Criticism, is applied to writings remarkable foi 
 a forced elevation of style, or for an exaggerated or unnaturai 
 use of metaphors or other rhetorical figures. 
 
 FU'STIC A yellow dye stuff. There are two kinds of 
 fustic occasionally used by dyers. Old fustic is the wood of 
 a large tree, the Morus tinctoria, which grows abundanUv 
 in many parts of the West Indies and America ; it gives a 
 dingy yellow dye, and is chiefly useful in the production of 
 compound colours. Young fustic is the Rhus cotinus, or 
 Venice sumach, a shrub growing in Italy and the south of 
 France ; it gives a greenish-yellow dye, and is also used as an 
 accessory material. 
 
 FUTTOCK PLATES. Flat iron bars or plates, reef iving 
 
FUTTOCKS. 
 
 <it one end the lower dead-eye of the topmast rigging, and at 
 the other the futtock shroud. 
 
 FU'TTOCKS. In Nautical language, the timbers be- 
 tween the floor timbers and the top limbers. 
 
 G. 
 
 G. The seventh letter of the English Alphabet, but the 
 third in those of all the Oriental languages, and also of die 
 Greek. The form of our G is borrowed from the Roman 
 
 alphabet. G, in English, ha* two smuiis: before a,o, and u, 
 and occasionally before t and r, it is the medial letter of the 
 guttural order; "the oilier sound, wheli il possesses only be- 
 fore e and i, is one of the mcdials of the sibilant series. The 
 guttural G is liable to a variety of changes in diifereut dialects 
 and languages. (Sec Penny Cyclo.) G, as a Roman ab- 
 breviature, is used for gratis, gens, gaudiiim, &c. G. V. signi- 
 
 nio urbis, (;. L. genio toel, and 0. r. H. gloria populi 
 
 BoDMUlL As a numeral it denoted 400, — 
 
 G quadringentot demonstrative tt-r.el it. 
 
 On the French coins G indicates the city of Poicttera ; and in 
 
 chronology it is the seventh Dominical letter. G. in music, 
 
 is the fifth note or degree of the dinUmic scale. I 
 
 to the sol of the French and Italians. It is used also to de- 
 
 ii- treble clef. 
 
 GAME'LLE. (1'robably derived, through some unknown 
 inflexion, from tile Teutonic word geben, to gat.) Any im- 
 post laid on commodities was originally thus termed in 
 France ; as gabellc de vin, de draps, tec. : but the word ac- 
 quired in the course of lime the peculiar rignuVatkxi of a 
 duly on salt, which is meant when the word "gnbelle"is 
 - mply. The Gabelle «u tir<l established in tile early 
 part of the 14th century, during the reign of Philip de Vaiois, 
 and, with a brief interruption of live years, from 1340 to Ktl.j. 
 continued to he levied down to the reign of Louis XVI., Si 
 which time the revenue it produced mi estimated at 38 
 millions of francs. The- distribution of this lav. was most 
 capiieious and arbitrary, some provinces having been alto- 
 gether exempt from, some more and others less BBbjesI to, it.-* 
 
 on -. and it may safely i»- affirmed thai tlie gabeUe was 
 one of the greatest estrses Imposed on France ptwiotisly to 
 
 the Revolution. (.See Com. Vict., art. " t-':il t ;" art. " Ta.va- 
 •-»///). l.ncyc. lirit.) 
 
 GA'BKJ.VS, in Fortification, are baskets made of twigs, 
 .vhich, being tilled with earth, are used as a screen from the 
 - lire. 
 
 GA'BLE. (Brit, from gavel.) In Architecture, the verti- 
 cal triangular piece of wall at the end of the roof, from the 
 level of tin- saves to the summit. 
 
 GA'DFLY. Sec CEstrvm. 
 
 OA'DOIDB, Gadoid*. (Ut. yaooc, a. fink.) A family of 
 eoft-finned fishes, which belong to the section Sithlirrickians, 
 or those which have the vcnlral lins below or in advance of 
 the pectorals, and of which the cod-fish (Gadus morrhua, 
 Linn.) may be regarded as the type. 
 
 The general character of the Gadoid family is as follows: 
 Body moderately elongated, sub-compressed, nnd covered 
 with soft and very numerous scales ; head smooth ; jaws and 
 frontof the vomer armed with pointed, unequal, moderate, or 
 small teeth, disposed in several rows, like I rasp; gill-open- 
 SSge, and with seven rays; most of the species with two 
 or tlirec dorsal and one or two anal tins ; stomach Strong end 
 capacious; coecal appendages very numerous; air-bladder 
 large, with strong parietes, often ilentated laterally. The 
 greater number of the cod tribe inhabit the seas of cold or 
 temperate latitudes; their flesh is white and well flavoured; 
 they are most prolific, and constitute the most important sub- 
 ject ol' fisheries. The great sandbank of Newfoundland is 
 the most famous of the cod-fisheries : here 100,000,000 pounds 
 Weight have been taken by the British alone in one year. 
 
 GA'DOLINl'TE. A mineral found almost exclusively in 
 Sweden, containing yttria and oxide of cerium; named in 
 honour of Dr. Gadolin, who discovered yttria. 
 
 GAFF. The boom or yard extending the upper edge of 
 what are called fore and oft sails. The gaff turns round the 
 mast, against which it rests in a circular opening (called the 
 jaics) as an axis. It is supported by two independent ropes; 
 the throat halliards at the mast, and the prak halliards at the 
 outer end. It is steadied, when the sail is not set, by ropes 
 at the extremity called the van<rs. 
 
 GAGE, or GAUGE. (Ang. Bax. gaeggian, to bind or con- 
 fine.) to Architecture, the length of a slate or tile below the 
 lap; also the measure to which say substance is confined. 
 Plasterers use the word to sirnify the greater or less quantity 
 of pl.asier of Paris used with Hie common plaster to accelerate 
 :ing. 
 
 Gaok. In Physics, an instrument or apparatus for measur- 
 ing the state Of a phenomenon. Gage of the air pump is 
 
 GALBULUS. 
 
 merely a barometer communicating with lbs inside of the 
 receiver, which marks, in the usual manner, the pressure of 
 the air within the receiver by the height of the equiponderant 
 column of mercury, and consequently shows the degree to 
 which the air is rarefied. A short baiometer may be employed 
 for this purpose; but in this case it will not be affected lilftiie 
 rarefaction of the air has been carried so far as to correspond 
 with the length of the tube. An instrument for the same 
 purpose, but on a different principle, was invented by Bmeaton, 
 and from its form called the pear-gage. It is a vessel sus- 
 pended in the receiver, and exhausted to the same degree ; 
 but when the rarefaction is carried as far as intended, the 
 open orifice of the gage is let down into a vessel containing 
 mercury, which, on the readmission of the air, is forced up 
 into the pear, and the degree of rarefaction is judged of by the 
 quantity of mercury introduced. The idea is ingenious; but 
 the Indications given by this instrument are not correct. For 
 mind-gage, see Anemometer ; mater-gage, 6ee IIydromk 
 ter. 
 
 GAILLARDE. (Ital.) The name of a lively dance pecu- 
 liar to Italy, and ■spsjsssi to have been practised by the an- 
 cient Romans, whence it is sometimes designated Roman- 
 esque. 
 
 GALA'CTOPOIE'TIC. (Gr. ya\a, milk, and vtuu, / 
 make.) A term applied by some medical writers to diet and 
 medicine, supposed to promote the secretion of milk. 
 
 GA'LA'GO. Hue Otolk 
 
 GALA'NGAl,. A dried root brought from China; it has 
 an aromatic smell, and a pungent hitler flavour, and was 
 formerly used in medicine. The greater gahmgal is the pro- 
 duce of lite Kampferia galanga, and the lesser of the 
 JUaranta galanga. 
 
 GAL ATI! A3 A. \A genus of long-tailed (macrourous) 
 Crustacea, including some very beautiful species (Gal. ru- 
 gosa, strigosa, et equamiftra), occasionally found on the 
 British coasts. The true Galatkeea have the thorax oblong 
 or ovoid, the (saffian antenna: produced, and the pincers 
 elongated. This term is derived from the celebrated nymph 
 of that name. 
 
 GA'LAXV, or MILKY WAY. (Gr. yoAe, milk.) In 
 Astronomy, •' thai great luminous band which stretches ev- 
 ery evening all across the sky, from horizon to horizon, and 
 which tonus a zone completely encircling the w hole sphere, 
 almost in a great circle. At one pact il sends off a kind of 
 branch, which unites again with the main body, after re- 
 maining distinct for about 150 degrees. This remarkable 
 belt has maintained from the earliest ages the same relative 
 situation among the stars ; and when examined through 
 powerful telescopes is found to consist entirely of stars, 
 scattered by millions, like glittering dost, on the black 
 ground of the genera] heavens." (Hcrschel's Jlatronomy, 
 Cabinet Cyclopedia.) The phenomena of the milky way 
 snys the slime illustrious authority, " agree with the suppo 
 sition that the stars of our firmament, instead of being scat- 
 tered in all directions Indifferently through space, form a 
 stratum, of which the thickness is small in comparison 
 with its length nnd breadth, and in which the earth occu- 
 pies a place somewhere about the middle of Its thickness, 
 and near the point where it subdivides into two principal 
 lamina;, inclined nt a small angle to each other. For it is 
 certain thai to an aye thus situated, the apparent density 
 of the stars, supposing ihem pretty equally scattered through 
 the space they occupy, would be le;ist in a direction of the 
 Visual ray perpendicular to the lamina, and greatest in that 
 of its breadth; in creasing rapidly in passing from the one 
 direction to the other, just as we see a slight haze in the 
 atmosphere thickening into a decided fog bank near the 
 horizon by the rapid increase of the mere length of the Visual 
 ray. Accordingly such is the view of the construction of 
 the starry firmament taken by Kir William llerschel, whose 
 powerful telescopes have affected a complete analysis of 
 this wonderful zone, and demonstrated the fact of its con 
 sisting entirely Of stars." (I*. 370.) See Star. 
 
 GA'LBANUM. A slightly fetid gum-resin, produced by 
 the Galbanum officinale. It is imported from Turkey and 
 the East Indies for medical use, but is a drug of little im- 
 portance. 
 
 GALBULA. (Lat. the name of a bird in Martius.) A 
 genus of Scan.-orial birds, closely allied to the kingfishers 
 by their elongated sharp-pointed beak, the upper ridge of 
 which is angular ; and bv their short feet, the anterior toes 
 of which are almost wholly united: these toes, however, 
 ore not precisely the same as those of the kingfishers. The 
 plumage of the species of Grt/bula, which are called by the 
 French "jaenmars," is not so smooth as that of the king- 
 fishers, and always has a metallic lustre. They are solitary 
 birds, that live In wet forests, feed on insects, and build on 
 low bushes. _ 
 
 GA'LBULUS. In Botany, a term invented by Gsrt- 
 ner, to denote a form of fruit similar to a cone, excepting 
 that the galhulus is round, and has the heads of the carpels 
 much enlarged. Example— the fruit of the juniper. 
 
GALEA. 
 
 GA'LEA, in Antiquity, was the headpiece or helmet used 
 m battle by the Roman soldiers. 
 
 Jam sraleam Pallas el se^ida 
 Curnisque et rabiem parat. 
 
 The galea was used for the same defensive purposes as the 
 cassis ; but differed from it in this, that while the cassis 
 was of metal, the galea was originally of hides. It was too 
 heavy for general use; hence each army was attended by 
 galcarii, a species of military domestics, whose duty it was 
 to carry the galea; of the soldiers. 
 
 CVLE'N'A. (Gr. yaXcoi, I shine.) Native sulphuret of 
 lead. 
 
 GA'LENISTS. In Ecclesiastical History, a subdivision 
 of the sect called Waterlandians in the 17th century. ( Mo- 
 thcim, Transl., vol. v. 496.) In Medical History the follow- 
 ers of Galen were so termed, in opposition to the practitioners 
 of the chemical school. 
 
 GALE OP WIND. The sea term for a continued storm 
 of wind : the lowest degree is the fresh gale, the next a strong 
 gale, and the next a heavy or hard gale. 
 
 GA'LEOPITHE'COS. (Gr. yaXeof, a weasel, ttiOi/kos, an 
 ape.) A genus of Insectivorous Mammalia, having the 
 bones of the arm and leg, but not those of the digits, ex- 
 cessively elongated, and supporting extensive lateral folds 
 of skin serviceable as a parachute, but not as organs of 
 flight. The species are restricted to the great islands of the 
 Indian archipelago ; their inferior incisors are remarkable 
 for their complex form, like the teeth of a comb. 
 
 GALERU'CA. (Lat. galerus, a cap or tuft.) A genus 
 of Tetramerous Coleoptera, now the type of an extensive 
 family (Galcruciilw), including, among other subgenera, 
 the noxious turnip flies {Haltica). All the Galerucidee are 
 vesetable-feeders, both in their larva and perfect state. 
 There are about a dozen known British species of Ga/enica 
 proper, which are small, and generally dark or dull-coloured 
 beetles. 
 
 GALIA'CEJE. (Galium, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of herbaceous Exogens, inhabiting the cooler parts of 
 the world. They are distinguished from Cinchonacets by 
 their square sterns and verticiliate leaves wiii 
 The Rubin, tincioria yields maduer, and some of the other 
 species produce a similar colouring substance. The torretied 
 grains of Galium are said to be a good substitute for cotfee, 
 and the flowers of Galium verum are used to curdle milk. 
 
 GALL. See Bile. 
 
 GALL BLA'DDER, An oblong membranous receptacle 
 attached to the under part of the liver. It retains the bile 
 which regurgitates from the hepatic duct, and sends it 
 through the cistic duct, which proceeds from its neck into 
 the iluctus communis choledochus, and thence into the duo- 
 denum. 
 
 GA'LLEON. Certain Spanish treasure ships with three 
 or four decks, formerly employed in communicating with 
 Peru. 
 
 GA'LLERV. In the Fine Arts, a term applied to a col- 
 lection of works in painting or sculpture. The earliest gal- 
 lery of which there is any record was that of Verres. It is 
 described by Cicero, and was rich in pictures as well as 
 sculpture. In Europe, at the present day, the gallery of the 
 Louvre, though much reduced in 1815 by the restoration of 
 many works of art which conquest had enabled the French 
 w acquire, is the finest in Europe, if taken as a whole. That 
 founded at Florence by Cosmo II. long enjoyed the first rank, 
 but must be now considered secondary to the French col- 
 lection. The other principal galleries of Europe are those 
 at Munich, Dresden, Berlin, and, though last not least both 
 in size and importance, that of the Vatican at Rome ; which, 
 however, is more generally called the Museum of the Vati- 
 can. The building for the reception of the National Gallery 
 in London is wholly unworthy of the nation and of the fine 
 situation which it occupies. The collection of pictures in 
 this gallon.' is small, but some of them are of rare and unri- 
 valled excellence. The gallery of antiques at the British 
 Museum is, In many respects, matchless. The galleries of 
 the Duke of Sutherland, Lord F. Egerton, Mr. Hope, and 
 other private individuals, contain many very fine pictures. 
 
 Ga'llery. In Fortification, a covered passage across the 
 ditch of a fortified town. In Mining, gallery is a narrow 
 passage from one part of the mine to another. 
 
 G'ALLEV. (Fr. galere.) A low-built vessel propelled 
 by sails and oars, either on a single tier, or on tiers of benches 
 one above the other. The war vessels of antiquity were all 
 galleys. Among the Greeks those chiefly mentioned are 
 the pentecontori, which appear to have had fifty oars dis- 
 posed in a siiinle tier: and the trieres iLat triremes), vessels 
 With three banks of oars, concerning the disposition of which 
 much controversy has taken place. It is commonly sup- 
 posed that a trireme had three banks of oars one above the 
 other; but this is rendered improbable by the circumstance 
 of Pliny making mention of galleys having thirty, forty, 
 and even fifty banks of oars ; for it seems hardly credible that 
 no manV could have been arranged directly above each 
 480 
 
 GALLICAN CHURCH. 
 
 other. Some have suggested that the rows of oars in the 
 trireme were disposed, not horizontally, but obliquely ; in 
 which case an increase in the number of banks of oars 
 would augment the length, and probably the height would 
 be increased in proportion. (See Meibomius, De Fabrica 
 veterum Triremium.) 
 
 Galleys were likewise chiefly employed by the maritime 
 nations of the middle ages in the Mediterranean. Their use 
 in naval war hardly ceased until the end of the 17th century : 
 and the Venetian republic, down to the period of its extinc- 
 tion, always maintained a number of war galleys. The 
 Venetian galleys had a single tier only, and all modern gal- 
 leys followed the same construction. These were formidable 
 vessels in a calm, but unfit for a sea, and accordingly found 
 chiefly in the Mediterranean. The Venetians had also a 
 large high-pooped sort of galley called galeazza, whence the 
 word galleass and galliolt in old English writers. 
 
 The Deal galley is a long narrow boat used by the Deal 
 boatmen, and managed on the most hazardous occasions in 
 saving the crew of stranded vessels with consummate skill 
 it is also used by smugglers on account of its velocity. The 
 galley is also the kitchen of a ship. 
 
 The punishment of the galleys, i. e. the employment of 
 condemned criminals in the toilsome employment of rowing 
 them, is said to have originated under the Greek empire ; as 
 well as the name TaAtupoi, or galley slaves — in French 
 galeriens. It was used by all the nations bordering on the 
 Mediterranean. In France, under the old jurisprudence, the 
 punishment of the galleys was the severest after that of 
 death. About the end of the reign of Louis XIV., when 
 galleys themselves began to be disused, tho galley slaves 
 were employed in hospitals, public works, &c. : and the 
 name of the punishment was changed by the constituent 
 assembly (1798) to travaux forces, compulsory labour, 
 whence the wottl forcat for a criminal so condemned. Un- 
 der the code of the empire the punishment was accompanied 
 with forfeiture of property, infamy, and branding. By an 
 alteration of the law effected in 1832, the brand was abolish- 
 ed ; and the criminals, who had hitherto been intermingled 
 ':• jicnal fortre a (T d Brest), 
 
 were classified. Toulon is now appropriated to t' 
 demned for lit years and under; Brest, to these from 10 to 
 20; Rochefort, to the condemned for life. The name Bagne, 
 which is applied in France to prisons in which those ton 
 demned to compulsory labour are confined, is derived from 
 the famous Bagnio prison at Constantinople, so called OR 
 account of some baths situated there. The principal crimes 
 now punished in this manner by the French law are — some 
 acts of violence against the government or public law; coining 
 and forgery ; assaults followed by death on legal officers , 
 murder, unless under such aggravated circumstances as ai »• 
 punished by death ; cutting and maiming; rape, abduction, 
 burglary, highway robbery, burning of insulated buildings, 
 threatening letters, perjury, &c. 
 
 GA'LLI. The priests of Cybele were so named at Rome 
 from the country (Galatia or Gallo-Gracia) in which Pearinus, 
 the head quarters of her worship, was situated : also termed 
 Curetes, Corybantes, and Idaei Dactyli. Cybele, the mother 
 of the gods, was introduced to Rome from Asia on the occa- 
 sion of a pestilence by the advice of the Sybilline oracles 
 {Lie. 29. c. 14.), and her worship became In lime one of the 
 most popular in the city. Her priests were eunuchs, of which 
 Lucretius (lib. ii.) gives the alleged reason. They are de- 
 scribed as the vilest of mankind by the Roman satirists, yet 
 they had extraordinary power over the vulgar. Juvenal 
 describes them among the low companions of his debauched 
 consul Damasippus : 
 
 Et resupinati CPssintia tympana Garli. 
 
 GALLIC ACID. An acid obtained from galls ami 
 several other vegetable astringents. Its ultimate components 
 are 7 car. -f- 3 A. -f- 5 o. ; its equivalent number is 85. 
 
 GA'LLICAN CHURCH. The distinctive title of the 
 Roman Catholic church in France, which maintains a cer- 
 tain degree of independence in respect of the Romish see. 
 The liberties of the Gallican church, first asserted in the 
 Pragmatic Sanction (1438), were defined and confirmed in 
 the Quatuor Proposhiones Cleri Gallicani, promulgated in 
 1682. The occasion of this declaration was a dispute be- 
 tween Louis XIV. and Pope Innocent XI. concerning the 
 right long practised by the French kings of occupying in their 
 own persons the inferior preferments of a diocese which 
 lapsed during the vacancy of the see. It was then deter- 
 mined by an assembly of the French clergy, that the pope 
 has no temporal, but only spiritual rights, as the vicegerent 
 of Christ; that even these are limited by canons and coun- 
 cils; and that the decrees of the holy see are subject to 
 reversal upon the decision of the clergy in general. (8« 
 the Declaration of the. French Clergy concerning A u:Iesias 
 tical Power, drawn up by the famous Bossuct, bishop of 
 Meaux, in the assembly convoked by Louis XIV. in 1082.) 
 While, however, it asserts this liberty in speculative point* 
 
GALLICISM. 
 
 the Gallican church does not differ from the Romish in any 
 
 points of faith or ceremonial observances. It was uj>on the 
 
 liberties that the concordat was founded by 
 
 which the Catholic religion was re-established in France in 
 
 lsmi ; and they continue to be maintained upon their original 
 
 w that the church is no longer connected with the 
 
 state. It has always been the object of the Jesuits to bring 
 
 the French church into more deferential submission to the 
 
 Romish see ; and at the present day the patty among the 
 
 clergy who desire this consummation is add to be on the 
 
 The controversy on this subject was carried on 
 
 i century het ween the two classes called Cisn lane 
 
 and Tramontane divines. The new Gallican church of the 
 Kite], founded at Paris in 1831, seems not to have 
 met with much success. The abbe styles himself primate 
 of it. It denies the infallibility of the pope and of councils, 
 reject-" the celibacy of priests, leaves confession voluntary, 
 and performs service in the mother tongue. In all these 
 ts doctrines approach those of the church of Eng- 
 land. (See the Profession de Foi de V F.glise Calholique 
 . Par. 1831.) 
 GA'LLICISM. Literally, a phrase or construction pecu- 
 liar to the French language, but used generally to denote 
 such phrases or modes of speech in English as are formed 
 after the French idiom. 
 
 GALLI'COLA. 'I.at.galln, agall, cob.. I inhabit.) The 
 
 name of a family Of Pupiparoiis Hymenoptemns, including 
 
 which the larva inhabit the galls or vegetable cx- 
 
 •I by the perforation and otiposilion of the 
 
 parent I 
 
 GA'LLINA'CEANS. Oallivacca. (Lat gallus, a cock.) 
 See Uasores. 
 
 GALL-INSECTS, Oall-inscela. The name of a family 
 of Ilemipterai'.s. comprehending those the females of which, 
 towards the period of ovipo.-ition, assume a globular lorn), 
 analogous to the rails caused by the gallicoUs. 
 <;A'I.I.1M u„ or WATER-HEN. The type of the 
 (in/ 1 1 n ula, now dismembered fn m the Fulica of 
 which term is restricted in modern systems of or- 
 nitholngy to the Coots proper. 
 OA'LLI 
 
 ivi g a main and mi7.cn mast, which is often close 
 aft 
 
 GALL NUTS. Excrescences produced by the cynips, a 
 ■Mil Insect winch deposits its eggs in the tender shoots of 
 the Qtiercus infcitoria, a species of oak abundant in Asia 
 Minor. When tho maggot is hatched it produces n morbid 
 C6 of the surrounding parts, and ultimately cats its 
 way out of the nidus thus formed. The best gall.- are Im- 
 ported from Aleppo and Smyrna; their principal b 
 are tan ind gallic acid. The infusion of galls all!. ids a dense 
 white precipitate in solution of jelly, and a black precipitate 
 with the pe. salts of iron. The latter property leads to the 
 u>r of galls in the manufacture of ink and of black dye; 
 tbey are also used as an astringent in lie'dicine. 
 
 GALL OF GLASS. The salts and other impurities 
 
 which tloat upon the fused materials for the manufacture of 
 
 glass, and which is skimmed off It is Btoo called samlii-cr. 
 
 GA'LLON. Aa English measure of capacity. By act 
 
 of parliament the imperial gallon is to contain 10 lbs. avoir- 
 
 ; distilled water, weighed at the temperature of 02° 
 
 of Fahrenheit, and the barometer Standing at 30 inches. 
 
 qtrtvalent to 277-274 cubic inches. The old English 
 
 gallon, Wine measure, contained 231 cubic inches; beer 
 
 ! cubic inches. See Measures. 
 
 GA'LLOPER. In Artillery, the carriage on which the 
 
 very small guns are conveyed. 
 
 GALLS. Local affections or diseases of plants, caused 
 by the puncture of insects. They are produced by an exces- 
 sive depos itio n of cellular tissue, and .are of no consequence 
 to tlie general health of the individual subject to them. 
 
 GA'LL-8TONE8. Concretions occasionally found in the 
 gall bladder and biliary ducts. They consist either of a 
 peculiar fatty matter called cholcsterine, or of Inspissated 
 bile, or of mixtures of the two. The gall-stones of the ox 
 generally contain a peculiar yellow colouring matter, which 
 is much' valued by painters. 
 GA'LLY-WORM. See Jtjlidans. 
 GA'LVANISM. (From Galvani, professor of anatomy at 
 Bologna, the discoverer of some of the phenomena connected 
 with this form of electricity in the year 1790.) Under this 
 term are frequently included the phenomena of Voltaic 
 ihctricity (which see). We shall here limit it to the appa- 
 rent evolution of electricity by the contact of different metals: 
 thi< is best observed by the muscular contractions which are 
 1 in the leg of a frog recently killed, when two dif- 
 ferent metals, sucb as zinc and silver, tin and gold, &c, one 
 of which touches the crural nerve, and the other the mus- 
 brought into contact. Every time the me:als touch 
 each other the limb becomes powerfully convulsed ; and if 
 riment be made with a dead rahl.it, so that one of 
 the metals he In contact with the brain, and the other with 
 
 I 
 
 GAMES. 
 
 the muscles of the extremities, the whole body of the animal 
 ■ Strangely Sgitnted. Similar experiments have been made 
 upon the bodies of criminals shortly after execution. These 
 results, which have till lately been considered to depend 
 upon the ctlects of electricity excited by the contact of the 
 metals upon the nervous and muscular systems, led Volta to 
 his celebrated researches, which terminated in the discovery 
 of the Voltaic battery. Nearly all the cases, however, of 
 the apparent production of electricity by contact have been 
 satisfactorily traced by Faraday to chemical action. Sci 
 Voltaic Battery. 
 
 GA'LVANO'METER. An instrument for ascertaining 
 the presence of a current of electricity, especially Galvanic 
 or Voltaic electricity, by the deviation which it occasions in 
 the magnetic needle. The simplest form a j 
 of galvanometer is a magnetic needle a 8 
 poised upon a point, and surrounded by M ■ 
 one or more coils of copper wire covered 1 "t* ) 
 
 with silk, the ends a and b being either 
 left free, or terminating in two small cop- 
 per cups containing mercury, for the con- c - 
 venience of communication with the source of electricity. 
 
 When this needle is placed paiallel to the coil, and in the 
 magnetk meridian (as represented in the margin), it imme- 
 diately deviates when the electric current passes through 
 the coil ; and the deviation is either to the cast or the west, 
 according to the direction of the current. Sec Electbo- 
 Maqnk i 
 
 GA'MHA. A technical ti rm in Mammalogy, applied by 
 Illiger to the elongated metacarpus or metatarsus of the 
 Ruminants and 
 
 GAMBO'GE. A yellow gum resin much used as a pig- 
 ment, and in medicine as a drastic and IISIISBSllll| purge 
 It is chiefly imported from Cej Ion in cakes rolled up in flag 
 leaves, and is the produce Of the Oarcinia cambvgia and of 
 the Stalof 
 
 GAME LA WB. The principal statutes relating to game, 
 now in force, are the 7 tc t : Geo. I, c. 29, the '■• Geo, 4, c. 69, 
 
 and l&SWin. -I, c. 32, by which last statute Important 
 
 changes have l.een made. By the common law, which fol- 
 luccd into this country by 
 the Normans, ail game was the property of the king; no 
 person whatsoever could enjoy the diversion of sporting, un- 
 less authorized by royal giant of a chose or free warren; 
 and b> kill a deer m ileiiliinil almost as heinous an act as 
 to kill a man. But although at common law no persons 
 could with impunity encroach upon the kinL'ly prerogative 
 of pursuing game, yet those were exposed to the additional 
 pains and penalties of the statute law who committed this 
 offence not being possessed of a certain rank or dignity, ot 
 of a certain amount of landed property. Strictly speaking. 
 then, the superior condition in life of a party constituted 
 the ground of lus exemption from additional punishment, 
 and not, as commonly supposed, a qualification to do that 
 which was altogether interdicted, whether to the peer or 
 the peasant. But the aggravated offence under the statutes, 
 namely, thnt of sporting without rank or fortune, being in 
 later times severely visited, while the original offence at 
 common law was passed over, rank and fortune were, in 
 the end, looked upon as a qualification ; and a freehold 
 estate of 1001. a year, or leasehold for 99 years of 150/. a 
 year, or being the son and heir a p p ar e n t, of an esquire or 
 person of superior degree, were accounted as so many 
 qualifications. The statute law prohibited any persons 
 whatsoever, whether qualified to kill game or not, from 
 making it the subject of sale or merchandise. 
 
 By section 2, of the new act above mentioned, the word 
 "game" shall include hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, 
 heath or moor game, black game, and bustards. The prin- 
 cipal alterations in the law made by this act are, 1st, that 
 all qualifications are now done awav wilft, nnd that any 
 person taking out a proper certificate may kill game on lus 
 own lae^, or that of another person with his leave; and 
 2dly, that every person having such a certificate may sell 
 game to any person licensed to deal in it according to the 
 act, who again is at liberty to retail it without restriction. 
 
 Most trespasses and offences relating to game are punish- 
 able upon summary conviction, before magistrates. Tho 
 most serious of these offences is what is called night 
 poaching. After two convictions before a magistrate for 
 this offence it becomes a misdemeanor, to be proceeded 
 against bv indictment, and punishable by transportation for 
 seven years, or imprisonment and hard labour. Night 
 poaching committed by three or more persons in company 
 together Is a misdemeanor in the first instance, and pun- 
 ishable by transportation for fourteen years, or imprison- 
 ment and hard labour. 
 
 GAMES, have been resorted to in all ages, and among 
 all nations, for the purposes of mental or physical exercise 
 or amusement, according to their nature and peculiarities. 
 The games of the ancient Greeks were, in their original 
 institution, religious solemnities, founded, according to tra 
 
 487 
 
GAMING. 
 
 dmon, by gods and heroes, and continuing to be celebrated 
 in their honour. They were the most important national 
 assemblies, which brought the citizens of .ill the inde- 
 pendent states of Greece in contact ; and these festal com- 
 munions {-navr)) vpea) served as the most popular bonds of 
 social union among all who bore the Hellenic name. The 
 four principal were, the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and 
 Isthmian. (See those several articles. See WachsmuM s 
 Historical Ant. of the Greeks, chap. 1, part ii.,s. 22; Her- 
 mann's Antiquities, Oxf. trans., sec. 10. See also the 
 treatise of Barbeyrac on the Morality of Games.) 
 
 GA'MING. In Law. All common gaming houses are 
 nuisances in the consideration of English law. The first 
 statute against public gaming is the 33 H. 8, c. 9. By 9 
 Ann. c. 54, securities given for the repayment of money 
 lent for purposes of gaming are void ; and any person losing 
 and paying 101. at one sitting may, within three months, 
 recover the same, with costs, in any court of record. By 5 
 &. 6 W. 4, c. 41, if any person make, draw, or execute any 
 note, bill, or mortgage for a gaming debt, and actually pay 
 to any indorsee, holder, or assignee of such note, bill, or 
 mortgage, the sum thereby secured or any part thereof, 
 such money shall be deemed to be paid on account of the 
 person to whom such note, bill, or mortgage was originally 
 given (upon the illegal consideration), and shall be deemed 
 to be a debt due from such last-mentioned person to the 
 peraoq who shall so have paid such money, and shall be 
 recoverable by action at law in any court of record. But 
 though the English law has always been hostile to the 
 practice of gaming, it has never been found sufficiently 
 strong, or perhaps sufficiently willing, to suppress it. In 
 London and in other large towns the existence of " Hells," 
 as the places of resort for gaming are appropriately called, 
 is notorious to all the world. In many of the Continental 
 states gaming houses are licensed, and large revenues are 
 in many instances derived from this source. It is only 
 within the last two years that the French government 
 abolished the practice of granting licences. 
 
 Previously to that period the privilege of keeping gaming 
 houses was farmed by a company, for which they paid the 
 government 6,000,000 francs annually. 
 
 GA'MMARINES, Gammarina. (Gr. Ka(iuapov, a lobster .) 
 The name of a family of Amphipodous Crustaceans, hnving 
 the genua Gammarus, or the sand-hopper, as the type. 
 
 GA'MMONING. The rope by which the bowsprit is 
 bound firmly down to the cutwater, in which is a hole for 
 the purpose of reefing several turns of it. 
 
 GA'MUT, or GAMMA UT. In Music, a scale whereon 
 the musical notes are disposed in their several orders. Its 
 is attributed to Guido Aretino, a monk of Tus- 
 cany ; it is also called the harmonica! hand, from Guido 
 having made use of the figure of the hand to demonstrate 
 lite progression of his sounds. 
 
 GA NGLION. (Gr. yayy~Kiov, a knot.) An enlargement 
 ia the course of a nerve. A tumour in the sheath of a 
 tendon. 
 
 GA'NGLIONETJRA. (Gr. yayy\iav, and vevfiov, a 
 nerve) A name applied by Rudolphi to the Molluscous 
 and Articulate divisions of the animal kingdom, which are 
 rlzed by a ganglionic type of the nervous system. 
 In the articulated gangliated animals the ganglia are always 
 disposed symmetrically along the middle line of the body, 
 and brought into communication by a double chord : these 
 have therefore been termed Homogangliata. In the Mol- 
 luscn, on (he contrary, the ganglions are dispersed, and 
 placed at a distance from each other, and from the mesial 
 plane, and are frequently unsymmetrical in their arrange- 
 ment: the-c have therefore been termed Heterogangliata. 
 
 GA'NGRE'NE. (Gr. ypaciv, to feed upon.) The loss of 
 vitality of a part of the body. 
 
 GANGWAY. The sea term for a narrow passage way ; 
 particularly that part of the upper deck which is next the 
 ship's side, between the fore and main masts. 
 
 GA'NNET. See Pelecanus and Si/la. 
 
 GAOL. (Fr. geole, Lat. caveola, a cage.) A prison. 
 The present law as to building, repairing, and maintaining 
 gaols and houses of correction, is regulated by the statute? 
 4 G. 4, c. f>4 ; 5 G. 4, c. 12, and c. 85, and 2 & 3 Vict,, c. 50 
 (1839), the latest act on the subject. No gaol can be erect- 
 ed under any less authority than that of an act of parlia- 
 ment. There must now bo at least one common gaol and 
 one house of correction in every county. Gaolers are ap- 
 pointed by the high sheriff; by 4 G. 4 they are allowed to 
 exercise no other trade or office, and must reside within the 
 prison. As to the discipline and management of gaols, see 
 Prison. 
 
 GAPE. In Ornithology, the opening between the mandi- 
 bles of birds. 
 
 GA'RDANT, or GUARDANT. In Heraldry, a term ap- 
 plied ton beast when represented full-faced, ns looking at the 
 spectator. Re-guardant, when looking backwards. 
 
 GA'RDF.N. (Fr. jardin.) A piece of ground, generally 
 4c!8 
 
 GARTER, ORDER OF THE 
 
 of limited extent, and attached to a house, and enclosed, ::? 
 which are cultivated various vegetables, fruits, and flowi .•.-. 
 for the use of man. In the infancy of civilized 
 these objects were cultivated in one enclosure ; but as mar 
 kind advanced in civilization and refinement, and the ntuo 
 ber of objects to be cultivated increased, it became neceasait 
 to adopt separate departments; and culinary vegetable" 
 came to be cultivated in the kitchen garden, fruits in the 
 orchard, flowers in the flower garden, ornamental trees and 
 shrubs in the shrubbery or pleasure grounds, and Umbei 
 trees in plantations, woods, and forests. Hence the wurtl 
 garden, in the extensive sense in which it is at present used, 
 is no longer confined to a limited enclosure, but extend 
 an extensive area, in which are contained various scenes tM' 
 utility, comfort, convenience, and luxury. 
 
 GA'RDENING. The art of cultivating a garden, w ! 
 as we have seen in the preceding article, comprehends >i 
 great variety of objects and scenes. All these at the present 
 time are generally included under the following beads: 
 Horticulture, which comprehends the culture of culinarv 
 vegetables and fruits; floriculture, which includes the cul- 
 ture of ornamental and curious flowers, shrubs, and trees; 
 arboriculture, which implies the culture of trees or shrubs 
 used for various purposes in the arts and in general econo- 
 my; and landscape gardening, or the general disposition of 
 the scenery or landscape about a country residence. Horti- 
 culture includes the culture of the kitchen garden and orch- 
 ard; floriculture, the culture of flower gardens, botanic gar- 
 dens, shrubberies, and pleasure grounds; arboriculture, the 
 culture of nurseries for fruit and forest trees and shrubs; 
 and landscape gardening, the formation and management of 
 lawns, roads, walks, lakes, ponds, and artificial rivers, of 
 rock work, and of every description of objects in artificial 
 scenery which come under the denomination of ornamental 
 or picturesque. See Horticulture, Botanic Garden, 
 Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening. 
 
 GA RGARISM. (Gr. yapyapi^uv, to gargle.) A wash 
 for the throat. 
 
 GA'RNET. A mineral of which there are several varie- 
 ties. The precious garnet, is transparent, red, and in crystal » 
 or rounded grains; it is a silicate of alumina and iron, and is 
 used for ornamental jewellery. Common garnet is often 
 found in large crystals and masses, translucent, and of vari- 
 ous colours. 
 
 GA'RNISIIMENT. In Law, a warning or noiice given 
 to a party to appear in court or give information ; a techni- 
 cal term, u^eA only in one or two instances. Thus garnish- 
 ment or warning is given to a third person, in whose hands 
 money is atticbed within 'he liberties of the city of London, 
 hy process out of the Sheriff's Court, who is termed a gar- 
 nishee. 
 
 GA'RRISON. (Modern Lat. garnitio, military stoma, 
 iS-c.) A body of forces disposed in a fortress to defend H 
 against the enemy, or to keep the inhabitants of the town 
 where it is situated in subjection. The term garrison a 
 sometimes used synonymously with winter quarters, viz. a 
 place where a number of troops are laid up in the winter 
 season without keeping the regular guard. 
 
 GARRO'TE, THE. A mode of capital punishment em- 
 ployed in Spain. The criminal is seated on a stool with his 
 back to a stake. A tight collar is passed round his throat, 
 of which the ends nearly meet ; the executioner, standing 
 behind him, twists them closer by means of a screw: the 
 death is instantaneous. 
 
 GA'RTER, ORDER OF THE. The various accounts 
 respecting the original foundation of this noble order are for 
 the most part well known. The commonly received story, 
 which attributes it to the dropping of the Countess of Salis- 
 bury's garter, is contradicted by many recent writers, who 
 attribute its institution to Richard I., who tied thongs of 
 leather as marks of distinction round the legs of several of 
 his officers at the siege of Acre. In the opinion of Dr. Mey- 
 rick (On Armour, vol. ii. p. 54), the garter is nothing more 
 than a symbol of unity. The order was, however, either 
 founded or restored by Edward III., and, according to gener- 
 al opinion, either in the year 1344 or 1350. The first of these 
 dates was that of a festival in which the king farmed him- 
 self and his associates into a company, under the patronage 
 of St. George ; but nothing is said respecting the carter until 
 the latter year. The statures of the Garter have been re- 
 vived and augmented by King Henry V„ Henry VIII., and 
 George III. in 1805. It was generally called the order of St. 
 Georce until the reign of Edward VI.; St. Georee of Cappa- 
 docia, the tutelar saint of England, being likewise patron of 
 this order. It originally consisted of twenty-six knights, the 
 king being the chief; and the same number is still retained, 
 with the addition of princes of the blood royal as supernu- 
 meraries. In the beginning of the present century, it waa 
 estimated that eight emperors and twenty-eight foreign kings 
 had been members of it. The number has been since much 
 augmented. It is the most ancient of all th:> lay orders of 
 chivalry, and may rightly be accounted the noblest in the 
 
GAS. 
 
 world. Tiic college of the order is held at the chapel of 3t. 
 George, in Uie entitle of Windsor. The vestments and en- 
 f the order are, the mantle of blue velvet, changed H 
 purpJi Uizabeth, but restored to the original co- 
 
 lour by Charles I. ; Uie surcoat, now of crimson velvet ; the 
 bood, which is now fixed to the mantle, a cap of black vel- 
 vet with art aigrette of heron's feathers being worn on the 
 head instead of it; the collar of gold, composed of twenty- 
 pi* piece* made to resemble gotten, with the badge of the 
 order (the figure of Ht. George and the Dragon) pendent from 
 It, and the garter, of blue velvet The l us it is 
 
 colled, is attached to a blue ribbon, passing from the left 
 ■boulder to the tight hip. The officers of Uie order are, the 
 prelate (the bishop of Winchester for the time being); the 
 chancellor (the bishop of Salisbury) ; Uie register (the dean 
 ofVVi i king at arms (this officer combines two 
 
 functi raid to the order of the garter, and also 
 
 principal king at aims, the Mghesl ofleer of the Herald's 
 
 College ler the earl marshal); and the usher or black 
 
 rod. It has also a dean and twelve canons, tuc.. with twen- 
 lers, or poor kuights. The mo-t authentic wotk 
 on the order of Uie Garter is that of the learned antiquary 
 Omole, printed at London m 171. r >. 
 
 <;.\S. (Probably from the German prist, or spirit.) This 
 term is applied lo all |>ermanenlly elastic fluids, or airs dif- 
 fering from Atmospheric air. 
 
 GAS ILLUMINATION, ruder the head Carburbt- 
 ted Hyorooen, we have adverted to two caseous com- 
 poonds of carbon and hvdrogen, which perform an important 
 part in the economy of gas illumination. There are several 
 other analogous compounds, which are produced In various 
 relative proportion* during the destructive distillation of pit 
 coal, and which, therefore, are more or less concerned in the 
 history otee*$-got, which, as far as gas illumination is con- 
 cerned, may l>e defined as a mixture of two or more hydro- 
 caihurctied gases or vapours with small portions of other 
 gaseous bodies, among which free hydrogen and carbonic 
 oxide are the moat common. 
 
 The application of the gases produced during the destruc- 
 tive distillation of pit coal to the purposes of illumination is 
 l very modern invention. But the germ of it may be traced 
 back exactly l(K) years; for the firs) mention of the produc- 
 tion of a permanently elastic and inflammable gas from coal 
 occurs in the Philosophical Tmntaetitnu for lolii, in which 
 there is a paper by the Rev. Dr. Clayton describing a method 
 Of Alltng bladders with what lie calls the s/n'rit of coal, ob- 
 ipy distilling coal in a retort in the open fire. He says, 
 "I tilled a L 'oixl many bladders therewith, and might have 
 filled an inconceivable number more; for the spirit continued 
 for several hours, and filled the bladders almost as 
 • a man could have blown them with his mouth, and 
 yet the quantity of coals distilled was inconsiderable. 1 1 kept 
 this spirit in the bl adders a considerable time, and endeav- 
 oured several ways to condense it, but in vain ; and when I 
 had a mind lo divert strangers or friends, I have frequently 
 taken one of these bladders and pricked a hole therein with 
 a pin, and compressing gently the Madder near the flame of 
 a candle till it once took fire, it would then continue flaming 
 till all the spirit was compressed out of the bladder; which 
 was the more surprising, because no one could discern any 
 nee in the appearance between these bladders and 
 which are filled with common air." Dr. Clayton 
 seems also to have observed those curious phenomena which 
 have lately excited BO much attention under the terms rxos- 
 mosr. and endosmose ; for he goes on to sav that he found 
 "that this spirit must be kept in good thick bladders, as in 
 those of an ox or the like; for if I fil'od calves' bladders 
 therewith, it would lose its inflammabilitv in twenty-four 
 hours, though the bladders became not relaxed at all." 
 
 Dr. Hales (in his Vegetable Statics) and Dr. Watson (in 
 his ( ,, , ft ■) have each alluded to the properties, of 
 
 the gas from coal; but it was not until the end of the last 
 century that the practicability of substituting coal gas for 
 other inflammables, as a means of lighting streets and build- 
 ings, became an object of attention. 
 
 The idea of applying coal gas to economical puriioses 
 seems first to have occurred in 1702 to Mr. William Murdoch, 
 then residing at Redruth, in Cornwall. His apparatus con- 
 fisted of an iron retort, with tinned copper and iron tubes, 
 through which the gas was conducted to a considerable dis- 
 tance ; and there, as well as at intermediate points, was 
 burned tli rough apertures of varied forms and dimensions: 
 he also washed the gas with water, and used other means 
 for its purification. In 17(18 Mr. Murdoch constructed a lar- 
 ger and improved apparatus for the pur]>oso of lighting Bnul- 
 ton and Watt's celebrated manufactory at Soho, near Bir- 
 mtashnm, which, on the occasion of the peace in 1802, was 
 publicly illuminated by the same means. (Pec An Jlrr.ovnt 
 of the. Application of Gas from Coal to Economical Purpo- 
 ses, by Mr. W. Murdoch, Phil. Trans. 1808. p. 124.) 
 
 But the attention of the public in London was first called \ 
 \n i his important subject by the experiments of Mr. Winsor, j 
 
 GAS ILLUMINATION. 
 
 who, in 1803 and 1804, lighted the Lyceum theatre, and 
 shortly afterwards one ride Of Pall Mali, with gas from coa. 
 From that period, the manufacture of gas suggested itself ai 
 a lucrative spallation ; several private gas works were 
 erected, and companies were formed for the purpose of car- 
 rying it on upon an extended scale. Oil lamps were soon 
 after banished from all the great thoroughfares of the me- 
 tropolis; and in the course of from ten to Mean years not 
 only was every street and alley illuminated from the same 
 source, but it was generally introduced into shops and hous- 
 es : was adopted in the theatres and oUier public buildings ; 
 was carried into the suburbs; and has now become «c 
 in evpry town and city of the empire. 
 
 When coal is subjected to what chemists term destructive 
 distillation, that is, when it is heated red-hot in close ves- 
 | lelds ■ treat variety of complicated products, which, 
 as far as our present subject is concerned, may in' classed 
 under three heads: namely, first, permanent goSeB ; secondly, 
 vapours, which arc condensable into the liquid or solid state 
 by cooling ; and, thirdly, the fixed or residuary matter, which 
 remains in the retort. The object of gas manufacture is to 
 separate these from each other, and so to purify the gaseous 
 products as to render them lit for combustion. 
 
 The apparatus employed for this purpose constats, first, of 
 the ritorts, M they are called, or cast-iron cylinders, in 
 which the coal il subjected to heat; secondly, the apparatus 
 for condensiiiL' the solid and liquid pruducis; thirdly, the 
 purifiers, by which the gas is cleansed from vniioiiAnaUois 
 which would be pi, judicial If retained; and, fourthly, the gas- 
 ometers, in which the purified gas is ultimately received, and 
 which are connected wtfh the sen tee pipes for Its distribution. 
 
 The following is a brief description of these several parts: 
 
 The retorts are usually about 7 feet Inches long and I 
 foot in diameter, and in the shape I : an arched cylinder; 
 from five to sight of them are set in brickwork, so as to lie 
 heated red-hot by one fire. Bach retort has what is called 
 a mouth piece, which projects from the front of the brick- 
 work, and from which there rises an upiiL'ht pipe, about 12 
 feet hi'_'h nnd .1 or 4 inches in diameter, and which carries 
 
 tlie products of distillation Into the hydraulic main. Each 
 retort has a cover, which is kept in its place by holdfast 
 screws, und rendered air tight by lime luting. The hydraulic 
 main is a Ion,; horizontal pipe. 19 or 14 inches in dia met e r , 
 
 and into which the dip pi|ie of each retort dips, so as to be 
 sealed by the fluid which fills the lower half of the main, 
 and which is allowed to run oil' at that level. This fluid ll 
 of a very complicated nature ; hut tar and amiiioiiiacal liquor 
 are the terras applied to Its chief component pans; and these, 
 ondensed in the hydraulic main, serve to teal the ends 
 of the dip pipes, and arc constantly running off into what is 
 termed the tar vessel. Those products of the distillation of 
 tin' coal which are not thus in the lir.-t instance cnnil,-i:sed 
 are conveyed, by a pi|>e continued from the hydraulic main, 
 through a series of tubes or other contrit to ex- 
 
 pose a large and cold surface. This part of the apparatus is 
 called the condenser; in it Uie more volatile V&poUH are 
 brought to the liquid slate, and are collected in an appropri- 
 ate receiver. The meondenaed gases then pass on to the 
 purifiers, which are vessels so constructed as to expose them 
 to the action of a x'ery large surface of lime and Water, or of 
 slaked lime, by which carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydro- 
 gen are abstracted; and thence the gas, now purified, passes 
 into the gasometers, where it is stored up for use. 
 
 It would be impossible within the limits of this article, and 
 indeed irrelevant to the object of this Dictionary, to enter into 
 minute details respecting the structure, use-, and arrange- 
 ment of each of the above parts of the apparatus for the 
 production of coal gas; hut the reader may be enabled to 
 form some idea of the importance and exient of the whole 
 manufacture from the following outline of results. 
 
 There are, in the largest gas manufactories of London, 
 from 500 to 000 retorts, each of which is charged four times 
 a dav with 2 bushels of coal. They are ranged in rows on 
 either side of the retort house, and the flues from their re- 
 spective furnaces are generally so nrranced as to meet in one 
 central chimney ; but as coke is the usual fuel used for heat- 
 ing the retorts, there is commonly little or no smoke. Each 
 chaldron of coals submitted to distillation yields on an aver- 
 age 24 gallons of tar, ammoniacal liquor, and other compens- 
 able products, and 12,000 cubic feet of purified gas; while 
 there remains in the retorts a chaldron and a quarter of coke. 
 To puiifv those 12,000 cubic feet of pas there is required 
 about one bushel of lime, which, after its removal from 
 the purifying vessels, is used for making mortar, luting the 
 retorts, and oilier similar purposes; while the fetid liquor 
 which runs from it is transferred to the ashpits of the fur- 
 naces, where it is consumed bv evaporation, its vapour 
 passing through the fire, and tending materially to preserve 
 the bars of the furnaces by keeping them cool. 
 
 In a well-conducted cas establishment two men are re- 
 quired for the management of sixteen retorts, which are 
 charged four times in the 24 hours ; the retorts are kept in 
 
 489 
 
GAS ILLUMINATION. 
 
 constant work throughout the 24 hours, so that relays of 
 men are required for the night-work. In small gas works 
 the agitators of the purifiers are worked by hand ; but in 
 the larger establishments there are usually one or more 
 steam engines on the premises for this purpose, and for 
 pumping water, lifting coals, and other heavy work. 
 
 The number and dimensions of the gasometers will of 
 course vary with the circumstances, space, and extent of 
 the manufacture : in the works of the Chartered Gas Com- 
 pany, at their station at Westminster, there are twenty-one 
 gasometers, each containing on the average 30,000 cubic feet. 
 
 There are, besides those parts of the apparatus above 
 adverted to, and which are essential to the manufacture, 
 several other ingenious and beautiful contrivances in our 
 larger gas works, which may be considered as auxiliaries. 
 One of these is the station meter; a large instrument 
 through which the whole of the gas passes in its way to 
 the gasometers, and by which its volume is registered, so 
 that the quantitity made during any given time can be im- 
 mediately ascertained, and the weekly, monthly, or annual 
 production accurately determined. The gas meter was In- 
 vented by Mr. Clegg, formerly engineer to the Chartered 
 Gas Company. It consists of a hollow cylinder, which Is 
 made to revolve upon its axis by the ingress and egress of 
 gas into and from the three compartments into which it is 
 divided, the cylinder being partly immersed in water ; and 
 by a train of wheel work connected with it the number of 
 its revolutions in a given time is registered, and the num- 
 ber of cubic feet of gas which traverse it in a minute, hour, 
 day, or year, shown upon separate dials. The invention of 
 this instrument forms an important epoch in the history of 
 gas manufacture ; for it is now constructed upon any scale, 
 and is applicable to any case of the consumption of gas ; 
 so that by having a meter in each house of a size appro- 
 priate to the number of burners employed, the companies 
 are enabled to sell their gas by measure, and have an un- 
 erring check upon the quantity which each instrument 
 consumes. 
 
 Another beautiful contrivance, adopted in most of our 
 gas works, is that by which the pressure upon the gas in 
 the main und seivice pipes is adjusted; so that when a 
 number of burners are suddenly extinguished, or suddenly 
 lighted, in any part of the district which is supplied, there 
 shall be an intimation of the change at the works, so as to 
 prevent either excess or deficiency of supply ; or, in other 
 words, to prevent the lights which remain from flaring up 
 on the one hand, or being nearly or quite extinguished on 
 the other. This is effected by a small and nicely adjusted 
 gasometer connected with the service main, and which, by- 
 its rising and falling with diminished or increased pressure 
 of the gas within the main, points out the necessity of 
 opening or shutting the valve by which the gas is admitted 
 from the gasometers to a greater or less extent. This small 
 regulating gasometer has a vertical rod connected with it, 
 which carries a pencil made to bear upon a paper cylinder 
 properly ruled and divided, and whicli is made to rotate 
 upon its axis by communication with a timepiece ; so that 
 every change of pressure which takes place during the 
 night, for instance, is shown by the aberration of the line. 
 Mr. Crossley, to whom the improvement of the gas-meter, 
 by which it is rendered univeigally applicable, is due, is 
 also the inventor of these pressure registers. 
 
 The following particulars may serve to give an idea of the 
 quantity of gas annually consumed in London, of the quan- 
 tity of coal required for its production, and of the general 
 economy of this mode of illumination. It must also be borne 
 in mind that gas is an article of increasing consumption ; and 
 that in proportion as attention is paid to its manufacture, and 
 more especially to the fittings as they are called— that is, to 
 the pipes, cocks, burners, and other arrangements required 
 for its use and distribution in houses — it will become more 
 generally adopted in private dwellings, so as, in all probabili- 
 ty, to supersede ere long all other sources of artificial light. 
 Nor are the attempts which have been made to employ it as 
 a source of heat unimportant. Gas stoves, although hitherto 
 made upon very erroneous principles, are not without their 
 advantages ; and it has been promisingly applied to some of 
 the operations of cooking. 
 
 The oldest of the London gas works is the establishment 
 belonging to the Original Chartered Company. They have 
 three stations: the largest situated in Peter-street, Westmin- 
 ster; the second in Brick Lane, St. Luke's; and the third in 
 the Curtain Itoad, Shoreditch. This company consumes 
 50,000 chaldron of coals annually, the produce of which, in 
 gas, may be estimated at about six hundred million cubic feet, 
 or about eighteen million seven hundred and fifty thousand 
 |)ounds weight of gas. It may be assumed that each chal- 
 dron of coals weighs 2880 lbs., and yields an average produce 
 of 12,000 cubic feet of purified gas. The prime cost of gas 
 is about four or five shillings per 1000 cubic feet; the usual 
 retail price i3 from seven to ten shillings per 1000 cubic feet. 
 
 The Chartered Company probably supply about a fifth 
 41)0 
 
 GAUGE-POINT. 
 
 part of the whole of the gas consumed in London and the 
 suburbs ; so that the total annual consumption of coal em- 
 ployed for this important manufacture in the London district 
 only, probably exceeds two hundred and fifty thousand chal- 
 drons, and the quantity of gas produced for the supply of 
 this district amounts annually to three thousand million cubic 
 feet. The weight of this quantity of gas exceeds 75 mil lions 
 of pounds; and the light produced by its combustion may be 
 considered as equivalent to that which would be obtained by 
 the combustion of 160 millions of pounds of mould candles if 
 six to the pound. 
 
 The operations of the London Gas Light Company, which 
 was established in the year 1833, are also on a scale of great 
 magnitude. This company was called into existence by the 
 dissatisfaction which existed among gas consumers at the 
 defective supply, both in quantity and quality, previously af- 
 forded. Their works, situated at Vauxhall, are not only the 
 most powerful, but the most complete in arrangement of 
 any in the world. From this point their mains ramify to a 
 prodigious extent in Middlesex as well as Surry; and by the 
 admirable mode in which they are laid, aided by the power 
 of their works, they are enabled to supply gas at Highgate 
 Hill (seven miles off), with the same precision and in the 
 same abundance as at Vauxhall. The extent of their pipes 
 exceeds one hundred and fifty miles. 
 
 The cost of light equivalent to that of seven mould can 
 dies (six to the pound) is, in coal gas, id. per hour; in an 
 Argand oil lamp, 3d. per hour; in mould candles, 3jrf. per 
 hour ; in wax candles, Is. 2d. per hour. 
 
 GA'SKET. A platted cord, by which the sails, when 
 furled, are kept bound up close to the yards or gatls. The 
 same term is applied to the platted hemp used for packing 
 the piston of the steam engine and its pumps. 
 
 GA'STEROPODS, Gasteropoda. (Gr. yaanip, the belly, 
 and irovs, a foot.) The name of a class of Molluscous ani- 
 mals, comprehending those which have a ventral muscular 
 disc of greater or less extent, adapted for creeping. The 
 class is divided, according to the modifications of the breath- 
 ing organs, into the orders Pulmonata, Nudibranchia, In- 
 ferobranchia, Tectibranchia, Pectinibranchia, Tiibtilibrtin 
 chia, Scutibranchia, and Cyclebranehia. r JV 
 which the ventral foot is reduced to a rudimental compressed 
 plate, forms the type of an aberant group or order, called 
 Heteropoda. The pulmonated snail or slug may be regard- 
 ed as types of the Gasteropodous Mollusks. 
 
 GASTR^E UM. (Gr. yaarrjp.) A term in Zoology ap 
 plied to the whole of the prone or under surface of an ani- 
 mal's body. 
 
 GA'STillC JUICE. The peculiar fluid secreted by the 
 Stomach, and essential to the process of digestion. When 
 collected from the stomach of an animal killed while fast- 
 ing, it is transparent and saline, but during digestion it is dis- 
 tinctly acid ; and Dr. Prout found that the free acid which it 
 contains is the muriatic. One of the most characteristic 
 properties of the gastric juice is its solvent power over the 
 varieties of animal fibre, or albumen, and the facility with 
 which it coagulates milk, and then disolves the coagulum 
 See Digestion. 
 
 GASTRI'LOQUUS. See Ventriloquist. 
 
 GASTRI'TIS. Inflammation of the stomach. It is at- 
 tended by great irritability of the stomach, indicated by hie 
 cup, vomiting, and much pain and general uneasiness: the 
 pulse is small and hard, and there is fever, attended by 
 prostration of strength. It is a very dangerous disease, and 
 requires prompt treatment; especially bleeding, general and 
 local ; blisters ; hot bath, or fomentation. The constant sick- 
 ness generally prevents the exhibition of any of the ordinary 
 remedies. When it arises from poison, the stomach pump 
 and other distinct treatment is often requisite. 
 
 GASTROCHjE'NA. (Gr. yacrrjp, and ■yaivo}, I gape.) 
 A genus of Bivalve Mollusks, in which a large hiatus or gape 
 intervenes between the closed valves on the ventral aspect 
 of the animal. The mantle is perforated, opposite to this 
 gape, by a small aperture for the passage of the foot ; and is 
 prolonged posteriorly into two muscular tubes or siphons. 
 The Gastrochenes inhabit burrows, winch they perforate in 
 the substance of madrepores or calcareous rocks, and the 
 line their perforations with a calcareous tube. 
 
 GA'STROCNE'MIUS. (Gr. yaarrjp, and nvypri, the leg.. 
 The muscle which forms the protuberant part of the leg 
 the calf. 
 
 GA STRODYNIA. (Gr. y,mTi;p, and oSvvti, patn.) A 
 painful affection of the stomach, ollen attendant upon dys 
 pepsia. 
 
 GA STROMANCY. (Gr. yaarvp, and navrcia, prophecy.) 
 A kind of divination practised among the ancients by means 
 of words issuing or seeming to issue from the belly. This 
 term is applied also to a species of divination performed by 
 means of glasses or other round transparent vessels, in the 
 centre of which certain figures appear by magic art. 
 
 GAUGE, or GAGE. See Gage. 
 
 GAUGE-POINT, is a term used in Gauging to denote tne 
 
GAUGING. 
 
 imineter of .i cylinder whose altitude is oi.e inch, and its 
 • ■ 1 1 1 ; i J to that i>f :i unit of a given measure. For ex- 
 ample, the old wine gallon contained 231 cubic inches. The 
 diameter of a cylinder of the s'tme capacity, and whose al- 
 tiiuile is 'me uuh. is 1713 inches; which, therefore, is the 
 gauge point for this measure. 
 
 G.VI.'GINO, In Mensuration, is the measuring of the ca- 
 >t vessel*, chiefly casks, barrels, vats, fcc, and de- 
 termining the contents of the substances contained in them. 
 The principle* of gauging are those which geometry fur- 
 drim tor the measurement of solids in general ; hut as the 
 vjnteits of vessels of the kind now mentioned are so fre- 
 quently required to be known, at least approximately, for 
 he purposes of commerce and the collection of the revenue, 
 a set of technical rules and appropriate instruments have 
 been contrived, by the help of which the art can be, and 
 generally i-, practised mechanically by those who are utter- 
 ly ignorant of the principles on which it depends. The in- 
 ■ generally used for trie purpose is the gauging-rod, 
 . by which the contents of a cask are inferred 
 from ns diagonal length, measured from the bung to the ex- 
 P the opposite stave at the head. On one face of a 
 square rule, generally about four feet long, is a scale of inches 
 for taking the measure of the diagonal ; and on the opposite 
 face is a trig the corresponding contents of the 
 
 cask in gallons. It is obvious that this method of proceed- 
 "iily give approximate results, on the supposition 
 that all casks are similar solids. (See Symon's Practical 
 Ganger; Lcatlbetler's Treatise , on Gauging; HutUrx't 
 tration, &c. 
 
 GAUGING RULE. Sec Sliding Rule. 
 
 GAULT. A provincial name in the east of England for 
 at beds of clay and marl, the geological position of 
 which Is between Ihe upper and lower green-sand. 
 
 G \l NTLET, RUNNING THE. A barbarous punish- 
 ment of former times, by which the criminal was obliged to 
 sen the leamen arranged in two rows, and provided 
 with knotted ri,r U With which they Hogged him. 
 
 GAUZE. A text&t i brie generally made of silk, and said 
 to have been invent ie. 
 
 GA'VELKJND. An old E ore annex- 
 
 i"i to all lands in the county of Kex t not especially exempted, 
 .iy which the land of the father is equally divided at his 
 >aib among all his sons, or the land of the brother among 
 all his brethren if he have no issue of his own. Tenure in 
 gavelkind is considered by Blackstone to have been in the 
 nature oi In must places the gravelkind tenant 
 
 had the power of devising by will before the Statute of Wills. 
 The same custom seems to have been prevalent in Wales, 
 where all gavelkind lands were made descendible to the heir 
 it common law by stat. 34 & 35 H. 8, c. 3C. In Kent the 
 land- have been for the most part disgavelled, or deprived of 
 their customary discendible quality, by particular statutes; 
 but lands in Kent are presumed to be gavelkind, unless tho 
 contrary be show n. 
 
 GA'VIAL. See Crocodii.k. 
 
 (I WOT. (Fr. gavotte.) In Music, an nir for a dance, 
 which has two strains; the first having usually four or eight 
 bars, and the second eight or twelve more, each of which 
 are played twice over. It is of a brisk nature. 
 
 GAZE 1,1,1). The name of a small, swill, and elegantly 
 formed species of antelope, the Jlntclopc dorcas of Linnaeus ; 
 long famed f>>r the peculiar lustre and soft ex p r essio n of its 
 large dark eves. 
 
 GAZETTE. A periodical paper, published at short in- 
 tervals, containing articles of general intelligence. Both on 
 the Continent and in England such sheets were generally 
 termed Mercuries in the first times of their invention, and 
 appeared only occasionally; the earliest among ourselves 
 were published during the general apprehensions from the 
 presence of the Spanish armada, but some doubt has been 
 lately thrown on the authenticity of the specimens preserv- 
 ed in the British Museum. The first gazette produced in 
 France (under that title) was in 1031 : the first in England 
 in 1065, when tho court resided at Oxford on account of the 
 plague of London. From that period the Gazette has re- 
 gularly appeared twice a week, containing such notifications 
 as are either published by the court or the government, or 
 such as are authoritatively required by law in private trans- 
 actions. The name Gazette is said to be derived from Gaz- 
 zctta, a small Venetian coin, being tho price that was paid 
 for one of the flying sheets of commercial and military in- 
 formation (noti/.ie scritte), which were first published by that 
 republic in 15C>3. See Newspaper. 
 
 BAZETTEETt, is applied in England to a work contain- 
 in? a brief account of all or any of the countries of the 
 world, arranged in alphabetical order. To this class belong 
 Brookes'* General Gazetteer, and similar works. 
 
 G.\ 7/ INS. in Fortification, are the turfs, or pieces of earth 
 covered with grass, with which the faces of works raised of 
 earth are lined in order to keep them up and preserve their 
 form. 
 
 GENDARMES. 
 
 GECKO'TII. A family of lizards, having for its type the 
 genus Gecko ; in which most of the species present a curious 
 organization of the foot, by which the sole is converted into 
 a sucker, enabling the animal to creep up vertical walls and 
 along ceilings against gravity, like the flies upon which they 
 feed. 
 
 GEHE'N'NA. A term in Scripture, adopted from the 
 usage of the Jews to signify hell or the place of eternal pun- 
 ishment. The word U a slight corruption of Gehinnon, or 
 the Valley of Hinnom in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, 
 wherein, at a place named Tophet, it was recorded that cer- 
 tain idolatrous Jews had sacrificed to Moloch. The sewers 
 of the city were emptied into this hollow, and perpetual tire- 
 were kept up to consume the noxious matter, and prevent 
 pestilential effluvia. Hence, it is said, the name of the place 
 came to be used metaphorically in the sense above di 
 From this word seems to be derived the old French gehenne. 
 torture; and from thence the common word gene, con- 
 straint. 
 
 GE HLENITE. A mineral in small grey or yellow crys- 
 tals, found in the Valley of Fassa in tho Tyrol, named in hon- 
 our of Gehlen the chemist It is a rerrosillicato of alumina 
 and lime. 
 
 GE LATIN'. (Lat. gclu. »'ce.) An abundant proximate 
 principle in animals. It is confined to the solid pans of the 
 body, such as tendons, I j Milages, and bones, and 
 
 exists nearly pure in the skin ; but it is not contained in any 
 herdthy animal fluid. Its leading character is the formation 
 of a '.remulous jelly, when its solution In boiling water 
 cools; and it may be repeatedly liquefied, and again gela- 
 tinized, by the alternate application of heat and cold. Isin 
 glass, glue, and size are various forms of gelatine, the first 
 being this substance in a very pure state. Its must distinct- 
 ive chemical character is the formation of a dense white 
 precipitate when its solution in warm water is poured into 
 an infusion of galls or other form of Vegetable tannin. A 
 solution of one part of gelatin in WMX) of water is rendered 
 slightly turbid by the addition of a strong tincture of galls. 
 Gelatin is a nutritious article of food. The ultimate com- 
 ponents of gelatin are 478 carrion, 79 hydrogen, MV9 nitro 
 gen, 87'4 b n 
 
 GK'LATJNES. Mr. Kirby thus renders the tenn Ila 
 diaircs molasses of LamarcK, by which are designated the 
 same radiated animals Bj those called jScaiephe* by Cuvier: 
 the bodies of these Radiaries are generally of a gelatinous 
 consistency. 
 
 GELD (Gcr. money), in the Laws of the Saxon and other 
 Teutonic communities, is used In the sense of any fine, rent, 
 or payment; for instance, the fine paid ns compensation for 
 an injury, ns in the Compound toeregild; the compensation 
 for murder, dannrgitd, ace. 
 
 GEM. (Lat. gemma.) In Sculpture, a precious stone, 
 used for the purpose of sculpture. The practice of carving 
 gems is of remote antiquity, though it is doubtful whether 
 they were able to cut the diamond or use the emerald and 
 topaz for sculptural purposes. The stones usually selected 
 arc rock crystal of different colours, jasper, chalcedony, 
 onyx, cornelian, and blood stone. Among the Greeks the 
 art was carried to great perfection ; but having fallen with 
 the other arts into disuse, its revival was effected in Italy 
 in the 15th century, and modern masters have more than 
 rivalled some of the ancient productions. 
 
 GEMINI. (Lat. the Twins.) The third constellation 
 of the zodiac, into which the sun enters about the 21st of 
 May in each year. The Twins are named from Castor and 
 Pollux; sometimes, also, from Apollo and Hercules. The 
 constellation is easily distinguished by means of two con- 
 spicuous stars of the' second magnitude near together; Cas- 
 tor being that which is farthest to the west, and Pollux that 
 Which Is farthest to the east. 
 
 (JF.MMI'PARES, Gemmipara. (Lat. gemma, a bud, and 
 pario, I produce.) The animals which propagate by buds, 
 ns the hydra, or fresh-water polype, &c. 
 
 GEMS, ARTIFICIAL. These are made of a very fusl 
 blc, transparent, and dense glass, or paste, ns it is called, 
 containing a large proportion of oxide of lead, and gcnerully 
 some borax : the colours are given by metallic oxides. Much 
 of their perfection depends upon the skill with which the 
 exact tint of the real stone is imitated, and upon the care 
 with Which they are cut and polished. 
 
 GF.'NA. (Lat. gena, the cheek.) A term applied in 
 Zoology to 'lie region between the eye and the mouth, gen- 
 erallv extended over the zygomatic arch. 
 
 GENDA'RMES, or GENS D'ARMES. In the 15th anil 
 Ifith centuries, the heavy French cavalrv, which constituted 
 the only national force, were termed Gendarmes, or men- 
 at-arms. Each lancer had four, five, or six followers on 
 horseback, attached to him in various capacities; so that a 
 Ir.nce, in the language of historians of that epoch, compre- 
 hends six or seven men. After the cuirass and lance hat 
 become obsolete, the name of gendarmes ceased to be thus 
 applied. It was afterwards transferred to a corps of police 
 
GENDER. 
 
 tn consequence of the unpopularity of this corps in Paris, 
 the gens d'armes were abolished after the revolution of 
 1830, ami a new police force organized under the title of 
 Municipal Guard. (See the Encyc. des Gens du Monde.) 
 In all the German states, there is a body of mounted mili- 
 fciry police, with this appellation, of which the Germ, 
 equivalent is " Landdragoner." 
 
 GE'NDER. (Lat. genus.) In Grammar, the designa- 
 tion of sex by the form of a word. (See an elaborate arti- 
 cle in the Penny Cyclopaedia.) 
 
 GENEA'LOGY. (Gr. yevta, family, and \6yos, descrip- 
 tion.) The pedigree of each family. A series of several 
 persons, descended from a common progenitor, is called a 
 line. A direct line is either ascending (father, grandfather, 
 &c. : in the civil law particular names were given to seven 
 degrees in this line), or descending (son, grandson, &c). The 
 collateral lines comprehend the several lines which unite in 
 a common progenitor; and are either equal or unequal, ac- 
 cording as the number of degrees in the lines is the same or 
 different The collateral relations on the father's side are 
 termed in the civil law cognati, on the mother's agnati. 
 
 GE'NERAL, in the Army, is, next to field marshal, the 
 highest military title adopted by the European states. Like 
 most military designations, it owes its origin to the French, 
 who, about the middle of the 15th century, conferred the 
 title of lieutenant-general on the individual to whom the 
 monarch (by virtue of his birth the commander or general 
 of the national forces) intrusted the superintendence of the 
 army. The title of general is conferred either on the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the forces of a nation, or on the com- 
 mander of an army or grand division ; it is also given to the 
 officers next in rank to the general, who, besides perform- 
 ing functions peculiar to their own offices, frequently act as 
 the substitutes of their superior, with the designation of 
 lieutenant-general and major-general. 
 
 GENERAL ASSE'MBLY OF THE CHURCH OF 
 SCOTLAND. See Assembly, Presbyterians. 
 
 GENERALI'SSIMO. A title conferred, especially by 
 the French, on the commander-in-chief of an army consist- 
 ing of two or more grand divisions, each under the super- 
 intendence of a general. According to Balzac, this dignity 
 was first assumed by Cardinal Richelieu on the occasion of 
 his leading the French army into Italy ; but the term does 
 not appear to have found favour among the other European 
 states. 
 
 GENERA'LITy. A French territorial division under 
 the government prior to the Revolution. The generalities 
 amounted in all to 34. This division was principally with 
 reference to the collection of taxes. 
 
 GENERALIZATION, in Logic, has been defined as the 
 act of comprehending under a common name several objects 
 agreeing in some point which we abstract from each of them, 
 rmil which that common term serves to indicate. {Whate- 
 Itifs Logic, p. 388.) 
 
 '<; ENERA'TION, or GE'NESIS, in Geometry, denotes 
 the formation or production of a geometrical figure or quan- 
 tity. A line is said to be generated by the motion of a point, 
 a surface by the motion of a line, ami a solid by that of a 
 surface. A sphere or> spheroid is generated by the revolu- 
 tion of a semicircle, or semi-ellipse, about its diameter; and 
 a circle by the revolution of its radius about one of its ex- 
 tremities. The figure thus produced, or generated, is called 
 lha generant ; and it is a general property of every such fig- 
 ure that its area or content is equal to the product which 
 arises from multiplying the generating quantity into the 
 length of the path described by its centre of gravity. All 
 quantities may be considered as generated by motion; and 
 hence arose the terms fluxion and fluent in tlie infinitesimal 
 ana I wis. 
 
 GE'NESIS, BOOK OF. See Pentateuch. 
 
 GENE'THLIAC. (Gr. yevtQXiaicev ; from yevcOUv, a 
 birth.) An ode or other short poem composed in honour of 
 the birth of an individual. 
 
 GENE VA. See Gin. 
 
 GE'NIA. (Gr. ysveiov, the chin.) Terms in Anatomy 
 compounded of this word, and applied to muscles attached 
 to the chin. 
 
 GENICULATE. (Lat. genu, the knee.) Bending ab- 
 ruptly in an obtuse angle, like the knee when a little bent. 
 
 GE'NII, called by the Eastern nations Genn or Gien, are 
 a race of beings created from fire, occupying an intermedi- 
 ate place between man and angels, and endowed with a 
 corporeal form, which they are capable of metamorphosing 
 at pleasure. They are said to have inhabited this earth 
 many ages before the creation of man, and to have been at 
 List driven thence for rebellious conduct against Allah. 
 Their present place of abode is Ginnistan, the Persian Ely- 
 sium ; but they are represented as still interesting themselves 
 deeply in the affairs of this earth, over which they exercise 
 considerable influence. Every one is aware of the impor- 
 tant part which the genii perform in the interesting stories 
 tf the East; and indeed a more correct idea may be formed 
 493 
 
 GENTILE. 
 
 of their origin, characteristics, and history, from a perusal 
 of the Jlrabian Nights' Entertainments, than can be con- 
 veyed by the most elaborate dissertation. For tin account 
 of the superstitions of the modern Arabs in regard to genii. 
 see Lane's Modern Egyptians. 
 
 GE'NITIVE CASE. (Lat. genitivus, generative.) That 
 inflexion of the noun which denotes the relation of property. 
 See Grammar. 
 
 GE'NIUS. (Lat. gigno, I produce.) According to the 
 belief of the old Italian races, especially the Etruscans, the 
 genius was a spiritual agency of very Indeterminate charac- 
 ter, which seems to have been appropriated not only to ev- 
 ery human family and individual as a companion, but tc 
 every god, and even to places and things. This conception 
 was altogether foreign to Grecian mythology, although in 
 later times it became mingled in that of Kerne with the Gre- 
 cian notions respecting demons. (See D.e.mon.) As, for in- 
 stance, in the idea of a double genius, good and bail. t'eii- 
 sorinus {De Die Natali) says, "The genius is that god un- 
 der whose protection every mortal is born ami lives." Hence 
 the worship of the genius was closely connected with all 
 domestic ceremonies and feelings: the marriage bed was 
 lectus genialis ; the day of the genius, genialis dies, sacred 
 to mirth and relaxation; the genius accompanied human 
 fortunes in their vicissitudes (Vultu mutabilis, albus et ater 
 — Hor.) ; and death was typified by the figure of a genius 
 with a lamp reversed. The genii of places were usually 
 represented and worshipped under the figure of snakes. 
 Whether there is any connexion between the Italic genius and 
 the djinn of oriental nations (see Genii) is a doubtful point. 
 
 GENS. In Ancient History, a clan or sect, forming a 
 subdivision of the Roman people next in order to the curia 
 or tribe. The members and houses (familial) composing 
 one of these clans were not necessarily united by ties of 
 blood, but wore originally brought together by a political 
 distribution of the citizens, and bound by religious rites, and 
 a common name, derived probably from some ancient hero. 
 This common name, which distinguished the gentiles or 
 members of the same clan, was the second of the three 
 borne by a Roman citizen, and was specially termed the 
 nomen. It is supposed that each of the curies originally 
 contained ten gentes, and that each of these was represented 
 in the senate by one of its members. (See Vico, Scienza 
 Nuova ; Jficbuhr's History of Rome, 2d ed., p. 387.) 
 
 GE'NTIAN. In Pharmacy, the root of the Gentian:, 
 lutea, a plant abundant in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, and 
 in the mountainous parts of Germany, An Infusion or 
 tincture of gentian root is an excellent stomachic bitter 
 
 GE'NTIANA'CEiE. (Gentiana, one of the genera.; A 
 natural order of herbaceous Exogens, inhabiting most put ts 
 of the world. They are very near to Jlpocynaceai, from 
 which they differ in their herbaceous habit, permanent co- 
 rolla, want of milk, and in many other characters Prt ru 
 Scrophulariaccte they are distinguished by their reginar Mow- 
 ers, the stamens of which »re equal in number t'. 
 of the corolla; but they are with difficulty distinguished If 
 the flowers are absent. Lactly, they have a natural rela- 
 tion to Cinchonacea; inasmuch as the genera Mitreola and 
 Houstonia have both been mistaken by good botanists foi 
 Cincbonaceous plants. Their chief characteristic sensible 
 property is an intense bitterness, which resides both in the 
 stems and roots, rendering them tonic, stomachic, and feb- 
 rifugal; on which account the roots of Gentiana I 
 others are admitted into all pharmacopoeias. Many of the 
 species are beautiful in the hands of the cultivator. The 
 prevailing colours are red and blue. 
 
 GE NTILE. (Lat. gens, nation.) The original meaning 
 of the Latin word gcntilis is, one of the same, kith or Bailor) 
 with the speaker. In a later age of Latinity, individuals of 
 foreign or barbarous races were called Gentiles, [jluson.; 
 and Cod. Thcodos.) The Jews designated all not pi 
 their religion indiscriminately as "the nations," to fitoi? (N. 
 T.) ; and hence the Greek word ZQvikos (whence our hea- 
 then and the corresponding Latin word gentile) became used 
 to signify Pagans, in opposition to Christians and Jews. The 
 word gentilis is used in this sense by St. Jerome, Pi inlet.- 
 tius, and Christian writers of that age in general. The jeal- 
 ousy with which the Jews regarded all foreign nations, and 
 the bigoted obstinacy with which they clung to their notions 
 of their own peculiar sanctity and favour in the sight of 
 God, are well known. The earlier half of the history of 
 the Acts contains the account of the struggle which Chris- 
 tianity maintained against these prejudices before it finally 
 subdued them, even in the breasts of the Apostles and first 
 teachers themselves. The design of Christ that all nations 
 should be admitted to the benefits of his mission, is clearly 
 shown in many of his own words and actions ; but, ii|x>n his 
 crucifixion, his followers appear in the first instance to have 
 shrunk from carrying out this great principle. Their preach- 
 ing is confined for some time to Jerusalem ; and there, it is 
 to be remarked, they are treated with no severity, and ob- 
 tain considerable success. But, upon the appointment of 
 
GENTLEMAN. 
 
 the deacons, who appear t'> be Hellenists — much more lax 
 in their Judaical notions and prejudices than the Jews of 
 ine — and upon the preaching of Stephen, which was 
 probably the first i">ld declaration of the equality of the 
 Gentile with the: Jew, the anger of the people is Imme- 
 diately roused; the flame of persecution breaks suddenly 
 forth ; the disciples are driven from Jerusalem, and scat- 
 tered abroad in places where they arc brought more in 
 contact with foreigners; and the vision which is vouch- 
 safed in Peter recognises distinctly the claim of the Gen- 
 tiles t,-, the benefits of the Gospel. The observance of cer- 
 tain Jewish ceremonies continued, however, for a long 
 time to he a stumbling-block to the must devout and siu- 
 - . Paul combats the notion of the neces- 
 sity of submitting to some of these, especially circumcision; 
 bilged to make some Indulgence to the 
 prejudices of the Judaizing party. In after times this party 
 occupied one distinct division of the Christian world, split 
 Itself Into \ a ten as the Ebionitei and Nioofai- 
 
 ed i uniliVitnblo influence 
 even will of the church. 
 
 Vi'U'.M AX. (The English word gentle, in Its orlgi- 
 
 family; Lnt. 
 
 In Heraldry, a rank uipinswd in Latin by the term 
 
 Ml entitled to coat-armour are gentlemen ; but 
 
 the name is mora commonly applied to the lowest rank of 
 
 (her distinguishing title. Gentlemen by 
 
 blood were thoM who could show four generations of gen- 
 I ';:■< the paternal and maternal line. Those 
 who e mid not prove this, hut against whom the contrary 
 was not known within memory of man, were gentlemen by 
 Im created by letters pat- 
 ent of the Unc, Offleen (not menial) of the king's house- 
 hold, persona holding a rival commission, civil or military, 
 who had taken a degree in the liberal arts, and persons 
 adopted by gentlemen, w< dtled to this 
 
 rank, whic h has now been long obsolete as a distinction. 
 
 NTLEMEN PENSIONERS I i Ei gland, a band of 
 forty gentlemen, entitled esquires, whose office is to attend 
 the l.i in and from the Chapel Royal, and on 
 
 other occasions of solemnity. Thev were instituted by 
 llcnrv VIII. 
 
 ■ maggots or apodal larvie of the flesh 
 fly '.Uusta carnaria), and other Dlptera, are sometimes so 
 called. 
 
 OB'NUS. ;l.at.) In Zoology, that distinct tat suf>ordi- 
 nate "roup of animals which cives its name as a prefix to 
 that of all the species of which it is cum 
 Gents. In Logic, one of the predleabiea, which is con- 
 : as the material part of the species of which it is af- 
 firmed, sit Loaic, Prbdicablc. 
 
 Sl name for any scale of 
 called the diatonic 
 genus: If between the tones semitones are introduced, it is 
 • ailed the chromatic genus. When the subdivisions are 
 smaller, as quarter tones, it is called the enharmonic genus. 
 QCOCE'NTRIC. (Gr. yn, earth, and Ktvrfior, centre) 
 A term frequently used in Astronomy, signifying literally 
 
 g the earth fur its centre. The apparent motion of 
 any pi from the earth, is called its geocentric 
 
 motion. The geocentric latitude of a planet is the angle 
 formed by a straight line, supposed to be drawn from the 
 planet to the earth, with the plane of the earth's orbit or 
 tie plane of the ecliptic. Geocentric longitude of a planet 
 it the earth formed by two straight lines, one 
 of which is drawn to the first |>oint of Aries, nnd the other 
 to that point of the ecliptic which Is intersected by n per- 
 pendicular Circle, the plane of which passes through the 
 earth and planet. Geocentric is opposed to heliocentric, 
 which refers to the centre of the sun. These terms are 
 only i, ng of bodies belonging to the solar sys- 
 
 tem. The lived stars are nt such prodigious distances, that 
 they nre referred to the same points in space, whether we 
 consider them as seen from the earth or the sun. 
 
 (JK'ODES. (Gr. yeutijc, earthy.) Nodules of iron-stone, 
 hollow in the centre. Rounded pebbles having an internal 
 cavitv lined with crystals are also so called. 
 
 ODESY (Gr. yn, and Saito, J divide), literally signi- 
 fies the division of the earth, in which sense it is synony- 
 mous with land surveying; but it is usually employed in 
 n more general sense to denote that part of practical geom- 
 etry which has for its object the determination of the mag- 
 nitude and figure cither of the whole earth, or of any given 
 portion of its surface. In this sense it comprehends all the 
 geometrical or trigonometrical operations that are necessary 
 for constructing a map of a country, measuring the lengths 
 of degrees, ice. In order to construct an accurate map, or 
 determine the form and dimensions of a country, it is ne- 
 cessary, in the first place, to determine the absolute distan- 
 ces between the several stations or points ; secondly, to de- 
 termine the azimuths of the lines thus measured, that is, 
 their situation with respect to the meridian ; and thirdly, 
 
 GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 the differences of latitude and longitude of the station* 
 The operations necessary for determining the absolute dis- 
 tances, comprehending the measurement of a base, the ob 
 servation of angles, the computation of the sides of the tri 
 angles, and their reduction to the same level, are called 
 the geodesical or geodetical operations; while those which 
 nre required for determining the azimuths and latitudes an; 
 called the astronomical operations. The determination of 
 the figure and dimensions of the earth is a problem of 
 very great importance to astronomy nnd geography, and 
 has accordingly at all times been a subject of much ii! 
 to mathematicians; but it is only since towards the middle 
 of the last century that operations on an adequate scale for 
 its solution have been undertaken in different parts of the 
 world. For the results of the more Important of these op- 
 eration--, see Degree. 
 
 GNOBY, see Geoloot. 
 
 GEO'GRAPHT. (Gr. \ n, and ypaqioj, I describe.) The 
 description of the earth. The etymology of the term iniU 
 cates the nature and extent of this department of knowl 
 liich, in fact, embraces everything relating to the 
 circumstances and condition, natural or artificial of the 
 globe which we inhabit. The immense variety of subjects 
 comprehended in the science of Geography are usually ar- 
 ranged under three great divisions — .Mathematical, 1'hysi- 
 cal, and Political Geography. 
 
 Mathematical Geography. — This divi aphy 
 
 has for its object the determination of the form and dimen- 
 sions of the earth, its relations with the celestial bodies, 
 the relative positions and distances of places on its surface, 
 and the representation of the whole or portions of its sur 
 face on globes or maps. 
 
 In order to describe the earth, the first element thnt must 
 be ascertained is its general form. Thnt the surface of the 
 earth is convex, is apparent even to the senses. Let a 
 spectator stand on the seashore, and attend to the success- 
 ive appearances of a ship proceeding to sea. First, the 
 lower pnrt becomes invisible; then the whole hull; and, 
 lastly, the masts and rigging, the lower parts disappearing 
 first. Now this phenomenon can only be explained by the 
 convexity of the portion of the w.ater between the ship 
 and the spectator; and When the curvature of the sea is 
 recognised, the conclusion can scarcely hi' avoided that the 
 land, abstracting from its local inequalities, participates in 
 the same curvature, and that the earth is a round body. 
 The some conclusion is drawn from the gradual coining on 
 Of day and night, and the deplacement of the stars in pro 
 eeedlng towards the north or smith; for if the earth were 
 tlit, the sun, in appearing above the horizon, would illu 
 mine the whole of its surface at the same instant; and on 
 the -opposition of its being either tlat or cylindrical, the 
 |Kile star would maintain the same elevation, whereas to 
 the traveller who advance* northward it gradually appears 
 more elevated, and to him who advances southward more 
 ili pressed. All these nppearnnces are observed in the same 
 manner on whatever part of the earth we are placed ; and 
 from them alone the globular form of the earth might be 
 inferred, even if the fact had not been placed beyond doubt 
 by the voyages of circumnavigators. Astronomers in mod- 
 ern times have indeed dis c over e d that it is not a perfect 
 sphere, being flattened in a Blight degree nt two opposite 
 points (which are the poles of rotation) ; but the deviation 
 from perfect sphericity Is so small, that for all the purposes 
 with which geography is concerned it may be neglected 
 without sensible error. See Figure or the Earth. 
 
 In order to determine the relative positions of points on a 
 sphere in the most commodious manner, mathematicians 
 refer them to two^reat circles ; that is to say, circles form- 
 ed by the intersection of the surface of the sphere by a 
 plane passing through its centre. The earth is a body which 
 revolves about an axis of rotation ; the position of this axis, 
 therefore, with respect to the celestial constellations, deter- 
 mines one great circle, namely, the equator, or the circle 
 which Is equally distant from the two poles of rotation, and 
 divides the globe Into two opposite hemispheres. The 
 equator, therefore, being marked out by nature, or by the 
 apparent revolutions of the celestial bodies arising from the 
 real diurnal rotation of the earth, is a circle to which all 
 places are most conveniently referred: and it has this prop- 
 erty, thnt it never undergoes any change of place on the 
 sphere ; for astronomers have proved that since the date of 
 the earliest observations, the poles of rotation, and conse- 
 quently the equator, have always maintained the same in 
 variable position on the earth's surface. 
 
 The distance of a place from the equator cannot be di- 
 rectly measured ; but by means of astronomical observations 
 we can determine that distance in aliquot parts of the earth's 
 circumference, that is, in degrees of a great circle. It is 
 not, however, sufficient to know how many degrees a place 
 is distant from the equator. It is necessary, also, in order 
 to distinguish it from all other places, to know how it Is situa- 
 ted with respect to a certain meridian, or great circle perpen 
 
 493 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 flicular to the equator, and consequently passing through 
 the poles. In reference to the diurnal rotation of the earth, 
 all meridians are in precisely the same circumstances; the 
 choice is consequently entirely arbitrary, and geographers, 
 as well as astronomers, generally select that which passes 
 through the capital of their own country as the circle to 
 which they refer all other places. The equator and the as- 
 sumed meridian thus form the co-ordinates of the sphere. 
 The distance of any place from the equator, measured on 
 the arc of the meridian, is the latitude of the place ; and its 
 distance from the assumed meridian, measured on a circle 
 parallel to the equator, is its longitude ; and when the lati- 
 tude and longitude of any place are both known, the posi- 
 tion of the place itself is entirely determined. The latitude 
 of a place is ascertained by observing the height of the pole 
 above its horizon ; and the longitude of one place in re- 
 spect of another, by the interval of tune which elapses be- 
 tween the passage of any celestial body over their respect- 
 ive meridians. See Latitude and Longitude. 
 
 Besides the rotatory motion about its axis, the earth has 
 also a motion of revolution about the sun, which is comple- 
 ted in the course of one year. The first of these motions 
 causes the succession of day and night; the second the 
 vicissitudes of the seasons, and the inequality of the length 
 of the natural days. These two last phenomena depend on 
 two circumstances: 1st, that the axis of the earth is not 
 perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, or the plane in 
 which the annual revolution is performed ; and, 2d, that 
 the extremities of this axis, or the two poles of rotation, 
 continue to be directed to the same points of the celestial 
 , sphere during the whole tune of 
 s the revolution. Hence it follows 
 that the plane of the equator, 
 though invariable in respect of ab- 
 — S solute space, is continually chan- 
 ging its position in respect of the 
 sim; and the apparent effect is 
 ^- 55" the same as if the sun had a vi- 
 bratory motion in the heavens, ri- 
 sing above the plane of the equator E E one half of the 
 year, and falling below it during the other half. When 
 the sun is in the equator at S, the two poles of the earth 
 n and s are in the great circle which divides the illu- 
 minated from the dark hemisphere. When the sun reach- 
 es his greatest northern declination at S', the illumina- 
 ted hemisphere is a E a', and the north pole n comes 
 considerably within it. On the other hand, when the 
 sun's declination is south, as at S", the south pole s comes 
 into the illuminated hemisphere, while n is left in dark- 
 ness. When the sun is at S his apparent diurnal mo- 
 tion is performed in the equator, and the days and nights 
 are of equal length all over the world. The angle which 
 the planes of the equator and ecliptic make with each other 
 is about 23i°; consequently, since the greatest declina- 
 tion of the sun from the equator is the same quantity, it 
 must happen that at midsummer the sun is 23 ° to the 
 north of the equator, and at midwinter 23i° to the south 
 of it. The inequality of the natural days fs an immediate 
 consequence of the sun's declination ; for as the solar rays 
 come to the earth parallel, one half of the globe must al- 
 ways be illuminated at once, and the other half in dark- 
 ness ; consequently, when the sun declines 23i° to the 
 north of the equator, all that part of the earth which is 
 within 23., ° of the north pole will remain, while the 
 earth performs its diurnal revolution, within the illumina- 
 ted hemisphere. A small circle of the sphere parallel to 
 the equator, and at the distance of 23;,° from the pole, is 
 called the polar circle ; and at this latitude the sun, when 
 at his greatest declination, comes exactly to the horizon at 
 midnight, without setting; consequently, the length of the 
 longest day is twenty-four hours. At the equator the 
 length of the day is always twelve hours ; and from the 
 equator to the polar circle the length of the longest day is 
 greater and greater as the latitude increases. At the 
 pole the sun is one half of the year above the horizon, 
 and the other half below it ; and from the polar circle to 
 the pole, the length of time the sun continues above the 
 horizon without setting increases with the latitude from 
 twenty-four hours to six months. The two small circles 
 of the sphere parallel to the equator, which limit the sun's 
 greatest declination, are called the tropics ; and the whole 
 surface of the globe is divided by the two tropics, and the 
 two polar circles, into five zones or spaces ; namely, the torrid 
 zone, which is included between the two tropics, or extends 
 23}° on either side of the equator ; the two temperate 
 zones, or the spaces included between the tropic and polar 
 circle in each hemisphere ; and the two frigid zones, or the 
 spaces between the poles and their respective polar circles. 
 These may be called the astronomical divisions of the 
 g'obe, as they depend on the position of the earth's axis 
 lit rotation with respect to the plane of its orbit, and are 
 determined bv astronomical observations. 
 494 " 
 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 Physical Geography has for its object the description ol 
 the principal features of the earth's surface, as consisting of 
 land and water; the extent and configuration of the conti- 
 nents and islands; tbe elevation and direction of the mount 
 ain chains; the conformation of the plains and valleys; 
 their altitude above the level of the sea; and the soil, cli- 
 mate, and animal and vegetable productions of different 
 countries. It embraces also the various phenomena of the 
 ocean, which may be classed under the term Hydrology ; 
 the depth of the sea, and the inequalities of its depth, its 
 saltness and temperature; the direction and velocity of ear 
 rents, the tides, the polar ice, &c. In like manner it com- 
 prehends also many of the questions which are usually 
 treated under the terms Meteorology and Climate ; the mean 
 temperature of different countries; the height of the snow 
 line; the prevailing winds; the barometric pressure; the 
 quantity of annual rain, of evaporation, &c. ; and the effect 
 of all these circumstances on the condition of the humar. 
 race. 
 
 On casting our eye on a globe or map, we immediately 
 perceive the very unequal distribution of land and water on 
 the surface of the earth. The land occupies a very little 
 more than one third of the whole surface, and the water all 
 the remaining portion. Nor is the inequality of the distribu- 
 tion in respect of the two hemispheres less remarkable. Of 
 tho whole land about four fifths is situated in the northern 
 hemisphere, and the remaining one fifth in the southern. In 
 a general view, the land consists of three great masses: the 
 old continent, which comprehends Europe, Asia, and Africa; 
 the new continent, or America; and JVVts Holland — which 
 are separated from each other by the great oceans. The 
 general features of the two continents differ remarkably. In 
 the old continent the general direction of the land, and of 
 the great mountain chains, is from west to east, almost par 
 allel to the equator; while in America the general direction 
 is from north to south, along the meridian. Thus the four 
 great systems of mountain ranges in Asia — namely, the Al- 
 tai, the Thian-chan, the Kueii-lun, and the Himalaya — all 
 stretch from west to east ; and the Andes, which extends 
 from one extremity of America to the other, ranges in the 
 perpendicular direction from north to south. Another stri- 
 king feature of the land is, that all the great peninsulas are 
 pointed to the south pole. This is the case with South 
 America, Africa, Arabia, Hindostan, Malaya, Cambodia, the 
 Corea, Kamtschatka, California, Alaska, Greenland, Florida, 
 Italy, &c. ; in short, the only two exceptions are Yucatan in 
 tlie Gulf of Mexico, and Jutland in the German Sea. which 
 are both formed of alluvial land, and may therefore be sup- 
 posed to owe their formation to partial influences winch 
 have not operated on the great continental masses. This 
 similarity of disposition can only be attributed to the agency 
 of some mechanical cause ; and the phenomena strongly 
 suggest the idea of the terraqueous masses having been 
 shaped into their existing forms by the action of a great wave 
 or current flowing from the southern to the northern pole. 
 (See Atmosphere, Climate, Geology, Tides, Wind, &c. 
 See also an excellent article on this subject by Dr. Traill in 
 the Encyclopedia Britannica.) 
 
 Political Geography considers the earth as the abode of 
 mankind ; and lias for its object the description of all that 
 relates to the moral or social condition of the different na- 
 tions; their language, religion, government, degrees of civil- 
 ization; and the imputation, resources, and local relations of 
 different countries. This part of geography is consequently 
 related to history and statistics, and does not fall within the 
 scope of this work. (See M'Culloch's Geographical Dic- 
 tionary ; Murray's Encyclopedia of Geography ; the large 
 work of Malte Brim, of which there is an English transla- 
 tion ; the Dictionnaire Geographique Univcrsel ; the Sys- 
 tems of Malte Brun and Balbi abridged, published by Black; 
 and, for recent discoveries, the Journal of the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society of London.) 
 
 GEOLOGY. (Gr. yrj, the earth ; Xoyos, a discourse.) Till 
 within the last five-and-twenty years geology consisted of a 
 very limited collection of facts, strung upon amusing but in 
 sufficient theories and hypotheses; but it may bow be said 
 to have taken its place among the rigid and exact sciences 
 It requires for its successful exposition not only an intimate 
 acquaintance with the mineralogical history of the crust of 
 the globe, but it also involves a series of extensive and dis 
 tinct inquiries respecting the physical and chemical cause* 
 that are and have been active in producing present and past 
 changes; and it branches out into several distinct investiga 
 tions connected with the discovery of organic remains, in tin 
 successful pursuit of which no small share of zoological an< 
 botanical information are requisite, and which also domain) 
 the aid of comparative anatomy. 
 
 There is this, therefore, to recommend geology, that it ex 
 cites a distinct interest in the external characters of a conn 
 try or district, independent of the beauties, or ruggednesa, ot 
 sublimity of its aspect) or of its geographical peculiarities 
 and endeavours to trace a connexion between its cxtcriei 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 features and interior structure ; and in these its gim pleat 
 details it bears upon agriculture, and ultimately upon all 
 Uiose numerous ails in which mineral substances are con- 
 cerned. The farmer should be a geologist, and so should 
 the architect: the miner and the mineralogist must be so. 
 But this is, as it were, the mere title of the volume ; for 
 when we come more narrowly to peruse its contents, we do 
 Indeed lid it " as a book wherein man may read strange 
 mutters." It is full of relics, so extraordinary as to arrest 
 the attention of the most superficial inquirer, and to awaken 
 fli'j deepest Interest in the philosophic observer: it is throng- 
 ed with records of strange and mighty changes and convul- 
 sions; of revolutions in climate, and in the genera and spe- 
 cie.-* of the organic creation ; it carries the mind back to a 
 period indefinitely remote, when our present continents were 
 at the bottom of the ocean, from which they Hem to have 
 been elevated sometimes by the slowest degrees, and at oth- 
 ers by a more rapid and violent cause, and when both MS. 
 and land were tenanted by distinct tribes and races of extra- 
 ordinary animals and vegetable! ; It shows that every thing 
 as we vote find it has been gradually and successively de- 
 veloped, as it were, and that man himself has appeared but 
 late upon tins singular stage, 
 
 In this article our principal object will be to give an outline 
 of the present state of geology, and an explanation of the 
 tcrni^ of the science. To attain this object, the works which 
 we have principally consulted, and from which, with the 
 kind | their authors, we have made copious ex- 
 
 tracts, are those of Lyell and De la Becbc: the explanatory 
 diagrams are chiefly from the same sources. To them, and 
 to the works of Phillips, Bakewell, Mantell, and Buckland, 
 and to the Transactions nf the Qedogical Society, we must 
 refer our readers for det.uis which would have been incon- 
 sistent will) the objects of this Dictionar) . 
 
 In tracing out the present appearance of the earth's sur- 
 face, and in examining minutely the effects of causes now 
 in action, there is nothing, as Button has said, in which toe 
 ;an distinctly perceive either the evidence of a beginning or 
 the prospect of an end. Geometers have taught us that in 
 the midst of all the fluctuations Which can possibly take 
 place in the element* of the orbits of the planets by reason 
 of their mutual attraction, the general balance of the parts 
 of the system Will always be preserved, and every depar- 
 ture from a mean state periodically compensated. Hut, in 
 saving that we. can discover nothing that points to a begin- 
 ning or threatens an end, we only mean that mere human 
 powers arc as yet inadequate to such a discovery. There 
 are, it is true, some circumstances in the physical constitu- 
 tion of our own planet which do obscurely point to an origin 
 and a formation, but from them nothing distinct can be con- 
 cluded. On the other hand, neither the researches of as- 
 tronomy nor of geology give us the slightest grounds for 
 regarding either our system, or the globe we inhabit, as of 
 eternal duration ; in short, If we would speculate to any 
 purpose, either upon the former state of our globe, or upon 
 the succession of events which from time to time may have 
 changed the condition and the form of its surface, we must 
 confine our views within limits far more restricted, and to 
 subjects much more within the reach of our capacity, than 
 cither the beginning or the end of the world. These, in- 
 deed, were almost the sole inquiries of the older geological 
 school, the favourite speculations of a race of geologists 
 now nearly extinct. Within the limits of the present cen- 
 tury even geology has undergone an entire change of char- 
 acter, and is, as we have already remarked, brought with- 
 in the list of the inductive sciences. Geologists now no 
 longer ransack their imaginations for theories of the forma- 
 tion of the globe from chaos, or bewilder themselves with 
 its hypothetical transformations; but they aim at a careful 
 and accurate examination of the records of its former state, 
 and of the indisputable evidences of former life and habita- 
 tion which the organic remains of Its strata afford. 
 
 These wonderful wrecks of a former state of nature, 
 preserved, like ancient medals and marbles in the ruins of 
 an extinct empire, afTord a kind of rude chronology, by the 
 aid of which the successive depositions of the strata in 
 which they are found may be marked out in epochs more 
 or less definitely terminated, and eacli recognised by some 
 peculiarity which enables the diligent observer to recognise 
 the deposits of any period, In whatever part of the globe 
 they may occur. And, so far at least as investigation has 
 hitherto gone, these deposits are in the same order of suc- 
 cession in every part of the world. 
 
 But, in using these terms, we must not forget how very 
 little we do actually know of the earth's surface. We talk 
 of certain strata extending over the whole globe, forget- 
 ting that nearly three fourths of it are covered by the wa- 
 ters of the ocean, and that consequently of that portion we 
 can know but little, and that little imperfectly ; and that 
 of the fourth which remains in the shape of dry land not 
 one thousandth part has been at all examined, or at least 
 not investigated. Again, we speak of the crust of our 
 
 globe, and of the bouels of the earth, and the depth of the 
 sea, and the loftiness of mountains, forgetting how insignif- 
 icant all these things really are, compared with the entire 
 bulk of our planet ; that our deepest mines hardly pane 
 trate to a depth surpassing the ten thousandth part of the 
 distance from the surface to the centre; that the profound 
 est recesses are mere scratches upon the surface ; that lite 
 loftiest hills and most inaccessible mountains arc only as 
 grains of dust and of sand sprinkled on the surface of one 
 of our moderate-sized artificial globes. 
 
 Such being the real state of our information, and nch 
 the limitations to which all farther pursuit is subjected, we 
 may well be animated by the magnitude and extent of tho 
 inquiries which this limited range displays. " And finding, 
 even hi these restricted bounds, the amplest proofs of order 
 and design, the mind is naturally led to the sublimcst in 
 ferenccs respecting what is unseen, and even to the con 
 ception of a power and intelligence to which we may well 
 apply the term infinite ; since we not only see no limit to 
 the instances in which they are manifested, but find, on the 
 contrary, that they continually ojicn upon us in ii i 
 abundance, in proportion as we arc enabled to extend our 
 sphere of observation and inquiry; and that as the study 
 of one prepares us to understand and appreciate another, 
 wonder follows on wonder, till our faculties become hew il- 
 dered in admiration, and our intellect falls back on itself in 
 utter hopelessness of nrriving at an end." 
 
 We may now state of what the external film or cuticle 
 of the globe appears to Consist, and examine how far wo 
 are justified in inrmlsing respecting the nature of its deep- 
 er-seated parts, and of such portions as are out of the reach 
 of actual inspection. 
 
 We say that the crust of the earth is stratified, because 
 it consists chiefly of distinct strata or layers of different ma- 
 terials. These differ in depth and extent ; but What is 
 most essential to our present purpose, they follow each 
 other, on the large scale and as mnnifn. In an apparently 
 regular and uniform succession in all places, districts, and 
 countries where they admit of examination and have been 
 attentively studied. They appear, in most Instances, to real 
 upon, and arc blended with, invaded, and in some few in- 
 stances overflowed, :is it were, by stil eh are not 
 distinctly Stratified, and Which most geologists have agreed 
 in calling vnstratified rocks. The former, or the Stratified 
 rocks, from their texture and contents, have apparently 
 been formed under water; and some of them, especially 
 the uppermost series, abound in fossil remains of the or- 
 ganized kingdom. The unstratificd rocks, on the oilier 
 hand, are In many instances of indisputable volcanic origin ; 
 and others, from their position, texture, and effects upon 
 their neighbours, are also presumed to be of igneous forma- 
 tion. Water, therefore, on the one hand, and fire on the 
 other, seem to have been the gnat agents to which the 
 present aspects of the earth's surface are referable In 
 proceeding to enumerate the principal dirisinns of the 
 stratified rocks in their order from above downwards, we 
 must remind the render that the series of strata seem to 
 have been removed from certain districts by causes which 
 we shall afterwards endeavour to trace, constituting what 
 have been called denudations. 
 A 
 
 In this diagram A represents the crystallized or unstrati- 
 ficd rocks, presumed to be of igneous origin, upon which lie 
 the stratified rocks, B, C, and D. The rocks A wen for- 
 mally called primitive, and were supposed to be the origi- 
 nal crystalline crust of the globe, upon which the strata B, C, 
 D had been subsequently deposited ; but it is now supposed 
 that the rocks B, C, and D have been upheaved by the sub- 
 sequent intrusion of A by volcanic agencies from beneath. 
 
 The substances which usually constitute the ground we 
 tread upon are produced chiefly by causes in daily opera 
 tion — soils and detritus of various kinds washed down from 
 the neighbouring hills by the influence of rain and torrents, 
 and forming what have been generally called alluvial de- 
 posits: these are more or less associated with matters 
 probably of a similar but a more ancient origin, and which, 
 suspected by some to be relics of the deluge, have been 
 termed diluvial deposites ; such as gravel and boulder 
 stones. 
 
 We then find in many parts of England and elsewhere 
 occasional patches of what have been termed tertiary 
 rocks, which often are of singular interest, and frequently 
 consist of detached and insulated deposits surrounded by 
 other rocks, and, in reference to their neighbours, occupy- 
 ing a position very like that of the water of lakes, inland 
 
 495 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 >eas, and gulfs, in relation to a continent ; and, like such 
 waters, being often very deep, but of limited extent: hence 
 they are often designated as basins. They consist of clays 
 and calcareous and arenaceous matters, In which are im- 
 bedded remains of marine animals, blended with fresh- 
 water species, quadrupeds, and even birds. These lie upon 
 chalk, which is the newest rock of the secondary series. 
 They constitute the supracretaccous rocks of which the ba- 
 sins of Paris, London, and the Isle of Wight, and parts of 
 Suffolk, furnish instances. Chalk constitutes the upper- 
 most of the secondary series of the European area; and it 
 is immediately succeeded by certain varieties of sand and 
 sandstone, included by Mr. De la Beche in his Cretaceous 
 group. We then (in the same area) come to the Oolitic 
 group, composed of calcareous freestone and of lias, resting 
 upon the varieties of red sandstone, and succeeded by coal, 
 mountain limestone, and old red sandstone ; and these are 
 followed by the Greywacke group, forming the transition 
 series of Werner, a part of which has been ably described 
 under the name of Silurian system by Mr. Murchison, rest- 
 ing upon a lower portion termed Cambrian system by Pro- 
 fessor Sedgwick. The Greywacke may be conveniently 
 divided into three portions : 1. Upper, equivalent to the old 
 red sandstone of England ; 2. Intermediate, equal to the 
 Silurian system ; and 3. Inferior, equivalent to the Cam- 
 brian series. These are often made up of fragments of the 
 older series, or contain a few ancient organic relics. They 
 rest upon the inferior order of stratified nonfossiliferous 
 rocks, and upon the unstratified or primary series. 
 
 In endeavouring to trace out the history of the respective 
 strata to which we have adverted, it would, perhaps, be 
 most philosophical to commence our inquiries with the 
 causes that arc now active in producing alterations upon 
 the surface of the globe ; to consider the action of changes 
 of temperature, and of water and other agents, that tend to 
 degrade and disintegrate the surface, to wear down its as- 
 perities, and to modify the present order of things — among 
 which earthquakes and volcanoes form a prominent feature. 
 But the narrative will he more clear if we first sketch out 
 the history of the formations, considering them in refer- 
 ence to their position, their composition, their organic relics, 
 and the purposes to which they are applied in the arts ; 
 and then, having adverted to their relative durabilities and 
 aspects as mountain masses, we may consider the action 
 of rivers, and of the ocean, both as destructive and as ren- 
 ovating agents, tracing out their connexion with meteoric 
 phenomena, and with the effects, of volcanic fires. We 
 shall thus be enabled to compare present with past chan- 
 ges, and to form an opinion upon the great controversial 
 question which now seems chiefly to engage theoretical ge- 
 ologists; namely, whether things have always gone on 
 pretty much as we now see them, or whether our globe 
 has been subject to great and destructive changes and con- 
 vulsions out of the ordinary course of nature. 
 
 $L 
 
 First, then, as respects those superficial and insulated 
 formations constituting the tertiary or supracretaccous group 
 of rocks. Our knowledge of their distinct existence is chief- 
 ly due to the labours of Cuvier and Brongniart, whose Me- 
 moir on the Environs of Paris was published in 1811. In 
 this part of Europe they form patches or basins ; but there 
 is much reason to believe that they have once been more 
 continuous and extensive, and that their present insulated 
 character is, partly at least, due to the elevation of the 
 strata below them, by which they have been broken up, 
 and in part also removed by denudation. 
 
 Among these formations we may also class many exten- 
 sive series of rocks in different parts of Europe, which, al- 
 though they hear records of having been deposited at differ- 
 ent and probably remote periods, are still, compared with 
 the strata beneath them, of comparatively modern origin, 
 and belong to the general epoch of the supracretaceous se- 
 ries. 
 
 It will easily be understood that one characteristic test 
 of the date or age of a rock formation is to be found in the 
 fossils which are entombed in it. If these are of genera 
 and species now existing-, it is an inference in favour of 
 modern formation ; if the genera are extant, but the species 
 extinct, we are carried back to a more remote date ; and if 
 the genera are also extinct, we presume upon a yet more 
 remote period of deposition. It is obvious, also, that other 
 conclusions of great importance may be deduced from the 
 game source, and that the remains of certain quadrupeds, 
 amphibious animals, and fresh-water and marine fish and 
 shells, will announce the existence of dry land, lakes, or 
 seas, at the periods of the respective depositions; and 
 again, from alternations of these deposits, we nre often en- 
 abled to isier the successive or alternate states of dry land, 
 lakes, and the ocean, upon one and the same spot. All 
 these inferences require to be drawn with the utmost cir- 
 cumspection, and many concomitant circumstances to be 
 496 
 
 taken into the account; but the data, when judiciously 
 used, are of the greatest interest and importance, and give 
 the most unexpected and extraordinary vet phili 
 clues to the discovery of a former and very remote state of 
 things upon the surface of the globe. 
 
 The tertiary rocks, when tried by the test just hinted at, 
 may be subdivided into three or four periods, founded upon 
 the comparison of their respective fossils; all these periods 
 are distinct from and anterior to that which ha 
 since the earth has been tenanted by man, and which may 
 therefore be called the historical, recent, or contemporane- 
 ous period. 
 
 In the most modern of the above periods, the formations 
 nre such as contain fossil testaceous remains, of which the 
 greater part are referable to recent species, in some of 
 there is an immense preponderance of recent species, and 
 the formations pass by insensible gradation into those of the 
 historical period; as in part of Sicily and the district about 
 Naples. In others, the recent species vary from one third 
 to one half of the entire number; as in the subappenlne 
 hills and in the English crag. The formations of the next 
 period contain a minority only of imbedded fossil shells of 
 recent species (Touraine and the beds of the Loire) ; and 
 in the last, they are of such very sparing occurrence, as to 
 indicate what may be considered as the first commence- 
 ment of the existing state of the animal creation (Paris and 
 London basins). 
 
 These three periods of formations Mr. Lyell designates 
 by the terms Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene. (Pliocene, 
 from irXtiwv, major, and xatvos, recent, because the major 
 part of the fossil testaceas of this epoch are referable to re- 
 cent species ; Miocene, from peiuv, minor, a minority only 
 of fossil shells imbedded in the formations of this period 
 being of recent species ; Eocene, from riiac, aurora, because 
 the very small proportion of living species contained in 
 these strata indicates the dawn, as it were, of the present 
 state of the animal creation.) To give some idea of the 
 contents and arrangement of these strata, wc may briefly 
 refer to the Paris, Hampshire, and London districts. 
 
 A descending section of the strata near Paris presents the 
 following orders of succession: The uppermost rock con- 
 sists of various marls and siliceous compounds, containing 
 organic remains, which characterize it as of fresh-water 
 formation ; to this succeed marls, sand, and limestone, with 
 marine shells; then fresh-water marls, siliceous lime- 
 stone, and gypsum, with the bones of animals ; then a 
 coarse limestone abounding in marine remains, often hard, 
 and applicable to architectural purposes ; and lastly, lying 
 upon the uneven surface of the chalk, plastic clay, with 
 beds of sand containing lignite, amber, and shells both of 
 marine and fresh-water animals. 
 
 In this extraordinary assemblage some of the organic 
 relics are of great interest. The gypseous strata contain the 
 bones of extinct mammalia and other animals, which have 
 been almost recalled, as it were, into existence by the scien- 
 tific skill of Cuvier, who has given sketches of their proba- 
 ble forms and habitudes. There are the remains of about 
 fifty species of quadrupeds, all extinct, and nearly 4-Sths of 
 them belonging to a division of the order Pachydtrrmatn, now 
 only represented by four living species; namely, three ta- 
 pirs and the daman of the Cape. There are a few carnivo- 
 rous animals, among which are a species of fox and gen- 
 net; there are the dormouse, squirrel, bat, and an opos- 
 sum (a marsupial animal, now confined to America and 
 Australia). There are about ten species of birds; and, 
 among the reptiles, crocodiles and tortoises. 
 
 Though we shall again advert to the probable and ap- 
 parent causes of this extraordinary assemblage of relics, it 
 may be worth while to refer to some general points con 
 nected with the geology of the Paris district, which seem 
 to explain certain states of the earth's surface then ex 
 isting. 
 
 In the first place, as respects their general arrangement, 
 we find that they do not repose horizontally upon each 
 other, but that there are irregularities, announcing hills 
 and valleys upon the original surface of the chalk on which 
 all these "deposits rest. So that the plastic clay and Its as- 
 sociates were deposited in these hollows, filling them more 
 or less up: upon this the lowest marine stratum (calcaire 
 grossier) was formed, also following the uneven surface 
 beneath. Then came the gypseous deposit, containing land 
 and river shells, with fragments of wood, and the assem- 
 blage of skeletons: respecting which it deserves particular 
 notice, that they are often entire, the most delicate extremi- 
 ties being preserved, as if the carcasses clothed with their 
 flesh and skin had been floated down soon after death ; so 
 that Prevost has suggested that a river may have swept 
 away the bodies of the animals and plants which lived on 
 its borders, or in the lakes which it traversed, and may 
 have carried them down to a gulf into which flowed waters 
 impregnated with sulphate of lime, and by which they 
 were gradually consolidated. But whatever was the causa 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 of this singular state of things, it is cierf that the deposit of 
 sulphate of lime afterwards ceased ; that the relative level 
 of the sea and land apparently became altered ; and that 
 marls with sea shells were formed, and pebbles were pro- 
 duced, to which oysters became attached, some of the peb- 
 bles being pierced by boring shells. To these deposits suc- 
 ceeds sand with broken organic remains, filling up inequali- 
 ties of surface, and apparently announcing a long-continued 
 action of water. Then those causes which prevented the 
 envelopment of organic remains ceased, and marine exuvia; 
 became entombed in great abundance; and lastly, to close 
 this eventful history, a varied deposit follows, containing 
 the remains of such animals and vegetables as are known 
 only to exist on dry land, or in marshes or fresh water. 
 This variety of mineral structure has been supposed to re- 
 sult from springs holding various substances in solution en- 
 tering various parts of a shallow lake. That it was shal- 
 low is probable, from the remains of the small seed vessels 
 of fresh water plants belonging to the genus Chara. These 
 curious remains were once supposed to be microscopic 
 shells: they have been called Oyrogonites (from yvfott 
 curved, and yovoc, seed). They occur frequently in fossil 
 formations of different eras. 
 
 In the Isle of Wight there is a succession of fresh-water 
 and marine strata, which, as far as fossil contents go, agree 
 in many respects with the Paris district ; but in mineral 
 character they are very different. They appear almost ex- 
 clusively mechanical; and the chemical solutions of silica, 
 and of sulphate and carbonate of lime, which seem to have 
 prevailed about Paris, arc not to be traced here. But the 
 bones of mammalia corresponding to the celebrated gyp- 
 sum deposits of Paris have been disinterred at Binstend, 
 near Ryde. 
 
 Here U elsewhere we find signs of an upheaving of the 
 strata, as announced in the different succession of forma- 
 tions, and in the verticality of certain neighbouring beds. 
 In the Isle of Wight, and also on the opposite oast of 
 Hampshire, the fresh-water l>cds rest upon sand ; and there 
 seems, as in the Paris beds, to have been alternations of 
 currents with more quiescent deposit*. 
 
 A peculiar elay underlies London and the adjoining dis- 
 trict, commonly known as London clay. It is of various col- 
 ours, and contains argillaceous and calcareous matters ; but 
 the latter rarely so far predominate as to form limestone, or 
 even marl. It contains layers of argillo-cnlcareous nodules, 
 called septaria, and occasional beds of sandstone. Its thick- 
 ness varies, sometimes exceeding 500 feet. As many of the 
 marine shells found in it have been identified with those of 
 the Paris basin, it is probable that the formations belong to 
 the same epoch. No remains of terrestrial mammals have 
 as yet been found in it, so that we want thnt evidence of 
 the vicinity of dry land at the time of its formation; but, 
 that such was the case ap|>c.'irs probable from the immense 
 number of seeds nnd fruits, some of them resembling the 
 -ocon nut and spices of tropical regions. The lower beds 
 af the London clay, called plastic clay, are contemporane- 
 ous with the equivalent plastic clay of Paris; they contain 
 beds of sand, shingle, clay, and loam, irregularly alternating, 
 and rest upon the irregularities of the chalk beneath. 
 
 Although sulphate of lime is not found in the distinct 
 manner noticed in the Paris basin, the clay of London is in 
 many places abundant in It, and it is sometimes found in 
 fine crystals. Its presence is also announced in the hard- 
 ness of the spring waters that issue from it, as contrasted 
 with the softness of the springs from the plastic clay sands. 
 
 In Norfolk and Suffolk there is a rock already mentioned, 
 known under the provincial name of crag. It appears from 
 its position nnd fossil contents to appertain to the newest 
 formations, being yet more modern than London clay, and 
 aontaining a considerable number of testaceous remains 
 identical with species inhabiting the neighbouring seas. Its 
 mineral character is difficult to define. It generally consists 
 of sand, gravel, and marl ; nnd sometimes presents itself in 
 the form of a soft stratified rock, composed almost entirely 
 of corals and echini, or of loam and clay, containing bones 
 of terrestrial quadrupeds and drift wood, with fragments of 
 older rocks, nnd gradually passing into alluvium. 
 
 Having thus enumerated some of the peculiarities of these 
 tertiary strata, there are two or three questions connected 
 with the formntion generally, which, before we leave it, it 
 will be right briefly to advert to. In the first place, the 
 great elevation at which some of these strata occur above 
 the level of the sea would seem to indicate to the super- 
 ficial observer a retreat or falling of the waters of the ocean. 
 But more accurate inquiry forbids such a conclusion, and 
 leads to another, at first more extraordinary inference ; 
 namely, that the land has often been elevated, the proofs 
 and illustrations of which we shall again recur to. Second- 
 ly that the organic remains, animal as well as vegetable, 
 and also the mineral structure of many of these rocks, show 
 that the temperature of these parts of the globe has under- 
 gone a considerable declension from its former state; for 
 2 I 
 
 there are among them evidences of something more than a 
 tropical climate, and of thermal or even boiling springs. 
 The cause of this change of the globe's temperature forms 
 an important subject of discussion with geologists. Some, 
 however, have contended that this evidence of change of 
 temperature, as far as it rests upon organic relics, is in.suf- 
 ficient; for, say they, we do not absolutely know that such 
 animals and vegetables, though they now require a high 
 temperature, may not at some former period have beers 
 adapted to a lower one; and they adduce the Siberian ele- 
 phant, and a few analogous cases, as proofs. But as we 
 now find every animal and vegetable adapted to their pn.-pef 
 situations, we have a right to infer the existence of tho 
 same fitness and design at all antecedent periods, and ui der 
 every possible state of the globe, and therefore to conclude 
 that similarly constituted animals and vegetables have ii 
 general had similar habitants. 
 
 We therefore are obliged to conclude that the earth's 
 surface has suffered a notable decrease of temperature, or 
 at least that there has been a great change of climate over 
 large tracts of the globe. In relation to this question, BOOM 
 have argued the possibility of a decrease of temperature 
 from internal causes — have considered the whole globe as 
 having cooled from absolute fusion — and that this process 
 has now only gone to a certain extent, so as that its inte- 
 rior is still glowing. They adduce volcanos nnd thermal 
 springs as proof of this, and maintain that the warmth 
 which we experience in deep mines is attributable to thus 
 central source of heat. 
 
 In so far as this hypothesis of a central heat is resorted to 
 to explain a change in climate, it seems inadequate; for it 
 is on philosophical to assume that the same effects would 
 result from such a cause as those which are produced by 
 the influence of the sun's rays and by peculiarities of sur- 
 face. 
 
 Another, and perhaps upon the whole a more plausible 
 explanation of this subject, refers the change to the varying 
 influence of the disposition of land and sea over the surface 
 of the globe. A change of such distribution In the lapse of 
 ages, by the wearing down of old continents and the eleva- 
 tion of new, is a fart which we shall be able to demon- 
 strate ; nnd the influence of such n change on the climates 
 of particular regions, if not of the whole glotie. may be fair- 
 ly concluded from what we know by actual observation of 
 insular, oceanic, and continental climates. Here then, "in 
 language of very high authority," we have a cause on which 
 I philosopher may consent to reason ; though whether the 
 changes actually going on nre such as to warrant the whole 
 extent of the conclusion, or are even taking place in the 
 right direction, must be considered as undecided till the 
 matter has been more thoroughly examined. It will be ob- 
 served thnt this theory, for so it may fairly be called, sup- 
 poses a combination of external and internal causes ; the 
 latter raising or depressing the land in proper situations, the 
 former supplying the necessary heat. It also infers the 
 possible return of a warm climate ; so that the same situa- 
 tions might be alternately placed under the influence of a 
 raised and depressed temperature, or as it were of an equa- 
 torial and polar clime. 
 
 Lustly, and the suggestion is sanctioned by the authority 
 of Sir John Herschel, we mny look to the astronomical fact 
 of the actual slow diminution of the eccentricity of the 
 earth's orbit round the sun. This, as a general cause, af- 
 fecting the menn temperature of the whole globe, nnd as 
 one of which the eflect is both inevitable and susceptible to 
 a certain degree of exact estimation, certainly deserves to be 
 considered. It is evident that the mean temperature of the 
 whole surface of the globe, in so far as it is maintained by 
 the action of the sun at a higher temperature than it would 
 have were the sun extinguished, must depend on the menn 
 quantity of the sun's rays which it receives; or, which 
 comes to the same thing, on the total quantity received in a 
 given invariable time ; and the length of the year being 
 unchnngenble in all the fluctuations of the planetary system. 
 It follows that the total annual amount of the solar radia- 
 tion will determine, ceteris paribus, the general climate of 
 the earth. Now it is not difficult to show that this amount 
 is inversely proportionnl to the minor axis of the ellipse de- 
 scribed by the earth about the sun, regarded as slowly va- 
 riable; and that therefore the major axis remaining, as we 
 know it to be, constant, nnd the orbit being actually in the 
 stnte of approach to a circle, and consequently the minor 
 axis being on the increase, the mean annual amount of so- 
 lar radiation received by the whole earth must be actually 
 on the decrease. We have here, therefore, an evident roal 
 cause of sufficient universality, and acting in the right di- 
 rection, to account for the phenomenon : its adequacy is 
 another consideration. (Herschefs Preliminary Discourse., 
 We may suggest the possibility of the three cnuseB adverted 
 to acting in unison, to account for the complicated and cu- 
 rious effects of which we seek an explanation. 
 
 Such, then, are the lending considerations arising out o( 
 
 497 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 iie inspection of the most superficial, and apparently the 
 most recent, of the earth's strata. They suggest a general 
 change In the disposition of sea and land ; an alteration in 
 their relative levels, sometimes often repeated ; the exist- 
 ence of animals and vegetables now extinct; and a remark- 
 able alteration in the general temperature of the globe. 
 How far the supposed causes of these changes are borne 
 out by observations upon the more ancient formations, will 
 be seen as we proceed in our examination of the descending 
 series. 
 
 A- 
 
 In the above diagram A A represents the chalk upon 
 which the tertiary strata BCD have been deposited ; the 
 latter may be supposed to be of different ages, as indicated 
 by their included fossils, and all of a more recent date than 
 the chalk upon which they lie. 
 
 The tertiary rocks rest either upon chalk or upon the 
 geological equivalents of chalk ; and the formations of this 
 series constitutes a prominent feature of the district which 
 surrounds the London basin ; for as soon as we leave the 
 tertiary deposits which characterize the vicinity of the me- 
 tropolis we enter upon the cretaceous strata. The ranges 
 of chalk in this part of the kingdom are very extensive ; and 
 in consequence of their smooth and rounded outline, and the 
 singular cup-shaped concavities and deep hollows in which 
 their sides abound, they confer a monotonous peculiarity on 
 the scenery. They are, however, of much interest in their 
 geological relations. Salisbury Plain and Marlborough 
 Downs form, as it were, a centre from which the chalk 
 emanates \t\ a north-east direction, through Buckingham, 
 Bedford, and Cambridge shires, and terminates in one di- 
 rection upon the coast of Norfolk. Another branch, inter- 
 sected by the valley of the Humber, traverses Lincolnshire, 
 and terminates at Flamborough Head in Yorkshire. The 
 extreme western point in the chalk is not far from Honiton 
 in Devonshire, whence it branches towards the south-east 
 to the Isle of Purbeck, and again appears forming a ridge 
 that crosses the Isle of Wight. Another range of chalk 
 commences near Hungerford in Berkshire, and passes by 
 Alton mid Rochester to the coast of Kent, forming the cliifs 
 between Deal and Folkstone. From near Alton another 
 branch passes off, terminating at the lofty promontory of 
 Beechy Head on the coast of Sussex. In these districts 
 some of the chalk hills are of no inconsiderable elevation. 
 Near Dunstable and Shaftesbury, for instance, it forms hills 
 reirly 1000 feet above the level of the sea. Between 
 Lewes in Sussex and Alton in Hampshire there are several 
 similar elevations. Between Anton and Dover the highest 
 point is about 800 feet ; and Dover Castle Hill about 470 
 feet. 
 
 The geological history of the chalk offers many matters of 
 interest. Where it is denuded of alluvial and tertiary de- 
 posits, and also under these, its surface appears water-worn ; 
 and the fissures which it exhibits are often filled with rolled 
 masses, debris and flints. One of its most remarkable charac- 
 ters, in England at least, is the presence of numerous beds of 
 flint in the upper part of the chalk strata; while the lower 
 beds are generally deficient in flints, and argillaceous or sandy. 
 These flints are commonly in distinct nodules, horizontally 
 arranged ; but they sometimes are vertical or variously in- 
 clined, and occasionally form seams, cutting the chalk at 
 different angles. 
 
 The great abundance of organic remains in the chalk hns 
 been observed from a very early period ; they have recently 
 been carefully examined, and proved to be almost entirely 
 marine. No remains of mammalia have been detected in 
 them ; but in Yorkshire and Sussex reptiles, one of them of 
 a considerable size, have been observed. The Mososaurus 
 Hoffmanni, and a crocodile, fish, and shark's teeth, have 
 been found ; as also zoophites, shells, mollusks, and a few 
 crustaceooa animals. 
 
 The origin of chalk it is difficult to explain. There appears 
 no evidence of its having been deposited from chemical solu- 
 tion ; but, on the other hand, it bears marks of a mechanical 
 deposit as if from water loaded with it in fine division. And 
 upon this principle some gleam of light may perhaps be 
 thrown upon the enigmatical appearance of the flints; for it 
 is found that if finely powdered silica be mixed with other 
 earthy bodies, and the whole diffused through water, the 
 grains of silica have, under certain circumstances, a tendency 
 to aggregate into small nodules; and in some chalk small 
 grains of quartz are discoverable. 
 
 Many of our chalk strata afford decided evidence of great 
 disturbances having taken place among them, probably at 
 the period of their elevation from the sea. Illustrative in- 
 498 
 
 stances of such disturbances are given by Mr. Lyell in tne 
 case of the chalk of Newbury in Berkshire, and of the ravine 
 called the Coomb, near Lewes, in Sussex ; the latter shows 
 how narrow openings of this kind may have been accompa- 
 nied by shifts and dislocations, as well as fracture of the 
 strata. The steep declivities on each side and the bottom of 
 the ravine are covered with green turf, and no outward signs 
 of disturbance are visible ; but when we examine the section 
 in the neighbouring chalk-pits, we find that there has been 
 much internal derangement. 
 
 The evidence of this derangement is shown in the ann»jtei 
 diagram, where A and B represent the chalk with and tte 
 chalk without flints on each side of the gap. 
 
 These dislocations, or shifts or faults, are common in all 
 strata, though most observed in coal districts, from the im- 
 portance of the material affected by them. 
 
 It must be confessed that such appearances are favourable 
 to the idea of those local convulsions alluded to in referring 
 to certain tertiary strata. For if portions of the secondary 
 rocks emerged from the sea during that period, it is probable 
 that the chalk underwent many oscillationa of level ; that 
 certain tracts became land and then sea, and then land again ; 
 so that parts of the surface first excavated by currents or 
 rivers were occasionally submerged, and after having been 
 covered by tertiary deposits upraised again ; and assuming 
 the elevation of the chalk to have been slow, every part of 
 it must have been exposed for some time to the action of the 
 waves: hence the valleys upon its surface, and the broken 
 and rolled flints which overspread it. 
 
 In describing the general characters of the chalk, we have 
 limited ourselves to England ; but in other countries the 
 mineralogical characters of this formation are such as would 
 lead us to arrange it with other groups, were it not that the 
 included organic remains mark them as of the same epoch : 
 such are the hard limestone and sandstone of the Alps, Py 
 renees, and some other primitive countries. 
 
 The lower beds of chalk graduate into a variety of sandi! 
 and sandstones of different aspects and degrees of induration, 
 and often abounding in green particles composed -of silicate 
 of iron ; whence the term green-sand. These beds are asso- 
 ciated as one formation, in consequence of the general char- 
 acter of their fossil remains: there is also an argillaceous 
 deposit provincially known under the name oigau.lt, which 
 belongs to the same class. 
 
 But we now descend by gradual transition to the clays, 
 sands, and limestones of a distinct formation, known in this 
 country as the Weald rocks, Hastings sands, nnd Purbeck 
 beds. These had generally been confounded with the pre- 
 ceding green-sands of the chalk formation ; but a closer ex- 
 amination of their organic remains shows them of distinct 
 origin ; for, strange to say, after what we know of the chalk, 
 they abound in terrestrial and fresh-water remains : showing 
 the existence of dry land, and lakes and rivers, before the 
 chalk rocks were formed ; and showing also, by the way in 
 which they blend with the sands above, that the change of 
 circumstances which permitted the residence of marine ani- 
 mals over a surface previously inhabited by freshwater ani- 
 mals was not sudden, but gradual. The examination of 
 these strata has been ably and diligently pursued by Mr. 
 Mantell, whose splendid illustrative collection is now in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The clays and sandstones of this formation contain con 
 cretions and veins of argillaceous iron ; and these were for 
 merly worked in the Weald of Sussex, as shown by the 
 relics of ancient iron works, and by the abundance of re- 
 maining slags, which are at this day slill used for mending 
 the roads about Rotherfield, Mayfield, &c. The extensive 
 triangle of which Folkstone, Beechy Head, and Alston arc 
 the points, is characterized by this formation, forming greater 
 part of the region intervening between the North and South 
 Downs, known as the Valley of the Weald. 
 
 This district is very instructive, both as to theoretical and 
 practical geology. It seems highly probable that the chalk 
 has once been continuous, but that it has been washed away 
 by breakers and currents, and fractured by the power which 
 has elevated the strata. In illustration of this important point 
 of theory, the section of the country between the London and 
 Isle of Wight basins may be referred to. 
 
 If we set out from London, travelling southwards, on leav- 
 ing the immediate vicinity of the metropolis we ascend an 
 inclined plane of flinty chalk, and then find ourselves on tile 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 summit of a declivity consisting chiefly of the different mem- 
 bers of Uie chalk formation. This is called the escarpment 
 of the chalk ; it overhangs a valley excavated chiefly out of 
 the lower beds of the chalk formation, such as sandstone* 
 on 1 gault, and is continuous along the southern termination 
 of the -North Downs; so that it may he traced from the sea 
 at Folkstone westward to Guilford and the neighbourhood 
 of Petersfield, and thence to the termination of the South 
 Downs at Becchy Head, where the strata are cut off abruptly 
 by tlie inroads of the ocean, but where it is evident that they 
 must have at one time been continued. 
 
 This denudation is frequently referred to by geologicul 
 theorists, as rendering it extremely probable that the second- 
 ary districts were gradually elevated and denuded when the 
 basins of London and Hampshire were still submarine, and 
 while they were progressively filling up with tertiary sand 
 and clay. It would also appear that subsequently to the 
 emergence of the secondary rocks on immense mass of their 
 upper portions has been removed by the force of water, and 
 that the materials thus carried away were probably con- 
 veyed into the depths of the contiguous sea 
 
 The above diagram will serve to explain a valley of de- 
 nudation, the strata 1, 2, and 3 bein> to a greater or less 
 extent removed or washed away, and different surfaces of 
 i,ii of 4, being now exposed. 
 We now again advert to the organic contents of the Weald 
 rocks, which, as already stated, are suoh as indicate the 
 of fresh water and dry land before the present 
 chalk deposits were formed; and although some of the in- 
 ferences of geologists upon Ciis subject appear at first start- 
 ling and even romantic, they are perfectly fair deductions 
 from the phenomena observed. 
 The Hastings sands consist of sand and sandstone, with 
 .: beds of clay and shale, containing suicified wood 
 
 and fragments of carbonized Vegetables, lignite, ironstone, 
 and argillaceous limestone; and the Turbeck beds include 
 varieties of sand and limestone much used for pavement. 
 Prom the organic remains of these rocks it would appear 
 that they were formed chiefly in fresh water; in lakes, rivers, 
 or estuaries. There is a formation in the Isle of Portland 
 belonging to this series which has been called the dirt-bed, 
 and which has also been found near Weymouth and else- 
 whesi ■. It .appears from its contents to announce the first 
 appearance of dry land, succeeded by submersion of the same 
 land under fresh water in which the Weald rocks were 
 formed; not suddenly, for there are no marks of violence, 
 but gradually, the shells being tranquilly entombed in the 
 sandy and calcareous depc 
 
 We shall find. In examining the oolitic rocks upon which 
 i that they abound in marine remains; so that we 
 most supp the land or a depression of the sea to 
 
 such an extent as to permit the sea-formed rocks to become 
 dry land, upon which tropical plants flourished. Then this 
 land again became in its turn depressed; but so quietly that the 
 trees were apparently left in their natural positions, and even 
 the pebbles and soil not washed away. There is. In short, 
 a great resemblance between these very ancient relics and 
 those of submarine forests of later date upon the coast; ex- 
 cept that the former are tropical plants, the latter oak, hazel, 
 tec. 
 
 In the sands we find entombed tennises, crocodiles, plesi- 
 osauri and mesalosauri, and huge iguanodons. (Mantel), 
 Phi/. Trans. 1825.) 
 
 It is probable that th-se monstrous reptiles sported in the 
 waters and basked upon the banks of the lake or estuary 
 into which trees and different vegetables were drifted. Now 
 it will be remembered that the sea again resumed its do- 
 minion after this state of things, because these strata are 
 covered by the chalk rocks already recognized as marine 
 deposita; and as there are no marks of violence where the 
 Weahleti rocks and the green-sands of the cretaceous series 
 come together, but, on the contrary, as they gradually pass 
 Into each other, these extraordinary transitions seem to have 
 been gradual, and not attended by any violent or sudden 
 catastrophe. 
 
 Such, then, are the remarkable records of the Wcalden 
 rocks, and there are analagous cases in other parts of Europe. 
 
 The oolitic rocks form a very important and curious, but 
 lather complicated series of strata, in this country ; in which, 
 however, there are certain analogies which enable us to 
 group them into one general assemblage. Mr. Lonsdale's 
 paper on the Bath district may be referred to as giving a lucid 
 account of the varieties and peculiarities of these rocks. The 
 oolitic limestones are well known from their common use as 
 
 building materials under the names of Bathstone, freestone, 
 tc. They are intermingled with limestones which do not 
 the oolitic structure, and with arenaceous and argil- 
 laceous beds. Lias, the lowest member of the series, is an 
 argilio-calcareous deposit, commonly containing numerous 
 organic remains. 
 
 In England, this formation extends from the sea cons; of 
 Dorset, near B rid port, to the northern extremity of the Cleave- 
 land Hills, in Yorkshire, in one range of hills, broken by the 
 "ale of the Humber. The lias is often hitumiro'.ts, and is 
 impregnated with sulphate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, 
 and common salt: it abounds in ammonites, bclemnites, and 
 other chambered shells ; and in bivalves, and some univalves; 
 gryphites (a deeply incurved Bivalve), encrinites, and peuta- 
 crinites, and other zoophites ; and the remarkable saurian 
 animals already noticed. 
 
 To the rocks enumerated under the general term of the 
 oolitic group there slid red a series of sandstones, which 
 from their prevailing colour are generally known as the red 
 sandstone and marl formation, and which are incumbent 
 upon the coal debits of this country. Their organic relics 
 are numerous; and they derive Interest from being the seat 
 of our great lieds of salt, which occur in the counties of 
 Cheshire and Worcester. 
 
 In the salt itself there is nothing very' remarkable, except, 
 perhaps, its occasional purity. It Is sometimes colourless, and 
 contains not more than 2 per cent, of foreign matter ; in other 
 parts it is Untied red, and more or less mixed with earthy 
 impurities. The brine springs, which often yield 20 per 
 cent of salt, are doubtlessly derived from the accession of 
 water to similar solid masses. 
 
 How the salt came where we now find it, is a question of 
 no easy solution. It has been supposed that it was produced 
 at thf bottom of salt-water lakes, and the existence of beds 
 of salt in certain lakes of Africa and South America is quoted 
 in favour of such an hypothesis. 
 
 Another substance abundnnt in this formation, and appa- 
 rently more or less connected with the salt deposits, is gyp- 
 sum, or sulphate of lime ; known also under the name of 
 alabaster. It has been already mentioned as occurring in 
 the tertiary strata, forming the cement which entombs the 
 organic remains of the Paris basin, and where it w -. 
 bly formed by sulphuric exhalations and springs acting upon 
 the detritus of the secondary chalk, which there appears (a 
 have suffered such extensive degradation. 
 
 In our red-sand districts the salt and gypsum an 
 but they nre not unfrequently mixed ; and in Egypt a highlj 
 saline gypsum is sometimes used as a substitute for salt 
 This rock, when exposed to air and water, would of course 
 lose its more soluble common salt ; and hence, probably, the 
 scriptural and oriental allusion to the inefficiency of salt 
 which has lost its saltness. 
 
 In the north of England, magneslan limestone I 
 ated with these strata. It is usually of a yellowish or fawn 
 colour, not abundant in organic remains, and is often a valu 
 able and durable building stone. 
 
 The next substances which occur in descending order are 
 the coal strata, or measures, or coal basins, as they are some 
 times called; and if, upon our journey downwards, we have 
 been srruck with the extraordinary aspect of the animai 
 kingdom at certain periods or epochs of the earth, we shall 
 now meet with matters quite as wonderful in the remains of 
 extinct vegetable tribes, while at the same time we have 
 brought before us a substance of such importance to out 
 commercial welfare and national resources, that every trifle 
 connected with its history assumes an air of peculiar and 
 distinct interest. 
 
 There are two or three points, and those of much theoreti- 
 cal importance, respecting the origin of coal, in which geolo 
 gical authorities seem nearly unanimous. The one is, that 
 our present coal is exclusively of vegetable origin, formed 
 apparently from the destruction of vast forests ; and from the 
 prodigious quantities of timber drifted by some of the great 
 rivers of the world into the present ocean, it is by no means 
 improbable that a similar formation is now going on fa th» 
 depths of certain parts of the sea : and, secondly, from th« 
 nature of the preserved vegetables, it would seen that the 
 climate of these parts of Europe was of a tropical character 
 It may also be inferred that these strata were deposited in 
 the neighbourhood, and often probably upon the verge, of 
 extensive tracts of dry land ; for the trees that are found in 
 coal strata are often like those of our submarine forests, ot 
 of the Portland dirt-bed, as far as position goes; and, finally, 
 that they were afterwards elevated, and often singularly dis- 
 located and contorted by forces, the nature of which wc 
 shall afterwards consider. 
 
 In some coal fields there are appearances which justify 
 the term coal basin; they are of limited extent, frequently 
 dip, as it were, to a common centre, and consist of various 
 beds of sandstone, shale, and coal, irregularly stratifiec 
 sometimes mixed with conglomerates — the whole showing 
 a mechanical origin. 
 
 499 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 That these depositions have taken place, and that the 
 ehange of the wood into coal has often been effected under 
 great pressure, and often under pressure and heat, seems evi- 
 dent from Jie appearance of some of the vegetable masses, 
 and also from the manner in which the carburretted hydro- 
 gen escapes in the form of blowers from the strata ; as if it 
 were pent up in their cavities under vast condensation, and 
 sometimes perhaps even in a liquid form. 
 
 ^n opinion respecting the origin of coal, first advocated by 
 De I mc, and more recently by Adolphe Brongniart, (the cele- 
 brated fossil botanist), is, that coal beds have been extensive 
 sheet.-- of vegetable matter, resembling in that particular peat 
 "•ogs, which have, one after the other, been submerged and 
 covered by sand and silt. There are numerous facts in favour 
 }f this view, which has also been sanctioned by Mr. De la 
 Beclie, as, upon the whole, more consistent with the phe- 
 nomena presented by coal formations. 
 
 It has been well observed by one of the most instructive 
 geological writers, that in the present condition of the coal 
 measures we have opportunities of observing design, even 
 where things are so disposed as at first sight apparently to 
 preclude any such inference. The accumulation of vegeta- 
 ble matter at a remote epoch in the history of the world, for 
 the convenience and consumption of creatures which were 
 long afterwards to exist upon its surface, must strike the least 
 inquiring; but when the twisted, dislocated, upturned, and 
 broken strata so common in the coal districts are before us, 
 the design appears to the superficial observer to be frustrated, 
 especially when the miner complains of them as interrupting 
 or even preventing his progress ; so that this apparent confu- 
 sion has sometimes been regarded as a bar to the ingenuity 
 and industry of man in extracting the combustible so valua- 
 ble and requisite. When, however, we contemplate the 
 subject more closely, we find that these very irregularities 
 and inconveniencies are in reality highly advantageous, for 
 they often heave up seams of coal that would otherwise be 
 beyond reach ; and they perform the yet more important 
 service of excluding the passage of subterraneous waters 
 from one part of the workings to another : so that the miners 
 in collieries situated in one particular mass have only to 
 contend with the waters in it ; whereas if the strata were 
 always unbroken and continuous, such would be the abun- 
 dance of water flowing into the workings that the utmost 
 difficulty and expense would be incurred in proceeding, and 
 it would often be necessary altogether to abandon the far- 
 ther extraction of the coal. The section of strata in Jarrow 
 colliery, near Newcastle, shows how curiously they are 
 sometimes fractured and dislocated ; and in the coal meas- 
 ures at Little Haven, St. Bride's Bay (Pembrokeshire), we 
 have a good instance of their occasional contortions. 
 
 The annexed diagrams represent a section of a coal basin, 
 and the disturbance and dislocation of the strata by dikes 
 or cross-courses. A A, in the first figure, are the dikes by 
 which the shales and coal B B B, are disturbed ; and, in the 
 second, the seam of coal B B, which, as in the other case, 
 was once continuous, has been dislocated by the intrusion of 
 the dike A. 
 
 Though there may be many beds and seams of coal in one 
 field, it is seldom that many of them are worked ; they are 
 generally of uniform thickness through a great extent, but 
 are sometimes subject to irregularities. When less than two 
 fset thick, they are seldom worked to any great extent. 
 
 The nature of the upper stratum of stony matter, or roof, 
 is very important. If compact, it is secure from falling, and 
 keeps out water; if loose, the expense incurred in support- 
 ing it absorbs the profits of the coal. The deepest coal 
 mines in England are those of Northumberland and Dur- 
 ham, which are worked nearly 1000 feet below the surface. 
 500 
 
 The thickest bed of coal is satf to be at Wood Mill Hill col 
 liery in Staffordshire, and to exceed 40 feet. From 6 to 9 
 feet is the average thickness of the most productive seams. 
 
 Coal strata are often accompanied by clay ironstone ; an 
 ore of iron not so rich in metal nor so pure as many others, 
 but which has acquired infinite importance from its associa- 
 tion with coal and limestone, the substances which are 
 requisite to reduce and purify it. The richest varieties jf 
 this ore are said to yield about 25 to 30 per cent, of metal, 
 and it is the chief source of the enormous quantities of iroi 
 manufactured in this country. 
 
 $11. 
 
 Mountain Limestone, which is the next rock in descend- 
 ing order, may be considered as forming the foundations as 
 it were, or basins, in which the coal is commonly deposited, 
 and in this respect bears some correspondence to the chalk 
 and its tertiary formations. 
 
 This kind of limestone is of various colours, and often so 
 full of organic remains as to appear almost entirely made up 
 of them, especially of encrinal columns; but sometimes 
 scarcely an organic relic is to be detected, and it is veined 
 and variegated with streaks of calcareous spar. Both these 
 varieties form useful and often handsome marble. 
 
 This rock is of farther interest, as being that which in the 
 centre and north of England is the seat of our most pro- 
 ductive lead mines ; hence it is called metalliferous limestone. 
 The great patch of limestone extending from the Tweed to 
 the Tees, bounded by the coal measures on the east, and on 
 the west by the Cheviot Hills, is especially known as the 
 lead measures. The characters of the rocks are very varia- 
 ble. The veins hitherto worked occupy a space of about 15 
 miles north and south, and 20 west and east, and run, with 
 little exception, nearly west and east. 
 
 The Yorkshire limestone district, exclusive of its metallic 
 veins, is traversed by others, which, as they are only filled 
 with lapideous substances, are of little interest to the miner, 
 but of deep importance to the geologist. They often inter- 
 sect the metallic veins, disturbing the parallelism of the 
 strata, and often occasion much irregularity and confusion. 
 There is here an instance of the elevation of the strata to 
 more than two fathoms upon the side of one of these cross 
 veins. The contents of these cross courses are very miscel- 
 laneous ; and where the material they are filled with is 
 much harder and more durable than the assailed strata, 
 their course is often perceptible upon the weather-worn sur- 
 face of the country which they traverse. Such is the cross 
 vein of the lead measures called the Devil's Backbone, 
 forming a ridge that may be traced a considerable distance 
 along the country through which it passes. 
 
 The Derbyshire limestone district is well known, and 
 frequently visited on account of the romantic scenery are i 
 wonders in which it abounds. Castleton is its northern point, 
 and it extends southward about 25 miles to Weaver Hill. 
 Its breadth is very irregular, but nowhere exceeds about 20 
 miles. Its eastern end contributes to the delightful and 
 varied' scenery of Matlock, and its north-western extremity 
 is celebrated for the wonders of the Peak. 
 
 In regard to the varied aspect of this district, it may be 
 observed that the different strata of limestone differ consid- 
 erably from each other; that beds and dikes of another 
 species of rock intervene, provincially called toadstone ; and 
 that the respective edges of these strata come to the surface ; 
 and, lastly, that the country is traversed by a great fault or 
 dislocation. 
 
 The singular turreted and broken appearance of these 
 limestone rocks, and the fantastic shapes which their various 
 masses occasionally assume, are well seen in Dovedale ; and 
 some of their other peculiarities, especially their curvatures, 
 and some of the dislocations which they have suffered, are 
 evident in Matlock and its neighbourhood. In the High Tor 
 the stratification appears horizontal and regular when view- 
 ed in front ; but a more accurate examination shows that 
 it is curved and irregular : a section made by the river Der- 
 went, near the toll bar, well illustrates this peculiarity. 
 Another instance of curved strata may be seen in Crich 
 Cliff; about 4 miles east of Matlock ; it is an isolated hill 
 about 900 feet above the level of the river. According to 
 Mr. Bakewell, the mass of the hill consists of arched strata 
 of limestone. The different beds of limestone are of very 
 different qualities and composition ; the upper, cherty, and 
 often bituminous, abounding in corallites and encrini, fcc, 
 often curiously seen in relief upon its weather-worn surface. 
 Beneath, the rock contains beds of magnesian limestone 
 and silicious limestone or dunstone, and towards its lowei 
 part, beds of black marble. The lowest limestone stratum 
 is that which forms the Peak Forest, the downs of Buxton, 
 and the Weaver Hills; and in it are several remarkable 
 caverns. Here also we find at Castleton those curious no- 
 dules of fluor spar, celebrated for the manufacture of vases, 
 &c. ; also that very singular mineral, the elastic bitumen, 
 or fossil caoutchouc. The subterranean streams which 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 traverse many of these caverns, the stalactites and stalag- 
 mite in which they abound, and the thermal waters which 
 characterize the district, are all important points to be no- 
 ticed. The loadstone of Derbyshire is sometimes represent- 
 ed as regularly stratified between the limestone beds, but 
 this requires further Investigation ; and at all events the 
 beds, it such they are, are liable to many extraordinary ir- 
 regularities. The toad.stone never contains sheila or organic 
 remains calcedony, zeolite, and globules of calcareous spar 
 are nit ricoinmon in it; and whatever theory may be en- 
 tertained in respect to it, it evidently bears the character of 
 a formation distinct from its associates. In the cave at Cas- 
 Uct< n it forms a large irregular column, having the appeur- 
 i >f the rock called basalt. 
 
 The veins in the limestone in Derbyshire contain the 
 end, manganese, cop|ier, zinc, and iron: the proper 
 Hiweilnij of the lead ap|>ears to be the limestone, though it 
 also occurs in some other strata, and rarely in the loadstone, 
 in which it ■ always in small quantities, and merely in strings 
 of very imperfect veins. Near Bristol the limestone hills 
 In-low the md sandstone, and form the edges of 
 haste, In some places it is very bituminous, as on 
 tin- Avon at Chepstow, and even exudes petroleum. On the 
 Welch coast of the Bristol Channel we have another ridge 
 ol limestone, forming the basin, as it were, in which the 
 great coalfield of South Wales is situated. The hills on the 
 west of Swansea and the cliffs on the south of Pembroke 
 arc i if this formation ; and again on the banks of the Wye 
 -cenery of a soft but romantic character. 
 There is something singularly fascinating in Uie lnndscnpe 
 of the limestone districts, resulting not only from the varied 
 forms and groupings of the mountain masses, but depending 
 also upon the nature of the substance, and of the soil derived 
 from Its decay. Upon the perpendicular and projecting 
 precipices, lichens of various and singular hues alternate 
 with the gray surface of the uncovered rock; a variety of 
 shrubs are scattered by nature's hand upon its \il llliasmie 
 ami wai , and other creeping plant- 
 
 gay luxuriance from its crevices, and the glens and valleys 
 are adorned by every variety of verdure. 
 
 We may now cast a glance upon the probable stnte of the 
 globe at the period at which the coal and the subordinate 
 e rocks were formed In regard to the latter it 
 would a pp ear that they extend over a peal part of central 
 and northern Europe; and that rocks containing the same 
 organic remains are found in the lake district of North Amer- 
 ica, and nre even abundant upon the borders of the Arctic 
 Sea. The great quantity of corals found in Ihis formation, 
 as well as its vast extent, seem to prove that it was formed 
 in a deep and extensive sea, in the midst of which there were 
 many isles. These brie* were apparently composed of pri- 
 mary and of volcanic rocks, which being exposed to the 
 erosive action of torrents, to the artillery of the waves, and 
 to superficial decomposition, supplied materials for the lob- 
 bies, sand, and shale, which, together with substances in- 
 troduced by minerai springs and volcanic eruptions, con- 
 tributed the inorganic parts of the carboniferous strata. In 
 regard to the fossil remains of these strata, the vegetation 
 of the coal districts is stated by botanists to possess the 
 characters of an insular and not of a continental flora; and 
 we may suppose the carbonaceous matter to have lieen 
 derived from trees swept into the sea by torrents, and from 
 peaty matter, which even in our climate often blackens tlie 
 rills of marshy grounds. It has been acutely oli- 
 Mr. Lyell, that if we seek for present points of analogy tl> 
 this state of things, we must cither turn to the North Pacific, 
 and its numerous submarine or insular volcanoes between 
 Kamchatka and New Guinea; or, in order to obtain a more 
 perfect counterpart to the coralline and shelly limestones, 
 we mny explore the archipelagoes of the Smith Pacific be- 
 tween Australia and South America, where coral reefs, con- 
 sisting in great part of compact limestone, nre spread over 
 an area not inferior perhaps to that of our ancient calcareous 
 rocks, though we even suppose these to be prolonged from 
 the North American lakes to central Europe. 
 
 In these remarks we anticipate a subject requiring more 
 full di-oussion, and they are merely introduced here to direct 
 attention to the coincidences and analogies between t f i <- 
 present order of things produced by causes now active, and 
 by the ordinary proceedings of nature, and those great but 
 remote changes of the earth's surface often unnecessarily 
 referred to extraordinary catastrophes and convul 
 
 Beneath this great limestone formation, strata of sandstone 
 occur, which, from their position as opposed to those above 
 the coal, are known under the name of the old red sandstone. 
 It often appears more as a conglomerate than a sand- 
 stone ; that is, made up of fragmented particles and pebbles; 
 and ranges of it sometimes follow those of the primitive 
 rocks, and are evidently composed of their debris. On the 
 north coast of Somerset and Devon, upon the Bristol Chan- 
 nel, it may be seen recumbent upon slate, and gradually 
 passing into that rjck ; but it often graduates into a series of 
 
 formations known to geologists by the German terra of 
 grauwacke. These rocks, considered en jiiossc, consist of a 
 large stratified deposit of sandy and slaty matters, often ex 
 tending over considerable districts. Sometimes from the 
 ■ of their texture, they pass into conglomerates ; 
 and sometimes, from its fineness, graduate into roofing slate, 
 apparently formed of highly comminuted detritus, hi this 
 formation the sandstones are comparatively deficient in or 
 gaiiic relics, but they abound in the limestone. Upon the 
 whole they exhibit marks of slow deposition. Tits series 
 of rocks, namely, the formation intervening between the 
 mountain limestone and the inferior granitic or hypogene 
 rocks, has been ably investigated by Mr. Murchi- 
 has assigned to thom the name of Silurian, from their betel 
 best developed in that part of England and Wales former! t 
 included in the ancient British kingdom of the Siluret, Thi 
 lower part of the Grauwacke series constitutes the Cambrlai 
 rocks of Professor Sedgwick. 
 
 Them are some curions facts respecting the strati ficatioi 
 of the slaty portions of these rocks, which, as they apply to 
 slate generally, it may be proper here to mention ; "and as at 
 illustrative instance, that noticed by Mr. De laBeche as oc 
 curring at Bovey Sand Bay, on the east side of Plymouth 
 Sound, may be referred to: a, a, curved beds of slate, ilui 
 
 lamina: of which meet the apparent lines of stratification 
 at various angles, hi .eg even perpendicular to them. The 
 beds are cut off by the fault f (Irani the slates <-, Uie lamina 
 of which are confusedly horizontal. The whole is mvered 
 by detritus of fragmented slate b. 
 
 We are now gradual! Into the non-fossilifer- 
 
 iiiis rocks; for Uie lower gruuwarkes graduate into slates 
 de st i tut e Of organic remains, and into rocks of chemical 
 rather than of mechanical origin. Tims we arrive u that 
 very remote condition of our planet, when neither animal 
 nor vegetable life seems to have existed on its surface; and 
 instead of wandering in imagination amid forests, lands, and 
 seas, surrounded by strange vegetables, and by animals yet 
 more strange, our attention must be directed to the laws 
 which govern inorganic matter. 
 
 Of these inferior, stratified, and non-fossiliferous rocks 
 one of the most abundant and important is argillaceous o 
 clay slate. It differs in texture and composition ; and except 
 from its geological position, is often scarcely distinguishable 
 from Uie slates of tile grauwacke series. When chlorite 
 prevails, it Is called chlorite slate; mid it passes into horn- 
 blende slate, und into mica slate, and is associated with quartz 
 rock. 
 
 The origin of these rocks is extremely ambiguous. In re- 
 gard to Clay slate, it is apparently a mechanical deposit of 
 very finely comminuted matter. It often contains regular 
 crystals of pyrites: it is of various colours, generally gray, 
 black, or reddish, and like most oilier rocks derives its 
 colours from Uie oxides of iron. Beds of this slate, n hen 
 finely lamellar, are valuable, as furnishing materials for 
 roofing. Those which are least absorbent of water, and 
 which split into the thinnest and smoothest plates, are select- 
 ed ; but they should not be too thin, as they then fail in dura- 
 bility, and do not resist the force of storms. Slate is also 
 largely employed for other architectural purposes, and for 
 the construction of tanks and cisterns. In this country there 
 nre extensive quarries in Westmoreland, Yorkshire, Leices 
 terabits, North Wales, Cornwall, and Devonshire. 
 
 The forms, tints, and general associations and outlines of 
 some of the mountains of Cumberland especially, and the 
 English lake scenery in general, are illustrative of the mount- 
 ains of the grauwacke and slate formations. The former 
 exhibit united softness and grandeur; the latter a more ele 
 paled and rugged aspect We have varied and grand in 
 stances of slate in the mountainous district of North Wales, 
 and in Cumberland and Westmoreland. The cluster of hills, 
 of which Skiddaw forms the highest elevation, mny perhaps 
 be referred to as genuine clay slate; and in Devonshire and 
 Cornwall the granitic range, which traverses the promontory 
 like a backbone, beginning at Dartmoor and terminating at 
 the Land's End, has slate overlying it on both Bides. The 
 scenery of Fowcy, Lone. Tintagel, and other places on the 
 north and south sides of Cornwall, derives its grandeur and 
 charms from the various assemblages of slaty headlands, 
 promontories, creeks, and islands. Sometimes its strata jut 
 out in bold fantastic forms upon the ocean, and sometimes 
 gradually shelve away into gentle slopes. Their verdure is 
 
 501 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 usually scanty and uncertain ; but here and there a clayey 
 soil finds a resting place, and cherishes patches of shrubs 
 interspersed with trees of loftier growth, and attracting at- 
 tention by the sterile and fragmented surface which often 
 surrounds these insulated spots. The beauties of the coast 
 of Cornwall are singularly contrasted by the barren exterior 
 of its central road and great, mining district; where scarcely 
 n blade of grass relieves the black and sombre hues of the 
 ground, but Where heaps of rubbish, once rich in emboweled 
 treasures, give a gloomy irregularity to the surface; and 
 where the ponderous heaving of machinery raises subter- 
 ranean rivers to a new level and into new channels, and 
 enables the miner to arrive at treasures which but for the 
 inventive genius of Watt would have remained inaccessible. 
 
 The mountainous aspect of slate is seen to great perfec- 
 tion on the western side of Wales; where Snowdon, Plyn- 
 limmon, and Cader Idris, with many of their respectable 
 associates, present the peaked summits, the dark and narrow 
 valleys, the steep precipices, and the fragmented slopes that 
 peculiarly belong to this formation. 
 
 Associated with the rocks of the inferior stratified group 
 vslate, mica-slate, gneiss), there are those beautiful varieties 
 of' white and crystalline limestone known as the statunry 
 marbles of Greece and Italy. They vary in their texture. 
 That of the lake of Como, "which is the building stone of 
 Milan cathedral, is a good instance of coarse-grained marble ; 
 and sometimes it acquires a slaty fracture from the admix- 
 ture of mica or talc, and passes into dolomite from the pres- 
 ence of magnesia. 
 
 Before we quit these rocks, there is one remarkable feature 
 which belongs to them and others, and which may now be 
 adverted to, though its cause will perhaps be more evident 
 hereafter ; namely, the singular contortions to which they 
 are subject. The strata of slate, for instance, are often 
 waved to a greater or less extent ; and sometimes an entire 
 bed affects a serpentine irregularity which gradually merges 
 into a straight line above and below. These contortions are 
 sometimes, to all appearance, independent of any other kind 
 of rock. Sometimes they are apparently caused by veins 
 of a granitic, porphyritie, or basaltic oi; n icter, ii.' 
 *late as it were from below, and bending it into various ir 
 regularities, or sometimes merely dislocating and breaking 
 its si rata : as if, in the one instance, it had acted upon soft, 
 yielding, and unconsolidated matter; and in the other, as if 
 it had been violently protruded into the surrounding strata 
 of nn already hardened mass. These contortions are not 
 peculiar to the slaty rocks; they may also be seen in the 
 newest and in the oldest formations, varying infinitely in 
 their forms and dimensions. They have sometimes misled 
 geologists as to the relative positions or conformity and non- 
 conformity of alternating rocks ; so that it requires great care, 
 though at first sight it may appear extremely easy, to deter- 
 mine whether one rock rests on the upturned edges of 
 another or not. 
 
 fn taking leave of the stratified rocks, we lose sight of 
 that regularity of superposition which is of so much use in 
 assigning to them the periods of their formation, and which, 
 in conjunction with their organic remains, affords such im- 
 portant evidence respecting their relative ages, and the cir- 
 cumstances of climate under which they have been deposited. 
 
 Their minute examination shows the caution with which 
 certain theories connected with them require to be receiv- 
 ed. The gradual transitions of one kind of rock into oth- 
 ers on the one hand, and their sudden and abrupt lines of 
 demarcation on the other; their verticality in one place, 
 and their horizontally in others ; their occasional resem- 
 blances and frequent dissimilarities, are circumstances 
 which will lead the unprejudiced observer to receive all 
 geological hypotheses with the utmost circumspection. 
 Another important point relates to the dissimilar texture 
 and contents of rocks appertaining to the same series, but 
 occurring in different situations and countries: thus the 
 equivalent, of our chalk is agranular limestone in part of 
 the Alps; and here, as in other cases, it is the identity of 
 the organic remains that determines the geological era. 
 
 We have now then arrived at the crystalline, massive, 
 and unstratified rocks, which seem to form the basis or 
 foundations upon which the others have been deposited. 
 They have therefore been called primary or primitive 
 rocks ; and as they are destitute of organic remains, they 
 were regarded at one time as of more ancient orisrin than 
 the superincumbent strata. But the progress of inquiry 
 has led to a very different view of the origin and antiquity 
 of these rocks ; and modern geologv, in assigning to them 
 tin igneous origin, assumes, that (hough they have been 
 formed at different epochs, they are often of more recent 
 ^reduction than the older stratified rocks, and even some- 
 times of a date subsequent to those depositions which form 
 the tertiary series. 
 
 Upon this subject the theories of M. de Beaumont have 
 excited much attention. He assumes that the different 
 mountain chains of the world have been thrown up at dif- 
 502 
 
 ferent geological periods ; that each great chain runs in a 
 certain uniform direction ; and that their relative dates of 
 protrusion may be ascertained by their effects upon the 
 sedimentary strata. If, for instance, we find the great mass 
 of crystalline rock on all sides surrounded by tranquil and 
 horizontal sedimentary deposits, we infer the" deposition of 
 the latter subsequent to the former. But if we find the 
 sedimentary deposits upheaved by the crystalline rocks, we 
 then infer the posterior date of the latter ; and If other hori • 
 zontal sedimentary deposits lie upon the upraised series, 
 another geological date is obtained as respects them. 
 
 The following diagrams will, perhaps, assist the illustra- 
 tion of De Beaumont's theory. A may represent a chain of 
 granitic rocks; and B, C, and D the incumbent rocks or 
 strata. From the dislocated and inclined position of B, 
 and the horizontal and undisturbed state of C, it may be 
 presumed that the chain A was elevated subsequently to 
 the existence of B B, but before the deposition of C C. On 
 the other hand, in the lower figure, C C have also been 
 elevated, whilst D D are undisturbed ; whence the infer- 
 ence that in this diagram the chain A is of a later date ; 
 here D D represent the undisturbed or horizontal deposits. 
 
 Reasoning upon such grounds, it has been attempted to 
 prove that the great mountain chains of the earth are of 
 various dates, some formed prior to and others subsequent 
 
 [ary 01 
 if we assume that these great crystalline masses have been 
 thrust up from below, may wc -account for the elevation of 
 rocks abounding in organic remains. Whether these 
 mountains have been suddenly or gradually upheaved, is a 
 very important point in controversial geology. The one 
 opinion has been advocated by De Beaumont, the other by 
 Mr. Lyell. According to De Beaumont, there have been 
 long periods of repose in the history of the earth, during 
 which the deposition of sedimentary matter has gone regu- 
 larly on ; and there have been short periods of violence, 
 during which that continuity was broken by the sudden 
 formation of great mountain chains. It is supposed that 
 all the chains thrown up by a particular revolution, or at 
 one time, are nearly parallel ; but that those thrown up at 
 different periods have different directions, so that they some- 
 times cross each dflier : that, therefore, there has been a re- 
 currence of these paroxysmal movements from the remo- 
 test geological periods; and, of course, that they may still 
 be reproduced, and break the present repose of our globe. 
 It is presumed that the latest of these revolutions (even 
 within the historical period) was that which upraised the 
 Andes, for that chain is the best defined and least oblitera- 
 ted feature in the present exterior configuration of the 
 globe ; and as the instantaneous appearing of such enor- 
 mous mountain masses must have caused a prodigious agi 
 tation in the waters of the ocean, it is probable that a del 
 uge was one of its effects : and, lastly, as common volcanic 
 powers are apparently inadequate to these successive rev- 
 olutions, they are assumed to depend upon the secular re- 
 frigeration of the interior nucleus of our planet causing a 
 fracture of the outer crust, and the consequent spirting out, 
 as it were, of some of its interior contents. 
 
 There is much that is imposing, and to all appearance 
 satisfactory, in parts of this bold theory; but the question 
 is, how far is it strictly consistent with facts'? Have we 
 any evidence of such frightful convulsions ? are they con- 
 sistent with what we actually know of the earth's struct- 
 ure? are they in accordance with present phenomena? or 
 can we frame any other theory equally applicable, and less 
 at variance with the changes now in progress, and with the 
 known causes of those chances? These are questions 
 which Mr. Lyell has directed himself to, and which in- 
 volve the effects of existing volcanoes, and of various causes 
 of decav and reproduction that now affect the surface of 
 the earth, and to which we shall allude afterwards: they 
 are discussed at length in his valuable work which we have 
 already so abundantly quoted— his Principles of Oeolngy. 
 
 Proceeding in the retrospective survey of geological mon- 
 uments, from those of recent to those of more ancient date 
 we have traversed a series of strata, each characterized by 
 their reladve positions in respect to the others, but mors 
 unequivocally distinguishable into regular epochs of forma 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 aon by their organic relics. These we have found gradu- 
 ally to diminish, and ultimately to disappear; the rocks 
 slowly losing their sedimentary character, and appearing 
 as crystalline aggregates, and consequently as products of 
 chemical rather than of mechanical action. 
 
 The formations at which we have now arrived include 
 granite, and its ussociutes greenstone and basalt; and from 
 these more ancient substances we pass by regular analogies 
 to a variety of evidently volcanic products — some of remote 
 antiquity, others formed within the historical period. How 
 this interesting series of rocks are thus connected into one 
 {roup, and what the evidences are of their igneous origin, 
 will appear presently. 
 
 As they form the basis upon whlfek the sedimentary 
 rocks appear to lie, rising to the surface in the central and 
 highest parts of the great mountain chains, and at the same 
 lime passing down and forming the inferior parts of the 
 crust of the earth, they were once, as already stated, called 
 primitive rocks, and regarded as having been formed ante- 
 riorly to the others ; hut the more close examination of 
 their relations to the sedimentary deposits just adverted t", 
 and Of the Changes which they have effected upon them, 
 have induced modem geologists to reject such an hypothe- 
 sis, and to consider them as of a later date ; varying, how- 
 ever, In this respect among themselves, and hence divided 
 into ancient, mid recent groups, or plutonic and volcanic for- 
 mations. 
 
 To represent the sreat mountains of the world — the Alps, 
 the Andes, and the Himalayan chains — as upheaved in a 
 liquid or semifluid state from below by processes analogous 
 to those exhibited bj the I oleani es and earthquakes of pres- 
 ent limes, has been by some regarded as a bold but improb- 
 able conjecture, and as outreaching in improbability many 
 of those theories which have been unanimously I 
 ed as absurd and Insufficient Bat when we carefully 
 compare the nature of the rocks which compose them, and 
 their influence upon those Which they invade and elevate, 
 and examine the vast powers of existing volcanoes, the 
 enormous quantities of matter which they have ejected, 
 the (on B v ! 'h which they act, the uprnising power of 
 carthqi ... 
 
 and tin ■ \ion with vulcanic phenomena, • ad 
 
 more eapi these forces are considered as opar- 
 
 utin<r under the great pressure of a superincumbent ocean, 
 we find a connected series of facts and analogies which 
 justify the conclusion. We may here examine the rocks 
 In question, nnd the evidences which they bear of a distinct 
 formation ; reserving the history of contemporaneous vol- 
 canic phenomena, and of the effects of earthquakes, for a 
 subsequent section. 
 
 The first circumstance which strikes us in these forma- 
 tions is the height to which they tower above the sedi- 
 mentary rocks, in Britain, Ben Nevis nnd Cairngorm, in 
 slure, are between 4000 nnd 5000 feet above (he 
 level of the ocean; Mont Blanc is between 15,000 and 
 16,000 feet above the same level, and Is the highest mount- 
 ain in Europe; Soxate, the highest summit of the Andes, 
 from 24,000 to 25,000 ; nnd the highest peak of the Thibet 
 chain, 26,000 to 27,000 feet. 
 
 Under the term granitic formation, we may include not 
 merely granite (which is a crystalline aggregate of quartz, 
 felspar, and ndca), properly so called, but other rocks Into 
 which it merges, either from the predominance of one or 
 other of its ingredients, from the loss of one or other of 
 them, or from the occasional addition of some new miner- 
 al. We may also include in this division of rocks those 
 substances which are their occasional accompnniments. 
 
 When mica abounds, granite passes into gneiss ; and 
 when the felspar is nearly or altogether wanting, it forms 
 mica slate; and this again often passes into quartz rock 
 from the scantiness or absence of mica. These would 
 seem to he sedimentary rocks gradually passing into gran- 
 ite. They may be traced upon the one side into clay slate, 
 and into granite on the other. Hornblende, which is an 
 alumino-Mlicious mineral containing magnesia, nnd abun- 
 dant in black oxide of iron, forming prismatic crystals, is 
 often intermixed with granite, and sometimes with felspar 
 only, forming sirnitc and sienitic rocks ; and when crystals 
 of felspar are as it were embedded in massive felspar, the 
 rock is called porphyritic or porphyry. 
 
 The presence of granular or crystalline marble amidst 
 these rocks has already been mentioned. Respecting its 
 source, there is room for difference of opinion ; but It pos- 
 sibly may have been f issiliferous limestone, the organic 
 relics of which have been destroyed by the heat which 
 conferred upon It its semicrystalline form ; nnd it has been 
 I to account upon the same principle, for the ab- 
 sence of organic relics in the slaty rocks of this series. 
 
 ■mi- is a rock which it is somewhat difficult to de- 
 fine. Hornblende, scbiller spar or diallage, and felspar, 
 and, perhaps, also talc, appear to be essential to its consti- 
 tution, anil sometimes they are distinctly visible; while 
 
 at others the rock is so fine-grained as to le nearly homo 
 gencous. Its variety of colours (whence its name) recom 
 mends its for ornamental purposes, but it is too soft to ad 
 mit of a permanent polish. Talc forms inelastic lamina?, 
 soapy to the feel, and differs little from steatite, which 
 often pervades serpentine in veins. 
 
 Such are the varieties of the granitic group ; the hypo 
 gene rocks of Lyell (from vtto, under, nnd yivopui, lam 
 formed), thai is, nether-formed rocks: he calls the strati 
 tied rocks of this class mctamorphic. 
 
 The largest granite tract of England is that of Devon 
 and Cornwall, where its sides are covered by slate, but 
 where it rises in scvernl places to the surface; it also 
 forms the rocky promontory of the Land's End. There is 
 here nothing either picturesque or sublime belonging to the 
 granite formation. Dartmoor appears the head quarters of 
 dreariness and desolation, forming a largo mountain trnct 
 of nearly 80,000 acres in extent, strewed with boulders and 
 fragments, nnd appearing to set cultivation at defiance. 
 This granitic district is nowhere of any considerable eleva 
 tion; its highest point, near Okchnmpton, is SD70 feet, 
 
 The peculiarities of the West of England granite nre 
 best seen at the Land's End, where a large patch of it pro- 
 trudes in a wedge-shaped promontory. It appears formed 
 of fragments and masses placed upon each other in the 
 rudest disorder, and .sometimes in fantastic piles and insu 
 lated blocks, which, though arising from the peculiar man 
 ner in which the rock is decomposed nnd dislodged by the 
 weather, have been mistaken for Druidical remains. These 
 tors, as they have been called, have been described by Dr 
 M'C'ulloch {(leol. Trans.), .and some of them are depicted 
 in the engravings annexed to his paper. One, culled the 
 Cheesewring, near Uakeard, consists of five blocks, o<" 
 which the upper are larger 
 than the lower, the whole pile 
 being about 19 feet high. The 
 Stones composing this and oth- 
 er similar piles suili-r by the 
 action of the weather most 
 rapidly upon their edges and 
 
 come rounded, and the blocks 
 then begin to totter and ulti- 
 mately fall. This tendency 
 of square blocks to becomo 
 spheroidal, and which has ciuwewnn?. 
 
 sometimes been mistaken for the effect of friction, shows that 
 attrition and transportation by streams are not always es- 
 sential to their rounded appearance. The celebrated Log- 
 ging-stone well exhibits the tendency of this kind of gran- 
 ite to cuboidal separation. Some of the Shetland Isles pre- 
 sent magnificent specimens of the wear nnd tear of granite. 
 On the west of Meikle Roe the softer veins have moulder- 
 ed away, while the firmer rock which include* them has 
 remained unaltered; and in this way long narrow ravines 
 are laid open which give access to the waves. The singu 
 lar cluster of rocks at Hillswickness, which has been com 
 
 pared, when seen tit a distance, to a small fleet of vessels 
 with spread sails, also aftbrds a good instance of granitic 
 disintegration on the one hand, and of its permanence on 
 the other ; weathering storms and an ocean which would 
 long ago have consigned softer materials to utter destruction. 
 There are, however, some varieties, which decay with 
 comparative rapidity. De Luc talks of the friable granitt 
 of the Hartz, and Saussure describes the mouldering down 
 of that of the Alps. The waters of the Arve are rendered 
 turbid by the pulverulent felspar that comes from the 
 Jliguilles de Chamouny nnd other points that border the 
 Mer de Glace. The road across Dartmoor from Ashburton 
 to Chagford traverses, in one place, such loosely compacted 
 granite as to resemble a bed of gravel. The granite c f 
 the Carglaise mine, near St. Austle, Is so soft and pulverr- 
 lent, that the excavation might almost be taken for a chalx 
 pit; and in the same vicinity the immense quantities Of 
 white porcelain earth, as it is called, is of similar origin, 
 and apparently derived from the perishable nature of the 
 felspar, which, giving way, suffers the grains of quartz 
 
 503 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 and mica to fall out. Chemica. analysis points to the loss 
 of the alkali of the felspar as the cause of this extreme 
 
 Eroneness of some kinds of granite to decay. Independent, 
 owever, of chemical composition, mere mechanical tex- 
 ture and the general aggregation of mountain masses have 
 much to do with their relative durabilities. When the 
 arrangement of granite resembles that prevalent in the 
 greater part of Cornwall, water gradually penetrating be- 
 tween the blocks and masses freezes there, and thus slow- 
 ly removes or transfers them to unstable ground ; while 
 the more solid texture of other varieties of granite, denying 
 the access of water to its fissures, is slower in suffering the 
 decay referable to that powerful cause. 
 
 Gneiss and mica-slate often form mountain masses in as- 
 sociation with each other and with the varieties of granite. 
 The former is seen singularly contorted upon the coast of 
 Lewes ; and mica-slate rock is associated with the ser- 
 pentine of Cornwall, and is seen in great perfection among 
 the Scotcli granitic scenery, more especially in the vicinity 
 of Dunkeld, -and in extraordinary magnificence in the lofty 
 mountain of Benmore. Ben Lawers, on the north of Loch 
 Tay, and many of the neighbouring mountains, furnish 
 highly instructive specimens of granite passing into gneiss, 
 mica-slate, and chlorite-slate. About three miles south of 
 Dunkeld, a stratum of grauwacke is seen incumbent upon 
 chlorite-slate, gradually passing into a fine gray roofing 
 slate, and this recumbent upon mica-slate. The peculiar 
 and differing dip of the respective strata, the singular man- 
 ner in which they are pierced and traversed by veins of 
 felspar and quartz, and their association with micaceous 
 iron, are circumstances highly interesting in respect to the 
 origin of hypogene rocks ; and the beauty and magnificence 
 of the district in regard to scenery is not less than its diver- 
 sified geological peculiarities. 
 
 Mica-slate, abounding in garnets, and often sprinkled 
 with red patches originating in their decomposition, and be- 
 coming sienitic from the interspersion of hornblende, is 
 prevalent upon the banks of the Tay and about Dunkeld ; 
 but it is in Glentilt that the geologist, both practical and 
 theoretical, will find the most ample materials for the study 
 of the association and junctions of this series of rocks. 
 
 In the immediate neighbourhood of Blair, the Tilt ex- 
 hibits upon its banks a section of the rocks forming its bed ; 
 and the micaceous strata here and at the falls of the 
 Bruar incline nearly at the same angle to several points of 
 the compass, giving a curious confusion and interweave- 
 nwnt to their assemblage. Ascending a few miles up the 
 glen we observe granular limestone in the midst of the 
 granite, which sends forth so many veins as to reticulate 
 the slate ; and often there appear to be detached fragments 
 of granite in the limestone and shistose rocks. 
 
 There are other places in which analogous peculiarities 
 of granite and its associates may be observed; for instance 
 in St. Michael's Mount, upon the south coast of Cornwall, 
 where the granite not only graduates into mica-slate, but 
 the latter is traversed by granite veins, which appear to 
 break and indurate it. Exclusive of Cornwall and Devon- 
 shire, the hypogene or plutonic rocks are comparatively 
 rare upon the surface of England. The Malvern Hills, 
 Mount Sorrel in Leicestershire, and a few of the ridges of 
 Cumberland and Westmoreland, afford specimens of these 
 rocks. In the Isle of Man and in Anglesey, granite is asso- 
 ciated with chiy-slate; and near G windy in Anglesey the 
 points of granite curiously protrude from beneath the slate. 
 
 In reference to the origin of granite rocks, it appears al- 
 most impossible to reject that theory which regards them 
 as having been formed by the ignenus fusion of sedimenta- 
 ry rocks ; while it cannot be denied that peculiar circum- 
 stances must have conspired in conferring upon these for- 
 mations their distinct and peculiar characters. Their anal- 
 ogy to basalt, greenstone, and trap will presently be noticed, 
 and the close resemblance of the latter to existent and con- 
 temporaneous volcanic products traced out. But then why 
 Is not granite formed by our present volcanoes ? or why are 
 more modern lavas so distinct from these ancient rocks 1 
 The probable cause of the difference lies in the circum- 
 stances under which the subterranean fusions have been 
 effected ; in the case of granite, probably under great press- 
 ure, and out of the contact of air and water. What is now 
 going on at great depths, and under the pressure of fused 
 masses and a fathomless ocean, it is Impossible actually to 
 ascertain, and analogy only can guide us ; but the circum- 
 stances just mentioned appear essential to the formation of 
 highly crystalline rocks, and the extremely slow cooling of 
 these fused masses would also favour many of their pecu- 
 liarities. In demanding this liquefaction and gradual re- 
 frigeration the plutonic geologist has often been sneered at 
 for the exorbitancy of his postulates ; but the great length 
 of time which lava streams require to cool, even in the 
 open air, justifies the conclusion. The melted matter pour- 
 ed out of Jorullo in Mexico, in 1750, which accumulated in 
 some places to the height of 550 feet, retained a high tem- 
 304 
 
 perature for fifty years after the eruption. For what im 
 mense periods then may not great masses of subterranean 
 lava remain red hot, and how gradual must be the process 
 of their refrigeration ! This process, indeed, may be retard- 
 ed for an indefinite time; for the lava in the crater of 
 Stromboli has been in a state of constant ebullition for the 
 last 2000 years, and this mass of fused matter must of 
 course communicate with some great reservoir below. In 
 the Isle of Bourbon also, where there has been an eruption 
 every two years for a very long period, the lava below must 
 be in a state of permanent liquefaction. In adverting tr 
 the effects of long-continued fusion upon earthy and alkn 
 line compounds, and to the various textures and" characters 
 of rocks which may thus result from the liquefaction of 
 similar materials, sometimes producing distinct crystalline 
 aggregates, at others more homogeneous products^ we are 
 sanctioned by the result of actual experiments ; and al- 
 though our artificial products are necessarily formed upon 
 a scale of trifling insignificance as compared with the nat- 
 ural ones, we sometimes obtain extraordinary and unex 
 pected results to such an extent, that it is impossible by 
 any d priori reasoning to determine what new mineral prod- 
 ucts may not be obtained by the varied effects of heat upon 
 components little dissimilar. 
 
 When, therefore, melted matter is injected into the fissures 
 of a contiguous rock, it may either cool rapidly if that rock 
 had not previously acquired a high temperature ; or if it 
 had, it may continue for centuries at a high temperature, 
 and consequently attain various textures, and present a va- 
 riety of distinct minerals. 
 
 We have already stated what our means are of judging of 
 the relative ages of these rocks. Some of the granitic chains 
 appear to be of great antiquity, antecedent to the secondary 
 and tertiary rocks ; though perhaps there may be a few 
 cases in which they are apparently contemporaneous. It is 
 also probable that they are constantly in a state of produc- 
 tion, perhaps to be upheaved at some future period, by op- 
 erations which we shall afterwards endeavour to unravel. 
 
 From granite and its associates we pass to a class of rocks 
 often designated as the trap formation. Including whinstone, 
 basalt, greenstone, &c. They are apparently of igneous or- 
 igin, and approach in many instances very closely in their 
 effect and character to the lavas of contemporaneous vol 
 canoes. 
 
 The term trap rock has been especially applied to those 
 step-like or scalar declivities which mountain masses of this 
 substance sometimes present. In employing this term, we 
 shall rather use it as a generic name of the rocks in ques- 
 tion, than as specially implying the materials of which they 
 are composed; and since the varieties known un.ier the 
 names of greenstone, basalt, toadstone, whin, piunstone, 
 and amygdaloid belong to this same class, and ofttn gradu- 
 ate into each other, these terms may be occasionally em- 
 ployed as characterizing individual specimens of trap rock 
 — designating the fine-grained homogeneous rock basalt ; 
 the greenish varieties which especially occur among the 
 older rocks, and sometimes approximate to the nature of 
 sienite, greenstone ; those containing nodules of calc-spar, 
 quartz, agate, zeolite, &c, amygdaloid or toadstone. 
 
 The general character of these rocks is, that they appear 
 among stratified deposits of all dates, and among the oldest 
 and newest rocks : sometimes graduating through green- 
 stone and hornblende rocks into varieties closely connected 
 with granite ; at others degenerating, as it were, into sub- 
 stances closely resembling the lavas of existing volcanoes. 
 When they assume a stratified character, it arises from 
 their apparent injection in a state of fluidity among other 
 rocks, or from having been subjected to peculiar laws of 
 action while cooling ; and where they come into contact 
 with other rocks, they often fill their rents and fissures with 
 dikes and veins, and harden or alter them in such a way 
 as to leave indisputable records of their igneous origin — 
 converting chalk into marble, coal into cinder or coke, sand- 
 stone into chert and jasper; and the veins themselves pre- 
 sent different textures, dependant on their bulk or breadth, 
 and upon the greater or less rapidity with which they ap- 
 pear to have cooled. The following may be selected as 
 illustrative instances of the aspects, characters, and situa- 
 tions of trap rocks : Under the name of greenstone it is 
 seen in characteristic masses, associated with the granite, 
 mica-slate, and serpentine of the Lizard Point in Cornwall. 
 Near Kington and Radnor in Wales, it accompanies clay- 
 slate and old red sandstone ; and upon the northern side of 
 Snowdon.Plynlimmon, and Cader Idris, coarse-grained, and 
 with regular crystals of hornblende in one place, and in an- 
 other fine-grained, homogeneous, and even basaltic or co- 
 lumnar. In Derbyshire, under the name of toadstone, this 
 rock is associated with mountain limestone, and with new 
 red sandstone or red marl in the coalfields of the north of 
 England and elsewhere. In Antrim we find it variously 
 blended with the sandstone and chalk, and even sometimes 
 superior to the newest secondary formations. These in 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 ".ill serve to show the varied position of these 
 rocks. In regard to their aspects, we observe them in Corn- 
 wall forming blocks and masses, not unlike the granite at 
 the country. Sometimes, as in the coalfields, it forms im- 
 HIs or dikes, and even axes of elevation; some- 
 • in Derbyshire, it has the appearand of stratifica- 
 tion. In the We of Mull and elsewhere it is massive and 
 amorphous, and in many places it is columnar; of which 
 the coast of Antrim, the' island of Staffa, and some puts of 
 Mull furnish such magnificent instances. The Isle of Mull, 
 Ulva, and the Treshamish Isles exhibit trap rocks and 
 veins in the greatest variety ; and the veins of the Isle of 
 Sky are not only remarkable for their singular extent and 
 arrangement, bat for the changes they produce upon the 
 rocks they penetrate, and which are of such a nature as to 
 throw some few rays of light upon the most recondite 
 phenomena connected with geology. Two of 
 us |>enetrate the white marble of Strath. At their 
 junction the trap passes into mMm resembling serpen- 
 tine, and is penetrated by fissures containing steatite ; while 
 the marble acquires all sorts of colours and changes in com- 
 position, from argillaceous to magnesian, and from inagnc- 
 sian to silicious. " In other parts the trap veins exhibit the 
 several I tenstone, basalt, and amygdaloid. 
 
 The island of Stalfa is one of the most celebrated basaltic 
 monuments of the world : it is about n mile and a half in 
 circumference; and its greatest elevation, which is upon its 
 north west side, is about 144 feet. Its lowermost bed upon 
 that tide is a basaltic, conglomerate. The columns are com- 
 pact and uniform in texture, dark grayish-black interiorly, 
 and rusty brown where exposed to the weather. Amor- 
 phous and columnar basalt and n stratum of pebbles foreign 
 to the island form its upper portion. Kingal's Cave is just- 
 ly considered as the most beau- 
 tiful of ocean caverns and 
 owes its existence to the cir- 
 cumstance of the columns be- 
 ing jointed in that place, while 
 their general character is to be 
 without divisions; hence the 
 successful invasion of the 
 waves in this particular quar- 
 FmtaliCiK. tg,. >p ne en trance is 70 feet 
 
 high, nnd resembles a Gothic arch ; the width 40 to 50 feet, 
 th 927 feet Its interior preserves a considerable 
 degree of regularity throughout, Its sides being columnar, 
 and in many places broken and irregularly grouped, so as 
 to catch a variety of direct and reflected tints, mixed with 
 ed shadows, and producing a picturesque effect 
 which no regularity could have conferred. The sea never 
 entirely ebbs out of this cave, but the broken range of col- 
 umns which forms the exterior causeway is continued on 
 each side within It. "This cave," says Dr. M'Culloch, 
 '■ has been frequently described, but no description is ade- 
 ilie representation of its varied beauties and singu- 
 lar associations. If it were even destitute of that order nnd 
 symmetry, that richness arising from multiplicity of parts 
 combined with greatness of dimensions and simplicity of 
 style which it possesses — still the prolonged length, the 
 twilight gloom half concealing the playful and varying ef- 
 fect of reflected light, the echo of the measured surge as it 
 falls, the pellucid green of the water, and the pro- 
 found nnd fairy solitude of the whole scene, could never 
 fail strongly to impress any mind alive to the wonders and 
 beauties of nature." Mnckinnon'sCave and the Boat Cave 
 in the island are also worthy the traveller's attention. 
 
 The Giant's Causeway, nnd the various promontories of 
 the coast of Antrim, form another basaltic district of great 
 grandeur and Interest. 
 
 The Causeway itself consists of three piers of columns, 
 which evtend Into the sea, and are walled round, as it were, 
 by precipitous rocks from 200 to 400 feet high, in which are 
 several striking columnar assemblages, vertical, inclined, 
 curved, and horizontal, and in some places appearing as if 
 wedged or driven into the surface of the precipice: Ben- 
 gore, which bounds the Causeway on the east, consists of 
 alternate ranges of tabular and massive with columnar ba- 
 salt : Ple<kin presents several colonnades of great height 
 anil regularity, separated from each other by tabular basalt ; 
 and at Fairhead there Is a range of columns from 200 to 
 nearly 300 feet In height, supported by a steep declivity, 
 which forms a terrace nearly 600 feet above the level of the 
 sen beneath. 
 
 Sometimes basalt rises in massive and abrupt rocks, as- 
 suming the nppearnnce of a uniform homogeneous sub- 
 stance, nnd scarcely exhibiting any of that singular tenden- 
 cy to columnar regularity which we have just had occasion 
 id admire in Staffa nnd the Causeway. The castles of 
 Dumbarton, Edinburgh, nnd Stirling are built upon such 
 masses. At other times it forms low, rugged, and unpictu- 
 resque stram, sometimes remarkably bent, but without form- 
 Ins decided columns. 
 
 We have already noticed the effects of these rocks upon 
 their neighbours, and upon the strata which they penetrate 
 and invade. As these involve a variety of important theo- 
 retical considerations, it will be proper to consider them 
 a little more in detail. 
 
 In describing the effects of the intrusion of granite into 
 the superincumbent slates and stratified rocks, we noticed 
 the fragments that occasionally occur in the granitic veins, 
 their induration, and other symptoms of fusion and vio- 
 lence ; nnd in the veins and dikes of basalt we meet with 
 precisely similar effects. Near Edinburgh the sandstone is 
 hardened and rendered like jasper by the whin dikes, and 
 loose pieces are occnsionally seen to have been Moating, as 
 it were, in the fused basalt. In Antrim the limestone is 
 sometimes overtopped by basalt, and the dikes as they 
 traverse it harden it into a species of marble, and tin- neigh- 
 bouring flints are reddened. In coal mines those accumu- 
 lations of carburetted hydrogen gas which form what are 
 called the blowers, appear to have resulted from the action 
 of veins of basalt. 
 
 In addition to this evidence, we have some of a chemical 
 nature, which is not less decisive; and it is to bt regretted 
 that such experiments have not been extended 
 
 The first great ex|>eriment of this kind was made by Mr. 
 Gregory Watt; he fused 7 cwt. of fine-grained basalt, and 
 sullired the fused mass to cool gradually, so that the whole 
 process lasted eight days. The mass alter fusion was three 
 feet and a half long, two feet nnd a half wide, eighteen 
 inches thick at one end, and only four at the other. The 
 structure was singularly altered, nnd in many places there 
 were aggregations of spheroids of a radiated texture. not un 
 like the globular structure exhibited by some kinds of de- 
 composing basalt, and occasionally forming by their mutual 
 pressure a tendency to prismatic or columnar arrangement. 
 
 In glass which has been slowly cooled we occasionally 
 observe somewhat similar and highly interesting effects'; 
 its texture is variously modified, and globules of a n. dialed 
 and crystalline texture arc formed in it from a new arrange- 
 ment of its molecules. And, lastly, certain ffOlidltOliea and 
 clays may assume in some instances a columnar texture by 
 the action of long-continued heat short of fusii n. Doctor 
 M'Culloch observed in a hearthstone of an old furnace which 
 hnd been In constant work for 18 years, that n prismatic 
 structure extended through Its whole mass, and he thus 
 explains the occasional columnar structure of sandstone 
 when in contact of basalt; and In regard to some kinds of 
 basalt itself, he observes that its frequent nmygdaloidal 
 structure proves that it was originally cellular and porous 
 like lava, the cells having been subsequently filled up by 
 the infiltration of the various substances found in them. It 
 is a mere dispute about terms, therefore, to refuse to these 
 ancient eruptions the name of submarine volcanoes : for such 
 tliey arc in every essential point, though they no longer eject 
 fire and smoke. 
 
 The examination of the Igneous rocks of Sicily has proved 
 that all the ordinary varieties of trap have been produced 
 under the waters of the sea, since the Mediterranean has 
 been inhabited by a great proportion of the existing testa- 
 ceous species. "We are therefore entitled to feel the ut- 
 most confidence that if we could obtain access to the ex- 
 isting bed of the ocean, and explore the igneous rocks poured 
 out within the last 5000 years beneath the pressure of a sea 
 of considerable depth, we should behold formations of mod- 
 ern date scarcely distinguishable from the most ancient trap 
 rocks of our island. We cannot, however, expect the ident- 
 ity to be perfect, for time is ever working some alteration in 
 the composition of these mineral masses ; as, for example, 
 by converting porous lava into amygdaloids." 
 
 $111. 
 
 We have now examined the structure of the crust of our 
 globe, and found it to consist of n succession of sedimentary 
 deposits of different dates, characterized by peculiarities of 
 mineral structure and composition, and by distinct orgnnic 
 relics, upheaved nnd displaced by a series of crystalline 
 rocks apparently of igneous origin, nnd in many instances 
 similar in composition and effects to the products of existent 
 volcanoes. 
 
 These must be now more particularly examined, for the 
 purpose of ascertaining how far we are justified in attribu- 
 ting to analogous agents those stupendous powers of eleva 
 tion and dislocation which the theory of the crystalline or 
 hypogene rocks has obliged us to call to our nid. The ex- 
 tent of volcanic fires, their connexion with earthquakes, the 
 nature of their products, their usual effects, and their modi- 
 fled action under the influence of pressure, are the principal 
 points now requiring attention. 
 
 The geographical extent of volcanic districts is very con- 
 siderable, and demonstrates the universality of subterranean 
 fire in all quarters of the globe. It is true that the points of 
 eruption and the movements of great earthquakes are con- 
 fined to certain regions in which the volcanic vents are dis 
 
 505 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 tnbuted at intervals, and most commonly in a linear direc- 
 tion ; but there is abundant evidence that the igneous pow- 
 ers are at work continuously throughout the intermediate 
 spaces, for the ground is from time to time convulsed, gases 
 and vapours are disengaged, and hot springs issue, the wa- 
 ters of which are very commonly impregnated with the same 
 mineral matters which are discharged by the eruption of the 
 volcano. 
 
 There are also abundent proofs of the existence of volcanic 
 fires under various parts of the bed of the ocean, where their 
 etfects, though at present unseen and unknown, are proba- 
 bly destined to become evident at some future but very re- 
 mote period. 
 
 The substances thrown out by volcanoes are chiefly earthy 
 and alkaline bodi/.s in a state of fusion: masses of red-hot 
 and melted rock, stones, cinders, ashes, steam, and various 
 gases are their accompaniments ; and, although they differ 
 very materially in the quantity of ejected matter, their prod- 
 ucts so generally agree in quality that they are doubtless all 
 referable to the operations of one cause. What that cause 
 is, is "a question which has long been agitated, but is as yet 
 not very satisfactorily determined ; although considerable 
 advances have been made towards an explanation of the 
 phenomena by those great discoveries in chemistry which 
 bear the stamp of Davy's name, and which have taught us 
 the existence of a class of bodies possessed of previously un- 
 known and unsuspected properties, and which are in some 
 respects applicable to the solution of the problem before us. 
 
 These bodies are the metallic bases of the alkalies and 
 earths ; many of which, the moment that they touch water, 
 explode, burn, melt, and become converted into red-hot mat- 
 ter, uot unlike some sorts of lava. 
 
 It has been said that if we adopt the existence of great 
 masses of these highly inflammable and active metals deep 
 within the earth as one of the causes of volcanic force, that 
 they would remain inactive without water ; consequently, 
 that the access of water is a necessary condition. We find, 
 in fact, that many of the great volcanoes of the world are 
 not far from the sea or from lakes ; but it must also be ad- 
 mitted that there are great volcanic districts to which water 
 ,, Mat access. In central Asia there is a volcanic 
 district, with an area of nearly 3000 geographical miles, be- 
 tween 300 and 400 leagues distant from the sea. The cen- 
 tral chain of the Andes, too, is at a great distance from the 
 sea, and yet has several active volcanic vents. But we 
 know too little of the interior of our globe, of what hidden 
 waters it may contain, or what may be the subterranean 
 communications of the ocean, to justify us in excluding this 
 theory upon such grounds, were it otherwise satisfactory 
 and accordant. 
 
 When these highly inflammable metals act upon water, 
 they combine with its oxygen, and the hydrogen is evolved; 
 and as hydrogen is very rarely traced as a product of vol- 
 canic eruptions, its absence has been urged as fatal to this 
 theory. But upon this point we are also not well informed ; 
 the hydrogen may be evolved, and yet its presence not de- 
 terminable; or, if evolved at a high temperature and in the 
 contact of air, it would burn probably witli explosion, and 
 reproduce water. Now aqueous vapour is often ejected 
 with explosive force from volcanoes; and this sudden gen- 
 eration of steam, in part perhaps resulting from the explo- 
 sive union of hydrogen and oxygen, may be one great source 
 of their power and violence, and of the concussions attend- 
 ant on earthquakes. 
 
 But there are properties of these singular metals which 
 are less evident, and may yet play an active part where 
 their mutual affinities are concerned. In certain propor- 
 tions, sodium and potassium form an alloy liquid as water, 
 highly inflammable; and when touched by certain other 
 metals, mercury for instance, becoming red-hot and explo- 
 sive. Now these properties, curious as they are, may pos- 
 sibly belong, in a yet more eminent degree, to certain alloys 
 and other compounds of the metallic bases of the earths, 
 for we know as yet little of the chemical properties of 
 these bodies ; and it may be presumed, upon strict analogy, 
 that there may be other agents of a similar kind, and gifted, 
 l>erhaps, with yet more energetic powers : for who could 
 even have ventured to imagine the existence of such re- 
 markable bodies as potassium and sodium before their dis- 
 covery 1 So that upon the whole, if we cannot frame a 
 perfect theory of volcanoes upon these chemical principles, 
 they at all events go some way towards an explanation of 
 some of their concomitant phenomena, as will appear from 
 the details we are about to enter upon. One difficulty, 
 however, we are certainly not prepared to meet ; namely, 
 the perpetuity, as it may almost be called, of some active 
 volcanoes — volcanoes which have continued to burn and 
 throw out lava and cinders, not only for years, but for 
 successive ages. The lava in the crater of Stromboli has 
 been in a state of ignition for 2000 years; so that there 
 must here be a constant accession of heat, if not renovation 
 of fuel. 
 
 506 
 
 Wo have ample evidence of the connexion of earth 
 quakes with volcanoes ; and all great eruptions have com 
 monly been preceded by violent convulsions which have 
 ceased upon the bursting forth of the volcanic tires, as If 
 the pent-up matters had found a vent. All this shows the 
 cause of. the eruption to be deep below the surface, and 
 perhaps sanctions the notion of the existence of great masses 
 of ignited matter below the rocks that form our mountains ; 
 or even the idea of some of the ancient as well as modem 
 geologists, that the interior and nucleus of the globe is in a 
 state of most intense incandescence — an idea already al 
 luded to when noticing the evidences of change of cliicate 
 deduced from the examination of fossil plants. Another 
 fact in reference to this view deserves notice ; namely, 
 that there is a very manifest connexion between volcanic 
 vents situated at great distances from each other. Such a 
 connexion has been suspected between Vesuvius and Etna; 
 and some of the volcanoes of the Andes appear to alternate 
 in their eruptions, though at great distances from each 
 other. 
 
 When lava is examined as near as possible to the vent 
 whence it issues, it is usually a semifluid mass about the 
 consistence of honey. It soon cools externally, and its 
 surface becomes rough and irregular ; but, bein» a very 
 bad conductor of heat, the interior remains red-hot long 
 after the surface has cooled. It is probable that large 
 masses of lava ejected into the sea retain their liigh tern 
 peratures in the central parts of the mass for a great and 
 even indefinite length of tune. 
 
 The quantity of matter which has been thrown to the 
 surface by volcanic agencies during the historical period is 
 very enormous, and may serve to give an idea of their in- 
 fluence in modifying the surface of the globe, when such 
 powers are considered in reference to great periods of time. 
 In illustration of this point we may select the volcanoes of 
 Iceland, because our details respecting them are well au 
 thenticated ; though it must be recollected that they proba 
 bly fall into insignificance when compared with what has 
 happened in some of those districts of Asia and South 
 America which are ravaged by subterranean fires. In the 
 following sketch of these volcanic districts we shall avail 
 ourselves as hitherto of Mr. Lyell's excellent abstract of 
 volcanic history, as given in his Principhs of Geology. 
 
 Iceland itself is little else than a mass of lava ; and so 
 intense is the energy of volcanic action in that region, that 
 some eruptions of Ilecla have lasted six years without 
 ceasing. Earthquakes have often shaken the whole island, 
 causing a complete revolution in its geographical physiog 
 nomy ; such as the rending of mountains, the elevation of 
 some and the sinking down of others, the desertion by 
 rivers of their channels, and the appearance of new lakes. 
 Upon the coasts too, and in great depths of water, new 
 islands have been thrown up, some of which have remain 
 ed and others disappeared. In this island too, the volcanic 
 vents are often in alternate action, one serving, as it were, 
 for a time as a safety valve to the rest ; and when, as is 
 often the case, new cones are thrown up, they generally 
 take a linear direction. In 1783, a new island was thrown 
 up off the coast, consisting of high clifls ; and with such an 
 ejection of pumice, that the ocean was covered to the dis 
 tance of 150 miles, and ships impeded in their course by 
 the shoals of floating stones. Ere a year had elapsed, 
 however, the sea resumed her ancient domain, the volcanic 
 clifls had disappeared, and nothing was left but a rocky 
 reef from 5 to 30 fathoms under water. In June, Skaptar 
 Jokul, 200 miles distant from the new isles, threw out a 
 torrent of lava, which in the first place flowed down into 
 the river Skapta, and completely dried it up; its channel 
 was between high rocks, and was in some places 400 to 000 
 feet deep and 200 broad. Not only did the lava fill these 
 great defiles up to the brink, but overflowed the adjacent 
 country and filled up a deep lake. There was then a short 
 intermission in the eruption ; but in a few days it was re- 
 sumed, and the newly ejected lava flowed rapidly over the 
 surface of the first, and damming up numerous streams, 
 deluged the neighbouring country with water, and destroy- 
 ed several villages ; when, after flowing for several days, 
 it was precipitated down a tremendous cataract, and filled 
 the profound cavity which the waterfall had been hollow- 
 ing out for ages. Afterwards the lava took a new direction, 
 and discharging itself into the bed of another river (the 
 Hyversfliot), occasioned a scene of destruction rivalling the 
 former : the lava accumulated to a great depth, and coming 
 to the plains spread out into broad lakes of lire, some of 
 which were from 12 to 15 miles wide, and 100 feet deep. 
 When the fiery lake which filled the valley of the Skapta 
 had been augmented by new supplies, the lava (lowed up 
 the course of the river to the foot of the hills where it 
 rises. This eruption continued two years ; and when Mr. 
 Paulson visited it eleven years after (in 1704), the lava 
 was still smoking, and its vents filled with hot water. 
 Although the population of Iceland did not exceed 50,000, 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 wentv villages were destroyed, exclusive of those man- 
 dated by water; and all the cattle of the district, and more 
 than 9000 human beings, perished. 
 
 e quoted the narrative of this eruption, as "riving. 
 upon good authority, sumo notion of the extraordinary 
 volume of melted matter produced. Of the two branches 
 of lava, and they flowed nearly in opposite directions, one 
 Was •'■<» and the other 40 miles in length; the extreme 
 breadth of one branch was from 12 to 15, and of the other 
 ill 7 miles. The ordinary height of the currents was 
 about Kid feet ; hut in deep ravines and defiles they some- 
 • attained 600 feet. How striking a feature, Mr. Lyell 
 remarks, would these streams form in the geology of Eng- 
 land, had they been poured out on the bottom of the sea 
 aftei : i, but before the elevation of our second- 
 
 ary and tertiary rocks! and how easily may we now refer 
 the trap and basaltic rocks to similar can 
 
 But there are some phenomena connected with volcanic 
 action which stem to be caused by yet re extraordinary 
 
 agents than these we have adverted to; namely, their .great 
 projielili: and explosive force, the effects of which nre, in 
 instances, upon so stupendous a scale as to appear 
 utterlv incredible, had we not the clearest and most un- 
 objerii. .nable evidence. Let us select one or two illus- 
 trative relations, and then see how far we are acquainted 
 with any powers or agents in nature adequate to explain 
 the- r< 
 
 he era of the discovery of the New World to the 
 middle of the last century, the great volcanic district of 
 CO had remained undisturbed. It is tin elevated pla- 
 teau, between 2000 and 3000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 and bounded by hills of ancient igneous origin. It was 
 occupied by fields of sugar-cane and indigo, and watered 
 by two brooks. In June, 1758, alarming sounds and earth- 
 ijuakes preceded the bursting forth of flame from the 
 IBd, and fragment! of red hot rocks were thrown to 
 heights, A great chasm was formed, from 
 wh'e i- cones were' thrown up, Uie least of 
 
 which was 900 feet high ; and Jorullo, the central volcano, 
 m elevated 1000 feel above the level of the plain It 
 6ent forth streams of basaltic lava, including fragments of 
 >rnnitic rocks, and Its eruptions did BO) I ease nil 1700. 
 Humboldt visited the country forty yean afterwards: there 
 hen appeared round the base of the cones, and spreading 
 from them over an extent of four square miles, a convex 
 of matter, between 500 and 600 feet high, gradually 
 itoplng in all directions towards the plains, and which was 
 it 1 1 1 so hot that he lighted a cigar in one of its fissures. It 
 srai covered with thousands of little mounds, which emit- 
 vn .nam and sulphuric acid. The two small rivers lost 
 themselves below the °ast extremity of the plain, and re- 
 appeared rs hot springs at its western '.'.:::'.: Humboldt 
 attributed the convexity of the "lain to inflation from below, 
 (apposing the ground for the extent of four squrue miles to 
 have- posed up like a bladder to the elevation of 550 feet 
 In the highest part; but of this there seems no good evi- 
 dence, except the hollow sound made by the steps of a 
 horse upon the plain, and this might result from any porous 
 ml. A subsequent eruption of Jorullo happened in 
 1819, and it is much to be regretted that no European 
 travellers have since visited the spot. It is known, how- 
 ever, that ashes fell in Guanaxato, 140 miles from Jorullo, 
 in such quantity as to lie inches deep in the street ; and 
 the tower of the cathedral was thrown down. Of these 
 forces, thus elevating matter from below, and throwing up 
 extensive plains and lofty mountains, we have numerous 
 othei instances ; and in farther illustration of their great 
 power may cite the elevation of islands in deep water by 
 submarine volcanoes. Those off Iceland have been already 
 noticed. In 1811 a volcano forced its way from beneath 
 the sea oflf the island of St. Michael, one of the Azores 
 forming a crater above the water a mile in circumference, 
 and about 300 feet high. In the middle of the 17th century 
 an island was thrown up among the Hebrides, which in a 
 month again disappeared. In July, 1731, a volcano rose in 
 the sea between the island of Pantellaria and the coast of 
 Sicily, forming a crater 240 feet diameter and 20 feet above 
 water. Many shoals are no doubt of volcanic origin. 
 
 The Pacific ocean, in equatorial latitudes, seems to be 
 one vast theatre of igneous action : and its innumerable 
 archipelagoes, such as the New Hebrides, Friendlylslands, 
 and Georgian Isles, are all volcanic, with active vents here 
 and there interspersed. Of such a formation Owhyhee is 
 a magnificent example. The whole mass, estimated as 
 exposing a surface of 4000 square miles, is composed of 
 lava, the highest peaks of which are between 15,000 and 
 16,000 feet above the level of the sea. The crater of Kiraue 
 is described by Mr. Ellis as situated in a lofty elevated 
 plain, bounded by a precipice 15 or 16 miles in circum- 
 • <■<■, apparently sunk from 200 to 400 feet below its 
 original level. The surface of this plain, he says, was 
 uneven, and strewed over with loose stones and rocks ; 
 
 and in the centre of it was the great crater. At the ettgv 
 of it a sublime and appalling spectacle presented itself— 
 an immense gulf in the form of a crescent, about 2 miles 
 long and 1 wide, and apparently 800 feet deep yawned 
 beneath ; the bottom was covered with one vast flood of 
 burning matter in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and 
 fro its fiery surge and (laming billows : fifty-one conical 
 islands, as it were, forming as many district craters, rose 
 round the edge of this burning lake, emitting columns of 
 smoke or pyramids of flame; and several of them vomited 
 from their ignited mouths streams of lava, which rolled in 
 blazing torrents down their black indented sides into the 
 lake below. 
 
 We may conclude this part of our subject with a brief 
 notice of one other volcano ; namely, that of Tomboroo in 
 the island of Sumbawa, the account of which we owe to 
 the late Sir S. Raffles. It began on the 5th of April, 1815. 
 It appears that a Malay prow, while at sea, on the lllh, was 
 enveloped in utter darkness ; and that afterwards passing 
 the Tomboroo mountain, at the distance of 5 miles, the 
 commander observed thatthe lower part appeared in flames, 
 while the upper portion was concealed in clouds. Upon 
 landing to procure water, he found the ground 3 feet deep 
 in ashes, and several large vessels thrown on shore by the 
 concussions of the sea. 
 
 At the commencement of the explosion the commander 
 of the E. I. C. cruiser Benares, which was at Macassar, 
 supposed that there was an engagement of pirates some- 
 where in the neighbourhood, so closely did the reports 
 resemble those of cannon. On the 11th the ship was again 
 shaken, as it was thought, by tho discharge of cannot). At 
 8 A.M. on the 12th, the face of the heavens to the south 
 and west had assumed a dingy aspect, and it became darker 
 than it had been at sunrise. A dusky red appearance 
 gradually spread over the heavens; and by 10 it was so 
 dark that a ship could hardly be seen a mile oft By 11 
 the whole heaven was obscured, except a small space in 
 the east horizon, whence the wind came. The ashes now 
 fell in showers, and the appearances were most awful and 
 alarming. By noon the light which had lingered in the 
 horizon disappeared, and complete da. I. At 
 
 half-fiat 7 the next morning there was a glimmering of 
 light, and objects could just be perceived on deck. When 
 day returned the appearance of the ship was most singular; 
 every part being covered with gray dust, which lay in heaps 
 of a foot dam on many parti ol the deck. On the 13th the 
 vessel left Macassar, and made Sumbawa on the 18th. 
 Approaching the coast, she encountered an immense quan- 
 tity of pumice, with numerous burnt trees and logs ; and 
 the anchorage was greatly altered, for the vessel grounded 
 on a bank where there had previously been fi B thorns 
 water. The shores were entirely covered with ashes and 
 cinders ejected from Tomboroo, although 40 rnile3 distant 
 The explosions were terrific; and there is evidence of their 
 having been heard to Sumatra, upwards of Uo0 nautical 
 miles from Sumbawa. Lieut. Phillips, who was di 
 ed to atford relief to the perishing inhabitants, learned from 
 the Rajah of hangar that on the 10th of April the fire and 
 flame raged with exhaustless fury, till all became dark 
 from the quantity of falling matter. At this time stones 
 fell very thick, from the size of a walnut up to that of two 
 fists. Then a whirlwind arose, which destroyed every 
 house In the village of Saugar, tore up the trees, and carried 
 them into the air, together with men and cattle. The sea 
 rose 12 feet above its usual levels, and swept away all 
 within Its reach, including some thousands of the inhabi 
 tants. 
 
 Extraordinary and appalling as these narrations are, they 
 might be greatly extended. In 1772 the Inhabitant! of a 
 district of Java were alarmed by flashes of light issuing 
 from one of their volcanoes. They took flight ; but before 
 they could all escape the mountain fell in, with thundering 
 reports like cannon. The extent of ground swallowed up 
 was 15 miles by 6. Forty villages were ingulfed, and 3000 
 persons destroyed. We have not space to advert to the 
 historical details of Vesuvius and Etna. In the Bay of 
 Naples, Monte Nuovo was thrown up In one day, nearly 
 500 feet high, and a mile and a half in circumference. Of 
 the eruptions of Vesuvius there are numerous and excel 
 lent narratives. It deserves especial notice in relation to 
 this mountain, that before the Christian era, and from the 
 remotest periods of which we have any tradition, this vol- 
 cano was in a state of inactivity ; affording no other indi- 
 cations of its volcanic character than such as were deducible 
 from the resemblance in its structure to other volcanoes, 
 like the extinct voUanocs, as they are called, of the present 
 day. Pliny does not include it in his list of active vents, 
 but Strabo adverts to its volcanic aspect. Its form was 
 then very different, from that which it now exhibits, and 
 the sides were covered with fertile fiel<ls ; and at its base 
 were the populous cities of Herculaneum and Pompeu. 
 The first symptom of renovated activity was 03 years after 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 Christ, when an earthquake shook the neighbourhood ; 
 and in August, 79, it erupted lava. The elder Pliny, who 
 commanded the Roman fleet, then stationed at Misenum, 
 in his anxiety to get a near view of the phenomena was 
 suffocated by the exhalations. His nephew has given a 
 lively description of the scene, but has inexplicably passed 
 over the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Indeed, 
 so vague are the narratives long subsequent to that event, 
 that had those buried cities never been discovered, the ac- 
 counts of their tragical end would probably have been 
 regarded as fabulous. Tacitus, the friend and contem- 
 porary of Pliny, merely says that cities were destroyed ; 
 Suetonius is silent respecting them ; Martial adverts to 
 their immersion in cinders ; but the first writer who alludes 
 to them by name is Dion Cassius, who flourished about a 
 century and a half after Pliny. We have some interesting 
 historical facts, showing that Pompeii and Herculaneum 
 were destroyed by ashes and mud, and not by red-hot lava. 
 When the amphitheatre at Herculaneum was first cleared 
 out, ashes were arranged on the steps just as snow would 
 lie had it fallen there : the whole superincumbent mass 
 was from 70 to 112 feet deep. The foundation of both 
 cities is ancient lava. It is curious that, notwithstanding 
 the much greater depth of Herculaneum than Pompeii, it 
 was first discovered, by the accidental circumstance of a 
 veil being sunk in 1713, which came directly down upon 
 .tie theatre, where the statues of Cleopatra and of Hercules 
 ^ ere soon discovered. 
 
 In both cities records have been found commemorating 
 their having been rebuilt after they had been thrown down 
 by an earthquake which happened in the reign of Nero, 16 
 years before the inhumation of the cities. Very few skele- 
 tons have been discovered in either city ; so that it is 
 probable the greater number of the inhabitants escaped, 
 carrying with them no doubt the principal part of their 
 valuable effects. In the barracks at Pompeii were the 
 skeletons of two soldiers chained to the stocks ; and in the 
 vaults of a villa in the suburbs were the skeletons of seven- 
 teen persons, who probably fled there for safety : they were 
 found enclosed in indurated tufa, in which was preserved 
 a perfect cast of a woman with an infant in her arms. 
 Although her form was imprinted in the rock, nothing but 
 her bones remained : to these was suspended a chain of 
 gold, and rings with jewels were on the fingers of the skele- 
 ton. Earthen amphora? were ranged along the side of the 
 vault. The writings scribbled by the soldiers in their bar- 
 racks, and the names of the owners of each house written 
 over the doors, are still legible. The colours of many of 
 the paintings on the stuccoed walls are almost as vivid as 
 if recently painted ; and a collection of shells was found in 
 the house of a painter, who probably amused himself with 
 natural history, in as good a state of preservation as if they 
 had remained the same number of years in a museum. 
 The beams of the houses are black exteriorly, but little 
 altered within ; and the state of preservation of several 
 animal and vegetable products is truly astonishing. Fish- 
 ing nets are very abundant; linen with the texture; and 
 almonds, chesnuts, and walnuts in a fruiterer's shop. In a 
 baker's a loaf retaining its form, with a name stamped upon 
 it ; and a box of pills upon the counter of an apothecary, 
 with a small cylindrical roll by the side of it, evidently 
 prepared to be cut into pills. In 1827, olives in a square 
 jar, and caviar, were found in a state of wonderful preser- 
 vation. At Herculaneum the animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances are preserved by having been apparently enveloped 
 In a paste which consolidated, and then allowed them to 
 become slowly carbonized. At Pompeii they are pene- 
 trated by a gray pulverulent tufa. The history of the 
 Papyri is well known. It is supposed that only a small 
 part of Herculaneum has as yet been explored, and that 
 the quarters hitherto cleared out at great expense are those 
 where there was the least probability of discovering manu- 
 scripts. 
 
 It would, however, be irrelevant here to enlarge upon 
 these and other details of buried cities ; but the few facts 
 mentioned, and which are abridged from Mr. Lyell's sum- 
 mary, are not without geological importance, as giving some 
 idea of the little change which the lapse of seventeen cen- 
 turies has effected. 
 
 There are many instances of rocks of decided volcanic 
 origin, that is, extinct volcanic vents, in districts where all 
 other trace of activity has been lost since the earliest his- 
 torical times, except hot and mineral springs ; such are the 
 Vivaria? and Auvergne in central France, and the district 
 of Eifel, near Coblentz, on the Rhine. The attempts to de- 
 termine the ages of these rocks, or to ascertain the periods 
 of their activity by their association with primitive, second- 
 ary, or tertiary strata, are not in general satisfactory : those 
 who are curious upon this point may be referred to the de- 
 tails given by Mr#Lyell. 
 
 Important as are the geological results of volcanic action, 
 those of earthquakes, which extend over greater areas, and 
 SOS 
 
 produce extensive changes in the configuration of the earth » 
 crest, demand perhaps even greater attention. 
 
 There can be little doubt as to the unity of cause in vol 
 canoes and earthquakes ; they frequently precede violenJ 
 volcanic eruptions, and often 'seem to arise from explosive 
 matters accumulating their force from want of vent. They 
 are often felt over great extents of territory. The earth- 
 quakes which destroyed Lisbon, in 1755, was felt over the 
 whole of Europe, and extended even to the West Indies. 
 What enormous powers or forces, therefore, must be called 
 into action in order to produce such extensive results I 
 
 It would be useless here to quote long details respecting 
 the effects of earthquakes ; but it will be necessary to select 
 two or three illustrative cases, and especially to direct our 
 attention to those phenomena connected with them which 
 immediately bear upon geological changes. 
 
 The great earthquake at Lisbon occurred on the 1st of 
 November, 1755. A sound like loud thunder was heard un 
 der ground, and instantly afterwards the greater part of the 
 city was shaken down ; so that, in six minutes, at least 
 60,000 persons are said to have perished. The sea first re 
 tired, but was violently agitated, and presently rolled in in a 
 huge wave sixty feet high. Many of the largest mountains 
 in Portugal were shaken from their foundations, and most 
 of them were wonderfully split and rent. It was supposed 
 that they emitted fire and smoke ; but lightning and dust, 
 perhaps, gave rise to the appearance. The New Quay, a 
 massive marble structure, sunk down with an enormous 
 concourse of persons upon it who had taken refuge there 
 for safety ; and it was so ingulfed, that not one of the dead 
 bodies ever floated to the surface ; and many vessels anchor- 
 ed near it, and full of people, were swallowed up as in a 
 whirlpool. No fragments of the wrecks ever rose again, 
 and the water upon the spot was deepened by 100 fathoms. 
 Many ships at sea experienced violent concussions. Off St. 
 Lucar, the captain of the Nancy frigate thought he had 
 struck on the ground ; but, on heaving the lead, found he 
 was in great depth of water. Another ship, 40 leagues 
 west off St. Vincent, experienced so violent a concussion 
 that the men were thrown up a foot and a half perpendicu- 
 larly from the deck. 
 
 The agitation of the sea during earthquakes has almost 
 always been remarked, and probably such effects are more 
 common than is supposed ; for in almost all parts irregulari 
 ties in its motion are at times observable, which cannot be 
 referred to temporary currents or winds in the offing. The 
 movement is generally a quick flow and reflow of the water, 
 and often so trifling as to escape the attention of all ordinary 
 observers ; though detected by seamen and fishermen, who 
 are surprised to rind the boats suddenly floated, or as sud- 
 denly left dry. 
 
 In the Lisbon earthquake, many of the rivers and lakes 
 of Great Britain were singularly disturbed. Loch Lomond 
 suddenly rose between two and three feet, and ns suddenly 
 subsided. 
 
 In the great Calabrian earthquake, in 1783, an interesting 
 narrative of which is given by Mr. Lyell, the aspect of the 
 country was singularly changed. The earth appears to have 
 had an undulating, vibratory, and horizontal motion ; there 
 were the usual tremors in the neighbouring ocean ; numer- 
 ous deep and extensive gaps and fissures were formed, and 
 faults and dislocations in the strata; large landslips took 
 place, and extraordinary lacerations ; large buildings and 
 farms were ingulfed ; and in some places the chasms closed 
 upon their prey with such violence that on excavating af- 
 terwards to recover articles of value, the workmen found 
 detached parts of buildings jammed together in one compact 
 mass. Some of the resulting gaps and ravines were up- 
 wards of a mile long, and from 200 to 300 feet deep and 
 broad. Large lakes were formed, sometimes filled with 
 thermal waters from below, and sometimes the consequence 
 of the obstruction of streams ; land and houses were in some 
 places uplifted, in others depressed, in others transferred 
 with all their plantations to a distance varying from a few 
 feet to upwards of a mile. 
 
 In these narratives it is a matter of much geological im- 
 portance to establish clearly the fact of elevations and de- 
 pressions of districts and strata ; and, if possible, to ascertain 
 the amount of such change in perpendicular position. Upon 
 these points the Chilian earthquake of 1822 affords some 
 satisfactory evidence. According to Mrs. Graham's (now 
 Lady Calcott's) account, the shock extended for more than 
 a thousand miles along the coast, and a great part of the 
 country was bodily elevated for a length of more than a 
 hundred miles ; the beach and the bottom near the shore 
 being raised from three to four feet. The uplifting of the 
 former was rendered evident by the adhesion of the shell- 
 fish to the rocks ; and it was observed that there were other 
 lines of beach above that newly elevated, attaining in paral- 
 lel lines a height of about fifty feet above the sea, seeming to 
 show that previous elevations had been effected by the same 
 causes. An old wreck of a ship, which before could not be 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 approached, became accessible from the land; cones of 
 earth were thrown up in several districts by the forcing up 
 of water, mud, and sand, through funnel-shaped hollows. 
 The elevation inland appeared, by the effect upon water- 
 courses, to have been two or three times greater than upon 
 the beach. 
 
 There are some other points connected with earthquakes 
 and volcanoes which, though generally considered of subor- 
 dinate Importance, seem to refer very immediately to their 
 Cause*; such, for instance, as intermittent and boiling 
 •primrs, and the escape of carbonic acid gas. 
 
 The Geysers of Iceland are fine specimens of the former; 
 their waters hold so large a quantity of silica in solution as 
 to incrust everything they run over. They rise in a tract 
 Covered by lava. The Great Geyser springs from a spacious 
 basin at the summit of a mound formed of silicious incrusta- 
 tions deposited by the spray of its waters. In the centre of 
 this basin is a pipe 78 feet deep, through which the water 
 Sows over, and is thrown up in jets, attended by loud 
 explosions and subterranean rumblings, and (light tremors 
 of the ground. When these jets are most violent, they 
 to ~tKt feet high; and after playing for some time, a 
 Snorting noise is heard, which gradually becomes as loud as 
 thunder, and steam rushes forth with prodigious violence. 
 This deafening roar lasts for a variable time, and the erup- 
 tion terminates, coming on again after a variable interval 
 of re«t. 
 
 Of this phenomenon we have a plausible explanation, and 
 one which bears most importantly upon the theory of vol- 
 
 .rthqiiakes. 
 
 se the surface water of the country to penetrate into 
 the chasm A by the fissures B B, while at the same time 
 steam of great force and temperature emanates from the 
 fissures I) 1). A portion of this steam is first condensed by 
 the water in A, which it gradually raises to its boiling point; 
 then it forms high-pressure steam, and drives the boiling 
 water through the pit»e into the basin C, and after the whole 
 has been ejected the steam itself rushes out. Now, if we 
 ■DOOM a number of large subterranean cavities at the depth 
 of several miles below the surface, in which melted lava 
 accumulates, and that water penetrating to these is convert- 
 ed into steam ; this, together with other gases pent up, and 
 perhaps liquefied by pressure in similar cavitios, or gener- 
 ated by tin' decomposition of melted rocks, may press upon 
 the lava and force it up the duct of a volcano," in the same 
 manner as the column of water is driven up the pipe of the 
 But the weight of lava being immense, the pres- 
 rted on the sides and roofs of such large cavities 
 and fissures may well be (opposed to occasion not merely 
 slight tremors, but even violent earthquakes. Sometimes 
 the lateral pressure of the lower extremity of the high col- 
 umn of lava may cause the more yielding strata to ghre wa\ , 
 r a time -jive relief to the fused matter. Some- 
 :lie contrary, a weight equal to that of the vertical 
 column of lava, pressing on every part of the roof, may 
 heave up the superincumbent strata, and force lava into 
 every fissure ; which, on consolidation, may support the 
 arch, and cause the land nbove to be permanently elevated : 
 (her hand, subsidences may follow the condensa- 
 tion of vapour when cold water descends through fissures, 
 or when heat is lost by the cooling down of the lava. 
 
 us vapour, several gases are emitted by vol- 
 canoes, and among them carbonic acid, which is also fre- 
 quently given out by fissures in the earth, and by mineral 
 sprincs not associated with direct volcanic action. Its oc- 
 currence in the Grotto del Cane is well known. It is given 
 out in enormous quantities near the lake of Laach, and in 
 Brohlthnl on the Rhine, where it is used in a chemical man- 
 ufactory ; 000 pounds of the gas are calculated to he dis- 
 charged from only one of the jets in twentv-four hours. 
 Near Fort Diadine, on the Euphrates, it issues through the 
 cracks of the limestone rocks with a loud hissing noise, ami 
 in such quantities as to kill animals that unwarily approach 
 it. The Upas valley, in Java, appears to be a cavity filled 
 to a certain height with carbonic acid ; it is about half a mile 
 in circumference, and about 35 feet deep, without vegetation, 
 and covered with skeletons of men and various animals, such 
 as tigers, hogs, deer, &c., which have perished by their en- 
 trance into the gas. 
 
 We might enumerate many similar coses of the accumu- 
 lation of the carbonic acid ; but those quoted are sufficient to 
 show that it often issues from the strata of the earth in 
 enormous volumes, and therefore doubtless from reservoirs 
 where it is pent up, under great pressure; and in all proba- 
 bility there are large accumulations of it in a liquid form, in 
 which state it exerts n pressure, at common temperatures, of 
 from 50 to 00 atmospheres upon the walls that confine it, and 
 at higher temperatures of much greater force. We are also, 
 perhaps, warranted in inferring that there are subterranean 
 cavities, not only filled with this, but probably with other 
 gases, perhaps also in their liquid forms, and of still greater 
 tensive force ; and if so, what may not be the mechanical 
 
 and chemical energies of some of these, acting upon the 
 highly imtiammable metals at very elevated temperatures 1 
 Upon the whole, it does not appear that powers are wanting 
 adequate to the greatest observed effects ; that these are con- 
 stantly in activity ; and that stupendous as the results appear 
 in their collective effects, the great mountains of the globe 
 may have been elevated by causes now in action ; that, at 
 nil events, we need not call to our aid unknown powers, 
 since existing causes (especially if it be admitted that they 
 were once more energetic than at present, and that the 
 agents have, as it were, spent a part of their force) appear 
 adequate to the explication of this class of geological phe- 
 nomena; and if we now have powers in activity, and we 
 have seen that such there are, which are capable of eleva- 
 ting 100 miles of rocky coast 3 or 4 feet, why may not a suc- 
 cession of such elevations, even admitting them not to have 
 been greater than at present, carried on through an indefinite 
 period of lime, have occasioned those liftings up of the moun- 
 tains which we have had such abundant occasion to advert 
 to ? It is well known that slight forces continuously repeat- 
 ed produce gigantic effects. It has, says Mr. Lyell, been ar- 
 gued by the Opponents of this view, •• that it is useless to ap- 
 peal to time, tor time can elfect no more than its powers are 
 capable of performing. If, say they, a mouse be harnessed to 
 a large piece of ordnance, it will never move it, even if cen- 
 turies upon centuries were allowed. This is true enough. 
 But let us suppose a lever applied capable of propelling it 
 forward at the rate of an inch in a century; it is clear that 
 in a sufficient succession of centuries we should have ad- 
 vanced a mile: any force that could move it at all must, if 
 it continue in action, continue to propel it." 
 
 The full bearing of this question, however, will be more 
 evident when we have considered the causes which are now 
 effective in producing sedimentary formations, in wearing 
 down the present surface of the globe, and in conjunction 
 with those more violent powers which we have just noticed 
 in giving rise to various superficial inequalities. 
 $IV. 
 \\ e have now surveyed the structure of the earth's sur- 
 face, nnd have traced the apparent causes of many of the 
 changes which it has undergone, and which have contributed 
 to its present state and aspect; but there are a variety of 
 processes now active, nnd of changes now going on, which 
 are slowly tending to modify the existing order of things, and 
 which, if considered in reference to their continuity through 
 past ages, and to their accumulated effects through ages to 
 come, will perhaps assume an air of unexpected impoitance. 
 Among the powers of matter which change the earth's 
 surface, heat and cold are obviously nt all times concerned 
 in exciting dilatations and contractions, and thus keeping up 
 a perpetual and varying motion among the particles upon 
 widen they act. Of such changes the sun is the grand 
 source; to whose varying influence the earth in its diurnal 
 revolutions upon its axis, nnd in its annual circumvolutions 
 through space, is always exposed.* It may perhaps seen 
 that the mere influence of change of temperatue, derived 
 from the solar rays, must be of little efficacy in disintegrating 
 hard nnd solid substances; but when we reflect upon the 
 very extensive range of natural temperatures, and on the 
 great receptive and emissive powers in respect to radiant 
 heat which the surfaces of some rocks present, very consid- 
 erable transitions from heat to cold, and the reverse, may en- 
 sue, and, acting upon certain textures, may alone lend pow- 
 erful aid to that general work of decay which is commonly 
 called the weathering of rocks. 
 
 But when the influence of change of temperature is con- 
 joined with the varied agencies of water, the powers of de- 
 struction will not only be materially increased, but rendered, 
 in many instances, rapid and irresistible. About three fourths 
 of our globe nre covered by the waters of the ocean, the 
 mean depth of which is probobly about 3 miles. The mean 
 height of the dry land above the ocean's level does not ex- 
 
 # "The jun'« ray*," »»» Sir J. Herschel (Astronomy, p. 211,) "are the 
 ultimate source of almost every motion which takes place on thr surface of 
 the earth. By its heat are produced all winds, and those disturbances in the 
 electric equilibrium of the atmosphere which Rive rise to Ilie phenomena of 
 terrestrial magnetism. By their vivifying action vegetables are elaborated 
 from inorganic ma'ter, and become in their turn the support of animals and 
 of man, and the sources of those great deposits of dynamical efficiency which 
 are lai<1 op for human ute in our coal strata. By them the waters of the sea 
 are made to circulate in vapours through the air, and irrigate 'he land, pro- 
 ducing springs and rivers. Bv them are produced all disturbances of the 
 chemical equilibrium of the elements of nature, which, by a series of com- 
 positions aud decompositions, give rise to new products, an'l originate a trans- 
 fer of materials. Even the slow degradation of the solid constituents of the 
 surface, in which its chief geological changes consist, and their diffusion 
 among the waters of the ocean, are entirely due to the abrasion of the wind 
 and rain, and the alternate action of the seasons; and when we consider the 
 immense transfer of matter so produced, the increase of pressure over large 
 spaces in the bed of the ocean, and diminution over corresponding portions 
 of the land, we are not at a loss to conceive how the elas'ie power of snb- 
 terranean fires, thus repressed on the one hand and nlie>ed on the other, 
 may break forth in points where the resistance is barely adequate to their re- 
 tention, and thus bring the phenomena of volcanic activity even under the 
 general law of solar influence. 
 
 509 
 
GEOLOLr*. 
 
 teed 2 miles; so that tne present dry land might be so dis- 
 tributed over the bottom of the ocean that the surface of the 
 globe would present a mass of waters. This is an important 
 possibility, when geologically considered ; because, with it 
 at command, every variety of superficial land and water 
 may be imagined, and consequently every variety of organic 
 life, each suited to the various situations and climates under 
 which it would be placed. In consequence of the general 
 uniformity of level preserved by the ocean, it enters the nu- 
 merous irregularities of tiie land, and sometimes forms in- 
 land seas as it were, in which geological changes, differing 
 from those which occur in the open ocean, may occasionally 
 take place, as in the Mediterranean and the Baltic. There 
 are also inland seas, or lakes, as they are usually called, not 
 in direct communication with the open sea ; some of salt and 
 others of fresh water. The latter cover very large tracts ; 
 and it is obvious that in them depositions may take place 
 exclusively characterized by terrestrial and fresh-water re- 
 mains. 
 
 It is also obvious that earthquakes and volcanoes will ma- 
 terially contribute towards existing changes, and, co-opera- 
 ting' with aqueous forces, may often produce a joint effect to 
 which neither could separately give rise ; as when frequent 
 earthquakes aid the excavating power of water in carving 
 out a valley, or widening one which already exists. Of these 
 powers the statements in the preceding section furnish abun- 
 dant proofs ; so that we may now more exclusively attend 
 to aqueous causes, some of which are of a destructive, others 
 of a renovating or reproductive character. 
 
 When lands are much elevated above the sea they con- 
 dense the vapours of the atmosphere, in consequence of their 
 low temperature, and thus become reservoirs of water which 
 irrigate the valleys and plains below, and descending, often 
 by steep declivities, acquire an impetuosity calculated to sur- 
 mount powerful obstacles. The summits, therefore, of 
 mountains are particularly subject to atmospherical influ- 
 ences, and to great alternations of temperature and moisture. 
 We have already alluded to the gigantic force of water 
 freezing in the chasm and crevices of rocks; and it is in this 
 way that great havoc is effected where comparatively little 
 wet falls, and that the decay of rocks in high latitudes goes 
 on as rapidly, or more so, than where they are deluged by 
 the tropical torrents of rain. This mechanical power of wa- 
 ter is often aided by its solvent energies ; and although these 
 are usually very slow in their operation, the time for which 
 they are continued and the extent of surface upon which they 
 operate produce a great aggregate effect. Some granitic 
 rocks thus disintegrate apparently by the washing out of their 
 alkaline constituents ; in other cases carbonic acid aids the 
 solvent power ; and in others the air in water converts black 
 oxide of iron into red, and the decay of the rocks is rapid In 
 proportion to the extent of this conversion. The granite tors 
 of Dartmoor and of the Land's End furnish curious instances 
 of the effect of slow decay from several causes, among which 
 Uie tendency in the rock to cubical and prismatic fracture 
 must not be overlooked. By degrees the surfaces become 
 separated; and the wearing continuing to proceed more 
 rapidly near the parts which are most external, and there- 
 fore most exposed, the masses which once were angular and 
 prismatic acquire an irregular curvilinear boundary, and the 
 stones assume that appearance which has sometimes been 
 regarded as artificial, and has induced persons to consider 
 them as Druidical remains. Enormous stones are thus 
 thrown from their original positions, and becoming rounder 
 and rounder by the progress of decomposition, assume a 
 spheroidal figure, often referred to the continuous action of 
 running water: under favourable circumstances logging 
 stones are, as we have previously observed, thus produced. 
 The weathering of some of these tors is so gradual that the 
 life of man scarcely allows an individual to observe a change, 
 whence we may infer the long periods that have been re- 
 quisite to bring about their present appearances. It is pos- 
 sible that chemical changes may sometimes be aided by the 
 electrical powers called into action, and as a more immediate 
 agent electricity is not without its influence. The thunder 
 storm shivers rocks and hurls them down in mighty frag- 
 ments, often fusing their surfaces, and sometimes consolida- 
 ting soft materials. Near Drig in Cumberland, the sandy 
 goil contains hollow tubes produced by lightning striking and 
 penetrating the ground ; some of these have been traced to 
 a depth of 40 feet, and furnish curious illustrations of the 
 passage of the electricity. When running water is mixed 
 with sand and pebbles it acquires a new mechanical power, 
 and these carried along by streams grind down and excavate 
 the adjacent strata, so that the superincumbent portions are 
 ultimately precipitated into the stream. The obstruction 
 causes a temporary accumulation of water behind, which 
 afterwards bursts the harrier ; and in this way small ravines 
 are slowly widened into narrow valleys, in which sinuosities 
 are caused by the deflection of the stream, first to one side 
 and then to the other. The unequal hardness of the ma- 
 terials through which the channel is eroded tends also to 
 510 
 
 modify the lateral power of excavation, and thus the little 
 stream acquires a serpentine direction. When the flexures 
 are great, a direct line is often restored by the river cutting 
 through the isthmus which separates two or more of its 
 curves. These windings occur from similar causes in some 
 of the largest rivers of the world; and not only in those 
 which flow through flat alluvial plains, but large valleys are 
 excavated to a great depth through solid rucks in this ser 
 pentine form. These tortuous flexures of riven show that 
 the valleys in which they flow were not produced or ex- 
 cavated by any flood of uncommon power and magnitude, 
 or by any diluvial operation; for such causes would picba 
 bly have produced straight channels. 
 
 In referring to the transporting powers of water, it has 
 been justly observed by Mr. Lyell, that we are often sur- 
 prised at the facility with which small streams bear along 
 sand and gravel ; for we usually estimate the weight of rocks 
 in air, and do not sufficiently reflect on their comparative 
 buoyancy when submerged in a denser fluid. The specific 
 gravity of most rocks is only from twice to thrice that of 
 water ; so that the fragments lose from a third to half of 
 what we usually call their weight. 
 
 The power of rivers in transporting mud, sand, and gravel, 
 is shown by the accumulation of those substances at their 
 mouths, where they terminate cither in lakes or in the sea ; 
 and the history of storms and floods affords many memora- 
 ble instances of the force with which they transport heavy 
 materials. In August, 1829, Aberdeenshire and the adjacent 
 counties of Scotland were visited by a storm and hurricane 
 which extended over a space of 5000 square miles — flooding 
 the rivers, carrying away bridges, and removing masses of 
 rock of some tons weight, and transporting from 1000 to 3000 
 tons of gravel to great distances in one day. 
 
 In alpine countries the moving of massive stones is facili- 
 tated by the ice which adheres to them, and forms with the 
 rocks a mass of less specific gravity. The glaciers also, 
 formed of consolidated snow, carry down prodigious loads 
 of rock and sand, which are generally ranged in long ridges 
 running parallel to the glacier, and from 20 to 40 feet high. 
 They are slowly protruded into the valleys, where the ice 
 melts, and the whole accumulation is swept away by tor 
 rents. 
 
 If the materials which streams have to work upon arebu 
 loosely consolidated, the rapidity with which they some 
 times excavate deep channels is truly astonishing. Arte 
 the heavy rains which followed the eruption of Vesuvius i* 
 1822, the water flowing from the Atrio del Cavallo cut, it 
 three days, a new chasm 25 feet deep. 
 
 We may also adduce striking examples of the erosion oi 
 deep chasms in comparatively hard and durable materials 
 Some of the clearest illustrations of this excavating powe- 
 are presented in the valleys of central France, where th. 
 ancient channels of rivers have been filled up by lava 
 through which the present streams have re-excavated r 
 passage from 20 to 70 feet deep, and often of great width. 
 
 This subject has been well illustrated by another cas. 1 
 quoted by Mr. Lyell, upon the base of Etna, where a grea 
 current of lava descending, in 1603, from near the summit of 
 the volcano, flowed into the alluvial plain of the Simeto 
 one of the largest of the Sicilian rivers, which skirts the baa. 
 of Etna, and falls into the sea a few miles south of Catania 
 It entirely filled up and obliterated the bed of the rive. 
 v.ith indurated lava; yet now (that is in the course of tvyt. 
 centuries) it has re-excavated for itself a new passage, which 
 is from 40 to 50 feet deep, and more than 100 wide. 
 
 But of the numerous examples which might be cited of 
 the powers of rivers to carve out their courses and exca- 
 vate valleys in their rocky boundaries, the falls of Niagara 
 are perhaps the most magnificent. That river flows from 
 Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the distance between them being 
 32 miles ; and the level of the former lake is 330 feet above 
 that of the latter. As it leaves Lake Erie, the Niagara is al- 
 most level with its banks, and three quarters of a mile wide ; 
 so that should it rise 8 or 10 feet, Canada and the State of 
 New York would be inundated. Proceeding towards the 
 falls, it has a descent of 50 feet in half a mile, and rushes 
 with great force. At the verge of the cataract, an island 
 divides it into two falls: one 1800 feet wide, and 158 feet 
 perpendicular; the other 000 feet wide, and 1(11 feet high. 
 This enormous body of water is precipitated over a ledge of 
 hard limestone in horizontal layers, which rests upon a soft 
 shale. This crumbles away so rapidly, that the harder lime- 
 stone forms a projecting mass, which overhangs the space 
 below, and being left without support, falls from tme to 
 time in large masses into the abyss beneath ; occasionally 
 producing shocks which are felt at some distance, and at- 
 tended by a noise like thunder. As soon as the river has 
 passed the falls, its character is completely changed; It 
 runs furiously in a deep trench cut in the horizontal strata, 
 so that the ravine is only perceived on approaching the edge 
 of the precipice. Through this deep chtism the river flow* 
 for 7 miles; and then the table-land, which is nearly level 
 
UEOLOGY. 
 
 with Lake Eric, suddenly sinks down at a town called 
 (iueenstown, and the river traverses a plain which con- 
 tinues to the shore of Lake Ontario. 
 
 Now it appears probable that the great cataract of the 
 river was once at Uueenstown, and has gradually retrograded 
 from that place to its present position, about 7 miles up. 
 Within the Inst 40 years the falls have receded 50 yards ; so 
 that, supposing the ratio of recession never to have exceeded 
 this slow progress, it must have required nearly 10,000 years 
 for the excavation of the whole ravine ; and should it not be 
 accelerated in future, it will require nearly 30,000 years for 
 the falls to eat their way backwards to Lake Erie, to which 
 they most undoubtedly seem destined to arrive. Of course 
 this calculation is only provisional, and may be interfered 
 with by muny causes; but supposing Lake Erie to remain 
 nearly in its present state, the sudden escape of such an im- 
 mense body of water would cause a tremendous deluge. 
 But Lake Erie is constantly diminishing in depth by the 
 enormous quantities of mailer lirouirht down by the riven 
 wlurli iced it. Long Point near the influx of Big Creek 
 Rivet, lias advanced three miles within the last tin . 
 
 important cll'ect of rivers. There are other causes 
 which in tiiis case would probably prevent a sudden deba- 
 cle ; for the waters of a lake wilh a rocky harrier can only 
 be suddenly let out so as to produce a delate when the hard 
 barri. i separating it from the land at a lower level presents 
 a perpendicular face to the whole depth of the lake, and, 
 accordingly, Inundations from such causes are comparatively 
 rare. (See LyeU'a Principles.) 
 
 We come now then to consider the farther progress of 
 tile detritus carried down by rivers. It is clear that their 
 tendency will be to fill up valleys and hollows: lakes will 
 gradually diminish in depth, or even be choked up and again 
 cut through ; and low lands flooded, and deposits left upon 
 them. In tome Situations, rivers raise their beds when re- 
 strained by artificial embankment of this the Po furnishes 
 a remarkable example, traversing the plains upon a Ugh 
 mound like an aqueduct, even more elevated than the roofs 
 Of the houses in the city of I'erarra. 
 
 In other cases, where two or more streams unite into one 
 thai the water does not expose a surface equal to 
 the two previous surfaces, the action of the united waters is 
 to deepen the channel. 
 
 Of tile matters carried down by rivers large quantities are 
 transported lo tl.eir mouths, and there deposited either in 
 lakes or in the ocean bed. The Lake of Geneva is thus re- 
 ceiving enormous supplies of detritus from the llhonc; so 
 that from calculations which have been made id' its be- 
 nd the diminution of the depth of the lake, it ap- 
 I>ears probable that if we could obtain a section of the ac- 
 cumulation formed daring the last eight centuries, we should 
 see a great series of strata from OoO to iiOO feet thick, and 
 nearly two miles in length, inclined at a slight angle. We 
 should also And a number of smaller deltas at the tPO W th s 
 of the Mnriller rivers, each composed of such materials as 
 the respective rivers happen to have brought down. 
 
 When the Rhone again issues from this lake, it is as pel- 
 crystal ; but its pure waters are presently again 
 nUed with the turbid sediments of the impetuous Arve, 
 bringing down the granite detritus of the glaciers of Mont 
 Blanc, It afterwards receives vast contributions from the 
 Alps of Dauphiny, and from the primary and volcanic 
 mount:. ins of central France; and when at length it enters 
 the Mediterranean, it discolours its blue waters with a 
 whitish sediment for the distance of between six and seven 
 miles from its mouth, throughout which space the current 
 of fresh water is perceptible. Mr. Lyell has collected a 
 body of very curious information respecting this and other 
 deltas, of which we can only here hint at the general re- 
 sults. 
 
 It appears that by the confluence of the Rhone, and the 
 currents of the Mediterranean driven bv winds from the 
 south, sand bars are often formed across the mouths of the 
 river, by which means considerable spaces become divided 
 off from the sea, and subsequently from the river also, when 
 it shifts its channels of efflux. As some of these are subject 
 to the occasional ingress of the river when flooded, and of 
 the sea during storms, they are alternately salt and fresh ; so 
 that both tluviatile and marine shells are found in them. Of 
 the new deposits in this delta great part consists of calcareous 
 and arenaceous rock cemented by carbonate of lime. A 
 cannon taken up near the mouth of the river was entirely 
 entombed in solid calcareous rock. 
 
 The delta of the Po in the Adriatic presents another in- 
 stance of the vast accumulations of matter that are thus de- 
 posited by rivers; and it appears that within the historical 
 period, that is, within 2000 years, the accessions of land have 
 increased from 2 to 20 miles in breadth. Adria, a sea-port 
 in the time of Augustus, is now about 20 miles inland ; and 
 Ravenna, which was also a sea-port, is 4 miles from the 
 main sea. 
 
 The delta of the Nile also affords some interesting geolo- 
 
 gical considerations ; but we must look to the great rivers of 
 Asia and America for the most instructive examples of these 
 formations. 
 
 Of the delta of the Ganges and Barrampooter we have 
 some curious information from Major Kennel. These rivers 
 descend from the highest mountains in the world into a 
 gulf which runs 2-J5 miles into the continent. The part of 
 the delta bordering on the sea is composed of a labyrinth of 
 ri\ ers and creeks, infested by tigers and alligators, and equal 
 in extent to the whole principality of Wnles. The mud and 
 sand poured into the gulf in the flood season is so great 
 that the sea only recovers its transparency at the distance 
 of GO miles from the coast. And in farther proof of the tan 
 mense transportation of earthy matter, we have the great 
 magnitude Of the islands forme* in the channels of the river 
 during a period even far short of a man's life. Some of 
 these, many miles in extent, have originated in large sand 
 bunks thrown up at points and afterwards insulated by the 
 stream ; others are caused by various accidental obstruc- 
 tions, such as sunk trees or boats. In the great gulf below 
 Luckipoor, BOOM of the islands rival the Isle of Wight in 
 size. These newly-formed lands are soon overrun with 
 reeds, grass, and shrubs, which form impenetrable thickets, 
 where tigers, buffaloes, deer, and other wild animals take 
 shelter; so that both animal and vegetable remains must 
 continually be precipitated into the flood, and sometimes be- 
 come embedded in the sediment of the delta. Croeodlil 
 
 ■warm upon the shoals; and (he haMts of these animals an 
 
 such as to render them particularly liable lo become im- 
 bedded in the horizontal slrata of mud which are annually 
 deposited in the Bay of Bengal over many hundred square 
 miles. Mr. Lyell has also gone into the history of the Missis- 
 sippi, the course of which is very instinctive, in Consequence 
 of the undisturbed and natural state of its banks, and the 
 Varieties of climate through w hich it flows. Its delta is di- 
 vided into Innumerable lakes marshes, ami streama, inhabit- 
 ed by multitudes of alligators; and millions of logs and 
 trunks of trees are brought down at particular seasons, and 
 either carried out to sea, or bound together bv adventitious 
 vegetation, so as to retard tile river and become embedded in 
 mud. 
 
 We thus lind that matters washed down from the decay 
 and disintegration of the land into lakes and seas are tlyre 
 accumulated, and are now forming stratijlr.il di votitf, varying 
 in their nature and texture, and often abounding in organic 
 relics; but. to form a just notion ot the magnitude of these pro- 
 cesses, they must be compared with objects with which we 
 an- familiar. -Now it is probable that the water of the G amies 
 hold in suspension from 9 to H per cent, of solid matter ; but 
 it we only assume one (K.T cent., -which is, perhaps, thoaver 
 age of most rivers, we are, says Mr. Lyell, brought to the 
 extraordinary conclusion that there parses down, every ten 
 days into the Bay of Bengal, a mass equal in weight and 
 bulk to the great Egyptian pyramid. 
 
 We have already adverted lo the enormous quantity of 
 matter ejected by volcanoes. The most voluminous current 
 of lava whkh has flowed from Etna within historical times 
 was that of 1069, calculated at 140 million cubic yards. 
 .Now tliis would only equal in bulk one seventh of the sedi- 
 mentary matter carried down in a single year by the Ganges 
 (assuming 1 per cent, of sand) ; so that allowing seven such 
 eruptions in a century, it would require 100 Etnas to trans 
 fer a mass of lava from the subterranean regions to tin 
 face equal to the mud carried down in the same time from 
 the Himalaya mountains into the Bay of Bengal. (LyeWs 
 Principles of Geology.) 
 
 That enormous quantities of matter, therefore, are thus by 
 slow and silent operations carrying down into the deep, anil 
 there forming strata which may one day be upheaved and 
 assume the character of dry land, will now be obvious ; and 
 shows how some of the mightiest operations in nature ore 
 effected insensibly, without noise or disorder, and without the 
 aid of extraordinary convulsions, mighty deluges, or other 
 temporary and sudden causes. We might form some curi- 
 ous speculations respecting the nature of the strata thus 
 forming. Some will be argillaceous, some calcareous, hard 
 and soft coarse and fine, depending upon a variety of obvi- 
 ous interfering causes : some abounding in organic remains, 
 others without them ; and among these, from the number of 
 shipwrecks and other casualties, human remains and works 
 of art must often be abundantly interred. 
 
 From the wearing down of rocks and strata, and the ex- 
 cavation of valleys by rivers, streams, and alternations of 
 temperature, we may now take a cursory view of the action 
 of the sea on coasts. 
 
 The waves of the ocean operate, in many instances, like 
 mighty artillery, battering and breaking down the solid bar- 
 riers opposed to their inroads. If the rocks are soft, the 
 wear is proportionately rapid, as we see upon the cast coast 
 of our island, where many spots now standing in the sen, or 
 even covered by its waters, are marked in old maps as sites 
 of towns and villages, the inhabitants having gradually re- 
 fill 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 treated inland. Where the rocks are hard, or where they 
 are so stratified as to oppose resistance, the declension of 
 coast is much more gradual. The substances thus delivered 
 into the sea are acted on according to their respective weights, 
 forms, and textures : some transported by tides and currents ; 
 others rolled about, and ground down upon the shore; and 
 where indurated masses are contained in softer materials, 
 flints for instance in chalk, they remain at the base of the 
 cliff, and tend to protect it from the breakers and check its 
 farther excavation. 
 
 Veins and dikes sometimes are curiously exposed and in- 
 sulated by this wear and tear. Arches are cut out and cav- 
 erns excavated, and even the hardest rocks often drilled as it 
 were in various directions. 
 
 The protecting influence of the waves is seen in those long 
 lines of shingles and sand which often defend low and marshy 
 land, especially at the mouths of valleys, from the access of 
 the sea ; and the higher the tide and the heavier the gale, 
 the higher the rampart that is raised. These beaches travel 
 in the direction of the prevalent winds ; and of this engineers 
 are practically aware, as we see by the works which they 
 erect to arrest their progress. 
 
 An instructive example of the nature and effects of accu- 
 mulations of this sort is furnished by the Chesil Bank, which 
 connects the Isle of Portland with the mainland ; it is about 
 16 miles long, and the size of the pebbles increases from 
 west to east. Its formation is probably due to a meeting of 
 tides between the peninsula and the land. The storm of 
 1824 burst over it and overwhelmed the village of Chesilton. 
 Another example of land thus protected is on the south coast 
 of Devon. What is called Slapton Sands is, in fact, a ridge 
 of pebbles, which protects and blocks up the mouths of sev- 
 eral valleys. Sand is also often accumulated and thrown up 
 in the same way as shingles ; and when it is left by the tide 
 and dried by the sun, winds often transport it to great dis- 
 tances, so as even to overwhelm large districts — nouses, culti- 
 vated lands, and even forests, disappearing beneath them. 
 On the eastern shore of the Bay of Biscay, these moving 
 heaps force lakes of fresh water before them, derived from 
 the rains which are pent up ; and several villages in the de- 
 partment of the Landes have been thus buried, and others are 
 now threatened with destruction. They have been calculated 
 to advance at the rate of 60 to 70 feet in a year. Sometimes 
 these sands become consolidated by the percolation of calca- 
 reous or ferruginous waters. Of this we have an example on 
 the north coast of Cornwall, where the sand is formed of com- 
 minuted shells ; and the drift having taken place at different 
 times, the recent sandstone thus formed is stratified with oc- 
 casionally interposed vegetable remains. Where church- 
 yards have existed, human remains have been entombed ; and 
 an old pot of coins has been found in this formation. This 
 rock is so hard that holes are bored in it for the purpose of 
 securing vessels. The parish church of Crantock is built of 
 it. The fossil skeletons of Guadaloupe appear to have been 
 preserved by this species of rock formation. 
 
 Among reproductive causes now in action, none are of 
 more curiosity or interest than the operations of the small 
 soophytic animals which produce coral, and which, labour- 
 ing on through long periods of time, gradually accumulate 
 such enormous masses of carbonate of lime as to form, to- 
 gether with shells which they entangle and envelope, islands 
 of no inconsiderable dimensions. 
 
 Coral reefs are usually of a form approaching to the circu- 
 lar, and the water is shallow in the centre, but surrounded by 
 a very deep, and even unfathomable sea. When the reef is 
 so high as to remain nearly dry at low water, the animals 
 leave off building ; and then the rim or edge of the great basin 
 becomes covered by calcareous sand, which offers a founda- 
 tion for the growth of marine vegetables, and afterwards a 
 resting place for the seeds of trees and plants cast upon it by 
 the waves. Trunks of trees also, carried by rivers from con- 
 tinents and islands, after their long wanderings are often 
 pitched ashore ; and sometimes carry with them small ani- 
 mals, such as lizards and insects which become the first in- 
 habitants. The Pacific ocean, throughout a space compre- 
 hended between the thirteenth parallel of latitude on each 
 side of the equator, is a great nursery of coral islands ; also 
 the Arabian and Persian gulfs. Between the coast of Mala- 
 bar and that of Madagascar there is a great sea of coral. 
 Flinders describes an unbroken reef 350 miles long upon the 
 coast of New Holland ; and between that country and New 
 Guinea coral formations extend throughout a distance of 700 
 miles, interrupted by no intervals exceeding 30 miles in 
 length. The growth of coral is, when compared with human 
 epochs, extremely slow ; but the facts just cited show that 
 they have produced results of no mean importance, as influ- 
 encing the general aspect of the earth's crust. Their circu- 
 lar form, the steep angle at which they plunge into the sea, 
 and the countries in which they occur, render it extremely 
 probable that they are the crests, as it were, of submarine 
 craters ; and occasionally lava and volcanic rocks have been 
 found in their central lagoons : these have generally a deep 
 512 
 
 narrow passage, which is kept open by the efflux of the oceau 
 at low tides. These openings are almost always on the lee 
 ward side, and the windward side of the islands is more com- 
 
 IVhiisunday Island in tht Pacific, with its enOcxd Lagoon. 
 
 plete and perfect than the other ; so that, from this fortunate 
 circumstance, ships can enter and sail out with ease ; indeed 
 the safety of many of these harbours is entirely dependant 
 upon this cause. It would seem most probably to arise from 
 the large masses of coral rock that are thrown up by the 
 waves on the windward side. These rocks are probably 
 subject to elevations and depressions connected with volcanic 
 agencies. Mr. Lyell thinks that the carbonate of lime, which 
 is the building material employed by the busy little architects 
 of these islands, is in all probability derived from calcareous 
 springs issuing into the sea from fissures in the volcanic bottom 
 
 Section of a Coral Island.— a a the habitable part, i b the lagoon. 
 
 Section of a Coral Island tipon a large Scale. — a b the habitable part ; t 
 e slope of the side ; c c parts ot the lagoon ; d d knolls of coral. 
 
 We may now conclude this subject by a brief reference 
 to those erratic blocks and pebbles which are so widely 
 scattered over different districts, and wlxich, with the de- 
 posites of bones and stalactite in certain caverns, are often 
 regarded as especial proofs of diluvial action. 
 
 Where pebbles occur immediately upon the beach, and 
 are evidently derived from the fragments of neighbouring 
 rocks rolled into form by the action of waves, or where 
 larger masses, forming what are called boulder stone*, are 
 found in similar situations, or lying upon the strata of which 
 they constitute the fragments and relics, there is no great 
 difficulty in accounting for one or the other ; but where 
 immense deposits of gravel are found, not only inland, b it 
 out of the reach of all running waters, and where boulder 
 stones are found in similar situations, and very distant 
 from the rocks of which they are the apparent remains, 
 our curiosity and ingenuity are then excited to ascertain 
 how they came into their present places, and whence they 
 are derived. We must of course always carefully distin- 
 guish between these importations, as they may be called, 
 of foreign matters, and those kinds of detritus which mere 
 ly result from the weathering of the rocks. 
 
 We have elsewhere pointed out the numerous evidences 
 which we have of fractures, elevations, and depressions of 
 the strata ; of the consequent existence of faults ; and of 
 the formation of valleys, frequently in the line of such 
 faults and fractures. Now it seems clear that all these ef- 
 fects must have been attended in many instances by propor- 
 tionate changes in the levels of waters, and that there must 
 have been great inundations and torrents passing over such 
 districts at the time of their disturbance ; and farther, that 
 where land once covered by water has been elevated, 
 rounded masses of rock or boulders, as well as gravel of 
 all degrees of fineness and all manner of composition, may 
 have been elevated along with them. Here, then, are two 
 apparent causes of gravel and boulders. 
 
 But independent of these sources of such appearances, 
 there are oilier geological phenomena, which seem to indi 
 cate the passage of great masses of water over the British 
 Isles in a direction from nor'Ji to south ; upon the neigh 
 bouring continent of Europe, too, evidences of currents set- 
 ting in the same direction, and transporting gravel and boul- 
 ders, are not wanting. Of course theso currents have in 
 many places been greatly modified as to direction by the 
 valleys, hills, and mountains which they encountered ; so 
 that their detritus is in many instances scattered in other 
 directions. In some cases ice, in the form of glaciers, ap 
 pears to have been a cause of the transportation of masses 
 and fragments of rock to places far remote from their origi- 
 nal source. The glaciers which descend from alpine re- 
 gions are charged with blocks and fragments, and any cur- 
 rent of water rushing through the valleys into which they 
 descend would float them and their burdens. It Is probable 
 that those immense masses of ice called icebergs are por- 
 tions of polar glaciers ; and these with their contents, are 
 often floated into warmer climates, so that the debris which 
 they carried with them may thus have been dispersed at 
 the bottom of parts of the ocean far distant from the source 
 
GEOMANCY. 
 
 of such materials These circumstances show (when taken 
 In conjunction with the facts already enumerated respect- 
 ing the causes which Influence the decay of rocks) how 
 careful we must be in reasoning respecting the age and 
 sources of blocks, gravel, and those remains generally call- 
 ed diluvial ; and how difficult it is to form any inference 
 respecting their sources and transport, excepting in cases 
 where these are at hand and obvious. Whatever may 
 have been the cause of such passages of torrents over the 
 land, and the evidences of them are quite sufficient, it is 
 obvious that they must have destroyed nearly all such liv- 
 ing beings u came In their way, or as frequented those 
 parts of the earth over which they swept Accordingly, the 
 remains of various animals are found in such deposites; 
 anil their examination and comparison with living genera 
 and s|xT!(-s, and with those more ancient animals before 
 alluded to in the tertiary and secondary strata, is a very 
 curious and interesting subject of inquiry. Ur. Bucklond'a 
 • s connected with these relics have given thorn 
 additional interest, especially as connected with certain 
 theoretical |x>int-s of diluvial geology, and with their assem- 
 caverns. In these caverns the bones are usually 
 mixed with mud, stones, and fragments; and circumstances 
 sometimes seem to show that the animals resided in them 
 for a great length of time : they are covered by stalagmite, 
 which forms the pavement ns it were of the cave, and ef- 
 fectually conceals and preserves the organic remains. The 
 celebrated Kirkdale cavern in Yorkshire, discovered in 1821, 
 contains the remain! of the hyena, nger, hear, wolf, fox, 
 weasel, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, 
 deer, h.ire, rabbit, rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark, thrush, 
 and a ■peclM of duck. From the mode in which these 
 wen strewed over the bottom of the cavern when 
 the mud was removed, the great proportion of hyena's 
 teeth over those of other animals and the manner iu which 
 many of the battel were gnawed and fractured. Dr. Rock- 
 land Inferred that this cavern was the den of hyenas during 
 a lone succession of yean; that they brought in, as prey, the 
 animals whose remains are now mixed with their own; 
 and that this state of things was suddenly terminated by 
 an irruption of turbid water into the cave, which buried the 
 whole in mud. In other enves other animals have been 
 found, Indicating the snme general facts of the existence of 
 animals now no longer known in these latitudes. Where 
 the bones of man or works of art have been found in these 
 caves, then- is generally good evidence of their being of a 
 much later date than the remains of quadrupeds; lint occa- 
 sionally the bones of extinct quadrupeds are to mixed with 
 those of existing teotacea as to show that they at least 
 were c 
 
 GE'OMANCY. (Gr. yn, earth, and uihrcm, prophecy.) 
 Divination by |H>ints or circles made on the earth. It was 
 termed by old writers "n part of natural magic, the daugh- 
 ter and abbreviation of astrology." Geomnncy was among 
 the acts of divination most sedulously cultivated by profes- 
 sors of that science in the 15th and 16th centuries. Nativ- 
 ities were cast, fortunes predicted, and oracular answers 
 obtained to questions, by the inspection of certain combina- 
 tions of lines and figure* representing the conjunctions of 
 the plnr ■ Astrology. 
 
 GEOMETRICAL. Something relating to geometry. 
 
 Titus geometrical construction is the representation of a 
 
 m, or of an algebraic equation, by means of a dia- 
 
 gram farmed by geometrical lines; as straight lines, circles, 
 
 &c. 
 
 Geometrical curves, or geometrical lines, are those in 
 which the relation between the abscissa and ordinate's is 
 expressed by a finite algebraic equation. See Curve. 
 
 Geometrical locus Is the line traced by a point which va- 
 ries its position according to some determinate law. For 
 example, if from any number of given points straight lines 
 are to be drawn to meet in another point, under this condi- 
 tion that the sum of their squares shall be equal to a given 
 space, then innumerable points may be found by which the 
 condition will he satisfied, and the locus of all those points 
 is the circumference of a given circle. (See Simson's Led 
 Plant, or Leslie's Geometrical Analysis. 
 
 Geometrical progression is a progression in which all the 
 •uccessive terms have the same ratio. Thus the progres- 
 sions 
 
 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, &c. 
 a, a 2 , a 3 , a*, a\ a 6 , a 7 , &c. 
 are geometrical ; the common ratio of the first being 2, and 
 of the second a. The general property of a geometrical 
 progression is, that the product of any two terms, or the 
 square of any one single term, is equal to the product of 
 every other two terms taken at an equal distance before 
 and after the former. See Progression. 
 
 Geometrical Proportion. — Four quantities are said to be 
 
 In geometrical proportion, or simply proportionals, when 
 
 the ratio of the first to the second is equal to the ratio of 
 
 tha third to the fourth. Thus, if a : ft is equal to e : d, 
 
 2 K 
 
 GEOMETRY. 
 
 then the four quantities, a, ft, e, d, are in geometriral pro 
 portion. A general property of this proportion is that the 
 product of the two extreme terms is equal to the product 
 of the two means. See Proportion. 
 
 GEO'METRY. (Gr. yn, earth, and pcrpov, measure.) 
 The science which treats of the properties of figured space. 
 The etymology of the term suggests the object to which 
 geometry was first applied, viz., the measurement of 
 land. It is pretended that the science was invented in 
 Egypt, where the annual overflowing of the waters of the 
 Nile obliterated the land marks, and rendered It m 
 to have recourse to measurement in order to ascertain the 
 proper allotment of each individual; but whatever mav 
 have been the origin of the term, the occasions on whltll it 
 is necessary to compare things with one another in respect 
 of their forms and magnitudes are so numerous in everv 
 stage of society, that a geometry more or less perfect must 
 have existed since the first dawn of civilization. 
 
 Objects of Geometry. — In geometry bodies are considered 
 only in reference to the properties of extension or niagni 
 rude, figure, and divisibility. Every body occupies in hide 
 finite space a certain determinate place, or finite portion of 
 space, which is called its volume. The limits or boundaries 
 which distinguish the place of the body, and separate it 
 from the surrounding space, are called surfaces ; a surface 
 is, therefore, common to the two portions of space which it 
 separates. As the limitation of space gives rise to the idea 
 of surface, so the limitation of surface produces Unet, a line 
 being the boundary of n surface, or the place In which two 
 surfaces intersect each other, and therefore common to 
 both. In like manner, the limitation of a line, or the inter- 
 section of two lines, produces a point. But a point marks 
 only position, and has no properties. A line has length ; ■ 
 surface length and breadth ; and a volume length, breadth, 
 and thickness. Hence the properties of lines, the proper 
 tics of surfaces, and the properties of volumes or solids, 
 comprehend the objects of geometry. 
 
 Although the notion of a point is acquired from the cou 
 sideration of lines, that of a line from the consideration of 
 surfaces, and that of a surface from the consideration of 
 bodies or material objects, it does not follow from this that 
 points, lines, and surfaces are themselves really material. 
 Geometry regards all bodies in a state of abstracts .n very 
 different from that in which they actually exist; and the 
 truths which it discovers and demonstrates are pure al>- 
 stractions — hypothetical truths, which are not, however, 
 on that account, the less useful. For example, it is impos- 
 sible by any mechanical means to draw a line absolutely 
 straight, or to describt. a perfect circle; but the nearer the Hue 
 approaches to perfect straightness, and the more accur at ely 
 the circle is described, the nearer will their properties np 
 proach to those of the ideal straight lines and circles which 
 are the objects of geometrical consideration. The theorems 
 of geometry are, therefore, not strictly true in their npplica 
 tion to material bodies, but they approximate sufficiently to 
 truth for all practical purposes. They enable us to ascer 
 tain, with all the precision of which our senses are capable, 
 the distances of inaccessible objects, the dimensions of a 
 given surface, the contents of a given solid ; to compute tha 
 distances and motions of the planets ; to predict the celes- 
 tial phenomena; and to navigate a ship from any given 
 point of the globe to any other. 
 
 Divisions of Geometry. — Geometry is divided into ele- 
 mentary and transcendental. Elementary geometry treats 
 only of the straight line and circle; of figures bounded by 
 straight lines and circles ; and of solids bounded by these fig- 
 ures. The circle is only the curve line introduced into the 
 elements of geometry ; the simplicity of its description, the 
 ease with which many of its most useful properties nre de- 
 duced, and the necessity of making use of it in the simplest 
 constructions — such as raising a perpendicular, measuring 
 an angle, and even making one straight line equnl to an- 
 other — being reasons for this preference. The construction 
 of algebraic equations of the second degree, and in general 
 all problems that can be solved by means of straight lines 
 and circles, are also referred to elementary geometry. 
 Transcendental geometry, properly speaking, is that which 
 has for its object all curves different from the circle ; as the 
 conic sections, and curves of the third and higher orders. 
 It comprehends, also, the construction of equations of the 
 third and fourth, as well as of the higher degrees. But 
 some writers understand by transcendental gejmctry the 
 applications of the differential and Integral calculus to the 
 investigation of the properties of curve lines and surfaces. 
 Geometry is also divided Into ancient and modern ; ancient 
 geometry being that form of demonstration and investiga- 
 tion which was employed by the Greeks, and of which 
 Euclid's E'ements form a well-known example ; modern 
 geometry that in which algebra, or the differential or inte- 
 gral calculus. Is made use of. We also speak of pure ge- 
 ometry, practical geometry, and applied geometry. Descrip- 
 tive geometry has already been considered under that term. 
 
 513 
 
GEOMETRY. 
 
 Methods of Demonstration. — Of the different methods of 
 demonstration adopted in elementary geometry, one of the 
 simplest, and at the same time one of the most fertile, is the 
 method of superposition. This consists in showing that two 
 figures heing applied to each other, or being laid the dne up- 
 on the other, entirely coincide, or fill the same space ; from 
 which coincidence we infer the equality of all their parts, each 
 to each. Thus Euclid, in order to prove that two triangles 
 which have two sides of the one equal to two sides of the 
 other each to each, and also the angles contained by those 
 sides equal, are equal in all respects, supposes the one trian- 
 gle to fee placed upon the other, and shows that from the hy- 
 pothesis an entire coincidence must necessarily take place ; 
 whence it follows that the remaining angles of the one trian- 
 gle are equal to those of the other each to each, and the re- 
 maining side of the one to the remaining side of the other. 
 On this principle is founded the whole doctrine of the com- 
 parison of triangles, and, consequently, of all rectilineal fig- 
 ures ; for it is demonstrable that any two equal rectilineal 
 figures may, by resolving them into parts, be applied by su- 
 perposition one upon the other, so as entirely to coincide. 
 
 Another frequently convenient method of demonstration is 
 that which is called by logicians the rcductio ad absurdum. 
 It consists in assuming the proposition which is announced to 
 be not true, and in reasoning from this assumption till con- 
 sequences are deduced which are either contradictory of 
 the hypothesis, or of some proposition previously demon- 
 strated. Many examples of this method occur in the Ele- 
 ments of Euclid ; but it is to be remarked, that though the 
 proof which it gives is perfectly rigorous and satisfactory, 
 the procedure is in some respects indirect, and therefore 
 should not be adopted unless when it affords a shorter and 
 simpler demonstration than can be obtained by a direct mode 
 of reasoning. It is especially applicable to those proposi- 
 tions which are the reciprocals of others already demon- 
 strated, and to incommensurable quantities. 
 
 In their more difficult researches, and particularly in those 
 relative to curve lines and surfaces, the ancient geometers 
 had recourse to the method of exhaustions. Admitting no 
 demonstrations but such as are perfectly rigorous, they did 
 not consider it consistent with the strictness of geometrical 
 reasoning to regard curve lines as polygons of a very great 
 number of sides; but when they proposed 1o investigate the 
 properties of any curve, they regarded it as the fixed term to 
 which the inscribed and circumscribed polygons continually 
 approach in increasing the number of their sides. The con- 
 tinual approximation of these polygons to the curve afforded 
 an idea of the properties of the latter, the more accurate as 
 the number of sides was greater. Hut it still remained to 
 prove, by some recognised principle of demonstration, the 
 truth of the properties that had thus in a manner been di- 
 vined ; and this was done by showing that every supposition 
 contrary to them necessarily led to a contradiction. In this 
 manner they demonstrated that the areas of different circles 
 are to each other as the squares of their respective diame- 
 ters; the volumes of spheres as the cubes of their diame- 
 ters; that pyramids of the same height are as their bases, 
 &c. (Carnot, Reflexions sur la M taphysique du Calcul In- 
 finite simnl.) 
 
 Analysis and Synthesis. — The Greek geometers employed 
 two distinct modes of investigation, analysis and synthesis ; 
 the one, as the names imply, being the inverse of the other. 
 In the Mathematical Collections of Pappus, book vii., .analy- 
 sis and synthesis are thus described : Analysis is the method 
 which, setting out from the thing demanded, arrives by 
 means of certain established consequences to something 
 known before, or placed among the number of principles ac- 
 knowledged as true. It passes from a proposition through 
 all its antecedents ; and is therefore called analysis, or reso- 
 lution, or an inverted solution. In synthesis, on the con- 
 trary, we begin from the proposition with which the analysis 
 concluded, ordering properly the above antecedents, which 
 now present themselves in the form of consequents, and pass 
 from one to another till we arrive at the conclusion sought, 
 or that from which we started in the case of analysis. These 
 two methods have each their peculiar use. The first is the 
 method of invention, and is employed in order to discover a 
 construction which will satisfy the proposed conditions; the 
 6econd is the method of demonstration, and employed to 
 prove the sufficiency of the construction to which the analy- 
 sis has led. In general, both methods are employed simul- 
 taneously when the object is to discover new relations, or 
 the solution of new problems ; but when the object of the 
 geometer is to prove to others the propositions which lie has 
 discovered, the synthetical method is usually preferred. 
 
 Application of Algebra to Geometry. — A different kind of 
 analysis from that of which we have now been speaking 
 consists in the application of algebra to the solution of geo- 
 metrical problems. This has opened up a new and rich 
 field, entirely unknown to the ancients, and been the direct 
 eause of the great extension of the modern mathematics. 
 In general, when a problem is of a certain degree of diffi- 
 514 
 
 GEORGICS. 
 
 culty, the use of the algebraic notation, which substitutes 
 the simple arithmetical operations of multiplication and 
 division for the complex geometrical methods of the com 
 position and resolution of ratios, is attended with great ad- 
 vantage. By the aid of algebra, the properties of curve 
 lines, their tangents, points of inflexion, asymptotes, branch- 
 es, rectification and quadrature — subjects which the an- 
 cient geometry could reach only in some limited cases, and 
 with great difficulty — are demonstrated with the utmost fa 
 cility. Some mathematicians of eminent rank, delighted 
 with the beautiful specimens of investigation afforded by 
 the ancient geometry, have regretted the extensive applies 
 tion of algebra which characterizes the scientific works of 
 the present day ; but in a science which presents so many 
 real difficulties, and in which so many discoveries remain 
 to be made, the path which leads most directly to The ob- 
 ject aimed at, and which, moreover, is the easiest to follow, 
 is that which ought to be preferred Without the aid of 
 algebra and the new calculus, geometry could not have 
 been applied to dynamics, and only in a few limited cases 
 to any other branch of natural philosophy. 
 
 History of Geometry. — It has already been mentioned 
 that geometry is supposed to have had its origin in Egypt. 
 From that country it is said to have been transported into 
 Greece by Thales. The celebrated proposition of the square 
 of the hypotenuse was the discovery of Pythagoras. An- 
 nxagoras of Clazomene composed a treatise on the quad- 
 rature of the circle ; and Plato had certainly made consid- 
 erable advances in the science, as is proved by the simple 
 and elegant solution which he gave of the duplication of 
 the cube. About fifty years after the time of Plato, Euclid 
 collected the propositions which had been discovered by 
 his predecessors, and formed of them his famous Elements; 
 a work which continues to the present day to be regarded 
 as one of the best (if not the very best) introductions to the 
 mathematical sciences. It consists of fifteen Books, of 
 which thirteen are known to have been written by Eu- 
 clid ; but the 14th and 15th are supposed to have been add- 
 ed by Hypsicles of Alexandria. Apollonius of Perga, about 
 250 years B.C., composed a treatise on the conic sections, in 
 eight books ; and he is said to have been the first who ap- 
 plied to those curves the appellations by which they have 
 ever since been distinguished, namely, the parabola, the el- 
 lipse, and the hyperbola. (See Conic Sections.) About 
 the same time flourished Archimedes, the most illustrious 
 of the ancient philosophers, who distinguished himself in 
 geometry by the discovery of the beautiful relations be- 
 tween the sphere and cylinder, by his work on conoids and 
 spheroids, by his discovery of the exact quadrature of the 
 parabola, and his very ingenious approximation to that of 
 the circle. In the list of names which have come down to 
 our times in connexion with geometry, we may mention 
 Eudoxus, Archytas, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, Dinostratus, 
 and Nicomedes; hut for an account of the discoveries or 
 inventions by which they are individually celebrated, we 
 must refer to Montucia's Histoire des Malkimatiijiics. The 
 school of Alexandria produced Pappus and Diophnntus; 
 but the Greek geometry, though it was afterwards enriched 
 by many new theorems, may be said to have reached Its 
 limits in the hands of Archimedes and Apollonius; and a 
 long interval of 17 centuries elapsed before this limit was 
 passed. In 1637, Descartes published his Geometry; a 
 work which will ever be remarkable, as containing the first 
 systematic application of algebra to the solution of geomet- 
 rical propositions. Soon after this followed the discovery 
 of the infinitesimal calculus ; and from that time to the 
 present geometry has shared in the general progress of all 
 the mathematical sciences. 
 
 Works on the Ancient Geometry .-—Euclid, Elements of 
 Geometry, and Book of Data; Apollonius, Conies; Ar- 
 chimedes, Opera ; Pappus, Mathematics Collcctioncs ; Vieta, 
 Opera Mathematica ; Huygens, Opera ; R. Simson, Opera 
 Reliqua, and Loci Plani; Stewart, Propositions Geometri- 
 es; T. Simpson, Elements of Geometry; Legendre, Ele- 
 ments of Geometry; Leslie, Elements of Geometry, &x. 
 For an account of the numerous Editions of Euclid's Ele- 
 ments (which have been translated into every European 
 lansunge), see Murhard, Bibliotheca Mathetnntien ; but to 
 the list contained in that work should be added the more 
 recent edition of Pevrard, in Greek, Latin, and French 
 (Paris, 1814). An edition of the first six books, in Greek 
 and Latin, bv Camercr and Hauber (Berlin, 1824), also de 
 serves to be noticed, on account of the valuable notes witJc 
 which it is accompanied. 
 
 GEOPO'NICA. Gr. yij and xo>vn, labour.) The name 
 of a Greek compilation of precepts on rural economy, ex- 
 tracted from ancient writers. The name of the compiler is 
 unknown ; but the authorities which he quotes are numer- 
 ous, and deservedly celebrated. (Sec Nidus's edition, 4 
 vols. 8vo. Leipsic, 1781.) 
 
 GEO'RGICS. (Gr. t«< ynopyiKd. things pertaining f<i 
 husbandry.) The title of a poem of Virgil's, in four books 
 
GEORGIUM SIDUS. 
 
 on agriculture, and the care of cattle, bees, 4cc. It is con- 
 sidered the most perfect of his works. 
 iRGIUM SIDUS. Sec Uranus. 
 GERA'NIACEjE. (Geranium, one of tlie genera.) A 
 natural order of herbaceous or shrubby Exogens, growing 
 in most parts of the world, nearly related to Ozalidacete, 
 Balsa.inin.acen, and Tropaolacrce, with which they are by 
 some botanists associated. They are distinguished by the 
 peculiar dehiscence of their fruit, the tumid joints of tin ir 
 Hem, and their stipulate leaves. Their sensible properties 
 Consist i:i an astringent principle, and an aromatic or resin- 
 ous flavour Many of them, especially those of the genus 
 Pelargonium, are beautiful objects, and much cultivated in 
 
 GERMAN SCHOOL. In Painting. In this school we 
 
 rind an attention to individual nature, as usually seen, with- 
 out attempt at selection, or notion of ideal beauty. The 
 German painters seem to have set a particular value on 
 high linishing, rather than on a good arrangement and dis- 
 position of the subject. Their colouring is far better than 
 their drawing, but their draperies arc generally in bad taste. 
 Though among the painters of this school some are free 
 from the application of these observations, they are not suf- 
 ficient in number to change the general Judgment that must 
 be passed upon it Wohlgemuth, Holbein, and Albert Du- 
 rer are the heads of It. These observations do not apply to 
 a school which seems now rising in Germany, and which, 
 with such leaders as Retsch and others, seems likely to put 
 the school of painting there on a level with its highly splen- 
 did Intellectual powers in all other branches of the arts and 
 
 GE'KMEiV. (Lat. a bud.) In Botany, the organ com- 
 monly called the ovarium. 
 
 GERMINATION. (Lat. Gcrraen.) The process by 
 wh ch a olant is produced from a seed. The phenomena 
 of germination are best observed in dicotyledonous seeds ; 
 mch, fur instance, as the bean, pea, lupin, fee. These 
 seeds consist of two lobes or cotyledons, enveloped in a 
 common membrane; when this is removed a small project- 
 ing body is seen, which is that part of the germ which af- 
 terwards becomes the root, and is termed the radicle: the 
 other portion of the germ is seen on carefully separating the 
 cotyledons, and is termed the plumula; it afterwards forms 
 •Jk- item and leave*. When the ripe seed is removed from 
 the parent plant it gradually dries, and may be kept often 
 for an indefinite period without undergoing any change ; but 
 if piaceb under circumstances favourable to its germination, 
 it soon begins to grow : these requisite circumstances are a 
 due temperature, moisture, and the presence of air. The 
 most favourable temperature is between GO nnd 80°; at 
 the freezing point none of the more perfect seeds vegetate; 
 and at temperatures above 100°, the young germ is usually 
 injured. No seed will grow without moisture: water is at 
 first absorbed by the pores of the external covering, and de- 
 : the feed gradually swells, Its membranes burst, 
 and the germ expands. The root is at first most rapidly de- 
 veloped, the materials for Its growth being derived from the 
 cotyledons; and when it shoots out Its fibres or rootlets, 
 these absorb nourishment from the soil, and the plumula is 
 developed, rising upwards in a contrary direction to the 
 root, and expanding into stem and leaves. For this growth 
 aee of air Is requisite ; if it be carefully excluded, 
 though there be heat and moisture, yet the seed will not 
 vegetate. Hence it is that seeds buried very deep In the 
 earth, or in a stitf clay, remain inert; but, on admission of 
 air by turning up the soil, begin to shoot forth. From ex- 
 perimsnts which have been made upon the germination of 
 seeds In confined atmospheres, it appears that the oxygen 
 set free by the decomposition of water combines with a por- 
 tion of the carbon of the seed, and carries it off in the form 
 of carbonic acid, and that the consequence of this is the 
 conversion of part of the albumen and starch of the cotyle- 
 dons into gum and sugar ; so that most seeds, as" we see in 
 ■rsion of barley into malt, become sweet during 
 germination. Light is injurious to the growth of a seed. It 
 is, therefore, obvious that the different requisites for germi- 
 nation are attained by placing a seed under the surface of 
 the soil warmed by the sun's rays, when it is moistened by 
 its humidity and by occasional showers: excluded from 
 light, but within reach of the access of air. 
 
 When the young plant is perfected, the cotyledons-, if not 
 converted into leaves, rot away, and the process of nutrition 
 is carried on by the root and leaves : the principal nourish- 
 ment is taken up from the soil by the root and chiefly by 
 its small and extreme fibres; so that when these are injured 
 or torn, as by careless transplantation, the plant or tree gen- 
 erally dies. The matters absorbed, consisting of water hold- 
 ing small portions of saline substances, and of organic matter 
 in solution, become the eap of the plant; and this is propel- 
 led upwards in the vessels of the stem, or of the outer layer 
 of wood, into the leaves ; here it is exposed to the agency of 
 air, or of light : it transpires moisture, and occasionally car- 
 
 GHOST, HOLY, ORDER OK 
 
 bonic acid. But the leaves also at times absorb moisture, 
 and during the influence of light they decompose the car- 
 bonic acid, and, retaining the carbon, evolve oxygen ; the sap 
 thus becomes modified in its composition, and the characte- 
 ristic proximate principles of the vegetable are formed. These 
 return in appropriate vessels from the leax-es, chiefly to the 
 inner bark, where we accordingly find the accumulation of 
 the peculiar products of the plant : they also enable it annu- 
 ally to form a new layer of wood. Hence it is that the trans- 
 ition of the wood exhibits as many distinct zones as 
 the tree is years old. We are ignorant of the causes of this 
 circulation of the sap ; but that it does follow the cause which 
 has been stated is proved by the operation which gardners 
 call ringing, and which they sometimes resort to, to make a 
 barren branch bear (lowers and fruit : it consists In cutting 
 out and removing a circular ring of bark, so as to prevent the 
 return of the sap by the descending vessels, which at first 
 ooze copiously, but afterwards the wound heals, and the 
 juices nre accumulated in all parts above the extirpated ring, 
 producing tumefaction in the limb, and often inducing a crop 
 of flowers and fruit or causing those to appear earlier than 
 on the uncut branches. If a tree be wounded so as to cut 
 into the central portions of the wood, or the outer layer of 
 new wood, the flow of ascending sap is then seen to take 
 place uiwn the lower section, where the vessels nre that 
 carry it up to the leaves ; and the flow of descending is prin- 
 cipally confined to the upper section of the inner bark, from 
 which, after a time, new bark is produced, and the parts 
 again united. 
 
 GE'ROCO'MIA. (Gr. ytpuv, an aged person, and kouciv, 
 to be concerned about.) That part of medicine which relates 
 to the diet and treatment of old aL'e. 
 
 GERU'SIA. (Gr. yepovoia, an assembly of elders.) In 
 Ancient History, the senate of Sparta. The number of thie 
 council was thirty, including the two kings; and the qualifi- 
 cations of its members were, pure Spartan blood, and an age 
 not below sixty years. The election was performed in a 
 primitive manner by acclamation, the candidates being 
 brought forth one by one before the people. He who was 
 greeted with the loudest applause was held to receive the 
 highest honour next the throne. The functions of the gem- 
 sia were partly deliberative, partly judicial, nnd partly i 
 utivo. It prepared measures which were to be laid before 
 the popular assembly; it exercised a criminal jurisdiction, 
 with power of capital punishment; and also wielded a kind 
 of censorial authority for the correction of abuses. (Set 
 Memoir es de I' Acad, des Inscrip. vol. xv. ; Midler's Dori- 
 ans.) 
 
 GE'SXER.\'CE.E. (Gesnera.one of the trenera.) A nat- 
 ural order of herbaceous Exogens, inhabiting the tropics, al- 
 lied to Bignoniacea ; from which it differs in the partly in- 
 ferior one-celled ovary, apterous seeds, and habit; from Cyr- 
 tandraccm in the one-celled ovary, simple placenta, nnd nl 
 brxminous seeds; from Srrophulariacem by the same char 
 acters, with the exception of the seeds. The fruit, when 
 succulent, is sometimes eatable, mucilaginous, and sweetish- 
 Many beautiful species of Gloxinia, Gesnera, and Sinnin- 
 gin are known iu our gardens. 
 
 GEY SERS. (From an Icelandic word sign ify i ng raging 
 or roaring.) The celebrated spouting fountains of boiling 
 water in Iceland. The Geysers are situated about 30 miles 
 from the volcano Hecla, in plains full of hot springs and 
 steaming fissures. Their jets are intermittent and the height 
 to which they rise appears to vary much at different times. 
 Olafsen and Povelsen estimate that of the Great Geyser, 
 when they saw it, at 550 feet Few English travellers have 
 seen it spout higher than 90 or 100 ; but Mr. Henderson saw 
 it reach 150 feet in 1815, and one of the smaller Geysers, 
 when a stone was thrown into it, 200. The latest account of 
 the Geysers is in the work of the Hon. A. Dillon {A Visit to 
 Iceland. 1840). 
 
 GHAUTS. A term applied originally to the narrow nnd 
 difficult passes in the mountains of Central Hindostan, but 
 which has been gradually extended to the mountains them- 
 selves. They consist of two great chains extending along 
 the east and west coasts of the Deccan, parallel to each 
 other, or rather diverging, and leaving between them nnd the 
 sea only a plain of 40 or 50 miles in breadth. The precise 
 altitude of these mountains has not been ascertained, but 
 their general elevation is from 3000 to 4000 feet ; and while 
 the extent of the Eastern Ghauts has been limited to a line of 
 300 miles, the chain of Western Ghauts is said to extond 
 without interruption nearly 1000 miles. (See Murray's Encyc. 
 of Orography.) 
 
 GHEBRES. See Guebres. 
 
 GIII'BELLINES. In Italian History, the name of a po 
 litical party, which maintained the supremacy of the German 
 emperors over the Italian states, and their claims to InvesU- 
 ture. &c, disputed by the Popes. See Guelfs. 
 
 GHOST. See D/emon, Djkmonolooy, Apparition. 
 
 GHOST, HOLY, ORDER OF. The principal mllitarf 
 order of France under the old regime ; instituted in 1574 by 
 
 515 
 
GIANT. 
 
 Henry III., for nobles only; abolished at the Revolution; 
 reconstituted by the Bourbons. 
 
 GIANT. (Gr. ytyas ; said to be the same with yrjytviis, 
 earth-born.) The giants of Grecian antiquity are not the 
 same with the Titans, although frequently confounded with 
 them in poetry : the latter were produced by Earth to com- 
 bat Saturn; the fonner afterwards, against Jupiter. (Servius 
 ad JfCn. ii., 40.) They were destroyed by the gods of Olym- 
 pus, in the famous giganto-machia, or giant-fight, of which 
 the scene was laid in the Campi Phlegrai of Campania. The 
 appellation " giant" in the Old Testament, g ; .ven to various 
 races of men, is thought rather to refer to violence, power, 
 tec, than to actual stature ; but individual giants, such as 
 Og and Goliath, are undoubtedly recorded. In Northern 
 Mythology, the giants were the aboriginal inhabitants of the 
 earth (Glaus Magnus, book v.), called Josnar. There is a 
 learned as well as amusing article on this subject in the £710. 
 Metr. (See for remarks on natural deviations from ordinary 
 stature in individuals and races of men, Pritchard's History 
 of Mankind, vol. ii. ; Lawrence, Lectures on Man.) 
 
 GIAOUR. (Turk, a dog.) An epithet conferred on all, 
 but mor° especially on Christian unbelievers, as those who 
 do not profess an adherence to Mohammedanism are styled 
 by the Turks. 
 
 GI'BBET, or JIB. The projecting beam of a crane on 
 which the pulley is fixed. 
 
 GIBBO'SE. (Lat. gibba, a hunch.) Humped. When a 
 surface presents one or more large elevations. 
 
 GI'BBOUS. (Lat. gibbus, convex, protuberant.) This 
 term is applied in Astronomy to the appearance of the moon 
 when more than half full or enlightened. In the telescope, 
 the planet Venus exhibits a similar appearance. 
 
 GlE'SECKITE. A mineral discovered in Iceland by 
 Giesecks. It is a hydrated silicate of alumina and potash; 
 it occurs in brownish hexagonal prisms. 
 
 GIFT, in Law, is, in its general sense, a conveyance which 
 passes either lands or goods. But when restricted to im- 
 moveable property, it signifies in its proper sense the creation 
 of an estate tail. (See Fee-Tail.) It is so termed from the 
 operative words of the conveyance, which are always " I 
 give," or " have given." A gift of personal property differs 
 from a grant in being wholly gratuitous and without consid- 
 eration. 
 
 GIGA, or JIG. (Ital.) In Music, an air for dancing in 
 triple time, usually 6-8 or 12-8. 
 
 GIGA'NTOMA'CHIA. ^r. ytyas, a giant, and ua X ri, 
 a battle.) In Painting, representations of combats with or 
 between giants. The term is more particularly applied to 
 the conflicts waged between Jupiter and the giants. See 
 Giant. 
 
 GIG. A well-known kind of light carriage drawn by one 
 horse. Gigs, or gig machines, are rotatory cylinders cov- 
 ered with wire-teeth, for teazling woollen cloth. 
 
 GI'LDING. The application of a superficial coat of gold 
 on wood, metal, and other materials. The beauty and dura- 
 bility of gold render it the most valuable of all ornamental 
 substances ; but, on account of its weight and high price, its 
 use in these respects would be exceedingly limited, were it 
 not the most extensible and divisible form of matter, so that 
 it may be made to cover a larger surface than an equal quan- 
 tity of any other body. Metals are usually covered with 
 gold by the process of -water gilding. It consists in perfectly 
 cleaning their surface, and then, in the case of silver, for in- 
 stance, rubbing it over with a solution of gold in mercury, 
 called amalgam of gold : the vessel is then heated over a 
 clear charcoal fire, by which the mercury is driven off, and 
 the gold left adhering to the silver surface, upon which it is 
 afterwards burnished. The surface of copper or brass is 
 usually prepared by cleaning and rubbing it over with a so- 
 lution of nitrate of mercury, which amalgamates the sur- 
 face, and enables the gold amalgam, when subsequently ap- 
 plied, to adhere ; heating and burnishing are then resorted 
 to as before. Brass and copper buttons are gilt in this way ; 
 and the requisite quantity of gold is so small that twelve 
 dozen buttons of one inch diameter may be completely gilt 
 upon both surfaces by five grains of gold. Other kinds of 
 gilding are performed by gold leaf, which, if intended for 
 out-door work, is laid on by the help of gold size, which is 
 drying oil mixed with calcined red ochre; or, if for picture 
 and looking-glass frames, they are prepared by a size made 
 by boiling parchment clippings to a stiff jelly, and mixed 
 with fine Paris-plaster or yellow ochre. The leaves of 
 books are gilt upon the edges by brushing them over, while 
 in the binder's press, with a composition of four parts of 
 Arminian bole and one of powdered sugar candy mixed up 
 with white of egg ; this coating, when nearly dry, is smooth- 
 ed by the burnisher, then slightly moistened, and the gold 
 leaf applied and burnished. To impress gilt figures on 
 book covers, the leather is dusted over with finely-powdered 
 mastic : the iron tool by which the figure is made is then 
 moderately heated and pressed upon a piece of leaf-gold, 
 which slightly adheres to it; being then immediately ap- 
 510 
 
 GIRAFFE. 
 
 plied to the leather with a certain force, the tool makes an 
 impression, and, softening the mastic, transfers and fixes 
 the gold. In gilding glass and porcelain, powdered gold is 
 blended with gum-water and a little borax, and applied by 
 a camel-hair pencil ; the article is then put into an oven or 
 furnace; the gum burns off, and the borax, by vitrifying, 
 cements the gold to the surface, upon which it may after- 
 wards be polished by the burnisher. Within the last few 
 years nearly all the gilt articles manufactured at Binning 
 ham, such as buttons, neck-chains, ear-rings, and so forth, 
 have been gilt by a process patented by Mr. Elkington, in 
 which, after the articles have been properly cleansed by a 
 weak acid, they are immersed in a hot solution of nitro- 
 muriate of gold, to which a considerable excess of bicar- 
 bonate of potash has been added; in the course of a few 
 seconds they thus receive a beautiful and permanent coat 
 of gold. 
 
 GI'LLIESIA'CE^E. (Gilliesia, one of the genera.) A 
 small natural order of Exogens, allied very nearly to IJlia- 
 ccw, of which they may in fact be considered an anomalous 
 form. Their principal peculiarity consists in having irregu- 
 lar flowers, surrounded externally by calyx-like bracts. 
 They inhabit Chili, are little known, and of no known use. 
 GILLS. Parts of the body are so called in which the 
 blood-vessels are in greater number than is necessary for 
 mere preservation or growth, and are minutely subdivided 
 for the purpose of submitting the blood to the influence of 
 air contained in water. 
 
 GI'MBALS, or GIMBOLS. (Lat. gemellus, a pair.) A 
 piece of mechanism consisting of two brass hoops or rings 
 which move within one another, each perpendicularly to 
 its plane, about two axes placed at right angles to each 
 other. A body suspended in this manner, having a free 
 motion in two directions at right angles, will assume the 
 vertical position : hence the apparatus is employed for sus 
 pending portable or mountain barometers, sea-comp»sses,&c. 
 GI'MLETING THE ANCHOR. Turning it by the stock 
 round its shank as an axis, like a gimlet. 
 GIMP. Silk twist, interlaced with brass or other wire. 
 GIN. (Fr. genievre, juniper.) Ardent spirit flavoured 
 by the essential oil of juniper. It was originally made by 
 the Dutch, and is hence distinguished in this country by 
 the name of Hollands. The liquor bearing the above name 
 in this country is of British manufacture, and is frequently 
 flavoured by oil of turpentine, and rendered biting upon the 
 palate by caustic potash. In Holland, the finest gin bears 
 the name of Schiedam, the principal place of its manufac- 
 ture, and whore there are many distilleries. Owing to the 
 excessive duty, 22s. 6d. per gallon, gin is one of the principal 
 articles of clandestine importation. See Spirits. 
 
 Gin, in Mechanics, is a machine used for raising great 
 weights, driving piles, &c. It usually consists of three long 
 legs or spars, which support a pulley at the top, round 
 which a rope is passed for elevating the weight. 
 
 GI'NGER. The dried rhizoma of Zingiber officina'is, a 
 native of the East Indies, and abundantly cultivated in 
 America and the West India islands, whence Europe is 
 chiefly supplied. It is a good stimulant and carminative ; 
 and the fresh root preserved makes an agreeable, warm, 
 and not very unwholesome sweetmeat. The acrimony of 
 ginger appears to reside in a peculiar extractive matter 
 which is soluble in alcohol ; hence a spirituous tincture of 
 ginger contains the virtues of the root. 
 
 GI'NSENG. A Chinese word applied to the root of the 
 Panax quinquefolium : it has a bitter-sweet flavour, and is 
 considered as a powerful restorative in China, where its 
 consumption is very great. It is found chiefly in the north- 
 ern parts of Asia, and in America; but it is almost wholly 
 from the latter source that the Chinese draw their supplies. 
 In 1832, there were sent from the United States to China 
 407, 067 lbs. of ginseng, valued at 99,303 dollars. See Com 
 mercial Diet. 
 GIPSY. See Gypsy. 
 
 GIRA'FFE. (Arab, xariffa.) The tallest quadruped on 
 the face of the earth, and the largest and most singular of 
 the Ruminant order. Pliny informs us that it was called 
 Nabun by the ^Ethiopians of his time, and Camclopardalis 
 by the commonalty at Rome. " JVabun jEthiopes vocant, 
 collo similem equo, pedibus et cruribus bovi, camelo capite, 
 albis maculis rutilem colorem distinguentibus, unde appel- 
 lata camclopardalis. Dictatoris Caesaris circensibus ludis 
 primum visa Roma;." (Hist. Nat., lib. viii.) The natural 
 philosophers of Rome had again, subsequent to the gorge- 
 ous spectacles of Cffisar, the means of studying the living 
 giraffe. Not fewer than ten of these rare and beautiful an- 
 imals were publicly exhibited at one time by the third Gor- 
 dian, which afterwards were brutally slaughtered in the 
 arena of the amphitheatre, at the millenarian games, in the 
 reign of the emperor Philip. Notwithstanding these oppor- 
 tunities, all the zoological information regarding the giraffe 
 which we derive from the naturalists of Rome is comprised 
 in the brief notice above quoted from the writings of Pliny ; 
 
GIRAFFE. 
 
 a notice which is too vague to have served to enable us 
 again to recognise the strange compound of horse, ox, cam- 
 el, and pud exhibited to I g Somalia, had it not 
 been more, intelligibly recorded in medals, mosaic pave- 
 ments, and the ornaments of public buildings. The resem- 
 blance of the giraffe to the horse in regard to its neck is 
 restricted to the presence of a mane, composed of short stiff 
 black hairs, which resemble! rather that of the gnu or ass. 
 In the length, alendemesa nnd flexibility of the neck, the 
 giraffe surpasses nil other quadrupeds; the comparison of 
 the legs and feet or the giraffe to those of the ox is still loss 
 fortunate, because the two posterior or spurious hoofs com- 
 mon to the ox wiih most cither Ruminants are wanting In 
 the girafle, as in the camel ; but the toes arc not joined to a 
 common broad elastic sole, as in the camel ; they are com- 
 pletely separated, and provided each with a well-formed, 
 ■harp-pointed hoof. The head of the giraffe resembles that 
 of the camel in the absence of a naked muzzle, and la the 
 shape and organization of the nostrils, which are oblique 
 and narrow apertures, defended by the hair which grows 
 from their margins, and surrounded by cutaneous muscular 
 fibres by which the animal can close them at will. This is 
 a hunailAll provision for the defence of the air passages and 
 the irritable membrane lining the olfactory cavities, against 
 the tine particles of sand which the storms of the desert 
 raise in almost Wlflhrntlllg clouds. The large, dark, and 
 lustrous eyes of the giraffe, which beam with a peculiarly 
 mild but fearless ex] iced ns to take in a 
 wider range of the horizon than is subject to the vision of 
 any other quadruped. While browsing "it his favourite 
 acacia the giraffe, by means of his laterally-projecting or- 
 bits, can direct his sight so ns to anticipate a threatened 
 attack in the rear from the stealthy lion, or any oilier foe of 
 the deaert To an open attack lie sometimes makes a suc- 
 cessful defence by striking out his powerful and well-armed 
 feet: and the king of beasts is said to he frequently repelled 
 and disabled by the wounds which the giraffe has thus in- 
 flicted with his hoofs. The boms of the giraffe, small as 
 they are, and muffled by skin and hair, are by no means the 
 Insignificant weapons that they have been supposed to he. 
 H'e have seen them wielded by the males against each 
 other with fearful and reckless force; nnd we know that 
 they are the natural arms of the giratle most dreaded by the 
 keeper of the present living giraffes in the Zoological Gar- 
 dens, because they are most commonly and suddenly put in 
 use. The giraffe does not butt by depressing and suddenly 
 elevating the head, like the deer, nv, or sheep: hut strikes 
 the callous obtuse extremity o|" the bonis again- 1 the object 
 attack with n sidelong sweep of the neck. One blow 
 thus delivered at full swing against the head of an unlucky 
 attendant would be fatal: the female once drove her homs 
 in snort through an inch deal board. Notwithstanding 
 those natural arms of hoofs and horns, the giraffe, docs not 
 turn to do battle except at the las! extremity; where I 
 
 is possible, it seeks it in flight. This is extremely rank 
 pecially along rising ground ; but cannot be maintained for 
 
 'lent period of time to enable it to escape the Arab 
 mounted on his long-winded steed. The paces of the giraffe, 
 owing to the disproportion between his long less and short 
 body, are very peculiar; when walking at a brisk rate, it 
 seems to move forward simultaneously the two legs of the 
 same side, as noticed of old by the learned bishop of Picca. 
 in his account of the presents brought to Bydaspes by the 
 ambassadors of the Axeomitte (Abyssininns).' " It differed," 
 says Ileliodorus, "in gait from every other land or water an- 
 '.inal, and waddled in a remarkable manner: each leg did 
 not move alternately, but those on the right side moved to- 
 gether independently of the other, and those on the left in 
 the -am'' manner, so that each side was alternately eleva- 
 ted." Both legs of the same side are undouhtedlv ofTthc 
 ground at the same time through the greater part of the 
 step; but upon a close inspection the hind-leg is always 
 ■sen to be first lifted from the ground, and after n verv brief 
 interval the fore-leg of the same side is moved. In the 
 sanded paddock appropriated to the giraffes in the Zoologi- 
 cal Gardens, they exhibit in the warm days of summer all 
 their various and singular paces. In the' simple walk the 
 neck, which is then stretched out in a line with the back, 
 
 i hem a stiff nnd awkward appearance ; but this is en- 
 tirely lost when they commence their graceful undulating 
 canter. To judce by the movement of the legs, this pace 
 appears to be lossi rapid than it actually proves, when the 
 extent of ground is observed over which it has carried them 
 in a given time. The motions of the lees are now very pe- 
 culiar and uncommon; the hind pair are 1 i fled alternately 
 with the fore, nnd are carried, or rather swung forward, 
 outside of and beyond them at each bound. When excited 
 to a swifter pace they often kick out their hind-legs during 
 their course, and their nostrils are then actively and un- 
 wontcdly dilated. The general figure of the giraffe, its 
 raised anterior parts, elongated neck, light and tapering 
 head, and Ions, slender and flexible tongue, are all condi- 
 
 tions which beautifully harmonize with its geographical 
 position and the nature of its food. No Ruminant of its 
 magnitude could exist in the arid tropical regions to which 
 the girafle is peculiar, if it were not modified so as to be 
 able to obtain vegetable sustenance independently of ordi- 
 nary pasturage. But in those localities shrubs "and trees 
 continue to put forth buds and leaves when all the herbage 
 on the surface of the earth is scorched up; and it is for the 
 purpose of browsing on the green food supplied by Iofry 
 branches that the Ruminant type is modified in so extraor 
 dinary a manner as we witness it in the girafle. A sooto 
 gist, ignorant of the giraffe, could never have anticipated or 
 conceived so beautiful and perfect a solution of this difficult 
 problem in the scheme of animal enjoyment. The t. 
 is an organ exquisitely formed for prehension ; it is used to 
 hook down the branches which grow beyond the reach of 
 the muzzle of the giraffe, and the animal in captivity in- 
 stinctively puts it to ana in a variety of ways. We li.ive 
 seen the girafle, in the Jardin das Plantes at Paris, stretching 
 upwards its neck nnd head, and protruding its tongue to the 
 full extent to hook out single straws, which were platted 
 into the partition separating it from the contiguous in closure. 
 In our own menagerie at Regent's Park many a fair lady 
 has been robbed of the artificial flowers which adorned her 
 bonnet by the nimble filching tongue of the rare object of 
 her admiration. The girafle seems, indeed, to be guided 
 more by the eye than the nose in the selection of objects of 
 food; and if we may judge of the apparent satisfaction with 
 which the mock leaves and Mowers so obtained are mastica- 
 ted, the tongue would stem by no means to enjoy the sensi- 
 tive in the same degree as the motive powers. The differ- 
 ence in the size of the nerves of sensation and motion which 
 WC observed in the dissection of the tongue accords with 
 these habits of the living animal. From the same dissec- 
 tion it w as proved that the movements of the tongue, both 
 those of extension, prehension, and retraction, were due to 
 muscular, and not, as Sir F.verard Heme supposed, to 1 
 lar action. Observations of the living animal, and d 
 lion of the dead, have at length dispelled most of the errors 
 and doubts which obscured the exact knowledge of the na 
 ture and zoological affinities of the giratle. I'p to a very 
 recent period we find it described as having callosities on 
 iie knees and over the sternum, like the camel, nnd ns a 
 kind of lUSUS with three horns; of which one, being articu- 
 lated over a suture in the middle line of the forehead, seem- 
 ed to take away from the chimerical nature of the unicorn 
 by indicating a transition to that heraldic monster. The 
 truth is, however, that the giratle possesses neither those 
 ca'loslties nor this median articulated horn. It is essentially 
 a true Ruminant, having a stomach divided into four com 
 partments, the paunch being simply papillose, without watci 
 hags; and the reticulum with extremely shallow hexagonal 
 cells, as in the reindeer. It is also n horned Ruminant, tin- 
 horns being two in number, small, straight, and simple, Jikr 
 those of the pricket deer. But iti the •.'iraffe the bony base 
 of each horn is articulated by a broad routrh epiphysial basis 
 to the cranium; it is covered by a vascular periosteum nnd 
 n hairy integument, which is not deciduous. These horns. 
 or rather antlers, tcrminnte in a truncate extremity capped 
 with a callous plate, and fringed with long and strong black 
 hairs: these horns are present in both sexes, ns in the rein 
 deer; nnd are larger in the male. The median protube- 
 rance Is a simple thickening of the contiguous parts of the 
 frontal and nasal bones. In the form of the moulh the gi- 
 raffe differs from every other Ruminant. The upper lip i? 
 not bifid, as in the camel ; and though it is prolonged and 
 covered with hair, ns in the elk, it differs In Its elegant and 
 t a per ing form. 
 
 The giratle has a long neck, and has not spurious hoofs, 
 and this far it resembles the camel ; hut the cervical verte- 
 brre in the camel tribe present a peculiarity of structure, 
 combined with their length, in which the giraffe does not 
 participate. The camels have many other peculiarities of 
 internal organization, to some of which we find resemblances 
 in certain ordinary Ruminant*, but not in the giraffe. Its 
 place in the Ruminant series is between the deer and ante 
 lope. These extensive families are respectively distin- 
 guished, not only by the nature of their horns, but by a 
 well-marked anatomical character: the gall-bladder is 
 present in the antelopes, and not in the deer. In three 
 giraffes lately dissected in this country a gall-bladder was 
 present in one, nnd not in the other two. in that in which 
 it was discovered it presented an abnormal structure, being 
 bifid at the fundus, and divided into two compartments. 
 We may infer, therefore, that in this part of their organiza- 
 tion, as in the structure of their horns, the giraffes are more 
 nearly akin to the deer tribe than to the antelopes. Yet it 
 must not be forgotten that while we search In vain among 
 the Cercidw for an equine mane nnd tufted tail, such as 
 ornament the giraffe, we find both these peculiarities com- 
 bined in the gnu nmontr the antelopes. A giraffe more than 
 two thirds grown will eat daily, in confinement, eighteen 
 
 517 
 
GIRASOL. 
 
 (tune's of clover-hay, and eighteen pounds of a mixed 
 vegetable diet, consisting of carrots, mangel-wurzel, barley, 
 split beans, and onions ; and will drink four gallons of 
 water. They copulate in March. The female has four 
 inguinal udders: she brings forth one young one at a birth ; 
 and the period of gestation is fifteen months. The new- 
 born giraffe measures six feet from the fore-hoofs to the top 
 of the head In a few hourt ;'. I able to follow the dam. 
 It resembles the mature animal ir. the markings of the hide. 
 The first giraffe known to have been produced in captivity 
 was brought forth in June, 1839, at the gardens of the Zoo- 
 logical Society in London. 
 
 GIRASOL. A milk-white or bluish opal, which, when 
 turned to the sun or any bright light, reflects a reddish 
 colour; hence its name, from gyro, / turn, and sol, the sun. 
 
 GI'RDER. (Sax. gyrdan, to inclose.) In Architecture, 
 a principal beam in a floor for supporting the binding or 
 other joists, whereby their bearing or length is lessened. 
 Perhaps so called, because the ends of the joists are in- 
 closed by it. 
 
 GI'RDLE. (Anglo-Sax. girdan, to encircle.) A belt or 
 band of leather or some other substance used in girding up 
 the loins. The girdle (Gr. ^oii/rj, Lat. cingulum) was in use 
 among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, for various pur- 
 poses more or less important. By the Hebrews it was 
 worn chiefly upon a journey, and sometimes as a mark of 
 humiliation and sorrow ; and by the Greeks and Romans it 
 was used as a military ornament. Hence in the Latin 
 phraseology cingulum. deponere denoted "to quit the serv- 
 ice ' To deprive a soldier of his girdle was the deepest 
 mark of ignominy with which lie could be branded ; and 
 oven among the civilians, who always wore a girdle over 
 the tunic to render their motions unembarrassed, the want 
 of this appendage was considered strongly presumptive of 
 idle and dissolute propensities. In conformity with this 
 opinion, or perhaps in allusion to the occasional substitu- 
 tion of the girdle for the purse among the Romans, Horace 
 has affirmed that "you may do what you please with him 
 who has lost his girdle," — 
 
 11. it bo quo vis qui SDnam perdidit. 
 
 Zonam solvere virgincam was a well-known phrase appro- 
 priated to the marriage ceremony. To Venus was attribu- 
 ted by the poets the possession of a particular kind of girdle, 
 called ceslus, which was said to have the power of inspiring 
 love. 
 
 It was formerly the custom in England for bankrupts or 
 other insolvent persons to put ofl' and surrender their gir- 
 dles in open courts. 
 
 GIRO NDE, THE. In French History, a celebrated po- 
 litical party during the Revolution ; its members were 
 termed Girondists or Girondins. The name was derived 
 from that of the department La Gironde (in which Bor- 
 deaux is situated), which sent to the legislative assembly 
 of 1791, among its representatives, three men of eloquence 
 and talent (Gaudet, Gensonne, Vergniaud), who were 
 among the chief leaders of the party. Its principles were 
 republican. During the continuance of that assembly the 
 Girondists formed a powerful, but not always consistent 
 party. Out of these Louis XVI. chose his republican min- 
 isters in the beginning of 1792. But after the massacres of 
 September in that year the party in general withdrew from 
 all connection with the Jacobins, and approximated towards 
 the Constitutionalists. In the Convention the Girondists at 
 Brat commanded a majority, but on the king's trial thev 
 were much divided ; and, being pressed by the violence of 
 the sections of Paris, they were at length expelled the as- 
 sembly: thirty-four of them were outlawed, and finally 
 twenty-two of their leaders guillotined (7th and 31st Octo- 
 ber, 1793), while a few escaped, and others put an end to 
 themselves. Perhaps the most celebrated member of the 
 Gironde party was a lady, Madame Roland, the wife of the 
 minister of that name, who was executed when the party 
 fell, and whose writing— the Jlppcl au Peuple— bears all the 
 stamp of that high republican enthusiasm which character- 
 ized them. (The remaining part of her memoirs is of sus- 
 picious authenticity.) Various apologies and eulogies of 
 the party have appeared. Its members were not without 
 high qualities ; but its counterpart will be found In all rev- 
 olutions, in that body of men of high theoretical views of 
 social reform and little practical knowledge, who are com- 
 monly lifted into power by supporters more energetic but 
 less high-principled than themselves at one turn of affairs, 
 and sure to be thrust down in a short time by their own 
 former adherents. (See particularly the histories of Mignet 
 and Thiers, for general views on the subject; for details, 
 the J/istoire Parlementaire of Messrs. Buchez and Roux, 
 who are perhaps too unfavourable to the party. 
 
 GIRT LINE. A rope to lift the rigging up to the mast 
 head on first rigging th< ship. 
 
 GIVEN, in Geometry, signifies something that is known. 
 Thus, a straight line is given in position when we know the 
 *»I8 
 
 GLACIERS. 
 
 situation of two points through which it must pass ; and it 
 is given in magnitude when we know its length. A trian 
 gle is given in species when we know the magnitude of 
 each of its three angles, and a circle is given when we 
 know its centre and radius. 
 
 GLA'BROUS. (Lat. glaber, smooth.) A term opplk-O. 
 in Mammalogy to those parts of the surface of a quadruped 
 which are naturally devoid of hair; and in Entomology, 
 when a surface is smooth and devoid of hair or pubescence. 
 
 GLA'CIERS. (Fr.) The name given to the immense 
 masses of ice which accumulate on the peaks and slopes, 
 and in the upper valleys, of lofty mountains. The phe- 
 nomena of glaciers form one of the most interesting subjects 
 of scientific investigation, whether we regard their forma- 
 tion, structure, or appearance. In all parts of the globe 
 they have the same general characteristics ; but though the 
 glaciers of other countries have often been described by 
 geographers and naturalists, it is chiefly in respect to those 
 of Switzerland that we possess detailed information. In 
 that couhtry, as indeed in every other, those parts of the 
 mountains that rise above the line of congelation are cov- 
 ered with perpetual snow, which being partially thawed 
 during the summer months, is on the approach of cold cm- 
 verted into ice, thus constituting what is called a glacier. 
 The ice so formed descends along the slopes of the moun- 
 tains into the valleys, by which their ridges are furrowed, 
 where it accumulates into vast beds or fields; presenting, 
 where the descent is gradual, a very level surf ice, and with 
 few crevices, but where there is a rapid or rugged declivity, 
 being rent with numerous chasms*, and covered with ele- 
 vations rising from 100 to 200 feet. Though the snow line 
 on the Alps is found at an elevation of about 8000 feet 
 above the level of the sea, some of the glaciers descend so 
 far downward that their lower extremity is not more than 
 3500 feet above it. This is particularly the case in the val- 
 ley of Chamouni, where the singular spectacle is presented 
 of huge pyramids of ice of a thousand fantastic shapes in 
 juxtaposition with the most luxuriant pastures, or towering 
 in majestic grandeur in the midst of verdant forests. The 
 principle of the descent of the glaciers is twof"'.d 
 of a slow and gradual character, like tue dime: of Fr: .ice, 
 by which a progressive movement of about twenty-five feet 
 annually is effected; the other of a rapid and in 
 kind, in which a portion of the ice having been disrupted 
 from the main body glides down the mountain's side, accu- 
 mulating as it goes, and precipitating into the valleys l>.-- 
 neath immense stones, fragments of rock, and other sub- 
 stances to which it had adhered. Philosophers and natu- 
 ralists have attributed this downward movement of a glaciei 
 to various causes; but by far the most prevalent npinioo 
 respecting it is that of Saussure, who maintained it was 
 nothing more than a slipping upon itself, occasioned by its 
 own weight. On the other hand, M. Agassi/, ascribes this 
 motion to the expansion of the ice, resulting from the con- 
 gelation of the water which has filtered into it and penetra- 
 ted its cavities; while Mr. R. Mallet is inclined to attribute 
 it to the hydrostatic pressure of the water which flows at 
 the bottom and makes rents in the mass. When the debris 
 which the glaciers accumulate in their descent has been 
 deposited in the valleys, it constitutes what in Savoy is 
 termed their moraine or border, an essential feature in the 
 Alpine glaciers. These borders present every variety of 
 aspect ; but their most usual appearance is that of unfath- 
 omable bogs or morasses wholly destitute of vegetation, and 
 in many instances fraught with infinite peril to the traveller. 
 They are generally arranged in long ridges or mounds from 
 30 to 40 feet high ; and being often two, three, or even four 
 in number, resemble so many lines of entrenchment. 
 
 The Alpine glaciers occupy a superficial extent of 1464 
 square miles. From Mont Blanc to the borders of the Tyrol 
 there are reckoned about 400, of which the greater number 
 varies from 10 to 15 miles long, and from 1 to 24 broad: 
 their mean vertical thickness ranges from 100 to C00 feet. 
 Besides the grand and picturesque appearance they present 
 externally, their lower extremities are sometimes excavated 
 by the melting of the ice into the form of immense grottoes, 
 adorned with the finest stalactic crystallizations, whose 
 brilliant azure tints are reflected on the foaming streams and 
 torrents which generally issue from these caverns, forming 
 altogether so beautiful and imposing a picture as to defy the 
 most faithful pencil to portray it adequately. The glacier 
 ice does not resemble tb.-u found in ponds and rivers : nol 
 being formed in laves*, but consisting of small grains or 
 crystals of congealed snow, it has neither the compactness, 
 the solidity, nor the transparency of river ice ; and though 
 
 * " These chasms are frequently many feet wide and more than 100 deep- 
 Their formation, which never takes place in winter, tiut is frequent during 
 summer, is accompanied with a loud noise raaemMing thunder, ami a shnck 
 which makes "lie adjacent mountains tremble. They are subject to change 
 every dav, and almost every hour ; and it is this circumstance that rend, rs 
 the ascent of the glaciers so dangerous to travellers." — Grog. Diet., article 
 "Alps." 
 
GLACIS. 
 
 "every single crystal seems perfectly white, the whole mass 
 is of a blue colour, passing through every variety of shade, 
 from the most feeble sky-blue to that of the lapis lazuli." 
 From the large accessions of snow and ice which the Gla- 
 ciers receive, especially in winter, it might reasonably be 
 conjectured that they must be gradually increasing in size, 
 and would consequently, in the course or time, brenk through 
 their u-ual limits, and overwhelm the cultivated lands of 
 the surrounding country. This, however, is by no means 
 It no doubt often happens that on some occasions 
 the t laricrs are observed to descend lower than usual ; but, 
 whfr.i this takes plans the warm atmosphere of the lower 
 vallvi.s into which they have advanced (whose temperature 
 
 prooortion to their depression) operates with such 
 |x)V">" elfeot in red icing their bulk, that they are invari- 
 ably found to nweOfl proportionally. Thus nature has 
 estnbitsned a compensating process, by which an effectual 
 though simple check is administered to the encroachment 
 of the glaciers upon the cultivated lands of the Alpine val- 
 leys. There are various oilier phenomena connected with 
 the glaciers, for a full account of which the reader is re- 
 ferred to Saussure's Voyage dans let .llprs. See also 
 .M'Cu/Uich's Geographical Itirt., art. " Alps :" linny Cycfo., 
 art. "Glacier;" and arts. Iledkro and Moraine in litis 
 work. 
 
 1 'SB. In Fortification, a sloping bank of earth, ex- 
 tending from the parapet of the counterscarp to the level 
 
 GLADIA'TOHfl. (Lat. gladialores ; from glndius, a 
 sieord.) Sword players, who were originally employed to 
 fight at the funerals of illustrious Itomnns, in order to ap- 
 eil manes by the effusion of blood, They were 
 subsequently introduced into the public nmphilh> 
 became one of the most favourite spectacles of the Roman 
 people. The gladiators were either captives or condemned 
 criminals, or else people of the lowest rank, who i 
 hire, the profession being considered one < -f the ■ i 
 
 finny. In spite of this, however, under some of the empcr- 
 
 is of the first families, who bad enjoyed the highest 
 honours of the state, entered the ar< oa, either at the corn- 
 females 01 patrician blood, in , followed their 
 example. Gladiators did not merely tie the. sword, as their 
 name strictly implies, but were armed in various ways. {Set 
 MiRMit.t.o and Retiarian.) The gladiators were, in gen- 
 eral, desperate and ruffian characters; and coi 
 bodies of them were sometimes kept in the pa] of wealthy 
 and turbulent citizens, or hired ns bullies. Perhap I the beet 
 exposition of the opinion of the more philosophical Romans 
 on the subject is thus given by Cicero: "Crudele glndiato- 
 runi speetaculum et inhiimanuin nnnniillis videii 
 hand scio an non itn sit. lit nunc fit: cum vero sontes tlepug- 
 aabant, auribus tortaaee molta, oculis quldem nulla poterat 
 es-e fortior centra dolorem et mortem di.-ciplina." — {Tunc, 
 imonlv, but inexactly said, that the 
 shows of gladiators were put a stop to by the Christian 
 emperors. They certainly had not ceased in A. 11. 404, and 
 probably not before the conquest of Italy bv the Goths, 
 (Beugnot, Destruction du Pagaxitme m Occident, book ix., 
 
 GLA nil's. (Lat) The name of the internal horny 
 the cnlamaries, which was called by the Greeks 
 
 U'A'K, or the sword. 
 
 GLANCE COAL. See Anthracite. 
 
 GLAND. In Anatomy. This term is applied to those 
 oreans of the body in which secretion is carried on, and 
 which appear to ron-ist of a congeries of blood \o --el . 
 nerves, and absorbents: they are frequently distinguished 
 according to their secretion, into mucous, sebaceous, lym- 
 phatic and lachrymal : or, according to their form and "tex- 
 ture, into simple, compound, conglobate, and conglomerate. 
 
 GLANDS, LENTICULAR. In Botany, a term invented 
 by Guettard to denote brown oval spots found upon the 
 bark of many plants, especially willows, indicating the 
 points from which roots will appear if the branch be placed 
 in circumstances favourable to their production. They are, 
 in fact, nothing but protuberances formed by the pressure 
 upon the epidermis of subjacent roots attempting to pierce 
 through it. 
 
 (.'LASS. (Germ.) A transparent, impermeable, and 
 brittle substance. There are several varieties of glass, ap- 
 plicable to different purposes, and differing in their compo- 
 sition. Its essentia] ingredients are silica and potash or 
 soda, to which a variety of other substances are occasion- 
 ally added; one of the most common and important of 
 which ia oxide of lead, by which the fusibility and density 
 of the glass is increased, so that it is more easily worked, 
 and more brilliant, especially when ornamented by cutting: 
 of this latter description i« the triads called flint glass, used 
 for decanters. drinkintr-L'las-cs, chandeliers, &c. It con- 
 sist* of about 52 parts of siliga, 34 of oxide of lead, and 14 
 of potash. Chemically sneaking, therefore, it is a double 
 
 GLASS. 
 
 silicate of potash and lead, containing 10 atoms of silica, 
 1 of potash, and 1 of oxide tjf lead. Crvim glass, used for 
 windows, la a compound of silica and soda,,with a portion 
 of lime. Grctn bottle glass is made of a mixture of sand 
 with impure wood ash, kelp, and a portion of brick clav. 
 These kinds of glass are manufactured by the operation 
 called blowing. Plate glass, invented by Abraham Thwart, 
 was first manufactured in Paris in lo8-l. It may be com- 
 posed of 300 lbs. of fine sand, 200 of soda, 30 of liine, 32 oz. 
 Of black oxide of manganese, 3 of cobalt azure, and 300 lbs, 
 of fragments of good glass. These materials, when in per- 
 fect fusion, are pouied upon a hot copper plate j the mass 
 is then rolled out, annealed, and afterwards polished by 
 grinding with sand, emery, and colcothar. The difficulty 
 of producing a perfect plate without specks, bubbles, or 
 waves together with the risk of breakage, render large 
 plates very expensive : on account of their necessary thick- 
 ness they are also very heavy. 
 
 The manufacture of glass is one of the highest beauty ; 
 and, considering the worthies auen of the materials of which 
 it is made, and the various purposes of a useful, ornament- 
 al, and scientific nature which it subserves, may be regard- 
 ed as perhaps the mo.^t important in the history of inven- 
 tions. The period of its invention is involved in great ob- 
 scurity ; but if we believe Pliny, we are indebted for this 
 of life, as we are for the gift of letters, to the 
 Phoenicians. The popular opinion upon this subject refers 
 the discovery to accident;* but, as Dr. Ure has observed, 
 there were circumstances in the ancient arts likely to lead 
 to it. such as the fusing and vitrifying heats required for 
 the formation of pottery and for the extraction of metals 
 from their ores. But, be this M it may, the Egyptians were 
 certainly acquainted with the art of glass-making : for in 
 some nomes glass bends have been found, coloured with a 
 metallic oxide, and pieces of glass have been discovered in 
 the ruins of Thebes. (See M. Boudet, Disc, it V Egypt, 
 vol. i\.; .in', M Btrabo and Pliny's time, the 
 
 inhabitants of Sidon and Alex, were famed for llie produc 
 lion of beautiful glass, which they cut, engraved, gilt, and 
 stained of the richest colours, in imitation of precious -tones, 
 
 rid. At 
 
 Rome, too, glass w as manufactured into various B 
 convenience and ornnment ; and so great was ibe luxury 
 of this article, or so exquisite its manufacture in those days, 
 that Nero is reported to have given 0000 sesterces for two 
 glass caps. For D long time Venice is said to have excelled 
 all the countries Of Europe in this manufacture ; of which, 
 Id to have enjoyed a monopoly till 
 about the middle of the 17th century, when the Invention 
 of blown mirror class by Colbert gave France B decided 
 Superiority over its rival. At what period the manufacture 
 of glass was introduced into England is not precisely known ; 
 but there con be no doubt that, till near the close of the 
 17th century, this country was obliged to have recourse to 
 foreigners for the supply of the common nrticles of drink- 
 ing glasses. In 1073, the Duke of Buckingham mntorially 
 improved the fabrication of British plate-glass by bringing 
 over several Venetian artisans to the works at Lambeth, 
 which were under his patronage ; and the manufacture 
 was still farther improved by the arrival of the French ref 
 ugecs subsequently to the revocation of the edict of Nantes. 
 The above works, however, were soon abandoned ; and it 
 was exactly one century (1773) later that the first estab 
 lishment of magnitude for the production of plate -class was 
 formed, under the title of " The Governor and Company of 
 British Cast Plate-Glass Manufacturers." This company 
 was incorporated by act of Parliament, and soon after erect- 
 ed works on an extensive scale at Ravenhead, near Prescot, 
 in Lancashire, which have continued in constant operation 
 down to the present time. Since that period immense im- 
 provements have been made in the manufacture of every 
 species of glass throughout all the countries of Europe, 
 though the art may lie said to have reached perfection only 
 in England and Bohemia. 
 
 The application of glass to the glazing of windows is of 
 comparatively recent introduction into dwelline-houses, 
 though it was general in churches and other public build- 
 inns as early as the third or fourth century. In London, 
 this manufacture was first begun in 1557; but that the use 
 of window-glass was by no means universal even twenty 
 years Inter, is evident from the fact that at Alnwick Caste, 
 the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, the gjass 
 casements used at that period to be taken down in the 
 absence of the family, to preserve them from accident. In 
 Scotlnnd, even in the early part of the last century, glass 
 was seldom seen in the windows of country houses ; and a 
 
 # Pliny ascribes Ihe origin of glass to the following accident : A mercftast* 
 ship fades wi:h natron being driven upon the coa*t of the mouth of fh^ river 
 Ttvins in 'empes'uous weather, the crew were compelled to cok their vie 
 t'nls ashore j and having placed lumps of the natron upon the sand as sup- 
 ports to the kettles, found, to their surprise, masses of transparent slone 
 among Ihe cinders. 
 
 51!) 
 
GLASS PAINTING. 
 
 few years previously, even in the royal palaces and the 
 town houses of the nobility, the windows of the upper sto- 
 ries alone w^re furnished with it. Since that period, how- 
 ever, a mighty change has been effected ; for now even the 
 windows of the meanest cottage in Great Britain are, al- 
 most without exception, supplied with glass, which, as Mr. 
 M'Culloch has well observed, ought rather to be considered 
 as a necessary of life than as the most elegant and useful 
 of conveniences. 
 
 In 1833, the number of establishments for the manufac- 
 ture of every description of glass in the United Kingdom 
 was 126, of which 106 were in England, and the remainder 
 equally divided between Scotland and Ireland. The prin- 
 cipal seats of the manufacture are, beyond all comparison, 
 New Castle and South Shields ; but "it is also carried on 
 with great success at Stourbridge, Dudley, Liverpool, Bris- 
 tol, and Warrington, and to a considerable extent In Leeds, 
 Manchester, and London. The value of the glass annually 
 produced in the United Kingdom is estimated at £2,000,000, 
 and the workmen employed in the different departments at 
 upwards of 50,000. In 1837, the total gross revenue derived 
 from the glass duties amounted to £903,856 12s. lOd. ; of 
 which England produced £837,277 14s. 9d. ; Scotland, 
 £56,220 4s. 11.1, and Ireland, £10,378 13s. 2d. In no branch 
 of manufacturing industry is the prejudicial effect of high 
 duties upon the consumption of articles of convenience 
 more strikingly illustrated than in the history of the duty 
 upon glass in this country. It would be out of place here, 
 however, to enter upon this subject ; and we can only re- 
 fer the reader for full information to the Commercial Dic- 
 tionary, and the Statistics of the British Empire, vol. i., p. 
 715, 2d edit 
 
 GLASS PAINTING. In Painting. The method of 
 staining glass in such a manner as to produce the effect of 
 representing all the subjects whereof the art is susceptible. 
 A French painter of Marseilles is said to have been the first 
 who instructed the Italians In this art, during the pontificate 
 of Julius II. It was, however, practised to a considerable 
 extent by Lucas of Leyden, and Albert Durer. The differ- 
 ent colours are prepared as follows : Black is composed of 
 two thirds of iron scales or flakes, and the other third of 
 small glass beads, or a substance called roccaglia by the 
 Italians. White is prepared from sand, or small white peb- 
 bles, calcined, pounded, and then ground finely; one fourth 
 part of saltpetre is added, and the mixture is then again 
 calcined and pulverized : when dyed, a little gypsum or 
 plaster of Paris is added. Yellow is formed from leaf sil- 
 ver ground and mixed in a crucible with saltpetre or sul- 
 phur; then ground on a porphyry stone ; and, lastly, ground 
 over again with nine times the quantity of red ochre. Red, 
 one of the most difficult of the colours to make, is prepared 
 of litharge of silver and iron scales, gum Arabic, ferretta, 
 glass beads, and bloodstone, in nearly equal quantities. Ex- 
 perience alone will command success in making this colour. 
 Green is formed from a:s ustum one ounce, the same quan- 
 tity of black lead, and four ounces of white lead, incorpo- 
 rated by the action of fire. When calcined a fourth part 
 of saltpetre is added, and after a second calcination a sixth 
 part more ; after which a third coction is made before using 
 it. Jlzure, purple, and violet are prepared in a similar man- 
 ner to green, omitting the res ustum, and in its stead using 
 sulphur for azure, perigneux foi purple, and both these 
 drugs for violet. Carnations are compounded colours, are 
 calcined, and mostly mixed with water, and must be fin- 
 ished part by part, and each with great despatch, before the 
 plaster dries, and there is little opportunity for blending. 
 The lights cannot be heightened ; but the shadows may, 
 when they begin to dry, be a little strengthened. Prompti- 
 tude and facility in execution are the great requisites for 
 this method of painting. See Cartoon. 
 
 GLAU'BER'S SALT. Sulphate of soda, originally made 
 by Glauber, in his process for obtaining muriatic acid, by dis- 
 tilling a mixture of common salt and sulphuric acid. 
 
 GLAU'COLITE. (Gr. yXavKos, blue.) A mineral of a 
 bluish green colour, found near the lake Baikal, in Siberia ; 
 it is a silicate of alumina and lime. 
 
 GLAUCO'MA. (Gr. y\avKoq.) A disease of the eye, 
 supposed to arise from dimness of the vitreous humour, and 
 giving it a bluish green colour. 
 
 GLAUCO'PIS. (Gr. yXavKoc, and utp, an eye.) A genus 
 of Passerine birds established by Forster, and including cer- 
 tain species remarkable for the presence of fleshy wattles 
 attached to the base of the beak ; whence they are com- 
 monly termed "wattle-birds." Temminck characterizes the 
 genus as follows: Bill moderate, strong, and thick, with the 
 base enlarged towards the commissure; upper mandible 
 convex, vaulted, curved towards the end, and without any 
 notch ; lower mandible following the curvature of the up- 
 per, straight below, hidden in part by the sides of the upper 
 mandible. Nostrils basal, lateral, round, partially closed by 
 a large membrane, and entirely hidden by curled feathers 
 advancing from the forehead. Feet robust, the tarsi longer 
 520 
 
 GLOBULINE. 
 
 than the mid-toe ; toes nearly of the same length ; the bnt« 
 of the inner toe, and nearly the whole of the outer toe, at- 
 tached to the middle toe. Wings short ; the first quill short, 
 the three following graduated, and the fifth the longest. 
 Tail long and graduated. 
 
 GLAU'COUS. Sea green ; a term used in describing the 
 colour of bodies, to denote a dull green passing into blue. 
 Also used in describing the polish of bodies, to denote their 
 being covered with a fine bloom of the colour of a cabbage 
 leaf. Glaucescent is the diminutive of this. 
 
 GLAU'CUS. (Gr. yXavxos, blue.) In Grecian Mytholo 
 gy, the name of a marine deity, the son, according to some 
 of the genealogists, of Neptune and one of the Naiads ; ac 
 cording to others, of Polybius and Alcyone. He enjoyed the 
 power of prophecy. 
 
 In Zoology, (ilaucus is the name of -a genus of Nudi- 
 branchiate Mollusks, remarkable for their beautiful aziwe 
 tint. The species of Glaucus are found in the warmer lati- 
 tudes floating in the open sea. 
 
 GLEA'NING. (Fr. glaner.) The practice of collecting 
 corn left in a harvest field after the harvest has been car- 
 ried, which (Levit., c. 19 ; Deut., c. 24) appears by the Mosaic 
 law to have been allowed to the poor. The right of the 
 poor to glean is, however, not admitted in the English com- 
 mon law. 
 
 GLEBE. (Lat. gleba, arable soil.) In Law, church 
 land ; usually taken for that which is annexed to a parish 
 church of common right, and belongs to the parson or vicar. 
 
 GLEE. In Music, a composition for voices in three or 
 more parts. The subjects of the words are various, being 
 gay, grave, amatory, pathetic, or bacchanalian. It may cor 
 sist of only one movement, but usually has more. 
 
 GLEE-MAN. (From the Anglo-Saxon gleo, glig, fee. 
 signifying music.) Itinerant minstrels were so called by the 
 Saxons: their appellation is translated joculatores by the 
 Latin writers of the middle ages. The name appears to 
 have been supplanted by the Norman minstrel, shortly after 
 the Conquest 
 
 GLIRES. (Lat. glis, a dormouse.) The Linnrean name 
 of the order of Mammalia distinguished by two long chisel- 
 shaped incisors in each jaw. See Ropentia. 
 
 GLOBE. A round body, or sphere ; a term commonly 
 applied to the earth. The term artificial globe is more par- 
 ticularly used to denote a globe of metal, plaster, paper, fee, 
 on the surface of which a map of the earth or of the celes- 
 tial constellations is delineated, with the principal circles of 
 the sphere. In the former case it is called the terrestrial 
 in the latter the celestial globe. Artificial globes are used 
 for the purpose of conveying to children the lirst ideas of the 
 figure and rotation of the earth, of latitude and longit <de, 
 and the situation of places with respect to each other, uirt 
 to the sun at the different seasons of the year. It is usual 
 to employ them also for the purpose of solving mechanically 
 a few elementary problems of astronomy, relative to the 
 difference of the hour of the day at different places, the 
 times of the rising and setting of the sun, the limits of the 
 visibility of eclipses, fee. The answers, however, which 
 can be found to questions of this nature, by means of ordi- 
 nary globes at least, can only be regarded as rude approxi- 
 mations ; and hence the use of globes should be limited to 
 general explanation. 
 
 GLO'BULAR CHART. A delineation of the terrestrial 
 surface, or any part of it, on a plane, according to the prin- 
 ciples of the globular projection. Let A B C be the hemi- 
 sphere to be projected, and A C the 
 plane of projection ; in order to make a 
 globular projection, the eye is placed at 
 the point E in the straight line B D, 
 which passes through the pole B and 
 the centre of the sphere, and at a dis- 
 tance D E above D equal to the sine 
 of 45°. The peculiar advantage of .\ 
 this projection is that equal arcs, ah, X 
 a c, of great circles, are represented by 
 straight lines, d e, ef, which are nearly 
 equal. If the plane of projection is the 
 equator, the different meridians will be 
 represented by straight lines, and the parallels of latitude by 
 concentric circles. But in general the projection is made on 
 a meridian, in which case tho projections of the other merid- 
 ians are ellipses. The globular projection was first pro- 
 posed by Lahire. See Map, Projection. 
 
 GLO'BULA'RIA'CE^E. (Globularia, one of the genera.) 
 A small natural order of shrubby or herbaceous Oxogens, 
 inhabiting the hot and temperate parts of Europe. Placed 
 by Jussieu and De Candollc near to Primulacca: ; but in 
 greater affinity with Dipsnccie, with which they agree in 
 most respects, differing from them only in having a superior 
 ovary. Their sensible properties are bitter, tonic and purga 
 tivc. 
 
 GLOBULAR SAILING. See Navigation. 
 
 GLO BULINE. A term given by Kieser to the green 
 
GLORY. 
 
 globules lying among the cells of cellular tissue. This 
 word Ii;ls born applied by Turpiu, u French phytotomist, to 
 mute vesicular granules of a vegetable nature, which 
 he considers the organic element* of vegetation. It is either 
 cellular or vesicular tissue in a young state and disintegrated, 
 or granules of starch or particles of colouring matter collect- 
 ed into microscopical balls. 
 
 CLu'KY. (Lnt. gloria.) In Painting and Sculpture, a 
 
 circle, either plain or radiated, surrounding the heads of 
 
 saints, &.c, iuid especially ol our Saviour. The term dory 
 
 is used in tlie sacred writings in various senses, all of which, 
 
 aady deduced from the original meaning 
 
 Hebrew equivalent, which signifies weight. Thus tlie 
 
 rUirtj of Qod means all those attributes and qualities which 
 
 give him weight in our eyes, or inspire us with reverence. 
 
 fUtr't Concordance.) 
 
 GLOSS. (Gr. y\oiaaa, tongue.) hi the Rhetoric of 
 lie, tin- ward is used in the sense of a foreign, obso- 
 lete, or otherwise strange idiom; width, judiciously em- 
 ployed, In; leckous among the ornaments of style, i'roin 
 the m • -thing requiring Interpretation" the word 
 
 10 mean the interpretation itsell ; Strictly, of a single 
 word or phrase. In the twelfth century, the comment* or 
 annotations of learned jurists on pMMgei in the text of the 
 Soman law were denominated gloaees; when IheM extend- 
 ed to a running commentary, they were termed an apparatus. 
 The I ■llectcd by Accursius in the I3lh century, 
 
 and from that period they famed for a long lime a body of 
 aulhoiily reckoned equal or even superior to the text Itself, 
 
 GLOSSARY, (l.at. glossarmm.; A dictionary of diffi- 
 cult words ami phrases in any language or writer; some- 
 r a dictionary of words in general. Of all the 
 works published under the title of glossary, the most cele- 
 brated by far is the Glossarium Media it Infimai Latinitatis 
 of Du Cange. The best edition of this learned and admira- 
 ble work E that edited by Carpenter, in G vols, folio, 1733- 
 1730. Carpenlicr's Supplement, in 4 vols, folio, 1706, is an 
 Indispensable addition. 
 
 GLOTTIS. 'Gr. yAwrra, the tongue.) The superior 
 opening of the larynx or windpipe. 
 
 GLOVES. (Anglo-Sax. glof.) Well-known articles of 
 dress used far covering the hands. The practice of covering 
 the hands with gloves has prevailed among almost all the 
 nations of the earth from time immemorial, sad is common 
 at once to the rude Tartar, who seeks by their means to pro- 
 tect himself from cold, and to the refined European, with 
 whom tin ir use is an emblem of luxury, (dough., Sep. 
 Mutt., i., p. 186.) In the middle ages, gloves constituted a 
 costly article or dress, being often highly decorated with 
 embroidery and richly adorned with precious stones. In the 
 •gc of hivalry it was usual for the soldiers who had gained 
 the favour ol a lady to wear her glove in his helmet; and, 
 ..ell known, the throwing of a glove was the most 
 usual node of challenging to duel. This latter practice 
 tiled so early as the year 1245. Matthew Paris's His- 
 turu. (See the Penny Cyc, and the authorities there refer- 
 red' loj 
 
 GLOW-WORM. SccLampyris. 
 
 GL1 CI'NIUM. The metallic base of the earth glucinn, 
 i red by Vauqaelin in 1798, and hitherto only found in 
 i are minerals — the emerald, beryl, and euclasc. The 
 DSme i^ derived from yXvicvs, sweet, in consequence of the 
 ■weal taste of its salts. The metal, which is of a dark gray 
 colour, was first obtained in 1828 by Wuhler ; he procured 
 it by acting u|)on the chloride of glucinium by potassium. 
 The equivalent of glucinium is 18, and glucina consists of 18 
 glucinium -f- 8 oxygen. 
 
 GLUE (Lat gluten) is prepared from the clippings of 
 Bides, hoora, &c. These are first washed in lime water, and 
 after wards boiled and skimmed ; the solution is then strained 
 through baskets, and gently evaporated to a due consistency ; 
 then cooled in wooden moulds, cut into slices, and dried 
 upon nets. Good glue is semilinnsparent, deep brown, and 
 Bee from spots and clouds. When used it should be broken 
 in pieces, and steeped for twenty-four hours in cold water, 
 by which it softens and swells; the soaked pieces are then 
 ■letted over a gentle fire, or, what is better, in a water bath, 
 and in thai state applied to the wood by a stiff' brush. Glue 
 will not harden in u freezing temperature, the stiffening de- 
 pending it|>on the evaporation of its superfluous water. The 
 Chemical properties of glue are those of an impure gelatine. 
 
 OLDTEN. (Lat.) The viscid elastic substance which 
 remains when whent flour is wrapped in a coarse cloth, and 
 Washed under a stream of water, so as to carry oft* the starch 
 and soluble matters. Gluten exists in many grains, and oc- 
 iially i-i other parts of vegetables; but it is a charnc- 
 ' Ingl ;ilient in wheat, giving wheat flour its peculiar 
 toughness and tenacity, which particularly fits it for the 
 manufacture of bread, and for viscid pastes, such as maca- 
 roni and vermicelli. There is generally more gluten in the 
 w heat of warm climates than of cold ; hence the excellence 
 of that grown In the south of Europe for the manufactures 
 
 GNOMON. 
 
 just mentioned. Gluten contains nitrogen, and has const) 
 quently been called the vegeto-animal principle on this nc- 
 coimt : it yields ammonia when subjected to destructive 
 diflillalion, and the vegetables which contain it give out a 
 peculiarly disagreeable odour during their putrefaction. 
 
 GLUTEUS. (Gr.yXouroj, the buttocks.) The large and 
 thick muscle upon which we sit, and which serves to ex- 
 tend the thigh by pulling it directly backw aids. It also as- 
 Msts In its rotatory motion. * 
 
 GLUTTON. The name of a carnivorous plantigrade 
 quadruped {Gulo arcticus); also applied by some microgra- 
 phers to a diaphanous species of nai*. 
 
 GLY'CERl.NE. (Gr. yhvms , sweet.) A sweet substance 
 formed in the process of saponification. It was originally 
 observed in the formation of common plaster by boiling od 
 with oxide of lead and water. 
 
 GLYCY'ltUHIZlM. The peculiar saccharine matter of 
 the root of Glycyrrhiia glabra, or common liquorice. 
 
 GLYPH. (Gr. }Av0u>, J carve.) In Architecture, a ver 
 tically sunken channel. From their number, those in the 
 Doric order are called triglyphs. 
 
 GLYTTIC. (.Gr. )Au^u>.) In Sculpture, a term deno- 
 ting the art of carving on stone or any other hard substance. 
 
 GLY'PTODON. v Gr. yAu^w, and ooeuc, a tooth.) The 
 name of an extinct gigantic quadruiied belonging to the 
 family of Armadillocs (Dasypodidm), and covered, like them, 
 with a tesaalated osseous armour. It is distinguished from 
 the existing armadillocs not only by its size, which equals 
 that of the rhinoceros, but by its teeth, winch are longitu- 
 dinally Bated, whence its generic name. 
 
 GLY'PTOTHE'CA. (Gr.yAu</>w, and 0>i«n, de}>o*it.) A 
 building or room for the preservation of work* of sculpture; 
 a word adopted by the Germans, as in the instance of the 
 celebrated Glyptothek at Munich. 
 
 GNAT. Sot Ci i,kx. 
 
 GNATHI'DIA. (Gr. yvaOos, a jaw.) A technical term in 
 Ornithology for the lateral parts or rami of the mandible or 
 lower jaw, which are joined to the cranium behind, and 
 meet in front at I greater or less ai 
 
 GNA'THOTIJE'CA. (Gr. **■&*, and BnKtj, a sheath.) 
 In Ornithology, the horny or cutaneous integument of die 
 beak. 
 
 (i.VEISS. A species of granite, which from excess of 
 mica is generally Of a lamellar or slaty texture. It is a Ger 
 man miners teim. 
 
 <;.\'OME. A name given by the fanciful writers of tho 
 Cabalistic school to that class of Uieit supposed elemeutal 
 spirits which inhabit the earth. Their name is more prop- 
 erly Gnomons; derived from the Greek yiwjuov, knowing, 
 cunning. (See Darwin's Botanic Garden.) 
 
 GJsO'MIC POETS. (Gr. yiionv, <* sentence or opinion.) 
 Greek poeta, whose remains chiefly consist of short senten- 
 tious precepts and reflections, are so termed in classical bil>- 
 liography. The principal writers of this description, of 
 whom a few fragments are extant, are Theognis and Solon, 
 who lived in the Olh century before the Christian era. Willi 
 them TyrtSHU) and Simonides are joined by Brunck in his 
 edition (Gnomici Poetas Graci, Argent., 17U4), nldiough 
 tiiese writers have little of u gnomic character. The metre 
 of these poets is elegiac. 
 
 CNO'MON. (Gr. yvuuiov.) In Astronomy, an Instru- 
 ment for measuring the lengths of shadows, mid thereby de- 
 termining the altitudes of the sun. Let A be the top of a 
 vertical style, column, or pillar, 
 or a small hole in a wall A B, 
 the height of w r hich above the 
 horizontal line B E is accurately 
 known ; a ray of solar light com- 
 ing in the direction S A reaches 
 the ground at C, and the length 
 of the shadow projected by the ^ h" 
 gnomon is B C. Now, as the length of B C can be accu- 
 rately measured, and as A B is known, and the angle at B 
 is a right angle, it is easy to find by the rules of plane trigo- 
 nometry the angle A C B, or the sun's altitude. Suppose 
 »8 C B thus found to be the sun's meridian altitude on the 
 day of the summer solstice, and S' D B his meridian alti- 
 tude on the day of the winter solstice; then half the differ- 
 ence between these two altitudes is the obliquity of the 
 ecliptic, or the sun's greatest declination. And when the 
 sun's declination and meridian altitude are both known, the 
 latitude of the place of observation is likewise determined^ 
 In this way Pytheas, in the time of Alexander tho Great, 
 found at Marseilles the ratio of the height of the enomor ti 
 the meridional shadow on the day of the solstice to be 120 
 to 41 J (Montucla, vol. i., p. 191;, whence the obliquity of the 
 ecliptic is concluded to have been at that time about 23° Aff . 
 
 Gnomons were probably the first astronomical instruments; 
 and they appear to have been much in use among the Egyi>- 
 tians, the Chinese, and even the Peruvians. ( Goguet, Oi- 
 gine des Loix.) The Egyptian obelisks are supposed to have 
 been intended as gnomons. It is evident that observations 
 
GNOMONIC PROJECTION. 
 
 of thi3 kind cannot give the sun's altitude with much exact- 
 ness. The shadow is never so well defined that its limits 
 can be ascertained with astronomical precision ; besides, the 
 observation requires to be corrected for parallax, refraction, 
 and the sun's seuiidiameter — elements which can only be de- 
 termined by means of instruments of a very superior descrip- 
 tion to the gnomon, and which, consequently, render the 
 latler useless. The astronomer Ulug-Beg, about the year 
 1437, erected a gnomon at Samarcand, the height of which 
 was 165 Paris feet. 
 
 Gnomon, in Dialling, is the style of the dial, the shadow 
 of which marks the hour. It is placed so that its straight 
 edge is parallel to the axis of the earth's rotation. 
 
 Gnomon. In Geometry, the part of a parallelogram which 
 remains when one of the parallelograms about its diagonal 
 is removed ; or the portion of the parallelogram composed 
 of the two complements and one of the parallelograms about 
 the diagonal. The term is seldom used excepting in Eu- 
 clid's Elements. 
 
 GNOMO'NIC PROJECTION. The representation of a 
 hemisphere on a plane touching it at the vertex, the eye be- 
 ing placed at the centre of the sphere. In this projection all 
 great circles of the sphere are projected into indefinite straight 
 lines, small circles parallel to the plane are projected into 
 circles, and those which are oblique to it into ellipses or hy- 
 perbolas. See Projection. 
 
 GNOMONICS. The art of constructing dials. Sec Dial- 
 ling. 
 
 GNO'STICISM. (.Gr.yvuxus, knowledge.) A philosoph- 
 ical system of religion which prevailed in the East during 
 the four first centuries of our era, and exercised great influ- 
 ence upon Christian theology, giving birth to numerous and 
 widely-diffused heresies, and insinuating itself under a modi- 
 fied form even into the writings of the most orthodox fathers. 
 The origin of the system is involved in considerable obscu- 
 rity: in its leading principles it seems to point to the Orien- 
 tal philosophy as its genuine parent; but it is objected to 
 this solution that the fathers refer it, together with the er- 
 rors similarly introduced by Platonism, to a Greek origin, 
 and appeal to the cosmogonies of Hosiod and others, as the 
 real exemplars from which it is imitated. It in to 
 marked, however, that the fathers were universally Ignorant 
 of the Oriental philosophy ; from which we may conclude 
 that their opinion upon such a point is not necessarily deci- 
 sive. A modem solution conceives Alexandria to have been 
 the central point to which the speculations of the Greeks 
 and the Orientals converged, and from whence they fre- 
 quently re-issued, after having undergone the process of fu- 
 sion into a common mass. It is certain that Alexandria 
 was, during the time we have spoken of, a celebrated resort 
 of Gnostic opinions, both within and without the Church. 
 
 The grand principle of this philosophy seems to have been 
 an attempt to reconcile the difficulties attending upon the 
 existence of evil in the world. Evil, it was supposed, being 
 the contrary of good, must be contrary to, and, therefore, the 
 opponent of, God : if the opponent of God, then independent 
 of him and coeternal. From the many imperfections which 
 are involved in all outward and sensible objects, it was held 
 that matter must contain in itself the principle of all evil. 
 The human soul, on the contrary, which aspires after and 
 tends to a higher and more perfect development, was held 
 to be the gift of the Supreme Deity, imparted to man for the 
 sake of combating against the material principle, and with 
 the prospect of finally subduing it. From the Supreme God 
 on the one hand, and matter on the other, succeeding philos- 
 ophers produced various fanciful genealogies of superior in- 
 telligences, under the name of ./Eons — a Greek word, signi- 
 fying, properly, periods; thus representing these divinities 
 themselves by a name expressive of the time and order 
 of their generation, much as in our current language the 
 terms reign, or government, are frequently put for the king 
 or ministers governing. The Demiurgus, who formed the 
 world out of matter, appears to have been an ./Eon derived 
 from the evil principle. He was also the God of the Old 
 Testament, who was considered by the Gnostics to be an 
 object of aversion to the One Supreme God, to counteract 
 whose machinations the VEon Christ was sent into the 
 world. This is the earlier and simpler system, which is at- 
 tributed to Simon Magus : the number of the ^Eons was fan- 
 cifully multiplied in later times, and an extravagant theory 
 of morals founded upon die system. The object of these 
 « principally was, as may be supposed, to depreciate the hon- 
 our due to the body, as being a part of matter, and to ele- 
 vate the thinking facull}, or at least to remove it from all 
 consideration of worldly things. The Gnostics imagined 
 that by assiduous practice of certain mental and bodily aus- 
 terities, they could obtain an intuition of the divine nature, 
 and dwell in communion with it; and this part of their sys- 
 tem is adopted to a considerable extent by Clemens Alexan- 
 drinus, whose opinions, as expressed in his Pmdagogus, are 
 very similar to those of a Pietist of more modern times. 
 
 The Gnostics split in process of time into various sects, 
 522 
 
 GOLD. 
 
 distinguished rather by the different cosmogonies they m 
 vented, than by any variation in principle. Of these, tin 
 principal were founded by Carpocrates, Basilides, Tatian 
 and Valentinus. The system did not survive the 4th cen 
 tury. The Christians seem sometimes to have adopted th« 
 general designation of Gnostics. (See Burton's Bamptot 
 Lectures ; JVeander ; Mosheim, vol. i. (transl.), p. 133, &c. 
 Gieseler, Text-Book of Eccl. Hist., i. ; Riddle's Ckristiat 
 Antiquities, p. 133.) 
 
 GOAT, the English name for the well-known ruminarJ 
 of the genus Capra. The goat is characterized by its lonj 
 horns, which are rounded posteriorly, angular on the ante 
 rior edge ; transversely rugose, and rise at first perpendicu- 
 larly, afterwards bending outwards and a little backwards 
 It is clothed by long hair, which, in the Cashmere breed, i> 
 soft and fine, and forms the staple of the celebrated shawU 
 of that name. Beneath the long hair is a soft wool. The 
 female produces two kids at a birth, which derive their nour- 
 ishment from two teats supported on a large pendant udder. 
 The period of gestation is five months. The milk of the 
 goat is less apt to curdle on the stomach than that of tint 
 cow, and is thus better adapted for the weak and consump- 
 tive. The flesh of both the goat and kid is much esteemed 
 in many countries, though of a peculiar flavour, arising 
 probably from the aromatic shrubs and heaths on which the 
 goat delights to browse. In Portugal and other commies 
 the goat is used as a beast of draught. A notion of the 
 wholesome influence imparted by the goat to the stable in 
 which it may sleep, is very prevalent among the grooms of 
 this country. 
 
 GO'BBLNG. In mining, the refuse thrown back into the 
 excavations remaining after the removal of the coal. 
 
 GODROO'N. (Fr. godron.) In Architecture, an inverted 
 fluting, beading, or cabling, used in various ornaments and 
 mem here. 
 
 GO'DWIT. See Limosa. 
 
 GOG and MAGOG. The names of two warriors noticed 
 in different portions of the sacred writings (Gen., x. ; Ezekiel, 
 xxxviii., &c), and which, since the Christian era, have been 
 regarded as nearly synonymous with Antichrist. The au- 
 thor of ilu. ' | icalypae v x_\., 8) xses the terms to express the 
 nations hostile to Christianity ; and Mohammed, in the Ko- 
 ran (21, 96), employs them in a somewhat analogous Bona . 
 As is well known, the names Gog and Magog are given to 
 the two huge warlike figures that adorn the Guildhall of 
 London ; but it is impossible to account for this singular ap- 
 plication of the words. 
 
 GOITRE. See Bronchocele. 
 
 GOLA, or GULA. (Lat.) In Architecture, the same as 
 Cyma, which see. 
 
 GOLD. (Germ.) The most valuable and longest known 
 of the metals. It sometimes occurs in regular veins in pri- 
 mary mountain districts; but the largest quantity is found 
 in alluvial soils, and frequently in the beds and sands of 
 rivers, as in Africa, South America, Mexico, Hungary, and 
 Siberia. It is generally separated by washing away the 
 lighter materials with which it is mixed, and subsequently 
 by the progress of amalgamation. Gold has been from the 
 earliest period used as a measure of value and universal 
 equivalent. For details on this subject, see Money. 
 
 Gold is characterized by its yellow colour; its extreme 
 permanence in air and fire; its density, which is about 19-3; 
 its malleability, which is such that it may be beaten into 
 leaves not more than one two hundred and eighty thou- 
 sandth of an inch in thickness; and its ductility, a grain 
 of gold being drawn out into 500 feet of wire. Cold is not 
 acted upon by the common acids; but chlorine and nitro- 
 muriatic acid corrode and dissolve it, forming a chloride of 
 gold, which is soluble in water. 
 
 The alloys of gold have been examined in detail by Mr. 
 Hatchctt. (Phil. Trans., 1803.) Of these the most impor- 
 tant is that used for the gold coin of the realm, commonly 
 called standard gold, which consists of eleven parts of pure 
 gold and one of copper; it is extremely ductile and mallea- 
 ble, but harder than pure gold, and, therefore, better calcu- 
 lated to resist the wear and tear of circulation. The specific 
 gravity of this alloy is 17-157 : 20 lbs. troy of it are coined into 
 934 sovereigns and one half sovereign ; 1 lb. troy, therefore, 
 produces 46 29-40 sovereigns; the same weight was former- 
 ly coined into 44A guineas. The colour of this alloy is i!ee>i>- 
 er yellow than that of pure gold, and verses upon orange: 
 it frequently happens that a part of the alloy of gold coin is 
 silver, hence the pale colour of some sovereigns as com- 
 pared with others. Among the metals which destroy the 
 colour and malleability of gold, none is so remarkable as 
 lead. It appears from Mr. Hatchett's experiments, that 
 when lead forms about one two thousandth part of the al- 
 loy, it is too brittle for rolling, and that the fumes of lead 
 destroy the good qualities of gold. The chemical equiva- 
 lent of gold is probably about 200, and that of the protoxide 
 208, and of the protochloride 236. The peroxide is a com- 
 pound of one proportional of gold and three of oxygen, and 
 
GOLDEN FLEECE. 
 
 the pel chloride contains three proportionals of chlorine. 
 Win i thei is agitated with solution of chloride of gold, it 
 ip : ii. • metal, and forms a yellow ethereal solution of 
 gold; when polished steel instruments are dipped into this 
 solution, and immediately washed in water and wiped with 
 oft leather, they become- beautifully gilt with a 
 in EUmofgold. See Gilding. 
 GOLDEN FLEECE. See Argonauts, Fleece, Ate. 
 GO'LDEN NUMBER. See Cycle. 
 GO'LDEN RULE. See Rule. 
 
 GOLDFINCH. The common name of our well-known 
 and brigbtest-plumaged songster; the Carduelis elegans of 
 most modern ornithologists, FringUla carduelis of Linnsus. 
 This species feeds chiefly on the seed of the thistle and 
 plantain ; but builds its nest, which is of the neatest con- 
 struction, in the fork of B branch of some densely-leafed 
 .id lays four or five eggs, of a bluish white, spotted 
 With brown at the greater end. The female is less brightly 
 clad than the male, and the young have a comparatively 
 simple plumage, in which brown predominates. In captiv- 
 ity the goldfinch is remarkable for its docility, and is prized 
 for its beauty as well as its song. Hybrids are bred between 
 inch and canary, and are much admired. 
 !,!'. A game with a ball and clubs, almost peculiar 
 iland, where it enjoys a degree of popularity equal to 
 cricket in England. 
 
 i.T. See Gault. 
 GOMAIUTES. In Ecclesiastical History, the Calvinist 
 divines of the Church of Holland in the 17th century were 
 so called, from Francis Gomar, a colleague and opponent of 
 Arminius at Leyden. Ace Armi.mans. Musheim (trans.), 
 v,. v., 323.) 
 GOMPHl'ASIS. (Gr. yo,i0os, a nail.) A disease of the 
 when they loosen and fall out of the sockets. The 
 grinding teeth are also called gonpkioi. 
 
 IMPHO'SIS. (Gr. >M/id>ij$0 A species of junction of 
 bones where they are let into each other, something like 
 board. 
 i.n'.N'DOLA. (Ital.) The name given to the pleasure 
 e. where the numerous canals with 
 winch ii u ;. 'rally render i i sub- 
 
 stitute boats lor carriages. The gondola U from 25 to 30 
 feet long, and live feet wide in the eijitre. In which a sort 
 of cabin is constructed for passengers. They are sharp- 
 pointed both at the prow and stern, and are rowed by two 
 men called gondolieri. The cabins are always furnished 
 with black curtains, which give a sombre appearance to the 
 gondola at a distance, lor an accurate description of the 
 gondola, see Lord iiyron's Beppo, 19, 90. 
 
 QONFANON, or GONFALON. In Heraldry, a ban- 
 ner ; that of the Roman Catholic Church carried in the Pope's 
 army. The gonfalonier or standard bearer was a high offi- 
 cer in the Italian republics of the middle g 
 
 GONG, or TA.M TAM (of the Chinese). A species of 
 cymbal, which, on being struck, produces u very loud sound. 
 According to the analyst! of Klaproth, it consists of seventy- 
 eight parts copper and twenty-two parts tin. As this compo- 
 i- extremely brittle, and the Instrument always exhibits 
 marks of the hammer, it is Inferred that the Chinese pos- 
 sess the ait of rendering the alloy malleable, and restoring it 
 to its natural Mate ot elasticity and brittleness when the in- 
 strument is formed. It is struck with a wooden mallet cov- 
 ered with leather. 
 
 CO'NI AT1TES. (Gr. yoivin, an angle.) A genus of ex- 
 tinct Cephalopods with chambered spiral shells; nearly al- 
 lied lollw.lmmonitcs, hut dilfering in having the lobes of the 
 septa free from lateral crenatures or domiciliations, so that 
 the outline of these is continuous and uninterrupted. Goni- 
 atites are found in the mountain limestone of Yorkshire. 
 
 GONIOMETER. (Gr. yoii'ta, angle, and yurpov, meas- 
 ure.) An instrument for measuring angles, and more par- 
 ticularly the angles formed by the faces of crystals. Tire 
 Instrument, chiefly used by miner alugktts, was invented by 
 Dr. VVolIoston. It consists of a brass circle graduated on 
 the edge, and furnished with a 
 vernier, by which the divisions 
 may be read correct to a minute. 
 The circle moves in a vertical 
 plane, and is supported on a 
 stand. The axis of the circle is 
 a hollow tube, within which is a 
 smaller axis, fitting so tightly 
 that when turned round it car- 
 ries the other axis, and conse- 
 quently the wheel, along with 
 it, unless the latter is purposely 
 prevented from moving. The 
 axis is furnished with a 
 milled head n, and the exterior 
 with a milled head b; so that 
 when the head a is held and b turned, the circle may be 
 moved independently of the smaller axis ; and when b is 
 
 GOSPEL. 
 
 held and a turned, the smaller axis may bt turned indepenu- 
 ently of the circle. Attached to the end of the smaller 
 - a sort of universal joint, capable of being fixed in (lif- 
 ter, tit positions by means of screws. The crystal to be ex- 
 amined is attached to the joint at c by a little soft wax, and 
 placed so that its edge shall be parallel to the axis of mo- 
 . tion ; which adjustment is obtained by placing it so (bat the 
 image of some horizontal object, as the bar of u window, 
 j successively reflected from the two faces of the crystal, co 
 incides with another horizontal line seen by direct vision. 
 When this adjustment has been made, the instrument is 
 turned till the horizontal object is seen reflected from , 
 ! the faces. The smaller axis is then held fast, and the olhi I 
 : turned till the index of the vernier points to the zero of the 
 graduated limb. The circle is then turned round, along with 
 I the smaller axis, till the same object is seen in the san 
 I sition by reflection from the other face of the crystal ; when 
 j the arc passed through by the circle is obviously the supple- 
 I ment of the angle formed by the two faces of the crystal. 
 In order, however, to avoid calculation, the supplements oi 
 I the angles are marked on the limb, so that the angle to bt 
 measured is mad at? immediately. 
 
 Other forms of the goniometer have been proposed by 
 Charles, Mai us, und Brewster. [Sea Hint, Traiti lie I'hys- 
 ii/ue, torn. iii. ; and Brtwstt r's Treatise on Philosophical Jn- 
 I struments.) 
 
 | GO'MU'LAX. (Gr. yunii, a knee, and tt\uI. a plate.) 
 
 I A genus of crabs or short tailed Crustaceans (Urachyuri), 
 
 characterized by the ungulai, square, Of rhomboulal form Of 
 
 their upper crustaceous plate or carapace, and by the length 
 
 • of the eye-stalks. One iptrifa [Q*noplas riomMdet) In- 
 
 habtM the Mediterranean, and is a good sw uiimer ; but BOBl 
 
 I of the rest of the genus are tropical. 
 
 G« i'.WS. (Gr. mm,) In Ornithology, the interior mar- 
 gin of the lymphyatl of the lower jaw, or the united anterior 
 
 extremities of the guatbidia. 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY. The in. me given in England to the 
 anniversary of our Bavktu'i crucifixion. The French and 
 
 most other European nations substitute the epithet holy for 
 pood: the Germans designate mil day " SlillerfreitHg," or 
 "Char-freilug:'' the latter a| \* lieri' i I now an 
 
 old word, "charon," signifying to do penance, or to suffer. 
 From the first dawn of Christianity, Good Friday has been 
 regarded as a solemn festival b] the great body ol the Chris 
 ti.in world. 
 
 GOOD WILE. In Law, the custom of any trade oi 
 business. A contract to transfer it is, in general, good til 
 law, though not usually enforced in equity. In w b 
 the good Will of a partnership can be claimed as property by 
 the representatives of a deceased partner appears doubtful 
 
 GOOSE. 8m Asas. 
 
 GOO'SEWINGS Oi-' A SAIL. Half the tall 
 the other half being kept furled, from the violence of the 
 wind. 
 
 GO'RDIAN KNOT, in History, was a knot made by Got 
 dins, king of Phrygia, in the harness of his chariot, so intri- 
 cate as to barBe every eti'ort to untie it. The oracle having 
 declared that he who untied this knot should be the con- 
 queror of the world, Alexander the Great, as is well known 
 made the attempt ; but fearing lest, in the event of his fail- 
 ure, it should be considered as a bad omen, and interpose an 
 obstacle to his future conquests, he cut it asunder with his 
 sword, and thus, says Utiintus Curtius, cither fulfilled the 
 oracle or eluded it. Aristobulus, however, gives a different 
 version of the story. (See Arrian, book iii., c. 20 ; and Plu- 
 tarch, in vit. .'lie i.) 
 
 GORGE. (Er.) In Fortification, the entrance into a bas- 
 tion or other outwork. The gorge of a bastion is what re- 
 mains of the sides of the polygon of a place after cutting off 
 the curtains. The gorge of a ravelin, or demilune, is the 
 space between the two ends of the faces next the place, 
 The demi-gorgc is that part of the polygon between the flank 
 and the centre of the bastion. .See Fortification. 
 
 Gorge. In Architecture, the same as cavctlo, which see. 
 
 GO'RGET. (l'r. gorge, a throat.) In Plate-armour, the 
 piece covering the neck attached to the helmet. The old 
 covering for the neck was called camai/, made of leather or 
 cloth, and attached to the hood ; on this plates of steel were 
 riveted ; and thus the gorget was formed, about the time cf 
 Edward II. The name is supposed to have originated in 
 Loinbardy. 
 
 Gorget. A surgical instrument used in the operation of 
 lithotomy. 
 
 GORGONEI'A. (Gr.) In Architecture, carvings of masks 
 imitating the Gorgon or Medusa's head. 
 
 GO'RGONS. In Mythology, three sister deities, fabled by 
 the Greeks to dwell near the Western Ocean. Their heads, 
 which were twined with serpents instead of hair, had the 
 power of turning all who beheld them to stone; of which 
 property P e rs eus made use sifter he had, by the help oi 
 Minerva, cut oil' the head of Medusa. 
 
 GO'SPEE is used to signify the whole system of the Chri* 
 
 523 
 
UOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 tian religion, and more particularly, as the term literally im- 
 plies, the good news of the coining of the Messiah. The 
 word was also originally applied to the books which con- 
 tained an account of the life of Christ, many of which were 
 in ci rculation in the first century of the Christian era ; though 
 only four, those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were 
 considered canonical by the fathers. 
 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture, and 
 English Architecture. 
 
 GOULA'RD'S EXTRACT OF LEAD. A subacetate 
 of lead, obtained by boiling powdered litharge in vinegar. 
 
 GOUT. The origin of this term, from the French goute, 
 is obscure : it is a common disease among the higher classes 
 of society, especially among those who indulge in the luxu- 
 ries of the table, or inherit a disposition to its attack. Fe- 
 males are much less subject to it than males. Medical wri- 
 ters have distinguished several species of gout, and have 
 called the disease in its ordinary form the regular gout. The 
 first symptoms of its attack are those of dyspepsia and irreg- 
 ularity of bowels, low spirits, and some fever and restless- 
 ness ; but these often pass unobserved, till the patient is 
 roused in the night by violent pain in some part of the leg, 
 generally in the vicinity of the great toe, and of one foot only : 
 there is much throbbing and uneasiness, with more or less 
 swelling and inflammation, and the least motion commonly 
 produces great increase of suffering. After some hours the 
 pain and fever abate, perspiration conies on, he falls asleep, 
 and awakes comparatively easy. These fits or paroxysms are 
 apt to return at intervals, and often every evening ; but they 
 decrease in violence, and at length gooff, frequently with some 
 decided increase of perspiration or other evacuation : the af- 
 fected part itches, and the cuticle peels off, more or less lame- 
 ness or uneasiness remaining. But the fit only thus leaves 
 the patient for a time, and returns at intervals of longer or 
 shorter duration, according to his habit of body and the care 
 which he takes of himself; and the attacks not only become 
 more frequent and severe, but last longer, and extend to 
 other limbs; and when they have been frequently repeated, 
 they leave a permanent stiffness of the joints, upon which 
 gouty concretions are often deposited : and if much attention 
 is not paid to the state of the urine, fits of sand and gravel 
 not uncommonly precede or accompany those of gout. 
 Where the disease is of long standing, and the form of it 
 severe, the body becomes maimed and decrepit, and the mind 
 often worn and irritable ; the joints of the feet and hands, 
 and even the larger joints of the extremities, are stiff and 
 nearly immovable ; and the formation of the chalky matter, 
 as it is called, about the joints increases. If we consider the 
 nature of this secretion in the joints, which is urate of soda, 
 and the tendency of gouty persons to those morbid states of 
 the kidneys and urine which depend upon excess of uric 
 acid, and even upon the frequent alternation of fits of gravel 
 with those of gout, the question will naturally suggest itself 
 whether gout is not a symptom of what is often termed the 
 uric diathesis, and whether the remedies applicable to it 
 may not be beneficial in gout ; and that in many cases they are 
 so, seems to have been amply proved by experience. (See 
 Calculi.) It was once a favourite maxim that the gout 
 was an effort of the system to relieve itself of some peccant 
 matter ; that, therefore, it was to be left almost to itself, and 
 that patience and flannel were the chief remedies : this 
 method still has its advocates, chiefly in consequence of the 
 dangerous results that have sometimes attended more active 
 plans of treatment in causing the revulsion of the gout from 
 the limb to the stomach or head. But though there may be 
 a difference of opinion in regard to certain energetic modes 
 of relieving the disease, no one can object to the adoption of 
 gentle means of quieting the urgency of the symptoms, and 
 to the adoption of such diet and plan of living as appears to 
 diminish the frequency of their occurrence. Warm laxa- 
 tives, moderate diaphoretics and diuretics, and occasionally 
 Opiates, are among the former; and plain food or vegetable 
 diet, with moderate exercise and tonics, are good preventives. 
 Those, however, who have witnessed the sufferings of a reg- 
 ular paroxysm, and the evils of its duration and repetition, 
 will see the necessity of doing something more; that is, of 
 speedily quelling the pain and carrying off the attack, if it 
 can be done with any chance of safety and success; and 
 this experience shows to be often the case, though much 
 care and judgment are undoubtedly requisite in conducting 
 such treatment. In strong and healthy habits, the affusion 
 of cold water is one of the most effective palliatives of the 
 pain and inflammation ; and by its timely application, in 
 proper cases, the most beneficial results have ensued. An- 
 other celebrated remedy in this disease, and which by some 
 has improperly been called a specific, is colchicum, or meadow 
 saffron — a due dose of which, taken at bed-time, luis carried 
 off the paroxysm ; and this it often does without any re- 
 markable evacuation, though it sometimes handles the pa- 
 tient severely as a purgative, and nauseates and depresses to 
 an alarming extent. This method of cure must not be un- 
 advisedly and generally adopted ; but in some cases, where 
 "524 
 
 GOVERNOR. 
 
 gout had been long established, and where the frequency 
 and duration of the fits and their inroads uixin the constitu 
 tion were increasing to an alarming extent, and that at an 
 advanced period of life, colchicum, carefully administered 
 seems to have carried off the severity, if not the frequency 
 of the attacks, and to have prolonged existence in conse 
 quence. But there are forms of gout, and consequences ol 
 gout, the management of which requires the utmost skill 
 and experience: it is sometimes transferred or translated 
 from the limbs to some internal part, in which case it is call- 
 ed rctrocedent gout ; or it produces sickness, dejection of 
 spirits, fainting, palpitation, and giddiness, as in what is 
 termed atonic gout ; or it falls at once upon some internal 
 part, especially the stomach, and is then called misplaced 
 gout. In gout of the head and of the stomach the symp 
 toms are often frightfully severe, and the pain excessive 
 and as these forms of gout are of most common occurrence 
 in debilitated habits and broken constitutions, they become, 
 on that account, the more difficult to treat : the expulsion 
 of the disease to the extremities is in such cases sometimes 
 effected by either brandy or what are termed gout cordials, 
 which generlly consist of warm aperient tinctures; but be- 
 fore these are administered, it must be ascertained that the 
 symptoms are really those of gout, and not idiopathic or 
 common inflammatory actions. In such cases, putting the 
 feet in warm water has sometimes been serviceable. The 
 moderate use of alkaline remedies, of a vegetable diet, of 
 certain diuretics, and, generally speaking, the adoption of 
 those plans of regimen and medicine which are useful in 
 the uric diathesis, are also useful in gout ; and everything 
 which tends to repair the constitution, generally will lessen 
 the liability to its attacks, and render them more managea- 
 ble when they occur. The indolent and sedentary must 
 use moderate exercise, and those who habitually over-exert 
 either body or mind must endeavour to tranquillize both : 
 without such precautionary measures are mosf perempto- 
 rily enforced, no gouty person can expect much benefit from 
 physic. 
 
 GOU'TY CONCRETIONS. These form in the joints of 
 gouty persons, especially of the toes and fingers, and are 
 sometimes, from their appearance, called chalk stones ; they 
 are composed of uric acid and soda. 
 
 GO'VERNMENT. In Politics, a word used in different 
 senses. 1. As the collective body of the fundamental laws 
 of a slate: as when the government of a country is said to 
 be monarchical, aristocratical, &c. 2. The body of persons 
 charged with the conduct of the executive in any country 
 thus, the king or presiding magistrate, the cabinet ministers 
 chiefs of departments, &c, in every country, form what is 
 commonly styled Its government. 
 
 GO'VERNOR. A contrivance for regulating the speed 
 of machinery, which has long been in use in mill-work,_but 
 has of late years attracted more attention by its adaptation 
 to the steam-engine. It consists of two heavy balls B B, 
 attached to the extremities of 
 two rods B F, B F, which play 
 upon a joint at E, passing 
 through a mortise in the ver- 
 tical shaft 1) D. These are 
 united by joints at F to the 
 short rods F II, which again i 
 are connected by joints at II 
 to a ring which slides on the 
 shaft D D. A horizontal wheel, 
 
 W, is attached to D D, having a groove to receive a rope or 
 strap on its rim, by means of which the motion is commu- 
 nicated to D D from a corresponding wheel on some shaft 
 of the machinery to be regulated. It is evident, from the 
 disposition of the rods, that if the balls B B are by any 
 means raised or drawn asunder, the extremities P F of the 
 rods turning on the pivot E will also be separated, and their 
 distance from the axis increased. This will draw the rods 
 F II in the same direction, and cause the ring or collar H to 
 descend. This ring is connected with the end I of a lever, 
 whose fulcrum is at G, and whose other extremity K is 
 connected by some means with the part of the machine 
 which supplies the power. Suppose now the velocity from 
 any cause to undergo a sudden increase; by reason of the 
 increased centrifugal force arising from the whirling motion, 
 the balls B B will recede from the shaft D D, and raise the 
 extremity K of the lever. On the other hand, if the velocity 
 is diminished, the centrifugal force of the balls will be di- 
 minished, and they will fall by their own weight nearer the 
 axis, and cause the end K of the lever to descend. When 
 the governor is applied to a steam-engine, the rod K 1 com 
 municates with a flat circular valve V, placed in the prin 
 cipal steam-pipe, and so arranged that when K is elevated 
 as far as the divergence of the balls will allow, the opening 
 of the pipe will be closed by the valve V, and the passage 
 of steam entirely stopped. On the other hand, when the 
 balls subside to their lowest position, the valve will be en 
 tirely open. Thus, when the velocity Ls increased, the suo- 
 
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. 
 
 ply of steam \a checked; and when it is diminished, the 
 supply of steam is Immediately increased; by which means 
 a uniform proper Telocity of the machinery is maintained. 
 
 When the governor is applied to a water-wheel, the lever 
 is made to act on the shuttle through which the water 
 flows, and thereby controls its quantity. When applied to 
 a windmill, it regulates the sailcloth so as to diminish the 
 efficacy of the power upon the arms as the force of the 
 wind Increases, or vice versa. (Lardner's Cyclopedia, art. 
 "Mechanics;" Gregory's Mechanics, vol. ii.) See, also, 
 Regulator. 
 
 ItNOR-GENERAL, THE, OK INDIA, is also the 
 head ill the local government of the presidency of Bengal. 
 He exercises some of the most InpoMal rights of sover- 
 eignty ; as, declaring war and making peace, framing trea- 
 to a certain extent, enacting laws. He has a 
 onsUttng of five members; of whom three are ser- 
 the Company; one appointed by the directors, but 
 not ■ •errant of the Company; and the filth is the com- 
 mander-in-chief. But the governor-general Is independent 
 of his council, except in a judicial capacity. If the council 
 IS members can record their reasons; such dissent, 
 operates as a suspensive veto on the decision 
 tremor-general for forty-eight hours. He has the 
 .'in of captain-general, and may head military op- 
 In any part of India. Ho has also the power of 
 suspending the governors of the other presidencies. But in 
 Ites wiili his own council or other governor, he is 
 under the supervision of the Court of Directors and Board 
 of Control at home. Regulations passed by the governor- 
 general in council become immediately effective, but are 
 reversal by the home authorities. 
 
 GRACE 'I. at. gratia), in the language of the New Testa- 
 ment, is primarily the favour and love of God towards any 
 person : from thence it comes to be used in various deriva- 
 •m, being put generally for all the extraordinary 
 means and assistances with which men are endowed to 
 bring them to salvation, in all of which regard is had to the 
 of Christ as the ground upon which God vouch- 
 safes them. The term Is used, farther, for the good actions 
 and dispositions of men, which may be supposed to be deri- 
 ved from the operation of the grace of God in the first in- 
 stance. 
 
 Th« explanation of the term "grace" has given rise to 
 some >f the most remarkable controversies in ecclesiastical 
 history. It is evident that it borders close upon the question 
 of (toe-will nnd necessity, and the discussion of the one is 
 inextricably entangled in the difficulties that beset the other. 
 The Pelagians, holding extreme opinions on the side of the 
 freedom of the will, conceived the idea of grace operating 
 from without, and controlling or in any way directing men's 
 actions, to be subversive of their fundamental principle: 
 they contrived, therefore, to understand the words of Scrip- 
 ture throughout of the nitural good dispositions of men, 
 whom they supposed to find favour in the sight of God by 
 their own merit, and by their own voluntary acceptance of 
 his promises to inherit eternal life. St. Augustin, on the 
 contrary, maintained against them that the mere desire for 
 grace is itself a special gift of God; a free grace independ- 
 ent of and antecedent to any human actions, to the exclusion 
 of any counteracting principle ; a doctrine which, if rigidly 
 Interpreted, seems certainly irreconcilable with that degree 
 of liberty which is a necessary element in the moral gov- 
 ernment of the world. 
 
 Grace. In the Fine Arts, a qunllty arising from ele- 
 
 ?;ance of form and attitude combined. A figure may be just 
 n its proportions, its parts and members may be all perfect- 
 ly regulated, yet it may be deficient in grace. It is scarcely 
 possible in words to express this quality, yet it is constantly 
 seen in nature ; and it is scarcely possible to contemplate a 
 picture by RafTaelle without feeling its power. 
 
 GRACE AT MEALS, THE SAYING OF, is a Jewish 
 custom, and appears to have been sanctioned by the prac- 
 tice of our Saviour. (Mark, viii., 6 ; Matth., xiv., 19.) It is 
 mentioned by Jerome and Tertullian as usual among the 
 early Christians. A custom of beginning meals by prayers 
 was common in classical antiquity. (Livy, xxxix., 43 ; 
 Quinti'. Declam., 301.) 
 
 GRACE, DAYS OF, in Commercial Law, are certain 
 days allowed by the custom of merchants to be odded to the 
 time requisite for presentment of a bill. Thus, if an instru- 
 ment drawn in this country be payable "a certain time after 
 date," three days of grace are added; a bill drawn on the 
 27th of August, payable "two months after date," is there- 
 fore due on the 30th of October. So if a foreign bill be 
 drawn at one, two, or more " usances," the days of grace 
 are added to the usance. The usance between London 
 and Paris is one calendar month : a bill drawn in London 
 on Paris, " at one usance," on the second January, is conse- 
 quently due on the fifth February. The number of days of 
 grace varies in different countries. In France none are al- 
 lowed. 
 
 GRAFTING. 
 
 GRA'CES. (Gr. xapirec; Lat. gratis.) In Mythology, 
 the three sister goddesses, Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, 
 attendants on Venus. The Graces, in Sculpture, were ori- 
 ginally represented clothed ; but in later times entirelv na- 
 ked. (Nor. Od., lib. iii. ; Pausan., lib. ix.) In one of the 
 groups of statues described by Pausanias they held respect- 
 ively a rose, a die, and a leaf of myrtle. In the Iliad they 
 appear as attendants of Juno; in the Odyssey, of Venus 
 Their temples were often dedicated, also, to Venus, to Cu- 
 pid, the Muses, Mercury, or Apollo. (There is a disserta- 
 tion on these goddesses by Massieu, Acad, des Inscr., vol. iii.) 
 
 Graces. In Music, ornamental notes attached to princi- 
 pal ones, such as the appoggiatura, shake, &c. ; which see. 
 
 GR ACIO'SO. The buffoon ; a favourite character on the 
 Spanish stage. (See Quart. Rev., vols, lix., lxxviii.) 
 
 GRA'CULA. (Lat. graculus, a jay.) A genus of Denti- 
 rostral Passerine birds, characterized by a moderately long, 
 slightly arched, and notched beak; nostrils situated anterior 
 to the base of the beak, oblong, open, and notched; tongue 
 with a short apex, often bifid. One species of this genus 
 (Gracula tristis, Cuv.) is a native of India, nnd has bean 
 imported into the islands of Bourbon and the Mauritius. 
 where it is held in the highest estimation for the services it 
 performs in restraining the undue increase of locusts. The 
 bird commonly called the mino grackle (Gracula rcligiosa 
 of Linnsus) is the tvpe of the genus Eulabes of Cuvier. 
 
 GRADATION. '(Lat. grndus, a step.) In Painting, the 
 gradual blending of one tint into another, 
 
 Grada'tion. In Music, a diatonic ascending or descend 
 ing succession of chords. 
 
 GRA'DATORY. (Lat. gradus.) A term applied in 
 Mammalogy to the extremities of a quadruped which are 
 equal, or nearly so, nnd adapted for ordinary progression on 
 dryland. In Ornithology, the "pedes grndarii" are those 
 in which the whole tibia is covered with feathers. 
 
 GRA'DIKNTS. 8m Railways. 
 
 GRA'DUATE. (Lat. gradus.) One who has taken a 
 degree in a college or university. See Decree, College, 
 University. 
 
 GRADUA'TED. In Ornithology, when the quill-feath- 
 ers of the tail increase in length by regular gradntions. 
 
 GRADUATION. In Practical Astronomy, the division 
 of circular arcs into degrees, minutes, &c. This Is an art 
 which, though depending on the geometrical properties of 
 the circle, requires, to be successfully executed, the appli- 
 cation of very great practical skill. For the principles, see 
 Mascheroni, Geometric du Compos ; nnd for the practical 
 part, Troughton's Account of a Method of Dividing Astro- 
 nomical and other Instruments, &c, in the Phil. Trans., 
 1800; also, the nrticlc "Graduation" in Brewster's JSncyc, 
 by the same eminent artist. 
 
 GRADUA'TOR. Contrivances for accelerating sponta 
 neous evaporation by the exposure of large surfaces of li- 
 quids to a current of air have been termed grnduators; and 
 in somi! salt-works, where the brine is strengthened by al- 
 lowing a shower of it to trickle over fagots, the process is 
 called graduntinn. Vinegar is sometimes manufactured by 
 suffering a mixture of alcohol and water previously mixed 
 with a little vinegar or some ferment to filter through n tub 
 filled with beech shavings, through which a current of air 
 is at the same time passing. 
 
 GRA'FTING. In Horticulture, the operation of affixing 
 one portion of a plant to another in such a manner as that 
 a vital union may take place between them. Grafting may 
 be performed both with herbaceous and ligneous plants; 
 but in practice it is chiefly confined to the latter, and more 
 especially to the propagation of esteemed vnrieties of fruit- 
 trees. A grafted plant consists of two parts: the stock or 
 stem, which is a rooted plant fixed in the ground ; and the 
 scion, sometimes, but erroneously, termed the graft, which 
 is a detached portion of another plant to be affixed to it 
 The operation of grafting can only be performed within cer- 
 tain physiological limits; but what these are science has 
 not yet absolutely determined. 
 
 In general, all the species of one genus may be grafted 
 on one another reciprocally ; but this is not universally the 
 case, because the apple cannot be grafted on the pear, at 
 least not for any useful purpose. In general, it may be pre- 
 sumed that all the species of a natural order, or at least of 
 a tribe, may be grafted on one another; but this does not 
 hold good universally. The reverse of this doctrine, how- 
 ever, viz., that the species belonging to different natural or- 
 ders cannot be grafted on one another holds almost univer 
 sally true ; and therefore a safe practical conclusion is, that 
 in choosing a stock, the nearer in affinity the species to 
 which that stock belongs is to the scion, the more certain 
 will be the success. 
 
 Grafting is one of the most important operations in horti- 
 culture, as affording the most eligible means of multiplying 
 and perpetuating all our best varieties of fruit-trees, and 
 many kinds of trees and shrubs not so conveniently propa- 
 gated by other means. Varieties of fruiUA are originally pro 
 
 585 
 
GRALL.E. 
 
 cured by selection from plants raised from seed, but they can 
 only be perpetuated by some mode which continues the in- 
 dividual ; and though this may be done by cuttings and lay- 
 ers, yet by far the most eligible mode is by grafting, as it 
 produces stronger plants in a shorter time than any other 
 methods. 
 
 Grafting is performed in a great many different ways, but 
 the most eligible for ordinary purposes is what is commonly 
 called splice grafting, or whip grafting. In executing this 
 mode, both the scion and the stock are pared down in a 
 slanting direction ; afterward applied together, and made 
 fast with strands of bast matting, in the same manner as two 
 pieces of rod are spliced together to form a whip handle. 
 To insure success, it is essentially necessary that the albur- 
 num or inner bark of the scion should coincide accurately 
 with the inner bark of the stock, because the vital union is 
 effected by the sap of the stock rising up through the soft 
 wood of the scion. After the scion is tied to the stock, the 
 graft is said to be made ; and it only remains to cover the 
 part tied, with a mass of tempered clay, or any convenient 
 composition that will exclude the air. " The season for per- 
 forming the operation is, for all deciduous trees and shrubs, 
 the spring, immediately before the movement of the sap. 
 The spring is also the most favourable season for evergreens ; 
 but the sap in this class of plants being more in motion du- 
 ring winter than that of deciduous plants, grafting, if thought 
 wry, might be performed at that season. 
 
 Grafting by approach, or inarching, is a mode of grafting, 
 in which, to make sure of success, the scion is not separated 
 from the parent plant till it has become united with the 
 stock. For this purpose, the stock and the plant containing 
 the scion must be growing close together ; and the scion be- 
 ing drawn to one side, and made to approach the stock, is 
 spliced to it by cutting off a portion of its bark and wood, 
 and a similar portion of the bark and wood of the stock, ap- 
 plying the one to the other so that their alburnums may join, 
 and then making both fast by matting, and excluding the air 
 by clay, grafting wax, or moss. When the scion has effect- 
 ed a vital union with the stock, its lower extremity is cut 
 through, so as to separate it from the parent plant, and it 
 now becomes an independent graft. In this way trees of 
 difficult propagation may be propagated with certainty ; 
 while if any of the other modes of propagation, whether by 
 cuttings or grafting, were adopted, a proportion of the cut- 
 tings or scions would, in all probability, be lost. 
 
 Grafting herbaceous plants differs in nothing from graft- 
 ing such as are of a woody nature, excepting that the opera- 
 lion is performed when both stock anil scion are in a state 
 of vigorous growth. Grafting herbaceous plants is but little 
 practised in England, and on the Continent chiefly as a mat- 
 ter of amusement. The only useful purpose to which it has 
 hitherto been applied is that of grafting the finer kinds of 
 dahlias on tubers of the more common and vigorous grow- 
 ing sorts. In the Paris gardens the tomato is sometimes 
 grafted on the potato, the cauliflower on the borecole, and 
 one gourd on another, as matter of curiosity. 
 
 Grafting the herbaceous shoots of woody plants — the greffe 
 herbacc of the French — is scarcely known among English 
 gardeners ; but it has been extensively employed by French 
 nurserymen, and even in some of the royal forests of France. 
 The scions are formed of the points of growing shoots; and 
 the stocks are also the points of growing shoots cut or bro- 
 ken over an inch or two below the point, where the shoot is 
 as brittle as asparagus. The operation is performed in the 
 cleft manner ; that is, by cutting the lower end of the scion 
 in the form of a wedge, and inserting it in a cleft or slit made 
 down the middle of the stock. The finer kinds of azalias, 
 pines, and firs are propagated in this way in the French nur- 
 series, and thousands of Pinus laricio have been so grafted 
 on Pinus sylvestres in the forest of Fontainebleau. At 
 Hopctoun House, near Edinburgh, this mode of grafting has 
 been successfully practised with Mies Smithiana, the stock 
 beins the common spruce fir. 
 
 GRA'LLiE. (Lat. gralla;, stilts.) The Linmean name 
 of the order of long-legged wading birds. 
 
 GRA'MINA'CEJS. An order of Endogenous plants, 
 commonly called grasses, in which the parts of fructifica- 
 tion are essentially perfect, although they are in a very unu- 
 sual state in what may be called their accessory organs. 
 They have neither calyx nor corolla; but, in lieu of them, 
 imbricated scales, calied paleae and glumes ; the latter of 
 which give rise to the name glumaceous, often applied to 
 these plants. They are nearly allied to sedges, from which 
 they differ in having the sheaths of their leaves slit and their 
 steins hollow. Corn of all kinds, the bamboo, the sugar- 
 cane, many kinds of pasture plants, and reeds, belong to 
 different species of Graminar,ea>.. Ergot is the ovary of rye 
 attacked by a fungus called F.rgotatia abortans. The flinty 
 surface of the stems or straw renders many valuable for 
 domestic use, as for forming the plat from which straw- 
 bonnets, &c, are manufactured. The systematical arrange- 
 ment of grasses is a difficult and unsatisfactory task, and 
 TO6 
 
 GRAMMAR. 
 
 has occupied the attention of many botanists. The most 
 recent work upon the subject is KuntlCs Agrostographia, 
 published at Berlin in 1836. Sinclair's Hortus (Irnmineut 
 Woburnensis is a useful account of the relative qualities of 
 pasture grasses. 
 
 GRAMMAR. (Gr. ypnuuuTtKn rex^Vt the grammatical 
 art; from ■ypufj>ii), I write.) The science which his for its 
 object the laws which regulate human language. Lan- 
 guage, in its widest acceptation, may be defined to be the 
 expression, by means of outward signs, of what passes m 
 the mind. If, therefore, it is to admit of rules, or general 
 laws, it is plain that we must seek those laws either in Jic 
 constitution of the mind where it originates, or of the out- 
 ward materials of which it is composed. These are either 
 sounds, visible images, or gestures. The first two of these, 
 as admitting of the greatest variety, and callable of being 
 most easily distinguished from each other, form by far the 
 most considerable part of language, and that part alone 
 which grammar takes account of. The material of lan- 
 guage, when it is sound, is capable of analysis into a definite 
 number of simple elements. It is not our object at present 
 to enter on the consideration of this part of language, wheth- 
 er consisting of sound, or marks to designate sound. VVe 
 pass on to its more important class of laws, which result 
 from the internal conditions of the mind ; and which, view- 
 ed in that reference, constitute the subject matter of philo- 
 sophical grammar, properly so called. An analysis of oar 
 mental faculties must therefore precede any attempt to de- 
 fine the province and settle the principles of grammar. Of 
 the various divisions of the human faculties proposed by 
 philosophers, we shall adopt as best suited to our purposes, 
 that which distinguishes them into two grand classes — the 
 province of affection, and that of perception or intellection. 
 The discriminating mark of the former class, under which 
 we include alike the outward senses and the inner sense or 
 emotion, is this, that the faculties which it includes imply a 
 state of mind or consciousness, and that only. By percep- 
 tion or intellection, on the other hand, are meant those states 
 of mind which refer to a real or supposed object, out of the 
 mind itself. "To know"' and "to know nothing" are con- 
 tradictory conceptions; every act of knowledge implies al 
 once an object and a mind to which that object is present 
 Each of these portions of the mind has its appropriate ex- 
 pression, its peculiar language. The language of emotion is 
 common to men and animals. It consists, for the most part, 
 of certain simple sounds or exclamations, which, if capable 
 of being reduced to rules at all, must rest for those rules on 
 physiological considerations, which form the province of 
 philosophical grammar. We must seek that province, con- 
 sequently, in the language of intelligence or reason. Ra- 
 tional discourse, or human language, may be figuratively ex- 
 pressed as the outward type or form which thoughts, and 
 the laws which regulate them, impress on the material of 
 sound. In the words of Plato, "reason and discourse are 
 one; only the former, as the conversation of the soul with 
 herself, which goes on without the intervention of Bound, 
 has obtained among us the name of discourse of reason." 
 We do not deny that language, in this limited sense, may 
 become the expression of emotion in ourselves, and excite 
 emotion in others. Both these objests, however, it can ef- 
 fect only mediately: the first, by converting, through reflec 
 tion, an emotion into an object of consciousness; by render 
 ing it intelligible to ourselves, then intelligible to others 
 the second, only through the understanding of those whom 
 we address. The laws of language must therefore corres- 
 pond with the laws of the intellect: if there is anything 
 universal and necessary in the one, its representative or 
 image must be found repeated in the other. But the neces- 
 sary laws of thought ore the object matter of logic. It 
 might therefore, seem that logic and universal grammar 
 are convertible terms. Both sciences consider alike the 
 forms of the intellect and the right mode of expressing 
 these forms in language. But they differ in this, that logic 
 considers the intellectual process primarily, and its rxpres 
 sion in language only incidentally; whereas grammar con 
 siders the former or.'y in so far as it conduces to the right 
 understanding and due regulation of the latter. Having 
 previously distinguished philosophical from merely practi- 
 cal or empirical grammar, we may now distinguish philo- 
 sophical grammar Itself into universal and particular. The 
 first, as we have seen, corresponds to logic : as the one is 
 the science of those conditions which must be presupposed 
 in order to render thought and intelligence possible ; so the 
 other contemplates the conditions which are to render pos- 
 sible the ouUcard expression of thought and intelligence. 
 The same relation which universal grammar bears to logic, 
 particular grammar, philosophically treated, may be said to 
 hold to the kindred science of psychology. It considers the 
 experimental laws of the mind with the same view with 
 which universal grammar contemplates those that are ne- 
 cessary. It takes into the account the effects of accidental 
 association, in order to explain the idioms or peculiaritiei 
 
GRAMMAR. 
 
 ot the particular language before it. It calculates, so to 
 speak, the disturbing forces which act on the general law. 
 
 In developing the principles of universal grammar, we 
 shall consider, in order, the various kinds of words or 
 14 parts of speech" into which language is ordinarily dis- 
 tinguished. 
 
 The first class of words corresponds to the faculty called 
 by logicians apprehension, or simple apprehension. They 
 are commonly named nouns, or substantives, or nouns sub- 
 tttntitt ; and express either individuals, as " John, Charles;" 
 or :lasses, as "man, animal." They arc called stibstan- 
 because they express a real or ssfpoeed substance 
 (I .at. sub, stare), a something which is conceived to stand 
 under, or, in scholastic language, to be the support of, cer- 
 tain qualities. These qualities may in their turn be consid- 
 ered as substances, and expressed by substantives, as white- 
 ness, greenness. When considered in relation to the sub- 
 stance of which they are properties, they constitute the 
 second class of words — adjicticts, or nouns adjective. Thus 
 y "a white horse, a dazzling whiteness;" where the 
 same conception which in the Cornel case la regarded as a 
 quality, and expressed by an adjective, is in the second con- 
 verted into a substance, itself the support of other properties. 
 Thus far the only Intellectual power implied in language 
 is that of forming general < A conception, when 
 
 formed, is callable of being resolved back into its constituent 
 parts. In the conception "stag" we find the property of 
 ■ tained This attribution of a quality to a sub- 
 stance is what logicians call a judgment ; its expression in 
 language is an affirmation, or proposition. The sign of this 
 attrihiiiion is called tin: copula: "The stag is swift." 
 Every judgment which has regard t alter of fact consid- 
 ers an event either as past, present, or future : " The hair 
 teas light, is dark, wi'l be gray." When the attribute prop- 
 erty or quality is combined with the copula or word signify- 
 ing the affirmation or attribution, a third class of words is 
 produced, to which we give the name of r.rbs. Thus in- 
 ■<\ saying, "the sun i» bright," we may say "the sun 
 where the latter form of expression is equivalent 
 to, or capable of being analyzed into, the former. A verb is 
 therefore a compound part of speech, consisting of an adjec- 
 tive and a copula or affirmation, and signifying not only the 
 conception of a property, but our perception or judgment 
 thai such property does inhere or belong to some substance, 
 e that it Acs belonged or will belong to it. The rela- 
 tion between property and substance, expressed in every 
 proposition, may be differently staled as the relation of part 
 to whole, of species to genus, of individual to Fpecies ; dis- 
 tinctions which do not concern us at present, inasmuch as 
 grammar, no less than logic, has regard only to our mode of 
 conceiving things, not to things as they are in llwnatllllM 
 
 The three parts of speech which we have thus analysed 
 — the substantive, the adjective, and the verb — arc colled 
 the primary or essential parts of s|ieech. They are those 
 without which no discourse could take place," no act of 
 judgment be communicated; in other words, without which 
 und* could have meaning. The parts of speech which 
 remain to be considered arc the pronoun, the article, the ad- 
 verb, the preposition, the conjunction, the interjection. 
 
 The pronoun is so called from its beintr a substitute for a 
 noun; a compendious contrivance to avoid repetition, or 
 needless and inconvenient specification: as, "John is tall 
 and As is handsome," which is equivalent to saying "John 
 Is tall and John is handsome." They are commonly subdi- 
 vided into personal or substantive, adjective, demonstrative, 
 relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns. 
 
 Articles are words joined to substantives, for the purpose 
 of defining whether the substance or conception is to be un- 
 derstood in a general sense, or in particular relation to an 
 individual. When the first is our intention, we use in Eng- 
 lish no article whatever: as, " Man is corrupt;" by which 
 we mean that corruption is an attribute of the genus " man," 
 and not of any particular individual to the exclusion of oth- 
 ers. In Greek, however, the use of the article is frequently 
 equivalent to the omission of it in English, as $ ivac6eia, 
 piety. If we used the article a or an, we should, in most 
 instances, mean that some individual or other of the species 
 was contemplated ; " I saw a horse." When we use the 
 definite article the, we mean to specify which individual of 
 the s|>ecics we have in view. 
 
 The adverb derives its existence from the difficulty of de- 
 fining by one word the precise quality of a particular object. 
 When we say a thing is "green," we may call up in the 
 minds of our hearers the image of a very different shade of 
 greenness from that which we are describing. If we say 
 it is " very green," our language is more definite. An ad- 
 verb may consequently be described as a mollifying part of 
 speech, joined with adjectives or verbs to define more accu- 
 rately the degree of the quality or circum-tances of the ac- 
 tion predicated. That it is not an essential part of language 
 b evident from the circumstance that its place may be su|>- 
 plied either by a termination, as "greenish," for "rather 
 
 green ;" or by a periphrasis, as 'he walks with speed," in 
 stead of " he walks rapidly." 
 
 I' repositions are those parts of speech which express rela- 
 tions between substances, and are consequently joined only 
 with substantives ; as, "from the city to the country." We 
 shall consider them more at length when we come to treat 
 of the inflections of words. 
 
 As predictions express objective relations, so conjunctions 
 may be said to repiesent those of a subjective nature; or 
 those relations which Ira perceive to exist between the 
 judgments of our own intellect, whether of mere succession, 
 of inference, or the like. They are consequently used to 
 connect p s pp osi no B* together; as, "John Is wise, taiisfbn 
 he is good ;" "John is wise because he is good," &.c- They 
 arc to the syllogistic faculty, or the faculty which perceives 
 the connexion and dependance of simple Judgments, what 
 the copula is to the faculty which forms these judgments. 
 As the one forms words into propositions, so the other are 
 v to combine propitious into sentences. 
 
 The intirjictwn is the expression of amotions, and emo- 
 tions only. It is not, therefore, confined to human dis- 
 course: and ns it has nothing to do with the operations of 
 the intellect, is incapable of logical combination with other 
 words. It might therefore be doubted whether it can with 
 propriety be called a part of speech or not. 
 
 We have said that the last-mentioned " parts of speech" 
 were not necessary constituents of language. We so far 
 qualify that assertion, in regard to prepositions in particular, 
 as to admit that they are tl> and model of con- 
 
 ceptions which the human understanding unavoidably 
 forms. Whether, in technical language, the necessity be a 
 formal or n material necessity, we forbear to discuss at 
 large ; since it is a subject on which logicians are not agreed. 
 We ourselves are inclined, with Kant, to think it formal. 
 We conceive the relations of cause and effect, of time and 
 place, of action and passion, to be as much pure educt of 
 the understanding, and as independent for their form on ex- 
 jierience, ns those of part and whale, substance and attri- 
 bute, which we have teen to constitute the necessity for the 
 primary parts of speech. They differ, however, in this, that 
 the latter must enter into every proposition to render it a 
 proposition at all ; while those we are now considering may 
 or may not, according to thfl matter in hand. In all lan- 
 guages they are expressed more or less perfectly. In our 
 own, and in the other branches of the Teutonic stock, litis 
 expression is effected in two ways. Either the relation in- 
 tended to be implied i- expressed by an affix or prefix to the 
 radical or abstract portion of the word itself; or the relation 
 is regarded as abstracted from all particular objects between 
 which it might be conceived to subsist, and, so abstracted, 
 is embodied in a distinct word or particle. Thus what the 
 Latins expressed by the termination o or i, as "domino," 
 "nub?," is represented in English by the prepositions " to" 
 or "for." Generally speaking, the earlier a language the 
 richer it is found to be in terminations ; which, as the fac- 
 ulty of abstraction becomes habitual, are commonly abridg 
 ed in number, and replaced by particles. A word which 
 admits a variety of such modifications is said to be declina- 
 ble. The only declinable or inflected parts of speech are the 
 substantive and the verb, and in some languages the adjec- 
 tive and participle, with the representative parts of speech, 
 the pronoun and article. The reason of this is sufficiently 
 obvious. It is between SBBPOsed substances that the rela- 
 tions of cause and effect and those of place are conceived to 
 exist ; while the relations of time pertain to action and pas- 
 sion, or those changes in the state of substances which are 
 expressed in language by verbs. The declension of adjec- 
 tives is an anomaly in language. It probably results from 
 the facility with which we convert in our thoughts a quali- 
 ty or attribute into a substance: unless it is to be accounted 
 for by what grammarians call "attraction ;" a supposed in- 
 fluence which the inflexion of n word exerts over those im- 
 mediately in contact with it, and which is owing partly, per- 
 haps, to the desire of euphony, and partly to a confusion of 
 thoutrht, the effect of association. The sum total of the 
 modifications which the words of a language admit consti- 
 tute what Is called the accidence of that language. The 
 circumstances under which such modifications or inflexions 
 take place are the subject-matter of that part of grammar 
 which is named syntax. These inflexions are, in nouns, 
 case, number, and gender; in verbs, tense, mood, person, 
 and, in most languages, number. 
 
 The cases of nouns are the expression of the relations of 
 substances. In Latin there nre, besides the nominative, or 
 absolute form of a conception, and the vdSstive, used in ad- 
 dressing or calling to another person (a compound of a noun 
 and an interjection), four cases properly so called ; the geni- 
 tive, the dative, the accusative, and the ablative. Of these 
 the English language retains in Its nouns one only, the geni- 
 tive ; in its pronouns two, the genitive und accusative. Al' 
 other cases it replaces by prepositions. 
 
 The genitive case expresses the relation of properly, a 
 
GRAMMAR. 
 
 single conception is capable of being analyzed into a number 
 of constituent parts, which are either necessary to the whole 
 conception, or bound up with it by association more or less 
 habitual. We represent this process in language by some 
 change either in the word which signifies the property, or in 
 that which denotes the containing substance. The last is 
 the case in most European languages. Thus, we speak of a 
 "horse's colour," of " Socrates' philosophy." 
 
 The dative case implies participation in the effect of an 
 action, expressed in English by the preposition "to" or 
 " for." " Dedi ei," " I gave it to him ;" where the effect of 
 my act of giving is shared only by another. 
 
 The accusative is used where the effect of an action is 
 conceived a* passing over entire to another substance: 
 "Laceravi .ibrum," " / tore the book;" where the whole of 
 the immediate effect is conceived as confined to the book 
 which I tear. It is also called the objective case. 
 
 The ablative case, if we regard its etymology only, we 
 should define to be that which expresses loss or privation. 
 In this sense it ought to be considered as a modification of 
 the dative, or the case which expresses the incidental or 
 participated effects of an action ; and we accordingly find 
 that in Latin the English preposition "from" is frequently 
 expressed by the dative. There is, however, a kind of rela- 
 tion which no other case serves precisely to convey, that of 
 outward proximity, which is expressed in English by such 
 prepositions as at, near, by, upon, and in Latin by the abla- 
 tive case, which consequently is not so useless or superflu- 
 ous a form as some grammarians have considered it to be. 
 
 Besides the inflexion of case, nouns admit, in most lan- 
 guages, those of number and gender. The latter is a mere 
 generalization from experience ; and though it may be con- 
 venient to have a termination to designate it, it is not neces- 
 sary, as is apparent from our own language, which expresses 
 this distinction only in its pronouns, and in some few of its 
 substantives. Our conceptions of number are doubtless 
 conditions of our mental constitution. They may be gener- 
 alized under the forms of unity simple, unity comprehen- 
 sive, and plurality. Unity, whether regarded simply or as 
 an aggregate, is expressed by the singular number. Many 
 languages, besides singular and plural, have a form to de- 
 note duality, or two things tog-ether; a fact which, proba- 
 bly, is owing to the duality of the parts of the human body, 
 as the hands, feet, &c. 
 
 We proceed to consider the different kinds of verbs, and 
 their modifications. Verbs are divided into transitive, in- 
 transitive, and passive. They admit necessarily of time 
 and mood ; accidentally and by usage of person and number. 
 
 A property, taking the word in the most general sense of 
 which it is capable, may be conceived either as a state, a 
 process, or as a power in action. To the first two corre- 
 spond the verbs commonly called intransitive, or neuter, as 
 "I rest," "I grow," "I fall." When a power is in action, 
 we measure it by its effects on some substance ; we con- 
 ceive the action as passing on to another object, as " the 
 clouds bring rain." The verb which expresses this transi- 
 tion is called the verb active or transitive. But not only are 
 we able to conceive an object exerting power; we may also 
 consider it as susceptible of influence or change from the 
 action of another object. This is expressed by the verb 
 passive, as "the dog was beaten." Many other modifica- 
 tions of action and change have their appropriate forms in 
 different languages. Such are the verb middle or reflex in 
 Greek, the verbs frequentative and desiderative in Greek 
 and Latin. These, however, are matters of idiom, not of 
 universal necessity. 
 
 Equally extensive with the conceptions of cause and ef- 
 fect is that of time, as the universal condition of all change 
 i;i nature. The words which signify the one must therefore 
 be capable of expressing the other. Hence the necessity for 
 tenses in verbs, or the inflexions which determine the time 
 of the action, as present, past, or future. We may farther ab- 
 stract an action from its relation to time altogether; and 
 this attraction is in some languages, as in the Greek, repre- 
 sented by a form appropriate to the purpose, called the 
 aorist. 
 
 The modifications of verbs which we have been consider- 
 ing concern change or action objectively, or in relation to 
 the substances which they are supposed to affect. Our 
 judgments themselves are also liable to certain modifica- 
 tions, which, as regarding only the way in which we con- 
 ceive of events, may be said to constitute the subjunctive 
 condiiions of verbs. Our knowledge of an occurrence may 
 be either certain or uncertain ; and uncertain either abso- 
 lutely, or only under particular suppositions. When we 
 simply express our judgment that a tiling is, has been, or 
 will be, in such and such a state, we are said to speak indic- 
 atively, or in the indicative mood. When we consider a 
 thing as possible merely, we use the potential mood, denoted 
 in English by the auxiliary verbs " may" or " might." 
 When we speak of it as dependant for its occurrence on 
 certain conditions, or in case of its occurrence as connected 
 528 
 
 GRANITE. 
 
 with certain probable or inevitable consequences, we use the 
 conjunctive mood : " I would go, if he would let nie." Dif- 
 ferent languages express these modifications of judgment 
 more or less perfectly ; none, perhaps, with absolute accuracy. 
 
 Two other modal forms still remain to be considered. 
 They have been called by grammarians the imperative and 
 optative moods, as conveying the expression of a command 
 or a wish. They may be included under the general term 
 of desiderative, and imply at once the conception of an event, 
 and our desire that that event should take place. They may 
 therefore be regarded as forming the connecting link between 
 verbs and interjections ; between the words which belong to 
 the perceptive and those which pertain to the emotive part 
 of our nature. 
 
 What is commonly named the infinitive mood may be con- 
 sidered as the point of transition from a verb to a substan- 
 tive. It is, so to speak, a substantized attribute, and Is used 
 as the subject of a proposition as correctly as substantives 
 themselves : e. g., " To die is gain." 
 
 The participle is usually ranked as a separate part of 
 speech. It may be said to hold the same intermediate place 
 between a verb and an adjective, as the infinitive holds be- 
 tween a verb and a substantive. It possesses all the proper 
 ties of the verb, save affirmation ; that is to say, to the prop 
 erties of the adjective it adds the power of denoting time. 
 
 The attribution to verbs of number and person is It gicnlly 
 as anomalous as it is to assign gender and number to adjec- 
 tives. Most languages fall into this error, which is, how- 
 ever, susceptible of a very easy historical solution. It 
 arose, doubtless, from the original custom of annexing the 
 pronoun to the termination of the verb, and continuing the 
 use of the inflection after its import had been forgotten, and 
 when the pronoun had been formed into an independent 
 part of speech. 
 
 Those who wish to investigate the principles of grammar 
 more closely, would do well to consult Mr. Harris's Hermes, 
 perhaps the most complete philosophical treatise on gram- 
 mar that has appeared in England. See also the article 
 " Gr»mmar," in the Encyclopedia Mctropolitana, where the 
 paradoxical opinions of 5lr. Home Tooke on this subject are 
 ably confuted. Professor Thiersch, in his Greek Grammar, 
 some time since translated into English, has interspersed 
 some ingenious and valuable inquiries into the general prin- 
 ciples of language, from which the student may derive many 
 important hints. 
 
 GRAMMA'RIAN. Literally, one versed in grammar, 
 but the term was used by the classic ancients ns a title of 
 honourable distinction for all who were considered learned 
 in any art or faculty whatever. (See Vossius's work on 
 Grammar.) 
 
 GRANA'DE. See Grenade. 
 
 GRA'NARY. (Lat. granum, corn.) A building in white 
 to lay or store corn, especially that designed to be kept a 
 considerable time. Various scientific principles have been 
 laid down for the erection of buildings of this nature, of 
 which the reader will find a full account in Rers's Cyclo- 
 pedia ; but the most curious, as well as most efficient con- 
 trivances for housing and keeping grain in good order, are to 
 be met with in some parts of Sicily. They consist either of 
 excavations into calcareous rocks, or holes in the ground 
 shaped like a bottle, walled up, and rendered waterproof by 
 the neck of the bottle being hermetically closed with a stone 
 fastened with gypsum. They contain about 200 saline, or 
 about 1600 English bushels of corn, which may be thus pre- 
 served for an indefinite period ; at least it has been found in 
 perfectly good order after the lapse of a century. (Simond, 
 p. 25 ; Swinburne, vol. ii., p. 405.) 
 
 GRAND. (Fr.) In the Fine Arts, a quality by which 
 the highest degree of majesty and dignity is imparted to a 
 work of art. Its source is in form freed from ordinary and 
 common bounds, and to be duly felt requires an investiga- 
 tion of the different qualities by which great and extraordi- 
 nary objects produce impression on the mind. 
 
 GRANDE'E. (Span, grande; from grande dc rspana.) 
 The highest title of Spanish nobility. The collective body 
 of the higher nobility in Spain is termed la grandeia. They 
 were originally the same with the ricos hombres. Gran- 
 dees bear different titles — duke, marquis, &c. ; but there is 
 no essential difference of rank between these titles: all are 
 equal among themselves. Grandeeships descend through 
 females, and thus become accumulated in families. (Quart, 
 Rev., 1838.) 
 
 GRAND JURY. See Jury. 
 
 GRANGE. A farm-yard or farmery, which consists of a 
 farm-house, and a court of offices for the different animals 
 and implements used in farming, and also of barns, feeding 
 houses, poultry houses, &c. See Farm-yard, or Farmery 
 
 GRA'NITE. A crystalline aggregate of quartz, felspar, 
 and mica, with the occasional addition of other minerals 
 It is regarded by modern geologists as of igneous orisin, and 
 as having been protruded from below, so as to elevate and 
 dislocate the adjacent strata, and occasionally to penetrate 
 
GRANIVOR.&E. 
 
 them in the form of veins. Granite is a hard and generally 
 durable rock, and of vast importance as a building material, 
 and in its applications to pavements The crystals of fel- 
 ipar are sometimes very large and distinct, and constitute 
 the whitish embedded masses which are sepn in such per- 
 fection in some of the granite pavements of London, espe- 
 cially of London and Waterloo Bridges. When the mica 
 prevails in granite, its texture becomes lamellar, and it pass- 
 es into the rock which has been called gneiss ; which again, 
 by the gradual secession of the felspar.degenerntes into mica- 
 slate. There are some kinds of granite which are under- 
 going rapid disintegration and decay, in consequence of the 
 joint action of air and water upon the felspnr; the potash 
 of wiiich appears to be removed, and the residue falls into 
 n white powder, composed chiefly of silica and alumina in 
 i state of very fine division : it is thus that the celebrated 
 Cornish clay is produced, which is in such request for the 
 purposes of pottery. The curious district in which the Car- 
 glnise tin mine, near St. Austle, is situate, is a good and 
 characteristic specimen of decomposing granite. See Geo- 
 logy. 
 
 GRANI'VORAS. (Lat. granum, a grain; vora, I eat.) 
 The name given by Temminck to an order of birds, includ- 
 ing the Insessorial s|>ecies, which feed on grains : other ani- 
 mals with a similar diet are termed '• eranivorous." 
 
 GRANT. In Law, a mode of conveyance by deed, ap- 
 propriate to estates in lands and tenements not in posses- 
 sion, and also to incorporeal hereditaments. 
 
 GRA'NULATE. (Lat grana, a grain.) When a surface 
 l v small elevations, like shagreen. 
 
 GRANULATION. "Tlie method of dividing metallic 
 substances into grains or drops. It is usually effected by 
 pooling the melted metal into water; and it' tine division is 
 required, it must pass through a perforated ladle or sieve ; 
 and in order to obtain spherical particles, it must tall from 
 such a beighl as to have become solid before it meets with 
 the water : hence the height of the towers in which shot is 
 
 in.'lile. 
 
 BRA'NULATIONB. This term is applied to the little 
 granular formations which arise in sores that are beoUag, 
 and by which the destroyed parts arc filled up and tie 
 brought together. When healthy they are of a red colour, 
 not exuberant; when unhealthy they are pallid, and be- 
 come sort, spongy, and bregolar, 
 
 GRAPE-SHOT. In Artillery, a quantity of unall shot 
 put Into a canvass bag, and corded together in the torn of a 
 cylinder, the diameter of which is adapted to the piece of 
 ordnance from which it is intended to be discharged. It is 
 now superseded by canister-shot. 
 
 GRAPHO'METER. (Gr. rpa<po>, I write, and ptcrpov, 
 measure.) A mathematical instrument used in land survey- 
 • called a semicircle. 
 \TI1ITE. (Gr. ypa<pu>.) The substance improperly 
 Called black lead, of which pencils are made. It is a pecu- 
 liar form ot mineral carbon with a trace of iron. The finest 
 is found only at llorrodale in Cumberland. Coarse varieties 
 arc not uncommon. 
 GRA'PNEL. A small anchor for a boat 
 GRAYLING IRONS. Small grapnels with four flukes 
 for secoring ships together in action. 
 
 GRA'PTOLITES. Gr. )pa<pu, I write; liOoc, a stone.) 
 A genus of fossil Zoophiles, nearly allied to the existing 
 sea-pens (I'cnnatula) found in the bituminous shales of the 
 Silurian sandstone deposits. 
 GRASSHOPPER. See Locust. 
 
 GRASS LAND. In Agriculture, land kept perpetually 
 under grass, as contrasted with land which is alternately 
 ander grass and tillage. Perpetual grass lands are generally 
 such as from the soil and situation are too moist to be 
 ploughed with advantage, or too hilly and irregular on the 
 surface to be ploughed at all. Hence we have hill pastures, 
 and low moist meadows. The former admit of very little 
 improvement excepting that of drainage, and occasionally, 
 In low hills, of irrigation ; while the latter may not only be 
 drained, but may be manured, and in some cases irrigated. 
 See Pasture, Meadow, and Irrigation. 
 
 GRATE may be described as the iron frame and bars for 
 holding the fuel bumed in our fireplaces. It is, however, 
 confined to the use of coal ; wood fires being better kept up 
 on what arc called " dogs." 
 
 GRAU'WACKE. A German miner's term, implying 
 gray rock ; adopted in Geology to designate some of the 
 lowest secondary strata, which form the chief part of the 
 transition rocks of some geologists. See Geology. 
 GRAVE. In Music. See Allegro. 
 GRA'VEL. A term applied to a well-known material 
 of small stones, which vary in size from a small pea to a 
 walnut or something larger. It is often intermixed with 
 other substances, such as sand, clay, loam, flints, pebbles, 
 iron ores, &c., from each of which it derives a distinctive 
 appellation See Geology. 
 Gravel. In Gardening, gravel is an important article, 
 2 L 
 
 GRAVITATION. 
 
 being that of which walks are formed whenever it can can 
 be procured. In selecting gravel two qualities are chiefly 
 to be sought for ; viz., a fine colour, and the property of bind 
 ing. The most common colour of pit gravel is a rustv 
 brown ; and that of river or sea gravel a gray, with differ- 
 ent shades of white, red, or brown. The best colour is con 
 sidered to be a deep rich yellow, which is that of the gravel 
 of Kensington, the stony parts of which are flints — sup- 
 posed to be the finest in the world, and which used former- 
 ly to be shipped, not only to different sea-ports of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, hut to various places on the Continent, 
 to Petersburgh, to India, and even to South America. The 
 binding properties of gravel are two; the presence of fern 
 ginous clay of the same rich colour as the gravel, and wh id- 
 causes the gravel to set or become hard as soon as it is ex 
 posed to the action of the atmosphere ; and the irregulai 
 and angular shapes and sizes of the stones. W I 
 stones are round or oval, with regular smooth surfaces, 
 they never form a good binding gravel, even If they should 
 be mixed with ferruginous clay. The reason is, tiiat these 
 stones which are on the surface, having no mechanical held 
 on those which are beneath or beside them, but being mere- 
 ly slightly cemented by means of ferruginous clay, are easily- 
 loosened, ncd thrown out of their places by the anion 5 
 frost or even by the alternate action of drought and mois- 
 ture. Hence, where no gravel but that found in rivers or on 
 the sea shore can be found for tnakint; garden w-nlks, one 
 half of the st< mes ought to be broken and mixed with the other 
 half before laying them on the walks. The Kensington 
 gravel, applying that term to all those of a similar colour 
 and quality In England, hinds better than nny other, not only 
 on account of the ferruginous clayey matter with which It 
 is mixed becoming hardened by the atmosphere, hut also he- 
 cause the stones are exceedingly irregular in size and shape. 
 
 GRAVEL, URINARY. &m Calculus, and Elrine. 
 
 GRA'VER, called also BURIN. The sharp tool, whose 
 extremity is of a triangular form, for cutting the lines of an 
 engraving on the copper. Sec Engravi.no. 
 
 GRAVI'METER. (Lat gravis, heavy, nnd Gr. utrpov, 
 measure.) An instrument for ascertaining the specific gravi- 
 ties of bodies, whether liquid or Solid. The particular in- 
 strument to which the term is usually appropriated was in- 
 vented by M. Guyton, who adopted mis name in preference 
 to areometer or hydrometer, because these latter terms imply 
 that the liquid is the thing weighed ; whereas, when 
 solids are weighed, the liquid is only the term of compari- 
 son to which the unknown weight la referred. See Hy- 
 
 DROMETKR. 
 
 GRAVITATION, GRAVITY. (Lat. gravis, heavy.) 
 These terms are often used synonymously to denote that 
 mutual tendency which all the bodies of nature have to ap- 
 proach each other, with forces which are directly as their 
 masses, and inversely proportional to the squares of their 
 distances. 
 
 That every particle of matter in the universe has a dis- 
 position to press towards, and if not opposed to approach to 
 every other, is a fact of which we derive the knowledge 
 partly from our constant experience of what tukes place at 
 the earth's surface, and partly by reasoning from the observed 
 motions of the celestial bodies. This mutual tendency of 
 all the particles of matter to each other is called the attrac- 
 tion of gravitation. In reference to any particular body, or 
 mass of matter, the aggregate attraction of all its particles 
 is usually called simply lis gravity. 
 
 Of Terrestrial Gravity. — Universal experience demon- 
 strates that all heavy bodies, when unsupported, fall to- 
 wards the surface of the earth. The direction of their mo- 
 tion may be ascertained by a plumb-line ; nnd it is found to 
 be always perpendicular to the level surface of the earth, 
 that is, to the surface of stagnant water. But the earth is 
 very nearly spherical, and a line perpendicular to the sur- 
 face of a sphere must pass through its centre ; hence the 
 direction of a body moving in consequence of the force of 
 terrestrial graviry is towards the centre of the earth. And 
 this la the direction in which it must move if the force of 
 gravity is the resultant of the attraction of all the particles 
 of terrestrial matter on the falling body ; for it has been 
 demonstrated (by Newton) that a sphere attracts an exterior 
 body in the same manner as if all its matter were condensed 
 into a single point at its centre. 
 
 As bodies when left without support fall from all heights 
 to which they may be carried, it may be inferred that gravi- 
 ty acts on them during the whole time of their descent and 
 is therefore a uniformly accelerating force. This might also 
 be inferred from the fact, which is easily rendered sensible, 
 that bodies which fall from a greater height arrive at the 
 earth with a greater velocity. But Galileo was the first who 
 proved by experiment that the acceleration of falling bodies 
 is uniform, and that the spaces descended through are con- 
 sequently as the squares of the times of descent. Experi- 
 ments of this kind are attended with some difficulty on ac- 
 count of the resistance of the air. In order to render this 
 
GRAVITATION. 
 
 resistance insensible, Galileo caused bodies to descend on 
 planes having a small inclination to the horizon, in which 
 case (neglecting the effects of friction) the velocity is di- 
 minished in the ratio of the sine of the plane's inclination. 
 By mounting the descending body on wheels, and forming 
 the inclined plane of a hard substance capable of receiving 
 a perfect polish, the friction may also be so much diminish- 
 ed as not to change the nature of the motion. But the best 
 method of showing experimentally that gravity is a uni- 
 formly accelerating force, is by means of an apparatus call- 
 ed (from its inventor) Attwood's machine. This consists 
 of a pulley, the axle of which turns on fric- 
 • tion rollers, and having a groove on its edge 
 to receive a string. Over the wheel a fine 
 silken cord is stretched, to the ends of which 
 are attached two equal weights, A and B. In 
 this state the weights counterbalance each 
 other, and no motion ensues ; but if to one of 
 the weights a small load m be added, so as to 
 give a preponderance, the loaded weight will 
 immediately begin to descend. The motion 
 which now takes place is exactly of the same 
 kind with that of a body descending freely ; 
 but the velocity is diminished in the propor- 
 3 tion of the additional load m to the sum of 
 the three, m, A and B ; for the force, which is impressed 
 by the additional weight, is expended in giving velocity not 
 only to it, but also to the two weights A and B attached to 
 the string. By this machine the properties of uniformly ac- 
 celerated motion are experimentally shown to hold true in 
 the descent of falling bodies ; for if the additional load be 
 such as will carry the weight to which it is added through 
 1 foot in the first second of time, it carries it through 4 feet 
 in 2 seconds, through 9 in 3 seconds, and so on. A proof is 
 therefore afforded by this means that terrestrial gravity is a 
 lniformly accelerating force. 
 
 Terrestrial gravity acts equally on all bodies ; that is to 
 say, impresses on all of them an equal quantity of motion, 
 whatever their nature may be. This property of gravity 
 was also demonstrated by Galileo. In different hollow 
 spheres, of equal weight and diameter, he enclosed equal 
 weights of different substances : the spheres were suspended 
 by strings of equal length, and made to vibrate in very small 
 arcs, and it was found that the time of an oscillation was 
 the same in all of them. Common experience would seem 
 to be at variance with this result. Light bodies, as feathers, 
 paper, &c, fall slowly and irregularly ; and some substances, 
 as smoke, vapours, &c, even ascend. But this, as is well 
 known, arises from the buoyancy of the atmosphere. In the 
 exhausted receiver of an air-pump a piece of gold and a 
 feather fall with the same speed, and strike the bottom at 
 the same time. 
 
 Measure of Terrestrial Gravity. — Having ascertained the 
 law according to which gravity acts on bodies at the surface 
 of the earth, the next question is to determine its absolute 
 Intensity, or the velocity which it communicates to a body 
 falling freely in a given time. On account of the rapidity 
 of the descent of heavy bodies, this cannot be done by di- 
 rect experiment ; nor could Attwood's machine be employ- 
 ed for the purpose with sufficient certainty. The only mode 
 by which an accurate result can be obtained is by measur- 
 ing the length of a pendulum which makes a given number 
 of oscillations in a given time. Let I be the length of the 
 seconds' pendulum, ir the ratio of the circumference to the 
 diameter, and g the accelerating force of gravity, that is, 
 twice the space through which a body falls by the action of 
 gravity in the first second of time; then (Pendulum) we 
 have the equation g=l-KZ. Now the length of the pendulum 
 vibrating seconds of mean solar time in London, in vacuo, 
 and reduced to the level of the sea, has been determined to 
 be 391393 British standard inches ; and 77=314159 ; there- 
 fore g is found=38C-3 inches, or 32£ feet. The height, 
 therefore, through which a body would fall in vacuo in a 
 second of time at London is half of this quantity, or 16 1-10 
 feet. It will be observed, however, that this value of g does 
 not express the whole of the earth's attraction, a small part 
 of which (about the l-404th) Is counteracted by the centri- 
 fugal force corresponding to the latitude : it is the force of 
 gravity diminished by the centrifugal force, or what is prop- 
 erly called gravitation. 
 
 From experiments made with the greatest care, it appears 
 that the extreme amount of the variation of the gravitating 
 force between the equator and the poles is one part in 194 
 of the whole quantity ; that is to say, any body which at the 
 equator weighs 194 pounds, if transported to the pole would 
 weisrh 195 pounds. The difference of gravitation, therefore, 
 at the equator and the poles, is expressed by the fraction 
 l-194th. Now it has been demonstrated by Newton that 
 the ratio of the centrifugal force nt the equator to gravita- 
 tion there is l-289th. This is considerably smaller than the 
 fraction 1-194 ; but the difference, which is 1-590, arises from 
 the oblate figure of the earth, in consequence of which a 
 
 no 
 
 body placed at the pole is at a less distance from the centre 
 than one at the equator,'and is therefore attracted more than 
 it would be at the equator, even if the earth stood still, and 
 there was consequently no centrifugal force. From this it 
 may be readily understood that the figure of the earth is de- 
 terminable by measuring the intensity of gravitation under 
 different latitudes. See Degree, Earth. 
 
 Universal Gravitation. — Galileo, who had so fully sue 
 ceeded in exploring the nature of terrestrial gravity, did not 
 suppose that its action extended to bodies beyond the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the earth. The more speculative genius of 
 Kepler led him to speak of gravity as a force acting mutu- 
 ally from planet to planet, and particularly from the earth 
 to the moon ; and he even supposed the tides to be pro- 
 duced by the gravitation of the waters of the sea towards 
 the moon. He did not, however suppose it to have any 
 concern in the regulation of the celestial motions. Hooke 
 also supposed the heavenly bodies to have a gravitation to 
 each other; but his notions respecting its nature were inac- 
 curate, and he did not attempt to define the law of its vari- 
 ation. This great discovery was reserved for Newton. 
 While meditating on the nature of this force, the thought 
 occurred to him that since gravity is a tendency not confined 
 to bodies on the very surface of the earth, but leaches even 
 to the summits of the loftiest mountains without its intensity 
 or direction suffering any sensible change, may it not reach 
 to a much greater distance, and even to the moon 1 Before 
 this question, however, could be answered, it was necessary 
 to suppose a law according to which its intensity diminishes. 
 Newton soon perceived that this law would require the force 
 of gravity to diminish exactly as the square of the distance 
 increases ; or that the attractive force of the earth at the 
 distance of the moon must be as much less than it is at the 
 surface of the earth, as the square of the radius of the earth 
 is less than the square of the moon's distance from the earth. 
 In a general way the hypothesis is easily verified. The 
 moon's orbit differs not much from a circle whose radius is 
 equal to 60 times the semidiameter of the earth, and the cir 
 cumference of her orbit is therefore about 60 times the cir 
 cumference of a great, circle of the earth. Now the diame- 
 ter of the earth being nearly 8000 miles, and the period of 
 the moon's revolution being 27 d. 7 h. 43m., it is easy to com- 
 pute that the versed sine of the arc described by the moon 
 in a minute (which is the same as her dellexion from the 
 tangent or straight line she would describe if there were no 
 force attracting her to the earth) is 16 1-10 feet But the 
 mean distance of the moon from the earth beir.g 60 tones 
 the distance of heavy bodies at its surface from its centre, 
 and her gravity increasing in proportion to the square of the 
 distance, her gravity would be 00X60 times greater at the 
 surface of the earth than at her present mean distance, and 
 therefore would carry her through 60X 60x16-1 feet in a 
 minute near the surface. But by what was proved by Gali- 
 leo respecting the descent of heavy bodies, the same force 
 would carry her through 60X60 times less space in a second 
 than in a minute; and therefore the same force which com- 
 pels the moon to move in her orbit about the earth, supposed 
 to vary according to the inverse square of the distance, 
 would cause her to fall, near the surface of the earth, 
 through 16'1 feet in a second. Now this is exactly the 
 space through which heavy bodies descend in a second ; 
 therefore the moon may be retained in her orbit by the 
 power of terrestrial gravity. 
 
 Newton, however, did not allow the argument for univer- 
 sal gravitation to rest on loose considerations of the lunar 
 orbit as a circle described with an average velocity about 
 the earth. He demonstrated that bodies moving under the 
 influence of an attractive force which diminishes according 
 to the inverse square of the distance must describe conic 
 sections having a focus at the centre of force, and observe 
 the laws of motion which Kepler had discovered to belong 
 to the planetary orbits. He succeeded also in proving that 
 some of the principal inequalities of the lunar and planetary 
 orbits are necessary consequences of the mutual gravitation 
 of the different bodies of the system to each other; and 
 that the same mysterious power not only regulates the mo 
 tions of all the planets and satellites in space, but also de 
 termines the figure of the earth, causes the precession of dp 
 equinoxes, and produces the tides of the ocean. 
 
 Assuming the different bodies which compose the solar 
 system to be acted upon by their mutual gravitation, accord- 
 ing to the law proposed by Newtion, namely, that each body 
 attracts every other with a force proportional to its mass di- 
 rectly and to the square of the distance inversely, the deter- 
 mination of the motions of the several planets and sntellitos 
 becomes a question of pure geometry when the requisite 
 data are determined by observation. If, however, the prob- 
 lem were required to be solved in its most general terms, 
 and it were necessary to consider simultaneously the effects 
 of all the bodies in the system, the difficulties of calculation 
 would be enormous, and in fact no methods of analysis 
 hjtherio discovered would be sufficient to grapple with them 
 
GRAVITY, SPECIFIC. 
 
 Fortunately the actual condition of the system is such as to 
 afford great simplifications. The principal planets are iso- 
 lated in space, at great distances from each other, and their 
 masses are very small in comparison of that of the central 
 body; so that the effects of their mutual attractions are not 
 such as to alter the general elliptic form of their orbits, but 
 merely produce small perturbations of their orbits and mo- 
 tions, which admit of being separately computed. By avail- 
 ing themselves of these favourable conditions, mathemati- 
 cians have succeeded iti expressing the whole of the compli- 
 cated movements of the planets and satellites by analytical 
 equations; and such is the perfection to which this branch 
 cal science has attained, that there is now no irregu- 
 larity in the motions of the bodies of the solar system, no de- 
 viation from their mean state appreciable to the most deli- 
 cate astronomical observations, which has not been explain- 
 ed, and its period and amount accurately calculated on the 
 principle of universal gravitation, according to the law dis- 
 discovered by Newton. See Planet. 
 
 The effects of gravitation, as manifested in the influences 
 of the celestial bodies on each other, enable us to form seve- 
 ral conclusions respecting its nature and mode of action. 
 That gravity belongs not only to matter in the aggregate, but 
 to every particle of which bodies are composed, is rendered 
 evident by the manner in which the moon disturbs the 
 waters of the ocean. Let E be the earth and M the moon. 
 If the moon's gravity act- 
 \ cd only on the aggregate 
 
 W mass and not on each 
 
 p 'Kfi c /Mir ' tf) — particle, it would have 
 
 j no effect on the figure of 
 / the earth, and conse- 
 / quently no tide would be 
 
 produced. But the ac- 
 tion of the moon on the different parti i- 1 uiiL-qiial. Those at 
 o, which are nearest the moon, are more attracted than those 
 at the centre c ; which again arc more attracted than the 
 parts at b, which nre farthest from the moon. The conse- 
 quence is, that a fluid particle at a is drawn away as it were 
 from the general mass, and an accumulation takes place at 
 a' For the same reason, the attraction at c being stronger 
 than at b, the mass of the earth is drawn away from the 
 parts at b, and the thud is in a manner left behind, and accu- 
 mulate- at b'. Hence we perceive the reason why it is high 
 water on op;>c«ite sides of the earth at the same instant of 
 time. In fact, in consequence of the moon's attraction, the 
 fluids on the surface of the earth have a tendency at every 
 instant to arrange themselves in the form of an elongated 
 spheroid, the greater axis of which points towards the moon. 
 
 It is aNo proved by astronomical phenomena, that gravity 
 is a force which is transmitted from body to body, not suc- 
 hut instantaneously. Were Gravity transmitted 
 with a measurable velocity, the rate of velocity would sen- 
 sibly affect the secular variation of the mean motion of the 
 moon. By a comparison of the results of theory with ob- 
 servation, L.iplace found that the velocity of the attracting 
 force, if not infinite must be at least fifty millinns of times 
 greater than the velocity of light. (.Vic. Celeste, liv. xvi.) 
 
 Another question which may be put with regard to the 
 nature of gravity is, whether its action is in any degree modi- 
 fied by the interposition of the substances through which it 
 penetrates ? For example, whether the attractive force of 
 the earth, which must penetrate the whole substance of the 
 moon before its influence reaches the particles on the oppo- 
 site side of that body, acts with the same intensitv on those 
 particles as on those nearest the earth, regard bf ing had to 
 the law of the distance'? Now, if the attractive force suf- 
 fered any diminution in passing through the lunar substance, 
 the parallax would thereby be alter:,, 1; and, from the 
 amount of the parallax, it is certain Chat the intensity of ter- 
 restrial gravitation on the dillere.it molecules of the moon 
 suffers no variation, excepting what arises from the different 
 distances of the molecules. It may therefore be considered, 
 says Laplace, as sufficiently established, that the force of 
 gravity is of so subtle a nature that the densest bodies of the 
 universe offer no obstacle to its free passage. 
 
 A third conclusion is, that the law of gravity is not modi- 
 fied in any respect by the different natures of the celestial 
 bodies. If the action of the sun on the molecules of the 
 earth differed only by a millionth part from its action on the 
 molecules of the moon, the difference would occasion a va- 
 riation of the sun's parallax amounting to several seconds. 
 But the supposition of any such variation is impossible. It 
 follows, therefore, that the gravitating force of the sun, in 
 equal times and at equal distances, impresses equal velocities 
 on the earth and moon. It Is also demonstrated from the 
 theory of Jupiter and Saturn, that Jupiter acts on Saturn ac- 
 cording to the same law as on his own satellites. Gravity is 
 therefore a force altogether independent of the nature of the 
 substances on which it nets. 
 
 GRAVITY, SPECIFIC. The specific gravity of a body 
 la the ratio of its weight to the weight of an equal volume 
 
 of some other body assumed as a conventional standard. 
 The standard usually adopted for this purpose is pure dis- 
 tilled water at a given temperature. In England, the tem- 
 lierature is generally taken at 62° of Fahrenheit's scale, 
 the French take it at 32°, or that of melting ice ; sometimes 
 at the temperature at which its density is the greatest (about 
 39-4° of Fahrenheit). The latter is by far the more con 
 venient, inasmuch as it can be easily maintained without 
 vacations; whereas it is hardly possible to perform exi>ei> 
 menus at tile exact temperature of 02°, in consequence of the 
 continual variations or the temperature of the air. It is 
 only, however, when very great precision is required, thrt it 
 is necessary to make the experiment with water at any par 
 Ocular temperature; in general, it is sufficient to note the 
 temperature, and apply a correction depending on the known 
 density of water at the different degrees of the thermomet- 
 ric scale. 
 
 The most obvious method of ascertaining the relative 
 weights or specific gravities of two different bodies is to im- 
 merse them successively in a cylindrical or prismatic vessel 
 of a known area, containing a liquid of less density than 
 either. When a solid is immersed in a liquid, Die liquid oc- 
 cupies as much more space than it did before as is exactly 
 equal to the bulk or volume of the body; and therefore by 
 immersing equal or known weights of different bodies in a 
 vessel of Die form specified, the relation between the heights 
 at which the liquid stands will give the relation between 
 their densities. Thiswas the method proposed by Archime- 
 des for solving the famous problem of the crown of Hiero. 
 
 The method now employed is susceptible of far greater 
 accuracy. It depends on this principle, that a body when 
 immersed in a fluid loses just ns much of its weight as is 
 equal to the weight of an equal volume of the fluid. By 
 weighing a body, therefore, first in nir (or rather in vacuo), 
 and then in a liquid, the ratio of its specific gravity to that of 
 the liquid will be found as follows: Let s = the specific 
 gravity of the body, e = its volume, to = its weight In nir, 
 and W = its weight in the liquid ; also let s' = the specific 
 gravity of the liquid, and v' and to' be respectively the vol- 
 ume and weight of a given portion of it. Now it is evident 
 in the first place, that if the volume of a body be supposed 
 constant, its specific gravity will be directly proportional to 
 its weight; and, in the second place, if the weight remains 
 constant, the specific gravity will vary inversely as the vol- 
 ume ; that is to say, the smaller the volume the greater is 
 the specific gravity. The specific gravity of a body is there 
 fore directly as its weight, and inversely as Its volume 
 Hence we have 
 
 But if we suppose » = «', the weight of the portion of liquid 
 whose volume is »' will be equal, by the principle laid down, 
 to the difference between the weight of the body in air and 
 in the liquid, that is, equal to to — W; whence to' = to — W, 
 and the proportion becomes 
 
 «:»':: to : to — W ; 
 
 from which we deduce s = s' ■ 
 
 -nv Now let the liquid 
 to — W 
 be pure water at the standard temperature, then »' = 1, and 
 
 10 
 
 we have simply s = - — — ; so that in order to obtain the 
 
 to — W 
 
 specific gravity of a solid body, its weight in air must be di- 
 vided by the loss of weight it sustains when weighed in pure 
 water. 
 
 The process of finding the specific gravity of any solid 
 body denser than water is rendered very simple by means of 
 the hydrostatic balance. When the solid is less dense than 
 water, its weight in that liquid cannot be ascertained di- 
 rectly ; but it may be fourftl by attaching the body to an- 
 other sufficiently dense to cause both to sink. Let /= the 
 weight of the light body in air, and i = its weight in water ; 
 h — the weight of the heavy body in nir, and A' =- its weight 
 in water ; e (= I + A) = the weight of the compound or uni- 
 ted mass in air, andc' = its weight in water. All these 
 quantities are found by experiment, excepting x. Nov/ we 
 have obviousiy / — z + A — A'=c — c' ; therefore/ — z = 
 ( c — e') — (A — A'). But if * denote the specific gravity of 
 the light body, we have, by what has already been shown, s = 
 
 ; therefore s — - - , —rr.. 
 
 I — i (c — c) — (A — A) 
 
 In this manner the specific gravity of a solid in tho state 
 of powder may be found by plncing it in a vessel whose 
 weight in air and in water has been previously determined. 
 
 The specific gravity of a liquid may be found in several 
 ways by means of the hydrostatic balance. Let a solid body 
 of any convenient form, for example a sphere of glass, be 
 taken, and let to = its weight in air, to' = its weight in 
 water, and to" = Its weight in the fluid whose specific 
 gravity is to be ascertained ; then, taking s to denote the spe- 
 cific gravity of the solid body, s' the specific gravity of 
 
GRAVITY, SPECIFIC 
 water, and a" the specific gravity of the liquid, we have by 
 the first formula a = a' ; , and also * = a" rr • 
 
 therefore *' - 
 
 -p ; and making a' = 1, we de- 
 
 duce a" rs ;. It is evident that this process is equiva- 
 
 w — w 
 lent to finding the ratio of the density of the solid body first 
 to water, and then to the liquid to be experimented on. 
 
 Another method is to take a phial of known weight and 
 weigh it when filled with water ; the increase of weight is 
 of course the weight of the water. It is then filled with the 
 liquid,, and again weighed, and the weight of the contained 
 liquid thus ascertained. We have then the weights of equal 
 bulks of the water and the liquid, whence the ratio of their 
 specific gravities is known. 
 
 For many practical purposes, and especially for determin- 
 ing the specific gravities or atrengths of spirituous liquors, it 
 
 is necessary to have recourse to more expeditious meliioua 
 than that of the hydrostatic balance. In such cases, the 
 instrument called an hydrometer is employed. {See Hy 
 
 UROMETER.) 
 
 The specific gravities of the gaseous fluids are usually de- 
 termined in terms of that of atmospheric air. The diffe- 
 rence between the weights of a flask when exhausted of air 
 by means of the air-pump and when filled with the gas 
 gives the weight of the gas which it contains. But experi- 
 ments of tins kind require to be made with great care, as 
 they are much affected by small variations of the tempera- 
 ture, pressure, and hygrometric state of the atmosphere. For 
 a detailed account of the method of proceeding, and the 
 manner of applying the requisite corrections, see Jiiot's 
 Traite de Physique, tome i. 
 
 The subjoined tables give the specific gravities of the sub- 
 stances which most frequently occur : for a more extended 
 list, we refer to Brisson's Table (Pcsanteur speciftque de.s 
 Corps) ; or to the Ency. Britannica, art. "Hydrostatics." 
 
 I. Table of the Specific Gravities of Solids and Liquids at the Temperature of 32° of Fahrenheit, the Density of Water 
 
 being 1. 
 
 Acid, Acetic 
 
 . 1.062 
 
 Arsenic 
 
 . 3.391 
 
 Arsenioua 
 
 . 3.728 
 
 Benzoic 
 
 . 0.667 
 
 Boracic, crystallized 
 
 . 1.479 
 
 fused 
 
 . 1.803 
 
 Citric 
 
 . 1.034 
 
 Formic 
 
 . 1.116 
 
 Fluoric 
 
 . 1.060 
 
 Molybdic 
 
 . 3.460 
 
 Muriatic 
 
 . 1.200 
 
 Nitric 
 
 1.271 
 
 Do. highly concentrated 
 
 . 1.583 
 
 Phosphoric, liquid 
 
 . 1.558. 
 
 solid 
 
 . 2.800 
 
 Sulphuric 
 
 . 1.850 
 
 Agate 
 
 . 2.590 
 
 Alcohol, absolute 
 
 . 0.797 
 
 of commerce 
 
 . 0.835 
 
 Alum 
 
 . 1.714 
 
 Amber . from 1.064 to 1.100 
 
 Ambergris . from 0.780 to 0.926 
 
 Amethyst, commor . . . 2.750 
 oriental . . . 3.391 
 Amanthus . from 1.000 to .313 
 
 Ammonia, aqueous . . . 0.875 
 Arragonite . . . 2.900 
 
 Azure-stone . . . 2.850 
 
 Barytes, Sulpnate of, from 4.000 to 4.558 
 
 Carbonate of, from 4.100 to 4.600 
 Basalt. . . from 2.421 to 3.000 
 Beryl, oriental .... 3.549 
 
 occidental . . . 2.723 
 Blood, human .... 1.053 
 
 erassamentum of . 1.245 
 
 Borax .... 1.714 
 
 Butter 0.942 
 
 Camphor 0.988 
 
 Caoutchouc, or India rubber . 0.933 
 Carnelian, speckled . . . 2.613 
 * Chalcedony.common, from 2.600 to 2.650 
 Chatk . . from 2.252 to 2.657 
 
 Chrosyolite .... 3.400 
 Cinnabar, from Almaden . . 6.902 
 Coals . . from 1.020 to 1.300 
 
 Copal 1.045 
 
 Coral, red . . from 2.630"to 2.857 
 
 white . from 2.540 to 2.570 
 
 Corundum 3.710 
 
 Cyder 1.018 
 
 Diamond, oriental, colourless . 3.521 
 Do. coloured varieties.from 3.523 to 3.550 
 Do. Brazilian .... 3.444 
 coloured varieties, from 3:518 to 3.550 
 Dolomite . . from 2.540 to 2.830 
 Dragon's Blood (a resin) . . 1.204 
 Ether, Aeetlc . . . . 0.866 
 
 Muriatic .... 0.729 
 
 Nitric .... 0.908 
 
 Sulphuric from 0.632 to 0.775 
 Emerald . . from 2.600 to 2.770 
 
 Pat of beef 0.923 
 
 Felspar . . from 2.438 to 2.700 
 Fliat, black .... 2.582 
 
 Gamboge 1.222 
 
 Garnet, precious from 4.000 to 4.230 
 
 common from 3.576 to 3.700 
 
 Glass, crown . . . 2.520 
 
 green . . . 2.642 
 
 533 
 
 Glass, flint . . from 2.760 to 3.000 
 
 common plate . . . 2.760 
 
 Granite . . from 2.613 to 2.956 
 
 Gum arabic .... 1.452 
 
 Gunpowder, loose . . • 0.836 
 
 solid . . • 1.745 
 
 Gypsum, compact; from 1 .872 to 2.288 
 
 crystallized, from 2.311 to 3.000 
 
 Heliotrope, or Bloodstone, 
 
 from 2.629 to 2.700 
 
 Honey 1.450 
 
 Honeystone,orMellite,from 1.560 to 1.666 
 Hornblende . from 3.250 to 3.830 
 
 Hornstone . . from 2.533 to 2.810 
 Hyacinth . . from 4.000 to 4.780 
 Jasper . . from 2.358 to 2.816 
 
 Jet 1.300 
 
 Indigo 1.009 
 
 Ironstone from Carron . 3.281 
 
 Lancashire . 3.573 
 Isinglass .... 1.111 
 
 Ivory .... 1.825 
 
 Lard .... 0.947 
 
 Lead — Glance, or Galena, from 
 
 Derbyshire - from 6.565 to 7.786 
 Limestone, compact, from 2.386 to 3.000 
 Magnesia, native, Hydrate of . 2.330 
 Carbonate of, 
 
 from 2.220 to 2.612 
 Mai achite, compact, from 3.572 to 3.994 
 Marble, Carrara . . ' . 2.716 
 Parian .... 2.560 
 Mastic (a resin) .... 1.074 
 Melanite, or black Garnet, from 
 
 3.691 to 3.800 
 Metals — Antimony . . . 6.702 
 Arsenic . . . 5.763 
 
 Bismuth . . . 9.880 
 Brass . from 7.824 to 8.396 
 Cadmium . . . 8.600 
 Chromium . . . 5.900 
 Cobalt .... 8.600 
 Columbium . . . 5.600 
 Copper .... 8.900 
 Gold, cast . 19.258 
 
 hammered . . 19.361 
 Iridium, hammered . 23.000 
 Iron, cast at Carron . 7.248 
 forged into bars . 7.788 
 Lead .... 11.352 
 Manganese . . . 8.000 
 Mercury . . . 13.598 
 Molybdenum . . 8.600 
 Nickel, cast . . . 8.279 
 forged . . 8.666 
 Osmium and Iridium, 
 
 alloy of . . . 19.500 
 
 Palladium . . .11.800 
 
 Platina, forged . . 20.336 
 
 drawn into wire 21 .042 
 
 in plates . . 22.069 
 
 Potassium at 59° Fah. . 0.865 
 
 Rhodium . . . 11.000 
 
 Selenium . . . 4.300 
 
 Silver .... 10.474 
 
 hammered . . 10.510 
 
 Sodium at 59° Fahr. . 0.972 
 
 Steel, soft . . . 7.&13 
 
 tempered . 7.816 1 
 
 Metals — Steel, hardened . . 7.840 
 Tellurium, from 5.700 to 6.115 
 Tin, Cornish . . 7.291 
 
 hardened . . 7.299 
 Tungsten . . . 17.400 
 Uranium . . . 9.000 
 Zinc . from 6.200 to 7 191 
 Mica . . from 2.650 to 2.934 
 
 Milk 1.032 
 
 Mineral Pitch, or Asphaltum, 
 
 from 0.905 to 1.233 
 Mineral tallow .... 0.770 
 Myrrh (a resin) .... 1.360 
 Naphtha . . from 0.700 to 0.847 
 
 Nitre • 1.900 
 
 Obsidian . . from 9.348 to 2.370 
 
 Oils, Essential — Amber . . 0.868 
 
 Aniseseed . . 0.986 
 
 Carrawayseed . 0.904 
 
 Cinnamon . 1 .043 
 
 Cloves . . 1.036 
 
 Lavender . . 0.S94 
 
 Turpentine . 0.870 
 
 Wormwood . 0.907 
 
 Expressed — Sweet Almonds 0.932 
 
 Hempseed . 0.926 
 
 Linseed . . 0.9-10 
 
 Olives . . 0.915 
 
 Poppyseed . 0.939 
 
 Rapeseed . . 0.913 
 
 Whale . . 0.923 
 
 Opal, precious . . . .2.114 
 
 common . from 1.958 to 2.114 
 
 Opium 1.336 
 
 Orpiment . . from 3.048 to 3.500 
 Pearl, Oriental . from 2.510 to 2.750 
 Pearlstone .... 2.340 
 
 Peruvian Bark .... 0.784 
 Phosphorus .... 1.770 
 
 Pitchstone . from 1.970 to 2.720 
 
 Plumbago,orGraphite,from 1.987 to 2.400 
 Porcelain, from China . . 2.384 
 Sevres . . 2.145 
 Porphyry . . from 2.458 to 2.972 
 Seltzer .... 1.003 
 Proof-spirit .... 0.923 
 
 Pumice-stone . from 0.752 to 0.914 
 Ouartz . . from 2.624 to 3.750 
 Realgar . . from 3.225 to 3.338 
 Rock-crystal . from 2.581 to 2.888 
 Ruby, Oriental .... 4.283 
 Sapphire, Oriental from 4.000 to 4.200 
 Sardonyx . . from 2.602 to 2.628 
 Scammony of Smyrna . . 1.274 
 Schorl . . from 2.922 to 3.452 
 Serpentine . . from 2.264 to 2.999 
 Silver Glance . from 5.300 to 7.208 
 Slate (drawing) .... 2.110 
 Spar, Fluor . from 3.094 to 3 791 
 
 calcareous . from 2.620 to 2.837 
 
 Spermaceti 0.943 
 
 Stalactite . . from 2.323 to 2.546 
 
 Stone, Bristol . from 2.510 to 2.640 
 
 grinding .... 2.142 
 
 Portland .... 2.496 
 
 rotten .... 1.981 
 
 Sugar 1.606 
 
 Sulphur, native .... 2.033 
 fused . . 1.990 
 
GRAYLING. 
 
 Talc . . from 2.080 to 3.000 
 
 Tallow 0.941 
 
 Topaz . from 4.010 to 4.0G1 
 
 Tourmaline from 3.086 to 3.301 
 
 Turquoise . . from 2.500 to 3.001 
 Ultramarine .... 2.302 
 Vinegar . . from 1.013 to 1.080 
 Water, distilled . . . .1.000 
 
 sea 1.020 
 
 of Dead Sea . . . 1.248 
 
 War, Bees' .... 0.964 
 
 Shoemakers' . . . 0.897 
 
 Whey, cows' .... 1.019 
 
 Wine, Bourdeaux . . . 0.993 
 
 Burgundy . . 0.991 
 
 Constance . . . 1.081 
 
 Malaga .... 1.0-22 
 
 Port .... 0.997 
 
 White Champagne . . 0.997 
 
 Wood, Alder .... 0.800 
 
 Apple-tree . . . 0.793 
 
 Ash . . . 0.845 
 
 GREEK CHURCH. 
 
 Table 1. (contin i 
 Wood,Bay-tree . 
 Beech 
 Box, French . 
 
 Dutch 
 Brazilian, Red . 
 Campeachy 
 Cedar, Wild . 
 Palestine 
 Cherry-tree 
 Citron 
 Cocoa 
 Crab-tree . 
 Cork 
 
 Cypress, Spanish 
 Ebony, American 
 
 Indian 
 Elder-tree 
 Elm-tree 
 Filbert-tree 
 Fir, Male 
 
 Female 
 Hazel 
 
 0.822 
 0.852 
 0.912 
 1.328 
 1.031 
 0.913 
 0.596 
 0.613 
 0.715 
 0.726 
 1.040 
 0.7G5 
 0.240 
 0.644 
 1.331 
 1.209 
 0.695 
 0.671 
 0.600 
 0.550 
 0.498 
 0.600 
 
 Juniper-tree 
 
 Lemon-tree 
 
 Lignum Vita; . . * 
 
 Mahogany . . 
 
 Maple-tree 
 
 Mulberry, Spanish . 
 
 Oak-heart, 60 yrs. old 
 
 Olive-tree 
 
 Orange-tree 
 
 Pear-tree 
 
 Plum-tree 
 
 Pomegranate-tree 
 
 Poplar 
 
 White Spanish 
 
 Vine 
 
 Walnut . 
 
 Willow . 
 
 Yew, Dutch 
 
 Spanish . 
 Woodstone . from 2.045 
 Zeolite . . from 2.073 
 Zircon . . from 4.385 
 
 . 0.556 
 
 . 0.703 
 
 . 1.333 
 
 . 1.063 
 
 . 0.750 
 
 . 0.897 
 
 . 1.170 
 
 , 0.927 
 
 . 0.705 
 
 . 0.76G 
 
 . 0.785 
 
 1.351 
 
 0.383 
 
 0.529 
 
 1.327 
 
 0.081 
 
 0.585 
 
 . 0.788 
 
 0.807 
 
 to 2.675 
 
 to 2.718 
 
 to 4.700 
 
 II. Table of the Specific Gravities of the Gases and Vapours, that of Atmospheric Air being 1. 
 
 1.000 
 
 Gases — Euchlorine 
 
 . 2.440 
 
 MM 
 
 Fluoboric Acid 
 
 . 2.371 
 
 1.527 
 
 Fluosilicic Acid 
 
 . 3.632 
 
 0.972 
 
 Hydriodic Acid 
 
 . 4.340 
 
 Dim 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 . 0.069 
 
 2.500 
 
 Muriatic Acid . 
 
 . LSI 
 
 3.472 
 
 Nitric Oxide . 
 
 . 1.041 
 
 2.152 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 . 0.972 
 
 1.805 
 
 Nitrous Acid . 
 
 . 2.638 
 
 Gases — Atmospheric Air . 
 Aiiimoiiiac.il . 
 Carbonic Acid 
 Carbonic Oxide 
 Carboratted Hydrogen 
 Chlorine 
 
 Chlorocarbonous Acid 
 Chloroprussic Acid . 
 Cyanogen 
 
 GRAYLING. See Sxl*o. 
 
 GRAZIO SO. (It.) In Music, an instruction to the per- 
 former that the music to which this word is affixed is to be 
 executed elegantly and gracefully. 
 
 (J REAVE. (Fr. greve.; A piece of armour defending 
 the shin (in the patois of Burgundy, neve still signifies shin). 
 The greave w;ls a piece of steel hollowed to fit the front of 
 the If", and fastened with straps behind. The Greeks tenn- 
 c-d Uiem KyrjiuSef, whence the common epithet of rvuvtifiiSct 
 'A v"'"' " r " weli-greavcd Greeks," in the Iliad. It appears 
 that the greave common among the Greeks was used in some 
 tattaaeel by the Roman soldiery, but only on one leg, the 
 other being covered with the buckler. It is said to have been 
 dfcoou tin ned in the armies of the Greek empire, under the 
 emperor Maurice (about the end of the 6th century), and 
 ■Ota brought into use in those armies of the middle ages 
 about 1320. They were also called jambi, bein-bergs, &c. 
 They were originally of leather, quilted linen, tec. The 
 claeons were a species of greaves made of cloth. 
 
 GREAVES, or GRAVES. The sediment of melted tal- 
 low, composed of the membranous, vascular, nervous, and 
 muscular matters blended with the fat, and which not being 
 fa-ilile, are easily separated from it by straining ; they are 
 made up into cakes, and sold by the tallow-chandlers, being 
 chiefly used as a coarse food for large house-dogs. 
 
 GREBE. See Podiceps. 
 
 GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. See Architbctitrb. 
 
 GREEK CHURCH, THE, comprises the great bulk of the 
 Christian population of Russia and Greece, Moldavia and 
 Wailachia, besides various congregations scattered through- 
 out the provinces of the Turkish and Austrian empires, who 
 acknowledge the patriarch of Constantinople as their head. 
 This prelate, although possessing a certain spiritual suprema- 
 cy over this extensive community, has never ventured to 
 assert any claim to the temporal power so long wielded by 
 his rival at Rome. His ambition was curbed in the first in- 
 stance by the jealousy of the emperors, with whom he was 
 brought into closer contact; and since the Mohammedan 
 conquest the state of weakness and poverty into which the 
 Christian church in Turkey has been thrown has annihi- 
 lated all views of aggrandizement. In earlier times, how- 
 ever, the Constantinopolitan pontiffs clearly showed that 
 they did not lack the will to raise themselves to an equal 
 station In the East with the growing authority of the popes 
 in the West. The origin of the separation which has now 
 prevailed for many hundred years between two such impor- 
 tant sections of Christendom as the Latin and Greek churches, 
 approaching so near as they do in many of their fundamental 
 principles, is to be attributed to the rival pretensions set up 
 by the bishops of the two imperial cities, and dates almost 
 from the foundation of the younger capital. 
 
 As earlv as the year 451 the council of Chalcedon assign- 
 ed Asia Minor, Pontus, Thrace, and the frontiers of Illyricum 
 for the extent of the spiritual Jurisdiction of the church of 
 Byzantium, and conferred upon its bishop the same honours 
 
 Gases — Nitrous Oxide . 1.527 
 
 Oxygen . ... 1.111 
 
 Phosphuretted Hydrogen . 0.902 
 
 Prussic Acid . . . 0.937 
 
 Sub-carburetted Hydrogen 0.555 
 
 Sub-phosphuretted ditto . 0.972 
 
 Sulphuretted ditto . 1.180 
 
 Sulphurous Acid . . 2.222 
 
 and privileges as had been already conceded to the pope of 
 Rome. The patriarchs of Antioeh and Alexandria main- 
 tained at this period an radepaqdent authority; but were 
 gradually reduced under the predominant influence of the 
 patriarch of the East. The aggressions, however, of the 
 rival |H>iiii(l's did not proceed pari passu: the Roman, being 
 farther removed from the im|ierial authority, which was 
 seated at Ravenna, assumed by degrees a direct temporal 
 authority over the neighbouring districts, which led the way 
 to the prodigious indirect supremacy which he usurped aftei 
 the lapse of several ages. The Constantinopolitan, on the 
 contrary, was always strictly watched, and fettered by the 
 proximity of the Extern emperors; and the extension ot 
 declension of his authority depended in most cases more 
 upon the particular character of the wearer of the crown 
 than of the mitre. The first doctrinal ground of dispute was 
 the assertion of the Latin church, alnrut the beginning of the 
 9th century, of the double procession of the Holy Ghost from 
 the Father and the Son. The word filioque, first surrep- 
 titiously inserted into the Constantinopolitan creed many 
 years after its promulgation, became the badge of the West- 
 ern church ; and whatever apparent advantage the shame- 
 ful forgery above mentioned might give to the opposite 
 party, it is very certain that the other dogma, the procession 
 from the Father alone, had never been declared by the 
 council of the church. And the silence of the symbols upon 
 it was no argument against either the truth of the doctrine, 
 or the fact of its having been held, as much as any doctrine 
 may he said to be so, before it has been brought forward 
 into discussion and settled in men's minds by the great mass 
 of the learned world. 
 
 The discussions produced by this controversy were brought 
 to a head by the sudden elevation of Photius, a layman, to 
 the patriarchate, by the command of the emperor. In six 
 successive days he passed through the six preliminary orders : 
 he became successively monk, render, subdeacon, deacon, 
 priest, bishop, and finally, on the seventh day, was conse- 
 crated patriarch ; and all this to the violent exclusion of the 
 existing pontiff Ignntius. The appointment of Photius, who 
 was a man of extraordinary talents, alarmed the Romish 
 see. The cause of Ignatius was supported in the West ; and 
 the intruder excommunicated by Nicholas I. The thunder 
 of Rome was retorted by a charge made on the part of 
 Photius against the Latin church of five distinct heresies ; 
 which it may be as well to enumerate, in order to show the 
 frivolity of the greater part of the grounds of dispute at this 
 period. 1. It was objected that the Romanists fasted on the 
 Sabbath, or seventh day of the week ; 2. That they permit- 
 ted the use of milk and cheese in the first week of Lent ; 3 
 That they forbade their priests to marry; 4. That they 
 authorized bishops to baptize with the chrism, nnd forbade 
 the priests ; 5. That they had interpolated the creed of Con 
 stantinople with the word filioque, and held the doctrine 
 therein implied. 
 
 These proceedings widened the breach which had alieady 
 
GREEN CLOTH, BOARD. 
 
 in fact taken place by the formal transference which the 
 emperor had effected of several provinces east of the Adri- 
 atic, from the jurisdiction of Rome to that of Constantinople. 
 The Roman party continued, however, still powerful in the 
 East, and the intrigues of the papal see were frequently suc- 
 cessful ; until in 1054 the mutual excommunications pronounc- 
 ed upon eat h other by Leo IX. and Cerularius caused the final 
 separation, which has continued to the present day. 
 
 The opinions of the Greek church bear considerable affini- 
 ly to those of the Latin. The fundamental distinction is the 
 rejection of the spiritual supremacy of St. Peter, and the 
 denial of any visible representative of Christ upon earth. 
 In the view which it takes of the procession of the Holy 
 Ghost it is at variance not only with the Roman Catholic 
 church, but with Protestants also. It recognizes, however, 
 the seven sacraments ; authorizes the offering of prayer to 
 the saints and Virgin ; and encourages the use of pictures, 
 though forbidding that of images. It holds in reverence also 
 the relics and tombs of holy men ; enjoins strict fasting and 
 the giving of alms, looking upon them as works of intrinsic 
 merit; and numbers among its adherents numerous orders 
 of monks and nuns. It allows, however, the marriage of 
 its secular priests, and rejects auricular confession. It holds 
 that modified form of the Roman doctrine of the eucharist 
 which is denominated consubstantiation ; and apparently 
 entertains some confused notions of a purgatory, in consider- 
 ation of which it offers prayers for the dead. It administers 
 baptism by immersion. 
 
 The services of this church mostly consist of ceremonial 
 observances ; preaching and the reading of the scriptures 
 form but a small part of them: the former, indeed, was at 
 one period altogether forbidden in Russia. The mass of the 
 people are in a state of the grossest ignorance upon religious 
 subjects ; and the worship of the lower orders, under the in- 
 fluence of a poor and unlettered ministry, is hardly distin- 
 guishable from the grossest heathenism. 
 
 GREEN CLOTH, BOARD OF. A court of justice be- 
 longing to the king's household, daily sitting in the king's 
 palace, under the lord high steward. It is attended by 
 various officers of the household, and by 'lie st< ward if the 
 Marshalsea, who is always a barrister. Tuey mc.v. for the 
 purpose of taking daily accounts of expenses, making pro- 
 vision and payments for the household, and paying the wages 
 of the king's servants under the lord high steward. It has 
 jurisdiction in all offences committed in the king's palaces, 
 and within the verge of his court. 
 
 GREENHOUSE. In Gardening, a house with a roof and 
 one or more sides of glass, for the purpose of containing 
 plants in pots which are too tender to endure the open air 
 the greater part of the year. The green-house, being a 
 structure of luxury, ought to be for the most part situated 
 near the house, in order to be enjoyed by the family in in- 
 clement weather; and, if possible, it should be connected 
 with the flower-garden, as being of the same character with 
 reference to use. Its length and breadth may be varied at 
 pleasure, but its height should never be less than that of the 
 loftiest apartments of the house to which it belongs. The 
 best aspect is to the south or south-east ; but any aspect may 
 be chosen, provided the roof is entirely of glass, and abundant 
 heat is supplied by art. In green-houses facing the north, 
 however, the more tender plants will not thrive so well in 
 winter: more artificial heat will be required at that season ; 
 and the plants should be chiefly ever-greens, and other plants 
 that come into flower in the summer season, and grow or 
 flower but little during winter. In most green-houses the 
 plants are kept in pots or boxes, and set on stages or shelves, 
 in order that they may be near the roof, so as to receive the 
 direct influence of the rays of light immediately on their 
 passing through the glass. An orangery differs from a green- 
 house in having an opaque roof, and in being chiefly devoted 
 to plants which produce their shoots and flowers in the sum- 
 mer season and in the open air; and they are set in the 
 orangery merely to preserve them through the winter. Such 
 a structure might with more propriety be termed a conser- 
 vatory' ; but custom in the present day has applied this term 
 to structures having glass roofs in which the plants are not 
 kept in pots, but planted in the free soil, and in which a 
 part of them are encouraged to grow and flower in the win- 
 ter months. See Orangery and Conservatory. 
 
 GREEN ROOM, in the Theatre, the name given to the 
 actors' retiring room ; so called, in all probability, from its be- 
 ing originally painted or otherwise ornamented with green. 
 
 GRE'ENSAND. Beds belonging to the chalk forma- 
 tion : they often contain chlorite or green earth scattered 
 through the sandstone and limestone of which they consist. 
 ice Geology. 
 
 GREEN, SCHEELE'S. An arsenite of copper. Mineral 
 '/real is a subcarbonatc of copper, and Brunswick green an 
 uxychloride of copper. 
 
 GREEN P'CKNESS. Sec Chlorosis. 
 
 GREENSTONE. A variety of traprock composed of 
 felspar and hornblende. See Geology. 
 534 
 
 GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGES. 
 
 GREEN VITRIOL. The metallic salts of sulphuric acid 
 were formerly designated vitriols: sulphate of iron was 
 termed green vitriol. It is a compound of 1 atom of oxide 
 of iron and 1 atom of sulphuric acid : the crystals contain 
 7 atoms of water ; hence the crystallized salt consists of 36 
 protoxide of iron, 40 sulphuric acid, and C3 water, and its 
 equivalent is — 139. Sulphate of copper is called blue 
 vitriol, and sulphate of zinc white vitriol. 
 
 GREGO'RIAN CALENDAR. The reformed calendai 
 of the church of Rome, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. in 
 1582, in which the error of the civil year of the Julian cal- 
 ender was corrected by the omission of three intercalary 
 days in four centuries, and the moon's age, with the time of 
 Easter, with the other moveable feasts depending on it, in 
 dicated by the table of epacts. See Calendar. 
 
 GREGO'RIAN EPOCH. The epoch or time at which 
 the computation by the Gregorian calendar commenced. 
 This was in March, 1582. 
 
 GREGO'RIAN TELESCOPE. The first and most com 
 mon form of the reflecting telescope, invented by James 
 Gregory, professor of mathematics in the university of St. 
 Andrew's, and afterwards of Edinburgh, and described by 
 him in his Optica Promota, published in 1663. See Tele- 
 scope. 
 
 GREGO'RIAN YEAR. The civil year of the Gregorian 
 calendar. In the Gregorian calendar the common year con- 
 sists of 365 days, and every fourth year is a leap year, or 
 contains 3(50 days, excepting the last years of every century 
 of which the number is not divisible by 4. Thus, the years 
 1700, 1800, 1900, are not leap years; but 1600 and 2000 are 
 leap years, the numbers 16 and 20 being divisible by 4. The 
 period is consequently 400 years, in the course of which there 
 occur 97 intercalations; so that 400 years contain 365 X 400 
 + 97 = 146,097 days, and therefore one Gregorian year con- 
 sists of 365-2425 mean solar days, or 365 d. 5 h.49 m. 12 sec. 
 But the true solar year consists of 365 d. 5 h. 48 m. 49-62 
 sec. The Gregorian year, therefore, errs in excess by 22-36 
 seconds; but the error is not worth taking into account, as 
 it only amounts to one whole day in 3866 years. 
 
 C'i^NA'DE. A hollow ball of iron about two inches and 
 a halt in riianieter, charged with gunpowder anil furnished 
 with a proper fuse; it is often called a hand grenade, being 
 thrown from the parapets of besieged places upon the in- 
 vaders beneath. 
 
 GRENADI'ERS, was the name given at first to the sol 
 diers who threw the grenade ; but it was afterwards confer- 
 red on certain troops of the line, distinguished from the latter 
 chiefly by some peculiarities of dress, accoutrements, &.c. 
 This appellation originated with the French in 1667, but was 
 speedily adopted into all the armies of Europe ; and wherevei 
 the name has been introduced, the finest-looking and tallest 
 men of the regiment have always been selected to form what 
 is called the grenadier companies. 
 
 GRE'S. (Fr.) Sandstone or grit. 
 
 GRESSO'RIAL, in Ornithology, is applied to the feet of 
 birds which have three toes forward, two of which are con- 
 nected, and one behind. 
 
 GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGES. A species of mar- 
 riage, so called from its being usually celebrated at that 
 place. The following statement, which we have borrowed 
 from the Geographical Dictionary, conveys so full and ac- 
 curate particulars of these far-famed marriages, that we 
 have taken the liberty of transferring it to our columns. 
 
 " The marriage ceremony merely amounts to an admis- 
 sion before witnesses that certain persons are man and wife; 
 such acknowledgment being sufficient, provided it be follow- 
 ed or preceded by cohabitation, according to the law of Scot- 
 land, to constitute a valid marriage. A certificate to this 
 effect being signed by the officiating priest (who has never 
 been above the rank of a tradesman), and by two witnesses, 
 the union, under the above condition, becomes indissoluble. 
 The marriage service of the church of England is sometimes 
 read, in order to please the parties. The marriages of this 
 sort celebrated at Gretna Green are estimated at between 
 300 and 400 a year; hut as similar marriages arc celebrated 
 at Springfield. Annan, Coldstream, and other places along 
 the border, their total number is said to amount to 500 a 
 year! The parties are generally from England, and of the 
 lowest ranks; though there are not a few instances of per- 
 sons of the higher ranks, and even of lord-chancellors, having 
 had recourse to the services of the soidisant parsons of C retna 
 Green. A trip to Gretna, or the presence of a self-dubbed 
 parson, is not, however, at all necessary. Parties crossing 
 the Scottish border, and declaring before witnesses that they 
 are man and wife, are, under the previously mentioned con- 
 ditions, married according to the law of Scotland. This law 
 has been much objected to, but we are inclined to think with 
 no good reason. It would, indeed, be no difficult matter to 
 show that it is, on the whole, productive of numerous ad- 
 vantages. Nowhere, perhaps, are there so few rash or im- 
 provident marriages as in Scotland ; and the retrospective 
 effect of the existing law or its influence in lcgitimisins th* 
 
GREYWACKE. 
 
 children torn before marriage, is, perhaps, its most valuable 
 feature. But it is necessary to observe, that though legiti- 
 mated in Scotland, children born previously to a Scotch mar- 
 riage are not legitimated in England, and do not succeed, ex- 
 cept by special bequest, to heritable property in ih.it part of 
 the U. Kingdom. In all respects, however, Scutch marriages 
 convey the fame rights and privileges in England as English 
 marri tges. The practice began at Gretna Green about 90 
 years ;igo by a person named Paisley, a tobacconist, who died 
 so lalely as 1814. It is now carried on by various individ- 
 uals: indeed, each inn has its rival priest, in addition, to 
 Othera who carry on the business on their own account; and 
 bo far has competition reduced the fees, that though large 
 sums (£40 or £50) have been received, the solatium, in some 
 instance-, is now so low as half-a-crown. One of these 
 functionaries, who breaks stones daily on the verge of Eng- 
 land, has the best chance of succeeding ; for he accosts ev- 
 ery party as they pass, and tries to strike the best bargain." 
 
 GREYWACKE. See Grauwackk, Gkoloqy. 
 
 GRI'FFIN. (Gr. } pv4>.) A fabulous animal of antiquity 
 represented with the body and feet of a lion, the head of an 
 eagle or vulture, and as being furnished with wings and 
 claws. The Biffin is one of those imaginary creatures to 
 which the ancients were so confessedly partial, but it belongs 
 ■ >re to the romantic than the classical mythology. It plays 
 nt part in the fairy tales and romances of the mid- 
 . and, like the dragon whirli was tabled to guard 
 n apples of the Hespcrides, its chief duties consisted 
 in watching over hidden treasures, and in guarding captive 
 princesses, or the CfUJtle* in which they were confined. The 
 griffin is at once the symbol of strength and swiftness, cour- 
 age, prudence, and vigilance — qualities which its form is well 
 calculated to represent; and hence it has been adopted into 
 the language of heraldry, where it constitutes a prominent 
 feature in the armorial bearings of many princely and noble 
 families. 
 
 GIUMA'CE. (Fr.) In Painting and Sculpture, an un- 
 natural distortion of the countenance, from habit, nifectaliou, 
 or insolence. 
 
 G I! ' I'H. The fore part of a ship. To gripe, the tendency 
 it a «nip U) brir.j her jicuu up U ".he Will 
 sail on the wind. 
 
 GRIT. Hard sandstone, employed for millstones and 
 grindstones, pavement, &c. 
 
 GROAT. An old English silver coin equnl to 4d. of our 
 present money It was introduced by Edward III. and about 
 tin- year 1331 , and has lately been again adopted and issued 
 from the mint ! the first coinage of these modern silver groats 
 or four-penny pieces took place in 1835. 
 
 QR0AT8, in Agriculture, are the small grains formed 
 from oats by being cut In the mill, after having the husks or 
 shells taken off from the grain. 
 
 GROIN. (Sax. grortn, to grove.) In Architecture, the 
 line formed at the intersection of two arches which cross 
 each other at toy angle. 
 
 6BONTNGENI8TS. In Eccl. History, a subdivision of 
 of Anabaptists. (See Mosheim, transl., vol. v., p. 
 OS. j 
 
 GROOM. A name now usually applied to servants who 
 arc employed about horses. From the Flemish grom, a boy 
 The groom-porter was an officer of the royal household in 
 the lord steward's department, whose place is said to have 
 succeeded that of the master of the revels. Groom is still 
 the denomination of several officers of the royal household, 
 chiefly in the lord chamberlain's department ; such as grooms 
 in waiting, groom of the stole or robes, &.c, Uc. 
 
 GROOVE. (Sax. grafan, to dig.) In Architecture, a 
 sunken rectangular channel. It is usually employed to con- 
 nect two pieces of wood together, the piece not grooved 
 having on its edge a projection or tongue, whose section cor- 
 als to and fits the groove. 
 
 ( ; ROSS. In Commerce, the number of 12 dozen. 
 
 QROSSTJL A CEjE. (Grossularia, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of shrubby Exogens, natives of most parts of 
 the world, excepting Africa, and the tropics; formerly con- 
 founded with Cactacea. Placed by Von Martius between 
 Snxifrngnccx and Onagracea ; but nevertheless, on account 
 "f their albuminous seeds, appearing to have affinities of 
 toother nature, especially with Berberacea and the Vine, 
 wherry and currant are fruits of this order, to which 
 anny beautiful hardy shrubs common in our gardens also 
 belong. 
 
 GROSSULA'RIA. (Lat. grossula, a gooseberry.) A 
 *reen garnet found in Siberia. 
 
 ClioTE'SOUE. (Fr.) In the Fine Arts, a term applied 
 "i capricious ornaments, which as a whole have no type in 
 nature; consisting of figures, animals, leaves, flowers, fruits, 
 and the like, all connected together. 
 
 Grotksqdk. In Architecture, artificial grotto-work dec- 
 " Ith rockwork, shells, &c. 
 
 GROTTO, (It.) The name given to subterraneous natural 
 excavations formed in the heart of mountains or other places. 
 
 GUARDIAN OF SPIRITUALITIES. 
 
 Many of these cavities are famed for the mephitic exhale 
 tioiis that Issue from them, and to tiiis class belongs more espe- 
 cially the Grotto del Cane, near Naples; but there arc others 
 not less celebrated for their beauty and grandeur, of which 
 tile grottoes of Anliparos and Fingal, are well-known ex- 
 amples. In picturesque gardening, the term is applied to an 
 artificial or ornamental cave or low building intended tc 
 represent a natural grotto. The best specimen of this kind 
 is the grotto attached to the Colosseum, which may be con- 
 sidered a model for all similar designs. 
 
 GROUND. (Sax. grund.) In the Fine Arts, a word ol 
 various application. In Painting, it is the first layer of colon) 
 on which the figures or other objects are painted ; of Sculp 
 ture, it is the surface from which, in relievi, the figures rise, 
 and in Architecture, it is used to denote the face of tin 
 scenery or couutrv round a building. 
 
 GROUND BAIT. Halls made of greaves, bran, boiled 
 grain, gentles, &c., mixed up with clay and thrown into the 
 water, by which the fish are brought together upon those 
 spots which the angler selects for his sport. 
 
 GROUND PLATE, or SILL. In Architecture, the lower 
 part of a timber building, which receives the principal and 
 other posts. 
 
 GROUNDS. In Architecture, pieces of wood Hush with 
 the plastering, for which they serve as a guide, &c, to which 
 lis and other finishings are attached. 
 
 GROUP. (Fr. groupe.) In Painting, an assemblage of 
 objects, whose lighted parts form a mass of light, and their 
 ■haded para a mass of khadow ; the word is also used to de- 
 note any adjoining assemblage of figures, animals, fruits, 
 flowers, Sic. b mmrt Inn also of objects of different sorts, it 
 is usual to Bay that one object groups with another. Lights 
 in groups should, as well as shadows, be connected together, 
 or the necessary repose will be wanting. In Sculpture, the 
 word group is applied to a design in which there are two or 
 more figures. In M note, grtmf signifies a number of ndtctf 
 linked together at the 
 
 GROUSE, SaeTsrTftAO. 
 
 GROUT. (Sax. grut.) In Architecture, mortar reduced 
 to a slate of fluidity by the addition of water: a mixture of 
 plash ir stuff, used in fiiishing 
 
 the best ceilings ; also for mouldings, and sometimes for set- 
 tii:'_' v, alls. 
 
 (lltlJ'IDiE. The name of the family of wading birds rep-- 
 resented by the stork (Grus). 
 
 GRUS. (Lat. the Crane.) One of the modern constella- 
 tions in the soui hern hemisphere See Constellation. 
 
 GRY'LLUJjE. (Lat. gryllus, a locust.) The name of 
 the family of locusts, having the genus Gryllus for the ivpe. 
 
 GRYPA'NIUM. (Gr. ypvxos, incurved.) In Ornitholo- 
 gy, the rostrum grypanium is that form of beak in which 
 the culmen is more or less carinated, and is so continued to 
 the apex of the incurved maxilla. 
 
 GRV'PIIiE'A. (Gr. ypuiroc.) A genus of Ostracean Bi- 
 valves, remarkable for the curvature of the apex or beak of 
 the shell ; it is chiefly represented by fossil species, one of 
 which. Gryphon virgula, characterizes the Kimmeridge 
 clay, near Oxford, and the upper oolite of parts of France. 
 
 GRYPIIO'SIS. (Gr. ypv-xociv, to incurvate.) A growing 
 inwards of the nails. 
 
 GUA'IACUM, is a peculiar resinous substnnce obtained 
 from the Guaiacum officinale, a tree of the West Indies. It 
 has some chemical peculiarities which distinguish it from the 
 common resins, especially its property of becoming blue uiid 
 green by the action of certain oxidizing substances. Decoc- 
 tion of the wood of the tree, and the tincture of the resin, 
 have been employed in the cure of rheumatism, and as an 
 alterative ; but it is an unimportant medicine. 
 
 GUA'NO. A substance found upon certain small islands, 
 especially in the South Sea, which are the resort of large 
 flocks of birds, and chiefly composed of their excrement : it 
 is said to form beds fifty to sixty feet in thickness. It is an 
 excellent manure. 
 
 GUARANTE'E, in Law, is an undertaking to answer foi 
 the failure of another. By the Statute of Frauds, a person 
 is not liable on a special promise in the nature of a guarantee 
 unless a written agreement, or memorandum of such prom- 
 ise, shall be signed by the party making the promise, or some 
 person lawfully authorized by him. 
 
 GUA'RDIAN, in Law, he who has the custody of such 
 persons as are incapable of directing themselves, and especial 
 ly of infants. Guardians at common law were— 1. In chiv- 
 alry (under the feudal principle of wardship, abolished with 
 the other incidents of military tenure by 12 Ch. 2). 2. By 
 nature; the father in all cases; the mother to daughters, 
 where no guardian is assigned by the father's deed or will. 
 3. For nurture ; appointed by the ordinary in default of father 
 or mother. 4. In socage, being the nearest of kin to an in 
 fant entitled to real estate who cannot inherit that estate. 
 
 GUA'RDIAN OF SPIRITUALTIES. In Ecclesiastical 
 Law, the person to whom the spiritual administration of a 
 diocese is entrusted during the vacancy of the see. Of Tern- 
 
 535 
 
GU vRD, NATIONAL, OF FRANCE. 
 
 poraltics, one appointed by the king during such vacancy to 
 take care of the goods and profits, and deliver an account to 
 the Exchequer. 
 
 GUARD, NATIONAL, OF FRANCE. This famous in- 
 stitution was first devised by the Municipal Committee of 
 Safety of 1789, which sat at the Hdtel de Villa, in Paris, be- 
 fore the taking of the Bastile. The corps which was then 
 raised at first carried green colours, afterwards replaced by 
 the tricolour. It was more fully organized by a decree of 
 September, 1791, to bo raised by voluntary enlistment, both 
 in Paris and the departments, in the proportion of one man 
 out of every twenty citizens. The stall' of the national guard 
 was dissolved by the Convention after the 13 VendCmiaire 
 (1795), and it was placed under control of the military au- 
 thorities. Napoleon made of the national guard a species of 
 military nursery, and large portions of it volunteered in 1813 
 to act beyond the frontiers. Under the Restoration the na- 
 tional guards were deprived of the privilege of choosing their 
 own officers ; and in 1827, in consequence of their public de- 
 mands for the dismission of the ministry (Villele's), they 
 were dissolved. By their constitution, as remodelled in 1830, 
 they elect their own officers up to the rank of sub-lieutenant 
 inclusive : the rest are appointed by the king. 
 
 GUARD, THE IMPERIAL, in the armies of the Emperor 
 Napoleon, was formed from a small corps of life-guards (as 
 they might he termed) which had served to defend the Con- 
 vention," the Corps Legislatif of 1795, the Directory, and after- 
 wards the Consulate. In 1805, when Napoleon became 
 emperor, the consular guard had already been increasi d to 
 3300 infantry and 2100 cavalry, besides artillery and marines. 
 Its augmentation and equipment became afterwards one of 
 Napoleon's favourite pursuits ; and as soldiers could not be 
 enrolled except after serving four campaigns in the line with 
 distinction or from the preparatory corps called the young 
 guards, it was an institution of the highest military policy. 
 In the end of 1812, the Imperial Guard, old and young, con- 
 sisted of 5G,000 men; and its farther increase was only pre- 
 vented by the calamities of the following year. At the 
 Restoration, the soldiers of the young guard returned to 
 the line ; those of the old guard were formed into royal regi- 
 ments. 
 
 GUARD, YEOMEN OF THE, were first raised by Henry 
 VII. in 1485, and appear to have been the first standing mili- 
 tary corps ever set on foot in this country. They were at 
 first fifty men, half armed with bows and arrows, and half 
 with aiq iitbusscs ; afterwards some carried halberds. The 
 arquebusses were exchanged for partizans (which they now 
 carry) in the reign of William III. 
 
 GUARDS. Troops attached to the person of the sovereign. 
 In modern times, the designation is applied in most countries 
 to a body of men distinguished from the line by difference of 
 pay, dress, &c, and possessing a certain military rank. 
 Body-guards have been an inseparable accompaniment of 
 monarchy from the earliest ages: the Assyrian and Persian 
 monarch" employed them. The corps of Argyraspides, or 
 silver-shields, were selected by Alexander out of the bravest 
 men of his army. The Roman emperors had their Praetorian 
 guard. Napoleon first created a small troop of body-guards, 
 with the title of Guides, while yet only general, in his first 
 Italian campaign. From this arose by degrees the great in- 
 stitution of the Imperial Guard, itself an army, with its two 
 great divisions of old and young, mid 120 pieces of cannon, 
 the whole of which corps was broken up at the Restoration. 
 On the revolution of 1830, the royal guards of France were 
 disbanded, and none have been since embodied in that coun- 
 try. In England, the guards (otherwise called household 
 troops) consist of the life-guards, the royal regiment of horse- 
 guards, and three regiments of foot-guards. Many of the 
 European sovereigns, before the French Revolution, had 
 small corps of foreign troops which served in this capacity. 
 Thus the French kings had, in early times, a body of Scotch 
 Guards, termed archers ; at a later period, a body of Swiss 
 Guards, called the Cent-Swisses; and after the Restoration 
 of 1815 several battalions of Swiss Guards were organized 
 for the same service. This system has almost disappeared, 
 since the troubles of the Revolution have introduced a spirit 
 at once more military and more national into the councils 
 and populations of Europe. The Pope still retains his Swiss 
 Guards. 
 
 GUA'VA. The fruit of the Psidium pomiferum, from 
 which a jelly is made in the West Indies. 
 
 GU'DGEON. The common name of a small species of 
 'he Cyprinoid family of soft-finned fishes; having, like the 
 Barbel, cirri or feelers at the mouth, and both the dorsal and 
 anal fins short, but without a strong bony ray at the com- 
 mencement of either. The species consequently forms the 
 type of a distinct subgenus called Gobio. 
 
 GU'DGEONS. In Machinery, the pins inserted in the ex- 
 tremities of a shaft, or the axle of a wheel, on which it turns, 
 tnd which support the whole weight. In order to diminish 
 friction, gudgeons are made as small as possible in diameter; 
 leaving, however, sufficient strength to support the weight. 
 536 
 
 GUILD. 
 
 They are frequently formed of cast iron, on account oX iu 
 cheapness ; but wrought iron of the same dimensions is con- 
 siderably stronger, and will support a greater load. 
 
 GUE'BERS, or GUEBRES (i. e. Giaours, infidels) The 
 sectaries of the ancient Persian religion, of which the chief 
 peculiarity consisted in the worship of fire, are so termed by 
 the Mohammedans. They still exist in some of the southern 
 and eastern districts of Persia ; but a colony of them has been 
 long established at Bombay, and other parts of the western 
 coast of India, and has attained to wealth and distinctior 
 j These are termed in India Parsees, from the nation from 
 which they originally sprang. The Guebres explain the 
 worship of fire by professing to regard it as a symbol only of 
 the Divinity. Their sacred books are termed the Zend- 
 Avesta. Sec Parsees. 
 
 GUELF, ORDER OF, or ROYAL GUELPHIC ORDER. 
 An Hanoverian order of knighthood, founded in 1815 by- 
 George IV., then Prince Regent. It consists of grand crosses, 
 commanders, and knights, both civil and military. 
 j GUELFS. In Italian History, during the middle ages, ;; 
 , political party, the feuds between which and the opposite 
 party of the Ghibellines long distracted that country. The 
 | former name is derived from that of the great German house 
 of the Welts or Guelfs. These, in the 12th century, were 
 dukes of Bavaria; and carried on war in Germany with the 
 house of Hohcnstauften, from one of whose castles (Weib- 
 lingen) the name Ghibelline is supposed to have been derived. 
 The latter house having become the ruling power in Ger- 
 many under Frederic I., that prince invaded Italy in order 
 to re-assert the rights of the empire; and thus these party 
 names, first used in a German feud, were transplanted into 
 that country. The chief adversaries of the house of Uohen- 
 stauffen in Italy were the Popes, who thus became the heads 
 of the Guelf party ; and the struggle between the two be- 
 came, in the 13th century,- when Frederic II. was involved 
 in contests with several successive pontiffs, a contest between 
 the temporal and spiritual power. In that instance the latter 
 prevailed ; but the Ghibellines remained, notwithstanding, 
 powerful, especially in the north of Italy ; and, in the begin- 
 ning of the following century, the invasion of the emperor 
 Henry of Luxemburg added considerably to their power. In 
 the early part of that century the leading Ghibelline powers 
 generally were, Milan under the house of Visconti, Verona 
 under that of La Scala, and the Aragonese kings of Sicily ; 
 the chief Guelf states the republic of Florence, the Angevin 
 kings of Naples, &c. Other slates were alternately under 
 the control of the two parties as they in turn predominated. 
 At this time the poet Dante, who had embraced Ghibelline 
 principles, not merely on party grounds, but from exalted 
 political speculation, threw the lustre of his genius over the 
 civil feuds of his age. In the course of the 14th century, 
 especially after the removal of the papal seat to Avignon, 
 the original principles of the two parties were entirely lost , 
 while the names continued, and factions bearing those ap- 
 pellations constantly agitated the interior of Italian cities and 
 monarchies down to the middle of the 15th century, or even 
 to a still later period. The most complete works which can 
 now be consulted on the subject arc those of Raumer (Ge- 
 schichte der Jiolicnstaitffen), and Sismondi (Republigues 
 Italienncs). 
 
 GUERRI'LLA. (Span, little war.) The plan of har- 
 rassing the French armies by the constant attacks of inde- 
 pendant bands, acting in a mountainous country, wits adopt- 
 ed in the north of Spain during the Peninsular war. It was 
 first reduced into a kind of system in 1810. (See Napier's 
 Peninsular War, book ix., chnp. 1.) The bands which con- 
 ducted this desultory warfare were called Partidas: the 
 name of Guerrilla is, by a misapplication of the term, fre 
 quently applied to them. 
 
 GUIDE. (Fr.) In Music, the leading part in a canon oi 
 fugue. 
 
 GUILD, or GILD. (Sax. gildan, to pay ; sard to be de 
 rived from payments made by a member of a guild on ad- 
 mission.) A fraternity or association, generally of mer 
 chants. The Collegia Opificum of the hilcr Roman onipirf 
 appear to have been societies of this description, in which a 
 body of artisans or traders exercising the same craft were 
 united together for purposes of mutual assistance, and pos- 
 sessed what we should term corporate rights. The Anglo 
 Saxon guilds were voluntary associations for various purpo 
 ses, religious and social as well as commercial ; and the old 
 est English guild of which the history is at all ascertained is 
 said to have been the Cnighten guild of London, which has 
 been thought by its name to have been a military company ; 
 but this is doubtful, and its history is altogether extremely 
 obscure. But the more important guilds of later times have 
 been all mercantile. The guild-merchant, in many boroughs 
 of England, seems to have been a trading society, into which 
 all persons wishing to exercise trade within the borough 
 were obliged to be admitted ; and hence, in process of time, 
 the freedom of the borough, which, originally depended upon 
 mere inhabitancy, became connected with admission to the 
 
GUILLEMOT. 
 
 ,ruild, and the guild and corporate body of the borough be- 
 came co-extensive. A more remarkable change took place 
 i:i the constitution of London, where the several trading 
 companies by degrees so completely engrossed the govern- 
 ment that ■rimiiMHm into one or the other of them (the liver- 
 ied companies) became a necessary qualification for the ex- 
 ercise of municipal rights; while some relics still remain 
 u the division of the city into wards) of the more an- 
 cient stale of things. The name guild is still preserved in 
 the ancient boroughs of Scotland, and the dean of guild is 
 lite second municipal magistrate of a Scottish borough. The 
 /.unite of German cities, and the trading companies of those 
 nf France and Italy, have acted an equally important part in 
 the history of those countries. 
 GUILLEMOT. See Uria. 
 
 GUILLOCHE. (Fr.) In Architec- 
 ture, an ornament composed of curved 
 fillets, which, by repetition, form a con- 
 tinued series. 
 
 G1 II.I.O'ITXE. (Fr.) The name given to the instru- 
 ment of capital punishment used in France; so called from 
 Joseph Imiuce Guillotin, by whom it was introduced into 
 that country. This person was bora at Saintes, and, estab- 
 ■ physician at Paris, obtained a certain celebrity in 
 the early period of the Revolution by the strong part which 
 he took in favour of the rights of the Tiers-Etat. He was 
 elected in consequence a deputy to the National Assembly. 
 When that body was occupied in its long dhWMsrinne relative 
 to the reform of the penal code (in 1790) Guillotin proposed 
 the adoption of decapitation — up to that time used only for 
 nobles — as the only method of capital punishment. From 
 sentiments of humanity he recommended the employment 
 of a machine which had been long known in Italy under the 
 name of "mnnnnjn," and in other countries also; for some- 
 thing much resembling it had been used in Scotland (see 
 Maiden), and in England within the Jurisdiction of the 
 borough of Halifax. The Assembly applauded the idea, and 
 the machine was adopted, to which the Parisians have given 
 the name of" Guillotine," nnd of which Guillotin is most cr- 
 roncomiv ■sppeaeel to have been the inventor. It consists 
 of two upright pieres of wood fixed in n horizontal frame; n 
 sharp blade of steel moves up and down by means of a pulley 
 in amoves in the two uprights; the edge Is oblique instead of 
 horizontal in shape, which gives it the inechanir.il power of 
 the wedge. The criminal is laid on his face, his neck im- 
 mediately under the blade, which severs it nt a blow from 
 his body. It is equally n vulgnrerror that Guillotin perished 
 by the instrument which bears his name. Me was impris- 
 oned ilining the Ifeign of Terror, but released at the revolu- 
 tion of .Inly, Kill ; and died In 1814, nOer founding the nsso- 
 Ttned the Academy of Men 
 GUl'NEA. An English denomination of money; for- 
 merly b coin, but now disused. Its value is 21s. The coin 
 weighed 19BJ grains, and contained 118-7 grains of pure gold. 
 Guine is were first coined In the reign of Charles II. (1662) 
 of g Id brought from Guinea; whence the name. 
 GUl'NEA PEPPER. A species of capsicum. 
 (Ml NE \ WORM. The Filar ia medinensis. A worm 
 which affects the skin, especially of the legs. In warm cli- 
 mates. While it remains under the skin this worm produces 
 till n pan suppurates, and it puts out its 
 head; much pain being experienced on attempting to draw 
 pecinlly if it be broken. 
 GUPTA'R. (It chitarra.) A musical stringed instru- 
 ment, whose invention is attributed to the Spaniards. The 
 strings are stretched over a body much larger than the violin, 
 tnewhal similar shape; except that the sharp cor- 
 nets a'e rounded ofT, and the strings, which ate more in num- 
 ber than the violin, nnd are not carried over a bridge, are 
 struck o- pulled with the fingers. 
 
 GU'LA, in Zoology, is the region of the throat nearest the 
 lower jaw. 
 Gi'i.a. In Architecture. See Gola. 
 GULES. (Fr. gueule, a throat.) In Heraldry, red; one 
 cf the colours, or tinctures, employed in blazonry. It is 
 equivalent to ruby among precious stones. Mars among plan- 
 I engraving it is represented by a vertical line. 
 CULL. See Lahts. 
 
 8ULPH. In Geography, an arm of the sea extending 
 nvre or less into the land, and distinguished from a bay only 
 In being of greater size and extent than the latter. It is de- 
 rived fr to the Gr. if./>7roc, signifying bosom, nnd has been 
 ■looted with a slight variation into nil the languages of mod- 
 em Europe. 
 
 0O1I. A vegetable product, distinguished by solubility in 
 water, and Insolubility in alcohol ; it is tasteless and inodo- 
 IBJtuK Gum-arabic, which is the produce of the Jlcacia vera, 
 may be taken ,-i« n sample of the purest form of gum. It is 
 lni|>or!ed from Bnrbary and Morocco. Its specific gravity is 
 1*45. Its solution is viscid, and is termed mucilage. Gum 
 is naed as a demulcent in medicine, nnd for giving g^oss and 
 to linens, silks, fcc. It consists of carbon 41-4, oxy- 
 
 GUN. 
 
 gen 52-09, hydrogen 5-51; or, in other terms, of 41-4 charcoal 
 and 586 water. 
 
 GUM-RESIN. An exudation from many trees, composed 
 of a mixture of gum and resin, or of a substance interniedi 
 ate between the two. 
 
 GUN. Under this general term most of the species of 
 fire-arms are included, the pistol and mortar being almost the 
 only exceptions. Great guns, or cannon (see Cannon), be- 
 gan to be used as military engines about the middle of the 
 14th century; but small guns, or muskets, appear to have 
 been introduced nearly two centuries later, namely, 1521. 
 They were first used by the Spanish infantry at the siege of 
 IUiege. Muskets were at first of a very clumsy construction, 
 being so heuvy that they could not be levelled and tirtii 
 from the shoulder; accordingly the soldier was provided 
 with a rest, w hich it was necessary - to carry along with him 
 and plant in the ground in order to support the weapon be 
 fore it could be used. The gun was generally tired with a 
 match; sometimes by means of sparks generated by the am 
 olution of a notched wheel of steel, placed directly abovi* 
 the pan containing the priming. Muskets with n 
 employed so lately us the civil wars in the time of Charles 
 I.; afterwards a lighter matchlock musket came into use ; 
 and about the beginning of the last century the imops 
 throughout Europe HON aimed wiih firelocks. 
 
 The barrel forms the essential part of the gun ; and the 
 first requisite to a good barrel is toughness in the material o( 
 which it is made, for safety in using it depends mainly on 
 this quality. The best iron for the formation of musket bai 
 rels is that which has been much win a, and toughened l,v 
 the loss of its fiery particles; and, accordingly, old horse 
 stub-nails tire much in request for this purpose, ami sold at 
 a high price to the barrel forgers. Formerly the best gun 
 
 barrels were made in Spain ; and their superiority was at 
 tributed to the excellency of the iron made u.-e of, which 
 consisted almost exclusively of stub-nails, and the old shoes. 
 of horses and mules: but the barrels now made in this coun- 
 try are not inferior to those of any country in the world. 
 The method of making the barrel is this: the hon is first 
 formed into a thin flexible bar, something like a cooper's 
 hoop, and when heated is plied or twisted round a mandril, 
 much in the same manner as a ribbon of leather is turned 
 round the handle of a whip. For the best barrels the 
 breadth of the bar does not exceed half tin inch ; and it is 
 turned round the mandril in such a manner that the edges 
 are brought close together, but do not overlap. I this post 
 tion it is welded by horizontal strokes with the namnici. 
 But in common guns a broader bar is employed; ami its 
 edges, which tire placed so as to overlap considerably, are 
 welded down on each other. The Damascus barrels, prised 
 for their beauty, though inferior in strength, are Composed ol 
 iron and steel in certain proportions laid cros-ways, and 
 hammered together the whole length of the barrel. Alter 
 the barrel has been forged, the inside is rendered smooth 
 nnd perfectly cylindrical by boring it with a bit, or rather 
 bits of different sizes used in succession. In rifles a certain 
 number of parallel grooves, either straight or slightly twist- 
 ed, are cut In the Inside of the barrel, of equal depth and 
 fineness, nnd through its whole length. The exterior id 
 smoothed by turning It on a lathe. 
 
 By act of parliament every gun barrel offered for sale 
 must be tried by a certain quantity of powder and weight of 
 shot according to its size ; but the best gun-makers do not 
 trust to this legal test, and subject them to a severer trial by 
 water-proof. For fowling pieces and other guns of the best 
 description the flint lock is now laid aside, nnd the percus- 
 sion or detonating lock almost universally substituted. This 
 ingenious invention belongs to a Scottish clergyman the 
 Reverened Mr. Forsyth, minister of Belhelvie in Aberdeen 
 shire ; but it has since received some great improvements, 
 especially In the application of the copper cap — to which, 
 indeed, may be attributed all its superiority. The following 
 are the dimensions of the new pattern musket carried by the 
 British troops: 
 
 Length of the barrel, in inches . . .42' 
 
 Diameter of the bore . .... -75 
 
 Diameter of the ball for service . . . -676 
 
 Weight of the ball for service, in ounces avoir- 
 
 dupois 1-06 
 
 Weight of the firelock with bayonet, in pounds 
 
 avoirdupois 122;1 
 
 Length of barrel and bayonet, in inches 59- 
 
 The carbine carried by regiments of light cavalry is 1 
 inches in length, and weighs 6 pounds. (Encyc. Brit., art. 
 " Gun-making.") 
 
 Great puns, or cannon, used formerly to be very long in 
 the bore, nnd constructed with a view to support large char 
 ges of powder; but the experiments of Robins and Hutton 
 proved that neither great length of the bore nor large char 
 ges are ever necessary. In consequence of these expert 
 ments, n great improvement took place in the artillery servl- 
 
GUNNER. 
 
 ces of Europe about the beginning of the French revolution- 
 ary wars The best length has been found to be about 17 
 calibres. No field-piece has now a bore of more than 18 
 calibres in length. In the English service the regulation 
 length is 14 calibres ; in America, during the late war, it 
 was reduced to 12 ; but has since been increased, on what 
 principle it does not appear, to 18. The length of the gun 
 must, however, be regulated in many cases by the service 
 for which it is destined. In battering guns a certain length 
 in front of the trunnions is absolutely necessary ; for, gener- 
 ally speaking, they are fired from embrasures of earth, which 
 would be injured by the firing if the mouth of the gun did 
 not reach beyond it. Navy guns should also project to a 
 certain distance beyond the side of the vessel, and the same 
 reasons apply to garrison as to battering guns. 
 
 With regard to the shape of guns, it is easy to see that it 
 ought to be such as to give them the greatest strength at the 
 part which suffers the greatest strain of firing. This is prob- 
 ably at the part where the ball is lodged. Count Rumford 
 therefore proposed to make the thickness of the metal great- 
 est at this point, and planned a gun swelling in a curve from 
 the breech to the lodgement of the ball, and again contract- 
 ing in a curve from that point to the projection of the muz- 
 zle. In some guns, as the American navy 32 pounder, the 
 form is cylindrical from the base ring to the trunnions, and 
 thence conical to the swell of the muzzle. In respect of 
 British guns, the proportion of the weight of metal of an iron 
 gun is to that of the shot, in heavy guns, as about 224 to 1 or 
 2 cvvt. to 1 lb. ; in medium guns as 168 to 1, and in light guns 
 112 to 1. The length of a 32 pounder, used in the lower 
 deck of line-of-battle ships, is 9 ft. 6 in., and its weight 55 
 cwt, being about 192 times that of the ball. The medium 
 12 pounder brass gun is 6 ft. 6 in. in length, weighs 18 cvvt., 
 and has a calibre of 4'6 in. in diameter. The length of brass 
 18, 12, 9, 6, and 3 pounders is 17 calibres. (See Ency. Brit., 
 " Gunnery.") The greater quantity of metal at the breech 
 of a gun than at the muzzle not only gives greater strength 
 to the gun at the part where the danger of bursting is the 
 greatest, but also tends to diminish the force of recoil. 
 
 GTT NNER. The first of the three warrant officers of a 
 ting's snip. lit lias the charge of the ordnance, ammuni- 
 tion, and other duties. 
 
 GU'NNER Y. A branch of the military art, which has for 
 its object the management of guns and mortars, and of char- 
 ging and directing them so as to hit a proposed mark at any 
 distance within the range of the shot. To accomplish this 
 purpose it is necessary to know the nature of the path which 
 a projectile describes in the air with a given initial velocity, 
 the quantity of gunpowder necessary to produce that veloci- 
 ty, and the elevation that must be given to the gun in order 
 to counteract the effect of gravity and the resistance of the 
 air on the ball in its flight. Various other considerations re- 
 quire also to be attended to ; as the proportion between the 
 length of the gun and the diameter of its bore, the proper 
 windage or excess of the diameter of the bore above that of 
 the ball, and the size or weight of the ball proper to produce 
 a certain effect — to batter down a wall, for example, or to 
 penetrate a ship's side. The method of mounting and work- 
 ing guns, so as to render them most serviceable in military 
 operations, belongs to the head Artillery. 
 
 If we abstract from the effect of the resistance of the air, 
 the path described by a projectile is easily determined. The 
 only force which acts on the ball to deflect it from the 
 straight line in which it is projected is gravity, and it conse- 
 quently describes an arc of a parabola. (Projectile.) 
 But any deductions from the parabolic theory of projectiles 
 are of little or no use in the actual practice of gunnery ; for 
 in consequence of the great resistance which the air opposes 
 to a body moving through it with the velocity of a cannon 
 ball, the circumstances of the motion are completely chan- 
 ged. In the parabolic theory, the motion of the ball in the 
 horizontal direction is assumed to be constant and uniform. 
 But the resistance of the air brings another force into action. 
 the intensity of which depends on the velocity of the ball, 
 and which is exerted in a direction exactly opposite to that 
 of the ball's motion ; hence the velocity of the ball is con- 
 tinually diminished through its whole course, and in conse- 
 quence the ascending and descending branches of the trnjec- 
 tary, AV and VB, are unequal 
 and dissimilar. Instead of being 
 branches of the same parabola, 
 they become different arcs of the 
 hyperbolic kind, having asymp- 
 ,_ totes, CD and EF, dissimilarly sit- 
 ' uated ; the former being inclined 
 to the horizontal line DE, and the latter perpendicular to it. 
 The motion of the ball in its ascent, being opposed by the 
 resistance of the air as well as by gravity, will neither as- 
 cend so high nor range to so great a distance as in the para- 
 bolic theory ; and In descending through the branch VB its 
 motion downwards is constantly accelerated by gravity, 
 while its horizontal motion is constantly retarded ; so that 
 538 
 
 GUNNERY. 
 
 its direction continually approaches to the perpendicular, oi 
 i a parallel with EF. This resistance of the air is so great as 
 j to amount in some cases to twenty or thirty times the weight 
 of the ball itself, insomuch that a ball which in the air 
 ranges only to the distance of one mile, if projected with the 
 same velocity in vacuo would range ten or twenty times 
 that distance. 
 
 The determination by theory of the trajectory described by 
 a projectile in the air is, as Dr. Hutton remarks, one of the 
 most difficult problems in dynamics. "Even the solutions 
 of Newton, Bernoulli, Euler, Borda, &c. &.c, after the most 
 elaborate investigations, assisted by all the resources of the 
 modern analysis, amount to no more than distant approxi- 
 mations ; and are rendered nearly useless, even to the spec 
 ulative philosopher, from the assumption of a very errone- 
 ous law of resistance in the air, and much more so to the 
 practical artillerist, both on that account, and from the very 
 intricate process of calculation which is quite inapplicable 
 to actual service." ( Tracts, vol. iii.) It may easily be in- 
 ferred from these remarks that no practical rules can be 
 founded on deductions from pure theory; and that it is ne- 
 cessary to have recourse to trial and experiment in order to 
 obtain even an approximate knowledge of the path of a 
 body projected with so great a velocity as that of a cannon 
 ball. 
 
 The first extensive series of accurate experiments on this 
 subject was made by Benjamin Robins, and is described by 
 him in his New Principles of Gunnery, published in 1742. 
 In this work, which is one of very great merit and elegance, 
 Mr. Robins haa treated very fully of the resistance of the at- 
 mosphere, the force of gunpowder, the advantages and de- 
 fects of different guns, and indeed of almost everything re- 
 lating to the flight of military projectiles. Another set of 
 experiments was undertaken by Dr. Hutton, at Woolwich, in 
 1775, of which an account was published in the Phil. Trans. 
 for 1778. A second course of experiments was performed 
 by Dr. Hutton in 1783, 1784, and 1785; the principal objects 
 of which were, to determine the effect of the length of the 
 gun on the velocity of the ball, the velocities with different 
 charges of powder, the effect of varying the weight of the 
 piece, the penetration of balls into blocks of wood, the ran- 
 ges and times of flight, &c. The details of these experi- 
 ments, which were conducted with great skill and ability, 
 are given in the 2d and 3d volumes of his Tracts. Previ- 
 ous to this time a number of experiments similar to those of 
 Robins were made in France by D'Arcy, an account of 
 which is given in the Memoirs of the Jlcademy for 1751, and 
 in his Essai d'une Theorie d'Mrtil'erie, published in 1760. 
 There is also an extensive series of experiments on the ef- 
 fects of musket balls of different weights, and fired with dif- 
 ferent charges of gunpowder, by Count Rumford, recorded 
 in the Phil. Trans, for 1781, and republished with additions 
 in 1802. Since the days of Dr. Hutton farther experimentr 
 with heavy guns appear to have been made from time to 
 time at Woolwich, under the direction of the ordnance de- 
 partment, as there is an account of a very heavy ballistic 
 pendulum, weighing 7408 lbs. avoirdupois, constructed under 
 the care of Dr. Olinthas Gregory in 1815 and 1818, together 
 with some results from experiments on it with a 24 pounder, 
 given in the Annales de Chimie, torn. v. and ix., and also in 
 Dupin's Voyages dans la Grande Bretagne ; but as we nrt 
 not aware that these results have ever been published in any 
 official form, we know not what credit is to be attached to 
 them. The experiments of Dr. Hutton continue to the pres- 
 ent time to afford the best data for the theory of practical 
 gunnery. 
 
 There are various methods by which the initial velocity 
 (the principal clement in the theory) of military projectiles 
 may be determined. The first is by the ballistic pendulum 
 which consists merely of a heavy block of wood suspended 
 in such a manner that it can swing freely about an axis ■ 
 into this the ball is fired ; and as it is too thick for the ball 
 to pass through it, the whole momentum of the ball is trans- 
 ferred to the block, and the extent of the arc through which 
 it vibrates shows what this momentum has been ; whence, 
 as the weights of the block and the ball are known, tht 
 velocity with which the latter entered the block may be 
 computed. (Ballistic Pendulum.) Another method of 
 determining the initial velocity of the ball is by means ol 
 the recoil of the gun. The principle is, that the explosive 
 force of the powder must communicate equal quantities of 
 motion to the gun and to the ball in opposite directions: con 
 sequently, by suspending the gun, loaded with additional 
 weights, in the manner of a pendulum, the extent of its arc 
 of vibration will give the means of estimating the quantity 
 of motion impressed on it; whence the initial velocity of tin 
 ball can be computed. Both the above methods were em 
 ployed by Dr. Hutton: Robins employed the first only. A 
 third method consists in transferring the momentum of thr 
 ball to a rotary machine instead of a pendulum. An ingo 
 nious«apparatus for this purpose was contrived by Dr. Grego 
 ry, but the method has been little used 
 
GUNNERY. 
 
 i'he following are the practical conclusions deduced by 
 Dr. Button from his experiments: 
 
 1. The velocity is directly as the square root of die weight 
 of tlic powder, as far as to the charge of about eight ounces; 
 and bo it would continue for all chaises were the gum of an 
 Indefinite length. But as the length of the charge is Increased, 
 ami beai di rulilcr proportion to the length of the 
 
 velocity falls the more short alter that proportion. 
 it the velocity of the ball increases wiUi the charge 
 in point, which is peculiar to each gun, where it is 
 and that by farther increasing the charge the velo- 
 city diminishes till the bore is quite full of powder, 
 a. It appears that the velocity continually increases as the 
 nger, though the increase of velocity is v< 
 
 ase in length, the velocities being in a 
 ratio somewhat lea than that of the square roots of the 
 ejngth of the bore, but somewhat greater than that of the 
 cube roots of the length, and is, indeed, nearly in the middle 
 of the ratio between the two. 
 
 4. The range increases in a much less ratio than the ve- 
 locity, and indeed is nearly as the square root of the 
 
 the gun and ele\ ation being the same. Very little is gained 
 in the range by a great increase in the length of the gun, the 
 ■ ing the tame ; and indeed the range is nearly as 
 i of the length of the bore, an increase so small as 
 to amount only to about one-seventh part more range for a 
 double length of gun. 
 
 5. It appears that the time of the ball's flight is nearly as 
 the range, the gun and elevation being the same. 
 
 that there is no sensible difference 
 caused in the velocity or range by varying the weight of the 
 gun, not by the use of wads, nor by different degrees of ram- 
 ming, nor by firing the charge of powder in different parts 
 
 7. But a great dill'erence in the velocity arises from a 
 small degree of windage. Indeed with the usual estab- 
 lished windage only, namely, about l-i!0th of the calibre, no 
 less than between £ and J, of the powder escapes and is lost ; 
 and as the balls are often smaller than that size, it frequently 
 
 lhat half the powder is lost by unnecessary wind- 
 age. 
 
 8. It appears that the resisting force of wood to balls fired 
 Into it is not constant; and that the depths penetrated by 
 different velocities or charges are nearly as the logarithms 
 
 e charges, instead of being as the charges themselt es, 
 01, which is i»- same thing, as the square of the velocity. 
 
 i). These, and most other experiments, show lhat the 
 balls are greatly deflected from the directions they arc pro- 
 jected in ; >o much. Indeed, as 300 or 400 yards in a range 
 of a mile, or almost 4 of the range, which is nearly a 
 deflection of an angle of 15 degrees. {Dictionary, art. 
 " Gunnery.") 
 
 Dr. II niton gives the following table as the results of his 
 experiments With a medium one-pounder gun, the iron ball 
 being nearly two inches in diameter ; showing the velocity 
 of the bail,' the range, and lime of flight, corresponding to 
 different charges, the elevation of the gun being 15 degrees : 
 
 Powder. 
 
 Initial Velocity 
 per S^cnnd. 
 
 Range. 
 
 lime of Flight. 1 
 
 Ounces. 
 2 
 
 4 
 s 
 12 
 
 reel. 
 
 S0O 
 
 1640 
 16sO 
 
 Kret. 
 
 5100 
 6000 
 6700 
 
 .Seconds. 
 9 
 H 
 
 14 1-2 
 
 15 1-2 1 
 
 In the application of the rules derived from experimental 
 Inquiry, it is necessary to take into consideration the effect 
 lhat Is intended to be produced. The power of penetration 
 which a ball possesses is proportional to the square of its 
 velocity ; hence, when the object is merely to penetrate, the 
 greatest velocity should be given. Thus in breaching walls 
 the guns are first directed so as to cut grooves in the wall, in 
 order to detach as it were a portion from the rest of the mass. 
 This is done by the penetration of the balls; but the detach- 
 ed portion must then be battered so as to cause it to fall. 
 For this purpose a heavy ball with small velocity is mo s t 
 effectual. In close naval engagements great velocities are 
 less destructive than small ones. The ball, for example, 
 which has just force sufficient to go through a ship's side, 
 generally breaks and splinters the interior surface, and 
 thereby causes far more damage than when it retains a 
 considerable velocity after having passed through ; for in 
 the latter case it will only cut a hole without splintering 
 the wood. On this principle the carronade (a short species 
 of ordnance fired witn a small chnrge of powder in propor- 
 tion to the ball) has been introduced into the naval service. 
 
 Pointing and elevating Guns.— The art of pointing can- 
 l.on so as to strike distant objects depends on two things ; 1st, 
 on placing the gun in such a position that its axis is in the 
 Vertical plane passing through the object aimed at; and 2d, 
 on giving it such an elevation as will counteract the efTect 
 of the incurvation of the flight of the ball. When a gun is 
 both pointed and elevated, it is said to be laid. 
 
 GUNPOWDER. 
 
 A line drawn from the highest point of the base ring ti- 
 the highest point of the swell of the muzzle is called the 
 line of metal. Now if the line of metal be directed to the 
 object, that line will necessarily be in the fame vertical 
 plane with the object ; but by reamo of the conical shape 
 of the gun, the line of metal has an inclination to the axis, 
 which is called the dispart, and in consequence of which 
 the axis will only be in the same vertical plane with the line 
 of metal when the trunnions nre perfectly horizontal. If 
 they are not so (and the condition cannot be easily attained 
 or preserved), the shot will be thrown to that side of the 
 object on which the lower trunnion is. This inconvenience 
 is obviated by placing a dispart sight on the muzzle, at a 
 height perpendicularly above its highest point equal to half 
 the difference of the diameters of the muzzle and base ring; 
 for then a line which passes from the highest point in the 
 base ring to the extremity of the dispart thus placed on the 
 muzzle ring will be parallel to the axis, and consequently 
 the shot will not be thrown to the right or left of the object, 
 however much »he one trunnion may be lower than the 
 other. 
 
 In order to determine the proper elevation to be given to 
 the gun, it is necessary to know the distance Of the object 
 tired at. Tables have been constructed from actual practice, 
 showing the angles of elevation which in dilferent guns cor- 
 respond to different distances ; and the angle being found from 
 the table, the proper elevation It riven by means of a brass 
 tangent-scale which slides up and down in the breech. Thux 
 suppose CDKF to bi 
 pieces, A B its axis, V m half 
 the difference of the diame- 
 ters of the muzzle ri' 
 base ring set upon the muzzle, 
 so that C m may be the line of dispart; then if C n be tet 
 upon the base ring equal to the tangent of the elevation 
 found from the table, the line n m will be the proper line 
 for pointing the piece, or the gun will be justly laid when n 
 to is directed to the object. In practice the length of C n is 
 found with sufficient accuracy by multiplying the length of 
 the gun in feet by - 21 ; the product giving C a in inches. 
 This rule is founded on the supposition that the tangent of 
 one degree of a circle, whose radius is one foot, is equal to 
 the 21-100ths of an inch, which is very near the truth. 
 
 The following table (from the Bneff. I'.rit., art. "Gun- 
 nery"), constructed from actual practice at Woolwich, shows 
 the elevations corresponding to dilferent ranges with iron 
 ordnance of the kinds then in rpecified : 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 . 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 fj 
 
 2 
 
 •fa 
 
 c 
 
 g 
 
 _ 
 
 I 
 
 B 
 
 X 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 B 
 
 if 
 1 
 
 
 VwL 
 
 /.it. ci 
 
 
 n$. 
 
 
 I'ai. 
 
 
 ¥o: 
 
 42-pr. 
 
 iS M 
 
 14 
 
 OOtK 
 
 
 133- 
 
 IleO 
 
 
 IM30 
 
 32 
 
 5S 1-3 
 
 Id II 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 1210 
 
 375 
 
 1560 
 
 H 
 
 50 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 2 25 
 
 nw 
 
 i 
 
 lfcCO 
 
 18 
 
 42 
 
 6 
 
 75 
 
 700 
 
 2 SB 
 
 1310 
 
 1 5 
 
 If 00 
 
 12 
 
 34 
 
 4 
 
 100 
 
 (00 
 
 
 1350 
 
 
 IK0 
 
 9 
 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 1-2, 
 
 WO 
 
 too 
 
 MOO 
 
 7 
 
 2143 
 
 
 
 
 1-50 
 
 1000 
 
 3 25 
 
 14 
 
 I 8 
 
 4CC0 
 
 (Hobins's Math. Tracts ; llutton's Tracts ; Sir Howard 
 Douglas's Naval (Jvitiimj ; l'aixhaus, Farce ct Faiblesse 
 de la France; anil the Linfnt Service Journal for 1834. 
 For a very complete theoretical discussion of the experi- 
 ments hitherto made, the reader may consult a Mimoire 
 sur la Vitesse initiate des Projectiles, in the Journal de 
 I'Kcole Polytrchnii/ue, torn, xv., 1835.) 
 
 GU'NNEY. (Bengal.) A coarse sackcloth made in 
 Bengal of the fibres of two species of corchoron. Rice, salt- 
 petre, pepper, and other articles exported from Calcutta are 
 packed in bags or sacks made of this material ; they also 
 form a considerable article of exportation. 
 
 GU NPOWDER. A compound of about 78 parts of salt- 
 petre, 12 of charcoal, and 10 of sulphur. The ingredients 
 should all be perfectly pure, separately reduced to powder, 
 thoroughly mixed, moistened, and beaten or pressed into a 
 cake ; which is afterwards broken up, granulated or corned, 
 dried, and polished bv attrition. Coarse powder is less care- 
 fully and nicely manufactured. The force of the explosion 
 of gunpowder is the consequence of the sudden and abund- 
 ant production of gaseous matter expanded by the intense 
 heat resulting from the action of the combustibles upon the 
 nitre. The gases evolved are chiefly carbonic oxide, car- 
 bonic acid, nitrogen, and sulphurous acid, and their volume 
 probably exceeds two thousand times the bulk of the pow- 
 der. Count Romford's experiments show the immense 
 energy Of this astonishing agent us a source of mechanical 
 power {Phil. Trans., vol. 87) : 28 grains of gunpowder, 
 confined in a cylindrical space which it just filled, tore 
 asunder a piece of iron which would have resisted a strain 
 of 400,000 lbs. applied at no greater mechanical advantage. 
 With regard to the Introduction of gunpowder into warlike 
 
 530 
 
GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 operations, Dr. Thomson has the following remarks: The 
 discoverer of this compound, and the person who first thought 
 of applying it to the purposes of war, are unknown. It is 
 certain, however, that it was used in uie fourteenth century. 
 From certain archives quoted by Wiegleb, it appears that 
 cannons were employed in Germany before the year 1372. 
 No traces of it can be found in any European author pre- 
 viously to the thirteenth century ; but it seems to have been 
 known to the Chinese long before that period. There is 
 reason to believe that cannons were used in the battle of 
 Cressy, which was fought in 1340. They seem even to 
 have been used three years earlier, at the siege of Algesiras ; 
 but before this time they must have been known in Ger- 
 many, as there is a piece of ordnance at Amberg on which 
 is inscribed the year 1303. Roger Bacon, who died in 1292, 
 knew the properties of gunpowder; but it does not follow 
 that he was acquainted with its application to fire-arms. 
 
 GUNPOWDER PLOT. In English History, the cele- 
 brated conspiracy of certain disappointed Roman Catholics 
 to destroy the king, James I., and the two Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, by gunpowder, which was detected on the 4th of 
 November, 1605. Its details are nmong the most popular 
 portions of English history, and too well known to need repe- 
 tition. But the miraculous exercise of sagacity by which 
 King James is commonly said to have detected the nature 
 of the plot, from the mysterious letter sent to Lord Montea- 
 gle, is now perhaps negatived beyond a doubt. It had long 
 been remarked that Salisbury and Carlisle (probably before 
 the scheme between themselves and their royal master was 
 concerted) had claimed for themselves the credit of the dis- 
 covery; and it now appears that Lord Monteagle had been 
 previously rewarded by government for mysterious services, 
 apparently rendered in the capacity of spy: so that it is 
 highly probable that he was acquainted with the design of 
 the malecontents, and that the celebrated letter was an in- 
 vention, destined to conceal the real mode of discovery. 
 Those who are anxious to study the Roman Catholic version 
 of the story will find it ably detailed in the pages of Lingard 
 vol. vii., ch. 1., 4to ed.). That writer seeks to throw the 
 whole onus of the conspiracy on Catesby, its chief promoter, 
 and to expulcate Father Garnet ; but Mr. Jardine (in his 
 State Trials), who has fully investigated the Bubject, is of 
 a different opinion. 
 
 GU'NTER'S CHAIN, so called from its reputed inventor, 
 Is the chain commonly used for measuring land. It is 66 
 feet or 4 poles in length, and is divided into 100 links, each 
 of which is joined to the adjacent one by three rings ; and 
 the length of each link, including the connecting rings, is 
 702 inches. The advantage of this measure consists in the 
 facility which it affords to numerical calculation. The 
 English acre contains 4840 square yards ; and Gunter's chain 
 being 22 yards in length, the square of which is 484, it fol- 
 lows that a square chain is exactly the tenth part of an 
 acre. A square chain again contains 10,000 square links, so 
 that 100,000 square links are equal to an acre; consequently, 
 the contents of a field being cast up in square links, it is only 
 necessary to divide by 100,000, or to cut off the last five 
 figures, to obtain the contents expressed in acres. 
 
 GUNTER'S LINE. A logarithmic line engraved on 
 scales, sectors, &c, serving to perform the multiplication 
 and division of numbers instrumental!}*, as a table of lo- 
 garithms does arithmetically. The numbers are usually 
 drawn on two separate rulers sliding against each other. 
 In rough calculations this litis affords considerable facilities. 
 
 GUNTER'S QUADRANT. A quadrant of a peculiar 
 kind adapted to the problems of finding the hour of the day, 
 the sun's azimuth, and other common problems of the 
 sphere. 
 
 GUNTER'S SCALE, casually called by seaman the Oun- 
 ter, is a large plain scale having various lines of numbers 
 engraved on it, by means of which questions in navigation 
 are resolved with the aid of a pair of compasses. On one 
 side of the scale the natural lines (as the line of chords, the 
 line of sines, tangents, rhombs, &c.) are placed, on tile other 
 the corresponding logarithmic ones. 
 
 GU'N W ALE means, generally, the upper part of the solid 
 workmanship of the vessel's side : the part above this is 
 called the bulwark. 
 
 GU'TTA SERENA. See Amaurosis. 
 
 GUTTLE. In Architecture. See Drops. 
 
 GUTTrFER^B, or CLUSIACEjE. A natural order of 
 arborescent, shrubby, and occasionally parasitical Exogens, 
 inhabiting the tropics. 
 
 GUTTUR. (Lat. guttur, a throat), in Mammalogy, is 
 applied to the whole under surface of the neck. 
 
 GUTTURALS. Letters pronounced by a peculiar effort 
 of the throat. There are no gutturals properly so called in 
 the English language, although the guttural sound may often 
 be heard in some provincial pronunciations of the letter r. 
 Nor are there in the pure French or Italian, although they 
 ore frequent in the dialects : e. g. the letter c hard (as in 
 casa) has in the Tuscan a strong guttural sound. In the 
 540 
 
 GYMNOTUS. 
 
 Spanish language alone, of those derived from the Latin 
 gutturals are common. In German, the guttural eh is largely 
 used. In the Celtic languages, gh and ch are also sounded 
 with much variety of guttural intonation. 
 
 GUY. A rope used to swing any weight, or to keep steady 
 any heavy body and prevent it from swinging while being 
 hoisted or lowered. 
 
 GYMNA'SIARCH. (Gr. yvyndaiaf>xoi.) An Athenian 
 officer who had the charge of providing the oil and other 
 necessaries for the gymnasia. This was one of the offices 
 called XuTovpyiat at Athens, the expenses of which wert 
 defrayed from the private pocket of the individual on whom 
 they devolved, and who received no salary from the state. 
 
 GYMNA'SIUM. (Gr. yvyivdciov, from yvpvos, naked.) 
 Originally a space measured out and covered with sand for 
 the exercise of athletic games. Afterwards, among the 
 classical Greeks, the gymnasia became spacious buildings or 
 institutions for the mental as well as corporeal instruction 
 of youth. They were first built at Lacedamion, whence 
 they spread through the rest of Greece, &c. into Italy. 
 They did not consist of single edifices, but comprised several 
 buildings and porticoes, used for study and discourse, for 
 baths, anointing rooms, pnliestras in which the exercises took 
 place, and for other purposes. Two of the Athenian gym- 
 nasia, viz. the Lyceum and Academy, were rendered famous 
 by being the scenes of the lectures of Aristotle and Plato 
 respectively. 
 
 The term Gymnasium has descended to modern times. 
 In Germany the higher schools, intended to give immediate 
 preparation for the universities, are termed gymnasia. In 
 Prussia the scholars undergo examination on leaving them : 
 their compositions at this examination are sent to the minis- 
 ter of instruction and ecclesiastical affairs; and they receive 
 testimonials of fitness, No. 1, 2, or 3, according to their de- 
 gree of proficiency. Persons who have fitted themselves 
 for the universities without passing through the gymnasia 
 are examined by a committee appointed by government, 
 which sits half-yearly for the purpose. 
 
 GYMNA'STICS. Under this name were comprised *iy 
 the ancients all those games and exercises which were per- 
 formed with the body partly naked (yvuvis) ; such as wrest- 
 ling, boxing, running, throwing the quoit, playing at ball, 
 &c. They were first instituted at Laceda?mon, where they 
 were not confined to men, but were also considered a neces- 
 sary part of the education of females. In the rest of Greece, 
 where they subsequently spread, they were also held of the 
 highest importance, and as such were conducted under :he 
 superintendence of the government, and entered conspicu- 
 ously into the political schemes of the philosophers. In thi. 
 respect the Greeks offered a remarkable contrast to th'.li 
 Asiatic neighbours, among whom it was considered a great 
 disgrace even for a man to be seen naked. At Rome gym 
 nasties were principally exercised by the mercenary athletes. 
 
 GYMNODONTS, Oymnadontes. (Gr. yvuvof, naked; 
 oSovc, a tooth.) The name of the family of Plectognathic 
 fishes, comprehending those which have the jaws protruding, 
 and covered with a more or less complex layer of dense 
 ivorv substance serving the office of teeth. 
 
 GYMNO'SOPHISTS. (Gr. yvuvooofyiarat, naked philo 
 gophers.) A sect of Indian philosophers who lived naked in 
 the woods, whence they derived thoir name, and submitted 
 to other strange austerities. They believed in the immortal- 
 ity of the soul and its migration into several bodies. They 
 enjoyed great reputation for astronomical and physical sci- 
 ence. 
 
 There was likewise an African sect of philosophers bear- 
 ing the same name, who are said to have lived in ./Ethiopia, 
 near the sources of the Nile, whose habits differed from 
 those of the Indian sect, inasmuch as they lived as ancho- 
 rites, while the latter congregated in societies. 
 
 GYMNOTUS, or rather Gymnonotus. (Gr. jr/uof, na- 
 ked, and votos, the back.) The name of the genus of electric 
 eels which are found in the fresh waters of South America: 
 they have a median fin extended along the belly but none on 
 the back. Although to till outward appearance the gymno- 
 tus Is nearly allied to the eel, yet, were that part of the body 
 cut off which contains the nutrient, respiratory, and genera- 
 tive organs— all the parts, in fact, which are essential to the 
 existence of the gymnotus as a mere fish— it would present a 
 short and thick-bodied form, very different from that of the 
 eel. The long electric organs are tacked on, as it were, be 
 hind the true fish, and thus give the gymnotus its anguilli 
 form body. The back-bone and muscles aro of course co- 
 extended with the electric organs for their support and 
 motion ; and the nir-bladder is continued along the produced 
 electrophorous trunk, to give it convenient specific levity. 
 Two long dorsal nerves are continued from the fifth and 
 eighth cerebral nerves for ordinary sensation and motion. 
 The spinal chord is continued along the verte'jial column, 
 for the exclusive supply of the electrical organ.--. These or- 
 gans are four In number; two very large af-jvc, aid two 
 small ones below. The electricity discharge! from them 
 
GYNyECEUIVL 
 
 decomposes chemical compounds, produces the spark, and 
 magnetizes iron, as does that of the torpedo. But the mag- 
 netizing power seems to be relatively weaker, while the 
 benumbing shock communicated to other animals is stronger 
 than in any other electric fish. 
 
 GYNjECE'UM. (Gr. ywatxetov.) In Ancient Architec- 
 ture, the portion of a Grecian house set apart for the occu- 
 pation of the female parr of the family. 
 
 Gyn.ick'um. In Botany, a term invented by Beeper to 
 denote that organ commonly called the pisuilum: it may be 
 understood to signify the female apparatus in plants. 
 
 GYNA'NDRIA. (Gr.ytnvi;, and avnp, a male.) The name 
 of One Of tin: Classes in the sexual system of plants invent- 
 ed by Lim>a-us. Its character is to have the stamens, style, 
 and stigma consolidated into a body, culled a column. The 
 dass chiefly consists of the plants now named Orchidaceous. 
 
 GYNCECO'CRACY. (Gr. yvvr/, and Kparcu, I govern.) 
 A term sometimes used to indicate that state in which 
 women are legally permitted to assume the reins of govern- 
 ment. It is used liy way of contradistinction to the Salique 
 law, which precludes the fair sex from the privilege of sov- 
 ereignty. There are only four states in Europe to which 
 the operation of the Salique law does not extend — England, 
 Russia, Spain, and Portugal. 
 
 GY'NOPHORE. (Gr. j vw, and <p c pu>, I bear.) Thestalk 
 ujion which some ovaria are seated, as In the Passion-flower. 
 
 GY.N'OSTE'.MIUM. (Gr.yun;, anAarnptov, a stamen.) A 
 term invented by Richard to denote the column of an Orchi- 
 daceous plant. It is n combination of a filament anda style. 
 
 GYPOGETIANUS. (Gr. yuU/, a vulture, and ytpavoc, a 
 crane.) This name was invented by Illiger for a most sin- 
 gular genus of Accipitrine birds, in which the structure of 
 the bird of prey is modified by a lengthening of the legs and 
 neck to adapt the species to combat with anil destroy the 
 most poisonous of the serpent tribe. The instincts of the 
 gypogernnus, or secretary bird, as it is termed, correspond 
 with its structure, and it preys principally upon serpents; 
 not refusing, however, lizards, or even insects. The bill is 
 shorter than the head, curved nearly from its base, not 
 toothed ; the wings are armed with a short, strong, and ob- 
 tuse (par ; the feathers are continued down the long tibia to 
 the tarsal joint, covering the front but not the back part of 
 it; Hie toes arc short, but strong; the anterior ones united 
 by n membrane at the base, species of the secretary vul- 
 ture Inhabit the Cape, the Gambia coast, and the Philippine 
 Islands. The CnjKJ secretary (Gypogeranus scrpentarius) 
 lives in pairs, builds on high trees, and runs with considera- 
 ble swifii 
 
 GY'PSIES. The history of this strange nation of vag- 
 rants has been recently illustrated by the labours of several 
 German writers, particularly Grellma 1 (Historical Inquiry 
 respecting the Gypsies, translated into English by Raper, 
 1787) and Bischoff (German and Gypsy Dictionary). Their 
 English name is a corruption of the word "Egyptian:" the 
 French call them Bohemians; but the names by which 
 they are most widely known throughout Europe ore, the 
 German Zigeuner, Russian Tzigan, Italian Zingaro, Span- 
 ish Gitnnu, Turkish Chinganeh — all apparently varieties of 
 the same distinctive appellation. Their origin has long 
 been a subject of curious but unsuccessful antiquarian re- 
 search. In western Europe, they made their first appear- 
 ance early in the fifteenth century, under a lender who 
 styled himself the Duke of Lower Egypt ; fortune-telling 
 and thieving were then, ns now, their predominant occupa- 
 tions. They were at that time treated as heathens and sor- 
 cerers, and the most severe laws were repeatedly enacted 
 against them, but without effect At present they are found 
 not in Europe only, but in Asia Minor, Egypt, Turkey, &.c, 
 forming everywhere a distinct race. In Germany, as well 
 as England, they profess various trades, as itinerant horse- 
 dealers, smiths, farriers, &c. ; but have never Been reclaim- 
 ed in any numlicr to settled occupations. In England, their 
 most ordinary haunts are in the midland and southern coun- 
 ties chiefly, whither they are invited by the abundance of 
 green lanes, downs, forests, or chases. They possess a lan- 
 guage of their own ; and are apparently destitute of religion, 
 although in most countries professing that of the people 
 among whom they dwell. (See Marsden on the Language 
 of the Gypsies; Hoyland's Hist. Survey, 1816; Quart. 
 Rev., vol. lv. Mr. George Borrow's Account of the Gypsies 
 of Spain, 2 vols. 12mo, 1841, may also be consulted with 
 advantage.) 
 
 GY'PSCM. (Probably derived from yn, earth, and tipui, 
 I concoct.) Crystals of native sulphate of lime. 
 
 GY'RI (Gr. yvpof, a circle), in Mammalogy, the annular 
 series of scales in the tails of certain quadrupeds. 
 
 GY'RODUS. A fossil fish of the family of Pycnodont*. 
 It occurs in the oolite of Baden. 
 
 GYRO'GOMTES. (Gr. yvpoc, and yovoc, seed.) Bodies 
 found In fresh-water deposits; originally mistaken for small 
 shells, but afterwards ascertained to be the seed-vessels of 
 plant! of the genus Chara. 
 
 HADJ. 
 
 GY'ROMANCY. (Gr. yvpos, and uavrcia, prophecy.) A 
 species of divination performed by drawing a ring or circle 
 and walking round it 
 
 H. 
 
 II. An aspirate of the guttural kind, used in nil modern 
 and in most ancient languages. The claims of h to be re- 
 garded as a letter have been denied by many grammarians; 
 and certainly, when it is remembered that Uie sound of this 
 letter is produced by B mere emission of the breath, without 
 any conformation of the organs of speech, this opinion would 
 seem well founded. There are others, however, who insist 
 that there is no feature in the sound or qualities of this let- 
 ter which it does not pOSMsi in common with some other 
 consonants, and consequently any attempt to invalidate its 
 claim to the distinction militates equally against them. The 
 figure II was used by the Greeks to signify the aspirate, until 
 about the 5lh century before Christ. After that time it was 
 gradually abandoned in Greek writing, while its use was 
 still preserved by the Latins. In the former language it 
 was superseded by the small mark called the spiritus asper 
 ('), which was placed above the letter to which the aspira 
 ted sound was to be given. The various interchanges of 
 which this letter is susceptible will be found in the I'mnv 
 Cyclo. The chief of these is the substitution, in Latin, of 
 the letter s for the aspirate of the Greeks: as sub for trro, 
 sal for aXf, sex for i\, scptcm for itto, scrpo for Ipzu, Ilc. 
 In English, this letter is frequently dropped altogether in 
 pronunciation ; in German, It is sounded only at the begin- 
 ning of words ; and wherever it otherwise occurs, it has the 
 effect of lengthening the vowel after which it Is placed, u 
 in suhncn, wilhrhcit. In Latin, many words are written ii. 
 differently with or without this Utter; as aruspex, hnruspcx, 
 onustus, honustus, &c. As an abbreviation, A was used by 
 the Latins for homo, bans, and bora; and as a numeral 
 it expressed 300; 
 
 HAA'RKIES. (German.) Capillary pyrites in Very del 
 icate aeicolar crystals. The term is also applied by the 
 German mineralogists to a native sulphurct of nickel. 
 
 HA'BEAS CO'RPUS. (Lat.) In Law, the title of a 
 writ, of which there are several kinds. Habeas corpus ad 
 respondendum, is to remove a prisoner, confined by the pro 
 cess of an inferior court, in order to charge him with a new 
 action in a court above. Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum is 
 B high prerogative writ, directed to a person detaining an- 
 other, and commanding him to produce the body of the 
 prisoner. This is the writ which, by stat. 31 C. 2, c. 2, must 
 be granted on application of any party committed and char- 
 ged with any crime except treason or felony; or if charged 
 with those crimes, having been acquitted or not tried on the 
 second term or session niter bis commitment. 
 
 HABE'RE FA'CIAS POSSE'SSIO'NEM. (Lat.) In 
 Law, a judicial writ, which lies where one hath recovered 
 a term of years in action of ejectment to put him Into pos- 
 session. Habere facias seisinam, a similar writ to give seisin 
 of a freehold estate recovered by ejectment or other action. 
 
 IIA'CKLE. A board set With sharp iron spikes for comb- 
 ing or pulling out hemp. 
 
 HA'DES. (Gr. a6nc; also aiinc, which is said to be dc 
 rived from a and tdio, I see; invisible.) In Classical My 
 thology, the abode of the dead. According to Hesiod the 
 mortals of the brazen age were the first who descended to 
 Hades. (See especially the 11th book of the Odyssey; He 
 Mod, i'pya nai 'Huepat ; JEneid, book vi. ; Warburton's 
 Dissertation on the latter ; Heyne, Excursus 8, nd loc. ; 
 Spence's Polymelis, Dial. 1G.) ilades was also an nppella 
 tion of tke god Pluto; in Which sense alone, it is said, He- 
 siod uses It. 
 
 HA'DING. In Mining, the direction of a slip or fault. The 
 deviation from the vertical of a mineral vein is called its hade. 
 
 HADJ. (Arab.) The Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mee 
 ca and Medina : whence Hadji, a pilgrim, or one who has 
 performed this pilgrimage ; Hedjaz, the Holy Land, where 
 these cities are situated. By far the most authentic descrip 
 tion of it is that of Burkhnrdt, who performed it in the guise 
 of a Mohammedan, in 1814. It is fixed to a particular lunar 
 month, and consequently takes place in every season of the 
 year. It was a custom long anterior to the establishment 
 of Islam ism, when the famous "black stone" of the Caaba 
 at Mecca was an object of idolatrous veneration. Every 
 year a black silk stuff Is now sent by the sultan to cover the 
 Caaba. There are usually five or six caravans ; from Syria, 
 Egypt, Barbary, the East, and the North. In 1814, the 
 number of pilgrims was about 70,000, and this was consider- 
 ed small. The pilgrims go through several ceremonies at 
 Mecca, of which the principal are the towaf, or procession 
 round the Caaba, and drinking of the well of Zemzen; they 
 then proceed to the summit of Mount Ararat; and :nstly to 
 Medina, the place of the prophet's burial. (Burhhardt s 
 Travels in Jlrabia, 1829 • Quart. Rev., vol. xlii.) 
 
tLEMATEMESIS. 
 
 ILEMATE'MESIS. (Gr. uifxa, blood, and cuciv, to vomit.) 
 Vomiting of blood from the stomach, generally preceded by 
 weight and uneasiness about the region of the stomach, and 
 unaccompanied by cough and the other symptoms of hemop- 
 tysis. 
 
 HEMATITE. (Gr. atpa,) Native oxide of iron ; its 
 streak and powder are blood-red. 
 
 '' A3M ATOCE'LE. (Gr. itua, and nri\>], a tumour.) A 
 A nir arising from extravasated blood. 
 • ■■fljEMATOSI'NE. (Gr. aipia.) The red colouring mat- 
 ter of the blood. 
 
 HEMATO'XYLINE. The colouring principle of the 
 wood of the Hcematoxylon campechianum, or logwood. 
 
 HjEMATU'RIA. (Gr. aiua, and ovfov, urine.) A dis- 
 charge of bloody urine. 
 
 HEMODORA'CEE. (Hamiodorum, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Endogens principally inhabiting New 
 Holland. They differ from Amaryllidacece in their flowers 
 and equitant leaves ; from Jridacem in their stamens, and in 
 the anthers bursting inwards. They are curious, but not 
 useful or beautiful plants ; except in the case of Anigoran- 
 thus, a genus containing some striking herbaceous species. 
 
 IJiEMO PTYSIS. (Gr. utua, blood, and zrvui, I spit.) 
 The coughing up of hjood, sometimes produced by fulness 
 of the blood-vessels of the lungs, or by the rupture of blood- 
 vessels as a consequence of ulceration. It is distinguished 
 from blood coming from the stomach by the comparative 
 smallness of its quantity, and by its usual florid colour: the 
 latter is usually blackened by the acid, and often mixed with 
 the contents of the stomach. The age at which this disease 
 commonly shows itself is from fifteen to flve-and-twenty, 
 and it is sometimes brought on by violent exercise or a fit of 
 coughing. It is not very uncommon as a symptom of sup- 
 pression of some natural evacuation ; and when unattend- 
 ed by symptoms of consumption and constitutional cough, 
 and occurring in persons otherwise strong and healthy, it is 
 often not dangerous : when it occurs in some fevers, and in 
 inflammation, it may even be a favourable symptom. Bleed- 
 ing, aperient*, acids, diaphoretics, nauseants, and occasion- 
 ally the exhibition of small doses of sugar of lead and of 
 styptic astringents, are the remedies usually resorted to. 
 
 HEMORRHAGE. (Gr. diua, and payn. rent.) A bleed- 
 ing or flow of blood. This may arise from two causes: 
 either a full state of the vessels, or plethora, when it has 
 been called active hemorrhage ; or from a debilitated state 
 of the vessels, or of the system generally, when it is called 
 passive hemorrhage. When haemorrhage occurs from 
 either of these causes, it usually requires methods of 
 treatment adapted to the particular case. Where haemor- 
 rhage is the consequence of wounds, the bleeding vessels 
 must be secured by ligature ; or where this cannot be done, 
 stvptic applications are applied. 
 
 HEMORRHOIDS. (Gr.aiua,m\df)cu>, Iflow.) Tumours 
 of the veins of the rectum, constituting the disease com- 
 monly called piles. 
 
 H^ERE SIARCH. (Gr. w peats, heresy ; apxi», I begin.) 
 In ecclesiastical History, the founder of an heretical sect. 
 
 HERESI'MACHE (Gr. aipeatc, and uaxouai, I fight.) 
 In Ecclesiastical History, those who have written contro- 
 versial works against heresies. Of the earliest Christian 
 writers of this description, who wrote chiefly against Basil- 
 ides, Marcion, and the Montanists, we have only fragments 
 remaining. The first complete treatise of this description 
 extant is that of Irenaeus against the Gnostics (A.D. 180). 
 
 HAG, or HAG-FISH. A vernacular name for a species 
 of Cyclostomous fish called Myxine glutinosa and Gastro- 
 branchus ccecus by ichthyologists. 
 
 HAGIO'GRAPHA. (Gr. aytos, holy, and ypa(f>fc writing 
 or Scripture.) The Holy Scriptures. The term w also ap- 
 plied to histories or legends respecting the lives and actions 
 of the saints. See Riddle's Christian Antiquities, 1839, p. 
 394, as to that particular class of the Hebrew Scriptures 
 which were termed by the Jews Hagiographa. 
 
 HAIL. (Germ, hagel.) A well-known meteor, which 
 occurs chiefly in spring and summer, not unfrequently ac- 
 companied with thunder. It is formed of rain or atmo- 
 spheric vapours congealed by cold in the upper regions of 
 the atmosphere, and falling to the ground in small roundish 
 masses, or hailstones. On examining attentively the inte- 
 rior structure of hailstones they are usually found to contain 
 an opaque nucleus of a spongy or porous texture, resembling 
 hardened snow, surrounded by a layer of ice of greater or 
 less transparency. Sometimes several transparent layers 
 are distinguishable, and sometimes the layers are alternately 
 transparent and opaque. Hailstones have also been obser- 
 ved having a radiating structure. Their form is exceedingly 
 various ; in general it is roundish, but sometimes pyramidal, 
 angular, or even thin and flat, with irregular surfaces. The 
 usual size of hailstones is about a quarter of an inch in di- 
 ameter ; but they are frequently of much greater magni- 
 tude, and instances are on record in which the dimensions 
 542 
 
 HAIL. 
 
 would appear incredible if they were not attested by obsei- 
 vers of known character. Halley relates that on the 9th 
 of April, 1697, there fell in Flintshire hailstones which 
 weighed 5 ounces. On the 4th of May, 1097, Robert Tay- 
 lor, in Hertfordshire, observed hailstones which measured 
 14 inches in circumference; that is, about 4 inches in diam- 
 eter. Parent, on the 15th of May, 1703, found them at Iliers 
 as large as his fist. On the 11th of July, 17r>3, at Tool, 
 some were collected by Montignot measuring 3 inches in di- 
 ameter. Volta affirms that on the night of the 19th of Au- 
 gust, 1787, in a hail storm which ravaged the city of (Vino 
 and its environs, some of the stones were found to weigh 9 
 ounces. In the terrible hail storm which traversed the 
 whole of France and the Netherlands on the 13th of July, 
 1788, M. Pessier relates that hailstones were picked up 
 which weighed 8 ounces. And Dr. Noggerath informs us 
 that on the 7th of May, 1822, hailstones fell at Bonn, weigh- 
 ing from 12 to 13 ounces. From these relations we may 
 form some idea of the destruction occasioned by a severe 
 hail storm in a cultivated country. 
 
 Of the different circumstances accompanying a fall of 
 hail, the following are the most remarkable : Hail usually 
 precedes storms of rain, sometimes accompanies them ; but 
 never, or very rarely follows them, especially if the rain is 
 of any duration. The time of its continuance is always very 
 short, generally only a few minutes, and very seldom so 
 long as a quarter of an hour. The quantity of ice which 
 talis from the clouds in so short a time is prodigious, the 
 ground being sometimes covered with it to the depth of sev- 
 eral inches. The clouds from which hail is precipitated 
 appear to be of very considerable extent and depth, inas- 
 much as they produce a great obscurity. It has been re- 
 marked that they have a peculiar gray or reddish colour, 
 and that their lower surfaces present enormous protuberan- 
 ces, while their edges exhibit deep and numerous indenta- 
 tions. Hail is always accompanied with electric phenomena 
 
 Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the 
 physical cause of hail, and the phenomena by which it is 
 accompanied. The theory requires the solution of two 
 questions: first, how the cold which causes the congelation 
 of the aqueous particles is produced ? and, secondly, how 
 a hailstone, after attaining a sufficient size to fall through 
 the air by its own weight, remains suspended a sufficient 
 length of time to acquire a volume of twelve or fifteen inches 
 in circumference 7 But both these questions are attended 
 with very considerable difficulty ; and after all that has 
 been written on the subject, the theory of hail is still involv- 
 ed in great obscurity. 
 
 The first hypothesis we shall mention is that of the cele- 
 brated Volta. In order to solve the first question, Volta sup- 
 posed that the solar rays which impinge on the upper sur- 
 face of a dense cloud are almost entirely absorbed, whence 
 a very rapid evaporation results, and that this evaporation 
 produces a sufficient degree of cold to freeze water. To this 
 part of the theory it has, however, been objected, that the 
 evaporation of a liquid through the effect of heat can only 
 become more rapid in consequence of the liquid acquiring a 
 higher temperature; in other words, that a liquid cannot, at 
 the same time, receive an additional quantity of caloric and 
 have its temperature diminished without the intervention of 
 some other cause. For instance, let two sheets of paper be 
 moistened to the same degree, and one of them be exposed 
 to the sun's rays, and the other placed in the shade ; it will 
 soon be seen that the one on which the sun's rays full dries 
 more quickly : its evaporation is greater ; but, at the same 
 time, it becomes warmer than the other, whereas, according 
 to Volta's argument, it ought to become colder. 
 
 Volta's solution of the second question is ingenious, but 
 not satisfactory. Admitting the nuclei of the hailstones to 
 be formed, and that there exists a sufficient degree of cold 
 to produce their enlargement by freezing the aqueous va- 
 pours, he supposes two large strata of clouds, charged with 
 opposite electricities, to be disposed the one over the other; 
 in which case the hailstones, still very small, filling on the 
 lower stratum, would experience the two following ('fleets: 
 In the first place, they would penetrate the stratum on which 
 they fall to some extent, and be covered with a new coating 
 of ice. In the second place, they would acquire the same 
 electricity as the cloud, and consequently be repelled by ! t ; 
 while, at the same time, they would be attracted by the up- 
 per stratum, on account of its preserving the opposite elec- 
 tricity. And the electric attraction of the cloud being sup- 
 posed greater than the force of gravity, the hailstones would 
 thus pass from the lower to the upper stratum, where anal- 
 ogous effects would take place, and whence, consequently, 
 they would be repelled to the lower stratum. Thus they 
 would be kept passing alternately from the one stratum to 
 the other, until at length, either becoming too heavy, or the 
 clouds losing their electricity, or being carried by the wind to 
 too great a distance from each other, the cause which kept 
 the hailstones suspended in the aunosphere becomes inade- 
 quate to support them, and they are precipitated to the ground. 
 
HAIR. 
 
 It is obvious that the accuracy of this theory cannot be 
 proved by any direct experiment ; and doubts have even 
 been raised whether the existence of electric forces sufficient 
 to move masses of ice of the size which hailstones are fre- 
 quently found to have, in the manner the theory supposes, 
 bo really possible. The following, which is much simpler, 
 seems adequate to the effects: We may Suppose the cold 
 necessary for the formation of hail to be produced by the 
 wind ; and that when the hailstones are formed they are 
 also carried along through the atmosphere by currents of 
 wind in a direction very oblique to the horizon, by which 
 Sloans they may be kept suspended a sufficient length of 
 tfme to acquire the dimensions they possess by congealing 
 the panicles of humid vapour with which they successive- 
 ly come in contact. Thus the same cause, namely, the 
 wind, determines the production and the enlargement of 
 hailstones ; and the electricity with which the phenomenon 
 is always accompanied, is only the effect of the passage of 
 the panicles of water from the liquid to the solid state. 
 
 For farther information on this subject, the reader is re- 
 ferred to an interesting article by A ratio in the Jlnnuaire Pre- 
 tcntte au Roi for 18211 ; also Pouillet's Element de Physique, 
 tome ii. 
 
 HAIR. (Germ.haar.) 11m characteristic, covering of the 
 
 Mammiferous class of animate. It consists of slender, more 
 
 or lam elongated, horny filaments, secreted by a matrix, con- 
 
 r of a conical gland or bulb, and a capsule, which is 
 
 situated in the mesh-work of the coriiim, or true skin. The 
 
 '. through canals iu the COrium, which are lined 
 
 by a thin layer of cuticle adherent to the base of the hair: 
 
 tightness or curl of the hair depends on the form of 
 
 the canal through which it passes. Spines, bristles, fur, and 
 
 wool are all modifications of hair, having the same chemical 
 
 composition, mode of formation, and general structure. 
 
 In the spines of the porcupine, the bulb secretes a fluted 
 pith, and the capsule invests it with a horny sheath, the 
 transparency of which allows the ridges of the central part 
 to be seen. In the spines of the hedgehog, the spine-like 
 whiskers of the walnis, and the bristles of the hog, the two- 
 fold structure of the hair is very conspicuous: but in the finer 
 kind of hair, as of the human head and beard, the central 
 pith can only be demonstrated In fine transverse sections 
 viewed with a microscope. Some kinds of hair, ns of the 
 human head, the mane and tail of the horse, are perennial, 
 aad grow continuously by a persistent activity of the forma- 
 tive capsule and pulp ; other kinds, as the ordinnry hair of 
 the hor*i. cow, and deer, are annual, and the coat is shed at 
 pa^ciAa; seasons. Iu the deer the horns are shed contem- 
 poraneously with the deciduous hair. 
 
 Many quadrupeds, especially those of cold climates, have 
 two kinds of hair: a long nnd coarse kind, forming their 
 visible ex'ernal covering ; and a abetter, finer, and more 
 abundant kind, which lies close to the skin, and called •' fur." 
 It is one of the processes in the arts to remove the coarse 
 hair, and leave the fur attached to the dried skin, as in tile 
 preparation of seal-skin, &c. The peculiar characteristic of 
 wool, and that on which iu valuable qualities chiefly de- 
 pend, is the serrated character of its surface, arising from its 
 structure, which consists of a series or succession of inverted 
 cones, the base of each being directed from the root of the 
 woolly fibre, and receiving the apex of the succeeding cone. 
 It results from this structure that the pressure to which the 
 workman subjects the wool in moving it backwards and for- 
 wards, brings the fibres together, and multiplies their points 
 of contact. The agitation gives to each hair a progressive 
 motion towards the root, and the serrations of one hair fix 
 themselves on those of another hair which happens to have 
 its root turned in the opposite direction, and the mass at 
 length assumes the compact form which is termed "felted" 
 wool. The microscope has likewise demonstrated various 
 other remarkable modifications in the form. of the hair in 
 different quadrupeds. In the mole, e. g., crch hair is alter- 
 nately constricted and expanded from its root to its apex, 
 whereby it readily assumes any position, and lies flat and 
 smooth, either towards the head when the little burrower is 
 retrograding in his subterraneous galleries, or in the contrary 
 direction when moving forwards. The organization of the 
 hair is such as to allow of its undergoing certain changes 
 when once formed, according to the state of health and gen- 
 eral condition of the rest of the frame, and even to be affect- 
 ed by loss of colour in consequence of violent mental emo- 
 tions in the human subject. Some of the lower animals, as 
 the Alpine hare, are subject to periodical change of colour 
 a' their fur, by which it is made to harmonize with the pre- 
 vailing hue of the ground which they habitually traverse. 
 
 The chemical properties of hair were first pointed out by 
 Mr. Hatchctt, in his paper in the Phil. Trans, for 1800. It 
 chiefly consists of an indurated albumen, nnd when boiled 
 with water it yields a portion of gelatine. Soft flexible hair, 
 which easily loses its curl, is that which is most gelatinous. 
 Vauquelin discovered two kinds of oil in hair : the one col- 
 ourless, and in all hair ; the other coloured, and imparting 
 
 HALO. 
 
 the peculiar tint to hair. Black hair also contains iron and 
 sulphur. 
 
 Hairs. In Botany, minute, transparent, filiform process- 
 es, coni|iosed of cellular tissue more or less elongated and 
 arranged in a single row. They spring from the surface of 
 plants, appear always to have a circulating system, and 
 probably act both as absorbents of moisture and protectors 
 of the surface in which they grow. Many sorts are distin- 
 guished by phytotomists, the principal of which arc the se- 
 creting or glandular, which are composed of cellules that 
 are visibly distended either at the apex or base into reccpta 
 cles of fluid ; nnd the lymphatic, which consist of" tissuo ta- 
 pering gradually from the base to the apex. 
 
 HA'LBERT. A word of uncertain derivation, applied 
 to an offensive weapon, which consists of a shaft live feet 
 long, with a steel head, partly in the form of a crescent 
 This weapon was formerly in considerable use in the tinny, 
 and indeed gave its name to a body of men called halber- 
 diers ; but it is now rarely to be met with except in some 
 boroagh tn Scotland, where it is used by the civil officers 
 who attend the magistrates iu processions, and on other pub- 
 lic occasions. 
 
 HALCYON. SwAickpo. 
 
 HALCYON DAYS. A name given by the ancients to 
 the seven days that precede and follow the winter solstice, 
 from the circumstance of tile halcyon or alcedo selecting 
 that period for incubation. While this process was going 
 on, the weather was generally remarkable for its calmness; 
 and hence the expression has passed into a proverb, signify- 
 ing days of peace and tranquillity. This circumstance is 
 beautifully alluded to by Ovid in the following lines: 
 Perque die* ptacidoe hibernn tempore sepiem 
 Incul>3t llalcyone pendercibus a-qn-. 
 Turn via luta maris: venios i iwlmlll el arcet 
 .ASolus rgrcMu : praetatque nepotibus axfunr. 
 
 IIALCYONI DJE. t Gr. aXtamv, m kingfisher.) TVe 
 family Of I'issirostral birds having the kingfisher as the type. 
 (Halcyon, from abxvwv, itself Is derived from (Jr. iXf, and 
 kvw, I procreate, becaute the halcyons build their nest on 
 the sea-shore.) 
 
 HALIOTID.fi, (Gr. A\c, the sea, and ovc, the ear.) A 
 family of Gastropods, having as its type the genus Haliotis, 
 or the sea ear. 
 
 HALL. (Sax. heal.) In Architecture, properly a large 
 room for the transaction of public business; also a manor 
 house where courts are held for the admission of tenants and 
 other manorial business. It i.s perhaps a term Improperly 
 applied, Bl now, to the entrnnce of a dwelling house, though 
 not so to a servants' hall. At Oxford an unendowed college 
 is styled a hall; but at Cambridge the term is used indis- 
 criminately for college, whether endowed or not. 
 
 HALLELU'JAH. (Heb. praise yr tk* Lord.) A well- 
 known doxology, derived from the Old Testament. It was 
 used, among the early Christians, at Easter, nnd during the 
 interval from thence to Whitsuntide. (Greg., F.pist. ix., 
 Ep. 12.) Bee Riddle's Christian Antiquities, p. 334. 
 
 HA'LLIARDS, J/aulyards. Ropes by which yards, sails, 
 and signals are hoisted. 
 
 HALO. (Lat. halo.) In Meteorology, a luminous circle 
 or ring, usually coloured, surrounding the sun or moon under 
 certain conditions of the atmosphere. Of such rings there 
 are two kinds, which appear to depend on essentially differ- 
 ent physical causes. The first are of small dimensions, 
 their diameters being between 5° and 12°; and generally 
 three or more concentric rings appear together, differently 
 coloured, and presenting appearances similar to the optical 
 phenomena of the rings of thin plates. These are usually 
 called corona; ; and they appear cither when a small quan- 
 tity of aqueous vapour is diffused through the atmosphere, 
 or when light fleecy clouds pass over the sun or moon. The 
 second kind consists usually of a single luminous ring, but 
 of much larger dimensions, the diameter being about 45°. It 
 is to the meteors of this second kind that the term ha.o is 
 usually appropriated. 
 
 The apparent diameters of haloes of the second kind have 
 frequently been measured, and are always found to subtend 
 at the eye of the observer an angle of between 44° and 46°. 
 The lunar halo is simply a white luminous circle, without 
 colour, excepting a pale red, which sometimes fringes the 
 interior edge of the circle. But the colours of the haloes 
 about the sun, though not so bright as those of the rainbow, 
 are, however, marked with sufficient distinctness. The red 
 occupies the interior part of the luminous circle ; the indigo 
 and violet the outer part, nnd shade away by insensible de- 
 grees till they arc blended with the general colour of the 
 sky. In some circumstances a second halo is observed con- 
 centric with the fonner, but of much larger extent, Its ap- 
 parent diameter being about 90°. The colours of this sec- 
 ondary halo arc faint nnd pale, nnd its luminousness much 
 inferior to that of the inner halo. The haloes are very fre- 
 quently attended by a horizontal white circle, with brighter 
 spots, or parhelia, near their intersections with this circle. 
 
 543 
 
HALOGENS. 
 
 nad with portions of inverted arches of various curvatures. 
 See Parhelia. 
 
 Various causes have been assigned for the origin of haloes ; 
 but the most probable is that of Mariotte, who supposes the 
 phenomenon to arise from the refraction of light in passing 
 through small transparent and prismatic crystals of ice float- 
 ing in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Water as- 
 sumes, in congealing, a great variety of crystalline forms, 
 among which are frequently found crystals whose faces are 
 inclined to each other in an angle of 60°; thus forming 
 prisms of ice of which the refracting angle is 60°. These 
 prisms are turned in all possible directions, and consequent- 
 ly the sun's rays fall on their faces at all Aifferent inclina- 
 <ions. But in certain positions of the prism with respect to 
 the incident light, the rays which traverse it sutler a mini- 
 mum deviation, which happens when the refracted ray 
 makes an isosceles triangle with the two sides of the prism. 
 The path of the ray in the interior of the crystal in this case 
 makes an angle of 60° with the face of the crystal, or nn an- 
 gle of 30° with the perpendicular to that face. This last 
 angle is the angle of refraction ; and it is known by experi- 
 ment that, in the case of ice, the angle of refraction being 
 30°, the angle of incidence is 41° ; hence the ray falls on the 
 crystal at an angle of 90° — 110=49° ; consequently the de- 
 viation of the ray from its original direction is 60° — 49°=:1 1°. 
 On escaping from the crystal, the ray suffers a second flex- 
 ure of the same amount ; and the total deviation from its 
 first direction is now 2X11°=22°, which is the semidiameter 
 of the halo. It follows, therefore, 
 that the parallel rays S A, S B, from 
 the sun falling on such prisms at A 
 and B at angles of incidence equal 
 to 41°, will be refracted into the di- 
 rection A E and B E, which make 
 angles A E S and B E S equal to 22° ; and an eye situated 
 at the intersection E will see a luminous circle, of which 
 the apparent diameter, or angle A E B, is about 44°. With 
 respect to the secondary or external halo, whose diameter is 
 about 90°, it may be attributed, says Dr. Young (Lectures, 
 vol. i., p. 444), either to two successive refractions through 
 different prisms, or witli greater probability, as Mr. Cavend- 
 ish suggested, to the refraction of the rectangular termina- 
 tions of the prisms. 
 
 This theory explains the order in which the colours are 
 disposed. The ratio of the refraction of the violet ray being 
 greater than that of the red ray, the former will suffer a 
 greater deviation, and consequently the violet band of the 
 halo will have a greater diameter than the red. Supposing 
 this theory to be correct, the condition necessary for the ap- 
 pearance of haloes is the existence of pnrticles of ice in the 
 upper regions of the atmosphere. The appearance of a 
 halo, therefore, furnisltes information respecting the tem- 
 perature of the air at great altitudes above the earth. 
 
 The formation of corona, or the small haloes so frequent- 
 ly seen round the sun and moon in fine weather, is ascribed 
 by Fraunhofer and Sir John Leslie, not to the refraction, 
 but to the deflection of light in passing by the small watery 
 globules suspended in the atmosphere. If a piece of tinfoil 
 punctured with the point of a needle be held close to the 
 eye, the sun will appear through it surrounded with a halo 
 very near his disk, but spreading more in proportion as the 
 hole is contracted. Supposing that an aqueous globule of 
 equal dimensions would produce an equal deflection, the 
 magnitude of the globules might thus be inferred from the 
 diameter of the halo. When the halo approaches nearest 
 to the luminous body, the largest globules are floating, and 
 therefore the atmosphere is surcharged with humidity ; 
 whence the justness of the remark that a dense halo close 
 to the moon portends rain. For a full exposition of the 
 theory of haloes and other similar meteors, the reader is 
 referred to a Memoir by Fraunhofer in Schumacher's Jls- 
 tronomische Abhandlungen, 3 tes., heft ; or to the article 
 •' Hof," in Gehlcr's Physicalisches Worterbuch. See also 
 JVewton's Optics; Smith's Optics; Pouillet, Elemcns de 
 Physique ; Cabinet Cycl., art. " Optics ;" Ency. Brit., art. 
 " Meteorologv." 
 
 HA'LOGENS. (Gr. 6.X;, salt.) Substances which by 
 combination with metals produce saline compounds ; such 
 hs chlorine, iodine, bromine, fluorine, which are simple hal- 
 ogen." , and cyanogen, which is a compound halogen. 
 
 HA'LOLD. (Gr. aXf.) This term is applied to a class 
 of chemical combinations composed of two bi-elementary 
 compounds, one or both of which are analogous in composi- 
 tion to sea salt. The principal groups consist of double chlo- 
 rides, iodides, fluorides, and cyanurets. 
 
 HALTI'CA. A genus embracing numerous species of 
 email and often minute Coleopterous insects, of the family 
 Oalerucidtt, nnd section Tetramera. These insects have the 
 femoral joints of the hind legs thick and strong, and are con- 
 sequently good leapers. The native species are smaller than 
 the foreign ones, but are more noxious than might be ex- 
 pected from their diminutive size. The notorious turnip-fly, 
 544 
 
 HANSEATIC LEAGUE. 
 
 or rather turnip-flea {Chrysomela nemorum of Linnreus), is a 
 species of the present genus. 
 
 HAMADRY'ADS. (Gr. aua, together, and gave, an oak.) 
 Certain nymphs or inferior deities supposed by the Greek 
 and Roman poets to preside over woods and forests, and, as 
 their name implied, to live and die With the particular trees 
 to which they were attached. 
 
 HA'MITES. (Lat. hamus, a hook.) A genus of extinct 
 Cephalopods, which inhabited chambered shells, losing their 
 spiral form soon after their commencement, and then voir 
 tinued for a considerable extent with a single bend lipoc 
 themselves like a hook. The Hamites are found in the 
 greensand formation in England. 
 
 HA'MLET. (Diminutive of the Saxon ham, home or 
 house.) A small village. In Law, a hamlet is a portion of 
 a village or parish, and svnonyinous with vill. 
 
 HA'MMER BEAM. '(Sax. hainer.) In Architecture, a 
 horizontal piece of timber from or near, but above, the foot 
 of a rafter, the object of which is to act as a tie. 
 
 HA'MMOCK. The sailors' bed. An oblong piece of 
 hempen cloth : at each end are fastened several small lines, 
 meeting in a grummet or iron ring ; these form the clues. 
 The whole, having a mattress and pillow, &c. placed in it, 
 is hoisted up into its place by small ropes called laniards, 
 between two battens or screws in the beams of the deck 
 over head, about nine feet distant asunder. The hammock 
 is a very agreeable bed, especially in cold weather ; but 
 some little practice is requisite at first in getting in and out 
 successfully. During the day the hammocks, lushed up tight 
 in the form of caterpillars, are stowed in the nettings along 
 the upper edge of the bulwark. 
 
 HA'MSTER. A Rodent quadruped, somewhat larger 
 than a rat, common in all the sandy regions that extend from 
 the north of Germany to Siberia ; extremely noxious from 
 its fertility and great destruction of grain, biit an object cf 
 interest on account of the economic instincts which conduce 
 to its preservation and support. The hamster excavates a 
 complicated burrow, consisting of different apartments for 
 rearing the young, hibernating, and storing up winter food. 
 An old hamster will often amass a hundred pounds' worth 
 of grain, and fill up a subterraneous magazine which is 
 sometimes seven feet deep. To effect this hoard nature has 
 provided the hamster with a means of transport in two 
 large check-pouches, which, during its incursion among cul- 
 tivated grounds, it crams full of grain, beans, or peas, and 
 empties on its return to its hole by pressing the fore-paws 
 against the cheeks. The hamster, however, is not wholly 
 dependant on its winter store for existence. During the in- 
 clement months, when the frost becomes severe, animation 
 is in great measure suspended, and the need of nourishment 
 abrogated : respiration ceases, the animal heat falls, sensa- 
 tion is benumbed, and a kind of vegetative life is maintained 
 by a slow circulation of dark or venous blood through both 
 sides of the heart. When the returning warmth of spring 
 stimulates the organic machinery to its wonled iictivity, the 
 awakened hamster finds in the nourishment which it has 
 providentally stored up the means of supplying the conse- 
 quent waste, and of maintaining its vital energies. They 
 are thus enabled to commence the business of procreation in 
 April, and the female rears a litter of six or eight twice or 
 thrice every year. In about three weeks the young are able 
 to provide for themselves, and are driven from the holes of 
 the parents. The hamster (Mus cricetus of Linnteus) is the 
 type of the genus Cricetus of Cuvier, characterized by the 
 short tail and cheek-pouches. The teeth nearly resemble 
 those of the rat. 
 
 HAMULA'RIA. (Lat. hamus, a hook.) A species of 
 worm said to have been found in the bronchial glands of a 
 person who died of tvphus. 
 
 HA'NAPER OFFICE. A common law office in tho 
 court of Chancery, in which writs were anciently kept in 
 small separate wicker baskets (hampers, hanaperia), of 
 which specimens may still be seen among the reccrds at 
 the Chapter House. Writs relating to the subject were de- 
 posited there ; those concerning the crown in the Petty or 
 Little Bag, whence another office of the same court is de- 
 nominated. 
 
 HA'NDLING. (From Aaw<f.) In Painting, mnnnt'ornent 
 of the pencil by touch. Handling should be bold, with free 
 dom, firmness, nnd spirit. 
 
 HA'NDSPIKE. A wooden lever employed on board a 
 ship in working the windlass and capstan, one end of which 
 is squared to fit the holes in the capstan head nnd in the 
 barrel of the windlass. 
 
 HANK. In Spinning, the name given to two or mow 
 skeins of yarn, silk or cotton, when tied together. When 
 single, they are called skeins. 
 
 HANKS. Rings of ash or iron, by which sails ar« con 
 fined to their stays, upon which they traverse while setting 
 or hauling down. 
 
 HANNO'S PERIPLUS. See Peripli's. 
 
 HANSA, HANSE, or HANSEATIC LEAGUE. In 
 
HAQUEBUT. 
 
 European History, a celebrated confederacy of cities on the 
 coasts uf the Baltic, and in the adjoining countries. The 
 first league was formed in 1239, between Hamburg, Minden, 
 and many other towns, to which Liibeck soon afterwards 
 it was for the purpose of mutual defence against 
 foreign potentates, especially the Danish king YValdcmar, as 
 weii a* the neighbouring nobles of Germany. The league 
 rapid y -spread, and comprehended, at one period, eighty-five 
 cities, divided into four provinces. It had four chief foreign 
 depots: at London, Bruges, Novgorod, and Bergen. In the 
 14th end 15th centuries the league became of high political 
 imnormnce, and made war and peace as an independent sov- 
 ereign power, but it w;is never recognized by the German 
 empirr.. Its decay was gradual, and, owing to the increased 
 protection given to commerce by the princes of the several 
 states in which these cities were situated, rendering the alli- 
 ance for mutual defence unnecessary. The name is derived 
 from llansn. an old Teutonic word signifying league. 
 
 IIA'Ul'EBUT. A word of French origin, or more proba- 
 bly a corruption of the term arqucbuse or harquebuse, with 
 which it is identified in meaning. See Arquebuse. 
 
 HA'RBOUR, has been defined to be a piece of water 
 communicating with the MS, or with a navigable river or 
 lake, having depth sufficient to float ships of considerable 
 burden, where there is convenient anchorage, and where 
 ship- may lie, load, and unload, screened fioiii the winds 
 md the reach of the tide. For a ^ lew of the utility 
 of harbours In general, and the qualities essential in good har- 
 bours, with a notice of the principal harbour* in this and 
 other countries, see 'l'hr Co mn u rti ai Dictio n ary. 
 
 HARD BODIES, In Natural Philosophy, an mch M 
 resist any pressure or percussion whatever, in opposition to 
 soft bodies, the parts of which readily yield to pressure, and 
 do not reoovei themselves; and to elastic bodies, the parts 
 of which BlOD yield to pressure or impact, but presently re- 
 cover themselves when the disturbing force ceases to act. 
 
 HA'RDNESS. In Physics, that quality of bodies in vit- 
 tue of which their particles resist the action of any external 
 force tending to alter their relative positions, or to impart to 
 them any motion in respect of each other. Newton sii|>- 
 poses the primary particles of all bodies to be perfectly hard, 
 and not capable of being broken or divided by any power in 
 nature; but we are still too little acquainted with the constl- 
 tution of matter to determine with any certainty the condi- 
 tions of the elementary particles which render bodies hard, 
 brittle, elastic, efce. 
 
 Hardness. In Mineralogy. Minerals may occasionally 
 be distinguished and identified by their relative degrees of 
 to specify which various scales have been sug- 
 yested, among which that of Mobs is perhapt the most sim- 
 ple. According to it the relative degrees of hardness are 
 expressed in numbers, referring to the following standard 
 substances, which are easily obtained in a state of purity, 
 or crystallized; namely, 
 
 1. Talc. 6. Adularia (Felspar). 
 
 2 Rock-salt. 7. Rock-crystal. 
 
 3. Calc-spar. 8. Topaz. 
 
 4. Fluor-spar. 9. Corundum. 
 
 5. Apatite. 10. Diamond. 
 
 Any mineral which neither scratches nor is scratched by 
 any one of the above substances is said to possess the hard- 
 ness expressed by the attached number. Thus if a mineral 
 neither scratches nor is scratched by calcareous spar, its 
 is represented by 3; if it scratches felspar and not 
 rock-crystal, its hardness is stated to be between G and 7. 
 
 HA'RDVVARE, is used to signify every kind of goods 
 manufactured from metals, comprising iron, brass, steel, and 
 copper articles of all descriptions. The hardware manufac- 
 ture is one of the most important carried on in Great Britain. 
 Its principal seats are Birmingham and Sheffield, which 
 furnish immense quantities of knives, razors, scissors, gilt 
 and plated ware, fire-arms, &c, both for home consumption 
 and exportation. The total aggregate value of the joint 
 hardware manufactures of England and Scotland may be 
 estimated (Statistics of British Empire, i.) at not less than 
 £17,500,000 a-year, affording direct employment in the va- 
 rious departments of the trade to 300,000 persons. 
 
 HARE. See Lagomys and Lepus. 
 
 HARELIP. A fissure or perpendicular division of the 
 Up, so named from its supposed resemblance to the upper lip 
 of a hare. Children are frequently bom with this malfor- 
 mation, and sometimes it is the consequence of accidents or 
 wounds. It most usually affects the upper lip; and is not 
 only a serious deformity, hut may prevent the infant from 
 sucking nnd cause impediment of speech. The clefl is 
 sometimes double. This malformation admits of partial or 
 enUre relief by a surgical operation, which should gener- 
 ally not be performed upon very young infants, in conse- 
 quence of the risk of convulsions. 
 
 HA'REM. (Turk.) The name given to those apart- 
 ments in the houses of the East which are appropriated to 
 2 M 
 
 HARMOSTES. 
 
 the exclusive use of the females of the family. See se 
 rag uo. 
 
 HA'RLEQUIN, in the Italian Comedy, is the name given 
 to the person who j>erforms a part something similar to 
 that of the clown or merry-andrew of the mountebank 
 stages in our own country. Harlequin forms also one of 
 the standing characters in the grotesque entertainment 
 of the pantomine. The word is of doubtful etymology. 
 See Panto.mink. 
 
 HARMONICA. See Musical Glasses. 
 
 HARMO'NICAL 1'NTERVAL. In Music, the s::mt u 
 Concord, which see. 
 
 HARMO'NICAL PROGRESSION. A series of num 
 hers, such that any three consecutive terms are in hnrmonl 
 cal proportion. The principal property of this progression 
 is, that the reciprocals of the terms form an arithmetical 
 progression; and, conversely, the reciprocals of an arith 
 metical form an harmonic >a] progression. 
 
 HARMO'NICAL PROPORTION, called also Musical 
 Proportion. Three numbers are said to be In harmonica] 
 proportion when the first is to the third as the difference 
 of the first and second is to the difference of the second and 
 third: thus, 2, 3, and 6, are in harmonicnl proportion, be- 
 cause 2 : 6 : : 1 : 3. And four numbers are said to be in 
 harmonical proportion when the first is to the fourth as 
 the difference of the first and second is to the ditlbrenco of 
 the third and fourth : thus 9, 12, 16, and 24, form an har- 
 monica! proportion ; for 3 : 9 : : 8 : "4. 
 
 HARMO'NICS. In Music, the doctrine of the differ- 
 ences and proportions of sounds with respect to acute nnd 
 grave. This doctrine was by the ancients divided into ■ ven 
 parts; viz. of sounds, of intervals, of system, of the genera, 
 of the tones or modes, of mutation, nnd of melon 
 
 HARMO'NIC TRIAD. In Music, the chord of a note 
 Consisting of a third and perfect fifth, or, in other words, the 
 common chord. 
 
 ll.V'RMONITES. A sect of enthusiasts, founded by one 
 Rapp, in Wtirtcinhurg. about 17H); who, finding no tolera- 
 tion there, emigrated with his followers to America. He 
 first settled in Pennsylvania, and afterwards removed to 
 Indiana; but about 1822 again returned to the former state, 
 and established himself mar Pittsburg. Many details will 
 be found on the subject of his sect in books of travels in 
 America, but few written with any knowledge of the sub- 
 ject beyond mere external observation. It is a mistake to 
 ■uppose that his followers lived in celibacy; but they re- 
 garded marriage as no part of the discipline of their church, 
 and treated it as a civil act only. 
 
 H.VRMONY. (Gr. if/uvia.) In Music, an agreeable 
 combination of sounds heard at the same instant. As a 
 continued succession of single musical sounds produces 
 melody, so does a continued combination of several together 
 in succession produce harmonv. 
 
 H.VRMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES, GOSPELS, 
 &c. The correspondence of the several writers of different 
 parts of the Scriptures in their respective narratives, or 
 statements of doctrine. The earliest Harmony of the Gos- 
 pels was composed by Tatian, in the second century, with 
 the title Diatessaron. Among many other valuable works 
 of this description may be mentioned Osiander, Harm. 
 Evangelica ; Cartwright, Harm. Ev. t Commentario illus- 
 trate, 1647; Le Clcrc, Harmonie Ev„ Amst., fol. 1C99; 
 Macknight's Harmony of the Four Gospels, 1756. 
 
 HA'RMONY, PRE-ESTA'BLISHED. A hypothesis in- 
 vented by Leibnitz, to explain the correspondence between 
 the course of our sensations and the series of changes actu- 
 ally going on in the universe, of which, according to that 
 philosopher and many others, we have no direct knowledge. 
 (See Perception.) This hypothesis is connected, in the 
 Leibnit/ian system, with the doctrine of monads, — certain 
 spiritual powers or substances, one of which constitutes the 
 principle of vitality and consciousness in every living being. 
 Each of these is, in its degree, a mirror, in which the changes 
 going on in the universe are reflected with greater or less 
 fidelity, but between simple substances, such as spirit and 
 matter, soul and body, no real reciprocal action can taka 
 place. The Author of the universe has consequently so 
 ordained that the series of changes going on in any particu 
 lar conscious monad, corresponds precisely to those of the 
 monads in contiguity to which it is placed. Hence arises 
 our belief that mind is acted on by matter, and vice versa ; 
 a belief which leads to no practical errors in virtue solely 
 of this pre-established harmony. (See Tcnnemann, Grundr., 
 p. 339 ; Brown's Lectures, 31.) 
 
 HARMO'STES. (Gr. apuocrfr ; from n>/^a>, I fit.) Ic 
 Ancient History, a Spartan magistrate, called also some- 
 times sophronistes (ototppoviari/s, moderator), who was ap 
 pointed to superintend a conquered state. It is conjectured 
 from Thucyd., iv., 53, that the office was annual. Other 
 Greek states which made conquests afterwards borrowed 
 the name. Xenophon speaks of Theban harmosta in Achats 
 (Hist., 1., vli.) 
 
 545 
 
HARMOTOME. 
 
 H A'RMOTOME. (Gr. appos, a joint, and rc/ivo), I divide.) 
 A mineral chiefly from Andreasberg, in the llartz, the crys- 
 tals of which often intersect each other, and are easily sepa- 
 rable. It ia also called cross-stone, or staurolite. See 
 Cross-stone. 
 
 IIA'RMUS, (Gr. appoc.) In Ancient Architecture, a tile 
 used for covering the joint between two common tiles. 
 
 HARP. (Germ, harfe.) A musical stringed instrument 
 of great antiquity, in which the strings are stretched on a 
 triangularly formed frame, and pinched, or rather pulled, by 
 the fingers, to set them in vibration and produce the differ- 
 ent sounds. The harp is represented on many Egyptian 
 monuments ; and though it is usually admitted to be of 
 Eastern origin, it seems doubtful whether it was known to 
 the Greeks and Romans in any shape analagous to its pres- 
 ent form. Of late years this instrument has been much 
 improved by pedals and other devices; but it is still imper- 
 fect, and more suited to the chamber than the orchestra. 
 
 HA'RPA. (Ger. harfe.) A genus of Pectinibranchiate 
 Mollusks, dismembered from the Linnsean Buccinum, and 
 remarkable for the elegance of form and beauty of the 
 markings of the shell : this is traversed by longitudinal com- 
 pressed sinuous parallel ribs, which may be compared to 
 the strings of a harp. 
 
 HA'RPALUS. (Gr. iprra\eos, rapid.) A genus of pre- 
 daceous Coleopterans, ana the type of a family (Harpalidee), 
 which is one of the principal divisions of the Linnsean 
 genus Carabus. 
 
 The Harpalidas are divided into three principal sections, 
 characterized by modifications of the anterior tarsi of the 
 male. 
 
 1. Harpalince, having the four anterior tarsi of the males 
 dilated. 
 
 2. Fcronina, having the two anterior tarsi dilated, and the 
 joints heart-shaped. 
 
 3. Patellimana, having the two anterior tarsi of the males 
 dilated ; the joints being square or rounded. 
 
 Each of these sections contains numerous subgenera, of 
 which Harpalus proper contains many British species. 
 Harpalus riificornis is perhaps the most common ; it ex- 
 ceeds half an inch in length, with opaque black elytra and 
 body, and red legs and antenna;. 
 
 HA'RPAX. A genus of fossil shells, oblong and some- 
 what triangular, the hinge being formed by two projecting 
 teeth. (Parkinson.) 
 
 HA'RPIES. (Gr. "Kpitvia ; from apnw, I seize.) In 
 Greek Mythology, the daughters of Pontus and Terra, ac- 
 cording to some mythologists. Hesiod makes them three in 
 number, with the names Iris, Aello, Ocypete. They were 
 a species of furies or monsters, winged and clawed like 
 birds. They are best known from the celebrated descrip- 
 tion in Virgil (JEn., iii., 211, &c). See a memoir in vol. 
 xii. of the Mem. de I' Ac. des Inscr. for the varying mytholo- 
 gical accounts respecting them. 
 
 HARPOO'N. A well-known spear for striking the whale. 
 
 HA'RPSICHORD. (Fr.) A keyed musical instrument, 
 In which the sounds are produced by means of small verti- 
 cal sticks, called jacks, upon which the keys act as levers. 
 In the jacks are inserted short pieces of quill ; these, upon 
 passing the strings, set them in vibration. This instrument 
 is now little used ; indeed, we believe, in the present day 
 none are manufactured. 
 
 HARPY'IA. (Gr. 'Ap-nvta, Harpy.) This term has 
 been applied both to a genus of Raptorial birds and to a 
 genus of Lepidopterous insects. 
 
 HA'RROW. In Agriculture, a rectangular frame with 
 a number of spikes inserted in it on one side. This frame, 
 when dragged over ploughed land, breaks the furrow slices 
 into small pieces, for the purpose of preparing the land for 
 seed in some cases, and for covering the seed in others. The 
 most common form of the frame of the harrow is rectangu- 
 lar, and the usual material employed is wood, with the 
 spikes of iron ; but in some cases both the frame and the 
 spikes are of wood, and in others both are of iron. Occa- 
 sionally the frame is a circle of iron; and the spikes are in- 
 serted in it, at such distances that when the frame is drawn 
 along in a straight line, the spikes, or tines as they are tech- 
 nically termed, pass through every part of the soil traversed 
 by the frame or harrow. In the common kinds of harrows 
 the spikes are inserted at right angles to the frame; but in 
 the Improved forms they are inserted at an oblique angle, 
 or pointing forwards, by which means the harrow is drawn 
 much more easily through the soil. The best implement of 
 this description at present in use is Finlayson's harrow. 
 This implement, by means of a long lever, can be regulated 
 to such a nicety as to stir the soil to the depth of only one 
 or two inches, for the purpose of covering grass or clover 
 seeds ; or it can be pressed into it of such a depth as to serve, 
 in the case of stubble lands, instead of ploughing. Wilkie's 
 harrow and Kirk wood's harrow can be used for similar pur- 
 poses. They differ nothing from Finlayson's in principle ; 
 but being on a smaller scale can be worked with fewer 
 546 
 
 HAT. 
 
 horses than Finlayson's, which commonly requires lour 
 or six. 
 
 HA'RROWING. The process of drawing a harrow 
 through the soil for the purpose of reducing it to a level, of 
 covering seed, or of turning up weeds in ploughed ground, 
 or moss in grass lands. In agriculture the harrow is drawn 
 by horses or oxen; and in market-gardening, where a light 
 harrow is sometimes employed, by men. In either case the 
 more rapid the motion of the harrow, up to a certain point, 
 the more efficient will be its operation. For meadow lands, 
 the object of harrowing is to disperse the little heaps of 
 earth raised during winter and early spring by moles and 
 worms; and for this purpose the harrows in some parts of 
 the country are turned upside down ; while in others, as in 
 Middlesex, thorn branches are tucked into a frame resem- 
 bling a harrow, and dragged over the surface for the pur- 
 pose of effecting the same object. This is called a bush 
 harrow. 
 
 HA'RTSHORN, SPIRIT OF. An impure solution of 
 carbonate of ammonia, obtained by the destructive distilla- 
 tion of harts' horn or any kind of bone. An impure solid 
 carbonate of ammonia, called salt of hartshorn, is formed at 
 the same time. 
 
 HA'RVEST. (Germ, herbst.) In Agriculture, the pe- 
 riod at which any crop is reaped. The term is more com- 
 monly applied to the crops of corn or hay, though it might, 
 with propriety, be applied to the potatoe crops, or to hops 
 and other field products. 
 
 HA'RVESTING. The operation of pulling, cutting, root- 
 ing up, or gathering field crops, and drying or otherwise pre- 
 paring them for being stored up for winter use. The first 
 harvest which occurs in Britain and similar climates is that 
 of the forage grasses, or other plants made into hay ; the 
 next is the harvest of cereal grasses, or of corn crops ; and 
 the third the potatoe harvest, or harvest of root crops, such 
 as potatoes, carrots, turnips, mangel wurzel, &c. There is 
 also the harvest of occasional crops; such as that of rape- 
 seed, turnip-seed, dyers' wood, hemp, flax, and various 
 other articles. 
 
 HASTA'TI. (Lat. hasta, a spear.) One of the three 
 grand divisions of the Roman infantry, so called because 
 they were armed with spears. It consisted of young men 
 in the flower of life, who were always drawn up in the first 
 line of battle. The other two divisions were called Prin- 
 cipes and Triarii; to which, in the first Punic war, was 
 added another, called Velites, or light troops, from volare, 
 to fly. 
 
 HATCH, is the covering of a hatchway. In very bad 
 weather the hatches are battened down, to keep the water 
 which comes in upon the decks from getting below. 
 
 HA'TCHETINE. A fusible wax-like substance, found 
 occasionally in nodules of ironstone : named after Mr. 
 Hatchett. It is usually placed by mineralogists among bit- 
 umens. 
 
 HATCHMENT. In Heraldry, a species of achievement 
 or funeral escutcheon, suspended in front of a house to 
 mark the decease of one of its inmates. These escutcheons 
 are always drawn up with heraldic precision ; so that those 
 acquainted with the science of heraldry can discover at a 
 glance, from the form and accompaniments of the field and 
 the colour of the ground of the hatchment, the sex, posi- 
 tion, and rank of the deceased. See Heraldry, Es- 
 cutcheon. 
 
 HA'TCHWAY. A large opening in a ship's deck for 
 communicating with the decks below, the hold, &c. : there 
 are the fore, main, and after hatchways. 
 
 HAT. (Germ, hut.) What is usually called a beaver 
 hat is made of a variety of furs, chiefly those of the hare 
 and rabbit, mingled with wool, and in the best hats a pro- 
 portion of beaver's fur ; but the latter is altogether omitted 
 in common stvff hats. The furs are mixed, the long hair 
 is picked out, and they are then placed on a hurdle, which 
 is shaken and made to vibrate by being struck with a bow- 
 string ; in this way the dust is shaken out, and the fibres 
 are to a certain extent interwoven. (See Felt.) A quan- 
 tity of this mass of fur sufficient for one hat is called a bat 
 or capade (see lire's Dictionary, art. "Hat-making") : it is 
 pressed, kneaded, and at length moulded so as to form a 
 kind of conical cap, the irregularities or small fibres of the 
 different furs entangling with each other so as to keep the 
 whole adherent. The cap is then dipped into warm water 
 acidulated by sulphuric acid, and wrought by the hands for 
 several hours, by which it is thickened or fulled ; the knots 
 are picked out of it, fresh felt here and there added, and 
 the beaver ultimately applied; the hat is then shaped, 
 water-proofed by a lac varnish, tied upon a block, dyed, 
 stiffened by the application of a solution of glue, steamed, 
 brushed, and ironed ; the brim is then trimmed, and it Is 
 ready for lining and binding. 
 
 Silk hats have a foundation of woollen felt, similar to 
 those which are covered by beaver, upon which a silk plush 
 is afterwards applied. 
 
HATTEMISTS. 
 
 Various processes have lately been suggested, and some 
 of them carried into effect, for the purpose of improving 
 this manufacture. Several of these are described and fig- 
 ured in lire's Dictionary, but their extension and introduc- 
 tion have hitherto been successfully opposed by the jour- 
 neymen hatters, " among whom," says Dr. Ure, " there 
 exists an organized combination, by which the masters 
 .hroughout the kingdom are held in a state of complete 
 servitude." "The public of a free country," he adds, 
 " ought to counteract this disgraceful state of things by re- 
 nouncing the wear of stuff-hats, a branch of the business 
 entirely under the control of this despotic union, and betake 
 themselves to the use of silk hats, which, from recent im- 
 provements in their fabric and dyeing, are not a whit infe- 
 rior to Lhe beaver hats in comfort, appearance, or durability, 
 while they may be had of the best quality for one fourth 
 part of their price." 
 
 HATTEM1STS. An ecclesiastical sect In Holland, so 
 called from Pontian von iiattem, a minister in Zealand ; 
 nearly allied to the Verschorists. They arose in the latter 
 part of the 17th century. They appear to have denied the 
 expiatory sacrifice of Christ It is added, that they denied 
 the corruption of human nature, and the difference between 
 moral good nnd evil. (Moskiem, transl., ed. 1836, v. 386.) 
 
 HAU'BEHK. (Itnl. usbergo.) A piece of armour, sup- 
 posed to be of German origin, common in the chain-mail, 
 or rather ringed mall, of the twelfth century ; being a jacket 
 or tunic, with wide sleeves reaching a little below the 
 elbow, the hood being of one piece with it. The hauberk 
 of ringed mail ceased to be worn about the reign of Henry 
 III., when the oriental chain-mail, properly so called, came 
 into fashion for a short period. 
 
 In France only persons possessed of a certain estate, call- 
 ed un fief de hauber, were permitted to wear a hauberk, 
 which was the armour of a knight; esquires might only 
 wear a simple coat of mail, without the hood nnd hose. 
 
 HAUGII. A Scotch term, applied to lands which in 
 England would be called meadow or pasture. 
 
 HAUL. The sea term for pulling upon a rope directly. 
 — To haul the wind, to bring the ship to sail close by the 
 wind after running in some other direction. 
 
 HAUPT TON. (Ger. head note.) In Music, that note 
 or which the mark tr. is placed, when a shake is indicated ; 
 the secondary or superior note being called the hiilfston. 
 
 HA/USTELLATES, Haustellata. (Lat. haustellum, a 
 tucker.) A name of a grand section of insects, including 
 all those which in the perfect state have the oral apparatus 
 adapted for suction. 
 
 H \UTB01S. See Oboe. 
 
 HAUYNE. A blue mineral in small granular or spheri- 
 cal masses, generally found in basalt or lava. Named after 
 Hat'iy, the celebrated French mineralogist. 
 
 HA'VEX. (Germ. hafen.) The same as harbour, which 
 
 HAWK. See Falpo. 
 
 H AW'KI'.KS, PEDLARS, and PETTY CHAPMEN. 
 In Law, persons travelling -from town to town with goods 
 and merchandize for the purpose of sale. They are re- 
 quired to take out licences under 50 G. 3, c. 41. Wholesale 
 traders are exempt from the provisions of this act, as are also 
 licensed auctioneers going from town to town. 
 
 HAWKING. See Falconry. 
 
 HAWK-MOTH. See Sphinx. 
 
 HAWSE. The part of the bows close to the cables. The 
 cables pass through the hawse ho'es, which are made in the 
 timbers and in the hawse piece outside. When the ship has 
 two anchors down, and the cables diverge from each other, 
 the hawse Is said to be clear; when crossed by the ship 
 turning ha'f round, there is a cross in the hawse. Another 
 cross makes an elbow ; then a round turn : in the last two 
 cases the hawse is said to be fold. The process of disen- 
 gaging the cables is called clearing hawse. The danger of a 
 foul hawse is, that if it comes on to blow the cables cannot 
 be veered from their friction against each other. 
 
 Freshening hawse is veering out a little cable to expose a 
 new surface to the friction in the hawse hole, or across the 
 cutwater. 
 
 .Qthwarl hawse implies across the bows of a vessel at 
 anchor. 
 
 HA WHISK. A large rope or small cable. 
 
 HA'YMAKING. The operation of cutting down, drying, 
 nnd preparing forage grasses and other forage plants for being 
 stacked for winter use. The plants are mown down at the 
 time when they are supposed to contain diffused throughout 
 the whole plant a maximum of nutritious juices, viz., when 
 they are in full flower. Dry weather, and if possible that In 
 which sunshine prevails, is chosen for this operation ; and 
 the mown material Is spread out, and turned over two or 
 three times in the course of the same day In which it is cut. 
 In the evening it is put into small heaps. In the morning of 
 the second day these heaps are spread out, and turned over 
 •wo or three times ; and in the evening they are formed into 
 
 HEART. 
 
 heaps somewhat larger than they were the day before. If 
 the weather has been remarkably warm and dry, these heaps, 
 in the course of the third day, are carted away and made intc 
 n stack ; but if the weather has been indifferent, the process 
 of opening out the heaps and exposing them to the sun is re- 
 peated on the third day, and stack-making is not commenced 
 till the fourth. A great deal might be said on the subject of 
 haymaking; but it would he altogether unsuitable in a work 
 of this nature. Suffice it to state, that the grand object in 
 making hay is to preserve the colour and natural juices of the 
 herbage, which is best done by continually turning it so as 
 never to expose the same surface for any length of time to 
 the direct influence of the sun. In stacking the hay, the ob- 
 ject is to preserve this green colour, and at the same tune 
 induce a slight degree of fermentation, which has the effect 
 of rendering the fibres of the plants which compose the hay 
 more tender, and changing a part of the parenchymous mat- 
 ter into sugar, on the same principle as is effected by malting 
 barley. This sweet taste renders the hay more palatable to 
 horses. The best directions lor haymaking will be found in 
 JUiddlcton's Jigricultural Survey of Middlesex. 
 
 HA'Y-WARD. (Fr. haie, hedge.) An officer anciently 
 appointed in the lord's court to take care of the cattle of a 
 manor, and prevent them from injuring the hedges or fences. 
 
 HEAD. The fore extremity of a ship. It generally means 
 the cutwater, which is adorned with a figure. By the head, 
 implies that the ship's head is depressed in the water. Head 
 sails, head yards, are the sails and yards in the fore part of 
 the ship. 
 
 HE'ADACH. This Is a common symptom in various 
 diseases ; it frequently occurs both in full nnd in debilitated 
 habits, and afeo in persons who are otherwise healthy. One 
 form of hendarh consists in a degree of torpor and of con- 
 fusion, with a dull pain over the whole head, dimness of 
 sight, and inability to attend to anything requiring thought or 
 fixed attention. Sometimes it is referable to disordered stom- 
 ach or bowels, but it nlso comes on without any such assign- 
 able cause. These headachs nre relieved by nervous stimu- 
 lants, such especially as camphor, ether, and ammonia. A 
 cup of strong coffee or of green tea often acts like a charm ; 
 and if the pain prevents rest, a small dose of opium is some- 
 times necessary, with perfect rest nnd quiet Some very 
 troublesome cases are relieved by cold applications to the 
 temples and head, others by snuff and nasal stimulants. 
 There is a peculiar form of headach which consists of throb- 
 bing and pain of one particular part, or sometimes over one 
 side of the head ; it lasts an hour or two and then goes off, 
 nnd returns again at stated intervals. This is called hemi- 
 cranium, or intermitting headach, nnd for its permanent cure 
 often requires bark or sulphate of quiuia : blisters behind the 
 ears are also of service. In bilious or sick headach, emetics 
 and purges are required. Obstinate headachs are not un- 
 frequently got rid of by change of air, scene, and occupation ; 
 especially where they are the result of too intense intellec- 
 tual application. 
 
 IIEA'DBOROUGH. (Sax. borg, pledge.) The chief of 
 the ten pledges in frankpledge (see Frankpledge) ; also 
 styled borsholder, tythingman, &c. 
 
 HEA'DERS. In Architecture, bricks or stones with their 
 heads or short face9 in front. 
 
 HEADING COURSES. In Architecture, those courses 
 which consist entirely of headers. 
 
 HEA'DLAND. In Geography, a term nearly synonymous 
 with cape, mull, or promontory ; which see. 
 
 Headland, or Head Ridoe, in Agriculture, is a ridge or 
 border, commonly ten or twelve feet broad, which is con- 
 tinued round a field in some cases, and which in others is 
 only formed at the two opposite sides, for the purpose of af- 
 fording space for the horses to turn on while ploughing. 
 
 HEALDS. The harness for guiding the warp threads in 
 a loom. 
 
 HEA'RING TRU'MPET. An instrument for coneen 
 trating sound, and conveying it to the ear. It is generally a 
 short bent tube, wide at the one end where the sound enters, 
 and narrow at the other where the ear is applied. The 
 principle on which it nets is the reflection of sound at an 
 angle equal to that at which it strikes a smooth surface ; and 
 accordingly the form of the instrument ought to be so regu- 
 lated that the whole of the vibrations are collected into a 
 focus at the smaller end. But it is not necessary that the 
 form which theory points out should be very accurately ob- 
 served ; the principal advantage is gained by confining the 
 advancing sound by a continual reflection, and preventing it 
 from spreading laterally and being dissipated. 
 
 HEART. (Germ. herzA The human heart is a hollow 
 muscular organ of a somewhat conical shape, the broad part 
 of which is called its base, and the smaller end its apex. Its 
 base is placed upon the right of the bodies of the vertebrte, 
 and its apex obliquely to the sixth rib on the left. Internally 
 it is divided into a right and left ventricle ; the former an 
 terior, and the latter almost posterior, in consequence of the 
 oblique manner in which it is placed. Its inferior surface 
 
 547 
 
HEART WHEEL. 
 
 rests upon fh« liaphragm. Attached to the base of the heart 
 are two auricles, so called from their resemblance in shape 
 to the ear of an animal : they are muscular sacs. In ihc 
 right auricle are four apertures ; two of the venie cavce, one 
 of the coronary vein, and one an opening into the right ven- 
 tricle. In the left auricle there are five apertures ; namely, 
 one into the left ventricle, and those of the four pulmonary 
 veins. Bach ventricle has two orifices ; one from the auricle 
 by which the blood enters, and another into the artery by 
 winch it passes out. They are supplied with valves ; those 
 at the arterial openings being called, from their form, semi- 
 lunar valves ; those at the orifice of the right auricle, tri- 
 cuspid ; and those at the orifice of the left auricle, mitral. 
 The valve at the termination of the vena cava inferior, just 
 within the auricle, is called the valve of Eustachius. The 
 cavities are lined with a strong smooth membrane. The pul- 
 monary artery arises from the right ventricle, and conveys 
 venous blood to the lungs, where having been changed into 
 arterial blood by the action of the air, it returns by the pul- 
 monary veins, which terminate in the left auricle ; the vense 
 cava;, which bring back the mass of venous blood from all 
 parts of the body, terminating in the right auricle. The 
 circle, therefore, which the blood takes is this: It is re- 
 lumed from the various parts of the body by the vena? cavje 
 into the right auricle, whence it is forced into the right ven- 
 tricle, and then through the lungs ; whence it returns into 
 the left auricle, and from it into the left ventricle; and 
 thence, by the aorta, through the general arterial circula- 
 tion. The substance of the heart is supplied by nerves and 
 vessels of its own, which are called coronary vessels ; the 
 coronary arteries branch off from the aorta, and the coronary 
 veins return their blood into the right auricle. The nerves 
 are branches of the eighth and great intercostal pairs. 
 
 HEART WHEEL. The name given to a well-known 
 mechanical contrivance for converting a circular motion into 
 an alternating rectilinear one, common in cotton mills. It is 
 an ellipse turned either on an axle, or by means of a winch 
 and handle on one of its foci, or its centre, on whose edge a 
 moveable point or circle presses: the latter receives an alter- 
 nating motion from the circumference of the ellipse, which 
 in its revolution presses it to different distances from the 
 centre of motion. The practical disadvantages of this con- 
 nivance are the inequality of pressure and of moving force 
 which will be required at different parts of the rotation of 
 the ellipse, and the consequent wearing of some parts of it 
 faster than others. (Gregory's Mechanics, vol. ii.) 
 
 HEART WOOD. In Botany, the English term for du- 
 ramen. It is the central part of the trunk of a tree hardened 
 by the deposition in its tissue of various secretions, which 
 clog up the passages and forbid the passage of anything 
 through them. 
 
 HEAT. This term has been applied b-JiI\ to the sensation 
 experienced on touching a hot body, and n \\e cause of that 
 sensation : in the latter sense it is synonym >w* with the term 
 caloric. The cause of the phenomena of hoat is unknown ; 
 but they are supposed to depend upon the p-esence of a 
 highly attenuated, imponderable, and subtile faoi of matter, 
 the particles of which repel each other, but ar.i . ttracted by 
 other bodies. The escape of heat through sp.xe is called 
 the radiation of hent, and its communication 'jy contact 
 conduction. The term specific heat is applied to the quan- 
 tity of thermometric heat required to raise different substan- 
 ces to the same temperature. Thus experiments prove that 
 the quantity of heat which will raise olive oil two degrees 
 will only raise water one degree; hence a pound of water 
 at 212° may be said to contain twice as much heat, or to 
 have twice the capacity for heat that belongs to oil : or the 
 specific heat of water being =1, that of oil is 05. When 
 heat changes the state or form of bodies a large quantity 
 disappears, and remains in them so long as they retain one 
 form. To heat in this state of combination, and inappre- 
 ciable by the thermometer, the term latent heat or caloric of 
 fluidity has been applied. See Expansion, Evaporation, &c. 
 
 HEATH, or HEATHER. In a general sense the term 
 heath is applied to waste land in which the prevailing plants 
 consist of one or more of the common species of heath — 
 Calluna and Erica. (Calluna vulgaris, Sal. The Erica 
 communis of Linnaeus.) This plant covers many hundreds 
 of acres in the Highlands of Scotland, in Ireland, and in simi- 
 lar climates on the Continent. It attains, in many places, 
 the height of three or four feet ; and is used for thatching 
 houses, making besoms, and for a variety of other purposes. 
 The tender tops form a substitute for mattresses in Highland 
 cottages ; and they are also eaten green and in a dried state 
 by horses, cattle, and sheep, in countries where the grasses 
 and clovers do not begin to grow till late in the spring. 
 
 HEAVE, in nautical phrase, to employ force to move great 
 weights by the lever, &c. ; as to heave up the anchor by the 
 capstan or windlass ; to heave down the ship, or pull her over 
 on one side to get at a leak ; also to heave taught (tight), or 
 turn the cipstan till the rope or chain applied to it becomes 
 tight. 
 
 548 
 
 HEDGE. 
 
 HEAVEN, the Celestial Sphere, or Firmament, or Sky 
 in Astronomy, denotes the spaces in which the celestia» 
 bodies are placed, or through which they apparently perform 
 their diurnal revolutions. Aristotle and his disciples be- 
 lieved the heavens to be composed of incorruptible elements, 
 incapable of destruction or of any change whatever ; and 
 this opinion long continued to exercise a baneful influence 
 on the progress of astronomy, as it led to the consequence 
 that the celestial bodies are altogether of a different nature 
 from the earth, and have nothing in common witli out 
 planet. It was finally overthrown by the discoveries and 
 reasoning of Galileo. The term heaven is also frequently 
 used to denote the orb or sphere in which a celestial body 
 appears to move ; and hence the ancient astronomers as- 
 sumed the existence of as many heavens as they observed 
 different and apparently independent motions. They sup- 
 posed the various heavens to be solid, because they could 
 not otherwise sustain the bodies placed in them ; and sphe- 
 rical, because perfect motion must be performed in a circle 
 which is formed by the section of a sphere ; and crystalline, 
 because the different bodies are visible, though their orbs in- 
 clude one another. The first heaven was that of the Moon, 
 the second of Venus, the third of Mercury, the fourth of the 
 Sun, the fifth of Mars, the sixth of Jupiter, and the seventh 
 of Saturn. The eighth, which is that of the fixed stars, was 
 called particularly the firmament. Ptolemy added a ninth, 
 which was the Primum Mobile. All these reveries have 
 been exploded by the discovery of the true system of the 
 world, and the laws of the planetary motions. 
 
 HEA'VY SPAR. Native sulphate of baryta. This is a 
 common mineral in many mining districts. It occurs in se- 
 veral crystalline forms, of which the cleavage is a right 
 rhomboidal prism ; it also occurs fibrous, radiated, and sla- 
 lactitic. Some beautiful specimensof the latter variety have 
 been found in Derbyshire of a brown colour. The crystals 
 are usually white, or nearly colourless. The specific gravity 
 of sulphate of baryta is 4"1 to 4'6. It consists of 77 baryta, 
 40 sulphuric acid, its equivalent being 117. It enters into the 
 composition of some kinds of pottery, but its chief consump- 
 tion is in the adulteration of white lead. 
 
 HE'BE (Gr. 'Hffn), in Grecian Mythology, was the goddess 
 of youth, whose office it was to hand round the nectar at the 
 banquets of the gods. She was the daughter of Jupiter and 
 Juno. 
 
 HE'CATE. (Gr. 'Fiairn). In Mythology, a Grecian god- 
 dess, daughter of the Titan Perses and Asteria. She pre- 
 sided over popular assemblies, war, the administration of 
 justice, and the rearing of children. There is a good deal 
 of obscurity attached to this goddess, who is often confounded 
 with Artemis or Diana, and Proserpine ; whence she is some- 
 times considered the patroness of magic and the infernal re- 
 gions. She was called the triple goddess, and was supposed 
 to wander along the earth at night. Statues were set up to 
 her in market places, and especially at cross roads. 
 
 HE'CATOMB. (Gr. exaTduBn.) Properly a sacrifice of a 
 hundred oxen ; but the word is often used to signify a large 
 sacrifice of any kind of victims. 
 
 HECATON'PEDON. (Gr. i/carov, a hundred, and rouf, 
 a foot.) In Ancient Architecture, any temple of the length 
 of one hundred feet. 
 
 HECATO'NSTYLON. (Gr. Ikotov, and ctv\oc, a co 
 lumn.) In Ancient Architecture, a building having a hun- 
 dred columns. 
 
 HECKLE. (Germ, heckel.) An instrument used iu 
 separating the fibres of flax and placing them in parallel 
 tresses. 
 
 HE'CTIC FEVER. (Gr. fyc, habit.) A constitutional 
 fever, attended by debility, a small quick pulse, paleness, 
 loss of appetite, excessive perspiration and emaciation. It 
 generally affects more or less of an intermittent character ; 
 but the exacerbations and remissions are irregular, and the 
 sweating stage is not followed by that relief which it usu- 
 ally announces in other febrile attacks. It is often sympto- 
 matic of some particular disease, and requires to be treated 
 accordingly. Where this is not the case, or where it mere- 
 ly seems an attendant on general debility, a course of sarsa 
 parilla and a milk diet are often very beneficial ; but where 
 this remedy induces perspiration and nauseates, a great deal 
 of management is required in carrying it on for a sufficient 
 length of time to prove of service. 
 
 HEDGE. A living wnll formed of woody plants, sown 
 or planted in a line, and cut or clipped in such a manner as 
 to form a compact mass of any degree of width and height 
 that may be required for the purpose of shelter, separation, 
 or defence. The fences most generally used in agriculture 
 are made of the white thorn (Gratapus oxyacantha, Lin.), 
 because it has spiny branches, and forms a strong defence 
 against cattle. Fences for the purposes of shelter and sepa- 
 ration are chiefly used in gardening, and for the most part 
 are formed of evergreen shrubs, such as the holly, yew, 
 box, &c; or sub-evergreens, such ns the privet; of flower 
 ing shrub's, such as the Cydonia japonica ; or of deciduoui 
 
HEDGEHOG. 
 
 shrills or trees with persistent leaves, such as the hornbeam 
 and beech. In the management of hedges of every descrip- 
 tion an important point is to keep them thick, and tapervi- 
 ous t<> wind or animals near the ground ; for which [iuriMi.se 
 the lection of the hedge requires to be made broader at the 
 base than at the top, in order that the exterior leaves in 
 every part of the hedge may enjoy in an equal degree the 
 influence of light, air, and perpendicular rains.. 
 
 HEDGEHOG. See Erinackcs. 
 
 HEEL. The after extremity of the ship's keel ; also the 
 fw t of a mast. To heel over, to incline to one side 
 
 HE'GIKA. In Chronology, the era used by the Moham- 
 medans in the computation of time. The epoch or first day 
 of this celebrated era, so extensively employed in the East, 
 ds to Friday, the 16th day of July, in the year 622 
 of the Christian era. It is a problem of some importance to 
 convert dates cxpressci by the Mohammedan computation 
 into the corresponding dates of our calendar; for effecting 
 ibis it is necessary to be acquainted with the form of the 
 Mohammedan year. 
 
 This year is strictly lunar; and the civil months are ud- 
 j'i'tcd to the lunar months by means of a cycle of 30 years, 
 containing 19 common years of 354 days, and 11 intercalary 
 yean "t'355 days; the cycle thus containing 10,631 days, or 
 2'J Julian years and 3*1 days. Bach year is divided into 12 
 months, containing alternately 30 and 29 days, excepting 
 that the last month of the intercalary year contains also 30 
 he intcrcalaiv years are the 2d, 5th, 7th. 10th, 13lh, 
 10th, 18th, 21.-1, 2-Hh". 98th, and 29th of the cycle. The 
 name* of the Mohammedan months, with the number of 
 dayi in each, are as follows: 
 
 Dm 
 Shaban 29 
 
 Ramadan 30 
 
 Bhawall 29 
 
 30 
 
 ae 
 
 Dhu'l Kadnh 
 
 Uhu'l llajah 
 
 -in Intereala- 
 
 Mohorera 30 
 
 Baphar 29 
 
 Rabiu 1 30 
 
 Kabiu II 29 
 
 Jomadbi 1 30 
 
 Jomadhi II 29 
 
 Regeb 30 ry years 30 
 
 Such are the chronological dementi by means of which 
 'Mohammedan dates are reduced to the Christian I 
 rule by which the reduction may be accomplished is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 1. Divide the number of years (of the Hegira) elapsed by 
 30; the quotient will be the Bomber of cycles, and the re- 
 mainder the number of years elapsed since the beginning of 
 the current cycle. Call the quotient A, and the remainder 
 B, and let r be the number Of intercalary years in 1! ; then 
 the number of days that have elapsed from the commence- 
 ment of the Hegira to the beginning of the year in which 
 he date occurs is given by this formula, 
 
 10031 A + 354 B + r : 
 for 10,(531 is the number of days in the cycle, and 354 the 
 number of days in tin; common lunar year. To the sum ob- 
 tained by this formula add the days since the beginning of 
 the current year, and the remit is the number of days from 
 the commencement of the Hegira to the given date. 
 
 2. To the number of days from the commencement of the 
 Hegira to the given date'add the number of days between 
 the commencement of our era and the Hegira, and the sum 
 Is the number of days from the first of our era to the given 
 date. The number of days from the beginning of our era 
 to the Hegira, or to the 16th of July, 022, is 227,016. 
 
 3. Bartttg now found the number of days from the Incar- 
 nation to the given date, it only remains to convert the sum 
 into Julian yenrs. For this purpose divide by 1461 (the 
 number of days in the Julian intercalary period), and call 
 the quotient C. Divide the remainder by 369, and call the 
 quotient D, and the remainder of this last division y. Then 
 4 C -4- D is the number of Julian years elapsed since the be- 
 ginning of the Christian era, and y is the number of days 
 that have elapsed of the current year. This gives the date 
 in Old Style. To reduce it to the Gregorian Style, it is only 
 necessary to add 11 days. (See art. "Chronology" in the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica.) 
 
 HF.IGHT. In Geometrv, the same as altitude, which see. 
 
 HEIGHTEN. (From height.) In Painting, a verb sig- 
 nifying to make prominent by means of touches of light or 
 brilliant colours, as contrasted with the shadows. 
 
 HEIGHTS, MEASUREMENT OF. The determination 
 of the relative altitudes of points on the earth's surface is of 
 equal importance in physical geography as the determina- 
 tion of their latitudes and longitudes. There are three differ- 
 ent methods by whieh the operation is usually effected. 
 When it is required to determine not only the height of one 
 point or station relatively to another, but the relative heights 
 of a number of points above a common horizontal plane (as 
 for tracing the line of a canai/, recourse is had to the opera- 
 tion of levelling. The second method is to observe the an- 
 gle of elevation or depression of one station as seen from 
 another, and to compute, from the observation and from the 
 
 HEIGHTS, MEASUREMENT OF. 
 
 distance of the two stations, the difference of altitude by the 
 rules of trigonometry. The third method, and the most 
 important, as being, generally speaking, the most applica- 
 ble, is to deduce, by means of the known physical properties 
 of the atmosphere, the differences of vertical height from 
 the observed differences of atmospheric pressure as indicated 
 by the barometer. To this method we shall here confine 
 our attention. 
 
 Pascal, who first explained the true cause of the suspen 
 sion of the mercurial column by referring it to the pressure 
 of the atmosphere, and established the fact of the pressure 
 by his celebrated experiment on the Puy de Ddme, was also 
 the first to suggest the application of the barometer to the 
 measurement of mountains; but as the constitution of the 
 atmosphere and the laws of gaseous bodies were in that age 
 entirely unknown, the numerous attempts which were made 
 to estimate heights in this manner, soon ofti r the introduc- 
 tion of the instrument, had very little success. The first 
 step towards the introduction of a correct theory was the 
 discovery by Mariotte that the elastic force of air (which is 
 the same as the pressure) is exactly proportional to its den- 
 sity ; nn important relation, which is true of all the gases 
 and vapours, and goes by the name of Mariotte's law. Dr. 
 Halley next discovered the remarkable relation which con- 
 nects the density of the atmosphere with the altitude, and 
 proved that the densities decrease in a geometrical pri 
 sion when the altitudes increase in ;'.n arithmetical one. 
 Dr. Halley likewise supposed that the observations might 
 be affected by differences of temperature; and he roughly 
 estimated the variation to amount ton fifteenth part between 
 winter and summer. 
 
 De Luc was the first who gave precision to barometrical 
 measurements by taking into account the influence Of heat 
 In expanding the air ; and by substituting the mercurial for 
 the spirit thermometer, he rendered the determination of 
 temperatures, on which the method so mainly depends, | 
 matter of much greater certainty than it had formerly 
 He also investigated the dilatation of air at d I 
 peratu res, and gave a formula for the computation 01 
 rometrical neaaorementa, which was adapted to the Eng- 
 lish system of measure-: by Dr. Haskelyne, and used (with 
 some alterations bj the values of the coefficients) by Sir 
 George Shucklmreh and by General Hoy in the determina- 
 te m of the altitudes of many of the principal mountains in 
 Britain. 
 
 Laplace, in the .Wc unique Cilette, has given n formula 
 which embraces all the different circumstances on which 
 the solution of the problem depends, and enables us to 
 pute their influence numerically, when the constants to be 
 found from observation have been accurately determined. 
 Among these are the ellipticity of the earth, the relative 
 densities of air and mercury at n given temperature, their 
 expansion by heat, and the variation of the elastic (on 
 atmospheric air (composed of a mixture of dry gases and 
 watery vapour) corresponding to n given thermometric 
 change. In the present state of our knowledge, some doubt 
 still remains on several of these points; but they are all 
 known with sufficient approximation to render the barome- 
 ter a most valuable instrument for geodctical purposes. I; 
 not only gives the relative altitudes, above the general level, 
 of places however distant at which simultaneous observa- 
 tions are made, hut even enables us to assign the height of 
 any station on the earth at which the mean height of the 
 barometer is ascertained. We now proceed to give the 
 formula by which the height is computed from the obser- 
 vations. 
 
 The temperature being expressed in degrees of the centi- 
 grade scale, let us assume 
 
 jc=the atmospheric pressure at temperature zero, 
 
 D = density of atmospheric air at temperature zero, 
 
 =the temperature in degrees, 
 
 a =-00375, the dilatation of air for 1° of increased tem- 
 perature, 
 
 ST 
 
 k = =r, the ratio of the pressure to the density. 
 
 If the pressure remains constant, and we suppose that while 
 the temperature changes from to any volume V of air 
 becomes V, and its density D becomes D', then V' = V 
 (1 + a Q) ; and therefore, the densities being inversely as the 
 
 volumes, D' = - 
 
 D 
 
 1-f-afl' 
 
 Let us next suppose the pressure to vary while the tem 
 perature remains constant, and that D' becomes p when w 
 becomes p ; then, by the law of Mariotte, sr : p : : D' : p. 
 Substituting for D' its above value, observing that sj = * D, 
 this proportion gives 
 
 p = kp(\ + aO)....(l.) 
 This formula holds good for all the gases and vapours, and 
 for the mixtures, as well as for air. 
 To form the differential equation of the equilibrium of the 
 
 549 
 
HEIGHTS, MEASUREMENT OF. 
 
 atmospheric column at any altitude z above tlie surface, sup- 
 jiose a column of air whose base is 1 to be divided into thin 
 horizontal slices; then the difference of the pressure on the 
 under and on the upper surface of any slice will be equal to 
 the weight of the slice. Let, therefore, p be the pressure, 
 and gf the force of gravity at the height z ; then p being the 
 density, and <l z the thickness of the slice, we have 
 
 dp = — g'pdz (2.) 
 
 Let g be the force of gravity at the foot of the column, 
 or at the surface of the earth, and r the mean radius of the 
 earth = 20,887,030 feet (see Earth); then, neglecting the 
 small variation of centrifugal force due to the height 
 z g'=.gr 2 -i- (r + z)2. Substituting in equation (2) this 
 value of g 1 , and eliminating p by means of equation (1), 
 there results 
 
 dp — g r2 d z 
 
 ~p ~ k(l + a6)(r + z)2' 
 
 lutegrating this equation on the supposition of being con- 
 stant, and determining the constants so that p = tz when z = 
 0, we find 
 
 To apply this formula to the determination of the differ- 
 ence of altitudes of two stations, let 
 A, A' = heights of the mercury in the barometer at the low- 
 er and upper stations respectively in inches, 
 m. m' = the densities of the mercury at the two stations, 
 T, T' = the temperatures of the mercury (in centigrade de- 
 grees), 
 t, tf = the temperatures of the air, 
 g, g' = force of gravity at the lower and upper station, 
 sj, p = the pressure ; then 
 
 ts = mgh,p = m' g" A'. 
 Now it has been determined by experiment that the den- 
 sity of mercury increases by the 1 -5550th part for each cen- 
 tigrade degree by which the temperature diminishes ; there- 
 fore. 
 
 T — TS 
 
 whence, assuming c = 1 -+- 
 therefore 
 
 ch' r2 
 
 and 
 
 log. - =s log. h — log. e A' + 2 log. (l + - Y 
 p \ r ■/ 
 
 Substituting this in equation (3), and transposing, 
 
 i= - .1 + a 0) [log. i - og. c A' + 2 log. (l + ^)l 
 
 (A) ■ & 
 
 It now remains to convert the quantities in this formula 
 (all of which are known excepting z) into numbers. 
 
 1. The logarithms which enter the equation being hyper- 
 bolic, in order that the tabular logarithms may be used it is 
 necessary to divide the second member bv the modulus 
 M = -43429. 
 
 2. The quantity k, which expresses the ratio of the pres- 
 sure or elastic force of atmospheric air to its density, depends 
 upon the force of gravity as well as on the temperature, and 
 must therefore be determined with respect to some particular 
 place. Let G denote the accelerating force of gravity at 
 Greenwich, H the standard height of the barometer, m the 
 density of mercury, and D that of air, both at the freezing 
 
 temperature: then K = ?raGH, and k—'^: 
 
 rail 
 D 
 
 G. For 
 
 the height, H=76 metres, or 2-449348 feet, the ratio of m 
 to D, in respect of dry air, was found by Biot and Arago 
 to be 10462. According to this determination, we have 
 A; = 260868 X G. For air saturated with moisture, they 
 found k — 26152-3 X G. Hence if we adopt the mean of the 
 two coefficients as representing the ordinary state of the at- 
 mosphere, we have 
 
 £ = 26120 XG, in feet 
 3. The gravity, g, in equation (4) is that which corre- 
 sponds to the lower station, and to the latitude of the place 
 of observation. Denoting the latitude of the station by /, 
 and that of Greenwich (to which G corresponds) by L, we 
 have fiom the theory of the earth 
 
 g 1 -f- n sin. 2 / 1 — J n cos. 2 / 
 
 G" - l-f-«sta.2Ii"~ 1 — Jncos.2L 
 (Wty nearly.) Here the coefficient is | times the ratio of 
 the centrifugal force to gravity at the equator, diminished by 
 Uie ellipticity, or 4 X -^\ v X ^ = ' 005145 («* Earth) ; 
 
 HEIR. 
 
 and i n = -00257 But L = 51° 28' 39", and cos 2 L=s- 
 •2242 ; whence we find 
 
 (1 — -00257) (vs. 21 
 
 g ~ 1-00058 
 
 and we have therefore in feet 
 
 k 26120X 1-00058 __ 60168 
 
 TAg~ -43429 (1 — -00257 cos. 2 /) ~~ 1 — -00257 cos72 / 
 
 4. For we may take i (t + f), the mean temperature of 
 
 the lower and higher station. In the case of perfectly dry 
 
 air, /i = -00375; but as the density of air mixed with vapour 
 
 increases as the temperature is diminished in a faster ratio 
 
 than dry air, we may assume as the nearest probable value, 
 
 m , . . „ (2< + f) 
 
 This gives a 0— - 
 
 a = -004. 
 
 For the sake of abridging, put 
 001 68 
 
 1000 
 
 V T 1000 J' 
 
 1 — -00257 cos. 21 
 then the equation (4) becomes 
 
 z = K [log. h — log. c h' + 2 log. (l -4- i) J (l -f 1 J 
 
 In computing from this formula, an approximate value of i 
 is obtained by making 
 
 z = K (log. h — log. c A') ; 
 by the substitution of which in the second member of the 
 above equation a more exact value is found, and the result 
 is the height of the second station above the first in feet. 
 
 Instead of the numerical factor 60168 feet in the coefficient 
 K, Poisson (Micaniquc, torn, ii.) has 18337-46 metres, which 
 is equal to 60163 feet. The difference arises from our hav 
 ing assumed a slightly different value for the eccentricity of 
 the earth, and having referred the gravity G to the latitude 
 of Greenwich instead of Paris. 
 
 The temperatures have been assumed to be expressed on 
 the centip •: tie b ale, as the most convenient for computa- 
 tion. If T and t are for Fahrenheit's thermometer, it is 
 
 T — T' T— T' 
 
 only necessary to substitute 1 -f- ■ for 1 -f- 
 
 9990 
 
 5550 
 
 , and 
 
 1 + 
 
 t-\-t'- 
 
 64 <■ , , 2 (t + f) . , . , „ 
 
 — for 1 -| ' , respectively, m the factor? 
 
 900 ' 1000 
 
 e and K. 
 
 When the altitude is not very considerable, the fraction 
 z~r is very small, and may be considered as constant: 
 in which case it may be incorporated with the factor 60168. 
 Substituting for 60168 the number 60345 (deduced from- n 
 number of measurements by ltamond), and supposing the 
 substitution to change K into K', the formula for the alti- 
 tude will become 
 
 z = K' (log. A — log. c A'), 
 which is the formula most frequently used. 
 
 The most recent a.id complete investigation of the subject 
 of barometric measurements is that of Bessel, in Schvma 
 chcr's Jlstronomische Naclirichtcn, vol. xv. See also Biot. 
 Astrovomie Physique, torn. iii. 
 
 HEIR. (Lat. ha:res.) In Law, one who succeeds by 
 descent to lands, tenements, and hereditaments. Strictly 
 speaking, a person is not properly called heir in the life- 
 time of his ancestor; according to the ancient maxim, ne- 
 mo est htercs viventis. (For the rules which govern this 
 succession in England by common law and statute, see 
 Descent.) Heir-apparent is he who (by law or custom) 
 must succeed, by deseent, to the hereditaments, if he sur- 
 vive the present tenant; as, at common law, the eldest 
 son. Heir-presumptive, he who stands nearest in succes- 
 sion in the default of an heir-apparent; as an eldest broth- 
 er where there is no issue. Heir-at-law, or heir- general, 
 is he who succeeds by descent to lands in fee-simple. 
 Heir-special, issue in tail claiming by the form of the gift 
 (See Fee-Tail.) Heir by custom, he who succeeds to 
 lands or tenements by custom ; as all the sons by gavel- 
 kind. Heir-male, i. e. the nearest male in the succession, 
 is not strictly a term of English law, since lands cannot de- 
 scend in this way; but some dignities are thus limited. A 
 devisee is sometimes called hnr by devise, or hirres fnctus. 
 Bastards, aliens, persons attaint of treason and felony, can- 
 not be heirs; but idiots and lunatics may. Things that 
 pass with the land, as conditions and covenants real, goods 
 and chattels annexed to the freehold (see Fixtures), and 
 terms of years to attend the inheritance, are in ordinary le 
 gal language said to go to the heir : as also heir-looms, be- 
 ing such goods and chattels as go by special custom along 
 with the inheritance. In Scottish law, the word heir is 
 taken in a larger acceptation, as to personal as well as real 
 
 froperty. Ileirs-al -law are termed in it heirs whntsomevcr. 
 t recognises several species of heirs : as the heir-active 
 
HEIR-LOOMS. 
 
 who has the right of action ; heir of line, or lineal heir ; 
 heir by conquest, who succeeds to estates to which the de- 
 ceased donor did not himself succeed by descent; heirs 
 porlioners, in English law, coparceners ; heir of tailzie (or 
 In tail), and so forth. By the civil law, heirs are of two 
 kinds — legitimate, or by act of law ; and instituted, or by 
 the will of the possessor: the former only answering to 
 Hi >s<: who are properly designated as heirs in our own law, 
 the latter to our purchasers. Legitimate are cither heirs of 
 b'cod — heirs under the title "unde vir et uxor" (by which, 
 In defnult of heirs of blood, a husband or wife succeeded to 
 the goods v/f the deceased spouse ; a provision not general- 
 ly preserved in modern Continental law) ; and heirs irregu- 
 lar — such as the lord to whom an escheat falls, &c. Heirs 
 institmed are of many kinds. 
 
 HEIR-LOOMS. In Law. such goods and personal chat- 
 tels as go to the heir along with the realty. The quality of 
 heir-looms is fixed by custom ; deeds, charters, deer in a 
 park, &c., are usually such. "Loom" is from an old Sax- 
 on word, " limb," or member, 
 
 HELPACAL. (Gr. iJAiof, the sun.) Something relating 
 to the sun. In the ancient astronomy, a star is said to rise 
 hcliticalhj when, after being in conjunction with the sun, 
 and consequently invisible, it rises so soon before the sun 
 as to be visible in the eastern horizon in the morning twi- 
 light; and it is said to set heliacally when the sun approach- 
 es so near to it that it is lost in his light, or ceases to be 
 visible in the western horizon when he has disappeared. 
 At the opposite season of the year the same star rises as 
 the sun sets, and sets n« the sun rises ; it is then said to rise 
 and set acron irally. When a star or planet rises nnd sets 
 at the same instant with the sun, it is snid to rise and set 
 cosmically. These technical terms occur frequently in the 
 works of Hesiod, and in Ovid's Fasti. The ancients fixed 
 the commencement of the seasons by the positions of the 
 ntars relatively to the sun at his rising anil setting. 
 
 HKI.I.E'A. (Gr. 'UXtdia.) In Ancient History, the 
 chief of the ten conns among which the 0000 Athenian 
 jurymen were distributed, and which on important occa- 
 sions max them all. It probably derived 
 its nan, ftno in (rjA«»s). Bel 
 tribunal i e to the state and individuals 
 which did not involve bloodshed were brought. (See Mem. 
 is VJIcad. des Inserip. vol. xviii. ; Boeckh's Public Econo- 
 my of Athens.) 
 
 HELICOIl), or PARABOLIC SPIRAL. (Gr. [XlL a 
 spiral), in Geometry, is a curve line which is generated as 
 follows: Suppose the axis of the common or Apollonian 
 parabola to be bent into the circumference of a circle, the 
 the ordinates X B, Y D, still retaining 
 their places nnd perpendicular posi- 
 tions with respect to the axis ; then 
 the spiral curve, A B I), which pass- 
 es through the extremities of the ordi- 
 nates, is the helicoid. It is obvious 
 from this definition that all the ordi- 
 nates, being perpendicular to the cir- 
 cumference of the circle, meet in its 
 centre C ; nnd if x represent nny cir- 
 cular absciss A X, and y the corre- 
 sponding ordinate X B, the equation of the curve will be 
 the same as that of the parabola ; namely, y 2 =a z, a being 
 the pnrnmeter. 
 
 HE LIUCAMI'NUS. (Gr. ?,,\io?, the sun, nnd /m/xivo?. a 
 furnace.) In Ancient Architecture, an arched apartment 
 heated bv the ravs of the sun. 
 
 HE'LIOCE'NTRIC. (Gr. JjXioj, and Ktvrpov, centre.) 
 The heliocentric longitude of a planet is the angle at the 
 sun's centre, formed by the projection of its radius vector 
 on the ecliptic and the straight line drawn from the centre 
 of the sun to the first point of Aries; and the heliocentric 
 latitude of a planet is the inclination of the straight line 
 which joins its centre with that of the sun to the plane of 
 the ecliptic. The greatest heliocentric latitude is conse- 
 quently equal to the inclination of the planet's orbit. 
 
 HELIO'METER. (Gr. JjAkk, and utrpiv, measure.) A 
 kind of micrometer for measuring the diameters of the sun, 
 moon, and planets, or any small apparent distance between 
 celestial objects. The instrument best known by this name 
 appears to have been proposed or suggested by a Mr. 8n- 
 very {Phil. Trans, vol. xlviii.), about the year 1743; but it 
 was first applied by Bouguer in 1747, and has since been 
 improved by Hollond nnd Fraunhofer. The principle on 
 which the instrument is constructed is as follows: Two ob- 
 ject-glasses of the same focal distance, or rather the two 
 halves of a divided object-glass, are placed side by side in 
 the same tube with an apparatus so contrived that the dis- 
 tance between the centres can be increased or diminished 
 at pleasure. In this manner two images of the sun are 
 formed nt the focus of the common eye-class. Thus the 
 circle A A A representing the field of view of the tele- 
 scope, or the visible circle at the common focus of the two 
 
 HELIX. 
 
 i object-glasses and the eye-glass, and 
 the two small circles representing the 
 two images of the sun formed by the 
 two object-glasses, when the observ- 
 er proposes to measure the diameter 
 of the sun, the two object-glasses an 
 brought by means of a tangent screw 
 to such a distance from each other 
 that the two images touch in a point 
 T, and the distance between the cen- 
 tres of the two object-glasses, esti- 
 mated In seconds, gives the distance between B and C, the 
 centres of the images ; that is, the diameter of the sun. 
 
 Formerly the heliomcter was formed by two complete 
 lenses; but as it was found very difficult to give them pre- 
 cisely the same focal length, and as the size of the tube 
 was required to be inconveniently large, they are now made 
 of the same lens by dividing it across its centre. The cen- 
 tres of the two semi-lenses are 
 separated by means of the screws 
 S S, which act on the plates in 
 which they are mounted ; and 
 the distance of the centres A nnd 
 B is measured by a scale and 
 vernier. This apparatus is oth- 
 erwise called the divided object-glass micrometer. The 
 principle has also been applied to Uie microscope. See Mi- 
 crometer. 
 
 HE'LlOSCOPE. (Gr. fiXios , and okozcu>, I view.) The 
 name given by Schemer to an Instrument of his own in- 
 vention for observing the sun without hurting the eye. 
 The ordinary method is to place a disc of coloured gloss be 
 fore the eye piece of me telescope. 
 
 HE'LIOSTAT. ((Jr. qXtoc, the sun, and craw, I stand.) 
 An instrument invented by Gravesande for the purpose of 
 obviating in optical experiments the inconvenience arising 
 from the continual change of direction of the solar rays, by 
 reflecting them in the same straight line. The principle on 
 which the heliostat is constructed may be explained as fol 
 lows: Let SB' S" S"' be 
 t. b dioj ■:.. circle .i 
 bed by the sun, O a point 
 on the surface of the 
 earth which may be re- 9"\ 
 garded as the centre of 
 the circle 8 S' S" S'", A 
 II the mirror, and O D 
 the direction in which it 
 is required that the ray 
 shall be reflected. The 
 solar rays will succes- 
 sively coincide with the 
 straight lines which form 
 the sides of the conical surface OSS' S" S"\ Let there- 
 fore O S' be one of these rays, and let us consider the mo- 
 tion it will be necessary to give to the mirror in order that 
 all the rays O S, O S', &c. may be reflected by the mirror in 
 the direction O 1). Produce O D till it meet the plane of 
 the earth's diurnal circle in D, and let D S S'" pass through 
 the centre of the circle. Join D S', and draw O B' at right 
 angles to A B, meeting D S' in E'. The angles of incidence 
 and reflexion being equal, the angle S' O E' is equal to E' O 
 D : therefore S' E' is to E' D in the ratio of S' O to O D, 
 But S' O and O D are constant, therefore the ratio of S' E' 
 to E' D is constant. But D is a given point ; therefore by a 
 simple theorem in elementary geometry (Leslie's Geom. 
 Analysis, b. iii., prop. 2), the locus of E' is a given circle. 
 It follows, therefore, that the axis of the mirror must de- 
 scribe in. 24 hours the surface of a cone, the base of which, 
 parallel to the plane of the equator, is a circle determined 
 in magnitude and position by the given direction O D, and 
 the parallel which the sun is describing on a given day of 
 the year. 
 
 It is easy to conceive a mechanism by which this object 
 may be accomplished. Suppose a clock to be placed with 
 its dial parallel to the equator, or the axis of the izAex 
 hands parallel to the axis of the earth ; and suppose a rod 
 connected with the extremity of the hour hand to meet the 
 axis produced and make with it the proper angle ; then n 
 mirror fixed perpendicularly to the rod will have the mo 
 tion required. 
 
 For a description of the original instrument see Grave- 
 sandes 1 Phys. Elementa; but it has been greatly improved 
 by Charles, Malus, &.C. See Journal de VF.cole Polytech- 
 nique. cahier 16: Biot, Physique Fzperimentale, torn. ii. 
 
 IIE'LIOTROPE. A deep-green siliceous mineral, some 
 what translucent, and often variegated with blood-red 
 spots: from Gr. fjXtog. the sun, and rpctrii), I turn. Its vul- 
 gar name is bloodstone. There is also a common sweet- 
 scented plant of this name. 
 
 HE'LIX. (Gr. t'Xif. a whorl.) The name of a Linmean 
 genus of the Vermes Testacea, characterized by the entire 
 
 551 
 
HELLEBORE. 
 
 and crescent-shaped opening of the shell, and forming in 
 the system of Cuvier the type of a family of terrestrial and 
 air-breathing Gastropods, including the genera Vitrina, 
 Dreparnaud; Uutinus, Adanson; Pupa, Lam.; Chondrus, 
 Cuv. J Succinea, Drap. ; and Helix proper, of which our 
 common garden snail, Helix hortensis, is an example. 
 
 The great vine snail (Helix pomatia, Linn.) formed one 
 of the luxuries of the tables of the ancient Romans, and by 
 peculiar feeding and other treatment was brought to attain 
 an immense size. It is still an article of food in certain 
 cantons in Switzerland and France. The snails do much 
 damage to the vegetables in cultivated grounds, biting oft' 
 pieces of the leaves by means of a semicircular dentated 
 horny plate, which is affixed to the upper lip. 
 
 Helix, in Anatomy, is applied to the reflected margin of 
 the external ear. 
 
 Helix, Helices. In Architecture, the curling stalks or 
 volutes under the flowers in each face of the abacus of the 
 Corinthian capital. 
 
 HE'LLEBORE. (Gr.) In Pharmacy this term is ap- 
 plied to the roots of the black and white hellebore. The 
 root of black hellebore (Hellcborus niger), called also Mc- 
 lampodium, has a bitterish acrid taste, and is a drastic 
 purge and emetic : the root of the white hellebore is simi- 
 lar, but more active in its operation. (See Veratria.) It 
 was formerly used in the cure of gout, and in some maniacal 
 cases where no effect is produced except by very powerful 
 means ; but these remedies have now fallen into disuse. 
 The leaves of the Helleborus fwtidus, or stinking hellebore, 
 have also been used to evacuate worms from the intes- 
 tines ; but they are dangerously active. 
 
 HELLE'NIC. The name given to the common dialect 
 which prevailed very generally among the Greek writers 
 after the time of Alexander. It was formed, with very 
 slight variations, from the pure Attic of the age preceding 
 Its introduction. 
 
 HELLENI'STIC. The name given to that dialect of 
 the Grecian language that was used by the Jewish writers. 
 Its peculiarities consisted in the introduction of foreign 
 words very little disguised, but more especially of oriental 
 metaphors and idioms ; but not at all in the inflexions of 
 words, which were the same as in the Hellenic. 
 
 HE'LLENISTS (Gr. iWyvwrai, from 'EXA^v, a Greek), 
 the name by which the Jews, who from their foreign birth 
 or travel used the Greek (Hellenic) language, are distin- 
 guished in the Acts of Apostles. The word is derived, ac- 
 cording to a common method of formation in the Greek 
 language, from the verb fXXrivfyiv, to Hel'cnizc, or adopt 
 the manners of a Greek. There were great numbers of 
 lews scattered throughout the Roman empire at this pe- 
 riod, more especially in the Asiatic and East African prov- 
 nccs, where the Greek was the current language ; and as 
 :hey were in the habit of making frequent journeys to and 
 trom Jerusalem, they heard the preaching of the Apostles, 
 ind became efficacious instruments in conveying the 
 tnowh-dge of the word throughout all lands. From their 
 bng sojourn in foreign countries they were distinguished 
 rom the Hebraists, or native Jews, by the greater liberali- 
 .y of their views with respect to the nature of the promises 
 if the Old Testament. It appears from Acts, vi. 1, that 
 these Jews retained the distinctive name of Hellenists after 
 their conversion to Christianity, and that there continued 
 to subsist some jealousy between them and the native 
 Christians. 
 
 HELM, implies the mechanism of the steerage, especial- 
 ly the tiller: as, to put the helm a-st,arboard, is to put the 
 tiller over to the right side ; a-port, to the left side ; up, to 
 the weather side; down, to the lee side. 
 
 HELM, or HE'LMET. Defensive armour for the head: 
 a word of Scandinavian derivation. The armour of the 
 ancients, which particularly guarded the head, was known 
 by the general denominations of head-piece, casque, and 
 helmet. Helmets were anciently formed of various mate- 
 rials, but chiefly of skins of beasts, brass, and iron. An 
 open helmet covers only the head, ears, and neck, leaving 
 the face unguarded. Some open helmets have a bar or 
 bars from the forehead to the chin, to guard against the 
 transverse cut of a broad-sword ; but it affords little de- 
 fence ngainst the point of a lance or sword. A close hel- 
 met entirely covers the head, face, and neck ; having on 
 the front perforations for the admission of air, and slits 
 through which the wearer may see the objects around 
 him ; this part, which is styled the visor (from the French 
 word viscr, to take aim), lifts up by means of a pivot over 
 each ear. Some helmets have a bever (from buveur, drink- 
 er, or from the Italian bevere, to drink), which, when clo- 
 sed, covers the mouth and chin, and either lifts up by re- 
 volving on the same pivots as the visor, or lets down by 
 means of two or more pivots on each side near the jaws. 
 The use of the bever was to enable the wearer to eat and 
 drink more commodiously than conld be done in a helmet 
 with a visor only. The helmets of the Greeks and Ro- 
 552 
 
 HEMEROBIANS. 
 
 mans were mostly open, not unlike scull-caps, as formerly 
 worn by our dragoons. Montfaucon says he never saw an 
 ancient helmet with a visor to raise or let down, although 
 lie is of opinion that they had those contrivances. It seems 
 as if the Romans, at least those of which Pompey's army- 
 was composed at Pharsalia, had open helmets, as Cresa"i 
 directed his soldiers to strike them in the face, which order, 
 had their faces been covered, he would not have given. 
 The two Grecian helmets in the British Museum have a 
 kind of contrivance to cover the nose. Over the top of the 
 helmet rose an elevated ridge called the crest, representing 
 lions or dragons, &c, to make the warrior appear taller and 
 more terrible. (Mirror, 1839.) 
 
 HELMET, or HELMET-SHELLS. See Cassis. 
 
 HELMINTHO'LOGY. (Gr. 'tXyuvs, a worm, and \oyos 
 a discourse.) The natural history of worms. See Inte.-j 
 
 TIXALIA. 
 
 HE'LMSMAN. The man who steers. A good helms 
 man opposes in time the tendency of the ship to deviate 
 from her course by a small motion, which he relaxes as 
 soon as the effect is felt, and thus disturbs her sailing as lit 
 tie as possible. A bad helmsman gives her too much 
 helm, and keeps her perpetually yawing from one side to 
 the other. The steerage, therefore, is of the utmost conse- 
 quence in chase. 
 
 HELO'PIDjE. (Gr. 'EXoip, the name of an obnoxious 
 reptile.) A family of Heteromerous Coleopterous, belong- 
 ing to the section Stenelytra, and including numerous sub- 
 genera and species. The typical genus Helops is remarka- 
 ble for having the anterior tarsi of the males dilated. Of 
 this genus there are four British species known, of which 
 the Helops caraboides may be found at the roots and under 
 the bark of trees: it presents a lengthened ovale form, 
 a brown colour, a punctured surface, and dusky red an- 
 tenna; iind tarsi. 
 
 HE'LOTS. (Gr.tiXurm.) In Ancient History, the slaves 
 of the Spartans, who consisted originally of the Aciuean in- 
 habitants of Laconia, who were subdued by force of arms 
 by the Dorian invaders. The name was derived from He- 
 los, a town of Laconia, of which the inhabitants were thus 
 reduced to servitude; but to this class were afterwards 
 added the Messenians, who still clung to their native soil 
 after its subjugation by the Spartans, They were employ- 
 ed either as domestic slaves, cultivators of the land, or in 
 the public works ; and though they do not appear to have 
 been treated ordinarily with much severity, yet the recol- 
 lection of their former state urged them frequently to revolt, 
 while their numbers rendered them so formidable to their 
 masters us to drive the latter to schemes of the most abom- 
 inable treachery for their repression. (See particularly 
 Muller's Hist, of the Dorians ; Wachsmuth Hist. Ant. oj 
 the Greeks, transl. i., 323.) 
 
 HE'LVER. A miner's term ; the handle of a tool. 
 
 HE'MACRYMES, Hcmacryma. (Gr. atpa, blood, and 
 icpuuos, cold.) A name by which Latreille designates thu 
 animals with cold blood. 
 
 HE'MATHERMS, Hcmatherma. (Gr. alua, Sippitj, heat.) 
 The name given by Latreille to the animals with warm 
 blood. 
 
 HE'MATIN. (Gr. aipa.) The red colouring principle 
 of logwood. 
 
 HE'MATITE. One of the varieties of native oxide of 
 iron. It occurs in nodules, and in radiated masses of a 
 crystalline fracture. Its name is derived from the red colour 
 which it presents superficially or when rubbed to powder. 
 
 HEMATOSIN. See H^matosine. 
 
 HEME'LYTRA. (Gr. fi/uovs, half; clvrpov, a sheath.) 
 The name given to the superior wings or wing-covers of 
 Tetrapterous insects, when they are coriaceous at the base 
 and membranous at the extremity ; as in the order Hem- 
 iptera. 
 
 HE'MERALOPIA. (Gr. rjuepa day, and ait//, the eye.) 
 A disease of the eye which renders vision very imperfect ex- 
 cept in broad daylight; it has been relieved by tonics and 
 gentle stimulants, with the occasional application of blisters 
 behind the ears. 
 
 HE MEROBAPTISTS. (Gr. ,'iuepa, day;, flnarj^w, 7 
 baptize.) An ancient sect among the Jews, so called from 
 washing themselves as a religious solemnity every day. It 
 is thought by some that the Christians of Saint John, or Sa 
 bians, descended from them. (Mosheim, transl., ed. 182G, 
 iv., 226.) 
 
 HEMERO'BIANS, HemeroUidw. (Gr. r]\upi, and /Jioj, 
 life ) A family of Neuropterous insects, of the section call 
 ed Plavipennis by Ln'reiUc ; characterized by having aslen 
 der bmlv, which is greatly exceeded in length by the finely 
 reticulated wings. The ova are deposited in clusters, attach 
 ed each by a long glutinous pedicle to the leaves of various 
 plants; and by some mycologists have been described as 
 fungi. The larva; of these 'insects are remarkable for their 
 ravenous habits; and as they feed chiefly on the plant-lice 
 (Aphides), are highly beneficial. They subsist on their jui- 
 
HEMIC RANIA. 
 
 res, sue- thein 10 death, and with a singular instinct they 
 clothe tuemselves with the skins of their victims. Of the 
 typical genus lltuurubiua there are fourteen known British 
 ; which the Hem. perla, Linn., is the most beauti- 
 ful It is sometimes called the "golden-eye;" is of a green 
 colour : the wings transparent, and veined with green. 
 
 HI-NIK RAMA. (Gr. iimavi, half, and icpaviov, the 
 head.) A pain of oi:e side of the head: it is often inter- 
 ■littcnt. 
 
 UEMl'GAMOUS. (Gr. hnirvi, and y.ifioc, marriage.) 
 In Botany, a term employed in speaking of grasses, when of 
 two tlort is spikelet one is neuter and the other 
 
 unisexual, whether male or female, as in Isclurmum. 
 
 HE'MIOLO'GAMOSE. (Gr. w«n>$, o\uc, entire, and 
 ya/ioi, marriage.) A term employed in speaking of grosses, 
 when in the same spikelel one of two florets is neuter and 
 the other hermaphrodite, as in several species of Panicum. 
 
 HEMIO'PIA, or HEMIO'PSIA. {Gr. ! lf iicvs. and i»u\ the 
 eye.) A disordered vision, in which objects appear divided. 
 HEMITTKilA. (Gr. rui«ru?, and nrtpov, a using.) An 
 order of llnusiollatc insects, haviiig the win;; covers of a con- 
 sistence intermediate between the elytra of beetles and the 
 ordinary membranous wings. By Latreille the term Is re- 
 stricted to those insect* the wine-covers of which are coria- 
 :it the base and membranous at the top; the term 
 ■itrra being applied to those Fabrician J/ttniptcra of 
 which the elytra are deflected and of uniform consistence 
 throughout. 
 
 When the Ilcmiptrra <|iiit the egg they present tile form 
 of small bexapod larva", differing but little from the perfect 
 insect save in the nlisence of wings: before these are acquir- 
 ed the skin is shed several times, during which the Inrva 
 acquires: u Increase of general hulk. The pupa is active, 
 and is distinguished by having the wings and elytra con- 
 cealed in small dorsal cases: the next moulting exhibits the 
 perfect insect with the hemelytra and wings fully developed. 
 The bed bug (i </»// l.ciularius), and water-boatman (JW 
 tonecta), are examples of the present order of insects, 
 
 HH'MISPH F.RH. (Gr. fiuo v <, and aQnlpa, a sphere.) In 
 Geometry, the half of a sphere, bisected by a plane pi 
 through its centre. In Astronomy, it is used to designate 
 the half Of the terrestrial sphere divided by the equator. 
 Ilemi-pheie also denotes a map or projection of half the ter- 
 restrial or celestial sphere on a plane. 
 
 HK'.MiSTICH. (Ur.IijncTixtov; from/,ia, half, nndirnyoc, 
 terse.) In Poetry, half a verse. The unfinished verses in 
 ViiL'i! n earning which it is not known whether 
 
 Ihcy were purposely left in that state, or are owing tothein- 
 cornpieteness of the poem, are usually called hemtorJchs, 
 The Alexandrine, or French hemi-verse, requires a regular 
 pause !| t the end of the lir^t hemistich. 
 
 HE'MLOCK. A common umbelliferous plant of a pecu- 
 liar odour, and possessed of narcotic powers. For medical 
 use the leaves should be collected just before the plant 
 (lowers; if intended for powder, they should be carefuily dri- 
 ed at a temperature not exceeding SIS ; if for extract, lbs 
 juice should be squeezed out by moderate pressure, and 
 evaporated in a water or steam bath to a proper consistency. 
 The cxtrnet of hrmloek is perhaps the best preparation ; but 
 as its activity is liable to van-, it should be given with cau- 
 tion. An average dose is five grains; an over dose produces 
 giddiness, wandering of the mind, dilated pupil, convulsive 
 motions of the muscles of the face, and the other symptoms 
 Of this class of poisons. Hemlock is a powerful sedative, 
 and Often serviceable as a substitute for or an accompani- 
 ment to opium. In allaying morbid Irritability of the system 
 attended by any local or general excess of vascular action, 
 as in certain stages of phthysis, in the couehs that are apt to 
 hansr about patients who have suffered from pulmonic in- 
 flammation, in glandular tumours and unhealthy sores, hem- 
 lock Is often preferable to opium. It has also been found 
 very useful in chronic rheumatism, and occasionally in the 
 treatment of whooping cough. A poultice composed of a 
 mixture of finely-powdered fresh hemlock with bread and 
 water, or of the extract of hemlock, is applied to allay the 
 pain of irritable ulcers and cancerous sores: it is sometimes 
 Singularly effectual, at others it seems inert, and sometimes 
 nppears to increase irritation. The virtues of hemlock re- 
 side in a peculiar alkaline principle, which has been termed 
 ennin, combined in the herb with a distinct acid, the coneic 
 acid. 
 
 HEMP. (Germ, linnf.) The fibres of the bark of the 
 Cannabis gativa. It is prepared for spinning in the same 
 way as flax, and is made into strands or yarn for ropes, 
 railcloth. &c. This plant is supposed to be a native of In- 
 dia, but it has long been nnturnlized and extensively culti- 
 vated in Italy, and ninny other countries of Europe, particu- 
 larly Russia and Poland, where it forms an article of prima- 
 ry Commercial importance. It is also cultivated to a consid- 
 erable extent in many parts of America ; but in the United 
 Kingdom it is but little grown, except in a few districts of 
 Suffolk and Lancashire. 
 
 HEPTARCHY. 
 
 HE NBANE. This is a common plant, flowering in July , 
 the Hyoscyamus niger. The expressed juice of the leaves 
 evaporated to the consistency of extract has long been used 
 as a sedative or narcotic. It has a peculiar, strong, and disa- 
 greeable odour, and a nauseous bitterish taste. From two to 
 five grains of the extract of henbane are often found equiva- 
 lent to about one grain of opium, and where the latter disa- 
 grees it often produces quiet : in many cases henbane and 
 various forms of opium may be combined. Henbane is apt 
 to produce giddiness; but it does not constipate the bowels, 
 and has rather a diuretic tendency. 
 
 HE'NDECASYLLA'BIC. (Gr. hitita.) A verse of 
 eleven syllables. The Latin hendecasyllabic, of which the 
 principal specimens left to us are from the pen of Catullus, 
 consist of a spondee, dactyl, and three trochees : 
 
 Vlvamui, roea Letbia, atque aniemus. 
 
 The Italian heroic verse, and those of England and Ger 
 many, when increased by the addition of a final short sylla- 
 ble, are iambic hendecasyllabics. 
 
 The licence of adding an eleventh syllabic (and sometimes 
 also a twelfth) is more frequently admissible in English 
 dramatic than epic versification. 
 
 HENRl'CIANS. The followers of an Italian monk of 
 the name of Henry, who In the twelfth century preached 
 with fanatic zeal, principally against the corruptions and 
 impostures of the IComish church. He traversed the south 
 of France from Lausanne to Toulouse, nnd met with great 
 success at all the towns at which he halted. He rejected 
 the baptism of infants, declaimed vehemently against the 
 vices of the clergy, nnd exposed the vanity and absurdity of 
 many of the ceremonies of the chinch. At length his fol- 
 lowers were turned nirainst him by the eloquence of St. Ber- 
 nard, and he died in prison. Into which he had been thrown 
 by Eugenius III., in the year 1148. ( tVatldingtun's History 
 of the Chvrch, c. 10.) 
 
 HE'PAR. (Gr. f/nnp.) This term, signifying liver, was 
 applied by the old chemists to various compounds of sulphur 
 with the metals, having a blown -red or liver colour. 
 
 IIKIWTA'LGIA. (Gr. I^up, the liver, and ,.->; oc, pain.) 
 A painful affection of the liver. 
 
 HEPA'TICrE. (Hepar, liver, in nllusion to the form of 
 some of the species.) A natural order of fiowerlese plants, 
 growing In damp shady places in all temperate climates ; in 
 some respects allied to mosses, and in others to lichens. 
 They are of no known I m po rtan ce: but are lllllil fling to 
 systematic botanists, because they offer strong traces of sex- 
 ual apparatus in plants of a very low kind of organization. 
 
 HEPATITIS. (Gr. ^rmfl.) Inflammation of the livei. 
 The acme or active form of this disease is ushered in with 
 pain in the region of the liver, sickness, cosliveness, and a 
 strong, hard, and frequent pulse; there is also generally 
 great pain about the clavicle and shoulder. Bleeding, and 
 purging with sails, senna, and calomel, and a blister, are 
 usually effectual in Europe in subduing an attack of this dis- 
 ease: in warm climates, calomel nnd mercurials must often 
 lie continued till they affect the mouth. In ehronic hepatitis 
 the same general plan of treatment must be followed up, es- 
 pecially as regards the use of mercurials: with these, and 
 gentle aperients and mild bitters, the- yellowness of the com- 
 plexion, lowness of spirits, and other concomitants of what 
 in warm climates is called the liver, are usually subdued, at 
 least in Europe. The chronic hepatitis of India always re- 
 quires for its permanent cure n change of climate. 
 
 HE'PTAGON. (Gr. tirra, seven, and ymia, angle.) In 
 Geometry, a plane figure of seven sides. The area of a reg- 
 ular heptagon is equal to the square of one of its sides mul- 
 rWied into the constant number 3-6330124, or seven fourths 
 of the taneent of the angle at the base to radius 1. 
 
 IIKITA'GONAL NU'MBERS, are a kind of polygonal 
 numbers, of which the difference of the terms of the corre- 
 sponding arithmetical progression is 5. Thus, 
 
 Arithmeticals . . 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, &c. ; 
 Heptngonals ... . 1, 7, 18, 34, 55, &x. ; 
 the latter being formed by the continual addition of the terms 
 of the first. Among other properties of heptagonal numbers 
 there is one very remarkable; namely, that if any heptago- 
 nal number is multiplied by 40, and 9 added to the product, 
 the sum is a square number. 
 
 HEPTANDROUS. (Gr. hra, and airjp, a man.) Any 
 flower having seven stamens. 
 
 HE'PTARCHY. (Gr. tirra, and opx<o, I govern.) In 
 English History, the division of England into seven Saxon 
 kingdoms, which are represented in most of our histories to 
 have existed at the same time with and independently of 
 each other. The seven kingdoms in question, according to 
 the common divisions, were Kent, Sussex, Wcssex, Essex, 
 East Anglia, Mercia, Northumberland. But in point of fact 
 there was no period of history when these seven kingdoms 
 existed together; and, in the constant fluctuations of con 
 quest, fresh subdivisions and unions of territory were contin 
 ually made by the fortune of war The sovereign who sue 
 
 553 
 
HERACLEONITES. 
 
 rseeded in obtaining a temporary supremacy over his neigh- 
 bour kings generally assumed the title of Bretwalda, or ruler 
 of the Britons, of whom Ella, king of Wessex, was the first; 
 but it was afterwards borne by kings both of Kent, East Anglia, 
 and Northumbria. In 617, Edwin, king of the latter district, 
 appears to have acquired a temporary sovereignty over the 
 whole of England, which was also gained by his nephew Os- 
 wald in 634 ; but after the brother of the latter king, Oswio, 
 no Saxon monarch assumed the title of Bretwalda. After 
 the death of the latter Mercia rose in the scale ; and its king, 
 Ofl'a, ruled nearly the whole of the Saxon territories in the 
 last half of the eighth century. After his death Egbert, king 
 of the West Saxons, raised his power on the ruins of that of 
 Mercia ; and having subdued and rendered tributary the 
 other kingdoms then subsisting, he became, about 830, mas- 
 ter of the whole Saxon realm, and is reckoned as the eighth 
 Bretwalda or ruler of Britain. With his reign the heptarchy 
 is usually considered to have ended. (See Palgrave's His- 
 tory of England ; Turner's Anglo-Saxons.) 
 
 HERA'CLEONITES. An early sect of heretics belong- 
 ing to the Gnostics, so called from Heracleon, whose tenets 
 they embraced. They rejected all the ancient prophecies, 
 regarded themselves as superior to the Apostles, and, under 
 the pretext of a sublime or elevated exposition of the Scrip- 
 tures, propounded the wildest and most extravagant para- 
 doxes. 
 
 HERACLI'D^E. A general designation for the descend- 
 ants of Hercules, who, after the death of that hero, were 
 expelled from the Peloponnesus by Eurystheus, king of 
 Mycenae. The return of the Heraclidoe, which took place 
 about 140 years after their expulsion, or 80 years after the 
 siege of Troy, forms a celebrated epoch in ancient chonolo- 
 gy, as it has been generally considered to mark the transition 
 from the heroic or fabulous ages to the period of authentic 
 history. 
 
 HERJE'A. The name of a celebrated festival instituted 
 at Argos in honour of Juno, whom the Greeks called Hera. 
 Another festival of this name, in honour of the same god- 
 dess, was held at Elis every five years. 
 
 HE'B ALT). (Gr. Krjpv\.) An officer of arms, possessed 
 Of import ttf notions. The ancient, heralds (x^pvKSS among 
 the Greeks, feciales among tire Koreans) were privileged 
 persons, sacred by superstition as well as by the law of na- 
 tions. Modern heralds, besides their employment on mes- 
 sages between states and in matters of public negotiation (in 
 which capacity their services are grown into disuse, or be- 
 come merely subordinate), acquired a new character from 
 the prevalence of hereditary devices on coats of arms early 
 in the middle ages. The multiplicity of these inventions 
 rendered it necessary that there should be certain persons 
 about a court skilled in interpreting or in "blazoning" them; 
 according to the rules of the imaginary science to which 
 these fanciful creations were subjected. (See Heraldry.) 
 It became also necessary that they should have a perfect 
 knowledge of the hereditary arms, ensigns armorial, badges 
 of honour, &c, belonging to each family, in order that they 
 might constitute an authority to which appeal might be had 
 in the disputes which frequently arose respecting the rights 
 of individuals to these honourable distinctions. Hence the 
 heralds became, in modern European countries, the deposi- 
 taries of much of the genealogical science which is conver- 
 sant in the pedigrees of noble or gentle families. They have 
 also important parts to fulfil on occasions of public solemni- 
 ty, pageants, installations, nuptials, funerals, &c. 
 
 Edward III. was the first English sovereign who created 
 two heraldic kings-at-arms (Surroy and Norroy), whose of- 
 fice was exercised south and north of Trent respectively. 
 Richard II. gave the earl-marshal power to preside in a 
 court of chivalry, assisted by the heralds. But the first her- 
 aldic collegiate chapter was held at the siege of Rouen, in 
 1420. The kings-at-arms were fixed at three, their present 
 number, by Henry VUI. Edward VI. fixed the establish- 
 ment of heralds on the site of the building which they at 
 present occupy In the city of London. The present Heralds' 
 College (by which name the kings-at-arms, heralds, and pur- 
 suivants are incorporated) consist of— 1. Three kings-at- 
 arms— Garter, Clarencieux, and Norroy; of whom the first 
 hold* the highest rank. His duties are chiefly to grant sup- 
 porters, arrange funerals, and present the order of the Garter 
 to foreign princes. 2. The heralds are six in number; sty- 
 led Windsor, Chester, Lancaster, Somerset, York, and Rich- 
 mond : they, with the kings-at-arms, form the collegiate chap- 
 ter. 3. The four pursuivants (Portcullis, Rouge Dragon, 
 Blue Mantle, and Porte Croix) are junior officers, or proba- 
 tioners, who afterwards succeeded to the higher offices. 
 The duties of the officers of the Heralds' College are various, 
 and their powers have been considerable, although curtailed 
 by modern Indifference to the purity of their ancient science. 
 They keep the records of the arms, crests, and cognizances 
 of every gentleman, i. e., persons entitled to bear them ; and 
 tht-y have considerable authority for the purpose of prevent- 
 ing parties from bearing arms to which they have no right. 
 354 
 
 HERALDRY. 
 
 Their title to confer arms, or rather to assign coats of arms 
 to persons applying for permission to bear them, is still gen- 
 erally recognised. Heraldic visitations of countries, with a 
 view to collect information on the subject of genealogies and 
 coat-armour, was held as early as the reign of Henry IV. 
 In 1528, a regular commission was granted for the whole 
 kingdom ; and visitations were held at intervals of twenty or 
 thirty years from that time to the beginning of the last cen- 
 tury. (See JVoble's History of the College of Arms, 1805.) 
 
 HE'RALDRY. The science of conventional distinctions 
 impressed on shields, banners, and other military accoutre 
 ments. Heraldry has been divided into personal and nation- 
 al. The first of these treats of bearings belonging to indi- 
 viduals, either in their own or in hereditary right. Devices 
 adopted by champions in the field, and borne on their shields 
 or on their banners, are of very high antiquity. The sculp- 
 tures on the shields of Achilles and Hercules, in Homer and 
 Hesiod, are rather ornamental than heraldic. But in the 
 Seven Chiefs against Thebes of ^Eschylus, we find the cog- 
 nizances of these renowned leaders distinctly blazoned, as 
 worn by them on their shields, in the same fashion with 
 those of the knights in the middle ages. The Romans do 
 not seem to have had any customary devices for individuals 
 resembling our armorial insignia; except their distinctive 
 crowns for particular services. The jus imaginum, or right 
 of possessing small statues of distinguished individuals of the 
 family, seems to have been their only external hereditary 
 distinction. Early in the middle ag-es, however, we find 
 abundant notice of cognizances borne by individuals. These 
 were more especially in use in tournaments, where the 
 knights, being clad in complete armour, were unknown to 
 the spectators, except by their banner or shield (see Bla 
 zonry) ; and probably it was in the lists of the tournament 
 that the fanciful science of heraldry first found its subject 
 matter. This science appears to be a compound of inven 
 tions collected from very different quarters. The East, the 
 land of allegory and symbol, seems to have contributed 
 many of its most singular devices. Its ordinaries, colours 
 metals, and gems, are said to be derived from Germany ; and 
 German heraldry appears to be a national science, from the 
 circumstance that its terms of art are nearly all of native or- 
 igin. But the Normans and French undoubtedly cultivated 
 it with the greatest success, and reduced it to its present sys 
 tematic form. Our English terms of heraldry are, as is well 
 known, derived entirely from the French language, although 
 not wholly from France , as some additions were made tr 
 the science by the Norman-English. Hereditary coat-ar 
 mour, it is said, cannot be traced with certainty to an earliei 
 period than the 13th century ; but it seems that, in the reig» 
 of Henry III., the vocabulary of heraldry was nearly as fur" 
 and definite as at the present day. National heraldry, oi 
 the adoption of distinctive emblems by civil communities, ij 
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
 I. Lines. 
 1. Horizontal or straight. 2. Angled. 3. Bevilled. 4. Escartele. a 
 Nowy, or Franche. 6. Arched, or enarched. 7. Double arched. 8. Wavy 
 or Vudee. 9. Inverted. 10. Engrailed. It. Batlled-embatiled, or crenel 
 lee. 12. Battled-embatlled. 13. Nebuly. 14. Potent. 15. Indented. 16 
 Dancettee. 17. Dove-tailed. 18. Urdee. 19. Rayonnee, or radiant. 
 
 II. Points of the Escutcheon, Colours, and Fvrs. 
 20. Escutcheon, points of. 21. Or. 22. Argent. 23. Gules. 24. Azure 
 25. Sable. 26. Vert. 27. Purpura. 28. Tenne. 29. Sanguine. 30. Er 
 mine. 31. Ermines. 32. Erminois. 33. Pean. 34. Vair. 35. Van-} 
 cuppy. 
 
 III. Differences, or Filiations. 
 36. (First son) Label of three points. 37. (Second) Crescent. 38. (Third, 
 Mullet. 39. (Fourth) Martlet. 40. (Fifth; Annulet. 41. (K*th) Fleur 
 de-lys. 
 
 Ordinaries, ffC. 
 42. Chief. 43. Pale (between two annulets). 44. Pallet. 45. Parlv pet 
 pale. 46. Border. 47. Bars. 48. Fes«. 49. Bend. 50. Bend smisier. 51 
 Border. 52. Chevron. 53. Cross. 54. Cross of St. John of Jerusalem, oi 
 Malta. 56. Cross patonce. 56. Cross moline. 57. Cross of Si. Andrew 
 58. Crosses humettee. 59. Cross moline in saltier. 60. Cross bottonee, oi 
 trefoil. 61. Cross crosslet, fitchee. 62. Cro-o flory. 63. Cross Rascle. 64 
 Cross fitchee. 65. Lozenge, fleury. 
 
 V. Miscellaneous Bearings. 
 66. Lion, statant guardant. 67. Fas«ant. 68. Passant guardant. 69. Bam 
 pant. 70. Rampant geardant. 71. Rampant reguardant. 72. Sejant. 73 
 Couchant. 74. Slag ? 1 gaze. 75. Slag's head caboshed. 76. Tiger, herd 
 die. 77. Dragon. To. Griffin. 79. Dragon's head erased. 80. Wivern 
 81. Eagle displayed, with two heads. S2. Boar's head em<ed. 83. Water 
 budgets. 84. Snake, bowed debruised. So. Quatrefcil. 86. Trefoils, f 
 Fleur-de-lys. 88. Clarion, or rest. 89. Mullen. 
 
 VI. Crmiyns. Coronet; Src, 
 90. Crown of England. 9.'. Coronet of the Prince of Wales. 92. Corone" 
 of a duke. 93. Marquis. 94. Earl. 95. Viscount. 96. Baron. 97. Mitr* 
 of a bishop. 98. Eastern, or antique coronet. 99. Celestial crown. 100 
 Crown of Edward I. 101. Mortier. or cap of sta e. 1G2. Chaprati. or cap 
 of maintenance. 103. Crown of France. 104. Cardinal's h.-.l. 105. Crowi, 
 triple, or tiara of the pope. 
 
 The principal of these heraldic terms will be found explained under theb 
 several articles in the Dictionary. 
 
y? 
 
 HERALDRY. 
 
 LAJJJTJ -5^5d5Z_ "ZYZ^TZX 
 
 c: "XWK^ AAAAV wi/v 
 
 Sir: siJtsi A^y\ A/V\JAM 
 
HERBACEOUS. 
 
 fai more ancient than personal. Badges, we know, were 
 borne on the national standards of antiquity : an eagle was 
 the device of Persia and of Rome, an owl of Athens, &c. ; 
 and Turkey and Persia, where personal heraldry is un- 
 known, possess at this day national ensigns of correct her- 
 aldic character. 
 
 Arms are said, in the heraldic science, to be of dominion 
 or pretension (national) ; arms of community, belonging to 
 episcopal sees, cities, corporations; arms of patronage, to 
 governors of provinces, &c. ; arms of concession, or aug- 
 mentations of honour, granted by sovereigns to individuals, 
 which in the next generation become hereditary ; arms of 
 family, or hereditary arms ; arms of alliance, showing the 
 union of families and relations of individuals (marked by 
 various devices termed differences, &c. ; see Difference) ; 
 arms of succession, which accompany the possession of 
 certain estates or lordships ; and, finally, arms of assump- 
 tion, taken up by individuals from caprice or vanity, which, 
 although common enough in the present day, are borne in 
 violation of nil heraldic laws ; or, arms taken up with the 
 permission of the sovereign, through his principal herald (In 
 England, king-at-arms). Armorial bearings were chiefly 
 displayed, in the times of chivalry, on the shield or escutch- 
 eon. They were also borne on the pennon or banner ; on 
 sword-hilts, as early as A.D. 1250 ; on the mantle or surcoat 
 (hence the phrase coat-of-arms) ; and, in modern times, on 
 carriages or articles of furniture. The science of heraldry, 
 united as it is with that of family genealogy, was for centu- 
 ries one of the most favourite literary pursuits (if it can be 
 termed such) among the higher ranks of the community. It 
 has been enriched with much legendary knowledge, and 
 diversified with many fanciful antiquarian theories. It is 
 entitled to respect, not merely on account of its intimate 
 connexion with historical knowledge, but also on account 
 of the refinement and curious variety of the learning itself; 
 which, grounded on merely imaginary principles, has been 
 wrought into a system of the minutest accuracy. The best 
 known English work on heraldry is that of Gwillim. The 
 Encyclopedia Hcraldica of Berry contains many modern 
 additions. See, also, Edmonson' 's complete Body of Heraldry, 
 1780 ; Dtxllawatfs Inquiries, 1783 ; and the article " Herald- 
 ry" in the Enc. Metr., with the various authorities, English 
 and foreign, there referred to. 
 
 HERBA'CEOUS (Lat. herba), in describing the texture 
 of bodies, denotes their being green and cellular, as the 
 tissue of membranous leaves. It is also applied to such 
 perennial plants as lose their stems annually, while their 
 roots remain permanent in the ground. 
 
 HERBA'RIA. (Lat. herba.) Collections of dried plants, 
 such as the old botanists called horti sicci, oi dry gardens. 
 They are formed by gluing to sheets of paper branches and 
 other parts of plants pressed fiat, and dried in the sun or 
 otherwise. If well prepared, they are as useful to the bot- 
 anist as plants alive ; but it is necessary to have some prac- 
 tical skill to be able to employ them advantageously. The 
 largest public herbaria are those of the Museum at Paris; 
 the Imperial collection of Vienna ; the Royal of Berlin ; and 
 that of the British Museum, formerly Sir Joseph Banks's. 
 Nothing certain is known of the extent of these collections, 
 but they probably contain, in some cases, as many as 00,000 
 species. The herbarium is an unattractive part of public 
 museums ; but a very important one for numerous purposes 
 of science, both practical and speculative. 
 
 HE'RCULES. In Mythology, one of the most celebrated 
 personages of antiquity, believed to be the son of Jupiter and 
 Alciiiama, the daughter of Electryon, king of Mycens. The 
 history and wonderful exploits of this hero are so well 
 known, that it would be superfluous to dwell upon them 
 here. There is, perhaps, no subject connected with anti- 
 quity to the right comprehension of which such formidable 
 difficulties are presented ; and hence the numerous attempts 
 that have been made to separate truth from fiction in the 
 history of Hercules, by divesting it of the mythological tra- 
 ditions with which it had been encumbered by all the wri- 
 ters of antiquity. In some shape or another, all the profane 
 nations of antiquity seem to have possessed a divinity to 
 whom they attributed an extraordinary degree of bodily 
 strength, combined with indomitable perseverance and mor- 
 al energy in prosecuting and overcoming difficult achieve- 
 ments. The reader will at once recognise, as belonging to 
 this class, the Baal of the Syrians, the Melkarth of Phoeni- 
 cia, and the Rama of Hindostan; who, like the Grecian 
 Hercules, outstripping in bodily and intellectual endow- 
 ments the great mass of the people of the rude era in which 
 they lived, achieved a multiplicity of deeds which were 
 lo iked tipon as altogether miraculous, and which procured 
 for their authors empire and dominion during their lives, 
 and after death a place among the gods. (See Mutter's Do- 
 rians, and the authorities there referred to.) 
 
 He'rcules. One of the old constellations in the northern 
 hemisphere. 
 
 HE RDERITE. (So called from Herder, who discovered 
 55fl 
 
 HERMAPHRODITE. 
 
 it.) A mineral found in crystals embedded in fluor at Eli 
 renfriedensdorf, in Saxony; its primary form is a bright 
 rhombic prism ; its lustre is vitreo-resinous, and its specific 
 gravity '2-985. 
 
 HEREDITAMENTS. In Law, all things which pass to 
 the heir, being either corporeal (land, with those adjuncts 
 which legally are comprised within that designation), or in 
 corporeal, which are things collateral to land, or issuing out 
 of it, and are enumerated in Blackstone's Commentarici, 
 under the heads "Advowsons, Tithes, Commons, Ways, 
 Offices, Dignities, Franchises, Crodies or Pensions, Annul 
 ties, and Rents." 
 
 HE'RESY. A word signifying the taking up of certain 
 opinions in theological matters: from the Greek atpems, 
 choice, which classical writers apply to the sects of philoso 
 pliers. It is now confined to a theological sense, and is de 
 fined by Roman Catholic authorities to be the voluntary as-~ 
 sumption and obstinate maintaining of error in matters of 
 faith. They hold all error to be voluntary where the party 
 knowingly deviates from the judgment of the Church. The 
 Protestants do not, for the most part, profess to have any 
 certain standard by which men may judge whether their 
 fellow-men be heretical. We may infer, from the direc- 
 tions of St. Paul to Titus, that the nature of heresy was un- 
 derstood by the first preachers of Christianity ; but it does 
 not necessarily follow that any infallible tests should exist 
 at the present day. It seems most consonant to a sense of 
 human infirmity, and is the judgment of most divines of the 
 Reformed persuasion, that those only should be considered 
 as heretics by any community who maintain what are ac- 
 counted by it erroneous opinions, either against their real 
 convictions or without condescending to listen to fair and 
 reasonable argument, and in defiance of persons whose sta- 
 tion, learning, and piety should entitle them, at all events, to 
 attention. 
 
 HE'RIOT. In Law, oiiginally a tribute given to the lord 
 of the manor on occasion of his engaging in a war (here or 
 heer-geld). In English law a heriot is a customary service, 
 due, for the most part, en copyhold tenures, anil termed 
 heriot custom, being usually the best beast, whether horse, 
 ox, or cow, that the tenant dies possessed of, which is due 
 and payable to the lord of the manor. Some heriots, however, 
 are due on reservation in a grant or lease of land , such are 
 termed heriot service. In heriot custom the lord may seize 
 the specific article which he seeks to recover; for heriot 
 service he may either seize or distrain, generally, on the 
 goods of the tenant on the land. 
 
 HERI'SSON. (Fr. a hedgehog.) In Fortification, a beam 
 armed with iron spikes, and used as a barrier to block up a 
 passage. 
 
 HE'RITABLE RIGHTS, in Scottish Law, comprehend 
 in general, rights to land, and things connected with lana 
 which pass to the heir; the distinction being, in most prrs 
 tical respects, merely identical with that of English law be- 
 tween realty and personalty. Heritable jurisdictions wer« 
 grants of criminal jurisdiction bestowed on great families by 
 the crown. They were abolished after the rebellion of 174i 
 by the act 20 G. 2, c. 40. 
 
 HE'RMES. See Mercury. Trismeqistos. 
 
 HERMA'PHRODITE. (Gr. ; from the well-known myth- 
 ological fable of the union or confluence of the bodies of th« 
 nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditos, the son of *l pnqc, 
 Mercury, and AtppoSirri, Venus.) An organized body, in 
 which there is either a real or apparent combination of the 
 characteristics of the two sexes. The first is the " true," 
 the second the "spurious" hermaphrodite. Hermaphro- 
 dites are also "natural" or "preternatural." 
 
 The animals in which the organs of the two sexes are 
 naturally combined in the same individual are confined to 
 the invertebrate division, and are most common in the Mol- 
 luscous and Radiate classes. If the term hermaphrodite 
 may be applied to those species which propagate without 
 the concourse of the sexes, but in which no male organ can 
 be detected, as well as to those in which both male and fe- 
 male organs are present in the same body, then there may 
 be distinguished three kinds of hermaphroditism. 
 
 First, The Cryptandrous, or in which the female or pro- 
 ductive organs are alone developed. Ex. : The cystic 
 Entozoa, the hydrostatic Acalephes, some Polypes, and 
 Sponges. 
 
 Second, The Heautanarous, or in which the male organs 
 arc developed, but so disposed as to fecundate the ova of the 
 same individual. Ex.; The Cirripeds, the Rotifers, the 
 tremntode and cestoid Entozoa, and some Acephala, as the 
 Cyclns. 
 
 "Third, The Motriandrovs, or in which the male organs 
 are so disposed as not to fecundate the ova of tie same 
 body, hut where the concourse of two individuals is required, 
 notwithstanding the co-existence in each of the organs of the 
 two sexes. Ex.! The gastropodous Mollusks, with the ex- 
 ception of the Pectinibranchiate order, and class .Inntl/ida. 
 
 All the other invertebrates, as the Cephalopods and pec 
 
HERMETIC ART. 
 
 Gastropods, most of the acephalous Mollusks, 
 
 chnidans and Crustaceans, the Epizoa and 
 
 UIm ncmaloid Kntozoa, the Echinoderms and Medusa;, are, 
 
 like die vertebrate classes, dioecious, or composed of male 
 
 and female individuals. 
 
 The unnatural hermaphrodites may be divided into those 
 m which the parts peculiar to the two sexes are blended to- 
 gether in different proportions, and the whole body partici- 
 a neutral character, tending towards the male and 
 ■male as the re s pe c t iv e organs predominate ; and into those 
 in widen the male and female organs occupy respectively 
 Separate halves of the body, and impress on each lateral 
 moiety the characteristics of the sex. 
 This latter and very singular kind of hermaphroditism has 
 been found only in insects and Crustaceans. In the 
 (TOW the Minute Book of the Linnaian Society, 
 printed m the 14:h volume of their Transactions, it is stated 
 ander Macleay, Esq., Sec. L. S., exhibited a curious 
 -Mowing that two Papiliones referred to distinct 
 families by l'abricius are in reality the male and female of 
 ■pedes. This specimen presented the forms and 
 colours of both sexes, divided by a longitudinal line on the 
 body ; the riL'lit wings and side of the body being as in the 
 • 'ijcnon, Fabr.), and the left as in the female 
 (Papilio laodocus, Fabr.). 
 
 In !.»uiloii's Magazine of Natural History (vol. iv., p. 
 4.14), an experienced entomologist, Mr. J. O. Westwood, has 
 given deecriptioni and flgares, n < »t only of dimidiate her- 
 maphrodites (the example is the llombyi pi nit), but also of 
 d hermaphrodites. The latter singular condition is 
 ,i d in a specimen of the Bombyx castrensis, in 
 which [be right wing, left antenna, and left tide of the ab- 
 domen are male ; the left wing, debt antenna, and right side 
 of the abdomen tire female: and again in a specimen of 
 BtSf-seetle {Lucanus cervus) in which the left jaw and ri^bt 
 elytriim are masculine, »nd the right jaw and left elytram 
 feminine. • 
 
 In most dimidiate hermaphrodites the left side is mascu- 
 line; but an example of the contrary has been observed in 
 ■Sphinx populi. It is to be regretted that the condition of the 
 Internal orgSJU of generation cannot be ascertained in the 
 .•ular examples; but this deficiency is in some de- 
 gree supplied by the results of Dr. Nicholl's dissection of an 
 hermaphrodite lobster {Philos. Trans., xxxvi., p. 290) in 
 which a testis was found on that side of the body which ex- 
 hibited externally the male characteristics, and an ovarium 
 ippoeUe side. 
 In llotany, hermaphroditism is the rule, and a separation 
 the exception, in the structure of tlowcrs or repre- 
 ibietiw organs. 
 
 I I l'.KM E'TIO ABT. The Imaginary art or science of al- 
 i lifinj ; so termed from Hermes Trismegistus, a personage 
 of questionable reality, looked up lo by the alchemists as 
 the founder of the art. Some spurious works bearing his 
 
 re still extant. See Alchemy. 
 HERMETIC SEAL. When a vessel or tube is perfect- 
 i by losing its mouth or extremity, it is said to be 
 t ally sealed. 
 
 III "KM ITS. or E'llEMITES. (Gr. tp m oc, desert.) Per- 
 sons who, in the early ages of Christianity, secluded them- 
 selves from the world for devotional purposes, betaking 
 
 ■ es to solitary and desert places (ipnpdq), whence 
 their name. In the first five centuries of our era this class 
 of persons was extremely numerous; nor have individuals 
 been wanting in later ages who have undergone the same 
 privation' with the same mistaken views, and have ac- 
 quired great reputation for sanctity in consequence. See 
 Oieseler's Text Book, vol. I. ; Hiddlc's Christian Anti- 
 quities, 1839, p. 743 ; Hcribertus, Vita Patrum ct Ercmit- 
 aimn, 1628; Cavacius, Illustrium Jlnachoretarum Elegia, 
 1 '.-.'> • I'.nr. Mrtropo/itana.) 
 
 UEKMODA'CTYLS. (Gr. Hermes, a river in Asia, and 
 dactylus, a date: or from I'ppne, Mercury, and 8uktvXoc, 
 fiu/rt - : i. c., the fingers of Mercury.) This term has long 
 been applied to n species of colchicum tuber, probably that 
 of the Colchicum lllyricum : it is irregularly heart-shaped, 
 and has a furrow ui>on one side, not unlike the tuber of 
 the Colchicum autumnale, now so much used for the cure of 
 gout : it is im|>orted from Turkey, and was formerly esteem- 
 ed as a cathartic. Some of the old writers who are fond 
 of the doctrine of signatures, compare the shape of the her- 
 modactyl to that of a gouty finger, and have recommended 
 it- efficacy in that disease. 
 
 HER.NANDIA'CEjE. (Hernnndia, one of the genera.) 
 A mall natural order of arborescent Exogens, inhabiting 
 the Indian Archipelago and Guinea. They are very near 
 Thymelacea, differing only in their fibrous drupaceous fruit, 
 lobed cotyledons and Involucre ; and are very different from 
 Lauracett and Myristicacea, to which orders they have been 
 referred. The leaves, stem, tec, are sligntty purgative : the 
 roots of Hcrnandia are antidotes to the Macassar poison ; its 
 yiice is a depilatory, and its leaves make a good sort of tinder. 
 
 HERRING. 
 
 IIE'IINIA. (Gr. epvoi, a branch.) A rupture. The tern 
 is generally applied to a tumor arising from a protrusion of 
 part of the intestines or omentum into a sac composed of 
 peritoneum : the groin, or upper and fore part of the thigh, 
 below Poupart's ligament, are common situations. Other 
 viscera may also occasionally form hernial tumours. When 
 the condition of the accident is such that the parts cannot be 
 reduced or returned into the abdominal cavity, the hernia la 
 said to be strangulated, and in that case the passage through 
 the intestines is interrupted ; there is sickness and constipa- 
 tion; and inflammation, and even mortification of the pan 
 ensue, unless by an operation the cause of the stricture is re- 
 moved and the gut returned. What is termed congenita! 
 hernia is the protrusion of a portion of intestine along with 
 the testicle in its descent through the abdominal ring into 
 the scrotum. Where a rupture exists in early infancy, it is 
 commonly referable to this cense. The surgical history of 
 ruptures is a very complicated and extensive, but highly im- 
 portant subject : it has been ably illustrated by several emi- 
 nent practitioners, who have published treatises upon their 
 causes and treatment. 
 
 HE'KO. (Gr. iipuc.) Lennep derives it from the verb 
 apu>, I lift, But the root of it is probably to be found in the 
 same original word which app e ars in the Latin herus, mas 
 lir; Germ, ari-maiin : perhaps the Banscrft sura. The 
 heroes of the Greeks were deceased mortals to whom divine 
 honours were paid, it is probable, indeed, that such was 
 the origin of their gods themselves [see Polytheism) ; but 
 if so, hero worship was a SSfiQDaary or added system, which 
 grew up in a later age. The word " hero," in Homer, is 
 simply synonymous with warrior; nor is tbereanv trace (al 
 least in the Iliad) of hero-worship. It seems to iiave com 
 menced not long alter the composition of that poem. The 
 last to whom any honours approaching to divine seem til 
 have been paid. Were the Athenians slain at Marathr n 
 The heroic age, commonly so called in Grecian poetry, seem . 
 to have ended with the descendants of those who returned 
 from Troy. (IVachsmutk, Hist.Jlntiq.ofthe (I recks ; Thirl 
 wall's History of (ircecc, chap. 5 ; Carlyle's Hero Worship.) 
 
 HERO'DIANS. A sect existing among the Jews at the 
 period of our Saviour's preaching. (See Matthew, c. xvi. ; 
 Mark, c. viii., v. 15.) Much doubt e\isis as to their histoiy 
 and tenets: some commentators, both ancient and modern, 
 imagine that they were fanatics, who regarded Herod tin- 
 Great as the Messiah ; others, that they were n mere iwliri- 
 cal party, attached to the family of Herod ; while a third 
 opinion (Bergier, Dictionaire d'e Theologic) is, that they 
 supported some innovations attempted by Herod in the reli*- 
 gious observances of the country by the partial introduction 
 Of pagan usages. (See Milmaii's History of Christianity, 
 i., 311.) 
 
 IIEKO'IC VERSE. That appropriated to epic or heroic 
 poetry: in Greek and Latin, the hexameter. In English, 
 Italian, and German, the iambic of ten syllables, either with 
 or without the additional short syllable. In French, th« 
 iambic of twelve syllables. See Epic, Hexameter. 
 
 HE'RPES. {C,t. tfjirtiv, to creep.) A cutaneous disease, 
 ci insisting of clusters of minute vesicles generally containing 
 a brownish or milky lymph: in about eight or ten dnysthey 
 scab off, and other crops appear. It is not limited to any 
 part of the body, but is generally preceded by more or less, 
 fever and pain or irritation of the part. It is often called the 
 tetters. Another form of it constitutes the shingles. These 
 eruptions are sometimes confounded with erysipelas, from 
 which they arc distinguished by the want of tumefaction 
 and considerable constitutional symptoms and by the natural 
 state of the skin between the crops of eruption : they are 
 distinguished from some similar eruptions by the vesiculai 
 form of the elevations at their first appearance, by their regu- 
 lar progress, and limited duration. 
 
 HE'RPETO'LOG Y. (Gr. ipircros, a reptile ; Xoyoc, a dis- 
 course.) That branch of science which treats of the history 
 of reptiles. 
 
 HE'RPETON. (Gr. ipircroc, a reptile.) A genus of ser 
 pents allied to F.ryx ; and characterized by two soft promi- 
 nences covered with scales which are appended lo the 
 muzzle. Botanists have a herpeton which is a section of 
 Viola. 
 
 HE'RRING. (Germ, heer, an army ; in reference to the 
 great numbers in which the fishes so called appear, at stated 
 seasons, along our coasts.) The name is commonly applied 
 to two distinct but closely allied species of the genus Clupea, 
 Linnauis : to the one Mr. Yarrell restricts the name of Clupea 
 harengus ; the other is denominated Clupea I,eachii, in com- 
 memoration of the excellent naturalist who first appears to 
 have been aware that our coast produced a second species 
 of herring. 
 
 The genus Clvpea is so nearly allied to the genus Salmt 
 that they are both included in the same natural famU/, un- 
 der the name of Halecoids, by M. Agassiz ; the principal ex- 
 ternal difference consists in the absence of the small adipose 
 dorsal fin in the Clupea. But in the clupeoids, as in the sal- 
 
 557 
 
HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 mon tribe, the upper maxillary as well as the intermaxillary 
 bones enter into the formation of the mouth, and are both 
 armed with teeth ; the body is always covered with numer- 
 ous scales; and, in the greater number of the herring tribe, 
 there is an air-bladder, and the duodenum is complicated 
 with many caeca, or pyloric appendages. 
 
 The annual migration of the herring is not, as has been 
 described, from one latitude to another, but simply from a 
 deeper to a shallower part of the ocean. The common 
 species, impelled by the stimulus of the increasing burden of 
 milt or row, quits the deeper recesses of the ocean, where 
 it has passed the winter and spring months, and approaches 
 the shallower water near the coasts, where the ova may be 
 deposited, and impregnated with the requisite amount of 
 heat, light, and oxygen for their development. 
 
 The common herring visits different parts of our coast in 
 autumn, generally earlier on the southern than on the north- 
 ern localities, and deposits its ova and spawn towards the 
 end of October. In this state the fish are termed " shotten 
 herring," and they retire from the shore into deep water. 
 
 Leach's herring has a different season of sexual migration. 
 " It is found," says Mr. Yarrell, " heavy with roe at the end 
 of January, which it does not deposit till the middle of Febru- 
 ary. Its length is not more than seven inches and a half, 
 and its depth near two inches." 
 
 During the long period in which the herring stays in deep 
 water, the shoals occasionally travel so far as to appear at 
 the next season of oviposition at a different part of the coast 
 from that where they were previously abundant. Hence the 
 herring has been described as a most capneious fish ; and 
 it is truly said, " that there is scarcely a fishing station round 
 the British islands that has not experienced in the visits of 
 this fish the greatest variations, both as to time and quantity, 
 without any accountable reason. 
 
 Herrings are taken in drift nets, and during the night. The 
 stretching of the nets in the daytime is forbidden, as it is 
 supposed that the practice would alarm and drive away the 
 shoal. The darkest nights, and a breeze that ruffles the sur- 
 face of the water, are the circumstances which most favour 
 the capture of the herring. 
 HERRING FISHERY. See Fisheries. 
 HE'RRNHUT. (Ger. herr, the Lord; hut, protection.) 
 An establishment in Upper Lusatia, comprising, it is said, at 
 present 120 houses, and 1500 inhabitants, which was found- 
 ed by a few Moravians about the year 1722, under the pa- 
 tronage of Count Zinzendorf. The principles of the society 
 thus formed are seclusion from the world, the enjoyment of 
 s contemplative life, and the possession of all goods in com- 
 mon. Its members are bound together, under the title of 
 Moravian Brethren, by strict laws and observances. Accu- 
 sations have been thrown out against them of their indulging, 
 in their retirement, in many licentious practices ; but it is 
 certain that their industry supplies many of the markets of 
 Germany with various useful and ornamental articles of 
 handiwork ; that their zeal has prompted them to establish 
 affiliated societies in many parts of Europe and America ; 
 and that in religious matters they are neither extravagant 
 themselves, nor intolerant of others. (See Moshcim, vol. vi.) 
 HERSE, HERSI'LLON. In Fortification, a lattice or 
 portcullis armed with pikes, to block up a gateway, or im- 
 pede the march of an enemy. 
 
 HER'THA (sometimes written Aertha, Aortha, and Eor- 
 the.) In German Mythology, the name generally assigned 
 in modern times to the chief divinity of the ancient German 
 and Scandinavian nations. She was worshipped under a 
 variety of names, of which the chief were exactly analogous 
 to those of Terra, Rhea, Cybele, and Ops, among the Greeks 
 and Romans. Long before the Christian era the knowledge 
 of Hertha appeared to have been extended over a great por- 
 tion of northern Europe; for in his work, Be Moribus Oer- 
 manorum, c. 40, in which the reader will find a graphic de- 
 scription of the peculiarities of her worship. Tacitus speaks 
 of the wonderful unanimity which tribes that had no other 
 feature in common displayed in worshipping this goddess, 
 whom he designates Herthus, or Mother Earth. Her chief 
 sanctuary was situated, according to the same authority, in 
 a sacred grove in an island of the ocean, in insula oceani, 
 which, by some writers, has been supposed to be Riga, and 
 by others Zetland or Heligoland ; but no modern researches 
 have been able accurately to fix its locality. A great deal of 
 curious information upon this subject is to be found in 
 Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, chap. x. 
 
 HESPE'RIA. (Gr.'Eo-vcpia, Evening ; the name of the 
 daughter of Atlas.) A genus of butterflies, now the type of 
 a family, including several subgenera, to some of which be- 
 long the British species, eight or ten in number. 
 
 HESPE'RIDES. In Greek Mythology the daughters of 
 Night, or the granddaughters of Hesperus the brother of 
 Atlas, three or seven in number, possessors of the fabulous 
 garden of golden fruit watched over by an enchanted dragon 
 at the western extremities of the earth. Such at least is the 
 most ordinary form of the fable, but it is very variously rep- 
 558 
 
 HETEROGENEOUS QUANTITIES. 
 
 resented ; and these varieties are collected by M. Massieu, * 
 a very complete dissertation on the subject, in vol. iii. of the 
 Mimoircs tie CAc. des Inscrip. et Belles Lcttrcs. There are 
 also observations on the subject in vol. xviii.. p. 54. There 
 is a difference among the mycologists whether the treasures 
 of the Hesperides were in reality fruit or sheep, the word 
 pfjAa signifying either (Diod. Sic, lib. v.) ; but the former is' 
 the received form of the story among the poets [Ovid 
 Mctam., 4; Virg., Eel., 6; Jipollon. Hhod. ; and in the 
 well-known lines of Milton, 
 
 Hesperus and his daughters three 
 
 Singing around the golden tree. 
 
 and, the oldest of all, Hesiod, 
 
 'Ais pnXa xcpnv kXvtov SlKtavoio, 
 
 XPvota KaXa ucXovot, (j>epovTa re itvipca Kapxov. 
 
 Some have explained this pleasing fable by the groves of 
 
 orange and lemon trees, known to the Greeks only in the 
 
 western parts of Africa. 
 
 HESPERI'DIUM. In Botany, a many-celled, few-seeded, 
 superior, indehiscent fruit, covered by a spongy separable 
 rind ; the cells easily separable from each other, and con- 
 taining a mass of pulp, in wliich the seeds are embedded — 
 example, the orange. 
 
 HE'SYCHASTS. (Gr. {javxacrai, from fiovx>a< quiet ; 
 Quietists.) In Eccl. History, a singular class of fanatics, 
 who were established in the 15th century in some of the 
 Greek monasteries of Mount Athos. They pretended to 
 have attained a perfect interior life of devotional repose by 
 intense contemplation. One of their maxims, apparently 
 derived from some of the strange practices of the Indian as- 
 cetics, directs the disciple to " raise his spirit above all vain 
 and transient things, repose his head on his breast, and turn 
 his eyes with his whole power of meditation upon his navel." 
 Hence these visionaries derived the nickname of Ou<pa 
 Aot//ux»(, or Umbilicarii : they were also termed Tliaborites, 
 from their notion respecting a divine light inhabiting the 
 heart of the devotee. (Waddington's ilist. of the Church, 
 chap, xxvi.) 
 
 HETiE'RIA. (From the Greek haipzia, derived from 
 erutpos, a companion.) This word is frequently used by 
 classical writers to signify an association of any description ; 
 thus the fraternities of the early Christians are called HeUe- 
 ria;. In modern times, two celebrated associations among the 
 modern Greeks have assumed the name. The first was the 
 Heta;ria of the Philomusoi, or Friends of the Muses ; a so 
 ciety formed for the purposes of education, founded (it is 
 said) by Capodistrias, about 1814 ; it established schools at 
 Athens and Milium in Thessaly, and numbered at one time 
 80,000 associates. It was dissolved in 1821, but renewed in 
 1824, when Athens was in the hands of the Greeks The 
 more celebrated political Hetteria owes its foundation to the 
 celebrated Rigas, who died in 1798. It was renewed abou: 
 1816, extended its ramifications through all Greece, and pro 
 duced the Greek revolution begun by Ypsilanti in 1821. 
 
 HETEROCE'PHALOUS. (Gr. crepos, various, and kc- 
 (f>aXn, a head. In Composite plants, when some flower heads 
 are male and others female in the same individual. 
 
 HE'TEROCHRO'MOUS. (Gr. btpos, and xP^ia, colour.) 
 When in a flower-head the florets of the centre or disk are 
 different in colour from those of the circumference or ray. 
 
 HE'TERODOX (Gr. hepos, and <5o£a, opinion), signifying 
 a person who holds opinions different from some standard 
 with which they are compared, is opposed in theological 
 language to orthodox, one who holds the right opinion. 
 The standard of orthodoxy, by which all heterodox opinions 
 must be tried, resides, humanly speaking, in the judgment of 
 each particular sect of believers. It is, however, generally 
 allowed to represent the highest and strictest interpretation 
 of the creeds which were received in the ancient church, and 
 in England is conceded by general consent to what is called 
 the High Church party. The use of these terms is said lo 
 have come into fashion in England in the beginning of the 
 last century, when there arose a party within the church 
 who, from the laxity with which they interpreted its formu- 
 las, and the assumed liberality of the views they took of its 
 nature and authority, were styled Latitudinarians. The 
 High Church or Orthodox party, on the other band, were 
 those who pushed their opposition to these innovators to an 
 extreme length, but contented themselves with branding the 
 others with the title of Heterodox, as a milder term than that 
 of heretical, to which they would probably have been sub- 
 jected in earlier and more violent times. 
 
 HETERO'GAMOUS. (Gr. htpog, and yupoj, mar~:age.) 
 In Grasses, when the arrangement of the sexes is different 
 in different spikelets from the same root, as in Jindropogon: 
 in Composite plants, where the florets are of different sexes 
 in the same flower-head. 
 
 HE'TEROGE'NEOUS ATTRACTION. See ArriNrrr, 
 Chemical. 
 
 HETEROGENEOUS QUANTITIES, in Mathematics, 
 are such as are incapable of being compared together in r» 
 
HETEROGYNA. 
 
 npect of magnitude, as liuea and surfaces, surfaces and 
 solids, &c. 
 
 UETERO'GYNA. (Gr. Irtpoi, and yvvn, a. female.) A 
 tribe of Aculeate Hyinenoptera, in which Uie females are of 
 ditlerent kinds J one fertile, the other infertile, called neuters, 
 as the ants, Formicidte and Mutillidte. See those words. 
 
 IIETERO.M E'RANS, Hcteromera. (Gr. eT€po(, and/i^of, 
 a leg.) Signifying that the legs have a different structure 
 from one another. The Coleopterous insects are so called 
 which have five joints in the tarsus of the first and second 
 pairs of legs, and only four joints in the tarsus of the third 
 pair. Laireillc divides this somewhat artificial section into 
 four groups. 
 
 I. .)/ lasomes, having tile wing-covers hard, wings gener- 
 ally wanting, claws simple, and maxilla; with a hook. — Ex. : 
 Pimcliidiz, Blapsida, Tcnebrionida. 
 
 •2. Taxieornt*, having the wing-covers hard, wings present, 
 aiiienine pei foliate or clavate, claws simple, maxilla,' without 
 a bonk. — Ex.: lJiapcrida, Cossypkidaz. 
 
 .1. Sti •idylrcs. having the wing-covers hard and contract- 
 
 ily, wingl present, antenna; simple, claws simple 
 
 I.— Ex.: J/ilupida, Cistelidir, &c. 
 
 I. TrarhtiUtt. having the wing-covers flexible, wings 
 
 iserted upon a neck, claws bifid. — Ex. : JUeloe, 
 
 Murdclla, liana, Lagria, &c. 
 
 IROPODS, Hdcrupoda. (Gr. i'rrpoc, and sJouf, 
 foot.) I'll', name of an order of Gastropods, comprchend- 
 i m tli".,.. which have the foot BOMBU— d, and in the forin 
 ! On; as in the Carinaria. 
 UETERtfPTERANS, lleteroptera. (Gr. trcpoc, and 
 wing.) The name of a section of Ilemipterans, 
 comprehending those in which the hemeiytra terminate ab- 
 ruptly by a membranous appendage. 
 
 HETERO'SCII, or HETERO'SCIANS. (Gr. crtpoc, an- 
 
 oiki r, and oktu, shadow.) An epithet applied by the ancient 
 
 geographers to the inhabitants of the two temperate zones, 
 
 iaiir shadows at midday are always projected in 
 
 direction in resect of themselves, but in opposite 
 
 9 in respect of each other; in one case to the north, 
 
 and in the other to the south. 
 
 HETEROTROPAL. (GT.irtpos, and 7/)nrw, / turn.) A 
 term applied to the embryo of a seed when the former lies 
 across the latter ; that is 10 say, neither pointing to its base 
 nor apex. 
 UK XACHORD. (Gr. ft, and xop&q.) In Music, n pro- 
 ■ f six notes, to which Guido attached the syllables 
 ut. rt, mi, fa, -iol, la. The hexachord is also called a sixth ; 
 and is twofold, greater and less. The former is composed 
 of two greater, two less tones, and one greater semitone, 
 inak ; jj.' 'ive intervals; the latter of two greater tones, one 
 ind two greater semitones. 
 UEXAE'DRON, or CUBE. (Gr. It, six, and Ufa, scat.) 
 One of the live regular or Platonic solids, so called from its 
 having siz faces. The whole surface of a hexaedron is 
 equal to -4 times the square of the radius of the inscribed 
 nd to b times the square of the radius of the cir- 
 cumscribed sphere, Its solid content is 8 times the cube of 
 the inscribed sphere. The other four regular solids are the 
 Ktraedron or pyramid, Uie octaedron, the dodecuedron, and 
 the icosaedron. 
 
 BE'XAGON. (Gr. ft, and vuivia, angle.) In Geometry, 
 a plane figure bounded by six straight lines. When these 
 are equal, the hexagon is regular. The side of a regular 
 is equal to the radius of its circumscribing circle, a 
 which has numerous useful applications. The area 
 Id equal to the square of the side multiplied into the constant 
 number 3468070; that is, into three times half the tangent 
 of BO". 
 
 11 KXA'METER. (Gr. ft, and utrpov, measure.) The 
 inosi important species of verse used by the Greeks and 
 Romans. It consisted of six feet, either dactyls or spondees, 
 which might be used indifferently in any part of the verse ; 
 with two important exceptions, that the last foot must in- 
 variably be a spondee, and the last but one a dactyl. In 
 some instances a spondee is introduced into the fifth foot, or 
 last but one; a license which, if judiciously used, gives an 
 agreeable variety to the otherwise unbroken fall of the verse, 
 which is thence termed spondaic. (See Foot, Caesura.) 
 Hexiurieter verse was employed on almost every topic to 
 which poetry can be applied. In modern times several 
 poets of France, England, and Germany have attempted to 
 introduce this measure into the language of their respective 
 Countries. The few specimens we have seen of it in French 
 appeared to us wholly unsuccessful. The little countenance 
 given to the attempts made by Dr. Southey and others, to 
 introduce it among ourselves, is conclusive, we think, against 
 its ever being generally adopted in England; but, on the 
 other hand, it has been cultivated in Germany with great 
 success, as the Hermann and Dorothea of Goethe, and many 
 other examples that might be cited, abundantly prove. How 
 admirably the spirit of this measure had been caught by the 
 learned Voss, and transfused into his translation of the great 
 
 HIEROGLYPHICS. 
 
 Virgilian and Homeric poems, is known to every scholar, 
 and a similar instance may he seen in a beautiful little poem 
 in the same language, called llannchcn und die Kiicklein, by 
 Eberhard. The qeidities and cllect of the hexameter have 
 been well described by Schiller in the following distich, of 
 which we subjoin an excellent translation by Coleridge; 
 who, by the way, we may state, was long supposed to be 
 the original author : 
 
 Schwindelnil Ira^t er dich fort auf rasijos s'romenden Wogen 
 llinter dir ncli-.i du, du, sulist vor dir nur Himniel Si 
 Strongly it bears us along, in swelling an I lii 
 Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and tile ocean. 
 
 (See Quart. Rev., vol. xlii. : and Edin. Rev., vol. xx.w.) 
 
 HEXA'NDROUS. (Or. & and avop, a male.) Any Howe 
 having six stamens. 
 
 HE'XAPLE. (Gr. ft, and uirXow, / explain.) The com 
 binution of six versions of the Old Testament by Origcn is s< 
 called: viz., the Septuagint, Aqttila, Theodotian, Symma 
 chus, one found at Jericho, and miother at Nicepolis. See 
 Biblical History, etc. 
 
 HE'XAPODS, Hezapoda. (Gr. ft, and irouc, a foot.) A 
 name applied by Mr. Kirby to a sub-order of Apterous uueouij 
 including those which have not more than six legs. 
 
 HE'XASTYLE. (Gr. ft, and otSXo,, a column.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, that sjiecies of temple or other building having 
 six columns In front. 
 
 HIATUS. (Lat. vanning, gaping.) A word which has 
 passed into several modern languages. In Diplomatics and 
 Bibliography, it signifies a deficiency in the text of an author, 
 as from a passage erased, worn out, &.c. In Grammar and 
 Prosody, it properly signifies the occurrence of a final vowel, 
 followed immediately by the initial vowel of another word, 
 without the suppression of either by a:i apostrophe. This, 
 in Greek and Latin poetry, was only admissible In certain 
 excepted cases; as where, In Greek, a final long \ 
 succeeded by an initial short vowel, and becomes sometimes 
 short by position; or in Latin, where the co-sura (set 
 Cjesvua) gave an additional force to the first vowel, as in 
 the celebrated line, 
 
 "Ter sunt conati imponere Pcli6 Ossnm," 
 which affords an instance of both, the first hiatus bring oc 
 casioned by the fa-sura ; the second, an imitation of the Greek 
 prosody. In French the hiatal is carefully avoided 
 lish less so, although by the more accurate |>oets still regard 
 cd as a blemish, except in some instances where a Ions vowel 
 is followed by a short one. The worst species of hiatus is 
 where the same vowel sound is repented. 
 
 BHU'SCUS (for Hybriscus; Gr. b6pi;, haughtiness). A 
 genus of very handsome plants, belonging to the Halvaeeoul 
 order, with unusually large and showy flowers. They are 
 numerous in the tropics, where they generally form line 
 trees; but some of the species are only annual. Of the lat- 
 ter H. trionum is a commonly cultivated plant, known in the 
 seed-shops under the name Of bladder katmia. Very few of 
 the species are of any interest. II. Syriacus is the Mthma. 
 frutez of shrubberies ; II. abelmoschus yields the musk-seed 
 of pharmacy ; and H. esculcntus, the Gubbo or Ochro of the 
 tropics, bears seed-vessels abounding so much in mucilage 
 as to be a common ingredient in the soups of the hotter 
 climates of the world. H. Rosa sinensis, a Chinese plant, 
 is remarkable for the property possessed by its flowers of 
 dyeing black. 
 
 HIDA'LGO. A Spanish nobleman of the lower class; 
 literally "hijo d'algo," son of somebody; in Portuguese, 
 "fidalgo." It is absurdly derived by B. St, Vincent from 
 " hijo de goto." The title is now obsolete. 
 
 HIDE. (Germ, haut.) This term is limited in commerce 
 to the strong and thick skin of the horse, ox, and other targe 
 animals. 
 
 HIDE-BOUND. In Farriery, applied to n certain dis- 
 ease of cows and horses in which the skin adheres to their 
 
 HIDE OF LAND. See Hydk. 
 
 HI'ERA PICRA. (Gr. icpoc, sacred, and r-iKpoc, bitter.) 
 A compound of aloes and canella bark made into a powder 
 with honey. 
 
 HI'ERARCHY (Gr. icpoc, and ap\ti>, I rule), is a general 
 term, comprehending the various ranks and orders of the 
 sacred ministry, whether of angels, according to an ancient 
 opinion, or of the pastors of the church of God upon earth. 
 
 HIEROGLY'PHICS. (Gr. ttfios, sacred, and yAtitfai, 1 
 engrave.) Scripture-writing or picture-writing ; I. e., the ex- 
 pression of a scries of ideas by representations of visible ob- 
 jects. The name is more peculiarly nppliod to a species of 
 writing in use among the ancient Egyptians. According to 
 the system of Cliampollion, the hieroglyphical writing of the 
 Egyptians consists of three different species of characters : 
 1. The hieroglyphic, properly so called, in which the repre- 
 sentation of the object conveys the idea of the object itself; 
 either entire, or in an abridged form. Many words were thus 
 expressed, chiefly those denoting common visible objects 
 
 559 
 
HIEROJRAMM ATIST8. 
 
 These are termed by Champollion figurative, and divided 
 into figurative proper, figurative conventional, and figura- 
 tive abridged. 2. The second class of hieroglyphical char- 
 acters consists of those which represent ideas by images of 
 visible objects, used as symbols ; and these are generally em- 
 ployed in the expression of abstract ideas or complex modes : 
 as, a tumult, represented by a man throwing arrows ; adora- 
 tion, by a censer containing incense, &.c. In some of these 
 tho connexion between the type and antitype is obvious ; in 
 others, it depends on associations which are not understood 
 by us, and consequently cannot be traced. These characters 
 are what the Greeks more peculiarly termed hieroglyphics : 
 they are called by Champollion symbolical. 3. The third 
 class consists of phonetic characters, in which the sign rep- 
 resents, not an object, but a sound. This, according to 
 Champollion, was effected by the following device. The 
 figure representing a letter was the likeness of some animal 
 or other object of which the name began with that letter. 
 Thus Chainpollion has constructed an alphabet of initials, 
 in which the letter A is represented by an eagle, the initial 
 letter of the Egyptian word " eagle" ( Ahorn) being A ; and 
 60 forth. Twenty-nine elementary sounds were thus repre- 
 sented. But the writer was not confined to the use of one 
 representative of a letter only. At first sight it would ap- 
 pear that all objects, the initial of whose name was a par- 
 ticular letter, might be used to express that letter ; but cus- 
 tom seems to have applied only a certain number of objects 
 to tliis use: some letters have eighteen or nineteen known 
 representatives, others six or seven. In selecting out of these, 
 the writer seems to have been guided by notions of what was 
 suitable in reference to the word which he was writing ; as, 
 for example, the S in the word Si, son, is commonly repre- 
 sented by the figure of a goose, on account, according to 
 Horus Apollo, of the supposed attachment of that bird for its 
 young. The honour of the recent progress made in the ex- 
 planation of hieroglyphical writing is divided between the 
 English Orientalist Dr. Young, and the Frenchman Cham- 
 pollion; but the latter appears to have had no small share 
 in the original discoveries, as well as to have carried the 
 science to a high degree of cultivation. Besides the hiero- 
 glyphic character, the Egyptians used the hieratic and 
 dnmotic, which were, both of them, conversions of the hiero- 
 glyphic into a kind of current hand : the latter nearly alpha- 
 betical. The most civilized people of America, the Mexi- 
 cans, at the time of the Spanish conquest, had advanced as 
 far as the discovery of hieroglyphical or picture writing, al- 
 though they did not possess a written alphabet. The Chinese 
 writing was, originally, wholly ideographic; i. «., expressing 
 ideas by symbols (answering to the second class of Egyptian 
 hieroglyphics, with some admixture of the first). But in 
 process of time the greater part of the characters have be- 
 come simply phonetic. (See Dr. Young's "Egypt" in the 
 Enc. Brit., and his " Account of Recent Discoveries," 1823; 
 the works of Champollion; Jablonski, Pantheon JEgyptia- 
 cum ; Quart. Review, vols, xliii., liii. ; Edinb. Rev., vol. xiv. ; 
 Salt's Essays ; Seyffarth, Rudimcnta Micro glyphices, 1825.) 
 
 HIEROURA'MMATISTS. (Literally, sacred writers.) 
 The name given to certain Egyptian priests whose duty it 
 was to decipher hieroglyphics and preside over the religious 
 services. 
 
 HIEROMNE'MON. (Gr. lef-o/ivtuuv, an observer of sac- 
 rifices.) In Ancient History, the title of one of the two depu- 
 ties sent to each meeting of the Amphictyonic Council by 
 each tribe composing that confederacy. His office was, as 
 the name imports, to superintend the religious rites on the 
 occasion. 
 
 HIERO'NYMITES, or JERONYMITES. An order so 
 named from its patron St. Jerome. It originated in Spain, 
 and comprehended religiousof both sexes. The Hieronymite 
 convents are usually in mountainous and solitary places, in 
 imitation of the retreat of St. Jerome to his hermitage at 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 HI'EROPHA'NTES. (Gr. hpos, and 0«u<w, / show.) 
 The title of the priest who initiated candidates at the Eleu- 
 sinian Mysteries. He was necessarily a citizen of Athens, 
 and held the office for life, which was regarded as one of 
 high religious importance. (Meursius on the Eleus. Mys- 
 teries ; Potter's Grecian Antiquities, vol. i. ; Mem. dc VJlcad. 
 des Inscr., vol. xxi.) 
 
 HIGH CHURCH. In English History, an epithet usual- 
 ly applied to those opinions which tend to exalt the eccle- 
 siastical power, and to the parties which embrace them. 
 According to Burnet {Times, vol. ii., p. 249), the term "high 
 church party" began to be used about the year 1700. Those 
 who belonged to it were at that time considered to be un- 
 friendly to the settlement of the nation at the Revolution, 
 ond disposed to Jacobite principles. Under Queen Anne, 
 high church principles were for a short time in the ascend- 
 ency ; but after tho accession of George I., in 1715, it is diffi- 
 cult to point out any political party which has seriously em- 
 braced them. But in matters relating to the discipline of the 
 church itself, a "high church" and a "low church" party, 
 560 
 
 HIGHWAV. 
 
 the former attaching more and the latter less ralue to eccle 
 siastical dignities and ordinances, have always existed in the 
 establishment of England. 
 
 HIGH COMMISSION, COURT OF, in English History, 
 was erected by 1 Eliz., c. 1, as an ecclesiastical tribunal, 
 without power to fine or imprison. The commissioners seem, 
 however, to have committed various arbitrary acts towards 
 the end of that queen's reign. One of their warrants was 
 declared of no authority in 42 Eliz. Under Charles I. it as- 
 sumed enormous and illegal powers, becoming a court for 
 the trial of all manner of offences which might be construed 
 as ecclesiastical ; and was one of the grievances complained 
 of and abolished by the Long Parliament, 10 Car. 1. 
 
 HIGHGATE RESIN. A fossil resin discovered on cutting 
 the road through Highgate Hill : it is imbedded in the clay 
 in detached nodules. 
 
 HI'GHNESS. A title first attributed to bishops; after- 
 wards to European kings in general (succeeded by Majesty 
 in the sixteenth century), afterwards to sovereign princes 
 and their descendants. The title of "Royal Highness" was 
 first assumed by the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIII., 
 in 1G31 ; and it is now conferred on all royal princes and 
 princesses, whether in the direct line of succession or not. 
 The elector of Hesse Casscl and the grand dukes of Ger- 
 many have also the title of royal highness. The children 
 of the emperors of Russia and Austria, and their descendants, 
 are styled imperial highness ; and all other princes not in 
 eluded in the above category bear the title serene highness, 
 which is a literal translation of the term Durchlaucht, by 
 which they are addressed in Germany. 
 
 HIGHWAY. A highway is a way over which the pub 
 lie at large have a right of passage, and includes a horse 
 road, or a mere footpath, as well as a carriage road. It was 
 considered formerly that no way which did not lead to a 
 market town was a highway ; but it is now settled that any 
 way common to all people, without distinction, is a highway. 
 A public navigable river is also called a highway. The 
 right of the public in a highway is, however, a right of pas- 
 sage over it, and nothing more. The soil itself, and all the 
 profits upon it, as trees, or underneath it, as mines, minerals, 
 &c, and also any strips of waste land lying between the 
 highway and the lands adjoining it on either side, belong, in 
 moieties, to the owners of such adjoining lands. But if such 
 strips of waste land be contiguous to or communicate with 
 an open common, they are then taken to be part of the com- 
 mon. A highway may originate from a continual user of 
 land by the public in traversing it without interruption from 
 the owner, or from an express dedication of it by him to their 
 use. A much shorter period of user will establish a right in 
 the public than a right in any private person to a way ; the 
 user in the former case being so open and notorious that the 
 owner of the land may fairly be presumed to have had early 
 notice of it, and to have assented to it by not opposing it. 
 Accordingly, a public way may be acquired by an enjoyment 
 for live or six years, although twenty years' enjoyment is 
 necessary in the case of a private way. A highway may 
 also take its origin from statute or from necessity. A high- 
 way originates from necessity when tho accustomed line of 
 highway is out of repair so as to be Impassable : in which 
 case the public have a right to traverse the adjoining ground, 
 even if it be sown with grain. 
 
 The duty of keeping highways in repair is cast by the 
 common law upon the occupiers of lands in the parish gen- 
 erally; but particular persons may be liable to repair by 
 prescription or tenure. They may also be liable in respect 
 of enclosure; that is, if a highway he free from fences on 
 either side, and the owner of the adjoining land chooses to 
 fence it off from the highway, he will then be liable in re- 
 spect of his enclosure, because he has thereby deprived the 
 public of using his land as a way of necessity, in the event 
 of tho original highway becoming impassable for want of re- 
 pair. The omission to repair on the part of the parish or 
 party liable is an indictable offence, and may be punished 
 accordingly. Various statutes regulate the mode in'which 
 the occupiers in a parish are to contribute labour, carts, and* 
 cattle, for the purpose of repairing highways, and to perform 
 upon them what is therefore called statute duty. Survey- 
 ors, also, are annually appointed in furtherance of the same 
 objects. Highways are frequently placed by the legislature 
 under the jurisdiction of trustees ; such highways are pop- 
 ularly called "turnpike roads." If sufficient materials 
 for the repair of roads cannot be found on the waste lands 
 of a parish, the surveyors have authority to take them from 
 the lands of any private person ("such lands not being a 
 garden, yard, avenue to a house, lawn, park, paddock, or en 
 closed plantation, or enclosed wood, not exceeding one hun- 
 dred acres in extent"), on making him satisfaction for the 
 materials taken away and the damage done, to be ascertain- 
 ed by the justices at special sessions. Any expenses incurred 
 by the above proceedings may be reimbursed to the surveyors 
 by an assessment made upon the occupiers in the parish, un 
 der the authority of two justices 
 
HIMANTOPUS. 
 
 The laws for the regulation of highway! have recently 
 been consolidated and amended oy the 5 & Will. 4, c. 50. 
 By previous acts of parliament, and by the common law, the 
 county at large were bound to repair a public bridge, and 
 also the highways at the end of such bridge to the extent 
 of 300 feet! The recent act provides that in future, when 
 any bridge shall be built which the county shall be liable 
 to repair, " all highways leading to, passing over, and next 
 adjoining to such bridge, shall be from time to time repaired 
 by the parish, person, or body politic or corporate, or trus- 
 tees of a turnpike road, who were by law, before the erec- 
 tion of the bridge, bound to repair the highway." A most 
 important alteration has been effected by the same net with 
 respect to the creation of highways by dedication. Former- 
 ly, as appears above, if land had been traversed as a way 
 by the public for a few years without interruption, a high- 
 way was at once established, and the liability to repair it 
 iraa rust ii|Hin the parish; but by this act no road is to be 
 deemed a highway which the inhabitants of a parish shall 
 be compellable to repair, unless the person pro|x>sing to 
 dedicate it to the use of the public shall give three months' 
 notice to the surveyor of the parish of his intention to dedi- 
 cate such highway, and the inhabitants of the parish, in 
 vestry ■mhiiiimciI, thai] deen it of sufficient utility to them 
 to justify its being kept in repair at the expense of the par- 
 ish. If the vestry shall not deem it of such utility, a ma- 
 gistrate, on the surveyor's application, is to summon the 
 party promising to dedicate the new highway to np|>ear be- 
 fore the justices at special sessions, and the question as to 
 Its utility is to be determined at their discretion. 
 
 HWA'NTOPUB. (Gr. tunc, a t/wntr, and irouf, a foot: 
 the term Ilimantopedcs is given by Pliny to certain birds 
 remarkable for the slenderness of their legs.) The name is 
 now restricted to a genus of GraXlas or wading-birds, in 
 which the legs are proportionally longer ami more' attenua- 
 ted than in any other species: the hill is long and slender, 
 llic base, and compressed towards the tip, with 
 the nasal groove extending half the length of the bill. This 
 genus includes the British species called the -common stilt, 
 or long-hanks {llimantopus mclanopterus) . It is mi occa- 
 sional visiter, anil a ran; bird. 
 
 HTPPIDES. The name under which Latreille and 
 Eichwald designate a family of the tribe of Macrourous 
 Decapod Crustaceans, typified by the genus Hippa. 
 
 HrPPOBO'SnA. (Gr. iriroc, a horse, and jiaoKu, I feed.) 
 uis of Dipterous insects belonging to the Viviparous 
 i of the order, in which the young are not only exclu- 
 ded from the ovum, but undergo their first metamorphosis 
 in the womb of the parent, and are brought forth in the 
 pupa state. ( I'upipara, Latr. ; Homaloptcra. Leach.) The 
 genus is now the type of a numerous family (Hippobos- 
 cidte), generally know: by the name of "forest flies," and 
 divided by recent entomologists into numerous subgen- 
 era. The horse-fly (Hippobosca equina) is the type of the 
 fa mily . 
 
 HIPPOCRATKACEiE. (Hippocratea, one of the gene- 
 ra.) This is a small natural order of plants, di stinguis hed 
 from Celustraceas by little except the flowers being trian- 
 drous. and the filaments broad at the base. There are no 
 species of any general interest included In the order. 
 
 HIPPOCRE'NE. (Gr. 'titnoc, and icpnvv, a fountain.) A 
 celebrated fountain at the foot of Mount Helicon, supposed 
 to have been produced by the horse Pegasus having struck 
 his foot against the mountain. It was regarded in antiquity 
 with peculiar veneration, as it was believed to be n favour- 
 ite haunt of the Muses, and was consequently looked upon 
 as one of the chief sources whence the poetsdrew their in- 
 spiration. See Mises, Peoasus. 
 
 HIPPODROME. (Gr. hrroc, and rpojioc, a course.) In 
 Ancient Architecture, a place appropriated by the Greeks 
 to equestrian exercises, and in which the prizes were con- 
 tended for. The most celebrated In antiquity of these was 
 at Olympia, which was four leagues long and one in breadth. 
 The term is still in use. 
 
 HUTOPO'TAMUS. (Gr. isxoc, and irorn,ioc, a river.) 
 A genus of aquatic Pachyderms, represented at the present 
 time by a single species (Hippopotamus amphibius, L.), 
 which inhabits the rivers of Africa. The generic charac- 
 ters are four toes on all the feet, enclosed in small hoofs; 
 six molar teeth on each side of both jaws ; very large and 
 strong canines, of which the upper ones are nearly straight, 
 the lower ones curved, and working upon each other so as 
 to produce a chisel-edge ; four incisors in each jaw, the up- 
 l«r ones short and conical, and bent inwards towards the 
 mouth ; the under ones long, cylindrical, and pointing for- 
 wards. The hippopotamus lives, during the daytime, im- 
 rnerged in the waters of its native rivers, rising to the sur- 
 face and protruding its nostrils for the purpose of breathing : 
 it comes to the land to feed during the night. Remains of 
 species of hippopotamus are found in the tertiary formations 
 of Europe, one of which hardly exceeded the size of a hog. 
 Tn the tertiary beds at the base of the Himalaya range, an 
 2 N 
 
 HISTER. 
 
 extinct species of hippopotamus has been discovered which 
 had six incisor teeth in each jaw. 
 
 HI'PPOPUS. (Gr. iriruf, a horse ; rw$, a foot.) The 
 name of a genus of Acephalous Mollusks, Significative of 
 the resemblance which their shell bears to the foot of a 
 horse. The valves of this shell are equal, regular, but Ine 
 quilateral and transverse; the hinge has two comp 
 unequal teeth; the ligament is marginal and external. Th< 
 Hippopi belong to the family Tridacnida of the Lnm:,i i 
 ■Vatem; but are distinguished from the genus Tritla, 
 having the posterior slope and lunule closed, or nearly 
 and the inner margin dentated at that part. The i 
 which arm the ribs are tubular, and are never arched i r 
 vaulted. The type of the genus is the Hippopus maculntus. 
 or spotted hippopus ; the JEstrea hippopus of Linmeun 
 
 HIPPU'RIC ACID. (Gr. hnros, and ovpnv. ur„„-., \ 
 peculiar compound deposited from the urine of the horse 
 when it is mixed with muriatic acid. It closet] 
 and is sometimes substituted for benzoic acid; hut il 
 tains nitrogen, and its salts are distinct from the benzontes. 
 
 HITPURITES. A genus of extinct Mollusks, [supposed 
 to be bivalves, and referred to the extensive group called 
 Kudistes by Lamarck. The principal valve of the present 
 genus is of a sub-cylindrical or elongated conical form, trav- 
 ersed by one or more internal longitudinal ridges, and closed 
 by a small sub-circular discoid valve like an operculum. 
 
 The Hippuritcs tire characteristic of the rocks of the crv 
 taceous era in the south of France, Spain, Greece, and othei 
 countries bordering the Mediterranean. 
 
 HIPS. (Sax. hipe.) In Architecture, the inclined diag- 
 onal edges of a roof where the sides intersect ; hence a hip- 
 ped roof is one in which two sides, at least, must intersect. 
 
 HEROINE. (Lat. Iiircus, a he-goat.) A term applied by 
 Chevron] to a liquid, fatty Bitter which may be separated 
 from mutton suet, and gives it a peculiar rank smell, resem- 
 bling that emitted by the male goat at the periixl of the rut. 
 When saponified, it produces hircic acid. 
 
 BERING AND SERVICE, in Law, constitute the reta 
 lion between master and servant. The general rule with 
 respect to hiring and service is, that if there be no special 
 agreement, but a general one without mention of time, the 
 hiring is for a year certain ; if the servant continue in his 
 employment beyond that year, a second year is implied, ice. 
 Consequently, if a master dismiss a servant hired generally, 
 the servant is entitled to wages for the current year, unless 
 the dismissal be for such a cause as will legally absolve the 
 master from his contract: <i. »•., moral misconduct, or refu- 
 sal to obey orders. But In the case of domestic servants, 
 the contract is, by general custom, dissoluble by n month's 
 warning on either part, or payment of a month's wages. 
 
 HI'RSUTE. (Lat. hirsutus, bristly.) In Zoology, when 
 nn animal or part is covered with long, stiffish hairs, thickly 
 
 HIRTJDINEJE. Sec Leech. 
 
 HIRU'NDO. (Lat. hirundo, a skoIIow.) A genus which 
 forms the type of the Fissirostral or wide-gaping Passerine 
 birds of the Cuvierian system. It is now divided into the 
 subgenera Cypsclus, including the swift and Hirundo proper, 
 embracing the chimney swallow (Hirundo rustica), sand 
 martin (Hirundo viparia), &c. Our British species are oc- 
 casional visiters, and the heralds, generally speaking, of the 
 summer season, though we see now and then a premature 
 straggler, which has given rise to the proverb " one swallow 
 does not make a summer." Africa appears to be the chief 
 resort of the British species during the winter season. Their 
 disappearance at this season has, it is true, been accounted 
 for on the hypothesis that the swallows passed the winter 
 in a torpid state, submerged in river-heads or other fresh 
 waters. No warm-blooded and quick-breathing animal does 
 or can hybernate under water ; and with respect to a bird, it 
 is sufficient to observe that its extra-vascular plumage would 
 he destroyed and decomposed by a six months' immersion. 
 Swallows, like the cuckoo, immigrate to us for the purpose 
 of breeding. 
 
 HI'SPID. (Lat. hispidus, rough.) In Botany, a term 
 used in describing the superficial appendages of bodies, to 
 denote their being covered with long rigid hairs, as the stem 
 of F.chium vulgare. 
 
 Hi'spid. In Zoology, when a surface is rough from mi- 
 nute spines or very rigid bristles. 
 
 HI'STER. A Linnaenn genus of Coleopterous insects, 
 now raised to a family (Histeridte), belonging to the section 
 Pentamera, and the subsection Clavicorncs of Latreille. 
 Many of the species of this family are remarkable for the 
 instinctive promptitude and perfection with which they alter 
 their ordinary appearance when alarmed, by drawing in 
 their antenna; nnd folding up their legs, so ns to feign death, 
 and, in many cases, to take on the resemblance of a small 
 black pebble or seed ; whence one of the species is called 
 Scminulum. It is this habit which probably suggested the 
 generic name from histrio, an actor. There are about fifty 
 known British species referable to the Linna;an srenus, and 
 
 561 
 
HISTORICAL PAINTING. 
 
 now divided into the subgenera Abrmus, Orithophilis, Den- 
 drophilus, Platysoma, and Hister proper. 
 
 HISTORICAL. PAINTING. In Painting, that depart- 
 ment of the art which comprehends all representations 
 whereof history furnishes the subject. But under this head 
 are generally included subjects from fabulous history, and 
 those founded on allegory. 
 
 HISTORIO'GRAPHER. (Gr.) A professed historian, or 
 writer of histories. It lias been a common, although not 
 uniform prac ice in European courts, to confer the place of 
 public historiographer on some learned man as a mark of 
 royal favour. Voltaire had at one period the title of Royal 
 Historiographer of France. 
 
 HI'STORY. (Gr. Icrropia, from the verb \oTcptu>, I in- 
 quire.) This word is first used in the commencement of the 
 work of Herodotus, whicli he there calls by the title Histo- 
 ria. It is probable that this ancient writer thus fixed the 
 sense in which the word has ever since been used ; as ap- 
 plicable, strictly and properly, to the civil history of man, 
 although it has been analogically used to express other 
 branches of investigation, as in the term Natural History, 
 still in use ; an application also sanctioned by classical usage, 
 in the instances of Theophrastus' s History of Plants, Aris- 
 totle's History of Animals, &c. 
 
 Civil history, properly so called, has also been subdivided 
 into several branches; first, according to the class of events 
 or actions which is made the subject of narration; r.s ec- 
 clesiastical, political, and literary : secondly, according to 
 the extent of the subject; as universal history, in contradis- 
 tinction to the history of particular nations or districts, or of 
 individual men, more properly termed biography. 
 
 Our most ancient civil history is to be found in the Old 
 Testament. But its objects are confined, after the brief and 
 introductory narration of the first ages of the world, to the 
 annals of a separate and peculiar people, the Jews, and such 
 incidental notices of the affairs of other nations (Assyrians, 
 Phoenicians, Egyptians, &c.) as the inspired writers found 
 necessary for the illustration of their main topic. But the 
 great empires and kingdoms which surrounded the little 
 commonwealth of the Hebrews were also connected, by 
 various circumstances of religion and descent, with the first 
 of the two nations (Greek and Roman) whose annals con- 
 stitute what is termed classical history, with which again 
 our own history, or that of modern Europe, is in intimate 
 association. Hence, in a general view of civil history, the 
 whole subject may, perhaps, not be unappropriated classed 
 under five heads, indicating, as it were, five different bodies 
 of history, which, in the main, are distinct from each other 
 in the subject, and partly in the sources from whence our 
 knowledge is derived, although mutually throwing much 
 light on each other. 
 
 I. The Jewish history, as contained in the Old Testament. 
 
 H. The history of the empires and states of antiquity in 
 that portion of the world known to the classical and Jewish 
 historians, and illustrated by classical and Jewish history, 
 viz., Assyria, Persia, Egypt, Phoenicia, and its colony Car- 
 thage. 
 
 III. Classical history, properly so called: the history of 
 the national affairs and conquests of the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans. 
 
 IV. The history of those nations and states (chiefly Ori- 
 ental) which possess annals of their own, independent of 
 classical, Jewish, and modern European literature ; China, 
 India, modern Persia, Arabia, and the Mohammedan con- 
 quests. 
 
 V. Modern European history, including that of the colo- 
 nies and conquests of Europeans. 
 
 1. The Jewish history, as we have said, is to be found in 
 the Old Testament, some Apocryphal books, and in the wri- 
 tings of uninspired Jewish authors (Josephus and Philo-Ju- 
 dseus) who have investigated the antiquities of their country. 
 
 2. Of Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, ancient Persia, Carthage, 
 &c., we possess no historical notice except such as is deri- 
 ved, 1. From Jewish or classical authors ; 2. From monu- 
 ments, especially in Egypt. Phoenician historical authors 
 of repute (Sanchoniatho, Berosus, &c.) are alluded to by 
 classical writers, and, perhaps, in part abridged by them ; but 
 we have no actual remains of their compositions on the au- 
 thenticity of which reliance can be placed. With respect 
 to Persia, much industry has been expended in endeavour- 
 ing to extract from the histories of modern native writers 
 coincidences with the narrations of Greek and Roman au- 
 thors, but hitherto with little success. 
 
 3. The poems of Homer are generally regarded as con- 
 taining the oldest fragments of Grecian history. Herodotus 
 is the oldest Greek prose writer. His invaluable history 
 comprises a description of several countries bordering on 
 Greece and the Mediterranean; concise narratives of Egyp- 
 tian, Persian, and Assyrian history; and a connected ac- 
 count, more or '.ess detailed, according to circumstances, of 
 the history of Greece, both civil and domestic, for about fifty 
 years previous to the invasion of Xerxes, with wliich his 
 
 562 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 ; annals close (B.C. about 480). The history of tne Grecian 
 commonwealth is pursued in detail by Thucydides and Xen- 
 ! ophon for about a century afterwards. After that period 
 J our knowledge of Greek domestic history is confined to the 
 I incidental notices derived from various cotemporary writers, 
 j and the general compilations of later historians. Among 
 I these may be mentioned, as aulhois from whom a large 
 portion of our actual knowledge is derived, Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus, the author of a very miscellaneous general history, of 
 which great part is lost, who lived about the age of Augus- 
 tus; Polybius, whose history is more especially devoted to 
 Roman affairs; Arrianand Quintus Curtius, the historians 
 of the conquests of Alexander ; Llvy, as to the transactions 
 between Greece and Rojiie ; Justin, the compiler of a brief 
 but useful abridgment of general history ; Plutarch, in his 
 Lives of Illustrious Men, &c. These writers bring the stu- 
 dent down to the period of the subjugation of Greece by 
 Rome ; after which, all history of Greek affairs, properly so 
 called, terminates, until the establishment of the Eastern 
 empire, and we have little knowledge of the state of Greece 
 and the Graxo-Asiatic kingdoms in their provincial state. 
 
 Ancient Roman history, down to the first Punic War, is 
 chiefly known from the compilations of Livy and Dionysius 
 of Halicarnassus, writers wbr«e credit is rendered extremely 
 doubtful by modem investigation ; and, where *&es!? fail, 
 from incidental sources. In the History of the Punic Wars, 
 the narrative of Livy is aided by the admirable work of Po- 
 lybius. From the end of the second Punic War to the dic- 
 tatorship of Sylla (nearly 150 years) our materials for Ro- 
 man history are very deficient ; the want of cotemporary 
 writers being supplied only by later compilations, and by 
 the incidental knowledge derived from writers on various 
 subjects, the course of whose composition led them to touch 
 on past events — of whom by far the most valuable is Cicero. 
 From the period of Sylla's dictatorship to the accession of 
 Vespasian (nearly 150 years) we have the advantage of a 
 succession of cotemporary writers, some of them actors in 
 the events which they describe, and comprising some of the 
 greatest names in literature — Sallust, Cicero, Caesar, Velleius 
 Paterculus, Tacitus. Yet even here there is one considera- 
 ble lacuna, comprising the last thirty years of the reign of 
 Augustus, as to which our knowledge is scanty. From the 
 accession of Vespasian to the reign of Constantine, a long 
 period elapses during which our historical acquaintance 
 with the events of an empire then comprising the greater 
 part of the civilized world is vague and defective. Dio 
 Cassius and Herodian are the two best writers on history 
 who can be named in this long interval ; the latter, during 
 the short epoch which he illustrates as a cotemporary, is 
 full and valuable. After the accession of Constantine, we 
 have abundant materials for history, both eclesiastical and 
 civil, from the hand of cotemporary authors down to the 
 reign of Justinian in the East and of Theodoric in the West, 
 although the quality of the writers is sensibly degenerated. 
 Perhaps the comparative obscurity and uncertainty into 
 which history is plunged after the last of these two epochs, 
 and the absence of all standard writers after Procopius, ren- 
 der it the best period to fix upon for the arbitrary limit be- 
 tween ancient and modem history. It will be seen from 
 this brief summary that the only periods of any extent as to 
 which we have the assistance of cotemporary historians (or 
 original authority, properly so called), in the whole extent 
 of classical history, are : 1. As to Greece, from B.C. 500 to 
 B.C. 380 ; 2. As to Rome, from the dictatorship of Sylla to 
 the accession of Vespasian (B.C. 76 to A.D. 70) ; and, finally, 
 the reigns of Constantine and his successors. 
 
 4. After the downfall of the Roman empire, a long series 
 of revolutions in dynasties and nations followed before 
 Western Europe was parcelled out into the several great 
 countries which, notwithstanding all subsequent changes in 
 political limits, have since subsisted as geographical divisions 
 — Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Scandinavian 
 regions. Another period elapsed before the three great 
 countries of Eastern Europe — Russia, Poland, Hungary — 
 were added as distinct members to the family of European 
 states ; and the Greek empire in Europe remained apart, 
 distinct in language, manners, and political history, from both 
 the other divisions. 
 
 From the fall of the Roman empire to the revival of liter- 
 ature (a period composing in round numbers about eleven 
 centuries) our knowledge of the affairs of Western Europe 
 is derived from a series of writers, in each country, who are 
 usually comprehended under the title of chroniclers. A 
 chronicle, or book of onnals, is properly a history of which 
 the continuous narrative is so interrupted that each year 
 forms a separate section, and events are thus related nearly 
 in strict chronological order. This is a form very common- 
 ly adopted by the historians of the dark ages of whom the 
 greater proportion were monks, who appear to have noted 
 down the acts which occurred within their own sphere of 
 knowledge or memory, derived from the accounts of older 
 men, merely to satisfy the vague desire of communicating 
 
HISTRIONIC ART. 
 
 knowledge to posterity, within the limited circle of the mon- 
 astery or society to which they belonged. But a great many 
 of the histories of the middle ages are not even in the form 
 of chronicles; they have all the requisites which the most 
 fastidious criticism can require of a regular history. Unity 
 of purpose, and a sustained and energetic style, are qualities 
 in which some of the early national annalists of modern 
 Europe have been unsurpassed by their more instructed 
 successors. 
 
 The venerable Bede, who wrote in the 9th century, pre- 
 sents us with the first name of true credit and authority 
 among the annalists of England. Of our monkish Latin 
 chroniclers in later times, Matthew Paris is perhaps best en- 
 titled to the character of an historian. After the period of 
 the invaluable Saxon chronicle, we have no English histo- 
 ries in the native language of the country worthy of note, 
 with the exception of a few meager rhyming chronicles, un- 
 til '.he revival of letters and discovery of printing. In France, 
 the long collection of native Latin Chroniclers presents us 
 with few names of interest after the time of the celebrated 
 ry of Tours; but the Craadea called forth, fora short 
 space, an unusual spirit of historical description. When we 
 arrive, however, at the 14th and 15th centuries, we find 
 among the native French historians two authors, Praianit 
 and Philip de Comines, whose narratives are no less delight- 
 ful from the talent and energy of the writers, than from the 
 romantic character of the times which they portray. The 
 annals of Italy are to be sought in the pages of a long series 
 of chroniclers, from the 8th century downwards, of whom 
 the most valuable are published together in Muratori's great 
 collection. Their works are uniformly in Latin until the 
 13th century. But towards the end of that age the Tuscan 
 dialect was elevated, as it were at a single step, to the rank 
 of a literary language; and the little Tuscan republics pro- 
 duced a succession of historian.*, many of them remarkable 
 for the purity of their style, and some (as the three Villanl 
 at Florence) for their extensive information and historical 
 talent. Germany and Spain, in the middle aces, produced 
 few historical works above the rank of dry chronicles. lint 
 the annals of the Scandinavian nations form the most im- 
 portant part of their early and peculiar literature. The 
 Greek empire produced, also, a scries of chroniclers, whose 
 works have been collected in the Corpus Histories Byzan- 
 tiriir. 
 
 The period of the revival of letters, and the following cen- 
 tury, were distinguished by the appearance of several wri- 
 ters of first-rate merit in the department of history. In Italy, 
 Guiceiardini ; in France, De Thou ; in Spain, Herrera ; and 
 our own Camden may be added, not without justice, to the 
 numlicr. To follow the progress of history in modern times 
 would be an impossible task. Suffice it to say, that with 
 the advance of literary knowledge and the increase of edu- 
 cation, historical writers seem to become more strongly divi- 
 ded into two very different classes: those who furnish con- 
 tributions towards the history of their own times, especially 
 the writers of memoirs— a delightful nnd useful branch of 
 literature, of which France gave the first examples, and still 
 produces the most numerous; and the historians, more prop- 
 erly so called, who collect, discuss, and criticise, endeavour- 
 ing to extricate the truth from the mass of former materials. 
 The latter, in our times, has become more peculiarly the 
 province of literary men. Philosophical history, in which 
 the mere narrative of facts is regarded as subordinate to the 
 elucidation of general truths, and t<x> frequently to the estab- 
 lishment of favourite theories, is a modem improvement in 
 the art; and Voltaire is commonly regarded, not without 
 some truth, as the founder of the school of philosophical 
 historians, among whom the highest rank In popularity has 
 been attained and deserved by Gibbon. 
 
 5. The history of the more remote Oriental nations, and 
 also of those which derive their religion and civilization 
 from Arabia, may be conveniently classed apart; because 
 the knowledge of it is derived from wholly different sources, 
 and requires, as it were, a peculiar education. Chinese and 
 Indian history form two entirely distinct bodies of knowl- 
 edge. With regard to that of the Mohammedan nations, it 
 may be observed that it is brought into contact with that of 
 modern Europe in several distinct countries and periods, of 
 which the most remarkable instances are the Crusades, the 
 annals of Ihe Moors in Spain, and the history of the Turkish 
 empire in its transactions, first with the Greeks, nnd after- 
 wards with the other nations of Christendom. It is a curi- 
 ous subject for the philosophical historian, and one which has 
 not hitherto received the attention it merits, to compare the 
 different accounts of the same events which have been trans- 
 mitted to posterity by writers of distinct nations, religions, 
 and languages, whose minds, from difference of education, 
 habitually viewed almost every object in a totally different 
 tight. 
 
 HISTRIO'NIC ART. The art of acting in dramatic rep- 
 resentations is not unfrequentlv so called, from the Lat. his- 
 tno, or hister, an actor. (See Thbatrb.) The word hist/»o 
 
 HOLOTHURIANS. 
 
 is of Etruscan derivation, as was the Roman dramatic an 
 also. See Mem. de f Ac. des Inscr., vol. xxvii. 
 
 HITCH. In Naval affairs, a particular kind of knot, of 
 which there are several. 
 
 IIITHE. An old Saxon word, signifying a port, wharf, 
 or minor harbour, at which goods are shipped or landed: 
 Ciueenhithe on the; Thames is an example. 
 
 HO.VRY, in describing the superficial appendages of bod 
 lea, denotes their being covered with very' short dense hairs, 
 placed so closely as to give an appearance of whiteness to 
 the surface from which thev grow. 
 
 Ho'lllLERS (Lat. bobellaru), in England, were feudal 
 tenants bound to serve as light horsemen or bowmen, for 
 the word seems to have been of somewhat uncertain env 
 pjoymeat The smaller feudal gentry were long styled rr. 
 France " Hobereaux." 
 
 HOE. In Agriculture and Gardening, an instrument for 
 stirring the surface of the soil, cutting annual weeds up by 
 the roots, and earthing up plants. The hand hoe is a thin 
 plate of iron six or eight inches broad, and sharpened on the 
 edge, lived at right angles on the extremity of a pole or rod, 
 which serves as a handle. This is called a draw hoe, be- 
 cause in the operation of hoeing the instrument is drawn or 
 pulled towards the operator. Another description of garden 
 hoe has the blade or iron plate fixed on the extremity of the 
 handle, and in continuation of it : and this is called a thrust 
 hoe, because in hoeing the operator always pushes the hoe 
 forward. This kind is also called a Dutch hoe, most prob- 
 ably from having been first introduced from Holland. In 
 agriculture there are hoes of the thrust kind drawn by beasts 
 of labour, and commonly called horse hoes. In general 
 form they resemble a plough ; but instead of the share they 
 have one or more iron blades, or plates with sharp edges, 
 fixed to perpendicular iron rods at their lower extremities. 
 These sharpentd plates being drawn through the soil, cut 
 through the roots of weeds on inch or two beneath the sur- 
 face. Agricultural or field hoes are only used in the case 
 of those field crops which are sown or planted in rows. 
 There are a great many kinds of field or horse hoes ; hut it 
 is worthy of remark, that they differ very little in mechani- 
 cal merit The implement, indeed, does not seem suscepti- 
 ble of the same degree of improvement as the plough and 
 the harrow. 
 
 HOEING. The oiierntion of stirring the surface, cutting 
 off weeds, or earthing up plants with a hoe. In the case ol 
 any of these operations dry weather must be chosen, other- 
 wise the result will either be useless or injurious. Plants 
 rooted up by the hoe in wet weather will produce fresh 
 roots nnd grow again, while plants earthed up under similar 
 circumstances will have the leaves which are covered by 
 the soil decayed by it. In either case, also, the ground will 
 be hardened by the treading of the feet of men or horses, so 
 as to obstruct the progress of the roots, and to exclude air 
 and water from penetrating through it to them. Hoeing is 
 sometimes performed on surfaces which are without weeds, 
 for the purpose of stirring the soil ; but in such cases prong 
 ed hoes, or hoes having three or more long spikes or teeth 
 arc more effective than hoes with broad plates or blades. 
 
 HO GSHEAD. An ancient measure of capacity, contain- 
 ing 03 old wine gallons. 
 
 HOLD. (Sax. healdan.) The inside of the bottom of 
 the ship. It is divided into compartments by bulkheadr 
 across ; and contains the ballast, water, coal and wood, pro 
 visions, and cargo. 
 
 Hold. In Music, the same as Pause, which see. 
 
 HOLIDAYS are considered to be those days, exclusive 
 of Sundays, on which no regular public business is transact- 
 ed at public offices. They are either fixed or variable, and 
 vary in different public offices. The variable holidays are 
 Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Monday and Tues 
 day, Holy Thursday, Whit Monday and Tuesday. Sre 
 Feri*. 
 
 HO'LINESS. The title by which the Pope is addressed ; 
 equivalent to the Latin " Sanctissime." 
 
 HO'LING. (From hole.) In Architecture, piercinr the 
 plates to receive the nails. 
 
 Holino. Undermining beds of con!. 
 
 HOLM. (Sax. and Danish.) An island, or fenny place 
 surrounded by water. Two well-known islands in the Bris- 
 tol Channel are called the Steep Holm and Flat Holm. 
 
 HOLM OAK, or HOLLY OAK. See auERCus. 
 
 HO'LOCAUST. (Gr. 6Xo?, the whole, and kciud, /bum.) 
 A solemn sacrifice among the ancients, in which the whole 
 of the victim was consumed upon the nltar, in contradis- 
 tinction to the usual custom, which enjoined that only a 
 portion thereof should be consumed. A similar custom 
 prevailed among the Jews; it is called in Scripture a burnt 
 offering. 
 
 HOLOGRAPH. (Gr. h\6ypa$ov; from b\o$, whole, and 
 ypa<bu>, I write.) In the Civil Law, a will written entirely 
 by the hand of the testator. 
 
 HOLOTHU'RIANS. (Gr. bXodovpwy.) The name of 
 
 5C3 
 
HOLT. 
 
 Vhe family of Echinoderms, having the genus Holothuria 
 for its type. The body presents a subcylindrical elongated 
 form; is defended by a coriaceous, not spiny integument, 
 open at both ends, and perforated by numerous small ca- 
 nals, in linear series, through which prehensile and adhe- 
 sive suckers are protruded. At the anterior extremity is 
 the mouth, surrounded with complicated retractile tentucu- 
 la. At the opposite end is the aperture of the cloaca, in 
 which the rectum and a respiratory branched tube termi- 
 nate. The intestine is very long, and convoluted ; and it 
 frequently happens that when the animal is disturbed, it is 
 protruded from the body, or ruptured by the violence of the 
 contraction of the muscular parietes of the abdomen. The 
 •' trepang" of Eastern commerce is a dried species of Holo- 
 thuria. 
 
 HOLT. (Sax. a wood; Germ, holz.) The termination 
 of many names of places in England, derived from their an- 
 cient situation in a wood. 
 
 HO'LY ALLIANCE, THE. A league formed between 
 certain of the principal sovereigns of Europe, after the de- 
 feat of Napoleon at Waterloo : on the proposal, it is said, of 
 the Emperor Alexander. It arose from the religious enthu- 
 siasm which was prevalent at that period of deliverance 
 from French domination, and with which the Russian em- 
 peror was just then considerably imbued. The act of this 
 alliance is said to have been sent in his handwriting to the 
 Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia, and signed by 
 them. It is not supposed that the original terms of the 
 league were other than indefinite ; for the maintenance of 
 justice, religion, &c, in the name of the Gospel. But it was 
 subsequently connected with the determination of those 
 monarchs to support, in conjunction with England and 
 France, existing governments throughout Europe, by the Dec- 
 laration of November, 1819 : afterwards the congresses of 
 Troppau, Laybach, and Verona established the character 
 of the alliance ; to which the war of France against Spain, 
 in 1823, gave additional illustration. Since the secession of 
 England and France, the alliance can scarcely be said to 
 have any active existence. (See Ed. Rev., vol. xxxii., xxxix.) 
 
 HO'LY ROOD, or HOLY CROSS. A festival kept on 
 the 14th of September, to commemorate the exaltation of 
 the Holy Cross. It is from this circumstance that the royal 
 palace in Edinburgh has derived its appellation. 
 
 HO'LY STONE. A stone used by hand, with sand, to 
 scour the ship's decks. The large stone worked by ropes is 
 called the bear. The sand is used with water; but it has 
 long been a very general practice in the navy to use dry sand 
 below : this is called dry holy-stoning ; it is considered more 
 healthy than using water frequently. 
 
 HO'LY THURSDAY, or ASCENSION DAY. In the 
 Romish Calendar, the 39th day after Easter Sunday. A 
 festival in commemoration of Christ's ascension. 
 
 HO'M-iEOMERI'A. (Gr. buoiouiptm, similarity of parts.) 
 Fhe name given to the physical theory of Anaxagoras, a 
 Krecian philosopher of Clazomenaj, who flourished in the 
 fifth century B.C. According to this hypothesis, every mate- 
 rial substance is made up of infinitely small parts similar to 
 itself. Hence the growth and nourishment of animals and 
 vegetables was accounted for, by supposing the alimentary 
 substance to be analyzed into its various component parts 
 corresponding to the parts of the substance nourished. For 
 instance, corn was supposed to contain particles of blood, 
 bone, flesh, skin, &c, which by the process of digestion 
 were separated from each other, and added to the corre- 
 sponding parts of the animal body. This theory bears some 
 resemblance to that of the monads of Leibnitz in modem 
 times. See Monad. 
 
 HO'M^EOPATH Y. (Gr. buoios, similar ; and iraQos, feel- 
 ing or affection.) The homffiopathic method of healing dis- 
 eases was first proposed by Samuel Hahnemann, a German 
 physician, in 1796. It consists in the administration of med- 
 icines which are presumed to excite in healthy persons 
 symptoms similar to those of the disease which is to be 
 treated, upon the principle that similia similibus curantur. 
 Thus they maintain that sulphur produces a pustular erup- 
 tion upon the skin, and therefore cures pustular eruptions ; 
 and that quinia produces febrile symptoms, and therefore 
 cures agues, and so forth. Not the least absurd part of this 
 practice is the smallness of the doses in which the homo:o- 
 pathic remedies are administered, it being presumed that by 
 infinite subdivisions the virtues of remedies are proportion- 
 ately refined and exalted. A grain, for instance, of any 
 active remedy, such as aloes, is triturated with 1000 grains 
 of sugar of milk ; when this mixture is complete, a grain of 
 it is again diluted with 1000 of the vehicle; and so of medi- 
 cines which the ordinary practitioner administers in doses of 
 one or two grains or more, the homa:opathist prescribes in 
 the quantity of a millionth or the decillionth of a grain, or 
 even less. It is not surprising that enthusiasts of this cast 
 should occasionally start up; but it is remarkable that they 
 ihould find converts among persons in their right senses. 
 
 HO'MAGE. (Lat. homagium, or hominium, from homo, 
 564 
 
 HOMOPHONY. 
 
 man, the usual term by which the vassal or dependant r«f -i 
 prince is designated in the older writers of the middle ages. 
 The symbolical acknowledgment of dependance due from a 
 vassal to a feudal lord or superior when invested with a fief, 
 or obtaining it by succession. In the earliest periods of the 
 feudal system fealty and homage appear to be confounded 
 (see Sir F. Palgrave on the English Commonwealth, vol. ii., 
 p. cccxc.) ; but in later times the distinction was clearly es 
 tablished, and fealty might sometimes be due whore hoin 
 age was not. Homage was either homagium ligeum, Urge 
 homage, by which full and unreserved allegiance was res 
 dered ; or homagium non ligeum, simple homage, a mere 
 acknowledgment of feudal superiority, with a saving or ex- 
 ception of the rights of other feudal lords. The one was 
 personal, and could not be renounced (hence the doctrine of 
 allegiance) ; the other bound the vassal only so long as he 
 held the fief in respect of which it was due. 
 
 HO'MALIA'CE^E. (Homalium, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of arborescent or shrubby Exogens, inhabiting 
 the tropics. According to Brown, related to Passifloracea, 
 but distinguished by their inferior ovary. De Candolle pla- 
 ces them between Samydacca: and Chailletlacea:. They are 
 plants of some beauty, but of no known use. 
 
 HOME, in Naval language, is said of anything that is close 
 in its place: it is applied to the sheets of the sails, the shot 
 and cartridge in a gun, and any article of Stowage. 
 
 HO'MICIDE. (Lat. homo, a human being, and ca;do, / 
 kill.) In Law, the killing of any human creature; which 
 is either justifiable — viz., 1. In case of necessity, public or 
 private ; 2. By permission of law for the advancement of 
 justice ; 3. For the prevention of forcible and atrocious 
 crime. Or excusable — 1. By misadventure ; 2. In self-de- 
 fence on a sudden affray, or chance-medley. Or felonious; 
 of which the species are — 1. Self-murder; 2. Manslaughter, 
 which is defined "the unlawful killing of another without 
 malice, expressed or implied ;" 3. Murder, or the wilful kill- 
 ing of another by malice aforethought ; 4. Petit treason, 
 which by the Statute of Treasons was confined to the cases 
 of a servant wilfully killing his master, a wife her husband, 
 or an ecclesiastical person his superior; but the distinction 
 in judgment between this offence and murder is now abol- 
 ished. 
 
 HO'MILY (Gr. bui\ia, an assemblage), was used by lh« 
 early fathers in the same sense as our word sermon ; both 
 of which, according to their original meaning, signify the la 
 miliar discourse with which the primitive teachers enforce* 
 their doctrines, in opposition to the more remote and declam 
 atory orations which were more fashionable at the time 
 Up to the fifth century the practice of preaching was con 
 fined to the bishops, and the only homilies extant are ol 
 their composition. The term, which has now become obso 
 le!e, was in constant use as late as the Reformation ; an< 
 the English Book of Homilies is a collection of plain ser 
 mons, setting forth the principal doctrines of Christianity 
 and pointtng out the principles of Protestantism ; of whicl 
 the first part was published by Cranmer in the reign of Ed 
 ward VI., and the second by order of convocation in that o" 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 HOMOCHRO'MOUS. (Gr. buov, together, and %poua. 
 co'our.) When all the florets in the same flower-head ar« 
 of the same colour. 
 
 HOMO'GAMOUS. (Gr. buov .and yafios, marriage.) In 
 Grasses, when all the florets of the spikclets of the same 
 individual are hermaphrodite ; in Composite plants, when 
 all the florets of a flower-head are hermaphrodite. 
 
 HOMOGE'NEOUS. (Gr. buov, and yevos, kind.) Ho- 
 mogeneous bodies are those of which the constituent ele- 
 ments are all similar. Homogeneous quantities are such as 
 can be added to or subtracted from each other. 
 
 HOMO'LOGOUS. (Gr. buov, and \oyoc, ratio.) Having 
 the same ratio or proportion. In Geometry, those sides of 
 similar figures which are opposite to equal and correspond- 
 ing angles are proportional to each other, and therefore 
 said to be homologous. The areas and solid contents of such 
 figures nre likewise homologous for the same reason. 
 
 HOMO'NYMS. (Gr. buov. and ovoua, a name.) Words 
 which agree in sound, but differ in signification ; as the sub 
 stantive " bear" and the verb " bear." 
 
 HOMOOU'SIANS and HOMOIOU'SIANS. Names by 
 which the Orthodox and Arian parties were distinguished in 
 the great controversy upon the nature of Christ in the fourth 
 century ; the former word signifying that the nature of the 
 Father and Son is the same, the latter that they are similar. 
 (Gibbon, vol. iii. See Arians.) Homoousian (Gr. ouoovai- 
 os) is derived from ouos, the same, ami ovota, being; Homoi- 
 ousian (buoiovaioq) from b/iotoi, similar, and dvoia. (See 
 also Milman's Hist, of Christianity, ii., 443.) 
 
 HOMOPHO'NOUS. (Gr. bi*os, the same, and ^tovrj, roice 
 or tone.) In Music, of the same pitch, or unisonal. Two 
 or more sounds nre said to be homophonous when they are 
 exactly of the same pitch. 
 
 HOMO'PHONY. (Gr. buos, and ^i>cu, / speak.) Ho- 
 
HOMOPTERANS. 
 
 nioplionous words or syllables, in language, are words or 
 syllables having the some sound, although expressed in wri- 
 ting by various combinations of letters. Language! which 
 abound in homophonies are, 1. Some Oriental monosyllabic 
 tongues, namely, the Chinese and its kindred dialects, in 
 which very few sounds comprise the whole vocabulary, 
 and the same sound is expressed by a variety of ideographic 
 characters (in Chinese there are only 400 such sounds, multi- 
 plied by the distinctions of tone and accent to 1600 or 2000) ; 
 arid, 2. Some European tongues in which, according to the 
 genius of the dialect, the syllables of the original language ■ 
 from which the words are chiefly derived have been con- 
 tracted in speaking, and part of their sounds dropped, while 
 the greater part of the letters is retained. Thus b 
 and still more in French, which is peculiarly a dialect of 
 Latin abounding in contractions, homoplmnics are numer- 
 ous (in the latter tongue the number of syllables ditTerently 
 sp< It, all having nearly the sound of our broad A, amounts 
 tu not* than ii hundred); while in Italian, in which the 
 original proportions of the Roman language are preserved, 
 they are scarcely to be found at all. 
 
 liOMO'PTERANS, Homoptera. (Gr. bpoi, and wrtjov, 
 a icing.) The name of an order of insects, dismembered from 
 iptera of Linna'iis, including those in which the 
 win» covers are of a uniform semi-membranous consist- 
 ency. Latreille divides this order into the three following 
 viz., 
 
 I. The Cicadaria, having the tarsi three-jointed, and the 
 very short, terminated by a fine bristle. 
 
 M. The jiphidiens, having the tarsi two-jointed, and the 
 antenna; longer, without n terminal bristle; containing the 
 families . I vhultc and Psyllidtt. 
 
 3. The (lallinsccta, having the tarsi one-jointed, termina- 
 ted by a single claw. The males have two wings, and are 
 destitute of a mouth; the females are wingless, and fur- 
 nished with a sucker. 
 
 HOMO'TBOPAL. (Gr. bpoc, and rptwu, I turn.) In 
 Botany, a term used in describing the direction of bodies, to 
 denote any one having the same direction as the body to 
 which it belongs, bat noi being straight. 
 
 HO NEY. (Germ, honig.) A sweet viscid substance 
 elaborated by the bee from the juices of the nectaries of 
 flowers, and de|>osiied in the waxen cells of the honcij- 
 combs. That which spontaneously runs out of the comb is 
 called virgin honey. Pure honey consists of a syrup or mi- 
 en stalli/.able sugar, and of a solid or granular sugar which 
 'd from the grape. 
 
 HONEY STt >NE. A yellow mineral found in octoedral 
 M Arlern in Thuringia. It is extremely rare. It 
 fa peculiar acid (the mellitic acid) combined with 
 alumina and water. 
 
 HONG. The Chinese name for the foreiL'ti factories situ- 
 ated at Canton. The hong merchants are those persons 
 who aro alone legally permitted to trade with foreigners. 
 They arc ten in number, nnd are always held responsible 
 by the government for paying all duties, whether on im- 
 ports or exports in foreign vessels. No foreign ship that 
 enters the Chinese ports can commence unloading until 
 she has obtained a hong merchant as security for the du- 
 ties. 
 
 HONORA'RIUM. (Lnt. honos, honour.) A term used 
 almost synonymously with fee. and applied at present chief- 
 ly to the fees tendered to professors in universities, nnd to 
 medical or other professional gentlemen for their services. 
 It was originally applied solely to the salaries of the great 
 officers of state, whose services it was considered, by a per- 
 haps pardonable euphemism, were remunerated only, as it 
 were, honoris causa. ; a shade of meaning which is still tier 
 ceptihle in the present use of the term. 
 
 HO'NOUR (Lat), in Law, signifies the more noble sort 
 of seigniories, on which other lordshi;>s or manors depend 
 by the performance of customary services. 
 
 The term honour, in its common sense, is susceptible of 
 various significations ; all of which, however, may easily be 
 traced to its original meaning, esteem or rnjnrd built on 
 opinion. Among the Romans honour was deified; and in 
 modern times the term plays a no less important part, being 
 used, in various terms of phraseology, to indicate certain 
 rules by which society in general, and especially thru por- 
 tion of it called fashionable, has tacitly consented to regu- 
 late Its proceedings, any deviation from which is attended 
 by expulsion from its pale. To this class may be referred, 
 with slight modifications of meaning, the phrases debt of 
 honour, laic of honour, court of honour, affair of honour, &c., 
 which are all self-explanatory. The term was formerly the 
 ■tyle of a man of rank generally- ; but it is now distinctively 
 conferred on the Vice-chancellor, and the Master of the 
 Rolls. 
 
 IIO'NOURABLE. A title prefixed to the Christian 
 
 names of the younger eons of earls, and to those of all the 
 
 children, both sons and daughters, of viscounts and barons. 
 
 ft is also conferred on persons filling certain offices of trust 
 
 20 
 
 HOP POLES. 
 
 and dignity, such as the maids of honour of the ni 
 queen dowager; and collectively on certain public bodies 
 or institutions, as the House of Commons, the Congress of 
 the United States, the East India Company, &c. &c. The 
 title of right honourable is given to all peers and peeresses 
 of the United Kingdom ; to the eldest sons and all the daugh- 
 ters of peers above the rank of viscount; to all privy coun- 
 sellors; and to some civic functionaries, as the lord-mayors 
 of London and Dublin, the lord-provosts of Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow, &c. 
 
 HONOUR, LEGION OF. See Legion, &c. 
 
 HOOPING COUGH. .SVe Whoopi.no Cough. 
 
 HOP. The /tumulus lupulus of Linna'us, the female 
 flowers of which are used for imparling a bitter flavour to 
 malt liquors for the purpose of preserving them from fer- 
 mentation. The hop plant is a perennial indigenous to Brit- 
 ain and different parts of Europe ; but to produce abandonee 
 of hops, it requires to be very carefully cultivated in good 
 soil, and even then is one of the most precarious of crape, 
 The fields in which hoiis are grown are common I v called 
 hopgardens: a loamy soil on a dry subsoil is chosen, and 
 the plants are placed in hills, stools, or groups of three or 
 four in a group, the hills being in rows five or six feet apart, 
 and at about the same distance; in the row. A full crop is 
 not produced till the fourth or fifth year after planting. 
 Every year the ground la dug in winter, and kept clear of 
 weeds during summer; and the hills have poles, generally 
 three or four to a hill, for the plants to twine on: the pur- 
 chase of these pi les. the fixing them in the soil ever}' spring, 
 the taking them down and stacking them every autumn, 
 and tlit ir removal every five, si\, eight, or ten years, accord- 
 ing to the kind of wood need, constitute a considerable 
 part of the expense of hop culture. The hops, when mature, 
 are picked by hand, nnd as they are picked they are carried 
 to a drying kiln, dried, and packed into bags or pockets : and 
 this is also an expensive process. The In p plant is particu- 
 larly liable to be injured by insects, by cold and Continued 
 rains, and by thunder storms; in consequence of which, it 
 is estimated that a full crop is nut obtained nftener than 
 above once in five years. Hence it is easy to conceive that 
 the price of Imps must vary greatly in different years, an I 
 that the grower who bat a command of capital may profit 
 largely by keeping them back from market when the prices 
 are low, and only excising Itiem when they are high. In 
 order to keep hops for two or three years, they require to he 
 powerfully compressed, and put into much closer canvass 
 bags than when they arc to be sent immediately to market; 
 they also require to be kept in dry airy lofts, neither too 
 warm nor tio cold. The culture of hops was introduced 
 into England from Flanders in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 The must extensive plantations are In Kent, Sussex, nnd 
 Herefordshire; but they are cultivated to a considerable ex- 
 tent in many other counties. The hop-growers arc placed 
 under the surveillance of the excise, a duty of 18s. 8el per 
 cwt. being charged upon nil hops grown in this country. In 
 1837, the number of acres of land under cultivation of hope 
 was 56,323 ; and in the same year the duty amounted to 
 X310.71I4 4*., of which Kent contributed nearly one half. 
 
 HO'PLITES. (Gr. forXcTOl, from orAa, arms.) The 
 heavy-armed infantry of Grecian antiquity. According to 
 the Athenian regulations (similar, probably, to those of 
 other states), the higher classes of citizens only, as estimated 
 by the census, were liable to this expensive form of military 
 service ; in process of time, however, it seems that the The 
 tes or inferior classes also served as Hoplites. The Hop 
 lites were armed in early times with the spear heavy defen- 
 sive armour, and large shield ; the hitter were exchanged 
 after the time of Iphicrales for the light cuirass and target. 
 
 HOP OAST. A particular description of kiln used for 
 drying hops. The floor of the kiln is generally of wire 
 cloth, and the heat is generated in a stove with flues below. 
 The hops, after being put on the kiln, are frequently turned, 
 and in general they arc rendered sufficiently dry in the 
 course of a few hours; when dried, they are taken to a loft 
 nnd left to cool for a day or two, and then put into bags, 
 having been previously subjected to the slight action of the 
 fumes of burning sulphur (sulphurous acid), by which they 
 are to a certain extent bleached. 
 
 HO PPLE. A mode of fettering the legs of horses or 
 other animals turned out to graze on a common or other 
 unenclosed place. 
 
 HOP POLES, are poles or stakes annually inserted at 
 the roots of hop plants for their stems to twine round. 
 When a hop plantation is first made, as the plants are weak, 
 the poles are not required to be more than five or six feet in 
 length, but in the third or fourth year they require to be 
 ten or twelve feet in length. Any kind of young tices or 
 saplings may be used as hop poles ; but the most durable 
 are those of the oak, the ash, the sweet chestnut, nnd the 
 larch. The locust, or Ilvlnnia, was strongly recommended 
 as a durable hop pole by Cobbed; but, though this wood is 
 verv durable wl-on of not more than a certain age, it does 
 
 565 
 
HORARY CIRCLES. 
 
 not appear to be so when of the size most proper for hop 
 poles. Much of the durability of the hop pole no doubt 
 depends on the soil in which it is grown ; but, all circum- 
 stances being alike, poles of larch wood, which are much 
 employed in the neighbourhood of Farnham, have been 
 found to last longer than any other. 
 
 IIO'ItARY CIRCLES, on Globes, are hour lines, or cir- 
 cles marking the hours, and drawn at the distance of 15° 
 on the equator from each other. They are the same as 
 meriilians. 
 
 IiO'RARY MOTION, is the motion of a celestial body, 
 or the space which it moves through, in an hour. The ap- 
 parent horary motion of the heavenly bodies in their diurnal 
 revolution is 15 3 ; for as the whole circle is completed in 24 
 hours, the 24th part of it, or 15°, must be passed over in 
 one hour. 
 
 HORDE. A collective name given to those migratory 
 nations who, like the Tartars, are not addicted to a pastoral 
 life, but exist by plunder and rapine. 
 
 HO'RDEIN. A modification of starch, which, according 
 to Proust, constitutes about 55 per cent, of barley-meal. 
 
 HO'DEOLUM. (Lat. dim.of hordeum, barley.) A small 
 tumour on the eyelid, somewhat resembling a barley-corn ; 
 it is a little boil projecting from the edge of the eyelid, and 
 is commonly called a stye. 
 
 HO'REHOUND. This indigenous plant has a bitter and 
 somewhat aromatic flavour, and is considered as an expec- 
 torant, and as giving relief in asthma ; hence the celebrity 
 of horehound tea among the common people. 
 
 HORI'ZON (Gr. b'j^ui, J bound or terminate), in As- 
 tronomy and Geography, is the plane of a great circle of the 
 sphere, dividing the visible from the invisible hemisphere. 
 The horizon is either sensible or rational. The sensible 
 horizon is a plane which is a tangent to the earth's surface 
 at the place of the spectator, extended on all sides till it is 
 bounded by the sky ; the rational horizon is a plane parallel 
 to the former, but passing through the centre of the earth. 
 Both the sensible and rational horizon are relative terms, 
 and change with every change of the spectator's position on 
 the surface of the earth ; in nil cases they are perpendicu- 
 lar to the direction of ?;avity. 
 
 If the eye of the spectator were in the plane of the sensi- 
 ble horizon, stars would not appear to rise till they are 
 above that plane ; but if he is elevated above the horizon, 
 a greater extent of the earth's surface will be visible, and 
 the stars will appear to rise before they reach the plane 
 which is a tangent of the earth. Hence the sensible hori- 
 zon is sometimes defined to be the conical surface which 
 has its apex in the eye of the spectator, and embraces that 
 portion of the earth over which the eye can reach. The 
 visual rays which are tangents to the earth are situated in 
 this surface, and consequently point below the true sensible 
 horizon, or the rational horizon which is parallel to it; and 
 the angle which a visual ray makes with the plane of the 
 horizon is technically called the depression of the horizon or 
 the dip. The dip can be easily computed from the known 
 dimensions of the earth, and the height of the eye above its 
 surface ; but the real depression of a visible object below 
 the horizon cannot be determined in this manner, on account 
 of the refraction of the atmosphere, which prevents the 
 nvys of light from coming to the eye in a straight line. 
 
 HOIUZO'NTAL RANGE, in Gunnery, is the distance to 
 which a piece of ordnance will carry a ball on a horizontal 
 plane. Supposing no resistance from the atmosphere, the 
 greatest range would bo when the piece is elevated at an 
 angle of 45°; and in all other positions the horizontal range 
 would be as the double of the sine of the angle of eleva- 
 tion In a resisting medium the maximum horizontal range 
 requires the elevation to he less than 45°. It is found by 
 experience that with the ordinary velocity a cannon shot 
 ranges the farthest when the elevation of the piece is about 
 30°. Sec Gunnery. 
 
 HORN, partakes of the chemical nature of the cartilagin- 
 ous part of bone ; it consists chiefly of albumen, with some 
 gelatine and a trace of phosphate of lime. See Cornua. 
 
 Horn (commonly called French Horn). A brass mu- 
 sical wind instrument of a complex spiral form, increasing 
 in diameter to its end or mouth, which the French call its 
 pavillion. The inflexion of it is much regulated by the in- 
 sertion of the hand in the pavillion. 
 
 HO'RNBLENDE. A mineral of a dark green or black 
 colour, abounding in oxide of iron, and entering into the 
 composition of several of the trap rocks. It is the amphi- 
 bole of Ilnuv. 
 
 HORNBLENDE-SCHIST. A slaty variety of horn- 
 blende, generally including felspar and grains of quartz : it 
 is of a dark green or black colour. Where clay slate is in 
 contact with granite, it sometimes passes into hornblende 
 slate. 
 
 HO RNET. See Vkspid,;:. 
 
 HO'RNING, LETTERS OF. In Scottish Law, a spe- 
 cbs of diligence It. e.. process) against a debtor They are 
 56f> 
 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 writs in the king s name, proceeding on the warrant of a de- 
 cree of the Court of Session, or of the magistrates of bor- 
 oughs, and of various other inferior authorities ; but in these 
 cases a warrant of the Court of Session must also be ob- 
 tained. They direct the debt to be paid within a limited 
 number of days (according to the nature of the debt). In 
 default of such payment the debtor incurs the charge of 
 rebellion, and is thereupon liable to caption or arrest. 
 
 HO'RNPIPE. The name of a well known dance, for thu 
 skilful performance of which the British sailors have long 
 been celebrated. The origin of the name is uncertain ; but 
 it is believed to be derived from a kind of musical instru- 
 ment called pib-corn (Ang. hornpipe), consisting of a wooden 
 tube with holes and a reed, and a horn at each end, which 
 was formerly used in Wales. (See Barrbigton's Arckaio- 
 logia, vol. iii. 177.) 
 
 HORN SILVER. A name given by the elder chemists to 
 chloride of silver, which when fused puts on a horny ap- 
 pearance. For the same reason chloride of mercury or 
 calomel is occasionally called horn quicksilver ; and chlo- 
 ride of lead horn lead. 
 
 HO'RNSTONE. A variety of flint of a semitranspar 
 ency somewhat resembling that of horn. One of the va 
 rieties of porphyry goes under the name of horustone 
 porphyrv. 
 
 HORN WORK. In Fortification, a kind of outwork car- 
 rying on the head or fore part two demi-bastions resembling 
 horns, whence the name. 
 
 HORO'GRAPH Y. 'Gr. &pa, hour, and ypa<j>w, I write.) 
 The art of drawing hour-lines, or of constructing dials. 
 
 HOROLO'GIUM, or HOROLOGE. (Gr. S>pa, and Xoyo;, 
 discourse.) A term frequently used by ancient writers 
 to denote a clock, watch, or other machine for measuring 
 time. 
 
 HORO'LOGY (Gr. &pa, and Aoyoj, discourse), signifies 
 literally an explanation of the methods of measuring and 
 marking the hours of the day. Anciently the term horo- 
 logium was applied to any sort of contrivance for measur- 
 ing the hours, as the clepsydra and sun-dial (sec the terms) : 
 hut as these instrument? have been superseded by clocks 
 and watcher, horology is now usually understood to signify 
 a description of the principles on which machines for the 
 measurement of time, moved by weights or springs, are 
 constructed. 
 
 Machines for measuring time are designated by the gone 
 ral appellation of clocks and watches ; but they are also dis- 
 tinguished by peculiar names arising from certain modifica- 
 tions in their construction, or from certain particular pur 
 poses they are intended to serve. By the term clock is un- 
 derstood an instrument which not only shows, but also 
 strikes, the hours. A time-piece is one which shows the 
 hours without striking them ; a quarter-dock is one which 
 strikes the quarters as well as the hours; an astronomical 
 clock is one which shows siderial time ; a watch is a porta- 
 ble or pocket time-piece ; a repeater is one having a contri- 
 vance by means of which it can be made at any time to 
 repeat the hours ; a chronometer is a watch of the best 
 kind, or one fit to be employed fur astronomical purposes. 
 
 In a general view, horological machines may be regarded 
 as consisting of three essential parts ; 1st, a moving i>ower, 
 which produces a rotatory motion about an axle; 2d, a train 
 of wheel-work, by means of which a velocity is obtained 
 having any required ratio to that of the primary axle ; and 
 3d, a regulator, by which the rapidity of the revolution is 
 determined, and uniformity of motion produced. The mov- 
 ing power is either a heavy weight which descends by the 
 force of gravity, or a spring which is coiled up within a bar- 
 rel and unwinds itself by the force of its elasticity ; the first 
 being preferred on account of the perfect regularity of its 
 action when the instrument is to remain fixed in a place, 
 and the second being necessary for pocket time-pieces and 
 those which cannot be kept in a fixed position, as on ship- 
 board. The train of wheel-work is chiefly remarkable on 
 account of the delicacy and accuracy of its construction. 
 The regulator is either a pendulum, of which, by the the- 
 ory of falling bodies, the oscillations are isochronal or per- 
 formed in equal times; or a heavy balance, the recipro- 
 cal vibrations of which are also Isochronal. Sec Balanc e. 
 Pendulum. 
 
 Of the various mechanical contrivances introduced into 
 horolngical machines for accomplishing particular purposes* 
 it would be useles to attempt a description in this place, as 
 our limits will not permit them to be given with that min- 
 uteness of detail which is indispensable in order to convey 
 a clear idea of their action. The most important is the 
 escapement (or scapement), or that part of the mechanism 
 by which the original rotatory motion is converted into a re- 
 ciprocating motion, and gives impetus to the pendulum or 
 balance'. Some other parts are also of primary importance ; 
 as the maintaining power, a contrivance by means of which 
 the motion is maintained, or the machine kept going, while 
 the weight or spring is being wound up; the fusee, by whirl: 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 m watches and spring-clocks the force acting on the wheel- 
 work is rendered equal in all states of the tension of the 
 spun:.'. See Fusee. 
 
 The general arrangement of the wheel-work of a clock 
 or watch may he understood from the following description. 
 Fig. 1. represents the movement of a common vertical 
 
 watch, the frame plates being omitted, and the dial being 
 supposed to be turned downwards. A is the barrel, contain- 
 in" tlie Spring which produces the motion. 1! is the fusee, 
 connected with the bone) by the chain b. C is the fusee- 
 , led also the first or gnat wheel, which turns with 
 '..oiks Into the pinion U, called the centre- 
 inion: this pinion, with the centre wheel or second 
 turns once in an hour. The centre wheel E works 
 into the third-wheel pinion F ; and on the same arbor is G. 
 iched, which drives the fourth or centrate-wheel 
 pii'iiiu 11, and along with it the ccntrate wheel I. The teeth 
 I at right angles to its plane, and act 
 in the pillion K, called the balance-wheel pinion; L being 
 the balance wheel, or scape-wheel, or crown-wheel, attach- 
 ed to the same arbor. The balance-wheel acts on the 
 two pallets in and n attached to the verge or arbor of the 
 balance M ; and these I" Ing placed at n distance from each 
 other equal to the diameter of the balahce-wheel. and in 
 different planes, receive alternately from the scape-wheel an 
 impetus in opposite directions which keeps up the vibratory 
 motion of the balance. 
 
 This last part of the mechanism, which it requii 
 attention to understand, is represented more distinctly in 
 (2.) I . where A la the snipe-wheel, and 
 
 Ij: it is to be observed, are not placed on 
 the verge in the same plane, but their 
 planes form an angle equal to the excur- 
 sion of the balance ; so that, supposing 
 one of them to be about 40 or 50 degrees 
 (TOSS the mean potnl towards the right, 
 the other is just as many degrees from the 
 same point towards the left. The teeth of the scape-wheel are 
 bent forward in the direction of the motion, like the teeth of 
 a saw, and their niunlier is odd. Suppose, now, a tooth of 
 the scape-wheel to have eaoght the pallet 11 ; it will continue 
 to bear on that pallet, and to accelerate the halance, until, 
 hy the revolution of the verge, the extreme edge of the pal- 
 mto the plane of the extremities of the teeth, when 
 the pallet escapes. Hut as the halance continues for a short 
 time longer to move in the same direction, the pallet C now 
 between two teeth at the ix>int diametrically oppo- 
 site to the front of the tooth which It has just quitted ; and 
 as the vibration of the balance now commences in the op- 
 posite direction, this pallet is in its turn pressed upon and 
 accelerated by the wheel. 
 
 The crown-wheel escapement, now described, is the oldest 
 and the original form, and is still used in common watches, 
 where it answers sulhciently well ; but when applied to 
 gulated by pendulums, it is exceedingly defective ; 
 for as it requires the vibration to be made in an arc of con- 
 siderable extent, the pendulum must of necessity be short 
 and light, and hence it becomes n very imperfect regulator. 
 In order to obviate these defects, Clement, n London watch- 
 maker, in 1680, invented the crutch or anchor escapement, 
 which was greatly improved upon by Graham about the 
 year 1700. Graham's escapement is represented in fig. 3. 
 O is the centre of the scape- wheel. B A C, 
 the crutch or nnchor, consists of a heavy- 
 piece of metal attached to the rod of the pen- 
 dulum with which it moves. A is its centre 
 of motion ; and in the original construction 
 of Graham, the distance of A from O was 
 equal to the diameter of the scape-wheel. The 
 extremities of the crutch form the pallets, the acting faces of 
 which are inclined planes ; while the parts on which the teeth 
 successively fall me cylindrical surfaces, the radii of which 
 to O A. The tooth being received on this surface, 
 elides along it without tending to accelerate or retard the 
 pendulum, until the pendulum arrives near the middle of its 
 vibration, when the inclined plane comes to the extremity 
 of the tooth, and the tooth then begins to act upon the plane, 
 and to turn the pallets, and consequently accelerate the 
 pendulum. By this arrangement the motion of the wheel 
 only continues during the short time the tooth is sliding 
 along the plane of the pallet, while during the rest of the 
 
 A A 
 
 vibration the tooth rests on the cylindrical surface, and tie 
 wheel stands still, or is dead ; whence this escapement is 
 called the dead beat, or the escapement of repose. In llooke's 
 form, where the cylindrical surfaces are wanting, the im- 
 pulse given to one pallet carries the opposite with Mine force 
 against the approaching tooth, and drives the Wheel back 
 ward, or produces a recoil ; and this force being applied at 
 the extremities of the Vibrations, tends greatly to disturb 
 their isochronism. Hy Graham's method there is no recoil : 
 the impetus is given while the pendulum is near the middle 
 of the vibration, and the velocity the greatest ; and during 
 the rest of the vibration the pendulum is nearly altogether 
 free of the action of the wheels. 
 
 Numerous other modifications of the crutch escapement 
 have been proposed, and some of them carried successfully 
 into effect; but for their description we must refer to the 
 works in which the subject is technically treated. There 
 are two, however, which, by reason of the greater ingenuity 
 displayed in their contrivance, and their almost universal 
 application to the best kinds of pocket watches, require par- 
 ticular notice. These are the duplex and the detached es- 
 capement, the latter being that which is used in modern 
 chronometers. 
 
 Duplex Escapement. — This is represented in fig. 4. 
 is part of the scape-wheel, which is fur- (4.) 
 
 nislied with two sets of teeth, whence 
 probably the name is derived. SI N K 
 are the teeth of repose, lying in the plane 
 of die wheel ; m n r are the teeth of im- 'J/' 
 pulse, and stand pcr|>endiculnr to the A u 
 plane of the wheel. It is the impulse pallet, fixed upon 
 the arbor of the balance just above the plane of the wheel, 
 so that its extremity C may be caught by the teeth m n r, 
 and receive the impulse from them, as they successively 
 pass. A small ruby roller is also placed uixm the arbor, 
 behind the pallet, having a notch in one side of it for 
 receiving the teeth M N 11. When the tooth m has passed 
 the claw of the pallet, the tooth M falls iqion the ruby 
 roller, where it reSU unlil by the returning vibration of Im- 
 balance the DOteh is (nought to the point of the tooth. 
 
 '■ noich, and il"i. p i 
 roller ; and the next impulse tooth n comes up to the pal- 
 let, on the point of which it acts with great advantage 
 in consequence of the long lever. As the successive im- 
 pulses are nil given in the same direction, the halance neces- 
 sarily makes two vibrations for each impulse given by the 
 upright tooth. The chief advantage of this construction 
 OOnswH in there being only one pallet, and in the action 
 being independent of great accuracy In the execution of the 
 teeth of the leapa-w heel, which is indispensable in the case 
 of the escapements already described, and also for the level 
 escapement, which in fact is only a modification of thr 
 crutch. 
 
 Deta c hed Escapement. — The annexed diagram, fig. 5., rep- 
 resents Eamshaw's construction. A (5.) 
 is the main pallet projecting from 
 the verge or arbor of the balance, n 
 concentric with which is another 
 
 small pallet, called the lifting pallet, 
 which, when the balance is vibra- 
 ting from A towards B, lifts a very 
 slender spring B, and with it the detent spring C, so as to 
 set at liberty or unlock the tooth D, the point or which rests 
 on a ruby pin projecting from the detent spring C, and form- 
 ing the detent. The point E of the principal pallet having 
 passed die tooth 1', the wheel moves forward by the action 
 of the mainspring, until the next tooth G falls upon the ruby 
 pin and is locked. The screw H serves to adjust the posi- 
 tion of the detent and the strength of the locking. In the 
 return of the balance, the pallet A passes easily by the 
 detent spring hy forcing back the slender spring B. As in 
 the case of the duplex, the balance here makes two vibra- 
 tions for each impulse. 
 
 Maintaining Power. — In order that a clock or watch, 
 when perfectly regulated, may continue to indicate true 
 mean time, it is necessary that it have some contrivance for 
 continuing the action while it is wound up. Various methods 
 of accomplishing this have been devised. One of the sim- 
 plest consists in the interposition of a spring between the 
 fusee and the wheel impelled by it, a little inferior in force 
 to the main-spring (or weight), so as to remain always bent 
 until the pressure of the main-spring is removed hy the ac- 
 tion of winding, when it begins to act upon a fixed point on 
 one side and the wheel of the fusee on the other, so as to 
 propel the work for a short time with a force nearly equal 
 to that of the main-spring. 
 
 Some of the other parts of the mechanism, as the wheels 
 for moving the minute nnd second hands, the striking part 
 of a clock, and the repeating part of a watch, though they 
 form a considerable part of the bulk of the machine, require 
 no great refinement of invention or dexterity of construction 
 and will be better understood from the inspection of a com- 
 
 567 
 
HOROLOGY. 
 
 mon clock and repeating watch than from any description 
 which could be given. 
 
 The history of the invention of clocks is very imperfectly 
 known. By some it has been ascribed to Pacificus, arch- 
 deacon of Verona, in the 9th century, and by others to 
 Boethius in the early part of the 6th. The Saracens are 
 supposed to have had clocks which were moved by weights 
 as early as the 11th century ; and as the term is applied by 
 Dante to a machine which struck the hours, clocks must 
 have been known in Italy about the end of the 13th or be- 
 ginning of the 14th century. It is said that the first clock 
 made in England was furnished out of the proceeds of a fine 
 imposed upon the chief justice of the King's Bench in 1288, 
 and that it remained in its original situation, in old Palace 
 Yard, as late as the reign of Elizabeth. In the reign of 
 Richard II. a large astronomical clock was made by Richard 
 of Wallingford, abbot of St. Albans, which was regulated by 
 a fly. But the most ancient clock of which we possess any 
 certain account was erected in a tower of the palace of 
 Charles V., king of France, about the year 1364, by Henry 
 de VVyck or de Vick, a German artist. A clock was erected 
 at Strasburg about 1370, at Courtray about the same period, 
 and at Spire in 1395. In the following century public 
 clocks appeal to have existed in all the principal towns of 
 Europe, and private ones to have come into very general 
 use. 
 
 The earliest clocks were doubtless very rude and imper- 
 fect instruments, and their present state of excellence must 
 have been attained by slow and successive improvements. 
 Wheel-work, set in motion by springs and weights was 
 known in the time of Archimedes ; and in order to have a 
 timepiece it was only necessary to apply some contrivance 
 to regulate the motion. For this purpose recourse was first 
 had to a tly wheel ; but it would soon be found that the fly, 
 the action of which depends on the resistance of the air, 
 would form a very imperfect regulator. The clock of Henry 
 de VVyck, above mentioned, was regulated by an alternating 
 balance, which was formed by suspending two heavy 
 weights from a horizontal bar fixed at right angles to an 
 upright arbor, and the movement was accelerated or retard- 
 ed by diminishing or increasing the distance of the weights 
 from the arbor. It had no regulating spring, and the action 
 may consequently be supposed to have been very irregular ; 
 nevertheless clocks regulated in this way were used for 
 astronomical purposes by Walther, Tycho Brahe, Moestlin, 
 the landgrave of Hesse, and others. The capital improve- 
 ment of the pendulum dates from about the middle of the 
 17th century ; but it is very uncertain by whom the appli- 
 cation was first made or proposed. Galileo was the first 
 who remarked, or at least the first who formally announced, 
 in his work on mechanics and motion, which was published 
 in 1639, the isochronal property of oscillating bodies sus- 
 pended by strings of the same length ; and it has been pre- 
 tended that he actually applied a pendulum to a clock for 
 the purpose of observing eclipses and determining longitudes. 
 There is, however, no proof of this fact, which has been 
 strongly disputed. Sanctorius, in his Commentary on Avi- 
 cenna, describes an instrument to which he had applied a 
 pendulum in 1612. Richard Harris is said to have con- 
 structed, in 1641, a pendulum clock in London for the church 
 of St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Vincenzo Galilei, a son of 
 Galileo, is stated, on the authority of the Academy del Cimen- 
 to, to have applied the pendulum in 1649. It was applied 
 by Huygens in 1656; and by Hooke, for whom the invention 
 has been claimed, about 1670. But to whomsoever the 
 merit may belong of having first made the application, Huy- 
 gens is unquestionably the first who accurately explained 
 the theory of the pendulum ; and hence, perhaps, the in- 
 vention of the pendulum clock has been usually ascribed to 
 him. Huygens demonstrated that the vibrations in circular 
 arcs are not independent of the length of the arc, and that 
 in order to obtain perfect isochronism, the ball of the pen- 
 dulum must move in the arc of a cycloid ; and, ingeniously 
 applying a property of the cycloid, of which he was the 
 discoverer, namely, that its involute is a curve similar to it- 
 self, he procured the requisite motion by causing the pendu- 
 lum to vibrate between cycloidal cheeks about which the 
 upper and flexible part of the suspending rod wrapped itself 
 in its motion. But it was found that no practical advantage 
 could be obtained from this beautiful contrivance ; and in 
 fact it was soon rendered unnecessary by the invention of 
 the anchor escapement, which gives the means of rendering 
 the arcs of vibration very small, in which case the error 
 depending on the length of the arc becomes insensible. 
 The application of the spiral spring to the balance is the 
 undoubted invention of Hooke. 
 
 Another invention, which marks an epoch in the history 
 of horology, is that of a method of counteracting the effect 
 of changes of temperature on the pendulum rod and balance. 
 The mercurial compensation pendulum was invented by 
 Graham about the year 1715. Graham likewise suggested 
 the method of effecting the compensation, by means of the 
 K8 
 
 HOSPITALLER. 
 
 unequal expansions of different metals ; an idea which was 
 subsequently realized by Harrison in the construction of 
 the gridiron pendulum, which is now very generally used. 
 The compensating apparatus in the watch balance depends 
 upon the same principle, but the mechanical arrangement 
 is necessarily very different. See Balance. 
 
 For full information on this subject the reader is referred 
 to the following works: Berthoud, Essai sur V Horlogcric ; 
 Id., Histoire de la Mesure da Terns ; dimming' s Elementi 
 of Clock and Watch- Work ; JJcrham's Artificial Clock 
 maker; Harrison's Principles of his Timekeeper; Earn 
 shaw's Explanations of Timekeepers; Hcid's Treatise on 
 Clock and Watch-making; the article "Horology" in the 
 Penny Cyclopedia, &c. 
 
 HORO'METRY. (Gr. &pa, and pcrpov, measure.) The 
 art of measuring hours. 
 
 HO'ROSCOPE. (Gr. lipa, and cKoireu), I observe.) A 
 representation of the aspect of the heavens and positions of 
 the celestial bodies at a particular moment, drawn according 
 to the rules of the imaginary science of astrology. Thus 
 the aspect of the heavens at the moment of the birth of an 
 individual is his horoscope, and supposed to indicate his 
 future destinies. See Astrology. 
 
 HO'RPOE. See Upupa. 
 
 HORRIPILA'TION. (Lat. horror, and pilus, a hair.) 
 The common expression of the "hair standing on end." 
 implies the shuddering sensation to which medical writers 
 often apply this term. 
 
 HORSE. See Equus. 
 
 Horse. In Nautical affairs, a foot rope to support the 
 feet of the seamen while leaning over a yard or boom to 
 furl the sail. Also, a rod or rope along which the edge or 
 the corner of a sail traverses by means of hanks. 
 
 HORSE POWER. This term, as applied to steam-en- 
 gines, refers to the weight which they are capable of raising 
 to a given height in a given time. Watt estimated a single 
 horse power at 32,000 pounds avoirdupois lifted to the heigh! 
 of one foot per minute; this is, however, nearly double the 
 work of a single horse as usually applied to raising weights. 
 
 HORSE RA'DISH, the root of the Cochlcaria armvracia, 
 which when scraped is often eaten as a condiment and an 
 ingredient in sauces, has a place in the Materia. Mr.dica as 
 a stimulant, and a compound spirit and compound infusion 
 are directed in the Pharmacopoeia: the latter very soon 
 becomes putrid, and neither are useful. 
 
 HORSE SHOE. In Fortification, a work of a round or 
 oval form. 
 
 HO'RTICULTURE. (Lat. hortus, a garden, and eolo, .' 
 cultivate.) The culture of the kitchen garden and orchard. 
 In the kitchen garden are cultivated every description of 
 root, herb, flower, and fruit, used in cookery ; and in the 
 orchard the more hardy fruits used in cookery, and in the 
 dessert. The finer fruits are grown against espaliers, walls, 
 hot walls, or under glass. The chief difference between 
 horticulture and agriculture is, that in the former art the 
 culture is performed by manual labour in a comparatively 
 limited space called a garden ; while in the latter it is per 
 formed jointly by human and animal labour in fields, or in 
 an extensive tract of ground called a farm. See Gardening, 
 Agriculture, and Farming. 
 
 HO'RTUS SICCUS. A collection of dried plants pre- 
 served in books or papers. 
 
 HOSA'NNA. (Heb.) An exclamation, signifying lite 
 rally save now. This Hebrew word occurs only once in 
 the Old Test., viz. Psalm cxviii. 25. This psalm is the last 
 of those which compose the "great Hallel. ;" and hence, 
 perhaps, this invocation was used by those who conducted 
 our Saviour into Jerusalem. (Matt, xxi., Mark xi., John xii.) 
 It was afterwards commonly adopted in the church. (Rid 
 die's Christian Antiquities, p. 335.) 
 
 HOSIERY. See Woollen Manufacture. 
 
 HO'SPITAL. (Fr. hdpital.) In Architecture, a building 
 raised and endowed for the reception of persons incapable 
 of supporting themselves and procuring medical assistance, 
 or as ;i refuge for the unfortunate or needy. Many of the 
 charitable institutions in Great Britain are called hospitals ; 
 and are incorporated bodies, possessed of great wealth, 
 which is expended in the support of schools, &c. (See 
 JiPCulloch's Statistics ; De Gerando ut la Bienfaisance 
 publique, vol. iv., book 3.) 
 
 HOSPITAL GANGRENE. A species of ulcerating gan- 
 grene, peculiarly characterized by its infectious nature, and 
 its tendency to attack wounds or ulcers in crowded hospi- 
 tals. 
 
 HO'SPITALLER, in its original acceptation, was applied 
 to certain religious bodies, who held it their duty to provide 
 lodging and entertaiment for those persons engaged in pil- 
 grimages. One of the most celebrated institutions of this: 
 kind was that at Jerusalem, which gave its name and origin 
 to the Knights Hospitallers — a well-known religious body, 
 instituted about the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 
 12th century. They soou afterwards settled permarteotli 
 
HOSPITIUM. 
 
 in England, and gradually attached a degree of wealth and 
 importance unequalled in the history of similar bodies. 
 :>>wed the rule of St. Austin, and wore a black 
 habit with a while cross upon it At their original institu- 
 tion they were st\ led Knights of St. John of Jerusalem ; 
 09 Knights of Rhodes, and again Knights of Malta, 
 these two elands having been successfully conferred on 
 them by different monarch*. See St. John or Jerusalem, 
 Kmohts or. 
 
 BOSPITIUM (Lnt), signifies in general a place or Inn for 
 
 the reception of strangers, in which sense it is used by old 
 
 hot it is in modern limes almost wholly restricted 
 
 lebrated inns on St. Bernard and .St. Golhard, in 
 
 nd, to which travellers to and from Italy resort 
 
 HO'SPODAR,or WOIWODE. The lieutenants appoint- 
 
 ed by the rorn the two Christian provinces of 
 
 Moldavia and Wallacbla are so called. By the treaty of 
 
 Adrianople between Prussia and Turkey (l&fi)), tliese officers 
 
 ore to hold their appointments for life, and to pay I bed 
 
 annual tribute. 
 
 B08T (from the Latin host in. a victim), is applied in 
 
 to the bread and wine under the op 
 
 pearance Of which the Roman Catholics conceive the body 
 
 and blood of Christ to lie present upon the attar. The ele 
 
 vation of the llo-t is a ceremony prevalent in all Catholic 
 
 In which the consecrated elements are raised aloft 
 
 and carried in procession through a church, or even through 
 
 ■ In these occasions the people fall on 
 
 s and worship the Host. The origin of the custom 
 
 nil the 19th century, when, it is said, it was thought 
 
 to make this public and conspicuous declaration 
 
 of '.he Eucharist on the occasion of the promulgation of the 
 
 opinion* of Bereogarius against transubsuuitiation. 
 
 HO'STAGE. I Lat hospes, /rucst.) A person left as surety 
 for the p e r fo r m ance Of ttte articles of a treaty. The practice 
 of taking hostages is now almost unknown in the mutual 
 it was formerly so cont- 
 use to many questions in the law of 
 e divided into principal and 
 ry, tile litter being where it is expressly stipulated by treaty 
 111! t the hostage shall be answerable for the event. One of 
 ivilians on this subject was. 
 whether such a hostage could lawfully stake his life, and 
 nig so, it was law fill to take it. 
 The affirmative was argued from the most ancient example 
 of hottagesbip on record— Reuben'i word9 to Jacob, "slay 
 ona if 1 bring not Benjamin back." According to 
 Philip de Comities, the I.ieL'ois having given bo 
 Charles Duke of Burgundy, with express power to put them 
 to de, uii iii the event of an infraction of the treaty, and that 
 event having taken place, it was much debated in the coun- 
 cil Whether the power should not be carried into execution ; 
 ami aftei much discussion their lives were spared. It has 
 questioned whether a hostage can tie delivered 
 ; his will: Grotius decides in the affirmative. The 
 
 but of c (u.-rors over hostages, the events 
 
 which may dissolve their obligation, the effect of their escape 
 upon the convention between the principals, and oilier points 
 of the subject, are treated at length by writers on national 
 law. 
 
 HOTCHPOT, in Law, is a blending or mixing together of 
 en in marriage with lands in lee falling by descent. 
 As If A. had two daughters, and gives a third part of his 
 marriage with one of them to her husband, and 
 l two thirds: in order to acquire any 
 farther share of these lands, the married daughter must 
 being the lands first given into hotcli|K>t ; that is, she must 
 renounce the gill, and allow the land to be confounded w ith 
 in order that she may inherit her whole share; 
 otherwise her ,-ister will have the remaining two thirds of 
 the lands. There is also a rule of hotchpot w ith 
 the distribution of personal property within the rtat SB &. 2.1 
 C. 2, c. 10; as. where a certain sum is to be raised and paid 
 to a daughter for her jiortion by a marriage settlement, if tin- 
 daughter would have any farther share of her father's per- 
 sonal estate 'he must bring this money into hotchpot, and 
 allow it to form part of the distributable residue. 
 
 HOTE'L (I'r), signifies, in n general sense, a large inn for 
 the reception of strangers; but in a particular M 
 chilly in France, it is applied to the residences of the king, 
 nobility, or other persons of rank: or it is used synon- 
 with hospital, as the Hotel Dieu, Hotel des Inoa- 
 tldet, kc. 
 
 HOTHOUSE. A general term for the glass structures 
 need In gardening, and including stoves, greenhouses, orange- 
 ries, and conservatories. Pits and frames are garden struc- 
 b glass roofs, with the sides and ends of masonry 
 or wood ; but they are eenerally so low as not to admit of 
 being entered and walked in, and this seems to prevent them 
 from being Included under the term hothouse. See Stove, 
 Grkkmioi isi Pits ami Frames. 
 HOTYVALL. In Gardening, walls for the growth of 
 
 HOUSE. 
 
 fruit-trees, which are built with flues or other contrivances 
 for being heated in severe weather, so as to facilitate the 
 ripening of the wood or the maturity of the fruit. The most 
 common form of hotwalls is that in which Hues or tunnels 
 are conducted through them, into which the smoke and 
 heated air from fires are made to ascend from a furnace at 
 the bottom of the wall to a chimney on the top ; but in some 
 cases hotwalls are formed by constructing the entire wall 
 hollow, tying the two sides together by cross-stones or bricks 
 and introducing heat by means of pipes of metal containing 
 steam or hot water along the bottom of the Vacuity, the beat 
 of which rises to the top of the wall, and heats "everv part 
 in its progress. In all climates north of the meridian of Lon- 
 don, hotwalls are of great use for ripening fruits and young 
 shoots, anil preserving tender plants. .Sec WALL. 
 
 HOUNDS. In Naval Architecture, the projecting parta 
 ot tin- sales of the mast, near its head, which, like shoulders, 
 support the rigging, &e. 
 
 HOUR, in its general acceptation, denotes the twenty 
 fourth part of a mean solar day, or of the time In which the 
 earth makes n complete revolution in respect of the sun. 
 The division of the artificial day, or time from sunrise to 
 sunset, into twelve equal parts, belongs to the remotest ages 
 ol antiquity [eM (intuit, Uridine ties I.oii. Sec.) ; the divis- 
 ion of the night into the same number of pans was intro- 
 duced at Iti lie- in the lime of the Punic wars. The Italians 
 make the day commence at sunset, and reckon on to twenty- 
 four hours, or to the succeeding sunset Astronomers also 
 reckon twenty-four hours from midday to midday; but in 
 the civil reckoning only twelve hours are counted, namely, 
 I'm in midnight to midday, and from midday to midnight. 
 The hours which result from the division of the artificial 
 day into twelve parts are Balled temporary houry, from bahuj 
 of unequal lengths at the dlflei f the u ar. 
 
 HOUR CIRCLES, or IK >K Alt V CIRCLES. The saun- 
 as meridians ; being treat circles of the sphere perpendicular 
 to tin- equator, anil their plane* making with each other an 
 glei of fifteen di 
 
 ll< MK GLASS. A species of chronometer or clepsydra, 
 measuring intervals of time by the tin . r or sand 
 
 from one glass into another. 
 
 HOU'RIS. The name given by the Europeans to the 
 imaginary beiii!:s whose company in the Mohammedan 
 
 Ml to form the principal feltclt] of the B 
 The name HI derived from bur al oyfln, signify in" blnrk ■< ■i/nl 
 They are represented in the Koran as most beautiful virgins, 
 with complexions like rubies and pearls, and possessed of 
 every intellectual and corpo r eal charm. They are not 
 created of clay, as mortal women, but of pure musk; and 
 are endowed with immortal youth, and immunity from the 
 nd defects of ordinary beings. (See h'urtin. chap. 
 55, , r >o, Sale's translation; and the Prel. Discourse, s. 4.) 
 
 HOURS. (Gr. 'ilptt.) In Mythology, divinities regarded 
 in two points of view — as the goddesses of the seasons, and 
 hours of the day; and their number is stated in different 
 ways accordingly. Their duty was to hold the gates pf 
 heaven, which tiiey opened to send forth the chariot of the 
 sun in the morning, and receive it again in the evening. No 
 classical poet has described them with greater beauty than 
 Shelley, in n celebrated passage of his Promt tkmu Unbound. 
 ddea»M are often depicted as forming the train of 
 Venus. (See Homer. Hymn, ad fen., 145; lies., Krg..\fr 
 75. and Hymn, ad Apoll., ver. 194 ; see also Gray's Ode on 
 the Spring.) 
 
 HOURS, CANONICAL. The seven hours of prayer, 
 observed, it is said, by the Catholic Church since the 5lh 
 century : chiefly in monasteries. The number seems before 
 that time to have varied, although some peculiar seasons of 
 the day and night w ere always set apart for this observance. 
 They became finally fixed at seven by the rule of S'. Bene- 
 dict; a number, perhaps, recommended by the literal accep- 
 tation of the words of David (Psalm cxix"), "Seven times n 
 day will I praise thee." These hours are termed, in the 
 language of the Latin Church, matins, prima, tenia, nona, 
 < mplctaor completorium, which hist takes place 
 at midnight. At the time of the Reformation the canonical 
 hours were reduced in the Lutheran Church to two, morning 
 and evening ; the " reformed" church never observed them. 
 (See Bingham's J)nt. Eccl., 5: Riddle's Christian Ant.; 
 Ersch and Oruber's Encycl., " Hone.") 
 
 HOUSE (Germ, haus.) A human habitation, or place 
 of abode of a family. Among the Eastern nations, and those 
 to the south, houses are flat on the top. with the ascent to 
 the upper story by steps on the outside. As we proceed 
 northward, a declivity of the roof becomes requisite to 
 throw off" the rain and snow, which are of greater continu- 
 ance in higher latitudes. Among the nncient Greeks, Ro- 
 mans, and Jews, the houses usually enclosed a quadrangular 
 area or court, open to the sky. This part of the house was 
 by the Romans called the impluvium, or cavtzdium, and was 
 provided with channels to carry off the waters into the sew 
 en*. Both the Roman and Greek house is described by 
 
 569 
 
HOUSEHOLDER. 
 
 Vitruvius, to whose works we must refer the reader for far- 
 ther information on these heads. The word house is a term 
 used in various ways ; as in the phrase "a religious house," 
 either the buildings of a monastery, or the community of per- 
 sons inhabiting them, may be designated. In the middle 
 ages, when a family retired to the lodge connected with the 
 mansion, or to their country-seat, it was called "keeping 
 their secret house." (See Northumberland Household Book.) 
 Every gradation of building for habitation, from the cottage 
 to the palace, is embraced by the word house ; so that to give 
 a full account of the requisites of each would occupy more 
 space than could be devoted to the subject in this work : 
 indeed, to say more would be to write a treatise on domestic 
 architecture. 
 
 HOU'SEHOLDER. In Law, the occupier of a house. 
 Where the right of voting for members of parliament is in 
 inhabitant householders, it has been settled by a current of 
 decisions that no one is to be considered as such who does 
 not possess the exclusive right to the use of the outward door 
 of the building. He retains the character, however, although 
 by taking inmates he may for a time have relinquished the 
 exercise of that exclusive right. The "outward door," to 
 satisfy this description, need not be a door opening on the 
 public way ; a room or set of rooms having a separate and 
 exclusive outward door (as chambers in one of the Inns of 
 Court) may in the eye of law constitute a house. The 
 same principle is followed in criminal law, where, to consti- 
 tute the offence of burglary, it is necessary that a " house" 
 shall have been broken and entered. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD, THE KING'S. The chief officers of the 
 king's household are: 1. The lord chamberlain; under 
 whom are the vice-chamberlain, groom of the stole, lords Of 
 the bedchamber, gentlemen of the privy chamber, &c. 2. 
 The lord steward ; in whose office are the treasurer and 
 comptroller of the household, yeomen of the guard, gentle- 
 men pensioners, master of the horse, &c. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. See Guards. 
 
 HOUSE OF CORRECTION. A prison for the punish- 
 ment of idle and disorderly persons, vagrants, trespassers, 
 fee. They are regulated by 4 G. 4, c. 64, and other statutes. 
 See Bridewell, Prison. 
 
 HOIJ'SING. (From house.) In Architecture, the space 
 taken out of one solid to admit of the insertion of another. 
 
 HO'VEL. An open shed for sheltering cattle, for pro- 
 tecting produce or materials of different kinds from the 
 weather, or for performing various country operations during 
 heavy rains, falls of snow, or severe frosts. 
 
 HOVV1TZER. (Germ, haufen, to fill up.) A species of 
 mortar, or piece of ordnance, of iron or brass. The iron 
 howitzers used in the British service are four or five feet 
 long, and eight or ten inches diameter. 
 
 HOY. A small vessel having generally one mast. 
 
 HUBERT, ORDER OF SAINT. The highest Bavarian 
 order of knighthood, founded in 1444. 
 
 HUE AND CRY. In Law, the common process of pur- 
 suing a felon. This custom is of ancient origin, and evi- 
 dently arose from the practice of pursuing the offender with 
 a loud outcrv, that all might try to bring him to justice. 
 
 HU GUENOTS. In French History, a name given in 
 the sixteenth century to the Protestants or Calvinists of 
 France. The writers of that time were not acquainted with 
 the true derivation of this popular nickname, to which they 
 assigned various absurd etymologies; it is, undoubtedly, a 
 corruption of the German " Eidgenossen," signifying the 
 Swiss confederates. Geneva was the literary and ecclesias- 
 tical metropolis of the French reformed; and, consequently, 
 they were naturally confounded, in the eye of the Catholic 
 populace, with the Swiss, who supported that republic by 
 their alliance. After a long period, during which they in- 
 creased in numbers under occasional persecution (under 
 Francis 1. and Henry II.), a large party of the Huguenots took 
 part in the conspiracy of Amboise in 1560; and although 
 the free exercise of their religion was secured to them by 
 the edict of January (1562), yet they were driven by the 
 violations of that edict to take up arms against the govern- 
 ment of Francis II. in the same year.. At that period their 
 leaders were of the houses of Bourbon (King of Navarre 
 and Piince of Conde) and Chatillon (the Admiral Coligny). 
 They were powerful in numbers, and still more in wealth 
 and consequence. A very large proportion of the higher 
 nobility ; of the middle nobility and gentry, especially in the 
 central and south-western parts of France ; the whole or 
 greater part of the population in some towns, as Rouen, La 
 Rochelle, Dieppe, Ni<-mes; finally, a large body among the 
 peasantry in some districts, especially of the south, where 
 the doctrines of the Albigeois were never fully extinguish- 
 ed — these belonged to their party. But during the religious 
 wars of the 16th century they gradually lost ground tinder 
 the -ncreasing zeal and fanaticism of the great Catholic 
 body , and after the conversion of Henry IV. most of their 
 chiefs among the nobility successively abandoned the faith. 
 Fhcy sustained two civil wars in the following century 
 570 
 
 HUNDRED. 
 
 against Louis XIII., which cost them the loss of the strong 
 places which they had held, and of many of their privileges. 
 The history of the Protestant Church in France then ceased 
 to be the history of a political party ; and the name of Hu- 
 guenots, about the same time, began to pass out of ordinary 
 use. De Thou, Davila, D'Aubigny, Lanoue, are perhaps 
 the most valuable of the numerous cotemporary historians 
 of the 16th sentury. Of modern compilations, Smedlcy's 
 History of the Religious Wars of France ; YVrnxall; Sis- 
 mondi, vols. xvi. to xx. ; Browning's History of the Hugv- 
 nots from the Edict of JVantes, a useful compendium, with 
 references to the best authorities, published in 1839. 
 
 HUI'SSIER. (Fr. from the old word huis, a door; whence 
 our usher.) Executive officers in the French courts of jus- 
 tice, whose original function was to keep the door of the 
 tribunal. Such officers were styled by the Romans nppari 
 tores, cohortales, executores, and by a variety of other names. 
 In France the huissiers were originally a subdivision of the 
 general class of servientes, sergens ; but afterwards these 
 latter came to be called indiscriminately huissiers. Their 
 functions are now numerous and important. They give 
 notice on behalf of, and execute the processes of the courts 
 to which they are attached, both civil and criminal. Those 
 of the Court of Cassation are appointed by itself; those of 
 the Cours Royale on the recommendation of those courts ; 
 those of courts of commerce by the government. The officers 
 termed huissiers-priseurs, or commissaires-priscurs, are cm- 
 ployed as appraisers at public sales. 
 
 HU'LFSTON. (Germ.) In Music, the secondary or su 
 perior note in a shake. See Haupt Ton. 
 
 HULK. The name given to an old ship laid by as until 
 for farther service. The hulks near Woolwich consist of 
 old ships to which convicts are sent previously to their de 
 parture from the country. 
 
 HULL. The body of a ship, exclusive of the masts, rig- 
 gine, &c. 
 
 Hull down, expresses that the hull of the ship is concealed 
 by the convexity of the sea. 
 
 HUMANITA'RIAN. A term sometimes applied to those 
 who deny the divinity of Christ, and assert him to have been 
 mere man. This, how ever, is mor^lian the word exactly 
 signifies, and the term Psilanthropist, or mere Humanitarian, 
 has been suggested as conveying the idea more precisely 
 See Socinian, Unitarian. 
 
 HUMA'NITIES. A word employed in modern Eu- 
 ropean schools and colleges of various nations, to sicnify 
 grammar, rhetoric, and poetry, including the study of the 
 ancient classics. It has the same sense with polite litera- 
 ture. A student in humanities (liters humaniores) is term- 
 ed a humanist. 
 
 HU'MBLE BEE. See Mellifera. 
 
 HU'MOBLDTINE. A native oxalate of the protoxide of 
 iron. It occurs crystalline and massive, and of a yellow 
 colour; the massive varietv is earthy and greenish ' tllow 
 
 HU'MBOLDTITE. A name given to a variety f Da- 
 tholite, or borosilicate of lime. It occurs crystallized These 
 minerals are named in honour of Humboldt, the celebrated 
 traveller. 
 
 HU'MERUS. (Lat.) The bone of the arm. The first 
 of the radiated system of bones of the anterior extremity, 
 articulated with the scapula in the vertcbrated nnimals. In 
 Entomology, Mr. Kirby so calls the third joint of the anterior 
 pair of legs in Ilexapod insects. 
 
 HU'MIFU'SUS (Lat. humus, the ground, and fundo, 1 
 pour or spread out), in Botany, denotes the spreading of 
 plants over the surface of the ground : procumbent. 
 
 HUMIRIA'CE^E. (Humirium, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of arborescent or shrubby Exogens, inhabiting 
 Brazil, but not very well understood. They differ from 
 Mcliaccm in their albuminous seeds and their slender em- 
 bryo; agreeing in the latter respect, and in their balsamic 
 wood, with Styracrm. Humirium fioribundum yields, on 
 being wounded, a liquid yellow balsam, called Balsam of 
 Umiri, resembling the properties of Copaiva and Balsam 
 ofTolu. 
 
 HU'MITE. A mineral named in honour of Sir Abraham 
 Hume, in whose celebrated collection it was found. It oc- 
 curs in yellow brown or colourless crystals on Monte Som 
 ma. It has not been analvzed. 
 
 IIU'MMING BIRD. See Trociiilus. 
 
 HUMOUR. See Wit. 
 
 HU'MOURS OF THE EYE. See Eye. 
 
 HU'NDRED. A hundred is a territorial division, having 
 for its object the more convenient and efficient administration 
 of justice; anciently subsisting in other countries, particu- 
 larly Fiance and Lombardy, as well as in England, and 
 adopted in this country as the subdivision of a county. The 
 institution of the hundred, as well as that of the county and 
 tything, is, upon no precise authority, usually referred to the 
 reign of Alfred ; but it is probable that the d .vision was of at 
 older date, and that it was not introduced into all parts ol 
 England at the same time. It is ceitain. at any rate, thi 
 
HUNDRED WEIGHT. 
 
 Hie term bed not, m all parts, the same application ; for 
 u illy given to it, namely, that ol" a district 
 tontalning a hundred tree families, even if it be reconcilable 
 it appears to have been in early limes the slate of 
 the population in the southern counties, is totally inconsistent 
 ivith any reasonable conjecture as to the population of the 
 aorth, where the hundred generally includes a much larger 
 4 sulci. It is probable, therefore, that the term, having 
 d in the south with the meaning stated, was subse- 
 pplied to the divisions previously established in the 
 northern counties under the name of Wapentakes. To each 
 hundred belonged a court baron, similar in the nature and 
 extent of its Jurisdiction to the county court, and also a court 
 leel (»ce tit. Lket) ; both of which were usually, and by the 
 common law, held either by the shcrilf, or by a deputy or 
 steward having authority under him. But in some cases 
 the jurisdiction of the court baron and court leet, or of one 
 of them, within the hundred, was by special grant of the 
 crown vested m private persons, and exercised by ihem or 
 their deputies. The essential use of the hundred was in the 
 liability of the hundreders, when offences were committed 
 within their district, either to produce the offender, or make 
 good the damage. This liability, much restricted by statute, 
 Btil] subsists in certain cases of riotous and wilful mischief. 
 The division into hundreds is frequently used in acts of par- 
 liament as a convenient mode of reference. 
 HU'NDRED WEIGHT. A denomination of weight con- 
 ids. It is subdivided into 4 quarters, each 
 containing 28 pounds. See Weiohts. 
 
 i'ERS. VenanUi. A tribe of spiders arc so called 
 tvhirii an incessantly running or leaping about in the vi- 
 cinity of their abode, to chase and seize their prey. 
 
 ETU'RDLB. A frame usually made of wood, but some- 
 iron, for the purpose of forming tcni|>ornry fences. 
 The frame consists of two perpendicular stakes, into which 
 live or six horizontal bars, and the whole is braced 
 together by one or two diagonal pieces. When a fence is 
 to be formed, the hurdles are put down end to end ; and 
 lliey arc made fast to the ground by the insertion of the 
 if the stakes Into it, and to one another by n tie 
 . ind their upper ends, or by a movable wooden 
 pin passed through them. 
 
 HURCNIA. A name given by Mr. Charles Stokes to 
 :ertain radiated articulated bodies formerly referred to the 
 Polyparia, found in the transition limestone of hake Huron. 
 (Geol. Tran.--., vol. i., New Series.) 
 
 HURRICANE. (Span, huraenn.) A violent storm, 
 generally accompanied by thunder and lighUiing, and dis- 
 tinguished from every other kind of tempest by the vehe- 
 ij the wind, and the sudden changes to which it is 
 subject. Hurricanes prevail chiefly in the East and West 
 i if France, and in some parts of China. The 
 following graphic description of the usual phenomena at- 
 tending the West Indian hurricanes, from the l>cn of Edmund 
 Burke, may be interesting to the reader: l, It is in the rainy 
 season, principally in the month of August, more rarely in 
 July and September, that they are assaulted by burricatics, 
 the most terrible calamity to which they are subject from 
 • ite. This destroys at one stroke the labour of 
 many years, and frustrates the most exalted hopes of the 
 planter, and often just at the moment when he thinks him- 
 self out of the reach of fortune. It is a sudden and violent 
 storm of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, attended with a 
 veiling of the sea, and sometimes with an earth- 
 quake ; in short, with every circumstnnce which tlte ele- 
 ments can assemble that is terrible and destructive. First 
 they sec, as a prelude to the ensuing havoc, whole fields of 
 sugar canes whirled into the air, and scattered over the face 
 of die country. The strongest trees of the forest are lorn up 
 by the roots and driven about like stubble. Their wind- 
 mills are swept away in a moment. Their works, their 
 fixtures, the ponderous copper-boilers and stills of several 
 hundred weight, are wrenched from the ground and bat- 
 tered to pieces. Their houses are no protection; the roofs 
 are torn off at one blast, while the rain, which in an hour 
 rises five feet, rushes in upon them with an irresistible vio- 
 lence. There are signs which the Indians of these islands 
 taught our planters, by which they can prognosticate the 
 approach of a hurricane. It comes on either in the quar- 
 ters, or at the full or change of the moon. If it will come 
 on at the full moon, you being at the change, observe these 
 signs. That day you will see the sky very turbulent. You 
 will observe the sun more red than at other times. You 
 will perceive a dead calm, and the hills clear of all those 
 clouds and mists which usually hover about them. In the 
 clefts of the earth, and in the wells, you will hear a hollow, 
 rambling sound like the rushing of a great wind. At night 
 tile stars seem much larger than usual, and surrounded with 
 a son of burs. The north-west sky has a sort of menacing 
 look, and the sea emits a strong smell, and rises into vast 
 wares, often without any wind. The wind itself now for- 
 sakes its usually steady easterly stream, and shifts about to 
 
 HUSTINGS. 
 
 the west, from whence it sometimes blows with intermi 
 sions violently and irregularly for about two hours at • 
 time. You have the same signs at the full of the moon. 
 The moon itself is surrounded with a great bur, and some- 
 times the sun lias the same appearance." Sec Siokhs, 
 Tornado. 
 
 HURST. (Sax.) A wood ; hence the termination of the 
 names of several places in England, particularly in Kent 
 and Sussex. 
 
 HU'SBANDRY. A comparatively primitive term, in- 
 cluding both agriculture and gardening, or all those country 
 occupations which the father of a family is expected lo per- 
 form in the country. The term is very commonly used M 
 synonymous with agriculture. The Berwickshire hus- 
 bandry, the convertible husbandry, are terms used in agri- 
 culture for certain systems ol" cropping, in which the land is 
 alternately kept under grass and tillage. 
 
 HUSSA'RS. A name given to some well-known eques 
 trian troops, used in all the armies of Europe. The term is 
 of Hungarian origin (being derived from husz, twenty, and 
 ar, pay, every twenty houses famishing one man), and was 
 first applied to the body of troops raised by the nobles of 
 Hungary on oonosjon of the appeal made to the latter in 
 1458 by Mathias Corvin. The equipments of such troops 
 are extremely light and elegant, and their arms consist of I 
 snlne, a carbine, and a pair of pistols. In the British cav- 
 alry there nre five regiments of ilu 
 
 HU'SSITES. The followers of John Huss, a Bohemian 
 reformer and divine, who was convicted of heresy by the 
 Council of Constance, and burnt by order of the Emperor of 
 Germany, in 1415. The circumstances attending the origin 
 of this sect are interesting, inasmuch as while, on the one 
 hand, there is no doubt but mat the writings of Huss and 
 Jerome of Prague were the source from which Luther drew 
 a great part or his opinions and views, it is ascertained at 
 the same lime that it was from the books of Wiclif that 
 Huss was himself induced to institute his bold inquiries, into 
 the faith and morals of the chinch. The errors which 
 were charged against him contain many of the opinions now 
 held by all Protestants; but several of these he himself 
 ceded, and the lion of which be t. 
 
 sutfered have neither been universally held by reformers, 
 
 D of very great importance. They were r 
 That Pope Sylvester and the Emperor < 'onstanline did evil 
 to the church when they enriched it. 2. That if any eccle- 
 siastic be in a state of mortal sin, he is disqualified for the ad- 
 ministration of the sacraments, .i. That tithes are not dues. 
 but merely eleemosynary. On the other hand, he held the 
 Romish Idea of tmnsahstsntintinn ; and the opinion of the 
 necessity of communion in both kinds, which became alter 
 wards the most remarkable feature in the doctrines of the 
 Hussites, is not, in reality, to be ascribed to their founder 
 The condemnation of Huss is also remarkable, as it is from 
 the circumstances attendant on it that the imputation of not 
 keeping faith with heretics is originally charged upon the 
 Roman Church. The Emperor Bigismund gave Huss a sale- 
 conduct, to secure him from any ill consequences that he 
 might apprehend from delivering himself up voluntarily to 
 be examined by the council. Nor did the council assert 
 any right to condemn him. They handed him over to the 
 secular ami, to the emperor himself. But it is confidently 
 asserted that when the emperor scrupled to violate a promise 
 which was undoubtedly binding upon him, it was at the 
 pressing instance of the pope or cardinals that he allowed 
 the execution to take place. The apologists of the Roman 
 Catholics in this matter affirm that this safe conduct imported 
 only that Huss might go to Constance without being harmed : 
 the words of the original instrument, however, nre reported 
 to be, "Transire, stare, morari, redire libere permittntis." 
 
 After the execution of Huss, and of his disciple Jerome in 
 the following year, there arose a violent insurrection among 
 their partisans in Bohemia, who maintained themselves for 
 many years by force of arms, and split into two sects, under 
 the denominations of the Calixtines and the Thaborites. The 
 former, so called from demanding the cup in the sacrament, 
 were finally reconciled to the church by the concession 
 which they required. The latter were so called from the 
 name they gave to the hill on which they pitched their 
 camp in the neighbourhood of Prague, and carried their 
 notions upon the authority of the church and its ministers, 
 ceremonies, and all the exterior of religion, to the length of 
 an extravagant simplicity. The Bohemian Brothers and 
 the Beghards, who gave so great an impulse to the reforms 
 tion, were the descendants of this branch of the Hussites. 
 (Cochheus, Ilistoria I/ussitarum ; Gicseler's Text-book, iii., 
 355, translation.) 
 
 HU'STINGS. (Either from the French haussei, to lift, 
 or Sax. lius, home, and ting, court or judgment.) The prin- 
 cipal court of the city of London, held before the lord-mayor 
 and aldermen: also, In common language, the booth or ele- 
 vated place on which candidates at a parliamentary election 
 are proposed, and address their constituents. 
 
 571 
 
HUTCHINS0N1ANS. 
 
 HUTCHINSO'NIANS. The name given to those who 
 embraced the opinions of John Hutchinson, a well-known 
 philosopher and naturalist of the 18th century. Though 
 the followers of Hutchinson have never constituted a sect, 
 they have reckoned among their numher several distin- 
 guished divines both of the established churches of the 
 United Kingdom and of dissenting communities. The num- 
 her of professed Hutchinsonians is rapidly decreasing, though 
 the principles and views of their founder are still entertained 
 by many. The chief characteristics of Hutchinson's phi- 
 osophy consist in his rejection of Newton's doctrine of 
 gravitation ; and in his maintaining the existence of a ple- 
 num on the authority of the Old Testament, which, accord- 
 ing lo him, embraces a complete system of natural philoso- 
 phy as well as of religion. See his works, 12 vols., 8vo, 1748. 
 
 HY'ACINTH. (Gr.) In Mineralogy, one of the names 
 given to the yellow or brown crystals of zircon. It occurs 
 in beds of streams and rivers, especially in Ceylon, along 
 with rubies, sapphires, tec. Its most usual form, when in 
 crystals, is a four-sided prism terminated by four rhombic 
 planes. 
 
 HYACI'NTHUS. In Grecian Mythology, the son of 
 Amyclas king of Laconia, and of the muse Clio, accidentally 
 killed by Apollo while they were playing at quoits. The 
 story is thus related: Zephyr, enraged at tile preference 
 displayed by Hyacinthus for Apollo, caused the wind of 
 which he was the god to turn from its course a quoit thrown 
 by Apollo, which hitting him on the forehead instantane- 
 ously caused his death. The latter immortalized his favour- 
 ite by causing the flower which still bears his name to spring 
 from his blood, and inscribed the word AI (Gr. «i, alas) on 
 its leaves, to indicate the deep grief of the god for his loss. 
 An annual festival, named Hyacinthia, was celebrated at 
 Amveh-e in honour of Hyacinthus. (Mhen., Dcipn., iv., 
 p. 139.) 
 
 HYACY'NTHINE. A brown or greenish mineral in 
 eight-sided prisms, transparent and doubly refractive. 
 
 HY'ADES. (Gr. hciv, to rain.) In Mythology, the name 
 given to the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, who, over- 
 whelmed with grief at the fate of their brother Hyas, who 
 was torn in pieces by a bull, are said to have wept so vio- 
 lently that the gods, in compassion, took them into heaven 
 and placed them in the Bull's forehead, where they still 
 continue to weep, and are thence supposed to presage rain. 
 They form a cluster of five stars in the face of Taurus. 
 
 Hvades. Sec Taurus. 
 
 UVyR'NA. (Gr. Yaiva.) A genus of digitigrade Carniv- 
 orous Mammals, separated by Storr from the Canis of Lin- 
 naeus, from which it not only differs in dentition and other 
 Important particulars, but, in general, manifests a closer 
 affinity with the Viverrida;, between which and Felis the 
 genus Hyiena is placed by Cuvier. The characters of this 
 genu's are, five molars above and four below on each side, 
 the three anterior molars being conical, smooth, and re- 
 markably large, adapted for breaking the bones of their 
 prey ; the tongue has a broad patch of cuticular spines on 
 the anterior part of its dorsum : the legs are each terminated 
 by four claws; there is a peculiarly large perineal glandular 
 pouch; and the neck and jaws are remarkable for the 
 strength of their muscles. The species of hytena are noc- 
 turnal ; they prey on dead carcasses. An extinct species 
 {hycena speleea) was abundant in England and France ante- 
 rior to the glacier epoch, and has left its remains in many 
 caverns in both countries. 
 
 HYALiE'A. (Gr. twXoc, glass.) A genus of beautiful 
 Ptcropodous Mollusks, remarkable for the delicacy and 
 transparency of the shell. This bears a close resemblance 
 to a bivalve, with the two valves unequal and soldered 
 together at the hinge. That portion of the shell which cor- 
 responds to the ventral aspect of the animal is convex ; the 
 dorsal plate is nearly flat, and is longer than the other; the 
 hinder or closed margin of the shell is produced into three 
 sharp points. The inhabitant is provided with two large 
 wing-like processes of the mantle, which it protrudes when 
 swimming, from the anterior open fissure of the shell. 
 The species are found floating in the Mediterranean and 
 tropical seas. 
 
 HYALITE. (Gr. BaXo?, and><0of, a stone.) A yellow or 
 gray variety of uncJeavable quartz or opal ; it is commonly 
 concretionary or chalcedonic, of a vitreous fracture anil 
 lustre. It occurs in trap rocks in grains, filaments, and 
 rhomboidal masses : it is silica combined with about 6 per 
 cent, of water. 
 
 H Y' ALOID. (Gr. BaXo? , and eidof, form.) A term ap- 
 plied to transparent membranes, and more particularly to 
 that which invests the vitreous humour of the eye. 
 
 HYBERBO'REANS. (Gr. Imp, beyond, and' (iopeag, the 
 north Kind.) The name given by the ancients to the un- 
 known .nhabitants of the most northern regions of the globe, 
 who, as their name implied, were supposed to be placed 
 beyond the influence of the north wind, and consequently 
 to enjoy a mild and delightful climate The question of 
 572 
 
 HYBERNATION. 
 
 the existence and exact situation of the Hyberboreans Ions 
 formed one of the most intricate in the whole compass or 
 ancient history; but the general opinion now inclines to re 
 gardthem as synonymous with the Laplanders, Norwegians, 
 and some other nations of northern Europe. (See the Encyc. 
 des Gens du Monde.) 
 
 HYBERNA'CULUM. A term invented by Linnieus to 
 denote a leaf-bud, which he rightly considered the winter 
 quarters of the point of growth in a plant. 
 
 HYBERNATION. (Lat. hybernus, wintry.) The act 
 by, or the state in which certain animals exist during that 
 season of the year when excess of cold or of heat, or lack 
 of food, prevents their going abroad and performing their 
 customary functions. As the state is generally superinduced 
 by the rigours of winter, it has received its denomination 
 from that circumstance ; but in the tropics, the effects of the 
 hottest and driest weather, in reducing the numbers of the 
 insect world, are such as to render it necessary for many 
 reptiles and some insectivorous mammals, as the Tenrccs, 
 to pass into a state of inactivity or torpidity, in order to 
 maintain life until the recommencement of the rainy season. 
 The condition of hybernation is, in fact, less the alteration 
 of temperature than the abstraction of the means of sub- 
 sistence dependant thereon ; as, c. g., the disappearance of 
 insects in the winter season of our own climate. 
 
 Animals so highly organized as the warm-blooded and 
 quick-breathing mammalia cannot maintain their compli- 
 cated organic machinery in action without frequent supplies 
 of food : an interruption In this respect of a few days, or at 
 most a few weeks, is fatal. If, therefore, the phenomenon 
 of hybernation had been known only in the cold-blooded 
 classes, an insectivorous mammal in a climate where in- 
 sects could not subsist for several months in the year would 
 be inconceivable. The modification of the vital powers by 
 which a warm-blooded animal is made even temporarily to 
 assume the state and properties of a reptile, is perhaps one 
 of the most striking instances of special adaptations to meet 
 an exceptional case that the history of animals presents. 
 When the atmosphere becomes vacant of insect life, and 
 the bat, in its nocturnal flittings, would vainly traverse it in 
 search of food ; and when the few insects that survive the 
 winter have burrowed too deeply in the earth, or concealed 
 themselves in hiding-places too secure for the reach of the 
 hedgehog — these species, with starvation staring ihem in 
 the face, are preserved by the suspension of those functions, 
 the maintaining of which in a state of activity is essentially 
 dependant on an uninterrupted supply of nutriment. The 
 bat suspends itself in the innermost recesses of its cave, the 
 hedgehog creeps to its concealed nest, and both resign them 
 selves to deep repose ; but the breathing becomes gradual!} 
 slower than in ordinary sleep, the pulsations of the heart 
 diminish in force and frequency, the supply of stimulatins 
 arterial blood to the muscles and the brain is progressive!', 
 reduced, relaxation of the muscular fibres is converted into 
 stiff inaction, and sleep sinks into stupor: at length respira- 
 tion entirely ceases, and with it those chemical changes in 
 tltc capillary circulation on which animal heat mainly de- 
 pends. The preservation of life, in its passive or latent 
 state, is now due to the irritable property of the heart's 
 fibre, which is excited to contract by the blood in its pres- 
 ent dark or carbonized state, and continues to propel it 
 slowly over the torpid frame during the whole period of 
 hybernation. This slow circulation of venous blood through 
 both the pulmonic and systemic vessels is the only recogni- 
 sable vital act during that period, and the material convey- 
 ed by the absorbents into the circulating fluid is sufficient to 
 counterbalance the slight waste thus occasioned. So long, 
 therefore, as the state of torpidity continues, the hedgehog 
 and bat are independent of supplies from without, but they 
 purchase that independence by a temporary abrogation of 
 their vital faculties : cold, senseless, motionless, and asphyx- 
 iated, their entry into death's chamber is prevented only by 
 their being broueht to his very door. 
 
 The hybernation of lizards, snakes, frogs, toads, and other 
 cold-blooded reptiles, is accompanied by analogous changes, 
 differing only in degree : for as the heart in these animals 
 is at all times destined to propel blood imperfectly oxyge- 
 nated— as the respiratory or oxygenating apparatus is im- 
 perfect — and as the heat of the body in them risos and falls 
 with the external temperature, a slight deterioration of these 
 lower conditions of the circulating and respiratory functions 
 Induces torpidity, with the consequent loss of appetite and 
 independence of food. Some quadrupeds, as the dormouse 
 and squirrel, which subsist on articles of diet better adapted 
 to he laid up in store than insects, carry a winter provision 
 to their hybernatins nests ; and their torpidity is more near- 
 1 -,' allied to a profound but ordinary sleep; respiration is 
 never wholly suspended ; the waste of the organism is pro- 
 portionate to the degree of activity in the working of the 
 machine, and they occasionally rouse themselves and take 
 in the requisite supply from their provident store. Insectiv 
 orous birds, being independent, through their power of trnv 
 
H YD RID. 
 
 ersmg space, of the vicissitudes of climate and their conse- 
 quences, transport themselves, when their food fails in one 
 country, to latitudes favourable to its abundance : hence 
 the immigration of the cuckoo and swallow at the com- 
 mencement of the genial season, and their subsequent dis- 
 appearance. 
 
 BT'BRID. (Gr. ffipiy, amule.) The produce of a female 
 plant or animal which has been impregnated by a male of a 
 different variety, species, or genus. 
 
 The most common hybrids are those which result from 
 the connexion of different varieties of the same species, as 
 the produce of the wild hoar ami domestic sow ; the end- 
 leu modifications which result from analogous interbreed- 
 ing from varieties of the rose and other ornamental or use- 
 ful plants are familiar examples of the principle among ve- 
 getables 
 
 al hybrids have been produced from the artificial 
 fertilization by Kalreuter of the Nicotiana rvslica with the 
 pollen of the J\~icotiana parriculata ; and Schiek has dem- 
 onstrated, by numerous observations, that a multitude of 
 plants produce specihcnl hybrid* in a siaie of nature. 
 
 Hybrids from different species of insects, under similar 
 circumstances, have bean obtained ; as fan the connexion 
 
 ef Papfflo jurtina with J'.janira, of Chrysomela tenra with 
 Chr. 0/711, of PkaUmgium comutum with I'h.opilio. Specif- 
 icai hybrid! have been obtained in the close of fishes by 
 [nation between the Ciiprinus carpio and 
 Cypr. carax.-ita*. and between the Cypr. carpio and Cypr. 
 g-ilielio. Iu birds, hybrids have been bred between the gold- 
 finch and canary, between the reeves nnd the common 
 pheasant — the pheasant and the common fowl — the swan 
 (Anas olor, L.) and the goose (Anas anser, L.*) — between 
 the Tetrao tetriz and Tttrao urogallus — between the Cir- 
 rus corone and Corvus comix, <fcc. Among Mammals, hy- 
 brids have been produced between the lion and tiger, the 
 dog and wolf, the dog and jackal, the dog ami fox, the font 
 and ibex, the horse and zebra, the zebra and ass and the 
 horse and ass ; the produce of the two lost species, as it is 
 the most common and useful of hybrids, being termed, par 
 excellence, " the mule." 
 
 Hut a fruitful connexion is not only possible between in- 
 dividuals of ditlcrent varieties or of distinct species, but also 
 lly between animals of different genera. Generl- 
 cal hybrids have thus resulted from the union of the goat 
 (Copra hircus) with the antelope (Antilope rupricapra), of 
 the stag with lire cow, and of the bull with the sheep. Dot- 
 ing tin ir disparity of size. Among reptiles, be- 
 tween the toad llufo) and the frog (liana) ; among insects, 
 between Cmit/iaris melanura and Klalir vigrr. and be- 
 tween Melolmtha airricola and Cetonia hirta. Experiment 
 alone can determine the amount of affinity beyond which 
 fertilization is Impracticable, hut at present it seems to be 
 restricted to individuals belonging to genera of the same nat- 
 ural group. 
 
 The tendency of all the natural phenomena relating to 
 hybridity is to prevent its inking plnce, and when it has oc- 
 curred, to arrest the propagation of varieties so produced, 
 and to limit their generative powers, so as to admit only of 
 reversion to the original specific forms. 
 
 It would seem that in most cases the fertilizing particles 
 had a specific power over lire ova derived from the same 
 1 were attracted by them in a peculiar manner; 
 for the milt and roe of different species of fishes arc not un- 
 frequently excluded in the same locality, yet hybrids are 
 not met with in consequence. Spnllanzani was not able to 
 impregnate the ova of the frog with the semen of the newt, 
 nor to produce a fertile combination of those of the toad and 
 newt ; nor did the injection of the semen of the dog into the 
 vagina of the cat impregnate any of her ova. 
 
 The individuals of different species which produce a hy- 
 brid offspring do not voluntarily copulate. The salacious 
 mare must be blindfolded, or she will not receive the ass. 
 The stallion refuses to mount the she ass if a mare be in 
 sight. Hunter stotes that, being desirous "to have a she- 
 wolf lined by some dog, she would not allow any dog to 
 come near her, but was held while a greyhound lined her; 
 while in conjunction she remained pretty quiet, but when at 
 liberty endeavoured to fly at the dog." Button reared puppies 
 of the wolf, fox, and dog together, to familiarize them with 
 each other ; but when they were in heat, the females of 
 each species exhibited an insurmountable repugnance to the 
 male of the others, and mortal combats ensued instead of 
 fertile union between the different sexes of the different 
 npecies. (Annates du Museum, t. xii., p. 119.) 
 
 In a few exceptional cases, serving only to establish the 
 rule of their infertility, specifical hybrids have been known 
 to propagate together, and produce a degenerate intermediate 
 race, which soon becomes extinct : it more commonly hap- 
 pens that a hybrid is sterile, or propagates only with an indi- 
 vidual of pure breed. 
 
 On the assumption that a hybrid produced by two indi- 
 viduals of undoubtedly distinct species is sterile, experi- 
 
 HYDRARGO-CHLORIDES. 
 
 merits have been made on the breeding powers of hybrids, 
 to determine the nature of doubtful species. Thus Hunter 
 believed that he had obtained absolute proof of the jackal 
 being a dog, and to have equally made out the wolf to be of 
 the same species ; and he then proceeds to speculate wheth- 
 er the wolf is from the jackal, or the jackal from the wolf; 
 for he had obtained pups from the connexion of a female 
 hybrid jackal-dog and n male terrier, and between a female 
 hybrid dog-wolf and a male greyhound ; and he adds, in re 
 spect of the latter fact, that "it would have equally proved 
 the same fact if she had been lined either by a wolf, a dog, 
 or one of the males of her own litter." (Hunter's Animal 
 (Economy, by Owen, 8vo, p. 323.) But this assertion, that 
 the fertility of a hybrid with an individual of a pure breed 
 proves the fact of the identity of two supposed distinct spe- 
 cies equally with the production of offspring from the con- 
 nexion of hybrid with hybrid, cannot be admitted. To 
 prove the identity of two supposed distinct species, on the 
 assumption that the fertility of the hybrids from the two 
 gives the proof required, it should be shown that such hy- 
 brids are fertile among themselves, and capable of propaga- 
 ting indefinitely tin Interm e di at e variety. Hunter's celebra- 
 ted experiments, however, only proved that two nearly al- 
 lied species will prodvice a hybrid offspring, and that such 
 hybrid may be impregnated by an individual of the pure 
 breed ; but this fact illustrates the general law by which the 
 reversion of the hybrid to the pine breed is provided for; 
 while, on the other hand, the intermixture of disiinct spe- 
 cies is guarded against by the aversion of two specifically 
 different individuals to sexual union. 
 
 HYDA'RTHRUS. (Gr. biuip, and apOpov, a joint.) The 
 white swelling : the joints most subject to it tire the knee, 
 oIIkiw, wrist, and ankle. It is distinguished from rheumatic 
 swelling of the joints by a fixed and wearing pain preceding 
 the tumefaction, and often existing for along time before 
 any enlargement of the part is perceptible ; also by the gen 
 eral stale of the habit. 
 
 1 1 V DAT1 DS. Hyd.ith. (Gr. Wane, a bladder.) A term 
 somewhat vaguely applied both to morbid cysts and true 
 Entozoons of the order Cystica. Of the latter some are 
 globular, with a tunic composed of a double albuminous 
 membrane, between which the sporulcs or ova are develop- 
 ed. In the species developed in the human liver, the ova 
 are detached from the infernal surface, and it is hence term 
 eil Acephalo-cystis endogena. In a species infesting similar 
 organs in the lower animals, the ova ore detached from the 
 external surface, and it is called Acephalo-cystis ttogena 
 In a higher organized genus of Hydatids, a slender more or 
 less elongate process is continued from the cyst, and termi 
 nates in an extremity provided with suckers and a coronet 
 of recurved booklets, like the head of a tape-worm : thi» 
 genus is termed Cysticercus. Another genus has numerous 
 similarly organized nppendages attached to the cyst, and it 
 accordingly termed Canurus. It is a hydatid of the last ge 
 1 us which is developed in the brain of sheep, and produce* 
 the "giddy sickness" or " (taggers." 
 
 HYDE, or HIDE. A measure of land, common in Domes 
 day Book nnd old English charters. Its derivation is ob- 
 scure. It is somewhat fancifully drawn from the ancient 
 fable (common to many nntions) of the deceit practised by 
 a colonist in Acquiring from the owner so much land as he 
 could cover with the hide of an ox, and then dividing it into 
 strips so as to make It extend over a large space. Its con- 
 tents are also uncertain, but arc stated by some authorities to 
 .amount to 100 Norman or 120 English acres. ( Warner'* 
 Hist, of Hampshire ; Ellis's Introduction to Domesday.) 
 
 HY'DRA. In Mythology, a fabulous many-headed mon- 
 ster, which was said to infest the lake Lerna in Pelopon 
 nesus. According to the fable, on one of its heads being 
 cut ofT it was immediately Eucceeded by another, unless the 
 wound was cauterized. It was one of the labours of Her- 
 cules to destroy this monster, which he is said to have ac- 
 complished by the constant application of firebrands to the 
 wounds as the heads were cut off. The term hydra is 
 sometimes used in a metaphorical sense for any manifold 
 evil. 
 
 Hy'dra. This once-dreaded name is restricted in mod- 
 ern Zoology to n genus of minute fresh-water Polyps. The 
 term Hydrus was applied by LinntEus to a genus of water 
 snakes. 
 
 Hy'dra. One of the ancient constellations in the southen 
 hemisphere. 
 
 HYDRA'CIDS. Acids containing hydrogen as one ol 
 their essential elements ; such as the hydrochloric or mini 
 atic acid, the hydriodic acid, &c. 
 
 HY'DRAGOGUE. (Gr. iifuip, water, and ayu>, I expel., 
 The term is generally applied to violent cathartics, which 
 bring away a large quantity of watery secretion from the 
 intestines. 
 
 HYDRA'RGO- CHLORIDES. Compounds of th* bi- 
 chloride of mercury with other chlorides, forming a class 01 
 haloid salts. 
 
 573 
 
HYDRARGYLLITE. 
 
 HYDRARGY'LLITE. (Gr. h&u>p, Lat. argilla, clay.) 
 A name given to the native phosphate of alumina, under 
 the erroneous idea that it consisted of alumina and water. 
 
 HYDRARGYRIA. (Gr. viwp, and apyvpac, silver.) An 
 eruptive disorder occasioned by the use of mercury. 
 
 HYDRA'RGYRUM. Quicksilver, or mercury. 
 
 HY'DRATES. Compounds containing water as one of 
 their proximate elements, and in definite proportion. Caus- 
 tic potash is a hydrate of potassa, composed of 1 equivalent 
 of potassa = 48, and 1 of water = 9. Slaked lime, which is 
 an apparently dry white powder, is a hydrate of lime. 
 
 HYDRA'ULIC RAM, or WATER RAM. An ingenious 
 hydraulic machine for raising water by means of its own 
 impulse. The principle of its action and the mechanism of 
 its construction may be described as follows : 
 
 irW r^i - 
 
 gVivj 
 
 The water arriving at A from the reservoir with the ve- 
 locity due to the height of the fall, passes along the pipe A 
 B, which should have an Inclination of at least an inch for 
 every two yards, escapes through an orifice C, which may 
 be shut at pleasure by means of a valve. A reservoir, F, 
 filled with air, is attached by means of a cylinder, a b c d, to 
 the pipe ADD; in the middle of the bottom of the reser- 
 voir F is a circular orifice, to which there is adapted a short 
 cylindrical tube, of which the extremity E is also furnished 
 with a valve. Another valve, S, serves to supply the air to 
 the space comprised between the cylinder abed and the 
 tube E. G I H is an ascensional tube rising from the reser- 
 voir F. The water which escapes at C is carried off by the 
 waste pipe K L. 
 
 The form of this apparatus (or perhaps its mode of ac- 
 tion) suggested the name it has received. The pipe ABC 
 is called the body of the ram ; and the extremity, where the 
 valves and the reservoir F are placed, is called its head. 
 Both valves D and E are formed of hollow balls supported 
 on muzzles, and of such a thickness of metal that they 
 weigh about twice as much as the quantity of water they 
 displace. 
 
 We may now consider the effects of the engine when in 
 action. The water, flowing through the orifice C, acquires 
 the velocity duo to the height of the fall, and raises the ball- 
 D from its support till it comes to the orifice C ; the extrem- 
 ity of this orifice is covered with leather, or with cloth filled 
 with pitch, so that when the ball is applied to it, the passage 
 of the water is effectually prevented. As soon as this ori- 
 fice is closed, the water raises the ball E which had shut 
 the orifice of the reservoir F, and a portion of it introduces 
 itself into this reservoir, and into the pipe G I H. It thus 
 loses the velocity which it had when the orifice C was shut, 
 and the balls D and E fall down in consequence, the one 
 on its support, and the other on the orifice at E. VVhen this 
 takes place, everything is in the same state in which it was 
 at first. The water begins again to flow through the orifice 
 C ; the valve D is again shut ; and the same effects are re- 
 peated in an interval of time, which, for the same ram, un- 
 dergoes little variation. 
 
 Every time the impulse is renewed, a quantity of water is 
 forced up into the reservoir F and the tube H ; and as it is 
 prevented from returning by the action of the valve, it must 
 necessarily be delivered at the extremity of H. The use of 
 the air-vessel F is to keep up a continuous motion of the 
 ascending column of water. The communication with the 
 external atmosphere being cut off, the air within F is com- 
 pressed by a force proportional to the height of the surface 
 of the water in H above its surface in F ; and this com- 
 pressed air, acting by its elasticity on the water, maintains a 
 continuous flow through H. The air-vessel, however, 
 though it assists the action of the ram, is not an essential 
 part of it ; the continuity of the discharge of water may be 
 effected by means of two or more rams, of which the ascen- 
 sional pipes GUI all terminate in a single branch. On this 
 principle works have been erected at Marly, in France, 
 which raise water in a continuous jet to the height of 57 
 metres, or 187 English feet. 
 
 As I he ascending column of water communicates with 
 the air in the reservoir F, this would soon be exhausted if a 
 fresh jiortion of air were not introduced at each stroke of the 
 ram. The little tube S, which is stopped by a valve open- 
 ing inwards, serves for this purpose. At the instant when 
 the orifice C is closed a recoil takes place, by which the 
 water is thrown back from the head of the ram towards the 
 574 
 
 HYDRAULICS. 
 
 cistern ; and a partial vacuum being thus produced within 
 the cylinder abed, the pressure of the external atmosphere 
 forces open the valve in the canal S, and a portion of air 
 enters the cylinder, whence it is driven into the reservoir, 
 excepting the small part of it which lodges in the Bpnce be- 
 tween the cylinder abed and the tube E. (Hachette, Traiti 
 des Machines.) 
 
 The invention of the hydraulic ram, at least in the im 
 proved form here described, belongs to Montgoltier of Mont 
 pelier. A machine, however, on the s::me principle had 
 previously been suggested, and even erected at Chester, by 
 our countryman Mr. Whitehurst, but much less perfect in 
 its mode of action ; for the orifice C, instead of being opened 
 and shut by the action of the water itself, required to be 
 opened and shut by the hand by means of a stop-cock. Ow- 
 ing to this circumstance, Whitehurst's machine was of little 
 utility, and appears to have soon been entirely forgotten. 
 
 HYDRAU'LICS (Gr. vdwp, and duAo?, a pipe), is that 
 branch of natural philosophy which treats of the motions of 
 liquids, the laws by which they are regulated, and the ef- 
 fects which they produce. By some authors the term Hy- 
 drodynamics is usually applied to the general science of the 
 motions of fluids ; while Hydraulics is more particularly ap- 
 plied to the art of conducting, raising, and confining water, 
 and to the construction and performance of water-works. 
 
 There is no part of mechanical science which offers great 
 er difficulties to the mathematician, or where the resuits of 
 theoretical investigation present so little agreement with ex- 
 perience. This arises from the excessively complicated na- 
 ture of the movements which take place among the particles 
 of a liquid mass when its equilibrium has been disturbed, 
 and partly from the great number of disturbing causes by 
 which those movements are affected. 
 
 The first and principle problem of hydraulics is to deter- 
 mine the velocity with which a liquid flows through an 
 
 In 
 
 (10 
 
 aperture in the bottom or sides of the containing vessel, 
 order to discover the law of this velocity, let 
 A B C D (fig. 1) be a vessel filled with water 
 to the height E F, and let O be a very small 
 opening in the side of the vessel ; while the 
 water stands at E F, it will issue from O with ' 
 a certain velocity depending on the height E F 
 above O. Let it therefore be proposed to de- 
 termine to what height, G H, the vessel must E 
 be filled in order that the velocity of the efflux opEj 
 through O may be doubled. From the prin- - f^Srgcl * 
 ciples of hydrostatics, it is shown that the force D 
 urging a particle of the liquid at O through the orifice is the 
 pressure due to the height of the vertical column above O. 
 Now we may consider, in the first place, that when the ve- 
 locity of a particle in motion is doubled, the momentum, or 
 moving force, must also be doubled ; and, in the second 
 place, that if the velocity of the efflux is doubled, twice the 
 number of particles will be put in motion in the same inter- 
 val of time ; and, consequently, the momentum or moving 
 force must be doubled on this account also. Hence, when 
 the velocity of the discharge through O is doubled, the mo- 
 ving force, which in the present case is the pressure, must 
 be quadrupled. But the pressure is proportional to the 
 height of the fluid above O, hence the height must be quad- 
 rupled. By the same process of reasoning, we conclude 
 that to obtain a threefold velocity a ninefold depth would be 
 necessary, and so on ; and, generally, that the depths must 
 be increased as rapidly as the squares of the velocities; or, 
 in other words, the velocities are proportional to the square 
 roots of the depths of the orifice below the surface. 
 
 By means of this law, the absolute velocity with which 
 water issues from an orifice at any depth under the surface 
 may be ascertained, provided we can determine the velocity 
 for any particular depth. Now if we suppose the orifice O 
 to be on a level with the surface of the liquid, or if we sup- 
 pose O to be in the bottom of the vessel covered with an in- 
 finitely thin film, there would be no pressure on a particle at 
 O, which, therefore, would drop out merely by the effect of 
 its own weight, and consequently with the velocity of a 
 heavy body beginning to fall. But the velocity of a falling 
 body is proportional to the square root of the height from 
 which it has fallen : therefore, since it has been shown that 
 the velocity of the discharge through an orifice is also pro- 
 portional to the square root of the height of the liquid above 
 the orifice, and that the two velocities are the same in one 
 particular case, it follows that they must be the same in all 
 cases ; and hence we have this important theorem ■ " The 
 velocity with which a liquid issues from an infinitely small 
 orifice in the bottom or side of a vessel that is kept full, is 
 equal to that which a heavy body would acquire bv falling 
 from the level of the surface to the level of the entice." 
 
 Several consequences follow immediately from this fun- 
 damental theorem. In the first place, if the aperture is en- 
 larged, each particle of the liquid presenting itself there will 
 escape with the same celerity ; and hence the quantity of 
 water that issues through an orifice is as the area or section 
 
HYDRODYNAMICS. -. 
 
 of the orifit ; multiplied into the square root of the depth. 
 Again, if the water is thrown up in a perpendicular jet, it 
 ought to ascend to the height of the reservoir ; or, if several 
 orifices are made in the same vessel, each presented up- 
 wards, the jets escaping from each of them would all rise 
 to the same height. But, by reason of the resistance of the 
 air, the friction on the sides of the orifice, the mutual cohe- 
 fion of the liquid particles which impedes their separation 
 and escape, and the action of opposing currents formed in 
 the interior of the liquid, these conclusions must be received 
 with considerable modifications. The effects of the dis- 
 turbing causes can only be determined by a comparison 
 with experiment 
 
 Water issuing through a hole or pipe in the side of a ves- 
 sel kept full, like all other projectiles when the resistance 
 of the air is supposed to be withdrawn, describes a parabo- 
 la in a vertical plane. Let ABCD (fig. 2) be a cylindri- 
 cal vessel filled with water, and E 
 an orifice in Us side ; the water will 
 be projected from E with a veloci- 
 ty which would carry it horizon- 
 tally through double the space B E 
 in the same lime that a body falls 
 from B to E. But from the instant 
 it escapes at E it begins to descend 
 with an accelerated motion to the 
 level of D C, while it continues its 
 ~V uniform horizontal (light, and thus 
 describes a parabola meeting the ground in P. Now, by the 
 theory of projectiles, the velocity of a body moving in a 
 parabola la equal to that which is acquired by a body fall- 
 ing through half the parameter of the diameter, and it was 
 showti that the velocity at E is equal to 2 BE; therefore 
 the directrix passes through B, and consequently 4 B E X 
 E C = C ?2. On BC, as a diameter, let there be described 
 a semicircle BLC; then BExEC=EL2, and • 
 quently CP2 = 4EL-; whence CP = 2EL, or the hori- 
 zontal range is double the ordinate E L. The horizontal 
 range is therefore greatest when the aperture is at F, the 
 middle of B C, and is then C ft, which Is equal to 2 F M, or 
 to the altitude B C. In nil other cases there are two aper- 
 E and (;, equidistant from F. which give the same 
 : for by the nature of the circle there are two equal 
 ordinate*, E L and G N. 
 
 There is a circumstance connected with the efflux of a 
 .iquid through an orifice which requires particular attention. 
 While a liquid la flowing out in this manner, the particles 
 continue to descend in vertical lines till they reach within a 
 short distance of the orifice, as at C D (fig. 3), 
 when those not immediately above it change 
 the direction of their motion, and approach 
 the orifice with different degrees of obliquity, 
 con verging, as it were, to a centre, the position 
 of which Is somewhat without the orifice. In 
 consequence of this, the vein of water, as it is- 
 sues out, Is contracted, its breadth at m n being less than the 
 width of the orifice. This contraction of the jet was first 
 noticed by Sir Isaac Newton, who gave it the name of the 
 vena eontracta, or the contracted vein of the liquid. The 
 distance from the orifice at which the contraction is greatest 
 depends in some degree on the magnitude of the orifice, and 
 is equal to about half its diameter when the orifice is circu- 
 lar and small. The consequence of this contraction is, that 
 the discharge of water is not so great as the theory gives it, 
 but is reduced j n the proportion of the breadth of the vein 
 where the contraction is greatest to that of the orifice. Ac- 
 cording to Newton, this proportion is 5 to 7 nearly ; and ac- 
 cording to Bossut, 5 to 8. 
 
 As the same quantity of liquid must evidently pass 
 through the orifice and the contracted vein in the same in- 
 terval of lime, it follows that the velocity at the latter point 
 must be greater; and therefore, in applying the theorem re- 
 specting the velocity of discharge, it is the velocity at the 
 contracted vein which must lie regarded. 
 
 It Is found by experience that if a short tube, about one or 
 two inches long, is inserted in the vessel, and the water be 
 allowed to flow through the tube, the contraction of the vein 
 is very considerably diminished, and the quantity of water 
 discharged through the tube is considerably greater in the 
 same time than through an orifice of equal diameter. Ven- 
 turi found that the discharge through a smooth hole in the 
 bottom of a reservoir of tin amounted to 64 quarts in 100 sec- 
 onds; a short pipe of the same diameter being applied to the 
 bottom of the reservoir, so as to be flat and even with it, the 
 discharge was augmented to 82 quarts in the same time ; and 
 (4.) on giving the bottom of the vessel the 
 
 form here represented, leaving the 
 area of the orifice at A (fig. 4) the 
 same as before, the discharge was in- 
 creased to 98 quarts. By enlarging 
 the lower end of the pipe, and giving 
 it a curvature as B, the quantity of 
 
 water delivered in the same time received a still farthei 
 augmentation. Such additional pipes are called adjutages. 
 
 The velocity and other circumstances relative to the mo- 
 tion of water in conduit pipes, and in open canals and r vers, 
 cannot be accurately determined from any theoretical - rinci- 
 ples; but very numerous experiments have been made on 
 the subject, from which results have been deduced of great 
 value in directing the practice of the engineer. When water 
 flows from a reservoir in long horizontal pipes of the same 
 diameter, the discharges made in equal times are nearly it 
 the inverse ratio of the square roots of the lengths. But "thir 
 rule applies only within limits which are not verv e.xteulcd. 
 and is not ndmissible with respect to long pi] 
 found by Bossut that water has its celerity diminished eight 
 times by passing through a tube of one inch in diameter and 
 204 feet long. In order to obtain the greatest discharge from 
 a pipe, it is necessary that the inside be smooth, the width 
 uniform, nnd sudden bendings avoided. The want of even- 
 ness of surface impedes the motion of the fluid, which is far- 
 ther obstructed by any violent change of celerity or direction. 
 Whether the channel be contracted or enlarged, the change 
 is unavoidably attended with a proportional loss of impul- 
 sion. Any sharp flexure of the pqic or conduit will occasion 
 a still greater waste of the inciting force. It is also found 
 that a curvilincnl pipe discharges less water than a recti- 
 lineal one of the same length, anil that when the flexures are 
 vertical the quantity discharged is less than when they are 
 horizontal. When a lame pipe has a number of contrary 
 flexures, the air sometimes mixes with the water, and occu- 
 pies the highest parts of each flexure, by which means the 
 velocity of the fluid is greatly retarded, and the quantity dis- 
 charged much diminished. 
 
 When liquids flow through very small orifices, or capil- 
 lary tubes, the resistance is greatly augmented, and the rata 
 which apply to orifices or pipes of considerable diameter K 
 longer hold good. In this case the celerity depends very 
 considerably on the temperature of the liquid. Thus pure 
 water, at a temperature near the boiling point, is found to 
 flow through a capillary tube five times faster than when 
 the temperature is near the freezing |>oint. Alcohol is found 
 10 flow six times faster When the temperature is raised 124 
 degrees. Quicksilver is less affected, but it endures heat 
 through n wider range. 
 
 With respect to water running in open channels or in 
 rivers, the resisting forces are so numerous, and of so irregu- 
 lar a nature, that it is of little use to attempt to deduce their 
 effect from any general principles. In all cases the velocity 
 is increased by the depth of the stream and of the dec I nit- 
 on which it runs to a certain limit; that is, till the resist- 
 ance, which increases with the velocity, becomes equal to 
 the acceleration, when the motion of the stream becomes 
 uniform. The resistance, of course, depends much upon the 
 evenness of the bottom and sides of the channel. Tile 
 treated velocity of a river is at the surface and in the mid- 
 dle of the stream, from which it diminishes towards the 
 bottom and sides, where it is least. It has been found by ex- 
 periment, that if from the square root of the velocity in the 
 middle of the stream, expressed in inches per second, unity 
 be subtracted, the squnre of the remainder will be the veloci- 
 ty at the bottom. Thus, let c = the velocity at the surface; 
 in the middle of the stream, then the velocity nt the bottom 
 will be expressed by (v'o — l)2 = o — 2-/r>-r-l. It has also 
 been found by experiment that the mean velocity (or that 
 with which, were the whole stream to move, the discharge 
 would be the same with the real discharge) is equal to half 
 the sum of the greatest and least velocities, as computed 
 by the above formula. The mean velocity is therefore 
 e — -v/o-r-A- These formula? are deduced from the experi- 
 ments of Du Bunt. (See Playfair's Elements of Natural 
 Philosophy.) 
 
 When the sections of a river vary, the quantity of water 
 remaining the same, the mean velocities are inversely ns the 
 areas of the sections; but when the river receives a perma- 
 nent nddition, the velocity is immediately increased. The 
 effect of this is to augment the action on the sides nnd hot 
 torn, in consequence of which the width is augmented, and 
 sometimes, though more rarely, the depth. This increase 
 of width, by multiplying the points of resistance, again re- 
 duces the velocity, till an equilibrium is established between 
 the velocity and resistance; after which the bed of the rvej 
 changes only by insensible degrees. See River. 
 
 The determination of the force with which a liquid ?r 
 motion strikes a solid at rest, and the force necessary to pro 
 pel n solid immersed in a liquid, is another important pan 
 of hydraulics; though, of the general principles hitherto de- 
 duced from theory, there are only a very smnll number 
 which afford a tolerable approximation to the results of ex- 
 periment. The force of a stream must be regarded as cem- 
 pounded of the force of each particle nnd of the number of 
 particles thnt strike in a given time. Now the force of each 
 particle is proportional to the velocity with which it impin- 
 ges ; and the number of particles that strike in a given tim* 
 
 575 
 
HYDRIODIC ACID. 
 
 m also proportional to the velocity of the stream, supposing 
 its section to remain the same ; hence the whole force of 
 the stream is as the square of the velocity. It follows that 
 if the plane struck by a stream be itself in motion, the im- 
 pulse will be as the square of the difference of their veloci- 
 ties ; and if a stream strike obliquely on a plane, its force is 
 less than if struck directly on the same plane in the ratio of 
 the cube of the sine of the obliquity to the cube of the ra- 
 dius. But it would appear from experiment that this last 
 consequence only holds true when the angle of inclination 
 is greater than 60 degrees. It might seem (and it is agreea- 
 ble to theory to suppose) that a plane moving against a 
 liquid at rest with a given velocity, would receive the same 
 impulse as if the liquid were to move with that velocity and 
 the plane to remain at rest. This, however, is not confirmed 
 by experience, which proves that the resistance of a liquid 
 to a body in motion is considerably less than the percussion 
 of the liquid moving with the same velocity against the body 
 at rest. The difference arises from the action of the liquid 
 on the hinder part of the moving body, by which the resist- 
 ance is in some degree counteracted. But the resistance de- 
 pends very materially on the figure of the body, and the re- 
 lation of its length to its breadth. A conical-shaped body, 
 when its length is considerable, is more easily drawn through 
 the water with its broad than with its narrow end foremost. 
 In general, it is found that whatever tends to diminish the 
 adhesion of the body to the liquid tends also to diminish the 
 resistance. A wedge which has its sides rubbed wiih grease 
 is found to move more freely through the water ; hence the 
 great benefit derived from sheathing a ship's bottom with 
 copper. See Resistance. 
 
 The following are some of the best works on this subject: 
 Bossut, TraiU Elemcntairc <T Hydrodynamiquc ; Belidor, Ar- 
 chitecture Hydraulique ; Du Buat, Principles d'Hydrnu- 
 lique ; Prony, Nouvelle Architecture Hydraulique, and Re- 
 cherches Physico-Matliematiques sur la Theoric des Eaux 
 courante ; Experimental Inquiry concerning the Motion of 
 Fluids, by J. B. Venturi, translated by W. Nicholson ; Ency. 
 Brit.., articles "Hydrodynamics," "Biver," &c. 
 
 HYDRIO'DIC ACID. A gaseous compound of hydro- 
 gen and iodine, obtained by the mutual decomposition of 
 iodide of phosphorus and water. It is composed of 126 
 iodine + 1 hydrogen; and its equivalent, therefore, is 127. 
 The specific gravity of this gas is 4*4. One hundred cubic 
 inches weigh 130 grains. It is rapidly absorbed by water, 
 furnishing a sour, colourless, and dense liquid, which soon 
 becomes brown by exposure to air, in consequence of the 
 evolution of a little free iodine. It is instantly decomposed 
 by chlorine, which abstracts the hydrogen to form hydro- 
 Chloric (muriatic) acid, and sets the iodine free. 
 
 HYDROBRO'MIC ACID. A gaseous acid composed of 
 i'S bromine + 1 hydrogen. It is obtained by the mutual de- 
 composition of bromide of phosphorus and water. 
 
 HYDROCA'RBON. A term applied by chemists to com- 
 pounds of hydrogen and carbon. These elements unite in 
 several proportions, and form a variety of curious definite 
 combinations, which are commonly called hydrocarbtircts. 
 
 HYDROCA'RBURETS. Compounds of hydrogen and 
 carbon. There appear to be several definite combinations 
 of these elements; among them the following deserve es- 
 pecial notice: 1. Eight carburetted hydrogen gas, which is 
 the firedamp of coal mines and of marshes: 100 cubic inches 
 weigh about 17-4 grains. It consists of 2 atoms of hydro- 
 gen =2, and 1 of carbon = 6; its equivalent is 8. It burns 
 with a pale blue flame. 2. Olefiant gas, which is formed 
 during the distillation of equal measures of alcohol and sul- 
 phuric acid : 100 cubic inches weigh 30-5 grains. It is com- 
 posed of 2 atoms of hydrogen = 2, and 2 of carbon = 12 ; and 
 its equivalent, therefore, is 14. It burns with a bright white 
 flame. Coal gas consists of a mixture of these two hydro- 
 carbons. The term olefiant gas is derived from the action 
 of chlorine upon it, which, when mixed with the gas over 
 water, gradually condenses it into a liquid looking like oil, 
 which is a hydrochloride of carbon. 3. Quadricarburcttcd 
 hydrogen, which is produced during the destructive distilla- 
 tion of oil (Faraday, Annals of Philosophy, xxvii., 44), and 
 which is a vapour condensable at 0°, of which 100 cubic inch- 
 es weigh 61-2 grains. It consists of 4 atoms of hydrogen = 4, 
 and 4 of carbon =24; and its equivalent is 28. It burns 
 with a dense and very smoky flame. This compound has 
 also been called ethcrine, 1 volume of the vapour of ether 
 being constituted of 1 volume of quadrihydrocarbon and 1 
 of water vapour. 4. Bicarburet of hydrogen, obtained, like 
 the last, from the volatile products formed during the de- 
 structive distillation of whale oil. When the quadrihydro- 
 carbon has been distilled off from the more volatile portion, 
 that which remains yields a product which congeals at 0°. 
 It is a brittle white solid at that temperature: 100 cubic 
 inches of its vapour weigh 85 - 3 grains, and it consists of 3 
 atoms of hydrogen = 3, and 6 of carbon = 36; its equiva- 
 lent, therefore, is 39. These are the principal forms of hy- 
 drocarbon which have been satisfactorily identified : thev 
 576 
 
 HYDRODYNAMICS. 
 
 all afford carbonic acid and water when burned in a sufll 
 ciency of oxygen; and the proportions in which these are 
 formed, together with the specific gravities of their respect- 
 ive vapours, furnish the data upon which their composition 
 is estimated. See Naphtha and Naphthalmi. 
 
 HYDDOCA'RDIA. Dropsy of the pericardium. 
 
 IIY'DROCE'LE. (Gr. vtiwp, and ktiXtj, a tumour.) A 
 collection of watery or serous fluid in the tunica vaginalis 
 
 HYDROCEPHALUS. (Gr. Hup, and KcfaXrj, the head , 
 Dropsy of the brain, or water in the head. The acute fortri 
 of this disease is almost limited to childhood: it is marked 
 by febrile symptoms, pain of the head, and in very yourg 
 children enlargement of it. The eyes are irregularly direct- 
 ed and the pupil dilated. The eyes are not perfectly closed 
 in sleep, and there appears a degree of delirium, us far as 
 can be judged of in children: coma, convulsions, and paral- 
 ysis are frequent consequences. The ventricles of the brain 
 are the chief seat of the watery accumulation. Bleeding 
 from the temporal artery or jugular vein, cold an 
 the head, and brisk purgatives with calomel, arej 
 remedies. 
 
 HY'DROCHARA'CE,E. (Hydrocharis, one i . 
 ra.) A natural order of floating Endogens, inhabiting Eu- 
 rope and some other places, known by their tripetaloideous 
 flowers with an inferior ovaiy. They agree with Alismacea 
 in habit and in want of albumen, but differ in their carpel* 
 being definite in number. They are not of any known use, 
 but many of the species are handsome when in flower. 
 
 HYDROCHLO'RIC ACID. A gaseous compound of 1 
 atom of the chlorine = 36, and 1 atom of hydrogen = 1 ; the 
 equivalent, therefore, of the hydrochloric acid is = 37. Sec 
 Muriatic Acid. 
 
 HY'DROCO'RIS^E. (Gr. iSiop, and xopis, a bug.) The 
 name of a tribe of Hemipterans, including the water-hugs ; 
 these differ from the Geocorisoj, or land-bugs, in having mi- 
 nute antennae inserted beneath the eyes. This tribe in- 
 cludes the water-scorpions (Ncpida), and the boat-men 
 {Nolon ectidm.) 
 
 HYDROCYA'NIC ACID. (Gr. i?u>p, and icvavoe, Hue.) 
 This highly noxious compound was first discovered in Prus- 
 sian blue, and hence called Prussic acid. It is best obtain- 
 ed by gently heating in a small retort a mixture of three 
 parts of cyanuret of mercury and two of hydrochloric acid : 
 the evolved vapours should be passed through a tube con 
 raining fragments of marble, in order to absorb any hydro- 
 chloric acid that may chance to distil over, and ultimately 
 condensed in a receiver immersed in a freezing mixture. 
 The hydrocyanic acid is a colourless acid, having a very 
 strong odour, resembling that of bitter almonds: its specific 
 gravity at 45° is 0-7. It boils at 80°, and freezes at 0°. Dis- 
 solved in a large quantity of water, it imparts to it ihe smell 
 and taste of laurel or bitter almond water: it is intensely 
 poisonous. It consists of 26 cyanogen -f- 1 hydrogen, or 01 
 14 nitrogen -f- 12 carbon -f- 1 hydrogen ; and its equivalent 
 is 27. 
 
 HYDRODYNA'MICS (Gr. Mwp. and Svraptc, power), 
 is the science which applies the principles of dynamics to 
 determine the conditions of motion or rest In fluid bodies. It 
 is usually divided into two branches ; namely, hydrostatics, 
 which explains the laws of the equilibrium, pressure, and 
 cohesion of fluids; and hydraulics, which explains the laws 
 of their motion, together with the machines in which they 
 are chiefly concerned. Though the term hydrodynamics is 
 sometimes applied generally to fluids of all kinds, it is more 
 usually restricted to the non-elastic or incompressible fluids, 
 as water, mercury, &c. ; in which case the science which 
 treats of the equilibrium of the compressible and elastic 
 fluids. like air, is called aerostatics, and that which treats 
 of their motion pneumatics. 
 
 Hydrodynamics, though a science of immense importance 
 in its applications to the various purposes of life, was not 
 cultivated to any extent by the ancients, all their knowledge 
 of the doctrine of fluids being limited to a few propositions 
 regarding the pressure and equilibrium of water. Archimi- 
 des, indeed, established the general principles which serve 
 as the foundation of hydrostatics, in his treatise J)e Insiden- 
 tibus Humido ; and CtesibiuB and Hero, who flourished at 
 Alexandria about 120 years after Christ, invented the fount- 
 ain of compression, the siphon, and the forcing-pump. Ju- 
 lius Frontinus, who was inspector of the public fountains at 
 Rome in the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, wrote a work on 
 the Roman aqueducts, and the modes of distributing water 
 then in use; but he appears to have been unacquainted with 
 the law of the velocities of running water depending on Die 
 depth. The first modem treatise on hydrodynamics was 
 published in 1639 by Castelli, a disciple of Galileo, entitled 
 Delia Misura dclV Acque Corrrnti, and contains a satisfac- 
 tory explanation of various phenomena in the motion of 
 fluids. Torricelli discovered the important property that the 
 velocities of fluids issuing through an orifice are as the 
 square roots of the pressures; Mariotte, hi his TraiU du 
 
HYDROFLUORIC ACID. 
 
 Mouvement dcs F.auz, employed the principle of Torricelli, 
 and explained the discrepancy between theory and observa- 
 tion by ascribing il to the retardation of the water's velocity 
 arising from friction. Guglielmini was the first who treated 
 of the motion of water in rivers and open canals. The sub- 
 ject of the oscillation of waves, one of the most difficult in 
 who determined the duration of the oscillations, and thence 
 the whole science, was first investigated by Sir Isaac Newton, 
 concluded that the velocities of waves formed on the surface 
 of water are in the subduplicate ratio of their size. He was 
 also the first who observed the contraction in the vein of a 
 il Jil 'ssuing through an orifice, and regarded the contracted 
 section us the true orifice, by which the theory was render- 
 ed more conformable to experience. The Hydrodynamica 
 of Daniel Bernoulli was published in IT:;- 4 . II is theory of 
 the motion of fluids consists in supposing, 1st, that the sur- 
 face of a fluid in a vessel, while emptying itself by an ori- 
 fice, remains always horizontal; and, 2d, that if the fluid 
 ceived to be divided into an infinite number of 
 horizontal strata, all the strata remain parallel, and descend 
 vertically with velocities inversely proportional to their 
 breadth, ar to the horizontal sections of the reservoir. From 
 these siijfcosjuons, and by means of the application of the 
 -ervation of living forces, he obtained so- 
 liiti, ■ cipal problems of hydrodynamics. The 
 
 mathematical theory of the motion of fluids was farther in- 
 ;ated by John Bernoulli, Macluurin, and the celebrated 
 D'Alembert; the latter of whom placed it in an entirely new 
 light by the application of Euler's calculus of partial dif- 
 ferences. One of the best treatises on hydrodynamics which 
 we possess is that of the Abbe Bossut, in which are given 
 nits of a very extensive set of experiments performed 
 with great judgment and accuracy. Similar cx|>eriinents, 
 and i. irely varied, were afterwards undertaken 
 
 by Du limit, whose Principes d' Hydrauliqur, in three vol- 
 umes, contains a theory founded solely on the results of ex- 
 periments. Du Boat was the first who determined experi- 
 mentally the influence of heat in promoting fluidity. Among 
 other experiments more recently undertaken for the purpose 
 of throwing light on this interesting and difficult subject, ue 
 may mention those of Coulomb, or Eytelwein of Berlin, of 
 Bidone of Turin, of General Sabatier of Met/., of Mr. George 
 Kemiie, and of Mr. Jardine of Edinburgh, from which some 
 valuable results have been obtained relative to the discharge 
 of water from long pipes, 
 
 The analytical theory of hydrodynamics resolves itself 
 into the integration of equations of partial difference*, a 
 branch of the calculus which we owe to the illustrious 
 Euler. Enler himself gave the general formula' for the 
 motion of fluids, founded on the laws of their equilibrium, 
 and thus reduced the whole mechanics of fluid bodies to 
 n single question of analysis. If these formula; could be in- 
 ' rl, we should be able to determine completely, in 
 every case, all the circumstances of the motion and action 
 of a fluid subjected to the influences of any forces what- 
 ever ; but such is the difficulty of the subject, that the in- 
 tegration, except in a few limited cases, has hitherto resisted 
 the efforts of the greatest mathematicians, Lagrange, in 
 his .Vrcaniijue Jinalytique, has deduced the analytical for- 
 mula' of the motion of fluids from the principle of virtual 
 velocities, and thus shown that dynamics and hydrody- 
 namics are only branches of one great principle, and results, 
 as it were, of a single general formula. Laplace, in the Mi- 
 canique Celistc, has Aso given the general equations of 
 ■dynamics, nnd applied them to the questions of the 
 figure of the earth and the tides. Since the days of those 
 illustrious mathematicians, the theory has been illustrated 
 with reference to applications to particular cases by Poisson. 
 Cauchy, Navier, Challis, and others; but it cannot be said 
 to have received any material extension. 
 
 Treatises on hydrodynamics are very numerous. Besides 
 the works of Lagrange and Laplace, and the others above 
 mentioned, we would refer the student to Jiossut's Hy- 
 drodynamiq ue ; Poisson's Mecanique ; Moscley's Element- 
 ary Treatise on Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics. (See 
 Hydrostatics and Hydraulics.) 
 
 H YDROFLU'ORIC ACID. A highly corrosive and very 
 volatile liquid, obtained by distilling in leaden or silver ves- 
 sels a mixture of 1 part of pure fluor spar in fine powder 
 with 2 of sulphuric acid. This compound acts vehemently 
 npon glass and all silicious combinations: it is probably a 
 compound of 18 fluorine + 1 hydrogen. 
 
 HY'DROGEN. (Gr. liuip, and yevvactv, to generate.) 
 This important element is only known to us in the gaseous 
 or permanently elastic form. It was formerly called tn- 
 Jtammable air, and was sometimes considered as identical 
 with phlogiston, or the matter of heat. It is usually pro- 
 cured by the action of sulphuric acid and zinc or iron upon 
 water, or by passing the vapour of water over red-hot iron. 
 Pure hydrogen is a colourless, tasteless, and inodorous gas. 
 100 cubic inches at mean temperature and pressure weigh 
 2'13 grams; so that Its specific gravity compared with air U 
 2 O 
 
 HYD ROPERS ULPHTJRIC ACID. 
 
 as 69 to 1000, and it is exactly 16 times lighter than oxygei. 
 It burns in contact with air with a pale blue flame; one 
 when mixed with three or four times its volume of air, oi 
 with half its volume of pure oxygen, and inflamed, it hums 
 rapidly, and in the latter case with violent explosion. The 
 only product of this combustion is water, which is thus 
 shown to consist of 1 part by weight of hydrogen with 8 of 
 oxygen; so that upon this datum the number 8 becomes the 
 equivalent of oxygen, and 9 that of water. Hydrogen is 
 not absorbed by water, and animals soon die when confined 
 in it. 
 
 HYDRO'GRArHY. (Gr. iic^p, and ypu<£w, / irnte.] 
 The description of the waters which exist at the suiface nl 
 the earth, particularly with reference to the hearings of the 
 coasts, the depths, currents, and other circumstances re- 
 quired to be known for the purposes of navigation. This 
 term implies the same thing with regard to the sea that ge- 
 ography implies with regard to the land. Hydra fiafkSti 
 charts or maps are projections of some part of the ocean, in 
 which the rhumbs, meridians, parallels, &c, with the 
 coasts, capes, rocks, shallows, &.c, are laid down for the 
 uses of navigation. 
 
 HYDRO'GURETS, or HY'DURETS. Compounds of 
 hydrogen with metals, &c. 
 
 11 V'UKOLEACEvE, arc a small natural order of Mono 
 petal. mis Exogens, resembling Boraginaceai in some respects, 
 and Concolvulacete in others ; not, however, climbing like 
 the latter. They chiefly inhabit watery places in tropical 
 climates, and have flowers of some beauty, usually belong- . 
 ing to the Cyanic series. 
 
 11 VDKO'LOGY. (Gr. lioip, and Xoyot, discourse.) That 
 part of natural history which treats of water, and of its va 
 rious properties and modes of existence in nature. 
 
 HY'DKOM.Wi'V. (Gr. bfwp, and uavjcta, prophecy.) 
 Among the ancients, a method of divination by water. It 
 was performed in various ways. Its origin is ascribed by 
 Varro to the Persians ; and Nuiiin is said to have had re- 
 course to it for instruction how he should settle the ceremo- 
 nies of religion. 
 
 HY'DROMEL. (Gr. Wwp, and ut\i, honey.) Water 
 sweetened with honey, which, when fermented, forms mi ad. • 
 
 HYDKO'MKTEK. (Gr. iowfl, and jtcrpoi; mra.nirr.) 
 An instrument tor determining the specific gravities of li- 
 quids, and thence the strengths of spirituous liquors; these 
 being inversely M their specilic gravities. Various instru- 
 ments of different forms have been proposed for ascertain- 
 ing readily the speriiic gravities of fluids ; but ns Sikes's 
 hydrometer is directed by act of parliament to be used in 
 collecting the revenue of the United Kingdom, it may bo 
 
 Ka 
 
 considered as more deserving of description 
 than any of the others. This instrument is 
 represented in the annexed figure. A B is a 
 flat stem, divided on both sides into eleven 
 equal parts, each of which is again subdivi- 
 ded into two. The stem carries a hollow brass 
 ball B C, in which is fixed a conical stalk C 
 D, terminating in a pear-shaped bulb D. Eight 
 different weights of a circular form, and mark- 
 ed with the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 
 and 80, are cut in the manner represented at 
 W, so that they can lie placed on the stalk C 
 D. When the strength of spirits is to be 
 measured, one of the circular weights is pla- 
 ced on C D, which is found by trial to be ca- 
 pable of sinking the bail so far that the sur- 
 face of the liquid cuts the stem at one of the 
 divisions between A and B. The number of 
 this division is then observed, and also the 
 temperature of the liquid ; and the corre- 
 sponding strength per cent, of the spirit is then found in a 
 table which accompanies the instrument. 
 
 Another easy method of determining the densities of dif- 
 ferent liquids, frequently practised, is by means of a set of 
 glass beads previously adjusted and numbered. Thrown 
 into any liquid, the heavier balls sink nnd the lighter float 
 at the surface; but one of them approaching the density of 
 the liquid will be in a state of indifference as to buoyancy, 
 or will float under the surface. The number on this hall 
 indicates, in thousandth parts, the specific density of the 
 liquid. 
 
 HY'DROMETRA. (Gr. J<5u>/>, and prirpa, the womb.) 
 Dropsy of the uterus. 
 
 HY'DROMETRIDiE. (Gr. hlo>p, nnd ur,rpa, a birth- 
 place.) A family of Oeocorisir, or land-bugs, but of aquatic 
 habits ; not, however, living ii. water, but frequenting the 
 surface. 
 
 II Y'DROPE'RICA'RDIUM. (Gr. vtwo. nnd irtpiKapfoov.) 
 Dropsy of, or an unnatural accumulation of watery fluid In, 
 the sac of the heart. 
 
 HY'DROPERSULPHU'RIC ACID, or BISULPHl'RET 
 OF HYDROGEN. A compound of 2 equivalents of sul- 
 •»lr X a» . uf rydroccn : its equivalent is 33. 
 
 577 
 
HYDROPHANE. 
 
 HY'DROPHANE. (Gr. ISaip, and <paivu>, I shine.) A 
 variety of opal, which is white and opaque when dry, but 
 becomes transparent in water. 
 
 HYDRO'PHIDES. (Gr. Mid/j, and oi£(j, a serpent.) A 
 name applied to the section of Ophidians, including the 
 Rater-snakes. These are principally distinguished by 
 having the tail compressed or flattened sideways, for the 
 purpose of swimming. They are armed with poison fangs ; 
 but these are of small size, and are associated with a row 
 :i non-venomous maxillary teeth. 
 
 HYDRO'PHILID^E. (Gr. viup, and <pt\cu, I love.) A 
 family of Pentamerous Coleopterans, including those species 
 which have short clavate antenna;, long and slender palpi, 
 mandibles bidentate at the tips; body oval and convex; 
 and the hind legs often ciliated. The Hydrophilidm, like 
 the Dyticida, are aquatic beetles, and have wings by which 
 they can transport themselves from one piece of water to 
 another ; but they are vegetable-feeders, and are less active 
 in their movements than the predatory water-beetles. The 
 family includes many genera. The typical species, Hy- 
 drophilus caraboides, is common in the stagnant ponds and 
 ditches of this country. 
 
 HY'DROPHO'BIA. (Gr. Uwp, and (boSeopat, I fear.) 
 A disease remarkably characterized by alarm at the ap- 
 proach of water, and caused by the bite of a mad dog or 
 other rabid animal ; but it does not appear capable of being 
 communicated by the human subject. At some indefinite 
 period after the bite, and often long after all local injury 
 has healed, itching and pain in the bitten part, heavinese, 
 great restlessness and uneasiness, and mental alarm ensue, 
 followed by pains about the neck, sense of choking, and 
 great irritability and horror at any attempt to drink, al- 
 though solid food can generally be swallowed. Fever, 
 vomiting, excessive thirst, spitting of viscid saliva, and diffi- 
 cult respiration then come on, with irregular pulse and con- 
 vulsions, under which the sufferer sinks more or less rapid- 
 ly, according to the strength of his constitution. Delirium 
 sometimes precedes death, but not always ; in many in- 
 stances the judgment appears unaffected. It unfortunately 
 happens that nothing in the way of cure, and little even as 
 ' palliation, has been successfully effected in this disease; 
 but there appears little doubt that the timely application of 
 preventive measures has been successful, and of these the 
 amputation or excision of the bitten part, and the applica- 
 tion of caustics to it, or both united, are most to be relied 
 on; and the sooner they are resorted to, the better the 
 chance of success ; but it appears that they may be effective 
 any time before the appearance of symptoms. Among 
 caustics, the nitric acid is perhaps the most effective. It 
 energetically acts upon and decomposes all animal matter, 
 and fluids more especially ; and if applied very soon after 
 the bite, can scarcely fail to be effective : it also penetrates 
 the wound, and forms a sloughing sore. The appearance 
 Df madness in dogs, in its early stages at least, is unfortu- 
 aately not very well defined, nor always easily distinguish- 
 able from their other maladies: whether the bite is less 
 dangerous before they become evidently rabid than after- 
 wards, seems to be doubtful. In general, the animal is ob- 
 served to be unusually dull and unsociable, refuses food, 
 hangs his head, and appears drowsy : he flies at strangers, 
 but usually recognises his master, though with great com- 
 parative indifference. Afterwards his breathing is quick 
 and heavy ; frothy matter runs from his mouth ; he walks 
 slowly, but occasionally runs and starts forward ; at length 
 he forgets his master, often falls down, flies at everybody 
 In his way, grows furious, and in four-and-twenty or thirty 
 hours dies. 
 
 HYDROPHYLLA'CEjE. (Hydrophyllum, one of the 
 genera.) A natural order of herbaceous Exogens, inhabit- 
 ing America ; very near to Boraginacem, from which they 
 are known by their one-celled, many-seeded fruit, and many 
 other characters. Some Polemoniacea have the habit of 
 this order. Some of the species of Eutoca and Phacclia are 
 cultivated on account of their pretty flowers. 
 
 HY'DROPHYTES. (Gr. viu>p, and <pvrov, a plant.) 
 Plants which thrive in water: a name confined by botanists 
 to Algaceous plants found in fresh water. It has been re- 
 marked by Mr. Lyell (Principles of Geology) that the 
 number of hydrophytes is very considerable, and their sta- 
 tions more varied than could have been anticipated ; for 
 while some plants are daily covered and uncovered by the 
 tide, others live in abysses of the ocean at the extraordinary 
 depth of 1000 feet ; and although in such situations there 
 must reign darkness more profound than night, at least to 
 our organs, many of these vegetables are highly coloured. 
 
 HY'DROPS. (Gr. ti<5w/>.) Dropsy. An unnatural ac- 
 cumulation of fluid in the cellular membrane or cavities of 
 the body. 
 
 HY'DROPTHA'LMIA. (Gr. LZiop, and otfiOa'Kpos, the 
 eye.) Dropsy of the eve. 
 
 HYDRORACHI'TIS. (Gr. Map, and faxis, the spine.) 
 A tumour upon the spine of infants ; at first of a blue col- 
 578 
 
 '7 
 
 HYDROSTATICS. 
 
 our, but afterwards becoming translucent: it is attended 
 with paralysis of the lower limbs, and usually fatal in its 
 consequences. 
 
 HY'DRO-SALTS. Salts of the hydatids. 
 
 HY'DROSCOPE. (Gr. bbpooKomov, from Wup and 
 crKoirtu), I view.) An instrument anciently used for meas- 
 uring time by means of the flowing of water through a 
 small orifice. It consisted of a cylindrical tube, conical at 
 the bottom. The cylinder was graduated ; and as the water 
 trickled out at the apex of the cone, its surface became suc- 
 cessively contiguous to the divisions marked on the cone, 
 and thereby pointed out the hour. 
 
 HYDROSTA'TICA. (Gr. vSoip, and <rraw, / stand.) 
 The name of an order of Acalephes, including those which 
 have one or more air-vessels appended to their body. 
 
 HYDROSTA'TIC BALANCE. A balance for weighing 
 substances in water, for the purpose of ascertaining their 
 specific gravities. See Balance. 
 
 HYDROSTATIC BELLOWS. An apparatus for illus- 
 trating the hydrostatic paradox, or that peculiar property of 
 liquids in virtue of which they transmit pressure equally in 
 every direction. In the annexed fig- 
 ure B C and D E are two flat boards 
 united by leather or flexible cloth A, 
 water-tight. A short tube fitted with a 
 stop-cock communicates with the in- 
 terior of the bellows, by which the li- 
 quid may be discharged. From the 
 short tube a long tube T rises perpen- 
 dicularly, and terminates in a funnel 
 F. The upper board B C is loaded 
 with weights, which press it against 
 the lower board D E. On pouring 
 water into the funnel F, it will de- 
 scend through the tube T, and enter 
 between the boards ; and by continu- B ^ 
 ing the supply, a column will be form- 
 ed in the tube, the weight of which, transmitted through the 
 water in the bellows, will raise and support the weights on 
 the board. The load which may be thus raised is easily de- 
 termined. Every portion of the surface of the board B C, 
 equal in area to the section of the tube, is pressed upwards 
 by a force equal to the weight of the water in the tube above 
 the level of B C. Hence, if the section of the tube T is one 
 square inch, and the surface of the board B C is 1000 square 
 inches, then a column of water in T weighing one pound 
 will sustain a weight on the board of 1000 pounds. In this 
 manner a few ounces of water may be made to support any 
 weight, however great. See Hydrostatics. 
 
 HYDROSTATIC PARADOX. A term frequently em- 
 ployed to designate that principle in hydrostatics according 
 to which any quantity of water, however small, may be 
 made to balance any weight, however great. See Hydro 
 static Bellows. 
 
 HYDROSTATIC PRESS, also called the Hydraulic 
 Press, and sometimes, from the name of the engineer who 
 gave it the form under which it is now constructed, and 
 brought it into general use, Bramah's Press, is a machine 
 by means of which an enormous force of pressure is ob- 
 tained through the medium of water. The principle is the 
 same as that of the hydrostatic bellows ; from which, in- 
 deed, it only differs by the substitution of a strong forcing 
 pump for the long tube, and a barrel and piston for the 
 leather and boards. It consists of a short and very strong 
 pump-barrel A B, with a solid pis- 
 ton C of proportionate strength, 
 which Is pushed upwards against 
 the thing to be compressed by 
 water driven into the barrel be- 
 neath it at F from the small for- 
 cing pump E. If the small pump 
 have only one thousandth of the 
 area of the large barrel, and if a 
 man, by means of its lever handle D, press its piston down 
 with a force of five hundred pounds, the piston of the great 
 barrel, in virtue of the hydrostatic principle of equal press- 
 ure in all directions, will rise with a force of a thousand 
 times five hundred pounds, or more than 200 tons. The hy- 
 drostatic press is applied to a great variety of useful pur 
 poses; for compressing bales of goods, as paper, cotton, 
 wool, tobacco, &c. ; for expressing oils from seeds, raising 
 weights, uprooting trees, &c. 
 
 HYDROSTATICS (Gr. vtwp, and orau, I stand), Is the 
 science which explains the properties of the equilibrium 
 and pressure of liquids. It is the application of statics to 
 the peculiar constitution of water or other bodies existing in 
 the perfectly liquid form. 
 
 The whole doctrine of the equilibrium and pressure oi 
 liquids is deduced from the following fundamental law I 
 " When a liquid mass is in equilibrium under the action of 
 forces of any kind, every molecule of the mass sustains nn 
 equal pressure in all directions." This law is derived from 
 
 r^ 
 
 J 
 
 TJ 
 
HYDROSTATICS. 
 
 :u^ 
 
 (he very nature of a liquid body, which is such that all its 
 particles are independent of each other, and perfectly 
 movable in every direction ; whence if any panicle sus- 
 tained a greater pressure in one direction than another, it 
 would necessarily, by reason of the absolute facility of mo- 
 tion with which it is endowed, give way and move towards 
 that part whore the resistance is least, and consequently 
 there would not be equilibrium. 
 
 One of the most obvious consequences of the above law is, 
 that the surface of a liquid when at rest In an open vessel, 
 and acted upon by no other force thnn gravity, is horizontal, 
 or perpendicular to the direction of gravity. If the direc- 
 tions in gravity arc parallel, the surface will consequently 
 be a plane; if they converge to a point, the surface of the 
 liquid will be n portion of a sphere. Stagnant water at the 
 surface of the earth, therefore, assumes the spherical figure ; 
 but by reason of the magnitude of the sphere the curvature 
 of any small portion of it is insensible, and the surface may 
 be regarded as a plane. A ring surrounding the earth 
 would bend away from a perfectly straight line only eight 
 inches In a mile. 
 
 If a free communication is made between two or more 
 vessels containing a liquid by pipes or tubes, or otherwise, 
 the surface of the liquid when in equilibrium will always 
 stand at the same level. Let A B, 
 A' B' be two tubes, united by a third, 
 B P.', placed in the horizontal position, 
 and suppose water to be poured into 
 one of the tubes at A; it wHI pass 
 alone the tube B B\ and rise in B' A' and B A simultane- 
 ous^, iis surfaces at A and A' always remaining level, or at 
 equal vertical heights above B B'. This property is famil- 
 iarly illustrated in the case of a teapot, or any vessel hav- 
 ing a spout. 
 
 The liquid contained in a vessel being nt rest, and sub- 
 jected to the action of gravity only, any particle of it is 
 pressed in all direr; iy, horizontally, or oblique- 
 
 ly) by n force which is equal to the weight of the vertical 
 '-iliiuin of the liquid incumbent on it. This important prop- 
 osition may be demonstrated in the following manner : As 
 the pressure in all directions must necessarily be equal from 
 the supposition of equilibrium, we need attend only to the 
 vertical pressure, now, fuppose the whole mass of the fluid, 
 with tlie exception of the vertical column corrcspondini: to 
 the particle in question, to become solid, without changing 
 its place or volume, the particle will obviously remain in the 
 name state of compression as before; but as the column 
 alone remains fluid, the only pressure on the particle is that 
 produced by the weight of the column. Hence the absolute 
 weight of the column forms the measure of the pressure 
 sustained by the particle in ail directions when surrounded 
 by the liquid. 
 
 Instead of a particle of the liquid itself, we may consider 
 the column to jest on an indefinitely small portion of the 
 bottom or the sides of the vessel in which it is contained, 
 and it will follow that the pressure on an indefinitely small 
 portion of the area at nny point of the bottom or sides is per- 
 pendicular lo the plane of that area, and equal to the weight 
 of a vertical column of the liquid standing on it as a base 
 and reaching to the surface Hence the whole pressure 
 sustained by any finite portion of the bottom or sides of the 
 vessel is equal to the weight of a column of the liquid hav- 
 ing for its base the surface pressed on (extended into a 
 plane if necessary), and for its altitude the distance i f the 
 centre of gravity of that surface from the surface of the 
 liquid. 
 
 From this proposition it obviously follows that the press- 
 ure on the bottom of the vessel depends only on the mag- 
 nitude of the bottom and the depth of tiie liquid, and is en- 
 tirely independent of the form of the sides and of the quan- 
 
 liqiiid in the vessel. Suppose the three vessels A, B, 
 to have the areas of their bottoms equal, and that the 
 fluid stands in each to the same depth ; then 
 the pressure on the bottom of each vessel is 
 , the same, and equal to the weight of the 
 * — ! liquid which would be contained in a vessel 
 having an equal bottom and its sides perpen- 
 dicular. 
 
 This proposition gives rise to consequences 
 which at first view appear absurd, and has 
 B hence been called the hydrostatic paradox. 
 c Let A B C D be a close vessel with a small 
 hole O in the top, into which a narrow tube 
 1 P ta screwed water-tight Let water be poured into the 
 
 tube till the vessel A B C D is filled, and the water stands 
 in the tube at the level P. According to the principle just 
 established, the pressure on the bottom C D is proportional 
 to the depth P M, or, in fact, equal to the weigl of watei 
 which would fill a vessel to the magnitude E L> C F Now 
 this is the case, however shallow the vessel A BCD, and 
 however narrow the tube P O may be; and hence a very 
 small quantity of water may be made to exercise a pn 
 of any amount, however great, on the bottom or sides of the 
 vessel containing it. 
 
 The whole pressure on the top A B of the vessel, and tend 
 ing to raise it, is equal to the weight of the water in the tube 
 P 0, increased in the ratio of the area of A B to the area of 
 a section of the tube. Suppose a section of the tube to be 
 one square inch, and the area of A B to be 100 square inches ; 
 then a column of water OP, whose weight is one pound, will 
 exert a pressure on A B equal to 100 pounds, it is obvious 
 that the pressure In the narrow tube P O may be produced 
 not merely by the addition of water, but by the application 
 of nny kind of force, such as the working of a piston, &c. ; 
 and if the bottom or lid of the vessel A BCD be made 
 movable, the pressure on cither may be brought to bear on 
 one point of an external body, and produco an enormous 
 compression. It is on this principle that the vrrv useful en 
 gine, the hydrostatic press, is constructed. .Src Hydros 
 tatic Press and Hydrostatic Bellows. 
 
 Many striking phenomena of the natural world are refer 
 able to this principle, and it has extensive application in en 
 ginecring. If the smallest quantity of water should lodge 
 to a considerable height in the gravel, sand, or loose earth 
 behind a wall or embankment, it would exert a latcrnl press- 
 ure sufficient to push the solid materials from their base. 
 Hence a sudden shower often occasions great devastation 
 The same principle also regulates the construction of pipes 
 fur the supply of water to cities. The pressure acting on the 
 inner surface of the pipe, and tending to burst it, being pro- 
 portional to the depth below the level of the reservoir, the 
 parts of the pipe much below that level must have a greater 
 strength than is necessary at a higher situation. A pipe, 
 the diameter of whose bore is 4 inches, has an internal cir- 
 cumference of about 1 foot ; and the internal surface of ! 
 foot of such a pipe will be I square foot, or 144 square Inch- 
 es. If such a pipe were 140 feet below the level of the tes- 
 ervoir. it would sustain a bursting pressure amounting to 
 about 00 pounds on every square inch of its surface; for a 
 column of water, the area of whose section is one square 
 inch, and of which the height is 27-727, or nearly 28 inches, 
 weighs one pound ; and 28 inches are contained 60 times in 
 140 feet. Hence a piece of the pipe 1 foot long will sustain 
 144 times this pressure, that is. ;i bursting pressure of 8040 
 pounds. This exceeds considerably that which is produced 
 in any high-pressure steam-engine. " 
 
 Weight of Bodies immersed in Liquids. — A body immers- 
 ed in a liquid is pressed upwards by a force equal to the 
 weight of the liquid it displaces; and the difference be- 
 tween the absolute weight of a body and its weight when 
 entirely immersed, is the same with the weight of a quanti- 
 ty of the liquid equal in bulk to the body. This proposition. 
 which is capable of strict demonstration from the funda- 
 mental property of fluids, may be illustrated as follows- 
 Suppose any interior portion of a liquid to become solid; it 
 would evidently remuin in the same state of indifference or 
 equilibrium as before. It must, therefore, be borne up by 
 the vertical pressure of the liquid with a force just equal to 
 its weight, or, which is the same tiling, to the weight of the 
 liquid whose place it occupies. And if we conceive this 
 congealed mass to have its weight augmented or diminished, 
 it will be pulled downwards or upwards by the difference be- 
 tween its new weight and the weight of an equal bulk of the 
 liquid. Substitute any solid body instead of this block of ice, 
 and the loss of weight it sustains by the immersion will be 
 equal to that of the volume of liquid it displaces. 
 
 On this principle is founded the method of ascertaining 
 the relative densities or specific gravities of different bo 
 The specific gravity of a body is the ratio of its weight to the 
 weight of an equal bulk of water. Let, therefore, W be the 
 weight of a body in air, and W its weight in water ; then 
 W— W is the weight of a quantity of water equal in bulk 
 
 W 
 to the body, and _ is its specific gravity. The spe- 
 cific gravities of bodies are therefore found by weighing 
 them first in air and then in water. Sec Gravity, Spic- 
 cmc. 
 
 Solid Bodies floating on Liquids. — The equilibrium of 
 solid bodies floating on liquids, a subject discussed by Ar 
 chimedes in his treatise De Humido Insidentibus, is an impor 
 tant part of hydrostatics, in consequence of its relation to the 
 construction and stowage of ships. A body placed on a fluid 
 specifically heavier than itself, will sink so far that tin 
 weight of the fluid displaced is equal to the whole weight of 
 the body ; and when it assumes the position of equilibrium, 
 the line which joins the centre of gravity of the body and 
 
 579 
 
HYDROSULPHATES. 
 
 the centre of buoyancy (which is the same as the centre of 
 gravity of the immersed part supposed to be homogeneous) 
 is perpendicular to the surface of the water, or the horizon. 
 
 The centre of gravity of a body is a fixed point relatively 
 to the body itself; but the centre of buoyancy, which de- 
 pends on the figure of the immersed part, will change its 
 place when the figure or relative situation of the immersed 
 part undergoes any alteration. It is on the relative situa- 
 tions of the centres of gravity and of buoyancy that the char- 
 acter of the equilibrium of a floating body depends ; namely, 
 whether it is stable or unstable, or indifferent. If the figure 
 and position of the body be such, that on pulling it a little 
 aside from the situation of rest, its centre of gravity takes a 
 higher position, the body has a tendency to redress itself, and 
 the equilibrium is stable. On the contrary, if by a slight 
 change of position the centre of gravity comes to occupy a 
 lower place, the body will not return to the position of equi- 
 librium, but will be overturned or upset. In .this case the 
 equilibrium was unstable. But a body may bates constituted 
 (for example, a homogeneous sphere, or a cyBTder floating 
 with its axis horizontal) that in every position the centres of 
 gravity and of buoyancy are in the same vertical line. In 
 this case the equilibrium cannot be disturbed, and is called 
 the equilibrium of indifference, the body having no tendency 
 to maintain one position more than another. 
 
 To illustrate this, and to show at the same time the cir- 
 cumstances on which the stability of the equilibrium de- 
 pends, let A H D K be a body 
 floating on water, and let H K be 
 the line of floatation; also let G 
 % g be its centre of gravity, and B its 
 centre of buoyancy, which will 
 be in the same vertical with G 
 ' when the body is at rest, and will 
 n- i obviously be below G. The body 
 
 \ rf---~-- -""? : -?i "v -'- --":| is now pressed down by its own 
 weight collected at G, and push- 
 ed up in the opposite direction by an equal force at B. Sup- 
 pose it to be drawn aside from the position of rest till the 
 water line cornea into the position A k ; the centre of buoy- 
 ancy B will now be transferred to B', and the line of support 
 will be a line passing through B', perpendicular to the sur- 
 face of the water. Let this line meet the principal axis A D 
 in M ; then the equilibrium will be stable or unstable ac- 
 cording as M is above or below G, the centre of gravity. If 
 M is above G, the vertical thrust tends to redress the body 
 and restore the equilibrium ; but if the vertical B' M meets 
 the principal axis below G, the body will be pushed more 
 aside till it is overset. The point M possesses several re- 
 markable properties. Its position in the axis A D remains 
 unaltered when the body is drawn aside from the position of 
 equilibrium ; and it limits the greatest elevation which the 
 centre of gravity can have in order that the equilibrium 
 may be stable. It was denominated by Bouguer the meta- 
 centre, and its position may be determined in all cases where 
 the figure and specific gravity of the floating body are given. 
 
 As the stability of a floating body depends on the height 
 of the metacentre above the centre of gravity, the construc- 
 tion of a ship should be so regulated, and its cargo so ar- 
 ranged, that the centre of gravity of the whole mass should 
 be at the lowest possible point. Hence the heaviest part of 
 the cargo is stowed away nearest the ship's bottom ; and 
 vessels having discharged their cargo must be ballasted, 
 in order to give them requisite stability. When a vessel is 
 without a cargo and empty, the weight of the masts and 
 rigging raises the centre of gravity to such a height as to 
 render the equilibrium unstable, or at least renders its stabil- 
 ity so small that it cannot be safely subjected to the ordi- 
 nary pressure on the sails necessary to give motion, and con- 
 sequently would be altogether incapable of encountering a 
 gale or a heavy sea. 
 
 Another important application of .the theory of hydro- 
 statics is to the form that ought to be given to the several 
 parts of embankments, dams, the flood-gates of canals, and 
 other works constructed for the purpose of confining or op- 
 posing the course of water. This inquiry, which is purely 
 mathematical, is grounded on the principle that the pressure 
 in any legal point is directly proportional to its vertical depth 
 under the surface of the water. See Hydraulics and Hy- 
 drodynamics. 
 
 HY'DROSULPHATES, or HYDROSU'LPHURETS. 
 Compounds of hydrosulphuric acid or sulphuretted hydrogen. 
 
 HY'DROSULPHU RIC ACID. Sulphuretted hydrogen. 
 This compound was also called hydrothionic acid (from hy- 
 drogen, and Gr. $aov sulphur). 
 
 HY'DROTHO'RAX. (Gr.) Dropsy of the chest. The 
 symptoms are, difficult breathing when in a recumbent pos- 
 ture, paleness, cough, thirst, swelling of the legs and feet, 
 quick and often irregular or intermitting pulse. 
 
 HY'DRUS. (Gr. iSwp, water.) A genus of water snakes, 
 characterized by a compressed or laterally flattened tail 
 adapted for swimming, and by having many maxillary 
 580 
 
 HYGROMETER. 
 
 teeth, like non-venomous serpents, but with the first largei 
 than the rest, and grooved lor the transmission of a poi- 
 son-duct. 
 
 The species are confined to the seas of the warmer laa 
 tudes. 
 
 Hy'drus. The Water Snake; a constellation in the 
 southern hemisphere formed by Lacaille. See Constel- 
 lation. 
 
 H YGEI'A. (Gr. vyieta, health.) The Goddess of Heal tli , 
 in the Greek Mythology : daughter or wife of ^Eeculapius, 
 according to the different recitals of genealogists. Her stat- 
 ues (of which the most celebrated was at Sicyon) sometimes 
 represented her attended by a large serpent coiled round her 
 body, and elevating its head above her arm to drink of a cu\> 
 which she held in her hand. Isis, in Egyptian monument.*, 
 appears sometimes in a similar attitude. The employment 
 of the serpent as a mythological symbol of life and health 
 has been by some derived from the history contained in the 
 first chapter of Genesis. 
 
 HY'GEINE. That branch of medicine which relates to 
 the means of preserving public health. 
 
 HYGRO'LOGY. (Gr. hypo;, moist, and Aoyoc, a dis- 
 course.) A medical term, implying the doctrine of the hu- 
 mours or fluids of the body. 
 
 HYGRO'METER. (Gr. vypos, and fierpov, measure.) 
 An instrument for measuring the degrees of moisture, or 
 dryness of the atmosphere. 
 
 Variations in the state of the atmosphere with respect to 
 moisture and dryness are manifested by a great variety of 
 phenomena, and, accordingly, numerous contrivances have 
 been proposed for ascertaining the amounts of those varia- 
 tions by referring them to some conventional scale. All 
 such contrivances are called hygrometers; but though the 
 variety of form that may be given to them, or of substances 
 that may be employed, is endless, they may all be referred 
 to two classes; namely, 1st, those which act on the princi- 
 ple of absorption ; and, 2d, those which act on the principle 
 of condensation. 
 
 1. Hygrometers on the Principle of Absorption. — Many 
 substances in each of the three kingdoms of nature absorb 
 moisture from the atmosphere with greater or less avidity, 
 and thereby surfer some change in their dimensions, or 
 weight, or some of their physical properties. Animal fibre 
 is softened and relaxed, and consequently elongated, by the 
 absorption of moisture. Cords composed of twisted vegeta- 
 ble substances are swollen, and thereby shortened, when 
 penetrated by humidity ; and the alternate expansion and 
 shrinking of most kinds of wood, especially when used in 
 cabinet-work, and after the natural sap has been evaporated, 
 is a phenomenon with which every one is familiar. Many 
 mineral substances absorb moisture rapidly, and thereby ob- 
 tain an increase of weight. Now it is evident that any of 
 these changes, either of dimension or of weight, may be re- 
 garded as the measure of the quantity of moisture absorbed, 
 from which the quantity of water existing in the atmo- 
 sphere in the state of vapour is inferred ; but many, indeed 
 the far greater part of them, are so small in amount, or take 
 place so slowly, that they afford no certain indication of the 
 actual state of the atmosphere at any particular moment. 
 
 Of the different kinds of hygrometers whose construction 
 depends on change of dimensions arising from the absorption 
 of moisture, there are two deserving of notice on account of 
 their historical celebrity, though they are now seldom, if at 
 all, used where accurate meteorological observations are at- 
 tempted. One is the hair hygrometer of Saussure ; the oth- 
 er the whalebone hygrometer of De Luc. 
 
 Saussure's hygrometer consists of a human hair prepared 
 by boiling it in a caustic ley. One extremity of the hair is 
 fastened to a hook, or held by pincers ; the other has a small 
 weight attached to it, by which it is kept stretched. The 
 hair is passed over a grooved wheel or pulley, the axis of 
 which carries an index which moves over a graduated arch 
 Such is the essential part of the instrument, and it is easy to 
 conceive how it acts. When the surrounding air becomes 
 more humid the hair absorbs an additional quantity of moist- 
 ure, and is elongated ; the counterpoise consequently de- 
 scends, and turns the pulley, whereby the index is moved to- 
 wards the one hand or the other. On the contrary, when the 
 air becomes drier the hair loses a part of its humidity, and is 
 shortened. The counterpoise is consequently drawn up, and 
 the index moves in the opposite direction. The accuracy ot 
 the indications of this instrument depends on the assumed 
 principle that the expansion and contraction of the hair are 
 due to moisture alone, and are not arfected by temperature 
 or other changes in the condition of the ntmosphere. Ex 
 periment shows that the influence of temperature is not very 
 great ; but after all precautions have been taken in prepa 
 ring the instrument, It is found to be exceedingly irregular is 
 its movements, and subject to great uncertainties. Besides 
 the substance is soon deteriorated, and will scarcely main 
 tain its properties unimpaired during a single year. 
 The hygrometer of De Luc consists of a very thin slip ol 
 
HYGROMETER. 
 
 whalebone cut transversely or across the fibres, and stretch- 
 ed by means of a spring between two points. One end is 
 fixed to a liar, while the other nets on tile shorter arm of the 
 index of a graduated scale. When the whalebone absorbs 
 ire it swells, and its length is increased ; as it becomes 
 dry it contracts ; und the space over which the index moves 
 by tiie cue or the other of these effects gives the measure of 
 tin expansion or contraction, and the corresponding change 
 in the hygrometric state of the atmosphere. The action of 
 this hygrometer appears to be more uncertain than that of 
 ire. 
 
 The hygrometers which have been proposed on the prin- 
 ciple of a change of weight arising from the absorption of 
 moisture, are liable to still greater objections. Changes of 
 weiulil may indeed be measured with creator accuracy by 
 the common or torsion balance : but in the present case they 
 are so small, that the particles of dust which are at all times 
 floating in the atmosphere may produce a great alteration in 
 the results. A great variety of substances which attract 
 mojsiuie have been employed, such us sponge, cotton, bibu- 
 lous pa|ier, caustic potash, the deliquescent salts, sulphuric 
 acid, &tc ; but the indications which they give are deserving 
 of very little credit Changes of property indicated by Die 
 torsion of cords formed of gut, hemp, cotton, &c., and the 
 torsion of certain vegetable fibres, are still more fallacious. 
 
 -. Hygrometer* on the Princip'e of Condensation. — The 
 instruments of this class are of a far more refined nature 
 than those which we have been describing. In order to 
 give an idea of the general principle on which they depend, 
 let us conceive a gloss jar, having its sides perfectly clean 
 m-parent, to be rilled with water, and placed on a 
 table in a room where the tem|>erature is, fur example, 60°, 
 tie- temperature of the water being the same as that of the 
 room. Let us next suppose pieces of ice, or a freezing mixture, 
 to be thrown into the \\ titer, whereby the water is gradually 
 cooled down to 55, 50, 45, etc., degrees. As the process of 
 cooling goes on, there is a certain instant at which the jar 
 loses its transparency, or becomes dim ; nnd on attentively 
 examining the phenomenon, it is found to be caused by a 
 very line dew, or deposition of aqueotu vapour on the exter- 
 nal surface of the vessel. The precise temperature of the 
 water, and, consequently, of the vessel, at the instant when 
 this de|»sition begins to be formed, is called the dtw point, 
 and is capable of being noted with great precision. Now tbia 
 temperature is evidently that to which, if the uir were cool- 
 ed down, under the same pressure, it would be completely 
 saturated with moisture, and read) to deposit dew on any 
 body in the least degree colder than itself. The difference, 
 tin rehire, between the temperature of the air, and the tem- 
 perature of the water in the vessel when the dew begins to 
 br formed, will afford an indication of the dryness of the 
 air, or of its remoteness from the stale of complete saturation. 
 
 But the observation which has now l» SB described is 
 capable of affording far more Interesting and precise results 
 than a mere indication of the comparative' dryness or moist- 
 ure of the atmosphere. With the help of tables of the elas- 
 tic force of aqueous vn|K>ur at different tcni|)eratures, it gives 
 the means of determining the absolute weight of tile aqueous 
 vapour diffused through any given volume of air, the pro- 
 portion of vapour existing in that volume to the quantity 
 that would be required to saturate it, and of measuring the 
 force and amount of evaporation. 
 
 The elastic force of aqueous vapour at the boiling point 
 of water is evidently equal to the pressure of the atmosphere. 
 This may be assumed as corresponding to a column of mer- 
 cury 30 inches in height. Mr. Dalton, in the fifth volume 
 of the Manchester Memoirs, has given the details of a most 
 valuable and beautiful set of experiments, by which he as- 
 certained the elastic force of vapour from water at every 
 degree between its freezing and boiling points in terms of 
 the column of mercury which it is capable of supporting. 
 As the same experiments have since been frequently re- 
 peated, and the different results present nil the accordance 
 which can be expected in so delicate an investigation, the 
 tension of vapour at the different temperatures may be re- 
 garded as sufficiently well determined. Supposing, then, we 
 have a table exhibiting the elasticity or tension correspond- 
 ing to every degree of the thermometer, the weight of a 
 given volume of vapour, for example a cubic foot, may be 
 determined as follows : 
 
 Steam at 212°, and under a pressure of 30 inches of mer- 
 cury, is 1700 times lighter than an equal bulk of water at its 
 greatest density, or a temperature of about 40°, and a cubic 
 foot of water at that temperature weighs 437272. grains ; the 
 weight, therefore, of a cubic foot of steam at that tempera- 
 ture and pressure is 437272-^-1700=257-218 grains. Hence 
 we may find the weight of un equal bulk of va[>our of the 
 same temperature under any other given pressure, suppose 
 ••56 of an inch ; for the density being directly us the press- 
 ure, we have 30 in. : 050 in. : : 257-218 grs. : 4801 grs., which 
 is the weight required. 
 
 Having found the weight of a cubic foot of vapour under a 
 
 pressure of 0-56 of an inch, and at the temperature 212<», we 
 may find its weight under the same pressure at any other 
 temperature, suppose 00°. It is ascertained by experiment 
 that nil aeriform bodies, whether vapours or gases, expand 
 the l-480th part of their volume for every accession of tem- 
 perature equivalent to one degree of Fahrenheit's scale; 
 therefore, reckoning a volume of gas at 32° as unity, its 
 
 28 180 
 
 volume at 00° is to its volume at 212° as H is to 1 -4- — — 
 
 ^480 n 480' 
 
 or as 1*058 : 1-375 ; and the density and weight being inveiw 
 ly as the volume, we have 
 
 1-058 : 1-375 : : 4801 grs. : 6222 grs. 
 for the weight of a cubic foot of vapour at temperature 6V , 
 and under a pressure of 056 of an inch of the mercurial 
 column. 
 
 The following table, abridged from DanieWs Meteorologt 
 cat Essays, shows the force of tension, weight, and expan 
 sion of aqueous vapour, at different temperatures on Fohren 
 heit's scale : 
 
 Temp. 
 
 Force. 
 
 Weight of » Cubic 
 Foot. 
 
 Expansion. 
 
 
 
 
 •h56 
 
 •MM 
 
 S 
 
 -063 
 
 1034 
 
 -9438 
 
 10 
 
 •09$ 
 
 1-208 
 
 ■<,M2 
 
 15 
 
 •119 
 
 1-451 
 
 -. ,,i; 
 
 20 
 
 •NO 
 
 i-u-s 
 
 97 10 
 
 25 
 
 •170 
 
 2028 
 
 ■9955 
 
 30 
 
 200 
 
 2-361 
 
 •9959 
 
 35 
 
 •240 
 
 2805 
 
 10062 
 
 40 
 
 •/so 
 
 3-239 
 
 10166 
 
 45 
 
 •340 
 
 3-693 
 
 10270 
 
 60 
 
 ■400 
 
 4-535 
 
 10375 
 
 55 
 
 •476 
 
 5 342 
 
 10*79 
 
 60 
 
 •580 
 
 C222 
 
 10583 
 
 65 
 
 •6,7 
 
 7230 
 
 1-0687 
 
 70 
 
 •770 
 
 8-3'.-2 
 
 1-0791 
 
 75 
 
 •906 
 
 9780 
 
 10885 
 
 80 
 
 1060 
 
 11-333 
 
 1-1000 
 
 m 
 
 l-CH 
 
 13 0M 
 
 11104 
 
 90 
 
 1-430 
 
 15005 
 
 1-1203 
 
 95 
 
 1-691 
 
 17009 
 
 11312 
 
 ; SM 
 
 80-000 
 
 ■67-218 
 
 I374U 
 
 
 Having thus explained the principle of the condensation 
 hydrometer, we will now describe one or two of the forssw 
 under which it has been most frequently constructed. Dan- 
 iell's hygrometer is represented in the annexed figure- < 
 and ft are two thin glass . 
 
 balls of H inch diame- 
 ter, connected together 
 by a tube having ;i ban 
 about >ih of an inch. 
 The tube is bent at right 
 anglesoverthetwo brills, 
 and the arm lie contains 
 a small thermometer d 
 <•, whose bulb, which 
 should be of a lengthened 
 form, descends into the 
 ball 6. This ball having 
 been about two thirds 
 filled with ether, is heat- 
 ed over a lamp till the 
 fluid boils, and the va- 
 pour issues from the ca- 
 pillary tube / which ter- 
 minates the ball a. The 
 vapour having expelled 
 the air from both balls, 
 the capillary tube is her- 
 metically closed by the 
 flame of a lamp. The 
 other ball a is now to be covered with n piece of muslin. 
 The stand g h is of brass, and the transverse socket i is 
 made to hold the glass tube in the manner of a spring, al- 
 lowing it to turn and be taken out with little difficulty. A 
 small thermometer k I is inserted into the pillar of the stand. 
 The manner of using the instrument is this: After having 
 driven out nil the ether into the ball ft by the heat of the 
 hand, it is to be placed at an open window, or out of doors, 
 with the ball ft so situated that the surface of the liquid may 
 be on a level with the eye of the observer. A little ether 
 is then to be dropped on the covered ball. Evaporation im- 
 mediately takes place, which producing cold upon the ball 
 a, causes a rapid und continuous condensation of the ethereal 
 vapour in the interior of the instrument. The consequent 
 evaporation from the included ether produces a depression 
 of temperature in the ball 6, the degree of which is measured 
 by the thermometer d e. This action is almost instantaneous, 
 and the thermometer begins to fall in two seconds after the 
 ether has been dropped. A depression of 30 to 40 degrees 
 is easily produced, and the ether is sometimes observed te 
 boil and the thermometer to be driven below zero of Fah- 
 renheit's scale. The artificial cold thus produced causes a 
 condensation of the atmospheric vapour upon the ball ft, 
 
HYGROMETRIC. 
 
 which first makes its appearance in a thin ring of dew coin- 
 cident with tlie surface of the ether. The degree at which 
 litis takes place must be carefully noted. In very damp or 
 windy weather the ether should be very slowly dropped 
 upon the ball, otherwise the descent of the thermometer 
 will be so rapid as to render it extremely difficult to be cer- 
 tain of the degree. In dry weather, on the contrary, the ball 
 requires to be well wetted more than once, to produce the 
 requisite degree of cold. (Daniell's Meterological Essays.) 
 The instrument which has now been described is ex- 
 tremely beautiful in principle ; but it may be doubted wheth- 
 er, even when the greatest caution is observed, the tempera- 
 ture which it indicates is precisely that at which the deposi- 
 tion of dew takes place. The deposition first occurs in a 
 narrow ring on a level with the surface of the ether in the 
 ball b, thereby indicating that the ether is colder at the sur- 
 face than a little under it. But if the temperature is not uni- 
 form throughout the ball, it is evident that only a small part 
 of the bulb of the thermometer can be placed in the point 
 where the greatest cold exists ; consequently the tempera- 
 ture indicated by the thermometer will be greater than is 
 necessary for producing the deposition of moisture : in other 
 words, the dew point will be given too high. 
 
 Various attempts have been made to obviate the defects 
 of Daniell's hygrometer, but hitherto without much success. 
 
 The apparatus proposed by Pouilletmay be de- 
 ("■) scribed as follows : A small cup C C, formed 
 
 of gold, and extremely thin, is fixed to a little 
 j£Eij collar of ivory B B, supported on a stand. The 
 
 stem of an inverted thermometer T T descends 
 B through a perforation in the bottom of the cup, 
 
 J and is fitted closely into it and sealed, the ball 
 
 of the thermometer being placed at the cen- 
 tre of the cup. In order to prevent the mer- 
 cury from separating, a small portion of air is 
 left in the stem. When an observation is to be 
 made sulphuric ether is poured into the cup ; 
 and in consequence of the rapid evaporation 
 which takes place a considerable degree of cold 
 is produced, and a deposition takes place on the 
 outside of the cup. The degree of the ther- 
 mometer at the instant the brightness of the 
 metal begins to be dimmed gives the dew point. 
 The correctness of the indication depends on 
 the identity of temperature of the ether, the 
 metal of the cup, and the thermometer. Bright 
 gold is found to answer the purpose better than 
 any other metal. (Pouillet, EUmevs tie Physique.) 
 
 As the hygrometer is one of the principal instruments in 
 meteorological researches, its theory and the best form of its 
 construction have been the subject of frequent discussion in 
 the various scientific journals. 
 
 HY'GROME TRIC. This term is commonly applied to 
 substances which readily become moist and dry with corre- 
 sponding changes in the state of the atmosphere, or which 
 readily absorb and retain moisture. Sea-weed, several saline 
 substances, porous clays, potash and its carbonate, chloride 
 of calcium, sulphuric acid, are in this sense of the term said 
 to be hvgrometric. 
 
 HY'GROSCOPE. (Gr. lypos, and pkotteo), / view.) An 
 instrument by means of which changes in the condition of 
 the atmosphere with respect to moisture are observed. See 
 Hygrometer, by which the same changes are measured. 
 
 HY'LiEOSAU'RUS. (Gr. iiXr;, a wood, and oavpos, a 
 lizard.) A name given by Dr. Mantell to an extinct gigantic 
 genus of reptiles, the fossil remains of which he has discover- 
 ed in the wealden strata of Sussex. 
 
 HYLO'BIUS. (Gr. 'i\ v , and 0io f , life.) A genus of 
 Tetramerous Coleoptera, belonging to the Curculionida, or 
 family of weevils, and noted for the ravages committed by 
 one species, Hylobius abietis {Curculio abielis and Ctirculio 
 ■pini of Linnmus) upon firs and larches, especially in young 
 plantaUons. This insect varies from five to nine lines in 
 length, is of a pitchy black colour, with numerous yellow 
 spots on the elytra. It lias been found in the pine woods of 
 Shropshire, the north of England, and Scotland. 
 
 HYLOZO ISM. (Gr. i\n, wood, used by ancient philos- 
 ophers to signify the abstract idea of matter, and ^o»7, life.) 
 In Philosophy, strictly the doctrine that matter lives. Some 
 writers have confined this name to the tenet of the anima 
 mundi, or soul of the world ; others to the theory of a pecu- 
 liar life residing in the whole of nature, approaching, there- 
 fore, in its sense to pantheism. This life is either merely or- 
 ganic or actually sentient : the latter notion has been also 
 caUed hylopathism. (See the remarks on Cudworth's Intel- 
 lectual System in Hallam's Literature of Europe, iv., 188 ; 
 and Ersh and Oruber's Encyclopedia.) 
 
 1 IV MEN. Among the ancients, the God of Marriage. 
 The origin of the worship of this divinity is attributed to the 
 following story : A young Athenian, named Hymenasus, in 
 humble circumstances, having become enamoured of a rich 
 and noble lady, from whose presence he was debarred, at- 
 582 
 
 HYPALLAGE. 
 
 tired himself in female habiliments, and joined a religiou* 
 procession to Eleusis, in which his mistress took part. On 
 their way thither the parties who composed it were attacked 
 by pirates, who carried them into captivity ; but Hymeneal 
 seized the opportunity when they were asleep of putting them 
 to death, and departing immediately for Athens, engaged to 
 restore all the ladies to their families on condition of his oi> 
 taining permission to marry the object of his affection. The 
 Athenians consented ; the nuptials of Hymenseus were 
 crowned with happiness; and from that period the Greeks 
 instituted festivals in his honour, and invoked him at the cele- 
 bration of their marriages. The formula employed on these 
 occasions was, " O Hymencee Hymen, Hymen O Hymenal ' 
 (Cat. Carm., 61, 62.) Hymeneal is used to signify a Bong <>i 
 ode composed in celebration of a marriage. 
 
 HYME'NIUM, in describing fungi, denotes that part in 
 which the sporules immediately lie. It is commonly called 
 the gills in the genus Jlgaricus ; but in Boletus is a corky 
 or spongy substance pierced full of holes, and in other genera 
 presents a variety of peculiar appearances. 
 
 HYMENO'PTERANS, Hymenoptera. (Gr. vpriv, a mem- 
 brane, and Trrepov, a wing.) An order of mandibulate in- 
 sects, comprehending those which have four membranous 
 wings with few nervures. Latreille divides this order into 
 the following sections and tribes: 
 
 1. Terebrantia : Abdomen of the females furnished with a 
 
 saw or borer. 
 
 a. Securifera: Abdomen sessile, furnished with a saw; 
 
 larva; with feet. 
 
 b. Pupivora ; Abdomen pedunculated, furnished with a 
 
 borer; larvae footless. 
 
 2. Jlculeata : Abdomen of the females armed with a sting. 
 
 a. Hetcrogyna : Females wingless. 
 
 b. Fossores : Females winged, wings not folded ; basa! 
 
 joint of posterior tarsi simple. 
 
 c. Uiploptera : Females winged, wings folded. 
 
 d. Mellifera : Females winged, wings not folded ; pos- 
 
 terior tarsi enlarged and converted into a pollinigerous 
 organ. 
 (See the above terms; and Aprs and For mica.) 
 
 HYMN. (Gr. fyivoy.) An ode in praise of the Deity, or 
 some divine personage. The earliest Greek hymns are those 
 attributed, probably without foundation, to Homer: imitated 
 by Callhnachus. They are in heroic verse, except one of 
 Callimachus in hexameters and pentameters; and their con- 
 tents, for the most part, are narrations of the events in the 
 mythological history of the respective gods and goddesses it 
 whom they are dedicated, related in an encomiastic strain 
 The choric strains of some of the tragedians in honour tH 
 deities, introduced into their dramas, appear also to have rh« 
 character of hymns ; especially as dramatic performances 
 among the Greeks, had something of a religious solemnity 
 attached to them. The Theurgic Hymns were strains of a 
 higher character, and intended only for those who were ini- 
 tiated into certain mysteries, supposed to have for their ob- 
 ject the diffusion of more exalted notions of the divinity. 
 Those which are falsely attributed to Orpheus, and pass by 
 his name, are said to be of this class ; but, except from their 
 obscurity, it is difficult to say from what reason. Philosophi- 
 cal hymns, intended for the use of the followers of a stil? 
 higher species of worship, are mentioned in the division of 
 ancient hymns ; but we have no genuine examples of such 
 compositions. In modern literature, hymns are pieces of 
 sacred poetry intended to besting in churches, of which the , 
 Psalms of David, tbe most ancient pieces of poetry, property 
 so called, on record (except the book of Job), furnish the 
 chief example and model. St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, is 
 said to have been the first who composed hymns to be sung 
 in churches. The Latin hymns of the Roman Catholic 
 church are well known, from the exquisite music to which 
 they have been united. (See Riddle's Christinn JlnHqnities, 
 p. 343. As to the classical hymns and hymnographers, see 
 the Mem. de VAcad. des Inscr., vols. xii. and xvi.) 
 
 HY'OSCYA'MIA. The active principle or alkaloid of 
 the common henbane {Hyoseymnus niger). 
 
 HYP^E'THRAL. (Gr. imo, under, and aSr.p. the air.) 
 In Architecture, a building or temple uncovered by a roof. 
 The temples of this class are arranged by Vitruvius under 
 the seventh order, having six columns in front and rear, am! 
 surrounded by a dipteral or double portico. The famous 
 temple of Neptune at Paestum, still remaining, is an example 
 of this species of building. 
 
 HYPA'LLAGE. (fir. v-naXXacau), I change slightly.) In 
 Grammar and Rhetoric, a species of inversion, in which not 
 only the natural or customary succession of words is changed, 
 but the sense presents a species of transposition, in which 
 predicates are transferred from their proper subject to on- 
 other. Such examples as "gladium vagina vacuum," the 
 sword empty of the scabbard, in nova fert animus mutatas 
 dicero formas corpora," where the adjective "new" is trans- 
 ferred from " form" to " body," present striking instances of 
 this figure ; but although such deviations from ti* natural 
 
HYPANTHODIUM. 
 
 Bense could not be admitted in modern language, similar 
 locutions arc not wholly wanting among ourselves. 
 
 HYPANTHO'DIUM. A term given by Link to that form 
 of Inflorescence where the receptacle is fleshy and covered 
 With minute flowers, but not enclosed within an iuvolucruin ; 
 irstenia and Fie us. 
 
 HYPERBOLA. (Gr. ln;ep6o\n; from vvip. above, and 
 (iaWui, I throw.) In Geometry, one of the conic sections, 
 formed by cutting a cone by a plane which is so inclined to 
 the axis that when produced it cuts also the opposite cone, or 
 the cone which is the continuation of the former on the op- 
 -ide of the vertex. The term hyperbola was given to 
 [hi* curve by ApoUonius, on account ot its property, that the 
 square of any ordinate is greater than the rectangle under the 
 corresponding absciss and the parameter, or differs from that 
 
 Like the ellipse and parabola, the hyperbola may be de- 
 fined in various ways, and all its properties investigated with- 
 out any reference to the cone, but considered entirely as a 
 carve. The definitions most usually adopted are the 
 following : — 
 If two points F and / be given in a plane, and a point D 
 ; to move around them in such a manner that 
 the difference between the two distances D F and I) / is al- 
 ... ways constant, the point 
 
 D will describe on the 
 plane an hyperbola, 1) 
 AM. By assuming first 
 one of the given points 
 F, and then the other /, 
 as that to which the 
 moving point is nearest, 
 the diti'erence of the 
 w lines D F and I) / in 
 ^^ both cases being the 
 same, two bypei 
 DA M and U' A' M' will be d Ite to each other; 
 
 so that the curve consists of two branches. The points !•' 
 and / are the foci of the hyperbola; and <\ which bisects 
 the foci, is its centre. The line A A' is 
 and a straight line B B', pass- 
 ing through the centre, perpendicular to A A', and of such a 
 length thai the square of its half C B or C B' is equal to the 
 quaresof C F and C A, is the minor 
 or conjugate axis. The curve may be described mechani- 
 cally as follows: Let one end of a string be fastened to F, 
 and the other to K, the extremity of a ruler / 1> K ; and let 
 uce between the length of the ruler and of tin- string 
 Let the other end of the ruler be fixed to 
 the iwiint/, and let the ruler be made to revolve about/ as a 
 centre in the plane in which the ;t\es are situated, while the 
 d by means of a pin D, so that the part of it 
 between K and 1> is applied close to the edge of the ruler: 
 the point of the pin will by its motion trace a curve line D AM 
 upon the plane, u hich is one of the hyperbolas required ; and 
 if the ruler be made to revolve about the other focus F, while 
 of the string is fastened to/, the opposite hyperbola 
 will be described by the pin D*. 
 
 •J. The hyperbola may also be defined as follows: Let F 
 
 be a given point, and P Q a straight line given in position ; 
 
 point 1) move in the same plane, so that its dis- 
 
 i from F shall have always to the perpendicular 
 
 I) E, or its distance from the given line P (1, the constant 
 
 ratio of two given lines X and Y, of which X is greater than 
 
 Y, the locus of the point D will be a hyperbola. The line 
 
 P Q. is called the directrix, and its distance C G from the 
 
 centre C is such that C G is a third proportional to C F and 
 
 C A. It is obvious that F A is to A G in the given ratio of 
 
 XtoY. 
 
 3. Another distinguishing property of the hyperbola is, that 
 
 ingle under A H and 11 A' is to the square of the 
 
 ordinate II I> In the ratio of the square of C A to the square 
 
 of CB. LctC A = a, CH — b, CH = z, nndHD = y; then 
 
 A II II A' : II D- : : a* : 4 2 , that is, (z — a) (z + a) :jr« : : 
 
 a* ' b 2 , or z 2 — a 2 : y 2 : : a 2 : 4 2 ; w-hence s*s= — (z 2 — a 2 ), an 
 
 equation which may be put under this form, 5? — ¥* — ]. 
 
 •i. Like the ellipse, the hyperbola may also be defined by 
 a pilar equation. Let F D = r, C A = a, C F the eccen- 
 tricity = «, and the angle A F D = <p ; then r = — f '** 
 
 a-f ecos.0 
 The hyperbola has two infinite branches, and it has also 
 mptotea. Through A, one of the vertices of the 
 e avis, let a straight line II A h be drawn oqual and 
 parallel to 1! b, the conjugate axis, and bisected at A; the 
 stiaight lines C II, C A. drawn through the centre, and the 
 extremities of that parallel, are asymptotes, and If produced 
 Indefinitely do not meet the curve, though their distance 
 from it becomes less than any assignable line. The asymp- 
 totes of two opposite hyperbolas are common to both ; and 
 
 HYPERICACE.E. 
 
 they are likewise the asymp- 
 totes of two other hyperbolas, 
 E B E', e b c\ whose transverse 
 axis It b is the conjugate axis of 
 D A D', and whose conjugate 
 axis is the transverse axis of D 
 A D'. These two hyperbolas, 
 E B E' and e b c, tire called 
 conjugate to the former pair; 
 and, in general, whatever pro- 
 perty l>elongs to the opposite 
 hyperbolas D AD', d a tr, the 
 same belongs also to the con- 
 jugate hyperbolas E 15 E' and e b «'. 
 
 One of the most remarkable properties of the asymptotes 
 is the following: If one of the asymptotes C M be divided 
 in continued proportion in the 
 points D, E, G, &.C., and straight 
 lines be drawn from the points 
 of section parallel to the other 
 asymptote, meeting the curve 
 in the points p, Ql I!, &c. ; the 
 spaces D P a E, E U R G, fee, 
 without the curve, are equal. 
 The hyberbolic sections C P U, , 
 CO,R, &c, are also equal to I 
 each other, and to the spaces D /r^n 
 P E Q, E U R G, &c. Hence, 
 from the nature oflogarithms, the sectors C P Q, C P R, &c, 
 or the equal spaces I) I' U E. UPRG, &c., represent the 
 logarithms of the ratios of C D to C E, to C G, Ice. ; and if 
 tent the unit of the arithmetical scale, the sector 
 C P Q, or the space I) 1' ti E, will express the logarithm of 
 C Eon any logarithmic system depending on the angle of the 
 asymptotes. From the points 1', li, R, &c, letP d, U '. I! f, 
 be drawn parallel Id C M ; the ordinates C d,C e, C f, &c, 
 ore also In ion decreasing; and wherever 
 
 the points 1), I'., <;, &c.. are situated, all the parallelograms 
 C d P D, C e Q i:.r ; 'RG, &c, are equal. Henci 
 be taken as the line of the abscissa, and the ordinates be 
 taken parallel to C -\, and if we make ::; the same time 
 C E = a, C e = 4, the nature of the curve wil I be expressed 
 by this equation, i} = aJ. See Conic Sections. 
 ' 11 Yl'I-.'RBOLE. In Rhetoric, a hgure by which expres- 
 sions are used signifying more than it is intended to represent 
 to the hearer or reader ; as when thoughts and sentiments 
 are clothed in tumid language, or ideas are brought forward 
 which in themselves are incredible, in order to induce a be- 
 lief of something less than that which is offered. Exagge- 
 ration is hyperbole applied to narrative, when fal 
 tions are added to true, in order to increase the impression 
 made by them. 
 
 HYPEKBO'LIC LOGARITHMS. A system of loga- 
 rithms; so called because the numbers express the nrens 
 between the asymptote and curve of the hyperbola, those 
 areas being limited by ordinates parallel to the other asynrp- 
 tote, and the ordinates decreasing in geometrical progression. 
 But as such areas may be made to denote any system of 
 logarithms whatever, the denomination is not correct. The 
 term Napierean logarithm (from the inventor of the loga- 
 rithms, Baron Napier), is more frequently used, at least by 
 the Continental writers, to denote the same thing. The hy- 
 perbolic logarithm of any number is to the common loga- 
 rithm of the same number in the ratio of 2-30258509 to 1, or 
 as 1 to '43490448. See Logarithm. 
 
 HYPE'RBOLOID, or HYPERBOLIC CONOID. (Gr. 
 hrrcp6o\v< nn< ' ciioc, form.) A solid formed by the revolution 
 of an hyperbola about its axis. Hypcrboloids also denote 
 hyperbolas of the higher kind, defined, generally, by the 
 
 equation x y 
 
 a ni-l_n 
 
 The asymptotic area of any hy- 
 
 perbola of which this is the equation is xy ; and it is 
 
 n — m 
 
 very remarkable that this space is always quadrible, except 
 in the case of the common hyperbola, in which m and n 
 beintr each 1 the denominator n — m becomes zero. 
 
 HY'PERCATALE'CTIC. (Gr. hvtp, above, and xara- 
 Xtjktikos, deficient.) In Greek and Latin poetry, a verse ex- 
 ceeding its proper length by one syllable. 
 
 HY'PERCRI'TICISM, consists in viewing the works of 
 an author in an ungenerous spirit, exaggerating minor de- 
 fects, and overlooking or undervaluing such merits or beau- 
 ties as might lairlv be considered to outweigh the former. 
 
 IIYTERICA'C'EiE. (Hypericum, one of the genera. A 
 natural order of Exogenous plants, usually having yellow 
 flowers, with the petals wider on one side than the other, 
 and marked wi'h black dots, while the leaves are in many 
 cases marked with transparent dots. They are usually 
 strong-scented and astringent. Some of them have copper? 
 red flowers, and yield a resinous substance resembling gani- 
 boge. 
 
 583 
 
HYPERION. 
 
 HYPE'RION. See Titan. 
 
 HYPE'ROCHE. (Gr. pre-eminence.) In Music, an inter- 
 val nearly equal to one comma and a half. 
 
 HYPEKOXYMU'RIATES. Combinations of the chloric 
 and perchloric acids were formerly so called : thus, chlorate 
 of potash was called hyperoxymurinte of potash. 
 
 HY'PERSTHENE. Labrador hornblende. It is a ferro- 
 silicate of magnesia, with traces of alumina and of lime. It 
 occurs crystalline and massive ; it is resplendent, and of a 
 gray, green, or reddish hue. 
 
 HY'PERTHYRUM. (Gr. hircp, upon, and Svpa, a door.) 
 In Architecture, the lintel of a doorway. 
 
 IIYPE'RTROPHY. (Gr. vntp, and rpocpn, excess of nu- 
 trition.) A term frequently applied to the morbid enlarge- 
 ment of any part of the body. " This term ought to be re- 
 stricted to cases in which a part, though increased in bulk, 
 retains its natural organization and structure." — (Cooper's 
 Dictionary.) 
 
 II Y PI1A, in describing Mga, denotes the filamentous, 
 fleshy, watery thallus of ByssacetB. 
 
 HY'PHEN. (Gr.iiipcv, together with.) In Writing, a mark 
 or character thus (-), implying that two words or syllables 
 are to be connected. 
 
 HYPNO'TICS. (Gr. vitvos, sleep.) Medicines which in- 
 duce sleep. 
 
 IIYPOCAU'STUM. (Gr. viro, under, and kuiui, I burn.) 
 In Ancient Architecture, a vaulted aaartment from which 
 the lire's heat is distributed to the rooms above by means of 
 earthern tubes. This method, first used in baths, was after- 
 wards adopted in private houses, and diffused an agreeable 
 and equable temperature throughout the different rooms. 
 
 IIY'POCHONDRI'ASIS. (Gr. hiro, under, and xovtpos, 
 cartilage.) Uneasiness about the region of the stomach and 
 liver, or of the hypochondriac region, is one of the symptoms 
 of this disease. Particular circumstances may induce this 
 disorder in any individual ; but it is most commonly met with 
 in persons of sallow or pale complexions, spare habit of body, 
 and dark hair and eyes. Its mental symptoms are low spirits, 
 a groundless apprehension of evil, imaginary local sensations, 
 and enoneous impressions respecting the opinions and senti- 
 ments of others, with a tendency to misconstrue their actions ; 
 aversion to society ; want of mental and bodily energy ; see- 
 ing persons and things and hearing conversations and noises 
 which are purely imaginary. The bodily symptoms are fla- 
 tulency and all the other concomitants of indigestion — cos- 
 tiveness, dimness of sight, noises in the ears, want of appetite 
 and sleep in most cases, in a few, voracity and drowsiness. 
 As this disease is usually connected with imperfect action of 
 the liver and debility of the stomach and bowels, mild ape- 
 rients, small doses of calomel or blue pill, and tonics are to 
 be prescribed ; occasionally doses of more powerful purges, 
 such as calomel and jalap, or scammony with salts and senna, 
 must be resorted to where the bowels are foul and overload- 
 ed ; and where there is much headach a blister to the neck, 
 ^or the loss of a little blood by cupping, or from the arm, may 
 be of service. The regularity of the circulation is often 
 mucli disturbed, and it is generally necessary to keep the feet 
 warm. 
 
 Change of scene and of occupation, cheerful society, mo- 
 derate exercise of all kinds, and great kindness and attention 
 on the part of the medical adviser, are generally among the 
 essentials in the treatment of this diseased state. But every 
 amusement and relaxation must be carefully proposed anil 
 pursued ; and though it is generally necessary firmly but 
 gently to remonstrate against the whims and caprices of 
 hypochondriacs, yet sometimes they must be conceded to. 
 When persons are full of evil forebodings and false alarms, 
 it is sometimes well to induce them to keep a diary of their 
 feelings, the perusal of which, as they recover, or in their 
 happier moments, is often comforting proof to them of the 
 utter want of foundation of some of their most inveterate 
 notions. Persons who are very irritable and over-anxious, 
 or who, after having been actively engaged in business, re- 
 tire to a life of ease and idleness, who take no interest in 
 study, amusement, or exercise ; and those, again, who have 
 kept bad hours, or who have led debauched lives, or who 
 have studied intensely, are those in whom some of the 
 worst forms of hypochondriasis occur. It is seldom, in the 
 most aggravated cases of this disorder, that well-grounded 
 hopes of recovery may not be held out, and that its recur- 
 rence may not be prevonted by timely and firm treatment ; 
 but if it be allowed to run its course, it often ends in melan- 
 choly. 
 
 HY'POCRATE'RIFORM. (Gr. biro, K parr,p. a cup. and 
 qjopjir), shape.) That form of a corolla which consists in a 
 cylindrical tube which is longer than the flat spreading limb, 
 as in the flowers of the genus Phlox. It is called in English, 
 salver-shaped. 
 
 HYPOG^E'OUS. (Gr. viro, and yrj. the earth.) Literally, 
 subterranean. In Botany it denotes all parts in plants which 
 grow beneath the surface of the earth. 
 
 HY'POGENE. (Gr. vru, and yivouai, I am farmed.) A 
 584 
 
 HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 class of rocks which have not ass imed their present fojii: 
 and structure at the surface of the earth, but are apparently 
 of igneous origin, and thrust up from below. See Geology 
 
 HYPO'GYNOUS (Gr. vro, and yvvn, a female), in Botany. 
 in describing the situation of plants, denotes anything grow 
 ing from below the base of the ovarium. 
 
 HY'POMO'CHLION (Gr. tro, and uo X *os, lever), le 
 Mechanics, is the fulcrum or support of a lever, or the point 
 agaihst which the pressure is exerted. This term is onlv 
 met with in the old treatises on mechanics ; the ci^u/valeni 
 term fulcrum being now generally used. 
 
 HY'PONI'TROUS ACID. An acid intermediate be 
 tween nitric oxide and nitrous acid, composed of 1 equivalent 
 of nitrogen = 14, and 3 of oxygen = 24, the equivalent of the 
 hyponitrous acid, upon the hydrogen scale, being = 38. 
 
 HY'POPHO'SPHOROUS ACID. An and composed of 
 2 atoms of phosphorus and 1 of oxygen, or 32 phosphorus -•- 
 8 oxygen. 
 
 HYPOPIIY'LLIUM. (Gr. iro, and ipvWuv, a leaf.) A 
 term invented to denote a petiole that has the form of a 
 small sheath, is destitute of lamina, and surrounds the base 
 of certain small branches, having the appearance of leaves ; 
 as in asparagus. It is nothing but a rudimentary leaf. 
 
 HYPOT1UM. (Gr. v<ro, and -xvoy, pus.) A disease of 
 the eye, in which there is an apparent collection of pus un- 
 der the transparent cornea; that is, in the chamber of the 
 aqueous humour. 
 
 HYPOSCE'NIUM. (Gr. vvo, and cKrjvv, a scene.) In 
 ancient Architecture, the front wall of a theatre facing the 
 orchestra from the stage. 
 
 HYPO'STASIS. (Gr. vtcootoois, from two and iarnixt, J 
 stand.) A term invented by the Greek fathers to express 
 the distinct personality of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 lIpo<rw7roi', in Latin, persona, whence our person, signifies 
 properly a face or mask. This term, however, is retained 
 by the Latin fathers, who, like ourselves, had no word which 
 could exactly represent hypostasis, which dilier* from niiata, 
 sabstance, inasmuch as the latter is used for the divine sub- 
 stance, essence, or being — that which is common to each of 
 the hypostases, persons, or individual substances which com- 
 pose the one Godhead. 
 
 HY'POSULPHU'RIC ACID. An acid intermediate be- 
 tween the sulphurous and sulphuric acids. It may be re- 
 garded as containing 2 atoms of sulphur (16 X 2 = 32), and 
 5 of oxygen (8X5 = 40) ; or as constituted of 1 atom of 
 sulphurous acid = 32, and 1 of sulphuric acid = 40. In 
 either case its equivalent is 72. 
 
 HYPOSULPHU'ROUS ACID. An acid constituted of 2 
 atoms of sulphur (10 X 2 = 32), and 2 of oxygen (8x2 = 
 10). It is necessary to take this view of composition, its 
 equivalent number being 48. 
 
 IIYPO'THECA'TION. (Gr. huoBtiKn, that which is sub- 
 ject to a pledge.) In the Civil Law, an engagement by which 
 the debtor assigns his goods in pledge to a creditor as a se- 
 curity for his debt, without parting with the immediate pos- 
 session ; differing, in this last particular, from the simple 
 pledge. The term hypothecation is usually applied to ;hings 
 immoveable only (i. e., according to the division of the Eng- 
 lish law, to things real, things personal savouring of the 
 reality, and choses in action), and not to things moveable 
 (i. e., things personal in possession). It answers, in general, 
 to the English mortgage. See Mortgage. 
 
 HYPO'THENUSE (Gr. tiro, and tuvui, I stretch), in Ge- 
 ometry, denotes the longest side of a right-angled triangle, or 
 the side which subtends the right angle. The famous 47th 
 proposition of the First Book of Euclid, namely, that in any 
 right-angled rectilinear triangle the square described on the 
 hypothenuse is equal to the sum of the squares described on 
 the two sides, is said to have been discovered by Pythagoras, 
 who was so much pleased with it that he sacrificed a heca- 
 tomb to the Muses, in gratitude. Camerer, in the Notes to 
 his edition of the first Six Books of Euclid, in Greek and 
 Latin, has collected no fewer than seventeen different de- 
 monstrations of this celebrated theorem, from the principles 
 of elementary geometry. 
 
 HYPO'THESIS (Gr. brroOzais, from 6*0, mid r«%Mi 1 
 place), in Mathematical Science, is a supposition made with 
 a view to draw from it some consequence which establishes 
 the truth or falsehood of a proposition, or gives the solution 
 of a problem. In a mathematical proposition there are two 
 things to be considered — the hypothesis and the conclusion ; 
 the hypothesis being that which is granted or supposed, ani 
 the conclusion that which follows from reasoning from the 
 data. In the following proposition, " If two triangles be equi- 
 angular, their homologous sides are proportional ;" the first 
 part, if two triangles be equiangular, is the hypothesis or 
 data from which we are to reason ; and the second part, the 
 homologous sides are proportional, is the conclusion or con- 
 sequence at which we arrive by reasoning from that hypo- 
 thesis. 
 
 In Physics, the term hypothesis denotes r. gratuitous sup- 
 position to account for some phenomenon or appearance of 
 
HYPOTRACHELIUM. 
 
 (he natural world. If the hypothesis serves to explain a 
 great number of the circumstances accompanying a pheno- 
 menon, it acquires 11 certain il< igree of probability; and if 
 all the known circumstances can be deduced from it, the 
 probability becomes very great, and in the lapse of time 
 may amount to certainty. Thus the hypothesis of the di- 
 urnal rotation of the earth and its translation in the ecliptic, 
 in,;,.;; nicus to explain the planetary phenome- 
 
 na, has acquired all the characters of certainty from continu- 
 al astronomical observation. In like manner, Kepler's hy- 
 pothesis that the planets move in elliptic orbits, has been so 
 fully confirmed by subsequent discoveries and computations, 
 that, however doubtful it might be at first, no one who is 
 capable of understanding the evidence can hesitate to rc- 
 eefveil -hid law of nature. " A well-imagined 
 
 bypotrj Sir John Herschcl, " if it have been sug- 
 
 bya fair inductive consideration of general laws, can 
 hardly fail at least of enabling us to generalize a step fur- 
 ther, 'and group together several such laws under a more 
 onivei m. But this is taking a very limited view 
 
 of the value and importance of hypotheses. It may bap- 
 pan (and it has happened in the case of the undulatory the- 
 ory of light] that such a Weight of analogy and probability 
 may be accumulated on the side of an hypothecs, that we 
 
 mpelled to admit one of two thlngt— either that it is 
 
 an actual statement of what really passes in nature; or 
 
 lie reality, whatever it be, must run so close a parallel 
 
 with it as to admit smiic mode of expression common to 
 
 both, at least In so far as the phenomena actually known 
 
 teemed, .Now, this is a very great step, not only lor 
 Its own sake, as leading us to a high point in mathematical 
 nation, but for Its applications; because whatever eon- 
 deduce from BO hypothesis so supported must 
 have at least a strong presumption in their favour ; and we 
 may bo thus led to the trial of many curious experiments, 
 and to the Imagining of many useful and Important contri- 
 vances, which we would never otherwise have thought of, 
 nnd which, at all events, if verified In practice, are real ad- 
 ditions to our stock of knowledge and to the arts of life." 
 
 \urst on tin Htudy of Nat. Philosophy.) 
 HYTOTRACHE'LIUM. (Greek iiro, undrr, ami rfiaxv^oi 
 thencek.) In architecture, the slenderest part of the shaft 
 of a column, being that immediately below the neck of the 
 capita I. 
 
 II YTOTYPO'SIS. (Gr. {nroTurwrjic, from ri'iroc, a type), 
 in Rhetoric, signifies an animated repres ent ation of 1 
 or event in descriptive language highly enriched with rhet- 
 
 HY'KAX. (Gr. vpu\, a shrew-mouse.') This term is now 
 applied to a genus of small Mammalia which ranks next the 
 rhinoceros In the order of their affinities, and tiro the most 
 diminutive representatives of the Pachydermatous order. 
 The two known species are found in hilly districts at the 
 nsis), and in Syria ( Hyrax Syriacus) : 
 tho "coney" of Scripture. 
 BYSTERA'NTHTJS, in describing the duration of leaves, 
 denotes their appearance after the flowers ; as in the al- 
 mond. 
 
 HYSTERIA. (Gr. brrrcfa the womb, with which it is 
 npposed that the disease is generally connected.) It gen- 
 erally attacks unmarried females between the ages of 15 
 and 3o, coming on with low spirits and anxiety, sickness, 
 short breath, and palpitations; sobbing, and a sense of dis- 
 tension of the bowels, which afterwards seems to concentre 
 itself in the stomash, nnd then rise like a ball into the throat, 
 where it produces gasping, stu|>or, convulsive motions, cry- 
 ing, laughing, hiccough, How of saliva from the mouth, and 
 delirium ; at length the spasms abate, and the person gradu- 
 ally i rally with the expulsion of wind from 
 the stomach. Some of these symptoms tire often much 
 prevalent than others, so that the disorder assume 
 many forms ; it is also very variable in its duration, lasting 
 from an hour or two to one or two days. The treatment 
 varies extremely with the apparent causes of the disorder; 
 sometimes bleeding and depletives. Mothers stimulants and 
 tonics nre required ; in mild cases sprinkling with water 
 and applying nasal stimulants give relief. Great attention to 
 (Citing cause, exercise, moderate and judicious amuse- 
 ments and occupations, regular hours, and change of air and 
 scene, are among the best preventives of its recurrence. 
 
 HY8TERITIS. Inflammation of the womb. Thisdan- 
 geroi 'rally occurs the second or third day after 
 
 delivery ; it is attended by fever and pain of the part, and 
 requires active antiphlogistic treatment. 
 
 IIYSTERO'LOGY, or HYSTERON PROTERON. (Gr. 
 Sercpof the latti r of two, and Xoyoc, speech.) In Rhetoric, a 
 figure bv which the ordinary course of thought is Inverted 
 in expression, and the last put first ; as, where objects sub- 
 sequent in order of time are presented before their antece- 
 dents cause before effect, &c. Some comprehend the fig- 
 ure usually called anticlimax (sec Climax) under the name 
 Hysterology. 
 
 IAMBICS. 
 
 HY'STRICIMXAE. (Gr. varOi\, a porcupine.) The name 
 of the family of Rodent Quadrupeds, of which the porcu- 
 pine (Hystriz cristaia) is the tyiie. 
 
 I & J. 
 
 I, the ninth letter of the English and most European al- 
 phabets, represents two very different sounds in different 
 languages. In England it is equivalent to the French or 
 German sounds of the two letters a i, pronounced rapidly ; 
 and in the German and all other languages with which we 
 nre acquainted, it is identical with the sound of the long 
 English e. In the Greek language the letter i, is the simp- 
 lest of the alphabetical characters, being represented by a 
 single stroke, thus, c. It is also susceptible or various inlet- 
 changes, more particularly in the Latin, Greek, nnd French 
 languages. When two fs followed in succession, the Ro- 
 mans used to contract them into a single long i, as D\ for 
 l)ii, tibicen for tibiicen ; or made the letter larger than usu- 
 al, as Chlus. Shakspeare sometimes substitutes / for ay 
 or yes. 
 
 Did y-iur letter* pierce the queen t 
 
 I, kir; »he took 'em and read 'em in my presence. 
 
 According to Gebclin, the letter i In hieroglyphic writing 
 represents the human hand, the instrument of which man 
 avails himself in all his necessities, the seat of his power 
 and might. As a Roman numeral it denotes 1 ; and if placed 
 before V or X, it diminishes by a unit the number express- 
 ad by these two letters. The form of J w as originally Iden- 
 tical with that of I; and it is only within the last century 
 that any distinction was made betwei n them. In the Eng- 
 lish and French languages J litis a sibilant sound, but the 
 Germans pronounce it exactly as the English y before a 
 vowel. The Latin sound of this letter is very ambiguous, 
 the question being usually decided by the parties who dis- 
 cuss it according to its pronunciation In the vernacular. In 
 the Spanish language J represents a guttural, and is fre- 
 quenllv substituted for X, which has the same sound. 
 
 IA'CCHUS. SceBiCciii s. 
 
 IA'MBICS. A species of verse used by the Greek and 
 Latin poets, and especially by the Greek tragic poets. Tho 
 derivation of the word has never been ascertained, but it 
 can boast of an origin nearly coeval with the Greek Ian 
 guage. The iambics of the Greek tragic |niets consisted of 
 three entire metres of six feet, and were thence styled the 
 tragic trimeter acatalectic. They were composed originally, 
 as their name implies, of a succession of Iambi («^ — ) ; but 
 at a later period, various other feet were admitted, of which 
 the subjoined table will convey an idea. 
 
 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. G. 
 
 Hence it will be seen that a tribrnchys may be introduced 
 into all tho places except the last; a spondee in the first, 
 third, and fifth places ; a dactyl in the first and third places; 
 and an nnnpest in the first. It was, however, long a ques- 
 tion of great doubt among grammarians Into what places 
 the anapest might be legitimately introduced. The discus- 
 sion at one period ran high, particularly between English 
 and German critics; but it now seems to be universally ad- 
 mitted that this foot may be used in every odd place of the 
 verse except the last: with the general restriction, that i:i 
 the 3d and 5th places it should be contained in a proper 
 name, as AntigOnC, or in a preposition and the word which 
 it governs. The comic writers used much greater licence 
 in the iambic trimeter, admitting an anapest, even in com- 
 mon words, into every place but the last. For a full expo- 
 sition of this and the other iambic metres employed by tin' 
 Greek and Latin poets, the reader may consult Hermann's 
 Elementa Doctrine Metricte ; Parson's editions of the 
 Tragedies of Euripides ; and the article " Iambic Verse" 
 in Rees's Ci/clopadia. In most modern European languages, 
 the verse of five iambic feet is a favourite metre. In French 
 it is used almost entirely in lighter poetry, as by La Fon- 
 taine and similar writers, the heroic verse being the sixth 
 foot, or Alexandrine ; but in English, Germnn, and Italian, 
 the former is the verse of ordinary use in serious composi 
 tion. The Italians divide it into— 1. The verso catlcnti:, in 
 which the line is decasyllabic, consisting of five iambi : e. g., 
 
 " E come albero in nave si levo." Dante. 
 
 This variety is very rarely admitted in serious composition, 
 nnd is ill suited to the character of the language. Poets 
 have, however, sometimes sportively attempted whole se- 
 ries of versi cadenti ; as in the set of sonnets of Casti call 
 ed 1 tre Giuli. 2. The verso eroico, or hendecasyllabic 
 which is the ordinary one, ending in a short syllable : 
 " Canto l'armi nietow, e 'I capilano." 
 
 BB3 
 
IBEX. 
 
 3. The verso sdrucciolo, which ends with two short sylla- 
 bles after the fifth iamb : 
 
 u Passi oziosa, e di tua gloria immemore." 
 
 This also is rarely used in serious writing ; but its occasion- 
 al employment adds a peculiar grace to lighter poetry. In 
 English, according to the genius of the language, the deca- 
 syllabic line is most common ; the hendecasyllabic occa- 
 sional, and more frequent in blank verse than in rhymes, 
 in consequence of the comparative rarity of trochaic rhymes ; 
 the sdrucciolo, also occasionally used by dramatic poets ; 
 e.g., 
 
 11 What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba " 
 
 The licence is sometimes carried so far as to add three short 
 syllables to the last iamb : e. g., 
 
 u The senator shall bear contempt hereditary.'' 
 The German language is rich both in iambic and trochaic 
 terminations : consequently the decasyllabic and hendeca- 
 syllabic are more indiscriminately employed than in either 
 English or Italian ; and it is not uncommon to use the ele- 
 gant variety of alternate iambic and trochaic rhymes, like 
 the French masculine and feminine. 
 
 I'BEX. (Lat. a wild goat.) The name is restricted to a 
 species of goat ; the Copra. Ibex of Linmeus, Bouquetin of 
 Buffon and the French naturalists. It is characterized by 
 having large horns, with a flattened anterior surface, and 
 marked with prominent transverse ridges or knots. It in- 
 habits the summits of the highest mountain chains in the 
 continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia, but does not exist 
 in the New World. 
 
 I'CEBERG. (Germ, eis, ice, and berg, mountain.) The 
 name given to the masses of ice resembling mountains of- 
 ten found floating in the polar seas. They are sometimes 
 formed in the sea itself by the accumulation of ice and 
 snow ; at other times they seem to be glaciers which have 
 been piling up on shore till quite overgrown, and ultimate- 
 ly broken and launched Into the ocean by their own weight. 
 Masses of this sort abound in Baffin's Bay, where they are 
 sometimes two miles long, and half or one third as broad. 
 Scoresby counted 500 of these bergs drifting along in lati- 
 tudes 69° and 70° N., which rose above the surface from 
 the height of 100 to 200 feet, and measured from a few yards 
 to a mile in circumference. ( Voyage in 1822, p. 233.) Many 
 of them were loaded with beds ofearth and rocks, of such 
 thickness that the weight was conjectured to be from 50,000 
 to 100,000 tons ; and on closer examination the mass was 
 found to be composed, among other substances, of granite, 
 gneiss, mica, schist, clayslate, granular felspar, and green- 
 stone. Some idea may be formed of the immense depth to 
 which icebergs descend, from the fact that the mass of. ice 
 below the level of the water is about eight times greater 
 than that above. Icebergs have been known to drift from 
 Baffin's Bay to the Azores, and from the South Pole to the 
 immediate neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope. (See 
 Lycll's Geology, book ii., c. 3 ; Murray's Encyc. of Geog- 
 raphy.) 
 
 ICELAND MOSS, Lichen Islandicus, Cetraria Islandi- 
 ca. This is a common lichen in the mountainous districts 
 nf Europe. It contains a bitter principle, and a considera- 
 ble quantity of starchy matter ; it is tonic and nutritive, and 
 is often prescribed in disorders of debility, and in pulmona- 
 ry consumption. 
 
 ICELAND SPAR. A transparent rhomboidal variety of 
 calcspar, or carbonate of lime. This form of crystallized 
 carbonate of lime is particularly valuable for experiments 
 on the double refraction and polarization of light. 
 
 ICE SPAR. A variety of felspar, from Somma near Na- 
 ples. 
 
 ICH DIEN. (Germ.) Literally, / serve : the motto of 
 the Prince of Wales, which was originally adopted by Ed- 
 ward the Black Prince in proof of his subjection to his fa- 
 ther Edward III., and has been continued without interrup- 
 tion down to the present time. 
 
 ICHNEU'MON. (Gr. (xvtvuiov, Pharaoh's rat, the de- 
 stroyer of crocodiles ; perhaps from ixvcvta, because it track- 
 ed the foot-prints of the crocodile.) A name applied in zo- 
 ology, in a double sense, to a Viverrine genus of quadru- 
 peds, and to a family of Pupivorous Hymenoptera. As re- 
 gards the Mammalia the name is changed for Herpestes by 
 Illiger, and the latter has been generally adopted by English 
 zoologists. (See Herpestes for the generic characters.) 
 The ichneumon of the Nile {Herpestes Pharaonis) was one 
 of the sacred animals of the ancient Egyptians; and al- 
 though many fabulous feats were narrated of it as the ene- 
 my of the crocodile, there is no doubt but that its industri- 
 ous instinctive searching out of the eggs of the crocodile as 
 an article of food tends materially to diminish the number 
 of that destructive reptile. The ichneumon preys, howev- 
 er, on the eggs and young of various species of animals. 
 Mr. Bennett relates that on one occasion a grey ichneumon 
 (Herpestes griseus) killed no fewer than a dozen full-grown 
 rats, which were loosed to it in a room sixteen feet square, 
 586 
 
 ICHTHYOLOGY. 
 
 in less than a minute and a half. For an account of the in- 
 sect ichneumons, see Pupivoha. 
 
 ICHNO'GRAPHY. (Gr. i X vo S , a model, and ypa<Pu>, 1 
 draw.) In Architecture, the representation of the ground 
 plot of a building. In perspective it is its representation in- 
 tersected by a horizontal plane at its base or ground floor. 
 
 I'CHOR. (Gr.) A thin watery discharge. By the 
 Greeks it was applied to the divine fluid that issued from 
 the wounds of the gods. 
 
 I'CHTHIOCO'LLA. (Gr. i X 0v S , a fish, and koXKo, glue : 
 See Isinglass. 
 
 ICHTHYO'LOGY. (Gr. i X 0vc, and \oyos, a discourse.: 
 The science which treats of the nature, uses, and classlfl 
 cation of fishes. 
 
 Fishes are those oviparous vertebrate animals which 
 have a heart consisting of one auricle and one ventricle, 
 which breathe water, and have the nasal cavity communi- 
 cating with the external surface only. In a few species an 
 air-bladder is present, and so organized as to act the part of 
 a lung; but the principal if not exclusive organ of respira- 
 tion consists, throughout the whole class, of branchiae or 
 gills. The gills are composed of rows of slender flattened 
 processes suspended by arches, attached in general to the 
 hyoid bone, and covered with a membrane or tissue of in 
 numerable minute and close-set blood-vessels. The writer 
 which the fish takes in by the mouth, instead of being 
 swallowed, passes through the interspaces of the gills, ana 
 escapes by the fissures on each side of the head, called ^ill- 
 apertures. The air contained in the water, acts upon the 
 blood, which is minutely subdivided in the branchial ves- 
 sels; and the bilocular heart serves exclusively to propel 
 the whole of the venous blood to the branchial arteries, and 
 is thus analogous in function to the pulmonary auricle and 
 ventricle of the warm-blooded classes. The blood having 
 been decarbonized in the gills is collected into the dorsal 
 arterial trunk or aorta, and is propelled, without the influ 
 ence of a systematic heart, to all parts of the body ; whence 
 it is again returned by the veins to the branchial auricle and 
 ventricle. 
 
 The whole structure of a fish is as evidently adapted for 
 svimmin? as thnt of : bird for Sight. Being sir, :,:led hi 
 a fluid of ncarl;- the game specific gravity as itself, it needs 
 not widely-expanded wings for its support. Many species, 
 moreover, have the air-bladder so organized and developed 
 as, by its contractions and dilatations, to vary the specific 
 gravity of the fish, and aid in its ascent to the surface, or 
 descent into the depths of the water. Ordinary progression 
 is effected by the motions of the tail, which, by the actioi. 
 of powerful muscles, displaces the water alternately to the 
 right and left; the gills, also, in expelling the water buck 
 wards, may contribute, by the reaction of the current, to 
 propel the fish forward. The ordinary extremities, there- 
 fore, being of little use, are reduced to a low or rudimental 
 condition ; they are chiefly remarkable for the number of 
 parts corresponding to the digital phalanges of the higher 
 classes, and which, from their disposition, arc called " rays." 
 The pieces analogous to the bones of the arms and legs tire 
 extremely shortened, and often quite concealed ; the mem- 
 brane supported by the diverging rays rudely represents the 
 hands and feet. The members thus constructed are called 
 " fins ;" those which answer to the anterior extremities are 
 called the " pectoral fins ;" those which answer to the pos- 
 terior extremities are the "ventral fins." Other rays attach- 
 ed to peculiar bones above or between the extremities of the 
 spinous processes support the vertical fins, which are mesial 
 and single, either above the back, beneath the tail, or at the 
 extremity of the taij. The upper vertical fin or fins are 
 called the dorsal, the lower ones the anal, and the terminal 
 one the caudal fin. The fin-rays are of two kinds. Some 
 consist of a single bony piece, usually hard and pointed, 
 sometimes flexible and elastic, and divided longitudinally ; 
 they are called " bony or spinous rays :" the others are com- 
 posed of a vast number of little joints, generally branched 
 at the extremity ; they are called " soft, jointed, or branch- 
 ed rays." In general the fins, which are placed in pairs, 
 and correspond to the ordinary extremities, are four in num- 
 ber: but sometimes there are but two, and sometimes they 
 are entirely wanting. When both pectoral and ventral fins 
 are present, they may have the ordinary relative position , 
 »'. e , the pectoral fins may be considerably in advance of the 
 ventrals — such fishes are said to be "abdominal" or the 
 ventrals may be placed below, or on the same or nearly th6 
 same transverse line as the pectorals — such fishes ate term- 
 ed "thoracic ;" or the ventrals may be situated in advance 
 of the pectorals, under the throat of the fish — when thr 
 species are called "jugular" fishes. The vertebra; o; fish 
 es, when completely ossified, are united, with very few ex- 
 ceptions, by opposite concave surfaces. Most fishes have 
 the body covered with scales. They are destitute of or 
 <.ans of" prehension, except the teeth. The imperfection 
 of the organ of touch is remedied in some by the develop- 
 ment of soft tentacles or feelers. 
 
ICHTHYOPHTHALMITE. 
 
 The teeth are very various as to their number, form, and 
 
 ,-elative size. They are either anchylosed to the jaw-bones, 
 
 attached to ligaments, or implanted in sockets; when the 
 
 the tooth has always a single and simple fang. The 
 
 may he placed on the maxillary, intermaxillary, or 
 
 I jaw-bones ; upon the vomer or sphenoid bones; upon 
 
 the palatine or pterygoid bones, the tongue, the branchial 
 
 arches, or the pharyngeal plates; or they may be entirely 
 
 wanting. 
 
 Besides the branchial arches, the hyoid bone supports on 
 each side a number of rays, which support the branchial or 
 liar membrane. This membrane is also generally far- 
 ther .strengthened by three osseous plates called the "oper- 
 cular," subopercular," and " interopercular" bones: the kind 
 r thus formed is joined to the tympanic bone, and plays 
 upon a piece called the " preopercular" bone. 
 Willi respect to the subdivision of the class of fishes into 
 Cuvier admits the great difficulty which exists in de- 
 ihem by fixed and easily appreciable characters, and 
 after many attempts adopted the following classification. 
 Be first divided the class into two sub-els. 
 
 - I. Pucu out i. or fishes properly so called. 
 II. Pisces cartilaginci, or Chondroptcrygians, car- 
 tilaginous fanes. 
 The first sub-class are arranged according to the modifica- 
 of their organs of locomotion. All the osseous fishes 
 which have the anterior part of the dorsal I'm, or the first 
 dor al where there are two, supported by bony rays, with 
 some bony rays in the anal fin, and at least one bony ray in 
 each of the ventrals, are collected into an order, called Jlcan- 
 
 Alii - fishes in which, with the exception of 
 
 teriof dorsal and pectoral rays, all the others are soft, 
 ite the order Matacoptrrygians. 
 The Maiaeopterfgii are subdivided, according to the rela- 
 tive position or absence of the ventral fins, into "abdomi- 
 nal,'' "jugular." or "sub-branchial," and "apodal" fit 
 Those fishes which have the branchiae In the form of 
 
 -titute the order of Lophobranchii. 
 Those fishes In which fhe maxillary' and palatine arches 
 r, as ,t were, soldered to the cranfau 
 called ttie Plcctognathi. 
 
 The Ckotidropterygian fishes are divided into the three or- 
 ders of, 
 
 Siurionians, 
 Selacians, and 
 
 Cycles tomes. (See those words.) 
 The" chief modification in the arrangement of the class of 
 fishes has been the consequence of a study of the nature and 
 affinities of the numerous extinct forms, and a comparison 
 \itli existing species. 
 M. Agassi/, has proved that certain species, which stand 
 out as exceptions to the ordinary form and structure of the 
 among recent fishes, are the types of extensive orders 
 which peopled the seas of the ancient world, and dow char- 
 acterize particular strata. This nafualist has likeu i- 
 ■erred more closely than bis predi ■ latlons which 
 
 i between the external scales and the internal strni- 
 and he accordingly proposes to arrange the da 
 fishes according to the modifications of the scaly COVI 
 and divides them into four orders, each of which contains 
 li-hes having a cartilaginous skeleton: and in each there 
 are both Acantbopterygian and Malacopteryglan, Abdomi- 
 nal and Apodal genera. These orders are named Placoides, 
 and Cucloidcs. (See those terms.) 
 rCMTll YOI'IITIIA'LMiTT.. (Gr. txOvi, and o<pOa\poc, 
 the rye.) A species of zeolite of a peculiar pearly lustre, re- 
 sembling the eye of a fish (whence its name). 
 
 It'll TIIYiiSAU'RUS. (Gr. i X 0uc, a fish, and oavpoc, a 
 lizard.) A genus of extinct marine animals, which com- 
 bined the characters of saurian reptiles and of fi-hes with 
 of the peculiarities of the Cetaceous Mammalia. The 
 vertebrae of the back-bone of the Ichthyosauri resemble 
 of fishes in having their bodies joined by opposite con- 
 surfaces ; but the superior arches remain permanently 
 detached, ns In reptiles. The cranium resembles in struc- 
 that of the crocodiles, but is characterized by a peculi- 
 arly large orbit, in which a circular series of osseous sclerotic 
 plates, analogous to those of the crocodile and birds, but rel- 
 ■itively much larger, has been so frequently found as to 
 prove it to be a generic structure. The nostrils are situated, 
 jot as in the crocodile, near the point of the snout, but close 
 to the anterior part of the orbit. 
 
 The teeth resemble in structure those of the crocodiles ; 
 Sut are lodged, as in some of the Lacertine Sauria, in a 
 poove, and not in distinct sockets. The locomotive ex- 
 tremities are similar in construction to the paddles of the 
 whale; but they are four instead of two in number, and the 
 anterior paddles are connected by a broad coracoid, a com- 
 plete clavicle, and a supplementary coracoid bone to a strong 
 sternum ; the flattened phalangeal bones supporting the fin 
 ire polygonal, and arc relatively shorter and more numerous 
 
 ICTIDES. 
 
 than in the wnale tribe. The hind paddles are smaller tnan 
 the fore, and are attached to a pelvis similar to that of the 
 crocodile. Small supplementary bones are wedged into the 
 lower part of the joint of the atlas and occiput, and a few 
 of the succeeding vertebral joints; and the tail often presents 
 a fracture at a particular point, whence the existence of a 
 caudal fin has been inferred. From the form and positlun 
 - of crushed and apparently half-digested fail bom - 
 and scales in the abdominal cavity of the ichthyosaurus, it 
 is concluded that they preyed chiefly on fish; that they had 
 a simple and capacious stomach, and an intestine provided 
 with a spiral valve. The geological range of the Ichthyo- 
 saurus seems, says Dr. Buckland, to have begun with the 
 muschelchalk, and to have extended through the whole of 
 the oolitic period into the cretaceous formation. The most 
 recent stratum in which any remains of this genus have yet 
 been found is the chalk marl at Dover. The chief deposito- 
 ry of the bones of the Ichthyosauri occurs in the lias at 
 Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, 
 
 ICHTHVO'SIS. (Gr. t\0vs ) A roughness and thick 
 cning of the skin, portions of which become hard and scaly, 
 and occasionally corneous, with a tendency to excrescences. 
 Friction, warm bath, and occasionally stimulating ointments, 
 have been of service in mitigating the progress of this dis- 
 ease; but it seldom yields permanently to any plan of treat- 
 ment 
 
 I'CHTHVS. (Gr. a fish.) A word found on many seals, 
 rings, urns, tombstones, stc., belonging to the early times of 
 Christianity, and supposed to have a mystical meaning, 
 from each character forming an initial letter of the words 
 I/)<jouf Xpioroi, Qtov Yioc, iuiTijp ; i. e., Jesus Christ, the 
 Son of God, the Saviour. This interpretation is not unlike- 
 ly, when we consider at once the universal reverence with 
 winch the fish was symbolically regarded among most an- 
 cient nntions, and the many >i^'ns and ceremonies adopted 
 by the Christians, with some change of meaning, from the 
 o f the surrounding nations. 
 
 [COTTOCLABTB. (Gr. uwv, an image, and kX<iu, / 
 break.) Literally, brenkers of images; a title applied to 
 two of the Byzantine emperors, Leo the [saurian and his 
 . who, during their reign?, 
 which extended from 798 to 785, persevered in overthrowing 
 the images in the Christian churches, and in extirpating their 
 worship. The 339 bishops, also, who attended a council at 
 Constantinople in the reign of thelatter prince, and declared 
 themselves in favour of his views, were stigmatized by the 
 orthodox party under the same name. In tin 1 year 787, how 
 ever, a general council was assembled at Nican by the em 
 e, who inclined towards the old superstition, and 
 the images were on this occasion restored to their former 
 honours. This council, the second of Nice, is the last re- 
 specting which the Greek and Latin churches coincide ; the 
 practice, however, of the Greek church makes a distinction 
 between the use of pictures, which it allows, and graven 
 images, which it studiously rejects. (JWushcim, Err/, /fist.. 
 vol. i., p. 2i;-.', tran-1.; Schtosser's History of the Iconoclast 
 -. Frankfort, 1812; JVeander, parts 3 and 4.) 
 
 I'COSAE'DROJV. (Gr. eUoai, twenty, and Ufa, base.) 
 One of the five regular or Platonic bodies, bounded by 
 twenty equilateral and equal triangles. It may be regarded 
 as formed of twenty equal and similar triangular pyramids, 
 whose vertices all meet in the same point ; and hence the 
 content of one of these pyramids multiplied by twenty gives 
 the whole content of the icosaedron. Let the linenr edge 
 of one of its faces be denoted bv a ; then the surface of 
 the icosaedron is = 5 a? y/3 = 8(560254 a* ; and the solidity 
 
 >V 
 
 7 + 3^5 _ „, 
 
 181C95 a\ (See Ilutton's Mensurn 
 
 tion, or Sharpc's Oeometn/ Improved.) 
 
 I'COSA'NDROUS. (Gr. rocooi, and avvp. a male.) Lit 
 ernlly any flower having twenty stamens or thereabouts, 
 but it is usually confined to those flowers in which these 
 stamens are inserted into the calyx. 
 
 I'CTERUS. (Gr. ixrrpoc.) The jaundice : so called 
 from its resemblance to the golden thrush, which the Latin 
 form of the word signifies. 
 
 I'CTIDES. (Gr. iktic, a weasel, and tiioc, form.) A ge- 
 nus of nocturnal carnivorous Mammals, intermediate bo 
 tween the Plantigrade and Vivcrrine Digitigrade tribes, hav 
 ing the plantisrade walk of the racoons and coatis, and the 
 slender conical snout of the civets and other Viveriida>, 
 The dental formula of the genus is 
 
 , , 6 1.1. ,3.3. , 3.3. 
 
 Incis. -; can. —- ; pramol. — - ; mol. — - a= 3H 
 
 The teeth resemble those of the Paradoxurus, but are 
 thicker and more tuberculous ; and thus contribute, with 
 the plantigrade structure of the feet, to indicate the affinity 
 of the Ictides to the Plantigrade Vena, Three species of the 
 present genus are recorded ; they are all natives of Southern 
 Asia, and are called Bentnrongs. The common Indian 
 
 587 
 
IDEA. 
 
 species (Ictides albifrons) is of the size of a domestic cat; 
 but its body is longer and heavier, its legs shorter, and its 
 gait lower and more crouching. The tail is extremely thick 
 at its commencement, and gradually tapers to its extremity, 
 where it curls upwards. The pupil of the eye contracts du- 
 ring daylight into a vertical fissure. A benturong which 
 was kept in captivity many years, was fed on a mixed diet 
 of animal and vegetable substances ; and they most proba- 
 bly subsist on similar food in a state of nature. 
 
 IDE'A. (Gr. iSea, from iSav, to see.) Literally, the im- 
 age or resemblance of any object conceived by the mind. 
 There is no word in any language the definition of which, 
 from the obscurity of metaphysical writers, is attended with 
 such difficulty as the term idea ; and the difficulty is enhan- 
 ced when we consider the vagueness with which its equiv- 
 alents are expressed in different languages, and the many 
 metaphysical systems that have been constructed on their 
 several significations. Like many other terms of mental 
 philosophy, the word idea is derived from the most eminent 
 of the senses, that of sight, and in its most extended accep- 
 tation is employed to indicate "every representation of out- 
 ward objects through the senses, and whatever is the object 
 of thought." To give even a cursory glance at the various 
 theories of the origin and nature of ideas would be to write 
 the history of mental philosophy from Plato to Kant, and 
 would far exceed our limits, even if the difficulty of the sub- 
 ject did not deter us from the attempt. The reader will 
 find the best exposition of some of the theories alluded to in 
 Dugald Stewart's Phil. Essays, Appendix II. ; Kant's 
 Critik der reinen Vernunft ; Hitter's Geschichtc der Philo- 
 sophic ; Reid on the Human Mind ; and the Edin. Review, 
 Green's Hunterian Oration, 1840. 
 
 IDEAL (BEAU), or IDEAL BEAUTY. An expres- 
 sion in the Fine Arts, used to denote a selection for a par- 
 ticular object of the finest parts from different subjects, 
 united in that one so as to form a more perfect whole than 
 nature usually exhibits in a single specimen of the species; 
 or, in other words, the divesting nature of accident in the 
 representation of an individual. From the nature of the 
 expression and its definition, it is cjear that it more immedi- 
 ately attaches to the arts of painting and sculpture: in ar- 
 chitecture it is susceptible at* refinements dependant on the 
 selection of examples, upon which, however, a less univer- 
 sal agreement exists. 
 
 IDE'ALISM. (Gr. i8ca, form.) A term applied to sev- 
 eral metaphysical systems, varying in its signification ac- 
 cording to the meaning attached in each particular scheme 
 to the word idea ; from which it is derived. In England the 
 best known system of idealism is that of Berkeley. In ref- 
 erence to this philosopher's doctrines, the word is used in its 
 empirical sense for the object of consciousness in sensation. 
 (See Perception.) In its Platonic or transcendental sense, 
 the term idealism has been applied to the doctrines of Kant 
 and Schelling ; neither of whom is an idealist in the way in 
 which Berkeley may be so called. The system of Berkeley 
 may be thus expressed: The qualities of supposed objects 
 cannot be perceived distinct from the mind that perceives 
 them; and these Qualities, it will be allowed, are all that 
 we can know of such objects. If, therefore, there were 
 external bodies, it is impossible we should ever know it; 
 and if there were not, we should have exactly the same 
 reason for believing there were as we have "now. All, 
 therefore, which really exists is spirit, or the thinking prin- 
 ciple — ourselves, our fellow men, and God. What we call 
 ideas are presented to us by God in a certain order of suc- 
 cession, which order of successive presentation is what we 
 mean by the laws of nature. 
 
 IDE'NTITY, PERSONAL, denotes the sameness of the 
 conscious subject, /, throughout all the various states of 
 which it is the subject. The question, Wherein consists our 
 identity, and what is its evidence'! has been a source of 
 manifold controversy to modern metaphysicians. By philo- 
 sophers of the materialist school the doctrine has been 
 ejected, as incompatible with daily and obvious experience. 
 But independently of any hypothesis respecting the nature 
 of the soul in itself, it has been argued, and with some 
 plausibility, that as all our knowledge of a sub"tance is de- 
 rived from the qualities or phenomena which it presents to 
 our senses, so that all we can mean by a substance heing 
 the same with itself is, that it possesses the same qualities 
 which it previously did (for if not, the substance is chan- 
 ged) ; so all we can know of the substance mind in particu- 
 lar is derived from observation of the changes which it 
 unde-goes. But we find that what we conceive to be the 
 eame individual does, at different periods, assume under the 
 same circumstances widely varying appearances. A man 
 shall laugh at what when he was a child would have exci- 
 ted his anger or jealousy. This reasoning contains an evi- 
 dent fallacy. It does, in fact, like all other reasoning of the 
 same kind, imply that very doctrine which it means to re- 
 fute. Consciousness, it is asserted, is the joint effect of two 
 substances acting one on the other. How, then, can we af- 
 5S6 
 
 IDIOPATHIC. 
 
 firm that one of these substances is changed, unless by assu- 
 ming that the other remains the same ? How can we show 
 that the phenomenon laughter in the man is different from 
 the phenomenon jealousy or anger in the boy, unless 'we 
 admit that we who observe these phenomena — i. e., by the 
 premises, on whom these phenomena produce a given effect 
 —remain the same as we were when we were affected pre- 
 viously in a different manner. A lump of sugar, as we take 
 it to be, no longer melts in what we take to be water. As- 
 suming that the water remains water, we may fairly infer 
 that the lump in question is not sugar, or vice versa ; not so 
 if we profess ourselves equally ignorant of the identity of 
 both substances. This argument, it will be seen, nppliea 
 equally to the materialist and non-materialist. Such may 
 be said to be the negative evidence of our identity. Its pos 
 itive evidence rests on the necessity and universality of its 
 belief, as implied in every act of memory. To remember is 
 to refer a past state of consciousness to the same subject 
 which now at the present moment recalls it. (See Bishoy 
 Butler's Treatise on Personal Identity ; Brown's Phil, of 
 Human Mind, Lect. 12, 13, 14, &c. &c.) 
 
 IDE'NTITY, SYSTEM OF. In Philosophy (otherwise 
 called Identism), a name which has been given to the meta 
 physical theory of the German writer Schelling. It rests on 
 the principle that the two elements of thought, the object*' 
 respectively of understanding and reason, called by the vari 
 ous terms of matter, and spirit, objective and subjective, 
 real and ideal, &c, are only relatively opposed to one an 
 other as different forms of the one absolute or infinite, 
 hence sometimes called the two poles of the absolute. See 
 Schelling, Philosophy of. 
 
 IDEOGRAPHIC CHARACTERS. (Gr. tica, an idea. 
 and ypa<pw, I write.) In Philology, characters used in wri- 
 ting which express figures or notions, instead of the arbitrary 
 signs of the alphabet. The Chinese characters ate ideo 
 graphic, although the symbols, at first intended to represent 
 distinct objects, have become by use merely conventional 
 The hieroglyphical characters of the ancient Egyptians were 
 of the samev description. Ideographical writing is opposed 
 to phonetic. See Phonetic. 
 
 IDEO'LOGY (Gr. iSea, and \oyo$, a discourse), literally, 
 the science of mind, is the term applied by the later disciples 
 of Condillac to the history and evolutions of human ideas, 
 considered as so many successive modes of certain original 
 or transformed sensations. The writings of this school are 
 characterized by an unrivalled .simplicity, boldness, and 
 subtlety ; and the different phases of its doctrines are admi 
 rnbly exhibited in the physiological researches of Cabanis, 
 the moral dissertations of Garat and Volney, and the meta- 
 physical disquisitions of Destutt de Tracy. (Damiron, Hist 
 de Phil, en France, <S-c. be.) 
 
 IDES. (Supposed to be derived from the obsolete verb 
 iduare, to divide.) One of the three epochs or divisions of 
 the ancient Roman month. The calends were the fust days 
 of the different months ; the ides, days near the middle of 
 the months ; and the nones, the ninth day before the ides. 
 In the months of March, May, July, and October, the ides 
 fell on the 15th ; in the other months on the 13th. The Ro 
 mans used a very peculiar method of reckoniug the days of 
 the month. Instead of employing the ordinal numbers first, 
 second, third, &c, they distinguished them by the number 
 of days intervening between any given day and the next 
 following of the three fixed divisions. For example, as there 
 were always eight days between the nones and the ides the 
 day after the nones was called the eighth before the ides, 
 the next the seventh dnybefore the ides, the next the sixth 
 day before the ides, and so on. In leap years, when Febru- 
 ary had twenty-nine days, the extra day was accounted for 
 by calling both the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth days of 
 that month the sixth day before the calends of March ; 
 whence the leap year got the name of bissextile (from bis, 
 twice, nnd sextus, sixth. See Bissextile. 
 
 I'DIOM. (Gr. Htos, pecu'iar.) In Philology, a mode of 
 speaking or writing foreign from the usages of universal 
 grammar or the general laws of language, and restricted to 
 the genius of some individual tongue. Thus, a sentence or 
 phrase consisting of words arranged in a particular manner 
 may be a Latin idiom; the same, arranged in a different 
 manner, an English idiom, &c. The use of a particular in- 
 flexion of a word may also be an idiom. We also use the 
 term idiom in a more general sense, to express the general 
 genius or character of a language. We have a number of 
 subordinate words to express the idioms of particular 
 tongues: thus, a Latin idiom is a Latinism, a French idiom 
 a Gallicism, &c. The word idiom is also not uncommonly, 
 but incorrectly, used in the same sense with the Frencl 
 i.liome; a dialect or variety of language. Jdiotisme is the 
 French term expressing the correct signification of the Eng 
 lisli "idiom." 
 
 I'DIOPA'THIC. (Gr. if tog, and raOoi, an affection ) Adis- 
 cose which does not depend upon any other disease, and which 
 is thus opposed to those diseases which are symptomatic 
 
IDIOSYNCRASY. 
 
 rDIOSY'NCRASY. (Gr. ihos, ew, with, and xpctats, a 
 temperament.) A slate of constitution peculiarly suscepti- 
 ble of certain agents which, in general, produce no eli'ect, or 
 one perfectly different. Thus honey and cotFee act with 
 some few persons as violently aperient ; very minute doses 
 of antimony are occasionally followed by powerful emetic 
 effects, and of mercury by salivation, &c. 
 
 I'l/IOT. (Gr. «5i(i>n7S» originally a private individual.) In 
 contemplation of Law, one who has been born totally defi- 
 cient in understanding, or has lost it by sickness, so as to 
 neve no lucid intervals: lunatic, properly speaking, one who 
 has lucid intervals. The care of idiots and lunatics is a 
 branch of the prerogative of the crown, nnd exercised ordi- 
 narily by the chancellor. By the common law, persons were 
 found idiots or lunatics by verdict of a jury on a writ de idi- 
 ota or de lunatico inquirendp; but in later times, by cora- 
 is lamed, on petition from near relations, under the 
 great teal Commissions are also frequently issued to de- 
 termine not specifically whether the party be an idiot, tec., 
 but whether he be under such imbecility as to require pro- 
 tection in the management of his affairs; and such is now 
 the more ordinary course. The custody of an idiot's estate 
 is then entrusted to the committee of the estate. 
 
 1WOTICON. (Gr.) A word of frequent use in Germa- 
 ny, signifying a dictionary confined to a particular dialect, 
 or containing words and phrases peculiar to one part of a 
 country. 
 
 I'DOCRASE. (Gr. iScn, form, and KOiai;, mixture; in- 
 dicating that its forms are a mixture of the forms of certain 
 other minerals.) The volcanic garnet. It is of various col- 
 our.-, and is sometimes called volcanic crysolite or hyacinth. 
 Ii oc un in Hie ejected masses of Vesuvius, and elsewhere. 
 It it an nluniino-silicate of lime, with about 5 per cent, of 
 ozyde of iron. 
 
 FOOL, IIXJ'LATRY. (Gr. It&wXov, a fitmlitude, repre- 
 sentation, or image ; Xarptta, worship.) The figures of 
 metal, stone, or wood, by which Pagans for the most part 
 represent their divinities, are termed idols, nnd the worship 
 paid to them idolatry. This practice is expressly forbidden 
 by tin: second commandment of the Decalogue, which soys, 
 "Thou shall not make unto thyself any graven image: 
 Tbou shall not bow down to them nor worship them ;" 
 which must be interpreted to forbid the making of an image 
 for the purpose of worshipping it. The absurdity and crim- 
 inality of idolatry are also clearly pointed out by the light of 
 nature. Roman Catholics, however, are licensed (if idolatry, 
 Itpon the supposition of their pw flawing nets of adoration to 
 the iBiaces of Christ, the Virgin, and Saints : the adoration 
 of the Host, or consecrated elements, is also made a charge 
 against them. The reply which they make, that "they 
 kneel not to the image, but to the spiritual being represented 
 by it," is the nnswer of every enlightened heathen in his 
 own W not express the feelings of the multitude; 
 
 nor was room allowed to the Jews for any such subterfuge 
 
 In a wider sense, the adoration of nny visible objects, such 
 is the sun and the host of heaven (SoManisin), is idolatry; 
 nnd the adoration of animals by the I'lryptinris. Hut, in the 
 more restricted signification of the word, it denotes the ado- 
 ration ley men of the works of their own hands; properly as 
 images (eirwAa), supi>osed to represent divine beings. Al- 
 though Grecian idolatry was dignified by all the charms 
 which art could throw around it, it appears that the most 
 popular idols were rude and almost formless images; tradi- 
 tionary representations of the divinities, to many of which 
 the vulgar notion attributed a divine origin, believing them 
 to have fallen from heaven. Such were the Heima; of Ath- 
 ens ; the image of Diana (Sioircrrji) nt Ephcsns, mentioned 
 !n tile Acts; the sacred "Ancilia," or shields, of the Ro- 
 mans: which seem to have commanded more of the vener- 
 ation of the common people than the Pallas «f the Parthe- 
 non or the Jupiter Olympius of Elis. (See Vossius, De Ori- 
 gins Idololatrid? ; Graves on the Pentateuch ; Creuicr, Sym- 
 bolic der alien Voclkrr ; Spence's Polymetis ; Mem. de VAc. 
 de.< Inscr., vol. xxxviii.) 
 
 I DRIALINE. A fusible inflammable substance, found 
 by Dumas in a mineral from the quicksilver mines of Idria, 
 in Carnioln. 
 
 I'DYL. (Gr. rii5uX>(oi», the diminutive of tltos. form.) A 
 short pastoral poem. The Greek word is derived from ti&oc, 
 form, or visible object ; and hence the object, or, at least, the 
 necessary accompaniment of this speeies of poem, has been 
 said to be a vivid and simple representation of ordinary ob- 
 jects in pastoral nature. But in common usage the significa- 
 tion of this word is hardly different from that of eclogue. 
 The poems of Theocritus are termed Idyls, those of Virgil 
 Eclogues ; but it would be difficult to assign a distinction 
 between the two, except what arises from the greater sim- 
 plicity of language and thought which characterizes the for- 
 mer. Many critics, however, aver that the eclogue requires 
 something of epic or dramatic action ; the idyl only pictu- 
 resque representation, sentiment, or narrative. (See Ec- 
 •.oouc, Bucoli -..) In English poetry, among this class may 
 
 IGUANODON. 
 
 be ranked, The Seasons of Thomson, Shenstone's Schootmu 
 tress. Burns' Cottager's Saturday JVYgAf., Goldsmith's De 
 serted Village, &c, &c. 
 
 IGASU'RIC ACID. A name given by Pelletier and Cav 
 cntou to an acid which is found combined with strychnia in 
 the JVux vomica and St. Ignntius's bean. 
 
 IGNATHJS'S BEAN. The seed of the Ignatia amata, 
 used in the Philippine Islands as a cathartic and emetic. 
 See Strychnia. 
 
 I'GNIS FA TUUS. (Lat. vain or foolish fire ; a transla 
 tion of the Fr. feu follet.) A kind of luminous meteor, 
 which flita about in the air a little above the surface of the 
 earth, and appears chiefly in marshy places, or near stag- 
 nant waters, or in churchyards, during the nights of sum- 
 mer. There are many instances of travellers "having been 
 decoyed by these lights into marshy places, where they per- 
 ished ; and hence the names Jack -with-a-lantcrn, IVill-icith- 
 a-wisp : the people ascribing the appearance to the agency 
 of evil spirits, who take this mode of alluring men to their 
 destruction. The cause of the phenomenon does not seem 
 to be perfectly understood ; it is generally supposed to be 
 produced by the decomposition of animal or vegetable mat- 
 ters, or by the evolution of gases which spontaneously in- 
 flame in the atmosphere. 
 
 IGNITION. (Lat. ignis, fire.) The act of setting fire to, 
 or of taking fire ; as opposed to combustion or burning, which 
 is a consequence of ignition. The term spontaneous ignition 
 is applied to cases in which substances take fire without pre- 
 vious application of heat: thus spongy platinum is said to 
 become spontaneously ignited when introduced into a mix- 
 ture of oxygen nnd hydrogen gases, and to cause their com 
 bustion. The particles of steel struck off by collision with 
 flint become ignited on passing through the air, and falling 
 upon gunpowder, ignite it, nnd combustion ensues. Iron 
 wire, when red hot, is also often said to be ignited, or in a 
 state of ignition ; and when in that state it is plunged into 
 oxygen gas, or into chlorine, it undergoes combustion, and 
 burns in those gases with the farther extrication of heat and 
 light. 
 
 IGNORA'MUS. (Lat. we are ignorant.) In Law, the 
 endorsement of a grand jury on a bill of indictment, equiva- 
 lent to " not found." The jury are said to ignore a bill 
 when they do not find the evidence such ns to make good 
 the presentment. 
 
 IGUA'NA. (Cnvier states, with reference to the deriva- 
 tion of this term, that it was originally a St. Domingo word, 
 where it was pronounced by the natives hiuana or igoana, 
 nnd quotes Hernandes and Scnliger as his authorities. He 
 then proceeds to say that Bontius regards it as derived from 
 the Javanese word leguan. In this case the Portuguese or 
 Spaniards must have transported it to America, where they 
 transformed it into iguana. They apply this term to the 
 monitor ns well as to the iguana. The leguan of Bontius 
 is a monitor. The best authorities in erpetoiogy have 
 adopted the Latinized iguana as the generic name of the 
 reptiles under consideration.) A genus including certain 
 large and beautiful lizards common in the tropical ports of 
 America, some of which feed on vegetnble substances, and 
 are esteemed delicious food. The common iguana (Iguana 
 tuberculata, Laur.) has accordingly received the specific 
 names delicatissima nnd sapidissima. The generic name 
 iguana is now restricted to those species which present the 
 following characters : A large, thin fold of skin or dewlap 
 under the chin ; cephalic cuticular plates, polygonal, un- 
 equal in diameter, flat or carinated ; a double row of small 
 palatal teeth ; maxillary teeth, with their edges finely den 
 tilated ; a crest on the hack and tail ; toes long and unequal ; 
 a single row of femoral pores ; tail very long, slender, com- 
 pressed, covered with small, equal, imbricated carinated 
 scales. 
 
 IGUA'NIDiE. (From Iguana.) The fnmily of lizards, 
 of which the genus Iguana is the type, and which is divi- 
 ded, according to minor modifications of the leading charac- 
 ters of the Iguanas, into the subgenera Iguana proper, Co- 
 rythophon.es, Basiliscus, Aloponotns, Amblyrhynchus, Meto- 
 poeeros, Cyclura, Brachylophus, Enyalus, and Ophryatssa. 
 
 IGUA'NINjE. (From Iguana.) The Lizards iguaniens 
 of French erpctologists. This extensive tribe of Lacertine 
 Sauria is divided by MM. Dumeril and Bibron into two 
 groups, Pleurodontes and Acrodontes. 
 
 The Pleurodontes include the families Iguanidm, Poly 
 cXrida, Anoliida, Tropidolepidida, and Oplurida. 
 
 The Acrodontes embrace the families Galeotidm, Agami- 
 da, Phrynocephalida, and Stellionida. 
 
 A short and thick tongue, with base not retractable in a 
 sheath, and with the extremity free, mobile, and very 
 slightly cleft, is the general character of this extensive tribe 
 
 IGUA'NODON. (From Iguana ; and Gr. otovs, a tooth.) 
 An extinct genus of gigantic herbivorous reptiles, discover- 
 ed by Dr. Mantell in the wealden fresh-water formation of 
 the South of England, in the localities of Tilgnte Forest 
 Isle of Wight, and Purbeck. The chief distinctive charac 
 
 589 
 
ILEUM. 
 
 ter ot this genus is the form of the teeth, which are denti- 
 lated along the margin of the crown, as in the iguana ; but 
 thicker, so as to present, when worn down, a broader grind- 
 ing surface. The structure by which these teeth were 
 adapted to the cropping of coarse and tough vegetable food, 
 such as the Clathrasiai and similar fossil plants of the 
 wealden strata, may be supposed to have afforded the igua- 
 nodon, is thus described by Dr. Buckland : " The teeth ex- 
 hibit two kinds of provisions to maintain sharp edges along 
 (lie cutting surface, from their first profusion until they 
 were worn down to the very stump. The first of these is a 
 sharp and serrated edge, extending on each side downwards 
 from the point to the broadest portion of the body of the 
 tooth. The second provision is one of compensation for the 
 gradual destruction of this serrated edge, by substituting a 
 plate of thin enamel to maintain a cutting power in the an- 
 terior portion of the tooth until its entire substance was con- 
 sumed in the service. While the crown of the tooth was 
 thus gradually diminishing above, a simultaneous absorp- 
 tion of the root went on below, caused by the pressure of a 
 new tooth rising to replace the old one, until by this contin- 
 ual consumption at both extremities the middle portion of 
 the older tooth was reduced to a hollow stump, which fell 
 from the jaw to make room for a more efficient successor." 
 The anterior surface of the crown of the tooth, also, instead 
 of being flat and even, was traversed by alternate longitu- 
 dinal ridges and furrows, the latter serving " as ribs or but- 
 tresses to strengthen and prevent the enamel from scaling 
 off, and forming, together with the furrows, an edge slightly 
 wavy, and disposed in a series of minute gouges or fluted 
 chisels ; hence the tooth became an instrument of greater 
 power to cut tough vegetables under the action of the jaw 
 than if the enamel had been a continuous straight line. By 
 these contrivances, also, it continued effective during every 
 stage through which it passed, from the serrated lancet point 
 of the new tooth to its final consumption." 
 
 From the proportions which the bones of the iguanodon 
 bear to those of the iguana, this extinct monster of a former 
 world is calculated to have been 70 feet in length from the 
 snout to the end of the tail ; the length of the tail alone is 
 calculated to have been 52J feet, the circumference of the 
 body 14J. The thigh-bone of the full-sized iguanodon is 
 twenty times the size of that of the iguana. The snout of 
 the iguanodon was armed with a short but strong horn ; but 
 Ihe long and powerful tail formed probably its most formi- 
 dable instrument of attack and defence. 
 
 IL'EUM. (Gr. tiktu, I turn about.) The last portion of 
 ihe small intestines, terminating at the valve of the coecum. 
 
 I' LI A. (Lat.) The flanks, or the part of the abdomen 
 nhich includes the small intestines. The os ilium is the 
 iaunch bone, the upper part of the os innominatum, which 
 supports the intestines. 
 
 I'LIAC PA'SSION. (Lat. ilia, the bowels.) A vomiting 
 >f bilious and fecal matter in consequence of obstruction in 
 Ihe intestinal canal. 
 
 I'LIAD. (Gr. iAiaj.) The oldest epic poem in exist- 
 ence ; commonly attributed to Homer, but, according to 
 wme modern hypotheses, the work of several hands. The 
 theme of the poem is the siege of Ilium (whence its name) 
 or Troy ; or, more properly speaking, the quarrel of Achil- 
 les with Agamemnon, general of the Grecian army before 
 that city. It consists of twenty-four books. The first book 
 relates the origin of the quarrel ; and the residue of the poem 
 contains an account of the efforts made by Agamemnon and 
 the chiefs who adhered to his party to conquer the Trojans 
 without the aid of Achilles, their defeat, the pacification of 
 Achilles, his resumption of arms in the common cause, and 
 the death of Hector by his hand. Neither the landing of 
 the chieftains, nor the conclusion of the war and capture 
 of Troy, come within its range. See Epic. 
 
 ILLA'TIVE CONVERSION, in Logic, is that in which 
 Ihe truth of the converse follows from the truth of the ex- 
 posita or proposition given. Thus the proposition "no vir- 
 iuous man is a rebel," becomes, by illative conversion, " no 
 rebel is a virtuous man." " Some boasters are cowards ;" 
 therefore, a converso, " some cowards are boasters." 
 
 ILLUMINA TI, or THE ENLIGHTENED. A secret 
 •ociety formed in 1776, chiefly under the direction of Adam 
 Weishaupt, professor of Jaw at Ingolstadt, in Rivaria. Its 
 professed object was the attainment of a higher degree of 
 rirtue and morality than that reached in the ordinary course 
 of society. It numbered at one time 2000 members. It was 
 suppressed by the Bavarian government in 1784. It has 
 been supposed that this and some other secret societies were 
 actively engaged in preparing the way for the French revo- 
 lution ; but of this no satisfactory proof has been adduced. 
 (See the Ency. von Ersch und Gruber.) 
 
 ILLTJSTRA'TION, in Rhetoric, appears to differ from 
 Comparison or Simile in this only, that the latter is used 
 merely to give force to the expression ; the former to throw 
 light upon an argument. The term illustration is, however, 
 sometimes used in a wider sense, in which it seems to com- 
 
 IMAGINARY ROOTS OF EQ.UATIONS. 
 
 prehend example, which is the recital of a particular fact or 
 instance evincing the truth of a general proposition laid 
 down in the argument ; and parable, which is a species of 
 symbolical narrative, in which the actors and events are in- 
 tended to represent certain other actors and events in a typi- 
 cal manner. See Parable. 
 
 I'MAGE. (Lat. imago.) In Rhetoric, a term somewhnt 
 loosely used ; but which appears generally to denote a met- 
 aphor dilated, and rendered a more complete picture by the 
 assemblage of various ideas through which the same meta- 
 phor continues to run, yet not sufficiently expanded to form 
 an allegory. 
 
 I'mage. A representation of the Deity in stone, wood, or 
 metal. (See art. Idol.) The custom of representing Christ, 
 the Virgin, and the Saints by images in the churches, which 
 forms a principal feature of Roman Catholic worship, is an 
 ancient but not a primitive practice. For the principal 
 events in the history of Christian image worship, see art. 
 Iconoclasts. 
 
 I'mage, in Optics, is the spectrum or appearance of an 
 object made by reflection or refraction ; or the image of an 
 object may be more correctly defined as the locus of all the 
 pencils of converging or diverging rays emanating from every 
 point of the object, and received on a surface. It is by means 
 of optical images that vision is effected. The eye is an as- 
 semblage of lenses which concentrate the rays emanating 
 from each point of the object on a tissue of very delicate 
 nerves called the retina, where an exact image or repre- 
 sentation of the object is formed ; and it is this image which 
 is perceived or felt by the retina. 
 
 The brightness of an imnge depends evidently on the 
 quantity of light concentrated in each point. Setting aside 
 the effects of aberration, the brightness must therefore be 
 proportional to the apparent mngnitude (as seen from the 
 object) of the mirror or lens by which the rays are reflected 
 or refracted, multiplied by the area of the object and divided 
 by the area of the image. But the apparent mngnitude of 
 the lens, as seen from the object, is proportional to the 
 square of the diameter of the lens divided by the square of 
 the distance of the object ; and the area of the object divided 
 by the area of the image is equal to the squnre of the dis- 
 tance of the object divided by the square of the distance of 
 the image from the lens : therefore the brightness of the 
 image is proportional to the square of the diameter of the 
 lens divided by the square of the distance of the image from 
 the lens ; that is to say, the brightness or degree of illumi- 
 nation of the image depends only on the apparent magni- 
 tude of the lens as seen from the image, and not in any way 
 on the distance of the object. When the object and its im- 
 age are only physical points, and have no apparent magni- 
 tude, as stars for example, the brightness of the image is 
 simply proportional to the magnitude of the lens, or to the 
 square of the diameter of the aperture of the telescope ; and 
 for this reason certain stars are rendered visible by large 
 telescopes, while their light is too feeble to be perceived by 
 smaller ones. 
 
 The images of external objects are painted on the retina 
 in a reversed position, and from the retina the impressions 
 are transmitted to the sensorium by the optical nerves. See 
 Eye, Optics. 
 
 I'MAGERY may be defined as the generic term for jimi- 
 les, allegories, and metaphors, or such rhetorical figures as 
 denote similitude or comparison. 
 
 IMA'GINARY QUANTITIES, or IMPOSSIBLE 
 QUANTITIES, in Algebra, are the even roots of negative 
 quantities, or the imaginary results of some impossible op- 
 eration. The square root of any positive number may be 
 affected indifferently with the positive or negative sign ; 
 thus, v^a' 2 = — 3a ; because +3a or —3a, raised to the 
 square, equally produce 9a 2 . But if the number or quantity 
 is negative, the extraction of its square root is impossible, 
 because the square of any quantity, whether positive or 
 negative, is essentially positive ; that is to say, a negative 
 quantity cannot be the square of any real quan tity whatev- 
 er. The symbolical expressions y/ — 9, y/ — 4a*, v/ — 5, indi- 
 cate operations which are im|X)ssible ; and hence they are 
 designated imaginary impressions. But, though the quan 
 tities denoted by these symbols have no real values, the 
 symbols themselves may have all the algebraic operations 
 performed on them which can be performed on real quanti- 
 ties. Thus, v / = 9 = v/9" V~1 = V— i; and^^: 
 Via 2 • y/— 1 = 2aV— L Such expressions are of very fre- 
 quent occurrence in the higher analysis, and sometimes lead 
 to results of the greatest importance, which it would be dif 
 ficult, if, indeed, possible, to obtain in another way. (Se« 
 Peacock's Algebra.) 
 
 IMAGINARY ROOTS OF EQUATIONS are roots 
 which can only be indicated by imaginary expressions. 
 D'Alembert first demonstrated that every imaginary root of 
 an equation can be reduced to the form a-\-by/— 1, wh«re « 
 
IMAGINATION. 
 
 and 6 are real quantities : and from this it is proved that if | 
 an equation have a root of the form a-\-by/ — 1, it has also 
 another of the form a — b^/ — 1 ; so that imaginary roots al- 
 ways enter an equation by pairs, or their number is always 1 
 even. 
 
 IMAGINATION, in Metaphysics, may be said, in its 
 i sense, to be synonymous with invention, denoting 
 that faculty of the mind by which it cither " bodies forth the 
 forms of things unknown," or produces original thoughts or 
 new combinations of ideas from materials stored up in the 
 memory. It would be vain to enumerate the various defini- 
 tions or this term, or to attempt to give even an abstract of 
 , the diversity of views entertained by philosophers respecting 
 the nature and extent of its operations. While some (and 
 I thess Ricd and Addison) limit the domain of this facul- 
 ty so far as to teach that it is nothing BON than a lively con- 
 ception of the object of sight, differing from conception only 
 a.s a part from the whole ; others, like Dngald Stewart, place 
 it in the foremost rank of the mental faculties, attributing to 
 its operation the origination and development of the sub- 
 limit and boldest thoughts in all departments of human 
 knowledge. L)r. Kied's chapter on the 'I'rain of Thought in 
 the Mind gives a vivid though simple picture of the power 
 of the imagination; while, at the game time, it exhibits a 
 toh rnlily faithful specimen of the difficulty of treating this 
 subject, owing to a want of precision in the definition of the 
 term. In many philosophical disquisitions Imagination is 
 mad as nearly synonymous with fancy. But it should seem 
 that this is an erroneous application of the term ; for, as l)u • 
 guhl Stewart observes, the latter should rather be considered 
 as that |>eculiar habit of association which presents to our 
 choice all the different materials thai are subservient to the 
 efforts of the former, and w hich may therefore be consider- 
 ed as forming its groundwork. See Association. Poetry. 
 I.MA'.V An inferior order of ministers of religion in the 
 Turkish empire. The chief iman of each mosque (Imnm'ul- 
 Haikh) performs the ordinary civil functions which in Europe 
 have been in most countries assigned to pariah priests, as- 
 sisting at the circumcision, marriage*, burials, ice. of his 
 parishioners. He presides over the assembly of the faithful 
 at the ordinary prayers; but the solemn BOOH prayer of Fri- 
 day is under the superintendence of the Khatilt, a higher 
 minister (who is also called from that cireumstai:' 
 Imtim'ul lJju.mii, or Friday Iman). The legitimate IDeceWOr 
 of Mahomet, in whom, in theory, the temporal and eccle- 
 siastical government of Islam should reside, is termed Imam 
 by way of pre eminence : but the Mussulmans nre not agreed 
 among themselves as to the character Of this dignity, or as 
 to those who have rightfully borne it. The Persians reckon 
 twelve legitimate Imams, of whom they believe the last 
 (Mahadi) to bo still living. (See Taylor's Hist, of Moham- 
 medanism, ch. viii.) 
 
 IM'BRICATEI). In Botany, a term used in speaking of 
 the arrangement of bodies, to denote that their parts lie over 
 each other in regular order like the tiles ti|>on the roof of a 
 house ; as the scales upon the cup of some acorns : also ap- 
 plied in (peaking of the aestivation of petals or leaves, to de- 
 note that they overlap each other at the margin without any 
 involution. 
 
 IMHRO'GLIO. (A word borrowed from the Italian bro- 
 gliare, to confound or miz together; whence the French 
 hrouiller and English embroil.) In literary language, the 
 plot of a romance or a drama, when much perplexed and 
 complicated, is said to be an "imbroglio." The small bur- 
 lesque theatrical pieces so termed by the Italians derive their 
 ludicrous character from a similar species of absurdity. 
 
 I.MITA'TION. (Lat.) In Music, a species of composi- 
 tion in which each part is made to imitate the other. Some- 
 time- the motion or figure of the notes is only imitated, and 
 frequently by a contrary motion, making what is called a 
 retrograde imitation, or imitazione cancherizante. Imitation, 
 according to M. Brossard, differs from a fugue in that the 
 repetition must be a second, third, sixth, seventh, or ninth ; 
 \\ hereas in a fugue the repetition must be in the unison 
 fourth, fifth, or octave, and the intervals exactly the same in 
 the comes and guide. 
 
 IMME'RSION (Lat. immergo, / plunge under), in As- 
 tronomy, denotes the disappearance of any celestial object 
 behind another or in its shadow. Thus in an eclipse of one 
 of Jupiter's satellites, the immersion takes place when the 
 satellite disappears behind the body of the planet, or enters 
 into the planet's shadow ; and in an occnltation of a planet 
 or fixed star by the moon, the immersion is the disappearance 
 of the star or planet behind the body of the moon. In like 
 manner, the reappearance of the body is called its emersion. 
 The immersions and emersions of fixed stars occulted by the 
 moon, are phenomena of great importance for correcting the 
 lunar tables. 
 
 IMMERSION, BAPTISM BY, seems to have been the 
 most ancient mode adopted in the Christian church. The 
 'f'ne immersion, in honour of the three persons of the Divini- 
 
 IMPEACHMENT. 
 
 ty, is mentioned by Tertullian, and prescribed in the Sacra 
 mentary of Gregory the Great; but single immersion was 
 held valid by that pope, and his decision was confirmed by 
 the fourth council of Toledo, A.D. 633. {Riddle's Christian 
 Antiquities, 462.) 
 
 IMMOLA TION. (Lat.) A ceremony used in the Ro- 
 man sacrifices, which consisted of throwing upon the head 
 of the victim some sort of corn or frankincense, together with 
 the moal, or salt cake, and a little wine. 
 
 IMMI'MTV. In Jurisprudence, legal freedom from any 
 legal obligation. Thus the phrase "ecclesiastical immuni- 
 ties" comprehends all that portion of the riglitsof the Church, 
 in different countries, which consists in the freedom of its 
 members, or of its property, from burdens tin own by law or 
 other Clai 
 
 PMPACT. (Lat. impingo, I impinge on anything.) In 
 Mechanics, the instantaneous action of one body on another 
 to put it in motion. If the body moves in the direction of the 
 stroke, the impact was direct; if in a different direction, the 
 impact was oblique. 
 
 l.Ml'AGKS. (Lat.) In Architecture, a word usually 
 taken to mean the rails of a door. 
 
 I MP A l.l'.MKNT. U Heraldry, the division of a shield 
 paleWtse, when the shield is said to be party per pale. Im- 
 palcmrnt prr baron etteWU is the division which takes place 
 on marriage; when the husband's coat is borne on the dex- 
 ter side of the pale, and the wife's on the sinister. Former- 
 ly, the husband's and wife's arms were Impaled by dimidia- 
 tion ; that is, the dexter half of the husband's coat impaled 
 with the sinister half of the wife's; and this inconvenient 
 mode of marshalling was pursued in French heraldry duwn 
 to the period of the Revolution. 
 
 Imi'ai.kment. A specie* of punishment formerly in use 
 among the Turks and some barbarous nations, which con- 
 sisted in thrusting a stake through the body, and thus leav- 
 ing the victim to a lingering death. Instances are on record 
 of persons enduring this borrid torture for several days be 
 fore death released them from agony. (See Sham's TraecU 
 
 in Barbary.) 
 
 IMI'AN.VTMW, in Theology, otherwise termed Jlssump 
 tion, signifies the substantia] union of the body and blood of 
 Christ with the elements of the ettcharisi without a ekemgt 
 
 in their nature. The word appears to be first used in the 
 controversy about the real presence in the llth century, 
 and to lie applied, by the supporters of transubstantiation, to 
 the less material doctrine of Rereugarius and his followers. 
 It has since been objected, by Roman Catholics, to the Lu- 
 theran theory, that it revived the old error of iinpanatton. 
 The supporters of the opinion of Berengarius were some 
 times termed Adessenarii ; from the word adesse, to bt 
 present. 
 
 IMPARLANCE. (Fr. pnrler, to speak.) A mode of de- 
 laying proceedings in a civil action by petition to the court 
 foi farther time. General imparlance was to the next term 
 special imparlance to a specified day, which might be in the 
 same term. The practice of imparlance appears to be abol 
 ished by 2 W. 4, c. 30, except as to actions not commenced 
 under the process given bv that act. 
 
 IMP ASTATION. In Sculpture, the mixture of different 
 matters bound together by means of cements capable of re- 
 sisting the .action of fire or air. 
 
 IMPKAVIIMENT. (From the Latin impetere, to prose 
 cute.) A species of process against persons accused of trea 
 son, or h'gh public crimes and misdemeanours of an inferioi 
 description. The first regular instances of this proceeding 
 appear, according to Mr. Hatscll, on the rolls of parliamen 
 in the latter end of the reign of Edward III. Before that 
 time the Lords seem to have exercised a high but Irregulai 
 jurisdiction over state offences, at the prayer of the crown 
 or of private persons. But in the case of Richard Lyon, 
 1376, we first find the Commons appearing in their public 
 capacity as prosecutors: and several similar instances occui 
 in the course of the following century. But from the reigit 
 of Henry VI. to that of James I. impeachments seem to hav* 
 fallen into disuse ; bills of attainder, and prosecutions in tin 
 Star Chamber, having been prosecuted in their stead. In 
 the seventeenth year of James I. this form of proceeding 
 was revived against Sir Giles Mempesson for having pro- 
 cured illegal patents, and from that time to the present has 
 been the regular constitutional form of accusation for state 
 offences. The form of the accusation exhibited by the Com- 
 mons is styled the articles of impeachment. It is an undoubt- 
 ed right of the Commons to exhibit such articles against a 
 peer for treason, or any other high crimes and misdemean- 
 ours; but it has been doubted whether the Lords have juris- 
 diction in capital cases over a commoner in this proceeding. 
 In one instance (in 1681) they refused to do so, but have in 
 several other instances admitted their competency. Man- 
 agers are appointed by the Commons to conduct the prose- 
 cution before the Lords. In case of an impeachment of a 
 peer for treason, it is usual to address the crown to appoint 
 a lord high steward ; but the appointment of such an officer 
 
IMPENETRABILITY. 
 
 «oes not seem essential to the conduct of an impeachment. 
 By 12 & 13 VV. 3, c. 2, it is enacted that a pardon under the 
 great seal shall not be pleadable to an impeachment. This, 
 however, does not deprive the king of his prerogative of 
 pardoning after conviction. It was determined, on the im- 
 peachment of Warren Hastings, that this proceeding in the 
 Lords is not put an end to ny the prorogation or dissolution 
 of parliament ; and an act was passed to prevent prorogation 
 or dissolution from having the effect of putting a stop to the 
 previous proceedings in the House of Commons. Judgment 
 on impeaclunent must proceed on the same evidence which 
 would be required in the ordinary courts of justice ; in 
 which respect this proceeding differs from that by bill of at- 
 tainder. 
 
 IMFE'NETRABI'LITY. In Physics, one of the essen- 
 tial propcrlies of matter or body. It is a property inferred 
 from invariable experience, and resting on this incontroverti- 
 ble fact, that no two bodies can occupy the samo portion of 
 space in the same instant of time. Impenetrability, as re- 
 spects solid bodies, requires no proof; it is obvious to the 
 touch. With regard to liquids, the property may be proved 
 by very simple experiments. Let a vessel be filled to the 
 brim with water, and a solid incapable of solution in water 
 be plunged into it; a portion of the water will overflow ex- 
 actly equal in bulk to the body immersed. If a cork be 
 rammed hard into the neck of a phial full of water, the phial 
 will burst, while its neck remains entire. The disposition of 
 air to resist penetration may be illustrated in the following 
 way: Let a tall glass vessel be nearly filled with water, on 
 the surface of which a lighted taper is set to float. If over 
 this glass a smaller cylindrical vessel, likewise of glass, be 
 inverted and pressed downwards, the contained air maintain- 
 ing its place ; the internal body of the water will descend, 
 while the rest will rise up at the sides, and the taper will 
 continue to burn for some seconds, encompassed by the 
 whole mass of liquid. (Leslie's Elements of Natural Phi- 
 losophy.) 
 
 IMPE'NNATES, Impenncs. (Lat. in, and penna, a wing.) 
 The name of a tribe of swimming birds, having short wings 
 covered with feathers resembling scales. The penguin 
 (Aptenodytes) is a good example of this group. 
 
 IMPE'RATIVE MOOD. (Lat. iinpero, / command.) 
 That form of the verb which denotes command, entreaty, 
 or, in general, desire. See Grammar. 
 
 IMPE'RFECT CADENCE. In Music. See Cadence. 
 
 IMPE'RFECT CONCORDS. In Music, such as are 
 iable to change from major to minor, or the contrary, as 
 »re thirds and sixths ; still, however, not losing their con- 
 K>n"ancv. 
 
 IMPE'RFECT NUMBER. A perfect number is one 
 whose aliquot parts, added together, make a sum equal to 
 the number itself. An imperfect number, consequently, is 
 one such that the sum of its aliquot parts, or divisors, is not 
 equal to the number itself. Thus 12 is an imperfect num- 
 ber ; for the sum of its divisors, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, is 16, which is 
 greater than 12. 
 
 IMPE'RFECT TENSE. In Grammar, that modification 
 of a verb which expresses that the action or event of which 
 we speak was, at a certain time to which we refer, in an un- 
 finished state. This is in English designated by the auxiliary 
 " was," joined with the present participle. 
 
 IMPE'RIAL. (Fr.) In Architecture, a species of dome 
 whose profile is pointed towards the top and widens towards 
 the base, thus forming a curve cf contrary flexure. 
 
 IMPE'RSONAL VERBS, in Grammar, are those used 
 only in the third person; as elsurt, licet, it is lawful. It is 
 quite clear that every verb, whether active or passive, must 
 have a necessary reference to some noun, either expressed 
 or understood, for its nominative, - and hence the doctrine of 
 Impersonal verbs has been justly rejected by the best gram- 
 marians, both ancient and modern. See Grammar. 
 
 IMPETI'GO. (Lat. impetirc, to infest.) An eruption of 
 email pustules, sometimes called the moist tetter: the vesi- 
 cles discharge an acrid ichor. Something of this kind is 
 often produced by particular trades, where irritating sub- 
 stances are applied to the skin. Cleanliness, cooling oint- 
 ments, and occasionally the nitrated mercurial ointment 
 much diluted, are useful. Harrowgate water and baths have 
 been recommended, and mild aperients. The eruption is 
 not contagious. 
 
 I'MPETUS. (Lat. force.) In Mechanics, the same with 
 momentum or force. Impetus, in Gunnery, is the altitude 
 through which a heavy body must fall to acquire a velocity 
 equal to that with which the ball is discharged from the 
 piece. 
 
 I'MPLEMENTS, AGRICULTURAL. Almost all the 
 operations of agriculture may be performed by the plough, 
 the harrow, the scythe, and the flail ; and these are the sole 
 implements in the primitive agriculture of all countries. 
 With the progress of improvement, however, many other 
 implements have been introduced ; the more remarkable of 
 which are tts drill-plough, the horse-hoe the winnowing 
 592 
 
 IMPRIMATUR. 
 
 machine, the threshing machine, the hay-maK'.ij r.d' (£a« 
 and the reaping machine. The object of al' Xf.e.e a>,ple 
 ments and machines is to abridge human labour, and to per- 
 form the different operations to which they are applied with 
 a greater degree of rapidity and in a more perfect manner 
 than before. 
 
 I'MPLEMENTS, HORTICULTURAL. The essential 
 implements of horticulture are the spade and the pruning 
 knife. The rake might be added, but it can be done with- 
 out; because if seed be sown on a rough surface, it may be 
 covered by beating that surface smooth with the spade ; ana 
 if on a smooth surface, it may be covered by scattering with 
 the spade a very thin sprinkling of earth over it. Even the 
 pruning knife might be dispensed with; because culinary % 
 vegetables might be pulled up by the roots, or cut off at the 
 surface of the ground with the spade; and fruit trees will 
 produce crops without pruning ; as by disbudding and thin- 
 ning with the finger and thumb as large fruit may be grown 
 as ever will be produced by the use of the knife. It must 
 1 be confessed, however, that the knife and the rake are very 
 nearly essential instruments of horticulture. With the prog- 
 ress of horticulture a great number of implements, instru- 
 ments, utensils, and machines have been brought into use. 
 Of these may be mentioned the hoe for stirring the soil and 
 cutting up weeds ; and this implement on a larger scale in 
 warm countries is used as a substitute for the spade. The 
 watering pot in modern gardening is an important utensil, 
 and the syringe a machine that can scarcely be dispensed 
 with. In the forcing department, we have the thermometer, 
 the hygrometer, and various contrivances for supplying and 
 regulating heat, admitting or excluding air, anil producing 
 artificial vapour or rain. 
 
 IMPLICATION. (Lat. implico, / evolve.) In Law, an 
 inference necessarily arising from something declared. Thug 
 contracts are said to be either express or implied. See Con 
 tract. 
 
 IMPLU'VIUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, the 
 outer part of the court of a house which was exposed to the 
 weather. In the summer time it was the practice to stretch 
 an awning over it. 
 
 IMPO'NDERABLE SUBSTANCES. Heat, light, elec 
 tricity, and magnetism are so called, being supposed to de 
 pend upon very subtile forms of matter of inappreciable 
 weight. 
 
 IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. The articles imported into 
 and exported from a country. See Commerce. 
 
 IMPO'SING. (Fr. imposer), in Printing, is the arrange- 
 ment of the pages of a sheet upon the imposing stone in their 
 proper order, so that when printed and the sheet folded they 
 will follow each other consecutively; putting the furniture 
 about them, with the chase ; and wedging them up, so as f 
 be ready to print. 
 
 IMPOSI'TION OF HANDS. (Lat. impnno, / place 
 upon), is maintained in the English and other churches, as 
 conformable to the apostolic practice and that of the earliest 
 ages, in which confirmation and the ordination of priests and 
 deacons are supposed to have been accompanied with the 
 performance of this ceremony. In Acts vi., the apostles lay 
 their hands on those appointed to be deacons ; in Acts viii 
 and xix., the converts who had been already baptized by 
 Philip and John are in the same manner confirmed by Paul 
 and the other apostles. 
 
 IMPOSSIBLE aUANTITY. See Imaginary Quan- 
 tity. 
 
 I'MPOST. (Lat. impono, / lay on.) In Architecture, the 
 capital of a pier or pilaster which receives an arch. The 
 impost varies with the order whereto it is applied. Some- 
 times the whole of the entablature serves as an impost to 
 an arch. The term is applicable to any supporting piece. 
 Impost is also frequently used as synonymous with tax or 
 public burden. 
 
 IMPRE'SSION. (Lat imprimo, / press upon.) In the 
 Fine Arts, the sensation on the mind which is excited by a 
 work of art. The word is also used to denote a copy of an 
 engraving drawn off from the plate or block on which the 
 subject is engraved. 
 
 IMPRE'SSMENT. The forcible levying of mariners for 
 the king's service at sea. The power of impressment is a 
 branch of the king's prerogative. It is mentioned in the 
 statute 2 Richard 2, c. 4 as a recognised usage. Variom 
 classes of mariners are exempted from it by paiticn'.ar stat- 
 utes. The officer impressing acts under an impress warrant 
 for that especial purpose; but the regularity of this instru- 
 ment is carefully watched by the courts, and criminal in- 
 formations have been also granted against officers puilty of 
 unnecessary severity or acts of private malice in ca-r> -:ig It 
 into execution. (See, for arguments in favour of miiniajn- 
 ing this practice, Quart. Rev., vol. xlix., p. 49t>, &c. ; iigasist, 
 Wealth of Nations, M'Culloch's ed., note xii.) 
 
 IMPRIMATUR. (Lat. let it (the book) beprintea.) The 
 term applied to the privilege which, in countries subject**! 
 to the censorship of the press, must be granted by a pulH* 
 
IMPRINT. 
 
 functionary appointed f >r the purpose before any book can 
 te printed. This formula was much used in English books 
 printed in the Kith and 17th centuries; and this permission is 
 even still vested in some of our own universities, especially 
 tn Scotland, where it is nothing unusual to find on the title- 
 page of some works recommended to public favour by the 
 lenatus academicus the " imprimatur" of the principal. 
 
 IMPRINT. (Fr. imprinter.) The designation of the 
 place where, by whom, and when a book is published, are 
 always placed at the bottom of the title. Among the early 
 trinters it was inserted at the end of the book, and is styled 
 the colophon. By the 39 Geo. 3, c. 79, every printer is obli- 
 ged to atlix his name and residence to each article he shall 
 . print, and if it consist of more than one leaf, then upon the 
 first and last leaves, under a heavy penalty ; but there are 
 some exceptions. 
 
 IMPROMPTU. (Lat. in readiness.) In Literature, any 
 short and pointed production supposed to be brought forth 
 on the. spur of the moment ; generally of an epigrammatic 
 
 IMPRO'PER FRACTION, in Arithmetic and Algebra, is 
 a fraction whose numerator is equal to, or greater than, its 
 denominator. 
 
 IMPROPRIATION, in Law, is where the tithes, glebe, 
 or other ecclesiastic dues of a parish are in the hands of a 
 layman. The religious societies having at the time of the 
 Reformation, the property of many benefices in their hands, 
 clauses were Inserted in the acts by which they were dis- 
 solved to give that property absolutely to the king, by whom 
 it Was granted out to lay proprietors. In common language, 
 such benefice! are said to be impropriated as are in the 
 hand.- of laymen ; such as are held by spiritual corporations, 
 sole i ire termed appropriated. 
 
 I'MPROVBATO'RE. ( Lat. improviso. uvforescenly, un- 
 vremeditatedly.) An Italian word, signifying a person who 
 has the talent of composing and reciting a suite of verses on a 
 given subject Immediately and without premeditation. This 
 peculiar talent, thus restricted, appears to belong, almost ex- 
 clusively, to the Italian language and people. Much, no doubt, 
 of the facility of these iinprovisatori, which appears nlmo.-i 
 preternatural to one unaccustomed to hear them, arises from 
 the peculiar eoae and flexibility of their language, and its 
 riehne-s In rhymes. Hut this circumstance will not wholly 
 account for so singular a national faculty; for, about the 
 time of the revival of letters, Italy possessed improvisatori In 
 Latin as wcil as Italian. Many poets have enjoyed consid- 
 erable celebrity in their day from their success in this mode 
 of composition ; but we are not aware that any of their po- 
 ems have acquired a permanent celebrity, although often 
 taken down from their recitation. Tuscany and the Vene- 
 tian States have been most famous for the production of im- 
 provisator], especially Sienna and Verona ; in which latter 
 city the talent seems to have been perpetuated by succession. 
 The chevalier Bernardino Perfetti, the most famous of all 
 these reciters, was of Sienna: he flourished in the first half 
 of the 17th century. He Ls said to have possessed unbound- 
 ed erudition, and to have been able to pour fourth extempore 
 ys on the most abstruse questions of science. 
 There have been many distinguished females possessed of 
 this talent (improvisatrici). Gorilla, the most celebrated of 
 them, was of Pistoia in Tuscany. She was the original of 
 Madame de StaeTs Corinne. She received in 1776 the lau- 
 reate crown at Rome, an honour which had also been ac- 
 corded to Perfetti. Germany is said to have produced one 
 noted improvisatrice, Anna Louisa Karsch. There appears 
 no reason why the term improvisation should not also be 
 applied to the delivery of unpremeditated discourses in 
 It is the exertion of a very similar faculty, perfected 
 in the same manner by habits to a degree almost inconceiv- 
 able by those not accustomed to witness its exercise. It is, 
 however, much more general. The North American In- 
 dians are represented to possess it in a high degree. In Eu- 
 rope, it is most generally to be found in the pulpit. Public 
 secular oratory of this unpremeditated description is far 
 more common in England, and the power much more sedu- 
 lously cultivated, than in any Continental country. (See 
 'Forsyth's Italy ; Ed. Rev., vol. xxii. ; Encyc. Metr.) 
 
 INAUGURATION (Lat. inaugurare, to take omens), 
 was originally applied to the Roman ceremony of admission 
 to the college of augurs, or soothsayers, or to the selection 
 of a proper site for the erection of temples or other national 
 edifices ; but it afterwards received a more extended signi- 
 fication, and is now used in a sense nearly synonymous with 
 the consecration of a prelate, or the coronation of a king or 
 emperor. It means also an introduction to any office with 
 certain ceremonies. 
 
 INCA, or VNCA. A name given by the Indians of an- 
 cient Peru to their kings and princes of the blood. The em- 
 pire of the Incas, founded, according to tradition, by the cel- 
 ebrated Manco Capac, extended over the table-land of the 
 Andes, from Pasto to the neighbourhood of Chill, as well as 
 the low lands on the const, it was destroyed by the Span- 
 2 P 
 
 INCEPTIVE. 
 
 iards under Pizarro and Almagro. The blood roy*l of the 
 Incas is preserved, or believed to be so, among the India is 
 of the present day, and Tupac Amaru, who carried on a 
 long and nearly successful insurrection against Spain in thn 
 latter part of the last century, professed to be descended 
 from them. 
 
 IN C.<£NA DOMINI. (Lat. at the Lord's Supper.) The 
 name of a celebrated papal bull, containing a collection of 
 extracts from different constitutions of the pope, comprising 
 those rights which, since the time of Gregory VII., have 
 been uninterruptedly claimed by the Roman see, and a proc- 
 lamation of anathema against all who violate them. It was 
 annually read on Holy Thursday, whence it receives lb 
 name ; but lately on Easter Monday. The sects of heretic- 
 are cursed in it by their several designations. A copy of the 
 bull is hung up at the door of the churches of St. Peter and 
 St. John Lateran: and all patriarchs, primates, bishops, 
 &c, are required to have it read once or more annually in 
 their churches. 
 
 IXCANDE'SCENCE. (Lat. in, and candere, to be warm.) 
 The luminosity exhibited by a substance when heated up to 
 a certain point. 
 
 LNCANTATION. (Lat. in, and canto, / sine.) A form 
 of words combined with certain ceremonies ana mixtures of 
 heterogeneous substances used by the ancients for many su- 
 perstitious purposes. They were most commonly resorted 
 to by unsuccessful lovers; in which case they were termed 
 love potions, or philtres, which see. 
 
 INCARCERATION. (Lat.) Literally, imprisonment. 
 In Surgery, this term is generally applied to ruptures or her- 
 nia?, with the same meaning as strangulation ; but, accord- 
 ing to Scarpa, an incarcerated hernia is that in which the 
 course of the intestinal matter is interrupted without any 
 considerable injury of the bowel itself; whereas in strangu- 
 lated hernia the vitality of the bowel is affected, or there is 
 organic injury of its coats. The functions of the merely In- 
 carcerated intestine are healthily resumed upon Its return 
 into the abdomen, which is not the case where true stran 
 "illation lias taken place. 
 
 INCARNATION. (Lat. euro, flesh.) A word in com 
 mon use among the theologians to express the union of the 
 Godhead with the Manhood in Jesus Christ. 8t. John 
 says, "The Word was made flesh, and dwell among us;"' 
 a text sufficiently explicit, when coupled with other ex 
 pressions respecting the divine nature of the Word, to main- 
 tain the doctrine of the incarnation among the vast major 
 ity of the Christian world. But the subtle inquiries which 
 men have instituted into the manner and nature of this 
 union have given rise to many varieties of opinion, and to 
 many sects which have incurred the reproach of heresy 
 Not the Socinlans only, but the Arians and Sabellians also, 
 are led necessarily by their premises into heterodoxy upor 
 this point; the Nestorians, however, and Eutychians, may 
 be considered the principal sects which have joined an or- 
 thodox belief, as to the relations of the three persons of the 
 Trinity one to the other, with peculiar conceptions of the 
 manner of the union of the two natures in Jesus Chris' 
 (See the respective articles.) 
 
 The real manner of this union, or indwelling of the God 
 in the Man, is allowed to be a mystery such as cannot be 
 fully apprehended by the human intellect. It is easier to 
 point out the errors which beset its investigation than to ex- 
 press in words the true doctrine. The phrase, " The Word 
 was made flesh," cannot imply that the divinity was lost 
 and annihilated in becoming flesh ; nor that it changed its 
 own nature and was turned into humanitv. In either of 
 these cases, Christ would cease to be a divine being while 
 on earth. Nor did the Godhead inspire the Manhood after 
 the manner in which the Prophets had been inspired In ear- 
 lier times; for the terms applied to Christ nre of a very dif- 
 ferent kind. Nor, on the other hand, could the humanity 
 be lost and absorbed in the divinity, which would seem to 
 destroy the sympathy with which the man Christ regarded 
 mankind, upon which so much of the superstructure of his 
 religion is raised. 
 
 INCE'NDIARY. (Lat, incendo, I bum.) Literally, one 
 who sets fire wilfully to a building or stores ; but it Is used 
 also in a metaphorical sense for any political agitator who 
 seeks to inflame the minds of the people. See Arson. 
 
 INCENSE. Sec Frankincense. 
 
 INCE'PTIVE. (Lat. incipio, I begin.) A word used by 
 Dr. Wallis to express such moments or first principles as, 
 though possessed of no magnitude themselves, have yet the 
 power of producing it by being extended or enlarged. Thus 
 a point or a line, though the former has no proper magni- 
 tude and the latter no breadth, are both said to be inceptivi 
 of enlargement. In the Latin language inceptive or inchoa- 
 tive verbs (the latter term being derived from the Lat. ln- 
 choare, to begin) are those which, according to grammari- 
 ans, are characterized by the termination sco or scor added 
 to their primitives, and are expressive of a commencement 
 of increase or augmentation of the qualities indicated by the 
 
 593 
 
INCERTUM OPUS. 
 
 words from which they are derived : as auger e, to increase ; 
 augescere, to begin to increase ; pallere, to be pale ; palles- 
 cere, to crow pale. 
 
 INCE' KTUM O'PUS. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, 
 a species of walling whose face exhibits an irregularly for- 
 med masonry, not laid in horizontal courses. 
 
 INCH. A measure of length ; the twelfth part of a foot. 
 
 Inch. A work used as a prefix to certain small Scottish 
 islands, as Inch-Keith, Inch-Garvie. It is derived from the 
 old Irish or Gaelic word inis, signifying an island. 
 
 I'NCIDENCE. (Lat. incido, J fall upon.) The meeting 
 cf one body with another. The term angle of incidence is 
 used by writers on mechanics and optics in different senses. 
 Thus, in the case of a body striking against a plane, the an- 
 gle of incidence is by some understood to signify the angle 
 formed by the line in which the body moved, with a straight 
 line perpendicular to the plane; while others use the term 
 to denote the angle which the line of incidence makes with 
 the plane itself. When light or any plastic body is reflected 
 from a surface, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle 
 of reflection ; and in the case of refraction, the sine of the 
 angle of incidence has to the sine of the angle of refraction 
 a constant ratio. 
 
 I'NCIDENT. In Law, something necessarily appertain- 
 ing to and depending on another, which is termed the prin- 
 cipal. 
 
 INCINERATION. (Lat. incinero, I reduce to ashes.) 
 The combustion of organic substances for the purpose of 
 obtaining their ashes or incombustible residue. 
 
 INCI'SORS, Incisores. (Lat. incido, / cut.) The teeth 
 implanted in the intermaxillary bones of the upper jaw, and 
 in the corresponding place in the lower jaw. and which are 
 generally shaped for the purpose of cutting or coarsely di- 
 viding the food. 
 
 INCLINATION. (Lat.) A term of frequent occur- 
 rence in geometry, mechanics, physics, and astronomy. It 
 ia in all cases measured by an angle. Thus, the inclination 
 nf the orbit of a planet is the angle between the plane of its 
 orbit and the plane of the ecliptic. In the history of ge- 
 ometry, the problem of inclinations is a subject that was 
 treated of by Apollonius in two books, which are lost, but 
 of which a description has been given by Pappus. The 
 problem proposed was this: "To insert a straight line of a 
 given magnitude, and tending to a given point, between two 
 lines which are given by position." The problem was re- 
 stored by Marinus Ghetaldus ; and various other investiga- 
 tions have since been given by the method of the ancient- 
 jnalysls. 
 
 INCLI'NED PLANE. One of the five simple mechan- 
 ( al powers. The theory of the inclined plane is easily de- 
 - iced from the decomposition of forces. Let A C be the 
 position of the plane, B C its alti- 
 15 tude, and A B the horizontal dis- 
 
 tance of the foot of the plane from 
 the perpendicular B C. Suppose a 
 load to be placed on the plane at D, 
 and let it be required to determine 
 __ the relation between its whole 
 1" weight and its tendency to descend 
 rlong the plane. Let D E denote the vertical pressure of the 
 weight, and decompose this into D F parallel to the plane, 
 and F E perpendicular to it ; and complete the parallelo- 
 gram F G. Now the part F E is supported by the resistance 
 of the plane ; there remains, therefore, only the force rep- 
 resented by F D to urge the descent of the weight along the 
 plane. But the triangle D F E Is obviously similar to C B 
 A, and therefore D F is to D E as C B to C A ; that is, the 
 force of descent along the plane is to the whole weight of 
 the body as the height of the plane to its length, or as the 
 sine of its elevation is to radius. The force, therefore, 
 which is required to raise a body along the plane, is less 
 than that which is required to raise it perpendicularly in the 
 same proportion. 
 
 Tliis fundamental proposition was first demonstrated by 
 Stevinus of Bruges, but by a very different process of rea- 
 soning. He supposed a chain or chaplet composed of equal 
 links to be thrown over the triangle ABC, and the two 
 ends to be united a little below the base A B. It is evident 
 that this chain would remain at rest, for on altering its po- 
 sition each link would be succeeded by a similar one in the 
 same situation , and if it began to move of itself it would 
 move forever, a supposition which is absurd. But the part 
 below the base, being suspended equally at both extremities, 
 Is evidently in a state of equilibrium ; therefore the part 
 which hangs along the perpendicular B C must balance the 
 part laying along the inclined plane ; and the weights of 
 these two parts being as their lengths, it follows that a 
 weight placed on the plane is to the force required to sus- 
 tain it as the length of the plane to its height. 
 
 There are two properties connected with the motion of 
 bodies on inclined planes which deserve to be noticed. 
 The first is, that the velocity acquired by a body in descend- 
 594 
 
 INCOMBUSTIBLE. CLOTH. 
 
 ing from any altitude to a horizontal plane is the same when 
 it reaches the horizontal plane, whether it has been allow- 
 ed to fall freely in the vertical, or been constrained to move 
 along an iiciined plane at any angle of elevation. The 
 second is, that the times of descent through all chords of 
 the same circle to the lowest point are equal, and equal to 
 the time the body would take to fall through 
 a height equal to the diameter of the circle. 
 Thus, let A B be the diameter, and CB.DB 
 and E B chords of a circle ; the time a heavy 
 body would consume in falling vertically 
 through the diameter is the same as that in i>[ 
 which it would roll down the inclined plane 
 C B, or D B, or E B. In other words, bodies 
 placed at A, C, D, and E, and abandoned at 
 the same instant to the action of gravity, 
 would arrive at B at the same time. In 
 these proportions it is supposed, of course, that there is no 
 resistance from friction. 
 
 INCLO'SURE. (Lat. includo, I shut up.) This t^rm, in 
 a general sense, is one of the first acts of appropriation, since 
 in a new country when any portion of land is purchased, or 
 taken possession of, it is inclosed ; that is, surrounded by a 
 boundary line, indicated by certain objects, natural or arti- 
 ficial, or of both kinds. In a particular sense, to inclose 
 land is to divide it into fields, and may be devoted to a par 
 ticular description of culture. If nothing farther than the 
 cultivation of plants of different kinds were carried on in the 
 fields of a farm, their subdivision by fences would be alto- 
 gether unnecessary; but as in most cases fields are kept al- 
 ternately under tillage and pasture, it is desirable to have 
 fences to confine the pasturing animals to the field appropri 
 ated for their use. 
 
 INCLU'SA. (Lat. includo, I inclose.) The name of n 
 tribe of shell-bearing Acephalous Mollusks in the system of 
 Cuvier, characterized by the closed state of the mantle. 
 which everywhere surrounds and envelopes the body, leav- 
 ing only a narrow aperture for the passage of the foot, and 
 being prolonged posteriorly into two siphons projecting be- 
 yond the shell, which is always open at its two extremities. 
 The bivalves of this family are remarkable for their pow 
 ers of burrowing and excavating clay, sand, wood, or even 
 stony rocks ; and many of the genera secrete, in addition to 
 the ordinary valves, a calcareous lining to their burrows, 
 which forms a tube surrounding the valves themselves. 
 The relative proportions of the tube and valves well illus- 
 trate the so-called law of the "balance of organs," the 
 valves becoming diminished in size as the external sheath 
 is more developed. In the ship-borer (Teredo navalis), 
 which has the longest tube, the valves are of the smallest 
 size, being reduced to the office of mere boring instruments, 
 instead of serving to protect the soft parts of the animal. In 
 the watering-pot shell (Jispergillum, Lam.) they cease to be 
 moveable organs, and are blended or confluent with the ex- 
 ternal tube; this is dilated at the anterior extremity, which 
 is surrounded with a projecting radiated ridge, and closed 
 by a convex plate, perforated like the mouth of a water- 
 ing-pot. 
 
 INCLU'SI, or RECLU'SI. (Lat. shut up.) In Ecclesi 
 astical History, a class of religious persons who lived as her- 
 mits in single cells, generally attached to monasteries, some- 
 times in the neighbourhood of villages and towns— under 
 the law of not leaving them unless in case of extreme ne- 
 cessity, and with the approbation of the bishop; whose 
 seal, or that of the abbot, was impressed on its door. The 
 cells are said to have been commonly twelve feet in length 
 and breadth. Nuns became sometimes, but more rarely, re 
 
 INCO'GNITO (Ital. unknown), abbreviated into incog., 
 denotes the disguise resorted to by the great when they are 
 unwilling to be recognised. It consists either in assuming 
 a different name or title for the nonce, or in travelling from 
 one place to another without a retinue or other marks of 
 distinction. 
 
 INCOMBU'STIBLE CLOTH. This term was originally 
 applied to cloth with which asbestus was interwoven ; on 
 burning away the fibre, the incombustible mineral texture ( 
 remained. 
 
 More recently, cloth and other materials have been ren- 
 dered to a great extent incombustible by impregnating them 
 with certain saline substances, which, upon the application 
 of fire, form a species of glaze upon the goods, and prevent 
 them burning with flame by protecting them from the ne- 
 cessary access of air. (See Combustion.) Borax, alum, 
 and phosphate of soda, or ammonia, are the most effectual 
 salts for this purpose ; and by properly applying them, wilh 
 starch, if to muslin dresses, curtains, or bed furniture, or 
 with size to paper hangings and scenery, these several arti- 
 cles may be rendered incapable of burning with flame, and 
 thus serious accidents by fire prevented. Wood may alsc 
 be tendered comparatively incombustible by soaking it in so- 
 lutions of the above salts. See Asbestus. 
 
INCOMMENSURABLE. 
 
 INCOMMENSURABLE. Two numbers or homogen- 
 ous quantities of any kind are said to Lie incommensurable 
 when they have no common measure, or when no number 
 or quantity of ttie same kind can be found which will divide 
 them both without a remainder. Thus the numbers 21 and 
 •22 are incommensurable. The side of a square and its di- 
 agonal are incommensurable lines, as is proved by Euclid in 
 tenth book. Numbers are said to be incommensurable in 
 power when their squares or second powers are incommen- 
 surable ; as 2 and 3, the squares of which, 4 and 9, have no 
 common measure. It is owing to the incommensurability of 
 quantities, that it is found so difficult to explain the doctrine 
 of proportion in the elements of geometry. 
 
 1XCOMPA TIBLES. In Chemistry, salts and other sub- 
 stances are said to be incompatible which cannot exist 
 together in solution without mutual decomposition. Thus 
 luble salts of lead and of baryta are incompatible with 
 sulphuric acid and the sulphates, because the sulphates of 
 lead and of baryta are insoluble, and consequently thrown 
 down in the form of precipitates. 
 
 LNCOMPRE'SSIBILITy. That quality of bodies In 
 virtue of which their volumes cannot be diminished. There 
 are no substances, perhaps, absolutely incompressible. Li- 
 quids, however, resist compression with great force ; but 
 the experiments of Canton have proved that water has its 
 bulk sensibly enlarged by withdrawing the pressure of the 
 atmosphere. Nevertheless the extent to which the com- 
 .ou can be carried is very small. On enclosing water 
 within an iron cannon, the sides of which were three inches 
 in thickness, and applying a very great force of pressure, 
 the cannon burst before the volume of water had been re- 
 linked to IS) 2Uths of its original dimensions. A pressure 
 equal to that of the atmosphere reduces the bulk of water 
 only about 48 parts in one million. 
 
 INCREMENT. (Lat. increase), in the higher Mathe- 
 matics, denotes a small but finite increase of a variable 
 quantity. It is the difference between two successive values 
 of (lie function of a quantity increasing according to a de- 
 termhuta law. The method of increments was the name 
 given by Dr. Brook Taylor to a method of analysis invented 
 bj him, and which has since been extensively cultivated 
 r the appellation of the calculus of finite differences. It 
 sreat use for the summation of series, and furnishes an 
 and rapid solution of a great variety of UilhVult prob- 
 10 which other means of investigation would hardly 
 apply. Taylor's Methodus Incrniu.ntorum was published 
 In 1715, and contained the celebrated theorem which has 
 been made the basis of the differential calculus. (See 
 S'.uhr's Calculus Differentialis ; Bossut, Calcul Diff rcntiil 
 ■I Integral; Lacroix's large work; and Sir J. Ilerschel's 
 ■ in the Appendix to the Cambridge translation of 
 Lacroix's Differential and Integral Calculus.) 
 
 Increment, in Rhetoric, is a species of climax rising 
 gradually from the lowest to the highest. See Climax. 
 
 ENCRUSTATION. (Fr.) In Architecture and Sculp- 
 ture, a work fixed with cement or cramp irons into notches 
 made to receive it ; such as inlaid work and mosaics, &c. 
 
 INCUBATION. (Lot incumbo, I brood over.) Hatch- 
 ing, or the lying down of on animal upon her own or another's 
 eggs, communicating to them, and maintaining them at, her 
 own temperature : a condition essential to their development. 
 In many animals the development of the foetus takes place 
 after the exclusion of the egg, and whilst it is maintained in 
 contact with the external surface of the parent's body, as in 
 crab n;id lobster tribes, beneath the caudal plates; or 
 agglutinated to the surface of the abdomen ns in certain 
 species of pipe-fish (Syngnathus) ; or concealed in cutaneous 
 marsupial cavities, as in other species of Syngnathiis, and 
 the Hippocampus; but in these nnd other instances from 
 the cold-blooded animals, the protection of the ova seems to 
 be the object of their attachment to the parent, and not the 
 communication of warmth or any other influence essential 
 to their development. It is only in the Oviparous class 
 with warm blood, or birds, that true incubation takes place, 
 and in this class without any exception. Another charac- 
 teristic of true incubation is that the place of the eggs deter- 
 * mines that of the incubator, which can only perform its 
 office by lying down upon the eggs ; while in most of the 
 examples of false incubation in the cold-blooded animals, 
 the eggs are retained by special contrivances in contact with 
 the parent, without occasioning any restraint upon her pos- 
 tures or movements. 
 
 That a due degree of warmth is the essential object of 
 incubation in birds, is proved by the ancient and well-known 
 practice of substituting artificial heat, by which fertile eggs 
 are hatched in the same period, and the excluded chick is 
 as ft IV "ml strongly developed, as when produced by natural 
 Incubation. (See infra.) 
 
 The mean temperature of incubation is 100° Fah. : it may 
 vary from 95° to 105°, and towards the close of the process, 
 may be suspended for one or two hours, or for a longer pe- 
 riod, according to the degree of extraneous heat which the 
 
 INCUBUS. 
 
 eggs may derive from their situation, without fatal conse- 
 quences to the embryo. 
 
 The power of communicating the requisite degtee of 
 warmth to their eggs arises out of the unusual development 
 of, and determination of blood to, a peculiar plexus of ves- 
 sels distributed over the skin of the abdomen, and which, in 
 most birds, is connected with a derivation of blood from the 
 mternal organs of generation, after the subsidence of the 
 functional activity at the ovarium and oviduct, to the exter 
 nal Integuments. The vascular, hot, and sensitive condition 
 of the skin of the abdomen is the exciting cause of that un 
 controllable propensity to incubate which the Greeks de 
 nominated " storge," and which, with its associated phe 
 nomena Of patience, abstinence, and self-denial, forms sc 
 remarkable a feature in the economy of birds. The egg of 
 the bird presents several peculiarities in relation to the cir- 
 cumstances under which it is to be developed : its oval form 
 permits a greater proportion of its surface to be in contact 
 with the heat-communicating skin of the parent than if it 
 had been a spherical body ; while the shell, by virtue of its 
 hard calcareous texture, and its arched disposition about the 
 soft contents, sufficiently defends thein from the superin- 
 cumbent pressure. As warmth is the only essential influence 
 which the egg derives from the parent, the shell is porous, 
 and permeable to air, and the germ is surrounded by an 
 adequate store of nutritious matter. This matter is of two 
 kinds: the external, called the white of the egg, or albumen, 
 which wholly disappears during the process of incubation ; 
 and the internal part, or yolk; inclosed in a peculiar mem- 
 brane, and rendered lighter, and of an orange colour by the 
 admixture of a peculiar oil The germ is situated at the 
 superficies of the yolk, beneath the vitelline membrane, in 
 the circular opaque white spot called the " cieatrirula," or 
 "tread;" and a peculiar mechanism is superadded to the 
 yolk by means of which the germ-bearing surface of the 
 yolk is always kept uppermost and next the warmest surface 
 of the egg, and at the same time is relieved from the pres- 
 sure against the hard sin II, to which it must have been 
 subject if the light yolk had not been restrained from rising 
 to absolute contact with that surface. Both these purposes 
 arc effected by the attachment of two cords of condensed 
 albumen, continued at one end from near the poles of the 
 yolk, but a little more distant from the germ-bearing side 
 than the line of the trans-, i I expanding at the 
 
 opposite end, which is lost in the layers of albumen near 
 the |x)lcs of the egg. Thus by their presence and place of 
 attachment these cords, called the " chalazia," restrain and 
 regulate the rising of the yolk ; so that Whichever way an 
 turned, the larger proportion of the light yolk always 
 rises above the attachment of the restraining cords, with 
 the cicatricula upon its summit. The period of incubation 
 is generally directly as the size of the bird, but the degree 
 of development which the chick attains prior to exclusion 
 varies. As a general rule, it is inferior in birds of flight, as 
 the Accipitrine and Passerine orders, than in the terrestrial, 
 wading, and swimming birds ; and the warmth and com- 
 plexity of the nest bears relation to this difference of devel- 
 opment. If the thrush had been forewarned that her young 
 would be excluded from the egg naked and helpless, she 
 could not have prepared beforehand a warmer and more 
 comfortable abode than her instinct had led her to construct 
 for their accommodation ; and if with such a nest we con- 
 trast the rude recess of straw in which the hen deposits and 
 incubates her eggs, it might be imagined that she knew 
 beforehand that her chickens would come into the world 
 well clothed, and strong enough at once to run about and 
 pick up their own food. In this case, therefore, the nest 
 relates only to Incubation ; in the other to incubation and 
 subsequent rearing of the young : and according to the degree 
 of development attained during incubation, and the asso- 
 ciated condition of the nest and habits of the parent, birds 
 have been divided into two great groups, the Jlues altriccs, 
 and Jives pracoces. See Avis. 
 
 Artificial incubation has been practised from a remote 
 period by the Egyptians and Chinese ; the former, indeed, 
 have carried this process to such a high degree of perfection, 
 as in many instances to have entirely superseded the use of 
 the hen in hatching. It is effected either by means of an 
 oven, stove, or steam, the principles of which will be found 
 detailed in Ure's Dictionary of Arts, 4'C This process 
 has received considerable attention from the French philoso- 
 phers ; but perhaps the best exemplification of its results 
 that has been witnessed in Europe is given by the Eccaleo- 
 bion, which was lately exhibited in Pall Mall. This term, 
 recently invented to express th« process of artificial incuba 
 tion, is derived from the Gr. ckkuXcu), I call out or produce, 
 and /?i<k, life. 
 
 I'NCUBUS. (Lat. Incubo, / lie upon ; because the suf- 
 ferer feels as if something pressed upon his chest.) The 
 nightmare. The name incubus is derived from imaginary 
 fiends or spectres, to whom strange powers are attributed by 
 the writers on davmoniac.il agent y. Many noble families 
 
 AM 
 
INCUMBENT. 
 
 were supposed to have their origin from the connexion of 
 incubi with females, as in the well-known instance of Robert 
 of Normandy, called le JDiable. (See Encyc. Metr.) 
 
 INCU'MBENT. (Lat. incumbo, / lie upon, or occupy.) 
 A term applied to the holder of an ecclesiastical benefice. 
 
 INCUNA'BULA. (Lat. a cradle.) In Bibliography, a 
 term applied to books printed during the early period of the, 
 art ; in general cdnfined to those which appeared before the 
 year 1500. 
 
 INCU'RVED. (Lat. incurvo, / curve inwards.) In 
 Zoology, when a part is curved inwards. 
 
 INDECLI'NABLE. In Grammar, a word admitting of 
 no declension or inflexion. Adverbs, prepositions, particles, 
 conjunctions, are all indeclinable. In classical languages, 
 indeclinable nouns are those few (chiefly borrowed by the 
 Greeks and Latins from foreign languages) of which the 
 termination is not altered in the several cases. 
 
 INDE'FtNITE. In Botany, when stamens are above 
 twenty in number: the word is applied to all other parts 
 when their number is greater than can be readily counted. 
 This term always refers in botany to number, and never to 
 form. 
 
 INDEFINITE PROPOSITION, in Logic, is one which 
 has for its subject a common term, without any sign to in- 
 dicate whether it is distributed or undistributed. See Propo- 
 sition. 
 
 INDEHI'SCENT. (Lat. in, and dehisco, I gape), is said 
 of a fruit the pericarp) um of which continues perfectly closed, 
 without opening in any degree when ripe. • 
 
 INDE'MNITY. (Lat. in, without, and damnum, loss.) 
 In Politics and Jurisprudence, a word of various significa- 
 tions, but applied usually to laws passed to relieve individuals 
 from penalties to which they are liable in consequence of 
 acting in an illegal manner. The Act of Indemnity, annually 
 passed by the British parliament for many years prior to the 
 repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828, was a 
 measure for the relief of persons who had assumed any 
 office without qualifying themselves for it by taking the 
 oaths prescribed by those enactments. In Feudal Jurispru- 
 dence, the right of the lord to a certain duty payable by 
 religious establishments to compensate him for the loss of 
 those fines on alienation which would probably have .accrued 
 from time to time had their property remained in lay hands, 
 was termed indemnity. In the language of modern politics, 
 compensations paid by a state to other states, corporations, 
 or individuals, for loses sustained through its acts, bear the 
 same name. Acts of indemnity are also sometimes passed 
 to relieve ministers from the responsibility of measures ex- 
 ceeding their strict constitutional powers, taken by them 
 when parliament was sitting to meet some unforeseen pub- 
 lic emergency, or in ignorance, it may be, that they had ex- 
 ceeded the powers vested in them by the constitution. In 
 1825 a law of indemnity was passed in Fiance to compensate 
 the losses sustained by the emigrants, their families, and 
 those of persons who had been condemned to death for 
 political offences in the course of the Revolution. The sum 
 allotted to this purpose was an annual amount of 30,000,000 
 francs (about £1,200,000). A special commission was ap- 
 pointed to carry it into execution ; but it appears that its 
 labours were broken ofl" before their completion by the 
 political changes of 1830. 
 
 INDE'NTURE. In Law, a writing or deed comprising 
 some contract between two or more parties. The name is 
 derived from the ancient practice, according to which the 
 original and counterpart original (to be retained by each 
 party respectively) were written on the same skin of parch- 
 ment, and then the two parts were separated by a notched 
 or indented cut, so that when applied to each other they 
 would appear to match. (See Deed.) 
 
 INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATION OF, in the History 
 of the United States of America. The "Declaration of 
 Rights" was adopted by the first general congress of the then 
 revolted colonies, which met at Philadelphia in September, 
 1775. In this declaration that assembly asserted the right 
 of internal legislation and taxation to be in the provincial 
 legislatures, and declared various acts of the mother country 
 to be infringements and violations of the rights of the colo- 
 nists. The second congress, which met in May, 1776, adopted 
 on July 4, of that year a declaration of independence ; by 
 which, after again recapitulating the grievances complained 
 of in the former declaration, it declared the colonies to be 
 free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance to 
 Great Britain. The first draught of this famous declaration 
 was prepared by a committee of five ; consisting of Jefferson 
 and Adams (both afterwards presidents), Franklin, and 
 Sherman and Livingston. Jefferson and Adams were after- 
 wards deputed as a sub-committee to prepare the declaration 
 itself; but, in the shape in which it finally appeared, it was 
 in fact the work of the former. 
 
 INDEPENDENTS. A Protestant sect ; so called because 
 they maintain that every single congregation of Christians 
 which meet in any one place for public worship forms a 
 596 
 
 INDEPENDENTS. 
 
 church or independent religious society in itself, unconnected 
 with, and not amenable to, any other church or congregation. 
 They consequently condemn every tiling like a national es- 
 tablishment of religion, whether episcopal or presbyterian ; 
 and insist that each congregation of Christians has inherent 
 and indefeasible power in itself to exercise ecclesiastical 
 government, to fix their own tenets and form of religious 
 worship, and to adopt their own standard of church disci- 
 pline, without being responsible to bishops, presbyteries, or 
 synods, or even to the state itself. The Independents were 
 not at any time, and are not at this day, remarkable for any 
 peculiarity of religious creed. They have always maintain- 
 ed, speaking generally, Calvinistic doctrines ; their only 
 peculiarity consisting in their maintenance of independent 
 ecclesiastical government. 
 
 Of the history of this sect it may be proper to give a brief 
 account. On the reformation of religion in England, the 
 great body of Protestants adopted, under the auspices of the 
 government, the episcopal form of church polity, which was 
 in consequence established as the national religion. But 
 there were not a few who conscientiously thought that this 
 polity too nearly resembled that which had been supplanted ; 
 and objected, besides, to the vestments adopted by the clergy 
 in the celebration of divine worship, to the liturgy, and above 
 all to the sign of the cross used in baptism, as unsciiptural 
 and erroneous. These non-conformists, or dissentients from 
 the established faith, are known in history under the name 
 of Puritans, as the followers of Novatian had been denomi- 
 nated in the third century. They were evidently so called 
 in derision, in consequence of the superior purity and sanc- 
 tity they assumed, and of the greater deference they showed 
 to scripture authority, both as to doctrine and the form of 
 religious worship. But while they forsook the national 
 church, and condemned many of her tenets, they did not 
 agree among themselves. They were, in truth, unanimous 
 in nothing but in resisting the constitution of the predominant 
 hierarchy. Some of them were in favour of presbytery, or 
 ecclesiastical government vested in a gradation of church 
 courts, such as Calvin had established in Geneva, and as 
 Knox had introduced into Scotland. Others were against 
 every form of state religion, or union of churches under the 
 same ecclesiastical government ; but regarded each congre- 
 gation of Christians as being jure divino a complete and in 
 dependent church, competent to judge, decide, and act for 
 itself, without any external interference or responsibility 
 whatever. Of this latter opinion, which constitutes the 
 pure principle of English Independency, the author and 
 great advocate was Robert Brown, who was originally a 
 clergyman of the Protestant episcopal church, from which 
 he seceded, and avowed his new doctrines about the year 
 1580. (JVea/'s Hist, of the Puritans, vol. i., ch. vi. London, 
 1822.) Brown is represented by Neal as a vehement and 
 popular declaimcr, and insinuating in his manners ; and 
 hence he succeeded in detaching many from the episcopal 
 faith, and In establishing several separate churches. He not 
 only advocated the leading principles of Independency as 
 we have stated them above, but taught that the priesthood 
 was neither a distinct order in the Christian church, nor 
 conferred an indelible character; that every person regarded 
 by the majority of a congregation as qualified to teach might 
 be set apart for that office by the election of his brethren, 
 and by imposition of their hands ; in like manner, by their 
 authority, he might be discharged from that function, and 
 reduced to the rank of a private Christian. He also main- 
 tained that the right of the pastors to preach was not pecu- 
 liar to them : on the contrary, that any member who thought 
 proper to exhort or instruct the brethren enjoyed the inherent 
 right of doing so, or of "prophesying" before the whole 
 assembly. Hence it happened that after the stated pastor 
 had finisned his services, the ordinary members were allow 
 ed to communicate in public their sentiments on any reli- 
 gious subject. (Ibid. ; and Moshcim's Ch. Hist. vol. v., 
 355-6. London, 1822.) But while Brown enforced these 
 views, and claimed liberty of conscience to himself, he was 
 not willing to allow similar privileges to other sects, particu 
 larly the Church of England. " The Brownists," for so the 
 Puritans were now called, "did not differ from the Church 
 of England in any articles of faith ; but were very rigid and 
 narrow in points of discipline. They denied the Church of 
 England to be a true church, and her ministers to be rightly 
 ordained. They maintained the discipline of the Church 
 of England to be popish and anti-Christian, and all her or- 
 dinances and sacraments invalid. Hence they forbade their 
 people to join with them in prayer, in hearing, or in any 
 part of public worship; nay, they not only renounced com- 
 munion with the Church of England, but with all other 
 reformed churches, except such as should be of their own 
 model." (JVea', i., 303.) 
 
 Brown and his followers, as they had imbibed such ex 
 treme views, cannot be expected to have been allowed to 
 live undisturbed in the dark times to which we refer. He, 
 in truth, suffered severely for his principles, both for some 
 
 
INDEPENDENTS. 
 
 worics he published, Mid for the ecclesiastical doctrines 
 which he travelled throughout England in propagating. He 
 was committed, as he afterwards boasted, to no fewer than 
 thirty-two prisons in succession, in some of which he could 
 not see his hand at noonday. Nor were his adherents more 
 mer;ifully treated : many of them were fined and imprison- 
 ed, and some put to death. (j\"eal, i., 313.) Under these 
 circumstances, a body of the party, with Brown at their 
 head, fled to Holland, and founded churches at Middleburg, 
 Amsterdam, and Leyden. But these establishments were 
 icither solid nor lasting. When the Brownists were de- 
 .iverod from the hands of the bishops their oppressors, they 
 quarrelled among themselves ; and their leader, weary of 
 his office, returned to England in 1589, and not merely re- 
 nounced the opinions which he had suffered so much in 
 promulgating, but returned into the bosom of the church 
 which he hid abandoned, and which he had so long and so 
 calumniated. 
 The Brownists that still remained in Holland, now loft to 
 their own discretion, and learning moderation from e.xpori- 
 Were not unprepared to modify or reform the severity 
 of the discipline of their founder. This judicious change 
 was brought about by John Robinson of Norfolk, member 
 of the congregation at Leyden; "a man who had much of 
 the solemn piety of the times, and who, perceiving the de- 
 fects that reigned In the discipline of Brown, and in the spirit 
 and temper of his followers, employed his zeal and dili- 
 gence in correcting (hem, and in modelling the society in 
 ■ach B maimer ai to render it less odious to his adversaries, 
 and less liable to the Just censure of those true Christians 
 w lio looked on charity as the end of the commandments." 
 (M iiMm, v., 3SB-00.) Hitherto the sect had been called 
 Brownists: they now renounced that name, and have since 
 been known under the title of Independents; and Robinson, 
 who wrote an " Apology" (Apologia justa et necessaria pro 
 KiuJibus Jlnglis., qui llrownisttB vulgo appellantur. Lugd. 
 Batav., 1019, 8vo; for them, in which he gave a minute and 
 systematic exposition of their principles, was considered as 
 their founder. The Independents were much more com- 
 mendable than the Brownists, particularly m the moderation 
 of their sentiments and the order of their discipline. They 
 laid aside that hostility to other sects which Brown had in- 
 culcated. They agreed with the reformed churches goner- 
 oily in articles of faith. They wished to maintain coinmu- 
 nion with thorn. They differed with them onlv OB the siil> 
 ject of church government They were also much more at- 
 tentive than the Brownists had been to the establishment of 
 a regular ministry in their communities; for, while the latter 
 ;>romi>cui>itsiv allowed all ranks and orders of men to teach 
 m pulilic, and to perform the other pastoral functions, the 
 Independents had, and still have, a certain number of min- 
 ehoaen respectively by the congregations whore they 
 are fixeu. Nor la any person among them permitted to speak 
 in punlic till he has received the sanction of the congrega- 
 tion, (lb.; and Moskrim, tit supra.) 
 
 Independency, thus put on a more rational and Christian 
 footing in Holland, was introduced into Fnslnnd by Mr. 
 Henry Jacobs in 1610; an individual who established the 
 first Independent or (as it is not inappropriately called) Con- 
 gregational Church in this country. For some time, how- 
 ever, the sect made hut slow progress in England. Its mem- 
 bers concealed their principles from public view, to avoid the 
 penal laws that were In existence against non-conformists. 
 But during the latter part of the retell of Charles I., when, 
 amid the. shock of civil and religious discord, the authority 
 of the Episcopal Church began to decline, the Independents 
 assumed greater courage, and publicly avowed their princi- 
 ples with a degree of confidence not previously exhibited by 
 them. From this period their progress was rapid : a circum- 
 stance that may be imputed to a variety of causes, particu- 
 larly the learning of their teachers, the unpopularity and 
 decliningstate of episcopacy, and the support of Oliver Crom- 
 well, who espoused their cause nnd enrolled himself among 
 the list of their members. They probably wore, during 
 Cromwell's time, the most powerful and important religious 
 body in England; though for a few years previous to the 
 death of Charles I. the Presbyterians may be said to have 
 had the ascendency. Indeed, pre.«bytery«had been establish- 
 ed by act of parliament as the national church; nnd it was 
 chiefly owing to the growing influence of the Independents 
 that this act was rendered inoperative. (Murray's Life of 
 Samuel Rutherford, chap, viii., Edinburgh, 1628.) Notwith- 
 standing the " Apology" written by Robinson, which was 
 regarded as containing the best summary of the principles 
 of the sect the Independents, as a body, had not agreed on 
 any standard of faith nnd discipline; but in the year 1658, 
 Iheir leading members held a meeting in London, under the 
 sanction of the Protector, and passed "the Savoy Confession, 
 or a Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised 
 by the Congregational Churches in England, agreed upon 
 nnd consented unto by the F.lders and Messengers in their 
 Meeting at tin* Savoy, Oct. 12, 1658." This Confession, and 
 
 Robinson's " Apology," on which it is mainly founded, ton 
 tain a synopsis of their various tenets; and from these it ap- 
 pears, as Mosheim remarks, "that they differed from the 
 Presbyterians or Calvinists in no single point of any conse- 
 quence except that of ecclesiastical government." (Adam's 
 Religious World Displayed, ii., 3152-13.) 
 
 Thus matters stood at the date which we have just speci- 
 fied. What might have been the issue of the struggle be- 
 tween the Independents and Presbyterians if Cromwell hail 
 lived, or if the dynasty which he established had lastc" 
 cannot be told. But the restoration of Charles 11., and win 
 him the Episcopal Church, put an end to the influence oi 
 both sects. The Act of Uniformity was passed in IMS; the 
 object of which was to crush non-conformists, particularly 
 the Independents and Presbyterians. The Act required froiij 
 clergymen a direct recognition of the principle of episcopacy. 
 The effect of this was tin- retirement of about 2000 clergy- 
 men from their respective churches — Independents, Presbyte 
 rians, and Baptists; whom Dissenters still character!; 
 history as "the illustrious two thousand," " the ejected mem- 
 bers," or " the Bartholomew worthies." The Independents, 
 however, though proscribed, still subsisted, but in a state 
 of persecution, dejection, and weakness. But the Revolt) 
 tion of 1688, nnd the Act of Toleration, which was passed 
 in the subsequent year, brought them pence and the free 
 exercise of their religion. They were now a small body .as 
 compared with the Presbyterians; but the two sects, hav 
 lng much in common, nnd differing only as to church gov 
 eminent entered into an association with each other, under 
 certain heads of agreement, which tended to the mainte- 
 nance of their res|>ective institutions. ( H'hi.<ton's Memoirs 
 of his Life and Writings, vol. ii. ; Mosheim, v., 361-43.) 
 
 Since the period of the Revolution, the Independents have 
 greatly increased hoth in numbers nnd importance. The 
 extraordinary revival of religious zeal which took place 
 about the middle of last century, under the influence of the 
 two Wesleys and Whitfield, was of essential service to the 
 sect of which we aie treating. Many other persons, awa- 
 kened to a deeper sense of religion, refusing to unite with 
 any of the three bodies of Methodists, the Wesleyan, the 
 Whitficldian, or the Countess of Huntingdon's, joined the In- 
 dependents, and formed numerous churches in connexion 
 with that sect. The I nd e p en de n t s have long ago with 
 drawn from their association with the Presbyterians, or, ii 
 deed, with any body of Dissenters, and act by themselves 
 They are distinguished from all other Protestant communi- 
 ties chiefly by the two following circumstances : Pint, They 
 reject the use of nil creeds and confessions (including trie 
 Savoy Confession nnd Declaration) drawn up by faint.*- 
 men ; requiring of their teachers no other test of orthodoxy 
 than a declaration of their belief in the gospel of Jesus, 01 d 
 their adherence to the Scriptures as the sole standard Of 
 faith and practice. Second, They attribute no virtue what 
 ever to the rite of ordination ; for they declare that tiie 
 qualifications which constitute a regular minister of the gos- 
 pel are a firm belief in the Bible, fervent piety, a desire for 
 the glory of God and die salvation of mankind, a competent 
 stock of knowledge, and an initiation to the pastoral charge 
 from some Christian congregation. These two circumstan- 
 ces constitute the distinguishing characteristics of the Inde- 
 pendent denomination. They do not believe, as may also 
 be mentioned, that an imposition of the hands of bishops or 
 presbyters at ordination confers any new power or prcgrogn- 
 tive; though it is their custom to impose hands in inducting 
 a pastor to a particular charge as a token of recognition in a 
 new relation. In point of religious doctrine they vary from 
 the high Calvinism of the Savoy Confession ; though mod- 
 erate Calvinism is maintained, speaking generally, by both 
 pastors and people. The Independents teach that every 
 point both of doctrine nnd church discipline is vested exclu- 
 sively in the congregation, and that whatever is supported 
 by a majority must necessarily be law. They do not think it 
 imperative to assemble synods; yet if any such be held, 
 which they are periodically, they look on their resolutions 
 as prudential counsels, but not as decisions to which they 
 are obliged to conform. (Adams's Rel. World Displaved, ii., 
 314.) 
 
 Of the extent nnd influence of the Independents in Eng- 
 land a pretty correct idea may be formed from the number 
 of their colleges or academies, and of their chapels. These 
 colleges or academies are exclusively confined to the edu- 
 cation of ministers belonging to 'heir own denomination 
 Some of these institution- arc wealthy endowments : others 
 of them are supported by annual subscriptions. Their num- 
 ber is ten; the oldest of which is at Houerton, Middlesex, 
 which was founded in 1730. The last established coll 'ge is 
 at Manchester, which was instituted in 1837. The others 
 were founded at different intermediate dates. The number 
 of Independent chapeU in England in 1829, according to the 
 Congregational Magazine for the year 1829, was 1683; bin 
 that number is now understood to have been increased to 
 upwards of 1700. In Scotland the Independents have 9J 
 
 517 
 
INDETERMINATE. 
 
 chapels, Bad in Ireland about 30; but it is reckoned that 
 they hav no fewer than 1000 congregations in the United 
 States. 
 
 INDETE'RMINATE. In Mathematics, quantities which 
 change their values are said to be indeterminate, in oppo- 
 sition to those whose values remain fixed and invariable. 
 For example, in the equation of the ellipse b i x- + a2yi = 
 (fl 42, tho co-ordinates x and y are indeterminate, while the 
 axes a and b are constant, quantities. 
 
 Indetkrminate. In Botany, when a stem is never ter- 
 minated by a flower, nor has its growth stopped by any other 
 organic cause : example, Veronica arvensis. 
 
 INDETE'RMINATE ANA'EYSIS, is a branch of Alge- 
 bra which has for its object the investigation of problems 
 which admit of an infinite number of different solutions. 
 When the enunciation of a problem furnishes a less number 
 of equations than there are unknown quantities, the problem 
 is indeterminate in this sense— that the equations may be 
 satisfied by assigning to the unknown quantities an infinity 
 of different values. It happens, however, in the greater 
 number of cases, that the nature of the question requires the 
 values of the unknown quantities to be expressed in whole 
 and positive numbers ; a condition which greatly restricts 
 the number of solutions. 
 
 As in the ordinary algebraic analysis, problems belong- 
 ing to the indeterminate analysis are of the first or second 
 degree, according as the simple powers or squares of the un- 
 known quantities enter into the equations expressing their 
 conditions. Every equation of the first degree, containing 
 two unknown quantities, may be reduced to the form ax-f- 
 by — c; and it is plain that if only one equation of this sort 
 is given, the values of a; and y are wholly indeterminate, for 
 any value whatever may be given to one of these quantities, 
 and it will be easy to find a value of the second which will 
 satisfy the equation. In the indeterminate analysis, the ob- 
 ject is to find all the values which x and y can have in 
 whole numbers ; the constants a, b, and c denoting whole 
 numbers, either positive or negative. 
 
 For example, let it be proposed to divide the number 159 
 jsto two parts, one of which is divisible by 8, and the other 
 by 13. If we denote by x. and y the quotients of the re- 
 quired parts, divided respectively by 8 and 13, these parts 
 themselves must be 8 a; and 13 y ; consequently, the problem 
 Is expressed by this equation, 
 
 8x + 13j/ = 159 (1), 
 
 aud it will be solved when x and y are expressed by whole 
 posi'ive numbers. 
 
 , 159 — 13?/ 
 In the first place, this equation gives a: = , or 
 
 7 5,1 
 
 r =19 — !/-] -— - ; but as x and y must be whole num- 
 bers, it is obviously necessary that — - — be also a whole 
 
 o 
 
 7 — 5« 
 number. Suppose this to be n ; we have then — - — = » ; 
 
 whence 5y-r-8m = 7 . . . . (2), 
 
 an equation of the same form with (1). The viilue of y 
 
 a a ir ,i- : 7 — 8n 2 — 3n 
 deduced from this isj/ = -— - — , or t/ = 1 — n-\ — • 
 
 Now, precisely in the same manner as before, since y and 
 
 2 3jj 
 
 7i are whole numbers, — - — must necessarily be a whole 
 a 
 
 number. Suppose this to be ?;', and we have = »'; 
 
 whence 3n-f-5n' = 2 . . . . (3.) 
 
 „ ... . 2 — 5 re' 
 
 From this last equaUon we get «= , orre = — re + 
 
 2— 2 re' 
 • 3 
 2 — 2re' 
 
 Continuing the same process, we now make 
 = re" (where n" must be a whole number), whence 
 
 !re' + 3re" = 2, 
 
 (4); 
 
 from which we obtain re' = 
 
 -"in" 
 
 - , or re' = 1 — n" — 
 
 Supiosc, next, — =n"', and there results 
 
 7i" = 2re'" .... (5). 
 Thus at last .in equation has been found which is satis- 
 fied by making n equal to any whole number whatever; 
 and, on attending to the different steps of the process, it will 
 readily be observed that x and y, and the indeterminate 
 quantities re, re', re", re'", are connected by the following sys- 
 tem of equations : 
 598 
 
 INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. 
 
 i =19— y -f-re 
 
 y = 1 — re 4-ra' 
 
 re = — n' +»" 
 
 re' = 1 — re" — re'" 
 
 re"= 2»'". 
 On deducing from these equations the values of x and « 
 in terms of re'", we find a;=15-f-137i'", and y = 3 — 8 re' 
 Now, on making «'" successively equal to 0, 1, 2, 3, &c, oi 
 equal to — 1, — 2, — 3, &c, these two equations will give all 
 the values of x and y in whole numbers, whether positive 
 or negative, by which the equation 8a;- r -13?/=159 can bt 
 satisfied. But if, as the conditions of the problem require, 
 we take account only of the positive solutions, the values 
 of re'" must be so assumed that the expressions 15+13«"' 
 and 3 — 8re"' are both positive; and it is manifest that this 
 can only be done by assuming re' ' = 0, or else re " = — 1, for 
 all other numbers substituted for re'" render the one or the 
 other of these two expressions negative. If we make n" = 0, 
 we obtain x = 15, y = 3 ; 
 
 and if we make re'" = — 1, 
 
 i = 2, y = ll; 
 
 and either of these two systems of values verifies the pn. 
 posed equation. 
 
 The preceding example will show, more distinctly than 
 perhaps any rule would do, the general methods employed 
 to solve indeterminate algebraic problems of the first de 
 gree. With regard to equations of the second degree, the 
 difficulties of solution are infinitely greater, and, in fact, in 
 volve some of the most abstruse theories of algebraic analy- 
 sis. The subject is discussed at length in Lcgendre's Theorit 
 des JVombrcs. 
 
 The oldest treatise on the subject of indeterminate analy 
 sis is the Arithmetic of Diophantus of Alexandria, the bes* 
 edition of which is that of Toulouse, 1670; with a Comment- 
 ary by Bachel, and notes by the celebrated Fermat. On 
 the revival of- the mathematical sciences, the subject was 
 extensively cultivated by Format, Descartes, Wallis, Lord 
 Brounker, and others. One of the most luminous elementa- 
 ry treatises on the subject is contained in the second volum* 
 Of Ki 'er'.'.fllgebra. 
 
 INDETERMINATE COEFFICIENTS. A method oi 
 analysis invented by Descartes, and of \'ery extensive appli- 
 cation in the higher mathematics. The principle of the 
 method of indeterminate coefficients consists in this, that if 
 we have an equation of this form, 
 
 A + B x + C z2 + D *3-f-& c . — o, 
 in which the coefficients A, B, C are constant quantities, and 
 x a variable, which may be supposed as small as ever we 
 please, each of these coefficients, taken separately, is neces- 
 sarily equal to zero; that is to say, we must always havt 
 A = 0, B = 0, C = 0, &c, whatever may be the number of 
 terms of the given equation. 
 
 In fact, since x may be supposed as small as we please, it 
 is always possible to render the sum of all the terms of the 
 given equation which have x for a factor as small as we 
 please; that is, the sum of all the terms following the first 
 may be rendered as small as wo please. Hence the first 
 term differs from zero only by a quantity which may be less 
 than any assignable quantity; but the first term A being 
 constant, its difference from zero cannot be any finite quan- 
 tity assumed at pleasure, for this would suppose it to be va- 
 riable. It follows, therefore, that A can be nothing else 
 than zero; that is, we must have A = 0, whence there re 
 mains 
 
 B x + C x n - -f- D x3 + &c. = 0. 
 Divide this last equation by x, and there results 
 
 B + Cz + Da:2-t-&c. = 0; 
 and, for the same reason as before, it is manifest that we 
 must have B = 0. Proceeding in the same manner, wc find 
 successively C = 0, D = 0, &c. 
 
 The principle here explained is extremely fertile in np 
 plications, and in fact gives the means of resolving by ordi- 
 nary algebra all the questions which are considered as be- 
 longing to the infinitesimal analysis. The respective pro- 
 cedures of both ntetheds, when properly simplified, are ab- 
 solutely the same ; all the difference consists in the manner 
 of viewing the subject. 
 
 I'NDEX. In Bibliography, an alphabetical table, containing 
 the principal subjects of a work, or words employed in it, 
 with references to the part of the work in which they are to 
 be found. Many independent works, containing catalogue 
 of various kinds, have been also entitled index. 
 
 Index. (Eat. indico, /point out. s A term often applied 
 to the fore finger. 
 
 I'ndex. In Music, the same as Direct, which see. 
 
 I'NDEX EXPURGATO'RIUS. A catalogue of works, 
 which the Church of Rome prohibits the faithful from read- 
 ing, or condemns as heretical. It is annually published at 
 Rome. 
 
INDEX OF A aUANTITY. 
 
 l'NDEX OF A QUANTITY, in Arithmetic ami Alge- 
 bra, is used in the same sense with exponent. Thus, in 
 the expression (a + ft)3, 3 is the index, and denotes that 
 tity a + ft is to be raised to the third power, or 
 cube. The index of a logarithm, or its characteristic, is the 
 figure prefixed to the logarithm for the purpose of indicating 
 the unit's place in the corresponding number. See Loga- 
 rithm. 
 
 INDEX OF REFRACTION, in Optics, expresses the 
 constant ratio which exists between the sines of the angles 
 of incidence and refraction. Thus, with respect to a ray of 
 litht falling obliquely on the surface of water, the sine of 
 'he angle of incidence is found by experiment to be to the 
 dne of the angle of refraction in the constant ratio of 1*336 
 ■<) I. Hence 1-330 is the index of refraction in water. See 
 Refraction. 
 INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture. 
 INDIAN INK. A species of ink used in Europe for the 
 nnd shadows of drawings. It is principally manufac- 
 tured in China, and there used for writing. From the cx- 
 petimeota of Dr. Lewis, it appears to be a compound of fine 
 lampblack and animal glue. See Ink. 
 
 I MMANITE. A mineral which occurs in granular 
 masses, associated with garnet, felspar, and hornblende. 
 It is hard enough to scratch glass, and of a white or gray 
 rolour. 
 
 INDICATIVE MOOD. (Eat. indico, Ipoint out.) That 
 form of a verb which expresses a simple or unconditional 
 judgment See Grammar. 
 I'NDIOATOR. (Eat. indico.) A genus of birds belong- 
 to the cuckoo tribe (Cuculida), characterized by a 
 lit finch-like bill, with compressed sides and a triangu- 
 lar base, the Oilmen and gonys being equally inclined to- 
 wards the tip. and thegonys angulated; wings lengthened, 
 pointed; tail moderate, rounded; feet short; middle toe 
 much longer than the tarsus. 
 
 The species of Indicator are remarkable for their habit of 
 indicating the nests of bees, and of guiding men to them by 
 their motions and cries; whence both their scientific name 
 and common appellation of honey guides. 
 
 ■ 
 whic er. 
 
 INDI'.'A \T!\ \ :il. he has shown.) In Law, a species 
 of the writ of prohibition. It lies for a patron of a church, 
 whose incumbent is sued in the spiritual court by another 
 clergyman for tithes amounting to a fourth part of the profits 
 of the advowson ; and depends on Stats. West. 2, c. 5; 13 
 Ed, I., m. t. 
 
 INDICTION. (Eat. indictio, establishment, ord<r, or de- 
 nunciation.) In Chronology, a cycle or period of fifteen 
 the origin of which is involved in obscurity. Unlike 
 other c , eles, the indlction has no reference to any astronom- 
 ical phenomena, but is supposed to relate to certain judi- 
 cial acta, probably the publication of tariffs of the taxes, 
 which took place at stated intervals under the Greek em- 
 peror lean indiction fell on the 8th of the cnl- 
 . if October (34th of September) : the indiction of Con- 
 nople (beginning A.D. 313) on the 1st of September; 
 the pontifical indiction on the calends of January. It is a 
 dale commonly employed In very ancient chnrters. The 
 commencement of this computation i3 generally referred to 
 the 1st of January of the year 313 of the common era; 
 hence, by counting backwards, it will be found that the first 
 war of our era cor r esponded to the fourth of one of the cy- 
 f indiction. The year of indiction, corresponding to 
 Bay other year of our era, is found, therefore, by this rti It; : 
 Add 3 to the date, divide the sum by 15, and the remainder 
 is the year of the indiction. The remainder indicates the 
 15th of the cycle. Thus the year 1800 was the third of the 
 indiction. See as to the historical commencement of the 
 er \ of indictions. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ii., 223, last 
 ML .Mrm. ilrVJicad. des Tnscr., vol. xli. 
 
 INDI'CTMKNT, PROCESS BY. (Lat. indico, / pro- 
 c'aiin against.) In Law, all persons, without exception, are 
 liable to be arrested on a warrant of a justice of peace, if 
 charged on suspicion with a crime; and some officers, as 
 the sheriff or constable, have the power of apprehending 
 Without a warrant on some occasions. When the party is 
 arrested and broughl before a justice of peace, he is exam- 
 ined, and the information of those who came with him is 
 taken ; and the depositions of the witnesses, if taken down 
 In the presence of the prisoner, are evidence ngainst him on 
 the trial. If the offence be bailable, the justice must then 
 take sufficient bail on the part of the prisoner. If other- 
 wise, he commits him to prison; and the witnesses are 
 bound over to attend and give evidence, the king being in 
 nil cases the nominal prosecutor. The grand jury being 
 nrmmrmed by the sheriff (at every session of the peace, 
 Commission of oyer and terminer, and jail delivery), con- 
 g of not fewer than twelve nor more than twenty-three 
 of the principal men of the- county, receives the indictment 
 at presentment (as it is also termed) preferred against the 
 
 INDIGO. 
 
 prisoner, and either finds or ignores it; returning it into 
 court, in the first case, endorsed a true bill; in tile latter, 
 not found. 
 
 An indictment may be found in the absence of the pris- 
 oner, but cannot be tried unless he personally appears 
 The summons, when he is absent, in order to bring him into 
 court, is by capias ; and if he still abscond, he may be far 
 ther pursued to outlawry. When the prisoner appears on 
 this process, or voluntarily, or is brought up in custody, he 
 is arraigned; that is, called before the bar to answer the 
 indictment. If the prisoner refuse to answer (in which 
 event he was subjected, in former days, to the famous peine 
 forte ct dure, by which it was intended to torture him Inti 
 pleading, in order that the forfeiture of his goods might at- 
 tach), a plea of not guilty is now recorded, and the trial pro- 
 ceeds ; if he plead guilty, judgment is awarded. Otherwise 
 he may plead — 1. To the jurisdiction; i. c, that the court 
 before which he is arraigned is not comment to try the of- 
 fence. 2. In abatement for misnomer ; but the advantage 
 of this plea is now taken away by 7 G. 4. 3. He may de 
 mur to the sufficiency in law of pans of the indictment. 4 
 He may plead one of the four special pleas in bar (former 
 acquittal, former conviction, former attainder, and pardon). 
 5. He may plead not guilty of the crime alleged. If the 
 prisoner plead not guilty, the fact of his guilt is forthwith 
 tried on examination of witnesses by the petty jury. The 
 nobility, it must be observed, are tried by their peers for 
 treason or felony, and misprision of these crimes, but in 
 other ca.-cs by B jury. The jurors are taken by the panel or 
 fist returned by the sheriff; and criminal offences are tried 
 by the same common jurymen who try the issue of facte in 
 civil cases in which a special jury has not been demanded. 
 (See Jury.) The rules of evidence observed on the trial 
 are mostly the same with those which prevail in civil ac- 
 tions. (Sre Evidence.) One testimony, however, peculiar 
 to this branch of law, is that of an accomplice; but it is 
 considered essential that his testimony should be confirmed 
 by other evidence. The verdict of the jury must in all ca- 
 ses be unanimous. After trial and conviction follows judg- 
 ment, unless arrested by motion for that purpose, which it 
 dona t<> the Indictment in point 
 of law. Benefit of clergy, as it was termed, was usually 
 prayed after conviciion ; and was held, in cases where not 
 abolished by statute, to discharge the claimant from the 
 capital part of the punishment. But this ancient privilege, 
 which had long been founded on a mere fiction of law, was 
 abolished by 7 G. 4, c. 36. Forfeiture of real pro|ierty, ab- 
 solutely, is a consequence of judgment in cases of high trea- 
 son. The forfeiture of goods and chattels relates to, that is. 
 takes effect upon, conviction ; but fraudulent convevances 
 without consideration, in order to escape the forfeiture by 
 the transfer of the property after or in contemplation of In- 
 dictment, nre void as against the king. The sentence of 
 punishment pronounced or recorded on judgment is in some 
 cases fixed and stated, so that the judges cannot modify the 
 statutory penalty ; in others (as in all offences at common 
 law unregulated by statute), it is wholly or partly discre- 
 tionary. 
 
 A criminal judgment may be reversed by writ of error for 
 notorious mistakes and irregularities. A reprieve suspends 
 the execution of a Judgment : a pardon avoids the judgment 
 altogether; and a pardon may be conditional on the prison- 
 er's submitting to a substituted punishment, which is the 
 ordinary mode of mitigating the severity of the law In capi- 
 tal felonies. 
 
 INDIGE'STION. Sre Dyspepsia. 
 
 INDI'GETES. The title of a class of Latin divinities, 
 concerning the exact import of which there is some dispute ; 
 but it is probably most correctly referred to deified heroes, 
 who became tutelary deities after death, according to the 
 ancient mythology — as Romulus. The word Is of verv 
 doubtful etymology. 
 
 I'NDIGO. A blue substance much used as a dye-stuff 
 The best indigo is obtained from an Asiatic and American 
 plant, the Indigofrra. The plant is bruised and fermented 
 in vats of water, during which it deposits indigo in the form 
 of a blue powder, which is collected and dried, so as to form 
 the cubic cakes in which it usually occurs In commerce. 
 Indigo is quite insoluble in water ; when heated it yields a 
 purple vapour, which condenses in the form of deep blue or 
 purple acicular crystals. When indigo Is exposed to the ac- 
 tion of certain deoxidizing agents, it becomes soluble in al- 
 kaline solutions, losing its blue colour and forming a green 
 solution, from which it is precipitated by the acids white; 
 bflt it instantly becomes blue by exposure to air. This 
 white indiirn has been termed indigogene, and indigo ap- 
 pears to be its oxide. It is best obtained by mixing 3 pans 
 of finely powdered and pure indigo with 4 of green vitriol, 5 
 of slaked quicklime, and 100 of water, repeatedly shaking 
 the mixture. In about twenty-four hours the supernatant 
 liquor, which is transparent, and of a green colour, is to br 
 decanted off, and poured into dilute muriatic acid, when thi 
 
IND1G0LITE. 
 
 deoxidized indigo is thrown down ; but, in order to prevent 
 its absorbing oxygen and becoming blue, it must be most 
 carefully excluded from the contact of air, which may be 
 effected by syphoning it off into the acid, collecting it in ves- 
 sels filled with hydrogen, and washing it with water depri- 
 ved of air and holding in solution a little sulphate of am- 
 monia, la this white state indigogene absorbs between 11 
 and 12 per cent, of oxygen to become blue indigo. It would 
 appear from Dumas's experiments that indigogene is a com 
 pound of 
 
 Atoms. Equivalents. 
 
 Carbon 45 = 270 
 
 Hydrogen . . . . 15 = 15 
 
 Nitroglh 3 = 42 
 
 Oxygen 4 = 32 
 
 1 359 
 
 and that indigo consists of 1 atom of indigogene = 359, and 
 2 of oxygen = 16. The chemical equivalent of indigo, 
 therefore, is 375. 
 
 When indigo is dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid, 
 it forms a deep blue liquid, known to the dyers by the name 
 of Saxon bint. The great mart for indigo is Bengal, and the 
 other provinces subject to the presidency of that name, 
 from the 20th to the 30th deg. of N. lat. ; but it is also culti- 
 vated, though not nearly to the same extent, in the province 
 of Titmevelly, under the Madras government in Java; in 
 Luconin, the chief of the Philippine Islands ; and in Guate- 
 mala and the Caraccas in Central America. The following 
 remarks, from the Commercial Dictionary, will exhibit the 
 history of this now indispensable commodity, and the diffi- 
 culties with which it had to contend before it obtained a 
 permanent footing in the commerce of Europe. " It appears 
 pretty certain that the culture of the indigo plant, and the 
 preparation of the drug, have been practised in India from a 
 very remote epoch. It has been questioned, indeed, wheth- 
 er the indicum mentioned by Pliny (Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv., 
 c. 6) was indigo ; but, as it would seem, without any good 
 reason. Pliny states that it was brought from India ; that 
 when diluted it produced an admirable mixture of blue and 
 purple colours (in diluendo misturam purpura cmruleique 
 mirabilem reddit) ; and he gives tests by which the genuine 
 drug might be discriminated with sufficient precision. It is 
 true that Pliny is egregiously mistaken as to the mode in 
 which the drug was produced; but there are many exam- 
 ples in modern as well as ancient times to prove that the 
 possession of an article brought from a distance implies no 
 ^curate knowledge of its nature, or of the processes fol- 
 lowed m its manufacture. Beckmann (Hist, of Inventions, 
 vol. iv., art. ' Indigo') and Dr. Bancroft (Permanent Colours, 
 vol. i., p. 241-252) have each investigated this subject with 
 great learning and sagacity, and agree in the conclusion 
 that the indicum of Pliny was real indigo, and not, as has 
 been supposed, a drug prepared from the isatis or woad. 
 At all events, there can be no question that indigo was im- 
 ported into modern Europe, by way of Alexandria, previ- 
 ously to the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of 
 Good Hope. When first introduced, it was customary to 
 mix a little of it with woad to heighten and improve the 
 colour of the latter; but, by degrees, the quantity of indigo 
 was increased ; and woad was, at last, entirely superseded. 
 It is worth while, however, to remark, that indigo did not 
 make its way into general use without encountering much 
 Opposition. The growers of woad prevailed on several gov- 
 ernments to prohibit the use of indigo! In Germany, an 
 imperial edict was published in 1654, prohibiting the use of 
 indigo, or ' devil's dye,' and directing great care to be taken 
 to prevent, its clandestine importation; ' because,' says the 
 edict, 'the trade in woad is lessened, dyed articles injured, 
 and money carried out of the country !' The magistrates of 
 Nuremburg went farther, and compelled the dyers of that 
 city to liike an oath once a year not to use indigo, which 
 practice was continued down to a late period. In 1598, 
 upon an urgent representation of the states of Languedoc, 
 at the solicitation of the woad growers, the use of indigo 
 was prohibited in that province; and it was not till 1737 
 that the dyers of France were left at liberty to dye with 
 such articles, and in such a way, as they pleased." (Beck- 
 mann, vol. iv., p. 142.) 
 
 INDI'GOLiTE. Blue tourmalin. 
 
 INDIGO'TIC A'CID. An acid obtained by boiling indi- 
 go in nitric acid diluted with an equal weight of water. It 
 foims white crystals, very soluble in hot water, but very 
 sparingly soluble in cold water. It consists, in the 100 parts, 
 of 4823 carbon, 2-76 hydrogen, 7-73 nitrogen, and 41-28 
 oxygen ; or, according to Dumas, of 1 atom of indigogene = 
 359. and .10 atoms of oxygen = 240. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL. (Lat. individuus.) In the Fine Arts, 
 that which is proper or peculiar to a .single object of a 
 species. 
 
 INDIVISIBLES. Infinitely small quantities which ad- 
 mit of no farther division. 
 COO 
 
 INDUCTION. 
 
 In Algebra, the method of indivisibles is the name giveii 
 to a peculiar species of calculus, invented by Cavalieri, a 
 disciple of Galileo, and much used by mathematicians be- 
 fore the invention of the method of fluxions, or the differen- 
 tial and integral calculus; for which it prepared the wav, 
 and of which, to a certain extent, it supplied the place. 
 
 In the method of indivisibles, lines are considered as 
 composed of an infinite number of points, surfaces as com- 
 posed of an infinite number of lines, and solids of an infi- 
 nite number of surfaces. These hypotheses are no doubt 
 inconsistent with the rigorous exactness of the ancient ge- 
 ometry, and, taken in the strict sense of the terms, absurd ; 
 for lines, however they may be multiplied, can never com ' 
 pose a surface, or anything else than linear magnitude; 
 nor can surfaces, however they may be added together 
 compose a solid, or anything but an area. Nevertheless, In- 
 accurate as these ideas are, the conclusions deduced Iron, 
 them are strictly correct ; and they afford, in numerous ca 
 ses, a means of obtaining readily and easily what could onh 
 be found by a very long and troublesome process in follow- 
 ing the ancient and rigorous method of exhaustions, in 
 fact, the objections apply rather to the manner in which the 
 hypotheses are stated than to the method itself, which, in 
 reality, is merely a formula of abbreviation, extremely use- 
 ful as a means of avoiding the tediousness of the method of 
 exhaustion without diminishing in any way the accuracy of 
 the results. Its purpose is to give at once the result of at: 
 infinite series of successive approximations ; and, as is re- 
 marked by Professor Playfair, nothing, perhaps, more in- 
 genious, and certainly nothing more happy, ever was con- 
 trived, than to arrive at the conclusion of all these approxi- 
 mations without going through the approximations them- 
 selves. 
 
 As an example — Let it be proposed to determine the vol- 
 ume of a cone. From A, the vertex of the cone, let a per- 
 pendicular, A II, be drawn to its base. 
 Conceive this perpendicular to be divi- 
 ded into an infinite number of equal 
 parts, and through each of the points of 
 division a plane to pass parallel to the 
 base of the cone ; according to the prin- 
 ciples of the method of indivisibles, 
 each of these planes, as b c, limited by 
 its intersection with the surface of the 
 cone, will be one of the elements of the 
 volume of the cone, and the whole vol- 
 ume will be the sum of all these ele:i ents. Now, by the 
 properties of the cone, these elements tire to each other as 
 the squares of their distances from the vertex; therefore, 
 taking A to represent the area of the base of the cone B C, 
 o the area of the plane b c, H the height A II, and A the 
 
 V 
 height A h, we have A : a : : II- : Ifl ; whence a = jtJI 2 . 
 
 Now if we make V=the sum of these elements, or the 
 volume of the cone, it is evident that we have V equal to 
 
 the constant — n multiplied by the sum of the squares A2. 
 
 But the distances h increase as the series of natural num- 
 bers from nothing to H ; consequently, the quantities h- rep- 
 resent the squares of those numbers from to II . Now it 
 is known that the sum of the squares of the natural num- 
 bers, from to IP inclusive, is 
 
 2H3+3H2+H. 
 6 
 but in the present case, the number H being supposed infi- 
 nite, nil the terms in the numerator after the first will be 
 infinitely small in comparison of the first, and ought there- 
 fore to be rejected; whence the sum of all these squares is 
 reduced to £ UX Multiply, therefore, this value by the 
 
 constant — found above, we have for the volume of the 
 
 cone V = £ A II ; that is to say, the volume of the cone is 
 equal to the product of its base by a third of its altitude. 
 
 In a similar manner, the areas of innumerable curves, and 
 the cubature of many solids, are found without difficulty. 
 It was in this way that Torricelli, or Roberval, found the 
 quadrature of the cycloid — a problem of great celebrity 
 among the early mathematicians. The work of Cavalieri, 
 Geomctria Jndivisibilibus continuorum nova quad am rali- 
 onepromota, was published at Bologna in 1653; but lie had 
 treated of the subject in a previous work, Exercitationes 
 Geometric® Sex, published in 1647. 
 
 INDU'CEMENT. In Law, a term used specially i: i ,v 
 rious cases to signify a statement of facts alleged by wi y of 
 previous explanation or introduction to other material f.-uts. 
 Averments which are mere inducement need not be proved 
 so precisely as others. 
 
 INDU CTION (Lat. in, and duco. / lead), the counter 
 process in scientific method to deduction, implies the raising 
 individuals 'nto generals, and those into still higher gener- 
 
INDULGENCE. 
 
 iliUes ; deduction being the bringing doien of universals to 
 lower genera or to individuals. Every deduction, therefore, 
 to be valid must rest on a prior induction, which, in order 
 that we may obtain logical certainty, must be a complete in- 
 duction ; that is to say, must include all the individuals 
 which constitute the genus. This, it is evident, is impossi- 
 ble, so long as we assume the only power necessary to ii.- 
 loctinn to be the observation of particulars; for these are 
 vifiniie *n Dumber: we can never be sure that we have ob- 
 served them all. We are therefore compelled, if wc are to 
 idnut the possibility of Mcie.^ce properly so called, to allow 
 the necessity of some spontaneous action of the understand- 
 aig in every Inductive process; of a faculty, in short, which 
 ;*kes occasion from experience to arrive at the knowledge 
 of truths not contained in that experience. Philosophers 
 differ widely in the language under which they convey 
 their belief of this truth. Had the thing itself, however, 
 been more distinctly borne in mind, we should have been 
 saved much useless obscurity; in particular, we should 
 have e s c ap e d thai altogether futile distinction made by lo- 
 gicians between "perfect and Imperfect induction." All 
 the certainly that can be obtained in physics is a hypotheti- 
 cal certainty, founded on our belief lhat the course of na- 
 ture is uniform; but as regards the form of our reasoning, 
 which la all lhat the logician contemplates, that remains 
 the same whether the certainty be real or MClimod 
 for valuable accounts of the Baconian system of Induction, 
 Play/air's Introductory Essay to the Enc. lirit. ; and I£al- 
 lamon the /literature of Europe, vol. iii.) 
 
 iios. In Electricity, when one electrified sub- 
 stance i- opposed to another, the tetter acquires, under cer- 
 tain circumstances, an opposite electric state upon the surface 
 Opposed to the inducing body, and is rendered electro-polar. 
 See BucTRIt I rv. 
 
 INDU'LGENCE. (Lat.) A power claimed by the Roman 
 Catholic Church of granting to its contrite members remission 
 for a certain term, either 00 earth or in purgatory, of the 
 penalty taeorred by their transgressions. The practice was 
 first instituted in the eleventh century by Popes Gregory VII., 
 Victor, and Urban II., as a recompense to those who cm- 
 barked in the perilous enterprise of the Crusades; but its 
 benefits in process of time extended to all who, either by 
 Junaiions or other services, contributed to the wellbeing of 
 the church. It was the profligate sale of indulgences ili.it 
 first excited Luther lo commence his warfare against the see 
 of Rome ; and although the traffic in indulgences has been 
 reprobated by many councils, and some minor conniptions 
 have been partially reformed, still the Council of Trent 
 usefulness and valldit] of such instruments, and 
 left the whole control of their nature and manner of i 
 them entirely in the discretion of the pope for the time being. 
 (For I position of this subject, see the Diblio- 
 
 theque Sarree, article " Indulgence ;" also Jlloshcim, iii., 83, 
 translation.) 
 
 IM>I MK'NTI'M. (Lat. induo, / put on.) In Zoology, 
 the term is restricted in its signification to the plumage of 
 birds. This consists of the peculiar epidermic organs called 
 feathers and down, with sometimes a scanty admixture of 
 hair. (The description of the component parts of plumage 
 is given under the bead of Feathers.) The plumage is 
 generally more than once changed before it attains that 
 state which is characteristic of the fully mature bird. The 
 period during which these mutations are proceeding varies 
 from one to live years, and many birds rear a progeny before 
 they acquire the plumage of maturity. When the indu- 
 mentum of the male bird differs In colour from that of the 
 female, the young birds of both sexes resemble the latter in 
 their first plumage; but when both the ndult male and fe- 
 male arc of the same colour, the young have then a plumage 
 peculiar to themselves. In some species the adult birds 
 have a plumage during the breeding season decidedly differ- 
 ent in colour from that which they bear in winter: in these 
 cases the young birds differ in colour from both parents, and 
 have a plumage which is intermediate in its general tone to 
 ■hat of the two periodical states of the parent birds, and 
 bearing indications of the colours to be afterwards attained 
 at either period. 
 
 The changes in the colour of the plumage of birds are 
 effected either by a total moult of the old and acquisition 
 of new feathers; or by a partial moult, and the admixture 
 of new feathers with a certain proportion of the previous 
 Drainage ; or on the bird's obtaining a certain number of 
 new feathers without shedding any of the old ones ; or, 
 lastly, by the fully-formed feather itself becoming altered in 
 Colour: the last two changes take place in the adult birds 
 at the approach of the breeding season. The change of 
 colour of a fully-developed feather is produced either me- 
 chanically by the wearing away of the lighter-coloured tips, 
 Which exposes the brighter tints of the plumage beneath, or 
 by some internal chemical or vital influence upon the colour- 
 ing matter of the feather itself: the latter change begins 
 «' that part of the web nearest the body of the bird, and 
 
 INFANTICIDE. 
 
 gradually extends outwards till it pervades the whole 
 feather. 
 
 INDU'SIAL LIMESTONE. A fresh-water limestone 
 found in Auvergne, abounding in the indusia; or cases of the 
 J *rvu; of Phrygania, great heaps of which have been in- 
 .rusted by hard travertin and formed into rock. 
 
 INDU'SIUM. (Lat. induo.) A cup that surrounds the 
 stigma of Goodeniaceous and some other plants; it is also 
 the name of the membrane that covers the theca; iu Dor- 
 siferous ferns. 
 
 INDU'VLE. (Lat.) The withered remains of leaves 
 that, not being articulated with the stem, cannot tall off; the 
 part covered by them is said to be induviatc. 
 
 INEQUA'LITY, in Astronomy, is applied to anv devia- 
 tion in the motion of a planet or satellite from its uniform 
 mean motion. 
 
 INE'RTES. (Lat iners, slothful.) The name of an 
 order of birds in the ornithological system of Temminck, 
 including the dodo and apteryx. 
 
 I.NH'RTIA. (Lat. iners.) This term is used to denote 
 the principle or law of the material world that all bodies a 
 absolutely passive or indifferent to a state of rest or motior 
 and would continue forever at rest, or persevere in tin 
 same uniform and rectilinear motion, unless disturbed by 
 the action of some extrinsic force. The ancients attributed 
 to matter a certain inaptitude, reluctance, or renitency to 
 motion; but that a body in motion required the operation 
 of an extrinsic cause to bring it to rest was first discovered 
 by Galileo. Kepler, conceiving the disposition of a Imdv to 
 maintain its motion as indicating an exertion of power, "pre- 
 lived the word vis ; and the compound I iner- 
 
 tia, though less accurate, baa been generally retained. Inertia 
 is one of the inherent prop er ti es of matter, and unceasingly 
 recalled to our observation in every incident of life. 
 
 LNESCU'TCHEON. In Heraldry, a species of ordi 
 nary, being an escutcheon placed upon the less point (see 
 Fess) ; and containing, it is said, the third part when 
 charged, the fifth when otherwise. All escutcheons borne 
 within escutcheons are by some heralds called by this 
 name. 
 
 IN ESSE (Lat.) A term applied to things actually 
 existing. A difference is made by authors between in SMS 
 and in posse : the latter being applied to things that are not, 
 but may be; the former being said of things actually appa- 
 rent and visible. 
 
 i'NFANT. In Law, n person under twenty -one years of 
 age. He is not considered iu law as having sufficient ability 
 to contract, and is protected from his own improvidence and 
 the artifices of designing persons by his not being liable for 
 any engagements into which he may have entered, except 
 for necessaries suited to his condition in life. His contracts, 
 however, are not absolutely void, but only voidable; and 
 though they cannot be enforced against him, yet he may, if 
 he do not choose toavoid them, enforce them against another, 
 and may always confirm Uiem on the termination of his mi- 
 nority. He is, in general, responsible in damages for torts 
 committed by him, as for slander or assault. His reeponsl- 
 bility for crime varies according to his age and discretion : 
 under seven years of age he cannot be guilty of felony; 
 between seven and fourteen a presumption arises that he is 
 doll incapax ; but this presumption may be repelled by 
 proof that he could plainly distinguish between good and 
 evil, and he may then suffer death as a felon ; and after 
 fourteen he is, in general, as amenable to punishment m a 
 person of full age. 
 
 His disabilities, many of which are in the nature of privi- 
 leges, and established for his protection, are numerous ; he 
 cannot till any office connected with the administration of 
 justice, or sit in parliament ; lie cannot be an executor, nor 
 appear in court by attorney. The consent of parents or 
 guardians, or of she Court of Chancery, is requisite to his 
 marriage. 
 
 I'NFANTE, INFANTA. The titles borne by the younger 
 sons and the daughters of a king of Spain, the eldest son 
 being styled Prince of Asturias. It is found in a docu- 
 ment of the year 999, applied to the sons of King Veremond 
 II. It appears, however, to have been anciently given 
 to all hidalgoes. (Quart. Rev., vol. lxii., p. 104, where 
 the reader is referred to the Ley de Partidas, 1, 2.) The 
 word " childe" was similarly used in England in the middle 
 ages. 
 
 INFA'NTICIDE, or CHILD-MURDER, by the law of 
 England is placed upon the same footing with other homi- 
 cide. By 9 G. 4, c. 41, s. 14, a woman indicted for murder 
 of her child may, if acquitted of the murder, be convicted 
 of the misdemeanour of secreting the body of the child to 
 conceal its birth. To administer poison, or use other means 
 to procure the miscarriage of a woman great with child, is 
 a capital felony by the same statute (c. 14). The exposure 
 of new-born infants, especially females, is a common prac- 
 tice among many savage nations at the present day, and 
 especially prevalent among the Chinese. According to Lord 
 
 601 
 
INFANTRY. 
 
 Macartney, the number of infanticides committed in Pekin 
 alone exceeds 20,000 a year; but it is to be hoped that this 
 calculation is highly exaggerated. 
 
 I'NFANTRY. The general name for soldiers who serve 
 on foot. The term is in all probability derived from the 
 Italian word fante, signifying a child or young person ; and 
 was originally conferred on the young Italian peasantry, 
 who served in the wars on foot, the nobles being usually 
 mounted. There are, however, various other accounts of 
 the origin of the term. Among the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans, the infantry constituted the chief strength of an 
 army ; and, with the exception of that period in European 
 history during which the institutions of chivalry prevailed, 
 when the tournament with its gay appendages engaged the 
 attention of all the powerful nobles and otherwise distin- 
 guished persons, who thus imparted to the cavalry a facti- 
 tious importance, it has generally been regarded as the 
 principal military arm. Since the institution of standing 
 armies this has been peculiarly the case. From the period 
 of the Conquest down to the reign of Henry VII., the in- 
 fantry of this country consisted of the inferior vassals of the 
 feudal tenants, and from the cause above referred to was 
 neglected both in discipline and accoutrements ; but the 
 connection of that monarch with Charles V. of Germany 
 and Francis I. of France, whose rivalry in arms had intro- 
 duced great improvements into this arm, was the means of 
 directing attention to the defects of the English infantry, 
 and paved the way for the introduction of that system of 
 discipline which after the lapse of three centuries has now 
 brought it to perfection. The British army comprises, ex- 
 clusively of the militia, artillery, engineers, and marines, 99 
 regiments of regular infantry, three regiments of foot guards ; 
 besides a rifle brigade, two West India regiments, and the 
 Ceylon rifle regiment. See Army, and the authorities there 
 referred to. 
 
 IXFE'CTION. See Contagion. 
 
 INFE'RLE. (Lat.) Sacrifices offered by the Greeks and 
 Romans to the Dii Manes, or the souls of deceased heroes, 
 or any person whose memory was held in veneration. These 
 sacrifices consisted of almost every kind of offering, and 
 were instituted on the ninth and thirtieth days after inter- 
 ment. They are supposed by some writers to have been 
 the origin of the exequies (quod vide) of the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church. 
 
 INFE'RIOR. A terra given to a calyx that is distinct 
 from the ovarium, as in silece; or to an ovary that ad- 
 heres to the calyx, as in the myrtle. It is a bad expression, 
 though commonly employed, for which the French school 
 have substituted the words non-adherent and adherent. 
 
 I'NFERO-BRANCHIA'TA. (Lat. inferus, lower; Gr. 
 Pp a YX'"i giUs.) An order of Gastropods, characterized by 
 the position ot the gills, which are situated beneath the 
 produced margin of the mantle; they consist of two long 
 series of leaf-shaped vascular organs. This order compre- 
 hends, in the system of Cuvier, two genera, Phyllidia and 
 Diphyllidia. 
 
 I'NFIDEL. (Lat.) A term applied to such persons as 
 are not baptized, or do not believe in the Christian religion. 
 See Deist. 
 
 I'NFINITE. (Lat. infinitus, boundless.) In Geometry, 
 an infinite quantity is properly that which is greater than 
 any assignable magnitude ; and as no such quantities exist 
 in nature, it follows that an infinite quantity is merely an 
 abstraction of the mind, formed by excluding the idea of 
 limit or boundary. An infinitely small quantity is a quan- 
 tity considered as less than any assignable magnitude. There 
 is, however, a peculiar signification attached to this expres- 
 sion in mathematical language, which has frequently been 
 misunderstood. Infinitely small quantities are not abso- 
 lutely zeros, or even quantities actually less than certain 
 determinate magnitudes; they are merely quantities which 
 the conditions of the proposed question permit to be re- 
 garded as variable until the calculation is entirely com- 
 pleted, and as diminishing continually until they become 
 as small as we please, without its being necessary to change 
 the values of those quantities of which the relation is sought. 
 It is in this circumstance only that the peculiar character 
 of what are called infinitely small quantities consists, and 
 not in the littleness which their denomination seems to 
 imply, or in the absolute nullity which may be attributed 
 to them. 
 
 INFINITE'SIMAL. In Geometry and Analysis, an in- 
 finitely small quantity; that is to say, a quantity which is 
 less than any assignable magnitude. The infinitesimal 
 analysis is the art of employing infinitesimal quantities as 
 auxiliaries, in order to discover the relations which exist 
 among the proposed quantities. It differs from the differ- 
 ential calculus, or the method of fluxions, only in respect of 
 its metaphysical principles ; the analytical processes are 
 precisely the same in both. In the theory of infinitesimals, 
 a curve is regarded as a polygon of an infinite number of 
 sides, any one of which represents the arc. Thus, let P Q 
 
 M "N 
 
 INFLEXION. 
 
 be one of those sides ; then P Q is the 
 hypothenuse of a right-angled triangle, 
 of which the sides P R and It Q, are 
 the differentials of the co-ordinates A 
 M and M P, or of x and y. Hence, 
 making P Q = d z, we have d z z = d 
 i 2 + d y z . On the same principle, if 
 * denote the infinitely small element 
 of the area, or the space M P Q. N, 
 we shall have ds = ydx-\-hdydx A~ 
 (for M PQN=MPRN+PQR 
 = M P • M N + 4 a R • P R). But the second p&rt «i 
 this expression, namely, i d y d x, is an infinitesimal of the 
 second order, being the product of two infinitely small quan- 
 tities, and therefore infinitely smaller than ydx, which is 
 an infinitesimal of the first order. The part ^dydx must 
 therefore be omitted, being of no value in comparison of the 
 quantity to which it is added, and we have consequently 
 ds = ydx. The elemental triangle P CI R also shows at 
 once the differential values of the trigonometrical lines. 
 Thus, supposing the curve A B to be a circle whose centre 
 is C, then the radius C P being unity, and the arc A P being 
 denoted by z, we have 1 : cos. z::PQ:Q,R::rfz:rf sin. 
 z ; whence d sin. z = cos. z d z. Again, 1 : sin. z : : P Q : 
 P R : : d i : — d cos. z ; therefore d cos. z = — sin. ; d i. 
 
 The theory of infinitesimals affords very great facilities 
 in the application of the calculus to the higher geometry, 
 and especially in the doctrines of physics. Whatever view- 
 may be taken of the principles, the results, if deduced by 
 correct reasoning, are rigorously accurate ; and the mathe- 
 matician will scarcely be restrained by metaphysical con- 
 siderations from attempting to reach his object in the shortest 
 way, which, in very numerous applications of the calculus, 
 is by the infinitesimal method. 
 
 INFI'NITIVE MOOD. In Grammar, that inflexion of 
 the verb which expresses the conception merely, without 
 affirming or denying it, of any subject. See Grammar. 
 
 INFI'NITY. See Infinite. 
 
 INFI'RMARY. (Lat. infirmus, weak.) An hospital for 
 the reception of the sick poor, either supported by the pub- 
 lic, or endowed by benevolent persons with funds to defray 
 the necessary expense. Establishments bearing this name 
 are not uncommon in all considerable towns of the British 
 empire. See Hospital. 
 
 INFLAMMA'TION. In Pathology, this term is applied 
 to redness and heat of some part of the body, attended by 
 pain and swelling: the vascular action of the part is in 
 creased ; and if it does not subside or terminate in resolution 
 it produces three different effects, which, where they tnk; 
 place healthily, follow each other in regular order. Thesi 
 are, 1, adhesion; 2, suppuration; 3, ulceration. 
 
 I'NFLEXED. (Lat. intlecto, I bend.) In Zoology, whe: 
 a part is bent inwards. 
 
 INFLE'XION. In Grammar, in strictness of language 
 is any change which takes place in a word from araodiri 
 cation of its sense between the root and the termination 
 The inflexion must therefore not be confounded with tin 
 termination itself. Thus the syllable am is the root of al 
 the words employed in the conjugation of the Latin vetf 
 amo, / love : in the imperfect tense, the inflexion is the syl 
 lable ab. The termination varies according to the person 
 amabam, amabas, amabat. 
 
 Infle'xion. In Optics, the same as diffraction ; or tha 
 property of light by reason of which, when it passes ven 
 near the borders of an opaque body, it is turned from its 
 rectilinear course. See Diffraction and Light. 
 
 Point of inflexion, in Geometry', is that point of a curvt 
 line where the curvature in relation to the axis changed 
 from concave to convex, or from convex to concave. The 
 same point is also called the point of contrary flexure ; nnd 
 if the direction changes suddenly with relation to the ordi- 
 nate as well as the absciss, the point becomes a point of re- 
 gression. Thus, let A P be a curve which from A to P is 
 concave towards the axis A B, and 
 from P to D convex towards the axis ; 
 the point P, at which it passes from 
 concave to convex, is the point of inflex- 
 ion; and if the curve at P is turned 
 backwards as P E, the P is the point of 
 regression. The determination of these 
 points is attended with no difficulty, 
 and the method of determining them 
 will be obvious from the following 
 considerations. When a curve is concave to the nxfe. the 
 differential of the ordinate (that of the absciss being sup- 
 posed constant) decreases; consequently the second differ- 
 ential, or d- y, is negative. On the contrary, when the < urve 
 is convex to the axis, d y increases, and d a y is positive. At 
 the point, therefore, at which the curvature changes from 
 concave to convex, d- y changes its sign ; but rs no variable 
 quantity can change its sign without becoir ng nothing or 
 infinite in relation to its former magnitude, .t follows that 
 
INFLORESCENCE. 
 
 jt the poini of inflexion, or regression, d- y = or infinity. 
 Hence 10 find the point of inflexion in any given curve, it is 
 only r.ecessary to find from the equation of the curve the 
 
 1 V 
 value of ; ; Uiis value, made equal to or infinity, will 
 a i* 
 
 pive an equation by which % is determined. This subject 
 is treated at length in the work of Cramer, Sur Us Ligncs 
 Courbcs ; also in Lacroix's Calcul Difj'ercnticl et Integral; 
 Hid noticed in almost every work on the Differential Cal- 
 tulus. 
 
 LNFLORF/SCENCE. (Lat. infloresccre, to flourish.) 
 The general arrangement of the flowers upon a stem or 
 h. It consists of the following principal kinds: viz., 
 the spike, the raceme, the panicle, the capitulum, the um- 
 bel, an I tin: cyme; each of uhich is mentioned in its place. 
 
 1NFI L'E'NZA. (As if produced by the influence of the 
 star.-".; An epidemic catarrh, generally attended by lan- 
 guor, he ulache, quick pulse, and febrile symptoms, which 
 often nm very high, nnd assume a variety of aspects, de- 
 pendant upon the season and other causes. Vhe possibility 
 of the existence of some highly poisonous and Irritating 
 r. though in very minute quantity, bi the exciting 
 cause of Influenza, has been suggested by Dr. Prout. It 
 may possibly be of volcanic oricin : and such a substance as 
 selenfuretted hydrogen, tl which, even in ex- 
 
 tremely minute quantity, are highly deleterious, might per- 
 ha] nccounl for some of the phenomena of this cxtraordi- 
 nair dii 
 
 IN FO'RMA PAIJ'PERIS. In Law, n person is said to 
 
 sue as a pauper, or in forma pauperis, when he takes ad- 
 
 _ • of the stat. 11 II. 7, c. 12, swearing himself not to 
 
 be worth live pounds; in which case in- Is entitled tn have 
 
 Original writs and BUbpOBnas (:ratis, and attorney and coun- 
 
 bim without fee, nnd is excused from paying 
 
 when plainthX By misconduct, and under certain 
 
 other circumstances, the party is dispaupered, ami lo 
 
 privilege. He is capable of recovering costs, although not 
 
 INFORMATION. In Law, an accusation exhibited 
 ogai n a dtfeudaut for some criminal oirence; not on the 
 oath ofjii'jrs, but on the special allegation of an officer 
 empowered to exhibit it. Criminal Informations are either 
 partly at the suit of the king and partly at that of a subject, 
 namely, such as are brought upon certain penal statutes at 
 the suit of common informers; or wholly at the suit of the 
 king. These are of two sorts: 1, those filed ex officio by the 
 attorney-general, which is a proceeding resorted lo in the 
 case of some particular misdemeanors of a public nature, 
 ai libels and various other offences concerning the public 
 and 8, informations filed at the suit of the 
 r of the crown office, which lie for some gross and no- 
 torious misdemeanors, us riots, batteries, libels, &c, not 
 immedii io disturb the government. 
 
 INFORMED BTARS (Infonnea Stella:) in Astronomy, 
 are stars not included in any of the constellations. See 
 Cosstei.la.tios. 
 
 rNFRALAPSATIIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a 
 i Presbyterians who maintain that Cod has created 
 a certain number of human beings only to be damned, with- 
 out allowing them the opportunity of salvation even if they 
 chose to embrace It, They are thus designated because 
 ■ Id that the decrees of Cod were formed infra lapsum, 
 after his knowledge of the full, and in consequence of it. 
 
 See Sl'PRALAVSAIUASS. 
 
 IXI'VSO'ltlA. (Lat. infundo, / pour in.) A name ap- 
 plied by Otho Ft. Midler to an assemblage Of microscopic 
 animalcules which are for the most part developed In in- 
 of decayed animal and vegetable substances. Some 
 of these minute organized beings were known to Linnteus, 
 nnd were placed by him at the end of the class Vermes, in a 
 genus which he denominated Chaos. Mailer, who made 
 the Infusoria a subject of special study, discovered numer- 
 ous distinct genera and species, which ho named and classi- 
 fied according to their outward form. Cmelln and Lamarck 
 introduced Muller's discoveries and classification of the In- 
 fusoria Into their systems without any particular modifica- 
 tion. Cuvier, in 1829, observes, that "Naturalists usually 
 the catalogue of the animal kingdom with beings so 
 extremely minute as to be invisible to the naked eye, and 
 which have been discovered only since the invention of the 
 microscope has unveiled to us, as it were, a new world. 
 Most of them present a gelatinous body of the greatest sim- 
 plicity, nnd for these this is undoubtedly the situation; but 
 authors have placed among the Infusoria animals apparent- 
 ly much more complicated, and which only resemble them 
 in their minuteness nnd the dwelling in which they are 
 usually found." These higher-organized Infusoria were 
 placed by Cuvier at the bend of the class in a distinct order, 
 under the name of Retifercs or Rotifera, a name which has 
 qnently been retained. Cuvier attributes to these ani- 
 malcules a mouth, a stomach, an intestine, and an anus; 
 
 INHIBIT10JN. 
 
 and notices the prominences on the anterior part of the 
 body, which some observers had regarded as eyes. The 
 anterior lobated organ and its vibratory domiciliations, the 
 successive action of which gives to the organ the appearance 
 of a swiftly rotating wheel, forms the main external charac- 
 ter of the order. Cuvier includes in the order Rotatoria the 
 genera Furcularia. Lam. ; Vaginicola, Lam. ; Tubicolaria, 
 Lam.; Brachionus, Midler. 
 
 The Investigations of Ehrenberg, with the aid of a supe- 
 rior microscope to that of his predecessors, have brought to 
 light many additional organs and complexities of structure 
 in the Rotifcra, besides several genera and species before 
 unknown ; ami since these researches naturalists have gen- 
 erally regarded the Rotifcra as a distinct class of lnverte- 
 brata, which Professor Crant has placed In the Articulate 
 sub-kingdom, and Professor Owen in the J\~< matoneura, or 
 higher division of Cuvier's Radiata. For the character, 
 subdivision, and organization of the Rotifcra, see that word. 
 
 The second order of Infusoria in Cuvier's system is de- 
 nominated Homogenea; a term sufficiently expressive of 
 the inadequate ideas current at that recent period respecting 
 their organization. Cuvier says, "The body of the Homo- 
 genea presents neither viscera nor oilier complication, and 
 is frequently destitute of even the appearance of a mouth." 
 Ehrenberg has since shown that they have not only really a 
 mouth, but thai the greater part of the Homogenea of Cuvier 
 , a digestive cavity complicated with many caxal 
 pouches or stomaci to Dome the 
 
 order Polygastrica. Cuvier includes in his second order of 
 Infusoria the genera Urccolnria, Lam. ; Trichoda, Lcucophra 
 h'iriiiia.Ilimantopus, Crcarin, h'urcoccrca, Vibrio, Proteus, 
 Vohoi, and Mono*. As the polygastric structure has not 
 been detected in any species of Ccrcaria, but as, on the con- 
 trary, some IJ raria limnir, possess a simple ali- 
 mentary canal, this genua, together With the cercarial Sper- 
 matozoa, and the Vibrionidw, which all possess a straight 
 nnd simple alimentary canal, have been removed from the 
 Infusoria, and classed by Mr. Owen with the Eutozon. 
 
 Thus the animals of Infusions, although of comparatively 
 simp)'.- ' nor respira- 
 
 tory organs, yet t. anifest at least thj • 
 structure, and are relet able to three different classes of 
 animals. 
 
 Many genera of Infusoria are protected by on external 
 siliceous case. The observations which Ehrenberg had 
 made on the modifications of the form and surface of these 
 ■ Infusoria led to bis capital discovery 
 of their remains in a fossilized state. The mineral called PoUr- 
 schcifer, used for a long period in the arts for polishing metals 
 nnd other substances, was lint discovered to be composed of 
 myriads of the microscopic flinty cases of polygastric Infu- 
 soria belonging to the genera drilloncella, llne.itlaria, l)ia- 
 torna, &c. Whole strata of considerable extent and thick- 
 ness have since been found to consist almost exclusively of 
 the fossil remain:'- of [nj 
 
 INCH 'VIES. (Lat. a crop.) The crop or dilatation of 
 the oesophagus, in which the food Is accumulated and macer- 
 ated, but not digested. It is largest in the Cidlinaceous birds 
 and pigeons, but exists in certain birds of prey ; also in the 
 flamingo, and others. 
 
 I'NGOT. A word of doubtful origin, signifying chiefly the 
 small masses or bars of gold and silver intended either for 
 coining or exportation. 
 
 INGRO'SSING. See Engrossiso, Forestalling. 
 
 INHA'RITANT. In Law, a word used in various tech 
 nical senses. Thus a person having lands or tenements in 
 his own possession is an inhabitant for the purpose of repair 
 of bridges, wherever he may reside; but for purposes of per- 
 sonal services the "inhabitant" must necessarily be a resi- 
 dent. For the purpose of the poor rate the word means a 
 person residing permanently and sleeping in the parish 
 Where the right of voting is in "inhabitant" householders, a 
 variety of divisions in committees of the House of Commons, 
 in some instances conflicting, have taken place on the point. 
 Rut it appears to be generally understood that an inhabitant 
 is one who keeps a house in his own occupation, either per- 
 sonally residing in it, or having it occupied by servants and 
 ready for bis resilience ; having what is termed the " animus 
 levertendi." or intention to return. 
 
 INHARMO'NICAL RELATION. In Music, that 'n 
 which a dissonant sound is introduced. 
 
 INHERITANCE. In Law, an estate or real property 
 which a man has to himself and his heirs, or the heirs of his 
 bodv, &c. is termed a freehold of inheritance. 
 
 INHITUTION. (Lat inhibeo, / restrain.) In Scottish 
 Law, a species of diligence ; i. ft. process. It is a writ in the 
 king's name, passing under the signet, whereby a debtor is 
 prohibited from contracting any debt which may become a 
 burden on his heritable property in competiiion with the 
 creditor at whose instance the inhibition is taken out ; nm\ 
 from granting any deed of alienation, fcc, to the prejudice 
 of the creditor. The heir of the debtor is not auected by the 
 
 603 
 
INIS. 
 
 jniubition of his ancestor. Other species of inhibition are, 
 that of a husband against his wife, intended to signify that 
 her superintendence over domestic affairs has ceased, on 
 which his liahUity for domestic expenditure contracted by 
 her also ceases; and inhibition of tithes or tiends. 
 
 Inhibit!"?!. In Ecclesiastical Law, a writ commonly 
 iaeuing out of a L.pher court Christian, to forbid an inferior 
 judge from further proceeding in a cause before him ; being 
 analogous to a prohibition issuing out of one of the king's 
 superior courts of justice. 
 
 INIS. An Irish word signifying island, used as a prefix to 
 fes names of some islands on the coast of Ireland, and of 
 several towns situated on lakes or rivers in the same country ; 
 as Inisfallen, Iniskilling, &c. 
 
 INI'TIATIVE. (Lat. initium, a beginning.) In Politics. 
 In legislative assemblies constituted so as to comprise more 
 than one chamber, or more than one distinct and co-ordinate 
 power, that branch of the legislature to which belongs of 
 right the power to propose measures of a particular class is 
 said to have the initiative with respect to those measures. 
 Thus in England all propositions for taxing the subject, 
 whether directly or indirectly, must begin in the Commons; 
 a usage which has been adopted in most modern constitu- 
 tions. On the other hand, there are some private bills which 
 by custom originate in the Lords ; and one bill, that, namely, 
 for a general pardon, is proposed in the first instance by the 
 crown. In France, by the charter of 1830, the three branches 
 of the constitution enjoy like privileges in proposing laws; 
 but custom generally concedes the initiative to the Chamber 
 of Peers, excepting in the case of money bills, which must, 
 as in England, originate with the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 INJU'NCTION, in Law, is a writ which issues under the 
 seal of a court of equity. It is granted in various cases, 
 where the court thinks fit to interfere on equitable grounds 
 with the acts of parties, or with the course of other jurisdic- 
 tions. Thus injunctions are granted under certain circum- 
 stances to stay proceedings at common law ; to restrain the 
 negotiation of notes and other securities ; to restrain parties 
 from the commission of waste ; to preserve property which 
 is in course of litigation, &c. Injunctions are also granted 
 to direct parties to quit possession of lands, &c, after a de- 
 cree. Disobedience to an injunction is punishable as a con- 
 tempt of the court from which it issues. 
 
 INK. (Germ, dinte.) The colouring matter of common 
 writing ink is the tannogallate of iron, which is suspended 
 in water by gum arabic , a little logwood is generally added 
 to deepen and improve the colour. A good writing ink is 
 made as follows — Take six ounces of finely bruised galls, 
 four ounces of gum arabic, four onces of green vitriol, and 
 six pints of soft water. Boil the galls in the water ; then 
 add the other ingredients ; and mixing the whole well to- 
 gether, keep it in a well-corked bottle, occasionally shaking 
 it. In two months' time carefully pour ofT the ink from the 
 residue into glass bottles, which should be well-corked ; a 
 few cloves or a drop or two of creosote put into each bottle 
 prevents moulding. The addition of a little sugar to ink gives 
 it a gloss, and prevents its drying rapidly and perfectly ; so 
 that it is generally used in what is called copying ink, from 
 the writing with which copies may be taken by pressure. 
 Indian ink is a compound of very fine lampblack and size. 
 It cannot, like common writing ink, be removed by acids ; 
 but as it does not bite or sink into the paper, it may generally 
 be wiped off with a moist sponge. Printing ink fa made 
 with boiled linseed or nut oil and lampblack. Red ink is a 
 solution of alum coloured with brazil wood. Boil two ounces 
 of brazil wood, half an ounce of gum arabic, and a quarter 
 of an ounce of alum in a pint of water for ten minutes; 
 strain the decoction, and set it aside to clear. Sympathetic 
 inks are compounds which when written with will remain 
 invisible till heated; solutions of cobalt thus become blue 
 or green, lemon juice turns brown, and a very dilute sulphuric 
 acid blackens. Marking ink is made as follows : — Dissolve 
 one drachm of lunar caustic (fused nitrate of silver) in half 
 an ounce of water previously thickened with a little sap 
 green : write with this upon the linen previously prepared 
 for its reception by the application of a weak solution of 
 carbonate of soda thickened with a little gum arabic, and 
 suffered to dry upon the linen. 
 
 INLI'DANS, Inlidrn. The name of a family of Myriapods, 
 having the inlus or gallv-worm as the tvpe. 
 
 I'NNOCENTS' DAY. In the Calendar, a festival cele- 
 brated on the 28th of December, in commemoration of the 
 infants murdered by Herod. 
 
 INNO'MINATUM. (Lat. .x, priv., and nomen, a name ; 
 Without a name.) Each of the lower bones of the pelvis is 
 v.ul ed os innominatum ; because the three bones of which 
 it consists originally, namely, the ischium, the ilium, and the 
 pubis, or the hip bone, the haunch bone, and the share bone, 
 grow afterwards together so as to form what appears to be a 
 single bone, which is thus left nameless. 
 
 INNS OF COURT. Four corporate societies established 
 In London. Every candidate for the rank of barrister-at- 
 604 
 
 INaUISITION. 
 
 law is obliged to be admitted a member of j.ie of these 
 societies, and submit to its regulations as a student. These 
 are — 1, the Inner Temple, to which three Inns of Chancery 
 (Clifford's, Lyon's, and Clement's) belong; 2, the Middle 
 Temple, with Strand Inn (no longer existing) and New Inn 
 dependent on it; 3, Lincoln's Inn (with Furnival's and 
 Thavie's Inns), Gray's Inn (with Staple's Inn and Bernard'! 
 Inn). 
 
 iNNUE'NDO. (Lat. innuo, / nod or beckon.) In Law 
 In the old Latin forms of pleadings this term was used as 
 a word of reference, when in relating the words of anothei 
 party it was necessary to describe more particularly th< 
 person or thing meant by that party ; as, for instance, in i 
 declaration in action for slander, which is the most ordinal} 
 modern case of the employment of the innuendo, the plain- 
 tiff avers that the defendant said that "he," innuendc 
 (meaning the plaintiff), was a thief, &c. Hence the won 
 " an innuendo" in ordinary language to signify a cover 
 allusion. 
 
 INO'CULATION. The insertion of poisonous or infec- 
 tious matter into any part of the body; but in this countr 
 the phrase is commonly used to signify the insertion of the 
 virus of the common smallpox, the insertion of the virus of 
 the cowpox being called Vaccination. Inoculation was in- 
 troduced into general notice by Lady Mary Wortley Mon 
 tague, whose son was innoculated at Constantinople about 
 the year 1721, and whose daughter was the first who under 
 went the operation in this country. A milder disease is 
 thus propagated than when it is received in the natural 
 way. Inoculation is performed by inserting the point of a 
 lancet armed with proper matter just under the cuticle, and 
 afterwards gently rubbing the armed part over the pricked 
 cuticle. See Vaccination. 
 
 INO'CULATION OF GRASS LANDS. The ordinary 
 method of turning a ploughed field into a meadow or pasture 
 is by sowing it with grass seeds ; but as this part of agricul- 
 ture has hitherto been very ill understood, and the result 
 of sowing grass seeds has frequently not answered the ex- 
 pectations of the sower, the practice of what is called inocu- 
 lation has of late years been invented, though practised in 
 but very few instances. This consists in preparing the soil 
 as if it were to be sown down with grass seeds; but instead 
 of sowing these on the surface, there are distributed over it 
 small fragments of turf taken from the best old pasture 
 land which the neighbourhood affords. These fragments 
 may be about two or three inches square, and they are laid 
 down on the surface at the rate of about one in every square 
 foot. After they are deposited, grass seeds mixed with clover 
 are scattered over the surface, and the field is rolled to press 
 down the turf and press in the seeds. In consequence of 
 the fragments of turf being placed on fresh soil, the grasses 
 and other vegetables which they contain, if of the creeping 
 kind, grow luxuriantly, and their stems cover the intervals 
 between the fragments ; but if the grasses which the frag 
 ments contain should not be of the creeping or stoloniferous 
 kinds, it is evident that the intervals between them must 
 chiefly depend for their grassy surface on the seeds which 
 have been sown. On the whole, the inoculation of grass 
 land may be considered as a needlessly expensive process, 
 altogether unscientific, and unsuitable to the present ad- 
 vanced state of agriculture. 
 
 INO'RDINATE PROPORTION, in Geometiy, is a pro- 
 portion in which the terms are placed out of the regular 
 order. 
 
 INOSCULA'TION. (Lat. inosculatio.) The union of 
 vessels by conjunction of their extremities. This term 
 is sometimes limited to the communication of trunks or 
 large vessels with each other ; and where the ramifications 
 which unite are small or capillary, the vessels are said to 
 anastomose. 
 
 I'N&UEST. In Law, an inquisition of jurors in causes, 
 civil or criminal, when the facts are referred to their trial, 
 being empanelled by the sheriff for that purpose. Also the 
 persons to whom the trial of fact in any question, civil or 
 criminal, is committed. An inquest of office, or inquisition, 
 is an inquiry made by the king's officer, sheriff, coroner, &c, 
 by virtue of their office, or by writ sent them for that pur- 
 pose, or by persons acting under a special commission, to 
 inquire concerning any matter which entitles the king to the 
 possession of lands and tenements, or goods and chattels ; 
 as forfeiture for offences, wreck, treasure-trove, &c. The 
 king's title in general commences on office found. 
 
 INQUISI'TION. The title given to a court armed with 
 extensive criminal authority in various European countries ; 
 especially instituted to inquire into offences against the estab- 
 lished religion. The first of these tribunals of faith was tl a* 
 established in the south of France after the conquest of th 
 Albigeios in the 13th century. They were established i 
 Spain in the middle of the same century, not without nine! 
 opposition on the part of the bishops and secular clergy, whr 
 in Castile, long maintained their exclusive spiritual jurisdii 
 tion. In 1840, the supreme general inquisition was founde 
 
INSANITY. 
 
 tu Seville by Queen Isabella, with the aid of the Cardinal 
 Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza. This great court, commonly 
 known by the name of the Holy Office, had far more exten- 
 sive authority than those local tribunals of the same name 
 which had previously been established. Thomas de Tor- 
 
 3iiemndn. prior of a Dominican convent, was its first presi- 
 ent, with the title of inquisitor-general. The process of 
 the inquisition was widely different from that of all other 
 courts of justice. The kings named the grand inquisitor, 
 who appointed his assessors, some of whom were secular, 
 but the greater part regular ecclesiastics: the counsellors 
 •rere six or seven in number, of whom one, by the ordnance 
 of Philip III., must ho a Dominican. A party who was 
 brought under cognizance of the court by secret accusation 
 was immediately seized by its officers (termed officials or 
 fa:niliars), and his property put under sequestration. If the 
 accused was fortunate enough to absent himself, and did not 
 appear at the third summons, he was excommunicated, and 
 in some eases burnt in effigy. The subsequent process of 
 the court by imprisonment, secret examination, and torture, 
 is well km ami. Penitent oli'enders were subjected to im- 
 prisonment, scourging, confiscation, and legal infamy. Those 
 convicted, who were sentenced to death, were burnt at the 
 Autos da I'e, which usually take place on some Sunday 
 between Trinity and Advent. During the 18th century, the 
 Chief officers ui' the inquisition were for the most part men 
 of Intelligence and moderation, and its proceedings chiefly 
 directed against parties guilty of such offences against de- 
 cency or religion as would have been punishable in most 
 European countries, although not by an equally arbitrary 
 process. But there were exceptions to this general charac- 
 ter; and by the provincial courts of inquisition, of which 
 Spain contained sixteen, some acts of barbarous injustice 
 were committed. According to a common calculation, 340.000 
 as had been punished by the Inquisition from 1481 to 
 1808, of whom nearly :)-.!,000 were burnt. In that year it 
 abolished by Napoleon. It was afterwards reestab- 
 lished by Ferdinand III. in 1814; but having been again 
 abrogated by the Cortes in 1890, it has not been since recon- 
 stituted. In Portugal, the supreme court of inquisition was 
 established in I.V>7. Its history in many respects resembles 
 that of the Spanish court; hut in the eighteenth century its 
 power was greatly curtailed by ordinances which required a 
 certain degree of publicity in its procedure. It was abolish- 
 ed by the ( fortes of 1821. There were courts of inquisition 
 In various southern provinces of France, the principal that 
 of Languedoc, established at Toulouse, which was first 
 founded alter the war against the Albigeois ; but their power 
 was limited not long after their creation, and fell into desue- 
 tude long before their final abolition. In several Italian 
 states courts of inquisition have been established; hut the 
 institution has never taken much hold on the sentiments or 
 habits of the people of that country. It was restored at 
 Rome by Pius VII. after the expulsion of the French, but 
 had jurisdiction only over the fuith and conductor the cler- 
 gy. Several well-known histories of the inquisition have 
 been published, particularly that of Limbosch. The reader 
 may also consult .Mosheim, vol. ill. ; PrescoWs Ferdinand 
 and Isabella; Quart. Rev., vol. lv.; Llorente's Hist, of the 
 Inquisition. 
 
 Insanity, set Luhacy, madness. 
 
 LNSCRITBED ETGURE. In Geometry, a circle is said 
 
 to be inscribed in a triangle when it touches each of the 
 
 three sides of the triangle. In like manner, it is inscribed in 
 
 a polygon when it touches nil the sides of the polygon. A 
 
 triangle or polygon is inscribed in a circle when each of the 
 
 of the figure stands on the periphery of the circle. It 
 
 ery obvious but remarkable property, that the area of 
 
 a triangle is equal to the product of the radius of the inscri- 
 
 e into half the perimeter of the triangle. 
 
 INSCRITTION. In Numismatics, words placed in the 
 middle of the reverse side of some coins and medals. See 
 Numismatics. 
 
 INS!. i TA. See Entomology. 
 
 INSECT!' VORA. (Lat insecta, insects, and voro, / de- 
 vour.) The name of a tribe of Zoophagous Mammals, com- 
 prehending those which live wholly or chiefly on insects; 
 also of an order of birds in the ornithological system of Tem- 
 minck. 
 
 INSF.'RTED COLUMN. In Architecture, one standing, 
 or nppearine to stand, partly in a wall. 
 
 iNSE RTION is a term employed in Botany to denote the 
 manner in which one part grows out of another. It was in- 
 vented at a time when the laws of vegetable structure were 
 unknown, and it was supposed that bodies that really grow 
 from each other were inserted into each other. Thus sta- 
 mens said to be inserted into a calyx are in reality stamens 
 that adhere to the sides of a calyx. 
 
 INSESSO'RES. (Lat. insideo, / sit.) A name by which 
 Mr. Vigors has designated his second order of birds, inclu- 
 ding the Passeres and Scansores of Cuvier; and which C. 
 Bonaparte applies to a primary division of birds in his Sys- 
 
 INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 tema Vertcbratorum, including the Passeres, Scansores, and 
 Aecipitres of Cuvier. As the term signifies those birds 
 which perch, it is applicable to numerous species belonging 
 to Linnajan and Cuvierian orders not yet included by latei 
 innovations under the term of Perchers or Insessorcs. 
 
 INSOLA'TION, or SCORCHING. A local disease of 
 plants, attributable to exposure to loo bright a light, wnicti 
 causes an excessively rapid evaporation, the effect of which 
 is to kill the part in which the evaporation takes place. 
 
 INSO'LVENCY. In Law, the inability of an individual 
 not engaged in trade to pay his debts. The insolvency of a 
 trader is called Bankruptcy, which see. Several statutes 
 have been enacted successively for the relief of insolven 
 debtors, by releasing them from imprisonment on surren- 
 der of the whole of their effects to their creditors. Their 
 provisions were consolidated in the last general insolvent 
 act (7 Geor. 4, c. 57), and are now materially modified 
 by the Act for abolishing Arrest on Mesne Process (1 tc 
 2 Victor., c. 110). The Insolvent Court consists of four 
 commissioners and other officers ; and is a court of record, 
 with power to examine witnesses, compel attendance, &c. 
 The courthouse is in London (Portugal-stroet) ; but single 
 commissioners make circuits three times a year throogfl 
 England and Wales. The court proceeds upon petition 
 from prisoners in actual custody ; or, if the prisoner do not 
 pray, on petition from a creditor. An order is then made 
 vesting the prisoner's estate and effects in the provisional 
 assignee of the court; which, however, is void if the petition 
 be dismissed. The duty of the provisional assignee is to re- 
 ceive and dispose of the pro per t y , and account for the prod- 
 uce to the court. Oilier assignees are afterwards appointed 
 by the court, in whom the property vests, who must former- 
 ly have been creditors; but this appears to be no longer ne- 
 cessary. The insolvent delivers into court a schedule, 
 which must contain a full account of his property. The pe- 
 tition is then heard ; and at the hearing, creditors "may oppose 
 the discharge and compel a full investigation of the prison- 
 er's accounts. The court may order the discharge either 
 forthwith, or may remand him for a discretionary period, 
 but not exceeding three years, if any frauds or malpractices 
 on his part with reference to the Btale of his ntl'airs should 
 be detected. The insolvent then executes a warrant of at 
 torney for the amount of his debts which the distribution of 
 his property Is inadequate to cover, and other modes are 
 provided by which his future property may be made availa- 
 ble for his creditors. It has long been proposed, and is now 
 tinder contemplation (1840), to unite the bankrupt and insol- 
 vent courts. 
 
 INSPIRATION. (Lat. in, and spiro, I breathe.) The 
 act of drawing air into the lungs. See Respiration. 
 
 Inspira'tion. See Revelation. 
 
 INSTALLATION. (Modern Lat. in, and stallum, a 
 scat.) A name applied to the ceremony of instating persons 
 in honours or dignities; as a knight of the Garter in the 
 chapel of St George at Windsor; a chancellor in a univer- 
 sity ; or a dean, prebendary, or other ecclesiastical dignitary 
 in the stall of the cathedral to which he belongs. 
 
 I'NSTANT. (Lat.) A part of time or duration in which 
 no succession is perceived. There are three kinds of in- 
 stants distinguished by the schoolmen ; a temporary, a natu- 
 ral, and a rational instant. The first is a part of time imme- 
 diately preceding another; the second is what is otherwise 
 termed a priority of nature, which obtains in things subordi- 
 nated in acting, as first and second causes, or causes and 
 their effects; and the third is not any real instant, but a 
 point which the understanding conceives to have existed 
 before some other instant, founded on the nature of the 
 things which cause it to be conceived. 
 
 INSTA'NTLE CRUCIS. In Philosophy, crucial instan- 
 ces or examples ; a phrase invented by the fancy of Bacon. 
 The use of crucial examples or experiments is to facilitate 
 the process of induction. For example, A and B, two differ- 
 ent causes, may produce a certain number of similar effects ; 
 find some effect which the one produces and the other does 
 not, and this will point out, as the direction-post at a point 
 where two highways meet (crux), which of these causes 
 may have been in operation in any particular instance. 
 Thus, for example, many of the symptoms of the Oriental 
 plague are common to other diseases; but when the obser- 
 ver discovers the peculiar bubo or boil of the complaint, he 
 has an instantia cruets, which directs him immediately to 
 its discovery. (See, among other commentaries on Bacon, 
 Plavfair's Introduction, and Ed. Rev., vol. xxxvi.) 
 
 INSTINCT. See Reason. 
 
 I'NSTITUTE. The principnl philosophical and literary 
 society of France, formed in 1795 by the union of four acad- 
 emies. (See Academy.) Institute is applied also to sev- 
 eral works imbodying the principles of Roman law ; of 
 these the chief are those of Justinian and Gaius. 
 
 INSTITUTIONS. (Lat. instituo, I instruct.) In Liter- 
 ature, a term denoting originally a system of the elements or 
 rules of any art or science, but signifying in a more compre- 
 
 605 
 
INSTRUMENT, MUSICAL. 
 
 hensive sense all associations formed for the improvement 
 of society at large, or the parties immediately concerned, by 
 whatever name they are designated, or to whatever object 
 the labours of the members are directed. Institutions form- 
 ed for the promotion of learning or science have been dis- 
 tinguished by the name of academies or societies, and asso- 
 ciations constituted for commercial purposes are usually 
 styled companies; while those formed for other purposes 
 have various designations, or have some epithet prefixed 
 descriptive of their character. 
 
 INSTRUMENT, MUSICAL. A musical instrument is 
 one for the production of musical sounds, either by percus- 
 sion, wind, the drawing arbow across strings, or the produc- 
 tion of sound from the vibration of the strings by pulling or 
 pinching them transversely, as in the harp or guitar. 
 
 I'NSULATED. (Lat. insula, an island.) In Architec- 
 ture, a term implying that the building to which it is applied 
 is detached from any ether. Thus a church is said to be 
 insulated when it adjoins no other building ; so also a col- 
 umn is said to be insulated when standing out free from a 
 wall ; hence the columns of peripteral temples are insulated. 
 INSULA'TION. A body is said to be insulated which, 
 containing a quantity of free caloric, or the electric fluid, is 
 surrounded by non-conductors, and the communication with 
 other bodies thereby cut off. See Electricity. 
 
 INSU'RANCE. A contract of indemnity, whereby the 
 insurer, in consideration of a certain premium, undertakes 
 to indemnify the insured against loss arising by the occur- 
 ring of a contingent event ; such as the destruction of houses 
 by fire, the loss of ships at sea, the failure of crops through 
 the inclemency of the seasons. 
 
 Insurance is sometimes synonymously used with assu- 
 rance ; but the latter term is now more frequently applied 
 to one particular class of contracts, namely, those which 
 depend on the continuance or failure of human life, while 
 insurance is applied to risks of all other kinds. For the ex- 
 planation of the principles on which life assurances are cal- 
 culated, see Assurance. 
 
 In all cases of insurance, the first thing to be determined 
 is the degree of probability that the event under considera- 
 tion will take place; but it seldom if ever happens that this 
 is known with any moderate degree of precision. Even in 
 the commonest cases, it is perhaps altogether impossible to 
 procure the data necessary for the accurate determination 
 of this element. Suppose, for example, an insurance is to 
 be effected on a ship bound on a voyage to China: in what 
 manner is the probability of its reaching its destination in 
 safety to be determined 1 Even if an accurate account had 
 been kept of all the voyages made during a century, and 
 the number of successful as well as the number of unsuc- 
 cessful ones were precisely known, the data would still be 
 very insufficient for determining the risk of the loss of any 
 individual vessel. The loss of a ship is not a simple event 
 like the turning up of a number on the face of a die. The 
 greater or less prevalence of hurricanes at the season of the 
 year when the voyage is to be made ; the strength of the 
 ship and sufficiency of its equipment; the skill of the com- 
 mander, and the character and discipline of the crew — are 
 all elements materially affecting the risk, but which it is 
 impossible to reduce to numerical values and precise calcu- 
 lation. All, therefore, that can be done is to adopt certain 
 mean or average values, deduced from observations of the 
 fate of vessels in circumstances not indeed precisely the 
 same, but having some degree of similarity. To the insurer, 
 if he sufficiently multiplies his adventures, the result will 
 be the same in the long run as If he had a more accurate 
 appreciation of the separate influences of which the proba- 
 bility of the safe arrival of a vessel at a given port is com- 
 posed ; but the evil which results from this deficient knowl- 
 edge of facts is, that the owner of a good ship, by paying the 
 same premium for insurance as the owner of a bad one, is 
 charged for indemnification against a risk which he really 
 doe3 not run ; and hence the motives for improving the con- 
 struction of vessels are not only destroyed, but it even be- 
 comes an object of pecuniary interest to expend in their 
 equipment nothing beyond what is necessary to give them 
 that moderate degree of goodness or sea-worthiness which 
 suffices to render them insurable on the ordinary terms. 
 This system, however much it is to be deprecated, is rather 
 advantageous than otherwise to the underwriters or insu- 
 rers ; because their premiums are charged in proportion, and 
 it renders insurance more necessary : the pecuniary loss falls 
 ultimately on the million who consume the merchandise ; 
 and as to the loss of human life, that consideration will 
 probably operate as a check to cupidity only in so far as it 
 may tend to raise the wages of seamen. 
 
 Wj.h respect to insurances against fire, the exact appre- 
 ciation of the risk is not less difficult than in the case of 
 marir.e insurances ; but mathematical nicety on this subject 
 is of httle importance, for the amount of experience afforded 
 by the general prevalence of the practice, and the competi- 
 tion which exists among the numerous rival companies, 
 606 
 
 INTEGRAL CALCULUS. 
 
 have probably had the effect of adjusting the premium to 
 the average risk with all the accuracy which is practically 
 attainable. The premium charged by the London offices for 
 insuring property of the value of £100 for a vear is one shil- 
 ling and sixpence, which corresponds to an average annual 
 loss of nearly one in 1300 ; but it is to be observed that the 
 sum which is charged as premium is proved lo be sufficient 
 not only to cover the losses, but also to defray the expenses 
 of the establishment, and to afford an adequate interest on 
 the amount of the capital laid out or risked by the insurance 
 company. Notwithstanding the extent to which the prac- 
 tice of insuring is now carried, it is probable that ift would 
 be still more general were it not for the circumstance that 
 the government imposes a tax on the transaction of three 
 shillings per annum for each £100 insured, which is double 
 the amount of the premium charged by the insurer. In 
 1837, the government duty on insurances amounted to 
 £863,196 12s. 3d., which supposes the value of the property 
 insured in that year to have been upwards of 575 millions. 
 
 The characteristic property of insurances, of whatever 
 nature, is their tendency to reduce to a certain average val 
 ue the profits or advantages arising frora all speculations of 
 the same kind, however great the number may be. The 
 gain which the insurer makes on his successful speculations 
 indemnifies him for the loss he sustains by those which are 
 unsuccessful ; and to the insured the result is the same as if 
 they had paid their premiums into a common fund, and 
 agreed to make good to each other their individual losses. 
 The insurers are only the intermediate agents of this sup- 
 posed association, and their profits may be regarded simply 
 as the salary of their functions. If other means exist of 
 dividing the risks, insurance becomes unnecessary. A mer- 
 cantile company employing a very great number of ships, or 
 taking part in a very great number of enterprises, would 
 derive no benefit from insurance. The loss on those which 
 are unsuccessful is compensated by the premiums saved on 
 the whole ; in fact the company acts as insurer to itself 
 On this principle the government neither insures vessels be 
 longing to the royal navy nor public buildings. 
 
 INTA'GLIO. (It. intagliare, to cut in.) In Sculpture 
 and Gem Sculpture, a stone or gem in which the subject is 
 hollowed out so that an impression from it would present 
 the appearance of a has relief. 
 
 I'NTEGER. (Lat. entire.) In Arithmetic, a whole 
 number; as opposed to a fractional number, or a mixed 
 number. 
 
 I'NTEGRAL CALCULUS. The branch of mathemati- 
 cal analysis which treats of the processes by which a func- 
 tion may be found such that its differential shall be a given 
 quantity. By English writers this function used to be de- 
 nominated the fluent or flowing quantity ; and the method of 
 finding it was called the inverse method of fluxions. For- 
 eign mathematicians, who adopted the views and notation 
 of Leibnitz, have called it the integral or sum of the pro- 
 posed differential ; and this phraseology is now universally 
 adopted by the mathematicians of our own country. 
 
 The method by which the integral of a proposed differen- 
 tial quantity is to be found is, generally speaking, neither 
 obvious nor capable of being reduced to fixed and general 
 rules. When an integral is proposed, its differential may 
 always be found by general rules; but there is no direct 
 method of returning from the differential to the integral : the 
 analyst can only compare the differential expression which 
 is to be integrated with the differentials of known quantities, 
 and from such comparison infer the form of the correspond- 
 ing integral. The principal art employed in the Integral cal- 
 culus consists in transforming the proposed functions into 
 expressions which are known to be the differentials of given 
 quantities. 
 
 In order to denote the integral of a quantity, the symbol 
 
 / (originally S, the initial letter of the word sum) is em- 
 ployed. Thus I X d x denotes the integral of the differen 
 tial X d x. J 
 
 1. To begin with the simplest cases — Let it be proposed to 
 integrate the expression i" d x, or to find the function deno- 
 ted by / im d x. It has been shown, under the term Dir 
 
 ferential Calculus, that the differential of a quantity xn 
 is n zn — Ui; that is to say, d x" = n x" — Ui. Let »i 
 = m -f- 3, and this becomes d • x m -f- l = (m -f- 1) zm a x : 
 i'i»+i ., 
 
 whence we have im d x = r-J — ; or, as the constant 
 
 m -f-1 
 
 quantity (to + 1) does not affect the differentiation, im as 
 
 x m -4- I 
 = d • r— . But as the integral of an expression d • P k 
 
 m + 1 
 evidently P, the equation gives, on integrating both members, 
 
 C im+l 
 
 / x«* d x = — -j— : . From this we derive the following 
 general ru'e for integrating a differential of one term : In- 
 
INTEGRAL CALCULUS. 
 
 crease the exponent of the variable quantity by unity, and 
 then divide by the new exponent and by d x. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to remark, that the integral thus 
 formed may either be the expression from which the differ- 
 ential j» d x was derived, or it may be that expression in- 
 creased or diminished by any constant quantity. For the 
 differential of a z 5 being 5 a x* d x, and of a z 5 -f- b being 
 also 5 a ia d x (A being any constant quantity whatever) ; it 
 follows that if we have to integrate the expression 5 a x* d 
 x, tile integral will be incomplete, unless we odd to it a 
 quantity which, though indeterminate, does not change its 
 value with the variation of x. We have, therefore, in gen- 
 
 /ziu x 1 
 z™ d x = — q— - + C, where C is a quantity, posi- 
 tive or negative, the particular value of which remains to 
 be determined by the nature of the problem under consider- 
 ation. This quantity, C, which is necessary in order to 
 complete the integral, was denominated by the older Eng- 
 lish writers the correction of the fluent; in the language of 
 modern analysts, it is the arbitrary constant. 
 
 2. The differential of a polynomial being composed of 
 the sum of the differentials of its terms taken separately, 
 the integral of a pnlymonial is in like manner formed by 
 adding into one sum the integrals of its component terms. 
 
 Thus, 
 
 /cin-l 
 (adx + b xdx — cmdx) = a z-f-Jiz 2 - r + C; 
 
 and one constant is only necessary, for the sum of the con- 
 stants which arise from the integration of the separate terms 
 may evidently lie represented by n single letter. In the 
 stine manner, the integral of a function having the form 
 [a -f- b x -+- c z 2 )« may be found when n It a whole positive 
 number, it being only necessary to raise the root to the power 
 denoted by n. 
 
 d x 
 
 3. By the differential calculus, d • log. z = — . When 
 
 x 
 any differential expression, therefore, can be reduced to 
 this form, its integral will be found by means of a loga- 
 rithm. Thus supposing it were required to find the integral 
 a d x d i 
 
 of - -r-. Suppose a -f- b x = i, and we have d x = — . 
 
 a d x 
 
 a-\-bx' 
 
 Substitute this in the given expression, and we have 
 
 a + ftz 
 out _ cadi a rd i a 
 
 bt - ^fTr == bf—=b^ 1 + c ' whi ^ on 
 
 writing for z its value, becomes - log. (a -f- b x) -f- C. 
 
 4. An extensive class of differential expressions, of very 
 frequent occurrence in the solution of problems, is integrated 
 by meant of circular arcs. Let z be the sign of an arc :, we 
 have then z ss sin. i ; and by the differential calculus d x = 
 
 d x 
 :os. i d z, whence d z — ■ . But, by the properties of tho 
 
 cos. z 
 t..go nometricnl lines, cos. 2 z -f- sin. 2 z = 1 ; whence cot. z 
 = y/l — sin. 2 z, or cos. z = v*! — xt ! consequently iz = 
 
 Vi- 
 
 r-' 
 
 Transposing the terms of this equation and in- 
 dx 
 
 tegrnting, wc find fj _ a = z + C, z being an urc of 
 which the sine Is z. Whenever, therefore, an expression 
 
 d X 
 occurs of the form . we know that its integral, though 
 
 v 1 — x v 
 It cannot be expressed generally in numbers when a numer- 
 ical value is given to x, is represented by means of on arc 
 of a circle. 
 
 dx 
 The expression j~%z^i fa reducible to the same form ; 
 for, on dividing the numerator and denominator by a, or 
 
 z~i j , • z d x d u 
 vMZ a , and making - = u, we get — = — — . 
 
 a V a 2 — z 2 v 1 _ u a • 
 
 and 
 
 d u 
 
 J Vl — «3 
 
 = arc of which the sine is u, or -. The 
 
 constant C In the present case is zero, for the arc and its 
 tine both vanish together. 
 
 Let us suppose, in the second place, x s= cos. z. By dif- 
 ferentiating, we find d x ss — sin. z d i ; whence d z = — 
 
 rinfz = ~Vf^ c ^^ = -7T^7 2 - Transposing and 
 
 Integrating as before, / — , X - = z + C, z being the 
 
 •' VI — z a 
 arc whose cosine is x. In thij case, the constant C must be 
 determined from this consideration that when the cosine of 
 
 on arc is 0, the arc itself is equal to a quadrant. Supposing 
 then, z = 0, and consequently = 0, and denoting 
 
 the^semicircumference as usual by wk the integral becomes 
 — i «■ + C ; whence C = — h w. Substituting this value of 
 
 Tr.weget./-^— ==z-4,r = _( Jr _z). 
 
 Lastly, let us suppose z = tang. z. The differential of 
 the tangent of an arc is equal to the differential of the arc 
 
 divided by the square of the cosine. Hence d x = di 
 
 and, therefore, d z = d x cos. - z. But cos. 
 whence dz= dx -- dx 
 
 '■i 1 -+- tan. ••= z 1 + z 2 
 
 COS. *l 
 
 l_ 
 
 sec. z 
 Transpo 
 
 sing and passing to the integral, we have f tf x = z + 
 
 J 1 + z 2 
 C. In this case, as the arc and its tangent vanish together 
 
 C = 0; therefore^ t ■ gg = wc whose tangent is x. 
 
 To this form we may reduce the expression f f— . 
 
 J a 2 -+• x* 
 
 Divide the terms by o 2 , and moke - = u ; it then becomes 
 a 
 
 f 1 d u n . 1 r d u u rd* l 
 
 J~a • r+^ 2 ' ° f 7 Jr+Z* ' WhenC Va^f7 2 = a X " 
 
 whose tangent is - . 
 a 
 5. In transforming differentia, expressions into others of 
 which the integrals ore known, it is frequently very con 
 venient to employ an artifice which is usually termed inte 
 gration by parts. This consists in making an integral of the 
 form J v du depend on another of the form / u d v. 
 Thus, by the differential calculus, d(uv) = udv-\-vdu; 
 transposing and integrating, wc get ft d v = u v — /*• 
 du, which is the formula by which the art. lice in question it 
 accomplished. As an example, let it lie proposed to find in 
 this manner the integral /*z» d x. Make i" = u, and d j 
 
 = d v ; we have then v =: z, u v = %"> x = z™ -f- i, d n = 
 m x m — 1 d x, and v d u = m z<n d x. Substitutii g these 
 expressions in tile formula f u dv = u v — f ' v d u, it ho 
 
 comes / z"> d x = z"> + ' — f m z™ d x ; whence (since 
 
 / m zm d x = ml z»i d z) wc have by transposing (1 -j- m) 
 
 zmiiz = zn>+l,and, therefore, I x™dx =— ; — , which 
 
 is the same expression as was given above. It may be re- 
 marked, that by the use of this artifice, the integral of the 
 pression z"> d z has been found by differentiating z°i, and 
 making the substitutions ordinarily employed in common al- 
 gebra. 
 
 Another method of integration consists in transforming 
 the given expression into a series, and taking the integrals 
 of the several terms separately. Let it be proposed, for ex- 
 ample, to integrate by the method of series the expression 
 d x 
 —7— , which is the differential of the logarithm of (a -f- z). 
 
 dx l 
 
 "X. dx; but on* expanding 
 
 In the first place, 
 
 1 
 a + z 
 
 a + z a-\- x ' 
 into a series by division, we have 
 
 J a 
 
 1 1 z , z a z" . 
 
 a+z a a* a 3 a* 
 and multiplying both sides by d z, and integrating by tht 
 rules already explained, we find 
 
 dz _ z z2 _i* 3 ,_ ,-. 
 aT^~7~2a~2 + 3a~3- tcc - + C ' 
 that is to say, 
 
 ,og.(a + z) = J-^ 2+3 4- & c.-f-C. 
 
 In order to determine the constant, suppose z = 0, and the 
 expression becomes log. a = C ; whence, substituting (hit 
 value of C. 
 
 log.(a + z) = log.« + ^--^ + ^ 3 -&c. 
 
 a series by which the logarithm of one number may be found 
 from another, when the difference between them is small in 
 
 607 
 
INTEGRAL CALCULUS. 
 
 comparison of the latter number; or, wmch Is the same 
 thing, when the series converges with sufficient rapidity. 
 As a second example of tliis method, let the proposed dif- 
 d x 1 , 
 
 ferential be r— : — > or r~i — ? x * x ' 
 1 + X2 1 + x 2 
 
 In this case we have . , _z = 1 — z 2 + z 4 — x 6 + &c., 
 
 » hence, multiplying by d x and integrating the terms, 
 
 yi dx 
 F+x3~ X ~~ 3 ' 5 7 
 
 dx 
 But r— ; — : is the differential of the arc whose tangent is x ; 
 l + z2 
 
 therefore, 
 
 arc. (tan. 
 
 x3 z5 z? „ 
 
 c3 
 
 3+f-?+ &C -+ C - 
 
 :z) = Z 
 
 ai.d as the arc and its tangent both vanish together, the con- 
 stant C is in this case = U. 
 
 The series which has now been found for the arc in 
 terms of the tangent converges only when the tangent is 
 less than radius, or when x is less than unit; but it may be 
 put under a form which will be convergent when x is great- 
 er than unit, or the arc greater than 45°. Thus, the series 
 
 1— x 2 + x* — z«-|-&c. 
 was obtained by dividing 1 by 1 + z 2 ; but if instead of 
 dividing by 1 + z 2 , we divide by its equal z 2 + 1, we shall find 
 
 X 2 + l Z 2 Z 4 Z6 XS T 
 
 whence 
 
 /sxi-/<a-a+ i -a+^V«fo, 
 
 J x2 -f- 1 •/ \c2 z4 ' zs z 8 ' / ' 
 
 and on multiplying each term of the second member by d x 
 
 and integrating, 
 
 arc (tan.=z) =— - + -L _ -L + &c. + C. 
 
 Z JX J 9P 
 
 In order to find the constant, we cannot in this case suppose 
 z = 0, for on this supposition the second member of the 
 equation is infinite ; but if we suppose z = infinity, the arc 
 becomes a quadrant, or £ r, and the equation becomes 
 
 J 5 r = 0+C',or0 = — Jtt + C; 
 vd subtracting this equation from the former, 
 
 arc (tan. = x) = ^ir l-r-,- — + ta. 
 
 z o x* axo 
 
 which converges the more rapidly the greater we assume 
 the value of z. 
 
 The preceding examples will give an idea of the method 
 by which the primitive function is obtained from its differ- 
 ential ; but the subject is of by far too extensive and abstruse 
 a nature to be entered into at any length in this place. We 
 shall, therefore, content ourselves with indicating some of 
 the applications of the integral calculus to geometry. 
 
 One of the first objects to which the new calculus was ap- 
 plied by its inventors was the finding of the quadratures, or 
 areas, of curve lines, and their rectification, or the determi- 
 nation of the lengths of their arcs. 
 Let A B be a curve referred to two rectangular co-ordi- 
 nates O X and O Y ; let E and F be 
 given points in it; and let it be re- 
 u quired to find the quadrature of the 
 curvilinear space between E G and F 
 H, the ordinates passing through E 
 and F. Through P any point of the 
 arc E F draw the ordinate P Q., and 
 also p q indefinitely near to P Q. ; 
 then the space P Q, q p is the differen- 
 tial element of the area G E P Q, and 
 the area itself is equal to the sum of 
 all the differential elements taken between E G and F H. 
 But by the principles of the differential calculus the space 
 P Q, q p is ultimately (that is, when Q, q is less than any as- 
 signable quantity) equal to the rectangle under P Q. and CA 
 y ; therefore, making as usual O Q = z, P Q = y, and s = 
 the area, we have ds—ydx, and consequently the area = 
 s= j y dx. In order to apply this formula, it is necessary, 
 
 in the first place to determine y in terms of z by means of 
 the equation of the given curve. 
 
 Suppose the given curve to be the common Apollonian 
 parabola, the equation of which is j J = ai, a being a con- 
 stant. From this equation y = a? z-, and consequently ydx 
 = <& xi d x ; whence, passing to the integral by means of 
 
 the formula / z"> dx— — r^ + c > we obtain I atx* dx = 
 
 \ «? z* -J- C, which, on substituting for a 2 its value in terms 
 of y, becomes %y x -\- C. This is the general expression for 
 the area of the parabola ; to determine it between the pro- 
 Bosed limits we have only to substitute in it the values of x 
 608 
 
 $2-1 
 
 and y at those limits. At the jmir t E it becomes JOG' GE 
 + C : and at the point F it becomes § O H • H F -f C. Sub 
 trading, therefore, the first of these from the second, we 
 have the space G E F II = jj (O H • H F — O G • GE), the 
 indeterminate C being eliminated by the subtraction. 
 From this example it is easy to see that the space repre 
 
 sented by the integral / y d x is the increment which a cer 
 
 tain area receives While the independent variable x passes 
 from one state of magnitude to another ; and that the abso- 
 lute magnitude which represents the integral cannot be 
 known before C is determined or eliminated as above. For 
 the purpose of expressing the limits within which the inte- 
 gral is to be taken, a particular notation is employed. Let 
 OG = i, and OH = (; then it is usual to write 
 
 r k 
 
 GEFH = / ydx, 
 J I 
 
 to express that the integral includes all values of z, from x a 
 & to x = I. The one of these is the value of x at its com- 
 mencement, the other at its completion ; and the integral it- 
 self is an indeterminate quantity till the initial and final val- 
 ues of x are assigned. 
 
 The rectification of curve lines is another of the earliest 
 applications of the integral calculus. To rectify a curve, 
 signifies to find a straight line equal to its arc. According 
 to the principles of the differential calculus, if z denote the 
 arc of a curve, then d z = y/d xi + d y 2 ; consequently, If 
 the value of d yi be found by means of the equation of any 
 curve in terms of z (or that of dx 2 in terms of y) and substi- 
 tuted in this equation, the radical will contain only one va- 
 riable, and when the expression is capable of being integra 
 ted, the curve is recallable. It is, however, only in a com- 
 paratively small number of cases that the differential of the 
 arc of a curve can be integrated in finite terms. 
 
 As an example, let us take the circle, the equation of 
 which is z2 -f- y 2 = a 2 , reckoning the co-ordinates from the 
 centre. From this equation y-=.^Ja 2 — x 2 , whence <iy = 
 
 — xdx a 2 dx 2 . . adx m . 
 
 . — :, d x2 -t- d y2 = -„ ,. and d z = — — . This 
 
 V a 2 — X 2 * a 2 — X*' Va-! — z2 
 
 expression cannot be integrated otherwise than by an infinite 
 series. We have already seen that is reducible to the form 
 dx 1 
 
 —. But the expression , .. expanded by the 
 
 VI — z 2 
 
 Vl_z2 - 
 
 binominal theorem, gives 
 
 whence, multiplying by d x and integrating the terms sep- 
 arately, 
 
 dx z3 1-3x5 1^3-5x7 
 
 VT_I7 2 ~ I + 2-3 + 2-4-5 + 2 T 4-6-7 + &C * 
 
 h 
 
 Now, if in this series we write — for x, and multiply the 
 
 a 
 whole by z, we shall have 
 
 r adx , x3 , 1-3x5 . 1-3- 5x7 
 
 + 
 
 &x. 
 
 Va^^x2 ' S' 3 " 2 ' 2-4-5a< ' 2-4-G-7o6 
 for the length of the arc of the circle whose radius is a and 
 absciss x. Suppose x = a — 1 ; this aeries gives for die 
 length of the quadrant 
 
 1,1-3, 1-3-5 , , 
 
 1 + 2~ 3 + ST1 +2^T6"--7 + &C - 
 The quadrature and rectification of the circle are prob- 
 lems which have exercised the ingenuity of mathematicians 
 ever since the invention of the science; but the solution 
 neither of the one nor the other can be obtained in finite 
 terms. 
 
 The application of the integral calculus to the determina- 
 tion of the volumes and surfaces of solids, is perfectly anal- 
 ogous to the determination of the areas and arcs of plane 
 curves. Supposing the solid to be generated by the revolt! 
 tion of a plane curve about its axis, the expression for its 
 volume is rt f y 2 d x, where r is the semicircumference of 
 the circle who se radius is unit. The expression for its sur- 
 face is 2 it y Jd x 2 + d y 2 . In these expressions the values 
 of j/ 2 , y, and d y 2 must be found in terms of x from the equa- 
 tion of the curve by the revolution of wh k h the solid is 
 formed ; and when the values thus found are substituted, 
 the formulffi will contain no other variable than x. 
 
 The integral calculus also affords the readiest, and, in 
 general, the only means of determining the centres of gravi- 
 ty, of oscillation, gyration, &c. ; and is, in fact, the instru- 
 ment by which mathematicians have succeeded in solving 
 the difficult and important questions of dynamics and physi- 
 cal astronomy, and in ascertaining the laws which regulate 
 the motions of the material world. 
 
INTEGRANT PARTS. 
 
 As the integral calculus, vvitli its various applications, em- 
 bodies almost the whole of mathematical science, the trea- 
 tises which have been composed to explain or illustrate its 
 principles are by far too numerous to be mentioned in this 
 place. Almost all the improvements of the calculus were 
 first given in the form of Academical Memoirs. The great 
 repositories in which it is contained are the writings of New- 
 ton, Cotes, Demoivre, the Bernoullis, Maclaurin, Simpson, 
 Euler, D'Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre, Mange, 
 Poisson, Gauss, Ivory, &c. The best systematic treatises 
 arc Euler's Calculus Integralis, in 4 vols. 4to., now very 
 scarce; and Lacroix's Traiti du Calcul DifftrentUl et du 
 Calcul Integral, in 3 vols. 4to. Of the minor works we 
 may mention Ilossut's Calcul Differentiel ct Integral : Bou- 
 charlat: Lacroix's smaller treatise, translated by Bnbbage, 
 ami Peacock; and the treatises which have re- 
 cently been published at Cambridge, particularly those of 
 Hymer, Peacock, Myers, Hind, <fcc. 
 
 INTEGRANT PARTS, In the Corpuscular Philosophy, 
 ati the small parts of n body, hy the aggJttgalloa of which 
 it may be conceived to be formed. Integrant parts result 
 from the mechanical division of a body; constituent parts 
 from its rhemical decom|>osition. 
 
 I' INTEL LECT. See Understanding. 
 
 INTF.'XDANT. (Lat. inlendo, / give my mind toany 
 thing.) A title in common use among the French, applied 
 a who have the conduct, inspection, and manage- 
 ment of any office or function ; as intendants of the marine, 
 of the finances, of provinces, buildings, houses, ice, which 
 are all self-explanatory term*. 
 
 INTE'NTIONS, KillST AND SECOND. A distinction 
 drawn by the schoolmen between those acts of thouirht 
 whirl, relate to BO object nut of the mind, and those wh'n h 
 consist in the mind's reflex action on its own states of con- 
 L. Thus the generalizations animal, production, 
 are first intentions : such terms as abstraction, inference, 
 &.<•., are the expression of itrrand intentions. It is to be re- 
 gretted that this distinction is disused by modern inquirers, 
 nr misunderstood by them, as in particular by Whately. 
 Great ambiguity might be avoided in philosophical bMgaag* 
 wire it closely kept in view ; as in such terms nsrnu.se and 
 effect, which may either allude to a connection between 
 natural phenomena in themselves, or to our mode of view- 
 ing them derived from the essential laws of the understand- 
 ing. The distinction was first revived in the present centu- 
 ry, in a learned and acute review of Whatelv's Logic con- 
 tained in the 115th number of the Edinburgh Uriuir. 
 
 l.YI I. RCALARY DAY. (Lat. calo, / call. See Cal- 
 endar.) In the Calendar, a day inserted out of the usual 
 order to preserve the account of time. Thus every fourth 
 year containing' :t'"><i days, while the other years contain only 
 months in that year must have an addition- 
 al day. which is called the intercalary day. The additional 
 day was given to February, as being the shortest month, 
 and in the ancient Roman calendnr was inserted between 
 the -24th and 25th days. In the ecclesiastical calendar it 
 still retains that place; but in the civil calendar it is the 
 29th. See Bissextile. 
 
 INTERCELLULAR PASSAGES, in Vegetable Anato- 
 my, are the spaces that exist between the cells, tubes, or 
 vessels of which the tissue of a plant consists. As the 
 cells are usually, and the tubes or vessels are alwnvs round, 
 It necessarily follows that when pressed together there will 
 i ten between their sides. 
 
 rNTERCOLUMNIATlON. (Lat. inter, between, and 
 columna, a column.) In Architecture, the distance between 
 two columns measured at the lower pnrts of their shafts. 
 It is one of the most important elements in architecture, 
 and on it depend the effect of the columns themselves, their 
 proportion, and the harmony of an edifice. Intercolumfna- 
 tions are of five species, vi/„ Picnostylos, Systylos, Diusty- 
 los, Arajostylos, and Eustylos ; under which several terms 
 in this work they are defined, and to them the reader is te- 
 ferred. 
 
 I'NTF.RCO'STAL. (Lat. inter, and costa, a rib.) A 
 term applied to muscles aad vessels situated between the 
 ribs. 
 
 I'NTERDICT. (Lat.) In Ecclesiastical History, a spi- 
 ritual weapon by which the Popes used in former times to 
 reduce individuals or whole states to the most abject sub- 
 mission to their power. In the middle ages it was the most 
 terrible blow which could be inflicted on the people or the 
 prince. When an interdict was laid on a kingdom all spi- 
 ritual services ceased ; the churches were shut up ; the sa- 
 craments were no longer administered ; no corpses were 
 buried with funeral rites ; and all the ministry of the church 
 which was then believed to be the only channel of salva- 
 tion was forbidden to be exercised. The first memorable 
 occasjon on which this method of warfare was adopted 
 was the marriage of King Robert of France with Bertha 
 bis cousin, when Gregory V. in 998 issued interdicts against 
 the whole country, and compelled the sovereign to dissolve 
 2 Q 
 
 INTEREST. 
 
 his union. It had, however, been often used before by bish 
 ops ; an instance is quoted by Moreri as early as A. I). t?7U 
 (See Oiescler's Text Book, ii. 117, translation.) The ban 
 under which England was laid in the reign of John by In- 
 nocent III. is well known in the history of this country. 
 The latest pretensions to the exercise of this power were 
 assumed by Pius VII., when he issued an inefficient decree 
 against Napoleon in 1809. 
 
 Interdict. The technical term in Roman law for a de- 
 cree of the praHor concerning the acquisition, retention, or 
 recovery of property. For an elaborate article on this mi! 
 ject see the Penny Cyclopedia. 
 
 1'NTEREST. The premium or sum of money given fix 
 the loan or use of another sum of money, generally eslim.v 
 ted at so much per cent., or jcr 100/. The sum lent, and 
 for which interest is paid, is called the principal, and the 
 sum charged as interest is called the rate. The rate will 
 evidently be proportional to the time ; for whatever interest 
 is paid for the use of 100/. for one year, twice that interest 
 will be required for the use of 100/. for two years. The 
 principal added to the interest, or the whole sum paid back 
 to the lender, is called the amount. 
 
 Interest is either simple or compound. Simple interest us 
 that which is reckoned and allowed upon the principal only 
 during the whole time of the loan ; compound interest is 
 reckoned not only on the principal sum lent, but also on the 
 interest as it becomes due. It is convenient to treat of these 
 separately. 
 
 1. Simple Interest. — Let us assume 
 a — the amount, 
 /» = the principal sum lent, 
 *=the number of years for which it is lent, 
 r = the rate, or interest of 1/. for one year. 
 
 Now, the interest of XI for one year being r, the Interest 
 of p pounds for one year is pr, and for n years prn. The 
 amount, therefore, of p pounds for n years, at the rate r, is 
 P+prn; or, a=p (1 + rii). From this equation we may 
 determine any one of the four quantities in terms of the 
 others. The four equations are as follow : — 
 a=p (l-f-rjt) = the amount, 
 
 p= — =tho principal, 
 
 l-j-rn 
 
 s= the time in years. 
 
 pr 
 
 a—p 
 
 = the rate of interest. 
 
 These formula; suffice for the solution of all questions of 
 simple interest. It is only necessary to observe, that when 
 the time is less than a year, n is a fraction : for example, if 
 the time is seven months, n= ~'^ : and if the time is KM 
 days, then n = £££• If the rate of Interest be 4 per cent 
 per annum, then r = -04 ; if the rate be 5 per cent, per an 
 num, r = -05 ; and so on. 
 
 2. Compound Interest. — Though the law does not permi' 
 money to lie let at compound interest, yet in purchasing an 
 nuities, reversions, leases, etc., or effecting assurances or. 
 life. It is always allowed; the subject is therefore of con 
 siderable importance. 
 
 In order to show the manner in which any given sum in 
 creases at compound interest, let us suppose £100 to be lent 
 at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum. At the end of the first 
 year this will amount to £105. Now this £105 may be re- 
 garded as a new principal lent out the second year at the 
 same rate ; its interest will therefore be £5 5*. ; and conse- 
 quently the amount at the end of the second year Is £110 5*. 
 This again may be regarded as a new principal ; and in the 
 same manner the amount at the end of the third year will 
 be £115 15*. 3<Z., and so on for any longer period. At sim- 
 ple interest the amount at the end of any given time will be 
 greater, as the number of payments or times the interest is 
 added to the principal is greater. 
 As before, let 
 
 a = the amount, 
 p ss the principal, 
 n s= the number of years, 
 r= the rate of interest. 
 Therefore, since 1/. amounts to 1-f-r at the end of the first 
 year, and as every other sum is increased in the same pro 
 portion, we have 1 : 1 -f- r : : 1 -f- r : (1 + r) 2 = the amount 
 of £1 at the end of the second year. In like manner, we 
 have 1 : 1-f-r : : (1 + r) 1 : (1 -f- r) 3 = the amount at the 
 end of the third year, and so on. In general, the amount 
 of £1 at the end 
 
 of the 1st year = l + r 
 2d =(l + r)* 
 
 3d =(l + r) 3 
 
 4th =(l + r)* 
 
 nth =(l-f-r)n 
 
 The amount, therefore, of any principal p, at the end of 
 n years, is » ( 1 + r)n ; and from this we derive the follow 
 
 609 
 
INTERFERENCE. 
 
 (ng formulae for finding any one of the four quantities when 
 the three others are given : 
 
 a = p (1 + r)n = the amount, 
 p = a (1 -}- r) — n = the principal, 
 log. a — log. p , , c 
 
 n = — s - s = the number of years, 
 
 log. (1 + r) 
 
 r = ( — ) 1 = the rate of interest 
 
 As ?i\ example, suppose it Were required to find in how 
 many years a sum of money lent at compound interest, at 
 5 per cent, per annum, would double itself. Here the quan- 
 tity to be found is n, and we must apply the third formu- 
 la. We have in the present case a=:2p, andl + r = 
 log. 2p — log. p log. 2 3010300 
 1-05; therefore, »= {Qg ^ = f g .1^ = 02TI893 
 =14.2067 nearly ; therefore, at the rate of 5 per cent, per 
 annum, any sum of money doubles itself in 14} years. 
 
 In the above formulae the interest is supposed to be paya- 
 ble yearly, and r denotes the simple interest of £1 for one 
 year ; but if the payments become due at different intervals 
 from a year, then r will not be the annual rate of interest ac- 
 tually yielded by the principal, but the nominal rate which 
 determines the amount of the first payment. For example, 
 suppose the payments due half-yearly, and the nominal in- 
 terest or simple interest for a year 5 percent.; X100 princi- 
 pal will produce £2 10s. of interest the first half year. But 
 the interest the second half year being on £102 10s., will be 
 £2 lis. 3d. ; so that while the nominal interest is 5 per cent., 
 the interest actually made in a year on £100 is £5 Is. 3d. 
 
 The advantages arising from a sum of money put out to 
 compound interest for shorter periods than a year may be 
 determined as follows : Suppose the payments to be made 
 half-yearly ; then each payment being half of the annual 
 simple interest, the amount of U. at the end of the year will 
 / r \ a r 2 
 
 be expressed by^l + — ) , which is equal tol + r+— . 
 
 But the amount at a yearly payment is 1 + ''.' the advan- 
 tage, therefore, of the half-yearly payment is \W\ of the 
 square of r. If the payments of interest be supposed to be 
 made quarterly, then the amount of £1 at the end of the 
 
 / r\* , 3r 2 t 3 
 
 year will be expressed by ^1 + -- ) = 1 + ?• -}- - — !"7^ + 
 
 r* 
 
 T~ , which exceeds the amount, when the payment is year- 
 250 
 
 3 r a r a r 4 3 r ?. 
 
 Ij'i by s~ + tt. + SFe ' or b y ~5~ nearly, the remaining terms 
 
 o lb zoo o 
 
 being very small, and of scarcely any sensible value. Cen- 
 trally, if the interest is payable m times a year (each pay- 
 ment being the mth part of the annual simple interest), the 
 amount of £1 at the end of the year will be expressed by 
 
 (1-f-J = l + r+ — r--\ ;r~5""S r' + 
 
 (to — 1", (m — 2) (m— 3) 
 
 ' + &c. 
 
 2-3- 4m 3 
 
 As r is a small number, all the terms of this series multi- 
 plied by the cube and higher powers of r may be omitted, 
 
 and the amount becomes 1 + r -| r 2 , which exceeds 
 
 m — 1 
 2m 
 
 if 
 
 the amount when the payment is yearly by 
 
 we suppose m to be infinitely great, or the interest to become 
 due and to be added to the principal momently, the series 
 becomes 
 
 T ^l-2 T l-2-3 T l 
 
 which is equal to the number whose Napierean logarithm is 
 r, or the number whose logarithm is r X -4342945 in the 
 common tables. Suppose the rate to be 5 per cent., we have 
 05 X -4342945 = -0217147, the natural number corresponding 
 to which is 1-05127; consequently the amount of £100 at 5 
 per cent., on the hypothesis of momently payments for a 
 year, is £105-127= £105 2s. 6Jrf. nearly, exceeding the 
 amount at simple interest only by 2s. 6£<i!., which differs 
 very little from £ r 2 . 
 
 IN'TEKFE'RENCE. In Optics, a term first employed 
 by Dr. Young to express certain phenomena which result 
 from the mutual action of the rays of light on each other. 
 The phenomena in question are considered of very great 
 importance, and have accordingly been examined with great 
 care, on account of the proof which they are supposed to 
 give of the truth of the undulatory theory of light. 
 
 The phenomena may be thus explained : — Suppose two 
 minute pencils of light, radiating from two different lumin- 
 ous points, to fall on the same spot of a screen or piece of 
 paper, and making a small angle with each other. If the 
 *pot on which both pencils fall is at the same distance from 
 010 
 
 botli foci or luminous points, the intensity of the illumina 
 tion is greater than would have been produced by eithei 
 pencil alone. Now it has been found that there is a certain 
 difference between the lengths of the paths at which the in 
 tensity of illumination produced by their concourse is the 
 same as when the paths are equal. Call this difference d t 
 then it is also found by experience that similar bright bands 
 or fringes are produced when the difference between the 
 lengths of the paths of the two pencils is 2d, or 3d, or id, 
 &c. But it is very remarkable dint when the difference V- 
 tween the lengths of the two paths is ~d, ^,d, f d, &c, the 
 two pencils, instead of adding to each other* intensity, de- 
 stroy one another, and produce a black spot or fringe. The 
 two pencils thus act on each other, increasing the effect in 
 one case and diminishing it in another ; and it is this mutu- 
 al action which is called interference. 
 
 In order to study the phenomena in detail, Dr. Young ad 
 mitted a pencil of homogeneous light into a darkened chambei 
 through a hole made with a fine needle in a sheet of paper, onrt 
 observed at different distances the shadow of a thread or 
 opaque disc (the diameter of which did not exceed l-30th of 
 an inch) placed a little behind the opening. Having remarked 
 that the shadow received on a screen was divided by paral- 
 lel bands, of which that in the middle was always white, he 
 proved that the bands were produced by the interference of 
 the rays passing by the two sides of the thread or disc. This 
 was demonstrated by intercepting the light which fell on one 
 of the sides of the disc by means of a screen placed between 
 the disc and shadow, and allowing it to pass freely by the 
 other side, as represented in the annexed 
 figure ; in which O is the hole, A B the 
 disc, E F its shadow, and C D the interpo- 
 sed screen, the border of which receives 
 the shadow of the side B of the disc. The 
 instant the screen is brought within the 
 shadow of A B, all the fringes of the shad- 
 ow immediately disappear, although the 
 light inflected by the side of the disc A 
 continues to follow the same route as be- 
 fore; which necessarily supposes that it 
 receives some modification from the prox- 
 imity of that which passes by the side B. 
 
 The field of inquiry which had thos 
 been opened by the ingenuity of Dr. Young 
 was explored to a much greater extent by Arago and Fres 
 nel. Instead of the screen C D, Arago introduced the edge 
 of a thin plate of glass into the shadow of the disc, and 
 found that the luminous fringes received various modifica- 
 tions, according as the plate of glass was more or less thick. 
 When the plate was of a certain thickness, the central fringe 
 M was brought nearer to F, and the first dark fringe on the 
 same side occupied the place which had before been occu- 
 pied by the second; the second took the place of the third, 
 and so on. On the other side of M the appearance was the 
 reverse ; the third fringe took the place of the second, the 
 second of the first, and the first was brought into the middle 
 of the spectrum at M. On using glass a little thicker, the 
 displacement was doubled ; the first fringe fell upon the 
 place of the third, the second on that of the fourth, and so 
 on. This experiment of Arago proves that the mutual ac- 
 tion of the rays does not alone depend on a particular modi 
 fication which the rays receive at the boundaries of a body 
 which they graze in their course, but also on the different 
 media which they traverse from their source to the point 
 where they interfere. 
 
 Fresnel adopted a still more ingenious method of per- 
 forming the experiment. Having placed two plane metallic 
 mirrors in a vertical position, and so as to make a very ob- 
 tuse angle with each other, he concentrated, by means of a 
 lens of small focal length, a pencil of homogeneous light di- 
 rected horizontally, at a point so situated before the mirrors 
 that part of the diverging cone fell upon the one mirror and 
 part of it upon the other. The rays of light reflected from 
 the two surfaces being rendered convergent by the position 
 of the mirrors, again met each other at a small angle; and 
 at the point of intersection produced alternations of brilliant 
 and dark fringes. These fringes are parallel to the line of 
 intersection of the two mirrors, and on screening one of the 
 mirrors they immediately disappear. 
 
 In the experiment of Dr. Young and Arago it might be 
 supposed that the fringes were produced by some physical 
 action of the interposed body on the light ; but in Fresnel's 
 experiment the light is reflected in the usual way, and no 
 question can be raised about the influence of the body by 
 the borders of which it passes. The fdet is thus established 
 beyond nil doubt, that two rays of light, issuing from a 
 common source, and after pursuing a different path meeting 
 again under a small obliquity, exercise an influence on each 
 other to the extent of doubling the intensity of the light on 
 the one hand, or destroying it altogether on the other. The 
 phenomenon of the two rays of light neutralizing each othet 
 
INTERFERENCE. 
 
 nnd producing their mutual extinction, is one ol the most 
 remarkable in tiie whole range of physical science. Though 
 lira explained by Dr. Young, and established by Arago 
 and 1'resnel, it had formerly been observed and described by 
 Grimaldi. 
 
 The fact of the interference of the luminous rays having 
 been established, it was interesting to determine the con- 
 stant interval d, or difference between the lengths of the 
 paths of the two pencils at which the greatest effect is pro- 
 duced. This interval has been very carefully determined 
 both by Freanel and by Fraunhofer, and is found to be dif- 
 ferent I'er the different colours. The following are values 
 of d found by Fraunhofer for the different colours of the 
 Sjicctrum, expressed in decimals of an English inch : 
 Bed - - - d = 0-00002582 
 
 Orange yellow - - =0-000Ov!31'J 
 
 Green - - - =00000207.) 
 
 Blue - - - =000001 ill -J 
 
 Indigo - - - = 0-00001G1I2 
 
 Violet - - - =0-00001. r .7J 
 
 ■ ilues of d, being obtained by direct experimental 
 are Independent of any hypothesis respecting the propaga- 
 tion of light ; they are equally real, whether light be sup- 
 posed to be emitted from a luminous body, or produced by 
 the vibrations of an elastic medium ; or rather they are nu- 
 merical conditions which must be satisfied by any theory of 
 light which may be adopted. But the phenomena of inter- 
 re scarcely susceptible of probable explanation by 
 
 ; whereas, if we adopt the undula- 
 their explanation is remarkably simple. 
 Indeed, they atlbrd the most decisive reasons yet known 
 for adopting thai theory in preference to the other. Accor- 
 ding to the undulatory system, the phenomena arc thus ex- 
 it two luminous waves reach an ethereal molecule at the 
 same instant of time, it will receive two simultaneous im- 
 pulsions, ami the resulting motions will be directed in tin' 
 diagonal of the parallelogram of which the two sub ■ repre- 
 kiii the Impulsions ; consequently, if the component vcloci- 
 ■m are nearly in the same direction, the resultant will be 
 ■early equal to their sum; anil if they are in opiiosite di- 
 
 ■ qua! to their difference. Lei us now su] 
 
 that two vibratory movements, produced by a series of equal 
 ainl successive undulations Indefinitely repeated in an elas- 
 tic medium, are simultaneously experienced at the same 
 point, situated at any distance from their common centre; 
 3d, that alter having followed different paths, their direc- 
 tions at this point are sensibly confounded ; 3d, that in con- 
 sequence of the unequal lengths of the two paths, or of 
 their unei|ual velocities, the time which u wave takes to ar- 
 rive at the point by the first path (A) is shorter thnn that 
 which it takes to arrive at the second path (B). These sup- 
 positjor.s being made, it is evident that an ethereal molecule 
 situated at a point common to the two paths A and B will 
 begin to vibrate in consequence of the undulations propa- 
 gated slot the undulation which comes by B 
 reaches it; and when this second undulation does take ef- 
 fect, the motion of the ethereal particle will be increased or 
 dimini-hed according ns the new impulse conspires with or 
 - the former. Three cases may occur: 
 
 1. The difference of the lengths of the paths, or the dif- 
 ference of velocities may be such that tile wave coming by 
 the path B may reach the molecule at an interval of lime 
 after it has been affected by the wave coming by A precisely 
 equal to that of a semi-vibration. In this case, the \ ibraling 
 molecule having reached its limit of excursion on one side, 
 and about to return to the point of repose, would at that in- 
 stant receive an impulse constraining it to move in the op- 
 
 rection with the same veldtity. The coexistence of 
 the two systems of vibrations would therefore destroy the 
 motion, and the molecule would remain at rest. The same 
 thine will lake place if the dillerence of the lengths of the 
 paths or velocities is such that vibrations propagated along 
 B arrive at the intersection of the paths precisely 3-2, 5-2, 
 7-2, etc., of a period of und illation after those which come 
 by A. 
 
 2. The undulations propagated along B may arrive at the 
 molecide after those coming by A at an interval of time ex- 
 actly equal to that of a complete vibration, or of several 
 vibrations ; in which case the molecules would receive the 
 impulse of two vibrations conspiring together, and conse- 
 quently the velocity and amplitude of its excursions would 
 be doubled instead of being destroyed. 
 
 3. The interval between the two impulses may be neither 
 an odd nor an even multiple of the lime of a semi-vibra- 
 tion. In this case, the molecule will vibrate with a velocity 
 !«is8 than the double of that which it would have if each 
 impulse took place independently of the other. (HeracheVa 
 Treatise on Light, in the Ency. Metropolitana.) 
 
 It is a strong presumption in favour of the undulatory the- 
 ory of light, that it affords not only a complete and satisfac- 
 tory explanation of the whole of the phenomena of diffrac- 
 
 INTERMITTING SPRINGS. 
 
 tion, but also the means of submitting them to arithmetical 
 calculation. See Light. 
 
 I'NTERIM. (Lat. in the mean time.) In Modern Euro 
 Man History, the name given to a decree of the Emperor 
 Charles V., after the overthrow of the Protestant League 
 Of Smalcalde, in which he attempted to reduce to harmony 
 the conflicting opinions of the Protestants and Romanists 
 The use of the cap, however, and the marriage of the cler- 
 gy, were the only points which be conceded to the Reform- 
 ers ; and it became a question among them, and gave rise 
 to many serious disputes, whether they could conscientiously 
 submit even to a ti mporary decree of such a nature. The 
 enactments of the interim were intended only to remain in 
 full force till some definitive settlement could be made: 
 whence it derives the name by which it is generally known. 
 It received the force of law at the Diet of Augsburgh, in 
 1548. Its provisions against the Protestants were, however, 
 in most respects set aside by the treaty of Passau, 1552. (Sec 
 J\Iuslttim, vol. iv.) 
 
 I.VFERJE'CTION. In Grammar, a part of speech ex- 
 -iini'le einoii on, without involving any act of con- 
 ception. Sec Grammar. 
 
 LVPERLO CUTOR. (Lat. inter, and loquor, / apeak.) 
 In Literary phraseology, a ]« rson who is introduced as tak- 
 ing part in a dialogue ; in Dramatic literature, termed dra- 
 matia persona: the latter name, however, comprehends 
 such as appear on the stage but lake no part in speaking, 
 termed by the Greeks mute 
 
 INTERLO'CUTORY JUDGMENTS. In Law, such as 
 are given In the course of a cause upon any proceeding uris 
 ing out of it, and do not finally determine it: as the judg 
 meal in an action of damages upon which a writ of in- 
 quiry issues to assess such damages. So a decree in chan- 
 cery is either final or interlocutory.— In Scottish Law, a 
 judgment of the court of session, or lord in ordinary, which 
 if allowed to become final will be conclusive, is termed 
 interlocutor. 
 
 1'NTERLUDE. (Lat. inter, b.ticccn, and ludo, / plaf.) 
 A short dramati. illy accompanied with music . 
 
 properly, such as is represented or tierformed between the 
 acts of longer perform- 
 
 I'NTERMEDE, or INTERMEZZO. In Dramatic Lite- 
 rature, nearly the same with interlude. A short musical 
 piece, generally of a burlesque character ; but many, not in- 
 tended merely for introduction between the nets of a mora 
 serious performance, are comprised under these names bj 
 the French and halil 
 
 INTERMITTENT. Any disease which ceases for t 
 time and again returns, so that the patient is free from it at 
 the intermediate intervals. 
 
 INTERMITTING SPRINGS, are springs which nftei 
 having run for a certain time stop altogether, and after n 
 time begin to run again, and then stop, and so on alternately, 
 the Sowings and intermissions generally succeeding each 
 other at pretty regular intervals. These phenomena, which 
 often excite wonder in the ignorant, and have sometimes 
 even been ascribed to the influence of witchcraft, are ex- 
 plained on the principle of the siphon. Let A be n cavern 
 in a mountain, and a b c a channel commu- 
 nicating with A, and terminating in the 
 side of the mountain or adjacent plain ; 
 and let us suppose the cavern to be fed by 
 small streamlets of water, of which the 
 united supply is less than can be discharged 
 by the channel a b c. Let the cavern be 
 supposed empty. The water from the rills or fissures by 
 which it is fed will collect at the bottom, and as it rises in 
 the cavern will also rise in the channel a b till it reaches the 
 highest level b, when it will begin to flow out through b c 
 and by the property of the siphon will continue to flow tili 
 the whole cavern is drained to the level of a. The tavern 
 then begins to fill anew, and the same series of phenomena 
 is repealed at intervals, of which the length depends on the 
 relative capacity of the cavern and channel, and the abun- 
 dance of the supply through the fissures. When the supply 
 is constant, the intervals of intermission will be equal 
 Some springs of this kind do not cease altogether to flow, 
 but only discharge a much smaller quantity for a certain 
 time, and then a greater quantity. In this case they are 
 called variable, or reciprocating springs. They may be 
 caused by the circumstance of a smaller fissure connecting 
 the cavern with the lower part of the channel c, through 
 which a portion of water continues to flow while the main 
 discharge is stopped ; or there may be several siphons all 
 communicating with a common outlet. It is easy to imag 
 ine a combination of circumstances by which the discharge 
 of water will be greatly increased by the elastic force of ait 
 compressed at the top of the cavern A. This will take 
 place when the fissures which communicate with the exter- 
 nal atmosphere axe filled with water, and there is in conse- 
 quence no opening by which the air in the cavern can es 
 cape. The water will then be propelled through the chan 
 
 61 1 
 
INTERMODILLION. 
 
 ael with considerable force, or even raised in a jet, by the 
 very same principle as in the fountain of Hero. (See Mus- 
 schenbrock, Introd., t. ii., $ 2379 ; Desaguliers, Exper. Phil. 
 vol. ii., p. 173 ; Nicholson's Phil. Journ. xxxv., p. 17b ; Fer- 
 guson's Lectures on Select Subjects, by Brewster.) 
 
 INTERMODI'LLION. (Lat. inter, between, and modil- 
 lion.) In Architecture, the space between two rnodillions, 
 which is equal throughout the entablature. 
 
 I'NTERNODE. (Lat. inter, and nodus, a knot.) In Bot- 
 any, the space that intervenes upon a branch between the 
 leaves 
 
 INTERNU NTIUS, or INTERNUNCIO. An envoy of 
 the Pope, sent to small states and republics ; distinguished 
 from the nuncio, who represents the Pope at the courts of 
 emperors and kings. Also a species of diplomatic officers, 
 who ranked, according to the old practice, between ambas- 
 sadors and plenipotentiaries. Since the Congress of Vi- 
 enna, as no mention of internuncios is made in its rules, 
 they are considered on a level with plenipotentiaries. This 
 is (or lately was) the title of the Austrian envoy at Constan- 
 tinople. 
 
 INTERO'SSEOUS MUSCLES. Small muscles between 
 the metacarpal bones of the hand and the metatarsal of the 
 foot ; the former are concerned in moving the fingers, and 
 
 INTERPILA'STER. (Lat. inter, and pilaster.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, the space between two pilasters, which depends 
 entirely on the same rules as intercolumniation, and that 
 more especially if both are employed in the same building. 
 
 INTERPLE'ADER. In Law. A bill of interpleader, 
 in equity, is filed by a person who is under an obligation of 
 debt or rent to one of the parties to a suit in equity, but can- 
 not ascertain, until the determination of the suit to which 
 of the parties he is indebted ; and by this bill he desires 
 to interplead, in order that he may save himself harm- 
 less in the event of the success of either party. In the 
 common law courts, by 1 & 2 W. 4, c. 58, relief can be 
 given in some cases against adverse claims made on sher- 
 iffs and other officers, and persons having no interest in 
 the subject of such claims, by a judge's order calling on 
 the third party to appear and maintain or relinquish his 
 claim. 
 
 INTERPOLATION. In Algebra and Astronomy, is a 
 method employed for filling up the intermediate terms of a 
 series of numbers or observations, by numbers which fol- 
 low the same law. The general problem to be resolved is 
 this : Given two series of numbers, the corresponding terms 
 of which have some determinate relation to each other, 
 and of which the first is called the series of roots, and the 
 second the series of functions ; to find the function corres 
 ponding to any term in the series of roots from the numbers 
 in the series of functions which precede or follow that 
 which Is required. Thus, supposing the series of roots to 
 be the natural numbers 101, 102, 104, 105, and the se- 
 ries of functions to be the logarithms of those numbers ; 
 then the question may be to find the logarithm of 103 by 
 means of the logarithms of 101, 102, 104, and 105. In the lan- 
 guage of algebraists, the problem is to determine the value 
 of Yz-f-n in a function of the terms which precede or fol- 
 low Yj., 
 
 In Astronomy and Physics, interpolation signifies the 
 method of finding a mathematical law which will connect 
 together a number of observed facts. Thus, supposing 20 
 places of a comet have been determined by observation ; 
 these places are said to be interpolated when a curve de- 
 fined by an analytical equation has been found which passes 
 through them all ; for by means of this curve the place of 
 the comet at any intermediate time can be found. Accord- 
 ing to this view of the subject, the problem of interpolation 
 is altogether indeterminate ; for an infinity of analytic curves 
 of different forms may be found which will pass through 20 
 given points: but in general the circumstances of the ques- 
 tion impose such restrictions as render it determinate. In 
 the instance now given we know that the curve must be an 
 ellipse ; and as an ellipse cannot be made to pass through 
 20 points taken any how, the question resolves itself into 
 this : To find the ellipse which will most nearly pass through 
 the given points, or represent the given observations. Anoth- 
 er question now arises — what conditions must be fulfilled in 
 order that the observations may be represented most nearly ? 
 These conditions must be determined from other considera- 
 tions. Suppose the condition to be that the sum of the 
 squares of the errors of observation (that is, of the differ- 
 ences between the observed places of the comet nnd the 
 corresponding places in the orbit to be found) shall be a 
 minimum ; the problem is now quite determinate, though its 
 solution may be sufficiently difficult and laborious. 
 
 The method of interpolation by differences was first em-. 
 ployed by Briggs in the calculation of logarithms; but was 
 afterwards treated in a more general way by Wallis, New- 
 ton, Cotes, Stirling, and others. In the fifth lemma of the 
 612 
 
 INTESTINALIA. 
 
 third book of the Principia, Newton has given a solution of 
 the problem of determining the curve which passes through 
 the extremities of any number of ordinates. By modern 
 writers the subject is treated as a branch of the calculus of 
 finite differences. It is discussed at length by Laplace in 
 the 2d vol. of the Mecanique Celeste, and also in the Theorie 
 Analitique des Probabilites ; by Lagrange, in the Journal 
 de I'Ecole Polytechniquc, &c. See also the Treatise on Dif- 
 ferences and Series by Sir John Herschel in the Appendix 
 to the English translation of Lacroix's Differential and Inte- 
 gral Calculus, or the 3d vol. of Lacroix's large Treatise. 
 
 INTERRE'GNUM. (Lat.) The period between the 
 death of one king and the accession of another under the 
 Roman monarchy ; or, under the republic, the space of time 
 when there were, by some accident, no curule magistrates 
 who could hold the public assemblies of the people (com- 
 itia), during which an interrex was appointee See Intek- 
 rex. 
 
 I'NTERREX. A person appointed to discharge the royal 
 functions during a vacancy of the throne. The Romans 
 first elected an interrex after the death of Romulus, and the 
 custom was continued while the monarchy lasted. The 
 manner of their election was this : the senate chose ten 
 individuals out of its body, each of whom discharged the 
 functions of royalty for five days, in an order appointed by 
 lot. It has been supposed that these ten senators were not 
 elected, but they were the respective seniors of the ten de 
 curies into which the original body of patricians was divided, 
 and that this office devolved on them by virtue of their 
 rank. An interrex was also appointed sometimes under the 
 republic, to preside over elections of magistrates, &.c, when 
 the consuls were absent, or their election declared void and 
 no dictator had been created. 
 
 LNTERSCE'NDENT. (Lat. inter, and scando, I climb.) 
 In Algebra, a term applied by Leibnitz to quantities when 
 the exponents of their powers are irrational. Such expres- 
 sions are called interscendent, as holding a mean its it were 
 between algebraic and transcendental quantities. 
 
 INTERSE CTION. (Lat. inter, and seco, / cut.) In 
 Geometry, the meeting or concourse of lines or surfaces. 
 The intersection of two lines, or of a line and a surface, is 
 a point ; and the intersection of two surfaces is a line. 
 
 I'NTERTIE. (Lat. inter, and tie.) In Architecture, a 
 horizontal piece of timber framed between two posts in 
 order to tie them together. 
 
 I'NTERVAL. (Lat. intervallum.) In Music, the ima- 
 ginary distance between two sounds as respects their acute- 
 ness and gravity, called by the ancients a diastem. Inter- 
 vals are divided into simple and compound ; the former bfr 
 ing without parts or divisions, the latter consisting of seve- 
 ral smaller intervals. 
 
 INTERVENTION. (Lat. inter, and venio, I come,) In 
 Politics, the interposition of one state in the domestic affairs 
 of another. The right of armed intervention is one of the 
 most contested portions of the public law of nations ; as, 
 although practised frequently enough by the more powerful 
 with reference to the weak, it had never been regarded 
 otherwise than as a permitted abuse of power until the time 
 of the congresses of Vienna, Laybach, &c, when it was 
 publicly recognised by the leading cabinets of Europe. 
 
 INTE'STACY. (Lat. in the sense of without, and testor, 
 / testify.) In Law, the condition of a party who dies with- 
 out having made a will. Freehold lands and tenements in 
 which he has an estate of inheritance descend to his heir, 
 subject to such charges as affect real estate ; copyhold lands 
 of inheritance to the heir, by the custom of the manor ; chat- 
 tels must be distributed (subject to debts), by the party who 
 takes out letters of administration to the deceased's estate 
 and effects, according to the provisions of the Statute of Dis- 
 tributions. 
 
 INTESTINA'LIA, intestinal Worms. (Lat. intestina, an 
 intestine.) The name by which Linnaeus and Cnvier have 
 designated the class of animals which infest the interior of 
 other animal bodies, and which indicates their most common 
 locality, viz. the intestinal tube. 
 
 The knowledge of the intestinal worms, as a distinct class 
 of invertebrate animals, is of a very late date. In the 
 twelfth edition of the Systema Natures, 1787-8, only eleven 
 species of true Entozoa are enumerated, and of these only 
 six are placed among the Intestina— Gordius medinensis, As- 
 caris vermicularis, Jlscaris lumbricoiles, Fasciola hepatica, 
 Fas. intestinalis, and Fas. barbata ; the remaining species, 
 viz., Hydra hydatula, Ttenia solium. Tan. vulgaris, Tain. 
 lata, nnd Tan. canina, are ranged with the Zoophyta. 
 Bloch's Treatise on the Generation of Intestinal IVorms, 
 and the succeeding work of Goeze, entitled Versuch einer 
 Naturgeschichte dcr Eingcweidewiirmer Thierischer Kiir- 
 pcr, 1782, added Largely to the number of the described 
 species, and led to the foundation of some accurately de- 
 fined groups, and better ideas of classification. Gmelin, 
 availing himself of the labours of these authors, and com- 
 bining with them the species described by Redi, Pallas 
 
 
INTESTINALIA. 
 
 O. F. Miillcr, and Werner, was enabled to give two hundred 
 and ninety-nine species of fntestinalia, in the thirteenth 
 edition of Linne's Systcma JValura : but of thi3 labour it 
 ha< been justly remarked, "Gmelinus, auctorum plurimo- 
 runi observationes congessit, sed tarn judicio et experientia 
 (flam solertia destitutus, plurima miscuit et implicuit, ut in 
 lynonimis ab eodem per|)eram allegatis, extricandis, C. A. 
 tluilolphi et Zcderus multum desudaverint." 
 
 The first clear definition of the intestinal worms as a class, 
 md their distribution into a system of orders and genera, 
 ire contained in the great work by Rudolphi, entitled Ento- 
 U)orum seu Vtrmium Inlestinalium Historia JVaturalis, 
 ivo. 180&-10. In this work, Rudolphi, after dividing the 
 great class femes, of Linnaeus, into four classes, viz. Mo- 
 lucca, Gymnodela, Entozoa, and Phytozoa, characterizes the 
 third class as follows : " Entozoa ergo classem, ant h mavis 
 ordmem sistunt peculiarem continentem, aiiis in animati- 
 ons obvia, oculis nudis eonspicua, verms carentia, partibus 
 intn-nis dissimilibus instructa." Of the class of animals 
 actcrized, Rudolphi enumerates, in a subsequent 
 work. Synopsis Entozoorum, 181'J, upwards of eleven hun- 
 dred t/mkm. At the present time nearly double that num- 
 ii ■■< "l Entozoa are known. 
 
 Kiidolphi distributes the intestinal worms into five orders, 
 which are characterized as follows: 
 
 Order I. jYematoidea (Round- worms). — Char.: Body elon- 
 gated, rounded, elastic; an intestinal canal, with a sepa- 
 rate mouth and vent ; sexes distinct. 
 Order II. Acanthoerphala (Hooked-worms). — Char.: Body 
 roundish, utricular, elastic; head with a retractile pro- 
 boscis, armed with hooks or recurved spinel ; - 
 tinct. 
 Jnler III. Trematoda (Fluke-worms). — Char.: Body soft, 
 ; mi nded, or flattened; suctorial pores; male and female 
 organs in the same individual- 
 Drdei 1 V. Ccaioiilm ('rape-worms). — Char.: Body elongated, 
 flattened, soft, continuous, or articulated : head either 
 simply labiated, or provided with pits (bothria), or suc- 
 torious orifices, either two or four in number; male and 
 female organs in the same individual. 
 Order V. Cystica (Hydatids). — Char.: Body flattened or 
 rounded, continued posteriorly into n cyst, which is 
 sometimes common to many individuals; head provided 
 with two or four pits, or with four suckers, and with a 
 circle of hooklets, or with four unarmed or unciunted 
 tentacles; sexual organs hitherto indiscernible. 
 The F.ntozoa which are included in the last tour orders 
 Of Rudolphi have no distinct intestinal canal; and Cuvier 
 considered the presence of this structure in the JfematoUM 
 of Rudolphi of sufficient Impo r ta nce to form the character 
 Of a primary group, equivalent to all the remaining orders 
 combined ; and he observes that the orders thus distinguish- 
 ed might form two classes. 
 
 The first order Cuvier terms Cavitaim ; and he includes 
 in it not only the Nematoid Entozoa, but also the genus 
 I'entastoma of Rudolphi, and the Epizoa, or Vers rigiduies, 
 of Lamarck. 
 
 The organization of the Pentastamata. which were defined, 
 prior to Rudolphi, by Froelich. under the name of Lingvo- 
 tula, unquestionably entitles them to rank with the highest 
 organized Entozoa (see Zoological Trans., vol. i., p. 381, pi. 
 41); but, with respect to the Epizoa, or the external Ler- 
 aasan parasites of ashes, although they agree with theJVosia- 
 loidea and all other Entozoa in the absence of distinct res- 
 piratory organs, yet the ciliated natatory extremities v. hlch 
 they possess in the young state, and the external ovarian 
 appendages of the adult, are characters which raise them 
 above the Entozoa, and indicate their intimate relations with 
 the Siphonostomous Crustaceans. 
 
 1 have, therefore, combined the JVematoidra of Rudolphi 
 with the genera IAnguatula, Porocephalus, and Syngamus, 
 &.C which, under the habit of Cestoid or Trematode worms, 
 mask a higher grade of organization, to form a class under 
 the name of Calelmintha. This class already embraces the 
 types of three different orders, of which one is formed by 
 the JYematoidea of Rudolphi; and a second has been estab- 
 lished by Uiesing, for the IAnguatula, and o her congeneric 
 Under the. name of Acanlholhcca. The remarkable 
 organization of the genus Syngamus, as described bySieboId, 
 clearly indicates the type of a third order of Caldmintha. 
 (3ce that word.) 
 
 The four orders of Intestinal worms which have no dis- 
 tinct intestine, but in which the digestive function is carried 
 on in blind canals, excavated in the parenchymatous sub- 
 stance of the body, Cuvier combines into a group, which he 
 terms Vers intestinaux parenchymal nix, and for which I 
 have proposed the name of Sterelminlha. (See that word.) 
 This group Cuvier subdivides into three families, or or- 
 ders ; die first corresponding to the Jlcanthocephala of Ru- 
 dolphi, the second to the Trematoda, and the third being 
 equivalent to the Ccstoidea and Cystica combined ; with the 
 exception of the genus IA'jula of Bloch, of which Cuvier 
 SB 
 
 INTRORSES. 
 
 makes a fourth order, restricting to it the application of Ru 
 dolphi's term Ccstoidea. To this distinction it must be ob- 
 jected that the passage from the Tienim to the IAgulce is 
 rendered very gradual by the traces of bothria and of gen 
 erative organs, which make their appearance in the higher 
 organized Ligulas which infest the intestines of certain 
 aquatic birds, and respecting which Rudolphi hazards the 
 following ingenious hypothesis; viz., that these species are 
 actually the more simple Ligulas of fishes, developed into a 
 higher grade of organization by virtue of the warmth and 
 abundant nutriment which they enjoy in the intestines of 
 the birds that have swallowed the fishes so infested. To 
 the conjunction of the hydatids with the tapeworms no 
 sound objection can be made ; the structure of the Tttrar 
 hynchi and Anthocephali, on the contrary, shows how uu 
 natural is the separation of the Cestoid from the Cystic En 
 tozoa. The Cysticcrcus fasciolaris may be regarded as the 
 point of transition, or of conjunction, between the two groups. 
 The head in Grnurus and Echinococcus presents the form 
 and structure of that of T<eni ; and the head of the T,trar- 
 hynckus, the proboscis exempted, precisely reseii.' 
 of the Echinococcus, although the Tetrarhynchi neither in- 
 habit a vesicle, nor terminate in a vesicle. The Cystica np- 
 I>ear, in fact, to be incomplete Ccstoidea; both consist at 
 first of a simple cyst, like the Jlcrphalocyst ; but both pro- 
 ceed to develope therefrom a suctorious and uncinated head 
 from which the Ccstoidea proceed to develope not only 
 ova, but genernuve organs, in successive segments, which in 
 some species, as the liothriocrphalus punclatus, seems to be 
 annually shed and reproduced. 
 
 Thus, the intestinal worms, as at present known, form two 
 classes, each divisible into three orders. 
 
 ClaSS I. CcELELMINTHA. 
 
 Order 1. Jfcmatoida. — Ex. : Filaria medinensis, FilocuU. 
 Fit. broncliialis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Jlsc. \ 
 laris, Tricocephalus dispar, Spiroptera hominis, Slruu 
 gylua gigas. Strong, spiniger. Trichina spiralis. 
 
 Order 2. JlcantltotUeca. — Ex. : IAnguatula lanioidts. 
 
 Order 'A. Syngamoidta.—V.\. : syugamus trachealis. 
 
 Class n. Sterelmintha. 
 Order 1. Acanthocephala. — Ex.: Echinarhynchus gigas. 
 Order 2. Trematoda.— Ex.. : JDistoma hepaticum, Polystoma 
 
 pinguicola 
 Order 3. T<£nioidea.—£x.: Bothriocephalus latus Tama 
 solium, Cysticcrcus cellulosa, Echinococcus hominis. 
 
 The examples quoted are species which infest man, with 
 the exception of those belonging to the orders, Acanthotkcca. 
 Syngamoidea, and Acanthocephala, which have no repre- 
 sentatives among the human internal parasites. For the 
 parts of the body which these latter infest, the reader is re- 
 ferred to Entozoa. 
 
 INTE'STTNE. The convoluted membranous and mus 
 Cular tube extending from the pylorus to the anus. It is 
 distinguished into small and large intestines: the former in- 
 cluding the duodenum, the jejunum, and the ileum ; the lat- 
 ter the ctBeum, colon, and rectum. The small intestines have 
 internal membranous folds, called valvule conniventes ; tin- 
 large have three parallel muscular bands upon their sin 
 face. The intestines admit of separation into three coats 
 the external, membranous or peritoneal ; the middle coat. 
 muscular; and the inner otie, villous. They are attached 
 to the body by the mesentery. The structure of the intes- 
 tinal canal in different animals is wonderfully adapted to its 
 required functions, dependent upon the nature of their food 
 and other circumstances. Of these peculiarities the princi- 
 pal are adverted to under the titles of the animals in which 
 thev occur. 
 
 INTONATION'. (Lat. in, and tonus, a tone.) In Music. 
 the act of sounding with the voice the consecutive notes of 
 the scale, or in any other given intervals. To do this cor 
 rectly is the first qualification of a good singer. It is scarce- 
 ly practicable without the assistance of a good ear, as well 
 as a reference to some common idea, such as the key or 
 mode wherein a piece is written. From the word tone, 
 sometimes used in a sense almost identical with that of key, 
 the word has its origin. The musical definition of this 
 word in Todd's edition of Johnson's Dictionary, is absurd- 
 ly given as "the act of singing together." 
 
 INTRA'DOS. The interior and lower line or curve of 
 an arch. The exterior or upper curve is called the cxtrados. 
 See Arch. 
 
 IN'TRE NCMMEXT. In Fortification, any work thai 
 fortifies a post against the attack of an enemy. It moe 
 usually denotes a ditch or trench with a rampart. 
 
 I'NTROIT. (Lat. introitus, entry.) In Ecclesiastica; 
 Antiquities, the verses chaunted or repeated at the first en- 
 tering of the congregation into the church ; a custom as old 
 as the fourth century: called "ingressa" in the Ambrosiar, 
 Ritual. (Palmer, Origines J 'Aturgica, ii. 19.) 
 
 INTRO'RSES. (Lat. introrsum, inwards.) Turned ir. 
 
 613 
 
INTRUSION. 
 
 INVESTITURE. 
 
 wards A term used in describing the direction of bodies, to • time, how many men will be required to cut down 6 acres 
 denote" their b^,^ turned towards the axis to which they in the same time?" belongs to the direct rule the quantity 
 auoena n thuV in mo*i plaatt the anthers are introrse, be- ! of work done being directly proportional to the number of 
 
 erta aed towards thTsiyie. i men employed ; but the question 
 
 if 20 men do a piece of 
 
 INTRU'sToS (Lat. intrudo, / thrust upon.) In Law, work in G days, in what time will 40 men perform the 
 i suec-ies of ininrv to freehold property. It arises when a same 7" is one of inverse proportion, for more men will do 
 -5m*«7 intrudes between the death of tenant for life or the work in less time, or the number of men required is in 
 
 Stranger intrudes between 
 
 year- and the entry of the heir of a remainder-man or rever 
 sioner expectant on the estate for life or years, who had 
 died previous to the decease of such tenant for life or years. 
 Writ of intrusion lies only for a party who has the remainder 
 or reversion in fee : remainder-man in tail has remedy by 
 formedon. See Fki*-Tail, Formedon. 
 
 INTUITION. (,Lat. intueor, / look into.) In Philoso- 
 phy, any act of the mind by which a truth is immediately 
 perceived, and as it were beheld, without any previous pro- 
 cess of analysis or ratiocination. Such, according to Kant, 
 are the fundamental propositions of geometry ; as that " two 
 straight lines cannot inclose a space." &c. 
 
 I'NTUSSUSCE'PTION. (Lat. intus, within, and sus- 
 ceptio.) In Anatoinv, a term applied to the folding or pass- 
 ing of one portion of intestinal canal into another. 
 
 I'NULLN. A white powder deposited by a decoction of 
 the roots of the Inula helcnium or elecampane. In its 
 chemical properties it appears intermediate between gum 
 and starch. .^ 
 
 INUNDATION. (Lat. in, and unde, a wave.) In Agri- 
 culture, lands which are overflowed by water from natural 
 causes uncontrolled by art, are said to be inundated: when 
 hi consequence of the exercise of art and skill, the result is 
 termed irrigation. 
 
 INVALl'DS. (Lat. invalidus, weak.) Those soldiers or 
 sailors who, either on account of wounds or length of service, 
 arc admitted into hospitals, and there maintained at the 
 public expense. The practice of making provision for sol- 
 diers worn out or disabled in the public service dates from 
 high antiquity. The liberality of Pisistratus to the Athenian 
 soldiers is known to every scholar; and the history of an- 
 cient Rome is replete with instances of the veterans of the 
 legions being rewarded with grants of land. It must be ad- 
 mitted, however, that in ancient times such recompencos 
 had not their origin in that high philanthropic feeling by 
 which the moderns are actuated in making provision tor 
 military and naval invalids; for they were granted only 
 after victory, and emanated more from individual power or 
 favour than from any general or established principles of 
 uenevole:.ce. In modern times there is no civilized country 
 without institutions for the maintenance of invalids ; but the 
 most magnificent are, without question, the Greenwich and 
 Chelsea hospitals in England, and in France the H6tel des 
 luvalides. 
 
 IN VE'NTION. (Lat. invenire, / find.) In the Fine 
 Arts, the choice and production of such objects as are proper 
 to enter into the composition of a work of art. "Strictly 
 speaking," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, " invention is little 
 more than a now combination of those images which have 
 been previously gathered and deposited in the memory, 
 nothing can come of nothing: he who has laid up no ma- 
 terials can produce no combinations." Though there be 
 nothing new under the sun, yet novelty in art will be attain- 
 able till all the combinations of the same things are exhaust- 
 ed — a circumstance that can never come to pass. 
 
 INVE'NTION OF THE CROSS. A festival celebrated 
 Mav 3d, in the Roman Catholic church, in honour of the 
 finding of the cross on which our Saviour was executed. 
 The search was instituted by order of St. Helena, mother 
 of the Emperor Constantine, A.D. 326 : and the cross ac- 
 cording to St. Cyril, was found among the ruins of Mount 
 Calvary. 
 
 I'NVENTORY. (Lat. Invenio, I find.) A catalogue of 
 movables. See Executor. 
 
 I'NVERSE METHOD OF FLUXIONS. The method 
 Of finding the fluents of given fluxional expressions. It is 
 the same with the integral calculus. 
 
 I'NVERSE METHOD OF TANGENTS. The method 
 of finding the curve whose tangents are lines drawn accord- 
 ing to some determinate law, or which fulfil some given 
 condition. For example, suppose rays of light, issuing from 
 a luminous point to fall on the concave surface of a sphere, 
 mid to be thence reflected ; the problem may be proposed to 
 Jelermine the nature of the curve to which all the reflected 
 rays in any given plane are tangents. Problems of this kind 
 require the application of the integral calculus ; and hence 
 the method by which they are solved is called the inverse 
 method of tangents, as opposed to the direct method, viz., 
 that of finding the tangent to a curve which is performed by 
 the differential 'alculus. 
 
 INVERSE PROPORTION, in Algebra and Arithmetic, 
 is the application of the rule of three, or proportion in a re- 
 verse or contrary order. This is usually described by say- 
 fng that less requires more, or more requires less. Thus, 
 the question, " if 20 men cut down 3 acres of corn in a given 
 614 
 
 versely as the time. The question may be stated in this 
 manner, _* : ^L ; ; G ; and the answer is 3. 
 
 I'NVERSE RATIO. The ratio of the reciprocals of two 
 members. See Inverse Proportion. 
 
 INVE'RSION. (Lat.) In Rhetoric and Philology, ths 
 transposition of words out of their natural order. Every 
 language has a customary arrangement of its own to regulate 
 the order of succession in which words forming part of the 
 same sentence, member, or proposition follow each other. 
 On the other hand, there is undoubtedly a natural or philo- 
 sophical order of words following each other in the same 
 analytical succession in which ideas present themselves to 
 the mind, varied occasionally by that produced by the suc- 
 cession of sentiments or emotions ; and as in every language 
 many customary phrases, if not the general arrangement of 
 the words, are contrary to this primitive order, every Ian 
 guage has customary inversions of its own. Deviations from 
 the customary order of words are more commonly called 
 transpositions ; but each word has, of course, a relative and 
 somewhat arbitrary signification. As an instance of ordinary 
 inversion, it may be observed that, according to the meta- 
 physical or analytical order, the subject of a proposition pre- 
 cedes the predicate, being the first idea which presents itself 
 to the mind. Thus, in the construction of a sentence con- 
 taining a proposition (sec Logic), " Solon is wise," or 
 "Alexander reigns," we habitually follow the order of na- 
 ture. But when a substantive and adjective in connexion 
 form part of a sentence, i. e., a subject or predicate, or a part 
 of either, the substantive is that which seems naturally to 
 present itself first to the mind; whereas in most modern 
 languages it follows the adjective, while in the Greek and 
 Latin its ordinary although not its necessary place was be- 
 fore it: "Who is a wise man 1" " Vir bonus est quisi" 
 "The end of a long silence." " Finis siientii diutunri." It 
 is in general to be observed, that modern languages admit 
 far less readily than ancient of transposition ; but there are 
 considerable differences in this respect between modem Ian 
 guages themselves. German admits much latitude, French 
 very little. In our own language we are frequently able to 
 vary the analytical order by following what may be termed 
 the Order of emotion, where a French writer could not do 
 so: thus In the proposition "Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
 sians," it would be impossible, in French, to give the force 
 which is added to the expression by the transposition of the 
 predicate to the beginning without violating the habitual 
 rules of construction. A similar instance of inversion is to 
 be found in the Swedish and some kindred languages, in 
 which the article follows instead of preceding the noun. 
 
 Inversion. In Music, the change of place between two 
 notes of an interval ; that is, placing' the lower note an oc 
 tave higher, or the higher note an octave lower. 
 
 IN VE'RTEP. RATES, Invertelrrata. (Lat. in, priv.; ver 
 tebra, a joint of the back-bunc.) The animals which are de- 
 void of vertebra?, or an internal bony skeleton : and which 
 include the Molluscous, Articulate, Nematoneurous, and 
 Acrite sub-kingdoms. Lamark's primary division of the ani- 
 mal kingdom into Vertebrata and Invrrtcbrata corresponds 
 with that proposed by Aristotle into ICnaima and Jlnaima. 
 It is, however, subject to the same objection as applies to 
 most of the Dichotomous systems in Zoology; viz., that the 
 two members of the division are not equivalent to each 
 other. The Invertebrata, for example, contain three if not 
 four primary divisions of the nnimal kingdom, each of which 
 are equivalent to the Vertebrata. 
 
 INVE'RTED ARCH. In Architecture, one wherein the 
 lowest stone or brick is the pi pi r 
 
 key-stone. It is used in A U M~ 
 foundations, to distribute 
 the weight of particular 
 points, such as A A A, over 
 
 the whole extent of the foundation, and hence its employ- 
 ment is frequently of the first importance in constructive 
 
 IN VE'STITURE. In Feudal Law. the delivery of a fiel 
 by a lord to his vassal, accompanied by peculiar ceremonies. 
 (See Feudal System.) The investiture of a bishop was, 
 properly speaking, his endowment with the fiefs and tem- 
 poralties of the see. Hence it became a subject of contest 
 between the popes and emperors, and one of the principal 
 grounds of the great quarrel of Guclfs and Gliibellines. It 
 was conceded by the emperors to the Roman see in 1122; 
 but the question was ended by a substantial compromise, 
 which left the nomination in reality in the hands of the 
 temporal prince in European monarchies under the lloman 
 Catholic religion. (See Hallam's Middle Ages ; Raumcr y » 
 
INVOCATION. 
 
 History of the Hohenstauffen ; Giesclcr's Text Book of Ec- 
 I fori/, vol. H. ; Mosheim's Keel. History.) 
 
 I.W'i )C VTION (Lat. invoco, / call upon), in Literature, 
 signifies, in a general sense, an address at the commence- 
 ment of a poem, preferred to the Muses or some other Being 
 supposed capable of giving inspiration. Thus, while the an- 
 cient poets generally addressed their invocations to some 
 part'cular muse or divinity, Milton invokes the " Heavenly 
 Mu.--.; ' and the "Holy Spirit;" and, in his Henriade, Vol- 
 taire calls to his aid " auguste Verite." For the chief rules 
 of poetical invocation, see the Vict, de Richelct, and the 
 Diet, de 'a Conversation. 
 
 INVOCATION OP' SAINTS, to Theology. Accord- 
 ing to Protestant writers, the veneration of saints and mar- 
 tyra Increased rapidly t hr ough ou t the 4th century; hut their 
 invocation as intercessors with the Divinity did not general- 
 ly commence much before, the 5th. (See Motkeim, h., 39, 
 102, ed. 1896, transl. ; flieselcr, i.,283, transl.) The follow- 
 ers of Origen are said to have been the first "who apostro- 
 phised the martyrs in their sermons, and besought their in- 
 ." Prayers for the saints among other departed 
 spirits were discontinued about the .V.li century, on the prin- 
 ciple laid down by Saint Augustine, "Injuria eat pro mar- 
 tyre orarc cujus sol debemui orationibus commendari." 
 See Martyrs, Saints. 
 
 PNVOIOB. A list or account of goods or merchandise 
 
 MM by merchants to their correspondents at home or abroad. 
 
 in which the peculiar marks of each package, with their 
 
 provision, charges, and other particulars, 
 
 ' urn. Diet.) 
 
 DWOLUCE'LLUM. (Lat.) In Botany, the secondary 
 involniriim surrounding one of the umbcllules of an um- 
 belliferous (lower, or the (lords of n capitulum. 
 
 LU'CROM. (Lat.) In Botany, a term having three 
 significations: 
 
 1. A ring of bracts surrounding one or many flowers. 
 
 2. In describing fens to denote the superincumbent cuticle 
 
 coveriiiL' the 
 
 3. In describing r</ui$etaee<s, to denote the cases of re- 
 
 productive organs. 
 PNvOLUTE, in the Higher Geometry, U) a curve con- 
 ceived to be described by the extremity of a string unwind- 
 t'n m 'lie arc of another curve alx>iit which it lias 
 been lapped. All curve., in which the curvature is neither 
 infinitely great nor Infinitely small, may be generated in this 
 way by the evolution of a thread In in another curve, which 
 is called the rrolute of the new curve. See Evolvte. 
 
 The method of generating curves by evolution is a geo- 
 metrical theory invented by lluygens, and given in his 
 Horoli'aiinn Ostillatorium, where he shows that the invo- 
 k cycloid Is another cycloid equal to the original one ; 
 and he applies this property to the practical purpose of caus- 
 ing a pendulum to vibrate in the arc of n cycloid ; in which 
 mother remarkable property of that curve, the vi- 
 brations are performed in equal times, whether the arc of 
 vibration be great or small. 
 
 INVOLUTION, in Arithmetic and Algebrn, is the meth- 
 od of finding any power of an assigned quantity ; and is the 
 reverse of evolution, which denotes the method of finding 
 the root of any quantity, which Is considered os a power of 
 that root. 
 
 The successive powers of any quantity are found by the 
 continual multiplication of the quantity itself. Thus, taking 
 'he number 5, we have 
 
 5 = 5', the first power or root, 
 
 5x5 = 52 or 25, the second power or square, 
 
 5X5X5 = 53 or 125, the third power or cube, 
 
 and so on ; whence we see that the number of multiplica- 
 tions required to raise a number to any power is one less 
 than the number of the index by which the power is ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 In algebra, simple quantities nre involved by multiplying 
 the exponents of the symbols by the index of the power re- 
 quired, and raising the coefficients to the same power. 
 Thus the cube or third power of 2 a2 x is 8 a6 x3. Com- 
 pound quantities are involved in the same manner M num- 
 bers by a continual multiplication of the quantity itself, or 
 more generally and expeditiously by means of the binomial 
 theorem. 
 
 I'ODINE. (Gr. twrtjc, violet-coloured.) A substance dis- 
 covered in 1812 by M. Courtois of Paris. In this country it 
 is usually prepared from kelp, which is lixiviated with wa- 
 ter ; and when the erystalllzable salts have been separnted, 
 the mother liquors are mixed with sulphuric acid and black 
 oxide of manganese. On the application of heat the iodine 
 rises in the form of a dense violet-coloured vapour, which 
 by condensation forms steel gray crystals looking like mica- 
 ceous iron. The specific gravity of iodine is between 4 and 
 5; when dry it fuses at 227°, and boils and evaporates in 
 purple fumes at 345°. When heated with water it distils 
 over at temperatures below 212°. The specific gravity of its 
 
 IONIC PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 vapour Is about 8-7, so that 100 cubic inches would weigh 
 nearly 270 grains. Iodine belongs to the electro-negative 
 supporters of combustion. It has an acrid taste, and a pecu- 
 liar odour somewhat like that of chlorine. It is an irritant 
 poison ; but in small doses, and cautiously administered, it 
 has occasionally been of great service in certain forms of 
 glandular disease. It is very sparingly soluble in water, of 
 which it requires 7000 parts for its solution ; the colour of 
 the solution is brown ; it dissolves copiously ii. alcohol aud 
 in ether, and forms dark-brown liquids. It possesses strong 
 powers of combination, forming, with the metals, a class of 
 compounds called iodides; with oxygen it forms the iodic 
 acid, and perhaps one or more oxides. Combined with hy- 
 drogen, it forms the hydriodic acid. Its equivalent number 
 is lJti, and that of the hydriodic acid 127. Starch is a Char- 
 acteristic tc-t of the presence of free iodine, forming with it 
 a compound of a deep blue colour. It is so delicate that a 
 solution of starch dropped into water containing less than a 
 400,000th part of iodine, is tinged blue by it; but the solu- 
 tions must be cold, for the blue compound is soluble in hot 
 water. The great consumption of iodine is in medicine; it 
 is employed in its pure state, and in the firm of iodide of 
 potassium, which is obtained by dissolving iodine in a solu- 
 tion of pure potash, evaporating to dryness, and fusing the 
 residue. This compound is sometimes called hydriodate of 
 potash. 
 
 POLITE. (Or. or, violet.) A mineral of a violet blue 
 by transmitted light; it occurs crystallized, and in small 
 grains nnd i' ' 
 
 NIC DIALECT, the most euphonious of the four 
 written varieties of the Creek language, was s[x>kcn by the 
 inhabitants of the Ionian Islands, and in their colonial pos- 
 - in Asia Minor. It was originally the same as the 
 Attic dialect, at least they boasted of a common origin ; but 
 from the extensive commercial intercourse of the Ionians 
 with the eastern nations, their language gradually imbibed 
 
 a portion of Asiatic effeminacy, which at length became its 
 
 chief characteristic, forming a striking contrast to that com- 
 bination of strength and harmony which distinguished the 
 dialect of Attica. The chief writers in the Ionic dialect are 
 Herodotus, Hippocrates, and Galen: but it is i:i the wri- 
 tings of the first that the most complete specimen is to be 
 found. 
 
 lO'MC ORDER. One of the five orders of architecture. 
 Whose distinguishing feature is the volute of its capital. 
 In the Grecian Ionic the volutes appear the same in the 
 front and rear, being connected on the Hanks by a baluster 
 like form: through the external angles of the capitals of the 
 corner columns, however, a diagonal volute is introduced. 
 The Romans gave their Ionic four diagonal volutes, nnd 
 curved the sides of the abacus. The Greek volute contin- 
 ues the fillet of the spiral along the face of the abacus, 
 whereas in the Roman its origin is behind the ovolo. lu 
 some Grecian specimens a 
 neck is added below the 
 echinus, sculptured with 
 (lowers and leaves. The 
 height of the column is 
 about nine diameters, and 
 the base varies considera- 
 bly in different examples. 
 When a pedestal is MM it 
 is somewhat higher nnd 
 more ornamental than tho 
 Doric pedestal. The < 
 usually made the entabla- 
 ture of this order very sim- 
 ple. The architrave has 
 two fascia-, the frieze plain, 
 nnd the cornice of few sub- 
 divisions; but the modern 
 Ionic is seldom with less 
 than three fascia?, the frieze 
 is often cushioned, nnd the 
 cornice is deeper and not 
 unfrequently modillioned, 
 its profile being much vari- 
 ed. The dentil is also much 
 used in the bed mouldings. 
 The shaft is cut with twen- 
 ty-four flutes separated by 
 fillets. Some of the most celebrated examples of the orier 
 are the temple on the llyssus, of Minerva Polias at Athens 
 Priene, Bacchus nt Teos, Apollo Didyma;us at Miletus, For 
 tuna Virilis and the Coliseum nt Rome. The profile above 
 given is after Palladio. 
 
 IO'NIC PHILOSOPHERS. The earliest among the 
 Greek schools of philosophy. Speculation arose In Greece, 
 as elsewhere, in the attempt to discover the laws of outward 
 phenomena, and the origin and successive stages of the 
 world's development. Such an attempt, it is needless to 
 say, must at first have been extremely rude. To tho student 
 
 615 
 
IPECACUANHA. 
 
 of ;>hilosophicaI literature, however, no such undertaking, 
 however unsuccessful, can possibly be otherwise than inter- 
 esting ; and in this instance in particular we are able to dis- 
 cover manifest traces of that liveliness of thought and sys- 
 tematic spirit which distinguish the later Greek speculations. 
 The fathers of the Ionic school were Thales and his disci- 
 ple Anaximenes. They were succeeded in the same line of 
 thought by Diogenes of Apollonia, and Heraclitus of Ephe- 
 sus. The characteristical mark which distinguishes the 
 speculations of these thinkers is the endeavour to refer all 
 sensible things to one original principle in nature. The two 
 first named were satisfied with a very simple solution of the 
 pro! lem. Water with the one, and air with the other, were 
 made the original materials out of which all things arose, 
 and into which they were finally resolved. In their suc- 
 cessors the germs of a more philosophical doctrine are appa- 
 rent They retain, indeed, the simplicity of an original ele- 
 ment ; but the air of Diogenes and the fire of Heraclitus are 
 apparently only sensible symbols, which they used only in 
 order to present more vividly to the imagination the energy 
 of the one vital principle which is the ground of all outward 
 appearances. It would indeed be a mistake to regard these 
 philosophers as materialists. The distinction between ob- 
 jective and subjective, between a law operating in the uni- 
 verse, and the corresponding apprehension of that law by 
 reason, however obvious it may seem at the present day, 
 seems to have required the deep meditation of numerous 
 powerful thinkers to bring it into clear consciousness. 
 
 That the two ihings were confounded by Heraclitus is ev- 
 ident from his attributing to this universal fire the attributes 
 of a universal reason — the source at once of the order in the 
 world, and of the insight into that order possessed by man. 
 Notwithstanding this confusion, the discovery is due to him 
 of the important truth, that "reason is common to all men ;" 
 that the ultimate principles of science derive their validity 
 from their universality; a truth the value of which is not 
 diminished by our finding it combined with the physical hy- 
 pothesis to which we have alluded. 
 
 The philosophers enumerated above may he considered as 
 forming one division of the Ionic school. They agree in re- 
 garding the universe as the result of the spontaneous evolu- 
 tion of a single principle or power ; and all sensible things 
 as modifications of this principle, real only in reference to 
 their ultimate ground. But we meet also with a class of 
 thinkers in whom the contrary tendency prevailed. Anax- 
 imander (B.C. 590) and Anaxagoras, the master of Pericles, 
 agree in this respect, that they consider the world to be made 
 up of numberless small particles, of different kinds and of 
 various bhapes, by the change in whose relative position all 
 phenomena are to be accounted for. This hypothesis is 
 combined by Anaxagoras witli a Supreme Reason, the au- 
 thor of all that is regular and harmonious in the disposition 
 of these elementary atoms. Anaxagoras may indeed be 
 considered as the first philosopher who clearly and broadly 
 stated the leading distinctions between mind and matter. 
 For a statement at once luminous and accurate of the lead- 
 ing peculiarities of this philosopher's doctrines, and those of 
 his predecessors, the reader is referred to Bishop Thirl wall's 
 admirable History of Greece, vol. ii., chap. 12. The stu- 
 dent who wishes for more minute information may consult 
 Brandis and Ritter's Histories of Philosophy, of the latter of 
 which a translation has appeared at Oxford. (See especi- 
 ally book iii.) See also a collection of the Fragments of 
 Heraclitus in Wolf and Buttman's Museum of Antiquities, 
 Bd. I., stck. 3 ; and the Memoires de VAc. des Inscriptions, 
 vol. xvii. 
 
 IPECA'CUA'NHA. The root of the CephaeHs ipecacu- 
 anha. This important article of the Materia Medica is the 
 produce of South America ; it is in short wrinkled pieces, 
 covered with a gray or brownish gray epidermis, and hav- 
 ing a centra! woody fibre, surrounded by a pale gray corti- 
 cal part, in which its virtue resides. It has a nauseous 
 odour, and a repulsive bitterish taste. It is difficultly redu- 
 cible to powder, and the dust which it throws off while tin- 
 ier the process of pulverization is apt to excite great irrita- 
 tion of the respiratory organs. From fifteen to twenty 
 grains of powdered ipecacuanha root taker, in an ounce of 
 water is one of the safest and surest emetics ; in doses of 
 from one to three or four grains it is a nauseant ; and in 
 smaller doses, repeated every four or six hours, as from a 
 fourth of a grain to a grain, it is expectorant and diaphoretic. 
 It contains from twelve to sixteen per cent, of emetin, to 
 which its medical activity is referable. When long boiled 
 with water its emetic power is diminished, but the decoction 
 is aperient. There are several varieties of ipecacuanha, 
 some of which arise from modifications of soil and climate ; 
 others appear to be the roots of distinct plants. 
 
 IRIDA'CE^E. (Iris, one of the genera.) A natural order 
 of herbaceous Endogens inhabiting the Cape and some other 
 places. It differs from Amaryllidacra; essentially in being 
 triandrous, with the anthers turn°d outwards ; from Orrhi- 
 dacca. in not being gynandrous nnd from Zingibcraceas 
 616 
 
 IRON. 
 
 and Maranlacea, in having three putect stamens. Ths 
 species are more remarkable for their beautiful flowers than 
 for their utility. The substance called saffron is the dried 
 stigmata of the Crocus sativits. The various species of Irit. 
 -hcia. Gladiolus, Tigridia, Crocus, &c, are among the fa 
 vourite flowers of the gardener. 
 
 Htl'DIUM. (Lat. iris, the rainbow, in consequence of the 
 variety of colours exhibited by its solutions.) A metal dis- 
 covered by Dr. Wollaston, associated with the ore of plati- 
 num. It is gray, brittle, very infusible, and its specific grav- 
 ity is about 18-6. It forms several oxides and chlorides, an I 
 combines readily with carbon. 
 
 IRIS. (Gr. lj><s.) In Grecian Mythology, the personific a 
 tion of the rainbow. She also performed the duties of a 
 messenger to Jupiter and Juno. 
 
 Iris. A name for the rainbow. See Raini av. 
 
 Iris. In Anatomy, the anterior part of the choroid coat 
 of the eye, with its central perforation, called the pupil ; the 
 posterior part or back of the iris is called the uvea. The 
 term iris is applied to that t.art of the eye on account of its 
 various colours. See Eyv.. ' 
 
 IRI TIS. Inflammation of the iris of the eye. 
 
 I'RON. A metal known from remotest antiquity, of a pe- 
 culiar gray colour, r.nd possessing when polished much lus- 
 tre. It is not ve/y malleable, but extremely ductile, and 
 very tenacious At common temperatures it is hard and un- 
 yielding ; but at a red heat it is soft and pliable, and at a high 
 red heat it may be united to another piece equally heated 
 by hammering them together: this process is called weld 
 ing. The specific gravity of pure iron is about 7-7. Its tex- 
 ture is fibrous; it is very difficult of fusion, requiring for 
 that purpose the highest temperature of a wind furnace. It 
 is attracted by the magnet, and is itself susceptible of being 
 rendered magnetic, a property possessed by no other metal 
 except nickel. Another remarkable circumstance in the 
 history of iron is, that it has only hitherto been found native 
 (that is, in its pure metallic state), in stones and masses ap- 
 parently of meteoric origin ; for the accounts of other forms 
 of native iron are doubtful. In combination with oxygen 
 and with sulphur, and occasionally with oilier substances, 
 it is very abundant in the mineral world, and is found in 
 small quantities in many animal and vegetable substances. 
 Those minerals which contain iron so combined as to be 
 employed as sources of the metal for the purposes of the arts 
 and manufactures are more exclusively termed the ores of 
 iron; and among them the different oxides of iron, and the 
 carbonate, either pure or in combinaiion with various earthy 
 matters, forming the clay ironstone of our coal districts, are 
 the most important. The red oxide, and the black oxide 
 (ferrosoferric oxide of Berzelins), are also valuable ores. 
 The finest Swedish iron is chiefly procured from the purei 
 oxides, and especially from the native blaok oxide or mag- 
 netic iron ore, nnd is reduced by charcoal ; in this country 
 clay ironstone is chiefly resorted to, and it is reduced by coke. 
 
 There are two kinds of iron, known in commerce under 
 the names of cast and wrought iron. Theie are also two 
 principal varieties of cast iron, distinguished by the terms 
 white and gray. The first is very hard and brittle, and 
 when broken of a radiated texture: gray iron is softer and 
 less brittle, nnd may be bored and turned in the lathe. The 
 varieties of cast iron are also very different in their chemical 
 composition ; some much purer than others: they often con- 
 tain traces of sulphur, phosphorus, silicinm, calcium, man- 
 ganese, and always more or less oxide of iron and carbon. 
 The purer kinds of cast iron, which arc chiefly carburets of 
 iron, may be converted into malleable iron by heating them, 
 surrounded by pure oxide of iron, by which the carbon is 
 gradually extracted in the form of carbonic oxide : it is thus 
 that horse shoes, and other articles, such even as knives, 
 scissors, snuffers, &c, are fashioned by casting, and nfter- 
 wards purified by the curious process just noticed. The 
 cast iron manufactured in this country is converted into bar 
 or malleable iron, chiefly by process called puddling, which 
 consists in subjecting it to the continued action of heat in a 
 reverberatory furnace, where, as soon as it melts, it is stirred 
 about till it gradually becomes less and less fusible, and at 
 length grows tough and pulverulent. During this part of 
 the process the mass heaves and emits a blue flame, in con- 
 sequence of the burning off of some of its impurities; the 
 fire is then so far increased as to agglutinate the metal into a 
 mass, which, intensely heated, is transferred to a pi wrrful 
 rolling-mill ; as it passes successively through the rollers, a 
 large quantity of impurities, chiefly its earthy ingredients 
 in combination with oxide of iron, are squeezed out in the 
 form of a fluid slag, and the iron is extended into mnlleabl* 
 bars; these are cut into pieces, placed in paiceis or faggots 
 in a very hot furnace, and again hammered or rolled into 
 bars ; they thus become more tough, flexible, and malleable, 
 but much less fusible, and may now be considered as nearly 
 pure inn. 
 
 When iron is heated red-hot with the free access of air, I 
 underg >es a slow combustion ; that is, it combines with th 
 
IRON. 
 
 oxygen of ihc air, and is converted into a black fusible jub- 
 stauce, as la seen when a bar of white-hot iron is beaten 
 i/pon the smith's anvil, the scales which fly off in brilliant 
 combustion producing the black oxide of iron. When n thin 
 piece of iion is introduced red-hot into oxygen gas, or when 
 a current of oxygen is directed upon it, it burns with great 
 splendour, throwing off brilliant sparks, and becoming rapid- 
 I. When tiits black oxide, or when metallic iron is 
 Uj air and moisture, or heated for a long tune in con- 
 - converted into a brown oxide, famil- 
 . I ly known as rust of iron. When Iron is acted upon by 
 dilute sulphuric acid, it decomposes the water of the acid, 
 nies converted into a protoxide of iron, which is 
 . i-.rii u" by the acid, and yields a green solution; from 
 ...noli on evaporation, green crystals may be obtained of 
 ! trun, commonly known as green vitriol. 
 an from the analyses of these compound* that the 
 .. uiiber 28 may be assumed as the equivalent of iron, and 
 protoxide (existing in green vitriol and in the pro 
 nun generally) is constituted of 1 atom of iron ^ 
 I of OXygCH =8, Sad 111 consequently represented 
 i[iivalen. number 28 -f- 8 = 30 ; that the brown or 
 . or peroxide of iron, consists of 28 iron and IS OX- 
 i is represented by the equivalent 40; and that 
 the native oxides, and, generally speaking, the 
 iron, are a definite combination of the above pro- 
 I iH:roxide, containing 2 atoms of protoxide and 1 
 oxide. 
 i be most efficient tests of the presence of Iron in water, 
 olatiuo generally, are the tincture of galls, which 
 ■ purple or dark blue tint in liquids containing 
 ite proportions of iron, or a black precipitate where 
 is more abundant; and the ferrocyanalc of potash, 
 which pr in blue under similar cirrinnsianrrs. 
 
 < II the combinations of iron, steel is, perhaps, the most un- 
 formed by healing pure iron in contact with 
 a compound of iron Willi a small proportion 
 nl carbon. .v« Steel. 
 
 of this valuable metal are too well 
 - ion n to require being pointed out ; and no one can doubt 
 iscovcry has done more perhaps than anything else 
 ue the advance of mankind in the career of im- 
 provement "It accommodates itself," as Dr. Ure has ob- 
 •• i ved, " to all our wants, our desires, and even our caprices ; 
 il is equally serviceable to the arts, the sciences, to aL'ricul- 
 . |re and war ; the same ore furnishes the sword, the plough- 
 ■rutre, the pruning hook, the needle, the graver, the spring 
 of a watch or of a earnagc, the chisel, the chain, the mi- 
 thor, the compass, the cannon, and the bomb. It is a medi- 
 i ine of much virtue, and the only metal friendly to the bu- 
 llion frame. The ores of iron are scattered over the crust 
 l llie globe with a liencficent profusion, proportioned to 
 the utility of the metal ; they are found under •very latitude, 
 every zone, and in every mineral formation; and they are 
 ited in every soil. But though iron is the most com- 
 mon of the metals, it is by far the most difficult to obtain in 
 a state fit for use ; and the discovery of the method of work- 
 's to have been posterior to the use of gold, silver, 
 ami copper. It would be vain to attempt to investigate the 
 Steps by which men were at first led to practise the processes 
 required to fuse it, and render it malleable ; but that the inven- 
 tion of these curious arts Is of a very early date, is evident 
 from the fact that Tubal Cain, but a short time after the 
 creation, was "an instructor of every artifice in brass and 
 iron." In most instances, the profane historians of antiquity 
 have either attributed the discovery of iron and its uses to 
 their divinities, or they have deified those to whom they 
 supposed they owed the blessings of so valuable a discovery. 
 At what period iron began to be made in this country there 
 i :is of ascertaining ; but there is authentic evidence 
 to show that iron works were established by the Romans in 
 the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and in other parts of 
 the kingdom. (Pennant's Wales, vol. i., p. 89, ed. 1810.) 
 They were also established at an early period in Kent and 
 Sussex ; but it was not till after the celebrated invention of 
 Lord Dudley in 1619, by which pit coal was substituted for 
 timber in the smelting of iron ore, that a great impetus was 
 given to tbe working of this valuable mineral ; an invention 
 which, though interrupted and clogged for a time by the de- 
 n ignorant rabble, at last established for itself a sure 
 footing both in this and in every other European country. 
 Prom 17-i0 (the period at which Lord Dudley's invention be- 
 > rally adopted) the progress of the manufacture has 
 exceeded the most sanguine expectations; and though we 
 
 bav i means of ascertaining the exact quantity produced, 
 
 the subjoined estimates will show at once the value of the 
 manufacture, and the unexampled rapidity of its growth 
 during the last century. In 1740, the quantity amounted, in 
 England and Wales onlv, to 17,000 tons; in 1750, to 22,000; 
 to 68,000; in 1796, to 125,000; in 1806, to 250,000; in 
 I --'i i. to 400.000; in 1827, to 690,000; and in 1840, to up- 
 wards of 1,000 000 tons. 
 
 IRREDUCIBLE CASE. 
 
 IRON PYRITES. Yellow sulphurctof Iron. A bi-sui 
 phuret of iron, composed of 28 iron + 32 sulphur. It is a 
 very common and abundant ore of the metal ; hitherto it 
 has only been used for the production of sulphate of iron, or 
 green vitriol ; but attention has lately been turned to it as a 
 source of sulphur. 
 
 I'RONY. (Gr. lifwvtia ! from hpwv, a dissembler.) In 
 Rhetoric, the quality of style and ot sentiment which Aris- 
 totle designates by the term hptivtia. is Somewhat different 
 from that which bears the same title in modem phraseology 
 being, in fact, only a subdivision of it. Eironeia, in Ins sense 
 of the word, is an artful representation of qualities or things 
 as less than they really are. Thus, among the various char 
 acters of the human mind as given by him, the cipuv (iron) 
 is one who all'ectedly conceals or depreciates his own go d 
 qualities. Uuintilinn gives to rhetorical irony a far more 
 general sense, terming it diversiioquium, or the use of ex 
 • ontrary to the thoughts of the speaker. Healsodis 
 tinguishes it into two species, treating it as a trope or figure of 
 speech where the opposition of thought to language extends 
 only to a few words ; a figure of thought, whi 
 ti whole passage or discourse. The Socratic irony is em- 
 ployed in argument when one speaker atlccls to lake the posi- 
 tions of the other for granted, in order adroitly to lead him 
 Into self-contradiction or obvious absurdity. In the ordinary 
 sense, irony is a more delicate species of sarcasm, by which 
 praises are bestowed where it is intended to convey the op- 
 posite sense of disapprobation; or assent is notified Where tin- 
 real object is to express dissent 
 
 IRRADIATION, in Physics and Astronomy, is the phe- 
 nomenon of the apparent enlargement of an objei I 
 illuminated. The impression produced by light on the retina 
 appears to be extended, though to an extremely small dis 
 tance, round the focusof the rays concentrated by the leases 
 of the eye. Hence the image of a star is never a point, but 
 a disc having a sensible diameter, and larger in proportion as 
 the light is more intense ; and hence also the luminous part 
 of the moon nt her first quarter appears larger than the 
 other. This effect, which Is termed irradiation, results evi- 
 dently from the very nature of the organ of vision. 
 
 IRRATIONAL. In Arithmetic and algebra, a term ap- 
 plied to numbers or quantities of « Inch the roots are incom 
 mensurable with unity, and therefore cannot be ai 
 extracted. Thus the root v/2 is irrational, because it cannot 
 be expressed by any finite number. It the side of a square 
 = 1, then y/i is its diagonal ; and it is proved by elementary 
 geometry that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable 
 with its side, irrational quantities are also called sur<l.i. 
 
 IRREDU'CIBLE CASE, in Algebra, Is that particular 
 case in the solution of a cubic equation in which Cardan') 
 celebrated formula contains an imaginary expression, and 
 therefore fails in its application. This circumstance oc 
 casioned great BlUbaitHSSIIient to the early analysts, and 
 all the eflbrts of their successors lo overcome the difficult) 
 in a direct way have proved unsuccessful. In order tii 
 show in what it consists, let the proposed cubic equation 
 be z'-j-ai-ft^O; then, by Cardan's rule, we have i-- 
 
 (- he + v^3+T*) i + (- 4 c - j^oJ+JTy. 
 Now, if in this expression a is negative, and JL a 3 is greater 
 than £ cl ; then ^ a 3 + $ c* will be a negative quantity, 
 and consequently the extraction of its square root will be 
 impossible, or the expression VV* <* a + 4 c 2 will be imagin- 
 ary. But it is known from the theory of equations that every 
 cubic equation must have at least one real root ; and it is a 
 circumstance not a little remarkable that those cubic equa- 
 tions in which this imaginary expression occurs have not 
 only one real root but have all the three roots real. 
 
 It is possible to disengage the expression for the value of 
 x from the imaginary quantities by expanding it by the bi- 
 nomial theorem ; for the imaginary quantities, which will be 
 the same in both the resulting series, will be positive in the 
 one series and negative in the other ; and therefore, on add- 
 ing the series together, they will be eliminated. But the 
 series which results from this addition will very' rarely be 
 convergent ; consequently this method is of no use whatever 
 Various indirect methods of finding the roots have been pro- 
 posed ; the following is one of the simplest : 
 
 Let y 3 — q y = r be the proposed equation. Find in the 
 trigonometrical tables an arc a whose natural cosine is 3 r 
 v/ 3 -j- 2 q yj q ; then tile three roots of the proposed equation 
 are, 
 
 y = 2 N /£oX cos-ia. 
 
 y= — 2,/i? X sin. £ (90O -u„ 
 
 2, =— 2^/4? X sin. i (90O + a). 
 
 These formula apply, whether r be positive or negative; 
 
 but when r is negative, it is more convenient to choose the 
 
 arc a such that its natural sine tedr^S-i-'Zq •/ ?, and the 
 
 three roots are then 
 
 CI" 
 
IRREGULAR CADENCE. 
 
 y = 2^/i<j X cos. i (9(P + a), 
 y = — 2^/bqXcos. £ (90O— a). 
 Bee the article "Algebra," by Professor Wallace, in the 
 Ency. Britannica. 
 
 IRRE'GULAR CADENCE. In Music, one which does 
 not end upon the essentia] chord of the mode in which a 
 Diece is composed. See Cadence. 
 
 IRRIGATION. (Lat.) The art of watering lands arti- 
 ficially, and by means of surface drams or channels, as con- 
 trasted with watering by manual labour. In Britain, and in 
 analogous climates, irrigation is almost exclusively applied 
 to grass lands; but in warmer climates, such as those of 
 Italy, Syria, India, &c, irrigation is considered as essential 
 to the production of large crops in every description of field 
 and garden culture. When any surface is to be irrigated, 
 the supply of water which is to be used for tills purpose is 
 conductod to the highest part of that surface, and from thence 
 it is led over it in open gutters, so as to run very slowly, and 
 sink into the earth as it proceeds. As in general no very 
 great extent of surface can be irrigated at once, different parts 
 of a field or farm are irrigated in succession; and in coun- 
 tries where this practice is universal, it often happens that 
 one source of supply is common to two or more farms, the 
 occupiers of which have it on alternate days. In the south 
 of France and Italy, abundant crops cannot be produced 
 without in igation. Even the potatoe crop and madder are 
 irrigated in the neighbourhood of Avignon ; and in Tuscany 
 wheat, maize, beans, turnips, and every other crop that can 
 be sown in drills in the fields, is watered from artificial chan- 
 nels. The practice is as old as human civilization, and some 
 of the first machines which we read of in history are those 
 for raising water from the Nile for irrigating the lands on its 
 banks. Water, in short, is to the agriculture of warm cli- 
 mates, what manure is to the cultivator of temperate regions. 
 It is not altogether a substitute for manure ; but as in temper- 
 ate regions water without manure would be of little use, so 
 in warm regions manure without water cannot be rendered 
 fit for bein ! .■■.... " v the roots of plants. 
 
 ISBRA' HKL In Ecclesiastical History, a n^me of the 
 Russian sect of Raskolniks (Mosheim, vol. v.) 
 
 FSCHIUM. 'Gr itrx'Si t!lc l° in ) So called from its 
 proximity to the loin. It is one of the bones of the footal 
 pelvis, and a part of the os innominatum in the adult. 
 
 ISCHU'RIA. (Gr. iox<*>< IretJiin, and ovfov, the urine.) 
 Retention of urine 
 
 1'SINGLASS. A very pure form of gelatine, prepared 
 from certain parts of the entrails of several fish. The best 
 : s derived from the sturgeon, and is almost exclusively im- 
 ported from Russia, twisted up in rolls or formed into cakes, 
 which are afterwards torn into shreds or cut into fine shav- 
 ings in this country. Good isinglass should be free from 
 smell and taste, and perfectly soluble in boiling water. 
 
 1'SIS. One of the chief deities in the Egyptian Mythology. 
 Wis difficult amid the mass of contradictory assertions to as- 
 cortnin the real origin anil attributes of this divinity ; for 
 while the Egyptians themselves are said to have confined 
 l heir worship chiefly to Isis and Osiris (quod vide), the Greek 
 and Latin writers, though exceedingly discrepant in details, 
 fcssert broadly that these two divinities included, under differ- 
 ent names, the whole pagan mythology. It would be futile 
 in this place to trace the attempt of the Greeks to identify 
 Ista wi:h L>, the daughter of Inachus, whom they represent 
 to hi; ve been introduced into Egypt under the form of a cow, 
 and in that shrpo worshipped by the inhabitants of the coun- 
 try. By thb Egyptians themselves Isis was regarded as the 
 sister or sis'er-.viffc of Osiris, who concurred witli her in the 
 endeavour to po!<sh and civilize their subjects, to teach them 
 agriculture, and severtd other necessary arts of life. Among 
 the higher and mure philosophical theologians, she was 
 made the symbol of Pantheistic divinity : see especially the 
 remarkable passage at the end of the Golden Jlss of Apu- 
 leius. By the people she was worshipped as the goddess of 
 fecundity, and in her honour an annual festival was insti- 
 tuted which lasted seven days. The cow was sacred to her. 
 She was represented variously, though most usually as a 
 woman with the horns of a cow, and sometimes with the 
 lotus on her head and the sistrum in her hand. Her priests 
 were bound to observe perpetual chaslity ; but on her wor- 
 ship passing into foreign countries, her rites became merely 
 a cloak for sacerdotal licentiousness, which at Inst reached 
 such a pitch that they were prohibited at Rome ; and Tiberius, 
 in the hope of annihilating them forever, ordered the images 
 of the goddess to lie thrown into the river. The worship of 
 Isis, however, was afterwards revived, and furnished an am- 
 ple theme for the indignant pen of Juvenal. The Isiac Ta- 
 ble in the Turin Museum, which was so long supposed by 
 the learned to represent the mysteries of Isis, " has been 
 judged by Champollion to be the work of an unitiated artist 
 little acquainted with the worship of the goddess, and proba 
 bly of the age of Hadrian." (Orcuzer's Mythol. ; Plutarch's 
 G18 
 
 ISOPERIMETRICAL FIGURES. 
 
 Treatise on Isis and Osiris, &c. &c. ; an Essay by Dt 
 Montfaucon, Hist, de VJic. des Inscr., vol. xvi., which cop 
 tains a summary of the Grecian learning on the subject, 
 Mem. de I'Jlc. des Inscr., xxxiv. ; and Quart. Rev., July 
 1840.) 
 
 Isis. (Isidas proclamos, a marine plant, like coral, ac- 
 cording to Pliny.) The name of a genus of jointed coral, in 
 which the joints are composed of substance resembling horn 
 
 1'SLAM, or ESLAM. The religion of Mohammed. Tlw 
 body of the faithful, and the countries wherein it is profess- 
 ed, are so termed by the Mohammedans. The original word 
 is said to signify submission to God. All those who profi ss- 
 ed the true religion and the unity of God, before the arrival 
 of Mohammed, tire considered as comprised in the charade, 
 and privileges of Islamism. The Mufti of Constantinople, 01 
 chief minister of religion in Turkey, bears the title of Sheikli 
 ul-Islam. 
 
 ISLAND. (Lat. insula.) A tract of land encompassed 
 with water, whether of the sea, a river, or a lako ; in con 
 tradistinction to continent or terra firma. 
 
 ISLANDS OF TilE BLESSED. (Insula? Beatomm, 
 Fortunate Insula; ; Nnooi Manapwv.) According to the 
 Grecian Mythology, the Happy Islands, supposed to lie west- 
 ward in the ocean, whither,- after death, the souls of the 
 virtuous were transported. In the early mythology of the 
 Greeks, the Islands of the Blessed, the Elysian fields, and tht 
 infernal regions, were generally confounded with each other. 
 See Elysium. 
 
 ISMAE'LIANS. A Mohammedan sect who derived theit 
 name from maintaining the pretensions of Ishmail, the son 
 of Jaafar, to the rank of Imam, to the exclusion of Moussa, 
 who was adopted by that saint. They consequently rejected 
 tlie'clnims of Moussa ;\r.d the five subsequent Imams. The 
 Ismaelians formed a secret association, founded in the 10th 
 century of the Christian era by Abdallah, a Persian. From 
 them originated the famous society of the Assassins. ( Tay- 
 lor's Hist, of Mohammedanism, p. 225; Mem. de VJic. des 
 Inscr., vol. xvii. ; " Secret Societies of the Middle Ages," pub- 
 lished in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, 1837.) 
 
 I'SOCffROMATlC. (Cr. taoi, equal, and ypCoua, col- 
 our.) Having t. 3 same ci lours. In certain 01.,.' imenta 
 with doubly refracting crystals, the decomposed light forms 
 a double series of coloured rings or curves of different forms, 
 arranged in a certain order, each curve in the one series hav- 
 ing one corresponding to it both in form and colour in the 
 other. The two curves or lines which have the same tint 
 are called isochromatic. (See Herschel's Treatise on Light, 
 in the Ency. Metropolitan a.) 
 
 ISO'CHRONAL, or ISOCHRONOUS. (Gr. «™?, and 
 XPoivs, time ; performed in equal times.) Two pcnduliuns 
 which vibrate in the same time are isochronal ; or the vibra- 
 tions of a pendulum In the curve of a cycloid are so, being 
 all performed in the same time, whether they are to be large 
 or small. Isochronal lines are those along which a heavy 
 body descends with a uniform velocity. 
 
 ISO'DOMUM. (Gr. 100s, nnd 6ou>h structure.) In An- 
 cient Architecture, a species of walling, in which all the 
 courses were the same height. 
 
 I'SOLATED. (Fr. isole, from the Ital. isola, Lat. insula, 
 an island.) In Electrictity, a body is said to be isolated 
 when it is surrounded by non-conductors, or bodies to which 
 it cannot communicate its electric virtue, except by induction. 
 Bodies may be isolated in various ways ; by suspending them 
 by means of silken cords ; by placing them on a cake of wax, 
 resin, 01 sulphur, or on a stand of glass or dry varnished 
 wood, &c. 
 
 ISO'MERISM. (Gr. taos, and iicpog, part.) Compounds 
 which contain the same elements in the same ratio, and yet 
 exhibit distinct chemical qualities, are said to be isomeric. 
 The cyanic and fulminic acids are isomeric compounds of 
 nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon. The distinctions thus arising 
 are probably referable to the different ways in which the 
 same elementary atoms are grouped in the compound. 
 
 ISOMORPHISM. (Gr. iaos, and uop<j>n< form.) Sub- 
 stances which resemble each other in their crystal line forms 
 but differ in their component parts, are said to be isomor- 
 phous. Thus the phosphate and Diphosphate of soda have 
 the same form, or are isomorphous, with the arseniate and 
 binarseniate of soda ; and in regard to other bases, such as 
 potash and ammonia, each arseniate has a corresponding 
 phosphate possessed of the same form. In these cases there 
 is necessarily an analogy in the atomic constitution of the 
 compounds, which are observed to possess the same number 
 of equivalents of acid, alkali, and water of crystallization, 
 and differ in nothing except that the one series contains aa 
 atom of arsenic, and the other an atom of phosphorus. 
 
 I's?OPE'KIME'TRlCAL FIGURES (Gr. uros, and ncfi 
 p-crpov, ch.-umferevee), arc such cs Live equal pevirxeters o- 
 circumferences. Tl>o term, kopenn;«>tv.'ciil problems, i ; 
 mortem annlys, ! s, desi^nau's c v«.'y jxom. vt a».d i.'ficii 
 class ?f pobfsms, tho BC-!ntka <><" v> \h.N i.-qt'-ft U •«. u,- 
 cation of a peculiar analysis. Tha gcue. 11 oiVMv'^ \ li« 
 
isoroDA. 
 
 Among ill! curves bavins the some length, to determine that 
 of which gome assigned propeny is n maximum or a mini- 
 mum ; for example, among all curves having the same peri- 
 meter, to find that which has the greatest area. This is the 
 simplest question of the kind, and the curve to which the 
 property belongs is proved by elementary geometry to be a 
 circle. 
 
 In all isoperimctrical problems there are two conditions to 
 be fulfilled ; according to the first of which a certain proper- 
 ty is to remain constant, or to belong to all individualsof the 
 spt cies ; and according to the second, another property is to be 
 tl-e grtntest \l least possible. In the problems of this kind 
 wlir , first attracted the particular attention of mathemati- 
 CLBQS, the constant quantity was the perimeter of a certain 
 curve ; and hence the origin of the term, which is now applied 
 to all problems indilferently in which the question is to find 
 curves having a property of maximum or minimum, with or 
 Without the condition of equality of perimeters. 
 
 James Bernoulli was the tirst who discovered the true prin- 
 ciples on which questions of this kind depend, and the cir- 
 cumstances which render the ordinary methods of maxima 
 and minima inapplicable to them. The immediate subject 
 of his researches was the problem of the llrachysiochrone 
 (see the term), or curve of quickest descent, celebrated in the 
 early history of the calculus on account of the controversy to 
 which it gave rise between the two brothers, Jftmef and John 
 Bernoulli. The analysis of the former, Analysis magni 
 Problcmatis Jsoperinutrici, was published at Basic in 1701, 
 and ia the Leipsic .lets of the same year. Solutions wire 
 afterwards given by Taylor in his Methodus Incrcmrntorum ; 
 by J •dui Bernoulli in the Memoirs of the Academy of Hi ^ 
 for 1718; and by Kub-r in the I'ltcrsburg Memoirs. Euler 
 after.' complete and general solution of the 
 
 problem In Ins Metkodu* Inviendi I.tnexs Curvas Maxiini 
 Mini Us gaudentes, a work of which Lagrange 
 
 lid thai there is perhaps no other which ran be of more 
 use to those who wish to exercise themselves In the integral 
 calculus. The method, however, which is followed in this 
 work hits been superseded by the invention of the calculus 
 
 imetrical pro..!. 
 one of the n applications. (Lagrange, Lecons 
 
 ■!r.i Ii'iirtmns ; Woodhouse, Un Isoperimetri- 
 
 eal Probtt m$ : Lacroix, Traiti du Calcul Dijj'erentiel et In- 
 
 liri/'s Tracts, <$-c.) 
 
 iSi i T< IDA- (Gr. taus, and rows", afoot.) The name of 
 
 an order of Crustaceans, comprehending those which have 
 
 the legs all alike, and adapted only for locomotion and pre- 
 
 l - ; < iPCrDIFORM. ThelnrvoeofSaprophngousHexapods 
 are so called, which have an oblong body, a distinct thoracic 
 shield, and a vent provided with filaments .>r lamina'. 
 
 Or. taoi, and -nvp.fire.) In Mineralogy, a 
 silicate of alumina, lime, and peroxide of iron, found near 
 the granite of BL Just, near Penzance in Cornwall. It is a 
 black amorphous substance, occasionally variegated with 
 gray or red spots or streaks, slightly translucent. Its specific 
 in :t. 
 LiE8. (Gr. iroq, and aKtjKoc, leg.) In Geome- 
 try, an isosceles triangle is that which has two equal sides. 
 Among the properties of isosceles triangles, one is that the 
 angles at the base are equal ; and as the demonstration which 
 is given of this proposition in Euclid's Elements, where it 
 stands at the very commencement, is somewhat intricate and 
 puzzling to beginners, the proposition has been called the 
 pons asiniiruni. 
 
 [SOSTE'MONOUS (Gr. 100c, and ornpuy, a stcmen), in 
 Botany, in expressing the proportion that' one part hears to 
 another, denotes that the stamens are equal in number to 
 the petals. 
 
 ISOTHE'RMAL. (Gt. htos, and ${pn„, heat.) In Physical 
 Geography, isothermal lines are those which pass through 
 those points on the surface of the earth at which the mean 
 annual temperature is the same. Isothermal zones are spaces 
 on opposite sides of the equator having the same mean tem- 
 perature, and bounded by corresponding isothermal lines. 
 On account of the irregular form and disposition of the con- 
 tinental masses, by which the climate of different places is 
 greatly influenced, the isothermal curves are not parallel to 
 the equator, excepting in the very low latitudes. According 
 to Humboldt, the isothermal line which corresponds to the 
 temperature of 32° of Fahrenheit, passes between Ulea in 
 Lapland, Int. 06°, and Table Bay on the coast of Labrador, 
 lat. 54°. The Isothermal line of 41° passes near Stockholm, 
 I at. 59J~ and St. George's Bay, Newfoundland, lat. 48°. 
 line of 50° passes through the Netherlands, lat. 51°, 
 and near Boston in the United States tit. 42£°; that of 59° 
 ■ en Rome and Florence, lat. 43°, and Raleigh in North 
 Carolina, lat. 30°. In all these cases we see that the iso- 
 thermal lines, in passing from tho western side of the conti- 
 nent of Europe to the eastern coast of America, deviate very 
 Considerably towards the south; the deviation, in one case, 
 
 ITCH. 
 
 amounting to 1 li° of latitude. In passing over the American 
 continent, they again recede to the northward ; and in Cali- 
 fornia, and to the north of that peninsula, along the western 
 side of the continent, the annual temperature is nearly the 
 same as under similar latitudes in the west of Europe. From 
 the western to the eastern side of the old continent, the 
 flexure of the isothermal curves and the diminution of the 
 mean annual temperature under the same parallels, are not 
 less conspicuous. The isothermal line of 55° passes through 
 Nantes, lat 47°, andPekin, Utt.30g°. Edinburgh and Hasan 
 (in the east of Russia) have the same latitude ; but the mean 
 annual temperature of the former is 48°, while that of the 
 second is below 38°. For the different causes which affeel 
 the parallelism of the isothermal lines, or which produce the 
 differences of the mean annual temperature of places under 
 the same parallel of latitude, sec Climate. 
 
 Humboldt gives the name of isothcral lines [woe, and 
 Scpos, summer) to the curves passing through those places 
 at which the mean summer heat is the same ; and of isochi- 
 mcnal (taoc, and xciixmv, winter) to those which pass through 
 the places at which tiie mean temperature of winter is the 
 same. The isotheral and Isoehtmeaal curves deviate much 
 mom from the parallels of latitude than the isothermal. The 
 la titu des of places having the same winter temperature some- 
 times diilcr so macs. :is lo^or '20°. The winter of Scotland 
 is as mild as that of Milan. The mean temperature of the 
 winter months at Edinburgh is about 38£°; of Kosan, under 
 the same parallel, only 8°. The winter of Potto is as rigo- 
 rous as that of Stockholm. {Humboldt's Fragmcns Asiali- 
 ques ; Murray's Geography, Introduction.) 
 
 I'SSUANT. In Heraldry, a charge represented as issuing 
 or coming up from another charge or bearing ; also, n lion 
 or other beast represented as rising from the bottom line of 
 n chief. 
 
 I'SSUE. In Law, in the most ordinary senses of the word, 
 1. The points in dispute in a suit at law between two parties, 
 ascertained by the pleadings, are termed the issues ; and are 
 either Issues in law, to be determined by the court, or in fact, 
 to be ascertained by a jury. In each form of action (see 
 A< Tins, PuuDUCS)) then mi formerly a formal trasverse, 
 by which the whole >r principal part o! the aliegatioiisof the 
 plaintill' in his declarati >:i might be denied : this was termed 
 the general iss the adoption of the new rules of 
 
 pleading (1834), there is now, properly speaking, no general 
 issue; except in certain Bases, when the privilege 01 giving 
 ■pedal matter In evidence under it is given by statute. A 
 feigned issue is a technical mode of trying some questions, 
 supposing an imaginary wager. In the Scottish practice of 
 trial by Jury, it is Usual to put printed copies of the issues into 
 the hands of the jurors. 2. The legitimate offspring of a 
 man. 
 
 Issue, in Surgery, is an artificial ulcer. It is commonly 
 made by wounding or cutting the Bkin, and placing a pea 
 upon it, which is pressed npon the part bv a bandage. 
 
 I'STIIMIAN GAMES. One of the four great national 
 festivals of Greece; so culled from their being celebrated on 
 the Isthmus of Corinth. They were common to all the 
 States, with the exception in this case of the Eleans, against 
 whom a curse had been pronounced should they ever pre- 
 sent themselves there. They were held near n temple of 
 Neptune, the god who presided over them ; and were cele- 
 brated every third year, according to some accounts, but 
 others assiL'n them a period of one or four years. The con- 
 tests were the same as in the other sacred games (see Olym- 
 pic Games): the victors were crowned with garlands of 
 pine leaves, (^ee Potter's Grecian Antiquities ; Wachs- 
 muth'.i Historical Antiquities, ii., 102, translation.) 
 
 I'STHMUS. In Geography, a narrow neck of land join- 
 ing two continents, or a continent and peninsula. Thus, the 
 Isthmus of Darien, joining North and South America; tho 
 Isthmus of Suez, connecting Africa with Asia, 
 
 ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. See Auc hitecture. 
 
 ITA'LIC SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, comprehends 
 properly the Pythagorean and Elentic systems taken together; 
 but sometimes it is used as synonymous merely with the 
 school of Pythagoras. Under the several heads will be 
 found the chief features of these philosophical systems, 
 which, comprising us they do nil that can be said in reference 
 to the Italic school, it would seem unnecessary in this place 
 further to advert to. The Italic school has boon so desig 
 nnted because its founder, Pythagoras, taught in Italy, spread 
 bag his doctrine among the people of Tarentuin, Metapontum, 
 Heraclea, Naples, &c. 
 
 ITCH. A disease of the skin, consisting in an eruption 
 of minute itching vesicles, which are commonly rendered 
 more inflamed and troublesome by scratching. They gene- 
 rally make their first appearance between the fingers, or 
 about the bend of the wrist, and often spread to other parts 
 of the body, especially where cleanliness is neglected. The 
 itch is highly contagious, and is supposed to depend upon a 
 minute insect burrowing in the skin ; some have regarded 
 the insect as a consequence, and not the cause, of the disease. 
 
 619 
 
ITIHASAS. 
 
 The itch is cured by sulphur, which should be given inter- 
 nally, and applied externally in the form of ointment. 
 
 ITlil A'SAS. The two great heroic poems of the Hindoos, 
 the Ramayana and Maha Bharata, are so called. They are 
 of great amiquity ; later, however, than the Vedas. Some, 
 indeed, have attributed the latter poem to a period later than 
 that of Alexander. 
 
 ITI'NERARY. (Lat. iter, a journey.) In Literature, a 
 work containing notices or descriptions of the places and 
 stations to be met with in pursuing a particular line of road ; 
 as, an Itinerary from Paris to Rome: or of the principal 
 places and stations on the great roads throughout a country ; 
 as. Itinerary of France, Italy, &c. The Latin Itineraries 
 which have been preserved to us consist merely of catalogues 
 of stations, and are principally valuable to us because they 
 contain the distance, in Roman miles, from one to another, 
 and thus furnish us with assistance towards determining the 
 actual site of each place mentioned. 
 
 I'TIS. This termination added to the genitive case of the 
 Greek name of an organ or part of the body, implies inflam- 
 mation of that part ; as, gastritis, inflammation of the sto- 
 mach ; pleuritis, of the pleura, &c. 
 
 I'TTNERITE. Named after Ittner. A rare mineral, 
 which occurs massive and in rhombic dodecaedrons, of a 
 gray or blueish colour. It consists chiefly of silica, alumina, 
 and soda, together with some hydrosulphuret 
 
 IU'LUS. (Lat.) A genus of Myriapodous insects, cha- 
 racterized as follows: Antenna? with seven joints, slightly 
 enlarged towards the end ; mandibles two, thick, without 
 palps, each divided into two by a middle joint; provided 
 with imbricated teeth ; an inferior lip formed by the conflu- 
 ence of two maxilla? ; feet attached in double pairs to most 
 of the joints ; body long, cylindrical, capable of being con- 
 tracted into a discoidal spire. The common gally-worm 
 (lulus tcrrestris) is an example of this genus. 
 
 1' VOR Y. The tusk of the male elephant. It is less brittle 
 than bone, and of a beautifully uniform texture, admitting 
 of turning in the lathe and receiving a high polish. It con- 
 sists of about 24 percent, animal matter resembling horn, and 
 66 of phosphate, with a trace of carbonate of lime. The 
 chief consumption of ivory in England is in the manufacture 
 of handles for knives; hut it is also extensively used in 
 the manufacture of musical and mathematical instruments, 
 chess-men, billiard-balls, plate3 for miniatures, toys, &c. 
 Ivory articles are said to be manufactured to a greater ex- 
 tent, and with better success, at Dieppe, than in any other 
 place in Europe ; but the preparation of this beautiful ma- 
 terial is much" better understood by the Chinese than by any 
 other people. No European artist has hitherto succeeded in 
 cutting concentric balls after the manner of the Chinese ; and 
 their boxes, chess-men, and other ivory articles, are all far 
 superior to any that are to be met with anywhere else. 
 
 The western and eastern coasts of Africa, the Cape of Good 
 .Hope, Ceylon, India, and the countries to the eastward of the 
 Straits of Malacca, are the great marts whence supplies of 
 ivory are derived ; but the most esteemed come from Africa, 
 being of a closer texture, and lees liable to turn yellow, than 
 those from the East Indies. The medium weight of a tusk 
 is about 60 lbs., and the average importation for the three 
 years ending 1838, was 5,752 cwt., yielding a duty of £5,752. 
 
 I'VORY BLACK. The mixture of charcoal and phos- 
 phate of lime ob'i.ined by burning bone, is sold under this 
 name, and, like other forms of animal charcoal, is very effec- 
 tive in depriving certain substances of their colour. 
 
 J ABI'RN. The name of a Grallatorial or wading bird be- 
 longing to the genus Mycteria. See that word. 
 
 JACAMA'R. Agenusof Scansorial birds. See Galbula. 
 
 JACA'NA. The wading birds of the genus Parra are so 
 called. See Parka. 
 
 JA'CCHUS. (Gr. iax<a, I cry aloud.) A genus of Pla- 
 tyrrhine Quadrumnna, or South American monkeys, with 
 thumbs on the hind foot only; all the digits of the fore foot 
 having the same direction, and being armed with narrow, 
 curved, claw-like nails. The characters of the genus are: 
 upper middle incisors separated from and larger than the la- 
 teral ones; lower incisors elongated, narrow, and vertical, 
 the lateral ones the longest; upper canine teeth conical, and 
 of moderate size, but more developed than the lower ones. 
 The species of Jacchus are few in number, and not very 
 clearly denned; they are all of small size. The Jacchus 
 penicillatus, which is remarkable for the radiated tuft of 
 white hairs which projects in front of each ear, has bred in 
 captivity in this country. It is a very delicate little animal, 
 susceptible of cold, and provided with a long and bushy tail, 
 which it wraps round its head and body when asleep or re- 
 quiring warmth. Its food is of a mixed nature; but, in the 
 wild state, the banana is said to be its principal and favourite 
 nutriment. 
 
 JACK. In Mechanics, an engine for raising heavy- weights. 
 
 Jack is also the name given to a machine in common use 
 for turning a spit. The common roasting jack, or worm-jack, 
 consists of a double set of wheels ; a barrel, round which the 
 
 JACOBINS. 
 
 chain attached to the weight or moving power is wounu , < 
 perpetual screw ; and a fly, which secures a steady, uniform 
 motion. A multiplying wheel is usually added, in order thai 
 the weight may be longer in running down. 
 
 The smoke jack is used for the same purpose as the com- 
 mon jack, and is so called because it appears to be moved by 
 the smoke of the fire. It is in fact moved by the ascending 
 current of ratified air, which acts on a fan properly placed 
 in the chimney. The motion may be obtained by various 
 contrivances. Sometimes spiral flyers coiled about a vertical 
 axis are employed, but more frequently a vertical wheel 
 with oblique leaves like the sails of a windmill. 
 
 Jack, in Nautical language, is a flag or colours used in 
 making signals. In the British navy, the Jack is a small 
 union flag, composed of red and white crosses ; in merchants' 
 ships, this union is bordered by a red field. 
 
 Jack. A common name for the pike. See Esox. 
 
 Jack, in Botany, is the name of the Tsjaca or Actocarpus 
 integrifolia, a species of the bread-fruit tree, found in the 
 Indian Archipelago. 
 
 JA'CKAL. (Ar. tschakkal; Fr. chacal.) A wild species 
 of dog, the Canis aureus of Linnaeus ; of gregarious habits ; 
 hunting in packs; rarely attacking the larger quadrupeds, 
 but supposed to indicate their presence to the lion by the 
 piercing cries which the jackals set up in chorus while scent- 
 ing their tracks ; feeding on the remnants of the lion's prey, 
 on dead carcasses, and the smaller animals and poultry. 
 The jackal interbreeds with the common dog ; its period of 
 gestation is the same, and the hybrid progeny is ferule. The 
 wild jackal emits a highly offensive odour, which is scarcely 
 perceptible in the domesticated animal. Some are of opinion 
 that the 300 animals, called foxes, between whose tails 
 Samson is said to have put firebrands in order to destroy the 
 crops of the Philistines, were jackals. The Canis aureus is 
 abundant in the warmer parts of India and Africa, but is not 
 found in the New World. 
 
 JA'CKDAW, or DAW. (Corvus monedula, Lin.) A 
 common English bird, which frequents church steeples, old 
 towers, and ruins, in flocks, where they build their nests : the 
 female lays five or six eggs, paler and smaller than those of 
 the crow. The daw may be readily tamed, and taught to 
 imitate the sounds of words. Like other species of the crow 
 genus, they have the singular habit of stealing and hiding 
 glittering and metallic substances. 
 
 JACKS. Wooden wedges used in coal mines. 
 
 JACK SINKERS. Parts of a stocking frame. 
 
 JACK TIMBERS. In Architecture, those in a bay or 
 timbers which, being intercepted by some other piece, are 
 shorter than the rest: thus, in a hipped roof, each rafter 
 which is shorter than the side rafters is called a. jack rafter. 
 
 JA'COBINS. In French History, a political club, which 
 bore a well-known part in the first revolution. It was fin : 
 formed by some distinguished members of the First Assembly, 
 particularly from Brittany, where revolutionary sentiments 
 ran high. They took, at first, the name of Friends of the 
 Revolution ; but as, at the end of 1789, they held their meet- 
 ings in the hall of a suppressed Jacobin monastery in the Rue 
 Saint Honore, the name of Jacobins, at first familiarly given 
 them, was finally assumed by themselves. The history of 
 the Jacobin club is, in effect, the history of the Revolution. 
 It contained at one time more than 2,500 members, and cor 
 responded with more than 400 affiliated societies in France. 
 The club of the Cordeliers, formed by a small and more vio- 
 lent party out of the general body of Jacobins, was reunited 
 with the paient society in June, 1791 ; but continued to form 
 a separate section within its limits. The Jacobin club, which 
 had almost controlled the first assembly, was thus, during 
 the continuance of the second, itself divided between two 
 contending parties;- although the name of Jacobins, as a po- 
 litical party, is commonly given to that section which op- 
 posed the Girondists or less moderate in the club no less than 
 in the assembly. After the destruction of the latter under 
 the Convention, the club was again exclusively governed by 
 the more violent among its own members, until the downfaj 
 of Robespierre. After that period it became unpopular; and 
 its members having attempted an insurrection on behalf of 
 the subdued Terrorists, Nov. 11, 1794, the meeting was dis- 
 persed by force, and the club finally suppressed. Some 
 writers, such as Barruel (Hist, du Jacobinisme), have seen 
 in the first formation of this and similar societies, the long- 
 concocted operations of a conspiracy against legitimate gov- 
 ernment ar.d religion throughout Europe. The Jacobins, and 
 the other principal clubs of the Revolution, adopted all the 
 forms of a legislative assembly. In the constitution of 1792, 
 their legal existence was recognised. See the historians of the 
 French Revolution, especially Carlyle, Mignet, and Thiers, 
 for general views ; Messrs. Buchez et Roux, Histoire Parle- 
 vientaire de la Rev. Franraise, for the most complete series 
 of details respecting the Jacobins and their meetings which 
 has yet been made public. 
 
 Jacobins. In Ecclesiastical History, the leligious of the 
 order of St. Dominic were so called in France, from the situ- 
 
JACOBITES. 
 
 niton of the principal convent at Paris, near the Rue St 
 Jacques; also called Freres Prichcurs. 
 JA'COBITES. In English History, that party which, after 
 inlion of 1688, adhered to the dethroned monarch 
 James I., and afterwards to his descendants. In Scotland 
 and Ireland, where the revolution was not effected excepl 
 with the assistance of arms,' the Jacobite party formpd one 
 of the two great divisions of each nation ; and although 
 InHhed in the latter country by conquest, they continued in 
 the farmer to comprise a large proportion of the population 
 until long after the last rebellion in 1745. But in England 
 the revolution was effected at first with the consent of all 
 parties ; the adherents to the exiled monarch were silenced : 
 yet, in a year or two, the Jacobite faction rose into KJtmgth, 
 and continued to harass the government of William through- 
 Out his reign. " It miiiis undeniable," says Hallam {Consti- 
 tutional History of England, vol. iii., p. 149), " that the 
 strength of the J'acobite taction sprung from the wnnt of ap- 
 t'or the change of government." Its imme- 
 diate canoe, however, was to be found in the refusal of a 
 portion of the bishops and clergy to take the oaths to the new 
 government {sec Nonjurors), which gave, as it were, acer- 
 -tciiiy and tangible ground of opposition to the 
 the dethroned monarch in general. At the same 
 time many of William's chief advisers and officers maintain- 
 ret correspondence with James II. at the French 
 from any attachment to his cause than wilh a 
 view t i secure their own interest in case of his return. 
 After the death of Jamea II. in France, and accession of 
 Anne In England, the efforts of the party languished for a 
 linn- ; but towards the close of her reign they revived, on the 
 tango in the succession. We have now un- 
 deniable proofs, from the French archives, of a fact whicli 
 il, that Bolingbroke and Oxford, with 
 Tory ministers, were in treaty with the son 
 II., and either really or in pretence negotiating for 
 his return. In 1715. on the arrival of George I., broke out 
 I first rebellion in Scotland: its ill conduct 
 and failure proved a considerable check to the hopes of the 
 es. Bishop Atterbury, the last of their bolder 
 - and adherents, was banished in 1722: after which 
 time it is probable that no extensive conspiracy took place 
 on their part. In Scotland, however, the party maintained 
 i unabated, until the second rebellion of 1745, by 
 its complete failure, put an end to its political existence. It 
 is said that some of the party maintained a correspondence 
 with Charles Edward, until his decease in 1787. The Car- 
 dinal of York, his brother, died in 1807 ; and it has been said 
 that, by liis death, the adhesion of the Jacobites, if any ex- 
 isted, was transferred to the reigning family as his next heirs. 
 This, however, is a vulgar error; the royal house of Sar- 
 dinia and other families intervening between the house of 
 Brunswick and the crown of England, according to the strict 
 hereditary descent. 
 Jacotutks. In Ecclesiastical History, the monophysite 
 Christians of Syria are so called, from Jacob Barnd/.i, who 
 revived their belief and form of worship in that country and 
 Mesopotamia, in the middle of the 6lh century. Many ui<- 
 attempts have been made at various times to 
 unite them with the church of Rome. {Oieseler's Text 
 Hook, trans., ii., 419; iii.,414, &c.) See Monophysites, Eu- 
 
 TYCIll I 
 
 JA'COB'S LADDER. In Naval affairs, a rope-ladder 
 with wooden steps or spokes. 
 
 JACOB'S STAFF. The same as cross-staff. An instru- 
 ment used by surveyors in measuring heights and distances 
 where expedition and little accuracy are required. 
 
 JACQ.U.VRD. A piece of mechanism applicable to silk 
 and muslin looms for the purpose of weaving figured goods. 
 The name is that of its inventor. (For a description of the 
 Ore's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.) 
 
 JA'CCtrERlE. In History, the name popularly given to 
 a revolt of the French peasantry against the nobility, whicli 
 took place while King John was a prisoner in England in 
 1356. Jacques Unnhomme was a term of derision applied 
 by the nobles to the peasants, from which the insurrection 
 took its name. It began in the Beauvoisis, under a chief of 
 the name of Caillet, and desolated Picardy, Artois, and 
 Brie, where savage reprisals were executed against the no- 
 bility for their oppressions. It was suppressed after some 
 weeks by the dauphin and Charles the Bad, king of Na- 
 varre. A similar spirit in England produced not many years 
 afterwards the rebellion of Watt Tyler. (See M -zeray, i., 
 838 ; Froissart ; Sismondi, Mist, des Francais, vol. x.) 
 
 JADE. In Mineralogy, a synonyme of nephrite. 
 
 JAGUA'R. {Fclis onca, Linn.) The largest and most 
 formidable feline quadruped of the New World. It is 
 marked with large dark spots in the form of circles, with a 
 dark spot or pupil in the centre of each ; it is generally 
 pretty numerous in the neighbourhood of the large rivers 
 where the capibara abounds, and preys chiefly on those 
 large Rode-its. 
 
 JANTHINA. 
 
 JA'LAP. So called from Xalapha in Mexico, whence 
 originally came. The dried root of the lpomaa jalapa. This 
 root occurs in irregular globular pieces, of a dense and resin- 
 ous texture : when reduced to powder it has a very peculiar 
 and nauseous odour and taste. In doses of from five to 
 twenty grains, jalap is a drastic purge ; it is apt to gripe and 
 nauseate. 
 
 JAMB. A Sea term ; to squeeze tight. The opposite of 
 jamb, applied to a rope, is to render. 
 
 JAMBS, (Fr. jambes.) In Architecture, the side or 
 vertical pieces of any opening in n wall which bear the 
 piece that discharges the superincumbent weight of such 
 wall. 
 
 JA'MESONITE. A mineral named after Professor Jame 
 son. It occurs crystallized and massive : it consists of sul 
 pluir. lead, and antimonv. 
 
 JAKES, SAINT, ORDER OF THE SWORD OF. A 
 very ancient military order in Spain and Portugal. The 
 reigning kings are grand-masters in those countries respect 
 ivelv. The orders in the two countries were disunited in 
 1288. 
 
 .1 VNISSARIES. or JA'NIZARIES. (A corruption of 
 the Turkish word yeni tschcri, new troops.) A celebrated 
 militia of the Ottoman empire. The establishment of this 
 corps has been usually attributed to Sultan Amurnth I., in 
 1368; but the researches of Hammer {History of the Otto 
 man Empire, vol. i., p. 92) carry it back to Orchan, the con 
 queror of Nicca (1320). This new corps was blessed by a 
 saint of that time, Hadji Bektash by name, who cut off a 
 sleeve of his fur mantle and gave it them as a token ; 
 whence was derived the fur cap that remained their dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic. This irregular infantry long re- 
 mained the chief military strength of the empire, and form- 
 ed a kind of warlike republic within its limits. It was long 
 supplied chiefly by the capture of young Christian slaves; 
 and when under .Mohammed IV. it began to be recruited 
 principally from the children of the soldiers themselves, in 
 power and importance gave signs of decay. Each regiment 
 or oda of the Janissaries had its own soup kettle, which, in 
 process of time, acquired a sort of prescriptive sanctity, and 
 formed, as it were, the chief standard of the regiment; nnd 
 the officers and other military functionaries drew their titles 
 from their various aunpoaad employments as cooks or kitch- 
 en servants. The militia of the Janissaries continued tore- 
 tain a great influence in the empire itself long after it had 
 ceased to lie serviceable in the field against the armies of 
 modem Europe. They controlled the sultans themselves, 
 and, as It is alleged, presented a serious obstacle to all im- 
 provement, until, in the year 1826, the late sultan, on thf 
 occasion of a mutiny, dissolved the whole corps, nfter • 
 bloody strugffle in his capital, in which 20,000 of them werf 
 said to have perished ; but the number is now thought U 
 have been exaggerated. There was an official publication 
 relating to the destruction of the Janissaries, which was 
 translated into French (Paris, 1833). See also Walsh' i Res 
 iilence at Constantinople; Duval, Deux Annies a Const 
 (1828) ; Quarterly Review, vol. xli. ; nnd Ed. Rev^ rol. 1. 
 Slade's Travels in Germany, Turkey, &-c. (1840). 
 
 JA'NSENISTS. A denomination of Roman Catholics in 
 France, who followed the opinions of Jansen, bishop of 
 Ypres, and formed a considerable party in the latter half of 
 the 17th century. The Jansenists were Calvinistic in many 
 of their sentiments, nnd in several respects approximated tr 
 the Reformed opinions. They did not, however, separate 
 themselves from the Catholic church; nor did they long 
 survive the decree of Alexander VII., by which certain 
 propositions extracted from their writings are condemned as 
 heretical. The Jansenists are chiefly celebrated for the con 
 test they maintained with the Jesuits, by whom they were 
 at last overcome, and subjected to the enmity both of Louis 
 XIV. and the Pope. (See Leclerc, Bibl. Univ-, vol. xiv. ; 
 Racine, Histoirc du Port Royal ; Fontaine, Memoires pour 
 servir a P Hist, du P. R. ; Saint Simon's Memoirs ; Palmer, 
 Essays on the Church, i., 320, &c. ; Hallam on the Literature 
 of Europe, vol. iii. ; Schrokh, Kirchengeschichte seit der 
 Reformation, parts iv. and vii. ; Mosheim, translation, ed. 
 1790, vol. v., 208, &c.) 
 
 JANTHI'NA. (Gr. tavQov, violet colour.) A genus of 
 Gastropodous Testaceous Mollusks, so denominated on ac 
 count of the beautiful violet colour of the shell. There are 
 but a few species of this genus known, all of which are ma 
 rine, nnd are generally met with floating on the surface of 
 the ocean in warm and tropical latitudes. The shell, as in 
 all floating pelagic Testaceo, is light and fragile, whence th« 
 specific name of the most common species {Janthina fra 
 gi'is) ; but, besides this relation of the shell to the habits and 
 sphere of existence of the animal, each species also pos 
 sesses a peculiar organ, by which it can, as it were, suspend 
 itself to the surface of the water, and which has not hitherto 
 been observed in any other molluscous species : this organ 
 consists of a congeries of transparent vesicles filled with air, 
 the parietes of the bubble-like cells being comiiosed of o 
 
 621 
 
JANUARY. 
 
 <*hin colourless condensed mucus, and the whole being at- 
 tached to the posterior part of the foot. On account of this 
 place of attachment, the vesicular float has been regarded 
 as the analogue of the operculum, which otherwise is want- 
 ing ; but there is an important difference connected with the 
 float, viz , the power which the animal has, and frequently 
 exercises, of detaching and reproducing it at will. Thus the 
 mucous air-vesicles are cast off when the animal desires to 
 sink : they are also made subservient to the reproductive 
 economy of the janthina, which attaches its egg cells to the 
 under surface of the float, and when it is thus laden casts it 
 off. By this means the ova are preserved in a situation 
 where they may best receive the full influence of heat and 
 light; and the power which the parent possesses of repro- 
 ducing its float obviates the inconvenience which would 
 otherwise result from this contribution to the well-being of 
 its offspring. The following is the process by which the 
 janthina lias been observed to repair a mutilation purposely 
 made in its float : The foot was advanced upon the remain- 
 ing vesicles until about two thirds of that part rose above 
 the surface of the water ; it was then expanded to the ut- 
 termost, and thrown back upon the water, like the foot of a 
 Lymnea when it begins to swim ; it next became contracted 
 at the edges, and was formed into the shape of a hood, en- 
 closing a globule of air, which was slowly applied to the 
 extremity of the float; there was now a vibratory movement 
 throughout the foot, and when it was again thrown back to 
 renew the process the globule was found enclosed in its new- 
 ly made envelope. From this it results that the membrane 
 enclosing the cells is secreted by the foot, and that there is 
 no attachment between the float and the animal other than 
 that arising from the nice adaptation and adjustment of the 
 adjoining surfaces. 
 
 The genus Janthina belongs to the Pectinibranchiate or- 
 der of Gastropods ; the branchial cavity is capacious, and 
 contains two pectinated gills. Cuvier places the genus be- 
 tween Pyramidclla and Ncrita ; M. Roux considers it to be 
 intermediate to Ampullaria and IJtiova. 
 
 J A'NUARY. The first month of the year. By some the 
 name is derived from Janus, a Roman divinity ; by others 
 from janua, a gate. The mouths of January and February 
 were inserted in the Roman year by Numa Pompilius. The 
 Roman feast of the kalends of January seems to have been 
 converted in the 6th century into the Christian festival of 
 the circumcision. (Beugnot, Destr. du Paganisme en Occi- 
 dent, vol. ii.) 
 
 JA'NUS. A Latin deity, originally the same as the sun. 
 Jle was represented with two faces looking opposite ways, 
 and holding a key in one hand and a staff" in the other. He 
 presided over the commencement of all undertakings, whence 
 the first month in the year was named after him. His tem- 
 ple at Rome was kept open in the time of war, and shut in 
 peace. The warlike disposition of the Romans is manifest 
 from the fact that this temple was only shut six times in 800 
 years : viz., once in the reign of Numa ; at the conclusion of 
 the first Punic war; thrice in the reign of Augustus ; and 
 once again under Nero. 
 
 JAPA'NNING. The art of covering paper, wood, or 
 metal with a thick coat of a hard brilliant varnish : it ori 
 ginated in Japan, whence articles so prepared were first 
 brought to Europe. The material, if of wood or papier-ma- 
 chfie, is first sized, polished, and varnished ; it is then col- 
 oured or painted in various devices, and afterwards covered 
 with a highly transparent varnish or lacquer, which is ulti- 
 matelv dried at a high temperature, and carefully polished. 
 
 JA'RGOON. In Mineralogy, one of the varieties of 
 zircon. 
 
 JARL. A word of Scandinavian extraction, signifying 
 noble ; applied in the early history of the northern European 
 kingdoms to the lieutenants or governors appointed over 
 each province. It appears to bear considerable analogy to 
 the Enelish earl (quod vide). 
 
 JASMINA'CEyE. (Jasminum, one of the genera.) A 
 small natural order of Exogenous plants, with monopetalous 
 diandrous flowers of a regular figure. It contains few spe- 
 cies, chiefly inhabiting the warmer parts of the world. The 
 only plants of any interest are the jasmines, well known for 
 their fracrnnce. 
 
 JA'SPER. A siliceous mineral of various colours; some- 
 times spotted, banded, or variezated. It takes a fine polish, 
 and the variety and richness of its colours render it useful in 
 tile ornamental arts. 
 
 JAU'NDICE. A disease characterized by a yellow col- 
 our of the eyes and skin, deep-coloured urine, and pale evac- 
 uation from the bowels ; it comes on with languor, loss of 
 appetite, dyspeptic symptoms, vomiting, bitter taste in the 
 mouth, and generally pain in the region of the liver. It is 
 apparently caused either by obstruction of the duct that 
 con%'eys the bile into the intestine by a gall stone ; or by a 
 morbid and viscid state of the bile, which prevents its flow- 
 ing freely; or by spasm of the gall ducts, or by some acci- 
 dental pressure : the consequence is, that the bile, instead of 
 622 
 
 JESUITS. 
 
 passing off by the bowels, is absorbed into the blood, ana 
 becomes visible upon the skin, and especially in the more 
 delicate vessels. It is an occasional consequence of preg- 
 nancy. It sometimes affects infants soon after birth; in 
 which case it usually goes off in a few days, aided by gen- 
 tle aperients. The most common cases of jaundice are 
 probably occasioned by viscidity of bile. Aperients and 
 small doses of blue pill, with tonics, are the most essential 
 remedies ; and where it ensues in sedentary habits, moder- 
 ate walking and horse exercise are requisite. It is often a 
 protracted and troublesome complaint, and then indicative 
 of structural derangement. Jaundice from gall stones is 
 often attended by excruciating pain and vomiting, owing to 
 the passage of the stone. Opiates and such remedies as al- 
 lay the irritability of the stomach are to be had recourse to, 
 and the warm bath is useful. It is the beneficial influence 
 of saline aperients and diluents in this disorder, that has 
 given celebrity to the waters of Cheltenham and similar 
 mineral springs. 
 
 JA'VELIN. (Fr. javeline.) A sort of spear or missile, 
 anciently used both by horse and foot soldiers. It was about 
 five feet long, with an iron head hooked and jagged at the 
 end. The pilum of the Romans was of this description. 
 
 JAY. The native bird so called is a species of the genus 
 Oarrulus, separated by Cuvier from the genus Corvits of 
 Linnaeus on account of the weaker mandibles terminating 
 in a sudden and nearly equal curve. The tail is cuneiform, 
 not long ; and the slender feathers of the forehead can be 
 erected like a crest. The common jay (Corvus glandarias, 
 Linn.) nidificates in woods, and builds a simple nest of 
 sticks and slender twigs ; the female lays five or six eggs, 
 of a grayish ash colour mixed with green, and faintly spotted 
 with brown. The young associate with the parents till the 
 following spring, when they separate to form new pairs. 
 
 JEERS. Strong tackles for swaying up or raising the 
 lower yards. 
 
 JE'FFERSONITE. In Mineralogy, a species of pyroxene. 
 It is found in New Jersey. 
 
 JEHO'VAH. The name by which the Deity is repre- 
 scnted'in the Hebrew Scriptures ; in which language it sig- 
 nifies the Self-existent, the / am. The word itself was 
 held in peculiar veneration by the Jews, who never allowed 
 themselves to pronounce it in the reading of their sacred 
 books, but substituted for it, whenever it occurred, the term 
 Adonai, or Lord. This practice is maintained even to this 
 day ; nor will they write the word in perfect Hebrew let- 
 ters. And, agreeably to this scruple, they have left the 
 word Jehovah imperfectly written over the beautiful altar 
 piece in the recently-erected synagogue in St. Helen's Place ; 
 making it to resemble that word, but in reality to signify the 
 Beloved. 
 
 JEJU'NUM. (Lat. jejunus, empty.) The second division 
 of the small intestines ; so termed because when examined 
 after death it is generally found empty or nearly so. 
 
 JELLY. Sec Gk latin. 
 
 JERBOA. See Dirus and Hklamys. 
 
 JE'SUATES OF SAINT JEROME. A religious order, 
 founded in 1363 by Giovanni Colombino, of Sienna ; of ex- 
 tremely ascetic habits in its origin. It was suppressed by 
 Clement IX. in 1668. 
 
 JE'SUITES DE ROBE ; applied to secular persons of 
 high rank bound to the order of Jesuits by vows of obedi 
 ence, without, however, having taken the spiritual vow. 
 
 JE'SUrrS, or THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. The most 
 celebrated of all the Romish religious orders ; founded by 
 Ignatius Loyola, a Spaniard, in the year 1534, when he, with 
 Francis Xavier and four or five other students at the Uni- 
 versity of Paris, bound themselves to undertake the conver- 
 sion of unbelievers. The first principle of the society which 
 was then formed was implicit submission to the commands 
 of the Holy See, in consideration of which their order was 
 confirmed, in 1540, by Pius HI. ; and from that time to the 
 present, though with many alternations of success and re- 
 verse, the Jesuits have been one of the main bulwarks of 
 the authority of Rome, and have exercised immense influ 
 ence in the destinies of the Christian world. The zeal 
 which they manifested at the period immediately succeed- 
 ing the Reformation, when the Dominicans and other orders 
 which had been founded on similar principles, and had 
 faithfully executed their mission for many ages, had degen- 
 erated into luxury and indifference, secured for them the 
 favour of the sovereigns and other political partisans of 
 Rome. They soon became installed in the confessionals of 
 all the Catholic kings of Europe, and throughout the 16th 
 and following century were, in fact, the directors of their 
 counsels and the rulers of their subjects. 
 
 In Protestant countries they acted as the emissaries and 
 spies of the Pope ; and in England, where, early in Eliza- 
 beth's reign, their landing upon our shores was made a cap- 
 ital crime, they persevered, nevertheless, in keeping alive 
 the spirit of Roman Catholicism among the harassed rem 
 nant of the old faith ; and passed and repassed the channel 
 
JESUITS. 
 
 year after year, devoting their lives, with almost a certainty 
 af eventually suffering, to the maintenance of an illegal, 
 and often a treasonable, correspondence with the court of 
 Koine and the enemies of the queen's government. At the 
 same time another division of their numerous body employ- 
 ed themselves with the most undaunted energy, and with an 
 apparent success such as has never crowned the efforts of 
 any other missionaries, in converting the heathens of Asia 
 and America. St. Francis Xavier, the A[>ostle, as he is call- 
 ed, of the Indies, planted Christianity in Hindostan and Ja- 
 pan ; and Ricci introduced it into China. In the course of 
 a few years the number of professing Christians in these 
 countries became very large ; although it cannot be denied 
 both that the means which the missionaries took to increase 
 the number of their conversions were little in accordance 
 with the spirit of their religion, and that the form of Chris- 
 tianity which they allowed to be propagated was more de- 
 graded and idolatrous than that of Rome itself. It should 
 be remarked, however, that the great secret of their success 
 have l>een the address with which they obtained 
 lence of the ruling powers. In Japan and China 
 me the intimate advisers of the sovereigns, and fre- 
 quently obtained the assistance of the civil power in the 
 furtherance of their missionary system. 
 
 The Je-uiis obtained also, throughout Roman Catholic 
 Europe, the direction of the education of youth : they found- 
 ed 111,1:11 schools and colleges, not only for the instruction 
 Of those who were designed lor members of their own or- 
 der, but for that of the upper and lower classes generally, 
 leation of both of which they were eminently suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 As a religious body, the Jesuits differ from their predeces- 
 much. as, their principle being to conform as mucli 
 as possible wnh the manners of the age, they have never 
 Adopted the M tnces and exclusive spiritual 
 
 character upon which all earlier orders had grounded their 
 claims 1,1 notoriety. They are divided into different classes; 
 of which only the professed lake the religious vows of pov- 
 erty, chastity, and obedience to their superior. Among lite 
 novices arc frequently enrolled iniltieuiial laymen, as was 
 Louis XIV. himself In his latter years; and this is one of 
 IS which the order has employed to extend its 
 efficiency where it would be least liable to observation. 
 The Professed are of several ranks, the whole body being 
 under the absolute control of the General, whose abode is 
 fixed in Rome, and whose council consists of U admouilor 
 and five assistants or counsellors, who represent ihe live 
 principal Catholic stales— Italy, Germany, France, Spun, 
 and Portugal. To Rome, as the central seat of the order, 
 are sent monthly communications from the superiors of the 
 dill'erent provinces through which its members are dis- 
 tributed. 
 
 The l'ope has conceded to the Jesuits greater indulgence 
 than even to laymen, In exempting them from the religious 
 flich are enjoined to all Roman Catholics, 
 lallv to the religious orders ; and hence it is that 
 they have In en enabled to devote so great a portion of their 
 time not only to instruction, but to many branches of learn- 
 ing and practice, by means of which they have insinuated 
 themselves into the confidence nnd the concerns of the laity, 
 remarkable also for the worldly air which when 
 occasion serves they studiously assume — for the ease with 
 which they dispense with all the outward appearance of 
 their spiritual character in places where their objects seem 
 to be more attainable by a different behaviour; and they 
 reproached at all times with allowing themselves, 
 one principle, to make use of mental reservations 
 r pious frauds in pursuance of the peculiar ends of 
 ■IV. Hence, even when their influence in Europe 
 was at its height, great distrust was manifested towards 
 them in many quarters. In France they were supposed to 
 be Implicated in the plots by which Henry III. fell, and the 
 hie ol Henry IV. was attempted, and were, indeed, banished 
 from that country by royal decree before the end of the 16th 
 century : they were re-admitted, however, and continued in 
 . ment of their full influence in spite of the strong 
 opposition of the Janscnists in the reign of Louis XIV. 
 ere banished, in the course of the 18th century, 
 from France, Spain, Portugal, and other Catholic states ; and 
 in 177:1 Clement XIV. issued a bull by which he decreed 
 the total abolition of the order. The invitation, however, 
 of Catherine II. into Russia, and the favour of the successor 
 of Clement, restored them in some degree ; and they still 
 exist and exercise considerable influence in Italy nnd Spain. 
 From Russia they arc at the present moment entirely ban- 
 ished ; nor has Portugal re-admitted them since their expul- 
 sion in 1759. In France and Germany their presence ap- 
 pears to be connived at, though they have never formally 
 been allowed to re-establish themselves in those countries. 
 In England they have been allowed to found and maintain 
 the Roman Catholic college at Stonyhurst, and their num- 
 bers in Ireland are supposed to be considerable. By the 
 
 JEZIDS. 
 
 Roman Catholic Relief Bill, natural-bom Jesuits resident in 
 the United Kingdom are required to register themselves 
 with the clerk of the peace in every county : foreigners must 
 provide themselves with licences from a secretary of stale. 
 
 The history of the order of Jesus has often been written ; 
 but with so much exaggeration both of friends and enemies, 
 that it is difficult to point out a fair account. The Historia 
 Jesuitica of Hospinian, a Protestant, carries it down to the 
 end of the 16th century. Orlandi and SacchMi's Hiatorf 
 of Vie Jesuits was proscribed by the parlement of l'aiis; a 
 5ih part was added to it by Souvency. CoudreUe, one of 
 the order, published a history of it just before its dispersion, 
 vols. 1-imo., with Supplement, 1761-4. D'Alembeit pule 
 lished an account of the destruction of the order in France, 
 1765. See also Georgct's Memoires, Paris, 1817. The 
 celebrated Lettres ProcincinUs of Pascal contain a power*- 
 ful exposure of the errors of the casuistical theologians of 
 the 16lh and 17th centuries, of whom a large proportion 
 were Jesuits. (See also .Voshcim, transL, ed. 17110, iv. 
 154.) The voluminous French collection, entitled Jfouvelles 
 Eccltsiqgtimtea, continued from the reign of Louis XIV. to 
 the Revolution, was under the management of Ja 
 and contains every charge which hostility could suggest 
 against the Jesuits. /.' inks'* History of the Popes of llu 
 lfirA and llth ( I mis much valuable matter 
 
 relative to that period. 
 
 JESUITS' HARK. .Sec Cinchona, or Peruvian Bark. 
 
 JET. A bituminous carbon. Some varieties admit of 
 po lish, and are used for ornamental purposes. 
 
 JET D'EAU. (Fr.) A fountain which throws up water 
 to some height in the air. According to the theory of hj ■ 
 ih'ostatics, the velocity with which water issues from tw 
 orifice is equal to that which would be acquired by a hen \ 
 body in falling through a height equal to the difference be- 
 tween the levels Of thS Orifice and the fountain head 
 if the resistance of the air and other Impediment 
 were removed, the height of the jet would be equal to that 
 of the surface of the leservoir. Among the causes winch 
 prevent the jet from obtaining the neigh! which IheOT) 
 assigns to it, the following are the principal : 1st. The resist- 
 ance of the air, which is proportional Dearly to the square 
 
 of the- Velocity, ~M. The friction against the sides ol' the 
 pipe and the orifice through which the water is u 
 The velocity of the particles diminishing at even [nstai t as 
 they ascend, the lower particles of the ascending column 
 press against those next above them ; and the pies m 
 by the nature of fluids communicated in all directions, the 
 consequence is, that the column is enlarged and proportion- 
 ally shortened. 4lh. The water at the top of the jet does 
 not fall oil' instantaneously when its velocity is destroyed ; i: 
 rests for a moment at the top of the column, where its 
 weight opposes an obstacle to the particles next succeeding, 
 which retards their velocity, and this retardation is commu- 
 nicated to the whole column. This last obstacle may be 
 avoided by slightly inclining the jet from the vertical ; nnd 
 it is found by experience that a jet so inclined plays higher 
 than one quite upright, though the effect is thereby rendered 
 less pleasing. It is necessary that the diameter of ihe 
 adjutage or orifice be considerably less than that of the 
 pipe. (See Desagulier's Experimental Philosophy ; Mari- 
 otte, Mouvement des Eauz.) 
 
 JE'TERUS. A disease of plants, where the system be- 
 comes affected with a general yellowness. 
 
 JEWS* HARP. An instrument of metal, with a flexible 
 vibratory thin metal tongue fixed to its circular base ; on 
 which tongue the breath, acting in different degrees of 
 force, produces something like a modulated air. Shaped 
 
 thus, I * TV The outer bars are placed between the 
 
 teeth, nnd the central piece or tongue Is set in vibration by 
 the action of the fingers. 
 
 JEW STONE. The fossil spine of a large egg-shaped 
 echinus. 
 
 JE'ZIDS, or DA' VASIN. A sect of religionists, long set- 
 tled in the mountainous country near Mosul : said to be 
 disciples of Yezid Ben Anisa, a Mohammedan doctor. 
 Their religion, however, is said to be a mixture of the an- 
 cient Manichean belief of those regions, with the tenets of 
 Mohammedanism and Zendism. They appear to be on 
 better terms with the Christians than with the neighbouring 
 Turks, by whom they are characterized as worshippers of 
 the Devil (Arab. Scheitan), whose name, it is said, no threats 
 of punishment will force them to pronounce, and whom 
 they only mention by periphrases, as "the great sheikh," 
 or "he whom you know of." They live in villages, huts, 
 and tents, and are dreaded for their ferocity and robber-like 
 habits. They are noticed at length in a preliminary disser- 
 tation to Sylvcstre de Sacy's Description du Pachn'ik de 
 Bagdad, 1809 ; said to be the work of Father Garzoni, who 
 was eighteen years a missionary in Kurdistan. (See the art 
 " Jeziden" in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopedia.) 
 
 633 
 
JIB. 
 
 JIB. A large triapgular sail, between the fore-topmast 
 head and the boom (thence called jib-boom), which projects 
 beyond the bowsprit. 
 
 The effect of this sail would seem to be to lift the ship's 
 head ; yet seamen find that as the wind freshens it causes 
 the ship, on the contrary, to plunge, and tliey either ease it 
 in (alone the boom)) or haul it down. This anomalous 
 effect may be explained as follows : 
 
 Let x and z be the horizontal and vertical co-ordinates of 
 the centre of effort, the centre of gravity of the vessel being 
 the origin : let P be the resultant of the pressures on the 
 sail. This may obviously be resolved into three : <5 the 
 direct effort along x, A the lateral effort along y, and p the 
 vertical effort in z. The moment to raise the bow is x p — 
 t <5. If z 6 exceed x p. the effect is negative, or tends to 
 depress the bow. In all vessels x > z, also <5 > p generally ; 
 hence the effect is not so decided as it may appear at first 
 to be. 
 
 Let c be the angle which P makes with the horizon, and 
 6 be the angle between x and the horizontal projection of 
 P; Ui en p = P sin. e, and <5 = P cos. c cos. <j> : hence the 
 effect is 
 
 P (x sin. t — z cos. t cos. <p). 
 
 When the wind is aft, if> = 0, and t = 90 — k (the inclina- 
 tion of the jib-stay to the horizon nearly) ; and the effect is 
 
 P (z cos. k — z sin. k), 
 which, as k = 45°, is positive or lifting. 
 
 When the wind blows fresh, the vessel being close-hauled 
 and heeling over, the stay sags to leeward ; and the after- 
 leech being also slacker than the foot, the resultant P may 
 become horizontal, or e = 0, or even negative ; in which last 
 case the effect is 
 
 — P (x sin. c -f- z cos. • cos. 0) 
 which is altogether depressing. If now the jib be eased in, 
 i and z are diminished. Hence, in general, the plunging 
 effect of the jib is owing to the heeling of the ship, and to 
 the sheet being too fiat aft. The like reasoning obviously 
 applies to staysails. 
 
 JIB DOOR. (Derivation uncertain.) In Architecture, a 
 door so constructed that it stands flush with the adjoining 
 face of the wall on both sides, and without dressings or 
 nrchitraves. Thus it appears part of the wall, the intention 
 being to conceal even the appearance of a door. 
 
 JO'GGLED JOINTS. In Architecture, the joints of 
 stones or other masses indented in such a way that the ad- 
 jacent stones fitting into the indentations, they are prevented 
 from being pushed away from each other by any force per- 
 pendicular to the pressures by which they are thus held 
 together. 
 
 JO'GGLE PIECE. (Perhaps from joug, a yoke.) In 
 Architecture, a truss post whose shoulders and sockets re- 
 ceive the lower ends of the struts. 
 
 JOHN BULL, the well-known collective name of the 
 English nation, was first used in Arbuthnot's satire, The 
 History of John Bull, usually published in Swift's works ; 
 in which the French are designated as Lewis Baboon, the 
 Dutch as Nicholas Frog, &c. 
 
 JOI'NERY. (Fr. joindre.) In Architecture, the art of 
 framing wood-work for the finishing of houses, such as doors, 
 sashes, shutters, &c. The term Carpentry is applied to the 
 rough timbering, in which the only tools used are the axe, 
 adze, chisel, and saw. 
 
 JOINT STOCK COMPANY. In Mercantile Law, a 
 partnership consisting of a large number of members, whose 
 rights and liabilities are defined by certain peculiar regula- 
 tions imposed by themselves, generally contained in an in- 
 strument termed a deed of settlement, and heretofore in an 
 act of parliament passed for the purpose ; but now, by 4 & 5 
 W. 4, c. 94, the king is enabled to grant the necessary powers 
 by letters patent. The deed constitutes trustees, directors, 
 and other officers ; contains the necessary covenants ; limits 
 the number of shares, &c, and details the rules to be 
 adopted in the management of the concern. By a clause 
 contained in this instrument the shares are rendered trans- 
 ferable by each partner without the consent of the other 
 shareholders, subject, in general, to the approbation of the 
 directors. The act of parliament, or letters patent, enables 
 the company to sue and be sued in the name of its secretary 
 or other officer, &.C. It concludes with the customary pro- 
 viso, that nothing therein contained shall be construed to 
 incorporate the partnership. 
 
 JOINT TE'NANCY, in Law, is where lands and tene- 
 mir.ls are granted to two or more persons to hold in fee- 
 pirnple, fee-tail, for life, for years, or at will. It is created 
 by particular words in a deed or devise. Its properties are 
 said to be unity of interest, of title, of time, and of possession ; 
 and it is subject to the right of survivorship in the case of 
 estates for life. Joint tenancy may be severed by partition, 
 or by the alienation of any party. Personal chattels may 
 be the subjects of a joint tenancy. 
 
 JUDGES. 
 
 JOI'NTURE. In Law, a settlement of lands and tene- 
 ments made on a woman in consideration of marringe : or- 
 dinarily an estate for life. A jointure was made a bar of 
 dower, if granted with certain requisites, by 27 II. 8, c. 10 
 See Marriage, Law of. 
 
 JOISTS. (Fr. joindre.) In Architecture, the timbers of 
 a floor whereto the boards or laths for the ceiling are nailed 
 They either rest on the walls or on girdeis, or sometimes 
 on both. 
 
 Where only one tier of joists is used, it is called singii 
 flooring (fig. 1), A A A being the joists; (Li 
 
 and in this sort of flooring such joists i 
 should nol exceed sixteen feet in length £-_ 
 or bearing, and even when the length is 
 i more than eight feet they should have 
 stiffening pieces to prevent torsion. 
 
 When two sets of 
 joists are used, it is call- 
 ed double flooring (fig- 
 ure 2) ; in which A A 
 
 | are called the floor or 
 
 j bridging joists, B B the 
 
 ' binders, C C C the ceil- 
 ing joists. 
 
 If the binding joists be fra- 
 med into girders, the floor is 
 then properly called a double- 
 framed floor, of which the sub- 
 joined is a diagram (fig. 3) ; 
 wherein A is a girder, B a 
 binding joist, C C C are bridg- 
 ing joists, and D D D are ceiling joists, E being the floor boards, 
 of this floor it is manifest that the girders are the main sup- 
 port. 
 
 JOLLY BOAT. See Yawl. 
 
 JOU'RNAL. (Ital. giornale, i. e., diurnale.) Strictly a 
 record or account of daily occurrences. It is more exten- 
 sively employed to signify a narrative, periodically or occa- 
 sionally published, of the transactions of a society, &c. ; as 
 by ourselves in the phrase "Journals of the Houses of Par 
 liament," &c. It is also used as synonymous with Magazine, 
 or other periodical publications of that class. 
 
 JU'BA. (Lat. a mane.) The long and thick-set hairs 
 which adorn the neck, chest, or spine of certain quadrupeds. 
 
 JUBILA TE. (Lat. rejoice.) A name given to the third 
 Sunday after Easter ; so called because in the pr'miitive 
 church divine service was commenced with the words of 
 the 60th Psalm, "Jubilate Deo, omnes terra," " Sing to the 
 Lord, all ye lands." 
 
 JU'BILEE. (Lat. jubilo, I rejoice.) The name given 
 among the Jews to the grand sabbatical year, which was 
 celebrated after every seven septennaries of years : whether 
 every forty-ninth or fiftieth year is still a question among 
 the learned. The institution of this festival is recorded in 
 Lev. xxv., 8 — 17. This was a year of general release not 
 only of all debts, like the commoR sabbatica I year, but of all 
 slaves, and of lands iind possessions which had been aliena- 
 ted from their original owners. It has been commonly sup- 
 posed that the jubilee was intended to he typical of the 
 release and redemption of mankind under the Gospel dis- 
 pensation; and it was with this idea that Pope Boniface 
 VIII., at the end of the thirteenth century, proclaimed a 
 general indulgence to all Christians who should visit the 
 tombs of the Apostles at Rome in the secular year 1300. At 
 this period It was intended that the same celebration should 
 take place only every hundredth year. In consequence, 
 however, of the enormous afflux of pilgrims which this pro- 
 clamation brought together, and the gain which resulted 
 from it, Clement VI. abridged the interval to fifty years ; 
 and the solemnity then received the name of the jubilee in 
 imitation of the Jewish custom. The second jubilee was 
 accordingly solemnized in 1350. In 1389, Urban V. reduced 
 the term to thirty-three years, the number of the life of our 
 Saviour : it was raised again by Nicholas V. to fifty ; and 
 finally, in 1470, fixed by Paul II. at twenty-five ; and the 
 jubilee has ever since been solemnized every quarter of a 
 century, beginning on Christmas eve, when the Pope opens 
 with great pomp the door of St. Peter's, closed except on 
 that occasion. (JHosheim's JEccl. Hist., Transl., ed. 1790, 
 iii., 2G3.) 
 
 JU'DAISM. Attachments to the rites of the Jewish law. 
 The Judaizing spirit of many of the early Christians is a 
 subject of observation in many of St. Paul's Epistles (espe- 
 cially that to the Galatians), and continued for a long period 
 to exercise much influence on the character of the religion. 
 (See Jtfilman's Hist, of Christianity, vol. i., 21, 451. &c.) 
 
 JU'DGES. (Lat. judex.) Certain supreme magistrates 
 who presided over the Israelites from the time of Joshua to 
 the reign of Saul, a period of about 330 years. They were 
 so called because they formed at once the civil and the mill- 
 
JUDGMENT. 
 
 tary governors of the people. The dignity was retained for 
 iife. thrum)) it was not always hereditary. 
 
 JU'DGMENT. (Lat judicium.) In Law, the sentence 
 of the law pronounced by the court upon the matter con- 
 tained in the record. 7 he term judgment, in English legal 
 language, is restricted to the decisions of a court of common 
 law : those of a court of equity are denominated decrees. 
 Judgment! are said to be of four sorts: 1. Judgments in 
 law (on demurrer, where the facts are confessed upon the 
 pleading). 2. Judgments in fact (on the verdict of a jury). 
 3. Judgments by confession or default, i. e. where both facts 
 and law ore admitted by the defendant 4. Judgments on a 
 nonsuit or retraxit, where both fact and law are admitted 
 by iht plaiiititf, who thereupon withdraws his claim. Judg- 
 ments are also said to be either interlocutory, on matter 
 : the course of the proceeding; or final, on the 
 merits of the case. Judgments, when obtained, must be 
 signed by the proper officer, and entered of record, without 
 which they are not judgments. Arrest of judgment arises 
 from error appearing upon the face of the record ; but such 
 enor must now be, generally speaking, in substantial matter 
 -A' law, and not on mere matter of form. 
 
 Ji'dqments, in Logic, is defined to be the second of the 
 three logical operations of the mind. It is the comparing 
 together two of the notions which are the subjects of simple 
 apprehension, and pronouncing that they agree or disagree 
 with each other. Judgment, therefore, is either affirmative 
 ve ; and the Bubjects of judgment Bra propositions, 
 which are expressions of the agreement or disagreement of 
 one term with another. 
 
 Ju'dqment. In the Fine Arts, the faculty of selecting 
 that which is most suitable to the purpose. 
 
 JU'DICA. (Lat. judge.) The fifth Sunday after Lent 
 was so called, because the primitive church began the ser- 
 i-it day with the words of the 43d Psalm, " Judica 
 DM Homme." "Judge me, O Lord." 
 
 JUDI'CIUM DEL (Lat. judgment of God.) The term 
 formerly applied to all extraordinary trials of secret crimes, 
 Bl those by arms, single combat, ordeals, fcc., in which it 
 •eil tii.it Heaven would miraculously interfere to 
 dear the innocent and confound the guilty. (See Ordeal, 
 Question.) Full particulars of the ceremonies Instituted 
 00 such occasions will be found in Ducange. 
 
 JUGAL BONE. (Lat jugum, or t;r. svyov, a yoke.) 
 The cheek bone ; so called because it has a yoke like artic- 
 i the bone of the upper jaw. 
 
 JUGATA. Two heads represented upon a medal, side 
 or joining each other. 
 
 JU'GGERNAUT. See Vishnu. 
 
 JITGGLERS. (Fr. jongleurs.) A general denomination 
 for th ue persons who practise the arts of legerdemain, or 
 who exhibit feats of uncommon strength or dexterity. The 
 reader will find in Beckma?i's History of Inventions a 
 learned and curious account of the origin and history of all 
 the feats of this kind exhibited both in ancient and modern 
 Base*, 
 
 JUGLANDA'CEjE. (Juglans', one of the genera.) A 
 small natural order of Exogenous trees, distributed through 
 the temperate parts of North America and Asia. The com- 
 mon walnut, Juglans regia. Is well known for its agreeable 
 fruit, and the useful oil it yields by pressure. Hickory, a 
 :ic kind of timber, is the wood of Carya alba; 
 and that of other species, especially Juglans nigra and 
 regia, is valuable for cabineUnakers' work an<f similar 
 purposes. 
 
 JU'GULARS, Jutrttlares. (Lat.) The name under 
 which Linnteus comprehended all those fishes which have 
 the ventral fins anterior to the pectorals. 
 
 JU'GULAR VEINS. (Lat. jugulum, the throat.) The 
 veins which bring the blood from the head, descending 
 upon the sides of the neck : they are divided into external 
 and internal. By their union with the subclavian vein 
 they form the superior vena cava, which terminates in the 
 superior part of the right auricle of the heart. 
 
 JU'GULUM. (Lat. the throat.) In Mammalogy, it is 
 restricted to the fore-part of the neck, which intervenes be- 
 tween the throat (gula) and the chest. The fossa jugu- 
 laris is the hollow in front of the sternum at the base of the 
 neck. 
 
 JUJU'BE. The fruit of the Rhamnus zizyphus : it re- 
 sembles a small plum, and is occasionally used as a sweet- 
 meat. What is sold under the name of jujube paste pro- 
 fesses to be the dried jelly of this fruit, but is, in fact, a mix- 
 ture of cum arahic and sugar slightly coloured. 
 
 JU LIAN iERA. The commencement of a period in- 
 vented to correspond with the cycles of the Julian year. It 
 coincides with the 710th year before the creation of the 
 World, according to common chronology. 
 
 JULIAN CALENDAR. The civil calendar introduced 
 
 at Rome by Julius Ca»sar, and used by all the Christian 
 
 countries of Europe till it was reformed by Pope Gregory 
 
 XIII. in 1582. Before the time of Julius Ca;sar, the Roman 
 
 2 R 
 
 JUMPING HARE. 
 
 year was lunisolar; and as the pontiffs, who had a disc re 
 uonary power of adjusting the calendar, followed no certain 
 rule^ln their intercalations, but sometimes inserted a greater 
 or less number of days for the purpose of prolonging or 
 shortening the period of a particular magistracy, the civil 
 year did not long correspond with the astronomical or the 
 course of the seasons, and the reckoning of time fell Into 
 great confusion. With the advice of the astronomer Sosi- 
 genes, Caesar fixed the mean length of the year at 3654 
 days ; and in order that the year should always commence 
 with the commencement of a day, he decreed that three 
 successive years should contain 365 days, and the fourth 
 366, and so on forever. He also restored the vernal equi- 
 nox to the 25lh of March, the place it occupied in the time 
 of Numa ; and thus fixed, the correspondence of the civil 
 year with the seasons. . 
 
 In distributing the days of the year among the twelve cal- 
 endar months, Casar adopted a very commodious arrange- 
 ment, which unfortunately was not long suffered to prevail. 
 He ordained that the odd months, viz., the first, third, fifth, 
 seventh, ninth, and eleventh, should have each 31 days, 
 and the even months 30 days ; with the exception of Febru- 
 ary, which in common years should have only 39, bat in 
 the intercalary years 30 days. This was as simple and nat- 
 ural a dfapoaMon as, perhaps, it is possible to make ; but the 
 whole arrangement u as soon thrown into disorder and con- 
 fusion, to gratify the frivolous vanity of Augustus, by giving 
 to the month which he had named after himself the same 
 number of days as July, which bore the name of the first 
 Cajsar. A day was accordingly taken from February and 
 given to August ; and in order that three months of 30 days 
 ■right not come together, September and November were 
 reduced to 30 days, and 31 given to October and December. 
 Such was the origin of the capricious arrangement which 
 has ever since been adhered to. See Calendar. 
 
 JULIAN EPOCH. In Chronology, the epoch or com- 
 mencement of the Julian Calendar. The first Julian year 
 commenced with the 1st of January of the 46th year before 
 the birth of Christ, and the 708lh from the foundation of 
 Rome. 
 
 JULIAN PERIOD, in Chronology, is a period eonaWng 
 of 7S>80 Julian years. The number 7980 is formed by the 
 Continual multiplication of the three numbers 28, 19, and 15 : 
 that is, of the cycle of the sun, the cycle of the moon, ami 
 the cycle of indictiou. The first year of the Christian an 
 had 10 for its number in the cycle of the sun, 2 in the cycle 
 of the moon, and 4 in the indiction. Now the only number 
 less than 7980 which, on being divided successively by 28, 
 19, nnd 15, leaves the respective remainders 10, 2, and 4, is 
 4714. Hence the first year of the Christian era correspond- 
 ed with the year 4714 of the Julian period ; and hence also 
 the year of our era corresponding to any other year of the 
 period, or vice versa, is found by the following rule : 
 
 1. When the given year is anterior to the commencement 
 of the era, subtract the number of the year of the Julian 
 period from 4714, and the remainder is the year before 
 Christ; or subtract the year before Christ from 4714, and 
 the remainder is the corresponding year in the Julian pe- 
 riod. 
 
 2. When the given year is after Christ, subtract 4713 
 from the year of the period, and the remainder is the year 
 of the era; or add 4713 to the year in the era, and the sum 
 is the corresponding year of the Julian period. (Ency. 
 Brit., art. "Chronology.") 
 
 JU'LIAN YEAR. The year adopted in the calendar of 
 Julius Ctesar, and equal to 365$ days. The Julian year ex- 
 ceeds the mean solar year, as determined by the best astro- 
 nomical observations, by 11 minutes and 1035 seconds, 
 which amounts to a day in 129 years. In the course of a 
 few centuries this error would become very perceptible, as 
 the equinoxes and solstices would fall back towards the be- 
 ginning of the year. When the Julian calendar was intro- 
 duced by Cassar, the vernal equinox fell on the 25th of 
 March ; at the time of the Council of Nice, in 325, it fell on 
 the 21st; and at the reformation of the calendar, in 1582, it 
 had retrograded to the 11th. This observation enabled Pops 
 Gregory to fix the length of the year more precisely, and 
 correct the intercalations. See Calendar. 
 
 JU'LIS. (Lat. the name of a fish.) A genus of Labroid 
 fishes, distinguished by the following characters : Head 
 smooth; cheeks and gill-covers without scales; lateral lino 
 bent suddenly downwards when opposite the end of the dor- 
 sal fin. The rainbow wrasse (Julis Mediterranean has been 
 taken on the coast of Cornwall. 
 
 JULY, so named by Mark Antony, in honour of Caius 
 Ca?sar, the dictator, whose gentile name was Julius, is at 
 present the seventh month of the year. In the Latin calen- 
 dar it was the fifth, and hence was termed Quintilis. The 
 Dog-days are supposed to commence on the 3d of this 
 month. 
 
 JU MPING HARE. A Rodent quadruped, the largest of 
 the family of the Jerboas (Dipodida), and the type of the 
 
 625 
 
JUNCACE^E. 
 
 genus Hclamys, is so called. It is a native of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, and inhabits deep burrows. See Helamys. 
 
 JUNCA'CE/E. (Juncus, one of the genera.) A small 
 obscure natural order of Endogenous plants, in most respects 
 resembling Liliacece, and differing chiefly in their flowers 
 being glumaceous ; that is, thin, dry, and either brown or 
 green in colour. There are, however, species intermediate 
 between the two orders in this respect. None of the species 
 are of any importance. The common rush is the usual type 
 of 1 his older. 
 
 JUNCA'GINACE^E. A small natural order of Endoge- 
 nous plants growing in marshes, with minute green flowers. 
 They are considered by botanists allied to Aracem, on ac- 
 count of the structure of the embryo ; in their general aspect 
 they are something like little rushes. 
 
 JUNE ; so named, according to some, either from the 
 Latin Junius, Juno, or Juniores (May, as was alleged, being 
 derived from Majores). At present the sixth month of the 
 year, but in the old Latin calendar the fourth. It consisted 
 originally of twenty-six days, to which Romulus is said to 
 have added four. Numa afterwards deprived it of one day ; 
 which, however, was again restored by Julius Cssar, and it 
 has ever since remained unaltered. 
 
 JUNGERMANNIA'CE^E. (Jungermannia, one of the 
 genera.) A very small natural order of Acrogenous or 
 Cryptogamic plants, resembling mosses in appearance, and, 
 like them, growing upon the bark of trees and in damp 
 ground in shady places. They bear their seeds in cases 
 containing spiral threads, which, by their elasticity, disperse 
 the former when ripe. Until lately they were considered to 
 form a part of Hepaticm. 
 
 JU'NIPER BERRIES. The fruit of the Junipcrus com- 
 munis. They are used in medicine as a diuretic ; but their 
 principal consumption is in flavouring gin. When distilled 
 with water they yield an essential oil, upon which their pe- 
 culiar flavour depends. The resin of this tree is called ju- 
 niper gum or sandarach, and is occasionally used in var- 
 nishes. When powdered it is used under the name of 
 pounce, to prevent ink sinking into paper from which wri- 
 ting has been erased. 
 
 JUNK. A large flat-bottomed vessel, with three masts, 
 and a short bowsprit placed on the starboard bow, used by 
 the Chinese. The masts are supported by two or three 
 ehrouds, which at times are all carried on the windward 
 side; and the fore or main mast carries a sort of lug-sail of 
 cane or bamboo. 
 
 JUNO. The Latin name of the divinity called by the 
 Greeks Hera ("tipn). She was the sister and consort of Ju- 
 piter, and was held to preside over marriage, and protect 
 married women. She was represented as the model of ma- 
 jestic beauty, in royal attire, and attended by her favourite 
 bird the peacock. Her principal temples in Greece were at 
 Samos and Argos. She was also the patroness of Veii, 
 whence she was invited to Rome on the occasion of the last 
 siege of the former city. 
 
 Ju'no. One of the four small extra-zodiacal planets 
 which circulate between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. 
 Juno was discovered by Professor Harding of Lilienthal 
 (near Bremen), on the 22d of September, 1804; Ceres and 
 Pallas having been discovered previously. Juno appears 
 like a star of the eighth or ninth magnitude, and is of a 
 whitish colour, without nebulosity. This planet is distin- 
 guished by the great eccentricity of its orbit, exceeding that 
 of any other planet, and amounting to -2578, the semi-axis 
 major being taken as unit. The effect of this eccentricity 
 on the motion of the planet is such, that the half of the 
 orbit which is bisected by the perihelion is described in 
 about half the time in which the other half is described. 
 The sidereal revolution is performed in 159266 mean solar 
 days. The inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic is 13° 4' 
 10" ; and the greatest equation of the centre 29° 46' 19". 
 The extreme smallness of the planet renders it impossible to 
 determine its apparent diameter, and consequently its mag- 
 nitude, with any degree of certainty. 
 
 JU'NTA. (Span, an assembly.) A grand Spanish coun- 
 cil of state. Besides the assembly of the states or cortes, 
 there were two juntas : one which presided over the com- 
 merce, the mint, and the mines; and the other forming a 
 board for regulating the tobacco monopoly. The assem- 
 bling of a junta by Napoleon in 1808, and the part they 
 subsequently played in Spanish history, are sufficiently 
 known to the reader. In England the term junto (evident- 
 ly of Spanish origin) is used almost synonymously with ca- 
 bal or faction. 
 
 JU'PITER. In Mythology, the Latin name of the deity 
 called by the Greeks Zeus (Z/ik) : it is derived from that 
 word with the addition Pater, Father. He was the son of 
 Saturn, whom he deposed from his throne, and thence be- 
 came the supreme monarch of gods and men. He married 
 his sister Juno, by whom he had Vulcan; but besides this 
 deity he had a large progeny of gods and demigods by his 
 numerous divine and mortal paramours. The most cele- 
 
 m 
 
 JUPITER. 
 
 brated of his children were, Minerva, who had no mother, 
 but sprung armed from her father's forehead; BacthiM, the 
 Muses, Venus, Apollo and Diana, Mercury, Proserpine, 
 Hercules, Perseus, and Minos. The most celebrated Gre- 
 cian temple of this god was at Olympia in Elis, where every 
 fourth year the Olympian games were celebrated in his 
 honour: his most revered oracle was among the oak woods 
 of Dodona in Epirus. The Romans considered Jupiter as 
 especially the patron of their city, in which he accordingly 
 had some splendid temples : that in the capitol was the 
 grandest. Of that dedicated to Jupitor Stator there are still 
 three columns standing. Jupiter was represented as the 
 model of dignity ; grave, but mild : he is seated on a throne 
 grasping his sceptre and a thunderbolt, and by his sido 
 stands his peculiar bird, the eagle. 
 
 It has been remarked that there is a striking similarity 
 between Jove (from Jovis, gen. of Jupiter), and the Hebrew 
 name of the Supreme Deity, Jehovah. 
 
 Jupiter. In Astronomy, one of the planets, and the lar- 
 gest in the system. The mean diameter of Jupiter is nc 
 less than 87,000 miles, or about eleven times that of the 
 earth ; consequently his bulk is about 1300 times greater 
 than that of the earth. The distance of Jupiter from the 
 sun is nearly 490 millions of miles, or about 5J times the ra- 
 dius of the earth's orbit ; and he performs his revolution in 
 respect of the stars in 4332 days, 14h. 2m. 8J sec, which is 
 nearly 12 years. The inclination of the orbit to the plane 
 of the ecliptic was 1° 18' 51" at the beginning of the pres- 
 ent century, and undergoes a diminution of about a fourth 
 of a second in a year. 
 
 '"The disc of Jupiter is always observed to be crossed in 
 one certain direction by dark bands or belts. These belts 
 are, however, by no means alike at all times; they vary in 
 breadth and in situation on the disc (though never in their 
 general direction). They have even been seen broken up, 
 and distributed over the whole face of the planet; but this 
 phenomenon is extremely rare. Branches running out from 
 them, and subdivisions, as well as evident dnrk spots, like 
 strings of clouds, are by no means uncommon ; and from 
 these, attentively watched, it Is concluded that the planet 
 revolves in the surprisingly short period of 9h. 55m. 50 sec 
 (sid. time) on an axis perpendicular to the direction of the 
 belts. 
 
 The parallelism of the belts to the equator of Jupiter, 
 their occasional variations, and the appearances of spots 
 seen upon them, render it extremely probable that they sub- 
 sist in the atmosphere of the planet, forming tracts of com- 
 paratively clear sky, determined by currents analagous to 
 our trade winds, but of a much more steady and decided 
 character, as might indeed be expected from the immense 
 velocity of its rotation. That it is the comparatively darker 
 body of the planet which appears in the belts is evident 
 from this — that they do not come up in all their strength to 
 the edge of the disc, but fade gradunlly away before they 
 reach it." (HerscheVs Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopedia, p. 
 281.) 
 
 The radius of Jupiter being 11 times greater than that of 
 the earth, and the rotation on the axis being 2-4 times more 
 rapid, the space passed over by a point on the equator of the 
 planet will be 26 times greater than that described by a 
 point of the terrestrial equator in the same time. Hence 
 the centrifugal force is about 26 times greater, and we may, 
 therefore, conclude that its effect in impressing a flattened 
 form on the planet will be much greater lhan takes place 
 with regard to the earth. Now observation shows this to 
 be the case. The disc of Jupiter is evidently not circular, 
 but elliptic, being considerably flattened in the direction of 
 its axis of rotation ; and this appearance is no optical illu- 
 sion, but is authenticated by micrometrical measures, which 
 assign 15 to 14 as the proportion of the equatorial and polar 
 diameters. This far exceeds the compression of the earth, 
 the ratio of the equatorial to the polar diameter of which is 
 302 to 301. 
 
 The annual parallax of Jupiter is less than 12°; conse- 
 quently the earth, as seen from Jupiter, will never appear at 
 a greater distance than 12° from the sun. The digressions 
 of Mars will be 17°, those of Venus 8°, and those of Mer- 
 cury only 4° 16'. An inhabitant of Jupiter would therefore 
 probably be ignorant of the existence of Mercury, which 
 will be almost constantly plunged in the sun's rays, and 
 likewise diminished in splendour, on account of the greater 
 distance. 
 
 The densitv of Jupiter is very nearly the same as that of 
 the sun, and "about one fourth of the mean density of the 
 earth. The mass of the planet, compared with that of the 
 sun taken as unity, is -000943; but this is sufficient to pro- 
 duce a very sensible perturbation of the motions of some of 
 the other planets. The proportion of light and heat receiv 
 ed by Jupiter from the sun, compared with that received by 
 the earth, is as -037 to 1. 
 
 Jupiter, through the telescope, is observed to be accom 
 panied by four moons or satellites, which revolve about the 
 
JURISCONSULT. 
 
 pip.net nearly in the plane of its equator, exactly in the same 
 manner as the moon revolves about the earth. Their con- 
 figuration changes at every instant; they appear to oscillate 
 on each side of the planet, and their rank or order of dis- 
 tance is determined by the extent of their oscillations. In 
 coming between the sun and Jupiter, the satellites throw 
 their shadows on the planet, and produce eclipses of the 
 sun ; and when they come lo the side of the planet opposite 
 to the sun they are eclipsed in passing through the shadow. 
 The beginnings and endings of these eclipses can be ob- 
 i 1 with great precision ; and their observation furnishes 
 the surest means of determining the sidereal and synodic 
 revolutions of the satellites. The same observations also 
 afford a means of determining terrestrial longitudes; and it 
 was by means of them that astronomers discovered and 
 
 ired the velocity of light. See Planet and Satellite. 
 JU'BISCONSU'LT. (Juris consultus, learned or skilled 
 in late.) A title given to a class of Roman lawyers, and 
 commonly denoted by the abbreviation ictus. From what 
 we know of the jurisconsults, they appear to have been a 
 different class from the ndvocati or causidici who conducted 
 . and to have confined themselves to the employment 
 
 ing responsa or opinions on cases put to them. (See 
 de CAc. des Inscr., vol. xli.) From the recorded 
 
 ms of the most learned jurisconsults the Digest, the 
 great work of Justinian, was chiefly compiled. See Advo- 
 
 < ATE. 
 
 Jt'RISPRU'DENCE. The science of right (From the 
 Latin words juris prudens, skilled in late.) The term civil 
 jurisprudence is sometimes restricted to the science of the 
 Romas or civil law. For a literally complete list of works 
 on thJ abject, see Krug's Philosopkischcs Lczi- 
 
 lit. " Rechtslehre." 
 .H'UV-MAST. In Naval affairs, a temporary mast ercct- 
 ■ ship in the room of one that has been carried away 
 by tempest or any other accident. Jury-masts are some- 
 erected in a new ship to navigate hat down a river, 
 B neighbouring port, where her proper masts are pre- 
 ' her. 
 J I ' K V, TRIAL BY. Of the origin and progress of this 
 ution, as far as it has been very imperfectly traced by 
 iirians, some account has been given in the historical 
 v of the Common Law. When issue has Iw-en taken 
 : in a civil suit (see Pleading), the cause stands ready 
 lor trial at bar of the court itself («ee Law, Superior 
 .: rs), unless by the fiction of nisi prius (ib.) it is trans- 
 ferred to the sittings in London and Middlesex, or the as- 
 'i the country. (A trial at bar is now only granted on 
 application in some special cases.) The sheriff of the coun- 
 ty is directed by writ of venire facias to summon jurors to 
 attend at the assizes ; and by a farther compulsory process, 
 called a distringas, he is ordered to distrain them by their 
 lands and goods if they make default in nppenranc 
 motion of either the plaintiff or defendant, the court orders a 
 special jury to be summoned. The list of persons liable to 
 aa common jurors is made out by the churchwardens 
 and overseers in each parish, and, after being considered by 
 justices at petty sessions, is copied into a book and deliver- 
 ed to the sheriff. On the return of the writs of venire fa- 
 cias, the sheriff annexes a panel or list of persons taken from 
 this book, in number from 48 to 72 ; and the judges are em- 
 powered to direct the same panel to attend both tor the civil 
 and the criminal sides, amounting in all to 144. The tu elvti 
 jurors who nre to try the cause are chosen by ballot out of 
 thia list The qualification of a common juror i-, to be a 
 natural-born subject (unless on trial of an ali'ri, in which 
 he may if he pleases have a jury de mcrfi/tate lingua, of 
 which one half consists of aliens), to be free from attaint of 
 nn infamous crime, and to be between the ages of 21 and 
 GO. All such persons (with certain privileged exceptions) 
 -ing £10 a year in freehold or copyhold lands and 
 tenements, or £20 a year in lands held on lease for 21 
 years, or rated as householders to the poor's rate in Middle- 
 sex for £30, elsewhere £20, or occupying a house with 15 
 windows, tire liable to serve. In the city of London the 
 juror must be a householder or occupier within the citv, 
 and have property, real or personal, to the amount of £100. 
 All persons described in the jurors' book as esquires or of a 
 higher degree, or as bankers or merchant 1 ), are qualified to 
 on special juries. If on a trial sufficient qualified ju- 
 rors are not in attendance, a tales may be prayed; and by- 
 standers are called in to fill up the number. This seldom 
 occurs but in special jury cases ; and in these the talesmen, 
 as they are vulgarly termed, are taken from the common 
 jury list 
 
 The jury being summoned, the trial proceeds; unless 
 either party challenge the jurors. Challenges are either to 
 the array or to the polls. A challenge to the array is an 
 objection to the whole panel, and can only be on account 
 of default or partiality of the sheriff. Challenges to the 
 polls, t. e., to individual jurors, are said to be of four kinds ; 
 propUtr honoris respectum, propter defcclum,propter affectum, 
 
 JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 
 
 and propter delictum. 1. Where a party is exempt', i jy 
 statute from serving, he may challenge himself. 2. Insiiffi 
 cient qualification is a ground of challenge by either party, 
 3. On supposed bias or partiality, as by reason of kindred. 
 Challenges to the favour are on a mere suspicion of partial- 
 ity. 4. Legal infamy is the fourth ground of challenge. In 
 a criminal case the law of challenges is the same as in a 
 civil one; except that the prisoner for felony has the addi 
 dona] privilege of making peremptory challenges without 
 cause assigned to any number of jurors not exceeding twen 
 ty. Challenges for cause, if to the pells, are tried by the 
 court ; except those to the favour, which the court appoints 
 two jurors if sworn— if not, two indifferent persons, to try. 
 Challenges to the array ore tried entirely at the discretion 
 of the court 
 
 According to the common course of a trial at nisi prius, 
 the counsel for that party on which the affirmative of the 
 issue is thrown by the pleadings (that is, except in occa- 
 sional cases, the plaintiff) opens his case by a statement to 
 the jury, and then calls witnesses to prove it. The counsel 
 for the other party then replies ; and if he also calls wit- 
 nesses, the first speaker has a final reply. After the evi- 
 dence is given and the case closed, the jurors are kept 
 together to deliberate of their verdict They must be with 
 out meat, drink, or fire, unless otherwise ordered by the 
 judge ; ond as unanimity is necessary to a verdict, it was 
 held at common law that if the jury could not agree, the 
 judge might cause them to be carried round the circuit 
 from town to town in a cart. In practice it is usual, when 
 they cannot be brought to agreement, to discharge the jury. 
 Although the jury in ordinary language nre said to be judges 
 of the fact only, yet a general verdict in a civil or crimi 
 nal case ordinarily decides both the facts, and whether the 
 law as stated by the judge is immediately applicable to 
 those facts: c. g., a verdict "guilty" on a charge of murder 
 implies both that the act was committed, and that it was 
 committed under circumstances amounting to murder. The 
 jury may, however, find under certain circumstances a spe- 
 cial verdict, that is, a verdict in which the facts of th 
 are specially stated, and it is left to the court to appl] 
 law ; or they may find a general verdict, subject to a S] 
 case as to a point of law. In cases of criminal prosecution 
 for libel, much difference of opinion formerly prevailed ns 
 to the effect of a verdict. It was held by most lawyers that 
 the only questions for their consideration were the I; i 
 publication, and the truth of what is technically called Uir 
 innuendos, viz., that the passages of the libel cited did op 
 ply to such or such facts and individuals. But by 32 G. 3, C 
 (>0 (passed through the influence of Mr. Fox), it was enact- 
 ed, that on every trial of an indictment or information lot 
 libel, the jury may find u general verdict of guilty or not 
 guilty upon the whole matter in issue, thus deciding wheth- 
 er the matter published amounts to a libel or no. As to the 
 grand jury, see Law, Criminal. 
 
 JUST, or JOUST. (Ital. giostra.) A combat between 
 two persons with lances : properly, a mere amicable contest 
 or trial of strength. Sec Tot rnament. 
 
 JUSTE MILIEU. See Milieu Juste. 
 
 JU'STICES OF THE PEACE, in Law, are descended 
 from the ancii ton of the peace, and are appoint- 
 
 ed to their office in every county by the king's special com- 
 mission under the great seal ; which appoints them all, 
 jointly and separately, to keep the peace, and any two or 
 more of them to inquire of or determine felonies or misde- 
 meanors. Some justices, also, are so by act of parliament 
 (namely, a few high ecclesiastical officers) ; and some by 
 charter or grant, as the mayor and other magistrates in cor- 
 porate towns. Some justices are expressly nominated in 
 the commission, so that certain business cannot be transact- 
 ed without their presence ; these are said to be of the quo- 
 rum, and all the justices are now usually included in the 
 list. The qualification of a justice is to have an estate of 
 £100 a year free of incumbrance, or a reversion aftor one or 
 more lives of £300 a year; but many privileged persons 
 may act without qualification by estate. A justice intending 
 to act under this commission sues out a writ of dedim us po- 
 rn from the clerk of the crown in chancery. a "d takes 
 certain usual oaths. 
 
 The duties and powers of a justice of the peace are of 
 two kinds; ministerial and judicial. 1. He acts in the for 
 mer capacity in preserving the peace ; hearing charges 
 against offenders ; examining the informant and his witness- 
 es ; binding over the parties to prosecute or give evidence ; 
 and committing, or admitting to bail, according to the nature 
 of the offence, parties who are brought before him. The 
 stat. 7 &. 8 Geo. 4, c. 64, requires justices to take the most 
 material part of the evidence on examinations before thcwi 
 in writing, to he returned to the assizes, both in charges of 
 felony and misdemeanor. 2. An extensive jurisdiction, sum- 
 mary and formal, Is now exercised by justices of the peace, 
 numerous branches of judicature, both criminal and civil, 
 having been gradually confided to their authority, either ex 
 
 627 
 
JUSTICIARY, CHIEF. 
 
 erased by them individually, or at the petty sessions and gen- 
 eral quarter sessions of the peace. The latter court, by 34 
 Ed. 3, has jurisdiction over all felonies and trespasses what- 
 ever : in practice, simple larcenies and many other felonies 
 and small misdemeanors are tried by a jury before it. It 
 has also, by various statutes, jurisdiction over several offen- 
 ces relating to highways and to game; it is an appellate 
 court from many decisions of individual magistrates ; and it 
 has one large and exclusive power committed to its care by 
 the legislature, viz., the hearing and deciding appeals from 
 orders of magistrates relative to the imposition of the poor's 
 rate, and to the removal of paupers from one parish to an- 
 other in which they are shown to have a legal settlement. 
 (See Settlement.) Justices have, either singly or jointly, 
 summary jurisdiction in questions of contrnct between cer- 
 tain classes of masters and servants; in small illegal takings 
 of property, whether strictly personal, or in part connected 
 with the freehold, not exceeding £5 in value; and in com- 
 mon assaults and batteries not causing injury exceeding £5 
 (in the latter case two justices are required) ; and in certain 
 malicious injuries to property. The proceedings are in gen- 
 eral on a written charge, sometimes termed a complaint; 
 but in proceedings for a penalty more generally an informa- 
 tion : on receiving which, the justice grants a summons to 
 cause the appearance of the party charged. An appeal to 
 the quarter sessions from the conviction or order of justices 
 is sustainable only where expressly given by statute ; and 
 the court of session, on hearing the case, is said either to 
 affirm or quash the conviction or order. And the proceed- 
 ings are farther removable in some cases into the superior 
 courts by certiorari. 
 
 Other summary remedies afforded by magistrates are, in 
 cases of forcible entry and detainer, and some that arise be- 
 tween landlord and tenant. 
 
 Justices of the peace are liable to actions at the suit of 
 parties injured by them wilfully in the exercise of their au- 
 thority. But it is provided by statute that they shall have 
 notice of any action commenced against them, and the cause 
 of such action, one month before the writ is sued out ; and 
 the action must be commenced within six months after the 
 injury complained of. Persons recovering a verdict against 
 a justice for any wilful or malicious injury are entitled to 
 double costs. These magistrates are also punishable crimi- 
 nally by indictment or information. 
 
 The police justices of London and its vicinity are stipendi- 
 ary magistrates, created bv act of parliament. 
 
 "JUSTI'CIARY, CHIEF. (Lat. magnus justiciarius, or 
 capitalis justiciarius totius Anglia?. An officer of high pow- 
 er and dignity under the Norman kings of England, who 
 presided over all functionaries in the aula regia, or king's 
 court, so long as it followed the person of the king ; and 
 was, says Blackstone, by virtue of his office, guardian of 
 the realm in the king's absence. The formidable power of 
 the chief justiciary was curbed to some extent by the pro- 
 visions of the great charter, especially that which" fixed the 
 trial of common pleas at Westminster; and became alto- 
 gether obsolete when the various branches of his jurisdiction 
 •rt-ere broken into distinct courts of judicature under Ed- 
 ward I. (Bl. Com., hi., 39.) 
 
 JUSTI'CIARY, THE HIGH COURT OF, IN SCOT- 
 LAND, is composed of five of the Lords of Session, added 
 W the Justice-Clerk, the president of the court. It is the 
 supreme court of criminal justice ; with the power of advo- 
 cating or suspending all sentences of inferior criminal judges. 
 It has circuit courts twice a year ; and an additional circuit 
 is now held in Glasgow during the Christmas recess of the 
 Court of Session. The sinecure office of Lord Justice- 
 General was in 1831 merged in that of the Lord-President. 
 See Session, Court of. 
 
 JUSTI'CIES. In Law, a special writ empowering the 
 sheriff of a county to hold plea of an action in his court. 
 By means of this writ all personal and many real actions 
 may be tried in the county courts. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION. Lat. transl. of the Greek word if 
 Kaiuats.) In Theology, men are said to be justified when 
 accounted just or righteous in the sight of God, or placed in 
 a state of salvation. Justification is used of the state of 
 Christians in the present life only; as in Rom., v., 9, "Be- 
 ing justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
 through him." The doctrine of justification through faith 
 or rather by faith (tic m^rto)?, 6ia mom for or by reason of 
 faith) is set out with peculiar distinctness in the whole 
 Epistle to the Romans. According to the eleventh article 
 of the Church of England, we are justified "by faith, and 
 not of our works or deservings." The twelfth declares, 
 that " although good works, which are the fruits of faith, 
 and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and 
 endure the severity of God's judgment, yet are they pleasing 
 and acceptable to God In Christ, and spring necessarily out 
 of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively 
 faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by 
 the fruit" The first of these articles is chiefly directed 
 623 
 
 KALEIDOSCOPE. 
 
 against the Romanist doctrine of meritorious works; the 
 second, based on the language of St. James, that a "man is 
 justified by works, and not by taith only" (c. ii., 24), re- 
 gards faith and works as inseparably connected, and is 
 aimed principally against the doctrine of ttiOoe who were 
 termed Antinomians or Solifidians. For a summary of the 
 opinions generally embraced by the best divines of the early 
 Church of England on this difficult subject, see Has/tin's 
 Sermon on Justification; foi the views of what is called 
 the High Church body of the present day, Newman's Lee- 
 tures on Justification. 
 
 K. 
 
 K, a consonant used in most ancient and modern langua- 
 ges.. It is derived from the Greek kappa, or the Hebrew 
 koph. It has the same sound as C before a, o, and u, and 
 hence it has often been pronounced superfluous. In Latin, 
 K occurs only in a few words, though it was frequently 
 used in the same language as an abbreviation for words be- 
 ginning with C; as K.T. for capite tonsus, K.R.C. for cara 
 civitas, &c. &c. In the French alphabet, K is only used in 
 words derived from foreign languages. As a numeral, it 
 was employed to express 250 — 
 
 K quoque ducentos et quinquaginta docebit. 
 
 KA'ABA. See Caaba. 
 
 KA'KOXENE. (Gr. tcairos, bad, and otys, sharp; so 
 called probably from the mischief it does to the iron.) A 
 mineral occurring in brown or red radiated crystals in the 
 ironstone of Zbiron in Bohemia ; when heated it emits a 
 green phosphoric light. It contains phosphoric and fluoric 
 acids, peroxide of iron, and silica. 
 
 KA'LAND. (Germ.) A lay fraternity instituted in Ger- 
 many in the 13th century for the purpose of doing honour to 
 deceased relatives and friends. The term is probably de- 
 rived from kalends, the first day of any month, as the mem- 
 bers of this society chose that day for the observance of 
 their ceremonies. These consisted originally of prayers, fol 
 lowed by a slight repast, in which all the members partici 
 pated ; but in process of time the religious purposes of the 
 society became wholly merged in the festivities, so that it 
 eventually was found necessary to abolish the fraternity on 
 account of its excesses. 
 
 KALEI'DOSCOPE. (Gr. xa\os. pretty ; eiSoc, form ; and 
 ukotuo, I view.) An optical toy invented or revived by Sir 
 David Brewster, which, by a particular arrangement of re- 
 flecting surfaces, presents to the eye a series of symmetrical 
 images often remarkable for their beauty. 
 
 The kaleidoscope is formed by two plane mirrors or slips 
 of glass, from six to ten inches in length, and from an 
 inch to an inch and a half in breadth at the one end, though 
 somewhat narrower at the other, joined together along the 
 edges lengthwise, and inclined to each other in an angle, 
 which must be an even aliquot part (that is to say, the 
 sixth, eighth, tenth, &c.) of four right angles. The edges 
 of the mirrors are kept in contact by a strip of black silk 
 glued along the back of the plates, which, if formed of 
 glass, must be coated with black vamish or sealing wax, to 
 prevent reflexion from their posterior surfaces. The mirrors 
 being adjusted at the proper angle, are placed within a tin 
 tube, where they are kept in their proper position by pieces 
 of cork or wood wedged in between them and the tube. 
 One end of the tube has a small circular aperture in its cen- 
 tre, to which the eye is applied ; in the other end two plane 
 glasses are fixed parallel to each other, and perpendiculai 
 to the axis of the tube, and about an eighth of an inch apart. 
 Between these glasses, which form a cell, the objects which 
 produce the images are placed. Those which answer the 
 purpose best are small fragments of coloured glass, beads, 
 or other coloured diaphanous matters, of such a size that 
 when the tube is turned round they move freely within the 
 cell, and assume new positions. In order that the eye may 
 not be disturbed by objects without the tube, the outer glass 
 should be slightly ground, but the inner must be perfectly 
 transparent. 
 
 On applying the eye to the aperture of the tube the objects 
 within the cell at the other end are seen multiplied by re- 
 peated reflexions from the two mirrors, and a succession of 
 symmetrical images presented, all arranged round a centre, 
 and combined Into a perfect whole. As the objects are 
 placed loosely in the cell, every motion of the tube changes 
 their relative positions, whereby an entirely new image is 
 produced ; and it is this constant change and endless variety 
 of new combinations which create the pleasing effect 
 
 In order to show how this multiplication of the images is 
 produced, let A C represent one of the mirrors, and B C the 
 other, and suppose them to make with each other an angle 
 of 60°: let a also be an object placed between the planes 
 of the two mirrors, or one of the diaphanous bodies in the 
 
 
KALENDERS. 
 
 cell between the two parallel glasses 
 at the end of the tube. Now when an 
 object is seen reflected from a mirror, 
 the image always appears as far be- 
 hind the mirror (in a perpendicular 
 line) as the object itself is before it ; 
 and, with relation to a second mirror, 
 this image will have all the effect of 
 a real object. Let, therefore, a m and 
 an be drawn perpendicular to A C and 
 B C, and produced till m a' = m a, and n a" =-n a; then a' 
 lid a ' will be the two first images of the object o. Make 
 i' p perpendicular to B C, and a" q to A C, and let p b' = 
 •i p, ami q b" =a" q; then will b and b" be the images of a 
 formed by a second reflexion. Again, draw b' r perpendicu- 
 lar to A C, and b" s perpendicular to B C, and let r c' = b' r 
 and s c" = b" s ; then will c and c" be the images of a 
 formal by the third reflexion. But by the geometrical prr?p- 
 4'tlie figure these two points c and c" coincide, or the 
 ...ages are blended together, and the object will be seen 
 In six different places symmetrically amused in a circular 
 'bout the centre C. In like manner, if A B C had been 
 the .siii part of 300°, the object would appear in eight po- 
 sitions, and so on; but if the angle at C, which is the angle 
 ol' the mirrors, be the 7th or <Jth, or any odd aliquot part of 
 3ti<P, the images will not coincide, and the symmetrical ar- 
 rangement will not be produced. 
 
 The kaleidoscope here described was first made known 
 by Sir Uavid Brewster, who took out a patent for it in the 
 1817; but by some means or other its properties were 
 dis< ivered, and it had acquired great popularity as an agree- 
 able toy. and was in the hands of everybody before any 
 number of the patent kaleidoscopes could be prepared for 
 sale. It was also very soon remarked that the discovery 
 irai by no means new, as an instrument on the same prin- 
 iiad been described by Baptists Porta and Kircher; 
 and also in a work published in England in 1810, under the 
 title of j\\w Improvements of Planting- and Gardening, by 
 R. Bradley, in which it was recommended as useful for as- 
 sisting to form deMgns of garden plots and fortifications. In 
 fact, the principle, so far as the multiplication of Images 
 and their general arrangement are concerned, had been long 
 known ; but in order to produce the symmetry which con- 
 stitutes the principal beauty of the kaleidoscope, it is nl.-o 
 ary that the object and the eye have Certain positions 
 with raapect to th2 mirrors; and the discovi ry of this condi- 
 tion seems to belong exclusively to Sir 1). Brewster. See 
 Brewster's Treatise mi thr tTaUUoseeps ; Harris's Treatise 
 irx ; Brewster's Optics, Cab. Cycl. ; the Ency. Brit., 
 fcc. ' 
 
 KA LENDERS. (From an Arabic word signifying pure 
 gold.) Wandering dervises. (See Lane's Arabian Nights' 
 linments.) 
 KA'LI. An Arabic word, signifying the ashes left after 
 the combustion of vegetable substances; hence the word 
 alkali. Potassa is frequently termed kali, and j«>tassium 
 kalium, by the German chemists ; hence they use K as the 
 symbol for potassium. 
 
 KA'I.MI A. (From Kalm, a traveller in North America.) 
 A genus of beautiful North American plants, with a mo- 
 nopetaloas corolla, which confines ten stamens by their an- 
 thers in the same number of niches in its sides. The flowers 
 are white or pink, and the leaves evergreen ; but the plants 
 are said to be deleterious. 
 
 KA'.MI. Spirits or divinities, the belief in which appears 
 to have characterized the ancient religion of Japan before it 
 became intermingled with foreign doctrines, and slill cou-ti- 
 tutes its groundwork. These spirits are partly elemental, 
 subordinate to the gods of the sun and moon, and partly the 
 spirits of men ; but, in fact, every natural agent or phenom- 
 enon has Its spirit or genius. The human spirits survive the 
 body, and receive happiness or punishment for the actions 
 of the individual In life. Distinguished benefactors of their 
 species, or men renowned for purity of life, are deified ; and 
 their kami become objects of worship, like the heroes of an- 
 tiquity. The number of them is said at present to be above 
 3000. They are worshipped in temples in which no Images 
 are retained, each particular divinity being merely typified 
 by a mirror, the emblem of purity ; and all the rites of the 
 worship appear to be symbolical of purification. The priests 
 of these temples are styled Kami-Nusi. i. c, ministers of the 
 tpirits. {Klaproth, Annals of Japan, 1834; IVicntr Jahrbuch 
 for 1837.) 
 
 KA.MICHI. The name of a Rassorial or Gallinaceous 
 bird, remarkable for having its wings armed with two strong 
 *purs, and its head with a long, slender, cylindrical, and 
 nearlv straight horn. See Palamedka. 
 
 K.V.N f;AROO. The native name of a large indigenous 
 quadruped of New Holland ; it belongs to a genus charac- 
 terized by ;l strictly herbivorous modification of the marsu- 
 pial type) of the dental organs, ami by a remarkably long and 
 Jlrong tail and hind legs. Sec MacRopus and Marsupialia. 
 
 KARMATHIANS. 
 
 KA'NTIAN PHILOSOPHY (known also by the name 
 of the Critical Philosophy.) A system which owes its ex- 
 istence to Immanuel Kant, professor of logic and metaphys- 
 ics in the university of Konigsberg in the latter half of the 
 18th century. The promulgation of Kant's doctrines forms 
 a very marked era in the history of philosophy. Our limits 
 will prevent us from giving an explanation of this system in 
 any degree adequate to its importance. We must confine 
 ourselves to a brief outline of its leading features. At the 
 time when Kant commenced his metaphysical labours the 
 philosophical world was divided between the sensualism of 
 the French followers of Locke on the one hand, and the 
 dogmatic rationalism of the disciples of Wolf ami Leibnitz 
 on the other. The former, by a species of analytical I 
 domain, resolved all our mental powers into modific 
 of sense; while the latter, in an equally indiscriminating 
 spirit, though with far more laudable intentions, sought to 
 construct a system of real truth out of the abstract concep- 
 ceptiom of the understanding. Against both of these schools 
 Kant declared Open warfare. Withdrawing himself from 
 all ontological speculation, he sought, by a stricter anal 
 of our intellectual powers, to ascertain the possibility and to 
 determine the limits of human knowledge. He divides the 
 'P> dilutive part of our nature into three great provinces- 
 understanding, and reason. Our perception of the 
 outward world is repres e ntative merely: of things 01 they 
 are in themselves it affords us no notices. In order to render 
 human experience possible, two ground-forms, under which 
 all sensible things are contemplated, are assumed — time and 
 space. To these he assigns a strictly subjective reality. 
 The truth of the fundamental axioms of geometry re-ts on 
 the necessity and universality of our intuitions of space in 
 its threo dimensions — intuitions which are not derived from 
 any one of our senses, or from any combinations of them, 
 but lie at the ground and are the condition of nil sensible 
 human experience. The understanding, or the faculty which 
 combines and classifies the materials yielded by sense, Kani 
 subjects to a similar analysis. All its operation, . 
 ized into four fundamental modes or forms of conception ; 
 which, after : s categories. 
 
 (See Category.) Then are four in number : 1. Quantity, 
 including unity, multeity, totality; 2. duality, divided into 
 reality, negation, and limitation ; 3. Relation, viz. substance 
 and accident, cause and effect, action and reaction; and 
 4. Modality, also subdivided Into possibility, existence, and 
 oecearity. These form, as it were, the moulds In which the 
 rude material of the senses is shaped Into conceptions, and 
 becomes knowledge properly so called. The categod 
 themselves afs the subject-matter of logic, which is eg i'a: 
 forth a pure science, determinable a priori. The third and 
 highest faculty, the reason, consists in the power of forming 
 ideas — pure forms of intelligence, to which the sensible 
 world has no ad, qn .Vnts. Out of these ideas 
 
 no science can be formed ; they are to be regarded as regu- 
 lative only, ool live. The existence of God, fin- 
 mortality, freedom, are the objects after which the reason 
 is perpetually striving, but concerning which it can decide 
 nothing either one way or the other. Thus far Kant's sys- 
 tem may be regarded as mie of pure skepticism. The de- 
 ficiencies of our speculative reason he conceives to De sup- 
 plied by the moral faculty, to which he has given the name 
 of practical reason, the object of which is to determ'jie, not 
 what is. but what ought to be. As the former determines the 
 form of our knowledge, so the latter prescribes tile form of our 
 action. Obligation is not a mere feeling ; it has a pure form un- 
 der which the reason is compelled to regard human conduct. 
 The personality of man, which lies at the ground of specu- 
 lative knowledge becomes, in relation to action, freedom of 
 the will. It is in our moral nature that we must seek for 
 the only valid foundation of the belief in God, the immor- 
 tality of the soul, and a future state in which the demands 
 of the practical reason shall be realized. (See Kant's Phi- 
 losophical Works ; Kritik dtr licinen Vcrnunft : Kritik dcr 
 Practiseken Vtrnunft, &c.) 
 
 KA'OLIN. The Chinese name for porcelain clay. A 
 large tract of this useful substance occurs near St. Austin 
 in Cornwall, whence our potteries and porcelain manufacto- 
 ries are copiously supplied. Its essential component parts 
 are silica and alumina; the former usually preponderates. 
 The kaolin of Cornwall, and probably of other countries, 
 is derived from the decomposition of the felspar of granitic 
 rocks. 
 
 KA'RA. A Tartar word, signifying black, used in many 
 of the Eastern languages as a prefix to geographical names; 
 as Karamania, the country of the black people. It has also 
 been employed in the same capacity to signify "tributary;" 
 as kara ka! packs, tributary ka'packs. 
 
 KARMATHIANS, or KARMATIANS. A Mohamme- 
 dan sect which arose in Irak during the 9th century of the 
 Christian era. It derived Its name from Karmata, its foun 
 der, a poor labourer, who assumed the rank of a prophet. 
 They maintained bloody wars with the caliphs for nearly s 
 
 C29 
 
KARPHOLITE. 
 
 t onuuy. ( Ta '/.',;>■, Hist, of Mohammedanism, p. 2-23 ; Secret 
 l of the Middle Ages, Lib. Ent. Kn. 1837.) 
 
 KA'RPHOLITE. (Gr. Kapipw, I dry or shrivel.) A min- 
 or;il which occurs in stellated crystals of a yellowish colour 
 and silky lustre: it is a hydrated silicate of alumina and 
 manganese. 
 
 KARPHOSIDE'RITE. A mineralogical name of the 
 hydrated phosphate of iron of Labrador. 
 
 KEEL. (Probably from the Gr. koi\ds, hollow.) The 
 principal piece of timber of a ship, usually first laid on the 
 blocks in building. If we compare the body of a ship to 
 the human skeleton, the keel seems to resemble the back 
 bone, and the timbers the ribs. It is generally composed 
 of several thick pieces of wood placed lengthways, which 
 after being scarfed together, are bolted and clenched upon 
 the upper side. Keelage signifies the duty paid by a ship on 
 coming into port. 
 
 Keel. In Botany, a name applied in a figurative sense 
 to the two lowest petals of a Papilionaceous corolla, which, 
 together, have some resemblance to the keel of a boat. 
 
 KEEL-HAULING. A nautical punishment practised 
 chiefly in the Dutch navy, by which the culprit is let down 
 on one side of the ship, and after passing under the keel is 
 hauled up on the other. The punishment was formerly not 
 altogether unknown in the British navy; but it is not now 
 i esorted to. 
 
 KEE'LING. A name for the common cod (Moorhua 
 vulgaris, Cuv.). Sue Morrhua and Gadus. 
 
 KEEP. (Anglo-Sax. kepan.) Applied in ancient Mili- 
 tary History to the stronghold of a castle, to which in cases 
 of emergency the besieged inmates retreated, and there made 
 their last efforts of defence. It is almost synonymous with 
 donjon (which see). 
 
 KEE'PER OF THE GREAT SEAL, LORD, or LORD 
 KEEPER. An officer of high dignity in the English consti- 
 tution, whose office is created by the delivery of the king's 
 great seal into his custody. He is prolocutor or speaker of 
 the House of Lords by prescription. By 5 Eliz., c. 18, the 
 offices of lord chancellor and lord keeper are declared to be 
 of exactly the . ame ufhority ; and when 'here is no chan- 
 cellor the great seal Is ordinarily put in commission. (See 
 Ohavoklt.or, Seal. Bl. Com., iii. 47.) The keeper of the 
 privy seal is stvled lord privv seal. 
 
 KEEPING." (Aug. Sax. "kepan, to keep.) In Painting, 
 •he management of the lights, shadows, colours, and aerial 
 tints in such subordination to each other, that each object 
 may seem to stand rightly in the place that the linear per- 
 spective has assigned to it. Objects in the nearer parts or 
 foreground of a picture will necessarily receive the strongest 
 lights and shadows; and as more air is interposed in nature 
 between the eye and the objects as they become more dis- 
 tant, so in the representations of them the colours must he 
 less brilliant as they recede from the eye towards the dis- 
 tance wherein they are lost. This word must not be con- 
 founded with the term effect, though effect is doubtless the 
 result of keeping in a picture, that word being more pecu- 
 liarly applicable to the sensation produced by the combina- 
 tion of accidental circumstances in the disposition of light 
 and shade. 
 
 KELP. A common term for sea weed or vraic, which 
 consists of different species of Funis (Lin.). In a strict 
 sense, the term kelp is confined to the produce of sea weeds 
 when burned, which consists of alkaline ashes used in the 
 manufacture of glass and soap. It has been recently found, 
 however, that the alkali required for these purposes can be 
 obtained more abundantly from sea-salt, and kelp is at 
 present chiefly used as a manure. For this purpose it is 
 eagerly sought after by all farmers on the sea coast, and es- 
 pecially by those who have dry soils, the salt contained in 
 the kelp being a powerful absorbent of moisture from the 
 atmosphere. It has lately acquired much importance as a 
 source of iodine. 
 
 KE'NNEL. Applied literally to the house in which a 
 pack of hounds is lodged, but used metaphorically also for 
 the pack itself. It signifies also the spot to which the fox after 
 his nocturnal depredations retires about the dawn of day. 
 (fence, on being found by the hounds in drawing cover, he 
 i.-; said to be wtkennelled. 
 
 KE'PLER'S LAWS, in Astronomy, are the laws of the 
 planetary motions, first discovered and demonstrated by 
 Kepler, and which form the basis of the whole theory of 
 gravitation and physical astronomy. They are three: 1. 
 That the planets describe ellipses, each of which has one of 
 its foci in the same point, namely, the centre of the sun. 
 e. That every planet moves so that the line drawn from it 
 to the sun describes about the sun areas proportional to the 
 limes, 3. That the squares of the times of the revolutions 
 of the planets are as the cubes of their mean distances from 
 three laws or general facts were discover- 
 ed bv Kepler from a comparison of astronomical observa- 
 tions: and fhnueh it was by means of them that Newton es- 
 'ahlished the more general law of attraction inversely as the 
 fi30 
 
 KERATONYXIS. 
 
 square of the distance, they are themselves direct cons* 
 quences of that hypothesis. The first law, that of the ellip- 
 tic motion of the planets, was announced by Kepler in hi? 
 famous work, Phvsica Catlcstis tradita Commentaries dc 
 Motibus Stella: Martis, 1609. Kepler having computed from 
 the observations of Tycho Brahe the distance of Mars from 
 the sun at different points of his orbit, found that the orbit 
 was not circular, as had always been supposed by astrono 
 mers till then, but elliptical ; and that the sun occupies one 
 of the foci of the ellipse. He afterwards discovered the 
 same thing to be true of the earth's orbit; and thi 
 tended it by analogy to all the other planets. Newton dem 
 onstratedin the Principia that if a body projected in spar* 
 is acted upon by a central force varying inversely as thi 
 square of the distance, the body will necessarily describr 
 one of the three conic sections; but whether the orbit will 
 be an ellipse, an hyperbola, or a parabola, depends on the 
 intensity of the force with which it is projected. 
 
 Kepler was led to the discovery of his second law by a 
 comparison of the sectors formed by two contiguous radii 
 vectores and the angles included between them. The data 
 which he assumed were not rigorously exact; but Newton 
 afterwards demonstrated from the theory of dynamics that 
 the fact is necessarily true of all motions regulated by a 
 central force, whatever the law of that force may be. 
 
 The history of the discovery of the third law is remarka- 
 ble, and detailed by Kepler himself in his Harmoniccs Mini 
 di, lib. v. He had long been persuaded that some numcri 
 cal relation must exist between the periodic times of the 
 planets and their distances from the sun. In order to dis- 
 cover this relation he tried successively numerous hypothe- 
 ses, each of which involved a mass of tedious calculation. 
 He began by comparing the intervals between the planetary 
 orbits with the five regular solids ; and having failed in this 
 speculation as well as various others, he at length thought 
 of comparing the different roots and powers of the periods 
 and distances. After many attempts and failures, he at 
 last perceived the analogy of which he had been so long in 
 search. 
 
 " Si n. qu'. Vm rcspexit mer'enn, 
 Respexit tatnen el toogo p^st tempore venit," 
 
 he exclaims; and in the fulness of his delight he has re 
 corded the year and day on which the discovery was made. 
 It was the 15th of May. Ifil8; and, as Professor Playfair 
 has remarked, "perhaps philosophers will agree that there 
 are few days in the scientific history of the world which de- 
 serve so well to be remembered." (Dissertation, Ency 
 Brit. See Kepler's Harmonicrs Mundi, p. 189.) 
 
 KE'PLER'S PROBLEM. The discovery made by Ke 
 pier, that the planetary orbits are ellipses having the sun it; 
 the focus which is common to each ellipse, and that the 
 line which joins the centres of the sun and a planet passes 
 over equal areas in equal times, made it necessary to solve 
 a problem which transcended the geometry of that time: 
 Supposing the semitransverse axis of a planet's orbit to be 
 represented by 1, and the eccentricity by e; also the mean 
 anomaly at any given instant of time by z, and the eccen- 
 tric anomaly by x, both being reckoned from the perihelion. 
 Kepler found the relation between the angles i and z to be 
 expressed by the equation z=z — e sin. x. When x is 
 given, z is easily found from the trigonometrical tables ; 
 but there is no direct way, unless by infinite series, of find- 
 ing x when z is given, which is the case that occurs in as- 
 tronomy. The determination of x in terms of z constitutes 
 what is called Kepler's Problem. Solutions of this import- 
 ant problem are to be found in most works on astronomy. 
 They are generally tentative, depending on a combination 
 of geometrical and trigonometrical principles ; but two very 
 elegant ones, purely analytical, are given by Professor 
 Wallace, in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical So- 
 ciety, vol. ix., p. 185. The first of these solutions is as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 1. Find x', a first approximation to the eccentric inomaly 
 x, by this formula, 
 
 1 + e 
 
 tan. (if — i t) ss r - ! — tan. J z. 
 1 — e 
 
 2. Find y such that 
 
 tan. (J x' + y) = -^ tan. J z'. 
 
 3. Find c, a correction of z\ so that 
 
 sin. (y- 
 
 sin. y sin. 1" , 
 
 -c) = -.-— , . (*—*)• 
 
 sin. x e 
 
 (Here x' — z must be expressed in seconds of a degree.) 
 4. Then the eccentric anomaly, x = x +c. The compu 
 
 tation of the eccentric anomaly by this method is extremely 
 
 simple. ' 
 
 KE'RATONY'XIS. (Gr. KfOis, a horn, vvln, puncture.] 
 
 A term applied by the German surgeons to the operation oi 
 
KERICHETIB. 
 
 couching, performed by introducing a needle through the 
 cornea or horny coat of lliu eye, and depressing or breaking 
 the opuque li 
 
 KERi CHETIB. (Heb.) In Philology, the name given 
 to various readings in the Hebrew Bible. Keri signifies that 
 which, is read, and Chetib tltat which is written. When any 
 such various readings occur, the false reading or chetib is 
 written in Uie text, and the true reading or ken is written in 
 the margin, with p under it. These corrections, which are 
 
 ■bout 1000 in number, have been generally attributed to 
 Ezra ; but as several Keri-chetibs are found in the sacred 
 books the produce of his own pen, it is more probable that 
 they are of later date. (See Dr. Kennicott's Visscrtatio 
 Gcncralis.) 
 
 KE'RMES. (Arab, little worm.) An insect found in 
 many parts of Asia ;md the south of Europe; the Coccus 
 of Linnaeus. They were long taken for the seeds of 
 the tree on which they live, and hence called grains of 
 -. They are Used OS a red and scarlet dye, but very 
 inferior to cochineal. Previously to the introduction of 
 cochineal, by which it is DOW nearly Wholly superseded, 
 m had been the moat esteemed drug for dyeing scarlet 
 .1 of antiquity. Cloth* dyed with ker- 
 met are of a deep red colour; and though much interior in 
 brilliancy to the scarlet cloths dyed wilh real Mexican cochi- 
 neal, they retain the colour better and are le*s liable to stain. 
 The tapestries of I!ru<scls and other parts of Flanders, 
 which have scarcely lost anything of their original brillian- 
 cy, even after a lapse Of -IN) yean, were all dyed with ker- 
 rnes. (See licckmann's History of Inventions ; and Ban- 
 croft's I ours.) 
 
 KE'RMES MINERAL. A name given by the old che- 
 mists to the bydrosulphoret of antimony, in consequence of 
 its reddish colour. 
 KE'RODON. (Gr. xcap, a heart, oSovs, a tooth.) A genus 
 
 4 - 4 
 of Herbivorous Rodents, characterized by , — - molar teeth, 
 
 4 ' 4 
 each composed of two equal part-, of which the transverse 
 section presents a cordiforui or heart-shaped figure ; the two 
 pails 0] . r, • 1 on tiie 
 
 internal sido in the lower jaw. The incisors aie two in 
 number in both jaws, and present the form common to the 
 , to which family the present genus belongs. The 
 species are small, scarcely equalling in size the Guii 
 They are peculiar, with the oilier Cavics, to the South 
 American continent. 
 
 KE'RSEY. (Probably a corruption of Jersey, whence it 
 originally came.) A kind of coarse doth, usually ribbed, 
 and woven from long wool. It is chietly manufactured in 
 the North of England, h'irsnjmere, on the other hand, is a 
 thin stuff, generally woven plain from the finest wools; and 
 hence it has been inferred that these two terms, whose 
 meaning is so distinct, cannot be referred to the same origin. 
 .mere is said to have derived its appellation ream 
 Cashmir, a country which produces the finest wool. Bad is 
 consequently most celebrated for the works of its looms, 
 In England it is principally manufactured in the Western 
 district. 
 
 KETCH, fltal. caicchio.) An old English term applied 
 to a vessel equipped wilh two masts, and from 100 to 250 
 tons burden. It was nearly synonymous with the modern 
 U.tm yacht, being used chiefly by ambassadors or other dis- 
 tinguished personages in voyages from one place to another, 
 and wa, furnished wilh all the apparatus necessary for de- 
 r aggression. 
 KETCHUP. The juice which exudes from salted mush- 
 room-!. 
 
 KEU'PER. A term applied by the German geologists to 
 the upper portion of the new. red sandstone formation. 
 
 KEY. (Sax. co:ze.) In Architecture, a piece of wood let 
 into the back of another in the contrary direction of the grain, 
 to preserve the last free of warping. 
 
 KEY, or KEY NOTE. In Music, the principal or funda- 
 mental note in a composition, on which frequent closes or 
 cadences are made. It is that in which the piece begins 
 and usually ends, and is, as it were, the musical subject to 
 which regard must be had in all the other combinations of 
 sounds in the composition, and under whose influence they 
 nre. 
 
 KEY-BOARD. In Music, the series of levers in a keyed 
 Instrument, as a piano-forte, organ, or harpsichord, upon 
 which the fingers press to produce percussion of the strings, 
 or in the organ the opening of valves. It consists of short 
 black and long white keys. 
 
 KEYSTONE. The middle voussoir in the arch of a 
 bridge, or the archstone in the crown or immediately over 
 die centre of the arch. The length of the keystone, or thick- 
 Beaa of the ttrchtvolt at top. is allowed to be about l-15th or 
 l-K>th of the span bv the liest architects. 
 KIIALIFF. Sc«Calihi. 
 KHAN' In Persia, properly speaking, the title of an offi- 
 
 KING. 
 
 cer or governor, added after his name. The sovereigns ol 
 many independent states of northern Asia arc styl—1 ihans. 
 Khan is frequently used by our own countrymen ; signify 
 an Eastern caravansera (which see) ; in which '.ravellera 
 find a gratuitous lodging, provided their stay be limited to a 
 sing'e night 
 
 KHOH. A Persian word signifying 4aW, and used as a 
 prefix in many geographical terms. It has been suggested 
 that the name Caucasus has been derived from Khoh Kusp, 
 or bald mountain; i. c, having the summit without vegeta- 
 tion. But be this as it may, it is singular enough that the 
 same metaphorical expression has been introduced into two 
 modern languages, the French and the German ; in the for- 
 mer of which is found Chaumont, and in the latter KahUn- 
 berg, both indicative of a mountain bald, or without vegeta- 
 tion. 
 
 KHOTBAH (Arab.), denotes a peculiar form of prayer, 
 used in Mohammedan countries at the commencement of 
 public worship in the great mosques on Friday at noon. It 
 was originally performed by the Prophet himself, and by his 
 successors till the time of Mohammed VIII. (A.D. 936), who 
 appointed special ministers for the purpose, on which foot- 
 ing it has continued to the present time. The khoibah is 
 chietly a "confession of faith," and a general petition for 
 - to the Mohammedan religion. It is divided into 
 two distinct parts, between which the officiating khalib or 
 priest makes a considerable pause, nnd is regarded by the 
 Mussulmans as the most solemn and important part of theii 
 worship. The insertion of his name in this prayer has al- 
 ways been considered one of the chief prerogatives of the 
 sultan of Turkey. 
 
 KID.N A ITI.NC. Ii Law, the forcible abduction of any 
 one from his own country into another. It is an offence at 
 common law. By tin? 11 and 19 W. 3, c. 7, penalties were 
 denounced against masters of TQHSoU having aboard |>ersons 
 who had been kidnapped against their will, which was prob- 
 ably occasioned by the practice, not uncommon in those 
 days, of carrying away by force or fraud labouring persons 
 to serve in the plantations in America. This clause is re- 
 pealed by l) G. 4, c. 31, by which masters of vessels nre made 
 punishable foi of their men against their 
 
 will, or raftering to take them back if in a condition to return 
 Tko stealing of children away from persons having the law 
 ful custody of them (popularly termed kidnapping) is felony 
 under the same statute. 
 
 KI'DNEYS. The organs in which the urine is secreted : 
 there is one on each side in the loins, near the fust lumbar 
 vertebra, and behind the peritonieum. The pelvis of the 
 kidney terminates in the ureter, and is divided into several 
 portions called as/ftM, into each of which a papilla pro- 
 jects, through the minute orifices of which the secreted urine 
 passes into the cavity called the pelvis, and thence by the 
 ureter into the bladder. 
 
 K I'LL AS. A provincial term, applied to the clay-slate 
 rocks of Co rn wa il. 
 
 KI'LLINITE. A mineral, sometimes described as a va- 
 riety of s|Miduniene, from Killiney, near Dublin. It is a hy- 
 drated silicate of alumina, containing potash und oxyde of 
 iron. 
 
 KILN. A term applied to various furnaces and stoves: 
 as brick and lime kilns, and hop and malt kilns. (See those 
 articles.) 
 
 KI'LOGRAM. A French measure of weight, equal to 2 
 lbs. 3 oz. 5 drs. avoirdii|n>is. 
 
 KILT. A loose dress, extending from the belly to the 
 knee in the form of a |>etticoat; worn in the Highlands by 
 men, nnd by children in the Lowlands. The term is, ac- 
 cording to Jamieson, unquestionably Gothic. The High- 
 landers designate the kilt as the filibeg. This singular na- 
 tional dress is fast hastening into disuse ; and but for n few 
 Highland regiments in which it is still maintained, it would 
 probably long ere now have been universally superseded by 
 the dress of the Lowlandcrs. 
 
 KING. A title of dignity in the languages, extinct and 
 living, of the Gothic and Teutonic races. The term has 
 long been considered of uncertain origin ; but there can be 
 little doubt tltat it is derived from the German word kiinnen, 
 to be able, thus in the very threshold giving an idea of supe- 
 rior )>ower or ability. In its primary acceptation it denotes 
 a person in whom is vested the chief executive authority ; 
 but it is susceptible of as great a variety of shades of mean- 
 ing as there are states or nations to be governed. Thus it is 
 applied equally to the limited sovereign of England and the 
 absolute sovereign of Prussia ; to the chief magistrate of Po- 
 land in former times, who was elected, and to that of Eng- 
 land, who succeeds by hereditary right ; to the head of a 
 savage tribe or barbarous horde, as weli as to that of the 
 most refined and civilized nation. It is expressed in Greek 
 by the word BasUeus, and in Latin and its cognate languages 
 by Rex ; but all the nations of Europe have adopted into 
 their respective languages the equivalent terms in use among 
 the people with whom they carry on intercourse. Thus we 
 
 631 
 
KING-AT-ARMS. 
 
 speak of the Shall of Persia, the Grand Sultan, the Pasha of 
 Egypt, the Dey of Algiers, &c. 
 
 In countries where the kingly office is hereditary, some 
 form lias always been gone through on the accession of a 
 new king, in which there is a recognition on the part of the 
 people of his right ; a claim from them that he should pledge 
 himself to the performance of certain duties ; and generally 
 a religious ceremony performed, in which anointing him with 
 oH, by which a certain sacredness is thrown around his per- 
 son, and placing a crown upon his head as a symbol of su- 
 premacy, are conspicuous acts. (Penny Cyclop.) The whole 
 solemnity is styled the coronation. In modern Europe the 
 Pope and the Emperor of Germany assumed as a joint pre- 
 rogative the right of conferring the dignity of king. Frederic 
 f. of Prussia was the first sovereign who assumed the title, 
 and had it acknowledged by the other states of Europe 
 without their authorization. 
 
 King. The sacred books of the Chinese, containing at 
 once the principles of their domestic and public morality 
 and the foundation of their historical traditions. According 
 to a learned dissertation by M. Freret, in vol. xv. of the JUe- 
 moires de VAc. des Inscr. ct Belles Lettres, the original books 
 known properly under this title are only four in number; but 
 those commonly so designated amount to thirteen, which are 
 published together. The first four contain the writings of 
 Confucius. (See, also, vols, xxxvi., xxxviii ; and Ersch and 
 Gruber's Encyclopedia.) 
 
 Kl N G-AT-ARMS. An officer of great antiquity, and for- 
 merly of great authority, whose business is to preside over 
 the chapters, and to direct the proceedings of heralds. The 
 origin of this office is involved in obscurity. There are three 
 kings-at-arms in England — Garter, Clarencieux, and Norroy; 
 the first of whom is styled principal king-at-arms, and the 
 two latter provincial kings, because their duties are confined 
 to the provinces. The name Clarencie ix is said to be deri- 
 ved from Clarence, brother of Henry V., first king-at-arms 
 for the south of England; that of Norroy (Norman French 
 for northern king) is self-explanatory. There is also a Lyon 
 king-at-arms for Scotland, as well as an Ulster king-at-arms 
 for Ireland, whose duties are nearly analogous to those of 
 England. (See Noble's History of the College of Jlrms.) 
 
 KING, THE, OF ENGLAND, exercises the supreme ex- 
 ecutive power, together with a share in the legislative au- 
 thority jointly with the two Houses of Parliament. (For his 
 legislative functions, see Parliament.) The right to the 
 throne of England (now extended to Groat Britain and Ire- 
 lam!) i-; hereditary, subject to the authority of parliament to 
 limit the succession. This was last done by the stat. 12 & 
 13 W. 3, when it was fixed in the heirs of the clectress So- 
 phia of Hanover, being Protestants. The duties of the king, 
 according to the constitution, are unbodied in the coronation 
 oath fixed by stat. 1 W. & M. Incidental prerogatives are 
 legal exceptions in favour of the crown where its claims 
 clash with those of a subject; relating to such matters as 
 descents of land, debts, &c. The direct prerogatives of the 
 crown are those which attach to his person in respect of his 
 political authority : such as the sanctity o*" his person ; his 
 prerogatives as head of the executive ; the power of making 
 war and peace ; treaties with foreign powers ; military and 
 naval command ; the supreme dispensation of justice through 
 his courts ; the power of erecting and disposing of offices and 
 honours; the power of issuing proclamations binding on the 
 subject in certain cases, with the advice of his privy coun- 
 cil; and, lastly, the supreme government of the National 
 Church. The king's revenue is of two sorts, ordinary and 
 extraordinary. The ordinary revenue or patrimony is such 
 as either has subsisted in the crown time out of mind, or has 
 been granted by parliament in exchange for such. (See Civ- 
 il List.) The extraordinary revenue consists of the sup- 
 plies annually grunted by parliament. See Parliament, 
 Prerogative. 
 
 KING CRAB. See Limule. 
 
 KING FISH. A name sometimes applied to the opah 
 (Lampris guttatus, Retz.). 
 
 KING POST. In Architecture, the middle post of an as- 
 semblage of trussed framing for supporting, or, rather, sus- 
 pending, the lie beam at the middle and the lower ends of 
 the struts. 
 
 KING'S BENCH, COURT OF, in Law, originated in the 
 ancient Aula Regia, in which the king was accustomed (as 
 he still is supposed in the King's Bench by fiction of law) to 
 sit in person, and which followed him in all his progresses. 
 The judges of the court of King's Bench, as well as of the 
 other superior courts, formerly varied in number according 
 to the royal discretion. At a later period they were reduced 
 to four ; now increased, by stat. 1 W. 4, c. 70, to five — the 
 chief-justice, who is the highest common law judge, and four 
 puisne or younger judges. The court of King's Bench, be- 
 sides those branches of Its jurisdiction which it has in com- 
 mon with the other two superior common law courts (see 
 Courts, Superior), has also peculiar authority, or presents 
 more advantages in some particular proceedings, 
 632 
 
 KIT-CAT CLUB. 
 
 It is the preferable although not the only tribunal for dis- 
 charging prisoners under the Habeas Corpus Acts. It has 
 control over all inferior courts by means of the process called 
 certiorari, which is a writ sued out of this court, by virtue 
 of which proceedings may be removed into it out of such 
 inferior jurisdiction whether in criminal or civil cases. It 
 has also an exclusive authority (except in a few cases) to 
 compel all inferior courts and officers, and, in some instan- ' 
 ces, private persons, to perform acts of a public naiure, and 
 connected with a public duty. By means of a prohibition it 
 can restrain all other courts from proceeding, where they 
 exceed or misuse their jurisdiction: this is likewise a writ 
 directed to the judge and the plaintiff in the Inferior court 
 A writ of error in law from all inferior courts is, with cer- 
 tain exceptions, returnable in the King's Bench. This court 
 likewise hears and determines cases stated by courts of ses- 
 sions. The greater proportion of these are questions on the 
 validity of poor's rates, or on parochial statements. When 
 a court of sessions entertains a doubt on a point of law ari 
 sing in the argument, it will usually authorize the party 
 against which it decides to have the judgment thus review 
 ed, the cases being stated in writing. The criminal jurisdic 
 tion of the King's Bench is still extensive. It has, at com 
 mon law, jurisdiction by indictment over every species of 
 criminal offence committed in Middlesex; and in practice 
 misdemeanors, as conspiracies or perjuries, committed in the 
 county, are still indicted in this court, and tried after term 
 at nisi prius among the civil causes. Sometimes, also, trial 
 at bar, or by the full court, is granted on special application. 
 It has also jurisdiction by criminal information, which lies in 
 cases of misdemeanor only, a proceeding which supersedes 
 the necessity of an indictment found by a grand jury. An 
 information is filed either by the attorney-general, ex officio, 
 as it is termed ; a proceeding generally adopted in certain 
 misdemeanors of a public nature, or at the suit of a private 
 party by leave of the court. 
 
 An information in the nature of a quo warranto is in form 
 a criminal, but substantially a civil, proceeding. It is grant- 
 ed where any subject or body politic has assumed a fran 
 chise or privilege not being legally entitled, and to the Injury 
 of some other party or the public. Any indictment, present- 
 ment, &c, found in any part of England may be moved by 
 certiorari into this court ; as may be also all convictions or 
 orders of justices of the peace, unless where such appeal is 
 prevented by particular statutes. 
 
 KING'S EVIL. Scrofula attacking the glands, respect 
 ing which a superstitious notion long existed that it was cu- 
 rable by the touch of royalty. 
 
 KI'NGSTON. A name sometimes given to the angel-fish 
 (Squatina angrelus, Dunn.). See Squatina. 
 
 KING'S YELLOW. A pigment, the basis of which is 
 orpimmt, or yellow sulphuret of arsenic. 
 
 KI'NIC ACID. The acid with which quinia and cm- 
 chonia are combined in yellow and pale Peruvian bark. It* 
 ultimate elements are, according to Lubig, 15 atoms of car 
 bon, 9 of hydrogen, and 9 of oxygen. 
 
 KI'NKAJOU. The native name of a Plantigrade quadru- 
 ped of South America, of arboreal habits, with a long, pre 
 hensive tail, a short muzzle, and a thick coat of woolly hair. 
 It forms the type of the genus Potos of Cuvier, which name 
 Illeger changed to Ccrcoleptes. Only one species is well es 
 Utblished, the Cercoleptes caudivolvulus of Uliger. 
 
 KI'NO. An Indian word, applied to an astringent vege- 
 table extract, the source of which is doubtful ; it is probably 
 a name given to the products of different plants in Africa, 
 and in the East and West Indies and America. The finest 
 kino is in brilliant fragments of a deep brownish-red colour, 
 and highly astringent: it contains tannin, gum, and extract- 
 ive matter. 
 
 KIOSK. A Turkish word, signifying a kind of open pa- 
 vilion or summer-house, supported by pillars. These orna- 
 ments have of late years been introduced, to a considerable 
 extent into the gardens of European countries. 
 
 KIRK. (Germ, kirche.) A Scottish term synonymous 
 with church, and used chiefly to designate the form of reli- 
 gion established in that country. See Presbyterianism. 
 
 KIRK SESSION. The lowest ecclesiastical court of the 
 Kirk of Scotland. It is composed of the minister of the par 
 ish, and of lay elders. It takes cognizance of cases of scan 
 dal, of the poor's fund, and of matters of general ecclesiasti- 
 cal discipline. There is an appeal from its decisions to thi 
 presbvtery. 
 
 KIRSCHWASSER. (Germ, cherry water.) An alco- 
 holic liquor, obtained by fermenting the small and swee 
 black cherry. The liquor produced is distilled, and ofler 
 flavoured with hydrocyanic acid, derived from the bruise* 
 kernels of the fruit : this gives to kirsch wasser, when sweet 
 ened, the character of noyau. 
 
 KIT-CAT CLUB. The name of a celebrated associn 
 tion, instituted about 1688 by " some young men of wit nn» 
 pleasure about town," originally for convivial purposes; bu 
 as its most distinguished members were Whigs in politics. i> 
 
KITE. 
 
 graaui ly assumed a political character, till in the reign of 
 Queen Aitfie it came to be regarded as exclusively political 
 in its objetts. At that period it comprised above forty no- 
 blemen and gentlemen of the first rank and quality, merit 
 and fortune, firm friends to the Hanoverian succession ; 
 among whom were Addison, Steele, Marlborough, Walpole, 
 It was originally formed in Shire Lane, and deri- 
 ved its name from one Christopher (Kit) Kat, who supplied 
 tliL- Member! with mutton pies. The fame of this club has 
 been trauamltted chiefly by the collection of the portraits of 
 the members painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, himself a mem- 
 ber, who was obliged to invent a new-sized canvass accom- 
 modated to the height of walls; whence has originated the 
 application of the epithet kit-cat to any portrait about three 
 ii length. It was dissolved in the year 1720. 
 {Quart. Rev., vol. xxvi.) 
 
 KITE. A well-known toy ; first employed by Itomas in 
 
 ad Dr. Franklin in America, to elevate a conductor 
 
 into a thunder-cloud, whereby the identity of lightning with 
 
 1c ipark was ascertained. It is formed of a slender 
 
 frame of wood and pack-thread, rounded at one end and 
 
 terminating in a point at the other, resembling, in some 
 
 Manure, ■ inw now, and covered with paper. A long 
 
 string is attached to the frame, near its centre of gravity, by 
 
 which it is held in the hand. In order that the kite may be 
 
 capable of being raised, it is necessary that its flat ntRM 
 
 iled obliquely to the direction of the wind ; a string 
 
 rrying some light substance, is therefore attached 
 
 to the than end of the fnme, and serves, by means of its 
 
 gravity, lo maintain the proper inclination. The force of the 
 
 wind, impinging obliquely on the surface, is resolved into 
 
 two parts; one perpendicular, and the other parallel to the 
 
 the Aral oi these parts is counterbalanced by the 
 
 tension of tin.' string held in the hand, and the second is ex- 
 
 . elevating the kite. The position In which the 
 
 wiml acta with the greatest effect is, when the perpendicular 
 
 to the surface is inclined to the direction of the wind (that 
 
 te horizon) in an angle of about 54J degrees. 
 
 Kite. The native bird so called is a species of the genus 
 Milcus. separated by Bechstein from the genus halco of 
 tunt of the forked tail, length of wings, and 
 the abort and weak beak and feet in proportion to the size 
 of the body. This deterioration of their destructive Instru- 
 ments renders the kite the most cowardly of the birds of 
 bay. The common kite or gland (Mitcus vulgaris) preys 
 chiefly on the smaller quadrupeds and birds, young chick- 
 ens, Slc. ; yet the courage of the mother hen renders her 
 more tli. in a match for the robber, and she generally repels 
 iiis .attacks on his favourite prey. The female lays two or 
 .. hitish colour, spotted with pale yellow, and 
 of a roundish form. 
 
 Tiie term kite is applied in some places, as Devonshire 
 and Cornwall, to the brill (Rhombus vulgaris). 
 
 Kl'VI-KIVl. The native name of the New Zealanders 
 for their lingular bird the Jipteryx australis. See Apteryx. 
 
 KN EE. (Sax. cneo.) In Architecture, a naturally or ar- 
 tificially bent piece of timber, on which another is received 
 to relieve a weight or strain. 
 
 K \ I '. E PAN. A small, flat, heart-shaped bone placed at 
 
 :art of the knee joint. It is an important defence 
 
 to that large joint, and also serves to increase the powers of 
 
 the muscles which extend the leg. It is attached by a strong 
 
 ligame it to the upper end of the tibia. 
 
 KNIGHT-ERRANT. In the language of Chivalry, a 
 knight wandering in search of adventures, sometimes under 
 vows, foi i riod. Knight-errantry was not alto- 
 
 gether a fiction of romance. It originated, as Mr. Turner 
 says, partly from the frequency of private war in feudal 
 time.-', which made military aid constantly acceptable to the 
 great barons; and as a knight had, for the most part, no 
 other lie to the soil than his duties towards his feudal supe- 
 rior, he was at liberty to follow his own bent whenever his 
 services were not needed by him. Such a mode of life pe- 
 culiarh suited the tastes of the men of that age, and in some 
 rved the exigencies of society. "Knights, there- 
 fore, were perpetually errant, or travelling in quest of ad- 
 ventures or employment: some from the pleasure of the 
 expedition, and some for its expected profits. They often 
 met the oppressed or the unsuccessful ; and they cheerfully 
 engaged themselves to redress those wrongs which laws 
 Feeble to remedy, and for redressing which, honour, 
 plunder, or rich donations became usually their compensa- 
 lion." i Turner's History of England during the Middle 
 
 I. Mii.) 
 
 KNIGHT, KNIGHTHOOD. The word knight is un- 
 doubtedly derived in its first origin from the root "to knit," 
 or connect; from whence also the German knecht, slave or 
 eeri-nnt. The Anglo Saxon cnicht bore the same meaning; 
 and this etymology points to the primitive meaning of the 
 institution of knighthood. This may be found in the usage 
 recorded by Tacitus and other writers of the ancient Ger- 
 mans, among whom the kings and chiefs were attended in 
 
 KNIGHT. 
 
 war and peace by a select body of faithful companions. 
 Kings, and great thanes, and aldermen had each among the 
 Anglo-Saxons their attendant cnichts or military servants, 
 who owed them a species of fealty rather personal than 
 territorial. But the order of knighthood, in the more recent 
 sense of the word, was introduced among us from France. 
 Among the French and Germans, indeed, the order of 
 knights was designated by another name — chcvaUcr or titter, 
 from their serving on horseback in battle, and holding a 
 rank above the footmen. But the Norman chevalier so 
 completely answered to the Saxon cnicht in the peculiar 
 attribute of being personally attached to the military seivice 
 of some chieftain, that the English appellation was soon in 
 general use, as if to express the same meaning conveyed by 
 the French title, and by its Latin equivalent miles. The 
 Saxons appear, indeed, lo have occasionally practised, long 
 before the Conquest, some ceremonies resembling those 
 which became usual in later times on the creation of a 
 knight; thus Alfred is said to have honoured Athelstan by 
 the gift of a belt and robe, and girding him with a sword. 
 
 Like most other inquiries into the ancient usage! of 
 Europe, that into the origin of knighthood as an order- 
 that is, the period when the term miles or chevalier, instead 
 of merely denoting the higher class of military companions 
 of a chief, came to signify one enjoying a definite rank in 
 society and admitted by certain ceremonies; — is altogether 
 inconclusive. It is said in general that knighthood had be 
 come an established institution in the 11th century; but 
 that the characteristic which belonged lo it in liter times, 
 that of being restricted to men of noble birth, did not become 
 general until the fourteenth. The privilege of conferring 
 knighthood seems to have belonged originally to the SOVef 
 eisn, and to have been retained as his prerogative in all 
 Euro|H?an constitutions, although frequently delegated lo 
 or usurped by high feudatories, generals of armies, fcc. 
 although in later limes, and when knighthood had assumed 
 its peculiar romantic character, the most diatingulshed and 
 valorous knights were allowed to confer it, and kind's them- 
 selves sought for the distinction of knighthood at their hands. 
 It was a prerogative of high value and Importance ; and we 
 frequently find the states and other authorities in feudal 
 sovereignties interfering to limit \< 
 
 before usage had absolutely restricted it to those of i.oblu 
 birth. ^ 
 
 It was common to create knights on various occasions. 
 The most honourable species of knighthood was thai con- 
 ferred on the field and after a battle; but the more common 
 fashion, especially in France, the parent country of chival- 
 rous institutions, was to make knights when n battle was 
 expected. Five hundred were created at once in the French 
 army before the battle of Aglncourt. Some inconvenience 
 attended this practice. For example, on one occasion in 
 Flanders, in the Hth century, when two armies were ranged 
 in battle order, on the eve of engagement, the French, ac- 
 cording to their usual practice, created a great number of 
 knights; but on tho following morning the forces separated 
 without coming to action. A hare having been seen cross- 
 ing the space between the armies, the French knights 
 mode on that occasion received the nickname of Chevaliers 
 du Lievre. Knights were also created on other soli inn 
 occasions; as great festivals, coronations, princely mar- 
 riages, ace. 
 
 In describing the ordinances of knighthood as they existed 
 when that institution was brought to the point of imaginary 
 perfection, the period to which we must refer is ihe 14th 
 century; and the countries chiefly France, Germany, and 
 England. In Italy and Spain, and generally in other parts 
 of Christendom, the chivalrous customs of the Ant-named 
 regions were imitated, but do not appear to have grown up 
 spontaneously as part of the popular usages. Before this 
 epoch, indeed, the Crusades had communicated to the insti- 
 tution much of its religious character ; and the poems of the 
 Troubadours and Trouveurs attest how much of gallantry 
 had already been fancifully interwoven with the military 
 habits of the age. But it was not, perhaps, until the epoch 
 alluded to, when the favourite fictions of romance had 
 begun to act strongly on the popular imagination, that the 
 ideal usages of chivalry were completely engrafted in prac- 
 tice on the substantial institution of knighthood. 
 
 The orders of chivalry were three. The future knight 
 was first educated, in general, as a page attached to the 
 family, and especially to the ladies of some noble house : 
 when of full age, he became a squire (ecuyer). The proper 
 office of the squire, in the theory of chivalry, was, as his 
 name of "shield bearer" denotes, to attend on the person of 
 a knight, to whom he was hound to render devoted and 
 faithful service. In this capacity he was a sort of apprentice 
 to knighthood ; but as many esquires never reached the 
 order of knighthood at all, but remained independent, the 
 rank of esquire, in ordinary usage, became an intervening 
 order between the knight and the simple gentleman : in 
 which sense it is still retained in England. The order of 
 
 633 
 
■f 
 
 HJNIGHT. 
 
 Knighthood followed this double probation. Knights, how- 
 ever, were often made without having passed regularly 
 through the intervening stages ; and even in the age of chiv- 
 alry, the honour was occasionally conferred on mere chil- 
 dren; although this was an evident abuse, and regarded as 
 such. When the order of knighthood was conferred with 
 full solemnity In the leisure of a court or city, imposing pre- 
 liminary ceremonies were required of the candidate. He 
 prepared himself by prayer and fasting, watched his arms 
 all night in a chapel, and was then admitted with the per- 
 formance of religious rites. Knighthood was conferred by 
 the accolade, which, from the derivation of the name, should 
 appear to have been originally an embrace; but afterwards 
 consisted, as it still does, in a blow of the flat of a sword on 
 the neck of the kneeling candidate. The oath of knighthood 
 was previously administered, which contained at different 
 times various fanciful clauses : in France there were twenty 
 vows comprised in it. (See on this subject, among many 
 other authorities, the Memoirs on Chivalry of the French 
 antiquary Sainte-Palaye.) 
 
 Knighthood was an institution which served in some 
 respects as a compensation for the inequalities of rank inci- 
 dent to the feudal system. All knights, from the king to 
 the lowest bachelor, were brethren of the same order ; and 
 when chivalry was in its most flourishing state, it may 
 almost be said that they were all of the same country. Na- 
 tional distinctions had little place between knights, who 
 were only enemies in time of warfare, from their feudal 
 duties, which attached them to the banner of a particular 
 king or suzerain. At tournaments, court festivals, &c, in 
 time of peace, Knights of all nations were admitted indiffer- 
 ently ; and the candidate for knighthood sought that honour 
 at the hands of the most distinguished name in chivalry 
 rather than of a countryman. The chief distinction of rank 
 which subsisted between knights, in France and England, 
 was rather of a feudal than a chivalrous character; it was 
 that of knights-bachelors and knights-bannerets. The knight- 
 bachelor was of the lower order. His name has been va- 
 riously derived. It is by some considered as a corruption of 
 "bas-chevalier;" but others deduce the name from the bar- 
 barous Latin word "liaccalare," said to signif) a siruui lie;', 
 such as was originally considered as entitling its possessor 
 to the honour of knighthood. But in the more chivalrous 
 times (as in all later periods) this honour was conferred 
 without any reference to a qualification of property. Many 
 knights-bachelors were, in fact, mere adventurers, uncon- 
 nected by feudal ties of any sort; who offered their services 
 in war to any successful leader, and who found in their 
 sword a means of subsistence, not only by pay and plunder, 
 but by the regularly established system of ransom which 
 every knight taken in action paid for his liberty. The 
 "chevalier-banneret" was one who possessed fiefs to a 
 greater amount, was obliged to serve in war with a greater 
 attendance, and carried a banner. Under Charles VII. the 
 bannerets of France made remonstrances against the services 
 required of them, on the ground of their impoverishment by 
 the English wars; and it appears that this order fell af- 
 terwards into disuse in that country. In England the dis- 
 tinction appears to have been of a somewhat different char- 
 acter. The " knights' fees," into which England was divided 
 by the Conqueror, were such portions of land as could main- 
 tain a simple knight or bachelor ; and by a statute of Ed- 
 ward II. persons who had the amount of jC20 a year in fee, 
 or for life, were obliged to take this order of knighthood. 
 This statute grew into disuse, except when occasionally put 
 in force, as it was for the last time under Charles I., as a 
 means of extorting money, by way of fines, for not taking up 
 the order. Bannerets, on the other hand, in England, ap- 
 I>ear to have been such knights as were made or promoted 
 from the lower degree on the field of battle. (See Ban- 
 neret.) The distinction in the field between the different 
 orders of chivalry was, at least at one period, the follow- 
 ing : — The esquire bore the petitioned or triangular streamer ; 
 the knight-bachelor the pennon or forked streamer (swallow- 
 tailed), made by dividing the end of the pennoncel ; the 
 banneret a banner (which was, in strict usage, of an oblong 
 shape, barons being entitled to a square banner). Thus, 
 when a banneret was made on the field, the ceiemony was 
 accomplished by cutting off the forked end of his pennon 
 and converting it into a banner. Common knights and 
 enquires were then under his command. 
 
 The confinement of the order of knighthood to men of 
 noble birth (on the Continent, for the strict line of demarca- 
 tion between nobility and commonalty was never accu- 
 rately drawn in England), although necessary in theory to 
 the completion of the chivalric system, tended in practice to 
 its decay. Knighthood, after the 14th century, became more 
 and more an honorary distinction, to which birth alone gave 
 a title, and which was not considered to represent any ac- 
 tual duty or service; and finally, through various steps, it 
 became again a mere personal distinction, which it was part 
 of the sovereign's prerogative to confer, cither to military 
 634 
 
 KOBOLD. 
 
 persons or any others ; and by the multiplication of otdurs, 
 into which nobility of birth was not always a necessary 
 qualification for admission, this peculiar property of the 
 knightly order became again effaced. There are, however, 
 in most Continental countries, several orders into which 
 nobility still constitutes a necessary title for admission. 
 
 Orders of knighthood are of two classes : either they are 
 associations or fraternities possessing property and rights of 
 their own as independent bodies, into which kniL'lus are 
 admitted as members into a religious foundation ; or the) 
 are merely honorary associations, established by sovereigns 
 within their respective dominions, consisting of members 
 whose only common lie is the possession of the same titular 
 distinction. To the former class belonged the three cele- 
 brated religious orders founded during the Crusade,— Tem- 
 plars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic knights ; whicli were 
 societies, not belonging to any particular crown or realm, 
 possessed of extensive property, and acting in some respects 
 as independent republics. (See those articles.) Several of 
 the Spanish and Portuguese orders of knighthood partake 
 of both characters: they were originally religious, but have 
 become secular. The kings of those countries, as grand 
 masters, exercise the privilege of admission, and make use 
 of it as a means of conferring distinction ; but the knights, 
 as a body, form an independent society possessed of property 
 and privileges. (See Orders of Calatrava, Alcantara. 
 &c.) The other class, consisting of orders merely titular, 
 embraces most of the European orders, including all those 
 of our country. These were probably founded in imitation 
 of the great military societies ; although antiquarians have 
 traced real or imaginary orders of knighthood under the 
 reigns of princes of much more remote date, as Charles 
 Martel, Charlemagne, &c. But these accounts are apoc- 
 ryphal ; and no subsisting order of knighthood is of the date 
 of the Crusades, except a few of those in Spain and Portugal, 
 which, as we have said, were framed on the model of the 
 great societies first mentioned. (See as to foreign orders of 
 knighthood, the work of Carlisle, 1839.) 
 
 KNIGHT OF THE SHIRE, is the designation given to 
 the representative in Parliament of English counties at large, 
 as distinguished from sucii cities a are counties 
 
 of themselves (which are seldom if ever called shires) ; and 
 the representatives of which, as well as the members for 
 other cities and towns, are called citizens or Burgesses. It 
 was formerly imperative on ktiights of a shire, as well 
 as their choosers, either to be resident or to have a house- 
 hold in the county; but this regulation, which had long 
 fallen into disuse, was formally repealed by 14 Geo. 3, c. 58. 
 
 KNIGHT SERVICE, Servitium Militare. The tenure 
 by which a knight held his land. See Feudal System 
 
 KNIGHT'S FEE, Feodum Militare. In the language of 
 English feudal usage, a portion of land held by custom suffi- 
 cient to maintain a knight to do service as such for the king. 
 William the Conqueror by his military grants is said to have 
 created 60,000 such fees. But although William's vassals 
 were undoubtedly bound to follow him to war, it is doubted 
 by modern antiquarians whether feudal services, strictly so 
 called, were attached to these grants by the Conqueror, or 
 whether they were not peculiarities arising subsequently 
 when the feudal system grew into vigour, and attributed to 
 the Conqueror by the legists of later times. 
 
 KNOLL. A term used in many parts of England for the 
 pinnacle of a small hill, or for the hill itself. 
 
 KNO'PPERN. A species of gall-nut or excresence formed 
 by the puncture of an insect upon several kinds of oak. 
 They are flat, hard, and prickly: they abound in Croatia, 
 Styria, Sclavonia, and Natolia, and are used in Austria and 
 Germany for tanning and dyeing. 
 
 KNOT. See Log. 
 
 KNOUT, THE. An instrument used in the infliction of 
 a well-known Russian punishment. The following descrip- 
 tion is by a writer in the New Monthly Magazine for 1830 
 (vol. xxviii., p. 128) : "The handle may be two feet long, a 
 little more or less, to which is fastened a flat leather thong 
 about twice the length of the handle, terminating with a 
 large copper or brass ring; to this ring is affixed a strip of 
 hide about two inches broad at the ring, atu\ terminating, at 
 the end of two feet, in a point. This is soaked in milk, and 
 dried in the sun to make it harder; and should it fall, in 
 striking the culprit, on the edge, it would cut like a penknife. 
 At every sixth stroke the tail is changed. In the hands of 
 a stranger it would be a most innocent weapon ; nor could I, 
 after a quarter of an hour's practice, make any considerable 
 impression on the snow, while the executioner will leave a 
 pretty fair mark on a deal plank." Notwithstanding the 
 assertion of Dr. Granville to the contrary ( Travels to St 
 Pctcrsburgh, ii., 451), there is no doubt of the excessive 
 severity of the punishment. 
 
 KOA'LA. The native name of a Marsupial quadruped 
 of New Holland. (See Phascolarctus.) The Mahrattat 
 apply the same name to the jackall. 
 
 KO'BOLD. A German word signifying a spirit, or spco 
 
KOLPODES. 
 
 tie, d ling to the English goblin, of which it is 
 
 i i. In many parts <>!' Germany there is 
 scarcely a house or :i family to which kobolds are not said 
 to be attached ; and according to the superstitious notions 
 of the peasantry, they preside over all domestic operations, 
 many of which they perform. The name of the metal 
 cobalt is derived from the above. 
 
 KOLPO'DES, Kolpoda. (Gr. *o,\™«%, sinuous.) The 
 name of a genus of Polygastric Infusories, characterized by 
 their flat and sinuous figures. 
 
 KO'RW. See Alcoran. 
 
 K< M38ACKS. See Cossacks. 
 
 KOU'MISS, or KUMISS. A vinous liquid, obtained in 
 Tartarv by fermenting the whey of mare's milk. 
 
 KO'UI'ilOLITE. (Gr. Kovpoc, light, and XiOos, a stone.) 
 A speck t of zeolite or prehnite from the Pyrenees: it occurs 
 in small rhomboidal plates, of a pearly lustre, and of a yel- 
 lowish or green colour. 
 
 KRAAL. The name given to the villages of the Hot- 
 tentot. 
 
 KltAKEX. A name applied in the fabulous epoch of 
 ecology to a marine monster of gigantic - 
 
 KRAMERIA'CEJi (Krameria, one of the genera), is a 
 small natural order of plants, allied to Polygalacea, and 
 Chiefly remarkable for the extreme astringency of their roots; 
 one of the species furnishing the rhatany or rhatanhia root 
 of the druggists, a substance notoriously used in the adulter- 
 ation of port wine. 
 
 KM AMEBIC ACID. An acid obtained from the root of 
 the Krameria triandria, or rhatany. 
 
 KREOSOTE. See Creosote. 
 
 KRY'OLITE. (Gr. xpvoc, ice, and \&os, a atone.) A 
 ted dilate of alumina and soda. When heated it sud- 
 ■ ice its name. 
 
 KRY'STALLIXE. A term applied by Unvcrdorben to 
 a salifiable bass which forms crvstallizable compounds with 
 the acids, nnd which lie obtains from animal empyreu- 
 rnaric oil. 
 
 KU'FIC. An epithet given to the ancient Arabic charac- 
 I 
 
 M Germ.) An ore of nickel of a 
 
 r. 
 
 KTJ'PFERSCHTEFER. (Germ, copper slate.) A tenn 
 
 applied by German geologists to certain laminated rocks at 
 
 lesion limestone formation of Thuringia: 
 
 npregnated with copper, and abound in fossU 
 
 rental These rocks appear to correspond to the 
 
 marl slate of Durham and Northumberland. 
 
 KY'AMTE. (Gr. Kvavof, blue.) A mineral which oc- 
 i long radiated crystals, and occasionally massive; it 
 is the disthtne of Haiiy, and the sappare of some other min- 
 eralogists. .See Cvamte. 
 
 I RIOLO'GICAL, or CIVIOLOGICAL. (Gr. xvpws, 
 otirsc.) A term applied by U'nrlmrton, 
 >ok ii., s. 4), to that class of Egyp- 
 tian hieroglyphics in which a part is conventionally pat to 
 
 1 nt a whole — e. rr.. a pair of aimed hands for a battle, 
 a scaling ladder for a siege, &c. ; distinguished from the 
 tropical, in which visible objects arc used as emblems, or 
 figuratively. See Hieroglyphics. 
 
 L. The first of those letters in the English and most 
 ither alphabets called liquids or semivowels; became, like 
 vowels, ihey can be pronounced for any length of time, 
 which is not the case with the consonants called mutes, as 
 », (/. &c. It is derived from the Greek lambda, or the He- 
 brew or Phoenician lamed, and is found in the languages of 
 almost all nations, excepting those of some Brazilian and 
 tribes. In the ancient Greek, Hebrew, Phoenician, 
 Celtic, and Latin languages, and in those derived from them' 
 the letter L consists invariably of two strokes, though in 
 every possible shape and combination. Thus, in the most 
 ancient Greek alphabets it is wrilfen A V A, in the Etrus- 
 can >, in the Celtic < V> m Hebrew "7, and in Latin L. 
 (For the interchanges which this letter has undergone, see 
 the 1'enmj Cyclo.) L, as an abreviature, stands for Lucius, 
 I..L.I). Doctor of Laws, and L.L.S. for a sestertium. As 
 a numeral, L represented among the ancients, as at present, 
 the number 50, according to the line — 
 
 Quinquies L denos numero designat habendos. 
 I. \. In Music, the syllable by which Guido denoted the 
 last aound in the hexnehord. 
 
 L.VI5ADISTS, or LA'BBADISTS. A sect of religious 
 enthusiasts in the l?th century; so called from Jean Laba- 
 die a native of France domiciled in Holland, who was de- 
 poned from his preaehership by the synod of Hurt. They 
 endeavoured to introduce among Protestants similar notions 
 to those of the Quietists in the Roman Catholic church (see 
 
 LABRUM. 
 
 that word;, and were accused of similar perversities in prac 
 tice. (See Moshcim, transl., ed. 17'JO, v., 511.) 
 
 LABARRA'UUE'S DISINFECTING LIQUID. A so- 
 lution of carbonate of soda impregnated with chlorine. 
 
 LA'BARUM. The standard of Constamine, which lie 
 caused to be formed in commemoration of the vision of the 
 cross in the heavens. It is described as a long pike sur- 
 mounted by a golden crown inclosing a monogram which 
 contains the two first letters of the name of Christ, and is at 
 the same time a representation of the figure of the cross. 
 Ancient monuments exhibit Uie figure under two forms, 
 
 ^ »f I (*«• X> p)- The silken banner which depended 
 from it was embroidered with the figure of Constantino and 
 his family. The labarum is engraved on some of his medals 
 with the famous inscription, 
 
 EN TOYTfll NIKA; 
 and it was preserved for a considerable time, and brought 
 forward at the head of the armies of the emperor on impor- 
 tant occasions, as the palladium or safeguard of the empire. 
 The origin of the word is still undecided. (See Beugnot, 
 Hist, de la Destruction du Paganismc en Occident, i., 57; 
 Milman. Hist, of C/iristianiti/, ii., 188.) 
 
 LA'BDANUM, or LADANUM. The resin of the Cystvs 
 Orcticus. 
 
 LA'BEL. In Heraldry, a figure chiefly used by way of 
 distinction or difference H the coat-armour of an eldest son 
 during the life of the father; in which case it has three 
 points; five points when borne by the heir-presumptive of a 
 grandfather living, and so forth." 
 
 LABE'LLUM. (LaL) A term given to a lower lip of 
 a labiate corolla. It is usually differently formed from the 
 other divisions of the corolla, "and in the natural order Or- 
 ckidaceat assumes various grotesque appearances. 
 
 LA'BIALS. (Lat. labium, a lip.) The letters B, P, V, 
 I\ M, are so called, on account of the organ chiefly employ 
 ed in their pronunciation. 
 
 LA'BIA'TjE, or LAMIACEA2. A natural order of Mo- 
 nopetalous Exogenous piai of 1 tnny hundred 
 
 ■ arth. 
 A two-lipped monopetalous corolla, an irregular number of 
 stamens, nnd a four-lobi d ovary, are the essential marks by 
 which it is known from all others. The species are gener- 
 ally herbaceous, with square stems; a small number only 
 H of shrubs. The ffowi rs are all colours, but pure 
 blue is uncommon in the otder. Many of the Bpecies arc 
 valued for their fragrance, as lavender and thyme; others 
 for their stimulating qualities, as mint and peppermint; some 
 as aromatics, as sage, basil, and marjoram ; while a few are 
 regarded as febrifuges. Numerous species are objects of 
 great beauty, on which r.crouiit the order is well known ii. 
 gardens. Among the Beat ornamental are various kinds of 
 sage, gardoquin, and dracocephalum. 
 
 LA'BIUM (Lat. labium, a tip), in Entomology, is a move- 
 able organ, often Inarticulate, which, terminating the face 
 anteriorly, covers the mouth from beneath, and represents 
 the under lip. 
 
 LA'BORATORY. A place properly constructed and 
 fitted up for the purpose of carrying on chemical investiga- 
 tions. Those who are about to fit up a chemical laboratory 
 will do well to consult the first section of Jlfr. Farraday's 
 Chemical Manipulation. 
 
 LA'BOUR. (Lat. labor.) In Naval language, the action 
 of a ship In a heavy sea when she jerks or is uneasy. 
 
 La'bocr. See Political Economy. 
 
 LA'BOURED. In the Fine Arts, a term applied to 
 works of art wherein are apparent the marks of constraint 
 in the execution ; and used in opposition to the term, easy or 
 free. 
 
 LA'BRADORITE. Labrador spar. A beautiful variety 
 of opalescent felspar from the coast of Labrador: it exhibits 
 brilliant and mutable tints of blue, red, green, and yellow, 
 and is susceptible of a good polish. It is cut into small slabs, 
 and employed in ornamental jewellery. It is a silicate of 
 alumina, lime, and soda, with traces of oxide of iron. 
 
 LA'BRAX. (Lat.) A genus of Percoid fishes, dismem 
 bered by Cuvier from the Linna»an Perco on account of cer- 
 tain modifications of the gill-covers and tongue ; the differ- 
 ences being that the opercula of the Labrax terminates in 
 two spines, and the tongue, instead of being smooth, is 
 roughened with many minute teeth. 
 
 LA'BRIDANS, LABRID^E, or LABROIDES. The 
 Bream tribe. A family of Acanfhopterygii, having the 
 genus I.abrus as the type. The fishes of this family may 
 be recognised by their oblong scaly body ; a single dorsal fin, 
 supported in front by spines, each of which is generally 
 furnished with membranous appendages: the jaws are 
 covered with fleshy lips, and the pharyngeal bones are 
 armed with numerous and strong teeth, disposed like a 
 pavement. 
 
 LA'BRUM (Lat. labrum), in Entomology, is the usually 
 
 635 
 
LABRUS. 
 
 noveable part which, terminating the face anteriorly, covers 
 the mouth from above, and represents the upper lip. 
 
 LA'BRUS. (Lat. labrum, a lip.) A genus of spiny-finned 
 fishes in the system of Cuvier, so called on account of their 
 well-developed double fleshy lips. The fishes of this genus 
 are termed "breams;" and are further characterized by 
 their conical maxillary teeth, of which the middle and an- 
 terior are the longest, and by their cylindrical and obtuse 
 pharyngeal teeth, which are arranged like a pavement — 
 the upper ones on two large plates, the lower ones on a sin- 
 gle one, which correspond with the two others. 
 
 LABYRINTH. (Gr. \ a 6oUvQo$.) Literally a place, 
 usually subterraneous, full of inextricable windings. An- 
 cient history gives an account of four celebrated labyrinths; 
 the Cretan, Egyptian, Lemnian, and Italian. The first was 
 built by Daedalus at the instigation of Minos, to secure the 
 Minotaur ; the second is said to have been constructed by 
 Psammetichus, king of Egypt ; the third was on the island 
 of Lemnos, and was supported by columns of great beauty ; 
 and the fourth was designed by Porsenna, king of Etruria, 
 as a tomb for himself and his successors. Of these laby- 
 rinths the Cretan is most celebrated in the historical and 
 mythological writings of antiquity ; but the Egyptian was 
 by far the most important, both in extent and magnificence. 
 The latter, which was built on the isle of Meroe, was a vast 
 edifice, composed of twelve palaces, all contained within 
 the compass of one wall, and communicating with each 
 other. It had only one entrance ; but the innumerable turn- 
 ings and windings of the terraces and rooms of which it con- 
 sisted rendered it impossible for those who had once entered 
 within its walls to get out without a guide. It is said to have 
 been designed either as a burial-place for the Egyptian kings, 
 or for the preservation of the sacred crocodiles, the chief 
 objects of Egyptian idolatry. It was partly demolished be- 
 tween the reigns of Augustus and Titus; but even at the 
 period of Pliny's visit, its ruins were magnificent. (Pliny, 
 lib. xxxv.) Pococke's History of the East (vol. i., p. 61, &c), 
 and Perry's View of the Levant (p. 381), contain a plan 
 and description of the modern state of this labyrinth. With 
 regard to the labyrinth of Crete, no doubt can now remain, 
 after the statements of Cockcrell and Tournefort, that ita 
 existence was a reality, and not merely a fabulous creation 
 of the Grecian imagination. According to these travellers 
 the island of Crete abounds even at the present day in ex- 
 tensive caverns, one of which, consisting principally of many 
 long windings and narrow passages that can only be safely 
 explored by means of a clue, exhibits a wonderful similarity 
 in all essential particulars to the famous labyrinth of Doedalus. 
 It is impossible, at this distant period, to pronounce with 
 certainty on so difficult a question ; but the substantial coin- 
 cidences that exist between the ancient and modern laby- 
 rinths seem to leave little doubt as to their identity. (See 
 Geo. Vict., art. "Crete.") 
 
 La'bvrinth. In Metallurgy, a series of troughs attached 
 to a stamping mill, through which a current of water passes 
 for the purpose of washing away the suspended pulverized 
 ore, and subsequently depositing it at different distances, de- 
 pending upon Us state of comminution. 
 
 La'byrinth. A term applied by anatomists to the inter- 
 nal parts of the car, from the intricacy of their winding pas- 
 sages. See Ear. 
 
 LABYRI'JVTIIODON. (Gr. \a6v pcvQos, and oSovg, a tooth.) 
 The name of an extinct genus of Reptiles, probably of the 
 Balrachian order, characterized by teeth of a peculiarly 
 complicated structure, the outer coat of enamel being inflect- 
 ed in complex wavy folds into the body of the tooth, and 
 alternating with corresponding wavy plates of dentine, which 
 give the appearance of a labyrinth to the transverse section 
 of the tooth. The remains of the reptiles of this genus 
 peculiarly characterize the Keuper formation of Germany, 
 and the corresponding sandstones, as that of Warwick in 
 England. 
 
 LAC. This substance flows from the Ficus indica, the 
 Khamnus jujuba, and some other trees, in the form of a 
 milky fluid, in consequence of punctures made upon their 
 branches by a small insect, the Coccus Jicus. The commer- 
 cial varieties of lac are, stick lac, which is the substance in 
 its natural state, investing the small twigs of the tree; seed 
 lac, which is the same, broken off the twigs, and which 
 when melted and formed into thin cakes constitutes shell 
 lac. These varieties of lac have been examined by Mr. 
 Hatchett (Phil. Trans., 1804), with the following results :— 
 
 Resin 
 
 ■ Colouring ma 
 
 | Wax 
 
 (Gluten 
 
 [Foreign bodi( 
 
 Lois 
 
 Stick lac. 
 
 Seed lac. 
 
 Shell lac. 
 
 Cs-0 
 
 SS-5 
 
 SO-9 
 
 10-0 
 
 2-5 
 
 0-5 
 
 6-0 
 
 4-5 
 
 4 
 
 6-5 
 
 20 
 
 2-8 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 4-0 
 
 25 
 
 IS 
 
 The great consumption of lac is in the manufacture of 
 036 
 
 LACHRYMATORY. 
 
 dye stuffs, sealing wax, and of certain varnishes and lac 
 guers. 
 
 LA'CCIC ACID. A peculiar acid separated from stick 
 lac by Dr. John. It is yellow, crystallizable ; and forms 
 soluble salts with potassa, soda, and lime, and insoluble 
 salts with the oxides of mercury and lead. It occasions no 
 precipitate in solution of baryta or of oxide of silver. 
 
 LACCLNE. A substance discovered in shell lac by Un- 
 verdorben. It remains after all the soluble matters in water, 
 alcohol, and ether have been extracted. It is brittle, yellow, 
 translucent; and soluble in caustic potash, and in sulphuric 
 acid. 
 
 LAC DYE, LAC LAKE. These are two preparations 
 of lac imported in small cubic cakes from the East Indies, 
 and extensively used in the production of scarlet dye. They 
 are said to be prepared by digesting lac in an alkaline solu- 
 tion, which produces a deep pink liquid, the colouring mat- 
 ter of which is thrown down in combination with alumina 
 by the addition of a solution of alum. 
 
 LACE. (Lat. lacinia, the hem of a garment.) An orna 
 mental fabric of linen or cotton thread, formerly made by 
 hand (when it was called pillow or bone lace), but of late 
 years produced by machinery, and generally termed bobbin- 
 net. "This manufacture," says Dr. Ure, "may be said to 
 surpass every other branch of human industry in the com- 
 plex ingenuity of its machinery ; one of Fisher's spotting 
 frames being as much beyond the most curious chronometer 
 Sn the multiplicity of mechanical device, as that is beyond a 
 common roasting jack." 
 
 The costly and complicated machines by means of which 
 bobbin-net is produced are termed lace frames. They are 
 constantly undergoing improvements, and this beautiful 
 branch of manufacture is apparently destined to become 
 much more perfect than even at present. 
 
 A rack of lace is a certain number of meshes counted per- 
 pendicularly, and contains 240 meshes or holes ; and such 
 has already been the improvement in this manufacture, that 
 the cost of labour in making a rack, which was twenty 
 years ago three shillings and sixpence, is now reduced to one 
 penny. Formerly the wholesale price of a 24-rack piece, 
 five quarters broad, was 171. sterling ; the same is now sold 
 for seven shillings. In the Commercial Dictionary will be 
 found full statistical details of the value of the lace manu- 
 facture in this country, together with a learned and curious 
 account of the origin and history of the fabric. 
 
 LACE'RNA. A long woollen military cloak, worn at 
 first only by the Roman soldiers, but which increased so much 
 in fashion that at the period of the triumvirate it became a 
 favourite piece of dress with all the higher classes of Ro- 
 man citizens, both civil and military, and remained so till 
 the times of the emperors Valentinian and Theodosius, 
 when the senators were prohibited from wearing them in 
 the city. Martial speaks of lacema; which cost 10,000 ses 
 terces (801.) 
 
 LACE'RTA. (Lat.) The Lizard; a constellation of the 
 northern hemisphere, near Cepheus and Cassiopeia, formed 
 by Hevelius. 
 
 LACE'RTIANS, or LACERTINE SAURIA. A name 
 sometimes given to a primary division of the order Sauria 
 of Cuvier, including all those species which differ from the 
 Loricate or Crocodilian Sauria in having a direct communi- 
 cation between the ventricles of the heart, a double intromit- 
 tent organ, a tongue bifurcate or emarginate at the tip, an 
 ear-drum unprotected by an opercular fold, and a covering 
 of scales sometimes bony, without osseous plates or scuta;. 
 
 LACE'RTID^E. (Lat. lacerta, a lizard.) A group of 
 the order Sauria, forming the second family in the Cuvierian 
 system, in which the characters are given as follows : 
 Tongue long, slender, extensible, and burficate at the ex- 
 tremity, as in the serpent tribe; ear-drum membranous, on 
 a level with the surface of the head, or very slightly sunk ; 
 eyelids consisting of a production of the skin, with a longi- 
 tudinal slit, closed by a sphincter, and a rudimental nictita- 
 ting or third eye-lid ; body elongated ; feet with five toes 
 each ; digits separate and unequal, particularly the hind 
 ones, all armed with nails ; scales on the belly and round 
 the tail arranged in transverse and parallel hands. Cuvier 
 subdivides the Laccrtidas into two great genera, Monitor and 
 Lacerta, each of which have been again subdivided. 
 
 LA'CHES. (Fr. lache, negligent.) In Law, slackness 
 or negligence. A term used to signify that degree of negli- 
 gence which throws on the party committing it the evil con 
 sequences resulting to him from it. 
 
 LA'CHRYMAL. Relating to tears; as the lachryma 
 glands, by which they are secreted. They are placed in i 
 depression of the frontal bone, above the external angle of 
 the eye : the tears pass from them to the eye by the lachry 
 mal ducts, which are six or eight in number. 
 
 LA'CHRYMATORY. A small vessel of glass or earth 
 envvare, which it was customary at Roman funerals to fil 
 with the tears of the mourners, and deposit them with the 
 ashes of the deceased in the sepulchre. 
 
LACK. 
 
 LACK. In Commerce, a word used in the East Indies, 
 io denote the sum of 100,000 rupees, or 12,000/. sterling. 
 
 LACI'NULA. In Botany, a term given to the abruptly 
 indexed acumen of each of the petals of an umbelliferous 
 flower. 
 
 LACCNICUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, an 
 apartment in the baths, which received its name from hav 
 lug been first used in Laconia. 
 
 LA'CONISM. A short and pointed saying; so termed 
 from the celebrity which the Lacedaemonians enjoyed in 
 antiquity for their brief and sententious mode of expressing 
 themselves produced by the severe discipline of their institu 
 and the gravity which it engendered. When they 
 bei ainc famous for this quality, they appear to have begun 
 to aim at the exhibition of it in rather an affected manner, 
 of which some curious instances are contained in Herodotus. 
 None of the many Laconistns recorded in ancient history 
 are more noble than the expression of the Spartan mother to 
 her son, when presenting him with his buckler: »'; rav r/ Im 
 rav — "either bring it back, or be brought home dead upon 
 It." Tin re is an essay by Puteanus, JJe l.acoiiismo. 
 
 LA'CQUSB. A yellow varnish, consisting of a solution 
 of shell lac in alcohol, coloured by ga mboge, saffron, annotto, 
 or other yellow, orange, or red colouring matters. Lacquers 
 are chiefly used for varnishing brass and some other metals, 
 in order to give them a golden colour and preserve their 
 lustre. 
 
 LAf.TA'RIUM. (Lat.) In Architecture, strictly a dairy 
 MNMB. In Ancient Architecture, it was a place In the Ro- 
 man herb market, indicated by a column, cn'led the Lacta- 
 ria Columna, where foundlings were fed ana nourished. 
 
 LA'CTEALfl. (Lat. lac, milk.) The absorbents of the 
 mesentery, which convey the milky fluid called chyle from 
 iines to the thoracic ducts. 
 
 LA'CTIC ACID. (Lat. Inc.) The acid of sour milk. 
 A similar acid is obtained from the fermented juice of the 
 beet root. It appear* to consist of 6 atoms of carbon, 5 of 
 hydrogen, and 5 of oxygen, Its equivalent being 81. 
 
 LACTO'METER. (Lat lac, and metrum, a measure.) 
 A term applied to a glass tube for ascertaining the propor- 
 tion which the cream bears to the milk of any particular 
 cow, or of the produce of I whole dairy. The tube la about 
 half an inch in diameter, and a foot in height, with a grad- 
 uated scale marked on the outside. It is filled with milk 
 when newly drawn from the cow ; and as it cools, the cream 
 rises to the surface, and the proportion which it bears to the 
 jscertained bv counting the degrees opposite to each. 
 
 LACTU'CARIUM. The Inspissated milky juice of the 
 I.nctuca saliva, or common garden lettuce. It possesses 
 slight anodyne properties, and is sometimes used as a sub- 
 stitute for opium. 
 
 LACTU'CIC ACID. A peculiar acid, discovered by 
 Pfair iii the juice of the Lactuca virosa. It hears some 
 resemblance to oxalic ncid; but differs from it in giving a 
 green precipitate with the protosalts of iron, and a brown 
 precipitate with sulphate of copper. 
 
 LACU'NA. (Lnt.) In Botany, a term applied in de- 
 scribing lichens, to denote one of the small hollows or pits 
 on the ii|>|ier surface of the thallus. Also a name given 
 occasionally to the internal organ, commonly called an air- 
 cell, lying in the midst of the cellular tissue of plants. 
 
 LACtrNAR. (Lat.) In Architecture, the ceiling or un- 
 der surface of the member of an order. Also the under 
 side of the larmier or corona of a cornice. The under side 
 also of that part of the architrave between the capitals of 
 columns. The ceiling of any part in architecture only re- 
 ceive.-, the name of lacunar when it consists of compart- 
 ments sunk or hollowed without spaces or bands between 
 the panels : if it is with bands, it is called laquear. 
 
 LACUXO'SE. (Lat. lacuna, a break.) In Zoology, 
 when a surface has a few scattered, irregular, broadish, but 
 shallow excavations. 
 
 LACUSTRINE. (Lat. lacus, a lake.) Belonging to a 
 lake. The term lacustrine deposit is applied by geologists 
 to certain fresh-water formations which occur in the newer 
 rocks. .See Geology. 
 
 LA'DDER. The sea term for the staircases between the 
 decks. Ladders are also made of rope. 
 
 LA'DY. A title said to be compounded of two Saxon 
 words, and to signify the giver or distributor of bread ; i. e., 
 the mistress of a family. It properly belongs to the daugh- 
 ters of all peers above the rank of a viscount; and is ex- 
 tended, by courtesy, to the wives of knights of every degree. 
 
 LA DY DAY. In the Calendar, the 25th of March, be- 
 ing the annunciation of the Holy Virgin. It is one of the 
 Immoveable festivals of the church, having relation to 
 Christmas, or the day of the nativity of Christ, which It pre- 
 cedes by nine months. 
 
 L/EMODI'PODS, Lamodipoda. (Gr. Xnijiof, throat, trove, 
 foot.) The name of an order of Crustaceans, in which the 
 head is confluent with the first segment of the thorax, and 
 supports the four anterior feet. The Lamodipoda are the 
 
 LAMA. 
 
 only Malacostracans with sessile eyes, and in which the pos 
 terior extremity of the body exhibits no distinct branchial 
 The females carry their ova beneath the second and third 
 segments of the body, in a pouch formed of approximated 
 scales. All the species are marine. 
 
 LA'GOMYS. (Gr. Auyui$, a hare; pvs, a mouse.) The 
 generic name of certain Rodents, called "rat-hares," now 
 peculiar to Siberia. They differ from the hares proper In 
 having moderate-sized ears, legs nearly equal, clavicle* 
 nearly perfect, and no tail. The fossil bones of a speciei 
 of Lagomys have been discovered in the osseous breccia 
 of Corsica. 
 
 LAGOO'N. (Lat. lacuna, a morass.) The name given 
 particularly to those creeks extending along the coast of the 
 Adriatic, and which are formed by water running up ir the 
 land. In some places, they are deep; but generally liey 
 are so shallow as to emit noxious exhalations. They con- 
 tain many islands, on sixty of which the city of Venice is 
 built. Towards the sea the islets are secured by dams, 
 either natural or artificial. 
 
 LAGO'PUS. ((Jr. X.iyoif, a hare; kow;, afoot.) The 
 generic name of those birds of the grouse tribe which have 
 a round or square tail, and whose toes are feathered as 
 well as the legs. See Ptarmioan. 
 
 LAGO'STOMA. (Gr. Xuyuc, and oToua, the mouth.) The 
 harelip. 
 
 LA'GOTHRIX. (Gr. \aYu>s ; 6ptl, a hair.) A genus of 
 South American or Platyrrhine monkeys, characterized by 
 their round head, a thumb on the anterior hand, and the tail 
 partly naked. The grison, or silver-haired monkey, is a spe- 
 cies of this genus. 
 
 LAGRIMO'SO. (Ital.) In Music, a direction to the per 
 former, when appended to a piece of music, denoting that 
 it is to be performed in ■ weeping plaintive manner. 
 
 LAIRD. A Scottish term, applied, as Libb observes, to 
 " a landed gentleman under the degree of a knight ; but re- 
 garded by many philologists as originally equivalent to lord 
 (quod vide). Anciently the title of laird was given only to 
 those proprietors who held immediately of the crown ; and 
 this distinction is still preserved in the Highlands. Tho de- 
 signation tiern, corresponding to laird, and rendered by it, is 
 given to no one whose property is not worth two or three 
 hundred per annum, while it is withheld from another 
 whose rental extends to as many thousands; because the 
 former acknowledges no superior under the king, while the 
 latter does. 
 
 LA'ITY. (Gr. \aoc, people.) The great body of the 
 faithful, as opposed to those who are set apart for the minis- 
 tration of the services and sacraments — the clergy. This 
 distinction is plainly observed in the writers of the third 
 century — Origen, Cyprian, and Tertullian ; and is generally 
 supposed to have prevailed from the first foundation of 
 Christianity. The word laity is properly a general name 
 for the people : in the writings of the Fathers fjiwrtnol, secu- 
 lars, tSi&rat, private men, and XntKul, laymen, are used in- 
 differently to express this class. 
 
 LAKE. (Lat. Lacus.) In Geography, a collection of 
 water surrounded by land. Lakes are divided into four dis- 
 tinct classes : 1. Those which have no outlet, and receive 
 no running water. 2. those which have an outlet, but re- 
 ceive no superficial running water, and are consequently 
 fed by springs. 3. Those (by far the most numerous class) 
 which both receive and discharge streams of water. 4. 
 Those which receive streams of water, and which have no 
 visible outlet or communication with the sea. The Caspian 
 Sea, which receives the Wolga and several other large 
 rivers, and Lake Aral, which receives the Amoo, belong to 
 this class. It is a remarkable fact, that all lakes of this class 
 are salt Some lakes present the curious phenomena of 
 disappearing and reappearing periodically, without regard 
 to the rainy season. Lake Chirtunitz in Illyria is of this 
 description. Some of them, as Loch Lomond in Scotland, 
 and Lake Wetter in Sweden, experience violent agita 
 tlons during severe weather. This may be supposed Io pro 
 ceed from an escape of subterraneous gasses, or winds 
 blown into some cavern with which they communicate; 
 though a coincidence of dates leaves ground to suppose that 
 the phenomenon was connected with earthquakes in distant 
 countries. 
 
 Lake. A compound of nluminous earth with the red 
 colouring matter of certain animal and vegetable substances ; 
 thus we have cochineal and lac lakes, madder lake, &c. 
 Sometimes the term lake is indiscriminately applied to al' 
 compounds of alumina and colouring matter. 
 
 LALLA'TION. The imperfect pronunciation of the let 
 terr, which is made to sound like /; hence also the term 
 lambdaeismus. The imperfect pronunciation of the letter r 
 is peculiar to the Chinese. 
 
 LA'MA. (Mother or pastor of souls.) Among the Mon- 
 gols a title given to priests in general ; among the Calmucks 
 to the higher classes of priests only. The Dalai-Lama 
 'i. e., Great Lama) is honoured as the representative of dl 
 
 637 
 
LAMANTIN. 
 
 vinity, or rather as a real divinity dwelling on the earth, by 
 various tribes of Tartaric descent. This personage resides 
 at Lassa, in Thibet, and pilgrimages are made to liis resi- 
 dence by the inhabitants of many distant regions of Tartary. 
 He is now chiefly dependant, in a political sense, on the Chi- 
 nese empire. When ihe actual Dalai-Lama dies, his spirit 
 is supjKjsed to seek another body in which to be born again ; 
 and the new Dalai-Lama can only be discovered by a cer- 
 tain favoured class among the priests. The worshippers of 
 the Dalai-Lama also pay peculiar reverence to two other 
 subordinate Lamas (Teeshoo and Taranaut Lama.) They 
 are distinguished by the title of Yellow Caps : the tied 
 Caps, another sect in Tartary, are under three other Lamas, 
 styled the three Shamonars. 
 
 Lama, Llama, or Glama. The name of a species of the 
 camel tribe, peculiar to South America. See Auchenia. 
 
 LAMA'JVTIN. The name given tfy French naturalists to 
 the manatee, or sea cow. See Manatus. 
 
 LAMBDOl'DAL SUTURE. The union of the parietal 
 with the occipital bones ; shaped something like the Greek 
 letter A, or lambda. 
 
 LAME'LLA. In Botany, a term applied by some writers 
 to the foliaceous erect scales appended to the corolla of 
 many plants, as in silene. Also used in describing fungi, to 
 denote the gills forming the hymeniuin of an agaric. 
 
 LAMELLIBRA'NCHIATES. Lamellibranchiata. (Lat. 
 lamella, a thin plate; branchiae, gills.) An order of Ace- 
 phalous Mollusks, comprehending those which have the 
 gills in the form of large semicircular layers disposed sym- 
 metrically, two on each side. 
 
 LAME'LLICORNS. (Lat. lamella, a plate; cornu, a 
 horn.) The sixth and last section of Pentamerous Coleoptera 
 of the system of Latreille, in which the antennae are inserted 
 into a deep fossula under the lateral margin of the head : they 
 are always short, usually consist of nine or ten joints, and are 
 always terminated in a club, usually composed of the three 
 lust, which are lamellar. Sometimes flabelliform, or dis- 
 posed like the leaves of a book, opening and closing in a 
 similar way; sometimes concentrically contorted and fitting 
 into each other, the first or inferior then being semi-infundi- 
 buliform and receiving the others, and sometimes arranged 
 perpendicular to the axis, and forming a sort of comb. 
 
 The body is generally ovoid or oval, and thick. The ex- 
 terior side of the two anterior tibiae is dentated ; and the 
 joints of the tarsi, with the exception of those of some 
 males, are entire, and without brush or pellet beneath. 
 
 The anterior extremity of the head most commonly pro- 
 jects, or is dilated in the manner of an epistome. The men- 
 turn is usually large, covers the labium, or is incorporated 
 with it, and bears the palpi. The mandibles of several 
 tire membranous, a character observed in no other Coleopte- 
 rous insects. The males frequently differ from the females, 
 either by prominences on the thorax or head in the form of 
 horns or tubercles, or by the largeness of their mandibles. 
 
 This family is very numerous ; and with respect to the 
 iize of the body, and the variety of forms exhibited in the 
 tiead and thorax, is one of the most beautiful of the order ; 
 ind frequently, also, as regards the splendour of the metallic 
 •.olours which ornament those species feeding on living ve- 
 {etnbles. The other species, however, feeding on decom- 
 aosed vegetable matter, are usually of one black or brown 
 hue. Some of the Coprophagi, however, do not yield even 
 in this respect to the former. They are all furnished with 
 wings, and their gait is heavy. 
 
 The body of the larvae is long, almost semicylindrical, 
 soft, frequently rugose, whitish, and divided into twelve an- 
 mli, with six squamous feet: the head is squamous, and 
 irmed with stout mandibles. Each side of the body is fur- 
 lished with nine stigmata, or breathing pores. Its posterior 
 extremity is thicker, rounded, and almost always doubled 
 under it ; so that the back being arcuated or convex, the 
 animal cannot extend itself in a straight line, crawls badly 
 on a level surface, and falls backwards or on its side every 
 instant. 
 
 Some of them require three or four years to become pupae : 
 they construct in their place of residence an ovoid shell, or 
 one resembling an elongated ball, composed of earth or the 
 remains of substances they have gnawed, the particles of 
 which are cemented by a glutinous matter produced from 
 their body. Their aliment consists of the dung of various 
 animals, mould, and the roots of vegetables (frequently such 
 as are necessary to man), of which they sometimes destroy 
 immense quantities, to the great loss of the cultivator of the 
 toil. 
 
 LAMELLIRO'STRALS, Lamelliros'res. (Lat. lamella, 
 a thin plate ; rostrum, a beak.) A tribe of swimming birds, 
 the fourth in the system of Cuvier, comprehending those in 
 which the margin of the beaks are furnished with numerous 
 lamella; or dental plates, arranged in a regular series, as in 
 the swan, goose, and duck. The birds comprised in this 
 family pass most of their time in tin: fresh waters. Some 
 come on shore to graze; others feed on aquatic plants, in- 
 fills 
 
 LAMP. 
 
 sects, vermes, or small fish and reptiles, which their long 
 neck enables them to reach or seize with facility. Soinf 
 of the species dive in quest of their prey, and can remain a 
 considerable time under water. All the LamelUrosten of 
 Cuvier were comprised in the great genus Anas of Linneua 
 LA'MIA. (Gr. Aa^ta.) An imaginary being, concern- 
 ing which many superstitious notions were prevalent among 
 the Greeks and Romans; sometimes represented as a spe- 
 cies of monstrous animal, sometimes as a spectre or vam- 
 pire. The Lamia: of Pliny are animals, with the lace and 
 head of a woman and tail of a serpent, inhabiting the des- 
 erts of Africa. According to mythologists, the first Lamia 
 was daughter of Neptune, a malevolent goddess, who seizes 
 and devours new-born infants in their cradles: whence 
 Horace's caution to tragic writers against indulging in the 
 description of unnatural horrors : 
 
 Nee pransae Lamise vivum puerum extrahat alvo. 
 
 In the well-known story of Machates and Philemon, 
 (from which Goethe has borrowed his magnificent ballad of 
 the Bride of Corinth), a young man is represented as mar- 
 rying a Lamia, or Empusa, who sucks his blood at night. A 
 similar tale occurs in the Life of Jlpollonius of Tyana, by 
 Philostrutus. The Christian superstition of incubi, and the 
 Oriental belief in vampires, seem to bear marks of the same 
 origin. 
 
 LAMI'D/E. (Lat. lamia, the name of an imaginary ani- 
 mal in Pliny.) The subdivision or family of Lamina, in 
 which the sides of the thorax are either smooth and round- 
 ed, or tuberculate, rugous, or spiny, but not furnished with 
 tubercles or spines. 
 
 LAM i'M^E. (Lat. lamia.) A tribe of Longicorn beetles, 
 distinguished, according to Latreille, by their vertical head ; 
 filiform palpi, whose terminal joint is more or less ovoid, and 
 tapers to a point; maxillae with the outer lobe slightly nar- 
 rowed ;it Hie end; antenna: frequently setaceous and sim- 
 ple; and thorax, exclusive of the lateral spines or tubercles, 
 nearly equal throughout. Some species are apterous, a 
 modification which occurs in no other tribe of Longicorn 
 beetles. 
 
 LA'MINARITES. A term applied by Brogniart to a 
 species of fossil fucies found in the secondary strata of Aix, 
 near La Rochelle. 
 
 LA'MMAS DAY. In the Calendar, the 1st of August. 
 Dr. Johnson supposes this term to be a corruption of Latter- 
 math, which signifies a second mowing of grass. Others 
 derive it from a custom which once prevailed in some parts 
 of England, of bringing a Iamb alive on this day into the 
 church at high mass. Others again derive it from a Saxon 
 term signifying loaf-mass, so named as a feast of thanks- 
 giving for the first fruits of the com. 
 
 LAMP. (Gr. \auiras.) The general term for the well- 
 known contrivances used in producing artificial light from 
 the combustion of liquid or other inflammable bodies. The 
 peculiar applicability of oil to the production of artificial 
 light, which could not fail to be discovered at a very' early 
 period, rendered the use of lamps universal among the na- 
 tions of Antiquity. The Egyptians, the Hebrews, Greeks, and 
 Roman vied with each other in the construction of these 
 instruments; and the specimens of some that have been 
 transmitted to our times display much taste and elegance of 
 external design. It would seem, however, that the ancients 
 had confined themselves merely to the external embellish- 
 ment of the lamp ; for it is a singular circumstance, that not- 
 withstanding the simplicity of the invention, and its obvious 
 capability of improvement, it is only within the last sixty 
 years that any material improvement has been effected in 
 its original construction. To give anything like a complete 
 view of the principles and structure of the numerous lamps 
 of which the present age has witnessed the invention, would 
 be quite impracticable without a multiplicity of illustrative 
 diagrams, which would be foreign to the purpose of this 
 work ; but a brief notice of the principle on which the action 
 of every lam]), both simple and complicated, depends, and 
 of some of the most celebrated improvements in their struc- 
 ture, may not be considered out of place. 
 
 The most simple lamp consists in a vessel of any shape 
 filled with oil or other inflammable liquid, and having a 
 short depression or spout on one side, in which lies a wick 
 composed of any fibrous substance, and capable of imbibing 
 the oil by its capillary attraction. The oil thus raised and 
 diffused through the wick, when ignited, admits of being 
 heated to such a degree of temperature as is capable of vola 
 tilizing the oil, the vapour of which, in a state of combus 
 tion, constitutes the flame of the lamp. The wick of a lamp 
 serves only for the purpose of raising up the oil by capillary 
 attraction, and thus giving a constant and adequate supply 
 to the flame. It furnishes no part of the light by the com 
 uustien of its own substance; for the quantity consumed is 
 too small to merit attention, and it is usually coated over 
 with a broad deposit of carbonaceous matter, which cannot 
 burn for want of the access of air, from which it ' 
 
LAMPADEPHORIA. 
 
 the flame. To render the air accessible to every part of the 
 Same in order to ensure the most perfect combustion of the 
 oil, is one of the most essential objects in the modern im- 
 i merit of lam|>e; and hence the texture, materials, and 
 dimensions of the wick are matters of much importance. If, 
 on the one hand, the wick be large, a great deal of carbon 
 vapour remains unburn! in the interior of the flame, and 
 breaks out in the form of smoke, producing a most disagree- 
 able Binell ; and if, on the other hand, the wick be too small, 
 though the unconsumed carbon will naturally be less, and 
 the flame consequently clearer than those of the larger wick, 
 it will yield but very liitle light, as the light diminishes with 
 the superticies of the flame. The inconvenience of a thick 
 wick iiad been long observed, and attempts were often made 
 to remove it; in some instances by substituting two or more 
 ■mail wicks for one large one, and in others by making the 
 wiek flat instead of cylindrical. These experiments, though 
 limited in their operation, were no doubt beneficial ; and in 
 houses where economy more than elegance was studied, 
 lliey procured lor the lamp a more extended use than it pre- 
 - ill, how ever, the smoke and disagreeable 
 smell arising from the burning of oil in common lamps, and 
 the unsightly appearance of the whole process, had long 
 d the lamp from the apartments of the wealthy ; and 
 it was DOt till the Near 17ri0, when M. Argand Invented tbo 
 well-known lamp which hears his name, that the instrument 
 came into general use. This invention embraces so many 
 improvements upon the common lamp, and has become so 
 general fh mifhiTM Europe, that it may be justly regarded 
 as one of the greatest discoveries of the age. As a substi- 
 en for the beet wax candles, it combines the advantage 
 i amy and convenience, with much greater brilliance; 
 while even as a means of producing heat it is found to be of 
 most essential service in chemical .n|xrntions. The great 
 principle on which the superiority of this lamp depends is the 
 admi.- -an: of I quantity of air into the centre of the flame. 
 This Argand accomplished by making the wick of a circular 
 form, instead of u solid cylinder :es before; by which means 
 a current of air rushes through the hollow cylinder while 
 the wick is burning, thus admitting air into the centre of the 
 llaine. Improving iiixm this invention, which was found 
 perfectly to succeed, he added a glass cylinder or chimney, 
 open at bottom, to surround the iiaine at a short distance; 
 by which another current of air is made to pass upwards on 
 the exterior part of the tlame. and bemoan it and the glass. 
 Thus every pan of the thin circular tlame is between two 
 currents of air, which supply the combustion with such a 
 quantity of oxygen as to create a heat sufficient to convert 
 into a brilliant tlame the smoke which escapes from an or- 
 dinary lamp. 
 
 Boca k ■ brief account of the leading principles of Ar- 
 gand's invention. Various improvements have since been 
 made on the original by the Sinumbra, the French, the Iris 
 lamp (now in general use as a table-lamp), anil a variety of 
 others, which it would lie superlluous |e enumerate; ull of 
 which, however, may lie regarded as improvements more of 
 detail than principle. Indeed, the great merit of Argand's 
 invention consists in the facility with which it cah be In- 
 grafted on lamps of every variety of form and structure, 
 while not all the beauty of design and execution witnessed 
 in the endless diversity of the lamps at present in general 
 DM would be sufficient to procure for them any considera 
 ble notice, if they were destitute of the Argand principle. 
 This facility of general application has recently been ex- 
 emplified in an ingenious invention, by which lamps on the 
 Argand principle havo been made to burn the common fish 
 ml instead of spermaceti, which had hitherto been indis- 
 I iiis improvement, which is so desirable in an 
 mica] point of view, consists chiefly in an extension of 
 Argand's original principle ; viz., in supplying the (lame with 
 a mater quantity of oxygen than had hitherto been effect- 
 ed. This is accomplished by means of apertures in the sides 
 of the lamp, and a cap with a deflector ; but in applying this 
 improvement to lamps on Argand's principle, a larger and 
 coarser kind of wick must be employed, and the tubes with 
 which the burners and the wick ore supplied with oil must 
 also be enlarged. Lamps constructed on this principle are 
 designated solar lamps. The best account of lamps is to be 
 found in Peclet, Traitt de rEclairage, Paris, 1827 ; and in 
 h'rurtitz's Encyclop., art. " Lompe." See also the Haus 
 Zdttieon. 
 
 LA'MPADEPHO'RIA. (Gr. XapirafiriQopia, a carrying 
 of torches.) A torch race, which it was customary to ex- 
 hibit at certain sacred festivals at Athens. The performers 
 were three young men, to one of whom, chosen by lot, was 
 given a lighted torch, which he was to carry to the goal un- 
 extinguished ; or if he failed, to deliver it to the second; 
 who, if he failed also, gave it to the third: whence a meta- 
 phor is sometimes derived by ancient writers, to be applied 
 to persons who anxiously wait for the deaths of others. If 
 the runners slackened their pace, they were driven on by 
 the blows of the spectators. This ancient usage is beauri- 
 
 LANCE. 
 
 fully applied by Lucretius to the succession of human gen- 
 erations : 
 
 Et, quasi curaores, vitai lampada tradunt. 
 
 LAMPBLACK. Finely divided charcoal. It is the soot 
 obtained by the imperfect combustion of resin of turpentine ; 
 this is burned in chambers hung with old sacking, upon 
 which the smoke collects, and is from time to time scraped 
 off. It contains about 20 per cent, of peculiar resinous pro 
 duels, water, and saline matter. 
 
 LA'MPIC ACID. A term given by Mr. Daniell to the 
 acid produced by the slow combustion of the vapour of al- 
 cohol and ether in the lamp without tlame: he has since 
 ascertained that it is acetic acid modified by the presence of 
 a peculiar hydrocarbon. 
 
 LA.MPOO'N. See Satire. 
 
 LAMP, SAFETY. See Safety Lamp. 
 
 LAMPY'RIILE. Glow-worms. (Gr. \ap-nvpic, a glow- 
 worm.') A family of soft-skinned Serricoru beetles, of the 
 tribe LampyriniB (which see), characterized by antenna) 
 closely approximated at their base; head concealed beneath 
 the thorax, or produced in the form of a snout ; eyes of the 
 moles large and globular; mouth small. In one division 
 the abdomen of the female is luminous ; and the male, which 
 is destined to be attracted by this luminosity, has his head 
 almost entirely occupied by his largely developed eyes, und 
 it is not produced in the form of u snout. The luminous 
 pro])erty of the glow-worm is confined to the two or three 
 terminal segments of the flattened abdomen, which differ in 
 colour from the rest, and ore usually yellowish or whitish ; 
 this character is peculiar to file true glow-worms, and an- 
 nounces their phosphorescence. The light diffused by the 
 glow-worm is of a lambent, electric, greenish colour: the in- 
 sect can vary or suspend its luminosity at will. The light- 
 emitting segments preserve their peculiar property lor some 
 time after being separated fnmi the rest of the body, and 
 manifest it even in vacuo, or w lien immersed hi gases which 
 arc not supporters of combustion. 
 
 In a second division of JaampyridiB the females are not 
 luminous, but are provided with wings; the head is exposed, 
 and is mostly produced in the shape of a snout; the thorax 
 is widened posteriorly, with ixiinted lateral angles. Tin 
 elytra, in several, expand posteriorly, where they are somo 
 times strongly dilated or rounded, especially in the females 
 To this group belong the generu Lycus, Uictyoptcra, am 
 Omalisus. 
 
 LAMPY'RL\'/E. (Gr. \apirvpif, a glow-worm.) A Lin 
 tuean genus of (. MOOM rous insects Which constitutes tin 
 type of the present tribe of the soft-skinned or Malacoderm 
 ous Serricorns in the system of Latreille. This BUM i 
 characterized by the enlarged termination of the palpi, or a, 
 least of the maxillary palpi ; by their soft, straight, depress 
 ed, or but slightly convex body; and by the thorax, some- 
 times semicircular, nt others nearly square or trapezoids 
 and projecting over the bead, which it either wholly or par- 
 tially covers. The mandibles are usually small, and tenni 
 nate In a slender, arcuated, very acute point, which is gen- 
 erally entire. The penultimate joint of the tarsi is always 
 bilobate, and the terminal claws have neither dentations not 
 appendages. 
 
 The females of some of the Lampyrine tribe arc apterous, 
 or have but very short elytra, and are luminous. All th< 
 Lampyrines, when seized, press their feet and antenna 1 
 against their body, and remain as motionless as if they were 
 dead. See LampyridiE. 
 
 LA'NATE. (Lat. lana, wool.) In Zoology, when a part 
 Is covered with fine, very long, flexible, and rather curling 
 hair, like wool. 
 
 LANCASTER, CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF. 
 The officer before whom, or his deputy, the court of the 
 Duchy-Chamber of Lancaster is held: which is a court 
 having special equitable jurisdiction as to lands holden of 
 the duchy. The office has long been a sinecure, and is one 
 of the most valuable at the disposal of the ministry of the 
 day ; the salary is £4000 per annum. 
 
 LANCE. (Fr.) A weapon consisting of a long shaft 
 with a sharp point, much used by the nations of antiquity, 
 and also by the modems before the invention of gunpowder. 
 The Macedonian phalanx and the Roman infantry, as well 
 as the most barbarous nations, all considered the lance as 
 one of the most effective weapons ; ond even at the present 
 day it is still considered of great value, though it is now al- 
 most universally borne by cavalry. Almost all the armies 
 of Europe have now regiments of lancers, so called from the 
 lance being the chief offensive xveapon with which they are 
 armed. The lances in use among the European cavalry 
 have a shaft of ash or beech wood, eight, twelve, or in some 
 coses even sixteen fe«t long, with a steel point eight or ten 
 inches in length, adomed by a small flag, the waving of 
 which is said to frighten the enemy's horses. The ancient 
 lancea was a general term for missile weapons or javelins ■ 
 the pilum is termed lancea in Lucan : 
 
 6-39 
 
LANCEOLATE. 
 
 Cujnt torta manu commisit lancea bellum. (Lib. vii.) 
 
 tor a detailed description of the lances of knights in the 
 middle ages, see Mem. de I' Ac. dea Inscr., vol. xx. From its 
 being the common knightly weapon, the force of the mount- 
 ed gendarmerie on its first institution in the 15th century 
 was usually numbered by "lances," each "lance" having 
 four or live attendants. The lance has become again a fa- 
 vourite cavalry weapon of late years, owing to the exploits 
 of Napoleon's Polish lancers and the Cossacks. 
 
 LANCEOLATE. (Lat. lancea, a lance.) In Zoology, 
 an animal or a part is so called when it is oblong and gradual- 
 ly tapering towards each extremity. 
 
 LAND (Germ.), in its widest acceptation is used to denote 
 the solid matter of which the globe is composed, in contra- 
 distinction to the liquid matter, or water ; but in its most re- 
 stricted signification it is confined to arable ground. The 
 latter is the legal meaning of the term ; and in this sense it 
 is used in all original writs, and in all correct and formal 
 pleadings. 
 
 LA'NDAMMAN, in Switzerland, the president of the 
 diet of the Helvetic republic. The highest magistrate in ten 
 of the cantons also bears the title of landamman ; in the 
 others he is designated by various appellations. 
 
 LA'NDAU. The name given to a peculiar kind of carriage, 
 which opens and closes at the top ; so called from Landau 
 in Germany, where they were originally made. 
 
 LA'NDFALL. The first land seen after a voyage is so 
 called. A good landfall is when the land is seen as ex- 
 pected. 
 
 LA'NDGRAVE. A title taken by some German counts 
 m the twelfth century, who wished to distinguish themselves 
 from the inferior counts under their jurisdiction ; and thus 
 assumed the designation of land-graf, or count of the whole 
 country. This was the origin of the landgraves of Thurin- 
 gia, of Lower and Higher Alsace, the only three who were 
 princes of the empire. 
 
 LAND-LOCKED. A term applied to a harbour or piece 
 of water which is so environed by land on all sides as to 
 exclude the prospect of the sea, unless over some interve- 
 ning land. If a ship is at anchor in such a place, she is said 
 to ride land-locked, and is therefore considered to be safe 
 from the violence of winds and tides. 
 
 LA'NDMARK signifies, in a general sense, anything by 
 which the boundary of a property is defined. In ancient 
 times the correct division of lands was an object of great im- 
 portance ; and various means were adopted to give distinct- 
 ness and permanency to the boundaries of every man's prop- 
 erty. Stones and hillocks were the most usual landmarks. 
 The importance of this subject, among the Israelites particu- 
 larly, may be judged of from the denunciation of Moses : 
 "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark." 
 In naval language, landmark is applied to any conspicuous 
 object which serves as a guide in entering a harbour or 
 avoiding a danger. 
 
 LANDREEVE. A subordinate officer on an extensive 
 estate, who acts as an assistant to the land steward. 
 
 LANDSCAPE. The scenery presented to the eye in the 
 country ; as also, in its more common acceptation, a picture 
 representing such scenery. A landscape in the latter sense 
 may, however, become allegorical and historical, in the 
 meaning applied by artists to those terms. The chief study 
 of the landscape painter is the vegetable world, air, water, 
 rocks, and buildings. To these he may impart an ideal 
 beauty, and thus elevate his art above mere topographical 
 painting ; which may be applied to his work, if he merely 
 copies without refinement what is presented to his eye. 
 
 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. The art of laying out 
 grounds so as to produce the effect of natural landscape. Its 
 principles are the same as those upon which the landscape 
 painter proceeds in composing a picture ; and though it is an 
 art of which, like many others, everybody thinks he is a 
 judge, it requires, to be properly practised, powers of a much 
 higher order than fall to the lot of most men. Mr. Brown, 
 commonly called Capability Brown, was the first who prac- 
 tised the art in this country so as to render himself worthy 
 the name of an artist. To lay down the principles of the 
 art would be quite impossible in this article ; but this general 
 observation contains the sum of them — let selected and 
 beautiful nattm be constantly your model, and success must 
 follow. 
 
 LANDSLIP. A portion of land that has slid down in 
 consequence of disturbance by an earthquake, or from being 
 undermined by the action of water. 
 
 LAND SPRINGS. Land springs are sources of water 
 which only come into action after heavy rains; while con- 
 stant springs, which derive their supplies from a more abun- 
 dant source, flow throughout the year. All springs owe 
 their origin to rains. In the case of land springs, the water, 
 when it sinks through the surface, is speedily interrupted by 
 a retentive stratum, and there accumulating, soon bursts out 
 in a spring, which ceases to flow a short period after the 
 cause which gave it birth has ceased to operate; but the 
 640 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 water which supplies constant springs sinks deeper into the 
 earth, and accumulates in rocky or gravelly strata, which" 
 become saturated with the fluid. 
 
 LAND STEWARD. A person who has the care of a 
 landed estate, and whose duties vary in different countries 
 according to the mode in which landed property is managed. 
 In England, where the landlord very commonly undertakes 
 to keep the buildings and fences of his tenants in repair, the 
 duties of the land steward are constant and multifarious ; 
 while in Scotland, where the buildings and fences are kept 
 In repair by the tenant, the duties of the steward are limited 
 to receiving the rents, and seeing that the covenants of tk r 
 leases are duly fulfilled. In many parts of the Continent. 
 and particularly in Italy, where the landlord is a partner 
 with his tenant, and shares the produce with him, the du- 
 ties of the land steward, or fattore, as he is there called, 
 are much more onerous than in Britain. It is generally 
 considered, both by British and Continental writers on agri- 
 culture, that one principal cause of the retardation of this 
 art has been the employment of lawyers as land stewards; 
 and the truth of this can hardly be denied, more especially 
 in those countries where the tenant is bound down by his 
 lease to particular modes of cropping, or where there is a 
 discretionary power as to cropping on the part of the steward . 
 The objection to lawyers as stewards is founded on their 
 general habits of acting from precedent rather than from 
 principle; and hence such a habit, exercised in the case of 
 an art that is calculated to be so rapidly progressive as agri- 
 culture, must materially impede its advancement. At the 
 same time, the convenience to a landed proprietor of having 
 a land steward who possesses legal knowledge is so great 
 as generally to overpower the objections that are made 
 against them by farmers and agricultural writers. 
 
 LA'NDWAITER. An officer of the customs, whose 
 duty it is, upon landing any merchandise, to taste, weigh, 
 measure, or otherwise examine the various articles, &c, and 
 to take an account of the same. 
 
 LA'NDWEHR. (Germ, land-guard.) The militia of 
 Prussia and Austria are so called. See Militia. 
 
 LA'NGREL. A particular kind of shot, formed of bolts, 
 nails, and other pieces of iron, tied together, and forming a 
 sort of cylinder which corresponds with the bore of the can- 
 non from which it is discharged. It is used chiefly to de- 
 stroy the masts and rigging of the enemy's ships. 
 
 LANGUAGE, (Lat. lingua, tongue), has been defined 
 "the expression of our ideas and tneir various relations by 
 certain articulate sounds, which are used as the signs or 
 those ideas and relations." 
 
 Whether language was originally given to man by his 
 Creator, or is the fruit of human invention, is a subject of 
 dispute, on which philosophy is scarcely capable of arriving 
 at satisfactory conclusions. Among those writers who have 
 maintained the latter thesis, three (Lord Monboddo on the 
 Origin and Progress of Language; Adam Smith's Con- 
 siderations on the Formation of Languages ; and Stewart's 
 Philosophy of the Human Mind, pan 3,) are particularly de- 
 serving of attention. The first of these, in his ingenious 
 speculation on the subject, mentions four ways in which he 
 conceives that ideas could have been communicated before 
 the invention of speech : viz., 1. Inarticulate cries, expressive 
 of sentiments- and passions; 2. Gestures, and the expression 
 of countenance; 3. Imitative sounds, expressive of audible 
 things ; and, 4. Painting, by which visible sounds are repre- 
 sented. And he appears to consider language to have been 
 produced by gradual development out of the first of these. 
 
 Many, whether satisfied with Lord Monboddo's specula- 
 tions or not, are ready to condemn the supernatural theory 
 as "unphilosophical." But our views on this subject must 
 materially depend on those which we mny take of the kin- 
 dred speculations respecting the origin of civilization. If we 
 are led to the conclusion — once commonly adopted, with 
 little inquiry, by philosophical writers — that the progress of 
 man from the lowest state of barbarism to refinement has 
 been gradual in all societies, we shall probably also believe 
 that the formation of language accompanied this develop- 
 ment in its course. But if we are more forcibly impressed 
 with the strength of the historical difficulties which oppose 
 this theory; that all our research only reveals to us the 
 story of one family of civilized men (in the proper sense of 
 that word) succeeding another; that the more barbarous 
 races appear to have lost civilization— to have fallen back 
 from some better condition, instead of being at the lowest or 
 commencing step (a notion strongly entertained by the gifted 
 historian Niebuhr, among many others) ; and that the lan- 
 guages of some of the most savage races (such as several of 
 the American Indians), instead of partaking in their want of 
 refinement in other respects, are remarkable for the number 
 and delicacy of their inflections, we shall probably arrive 
 at the conclusion that the more likely speculation is that 
 which coincides best with the faint indications afforded by 
 the inspired writings, and points out Revelation as the source 
 both of knowledge and of the primary laws of human society 
 
LANGUAGE. 
 
 Considering the phenomenon of language as it now pre- 
 sents itself, the most interesting philosophical questions to 
 which it gives rise are those which concern the connexion 
 and relative antiquity of existing languages, and their com- 
 parative utility and beauty as modes of communicating ideas. 
 The first lead the mind to consider the history of language J 
 the latter the principles of its structure. 
 
 The former of these subjects is one of those which may 
 be most emphatically pronounced peculiar to modern re- 
 search. The affinity of the great family of European and 
 Western Asiatic languages, those with which we are the 
 most familiar, was scarcely studied with serious attention 
 before the time of Adelung (whose great work, Mithridatcs, 
 appeared, we believe, in 1804). The affinities of the Semitic 
 and other Oriental tongues had been, perhaps, earlier investi- 
 gated ; but their elucidation remains nevertheless still more 
 at the present day. On a topic now pursued with 
 great interest, especially by the learned men of Germany and 
 Britain, we must content ourselves with indicating a few 
 simple rules for the guidance of the student. 
 
 The iui|K>rtance of the coincidence of single words, as a 
 proof of the connexion of languages, is rather under than 
 over estimated in common opinion. The late Dr. Young, 
 whose researches into this question are of such high value, 
 calculated that nothing could be inferred, nn to the relation 
 of two languages, from their agreement in one word; that 
 the odds are only three to two against their casual agree- 
 ment in tiro; but that they rise so rapidly that there are 
 nearly 100,000 chances to one against their casual agreement 
 in eight. 
 
 But, ngain, nothing could lie inferred as to the relationship 
 in their agreement in particular words if the 
 nations which s|>oke them were neighbours, and the words 
 t> one aright easily borrow from the other by mu- 
 tual intercourse. The Latin word and the low German 
 word for wine are the same; viniim, wyn, pronounced vecn. 
 But the Germans learned the use of the thing from the Ro- 
 mans, and along with it they doubtless borrowed the name. 
 No conclusion could th er e fo re he drawn from this example 
 as to (he connexion be t ween German and Latin. The Greek 
 name for a lion, lis, is nearly the same with that ti-ed in a 
 very different family of languages, the Semitic (Hebrew, 
 fatal ; Arabic. Initio. Hut the animal itself, although at one 
 -ionally found in Greece, was probably a wanderer 
 DM Asia ; and the fact of its name being common to both 
 therefore nothing as to their relationship, 
 mining the connexion of languages by their agree- 
 ment in words, two things are to be considered : the root, 
 and thi' inflexions. The root is arrived at by striking off the 
 part of the,word. Thus the termination us (prop- 
 erly os or o) is the inflective part, in the nominative, of a 
 numerous order of masculine nouns in Latin as well as 
 Greek. The root of "equus" is equ, or ec; the root of 
 "albus" (white), alb. It is In these roots that we are first 
 to look for the connexion of languages ; nnd in examining 
 them, it is necessary to acquire a knowledge of one of the 
 most Important and most difficult to ascertain among the 
 primary facts relating to languages, the ordinary substitution 
 of letters, especially consonants, in ditl'erent cognate lan- 
 i the same family. With reference to the great 
 class of langoagea already alluded to, commonly called the 
 '• Indo-European,' 1 these substitutions have been only of late 
 !. and that as yet imperfectly. Thus it has been 
 found that the Greek aspirate is often represented in Latin 
 by .«, l{, firn, scz, srptem ; that the Greek :r is frequently 
 represented in the Teutonic tongues by /, Trove, irnrvp, foot, 
 father ; that the Greek and Latin d is often : in German, 
 dens, digitus, decern — lahn, tehe, zehen. A good list of the 
 mmon among these transformations will be found in 
 the Penny Clyclopadia, art. "Language," taken from Potts' 
 Etymalogische Forschungen. 
 
 il respondence in inflections is a still closer sign of rela- 
 tionship. That peculiar class of Greek verbs commonly 
 called in our grammars " verbs in mt\" has a corresponding 
 class in the Sanskrit, Zend, and some Sclavonic tongues. 
 
 Greek. Sanskrit. Lithuanian. 
 
 Island, iorrjut. Tisthami. Stowmi. 
 
 Thou standest, iarnc. Tisthftsi. Stowi. 
 
 lie stands, Jo-rijM. Tisthati. Stow. 
 
 I give, £tlu/u. Dadami. Dudmi. 
 
 Thou givest, i5«W Dndasi. Dust. 
 
 He gives, itiuiai. Dadato. Dusti. 
 
 In other cognate languages this mode of conjugation is 
 wither lost or much altered. Here, therefore, is an indica- 
 tion (not, of course, a conclusive one) of a nearer connexion 
 between these than others of the same family ; Celtic and 
 Latin, for instance. 
 
 The connexion between lnnsunges being established, the 
 mind is next led to consider their derivation one from an- 
 other. And here historical assistance soon fails us. We 
 say that Spanish and Italian are derived from Latin, be- 
 
 '-• a 
 
 cause we know the fact historically; but at the earliest 
 period of which we have any authentic account, we find 
 several independent nations using different, but strongly re 
 sembling varieties of speech, of whose historical connexion 
 we know nothing. We know little, for example, on the 
 question in what consisted the relationship between the 
 Latins and the Greeks ; and nothing whatever as to the con 
 nexion of either with the Celts or the Sclavonians. And 
 hence it is easy to perceive the absurdity of the fashion, of 
 which we 6till constantly meet with examples in dictionaries 
 and works of reference, of speaking of words in cognate Ian 
 guages as " derived" from one another ; for example, a Latin 
 word as "derived" from the Greek, an English as " derived" 
 from the German. The Romans undoubtedly, in later 
 ages, borrowed a few words from the richer vocabulary of 
 Greece; e. g., historia, poerna ; and the English have bor- 
 rowed a very few from the Germans. But Greek and Latin, 
 Anglo-Saxon and German, are respectively only varieties, 
 derived alike from some ancient original which our inquiries 
 arc unable to reach. 
 
 The distinction between a separate language and a dialect 
 is very arbitrary. We speak of Spanish and Portuguese, 
 Swedish and Danish, as distinct languages ; yet they resem- 
 ble each other quite as nearly as some varieties of French, 
 perhaps of Italian. The name seems appropriated, in ordi- 
 nary usage, to every variety of speech which is in national 
 use for purposes of government and literature. 
 
 The relative antiquity of languages is a subject involved 
 in obscurity, and on which our conclusions are little better 
 than conjectural. The theory that all languages are de- 
 rived from a common original is difficult to be maintained ; 
 and yet there is no doubt that the tendency of modern re- 
 search is, by accurate classification, to reduce the number 
 of original tongues from which those in actual use are deriv- 
 ative varieties. 
 
 The following table of languages, divided into classes or 
 groups, Is given by Dr. Young, in the art. " Language," in 
 the Encyclopedia Drilannica. 
 
 r Chinese. 
 
 I Siamese. 
 
 | Avanese. 
 
 L Tibetan. 
 
 f Sanskrit. 
 
 1. Monosyllabic class: 
 
 Zend (Median). 
 
 Semitic (Arabian, Syriac, 
 Hebrew, tec). 
 
 Lycian. 
 
 Phrygian. 
 2. Indo-European class :{ Greek. 
 
 I Germanic. 
 | Celtic. 
 I Etruscan. 
 
 Latin. 
 1 Cantabriau. 
 ISclavic. 
 
 Tartaric class. 
 African class. 
 American class. 
 
 This classification, however, is rather geographical than 
 ethnographical, nnd in some respects apt to mislead. For 
 example, those great families of languages, the Sanskrit, 
 Greek, Latin, nnd Germanic, are all nearly connected with 
 one another. The Celtic and Sclavonic belong to the same 
 division, while the Semitic languages form a very peculiar 
 group apart, and should be excepted from the lndo-Eu 
 ropean class. 
 Languages have also been classed in the following manner: 
 L Languages composed of monosyllabic roots, without 
 any form of grammar. Those have no inflections, nnd variety 
 of meaning is only shown by the position of words In a sen- 
 tence. To this order belong the languages which Dr. Young 
 terms monosyllabic. 
 
 2. Languages composed of monosyllabic roots with a 
 great abundance of grammatical forms. Of these the great 
 Indo-European family are an example. 
 
 3. Languages whose verbal roots consist, in their present 
 form, of two syllables, nnd require three consonants to ex- 
 press their fundamental meaning. This division appears to 
 comprehend the Semitic languages only, its far as at present 
 ascertained. 
 
 The comparative perfection of a language, as an instnj 
 ment for the communication of thought, depends mainly on 
 its copiousness. In order to estimate this, it must be borne 
 in mind that the classes of words employed in a language 
 are all reducible into two, which have been termed by some 
 notional and relational. The former express distinct ideas 
 or notions ; the latter serve to display the relation, connexion, 
 and order of ideas. Nouns nnd verbs belong to the first 
 class; prepositions, adverbs, fcc., nnil the signs denoting the 
 inflections of verbs and nouns, to the latter. With respect 
 to the former class, all languages, to be serviceable for the 
 purposes of life, must be sufficiently copious to express nil 
 
 Ml 
 
LANGUENTE 
 
 distinct notions. But the comparative richness of a language 
 is mainly shown by the manner in which this is done. As 
 nations advance from barbarism towards civilization, new 
 notions, and new varieties of notions, are constantly requi- 
 ring utterance In those in which this can easily be done by 
 composition (is in Greek and German), great facilities are 
 afforded for the easy expression of thought, comparatively 
 with those in which it can only be effected by the laborious 
 process of borrowing and adopting words from the vocabu- 
 laries of more advanced nations. 
 
 But it is in the relational words, or modes in which rela- 
 tions of ideas are expressed, that the genius of different lan- 
 guages most varies. The Chinese, in their singular and ob- 
 scure tongue, seem never to have reached beyond the pro- 
 cess of varying the collocation of their unchangeable roots 
 in the sentence, in order to express varieties of meaning. 
 The next process should appear to be that of using auxiliary 
 words. In many languages (our own among the number) 
 relations are almost wholly expressed in this manner. But 
 in others the auxiliary words have, in course of time, coa- 
 lesced with the principal; so that many relations are ex- 
 pressed by varying the beginning, termination, &c, of the 
 principal word. This, at least, is the most probable origin 
 of those forms termed in grammar inflections, or forms of 
 decl nsion and conjugation, in which Greek, Latin, Sans- 
 krit, German, and their derivative languages are more or 
 less rich ; the Greek, for example, being more copious than 
 the Latin or modern German, in having the dual form and 
 additional tenses (the norists, and the paulo-post futurum). 
 And some languages (especially among the American In- 
 dians) are so curiously constructed as to carry the power of 
 inflection far beyond this point. A complex idea, which in Eng- 
 lish would require to be expressed by a pronoun, an adverb, 
 and an auxiliary verb (or, perhaps, a second auxiliary verb 
 also, e.g., "1 desire," or " I abstain"), together with the prin- 
 cipal verb, would in some American languages be expressed 
 merely by a variety of the form of the principal verb itself. 
 As a general rule, the power of inflexion adds greatly to 
 the copiousness of a language ; and although some enthusi- 
 asts, in their admiration of our own, have maintained that the 
 process of conjugating or declining by auxiliary words and 
 particles is more convenient, and affords more variety and 
 harmony than that by changes in the termination of the 
 verb or noun, it is probable that few candid reasoners will 
 hold the same opinion. But there are distinctions in lan- 
 guage, arising out of relations simply imaginary, which may 
 • be pronounced unnecessary and cumbersome. Such are the 
 genders, common to almost all languages of the Indo-Eu- 
 ropean family except our own, but for which it would be 
 ditticult to assign either utility or beauty. 
 
 Another and a more substantial disadvantage of language 
 rich in inflections, if the fact be true, is to be found in the 
 greater difficulty which common people are supposed to 
 have in framing their speech grammatically and accurately 
 under this system than the other. The greater the niceties 
 of a language, it has been urged, the greater the difference 
 must inevitably be between the variety spoken and written 
 by educated men and that in use among the uneducated ; 
 and it has been contended that in ancient Italy, for instance, 
 the rustic language was altogether different from the written 
 Latin. But the facts on which this reasoning rests may be 
 pronounced extremely controvertible. There are certainly 
 some grounds for the suspicion that there was an unusual 
 difference between the vulgar and the polished Roman 
 tongue, at least in the later times of the empire ; but if this 
 was always the case, it is singular that Plautus and Terence 
 should nowhere furnish us, by way of heightening the ludi- 
 crous, with instances of ungrammatical locution. The lan- 
 guage of ancient Greece was more refined and inflective than 
 that of Rome ; and there is no appearance that there was a 
 greater diversity between the speech of the peasant and the 
 philosopher and rhetorician than in any modern country. 
 In Attica the very reverse seems to have been the truth, 
 since its most elegant writers and orators appear carefully 
 to have modelled their language on the common dialect of 
 their countrymen. And, finally, the wild Indians of America 
 speak with purity a language often surpassing in variety of 
 inflections those of the most civilized and illustrious nations 
 of the Old World. 
 
 Among the numerous and valuable works which may as- 
 sist the reader in acquiring a knowledge of the existing 
 varieties of spoken tongues, may be mentioned Vater's 
 IAnguarum Totius Orbis Index Jllphabcticus, 1815 ; Mars- 
 den's Catalogue of Dictionaries, <$-c, 1796, and his Miscel- 
 laneous ff.rks (as to Oriental languages) ; Jldelung's Mit/i- 
 ridates, already cited ; the works of Dr. Prichard ; a very 
 valuable article in the Penny Cyclopaedia, of which much 
 use has been made in the above pages. 
 
 LANGUE'NTE. (Ital.) In M usic, a direction to the per- 
 former, when prefixed to a composition, denoting that it is to 
 be performed in a languishing or soft manner. 
 LA'NIARIES, Dentes Laniarii. (Lat. lanio, / rend.) 
 042 
 
 LAOCOON. 
 
 The long conical and sharp-pointed teeth which are placed 
 next behind the incisors. They are also called dentes canini 
 
 and cuspidati. They never exceed — in number in the 
 
 Ferine Mammalia. 
 
 LA'NIUS. (Lat. lanio.) A Linmean genus of Passerine 
 birds, forming the typical family of the Dentirostral division 
 of that order in the system of Cuvier. The birds of the fam- 
 ily L.aniadw, or shrikes, are characterized by a strong, coin- 
 pressed, conical beak, more or less hooked, and emnrginate 
 near the point, as in the other Deiuirostres. The shrikes live 
 in families, and fly irregularly and precipitately, uttering shrill 
 cries ; they build in trees, lay live or six eggs, and take great 
 care of their young. They have the habit of imitating a 
 part of the songs of such birds as live in their vicinity. The 
 larger and stronger birds are predatory, and attack, slay, and 
 devour smaller birds. 
 
 LA'NSQUENETS, Lanskncckts. The German infantry 
 first raised by the Emperor Maximilian to confront that of 
 the Swiss, in the end of the fifteenth century. The name is 
 derived from the German words landes knecht, countryman 
 or country lad, and not, as is sometimes stated, from Ian z, a 
 lance or pike. The lansknechts were very irregularly arm- 
 ed, the greater part with pikes, but certain companies in 
 every division with muskets. They were raised by volun- 
 tary "enlistment, and their leaders passed with little reluc- 
 tance into the service of any power which was willing to 
 pay them. This infantry played a conspicuous part in the 
 wars of Italy, in the first half of the sixteenth century, ofter 
 which the name fell into disuse. 
 
 LANTA'NIUM. (Gr. XavOavtiv, to conceal.) A metallic 
 substance discovered by Mosander in ccrite; it is associate*! 
 with, and concealed, as it were, by the oxide of cerium 
 The oxide of lantanium is of a brick-red colour. 
 
 LANTERN. (Fr. lanterne.) In Architecture, a drum- 
 shaped erection, either square, circular, elliptical, or polyg- 
 onal, on the top of a dome, or on that of an apartment, to 
 give light. See Cupola. 
 LA'NTERN, MAGIC. See Magic Lantern. 
 LA'NTERN WHEEL. In Mechanics, a kind of pinion, 
 having, instead of leaves, cylindrical teeth or bars, called 
 trundles or spindles, on which the teeth of the main wheel 
 act. The ends of the trundles being fixed in two parallel 
 circular boards or plates, the lantern wheel has the form of 
 a box or lantern, whence the name. 
 
 LA'N YARD. The sea term for certain lashings, whether 
 fixed or temporary. 
 
 LAO'COON. In Fabulous History, the priest of Apollo 
 or Neptune during the Trojan war. While he was engaged 
 in sacrificing a bull to Neptune, two en6nnous serpents sent 
 by Minerva, in revenge for his having endeavoured to dis- 
 suade the Trojans from admitting the famous wooden horse 
 within their walls, issued from the sea ; and having fasten- 
 ed on his two sons, whom he vainly endeavoured to save, 
 at last attacked the father himself, and crushed him to death 
 in their complicated folds. Virgil has thus described the oc- 
 currence : 
 
 Et primum parva duorum 
 Corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque 
 laiplicat, et niiseros niorsu depascilur anus : 
 Post, jpsum, auxiliis subeunlein ac tela fertnleni 
 Corripiunt, ipirisque ligant ingenlibui; et jam 
 Bis medium amplexi, bis collo squauiea circuit) 
 Terga (tali, superan! capite, ct cervicibas allis. 
 
 This story has gained immortal celebrity from its forming 
 the subject of one of the most beautiful groups of sculpture 
 in the whole history of ancient art. The composition is 
 pyramidal, and represents Laocoon and his two sons writh- 
 ing and expiring in the convolutions of the serpents. Agony 
 in an intense degree is exhibited in the countenance and con- 
 vulsed body of Laocoon, who is. attempting to disengage 
 himself from the serpents ; and the sons are represented as 
 imploring assistance from their helpless parent. Some con- 
 noisseurs, who have ventured upon a criticism of the group, 
 have discovered that its complexity destroys it effect; but 
 we doubt the value of their criticism, and to counteract it 
 give the opinion of Fuseli (no mean judge), from his Lectures 
 on Painting. " In the group of the Laocoon the frigid ec- 
 stasies of German criticism have discovered pity like a va- 
 pour swimming on the father's eyes ; he is seen to suppress, 
 in the groan for his children, the shriek for himself; his nos- 
 trils are drawn up to express indignation at unworthy suffer- 
 ings, while he is said, at the same time, to implore celestial 
 help. To these are added the winged effects of the serpent 
 poison, the writhings of the body, the spasms of the extremi- 
 ties. To the miraculous organization of such expression, 
 Agesander, the sculptor of the Laocoon, was too wise to lay 
 claim. His figure is a class; it characterizes every beauty 
 of virility verging on age: the prince, the priest, the father, 
 are visible ; but, absorbed in the man, seem only to dignify 
 the victim of one great expression. Though poised by the 
 artist, for us to apply the compass to the face of the Laocoon 
 is to measure the wave fluctuating in the storm : this tern- 
 
LAPIDARY STYLE. 
 
 pestuous front, this contracted nose, the immersion of these 
 eyes, and above all that long-drawn mouth, are, separated 
 and united, seats of convulsion — features of nature struggling 
 within the jaws of death." 
 
 Of this famous group of sculpture Pliny says, that it is 
 ''opus omnibus picture el statuareoe artis preferendum." 
 It was discovered at Rome among the ruins of the palace 
 of Titus, at the beginning of the 16th century, and after- 
 wards placed in the Farnese palace, whence it found its way 
 to the Vatican. It was executed by Polydorus, Agesander, 
 •Vthenodorus, the three celebrated artists of Rhodes. The 
 Penny Cyclopedia has an excellent article on this subject, 
 to which we beg to refer. 
 
 LAPIDARY STYLE (Lat. lapis a stone), denotes the 
 style proper for monumental or other inscriptions, and is 
 thence sometimes used to express a terse, expressive style. 
 The ruies of this style have been prescribed by Cicero : " Ac- 
 cedat oportet oratio varia, vehemens, plena spiritus. Om- 
 nium sententiarum gravitate, omnium verborum ponderibus 
 est ulendum." 
 
 LAPl'LLI. (Lat. lapillus,a little stone.) Small volcanic 
 cinders. 
 
 LA'PIS. (Lat.) In Roman Antiquity, literally a stone ; 
 but used among the Romans to signify a mile, at the end of 
 which lapides or stones were erected with a mark thereon, 
 to show the distance from Rome. Hence the phrases " ter- 
 tius lapis," "cenlesimus lapis," &c, for 3, 100, &c., miles; 
 and sometimes even the ordinal number was used, with 
 lapidem understood, as " ad duo decimum," twelve miles dis- 
 tant. The Roman practice i>f indicating the distance of one 
 (tan another by the erection of stones has been bor- 
 row.-. 1 by almost all the nations of modern Europe. 
 
 LA'PIS CAU8TICU8. Caustic potash. 
 
 LA'PIS IN'FERNA'LIS. Fused nitrate of silver ; often 
 called lunar caustic. 
 
 LA'PIS LA'ZULI. A blue mineral found in masses or 
 nodult-s, consisting chiefly of silica and alumina, with about 
 twenty per cent, of soda, and some peculiar combination of 
 sulphur, to which it probably owes its colour; it is often 
 sprinkled with yellow pyrites. It furnishes the valuable 
 pigment known under the name of ultra marine, and was 
 formerly much employed in ornamental inlaid work. Persia, 
 China, and Kussia are its chief sources. 
 
 LATITUDE. In Ancient Geography, a people of Thes- 
 saly, chiefly known to us from their fabled contests with 
 the Centaurs. The battle between the Centaurs and the 
 Lapitha; has been described by Ilcsiod, and by Ovid with 
 great minuteness. (Met., xii.) To the Lapitha? has been 
 attributed the invention of bits and bridles for horses. 
 
 LAPSE (Lat. lapsus, a slip), in Ecclesiastical Law, is 
 the omission of a patron to present a clergyman to a benefice 
 within six months after its being void ; in which case the 
 benefice is said to be void, nnd the right of presentation is 
 lost to the patron. In England the right of presentation then 
 accrues to the bishop, nnd to the sovereign by the neglect of 
 these ; and in Scotland it devolves on the presbytery. 
 
 LA'PWING. The name of a native species of the genus 
 Vanellus, dismembered by Bechstein from the Tringa of 
 Linna-us. (i'cc Vanellus and Tringa.) The lapwing or 
 pee- wit (Vanellus cristatus, Bechst.) is a constant inhabi- 
 tant of this country ; subsists chiefly on worms and the ani- 
 malcules of the sea-shore, which it frequents in great num- 
 bers. The female makes a simple nest by scraping together 
 a little dry grass, and deposits thereon four (MB, of a dirty 
 olive colour spotted with black. The young birds are cov- 
 ered with a thick down when hatched, and soon begin to run 
 about : at the approach of danger they squat down, and the 
 parent, by a curious instinct, endeavours to attract the atten- 
 tion of the intruder, and draw him away from the spot, by 
 fluttering about with cries of inquietude, or even running 
 along the ground as if lame. I n October the lapwings are 
 fat, and in good condition for the table : their eggs are con- 
 sidered a great delicacy. 
 
 LA'QUEAR. In Architecture. See Lacunar. 
 
 LARA'RIUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, the apart- 
 ment in which the lares or household gods were deposited ; 
 it also frequently contained statues of the proprietor's an- 
 
 LA'UBOARD. The left-hand side of a ship to a person 
 whose face is turned towards the head. The other side is 
 called the starboard. 
 
 LA'RCENY. (Lat. latrocenium, theft.) In Law, a spe- 
 cies of felony, distinguished, formerly, into simple and mixed : 
 the latter of which was the taking of goods and chattels from 
 the person or from the house, if above the value of twelve- 
 pence. But this distinction has been abolished by the statute 
 which consolidated the laws relative to this class of offences 
 (7 k 8 G. 4, c. 39). Larceny is the felonious and fraudulent 
 taking and carrying away of the goodV and chattels of ano- 
 ther. Thefts of things affixed to th« freehold, if forming 
 part of what is termed real property, w not larceny at com- 
 mon law ; but many offences of this description have been 
 
 LARVIPARA. 
 
 brought within the character of larceny by enactment. Rob- 
 bery, breaking into and stealing in a dwelling-house, if in the 
 daytime, piracy, &c, are species of mixed larceny. A re- 
 ceiver of stolen goods is indictable either for a substantive 
 felony, or as accessary to the theft or robbery. Many of the 
 offences under this class are still punishable by death ; but 
 in these, and all felonies except murder, sentence of death, 
 instead of being pronounced immediately, may be recorded, 
 to enable the judges to pronounce eventually a discretionary 
 sentence, according to the merits of the case. 
 
 LA'RES. (Lat.) Domestic deities of the Italians, who 
 were probably regarded as the souls of the deceased ances- 
 tors of a family. Their worship, however, was-not confined 
 to private houses, as there were lares of the city, the coun- 
 try, roads, &x. See Penates. 
 
 LARGE. (Ital.) In Music, a character representing the 
 greatest measure of musical quantity ; one large containing 
 two longs, one long two breves, one brevo two semibreves, 
 and so on In duple proportion. 
 
 LARGHE'TTO. (Ital. dimin. of largo.) In Music, a 
 movement a little quicker than largo. 
 LARGO. (Ital.) In Music. See Allegro. 
 LA'RIDjE. A family of swimming birds, having the gull 
 (Larus) as the type. 
 
 LARK. The common name of the native species of the 
 genus Jllauda of Linnaeus ; of which one, the Jilauda arven- 
 sis, is distinguished n» the sky-lark or lavrock ; the other, 
 Jilauda campestris, Linn., is called the field-lark. As the 
 species of the present genu9 differ from most other Insessorial 
 birds in resting habitually and sleeping upon the ground, their 
 feet present a singular but simple modification, which at the 
 same time beautifully adapts them to their office of support- 
 ing the superincumbent body on a flat surface : it consists in 
 the extreme elongation in an almost straight line of the claw 
 of the hinder toe, which is, at the same time, proportionally 
 robust ; thus the plane of support is extended at the expense 
 of the prehensile faculty, which the habits of the lark ren- 
 der of little or no value to it. 
 
 The sky-lark is universally admired for the power and 
 melody of its song, and for the beautiful associations inspired 
 by the circumstances under which its notes are most richly 
 poured forth — viz., while soaring aloft to greet the rising sun. 
 It ascends in the air almost perpendicularly, by successive 
 flights, to an elevation at which its song becomes inaudible: 
 its descent is generally oblique. The female builds her nest 
 on the ground, and lays four or five eggs, which are of a 
 grayish brown colour marked with darker spots: she sits 
 about fifteen days, and usually rears two broods in the year 
 This prolific species i9 granivorous, and in the winter large 
 flocks congregate together; they are very fat at this season 
 and are captured in great numbers for the table. 
 
 LA'RMIER. (Fr.) In Architecture, the same as corona, 
 which see. 
 
 LA'RUS. (Gr. \apvs, a gull.) A Linnsan genus of 
 aquatic birds belonging to the I.ongipennate division of Pal- 
 mipedes in the system of Cuvicr, and now raised to the rank 
 of a family comprising several subgenera. The Larida, or 
 gulls, are characterized by their corn pressed, elongated, point- 
 ed bill, of which the superior mandible is curved downwards 
 near the end, and the interior forms a salient angle beneath. 
 The nostrils, placed near its middle, or a little more forwards, 
 tire long, narrow, and form a complete transverse perfora- 
 tion ; the tail is ample, and sometimes pointed. (Lestris.) 
 The gulls are common and numerous on the sea-coast, and 
 feed on the different animal substances which are left on 
 shore or float down with the ebbing tide. The black-headed 
 gull (Larus rudibundus, Linn.) breeds on the marshy edge., 
 of rivers or fens; the female makes her nest, among the 
 reeds and rushes, of heath or dried grass, and lays three or 
 four eggs, of an olive brown colour sported and streaked with 
 dusky red. When the young are able to accompany the 
 parents they all resort to the sea-shore. The other species 
 of gulls build for the most part in the sand or the clefts of 
 rocks. 
 
 LA'RVA. (Lat. larva, a mask.) A Metabolian insect in 
 its first stage after exclusion from the egg is so called, be- 
 cause its real form is, as it were, masked : the same term is 
 also applied to those reptiles which undergo a metamorphosis, 
 as the frog, when at a corresponding period of existence. 
 
 Larva. Spectres of the deceased were 60 termed by the 
 Romans : mere empty forms or phantoms, as their name in 
 dicates; yet endowed with a sort of existence resembling 
 life, since they were to be propitiated by libation and sacri- 
 fice. The larva of Caligula, according to Suetonius, was 
 often seen in his palace after his decease. The larva; are 
 described by Seneca, and often represented In paintings and 
 on gems under tile figure of a skeleton ; sometimes under those 
 of old men, with shorn locks and long beards, carrying ar 
 owl on their hands. 
 
 LARVI'PARA. (Lat. larva, and pario, / bring forth.) 
 Those insects are so called which bring forth larva; instead 
 of eggs, the latter being hatched in the oviduct. 
 
 643 
 
LARYNGITIS. 
 
 LARYNGI'TIS. Inflammation of the larynx. Thesymp- 
 soms are hoarseness, sense of suffocation, great anxiety and 
 restlessness, and spasmodic difficulty of deglutition. The 
 acute form of the disease sometimes terminates fatally in 24 
 hours. Chronic in lamination of the larynx is not an un- 
 common complaint, and often a very troublesome one ; it is 
 frequently met with among dram drinkers : low diet, absti- 
 nence from spirituous liquors, and astringent lozenges and 
 gargles, generally relieve it ; the acute form of the disease 
 requires local and general bleeding, and a blister on the ex- 
 ternal throat. 
 
 LARYNGO'PHONY. (Gr. Xapvyl, and <j>iovr), the voice.) 
 The sound of the voice as heard by applying the stethoscope 
 over the larvnx. 
 
 LARYNGO'TOMY. (Gr. \apvyl, and tciivw, J cut.) The 
 operation of making an opening into the larynx. See Bron- 
 chotomy. 
 
 LA'RYNX. (Gr. Xapvyl-) The upper extremity of the 
 trachea. It is a cartilaginous cavity, the superior opening 
 of which is called the glottis. Its various parts, anatomi- 
 cally considered, are extremely complex and intricate, espe- 
 cially in reference to its construction and physiology as the 
 organ of voice. 
 
 LA'SCARS. The name given to the native Indian sailors, 
 many of whom are in the service of our mercantile navy. 
 
 LA'SER. A gum resin greatly esteemed by the ancients, 
 and obtained from the north of Africa. It is described by 
 Dioscorides (lib. hi., c. 48) ; and, under the name of silphion, 
 by Theophrastus. Different names were given to different 
 parts of the plant which affords it, the term laser or lasoorn 
 being exclusively applied to the inspissated juice. From the 
 representations of the plant, upon the coins of Cyrene, it ap- 
 pears to have been one of the Umbellifera. According to 
 Dr. Lindley [Flora Jtfedica, p. 52), it was in all probability 
 obtained from Thapsia asclepium. 
 
 LAST In Commerce, a measure of uncertain quantity, 
 varying in different countries, and with respect to different 
 articles. Generally, however, a last is estimated at 4000 lbs. 
 (See Commercial Dictionary.) 
 
 LATEE'N SAIL. A peculiar sail having a long yard 
 much inclined to the horizon, and used by polacres, kebecs, 
 and other vessels navigated in the Mediterranean. 
 
 LA'TENT HEAT. Heat insensible to the thermometer, 
 upon which the liquid and aeriform states of bodies depend, 
 and which becomes sensible during the conversion of va- 
 pours into liquids and of liquids into solids. See Heat. 
 
 LA'TERAL OPERATION. A surgical term applied to 
 one of the methods of cutting for the stone. 
 
 LA'TERAN. A church at Rome, the Pope's see, and the 
 metropolitan of the whole world, dedicated to St. John La- 
 teran. The name is derived from the Roman family of the 
 Laterani, who possessed a palace on this spot, which was 
 seized by Nero, and became from his time an imperial resi- 
 dence. The Lateran palace was given by Constantine to the 
 popes (see Mitotan's Hist, of Christianity, ii., 361), who con- 
 tinued to inhabit it until the.' retirement to Avignon, when 
 it was exchanged for the Vatican. The building was then 
 convened into a church. Eleven councils have been held 
 in the Basilica of this name 'hence styled Lateran councils 
 in ecclesiastical history), of which four are considered by 
 the Roman Catholics to be general. The last of these (or 
 the 12th General, according to the same computation) is the 
 most celebrated. It was held in 1215 by Innocent III., and 
 is principally famous a9 establishing the Roman Catholic 
 doctrine of the Eucharist, using for the first time the term 
 transubstantiation for the change of the elements. This 
 council was convoked on the occasion of the heresy of the 
 Albigenses, and its exposition of the Catholic faith is direct- 
 ed principally against them. It established also some canons 
 for the maintenance of discipline among the clergy, and that 
 (omnis utriusque sexus) which enforces confession and com- 
 munion upon all the faithful at least once a year. 
 
 LATERI'TIOUS. (Lat. later, a brick.) This term is 
 applied to the reddish sediment which is often deposited by 
 the urine. 
 
 LA'TEX. (Lat.) A term given to a peculiar fluid found 
 in certain vessels that have been discovered by Schultz to 
 be present in plants. It is as yet but little understood, but is 
 described by its discoverer as a peculiar secretion having a 
 rapid vital motion, and containing numerous granules of or- 
 ganizable matter. He supposes it to be analogous to the 
 blood in cold-blooded animals. What is usually denomi- 
 nated the milk of plants appears to be latex. 
 
 LATH. (Sax. Iffitta.) In Architecture, a thin cleft piece 
 of wood used in slating, tiling, and plastering. There are 
 two sorts of laths, single and double ; the former being barely 
 a quarter of an inch, whilst the latter are three eighths of 
 an inch thick. Pantile laths are long square pieces of fir on 
 v/hich the pantiles hang. 
 
 LATHE. A Saxon territorial division, of which the ety- 
 mology is uncertain. Kent is the only county divided into 
 lathes, each of which contains four or five hundreds. Each 
 644 
 
 LATITUDE. 
 
 was originally under the jurisdiction of a lathereeve, subor- 
 dinate to the sheriff" of the county. Lathe is also the nume 
 of a well-known instrument or engine used in turning wood, 
 ivory, or other materials. 
 
 LATH FLOATED AND SET FAIR. In Architecture, 
 three-coat plasterer's work; in which the first is called 
 pricking up, the second floating, the third or finishing is done 
 with fine stuff". 
 
 LATH LAID AND SET. In Architecture, two-coated 
 plasterer's work ; except that the first is called laying, and is 
 executed without scratching, unless with a broom. When 
 used on walls, this sort of work is generally coloured ; when 
 on ceilings, it is white. 
 
 LATH PLASTERED, SET, AND COLOURED. Ir. 
 Architecture, the same as lath laid, set, and coloured. 
 
 LATH PRICKED UP, FLOATED, AND SET FOB 
 PAPER. The same as lath floated and set fair. 
 
 LA'TICLAVE. (Lat. latus clavus.) The broad stripe 
 which Roman senators and patricians were privileged to 
 wear on their robe. 
 
 LATI'SSIMUS DORSI. A broad muscle of the back 
 which pulls the os humeri downwards and backwards, and 
 assists in its rotatory motion. 
 
 LATITUDE (Lat. latitudo. breadth), in Geography, sig- 
 nifies the distance of a place (rom the equator, expressed in 
 degrees of the earth's circumference ; or it is the angle which 
 a line perpendicular to the horizon of any place makes with 
 the plane of the earth's equator. In Astronomy, the term 
 latitude, as applied to a celestial body, has a different signi- 
 fication, and means the distance of the body from the eclip- 
 tic, or plane of the earth's orbit. The term declination is 
 applied to denote the angle corresponding to terrestrial lati- 
 tude ; namely, the distance of a star or planet from the plane 
 of the earth's equator. This double signification of the term 
 is extremely unfortunate, as it tends to create a confusion of 
 ideas ; but having been introduced by the early astronomers, 
 and being ingrafted into every existing work on the science, 
 it is now too late to remedy the evil. 
 
 Latitude and longitude being the co-ordinates by which 
 the positions of places on the terrestrial surface are defined, 
 their determination forms the most important application Of 
 astronomy. 
 
 In order to give an idea of the methods of finding the lati 
 tude of a place, or of a ship at sea, it is necessary to recall 
 some of the elementary properties of the sphere. Let H H' 
 be the horizon of a spectator placed at , z 
 
 C ; C P the direction of the axis of the ?\— h- 
 
 earth's rotation ; and C Z the direction E<^ 
 of the zenith, or perpendicular to the / N. 
 
 horizon. Let C E be drawn perpen- Hi \- 
 
 dicular to C P, in the plane determined c 
 
 by the straight lines C P and C Z, or the plane of the merid- 
 ian ; then C E is the intersection of the planes of the equator 
 and meridian ; the semidiameter of the earth being neglected 
 as infinitely small in comparison of the distances of the stars, 
 to which C P, C Z, and C E are supposed to be prolonged. 
 
 Now, by the definition, the angle E C Z is the latitude of 
 C ; and it is this angle, therefore, which is to be determined. 
 The observer always knows his zenith by the direction of the 
 plumb-line ; but there is no visible mark in the heavens by 
 which he can at all times determine the place of the equator, 
 or the position of E in the meridian, or even the meridian 
 itself. But the angles E C P and Z C H being each, right 
 angles, E C Z is equal to P C H ; that is to say, the latitude 
 of the place is equal to the height of the visible pole. Now 
 the pole is a fixed point in the heavens, and its position (in 
 the northern hemisphere) is indicated nearly by a star, called 
 the pole star, or polaris, which describes a small circle of 
 the sphere within 1° 40' of it. By observing, therefore, the 
 height of the pole star at anyplace, an approximation to the 
 latitude will be obtained within 1° 40* of its true value. But 
 this approximation is very far from being sufficient for any 
 useful purpose. 
 
 The places of the principal stars being given in the existing 
 catalogues, the observed altitude of any one of them at the 
 time it passes the meridian will give the latitude of the place. 
 Let S be a star on the meridian, and S P its polar distance in 
 the catalogue, and let its altitude H' S be observed ; then 
 H' S being known, S Z, the zenith distance, is also known ; 
 and S P being also known, we have S P— S Z = Z P, the 
 complement of the latitude. In like manner, the latitude 
 maybe found by observing the meridional altitude of the sun, 
 or moon, or a planet, the declinations of all these bodies at 
 any time being known. But, though all the methods are 
 equally good in theory, they are not all equally practicable, 
 and some of them give a result attended with much greater 
 uncertainty than others. The following are those which are 
 chiefly employed : 
 
 1. By observing the altitude, or, which comes to the same 
 thing, the zenith distance, of a star on the meridian. This 
 is the simplest in practice, requiring only a single observa 
 tion, and no other correction than for refraction. 11 is, ao 
 

 LATITUDINARIANS. 
 
 cordingly, generally employed for common geographical pur- 
 poses. When the sun or planets are the bodies observed, 
 corrections must also be applied for the semidiameter of the 
 body and for the parallax. At sea the bodies selected are 
 the sun and moon, the observation of a star or planet being 
 difficult on account of the motion of the vessel. To know 
 when a heavenly body is on tiie meridian, it is necessary to 
 have a pretty accurate knowledge of the time ; but it may be 
 remarked that near the meridian the altitude varies very 
 slowly, and therefore a small error in respect of the time 
 does not much affect the result. 
 
 2. By the altitudes of the circumpolar stars (those which 
 never go below the horizon of the place) at their upper and 
 lower transits. If the altitude of a star on the meridian us 
 observed both above and below the pole, the sum of the two 
 • lliludes is equal evidently to twice the height of the pole, 
 or twice the latitude. The only correction required is for 
 refraction, which is not the same in the two observations. 
 
 3. The latitude may also be found by observing tiie great- 
 est and least meridian altitudes of the sun in the course of a 
 year. The sum of the altitudes of the sun at the summer 
 mid winter solstices is equal to twice the height of the equa- 
 tor, or twice the complement of the latitude; but this method 
 
 ■ ,ng observations to be made at an Interval of six months, 
 ■in bad recourse to excepting in fixed observatories. 
 
 4. All the preceding methods suppose the body observed 
 to be on the meridian; but ibis condition, though it renders 
 some calculation unnecessary, is not indispensable. The 
 latitude may be determined by the observed altitude of a 
 body out of tiie meridian ; and, indeed, with more certainty, 
 because several observations may be made successively, the 
 
 of which will give a surer result than a single merid- 
 ional observation. Let P be the 
 pole, 8 the place of the star or planet, 
 and S Z Us observed zenith distance, 
 or the complement of its observed 
 altitude. In the triangle P S Z, P B, 
 the polai distance of the star, is 
 known ; S Z is given by observation j and the hour angle 
 Z P,S is given, because the time of the observation is sup- 
 posed to be exactly known; therefore 1* Z, the co-latitude, 
 may be found by the solution of a spherical triangle. This 
 method, however, can only be successfully applied by ob- 
 serving in :ir the meridian, and some artifices of analysis are 
 required to adapt the trigonometrical formula to calculation. 
 A method has lately been proposed by Professor Littrow, of 
 Vienna, tor determining the latitude by Beans of observa- 
 tions of the pole star off the meridian, which is found to be 
 ofgxnl practical utility. 
 
 .>. The last method which are shall notice for finding the 
 latitude is one that has bean proposed by Basest, and con- 
 i observing the eastern and western passages of a star 
 through the prime vertical; thai Heal plane nt 
 
 light angles to the meridian. When a transit instrument is 
 adjusted to move in this plane, and consequently has its hor- 
 izontal axis in the direction of the meridian, all the stars 
 which pass the meridian between the zenith and the equa- 
 tor will twice enter the field of the telescope. Now let t be 
 the time of the eastern transit, t' the time of the western 
 transit, i the declination of the star, it the latitude, and P the 
 diurnal arc corresponding to the time A (t — I') ; then the 
 •bniiulu by which the latitude is determined is 
 
 _ ^ tRn - & 
 
 tan. 4 = =; 
 
 r cos. P 
 
 The advantages of this method are, that the observations 
 may be made with a portable instrument, which can easily 
 lie oriented by means of the circumpolar stars ; a small error 
 in the adjustment will produce no sensible error in the re- 
 sult if the stars observed pass near the zenith ; the observa- 
 tions are altogether independent of errors in the division of 
 the instrument ; and in determining differences of latitude, 
 errors of declination are also eliminated by observing the 
 stars at all the stations. It is therefore a very conve- 
 nient method for a trigonometrical survey, 
 
 I.ATITUDINA'RIANS. In Bcci History', a class of 
 English divines in the reign of Charles II., opposed alike to 
 the high tenets of the ruling party in the church, and the 
 fanaticism which then distinguished so many of the Dis- 
 senters. They were, of course, the objects of much attack ; 
 and one of their number. Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester, ex- 
 plained their principles in his treatise entitled " The prin- 
 ciples and Practice of certain modern Divines of the Church 
 .?/ Kng'and. vulgarly called J.atitudinarians, truly repre- 
 sented and defended, by way of Dialogue. 1070." Henry 
 More, and the other Platonizing divines of the time, were 
 romelimes comprehended: under this appellation. (See 
 Mosheim, vol. v„ p. 412, transl., ed. 1790.) The word has 
 been since very generally used to designate those who hold 
 opinions at variance with the more rigid interpretation of 
 Bcriplure and church traditions, or merely as a term of party 
 Tituperation. 
 
 LAUREATE. 
 
 LA'TROBITE. A mineral found on the coast of Labrn 
 dor, and also in Finland. It is translucent, of a pale red 
 colour, and occurs both crystallized and massive. It is a 
 silicate of alumina with lime, potash, and oxide ot manga- 
 nese. 
 
 LA'TTEN. (Fr. laiton.) Brass or bronze. Tinned iron 
 is also sometimes known under this name. 
 
 LA'TUS RE'CTUM. In the Conic Sections, the same 
 with parameter. JLatus transversum, the same with the 
 transverse axis. Sec Conic Sections. 
 
 LAU'DANUM. (Supposed to be derived from Lat. 1 ins, 
 praise.) Different preparations of opium have been so 
 termed : the tinctures used formerly to be called liquid 
 laudanum. 
 
 LAUDICOENI (Lat.), among the Romans, were per- 
 sons who (like the modern claqueurs in France, or the puffers 
 in England at auctions) attended the performance of play:-, 
 and the delivery of orations, in order to raise or to join in 
 the acclamation. The derivation of the word would indi- 
 cate that an entertainment was the chief, if not the only 
 reward, which they obtained for their services. 
 
 LAUDS. (Lat. laudes, praises.) In the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church, the prayers formerly used at daybreak, between 
 those of "matins" and "prime." In later times they have 
 become generally confounded with " matin." 
 
 LAU'MONTTE. A variety of zeolite, named in honour 
 of its discoverer, Gillet-Laumont. Itcnunbles when exposed 
 to air in consequence (f loss of water. It is a silicate of 
 alumina and lime with M |>er cent, of water. 
 
 LAUNCH. The putting of a new vessel into the water. 
 When the vessel is to be launched, a frame called cradle is 
 built under her, thus: At about one third of the extreme 
 half breadth arc laid, on each side of the keel and parallel 
 to it, long pieces of timber, forming, as it were, two beats 
 under the principal portion of the vessel. On these are 
 placed vertical timbers meeting the ship's bottom, and main- 
 tained from slipping outwards by a strong plank or riband. 
 This apparatus, which is the cradle upon 
 
 a platform sloping to the water; these platforms lie called 
 the ways, and are greased. The blocks on which the keel 
 was laid being removed will) the shores, the vessel rests on 
 the Cradle, Which is kept from sliding down by a small piece 
 or bar of wood lived to it, lying nearly horizontal, abutting 
 against B place in the ways called the dog skorr, which, 
 struck downwards, falls, and the vessel slides down 
 into the water. U'hen alloa*, she is rolled from side to side 
 by the persons on board to disengnge the cradle. 
 
 Launch. A wide and flat boat, the largest carried by a 
 man-of-war. 
 
 LAURA'CEA^. (Laurus, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of arbor as, inhabiting the cooler parts of 
 
 the tropics and some temperate countries. They are distill 
 guished from all other incomplete npetnlous Exogena, ex 
 eepttng .'Itherospcrmacca, by the peculiar dehiscence of tin. 
 anthers, which open in consequence of the face of the valves 
 rolling back ; and from that order by the ovules being 
 pendulous, not erect. The species are generally tonic and 
 stimulant. Cinnamon and cassia are the produce of sonn , 
 camphor of others, and the common sweet bay is a frequent 
 instance of the order in the northern form. A few are so 
 aromatic that their seeds have been used at substitutes for 
 antDiejta 
 
 LAU'REATE. (Lat. laureatus.) Literally crowned with 
 laurels ; applied at present to a well-known officer in the 
 royal household. At the Certamina, or gymnastic and other 
 contests celebrated under the Roman emperors, especially 
 at the Cuinquatria, or Feast of ltinei < i con 
 
 tended, and the prize was a crown of oak or olive leaves. 
 But it wtis from some traditionary belief respecting the 
 coronation of Virsil and Horace with laurel In the Capitol 
 (of which, however, no record is extant) that the dignity of 
 poet laureate was invented in the 14th century, and con 
 (erred on Petrarch at Rome by the senator or supreme 
 magistrate of the city. It was intended to confer the same 
 honour on Tasso, who, however, died on the night before 
 the proposed celebration. In 1725 and 177G it was granted 
 to two celebrated improvisatori, the Signor Rufetti and the 
 Signora Morelli, better known by the name of Corilla (sec 
 Improvisator!). In most European countries the sovereign 
 has assumed the privilege of nominating a court poet with 
 various titles. In France and Spain these have never been 
 termed poets laureate ; hut tiie imperial poet, or Poeta Ce- 
 sareo, in Germany, was invested with the 'lurel. This 
 crown, however, was customarily given at tne universities 
 in the middle ages to such persons as took degrees in gram 
 mar and rhetoric, of which poetry formed a branch ; whence, 
 according to some authors, the term Baccalaurcatus (quod 
 vide) has been derived. In England traces of a stipendiary 
 poet royal are found as early as Henry III., and of a poet 
 laureate by that name under Edward IV. Skelton, under 
 Hen. VII. and VIII., was created poet laureate by the 
 universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and appears to havi 
 
 MS 
 
LAURINE. 
 
 iield the same dignity at court; but the academical and 
 court honour were distinct until the extinction of the uni- 
 versity custom, of which Henry VIII.'s reign exhibits the 
 last instance. 
 
 Royal poets laureate are supposed not to have began to 
 write in English until after the Reformation. The office 
 was made patent by Charles I., and the salary fixed at X'100 
 annually, and a tierce of Spanish Canary wine. Under 
 Queen Anne it was placed in the control of the lord-cham- 
 berlain. In the reign of George III. the annual tierce of 
 wine was commuted for an increase of salary, and at the 
 close of the same reign the custom of requiring annual odes 
 frpm the lord-chamberlain was discontinued. 
 
 LAURINE. A fatty matter of an acrid taste, contained 
 to the amount of about 1 per cent, in the berries of the com- 
 mon laurel. 
 
 LA'VA. The substances which flow in a melted state 
 from a volcano. They vary considerably in texture and 
 composition. See Geology. 
 
 LAVER. (Lat. lavo, to wash ; because washed by the 
 waters of the ocean.) A species of ulva which is eaten as 
 a delicacy. 
 
 LAW, in Latin Lex ; derived from the verb lego, I collect 
 or select. 
 
 Law, collective and particular. — We employ the term 
 " law" to denote a body of rules, or all the rules applicable 
 to a given subject ; e. g., the Roman Law, the Law of 
 Nature. We employ the term "a law" to denote an indi- 
 vidual rule. 
 
 The idea of law, in its strictest sense, comprehends the 
 notion of two parties ; a superior imposing it, and an inferior 
 obeying it. 
 
 Laws, improperly or metaphorically so called. — In com- 
 mon language it is usual to apply the word " law" to desig- 
 nate principles or properties which can only be thus named 
 by analogy. Whenever certain causes invariably or gen- 
 erally produce like effects, this consequence of effect upon 
 cause is popularly termed "a law." Thus we speak of the 
 law of nature with reference to inanimate or irrational sub- 
 jects ; of the law nf gravitation, by which bodier, tire 
 mutually attracted to each other; of the laws of motion; of 
 the laws which regulate certain processes in animal and 
 vegetable economy, &c. In this sense, laws have been 
 defined to mean " the necessary relations resulting from the 
 nature of things." The analogy is nobly expounded in a 
 well-known passage of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, at 
 the end of the first book. 
 
 Law defined. — Law, in its stricter sense, as applied to the 
 >• /Unitary actions of man, comprises the notion of a com- 
 mand issued by a superior imposing an obligation on a 
 subject. 
 
 I,aws, Divine and Human. — Laws are divided, according 
 to the superior who imposes them, into divine and human : 
 the law of God, and the law of man. 
 
 Divine Law. — The Author of our being has declared his 
 will to mankind at various times, through the instrumentality 
 of inspired prophets and teachers. There are also certain 
 rules of right and wrong commonly received, which are 
 generally supposed to have their origin in the nature of man, 
 and to subsist independently of God's revealed will. Thus 
 the term " divine" law signifies, 1. Revealed law ; 2. Natural 
 1 aw. 
 
 Revealed Law. — God, as the Lawgiver of the Jewish 
 nation, dictated to Moses a code of laws for that people, 
 comprising both a confirmation of such laws as are com- 
 monly considered natural by specific sanctions, and also 
 various minute ceremonial and social observances. Thus 
 the Jewish law is commonly said to consist of, 1. The 
 moral law; 2. The ceremonial law; :t. The civil or politi- 
 cal law. 
 
 Law of Christianity. — The second branch of revealed 
 law is that which is declared to us in the New Testament. 
 
 Law of Nature. — The law of nature, however extensive 
 in its philosophical meaning, is much more confined in that 
 sense in which alone it is within the province of jurispru- 
 dence. Regarding it as merely applicable to the relative 
 duties of men in a community, it is sufficient for practical 
 purposes to observe, with Grotius, that its first principle is 
 the sociability of man ; and, consequently, that the conser- 
 vation of society in its actual state, whether from the motive 
 of mutual distrust, as Hobbes maintained, or from innate 
 lienevolence, as his adversaries contended, is the duty which 
 it imposes on every one. 
 
 Let us suppose, therefore, that in a community such as 
 oar own there could occur at once a sus|>cnsion of all civil 
 l>ositive law, and that, at the same time, the sanctions of 
 God's revealed law could be withdrawn. Men would thus 
 be restored to a state of natural liberty. The natural law is 
 that code of duties which would then take the place of all 
 other legislation. Every act tending to injure our neighbour 
 in ]ierson and property, every act in any way tending to dis- 
 turb or impair the frame of society, would then be prohibited 
 616 
 
 LAW. 
 
 by natural law, as it now is prohibited by laws human and 
 divine. Undoubtedly the natural lnw, in the sense in which 
 it is commonly used, comprehends a far wider range of ob- 
 jects. The duties of personal holiness, the relative duties 
 of the members of a family, the duties of active benevolence ; 
 all these are dictated to us by conscience, as much as absti- 
 nence from positive injustice. But the province of jurispru- 
 dence is too limited to admit of the consideration of these 
 higher parts of morality ; it is with political society only that 
 she is concerned. 
 
 Law of Nations. — The principle of natural law between 
 individuals in a community wouia thus be the maintenance 
 of the status quo, or actual condition of things, and the en 
 suring to every one the continuance of all his possessions 
 This, therefore, is the elementary dogma of that only branch 
 of natural law which can be said to exist as a definite rule 
 of conduct, namely, the law of nations. Nations are in a 
 state of natural liberty with reference to other nations. P< ir, 
 since they have no earthly superior to establish rales for 
 thorn, and since the decrees of Christianity, addressed as 
 they are directly to individuals, have been generally dis- 
 carded in the practice of collective bodies, the only maxims 
 which govern their intercourse are certain conventional 
 arrangements, the object of which is the maintenance of the 
 existing society and intercourse between the subjects of dis- 
 tinct sovereign states. All the rules of national law have 
 this for their ultimate end. The natural law of men, to use 
 the phrase of Hobbes, teaches the absolute duties subsisting 
 between men and men ; the natural law of nations, those 
 subsisting between men in societies: or (in a compendious 
 definition), national law is the law of nature applied to in- 
 dependent states as if they were individuals. 
 
 The law of nations, according to the comprehensive ar 
 rangements of Mackintosh, comprises "the principles of 
 national independence, the intercourse of nations in peace. 
 the privileges of ambassadors and inferior ministers, the 
 commerce of private subjects, the grounds of just war, the 
 mutual duties of belligerent and neutral powers, the limits 
 of lawful hostility, the rights of conquest, the faith to be 
 observed in warfare, the force of an armistice, of safe con- 
 ducts and of passports, the nature and obligation of alliances, 
 the means of negotiation, the authority and interpretation 
 of treaties of peace." 
 
 But the law of nations, in its practical sense, widely dif- 
 fers from this extensive and philosophical compendium of 
 international duties. Many of the maxims which relate ta 
 the subjects here enumerated belong rather to the hlghei 
 province of morality than to that of jurisprudence. Tin 
 only punishment of which the sanction can be applied i: 
 this species of law is the hostility of otter states towards 
 that which violates it. Whoever, therefore, is powerful 
 enough, whether from his own strength or from petition and 
 alliances, to defy such punishment, is, in a certain sense. 
 above the law. Hence, although the law of nations, con- 
 sidered as a branch of that of nature, would lay down abso- 
 lute rules of conduct in the highest ;:s well as the lowest 
 matters of policy within its reach, it may safely be said thai 
 the law of nations as a body of recognised right extends only 
 to a portion, and that the least important, of these matters. 
 The only maxims which can be said to subsist as laws ere 
 those which are never or rarely violated by European states, 
 because the inconvenience of their general neglect would 
 overbalance the particular inconvenience of adhering to 
 them in a given instance. Thus all will acknowledge that 
 there is a wide difference, in point of preciseness and obliga 
 tion, between the principles which forbid unjust aggression 
 or severity towards the conquered, and those which prescribe 
 the privileges of ambassadors and the protection of peaceful 
 aliens. 
 
 The subjects to which national law is most strictly con- 
 fined are customary rules respected by the mutual consent 
 of nations, rarely infringed by the voluntary act of a sover- 
 eign power, and of which the infringement is considered to 
 require satisfaction and reparation. 
 
 It is to be observed, that although several of the maxims 
 of national law (such, for example, as the sanctity of the 
 persons of ambassadors) are usually held binding in trans- 
 actions with all nations of the globe, yet the great bulk of 
 its rules are only recognised and observed by the Christian 
 states of Europe and America in their dealings with each 
 other. 
 
 National law (from its defective sanction, and want of a 
 sovereign legislator as to its details) may, perhaps, be mc re 
 properly termed the custom than the law of nations. 
 
 The reduction of the law of nations to a system was firsi 
 made by Grotius, in a work which, as Sir J. Mackintosn 
 has well observed, though we now, indeed, justly deem i; 
 imperfect, is perhaps the most complete that the world has 
 yet owed, at so early a stage in the progress of any science, 
 to the genius and learning of one man. To him succeeded 
 Puffendorf ; who, avoiding the inconvenient and unscientific 
 method of Grotius, has, to use the words of the statesman 
 
LAW. 
 
 a.ready quoted, without the genius of his master, and with 
 very inferior learning, yet treated the subject with sound 
 sense, with clear method, with extensive and accurate 
 knowledge, and with a copiousness of detail sometimes in- 
 deed tedious, but always instructive and satisfactory. But, 
 in addition to the works of these Illustrious authors, the rules 
 of national law are to be found, first, in the treatises of 
 several oilier author^ who are usually regarded as author! 
 ties, of whom Bynkerschoek (Opera Omnia, fol.. Lug. Bat., 
 1767; Engl, trans., fol., 1749), Vattel, Wicquefort, Ruther- 
 forth (Institutes, 177'J), Von Martens, and others, may be 
 condly, in the treaties which have been at different 
 
 ■ eluded between European states, especially those 
 of Westphalia, 1048; Utrecht, 171 3 ; Aix-la-Chapclle, 1743; 
 Paris, 1703 ; and Vienna, 1814. A pretty complete summary 
 Of the bibliography of this subject will be found in the intro- 
 ductory chapter of Mr. Manning's work on the Law of JVa- 
 ti/ms (1838 n lJr. YVbeaton on International Lam, 
 2 vol.-. Svo., Lond., 1836.) 
 
 The language of conventions and treaties lias frequently 
 
 nently to the revival of 
 
 fatten, and until the peace of Nimeguen (1679), the state 
 
 language ordinarily used was the Latin ; but since that 
 
 period it has chiefly given way to the French, which is now 
 
 commonly used between nations employing different lan- 
 
 in their publii 
 
 Positive ur .Municipal. — This is the term usually 
 
 d to distinguish law, in its ordinary sense (the ex- 
 
 f die will of the supreme power in a state), from 
 
 all the oilier species of law (improperly so called) with 
 
 which we have hitherto been occupied. It is called positive 
 
 ■ use established in the form of direct and definite 
 injunctions: municipal, from the Latin munuipium, a town 
 
 ■ I of privileges and local laws. 
 
 Positive law is •• a rale of civil conduct prescribed by tl.c 
 supreme power in a state." lilackstone adds, •'command- 
 ing what is riL'lit, and prohibiting what is Wrong." But as 
 that the njit commanded and (he wrong prohibited 
 acquire the character of right and wrong only from being 
 M eommanded and prohibited, the latter half of the defini- 
 
 body of regulations, usually adhered to by men iu their 
 
 eh other, but not commanded by the civil 
 
 power nor enforced by lawful punishment, is properly called 
 
 i custom; but Whan such regulations, whether set by men 
 
 other on a footing of equality, or by subordinate 
 
 lindiis Within the stale to individuals, can be enforced by 
 lawful punishment, the sovereign power allowing s\tch 
 punishment, the sovereign power thereby adopts the rcgu- 
 
 ■ nd they become laws in the strides! sense of the 
 W( id. 
 
 A law is also defined " a command of a political superior 
 obliging the subject to a particular comae of conduct." This 
 definition comprehends most of the civil institutions with 
 which jurisprudence is concerned, but it appears to exclude 
 some which are nevertheless within the province of that 
 • . For example, 
 
 1. Many laws are enacted to explain former laws, and 
 also to repeal former laws. Neither of these can he said, in 
 
 lo answer the definition of law which it 
 ■S a command, unless we mnnVVir them as re-enacting for- 
 mer commands, x!. The Roman jurists applied the term 
 '• laws of Imperfect obligation" to certain enactments of their 
 law prescribing particular conduct, but without any penalty 
 iressed in the event of their violation. These were 
 uands, not being enforced, and could not be said to 
 oblige the subject, who was at liberty to escape the obliga- 
 tion. Our laws recognise no such rules as these. If a statute 
 enjoins or prohibits an action without adding any express 
 penalty, the courts of justice presume that a violation of the 
 statute is punishable. Law, as the subject matter of juris- 
 prudence, is that which obliges the subject to a particular 
 course of conduct by general rules of action. This ex- 
 cludes — 
 
 1. Laws made to permit or restrain the acts of specified 
 individuals. Such were called by the Romans privilegia, 
 or, under the emperors, private rescripts ; in our law, private 
 acta of parliament. The sovereign body in the state, having 
 the power to repeal and modify its own enactments, can by 
 an expression of its will exempt particular persons from its 
 own injunctions, or can impose new duties on particular per- 
 nch decrees have all the force of law, but they do 
 n^t form a part of the general law of the country. 
 
 il. Laws made to suit a particular emergency, occasional 
 or particular commands, which are distinguished from gen- 
 eiai laws by their shorter duration. To exemplify this dif- 
 ference, it lias been said that, should a sovereign command 
 all his subjects to wear black as their ordinary dress, such a 
 command would be a law ; but should he order a general 
 i for a stated lime, such an order would not have 
 sufficient permanence to entitle it to that appellation. 
 
 Everv command given by n political superior is a law in 
 
 point of force ; but it is necessary to establish seme distinc 
 lion between occasional and general commands, as other 
 wise every direction of a public officer, every incidental 
 command of a military superior, must be considered ns a 
 law. An act lo suspend the collection of a duty for a given 
 time ; an order in council to admit bonded goods, or to issue 
 any temporary regulations respecting trade and commerce : 
 royal proclamations ; all these are familiar instances of the 
 species of occasional or particular commands. 
 
 Municipal law is commonly divided into two branches ; 
 that which concerns the public duties of individuals with 
 reference to the slate, and that which concerns the private 
 relations of individuals towards each other. The di\ ision 
 between these branches is not in all systems the same. Un- 
 der the old Germanic institutions, for example, most crimes 
 were considered as civil injuries only. 
 
 Laws, strictly so called, and forming the body of public 
 right in each separate stale, are to be found cither in codes 
 sanctioned by the authority of the state, or in decrees issued 
 and made public by such authority, or, finally, in certain 
 unwritten customs, to which that authority, by sanctioning 
 them, has given the force of law. 
 
 The code of law, under all Mohammedan governments, is 
 to be found wholly or In part in the Koran, which to Mo- 
 hammedans bears the character both of tevealed and civil 
 law. Those of the Hindoos, and many other nations, have 
 likewise the authority of an Imaginary religious sanction. 
 
 In Western Europe, the laws in force in most of its coun- 
 tries, although modified and republished by their several le- 
 gislatures, are in great men- ore founded on what is termed 
 the Roman law. This body of haw is principally declared 
 in the Pandects, Code, and Institutes of tin: Emperor Jus- 
 tinian ; but these contain only a digest of a small portion of 
 llie laws which prevailed in the ancient Roman empire. 
 
 The lloman Law. — "Inasmuch," to use the words of" our 
 own learned judge Lord Holt, "as the laws of all nations 
 are doubtless raised out of the civil law, as :-.ll governments 
 are sprung from the ruins of the Roman empire, ii must be 
 owned that the principles of our law- are borrowed from the 
 civil law, therefore grounded upon the same reason in many 
 The maimer in which the Roman 
 , Into me Jurisprudence of modern Europe may be 
 said to have been twofold : first, through the prevalence of 
 Roman usages, derived from the times of the empire, among 
 the population of various countries, especially that part of it 
 which was collected in towns ; secondly, through the efforts 
 cleslastlcs, who learned the civil law from the 
 Codex of Theodosius and from the works of Justinian, and 
 introduced it, as far as their authority extended, into such 
 branches of justice as they were permitted to administer. 
 and especially into their canon law, which the various prin 
 ces of Europe permitted to be binding, to a different extent 
 in different countries, upon their lay as well as clerical sub- 
 jects. Thus the Roman law is, in one sense, the oldest and 
 fundamental part of public right in many countries ; in an 
 other sense, it is a comparatively recent importation, altering 
 the character of their respective legislations. The lloman 
 law comprises what arc termed the Institutes, Pandects, 
 Code, and JVovcllce. (See these terms.) These have been 
 collected and separately published under the title of Corpus 
 Juris Civilis ; the best editions being those of Amsterdam 
 (8vo, 1664) for the text, and of Gothofred (folio, Paris, lfl88) 
 for the text and notes. The most elaborate modern work 
 on the history of the Roman law is that of Savigny. 
 
 It would be impossible, within our limits, to give the read 
 er any useful bibliographical notice on a subject which in 
 foreign countries has necessarily received such abundant at- 
 tention and illustration ; and English treatise writers on the 
 civil law are few, nnd of no great value, that law having 
 only existed among ourselves, as we have seen, in certain 
 limited departments. 
 
 Civil Law in England. — In England, while in the way 
 of ancient custom there are fewer vestiges of the civil law 
 than in any other of the provinces of ancient Rome, yet in 
 the way of ecclesiastical jurisdiction it has been wider 
 spread and continued longer in force than almost anywhere 
 else. 
 
 Although Britain was a highly civilized province, possess- 
 ing 140 cilies and towns in the time of the Romans, yet the 
 numbers and violence of her invaders, especially the Sax 
 ons and the Danes, appear to have extinguished almost ev 
 ery relic of her provincial customs and jurisprudence. It is 
 chiefly, therefore, to the clergy that we are to look for the 
 prevalence of the civil law in England, and it has been in- 
 troduced by them in several ways. 
 
 1. At the Norman invasion a considerable accession to 
 the numbers and influence of the spiritual body in England 
 took place. A century afterwards the discovery of the 
 Pandects rendered the study of jurisprudence familiar chiefly 
 among that body, who monopolized most of the learning and 
 e of the age. They introduced it Into England : 
 and, as the rude and simple justice of the Saxons was i"ud- 
 
 64 7 
 
LAW. 
 
 equate to meet the wants of the people, most of the early 
 lawyers, who were themselves chiefly ecclesiastics, sought 
 Ln the pagesvf their favourite works for principles to supply 
 the defects as they arose. Hence, in the works of Bracton, 
 ttritton, and Fleta (written expressly on the common law 
 of England ; that is, the customary law of the Saxons modi- 
 fied by extensive introduction of Norman usages), we find 
 constant reference, not only in spirit, but in words, to the 
 civil. The time during which the study of this latter was 
 most in vogue among English lawyers appears to have been 
 between the reigns of Stephen and Edward III. During the 
 greater part of that period a constant struggle was carried 
 on between the ecclesiastical lawyers, supported in many 
 cases by tho crown, and the popular party in favour of the 
 old customary right, which was defended by the temporal 
 nobility. Tho final victory of the common law, and its es- 
 tablishment as the rule of the land, except in particular cases, 
 ■nay be dated from the reign of Edward I. 
 
 2. The jurisdiction of the lord-chancellor of England is a 
 subject considered elsewhere. (Sec Chancery.) It is suf- 
 ficient here to observe that, as most of the chancellors un- 
 der the Plantngenet kings were ecclesiastics, and as the mat- 
 ters intrusted to their decision were such as the rules of the 
 common law did not apply to, they generally searched for 
 precedents in that of Rome, which has hence been largely 
 imported into one great branch of modern English law, 
 namely, Equity. 
 
 3. Iu some particular matters, the rules of the civil law 
 have always been allowed, by custom, to prevail in England. 
 These are, such as were taken cognizance of by the courts 
 of honour and chivalry, now fallen into disuse ; in the High 
 Court of Admiralty (see Admiralty) ; and in the courts of 
 the two Universities, which originally were ecclesiastical 
 bodies. 
 
 4. The chief influence of the civil law in England has 
 been through the canon law, which was founded upon it. 
 
 Law, Canon. — The rules which were framed by the 
 Christian Church for its own spiritual polity may be suppo- 
 sed to have had their origin in the very earliest periods of 
 Christianity itself; but all the authority and force which 
 they possessed could arise only from the mutual consent of 
 the faithful to be bound by them, until the establishment of 
 Christianity as a state religion entirely altered the character 
 of its spiritual constitution. The temporal jurisdiction, which 
 was then too liberally conceded to the bishops, together with 
 the legal force given by several emperors, Justinian in par- 
 ticular, to the canons of councils, gradually called into ex- 
 istence a new and independent body of legislation. 
 
 When the Western Empire had been overthrown, the 
 authority of the popes as temporal governors was by de- 
 grees confirmed in the city of Rome and the adjacent coun- 
 try. At the same time, the power of the ecclesiastical body 
 was increased and extended in other countries; and the rev- 
 erence attached to their authority gave to the spiritual cen- 
 sures with which they visited particular offences a greater 
 force than to the sanctions of the national law. Thus, be- 
 sides matters of church government, which were at first the 
 particular subject of the pontifical law, i' comprehended 
 within its purview numerous and importanf branches of the 
 civil law of persons and property. 
 
 About the year 1150, the various edicts then in force of the 
 several popes, together with the canons of councils, and the 
 authoritative declarations of fathers and doctors of the church, 
 were collected together by the monk Gratian, and reduced 
 into a volume called the Decretum, and considered as the 
 earliest authority in canon law. 
 
 In the next century, Pope Gregory IX. puhlished five 
 books of Decretals, collected from the Decretal Epistles of 
 the Pope ; to which Boniface VIII. added a sixth book, about 
 the end of the same century. To these were added, at sub- 
 sequent periods, the Clementine Constitutions, a seventh 
 Book of Decretals, and a Book of Institutes. The whole of 
 these authorities were collated and published by Gregory 
 XIII. in 1580, under the title of Corpus Juris Canonici. 
 
 In matters of evidence, and as far as practicable in the 
 forms of proceeding, the compilers of the canon law founded 
 their system upon that of Rome, with which they were best 
 acquainted. In all such matters of civil jurisdiction as their 
 legislation embraced, they likewise assumed it as the basis 
 of their structure. By the practice of all ecclesiastical courts, 
 the civil law is allowed to come in aid of, and to supply the 
 canon law, in all such cases as are there omitted. The sub- 
 jects of the canon law were, 1. The hierarchy and govern- 
 ment of the church ; 2. All things relating to pious uses; 3. 
 The wills of defuncts, the guardianship of orphans, and mat- 
 ters of marriage and divorce. But it was by no means per- 
 manently received, in most European countries, to its full 
 extent. Its jurisdiction only subsisted by the toleration of 
 princes, and therefore varied, according as the superstition 
 or piety of these sovereigns, or their jealousy of ecclesiasti- 
 cal usurpation, alternately predominated. But, upon the 
 whole, its authority became so deeply rooted, that even in 
 
 countries which have rejected in la er times the authority 
 of the pope, its rules are still referred to, not merely in niot- 
 ters relating to church benefices, but also in some cases of 
 purely civil jurisdiction. 
 
 Nevertheless, although in early times its authority was 
 asserted by the popes on the ground of their temporal su- 
 periority over all earthly sovereigns, its force in every coun- 
 try must now be said to depend upon the will of the state, 
 which gives the force of law to its provisions. 
 
 It is supposed that the decrees and canons of the Church 
 of Rome were adopted in this country so early us A.D. 80S, 
 shortly after the introduction of Christianity among the Sax- 
 ons ; but they were not fully recognised by the state until 
 after the Norman conquest. The bishops, who had in Saxon 
 times sat with the sheriffs and landed proprietors in the 
 county courts, then withdrew from participation with tlM> 
 execution in civil government. Fron« that period the power 
 of the bishops made rapid strides, insomuch that they have 
 succeeded in retaining many branches of jurisdiction of 
 which in other countries the temporal power has deprived 
 them. In addition to the general canon law, we have in 
 England a particular provincial law — the constitutions of 
 the papal legates and councils of this country in 1237 and 
 1209 ; and a farther body of constitutions, framed in provin- 
 cial synods under the authority of successive archbishops of 
 Canterbury, from Stephen Langton in 1222, to Archbishop 
 Chichele in 1414, and adopted subsequently by the province 
 of York. These constitutions have been illustrated by the 
 commentaries of distinguished ecclesiastics, and principally 
 those of Lyndwood, who flourished in the reigns of Henry 
 V. and VI. The canons of the Protestant Church passed in 
 the Convocation of A.D. 1003, although ratified by King 
 James I. for himself and his successors, yet do not (as Lord 
 Mansfield finally decided) bind the laity, except so far as 
 they declare the older provisions of the law. The most 
 standard work on English Ecclesiastical Law is Gibson's 
 Codex Juris Anglicani. The best guides for the student 
 are the treatise of Dr. Burn, and the recent one of Mr. Rogers 
 (1840). 
 
 Law of England, Common Law. — This expression is used 
 in two different senses, according to the subject under con- 
 sideration. We speak of the common law in contradistinc- 
 tion to the civil law or to equity, meaning a certain portion 
 of our laws relating to a definite subject matter, and admin- 
 istered in courts following particular rules of evidence and 
 modes of procedure. We also, by the common law, some- 
 times mean the unwritten or ancient customary law : in this 
 sense it is opposed to the statute law, which is of positive 
 enactment. 
 
 The constitution and laws of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors 
 have been the subject of innumerable theories and contra- 
 dictory systems since the ingenuity of modern times has 
 been applied to their investigation; but all the efforts of the 
 learned have gone no farther than to establish the existence 
 of a few principles and customs, common, for the most part, 
 to the Germanic tribes in general. The leaders of the Sax- 
 ons emulated each other in assuming the kingly dignity in 
 every district of the island, and endeavoured, as far as the 
 independent spirit of their followers would allow, to adopt 
 the imperial style and legislative powers which the British 
 kings had derived from the provincial tyrants of the empire, 
 and these from the Cossars. The vanquished population lost 
 its language and rights, and became bond to the invaders. 
 These divided the land among them as partitioners equal in 
 rights, on the system called allodial, or granted benefices to 
 their dependants ; and hence arose the principles of feodaU- 
 ty. But for centuries England was one battle-fluid between 
 the several clans of Saxons who had usurped Ik r dominion : 
 Mercia, Wessex, and Northumberland were divided in law 
 and custom scarce less than in government ; and when the 
 island had at last fallen under the dominion of a prevailing 
 Saxon dynasty, the invasion of the Danes i^ain mixed and 
 adulterated her blood and her institutions Edward the 
 Confessor reduced the customs of the country into some- 
 thing resembling a system of law ; and, aithoiigh his enact- 
 ments are lost, it is to his reign that we must look for the 
 most authentic form of Saxon polity. The king was guided 
 and controlled in his deliberations by the witnn, or chief 
 men, assembled in the gemote, or meeting; but their relative 
 power and that of the sovereign vaned according to tht 
 strength or weakness of the latter. Tne body of landhold 
 ers held their lands by an independent tenure, which cus 
 torn, rather than law," had rendered hereditary ; but thei\ 
 were many who held benefices or enjoyed land under per 
 sonal grants from the king, or from the great earls, who had 
 succeeded the aldermen of the early Saxon times, or from 
 the thanes or inferior nobility. Great part of the land was 
 cultivated in common by the people of hamlets and tythmra 
 Justice was administered in the county courts, where tb>. 
 good men or land-owners assembled, and the bishop «nd 
 sheriff presided. Questions of property were decidea by 
 ordeal, or by a tribunal of sworn witnesses. In criminal as 
 
LAW. 
 
 well as civil cases the defendant sometimes freed himself 
 by the oath of compurgators, or wager of law, as it was 
 called when adopted by the Normans. The inhabitants of 
 district were mutual guarantees by the custom of 
 frankpledge, which was founded on two principles: the one, 
 the liability of the lord or superior for the appearance of his 
 i ; tlie other, the collective responsibility of the tything, 
 cr hundred, for all its individual members; which was not 
 prevalent in all England, and entirely unknown in the north- 
 ern ahli 
 
 By ihe Norma* conquest, and the division of the better 
 portion of England between Norman proprietors holding in 
 chief of the crown, the feudal system of law, as regarded 
 land and its Incidents, was early introduced into the country. 
 Other portions of Norman jurisprudence were imported at a 
 later period through the medium of the king's courts; which, 
 being at first confined in jurisdiction to the domains of the 
 crown, gradually supplanted the old Saxon courts, although 
 long continued to be governed by their national law. 
 
 The three great institutions in which English law (Mere 
 from that of oilier countries — the parliament ; the system I f 
 tenures and their incidents, on which the law of real prop- 
 erty is founded ; and the trial by jury — may perhaps be said 
 to have beta founded on Norman jurisprudence, hut to have 
 become prevalent, through their analogy, to Saxon institu- 
 tions. See Parliament. 
 
 The first consequence of the invasion of the Normans 
 wbji, that ditlerenl model of trial Were prevnlcnt, according 
 to the nation to which the contending parties belonged. 
 Compurgation, or " wager of law," was the common mode 
 of decision between Englishmen. In criminal cases, it was 
 y by Ihe oath of eleven compurgators chosen out of 
 an array of fourteen. In civil suits, the amount of the com- 
 pBJgalhm required seems to have been regulated by the 
 value of iln- property claimed. To this peculiarly English 
 BWde of trial was added the wager of battle, which is first 
 named in the laws of the Conqueror, but which either French, 
 or English and French, might use. Inquest of witnesses was 
 a Norman mode of trial in civil cases, by which witnesses 
 were summoned from the neighborhood in which the 
 quarrel arose, to declare on their oath ihe truth concerning 
 the mailer in quesiion. Finally, the nncient proof of ordeal 
 subsisted in criminal cases. 
 
 vemity in the modes of trial was accompanied by 
 a diversity of judicature. The ancient county courts receiv- 
 ed one blow by the withdrawal of the bishops, who ceased 
 to preside in them, becoming chiefly foreigners, and who 
 gradually established, as before shown, a separate jurisdic- 
 tion of their own. A still more Important wound, In its 
 ;u. rices, was inflicted by the IncreaaUtg iiower and in- 
 fluence of the king's courts, at first only confined to causes 
 arising within ihe royal demesne, in which Ihe Norman 
 law ami modes of procedure were adopled, and in which 
 the machine of our own common law was gradually elabo- 
 rated by judicial ingenuity during successive centuries. 
 
 end b) commonly regarded as the founder 
 of the common law. His principal contribution towards it 
 consisted in his ordinance of the grand aarite ; justices in 
 eyre, or circuit justices of the king's courts, being appointed 
 to try causes by inquest of twenty- four witBeitsee, at the option 
 of the tenant or demandant, if either party preferred to pur- 
 >his mode of trial instead of the ordinary trial by battle. 
 Shortly alter his reign, Ihe Fourth Council of Eateran, by 
 alKilishing the ordeal (A.D. 1215), gave a new impulse to the 
 development of the jury system. Criminal cases were now 
 tried by a jury of witnesses de vicineto ; and the process by 
 which these witnesses, both in civil and criminal cases, be- 
 came converted into sworn judges of the fact, has never been 
 distinctly traced; but the intermediate steps had certainly 
 all been passed before the reign of Edward III., possibly be- 
 fore the death of the first monarch of lhat name. 
 
 If Henry the Second was the founder, Edward I. may 
 almost be regarded as the completer of the common law. 
 From his time to the present no chango has taken place in 
 er.il principles: all that subsequent reforms have ef- 
 fected has been to accommodate those principles to altered 
 circun \iid long may the spirit of these institu- 
 
 tions remain unchanged amid the march of improvement 
 — holding together, ns they now do, the mightiest commer- 
 cial community of the globe, with no less beneficial author- 
 ity than they exercised six hundred years ago over the 
 birons, peasants, and burghers of a small feudal monarchy ! 
 
 The system of real property may be said to have been 
 fifed by the statute Quia Emptores, 18 Edw. 1. Before 
 that time we may consider the lands of England as having 
 been subject, in general, to the unrestricted feudal law. 
 All land was held, mediately or immediately, of the king. 
 The two classes of free proprietors were those who held 
 by the military service (of Norman introduction), and those 
 who held by the old Saxon custom, their property in their 
 lands being retained by them, subject only to acknowledg- 
 ment or fealty to the sovereign — a less honourable, but 
 
 probably a less burdensome tenure. But either of these 
 tenants might, in his turn, create fresh tenants under him, 
 yielding the same homage to him which he yielded to the 
 sovereign. Below these, the only two classes of tenants 
 recognised by the law were those who held of the king, or 
 mesne lords, by pure villenage, or absolute and base ser- 
 vice ; and by villein socage, which was also a base service, 
 but restricted to certain specified duties. From the tenure 
 of pure villenage have sprung our present copyhold tenures ; 
 by which certain lands are held within manors (which are 
 the old estates held in early times directly of the king) by 
 the will of the lord, as it is expressed in their grant, although 
 by long usage the will of. the lord is inexeiy nominal, and 
 the obligations of the tenant consist or.Ij in certain specified 
 rents and services. 
 
 The object of the statute Quia Empt wet was to restrain 
 the creation of fresh subordinate estates, by declaring that it 
 any one alienated his land by sale or feoffment (which pur 
 ported to convey it in perpetuity) the feoffee should hold 
 the same, not of the feoffor, but or the feoffor's lord, wheth- 
 er a mesne lord or the king himself. Heme all manors 
 must have existed prior to the reign of Edward the First; 
 • ntial that there should be In them tenants who 
 hold of the lord, and such tenancies could not have been 
 created at a later period. 
 
 When alienation of lands and tenements was made in 
 early Norman times, the alienation was either to the donee 
 and his heirs forever — thus giving him an absolute unre- 
 stricted property, descendible to his heirs, whether male or 
 female, subject only to his homage to the donor ; in other 
 words, a fee-simph ■•; or it was upon condition — as, for in- 
 stance, a grant to a donee, provided he had issue; under 
 which grant, if the donee died without Issue, or his Issue 
 came to fail, the land would revert to the donor. The con 
 ditional donee's had devised, Willi the assistance of the 
 king's judges, various ingenious methods of defeating these 
 provisions ; as by aliening as soon ns they had issue, and 
 then repurchasing the fee-simple. It was to fix the law < f 
 conditional gifts that the statute De Uonis, 13 Fdw. I, was 
 passed: by which such a donee was absolutely prevented 
 from aliening the tenements. Hence arose • •■ ' 'is in fee- 
 tail ' : in other words, estates granted to a man and to certain 
 specified heirs ; for example, the heirs male' of his body. In 
 after limes, when the restraint on alienation which this 
 statute created began to be repugnant to the more liberal 
 feelings of the people, certain devices were invented (lines 
 and recoveries;, whereby the donee in tall was enabled to 
 bar the entail and acquire the fee-simple, as he could have 
 done before this statute was passed. 
 
 Besides these famous statutes, we find the reign of Ed- 
 ward I. distinguished by the confirmation of Magna Chnrtn 
 nnd the Charter of Forests. The first of these gieat consti- 
 tutional nets contains few provisions of much Importance 
 in local history, and was far more valuable as an evidence 
 Of the spirit 01 the country In restraining arbitrary usurpa- 
 tions, than, ns is commonly supposed, by establishing any 
 new franchises', or even confirming ancient ones. Perhaps 
 its most Important legal effect was the fixing to the city of 
 Westminster the court of Common Pleas, which had for- 
 merly caused the suitors much inconvenience by following 
 the person of the king in his numerous progrt 
 
 It is also to Edward the First's reign that we must refer 
 for the distinct definition of the province of that court, and 
 of the other two superior common law courts of record, the 
 King's Bench and Exchequer. The history of these three 
 courts is far too intricate, and requires too much explana- 
 tory statement, to find a place in these pages. It must suf- 
 fice to observe, that the King's Bench is ihe nncient Aula 
 Iiegia, in which the king was supposed, as by fiction of law- 
 he still is, to sit in person, and which followed him in all 
 his progresses, insomuch that in the reign ofEdwardI.it 
 actually sat in Scotland. Its jurisdiction consequently ex- 
 tends to all matters which are of the king's prerogative : it 
 took cognizance of criminal causes on the crown side, and 
 of civil causes ; at first those in the result of which tho 
 king was interested, and by a fiction all personal actions 
 whatever. It was likewise a court of appeal from all in 
 ferior courts of records. The court of Common Pleas, or 
 Common Bench, had, in strictness, jurisdiction in all civil 
 causes between subject and subject. In this court only real 
 actions, in which the right to land is tried — now nearly fall- 
 en into disuse (see Pleading), but anciently the most im- 
 portant part of judicial business — could be adjudicated. 
 The court of Exchequer was intended to recover the king's 
 debts, and ordinary revenues of the crown. It acquired in 
 process of time a jurisdiction over common personal actions, 
 by the fiction of the complaining parly being a debtor to the 
 king ; nnd also an equitable jurisdiction, similar in form to 
 that of the chancellor's court. 
 
 The equitable jurisdiction of the chancellor had probably 
 commenced long before the reign of Edward I., (see Chan 
 cery), and before his reign the oricinal writs, by which nc 
 
 649 
 
LAW. 
 
 lions were commenced, had been sued out or obtained in 
 the chancery ; the clerks of which, like the pontifical fra- 
 mers of the actiones among the Romans, had the monopoly 
 of drawing up these magical instruments. In the reign of 
 Edward I. (by Statute of Westminster the Second, 13 Edw. 
 1), an important change was made in this branch of law, 
 by authorizing the clerks to frame writs adapted to particu- 
 lar cases which the old forms did not adequately suit. 
 Hence originate our modern actions of trespass on the case. 
 
 ScePLEAWNG. 
 
 From the same statute the modern judges of assize and 
 nisi prius (see Nisi Prius) are chiefly derived. These 
 were originally occasional commissioners, sent down into 
 the counties to deliver the jail of prisoners, or to try civil 
 causes. By this statute the commission was first directed 
 to be given to the king's justices, associated (as they still 
 are in form) with one or two discreet knights of the county. 
 The commission of assize is, strictly speaking, a commission 
 to try disputes respecting land wherein the writ of assize 
 (which dates, as before stated, from Henry II.) was brought 
 — now fallen into disuse. The commission of nisi prius 
 originates in what may now be called a legal fiction. When 
 the pleadings in an action in the superior courts (see Plead- 
 ing) are concluded, and an issue of fact is taken between 
 the parties, the issue is appointed, by the entry on the record 
 or written proceedings, to be tried by a jury from the county 
 in which the proceedings arise, at Westminster, unless before 
 the day appointed (nisi prius) the judges shall have come 
 to the county in question. Besides these commissions, the 
 same judges try criminal cases by virtue of a commission of 
 the peace, in which they are associated with the justices of 
 the county ; a commission of oyer and terminer, to hear and 
 determine all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors ; and a 
 commission of general jail delivery, to try and deliver 
 every prisoner who shall be in the jail at their arrival in 
 the county. 
 
 Having referred to the reign of Edward I. as the period un- 
 der which a general sketch of our old common law might 
 be most advantageously presented, we proceed to notice 
 very briefly the chief alterations which mark its subsequent 
 history. These alterations can be easily ascertain, ,vher j 
 they were caused by the highest legal authority — by the 
 parliament of the nation. But far greater changes have 
 been wrought by the silent course of the tribunals — by the 
 discretionary power which our judges have assumed to ex- 
 tend the remedies, which they were authorized to admin- 
 ister, to cases unprovided for by earlier law, which either 
 the ingenuity of practitioners, or, in many more instances, 
 the increasing wants and more intricate relations of life 
 had called into existence. To trace such alterations is as 
 impossible as to note, day by day, the increase of stature by 
 which the child grows into the man. Often, in laboriously 
 investigating the history of our English jurisprudence, we 
 are surprised when we look back, after perusing the events 
 of a generation or a century, to the state of things as it ex 
 isted at the beginning of that epoch, and find that although 
 we cannot with all our diligence detect in its history the oc- 
 currence of any external changes in the subject on which 
 our minds are fixed, yet the same forms, the same modes 
 and circumstances present themselves to our eyes under a 
 totally different aspect and character. 
 
 The reigns of Henry II. and HI. are principally remarka- 
 ble for the gradual substitution of the king's justices of the 
 peace for the various elective magistrates who exercised 
 the several duties of that office before. It was in the reign 
 of the latter prince also that the parliament is supposed to 
 have finally acquired its present form. Under the success- 
 ors of the Edwards, and during the wars of the fifteenth 
 century, small accessions were made to the general bulk of 
 English law; but during those times very great changes 
 were silently taking place in the disposition of property by 
 means of the invention of Uses, borrowed from the civil 
 law. This extensive and most important subject will be 
 found briefly treated of under the head of Chancery. 
 
 The laws of Henry VII. had principally in view the ben- 
 efit of his exchequer ; and hence various more compendious 
 modes of enforcing justice against delinquents who might 
 be liable to fine, date from his reign — methods which in un- 
 just times were oppressive and arbitrary, although now use- 
 ful instruments in the hands of justice. Such was the pro- 
 ceeding by information, instead of indictment, in various 
 cases on behalf of the crown. The Statute of Fines, passed 
 in this reign, confirmed and extended a mode already in use 
 of barring entails. Under his successor, whose reign forms 
 so important an epoch in political history, the laws of prop- 
 erly were very considerably modified by the two statutes of 
 Uses and Wills. (For the former, see Chancery.) The 
 latter rendered general the power of devising estates by 
 will The system of bankrupt laws also had its commence- 
 ment under Henry VIII. His daughter Elizabeth did not 
 add much to the essential and valuable parts of our statute 
 book ; but under her government the acts which restrained 
 650 
 
 the alienation of lands by ecclesiastical bodies were passed, 
 and also the celebrated statute respecting the poor, of which 
 the policy forms, even at the present day, a subject of such 
 ardent controversy. In the succeeding century, the reign 
 of James I. witnessed the first attempt to limit the period at 
 which actions and suits might be commenced ; and the first 
 statute of bankruptcy. But it is most remarkable for the 
 laborious attempt to systematize our ancient law by Sir E. 
 Coke, one of the most acute, if not philosophical jurists oi 
 any age or country. That of Charles II. forms the next 
 marked epoch in the history of our law, after those of Ed 
 ward I. and Henry VIII. His restoration was distinguished 
 by the abolition of feudal tenures and incidents, and the re- 
 duction of all the modes by which estates of inheritance 
 might be held (with few exceptions) to two only— freehold 
 and copyhold. The Statute of P'rauds, a necessary protec- 
 tion perhaps to unwary transactors of business, but a source 
 of endless litigation ; the statute which regulates the distri- 
 bution of the effects of intestates; and, finally, the celebra- 
 ted Habeas Corpus Act, which gave, or rather confirmed, 
 to every person imprisoned by any authority short of the 
 express and definite course of justice, the means of releasing 
 himself— are all productions of this reign. 
 
 The eighteenth century, while it gave rise to new views 
 and widely extended discussions on jurisprudence, did nut 
 in England produce much substantial alteration by statutory 
 enactment. It was rather a period of preparation for 
 change, in the political as well as the legal world, than of 
 actual reform. But it was distinguished by the learning 
 and acuteness of several judges who occupied the seats ol 
 justice during many years, and introduced, by the slow ex- 
 ertion of their own authority, a new spirit into institutions 
 of which the forms were preserved. 
 
 Recent years have introduced some material changes, of ] 
 which the effect has not yet been fully tried. Lord Ellen 
 borough and Lord Eldon had pursued the work of main- 
 taining and embellishing the old institutions ; succei 
 judges have at last assumed in some degree the character 
 of reformers. Sir Robert Peel's criminal statutes conferred - 
 a great benefit on the country, by removing many of the 
 technical difficulties incident to this branch of 1 iv 
 they did not materially affect its spirit, which, in the articla 
 of capital punishments, has been gradually moderated by a 
 succession of enactments, from the beginning of the teiav 
 of George III. until that of our present sovereign. Many ol 
 the artificial distinctions, grounded on obsolete reasons, * 
 which subsisted between the practice of the different com- < 
 mon law courts have been removed. The system of plead- 
 ing (see that article) has been very materially chani.Mil. 
 And in consequence of the general feeling in favour of local 
 courts of justice to administer redress in trifling disputes be- 
 tween parties at a distance from London, some extension 
 has been given to the authority of the sheriff's court, and 
 some local tribunals have been constituted. Lastly, the an- 
 cient usage of imprisonment on mesne process has been |< 
 abolished, and much additional power given in lieu of it to 
 the Insolvent Court over the property of debtors. 
 
 The term Common Law is ordinarily employed in two 
 different senses. In its legal signification it expresses the 
 old unwritten law, established by precedent, and custom ; 
 comprising, it has been said, " all recognised doctrines and 
 customs, however introduced, which are neither to be found 
 in the statute book, nor depend on the adjudication of courts 
 of equity." For this floating mass of legal principles our 
 ordinary sources are precedents, or decisions of common 
 law judges, as contained in published reports. Where 
 these fail us, reference may sometimes be had to more un- I 
 certain guides, the dicta of legal writers, or the general | 
 principle and tendency of our laws, for authority in deci- 
 ding a particular dispute. 
 
 In its popular sense, common law is opposed to equity 
 and ecclesiastical law ; and thus comprises the whole of 
 that law, both criminal and civil, which is administered in 
 courts having trial by jury, and all the other subjects which 
 are within the purview of the common law courts of West- 
 minster Hall, and of the various local jurisdictions of the 
 country (except so far as some of them exercise equitable 
 authority). It has been defined "the whole of that codf, 
 whether founded on statute, usage, or precedent, which is 
 now administered in the common law courts of Westmin- 
 ster Hall;" and this definition will comprehend the law 
 administered in the various local courts in question, as 
 these are bound to act on the decisions of the superior 
 courts. Its peculiar characteristic is, that questions of fact 
 arising out of its proceedings are submitted to the decision 
 of a jury. 
 
 It is, perhaps, not very easy to assign either the history or 
 the theoretical principles of the separation of equitv from 
 common law. The former was undoubtedly in the first in- 
 stance a jurisdiction of a remedial character, intended to 
 moderate, according to the conscience of the judge, the rig- 
 our of legal judgments; but this is a peculiarity which can 
 
 ' 
 
LAW, MARITIME. 
 
 scarcely be said to distinguish it in the present day. Its 
 rules are as accurately laid down by precedents as those of 
 the common law itself; but there are some subjects (as 
 trusts) which, having been created in frustration of the pro- 
 visions of the common law, are out of its cognizance. Over 
 these, courts of equity have an exclusive jurisdiction. There 
 ore others over which both equity and law have concurrent 
 jurisdiction. But the remedies applied by law to injuries 
 committed a e subject to certain inflexible rules. The pow- 
 er of a jury has limits from the very nature of the institu- 
 ticm. It eaii award a debt sought to'be recovered, or dama- 
 ges for an injury ; but it cannot modify the remedy accord- 
 ing to peculiar circumstances. Nor has it any means to en- 
 force a course of action other than by imposing damages for 
 neglecting it. To taken familiar instance: If A sues B at 
 law for breach of covenant, and judgment passes in favour 
 of A, all that a jury can do is to award damages to A for 
 the breach of contract; but equity can, by a process of its 
 own, compel B to a specific performance of the contract 
 under the penalties attached to a contempt of court. So, if 
 one of several joint contractors be liable, at law, for penal- 
 ties or debts incurred to respect of their joint undertaking, 
 his only legal remedy is by an action against each ; in equi- 
 ty, he can compel each of his partners to contribute to the 
 ixtent of their liability. 
 
 LAW. MARITIME. See Maritime Law. 
 
 I A W. MARTIAL, is proclaimed by authority of parlia- 
 ment, on an emergency of rebel and insurrec- 
 tion. It is properly the putting under the cognizance of 
 courts martial a great variety of subjects which by ordinary 
 military law do not appertain to them, to be tried in a sum- 
 mary way. Where martial law is proclaimed all military 
 persons, under all circumstances, are placed within its ju- 
 risdiction : even (heir debt! are subject to inquiry before a 
 military tribunal. It extends also to a varied of cases not 
 relating to the discipline of the army, and offences commit- 
 ted by non-militai ■■. plots against the so', 
 intelligence to the enemy, &.<\ The statute for putting into 
 ition martial law usually gives a power to arrest and 
 I persons, and to cruise them 
 to be brought . trial in o I immary manner by courts mar- 
 tial, and to execute the sentence of all such courts, wheth- 
 er of death or otherwise ; and declares, that no act done in 
 equence of tin oned in nny of 
 the king's ordinary courts of law, and that all who act un- 
 der the statute shall be te iponslble for their conduct only to 
 such courts martial. 
 
 LAW, MILIT UtV, is, properly, that law which is ad- 
 ministered by courts martial, under the authority of parlia- 
 ment and the Mutiny Act, annually passed, together with 
 the Articles of War. See CouXTS Martial. 
 
 LAWN'. (1'r. linon.) A line variety of cambric, for- 
 merly exclusively manufactured in Flanders. Of late the 
 lawn manufacture of Scotland and of the north of Ireland 
 has been brought to rival that of the Flemish weavers. 
 
 Lawn. In Gardening, a surface of grass or turf in pleas- 
 ure erounds kept smoothly mown. 
 
 LAW \TI Vi: (Lai Inxare, to loosen), a gentle aperient 
 med i to cathartics, which are drastic pur- 
 
 gative-. 
 
 LAY. (Probably the same word with the German lied, 
 song.) The lyric poems of the old French minstrels, or 
 trouvercs, were termed lais ; but the title appears, in mod- 
 em usage, to be peculiarly appropriate to narrative poems, 
 or serious subjects of moderate length in simple style and 
 light metre. 
 
 Lay. In Agriculture. See Lea. 
 
 LAV BROTHERS. Persons received into convents of 
 monks, under the three vows, but not in holy orders. The 
 Introduction of this class of devotees appears to have begun 
 in the 11th century. They are dressed somewhat different- 
 ly from the other monks or brothers of the choir, and often 
 employed in the manual exercises necessary for the uses of 
 •v the community. The Carthusian and Cistercian orders are 
 ™ said to have first recognised the distinction, and their exam- 
 ple was followed by the other orders. The same distinction 
 exists in monasteries of females between the nuns properly 
 so called and the lay sisters, or sisters converse. 
 
 LAV ELDERS. In Presbyterian churches, ministers of 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not ordained as clcrgvmen, who 
 assist the pastor in each congregation. (See Presbyte- 
 rians, Kirk.) The divines of that persuasion rest the ap- 
 pointment of lay elders in some measure on that of pres- 
 byters "in every city," by Paul and Barnabas, who, they 
 imaeir.e, from the manner in which they are mentioned, 
 could not have been all preachers. (Sec Hooker, Eccl. 
 Pol., b. vi.) 
 
 LAYERS. In Gardening, a mode of propagating plants 
 by laying down shoots, and covering a portion of them with 
 •oil, so that the extremity of the shoot is left above ground, 
 and the afaoo) itself not detached from the plant. In order 
 to facilitate the rooting of such layers, the portion of the 
 
 LEAD. 
 
 shoot buried in the soil is fractured by twisting or bruising, 
 or cut with a knife immediately under a bud. This opera- 
 tion, by obstructing the return of the sap from the leaves, 
 occasions its accumulation at the wounded part, when 
 roots are there produced from the effort of nature to perpel 
 uate life. 
 
 LAVING. In Architecture, the first coat on lath of 
 plasterer's two-coat work, the surface whereof is roughed by 
 sweeping it with a broom; the difference between laying 
 and rendering being that the latter is the first coat upon brick 
 
 LAYMAN. (Gr. Xuikos ; from \aos, people.) The appel- 
 lation by which the rest of the community are distinguished 
 from the clergy. (See Laity.) — Layman, or lai/j^ 
 among painters, signifies a small statue, whose joints are so 
 formed that it may be put into any attitude for the purpose 
 of adjusting the drapery of figures. 
 
 LA'ZAR HOUSE, or LAZARETTO. (Ital) A public 
 building in the southern European states, of the nature of 
 an hospital, for the reception of the poor and those afflicted 
 with contagious disorders. In some places lazarettoes are 
 set apart for the performance of quarantine ; in which osse 
 only those are admitted who have arrived from countries 
 infested by the plague, or suspected of being so. Howard's 
 well known account of the principal lazarettoes of Kurope 
 furnishes the most detailed and interesting particulars of 
 these establishment--, and to it we refer the reader for full 
 information. 
 
 LA'ZAJUSTS. U Ecclesiastical History, a body of mis 
 siouaties founded by St. Vincent de Ptiule in lC'fci; so termed 
 from occupying the priory of St. Lazarus, at Paris, as their 
 head quarters. Their primary object was to dispense reli- 
 gious instruction and assistance among the poorer inhabit- 
 ants of the rural districts of France. They were dis> 
 at the time of the Revolution, but have since re-established 
 a congregation at Paris; and the French government has 
 lately projected entrusting them with the spiritual care of 
 the colony at Algiers. 
 
 LA'ZABUS, SA1XT, ORDER OF. A military order 
 of religious persons, originally an association of knights, for 
 the purpose of m r*, fee... in lazar-hou* 
 
 u out 
 of Palestine m VStSa, ihey followed St. Louis to France. In 
 1490, their order w:i.- Mispressed by Pope Innocent VIIL, 
 and united with that of St. John ; but the bull was not uni- 
 versally recei\cd. [n 1513, they were united In Italy with 
 the order of St. Maurice ; in 1608, in France, with that of 
 Our Lady of Mount Canncl. The knights of these united 
 re allowed to marry. 
 
 LA'ZULITE. A blue mineral from Styria and the Tyrol. 
 composed of 06 alumina, io silica, 18 magnesia, ~ lime, 3 
 oxide of iron. 
 
 LAZZARO'NI. A name given to the poorer classes at 
 Naples, from the Hospital of St. Lazarus, which served as 
 a refuge for the d e stitu t e hi that city. Forty years ago two 
 large .sections of the |ieople were generally comprehended 
 under this name — the fishermen ; and the lazzaroni, properly 
 so called, who lived in the streets, nnd performed no other 
 labour but that of errand porters and occasional servants. 
 These alone were estimated at 40,000. These Lazzaroni 
 formed a powerful community, which, under Masaniello, 
 accomplished the revolution of Naples; and, in later times, 
 overthrew the popular government, under the influence of 
 Cardinal Ruffo and the English party. But during the 
 French occupation of Naples they censed to exist as a dis- 
 tinct class; and the name is now only used to designate, in 
 general language, the mob or populace of that great city. 
 
 LEA, in Agriculture, is a term applied to lands which are 
 kept under grass or pasturage for a short period. For exam- 
 ple, in a rotation of fallow, wheat, clover, and rye grass, for 
 three years. The ground, when under clover and rye grass, 
 is mid' to be in lea, in Scotland ; or in England, in lay. 
 
 LEAD. A metal of a bluish-gray colour. Its specific 
 gravity is 11-38. It is very soft, flexible, and inelastic; and 
 though ductile and malleable, is possessed of very little 
 tenacity. It fuses at about 600°; nnd if air be carefully ex- 
 cluded, it does not appear to be volatile at a white heat. 
 When melted in open vessels, it soon changes into gray 
 powder, which upon further exposure to heat and air be- 
 comes yellow, and is called massicot; or, when partially 
 fused, so as to assume a scaly form, litharge. If massicot 
 be heated, and stirred to prevent fusion, it gradually absorbs 
 oxygen, acquires a red colour, and is called red lead. When 
 r<-d lead is heated in nitric acid, it is partially dissolved, and 
 partly converted into a brown powder, which is insoluble, 
 and la a peroxide of lead. Massicot, or the yellow oxide of 
 lead, is the protoxide, nnd that which forms the salts of ths 
 metal : it is constituted of 1 atom of lead = 104, and 1 of 
 oxygen = 8, and its equivalent is 112. The brown peroxide 
 consists of 1 atom of lead and 2 of oxygen ; nnd red lead is 
 intermediate between the two extremes, consisting, probably. 
 of an indefinite mixture of the two oxides. The protoxide 
 of lead is soluble in the greater number of the acids, and 
 
 6iil 
 
LEAD, BLACK. 
 
 forms a variety of salts; of these the carbonate and the ace- 
 tate are the most important. Carbonate of lead, or, as it is 
 commonly called, white lead, is the basis of white oil paint, 
 and consequently of a number of other colours : it may be 
 prepared by exposing sheet lead to the fumes of vinegar, by 
 which it is gradually corroded, and its surface becomes 
 covered with an incrustation, which, when scraped off and 
 well levicated, is white lead. This article is also made by 
 precipitating a solution of acetate of lead by carbonate of 
 eoda ; it consists of 112 oxide of lead and 22 carbonic acid. 
 Acetate of lead is made by dissolving carbonate of lead in 
 luetic acid, for which purpose the pyrol igneous vinegar is 
 chiefly used. It crystallizes in six-sided prisms, but is gen- 
 et ally met with in confused crystalline masses. It is soluble 
 in about 4 parts of cold water, and the solution has a re- 
 markably sweet taste ; whence the term sugar of lead, 
 usually applied to this salt. It consists of 112 oxide of lead 
 and 51 acetic acid. The crystals include 3 atoms of water, 
 and ate therefore represented by the equivalent 190 ; or 163 
 dry acetate and 27 water. When protoxide of lead is boiled 
 in distilled vinegar, *or in a solution of acetate of lead, a 
 dense solution of subacetate or triacetate of lead is obtained : 
 it is difficultly crystallizable. This solution is often used in 
 the chemical laboratory as a test and precipitant: and it 
 forms the extract of lead, or Goulard's extract of phar- 
 macy. 
 
 The most important native combination, or ore of lead, is 
 the sulphuret, composed of 104 lead and J 6 sulphur. It is 
 the galena of mineralogists, and from it the commercial de- 
 mands for lead are supplied: it is roasted to expel sulphur, 
 and the lead thus oxidized is reduced by heating with char- 
 coal. The action of water upon lead is curious and interest- 
 ing, in consequence of the universal use of cisterns lined 
 with this metal. Perfectly pure water, such as distilled 
 water, put into a clean leaden vessel and exposed to air, 
 soon oxidizes and corrodes it, and delicate tests discover 
 oxide of lead in solution in the water; but river and spring 
 water exert no such solvent power: the carbonates and sul- 
 phates in such water, though in very minute quantities, 
 entirely prevent its solvent power. Hence it is that leaden 
 cisterns are used with impunity for the preservation of com- 
 mon water, and that the crust which forms upon the metal 
 effectually prevents all further action. As this crust partly 
 consists of carbonate of lead, which is very poisonous, great 
 cure should be taken to prevent is diffusion through the 
 water upon any occasion, as by scraping or cleaning the 
 cistern. There is another way in which leaden cisterns 
 sometimes prove injurious; and that is in consequence of 
 galvanic action, where iron or zinc pipes are soldered or let 
 into them : the lead is thus rendered electro-negative, alka- 
 line matter is evolved upon it, and small quantities of the 
 oxide or carbonate are thus rendered soluble. There are 
 several re-agents by which very minute quantities of lead 
 may be detected ; among these, solution of sulphuretted 
 hydrogen is perhaps the most effective : it produces a brown 
 tint in water containing the minutest trace of lead, and it 
 similarly discolours the greater number of the insoluble salts 
 of the metal. A solution of sulphate of soda is also a sensi- 
 ble test of the presence of dissolved oxide of lead ; it forms 
 a white cloud in water containing the smallest traces of it : 
 a fragment of iodide of potassium dropped into such water 
 presently occasions in it a yellow tint, in consequence of the 
 formation of an iodide of lead. 
 
 LEAD, BLACK. See Plumbago. 
 
 LEAD, for Sounding. The common hand lead weighs 11 
 lbs. with about 20 fathoms of line. The leadsman stands 
 somewhere on the side of the vessel, leaning against a band 
 for the purpose : lets the lead descend near the water; then, 
 ■winging it over his head once, or twice, if the ship is going 
 fast, throws it forward. The line is marked at 5, 7, 10, 13, 
 17, and SO fathoms. The numbers between are called deeps ; 
 thus, "by the mark 7," "by the deep nine," indicates 7 and 
 9 fathoms. 
 
 When the depth is great, the deep-sea lead of 28 lbs. is 
 used. The lead is dropped from the fore part of the vessel, 
 the line being passed outside all. It is generally necessary 
 to heave the ship to. 
 
 LEADING NOTE. In Music, the sharp seventh of the 
 scale 
 
 LEADS, or SPACE LINES, are pieces of type metal 
 last to specific thicknesses and lengths, lower than types, so 
 that they do not make any impre&sion in printing, but leave 
 a white space where placed. Their general use is to be 
 placed between the lines when a work is not closely printed, 
 which is considered to look better than when printed solid, 
 and also to branch out the heads of pages and titles. 
 
 LEAF. (Sax.) An expansion of the bark at the base of 
 a leaf-bud, prior to which it is developed ; its function being 
 ut once that of respiration, digestion, and nutrition. It is a 
 plate of parenchyma, through which spiral vessels and 
 woody tissue ramify. Its surface is covered with stomates, 
 which communicate with minute hollow chambers in the 
 652 
 
 LEAP-YEAR. 
 
 interior. It Is in the leaf that all the peculiar secretions ot 
 a plant are prepared out of the under sap which the roots 
 obtain from the soil. 
 
 LEAF-BUDS. Rudiments of young branches, made up 
 of scales imbricated over each other, the outermost being 
 the hardest and thickest, and surrounding a minute axis, 
 which is in direct communication with the woody and eel 
 lular tissue of the stem. When stimulated by light and heat 
 they extend into branches ; or if artificially removed from 
 the plant that bears them, they are capable of multiplying 
 the individual from which they have been taken. 
 
 LEA'FLET. A small leaf formed by the petiole of a 
 leaf branching out, and separating the cellular tissue of the 
 lamina into more than one distinct portion, each of which 
 forms a perfect lamina of itself. 
 
 LEAGUE. A measure of length, used in reckoning dis- 
 tances by sea. The sea league is three nautical or geographi- 
 cal miles, or the l-20th of a degree, and consequently about 
 3 - 45 English miles. 
 
 The common land league is a well-known itinerary meas 
 ure on the continent of Europe, chiefly in France. The 
 French, however, have two distinct leagues : the legal post 
 ing league (lieue deposte), containing 2000 toises, and equal 
 to 2-42 English miles ; and a league of 25 to the degree 
 (anciently the lieue moyenne), or equal to about 276 English 
 miles. This last, however, can scarcely be regarded as a 
 definite measure ; and previous to the Revolution the league 
 was different in the different provinces. The word is said 
 to be derived from the Celtic leach, stone; the distances 
 having been marked by stones in the Roman provinces. In 
 Gaul alone of those provinces, they were marked in some 
 instances by leagues as well as miles. The Gaulish league 
 was considered by the Romans as equal to a mile and a hall" 
 of their own measure, or as containing 1500 Roman paces. 
 It is supposed that the league, or leuca, was introduced into 
 England by the Normans, where, at an early period, it came 
 to be reckoned as an equivalent to two miles of the lime ; 
 this being the sense in which the term leuca is used by the 
 oldest law writers, and in most of the old English charters. 
 See Milk. 
 
 League, in Politics, appears to be, In strictness, an alliance 
 between two or more powers, in order to execute some com 
 mon enterprise. It is therefore more active, and less dura 
 ble, than an alliance or a confederacy; both of which have 
 some permanent object, while neither necessarily require* 
 active co-operation. In the middle ages, the word league 
 was used nearly in the sense now attached to these lattet 
 terms: hence we read of the llanseatic league, and of the 
 three leagues still subsisting in the canton of the Grisons in 
 Switzerland; both of which were more properly confeder- 
 acies. The word is of Spanish origin ; and it has been said 
 that the period of its commonest use in political language 
 was commensurate with that during which the Spanish 
 government exercised the greatest influence among ihose of 
 Europe — the 16th and 17th centuries. 
 
 LEAGUE, SOLEMN. Sec Covenant. 
 
 LEAGUE, THE HOLY, or simply THE LEAGUE. In 
 French History, a political association formed by the Roman 
 Catholic party in France under the reign of Henry III. The 
 project of the League is said to have been framed by one 
 David, an advocate; or, rather, he first conceived the idea 
 of uniting the separate associations of the Catholic party in 
 the provinces into one great confederacy. His written scheme 
 bears date 1575. It was ardently received, especially by the 
 municipality and citizens of Paris and other large towns. 
 The object of the League was at first only the overthrow 
 of the Protestant power ; but the princes of the house of 
 Guise soon placed themselves at its head, and the leaders of 
 the party were not slow in adopting the project of changing 
 the succession, and placing the Duke of Guise on the thri 
 In 1588, the citizens, under the impulse of the League, drove 
 Henry III. from Paris on the day of the Barricades, and 
 formed the revolutionary government of " the Sixteen." But 
 after the death both of the duke and the king, much division 
 arose in the head quarters of the League at Paris as to the ■ 
 choice of a successor ; and in 1591 the popular party, or that 
 of the Sixteen, was put down by the citizens: which event 
 in effect destroyed the power of this great association, 
 although it still continued to exist, even after the abjuration 
 of Henrv IV. 
 
 LEAKAGE. In Commerce, an allowance in the customs, 
 granted to importers of wine for the waste and damage the 
 goods are supposed to receive by keeping. 
 
 LEA'NTO. (Span.) In Architecture, a building who« 
 rafters pitch against or lean on another building. 
 
 LEAP-YEAR, or BISSEXTILE. A year containing 30« 
 days. In the Gregorian calendar this occurs every fourth 
 year, excepting years which complete centuries ; in which 
 case the intercalary day is omitted, unless the number of 
 the year is divisible by four. The term is probably derived 
 from the leap or start occasioned by the insertion of the 
 intercalary day, and would have been more appropriate if 
 
LEASE. 
 
 (he yi&r had been deficient by a day instead of being re- 
 dundant. See Calendar. 
 
 LEASE, in Law, is properly a conveyance of lands and 
 tenements (usually in consideration of rent or other annual 
 recompense), made for life, for years, or at will, but always 
 for a less time than the lessor or party letting has in the 
 premises. The usual words of operation are, "demise, 
 grant, and to farm let." The conveyance by a lessee of part 
 of his interest is properly nn under-lease ; of the whole, an 
 assignment. 
 
 LEASE AND RELEASE. In Law, a mode of convey- 
 ance appropriate to estates of freehold in lands, tenements, 
 or hereditaments. Before the Statute of Uses, 27 H. 8, c. 10, 
 t was customary to give lands to one person for the use of 
 another ; or to devise the use of land to one party, while the 
 common law right to the same land descended to another. 
 In a court of equity the legal owner of the fee was com- 
 pelled to cede to the eettum que use, or proprietor of the use, 
 the enjoyment of the land; and certain modes of convey- 
 ance were employed by which the use was conveyed inde- 
 pendent of the legal estate. By that statute uses were 
 declared to be executed ; t. e., that if land were conveyed 
 to one party to the use of another, the cestui/ que use became 
 seised of tiie leeal estate. Hence a bargain and sale, i. e., 
 a deed in which for a recited pecuninry sum, technically 
 called a consideration, land was conveyed to A for the use 
 of himself or of 1), became a good conveyance ; because 
 the deed gave the use, and the statute immediately added 
 the legal estate. To prevent secret conveyances it was con- 
 sequently enacted, in the same reign, that no estate of in- 
 heritance or freehold should be conveyed by bargain and 
 sale. unless the deed was enrolled or registered in a certain 
 Ipertfled manner. Hut as this statute did not extend to bar- 
 gains and bbJm lor a less estate than of freehold, the inge- 
 nuity of lawyers soon devised a new method of secret con- 
 veyance: the land was made over to the purchaser by 
 bargain and Mle for a year, and then the purchaser received 
 a release of all the vendor's remaining interest. Thus, by 
 these two deeds (which arc now ordinarily comprised in 
 one), a perfect conveyance Is created, which has almost 
 I use, the older nnd more solemn 
 modes of alienation for estates in fee-simple. 
 
 LKA'TH Kit. (Germ. Ieder.1 The prepared skins of ani- 
 mals. The principal object of the art of converting skin into 
 leather i- to render it strong and tough, durable, and often 
 waterproof, and to prevent its destruction by putrefaction. 
 The skins are first cleansed of hnir and cuticle, and then 
 Impregnated either with vegetable tan anil extract, as in the 
 production of what is called Uuuud leather, or with alum 
 and Other salts, ns for tawed leather: these processes are 
 sometimes combined, nnd tanned leather often undergoes 
 the further operation of currying, or Impregnation with oil. 
 As instances of these different remit*, thirk sole bather is 
 tanned; white kid for gloves is tawed; the upper leather 
 for boots ami shoes is tanned nnd curried; nnd fine Turkey 
 leather is tawed, and afterwards slightly tanned. 
 
 Tanned Leather. — For thin skins w!iich are afterwards 
 curried, the hide is cleansed, and soaked for a day or two in 
 water; it is then beamed, or stretched upon a solid half cyl- 
 inder of stone, where It is cleared of adhering fat or flesh ; 
 it is then soaked for several days in a pit of lime and water, 
 by which the hair and cuticle are so far loosened as to 
 admit of being scraped off upon the beam ; the hide is then 
 washed aj.d put into the mastering pit, which is n mixture 
 )f water anil dung — that of hens, pigeons, or dogs is pre- 
 ferred, cow or hnrso dung not being sufficiently putroscible. 
 When the hide has here become soft and supple, it is again 
 thoroughly cleaned, and submitted to the tanning liquor 
 which is at first used very weak, and gradually strengthened 
 till the operation is complete: this requires from two to four 
 months for calf skins, and from twelve to eighteen months 
 for thick ox nnd boar hides, intended for strong sole leather ; 
 and the latter hides, instead of being limed and dunged, are 
 generally, after having been cleaned in water, placed in 
 heaps where they begin to putrefy, nnd then the hair may 
 be removed without lime, which would be apt to render the 
 skin hard and harsh. The further opening of the texture, 
 so as to prepare it for tanning, is effected by immersion in a 
 sour liquor of fermented rye or barley, or in weak sulphuric 
 acid. The process is called raising, and immediately pre- 
 cedes the tanning. When fully tanned, the goods are 
 drained, stretched upon a convex piece of wood called a 
 karse, and beaten and smoothed ; or the leather is some- 
 times passed between cylinders to make it more solid and 
 supple: it is lastly dried, by suspension in an airy covered 
 building. It will be obvious (see Tan and Gelatine) that 
 the principal change effected in this process depends upon 
 the combination of the gelatine of the skin with the tanning 
 of the oak bark, or other astringent material which is used, 
 and that great care is requisite to ensure the perfect pene- 
 tration of the hide (especially where it is thick) by the tan- 
 ning materal hence the necessity of using weak liquors at 
 
 LEAVEN. 
 
 first, and gradually increasing their strength ; for if the hide 
 were in the first instance put into a strong infusion of bnrk, 
 the exterior surfaces would become so perfectly tanned as 
 to be impe vious to the further action of the liquor, and the 
 centre would remain untanned, and consequently soluble 
 and putrescible ; so that we judge of the completion of the 
 process by the leather, when cut through, being of a uni- 
 form brown throughout, anything like a white streak in the 
 centre announcing the imperfection just mentioned. 
 
 Tawed Leather, <Ve. — The skins are first soaked, scraped 
 and hung in a warm room till they begin to exhale an am- 
 moniacal odour and the wool readily pulls off; they are then 
 scraped and soaked for some weeks in lime water, which 
 checks the putrefaction and hardens the texture; the skin is 
 then ngain beamed, smoothed, and trimmed, and put into a 
 vat of bran and water, where it is kept for some weeks in a 
 state of gentle fermentation, and becomes thin and extensi- 
 ble, and fit for any subsequent operation : in this state it is 
 called a pelt. The method of bringing kid and goat skin to 
 the state of pelt is nearly the same as for lamb skin, except 
 that liming is used before the hair is taken off, which is only 
 sold to plasterers ; whereas lambs' wool is more valuable, 
 nnd would be injured by the lime. If the pelts are to be 
 tawed, they are worked about in a solution of alum and salt 
 in warm water, which again makes them thick and tough ; 
 they arc then washed, and again fermented in bran and 
 water till the thickening is reduced by the removal of some 
 of the salts; lastly, they are stretched on hooks, and dried in 
 a stove room, when they become a tough flexible white 
 leather; but to give them gloss and suppleness they are 
 again soaked in water, and trodden In a large pail contain- 
 ing the yolks of eggs beat up with water; they are then 
 dried in a loft, nnd smoothed with a warm iron. 
 
 Morocco leather, as it is called, is chiefly prepared from 
 sheep skins, which, alter the action of lime w; tcr, arc 
 brought down by a dune bath, and reduced to the state of 
 pelt. If intended to be dyed red, they are sewn up in the 
 form of a sack, with the grain side outward, and inninrsed 
 in a warm cochineal bath; the sac is then tanned in a bath 
 of sumach: the skins intended to be blacked are sumached 
 without any previous dyeing. The graining and polishing 
 are effected as follows: The skins are stretched upon a 
 smooth inclined board, and mbbed over with a littlw oil to 
 supple them. Those intended for black leather arm previ- 
 ously brushed over with a solution of iron; they are then 
 rubbed over with a glass ball cut into a polygonal surface, 
 which polishes them, nnd makes them firm and compact: 
 lastly, the g r uined surface is given by rubbing the leather 
 >vith a grooved boxwood ball. Curried leather is tanned, 
 and then softened by soaking in water and rubbing; it is 
 then pared with a broad sharp knife, rubbed with a polished 
 stone, and, while still wet, besmeared with fish oil, or a mix- 
 ture of this with tallow. As it dries the oil gradually pene- 
 trates in proportion as the moisture evaporates. The grain 
 side is blackened by iron liquor, but the flesh side with lama 
 black and oil. 
 
 Shammoy leather is generally sheep or doe skin, prepared 
 as already mentioned by dressing, liming, &c., and dyed if 
 ■iry, nnd then finished in oil. Jtussia leather acquires 
 its peculiar odour from birch tar. (There is nn excellent 
 abstract of the manufacture of different kinds of leather In 
 . likin's Dictionary of Chemistry, from which the above is 
 chiefly abridged.) 
 
 The leather manufacture of Great Britain is of very great 
 importance, being inferior in point of value and extent only 
 to those of cotton, wool, andiron. "If we look abroad," 
 says Dr. Campbell, "on the instruments of husbandry, on 
 the implements used in most mechanic trades, on the struc- 
 ture of a multitude of engines and machines: or if we con- 
 template at home the necessary parts of our clothing — 
 breeches, shoes, boots, gloves— or the furniture of our houses, 
 the books on our shelves, the harness of our horses, or even 
 the substance of our carriages, what do we see but instances 
 of human industry exerted upon leather? What an apti- 
 tude has this single material in a variety of circumstances for 
 the relief of our necessities, and supplying conveniences in 
 every state and stage of life 7 Without it, or even without 
 it in the plenty we have it, to what difficulties should we be 
 exposed I" (Polit. State of Great Britain, xi. 176.) The 
 number of persons engaged in all the various branches of the 
 leather manufacture in Great Britain is estimated at between 
 200,000 and 300,000, the total quantity of all sorts of leather 
 at 65,000,000 lbs., nnd the entire value of the manufacture at 
 £13,500,000. Leather was long subject to a duty, which 
 necessarily placed the manufacture under the surveillance 
 of the excise; but it was totally abolished in 1830; and as 
 the manufacture is now relieved from every sort of trammel 
 and restraint, its rapid increase may be confidently expected. 
 (See Commercial Dictionary.) 
 
 LEAVEN. (Lnt. levare, to raise.) A piece of sour dough 
 used to ferment and render light a much greater quantity of 
 dough or paste. By the law r of Moses leaven was strictly 
 
LEAVES. 
 
 ,01 hidden during the Passover ; and the Jews, taught to re- 
 gard it from the vigil of the feast as unclean, with religious 
 scrupulosity purified their houses from the contaminating 
 influence. In its figurative sense, leaven is applied to any- 
 thing that powerfully, but gradually, deteriorates the quali- 
 ties of the mind or heart ; in contradistinction to the expres- 
 sion unleavened, which implies the qualities of sincerity and 
 truth. 
 
 LEAVES. (Sax. Ia?af.) In Architecture, ornaments imi- 
 tated from natural leaves ; whereof the ancients used two 
 sorts, natural and imaginary. The former were those of the 
 laurel, palm, acanthus, and olive ; but in the representation 
 M all or them they took great liberties. 
 
 LECTI'CA. (Lat.) A sort of couch used by the Ro- 
 mans for the same purpose as the sedan chair, or rather the 
 palanquin, is employed by the moderns, with this difference, 
 that the person carried on the lectica reclined. It was used 
 also for the conveyance of dead bodies to the funeral pile. 
 Hie persons who carried the lectica were called lecticarii, 
 vvhose number in the Lower Empire is said to have amount- 
 ed to 11,000. ta 
 
 LE'CTISTE'RNIUM. (Lat. lectus, a couch, and ster- 
 nere, to prepare.) A religious festival or ceremony among 
 the ancient Romans, celebrated during times of public ca- 
 lamity, and remarkable as a singular relic of barbarous su- 
 perstition, retaining the impression of a very rude age. In 
 this festival the gods themselves were invited to the enter- 
 tainment ; their statues were taken from their pedestals, laid 
 on couches with pillows and pedestals, and placed at the table, 
 while the servants used gravely to convey the viands to the 
 idols' lips. The first festival of this sort, according to Livy, 
 which took place, was held in the year of Rome 354, on the 
 occasion of a contagious disease which committed frightful 
 ravages among their cattle, and lasted for eight successive 
 days. On the celebration of this festival enemies were said 
 to forget their animosity, and all prisoners were liberated. 
 
 LE'CTOR. In the early Church, a person set apart for 
 the purpose of reading parts of the Bible and other writings 
 of a religious character to the people. They were conse- 
 crated by prayers and ceremonies for this office, and in the 
 third century appear to have formed proper officers of the 
 church. It is probably from this institution that the order 
 of preachers in parish churches in England called lecturers 
 is derived, who hold a distinct office from the vicar, rector, 
 or other ecclesiastical functionaries ; they are chosen by the 
 vestry or chief inhabitants of the parish, supported by volun- 
 tary subscriptions and legacies, and usually officiate on Sun- 
 day afternoon. 
 
 LE'CTURE (Lat. lego, / read), signifies generally a dis- 
 course read, as the derivation of the word implies, by a pro- 
 fessor to his pupils ; but it is applied in a more extended sense 
 to every species of instruction communicated viva voce. In 
 the Scotch and Continental universities, as well as in those 
 recently established in England, the great business of teach- 
 ing is carried on by means of public lectures, delivered at 
 stated periods, and embracing every subject included in the 
 curriculum of study ; but at the two great English universi- 
 ties, as is well known, a different system is adopted. There 
 the established mode of instruction is by private tutors; 
 nnd though a few lectureships have, from time to time, been 
 founded, and lectures are sometimes voluntarily given by 
 active members, still these are rather to be considered as 
 Incidental appendages than as constituent parts of a regular 
 lystem. 
 
 Public lectures have been adopted from the earliest ages 
 is a convenient mode of teaching the elements of every 
 sranch of human knowledge ; and it is perhaps true that if 
 ■hey be properly compiled, and accompanied by strict and 
 regular examinations, few means seem better calculated to 
 iwaken the attention of the student, to abridge his labours, 
 to guide his inquiries, and to impress upon his recollection 
 Ite first principles of science. The endless diversity of sub- 
 ects on which lectures have been or may be given precludes, 
 jf course, any attempt to lay down rules applicable in all 
 lases for the guidance of individual lecturers ; but there are, 
 notwithstanding, some great leading principles that should 
 n ever}' case be kept steadily in view. First of all, it should 
 tie borne in mind that, a lecture being an oral discourse, if 
 the meaning of the lecturer be at any time mistaken or not 
 perceived, the student or hearer cannot return, as he would 
 do to a book, for farther explanations, and the subsequent 
 part of the lecture may in consequence be rendered nearly 
 useless. Hence perspicuity of statement is the first and high- 
 est quality of a lecturer. Perspicuity, indeed, is indispensa- 
 ble to all good writing and speaking ; but in lecturihg espe- 
 cially it is the one thing needful, and without it other quali- 
 ties can avail little or nothing. To attain this essential 
 quality the subjects of the lecture should be so arranged that 
 they may follow each other naturally and easily ; the sen- 
 tences should be clear and distinct, neither too long nor too 
 *hort; the illustrations should be apposite, and of a kind 
 fitted to excite and keep awake the attention of the hearer ; 
 054 
 
 LEECH. 
 
 and the lecture so composed should be delivered in a plain, 
 distinct, and impressive manner. If a lecturer be deficient 
 in these qualities, he can be of little or no use as a teacher, 
 how well soever he may be acquainted with the subject on 
 which he prelects. Dr. Brown, of Edinburgh, is an instance 
 in point : his views with respect to the philosophy of the 
 mind are often original, sometimes just, and always ingeni- 
 ous; but the style in which they are expounded is as bad as 
 possible, even in a book made for the closet, and rendered 
 his lectures all but unintelligible to nine tenths of his stu- 
 dents. It has been the fashion among certain parties who 
 certainly do not owe much to the belles Icttrcs to depreciate 
 the lectures of Dr. Blair ; but they may be safely reterred to 
 as all but perfect models of the style and manner in which 
 lectures should be written. 
 
 When lectures are prepared in the way now stated by par- 
 ties well versed in the subjects prelected upon, and when 
 they are regularly followed up next day by a searching ex- 
 amination of the students on the various subjects treated of, 
 and explanations are given of such difficulties as may have 
 occurred to them, they may, perhaps, as already stated, be 
 regarded as a pretty unexceptionable method of teaching. 
 But lectures got up, as they generally are, not to instruct the 
 hearer, but to exhibit the attainments or prejudices of the 
 lecturer, and unaccompanied either by examinations or ex- 
 ercises, are about the least profitable exhibitions at which a 
 student can be present. 
 
 LE'DGER. See Book-keeping. 
 
 LEDGER-LINE. (Dutch, leggen, to lie.) In Music, a line 
 either above or below the staff, when that is not sufficient 
 in extent to lay the notes upon. It is above the staff in 
 ascending progressions, and in descending progressions be 
 low it. 
 
 LE'DGERS. (Fr.) In Architecture, horizontal pieces 
 of timber used in scaffolding, lying parallel to the wall oppo- 
 site to which they are erected. 
 
 LEE, LEEWARD. Sea terms, denoting generally the 
 side or quarter not directly exposed to the wind. The lee- 
 side of a ship is the opposite to that on which the wind blows 
 when it crosses her course, and which is termed the weather 
 side. Leeward is on the lee-side ; opposed to windward, or 
 the weather side. A lee-shore is the shore on the lec-sidt 
 of the ship, or the shore on which the wind blows; and a 
 ship is said to be under the lee of the shore when the wind 
 blows from the shore, or when she is in some measure shel- 
 tered by the shore. The names Leeward and Windward, 
 as applied to the West India Islands, were given to them 
 from their situation in a voyage from the ports of Spain to 
 Carthagena or Portobello. The islands which lie to leeward 
 extend from Portorico to Demerara. 
 
 LEE-BOARD. A small platform of planks, which being 
 let down into the water on the lee side of flat-bottomed 
 vessels, opposes the action of the wind to drive them to lee- 
 ward. 
 
 LEECH. This name is given to those abranchiate red 
 blooded worms, or anellidans, which are provided with a 
 sucker at both ends of the body (see Hirudo), and of which 
 we possess a few native species ; some frequenting the fresh 
 waters, as the horse leeches {Hcemopis sanguisorba and H. 
 stagnorum) ; others the ocean, where they are parasitic 
 upon fishes, as the skate-sucker {Pontobdella muricata). 
 The medicinal leech (Sanguisuga medicinalis) belongs to 
 that subdivision of the family Hirudinidm which is charac 
 terized by having the superior lip of the anterior cup or 
 sucker divided into several segments, and the oral aperture 
 transverse, triradiate, and surrounded by three cartilaginous 
 jaws, each armed with two rows of very fine teeth. This 
 apparatus enables the leech to penetrate the skin so as to en- 
 sure a ready flow without causing a dangerous wound. The 
 upper lip is marked with ten small points considered as eyes. 
 The species of the genus Sanguisuga, viz. £. officinalis and 
 S. medicinalis, are most common in the south of France, 
 whence great numbers are exported to this country. The 
 leech-dealers of Bretagne drive horses and cows into the 
 ponds, that the leeches may fatten and propagate more 
 abundantly by sucking their blood. Children are employed 
 to catch them bv the hand ; and the grown persons wade 
 into the shallow waters in the spring of the year, and catch 
 the leeches that adhere to their naked legs. They are also 
 taken by a sort of net made of twigs and rushes, which is 
 used in the summer when the leeches retire into the deeper 
 waters. 
 
 The best method of preserving these valuable little ani- 
 mals is stated by the author of the article " Leech" in the 
 Penny Cyclopedia to be that described by Fee. It is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Into a marble or stone trough a layer of seven inches of 
 a mixture of moss, turf, and charcoal is to be put, and some 
 small pebbles placed above it; at one extremity of the 
 trough, and midway between the bottom and the top, place 
 a thin plate of marble pierced with numerous small holes, 
 upon which there should rest a stratum of moss, or portions 
 
LEELITE. 
 
 3f the Equisctum palustre, or horse-tail, firmly compressed 
 by a layer of pebbles. The trough to be filled with water 
 only so high that the moss and pebbles should be but slight- 
 ly moistened. A cloth is to be kept over the mouth of the 
 trough. This is imitating as nearly as possible their natural 
 condition; and the charcoal not only aids in keeping the 
 water sweet, but appears to prevent the leeches being at- 
 tack>2 ty parasitic animals, to which they are very' liable. 
 The water should be changed about once a week, and more 
 frequently in warm weather. 
 
 The great importance of ascertaining the best method of 
 preserving the medicinal leech may be inferred from the ex- 
 tent to which the trade is carried on, and the consequent in- 
 creasing scarcity of these indispensable adjuncts to medi- 
 cine. Four only of the principal dealers in London import 
 00 annually. 
 
 LEE'LITE. A pink silico-aluminous mineral, tinged by 
 of manganese. Named from Mr. Lee of Cambridge. 
 
 LEET. (Sax. leod ; Germ, leute, people.) The court 
 leet, or view of frankpledge, was an ancient Saxon institu- 
 tion answering a double purpose : 1. The administration of 
 justice i;i the trial of offences and the abatement of nuisan- 
 ces ; -2. The preservation of the peace, and the prevention 
 of crime, by the reception and enrolment of the pledge 
 which each man was obliged to give by becoming a member 
 of some tything. The possession of a court lcet was the 
 characteristic of the hundred, of which the proper lcet was 
 distin< i from, and subordinate to, that wbich was held by 
 Lite sheriff on his tourn. The court leet of the hundred was 
 usually held by a bailiff or steward of the sheriff; but it was 
 sometimes granted, as well as the leet of a smaller jurisdic- 
 tion, to private lords. A court leet also properly belonged 
 to n borough, which ranked as a hundred ; but such private 
 and borough lects were, like the leet of the hundred, subor- 
 dinate to the county leet of the tourn. 
 
 LEE-WAT, in Navigation, is the deviation of the course 
 nctually run by a ship from the course steered upon; or it 
 is the angle formed between the line of the ship's keel and 
 the line which she actually describes through the water. 
 In consequence of the action of the wind or currents, a ship 
 is generally impelled sideways as well II forward, whence 
 the direction of her motion is different from that of the keel. 
 Suppos<: the whole force urging the ship to be resolved into 
 two — one producing the motion 
 A H in the direction of the keel, 
 and the other the motion A C in 
 the same time at right angles to the former; then the ship 
 will move in the direction of the diagonal A D, and the an- 
 gle D A 1$ is the lee-way. To obviate the effects of this 
 lateral motion, the ship is laid on a course to the windward 
 of the point to which she is bound. 
 
 LEGACY. See Wills. (Lat. lego, I bequeath.) A gift 
 by will of personal property, as goods and chattels; a teeUk- 
 mentary gut of real pro p erty being called a devise. LaOr 
 cies are general, sucii as a gift of a sum of money out of the 
 . I estate of the deceased ; or specific, as a gift of a par- 
 ticular bank note or coin, or of any oilier individual chattel, 
 as a horse or a jewel ; or residuary, as a gift of the residue 
 of the estate remaining after all the debts of the deceased 
 and general and specific legacies have been satisfied. Gen- 
 eral legacies are subject to an equal rateable abatement, if 
 ate la not sufficient for payment of them in full ; but a 
 specific legacy is not subject to abatement, unless it be ne- 
 cessary for the payment of debts. A specific legacy is, how- 
 Mibject to what is called ademption, which is the con- 
 sequence of the subject matter of the legacy being one iden- 
 tical thiii;; in specie: thus, if a testator bequeath a particu- 
 lar horse, which he afterwards disposes of in his lifetime, 
 the legacy is said to be adeemed, or taken away, because 
 the horse bequeathed has no longer any existence as part 
 of his property, and the legatee will not be entitled to anoth- 
 er horse of the testator's in lieu of it This identity of cor- 
 pus i> so inherent in the notion of a specific legacy, that if a 
 £100 in Consols were bequeathed, and the same "sum were 
 afterwards transferred by the testator to another stock, the 
 transfer of itself would adeem the legacy. The mode of 
 compelling executors to pay a legacy is by suit in equity for 
 the administration of the testator's assets: courts of law 
 have not in general, any jurisdiction over such matters, 
 itors cannot be compelled to pay a legacy until the 
 expiration of a year after the testator's death : they are al- 
 lowed that period for ascertaining and discharging his debts ; 
 and even after a legacy has been paid the legatee must re- 
 fund, if it should be necessary, for the payment of creditors 
 who come in, although after the period abovementioned. 
 The party to whom a legacy is bequeathed is termed lega- 
 tee. For an account of the legacy duties, see art "Taxa- 
 tion," Enct/c. Britannica, (new edition). 
 
 LE'GATE. (Lai. legatus.) A high functionary, in gen- 
 eral a cardinal or bishop, whom the pope sends as ambassa- 
 dor to the courts of foreign powers. Legates are : 1. A La- 
 tere, who possess the highest degree of authority ; 2. De 
 
 LEGION. 
 
 Latere : the former are such as the pope commissions to taxa 
 his place in councils. 3. Legates by office are such as en- 
 joy the titular distinction of legate by virtue of their dignity 
 and rank in the church, but have no special mission. 
 
 LEGATION. See Ambassador. Diplomacy. 
 
 LEGA'TO. (Ital. tied.) In Music, a term used to denote 
 the tying one note to another, which is done by placing these 
 marks — ^. above or below the notes intended to be so joined. 
 This is also known by the name of sycope. 
 
 LEGATU'RA. (ital.) In Music, ass Driving Notes. 
 
 LEGA'TUS. (Lat.) In lloinnn History, an officer who 
 acted as deputy under a commander-in-chief, and whose duty 
 it was to aid the proconsuls and proprietors in the adminis- 
 tration of the Roman provinces. Of the number of the le- 
 gati nothing certain is known ; though the probability is, that 
 there was one to every legion. In the absence of the con- 
 suls and other magistrates entitled to the fasces, this honour 
 was conferred on the legati. 
 
 LE'GEND. (Lat. legenda, things to be read.) A book 
 originally used at divine service in the Romish churches, in 
 which are recorded the lives of saints and martyrs, portions 
 of which were selected and read for the edification of the 
 people. These legends, which contained many ridiculous 
 stories of the lives of the saints, were studiously perused in 
 the refectories of cloisters, and were earnestly recommended 
 to the parasal of the laity, as so many evidences of the ti uth 
 of the Roman Catholic faith. Among these the Golden Le- 
 gend (the work of Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of 
 Genoa in the 13th centurj ), which is a collection of the lives 
 of the saints, maintained its ground in the church for two 
 hundred years; though, from the number of ridiculous stories 
 with which it teems, it has now sunk into merited oblivion. 
 But although many of the legends consist of tasteless and 
 unmeaning fictions, the offspring of a childish credulity, 
 which, indeed, they were intended to gratify, there are many 
 of them of a highly poetical and stiiking character; ami 
 hence it is not surprising that this species of literature has 
 often been regarded, even by persons of taste, as a verdant 
 oasis amid the desert of Imaginative writings in the middle 
 ages. There are some sensible remarks as to the vuliie of 
 the early Christian legenda in Beugnot, Hist, de la Destruc- 
 tion du fuj aafusii "i Occident, i., 980, In a general sense 
 the term legend is used to denote any fictitious or doubtful 
 narrative ; such as the exploits of heroes of the middle nges, 
 or tile history of a people or district in which truth is so 
 mixed with fable as to be inseparable from it. 
 
 Legend. In Numismatics, that which is written round 
 the field of a medal ; opposed to inscription, which is writ- 
 ten across it. See Numismatics. 
 
 LEGERDEMAIN. (1'r. light of hand.) A term given 
 to some deceptive or sHirlit-of-hand performances, which de- 
 pend entirely on dexterity and address, or derive but a small 
 degree of aid from philosophical principles. See Maoic. 
 
 LEGGIA'DEO. (Ital.) Iii Music, a direction to the per- 
 former that the music to which the word is appended is to 
 be performed gaily or briskly. 
 
 LE'GION. A division of the Roman army, comprising 
 ten cohorts, thirty maniples, or sixty centuries; so that if 
 there had always been one hundred men in each century, 
 as its name Imports, the legion would have consisted of six 
 thousand men. But the number was in fart variable. 
 
 There were usually three hundred cavalry joined to each 
 legion, which were divided into ten troops (turmffi), and 
 each of these troops into three bodies of ten men (decurta:). 
 The defensive arms of the legionaries were an oblong shield, 
 a helmet, hauberk, and greaves; their offensive weapons 
 were a sword and two long javelins. The legion was drawn 
 up in three lines ; the soldiers in each of which were distin- 
 guished by the names Hastati, Principes, and Triarii. The 
 Hastati, who formed the first line, were young men in the 
 flower of life, and originally used long spears, which were, 
 however, afterwards discarded. The Principes occupied the 
 second line, and were men in the prime of life. The Triarii 
 were veteran soldiers, and formed the third line. In each 
 legion there were six military tribunes, who commanded un- 
 der the consul, each in his turn, usually for about a month. 
 This was the early organization of the legion, as it is known 
 to us chiefly from the description of Livy, at the lime of the 
 great Latin war in the fifth century of the Republic. It was 
 materially changed in later times ; and the three original 
 lines were discarded, probably about the time of the Punic 
 war. But it always retained its distinctive character of a 
 separate annv, as it were, provided with its complement of 
 cavalry and iight infantry ; and it has been remarked, as a 
 striking proof of the military genius of the Romans, that after 
 so many ages of additional experience, recent captains, and 
 particularly Napoleon, have found it advantageous to divide 
 their armies into separate corps, each in a similar manner 
 complete, with its own cavalry and artillery; and these, in 
 the French imperial armies, usually averaged from 4000 to 
 G000 men, or about the number of a Roman legion. The 
 organization of the legion is explained in most works on 
 
LEGION OF HONOUR. 
 
 Roman antiquities, but has been nowhere so thoroughly 
 treated as by M. Le Beau, in a long series of memoirs which 
 appeared from time to time in the Mem. de I' Ac. des Inscrip- 
 tions el llellcs Lettres. See particularly vols, xxxv., xxxvii., 
 xxxix. The reader may also now consult Dr. Arnold's 
 History of Rome, vol. ii. 
 
 LE'GION OF HONOUR. An order instituted by Na- 
 poleon, when first consul of France, for merit, both military 
 and civil. The order consisted, under the Empire, of grand 
 crosses, grand officers, commanders, officers, and legionaries. 
 They were divided into sixteen cohorts, each of 407 mem- 
 bers ; but the total amount was afterwards much increased. 
 Pensions, from 250 to 5000 francs per annum, were attached 
 to these distinctions. After the restoration of Louis XVIII., 
 the order underwent some modifications in its constitution, 
 and its members were limited on a smaller scale. See Hon- 
 our. 
 
 LEGISLATION. See Law. 
 
 LE'GISLATOR. (Lat.) One who frames or establishes 
 the laws and polity of a state or kingdom. The term is 
 :hiefly applied to some distinguished persons of antiquity, 
 such as Moses among the Jews; Theseus, Draco, Solon, 
 among the Athenians ; Lycurgus among the Spartans ; and 
 Numa among the Romans. 
 
 LEGISLATURE. The name given to the body or bodies 
 in a state in whom is vested the power of making laws. 
 Thus the king, lords, and commons of Great Britain, whose 
 united consent is indispensable to the framing of a law, are 
 styled the legislature. 
 
 LEGI'TIMACY, in Politics, signifies, in its strictest sense, 
 the accordance of an action or an institution with the muni- 
 cipal law of the land. The principle of obedience to civil 
 authority, in whatever hands the law has placed it, is conse- 
 crated by religion as well as by sound philosophy. Resistance 
 to, or evasion of, the legal commands of a superior, is thus 
 an offence against the law of God as well as of man, in 
 things in themselves indifferent as well as in things com- 
 manded by the principles of morality. How far they must 
 be obeyed when against the conscience of the subject, is one 
 of those questions of casuistry which never can receive a 
 solution applicable to all cases and circumstances. In this 
 sense it is clear that the attribute of legitimacy belongs to 
 no particular form of government, but is equally inherent in 
 all when lawfully established. But, looking at the subject 
 from a higher point of view, the question arises, when and 
 how shall a government be taken to be lawfully established 1 
 This can only be directly answered by two classes of political 
 philosophers. The first attribute the quality of legitimacy 
 only to hereditary monarchical government, which they 
 conceive to be peculiarly of divine appointment, deriving it 
 from the patriarchal form of society. This theory has the 
 advantage of simplicity ; but its advocates have never been 
 able to show any real foundation for it in the language of 
 Scripture, and it is of course impossible to raise it on any 
 other basis. (See Divine Right, Non-resistance.) The 
 second class bases society on the abstract rights of man, at- 
 tributes all power to the people, and considers no govern- 
 ment legitimate except such as is founded on their consent. 
 This theory also is plain and clear in the abstract; but has 
 the defect of becoming impossible in application. For, 1. 
 The principle of the social contract, or implied consent of 
 the people, is a mere philosophical fiction. 2. The actual 
 consent of the people («. «., the majority of it) to any existing 
 form of government has never been satisfactorily ascertained. 
 This is notoriously the case in every European country; 
 and even the representative government of the United States 
 of America is chosen by a constituency from which slaves, 
 women, and persons under twenty-one years of age (that is, 
 in all, five sixths of the population) are excluded. Now the 
 exclusion of any one of these classes can only be justified on 
 grounds of expediency; and similar grounds might equally 
 justify the adoption of other tests (e. g., that of property, as 
 in England and other European countries) which would still 
 farther reduce the number of the constituency. 3. Suppos- 
 ing a government established by the actual voices of a ma- 
 jority of the whole people, the question would still arise, 
 whether every subsequent act of that government was legiti- 
 matized by that original validity. This question was much 
 debated in France at the period of the trial of Louis XVI., 
 when the Convention, elected itself by a majority of the peo- 
 ple, was assuming the extraordinary power of judging that 
 monarch. The Girondins, on that occasion, contended that 
 an appeal to the people (i. e., to the suffrages of a majority 
 of the constituents) was necessary in order to ratify the act ; 
 and in a greater or less degree it must always arise, when- 
 ever an alteration in circumstances since the period of the 
 election of the representative body has called for the adoption 
 of extraordinary measures. Between these two classes of 
 theoretical politicians, the greater number are content to hold, 
 that the only fundamental principle of government is ex- 
 pediency ; and its only right, that given by municipal law or 
 peaceable possession. In their view, all government is 
 656 
 
 LEMISCATA. 
 
 equally legitimate so soon as it is fairly established ; wtinr 
 they fully admit that a question, and often a very difficult 
 one, arises on every violent change of institutions, as to how 
 soon the new government de facto has acquired the charac- 
 ter of legitimacy. In the language of modern politics this 
 word has acquired a peculiar sense; chiefly from its em- 
 ployment about the period of the Congress of Vienna, when 
 the old hereditary dynasties were termed legitimate in con- 
 tradistinction to those which the French revolution and sub- 
 sequent wars had founded. Hence the principle of legiti- 
 macy has been, very incorrectly, opposed to that of repre- 
 sentative or popular government ; a mere abuse of terms, but 
 an important one, from the powerful effect which words are 
 able to produce in political discussion. 
 
 Legitimacy. (Lat. legilimus, lawful.) In Jurisprudence, 
 the state of a child born in lawful wedlock - . 
 
 LEGITIMATION. The act by which natural children 
 are rendered legitimate. See Gretna Green Marriages, 
 Bastard. 
 
 LEGU'MEN. (Lat.) In Botany, a one-celled, one or 
 many seeded, two-valved, superior fruit, dehiscing by a 
 suture along both its face and its back, and bearing its seeds 
 on the ventral suture only. It differs from the follicle only 
 in dehiscing by two valves. Sometimes it is indehiscent, as 
 in Cassia fistula, &x. ; but the line of dehiscence is in such 
 species indicated by the presence of sutures. It is very near 
 a drupe, into which it passes in many genera, such as Dip- 
 teryx, &c. 
 
 LEGU'MINO'SiE. A very extensive natural order of 
 Polypetalous Exogenous plants found in all parts of the 
 world ; forming large trees and huge twiners in the Tropics, 
 and being herbaceous plants or small bushes, rarely trees, in 
 colder countries. The order contains a great variety of use 
 ful and beautiful species, some of which, like clover, lucem, 
 saintfoin, and vetches, are cultivated for cattle ; others, as 
 peas, beans, lentils, and various other kinds of pulse, form 
 part of the food of man. Indigo, logwood, and many others 
 are well-known dying plants; several acacias produce gum 
 arabic ; certain Astragali yield tragacanth ; the tamarind 
 and others bear pods, whose interior is filled with an agree- 
 able titcula or pulp; Cassia acutifolia and others yield sen- 
 na ; Glycyrrhiza the liquorice root ; Ceratonia the wild lo- 
 cust fruits of Scripture ; finally, many are valuable tonics, 
 and some are dangerous narcotics, among which the com- 
 mon laburnum is to be named. The larger part of this ordci 
 consists of plants called Papilionaceous, because of a fancied 
 resemblance between their flowers and a butterfly. Such 
 plants have one large expanded petal, and four others much 
 smaller, which form aire and carina in front of the vexillum ; 
 but in others the more usual form of corolla is observed, and 
 there are even some which, like Ceratonia, are apelalous. 
 The division of the order called Mimosa is remarkable for 
 having very small flowers with long stamens, and growing 
 in balls or spikes. 
 
 LE'MMA. (Gr. \jipua, from \ap8avw, I take or assume.) 
 In Geometry, a preliminary proposition, laid down for the 
 purpose of facilitating or rendering more perspicuous the 
 demonstration of a theorem, or the construction of a problem. 
 
 LE'MMING. A name given to a species of claviculate 
 Rodents (Georychus lemmus, III.), very abundant in the 
 north of Europe on the shores of the Arctic ocean. It is as 
 large as a rat, with black and yellow fur, and is remarkable 
 for its occasional migrations in innumerable bodies. At these 
 periods the lemmings are said to march in a straight line, re- 
 gardless of rivers and mountains ; and, unimpeded by any 
 obstacle, they devastate the country through which they 
 pass. See Georychus. 
 
 LEMNI'SCATA. (Gr. Aj?/mir*:o?, a riband.) In Geome- 
 try, the name given to a curve of the fourth degree, having 
 the form of the figure 8, and of which the equation is z2-f- 
 t/2 == a y/ x* — y?. There are many other curves of the same 
 order having a similar form, but their equations differ from 
 the above. The lemniscata, though a re-entering curve, is 
 susceptible of indefinite quadrature ; and its whole area is 
 equal to the square of its semi-axis. It is a remarkable prop 
 erty of this curve that it is capable of being divided alge 
 braically into equal though dissimilar portions. 
 
 The various properties of this curve are most easily de 
 
 rived from its polar equation. Let C JE-^P 
 
 A— a, CQ = i, andPQ = y; the fl^i&S \ 
 
 equation of the curve is z2 -J- yl — a ■ A -r — Q — y\ /& 
 
 J %2 — yK Now let C P = r, and ^- S 
 
 the angle PCQ = it, we shall have z — r cos. «, and y = r 
 sin. u. Substituting these values of x and y in the equation 
 of the curve, it becomes, after reduc'ion, r* — a2 cos. 2 v. 
 But, by the general theory of curves, tne differential of the 
 area referred to polar co-ordinates is A r2 d u ; therefore in 
 the present case d area;= \ a 2 cos. 2« du, and, integrating, 
 C p P Q, = J a- sin. u cos. it. At the point C we have r 
 = 0; therefore cos. 2w = 0, and consequently «=: 45°. At 
 this point, therefore, sin. u = y/ A, and cos. u = ^/ $ , and nt 
 
LEMONS, ESSENTIAL SALT UF. 
 
 the puint A we have u = 0, therefore the area comprised 
 between C A and the curve A P p C = $ a2. Hence the 
 whole area bounded by both branches (the two branches 
 being similar) la equal to o2, or the square of A C, which is 
 iAB. 
 
 Let P be any point in the curve, and p another point re- 
 lated to P by the equation cos. AC P X cos. A Cp = y/i; 
 then the curvilinear arc A P is equal to Cy, which is the 
 property nbove alluded to. A similar property, however, 
 belongs also to some other curves. (See Legendre, Exer- 
 cises de Calcul Integral, tome i.) 
 
 LE'MONS, ESSENTIAL, SALT OF. The binoxalate 
 of potash is often sold under this name ; it is chiefly used for 
 removing non-moulds and ink-stains from linen. 
 
 LEMUR. (Lat. lemur, a ghost.) This term was ap- 
 plied in the Linnseaa system to several of the lower Uua- 
 drumnuniis animals of different structure and habits; it is 
 now restricted to those which have the inferior incisors long, 
 compressed, straight, and sloping forwards, and the lower 
 canines approximated, and of similar form and direction, dif- 
 fering only in a slight increase of size, whence they have 
 usually been enumerated as ir.cisors : the ii|i|x;r incisors are 
 straight, and the intermediate ones are separated from each 
 other. The long, pointed canines of the ii|>|xr jaw are prin- 
 cipally opposed to the treivhant anterior false molars below. 
 Bach of the four extremities is provided with an opposable 
 thumb; but the index digit id' the hinder hand has its nail 
 developed into a long, curved, •harp-pointed claw. The use 
 of this claw is to clean or dislodge vermin from the long and 
 thick woolly hair. The lemurs deviate from the typical 
 Quadi umanes, and approximate to the ordinary quadruped 
 in their elongated. |>ointed head, and sharp, projecting muzzle ; 
 the posterior limbs are a little longer than the anterior; the 
 tail M long, thick, and bushy. They are all natives of Mad- 
 agascar nnd of some of the smaller islands m its neighbour- 
 hood. To judge from the nature of their covering, it might 
 be tlipnwd that the lemurs were natives of a rold climate 
 but their fur has relation to the season of their activity. 
 They sleep by day, and move about in the night season, du- 
 ring which time the air is often sufficiently cold in the tropi- 
 cal latitude*. Their nutriment is a mixed diet of fruits, in- 
 sects, and small birds; the latter they surprise while at 
 
 LE' MURES. Male and female genii, or infernal gods, 
 believed by the ancient Romans to haunt solitary rooms and 
 silent places: they were propitiated by casting beans to them. 
 Their feast was celebrated under the name of Lcmurin or 
 Lcmiir.-iliu. 
 
 U/MdUiLE. (Lat. lemur, a ghost.) The family of 
 Ciuadruinanous Mammals, of which the genus Lemur is the 
 type; it includes the genera Tarsius, Ololicnus, Stenops, 
 tJekanotut, and I.cmur proper: see those terms. 
 
 LENA. (Lat.) In Optica, a thin piece of glass or any 
 other transparent substance, bounded on both sides by polish- 
 ed spherical surfaces, or on the one side by a spherical and 
 on the other by a plane surface ; and having this property, 
 that parallel rays of light, in passing through it, have their 
 direction changed, so as to converge to a given point, called the 
 principal focus of the lens, or to diverge as if they proceeded 
 iroin that point. 
 
 Lenses receive different denominations according to their 
 different forms. Thus, 
 
 A spherical lens, shown nt A, is a sphere or globule of 
 glass. 
 
 A double convex lens, shown at B, is a solid formed by two 
 convex spherical surfaces; and is equally convex or un- 
 equally convex, according as the radii of its two surfaces are 
 equal or unequal. 
 
 A plano-convex lens, C, is that of which one of the sur- 
 faces is plane and the other convex. 
 
 A double concave lens, D, is bounded by two concave 
 spherical surfaces, which have either the same or a differ- 
 ent :um attire. 
 
 A plano-concave lens, E, has one surface plane, and the 
 other concave. 
 
 A meniscus, F (so called from its resemblance to a little 
 moon), is a lens of which one of the surfaces is convex and 
 the other concave, and which meet if continued. The 
 radius of the convex surface is consequently smaller than 
 the radius of the concave. 
 
 A concavo-convex lens, G, is that of which one of the sur- 
 faces is concave and the other convex ; but in this case the 
 surfaces will not meet though continued, the radius of the 
 concave surface being smaller than that of the convex one. 
 
 The straight line M N which passes through the centres 
 
 of all the curved surfaces, or is perpendicular to both sur- 
 
 2 T 
 
 LENS. 
 
 faces of the same lens, is called the axis of the lens ; ann it 
 is in this line that the focus of the lens is situated. 
 
 It was observed, at an early period, that a transparent 
 body of a spherical form has the property of collecting at the 
 focus the parallel rays of light which fall on its surface 
 But it was remarked, at the same time, that the illumination 
 at these foci was extremely feeble, in consequence of the 
 thickness of the glass which the light had to pass through. 
 This inconvenience is removed by taking only two small 
 segments instead of the entire sphere ; by which means, as 
 the refraction takes place only at the surfaces, and not in 
 the interior of the glass, the very same refraction of il . 
 rays is produced as when the whole sphere is user, 
 the thickness of the glass being greatly diminished, the ra\ s 
 pass through it in much greater number, and the inlensi'iv 
 of the light in the focus is much more considerable 
 
 The rules for finding the focal distances of the different 
 sorts of lenses are the following. They depend in some 
 measure on the refracting power of the glass. We shall 
 here suppose the index of refraction to be 1-500. 
 
 1. Rays of light, R L, R L, falling on a convex lens i- 
 directions parallel to the axis, t 
 
 are refracted into the point B, ^ .. 
 
 F, which is called the prin- t\ ~" ^ 
 
 cipal focus. In a double and ~BB ,. 
 
 equally convex lens, the dis- K }i^ 
 
 tance of F from C, the centre i 
 
 of the lens, is equal to the radius of the spherical surfaces 
 If the lens is plano-convex, the focal distance is equal to twice 
 the radius of the spherical surface. If the lens is unequal!} 
 convex, its focal distance is found by this rule: Multiply 
 the two radii of its surfaces, and divide twice that product 
 by the sum of the radii ; the quotient will be the focal dis 
 tance required. 
 
 2. When the rays falling on a convex lens, whose princi- 
 pal focus is F, converge li- 
 towards a point O, their 
 convergency will be has- 
 tened, and they will be R- 
 rcfracted into a point O', 
 which is nearer the lens 
 than the principal focus "■ ' 
 F. The two points O nnd O' are called conjugate foci; and 
 they are related to each other in such a manner that C O 
 is a fourth proportional to C O + C F, C O and C F. Hence, 
 when the jwint O is given, the conjugate focus O' will be 
 found by this rule: Multiply the principal focal distance 
 C F by C < >. and divide the product by the sum of thrax 
 numbers. It is obvious that as the distance of O becomes 
 greater, O' approaches to F, and when O is at an infinite 
 distance, O' coincides with F. 
 
 3. Suppose diverging rays issuing from a point O to fa!J 
 on a double concave lens of which the principal focus is F. 
 In this case they will be refracted to a point O' ; and th 
 conjugate foci O and O' are so related that C O' is a fourth 
 
 proportional to C O — C F, C O and C F. Hence O' is founo 
 by the following rule: Multiply the principal focal distance 
 C F by C O, and divide the product by the difference be- 
 tween C O nnd C F. As the point of divergence O recedes 
 from the lens, the point O' approaches nearer to F ; and 
 when O is nt an infinite distance, O' coincides with F. As 
 O approaches the lens, O' recedes from it ; when O is nt F' 
 (the focal distance), the refracted rays become parallel tc 
 the axis; and when O is between F' nnd C, as at M, the re 
 fracted rays diverge in the directions L m, L in'. 
 
 4. The focal distance of a concave lens is the same as that 
 of a convex one whose surfaces have the same curvature, 
 and the rules for finding the conjugate foci are precisely the 
 same ; but the rays, instead of being collected, are scattered 
 by passing through a concave lens, nnd the principal focus 
 is on the same side as the point from which the rays pro- 
 ceed. Parallel rays R L, R C, R L, falling on the concave 
 lens L L in the direction of the nxis, become diverg ;nt, as 
 if they proceeded from F' (the principal focus). Wien the 
 rays which fall on 
 a concave lens 
 converge towards 
 the point F, they 
 are refracted in 
 the direction par- 
 allel to the nxis. 
 When the inci- 
 dent rays converge 
 to a uoint O beyond F, the refracted lays diverge, as If they 
 
 f=57 
 
LENS-SHAPED, LENTICULAR. 
 
 proceeded from a conjugate point O', also farther from the 
 lens than F' ; and when the incident rays converge towards 
 a point M, between C and F, the refracted rays will be con- 
 vergent, and meet in a conjugate point M' on the same side 
 of the lens with M. These conjugate foci are determined 
 by the rules which have been given for convex lenses. 
 Lastly, when the incident rays diverge from a point O', far- 
 ther from the lens than the principal focus, the refracted 
 rays will be more divergent, and proceed as if they ema- 
 nated from a point between the principal focus and the 
 lens. The rule is, in this case, also the same as for convex 
 lenses. 
 
 5. The effect of a meniscus is the same as that of a con- 
 vex lens of the same focal distance ; and that of a concavo- 
 convex lens the same as that of a concave lens of the same 
 focal distance. The principal focal distance is found by this 
 rule : Divide twice the product of the two radii by the dif- 
 ference of the radii. 
 
 6. The above rules for finding the principal and conjugate 
 foci of the several kinds of lenses may be all expressed by 
 two simple algebraic formula;. Let R denote the radius of 
 the anterior surface (or that at which the light enters), S 
 that of the posterior surface, and let R and S be considered 
 as positive when the surfaces are convex, and negative 
 when concave. Also, let F denote the distance of the 
 principal focus, and n the index of refraction ; then, neglect- 
 ing the thickness of the lens as inconsiderable, the formula 
 which gives the principal focus is 
 
 F = („-l)(l+i) (1 .) 
 
 For the conjugate foci of convergent and divergent rays, 
 let U be the distance C O of the focus of the cnterings rays, 
 and V the distance C O' of the focus of the emerging rays ; 
 and let U be considered as negative when the entering rays 
 are divergent, and V negative when the emerging rays are 
 convergent ; then, 
 
 + - = ■=, or V = f7 -^ (2.) 
 
 a 
 
 U— F 
 
 the point F being determined by the formula (1). 
 
 For the application of these formula; to the different cases, 
 and the correction to be made for the thickness of the lens, 
 see Coddington 1 s Treatise on the Reflection and Refraction 
 of lAght. 
 
 In deducing the above rules, it has been assumed that the 
 focus into which the rays are refracted is a mathematical 
 point; but this is not strictly true, unless the rays only fall 
 on (he lens very near its centre, by reason of the spherical 
 aberration. (See Aberration.) For the correction of the 
 chromatic aberration, arising from the unequal refrangibility 
 of the luminous rays, see Achromatism. See also Light, 
 Optics, and Refraction. 
 
 LENS-SHAPED, or LENTICULAR, or LENTIFORM. 
 A term used in describing the general figure of bodies, to 
 denote their resembling a double convex lens ; as the seeds 
 of Ainaranthus. 
 
 LENT. A solemn time of fasting in the Christian Church ; 
 , so called from the Anglo-Saxon signifying spring. The term 
 of Lent comprises the forty days before Easter, by which it 
 is determined. The period of time is intended to commemo- 
 rate the fasting of our Saviour in the wilderness. See 
 Easteii. 
 
 LE'NTE, or LENTO. (Ital.) In Music, a direction to 
 the performer that the music to which the word is prefixed 
 is to be performed slowly. 
 
 LE'NTIBULA'RIA'CEiE. A very small natural order 
 of Herbaceous Exogens, natives of the marshes and waters 
 of all parts of the world. They are nearly allied to Scro- 
 phulariacea, but are distinguished by their free central pla- 
 centa and minute cxalbuminous embryo ; from Primulacece 
 by their irregular flowers, their stamens, and their ovary. 
 The beautiful Pinguicula, a wild plant in marshes, is one 
 of the genera, and Utricularia another. They are of no 
 known use. 
 
 LE'NTICELLES, or LENTICULAR GLANDS. A 
 term invented by De Candolle to denote certain minute 
 speck-like tubercles on stems. Notwithstanding the impor- 
 tance assigned them by this great botanist, his lenticelles 
 appear to be nothing more than the points of roots attempt- 
 ing to spring from the surface of bark. 
 
 LENTTGO. A freckle of the skin ; so named from its 
 resemblance to a lentil seed. 
 
 LF/NZINITE. A hydrated silicate of alumina, found 
 Bt Eifield in Prussia; it is white, translucent, and falls into 
 small hard grains when put into water. 
 
 LE'O. (Lat. a lion.) One of the zodiacal constellations, 
 situated chiefly on the northern side of the ecliptic. The 
 star Regulus, called also Cor I,conis, belongs to this con- 
 stellation. 
 
 LE'O MI'NOR. The Little Lion: a constellation of the 
 northern hemisphere, between Leo nnd Ursa Major. This 
 658 
 
 LEPIDOPTERA. 
 
 constellation has been formed by the moderns, and \a not 
 given in Ptolemy's catalogue. 
 
 LE'ONINE VERSES. Latin verses according to the 
 rules of ancient prosody, but rhymed. The name is said in 
 be derived from one of the popes Leo, or, more probably, 
 from a monk called Leoninus. The end rhymes to the mid- 
 dle, i. e., to the two last syllables before the cresura, in hex 
 ameters; in pentameters, the two divisions arc rhymed 
 The following distich may serve as an example : 
 
 Daemon tanguebat, monaclms tunc ewe voletat : 
 Ast uhi couvaluit, inausit ut aute fuit. 
 
 LE'PADITES, Lepadita. (Gr. Xtwa?, a shellfish.) Goose 
 barnacles ; an order of Cirripeds, comprehending those which 
 have a long, flexible, contractile stem, fixed by its base to 
 some solid body, and supporting at its extremity the princi- 
 pal parts of the animal, enclosed by a multiva'lve shell, or 
 coriaceous case. 
 
 LE'PADOGA'STER. (Gr. Xt;r,ic, and yamnp, stomach.) 
 A genus of Discobolous Malacopterygian fishes, having the 
 following characters: pectoral fins expanded, with stouter 
 rays at their lower edges, which curve slightly forwards, 
 and unite with each other beneath the throat by means of a 
 transverse membrane directed forwards, constituting the 
 boundary of an adhesive disk, close to which there is a 
 second, formed by the union of the ventrals ; body smooth, 
 and without scales ; head broad and depressed ; snout salient 
 and protractile ; branchite slightly cleft, and furnished with 
 four or five rays; dorsal fin single, and opposite to the anal, 
 which is near the tail. Of this genus we possess two native 
 species; one of which, called the Cornish sucker {Lepado- 
 gastcr cornubiensis), was discovered by Dr. Borlase on the 
 coast of Cornwall ; the other (Lepadogastcr bimaculatus) has 
 been taken on different parts of the South Weymouth const. 
 Both species adhere by means of their ventral suckers to 
 rocks, stones, &c, whence the generic name: they feed 
 principally on Crustacea. 
 
 LE'PALS. A term invented to denote stamens that are 
 sterile. It is very rarely used. 
 
 LEPI'CENA. A term invented hy Richard to denote the 
 two empty bracts situated at the base of the locusta of a 
 grass, and usually called glumes. 
 
 LE'PIDOIDS. A family of extinct fossil fishes belonging 
 to the oolitic formation, remarkable for their large rhom- 
 boidal bony scales. Figures of these scales are given in Dr. 
 Buckland's liridgewater Treatise. 
 
 LE'PIDOLITE. (Gr. Xc-tj, a scale, and hOos, stone.) A 
 mineral of granular and foliated texture, moderately hard, 
 of a pinkish colour. It contains lithia. 
 
 LEPIDO'PTERA. (Gr. Xect?, and nrepov, a wing.) The 
 third order of insects in the system of Linnams, and the 
 tenth in that of Latreille, who has given the following con- 
 cise and comprehensive description of the characters com- 
 mon to the insects of this most interesting, useful, and 
 beautiful group. 
 
 The wings are four, covered on both sides with minute 
 generally coloured scales, resembling farinaceous dust, which 
 are removed by merely coming in contact with the finger. 
 The oral apparatus consists principally of a proboscis, to 
 which the name of antlia has been given, which is rolled 
 spirally between two palpi, covered with scales or hairs. 
 This forms the most important part of the mouth, and is the 
 instrument with which these insects extract the nectar from 
 flowers, their only aliment. It is composed of two tubular 
 threads, representing the maxilla, each bearing, near its ex- 
 ternal base, a very small superior palp, in the form of a 
 tubercle. The apparent (inferior) palpi, which form a sort 
 of sheath to the proboscis, replace the labial palpi of the 
 mandibulated insects : they are cylindrical or conical, usually 
 turned up, composed of three joints, and inserted in a fixed 
 labium, which completes that portion of the buccal cavity 
 inferior to the proboscis. Two little and scarcely distinct, 
 corneous, and more or less ciliated pieces, situated, one on 
 each side, on the anterior and superior margin of the front 
 of the head, near the eyes, seem to be vestiges of mandibles. 
 Finally, we observe, nnd under an equally small proportion, 
 the labrum or upper lip. 
 
 The antenna; vary, nnd were always multi-articulated. 
 Two ocelli are observable in several species, but concealed 
 between the scales. The three segments of which the 
 thorax is usually composed are united in one single body ; 
 the first is very short, and the two others are blended to 
 gether. The scutellum is triangular, but the apex is direct 
 ed towards the head. The wings are imply veined, and 
 vary in size, figure, and position; in several the inferior 
 ones are plaited longitudinally near the inner margin. At 
 the base of each of the superior wing's is a kind of epaulette, 
 prolonged posteriorly, which corresponds to the piece called 
 tea-ula in the Hymenoptera. The abdomen, composed of 
 from six to seven annul!, is attached to the thorax by a very 
 small portion of its diameter, and presents neither still), 
 nor ovipositor. In several females, however, as in Qissus 
 the last rings become narrowed and extended, to form at 
 
LEP1D0PUS. 
 
 oviduct resembling a pointed and retractile tail. The tarsi 
 always have five joints. There are never more than two 
 binds of individuals, males and females. 
 
 The females usually deposit their ova, frequently very 
 numerous, on the vegetable surfaces which are to nourish 
 their larvse, and soon after perish. 
 
 The lame of Lepidopterous insects are well known by 
 the name of caterpillars. They have six squamous or hook- 
 ed feet, which correspond to the legs of the perfect insect, 
 and from four to ten additional membranous ones, or pro- 
 pedes , the two last of which are situated at the posterior 
 extremity of the body. Those caterpillars which have but 
 ten or twelve in all have been called, from their mode of 
 progression, gumutra. Several of these geometers, when 
 at rest, remain fixed to the branches of plants by the hind 
 feet alone, whence in the form, colour, and directions of 
 their body, they resemble a twig. They can support them- 
 selves in this position for a long time without exhibiting the 
 slightest symptom of life. So fatiguing an attitude must 
 require prodigious muscular force; and, in fact, Lyonnet 
 counted 4041 muscle* in the caterpillar of the Cossus lig- 
 niperda. 
 
 The body of these larva; is generally elongated, almost 
 cylindrical, soft, variously coloured ; sometimes naked, and 
 nnmntlnm covered with hairs, tubercles, and spines. It is 
 composed of twelve segments or annuli, exclusive of the 
 head, with nine stigmata on each side. Their head is in- 
 vi sicil wiili a corneous or squamous dermis, and presents on 
 each side six shining granules which appear to be ocelli ; 
 and it is furnished with two very short and conical antenna?, 
 and a mouth composed of strong mandibles, two maxilla^ a 
 labriiin, and four small palpi. The silk which they use is 
 elaborated in two long and tortuous internal vessels, of which 
 the attenuated superior extremities terminate in the lip. A 
 tabular and conical niannlla forms the spinnaret through 
 which the threads are spun. 
 
 acrpillnrs feed on the leaves of plants ; some gnnw 
 their (lowers, roots, buds, nnd seeds; others attack the lig- 
 neous or hardest part of trees, softening it by means of a 
 fluid which they disgorge. Certain species attack our wool- 
 lem and furs, thereby doing us much injury", even our 
 leather, bacon, wax, and lard, are not spared by them. 
 Several confine themselves exclusively to a single article of 
 diet ; others are less delicate, and devour all sorts of organ- 
 ./.< .1 matters. 
 
 Bmm of them form societies, and frequently live under a 
 .silken tent, spun by them in common, which even shelters 
 them In winter. Several construct sheaths for themselves, 
 either fixed or portable; others make their abode in the 
 parenchyma of leaves, where they form galleries. The 
 greater number ore diurnal : the others never issue forth but 
 at night. The .severity of winter, so fatal to almost nil insects, 
 dm-s not affect certain Phalanx, which only appear in that 
 season. 
 
 Caterpillars usually change their skin four times previous- 
 -m« into the state of a nymph or chrysalis. Most 
 of them spin a cocoon in which they enclose themselves. 
 A frequently reddish liquor, which Lepidopterous insects 
 eject at the moment of their metamorphosis, softens or 
 weakens the extremity of the cocoon, and facilitates their 
 exit: one of these extremities, also, is generally thinner than 
 the other, or p res e n ts a favourable issue by the peculiar dis- 
 ■l' the fibres. Other caterpillars are contented with 
 connecting leaves, particles of earth, or of the substances 
 on which they have lived, and thus forming a nnl 
 The nymphs of the diurnal Lcpldoptcra are ornamented with 
 golden spots, whence the term chrysalis applied to them : 
 they are nnked, nnd fixed by the posterior extremity of the 
 body. The nymphs of all the Lepidopiera are swathed, or 
 resemble mummies. Those of sever;:l insects of this order, 
 particularly of the Diurnee, undergo their metamorphosis in 
 a few days; they even frequently produce two generations 
 in the course of the year. The caterpillars or chrysalides 
 of others, however, remain during the winter in one of these 
 states, and undergo their final transformation in the ensuing 
 spring. The I.cpidoptera issue from their nymphal en- 
 velope through a slit, which is effected in the back of the 
 thorax. 
 
 LE'PIDOPUS. (Gr. \cirtc, and rove, a foot.) A genus 
 of Tienioid fishes, characterized by the reduction of the 
 ventral fins to the condition of small scaly plates. The thin 
 and elongated body is without scales: it is furnished with a 
 dorsal fm, which Extends its whole length, and a narrow 
 tool fin ; it terminates in a well-formed caudal. The 
 branchiostegous rays are eight in number; the head is point- 
 ed, with a single row of laniary teeth in each jaw, the largest 
 above, and others, very small, on the palatine and pharyn- 
 geal bones. Of this genus one native species is known, 
 tailed the Scabbard-fish (Lepidopus argyreus). It is very 
 rare : only four examples are recorded by Mr. Yarrell, which 
 were taken on the southern shores. 
 
 LEPIDOTU8. In Palaeontology, the name of a fossil fish, 
 
 LEPUS. 
 
 distinguished by its large, thick, rhomboidal, enamelled 
 scales, and its hemispherical or obtusely conical teeth : its 
 remains are widely diffused through the wealden formation. 
 
 Lepidotus. In Botany, Latin term for leprous. 
 
 LE'l'IS. (Gr. Aezij, a scale.) A scale or scurf, consisting 
 of a thin transparent membrane attached by its middle, and, 
 owing to the imperfect union towards its circumference of 
 the cellular tissue of which it is composed, having a lacer- 
 ated irregular margin. It gives origin to the adjective Le 
 pidote. 
 
 LEPI'SMA. (Gr. Atn-io-^ia, decortication.) A Li: ■ 
 genus of Apterous insects, forming the first family of Thy- 
 sanourous insects in the system of Latrcille. The bodv of 
 these apterans is elongated, and covered with small scales, 
 frequently silvery and brilliant ; from which circumstance 
 the most common species has been compared to a little fish. 
 The antenna; are setaceous, and usually very long. The feet 
 are short, and frequently have very large and strongly com- 
 pressed coxa;, resembling scales. These insects run with 
 great velocity : some of them, by means of their caudal ap- 
 pendage, are enabled to leap. Several species conceal them 
 selves in the cracks of the framework of windows, in ward- 
 robes, under damp boards, &c. : others hide beneath stones. 
 
 Lepisma. In Botany, a term sometimes applied to the 
 cup-shaped disk of JVont'a and Jlconitum; but seldom em- 
 ployed. 
 
 LEPI'SMIDiE. The family of Thygnnourous insects, or 
 which the genus Lepisma is the type. It includes the genera 
 I.cpisma proper, and Mnchilcs. See those wotd.x. 
 
 I.KI'O'KIDiE. The hare tribe, or the family of Rodents, 
 of which the genus I.cpus is the type. 
 
 LE'PRA. (Gr. \c-npoc, rough.) The leprosy; a disease 
 of the skin, characterized by scaly patches, nearly of a cir- 
 cular form. The cuticle becomes reddish and scaly ; at first 
 upon some one spot, often u|>on the knee, nnd thence grad- 
 ually spreads over the body, which becomes still' and un 
 comfortable, and most unseemly in appearance. Friction, 
 warm baths, sulphur baths, and afterwards slightly stimu- 
 lating ointments, such as pitch ointment, or weak citrine oint- 
 ment, with light and moderate diet, and careful abstinence 
 from wine and stimulants, are the principnl means of cure. 
 This disease appears to have been of much more frequent 
 occurrence in ancient than in modem t. tin - : but it is gen- 
 erally believed that the lepers mentioned in the snered :iiul 
 profane authors were afflicted with a dta rise resembling 
 more that known by the name of elephantiasis than leprosy. 
 
 LEPTOCE'PHALANS. I.eptocephalidas. (Gr. Xtrro's, 
 slender ; Kt<pu\r), a head.) The name of a family of fishes 
 characterized by the smallness of the head, of which the 
 genus J.eptocephalus is the type. 
 
 LEPTOCETHALUS. A genus of Apodal Malncoptery 
 ginn fishes, in the system of Cuvier, characterized by a very 
 small and short head, and n remarknbly compressed and 
 delicate body: the pectoral fins nnd branchial apertures "ate 
 very small ; the dorsal and anal fins are narrow, and united 
 at the point of the tail. One species of this rare and singu 
 lar genus was discovered near Holyhead, and was described 
 by Gronovius under the generic name of Ltytoctphalus, in 
 reference to the diminutive size of the head. The Leptoce 
 phali are more common in the seas of hot climates. 
 
 LEPTU'RA. (Gr. Atirn's, slender ; oipa,atail.) A Lin 
 nrenn genus of Longicorn beetles, now the type of on exten 
 sive family (L.epturida), in which the eyes arc rounded nnd 
 entire, or, if slightly emarginate, with the antenna: inserted 
 before the cmnrginntion. The head is always inclined pos- 
 teriorly behind the eyes, oris abruptly contracted at its junc- 
 tion with the thorax, in the manner of a neck; the thorax is 
 conical or trapezoidal, narrowed anteriorly ; the elytra be- 
 come gradually narrower. The term Leptura is now re- 
 stricted to those Lepturidans in which the head is abruptly 
 narrowed immediately behind the eyes; the antenna; insert- 
 ed near the anterior extremity of the internal cmnrginntion 
 of the eyes, the two eminences from which they rise being 
 almost confounded in one plane. The thorax 13 almost al- 
 ways smooth, or without lateral tubercles. 
 
 LE'PUS. (Lat. a hare.) A genus of Rodents peculiarly 
 distinguished by having their superior incisors double ; t. «., 
 each of them has a smoller one behind it. The molar teeth 
 are also more numerous than in most other Rodentia, there 
 being six on each side of the upper jaw, and five on each 
 side of the lower jaw : the ears arc very long, the tail short 
 and turned up. The species of this gcnus*nre called hares 
 and rabbits. The eyes are large and prominent, and, with 
 the well-developed ears, serve to announce to these timid 
 and defenceless animals remote objects and sounds of peril : 
 the strength and proportions of the limbs, of which the hind 
 pair is much longer than the fore, enable them to escape by 
 rapid flight. The smaller species, as the rabbit, add to tneu 
 means of safety by burrowing in the soil. Among the ana- 
 tomical characters of the genus Lepus may be reckoned the 
 rudimental condition of the clavicles, and the r< ticulate bony 
 structure of the infra-orbital spaces. 
 
 C59 
 
LERNiEIFORMES. 
 
 .L.EFUS. The Hare. In Astronomy, one of the forty-eight 
 ancient constellations of Ptolemy, situated in the southern 
 hemisphere. 
 
 LERN.*EIFO'RMES. (Lat. lernasa, a parasitic worm ; 
 forma, form.) The name of a family of Siphonostomous 
 Crustaceans, comprehending those with a long vermiform 
 body. 
 
 LERNE'A. (Gr. Xtpvain, a name of the hydra.) A Lin- 
 neean genus of low-organized crustaceous animals, all of 
 which are external parasites of fishes, and constitute the class 
 Epiioa of modern systems. 
 
 LE ROI LE VEUT. (Fr. the sovereign wills it, or as- 
 lents.) A form of words by which the royal assent is inti- 
 mated by the clerk of parliament to the passing of public 
 bills. To private bills the royal assent is expressed by Soti 
 fait comme il est desiri. The dissent of the sovereign to the 
 passing of any measure is signified by the words JLe roi 
 s'avisera. See Parliament. 
 
 LE'SSONS (Lat. lego, / read), are certain portions of the 
 scriptures read in most Christian churches during divine ser- 
 vice, the performance of which in the ancient church de- 
 volved, among other duties, on the catechumen. 'In the 
 English Church, the course of lessons begins with the year 
 at the book of Genesis, and, with the omission of the two 
 books of Chronicles, continues through the Old Testament, 
 including portions of the Apocrypha. 
 
 In the second lessons, as they are called, the same course 
 Is followed with the New Testament. In the Presbyterian 
 Church, the word lesson, in this sense, is unknown, though 
 the practice of reading a portion of scripture is almost uni- 
 versally adopted ; but the selection of Uie passage is left to 
 the choice of the officiating clergyman. 
 
 LESTRIS. (Lat. a robber.) A subgenus of Gulls, separ- 
 ated from the Lams proper on account of their large mem- 
 branous nostrils opening nearer the point and edge of the 
 beak, and their tail being pointed. They pursue the small 
 gulls with singular pertinacity and boldness to rob them of 
 their food ; and hence their name. 
 
 LE'THARGY. (Gr. \nOn,forgetfulness.) A heavy un- 
 natural slumber, sometimes bordering upon apoplexy, from 
 which persons are difficultly roused. It sometimes arises 
 from a plethoric state of habit, in which case it requires de- 
 pletion ; but it often also is a symptom of over fatigue of 
 mind, and then nervous remedies are indicated. 
 
 LE'THE. (Gr. Xr,dri.) In Greek Mythology, the River 
 of Oblivion : one of the streams of the infernal regions. Its 
 waters possessed the quality of causing those who drank 
 them to forget the whole of their former existence. In the 
 sixth book of Virgil's JEneid, the shades of the departed, 
 after fulfilling their various destinies in the infernal regions 
 during a thousand years, are brought to drink of the water 
 of Lethe, as a preparation for their transmigration into new 
 todies. 
 
 Has omnes. obi mille rotam volvere per annos, 
 Leihseuni ad fiuvium deus evocat nomine niagno ; 
 Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisaat, 
 Rursus el incipiaut in corpora velle reverti. 
 
 The beautiful verses of Milton are well knowu: 
 
 Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 
 Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
 Her watery labyrinth : whereof whoso drinks 
 Straightway his former sense and being forgets — 
 ForgetB both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 
 
 Nor is the " slow and silent stream" less exquisitely de- 
 scribed by Dante : 
 
 Tutte l'acque, che son di la piu monde, 
 Parrieno avere in se mistura alcuna 
 Verso di quelln, che nulla nasconde ; 
 Avvegnache si muova brum bruna 
 Sotto J'ombra perpetua, che mai 
 Raggiar non lascia sole iff, ne luna. 
 
 Geographers have placed the river Lethe (that is, its sup- 
 posed itsue on the surface of the earth) in Bceotia, near Leb- 
 adea, in Crete, and on the coast of Africa. There was also 
 a river of oblivion (limia oblivionis) in Spain, now the Lima. 
 
 LETTER. (Lat. litera.) A character used to express 
 one of the simple sounds of the voice. Letters properly com- 
 bined form the visible signs of those sounds by which we 
 communicate our ideas. What letters were originally, who 
 first invented them, and among what people they were pri- 
 marily used, are still questions of profound obscurity. Philo, 
 says the Ency. Brit., attributes this great and noble inven- 
 tion to Abraham ; St. Irenajus and others to Enoch ; Bibli- 
 andor to Adam ; Eusebius, Clemens Alexandrinus, Cornelius 
 Agrippa, and others, to Moses; Pomponius Mela, Herodian, 
 Rufus Festus, Pliny, Lucan, and others, to the Phoenicians ; 
 St. Cyprian to Saturn ; Plato and Tacitus to the Egyptians ; 
 »me to the Ethiopians, and others to the Chinese, who can- 
 not possibly be entitled to this honour, since all their charac- 
 ters are the signs of simple ideas, and have nothing in com- 
 mon with letters. Various, also, are the conjectures con- 
 cerning the 'different kinds of letters used in different lan- 
 guages. Thus, Moses is supposed by Crinitus to have invent- 
 660 
 
 LEVEL. 
 
 ed the Hebrew letters; Abraham the Syriac and Chaldeic; 
 the Phoenicians those of Attica ; Nicostrata the Roman ; IsU 
 the Egyptian ; and Vulfilas those of the Goths. All thesa 
 statements, however, are purely conjectural, and it would 
 be vain to examine the foundation on which they are based. 
 Letters are distinguished by grammarians into vowels, and 
 consonants (which latter are again subdivided into mutes 
 and liquids), and diphthongs, according to the organ employ- 
 ed in their pronunciation. See Alphabet, Lasguaoe. 
 
 Letter, in Printing, is the usual term for an aggregate 
 quantity of types in a printing office ; as when a work is pn.! 
 in hand, and there happens to be a great quantity of type c * 
 the proper sort unemployed, it is usual to say "there is plenty 
 of letter;" and, on the contrary, "there isa scarcity of letter. " 
 
 LETTER OF CREDIT. A letter wiitten by one mer- 
 chant or correspondent to another, requesting him to credit 
 the bearer with a certain sum of money. The bearer should 
 be described with as many particulars as possible, lest the 
 letter fall improperly into other hands. 
 
 LETTER OF LICENSE. An instrument by which cred- 
 itors allow a party who has failed in his trade, time for pay- 
 ment of debts and management of affairs. 
 
 LETTER OF ATTORNEY. A document by which a 
 party gives another, named therein, power to do certain law- 
 ful acts in his stead, the party so authorized being called his 
 attorney ; such as to give seisin of lands, sue, or receive 
 rents, debts, and dividends. 
 
 LE'TTERS OF MARQUE. See Marque. 
 
 LE'TTERS PATENT, or LETTERS OVERT, in Law, 
 are letters of the king, open, but sealed at the foot with the 
 great seal of England, conferring some privilege whereby a 
 party is enabled to do or enjoy that which otherwise he could 
 not. Such are letters patent to make denizens, to protect 
 inventions, &c. 
 
 LEU'CIN. (Gr. Xcvko;, white.) A white pul verulent sub- 
 stance, obtained by the action of dilute sulphuric acid .<n 
 muscular fibre. It combines with nitric acid, forming the 
 nitro-leucic acid. 
 
 LEU'CITE. (Gr. Xcvkos.) A crystallized mineral of a 
 gray or white colour, generally opaque, and something rescm 
 bling the garnet in form. It usually occurs in lava, especially 
 in that of Vesuvius ; hence it is also termed Vcsuvian and 
 volcanic garnet. 
 
 LEUCO'MA. A white opacity of the cornea of the eye, 
 arising from inflammation. 
 
 LEUCOPE'TRIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, the name 
 of a fanatical sect of Christians which sprang up in the Greek 
 and Eastern churches towards the close of the 12th century. 
 The tenets which they embraced were peculiarly strict ; 
 while they rejected all the outward ceremonies of religion, 
 and spent their whole time in prayer and supplication to the 
 Deity. They derived their name and origin from an enthu- 
 siast, Leucopetrus, of whom little is known beyond his name. 
 
 LEU'COPHLEGMATIC. A pallid, flabby state of body. 
 
 LEVA'NT (It. levante, rising), in Geography, is applied 
 in a general sense to any country situated to the eastward of 
 us, or in the eastern part of any continent or country ; but, in 
 a more contracted signification, it is given to that part of the 
 Mediterranean Sea bounded by Asia Minor on the north, 
 Syria and Palestine on the east, Egypt and Barca on the 
 south, and by the island of Candia and the rest of the Medi- 
 terranean on the west. 
 
 LEVA'RI FACIAS. In Law, a writ of execution direct- 
 ed to the sheriff, whereby he is commanded to levy a sum 
 of money upon the lands and tenements, goods and chattels, 
 of a man who has forfeited his recognizances. It is super- 
 seded in practice by the writ of elegit, except in cases of out- 
 lawry. 
 
 LEVA'TOR MUSCLES. Those which lift the part to 
 which they are attached. 
 
 LE'VEE (Fr. lever, to rise), is the term used in court 
 language for the ceremonial visits which distinguished per- 
 sonages receive in the morning ; or, as the word implies, at 
 their rising. It is chiefly applied in this country to the stated 
 public occasions on which her majesty receives visits from 
 such of her subjects as are entitled by rank or fortune to the 
 honour. The difference between a levee and n drawing-room 
 consists in this, that while, at the former, gentlemen alono 
 appear (with the exception of the chief ladies of the court), 
 both ladies and gentlemen are admitted to the latter. 
 
 LEVEE EN MASSE. (Fr., literally a universal rising.) 
 A military expression for the rising of a whole people to de- 
 fend their country from invasion. In Germany it is styled 
 landsturm, in contradistinction to the landwehr or militia 
 (quod vide) ; and there, as in Spain and Tyrol, its efforts 
 have often proved instrumental in rescuing the country from 
 foreign invasion. 
 
 LE'VEL. An instrument which shows the direction of 
 a straight line parallel to the plane of the horizon. 
 
 The plane of the sensible horizon is indicated in two ways . 
 by the direction of the plummet or plumb-line, to which it is 
 perpendicular ; and by the surface of a fluid at rest. Ac- 
 
LEVELLERS. 
 
 cordingly, levels are formed either by means of the plumb- 
 line, or by the agency of a fluid applied in gome particular 
 manner. They all depend upon the same principle, namely, 
 the action of terrestrial gravity. 
 
 Level* in which the plumb-line forms the essential part 
 are those most usually employed for the common purposes 
 required by bricklayers, masons, carpenters, ice. They are 
 constructed under many different forms, but the genera! 
 principle is as follows : A frame or board is prepared, having 
 one edge perfectly straight, and a straight line is drawn on 
 'he frame at right angles to the straight edge. To some point 
 ii this straight line a thread carrying a plummet is attached ; 
 consequently, when the frame is placed in such a position 
 Hint the tnn:ad of Uie plummet, hanging freely, coincides 
 with ihe straight line, the straight edge of the frame, which 
 is perpendicular to it, must be horizontal. See Plummet. 
 
 The Jjrtillaig Foot Level, and the Gunner's Level, besides 
 the line and plummet, have a scale fc*" showing the inclina- 
 tion of a straight line to the horizon. The former has two 
 equal legs or branches placed 
 at right angles ; and from their 
 point of junction a thread and 
 plummet hangs, and plays 
 over a quadrant divided into 
 twice 45° from the middle. 
 The plane or lira on which 
 ends rest is horizontal when the thread fulls 
 >ver the zero point of the scale; and when it falls over any 
 ither point, the degree marked on the scale indicate ■ the In- 
 filiation of the line to the horizon. The gunner's level is 
 uiie principle, though differently constructed; the 
 Jiri id nr plummet being replaced by a solid piece of brass, 
 loaded at the lower end, and the legs, or rather tile edges, 
 ■f the brass plate making an angle of 45°. It is used in the 
 •DM manner as the former. 
 
 Spirit Level. — By far the most convenient and also the 
 oost accurate level is the spirit level, represented in the an- 
 nexed figure ; " Which is nothing 
 . more than a glass tube nearly 
 3H1^ filled with a liquid (spirit of wine 
 being now generally used, on ac- 
 count of its mobility, and not being liable to freeze), the bub- 
 ble ih which, when the tube is placed horizontally, would 
 rest indilferently in any part If the lube could be made math- 
 ematically straight; but that being Impossible to execute, 
 and every tube having some slight curvature, If the convex 
 fide be placed upward-; the bubble will occupy the higher 
 part, as in the figure (where the curvature is purposely ex- 
 aggerated). Suppose such a tube as A I? firmly fastened on 
 a straight bar (.' 1), and marked at 
 a b, two point* distant bj tl 
 of the bubble; then, if tli 
 melit be so placed that the bubble 
 shall occupy this interval, it is clear that C I) can have no 
 other than one definite inclination to the horizon ; because, 
 were it ever so little moved one way or other, the bubble 
 would shift its place, and run towards the elevated side. 
 Suppose now that we would ascertain whether any given 
 line 1" ft be horizontal : let the base of the level C D I 
 upon it, nnd note the points a b, between which the bubble 
 is exactly contained ; then turn the level end for end, so thai 
 C shall rest on ft, and D on P : if then the bubble continue 
 'a occupy the same place between a and b, it is evident that 
 P ft can be no otherwise than horizontal ; if not, the side 
 towards which the bubble runs is highest, and must he 
 lowered. Astronomical levels are furnished with a divided 
 scale, by which the places of the ends of the bubble can be 
 nicely marked." (HerscheTs Astronomy, p. 92.) 
 
 The accuracy of the indications of the level depends in a 
 considerable degree on the regularity of the interior surfaces 
 of the tube. They are commonly made of glass tubes in the 
 same state as they are obtained at the glass-house ; but 
 when very great accuracy is required, as in astronomical ob- 
 servations, the interior surfaces are sometimes ground so as 
 to give them a regular cylindrical, or rather spindle form, 
 with a slight spherical curvature. The tube and bubble 
 must be of considerable length. The larger the bubble, the 
 more freely it moves, and, consequently, the more sensible is 
 the level to a small inclination. With proper care they can 
 be executed, it is said, with such delicacy as to indicate a 
 single second of angular deviation from exact horizon- 
 tal ity. 
 
 I.C'VELLERS. In English History, a party which arose 
 in the army of the Long Parliament, about the time when 
 it overawed that assembly, and transferred the king to Hamp- 
 ton Court, in 1647. The Levellers professed, what their name 
 implied, a determination to level all ranks, and establish an 
 equality in titles and estates throughout the kingdom. Sev- 
 eral of the officers belonging to this party were cashiered in 
 1049 ; and on Cromwell's departure for Ireland in the end 
 of that year, they raised mutinies in various quarters occu- 
 iiicd by tiie army, and were out down by Fairfax with some 
 
 LEVELLING. 
 
 bloodshed. John Lilbume, one of the chiefs of the faction— 
 of whom it was said that, " if none but he were left alive in 
 the world, John would quarrel with Lilbume" — published, 
 in 1649, his Manifestation from J. Lilburne and others, styled 
 Levellers. (See Clarendon, books x. and xii. ; Godwin'! 
 History of the Commonwealth.) 
 
 LEVELLING STAVES. Instruments used with the 
 spirit level, for supporting a mark, and showing, at the same 
 time, its height above the ground. As constructed by 
 Troughton, they consist of three sliding rods of mahogany, 
 each about four feet long, and divided into feet nnd hun- 
 dredths. They carry each a circular sliding vane, having 
 at the lower edge a square aperture, one side of which is 
 levelled ; and a line on the levelled side 
 denotes the reading of the staff. The face 
 of the vane is made of white holly, with 
 an inlaid lozenge of ebony, forming at 
 once a conspicuous object, and one easy 
 of bisection, in levelling, the vane must 
 be moved up or down till the horizontal 
 wire of the telescope bisects the acute an- 
 gle of the lozenge, as shown in the figure. 
 As the line on the levelled edge at a de- 
 notes the reading of the staff, n piece 
 equal in length to the distance a b is cut 
 off from the bottom of the stall", or, rather, the divisions com 
 mence at that number of inches above zero. (Simms'i 
 Treatise on Mathematical Instruments, 1834.) 
 
 LEVELLING. A branch of surveying, which has for 
 its object to discover how much any assigned point is 
 higher than ■ rned point above a level surface 
 
 or such a surface as water would assume when perfectly 
 at rest. 
 
 In ordinary cases of levelling (for example, for canals. 
 railroads, &c.) the instruments commonly employed are a 
 spirit level attached to a telescope, nnd a pair of staves. 
 (See Levellino Staves.) Suppose that the difference of 
 level between A and B is to 
 be found : the stn\ i 
 placed successively at A, c, 
 &c. ; the intervals not > \- 
 ceeding 40*1 yards, on ac- 
 count of the curvature of 
 the earth, and the levelling instrument placed between, at 
 equal distances, to avoid corrections for refraction. It is 
 then directed backward* to the first stafT, A D, and next for- 
 ward to tlie si i mhI, (' E; and, at each observation, the di- 
 vision on the staff, or the height at which the visual rnv 
 meets it, is noted. The difference of the heights— that i-, C 
 E, A D — is the height of the higher station above the lower. 
 The hindmost staff, and the levelling instrument, are now 
 canicd forward to a new position, and the back nnd fore 
 observations repeated ; and soon till the operation is com 
 pleted. Then the difference between the sum of the heights 
 measured in the back observations, and the sum of the 
 heights measured in the fore observations, will give the 
 height of the one extreme station above the other. 
 
 But, in extensive (array*, it is often necessary to place the 
 levelling staves at much greater distances from each other 
 than 300 or 400 yards. In which case allowance must be 
 made for the earth's curvature. Let D u A H 
 A D' represent the arc of a great circle ~X 
 of the earth's surface, and A the place of /" 
 nn observer. All the points in this arc 
 are in Ihe same level ; but the line of 
 sight indicated by the level is a tangent c 
 
 to the circumference at A, and, consequently, objects B B 
 in this line, will appear in the same level with A, though 
 they are really elevated above it by the distances B D, B' D\ 
 intercepted on the radii between the arc and the tangent. 
 Now, from the nature of the circle AB2=BD (2CD+B 
 D) ; but, in all cases of actual levelling, the arc A D is very 
 small in comparison of the whole circumference, conse- 
 quently the square of B D may be neglected, and the arc 
 substituted for the tangent: we have then, for the value of 
 
 B D, this expression, B D= — - ; that is to say. the de- 
 pression of the true level below the apparent level is equal 
 to the square of the distance divided by twice the radius of 
 the curvature of the earth. Supposing the diameter of the 
 earth to be 7916 miles, and A D = l mile; we shall have B 
 D equal to the l-791Gth of a mile, or 8004 inches. At the 
 distance of 2 miles, the corrccion will be four times thrs 
 quantity, or 32016 inches; and so on, increasing as the 
 square of the distance. It is most convenient to reckon both 
 the distances and the corresiwnding depressions in feet an*i 
 decimals of a foot ; in which case the correction becomes 
 
 7916 X 5°80 ^ ^* 2 ' t0 ' )e subtracted from the apparent or 
 observed level, in order to obtain the true. The following 
 table shows the depression in feet and decimals of a foot, 
 
 661 
 
LEVER. 
 
 ior me dilfcrent distances therein stated, the mean diameter 
 of the earth being assumed = 7916 miles: 
 
 Distance. 
 
 Depression. 
 
 Distance 
 
 Depression. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Mtf£t« 
 
 Fed. 
 
 iro 
 
 002 It 
 
 1 
 
 0-667 
 
 200 
 
 00S6I 
 
 i 
 
 2-669 
 
 300 
 
 0-01933 
 
 3 
 
 6 006 
 
 400 
 
 003415 
 
 4 
 
 10-677 
 
 500 
 
 0053S3 
 
 5 
 
 16-6S3 
 
 600 
 
 07752 
 
 6 
 
 24-024 
 
 700 
 
 0-10551 
 
 7 
 
 32-699 
 
 EDO 
 
 0-I37SI 
 
 8 
 
 42-709 
 
 900 
 
 017441 
 
 9 
 
 54-054 
 
 1000 
 
 0-21533 
 
 10 
 
 66-733 
 
 1100 
 
 0-26055 
 
 11 
 
 80-747 
 
 1200 
 
 3 OOS 
 
 1-2 
 
 96095 
 
 1300 
 
 36390 
 
 13 
 
 112-779 
 
 1400 
 
 0-42205 
 
 14 
 
 130-796 
 
 1500 
 
 0-48449 
 
 15 
 
 150.150 
 
 1600 
 
 0-55124 
 
 16 
 
 170-836 
 
 LE'VER. In Mechanics, an inflexible rod movable about 
 a fulcrum or prop, and having forces applied to two or 
 more points in it. The lever is one of the mechanical 
 powers ; and, being the simplest of them all, was the first 
 that was attempted to be explained. Its properties are treat- 
 ed of by Aristolle ; but the first accurate explanation was 
 given by Archimedes, in his Treatise Dc Equiponderant ibus. 
 
 In treating of the lever, it is convenient to distinguish the 
 forces applied to it by different names. One is usually call- 
 ed the power, the other the weight or resistance. 
 
 Lovers are commonly divided into three kinds, according 
 (1.) (2.) 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 to the relative i 
 
 (3.) 
 
 3. 
 
 v.'.i 
 
 sitions of the power, the weight, and the 
 fulcrum. In a lever of the first kind, 
 (fig. 1), the fulcrum F is between the 
 j, power P and the weight W. In a Ie- 
 3" ver of the second kind (fig. 2), the 
 weight W is between the fulcrum F 
 and the power «'. In a lever of the third kind (fig. 3), the 
 power P is between the fulcrum F and the weight W. 
 
 The general principle of the lever is, that when the pow- 
 er and weight are in equilibrio, they are to each other in- 
 versely as their distances from the fulcrum. This property 
 is almost an obvious consequence from the principle of vir- 
 tual velocities ; but it may be deduced from more familiar 
 considerations. Let A B be a cylinder or bar of homogene- 
 ous matter. If supported from the middle, O, the two ends 
 would evidently balance each other, and the pressure at O 
 would be the same as if the whole 
 matter of the bar were concentra- 
 ted in that point. Suppose it to 
 consist of two parts, A C and B C, 
 these again would be separately 
 supported at their middle points D and E ; or the whole of 
 the matter in A C may be conceived to be concentrated at 
 D, and the whole of that in B C at E, and the equilibrium 
 would not be disturbed. Hence the weight of A C attached 
 at D, and the weight of B C attached at E, would balance 
 the inflexible line D E, if supported at O, the centre of the 
 whole bar A B. But O D = AO-AD = J AB-UC 
 = £BC; and OE=OB-EB = | AB-JCB=fAC; 
 consequently, O D Is to O E as B C to A C ; or O D is to O 
 E as the weight concentrated at E to the weight concentra- 
 ted at D. This demonstration is commonly ascribed to Ar- 
 chimedes. (Maclaurin's Account of Newton's Principia.) 
 
 This proposition shows the advantage obtained bv using 
 the levet as a mechanical engine. The arm P F (fig. 1), is 
 commonly longer than W F, and, consequently, when there 
 is equilibrium the weight exceeds the power. The propor- 
 tion in which the weight exceeds the power is called the 
 mechanical advantage, or purchase. Suppose P F (figs. 1 
 and 2) —4 feet, and W F = l foot; then a power of "I lb. 
 acting at P will overcome a resistance of 4 lbs. at W. 
 
 Suppose the lever with the weights P and W to turn round 
 the fulcrum, the two points to which P and W are attach- 
 ed will describe arcs proportional to the radii F P, F W ; 
 consequently, the power P is to the weight W as the velo- 
 city of the weight to the velocity of the power. Therefore 
 in this, as in all mechanical engines, when a small power 
 raises a great weight, the velocity of the power is much 
 greater than the velocity of the weight ; and what is gained 
 in force is therefore said to be lost in time. 
 
 When the power and the weight do not act on the lever 
 in directions perpendicular to its length, or when the arms 
 of the lever are not in the same straight line, or are bent, 
 then the power and the weight are not to each other recip- 
 rocally as the arms of the lever, but as the straight lines 
 drawn from the fulcrum perpendicular to the respective di- 
 rections in which the power and the weight take efTect 
 662 
 
 LEVIATHAN. 
 
 Examples of the application of the lever are of constan* 
 occurrence in the mechanical arts. The crowbar, the hand- 
 spike, the poker, scissors, nippers, pincers, &c, are levers of 
 the first kind ; the toothed hammer is only a bent lever of 
 this kind. The second kind includes the chipping knife, 
 nut-crackers, the common door, oars and rudders, the wheel- 
 barrow, &c. To levers of the third kind belong the sheep 
 shears, the treddle of the turning lathe, tongs," &c. '. these 
 have a mechanical disadvantage, but admit of a proportion- 
 ally wider motion. The bones of animals are generally le 
 vers of this sort. The socket of the bone is the fulcrum ; a 
 strong muscle attached to it near the socket is the pow er , 
 and the weight of the limb, with whatever resistance is op- 
 posed to its ntation, is the weight. A very moderate i on 
 traction of the muscle thus gives considerable motion to the 
 limb. 
 
 From the principle of the lever is deduced the distribution 
 of pressure in the case of a pole bearing an intermediate 
 weight. If the weight hang from the middle, the carriers 
 will share the burden alike ; but if a load is laid over the 
 pole, and a vertical from its centre of gravity divides the 
 length unequally, as will be the case on altering the inclina- 
 tion of the pole (for example, in climbing a hill), then the 
 bearer nearest to whom the vertical falls suffers a greater 
 strain than the other. 
 
 Universal Lever, is the name given to a machine formed 
 of a combination of the lever with the wheel and axle, the 
 object of which is to give a continued rectilinear motion to 
 a heavy body by means of the reciprocating motion of the 
 lever. F G H is a straight line, whose centre of motion b 
 at G. At the extremity of 
 its shorter arm hang two 
 bars, the former of which 
 has a hook to catch into the 
 teeth of the wheel A C D, 
 while the latter has its end 
 bent in order to slide over 
 the outer parts of those 
 teeth. The axle A has a 
 cord wound round it, to the 
 end of which, is attached 
 the weight W. Now sup- 
 pose the end II of the lever 
 to be raised from H to I, while the other end descends from 
 F to B ; the bar F E will then push the tooth E of the 
 wheel to C, while the hook D slides over an equal space on 
 the other side of the wheel. On bringing down again the 
 end of the lever from I to H, the other extremity ascends 
 through B F, and the hook D raises up the left-hand side oi 
 the wheel through a space equal to E C. Thus the recip- 
 rocating motion of the lever is made to communicate a con- 
 tinued rotatory motion to the wheel, and, consequently, to 
 lift the weight W suspended from its axle by the cord. 
 The universal lever has long been employed in saw-milts, 
 for the purpose of drawing along the logs to the saw. 
 (Gregory'.* .Mechanics, vol. ii.) 
 
 LEVIATHAN. The name of a great marine animal in 
 the Book of Job, described in chapter xli., which was cov- 
 ered with close-joined or confluent scales, and had the jaws, 
 or " doors of the face," armed with terrible teeth round 
 about. Some naturalists have supposed that the crocodile 
 might be the subject of the sacred poet's allusions; but the 
 '' breath that kindleth coals" could scarcely be suggested 
 by the respiratory actions of a cold-blooded reptile. The 
 same objection applies to the opinion that the leviathan of 
 Job was the extinct megalosaurus ; with this additional dif 
 Acuity, that the megalosaurus was a terrestrial reptile, as 
 the large medullary cavities of its bones prove; while ol" 
 the leviathan it is said that " He maketh the deep to boil 
 like a pot; he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment ; he 
 maketh a path to shine after him ; one would think the 
 deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not his like." 
 These expressions accord well with the violent and impetu- 
 ous exertions of a huge cetacean in his nntive element ; and 
 the verse, " Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of 
 seething-pot or cauldron," docs not inaptly figure the 
 " blowing" of a whale. The teeth of either the cachalot 
 or grampus might well be termed terrible ; and their exter- 
 nal epidermic covering, if considered as analogous to (he 
 scales of fishes, would have its distinguishing peculiarities 
 correctly defined by the following expressions: " His :cale3 
 are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is 
 so near another that no air can come between them. They 
 are joined one to another, they stick together, thnj cannot be 
 sundered." — (Verses 15, 16, 17.) Many persons in t»t have 
 witnessed the phenomena of the luminosity of the sen on 
 our own coasts, where it is usually feeble in comparison 
 with that produced in the warmer latitudes of the Mediter- 
 ranean, or in the tropics. The phenomena which natural 
 rats and voyagers have described as being produced by the 
 swimming and blowing of the cetaceous animals in a phos 
 phorescent ocean, during the night, might likewise hav« 
 
 
LEVIGAT10N. 
 
 suggested the dtscription of the Are and sparks that escape 
 from the mouth of the leviathan, and of the shining path 
 that be leaves behind him in the deep. 
 
 LEVIGA'TiON. (Lat. l.-evus, smooth.) The p 
 reducing substances to a state of fine mechanical division, 
 by mixing them, previously powdered, with water or some 
 oilier fluid, and rubbing the paste upon a hard smooth slab, 
 with the Hat luce of a stone called the muller. The paste 
 is then often stirred into a large vessel of water, whore the 
 Coarser powder first fulls, and the finer remains suspended, 
 and is afterwards collected by pouring it off with the water, 
 and sutieiiug it slowly to subside. In this way, by repeated 
 subsidences, powders of very different degrees of fineness 
 are obtained. 
 
 LE'VITES. The descendants of Levi, one of the twelve 
 if Jacob, to whom no distinct territory was allotted in 
 the land of Canaan, as to the other tribes; but who were 
 set apart for the ministration of the religious services 
 throughout the country, and had forty cities, situated in va- 
 rious parts of Palestine, peculiarly appropriated to their res- 
 idence. Tile law of Moses commanded the tenth of the 
 table produce of the land, and also of the cattle, to be 
 lo them; of this a tenth was set apart for the priests, 
 iant.s the Lsvites were. When God destroyed 
 the first-born of the Egyptians, lie appointed that the first- 
 born males o>" the Israelites should be "set apart unto him- 
 self" (Exod. xiii.), in commemoration of the immunity from 
 that visitation which was vouchsafed to the chosen (>eople. 
 Afterwards it is recorded that, upon the sons of Levi dil 
 covering an extraordinary zeal against idolatry, in the 
 of the golden calf (Exod. xx.ui.), the religious offices of the 
 first born were assigned as an honourable privilege to that 
 The priests were confined to the family of Aaron, 
 who. with Moses his brother, were both of the tribe of Levi. 
 Foi tin: cla.-ses of which the Levite.s were composed, their 
 olhns, |inv, particularly Numb, iii., iv., viii. ; 
 
 ' (iron, xxiii.-x.wi. 
 
 LE'VYNE (so called from Levy, the crystallographcr). 
 A crystallized mineial found in [reload, Faroe, aui 
 where, closely allied lo the zeolites. It is a hydraled nlu- 
 
 aICO'LOGY, or LEXICOGRAPHY. (Gr. Xfju, a 
 word or phrase, and Xoyoft description.) A word used by 
 some writers lo express tiiat branch of philology which 
 treats of words alone, independently of their grammatical 
 and rhetorical uses; considering their senses, their composl- 
 lion, and their etymology. (5m Philology.) There are 
 two useful papers in the Quarterly Review on Greek le.vi- 
 cogrnphy, vols, xxii., xliv 
 
 LEXICON. (Gr. At£i$.) A dictionary of words, or vo- 
 cabulary; Originally, and *till usually, confined to diction- 
 aries of lhe Greek or Hebrew tongues. The oldest Greek 
 lexicon is the (Juomastieon, which was written HO years 
 before Christ : the oldest Hebrew lexicon belongs lo the 9th 
 century. St* IJiotio.naky. 
 
 DEN JAR. -Vcc Electricity. 
 
 LEZE-1 MAJESTY. In Jurisprudence, any crime com- 
 mitted against the sovereign power in a state. The name is 
 derived from the Roman phrase, ••crimen |SSM inajestatis," 
 which denoted a charge brought against a citizen for acta 
 of rebellion, usurpation of ollice, and general misdemean- 
 ours of a ixilitical character, which were comprehended un- 
 der the title of injuries to the " majesty of the Roman peo- 
 ple." The emperors transferred to all offences against 
 themselves the same criminal character; and offences of 
 Ic/.c -majesty were multiplied under their arbitrary govern- 
 ments. 
 
 1,1 AS. A provincial name, adopted by geologists, for an 
 argillaceous limestone, which, together with Its associated 
 baracterlzed by peculiar fossils. See Geology. 
 
 LIBATION. ( Lat. libo, / pour.) The solemn pouring 
 of wine and other liquids in the religious ceremonies of an- 
 tiquity ; in Greek, antvieiv. Libation appears (if our trans- 
 lation is correct) to have been used in the earliest recorded 
 sacrifice ; for Abel offered milk (Gen. iv., 4) : a daily liba- 
 tion of water was used by the Jews in the Feast ofTatier- 
 nacles ; the burnt offering instituted by Moses was of 
 wine. (Numb, vi., 7.) The Grecian libations, in like man- 
 ner, were of unmixed wine; but sacrifices to nymphs, Ce- 
 res, Proserpine and some other deities, were attended by 
 libations of oil and wine, &c. The wine was poured be- 
 tween the horns of victims, on the nltar or on the ground. 
 The ancients had also a u/ell-knovvn custom of pouring out 
 a small quantity of wine, by way of libation to the gods, at 
 the commencement of their banquets; and libation for the 
 emperors became common under imperial Rome. (See this 
 art. in the Kac. .Met.) 
 
 Te muM» ptree, te prosequitur mero 
 
 IJefujo palerii. Horace. 
 
 LIBA'VITJB'a FUMING LIQUOR. Bichloride of tin, 
 obtained by distilling a mixture of 1 part of tin filings with 3 
 
 LIBERTAS. 
 
 of corrosive sublimate. It emits dense white vapours when 
 exposed to air. 
 
 LI'BEL. In the Spiritual Courts, the original declaration 
 in a civil action is so termed. See Law, Ecclesiastical 
 
 Libel, in Law, signifies almost any malicious publication 
 by writing or printing, or by signs, pictures, &x. Whatever 
 tends to render a man odious or ridiculous, or to lower him 
 in the esteem and opinion of the world, is a libel ; and mav 
 either be made the subject of a civil action for compensation 
 In damages to the individual injured, or, as having a tendency 
 to excite his wrath, and provoke a breach of the peace, may 
 be proceeded against by indictment or criminal information. 
 Where it is sought to make a party responsible in damages 
 for a libellous publication, he may set up the truth of it as 
 an answer to the complaint; for the plaintiff, if really guiltv 
 of the misconduct or other thing imputed to him, is not con- 
 sidered to sutler by its disclosure any private injury which 
 can be a legitimate ground of compensation to him; but 
 when the proceeding is by criminal prosecution, the truth is 
 no defence whatever, as being altogether Immaterial ; for 
 the libellous matter may equally provoke a breach of the 
 peace, whether it be true or false. The court, however, 
 will, In general, before granting a rule for a criminal informa- 
 tion, which Supersedes the Dana] practice of a presentment 
 by the grand jury, require the prosecutor to deny on affidavit 
 the truth of the matters charged against him. It will be 
 seen, however, that there is not in any case a legal founda- 
 tion for the maxim vulgarly ascribed to the law, "The 
 greater the truth the greater the libel." All publications 
 are libels, and criminally punishable as such, which have a 
 tendency to disturb the public peace, his majesty's govern- 
 ment, the established religion, public morals, or the admin- 
 istration of justice. Jlefore the 32 Geo. 3, c. 60, (Fox's 
 Act), on a criminal trial for libel the jury were not allowed 
 to take the whole question into consideration, and return a 
 general verdict of guilty or not guilty; but could only decide 
 upon the fact of publication, and whether the libel meant 
 that which it was alleged In the indictment to mean; the 
 court alone taking upon Itself to determine the criminality or 
 innocence of such meaning. Now, however, in libel, as pre- 
 viously in all other crimii i. competent to 
 to apply their judgment to the whole question, and return a 
 general verdict ol guilty or not guilty. 
 
 Libel is deemed En law a greater offence than slander, in- 
 asmuch as written defamation is commonly the result of 
 more deliberate malice than that which is merely spoken, 
 and frequently inflicts more extensive and permanent injury 
 on the object of its attack. Many words, such as "rogue," 
 "swindler," which are not actionable when spoken, are so 
 when written. 
 
 Libel may almost always be made the subject of an In 
 dictment, although slander seldom can; and, in an action 
 for libel, a verdict for a farthing damages formerly gave the 
 plaintiff his full costs, until the recent Act of Lord Denmon ; 
 whereas, in slander, if the damages are found under forty 
 shillings, the plaintiff is entitled to no more costs than dam- 
 
 LIBE'LLULINES. A genus of Neuropterous insects, of 
 which the dragon-fly, I.ibelhda, is the type. 
 
 LI'BER. (Lat. bark.) In Botany, the interior lining of 
 the hark of BxOgi nans plants. It consists of woody tissue 
 in great quantity, and very thick-sided, intermixed with 
 cellular tissue. It appears to be formed annually, at the 
 same time as the concentric zones of wood, and is intended 
 by nature to convey downwards the secretions elaborated 
 in the bark and leaves. It is the principal seat of laticifer- 
 ous vessels. 
 
 Liber. In Roman Mythology, a surname of Bacchus, in 
 reference, perhaps, to the idea of his being a liberator or de- 
 liverer. Liber was originally an old divinity, who presided 
 over fertility, and who was worshipped in connexion with 
 Libera (a name of Proserpine, according to Cicero, De JVa- 
 tura Deorum) and Ceres. 
 
 Ll'BERAL. In Politics, a cant name, which has been 
 applied since 1815 to the party in each country which ad- 
 vocates constitutional institutions where they do not exist, 
 or their extension into a more popular character where 
 they do. As a party name, this word has been definitely 
 adopted in Spain, where the party of the Cortes assumed the 
 title of Liberates, and nicknamed their adversaries by that of 
 Serviles. 
 
 LIBERA'LIA. A sacred festival, with games ; so called 
 from Liber, a Latin name of Bacchus, in honour of which 
 god they were celebrated at Rome. It was on occasion of 
 this festival that the Roman youths who had attained |h« 
 age of seventeen assumed the manly dress, or toga. 
 
 LIBE'RTAS, in the mythology of the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, was a goddess worshipped with peculiar veneration. 
 By the former she was invoked by the synonymous title 
 Eleutheria; and throughout all parts, both of Greece and 
 Italy, statues, temples, and altars were erected in honour 
 of her. At Rome, her most famous temple, built *»v '" 
 
LIBERTINES. 
 
 Gracchus, was situated on the Aveutine Mount. She was 
 represented under the figure of a woman, holding in one 
 hand a cap, the symbol of Liberty, and two poniards in the 
 other. In modern times a cap is also used as a symbol of 
 Liberty ; thus, in France a red cap formed the badge of the 
 Jacobin club. In England a blue cap with a white border 
 is used as a symbol of the constitutional freedom of the 
 nation, and Britannia sometimes bears it on the point of her 
 ipear. 
 
 LI'BERTINES. In Church History, a name given, in 
 England, to the parly Anabaptists, about the middle of the 
 16th century. Moshcim, vol. iv., p. 430, transl., ed. 1790.) 
 See Anabaptists. 
 
 LI/BERTY. In Philosophy. See Necessity. 
 
 LIBITI'NA. An Italian goddess, patroness of funerals 
 and undertakers ; synonymous with the Venus Infera or 
 Epitbambia of the Greeks. She had a temple at Rome, in 
 which was deposited a small coin, called Libilinai ratio, for 
 every person who died. This custom, which originated in 
 me desire of the Roman authorities to procure a faithful 
 account of the number of deaths, may perhaps be regarded 
 as among the first attempts to obtain an accurate census of 
 the population. 
 
 LI'BRA. (Lat. the balance.) One of the zodiacal con- 
 stellations, the seventh in order, beginning with Aries. Li- 
 bra is one of the forty-eight ancient constellations of Ptolemy. 
 
 Libra denotes also the ancient Roman pound. See 
 Wkiqhts. 
 
 LIBRARIES, ITINERATING. The name given to a 
 peculiar species of circulating library, instituted a few years 
 ago at Haddington, in Scotland, by Mr. Samuel Brown. The 
 principle on which such libraries are formed consists, as the 
 epithet itinerating implies, in the books being sent from one 
 part or district of a country to another on the following plan : 
 The books are formed into divisions, consisting each of a 
 certain number of volumes, and proportioned in number to 
 the extent of the country intended to be supplied. Eacli 
 division remains for a certain period (in some instances one 
 or two years) in the same place, when it is removed to an- 
 other locality, and succeeded by a new supply of books of 
 the same number ; by which means each locality has a fresh 
 supply of useful reading at short stated intervals. In Had- 
 dingtonshire, which may be called the headquarters of 
 itinerating libraries, the books consist of 43 divisions of 50 
 volumes each ; and on the principle above explained, each 
 volume, at an average of the 43 divisions, is read Jive times 
 during two years, the period at which the books are changed. 
 The system of itinerating libraries has been extended to 
 various other parts of Scotland, to several districts of Eng- 
 land, to Ireland, Canada, South Africa, and Jamaica. The 
 use of the books is gratuitous, if so wished ; and never more 
 than Id. per annum has been systematically taken from any 
 reader. Voluntary contributions, however, either in books 
 or money, are received. (See Geo. Diet., art. •'Hadding- 
 ton."') 
 
 LI'BRARY. (Lat. liber, book.) The name given either 
 to a collection of books, or to the apartment or edifice in 
 which they are kept. The oldest public library of antiquity, 
 of vrtiich we have any credible account, is that founded by 
 Pisistratus at Athens, which was carried by Xerxes into 
 Persia, and recovered by Seleucus Nicanor. Whether this 
 was the same library which Sylla (according to Plutarch) 
 carried to Rome, and which was again restored by Hadrian, 
 is not clear; nor is its ultimate destiny known. According 
 :o a well-known tradition, the Goths, when masters of 
 Athens, refused to burn the public libraries, which con- 
 tributed to the effeminacy of its citizens. The library of 
 Alexandria was the most famous of antiquity. Its history 
 has been written by Bonamy (Mem. tie VJlc. des Inscr., vol. 
 fit), Reinhard (Gotting., 1792), and many-others. It was first 
 
 LIBRATION. 
 
 formed by the Ptolemies, Soter, Lagides, Philadelphus, am! 
 Euergetes, the last of whom resorted to very royal meas- 
 ures for the accomplishment of so laudable an end, for he i* 
 said to have seized on books imported from Greece, caused 
 them to be copied, and returned the copies to the proprietors, 
 keeping the original for his library. The collection of Soter 
 is said to have been deposited in a suburb called liruchiuw, 
 which was burned by the troops in Cassar's Egyptian war 
 That of Philadel phua (the smaller of the two) was preserved 
 in the temple of Scrapis, and became the nucleus of the late; 
 library, which was augmented by the great library of Per 
 gamus (said to have amounted to 200,000 volumes), preeenit'.* 
 to it by Mark Antony. The narrative of the destruction of 
 this library by the fanatical Arabs, in A.D. 641, is among the 
 popular chapters of history : and the most careful inquirers 
 are of opinion that it is substantially, if not literally, true, not- 
 withstanding the doubts thrown on it by Gibbon and others 
 The first public library at Rome was founded by Asinine Pol- 
 lio, A.D. 716 ; the second, the Palatine, by Augustus, in 72(5 : 
 great part of it was consumed under Commodus, but much re- 
 mained even in the time of Constantine. Reusch (1734), Eck 
 erman (1764), and Eckhart (1799), have published separate 
 dissertations on the libraries of the Romans. The ancient 
 libraries of the West must have wholly perished in the con- 
 vulsions which attended the overthrow of its empire. The 
 history of those of the East is not easy to investigate. Con 
 stantinople certainly possessed, at the peiiod of its capture, 
 extensive remains of ancient literature ; and many, but al- 
 most wholly fruitless investigations, have been made of late 
 years in the monastic libraries of modern Greece, particular- 
 ly of Mount Athos, for valuable manuscripts. (See fl'alpole's 
 Oriental Memoirs ; Journal of Education, vol. ii.) The 
 best accounts of ancient libraries, to which we are able to 
 refer the reader, are contained in the work of Petit Radel, 
 Recherchcs sur les Bibiiotheques Jincicnnes tt Moderncs ,' 
 Heeren, History of the Study of Classical Literature, vol 
 i.; Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopedia, art. "Bibliotheken ;" 
 Tay'or's History of the Transmission of ancient Books in 
 modern Times ; Enc. Brit., Suppl., " Library." 
 
 Of modern public libraries, the greatest and most cele 
 brated is that of Paris (Bibl. Royale). It was commenced 
 by King John, in the middle of the 14th century, with ten 
 volumes; and has been augmented by subsequent kings to 
 the enormous number it now possesses. (Le Prince, Essai 
 Historique sur la Bibl. du Hoi, Paris, 1737.) Next to thai 
 of Paris in extent, and possibly in value, are the libraries 
 of St. Petersburg mid Munich. In Italy, the Atnhrosian 
 at Milan, and the Vatican at Rome, are peculiarly rich in 
 MSS. Of British libraries, the greatest are those of the 
 British Museum ; of the two English universities, of which 
 that of Oxford (the Bodleian) is peculiarly rich in Oriental 
 manuscripts; that of the Advocates, at Edinburgh ; and of 
 Trinity College, Dublin. Statements of the number of books 
 contained In public libraries will be found in many works, 
 but no statistical information is more imperfect and worth 
 less. Some have not scrupled to say that there is no infor- 
 mation respecting the great fore'gn libraries, as to the num- 
 ber of printed books, which can be relied upon within one 
 half. Such skepticism may be exaggerated ; but that there 
 is some ground for it may be conjectured from the following 
 comparison, which we have made between different state- 
 ments. That of M. Panizzi is contained in the Appendix to 
 the Report on the Brit. Mus., 1838, vol. ii„ No. 6. The 
 " Returns" are those furnished by official persons to inquiries 
 addressed on the same occasion, and will be found in the 
 same work. We should premise that the number of print- 
 ed books belonging to the library of the Brit. Mus. was ac- 
 tually returned in 1833 at 218,937, and is now probably 
 260,000; volumes of MSS. in 1833, 21,900. 
 
 Paris (Royale) . . 
 Munich .... 
 Petersburg . . . 
 Vienna .... 
 Gottingen .... 
 Dresden .... 
 Copenhagen . . . 
 
 Berlin 
 
 Vatican .... 
 Ambrosian . . . 
 Florence (Magliab.) 
 
 Returns, 1S36. 
 
 Vols. MSS. 
 
 700,000 80,000 
 800,000 
 
 300,000 16,000 
 
 Panizzi, IS36. 
 
 Vols. MSS. 
 
 650,000 80,000 
 500,000 
 
 300,000 16,000 
 
 200,000 1,500 
 
 250,000 2,700 
 
 400,000 15,000 
 
 320,000 10,000 
 
 100,000 4,633 
 
 140,000 12,000 
 
 260,000 
 280,000 
 40,000 
 
 Conv. Le 
 
 xicon, 
 
 Ersch anil Gruber's 
 
 IS2S. 
 
 Ency., 
 
 
 Vols. 
 
 MSS 
 
 Vol* 
 
 
 350,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 350,000 
 
 70.000 
 
 400,000 
 
 9,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 9,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 11,000 
 
 
 
 300,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 - 
 
 200,000 
 
 
 220,000 
 
 2,700 
 
 220,000 
 
 2,700 
 
 130,500 
 
 3,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 
 250,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 30,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 30,000 
 
 411.000 
 
 60,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 9,000 
 
 120,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 LIBRA'TION. (Lat. liV:a, a balance.) In Astronomy, a 
 term applied to certain phenomena resulting from the moon's 
 motion, whereby the spots very near the border of the lunar 
 disk alternately disappear ar.d become visible, making stated 
 periodical oscillations, and indicating, as it were, a sort of 
 vibrator)- motion of the lunar globe. 
 
 The libration is of three kinds ; the libration in longitude, 
 664 
 
 the libration in latitude, and the diurnal libration. The 
 libration in longitude is occasioned by this circumstance, 
 that the rotatory motion of the moon about her axis is not 
 always precisely equal to the angular velocity in iter orbit. 
 If the moon's orbital motion were uniform, and performed 
 in the same time as her rotation about the axis, the radiui 
 vector from the centre of the earth would always mtersec 
 
 
LICENCE. 
 
 the lunar disk in (he same point, or the moon would always 
 present exactly the same face to the earth. But the rotatory 
 motion Is sensibly uniform ; while the orbital motion, being 
 performed in an ellipse, is sometimes slower and some- 
 times faster than its average amount. Hence the 6potsncar 
 the eastern and western borders alternately disappear and 
 reappear. 
 
 The libration in latitude is occasioned by the inclination 
 of the moon's axis of rotation to the plane of her orbit. Sup- 
 posing this axis always to have the same direction in space, 
 
 ■ which it makes with the radios vector of her orbit 
 will be acute during one part of her revolution and obtuse 
 In another. Hence the two poles of rotation, and the adja- 
 cent parts of the surface, are alternately visible from the earth. 
 
 The diurnal libration Ls simply a consequence of the lunar 
 parallax. The observer, being placed at the surface of the 
 earth, perceives points on the moon's disk at the time of her 
 rising, which disappear as her elevation is increased ; while 
 
 ■ on the opposite border, that were before invisible. 
 come into view as she descends towards the horizon. See 
 Moon. 
 
 Th'j libration in latitude and diurnal vibration were dis- 
 covered by Galileo. Hevelius first observed and explained 
 the libration in longitude. 
 
 LI'CENCE. (Lat. licet, it is lawful.) In Law, a power 
 or authority given to a man to do some lawful act, and may 
 be by word or by deed. If a party give licence to another 
 to do acts on his ground, which without that licence would 
 I, and tlie party abuses his licence, he becomes a 
 r ab initio. Licence is also commonly taken for 
 the admission of an individual, by proper authority, to the 
 right of doing particular acts, practising in professions, Sic, 
 and also lor the certificate of such admission. 
 
 LICE'NTIATE. A degree in some foreign universities; 
 but not known in the n England, except in the 
 
 install"*' of the deglM of licentiate in medicine, which is 
 granted at Cambridge. In the original sense of the word it 
 appeals to have been only a title applied to such as had ob- 
 tained a licence to teach. It is said to be of Italian origin, 
 granted at the university of Bologna. Where the 
 i licentiate exists, it intervenes between that of 
 and that of doctor. 
 
 LI'CHEN. (Gr. Xti.v)'. a roughness of the skin.) In 
 Pathology, a papulous eruption of the skin, terminating in 
 ■corf] exfoliations; it is generally symptomatic of disorder- 
 ed stomach and bow 
 
 LICHE'NIC ACID. The acid peculiar to some species 
 '>f lichens. It appears to be the malic acid. 
 
 LI'CHENIN. A substance closely allied to starch, cx- 
 tracted from the Cetraria islandica, or Iceland moss. 
 
 LI'CHENS, Plants of a very low organization, which 
 grow on the bark of tree* or rocks, when they form a kind 
 of iiiciustalion ; or upon the ground, whin they consist of 
 iin»iil..r lobea parallel with the earth's surface. Occasion- 
 ally, in all situations, they are found in a branched state ; but 
 their siil.. . morally Irregular and without order. 
 
 Their fructification consists of hard nuclei, called shields, 
 which break through the upper surface of the thallus or 
 main substance of the lichen, are of a peculiar colour and 
 texture, and contain the reproductive particles. Lichens 
 abound in the cold and temperate parts of tile world. The 
 greater part are of no known use ; but some, as the reindeer 
 moss (Crnomucc. rangifcrina), the Iceland moss {Cetraria 
 various species of Gyrophora. are capable of 
 • ither in animals or man. The Iceland moss, 
 prived of its bitterness by boiling, becomes indeed a 
 immended to invalids. Others are used as tonic 
 medicines, as Variolaria faginea, and Parmelia parietina. 
 Their principal use Is. however, Ui.it of furnishing the dyer 
 with brilliant colours; orchall, cudbear, and perollc, with 
 many more, are thus employed. 
 
 LICKS. A term applied in Norlh America to sandy tracts 
 of laud, ii|K)ii which common salt forms an efflorescence, 
 and which almost all graminivorous animals resort to for the 
 purpose of licking the surface. 
 
 LI CTORS. (Lnt. ligo, / bind.) Officers whose duty it 
 was to attend the principal Roman magistrates (such as tile 
 consuls, master of the horse, and pretors) and the vestal 
 virgins on their appearance in public, and to act as consta- 
 bles under their command. Their insignia were the fasces 
 or bunch of rods (originally encircling an axe, which was 
 removed by I'ublicola, used under the republic only by dic- 
 tators, and restored under the emperor), nnd the virga or 
 rod, which was used to touch the door of the magistrate on 
 returning home. The number of lictors in attendance varied 
 according to the rank of the magistrate ; thus, the consuls 
 had twelve, the pr&tors six, and dictators, according to some, 
 twentv four. 
 
 1.1!'.'.'!',. In the Latin of the middle ages ligcus, from 
 
 ■ bind. A lieL'e lord, in feudal language, is a supe- 
 rior to whom allegiance is owed, and a liege-man he who 
 owes such allegiance. Hence all subjects are termed lieges 
 
 LIFE GUARDS. 
 
 of the king. Some writers derive the word liege from As 
 Teutonic word leude (modern German leutc, people), which 
 was used in the sense of vassal. 
 
 LI'EN. (Fr. lien, bond.) In Law, signifies the right 
 which a creditor has to retain the property of his debtor 
 until the debt has been paid ; and furnishes one of very few 
 instances in which a party is allowed to take the law, as it 
 were, into his own hands. Liens are either general or par 
 ticular. A general lien is the tight to retain a thing for n 
 general balance of accounts, and not for those demands only 
 which arise in respect of the thing retained. This sort of 
 lien is said not to be favoured by law. A particular lien, 
 which the law is said to favour, is a right to retain a thing 
 when the claim against the owner of it arises out of the 
 thing retained itself; as, where a tailor has made the cloth 
 of his customer into a coat, the tailor is allowed to retain 
 the cloth until he is paid for his labour in making it into a 
 coat. The payment of a simple contract debt cannot be en- 
 forced by action after six yeais have elapsed from the time 
 the debt was incurred ; but a party who has a lien on prop- 
 erty may retain it for an unlimited period, until his claim 
 has been satisfied. 
 
 LIE-TO. See Lye-to. 
 
 LLEUTE'NANT. (Fr.) An officer, who, as the derivn 
 lion of the word implies, supplies the place and discharges 
 the duty of a superior iii bis absence. 
 
 Lieutenant in the Army. The officer immediately 
 subordinate to the captain, in whose absence he takes the 
 command of his company. In the British service the lieu- 
 tenants of the Life Guards and Horse Guards, and of the 
 three regiments of Foot Guards, have the rank of captain 
 In the artillery, engineers, marines, and rifle brigade, of the 
 British service, and in all the r e gi m e n ts of most of the 
 Continental nations, there being no cornets or ensigns, the 
 subaltern officers are distinguished as first and second lieu- 
 tenants. The pay of a lieutenant varies, according to the 
 regiment or branch of the service to which he belongs, from 
 10.5. 4'/. to (is. Gii. ; and the price of bis com, 
 Ingtothepretenl lobulations, is, for the Life Guards, X'lTHo; 
 Horse Guards, £1800; Cavalry, £1190; Foot Guards, £9090; 
 Infantry, £700. 
 
 Lieutenant in the Navy. The next rank to that of 
 commander, and coordinate with that of captain in the 
 army. The number of lieutenants appointed to fhip> of 
 war varies with their rate. A ship of the first rn'e can ies 
 eight lieutenants, besides supernumeraries ; nnd those of the 
 second, third, fourth rates, &.C have respectively one less 
 than the number SMattted to the preceding rate. The 
 monthly pay of a lieutenant In the British navv varies 
 according lo the ship and his duration of service, from X! 1 
 10#. to £9 4s. 
 
 LIKUTE'NANT-GEN'ERAL OF THE KINGDOM. A 
 dignity equivalent to that of regent, which has been oeea 
 sionally held in France on tcni|>orary emergencies. The 
 Count d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.) took tin 
 1814 on entering France, and held it until the arrival of his 
 brother, Louis XVIII. On the expulsion of Charles X., in 
 1830, the Duke of Orleans was constituted lieutenant- 
 general, both by an ordinance of that prince, and by the 
 provisory government of the Hotel de Ville, on July 20 ; 
 and retained the title until he was proclaimed king, on the 
 7th August following. 
 
 LIFE ANNUITY. See Annuity. 
 
 LIFE ASSURANCE. See Assurance. 
 
 LIFE BOAT. A boat originally made A Shields, in 
 1789, by Mr. Greathead, for saving the crews jf shipwrecked 
 vessels. The following are the general principles: The 
 boat is wide and shallow ; the bend and stem are alike, for 
 pulling in either direction, and raised, to meet the waves ; it 
 pulls double-banked, the oars being fir, for lightness, and 
 fitted with thole pins and grummets, and is steered with an 
 oar. The boat is cased round inside, on the upper part, witli 
 cork, in order to secure her buoyancy with as many persons 
 as she can carry, even though full of water ; the cork like- 
 wise assists in maintaining, or, if overset, in recovering, the 
 position of stable equilibrium. The boat is painted white, 
 to be conspicuous in emerging from the hollow of the sea. 
 It is a curious fact that the smugglers paint their boats 
 white for the contrary reason, because daik-coloured objects 
 alone are discernible in dark nights. 
 
 LIFE BUOY. A buoy, with a mast to render it con- 
 spicuous, thrown into the sea upon a man's falling over- 
 board. The life buoy invented by Lieut. Cooke, R. N., is 
 furnished with a composition which is fired by the act of 
 disengaging the buoy from its place, at night, and bums 
 with a strong light. 
 
 LIFE GUARDS. The cavalry troops composing the 
 body guard of a sovereign prince are so called. In England 
 they consist of two regiments, comprising each 32 officers, 
 53 non-commissioned officers, and 351 privates. In Ger- 
 many such troops are styled the leib garde (body guard) ; 
 and in France the garde du corps Sec Guards. 
 
 665 
 
LIFE LlNfc. 
 
 * LIFE LINE. In a Ship, any rape stretched along for 
 rhe safety of the men, as is practised in bad weather. 
 
 LIFE, MEAN DURATION OF. Sec Expectation ok 
 Life. 
 
 LIFE RENT. In Scottish Law, the right of enjoyment, 
 either of an heritage or a sum of money, for the life of the 
 life-renter. The superior proprietor of the subject, or fee, iu 
 which tliis rent subsists, is termed the finr. Terce (i. c., 
 dower; and courtesy (analogous to the courtesy of England 
 in English law) are instances of legal life-rents. 
 
 LIFTING PUMP. See Pump. 
 
 LIFTS. The ropes which support the ends of yards or 
 booms against the weight of the men upon them. 
 
 LI'GAMENTS. (Lat. ligo, Ibind.) Strong elastic mem- 
 branes connecting the extremities of the moveable bones. 
 When boiled in water they yield more or less gelatine, and 
 leave a portion of insoluble albumen. 
 
 LI'GATURE. (Lat. ligo.) In Music, the tie which 
 binds several notes of like length together, by which they 
 
 appear in groups. Thus LLTjT f° ur quavers, by means 
 of a ligature at the top or bottom, assume the form 
 
 the line connecting them being the ligature. 
 
 LIGHT. (Germ, licht.) The cause of those sensations 
 which we refer to the eyes, or that which produces the 
 sense of seeing. The phenomena of light and vision have 
 always been regarded as one of the most interesting branches 
 of natural science ; though it is only since the days of New- 
 ton that they have been examined with such care as to 
 afford grounds for any safe speculation respecting the nature 
 of light, and the mode of its propagation through space. 
 But the solution of these two questions is involved in very 
 great difficulty ; for notwithstanding the splendid discoveries 
 of that immortal philosopher, and the long train of interest- 
 ing and important facts which have been investigated since 
 his time, and more particularly since the beginning of the 
 present century, the true theory of light still remains an 
 enigma. This does not arise from any difficulty there is in 
 framing an hypothesis which shall afford a m jchanic! 
 explanation of the various phenomena, but from the cir- 
 cumstance that more hypotheses than one have been ima- 
 gined by which all the phenomena can be explained, not 
 merely in a general way, but with the precision of numeri- 
 cal calculation. 
 
 Tho knowledge of the laws which regulate the phe 
 loiucna of light constitutes the science of Optics, which is 
 divided into a number of subordinate branches. An account 
 of the principal phenomena will be found under the terms 
 Aberration, Chromatics, Interference, Optics, Po- 
 larization, Reflection, Refraction, &c. The present 
 article will be confined to a brief enumeration of some of 
 the principal properties of light, and a statement of the two 
 rival theories by which modern philosophers explain its 
 nature and propagation. 
 
 Properties of Light. — Experiments of the simplest and 
 most familiar kind suffice to show that light is propagated 
 from luminous bodies in all directions. Provided nothing 
 intervenes to intercept the light, they are seen in all situa- 
 tions of the eye. Thus, the flame of a lamp is visible from 
 every part of the sphere of which it occupies the centre ; 
 and the same is the case with respect to a phosphorescent 
 body, an electric spark, a ball heated red hot, or light having 
 any other source. The sun throws its light, not only on 
 the earth, but on the planets, and comets, and every other 
 body in the firmament. 
 
 Another property of light is, that in a homogeneous 
 medium it is always propagated in straight lines. This is 
 evident from various considerations. The forms of shadows 
 correctly represent the outlines of the objects which pro- 
 duce them, as seen from the luminous body, which could 
 not be unless the light proceeded in straight lines from the 
 extremities of the objects to the borders of the shadow. If 
 three plates of metal, each pierced with a small hole, are 
 placed at some distance behind each other, and in such 
 positions that the three holes are exactly in one straight 
 line, the light will pass freely through them ; but if the 
 holes are not exactly in a straight line, no light will pass. 
 In like manner, if a number of similar objects are placed 
 behind each other in a straight line, the first renders all the 
 others invisible to an eye placed in the same line. We 
 cannot see through a bent tube. 
 
 A third property of light is that it requires time for its 
 propagation. The velocity with which it passes from one 
 point to another is, however, so great, that, with respect to 
 any terrestrial distances, the passage may be considered as 
 instantaneous. But astronomy furnishes the means, not 
 only of detecting its propagation, but of measuring its velocity 
 with great precision. The eclipses and emersions of Jupi- 
 ter's satellites become visible about 1G min. 26 sec. earlier 
 when the eaith is at its least distance from Jupiter, than 
 666 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 when it i3 at its greatest. Light, therefore, occupies above 
 a quarter of an hour in passing through the diametei of the 
 earth's orbit. Now, the sun's distance from the earth being 
 nearly 95,000,000 of miles, it follows that light must travel 
 through space with the prodigious, though finite, velocity of 
 192,500, or nearly 200,000 miles, in a second of dme, and 
 consequently would pass round the earth in the eighth part 
 of a second. Astounding as this conclusion is, no result of 
 science rests on more certain evidence. It is also proved, 
 by the phenomena of aberration, that the light of the sun. 
 planets, and all the fixed stars, travels with one and ;!;t 
 same velocity. 
 
 When light in its progress encounters an obstacle, or enlan 
 a different medium, it undergoes certain modifications, de- 
 pending on the nature of the body on which it falls, or the 
 medium into which it enters. When it falls on a smooth 
 polished surface, a portion of it is regularly reflected ; thai 
 is to say, it is returned from the surface at an angle equal to 
 the angle of incidence, and pursues its course in a straight 
 line as before the reflection. The quantity of light thus re- 
 flected depends on the nature and polish of the surface, and 
 on the angle of incidence, being greatest when that angle is 
 small ; but it is calculated that even the brightest and most 
 opaque surfaces, mercury for example, do not reflect more 
 than three fourths of the incident light. Another portion 
 of it enters the medium, and there (if the medium is homo- 
 geneous) pursues a rectilinear course, but differing from its 
 former direction. In this case it is said to be refracted. 
 The angle of refraction depends on the nature of the med'um, 
 each different medium having its own peculinr law of ac- 
 tion on light. In many media, comprehending the liquids 
 and most of the uncrystallized substances, the whole of the 
 refracted light is bent from its original direction at the some 
 angle. In many others, as in most crystallized media, pari 
 of the refracted light follows one course, and another pan 
 of it a different one ; the two portions acquiring at the same 
 time different physical properties. In this case the refraction 
 is said to be double. A third portion of the light falling on 
 a body is neither reflected nor refracted regularly, but is 
 scattered in all directions; and it is this portion which ren- 
 ders i. ,".\ies i isible. AH bodies on which light . 
 a cerlain pari of it; more or less in proportion to their 
 opacity. In perfectly opake bodies the absorption is total. 
 and the light does not penetrate to a sensible depth under 
 the surface. In others it penetrates farther ; but even in the 
 most transparent it is gradually stifled and lost. A deptli 
 of only seven feet of pure water is required to extinguish 
 one half of the incident light. See Reflection. 
 
 Solar light, refracted by a prism or other body, is separated 
 into a multitude of rays of different colours, each of which 
 afterwards proceeds in its course independently of all the 
 others. These differently coloured rays possess different 
 physical properties, and different degrees of refrangibility. 
 It is to this dispersion or separation of light by refraction 
 that we owe all the pleasure derived from the variegated 
 hues of natural bodies. The investigation of the laws of 
 the dispersion of the coloured rays forms the subject of 
 chromatics. One of the principal facts connected with it is 
 that the dispersion of the rays by different refracting sub- 
 stances is not proportioned to the refraction ; the dispersive 
 power of some substances being greater than that of others, 
 while their refracting power is less. This fact led to the 
 important discovery of the achromatic telescope. See Achro- 
 matic, Chromatics. 
 
 Light, on being regularly reflected or refracted, undergoes 
 a modification termed polarization, in virtue of which it 
 presents, on encountering another medium, different phe 
 nomena of reflection and refraction from those presented by 
 light which lias not undergone such modification. When a 
 ray of light, having acquired this modification, is made to 
 fall on a plane reflecting surface under a certain angle of 
 incidence, no portion of it will be reflected ; tho whole is 
 transmitted or absorbed. But, in the case of ordinary light, 
 some portion is always reflected from a polished surface, 
 whatever be the angle of incidence ; the light has therefore 
 acquired the property of being acted upon in a particular 
 way ; whence Malus, who first investigated this sv.bject in 
 a philosophical manner, gave the phenomena the name of 
 polarization, from its analogy to the effect produced by n 
 magnet on a series of needles. See Polarization. 
 
 The last property of light which we shnll notice, as Im- 
 portant towards forming a theory of its propagation, is it >• 
 to which Dr. Young gave the name of interference. UnrV 
 certain circumstances, the rays of light exercise a mutu) ! 
 influence on each other; increasing, diminishing, or m rh 
 fying each other's effects according to certain laws. Thi- 
 mutual action of the rays on each other gives rise to a great 
 number of the most intricate phenomena of optics, and 
 affords a sufficiently simple explanation of then, in numf 
 rous cases where no other explanation has yet been found 
 on other hypotheses. The phenomenon is descrited undii 
 the term Interference. 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 Theories of Light. — Two different theories have long 
 divided the opinion of philosophers respecting the nature 
 and propagation of light. One of these consists in supposing 
 it to he composed of particles of excessive minuteness, pro- 
 jected from the luminous body with a velocity equal to 
 nearly 200,000 miles in a second. This hypothesis was 
 adopted by Newton, and, till recently, has been acquiesced 
 in by the greater number of writers on optics. The other 
 hypothesis supposes light to be produced by the vibrations 
 or undulations of an ethereal fluid of great elasticity, which 
 \* rvndes all space and penetrates all substances, and to 
 which the luminous body gives an impulse which is propa- 
 fi ted with inconceivable rapidity, in spherical superficies, by 
 a sort of tremor or undulation, as sound is conveyed through 
 ll;t atmosphere, or a wave along the surface of water. 
 Both of these hypotheses are rendered probable by the great 
 number of phenomena of which they afford a mechanical 
 explanation ; but they are both, also, attended with very 
 great difficulties. Other theories have also been proposed ; 
 but they have not met with such general attention from 
 philosophers as to make it necessary to explain them in this 
 place. 
 
 Corpuscular Theory of Light. — Sir John Herschel, in his 
 admirable Essay on Light in the Encyclopedia Mctropoli- 
 '■ana, states the principles of the Newtonian or Corpuscular 
 theory as follows : 
 
 1. "That light consists of particles of matter possessed of 
 Inertia, and endowed with attractive and repulsive forces, 
 and projected or emitted from all luminous bodies with 
 nearly the same velocity, about 200,000 miles per second. 
 
 articles differ from each oilier by the in- 
 tensity of the attractive and repulsive forces which reside 
 in them ; and in their relations to tho material world: and 
 i their actual masses, or inertia. 
 
 3. "That these particles, impinging on the retina, simul- 
 ate and excite vision ; the particles whose inertia is greatest 
 traducing the sensation of red, those of the least inertia of 
 ▼inlet, and those in which it is intermediate, the intermediate 
 colours. 
 
 4. "''' l it the molecules f m iter!: ' '.• it" i and tl""=e of 
 ight exert n mutual action on each other, Ists iu 
 
 Mractioa and repulsion, according to some law or function 
 of the distance between them ; that this law is such as to 
 admit, perhaps, of several alternations or changes from re- 
 pulsive to attractive force; but that when the distance is 
 below a certain very small limit it is always attractive up 
 to actual contact; and that beyond this limit resides at least 
 one sphere of repulsion. This repulsive force is that which 
 nuns i he reflection of light at the external surfaces of dense 
 media ; and ihe interior attraction that which produces the 
 refraction and interior reflection of light 
 
 5. "That these forces have different absolute vnlucs or 
 Intensities, not only (or all different material bodies, but for 
 every different species of the luminous molecules, being of 
 a nature analogous to chemical affinities or electric attrac- 
 tions; and that hence arises the different rcfrangihilities of 
 the rays of YvzUi. 
 
 6. "That the motion of a particle of light, under the iu- 
 ee of these forces and its own velocity, is regulated by 
 
 the same mechanical laws which govern the motions of 
 ordinary matter ; and that therefore each particle describes 
 i trajectory, capable of strict calculation as soon as the forces 
 which act on it are assigned. 
 
 7. " '1 hat the distance between the molecules of material 
 bodies is exceedingly small in comparison with the extent 
 of theii spheres of attraction and repulsion on the particles 
 of light. 
 
 8. "That the forces which produce the reflection and re- 
 fraction of light are, nevertheless, absolutely insensible at all 
 
 liable or appreciable distances from the molecules 
 which exert them. 
 
 '.). " That every luminous molecule, during the whole of 
 •'i progress through space, is continually passing through 
 «•' rtain periodically recurring states, called by Newton tits 
 •* easy reflection and easy transmission, in virtue of which 
 * : 'ey are more disposed, when in the former states or phases 
 '•C their periods, to obey the influence of the repulsive or re- 
 "' ictive forces of the molecules of a medium ; and when in 
 ■' e latter, of the attractive." 
 
 Such are the postulates on which the corpuscular theory 
 " light depends. Most of them may be admitted without 
 lfficulty ; and they afford data for the application of mathe- 
 latical leasoning to the phenomena, which may be investi- 
 nted by the same sort of analysis with which mathemati- 
 lans are already familiar in the theories of heat, capillary 
 ittraction, and other molecular forces. 
 
 Undulatory Theory.— The principles of the undulatory 
 Jieory are thus stated by Sir J. Ucrschel : 
 
 1. "That an excessively rare, subtle, and clastic medium, 
 0" ether, fills all space, arid pervades all material bodies, 
 occupying the intervals between their molecules: and either 
 bj pasting freely among them, or by Its extreme rarity, 
 
 offering no resistance to the motion of the earth, the plan- 
 ets, or comets, in their orbits, appreciable by tile most deli- 
 cate astronomical observations ; and having inertia, but not 
 gravity. 
 
 2. "That the molecules of the ether are susceptible of 
 being set in motion by the agitation of the particles of pon- 
 derable matter ; and that when any one is thus set In motion 
 it communicates a similar motion to those adjacent to it - 
 and thus the motion is propagated farther and farther in 
 all directions, according to the same mechanical laws which 
 regulate the propagation of undulations in other elastic 
 media, as air, water, or solids, according to their respective 
 constitutions. 
 
 3. "That in the interior of refracting media the ether ex 
 ists in a state of less elasticity, compared with its de 
 than in vacuo (i. e., in space empty of all other*matter) ; 
 and that the more refractive the medium, the less, relative- 
 ly speaking, is the elasticity of the ether in its interior. 
 
 4. "That vibrations communicated to the ether in free 
 space are propagated through refractive media by mean-, ol 
 the ether in their interior, but with a velocity corresponding 
 to its inferior degree of elasticity. 
 
 5. "That when regular vibratory motions of a pro|icr 
 kind are propagated through the ether, and, passing through 
 our eyes, reach and agitate the nerves of our retina, they 
 produce in us the sensation of light, in a manner bearing a 
 more or less close analogy to that in which the vibrations 
 of the air affect our auditory nerves with that of sound. 
 
 6. " That as, in the doctrine of sound, the frequency of 
 the agrial poises, or the number of excursions to and fro 
 from the point of rest made by each molecule of the nir, de- 
 tennines the pitch or note; so, in tho theory of light, the 
 frequency of the pulses, or number of impulses made on our 
 nerves in a given time by the ethereal molecules next in 
 contact with them, determines the colour of the light: and 
 that as the absolute extent of the motion to and fro of the 
 particles of air determines the loudness of the sound, so the 
 amplitude or extent of the excursions of the ethereal mole- 
 cules from their points of rest determines the brightness or 
 
 rVhichet ■•■ theory we adopt to explain the phenomena 
 ol' light, we are led to conclusions which strike the mind 
 with astonishment. According to the corpuscular theory, 
 the molecules of light are supposed to be endowed with at- 
 tractive nnd repulsive forces, to have poles, to balance them 
 SBlves about their centres of gravity, and to possess other 
 physical properties which we can only ascribe to ponderable 
 matter. In speaking of these properties, it is difficult to di- 
 vest one's self of tin' idea of sensible magnitude, or by any 
 strain of the imagination to conceive that particles to which 
 they belong can be so amazingly small as those of light de- 
 monstrably are. If a molecule of light weighed a single 
 main, its momentum (by reason of the enormous velocity 
 with which it moves) would be such that its effect would 
 be equal to that of a cannon-ball of 150 pounds, projected 
 with a velocity of 1000 feet per second. How inconceivably 
 small must they, therefore, lie, when millions of molecules, 
 collected by lenses or mirrors, have never been found to 
 produce the slightest effect on the most delicate apparatus 
 contrived expressly for the purpose of rendering their mate- 
 riality sensible. 
 
 If the corpuscular theory astonishes us by the extreme 
 minuteness nnd prodigious velocity of the luminous mole- 
 cules, the numerical results deduced from the undulntory 
 theory are not less overwhelming. The extreme smallness 
 of the amplitude of the vibrations, and the almost incon- 
 ceivable but still measurable rapidity with which they suc- 
 ceed each other, were computed by Dr. Young, and are ex 
 hi hi ted by Sir J. Herschel in the following table : 
 
 Colours. 
 
 Lentil l 
 latinn in parls 
 of an inch. 
 
 Kumber of 
 
 undulations 
 in an inch. 
 
 Number of undula- 
 tions per second. 
 
 Extreme Red . . 
 
 orvv 
 
 37640 
 
 468,000000.000000 
 
 
 o-rxiooi-,»i 
 
 19180 
 
 477.000000000000 
 
 Oran*e .... 
 
 0O000240 
 
 41610 
 
 MflUOOOOfiOQOBO 
 
 Yellow .... 
 
 0000227 
 
 14000 
 
 5a'>,(xxxx)0,0L00(jo 
 
 
 0000.211 
 
 4741KJ 
 
 577,0WX:O0.0O0000 
 
 
 00000I9G 
 
 51 110 
 
 622,000000.000000 
 
 
 o-oonoiss 
 
 64070 
 
 868,000009.000000 
 
 
 0000174 
 
 67490 
 
 690,000000,000000 
 
 Extreme Violet . . 
 
 0000167 
 
 59750 
 
 727,000000,000000 
 
 The Telocity of Ugh! 
 
 beinjr assumed ai 
 192,000 miles (Mr 
 second. 
 
 On a cursory view, it must appear singular that two hy- 
 potheses, founded on assumptions so essentially different, 
 should concur in affording the means of explaining so grcal 
 a number of facts with equal precision and almost equal fa- 
 cility. This, however, is the case with respect to the or 
 puscular and undulatory theories of light, from both of which 
 the mathematical laws to which the phenomena are raided 
 may be deduced, though not in all cases with the samn de 
 
 667 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 gree of facility. So far as the corpuscular doctrine is avail- 
 able for the purposes of deductive explanation, it possesses 
 all the'Cliaracteiistics of a good theory. It supposes the op- 
 eration of a force with which we are in some measure fa- 
 miliar. We are accustomed to contemplate the effects of 
 attraction in the grand phenomena of astronomy ; we per- 
 ceive them at every instant in the downward tendency of 
 all heavy bodies ; and, though they disappear in the small 
 bodies of nature, they are reproduced in the phenomena of 
 electricity, magnetism, capillary attraction, electricity, and 
 various chemical actions, where they can be not only dis- 
 tinctly traced, but reduced to mathematical formula;, and 
 submitted to accurate calculation. The undulatory hypoth- 
 esis is not seized by the mind with the same facility ; yet it 
 also possesses some of the least equivocal characteristics of 
 philosophical truth. No phenomenon has yet been discov- 
 ered decidedly at variance with any of its principles. On 
 the contrary, most of the phenomena follow from those 
 principles with remarkable ease ; and, in numerous instan- 
 ces, consequences deduced from the theory by a long and 
 intricate analysis, and where no sagacity could possibly 
 have divined the result, have been found to be accurately 
 true when brought to the test of experiment. Hence this 
 hypothesis begins to be generally adopted by philosophers, 
 and, in recent times, by far the most illustrious names in 
 the annals of optical discovery are included in the list of its 
 supporters. 
 
 That the sensation of light is produced by the vibrations 
 of an extremely rare and subtle fluid, is an idea that was 
 maintained by Descartes, Hooke, and some others ; but it is 
 to Iliiyghcns that the honour solely belongs of having redu- 
 ced the hypothesis to a definite shape, and rendered it avail- 
 able to the purposes of mechanical explanation. Owing to 
 the great success of Newton in applying the corpuscular 
 theory to his splendid discoveries, the speculations of Huy- 
 ghens were long neglected ; indeed, the theory remained in 
 the same state in which it was left by him till it was taken 
 up by our countryman, the late Dr. Young. By a train of 
 mechanical reasoning, which in point of ingenuity has sel- 
 dom been equalled, Dr. Young was conducted to some very 
 remarkable numerical relations among some of the appa- 
 rently most dissimilar phenomena of optics to the general 
 laws of diffraction, and to the true principles of the colora- 
 tion of crystallized substances. Malus, so late as 1810, made 
 the important discovery of the polarization of light by re- 
 flection, and successfully explained the phenomenon by the 
 hypothesis of an undulatory propagation. The theory sub- 
 sequently received a great extension from the ingenious la- 
 bours of Fresnel ; and the still more recent researches of 
 Arago, Poisson, Herschel, Airy, and others, have conferred 
 on it so great a degree of probability that it may be almost 
 regarded as rnnkinc in the class of demonstrated truths. "It 
 is a theory," says Herschel, "which, if not founded in na- 
 ture, is certainly one of the happiest fictions that the genius 
 of man has yet invented to group together natural phenome- 
 na, as well as the most fortunate in the support it has re- 
 ceived from whole classes of new phenomena, which at 
 their discovery seemed in irreconcilable opposition to it. It 
 is, in fact, in all its applications and details, one succession 
 of felicities ; insomuch that we may almost be induced to 
 say, if it be not true, it deserves to be so." (Enc. J\Ietr., 
 " Light," § 595.) 
 
 Relations of Light and Heat. — Light and heat are so inti- 
 mately related to each other, that philosophers have doubt- 
 ed whether they are identical principles, or merely coexist- 
 ent in the luminous rays. They possess numerous proper- 
 ties in common; being reflected, refracted, and polarized 
 according to the same optical laws, and even exhibit the 
 same phenomena of interference. Most substances during 
 combustion give out both light and heat ; and all bodies, ex- 
 cepting the gases, when heated to a high temperature be- 
 come incandescent. Nevertheless, there are many circum- 
 stances in which they appear to differ. 
 
 A thin plate of transparent glass interposed between the 
 face and a blazing fire intercepts no sensible portion of the 
 light, but most sensibly diminishes the heat. Light and 
 heat are, therefore, not intercepted alike by the same sub- 
 stances. Heat is also combined in different "degrees with the 
 different rays of the solar spectrum. A verv remarkable dis- 
 covery on this subject was mnde by Sir William Herschel, 
 which would seem to establish the independence of the 
 heating and illuminating effects of the solar rays. Having 
 placed thermometers in the several prismatic colours of the 
 solar spectrum, he found the heating power of the rays 
 gradually increased from the violet v where it was least) to 
 the extreme red, and that the maximum temperature existed 
 nt some distance beyond the red, out of the visible part of 
 the spectrum. The experiment was soon after repeated 
 with great enre by Berard, who confirmed Herschel's con- 
 clusions relatively to the augmentation of the calorific power 
 from the violet to the red ; but he found the maximum heat 
 existed at the extremity of the red and not beyond the spec- 
 G68 
 
 LIGHTHOUSE. 
 
 trum. This discovery of the inequality of the heating power 
 of the different rays led to the inquiry whether the chemical 
 action produced by light on certain bodies was merely the ef 
 feet of the heat accompanying it, or owing to some other cause. 
 By a scries of delicate experiments, Berard found that this 
 action is not only independent of the heating power, but fol- 
 lows an entirely different law ; its intensity being greatest in 
 the violet ray, where the heating power is the least, and 
 least in the red ray, where the heating power is greatest. 
 We are thus led to the conclusion that the solar rays pos- 
 sess at least three distinct powers — those of heating, illumi- 
 nating, and effecting chemical combinations and dew niposi- 
 tions; and these powers are distributed among the differ- 
 ently refrangible rays in such a manner as to show their 
 complete independence of each other. 
 
 Light acts a very important part in the vegetable economy. 
 The green colour of plants and the hue of flowers entirely 
 depend on it; and it is found even to influence the form of 
 their leaves. Its effects in developing the forms of some of 
 the lower classes of animals have also been proved by vari- 
 ous experiments; and there are probably many other powers 
 resident in the same wonderful agent of which we can at 
 present form no adequate notion. (See Sir J. HcrscheVs 
 Treatise on Light ; Jliry's Mathematical Tracts ; Brew- 
 ster's Optics ; Young's Lectures ; Biot, Traite de Physique , 
 Pouillet, E'emens de Physique.) 
 
 Light. In Painting, the medium by which objects are 
 discerned. In a picture it means the part the most illumi- 
 nated. This may happen from natural light, as the sun or 
 moon ; or from artificial light, as a fire, candle, &x. The 
 principal light is generally made to fall on the spot where 
 the principal figures are placed, and generally near the cen 
 tre of the picture. A reflected light is that which a body 
 in shadow receives from a contiguous light object. 
 
 Lioht. The sea term for not laden. 
 
 LIGHTER. A strong vessel or barge for transporting 
 goods or stores, chieflv on rivers and canals. 
 
 LIGHTHOUSE. An establishment for the exhibition of 
 a light or landmark to direct the mariner. The use of lights 
 for such a purpose is of very high antiquity, but their early 
 history is involved in much obscurity. In the ancient 
 world, there were lighthouses at Ostea, Ravenna. Puteoli, 
 Caprea, Rhodes, on the Thracian Bosphorus, &x. (Suetonii 
 Opera, torn, i., p. 755) ; but by far the most celebrated light- 
 house in antiquity was that erected by Ptolemy Boter on the 
 small island of Pharos, opposite to Alexandria: " noctumis 
 ignibus cursum navium regens." {Pliny, lib. v., c. 31.) Its 
 extraordinary height, which some authors have estimated 
 at 500 feet and upwards, procured for it a place among the 
 wonders of the world ; and, according to Joseph us, its 
 " beaming summit" could be seen at a distance of 300 stadia, 
 about 42 British miles. It is said to have cost 800 talents : 
 and its celebrity was such that Pharos rapidly became, n:u\ 
 still continues to be, in many countries a generic term equiv- 
 alent to lighthouse. 
 
 The most celebrated lighthouses of modern times are, the 
 Tour de Carduan, at the entrance of the Gironde, in France; 
 the Eddystone lighthouse, opposite to Plymouth Sound ; and 
 that more recently constructed on the Bell Rock, opposite to 
 the Frith of Tav. The first of these was begun in 1584, and 
 finished in 1611. It is 186J feet (English) in height; and. 
 besides being of the highest importance to the sailor on so 
 dangerous and frequented a coast, it forms, at the same time, 
 a splendid specimen of architectural beatity. The Eddy- 
 stone lighthouse, constructed by the celebrated engineer 
 Smeaton, was completed in 1759, is regarded as a master- 
 piece of its kind, and, as has well been observed, bids fair to 
 be little less lasting than the rocks upon which it stands. 
 The Bell Rock lighthouse was built by Mr. Stevenson on 
 the model of the Eddystone. Numerous lighthouses raark- 
 ing the most dangerous points, and the entrance to the prin 
 cipal harbours, are now erected in most civilized maritime 
 countries. In the Baltic and the Sound they are particu- 
 larly abundant; the Dutch have 20 lights on their coast 
 and in the Zuyder Zee, and on the northern and western 
 coasts of France there are no fewer than 89 excellent lights. 
 (The Admiralty has lately published lists of all these lights.) 
 But the coasts of no country .ire so well provided with light- 
 houses as those of the United Kingdom. For England they 
 are under the management of the Brethren of the Trinity 
 House; for Ireland, under that of the Board for the Im- 
 provement of the Port of Dublin ; and for Scotland, under 
 that of the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses meeting 
 nt Edinburgh. It would swell our pages to too great an ex- 
 tent were we to attempt to give a complete list of the \arl- 
 ous lighthouses of this country ; we must, therefore, beg to 
 refer the reader to the Commercial Dictionary for full par- 
 ticulars upon this subject, and shall devote what remains of 
 our limits to a view of the different principles adopted in the 
 construction of their important machinery. 
 
 The ancient mode of exhibiting lights as beacons to the 
 mariner consisted in burning wood or coal in a chauffer on 
 
LIGHTHOUSE. 
 
 the top of a tower ; and till the year 1807 the Eddystone light 
 was nothing better than the feeble blaze of a few tallow 
 candles, without any apparatus for concentrating the light 
 or giving it any particular direction. But as rays of light 
 proceeding from a luminous focus are equally dispersed over 
 the surface of the sphere which has the focus for its centre, 
 it is evident that without some means of giving the light a 
 horizontal direction, the greater part of it must be wholly 
 lost ; for only those rays which are directed in the plane of 
 the horizon, or, at least, which are depressed only a few 
 degrees below it, tan be seen by a ship at a distance. Hence 
 the first object to be attained is to prevent the loss of light 
 by throwing the whole of it forward in the plane of the ho- 
 rizon, :t order that its intensity may be increased in the 
 great :-*t possible degree. Now there are two principles on 
 which this may be accomplished — reflection and refraction. 
 inject is, accordingly, carried into effect by a catoptric 
 or dioptric apparatus. Sometimes both principles are com- 
 bined in the same apparatus. 
 
 Catoptric System. — The usual mode of applying the ca- 
 toptric principle is by burning an Argand lamp in the focus 
 of a parabolic mirror. This mode of illumination appears 
 to bttve been first carried into effect at the Carduan light- 
 house above-mentioned, under the direction of Borda, about 
 Am year 17>0. A few years later, reflecting mirrors were 
 placed in some of the English lighthouses, under the direc- 
 tion of the Trinity House; and in 1786 the principle was 
 adopted In the only two beacons then existing on the coast 
 of Scotland, viz., the isle of May, in the Frith of Forth, and 
 the ''umbrae Isle in the Clyde. Soon afterward! it was 
 adopted generally in this country. Uorda's reflector was 
 formed of a sheet of copper plated with silver ; those ap- 
 plied in Scotland were formed of small facets of mirror- 
 HSed in hollow parabolic moulds of plaster. The 
 mirrors in general use in the British lighthouses at the pres- 
 ent time are otwfftt, lined with silver ; the focal length is 
 about 3 or 4 inches, and the diameter at the outer edge about 
 '21 inches. 
 
 If the curvature of a reflector could be made truly para- 
 bolic, and if the light issued from a mathematical point, the 
 rays would be reflected from the mirror exactly parallel to 
 the axis of the generating curve, and the beam of projected 
 light would he a cylinder having a diameter equal to that 
 of the mirror. Such a form of the beam would render the 
 light nearly useless, on account of the small portion of the 
 horizon which would he illuminated ; and it is accordingly 
 . to give the rays a certain degree of divergence: 
 this is practically effected by the size of the flame. The 
 burner of the lamp is usually an inch in diameter; and the 
 origin of the luminous rays being thus at a small distance 
 from the litius, instead of being reflected parallel, they nre 
 projected in a cone having a divergence of about 14°. The 
 curvature of the mirror may also be so adjusted as to in- 
 creaae the diver] 
 
 In order to produce a light of sufficient intensity, several 
 parabolic mirrors, sometimes as many u eight, nre placed 
 OB a frame, with their nxes nil parallel to each other, so 
 that the light reflected by all of them is blended together in 
 ooam To form a revolving light, the frame is at- 
 tached to a horizontal axis, which is turned by means of 
 clock machinery; and in this manner the different quarters 
 of the horizon are successively illuminated. But as a rapid 
 motion would be inconvenient, the frame has usually three 
 or four side-, on each of which the same number of mirrors 
 and lights is placed, so that the illumination is repeated 
 three or four times in one revolution. To form a stationary 
 light, a number of reflectors are placed round a circular 
 frame, having their axes on the radii of the circle. This ar- 
 rangement has one obvious defect, namely, that the illumi- 
 nation will not be equally intense nt all azimuths, but 
 I in the direction of the several axes, and feeblest in 
 ion of lines bisecting the several angles formed by 
 each pair of contiguous axes. The defect is one which can- 
 not be entirely remedied in a stationary light on the catoptric 
 principle. 
 
 Dioptric System. — The introduction of lenses for the pur- 
 pose of giving the light a horizontal direction is of recent 
 date. A project for this purpose is, indeed, mentioned by 
 Smeaton in his account of the Eddystone lighthouse, and 
 about the end of the List century the method was tried at 
 some lighthouses in the south of England ; but from the 
 Imperfect figure of the lenses, and the absorption of the light 
 mused by the great thickness of the glass, it did not succeed. 
 But the art of grinding spherical lenses having been since 
 brought to greater perfection, and a means of greatly dimin- 
 btnttg the absorption, and also of constructing lenses of a 
 much greater size, having been found in the use of polyzo- 
 nal lenses (that is to say, lenses formed of several pieces 
 separately prepared and afterward united — see Polyzonal 
 Less), the system has been revived of late years, and in 
 many instances carried successfully into execution. The 
 merit of first applying such lenses to lighthouses belongs to 
 
 the late Auguste Fresnel, of the Academy of Sciences of 
 Paris. The annular lenses, constructed under the direction 
 of Fresnel for the principal lighthouses in France, are piano 
 convex, having a focal distance of about 3 feet ; and they 
 are formed of crown glass, ns being less liable to stria than 
 flint-glass. The effective divergence of the cone of light 
 projected by a lens is generally less than in the case of a 
 paraboloidal refractor, being only about 5° V. As the lit 
 minous cone is formed of only that portion of the light which 
 falls on the surface of the lens, it might be supposed that an 
 apparatus of this kind would be far inferior in its effect to a 
 parabolic mirror; but when it is considered that, owing In 
 the imperfections of the form and polish of the reflecting 
 surface, more than one half of the incident light is lost in 
 every case, and also that a larger and more intense flame 
 may lie used for illuminating the lens than can be applied 
 to a parabolic reflector, it will easily appear that the supe- 
 riority may be on the side of the lens. In fact, a lens of the 
 largest size used in the French lighthouses projects a cone 
 of equal intensity to that of eight mirrors of the best kind. 
 
 The construction of n revolving dioptric apparatus of the 
 first order is usually as follows : The revolving frame which 
 carries the principal lenses has eight sides; and there are 
 consequently eight large lenses, so arranged that their axes 
 are alt in the same horizontal plane, and meet in the com 
 mon focus, where the lamp is placed. This frame, with its 
 lenses, consequently forms an octagonal prism. For the 
 purpose of preventing the loss of the rays which fall above 
 and below the principal lenses-, various methods are em- 
 ployed. One is to place above the first frame a second 
 frame, whose sides form the frustum of an octagonal pyra- 
 mid of 50° of inclination, in each of the sides of which is 
 placed a lens having its focus in the flame Of the lump. 
 The rays falling on these inclined lenses are refracted into 
 directions parallel to the axis of the lens, and nre then re- 
 flected into the horizontal direction by plane mirrors placed 
 above the second frame. A nother method is to place curved 
 reflectors above the frame containing the principal lenses, 
 lint a third and still more elegant method, proposed by Fres- 
 nel. is to substitute for the upper lenses and mirrors a series 
 of triangular prisms, having their nxes arranged in hori- 
 zontal planes, and so adjusted that the light falling on 
 the face next the flame is thrown upon the back of the 
 prism, where it sutlers a total reflection; and a second re- 
 fraction at the third side of the prism gives it the horizontal 
 direction. 
 
 For fixed lights on the dioptric system, it is necessary 
 1 1 increase the number of the lenses, which in fact ought 
 to be infinite, or to form a true cylinder, in order to pro 
 duce an equal diffusion over every point of the horizon 
 In some of the French lighthouses the refracting appnra 
 ins consists of a polygonal belt of 32 lenses; but on es 
 tabUshing n dioptric apparatus at the Isle of May light- 
 honee, in 1836, Mr. Alan Stevenson proposed to form a true 
 rylindric belt; and the task, though attended with much 
 difficulty, was successfully executed at a glass-house in 
 Newcastle. 
 
 The dioptric system is peculiarly adapted for fixed lights : 
 and its advantages are these: 1. A light of equal intensity 
 is distributed round every point of the horizon. 2. The con- 
 sumption of oil is less for the same intensity of light, and 
 consequently the expense of maintaining the light is less, 
 3. The trouble of attending it is less, as there is only one light 
 to trim, and the lenses are easily kept in order; whereas the 
 reflecting surfaces require much care and attention. On 
 the other hand there is more risk from accident ; for the ac- 
 cidental extinction of the lamp leaves the whole horizon in 
 darkness ; whereas in a system of reflectors the light would 
 be extinguished over only a small portion of it. 
 
 Fresnel published his first memoir on the subject in 1822 ; 
 since that time the dioptric system has been generally 
 adopted for all the principal lighthouses of France nnd Hol- 
 land. In this country it has been applied only nt Inchkeitb 
 and the Isle of May in the Frith of Forth, and nt the Stui 
 Point in Devonshire. 
 
 Lamps. — For the lights on the catoptric system fh' llu 
 mination is usually produced by an Argand fountain inmp, 
 having a burner of an inch in diameter, and tipped with 
 silver, in order that it may the better withstand the effect of 
 the heat evolved. In the dioptric system a larger flame is 
 requisite ; and Fresnel invented a lamp the peculiarity of 
 which consists in its having a series of concentric burner' 
 For lights of the first class the number is four ; and they are 
 protected from the effects of the excessive heat by a super- 
 abundant supply of oil, which is thrown up from a cistern 
 below by a clock-work movement, and is kept constantly 
 overflowing the wicks. A tall chimney is necessary to 
 supply a sufficiency of air. In this country the lamp is fed 
 with spermaceti oil ; in France the oil of colza (expressed 
 from the seed of the wild cabbage) is used ; nnd in some 
 parts of the Mediterranean olive oil ; but the light obtained 
 from this is comparatively feeble. In a few instances con/ 
 
 669 
 
LIGHTNESS. 
 
 gas has been used for dioptric lights. All attempts to applv 
 the Drummond light, and Voltaic lights, have failed by rea- 
 son of the great practical difficulties with which those 
 modes of illumination are attended. 
 
 Method of distinguishing Sea Lights. — An object of grea' 
 importance in the establishment of lighthouses is to vary 
 the appearances of the dilierent lights, so that each may 
 have some dictinctive character by which it may be readily 
 recognised, and the mariner be made aware of the part of 
 the coast he is approaching. Among the methods adopted 
 for this purpose are the following: 1. The interposition of 
 coloured shades before the lenses of refractors, so as to give 
 a parti ular colour to the light : red is the only colour which 
 can be used, as shades of any other colour are found to ab- 
 sorb too much light. 2. The time of revolution, or the 
 length of the interval between the successive appearances of 
 the light: this is the only mode of distinguishing lights 
 adopted on the French coasts. 3. A flashing light ; that 
 is, a light of which the alternate flashes and eclipses succeed 
 each other so rapidly its to give the appearance of a succes- 
 sion of brilliant scintillations. 4. An intermittent light, 
 which consists of a fixed light which is suddenly eclipsed, 
 and after a stated interval as suddenly revealed : the appear- 
 ance of this light is entirely different from that of any re- 
 volving light. 5. The exhibition of a double light, which 
 admits of other distinctions ; for the one light may be placed 
 vertically above the other, or in the same horizontal plane ; 
 or one may be white and the other red. Sometimes three 
 lights are necessary to indicate the entrances to har- 
 bours, &c. 
 
 The average annual expense of maintaining a land light 
 in Great Britain is about £500, and that of a floating light 
 about £1500. 
 
 (Encyc. Brit., art. "Sea Lights;" Smeaton, Narrative of 
 Ific Eddystone Lighthouse, 1793; Stevenson's Account of 
 the Bell Hock Lighthouse, 1824 ; Id., British Pharos, 1831 ; 
 Brewster's Treatise on Burning Instruments, 1812; The 
 Light/iouses of the British Islands, 1830 ; Report of Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons on Lighthouses, 1839 ; 
 Report of the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses, 
 by A. Stevenson, 1834 ; and on the. Inchkeith Dioptric Light, 
 183(3; BelUlor, Architecture Hydraulique, tome iv. ; Peelet, 
 Traite d' Eclair age, Paris, 1827; Fresnel, Memoir e sur un 
 JVouvcau Systeme d' Eclairage des Phares,1822; A. Fresnel, 
 Description Sommaire des Pharcs ct Fanauz allumes sur les 
 Cotes de France, 1837, &c.) 
 
 LIGHTNESS. (Teut. leicht.) In the Fine Arts, a qual- 
 ity indicating freedom from weight or clumsiness. 
 
 Ll'GHTNLNG. An electric phenomenon, produced by 
 the passage of electricity between one cloud and another, 
 or between a cloud and the earth. 
 
 The identity of lightning with electricity, thougli it had 
 been previously suspected, was first directly demonstrated 
 by the celebrated Dr. Franklin, in the year 1749, by the ex- 
 periment of drawing sparks from the electric kite. Since that 
 time the science of electricity has been greatly advanced ; 
 nevertheless, the cause of some of the appearances con- 
 nected with lightning is not well explained even at the pres- 
 ent day. 
 
 There are three phenomena in particular for which theory 
 fails satisfactorily to account. The first is the form of the 
 flash, which is almost always zigzag, in broken lines, 
 making a greater or smaller angle with each other. The 
 second is the frequent repetition of the flashes from the 
 same cloud, which often follow one another in quick suc- 
 cession, contrary to what takes place in the case of electric 
 conductors, which generally recover their natural state or 
 discharge the whole of their electricity at a single stroke. 
 The third is the length of the flash, which sometimes ap- 
 pears to embrace a large extent of the sky. This phenome- 
 non can be best observed from the tops of mountains reach- 
 ing above the clouds from which the lightning proceeds; 
 and observers in such circumstances agree in stating that 
 they have seen flashes certainly extending several miles in 
 length. 
 
 The zigzag form of the flashes is common to lightning 
 and the electric spark: the same explanation should conse- 
 quently apply to both ; but this the theory has not yet been 
 able to give. With regard to the second phenomenon, the 
 repetition of the flashes, we may suppose that the mass of 
 vapours consuming an electric cloud is a less perfect con- 
 ductor of electricity than metallic substances ; and without 
 knowing how electricity is distributed and arranged, so as to 
 be in equilibri im over imperfect conductors, whose sur- 
 faces, as in the case of the clouds, often extend many miles, 
 "t is easy to s>^e that an instantaneous contact with the 
 ground, or with another substance having an opposite elec- 
 tricity, would not be sufficient to effect a complete discharge ; 
 and that, consequently, a single spark would not restore them 
 to their natural state. This we may suppose to be the cause 
 wh" numerous flashes are darted from the same cloud. 
 W-" h respect to the third phenomenon, the great length of 
 67(1 
 
 LIGULA. 
 
 the flash may also be a consequence of the feeble conduct 
 ing power of the clouds, and of the mobility of their con 
 stituent parts ; or we may suppose parcels of vapour or air, 
 electrified by the influences of two clouds charged with op- 
 posite electricities, to be scattered at very small intervals be 
 tween the clouds, and that, at a given instant, Hie equilibri- 
 um is destroyed, without a transference of the electricity 
 of the one cloud to the other, but merely from parcel to 
 parcel, along the whole extent of the line in which the Hash 
 appears. 
 
 The theory of an electric fluid, and the well-ascertained 
 differences in the conducting power of dilierent substances, 
 suggested the idea of protecting buildings from the destruct- 
 ive effects of lightning by metallic rods. It has been dis- 
 puted whether conductors ever have been or can be of use 
 in any case; and the question will not probably be satisfac 
 torily answered until the cause and nature of electric action 
 are better understood. See Electricity, Thunder. 
 
 LIGHT-ROOM. A small room from which the light is 
 afforded to the powder magazine of a ship. 
 
 LIGHTS, NORTHERN. See Aurora Borealis. 
 
 LI'GNEOUS. (Lat. lignum, wood.) In Entomology, a 
 part is so called when it is composed of a hard inelastic 
 substance like wood. 
 
 LI'GNIN. (Lat. lignum.) The woody fibre. This most 
 important proximate principle of vegetables exhibits itself in 
 a variety of forms, constituting the different textures of hard 
 and soft wood; and various fibrous products, such as hemp, 
 flax, cotton, &c. When by fine mechanical division it is 
 reduced to a pulpy state, it is formed into paper. When, by 
 different reagents, all the soluble matters are extracted from 
 wood, the insoluble residue is lignin: its ultimate compo- 
 nents are charcoal, oxygen, and hydrogen, the latter ele- 
 ments being in the same ratio as in water; so that wood 
 may be considered as a compound of carbon and water, 
 and, according to Dr. Prout's experiments, almost exactly in 
 equal weights. Lignin is very imperishable ; but under cer- 
 tain circumstances it is attacked by dry rot, arising out of the 
 growth of a parasitic fungus, which causes its rapid decay. 
 Damp timber, in situations where air has not free access, 
 is particularly subject to its attacks ; and when once it has 
 made its appearance, the well-seasoned timber in its neigh- 
 bourhood becomes liable to the same disease. The dry rot 
 may be prevented by impregnating the timber with certain 
 saline solutions, and of these a solution of corrosive suUi- 
 mate has been found most effectual : the chloride combines 
 chemically with the lignin, and the compound is very inde- 
 structible. (See Dry Rot.) Lignin has also a strong at- 
 traction for alumine; and hence linen, cotton, paper, and 
 other forms of this fibre, may be aluminized by steeping them 
 in hydrated alumine diffused through water; or, more effec- 
 tively, by soaking them in certain aluminous solutions, dry- 
 ing them, and afterwards washing out the excess of the 
 salt It is in this way that cotton goods are impregnated 
 with alumine for the purpose of dyeing and calico printing. 
 Other metallic oxides exhibit similar attractive powers, es- 
 pecially the oxide of iron. 
 
 The analogy that exists between the composition of sugar, 
 gum, starch, and even vinegar and lignin, suggests the possi- 
 bility of the conversion of those proximate elements into 
 each other; and it has accordingly been found that by care- 
 fully roasting pure and fine sawdust, it is rendered partially 
 soluble in water, and that a part of it is converted into a nu- 
 tritious substance, probably intermediate between sugar and 
 starch; and which, when mixed with a little flower, yields 
 a palatabe bread, not very unlike that made by some of the 
 inhabitants of the northern parts of Euro]ie of the bark of 
 trees. Mixed with sulphuric acid, lignin passes into gum ; 
 and from this sugar may be obtained by boiling it for some 
 hours in a very dilute sulphuric acid : this sugar, when pu- 
 rified, much resembles grape or honey sugar. By tilts pro- 
 cess rags may be converted into nearly their own weight of 
 this peculiar saccharine matter. 
 
 The production of vinegar by the destructive distillation of 
 wood was originally suggested, about the middle of the 17th 
 century, by Glauber, a celebrated German chemist of that 
 time : it has lately become a very important branch of man- 
 ufacture in this country. Upon the whole, there are very 
 few natural products equally important with lignin in their 
 applications to the useful and ornamental arts. 
 
 LIGNIP'ERDOUS. (Lat. lignum, and perdo, I destroy.) 
 Insects which destroy wood. 
 
 LI'GNITE. (Lat. lignum, and ignis, fire.) Wood con- 
 verted into a kind of coal. 
 
 LI'GULA. (Lat. a tie.) In Botany, a membranous ap 
 pendage at the apex of the sheathing petiole of grasses, and 
 analagous to the corona of some Silenaceous plants. The 
 term ligula is also applied to certain bodies proceeding from 
 the base, and alternate with the horns, of the organ called 
 the orbiculus in Asclepiadaceous plants. 
 
 Li'gula. In Entomology, a name nppled by Latrielle to 
 the lower lip of insects, or lalr-vm of English entomologists. 
 
LIGURITE. 
 
 LI'GUKITE. A mineral found in a laic rock on the 
 banks of the Stura in the Apennines ; it occurs in yellow- 
 green crystals, and, as a gem, resembled the chrysolite. 
 
 LILIA CE.E. A large natural order of Endogenous 
 planu, with hexapetaloid bexandroue (lowers, a superior 
 ovary, rad anthers which burst internally. They are la- 
 miliarly known, in consequence of the asparagus, the lily, 
 the frili. iary, the harebell, the star of Bethlehem, and many- 
 other Common plants, forming a part of the order ; which 
 differs from Melanthaccas in having a single style, not three 
 (styles, and in the anthers opening towards the style, not to- 
 wards the petals. The species are extremely varied : some, 
 like the dragon trees, form a tall, woody, perennial stem, 
 which emulates that of palm trees; others are small bul- 
 bous plants, whose stem only lives a few weeks. Almost 
 all the order is sought after by the cultivator of beautiful 
 plants; and, in the case of the tulip and the hyacinih, innu- 
 merable varieties consliiute the riches of the florist. It It (lie 
 general property of Liliaceous plants to secrete a little stim- 
 ulating principle, which, in dillercnt degrees jaf concentra- 
 tion and modification, gives their activity to onions, garlic, 
 chives, and similar garden productions, and their medical 
 value to aloes and squills. 
 
 LILIACEOUS. In Botany, a term invented by Eink to 
 denote a corolla, the petals of which have their ungues 
 gradually dilating into a iimh, and standing side by side. It 
 is rarely employed. 
 
 El'.MA. (Lat. a file.) A genus of Lamellibrauchiate 
 Bivalves, of the tribe Ottrmcea, characterized by (he length 
 of their shells as compared with those of (he nearly allied 
 genus Ptcten. and their more regular oval form. The 
 ■ most nt (hem relieved with Kales, 
 The Limit swim with rapidity by means of (heir valves, 
 but in a young stale they secure them.-elves by means of 
 a byeaae. 
 
 LlafA'CIDJB See Umax. 
 
 LI'MACTNA. (Eat. dim. of limax, a slug.) Agenusof 
 Testaceous Pteropodouj Mollusks, existing in considerable 
 Lumbers in the northern seas, and forming, with the Clio 
 borealis, and other small marine animals, the food of the 
 whalebone whale. The body terminates in a spirally con- 
 voluted tail, anil is lodged in a very (hin shell, formed by 
 one whorl and a half, umlnhcated on one side, ,-ii.d flattened 
 on the Other. The animal uses its light shell as a boat) and 
 Jtt whig-like litis as oars, and thai navigates, in mil inlaw 
 tlt;ets. the -irrtace of the tranquil deep. 
 
 UMAX. Eat. limax. a slug .) The name of a genu of 
 the Linnaan Vermes Mu'lusca, 01 which the common shir 
 
 is the type. The genus enters Into the cloi 
 and order Pulmonariaof the system of Cuvier, and is now 
 raised to the rank of a family (Limticidie) which includes 
 Limax proper; Arion, Fer. ; Stcnopus, Guild. ; Fcuinulu.'. 
 r'Cr. ; 'J'cstacella, Lam.; Parmacclla, C'uv., &.C. Bach of 
 en has a small sciiliforni rudimenlal shell de- 
 veloped in (he substance of the mantle, rind prut' 
 bent The orifice of reapiratkni in the true singe (/mux, 
 C'uv.) is on the right side, and not so far forward as in .'Irion. 
 The rudimenlal shell is marked wi(h fine and concentric 
 stria-, and is calcified internally. The species of this genus 
 are the pests of gardens and cultivated grounds. YOttfig 
 plants nay be protected from slugs by having a coarse horse- 
 hair ro|>e coiled round their stems, or by being plentifully 
 sprinkled with soot; or they may be watered morning and 
 evening with s(rong and fresh lime water. 
 
 LIMB. In Astronomy, signifies the border or outermost 
 :lie sun or moon. Also the graduated edge of a 
 -ircle, or other astronomical instrument. 
 
 LI'MIIEUS. In Artillery, a sort of advanced train to 
 
 which the carriage of a cannon is nttached on a march. It 
 
 is composed of two shafts, wide enough apart to receive a 
 
 between them, joined by two bars of wood and 
 
 mounted on a pair of wheels. 
 
 Ll'MBO. (Lat. limbus, a hem or edge.) A region sup- 
 posed by some of the school theologians to lie on the edge 
 >r neighbourhood of hell. This served M a receplacle for 
 the souls of just men, not admitted into purgatory or heaven. 
 Such were, according to some Chrislian writers, the patri- 
 archs and other pious ancients who died before the birth 
 of Christ : hence the limbo was called Limbus Patrum. 
 Those, it was believed, would be liberated at Christ's sec- 
 ond coming, and admitted to the privileges of the blessed 
 in heaven. Though some have asserted that, when our 
 Saviour went down into hell, he liberated these souls, and 
 car. ted them away with him into heaven. This latter idea 
 Is probably an adorned representation of the remarkable 
 passage in St. Peter's Epistle (i., 3, 19), where he says that 
 Christ preached to the spirits in prison; and, being held by 
 certain of the later fathers, seems to have given some influ- 
 ence to the growing opinion in favour of a purgatory. The 
 limbus puerorum, or infantum, was a similar receptacle al- 
 lotted by some of the schoolmen to the eouIs of infants who 
 die unbaptized. Dante has fixed his limbo, in which the 
 
 LIME. 
 
 distinguished spirits of antiquity are confined, as the outer- 
 most of the circle of his hell. The use which Milton has 
 made of the same superstitious belief is well known. {Par- 
 adise Lost, book iii.) 
 
 H'MBUS. A term applied to petals, to denote that por 
 lion which is supported by the unguis; it is the same organ 
 in a petal as the lamina in a leaf, and is what constitutes 
 the broad, thin, coloured part which renders many flowers 
 so beautiful. 
 
 LIME. (Germ, leim, glue.) This very useful earth is 
 obtained by exposing chalk and other kinds of limestone, or 
 carbonates of lime, to a red heat — an operation generally 
 conducted in kilns constructed for the purpose ; the carbonic 
 acid is thus expelled, and lime, more or less pure, according 
 to the original quality of the limestone, remains. In (his 
 state it is usually called quicklime. When sprinkled with 
 water it becomes very hot, and crumbles down into a dry 
 powder, called slaked lime, or hydrate of lime. When ex- 
 posed for some weeks to the air it also falls Into powder, in 
 consequence of the absorption of moisture, and of a portion 
 of carbonic acid ; so that, in this case, part of the lime grad • 
 iinlly reverts to the state of carbonate, and loses its caus- 
 (ici(y. Pure lime may be obtained by heating powdered 
 Carrara marble to whiteness in an ojien crucible. It is 
 white, very fusible, highly luminous when healed to full 
 redness, and of a specific gravity of about 2-3. It requires 
 for solution about 500 parts of water, and i< somewhat 
 more soluble in cold than in hot water. But, weak as this 
 solution is, it nets powerfully alkaline upon vegetable col- 
 ours and has an acrid taste ; hence the t>m alkaline earth 
 applied to lime. It absorbs carbonic acid by exposure to air, 
 and as carbonate of lime is insoluble in water, it beonmet 
 milky in consequence; so that, from (his property, lime- 
 water is a useful test of the presence of carbonic acid. 
 The nature of lime was first demonstrated by Davy in 1807: 
 he showed that, like (he other alkalies, u was a metallic 
 oxide. The metallic base of lime has been termed calcium : 
 its equivalent is 20, and lime, being a compound of one atom 
 of calcium, and one of oxygen, is represented by the equiv- 
 alent Dumber 88; and hydrate of lime by 98 lime -f-'.t water 
 = 37. The suits of lime arc generally obtained bj 
 mg carbonate of lime in the respective- acids: several of them 
 exist native. Sulphate of lime, sclenite, or gypsum, is an 
 abundant natural product, and may be formed artificial!) 
 by adding sulphuric acid, or the soluble sulphates, to sn 
 lotions of the sal(s of lime. It consists of 88 lime -f- 40 sul 
 phuricacid, and its crystals include two atoms = 18 of water. 
 When these crystallized sulphates of lime are heated, liiey 
 part with their water and (ail into a white powdi 
 plaster of Paris; when this is mixed with water it again 
 wiih it, and concretes Into a white mate; houot 
 its use for casts, busts, &c. Sulphate of lime is often con 
 tained in spring water, which is thus rendered hard and un- 
 lit for washing. These waters become lurbid upon the ad- 
 dition of a spirituous solution of soap. I'/iosjihate of linn 
 is found votive, constituting the mineral called apatite: (bw 
 is a subphosphate, composed of 3 equivalents of lime = 84, 
 and -J of phosphoric acid = 72. The earth of bones is al-o 
 chiefly a similar phosphate of lime. Oxalate of lime is very 
 insoluble, and is precipitated whenever oxalic acid or a so 
 lotion of oxalate is added (o solutions containing lime; hence 
 it is that oxalate of ammonia is so valuable a lest of ItM 
 pretence of lime, nnd is frequently used for the purpose i I 
 ■maraiing lime in analysis. When oxalate of lime is well 
 dried, at 500°, it is anhydrous, and consists of 28 lime -j- :<6 
 oxalic acid = G4 oxalate of lime. This substance is occasion 
 ally found in the human urine, and sometimes forms calculi . 
 these are often of a reddish brown colour and a rough ex- 
 terior, whence they have been termed mulberry calcu'i. 
 When hydrate of lime is exposed to chlorine, the gas is ab- 
 sorbed, and a chloride of lime is obtained. This article i-< 
 manufactured upon an extensive scale, under the name of 
 bleaching powder. It evolves chlorine when acted upon by 
 acids; and gives it out very slowly when exposed to air, in 
 consequence, probably, of the absorption of carbonic acid. 
 It is a most useful disinfecting material, and, when dissolved 
 in water, forms bleaching liquid. Carbonate of lime is 
 thrown down when alkaline carbona'es ore ndded to solu- 
 tions of the salts of lime. It is a most abundant natural 
 product, and is found pure in the varieties of calcareous* 
 spar and statuary marble. Chalk and Eeveral varieties of 
 limestone are also nearly pure carbonates of lime. It is 
 easily distinguished from other minerals by effervescing in 
 dilute muriatic acid, and by yielding quicklime when a frae 
 ment is heated before the blowpipe. It is constituted of 28 
 lime -f- 22 carbonic acid; the equivalent, therefore, of car- 
 bonate of lime is 50. 
 
 The uses of lime are very numerous. Its most important 
 application is in the manufacture of m' rtar and other ce- 
 ments used in building. It is also very extensively used in 
 this country, and in some parts of the Continent nnd North 
 America, as a manure to fertilize land. But it is a curiouc 
 
 em 
 
LIMESTONE. 
 
 fact that the use of lime as a manure is entirely a European 
 practice, its employment in this way having been never so 
 much as dreamed of by the natives of Asia or Africa. (See 
 Commercial Diet.) 
 
 LI'MESTONE. A generic term for those varieties of 
 carbonate of lime which are neither crystallized nor earthy ; 
 the former being calcareous spar, the latter chalk. When 
 turned they yield a quicklime. See Geology. 
 
 LI'MIT, in Geometry, denotes a given or determinate 
 quantity to which some other variable quantity continually 
 approaches in value, but which it can never exceed. Thus, 
 if we s'l pose a polygon to be inscribed in a circle, by in- 
 creasing the number of sides of the polygon its area is 
 ir^reasrd. But the area can never exceed that of the circle 
 within which the polygon is inscribed ; and it is only when 
 the number of its sides is conceived to be infinitely great 
 that its area becomes equal to that of the circle. The cir- 
 cle is thus said to be the limit of the areas of the inscribed 
 polygon. 
 
 Method of Limits, the same with the method of prime 
 and ultimate ratios ; a peculiar method of analysis em- 
 ployed by Newton in the Principia, equivalent to fluxions 
 or the differential calculus, but preserving the form of the 
 ancient geometry. 
 
 LIMITATION OF ACTIONS AT LAW. The period 
 beyond which personal actions of trespass, or debt on simple 
 contract, cannot be brought is defined by the stat. 21 J. 1, c. 
 16. They must be commenced within six years after the 
 ^ause of action ; with the exception of actions of assault, 
 menace, and imprisonment, which are limited to four. But 
 a right of action may be revived by an express acknowledg- 
 ment on the part of the debtor. 
 
 Penal actions for forfeitures made by statute must be sued 
 in general, according to the terms of the statutes, within two 
 years or one year. 
 
 By the recent statute 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 27, all process for the 
 recovery of land by entry and distress, or by action, whether 
 real or mixed, must be commenced within twenty years 
 after the right of action accrued. Persons under the disa- 
 bilities of infancy, coverture, idiotcy, lunacy, unsoundness 
 of mind, or absence beyond seas, are allowed ten years after 
 the termination of their disability ; so that forty years be in 
 all cases the extreme limit. This statute extends both to 
 suits in equity and actions at law. No advowson can be 
 recovered after one hundred years. Money charged upon 
 land, and legacies, are deemed satisfied at the end of twenty 
 yeais, unless there have been some receipt or acknowledg- 
 ment. Arrears of rent, or interest of money charged on land, 
 cannot be recovered after six years. But it has been thought 
 that this limitation has been extended by the subsequent 
 statute 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 42, which enacts that actions of cove- 
 nant and debt for rent, &c, may be brought at any time 
 within twenty years after the cause of action has accrued. 
 
 The statutes of limitations apply to equitable remedies 
 directly, and by the plain import of the statutes, where the 
 equitable remedy is sought (as it may be in some cases) for 
 a right enforceable at law ; and they have been adopted by 
 analogy in those cases where a purely equitable right is the 
 counterpart of a legal one, as the right to mesne profits in 
 respect of an equitable ownership, or a debt payable in 
 equity but not in law. Where there is not this strict cor- 
 respondence between the equitable and legal claims, the 
 rule prevails that twenty years' adverse possession, which 
 is in law a bar to the possessory action for land, shall be a 
 bar to all equitable claim, whether the adverse right be 
 merely equitable also or equitable and legal ; such period 
 of limitation being, as at law, capable of extension from in- 
 fancy, absence, or disability. But time is not a bar to the 
 claim of cestui que trust against his trustee, where the trus- 
 teeship was in the origin direct and express, and not coupled 
 with any beneficial interest, as it is in the case of a mortgage ; 
 nor does a purchaser, with notice from a trustee, stand in a 
 better situation in respect to time than the trustee himself. 
 
 Ll'MNEUS. (Gr. \ipvn, a pool.) A genus of fresn-water 
 snnMs; so named from their general location in ponds, 
 ditcliea, and other receptacles of stagnant water. Many 
 species of this genus are natives of Britain. 
 
 LI'MNING. The art of painting in water colours; in 
 which sense it is used to distinguish it from painting in oil 
 colours. 
 
 LIMO'SA. (Lat. limus, mud.) A genus of wading birds, 
 belonging to the Longirostrus tribe ; and characterized by 
 a straight beak, longer than that of the snipes (Scolopax), 
 and sometimes slightly bent at the extremity; the nasal 
 groove extends close to the tip, which is blunt and some- 
 what depressed ; there is no third groove or punctation on 
 its surface. The external toes are palminated at the base : 
 they are longer and slenderer than in the snipes. The spe- 
 eies of Limosa which, with us, are vernacularly termed 
 Godwin, frequent salt marshes and the sea shore. 
 
 LI'MULUS. (Lat. limus.) A genus of gigantic Ento- 
 mostracous Crustacea, in which -the haunches of the first 
 072 
 
 LINEN. 
 
 six pairs of feet are beset with small spines, and are so 
 closely approximated about the mouth as to serve the office 
 of jaws. The cesophagus, instead of proceeding backwards, 
 is continued forwards for a short distance into the anterioi 
 part of the shield before it enters the stomach : this cavity 
 is lined with a thick rugous cuticle, and terminates in tlit 
 intestine by a long muscular and valvular projection. The 
 heart is elongated, vasiform, and muscular; the branehia 
 are supported on a series of closely-packed broad plates 
 beneath the post-abdomen. The total number of feel is 
 twenty-two: the first ten, with the exception of the two 
 anterior ones in the males of some species, are terminated 
 by a didactyle forceps, and are inserted, with the two fol- 
 lowing pairs, beneath a large semilunar shield. The species 
 of this genus are found on the shores of the North American 
 and Asiatic continents : they are commonly known by the 
 names of king crabs, horse-shoe or mollusca crabs. The 
 tail is long, straight, sharp-pointed, and of sufficient strength 
 and size to be used as a spear-head or arrow-point by savages 
 
 LINA'CE^E. (Linum, one of the genera.) A small 
 natural order of herbaceous Exogens, principally inhabiting 
 Europe and the north of Africa ; allied, according to De 
 Candolle, to Silenacea, Malvacea, and Geraniacea. Aug 
 de St. Hilaire considers them to be a mere section of Gera- 
 niacece. The want of a gynobasic structure, the imbricate 
 calyx, the regular flowers, and the small quantity of albu- 
 men in the seeds, rather point out an affinity with Cistaccte 
 and its allies. Their chief characters are, the tenacity o'.' 
 their fibre, the mucilage of their seeds, and the beauty of 
 their flowers. Common flax or lin (whence linseed) is the 
 most important plant of the order. 
 
 LINE, in Military Affairs, is a term used to distinguish 
 what may be called the regular infantry of Great Britain 
 from other military corps or establishments. Thus all num 
 bered infantry or marching regiments, with the exception of 
 the Foot Guards, are designated by this term, in opposition 
 to the cavalry, the artillery, the engineers, the marines, the 
 militia, the yeomanry, &c. 
 
 Line, in Fortification, signifies any extended defence ; as 
 a ditch with its parapet, a row of gabions, &c. 
 
 Line, in Geography and Navigation, is used for the equa 
 tor ; as equinoctial line. 
 
 Line. In Geometry, a magnitude having only one dimen 
 sion. Euclid defines it to be " that which has length without 
 breadth." 
 
 LI'NEAR. In Geometry, a linear problem is one that is 
 solved by the intersection of two straight lines, or by an 
 equation of the first degree, and which, consequently, admits 
 only of a single solution. 
 
 Linear Equations, in the Integral Calculus, are those in 
 which the unknown quantity is only of the first degree 
 Thus A x + B =; O is a linear equation, if A and B are not 
 functions of a;; and A d y -f- B y -4- C = O is also a linear 
 equation, when A, B, and C do not contain y. 
 
 Linear Perspective is that which regards only the posi- 
 tions, magnitudes, and forms of the objects delineated ; as 
 distinguished from aerial perspective, in which the variations 
 of the light, colour, and shade of objects, according to their 
 different distances and the quantity of light that falls on 
 them, are also considered and represented. 
 
 LINEN. (Germ, leinwand.) A species of cloth woven 
 with the fibres of the flax plant (Linum vsitatissimum). 
 The origin of the manufacture of linen is lost in its antiquity. 
 In the time of Herodotus linen was an article of export from 
 Egypt, where it had been used from time immemorial ; but 
 it is evident that in ancient times its use was limited to the 
 noble and the rich. In modern times linen constitutes a 
 staple manufacture in almost all European countries; but 
 more especially in Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Flanders, 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland. In England it has been 
 prosecuted for a very long period ; but until of late years its 
 progress has been inconsiderable, compared at least with 
 that made in other branches of manufacture. This seems 
 to be partly owing to the attempts to bolster up and encour 
 age the manufacture in Ireland, partly to the absurd restric 
 tions that were for a lengthened period laid on the importa- 
 tion of foreign flax and hemp, and partly to the rapid growth 
 of the cotton manufacture — fabrics of cotton having, to a 
 considerable extent, superseded those of linen. It is only 
 within the last fifty years that any machinery has been used 
 in the production of linen cloth, the first mills for the spin- 
 ning of flax having been constructed at Darlington about 
 forty-eight years ago. X^ee Flax, Hemp.) The principal 
 seat of the manufacture is— in England, Leeds and its im- 
 mediate vicinity, and in Lancashire, Dorset, Durham, and 
 Salop; in Scotland, Dundee, which indeed may be regarded 
 as the chief seat of the British manufacture (see Geo. Diet., 
 art. "Dundee"); and in Ireland, the province of Ulster. 
 The entire value of the linen manufacture of Great Britain 
 and Ireland is estimated at X8,000,000, and the total number 
 of persons employed in it about 185,000. (Statist, of tXt 
 Brit. Empire, vol. i., 679.) 
 
LINE OF BATTLE. 
 
 LINK OF BATTLE, is the line formed by the ships of 
 the fleet when ranged ahead and astem of each other, at 
 equal distances, and close-hauled, or uearly so. It may be 
 formed, accordingly, upon either tack. The line is composed 
 of ships of not less than two decks, thence called line-of- 
 battle-skips. The line is also called the line ahead. 
 
 LINE OF BEARING, THE, is formed by the ships of 
 the fleet when ranged on a line six points from the wind, at 
 Equal distances, and with their heads in any direction what- 
 ever. The line is called by the name of that tack upon 
 which, if the ships were to haul to the wind together, they 
 would form tin line ahead. For example: sup|)ose the 
 wind N., and the ships in a line W.N.VV. and E.S.E. of 
 each oilier: this is the starboard line of bearing, whether 
 the ships arc going free, or close-hauled upon the larboard 
 tack. 
 
 LIN h OF DIP. In Geology, the strata which form the 
 crust of the globe are rarely horizontal, but incline to some 
 point of the horizon, and rise to the opposite point; a line 
 drawn through these points is called the line of their dip. 
 
 LI'NGUA. (Lat. a tongue.) In Entomology, the name 
 of an organ situated within the labium or emerging from it, 
 by which insects, in many cases, collect their food and pass 
 it down the pharynx, which is situated above its root. 
 
 LI'NGUA FRA'NCA. The dialect sjmken chiefly along 
 the European and African coast of the Mediterranean, it 
 is a ipedM of corrupt Italian, mingled with words of other 
 languages, and » ia y be termed the Creole of the Mediter- 
 
 LI'.NGULA. (Lat.) A genus of Palliobranchiate Ili- 
 vahes, with two nearly flat, smooth, oblong, triangular 
 valves, attached between the two apices to a long fleshy 
 pedicle. The arms, or labial appendages, are spirally con- 
 voluted, a< in the rest of the class. 
 
 LINIMENT. (Lat. lino, / anoint.) A semifluid oint- 
 ment, or a soapy application, to rub upon painful joints, 
 i'he term is also applied to spirituous and other stimulating 
 applications for external use. 
 
 LI'NING. In Architecture, any covering of an interior 
 ■HUM. The linings, for instance, or boxings of window 
 shutters, are the pieces forming the backs of the recesses 
 into which the shutters are folded. In doorways, they are 
 the facings on each side the aperture: to sashes, they are 
 Die vertical pieces parallel with the surface of the walls. 
 
 LI'NTEL. (Span, lintel.) In Architecture, an horizon- 
 tal piece of timber or stone, over a door, window, or other 
 opening, to discharge the superincumbent might 
 
 LION, i Fi/is leo, Linn.) The largest, meet ftmrrtrinhln. 
 Bud most noble of the Carnivorous nnimals, though not the 
 most typical of the MM at which it stands at the head. It 
 Is chietly distinguished by the presence of n full, flowing 
 mane in the male, and by a tufted -tail and the disappear- 
 ance of the feline markings in both sexes before they arrive 
 at maturity; the colour then being a nearly uniform light 
 fulvous brown, with mane inclining to black, especially in 
 the Central and South African races. The mane is scantier 
 and lighter coloured in the Asiatic than in the African lions; 
 and there exists a nameless variety in the eastern parts of 
 Hindustan. Srr Film. 
 
 Lion, in Heraldry, a beast, of which the figure Is very 
 commonly borne as a charge. The attitudes in which the 
 lion is represented are very various. (See Rampant, Pas- 
 sant, Regardant, Gardant, Couchant, Salient, Se- 
 jant.) A lion passant is termed, in French hernldrlc 
 language, a leopard ; and hence the common notion that 
 the lions of England were substituted for leopards. 
 
 LION OF ENGLAND. A lion passant or regnrdant 
 (being the bearing of England), is frequently thus termed 
 in heraldry. 
 
 LIP. A term applied to either of the two divisions of a 
 Monopetalous corolla, where one portion takes a direction 
 upwards and the remainder downwards, as in Labialat. It 
 me as labellum, which see. 
 
 Lf'PARIS. (Gr. Xmdpoc, glistening.) The name of a 
 genus of Lepidopterous insects; also applied by Pliny to a 
 19 of fishes. In Botany, it is the name of a genus of 
 plants of the Orchidaceous order. 
 
 LIPOGRAMMATIC WORKS or WRITINGS. (Gr. 
 \et tid, / omit, and ypauua, a letter.) Compositions in which 
 a particular letter is omitted throughout. The ancients 
 produced many ingenious trifles of this description. In the 
 nj of Tryphiodorus there was no A in the first book. 
 no It in the second, and so on. There are other pieces of 
 modern invention, such as the Pugna Poreorum, in which 
 all the words begin with the letter P. Odes in Spanish, 
 containing only one of the vowels, are refinements on the 
 same invention. 
 
 LIPO'RN A. (Gr. XiTrof, fat.) A soft fatty tumor. 
 
 LIPPITU'DO. (Lat iippus, blear-eyed.) The disease 
 eommoniy called bleared eyes, consisting In a piiriform ex- 
 adation from the margin of the eyelids, which often causes 
 them to adhere together after sleep. 
 2 U 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 LiaUEFA'CTION. (Lat liquefactio.) The act 01 
 melting or of fusion. This term is also used synonymo ish 
 With solution. 
 
 LI'QUIDS. In Grammar, the letters /, m, n, and r are si 
 called. 
 
 LI'aUOR SI'LICUM. Liquor of flints. A solution o) 
 silicated potash. 
 
 LIREXLA. In Botany, a term used in describing lichee 
 to denote a linear shield, with a channel along its middle 
 as found in Opegrapha. 
 
 LIST. The enclosed field or ground wherein the ancionl 
 knights held their jousts and tournaments; so called from 
 its being encircled with pales, barriers, or stakes, as with 11 
 list Some of these were double, one for each cavalier. 
 which kept them apart and prevented them from coming 
 nearer each other than a spear's length. Hence the expres- 
 sion to enter the lists is synonymous with engaging in contest. 
 List. The name given to the border or selvage of a piece 
 of cloth, &c. 
 
 List, or Listel. In Architecture, the same as fillet or 
 annulet. 
 LIST, CIVIL. See Civil List. 
 
 LI'STING. (Fr. leziere.) In Architecture, the cutting 
 away the sappy port from the edge of a board. 
 
 LI'TANY (Gr. Xirawa, supplication), signifies a general 
 supplication ; and was applied by the Eastern Church in 
 early ages to a special form of prayer which was introduced 
 into the ritual, or used on particular occasions. The term 
 passed over into the Western Church, where the words ro- 
 gatio and supplicatio have been used in the same technical 
 sense. It is supposed by Palmer (Antiq., i., 26U) that the 
 change of term was occasioned by the frequency of proces- 
 sional supplications from the Eastern to the Western church- 
 es, beginning in the 4th century. It appears that some uf 
 the Eastern litanies contain the supplication to saints which 
 forms a distinguishing feature of the Roman. This is suf- 
 ficient to justify the English Church, even on antiqtiuriar 
 grounds, in rejecting these portions of the service'. Our lita 
 ny is mostly translated from the forms of the Western lita- 
 nies previously used in this country ; those of the brcvinrr 
 of Salisbury and York. The direction in the Prayer Boot 
 is, thnt the litany shall be read on Wednesdays, Fridays, and 
 Sundays: on the two former, as fastdays in the primitive 
 Church ; the one as the day in which Christ was told by Jv 
 das, the other as that of the crucifixion, and therefore peri- 
 ods of peculiar humiliation: on the Sunday, as the day ap- 
 pointed for the most complete and solemn service in the 
 week. (See Riddle's Christian Antiquities, p. 023, 1KW . 
 Palmer's Originrs J.iturgicm, i., £t>4.) 
 
 LITERATI (Lat), denotes. In general, learned men ; but 
 is applied in China to such persons as are able to read and 
 write their own language, and also to a particular sect con- 
 sisting chiefly of the most learned men of that country ; 
 nmong whom it is called 'Jukiao, or learned. It is from the 
 class of the literati that the mandarins (quod vide) are alone 
 capable of being selected. 
 
 LITERATURE. (Lat. litera, letter), comprises, in the 
 general sense of the word, the entire results of knowledge 
 and fancy preserved in writing ; but in the narrower use to 
 which ordinary custom restricts it we draw a distinction 
 between literature and positive science, thus exempting from 
 the province of the former one extensive branch of our 
 studies and attainments. And, in a still more restricted 
 sense, the word literature is sometimes used as synony- 
 mous with polite literature, or the French belles Icttrcs 
 (which see). 
 
 The history of literature is a peculiar and distinct sub- 
 ject comprising several subdivisions, such as histories of 
 the literature of special ages or countries; or histories of 
 separate branches of literature, such as poetry. For its 
 complete execution it requires an union of bibliographical 
 knowledge with critical acumen. It should give the reader 
 a sufficient acquaintance with the titles, contents, and dates 
 of remarkable books, and with the general biography of re 
 markable authors, together with a critical appreciation of 
 the characters and value both of authors and books, and of 
 the dependence, connection, and derivation of literature' 
 that is, the mode in which opinions, taste, and style hnve 
 been propagated or changed. This last as it is the BMM 
 difficult part of the subject, so is it that of which the execu- 
 tion has been hitherto most imperfect 
 
 Antiquity has left us no relics of this species of history, 
 although the constant references of such writers as Cicero, 
 Pliny, and Quintilian, to earlier authors, accompanied by 
 critical appreciation of their merits, show that the taste and 
 materials for it were not wanting. A remarkable passage 
 of Velleius Paterculus, in which he shows, by historical in- 
 stances, how many of the great names of antiquity were 
 cotemporary with each other, in limited periods of time, 
 clustering, as it were, together in particular seasons and 
 places, is one of the earliest instances we have of that spirit 
 of generalization from literary phenomena which is now so 
 
 673 
 
LITERATURE. 
 
 common as to leave little room even for the display of origi- 
 nality. 
 
 In the following brief notices of the principal works of 
 general literary history which the student has it now in his 
 power to consult, we shall follow, in great measure, the 
 criticisms of Mr. Hallam, in the Preface to his Introduction 
 to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and 
 Seventeenth Centuries. The oldest work of this description 
 (if such it can be called) is that of Polydore Virgil, De In- 
 ventoribus Rerum, 1499. Conrad Gesner, who has been 
 termed the " father of literary history," published his Bibli- 
 othcca Universalis at Zurich, 1545-55. Notwithstanding 
 these and a few other meagre attempts, Lord Bacon, says 
 Mr. Hallam, was justified in denying that, up to his time, 
 any real history of letters had been written : " and he com- 
 pares that of the world wanting this to a statue of Polyphe- 
 mus wanting his single eye." The next in order of time is 
 Lambuc's Prodromus Histories Literaria, 1659 ; a work 
 pursued on a great plan, but scarcely begun. But Morhof's 
 Polyhistor Literarius, first published in 1688, and much en- 
 larged by subsequent editors, "is still found in every con- 
 siderable library." Andres, a Spanish Jesuit, published his 
 Origine, Progresso, e Stato Jlttuale aVogni Letteratura, from 
 1782 to 1799 ; a very extensive, and, in some respects, valua- 
 ble work, though without much display of taste, and no 
 signs of genius. In the present century, no writers, except 
 of Germany, have attempted a field which has become of 
 sucli enormous extent ; but Eichhorn's Literary History, in 
 six volumes, 1805, 1811, appears to be now, on the whole, 
 the most complete and valuable work of this kind extant. 
 Waehler's Manual of Literary History, in four volumes, 
 appeared at Leipsig in 1833. 
 
 But besides these general compendia, much assistance is 
 to be derived from general biographers. Of these the well- 
 known Dictionary of Bayle, first published in 1697, is the 
 earliest of any value. It is characterized by Hallam (p. xi.) 
 in a manner perhaps too depreciating. That of Niceron, 
 Memoires pour servir a V Histoire des Homines illustres de 
 la Republique des Lettres, 43 vols., 12mo, 1733, 1745, is ex- 
 traordinarily copious and useful in biographical details, but 
 in other respects of no great value. The Biographie Uni- 
 versclle (of which the original edition was in 52 volumes, 
 and a supplement is now in course of publication which has 
 reached the letter H) stands incomparably first among this 
 class of works. Chalmer's Biographical Dictionary scarce- 
 ly deserves mention as a literary work ; but its historical de- 
 tails are sometimes minute and useful, though not unfre- 
 quently most so in the obscurest names. 
 
 Of partial works on literary history some of the most re- 
 markable and useful are, 1. According to subjects — History 
 of Philosophy, Brucker, Buble, Tennemrmn (abridged by 
 Victor Cousin). To these we may add, brief as they are, 
 the Introductory Essays of Stewart and Flayfair to the En- 
 cyclopedia Britannica. Of Belles Lettres, generally, Bouter- 
 wek, 12 vols., 8vo. Poetry, Quadrio, Storia d'ogni Poesia; 
 a work of remarkable industry, though strangely defect- 
 ive in point of critical taste. 2. According to countries — 
 French : Laharp, Cours de Litterature Francaise ; a per- 
 formance of considerable, hut in parts superficial and showy, 
 talent. Italian : Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Ital- 
 iana ; a work of extraordinary value, in which the history 
 of Italian literature has been traced, with the greatest care 
 and the most elaborate research, from the earliest times 
 down to the last century. It has been abridged, but with 
 some original criticism, by Ginguene, in his Histoire Littc- 
 raire de I'Ra'ie ; Corniani, Secoli delle letteratura Raliana 
 dopo il suo risor gimento, 1804, 1813. Sismondi's Litterature 
 de Midi de I'Europe is most valuable, also, in its Italian 
 chapters, although those on Spanish and Portuguese litera- 
 ture touch on subjects less generally known. In England, 
 as Mr. Hallam observes, " we cannot claim for ourselves a 
 single attempt of the most superficial kind. JVarton's His- 
 tory/ of Poetry contains much that bears on our general 
 learning; but it leaves us about the accession of Elizabeth." 
 3. According to ages: The recent work of Mr. Hallam, 
 which comprehends the literary history of Europe from 
 1400 to 1700; a work almost approaching to universal in its 
 character. Its peculiar excellences are, a philosophical spirit, 
 manliness and candour of judgment, great honesty in the 
 execution, and a taste unusually cultivated and correct. 
 It is, however, as might be expected from a work of so com- 
 prehensive a character, unequal both in the space which it 
 allots to different subjects and authors, and in point of exe- 
 cution. 
 
 The love of literature is, perhaps, the most remarkable 
 and characterise form in which advancing civilization ex- 
 hibits itself. From being the absorbing passion of the learn- 
 ed few, it becomes, with the progress of education, the de- 
 light and favourite occupation of numbers ; losing, perhaps, 
 in intensity what it gains in universality. For, without join- 
 ing in the views of the indiscriminate enlogisers of past 
 times, il cannot, we think, be fairly denied that the engross- 
 674 
 
 ing devotion to study which characterized the leamea men 
 of the first two centuries after the revival of knowledge, es- 
 pecially in the branches of philology and divinity, rarely 
 finds a counterpart at the present day. More diversified sub- 
 jects of interest now present themselves to the inquirim; 
 mind : objects in themselves of inferior character, such, foi 
 example, as the establishment of correct rules of classical 
 composition, are less appreciated, because we have daily 
 opportunities of discussing topics of much higher interest, 
 from which it is difficult to carry back the faculties to pur- 
 suits of special investigation. That all this has some disad- 
 vantages it were vain to deny. Some imagine that not only 
 extent and minuteness of knowledge, but real depth of learn- 
 ing and power of mind, are more rare among the literati of 
 the present day than heretofore ; that we have lost in pro- 
 fundity, to use the common expression, what we have gain- 
 ed in surface. Of that opinion we are not. But we imagine 
 ourselves to trace, both in the composition and tone of think- 
 ing of the day, a want of finish and harmony of tone — a 
 want of those qualities which are the result of patience, and 
 of that complacent dwelling of the mind on some favourite 
 object of study which was so common in former ages. The 
 powers of men of ability are too much dissipated, both by 
 the vast variety of subjects pressing on their attention, and 
 by the temptation to satisfy the cravings of the public by 
 hasty execution. 
 
 On the other hand, in the four literary countries of the 
 present day — France, Germany, England, Italy, and especi- 
 ally the three former — the number of persons to whom 
 literature furnishes the sole and beloved recreation, has in- 
 creased, within the last century, we may add the last gener- 
 ation, to an amount perfectly surprising. Were it possible 
 to calculate the number of individuals more than half of 
 whose waking hours are spent in reading, and writing on 
 literary subjects, the result would be startling. In Germany 
 the number of books published has nearly trebled since the 
 peace of 1815. The great bulk of the increase belongs to 
 literature specially so called. In France and England the 
 accumulation is scarcely less. And by the process, common 
 in all these countries, of circulating libraries, the same copy 
 of a book performs an infinitely greater quantity of service, 
 passing under the eyes of many more readers than hereto- 
 fore. It is curious, among ourselves, to trace the decline of 
 the favourite amusements of our ancestors. The theatres 
 are almost deserted by the ranks which used to frequent 
 them. The public assembly rooms of the rich, the suburban 
 places of resort for nightly entertainments, once so common 
 among the middle classes, are alike falling into comparative 
 disuse. Of the increased infrequency of play, or even games 
 of skill, in society, every one can judge. Of wine the con- 
 sumption has certainly not increased one half in a century, 
 while the number of consumers lias probably been quintu- 
 pled or sextupled. All these things afforded a certain quan- 
 tity of occupation ; and the substitute for one and all has 
 been the same — literature. 
 
 It is plain, therefore, how far more important a part than 
 heretofore literature must perform in modelling the public 
 mind of nations. There have been times when it scarcely 
 represented the national disposition at all ; but merely 
 that of a class by which it was encouraged. Any one who 
 was to judge of the social state of England under Charles 
 II. by its literature, would pronounce that the nation com- 
 prised a learned class of great knowledge, but visionary and 
 unpractical habits of mind ; and a frivolous, coarse, de- 
 bauched community. Yet, in truth, the great bulk of the 
 nation was staid, sober, religious, and of a plain and business- 
 like character. The literature of the latter part of Louis 
 XIV.'s reign is grave, decorous, even rigorous in tone ; be- 
 cause such was the affectation of the court. The people are 
 not represented in it at all. Such anomalies are now im- 
 possible. The floating literature of the day is and must be 
 the real expression of the popular mind. 
 
 Now the effect of literature on the moral habits of man is 
 incalculable. It is the remark of a profound religious writer 
 of the present day, that we frequently read a literary work 
 without acquiring any positive knowledge at all, or forget- 
 ing it as soon as acquired ; but very rarely without receiving 
 some moral impression. And in this view we regard the 
 predominance of literary habits in a nation as advantageous 
 For, unless public taste is very far corrupted indeed, the tone 
 of morality in the ordinary literature of the day, to meet ap- 
 proval, must be good : not solidly good perhaps — superficial, 
 it may be, and occasionally false ; but still more right than 
 wrong. And such a tone of literature, reacting on the minds 
 of the public, will tend to preserve ar.d augment right feel- 
 ings in the reading classes. The more special tendencies of 
 literary habits seem to be to soften the disposition — to melt 
 down rancorous feelings — to encourage benevolence of sen 
 timent, and a ready sympathy with generous conduct. That 
 they serve essentially to promote self-denial and self-devo 
 tion, and virtue of the higher order, we do not contend ; bu' 
 we see no ground for the suspicion which some entertaii 
 
LITHARGE. 
 
 that ihey are incompatible with the sterner stuff of these 
 more serious qualities, or tend to weaken the main springs 
 of thought and action. On the other hand, although a 
 prevalence of literary habits may render the success of an 
 utterly corrupt style of literature more improbable, yet, when 
 such success does occur, its effects must be infinitely more 
 noxious and destructive. Were such a taste as French 
 lighter literature has of late exhibited likely to obtain a real 
 accendeucy in that country, there could not be a more pow- 
 erful cause, aa well as decisive symptom, of national de- 
 generacy; but, in truth, it will prove only a temporary ex- 
 nice. 
 One more effect of the spread of literary habits remains 
 to be noticed — the enormously increased importance of what 
 m.iy now be justly termed the literary profession. Such 
 fortunes as that of Bit Walter Scott are phenomena belong- 
 ing to this age alone. At this moment (November, 1840) the 
 two contending party leaders in France, on whom the eyes 
 of Europe are fixed, are writers by profession, who have 
 risen to their present eminence through literary distinction ; 
 and of the most noted public men on both sides, several be- 
 long to the same class. Spain has had a play-writer for her 
 prime minister. In Germany, when a national movement 
 is attempted against an alleged act of usurpation on the part 
 of a sovereign, those who assume the lead are the profes- 
 sors of an university. In England, the less excitable nature 
 of the people, and the great influence of wealth and aristo- 
 cratic distinction, have kept the great men of the press 
 hitherto in a state of comparative subordination. But a little 
 attention to the signs of the limes will lead us to suspect 
 that, if the frame of our society were shaken by any sudden 
 impulse, men of this class would assume a more marked po- 
 sition than they have hitherto occupied. This is the bril- 
 liant side of the picture. On the other hand, the multiplica- 
 tion of a body of men whose employment is essentially pre- 
 .-, their remuneration irregular, their education Inch, 
 their tastes luxurious, their wants numerous, their success 
 requiring a constant strain upon the spirits and activity of the 
 brain, is in some respects a thing to be regretted. In ill-gov- 
 i and restless communities they form the most danger- 
 ous class; in orderly and flourishing ones they contribute 
 greatly to the brilliancy of society, but at the expense of 
 touch of their own peace and happiness. We have outlived 
 ) s when the ideas of poverty and learning were hab- 
 itually associated, and the custom of the humiliating depend- 
 ence of intellect on wealth, 
 
 Toil, envy, want, the patron and the gaol ; 
 
 but the young aspirant to literary distinction may be usefully 
 reminded of the words of a great writer of our day. " Nev- 
 er" (that is, with a free choice before you) "pursue litera- 
 ture as a profession. It would be a sort of irrcligion, and 
 scarcely less than a libel on human nature, to believe that 
 there is any established and respectable profession or em- 
 ployment in which a mnn may not contrive to act with 
 honesty and honour; and doubtless there is likewise none 
 which may not at times present temptations to the contrary. 
 But wofully will that man find himself mistaken who 
 Imagine* that the profession of literature, or, to speak 
 more plainly, the trade of authorship, besets its members 
 with fewer or with less insidious temptations than the 
 church, the law, or the different branches of commerce. Let 
 literature be an honourable augmentation to your arms, but 
 never fill the escutcheon." {Coleridge, Jlutobiopraphia 
 /Ateraria.) 
 
 LITHARGE Lythargyrum. (Gr. XtOoc, a stone, and 
 apyvpo;, silver ; probably from its silvery appearance.) 
 Fused oxide of lead. See Lead. 
 
 LI'THIA. (Gr. XeOnoc lapideous.} A rare alkaline sub- 
 stance, discovered, in 1818, by M. Arfwedson in a mineral 
 called petnlite ; it has also been found in some other lapide- 
 idiea. It is distinguished from potassa and soda by the 
 difficult solubility of its carbonate ; from baryta, strontia, and 
 lime, by the solubility of its sulphate and oxalate; and from 
 magnesia by the alkalinity of its carbonate. It is the oxide 
 of a while metal which has been named lithium ; the equiv- 
 alent of which is 10, and that of lithia 18. 
 
 LTTHI'ASIS. (<ir. \iOjs, a stone.) The disease of stone 
 in the bladder or kidney. 
 
 LITHIC ACID. (Gr. Xi0uj.) The substance generally 
 termed uric acid : it forms the commonest variety of urinary 
 calculus. 
 
 UTIIODEXDRON. (Gr. XiOoc, and Scvtpov, a tree.) 
 Corals have been thus designated, from their frequent arbo- 
 ' appearance. 
 
 LITHODE'RMIS. (Gr. X(0oc, and ltpu«, skin.) A ge- 
 nus of Apodal Echinoderms, In the system of Cuvier ; char- 
 acterized by an oval body compressed posteriorly, of which 
 the surface is covered with a layer of calcareous granules, 
 which form an extremely indurated crust. 
 
 LITHODOMES, Lithodoma. (Xi0o$, and 5tuo>, I build.) 
 This term is applied to those bivalves which are found in 
 
 LITURGY. 
 
 rocks and stones, inhabiting cavities, whicn iney form for 
 •dhat purpose. A particular genus is called Lythodomus. 
 
 LITHO'DOMI. (Gr. X<0os, and Lat. domus, a house.) 
 Molluscous animals which bore into rocks and lodge them 
 selves in the holes. 
 
 LITHO'GRAPHY. See Engraving. 
 
 LITIIOLO'GICAL. (Gr. Xi0os, and \oyof, a discourse.) 
 A term expressing the stony structure or character of a 
 mineral mass. We speak of the lithological character of a 
 structure, as distinguished from its zoological character. 
 
 LITHOMANCY. (Gr. XiOoj, and uavrcia, prophecy.) 
 A species of divination practised by the ancients. Their 
 oracular stones appear to have returned audible answers to 
 those who consulted them. Modern conjurors have another 
 species of lithomancy — the inspection of the surface of 
 smooth agates or crystals. Such was tho divination of the 
 notorious Dr. Dee and his assistant Kelly in the reign of 
 Uueen Elizabeth. 
 
 LI'THOMARGE. Stone-marrow. A variety of talc of 
 various colours, and generally associated with magnesian 
 minerals. 
 
 LI'THONTRITTICS. (Gr. Xifloc, and rpifiu, / carry 
 away.) Remedies which are supposed to dissolve stone in 
 the bladder, or which prevent the deposition of calculous 
 matter in the urine. 
 
 LITHONTRI'PTOR. (Gr. Xi0us, and Spuirrtiv, to 
 break.) An instrument for breaking calculi in the bladder, 
 so as to reduce them to small particles which may admit of 
 being passed along with the urine, and thus render the 
 operation of lithotomy unnecessary. 
 
 LITHOTOMY, (Gr. Xc0oc, and Tt/u-w, 7 cut.) The 
 operation of cutting into the bladder for the removal of a 
 stone. 
 
 LITIIOTRITY. (Gr. Xi0of, and rapio, I break dou-n.) 
 The operation of breaking a stone in the bladder into small 
 pieces capable of being raided by urine : it is effected by the 
 introduction of instruments by the urethra. 
 
 LITMUS. In Chemistry, a blue pigment obtained from 
 the lichen Rocella, which grows in the Canary Islands: it 
 is often called turnsol, and yields the dye called archil. 
 Paper tinged blue by litmus is reddened by the feeblest acids, 
 and hence is used as a test of the presence of acids ; and 
 litmus paper which has been reddened by an acid has it- 
 blue colour restored by an alkali. 
 
 LITOTES. (Gr. Xtrorrii) In Rhetoric, a figure, uc 
 cording to the Greek and Latin rhetoricians, In which an 
 affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary ; it 
 is, therefore, a species of irony in the ancient sense of the 
 word {see Irony), in which less is expressed titan what is 
 intended to be conveyed to the mind of the reader or hearer. 
 Thus, " a citizen of no mean city" means "of an illustrious 
 city." It is a figure constantly employed to soften what 
 might otherwise appear obnoxious in self-commendation. 
 
 LITRE. The French standard measure of capacity in 
 the decimal system. The litre is a cubic decimetre ; thai Is, 
 a cube, each of the sides of which are 3-937 English inches : 
 it contains 61-028 English cubic inches, and is therefore 
 rather less than our quart. Four and a half litres are a 
 close approach to the English imperial gallon. 
 
 LITTLE. (Sax. liteU In the Fine Arts, a term denot 
 ing that a work is void of those qualities that tend to raise 
 the feelings of the spectator in contemplating a work of art. 
 It is a term always used in a condemnatory sense. 
 
 LITTORI'NA. (Lat. litus, the sea shore.) A genus of 
 Pectinlbranchiate Mollusks of the tribe Trochoida ; charac- 
 terized by its thick shell, of which the aperture presents a 
 small angle, and is without n ridge. The common peri- 
 winkle of our coasts {Turbo littoreus, Linn.) is a species of 
 the present genus. 
 
 LITURGY. (Gr. \tirovpyitt.) An office nt Athens, by 
 which persons of considerable property were bound to per- 
 form certain public duties, or supply the commonwealth 
 with necessaries at their own expense. The persons on 
 whom this office was imposed were usually among the rich- 
 est inhabitants ; and if any one selected to fill it could find 
 another more wealthy than himself who was exempt from 
 public duty, he could insist on being released from hi; 
 charge, which then devolved on the party denounced. This 
 obnoxious institution was abolished on the proposition ol 
 Demosthenes. (See Boeckh's Public Economy of Mhens.) 
 It is from this term that the English liturgy (quod vide), in 
 ecclesiastical meaning, has been derived; the sense having 
 been contracted from public ministry or service in general 
 to the ceremonies of religious worship. 
 
 Liturgy. The ritual according to which the religious 
 services of a church are performed. In the writings of the 
 ancients the name is restricted to the service of the Eucha- 
 rist, which afterwards came to be distinguished in the West-, 
 era Church by the term missa, or mass. 
 
 There still exist in Greek, Latin, and some Oriental lan-i 
 guages, various rituals by which the Eucharist was cele- 
 brated in very early ages. Some have supposed that all 
 
 675 
 
LITUUS. 
 
 these may be referred to one original liturgy, which may 
 have been universally adopted in the primitive church. Pal- 
 mer, the latest English writer on this subject (Antiq., vol. i., 
 p. 8), conceives that the number of original liturgies may be 
 reduced to four, but not lower. These he entitles the great 
 Oriental liturgy, the Alexandrian, the Roman, and the Gal- 
 lican ; each of which was extensively used from the apos- 
 tolic age in tlie quarters from which he assigns them their 
 names, and became the parents of many other rituals, such 
 as were used, with constantly diverging variations, in the 
 different patriarchates of the empire. 
 
 The earliest period at which any liturgical forms were con- 
 signed to writing is the end of the third or beginning of the 
 fourth century ; at least the liturgy called of St. Basil can be 
 traced as high as the latter period. This practice, also, 
 seems frequently to have been applied only to certain parts 
 of the service. We find, therefore, great differences in the 
 MSS. which now exist; and it becomes very difficult to as- 
 certain what the contents of the primitive rituals were, and 
 trace the periods at which many rites and ceremonies have 
 been introduced into the service. 
 
 The liturgy of the Church of England is a liturgy, in the 
 wider and more usual acceptation of the term, comprehend- 
 ing the whole of the various services used on ordinary and 
 extraordinary occasions throughout the year. For the his- 
 tory of this liturgy, see Common Prayer. See also Asse- 
 manni, Codex Liturgicus ; Muratori, lAturgia Romano. 
 Vetus ; Breff's Collection of Liturgies ; Palmer's Origines 
 Liturgicm ; Riddle's Christian Antiquities, p. 369, 377. 
 As to the reforms in the English liturgy, which were seri- 
 ously contemplated a few years ago by various classes of the 
 Church, see Quart. Review, vols, xlvii., 1. 
 
 LITUUS. (Lat.) In the geometry of curve lines, the 
 name given by Cotes to a spiral, of which the characteristic 
 property is, that the squares of any two radii vectores are 
 reciprocally proportional to the angles which they respect- 
 ively make with a certain straight line given in position, and 
 which is an asymptote to the spiral. Let r and u denote 
 any two radii vectores drawn from the pole to the curve, and 
 let <p and tp be the measures of the angles they respectively 
 make with the asymptote ; then r2.u2::\f/:<p. If we take 
 the angle v^ = 57-29578° (or such that the arc is equal to the 
 radius), and call a the corresponding value of u, the above 
 proportion becomes j-2 : a% : : 1 : <p ; whence we have for the 
 equation of the curve, r2 =: a2 0— i 
 
 Among the properties of the curve are the following : 1. 
 The radius vector is reciprocally proportional to the circular 
 arc intercepted between its extremity and the asymptote. 2. 
 The area included between the two radii vectores a and r 
 and the curve is equal to ai log. (u -~ a) ; or proportional to 
 the logarithm of the ratio of u to a. 
 
 For the properties of the lituus see Varignon, Mem. Acad. 
 Paris, 1704 ; Cotes, Harmonia Mensurarum, p. 85 ; Pea- 
 cock's Examples to tlie Diff. and Integral Calculus, p. 183. 
 
 Lituus. Among the Romans, a crooked staff, resembling 
 a crozier, made use of by the augurs in quartering the 
 heavens. It is affirmed by Dr. E. D. Clarke, that the use of 
 the augural lituus, as it was called, is much posterior to that 
 Df the regal or quirinal lituus, which was instituted by 
 Romulus, and used as a sceptre by the Roman kings; and 
 that they had nothing in common except the name. The 
 jrigin of the word is uncertain. (See Clarke's Observations 
 ■jr. the " I.ituus," in the Archaolog., xix., p. 386.) 
 
 LI'VER. (Germ, leber.) The viscus in which bile is se- 
 creted. It is situated in the right hypochondriac region un- 
 der the diaphragm ; and in the human body is divided into 
 two lobes, of which the right lobe is the largest. There is 
 between them a smaller lobular process, called the Lubulus 
 Spigelii. The ultimate arrangement of the different blood- 
 vessels of the liver is very pecuMar. It has been ably in- 
 vestigated by Mr. Kiernan, by whom it is described in the 
 Philosophical Transactions. 
 
 LI' VER OF SULPHUR. Fused sulphuret of potassium ; 
 so called from its liver colour. 
 
 LI'VERY. (Fr. livree.) A word derived, probably, from 
 the clothes delivered by masters to their servants, in which 
 sense it still continues to be used. At tournaments the cava- 
 liers used to distinguish themselves by wearing the livery or 
 Sadge of their mistresses ; and persons of distinction former- 
 ly gave liveries to persons unconnected with their own 
 household or family, to engage them in their quarrels for 
 '.he time being. The liverymen of London are a number of 
 men belonging to the freemen of the ninety-one companies, 
 avhich embrace the different trades of the metropolis ; and 
 are so called because they are entitled to wear the livery of 
 their respective companies. By this body are elected the 
 common-councilmen, sheriffs, aldermen, and some other su- 
 perior officers of the city ; and, down to the passing of the 
 Reform Bill in 1832, they had the exclusive privilege of vot- 
 ing at the election of members of parliament. 
 
 LI'VERY OF SEISIN. In Law, a delivery of possession 
 in lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to one that hn3 a 
 676 
 
 LOCK. 
 
 right to the same : a ceremony at common law used in the 
 conveyance of lands, whereby an estate of freehold passes 
 by feoffment. See Feoffment. 
 
 LIVE STOCK. The quadrupeds and other animals kept 
 in a farm for the purpose of being employed in farm labours, 
 for breeding, for being fattened, or for other purposes of 
 profit. In the farming of Britain and similar climates the 
 principal description of live stock are horses, cattle, sheep, 
 and swine; but to these are generally added poultry, anil 
 sometimes goats, rabbits, fish, and bees. In warmer climates 
 the silkworm may be considered as part of the live stock ; 
 and under particular circumstances, both in England and on 
 the Continent, deer, and even hares and pheasants, are breA 
 for sale. 
 LIVING FORCE. See Force. 
 
 LI'VRE. (Lat. libra, a pound.) An ancient French coin, 
 which appears as early as 810 A.D. It was at first divided 
 into 20 solidos, and afterwards into 20 sous. At the French 
 revolution the franc was substituted for the livre. 
 
 LIXI'VIUM. A term employed by the old chemists to 
 signify an alkaline ley or solution. 
 LIZARD. See Lacerta. 
 
 LLOYD'S LIST. A well-known periodical publication, 
 which contains a full account of shipping intelligence. It 
 derives its name from Lloyd's coffee-house, so long cele- 
 brated as the resort of all classes connected either with the 
 mercantile or shipping interest ; and its importance in sup- 
 plying full, trustworthy, and early maritime information can- 
 not be easily overrated. It has been in existence since 1716 
 LOA'DSTONE. The same with magnet, which see. 
 LOA'MY SOIL, in the language of practical agricultu- 
 rists and gardeners, is one in which clay prevails : it is called 
 heavy or light, as the clay may be more or less abundant; 
 and sandy, gravelly, or calcareous, according as these earths 
 predominate in the composition. In general, loamy soils are 
 more fertile than sand or chalk ; but the fertility of any soil 
 is always to a certain extent relative to the nature of the sub- 
 soil, and to the local climate. 
 
 LO BATE. (Lat. lobus, a lobe.) A term applied by Lin 
 nseus to the feet of those birds, as the grebe, which were fur 
 nished at their sides with broad-lobed membranes. 
 
 LO'BBY. (Ger. laube, an arbour.) In Architecture, a 
 hall or passage serving as an ante-apartment for commur.i- 
 cation to rooms. 
 
 LOBE'LIA INFLATA. Indian tobacco. The leaves of 
 tins plant have been used in medicine as an expectorant and 
 emetic ; it quiets the action of the heart, and relaxes the 
 muscles. It has been found of great use in allaying the 
 paroxysms of spasmodic asthma, and as a relaxant in hoop 
 ing-cough. 
 
 LO'CAL PRO'BLEM (Lat. locus), in the ancient Geome- 
 try, is a problem which admits of an infinite number of solu 
 tions, or which can be solved not only by a single point, but 
 by all points situated in some line which may be found. See 
 Locus. 
 
 LOCH. The Scotch term for lake, which see. See also 
 Lough. 
 
 LOCK, in Internal Navigation, is a part of a canal includ 
 ed between two floodgates, by means of which a vessel is 
 transferred from a higher to a lower level, or from a lowei 
 to a higher. See Canal. 
 
 LOCK. (Saxon, loc.) An instrument composed of springs 
 and bolts, used to fasten doors, drawers, chests, &c. A good 
 lock is the masterpiece in smithery, and requires much art 
 and delicacy in contriving and varying the wards, springs, 
 bolts, and other parts whereof it is composed, so as to adjust 
 them to the places where they are serviceable, nnd to the 
 various occasions of their use. The structure of locks is so 
 varied, and the number of inventions of different sorts so ex- 
 tended, that we cannot attempt to enumerate them. Those 
 placed on outer doors are called stock locks, those on cham- 
 ber doors spring locks, and such as are hidden in the thick- 
 ness of the doors to which they are applied are called mor- 
 tise locks. The padlock is too well known to need descrip- 
 tion. We here add the conditions which, to Mr. Nicholson, 
 appear necessary in a lock of the most perfect kind : 1. That 
 certain parts of the lock should be variable in position 
 through a great number of combinations, one only of which 
 shall allow the lock to be opened or shut. 2. That this last- 
 mentioned combination should be variable at the pleasure of 
 the possessor. 3. That it should not be possible, after the 
 lock is closed and the combination disturbed, for any one, 
 not even the maker of the lock, to discover, by any examina- 
 tion, what may be the proper situations of the parts required 
 to open the lock. 4. That trials of this kind shall not be 
 capable of injuring the works. 5. That it shall require no 
 key ; 6. And be as easily opened in the dark as in tlie light 
 7. That the opening nnd shutting should be done by a pro- 
 cess as simple as that of a common lock. 8. That it should 
 open without a key, or with one, at pleasure. 9. That the 
 keyhole be concealed, defended, or inaccessible. 10. That 
 the key may be used by a stranger, without his knowing oi 
 
LOCOFOCOS. 
 
 jcing able to discover the adopted combination. 11. That 
 the key be capable of adjustment to all the variations of the 
 lock, and yet be simple. 12 That the lock should not be 
 liable to be taken oil' and examined, whether the receptacle 
 be open or shut, except by one who knows the adopted com- 
 bination. These considerations involve a mechanical prob- 
 lem of great difficulty ; but much towards its accomplish- 
 ment has been effected in various inventions that have been 
 promulgated, and more especially in those of Bramah, 
 VJhubbs, Taylor, &c. 
 
 LO'COFO'COS. The name by which the ultra demo- 
 cratical party in America has been distinguished since the 
 year 1834. The term originated in the following incident. 
 Some of that party having had a meeting at Tammany Hall, 
 In -Vow- York, the lamps were accidentally extinguished ; 
 and on the hall being relighted with lucifers (which in 
 America are termed locofocos, probably from the Lat, loco 
 foci, instead of a fire), the word was adopted as a distin- 
 guishing appellative, and is now of universal application. 
 
 LO'COMO'TION. (Lat. loci motto, ekangc of place.) 
 Such motion as is attended by change of place in the body 
 .vuich moves, in contradistinction to motions which a body 
 may have which is stationary. Thus, a clock, a mill, a lathe 
 moves ; but no change of place of the machine is produced : 
 such motion is not locomotion. A steam engine which, being 
 in its position, impels others bodies, is a stationary en- 
 gine; but one which travels with the bodies which it drives 
 is called a loan i 
 
 LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. Any engine which, being 
 employed to draw loads in transport overland, travels with 
 the load which it draws. 
 
 Since the improvement and extension of iron railways, this 
 
 term has been exclusively applied to the steam engine, by 
 
 Which loads are drawn upon them. Although, strictly sjwak- 
 
 • • steam engine by which a ship is propelled is a loco- 
 
 ■ engine, it is not usual to apply that term to it; such 
 
 an engine is called a marine engine. (See Steam Navioa- 
 
 j The term locomotive engine must, therefore, as at 
 
 present used, be understood to express the travelling steam 
 
 engine by which trains are drawn on railways. 
 
 History of tke Locomotive Engine. — The first practical 
 application of the steam engine as a locomotive power took 
 place in 1804, on a railroad i;t Helthyr Tvdvil. in South 
 Wales. The engine was constructed by Messrs. Trevethick 
 and Vivian, under a patent obtained by them two years 
 previously. This engine, in several respects, resembled in 
 its form and structure those which have been since used for 
 a like purpose. 
 
 T!ie boiler was a cylinder, with fiat circular ends placed 
 upon its side. A large tube entered it at one end, and, being 
 carried near the other, was there received and carried hack 
 parallel to its first direction ; its course through the boiler re- 
 sem'iling the letter U. The two mouths or openings of this 
 tube were therefore placed at the same mil of the boiler. 
 One of the mouths of this tube communicated with the 
 chimney, the base of which was Banged upon it, and the 
 other contained the grate and furnace. The Dame and heat- 
 ed nir were drawn through the curved tube, and up the 
 chimney. The engine was worked liy high-pressure steam 
 without condensation ; the steam being admitted to the cyl- 
 inder, and withdrawn from it, by the well-known mechanical 
 contrivance called a four-way c*i»ck. The cylinder was placed 
 on Its side ; and in one position of the cock a communication 
 was opened between the boiler and one end of the cylinder, 
 while another communication was opened between the 
 other end of the cylinder and a tube leading to the chimney. 
 Steam was thus admitted to acton one Side of the piston, and 
 allowed to escape from the other side to the chimney. When 
 the piston attained tbe end of the stroke, the position of tri( . 
 cock was reversed, and the steam which had just driven the 
 piston in one direction was allowed to escape to the chimney, 
 while steam from the boiler was admitted on the other side 
 of the piston, to impel it in the contrary direction ; and in 
 this maimer the piston was continually driven backwards 
 and forwards, in a horizontal direction, and parallel to the 
 direction of the load. The piston rod was moved through a 
 hole, corresponding with it in magnitude, in the cover of the 
 cylinder, in which it was rendered Steam-tight by a stiutin<! 
 box properly lubricated. This piston rod acted by means of 
 a connecting rod on a crank, which it kept in revolution in 
 the same manner as the crank in a common double-acting 
 steam engine is moved. [See Steam Engine.) On the 
 axle of this crank was placed a cogged wheel, which, by 
 means of ordinary gearing, conveyed motion to the axle of 
 the hind wheels of the engine, so as to keep that axle in 
 constant revolution. The wheels being keyed upon that 
 axle, so as not to be capable, like the wheels of a common 
 carriage, of turning upon it, were necessarily made to revolve 
 with it; and, so long as their pressure upon the road was 
 sufficient to prevent them from slipping, a progressive mo- 
 lion of the carriage was tile necessary consequence of their 
 revolution. 
 
 LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. 
 
 The early projectors of locomotive engines were all ini 
 pressed with a notion that the adhesion of the driving wheels 
 with the rails must be insufficient to enable the power ap- 
 plied to these wheels to give progressive motion to the ca- 
 riage; and, without thinking it necessary to ascertain by ac 
 tual experiment, whether such were really the case or not, 
 they expended much ingenuity and capital in devising meant, 
 of overcoming this difficulty, which, after all, turned out to 
 be merely imaginary. Engineers were, in fact, impressed 
 with a notion that if any power compelled the wheels to re- 
 volve, they would merely slip upon the rails, and that the 
 carriage or engine would remain stationary. To provide 
 against this, Moms. Trevethick and Vivian proposed to make 
 the external rims of the wheels intended for common road 
 rough and uneven, by surrounding them with pi 
 heads of nails or bolts, or by cutting tranveree gro 
 them. Seven years afterwards, Mr. Blinker 
 obtained a patent for a method of surmounting Ins in 
 difficulty, by the substitution of a rack rail for the i 
 smooth rail, and constructing teeth on the driving v. 
 work in the teeth of this rack. Various other ingenious con 
 trivances were subsequently produced for the same purpose 
 until about the year 1814, when experience at length forced 
 upon engineers the knowledge of tho fact, that the adhesion 
 or the tires of the wheels with the rails was am] 
 dent to propel the engine, even when drawing after it a 
 great load. 
 
 In 1814, an engine was constructed at KiBJngwofth col 
 liery, near Newcastle, having two cylinders with a cylindri- 
 cal boiler, and working two pair of wheels by cranks placed 
 at right angles, so that when one was in full operation, tin 
 other was at its dead points. By these means the propelling 
 power was always in action. The crania Were maintained 
 in this position by an endless chain, which passed round 
 two cog wheels placed Under the engine, and lived on the 
 same axles on which the Wheel! "ere placed. The wheel/ 1 
 In this case were fixed on the axles, and turned with lhem. 
 
 In an engine subsequently constructed by Mr. St. \ 
 for the same railway, the modi; adopted of connecting the 
 wheels by an endless chain and cog wheels was abandoned, 
 and the same eflfect was produced by connecting the two 
 cranks by a straight rod. This method is still used in the 
 coupled engines which are applied to draw the traius of 
 merchandise on the present railways. 
 
 The next stimulus which tbe progTOSS of this invention 
 received, arose from the project of constructing a railway 
 between Liverpool and v or the purposes of 
 
 general traffic. When this project was undertaken it wtl 
 not decided what moving power was most eligible — whethe. 
 horse power, stationary steam engines, or locomotive en- 
 gines; but the first, for many obvious reasons, was soon 
 rejected, in favour of one or oilier of the last two. 
 
 Tho steam engine may be applied to move carriages on 
 a railway by two distinct methods. Uy one, the engine is 
 fixed and draws a train of carriages towards it by a rope ex 
 tending the whole length of the road on which the engine 
 works, liy this method the line of road is divided into a 
 number of short Stages, at the extremity of each of which an 
 engine is placed. The wagons or carriages, when drawn by 
 any engine to its station, tire detached, and connected with 
 the extremity of the rope-work by the next stationary engine, 
 and thus the journey is performed from station to station by 
 separate engines. For a more detailed account of this 
 method of working a railway, see Stationary Engine. 
 By the other method, each load transported along the line 
 is drawn by an engine which travels with it as horses travei 
 with a carriage on a common road. 
 
 To enable them to decide which of these two methods 
 of working the proposed railway it would be most advisa 
 file to adopt, the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester 
 line employed Messrs. Stevenson and Locke, and Messrs. 
 Walker and Rastrick, experienced engineers, to visit the 
 dlflerent railways then in operation, to obtain the results of 
 the experience which they afforded as to these two methods 
 of applying steam ]iower to transport, and to report their 
 opinion on the relative merits of the two methods. After 
 an elaborate inquiry, the decision of the directors was given 
 in favour of locomotive power. 
 
 Until the period to which we now advert, railways hod 
 been almost exclusively confined to the transport of mineral 
 products from the mines up to the places of shipment, and 
 to this purpose exclusively had the locomotive engine been 
 applied; but the ends to be attained by a railway of thirty 
 miles In length, connecting the largest manufacturing town, 
 in the greatest manufacturing country in the world, with 
 the greatest, most active, and most opulent commercial port, 
 if a nature so much more extensive and important, 
 that it was considered that more than ordinary means should 
 bo resorted to to obtain a moving power commensurate with 
 the traffic which might be expected under such circum 
 stances. Prizes were therefore proposed to be given, un- 
 der certain stipulations, to t>we who would construct the 
 
 C77 
 
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. 
 
 most effective locomotive engines for the purposes of the road. 
 This proposal produced, as was anticipated, much compe- 
 tition ; and the spirit of emulation being roused, a trial was 
 appointed, which took place on the railway in October, 
 1829. Engines of several forms were produced, and the 
 prize was awarded to one, called the Rocket, constructed by 
 ftlr. Robert Stevenson, the son of Mr. George Stevenson, the 
 engineer of the railway. In the first trial, this engine attain- 
 ed the then astonishing speed of twenty-nine miles an hour; 
 and when, unhappily, at the ceremony of the opening of the 
 railway, the accident occurred which deprived the country 
 of Mr. Huskisson, his wounded body was conveyed, by the 
 same engine, a distance of about fifteen miles In twenty-five 
 minutes, being at the rate of thirty-six miles an hour. This 
 engine, which involved in its construction all those mechan- 
 ical arrangements to which the extraordinary speed and 
 power of the locomotive engine of the present day are due, 
 »; represented in elevation in fig. 1 ; and a cross section of 
 
 the boiler and furnace is represented in fig. 2. It is support- 
 ed on four wheels, the weight being 
 principally thrown on the larger pair 
 worked by the engine. The boiler is a 
 cylinder G feet long, having the chim- 
 ney at one end, and the fire box B at the 
 other. This box is surrounded with a 
 hollow casing, which communicates 
 with the bottom of the boiler by a tube 
 C, and with the top by a tube D. The 
 water in the boiler, therefore, flows into 
 the casing, and fills it to the same level 
 as that which it has in the boiler. When 
 the engine is at work, the boiler is kept about half filled with 
 water, and, consequently, the casing round the furnace is 
 completely filled. Steam is abundantly generated in this 
 casing, exposed as it is on every side to the radiant heat of the 
 fire : this steam rises in bubbles, and passes through the tube 
 I) into the boiler. The lower part of the boiler is traversed 
 by a number of copper tubes, the ends of which appear in 
 fig. 2. The flame and heated air proceeding from the burn- 
 ing fuel pass through these tubes, and, after traversing the 
 whole length of the boiler, escape into the chimney, impart- 
 ing, on their passage, heat to the water in the boiler. The 
 necessary draught through the furnace is maintained by 
 causing the cylinders to discharge the waste steam into a 
 pipe, which is presented up the chimney, and is called the 
 blast pipe. There are two cylinders placed outside the en- 
 gine, on either side of it, as represented in fig. 1 ; they are 
 placed in a diagonal position, and their rods move in guides ; 
 tiie end of the piston rod is connected with one of the spokes 
 cf the wheels by a connecting rod, and the piston, as it is 
 driven by the steam in each direction in the cylinder, causes 
 the wheels to revolve. 
 
 The circumstances in this mechanical arrangement, on 
 which the rapid production of steam depends, are two-fold : 
 first, the extensive surface exposed to the radiant heat of the 
 fire, by the casing surrounding the fire box, and by the tubes, 
 twenty-five in number and only three inches in diameter, by 
 which the flame and heated air are conducted through the 
 boiler from the fire box to the chimney ; and, secondly, by 
 the powerful draught maintained in the furnace by the cur- 
 rent of steam constantly discharged up the chimney. It has 
 been mainly by bringing these principles more fully into 
 operation, that all the improvements since made in the loco- 
 motive engine have been effected. 
 
 The railway was not long in operation, when the arrange- 
 ment of the tubes in the boiler was improved; their number 
 was increased from twenty-five to one hundred and upwards, 
 and their diameters diminished from three inches to an inch 
 and a half. This change alone produced an increased effi- 
 ciency of the fuel, in the proportion of nearly two to one; 
 the consumption of coke in the Rocket having been very 
 nearly 2* pounds per ton per mile, while, by the change 
 fi78 
 
 above mentioned, the-consumption of fuel in the new engine* 
 was reduced to 1^ pound per ton per mile. The position of 
 the cylinder was also advantageously changed. Instead of 
 being placed, as in the Rocket, outside the boiler, and ex 
 posed to the cold air, through which the engine passed with 
 such a velocity, they were now placed in that part of the 
 engine called the smoke box, an enclosed space at the bass 
 of the chimney, into which the flame and heated air escap 
 ing from the tubes passed. By this arrangement the cylln 
 ders were always maintained as hot as the air which issued 
 from the flues, and all condensation of steam by their ex- 
 posure prevented. 
 
 The engine in this improved form, is represented in fig. 3 
 As the cylinders were now placed between the wheels, 
 
 their operation could not be effected in the same manner as 
 in the Rocket. The connecting rods were accordingly made 
 to act on two cranks, constructed upon the axle of the wheels, 
 placed at right angles to each other, so that one may always 
 be at its dead point, while the other was in full action. This 
 double-cranked ax!" "'as, from the weakness ^ns»r[uern 
 upon its form, liable at first to fracture; bu: impi v. d methods 
 of forging them subsequently gave them sufficient strength, 
 and now the fracture of a cranked axle rarely occurs. 
 
 The two chief improvements in the locomotive engine, 
 which succeeded those now explained, and which brought 
 that machine to its present state of efficiency, consisted, 
 first, in the substitution of brass for copper tubes; and. 
 secondly, in the addition of another pair of wheels to sup 
 port the engine. It was found, by continued experience, 
 that the copper tubes, from some peculiar action of the fire 
 upon them, which has never been explained or understood. 
 were subject to rapid decay; and in the year 1833, after an 
 experience of about three years of the working of these en- 
 gines, it occurred to Mr. Dixon, then one of the superintend- 
 ents of the engineering department of the Liverpool and 
 Manchester railway, to try the effect of brass tubes. The 
 experiment was eminently successful ; they were found to 
 last six or eight times as long as copper tubes of the same 
 dimensions. Having now brought down the history of the 
 locomotive engine to the present time, we shall give a de- 
 scription of one of these machines in its most improved form. 
 
 Description of the most improved Locomotive Engine in 
 operation in 1840. — A longitudinal vertical section of a loco- 
 motive engine is represented in fig. 4; and a plan of the 
 
 (4.) 
 
 working machinery, including the cylinders, pistons, eccen 
 tries, &c, which are under the boiler, and by the operation 
 of which the engine is driven, is represented in fig. 5. These 
 and the other cuts referred to in the present article have 
 been taken, with the permission of the author and publish- 
 ers, from the 7th edition of Dr. Lurdner's work on the 
 Steam Engine ; to which the reader is referred for a more. 
 detailed account of the history, the structure, and the oper- 
 ation of the locomotive engine, than the limits of the present 
 article will ullow us to supply. 
 
 The boiW, as has been explained in the engines already 
 described, is a cylinder placed upon its side ; the fire lx:i 
 
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. 
 
 consists of two casings of metal, one within the other, bolted 
 together by rivets, represented at k ; the fire grate is repre- 
 sented at D. The fire door is represented at g; opening 
 ipon the platform where the engineer stands. It will be 
 received in the section fig. 4, as well as in the plan fig. 5, 
 (5.) 
 
 hat the fire box is on every side surrounded by the water 
 contained between the two casings, the level of the water 
 in the boiler being above the roof of the fire box. The tubes 
 liv Which the flame, and the products of combustion, are 
 drawn from the fire box into the smoke box are represented 
 at E. fig. 4. The smoke box containing the cylinders and 
 blast pipe, and supporting the chimney, is represented at F. 
 In the engine from which this drawing was taken, tin:: boiler 
 is a cylinder 7A feet long and 3A feet diameter ; it is clothed 
 with B boarding of WOOQ, represented at a, and bound round 
 by iron hoops screwed together at the bottom. Wood being 
 a slow conductor of heat, this covering has the eflect of 
 keeping the boiler warm, and checking the condensation of 
 steam. 
 
 The external casing of the fire box, B B, is nearly square 
 in its plan, as seen in fig. 5, being 4 feel wide, and 3 feet 7* 
 Inches long: it is constructed of wrought-iron plates, and 
 descends two feet below the boiler, as seen in fig. 4; the 
 top being semi-cylindrical, of a diameter greater than that 
 »f the boiler, and concenlrical with it. The inner casing, 
 t k, Off. 5, is similar in shape to the external ; but it is low- 
 er, and fiat at the roof, as seen in fig. 4. The space between 
 the two ca <ings is from 3 to 4 incites in width. This interna! 
 fire box is made of copper plates. 
 
 As the top of the fire box would lie liable to be destroyed 
 by the action of the lire if the level of the water in the boiler 
 were suffered to fall below it, so as to leave it uncovered, a 
 leaden plug in is inserted in it, which would melt out before 
 the copper would become injuriously heated, and the steam 
 rushing OOt at the aperture would cause the fire to be ex- 
 tinguished. The tubes K, which serve to conduct the flame 
 through the boiler to the smoke box, are made of the best 
 rolled brass, 1 13th of an inch thick, and 1? of an inch in 
 external diameter; they arc 124 in number, and the distance 
 between tube and tube is three quartan of an inch. The 
 number of these tubes is at present seldom less than 90, and 
 varies between that and 150. The tubes act as stn\ 
 necting the ends of the boiler to strengthen them ; but be- 
 sides these there are rods of wrought iron, represented at o, 
 I which extend from end to end of the boiler, above the 
 mof of the lire-box. The smoke box F, containing the cylin- 
 ders, steam pipe, and blast pipe, is 4 feet wide, and 2 feet 
 long: it is formed of wrought-iron plates, rivetted in the 
 same manner as those of the fire box. From the top of the 
 smoke box, which, like the lire box, is semi-cylindrical, rises 
 the chimney <;, 15 inches diameter, made of $ inch iron 
 plates, rivetted and bound round by hoops. Near the bot- 
 tom of the smoke box the working cylinders are placed side 
 by side, in a horizontal position, with the slide valves up 
 wards, as seen in fig. 5. 
 
 At the top of the external fire box, fig. 4, a circular aper- 
 ture is formed 15 inches in diameter; and upon this nperture 
 is placed the steam dome T, 2 feet in height, and secured to 
 the aperture by nuts. The steam dome is made of brass, 
 nearly half an inch thick. A funnel-shaped tube d, with its 
 Wide end upwards, is flanged upon the side of the great 
 si pipe S, and is carried upward, so that its mouth is 
 near the top of the steam domeT. In order to pass into the 
 Steam pipe ^. the steam which fills the upper part of the 
 boiler A must ascend the steam dome and enter the funnel 
 Indicated by the bent arrow in fig. 4. This arrange- 
 ment prevents, In a great degree, the eflect of priming, by 
 which word is expressed technically the spray of water 
 which rises from the water of the boiler, and is mixed with 
 the Ream in the upper part of it: as the steam ascends the 
 steam dome this spray falls back, and nothing but pure 
 steam enters the funnel d. The wider part of the great 
 in pipe S is flanged, and screwed at the hinder end to a 
 n iponding aperture in the back of the fire box, where the 
 engineer stands: this opening is covered by a circular plate, 
 secured by screws, having a stuffing box in its centre, of the 
 tame kind as is used for the piston rods of steam cylinders. 
 Through this stuffing box the spindle or rod a of the regula- 
 tor passes : and to its end is attached a winch h, by which 
 
 the spindle a' is capable of being turned. To the other end 
 of this spindle, at c, is attached a plate, which moves ipon 
 apertures formed in the cover of the end of the great steam 
 pipe S ; so that, by turning the winch A more or less, this 
 plate c may be removed more or less from over the openings ; 
 nnd thus the steam may be allowed to enter the steam pipe 
 S from the steam dome T in greater or less quantity, or may- 
 be shut off altogether. The steam pipe S being enclosed 
 within the boiler, is maintained at the same temperature as 
 the steam in the boiler; and therefore the steam, in passing 
 through it, is not liable to condensation. The steam pipe, 
 passing through the tube plate at the front of the boiler, 
 is turned down at right angles in the smoke box, where, 
 dividing into two branches, one is conducted to each of the 
 valve boxes of the cylinders. The lower ends of these 
 branches are flanged to the valve boxes at the ends of the 
 cylinders nearest to the boiler: by these pipes the steam is 
 conducted into the valve boxes, or steam chests, from which 
 it is admitted by slide valves to the cylinders to work the 
 pistons. On the upper sides of the cylinders arc the steam 
 chests U, communicating with the passage; m, fig. 5, lend- 
 ing to the top of the cylinder, n leading to the bottom, and o 
 lending through the side pipe P' to the blast pipe. These 
 openings are governed by a slide, so that, when steam is ad- 
 mitted through m, the communication shall be opened be- 
 tween n and o. Thus, when steam is admitted to the top 
 of the cylinder, the steam from the bottom will flow from 
 n, through <?, into the blast pipe. When the piston reaches 
 the bottom of the cylinder, then the slide opens a communi- 
 cation between n and the steam pipe, and between to and o. 
 Thus steam will be admitted to the bottom of the cylinder, 
 while the steam from the top will escape from m, through 
 o, to the blast pipe. In this way, by the alternate shifting 
 of the slide, steam is admitted alternately to each end of the 
 cylinder, and allowed to Bsraps from the other end, and the 
 alternate motion of the piston and the cylinder is thereby 
 maintained. The pistons used in locomotive engines are of 
 the kind called metallic pistons, and, from their horizontal 
 position, they have a tendency to wear unequally in the 
 cylinders, their weight pressing them on one side only; but 
 from lie Ir small la I >oud .. '•.. im- 
 
 perceptible in practice. The cross pipe P', \x hich communi- 
 cates with the eduction passage o, in each of ihe valve 
 boxes, lias an opening in the centre presented upward, as 
 seen in fig. 5. To this o[>ening is flanged the base of the 
 blast pipe /», tig. 4, which rises in a direction slightly carved, 
 and has its mouth presented upward in the centre of the 
 chimney G. The steam whicli is discharged nt each stroke 
 of the pistons from the cylinders passes through this pipe, 
 and escapes up the chimney by pull's. When an engine is 
 moving slowly, these pull's are distinctly audible, resembling 
 the coughing of a horse; but when nt full speed, they suc- 
 ceed each other so rapidlv that the ear can scarcely distin- 
 guish their intervals. It is this stream of waste steam, con- 
 tinually rushing up the chimney, that maintains the necessary 
 draught in the fireplace; the upper current thus produced 
 in the funnel causes a corresponding current into the smoke 
 box F, through the tubes E ; nnd there is this excellence in 
 the arrangement, that fee force of the draught in the chim- 
 ney being proportional to the quantity of steam produced, it 
 must be therefore proportional to the quantity of fuel neces- 
 sary to be consumed. 
 
 The force of the steam thus impressed upon the pistons is 
 communicated by the piston rods Y, fig. 4, the cross heads 
 of which move in guides to the connecting rods B, which 
 are attached to the crank pins of the working (6.) 
 
 axle C ; so that, as the piston rods are driven 
 backwards and forwards in the cylinders, the 
 working axle is made to revolve. This axle, 
 with the two cranks formed upon it, is repre- 
 sented in fig. 6, where the two cranks must be 
 understood to be in a position at an angle of 45° 
 with the plane of the figure, and therefore at an 
 angle of 90° with each other. As this axle is 
 the instrument by which the impelling force is 
 conveyed to the load, and as it has to support a ^ 
 great portion of the weight of the engine, it is 
 constructed with great strength and precision. 
 Its length is 6J feet, and its diameter 5 inches. 
 At the centre part A it is cylindrical, and is in- 
 creased to 5J inches at C, where the cranks are 
 formed. The sides D of the cranks are 4 inches 
 thick ; and the crank pins B, which are truly 
 cylindrical, are 5 inches in diameter and 3 
 inches in length. Upon the parts F, which are 
 Ik inches long, the great driving wheels D, fig. 
 4, are firmly fastened, so as to be prevented 
 from turning or shaking upon the axle. Brass- 
 es are fixed on the outside frame of the engine, 
 which rest upon these projections G of the axle ; 
 and upon these brasses the weight of the en- 
 gine is supported 
 
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. 
 
 The strength and accuracy of construction necessary for 
 these axles render them expensive : they cost about £50 
 each. They are seldom broken, but sometimes bent when 
 the engine escapes from the rails. 
 
 The method by which the slides are made to govern the 
 admission and escape of the steam to and from the cylinders 
 is nearly the same as in the steam engine used for the gen- 
 eral purposes of manufacture ; and for a general description 
 of the method see Steam Engine. Meanwhile it may be 
 here brieily stated, that this is effected by two circular plates 
 called eccentrics, fixed at E E, fig. 5, on the great working 
 nxle. These eccentrics are circular plates or rings, formed 
 upon or attached to the axle so as to revolve in their own 
 plane, forming, in effect, a part of the axle itself; but they 
 are so placed that their centres do not coincide with the cen- 
 tre of the axle, and, consequently, as they revolve with the 
 axle, their centres are alternately thrown backwards and 
 forwards, as they pass on the one side or the other of the 
 axle. These circular plates are surrounded by rings, within 
 which they revolve, but which do not revolve with them. 
 These rings are alternately thrown backward and forward 
 by the play of the eccentrics ; and to these rings are attach- 
 ed rods e c, which communicate motion to the arms which 
 drive the rods of the slides. Thus the alternate motions of 
 the eccentrics backward and forward proceeding from the 
 working axle, produce a corresponding backward and for- 
 ward motion in the slides, and thereby govern the admission 
 and escape of the steam to and from the cylinders. When 
 it is required to reverse the motion of the engine, or to make 
 it move backwards, the motion of the slides, and therefore 
 the positions of the eccentrics on the working axle, must be 
 the contrary of that necessary to produce a progressive mo- 
 tion. Sometimes this is effected by shifting the position of 
 the eccentrics on the working axle; but more commonly it 
 is effected by a second pair of eccentrics, represented at F F, 
 fig. 5, placed on the axle in a position contrary to the others. 
 When the engine is driven backward, the eccentrics E E 
 are thrown out of gear, and the eccentrics F F are Brought 
 into action. 
 
 As all the moving parts of the engine require to be con- 
 stantly lubricated with oil, to diminish the friction and keep 
 them cool, oil cups for this purpose are fixed upon them. In 
 some engines these oil cups are attached separately to all the 
 moving parts ; in others they are placed near each other in 
 a row on the side of the boiler, and communicate by small 
 tubes with the several parts to be lubricated. 
 
 The tender is a carriage attached behind the engine, and 
 close to it, carrying coke for the supply of the furnace, and 
 a tank containing water for the boiler. The feed for the 
 boiler is conducted through a curved pipe proceeding from 
 tiie tank, and carried first downwards, and afterwards in a 
 horizontal direction, as represented at K, fig. 4, under the 
 boiler. It communicates with a forcing pump, which is 
 worked by an arm driven by the cross head of the steam 
 piston. By this pump water is constantly forced into the 
 boiler, so long as the pump is kept in communication with 
 the tank; but this communication may be opened and cut 
 oil' by a cock I, governed by the engineer. As the feed of 
 the boiler by the introduction of cold water checks the ac- 
 tivity of the evaporation, it is the custom not to feed the 
 boiler regularly and constantly, but to throw on the feed 
 when the work on the engine is light and the consumption 
 of steam small, and to shut it off when much steam is re- 
 quired. The circumstances of a railway naturally suggest 
 this. When the engine is ascending an incline, all the steam 
 which the boiler is capable of producing is required, and 
 therefore the activity of the boiler is stimulated by shutting 
 off the feed ; but in descending an incline less power is re- 
 quired, and the feed is put on. 
 
 Until within the last few years, locomotive engines were 
 supported on only four wheels. It is now, however, the gen- 
 eral practice to place them on six, the driving wheels being 
 in the middle, as represented in fig. 4. To give greater se- 
 curity to the position of the engine between the rails, it is 
 usual to construct flanges on the tires of all the six wheels. 
 Mr. Stevenson, however, has been in the practice of con- 
 structing the driving wheels without flanges, and with tires 
 truly cylindrical, depending on the flanges of the two pairs 
 of smaller wheels to maintain the engine between the rails. 
 The wheels of the engine represented in fie 4, are construct- 
 ed in this manner. The driving wheels D are fixed on the 
 cranked axle C, and are constructed with cylindrical tires 
 without flar.ges. They are 5 feet in diameter. The wheels 
 I» aie 3 feet 6 in. in diameter, and have conical tires with 
 Canges. They are placed immediately behind the smoke 
 box. The wheels M are precisely similar to L, and are 
 placed immediately behind the fire box. 
 
 When an engine is required for the transport of very heavy 
 loads, su~h as those of merchandise, the adhesion of one pair 
 of working wheels is insufficient; and, in such cases, one 
 of the two pairs of wheels L or M is made of the same di- 
 ameter as the driving wheels, and a bar is attached to points 
 
 on the outside of the wheels, at equal distances from then 
 centre, connecting them in such a manner that any fores 
 applied to make one pair of wheels revolve must necessarily 
 impart the same motion to the other pair. By such means 
 the force of the steam is made to drive both pairs of wheels, 
 and consequently a proportionally increased adhesion is ob- 
 tained. 
 
 The speed which an engine is capable of imparting de- 
 pends on the rate at which the pistons are capable of being 
 moved in the cylinders. By every motion of each piston 
 backward and forward one revolution of the driving wheel 
 is produced; and by each revolution of the driving wheels, 
 supposing them not to slip upon the rails, the load is driven 
 through a distance equal to their circumference. As the 
 two cylinders work together, it follows that a quantity of 
 steam sufficient to fill four cylinders must be supplied by the 
 boiler to the engine, to move the train through a distance 
 equal to the circumference of the driving wheels; and in 
 accomplishing this each piston must move twice from end 
 to end of the cylinder, each cylinder must be twice filled 
 with steam from the boiler, and that steam must be twice 
 discharged from the blast pipe into the chimney. If the 
 driving wheels be 5 feet in diameter, their circumference 
 will be 15 feet 7 inches. To drive a train with a velocity of 
 30 miles an hour, it is necessary that the engine be propelled 
 through 45 feet per second; and to accomplish this with 5 
 feet wheels they must make nearly three revolutions per 
 second ; and as each revolution requires two motions of the 
 piston in the cylinder, it follows that each piston must move 
 three times forward and three times backward in the cyl- 
 inder in a second ; that steam must be admitted six times pet 
 second to each cylinder, and discharged twelve times pel 
 second through the blast pipe : the motion of the slides and 
 other reciprocating parts of the machinery must consequent- 
 ly correspond. 
 
 This rapid reciprocating motion being injurious to the ma- 
 chinery, attempts have been iriade to diminish it by the 
 adoption of larger working wheels, and the driving wheels 
 on several of the great lines have been accordingly increased 
 to 5J and 6 feet in diameter. Such engines have not been 
 yet sufficiently lung in use to afford a practical estimate of 
 the effects of this change. Experiments of a much bolder 
 kind have been tried on the Great Western Railway, where 
 driving wheels of 10 feet in diameter have been worked. 
 Front a course of experiments, however, made by Dr. Lard- 
 ner with those engines, it did not appear that they had any 
 advantage over those constructed with smaller and lighter 
 wheels. Experience appears to have since confhrned' this, 
 as they are now for the most part abandoned. The pres- 
 sure of steam in the boiler is usually limited by two safety- 
 valves — one represented at N, under the control of the en- 
 gineer ; and the other at O, which cannot be approached by 
 him. The safety valve at N is held down by a lever r, 
 which is attached to a spiral spring, and which may, by on 
 adjusting screw, be made to press on the valve with any re- 
 quired force. The second valve O is pressed by several 
 small elliptical springs, placed one above another over the 
 valve, and held down by a screw, which turns in a frame 
 fixed into the valve seat. By this screw the pressure on the 
 valve can be adjusted. 
 
 In order to give notice of the approach of the train, a steam 
 whistle Z, fig. 4, is placed immediately above the fire box at 
 the back of the engine. This is an apparatus composed of 
 two small hemispheres of brass, separated one from the other 
 by a small space. Steam is made to pass through a hollow 
 space formed in the lower hemisphere, and escapes from a 
 very narrow circular opening round the edge of that hemis- 
 phere. The edge of the upper hemisphere presented down- 
 wards encounters this steam, and an effect is produced simi- 
 lar to the action of air in organ pipes. A shrill whistle is 
 produced which can be heard at a great distance, and differ 
 ing from all ordinary sounds, never fails to give notice of the 
 approach of a train. 
 
 It is not usual to express the power of locomotives, in the 
 same manner as that of other engines, by the term horse 
 power. Indeed, until the actual amount of resistance en- 
 countered by these machines shall be more certainly ascer- 
 tained, it is impossible that their efficiency can be estimated. 
 The quantity of water evaporated supplies a major limit to 
 the power exerted ; but even this necessary element is not 
 ascertained. Mr. Stevenson states that an engine such as 
 that above described is capable of evaporating only 77 cubic 
 feet of water per hour; but Dr. Lardner found that the 
 mean evaporation obtained by a very accurately conducted 
 experiment over 200 miles of railway, with an engine called 
 the Hecla, similar to the above, was 90 cubic feet per hour 
 verv nearlv. 
 
 But a still greater evaporating power than this is found 
 among the large engines working on the Great Western Rait- 
 way. In an experiment made by Dr. Lardner with the North 
 Star, drawing llOA tons gross, at 30A miles an hour, the 
 evaporation was 200 cubic feet per hour. 
 
LOCOMOTIVE POWER. 
 
 On the evaporating power of the engines, other things be- 
 ing the same, must ultimately depend the speed of railway 
 tratiie. For it must be apparent that no modification which 
 son be made in the mechanism of the engine, no change in 
 the magnitude of the driving wheels, nor any other expedient 
 of the same kind, can add anything to the real working 
 power of the machine. Mechanism is the means by which 
 power is modified and conveyed to the working points, not 
 the agent by which it is produced. The real and the only 
 source of power in the steam engine is to be found in the 
 phenomena which are evolved in the conversion of water 
 wipour (for an account of which phenomena see 
 Steam) ; and therefore the limit of railway speed must al- 
 depend on the rate at which the locomotive boiler is 
 capable of evaporating water. The experiments above ex- 
 i show the actual evaporating powers possessed by 
 the boilers now in use, and every addition to such evapo- 
 rating power will produce a corresponding, though not a pro- 
 portionate, augmentation of the speed of railway trains. 
 
 Nothing can be more absurdly exaggerated than the ac- 
 counts which have been put in circulation of the speed at- 
 tained on railways. No reliance whatever can or ought to 
 Be placed on such reports, unless they are attested by com- 
 petent persons accustomed to that kind of inquiry, and who 
 have been themselves witnesses of them. In the extensive 
 courses of experiments which, for several years back, have 
 been conducted by Dr. Lardner, he has never in any instance, 
 even with an unloaded engine, exceeded a speed of 45 miles 
 an hour; nor was that speed ever maintained for any con- 
 siderable distance. With the best and most powerful en- 
 gines on the Great Western Railway at their disposal, Mr. 
 is Wood and Dr. Lardner were unable to attain a 
 in their experiments exceeding 45 miles an hour. The 
 a, however, of most interest to the public is, not the 
 speed which can be obtained In experiments for short dis- 
 tances with engines put into racing order, but the average 
 S|ieed which can be maintained in the general working of a 
 road. The ieturns of the railway companies, so far as they 
 have been made public, do not supply the means of deter- 
 mining this; but it is known that the first class trains be- 
 tween London and Birmingham, a distance of 112 miles, 
 ■>. make the journey, under ordinary circumstances, in 
 hours: this would give an average speed, in- 
 cluding stoppages, of 20 miles an hour. On the Grand Junc- 
 line between Liverpool and Birmingham, the jouraey, 
 including stoppages, is usually made in 4} .hours, and the 
 . mile^ . this again is at the rate of about 20 
 i.i hour. No other lines of railway have yet been con- 
 d of sufficient length to afford a fair estimate of aver- 
 tnd it may therefore be assumed that the present 
 rate of railway travelling, for long distances with first class 
 stoppages included, is 20 miles an hour, 
 the railway between Liverpool and Manchester the 
 iss trains is greater. The railway 
 !■ ngth; and there is but one stoppage, at 
 i.i, which is so arranged as to be attended with very 
 little loss of time. The journey is very frequently made in 
 mr, and seldom exceeds 80 minutes; the average speed 
 I' t the fastest trains on that line is therefore probably not 
 than £> miles an hour, including stoppages. (For far- 
 ther details respecting the locomotive engine, see Lardner 
 on the Steam Engine, 7ih edit., 1810.) 
 
 LOCOMOTIVE POWER, In contradistinction to station- 
 ary power, is any kind of moving power applied to the trans- 
 I loads on land which travels with the load which it 
 oployed to draw carriages or carry loads 
 icomotive powers. See Locomotive Enoirk. 
 
 LICI'DAL. In Botany, n term applied to the 
 dehiscence of a fruit when it takes place through the back 
 of the cells. It Is what botanists formerly called a dehiscence 
 \ gives opposite the dissepiments. 
 I S. (Lat. place), in the Geometrical Analysis, is the 
 line traced by a point which varies its position acccording to 
 gome determinate law. For example, let this problem be 
 proposed : To find a point I' such 
 that its distances from two given 
 points, A and B, shall have a 
 given ratio. If the line joining 
 A and B be divided in E, so that 
 A E is to E B in the given ratio, 
 then a point is found which ful- 
 fils the conditions of the problem. 
 But this is not the only point 
 which has this property ; for let 
 F be taken in the prolongation of A B, so that A F is to B F 
 in the given ratio, and on E F as a diameter let a circle be 
 ; then, if straight lines be drawn from A and B to 
 any point whatever, P, in the circumference of this circle, 
 A P will have to P B the same ratio as A E to E B, or as A F 
 to F B, that is, the ratio given. The circle E P F is hence 
 called the locus of the point P. 
 When the locus of the variable point is a straight line or 
 
 LOG, LOG-LINE. 
 
 a circle, it was called by the ancient geometers a plant 
 locus ; and when one of the conic sections, a solid locus. 
 
 The plane loci formed a branch of the ancient analysis, 
 which, according to the account of Pappus, was treated of 
 by Apollonius in two books which have been lost. They 
 were partly restored by Schooten, a Dutch geometer, who 
 flourished in the 17th century, and by Fermat; but after- 
 wards in a complete manner by Dr. Simson of Glasgow, 
 whose treatise, De Locis Planis, published in 1749, is a 
 model of geometrical elegance. The principal propositions 
 may be found in Leslie's Geometrical Analysis. 
 
 The moderns distinguish the loci into orders, according tc 
 the dimensions of the algebraic equations by which they 
 are represented. Thus the equation ai-f 4 i/-fc = oisu 
 locus of the first order ; az2-\-byt-]-cxy-\-dx-\-cy +/ 
 = », a locus of the second order, and so on. The loci of all 
 equations of the second degree are conic sections or circles. 
 (See Mac'aurin's Algebra.) 
 
 LO'CUST. From the Latin word signifying a crayfish ; 
 but now the common name of a species of insects, forming 
 a group or subgenus of the Gnj/lus of Linn.TUs. They 
 have coloured ehtra, and large wings, disposed when at 
 rest in Straight fan-like folds, as in other Orthoptera, and 
 frequently exhibiting bright blue, green, or red colours. The 
 thorax is capacious, to atl'ord room for the powerful mus- 
 cles of the wings, and is marked in many species with one 
 or more crests or wart-like prominences. The locusts fly 
 by starts, but frequently rise to a considerable height. Cer- 
 tain species, called "migratory locusts," unite In incalcula- 
 ble numbers, and emigrate, resembling in their passage 
 through the air a dense cloud : wherever they alight all signs 
 of vegetation quickly disappear, and cultivated grounds are 
 left a desert. But the mischief does not end here ; for when 
 dead the mass ctf decomposing rest that the air 
 
 becomes poisoned by the fetid exhalations. The 2d chapter 
 
 of Joel gives a powerful description of the devastation com- 
 mitted by these destructive insert-;. 
 
 M. Miot. in his translation of BerodotUS, baa given it as 
 his opinion that the heaps of bodies of winged ser|>ents 
 which that historian states that he saw in Egypt, were 
 nothing more than masses of this sp. These 
 
 • • eaten in various parts of Africa, where the in 
 habitants collect them both for home consumption and for 
 commerce. They take away their elytra and wings, and 
 preserve them in brine. Ono species {Jteridimm taigratoriun, 
 Latr.) occasionally commits devastations in the .-outh of 
 Europe and Poland; and stragglers have occasionally reach- 
 ed our own coasts. In the United States the term " loetHtV 
 is applied to a special at Cicada, which by their numbers 
 and voracity arc almost as destructive as the true locusts of 
 the old world. 
 
 LOOU'STA. In Botany. If that form of Inflorescence 
 
 called a spike consist of Mowers destitute of calyx and corol!::, 
 the place of which is occupied by brat-tea-, the rachls is 
 flexuose and toothed, and docs not fall to the ground with 
 the (lowers, as happens in grasses, each part of the inflor- 
 escence so arranged is called a loeiuta, the structure ot 
 which is as follows: At the base are two opposite emptj 
 bractcas called glumes, one of which is attached to the 
 rachls a little above the base of the other; above the glumes 
 are several florets sitting in denticulations of the rachis ; 
 each of these consists of one bractea, sometimes with the 
 midrib quitting the lamina a little below the npex, and 
 elongated into a bristle ; and of another bractea. facing the 
 first, with its back to the rachis, bifid at the apex, with no 
 dorsal vein, but with Its edges indexed, and a rib on each 
 side at the line of inflexion; and, lastly, within these bractea; 
 are situated two extremely minute fleshy scales, which are 
 sometimes connate, and stand at the base of the sexual or- 
 gans. 
 
 LODE. A term used by miners, generally synonymously 
 with metallic or mineral vein. The lodes containing metal- 
 lic ores are said to be alive ; others which merely contain 
 lapideous matters are called dead lodes. 
 
 LODGE. (Fr. logis.) In Architecture, a small house 
 situated in a park or domain subordinate to the mansion ; 
 also, the cottage situated at the gate of the avenue that leads 
 to the mansion. 
 
 Loiiok. .See Freemasonry. 
 
 LODI'CULA. In Botany, a term given by Palisot do 
 Bcauvois to the two minute, colourless, fleshy, hypogynous 
 scales which are situated beneath the ovary of grasses. 
 
 LOESS. A German geological term, applied to a tertiary 
 alluvial deposit which occurs in patches between Cologne 
 and liasle. The term is often used by English geologists in 
 reference to that peculiar yellow loam with calcareous con- 
 cretions. 
 
 LOG, LOG-LINE. In sea language, the log is a piece 
 of wood, in the form of a sector of a circle (usually a quad- 
 rant) of five or six inches radius. It is about a quarter of 
 an inch thick ; and so balanced, by means of a plate of lead 
 nailed to the circular part, as to swim perpendicularly in the 
 
LOGAN STONES. ' 
 
 water, with about two thirds immersed under the surface. 
 The log-line is a small cord, one end of which is fastened to 
 the log, while the other is wound round a reel in the gallery 
 of the ship. The log thus poised, keeps its place in the 
 water, while the line is unwound from the reel as the ship 
 moves through the water ; and the length of line unwound 
 in a givjn time gives the rate of the ship's sailing. This is 
 calculated by knots made on the line at certain distances, 
 while the time is measured by a sand-glass of a certain 
 number of seconds. In order to avoid calculation, the length 
 between the knots is so proportioned to the time of the glass 
 that the number of knots unwound while the glass runs 
 down, shows the number of miles the ship is sailing per 
 hour. Thus, suppose the glass to be a half-minute one, it 
 will run down 120 times in an hour. Now, distances by 
 sea are reckoned by nautical miles of 60 to a degree ; so that 
 each mile contains about 6100 feet, the 120th part of which 
 is 51 feet. If, therefore, the knots (which are pieces of 
 coloured cloth) are fastened to the log-line at distances of 
 51 feet, the number of knots unwound from the reel In half 
 a minute is the number of miles the ship runs in one hour. 
 If the glass runs down in less than half a minute, the inter- 
 vals between the knots must be diminished in proportion. 
 The first knot is placed about five fathoms from the log, to 
 allow the latter to get clear of the ship before the reckoning 
 commences ; and the part of the line between the lead and 
 the first knot is called the stray-line. 
 
 LO'GAN STONES. See Rocking Stones. 
 
 LO'GARITHM. (Gr. hoyos, in the sense of a proportion, 
 and apidnos, number.) The logarithm of a number is the 
 exponent of the power to which another given invariable 
 number must be raised in order to produce the first number. 
 Thus, in the common system of logarithms, in which the 
 invariable number is 10, the logarithm of 1000 is 3, because 
 10 raised to the third power is 1000. In general, if a* =s y, 
 in which equation a is a given invariable number, then x is 
 the logarithm of y. All absolute numbers, whether positive 
 or negative, whole or fractional, may be produced by raising 
 un invariable number to suitable powers. The invariable 
 number to called the ba»« of the system of logarithms : it 
 maybe toy number whatever grenrei or lefts than unity; 
 but, having bean once chosen, it must remain the same for 
 the formation of all numbers in the same system. What- 
 ever number may be selected for the base, the logarithm of 
 the base is 1, anil the logarithm of 1 is 0. In fact, if in the 
 equation a* = y we make x = 1, we shall have a' = a, 
 whence, by the definition, log a = 1 ; and if we make x = 0,. 
 we shall have aO= 1, whence log. 1 = 0. 
 
 From the nature of the exponential equation, by which 
 logarithms have been defined, it is easy to discover some of 
 the principal properties and uses of those artificial numbers. 
 Suppose that we have a series of numbers, y, if, y", if", &c, 
 to be multiplied together. Let a be the base of the system 
 of logarithms (supposed to be calculated), and let x, x', x", 
 x'" , &c. be the logarithms of y, y', y", y'", &c. respectively. 
 We have then, according to the definition, the series of 
 equations, 
 
 y = a*, y' = a*', y" = a*", y'" = a"'", &c. 
 
 Multiplying the corresjwnding members of these equations 
 into each other, we get, 
 
 v y' v" v" & c - = aX + *' + x " + x '" + & c - ; 
 
 whence log. y y' y" y'" &c. = x -+- x' -j- x" -f- x'" + &c. = 
 log. y -j- log. y' + iog. y" + log. y'" + &c. : whence we infer 
 this chief property of logarithms, namely, that the logarithm 
 of a product is equal to the sum of the logarithms of its 
 factors. 
 
 Again, let there be two numbers, y nnd y, to be divided 
 the one by the other, and let x and x' be their logarithms. 
 We have, as before, the equations y=a*, and y'=za*'; 
 
 y' y' 
 
 whence — = a* — *, and therefore log. — = x — x = I02. 
 y 6 y ° 
 
 / — log. y; that is to say, the logarithm of the quotient of 
 a division is equal to the difference between the logarithm 
 of the dividend and the logarithm of the divisor. 
 
 These properties of logarithms are of very great importance 
 in facilitating the arithmetical operations of multiplication 
 and division. For if a multiplication is to be effected, it is 
 only necessary to take from the logarithmic tables the loga- 
 rithms of the factors, and add them into one sum, which 
 gives the logarithm of the required product ; and on finding 
 in the table the number corresponding to this new logarithm, 
 the product itself is obtained. Thus by means of a table of 
 logarithms the operation of multiplication is performed by 
 simple addition. In like manner, if one number is to be 
 iivided by another, it is only necessary to subtract the loga- 
 rithm of the divisor from that of the dividend, and to find 
 in the table the number corresponding to this difference, 
 which number is the quotient required. Thus, the quotient 
 of a division is obtained by simple subtraction. 
 
 Logarithms apply with equal advantage to the formation 
 
 LOGARlxn^. 
 
 of powers and extraction of roots. Let y be a number to be 
 raised to the power m (m being any num'ier, whole or frac- 
 tional, positive or negative). As before, we have y = a«; 
 and, on raising both sides of the equation to the power n, 
 ym = am x : whence, by the definition, log. y>" = ?n z = m 
 log. y ; that is, the logarithm of the power of a number is 
 equal to the product of the logarithm of the number by the 
 exponent of the power. 
 
 If in the equation of log. ym = m log. y we make m = —' 
 
 1 
 
 we shall have log. y n (or log. ,/ y) — - log. y ; that is to 
 
 say, the logarithm of any root of a number is equal to the 
 logarithm of the number divided by the index of the root. 
 
 From these two last results it is obvious that by means of 
 a table of logarithms numbers may be raised to any powei 
 by simple multiplication, and that the roots of numbers may 
 be extracted by simple division. 
 
 The properties which have now been demonstrated are 
 true of every system of logarithms which may be adopted ; 
 but their application to numerical computations supposes 
 the construction of a table, including on the one hand the 
 natural numbers, and on the other the logarithms of those 
 numbers calculated for a given base. The tables usually 
 employed are those of which the base is 10, and their con- 
 struction is equivalent to the solution of the algebraic equa- 
 tion 10* = y. Hence, making y successively equal to the 
 numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, &c, we have to resolve the equations, 
 10* = 1, 10* = 2, 10* = 3, 10* = 4, &.c. 
 
 The labour of computing the tables is greatly abridged by 
 the circumstance that it is only necessary to calculate the 
 logarithms of the prime numbers ; for, as all the other num- 
 bers may be obtained by the multiplication of prime numbers 
 into each other, their logarithms, according to what has 
 been already shown, may be found by the addition and sub- 
 traction of the logarithms of the prime numbers. Hence a 
 table containing merely the logarithms of the prime num- 
 bers is nil that is strictly necessary for effecting computations 
 by logarithms. 
 
 When a table of logarithms has been calculated for any 
 given base, it is easy to find by means of it any other system 
 of logarithms corresponding to a different base, without 
 having again recourse to the solution of exponential equa- 
 tions. Thus, supposing a system of logarithms has been 
 calculated of which the base is a, or, which is the same 
 thing, that the value of x has been found for every different 
 value of y in the equation a 1 = y, and that it is required to 
 construct another table of which the base is b, or to find the 
 values of v corresponding to every different value of y in the 
 equation i» = y, we may proceed as follows : Taking the 
 logarithms of both members of this last equation from the 
 table supposed already calculated, of which the base is a, 
 and recollecting that log. 4* = v log. b, we have v log. b = log. 
 log. y 
 
 y ; whence v = . :" 
 
 J log. b 
 
 But because bv = y, it follows that 
 
 v is the logarithm of y in the system of which the base is b ; 
 therefore, denoting the logarithms in this new system by 
 
 log. y 
 L, wehaveLw= — =-?■ Hence it appears that, in order to 
 
 log. b 
 find the logarithm of any given number y in the new sys- 
 tem, it is only necessary to multiply its logarithm in the 
 
 system already calculated bv the constant number - ;" 
 
 log. 6 
 
 This constant number, by means of which we pass from 
 
 the one table to the other, is called the modulus of the new 
 
 table with reference to the old. 
 
 In the common system of logarithms of which the base is 
 10, those numbers only which are perfect powers of 10 (thai 
 is, 100, 1000, &c.) can have commensurable logarithmi 
 The logarithms of all other numbers are incommensurable 
 and can only be obtained to a certain degree of approxima- 
 tion. In general, the approximation will be sufficient if 
 carried to the seventh decimal figure, and accordingly thi 
 ordinary tables contain the logarithms only to seven place 
 of decimals ; but where very great accuracy is required, a 
 in some astronomical calculations, it may be necessary to 
 use logarithms exact to ten places. In Vlacq's tables they 
 are computed to this extent. 
 
 The relation between a number and its logari*hr\ in tit* 
 common system being 10* = y (where y is the natural num- 
 ber and x its logarithm), if we make successively 
 
 x — 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 n, 
 
 we shall have for the corresponding values ofy 
 
 y = \, 10, 100, 1000, 10000 10° , 
 
 and if we make 
 
 1 = — 1— 2—3 — 4....- n, 
 we shall have 
 
LOGARITHM. 
 
 -i I, _L, 
 
 " 'in inn 
 
 1 I I 
 
 1 10 100 1000 10000 ' 10" 
 From these series it is evident that the logarithms of all 
 greater than unity are positive, and that the loga- 
 rithms of oil fractions are negative. It is also evident that 
 nthm of every number between and 10 is n deci 
 toll, of every nuinber'bctween 10 and 100 is 1 + a decimal, 
 uf every number between 100 and 1000 is 2 -fa decimal. 
 Hut the digits in any number between 10 and 
 2 between 100 and 1000 are 3, and so on ; therefore 
 Mia logarithm of any number is expressed by the 
 number of its digits diminished by unity, with a certain 
 decimal fraction added. For example, the number 735U4, 
 I between 10000 and 100000, or between 10 4 and 
 10*, has lor its logarithm 4, with a decimal added. This in- 
 ■gral part of the logarithm, which is common to all num- 
 ber- between two successive powers of 10, is called the 
 riatic, because it shows at once of how many digits 
 tin; natural number corresponding to the logarithm to which 
 it is prefixed is composed. If, then, we know the logarithm 
 of any number, we have only to add 1, 2, 3, &.C. to its 
 characteristic, in order to have the logarithm of a number 
 100 times, or 1000 times, Ice. as great. Thus we 
 have 
 
 log. 73504 =4«rB424 
 
 log. 7359/4 =3-8668424 
 log. 73-594 = 1-8668424 
 log. 73594 = 0j8668424 
 
 log. -73504 = 1-8668424 
 
 In this last example the negative sign is placed over the 
 characteristic, this only being negntive. Hut it is more 
 usual and convenient to substitute for the negative charac- 
 their arithmetical complements; thus, 
 log. -73594 = 9-8668424 
 log. -073594 =8-8668424 
 log. -0073594 = 7-8663424 
 Hegnrd must be had to this substitution in the final result; 
 ; -i likely to prise, for it* effect would bo to 
 decimal poi.it 10 digits to the right or left of its 
 i 1 — an error which would at once be evident. In 
 Modern tables the characteristic is properly omitted; the 
 logarithm to which it would be prefixed belonging, in fact, 
 not only to one particular number, but also to all multiples 
 or Mib multiples of that number by 10. 
 
 'I'lic methods employed by the first computers of the 
 logarithmic tables were founded on the successive extrac- 
 ■ its, and involved calculations of very great labour, 
 but analysts bnve since discovered series by which the com- 
 putations are rendered much more expeditious and easy. 
 Let it be required lo find the logarithm of any number z by 
 a converging series. Assume log. (1 + x) = A x 
 
 •f II i^ + C «S+ I)/i + &c (1), in which A, It. r, I). 
 
 uts to be determined. Taking another num- 
 ber :, we shall have, in like manner, 
 
 log. (1 + z) = A z + B :2 + C i3 + D :• + &c. ... (2.) 
 Subtracting equation (2) from (1) we get 
 
 log. (1 + z) -log. (1 + i) = A (x — i) + B (*2-x») + C 
 (z3 — -3) 4. it C (3.) 
 
 But, by the nature of logarithms, log. (1 -f- x) — log. (1 -f- z) 
 = log. — - = log. (^ + f4^J I ""di on developing tills 
 
 expression in the same manner as log. (1 -f-x) in the equa- 
 tion (1), we have 
 
 +, &c. 
 Substituting this development for log. (1 -f- x) — log. (1 + z), 
 in the equation (3), and dividing both sides by (x — z) there 
 results 
 
 *ifc+»ffS.-+ojE$-M*. 
 
 = A + B(x + z)+C(z2 + xz-f-z2)+, &c. 
 
 Now, as this equation is true independently of any particu- 
 lar values of z and z, let us suppose x = z, and it becomes 
 
 A^— = A + 2Bx + 3Cx2+4Dx3 + &c. 
 
 which, on expanding the quantity , . by division, gives A 
 
 (1— x-fz* — z3 + z<— ,&c.) = A + 2Bz-f 3Cz2 + 4D 
 xp +, &c. Therefore, by the theory of indeterminnte coeffi- 
 cients, we must have the separate equations A = A, — A = 
 2 B, + A = 3 0, — A = 4 I), &c. ; and, on substituting the 
 milting values of B, C, D, &c, in terms of A in equation 
 (1), we get 
 
 log. (1 + z) = A ( y - 3 + 3 — ; j- + J -*c.) 
 
 The quantity A, which is still indeterminate, is the modu 
 lus ; and on assigning to it a particular value, we character- 
 ize the system which we wish to consider. 
 
 Let us suppose A = 1, and denote the particular system 
 of logarithms resulting from this supposition by L ; we shall 
 then have 
 
 L (1 + z) = x — A z2 + i z3 — i X 4 -f, & c . 
 This scries in its present form is unfit for the calculation of 
 the logarithms of whole numbers, for when z is greater than 
 unity it is divergent; but it may be easily trunsforiv.ed into 
 others having the required properties. On substituting — z 
 for z, it becomes 
 
 L (1 — z) = — x — Jz3 — Jz3 — iz4_ & c . 
 
 And on subtracting this from the former series, we have, 
 
 since Lfl+z) — L(l— z) = L ( J +I ) i 
 
 M — X' 
 
 L I Ex = <r+3+5+T+' &C )- 
 
 1+i ,,1 1 
 
 Let us now suppose -r— = 1+-, or x = ^-j- ; then, 
 since L^1+-^)=L = L(z+l) — Lz, the last series be- 
 
 2z-r-1^3(2z-t-l)' 
 
 comes, by substitution, L(;+l) — Lz: 
 
 + 5T2z+l) T+,&C V 
 
 This series gives the difference between the logarithms of 
 two consecutive numbers, nnd it converges with sufficient 
 rapidity. Supposing, successively, z= 1, 2, 3, 4, &.c, it gives 
 
 L2 = 2 (3 1 +3--^+5i+7^+- &C ) 
 L3-L2 = 2 (i f 3i v+ -4 s - f7 .l 7+ . & c.) 
 
 ^-1*^+^ + 1^+, fa,.) 
 
 It will be observed that M the values of : increase, the series 
 becomes much more rapidly convergent. Suppose, for ex- 
 ample, z = 100; we have then 
 
 """"•H tt'w'm^ &c ) 
 
 The logarithm Of 100 being supposed known, the first term 
 of this series will give the logarithm of 101 truo to seven 
 places of decimals. 
 
 The series now found gives the logarithms of the particu- 
 lar system of which the modulus Is 1, nnd which is called 
 the Napierian system, because it is that according to which 
 logarithms were first computed by their inventor. Baron Na- 
 pier. But, as ha,s already been shown, when the logarithms 
 have been found In any one system, they may be transferred 
 into those of any other system by means of a constant factor. 
 In the common system the base is 10, and the Napierian log- 
 arithm of any number is consequently transformed into tht 
 common logarithm of the same number by multiplying by 
 
 the modulus j-tt.. This number, which is of great impor- 
 tance in the computation of the logarithmic tables, h found 
 to be 4342944819, &c„ the Napierian logarithm of 10 being 
 830258509, &c. It may also be remarked that this modulus 
 0-4342944819 is the ordinary logarithm of the base of the Na- 
 pierian system ; for, calling e. this base, we shall have e 
 = 10, whence, taking the ordinary logarithm of both sides 
 of the equation LlOXlog. e = log. 10 = 1 ; therefore, log. e = 
 
 j— = 0-4342944819. On passing to numbers, we find c = 
 
 2-7182818284. 
 
 The Napierian logarithms are sometimes called the nat 
 ural logarithms, on account of the modulus of the system 
 being unity ; and, more frequently, hyperbolic logarithms, 
 because they represent the area of a rectangular hyperbola 
 between its asymptote*. 
 
 Logarithms were invented by Lord Napier, Baron of Mer- 
 chiston, in Scotland, nnd made known in a work published 
 by him in 1614, under the title De, mirifici J,oparithmorv.m. 
 Cavonis Constrvctiove. Henry Briggs. a contemporary of 
 Napier, and professor of geometry in Gresham colleee, con- 
 structed another system, having for its base the number 10, 
 which, corresponding with our system of numeration, is 
 much more convenient for the ordinary purposes of calcula- 
 tion. Briggs calculated the logarithms to 14 places, besides 
 the index, of all numbers between 1 nnd 20,000, and between 
 90,000 ana 100,000, and published them In his Arithmetic 
 
 683 
 
LOGARITHMIC CURVE. 
 
 Logarithmica in 1624. Adrian Vlacq, a native of Holland, 
 computed the logarithms of the numbers from 20,000 to 
 <j0,000, and thus completed what had been begun and partly 
 accomplished by Briggs ; but he reduced the tables to 10 de- 
 cimal places. Vlacq's Arithmetica Logarithmica was pub- 
 lished at Gouda in 1028, and contained the logarithms of all 
 numbers from 1 to 100,000, calculated to 10 decimals; as 
 also the logarithms of the sines, tangents, and secants of ev- 
 ery minute of the quadrant. Vlacq afterward, in 1633, pub- 
 lished another most valuable work, his Trigonomctr'ia Jlrti- 
 ficialis, containing the logarithmic sines, cosines, tangents, 
 and cotangents for every ten seconds of the quadrant, calcu- 
 lated from the natural sines, &c, of the Opus Palatinum of 
 Rheticus. In the same year another work of the same kind, 
 the Trigonometria Britannica, was published at Gouda, 
 containing the logarithmic sines and tangents for the 100th 
 part of every degree of the quadrant, together with a table 
 of natural sines, tangents, and secants. These had been 
 computed by Briggs. 
 
 Logarithms being of constant use in astronomical and trig- 
 onometrical calculations, the tables which have been pub- 
 lished are very numerous. The most complete are those of 
 Vlacq, already mentioned, to ten decimals ; but they are 
 very scarce, and can with difficulty be procured. There is 
 an edition of them by Vega, in 1797, also scarce. Gardiner's 
 Logarithms, printed in 1742, in 4to, and another edition of 
 them at Avignon, in France, in 1 1 tO, are to seven decimals. 
 Callet's Logarithms, in 8vo, like Gardiner's, contain the 
 logarithmic sines, &.C., for every 10 seconds. Taylor's Log- 
 arithms, in 4to, and also Baguay's, have them to every sec- 
 ond. Hutton's Logarithms, and Babbage's Logarithms of 
 Numbers, are well known. The latter was carefully colla- 
 ted, and is very accurate and convenient. Hulsse's Samm- 
 lung MaUiematischer Tafeln (8vo, Leipsig, 1840) deserves to 
 be mentioned as a very useful collection. The above (ex- 
 cepting Vlacq's and Vega's) are all to seven decimal figures ; 
 but for many purposes logarithms to a less number of deci- 
 mals are sufficiently accurate. For navigation and survey- 
 ing, tables to six figures are the most convenient, as they 
 give, in general, the trigonometrical lines correct to single 
 seconds. The best tables of this kind are Farley's Tables 
 of Six-figure Logarithms (12mo, 1840). For many auxiliary 
 computations in astronomy it is sufficient to have the loga- 
 rithms to five places. The reprint of Lalande's Five-figure 
 Table by the Useful Knowledge Society (18mo, 183D) is con- 
 venient, and may be relied on for accuracy. 
 LOGARITHMIC or LOGISTIC CURVE. In the higher 
 / Geometry, a curve line hav- 
 ing this property, that its ab- 
 scissa are proportional to the 
 logarithms of the correspond- 
 ing ordinates. It is construct- 
 ed in the following manner: 
 On the straight line A D let 
 the parts A B, A C, A D, &c, 
 betaken in arithmetical pro 
 gression (or such that AB = 
 0ABCD 13C = CD = &c), and from 
 the several points A, B, C, D, &c, let the perpendiculars A L, 
 B M, C N, D O, &.C., be erected, forming a geometrical pro- 
 gression, or such that A L:B M = B M:C N = CN:DO = 
 &c. ; then their summits L, M, N, O, &c, will mark the log- 
 arithmic curve. The curve is ascending or descending, ac- 
 cording as It is continued from L upwards towards M, or 
 downwards towards m. 
 
 The equation of the curve Is i = a log. y ; and hence its 
 principal properties are easily deduced. Taking the differ- 
 ential of the equation, we get dx = a— ; whence y-r — a. 
 
 dx 
 Now, in any curve, y-r- is the expression of the subtangent : 
 
 therefore, the subtangents of the logarithmic at different 
 points are all equal. The constant o to which the subtan- 
 gents are equal, is the modulus of the system of logarithms 
 represented by the particular curve. When the subtangent 
 (B T, for example) is equal to A L, the primary ordinate 
 which represents unity, the curve will exhibit the natural or 
 Napierian logarithms. 
 
 dy 
 From the equation dx = a— we have ydx — ady ; but ydx 
 
 ■=z the differential of the area, therefore the area= J ady — 
 
 ay -f- const. Making first y = DO, and then i/ = CN, we 
 have the areaC N O D = a(D O — C N) ; that'ls to say, the 
 area contained between two ordinates is equal to the rectan- 
 gle under their difference and the constant subtangent. 
 
 The logarithmic curve was proposed by Gregory, of St. 
 Vincent, soon after the discovery of logarithms, and its lead- 
 ing properties were investigated by Huygens and others. 
 Great use is made of it in various applications of physical 
 science, and particularly in exhibiting the relations of elastic 
 
 X.OGIC. 
 
 fluids. (See Keill's Tract on Logarithms ; F.uler's Introd. 
 in Jinal. Inf., vol. ii. ; Leslie's Geometry of Curves, &.C.) 
 
 LOGARITHMIC SPIRAL, or LOGISTIC SPIRAL. A 
 curve line, which is generated as follows : Let the lines S T 
 revolve uniformly about a fixed point S, 
 while another point P advances or recedes 
 on S T with a velocity always proportional 
 to its distance from the centre S ; then the 
 point P will trace out the logarithmic spiral. 
 
 From this definition of the curve it fol- 
 lows that radiants S L, S M, S N, &c, ma- 
 king equal angles with each other, are con- 
 tinued proportionals ; and that the angles 
 about the pole S are the logarithms of the ratios of the suc- 
 cessive radiants : whence the curve has its name. Let S L 
 = 1, S M = y, the angle LSM = j; then i = a log. y, where 
 o is a constant quantity. The curve is, consequently, anal 
 ogous to the common logarithmic, the difference being that 
 the abscissa are in the latter taken as straight lines, where- 
 as in the case of the spiral they may be conceived to be ta- 
 ken as the arcs of a circle. 
 
 The logarithmic spiral has many remarkable properties. 
 One of them is, that the curve intersects all its radiants at 
 the same angle ; and this angle is the modulus of the sys- 
 tem of logarithms which the particular spiral represents. 
 Another of its properties is, that its involute and evolute are 
 the same curve with itself. Newton proved that if the 
 force of gravitation had been inversely as the cube of the 
 distance, instead of the square, the planets would have shot 
 off from the sun in logarithmic spirals. (Principia, lib. i., 
 prop, ix.) 
 
 ' LOGEI'ON. (Gr. Xoyuov.) In ancient Architecture, the 
 Greek name for proscenium (which see). By the Romans 
 it was called the pulpitum. 
 
 LO'GIC (Gr. XoyiKt/ (rix'n, understood); from \6yo{, speech, 
 discourse, or calculation), has been defined the science, and 
 also the art, of reasoning. It is a science, because it inves- 
 tigates those principles on which reasoning proceeds: it has 
 been termed an art, as furnishing rules whereby the formal 
 part of an argument may be constructed. Logic was highly 
 valued, perhaps overvalued, among ancient philosophers. 
 The Stoics, in particular, were celebrated for their applica- 
 tion of its principles to their own favourite metaphysical dis- 
 cussions. From the abuse of logical knowledge arose the 
 celebrated fallacies of the Sophists, who, according to the 
 satirical representations of Athenian writers, were hired tr 
 furnish their pupils with the means of defending right or 
 wrong positions with equal facility. Zeno of Flea is called 
 the father of logic, or dialectics, according to the ancient 
 appellation of the science: but we are not well acquainted 
 with the discipline which he taught; although it can hardly 
 have consisted, as more recent writers have represented, of 
 a mere manual of captious fallacies. But it is to the master 
 mind of Aristotle that the science owes, as far as we ate 
 able to ascertain, not only its first exposition, but its com- 
 plete development; for, although logic has been extensively 
 interwoven in later times with the subtleties of metaphysics 
 and of rhetoric, yet, as far as the limited province of the pure 
 science extends, little has been done besides placing in a 
 clearer light the discoveries of the Stagyrite. When, in the 
 middle ages, the Aristotelian logic became the foundation 
 of the scholastic philosophy (which was little better than a 
 revival under another form of that of the Athenian sophists), 
 attempts were made, especially one by the famous Raymond 
 Luliius, to throw the science into a new form, but without 
 success. In consequence of the various misapplications and 
 perversions which the system had undergone in the hands 
 of later dialecticians, it 'fell into great disrepute in modem 
 times ; and many of our first metaphysical writers, as Locke, 
 for example, have treated it with very unmerited contempt. 
 Confined to that narrow limit to which alone itii rules really 
 extend, it is a serviceable exercise for the rnirtd, and affords 
 an accurate insight into the formal part or machinery of 
 reasoning. 
 
 However multifarious the subjects to which reasoning 
 may be applied, and however complicated its details may 
 become, the process bv which all reasoning is conducted is 
 one and the same. Whoever seeks to prove that beca-jso 
 one thing is thus, therefore another thing is so, whether he 
 be a philosopher pursuing a recondite truth, or a labourer 
 commenting on the events of his daily life, cannot travel out 
 of the bounds of the Aristotelian syllogism. In analyzing 
 the process in question, we find, in the first place, that every 
 truth or apparent truth, arrived at by reasoning, technically 
 termed a conclusion, is deduced from two other propositions. 
 technically termed premises, cither both expressed, or one 
 expressed and the other implied. In many instances, it is ;:t 
 once evident to the mind of one capable of reasoning, that if 
 the two premises be true, tho conclusion must follow. Thus, 
 if I wish to prove the r.ia'.h ,m'.ticM truth, that every A is 
 equal to B, I find a thirc" ."par lit', , C, which is equal io both ] 
 and my argument then ayji; nflk the following Siiape: what 
 
LOGIC. 
 
 ever is equal to C is equal to B ; but every A is equal to C, 
 therefore every A is equal to B. Here the connexion be- 
 tween the conclusion and the premises is at once evident 
 and true ; but there are many cases in which there is an 
 apparent connexion which is in reality false: in other words, 
 from two premises a conclusion is deduced, which, admit- 
 ting the trutii of those premises, does not, in reality, follow 
 from them. The following, for example, Is an instance of 
 
 i'!i incorrectly deduced from its premises, which, 
 
 revinl elc-s, might at Bret sight pass current for reasoning: 
 
 i I is accountable; brutes arc not rntion- 
 
 , therefore brutes are not accountable." To ex- 
 plain the reason why the first of these two arguments is 
 band, and the latter unsound, requires not the examination 
 of truths in mathematics or in natural religion, but simply 
 
 .i.-iion process of reasoning; and it is the means of 
 
 uch an analytical investigation which are afforded 
 
 • of these arguments is a correct, the latter a false 
 ;. \. Ilogism (see Syllogism) ; and the validity of 
 Be Brat and Invalidity of the latter depend upon the neces- 
 sary 01 linndfOMOrj connexion between the premises and 
 lusion, the rules for ascertaining which will be 
 Lpandiously given under the head Syllogism. A 
 may often be found to contain, elliptically 
 and compressed into a narrow compass, a whole 
 Lte syllogisms; but every single conclusion 
 i arrived at by this process, and by this only. 
 Tli' principle of the syllogism is contained in the famous 
 maxim termed in the schools of the middle ages the "dic- 
 - 1 ci ni et nullo," viz., that "whatever is predicated 
 (i. c, affirmed or denied) universally of any class of things, 
 may be predicated, in like manner (i. c, affirmed or denied), 
 If anything comprehended in that class." Thus, for exam- 
 ple, in the instance previously given of a valid argument, If 
 predicated of the whole class of things which are 
 cqu:il lo C that they are also equal to B, if I find anything 
 equal lo (', I may predicate of it that it is equal to B also. 
 pence my second premise, A is equal to C, serves to bring 
 me, topically, to the required conclusion — that A is equal to 
 B. This, therefore, is the general principle on which that 
 - conducted which takes place in every syllogism. 
 In order that reasoning may be contemplated simply as 
 .. without tiny reference to the essential truth or 
 of the propositions contained in it, which have 
 nothing to do with the science we are now considering, and 
 also with a view of furnishing brief and expressive forma, 
 like those of algebra, instead of words at length, a set of ar- 
 bitrary symbols are employed in logic, to denote the quantity 
 and quality, as they are termed, of propositions. Every 
 n either affirms or denies a fact; every proposition, 
 also, pred :iirms or denies) that a certain attri- 
 
 ber to a whole class, or to some members of 
 ta: propositions are, therefore, in quality ei- 
 ihur affirmative or negative; In quantity, universal or par- 
 ticular. Thus the four symbols of propositions in logical 
 ■a annals are, A, universal affirmative; I, particular athrma- 
 il negative; O, particular negative. And 
 (be form of a syllogism, according to the character of each 
 raises anil of the conclusion, is expressed by three 
 of these letters. Thus the syllogism first given, consisting 
 universal affirmatives (for it will be found, on cx- 
 •'inination, that each proposition predicates a certain attri- 
 Eote of all the members of a class), will be designated by 
 I \ A ; a syllogism termed in logical language barbara. 
 
 •OISM. 
 
 Ii i> also found, on farther analysis, that a syllogism em- 
 ;>arate objects or notions, two of which are 
 Jumpered with the third, and, in consequence of that com- 
 pronoonced to agreee or disagree with each other. 
 tgisrn " No dishonest man is a good citizen : 
 dishonest man; therefore, Caius is not a good cit- 
 izen." The individual object, " Caius," and the class of 
 citizens," being compared with a third class, 
 i," are found, the one to agree, the other to 
 with that class; and hence it inevitably follows 
 that they disagree with each other; t. e., the conclusion of 
 the Byllogism is negative. These three objects or terms, as 
 called in logic, occur in every syllogism. Thepred- 
 Icate of the conclusion — i.e., that term which, in the conclu- 
 sion, is predicated of the other, in this instance "good citi- 
 zen" — is called the major term ; the subject of the conclu- 
 sion — i. c, that term of which the other is predicated (Caius) 
 — h the minor term; and the term with which the other 
 ctlvely compared, "dishonest man," is the 
 middle term. 
 
 But every word, or combination of words, is not capable 
 of constituting a term ; i. «., something which may be predi- 
 cated of another thine, or of which another thing may be 
 predicated. In the first place, adverbs, prepositions, nouns 
 ; n any Inflection from the nominative case, &c, can only 
 1 of a term ; in logical phrase, they are syncatego- 
 
 LOGOGRAPHV. 
 
 rematic : adjectives, also, have always, impliedly, a nomina 
 tive subjoined, when employed ns terms. Verbs are mixed 
 words, being resolvable into a term employed as a predicate, 
 united to the copula or auxiliary verb {is or is nut). Thus, 
 nouns in the nominative case alone are simple terms or cnt- 
 egorematics; these, again, are either the name of an indi- 
 vidual or the name of the class : the former (singular terms) 
 may be subjects, but cannot be predicates; the latter may 
 be either. Thus, in the proposition "Crassus is rich," the 
 singular term, " Crassus," is the subject of which'it Is predi- 
 cated that he is rich ; i. e., a rich man. 
 
 A common term, being a word equally applicable to a 
 number of individuals, expresses a notion formed by the 
 faculty of abstraction. When, for example, wc contemplate 
 several individual oak trees, and abstract from each its sep- 
 arate peculiarities of height, growth, &c, we form the no- 
 tion of an oak. Contemplating a number of trees of mixed 
 species, and abstracting from each its specific peculiarities 
 of leaf, fruit, &c, wo next arrive at the common notion tree. 
 These common notions or terms are, then, the prcdicables 
 which can be affirmed or denied of oilier objects. 
 
 Predicables are divided into several kinds, although the 
 division is, perhaps, strictly, rather appertaining to°meta 
 physical than logical science. Every predicable is said, ac- 
 cording to this division, to express either the genus, species, 
 difference, property, or accident, belonging to an individual. 
 (See these heads, and I'redicable.) But it is to be re- 
 membered that a predicable may be referred to one or other 
 of these several kinds, according to the point of view from 
 which it is contemplated. If I say of Ca>sar that he is a 
 "man," I express his species, considering him in those re- 
 spects in which he differs from other animate. If I s;iy that 
 he was " brave," I express a property. If I predicate of 
 him the several circumstances in which he absolutely dif- 
 fered from all other men, I express that property or th; I 
 bundle of united properties which forms his " difference.' 
 Every practicable, with a little nttention, may be raj 
 under one or the other of these five classes, although it 
 must be confessed that the distinction seems occasionalh 
 arbitrary and unphilosojihical. 
 
 In this hasty outline of some leading features of the an 
 of logic, as taught at Oxford (where alone, we believe, pure 
 unapplied logic forms a branch of study), we have chiefly 
 made use of the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Whately's valu- 
 able F.ltmi nts of Logic. 
 
 The following passage is cited by Mr. Hallam from the 
 Port lioyal Logic, as giving a juster view of the value of 
 the Aristotelian method than its admirers are wont to enter- 
 tain : "Cette partie, que nous avons maintcnant a traitor 
 qui comprend les regies du raisonnement, est estimee In 
 plus importante de la logique, et e'est presque l'uniquc 
 qu'on y traite nvee quelque soin ; mala il y a sujet de (tat- 
 ter si elle est aussi utile qu'on se l'imagine. La plupart dci 
 crreurs des homines viennent bien plus de ce qu'ils raison- 
 nent sur de faux principes, que de ce qu'ils raisonnent mal 
 siiivant leurs principes. II arrive rarement qu'on se lajaae 
 tromper par des raisonnemens qui ne soient faux, que parcc- 
 que la consequence en est mal tirec ; et ceux que ne serai- 
 ent pas capables d'en reconnaitre la faussete par la seule 
 lumiere de la raison, ne le sentient pas ordinairement d'en- 
 tendre les regies que Ton en donne, et encore moins de les 
 appliquer. Neanmoins, quand on ne considcreroit ces 
 regies que comme verites spcculatives, elles serviraient 
 toujours a exercer l'esprit." (Esprit de Penser, part 3.) 
 " To represent this portion of logical science as the whole," 
 adds the same writer, " appears to me almost like teaching 
 the scholar Euclid's axioms, and calling this the science of 
 geometry." (Introduction to the Literature of Europe, vol. 
 iil., p. 221.) All that con be said in answer is, that the 
 more general meaning of the term logic is undefined, and 
 that it is employed by various writers and schools in the 
 most arbitrary manner; while this portion, though it may 
 be but a small one, is so clearly marked out, and forms so 
 distinct a body, that it has occupied in common language 
 the character of the whole science. 
 
 LOGO'GRAPHY. (Gr. yoyos, speech; ypa<j>io, I write) 
 A system of taking down the words of an orator without 
 having recourse to short-hand, which was put in practice 
 during the French revolution. Twelve or fourteen report- 
 ers were seated round a table. Each had a long slip of pa- 
 per, numbered. The writer of No. 1 took down the first 
 three or four words, and as soon as they were spoken gave 
 notice to his neighbour by touching his elbow, or some oth- 
 er sign ; No. 2 passed the sign to No. 3, nnd so on, until the 
 first line of each slip was filled ; No. 1 then began the sec- 
 ond line : thus all the 12 or 14 slips, when filled, being ar- 
 ranged parallel to each other, formed a single page. This 
 mode required great attention nnd quickness, and was not 
 found to answer well in practice. It was introduced in the 
 National Assembly in October, 1790, the expenses being 
 paid by the civil list; and continued until the 10th August, 
 1792, when Louis XVI. and his family, taking refuge from 
 
 685 
 
LOGOGRYPH. 
 
 insurrection in the assembly, occupied the box of the logo- 
 graphe. After that lime it was not used. {Dictionnaire de 
 la Conversation.) 
 
 Logography is also used to denote a method of printing 
 in which whole words in type are used instead of single 
 letters. This method was at one time introduced into the 
 printing of The Times newspaper; but after a short trial 
 was abandoned as inconvenient. 
 
 LO'GOGRYPH. (Gr. Aoyoj, and yfvtyoc, a net.) A 
 epec^es of riddle proposed for solution, in order to exercise 
 the mind, is so called. The word is used by Ben Jonson. 
 
 LO'G WOOD. The wood of the Hcematoxylon campechi- 
 anum, a tree growing in many parts of the West Indies and 
 on the adjoining continent. It is employed in dyeing and 
 calico-printing for the production of reds, blacks, drabs, and 
 several compound colours. Its colouring principle has been 
 termed hamatine. An extract of logwood is used in medi- 
 cine as an ' astringent. The price of logwood varies from 
 £o 10s. to £7 per ton ; and the quantity imported into 
 Great Britain in the three years ending 1839 averaged 15,000 
 tons. 
 
 LOl'MIC. (Gr. Aoi/<os, contagious matter.) Relating to 
 the plague or contagious disorders. 
 
 LOK. In Northern Mythology, the name of a malevo- 
 lent deity ; corresponding to the Ahriman of the Persians, 
 who is represented to be at war with both gods and men, 
 and originating all the evil with which the universe is deso- 
 lated. In the Kdda (the great poem of the Norwegian na- 
 tions) he is described as the great serpent which encircles 
 the earth (supposed to be emblematical of sin or corruption), 
 and as having given birth to Hela, or Death, the queen of 
 the infernal regions. 
 
 LO'LLARDS. A class of persons in Germany and the 
 Netherlands, who professed, in the 14th century, to under- 
 take spiritual offices in behalf of the sick and dead, and suc- 
 ceeded in attracting the attention and love of the mass of 
 the people when they were, in a great measure alienated 
 from the secular and regular clergy by their general indif- 
 ference and neglect. The origin of the name lias been 
 much disputed ; but the inquiries of Mosheim seem to lead 
 to the result that it is compounded of the German words 
 lallen (identical with the lallare of the Romans, and the lull 
 of our own language, signifying to sing in a murmuring 
 strain) and hard, a common affix, as in the somewhat simi- 
 lar word beghard. A Lollard, therefore, meant one in the 
 habit of singing to the praise of God, or funeral dirges and 
 the like, as was the custom of the early professors of this 
 holy manner of life. The Lollards, however, were accused 
 — probably through the envy and spite of the mendicant 
 friars and others whose neglected duties they so zealously 
 performed — of holding many heretical opinions. It is not 
 impossible that there might have been some degree of en- 
 thusiasm mixed up with so ardent and unworldly a devo- 
 tion ; but the charges of violent reforming views, still more 
 those of practical vice, appear to rest upon no authentic 
 grounds. In process of time the term was applied by the 
 partisans of the church to the heretics and schismatics of 
 the day generally ; and the followers of Wicliffe in England 
 are frequently stigmatized under the name of Lollards. 
 (See Gicseler's Text-book, transl., vol. hi., p. 99, 128.) 
 
 LO'MBARD. A term anciently used in England for a 
 banker or money-lender. The name is derived from the 
 Italian merchants, the great usurers or money-lenders of 
 the middle ages, principally from the cities of Lombardy, 
 who are said to have settled in London in the middle of the 
 13th century, and to have taken up their residence in a 
 street in the city which still bears their name. Stowe, in 
 his Survey of London, says, "Then have ye Lombarde- 
 street, so called of the Longobards nnd other merchants, 
 strangers of diverse nations, assembling there twice every 
 day. The meeting of which merchants there continued 
 until the 22d of December, in the year 1568 ; on the which 
 day the said merchants to make their meetings at the 
 Burssc, a place then new builded for that purpose, in the 
 ward of Cornh.il I, nnd was since, by her majesty Queen 
 Elizabeth, named the Royal Exchange." (P. 202.) 
 
 LOME'NTUM. A fruit similar to a legume, excepting 
 that it is contracted in the spaces between each seed, and 
 there separates into distinct pieces ; or is indehiscent, but 
 divided by internal spurious dissepiments, whence it ap- 
 pears at maturity to consist of many articulations and divis- 
 ions. It occurs in the genera Ornithopus, Hedysarum, &c. 
 
 LONG. A musical character of this form P, whose 
 length in common time is equal to four seinibreves, and 
 consequently eight minims. 
 
 LO'NGICORNS, Longicorncs. (Lat. longus, long ; cor- 
 nu, a horn.) The fourth tribe of Coleopterous insects in 
 the system of Latreille; so called on account of the length 
 of the antennae, which are rarely shorter than the body, 
 and commonly surpass it in length. But this conspicuous 
 character is not the only one which the Longicorn beetles 
 iiossess in common. In all of them the under part of the 
 686 
 
 LONGITUDE. 
 
 first three joints of the tarsi is furnished with a urusn ; 
 the second and third are cordiform ; the fourth is deeply 
 bilobate; and there is a little nodule, resembling a joint, at 
 the base of the last. The ligula, placed on a short and 
 transversal mcntum, is usually membranous, cordiform, 
 emarginate, or bifid ; but sometimes is corneous, and forms 
 the segment of a very short and transverse circle. The 
 antenna: are either filiform or setaceous : they are some- 
 times simple in both sexes, and sometimes serrate, pectin 
 ate, or flabelliform in the males. The eyes in some species 
 are rounded and entire, or but slightly emarginate, and ir 
 these species the thorax is trapezoidal or narrowed anteri 
 orly : but in most of the Longicoms the eyes are reniform 
 and surround the base of the antenna;. 
 
 As the larvae of a very great proportion of the Long! 
 corns live in the interior of trees, or under their bark, the} 
 are destitute of feet, or have but very small ones. Their 
 body is soft, whitish, thickest anteriorly ; and the head 
 squamous, and provided with stout mandibles. They do 
 much injury to trees, the large ones particularly, perforating 
 them very deeply, and sometimes drilling thein in every di- 
 rection. Some of them attack the roots of plants. 
 
 The abdomen of the female Longicoms is terminated by 
 a tubular and horny ovipositor. These insects produce a 
 small sharp sound, by rubbing the pedicle of the base of 
 their abdomen against the interior of the parietes of the 
 thorax. 
 
 LO'NGIPALPS, Longipalpi. (Lat. longus, long; pal- 
 pus, feeder.) The name of a family of Brachelytrous Cole- 
 opterans, or short-winged beetles, which have the maxil- 
 lary feelers almost as long as the head. 
 
 LO'NGIPE'NNATES, Longipcnncs. (Lat. longus, and 
 penna, a wing.) A family of swimming birds, compre- 
 hending those in which the wings reach as far as or be- 
 yond the tail ; as the tropic bird, albatross, &c. They are 
 all denizens of the high seas, and from their powers of 
 flight are to be met with in various latitudes. The hind 
 toe is free or wanting. The beak is hooked or pointed at 
 the tip. 
 
 LONGIRO'STERS, Longirostres. (Lat. longus, and 
 rostrum, a beak.) The name of a tribe of Gralla>, or wading 
 birds, including those in which the beak is remarkable for 
 its length and tenuity, and by the high sensibility of its tip 
 is well adapted for searching or probing in mud or sand for 
 worms or insects. The different gradations in the form of 
 the bill serve to divide the Longirosters into families and 
 genera. 
 
 LONGI'SSIMUS DORSI. A muscle of the back, which 
 assists others in keeping the spinal column erect. 
 
 LO'NGITUDE, in Astronomy, has two different significa- 
 tions, according as it is applied to a celestial or terrestrial 
 object. The longitude of a heavenly body is the arc of the 
 ecliptic intercepted between the vernal equinox and a great 
 circle perpendicular to the ecliptic passing through the body 
 It is reckoned eastward all round the sphere, from to 360°. 
 The longitude and latitude of a celestial object, having ref- 
 erence to the ecliptic, and not to the plane of the earth's di 
 urnal motion, cannot be directly observed. The elements 
 necessary for determining a star's place, which are given 
 directly by observation, are its right ascension and declina- 
 tion, from which the longitude and latitude must be calcu- 
 lated by the rules of spherical trigonometry. In the plane- 
 tary theory, however, it is convenient to refer the motion of 
 a planet to the plane of the earth's orbit, or to make the 
 longitude and latitude the co-ordinates of its motion. But 
 the places of the stars are always defined, by modern as- 
 tronomers, by means of their right ascensions and declina- 
 tions. 
 
 The longitude of a place on the earth is the arc of the 
 equator intercepted between the meridian of the place and 
 some conventional fixed meridian, which is regarded as the 
 origin from which the measures are reckoned. Terrestrial 
 longitudes and latitudes correspond to right ascensions and 
 declinations in the heavens: with this distinction, however, 
 that the right ascensions are always reckoned from the ver- 
 nal equinox, or point in which the equator intersects the 
 ecliptic ; whereas the longitudes are reckoned by different 
 geographers from different points, selected for some local 
 reason, there being nothing connected with the earth's di- 
 urnal rotation which can render one point of the cquatoi 
 more convenient than another. Right ascensions are also 
 reckoned in the same direction (eastward) round the com- 
 plete circumference; while geographical longitudes are 
 reckoned both eastward and westward, 180° each way. 
 
 The parallels of latitude on the earth are distinctly mark- 
 ed out by the diurnal circles described by the stars, and 
 consequently latitude can always oe determined by direct 
 observation of the heavens: but the case is entirely differ- 
 ent with respect to longitude ; for to observers situated un- 
 der the same parallel of latitude, but under different meridi- 
 ans, the heavens present exactly the same aspect, nnd there 
 is nothing whatever to indicate any difference of locality 
 
LONGITUDE. 
 
 Longitude, therefore, cannot be measured by direct observa- 
 tion ; it can only be interred from the measurement of inter- 
 vals of time to which it is proportional. In the course of a 
 sidereal day the rotation of the earth brings successively 
 every different meridian under the same star ; and, the ro- 
 tation of the earth being perfectly uniform, it follows that 
 the angular distance of any two meridians will be the same 
 part of 300° that tile interval of time which elapses between 
 their coming to the same star is of twenty-four hours. For 
 example, if a star pass the meridian of a place A at a cer- 
 tain moment, and that of B exactly one hour of sidereal 
 lime later ; then the difference of longitude between A and 
 B ii the twenty-fourth part of 360°, or 15°, and the longitude 
 of B is 15° west of A. The determination of longitudes 
 -ii tl y resolves itself into the measurement of time ; 
 Had aa the time, or the instant of mean noon, at any place 
 can always be found without difficulty, if an observer at one 
 place ran by any means determine the precise hour it is at 
 Miy other place at the same instant, he has then determined 
 the difference of longitude between the two places. 
 
 1 >i the various methods by which differences of longitude 
 in ly be determined, the simplest and most obvious is that 
 >■' ii. 'inferring chronometers from one place to another. 
 Suppose two observers, at the distant stations A and B, 
 each to regulate his clock according to the true sidereal 
 time of his station ; and suppose a chronometer, also regu- 
 lated to true sidereal time, to be compared with the clock at 
 A, and then transported, without suffering any change of 
 rate to B — the difference of the two clocks would thus be 
 exhibited ; mid this difference is exactly the time occupied 
 by the equinoctial point, or by any star in passing from the 
 meridian of A to that of B ; or it is the difference of longi- 
 tude of the two places expressed in sidereal hours, minutes, 
 and seconds. Were chronometers perfect, nothing more 
 complete and convenient could be desired ; but this, unfor- 
 is even now very far from being the case^and un- 
 til within a comparatively very recent time the practical de- 
 termination of the longitude by means of chronometers 
 could not Ik' attempted. 
 
 Another method of determining the difference of longi- 
 tude lictween two places, independently of astronomical ob- 
 servations, is that by telegraphic signals. This method, 
 though, from its nature, of limited application, is susceptible 
 of great accuracy. The BXptaaton Of a rocket, the flash of 
 gunpowder in an open dish, the extinction of a bright light, 
 tec, are instantaneous phenomena which can i> 
 great distances and noted with the utmost precision. A sig- 
 nal of this kind, made at a station visible from two observa- 
 tories, must be seen at the same absolute instant of time 
 from both ; and the time marked by the clock of each ob- 
 servatory at this instant being noted, the difference of their 
 local times, and consequently the diflerence of their longi- 
 tudes, becomes known. This method is chiefly practised in 
 connexion with geodetical operations for measuring degrees 
 eff longitude on the earth's surface, and is, perhaps, the lie.-t 
 that can be adopted for determining the difference of longi- 
 tude between two observatories situated at no very great 
 distance from each other. By means of intermediate sig- 
 nals, and observers suitably disposed between each, it may 
 also be applied to transfer the time from one place to 
 another, when flic distance is too great to allow an artificial 
 signal of any kind to be seen from both. (See Phil. Trans., 
 1826.) 
 
 When the distance between two places is very considera- 
 ble, artificial signals cannot be employed, and it becomes 
 necessary to have recourse to the methods furnished by as- 
 tronomy. These are principally the following : 
 
 1. Eclipses of the Moon. — The instant of time at which 
 the moon's disk enters or quits the earth's shadow is inde- 
 pendent of the position of the observer ; and therefore, if the 
 phenomenon could be accurately observed, would give the 
 longitudes of all places from which the eclipse is visible. 
 But the penumbra of the earth renders it impossible to de- 
 termine the precise instant at which the disk enters into the 
 true shadow : the observation, in fact, is uncertain to the 
 amount of a minute of time, which corresponds to a quarter 
 of a degree of longitude ; and therefore this method, which 
 a -is proposed and employed by Ptolemy, is now altogether 
 nbandoned. 
 
 2. Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites. — These phenomena 
 also occur at the same instant of absolute time to all places 
 on the earth ; but they are not susceptible of being observed 
 with much exactness, for the same reason which renders 
 the lunar eclipses uncertain, namely, the penumbra of the 
 planet. The uncertainty is least in the case of the first sat- 
 ellite, on account of its quick motion ; and as the eclipses 
 of this satellite occur much more frequently than those of 
 the others, the observations are chiefly confined to it. The 
 limes of the eclipses of the first three satellites are given in 
 the Nautical Jllmanac ; so that an observer at any part of 
 the world, who observes one of these ecli|ises, has only to 
 compare his local time with that assigned to the phenome- 
 
 non in the almanac in urdei t»> 
 
 meridian from that of (iivenwich. lint, on account ol the 
 uncertainty of the observation, the longitude obtained by 
 this method may be considerably in error. 
 
 3. Occultations of Fixed Stars by the Moon. — This meth- 
 od, which is one of the readiest and most useful on land, 
 though it con seldom be practised at sea, consists in observ- 
 ing accurately the lime at which a certain fixed star disap- 
 pears behind the disk of the moon, or reappears after hav- 
 ing been occulted. The first of these phenomena is called 
 the immersion of the star, the second the emersion. But, 
 on account of the moon's parallax, the immersion or emer- 
 sion of a star behind her disk does not take place at the 
 same absolute instant to observers on different parts of the 
 earth ; a calculation is therefore necessary to clear the ob- 
 servation of parallax, or to determine the time at which the 
 phenomenon would have occurred if it had been seen from 
 the centre of the earth. This reduction being made, the 
 moon's apparent semidiameter at that instant must be cal- 
 culated ; by means of which, after applying the proper cor 
 rections for parallax, refraction, Sic., the exact distance of 
 the star from the moon's centre at the moment of the im- 
 mersion becomes known. Now, suppose the same occulta 
 tion to have been observed at another place, and the true 
 distance of the star from the centre of the moon computed 
 in the same manner; or, without a corresponding 
 
 tion, suppose the time at the second place (Greenwich, for 
 example) to be computed, for which the star's distance from 
 the moon was the same as observed at the fust place, the 
 comparison of those limes will show the difference of the 
 longitudes of the places. The length of the calculation* by 
 which the longitude is deduced is a disadvantage which 
 attaches to this method. See Occvltation. 
 
 4. Eclipses of the Sun. — The longitude ll flodnood from 
 the observation of solar eclipses, In the same maimer, anil by 
 precisely the same sort of calculations, as from the oculta- 
 lion of fixed stars. An eclipse of ihe sun is, in fact, an 0C 
 
 collation; but meaa phenomena occur so seldom at an; 
 
 particular place that they afldrd little assistance in ; 
 
 m'malion or longitudes. It may be remarked that thi 
 
 larities of the border of the moon's tli.sk render thi 
 
 Of the commencement or end of a solar eclip 
 
 the immersion or ementon 0l~a fixed Mar, somewhat una r- 
 
 tiiin. But this uncertainty is corrected, or rather avoided. 
 
 by measuring with a micrometer the distance between the 
 two cusps, which, shortly alter the commencement of the 
 eclipse, appear as brilliant potato, sharp and well deiiM .1 
 Knowing the distance of the cusps, or length of the chord 
 Bod BOM the semidiniuelers of the two bodies, the true iKl 
 tance of their centres at the instant the measure ■■■- 
 can be calculated without much difficulty. As this rue* 
 surement can be executed with much precision, and can also 
 be repeated frequently during the progress of the eclipse, the 
 phenomenoc of a solar eclipse affords one of the moat at . 
 tain methods of determining a longitude which can be prac- 
 tice I. .See Eclipse. 
 
 5. Transits of the Moon. — This method is founded on the 
 moon's rapid change of place among the stars, which be- 
 comes very sensible even in short intervals of time. Hup 
 pose an observer at the station A to determine the sidereal 
 time of the transit of the moon's centre over his meridian ; 
 and suppose another observer at B, to the west of A 
 
 note the sidereal time of the same transit: if the moon's 
 riuht ascension had in the interval undergone no change, the 
 sidereal times marked by the two observers would have 
 been the same; but as the right ascension has increased, 
 while the moon was passing from the meridinn of A to tint 
 of B, the sidereal time of the transit at the latter place will 
 be increased ; and, supposing the change of right ascension 
 to be uniform, the diflerence of the times of the transit w iil 
 be proportional to the difference of meridians. The chief 
 objection to this method is, that any minute error in the ad- 
 jusunent of the transit instrument or rate of the clock is 
 thrown upon the longitude, on which it produces a very 
 sensible effect. The method can, therefore, only be safely 
 practised at fixed observatories with the best instruments. 
 
 6. Moon culminating Stars. — This method has been pro 
 posed for the sake of eluding the effect of minute instru 
 mental errors, which render the method last described so 
 difficult. A star is chosen which culminates (that is, comes 
 to the meridian) at nearly the same time with the moon, 
 and which has very nearly the same declination ; so that it 
 may be seen in the field of view without altering the posi- 
 tion of the transit instrument. The transit of the star, as 
 well as the transit of the moon's limb, is observed at both 
 stations (or at least observed at the one station, and calcu- 
 lated for the other whose meridian is known), and the dif 
 ference of sidereal time between the two transits noted r.l 
 each. This difference, in consequence of the moon's motion 
 in right ascension, is not the same at both stations; and its 
 variation gives the difference of the longitude. By this 
 means any error of the position of the transit instrument af 
 
 6tT> 
 
LONGUS COLLI. 
 
 fects the star and the moon both alike: but it is erroneous 
 to suppose that the method is independent of accuracy in 
 the adjustment of the transit instrument ; for if the instru- 
 ment is out of the meridian, the resulting longitude will be 
 in error by the amount of the moon's variation in right as- 
 cension during the corresponding interval. This method is 
 now much practised. 
 
 7. Lunar Distances. — None of the methods which have 
 pot boon described (excepting that by chronometers) can be 
 applied to the very important problem of determining the 
 longitude of a ship at sea. In this case, no fixed or meridian 
 instrument can be employed ; and the observer can only 
 measure the apparent distance of the moon's limb from a 
 iixed star or planet with a sextant, or some reflecting instru- 
 ment which can be held in the hand. For the purpose of 
 rendering this method available to seamen, the distance of 
 the moon from certain fixed stars is computed (several years 
 previously) for every three hours of Greenwich time, and 
 published in the Nautical Almanac. The moon's distance 
 from one of these stars being observed on board a ship, and 
 corrected for refraction and parallax, and the apparent time 
 at the place and moment of observation being determined 
 in the usual manner by the altitude of the sun or a known 
 star, the difference between the apparent time of the obser- 
 vation and the apparent time at Greenwich corresponding 
 to the same distance, interpolated from the Nautical Almanac, 
 gives the longitude of the ship. See Lunar Method. 
 
 In the projection of maps and charts it is necessary to as- 
 sume a point of the equator as the origin of the longitudes. 
 The meridian passing through this point is called the first 
 meridian; and as its selection is perfectly arbitrary, it has 
 been placed by different geographers at various parts of the 
 earth : a circumstance which occasions some inconvenience 
 in consulting works of geography. Modern geographers 
 usually assume the meridian of the capital of their own 
 country as the first meridian. English writers generaly 
 adopt the meridian of the Greenwich Observatory, for which 
 the Nautical Almanac is computed ; the French that of the 
 Observatory of Paris. (See Meridian.) Ptolemy, and the 
 most celebrated of the ancient geographers, placed the first 
 meridian at the Fortunate Islands (now the Canaries), which 
 they conceived to be the utmost boundary of the habitable 
 earth. The Arabian astronomers also counted the longitude 
 from the Fortunate Islands; and many of the modern geo- 
 graphers have counted from the island of Ferro, one of the 
 most westerly of the Canaries. The reason for fixing on this 
 point was probably that as there was no land known to the 
 west of the first meridian, the longitudes of. all places would 
 he reckoned in the same direction, or there would be no west 
 longitude. The discovery of America destroyed the force 
 of this reason. The inconvenience of counting in two di- 
 rections is not very great; but it might be avoided by reck- 
 oning the longitude all round the circle to 360°, which would 
 undoubtedly be an improvement on the present method. 
 
 Degrees of Longitude. — The figure of the earth being 
 spherodial, the degrees of longitude diminish as we proceed 
 from the equalor towards either pole. For the law of their 
 variation, and their lengths on the different parallel circles, 
 see Degree. 
 
 Gcoizntric Longitude is the longitude of a planet as seen 
 from the earth ; that is, the point of the ecliptic to which it 
 perpendicularly corresponds as seen from the centre of the 
 earth. 
 
 Heliocentric Longitude is the longitude of a planet as 
 seen from the sun. See the terms Geocentric and Helio- 
 centric. 
 
 LO'NGUS CO'LLI. The name of a pair of muscles of 
 the neck : when one contracts, it moves the neck to one side ; 
 when they both act, the neck is bent forwards. 
 
 LOOM. The well-known machine for producing cloth 
 by the interweaving a series of parallel threads which run 
 lengthwise, called the warp or chain, with other threads 
 thrown transversely with the shuttle, called the woof or 
 weft. Under the head Weaving will be found a notice of 
 the history of the loom, and the numerous improvements 
 that have taken place in its construction, from the earliest 
 'imes down to the invention of Jacquard. 
 
 LOO'MING. The indistinct and magnified appearance 
 if objects seen in particular states of the atmosphere. See 
 Mirage. 
 
 LOO'PIIOLES. In Fortification, apertures formerly made 
 fn the battlements, or in the walls of fortified places, for dis- 
 c.h anting arrows and javelins against the assailants. Since 
 ihe invention of gunpowder, and the substitution of cannon 
 for such missiles, loopholes have necessarily been discon- 
 tinued in the construction of fortresses, the assailants of 
 which are now sought to be driven back by guns fired 
 through apertures of a different character, designated em- 
 brasures, which see. 
 
 LO PHOBRA'NCHIATES, Lophobranchii. (Gr. \o<p g, 
 a tuft ; (Spayx" 1 - gills.) An order of Osseous fishes, com- 
 prehending those in which the gills are in the form of small 
 
 LORE. 
 
 tufts, and disposed in pairs along the branchial arches; asiD 
 the pipe-fish and hippocamp. 
 
 LOTHOTES. (Gr. Aui/wj.) A genus of Trenioid fishes, 
 characterized by a short head, surmounted by a high osseous 
 crest, to the summit of which a long and stout spine is at- 
 tached, bordered behind with a membrane and a low fin, of 
 which the rays are nearly all simple, and which extend? 
 from the occipital spine to the point of the tail ; this is teinii 
 nated by a distinct but very small caudal fin. 
 
 LOPHY'ROPODS. Lophyropoda. (Gr. \o<pvpos, crested ; 
 itovs, a foot.) The name of a section of Entomostracou> 
 Crustaceans, comprehending those species with cylindrical 
 or conical ciliated or tufted feet. 
 
 LO'PPING. Cutting off all the branches of a tree for the 
 sake of the profit to be derived from them ; as contrasted 
 with pruning, by which some of the branches are cut off' for 
 the sake of the tree. The lopping of a tree, however, does 
 not include the cutting off' of the crop or leading shoot ; and 
 hence, when timber trees are sold, the purchaser bargains to 
 take them either with or without the lop and crop, as the 
 case may be. 
 
 LORANTHA'CEyE. (Loranthus, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of parasitical Exogens, principally inhabiting 
 the equinoctial regions of Asia and America. They are dis 
 tinguished from Caprifoliacece and all other orders by their 
 parasitical habit, and by the stamens being opposite to the 
 petals. Brown suggests their relation to Protcacca ; and, 
 upon the whole, the structure of this order appears to be 
 rather that of a polypetalous or apetalous than of a mnuo- 
 petnlous order. Schleiden has lately made the startling as- 
 sertion that they are gymnospermous. The bark is usually 
 astringent. Their chief peculiarity is their power of rooting 
 in the wood of other plants. They effect this when ihuy 
 first germinate, by fixing their root upon the bark, and thou 
 by slow degrees introducing it into the tissue till they rouch 
 the wood, between the wedges of which they slightly in- 
 sinuate themselves, thus placing their abortive roots in ton 
 line of the current of ascending sap. They are generally 
 beautiful plants, but are scarcely capable of cultivation. 
 Misletoe is the most northern species of the order. 
 
 LORD. A title of honour; said to be derived from two 
 Saxon words signifying a giver or distributor of bread. It 
 maybe said to be either a title of hereditary dignity (as lord 
 of parliament) ; or a title expressing certain powers, as lord 
 of a manor, lord chancellor, lord of the treasury, &c. The 
 eldest sons of earls, and all the sons of dukes and marquises, 
 are stvled lords bv courtesy. 
 
 LORD-ADVOCATE OF SCOTLAND. SeeADVocAiE 
 
 LORD-KEEPER. See Keeper, Chancellor. 
 
 LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND. The chief exe- 
 cutive officer of the Irish government, representing in some 
 respects the person of the king. The first viceroy or lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland appears to have been appointed in the 
 reign of Henry II. ; and by acts of parliament passed in the 
 reigns of Richard III. and Henry VIII. provision was made 
 for the election of a governor by the chancellor, treasurer, 
 and other high officers of the government, on the death or 
 resignation of a lieutenant, until the king's pleasure were 
 known. The chief officer in Ireland has been variously 
 styled at different times ; as custos or keeper, justiciary, 
 warden, procurator, seneschal, constable, deputy, and lieu- 
 tenant. He is appointed by letters patent, durante bene 
 placito. He has a council, composed of the great officers of 
 the crown in Ireland, and others appointed by the crown. 
 He corresponds with the secretary for the home department ; 
 but the management of the affairs of the Irish government 
 in London is chiefly entrusted to the secretary for Ireland, 
 who is also chief secretary of the lord-lieutenant. He has 
 also a household, consisting of a private secretary, steward, 
 comptroller, chamberlain, gentleman usher, master of the 
 horse, and subordinate officers. Hissalary has been usually 
 £20,000 per annum. 
 
 LORD-LIEUTENANTS OF COUNTIES. In England 
 and Wales, officers appointed by the king, and entrusted by 
 parliament with full power and authority to call together, 
 arm, and array the militia, and cause them to be trained aird 
 exercised once every year. Each may appoint twenty or 
 more deputy lieutenants, who must have £200 a year free 
 hold estate; except in the Welch and some small Englisii 
 counties, where the qualification is only £150. The lord- 
 lieutenant also nominates officers in the militia and yeo- 
 manry: but the names both of deputy-lieutenants and offi- 
 cers must be laid before the king ; and if he, within fourteen 
 days, expresses disapprobation, the commissions do m t issufv 
 
 LORD PRIVY SEAL. See Seal 
 
 LORDSHIP. Sec Leet. 
 
 LORE (Lat. lomm, a strap), in Ornithology, signifies tl>e 
 space between the bill and the eye, which is bare in soma 
 birds, as the great crested grebe ; but is generally covered 
 with feathers. In Entomology the term is applied to a 
 corneous angular machine observable in the mouth of sodm 
 insects, upon the intermediate angle of which the mental* 
 
LORICA. 
 
 ilte, and on the 1 itcral ones the cardines of the maxillare, 
 and by means of which the trophi are pushed forth or re- 
 tracted, as in the Hymenopterous insects. 
 
 LOKl'CA. (Lai. lorum, a thong.) A cuirass or crest of 
 mail, made of leather and sot with plates of metal in various 
 forms, chiefly in rings like a chain, used by the Roman sol- 
 diers. 
 
 LO'RIC.ATES, Loricata. (Lat. lorica, a coat of mail.) 
 Tlic name given by Merrem to an order of reptiles dismem- 
 bered from the Sauria of Cuvier, and including those species, 
 as the crocodile, which are protected by an armour of bony 
 plates. 
 
 LORICATION. (Lat. loricare, to crust over.) A term 
 of old chemistry, signifying the application of a lute or coot- 
 ie? tn gloss and other vessels. 
 ,()11IS. s,e Stekops. 
 
 Li iSS. In Geology. See Loess. 
 
 LOTE TREE (of the Ancients). Of this there were two 
 kinds: Die one a small plant, from which tlie Lotophagi de- 
 rived their name; the other a tree with cut leaves and very 
 hard wood. The former was the Zizuphus lotus, the latter 
 the .litis australis. In the Hindoo mythology, the lote tree 
 is regarded as the symbol of creation. Am Lotophagi. 
 
 ]/ rTHIAN. A name common to that part of Scotland 
 which stretches along a considerable part of the southern 
 shores of the Frith of Forth, and comprehends the three 
 counties, Haddingtonshire, Edinburghshire, and Liulirhgow- 
 shire ; otherwise called Fast. Mid, and Weal Lothian. The 
 etymology of the name Is doubtful. Lothian was taken pos- 
 session of by the Saxon invaders A.I). 450, and became the 
 scene of contest between the Saxon-Gaels and Scoto-Irish, 
 and was at length ceded to MalcomH. in 1020. Lothian was 
 considered :l~ a country wholly distinct from Scotland in the 
 1 David I., and the period of its incorporation with the 
 rest of the country is assigned to the 11th or 12th century. 
 
 LOTION. (Fat. lotum, supine of lavare, to wash.) A 
 mixture of ditferent ingredients, or a solution id' various medi- 
 cinal substances, in water or other menstrua, designed for 
 external application. Indolent ulcers and tumours require 
 stimulating lotions; whereas sedative and narcotic mixtures 
 are used 10 alleviate pain. 
 
 LOTO'PHAGL <ilr. Awroc, nndQayctv.tecat.) A name 
 given to a people of ancient Africa who inhabited the Kegio 
 1 {Jbcr. iv., 177) ; so called from the lotus berry form- 
 tag their principal I'ood. They were represented as a mild, 
 hospitable race of men. The food with which they were 
 nourished, among other peculiar qualities, is said to have 
 had the power of obliterating all remembrance of one's 
 native coon try. 
 
 LOTTERY 'Cerm loos, lot), is denned as a game of 
 hazard, iti which nisU sums are ventured for the chance 
 of obtaining a larger value, either in money or other articles. 
 Lotteries are ion ied on various plans; but in general they 
 : of a certain number of tickets drawn nt the same 
 tini» \i •.. a corresponding number of blanks and prizes, by 
 »hi;h the fate of the tickets is determined. The invention 
 of lotteries has been ascribed to the Romans: by whom, 
 however, they seem to have been resorted to as a means 
 chiefly of amusing and gratifying the people. In modem 
 times ibis s|>cries of gaming has been sanctioned at ditferent 
 periods by most of the European governments, as a means 
 of raising money for public purposes. It would be difficult 
 to give a complete account of the various changes which 
 have taken place in the regulation of lotteries in different 
 countries; but the subjoined summary of their history, from 
 their oiigin down to their suppression in England, may not 
 be uninteresting. The earliest English lottery of which there 
 is an authentic record was drawn in 1569, when 400,000 
 tickets were sold at 10 shillings each. The prizes consisted 
 chiefly of plate, and the net profits were intended to be ap- 
 propriated to repairing the harbours of the kingdom and 
 other public works. In the year 1612 a lottery was drawn 
 for the benefit of the English colonies ; and, in the course of 
 the same century, the desire for embarking in speculations 
 of this kind increased to such a degree, and gave rise to such 
 an infinity of private undertakings, many of which were 
 formed on the most delusive and fraudulent principles, that, 
 in the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, parliament found it 
 -an- to suppress private lotteries " as public nuisances." 
 Tho year 1709 saw the birth of the first state or parliament- 
 ary lottery ; and from that time down to 1823 they were 
 annually licensed by act of parliament, under a variety of 
 regulations and modifications. In the very early part of last 
 century the prizes were paid in the form of terminable an- 
 nuities. Thus, in 1746, a loan of £3,000,000 was raised on 
 4 per cent, annuities, and a lottery of 50,000 tickets, at £10 
 each ; and in the following year £1,000,000 was raised by 
 the sale of 100,000 tickets, the prizes in which were founded 
 in perpetual annuities at the rate of 4 per cent, per annum. 
 During the same century government constantly availed 
 Itself of this means to raise money for various public works, 
 of which the British Museum and Westminster Bridge are 
 2 X 
 
 LOUVRE, 
 
 well-known examples. But, at the commencement of th« 
 present century, a great repugnance began to be manifested 
 in parliament to this method of raising any part of the public 
 revenue, in consequence of the spirit of gambling which it 
 tended to foster in the great body of the people ; and not- 
 withstanding the influence of the acts of 1778 and 1793. 
 which were confessedly attended with much good, the evils 
 to which it gave birth at lust became so palpable that, in the 
 year tSS.i, the legislature at last consented to the entire abo 
 lition both of state and private lotteries. It would be super 
 fluous to enter into any argument to point out how preju 
 dicial all such establishments must be to public morals, b\ 
 giving the countenance of government to systematic gam 
 bling, no less than by diffusing a spirit of speculation In 
 which the mind is misled from habits of continued indnstn 
 to delusive dreams of sudden nnd enormous wealth, which, 
 in the great majority of instances, must end in poverty an, I 
 ruin. Those who wish to see the melancholy results of this 
 system of finance exhibited in its true colours, "will find ample 
 information in the two parliamentary reports presented to 
 the House of Commons on the subject of lotteries in 1808; 
 but we cannot refrain from inserting a paragraph from the 
 Health of Nations, which illustrates their principle and 
 operation with great brevity and effect : 
 
 "The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a |ht 
 fectly fair lottery, or one In which the whole gain compen- 
 sated the whole loss; because the undertaker could make 
 nothing by it. In the state lotteries, the tickets are roallj 
 not worth the price which is paid by the original subscribers, 
 and yet commonly sell in the market for twenty, thirty, and 
 sometimes forty per cent, advance. The vain hope of gain 
 ing some of the great prizes is the sole cause of this demand. 
 The soberest people scarce look upon it as a folly to pav 
 a small sum for the chance of gaining 10 or 20,000 pounds"; 
 though they know that even that ■mall sum is perhaps '-'0 
 or 30 per cent, more than the chance is worth. In n letter] 
 in which no prize exceeded £20, though in other respect! 
 it approached much nearer to a perfectly fair one than un- 
 common state lotteries, there would not be the same demand 
 for tickets. In order to have a better chance for some of 
 the great prizes, some people purchase several tickets, and 
 others small shares in n still greater number. There is not, 
 however, a more certain proposition in mathematics, than 
 that the more tickets you adventure upon, the more like!] 
 you are to be a loser. Adventure upon all the tickets iii 
 the lottery, ond you lose for certain ; and the greater the 
 number of your tickets, the nearer you a pp roa c h, to Un- 
 certainty ." (See also Degerando's Uicnfaisancc Publir.u,. 
 1. ii., ch. 6.) 
 
 State lotteries were abolished in France in 1836, along 
 with the gambling houses, from which a great revenue had 
 been derived. They still ettM in several of the German 
 states. That of Hamburg is established on a compara- 
 tively fairer principle than was adopted either in France or 
 England; the whole money for which tho tickets are sold 
 being distributed among the buyers, excepting a deduction 
 of 10 per cent, made from the amount of the prizes at the 
 time of their payment. See Penny Cyclo. 
 
 LOUGH. An Irish term, synonymous with the Scotch 
 loch, but not with the English lake ; for loch and lough are 
 applied to designate arms of the sea, as well as collections 
 of fresh water, which lake is not. 
 
 LOUIS D'OR. A gold coin under the old system of 
 France, first struck under Louis XIII., in 1641, from whom 
 they derived their name. The louis d'or, says Kelly, coined 
 before 1726, which passed then for 20 livres, were coined at 
 the rate of 36J per French mark of gold 22 carats fine. From 
 the year 1726 to 1785 louis d'ors were coined nt the rate of 
 30 to the mark of gold; and about this period all the gold 
 coins in France were ordered to be brought to the mint to be 
 melted down ; and a new coinage then took place, at the 
 rate of 32 louis d'ors to the mark of the same degree of 
 
 fineness, with a remedy of 15 grains in the weight, and J£ 
 
 of a carat in the alloy. The intrinsic value of this new 
 coin was 18s. 9$d. sterling. Louis d'ors were formerly re 
 garded as a current coin in all parts of the Continent ; bin 
 in England they are sold merely as merchandise, and their 
 volue has fluctuated from 18«. 6d. to 21*. sterling. Th« 
 term louis d'or is still given to the gold coinage of the pres 
 ent dynasty of France, though they arc also often caller 
 20-franc pieces. 
 
 LOUIS, SAINT, OF FRANCE. A royal military order 
 founded by Louis XIV. in 1693. The badge is a cross ol 
 eight points, with fleur-de-lis, and bearing a circular shie' 
 containing the effigy of Saint Louis. 
 
 LOU'VRE. One of the most ancient palaces of Francv 
 It existed in the time of Dagobert as a hunting seat, the 
 woods then extending all over the actual site of the northern 
 portion of Paris down to the banks of the Seine. The origir 
 of its name has not been satisfactorily ascertained. It wa» 
 formed into a stronghold by Philip Augustus, who surrounded 
 
LOVE, FAMILY OF 
 
 it wilh towers and fosses, and converted it into a state prison 
 for confining the refractory vassals of the crown. It was 
 then without the walls of Paris; but, on their extension in 
 the latter part of the 14th century, it was included within 
 their circuit. Charles V. made additions to it. That part 
 of the palace now called the Vieux Louvre was commenced 
 under the reign of Francis I., after the designs of Pierre 
 L'Escot, abbot of Clugny. When Charles IX. resided in 
 the Louvre, he began the long gallery which connects it 
 with the Tuilleries, and in which is now deposited the cele- 
 brated collection of pictures. It was finished under Henry 
 IV. Lous XIV., from the designs of Lemercier, erected the 
 peristyle which forms the entrance to the Vieux Louvre 
 from the side of the Tuilleries. That monarch also gave a 
 beginning to the remainder of the present modern edifice, 
 from the designs of Claude Perrault. The edifice has never 
 been finished ; though, under the reigns of succeeding rann- 
 archs, and especially during that of Napoleon, it has slowly 
 advanced towards completion. The eastern front, though 
 not finished even now, exhibits a facade of surpassing 
 beauty — perhaps, in its kind, never equalled. The quad- 
 rangle of the Louvre is a perfect square on the plan. Three 
 of its sides were from the designs of Perrault, above men- 
 tioned. An immense expenditure will be necessary to con- 
 nect the Louvre with the Tuilleries, to which it is joined at 
 present only on the river side by the great gallery above 
 mentioned ; but preparations are in progress to effect this 
 object, and on the side next the Rue St. Honore about 1400 
 feet have been executed. Besides the gallery above ad- 
 verted to, which contains some of 'the finest pictures in the 
 world, the Louvre contains a museum of sculpture, antiqui- 
 ties, and other specimens of art, equally valuable. 
 
 LOVE, FAMILY OF. A sect of fanatics in the 16th 
 century, holding tenets resembling those of the early Ana- 
 baptists. There is a proclamation against them by Oueen 
 Elizabeth, dated from her manor of Richmond, 1580. 
 
 LOVE FEASTS. A species of religious ordinance held 
 quarterly by the Methodists, to which members of their 
 church alone are admitted, and that only on presenting a 
 ticket or a note from the superintendent. They are a relic 
 of the Agapce (which see) held by the early Christians. 
 
 LOWER CHALK AND GREENSAND. See Geology. 
 
 LOWER EMPIRE. The, Roman empire, from the re- 
 moval of the imperial seat to Constantinople, and its suc- 
 cessor, the Byzantine empire, down to the capture of the 
 city by the Turks, are frequently joined together under this 
 name by modern historians. 
 
 LOW SUNDAY. In Ecclesiastical Antiquities, the 
 Sunday next after Easter has been popularly so called in 
 England; perhaps by corruption for close (Pascha clausum, 
 close of Easter, one of the many names by which it was 
 known in the Christian church). (Riddle's Christ. Ant., 640.) 
 
 LO'XIA. (Gr. Xoi-o?, crooked.) A genus of Conirostral 
 Piisserine birds, characterized by having a compressed beak, 
 and the two mandibles so strongly curved that their points 
 cross each other, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the 
 other. The crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is the type of this 
 genus. 
 
 LOXODRO'MIC CURVE or SPIRAL (Gr. \o\os, oblique, 
 and ipmoi, course), is a kind of logarithmic spiral traced on 
 the surface of a sphere : the meridians which it intersects all 
 under the same angle being regarded as the radii of the 
 spiral. It is the path which a ship sailing always on the 
 same rhumb, or making the same angle with the meridians, 
 describes on the surface of the terrestrial sphere. The 
 properties of the curve are analagous to those of the com- 
 mon logarithmic spiral. It always approaches the pole, but 
 never reaches it; so that a ship, by following always the 
 same oblique course, would continually approach the pole 
 of the earth without arriving at it. To find the equation of 
 the loxodromic, let (k be the arc of the meridian intercepted 
 between any point of the curve and the pole, and X the lon- 
 gitude of that point; then the infinitely small arc of the 
 parallel of latitude corresponding to an increment of the 
 curve is d X sin. <p, and the differential of the co-latitude is 
 d <f> ; but, because the curve cuts all the meridians under 
 the same angles, the variation of the parallel of latitude cor- 
 res[K>nding to an increment of the curve is proportional to 
 the variation of the co-latitude ; consequently a d X sin. d> = 
 
 d d> 
 d ib, or a d X = , . which is the differential equation of 
 
 r sin. <j> 
 
 the loxodromic, a being a constant quantity. 
 
 LO'ZENGE. An oblique-angled parallelogram, or rlfom- 
 bus, formed by constructing two equal isosceles triangles 
 upon opposite sides of the same straight line. 
 
 Lozenge. In Heraldry, a bearing in the shape of a par- 
 allelogram, with two obtuse and two acute angles. The 
 arms of iLaidens and widows are borne on shields of this 
 shape. 
 
 Lozenge. In Pharmacy, a medicinal substance made 
 up into a small rake gradually to be dissolved in the mouth. 
 690 
 
 LUCERNAR1A. 
 
 Sugar, gum, and starch are the usual inert parts of lozenges 
 and minute quantities of active substances are added, ac 
 cording to the purposes for which they are intended: such 
 as i|>ecacuanha or squills, for pectoral lozenges ; extract of 
 poppies or opium, for sedative lozenges ; kyan pepper as a 
 stimulant; oil of peppermint as an antispasmodic, &.c. 
 
 LUCA'NID^E. (Gr. \vko$, a wolf; also the name of an 
 insect.) A family dismembered from the Linnsan genus 
 Lucanus, and including those insects which, in addition to 
 the comprehensive characters of the original genus, present 
 antenna; strongly geniculate, glabrous, or but slightly pilose 
 the labrum very small, or confounded with the epistoine ; 
 maxilla: terminated by a membranous or coriaceous, silky, 
 pencilliform lobe ; edentate, or with one tooth ; and a ligula 
 either entirely concealed or incorporated wilh the mentum, 
 or divided into two narrow, elongated, silky lobes, extending 
 more or less beyond the mentum. The scutelluin is .situ 
 ated between the elytra. The stag-beetie, Lucanus tennis, 
 &c., is the type of this family. The sub-genera are (Esalus, 
 Lamprina, Sinodendrum, &c. 
 
 LUCA'NUS. (Gr. Xvkoc.) A Linnaean genus of Coleop 
 tera, forming the type of a tribe of Lamellicorn beetles 
 (Lucanina), in the system of Latreille, by whom it is thu« 
 characterized: Antennae composed of ten joints, the first of 
 which is usually much the longest; the attennal club has 
 its leaflets or teeth arranged perpendicularly to its axis, in 
 the manner of a comb. The mandibles are always corne- 
 ous, and most commonly exhibit a sexual superiority of 
 developement and peculiarity of form in the males. The 
 maxilla; are generally terminated by a narrow, elongated, 
 and silky lobe; but sometimes are entirely corneous and 
 dentated. The ligula in most of the Lucanincs is formed 
 of two small silky pencils, projecting more or less beyond 
 an almost semicircular or square mentum. The anterior 
 legs in the greater number are elongated, and their tibia; 
 dentated along the whole of their outer side. The tarsi 
 terminate in two equal and simple hooks, with a little ap- 
 pendage with two seta; between them. The elytra covei 
 the whole of the upper part of the abdomen. The insects 
 thus characterized were first divided by the immediate suc- 
 cessors of Linmeus into two genera, Lucanus proper and 
 Passalus, both of which are now elevated to the rank of 
 families, and subdivided into numerous subgenera. See 
 Lucanid* and Passalidje. 
 
 LU'CERES. (Lat.) In Roman antiquities, a body of 
 horse composed of Roman knights, first established by Rom- 
 ulus and Tatius. It is said to have received its name either 
 from an Etrurian, who aided the Romans against the Sa- 
 bines; or from the Lat. lucus, a grove, where Romulus had 
 instituted an asylum for all fugitives, slaves, and homi- 
 cides, in order that he might people his infant city : but it is 
 difficult to account for the real origin of the word. 
 
 LUCE'RN. (Medicago sativa.) A well-known plant of 
 the Linnaean class Diadelphia, and order Decandria, and of 
 the natural family of the Leguminosa. There are many 
 species of the Medicago, but of these the artificial grass, 
 called Lucern, is most deserving of notice. This plant was 
 in high estimation among the ancients ; and its nutritious 
 qualities, easy cultivation, rapid growth, and luxuriant prop- 
 erties, have placed it in the first rank of vegetable food for 
 cattle, even in the present times. Lucern, says an old 
 
 writer, is commended for an excellent fodder There 
 
 is not any pulse or other feeding which is more agreeable 
 or more precious for feeding beasts than lucerne : so that it 
 may seem to spring out of the earth ... as a more especial 
 favour from God, not only for nourishing and fattening 
 herds of cattle, but also to serve as a physic for beasts that 
 are sick. {Country Farm, 3d edit., fol. 1616, p. 364.) Those 
 who wish to see the properties of this plant fully developed 
 at once from the author's personal experience, and the con- 
 current testimony of the best agricultural writers both an- 
 cient and modern, and its history traced from its discovery 
 during the Persian expedition under Darius to its subsequent 
 introduction successively into Greece, Italy, Spain, France, 
 Germany, and, in fact, wherever the art of husbandry has 
 made any progress, down to its arrival in England, will find 
 ample details in the learned Essays on Husbundry by the 
 Rev. Walter Harte (London, 1770) to which we beg to refer. 
 The origin of the term lucern is involved in obscurity. Some 
 authors have derived it, naturally enough, from the canton 
 in Switzerland of that name; but from the account given 
 by Mr. Harte of the history of this plant, it does not appear 
 either that Switzerland was particularly famous for pro- 
 ducing it, or that the northern and western nations of Eu- 
 rope received it thence. 
 
 LUCERNA'RIA. (Lat. lucerna, a lamp.) A genus of 
 fleshy polypi (Polypi carnosi) in the system of Cuvier, char- 
 acterized by a long and slender pedicle supporting a radiated 
 disk, which sends off numerous tentacula united in bundles 
 The Lucernaria, Cuvier regards as being nearly allied to 
 the Jlctinea or sea-anemones ; but their substance is softer 
 They emit phosphorescent light. 
 
LUCIFER. 
 
 LU'CIFEIt. (Lat. lux, light , fero, / bring.) The morn- 
 ing star. A name given to the planet Venus, when she 
 appears in the morning before sunrise. When Venus fol- 
 lows the sun, or appears in the evening, she was called 
 Hesperus, tile evening star. These names no longer occur 
 except in the old poets. 
 
 Lu'cipers. Matches tipped with a mixture of chlorate 
 of potash and sulphuret of antimony: they are inflamed by 
 friction upon a piece of emery paper. 
 
 LUCIFE'RIANS. The name of an ancient sect of hcrc- 
 M called from Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, in the 4th 
 century, whose opinions they embraced. The Luciferians 
 considered the soul to be of a carnal nature and to be trans- 
 milted from father to child ; but the chief occasion of the 
 schism of Lucifer arose from his refusal to hold any com- 
 munion with the clergy who had conformed to the Anan 
 doctrines, and whom a synod at Alexandria, A.D. 352, had 
 determined to re-admit into the church on condition of an 
 open acknowledgment of their errors. The number of this 
 sect was never considerable, and it was extinct in the time 
 of Theodoret ; but it deserves notice from being considered 
 by the Iloman Catholics as one of the greatest schisms in 
 their church. See Schism. 
 
 LUCI'NA. In Roman Mythology, the goddess who pre- 
 sided over the birth of children. Her name is derived either 
 from Incus or lux, according to Ovid's explanation, — 
 
 Gratia L'lcinx. dedit toe tibi nnmiru luetn; 
 Aut quia principium, tu, Dea, lucis babes. 
 
 She is said to be the daughter of Jupiter and Juno; nnd has 
 frequently been confounded with Diana and Juno, both of 
 Whom presided over childbirth. She was called Ilithya by 
 
 LUOU'LLITE. A black limestone, often polished for 
 ornamental purposes, to which it is said first to have been 
 applied by Lucullus, the Roman consul. 
 
 LIVES. (Lat.) A poison or pestilence ; a plague. 
 
 LUFF. The foremost edge or leach of a fore-and aft sail. 
 To luff, to brim: the ship's head nearer the wind. 
 
 LU'FFER BOARDING. (Fr. louvre.) In Architecture, 
 boards in an aperture placed above each other at regular 
 distances, and inclined to the horizon at an angle of forty- 
 five degrees, so as to admit air without allowing the raia to 
 
 LUG-SAIL. A four-sided sail bent to a yard, which is 
 nit one fourth from the lower end. 
 
 LU'MACHE'LLA. Shell marble; the fragments having 
 : ustrc, it is sometimes termed fire marble. 
 
 I. IMP. a'GO. See Rheumatism. 
 
 LUM'IJAR A'BSCESS. An abscess of the loins formed 
 upon the psoas muscle: it is frequently mistaken for ne- 
 phritic or rheumatic disease, and when it forms a swelling 
 in the groin, for hernia. 
 
 LUMBRICAL MUSCLES. (Lat. lumbricus, an earth- 
 worm.) Small muscles of the hand which assist in bend- 
 
 LU'MBRICUS. (Lat.) A Linmcan genus of Vermes, 
 now the type of a family (I.umbricina) which ranks as the 
 >f the Setigerous Abranchian Anellidans in the system 
 ofCuvier. All the species of this family — the earthworms, 
 as they are commonly called — are characterized by a long 
 cylindrical body, divided by ruga? into a great number of 
 rings, nnd by an edentate mouth. The common earthworm 
 {Lumbricus tcrrcstris, Linn.) attains nearly afoot in length, 
 and is composed of upwards of one hundred and twenty 
 rings. This species is extremely abundant : th.-y traverse 
 the soil In every direction, swallowing quantities of earth, 
 er with portions of roots and ligneous fibres, and other 
 organized substances, which they assimilate for their own 
 nutriment. Their castings constitute a rich soil. 
 
 LUNA. (Lat. the moon.) In Mythology, the daughter 
 of Hyperion nnd Terra, usually confounded with Diana, 
 which see. The heavenly bodies were favourite objects of 
 wor-liip among the ancients; and as they considered the 
 sun to tie sacred to Apollo, whom they worshipped as Sol, 
 so they consigned the moon to the guardianship of his sister 
 Diana, whom thev worshipped under the name of Luna. 
 
 LU'NA CO'RNEA. Fused chloride of silver ; so called 
 from its horn-like appearance, lima being the term by which 
 the old chemists designated silver. 
 
 LU'NACY, in Law, is strictly the condition of an insane 
 person who has lucid intervals, which in former times 
 were supposed to depend on the phases of the moon ; whence 
 such persons were styled lunatici. But, for convenience, 
 the term is commonly used as embracing the condition of all 
 those who are under certain legal disabilities on account of 
 mental deficiency : such as idiots, fatuous persons, &c. ; all, 
 in short, who are of unsound mind. The chief of these dis~ 
 abilities are, incapacity to make contracts, either personal 
 •or affecting the estate ; to sue or defend in courts of justice ; 
 to perform offices and duties ; to make devises or bequests. 
 Bt ancient le^al maxim, the sovereign has the custody of 
 
 LUNAR METHOD. 
 
 lunatics. This is in practice delegated to the keeper of tee 
 great seal, by virtue of the sign manual, countersigned by 
 two secretaries of state. Applications for a commission of 
 lunacy are consequently directed to him. When he deter- 
 mines that such a commission is proper, it issues to certain 
 commissioners, appointed by the same authority. They 
 summon a jury to try the fact of lunacy. If the party u 
 found lunatic by its inquisition, the inquisition may siill be 
 avoided by a traverse ; on which the record goes into the 
 King's Bench, which either gives judgment or grants a new 
 trial on it. If the lunatic recover, the inquisition may be 
 superseded. On the return of the inquisition, the custody 
 of the lunatic's person and estate devolves on the crown , 
 and the chancellor, on petition, appoints committees to have 
 the custody of either or both. These may be whoever the 
 chancellor thinks fit, although next of kin are ordinarily pre- 
 ferred. Lunatics are maintained by an allownnce out of 
 their own estate : when they have none, by statute, in pub- 
 lic asylums. The custody of lunatics by private individuals 
 is under the control of the provisions of the stat. 3 & 4 W. 
 4, c. 36, by which visiters are empowered once a year to in- 
 spect their condition. Licensed houses for the reception of 
 lunatics, under the keeping of medical men, are within the 
 regulations of 2 and 3 W. 4, c. 107, tinder the inspection of 
 licensing commissioners. Persons of unsound minds who 
 are paupers, and those who have been tried for eftences 
 and found insane, and also lunatic convicts, are usually con 
 fined in county lunatic asylums, wherever these are estab 
 lished. As to the statistics of lunatic hospitals or asylums, 
 see Degerando, de la Bienfaisance Publique, vol. iv., part 
 3, book 3. 
 
 The incapacity of a person of unsound mind to commit a 
 crime, depends, it is said, upon his irresponsibility, moral and 
 legal. The general mode of directing a jury has been to at 
 quit the prisoner, if satisfied that he was incapable of know 
 ing right from wrong; or, as some eminent judges hare 
 worded it, if he was unconscious that the act was a crime 
 against the laws of God and nature. On acquittal taking 
 place on evidence of lunacy, the jury are now required, by 
 39 & 40 G. 3, c. 04, to find specially whether the person 
 was Insane at the time of committing the offence; and on 
 that finding he is taken into public custodv. 
 
 LU'NAR BONE. One of the bones of the wrist. 
 
 LU'NAR CAUSTIC. Fused nitrate of silver. 
 
 LU'NAR CYCLE. The period of time after width the 
 new moons return on the same days of the year. St* 
 Cycle. 
 
 LU'NAR DI'STANCE. In Navigation, the iistance of 
 the moon from the sun, or from a fixed star ot planet ; by 
 means of which the longitude of n ship is found. 
 
 LU'NAR METHOD. In Astronomy and Navigation, 
 the method of determining the longitude of a place or ship 
 from the observation of lunar distances. This problem, 
 which is of the very highest importance, on account of its 
 being the only astronomical method of finding the longitude 
 practicable at sea, resolves itself into two parts. The first 
 is to ascertain the distance of the moon's centre from one 
 of the principal planets or fixed stars at a given moment; 
 and the second, to find the Greenwich time to which, ac- 
 cording to the tables, that distance corresponds. The general 
 method of procedure maybe explained as follows: Six or 
 eight observations of the star's distance from the nearest 
 point of the moon's limb are taken with a sextant as quickly 
 in succession as possible, and the corresponding time at each 
 observation noted : the mean of the observed distances, at 
 the mean time, gives a single distance corresponding to a 
 known instant of time. The true apparent time is hero sup- 
 posed to be given by the chronometer, the rate and error of 
 which are determined by observations of altitude. Contem- 
 poraneously with the observations of distance two assistants 
 are employed in taking the altitudes both of the mocn 
 and star, for the purpose of applying the proper correction 
 for refraction. The remainder of the operation consists in 
 making the requisite calculations. In the first place, the 
 moon's semidiametcr is added to the observed distance, 
 whereby the true apparent distance is found. In the next 
 place, the corrections are applied for refraction and parallax, 
 and the apparent distance reduced to the centre of the earth. 
 This part of the operation is technically called charing the 
 distance. The computer then turns to the JVuutical Alma- 
 nac, in which the distances of the moon from some of the 
 principal stars and planets is given for every three hours 
 Having found in the almanac the distances next less ar.rt 
 greater than the true distance deduced from the observa- 
 tions, their difference gives the change of distance in three 
 hours: whence, by interpolation, the Greenwich time Is ob- 
 tained at which the distance was exactly the same, and con- 
 sequently the Greenwich time corresponding to the app&rent 
 time at the instant of the observation. 
 
 This method of finding the longitude at sea was first pro- 
 posed by John Werner of Nuremberg so early as 1514, ana 
 recommended bv several other astronomers who rived during 
 
 601 
 
12 
 
 44 
 
 2-84 
 
 7 
 
 43 
 
 4-71 
 
 7 
 
 43 
 
 11-54 
 
 13 
 
 18 
 
 37-40 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 35-60 
 
 LUNAR MONTH. 
 
 the same century ; but the theory of the lunar motions was 
 then, and for a long time after, by far too imperfect to allow 
 of its practical application. Besides, previously to the inven- 
 tion of Hadley's quadrant, there was no instrument by which 
 the distances could be measured with the requisite precision. 
 The advancement of astronomy, and the perfection of in- 
 struments of observation, have obviated all difficulties; and 
 the method of lunar distances is now mainly relied on by the 
 mariners of all countries. 
 
 LUNAR MONTH. The time in which the moon com- 
 pletes a revolution about the earth, and returns to the same 
 position relatively to some celestial body, or point in space, 
 with which her motion is compared. But the moon's period 
 may be determined in relation to several objects — as the sun, 
 the equinoctial points, a fixed star, the perigree or nodes of 
 her orbit : and accordingly there are as many different lunar 
 months as there are assumed points of comparison, provided 
 .htese points have different motions in the heavens. 
 
 1. The proper lunar month is the same as the lunation or 
 synodic month, and is the time which elapses between two 
 consecutive new or full moons, or in which the moon re- 
 turns to the same position relatively to the earth and sun. 
 
 2. The periodic month, or synodic month, is the revolution 
 with respect to the moveable equinox. 
 
 3. The sidereal month is the interval between two succes- 
 sive conjunctions with the same fixed star. 
 
 4. The anomalistic month is the time in which the moon 
 returns to the same point (for example, the perigree or 
 apogee) of her moveable elliptic orbit. 
 
 5. The nodical month is the time in which the moon ac- 
 complishes a revolution with respect to her nodes, the line 
 of which is also moveable. 
 
 The exact mean lengths of these different lunar months 
 are as follows: 
 
 days. h. m. sec. 
 
 Synodic month .... 29 
 Tropical month .... 27 
 Sidereal month .... 27 
 Anomalistic month ... 27 
 Nodical month .... 27 
 These mean motions are not uniform, but are subject to pe- 
 riodic and secular variations. See Moon. 
 
 LU'NAR YEAR, is the period of twelve synodic lunar 
 months, and consequently contains 354 days ; the lunar 
 months in the calendar being alternately 29 and 30 days. 
 The exact period of 12 lunar months is 354 days, 8 hours, 48 
 min. 34 sec. ; so that the lunar year of the calendar requires 
 to be adjusted by intercalation every third year. See Cal- 
 endar. 
 
 LUNA'TTON. The period of a synodic revolution of 
 the moon, or the time from one new moon to the follow- 
 ing, being that in which the moon passes through all her 
 phases. 
 
 LUNE, or LTJ'NUL A. A geometrical figure in form of a 
 crescent, bounded by two arcs of circles intersecting at its 
 extremities. The lunula of Hippocrates, of Chios, is cele- 
 brated on account of a remarkable property discovered by 
 that geometer ; namely, that it can be exactly squared, 
 though the quadrature of the whole circle has baffled the 
 ingenuity of mathematicians of all ages. Let A D B be a 
 semicircle whose centre is at C, and A E B 
 a quadrant of another circle whose centre 
 is at F (C F being perpendicular to the di- 
 ameter A B) ; then the space contained 
 ;)b between A D B and A E B is the lune of 
 Hippocrates, and it is equal to the area of 
 the triangle A F B. For the square of A F 
 being equal to the squares of A C and C F, 
 or twice the square of A C, and circles 
 being to one another as the squares of their radii, the whole 
 circle of which A F is the radius is equal to twice the circle 
 of which A C is the radius ; and consequently the area of 
 the quadrant A E B F is equal to the semicircle A D B. Take 
 away the common space A E B A, and there remains the 
 triangle A B F, equal to the lune. 
 
 LUNE'TTE. (Fr.) In Fortification, an enveloped coun- 
 terguard or elevation of earth, made beyond the second ditch, 
 opposite to the place of arms ; differing from the ravelins 
 only in situation. Lunettes are also works made on both 
 sides of a ravelin. See Fortification. 
 
 Lunette. In Architecture, an aperture for the admis- 
 sion of light in a concave ceiling ; such are the upper lights 
 to the naves of St. Peter's at Rome and of St. Paul's at 
 London. 
 
 LUNGS. (Germ, lungen.) The viscera by which respi- 
 ration is carried on. The right lung is divided into three 
 lobes, the left into two. They are, as it were, suspended in 
 the chest by the trachea, and separated by the mediastinum ; 
 they are also attached to the heart by the pulmonary ves- 
 sels. They are nourished by the bronchial artery, which is 
 a branch of the aorta ; and the pulmonary artery carries the 
 Yenoue blood through them from the heart, to subject it to 
 
 LUSTRATION. 
 
 the action of the air in their cellular structure ; the blood 
 when arterialized returns to the heart by the pulmonary 
 veins, the four trunks of which enter the left auricle. The 
 bronchial veins terminate in the vena azygos. The nerves 
 of the lungs are from the eighth pair and great intercostal. 
 
 LU'NISO'LAR. (Lat. luna, the moon, and sol, the sun.) 
 Combining the motions of the sun and moon. A lunisolar 
 period is that after which the eclipses again return in the 
 same order. (See Cycle.) The Dyonysian period of 532 
 years, formed by multiplying together the solar and lunar 
 cycles of 28 and 19 years, has sometimes been called the 1:: 
 nisolar year. 
 
 LUPERCA'LIA. A Roman festival in honour of Pan, 
 celebrated in February ; when the Luperci ran up and dnwu 
 the city naked, having only a girdle of goat's skin r».'iu:il 
 their waist, and thongs of the same in their hands, with 
 which they struck those they met, particularly man led 
 women, who were thence supposed to be rendered prolific. 
 The name is derived from lupus, a wolf ; because Pan pro- 
 tected cattle from that animal. The indecencies and ex- 
 cesses attending the processions of the Lupercals, which 
 had degenerated from high religious rites to vulgar super- 
 stitions, provoked the indignation of Christians in the 4th and 
 5th centuries. It is commonly, but erroneously, supposed 
 that pope Gelasius caused them to be abolished. (Gibbon, 
 vol. vi.) Beugnot has shown the contrary. (Dcst. du Pa- 
 ganisme en Occident, book xix., ch. 2.) 
 
 LUPE'RCI. The Roman priests of Pan, and most an 
 cient religious order in the state, having been instituted, ac- 
 cording to tradition, by Evander, king of Pallantium, a town 
 that occupied the Palatine Hill before Rome was built. 
 There were three companies of them ; viz. the Fabiant, 
 Quintiliani, and Julii — the last of whom were founded in 
 honour of Julius Caesar. For the derivation of the word see 
 Lupercalia. 
 
 LU'PINITE. A bitter substance, extracted from the leaves 
 of the white lupin. 
 
 LU'PULIN. The active principle of the hop ; it is more 
 properly called lupulite. 
 
 LU'PUS. (Lat.) The wolf. One of the southern con- 
 stellations, situated on the south of Scorpio. 
 
 Lu'pus. In Pathology, a disease which eats away the 
 parts attacked by it with great rapidity. 
 
 LU'SIAD. The name given to the great epic poem of 
 Portugal, written by Camoens, and published in 1571. The 
 subject of this poem is the establishment of the Portuguese 
 empire in India ; but whatever of chivalrous, great, bcauti- 
 tiful, or noble, could be gathered from the traditions of his 
 country, has been interwoven into the story. Among all the 
 heroic poets, says Schlegel, either of ancient or modern 
 times, there has never, since Homer, been any one so in 
 tensely national, or so loved or honoured by his countrymen, 
 as Camoens. It seems as if the national feelings of the Por 
 tuguese had centered and reposed themselves in the person 
 of this poet, whom they consider as worthy to supply the 
 place of a whole host of poets, and as being in himself 
 a complete literature to his country. Of Camoens they 
 say, 
 
 Verterefas; aequarc ncfas ; soquabilis uni 
 Est sibi ; par nemo; nemo secundus erit. 
 
 The great defects of the Lusiad consists in its preposterous 
 mythological machinery, and its clumsy management ; but 
 in all the qualities of versification and beauty of language 
 it is perfect, and may be regarded as the "well, pure and 
 undefiled," of the Portuguese language. 
 
 Few modern poems have been so frequently translated as 
 the Lusiad. Mr. Adamson, whose Memoirs of the Life and 
 Writings of Camoens must be familiar to the reader, notices 
 one Hebrew translation of it, five Latin, six Spanish, four 
 Italian, three French, four German, and two English. Of 
 the two English versions one is that of Sir R. Fanshawe, 
 written during Cromwell's usurpation, and distinguished for 
 its fidelity to the original ; the other is that of Mickle, who, 
 unlike the former, took great liberties with the original, but 
 whose additions and alterations have met with great appro- 
 bation from all critics — except, as indeed was to be expected, 
 from the Portuguese themselves. (See the Quarterly Re 
 view, vol. xxvii.) 
 
 LUSTRA'TION. (Lat. Iustro, / purify.) In Roman 
 Antiquities, a sacrifice by which the Romans purified their 
 cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by any crime or im- 
 purity. There were various manners of performing this 
 ceremony, according to the nature of the lustration. When 
 Servius Tullius had numbered the Roman people, he puri- 
 fied them, as they were assembled in the Campus Martius, 
 by causing a young pig, a sheep, and a bull, just sacrificed, 
 to be paraded round them. Before the celebration of the 
 Ludi Seculares, which took place only once in a century, 
 the populace was purified hy a little sulphur, bitumen, and, 
 perfume, fixed to a piece of fur called tceda, which was 
 lighted, and which thus circulated the smoke around them 
 The army was purified by causing the soldiers to defile be 
 
 
LUSTRUM. 
 
 rween the two quivering halves of a victim, while the priest 
 offered up certain prayers. The lustration of a funeral pile 
 was effected liy making the spectators march round it before 
 the fire was kindled. (See Memoircs de VAc. des Inscrip- 
 tions, vol. xxxvi.) See Ambarvalia. 
 
 LU STRUM. (Lat.) In Roman Antiquities, a space of 
 about five years : at the end of which period the feast called 
 Lustralia was celebrated, in which the censor purified the 
 people liy several sacrifices and ceremonies; among others, 
 the suoertaurilia, or sacrifice of a ho;;, sheep, and goat. It 
 appears that rather more than five years usually elapsed be- 
 tween one lustralia and the next; but the word lustrum is 
 usually employed for the exact quinquennial period. The 
 derivation of the word is uncertain. Lustrare, in Latin, sig- 
 nifies to purify by a solemn ceremony : and many other lus- 
 tral ceremonies were in use; as, for example, the dies lus- 
 trales, or lustral days, being the fifth, or, according to some 
 writers, the eighth day after the birth of a child, on which 
 it was purified with certain solemnities, named, and placed 
 under the protection of the gods of the family ; the lustra- 
 tion of sheep in April, the crops in May, &c, of which so 
 many are continued in the Roman Catholic worship of mod- 
 ern tunes, Sen-Water was the most ordinary article used in 
 lustrations. Varro derives the word lustrum from luere, to 
 pay ; because, according to the custom ordained by Senilis 
 Tuliius, who first instituted the census (5Go B.C.), the tribute 
 Imposed by the censors was paid at the beginning of every 
 fifth year, the last of the lustrum. (» in the 
 
 M.iwires de CAc. des Jnscr., vol. xxxix. ; and JfkbuUr's 
 History.) 
 
 N VII "i; r.. (Lat a sport of nature.) A term 
 applied to anything unnatural In the physical world. 
 
 LUTE. (It. limo.) A musical stringed instrument of the 
 guitar species, and played In a similar way; but In form 
 more resembling the section of a pear, with a back in ribs, 
 <• of a melon. 
 
 LI 1 'nistry, applications by which the junc- 
 
 tions of vessels are rendered tight, A glass retort is said to 
 be luted when smeared over with clay, so as more perfectly 
 it the effects of heat, and to prevent its fusion. Coat- 
 man lute is a mixture' of pipe-clay, linseed mesL and water, 
 and is spread upon paper and applied to the joinings of stills 
 and of retorts and receivers, tat lute is a mixture of pipe- 
 clay and linseed oil. 
 
 LUTHERANS, or FOLLOWERS OF LUTHER. The 
 denomination of Christians whose religious system had its 
 origin in the preaching of Luther. This system, in some 
 - nearer to Romanism than thai of any 
 of the reformed churches. The notions of Luther 
 u|«n the nature of the Eucharist are known under the name 
 of consubstnnliation, or the coexistence of the body and 
 bread, the blood and the wine, at the same tune. It en- 
 tourages, also, the private confession of .-ins. makes use of 
 wafers in the administration of the Lord's Supper, and al- 
 lows of Images In churches. It insists, however, very Strang- 
 ly upon Luther's cardinal doctrine, the justification of man 
 by faith, and not by any merit in human actions. With re 
 sped to the divine decrees, it holds that God foreknows the 
 dispositions of men, whether they will be good or bad, and 
 predetermines their salvation or rejection accordingly; dif- 
 fering therein from the tenet of the Calvinlsts, which repre- 
 sents the Supreme Being BS making MS decrees by his own 
 mere will. The dogmas of the Lutheran Church are care- 
 fully set forth in various symbolic hooks: the Confession of 
 Augsburg, the Articles of Smalcald. the Shorter and Larger 
 Catechisms of Luther, and the Form of Concord. Tin: prin- 
 ciple, however, of this church, which considers Christians 
 □notable to God alone for their religious opinions, al- 
 lows its teachers, at the present day, an unbounded liberty 
 of dissenting from these decisions. The Lutheran Church 
 predominates in the north of Germany, in Prussia, Norway, 
 Denmark, and Sweden: there arc congregations also of the 
 same denomination in England, Holland, Russia, and Ameri- 
 ca. In the Prussian dominions it has been remodelled under 
 the late king, and Is called the Evangelical Church. Sec 
 Christianity. 
 
 LUTHERN. (Fr.) In Architecture, the same as dor- 
 mer, which see. 
 
 LU'TRA. (Lat. an otter.) A genus dismembered by 
 Storr from the Linmcnn Mustela, and now raised to the rank 
 of a family (Lutridm). 
 
 LUXATION. (Lat luxare, to put out of joint.) A dis- 
 location of a bone. 
 
 LYCA'NTHROPY. (Gr. \{,koc, a wolf, arid «v0/>w™ f , a 
 man.) Herodotus relates that the Neurians, a Scythian 
 tribe, were supposed to be changed, for a certain number of 
 days every year, into wolves, and then to resume their for- 
 mer shape ; and a similar superstition is noticed by Virgil in 
 his Flclvfrars, by Pliny, Pausaniag, and other writers. The 
 same superstition, of the power possessed by men of convert- 
 ing themselves into wolves, remained in more modern times ; 
 but that which the classical ancients had believed to be cf- 
 
 LYMPHATICS. 
 
 fected by the power of herbs, or by innate powers, was by 
 Christians considered as a species of sorcery. These human 
 wolves were called loup-garoux by the French, were-wolves 
 by the Anglo Saxons, wehrwulfe by the Germans: words 
 of the same derivation, and bespeaking that the superstition 
 in those countries was of Teutonic origin. They were be- 
 lieved to be extremely ferocious, and to devour not only 
 beasts, but human beings; but if they were pursued and 
 wounded, the spell was frequently dissolved, and the sorcer 
 ers were found mutilated in those limbs in which they had 
 received the wound in their wolfish shape. From the prev 
 alence of these superstitions in the minds of an ignorant 
 peasantry originated the hideous species of madness termed 
 lycanthropy, in which the patient believed himself to be a 
 wolf, and frequently imitated the howl and actions of that 
 animal. In France, in the lGUi century, numbers of these 
 unfortunate beings were executed, like witches, on their 
 own confession ; and in the avowals which they made, of 
 having killed and devoured mankind, they were probably 
 not always under a delusion. Some of these maniacs de 
 clared that they were actually wolves, but that In them the 
 hair grew inside, or between the skin and tile flesh. Oriba- 
 sius, u ho lived In the fifth century of our era, mentions ly- 
 canthropy by its true character ;ls a species of madness, and 
 describes the symptoms and the cure. This species of in- 
 sanity seems to have gradually died away along with the 
 superstition which gave it birth. (See a curious article in 
 Ihi' Knc. Jilrtropolitava.) 
 
 LYCETJM. An academy at Athens was so termed, from 
 its situation near the temple of Apollo Lyceus. It was fre- 
 quented, according to tradition, by Aristotle. Preparatory 
 schools for the universities, In which the Aristotelian philos- 
 ophy was formerly taught, hence received on the Continent 
 the name of Lyceum. 
 
 LY'CHNITKS. An ancient name of marble ; from Xmt 
 iij, its quarries being worked by lamp light 
 
 LY'COPO'DI A i K.K. (Lycopodium, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Acrogens, Inhabiting all ports of the 
 world, but abounding chiefly m hot, humid situations. They 
 are Intermediate, as it were, between ferns and conifene on 
 the one hand, and ferns ami mnSSCfl upon the other. Lyco- 
 podiuin rubrum is a violent cathartic ; claratum and selago 
 excite vomiting; and the powder contained in the seed-ves- 
 sels of all the species is so highly Inflammable as to be em- 
 ployed occasionally in the manufacture of fireworks. They 
 are propagated by spores formed in two valvcd cases axillary 
 to the upper leaves. 
 
 LY'COPO'DIUM. A fine yellow dust or powder, being 
 the seed of the Lycopodium clavatum, or club moss : when 
 thrown into the flame of a candle, or of spirits of wine, it 
 burns with a bright Hash. It is much sought after for pro- 
 ducing theatrical lightning, and is an excellent substance to 
 sprinkle upon pills to prevent their adhering. 
 
 LYCO'SA. (Gr. \vkos, a wolf.) A genus of spiders, in 
 which the eyes form a quadrilateral group, as long or longer 
 than it is wide; the two posterior eyes not placed on an ele- 
 vation. The first pair of legs is evidently longer than the 
 second, but shorter than the fourth, which is the shortest of 
 all. The internal extremity of the jaws is obliquely trun- 
 cated. Almost all the I.ycosa keep on the ground, where 
 tiicy run with great swiftness. They inhabit holes in the 
 ground, which they line with silk, and enlarge in proportion 
 to their growth. Some establish their domicil in chinks and 
 cavities in walls, where they form a silken tube, covered ex 
 ternally with particles of earth or sand. In these retreats 
 they change their tegument ; and, as it appears, after closing 
 the opening, pass the winter in a state of torpidity. The fe- 
 males, when they go abroad, carry with them their eggs en- 
 veloped In a cocoon attached to the abdomen by threads. 
 On issuing from the egg, the young ones cling to the body of 
 the mother, and remain there until they are able to provide 
 for themselves. The Lycoete are extremely voracious, and 
 courageously defend their dwelling. The famous Tarantula 
 spider is a species of this genus. 
 
 LY'HIAN STONE. A silicious slate, used by the an- 
 cients as a touchstone, from Lydia. 
 
 LY'ING PANELS. In Architecture, those in which the 
 fibres of the wood lie in a horizontal direction. 
 
 LYING-TO. A nautical term, denoting the st-ite of the 
 ship when the sails are so disposed as to counteract each 
 other, and thereby retard or destroy the progressive motion 
 of the vessel. The fore and main staysails and mizen try- 
 sail serve very well for this purpose, as they cause but little 
 way, and have sufficient power to keep the ship heeled over, 
 and therefore steady, with her decks turned from the sea. 
 When tile sea runs very high, the lower sails are liable to be 
 becalmed by the wave's, and therefore to suffer the ship to 
 roll to windward ; the maintopsail is then used. 
 
 LYMPH. (Lat. lympha, water.) The liquid contained 
 in the lymphatics. 
 
 LYMPHATICS. Absorbent vessels, which carry lymph 
 from all parts of the body, and terminate in the thoracic duct 
 
 693 
 
LYNCH LAW. 
 
 LYNCH LAW. The irregular and revengeful species 
 of justice administered by the populace in some pans of the 
 United States, is said to have been so called from a Vir- 
 ginian farmer of the name of Lynch, who took the law into 
 his hands on some occasion, by chasing a thief, tying him to 
 a tree, and flogging him with his own hands. Some ob- 
 servers have thought that this barbarous system was, to a 
 certain extent, palliated by the difficulty of enforcing regular 
 law ; which Captain Marryat {Diary in America) attributes, 
 with what justice we know not, to the inadequate pay of the 
 judicial establishment in the newly-settled districts, and the 
 bad character of many of the judges, raised to the bench by 
 electioneering politics. Lynch law may be called a demo- 
 cratic imitation of the old feudal Vehm-gerichte, or self- 
 constituted tribunals in Westphalia and elsewhere, which 
 assumed the right of controlling the violent actions of the 
 nobles, and have been the subject of so much romantic fic- 
 tion. 
 
 LYNX. A constellation of the northern hemisphere, 
 formed by Hevelius. 
 
 Lynx. A name given to the different species of a group 
 of the Cats (Felicia), distinguished by short tails, and gen- 
 erally tufted ears. The lynxes have been long famed for 
 their sharp sight — a quality which, in all probability, they 
 derived, together with their name, from Lynceus, one of the 
 Argonauts, to whom, on their perilous expedition, his quick 
 right was of essential service in enabling them to steer clear 
 if rocks and sand-banks. The lynx was consecrated to 
 Bacchus. 
 
 LY'RA. (Lat.) The Harp : one of the forty-eight con- 
 stellations of Ptolemy. It is situated in the northern hemi- 
 sphere. 
 
 Lyra. A portion of the brain, the medullary fibres of 
 which are so arranged as to give it somewhat the appear- 
 ance of a lyre. 
 
 LYRE. A musical instrument of the greatest antiquity 
 among the Egyptians and Greeks. Tradition attributes its 
 invention to the accident of finding on the banks of the Nile 
 a tortoise, whose flesh was entirely decomposed, but whose 
 tendons, having been dried and stretched by the sun's ray;:, 
 Wire capable, on being strucK, of yielding musical Bounds. 
 Hermes, the finder of this tortoise, having made an instru- 
 ment in imitation of it, is supposed thus to be the inventor of 
 the lyre. The Greeks attribute the invention to their Hermes 
 (Mercury), the son of Jupiter and Main. It is generally con- 
 sidered "that the original Egyptian lyre was only of three 
 strings, and that the Greek Mercury improved upon the in- 
 vention; that the Muses clubbed together to add one string, 
 Orpheus, Linus, and Thomyris adding one each, thus form- 
 ing it altogether into a heptachord, or seven-stringed lyre. 
 At a later period the lyre consisted of eleven strings, which 
 were made of the sinews of animals; its body was hollow 
 !o increase the volume of tone ; and it was played with the 
 plectrum or lyre-stick of ivory or polished wood, and some- 
 times with the fingers, like the harp. It went by the differ- 
 ent names of lyra, phorminx, chalys, barbitos, barbiton, 
 eithara. 
 
 LYRE BIRD, or LYRE PHEASANT. See Menura. 
 
 LYRIC. See Ode. 
 
 LYTHRA'CE^E. (Lythmm, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of Polypetalous Exogenous plants, with long, 
 tubular, striated calyxes, in the orifice of which are inserted 
 the petals, while the stamens grow nearly at the base. They 
 are little known in cultivation ; but some of them, belonging 
 to the genera Lagerstra-.mia, Diplusodon, Lafoensia, &c, 
 are objects of striking beauty. The rosewood of the cabinet- 
 maker is the trunk of Physocalymna floribunda ; and the 
 henna, employed in the toilet, of Oriental ladies, is obtained 
 fwm l.awsonia inermis. 
 
 M. 
 
 M. The labial letter of the liquid series. It is susceptible 
 of various interchanges, more especially in the Greek and 
 Latin languages. (See Penny Cyclo.) In writing two M's 
 successively the Germans frequently drop one, and replace 
 i*. by a stroke over that which they retain; thus, m. As an 
 abbreviation M stands for Marcus, Manlius, Martius, and 
 Mucins; M. A. for Magister Artium, MS. for Manuscript, 
 and MSS. for Manuscripts. M, or, more properly, a symbol 
 somewhat resembling it, was used by the Romans to denote 
 1000; and the moderns have also adopted that letter. 
 
 MAB. The name given by the English poets of the 15th 
 ■fid succeeding centuries to the imaginary queen of the 
 !"airi<»« The passage in Romeo and Juliet, in which her 
 qualities and attributes are so beautifully set forth, is familiar 
 to all. 
 
 MAC. A Scotch term, signifying son, prefixed to many 
 surnames, as Mae. Donald, &c. It is synonymous with Fill 
 in England, and O in Ireland. 
 
 r.94 
 
 MACHINE. 
 
 MACA'CUS. A genus of Catarrhme or Old World 
 monkeys, characterized by having a fifth tubercle on their 
 last molars ; ischial callosities and cheek pouches ; com- 
 paratively short and thick limbs; a projecting muzzle, and 
 prominent superciliary arches. They have generally a 
 pendant tail ; but in some it is short, as in the pig-tailed ba- 
 boon (Macacus rhesus). When they cry out, they inflate a 
 membranous sac, which communicates with the larynx 
 above the thyroid cartilage. 
 
 MACARO'NIC VERSE. Verse in which the words of 
 a modern language are ludicrously distorted into Greek or 
 Latin inflections and metre. Theophilo Folengo, who wrote 
 under the name of Merlinus Coccaius, in Italy, in the ICtli 
 century, and calls himself the inventor of this sort of bur- 
 lesque composition, informs us that its name is derived from 
 the Italian macaroni, eatables composed of flour, cheese, and 
 butter; and that it expresses the gross and rustic characters 
 appropriate to its words and sentiments. Drummond's 
 Polcmo Middinia, a Scottish burlesque, is perhaps the best 
 known macaronic form of our language. 
 
 MACCABEES, BOOK OF THE. The two last books 
 in the arrangement of the Apocryphal writings enumerated 
 by our church. The first is a Greek translation (as is sup- 
 posed) from a Chaldaic original. The second appears to be 
 a compilation from various sources. The two books are not 
 connected; the former comprehends the events of Jewish 
 history for nearly 40 years, B.C. 176 to 139 ; the second be- 
 gins about B.C. 187, and extends over about 16 years. Nei 
 ther has been reckoned by the Jews in their catalogue of 
 sacred writings; but they are received into the canon of 
 Scripture by the Church of Rome, with the title of 3d and 
 4th Chronicles. There are two other books, commonly call- 
 ed 3d and 4th Maccabees, which were never received by any 
 church. 
 
 MACE. A word of doubtful etymology, signifying some 
 times a club of metal, and sometimes a military weapon ap 
 propriated to the cavalry. About the period of Edward II- 
 maces were generally used in England, both in battles and 
 tournaments ; and they remained so till the time of Eliza- 
 beth, when they were displaced by the pistol. Ml 
 still used by the Turkish cavalry. The mace, as an ensign 
 of authority, is often borne befora magistrates. By the old 
 English writers it is used synonymously with sceptre. 
 
 Mace, the external envelope of the seed of the nutmeg, is a 
 particular form of what botanists call arillus. It is aromatic, 
 but less so than the nutmeg ; and is chiefly used in cookery 
 or in pickles, and not, like the latter, in confectionary. 
 
 MACEDONIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a sect 
 which derives its name from a bishop of Constantinople, 
 who, in the 4th century, denied the distinct existence and 
 Godhead of the Holy Spirit, which he conceived to be mere- 
 ly "a divine energy diffused throughout the universe," 
 "while the Father and Son together constitute theonacxist 
 ing Deity." These opinions were condemned at the second 
 general council held at Constantinople in 381. See Pnkuma 
 tomaciii. 
 
 MACERA TION. The steeping of substances in any 
 cold liquor. 
 
 MACHAIRODUS. (Gr. uax"tp<h o sabre, and oaovs, a 
 tooth.) An extinct mammal, allied to the bear. 
 
 M ACHE'TES. (Gr. /jaxnrns, a combatant.) The generic 
 name under which Cuvier has distinguished the mil's and 
 reeves from the sandpipers, godwits, and other allied Gralla;. 
 The ruffs have the bill and carriage of the genus Calidris ; 
 but the membrane between their external toes is nearly as 
 extensive as in Limosa. Our native species (Machetes pug- 
 nax, Cuv.) is somewhat smaller than a snipe, and celebrated 
 for the furious combats that take pjace among the males in 
 their nuptial season. At this period the head is partly 
 covered with a red papilla; ; the neck is surrounded with a 
 thick collar of feathers, which often varies in different indi 
 viduals. 
 
 MA'CHIAVELISM. A name given to the system of gov 
 erning which is propounded in the general writings of 
 Machiavelli, and particularly in his treatise called Ths 
 Prince. The term is still used in a disparaging sense, not- 
 withstanding the different construction which has of late 
 been given to the motives and purposes for which Machia 
 velli wrote his work. 
 
 MACHI'COLATED. (Fr. machicoulis.) In Gothic and 
 castellated Architecture, a building whose parapets project 
 beyond the faces of the walls, and are supported by niches 
 springing from large corbels or consoles. 
 
 MACfll'NE (Gr. paxa l), in a general sense, signifies 
 anything which serves to increase or regulate the effect of a 
 given force. Machines are either simple or compound. The 
 simple machines, otherwise called the simple mechanical 
 powers, arc usually reckoned six in number; namely, the 
 lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the wedge, the screw, 
 and the funicular machine. See the respective terms. 
 
 Compound machines are formed by combining two or 
 more simple machines. They are classed under different 
 
MACHINERY. ' 
 
 lenominntions, according to forces by which they are put in 
 motion, as hydraulic machines, pneumatic machines, electri- 
 cal machines, &c. ; or the purposes they are intended to 
 Hive, a* military machines, architectural machines, &c. 
 
 Although there are no limits to the combinations and 
 adaptations of machinery, there are certain general princi- 
 ples which may be applied in estimating the effects of any 
 machine whatever. When a machine attains its state of 
 uniform motion, the momentum of the power is equal to that 
 of the resistance, and is the same that would be in equilibrio 
 with the resistance if there were no motion at all. From this 
 principle, and from the consideration that in all machines the 
 work done is to be estimated not merely from the quantity of 
 nice which is overcome, but from the quantity over- 
 corn.! in a given time, we can nscertain the relation that 
 OOghl to subsist between the velocity and the load or resist- 
 In order that the effect of the machine may be a maxi- 
 mum. This maximum effect is produced when the two 
 following conditions are fulfilled : 1. When the load, or ro- 
 llout four ninths of that which the power, when 
 fully exerted, is just nble to balance, or that which would 
 keep the machine at rest altogether; and, 2, when the veloci- 
 ty of that part of the machine to which the power is applied 
 is one third of the greatest velocity of the power. Then; 
 conditions are deduced from the following empirical expres- 
 sion, which is adopted by Eutar and other writers to repre- 
 sent the law of the moving power: Let P = the power a|>- 
 plied (or weight which the power, when fully exerted, is 
 just able to overcome); It = the resistance, or load, or 
 weight to be overcome; e the greatest velocity, or that nt 
 w Inch the power ceases to act ; v = any other velocity : then 
 the law of the moving power is 
 
 k=p(i-D 2 
 
 The variables in this expression are R nnd v, and the 
 effect is represented by the product R r ; on making which 
 a maximum, the rules of the differential calculus give v = J 
 c; whence the formula becomes R= J P. 
 
 From these expressions it follows, that when the moving 
 power ami the resistance are both given, if a machine be so 
 constructed that the velocity of the part to which the power 
 is applied is to the velocity of the part to which the resistance 
 is applied in the ratio of 9 It to 4 P, the effect of the machine 
 will be a maximum, or it will work to the greatest possible 
 advantage, The above conditions apply equally to machines 
 impelled by animal force and the agents of nature, as run- 
 ning water, steam, the force of gravity, &.c. An animal ex- 
 erts Itself i" the grseteal advantage! or performs the greatest 
 ;y of work in the least time, when it moves with 
 about one third of the utmost s]>eed with which it is capable 
 of moving, and is loaded with t'ourninthsof the greatest load 
 which It i- capable of putting in motion. It has been sup- 
 pased in the above remarks that ihe friction of the parts of the 
 machine is included in the resistance. (See Coriolis, De 
 ' des Machines ; Nnvier, Ltcmu sur {'Application de la 
 .1/" inn/in ■; Belidor, ArcMtieturt Hydraulique; Gregory's 
 MeeJkauie$ ; Moseley's Mechanics applied to the Arts, &c.) 
 MACIII'NERY. A general term by which the works of 
 the complex machines are designated. 
 
 MA'CIGNO. (Itnl.) A hard silicious sandstone. 
 UA'CLE. A mineral; called also chiastolile. It forms 
 prismatic crystals, white externally and gray within, which 
 .ire found imbedded In clay-slate. Its principal component 
 pints are silica and alumina, with a little oxide of iron. 
 
 M ICLU'REITE. A mineral named after Dr. Maclure, 
 from New-York and New-Jersey. It occurs in roundish 
 iinbeiltleil musses, imperfectly crystalline. It is a silicate of 
 magnesia, with traces of potash, oxide of iron, and fluorine. 
 MACMILLANTTES. A religious sect in Scotland, the 
 on and representatives of the Covenanters in the 17lh 
 century, and more recently denominated the Reformed Pres- 
 v. On the first settlement of presbytery as the estab- 
 lished church of Scotland at the Revolution in 1088, a small 
 body of the people, the remnant of the Covenanters, con 
 demnoil the principles on which that act was founded as 
 'ii. They insisted not only that the church, though 
 endowed by the state, should be entirely independent of civil 
 authority, and uncontrollable and supreme in itself, but that 
 Ihe revolution government should not be recognised, Bias- 
 much as it was not founded on the Solemn League and 
 Covenant, and did not restore presbytery as it had obtained 
 during what they called the "Second Reformation," or be- 
 1638 and 1649, at the death of Charles I. Though re- 
 duced to a very small number at the era of the Revolution, 
 and deserted by their pastors, who, in 1689, gave in their ac- 
 cession to the judicatories of the established church, they 
 maintained their principles with unshaken firmness, and 
 would accept of no conditions of which these were not the 
 iitL-is. They also continued zealously to maintain those 
 Baying societies (hence they were sometimes called Society 
 
 MACROURANS. 
 
 people) which they had formed in the time of Charles II. 
 when deprived of religious ordinances from tiie paucity of 
 clergymen. A regular correspondence between these vari- 
 ous fraternities were maintained, In order to ascertain the 
 state of matters throughout the body at large,- and to culti- 
 vate a closer acquaintance with each oilier. 
 
 Thus they remained without a pastor for sixteen years ; 
 and as they were a small, so they were generally regarded 
 as a fanatical and illiberal sect, enemies equally to the eccle- 
 siastical and civil authorities. Meanwhile, Mr. John M'Mil- 
 lan, who had been ordained parochial minister of Balmaghie, 
 in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in 1701, adopted and 
 publicly avowed their principles, and was, in consequence, 
 deposed in 1704 from the office of the ministry. He did 
 not, however, renounce his ministerial character, but con- 
 tinued to officiate both among his former people, who almost 
 to a man adhered to him, and others who favoured his 
 views. In 1706, having received a unanimous call from 
 the scattered societies to be their minister, he accepted the 
 invitation; and in a short Hum he was joined by Mr. John 
 M'Neil, a licentiate of the established church, who, like 
 himself, had been deprived of oil connexion with that 
 church. The high veneration which Mr. M'Millan and Mr. 
 M'Neil entertained for prcshyterian government prevented 
 any attempt being made to obtain ordination for the latter 
 in an irregular way. Neither would they compromise their 
 principles to gnin the co-operation of other ministers who, 
 like themselves, but for somewhat different opinions, had 
 been expelled from the establishment. They renewed the 
 Covenant In 1713, aod never ceased to bear public testimony 
 against what they regarded tlie defections and corruptions of 
 the church of Scotland. 
 
 On the death of Mr. M'Neil, which took place not long 
 afterwards, Mr. M'Mttlan was joined by the Rev. Thomas 
 Nairn, who had been driven from the church, and had for 
 some lime been connected wilh the Secession. The pros- 
 pects of the M'jMillnnitis, as this sect had long been called 
 in honour of their eminent leader, now began to brighten. 
 Tlnir two clergymen and some lav elders (formerly ordain 
 ed) constituted a presbytery, in 1743, at Braehead, nearCarn- 
 wath, La idy the name oi 
 
 formed Presbytery — a designation which has superseded, in 
 B great measure, thai of It'MHlanltes. They arc also called 
 Mountain or Hill people ; because, having at first no Chap 
 els, they conducted public worship, in Imitation of their per- 
 secuted ancestors in the reigns of Charles II. and his bi other, 
 in the open air, generally on the side of n hill. 
 
 From the lime they were constituted into n presbytery, 
 their number has gradually but slowly increased. In 1809 
 they had sixteen congregations, but their highest ccclcsi 
 oslical court was a presbytery. They now form a synod, 
 consisting of six presbyteries, the number of congregations 
 being thirty-five. In the days of persecution, some of their 
 adherents took refuge In the north of Ireland ; nnd the M'Mil- 
 lnuitcs there form lour presbyteries, embracing twenty-one 
 congregations. The sect prevails also in the United States, 
 to the extent of eight or ten congregations. Some of their 
 congregations in Scotland are very small, and none of them 
 are large. They have a professor of divinity belonging to 
 their own body, in doctrine they profess the highest Cal- 
 vinism, and may be characterized as the strictest sect 
 of Presbyterians. They still hold substantially the same 
 sentiments as the alleged Erastianism Of the established 
 church, or what they regard as her unscriptural subjection 
 to the civil power. Some of their extreme opinions, how- 
 ever, on the subjects of the covenant and presbytery, have 
 of late been somewhat modified. They generally, if not 
 universally, use public prayers for the sovereign and for 
 civil magistrates; an act which they from conscience avoid 
 ed for about a century after their organization under Mr. 
 M'Millan. Wherever their numbers are sufficiently large, 
 they have built chapels ; and public worship, in any cir- 
 cumstances, rarely takes place out of doors. They have 
 not thought it expedient to renew the Covenant since 1745. 
 In short, they have become a comparatively liberal and en- 
 lightened sect of Christians, and are eminently character- 
 ized by piety and moral strictness. (See Adam's Religious 
 World Displayed, vol. iii., 157-169; The Testimony of the 
 Reformed Presbyterian Church, Paisley, 1837; Historical 
 Part of the Testimony, Glasgow, 1839; A short Ace. of the 
 Old Presbyterian Dissenters, Glasgow, 1824 ; Acts of Oen 
 Assembly apud Ann. 1704, 1708, 1715 : also the articles 
 Cameronians and Covenanters in this work.) 
 
 MACRODA'CTYLI. Gr. uaKpos, long; Iuktv\o<, a fin- 
 ger.) A tribe of wading birds, comprehending those in 
 which the toes are remarkable for their extreme length ; as 
 the jnennns. 
 
 MA'CROPUS. (Gr. paicpos, long ; trove, foot.) The ge- 
 neric name of the kangaroo ; also applied to a genus of 
 beetles. 
 
 MACROU'RANS, Macroura. (Gr. panpoc, long, and 
 ovpa, a tail.) A section of Decapod Crustaceans, including 
 
 695 
 
MACULE. 
 
 all tliosc which have the tail, or post abdomen, is long 01 
 longer than the body. 
 
 MA CULAi. (Lat. spots.) Dark spots on the surfaces 
 of the sun and moon, and on some of the planets. The so- 
 lar spots are very variable as to form and continuance 
 They were lirst observed by Galileo in Italy, and Harriot 
 in England, soon after the invention of the telescope, and 
 unknown to each other The spots on the moon are perma- 
 nent, and are caused by the shadows of its mountains, and 
 the unequally reflecting materials of which parts of it are 
 composed. The planets have some permanent macula;, as 
 the belts of Jupiter; and some variable, especially Mars and 
 Venus, and frequently, also, Jupiter. These macula; have 
 led to many fanciful conjectures respecting the constitution 
 and atmospheres of the bodies of the solar system. See 
 Sun, Moon. 
 
 MA DDER. The prepared root of the Rubia tinctorum. 
 It is extensively used as a red dye stuff; its infusion is of a 
 dirty red colour ; but it is rendered bright and permanent by 
 an aluminous mordant. Its colouring principle has been 
 termed alizarine. 
 
 MADIA. (Gr. paSos, bald.) A genus of Composite 
 plants, inhabiting South America and California, and im- 
 portant because of the utility of the fruit as a source of ve- 
 getable oil. From some German reports it appears that it is 
 the most productive of all oil plants. 
 
 MADONNA. (Engl, my lady.) An Italian term ap- 
 plied to the Virgin Mary. Hence pictures of the Italian 
 school representing the Virgin are generally designated as 
 " Madonnas." 
 
 MA'DREPO'RA. (A hybrid compound of the French 
 nadre, spatted, and the Latin porus, a pore.) The word ap- 
 pears to have been first used by Imperati to designate a genus 
 of Li.hophytes, in which the calcareous axis has its whole 
 surface beset with small lamellate and stellate depressions. 
 
 The genus was adopted by Linnaeus, who placed it 
 among his Vermes Zoophyta, and characterized it as fol- 
 lows: "minimal resembling a medusa; coral with lamellate 
 star-shaped cavities." It is scarcely necessary to observe 
 tint the animal, especially in the larger madrepores, as the 
 Ftmgia, most closely resembles the Actinia in its general 
 organization. Cuvier places the madrepores In the tribe 
 Lithophyta, of the family of Polypi corticati. The Litho- 
 phvtes having the common character of the Linnaan ge- 
 nus are now subdivided into the genera Fimgia, Lam. ; 
 Turbinnlia, Lam. ; Cyclolythus, Lam. ; Caryophylltca, Lam. ; 
 Oculina, Lam. ; Pwcillopora, Lam. ; Scrialopora, L;im. ; ./?.?- 
 trea. F.xplanaria, Poritcs, Mcandrina, Cuv. ; Pavonia, Cuv. ; 
 Hydrnp'iora, Fischer; j-lgaricina, Cuv.; Sarcinula, Lam.; 
 Sti/linn.. Cuv. ; ami Madrcpora proper. 
 
 MA'DREPORITE. A species of columnar carbonate of 
 lime found in Norway and Greenland. 
 
 MA'DRIER. In Military Engineering, a thick plank cov- 
 ered with plates of iron, and having a cavity sufficient to 
 receive the mouth of a petard, with which it is applied 
 against a gate, or anv other obstacle intended to be broken 
 down. Also, the flat beams laid in the bottom of a moat or 
 ditch to support the wall. There are also madriers lined 
 with tin and covered with earth, to form roofs over certain 
 portions of military works, in order to afford protection 
 against fires in lodgments, &c. 
 
 MA'DRIGAL. One of the lesser kind of poems, usually 
 consisting of (ewer verses than the sonnet or roundelay. In 
 its composition the fancy and convenience of the poet are 
 not subjected to very strict rules, rhymes and verses of dif- 
 ferent species being often intermixed. The subjects are 
 mostly of a tender and gallant nature: the character often 
 quaint, the expressions marked with great simplicity. Some- 
 times, however, a loftier and subiimer train of thought finds 
 its way into these compositions, especially among those of 
 the English school, as in the following celebrated specimen, 
 set to music, and perhaps written, by Orlando Gibbons, in 
 1012: 
 
 fill ! that the learned poet* of this time. 
 
 Who in a lovesick line so well cm speak, 
 
 Would not consume good wit in hateful rhyme, 
 
 P.u with deep care some hetter subject find ; 
 
 For if their music please in earthly things, 
 
 How would it sound if strung with heavenly string*! 
 
 Of a lighter and more regular sort, the following may serve 
 for a specimen : 
 
 When Thoralis delights to walk, 
 
 The fairie9 do attend her; 
 They sweetly sing and sweetly talk, 
 
 And sweetly do commend her. 
 The satyrs leap and dance around. 
 And make their conges to the ground ; 
 And evermore their song is thi«, 
 11 Long may'st thou live, fair Thoralis !" 
 
 Grassineau, in his Musical Dictionary, describes the n'ld- 
 rigal as " a little piece of poetry, the verses whereof were 
 free and easy, usually unequal : it borders on a sonnet and 
 an epigram, hut has not the briskness of the one, nor the 
 poignancv of the other ' 
 G9C 
 
 MAGAZINE. 
 
 It is extraordinary that the etymology of this word, though 
 introduced but little more than three centuries ago, is now 
 altogether lost. We subjoin the conjectures that have been 
 raised upon it. Rengitb {Arte Poetica) snys that it is cor- 
 rupted from the word mandrial, a sheep/old. Cardinal Hem- 
 bo seems to think with the last-named author, and il 
 it as a pastoral love-song ; adding, moreover, that it is ol Pro 
 vencal origin. Huet brings it from Martcgaux, the nam.- 
 of a people of Provence. " Ces martegalles et niadriguux." 
 he observes, "out piis leur nouis des Martegaux, people 
 Montagnards de Provence: de inesme que les Gavols, pen 
 pie Montagnards du pays de Gass, out donne le nom a telle 
 que nous appellons gavotte." (IVaite des Romans, p. 124.) 
 Covarruvius ( Tresor de la JLangue Castellan) derives it from 
 mandra. So that there is much testimony in favour of it* 
 pastoral origin. But the most curious, perhaps, of all the 
 etymologies is that of Ferrari, in his Origine de la La 
 Itaiienne, who derives the word from the Spanish verb mad 
 rugar, to rise in the morning; which Menage, in his Diet 
 Ely., says is naught. This last-named author throws out a 
 suggestion that it may have had its origin in a town called 
 Madrigal (of which name, indeed, there ate two in Old Cas 
 tile), in Spain; as from Val lee de Vire litis been formed 
 the word Vaudeville (p. 464). Others, supposing that the 
 earliest specimens of this sort of poetry were addressed to 
 the Virgin {alia madrc), have thence derived madiialle and 
 madrigale ; and go on to say that baring afterwards been 
 applied to poems of love and gallantry, the original meaning 
 was lost. The words of a very large proportion of the mad 
 rigals of the sixteenth century, a period when they wcrt 
 most in favour, are certainly compositions indicating ad 
 dresses to the mother of love and gallantry (alia madre ga 
 lante) rather than to the Virgin. At this period, moreover 
 the composers called their motels madrigali spirituals. We 
 regret that we cannot guide the reader with any certainty 
 upon this subject, in which we must leave him to a choice 
 among the etymologies here set down, or to find one of hi> 
 own that he may think more germane to the matter. 
 
 We will now endeavour to define this word in a musical 
 sense; and we do not think we can better accomplish thai 
 object than in the quaint language of old Charles Battel 
 {Principles of Music. London, 1636). He says, "The mad 
 rignl is a chromatic mode in discant, whose notes do often 
 exceed the number of the syllables of the ditty, sometimes it 
 duple, sometimes in triple proportion, with quick and sweet 
 reports and repeats, and till pleasing varieties of an. in four, 
 five, or six parts ; having in one or more of them one or mor« 
 rests, especially in the beginning, to bring in the points he 
 gun in another part." Choron calls it a species of compo 
 sition resembling the fugue, but the style of which, being 
 less dry, is susceptible of every kind of expression. Th« 
 simple madrigal is for voices only ; the accompanied imidri 
 gal, as its name imports, is with nn accompaniment of out 
 or more instruments, mostly the organ. To Arcadell, a 
 Flemish composer, has, but without foundation, been attrlb 
 tited the honour of composing the first madrigals. They. 
 however, exist by more ancient composers, even by those o. 
 the Flemish school ; and to our readers who are at all con- 
 versant with the subject, the name of Adrian Willaert will 
 doubtless occur as one of the composers alluded to. The 
 fact is, that simple madrigals appeared about the beginning 
 of the sixteenth century, during which, and the whole of 
 that following, the style was particularly cultivated and en 
 couraged, and may be considered to have now passed away, 
 unless we are allowed to consider the English glee an offset 
 from it. The first madrigals were in a style of music very 
 much resembling that of the church ; but they afterwards 
 assumed a character peculiar to themselves, which is stri- 
 kingly exemplified in those of Luca Maren/;o (soon after the 
 time that Palestrinn flourished), and after him in the works 
 of Gesualdo, the Prince of Venosa, Monteverde, and Ma- 
 zecchi. It is in their madrigals that the restraints which 
 laboured counterpoint imposed were abandoned, to make 
 way for imitations, canons, and fugues. The style was in- 
 deed that of the age, but the subjects were free : and the 
 tender and impassioned pictry adopted was welUexpn s-, d 
 in the affections of the harmonies employed. The Original 
 character gradually became more free, and was carried to 
 its utmost limit in the compositions of the celebrated Ales- 
 sandro Scarlatti. In England, during the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, the composition of the madrigal attained a very high 
 degree of excellence, perhaps the highest. Our composers 
 were in no respect inferior to those of Italy and the Nether- 
 lands. It is hardly necessary to observe that among them 
 are to be found the names of Orlando, Gibbons, Dowland, 
 Wilbve, Ward. Bennett, and Morley. 
 
 MAESTO'SO. (Ital.) In Music, a direction to the per 
 former that the music to which the word is prefixed is to bo 
 performed slowlv and with grandeur. 
 
 MAGAZINE. (Pr. magazln.) A receptacle for miliary 
 stores, but especially for gunpowder, in a fortress. 
 
 Magazine. An apartment below, in the after part of the 
 
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 
 
 ship in which the povrder is kept As lights are not allow- 
 ed lo be burnt here, the light is received from another apart- 
 ment, ca.led the light-room. 
 
 Maoazink. In Literature, the general designation for the 
 periodical literature of a country, exclusive of the newspa- 
 per :in<l review. The peculiar province of the two latter 
 ■MUM ii> In) to communicate information — the one on politics 
 and passing events, the other on literary and scientilic sub- 
 jects: while that of the magazine is of a more miscellane- 
 racter, embracing all the features of the newspaper 
 
 w, but at the same lime containing, in the form of 
 etches, and poetry, &c., a great variety of what may 
 be peculiarly termed original matter, the introduction of 
 which would be foreign to the purposes of the others. The 
 carle, t publication of this kind in England was the Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, which still exists. It appeared in 1731 ; 
 - which so deservedly followed its establish- 
 ment Immediately called into the field a host of competitors, 
 which have so increased in number and variety as to form 
 an era in literary historv. See Veriodicals, Review. 
 
 MAGELLA'NIC CLOUDS. Three nebula; in the south- 
 ern hemisphere, first recorded by the navigator Magellan, 
 and named after him ; two of them about 19P or 13° from 
 the south pole, and the third more distant. Whether they 
 be resolvable into stars by means of the larger telescopes, 
 has not been yet ascertained; but, from their distinctness as 
 probably are. 
 UA'GIANS. The caste of priests (hereditary) among 
 the Persians and Medians are so termed by ancient Greek 
 historians. The name has been derived by modern ori- 
 entalists from mug or mag, signifying priest in the Pehlcvi 
 language. Zoroaster is designated as the great reformer of 
 the order ; but the history and the very existence of that 
 celebrated character tire enveloped in complete obscurity. 
 
 u rally supjiosed to have lived at no long period be- 
 
 Tbe most remarkable feature of his 
 
 doctrine consisted in the two principles of Good and Evil 
 
 who were held to divide the 
 
 dominion of the world, in alternate periods, during its whole 
 
 ii d duration of 12.IKKI years. The bonks termed the 
 
 'a, brought to Euro|ic in the last century by An- 
 quelil di Perron, tint supposed by some to contain the essen- 
 tial doctrines of Ibis religion ; but their authenticity has been 
 the subject of much discussion. The Ore-worshippers of Per- 
 sia and India still hold thetn in reverence, (Sec Zendaves- 
 
 ihbs.) Our amplest resources for the -only of the 
 religion and character of the ancient magi arc lo be found in 
 of Anquetil. (.See especially Me- 
 ;i. ties Inscriptions, vol. \ u 
 MA'GIC. (Lat an magics, the art of the Magi; be- 
 an |iliil<>-oiiliir.s were ranked by the Ro- 
 mans among the highest professors of supernatural powers, 
 through intercourse with the genii or intelligences with 
 which their universe was peopled.) Common as the su- 
 perstitious belief in the possession of such powers has been 
 among all nations hitherto discovered on the globe, the 
 Romans were, perhaps, the most superstitious in this and 
 all people. No American tribe has a more 
 implicit faith in its rude "medicines" or "mysteries," than 
 this great and civilized people had In its auguries and divi- 
 nations; and it is a remarkable feature in their character, 
 that while their religion prescribed these rites, the popular 
 
 ion was always searching after fresh excitement 
 from others, which were not only unauthorized, but con- 
 demned by their laws — the practices of the Th 
 
 the magi, the sorcerers of Egypt and I'hrygia, and 
 the numberless other foreign nations with which their do- 
 minion brought them in contact. Against those the emper- 
 ors were continually renewing their ineffectual edi< U ; and 
 It seems to have been mainly from this circumstance that 
 the idea of magic, aa a black and forbidden nrt, became 
 panted in the minds of the people of modern Europe. For 
 
 tern conquerors held such supernatural power in 
 high respect; and in the East, the favourite land of sorcery 
 and magic, the professors have from time immemorial been 
 regarded rather as venerable than as hateful. As to ancient 
 
 e Men. de CAcad. des Inscr., vol. xxxix. Hence, if 
 
 malic account can be attempted of matters which 
 
 ir foundation in the strange caprices of popular cre- 
 dulitv, it may be thought that, in the superstition of the 
 
 i'.'es, white magic or celestial magic, according to 
 Cornelius Agrippa's division, originated in the North or 
 
 ■irrstitious or diabolical magic, from Roman notions 
 Ingrafted on Christianity ; while natural magic arose merely 
 from the disposition among the scientific of those days to take 
 advantage of the vulgar propensity to attribute everything 
 extraordinary to supernatural causes. It is to be observed 
 that among the crusaders, ail other Christian warriors of 
 the Diddle ages, niacin was regarded as a peculiar ally of 
 
 irn and northern infidels with whom they were in 
 contact. The inhospitable North was peopled by their ima- 
 gination with enchanted castles and spectral illusions (see 
 
 MAGIC LANTERN. 
 
 Scott's Daunonology and Witchcraft, letter v.) ; and Frots 
 sart gives a most picturesque account of the spells which 
 were resorted to by Mohammedan warriors in their conflict* 
 with the soldiers of the cross. In the romances founded 
 on these historical encounters there are usually a good ma- 
 gician or witch (not the degraded witch of vulgar supersn 
 tion, but the French fee, Italian fata) enlisted in the Chris 
 tian party j evil necromancers in that of the infidels. Thus, 
 in Ariosto, Malagigi and Melissa aid the one side, and Atlas 
 the other. The notion of white witches, or beneficent wiz 
 aids, WW assiduously kept up by those impostors who wish 
 ed to profit by the public credulity, and yet avoid the pen 
 allies awarded by the church ; and in the church Itself there 
 was ;( contest continually maintained, whether magic, prac 
 used through laborious research and study of the celestial 
 influences or intermediate spirits, was lawful. But the pub 
 lie opinion always inclined the other way; and the magi- 
 cians of highest pretensions were always in danger of being 
 classed with the hated necromancers who derived their 
 power from compact with the devil. Among the earliest 
 fables respecting the higher order of European magicians is 
 that of Virgil, the Latin poet, turned into a wizard by popu 
 lar belief, which dates as high as the 11th or 12th century 
 Robert of Lincoln (Grossetete), Michael Scot, Albertus Mag 
 nus, and the famous Roger Bacon, all lived in the 13th. Ol 
 these the first was a church reformer, who seems to have 
 lain under the imputation of magic merely on account of the 
 displeasure with which he was regarded by tho orthodox. 
 Michael Scot is almost wholly a traditional personage ; that 
 is, his real history is scarcely known: the European reputa- 
 tion which he had achieved as a wizard is proved by the 
 high mention of him in the Inferno of Dante, who condemns 
 all magicians indiscriminately to eternal punishment. It is 
 difficult to say that Roger Bacon ever gave any cat) 
 pretensions of his own, like so many oilier eminent natural 
 philosophers of early time, to those charges of magic to 
 which his high genius subjected him. Perhaps Sir K. Pal- 
 grave, in his amusing action {T%e Merchant and /•'War), is 
 not far wrong in representing him as partly dazzled by on 
 inability to comprehend the real extent of those extraordinary 
 discoveries which were opening ujKin him, and partly owing 
 his magical reputation to tin: impostures practised by his 
 servants in his name. Albertus Magnus a Dominican, and 
 a celebrated magician in lus lime, lies more justly open 10 
 the charge of quackery. It seems to have been after this 
 
 time, about the 14th century, that magic rose for a season 
 into high repute as a lawful art, .and sovereigns bad pro 
 ed magicians and astrologers attached to them. The ex 
 iraordinruy tales related of some of these [wiint evidently t" 
 results effected by means of legerdemain: the feats of Ziao 
 sorcerer to YVemeslas, king of Bohemia (Godwin, Lives of 
 the Necromancers, p. 2~:t), are exactly a counterpart of what 
 Taverniersaw at the court of the Great Mogul. The higher 
 order of magicians maintained their pretensions with dilli 
 culty after the revival of letters. Yet the three most famous 
 of all belong to the commencement of that era: Doctor 
 Faustus (if that personage be not altogether traditional), 
 Cornelius Agrippa, and Paracelsus. It will, however, be 
 evident, to any one who rends their history, that the belief 
 in celestial magic was with difficulty maintained In their 
 days, while that in necromancy and witchcraft was becoming 
 more prevalent than ever. Thero Is a good deal of mystery 
 about the character of the famous Dr. Dee ; and it does not 
 appear distinctly how far he pretended to those powers 
 which are ascribed to him in that dreary work, entitled Ji 
 True Relation of what passed between Dr. Dee and some 
 Spirits, published by Merle Casaubon, in 1659. In 163-1, tin 
 French curate, Urbain G randier, was burnt for sorcery at 
 London : in 1640, tho pretender. Dr. Lamb, was murdered by 
 the London mob : and these are nearly the latest instances ol 
 distinguished magicians, while the degraded belief in witch 
 craft lasted much longer. As to natural magic, or the pro 
 duction of singular phenomena by natural means, see Brt 
 tcr's Letters on Nat. Magic ; Quart. Rev., vols, xlviii., lix. 
 MAGIC LANTERN. An optical instrument, by means 
 of which small figures, painted with transparent vamish on 
 slides of glass, are represented on a wall or screen consider 
 ably magnified. It is generally used as a toy, and affords 
 amusement from the grotesque character of the figures; but 
 is also employed to enlarge the diagrams employed in as- 
 tronomical lectures, so as to be seen by an audience: for 
 which purpose it is well adapted, both by its portability and 
 the small cost of the whole apparatus. The principle of its 
 construction is very simple. A lamp L, with a powerful 
 Areand burner, i9 placed within a closed lantern, and in the 
 focus of a concave mirror M N. At the opposite side of the 
 lantern is fixed a tube A B, containing a hemispherical illu- 
 minating lens A, and a convex lens B ; and between A and 
 B is a slit C D, through which the sliders of painted glass 
 are introduced. In this manner the picture is placed in the 
 axis of the tube, and strongly illuminated, in consequence of 
 the light being concentrated upon it by the mirror. The pie 
 
 697 
 
MAGIC SaUARE. 
 
 ture being also in one of the conjugate foci of the lens B. an 
 enlarged image of it is formed upon a wall or screen E F at 
 
 / 
 
 16 
 
 
 6 
 
 IS 
 
 /,. 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 //, 
 
 3 
 
 ti 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 some distance behind. The tube A B is made to pull out, 
 so that the distance of the lens B from the slider can be in- 
 creased or diminished at pleasure, and consequently an image 
 formed of any size within moderate limits. The magic 
 lantern was invented by Athanasius Kircher. 
 
 MA GIC SQUARE. A term used to denote a series of 
 numbers in arithmetical progression, arranged in the equal 
 cells of a square in such a manner that the vertical, hori- 
 zontal, and diagonal columns give the same sum. For exam- 
 ple, let the first sixteen numbers be arranged as in the an- 
 nexed table, and a magic square will be 
 produced ; for the numbers in each verti- 
 cal column, in each horizontal column, 
 and in the two diagonal columns, being 
 added together, give the same sum, 
 namely, 34. This is, however, only one 
 of a great number of ways in which the 
 same numbers may be arranged so as to 
 fulfil the conditions. Frenicle {Divers 
 Ouvrages, Paris, 1693) has shown that 
 there are 878 such arrangements. Emanuel Moscopolus, a 
 Greek author of the 14th or 15th century, is the first who is 
 known to have treated of magic squares, and to have given 
 rules for their construction. The principal authors who have 
 written on the subject are Stifels, Leibnitz, Bachet, Poignard, 
 Lahire, Ozanam, Franklin, &c. For the history of the sub- 
 ject, see Montuda. vol. i., p. C'S, <■: hut !**'« 1 'icUonoxy ; 
 and for the methods of constructing them, Ozanam's or Hut- 
 ton's Mathematical Recreations. 
 
 MAGILP. When linseed oil and mastic varnish are 
 mixed together, they produce a gelatinous compound known 
 under the above name, and used by artists as a vehicle for 
 colours. 
 
 MA'GILTJS. A name given by Montfort to a genus of 
 Tubulibranchiate Gastropods in the system of Cuvier, chiefly 
 remarkable for the form, length, and solidity of their shell. 
 The modifications of this dermal production are due in the 
 present instance, in great measure, to the accidental circum- 
 stances of the locality in which the growth of the individual 
 proceeds. The young Magitus commences its career in a 
 bed of lithophytous coral, and during the early and rapid 
 stages of its development, secretes its calcareous covering in 
 the ordinary form of a spiral univalve ; but soon the growth 
 of the surrounding madrepore surpasses its own, and it is 
 compelled to bring its oral and respiratory orifices, by the 
 most direct route, to the level of the surrounding coral. 
 While this change of place is being effected, the mollusk 
 continues to secrete fresh layers of shell coextensive with its 
 own advance, and to fill up the deserted part of the shell 
 with a solid deposit of a dense, semivitreous, and subtrans- 
 parent carbonate of lime, and finally produces nn elongated, 
 slightly wavy, tubular shell, with the apex sculptured in the 
 form of a spiral univalve, and the opiwsite end excavated 
 for a certain depth for the lodgment of the animal. The 
 tube is characterized by being longitudinally carinated. 
 
 MAGPSTEE (contracted Mister or Mr.).' An appellation 
 given, in the middle ages, to those persons who had attain- 
 ed some degree of literary or scientific eminence — in scientia 
 aliquft prffisertim literaria. It was equivalent to the modern 
 title of doctor. 
 
 MAGISTER EQUITUM. An officer among the Romans 
 subordinate to the dictator, by whom he was usually elected. 
 See Dictator. 
 
 MA'GISTERY. The old chemists generally applied this 
 term to precipitates produced by the dilution of certain solu- 
 tions with water: such as magistery of bismuth, which is an 
 insoluble subnitrate, obtained by pouring nitrate of bismuth 
 into water. 
 
 MA'GISTRATE. (Lat.) A general designation of those 
 public officers to whom the executive power of the law is 
 committed, either wholly or in part. It is almost imprac- 
 ticable to give any definition of this term so comprehensive 
 as to include within it all the offices, both in ancient and 
 modem times, to which this appellation has been given. 
 Under the various heads, the reader will find a notice of the 
 principil magistrates of all ages and countries. 
 
 MAGMA. (Gr. uacaia, J blend together.) A thick oint- 
 ment or confection. 
 
 MAGNET, NATURAL. 
 
 M.VCNA ClIARTA. .See Ciiauta, Magna. 
 
 MA'GNATES. In Hungary at this day, and formerly 
 also in Poland, the title of the noble estate in the national 
 representation. (See States.) The Hungarian magnates 
 are divided into greater and lesser ; certain high state offi- 
 cers belonging to the first class, the counts and barons of the 
 kingdom to the second. The title is of Latin derivation. 
 
 MAGNE'SIA. A white, tasteless, earthy substance. 
 usually obtained by exposing its hydrated carbonate to a 
 red heat. Its specific gravity is 2-3. It is almost insoluble; 
 but when moistened and put upon turmeric paper it reddens 
 it: this sometimes depends upon a trace of lime. It is an 
 oxide of a brilliant white metal, which has been called mag- 
 nesium, and which may be obtained by heating chloride of 
 magnesium with potassium : they act intensely upon each 
 other, chloride of potassium is formed, and magnesium 
 separates: it may be washed with water and dried. Heat- 
 ed to redness in the air, it burns with great brilliancy into 
 magnesia, 12 parts of the metal combining with 8 of oxygen 
 to form 20 of magnesia. In commerce, pure magnesia is 
 generally distinguished by the term calcined magnesia ; and 
 the hydrated carbonate of magnesia, obtained by precipita- 
 ting a solution of sulphate of magnesia by carbonate of soda, 
 and washing and drying the precipitate, goes by the name 
 of magnesia, or magnesia alba. The chief use of magnesia 
 and its carbonate is in medicine. Sulphate of magnesia is 
 obtained by evaporating the residue of sea-water after the 
 common salt has been separated, or by adding sulphuric 
 acid to bittern and evaporating, so as to obtain the resulting 
 sulphate of magnesia. This salt is also obtained by the ac- 
 tion of dilute sulphuric acid on magnesian limestone, and it is 
 not uncommon in mineral waters : it was formerly procured 
 from certain springs near Epsom, in Surrey, and was hence 
 termed Epsom salt. It crystallizes in four-sided prisms 
 with dihedral summits. Its crystals are soluble in their 
 weight of water at 00°, and in three fourths their weight at 
 212°. They melt when heated, and gradually lose their 
 water of crystallization. They consist of 20 magnesia, 40 
 sulphuric acid, and 03 water. This salt is a useful purga- 
 tive in medicine, and is the chief source of the other forms 
 
 ■ magnesia] s.lts fa 
 terish flavour. Magnesia is found native in the Btate-of 
 hydrate and carbonate ; it exists as a component part of 
 several minerals, and many of them are soft or soapy to iho 
 touch. 
 
 MAGNE'SIAN LIMESTONE. An extensive series of 
 beds lying in geological position immediately above the coal 
 measures ; so called because the limestone, which is the 
 principal member of the series, contains mag7icsia. See 
 Geolooy. 
 
 MAGNESITE. Native magnesia. 
 
 MAGNESIUM. The metallic base of magnesia ; which 
 see. 
 
 MAGNETIC COMPASSES. Sec Compass. 
 
 MAGNETIC COMPENSATOR. A contrivance devised 
 by Mr. Barlow for eliminating the influence of a ship's guns 
 and other iron in deranging the bearings of the compass. It 
 consists of a plate or combination of plates of iron placed 
 near the binnacle, so as to counteract, by an equal and op- 
 posite attraction, that of the rest of the iron on board the 
 vessel. Mr. Airy (Phil. Trans., 1839) has investigated the 
 law of disturbance in the case of vessels buil of iron, and 
 shown that the disturbing force consists of a very large force 
 of permanent magnetism in the rolled and hardened plates 
 employed in the construction of the vessel, and a very small 
 force of induced magnetism, which changes with the place 
 of the ship, or rather with the varying circumstances of ter- 
 restrial magnetism by which it is produced. Mr. Airy has 
 given a set of practical rules for correcting the disturbing 
 forces by means of two powerful magnets placed at right 
 angles to each other below the compass, and a box of small 
 iron chain, which is used instead of Barlow's correcting 
 plate. 
 
 MA'GNET, NATURAL. One of the numerous oxides 
 of iron; possessed, however, of properties peculiar to itself, 
 if we except the metals nickel and cobalt, which possess it 
 also in a very slight degree. The magnet consists chiefly of 
 two oxides, together with n small portion of quartz and 
 alumine. Its colour varies in different specimens, accord- 
 ing to minute differences in the ratios of the two oxides, and 
 the nature of the foreign substances with which they are 
 found united ; but it is usually of a dark-gray hue, and has 
 a dull metallic lustre. It is found in considerable masses in 
 the iron mines of Sweden and Norway ; in the Isle of Elba 
 in different parts of Arabia, China, Sir.m, and the Philippine 
 Islands. Small nwgnets are also occasionally, though rarely 
 met with among the iron ores of this country. The proper 
 ties are, 
 
 1. It attracts iron in all its states except the oxides. 
 
 2. If formed into a bar, and suspended freely by a hair, 
 or on a pivot passing through its centre, it will tum itself 
 round, and, after a few pendulous vibrations, settle k&lc som* 
 
MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 
 
 u.. , position; which it will retain if left undisturbed, or if 
 disturbed will, after a few similar vibrations, return to it 
 again as before. 
 
 3. By rubbing on a bar of steel it will give the bar the same 
 properties : and a bar of soft iron will, while contiguous to 
 it, even when not touched by it, obtain the same properties, 
 which, however, the iron does not, like the steel, retain upon 
 removal. 
 
 position of rest is different at different places, and 
 different at the same place at distant periods of time. 
 
 A great number of amusing toys have been formed of this 
 • and the phenomena are often at first sight very 
 surprising ; but its application to the purposes of navigation 
 renders it one of the most Important discoveries ever made. 
 The earlier navigators believed that it pointed always to the 
 north pole of the world; and that, therefore, by means of it 
 they could always at once tell the direction of their meridian, 
 and" consequently in what direction they were sailing. It 
 was hence called the loadstone, or leading stone. 
 
 The employment of the loadstone itself for the purposes 
 of navigation has long been laid aside ; as artificial magnets 
 can be constructed having a much greater intensity of direc- 
 tive power. See Magnetism. 
 
 M IGNETIG NEEDLE. An instrument suspended by 
 its centre, and magnetized, which shows the direction of the 
 resultant of the magnetic forces at the place of observation. 
 See Compass and Dipping Needle. 
 
 MAGNETIC PYRITES. Native black sulphuret of 
 iron ; it attracts the magnetic needle. 
 
 M V<;.\ ETIS.M. The science wliich investigates the phe- 
 nomena presented by natural and artificial magnets, nnd the 
 laws by wliich they are connected. The following brief ex- 
 planation of it under both aspects will servo to render the 
 (abject generally intelligible; but it is impossible to give 
 more than the essential phenomena and the general laws, 
 without descending to the detail of particular cases. For 
 farther information, reference may be mad.' to the excellent 
 compendium of Dr. Roget, In the Library of Useful Knowl- 
 edge ; to Mr. Barlow's Magnetic Attractions (2d ed.), and 
 
 Metropolitana ; 
 ■atise on Mag a '.ism in 111 
 Britannica; Gilbert, Dc Magnctc, 1600, folio; Robison's 
 Mechanical Philosophy; Biot., Vraitede Physique, torn, iil. ; 
 Pouillet, F.limcns de Physique; Becqucrel, Traits </' Elec- 
 tricity et du Magnetism* ; and various papers in the Trans- 
 actions of the Royal Society of London and Edinburgh. To 
 
 the work of Dr. Rojtet we have been under great obligations 
 
 in drawing up the present abstract. 
 
 Phenomena of Magnetism. — Phenomenon 1. If a nicely 
 ! lie suspended from its middle by a 
 
 intwisted >ilk, or allowed to rest dpoo a pivot, free 
 to turn in all directions, both horizontally and vertically; 
 and if it be then magnetized by any of the methods hereafter 
 described, it will turn itself into one particular position, and 
 if disturbed by any means it will return invariably to the 
 same as irs position of repose. The horizontal angle wliich 
 
 with the meridian is called its variation or its de- 
 clination, and the vertical angle which it makes with the 
 horizon its dip or inclination. 
 
 Phenomenon 2. Both these angle3 (dip and variation) 
 continually change at the same place of observation; some- 
 
 iatter very rapidly; the former, so far as has yet 
 erved, very slowly at all places. Thus, about 1659, 
 at London, the needle pointed in the direction of the geo- 
 graphical meridian : before that time it had pointed east- 
 ward of it; but from that time till about 1818 it had con- 
 tinually made an angle more and more westward, till it ar- 
 rived at a \ariation of 244°. Since then its motion has 
 again been retrograde, and it is now little more than 23J° 
 west. {See Compass.) The dip has also undergone similar 
 Variations: nt London, in 1773, it was 72° 19', and in 1830 it 
 P 38'. 
 Phenomenon 3. The observation of navigators shows that 
 there Is a curve line on the surface of the earth, nt every 
 point of which the needle will take a horizontal position. 
 litis is called the magnetic equator. It seems to cross the 
 geographical equator in four points; and its form and posi- 
 
 also undergoing continual changes. M. Morlet and 
 
 teen have investigated this subject with great care ; 
 and the former thinks it changes only its position, not its 
 form, wliich is contrary to what theory would lead us to 
 expect. 
 
 The lines at which the dip is the same number of degrees 
 arc called magnetic parallels of that degree, or, more prop- 
 er! y, lines of equal dip ; and the points at which the needle 
 takes a vertical position the poles, poles of convergency, or 
 more properly, poles ofverticity. The points at which the 
 variation is any given number of degrees constitute lines on 
 thi! earth's surface, called lines of equal variation, or (after 
 Dr. Bailey, who mode a considerable number ofobserva- 
 
 them) Halleyan lines; and the vertical circle whose 
 plane coincides with the needle in its free position at any 
 
 MAGNETISM. 
 
 place is called, though improperly, the magnetic meridian 
 of that place. 
 
 Phenomenon 4. If the same needle, whether compelled 
 by its form, or by loading one end of it with a weight sliding 
 as an armature to keep a horizontal position, or free to take 
 its own proper dip at each place successively, be made to 
 vibrate by being drawn from its natural posr'nm, and then 
 liberated, it will perform its vibrations more rapidly in some 
 places than in others, and in the same place at different dis- 
 tant periods. Its places of most rapid horizontal vibration 
 are not to be considered as those at which the most rapid 
 vibrations of the freely suspended needle take place. "llan- 
 steen has very laboriously investigated, from observations 
 made by himself and others, the curves where the horizon- 
 tal vibrations are the same ; and lie thinks there are four 
 poles at which it is more rapid than at any points Imme- 
 diately near them. But the rate of vibration of the free 
 needle has as yet been observed at very few places with 
 sufficient care to justify any general conclusion respecting 
 such poles of vibration. The velocity of vibration indicates 
 the variation of the intensity of the vibrating force, the 
 needle itself acting as a pendulum. 
 
 Phenomenon 5. The intensity itself varies at different 
 times of the day, and under all variations of temperature in 
 the surrounding medium, the place of observation being 
 the same. This was first observed more than a century 
 ago ; but its laws and circumstances have been only recently 
 investigated by Mr. Christie, and subsequently by M. Kiipffer. 
 (See Phil. Trans., 1S24 ; .Innales de Chimi'e, 1896; and 
 Mr. Christie's Report on the Present State of our Knowledge 
 respecting 'I'ere In the Reports of the 
 
 British Association.) The variation also undergoes similar 
 changes, and it is believed the dip also; but this has not 
 been well established by observation. 
 
 It is the opinion of Mr. Christie, Sir David Brewster, and 
 others, that the places on the earth where the temperature 
 is lowest are precisely those where the magnetic intensity 
 is the greatest, accordant with what Mr. Christie's experi- 
 ments on the influences of temperature would lead us to 
 expect; but till we have more certain knowledge of the 
 stare of in . Ity at those places, we cannot affirm 
 
 this to be the case, probably as it may seem to be. 
 
 In the following phenomena the place is supposed to l>c 
 chosen, and the dip, variation, and intensity to be fixed 
 thereby. It may be any [dace whatever on the surface of 
 the earth. We shall suppose it to be London (and there 
 is comparatively little variation of these elements in the 
 British Isles). The potbt of the needle wliich dips below 
 the horizon, and points to the westward of the meridian, is 
 called the north pole of the needle, and the elevated one the 
 south pole. When the horizontal needle is Used, the same 
 terms apply, the end which varies westward being the 
 north pole, nnd tin- other the south pole. 
 
 Phenomenon 0. If cither pole of a magnet be brought 
 near nny small piece of soft unmagnetized iron, it will be 
 found to attract it. Iron Slings, for instance, are Immediate- 
 ly collected together when a magnet is placed among them ; 
 and they adhere to it when lifted up, and more especially 
 about the poles of the magnet, in thick clusters. About the 
 Intermediate parts the number that adhere is much less 
 than nearer the ends; and in every magnet there is a part 
 to which the tilings have no tendency to adhere at all. It 
 thus appears that the magnetic forces, whatever be their 
 nature, are situated near the extremities of the magnet; but 
 it has been long questioned whether they be resident in two 
 isolated points, or diffused for considerable distances round 
 those points, but in a state of less intensity as they recede 
 from those centres. 
 
 Phenomenon 7. When, instead of fragments of iron, we 
 substitute a rectangular or cylindrical bar of soft unmagnet 
 ized iron, the magnet and the iron will be mutually attract 
 ed towards each other. The best mode of exhibiting this 
 is to suspend them by threads of untwisted silk at the np 
 propriate distances, as the friction they would undergo in 
 sliding on a table Is thus removed. It will be found that the 
 ends which are nearest to each other will tend to coalesce, 
 and that the other ends will tend to coalesce or recede, ac 
 cording as the remote end of the iron happens to be situated 
 with respect to the body of the magnet. 
 
 If another iron body be brought near the former in this 
 state of the apparatus, the first iron will be found to be con 
 verted into a temporary magnet also; and. in like manner, 
 the second piece of iron may be proved to have become also 
 a temporary magnet ; and then the third, and so on. The 
 intensity of attraction and repulsion is, however, weaker in 
 each in succession, till it at length becomes insensible. This 
 is prettily exhibited by attaching a key to a magnet, a nail 
 to the key, a smaller nail to that, a sewing needle to the 
 smaller nail, and so on, as long as there is sufficient magnetic 
 force developed to sustain the concatenation in a state of sus- 
 pension. Some magnets will sustain a considerable weight; 
 ohers, of course, are capable of exerting very little force 
 
 699 
 
MAGNETISM. 
 
 The iron is said to be converted into a magnet ; or, more 
 briefly, to be magnetized by induction ; or, to use the French 
 term, to be magnetized by influence. 
 
 Phenomenon 8. If two magnets be suspended, as in the 
 last experiment, it will be found that the two north poles 
 repel each other, and the two south poles repel each other : 
 but the north pole of the one and the south pole of the other 
 mutually attract each other. They will, in consequence of 
 this mutual action upon each other, take positions generally 
 different from those which they would each take in the ab- 
 sence of each other. 
 
 Phenomenon 9. If the poles of the successive induced 
 magnets, spoken of in Phen. 8, be examined as to their na- 
 ture, by means of their action on the poles of a small mag- 
 netic needle, it will be found that each of them is a distinct 
 magnet, each consecutive pair of them having their dissimi- 
 lar poles in contact. This is known at once by observing 
 which end of the needle is attracted before the next piece of 
 iron is put on, and which after it is added, the needle being 
 applied near the untouched end of the iron. 
 
 If, moreover, the pieces of iron be laid on a table, and not 
 \n contact, the same phenomena will be observed on the ap- 
 plication of the trial needle near their extremities. 
 
 When two or more magnets are employed to act by in- 
 fluence on the same piece of iron, the phenomena become 
 more complex, and the operation is called complex induction. 
 The phenomena are very curious and interesting. 
 
 Phenomenon 10. If the iron be removed it instantly 
 ceases to be magnetic, and may have its position reversed 
 with precisely the same effect as before, each phenomenon 
 taking place now at the end opposite to that where it was 
 exhibited before ; and this will be the case, however long 
 the apparatus has been allowed to remain in the position 
 spoken of. If, however, pieces of steel be employed, the 
 Inductive influence is less than in the Iron: while, instead 
 of losing its magnetism instantaneously, as the iron did, it 
 retains a portion of it, and becomes itself a permanent mag- 
 net. There are indeed few, if any, pieces of iron and steel 
 in which the magnetic force is wholly lost or wholly retain- 
 ed upon removal ; but we here speak of the sensible and 
 approximate circumstances of the phenomena. 
 
 Phenomenon 11. If a magnet be broken or any way sev- 
 ered, it is converted into two separate magnets ; the two ends 
 of the fragments at which the fracture was made being of 
 opposite kinds to the two ends of the whole bar respectively, 
 as if they had been but two magnets united by opposite poles. 
 
 Phenomenon 12. If two magnets be brought near each 
 other, their intensity of action on the vibrations of a needle 
 ure affected according to the relative positions of the poles, 
 Indicating not only that the direction of the quiescent state 
 of the needle is affected (Phen. 8), but that the intensity of 
 the magnetic force is also altered. Thi3 shows that the 
 magnetized bar itself is affected by the inductive power of 
 the other bar, as soft iron is. 
 
 Phenomenon 13. If a mass of soft iron be brought into 
 the vicinity of a magnetic needle, the needle will be gener- 
 ally deflected from its natural position in various degrees 
 and directions, according to the form and position of the 
 needle and the mass. When an iron sphere is employed, as 
 a cannon ball, the investigation of the order of the phenom- 
 ena becomes more simple and easy ; and it was by remark- 
 ing that in this case there was a certain plane in any point 
 of which the needle may be placed with respect to the 
 sphere where the needle would not be at all deflected, that 
 Mr. Barlow was led to prosecute his celebrated experiments 
 on this subject. Mr. Christie remarked that this plane was 
 the plane passing through the centre of the ball, perpendicu- 
 lar to the natural direction of the needle itself. 
 
 There are also lines on the iron sphere in which if the 
 needle is placed the deflection will be a given quantity. 
 
 The same phenomena, however, are exhibited, whatever 
 be the form of the mass. Mr. Barlow experimented on a 
 gun 58 cwt., and found it so. He also found that the action 
 did not depend upon the mass itself, but upon the surface of 
 the mass ; as the same effects were produced by a ten-inch 
 ball, a ten-inch shell, and a globe of sheet iron of the same 
 diameter. If, however, the sheet iron was less than 1-1 0th 
 of an inch in thickness, the effects were diminished ; but 
 up to that degree of thinness they did not seem to vary, 
 while after they varied very rapidly, and soon became in- 
 sensible. 
 
 Phenomenon 14. If disks of various metals be put into 
 rapid rotation, they will also deflect the magnetic needle 
 from its natural position. That this is not owing to vibration 
 or vorticity produced in the air is rendered evident by the 
 same effects taking place in a more intense degree in vacuo 
 than in the open air. The phenomenon itself was first ob- 
 served by Arago in France ; but it has been chiefly investi- 
 gated in this country by Messrs. Herechel, Babbage, Christie, 
 Barlow, Faraday, and Harris, to whose memoirs on the 
 subject, in the Philosophical Transactions, the reader is es- 
 pecially referred. 
 TOO 
 
 Phenomenon 15. Bars that have long stood in a vertical 
 position, as iron railings, &x., are found to have become 
 permanently magnetic. A bar of soft iron, placed in the 
 natural direction of the magnetic needle, acquires temporary 
 magnetism ; and if a bar of steel be left there for a sufficient 
 time, it becomes a permanent magnet. These facts show 
 that the earth itself is a great magnet, and converts the 
 others into magnets by induction. This was observed so far 
 back as the time of Dr. Gilbert; and it is remarkable that, 
 while his great cotemporary Lord Bacon was preceptively 
 urging the new organon in philosophy, Gilbert was actually 
 putting it into the most careful practice. The doctrine of 
 terrestrial induction, as taught by Gilbert, is the doctrine of 
 the present hour, and with scarcely a single improvement in 
 the whole range of the theory. 
 
 The foregoing contain the most important phenomena of' 
 magnetism which depend upon terrestrial influence merely : 
 those which depend upon electrical influence will be found 
 under the head Electro-magnetism. 
 
 Laws of Magnetic Action. — Law 1. The intensity of the 
 attractive force exercised by the north pole of one magnet 
 on the south pole of another, and its repulsive force on the 
 north pole of the second, varies inversely as the square of 
 the distance of those poles ; and the like occurs when we 
 consider the action of the south pole of the first magnet on 
 the north and south poles respectively of the other. The 
 same law, precisely, holds with respect to the attraction of a 
 corpuscle of unmagnetized iron. 
 
 This is the fundamental law of the science, and may be 
 considered as the source from which the others flow by 
 mathematical reasoning. It has been determined with great 
 care by several philosophers, but especially Michell and 
 Coulomb, by means of the torsion balance. Other laws 
 were, in the earlier state of the science, conjectured to ob- 
 tain ; as, for instance, Newton supposed the forces to vary 
 as the cubes of the distances, and some recent Inquirers havo 
 contended for the simple inverse of the distances ; but New- 
 ton's opinion was founded upon insufficient experiments, 
 and that of the authors referred to upon an oversight in their 
 mode of estimating the intensity of the forces. Not the 
 slightest doubt, however, now remains upon the minds of 
 those who are competent to form an opinion of the truth of 
 the law stated above. 
 
 Law 2. When the needle is very short in comparison 
 with the distance and length of the magnet, and has its cen- 
 tre fixed iinmoveably, but is otherwise at liberty to take an\ 
 directive position, it will so arrange itself that its line of 
 direction will be in the plane drawn through the two poles 
 of the magnet and its own (the needle's) centre of rotation , 
 and the lino of the needle's direction, being produced to 
 meet the magnetic line (or line drawn through the poles), 
 will divide the latter into segments estimated from the poles, 
 which are in the ratios of the cubes of the distances of the 
 (#>les from the centre of the needle. When the needle is 
 not small in comparison, as above, the law becomes more 
 complicated. 
 
 Law 3. If two magnetic needles be made to vibrate, the 
 intensities of their magnetic forces are as the squares of 
 their number of vibrations made in the same time. This is 
 true, whatever be the planes in which they vibrate, so far 
 as the force is effective in that plane ; but for a direct com 
 parison of the ratio of the intensities without further com- 
 putation, the vibrations of both needles must, in both cases, 
 be made in the same plane. The planes most commonly 
 used for vibration are — the horizontal plane ; the plane 
 which has been called the magnetic meridian, or that verti- 
 cal plane which passes through the natural direction of the 
 needle at the place of observation ; and the vertical plane 
 at right angles to this. 
 
 Law 4. If the needle be allowed to move vertically in 
 a plane making any angle with the magnetic meridian, the 
 dip in that case is equal to the dip in the magnetic meridian 
 multiplied by the cosine of the inclination of the two planes ; 
 and if two planes be taken at right angles, in which the dip 
 is observed, the square of the cotangent of the natural dip 
 at that place is equal to the sunt of the squares of the co- 
 tangents of the observed dips. 
 
 Law 5. The intensity of the horizontal force is equal to 
 the intensity of the whole force multiplied by the cosine of 
 the dip. If, therefore, the same needle be used in all the 
 experiments, and observations be made to determine the dip 
 and horizontal intensity at several different places, the rela- 
 tive intensities of the terrestrial magnetic force can be de- 
 duced from those observations by the three last laws for 
 each of the places. 
 
 The laws according to which magnetic force is influenced 
 by temperature have been chiefly investigated by CouKimb, 
 Kupffer, Barlow, and Christie. It appears, generally, that 
 between the temperature of— 3° and -f- 1270 of Fahrenheit, 
 the intensity of magnets decreases as the temperature in- 
 creases ; anil that at temperatures above 100° a part of the 
 power of the magnet is permanently destroyed. The eff-jct* 
 
MAGNETISM. 
 
 produced on soft iron by changes of temperature appear to 
 be directly the reverse of those produced on magnets, an in- 
 crease of temperature causing an increase of magnetic force. 
 On the Formation of .Qrtiftcial Magnets. — 1. If a steel bar 
 be held in the natural direction of the needle, and two or 
 three smart blows be given at the upper end with a hammer, 
 it will become a permanent magnet. 
 
 2. If the end of a steel bar be placed in contact with one 
 of the poles of a matrnct, it will become permanently mag- 
 netic by induction. A better plan is to place the needle in a 
 line between the opposite poles of two magnets of equal in- 
 tensity. 
 
 3. Lay the bar flat on a table, and draw another magnet 
 (placed upright upon it) several times from one end to the 
 other, always the same way. Or take two magnets, and 
 lay them horizontally upon the bar to be impregnated, hav- 
 ing their dissimilar ends in contact over its middle ; and slide 
 each towards uw end of the bar. This must be repeated 
 several limes. Or, again, instead of laying them horizon- 
 tally, bold them in any angle of inclination (each in the 
 same angle, estimated from the perpendicular to the middle 
 of the bar;, and draw them several times along towards the 
 ends, without varying their inclinations. 
 
 The above methods were those originally employed ; but 
 When the principles of magnetic induction came to be better 
 Understood, mure complicated but more effective processes 
 were invented, for the explanation of which reference must 
 be made to works expressly on the subject. (See Brew- 
 ster's Treatise on Magnetism.) Those more complicated 
 lay be greatly simplified by the substitution of a 
 : in the form of a horseshoe for the compound mag- 
 nets. If placed at once in the middle of the needle to be 
 magnetize'!, with the poles turned in a direction the reverse 
 poles intended to be given to the needle, and then 
 backwards and forwards along the surface of the 
 needle, taking care to pass over each half of it an equal 
 number of times, and repealing the same operation on the 
 other side, the needle is speedily and effectually rendered 
 magnetic This is by far the simplest mode of magnetizing ; 
 and it may be considered as a method by induction, the In- 
 duction being accelerated by the friction. 
 
 On the subject of terrestrial magnetism, which at the 
 present time is occupying so much of the attention of scien- 
 tific men, reference may be made, in addition to the works 
 cited, to the following: Ilansteen, Vnlersuchungen 
 iiber drr Magnctismiu drr Knle, 4tu. Christiana, 1817; Bar- 
 low, Vint. Trans. 1833; MXgemei** Tkeorit drs Magneti- 
 schm Verehu im Jakre, 1838, by Gauss and Weber. Leipzig, 
 a translation of which will be found in Taylor's Sci- 
 entific Memoirs); Jntensitns Vi.< MajpuHem Terrestris ad 
 ><rnm .'Ibsoltitam rrvocatn, Auctore F. F. Gauss, Got- 
 tingie, 1833: Major Sabine's Report to thr Seventh Meeting 
 of th< riation. 1838; The Report of the Presi- 
 
 dent and Counsel of the Royal Society on the Objects of Sci- 
 entific Inquiry. 1840: and to an excellent popular abstract 
 of the present state of our knowledge on the subject in the 
 (Quarterly Review for June, 1840. 
 
 MAGNETISM, ANIMAL. This pretended influence, or 
 agent, had its origin in Vienna about the year 1770, when a 
 person of the name of Anthony Mesmer published a thesis 
 On the Influence of the Planets on the Human Hn.ly. About 
 the same time a Jesuit, called Father Hehl. imagined that 
 by the help of a loadstone and certain steel plates rendered 
 magn etic lie had cured several diseases: and being struck 
 with the analogy of Mesmet*! views to his own, they enter- 
 ed Into a kind of partnership as joint practitioners,' nnd at- 
 tracted considerable notice: so that, although thev soon 
 quarrelled, their system of treatment had acquired some 
 notoriety nnd many powerful advocates. Hehl continued 
 to practise tins new and occult science in Germany; nnd 
 Mesmer, in 1778, went to Paris, and in the course of a short 
 time performed such wonderful cures, nnd took care to have 
 them so satisfactorily attested, that his apartments were 
 daily thronged with patients of all ranks, and fees and repu- 
 tation poured in from all quarters. He here, however, un- 
 luckily associated himself with a M. d'E-lon, a medical 
 man, who being more skilful in the art of pleasing patients 
 than iiis master, contrived to gain the ascendancy, and so to 
 disgust Mesmer that he was induced to qiut Paris for Spa; 
 where he s<x>n contrived, under the pretence of initiating 
 others in the secrets of his trade, to raise about 14,000/., with 
 which he retired to his native place (Mersburg in Suabia), 
 and left magnetism and the magnetizers to their own re- 
 sources. 
 
 As the jargon of Mesmer has been revived in our own 
 days, it may be worth while to give his own definition of his 
 art, which is quite as intelligible as some of the later versions 
 of it which have recently appeared in London ; for, in this 
 "hotbed of quackery," Mesmerism, as it is called, has oc- 
 casionally taken root, and at one time, but for an accident, 
 which we shall presently notice, threatened to thrive and 
 orosper 
 
 "Animal magnetism," says Mesmer, "is a fluid umvei 
 sally diffused ; it is the medium of a mutual influence be 
 twecn the heavenly bodies, the earth, and animated bodies , 
 it is continuous, so as to leave no void; its subtility admits 
 of no comparison ; it is capable of receiving, propagating, 
 communicating, all the impressions of motion ; it is suscepti- 
 ble of flux and of reflux. The animal body experiences the 
 effects of this agent ; by insinuating itself into the substance 
 of the nerves, it affects them immediately. There are ob- 
 served, particularly in the human body, properties analogous 
 to those of the magnet; and in it are discerned notes equally 
 different and opposite. The action and the virtues or ani 
 mal magnetism may be communicated from one body to 
 other bodies, animate and inanimate. This action takes 
 place at a remote distance, without the aid of any interme- 
 diate body; it is increased and reflected by mirrors; com- 
 municnted, propagated, augmented, by sound ; its virtues 
 may be accumulated, concentrated, transported. Although 
 this fluid is universal, ail animal bodies are not equally sus- 
 ceptible of it; there are even some, though a very small 
 number, which have properties so opposite that their very 
 presence destroys all the effects of this fluid on other bod- 
 ies." 
 
 "Animal magnetism is capable of healing diseases of the 
 nerves immediately, and others mediately. It perfects the 
 action of medicines; it excites and directs salutary crises in 
 such a manner that the physician may render himself mas- 
 ter of them; by its means he knows the state of health of 
 each individual, and judges with certainty of the origin, the 
 nature, and the progress of the most complicated diseases . 
 he prevents their increase, and succeeds in healing them, 
 without at any time exposing his patient to dangerous ef- 
 fects or troublesome consequences, whatever be the age, the 
 temperament, and the sex. In animal magnetism nature 
 presents a universal method of healing and preserving man- 
 kind." 
 
 Many of our readers have probably witnessed the silly 
 and disgraceful exhibitions in this line of practice which 
 have lately been tolerated In London, and are therefore 
 aware of the means by which the magnetized are brought 
 under the " influence." It is always necessary that the 
 magnetizer himself should be charged with the fluid, and 
 that the magnetiiees should be susceptible of its influence, 
 which, be it observed, all persons are not; nor can all per- 
 sons be magnetizers : some want power, and others faith ; 
 in short, there must be a due share of folly or of immature, 
 or both, on the one hand, and of credulity, cunning, or mor- 
 bid irritability on the other, nnd then all goes right. The 
 magnetizer, with his wand of office, performs certain antics 
 before the patient; nnd the patient either fails asleep or into 
 a fit, or is dumb, or deaf, or garrulous apd painfully sensi- 
 tive to sounds, as the case may be. But it is by no means 
 necessary that the doctor and the person magnetized should 
 see each other: a skilful artist, well charged, can magnetize 
 a fit subject in another room, house, street, or town ; and 
 can, moreover, tell by his own sensations to what extent the 
 influence is communicated, and how the persons receive it. 
 
 Mesmer availed himself of certain aids which our modern 
 practitioners have rejected; such as boxes of steel bars, mag- 
 netized water, and musical Instruments imbued with the 
 magnetic influence : he also frequently tied his customers 
 together, or made them link their thumbs, when several 
 were to be magnetized at once. When patients nre in the 
 crisis, or under the full influence of the power, they can be 
 Immediately roused out of it by certain looks, gestures, and 
 touches of the adept. 
 
 To ascertain how far the pretensions of the animal mag- 
 netizers were entitled to any attention or support, the French 
 government very properly appointed a committee of scien- 
 tific nnd unprejudiced persons to investigate its merits, among 
 whom were Ballly, Franklin, nnd Lavoisier; and it is curi- 
 ous that their report, which was translated into English, and 
 published here in 1785, is not more often quoted. "This 
 pretended agent," say they, "is not magnetism ; for, on ex- 
 amining the grand reservoir of the fluid by a needle and 
 electrometer, neither magnetism nor electricity could be de- 
 tected. We tried it upon ourselves and others without ef- 
 fect; and on blindfolding those who professed great suscep- 
 tibility of its influence, all its ordinary effects were produced 
 when nothing was done but when they imagined they were 
 magnetized ; while none of its effects were produced when 
 thev were really magnetized but imagined nothing was done. 
 So also when bronght under a magnetized tree; ntthing 
 hnppened if they thought they were at a dislance from tl» 
 while they immediately went into violent convulsions whoa 
 they thought thev were near the tree, though really not DOv 
 The effects, therefore," say the commissioners, " are purely 
 imaginary ; and although they have wrought some cure^ 
 they are not without danger, for the convulsions sometimes 
 spread among the feeble of body and mind, and especially 
 among women. And, finally, there are parts of the opera- 
 tions which may readily be turned to vicious purposes ; and. 
 ' 701 
 
MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY. 
 
 In fact, immora, practices have already actually grown out 
 of them." 
 
 Some years ago a great animal magnetizer arose in this 
 country, called Perkins, who invented what he called "me- 
 tallic tractors, for collecting, condensing, and applying ani- 
 mal magnetism ;" but Dr. Falconer and Dr. Haygarth of 
 Bath soon put an end to his pretensions, by performing all 
 manner of cures and wonders with a pair of wooden trac- 
 tors ; and as those cases were well attested, they proved, as 
 every person of common sense before knew, that all Per- 
 kins's results were imaginary or assumed, and so animal 
 magnetism fell into oblivion. Within the last five years, 
 some lamentable attempts have been made to revive it in 
 London ; not by quacks and impostors, but by regular prac- 
 titioners, and even by persons who enjoyed no inconsidera- 
 ble share of public respect and favour. They have unfor- 
 tunately reaped the bitter fruits of their credulity and folly ; 
 and the mania has again subsided, and will now probably 
 remain dormant. 
 
 MAGNE'TO- ELECTRICITY. Under the term Elec- 
 tro-magnetism will be found the description of certain 
 magnetic phenomena produced by electricity. It has been 
 demonstrated by Faraday that electric phenomena may be 
 produced by magnetism, and to these the term magneto-elec- 
 zr tricity has been applied. Let a 
 
 ]g represent a hollow helix of copper- 
 wire covered by silk, the ends b c 
 of which are connected with a del- 
 "* c-"^ icate galvanometer ; and N S a 
 
 powerful bar magnet, which can easily be thrust into and 
 withdrawn from the spiral or helix : it will then be found 
 that every time the magnet is pushed into the helix the gal- 
 vanometer is deflected in one direction, and each time it is 
 withdrawn it is deflected in the opposite direction. On re- 
 peatedly threading the helix with the magnet, the deflection 
 also takes place. Now, as the deflection of the galvanome- 
 ter can only be produced by the motion of electricity in the 
 helix, it is obvious that an electric current is produced each 
 time that the magnet moves through it: hence as, on the 
 one hand, electricity in motion produces magnetism ; so, 
 here, magnetism in motion produces electricity. By caus- 
 ing the pole of a powerful magnet to revolve before a coil 
 of wire, or, what amounts to the same thing, if the coil be 
 made to revolve opposite to the pole of a magnet, an electric 
 current will be established in the coil, which may be made 
 sensible by sparks, shocks, and chemical effects. 
 
 MA'GNETO'METER. An instrument for measuring 
 the intensity of terrestrial magnetism. The three elements 
 sought to be deduced from magnetic observations are, the 
 declination, the inclination or dip, and the absolute intensity, 
 together with the variations to which they are subject ; and 
 each of these elempnts requires for its determination a pe- 
 culiar apparatus. A detailed account of the construction 
 and various adjustments of the instruments made use of in 
 the magnetic observatories recently established, and of the 
 methods of observing, will be found in the Report of the 
 President and Council of the Royal Society on the Objects of 
 Scientific Inquiry in Physics and Meteorology, 1840. The 
 first accurate measurements of magnetic force were made 
 by Coulomb with the torsion balance ; but the more precise 
 method which is now generally adopted, and which depends 
 on the dynamical principle of observing the number of vi- 
 brations made by a needle in a given time, was proposed by 
 Graham so long ago as 1722. 
 
 MAGNETOMOTOR. (Lat. lit. magnet-mover.) A term 
 applied to a voltaic series of two or more large plates, which, 
 producing a great quantity of electricity of low tension, is 
 well adapted to the exhibition of electro-magnetic phenom- 
 ena. 
 
 MA'GNITUDE. (Lat.) Size, extent, quantity. This 
 term was originally employed to designate the space occu- 
 pied by any figure ; or, in other words, it was applied to ob- 
 jects strictly termed geometrical, and of three dimensions- 
 length, breadth, and thickness : then it was extended to des- 
 ignate the quantity of any one of these, and also of angular 
 space, or the inclination of two lines to one another ; or, 
 again, the compound idea of a solid angle formed by any 
 number of planes meeting in a point. The amount of any 
 one of these, taken in reference to some standard of the 
 same kind of quantity as that spoken of, was called its mag- 
 nitude. The term was gradually enlarged in its significa- 
 tion, so as to apply to every kind of quantity that admits of 
 exhibition or mensuration, or of which greater or less can 
 be predicated ; and in this sense it was used by Euclid. 
 
 M AGNITU DE, APPA RENT. The angular space (plane 
 or solid) under which a body appears when viewed from 
 some distant point. The term is chiefly used in speaking 
 of the celestial bodies, and ia then employed to express the 
 plane angle subtended by the diameter of the visual disk of 
 the body. It is also used in many branches of optical sci- 
 ence, but always with the same general meaning. 
 
 MAGNOIJA'CE/E. (Magnolia, one of the genera.) A 
 702 
 
 MAINTENANCE. 
 
 natural order of Exogenous plants, consisting of trees ot 
 shrubs of great beauty, usually with evergreen leaves, and 
 large fragrant flowers. They inhabit the temperate parts 
 of America and Asia, as well as the tropics, and are univer- 
 sal objects of cultivation. The bark of the tulip-tree, and 
 of some of the true magnolias, has the reputation of being a 
 good febrifuge. 
 
 MA'GPIE. A common species of the Crow tribe, Corvus 
 pica, of Linnjeus; now the type of a distinct genus, Pica 
 caudata. They continue in pairs throughout the year and 
 prey on a variety of food, chiefly animal, as the young of 
 hares, rabbits, and feathered game, young poultry, eggs, car- 
 rion, and insects ; lastly, fruit and grain. The magpie is 
 celebrated for its crafty instincts, its power of imitating 
 words, and the propensity which it has, in common with 
 other species of the crow tribe, to purloin and secrete glit 
 tering articles. The nest of the magpie is admirably con- 
 structed for strength and warmth, and is commonly defend 
 ed by a dome. It lays six or seven eggs early in spring, of 
 a yellowish-white, spotted with brown, and cineritious. In 
 winter, magpies will assemble in great numbers to roost in 
 some coppice towards the evening, but separate again on the 
 approach of day. 
 
 MAHA'BARATA. The name of one of the great Indian 
 epic poems, the subject of which is a long civil war between 
 two dynasties of ancient India, the Kurus and Pandus. This 
 poem embraces the whole circle of Indian mythology ; but 
 it is still more valuable as imbndying an immense number 
 of historical fragments, which will be of great importance to 
 the future historian of India. Mnny episodes from the Ma- 
 habarata have been ably translated by some of our most 
 celebrated Orientalists; and parts of the original have been 
 published at different periods in Germany. The period at 
 which the Mahabarata was written is wholly unknown, nnd 
 it has no less baffled all the researches of the learned to dis- 
 cover the date at which it assumed its present methodical 
 form. The Penny Cyclopaedia contains an able analysis of 
 this poem. See Ramayana. 
 
 MA'IIADO. A name of one of the Indian deities, frem 
 whom the sacred Ganges is fabled to spring. He is incor- 
 rectly used in Goethe's well-known poein, Der Gottunddit 
 Bajadere, which begins "Mahadfi, du Herr der Erde" (Lord 
 of Earth), as synonymous with Siva. 
 
 MAHOMETANISM. See Mohammedanism. 
 
 MAI'A. In Grecian Mythology ; 1. The daughter of At- 
 las and Pleione, one of the Pleiads, who became mother of 
 Mercury by Jupiter: 2. A daughter of the god Faunus, and 
 wife of Vulcan ; frequently confounded by mytholcgists 
 with the former personage. 
 
 M Al'D^E. A family of crabs (Brachyurous Crustaceans), 
 of which the genus Maia is the type The form of the shell 
 is ovoid : the mantis and the preceding joint are nearly of the 
 same length. The species called Maia squinado is occa 
 sionally taken on our own coast* as well as those of France 
 and of the Mediterranean: it is commonly called the "sea 
 spider." 
 
 MAI'DEN. The name given in Scotland to a sharp-edged 
 instrument, formerly used for the beheading of criminals. 
 It resembles in its construction the guillotine of the French. 
 See Guillotine. 
 
 MAIDEN HAIR. The .fldiantum capillus veneris ; a 
 fern found in many parts of Europe on damp, shaded rocks. 
 It formed an ingredient in the syrup of capillaire of old 
 pharmacy. 
 
 MAIL. (Fr. maille.) A small piece of metal or money, 
 but used collectively to defensive armour, formed of iron 
 rings or round meshes. See Hauberk. 
 
 Mail signified originally the bag which contains letters 
 forwarded by government for the public convenience ; but 
 it was soon afterwards extended to the letters themselves, 
 and it is now used also for the conveyance in which they 
 are forwarded. See Postoffice. 
 
 MAILS, or MAILLS. In Scottish Law, the rents of an 
 estate. (Silver halfpence, in England, were anciently called 
 mailes.) In the northern counties of England, and in Scot- 
 land, payments made by the occupiers or owners of lands to 
 persons in league with the various classes of freebooters who 
 infested the country were termed black mail. To take it 
 was made a capital felony by Stat. 43 Eliz., c. 13. 
 
 MAIM, or MAYHEM. In old English Jurisprudence, a 
 wound by which anv one was so disabled as to be less fit to 
 defend himself in fight, and therefore distinguished from an 
 injury which merely disfigured. Appeal of mayhem was 
 abolished, with other criminal appeals, by 59 G. 3, c. 46. 
 Cutting and stabbing, " with intent to murder," and with in- 
 tent to maim or disfigure, are now distinct offences, under 9 
 G. 4, c. 31, s. 11 and 12. The latter was thereby made a 
 capital felony only in such cases in which, if death had en 
 sued, it wouid have been murder. 
 
 MAINTENANCE, in Law, is defined to be an officious 
 intermeddling in a suit that in no way belongs to one, by 
 maintaining and assisting either party with money or other 
 
MAINTENANCE, CAP OF. 
 
 wise to prosecute or defend it. The punishment by common 
 law is fine and imprisonment, and by 32 H. 8, c. 9, a forfeit- 
 ure of ten pounds. 
 
 M A I'NTEN A.VCE, CAP OF. A cap of dignity, ancient- 
 ly belonging to the rank of a duke ; termed by the French 
 bonnet ducal. The lord-mayor's fur cap is also called a cap 
 of maintenance. 
 
 MAIZE (Mais, the American name), a kind of corn ex- 
 tensively cultivated for food, is the grain of tho plant named 
 by Linnama Zea mays. Like other corn, it is a species of 
 grasa, whose albumen is sufficiently large and farinaceous 
 to be ground into flour. In this plant the grains are unusu- 
 ally large, compress-id, and packed closely in regular paral- 
 lel lines along the aides of a receptacle many inches long. 
 In the young slate each grain is tipped with n long, slender 
 style as line as a thread of silk ; and many hundreds of such 
 ing collected together from each receptacle, the 
 whole resemble a silken tassel lirwijrinji down from the ori- 
 fice (.1" the sheathing leaves in which the inflorescence is en- 
 wrapped. When ripe, the corn is still covered by the sheath- 
 ing leaves, and la only to be discovered when the latter are 
 stripped hack. The male or barren (lowers grow in a loose 
 panicle at the end of the stem. There are many varieties 
 of maize ; some with stems seven or eight feet hitth, others 
 ding the stature of two feet : sumo requiring a long 
 ■tinnier to ripen their grain, others coming to peffeCnon iii a 
 couple of months. The colour of the grain is also variable ; 
 - coloured, red, crimson, yellow, white, and varie- 
 gated, are all known to the American planter. This kind of 
 corn is not grown exclusively for the sake of the ripe grain ; 
 the young female inflorescence, which is sweet and tender, 
 is boiicil ur cooked in other ways as a delicate vegetable, and 
 the young stems are occasionally given to cattle. Many at- 
 tempts have been made to cultivate maize in England as a 
 field crop, but without success. It does not thrive north of 
 the basin of the Mediterranean, and requires a higher sum- 
 mer iif.it than we experience In, these islands. 
 
 MAME8TY. Thla title of honour is derived from the 
 Romans, among whom it stood for the collective power and 
 dignity of the sovereign body; as majestas populi Romani. 
 Hence treason was termed crimen lasa; majestalis, an injury 
 offered to majesty. Majesty was the attribute of consuls, 
 pnetors. &c only as representing the public ; and hence, in 
 later times, when it was transferred to the emperors along 
 with the sovereign power, inferior magistrates were entitled, 
 in ceremonial language, hy the appellation of dignitas. Ma- 
 ow the conventional title of European emperors 
 and kings. (The Sultan of Turkey has no more elevated 
 title in our ceremonial than Highness.) It appears to have 
 been first assumed by the German emperors, who were con- 
 sidered as representing the imperial dignity of Rome; then 
 by the French king Henry II.: in England, by Elizabeth. 
 The Emperor of Austria has the title Majesty, with the pre- 
 fix K. K. (Kaiserliche, Koniglichc ; »'.<•„ Imperial. Royal), 
 
 Jipostolital Majesty. — A title bestowed on Stephen, duke 
 try, about A.D. 1000, by Pope Sylvester II. Re- 
 on the empress queen, Maria Theresa, in 1758. 
 
 Catholic Mijesty. — A title bestowed on Ferdinand and 
 Isabella of Spain by Pope Alexander VI. in 1491, in mem- 
 ory of the conquest of the Moors: it had, however, been 
 borne by earlier Spanish monarch*. 
 
 Most Christian Mijesty. — A title borne by the kinss of 
 nance ; first solemnly conferred on Louis XI., in 14G9, by 
 Pop,- Paul II. 
 
 I 'aithftd Majesty. — The title of the kings of Portu- 
 gal ; bestowed by Benedict XIV. on John V. 
 
 M AMOR. In the art Military, a field-officer next in rank 
 above a captain, and immediately inferior to a lieutenant- 
 colonel. His chief duties consist in su|>erintending the exer- 
 cises of his regiment or battalion, nnd of putting in execution 
 the commands of his superior officer. This class of field- 
 officers did not exist till the beginning of the 17th century. 
 The prices of a major's commission and his pav in the Brit- 
 ish army are as follow : In the regiments of the line, £3200/ ; 
 pay, 10*. per diem : in the dragoons, £4575 ; pny, 19*. 3d. per 
 diem : in the life and royal horse guards, £5350 ; pay, £1 4*. 
 5<f. per diem : and in the foot guards (with the rank of col- 
 onel), £8300; pay, £1. 2s. This appellation of major does 
 not evist either in the artillery or engineers. Brigade-major 
 is a stafl-offi»er, who performs for a brigade, or in a garrison, 
 duties equivalent to those of a major in a regiment or bat- 
 talion. Major-general is an officer next in rank below a 
 lieutenant-general, whose functions he has to discharge in 
 the absence of his superior officer. 
 
 MAJOR AND MINOR. In Music, terms applied to im- 
 perfect concords differing from each other by a semitone 
 minor. They are used in the same sense when applied to 
 discords. 
 
 MAJORA'T. In modern legnl phraseology, ns employed 
 by several Continental notions, the right of succession to 
 property according to nge. It is defined " a fidei-commissum 
 gradual, successive, perpetual, indivisible, made with a view 
 
 MALACOLOGY. 
 
 to preserve the name, arms, and dignity of a family, and 
 destined forever to the eldest member of it ' In the German 
 empire and in Spain this species of entails .s of great anti- 
 quity. See Mayorazgo. 
 
 Majorat, in the Flench Law, expresses the property, 
 landed or funded, which by virtue of several decrees of the 
 empire might be reserved by individuals enjoying hereditary 
 titles of honour, and attached to the title so as to descend 
 with it. The German and Spanish laws of majorat had nc 
 exact equivalent in old France ; but a species of majorat 
 cvisted in the case of the Duches Fairies, abolished at the 
 Revolution, with other feudal Institutions, The general rule 
 of French law, that children succeed equally to their pa 
 rents' property, is only modified by the regulations respect 
 ing what is termed a " portion disponible." (Cod. Civil, art 
 913, &c.) A person who leaves one child only can dispose, 
 by will or donation, of half his property; one who leaves 
 two, one third, and so on : a person who dies without de- 
 scendants, but leaving " ascendants," one half or three 
 fourths, according to certain rules ; if he leaves only collat 
 erals, he may dispose of the whole. 
 
 M A'JOR DOMO. (Lat. major domus, greater oficcr oj 
 the house.) In the courts of those kingdoms which were 
 formed out of the fragments of the Western Empire, three 
 different offices seem to be designated by this title: 1. The 
 maitre d'hotel, or chief officer of the prince's tabic, pra> 
 fectua mense, architricjinus, dapifer, &c. ; 2. The mayor of 
 the palace (a'cononius, steward); 3. The first minister, pre 
 feet of the palace, count of the palace, fee. Charles Martel 
 is termed major domus hy some ancient historians. This 
 title became in later times confounded with that of senes- 
 chal. In Germany, under the Othos and the h<ruse of 
 Swahia, the dapifer was an officer of high rank, who bore, 
 among other duties, the standard of his sovereign. The 
 count palatine was dapifer of the empire : the Elector of Ba- 
 varia, nrch-dapifer. In England he was a personage of less 
 distinction, and his subscription generally appears last 
 anions the attesting witnesses to ancient charters. 
 
 MAJORITY. In Politics, the age at which the sover 
 eign, in hereditary monarch capable of excrci 
 
 sin;; supreme authority. See Minority. Rkobnt. 
 
 If A'JOR TERM, In Logic, is, in a syllogism, the predi- 
 cate of the conclusion. The major premise is that which 
 contains the major term. In hypothetical syllogisms, the 
 hypothetical premise is called tin: major. 
 
 MAJU'BCULJS, or CAPIT ALES LITERS. In Diplo- 
 matics, capital letters. The Latin manuscripts of the classi- 
 cal age which we possess (those found at Pompeii, and a 
 few parchment MSS. of very early date) are written in cap- 
 ital letters. Few instruments or hooks of a later date than 
 the sixth ce ntury are in capital letters. 
 
 MA'LACHITE. (Gr. iia\a%n, the mallow flower; ot 
 uaXanoc. soft; hence, also, called velvet copper ore.) The 
 blue and preen carbonate of copper. 
 
 MALA CIA. (Gr. unXaxioi', a ravenous fish.) A depra- 
 ved appetite. 
 
 MA'LACODKRMS, Malacodermi. (Gr. u<i\uko<, and 
 Stpua, skin.) The name of a tribe of Serricorn beetles, in- 
 cluding those with a soft and flexible body. 
 
 MA'LACOLITE. (Gr. (taXaicof.) A variety of augite 
 of a dark-green colour. 
 
 MALACOLOGY. (Gr. uaXaxia, the Aristotelian name 
 of the Mollusca of the moderns; and Xoyoc, a discourse.) 
 The science of the Mollusks. (See that word for their gen- 
 eral characters.) Cuvier, the great reviver of this branch of 
 natural history, divides the Mollusks into six classes. 
 I. Cephalopoda. — Mantle in form of a sac, open anterior- 
 ly, containing the branchia) and abdominal viscera ; 
 head protruding from the mantle, well developed, 
 and crowned by fleshy productions, hy means of 
 which they crawl and seize various object). 
 Et. Pteropoda. — Mantle closed; appendages of the head 
 either wanting or extremely reducsd. The principal 
 organs of locomotion are two membranous fins, liko 
 wings, situated on the sides of the neck. 
 IU. Gastropoda. — These crawl by means of a fleshy disk 
 
 on their belly. The mouth is supported by a head. 
 IV. Jlccphala. — The mantle encloses the branchia; and vis- 
 cera ; the mouth opens within its cavity, and is not 
 supported by a distinct head. The mantle may be 
 open throughout its length, at both ends, or at one ex- 
 tremity only. 
 V. Brachiopoda. — These are also enclosed in a mantle 
 without an apparent head ; but have a pair of long 
 fleshy, ciliated arms, which are spiral when re- 
 tracted. 
 VI. Cirrhopoda — This class Cuvier defines as being similar 
 to the other Mollusks in the mantle, branchi.-c, &c. ; 
 but as differing from them in having numerous horny 
 nnd articulated limbs, and a nervous system more 
 nonrly resembling that of the Articulata. 
 Since the early form and metamorphoses of the 
 703 
 
MALACOLOGY. 
 
 Cirrhopoda, or, more properly, Cirripcdia, were 
 known, most zoologists have regarded them as mem- 
 bers of the Articulate sub-kingdom. 
 The classification of the Mollusca has been much per- 
 fected by those zoologists who have been attracted to the 
 study of this department of the animal kingdom by the 
 beautiful and diversified coverings of the testaceous species. 
 Among these, Lamarck ranks deservedly the chief; and 
 his system is still that which mainly guides the concholo- 
 gist in the arrangement of his shells. 
 The following is the outline of the Lamarckian system: 
 In the system of Lamarck, the natural primary group of 
 animals, to which the science of malacology relates, consti- 
 tutes the 11th and 12th classes of his Invertebrata. The 
 first of these classes, under the name of Conchifera, is equiv- 
 alent to the Testaceous Acephala and Brachiopoda of Cuvier ; 
 and these low-organized, headless Mollusca have their ex- 
 ternal shelly defensive covering rendered the more complete 
 by way of compensation for the slight development of the 
 nervous centres to which the impressions of external ob- 
 jects are referred, and from which the acts of volition em- 
 anate. Instead of one shell, they are therefore provided 
 with, and generally completely covered by, two shells, 
 which are technically called "valves:" and the Conchifera 
 of Lamarck thus include the Mollusks with bivalve shells. 
 These are divided into two orders, Dimyaria and Mono- 
 myaria. • 
 
 Class I. Conchifera. 
 
 Order 1. Conchifera Dimyaria. — Char.: Two muscles of 
 attachment at least ; shell internally with two muscular 
 impressions, which are separate and lateral. 
 (1.) Shell regular, generally equivalve. 
 (A.) Shell gaping in general at the lateral extremities, its 
 valves being approximated. 
 (*; Crassipede Conchifcrs. — Mantle with its lobes united 
 anteriorly, either entirely or partially ; foot thick : 
 gape of the shell wide. 
 Family 1. Tubicolidce. — Shell either contained in a tubu- 
 lar sheath distinct from its valves, or entirely or par- 
 tially incrusted in the wall of its sheath, or projecting 
 externally. (Aspcrgil/um, Clavagclla, Teredo, &c.) 
 Family 2. Pholadidm. — Shell without a tubular sheath, 
 either furnished with accessory pieces or gaping very 
 murh anteriorly. {Pholas, Gastrochana.) 
 Fwr.ily 3. Solenidts. — Shell without accessory pieces, and 
 gapii.g at the lateral extremities only ; ligament exter- 
 nal. (S?len, Panopaa, Glycymeris .) 
 Family 4. Myida. — The same characters of the shell, 
 with the ; ; gaii;ent internal. (J\fya, Anatina.) 
 "**) Tenuipede Cinc.;.ifeis. — Mantle with its lobes not uni- 
 ted, or hardly u.:>ted anteriorly ; foot small, com- 
 pressed; gaping of tile si.ell often considerable. 
 Family 5. Mactrid<e. 
 
 a. Ligament interna! only. (Mdctra, Crassatclla, Kry- 
 
 cina, Lutraria.) 
 
 b. Ligament partly interral, partly i.;ternal. (Unguli- 
 
 na. Solemya, Amphidesma.) 
 Family 6. Corbulida. — Shell ii.squ'valve ; ligament in- 
 ternal. (Corbula, Pandora.) 
 Family 7. Lithopagida: — Ligament ;*art!v external, oart- 
 ly internal ; shells without accessory pieces or -ny /"ar- 
 ticular sheath, more or less gaping c* theii anterior 
 side. (Saxicava, Pctricola, Venerupis.) 
 Family 8. Nymphidm. — Two cardinal teeth at most in tho 
 same valve ; shell often gaping a little at the lateral ex- 
 tremities; ligament external; nympha? in general ga- 
 ping outwards. (Sanguinolaria, Psammobia, Tcllina, 
 Corbis, Lucina, Donax, Capsa, Crassma.) See Con- 
 cholooy. 
 fB.) Shell closed at the lateral extremities when the 
 valves arc shut. 
 ***) Lamellipedc Conchifcrs. — Foot flattened, lamelliform, 
 not posterior. 
 Family 9. Conchida. — Three cardinal teeth at least in one 
 valve, with as many or less in the other; lateral teeth 
 sometimes. 
 1 Fluviatile Conchidce. — Shell with lateral teeth, and 
 covered with a false epiderm. (Cyclas, Cyrena, Ga- 
 lathe.a.) 
 2. Marine Conchidm. — No lateral teeth in the greater 
 number ; rarely an epidermis, which covers the 
 whole shell except the umbones. {Cyprina, Cythe- 
 rea, Venus, Venericardia.) 
 Family 10. Cardiida. — Cardinal teeth irregular either in 
 their form or situation, and accompanied in general by 
 one or two lateral teeth. (Cardium, Cardita, Tsocardia, 
 &c.) 
 Family 11. Arcida. — Cardinal teeth small, numerous, in- 
 trant, and disposed in each valve on a line, which is 
 either straight, or arched, or broken. (Cuculfea, Area, 
 Pectunculus, Nueula, Trigonia, and Castalia.) 
 704 
 
 Family 12. Naiido}. — Fluviatile shells, whose hinge if 
 sometimes furnished with an irregular cardinal tooth, 
 which is simple or divided, and with a longitudinal 
 tooth, which is prolonged under the corslet; and some- 
 times without any tooth at all, or is furnished along its 
 length with irregular granulous tubercles. Umbones 
 with the epidermis peeled off, and frequently eroded. 
 ( Unio, Hyria, Anodon, and Iridina.) 
 
 Family 13. Chamida. — Shell irregular, incquivalve; a 
 single cardinal tooth, oblique and subcrenate, inserted 
 into a little pit in the opposite valve; muscular im 
 pressions distant, lateral ; external ligament depressed 
 (Dicras, Chama, Ethcria.) 
 Order 2. — Conchifera Monomyaria. — Only one muscle of at 
 
 tachment, which seems to traverse their body. 
 Shell with an internal subcentral muscular impres 
 sion. 
 (*) Ligament marginal, elongated on the border, sublinear. 
 
 Family 14. Tridacnidce. — Shell transverse, equivalve, 
 with an elongated muscular impression bordering the 
 upper limb. (Tridacna, Hippopus.) 
 
 Family 15. Mytilida:. — Shell longitudinal or subtrans- 
 verse, with a muscular impression contracted into an 
 isolated space without bordering the limb ; hinge with 
 a subinternal ligament, which is marginal, linear, very' 
 entire. {Modiola, Mijtilus, Pinna.) 
 
 Family 16. Mallcidw. — Ligament sublinear, either inter 
 
 rupted by serial teeth or simple ; shell subinequivalve, 
 
 foliated. (Crenatula, Perna, Malleus, Avicula.) 
 
 (**) Ligament not marginal, contracted into a short space 
 
 under the umbones, and not forming a tendinous 
 
 tube under the shell. 
 
 Family 17. Pectinida. — Shell regular, compart, not foli- 
 ated. {Pedum, Lima, Plagiostoma, Pectcn Plicatula, 
 Spondylus, Podopsis.) 
 
 Family 18. Ostreida. 
 
 a. Ligament partly external ; shell foliated, but never 
 
 theless often acquiring great thickness. Gryphaa, 
 Ostrea, Vulsella.) 
 
 b. Ligament internal ; shell delicate, papyraceous. 
 
 (Placuna, Anomia.) 
 (***) Ligament either wanting or represented by a tendi- 
 nous chord which sustains the shell. 
 Family 19. Rudista. — Shell very inequivalve. (Spharu- 
 lites, Radio'ites, Calcro^a, Birostrites, Discina, Crania.) 
 Family 20. Brachiopoda. — Shell adherent, either immedi- 
 ately or by a tendinous chord ; mantle bilobate, the 
 lobes separated anteriorly, enveloping the body ; two 
 opposed, elongated, fringed arms near the mouth, roll- 
 ed spirally when retracted. {Orbieula, Terebratvla, 
 Lingula.) 
 
 Class II. Mollusca. . 
 
 Order 1. Pteropoda. — Char.: No foot for creeping, nor arms 
 for progress or seizing the prey ; two tins, opposed and 
 similar, proper for natation ; body free and floating ; some 
 naked ; others with thin, semitranspaient, symmetrical 
 shell. (Hyalaa, Clio, Cleodora, I.imacina, Cymbulia, 
 Pneumodermon. 
 Order 2. Gasteropoda. — Animals with a straight body, 
 never spiral, nor enveloped in a shell which can contain 
 the entire body ; a foot or muscular disk along the whole 
 length of the under part of the body, serving for creeping; 
 some naked ; others protected by a dorsal shell not im- 
 bedded ; and others containing a shell more or less hid- 
 den in their mantle. 
 Section 1. Hydrobranchiata. — Branchial, whatever be their 
 position, developed either in the form of a network, in 
 laminae, in a pectinated form, or in a riband-like shape. 
 The Gastropods of this section breathe water only. 
 Family 21. Tritonidw. — Branchiae external, placed above 
 the mantle, either on the back or on the sides, and not 
 being in any particular cavity. (Glaitcns, Eolis, Tri- 
 tonia, Scyllaa, Tethys, Doris.) 
 Family 22. Phyllididw. — Branchiae placed under the bor- 
 der of the mantle, and disposed in a longitudinal series 
 around the body, or on one side only, not being in any 
 particular cavity. (PhyUidia, Chitonellus, Chiton, Pa- 
 tella.) 
 Family 23. Semiphyllidida. — Branching placed under the 
 border of the mantle, and disposed in a longitudinal 
 series on the right side of the body only. {Pleurobran 
 chvs, Umbrella.) 
 Family 24. — Calyptraidx.— Branchiae placed in a particu 
 Iar cavity upon the back, situated anteriorly near the 
 neck ; shell always external, an! covering the soft 
 parts. (Parmophorus, F.marginvJa, Fissurella, Pile- 
 opsis, Calyptrtsa, Crepidula. Ancylns.) 
 Family 25. Bullidce. — Branchiae placed in a particular 
 cavity towards the posterior part of the back, and cov- 
 ered either by the mantle or by an opercular escutch- 
 eon. {Bulla, Aplysia, Dolabella.) 
 
MALACOLOGY. 
 
 Section 2. Pncumobranehiata. — Branchiae creeping, in the 
 form of a vascular network, on the wall of a particular 
 cavity, the aperture of which is small, and can be con- 
 tracted or dilated at will. The Gastropods of this section 
 breathe nothing but air. 
 Family l.imacida. (See Liu* ax.) 
 
 Order 3. Trackelipoda. — Body spiral in its posterior part, 
 which is separated from the foot, and always lodged in a 
 ehell ; the foot free, flattened, attached to the lower base 
 of the neck or to the anterior part of the body, and serv- 
 ing for creeping ; shell equivalve and sheathing. 
 
 Section 1. Phytiphaga.— Trachelipods without a projecting 
 siphon, and respiring in general by means of a hole ; the 
 greater part phytiphagous, and furnished with jaws; shell 
 will) the aperture entire, having at its base neither dorsal 
 subascending notch nor canal. 
 
 (*) Breathing air only ; shell spirivalve, unarmed, not dis- 
 tinctly nncreous. 
 Family 26. Helicida. 
 
 a. Four tentacles. {Helix, Bulimus, Achatina, Jtc.) 
 
 b. Two tentacles. {Auricula, Cyclostoma.) 
 
 Family 27. Limnaidm. — Amphibious; living in the wa- 
 ter, but coming to the surface to breathe ; shell with a 
 sharp edge to the lip. (Planorbis, Physa, IAmnaa.) 
 (**) Breathing water only; branchiae projecting in form of 
 filaments, laminte, or tufts in the branchial cavity; 
 shell often nacreous, and often also having protu- 
 berant parts on the surface. 
 (a.) Shell fluvintile, operculuted, the left border of which 
 
 does not resemble a demi-partition. 
 Family 98. Me'anida. — Shell with disunited borders. 
 
 {.M'lania, Melanopsis, Pirena.) 
 Family 29. Peristomidtr. — Shell with united borders. 
 
 (Valvata, Paludina, Ampullaria.) 
 {b.j Shell fluvintile or marine, the left border resembling 
 
 a demi-partition. 
 Family 30, .Yeritidx. — JVavicclla, Jt'eritina (fluviatile), 
 
 .V,nla, JVatica (marine). 
 (c.) Shell marine, the left border not resembling a demi- 
 partition. 
 Family 31. Janlhinulas. — Shell floating at the surface of 
 
 llie water. (Janlhina.) 
 Family 32. Macrostomida. — Shell not floating, having the 
 aperture very wide; no columella. (Sigaretus, Stoma- 
 l-lla, Haliotis.) 
 Family 33. Plicacida. — Aperture of shell not very wide ; 
 
 plaits on the columella. {Tornatella, Pyramidella.) 
 Family 34. Sca'arida. — Borders of the aperture united 
 circularly; no plaits on the columella. (Vermetus, 
 trim. Dr/phinula.) 
 Family 35. Turbinate. — Borders of the aperture disuni- 
 ted. (Solarium, Rotella, Trochus, Monodonta, Turbo, 
 Planazit, Phasianella, Turritella.) 
 Section 2. '/.oophaga. — Trachelipods with a projecting si- 
 phon, and which only breathe water, which reaches the 
 hranchire by means of this siphon. These feed on animal 
 substances only, are marine, have no jaws, and are fur- 
 nished with a retractile proboscis. Shell spirivalve, 
 sheathing the soft parts, with an aperture which is either 
 canaliculated, or notched, or turned up at its base. 
 (a.) Shell with a cannl more or less long at the base of 
 its aperture, and the right border of whose lip does 
 not change with age. 
 Famliy 36. Canalifera. 
 
 1. No constant process on the right lip of the shell. 
 
 {Cerithium, Pleurotoma, Turbinella, Cancellaria, 
 Fasciularia, Fusus, Pyrvla.) 
 
 2. A constant process on the right Up in nil the species. 
 a. No processes on the spire. (Struthiolaria.) 
 
 /? Processes on the spire. {Ranella, Murex, TYiton.) 
 (J.) Shell with a canal more or less long nt the base of its 
 aperture, and the right border of whose lip changes 
 its form with nge, and has a sinus inferiorly. 
 Family 37. Alata. — Wing shells. {Rostellaria, Pteroce- 
 
 ra.i, Strombus.) 
 (e.) Shell with a short canal ascending posteriorly, or 
 with an oblique notch at the base of its aperture, this 
 demicanal being directed towards the back. 
 Family 38. Purpurifera. 
 L Canal ascending or recurved towards the back. 
 
 {Cassis, Cassidaria.) 
 2 An oblique notch directed backwards. {Purpura, 
 Ricinula, Monoceras, Concholepas, Harpa, Dolium, 
 Buccinum, Eburna, Terebra.) 
 (rf ' No canal at the base of the aperture, but n subdorsal 
 
 notch, and plaits on the columella. 
 Family 39. Columcllida. — Columbella, Mitra, Valuta, 
 
 Marginetla, folvaria. 
 (e.) Shell without a canal, but having the base of its ap- 
 erture notched or versant, and the whorls of its spire 
 large, compressed, and enrolled in such a manner that 
 the last whorl nearly entirely covers the other* 
 2 Y 
 
 MALIC ACID. 
 
 Family 40. Convolution. — Ovula, Cypraa, Terebcllum 
 Ancillaria, Olioa, Conus. 
 Order 4. Cephalopoda. — Mantle in form of a «ac, containing 
 the lower part of the body ; head projecting frcra the sac. 
 surrounded by arms, which are not articulated [but fur 
 nished with suckers, and which environ the mouth ; two 
 sessile eyes; two horny mandibles to the mouth; three 
 hearts*] ; sexes separate. 
 Division 1. Polythalamous Ctphalopods. — Shell multilot;: 
 lar, enveloped completely or partially, and which is en 
 closed in the posterior part of the animal, often with mi 
 herence. 
 
 Family 41. Orthoceratidce. — Shell straight, or nearly so. 
 with simple or not sinuous chambers. (Belemnitu. 
 Orthoceros, Nodosaria, Uippurites, Conilites. 
 Family 42. Lituolitida.— Shell partially spiral ; last whorl 
 continued in a straight line. {Spirula, Spirulina, Lieu 
 ola.) 
 Family 43. Cristacida. — Shell semijjisroid ; spire eccen- 
 tric. (Renulina, Cristellaria, Orbtculina.) 
 Family 44. Spherulidte. — Shell globulose, spheroidal, or 
 oval, with enveloping whorls or partitions united en 
 tunique. (Miliola, Oyrogona, Melonia.) 
 Family 45. Radiolidida. — Shell discoid, with a central 
 spire, and partitions radiating from the centre to the cir- 
 cumference. (Rotalia, Lenliculina, Plaeentula.) 
 Family 46. JVautilida. — Shell discoid, with a central spire, 
 and partitions which do not extend from the centre to 
 the circumference. {Discorbis, Siderolitcs, Polysto- 
 mella, Vortieialis, Nummulitcs, Nautilus.) • 
 
 Family 47. Ammonitida. — Shell multilocular, with cham- 
 bers sinuous nt the edges. (Ammonites, Orbulites, Am 
 monoceras, Turrilites, Baculites.) 
 
 [From regard being only had to the characters af- 
 forded by the shell, the Polythalamous Cephalopods 
 of Lamarck form the least natural of his groups. 
 Many of the genera, especially the microscopic s|>. •< -i- m, 
 belong to a different primary division of the animal 
 kingdom ; nnd one genus, Oyrogona, to another king 
 dom of nature, it being a fossil seed. The gene.-;i 
 Belcmnitcs and Spirula, which are true Cephalnpod- 
 have been removed to the higher-organized or Uihra: 
 chiate order of Cephalopods.] 
 Division 2. Monotkalamaus Cephalopods. — Shell unilocu.ai 
 entirely external, and enveloping the animal. 
 Family 48. Genus Argonauta. 
 Division 3. Sepiary Cephalopods. — No shell, either internal 
 or external ; a solid, free, cretaceous or horny body, con 
 tained in the interior of the greater part of the animals. 
 Family 49. Genera Octopus, Loligopsis, Loligo, Sepia. 
 Order 5. Ifetcropoda. — Body free, elongated, swimming horl 
 zontally; head distinct ; two eyes; no arms surrounding 
 the head ; no feet under the belly or under the throat for 
 creeping ; one or more fins without any regular order, and 
 not disposed by pairs. 
 
 Family 50. Genera Carinaria, Pterotrachea, Phylliroe. 
 Modifications of more or less importance in the classifica- 
 tion of the Mollusca have been proposed by Oken (JVatur- 
 geschichte, Jena, 1816), Ferussac (1819), De Blainville (1814 
 and 1825), J. E. Gray {London Medical Repository, 1821$, 
 Des Hayes, Rang, nnd others. For an account of the struc- 
 ture and growth of shells, see Concholoqy. 
 
 MALACOPTERY'GIANS, Malacopterygii. (Gt.ua\a- 
 k»s, and Ttrtpvl, a icing.) The name of a division of the 
 class of fishes compreliending nil those which, with an in 
 ternal osseous skeleton, have the rays supporting the fins 
 soil, except the first ray of the dorsal and pectoral fins. 
 
 M AL ACO'STRACANS. (Gr. uaXaicos , oorpaxov, a shell.) 
 The name of a division of the clasi Crustaceans, including 
 those which are covered with a crust softer than the shell 
 of the Mollusks, but firmer than the covering of the Ento 
 mostracans. (See that word.) The term Malaeostraca was 
 first applied by Aristotle to the Crustacea of the moderns, 
 being used by him in a comparative sense, as contrasted with 
 the Ostracoderma, which are the modem Testacea. 
 
 MALjEIC ACID. An acid obtained by distilling malic 
 acid at a temperature of about 400°. When malic acid is 
 exposed for a longer time to a moderate heat, it becomes 
 modified into paramalaic acid. 
 
 MALA'GMA. (Gr. pakanttv, to soften.) A poultice. 
 MALA'RIA. (Ital.maV aria, a bad air.) The exhalation 
 of marshy districts, which produces intermittent fevers. This 
 term has now become of general application ; but it was long 
 restricted to that district of Italy extending from Leghorn to 
 Terracina in one direction, and from the sea to the Apen- 
 nines in another. Even in the time of Horace, Rome was 
 deserted two months in the year, on account of the dangers 
 of the malaria. 
 MA'LIC ACID. (Lat. malum, an apple.) A pecullai 
 
 * The characters included within brackets apply only to the 2d division 
 of Lamarck's order. 
 
MALICE. 
 
 acid contained in the juice of the apple and several other 
 fruits : it may be obtained also from the berries of the Sorbus 
 aucuparia, or mountain ash, and lias hence been called sorbic 
 acid. 
 
 MA'LICE (Lat. malitia), in the English Law, does not 
 necessarily bear the signification of particular ill feeling 
 towards an individual, but is a term directly importing 
 wickedness in the commission of an act, and excluding a 
 just cause or excuse. (See Murder.) Malicious injury to 
 property is in some instances a felony, in others a misde- 
 meanour; punishable, in some, on summary conviction: the 
 law respecting which is consolidated in one of the statutes 
 commonly called Peel's Acts (7 & 8 G. 4, c. 30). By sect. 25 
 of this act it is expressly declared that the word malice, in 
 relation to these injuries, bears its legal and not its popular 
 signification; it being there declared that the act applies, 
 " whether the offence shall be committed from malice con- 
 ceived against the owner of the property, or otherwise." In 
 civil actions for injuries to which malice is essential, e. g., 
 slander, libel, &c, the question of the existence of malice is 
 one, in general, for the jury ; but, under certain circumstan- 
 ces, it may be implied by the court from the absence of rea- 
 sonable and probable cause, as in actions for malicious pros- 
 ecution. 
 
 MALLEABI'LITY. (Lat. malleus, a hammer.) The 
 property of being susceptible of extension imder the blows of 
 a hammer. It is especially characteristic of some of the 
 metals, and in this quality gold exceeds all the others: com- 
 mon gold leaf is not more than a two hundred thousandth 
 part of an inch in thickness; five grains may be thus extend- 
 ed so as to cover a surface of more than 270 square inches. 
 See Ductility. 
 
 MA'LLEUS. (Lat. a hammer.) One of the small bones 
 of the internal ear, attached to the membrana tympani, some- 
 what in shape resembling a hammer. 
 
 Malleus. A genus of Ostracean Bivalves, characterized 
 by having, in addition to the simple pit for the ligament, a 
 notch on the side of the ligament for the passage of a byssus. 
 The species of this genus are called " hammer-oysters." 
 The most noted is the Ostrea malleus of Linnaus, which has 
 the cardinal region of the shell forming something like the 
 head of a hammer, of which the elongated valves, extending 
 transversely, represent the handle. It is a native of the 
 Indian archipelago, and still ranks among the number of 
 rare and high-priced shells. 
 
 MA'LLOW (Lat. malva), is a weed common by hedge- 
 rows and waysides in Europe. It has mucilaginous proper- 
 ties, and has been employed in the preparation of emollient 
 poultices, in the same way as the marsh mallow. Its fruit 
 is a depressed disk, and is called by the country people 
 " cheeses" (Fr. Fromageon). 
 
 MA'LLUM. The public assembly or meeting of the 
 people according to the usage of the old Teutonic nations. 
 Under the Carlovingian monarchs, the mallum appears to 
 have been summoned by the missus, or deputy of the sover- 
 eign. There is a separate mallum for every leading state 
 or kingdom which composed the empire ; and it was attend- 
 ed by the notables of all the various races of inhabitants 
 (Roman, Frankish, Gothic, &c), and Is fome instances by 
 tile Scabini or Echevins, who represented the communities 
 of the towns. 
 
 MALMSEY. A strong and fine-flavoured sweet wine, 
 made in Madeira of grapes which have been allowed to 
 shrivel upon the vine : it is of a deep golden hue. It con- 
 tains between 16 and 17 per cent of alcohol. 
 
 MALT, is used to designate grain which has become 
 sweet in consequence of incipient germination. Malt forms 
 the principal ingredient in the manufacture of beer, and is 
 not used for any other purpose. Three different kinds are 
 employed : 1. Pale or amber malt, which vields the saccha- 
 rine or fermentable extract ; 2. Brown or blown malt, which 
 is not fermentable, but is used to impart flavour ; 3. Roasted 
 or black, or as it is sometimes called, patent malt, which is 
 emploved instead of burnt sugar merely as a colouring mat- 
 ter. The process followed in the manufacture of malt is 
 very simple, and has been carried on for a very long period 
 nearly in the same manner in which it is conducted at pres- 
 ent. (See Thomson's Chemistry.) 
 
 The manufacture of malt has been carried on in England 
 to a great extent from a very early period ; but it is singular 
 that, notwithstanding the products obtained from it have al- 
 ways formed the principal beverage of the great bulk of the 
 people, the consumption of malt varied very little from the 
 beginning of the last century till within the last half dozen 
 years! This extraordinary result, so different from what 
 would have been a priori anticipated, is ascribable partly to 
 the increased duties laid on malt, but still more to the greater 
 increase of those laid on beer, its principal product. No 
 doubt, however, it has been partly, also, occasioned by the 
 change that has taken place in the mode of living by the in- 
 troduction and universal use of tea, coffee, and other articles 
 substituted in the place of beer. But the increase that has 
 706 
 
 MAMMALIA. 
 
 taken place in the consumption of malt since the reduction 
 of the duty on it in 1822, and the repeal of the beer duty in 
 1830, seems to prove that the duties were at least quite as 
 instrumental in checking the consumption as the introduc- 
 tion of the articles alluded to. Malt was first made te con- 
 tribute to the public revenue in England in 1097, in Scotland 
 in 1713, and in Ireland in 1785. From the period at which 
 the duty was first levied on malt down to the present time, 
 it has been subject to numerous changes, a succinct account 
 of which will be found in the Penny Cyclopaedia. The pres- 
 ent duty on malt from barley is 2*. Id. per bushel, and from 
 bere or bigg, 2s. The quantity of malt charged with duty 
 in the United Kingdom during the three years ending 1838, 
 averaged 418,148,811 bushels; and the revenue derived from 
 it averaged, in the same period, .£5,282.972. 
 
 MA'LTHA. A mineralogical term applied to mineral 
 pitch ; an inflammable bituminous product, probably derived 
 from the exsiccation of mineral tar. A cement containing 
 mineral pitch was used by the ancients for plastering their 
 walls, and was composed of pitch, wax, plaster, nnd grease. 
 Another sort, with which the Romans used to plaster the 
 interior of their aqueducts, was made of lime incorporated 
 with melted pitch. The various bituminous pavements 
 which have lately come into use are similar combinations. 
 
 MALVA'CE^E. (Malva, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of mucilaginous Exogenous plants, with polypetalous 
 flowers and monadelphous stamens. The species are herbs, 
 bushes, or trees, and are found all over the temperate and 
 tropical parts of the world, especially the latter. Their 
 flowers are in many cases large and handsome ; but the or- 
 der is chiefly interesting from the Gossypium, or true cotton 
 plant, forming a part of it. Another species is the marsh 
 mallow, or JJlth&a officinalis ; and some yield a fibre fit for 
 manufacture into cordage. 
 
 MA'MELUKE. (Arabic, memalik, a slave.) A name 
 applied to the male slaves imported from Circassia into Egypt 
 by the master of that country. In the 13th century, when 
 the countries in the vicinity of Mount Caucasus were rav 
 aged by Genghis Khan. Nojmedden, sultan of Egypt, pur 
 chased several thousands of the natives of those regions, 
 especially Turks, and formed them into an armed body of 
 guards. These guards, or Mamelukes, in the sequel, seized 
 on all the power of the country, murdered the sultan Touran 
 Shah, A.D. 1258, and made Ibeg, one of their own number, 
 his successor. After that period the Mamelukes, whose 
 numbers were continually enriched by importations from 
 their own country, governed Egypt 263 years. (See Gibbon, 
 vol. xi.) This military sovereignty was destroyed by Selim 
 I., the Turkish sultan, who took Cairo in 1517. Neverthe- 
 less, the Mamelukes, under their 24 beys, continued for 200 
 years more to exercise a power scarcely inferior to that of 
 the Turkish pachas, whom, in the 18th century, they re- 
 duced to mere ciphers in the government. Their |>ower was 
 again considerably broken by the French invasion under 
 Bonaparte, to which they offered a determined opposition. 
 After the abandonment of Egypt by the French, the struggle 
 between the beys and the pachas was renewed : finally, in 
 1811, the present pacha, Mohammed Ali, having invited the 
 principal leaders of the Mamelukes to a banquet, slew 470 
 of them by treachery, and compelled the remainder to sub 
 mission. 
 
 MA'MERTINE PRISONS. See Prisons. 
 
 MAMMA'LIA. (Lat. mamma, a teat.) The most highly 
 ornanized class of animals, at the head of the great scale 
 of organized nature. They possess mammary glands, and 
 suckle their young; the foetus is developed in the womb. 
 Their external distinguishing marks are, a covering of hair, 
 and teats or nipples; but to the manifestation of these two 
 characters there are a few exceptions. The principal ana- 
 tomical character is the condition of the lungs, which are 
 suspended freely in a thoracic cavity, separated by a perfect 
 diaphragm from the abdomen. The entire tissue of the 
 lungs is occupied by extremely minute air-cells, with highly 
 vascular parietes, so that the air inspired is rapidly decom- I 
 posed, and breathing con be safely suspended only for a 
 short time. The whole mass of circulating blood is trans 
 mined to the lungs by the mechanism of a pulmonary auri- 
 cle and ventricle, equally perfect, and inferior only in powei 
 to the systemic auricle and ventricle, which subsequently 
 propel the aerated blood to the general system : the hearv 
 consequently consists of four distinct cavities. 
 
 The upper jaw of the Mammalia is fixed ; the two rami 
 of the lower jaw consist each of a single bony piece, and are 
 articulated by a convex or flat condyle to the base of the 
 zygomatic process, and not the tympanic element of th : tern 
 pornl bone. With a few exceptions, the jaws of the Mam- 
 malia are armed with teeth : these are arranged in a sicgle 
 row, are lodged in sockets, sometimes by two or more fangs, 
 and are never anchylosed to the substance of the jaw. A 
 deciduous tooth is never succeeded by more than one cor- 
 responding tooth in the vertical direction. The tongue is 
 fleshy, well developed, with the apex more or less free 
 
MAMMALIA. 
 
 The posterior openings of the nasal passages are protected 
 by the "soft palate," and the larynx, or opening of the wind- 
 pipe, by an "epiglottis." The alimentary canal varies with 
 the nature of the food, hut the "cfficum coli" is usually 
 single. The rectum commonly terminates by a distinct aper- 
 ture behind the urinary and generative orifices. 
 
 The bodies of the vertebrae have their articular surfaces 
 more or less flattened, and always joined together by a series 
 of concentric ligaments with interposed glairy fluid. The 
 cervical vertebrae, with one or two exceptions, are seven in 
 matter. The atlas is articulated by two surfaces to two 
 occipital condyles, developed from the ex-occipital elements. 
 With two exceptions, the coracoid bone appears as a small 
 process or appendage of the scapula. The sternum is nar- 
 row, and consists of a simple longitudinal series of bones. 
 
 The brain presents its highest state of development in the 
 Mtromnlln : it consists of a cerebrum, which is generally 
 more or less convoluted, a cerebellum with lateral lobes, and 
 a medulla oblongata with a distinct " tuber annulare." The 
 optic lobes are solid, divided by a transverse fissure, and 
 hence called " bigeminal bodies :" they are situated on the 
 upper part of the crura cerebri, and are generally concealed 
 by tin: overlapping posterior cerebral lobes. The rudiment 
 of the "corpus callosum," or great cerebral tnmmlMnm. 
 first begins to be distinctly recognisable in the Implacental 
 Mammalia ; and in a state of normal development, or where 
 it bears a direct proportion to the size of the corpora striata 
 or hemispheres of the brain, it is peculiar to the Placental 
 Mammalia. 
 
 The eyes of the Mammalia are never complicated with a 
 peclen or marsupium, a choroid gland, or sclerotic bony 
 plates. 
 
 The organ of hearing acquires in the Mammalia a fully 
 developed cochlea with a " lamina spiralis :" there are three 
 distinct ossicles in the tympanum ; the drum, or iiieinlirnna 
 tympani, is usually concave towards the meatus, which 
 generally commences with a more or less complicated ex- 
 ternal ear, supported by a distinct fibro-cartilage. 
 
 The Mammalia, without exception, bring forth their young 
 alive; hence they were termed by Aristotle Zootoca. This 
 phenomenon is, however, by no means peculiar to the pres- 
 ent class ; but it was supposed that they differed from other 
 viviparous animals, as the viper, in the development of the 
 germ by means of a placenta. Such, however, is not the 
 bim wiili the marsupial animals, and probably not with the 
 M'motremes; and as the absence of the placenta Is associa- 
 ted with several important modifications of structure in the 
 ipecies so developed, by which they approximate to the char- 
 ictera of the oviparous classes, the class Mammalia may 
 *e primarily divided into two great sub-classes, called Pla- 
 :cntalia and Implaccntalia. 
 
 Before, however, the subdivisions of these groups are char- 
 acterized, it may be advantageous to trace the principal 
 
 steps by which the present views of the affinities and clas- 
 sification of the Mammalia have been acquired. 
 
 Aristotle, although he has left no evidence of a systematic 
 arrangement of the Mammalia in which the succession and 
 subordination of the orders and families are methodically 
 laid down, was nevertheless the first who indicated the 
 larger groups into which the Mammalia resolved themselves, 
 according to their natural affinities. 
 
 We may infer, e. g., from one part of the Historia Am 
 maliutn, that the Zootoca would be divided, according to the 
 nature of their locomotive organs, into three sections: 1st, 
 Dipoda, or bipeds ; 2d, Tetrapoda, or quadrupeds ; and, 3d, 
 Apoda, or inipeds. Man is cited as the type of the first, and 
 the whale tribe is included in the last of these primary 
 groups ; the second embraces all the rest of the class, which, 
 in common language, are called quadrupeds. These Aris- 
 totle subdivides into two great natural groups, according to 
 the modifications of the organs of touch. In the first, n part 
 of the digits is left free for the exercise of the tactile faculty, 
 the nail or claw being placed upon one side only ; in the sec 
 ond group the extremities of the digits are enclosed in hoofs. 
 
 The first of these subdivisions is acknowledged to be nat- 
 ural, nn>l has been retained by modern mammalogists under 
 the name of Unguiculata. The following families were 
 characterized in it by Aristotle: 1st, those which have the 
 front teeth trenchant, and the back teeth flattened, as the 
 Pithecoida. or npes, and the Dermaptera, or bats ; 2d, those 
 with acuminated, trenchant, or carnivorous teeth, which 
 Aristotle calls Karcharadonta ; 3d, the Rodent quadrupeds, 
 which are indicnted by a negative dental character. With 
 respect to the hoofed or "ungulate" quadrupeds, Aristotle 
 points out subordinate groups, and characterizes them by 
 modifications of the feet. Thus, the 1st are the Polyschidie, 
 or multiingulate quadrupeds, as the elephant; the 2d are 
 the Dischida, or bisulcate quadrupeds, as the Ruminants and 
 hog; the 3d are the Aschidip, or solidungulate quadrupeds, 
 as the horse and ass From the Imperfect mode in which 
 the zoological writings of the Stngyrite have been handed 
 down, we have not the means of knowing whether Aristotle 
 viewed any of the groups thus defined In their relation of 
 subordination to each other, or in the spirit of modern classi- 
 fication ; for although they agree in relative value with those 
 termed Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, yet Aristotle ap 
 plies to each of them the same denomination, viz., genos, or 
 genus. 
 
 The honour of having formed an original scheme for the 
 classification of quadrupeds, in which the subordination of 
 characters and of groups is attended to, is due to our great 
 countryman Ray. From Aristotle to his lime the classifica- 
 tion of the Mammalia received no improvement worthy of 
 notice. Ray's arrangement is given in a tabular form in 
 his Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum, and p 
 as follows : 
 
 A Table of Viviparous four-footed Animals. 
 Viviparous hairy animals or quadrupeds are, 
 ' Ungulate ; and these either 
 
 fSolidipedous, as the Horse, Ass, Zebra. 
 Bisulcate, which are 
 f Ruminants with horns, that are 
 J f Persistent, as in the Ox, Sheep, Goat ; 
 
 < or < or 
 
 I Deciduous, as in the Stag. 
 V. JVu£ Ruminants, as the Hog. 
 I Quadrisulcate, as the Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus 
 TTnguiculate, whose feet are either 
 
 t Bifid, as in the Camel, or 
 ) Multifid, which are 
 
 (With digits adhering together, and covered with a common integument, so mat tne 
 extremities alone are visible at the margin of the foot, and are covered with obtuse 
 nnils, as in the Elephant, 
 With digits in some measure distinct, and separable from each other, the nails being 
 f Depressed, as in Apes ; 
 
 1 or 
 
 1. Compressed, where the incisor teeth are 
 
 Many, in which group all the animals are carnivorous anu 
 rapacious, or at least insectivorous, or subsist on 
 Insects, with vegetable matter. 
 The larger ones with the 
 
 fMuztle short, and head rounded, as the 
 < Feline tribe ; or with the 
 
 { Muzile long, as the Canine tribe. 
 The smaller ones with a long, slender body, and 
 short extremities, as the Weasel or Ver 
 mine* tribe. 
 Two very large, of which tribe all the species are pbytirorous, 
 as the Hare. 
 
 • The anomalous species," he afterwards observes, I tamandua, the bat, and the sloth. The first five of these 
 
 among the viviparous quadrupeds, with a multifid foot, species agree with the canine and vermine genera in their 
 
 *re the hedgehog, the armadillo, the mole, the shrew, the | elongated muzzle, but differ from them in the form and dis 
 
 * Oenm Fcrmineum, from their wormlike form. 
 
 707 
 
MAMMALIA. 
 
 position of the teeth ; the tainandua, indeed, is altogether 
 destitute of teeth: the remaining two anomalous species 
 have the muzzle shortened." 
 
 Linnams defines the class Mammalia as follows: Heart 
 with two auricles and two ventricles ; blood warm ; lungs 
 respiring reciprocally (pulmones respirantes reciproce) ; jaws 
 incumbent, covered, armed with teeth in most; penis in- 
 trans ; generation viviparous, lactiferous ; sc7ises, tongue, 
 nostrils, eyes, ears, tactile papilla; ; covering, hairs few in 
 tropica], very sparing in aquatic, mammals; support, four 
 feet, except in those which are entirely aquatic, in which 
 the posterior feet are bound together in the tin of the tail ; a 
 tail in most. 
 
 Linneus, like Aristotle and Ray, founds his primary di- 
 visions of the class Mammalia on the locomotive organs ; 
 but his secondary divisions or orders are taken chiefly from 
 modifications of the dentary system. The following is the 
 ■scheme of his arrangement : 
 
 Mammalia. 
 
 ( Front teeih, none in eilher jaw JSruta. 
 
 u v. i fa J Front teeth, cutters 2. ianiaries Gliret. 
 
 un^utcuiau \ Front , eeth] cu „ erl 4 i an i. 1r ies 1 Primatu. 
 
 ' Front teeth, piercerr (6, 2, 10\ ianiaries 1 . . /eras. 
 Fhieiilate $ Front teeth, in both upper and lower jaw . . Bdlun. 
 
 *6« « • J front teeth, none in the upper j iw .... Pecora. 
 
 MuLicatt - Teeth variable Cett. 
 
 (From the Systema Naturte, ed. 16, Holmiae, p. 24.) 
 
 On comparing the three preceding systems, it will be found 
 that the most important errors of arrangement have been 
 committed, not by Aristotle, but by the modern naturalists. 
 Both Ray and Linnams have mistaken the character of the 
 homy parts enveloping the toes of the elephant, which do 
 not defend the upper part merely, as is the case with claws, 
 but embrace the under parts also, forming a complete case or 
 hoof. 
 
 With respect to Linnams, however, it must be observed, 
 that although he has followed Ray in placing the elephant 
 in the unguiculate group of quadrupeds, he has not over- 
 looked the great natural divisions which the latter naturalist 
 adopted from Aristotle, as is evident from the table above 
 quoted. He erred, perhaps, in not giving names to those 
 primary divisions. 
 
 From the manner in which Linnreus has arranged his or- 
 ders in this table, it would seem that he had the circular 
 progression of affinities in view. The walrus among Bruta 
 connects the commencement of the chain with Cete, which 
 forms the last link; but whether or not he had perceived 
 the affinity of Elephas to the Olircs, and intended it as the 
 transitional genus to that order, as Cuvier has subsequently 
 shown, is less certain. 
 
 Pallas, in his great posthumous work, entitled Zoographia 
 Rosso-Asiatica, has given the following outline of a Syste- 
 ma JUammalium : 
 
 Chassis Lactantia. 
 Ordo I. Ferae.— 1. Felis; 2. Canis; 3. Ursus; 4. Meles; 5. 
 Viverra ; 6. Mustela ; 7. Phoca. 
 II. Semifera. — l.Simia; 2. Lemur; 3. Didelphys ; 4. 
 Vespertilio ; 5. Talpa ; 6. Sorex ; 7. Erinaceus. 
 
 III. Glires. — 1. Hystrix ; 2. Castor ; 3. Lepus ; 4. Arc- 
 
 tomys ; 5. Spalax ; 6. Cricetus ; 7. Mus ; 8. Myo- 
 da ; 9. Myoxus ; 10. Dipus ; 11. Sciurus. 
 
 IV. Ruminantia. — 1. Camelus; 2. Moschus; 3. Cer- 
 
 vus; 4. ./Egoceros; 5. Bos; 6. Antilopes. 
 V. Anomalopoda. — 1. Equus; 2. Sus; 3. Rhinoceros; 
 
 4. Hippopotamus. 
 VI. Bcllna. — 1. Elephas; 2. Rosmarus. 
 VII. Cctacca.— 1. Manatus; 2. Delphinus; 3. Physeter; 
 4. Balaena ; 5. Ceratodon. 
 We shall now proceed to the arrangement of the Mam- 
 malia proposed by Cuvier in the last edition of the Regne 
 Animal ; and this is the more interesting, as, in giving the 
 outline of this method, Cuvier develops the principles on 
 which his divisions are founded. 
 
 "The characters by which Mammalia differ most essen- 
 tially one from another are derived from the organs of 
 touch, from which results their degree of dexterity; and 
 from the organs of mastication, which determine the nature 
 of their food ; and upon these very closely depends not only 
 everything which is connected with the digestive functions, 
 but a variety of other circumstances relative even to their 
 degrees of intelligence. 
 
 "The perfection of the organs of touch is estimated by the 
 number and mobility of the digits, and the extent of which 
 they are enclosed jn a claw or in a hoof. A hoof which 
 completely encloses that part of the digit which touches the 
 ground precludes the exercise of it as an organ of touch or 
 prehension. The opposite extreme is where the nail, in the 
 form of a simple lamina, covers only one side of the end of 
 the digit, leaving the other side in possession of all its deli- 
 tacy of tact. 
 
 "The kind of food is indicated by the molar teeth, to the 
 form of which the articulation of the jaws invariably corre- 
 sponds. 
 
 708 
 
 " For cutting flesh, the molar teetli must be trenchant ana 
 serrated ; and the jaws fitted together, so as to move like the 
 blades of a pair of scissors, simply opening and closing in 
 the vertical direction. 
 
 " For bruising grains and roots, the molar teeth must have 
 flattened crowns, and the jaws a horizontal motion: and 
 farther, that the grinding surface may be always unequal, 
 like a millstone, the teeth must be coinposed of substances 
 of different degrees of density, and consequently wearing 
 down in different proportions. 
 
 " The ungulate quadrupeds are all, of necessity, herbivo 
 rous, or with fiat-crowned molares, because the conformn 
 tion of their feet does not permit them to seize living prey. 
 
 " The unguiculate animals are susceptible of more varie 
 ty. They are not limited to one kind of food ; and, beside* 
 the consequent variation in the form of their molares, they 
 differ materially from each other in the mobility and sensi 
 bility of their digits. There is, moreover, a characteristic 
 which prodigiously influences their dexterity, and gives va- 
 riety to their modes of action : it is the faculty of opposing 
 a thumb to the other fingers, so as to seize the smallest ob- 
 jects, which constitutes a hand, properly so called. This 
 faculty is carriod to its highest degree of perfection in man, 
 in whom the whole anterior extremity is free, and can be 
 exclusively employed in prehension. These different com 
 binations, which strictly determine the nature of the sever 
 al mammiferous animals, have formed the grounds for their 
 distribution into the following orders: 
 
 "Among the unguiculate animals, the first is man, who, 
 in addition to his peculiar privileges in every respect, is dis- 
 tinguished, zoologically, by possessing hands on the anterior 
 extremities alone, the posterior extremities being destined 
 to sustain him in an erect position. 
 
 "The order which comes nearest to man — that termed 
 Quadrumana — has hands on the four extremities. 
 
 " Another order, termed Carnivora, has not the thumb 
 free and opposable on the anterior extremities. 
 
 "These three orders possess, likewise, severally, the three 
 kinds of teeth; viz., molars, Ianiaries, and incisors. 
 
 "The quadrupeds of the fourth order, viz., the Rodentia, 
 have the digits differing little from those of the Carnivora; 
 but they want the laniary teeth, and have the incisors of a 
 form and disposition altogether peculiar to themselves. 
 
 " To these succeed the animals whose digits now become 
 much cramped, being sunk deep in large, and, most coin 
 monly, crooked claws. They are farther defective in the 
 absence of incisor teeth ; some of them even want the lani 
 nries, and others are altogether destitute of dentary organs. 
 We shall comprehend them under the term Edentata. 
 
 "This distribution of unguiculate animals would be per 
 feet, and would form a very regular chain, if New-Holland 
 had not lately furnished us with a small collateral chain, 
 coinposed of the Marsupial animals, all the genera of" which, 
 while they are connected by a general similarity of organi 
 zation, at the same time correspond, in their dentition and 
 diet, some to the Carnivora, others to the Rodentia, and a 
 third tribe to the Edentata. 
 
 "The ungulate animals are less numerous, and present 
 fewer variations of form. 
 
 "The Ruminantia, by their cloven feet, their want of up- 
 per incisors, and their complicated stomach, form a very dis- 
 tinct order. 
 
 "All the other quadrupeds with hoofs might be united 
 into a single order, which I would call Pachydcrmata or 
 Jumenta ; the elephant excepted, which might form an 
 order of itself, having some remote affinities to the order 
 Rodentia. 
 
 " Last of all come the Mammalia which have no hinder 
 extremities, and whose fish-like form and aquatic life would 
 induce us to form them into a separate class, if their econo- 
 my was not in every other respect the same as in the class 
 in which we shall leave them. They are the warm-blood- 
 ed fishes of the ancients, or the Cctacca, which, combining 
 the powers of other Mammalia with the advantage of being 
 sustained upon the watery element, include the most gigan 
 tic forms to be found in the whole animal creation." (Regne 
 Animal, 2d ed., p. 65.) 
 
 The proofs that the small collateral chain of mammals 
 which New Holland has principally furnished form a dis- 
 tinct primary group in that class, have been successively es- 
 tablished in the memoirs by Mr. Owen on the Generation, 
 the Structure of the Brain, the Osteology, and the Classifi- 
 cation of the Marsupial Animals, and on the Mammary 
 Glands, the Ovum, and the Young of the Ornithorhynchus, 
 published in the Philosophical and Zoological Transactions. 
 In the latest classifications of the Mammalia (Charles Lu- 
 cien Bonaparte, Systema Vertebratomm ; Martin, History 
 of Mammalia), the binary division of the class Mammalia, 
 founded on the anatomical and physiological facts detailed 
 in those memoirs, has been adopted. 
 
 The first of these divisions, which we have proposed tc 
 call subclass Placentalia, includes the following orders ■ 
 
 
MAMMALOGY. 
 
 I. Bimana. — Ex. : Man. 
 II. (^uadrumana. — Ex.: Ape, Monkey, Lemur. 
 
 III. Cheiroptera. — Ex.: Bat. 
 
 IV. Insectieora. — Ex.: Shrew, Mole, Hedgehog. 
 
 V. Carnivore — Ex. : Dog, Civet, Cat, Weasel, Bear, Seal. 
 VI. Cetaeea. — Ex. : Porpoise, Whale. 
 VII. Pachyderma. — Ex. . Manatee, Hippopotamus, Ele- 
 phant, Hog, Horse. 
 VIII. Ruminanlia — Ex. : Camel, Deer, Antilope, Ox. 
 IX. Edentata.— Ex.: Sloth, Anteater, Manis, Armadillo. 
 X. Rodentia.— Ex. : Rat, Squirrel, Rabbit, Guinea-pig. 
 The second division, or the subclass Implacentalia, in- 
 cludes the orders, 
 XL Marsupiata. — Ex.: Wombat, Kangaroo, Opossum. 
 XI I. Moimtrcmata. — Ex.: Oruilhoihynchus. 
 
 Besides the modification introduced into the Cuvierian 
 system in the binary subdivision of the class, there are a few 
 minor dilferences in the above classification on which some 
 explanation is requisite. 
 
 From Pallas's great group of Scmifcra, the families of 
 which he conceived to be linked together by an uninterrupt- 
 ed series of nihilities, the Minim and Opossums are removed, 
 in the Cuvierian system, to form the types of two distinct 
 orders; we conceive that the modification of the locomotive 
 .1. by which the bat is enabled to fly, is as cogent an 
 argument for regarding it as the type of an order, as the 
 hinder hands are in the COM of the ape and lemur. The 
 iiLscctiriira, also, in their continuous dental series, com- 
 paratively feeble canines, and generally perfect clavicles, 
 lo claim equivalence of rank with the remaining Car- 
 maisitrs of the Cuvierian system, which will thus corre- 
 spond with the Eerie of Pallas. From the seals, with their 
 largely developed brains, acuminated teeth, and rudiments] 
 
 hind li is the transition seems more natural 10 the piscivo- 
 rous Cetaeea. The herbivorous Cetaeea, for reasons given 
 at length in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1838, 
 we propose to remove to the Pachyderma, between which 
 and the true Cetaeea they unquestionably form transitional 
 links. No linear arrangement of the orders of n class can 
 ever express more than a part of their mutual affinities. If 
 we Were 10 place them according to their natural relations, 
 the Quadrumana would occupy the centre of the class, 
 as from these the greatest number and variety of alhnitics 
 i to radiate. Thus, the genus (lalcopithecus leads to 
 the C/ieiroplcra, the I.emur to the Carnivora, the J.oris to 
 the sloths among the Edentata ; while with the liodentia 
 tie- Lemurs claim close alliance through the ('heiromys or 
 The Jiis,rlir,ir,i . I . i.-ely approach one extreme 
 uf the implacental group, while the Edentata join the 
 The Rudcniin approach still more closely to the 
 Bianupial wombat. The Rodentia, again, by the Capybara 
 and the extinct Toxodon, evidently merge into the Pachy- 
 derms; and the Patagonlan hare seem- to lead them to the 
 small mutk-deer among the Ruminantia. The Edentata 
 have lost in the mailed Qlyptodon a transitional step to the 
 thick and tubercular-hided rhinoceros. The twofold affin- 
 ity of the Cetaeea to the seals on the one hand, and to the 
 manatee and the hippopotamus on the other, has been al- 
 ready alluded to. 
 
 In this reticulate interweaving of affinities, under which 
 Linage the true relations of the Mammalia, as at present 
 known, can alone be impartially and faithfully expressed, 
 it will be observed that, us the scries diverge from the 
 Qnailrumana, they likewise descend ; so that the scheme 
 may be likened to a cone, of which Man is the culminating 
 point. 
 
 From different points at the base of this cone the connex- 
 ion may be traced with the inferior classes : the most di- 
 rect transition appears to he made by the Monotremes to the 
 class of Reptiles. The extinct Enaliosauria once formed B 
 transition, perhaps not less close, from the crocodiles to tbe 
 Cetaeea. The Pterodactyles seem to have connected the 
 Cheiroptera with the flying ovipara. The Mammalia which 
 present the closest relations to birds are the marsupial Pe- 
 Inurisis and the arboreal Rodents; but the hiatus is great. 
 Between mammals and fishes, the reptiles interpose at all 
 points ; the extinct Ichthyosaurus seems to have been the 
 transitional step from the Cetaeea to the true fishes. 
 
 MAMMA'LOGY. (Lat. mamma, a teat; Gr. Xoyof, a 
 discourse.) The science of Mammals : the doctrine of their 
 Kganization, habits, properties, and classification. See Mam- 
 malia. 
 
 MA'MMIFERS, Mammifera. (Lat. mamma, a teat ; fe- 
 re, / bear.) A term synonymous with Mammals, or Mam- 
 malia. 
 
 MAMMI'LLARY. (Lat. dim. mammilla.) In Geology, 
 a surface studded over with rounded projections. 
 
 MA'MMON (Syr.), used in scripture to sitmify either 
 riches, or the god thereof. By poetic license Milton makes 
 Mammon one of the fallen angels, and has portrayed his 
 Character in some admirable lines, wliich arc too well 
 fcaown to be cited hete. 
 
 MAMMOTH. 
 
 MA'MMOTH. A word of Tartar origin, applied in Sibe- 
 ria to burrowing animals. It is commonly applied to an 
 extinct species of elephant (Elcphas primigenius, Blum.) 
 The remains of this animal occur pretty frequently in the 
 newer tertiary deposits in England, the continent of Europe, 
 and Asia. In Siberia an entire animal has been discovered. 
 with the soft ports preserved in the frozen soil of the banks 
 of a Siberian river. The particulars of this remarkable dis- 
 covery are as follow: In 1799, a Tungusian, named Schu 
 marhoff, who generally went to hunt and fish at the penin- 
 sula at Tamul, after the fishing season of the Lena was 
 over had constructed for his wife some cabins on the banks 
 of the lake Opcoul, and had embarked to seek along the 
 coasts for mammoth horns (tusks). One day he saw among 
 the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but did not then discove, 
 what it was. In 1800 he perceived that this object was more 
 disengaged from the ice, and that it had two projecting parts ; 
 and, towards the end of the summer of 1801, the entire side 
 of the animal and one of his tusks were quite free from ice. 
 The summer of 1802 was cold ; but in 1803, part of the 
 ice between the earth and the mammoth, for such was the 
 object, having melted more rapidly than the rest, the plane 
 of its support became inclined, and the enormous mass fell 
 by its own weight on the bank of sand. In March, 1804, 
 Schumarholl'came to his mammoth, and, having cut on" the 
 tusks, exchanged them with a merchant for goods of the 
 value of fifty rubles. Adams gives the following account 
 of this remarkable occurrence. "Two years alter wards, or 
 the seventh after the discovery of the mammoth, I fortu- 
 nately traversed these distant and desert regions, and I con- 
 gratulate myself in being able lo prove fact which appears 
 so improbable, I found the mammoth still in I. 
 place, but altogether mutilated. The prejudices hi I 
 pated, because tbe Tungusian chief had recovered, there 
 was no obstacle lo prevent approach to the carcass of the 
 mammoth; the proprietor was content with his profit from 
 the tusks, and the Jaluiski of the neighbourhood had cut off 
 the flesh, with which they fed their dogs during the scarcity. 
 
 Wild beasts, such as white li, wolverines, and 
 
 foxes, also fed upon it. and tile traces of their footsteps WON 
 
 seen around. T almost entirely cleared of its 
 
 flesh, remained whole, wiih the exception of one fore-leg, 
 the spine, from the head to the os coccygis, one scapula : the 
 bones of tbe other three extremities were still held together 
 by the ligaments and by parts of the skin. The head was 
 .-ilh a dry skin : one of the ears, well preserved, 
 was furnished with a tuft of hairs. All these parts have 
 oeceaaaril) been Injured in transporting them a distance of 
 11,000 wersts (7330 miles); yet the eyes have been pre- 
 served, and the pupil of the eve can still be distinguished. 
 This mammoth was a male, with a long mane on the neck, 
 but without tail or Proboscis." (The places of the insertion 
 of the muscles of the proboscis are, it is asserted, visible on 
 the scull ; and it was probably devoured, as well as the end 
 of the tail.) " The skin, of which I possess three fourths, is 
 of a dark gray colour, covered with a reddish wool and black 
 hairs. The dampness of the spot where the animal had lain 
 so long had in some degree destroyed the hair. The entire 
 carcass, of which I collected the liones on the spot, is -I 
 archines (9 feet 4 inches) high, and 7 archines (10 feet 4 
 inches) long, from the point of the nose to the end of the 
 tail, without including the tusks, which arc a toise and a 
 half (9 feet 6 inches), measuring along the curve: the dis- 
 tance from the base or root of the tusk to the point is 3 feet 
 7 inches in length ; the two together weighed 300 lbs. avoir- 
 dupois; the head alone, with the tusks, weighs 11 poods and 
 a half (414 lbs. avoirdupois). The principal object of my 
 care was to separate the bones, to arrange them, and put 
 them up safely, which was done witli particular attention. 
 I had the satisfaction to find the other scapula, which had 
 remained not far offi I next detached the skin of the side 
 on which the animal had lain, which was well preserved. 
 This skin was of such extraordinary weight, that ten per- 
 sons found great difficulty in transporting it to the shore. After 
 this I dug the ground in various places, to ascertain whether 
 any of its bones were buried, but principally to collect all the 
 hairs which the white bears had trod into the ground while 
 devouring the flesh. Although this was difficult, from the 
 want of proper instruments, I succeeded in collecting more 
 than a pood (30 pounds) of hair. In a few days the task 
 was completed, and I found myself in possession of a treas- 
 ure which amply recompensed me for the fatigues and dan- 
 gers of the journey, and the considerable expenses of the en- 
 terprise. The [place where I found the mammoth is about 
 60 paces distant from the shore, and nearly a hundred paces 
 from the escarpment of the ice from which it had fallen. 
 The escarpment occupies exactly the middle between the 
 two points of the peninsula, and is three wersts long (two 
 miles) ; and, in the place where the mammoth was found, 
 this rock has a perpendicular elevation of 30 or 40 toises 
 Its substance is a clear, pure ice ; it inclines towards the sea . 
 its top is covered with a layer of moss and friable earth, half 
 
 701 
 
MAiN. 
 
 an archine (14 inches) in thickness. During the heat of the 
 month of July, a part of this crust is melted, but the rest re- 
 mains frozen. Curiosity induced me to ascend two other 
 hills at some distance from the sea : they were of the same 
 substance, and less covered with moss. In various places 
 were seen enormous pieces of wood of all kinds produced in 
 Siberia ; and also mammoths' horns (tusks), in great num 
 hers, appeared between the hollows of the rocks : they all 
 were of astonishing freshness. How all these things could 
 become collected is as curious as difficult to resolve. The 
 inhabitants of the coast call this kind of wood adaincina, 
 and distinguish it from the floating pieces of wood which are 
 brought down by the large rivers to the ocean, and collect in 
 masses on the shores of the Frozen Sea : the latter are called 
 macheina. I have seen, when the ice melts, large lumps of 
 earth detached from the hills mix with the water, and form 
 thick, muddy torrents, which roll slowly towards the sea. 
 The earth forms wedges whicli fill up the spaces between the 
 blocks of ice. The escarpment of the ice was 35 to 40 toiscs 
 high ; and, according to the report of the Tungusians, the ani- 
 mal was, when they first saw it, seven toises below the surface 
 of the ice, &.C. On arriving with the mammoth at Boschaya, 
 our lirst care was to separate the remaining flesh and liga- 
 ments from the bones, which were then packed up. When 
 I arrived at Jakutsk I had the good fortune to repurchase 
 the tusks, and from thence expedited them to St. Petersburg. 
 This skeleton is now in the museum of the academy, and 
 the skin still remains attached to the hood and feet." A part 
 of the skin, and some of the hair of this animal, were sent by 
 Mr. Adams to Sir Joseph Banks, who presented them to the 
 museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. The hair is en- 
 tirely separated from the skin, excepting in one very small 
 part, where it still remains attached. It consists of two 
 sorts— common hair and bristles; that remaining fixed on 
 the skin is of the colour of the camel, an inch and a half 
 long, very thick set, and curled in locks; it is interspersed 
 with a few bristles, about three inches long, of a dark reddish 
 colour. The skin, when first brought to the museum, was 
 offensive; it is now quite dry and hard, and where most 
 compact is half an inch thick. Its colour is ths d -.1 i ' LCk 
 of the living elephant's skin. 
 
 MAN. (Germ, mann ; probably from the Lat. humarms 
 or mens.) Of-all living beings on the surface of this planet, 
 the first is man ; who, in addition to his peculiar privileges 
 in every other respect, is distinguished zoologically by pos- 
 sessing a hand on the anterior extremities only, the posterior 
 or lower limbs being destined to sustain him in an erect posi- 
 tion. He is, however, naked, and without natural defen- 
 sive or destructive weapons. It is the modifications of the 
 bones and muscles of the lower extremities, and especially 
 of the feet, that constitute the most striking anatomical 
 characters of the human species; but with these are associ- 
 ated many other characteristic conditions of the general 
 framework, of the body, which, as they have been nowhere so 
 accurately, truly, and eloquently set forth as in the lectures 
 of Professor Green, we shall take the liberty to give in the 
 words of that philosophic anatomist and accomplished writer. 
 "In a comparison of the frame and capabilities of man With 
 those of the inferior animals, if we take the human frame as 
 the ideal standard of form, it will be found that all others 
 present so many declensions from the idea by exaggeration or 
 defect ; and it will be found from this survey that man is 
 unquestionably endowed with that structure, the perfection 
 of which is revealed in such a balanced relation of the parts 
 to a whole as may best fit it for a being exercising intelligent 
 choice, and destined for moral freedom. It is not, therefore, 
 an absolute perfection of the constituents singly, but the pro- 
 portional development of all, and their harmonious constitu- 
 tion to One, for which we contend — a constitution which im- 
 plies in a far higher degree than in any other animal a bal- 
 anced relation of the living powers and faculties, and whicli 
 requires, therefore, in man pre-eminently the endowment of 
 rational will as necessary for the control and adjustment of 
 the balance. Man has not the quick hearing of the timid 
 herbivorous animals; but it was not intended that he should 
 catch the sound of distant danger, and be governed by his 
 fears: lie has not the piercing sight of the eagle, nor the 
 keen scent of the beast of prey ; but neither was man intend- 
 ed to be the fellow of the tiger, or a denizen of the forest. 
 Hence the departure from the perfect proportion of man 
 whicli we observe in the inferior animals may be regarded 
 as deformities by exaggeration or defect, dependant upon a 
 preponderance of a part that necessitates a particular use, 
 nr the absence of a part that deprives the animal of a power, 
 and in both instances alike abrogates that freedom for which 
 provision is made in the balanced relation of the constitu- 
 ents of the human fabric, which permits the free choice of 
 means, and the adaptation to any purpose determined by an 
 intelligent free-will. Dilate the head, and you have a 
 symptom of disease ; protrude the jaws, you have a vora- 
 cious animal; lengthen the ears, timidity is expressed; let 
 the nose project, and the animal is governed by its scent ; en- 
 710 
 
 large the belly, and you are reminded of the animal appe- 
 tites ; long arms may fit him for tin inhabitant of the trees, 
 and a fit companion for the ape ; and predominant length of 
 legs are infallibly associated with the habits of the wading 
 or leaping animals. In all, regarding man's form with refer- 
 ence to his destination as the ideal standard, the means be- 
 come ends ; deformity prevails, and becomes the badge of 
 unintelligent slavery to the mere animal nature. 
 
 "This may be farther illustrated by a general and brief 
 comparison of the components of the skeleton in the verte 
 brated animals with that of man. In considering the seuii. 
 it will be found that man, of all animals, has the largest ami 
 roundest cranium. From the ape to the fish the brain-case 
 decreases in capacity, in correspondence with a proportion 
 ably diminishing development: but in the same ratio the 
 parts allotted to the senses, and the parts merely subservient 
 to the preparation of the food, increase in size. In looking 
 at the head of the horse and the dog, it will be readily observed 
 how much the cranium recedes and the jaws protrude ; but 
 in birds, reptiles, and fish, the proportions are so altered by 
 the diminution of the cranium that the whole head appears 
 almost to consist of the jaws : witness the mandibles of the 
 stork and pelican, and the enormous jaws of the crocodile 
 and shark. And we may add, that man is the only animal 
 that has a prominent chin. This distinguishing character of 
 the human scull, found in the proportion of the brain-case 
 to tlie jaws when compared with the same in the inferior 
 animals, the ingenious Camper devised the method of more 
 accurately determining by means of what litis been called 
 the ' facial angle.' It consists in drawing one line from the 
 most prominent part of the forehead to the sockets of the 
 upper incisor teeth, and a second, which describes the 
 ground plane of the cranium, through the external meatus 
 of the ear and lower edge of the nose, and which, cutting 
 the first on the upper jaw, forms with it a determinate angle ; 
 and it is evident that this angle will be greater in proportion 
 to the development of the forehead and recession of the su- 
 perior maxilla, less or more acute in proportion to the projec- 
 tion of the upper jaw and recession of the forehead. Ac- 
 cording to thta mode of relative admeasurement, li 
 that tl ; o facial angle >.: .ii European exceeds thi 
 negro ; and it is worthy of notice that the Greek sculptors, 
 who were careful to mark strongly, or even e . 
 those circumstances which peculiarly mark the human 
 character, have often exceeded the right angle in the ideal 
 anatomy of their deities, though at the same time with the 
 discriminative taste which prevented them from exceeding 
 the limit beyond whicli the form would have become a 
 symptom of disease. It follows, then, that the size of the 
 brain-case in man, proportionate to the development of the 
 brain, indicates the predominance of this organ over those 
 of the senses, which may be regarded as the measure of the 
 subserviency of the animal to the outward excitants, ami 
 over the organs for the preparation of the food, the pre- 
 ponderance of which marks the subjugation of the creature 
 to the mere animal needs— that the predominant develop- 
 ment of the cranium, I say, is the mark, symbol, and condi- 
 tion of man's characteristic excellence, as pre-eminently 
 gifted with mind." 
 
 "If we compare the lower limbs of man with the hinder 
 extremities of quadruiieds, we find the peculiar character 
 and perfection of the former in their adaptation and appropri- 
 ation to maintain the balance of the body in the erect pos- 
 ture. In some, indeed, the hinder limbs are so formed as to 
 permit the creature to obtain for a lime the free use of the 
 fore extremities ; but the endowment serves but to mark, as 
 in the monkey, that it was intended for a climbing animal, 
 and the extraordinary length and strength of the legs of the 
 kangaroo show only its aptitude to leap. And if, in birds, 
 the support of the body is effected by two legs, it leaves the 
 interior extremities free only for the purpose of aiding in, 
 and of executing, a different mode of locomotion. In man 
 alone the lower extremities, providing wholly the means of 
 support and progression, leave the upper limbs as instru- 
 ments, the use of which is entirely at the choice of the .agent. 
 And, in aid of this purpose, we find in man the most perfect 
 upper extremity. From the ape to the fish the different con>- 
 ponents diminish in number, development, and variety of mo 
 tion. This is especially noticeable in the hand ; which, in con- 
 sequence of the length of the fingers, the number of articu- 
 lations, and the multiplicity of their movements, especially in 
 consequence of tin; capability of opposing the thumb to the 
 fingers, becomes an instrument fitted for the most delicate and 
 varied operations directed by the skill and intellect of man 
 Compare, in this respect, tills flexible and modifiable appara- 
 tus with the single digit of the extremity of the horse, on the 
 horny tip of which the weight of the animal (by an admira- 
 ble mechanism indeed) Is supported and carried ; or with 
 the abortive hand of the whale, sufficiently like the human 
 to be so called, but retracted, enveloped in skin, and degen 
 crated into a fin, that merely serves as an oar in propelling 
 the animal through the water. It might be said, perhaos 
 
 
MAN. 
 
 that the hand of the monkey claims the praise of as great 
 perfection as that of man ; hut the dwindled thuinh marks 
 its imperfection for handling and for touch: and the arms 
 even of theanthropoeidorang-outan, lengthened to deformity, 
 irresistibly prove their use to he little else than for grasping 
 and climbing. * 
 
 " In the contemplation of the human skeleton, its most 
 striking characteristic, however, and that which contradis- 
 tinguishes it from the bony fabric of all other animals, is its 
 adaptation to the erect position ; an attribute not only pecu- 
 liar to man, hut without which his structure could not corre- 
 spond to his spiritual endowments, since it is at once the need 
 and symbol of a being raised above the servile condition of 
 the mere animal nature. 
 
 "Thus the scull is poised, will) only a slight preponderance 
 anteriorly, at the top of the vertebral column ; and a plumb- 
 line dropped from the point of its support falls through the 
 centre of gravity between the feet, which present the base 
 ofnppofl to the whole towering fabric. VVe remark, how- 
 ever, that the supjioriing parts do not range with this line. 
 
 "The spine is bent like U italic s; it recedes at the chest, 
 in order to give room to its cavity, and, at the same time, is 
 harmoniously inflected forwards at the loins and neck, in 
 order to facilitate its balance over the points of support; and 
 it cannot be doubted that these Ban H contribute to the capa- 
 bility of beading and changing the position of the trunk, 
 without endangering the loss of balance, lint the balance 
 of the body is also greatly aided by the breadth of the hu- 
 ini:. pelvis, winch, supplying a broad base of support, per- 
 mits the inclinations of the trunk without the necessity of 
 altering the position of the lower limbs. The lateral breadth 
 of the pelvis, however, throws the heads of the thigh Uuies, 
 upon which the weight of the body is transmitted, to some 
 distance on each tide of Ihe line that falls through the cen- 
 tre of gravity, and, in order to provide a compensating od- 
 jiislment, the thigh bones are placed obliquely, inclining to- 
 wards each other; so that in the upright posture, with the 
 feet together, they touch at the knees, and the Weight is then 
 • ■d upon the heads of the leg bones or tibia, which 
 stand perpendicularly under the centre of gravity : and these, 
 
 i of tin. foot or ins' 
 whi'-'i the whole weight Of Ihe l*«ly securely rests. Then, 
 ir. order to ■ Dot the requisite firmness in stand- 
 
 ing, we find that it is articulated with the leg at right angles, 
 so that both the heel and toes touch the ground ; and the 
 joint is placed nearer the posterior than the anterior part of 
 the foot, so as to increase the base of support in that direction 
 towards which the body tends most to fall: besides which, 
 the weight is here received on the inner side of the foot, 
 where it is most arched, thereby offering not only the ad- 
 
 vant;>'. rapport, but one which is highly elastic, 
 
 yielding whhittll Injury In alighting ii|hiii the feet, and acting 
 as a spring Thus the majestic, column of the 
 
 human form is raised and built up upon its pedestal; and 
 the living pillar, readily maintaining its equipoise, bean 
 aloft its capital, while the up|ier limbs are left free to ad- 
 libitive motion. Thus the place of the head, as the cor- 
 poieal representative of that which perceives and wills; the 
 disposition of the senses therein its the media of intelligence, 
 and of the organs of speech a< the interpreters of thought ; 
 and the arrangement of the upper limbs as instruments of 
 
 volition, no longer subservient to mere animal needs — all 
 impress us with the conviction that even the skeleton can- 
 not l>c Intelligible to us without admitting that the human 
 bodily frame was designed for the instrument and dwelling 
 of a being contradistinguished from, and elevated above, all 
 other animals — 
 
 A creature, who, not prone 
 And brule as other creaures, but endued 
 With sanctity of reason, might erect 
 Hi* stature, and upri<h , with front serene, 
 Govern the rest, self knowing. 
 
 " Man alone is erect. It is to this posture that the body of 
 a man owes the character, impressed on the whole frame, of 
 its emancipation from subserviency to the mere animal needs, 
 and becomes expressive of mind and of free and intelligent 
 action It will be seen that the lower limbs, answering the 
 purposes of support and locomotion, have alone any obvious 
 or necessitated utility; while the upper extremities are, in 
 quence, left at liberty, as the ready and facile instru- 
 ments of his will. Hence, too, the senses are best freed from 
 their servitude to the bodily wants, and the countenance is 
 raised as the expressive exponent of thoughts and feeling's, 
 which the mouth declares and interprets by words. And 
 thus as the Btem bears the corolla, the head is carried on 
 high as the \iv><i noble part of the frame which it surmounts ; 
 ali the rest of the body seems as if intended to carry it; and 
 wneu considered in its fitness for expression, it may be said 
 to be the representative of the whole man. 
 
 " If, principally connected with erect posture, the body is 
 
 admirable, and acquires Its human character, we shall no 
 
 and, in directing our attention to the organs of motion 
 
 in man, the aptitude and capabilities of a being designed lor 
 intelligent freedom. We find in man the organic structure 
 adapted for the greatest variety of motion. It is true, in- 
 deed, that many of the Mammalia are so constituted as 
 greatly to excel man in particular kinds of locomotion ; but 
 we shall in vain look for the same combination and mastery 
 of his powers which the erect posture implies. The monkey 
 climbs and jumps with a facility truly extraordinary; but it 
 is with difficulty, or only for a short time, that he rakes him- 
 self into the erect position. Dogs, horses, deer, excel man 
 in swiftness ; but they cannot climb nor walk erect. The 
 otter, the heaver, and Ihe seal swim well; but it is their only- 
 boast above creatures of their own kind. And whales, or 
 other cetaceous animals, though admirably adapted for 
 swimming, have no other means of locomotion. Man, on 
 the other hand, stands and walks erect; runs, jumps, climbs, 
 su ims. Man alone can BO modify his frame that it is in his 
 power to waive the high privilege of the harmony and bal- 
 ance of his faculties ; and, by concentring his volition to any 
 one property or perfection, we have reason to believe tha 
 he might equal or excel the beast most characterized by that 
 perfection — outrun the deer, outwrestle the bear, climb w ilh 
 the monkey. In short, man has the most modifiable organs 
 
 of motion, and is most capable of subjugating them to his will, 
 and of rendering them the instruments of his varied purposes. 
 "The capability of varied motion in man depends greatly 
 upon the facility with which the different parts of Ihe body, 
 especially the limbs, move at the same time in opposite di- 
 rections — a power which not only permits variety of move- 
 ment, anil confers an aptitude of expressive action, but like- 
 wise gives pre-eminently a character of snppli 
 freedom to the total motion. l)ut it is the equipoise of his 
 body, in connexion with the erect position, which gives the 
 unity to any totality of movement, and determines the atti- 
 tude or caniage necessary to preserve its balance. In order 
 to balance the body, whether at rest or in motion, it is neces- 
 sary thai the man should exert an iuicoiupnrnbly greater 
 number of muscles than the interior animals; and for the 
 same reason, a far greater eflort of his volition is required 
 
 for adjusting the proportional action of each, and for com- 
 
 ini. 
 animals, man must be tha master of ms own 
 
 "It is farther deserving of notice, that the inflections of 
 the trunk, the motions of the limbs, and the play of the sev- 
 eral joints, all tend to the circular and ciirviline.il in their 
 movements; a circumstance which mainly tends to confer 
 on human motion the character of beauty. And it m:iy be 
 safely affirmed that, under all the varieties of eX] 
 movement, the very structure and mechanism of the body 
 tend to reduce its motions to the form of the beautiful, or 
 resolve them into grace; a fact of which we may convince 
 ourselves in watching the sinuous movements of the dance, 
 wherein, aided by the totality of motion in the dancer, they 
 ' present a harmony by continuity — a problem of grace which 
 is ever solving and eve* beginning anew. 
 
 "Beauty of attitude and grace of carriage are. however, 
 intimately connected with the maintenance and equipoise 
 of Ihe body. No attitude can be beautiful in which the idea 
 of rest is Dot conveyed by that permanence and 
 which result from a perfectly felt balance. 'Grace of car 
 riage requires not only a perfect freedom of motion, but also 
 a fu liiuess of step, arising from a constant bearing of the 
 centre of gravity over the base of support.' (Jlriuitt'* I'lujs- 
 ics, p. 128.) It includes ease and security. And in both, 
 whether it be motion becoming fixed as attitudes, or atti- 
 tudes presenting themselves in the shaping flow of motion, 
 beauty and grace reveal themselves in self-command, and 
 in freedom made manifest by self-control. In short, look at 
 the body in any position or attitude, in any of the incidental 
 or casual forms arising out of the free and unconstrained 
 movements of man, healthy in frame and unshackled by 
 conventional usages, and the truth will force itself on your 
 conviction. Pass in review the ponderous strength of the 
 Hercules, the agile Mercury, the graceful ease of the Anti 
 nous, the reclining Ilyssus, all the animated forms of the 
 frieze of the Parthenon — whatever Greek art has signalized 
 or modern genius realized ; witness the sports of children, 
 or go even to the wild denizens of the American forest, and 
 proof will no longer be needed that grace nnd beauty nre 
 inherent in, not accidents of, the human body, as the lit in 
 strument of human freedom and intelligence, find the trans- 
 lucent medium, as it were, of man's proper and spiritual 
 being." (Green's Vital Dynamics, 1840, p. CO.) 
 
 The main points of internal anatomy in which nan dif- 
 fers from or excels the lower animals are the following: 
 First of all in the magnitude of the brain, which is rele- 
 aser than the spina] chord and nerves in him than 
 in any other animal. This superiority is chiefly due to the 
 great development of the hemispheres of the cerebrum, 
 which are likewise characterized in man by the number 
 and depth of the convolutions, by which the cineritious nnd 
 vascular surface is augmented. ' The parts which are mast 
 
MAN. 
 
 evidently superadded to the human brain are the posterior 
 lobes of the cerebrum, the corresponding horn of the lateral 
 ventricle, and the lesser hippocampus. 
 
 Of the external senses, that of smell is the least developed ; 
 but botli this and the other organs are well balanced, and in 
 their organization most delicate and perfect. The two eyes 
 are directed forward ; and thus, though man does not see on 
 two sides at once, like many quadrupeds, there is more unity 
 in the result of his vision, and he can concentrate his atten- 
 tion more closely on the objects of his scrutiny. The exter- 
 nal ear, having little mobility or extent, does not increase 
 the intensity of sounds ; notwithstanding which, Cuvier well 
 remarks that man best distinguishes their intonation. So 
 aiso with respect to the organ of smell : though most ani- 
 mals excel man in their power of scent for particular objects, 
 there are none, perhaps, which can distinguish so many 
 varieties of, or which are so uniformly affected by, unpleas- 
 ant odours. In the discrimination and delicacy of taste 
 man has unquestionably the advantage over the lower ani- 
 mals; and in no species is the hand so framed, or the tactile 
 extremities of the digits so expanded, or endowed with such 
 an exquisitely sensitive and discriminative integument, as 
 in man. 
 
 "Man," says Cuvier, "has a particular pre-eminence in 
 his organs of voice : he is the only mammal that can articu- 
 late Bounds; probably on account of the form of his mouth 
 and the great mobility of his lips. Hence results his most 
 valuable mode of communication ; for of all signs that can 
 be conveniently employed for the transmission of ideas, 
 varied sounds are those which can be perceived at the 
 greatest distance, and in most directions simultaneously." 
 
 The position of the heart, which rests obliquely on the 
 diaphragm, and on which depends the absence of the azy- 
 gos lobe of the right lung, and of the thoracic inferior cava — 
 both of which exist in most of the inferior Mammalia — 
 relates to man's erect position. 
 
 The alimentary organs of man indicate his natural desti- 
 nation for a mixed diet of animal and vegetable substances ; 
 but the prehensile faculty of his hands, and the intelligence 
 Which governs its application, permitted the teeth to remain 
 of such forms and proportions as might simply serve to di- 
 vide and crush the food which the hands carry to the month. 
 Tims the canine teeth, though present and with crowns 
 shaped for piercing, do not exceed the adjoining teeth in 
 size, and no interval in the dental series of one jaw is re- 
 quired to receive a produced tusk of the opposite jaw when 
 the mouth is closed : thus the dental series in man is not 
 only equable, but unbroken. The fore teeth arc framed for 
 dividing;* the back teeth have flat and tuberculate crowns 
 for bruising : the short and but moderately strong jaws 
 hardly admit of the mastication of herbage, or the devour- 
 ing of tlesli that has not been previously prepared by cook- 
 ing. 
 
 The organs of digestion conform with those of manduca- 
 tion ; the stomach is simple ; the intestinal canal of mean 
 length ; the small intestines are provided with numerous 
 transverse folds of the secreting and absorbing mucous 
 membrane, called valvules conniventes : the large intestines 
 are well marked ; they commence by a short and wide 
 caecum, provided with a long, slender, and vermiform ap- 
 pendage. 
 
 The period of gestation is nine months : in general there 
 is only one child at a birth ; twins are born once in about 
 five hundred cases of parturition, and more than that num- 
 ber Is extremely rare. The foetus of seven months is eleven 
 inches in length; that of nine months, eighteen inches. 
 Those which are born prior to the seventh month usually 
 die. The first, or milk-teeth, begin to appear a few months 
 after birth, commencing with the incisors ; at two years the 
 entire deciduous series, twenly in number, is attained. 
 These arc shed successively from about the seventh year, 
 to be replaced by others. The eight deciduous incisors are 
 succeeded by eight permanent ones; the four deciduous 
 canines by four permanent ones; the eight deciduous mo- 
 lares by the eight bicuspides. Of the twelve true or poste- 
 rior molars, which are permanent, there are four — one on 
 each side of both jaws— that make their appearance at four 
 years and a half; four more at nine years; the last four 
 being frequently not cut until the twentieth year. The 
 foetus presents one fourth of the adult stature when born ; it 
 has attained one half of it at two years and a half, and 
 three fourths at nine or ten years. Between the seventeenth 
 and twenty-first years the growth almost entirely ceases. 
 Man rarely exceeds six feet, and seldom remains under five. 
 Woman is ordinarily some inches shorter. When the full 
 stature is attained the body generally begins to increase in 
 bulk : fat is accumulated in the cellular tissue; afterwards 
 the solids become rigid; the fat is commonly absorbed ; the 
 tie. lie smoothly-filled integument falls in wrinkles; and old 
 
 # The intermaxillary bones, in which tile incisors are developed, are an- 
 i.iylosed to the maxillaries at an early period of fxtal existepce. 
 712 
 
 age arrives, with decrepitude, decay, and death. Man rarelj 
 lives beyond a hundred years ; and most of the species 
 either from disease, accidents, or merely old age, perish be- 
 fore that term. 
 
 "The child," says Cuvier, "needs the assistance of its 
 mother much longer than her milk^ whence results an edu- 
 cation intellectual as well as physical, and a durable mutual 
 attachment. From the long period of infantile weakness 
 results domestic subot.-Mnation, and, consequently, the order 
 of society at large, as the young persons which compose the 
 new families continue to preserve with their parents those 
 tender relations to which they have been so long accus- 
 tomed. This disposition to mutual assistance multiplies to 
 tin almost unlimited extent those advantages previously de- 
 rived by isolated man from his intelligence : it has assisted 
 him to tame or repulse other animals, to defend himself 
 from the effects of climate, and thus enabled him to cover 
 the earth with his species. Circumstances, more or less 
 favourable, have restrained the social condition within lim- 
 ited degrees, or have promoted its development. The glacial 
 climates of the north of both continents, and the impenetra- 
 ble forests of America, are still inhabited by the savage 
 hunter or fisherman ; the immense sandy or salt plains ol 
 Central Asia and Africa are covered with a pastoral people 
 and innumerable herds: these half-civilized hordes assem- 
 ble at the call of every enthusiastic chief, and overrun the 
 cultivated countries that surround them, in which they 
 establish themselves but to become enervated, and to be sub- 
 jected in their turn to the next invaders. This is the true 
 cause of that despotism which, in every age, has crushed 
 the industry called forth under the fine climate of Persia, 
 India, and China. Mild climates, soils naturally irrigated 
 and rich in vegetables, are the natural cradles of agriculture 
 and civilization ; and when their position is such as to afford 
 shelter from the incursions of barbarians, talents of every 
 kind are mutually excited. Such were formerly (the first 
 in Europe) Greece and Italy; and such is at present nearly 
 all the happy portion of the earth's surface.' 
 
 The influences of climate, and of the different habits and 
 social conditions thence resulting, are associated with differ- 
 ences of form, stature, features, and colour of the skin ; 
 not greater, however, than the corresponding difference 
 which indicate varieties of a species in the lower Mamma- 
 lia : and, accordingly, naturalists have distinguished, and 
 have characterized with more or less success, different races 
 or varieties of man. As the races and varieties of the do- 
 mesticated quadrupeds, so also those of the human species, 
 blend imperceptibly with each other; and the absence of 
 well-defined boundaries depends not only on the gradual 
 subsidence and change of those physical causes which prob- 
 ably gave rise to the original varieties, but also to the fac- 
 ulty common to the individuals of different varieties of the 
 same species to produce, by their union, individuals capable 
 of propagating the intermediate variety. Hence has arisen 
 the difficulty of defining the primary races of man, and the 
 discrepancy which exists in the conclusions of those natu- 
 ralists who have devoted the greatest attention to this im- 
 portant and most interesting branch of zoology. Cuvier 
 considers that three varieties are eminently distinct — the 
 white, or Caucasian; the yellow, or Mongolian; the black, 
 or ^Ethiopian. 
 
 "The Caucasian," he observes, "to which we belong, is 
 distinguished by the beauty of the oval which forms the 
 head ; and it is this one which has given rise to the most 
 civilized nations — to those which have generally held the 
 rest in subjection : it varies in complexion and in the colour 
 of the hair. 
 
 "The Mongolian is known by his projecting cheek-bones, 
 flat visage, narrow and oblique eyebrows, scanty beard, and 
 olive complexion. Great empires have been established by 
 this race in China and Japan, and its conquests have seme 
 times extended to this side of the Great Desert, but its civil- 
 ization has always remained stationary. 
 
 "The Negro or Ethiopian race is confined to the south- 
 ward of the Atlas chain of mountains; its colour is black, 
 its hair crisped, the cranium is contracted, and the nose flat- 
 tened. The projecting muzzle and thick lips evidently ap- 
 proximate it to the apes: the hordes of which it is composed 
 have always continued barbarous." 
 
 To the three primary races characterized by Cuvier, Blu- 
 menbach adds the Ma'aijan and American races. Of thfc 
 Malays, however, Cuvier asks, "Can they be clearly dis- 
 tinguished from their neighbours on both sides, the Cauca- 
 sian Indians and the Mongolian Chinese ?" And with 
 regard to the Americans, he states, "They have no precise 
 or constant character which can entitle them to be consid- 
 ered as a particular race. Their copper-coloured complex- 
 ion is not sufficient. Their general black hair and scanty 
 beard would induce us to approximate them to the Mongols, 
 If their defined features, their nose as projecting as ours, 
 their large and open eyes, did not oppose such a theorv, and 
 correspond with the features of the European." Dr. Pritch 
 
MANATEE. 
 
 ard, however, const lers lhat there are seven classes of na- 
 tions which may be separated from each other by strongly- 
 marked I 
 
 The Jirst class corresponds with Cuvier's Caucasian va- 
 riety, but which Dr. Pritchard prefers to call Iranian. 
 
 The second-, which he terms Turanian, is equivalent to 
 the Mongolian variety. 
 
 The third class are the native American races, excluding 
 the Esquimaux and some tribes which resemble them more 
 than the majority of inhabitants of the new world. 
 
 The fourth class comprises only the Hottentot and Bush- 
 man races. 
 
 AjiJ'lU class includes the Negroes. 
 
 The sixth class consists of the Papuans, or woolly-haired 
 natives ni Polynesia. 
 
 The seventh class includes the Alfourou and Australian 
 
 A study of the resemblances and differences of human 
 speech in various regions and various ages has added much 
 and vwll contribute more to the true knowledge and defini- 
 tion of the primitive races of the human species. It has 
 d in the establishment of the following families 
 ues: The fllMlfl'f. In irhlfh belong the Hebrew, 
 Chaldean, Syrian, 1'hcEnician, and Ethiopian; the 
 
 Indu- Kurujiaan, which includes Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, 
 
 Latin, German, and Celtic ; the Monosyllabic languages, as 
 
 Thibetan, Uirman, Siamese; the Polysyntlulic 
 
 languages, B class including most of the American Indian 
 
 The combination of zoological, anatomical, and 
 
 glossological characters is still wanting to establish the 
 
 rs anil limits of the human races. 
 
 MA \ ATE'E. A herbivorous Cetacean, forming the type 
 
 of a liisiict genus, Manatus. See that word. 
 
 MANA'TUS. (Lai. mantis, a hand.) The name given 
 by Cuvier to a genus of his herbivorous Cetaceans, including 
 the species usually called sea-cows. They have an oblong 
 body, terminated by a lengthened oval tin ; their grinders, 
 which are eight on each side of both jaws, have square 
 marked by two transverse ridges. There are no 
 of canines in the adult, but when very young there 
 are mo vci) small |»iintcd teeth in the intermaxillary bones, 
 which soon disappear. Vestiges of nails are visible on the 
 edge of their swimming paws, which they employ with 
 some address in carrying their young; hence the comparison 
 with hands, and the name Manatee and 
 Manatus applied to the animal. There are two species of 
 in America, and one in Africa; they inhabit the 
 mouths of the great rivers, and browse on the herbage that 
 clothes the banks. 
 MANCHINEEL. (Mancinella, the Spanish name.) A 
 the West India islands, and celebrated for 
 lus qualities. It is asserted that to sleep beneath 
 Is to poison ; and lhat the land crabs found in the 
 maneliineel become ^usurious from feeding on its 
 U though there is doubtless much exaggeration in 
 a doubt exists of the deadly effects of man- 
 luice when introduced into the system. 
 MA.MIA'.ML'S. In Law, a prerogative writ, in the form 
 nf a command, issuing from the Court of King's Bench, di- 
 rected to any person, corporation, or inferior court of judica- 
 ture within the king's dominions, requiring them to perform 
 various duties. It is grounded on the suggestion of a party 
 injured by the acts or omissions of such persons or bodies ; 
 and lies, for Instance, to compel the admission or restoration 
 ol" a party applying to an office or franchise which has been 
 withheld, for the production of public papers, to 
 compel the holding of courts, &c. 
 
 MANDARl'N. The Portuguese term for a member 
 Of the official order of nobility in China. Mandarins arc- 
 either civil or military: of the former there are nil 
 of the latter live. Although the mandarins are interior in 
 dignity to the higher class of nobility, whose dicnitv par- 
 Ukes of B personal character, they form the effective minis- 
 try and magistracy of the country. The Chinese equiva- 
 lent of mandarin is kouon, which signifies literally a public 
 ckaractt r. 
 
 MA'NDIBLE, Mandibula. (Lat. mandibula, a jaw.) In 
 ■Oology, this term is applied to the lower jaw of mammals, 
 and to both jaws of I'irds (except by Illiger, who restricts its 
 appell iti'in to the lower jaw in this class also). In insects 
 it is applied to the upper or anterior pair of jaws. 
 
 MAXIM'BULATES, Mandibulata. (Lat. mandibula, a 
 '•aw.) The name of a grand section of insects, including all 
 (hose which preserve their organs of mastication in their last 
 or perfect stnge of metamorphosis. 
 
 MA'NDISC. The American name of the plant which is 
 Otherwise called cassava, and which is most extensively cul- 
 •-ivaied within the tropics of America for the sake of the 
 nutritive fa-cula contained in its stems. It is the Jatro- 
 pha manilwt of botanists. The substance called tapioca is 
 one ol its products. In its raw state the whole plant is 
 poisonous; but by the preparation and torrefaction of the 
 
 MANGANESE. 
 
 frecula, the poisonous principle, which is volatile, is driven 
 off. 
 
 MA'NDRAKE, or MANDRAGORA. A herb of fabu 
 lous character, concerning which there existed many singu- 
 lar superstitions. The herb mentioned in Genesis, ch. xxx., 
 which our translation renders mandrake, was, probably, 
 some flower or root to which common belief attached value 
 as a philter. The mandrake of modern as well as classical 
 superstition is a herb supposed to have a resemblance to the 
 shape of a man. Those who tear it from the ground are 
 obliged to do so with peculiar ceremonials (according to 
 some, docs must be employed to do so, which die instantly 
 after) : shrieks nnd groans tire heard to issue from it, which 
 have the power of injuring the unwary person who hears 
 them. Its favourite habitat was believed to be tile ground 
 under a gallows on which a criminal was hanging. When 
 plucked, it was said to be useful in conjurations, for the 
 transformation of men or beasts; nnd was also believed to 
 enable the possessor to acquire riches at play, and to dis- 
 cover hidden treasures. (Encyc. Metropol.) 
 
 MA'NDREL. (Fr. mandrin.) In Machinery, a revolv- 
 ing shank to which turners affix their work in the lathe. 
 
 MA'iS'DRILL. (Eng. man, and drill.) A baboon. The 
 name of the Catarrhine monkeys of the genus Papio, Cuv. 
 Thoy are the largest, most brutal, nnd ferocious of the ba- 
 boons. The mandrill proper is the great blue-faced baboon 
 of our menageries — Stasia mormon and maimon nf Linntcus. 
 It is of a grayish-brown, inclining to olive above, with the 
 cheeks blue and furrowed. The nose in the adult male 
 becomes red, and even inclines to a tine scarlet at the end. 
 It is difficult, says Cuvier, to imagine a more hideous or ex- 
 traordinary animal. The male attains the size of a man, 
 and is a terror to the negroes of Guinea and the other parts 
 of Africa, of which this species Is a native. 
 
 MAN'E'GE (Fr. from the Ital. mani I In Eng 
 
 land to signify either the art of horsemanship or of training 
 horses. 
 
 MA'NES. A word of uncertain etymology, applied gen 
 erally by the Romans to souls separated in in the dead. 
 There is some obscurity, however, about the precise mean- 
 ing of this term. According to Apulelus, the Mines were 
 originally called Lemures, and consisted of two classes — the 
 Lares and the Larva ; the former of whom were 
 of those who had led virtuous lives, and the latter of those 
 who had lived Improperly ; and, at a later period, the term 
 Manes came to be a general designation for both. On the 
 other hand, St. Auguslin maintains thai Manes was, from 
 the first, a term applied to the spirits of deceased men when 
 no definite opinion could be formed of their merits : " Animas 
 hominum damones esse, ct ex liominiliiis fieri Lares, si 
 meriti bonisint; Lemures slve Larvas, si mali ; manes autem 
 cum incertum est bononun eos, slve malonun esse merito- 
 rum." In the month of February, annually, th 
 were propitiated at their sepulchres during twelve days, li 
 was the duty of the pontifex mnximus to see thai proper 
 ceremonies were observed. The stones in the Roman burial- 
 places, and their funeral urns, were generally inscribed With 
 the letters I). M. B. (His M ambus Sacrum). 
 
 MANGANESE. This name is generally riven to a black 
 mineral, originally described in the year 1774, bv Scheele, 
 as a peculiar earth, and which was afterwards shown by 
 Gahn to be the oxide of a metallic substance which he 
 called magnesium. This term, however, having been ap- 
 plied to the metallic base of magnesia, the word manganese 
 has been adopted to designate the metal, and the ore above 
 alluded to has been called black, or peroxide of, manga- 
 nese. The metal itself has a "pecitic gravity of about 8. 
 It is gray, hard, brittle, and very difficult of fusion, nnd has 
 not been applied to any use. The black oxide, on the con 
 trary, is largely employed as a source of oxygen, and is es 
 pecially important from the use which is made of it in the 
 decomposition of common salt for the production of chlorine. 
 Manganese may be represented by the equivalent 28 ; and 
 the black oxide, being a compound of 1 at} m of manganese 
 and 2 of oxygen, has the equivalent 44 (28 + 16). There 
 is also a protoxide of manganese, composed of 28 metal + 8 
 oxygen, which is the basis of the salts of this metal. When 
 hydrate or carbonate of potnssa, or nitre, are fused will) 
 peroxide of manganese in an open vessel, a dnrk-colourcd 
 compound is obtained, long known under the name of cha- 
 meleon mineral, in consequence of its yielding in cold water 
 a solution which is at first green, then blue, purple, red, 
 brown, and ultimately depontl a brown powder, and be- 
 comes colourless. This substance has since been termed 
 manganate of potash, and has been proved to coDtain a 
 compound of I atom of manganese and 3 of oxygen, which 
 has been called manganic acid, and is represented by the 
 equivalent 52. In the pink solution, which is produced at 
 once by the action of hot water, manganese exists in a still 
 higher state of oxidizement, forming the permanganic acid, 
 in which 2 atoms of manganese are combined with 7 of 
 oxygen. Both these compounds are very easy of decompo 
 
 713 
 
MANGE. 
 
 Rition. Some of the proto-salts of manganese have ately 
 been used in calico-printing as the source of brown colours, 
 and occasionally as deoxidizing agents. 
 
 MANGE. An eruptive disease which attacks several 
 domestic animals, especially the dog. It is said to resemble 
 the itch, and, like that disease, to be produced by a minute 
 species of acarus which burrows beneath the cuticle. It is 
 stated that the fluid discharged from the eruption of mange, 
 in horses and dogs, has produced the itch upon the human 
 skin. It is commonly produced by confinement and want 
 of cleanliness, and bad or insufficient food. 
 
 MA'NGEL WURZEL. The root of the Beta hybrida. 
 This German name is translated root of scarcity ; the root 
 being large, and used as a substitute for bread. It is culti- 
 vated for the food of cattle. 
 
 MA'NGER. The trough in which is placed the corn or 
 other short food given to live stock, and more especially to 
 horses. See Rack. 
 
 Ma'nger. The space near the hawse holes, bounded on 
 the upper side by a partition across the bows, called the 
 manger board, to receive the water while it enters the hawse 
 holes and prevent it from flooding the deck. 
 
 MA'NGO (Mangos marum, in the Tamul language of 
 India), is a very large fruit-tree, inhabiting the tropical parts 
 of Asia, throughout all which it is as extensively cultivated 
 as the apple and pear trees are in Europe. Old specimens 
 have been seen with a trunk from ten to fifteen feet in cir- 
 cumference. The fruit is something like a nectarine, but 
 more compressed, longer, and more curved. It contains a 
 large stone, covered with coarse fibres, which lose them- 
 selves in the succulent flesh. The wild and inferior varieties 
 of this fruit taste so strongly of turpentine as to be wholly 
 unfit for use by Europeans ; but in the fine varieties this 
 flavour is replaced by a rich sugary quality, which renders 
 it very delicious. In this country the mango has rarely 
 ripened its fruit, but it is common in the shops in a pickled 
 state. The fruit of the Mangifera Indica, a tree cultivated 
 in Asia, is also called mango. 
 
 MA'NGOSTEEN. The fruit of the Oarcinia mangos- 
 tana, growing in Java nrA the Molucca Islands : it is of the 
 sii.d of as 01 uum, and of h ueiicioua 8av< •■ ■ 
 
 MANGROVE (probably an abbreviation of mangle grove, 
 the former being the Malay name), is a tree inhabiting the 
 shores of the tropical parts of the world in either hemi- 
 sphere, and well known to navigators on account of the 
 dense groves it forms even down into the water itself. It 
 belongs to the genus Rhisophora, and is principally remark- 
 able for its seeds germinating before they leave the case in 
 which they were generated on the branches. The young 
 radicle grows downwards through the humid air till it 
 reaches the mud, in which it fixes itself, and then the leaves 
 and new stem unfold at the opposite end. The white man- 
 grove, another shore plant of the tropics, is Avicennia to- 
 mentosa, quite a different genus from the genuine plants of 
 that name. 
 
 MA'NIA. (Gr. fiaivoum, I rage.) Madness. It is de- 
 fined to be delirium, unattended by fever, in which both 
 judgment and memory are impaired, and the irritability of 
 the body diminished so as to resist many morbid causes. 
 There is a false perception of things, marked by incoherence 
 or raving, and resentment of restraint. It is divided into 
 melancholic and furious: the former marked by dejection 
 of spirits, the latter by violent exertion of strength, malice 
 to particular individuals, and repugnance to scenes and 
 places before agreeable. Dissection has shown that in cases 
 of madness there is usually effusion of water in the cavities 
 of the brain, or appearances of previous inflammation of its 
 membranes, or hardness of its substance, or peculiar thick- 
 ness of the scull ; and it has lately been stated that chemi- 
 cal analysis has shown an excess or deficiency of phospho- 
 rus in the composition of the brain in cases of madness and 
 tdiotcy. 
 
 MANICIIE'ISTS. The followers of Manes, an Oriental 
 heretic of the third century, who, having been ordained a 
 Christian presbyter, attempted to effect a combination be- 
 tween the religion which he was appointed to preach and 
 the current philosophical systems of the East. He pursued 
 herein the same course as the Valentinians, Basilidians, and 
 many others, whose leading ideas may be denominated 
 Gnostic. He maintained a dualism of principles governing 
 the world, and a succession of dualisms generated from 
 them, like the Gnostic reons. All things were effected by 
 the combination or repulsion of the good and the bad ; men 
 1 al a double soul, good and evil ; even their bodies were 
 tj i iposed to be formed, the upper half by God, the lower by 
 the Devil. The Old Testament was referred to the inspira- 
 tion of the evil principle, the New to that of the good. In 
 the latter, however, Manes proposed many alterations, and 
 maintained also the authenticity of various apocryphal 
 scriptun s. A great part of his system related to cosmogony 
 aud psy( hology, in which fields of speculation he expatiated 
 w'i'h the most arbitrary freedom. Like most other Oiiental 
 714 
 
 MANNA. 
 
 .system?, the Manichean heresy was celebrated alike for 
 the austerities which it enjoined, and for the scandalous ex- 
 cesses which were attributed to its most zealous votaries. 
 The charge of Manicheism, which in later times becomes 
 scarcely intelligible, was frequently broueht against the 
 early reforming sects, such as the Albigenses, Waldcn»<js, 
 Picards, &c. (See Mosheim (transl.), ed. 1790, i., .'103, &c. ; 
 Beausobre, Hist. Critique de Manichee et du Manickexsme, 
 Amst., 1734 ; Oicscler, vol. i., 150 (transl.), ii., 151, iii., 340 ; 
 Milman, Hist, of Christianity, ii., 322.) 
 
 MANIFE'STO. In Politics, a declaration of n otivos 
 publicly issued by a belligerent state, or by a genet al acting 
 with full powers, previously to the commencement of hos : 
 tilities. They are in the form of letters, with a superscrip- 
 tion or heading addressed to the public in general, and sigotii 
 with the name of the sovereign who sends them forth 
 The usage of issuing manifestoes is said to date so far back 
 as the 14th century. The term is probably derived from 
 the Latin words " manifestum est," with which such docu- 
 ments usually commenced. 
 
 MA'NIOC. The Indian name of amylaceous products . 
 of the shrub called Jatropha manihot. 
 
 MANIPULATION, in Chemistry, embraces the manual 
 and mechanical operations of the laboratory and in the 
 delicate details of analysis, as well as in the exhibition of 
 class experiments, great skill and practice in manipulation 
 are required to ensure success. The processes >( weighing, 
 measuring, filtering, distilling, precipitating dissolving, using 
 the blowpipe, &c, all come within the meaning of manipu- 
 lation. Mr. Faraday has published an excellent treanst 
 upon this subject. 
 
 . MANI'PULUS. (Lat. manus, hand.) In Roman Mi?, 
 tary Antiquities, a subdivision of the cohort : so called from 
 the handful of gra.-s, straw, &c, which formed its original 
 standard. A maniple of triarii consisted of 60 men, one of 
 hastati and principes of 120, when the number of the legion 
 was 300. (See M. le Beau's Eighth Dissertation on tile 
 Roman Legion, Mem. de I' Ac des Inscr., vol. xxxii.) 
 
 MA'NIS. The name of a genus of Edentate Mammals, 
 singularly characterized by being covered with large, strong, 
 imbricated, horny scales, like the Lacertine reptiles, and 
 hence commonly called scaly lizards, and figuring in old 
 zoological works among that class of animals. The manises, 
 or pangolins, are, however, true warm-blooded mammals, 
 and rank in the system of Cuvier among the Edentate order ; 
 of which they may be regarded as typical forms, being wholly 
 destitute of teeth, and provided with a tongue of extraordi- 
 nary length, with associated glands for preparing an abun- 
 dance of adhesive lubricous mucus. By this organization 
 they are peculiarly adapted to prey on ants, termites, &c. ; 
 and certain of their claws are extraordinarily developed, to 
 enable them to break through the walls of the habitations 
 of these social insects. The manises are confined to the 
 warmest regions of Asia and Africa, where they play a cor- 
 responding part with that assigned to the true anteaters 
 {Myrecophaga) in South America. 
 
 MANITRUNK, Manitr uncus, in Entomology, is a term 
 given to the anterior segment of the trunk, in which the 
 head inosculates, or on which it turns. 
 
 MA'NNA. (Syrian mano, a gift; it being a term applied 
 to the food given by God to the children of Israel in the 
 wilderness.) What we now call manna is a saccharine 
 substance which exudes from the bark of the Fraxinvs 
 ornus, and some other species of ash, natives of the south 
 of Europe, especially Sicily and Calabria. Manna is used 
 in medicine as a mild aperient. It differs remarkably from 
 common sugar in not being susceptible of vinous fermenta- 
 tion ; so that, if mixed with common sugar and yeast, and 
 subjected to the process of fermentation, the sugar becomes 
 converted into alcohol, but the manna remains unaltered in 
 the liquor. When manna is dissolved in boiling alcohol, 
 the solution, as it cools, deposits it in flaky and acicular 
 crystals, often arranged in concentric groups. Manna, thus 
 purified, has been chemically designated by the term man- 
 nite. 
 
 Various opinions have been entertained respecting the 
 precise nature of the manna on which the Israelites were 
 sustained, and attempts have been made at various times to I 
 account for its miraculous nppearance on natural causes; 
 but, in our opinion, without any success. The Syriac word 
 mano means a gift, referring to this circumstance, and is no 
 doubt derived from the Hebrew mavku, the Scripture ex- 
 planation of which is certainly the best. The word asks a 
 question, and signifies " What is this ?" "for they wist not 
 what it was." (Exodus, xvi., 15.) And if they did not 
 know thm " what it was," it is not l'.kely we should know 
 now. They could see that it was a little round gram, or 
 something like a grain, of the size of coriander-seed, and 
 white as the hoar frost on the ground ; but it had no com 
 ponent parts such as they could describe. And even ad 
 mining, as has been frequently maintained, that t exuded 
 from the bark of the ash, or some other tree, it 'a incredilWe 
 
 
MANNER. 
 
 that it couM be supplied in such abundance in the deserts of 
 A ml istenance to 500,000 Israelites for 40 years, 
 
 without the miraculous intervention of Providence. 
 
 M \ \.\EK. (Fr. maniere.) In the Fine Arts, a pecu- 
 liariiy of treating a subject, or of executing it, by which in- 
 dividual artists are distinguished : the latter arising out of n 
 particular mode of using the media and implements of art, 
 the former out of a singular method of observing nature. 
 ■ J. Reynolds's Sixth Discourse.) 
 
 MAN-OF-WAR, MERCHANT-MAN. The common 
 terms for ship-of-wnr, merchant-ship. 
 
 MANOMIVTElt, or MA'XOSCOPE. (Gr. pavoc, rare, 
 and ptrpov, a measure, or ckh-cm, I view.) An instrument 
 for measuring the density of the air, or rather lis clastic force, 
 to which the density is supposed to be proportional. See 
 
 P.NErMATICS. 
 
 MA 'NOB (Lat. maneo, / reside ; from the residence of 
 
 the lord), signifies a district subject to the jurisdiction of a 
 
 court baron. In the feudal ages, a grant of lands from the 
 
 kin;; carried with it a right of dominion ; and the grantee or 
 
 boron bod power to make laws, and hold a court of justice 
 
 for his dependants within the territory, which was called a 
 
 The baron might also, by subinfeudation, parcel 
 
 out the land so granted to other-;, to bold of him, as he held 
 
 of the king, by military service or other tenure. These, 
 
 again, farther subdivided the land by grants to others, and 
 
 increasing manors by this process ad infinitum. The 
 
 io the lord of the fee were, in consequence, very 
 
 performed; and, to meet this inconvenience, the 
 
 statute of F.d. I., called Quia Emptores, was passed, which 
 
 ■ I that the buyers of lands should hold them by the 
 
 same services, and of the same lord, as they were before 
 
 held by when in the hands of the seller. This put a stop 
 
 '•('manors; and every manor, therefore, DOW 
 
 ice, must have existed in the lime of Ed. I., and 
 
 mentioned. 
 
 MA'NSABD ROOF. (So called fn.m the name of its 
 
 inventor, a celebrated architect.) In Architecture, the same 
 
 roof, which see. 
 
 movable parapet, constructed of 
 with tin, iron, or leather, to serve as a pro- 
 tection to the miners in carrying a sap or a trench towards 
 I place. Mantelets are of various forms, adapted 
 to the peculiar circumstances of the approach. 
 
 i IS. iGr.pavm; applied bs Theocritus {Idyl, x., 
 II?) to the cicada.) A Linna-an genu of Orthopterous in- 
 sects, characterized by having the head exposed, and the 
 body narrow and elongated ; the palpi short, and terminating 
 it; the ligula quadrifid ; the tarsi five jointed, and 
 - simply plaited longitudinally, and not ray-wise, 
 like a fin Toe true mantises— sometimes called praying 
 in account of the position of the anterior pair of legs, 
 which dili'er from the rest— arc found only In tropical and 
 temperate climates: they are diurnal, anil remain nlmost 
 stationary on plants and trees; frequently resembling, In a 
 free, their leaves and branches in both the 
 form and colour of the wind's and body, and thus thev de- 
 ceive the smaller insects on which they prey. Their eggs 
 !'. enclosed in a capsule formed of some glutinous 
 substance, which hardens by exposure to the air, and is 
 iternally Into several cells. It \< curious to trace 
 Bspondence with the vegetable kingdom already 
 noticed in the wings and body continued into the form of 
 the egg-capsules, which in many species closely resemble a 
 seed receptacle of a plant, presenting regularly disposed 
 veu being bristled with little spines. 
 The female attaches it by an adhesive secretion l 
 to the stem of a plant. 
 
 ad group of mantjsea, characterized by bavins the 
 anterior legs like the following ones, now form a distinct 
 subgenus, Spectrum, and are generaV. y called spectre insects : 
 they feed exclusively on vegetables, of which they secularly 
 resemble dried twigs. The progress of entomology has re- 
 quired farther subdivisions of both the above groups. 
 
 M \.\TI SSA. The decimal part of a logarithm is some- 
 led the mantissa of the significant digits, the inte- 
 gral part being the characteristic. Thus, in log. 900 = 
 1*05434, the characteristic of the logarithm of the number is 
 2, and 95424 is the mantissa, which belongs equally to the 
 numbers 0, '.'0, 900, -9, &c. 
 
 MA'NTLE. (Fr. manteau.) In Architecture, the piece 
 lying horizontally across from one jamb of a chimney to the 
 other. In Malacology, the external fold of the skin of the 
 motlusks. 
 
 MA'NUAL (Lat. mantis, thr hand), was applied originally 
 to the Roman Catholic service book, from its convenient 
 size (being such as might be carried in the hand) ; but it 
 now signifies any small work used chiefly for the purpose 
 of refen 
 
 MANUPA'CTURE. (Lat. manus, a hand, and facio, / 
 make.) In Political Economy, a term employed to designate 
 the changes or modifications made by art and industry in 
 
 MANUFACTURE. 
 
 the form or substance of material articles, in the view of 
 rendering them capable of satisfying some want or desire of 
 man. Hence the perfection of manufacturing consists in 
 the being able to effect the wished-for changes in the raw 
 material with the least expenditure of labour, or at the least 
 cost. 
 
 With the exception of fishing, hunting, mining, and such 
 ! branches of industry as have for their object to obtain pos- 
 ii of material products in the state in which they are 
 fashioned by nature, all other branches may, in fact, be 
 comprised under the term manufacture. Generally, indeed, 
 it is applied only to those departments of industry in which 
 the raw material is fashioned into desirable articles by art 
 and labour without the aid of the soil. But there is no 
 really good foundation for any such limitation ; which, un- 
 less explained, is apt to make it be supposed that businesses 
 which are substantially identical not only differ from, but 
 are opposed to, each other. It is obvious, indeed, on the 
 slightest consideration, that agriculture is nothing but a 
 manufacture. ; for the business of the agriculturist is so to 
 dispose of the soil, seed, manure, nnd other materials, that 
 they may supply him with other and more desirable products. 
 Manufacturing industry consists, in fact, in the application 
 of art, science, and labour to bring- about certain changes or 
 modifications rf already existing materials ; and its varieties 
 depend wholly on the modes in which this application is 
 made. The manufacture of any particular article usually 
 derives its name from the raw material manufactured, modi- 
 fied, or wrought up into a new shape. Thus the terms 
 woollen, cotton, and hardware manufacture, mean the work- 
 ing up of wool, cotton or metals n to useful or desirable 
 articles; ship building is the manufacture of timber and iron 
 into ships ; agriculture {age and colo) i.» the production of 
 corn, beef, nnd other products, by the adaptation of the soil 
 and the vegetative powers of nature to their manufacture, 
 and so on. The knowledge of the means by which art and 
 labour may be most successfully employed in each of these 
 departments forms the peculiar business of the woollen, 
 cotton, and hardware manufacturers, ship-builders, ngricul 
 tnrists, &c. 
 
 It would far exceed our limits to -/tempt to enter into 
 any details with respect to the application of labour in the 
 separate departments of manufacturing industry; but con- 
 sidering the vast rnrportanee of manufactures to mankind, 
 and especially to the British nntion, we may, perhaps, be 
 : for endeavouring shortly to State some of those con- 
 ditions and circumstances that seem, in a general point of 
 view, most essential to success in manufactures. 
 
 These tire partly of a moral and political, and partly of n 
 physical description. Of the former class, the most im- 
 |K>rtant seem to be, the security and free disposal of proper- 
 ty ; the absence of monopolies, nnd the non-interference of 
 government in industrious undertakings ; the diffusion of 
 knowledge among the people; the cordial reception of 
 foreigners; nnd the emulation and energy inspired by in 
 equality of fortune, and by the gradual increase of taxation. 
 Among the more prominent of the physical circumstances 
 conducive to the progress of manufactures are supplies of 
 the raw materials to be manufactured, with the command 
 of power; that is, of coals, waterfalls, &x. A good deal, 
 also, of the progress of manufactures seems to depend on the 
 advantageous situation of a country for commerce, nnd on 
 the nature of its climate. We shall briefly notice some of 
 the more prominent of these circumstances. 
 
 1. Moral Circumstances contributing to the Progress of 
 Manufactures — 1. It is unnecessary to take up the reader's 
 time by enlarging on the necessity of security, and of the 
 free disposal of property, to success in manufacturing in- 
 dustry, or, indeed in any laborious undertaking. Without 
 security there can be neither industry nor invention. No 
 man will engage in any employment, or exert either his 
 bodily or mental powers, unless he be well convinced that 
 he will be allowed to reap all the advantages accruing from 
 his labour, skill, or genius. Any doubt as to this is sure to 
 paralyze his exertions. And if, owing to the weakness or 
 ignorance of government, the prevalence of a revolutionary 
 spirit, or any other cause, the security of property were ma- 
 terially impaired, nil sorts of industrious und e r ta kings that 
 did not promise an immediate return would be forthwith 
 abandoned, and every person possessed of property would 
 endeavour to convey it out of the country. The want of se- 
 curity is, in fact, the greatest of public calamities. In its ab- 
 sence we find nothing but the most abject poverty and bar- 
 barism ; nnd, supposing other things to be equal, the wealth 
 and civilization of nations will be pretty nearly proportioned 
 to the security of property they respectively enjoy. Every 
 other circumstance conducive to the advancement of In 
 dustry may exist in a country ; but, without security, these 
 can be of no material service. A high degree of security 
 will compensate for many deficiencies, but nothing can make 
 up for its want; it is a sine qu < non of manufacturing nnd 
 nntional prosperitv. 
 
 715 
 
MANUFACTURE. 
 
 i!. The absence of monopolies, and the non-interference 
 of government in industrious undertakings, undoubtedly 
 conduce in no ordinary degree to the progress of industry. 
 Every man is always exerting himself to find out how lie 
 may best extend his command over the necessaries and con- 
 veniences of life ; and sound policy requires that he should, 
 so long as he does not interfere with the rights and privileges 
 of others, be allowed to pursue his own interest in his own 
 way. That individuals are, generally speaking, the best 
 judges of what is most beneficial for themselves, is now 
 universally admitted to be the only principle that can be safe- 
 ly relied on. It is the duty of governments to preserve order ; 
 to nrevent one individual from injuring another; to main- 
 tain, in short, the equal rights and privileges of all. But it 
 is not possible for them to go one step farther without re- 
 ceding from the principle of non-interference, and laying 
 themselves open to the charge of acting partially by some 
 and unjustly by others. 
 
 The most comprehensive experience corroborates the truth 
 of this statement. Since the passing of the famous act of 
 James I. in 1624, for the abolition of monopolies, full scope 
 has been given in Great Britain to the competition of the 
 home producers; and though the various resources of talent 
 and genius have not been so fully perhaps, or at least so 
 early developed, as they would have been had there been 
 no restrictions on our intercourse with foreigners, they have 
 been stimulated in a degree unknown in most other coun- 
 tries. France, previously to the Revolution, was divided 
 into provinces, having each peculiar privileges and separate 
 codes of revenue laws ; and, in consequence, the intercourse 
 between them was subject to the most oppressive restrictions. 
 In Germany and Spain the same miserable system prevail- 
 ed ; so that they were not only deprived of the freedom of 
 foreign, but even of internal commerce. The inhabitants of 
 each province being in a great measure isolated from the 
 rest, there was comparatively little competition ; and, instead 
 of invention and active exertion, there was nothing but rou- 
 tine and sluggish indifference. Holland and the United 
 States have been almost the only countries that have enjoy- 
 ed the same degree of internal freedom as Great Britain ; 
 and the former, notwithstanding the unfavourable physical 
 circumstances under which she is placed, has long been, 
 and still is, the richest country in Europe ; while the latter, 
 whose condition is in other respects more favourable, is ad- 
 vancing with giant steps in the career of improvement. 
 
 It is sometimes said that restrictions on industry and com- 
 merce cannot be so injurious as has been represented, seeing 
 the progress we have made notwithstanding they have al- 
 ways existed among us. The previous details show the 
 weight to be attached to this allegation. The restrictions re- 
 ferred to have been confined to some branches of foreign 
 trade; and, luckily, the freedom allowed to all sorts of in- 
 dustry at home would have insured our advance even had 
 our foreign trade been a good deal more fettered and restrain- 
 ed than it actually has been. But to imagine, as many have 
 done, that these restrictions contributed to accelerate our 
 progress, is the climax of folly. Their influence is, in every 
 case, distinctly and completely the reverse ; but though con- 
 siderable, even in Great Britain, it has been insufficient to 
 countervail the advantages resulting from the freedom we 
 otherwise enjoyed. 
 
 3. The ability to read, and the diffusion of instruction 
 among all ranks and orders of the people by the general cir- 
 culation of books and journals, the establishment of me- 
 chanics' institutes, &c, have had a material influence over 
 the advancement of arts and industry. They have had the 
 double advantage of multiplying the means and chances of 
 improvement, and of preventing any invention or discovery, 
 when made, from being lost or engrossed by a few. An tin- 
 instructed people, though surrounded by all the means and 
 capacities required for the manufacture of commodities and 
 the accumulation of riches, being unable to apply them, are 
 necessarily poor and destitute; but an intelligent people, 
 though placed in a comparatively unfavourable situation, 
 never fail, by availing themselves of the powers and ener- 
 gies of nature, and making them subservient to their pur- 
 poses, to attain to distinction as manufacturers, and so be- 
 come rich and prosperous. That " knowledge is power" is 
 true in manufactures as well as in morals. The more fa- 
 miliar our acquaintance with, and the more complete our 
 command over natural agents, the greater, of course, must 
 be our ability to modify rude products, and to make them 
 minister to our wants and the gratification of our de- 
 sires. In tracing the causes of our success in manufactures 
 and industry, it is not possible to appropriate to each cir- 
 cumstance the portion belonging to it of a result which is 
 the joint effect of the whole; but if this could be done, it 
 would be found that no inconsiderable share is fairly ascriba- 
 ble to the extraordinary diffusion among us of scientific in- 
 "ormation. 
 
 4. For a lengthened period the reception given to foreign- 
 ers in England was anything but cordial. In most countries. 
 
 716 
 
 indeed, not in an advanced state of civilization, strangers are 
 uniformly the objects of popular dislike; and this feeling 
 seems at one time to have prevailed quite as much "n Eng 
 land as any where else. But notwithstanding the various 
 legal disabilities laid on foreigners, and the ill-treatment thev 
 often experienced, their settlement here has been productive 
 of the most advantageous results. The Flemings, iu\ ited 
 over and protected by Edward III., gave the first great im 
 pulse to the woollen manufacture; and the immigrations 
 from the Low Countries during the persecutions of the Dulse 
 of Alva, and from France subsequently to the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes, materially forwarded our commerce 
 and many branches of manufactures. During the last cen- 
 tury the prejudice against aliens lost much of its force ; and 
 several of the disabilities under which they formerly labour- 
 ed have been removed. But in all that respects the treat- 
 ment of foreigners, our policy has been less liberal and en- 
 lightened than that of the Dutch. In Holland they have al- 
 ways been received with open arms ; and a short residence 
 in the country, and a small payment to the state, have en 
 titled them to all the privileges enjoyed by natives. The 
 highest authorities agree that this was one of the main causes 
 of the extraordinary progress made by the republic in com- 
 merce and wealth. '• It has always been our constant policy 
 to make Holland a perpetual, safe, and secure asylum tor ail 
 persecuted and oppressed strangers; no alliance, no treaty, 
 no regard for, nor any solicitation of, any potentate whatever 
 has at any time been able to weaken or destroy, or make 
 the state recede from protecting, those who have fled to it 
 for their own security and self-preservation. Throughout 
 the whole course of all the persecutions and oppressions 
 that have occurred in other countries, the steady adherence 
 of the republic to this fundamental law has been the cause 
 that many people have not only fled thither for refuge, with 
 their whole stock in ready cash, and their most valuable ef 
 fects, but have also settled and established many trades 
 fabrics, manufactures, arts, and sciences, in this country 
 notwithstanding the first materials for the said fabrics an. 
 manufactures were almost wholly wanting in it, and n>t t: 
 be procured but at a great expense from foreign pals.' 
 (Memorial by Dutch Merchants, presented to the Pi inc.: of 
 Orange in 1751.) 
 
 5. We incline to think that the great inequality of fortune 
 that has always prevailed in this country has powerfully 
 contributed to excite a spirit of invention and industry among 
 the less opulent classes. It is not always because a man is 
 absolutely poor that he is perscveringly industrious :md 
 economical; he may have already amassed consideraole 
 wealth, but he continues with unabated energy to avail h\jn 
 self of every means by which he may hope to add to his t >r- 
 tune, that he may place himself on a level with the grw 
 landed proprietors, and those who give the tone to society it 
 all that regards expense. No successful manufacturer >; 
 merchant ever considers that he has enough till he lie Hi t 
 to live in something like the same style as the most opule :t 
 landlords. Those immediately below the highest becom >, 
 as it were, a standard, to which the class next to them e. .- 
 deavour to elevate themselves; the impulse extending, i. 
 this way, to the very lowest classes, individuals belonging t.i 
 which are always raising themselves by industry, address 
 and good fortune to the highest places in society. Had then 
 been less inequality of fortune among us, there would hav» 
 been less emulation, and industry would not have been so 
 successfully prosecuted. It is true the desire to emulate the 
 great and the affluent, by embarking in a lavish course of ex- 
 penditure, is often prematurely indulged in, and carried to a 
 culpable excess ; but the evils thence arising make but a 
 trifling deduction from the beneficial influence of that pow- 
 erful stimulus which it gives to the inventive faculties, and 
 to that desire to improve our condition and to mount in the 
 scale of society which is the source of all that is great and 
 elevated. Hence we should disapprove of any system, 
 which, like that of the taw of equal inheritance established 
 in Franee, had any tendency artificially to equalize fortunes. 
 To the absence of any such law, and the prevalence of cus- 
 toms of a totally different character, we nre inclined to at- 
 tribute a considerable portion of our superior manufactures, 
 wealth, and industry. 
 
 6. We nre also disposed to believe, how paradoxical so- 
 ever such a notion may appear, that the taxation to wmch 
 we are subject has hitherto at least been favourable to the 
 progress of industry. It is not enough that a man has the 
 means of rising in the world within his command < he must 
 be placed in such a situation that unless he avail himself of 
 them, and put forth all his energies, he will be cast down to 
 a lower station. Now this is what our taxation has effect 
 ed: to the desire of rising in the world, implanted in the 
 breast of every marf, it superadded the fear of being thrown 
 down to a lower place in society ; nnd the two principles com- 
 bined produced results that could not have been produced 
 by either separately. Had taxation been carried beyond due 
 bounds, t would not have had this effect. But though con- 
 
MANUFACTURE. 
 
 uderable, its increase was not such as to make the contribu- 
 tors despair of being able to meet the sacrifices it imposed 
 by Increased skill and economy; and the efforts they made 
 in this view were far more than sufficient for their object; 
 and consequently occasioned a large addition to the public 
 mdustrv and wealth, that would not otherwise have existed. 
 II. Physical Circumstances contributing to the Progress 
 of .Manufactures. — 1. Supplies of the raw material may be 
 classed among the more prominent of this description of cir- 
 cumstances. Those who reflect on the value and import- 
 ance of our manufactures of wool ; of the useful metals, 
 such as iron, tin, lead, copper, ice. ; of leather, flax, and so 
 on — will readily admit that our success in them has been 
 patently facilitated by our possessing abundant supplies of 
 the raw material. It is of less consequence when the ma- 
 terial of a manufacture possesses considerable value in 
 small hulk, whether it be furnished from native sources or 
 be Imported from ahroad; though even in that case, the ad- 
 vantage of having an internal supply, which ennnot be 
 withdrawn through the jealousy or hostility of others, is 
 fur from immaterial. But no nation enn make any consid- 
 erable progress in the manufacture of bulky and heavy arti- 
 cles, the conveyance of which to a distance necessarily occa- 
 DM expense, unless she have supplies of the raw 
 material within herself. Had we been destitute of iron ore, 
 lead, and tin, we could never have distinguished ourselves 
 by the magnitude nnd value of our manufactures of these 
 articles; ami any one who reflects on the signal advantage 
 v. eveiy branch of manufacturing industry from 
 liein_' a! ile to procure abundant supplies of iron at the cheap- 
 est rate, "ill be convinced that we are under anything but 
 slight obligations to our exhaaatieaa stores of this mineral. 
 
 2. But of all the physical circumstances that have con- 
 tributed to our extraordinary progress in manufactures and 
 mdustrv, none have had so much influence as our possession 
 of the most valuable coal mines. These have conferred nd- 
 
 on us, not enjoyed in an equal degree by any other 
 country. Our extraordinary success In the manufacture of 
 '•er, &.c, is not owing so much to our possessing the 
 10 our possessing the coal by the aid of which they 
 n smelted and refined. The paramount importance 
 of roal as a manufacturing agent has, however, been prin- 
 cipally manifested since the invention of the steam engine. 
 Without n cheap and abundant supply of fuel, the engine, 
 as now constructed, would be of comparatively little use. 
 It is, at it were, the hands by which the most gigantic re- 
 sults are effected ; but coal is the muscle by which the hands 
 are set in motion, and without which their all but illimitable 
 powet and dexterity could not be called into action, or made 
 i nt to any useful purpose. Our conl mines may 
 thus, in truth, be regarded as vast magazines of hoarded or 
 warehoused power; and unless some such radical change 
 should be made on the steam-engine as should very decided- 
 ly lessen the quantity of fuel required to keep it in motion, 
 or some equally serviceable machine, but moved by different 
 ■ introduced, it is not nt nil likely that any nation 
 should come into successful competition with us in those de- 
 parbjoentl of manufacturing industry in which steam en- 
 machinery moved by steam, may be advantageous- 
 ly employed. 
 
 3. The advantageous situation of a country for commerce, 
 and the nature of its climate, have also a powerful influence 
 over manufacturing industry. Owing to the facilities afford- 
 ed by the insular situation of Great Britain for maintaining 
 an intercourse with all parts of the world, our manufacturers 
 have been able to obtain supplies of foreien raw materials 
 on the easiest terms, and to forward their own products 
 wherever there was a demand for them. Had we occupied 
 a central or internal situation in any quarter of the world, 
 our facilities for dealing with foreigners being so much the 
 less, our progress would have been comparatively slow; but 
 being surrounded on all sides by the sea, that is, by the 
 great highway of nations, we have been able to deal with 
 the most distant as well as with the nearest people, and to 
 profit by the peculiar capacities of production enjoyed by 
 each. Under such circumstances, it would have been sin- 
 gular had we not shot ahead of most of our competitors in 
 
 of improvement; and it will require some pow- 
 erful counteracting agency to neutralize or overcome these 
 advantages. 
 
 4. Our climate is peculiarly favourable for all sorts of ex- 
 ertion and enterprise; without being too severe, it is suffi- 
 ciently so to render comfortable clothing and lodging indis- 
 
 ■ , and consequently gives rise to wants that are 
 either utiKnown, or less sensibly felt, in more genial regions. 
 Its inequality too, by requiring incessant care and attention 
 on the part of the husbandmen, or manufactures of com, 
 makes them vigilant and active, as well as industrious; and 
 the qualities that are thus naturally impressed on this great 
 class are, through their example, universally diffused. 
 
 The author of a valuable article on English statistics in 
 the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, when enumerating the causes 
 
 MANURES. 
 
 of our extraordinary success in manufactures, lays the great- 
 est stress on the superiority of our machinery, the magnitude 
 of our capital, and the extent to which the division of labour 
 is carried among us. But this is to mistake effects for 
 causes. These, in fact, are the means and instruments ly 
 which manfacturing industry is immediately carried on ; 
 and the real inquiry is, what are the circumstances that have 
 rendered us so abundantly supplied with these means ? We 
 have endeavoured briefly to answer this inquiry, by stating 
 what appear to be the most prominent causes of that ex- 
 traordinary accumulation of capital, and of tnat universal 
 employment of improved and powerful machinery and sub- 
 divided labour, which mark our eminence as a manufac- 
 turing people. Still, however, we are inclined to think that 
 a good deal must in these matters be ascribed to chance, or 
 to some lucky contingency, that could not A priori be look- 
 ed for. Had Hargreaves, Arkwright, Watt, or Wedgwood 
 not existed, or been born abroad, it is impossible to say how 
 much it might have affected the state of industry here; but 
 there seems to be sufficient grounds for thinking that it would 
 have been, at this moment, materially different from what 
 it actually is. A good deal, too, depends on priority. A 
 country, town, or district, that has already established and 
 made a considerable progress in any manufacture, acquires, 
 in consequence, nn advantage that may enable it success- 
 fully to contend with competitors placed under what are na- 
 turally more favourable circumstances; its merchants are 
 already in possession of the markets ; its inhabitants, being 
 trained to the business, have acquired that peculiar sleight 
 of hand that is necessary to form expert workmen ; and they 
 arc in this way frequently nble to preserve their ascendency 
 for a lengthened period, nnd sometimes even to drive those 
 from the field who have a preponderance of natural advan- 
 tages on their side. 
 
 It seems to be the peculiar good fortune of England that, 
 as respects all the great branches of manufacture, she has 
 at once the advantages of priority and of acquired skill and 
 dexterity on her side, as well as the natural advantages al- 
 ready noticed, of abundant supplies of the raw material, of 
 inexhaustible beds of coal, and of situation. Cotton is not 
 an exception; for though the raw material be the product 
 of other countries, the freight upon it is not very considera- 
 ble, nnd is but n trifling deduction from the other circum- 
 stances that seem to Insure our superiority in this depart- 
 ment. To excel in machine-making is to excel in what is 
 certainly the most important branch of manufacturing in- 
 dustry. Superiority in any single branch, except this, may 
 exist simultaneously with great inferiority in many others; 
 but eminence in the manufacture of machinery is almost 
 sure to lead to eminence in every other department. 
 
 Considerable, though not, as it appears to us, too much 
 stress, has been laid on the practice, generally adopted in 
 Great Britain, of paying workmen, wherever it is practica- 
 ble, by the piece, or by the work done, and not by the day 
 This system gives the workmen an interest in being Indus 
 trious, nnd makes them exert themselves to execute the 
 greatest quantity of work in the least space of time ; and in 
 consequence of its prevalence, this practice materially in- 
 fluences even the day labourers, who, to avoid invidious 
 comparisons, make exertions unknown in other countries. 
 Hence a given number of hands in Great Britain perform 
 much more work than is executed by the same number of 
 hands almost anywhere else ; in fact, if we regard wages in 
 their proper light, that is, if we look upon them as a com- 
 pensation for work done, and not for the time spent in doing 
 it, they will, we believe, be found to be cheaper in Great 
 Britain than in most other countries. (For farther particu- 
 lars, see the section on Manufactures in the Statistical Ac- 
 count of the British Empire, whence this article has been 
 partly abstracted.) 
 
 M ANUMI'SSION, or ENFRANCHISEMENT. (Lat. 
 manus, and mitto, / send away.) The grant of liberty to 8 
 slave. Ancient charters containing such grants were fre 
 quently termed charta? ingenuitatis. (See a law of William 
 the Conqueror, Lamb. Jlrcliai., 126.) The term manumis- 
 sion is derived from a practice adopted by the ancient Ro- 
 mans in enfranchising their slaves. The master seized the 
 hand of the slave, and dismissed him with the words 
 " hnnc homincm liberum esse volo." Among the Romans 
 there were two classes of manumission, called perfect and 
 imperfect; the former of which were effected in three dif- 
 ferent ways. The enfranchisement was perfect — 1. Per* 
 censum ; by which the name of the slnve was, at the mas- 
 ter's request, placed in the register of free citizens. 2. Per 
 vindictam ; when the slnve was led before the pnetor, and, 
 the master having demanded his liberty, that magistrate laid 
 the vindicta (or rod of office) on his head, with the words 
 " aio te liberum esse more qniritium." 3. Per testnmentum ; 
 by will. It was imperfect when the slave was enfranchised 
 nt private entertainments, or bv letter. See Client. 
 
 MANU'RES. Substances added to the soil, with a view 
 of accelerating vegetation, and increasing the production ot 
 
 717 
 
MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 me crops. Animal, vegetable, and mineral substances are 
 used for this purpose. Decomposing animal matter of any 
 kir.d forms one of the most powerful manures, and in many 
 instances accelerates the decay and decomposition of inert 
 vegetable matters mixed with it; as in the mixture of 
 dung and straw which forms the common oftal of stables. 
 All animal excrements are also powerful manures, and, 
 when duly applied to the soil, soon exhibit their influence 
 by the luxuriance of the crop. It, however, often hap- 
 pens ir. respect to esculent vegetables that their quality is 
 deteriorated, and that they acquire a coarse and rank fla- 
 vour, if over-manured ; as is the case with much of the 
 produce of the market-gardens near London, where, in con- 
 sequence of the vicinity of the metropolis, manure is abun- 
 dant, and luxuriant and fine-looking vegetables in great re- 
 quest for the table. 
 
 In all cases where animal manures are used, care should 
 be taken that they are brought into action upon the soil as 
 soon as they begin to decompose, or as soon as possible af- 
 terwards, and not suffered to rot, and exhale their best con- 
 stituent parts while lying in the farm-yard. The drainings 
 and the exhalations of a common dung-heap contain its 
 most effective ingredients ; and these are often suffered to 
 go to waste, or to contaminate the air and collect in pools 
 of filth. The fresh and the old manure of this decomposi- 
 tion are known to farmers under the terms long and short 
 dung: the advantages and economy of the former, when 
 properly applied, cannot be doubted. Those animal ma- 
 nures which are slow of decomposition are most durable, 
 and generally most effective in their operation. Of these, 
 the best is ground bones, the animal part of which is very 
 gradually dissolved out by moisture ; so that their effect is 
 long-continued, and their earthy matter is also, probably, 
 beneficial, at least to many crops. Vegetable manures are 
 often very effective, especially as in the case of ploughing 
 in a green crop, where all the soluble matters are brought 
 into action ; and inert vegetable substances may be render- 
 ed active by mixture with those which easily putrefy, or 
 with animal matter. Some vegetables, such as cabbages 
 and many other cruciform plants, approximate to animal 
 matter in their composition, and are proportionately good 
 manures. Mineral manures net in two ways: either by 
 their causticity, as is the case with quicklime, by which 
 they decompose most organic bodies, such as roots, fibres, 
 &c, and render them soluble and nutritious to the growing 
 crop ; or they alter the texture of the soil. Thus, sand may 
 be called a manure for clayey lands, and clay and loam for 
 those that are sandy. Upon the same principle, stiff soils 
 are improved by paring and burning, by which a superficial 
 sandiness is produced, and the texture of the soil rendered 
 more appropriate for vegetation. 
 
 MANUSCRIPTS. (Lat. manu scriptum, written by the 
 hand.) Literally writings of any kind, whether on paper 
 or any other material, in contradistinction to such as are 
 printed. Books were generally written upon vellum, after 
 the papyrus used in classical times had become obsolete, 
 until the general introduction of paper made from rags, 
 about the 15th century after Christ; and the finest and 
 whitest vellum is generally indicative of great age in a manu- 
 script. The dearness of this material gave rise to the prac- 
 tice of using old manuscript books on which the writing had 
 been erased (see Palimpsest), and also to that of abbrevia- 
 tions. These were carried to excess in the 12th century, 
 and from that time until the invention of printing ; and for 
 a long period subsequent to that invention, abbreviations 
 were still in common use : in Greek printing they were usu- 
 al until within the last fifty years. Of Latin MSS., those 
 prior to the reign of Charlemagne (A.D. 800) are considered 
 ancient. Manuscripts of the early classical age were writ- 
 ten on sheets rolled together. Illuminated manuscripts are 
 such as are embellished with omamonts, drawings, em- 
 blematical figures, &c. illustrative of the text. This prac- 
 tice was introduced at a very early period ; for we find the 
 works of Varro, Pomponius Atticus, and others adorned by 
 illuminations. But it was chiefly employed in the brevia- 
 ries and prayer book of the early Christian church. The 
 colours most employed for this purpose were gold and 
 azure. Illuminations were in a high state of perfection be- 
 tween the 5th and 10th centuries ; after which they seem 
 to have partaken of the barbarism of the middle ages, 
 which threw their chilling influence over every description 
 of art. On the revival of the arts in the 15th and 16th 
 centuries many excellent performances were produced ; but 
 the art did not take deep root, and we believe the last spe- 
 cimen of illumination executed in this country was Cardinal 
 Wolsey's Lectiona.ru, at Christ Church, Oxford. See Co- 
 dex, Diplomatics, Paleography. 
 
 MAP. (Lat. mappa.) A delineation of some portion of 
 the surface of the sphere (terrestrial or celestial) on a 
 plane. Terrestrial maps are geographic or hyilrographic, 
 according as they denote a portion of the land or of the sea ; 
 the latter, however, are usually called charts. ( See Chart.) 
 718 
 
 MAP. 
 
 A map representing a small extent of country is calleu u 
 topographical map. 
 
 Terrestrial Maps. — The object of a terrestrial map is to 
 exhibit the boundaries of countries and the relative posi- 
 tions of their several parts. A perfect representation of a 
 country should present all its parts, not only in their true 
 relative positions, but also in their jiLst proportions, Thfc 
 may be accurately done on a globe ; but as the earth's sur 
 face is spherical, it is impossible to represent any considera- 
 ble portion of it on a plane so that the distances of places 
 shall retain the same proportions which they have on the 
 sphere, and geographers have accordingly had re< 
 various methods of delineations, all of which have their 
 peculiar advantages in particular cases. 
 
 One method is to represent the points and lines of the 
 sphere according to the rules of perspective, or as they 
 would appear to the eye, having some assigned position rel- 
 atively to the sphere and the plane of representation. This 
 method gives rise to the different modes of projecting the 
 sphere, of which the three principal are the orthographic, 
 the stereographic, and the central. The method of projec- 
 tion answers very well when the surface to be represented 
 is small, and the eye is placed perpendicularly over it ; but 
 when it embraces a considerable portion of the sphere, the 
 parts near the extremities of the map are much distorted. 
 See Projection. 
 
 A second method is to suppose the surface to be repre- 
 sented to be a portion of the surface of a cone, whose vertex 
 is somewhere in the polar axis produced, and which either 
 touches the sphere at the middle latitude of the surface to 
 be represented, or falls within the sphere at the middle lati- 
 tude, and without it at the extreme parallels. The conical 
 surface is then supposed to be developed on a plane (which 
 it admits of being) ; whence this method is called the meth- 
 od of development. Of this method there are various mod- 
 ifications : as that of Murdoch, who supposes the side of the 
 cone to be parallel to the tangent of the meridian at the 
 middle latitude, but to penetrate the surface of the sphere 
 between the middle latitude and the extremities of the pro- 
 jected arc ; that of De Lisle, who assumed the cone such as 
 to intersect the sphere in the two parallels equally distant 
 from the extreme and middle latitudes ; that of Euler, 
 who placed the apex of the cone at a determinate distance 
 beyond the pole. 
 
 A third method is to lay down the points on the map ac- 
 cording to some assumed mathematical law, the condition 
 to be fulfilled being that the parts of the spherical surface 
 to be represented, and their representations on the map,. 
 shall be similar in their small elements. Of such method-i 
 the best known is Mercator's Chart (which, however, may 
 be produced also by development), in which the meridians 
 are equidistant, parallel, straight lines, and the parallels of 
 latitude are also straight lines perpendicular to the meridi- 
 ans; hut of which the distances from each other increase 
 in going from the equator in such a proportion as always to 
 show the true bearings of places from one another. See 
 Mercator's Chart. 
 
 Celestial Maps. — For the construction of his maps of the 
 stars, the astronomer Flamsteed adopted the following 
 method : All the parallels on the sphere are represented by 
 straight lines, and likewise one of the meridians; namely, 
 that which passes through the middle of the map, as in the 
 annexed diagram. The parallels which are all perpendicu- 
 lar to this meridian have 
 the same relative lengths as 
 on the sphere, and conse- 
 quently the degrees of lon- 
 gitude are represented in 
 their just proportions ; that 
 is, are proportional to the 
 cosine of the latitude. If, 
 therefore, the parallels be 
 each divided into the same 
 number of equal parts, a curve line drawn through the 
 points of division will represent the meridians. By this 
 method, any distance in the direction of the parallels is 
 equal to the corresponding distance on the sphere ; but it is 
 evident that the map is much distorted towards the extrem- 
 ities, in consequence of the oblique directions of the meri- 
 dians. Flamsteed's method is sometimes used in geography 
 for representing countries which lie on both sides of the 
 equator, in which case the distortion is less. A modification 
 of it, which consists in substituting arcs of circles for the 
 straight lines representing the meridians, whereby their 
 obliquity is diminished, is extensively employed in the con- 
 struction of maps. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
 Knowledge has adopted the gnomonic projection for layiag 
 down their maps of the stars. 
 
 For details respecting the general construction of maps, 
 we refer the reader to the work of Mr. Jamieson on the 
 subject ; Malte Brim's Geography ; Malte Brun's and 
 Baibi's Systems of Geography Abridged; Murray's E» 
 
 North. 
 
 fjj\ 
 
 TO 
 
 III 
 
 t\\\ 
 
 /III 
 
 n \\ 
 
MARANATHA. 
 
 cylopedia of Oeography ; De Morgan's Explanation of the 
 Onomonic Projection of the Sphere; and particularly the 
 TraiU de Topographie a" Jlrpcntage et de NiveUement of 
 Puissant. 
 
 MARA.WVTHA. (Syr.) A form of anathematizing 
 among the Jews, which was viewed as a tremendous de- 
 nunciation. (Sec 1 Cor., xvi., 22.) It signifies " the Lord 
 will come ;" i. «., to take vengeance. 
 
 MARANTA'CEiE (Maranta, one of the genera), form 
 the natural order of Endogenous plants, from which the 
 most genuine kind of arrow-root is prepared. This sub- 
 stance is the starch contained in the tubers of Maranta, 
 /Irundinacea, and some other species, and of certain kinds 
 of canna. Marantacete are very nearly the same as Zingi- 
 beracece ; from which they differ in the flowers being more 
 Irregular, and the .anther having but one lobe instead of 
 two. , 
 
 MAR.VSMU3. (Gr. y.apaivu, I waste away.) Emacia- 
 tion ; atrophy. 
 
 MA'ltBLE. (Fr. marbre.) A term limited by mineralo- 
 gist^ and geologists to the several varieties of carbonate of 
 lime which have more or less of a granular and crystal- 
 line texture. In sculpture, the term is applied to several 
 Compact or granular kinds of stone susceptible of a very 
 line polish. The varieties of it are extremely numerous. 
 I'll'- most valuable sorts used by the ancients were the 
 PenUiican, which was while, and obtained from Mount 
 Pontile* in Attica : the Parian, also called Marpessian, ob- 
 tained from the island of Pane, was of a white colour, as 
 was that from Mount Hymettus in Attica. Thasus and 
 - also produced white marbles, which were in much 
 repute. A place called I. una, in Etruria, produced a mar- 
 ble whose whiteness exceeded that (tan faros. Of the 
 white marble* were those from Mount Phellcus ; from the 
 neighbourhood of Corallos, In Phrygia; from Cyzicus, in 
 Ana Minor; and the Marmor Phrygium, found near Syn- 
 naiia n Phrygia. The black marble* ni'ist usi (I wire from 
 Tamnrus, and the Nuinidinn. The Chium Marmor, from 
 the island of Chios, was of a black, transparent, checkered 
 colour. The Obsidianum, procured from Ethiopia, was 
 black. The Proconesian marble was with black veins. 
 Mount Taygetes afforded the Marmor Laconicum, which 
 reen, and is better known by the name of Verde An- 
 tique A marble of mingled green was obtained from 
 Carystus. The Atrician marble, from Mount At rax in 
 Thessaly, was a mixture of black, white, blue, and green. 
 The Tiberian and Augustan marbles were green, and 
 brought from Egypt The Marmor Meinphites was green, 
 and is what we call serpentine. Corinth produced a yellow 
 marble. Tlie Marmor Phengtte* was white, with yellow 
 spots; the Khodian was marked with spots of n golden 
 colour, and that of Milos yellow. In modem limes the 
 quarries of Carrara almost supply the world with white 
 marble. Of variegated marbles there are many sorts found 
 in this country of singular beauty. See Elgin Marbles : 
 tee also Geology. 
 
 MARCH. The first month of the Roman year, and the 
 third of the English. In the ecclesiastical calendar, used in 
 K ngl H nd till tlie change of style in 1T52, this was also the 
 first month, as it was in the Roman. It is named Martius, 
 in honour of Mars, the reputed father of Romulus. There 
 is an old proverb still prevalent in Scotland, which repre- 
 sents March as borrowing three days from April, which 
 have thence come to be designated the borrowed days. 
 They will be found noticed in the Complainte of Scotland. 
 Upon this subject Dr. J amieson observes, "Those who are 
 much addicted to superstition will neither borrow nor lend 
 on any of these days. If any one would propose to borrow 
 of iliein, they would consider it as an evidence that the per- 
 son wished to employ the article for the purpose of witch- 
 craft against the lenders." 
 
 March. In Music, a military air, played by intlatile and 
 pulsatile instruments, to regulate tlie steps and to animate 
 the minds of soldiers. The march, however, has long been 
 adapted to every species of musical instrument, and some 
 of the most celebrated compositions of the greatest masters 
 are in this style ; as the March of the Priests in Mozart's 
 Zaubcr-fi.au, the Peasant's March in Weber's Frcischutz, 
 and, above all, Beethoven's Funeral Marches. In the Sup 
 plement to the First Edition of the Encyclopaedia, it is truly 
 said that a march should be always composed in common 
 time, with an odd crotchet or quaver at the beginning. It 
 is usually quick for .ordinary marching, and slow for grand 
 occasions ; but no general rules con be laid down for its 
 composition. 
 
 March, in Military language, signifies tlie motion of a 
 body of troops from one place to another. It consists of 
 three measures: 1, ordinary time, in which about 75 paces 
 are taken in a minute ; 2, quick time, in which about 108 
 steps are taken in a minute ; 3, the quickest, or, as it is 
 called, wheeling time, at the rate of 300 feet in tlie same 
 space 
 
 MARINES. 
 
 MA'RCIIES. The name given to the borders or frontiers 
 of any district, but more especially applied to the boundaries 
 between England and Wales, aiid England and Scotland. 
 The term is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word signify- 
 ing a mark, and is to be found>in every language of Teutonic 
 descent. Several titles of dignity both in this and other 
 countries derive their origin from their possessors having 
 been appointed governors of the marches or frontiers of their 
 respective countries; of these, marquis in England and mark- 
 graf in Germany are the most prominent. Tlie title Earl of 
 March, now enjoyed by the Duke of Richmond, was origi 
 nally bestowed on Mortimer, a member of the family so 
 celebrated in English history, because he was the govemoi 
 or superintendent of the Welsh marches. In the middle 
 ages, the name marchers was given to the noblemen who 
 lived on the marches of Wales and Scotland. According 
 to Camden they had once their own laws, and even the 
 " power of life and death like petty kings ;" but these privi- 
 leges were abolished by Henry VIII. There was formerly 
 a court of the marches of Wales In existence, where pleas 
 of debt, or damages not above the value of £5, were tried 
 and determined. 
 
 MA'RCIOXITES. The followers of Marcion, a heretic 
 of the 2d Century, who adopted ihe Oriental notion of the 
 two conflicting principles, and imagined that between them 
 there existed a third power, neither wholly good nor evil, 
 the Creator of the world and the God of the .leu isli dispell 
 sation. The object of the Good Principle, or Supreme God 
 is to restrain the ambition of these two powers, which wage 
 a constant war against each other as well as himself. For 
 this purpose ii was that he sent his son Jesui Christ to 
 destroy the Evil Principle on the one hand, and to counteract 
 and coerce the power of the Jewish Deity on the other. 
 The Marcionites were n branch of the great Gnostic bates] , 
 Their opinions are found in the writings of Irenuus, Epipha- 
 nins, and Tcrtulliun against them. 
 
 HASCO'SIANB. In early sect of Christians, a branch 
 of the Gnostics, who derived their name from an Egyptian 
 called Marcus, and reputed a magician. The Marco 
 had a great number of apocryphal bixiks which (hey held to 
 be canonical ; and many of their fables are still In use and 
 credit among the Greek monks. 
 
 MA'KEKANITE, is a variety of obsidian, found at Mare 
 kan, in Siberia, in small Spherules. 
 
 MARGA'RIC ACID. (Gr. uapyaptrn, a pearl.) The 
 substance into which the margarine, or concrete ixirtion of 
 certain oils, is converted by tlie action of alkalies. It : 
 pearly lustre, and is insoluble in water; but readily soluble 
 in hot alcohol, which rtflfrnsttO* it as the solution cools. It 
 fuses at 140°, und reddens litmus. It closely reseu, 
 stearic acid. 
 
 MA'RGARIXE. The solid, fatty matter of certain fege 
 table oils has been thus termed by Lecanu, from its pearly 
 lustre. The purest margarine is obtained from the concrete 
 portion of olive oil. 
 
 MARGARl'TIC ACID. A distinctive term applied to 
 one of the fatty acids which result from the saponification 
 of castor oil. By the same process, tills oil also yields the 
 ricinic and the elaiodic acids. 
 
 MARGAUO'Ni;. When inargaric acid is mixed wit!, 
 quicklime and distilled, a peculiar fatty product, whirl - 
 crystallizes in pearly scales, is obtained, which has been 
 distinguished by the above term from other analogous tub- 
 stances. 
 
 MA RGIN (Fr. marge), in Printing, is the arrangement 
 of the pages in a sheet at proper distances from each other, 
 according to tlie size of the paper; so that when the sheet 
 is printed and folded, tlie border of white paper round 
 them shall be regular and uniform in every leaf of the 
 book. 
 
 MA'RGIN OF A COURSE. In Architecture, that part 
 of the upper side of a course of slates which appears uncov- 
 ered by the next superior course. 
 
 MARGITES. The title of a satirical poem attributed, 
 but with little probability of truth, to Homer ; if by him is 
 meant the author of the Iliad or Odyssey. The subject of 
 tlie poem, which has not come down to us, was the cuarac 
 tcr of a silly, empty-headed man {jiapytTfc). 
 
 MA'RGRAVE, or, more properly, MARKGRAVE. A 
 title of rank formerly used hi Germany, and equivalent tc 
 the English marquis. Both words spring from a common 
 origin. See Marquess. 
 
 MARI'A THERE'SA, ORDER OF. A military order 
 of Austria, consisting of grand crosses, commanders, and 
 knights : founded in 1757. 
 
 MARI'NES. A corps of men enlisted to serve as soldiers 
 on board of ships-of-war in naval engagements, and on shore 
 under certain circumstances. They sometimes assist, par 
 ticularly in the British service, in performing some nava. 
 duties on board of ship. The period at which a distinct 
 corps was imbodied for this department of the British ser- 
 vice is unknown. In 1684 mention is made of the Duke of 
 
 719 
 
MARIOTTE'S LAW. 
 
 York's maritime regiment of foot ; and in the reign of Will. 
 III. several regiments were placed on the establishment : 
 these, however, were subsequently disbanded. In the be- 
 ginning of Queen Anne's reign, six regiments of maritime 
 soldiers were raised ; and though these were again disband- 
 ed in 1749, six years afterwards 130 companies were raised, 
 on the recommendation of Lord Anson, consisting in all of 
 above 5000 men. Since the commencement of the present 
 century great additions have been made to this corps, and 
 at present its strength amounts to 9000 men. The men are 
 clothed and armed in the same manner as the infantry of 
 the line". The corps is commanded by a lieutenant-general 
 and a major-general, who are naval officers, holding, in ad- 
 dition to their rank as such, these military titles : there are 
 also four colonels commandants of divisions, besides four 
 colonels and second commandants. No commissions in the 
 corps are obtained by purchase ; and the officers of marines 
 rise in it by seniority, without, however, being able to obtain 
 higher rank than that of colonels commandant. (See Penny 
 Cyclopedia.) 
 
 "MARIOTTE'S LAW. In Pneumatics, a general prop- 
 erty of elastic fluids, first established by Mariotte, namely, 
 that the elasticity or pressure is directly proportional to the 
 density ; or, which is the same thing, inversely proportional 
 to the space which the fluid occupies. See Pneumatics. 
 
 MA'RITIME LAW, signifies the laws relating to har- 
 bours, ships, and sailors. It forms an important branch of 
 the commercial law of all trading nations, and embraces an 
 infinite variety of subjects, most of which have been defined 
 under their respective heads. The most celebrated codes 
 of maritime law have been, in classical times, that of Rhodes; 
 in modern limes, the Consolato del Mare, a compilation sup 
 posed to have been framed at Barcelona as early as the 9th 
 century ; the laws of the Isle of Oleron, in the time of Rich- 
 ard I. of England ; the laws of Wisby, in the island of Goth- 
 land, to which some northern jurists have assigned an ear- 
 lier origin than the laws of Oleron, but which there can be 
 little doubt were merely a compilation from those above spe- 
 cified. But by far the most complete and well-digested sys- 
 tem of maritime jurisprudence that has ever appeared is that 
 comprised in the Ordonnance de la Marine, issued by Louis 
 XIV. in 1681, by which maritime law was elevated to the 
 rank of a regular system, and has formed the basis of many 
 of the subsequent decisions of English, American, and other 
 foreign courts. This excellent code was compiled under the 
 direction of M. Colbert, by individuals of great talent and 
 learning, after a careful revision of all the ancient sea laws 
 of France and other countries, and upon consultation with 
 the different parliaments, the courts of admiralty, and the 
 chambers of commerce of the different towns. It combines 
 whatever experience and the wisdom of ages had shown to 
 be best in the Roman laws, and in the institutions of the 
 modern maritime states of Europe. In the preface to his 
 treatise on the Law of Shipping, Lord Tenterden says, " If 
 the reader should be offended at the frequent references to 
 this ordinance, I must request him to recollect that those 
 references are made to the maritime code of a great com- 
 mercial nation, which has attributed much of its national 
 prosperity to that code : a code composed in the reign of a 
 politic prince ; under the auspices of a wise and enlightened 
 minister ; by laborious and learned persons, who selected 
 the most valuable principles of all the maritime laws then 
 existing ; and which, in matter, method, and style, is one of 
 the most finished acts of legislation that ever was promul- 
 gated." The ordinance of 1681 was published in 1760, with 
 a detailed and most elaborate commentary by M. Valin, in 2 
 vols. 4to. See Admiralty, Court of. (See also the 
 Commercial Diet.) 
 
 MARK. An old coin current in England and Scotland, 
 valued at 13s. Ad. A piece of money so called is at present 
 used in Hamburgh ; it is equal «.o Is. Ad. sterling. . 
 
 MA'RKET. (Mod. Lat. mercheta, from merx.) In Law, 
 the liberty or franchise whereby a town is enabled to set up 
 and open shops, &c, at a certain place within its limits, for 
 buying and selling, and better provision of such victuals as 
 the subject vvanteth. The establishment of a market, with 
 the grant of the tolls thereunto belonging, is one of the king's 
 prerogatives, and can only be effected by virtue of the king's 
 grant, or supported on long and immemorial usage and pre- 
 scription which presuppose such a grant. The general rule 
 of law is, that all sales and contracts of anything vendible 
 in fairs or markets overt (i. e., open) shall not only be good 
 between the parties, but valid against all claim by others 
 having any right or property in the subject. 
 
 MA'RKING INK. An indelible ink used for marking 
 linen ; it effectively resists washing, and almost all chemical 
 agents : its basis is oxide of silver, which has a strong af- 
 finity for the fibre of linen an<l totton, and acquires by ex- 
 posure a black colour. A gool marking ink is prepared by 
 dissolving a drachm of fus'^a jitrate of silver in half an 
 ounce of distilled water, anr' -olouring it with a little sap- 
 grten ; but ns this is apt to ;«• If written with upon the un- 
 730 
 
 MAROONS. 
 
 prepared linen, the place to be written upon is commomy 
 prepared for its reception by the previous application of 
 liquid pounce, which is made by dissolving two drachms of 
 carbonate of soda and two drachms of gum arabic in four 
 ounces of water : this also effectively precipitates the oxide 
 of silver upon the vegetable fibre, and prevents any injury 
 from the corrosive action of the salt of silver. A solution 
 of ammonio-nitrate of silver, thickened by a little gum, forms 
 a marking ink which may be used without any previous 
 preparation. 
 
 MA'RKING NUT, in Botany, is the seed or nut of the 
 Semicarpus anacardium, a tropical tree related to trie cushew 
 nut. It derives its name from the juice contained in itt 
 fruits staining linen of a deep and indelible black colour. 
 
 MARK, ORDER OF SAINT. A Venetian order ot 
 knighthood ; St. Mark the Evangelist having been the pa- 
 tron of that republic. The knights were elected by the 
 doge and senate. 
 
 MARL, is composed of carbonate of lime and clay in va- 
 rious proportions, and in different degrees of compactness 
 and friability. In some marls the proportion of clay is 
 small, in which case the marl, as a manure, acts on soils 
 much in the same manner as lime ; but where clay is the 
 predominant ingredient of marl, it acts on the soil partly as 
 lime, but principally by altering the texture of the soil. 
 Hence all sandy soils are improved by marl, in consequence 
 of its increasing their compactness and capacity for retain- 
 ing moisture, while argillaceous marls applied to clays are 
 of little or no use. From these long-established facts has 
 arisen the old adage, 
 
 Who marls sand shall bury land, 
 Who marls clay throws all away. 
 
 Marl is found in almost every country ; not like limestone, 
 in protruding rocks, but, from its friable nature, which 
 moulders down into a comparatively earthy mass, under or 
 near the surface of the soil, whence it is dug out and spread 
 on the surface. Hence, while limestone is quarried, chalk 
 and marl nre dug out of pits. Marl has been in use in Eu- 
 rope since the time of the Romans : it is very generally em- 
 ployed as a manure in France and Germany, and in England 
 it is most employed in Norfolk. 
 
 MA'RLINGSPIKE. An iron bolt tapering to a point for 
 opening the strands of rope. 
 
 MA'RLY, MACHINE OF. A celebrated piece of mech- 
 anism, one of the most complex, perhaps, ever constructed, 
 for raising water from the Seine to supply the town of 
 Marly, as well as Versailles and Trianon. Its mean produce 
 was from 30,000 to 40,000 gallons per hour, and was attend- 
 ed with an expense of about a farthing for 15 gallons. It 
 was erected in 1682 by Runnequin, upon very unscientific 
 principles, but still with considerable skill in its details. It 
 was, as such complicated machines always are. often out 
 of repair; and Hachette reports of it that, after 128 years, it 
 fell into total ruin. Details of its construction may be seen 
 in Belidor, Arch. Hydraulique; Gregory's Mechanics, vol. 
 ii., and other places. 
 
 MARMORA'TUM. (Lat.) In Architecture, a cement 
 formed of pounded marble and lime well beaten together. 
 
 MA'RMOT. The Rodent animal so called is the type of 
 a genus {Arctomys) nearly allied to the squirrels, being char- 
 acterized by having five molar teeth on each side of the up- 
 per and four on each side of the lower jaw, all bristled with 
 points, and indicative of a somewhat mixed diet. The mar- 
 mots, however, in their general form are nearly the reverse 
 of the squirrels, being heavy, with short legs, a middle-sized 
 or short tail, and a large, flat head. They pass the winter 
 in a state of torpor, concealed in deep holes, the entrance of 
 which they close with a heap of dried grass. They are na- 
 tives of Europe and North America, live in societies, and are 
 easily tamed. 
 
 MA'RONITES. The followers of Maro, inhabitants of 
 the mountains Libanus and Antilibanus in Syria, who adopt- 
 ed in the 7th century the opinions of the Monothelftes ; they 
 continued to form a separate sect until the 12th century, 
 when they became reconciled to the see of Rome. The 
 Maronite writers, however, have always maintained theii 
 freedom from the errors imputed to them, and declare them- 
 selves to have been uniformly attached to the doctrines of 
 the Catholic Church. (See Monothelites. Mushcim, 
 transl., ed. 1790, ii., 196.) 
 
 MAROO'NS. (Supposed to be derived from a word used 
 in Spanish America, signifying hog-hunters.) A name given 
 in Jamaica to runaway negroes. When Jamaica was con 
 quered from the Spaniards, a number of negroes, abandoned 
 by their former masters, occupied some of the mountainous 
 parts of the island, and caused great trouble to the colonists. 
 About 1730 they became extremely formidable ; but, after a 
 war of eight years, at length submitted to n capitulation, by 
 which they were allowed to retain their free settlements in 
 the heart of the island ; in 1795 a portion of them again rose 
 in arms, but were speedily put down, and transported to a 
 
MARaUE, LETTER OP. 
 
 new settlement in Nova Scotia. (See Dallas's History of 
 the Maroons.) \ 
 
 MARQUE, LETTER OF. A commission granted in 
 time of war to a private person commanding a vessel to 
 cruise at sea and make prize of the enemy's ships and mer- 
 chandise : tlie ship so commissioned is sometimes called by 
 the same name. {See Reprisals, Letter of.) The word 
 i- derived from mark {Germ, frontier), as being a right of 
 capturing property beyond the limits or frontiers of another 
 prince. 
 
 MA'RQUESS. (Germ, mark, a limit or frontier.) A ti- 
 tle of dignity in England, France, and Italy, next in rank to 
 that of duke. It is of German origin ; thu.se military chief- 
 tains in the Teutonic kingdom and empire! which arose on 
 the fall Of the Western empire, who were intrusted with the 
 defence of districts on the frontiers, having been styled mark- 
 graren, counts of the marches or frontiers (in Latin, marchi- 
 ones). Many of these officers were appointed by Charle- 
 magne, although he was not, probably, the first creator of 
 >i<-e. According to the ordinary erase of the develop- 
 ment of feudal institutions, these chiefs, from military gov- 
 ernors appointed for life, became territorial potentates, hold- 
 ing their lands by hereditary right ; and, on the decay of that 
 system, this honour, like others, became merely titular. In 
 England, the first marquess was Retort da Wre, ( ;i r | of Ox- 
 ford, created by Richard II.,1n 13^7, .Marquess of Dublin for 
 life. The next creation was of John de Beaufort, earl of Som- 
 aised to the rank of marquess in 1397 ; which dignity 
 he afterwards refused to bear, ns a strange and novel one. 
 Nicolas, Introduction to the PeerOf, Ixxvi.) After 
 that period the title fell into disuse, until the reign of Ed- 
 ward VI. 
 
 M.-VKUUFTRY. (Ft. marquetrie.) In Architecture, in- 
 laid work consisting of dilferent pieces of divers coloured 
 woods of small thickness glued on to a ground usually of 
 oak or fir, well dried and seasoned, which, to prevent cast- 
 ing bi il warping, is composed of several thicknesses. The 
 early Italian builders used it in cabinet work, and John of 
 Vienna, and others of his period, by its means represented 
 figures and landscapes; but in the present day it is chiefly 
 confined in its use to fl< 1 1, in which the various pieces of 
 (rood are usually disr> sed in regular geometrical figures, 
 BBd are rarely of more than three or four species. 
 
 MA RRIAGE, l..\w OP. Marriage, in its legal sen-,., is 
 a civil contract binding parties to certain reciprocal obliga- 
 tions ; and the general principle of law respecting this, as 
 well as other contracts, is, that it is to be held valid accord- 
 ing to the usage of the country wherein it is made. Thus a 
 mania English subjects in Scotland, according to 
 
 the formalities of Scottish law, is binding, and the children 
 of such parents are legitimate in England. A marriage be- 
 tween English subjects in France according to the ceremo- 
 nies in the Church of England would not be valid, according 
 to the principles of general law, unless reg i s ter e d before the 
 civil magistrate according to the provisions of the French 
 code. But, by the statute 4 G. 4, c. 91, marriages between 
 English subjects, solemnized abroad by ministers of the 
 Church of England in the chapel of a British ambassador or 
 British factory, are valid in the United Kingdom. 
 
 Previous to the passing of the first Marriage Act in 1754, 
 the law of England was governed by the canon law; and, 
 consequently, nn agreement to marry, followed by consum- 
 mation, formed, as it now forms in Scotland, n sufficient 
 union. That statute first rendered necessary the prelimina- 
 ries of the publication of banns, or the obtaining a license. 
 It was amended by 4 G. 4, c. 17. But that act imposed so 
 many additional restrictions on parties wishing to become 
 husband and wife, that it was found necessary to repeal it 
 in all haste, and another statute was passed (4 G. 4, c. 76), 
 bj which English marriages were next regulated. 
 
 By this act the banns of marriage are to be published three 
 Sundays in a parish church, or public chapel of the Estab- 
 lishment, in the parish wherein both, or the parish wherein 
 each, of the parties dwell. A license is a dispensation by 
 virtue of which marriage may be solemnized without the 
 publication of banns. It is granted by surrogates, or per- 
 sons having authority from the bishop. No license can 
 now be obtained, unless upon affidavit that the parish or 
 district in which the marriage is to be solemnized has been 
 the usual place of residence of one of the parties for fifteen 
 days immediately preceding the granting of the license. The 
 affidavit must also declare that there is no impediment of 
 kindred or alliance, nor any other lawful cause of hinder- 
 ance. 
 
 A special license dispenses with all restrictions as to time 
 and place of marriage. By a regulation of Archbishop Seek- 
 er, it is not to be granted except to persons of a specified rank ; 
 but in practice the privilege is extended as thmatter of fa- 
 vour. See Registrar. 
 
 The power of parents and guardians in restricting the mar- 
 riage of minors under their tutelage is now confined within 
 the following limits : The publication of banns is void, if the 
 2 Z 
 
 MARRIAGE, LAW OF. 
 
 parent or guardian of either party declare, or rause to be de 
 clared, their dissent in public at the time of the prnclama 
 tion. In case of marriage of a minor by license, the father 
 or guardian, or, if none, the mother, or the guardian appoint- 
 ed by the court of chancery, must give consent, and such 
 consent must be notified in the affidavit on application I'oi 
 the license. If consent be unreasonably withheld, thi 
 resource of lovers against the flinty hearts of parents <■- 
 guardians is by petition to the lord-chancellor, who may, '■• 
 he pleases, interpose his judicial authority in favour of ih( i 
 union. 
 
 Marriage is void if solemnized knowingly and wtrfall 
 either party) in an unlawful place, or without banns r*t I 
 cense, or by any person not in holy orders. Bo if the !>.-• i - 
 be published, whether wilfully or accidentally, in a v. 
 name, unless it be a name by which the party is genen II; 
 known. Marriages are also void where there is a ptrl 
 isting marriage, and in case of lunacy or incapacity. 
 
 But if the marriage of a minor be duly solemnized, bi 
 false oath or by fraud the necessary consent is dlsr* 
 with, such marriage is not void ; but the party so offending 
 shall forfeit, upon complaint of the parent or guardian, all 
 pro|>erty which might have accrued to such party by the 
 marriage. 
 
 Proof of a marriage is by the evidence of a party w'ho was 
 present at the celebration ; or by production of the parish 
 register, and showing the identity of the parties. 
 
 The ecclesiastical courts have the direct cognizance of 
 questions respecting the legality of a marriage: but ns Un- 
 common law courts decide in questions of property, and oth- 
 ers in which the fact of marriage may be incidentally called 
 in question, they enn require proof of it without resorting to 
 the assistance of the for r. 
 
 Marriage is voidable by suit in the ecclesiastical court. 
 where such marriage has been contracted undent canonical 
 impediment, namely, consanguinity or affinity, or bodily in- 
 capacity of either of the parties. Marriages solemnized b) 
 force are also voidable, and such as are contracted in emir 
 under certain circumstances. A voidaBIc marriage is gOSd, 
 to all intents, until rendered void by a sentence of the court. 
 
 Other matrimonial causes in these courts nre — 1. .lactita- 
 tion of marriage. When one party gives out or reports 
 that he or sin- is legally married to another, the person in 
 jured may libel the other {see Ecclesiastical Courts, 
 under the head of Law) in the spiritual court; and unlet* 
 the defendant proves marriage, silence is enjoined, which i- 
 the only remedy the spiritual court can give. 
 
 1. Adultery, as a public crime, is left to the cogniza-ic- 
 of the spiritual courts: as a civil injury, it is pursued by the 
 husband in an action of trespass lor damages against the 
 adulterer in those of common law. 
 
 2. In suits on the ground of ndultcry in the spiritual court 
 the remedy prayed is a separation, or divorce, a mcnsA et 
 thoro, from bed and board. And it may be obtained by 
 either party ; but will be refused in case the other parly 
 recriminates and mutual unfaithfulness is proved, or in case 
 other circumstances are shown which, in the opinion of the 
 court, disentitle the complainant to the remedy he prays for. 
 
 A divorce a vinculo matrimonii, that is, the annulment 
 of marriage, can only be conferred by net of parliament. 
 Evidence must be given on applying for the bill that there 
 was judgment for the plaintiff on an action for damages 
 against the seducer; or sufficient cause shown why such 
 action was not brought or such judgment obtained. 
 
 3. Another ground on which the spiritual courts will grant 
 a separation is cruelty ; but the cruelty for which such re- 
 lief can be granted is only such as directly endangers the life 
 or health or the injured party. 
 
 4. A suit for restitution of conjugal rights is to compel 
 mutual cohabitation. And no deed of separation or mutual 
 agreement, nothing short of a sentence by the court, can bar 
 the complainant of his or her right to promote this suit ; but 
 cruelty or adultery may be pleaded in reply, as constituting 
 lawful grounds for separation. 
 
 5. Alimony is that legal proportion of the husband's estate 
 which, by the decree of the ecclesiastical court, is allotted 
 to the wife for her maintenance during the pendency of a 
 suit between them ; or after a sentence of divorce d mens » 
 et thoro by reason of the cruelty or adultery of the husband, 
 the permanent allowance to be paid to the wife during theii 
 separation. The quantum of alimony is decided by the court 
 on n statement of the husband's property (called an allega- 
 tion of faculties) and his answer thereto. 
 
 Marriage, its Effect on Property. — The consideration of 
 the legal effect produced by marriage on the property of th 
 parties contracting it divides itself into, 
 
 1. The law of husband and wife, as it respects property 
 acquired by either before marriage. 
 
 2. As it respects property acquired by either after mar- 
 riage. 
 
 3. As its dispositions are affected by separation or divorce. 
 (1, 2.) As to real property. If the wife is seised of lands 
 
 721 
 
AlARRIAGE, LAW OF. 
 
 or tenements in an estate of inheritance, and dies having had 
 issue born living, the husband is entitled to the lands or 
 tenements for his life, being tenant as it is termed, by the 
 courtesy of England ; and this, whether the lands be held 
 by a legal or equitable title. 
 
 Dower is now, since the statute 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 115, the 
 wife's right to one third part, for life, of all estates of in- 
 heritance which her husband dies entitled to or seised of in 
 possession. It formerly attached to all estates of inheritance 
 of which he was at any time possessed, so that he could not 
 defeat her title by alienation, but to legal estates only. 
 Since the 1st of January, 1834, the period on which the 
 abovementioned act came into operation, equitable estates 
 «re also subject to it. It has long been customary to bar 
 this right to dower by various complicated processes, which 
 the law has permitted to defeat the wife's claim ; and espe- 
 cially by settlements before marriage, giving a jointure or 
 provision in lieu of dower. It may now be barred by the 
 husband's alienation in his lifetime; or by his will ; or by a 
 declaration in the deed of conveyance of the land to the 
 husband. Anciently a feme covert could only alienate real 
 property by the public solemnity of a fine: now, by a deed 
 executed after her examination by commissioners, to show 
 that no control is exercised by the husband. 
 
 All the personal property to which a woman is entitled 
 vests in her husband by marriage. Her chattels, real, that 
 is, leasehold property for a term of years, will revert to her 
 if she survive him ; and although the husband may alienate 
 them in his lifetime, he cannot dispose of them by will. But 
 should he survive her, they are his absolutely. Her chattels 
 personal — money and goods — are his without restriction, to 
 give or bequeath as he pleases even in her lifetime. Her 
 choses in action (that is, property of which there is no im- 
 mediate occupation, as debts due to her, money in the funds, 
 &c), are the husband's property conditionally ; that is, if he 
 reduce them into possession by exercising his rights over 
 them during her life. If not, they survive to her absolutely ; 
 and should she die first, he only takes them as her adminis- 
 trator, which he is by right. 
 
 If the husband die intestate, the wife is entitled to half 
 his personal property if there be no issue, and to one third if 
 there be issue. 
 
 The husband is liable for all his wife's debts and engage- 
 ments made while unmarried ; but not for such as she may- 
 have contracted during a former marriage. But he is re- 
 leased from his liability by her decease : and if he die first, 
 she only is responsible. For debts contracted by the wife 
 (luring marriage the husband is not liable unless they have 
 been contracted with his consent, express or implied ; and 
 tbjfl implied assent gives rise, as may well be supposed, to 
 numberless questions in courts of law. 
 
 As to the acts of husband and wife before marriage : The 
 will of a bachelor or widower not having children is re- 
 voked by his subsequent marriage and birth of issue. A 
 warrant of attorney given by an unmarried woman is re- 
 voked by her marriage. So is her will, in every case; but 
 there are others of her acts — such as the grant of a lease at 
 wdl — which are not revoked, but merely revocable. 
 
 Settlements or articles, made in contemplation of mar- 
 riage, are contrivances to modify the effects which would be 
 produced by the mere act of law on the rights of the re- 
 spective parties; and also to ensure an alienable provision 
 for issue. It is usual to vest the property of both parties in 
 trustees; generally for the benefit of the husband during 
 their joint lives, then for the benefit of the survivor, after his 
 or her death for the benefit of the children, in such propor- 
 tions as the nature of the property or circumstances of the 
 family may dictate. But it is usual to give authority to the 
 parents by means of a power to vary these relative propor- 
 tions. A jointure, although, in the strict sense of the word, 
 a joint estate to husband and wife, is in practice a separate 
 estate to the wife in lands and tenements, to take effect 
 immediately on the husband's death, and to secure a com- 
 petent provision for her during her life at least: it is usually 
 provided by settlement, and bars dower. Pin-money is 
 an annual income settled gratuitously before marriage by 
 the husband on the intended wife ; usually by means of 
 trustees. 
 
 But in other cases, and especially when the casualties of 
 a trade render it desirable to secure a certain protection, the 
 wife is provided for in the settlements by vesting her own 
 property, or a portion of it, in trustees for her sole and sep- 
 arate use. In this case the sums so secured are wholly in- 
 dependent of her husband's control. Where bequests are 
 made to a married woman for her separate use, and no 
 trustees are named to protect them, a court of equity will 
 consider her husband a trustee for her. She may sue him, 
 or any other person, in those courts, in respect of such prop- 
 erty. Her savings out of it are likewise hers in separate 
 right. But savings made by a wife out of an allowance for 
 her private expenditure ?.re not in every case her separate 
 property. 
 
 722 
 
 MARSEILLAISE HYMN. 
 
 A married woman has also a claim, in a court of equity, 
 to a provision out of her own property in several cases, 
 especially where the husband deserts or ill-treats her, oi 
 where, being a ward of chancery, she is clandestinely mar 
 ried. 
 
 (3.) On a divorce d vinculo matrimonii dower is gone 
 and if such divorce be on account of pre-contract, consau 
 guinity, or affinity, the children are illegitimate, and the 
 wife's property is restored to her. But a divorce u mensd et 
 thoro does not bastardize the children or bar dower. 
 
 Adultery during a voluntary separation entitles the ag 
 grieved party to a divorce a mensd et thoro as much as dur 
 ing cohabitation ; and frees the husband from all debts of hi* 
 wife, or claims by reason of her. 
 
 A husband is not held liable for debts contracted by his 
 wife, even for necessaries, if he have turned her out of 
 doors for adultery ; or if, after being turned out, she commit 
 adultery ; or if she depart from him without his consent ; or 
 if she elope with an adulterer; or if the husband and wile 
 separate by mutual agreement, in cases where the wife has 
 separate means, or is provided for by separate maintenance. 
 
 Bigamy, or polygamy, is a felonious offence, punishable 
 by transportation for seven years; and is now (since the 
 statute 9 G. 4, c. 31) equally punishable, although the 
 second marriage took place out of the jurisdiction of Eng- 
 lish law. 
 
 A wife committing any felony, except murder or man- 
 slaughter, in company with her husband, is not responsible 
 for the offence; but she is indictable for high treason so 
 committed. 
 
 In both civil and criminal cases (.with the exception of 
 treason), husband and wife are not allowed, except under 
 particular circumstances, to give evidence for or against each 
 other. 
 
 MARS. In the Solar System, one of the old planets, and 
 the fourth in the order of distance from the sun. The mean 
 distance of Mars from the sun is 1-5236923, the mean dis- 
 tance of the earth from the sun being 1 : it is, consequently, 
 about 142,000,000 of miles. Mars performs his mean sidereal 
 revolution in 6869796458 mean solar days, and his synodical 
 revolution (that is, returns to the same position in respect to 
 the earth and sun) in 779.936 days. His orbit, at the be- 
 ginning of the present century was inclined to the ecliptic in 
 an angle of 1° 51' 6" ; and its eccentricity is .093307, half the 
 major axis being unit. His apparent diameter varies from 
 36" at his greatest, to 18-28 ' at his least distance from 
 the earth. At his mean distance the apparent diameter is 
 6-29" ; whence the true diameter is found equal to -517, that 
 of the earth being unit, or about 4100 miles. Mars has a 
 rotation about his axis which is performed in 24 h. 39 m. 21 
 sec. The inclination of the axis to the ecliptic is 30° 18'. 
 When the opposition of Mars takes place at the time he is. 
 near the aphelion of his orbit he is then at his least distance 
 from the earth, and presents an interesting appearance when 
 seen through a powerful telescope. "In this planet," says 
 Sir John Herschel, " we discern, with perfect distinctness, 
 the outlines of what may be .continents and seas. Of these 
 the former are distinguished by that ruddy colour which 
 characterizes the light of this planet (which always appears 
 red and fiery), and indicates, no doubt, an ochrey tinge in 
 the general soil, like what the red sandstone districts on the 
 earth may possibly offer to the inhabitants of Mars, only 
 more decided. Contrasted with this (by a general law in 
 optics) the seas, as we may call them, appear greenish. 
 These spots, however, are not always to be seen equally 
 distinct, thoueh, when seen, they offer always the same ap- 
 pearance. This may arise from the planet not being entirely 
 destitute of atmosphere and clouds ; and what adds greatly 
 to the probability of this is the appearance of brilliant white 
 spots at its poles, which have- been conjectured, with a great 
 deal of probability, to be snow ; as they disappear when 
 they have been long exposed to the sun, and are greatest 
 when just emerging from the long night of their polar win 
 ter." (Astronomy, Cab. Cyc.) See Planet. 
 
 MARS, or MAVORS. The Latin names of the deity 
 called by the Greeks Aprjs. He was fabled to be the son of 
 Juno, conceived by means of the virtue of a certain plant ; 
 and was worshipped as the God of War. At Rome he was 
 honoured as the progenitor of Romulus, the founder of the 
 city, of which he was held to be the protector ; and it was 
 to the honour of this divinity that the Latin husbandmen 
 used to offer up a peculiar sacrifice, called suovctaurilia, 
 which, as the derivation of the word implies, consisted of a 
 pig, a sheep, and a bull. The priests of Mars were called 
 salii, and to their care was intrusted the sacred shield 
 (anci/e), which was said to have fallen from heaven during 
 the reign of Numa. See Sami, Ancii.e. 
 
 MARSEILLAISE HYMN. The name popularly, though 
 erroneously, given to the national anthem of the French. . 
 The origin" of this song, which has played so important a 
 part in the revolutions not only of France but of other conti 
 nental states, was long involved in obscurity ; and we scare* 
 
MARSH. 
 
 y think it will be considered out of place to embody in our 
 pages the following statement respecting it, which may be 
 relied on as authentic : The Marseillaise Hymn was the pro- 
 duction of Rouget de Lille, a French officer of engineers, 
 WOO was quartered at Strusburg in the year 1791, when 
 Marshal Luckner commanded the army, at that time entirely 
 '! of young conscripts. The marshal was to march 
 the following morning of a certain day; and, late in the 
 evening previous, he inquired if there were any men of a 
 umsicMl or poetical genius in the army who could compose a 
 soul-inspiring- song to animate his young soldiers. Some one 
 mentioned Captain Rouget de Lille, who was Immediately 
 ordered into the presence of the marshal to receive bis com- 
 mands on the subject; which having been given, and a 
 promise made by De Lille that a song would be ready the 
 following morning, he went to his quarters, nnd during the 
 Bight he not only wrote the song in question, but also set it 
 to marie ; and next morning the army marched to its tune, 
 and carried every thing before it with an enthusiasm only 
 to be equalled by absolute phrensy. 
 
 The song is said to have been styled the Marseillaise 
 Hymn from a body of troops, on their march from Mar- 
 seilles, having entered Paris playing that tune at a time 
 when it was little known in the capital. The Original of 
 the Marseillaise is said to bo in the possession of Louis 
 Philippe. 
 
 MARSH. A flat surface, the soil of which is so far 
 saturated with water throughout the year as to be unfit for 
 culture by the spade or plough ; but not so much as to pre- 
 vent it from producing coarse grasses, and other kinds of 
 herbage. Marshes are generally situated in bottoms where 
 they are kept moist by the water which descends from the 
 surrounding lands: or along the banks of rivers or lakes, 
 where their humidity arises from their being nearly on the 
 same level with the adjoining water. Where a marsh is 
 situated so as to be occasionally overflowed by the sen, or 
 by a river up which the tide flows, it is called a salt marsh ; 
 and the herbage produced by such lands is found highly 
 conducive to the health of animals which pasture on them 
 for a certain portion of the year, from the alterative effect 
 of its saline properties. 
 
 M A'RSUAL. A title of honour in many European coun- 
 tries, applied to various dignities and high offices. The 
 derivation of the word, and its early use, are extremely un- 
 certain. The title of Marshal of England is now hereditary 
 in the family of the Dukes of Norfolk. William Fitz-Osborn 
 and Roger de Montgomery are said to have been marshals 
 to William the Conqueror : their successors for some lime 
 •re not accurately known ; but the office was held in 1138, 
 in fee, by the family of Clare, and thence descended to the 
 Bartf ot Pembroke, and thence to Roger de Bigod, Karl of 
 Norfolk, who surrendered it to Edward I. After being grant- 
 ed for life, and during pleasure, to several successive mar- 
 shals, the dignity, with the title of Earl Marshal, was given 
 to Mowbray, afterwards Duke of Norfolk; in whose family 
 the dignity subsisted until it reverted to the crown in the 
 I A ward IV. Richard III. granted it to his favourite, 
 Howard. Duke of Norfolk ; after whose death nnd attainder 
 it passed through many hands ; hut was by Charles I. grant- 
 ed for life to his descendant, Thomas Howard, Earl of 
 Arundel; and finally his grandson, Henry Hownrd, Earl of 
 Norwich, was constituted hereditary earl marshal of ling- 
 land in 1(57-2, with remainder to the issue male of the Earl 
 of Arundel nforesaid; in which latter line it now nrbOJOta. 
 The earl marshal is eighth in rank among the pre-; officers 
 of state in England. He has the same jurisdiction over the 
 court of chivalry which was formerly exercised by the con- 
 stable and marshal jointly. 
 
 Marshal of the King's Household, or Knight Marshal. 
 An officer whose office is said to be to hear and determine 
 pleas of the crown, and suits between those of the king's 
 household and other persons within the verge. The mar- 
 shal of the King's Bench has the custody of the King's Bench 
 prison i:i Sontliwark. 
 
 Marshal of France is the highest military rank in the 
 French army. This officer appears first In history under the 
 reign of Philip Augustus, as commander-in-chief of the royal 
 The number of marshals was increased by several 
 successive sovereigns: in the reign of Henry IV. the states 
 of Blois limited it to four, but this restriction was not observ- 
 ed ; and, in the reign of Louis XIV., there were at one 
 period no less than twenty. In the same reign officers of 
 the navy as well as the army received the rank of marshal. 
 The marshals bore two batons or marshal's staffs — azure, 
 semes of fleur de-lys or saltier-wise — as the token of their 
 dignity. After the deposition of Louis XVI. the dignity of 
 marshal ceased ; but was revived by Napoleon, with the 
 title of Marshal of the Empire. 
 
 MA'RSHALLING. In Heraldry, the arrangement and 
 distribution of coats In a shield so as to denote the several 
 matches and alliances of the family. See Blazonry. 
 
 MA'RSHALSEA. In Law, the court or seat of a mar- 
 
 MARSUPIALS. 
 
 shal. The King's Bench prison, in Southwark, is said to be 
 so called because the marshal of the king's house was wont 
 to sit there, or to keep his prison. The Mnrshalsea, or 
 Knight-marshal's Court, commonly called the Palace Court, 
 was created by Charles I. ; and has jurisdiction of personal 
 actions within a circuit of twelve miles round Whitehall 
 
 MARSH MIASMA. The infectious vapours which rise 
 from certain marshes and marshy soils, and which tend to 
 the production of intermittent and remittent fevers. 
 
 MARSU'PIALS, Marsupialia, or Marsupiata. (Lai 
 marsupium, a pouch.) An order of Implacental Mammifei - 
 ous quadrupeds, of which the females have a portion of the 
 abdominal integument folded inwards, forming either a de- 
 preaaraa containing the mamma', or a pouch serving also u 
 a temporary abode for the young ; and the males have a 
 corresponding portion of the abdominal integument extend- 
 ed outwards, forming a scrotum or pedunculate bag for the 
 testes. In both sexes two supplementary trochlear bones 
 are developed in the internal pillars of the abdominal rings, 
 and are articulated to the anterior part of the brim of the 
 pelvis, around which bones play the muscles supporting 
 and compressing the testes in the male, and the mammarj 
 glands in the female : the trochlear ossicles, from their con 
 nexion by means of these muscles with the pouch, are call 
 ed "marsupial." 
 
 The quadrupeds associated together by the common e* 
 ternal and osteological characters above defined so far re 
 semble the oviparous animals that a placenta is not organ 
 ized, and the chorion of the foetus contracts no adhesion 
 with the parietes of the uterus. The foetus is prematurely 
 born after a gestation of only thirty-eight days, in the great 
 kangaroo, in which it does not exceed an inch in length. 
 It is then received into the pouch, nnd adheres to the nipple 
 for many months before it quits the pouch. The generative 
 organs themselves, both male and female, offer several 
 striking peculiarities common to all the Marsupials, and 
 by which they differ from the ordinary Mammalia. Cuviei 
 accordingly, in 1H](">, separated the marsupial from the othet 
 ungtdeulate quadrupeds, to form a distinct group, which he 
 describes as forming with the Monotrcmes a small collateral 
 chain; all the genera of which, while they are connected 
 together by the peculiarities of the generative system, at the 
 same time corres|)ond in their dentition and diet, some to the 
 Carnivora, others to the Rodentia, and a third tribe to the 
 Edentata. M. de Blainville, in the Tables of tha Animal 
 Kingdom which he published in the same year, 1818, COO 
 Ititnted a distinct subclass of Cuvier's "small collateral 
 chain" of mammals, and gave to the subclass the name <■''' 
 Didetphes, in antithesis to that of Monodelphes, by which nc 
 distinguished the Placental Mammalia. 
 
 Many acute and sound-thinking naturalists refused then 
 assent to theae views, which, as they were supported by a 
 knowledge of the conformity of organization of only the 
 generative system in the Marsupials, were unquestionably 
 defective in the evidence essential to enforce conviction. 
 The best arguments for returning to theolder views of clari- 
 fication, and for distributing the marsupial genera, according 
 to the affinities indicated by their dental and locomotive 
 systems, among the different orders of the Placental Mam- 
 malia, were advanced by Mr. Bennett, the accomplished 
 author of The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological So- 
 ck it/ delineated (vol. I., p. 2C5) ; and these have been re- 
 lated with approbation, and adopted by later classificatore, 
 as Mr. Swainson. 
 
 The discovery of the true affinities of the Marsupialia could 
 only flow from an insight into their whole organization ; and 
 the question which Mr. Bennett proposes, with reference to 
 the genus Phaseolomys, " What is there of importance in the 
 structure of the wombat, except this solitary character of the 
 marsupium, to separate it from the Rodent order 1" — a ques- 
 tion which he might, in 1831, have asked with equal force 
 in reference to any other marsupial genus — could only be 
 answered satisfactorily by the anatomist who had submitted 
 the Marsupialia in question to a thorough dissection. 
 
 Although the Marsupials present modifications of the dental 
 system corresponding with the carnivorous, omnivorous, and 
 herbivorous types, yet they agree with each other, and differ 
 from the analogous Placental Mammalia in having four in- 
 stead of three true molars, i. <•., four molars which are not 
 displaced and succeeded by others, in the vertical direction 
 
 In the locomotive organs it is true that we see some of the 
 Marsupials having a hinder thumb, like the Placental Cluad- 
 rumana; others are digitigrade, with falculate claws, like 
 the Placental Feitc; a third, as the wombat, has the feet 
 adapted for burrowing; a fourth, like the Cheironectes, is 
 aquatic, and has webbed feet : yet all these Marsupials agree 
 with each other in having a rotatory movement of the hind 
 foot, analogous to the pronation and supination, which, in the 
 plncentnl quadrupeds, are limited, when enjoyed at all, to 
 the fore feet ; and they manifest, moreover, a peculiar modi- 
 fication of the muscles of the hind leg and foot, in relation 
 to these rotatory movements. In those Marsupials, as the 
 
 723 
 
MART. 
 
 kangaroos, potoroos, and perameles, in which the offices of 
 supoort and locomotion are devolved exclusively or in great 
 par upon the hind legs, these are strengthened at the ex- 
 pense of the loss of the rotatory movements of the feet ; but 
 in tht; enormous development of the two outer toes, and the 
 conversion of the two inner ones into unguiculate append- 
 ages, useful only in cleansing the fur, these Marsupials diti'er 
 from all Placentals, whilst the same peculiar condition of 
 the toes may be traced through the Pedimanous group of 
 Marsupials. Thus the locomotive organs, notwithstanding 
 Ihoir adaptation to different kinds of progression, testify to the 
 unity of the Marsupial group in the two remarkable peculi- 
 arities of structure above cited. 
 
 The vascular system gives evidence to the same effect. 
 All the Marsupials present the following peculiarities in the 
 structure of the heart, viz., the right auricle manifests no 
 trace of either fossa ovalis or annulus ovalis, and receives 
 the two vena cava superiores by two separate inlets. This 
 generalization is, however, less urgent in the present ques- 
 tion than the preceding, because the modification, as regards 
 the separate entry of the superior vena cava obtains in a few 
 placental species, as the elephant and certain Rodents ; but 
 
 MASCAGNIN. 
 
 as the first-cited cardiac character is common and peculiar 
 to the Marsupial Mammalia, and as the second, while it is 
 universal in the Marsupials, occurs only as an exceptional 
 condition in the placental series, the arguments which they 
 afford to the unity of the marsupial group cannot be over- 
 looked in a philosophical consideration of the affinities of 
 the Mammalia. 
 
 With respect to the nervous system, it has been shown 
 that, in the structure of the brain, the Marsupialia exh'.bit a 
 close correspondence with the Ovipara in the nidimenta] 
 state of tile corpus callosum : the dili'erence which the most 
 closely analogous placental species offer in this respect is 
 broadly marked. (Owen on the Brain of the Marsupial 
 Animals, Phil. Trans. 1837, p. 89, pi. vi.) 
 
 These coincidences in the Marsupialia of important or 
 ganic modifications of the dental, locomotive, vascular, cere 
 Dial, and reproductive systems, establish the fact that they 
 constitute a natural group, inferior, on the whole, in organi- 
 zation to the Placental Mammalia. 
 
 The following is a tabular view of the subordinate divi 
 sions of the Marsupialia regarded as an order of the luipla- 
 cental subclass of Mammalia : 
 
 Tribes. 
 
 Sarcophaga. 
 
 Classification of the Marsupialia. 
 Families. 
 
 Three kinds of teeth ; canines long in both jaws; a simple i t\„ svu fj m 
 stomach ; no intcstinum cacum. \ ■* 
 
 Extinct transhional forms ..... 
 
 Entomophaoa. 
 Three kinds of teeth in both jaws; a simple stomach ; a t a m i u i ator - 
 moderately long intestinum cacum. \ ta 
 
 Saltatoria 
 Scansoria 
 
 Sarcophaga. 
 
 Anterior incisors large and long in both jaws ; canines in- ) 
 constant ; stomach simple, or with a special gland ; a very > Phalangistida 
 long intestinum cacum. J 
 
 Phascolarctida 
 
 POEPHAGA. 
 
 Anterior incisors large and long in both jaws ; canines ) 
 present in the upper jaw only, or wanting ; a complex > Macropodida 
 stomach ; a long intestinum cacum. ) 
 
 Rhizophaga. 
 Two scalpriform incisors in both jaws ; no canines ; stom- 1 
 ach with a special gland ; cacum short, wide, with a \ Phascolomyida 
 vermiform appendage. ) 
 
 ( Thylacinus. 
 < Dasyurus. 
 ( Phascogale. 
 i Phascolotherium 
 J Thylacotherium 
 
 Mynnecobius. 
 
 ) Cha?ropus. 
 ( Perameles. 
 
 Didelphys 
 
 (Phalangista 
 
 I. Petaurus 
 Phascolarctus. 
 
 SHypsiprymnus. 
 Macropus. 
 
 I Phascolomys. 
 I Diprotodon 
 
 Subgenera. 
 
 ! Fossil. 
 
 \ Didelpnys. 
 I Cheirouectes. 
 
 i Cuscus. 
 
 < Pseudocheirus 
 f Tapoa. 
 
 ( Petauivta. 
 
 < Belidia. 
 
 C Acrobata. 
 
 Fossil. 
 
 MART. See Fair and Market. 
 
 MARTE'LLO TOWERS. The name given to the cir- 
 cular buildings of masonry which were erected along different 
 parts of the British coasts at the commencement of the 
 present century, intended as a defence against the meditated 
 invasion of Napoleon. The origin of the name is usually 
 supposed to be derived from a fort in Mortella (Myrtle) Bay, 
 Corsica, which, after a determined resistance, was at last 
 captured by the British in 1794. These towers were pro- 
 vided with vaulted roofs, and consisted of two stories— the 
 lower for the reception of stores, the upper, which was shell- 
 proof, for the casement of troops ; and the wall of the build- 
 ing terminated in a parapet, which secured the men in 
 working the pieces of artillery, which, besides, were con- 
 structed on moving pivots, so as to be fired in any direction. 
 In most places of England these towers have been dis- 
 mantled ; those that remain either serve as stations for the 
 use of the coast blockade force, or, like that near Leith, are 
 not employed for any purpose. 
 
 MARTINE'T. A eant phrase for a severe military dis- 
 ciplinarian ; probaWy derived from a certain Colonel Marti- 
 net, who served in the French army under Louis XIV., who 
 was the inventor of a peculiar whip, called by his name, for 
 the purpose of military punishment, and also (if Voltaire 
 may be believed) of the bayonet. 
 
 M A'RTINGALE. In Naval affairs, a rope leading down- 
 wards from the jib-boom end, to keep the jib-boom down 
 against the force of the sail and stay. In the menage, mar- 
 tingale is applied to a thong of leather fastened at the end of 
 the girths under the belly of a horse, and at the other end to the 
 musrol, passing between the legs to keep him from rearing. 
 
 MA'RTLET. In Heraldry, a fanciful bird, shaped like a 
 martin or swallow, but depicted with short tufts of feathers 
 in the place of legs. It is the difference or distinction of a 
 r ourth son. 
 
 MA RTYR. (Gr. uaprvp, or uaprog, witness : in which 
 724 
 
 sense the word is used by the writers of the N. Test, when 
 speaking of themselves, in reference to the testimony they 
 bore to the actions of Christ.) When the members of the 
 Christian Church were subjected to persecution under the 
 Roman emperors, the persons accused were questioned as to 
 their belief; and, in undergoing punishments and death, 
 were said to bear witness of their Master before the world 
 A distinction was also made between those who, although 
 they boldly asserted their belief, were yet not visited with 
 extreme punishment, who were designated under the name 
 of confessors, and those who actually suffered death, who 
 alone were dignified with the title of martyrs, and said to 
 obtain the crown of martyrdom. Martyr, in its ordinary sig- 
 nification, denotes a person who suffers death or persecution 
 on account of his belief. (See Mosheim's Eccl. History 
 (transl.), ed. 1790, i., 77 ; Gieseler (transl.), c. 8, 14, 71, &c 
 As to the intercession of martyrs, lb. 109, 162.) 
 
 MA'RTYRO'LOGY. (Gr. uaprvs, and \oyos, a descrip 
 tion.) The name given to that department of ecclesiastical 
 history which relates to the acts and deaths of martyrs. It 
 also signifies a calendar or register kept in religious houses, 
 wherein were inserted the names and donations of their 
 benefactors, and the days of their death. As specimens of 
 this species of works, we may mention the Martyrotogy of 
 Eusebius, which was so celebrated in the early church, but 
 which is lost; and Fox's Book of Martyrs, the most valu- 
 able record of the sufferings of the English reformers. Many 
 of the accounts in the early martyrologies are purely fabu- 
 lous. See RuinarVs Acta Martyrum ; Baronii, Mt-rtyro- 
 logium Romanum; and Middleton's Free Inquiry. Gallo- 
 nius, Tie Sanctorum Martyrum Cruciatibus, 1598, and sub 
 sequent editions, is a book which has had great popuiiirity 
 on the Continent. 
 
 MASCA GNIN. A mineralogical name of the native sul- 
 phate of ammonia of volcanic districts ; named after Ma«- 
 cagni, who first discovered it. 
 
MASCLE. 
 
 MA'SCLE. In Heraldry, a bearing in the fonn of a loz- 
 enge perforated ; supposed to represent the meshes of a net. 
 iN'KV. (Fr.) The science of combining and join- 
 ing stones for the formation of wails and other parts in con- 
 structing buildings. The science, when applied in the con 
 strnction of domes, groins, and circular arches, is difficult 
 and con-plicated, depending on a thorough knowledge of 
 descriptive geometry. Hence the various methods of obtain- 
 ing the requisite lines for the artificer would require a space 
 mid diagrams which cannot be given here; but the reader 
 who desires acquaintance with that part of the subject may 
 i '.otisult Bandelet, Traiti Theorique et Pratique dc rjlrt de 
 lintir, I'aris, 1829-30, 4to, wi;h the certainty of finding al! 
 tin.' information he requires. Vitruvius mentions several 
 kinds of masonry among the ancients, which were dislin- 
 gui-hed fnm each other by the different modes of arranging 
 the stones. The principal are, 1. The Heticulntum, which 
 is imaged in diagonal courses, like the meshes of n net; 
 whence its name. 2. The Incertum, wherein the rising 
 are so laid, without any certain sizes of the stones, 
 :ls that the vertical joint above always falls over the middle 
 Of the joint below. The appearance of this work is not 
 perhaps so pleasing as that of the first, but the work itself is 
 stronger. 3. The Isodomum, in which all the courses are of 
 equal height, as its name imports. 4. The I'seudisodomam, 
 which received its name from the coarse* being unequal 
 in height. 5. The Ktuplectum, in which the faces of the 
 work were wrought,«ind the centre of the wall tilled up with 
 rubble work, in which aperies of work the G r ee k* employed 
 it-it, nit or bond stones, running in one piece through the 
 - of the wall to tie it together. The first principles 
 to be attended to in building Hone Willi are, that the vertical 
 joints in any course should not fall over the vertical joints 
 in the course immediately below it; and that where the 
 Of the wall consist-' of two or outre pieces of stone, 
 bond stones or blocks which run through the whole wall 
 transversely, if possible in one piece, should be introduced as 
 frequently an possible for the purpose of binding the whole 
 ■ 'her. The different species of masonry in present 
 u-e may lie reduced to four: 1. Bund masonry, w herein the 
 i each succeeding course lire laid so that the joint 
 that mounts and separates two stones always falls directly 
 over the middle of the stone below. 2. That of brickwork, 
 where the bodies and projections of tl M squire 
 
 spaces or panels, «tc., formed with bricks. 3. That called 
 by the French demotion, or small work, wherein the (curses 
 are equal, well squared, and their edges Of beds rusticated. 
 4. That wherein the courses are unequal, and filled up in 
 the diddle with small stones and mortar. 
 
 Masonry. Sm I'rkkmasonry. 
 
 MA. '-QUE, or MASK. A species of drama. It originated 
 from the custom in processions, and other solemn I 
 of introducing personages in masks to represent Imaginary 
 
 Characters. Mnny of these diameters, even in tbe religions 
 
 shows of Italy, &c., were of a grotesque description, and the 
 
 performance often intermixed with dancing and buffoonery. 
 
 ea, In England, something of a dramatic character 
 
 was added to these exhibitions. At first, as in the well- 
 known progresses of Queen Elisabeth, monologues or dia- 
 logues in verse were put into the mouths of the masked per- 
 formers; and, in the reign of James I., they had ripened into 
 regular dramatic perfonntmces : sometimes, as In the 7Vm- 
 jir.it of Shakspeare, introduced by way of interlude in mgu- 
 lar plays ; at other times acted nsseparate pieces, with much 
 machinery and decoration. Ken Johnson wtis the first, and 
 indeed almost the only classical English writer (with the 
 exception of Milton, in the solitary and noble specimen of 
 Comus) who devoted much labour and taste to this depart- 
 ment of the drama. His masques were represented at court : 
 the queen of James I., and after her the accomplished Queen 
 Henrietta Maria, did not disdain to take pnrt, at le:ist as silent 
 dramatis persona:, in some of these pageants. The taste for 
 them died away in the reign of Charles I., and after the 
 interruption given to the progress of dramatic art and litera- 
 ture by the civil wars, they were not again brought into 
 fasliion. 
 
 MASQUERADE. (Ital. mascherata.) An amusement 
 practised in almost every civilized country of modern times, 
 consisting of a ball and other festivities, in which only those 
 wliii are masked or disguised can participate. This species 
 Of amusement had its origin in Italy, where, according to 
 ' hroniclr, they had become fashionable so early as 
 the beginning of the 16th century. Of its introduction into 
 England, Hnll thus speaks: "On the date of the Epiphnine, 
 at night ( VD. 1512-13), the king (Henry VIII.) with eleven 
 others, were disguised after the manner of Italie, called a 
 uniske, a thing not seen afore in England; they were npa- 
 reted in garmentes long and brode, wrought all with golde, 
 with visers and ceppet of trolde; and after the banket doen, 
 IBMa markers came in with the six gentlemen disguised In 
 silk" (in all probability the domino of more recent times), 
 " barynge staile torches, and desired the ladies to daunce : 
 
 MAST. 
 
 some were content ; and some that knew the fashion ot it 
 refused, because it w:is not a tiling commonly seen. And 
 after the! daunced and commoned together, as the fashion 
 of the maskes is, thei toke their leave and depaited, and so 
 did the queue and all the ladies." The invention of mas- 
 querades is ascribed to Granacci, who died in 1543. 
 
 MASS. (Lat. missa.) The name by which the Roman 
 Catholics designate the celebration of the Lord's Supper after 
 the forms of their church. The term is derived from tin 
 phrase, " Ite, missa est, concio" (i. e., Go, the assembly is 
 dissolved) ; by which the priest. In the primitive uses, 
 fled to the catechumens that all that part of the sonrti 
 the church was concluded which it was allowed to B 
 lievers indiscriminately to attend. The communion of the 
 eucharist was extended only to the high, 
 who had completed the period of initiation and instruction 
 and, alter the pronunciation of these words, the 
 the body and blood was made. It was to this ofl 
 that the term missa came to be applied. The service of tin 
 mass, as it is still retained throughout Catholic count, 
 was the work of Gregory I., in the 6th century. It consist-: 
 of three parts: the otiertoiium, or offering of the eleneui 
 upon the altar: the consecration, by which they arc 
 posed to undergo the unnattbatantifttJon into the real hod} 
 
 and blood of Christ; and the sumption, or actual participle 
 tion in them by the communicants. These ceremonii 
 accompanied by the recitation of various prayers; and the 
 priests go through numerous evolutions, which are rapt) 
 to represent the circumstances attending the passion of our 
 Lord. High mass is the performance of this service accom- 
 panied with music. 
 
 Mass. (Germ, masse.) The quantity of matter of which 
 any body i.~ cawpnoed. Tin- BUM is directly as the pr.» 
 Of the volume of the body into its density. Tli 
 tiplicd into the constant force of gravity constitutes the 
 weight; and hence the mass of any body is rightly eathn 
 
 by its weight. Sir MECHANICS. 
 
 Hue. In the Fine Arts, a large quantity of matt 
 Light or shade. It is generally applied in painting to light 
 and shade brought upon objects proper for their reception, 
 and grouped or arranged ao at to give repose and plot 
 variet] both of one and the other without being scattered. 
 
 MASSA'LIANS. Sm Ebchttss. 
 
 MA'SSETEB (Gr. paooaoiuu, I chew.) A short thief: 
 muscle which raises the lower jaw, and assists in moving il 
 backwards and forwards in the act of chewing. 
 
 M A'SSH M >T. Fellow oxide of lead. 
 
 MA'SSOBA, or afAEORA. A critical work among the 
 Jews, containing remarks on the verses, words, letters, and 
 vowel points of the Hebrew text of the Bible. As tie 
 cred books were originally written without any breaks or 
 divisions into Chapters or ver-es or even words, the Jew 
 found it necessary to establish a canon to fix and ascertain 
 the reading of the Hebrew text. This rule or canon is de 
 signaled Maaaor*, or tradition, in which the verses, letters. 
 words, &c, are all numbered ; and by this means the slightest 
 variations can be detected. The Jewish rabbis w ho drew up 
 this work are styled Ifaaaoritea, See Biblical History, fee. 
 
 MAST. A long piece or system of pieces of timber. 
 placed nearly perpendicular to the keel of n vessel to sup- 
 port the yards or gall's on which the sails aro extended. 
 When the mast is one entire piece, it is called a pole-mast , 
 but in all larger vessels it is composed of several length.". 
 called loicer, tup, and topgallant masts : sometimes a fourth, 
 called a royal mast. 
 
 The method of supporting each mast on the one next be- 
 low it Is peculiar. On the sides of the lower mast, some 
 feet below the head, are placed cheeks: on these are fixed 
 horizontally two short pieces of wood, fore and aft, called 
 trestle trees. Across these at right nngles are laid, before 
 and abaft the mast, two or more longer and lighter pieces, 
 called cross trees, which give the name to the entire system. 
 On the mast head itself is a cap. 
 
 The topmast being placed up and down, the fore side of 
 the lower mast is sicayed up between the trestle trees, and 
 through the round or foremast hole in the cap. When 
 raised so high that the heel of the topmast is nearly up to the 
 surface of the cross trees, a piece of iron, called the fid, is 
 put through the hole in the heel for the purpose ; and on 
 this fid, of which the ends are supported on the trestle trees. 
 the topmast rests. When Added, the topmast is stayed, 
 and the rigging or shrouds set up to the dead eyes in the 
 ends of the cross trees. These dead eyes pull from the 
 lower rigging below, and thus the cross trees serve merely 
 to extend the rigging. The topgallant is supported in the 
 same manner on the topmast. When the mast is to be 
 taken down, it is first raised to relieve the fid ; which being 
 drown out, the mast is lowered. 
 
 The masts are supported by a strong rope, leading for 
 ward, called the stay ; by others, leading aft on each side ot 
 the ship, called, in general, backstays ; and by others abreast, 
 called shroteds, and also breast backstays. 
 
 725 
 
MASTER. 
 
 Large lower masts are composed of pieces, and have for 
 some years been made of several lengths, about a foot or 
 no square, and the whole supported merely by hoops at in- 
 tervals. 
 
 The mainmast is near the middle of the vessel, the fore- 
 mast is tli.it which is nearest the fore part, and the mizen- 
 viast is abaft the mainmast. 
 
 Tiie old rule for tire length of the main lower mast is to 
 take k ihe sum of the length of the lower deck and extreme 
 breadlh : the foremast is 8-9ths of the mainimist, the mizen- 
 mast consideraLly smaller. The topmast is about 3 5ths of 
 the lower mast. These rules, as well as others for the 
 thicknesses, &.c., are merely for convenience, based on no 
 mechanical principle, and are by no means strictly followed. 
 
 MA'STER. (Lot. magister.) A title frequent among 
 the Romans: as magister equitum (master of the horse, the 
 lieutenant or second in command to a dictator), magister 
 peditum, magister census, &c. Magister Militia; (master of 
 the army, or of military affairs) was a title under the later 
 Roman emperors. Grand master, in modern times is the 
 common title of the chief of the orders of knighthood, and 
 of some fraternities, as tile Freemasons. The eldest sons 
 of some noble landed proprietors are designated as mas- 
 ters in Scotland ; as the master of Gray, master of Doug- 
 las, &c. 
 
 Master. In the Universities, a degree in arts ; the most 
 ancient of all the academical titles. In the university of 
 Paris, where this as well as the other learned distinctions 
 appear to have originated, it was originally a mere title, be- 
 longing to those who taught in the schools (magistri, doc- 
 tores). Thus every master was, of necessity, a lecturer. In 
 process of time (and probably about the middle of the 13th 
 century) the title became a degree, attainable by all after a 
 certain amount of residence and proficiency ; while the duty 
 of lecturing was confined only to a certain number of mas- 
 ters., termed regents. About the same period the separation 
 of the degrees of master and doctor took place. In the 
 English universities, the degree of master of arts follows 
 that of bachelor. A master becomes a regent after a short 
 ul, According to the old academical constitution, 
 is supposed to read lectures during the year of his regency. 
 On becoming a regent, he becomes a member of the govern- 
 ing body of the university ; having a vole in congregation 
 aud convocation at Oxford, in the senate at Cambridge. In 
 our universities the degree of master is the highest in the 
 faculty of arts; but subordinate to that of bachelor of di- 
 vinity. Elsewhere the faculty of arts is synonymous with 
 that of philosophy, in which the degree of doctorate is con- 
 ferred, superior to that of master. 
 
 Mas per, otherwise called Captain, in Commercial Navi- 
 gation, the person entrusted with the care and navigation of 
 a ship. His duties are very important. In some countries 
 no one can lie appointed to this office who has not been de 
 c.lared to fill it by a legally constituted board ; but in this 
 country the owners are left to their own discretion as to the 
 skill and honesty of tile master; and although he is bound 
 to make good any damage that may happen to the ship and 
 cargo by his negligence or unskilfulness, he cannot be pun- 
 ished as a criminal for mere incompetence. No one is 
 qualified to be master of a British ship unless he be a natu- 
 ral-born British subject, or naturalized by act of parliament ; 
 or have become a subject to his majesty by conquest, cession, 
 &c, and have taken the oaths of allegiance; or a foreign 
 seaman who has served three years in time of war on board 
 of his majesty's ships. 
 
 Master. In the Royal Navy, the officer who has the 
 charge of the navigation of the ship, with other duties : his 
 rank is next to lieutenant. 
 
 Master Attendant. The officer next in rank to the 
 superintendent of the royal dock-yard. 
 
 Master at Arms. A petty officer of the navy, who is, 
 in fact, the head of the police of the ship: his assistants 
 are called ship's corporals. 
 
 Master or the Ceremonies. An officer attached to 
 all European courts, whose duty consists in regulating all 
 matters of etiquette and state ceremony. (See Ceremo- 
 nies, &c.) The name is also applied to any individual wno 
 is appointed by general consent to preside over the arrange- 
 ments of a public ball, with the power of deciding all dis- 
 putes that may arise therein. 
 
 Master of the Horse. The third great officer in the 
 British court. When not put in commission, this office is 
 always filled by a nobleman. He has the management of 
 all the royal stables and bred horses, with authority over 
 all the equerries and pages, coachmen, footmen, grooms, &c. 
 In solemn cavalcades he rides next the sovereign. Salary, 
 £1270 I3s. Ad. per annum. The queen dowager's house- 
 hold has also a master of the horse and three equerries. 
 
 Master of the Household. An officer employed un- 
 der the treasurer of the household to survey accounts. 
 
 Master of the Mint. See Mint. 
 
 Master of the Robes. An officer of the royal house- 
 726 
 
 MATERIALISM. 
 
 hold, in the lord chamberlain's department. His salary in 
 jESOO per annum. 
 
 Master of the Rolls. See Masters in Chancery. 
 
 Masters in Chancery, are assistants to the lord chan- 
 cellor. The masters in ordinary are twelve in number, of 
 whom the master of the rolls is chief. To them are refer- 
 red interlocutory orders for stating accounts, computing dam- 
 ages, &c. They also administer oaths, take affidavits and 
 acknowledgments, and examine bills in chancery \ntli refer- 
 ence to their propriety. The masters are also employed by 
 the house of peers in carrying messages to the commons 
 Masters extraordinary are appointed to act in the country be 
 yond twenty miles from London. By 3 & 4 W. 4, c. ill, s 
 10, the appointment of masters in ordinary is taken from the 
 lord chancellor, and vested in the crown. 
 
 MA'STER-SI'NGERS. A class of poets who flourished 
 in Germany during the 15th and part of the Kith century. 
 They were confined to a few imperial towns, and their chief 
 seat was the city of Nuremberg. They were generally of 
 burgher extraction ; and formed regular corporations, into 
 which proficients were admitted by the ordinary course of 
 apprenticeship. Their poetry (generally confined to devo- 
 tional or scriptural pieces, legendary tales, with some admix- 
 ture of satire and of amatory lyrics) was subjected to a pe- 
 culiar and pedantic code of laws, both composition and ver- 
 sification ; and a board of judges (styled merker) assembled 
 to hear the poems recited, and mark the faults which might 
 be committed in either particular: ke who had the fewest 
 faults received the prize. Hans Sachs, the famous cobbler 
 of Nuremberg, was a member of these societies ; although 
 his genius was of too independent a character to submit to 
 the trammels of their poetical regulations. 
 
 MA'STIC. (Gr. nacTtKn, a species of gum.) In Archi- 
 tecture, a cement of recent introduction into England, em- 
 ployed for plastering walls. It is used with a considerable 
 portion of linseed oil, and sets hard in a few days, from 
 this latter circumstance, and from its being fit for the recep- 
 tion of paint at an early period, it is much used in works 
 where great expedition is requisite. 
 
 Mastic. A peculiar resin which exudes from the Pistn- 
 cia lentiscus. Its chief use is in varnishes. 
 
 MA'STICOT. (Fr. massicot.) In Painting, a yellow col- 
 our, being an oxide of lead. 
 
 MASTI'TIS. (Gr. paaros, the breast.) Inflammation ol 
 the breast in women : it commonly terminates in suppura- 
 tion. 
 
 MA'STODON. (Gr. poors;, a nijrple, and o<Ws, tooth ) 
 A genus of extinct fossil quadrupeds allied to the elephant 
 so called from the conical projections upon the surfaces oi 
 the molar teeth. 
 
 MA'STOID. (Gr. ftacroi, and tttos, form.) Certain 
 nipple-like protuberances of the bones. 
 
 MASTOTHE'CA. (Gr. fjiaaTOi, and StjKr), a receptacle.) 
 A name sometimes used for Marsuphliii, and applied to the 
 abdominal pouch of the marsupial animals. 
 
 MATE. In a Merchant Ship, the deputy of the master, 
 taking i:i his absence the command. There are sometimes 
 only one, and sometimes two, three, or four mutes in a 
 merchantman, according to her size; denominated 1st, 2d, 
 3d, &c. mates. The iaw, however, recognizes only two 
 descriptions of persons in a merchantman — the master and 
 mariners; the mates being included in the latter, and the 
 captain being responsible for their proceedings. 
 
 In men-of-war, the officers immediately subordinate to 
 the captain are called lieutenants. But the master, or offi- 
 cer whose peculiar duty it is to take charge of the naviga- 
 tion of the ship, has certain mates under him, Selected from 
 the midshipmen. The boatswain, gunner, carpenter, &x., 
 have each their mates or deputies, taken from the crew. 
 
 The officers subordinate to the commander in the ships 
 belonging to the East India Company were called 1st, 2d, 
 3d, &c, officers. East Indinmen had no sailing masters, the 
 Commanders performing that duty. (Falconer's Marine 
 Dictionary. &.C.) 
 
 Mate. The Paraguay name of a plant called Ilex para 
 guensis by botanists, whose leaves are used extensively in 
 that country as a substitute for tea. It has the properly of 
 turning milk blackish when mixed with it. 
 
 MATE'RIAL. Any thing composed of matter, or pos- 
 sessing the fundamental properties of matter. See Matter. 
 
 MATE'RIALISM. That metaphysical theory whir h is 
 founded on the hypothesis that all existence may be resolv- 
 ed into a modification of matter, including, of course, the 
 conscious subject. Materialists, of one sort or other, have 
 abounded in every stage of philosophical thought. Thrr, 
 have consisted, in the main, of persons accustomed to the 
 exclusive pursuit of merely physical or empirical science, 
 who have transferred the habits and prejudices thus engen- 
 dered to the higher sciences of metaphysics and physiology. 
 The most celebrated materialists were, among the ancients, 
 Democritus and his later disciples ; Epicurus and his sect; 
 to whom may be added, though in a somewhat different 
 
MATERIA MEDICA. 
 
 sense, the Stoics: among the moderns, Gassendi, Hobbes, 
 Hartley, and Dr. Priestley. Most schemes of materialism 
 rest on the assumption that all that is real in nature con- 
 i the minute particles from the juxtaposition of which 
 all sensible objects arise. This is what is variously desig- 
 nated as the atomic, the mechanical, or the mechanico-cor 
 puscular theory, and has met with supporters chietiy in 
 i niong ourselves, in very recent times, Dr. Thomas 
 Brown-has eloquently maintained that part of this system 
 which relates to physical phenomena; though he hascom- 
 batted, with the utmost subtlety and ingenuity, the portion 
 of it which includes the nature of the mind itself. (Com- 
 pare sect, v.-ix. with sect, xii.-xiv. See also Priestley's 
 Dilfmuiiunu on. Matter and Spirit, 1/iti; and his Three 
 nations on the Doctrine of Materialism and Philo- 
 sophical Necessity. Also, Price's Letters on Materialism 
 and Philosophical Necessity.) The latest and boldest de- 
 'l materialism that has appeared in England is to be 
 in tiie celebrated lectures of Mr. Lawrence, who 
 maintained that the brain is to lie conceived as secreting 
 thought, in the same sense in which the liver secretes bile 
 or the stomach the gastric juice. 
 
 MATERIA MEDICA. This term implies the various 
 substances, natural and artificial, which are used in Uie 
 cure of disease, and which are usually called medicines. 
 They are frequently arranged into classes dependent upon 
 their virtues and (fleet*, or upon tlnir contfttmrt parts ; 
 but perhaps the most convenient arrangement is the alpha- 
 betical. 
 
 MATHEMATICS. (Or. paOnaic, learning.) The sci- 
 ence which investigates the consequences which are logic- 
 ally deductble from any given or admitted relations between 
 magnitudes or numbers. It Is usually divided into two parts: 
 />«;., where geometrical magnitude or numbers are the 
 subject of investigation ; and mixed, where the deductions 
 thus made are from relations which are obtained by I 
 rattan anil experiment from the phenomena of material 
 nature, and which constitutes what is otherwise called 
 . .r physical science. 
 
 The iirsl object of mathematical science was geometry, 
 
 among 
 that.': .1 of their works have come down to our 
 
 int all have undergone more or less mutilation ; 
 and some of the most interesting are either wholly lost, as 
 tin' Porinu of Euclid, or only known to us through the 
 medium of Arabic translations, as the Sectio Rationis of 
 Apollotiius. See Geometry. 
 
 Th.- next object of research that comes under the denomi- 
 nation of pure mathematics is number, the science of which 
 constitutes arithmetic. By reason of their defective system 
 of no t a t ion, the Greek geometers were under the necessity 
 of employing very complicated methods for performing or- 
 dinary arithmetical calculations; and for investigating the 
 mi ne abstruse properties and relations of numl>ers they had 
 recourse to geometrical constructions. The moderns have, 
 ■ overed a much more simple and direct system 
 of processes, constituting a'gebra; and this has also been 
 applied with great success to the solution even of geomet- 
 rical problems and theorems, which by purely geometrical 
 ods had never been effected. The deferential calculus 
 and the calculus of functions are also branches of algebra, 
 nc and Algebra.. 
 
 lit the various branches of the mixed mathematics, or 
 applied mathematics, astronomy is by far the most advanced 
 tow. mis perfection; and next to it the doctrine of optics, 
 which has been cultivated as subservient to astronomy. 
 This has depended chiefly on the simplicity of the laws 
 which connect the phenomena, and the consequent simpli- 
 city of the mathematical investigations wliicli are necessary 
 for the development of their consequences. Nevertheless, 
 simple as those laws are, and relatively simple as the in- 
 \i -ligations to which they lead also are, their perfect de- 
 velopment is beyond the present powers of mathematical 
 science, which in numerous coses can only furnish approxi- 
 mate results. 
 
 MA TINS. In the Roman Catholic Church, the earliest 
 of the canonical hours of prayer. See Hours. 
 
 MATRASS. A chemical vessel employed in sublima- 
 tions, and in digesting solutions in a sand heat. It is super- 
 seded in the" modern laboratory by a flas'^. 
 
 liATRI'CULA. (Lat. mater, mother.) A register kept 
 of the admission of persons into any body or society, of 
 which a list Is made. In the Romish Church there was a ma- 
 tricula clericorum, a list or catalogue of- the officiating cler- 
 gy ; and mntricula pauperum, a list of poor persons to be 
 relieved. Hence, when a student is entered in the register 
 A the universities, he is said to be matriculated. 
 
 MATRIMONY. See Marriage. 
 
 MATRIX (Lat.) In Metallurgy, the stony substance 
 m winch crystalline minerals and metals are embedded is 
 frequently termed their matrix or gangue. In dyesinking 
 the matrix is the indented mould from which impressions 
 
 MAUR, ST. CONGREGATION OF. 
 
 are taken in relief. Type-founders apply the term to the 
 iron moulds in which tiie letters are cast. 
 
 MATTER. (Lat. materia*.) Substance. Of the inn- 
 mate nature of matter the human faculties cannot take cog- 
 nizance, nor can data be furnished, by observation or ex- 
 periment, on which to found an investigation of it. All wo 
 know, or ever can know of matter, is its sensible properties. 
 Some of these are the foundation of physical science ; 
 others of the different subordinate sciences, as, for instance. 
 Of chemistry. 
 
 Matter is divisible by abrasion, and other means, into 
 small fragments, which, when the division is carried to air. 
 considerable extent, are called particles. It is supposed. 
 however, and many reasons appear to justify the hypothe- 
 sis, that it is capable of reduction into particles (called 
 atoms) of particular tbrnis, and each class having its own 
 proper magnitude and peculiar properties; that determinate 
 numbers of atoms of one kind admit of combination with 
 some determinate Bomber of another kind, or of several 
 kinds, and of thereby forming compounded atoms, having 
 properties peculiar to that combination, and different from 
 the known properties of their elemental atoms. These so- 
 lutions and combinations result from properties inherent in 
 the atoms themselves; but whether the simple classes of 
 atoms that tire believed to exist are themselves really pri- 
 mary and elemental is not known, and probably never can 
 be with certainty. 
 
 In larger masses, or in masses of aggregated atoms, so 
 classed that their peculiar properties are mutually neutral- 
 ized, phenomena are exhibited which bear a great resem- 
 blance to one another through considerable classes of such 
 Compound*, whose aleme&tl we have reason to helieve dif- 
 fer very considerably ; and other properties are found to 
 exist in all, and dill'ering only in degree or intensity. These 
 last are the (Object* of physical investigation: they are 
 called emphatically the properties of matter; and the laws 
 of their mutual influences ure the foundation of mechanical 
 philosophy. These properties may be regarded as either es- 
 sential or contingent. The essential properttee of matter 
 are usually reckoned the following : 
 
 1. /' which every known sub- 
 stance possesses of being separable into parts, and these again 
 into smaller parts, and so on until the parts become innppre 
 ciable to our senses ; nor can any limit be placed to the sub 
 division. 
 
 2. Impenetrability, or a resistance exerted by every body 
 to the occupation of its place by another. This resistance is 
 of various degrees of intensity, dependent on the state and 
 atomic composition of Hie bodies; but no two bodies can 
 simultaneously occupy the same place. 
 
 3. Porosity, or the separation of the particles or atoms 
 from each other by intervals or pores. Every substance 
 with which we are acquainted is more or less porous 
 
 4. Compressibility, or the property in virtue of which the 
 volume of every body may be contracted into smaller dimen- 
 sions. 
 
 Among the essential properties of matter may also be in- 
 cluded extension and figure ; but these belong also to space, 
 and form the subject of geometry. 
 
 The contingent properties of matter ore mobility and 
 weight. Matter in every form is capable of being moved 
 from one place to another ; and every substance gravitates 
 towards the centre of the earth. But motion has reference 
 to space, and weight to the attraction of other matter. 
 
 The above are the general properties of matter, upon 
 which physical investigations depend. There are, however, 
 vaiimis other qualities belonging to particular substances, or 
 to matter in particular states, the consideration of which is 
 important in mechanical philosophy. Among these the 
 principal ore elasticity, fluidity, hardness, rigidity, solidity 
 — for which see the respective terms. 
 
 MAU'NDRIL. In Coal Mines, o pick with two shanks. 
 
 MAUNDY THURSDAY. The Thursday preceding 
 Easter, on which the sovereign of England distributes alms 
 to a certain number of poor persons nt Whitehall ; so named 
 from the maunds or baskets in which the gifts were former- 
 ly contained. (See Shere Thursday.) This custom is of 
 very great antiquity ; and, according to Ducance, it derives 
 its origin from St. Augustine. (See Ware's Glossary ; Fos- 
 brooke's Encyc. of Antiquities, p. 702. 
 
 MAUR, SAINT, CONGREGATION OF. A learned 
 body of religious of the Benedictine order ; so called from a 
 village near Paris, where they were established in 1618. On 
 the request of Louis XIII., Gregory XV. gave this order his 
 approval by an apostolical brief, dated 17th of May, 1621 ; 
 and it obtained new privileges from Urban VIII., by a bull 
 dated 21st of Jan., 1627. The fame of this body attracted the 
 attention of many other religious orders, several of which 
 were induced to submit to its rules; and at last it numbered 
 upwards of a hundred religious houses. The literary world 
 owes to them a series of very valuable editions of ancient 
 Greek authors, chioflv fathers, during the 17th century 
 
 727 
 
MAUSOLEUM. 
 
 Among the most eminent of its members during that period 
 may be mentioned Jean Mabillon, Thierri Ruinart, Hugh 
 Menard, and Bernard de Montfaucon, &.c. &c. (See Mo- 
 Bheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. v.) 
 
 MAUSOLE'UM. A sepulchral building; so called from 
 Mausolus, king of Caria, to whose memory it was raised by 
 his wife Artemisia, about 353, B.C.: hence all sepulchral 
 structures of importance have obtained the name of mausolea. 
 From its extraordinary magnificence it was esteemed the 
 seventh wonder of the world. According to Pliny, it was 
 one hundred and eleven feet in circumference, and one 
 hundred and forty feet high. It is said to have been encom- 
 passed by thirty-six columns, and exceedingly enriched with 
 sculpture. 
 
 MAXI'LLA. (Lat. maxilla, a jaw.) In Anatomy, this 
 term is applied to the bones supporting the teeth of both jaws. 
 In Zoology, it is restricted to the upper jaw in Mammalia, 
 and to the inferior pair of horizontal aws in articulate ani- 
 mals. 
 
 MA'XIM. Synonymous with axiom, which see. 
 
 MA X1MA AND MINIMA. Terms employed in analysis 
 to signify not the absolute greatest and least values of a 
 variable quantity, but the values it has at the instant when 
 it ceases to increase and begins to decrease, or vice versa. A 
 variable quantity may therefore have several maxima and 
 minima. The theory of maxima and minima forms a part 
 of the differential calculus, and is accordingly given in all 
 works on that subject. 
 
 MAY. The fifth month of our year, but the third of the 
 Roman. The name is supposed to be derived from Maia, 
 the mother of Mercury, to whom the Romans offered sacri- 
 fices on the first day of the month ; but various other deri- 
 vations have been assigned to it. See Calendar. 
 
 MAY-DAY. The 1st of May is usually so called in Eng- 
 land, by way of eminence, in commemoration of the festivi- 
 ties which from a very early period were till recently, and 
 in many parts of the country are still observed on that day. 
 It would be out of place in this work to give any detailed ac- 
 count of them, as they are universally known; but a few 
 words as to their origin may not be out of place. In looking 
 at the nature of these rites, which are, to a certain extent, 
 common to every place in which they are observed, it is evi- 
 dent that they had their origin in the heathen observances 
 practised in honour of the Latin goddess Flora ; but it is im- 
 possible to fix with accuracy the precise period at which they 
 were inttoduced into England. The earliest notice of the 
 celebration of May-day may be traced to the Druids, who on 
 May-eve were accustomed to light large fires on eminences 
 in gratitude and joy for the return of spring. At a later 
 period the observance of this day appears not to have been 
 peculiar to any class of society, for the most exalted as well 
 as the lowest persons took part in it. In his Court of Love 
 Chaucer says, that on this day 'forth goeth all the court, 
 most and least, to fetch the flowres fresh, and braunch and 
 bloom ;" and it is well known that Henry VIII. and Kath- 
 erine, and all the court partook in their diversion. The may- 
 pole, which is still visible in many of the English villages, 
 and Jack in the green are still relics of this custom. (Some 
 interesting remarks on this subject are to be found in Grimm's 
 Deutsche Mythologie, p. 448-451.) 
 
 MAYOR. (Lat. major, meaning the first or senior alder- 
 man.) The title of the chief municipal officer of a borough, 
 to whom it appears to have been first given by charters 
 granted some time after the Conquest. But the title and 
 office of portreeve or boroughreeve still continued, in some 
 few places to the exclusion of, and, in some others, in con- 
 junction with, that of mayor, until the passing of the Muni- 
 cipal Reform Bill, 5 & 6 VV. 4, by which the latter title was 
 applied universally and exclusively to every borough. The 
 chief magistrates of London and Dublin are designated Lord 
 Mayor. 
 
 Mayor. (Maire.) In France, the first municipal officer 
 of each commune, according to a general system established 
 by the law of 14lh Dec, 1789, which created municipalities. 
 Since 1831 they are selected by the crown out of the muni- 
 cipal council, which is chosen by the electoral body. The 
 maire has one or more adjuncts or assessors, according to the 
 population of the commune, chosen in the same manner. 
 The maire keeps the registers of births, marriages, &x. of the 
 commune; he acts as a magistrate in the apprehension and 
 commitment of offenders; he has also a judicial power over 
 certain minor offences. He is also the principal agent of the 
 general administration for his commune, and the executive 
 authority to carry into effect the ordinances of the munici- 
 pal council. 
 
 MAYORA'ZGO. (Span., from Lat. mngistratus. See 
 Majorat.) Strictly, the right possessed by the eldest born 
 in noble families to inherit certain property on condition of 
 transmitting it entire to those possessed of the same right on 
 his decease. Five distinct species of mayorazgo, or right of 
 hereditary succession, are now known in Spanish law. Prop- 
 erty held in virtue of the right cannot be alienated or dis- 
 72a 
 
 MEASURE. 
 
 posed of. The mischievous effects of this strict system oi 
 entail on agriculture and national wealth, and on the charac- 
 ter of the higher classes of Spain, have been long insisted on 
 by political philosophers. 
 
 MAYOR OF THE PALACE. (Lat. major domus n gke.) 
 In early French History, the title of the chief officer of state 
 under the Merovingian kings. After the death of Dagobert 
 I., A.D. 638, and in the subsequent decay of the royal au- 
 thority, these functionaries by degrees usurped almost the 
 entire power of the state. The first of those mayors who 
 exercised this kind of sovereignty wasGrimoald, under Bige- 
 bert 111., king of Austraria. Pepin, son of Charles Mattel, 
 having succeeded his father in the office of mayor of the 
 palace, afterwards ascended the throne in 752; after which 
 time the office lost its importance, or was altogether abolished. 
 (See Turner, Hist, of Engl, in the Middle Jlges, vol. i., p. 8.) 
 
 MEAD. (Dutch, meeue.) A vinous liquor made by dis- 
 solving one part of honey in three of boiling water, flavour- 
 ing it with spices, and adding a portion of ground malt ami 
 a piece of toast dipped in yeast, and suffering the whole to 
 ferment. The Scandinavian mead is flavoured with prim- 
 rose blossoms. Mead formed the ancient, and for centuries 
 the favourite beverage, of the northern nations. It is fre- 
 quently mentioned in Ossian. 
 
 MEA'DOVV. A flat surface under grass, generally on the 
 banks of a river or lake , but so far above the surface of the 
 water as to be considerably drier than marsh land, and, con 
 sequently, to produce grass and herbage of a superior quali 
 ty. The soil of meadow lands is generally alluvial, and 
 more or less mixed with sand; and "it is kept in a state of 
 fertility by the depositions made on its surface, in conse- 
 quence of being occasionally overflowed by the adjoining 
 river or lake. The produce of meadows is generally made 
 into hay, which, though not equal in quality to that produced 
 on drier grass lands, is yet superior to what is obtained from 
 marshes. 
 
 MEAN. In Mathematics, a quantity having an intermedi 
 ate value between several others which are formed accord- 
 ing to any assigned law of succession. 
 
 The arithmetical mean of several quantities is simply the 
 average formed by dividing the sum of sill the quantities by 
 their number, in physical inquiries, where a great number 
 of values of a quantity have been determined by observa- 
 tion or experiments, of which the error is as likely to be in 
 excess as delect, the average or arithmetical mean is the 
 most probable result. 
 
 The geometrical mean between two quantities, or the mean 
 proportional, is a quantity which forms the middle term of 
 a duplicate ratio, or continued proportion of three terms: 
 viz., such that the first given term is to the quantity sought 
 as that quantity is to the other given term. In arithmetic, it 
 is the square root of the product of the two given terms. 
 
 The harmonical mean is such a number that, the first and 
 third terms being given, the first is to the third as the differ- 
 ence of the first and second is to the difference of the second 
 and third ; or, if a, b, c be the numbers, b being the mean — 
 2ac 2 1,1 
 
 a-\- c b a c 
 
 ME'ASLES. See Rubeola. 
 
 MEASURE. (Lat. mensura.) In Geometry, a magnitude 
 or quantity taken as unit, and employed to express the rela- 
 tions of other magnitudes or quanlites of the same kind. 
 Euclid defines the measure of a quantity to be that which, 
 being repeated a certain number of limes, becomes equal to 
 the quantity measured. Thus, in Arithmetic, the measure 
 of a number is any number which divides the given number 
 without leaving a remainder ; but this definition rather corre 
 spends to the notion of aliquot part. 
 
 In a general sense, the term measure is applied to that by 
 which anything is compared in respect of quantity. Thus, 
 we have measures of extension, of weight, time, force, re- 
 sistance, temperature, &c. ; in short, of everything of which 
 greater and less can be predicated; and it frequently hap 
 pens that the unit or measure is not taken in Ihe thing or 
 property which is the immediate subject of consideration, but 
 in something else which depends on it, or is proportional to 
 it. Angular space, for example, is measured by an arc of a 
 circle; time, by the rotation of the earth about its axis, or 
 if.s revolution about the sun ; force, by the quantity of mo- 
 tion it impresses on a body ; degrees of heat, by tile expan- 
 sion of metals or other substances; muscular strength, by 
 the resistance of a spring, &c. See Angle, Chronology, 
 Cravity, Thermometer, Dynamometer, &c. 
 
 By measure, in an .absolute sense, is understood ihe unil 
 or standard by which we measure extension. We have, 
 therefore, measures of length, of superfices, and of volume 
 or capacity; but, as the two latter may be deduced in all 
 cases from the former, it is only necessary to establish a unit, 
 or standard of length. The choice of such a standard, and 
 the different multiples and parts of it taken for the uses of 
 society, form a metrical system, or system of metrology 
 
MEASURE. 
 
 Standards of Measure. — As no precise notion can be 
 lormed ol'tlie magnitude of a line in nny oilier way llian by 
 BOOiparing it with another line of a known length, the ne- 
 cessity of having recourse, for the interchange of ideas, to 
 measures not entirely arbitrary, but fixed by nature, and in- 
 ible alike to all mankind, seems to have been perceived 
 in tiie earliest ages. Hence originated the foot, the cubit, 
 the sj/un, the fathom, the barleycorn, the hairbreadth, and 
 other denominations of measure, taken from parts of the hu- 
 man body, or from natural objects, which, though not of an 
 absolute and invariable length, have a certain mean value 
 sufficiently definite to answer all the purposes required in a 
 inde state of society. But, as civilization advanced, Ihene- 
 | of adopting more precise standards would be felt, and 
 the inadequacy of such measures as the foot, the cubit, &c. 
 (referred only to the human body) to convey accurate no- 
 wouid be rendered most apparent in their application 
 to itinerary measures, or the estimation of great distances : 
 Where differences of the fundamental measure, of no account 
 when one or two units only are taken into consideration, 
 would amount, by repeated multiplication, to enormous quan- 
 tities, in order to avoid this inconvenience, recourse was 
 had to other methods of estimation, but which, in fact, 
 amounted only to descriptions more or less vague, and not 
 Thus, in ancient authors, we frequently read 
 of a day's journey, a day's sail, and so forth ; and in many 
 pan--, oi the continent of Europe, even at the present time, it 
 is tin- ( iistoiu of the peasantry to reckon itinerary distances 
 by hours. 
 
 looking among the objects of nature for n standard of 
 definite, and, at the same time, invariable 
 and accessible to all mankind, a very Blender acquaintance 
 with geometry and nanual philosophy will suffice to show 
 that ti beset with Innumerable dimcoltJes. In 
 
 (tun presents only two or three elements which, with 
 tie- ail of profound science and a refined knowledge of the 
 arts, can be made subservient to the purpose, and none at 
 all which are applicable without such aid. The earth is 
 nearly a solid of revolution, and iis form, and absolute mag 
 nitude are presumed to remain the same in all ages: hence 
 the distance between the equator and the pole is an invari- 
 able quantity ; and any assigned part of that distance, as 
 the 90th, or a degree of the meridian, is constant, and will 
 md unalterable standard of measures, fit 
 for the purposes of metrology, provided we have the means 
 ni comparing it with the rods or scales which must neces- 
 be used In comparing distances, or the magnitudes of 
 The force of gravity at the earth's surface is con- 
 stant at any riven place, and very nearly the same at all 
 - under the same parallel of latitude and at the same 
 height above the level of the sea; hence the length of a 
 pendulum which makes a given number of oscillations in a 
 day i- t at a given place, and, with proper skill 
 
 and precautions, may be determined in terms of any assumed 
 These two elements, the length of a degree of the 
 meridian, and the length of the seconds' pendulum, are the 
 only ones furnished by nature which have yet been used as 
 the bi ni of measures. One or two others have 
 
 been the height through which a heavy body 
 
 falls in a second of time, determined, like the length of the 
 pendulum, by the force of gravity; or the perpendicular 
 height through which a barometer must be carried till the 
 mercurial column sinks a determinate part — for example, a 
 30th of its own length ; but, for reasons which it is unneces- 
 state, these distances are not so susceptible of 
 being accurately determined as the terrestrial degree, or the 
 length of the seconds' pendulum. 
 
 It has been supposed (Paucton, Metrologie ; Bailly, Bis- 
 toire de I' Astronomic ancienne) that some ancient nations 
 referred their measures of length to a unit chosen from an 
 aliquot part of the earth's circumference, and that the differ- 
 ent stadia were only different aliquot parts of the same great 
 unit; but the supposition is altogether improbable, for the 
 :is bad no means of determining the magnitude of the 
 earth with any tolerable precision, and do not themselves 
 make any reference to such a standard. Mouton, an astron- 
 omer of Lyons, about 1670, proposed ns a universal stand- 
 ard of measure a geometrical foot, of which a degree of the 
 earth's circumference should contain 600,000 ; and remarked 
 that a pendulum of this length would make 3959} vibrations 
 in a half hour. In 1671 Picard proposed a similar idea; and 
 liny gens first suggested the pendulum ns the unit or standard 
 of measures. Condamine, one of the French academicians 
 engaged in the measurement of the terrestrial arc in Peru, 
 proposed that the equatorial pendulum ought to be adopted, 
 as being the most natural measure, and independent of the 
 osions of different countries. No attempt, however, 
 was made to establish a regular system of measures on any 
 of these standards until the time of the French revolution, 
 when a system of weight! and measures, referred to the 
 terrestrial degree, and accommodated to our arithmetical 
 •cale, was adopted in that country. 
 
 English Standard Measures.— The unit of linenl measure 
 in this country is the yard, all other denominations being 
 either multiples or aliquot parts of the yard. But as this is 
 an entirely arbitrary' measure, and, until the year 1824, was 
 never strictly defined by the legislature, great perplexity has 
 often arisen in attempting to ascertain the exact portion of 
 space it was meant to represent. For the purpose of pre- 
 serving some degree of uniformity among the ordinary 
 measures of the kingdom, certain standards were preserved 
 in the exchequer, with which all rods were required to he 
 compared before they were stamped as legal measures. The 
 oldest of these standards in existence dales from the reign' 
 of Henry VII.; but it has long been disused; and that 
 which, till the year 1824, was considered ns the legal stand- 
 ard, was a brass rod, of the breadth and thickness of about 
 half an inch, placed there in the time of Elizabeth. There 
 was another similar rod of the same date, called an ell. The 
 ell, however, does not appear ever to have been established 
 as a legal measure, but was conventionally considered as 
 equal to a yard and a quarter. To these rods belonged a 
 brass bar, on one edge of which was a hollow bid or matrix 
 fitted to receive the square rod of a yard, and on another a 
 like bed tilted to receive that of an ell ; and into these beds 
 were lilted the yard and ell measures brought to be examined 
 and stamped with the standard marks. All rods so stamped 
 became standard measures. It is abundantly obvious that 
 measures determined in this coarse manner could have no 
 strict claim to be considered as accurate copies of the original 
 standard ; but it would seem that the standard itsili « ns in 
 capable of affording any definite or correct measure. It is 
 thus described by Mr. Bally, in his deport on the new 
 Standard Scale of i lie Royal Astronomical Society; "I have 
 had an opp o rt un ity of seeing this carious Instrument, of 
 which it is impossible, at the present day, to speak too mnch 
 in derision or contempt. A Common kitchen poker, filed at 
 the ends in the rudest manner, by the most bungling work- 
 man, would make as good a standard. It has been broken 
 asunder, and the two pieces been dovetailed together, but 
 so badly that the joint is nearly as looae ns that of a pair 
 of tongs; and yet till within the last ten years, to the dis- 
 grace of this country, copies of this measure have, been cir- 
 culated till over F.uro|>e and America, with a parchjBMBt 
 document accompanying them, certifying th.it they are true 
 copies of the English standard." (Memoirs Raj/, jlslr. Sue., 
 vol. Ix.) 
 
 Such being the condition of the legal standard, it was ol>- 
 vlousjy impossible that any measure could be found in terms 
 of it. where great accuracy and minuteness were necessnry ; 
 for Instance, that of the seconds' pendulum, or a degree of 
 the meridian. In fact, it was utterly inapplicable to any 
 scientific purpose whatever. In the year 174-2 seme Fcllofs s 
 of the Royal Society, and Members of the Academy of 
 Sciences at Paris, proposed to have accurnte standards of 
 the measures and weights of both nations made and care- 
 fully examined, in order that a means might be provided of 
 comparing the results of scientific experiments in England 
 and France. The committee who undertook the matter. 
 besides the le^ral standard in the Exchequer, found some 
 others which were considered of good if not equal authority. 
 At Guildhall they found two standards of long measure, 
 which were only two beds or matrices, one of a yard, and 
 the other of an eil, cut out of the edges of a substantial brass 
 bar, like that at the Exchequer. Another, preserved in the 
 Tower of London, was n solid brass rod, about 7-10lhs of 
 an inch square, and 41 inches long : on one side of which 
 was the measure of a yard, divided into inches. Another, 
 belonging to the clocktnakers' company, delivered to that 
 corporation by indenture from the Exchequer in 1671, was a 
 brass rod of eight sides, nearly half an inch thick, on which 
 the length of the yard was expressed by the distance between 
 two uptight pins, or small checks, filed away to the proper 
 quantity. The committee Relected the standard in the 
 Tower, as being the best defined, and consequently the best 
 adapted to their purpose ; and Mr. George Graham (n cele- 
 brated clockmaker), at their desire, laid oil' from it, with 
 great care, the length of the yard on two brass rods which 
 were then sent to the Academy of Sciences nt Paris who in 
 like manner set off thereon the measure of the Pans half 
 toise. One of these was kept at Paris, the other was return- 
 ed to the Royal Society, where it still remains : but, unfor- 
 tunately, it wns not stated at what tem|>ernture the toise 
 was set off; and, consequently, the comparison is now of 
 little or no value. 
 
 In 1758 a committee of the House of Commons was ap 
 pointed to inquire into the original standards of weights and 
 measures in the kingdom. The committee entered very 
 fully into the subject, and presented to the house an elabo- 
 rate report, in which they recommended that a rod which, 
 nt their order, had been made by Mr. Bird from that of the 
 Royal Society, and marked "Standard Yard, 1758," should 
 be declared the legal standard of all measures of length. 
 This rod consisted of a solid brass bar, 1-01 incli squate and 
 
 729 
 
MEASURE. 
 
 3906 inches long. At about 1A inch from each end a gold 
 pin or stud is inserted ; in which pins, at the distance of 30 
 inches, are two points, intended to designate the length of 
 the yard. It was proposed that this rod should be carefully 
 laid up in safe custody, to be used only occasionally ; and, 
 for the ordinary sizing of yards, another rod was prepared 
 by the same arust, furnished with cheeks, and divided into 
 inches and parts, for the easier adjusting of any comparative 
 measure. 
 
 In the following year another committee was formed on 
 the subject. It concurred in the recommendation of the 
 former committee, that Bird's standard yard should be the 
 only unit of lineal measure ; and at the same time recom- 
 mended that a copy of it should be made, for security against 
 accidents, and deposited in some public office. Accordingly, 
 a second standard was constructed by Bird, in 1700, similar 
 to the former, of which, indeed, it was intended to be a copy. 
 This last standard (of 1700) was declared by the act of 1824 
 to be the legal standard of the kingdom. 
 
 Notwithstanding these two parliamentary reports, no le- 
 gislative enactment was passed, and the subject remained for 
 a long lime in the same state of uncertainty. In 171)0 a 
 scale was constructed by the celebrated Troughton, for Sir 
 George Shuckburgh, which has been much referred to in 
 scienufic treatises, in consequence of its having been used 
 in the experiments made by Captain Kater for determining 
 the length of the pendulum; and also carefully compared 
 Willi all the other standards, and with the French metre. 
 Troughton at several times made various otiier measures ; 
 but, as they never possessed any legal authority, it is un- 
 necessary to allude to them farther than to state that they 
 were all copies, as nearly as could be made, of a scale that 
 had been constructed by Bird, and had belonged to Mr. 
 Harris, assay-master at the Mint. 
 
 In 1814 the subject of standard measures and weights 
 was again brought under the consideration of parliament ; 
 and a committee of the House of Commons made a report, 
 which, however, was attended by no result. In 1819 a 
 commission was named by the prince regent, consisting of 
 Sir Joseph Banks, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Davies Gilbert, Dr. 
 Wollaston, Dr. Young, and Captain Kater, who first recom- 
 mended that, for the legal determination of the standard 
 yard, the yard which had been employed by General Hoy, 
 in the measurement of a base on Hounslow Heath as a 
 foundation of the trigonometrical survey, should be adopted ; 
 but in a subsequent report, made the following year (1820), 
 they proposed the standard which had been made by Bird 
 in 1700, on account of its being, as they stated, "both laid 
 down in the most accurate manner, and as best agreeing 
 with the most extensive comparisons which have been hith- 
 erto executed by various observers and circulated throughout 
 Europe, and in particular with the scale employed by the 
 late Sir George Shuckburgh." This last rejiort having been 
 approved by a committee of the Commons, an act was at 
 length passed, in June, 1824, in which the unit of measure 
 was lor the first time defined, and in the following terms: 
 
 " The straight line or distance between the centres of the 
 two points in the gold studs in the brass rod, now in the 
 custody of the clerk of the House of Coinmons, whereon 
 the words and figures Standard Yard, 1760, are engraved, 
 shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be, the original 
 and genuine standard of that measure of length or lineal 
 extension called a yard ; and that the same straight line or 
 distance between the centres of the said two points in the 
 said gold studs in the said brass rod, the brass being at the 
 temperature of 02° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, shall be 
 and is hereby denominated the Imperial Standard Yard, 
 and shall be, and is hereby declared to be, the unit or only 
 standard measure of extension." And the act further de- 
 clared, that if at any time hereafter the said imperial stan- 
 dard yard shall be lost, or shall be in any manner destroyed, 
 defaced, or otherwise injured, it shall be restored by making, 
 under the directions of the lords of the treasury, a new 
 standard yard, bearing the proportion to a pendulum vibra- 
 ting seconds of mean time, in the latitude of London, in a 
 vacuum, and at the level of the sea, as 30 inches to 391393 
 inches. 
 
 The recommendation of the commissioners, on which this 
 enactment was founded, has been severely criticised ; and, 
 in point of fact, so far as the exact length of the yard is 
 concerned, the subject remained in the same doubtful state 
 in which it was before the act was passed. That the stan- 
 dard which was adopted was not an original measure (it 
 was, in fact, a copy of Bird's standard of 1758, which was a 
 copy of that of the Royal Society, which again was a copy 
 of that in the Tower) was of little consequence, provided 
 the measure had been laid down on it with such precision 
 as to leave no doubt as to its exact length ; but so far was 
 this from being the case, that when it came to he compared 
 with a new standard sca'e m lde for the Royal Astronomical 
 Society, it was found to be utterly impossible to ascertain 
 We centres of the points in the gold studs within distances 
 730 
 
 perfectly appreciable by the methods of observation now 
 practised. Mr. Baily, in his report above cited, says the 
 mean diameter of each of the holes was nearly 100th of an 
 inch ; and they by no means presented any tiling like a cir- 
 cular shape. In fact, not only did different persons differ in 
 their estimate of the centres, but the same persons also 
 differed at different times, according to the degree or direction 
 of the light that impinged on the sides of the holes. And 
 he adds, "How the legislature of the present day, when 
 the art of making mathematical instruments has arrived »t 
 such a state of perfection, could have sanctioned the :td< >[>- 
 tion of such an imperfect and undefinable measure as this 
 for a standard, must always be a matter of astonishment 
 more especially when we consider that the French had re 
 ccntly set us a laudable example, in the great pains and 
 labour taken in the execution of a new set of standard 
 weights and measures of superior accuracy and precision." 
 (Mem. R. A. S., vol. vii.) 
 
 This scale was destroyed by the fire which consumed the 
 two houses of parliament in 1834 ; so that the country is at 
 the present time without a legal standard, for the provision 
 of the act relative to its restoration by comparison with the 
 seconds' pendulum is perfectly nugatory. Its restoration 
 could not be thus effected with any tolerable certainty. 
 The length of the seconds' pendulum is one of those con- 
 stants of nature which it is possible to determine only within 
 certain limits; very narrow indeed, but still loo wide for the 
 purpose in question. Besides, the standard adopted by the 
 legislature had never been directly compared with the pen- 
 dulum ; and the relation between them assigned in the act, 
 namely, 30 to 39.1393, is now known to be incorrect, on ac- 
 count of the neglect of certain precautions in the determi- 
 nation of the length of the pendulum which subsequent 
 experiments have shown to be indispensable. Accident has, 
 however, given the means of effecting what the legislative 
 enactment would have failed to do. Early in the year 1834 
 a most laborious and minute comparison of the different 
 standard measures was made with a new scale constmcted 
 for the Royal Astronomical Society. The length of the 
 legal standard, as nearly as it could be determined, is known 
 in terms of this seal.:, and may therefore be recovered; L>. :, 
 as a new act ia necessary in any case, the legislature may 
 probably he advised to do now what ought to have been 
 done in the first instance, namely, cause a standard to be 
 made in a more skilful manner, and authenticated copies of 
 it, or rather other measures having ascertained relations to 
 it, to be deposited in several public places, and only to be 
 used in cases of emergency. The evil in this, as in many 
 other instances, has arisen from legislating too much. All 
 that is required is, that two very fine points be struck in a 
 strong rod of platinum, or a block of cast iron, at any con- 
 venient distance ; and to declare that the distance between 
 those points, at a given temperature of the metal, shall be 
 the standard of measure, and that so many parts of this 
 standard shall constitute the yard or unit : all the rest may 
 be safely left to experimental philosophers and mathematical- 
 instrument makers. 
 
 English System of Lineal Measures. — The unit of mea- 
 sure, as already stated, is the yard. The yard is divided 
 into 3 feet, and the foot subdivided into 12 inches. The 
 multiples of the yard are the pole or perch, the furlong, and 
 the mile ; 5\ yards being a pole, 40 poles a furlong, and ft 
 furlongs a mile. But the pole and furlong are now scarcely 
 ever used, itinerary distances being reckoned in miles and 
 yards. The relations of these different denominations art 
 exhibited in the following table : 
 
 In. 
 
 Feel. 
 
 Yards. 
 
 Poles. 
 00505 
 006060 
 1S18 
 1 
 40 
 320 
 
 Furlongs. 
 
 lFo6o;2t)26 
 
 000151515 
 004545 
 0.025 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 Miles. 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 36 
 
 133 
 792t 
 63360 
 
 0b3 
 
 3 
 
 16 5 
 660 
 5280 
 
 0028 
 0333 
 
 5-5 
 220 
 1760 
 
 00000 1 a, 828 
 000 18939 
 O0O56SI8 
 0003125 
 0125 
 
 Measures of Superficies. — In square measure the yard is 
 subdivided as in general measure into feet and inches ; 144 J 
 square inches being equal to a square foot, and 9 square , 
 feet to a square yard. For land measure the multiples of 
 the yard are the pole, the rood, and the acre; 30$ (the square] 
 of 5£) square yards being a pole, 40 poles a rood, and 4 roods! 
 an acre. Very large surfaces, as of whole countries, are ex- 
 pressed in square "miles. The following are the relations 
 of square measure : 
 
 Sq. feet. 
 
 Bq. V.uris. 
 
 Poles. 
 
 Boodl. _ 
 0-OOC091S37 
 
 ') 0O0S2644S 
 
 0025 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 Acres. 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 272-25 
 10890 
 43560 
 
 0.1 1 tl 
 
 1. 
 30 25 
 1210 
 
 4840 
 
 O'00:)b-3O9 
 0-0330579 
 
 40 
 160 
 
 0-000022957 
 0C020C612 
 o 00686 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 Measures of Volume.— Solids are measured by cubic 
 yards feet, and inches; 1728 cubic inches making a cubic 
 foot and 27 cubic feet a cubic yard. For all sorts of liquids, 
 
MEASURE. 
 
 u>rn, and ■ ids, the standard measure is declared 
 
 by llie act of 1824 to be the imperial gallon, the capacity of 
 which is determined immediately by weight, and remotely 
 gtb, in the following manner: Accord- 
 ing to the :hi, the imperial standard gallon contains 10 
 pounds avoirdupois weight of distilled water, weighed in air 
 at the temperature of 02° Fahrenheit's thermometer, the 
 barometer being at 30 inches. The pound avoirdupois con- 
 tains 7000 troy grains ; and it is declared that a cubic inch 
 I writer (temperature 62°, barometer 30 niches) 
 -rains. Hence the contents of the imperial 
 standard gallon are -J77-274 cubic inches. The parts of the 
 gallon are quarts and pint* ; 2 pints being a quart, and 4 
 quarts a gallon, lis multiples are llie peck, the bushel, nnd 
 the quarter; the peck being 2 gallons, the bushel 4 pecks, 
 and the quarter S bushels. The following are the relations : 
 
 rials. 
 
 ijiur. 
 
 
 Pecks. 
 
 BnsWk. 
 
 Quart eri. 
 
 1 
 
 0-5 
 
 0-125 
 
 0U>2> 
 
 0'0UI»>3!23 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 025 
 
 0-,2> 
 
 0- 03125 
 
 iMxatoids 
 
 H 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 0-3 
 
 125 
 
 0013626 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 0-25 
 
 003125 
 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 0125 
 
 
 258 
 
 Ui 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 I 
 
 Poi an account Of the various other measures used in 
 commerce, see the Commercial Dictionary ; or Colonel Pas- 
 leg's Observations on the Measures, Weights, and Money 
 used in t/ii.i Country (London, 1834), where a full description 
 
 .' r> nr/i System of Measures. — The French system of 
 itroduceil during the Revolution, lias for its 
 standard the length of a quadrant of the earth's' meridian. 
 The uiiit of measures of length is the mitre, which is a ten- 
 millionth part of the quadrant This length, deduced from 
 the ^r, :t trhrpnometrical measurement of the meridian from 
 Dunkirk to Barcelona, is marked by two very fine parallel 
 drawn on ■ bar of platinum, and preserved in the 
 archive* of the Academy of Sciences. From n comparison 
 ■tandarda of this country with a copy of the metre in 
 ■ii of the Royal Society, Captain Kater found the 
 39-37079 inches of the El 
 -18.) Mr. llaily found the length 
 to be 30-3896786 inches of the Royal Astronomi- 
 cal S< I. R. .9. S., vol. ix., p. 133), from 
 Which, by reducing to the imperial standard yard by the data 
 given in the same memoir, the true length of the metre is 
 39-370091 inches of the imperial yard. The comparison is, 
 however, attended with some degree of uncertainty, from 
 rcumstance that a reduction must be made for the ex- 
 pansion of the metals; the standard teni'iertiturc of the 
 English measures being Q3P Fahrenheit, and that of the 
 French measures 32°, or the temperature of melting ice. 
 
 In the French .system the unit of Superficial measure is 
 
 llie are, a surface of 10 metres each way, or 100 square 
 
 The unit of measures of capacity is the litre, a 
 
 he cube of a tenth part of the metre, and 
 
 equivalent to 0*230097 parts of the British imperial gallon. 
 
 landard temperature is that of melting ice. All the 
 
 ns and multiples of the units are decimal ; and the 
 
 pie of nomenclature adopted was to prefix the Greek 
 
 numerals |o the decimal multiples, and the Koman numerals 
 
 to the decimal subdivisions. 
 
 The measures of length are, 
 
 
 
 Myriamctre 
 
 = 
 
 IOO00 metre*. 
 
 
 
 Kilometre 
 
 ^ 
 
 1000 
 
 
 
 Hectometre 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 Metre 
 
 = 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Decimetre 
 
 = 
 
 0-1 
 
 
 
 Ontimelre 
 
 = 
 
 001 
 
 
 
 Millimetre 
 
 = 
 
 0001 
 
 The 
 
 measures 
 
 of surface are, 
 
 
 
 Hectare 
 
 = 
 
 10000 «]. me'i 
 
 
 
 Arc 
 
 = 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 Ceotiare 
 
 = 
 
 1 
 
 The 
 
 measures 
 
 of capacity are, 
 
 
 
 Kilolitre 
 
 = 
 
 1000 litres. 
 
 
 
 Ileciolitre 
 
 = 
 
 1O0 
 
 
 
 DeavJiin 
 
 = 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Decilitre 
 
 — 
 
 01 
 
 
 
 Centilitre 
 
 = 
 
 001 
 
 The unit of solid measure is the stere or cube of the metre, 
 equal to 35*31658 English cubic feet. 
 
 No s\ stem of metro* igy hitherto invented can be compared 
 with this of the French in a scientific point of view; never- 
 theless the decimal subdivisions have been found unsuited 
 to ihe purposes of retail traffic, to which, in fact, only a 
 binary system, or the division of the unit into halves nnd 
 quarters, seems applicable. Accordingly, it has been found 
 to permit a modified system for such purposes; so 
 that there are. in fact, at present in France three different 
 of measures; the ancient, which was never wholly 
 bandoned ; the decimal system : and a binary system, or 
 ysteme usucl, having the decimal standards for its basis, 
 
 MECHANICS. 
 
 with binary- divisions, to vvliich the names of the ancient 
 weights and measures are given, the word usucl being an 
 nexed to prevent confusion. 
 
 Of the different measures of length used in European 
 countries, the foot is the most universally prevalent. We 
 subjoin the relation between the foot of different countries 
 and the English foot : 
 
 Russian foot 
 
 Paris foot 
 
 Prussian and Danish foot 
 
 Bavarian foot 
 
 Hanoverian foot 
 
 Saxon foot 
 
 Austrian foot 
 
 English foot. 
 = 1 
 
 = 1-065765 
 — 1*089728 
 = 0-957561 
 = 0958333 
 
 = (Hl-29118 
 = 1-037123 
 
 Comparative tables of the measures used in different coun 
 tries are given in various works : one of the most complete 
 and convenient will be found in Hulsse's Sammlung Mathe- 
 matischer Tafcln, Leipzig, 1840. For further inlormation 
 on the subject of this article, see I'aucton's Metrologie ou 
 Traitedes Miswet, Pans, 1780; Kelly's Universal Cambist, 
 1821. See also League, Mile ; and on the subject of 
 weights, see Wkhiht. 
 
 Mea'scre. In Music, the interval or space of time be- 
 tween raising and depressing the hand in a movement; being 
 the same as bar. The measure is regulated according to 
 the different values of the notes of a piece, by which the 
 time as-signed to each note is expressed. Semi breves, for 
 instance, occupy one rise and one fall, called a whole mea 
 sure. 
 
 M k a'sires. In Geology, sometimes used as synonymous 
 with beds or strata ; as coal measures. 
 
 MECHANIC \1, CURVE. A curve of such a nature 
 that the relation between the absciss and the ordinate cannot 
 be expressed by an algebraic equation. Such curves are 
 now more commonly called transcendental curves See 
 Crave. 
 
 MECH.VNICAL PHILOSOPHY. The science of me 
 chanlcs applied to physical Inquiries. 
 
 MECHA'NICAL SOLTJTIOJ OF \ ,,. METRI- 
 CAL PROBLEM. In the constructions of pure geometry 
 
 only the ruler and compasses are allowed to be used ; or, in 
 other words, the constructions are required to be effected by 
 means of straight lines and circles only. The ancient ge 
 ometers soon discovered that there were many problems 'as 
 the duplication of the cube and lhe trisectton of an angle, 
 for instance) which could not be constructed by these mean* 
 They hence had recourse to other Instruments {machina) to 
 effect this purpose; and such solutions were distinguished 
 from the geometrical ones by the term mechanical. 
 
 MECHA'NICH (Or. pn\avn, machine), in Natural 1'hi- 
 losophy, is the science which treats of forces and powers, 
 and their action on bodies, either directly or by the inter- 
 vention of machinery. 
 
 The theory of mechanics, which is a branch of mixed 
 mathematics, is founded on an axiom or principle called the 
 law of inertia, or Newton's first law of motion ; namely, 
 that a body must remain forever in a state of rest, or in a 
 state of uniform and rectilineal motion, if it be not disturbed 
 by the action of an external cause. Theoretiral mechanics 
 is therefore divided into two parts: statics, which treats of 
 the equilibrium of forces; and dynamics, which is the sci- 
 ence of accelerating or retarding forces, and of the actions 
 tbey produce. When the bodies under consideration are in 
 the fluid state, these become respectively hydrostatics, and 
 hydrodynamics, which arc comprehended under hydraulics ; 
 and sometimes the terms arostatics and aerodynamics are 
 used to denote the corresponding divisions of pneumatics; 
 but all these divisions are more frequently included under 
 the general term mechanics. 
 
 Practical mechanics, or a knowledge of the effects of some 
 of the mechanical powers, must have existed to some extent 
 from the earliest ages of the world ; but of the machines 
 used by the ancients in their constructions, the oldest ac- 
 count which we ]>osscss is contained in the Architecture of 
 Vitruvius. Archimedes, in his Treatise De JEquiponderan 
 tibus, first investigated theoretically the principles of equi- 
 librium ; and the same philosopher is celebrated for the 
 mechanical contrivances by which, in the siege of Syracuse, 
 he so long frustrated the efforts of the Roman army under 
 Marcellus. During the eighteen centuries which succeeded 
 the age of Archimedes, the theory of mechanics remained 
 in the snme state. Galileo laid the foundations of modern 
 dynamics by his discovery of the law of nccelerating forces 
 and by reducing the propositions of that science to mathe- 
 matical formula, In the hands of Newton mechanics as- 
 sumed a new form ; and the discovery of the new analysis 
 enabled mathematicians to complete what had been bejrun 
 by Galileo, and to express all the effects of tin' actions of 
 bodies on each other by analytical equations. 
 
 For points connected with the theory, see Acceleration, 
 
 731 
 
MECHANICS' INSTITUTES. 
 
 Dynamics, Force, Statics, &c. ; and for details, Lever. 
 Pulley, Wheel and Axle, Slc. The best treatise on the 
 subject is that of Poisson, Traite de Mecanique, 2d ed., 1833. 
 
 MECHANICS' INSTITUTES. The name given to the 
 *ieans by which instruction is communicated to tradesmen 
 and mechanics in large towns throughout the Brinsh empire. 
 These institutes may be safely said to owe thex origin to 
 Dr. Birkbeck, who, in 1800, delivered a course of lectures on 
 natural philosophy and its application to the arts to an audi- 
 ence composed entirely of the mechanics of Glasgow ; though 
 »t was not until alter the lapse of twenty years that his idea 
 was followed up. Institutions of this sort are at present 
 established in almost every town in England whose popu- 
 lation amounts to 10.000, and in some of much smaller num- 
 ber. They are supported partly by contributions, and partly 
 by the subscription of the members. Short courses of lec- 
 tures, illustrated with experiments, are given on the most 
 popular and interesting branches of natural philosophy, and 
 occasionally on departments of literature, moral philosophy, 
 political economy, &c. Reading rooms are attached to the 
 greater number of these institutions, which, speaking gen- 
 erally, are well attended. On the whole, we believe these 
 establishments have been productive of considerable advan- 
 tage. The instruction they supply is, no doubt, very flimsy 
 and superficial ; but it notwithstanding serves to expand and 
 inform the minds of the auditors, and is probably the most 
 suitable for them. An improvement in the system of school 
 education, by qualifying the members of mechanics' insti- 
 tutes the better to appreciate accurate scientific discussions, 
 would be the most likely, or rather, perhaps, the only means, 
 by which to improve the lectures given at the institutions in 
 question. (See Stat, of Brit. Empire, vol. ii., p. 359.) 
 
 ME'CHANISTS. Those philosophers who refer all the 
 changes in the universe to the effect of merely mechanical 
 forces, such as impact, weight, and the like. They are op- 
 posed to the dynamical philosophers, or those who assume 
 a living and spontaneous power in nature, antecedent to 
 and different from the phenomena present to the senses. 
 See Materialism. 
 
 MECHLO'lC ACID. A compound of meconia and 
 chlorine. 
 
 MECHO'ACAN. (From the province of Mexico, whence 
 it is brought.) The root of the Convolvulus mechoacauna : 
 t is a purgative, and was formerly used as a substitute for 
 jalap. 
 
 MECO'NIC ACID. (Gr. pnicuv, the poppy.) The pe- 
 culiar acid with which morphia is combined in opium. 
 When pure, it forms small white crystals. Its aqueous 
 solution forms a deep red colour with the persalts of iron, 
 which, therefore, are good tests for it, both free and com- 
 bined. The salts of this acid are termed mcconates ; those 
 of lime, baryta, lead, and silver are white, and souble in 
 nitric acid. Mcconic acid is constituted of 7 atoms of car- 
 bon = 42, 2 of hydrogen = 2, and 7 of oxygen = 56 : its 
 equivalent therefore is 100. 
 
 ME'CONIN. (Gr. nnxwv.) A white fusible substance, 
 procured from opium, and supposed to be a distinct principle. 
 It is said that not more than from two to three grains of it 
 rue contained in a pound of opium ; it seems doubtful 
 whether it be an cduct or a product. 
 
 MECONIUM. (Gr. unKiuv.) Opium. The term is also 
 applied to the excrement found in the lower part of the 
 foetal intestines. 
 
 ME'DAL. (Fr. medaille.) A piece of metal, in the 
 shape of a coin, engraven with figures or devices, struck and 
 distributed in memory of some person or event. Ancient 
 coins, although intended for the puroose of circulation, are 
 also commonly termed medals. See Numismatics. 
 
 MEDA'LLION. (Fr.) In Numismatics, this name is 
 appropriated to coins struck in Rome, and the provinces 
 under the empire, which, in gold or silver, exceed in size the 
 largest coins of which the name and value are known in 
 those respective metals ; viz., the aureus in gold, and the 
 denarius in silver. It has been doubted whether they were 
 intended for the purpose of circulation, or merely struck, 
 like modern medals, to commemorate persons or events. See 
 Numismatics. 
 
 ME'DALLURGY. (Fr. medaille, and Gr. cpyov, work.) 
 The art of making and striking medals and coins. See Nu- 
 mismatics. 
 
 UE'DIJE. (Gr. pe&ai, middle.) The three letters, b, g, 
 and d (beta, gama, delta) are so called in the Greek alpha- 
 bet, as holding respectively a middle place between their 
 several tcnucs, p, k, t (pi, kappa, tau), and aspirates, ph, ch, 
 th (phi, chi, theta). 
 
 MEDIANT. (Lat. medius.) In Music, the chord which 
 is a major or minor third^ higher than the key note, accord- 
 ing as the mode is major or minor. 
 
 ME DIASTI'NUM. The duplicative of the pleura, which 
 divides the cavitv of the thorax into two parts. 
 
 ME'DIATISA'TION. The annexation of the smaller 
 German sovereignties to larger contiguous state-: which took 
 
 MEDUSA. 
 
 place, on a large scale, after the dissolution of the German 
 empire in 1806. The same tiling had been done on various 
 occasions during the continuance of the empire; and the 
 dominions so annexed were said to be mediatised, i. e., mad< 
 mediately instead of immediately dependan on the empire 
 The term was retained when the abolition of the German 
 union had rendered it in strictness inappropriate. A few 
 more were mediatised after the peace of 1815. See Cone 
 Let. ; and Hawkins's Germany, 1838, which contains D 
 chapter on this subject. 
 
 MEDIA'TOR. A term applied to Jesus Christ, as inter- 
 ceding between God and man, and obtaining for the latter 
 the remission of the punishment due to original and con- 
 tracted sin. The divinity of our Saviour is argued from his 
 mediatorial character : it seeming impossible to conceive 
 that a mere man could efficaciously intercede by the sacrifice 
 of himself for the sins of his fellow men. Those reasoners, 
 therefore, who have arrived at the conclusion of the mere 
 humanity of Christ, either expressly deny or essentially 
 modify the idea of his mediatorial character. 
 
 ME'DIUM. In Physics, the substance or matter in which 
 bodies exist, or through which they move in passing from 
 one point to another. The resistance which different me- 
 diums oppose to bodies in motion is proportional to the 
 respective densities of the mediums. Newton supposed the 
 existence of a universal medium, or ether, infinitely more 
 rare and subtle than air, and diffused through the whole 
 creation. The modern discoveries of the propagation of 
 light by undulation, 'and of the acceleration of some of the 
 small comets, give great probability to this supposition. 
 
 ME'DLAR. (Corruption of Mespilar 1) The fruit of the 
 Mcspi/us gcrmanica, a plant found wild in several parts of 
 Central Europe. It is remarkable for the austerity of its 
 fruit when first gathered, and for its total loss of that qual- 
 ity after a few weeks, when it becomes soft, brown, and 
 sweet — a condition which the French call blcssi. Of the 
 garden varieties the Dutch medlar is the finest as to size, and 
 the Nottingham the most delicate in flavour. In the eyes 
 of a botanist the medlar is only a hawthorn berry of large 
 
 MEDU'LLARY RAYS. (Lat. medulla, -marrow.) The 
 vertical plates of cellular tissue which radiate from the 
 centre of the stem of Exogenous plants, through the wood 
 to the bark. They cause that appearance in timber which 
 carpenters call silver grain, or flower of the wood. 
 
 MEDU'LLARY SHEATH, is a thin layer of vessels 
 which surround the pulp of Exogenous plants, and thence 
 extend into the leaves and parts of fructification. 
 
 MEDU'LLARY SUBSTANCE. The interior white por 
 tion of the brain. The medulla oblongata fs a part of the 
 brain, lying upon the basiliary process of the occipital bone, 
 and formed by the junction of the crura of the brain anil 
 cerebellum: it terminates in the spinal marrow. 
 
 MEDU'LLIN. That form of lignin which constitutes 
 the pith of certain plants, as the pith of the sunflower. 
 
 MEDU'SA. In Mythology, the chief of the Gorgons 
 (which see) ; according to Heslod, the eldest daughter of 
 Celo and the sea-god Phorcus. Various stories are related 
 of this mythological personage ; but her chief peculiarity 
 was the power she possessed of turning all who looked upon 
 her into stone. She was slain by Perseus, who placed her 
 head in the shield of Minerva, where it continued to retain 
 the same petrifying power as before. 
 
 Medu'sa. In Zoology, a name given by Linnaus to a 
 genus of marine animals, now forming an extensive tribe 
 (Medusaria) in the class Acalepha of the Cuvierian system. 
 The body is in the form of a gelatinous disk, more or less 
 convex above, called the " umbel," from the centre of which, 
 and from the margin, there depend in most of the species 
 processes or filaments more or less numerous, and more or 
 less elongated ; whence the resemblance to the fabled mon- 
 ster which suggested the original generic term. The Medusa 
 are commonly known by the name of " sea-blubber," "jelly- 
 fish," &c. They have a stomach or digestive cavity exca- 
 vated in the centre of the disk, and opening externally eithei 
 by a central and inferior crucial mouth, or continued into 
 branched appendages, and receiving the nutriment by innu- 
 merable minute pores, analagous to the "stomata" of plants, 
 or those root-like appendages. The digested fluid is con- 
 veyed by vessels from the stomach to an exquisite net-work 
 or plexus situated on the under surface of the border of the 
 disk, where it receives the influence of the atmosphere, and 
 is fitted for assimilation. Some species, as the Medusa 
 aurita, have also intestinal canals lea ling from the stomach 
 to separate anal outlets. Traces of a nervous system and 
 rudimental organs of vision have been discerned in some 
 of the Medusa. They swim by muscular contraction of 
 the margins of the disk. They are of distinct sexes, which 
 congregate together chiefly in the autumnal months. The 
 male and female organs much resemble each oilier, and are 
 situated in both sexes, in corresponding cavities, generally 
 four In number, on the under surface of the disk. The ova 
 
MEERSCHAUM. 
 
 are received when impregnated in marsupial sacs appended 
 to the arms (in Medusa aurita), whence they escape in the 
 form of ciliated infusoria, afterwards assume the structure 
 of eight-armed polypes, pass the winter in this state, and 
 undergo their final transformation in spring. Notwithstand- 
 ing the complication of the organic machinery, functions, 
 
 itive economy of the Medusa, their solids form so 
 small a proportion of their frame that, of a Medusa of ten 
 pound? weight, what remains upon the filter through which 
 its fluid parts, chiefly sea-water, have escaped, does not 
 exceed two drachms. A great number of the Medusa are 
 rescent, shining in the gloom of night like globes of 
 tire; but the nature and the agents of this wonderful prop- 
 erty remain to be discovered. Most of the Medusa at cer- 
 ig and inflame the hand that touches them ; 
 !-■■ of this property is equally unknown. 
 MEE'RSCHAUM. (Germ, foam of the sea.) Asilicntcd 
 
 i mineral found in various parts of Europe, but 
 
 some parts of Greece and Turkey It is light and 
 soft, and is employed in the Turkish dominions as fuller's 
 earih. In Germany it is extensively used in the manufac- 
 ture of tobacco pipes, which are prepared for sale by being 
 soaked first in tallow, then in wax, and finally by being pol- 
 ished with shave crass. Imitation meerschaum pipes are 
 •old in large quantities, and the greatest caution is neces- 
 sary io guard against deception. To the connoisseur, the 
 best criterion La the beautiful brown colour which the genu- 
 ine meerschaum Miumfil after being soaked some time. 
 MEGALE'SIAN GAMES. [Gr. ufyac, grtat.) Oneof 
 
 magnificent of the Roman exhibitions of the circus; 
 in honour . I Cj bele, the mother of the gods. 
 
 LI'CHTHYS. (Gr.^cy..f,andix0uf,«/*A.) An 
 cxtiti' I genu*, of (Mies, including species of great size ; one 
 of which, the Mrgnlichthys Jfibberti, has left its teeth mid 
 other parts in the channel coal of Fifeshire, and the Edin- 
 
 il field. 
 
 MM, A!, o'NYX. (Or. ficyas, anA owl, a elate.) A large 
 fossil mammalian, the remains of which were found in a 
 cavern in the limestone of Virginia, in America. 
 
 MEGALOTTERANS, Megaloplera. (Gr. (/eyas, nnd 
 wrtfev, a icing.) A name given by Lntreille to a family of 
 Planipennate Neuroptcrous insects, comprehending those 
 which hav.- large wines horizontally folded. 
 
 MEGALOa lU'RUS. ((Jr. ucyat. and aavpos, a lizard.) 
 The g en eric name applied by Dr. Dockland to an extinct 
 genus of gigantic Saurians, discovered by him in the oolitic 
 slate of Stonestleld, near Oxford. The species on which the 
 founded included individuals measuring from forty 
 to filly feet in length ; they partook of the structure of the 
 crocodile and monitor. The entire skeleton has not as yet 
 been found. The femur and tibia measure nearly three 
 foet each; anil a metatarsal bone has been found of the 
 length of thirteen inches. The bones of the extremities 
 have large medullary cavities. The generic character is 
 pri nci pally founded on the teeth, which Dr. Dockland thus 
 graphically describee : "In the structure of these teeth we 
 liiid n combination of mechnnical contrivances analogous 
 to those which are adopted in the construction of the knife, 
 the sabre, and the saw. When first protruded above the 
 cum, the Bpex of each tooth presented a double cutting edge 
 rated enamel. In this stage its )»>sition and line of ac- 
 tion were nearly vertical, and its form like that of the two- 
 edged point of a sabre, cutting equnlly on each side. As the 
 tooth advanced in growth, it became curved backwards, in 
 form of a pruning knife, and the edge of serrated enamel 
 was continued downwards to the base of the inner nnd cut- 
 ting Mile of the tooth; whilst on the outer side a similar 
 descended but to a short distance from the point, and 
 the convex portion of the tooth beenme blunt nnd thick, ns 
 the back of a knife is made thick for the purpose of pro- 
 ducing strength. In n tooth thus formed for cutting along 
 its concave edge, each movement of the jaw combined the 
 power of the knife and saw ; whilst the apex, in making the 
 first incision, acted like the two-edged sabre. The back- 
 ward curvature of the full-grown teeth enabled them to 
 retain, like barbs, the prey which they had penetrated." 
 (Bridgeaatnr Treatise, i., p. 238.) These formidable teeth, 
 which sufficiently bespeak the carnivorous nnd predatory 
 nature of the extinct monster, were arranged in a pretty 
 close series, in sockets, along the alveolar border of the jaws. 
 M K( : A N V CTERANS. (Gr. ttcya; , and vvKrtpte, a bat.) 
 The first division or tribe of the order Chrioptera, including 
 the largest species of bats, or "flying foxes;" which, how- 
 ever, are exclusively vegetable feeders, living mostly on soft 
 fruits, anil bavinc the molar teeth adapted to that kind of 
 food by their broad simple crowns. The tribe is also distin- 
 guished from the nnimal-feeding bats, whether bloodsuckers 
 or insect catchers, by having the two innermost fingers armed 
 with hook-shaped claws, nnd by the simple structure of the 
 nose and ears. The alimentnry canal, and especially the 
 stomach of the great frugivorous bats, are likewise more 
 complicated than in the other tribes. The meganycterans 
 
 MELA SOMES. 
 
 are distributed over the warmer parts of Asia, Africa, am 
 the Polynesian Isles, but do not exist in America. 
 
 MEGA'RIAN SCHOOL OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY 
 founded at Megara by the disciples of Socrates, who retired 
 thither after his death, and distinguished in later times bj 
 its logical subtlety. Its most celebrated names were those 
 of Euclides, Eubulides, and Stilpo. 
 
 ME'GASCOPE. (Gr. p C y„ s , and okohcw, I view.) Ar. 
 optical instrument proposed by M. Charles, of the French 
 Academy of Sciences, for the examination of bodies of con- 
 siderable dimensions. It is a modification of the solar mi 
 croscope, and has been used for determining the curvature 
 of the different parts of the eye. See Microscope. 
 
 ME'GASTOMES, Megattoma. (Gr. ptyas, and (rro/iu 
 mouth.) The name of a family of Univalve shells, com 
 prehending those which are not symmetrical, and which 
 have a very laree aperture or mouth. 
 
 MEGATHERIUM. (Gr. itcyac, and $170101% beast.) The 
 name given by Cuvier to a genus of extinct Edentate quad- 
 rupeds, including nnd represented by one of the most gigantic 
 of terrestrial mammalia. The haunches of the Megathe 
 rium Cuvieri were more than five feet wide, and its body 
 twelve feet long and eight feet high ; its feet were a yard in 
 length, nnd terminated by formidable compressed claws of 
 immense size ; its tail was of great length, and probably 
 much larger than that of any other extinct or living terres- 
 trial mammal. The head of the megatherium was rela- 
 tively small : the cranium presents many of the peculiarities 
 of that of the Bloth. The upper jaw was armed with five 
 teeth on each side, the lower jaw with four on each side : 
 all the eighteen teeth belong to the molar scries. Tiny 
 were perpetually growing, like the incisors of the Rodents ; 
 but had their grinding surface traversed by two transverse 
 ridges, and their texture composed, as in the teeth of the 
 sloth, of a central body of coarse ivory, a thick outer coating 
 of ciemcntum, nnd a thin intermediate layer of line and 
 dense ivory, which forms the prominent terminating ridges 
 of the crown. 
 
 Nothing certain is known of the nature of the integuments 
 of this singular nnd enormous animal; but the fossil bony 
 armour which has been conjectured to have appertained to 
 the megatherium unquestionably belongs to another species 
 of gigantic Edentate, more nearly allied to the armadillo 
 See Glyptodom. 
 
 ME'GRIM. (Fr. migraine; probably from Gr. fat, half, 
 and Kpaviov, the scull.) A violent intermitting pain affecting 
 one side of the head. 
 
 MEI'ONITE. A mineral found in grains or small shining 
 crystals, chiefly nt Mount Somma, near Vesuvius. The 
 name is from pctwv, less ; implying the loaness of the ter 
 initiating pryramidsof its crystals, and the consequent short- 
 ness of the axis of the primitive form. 
 
 MELiE'NA. (Gr. pcXas, black,) The black vomit 
 When blood is thrown up from the stomach it is generally 
 black, in consequence of the presence of acid. 
 
 ME'LAM. A substance formed during the distillation of 
 a mixture of sal-ammoniac and sulphocyanuret of potassium 
 It is said to consist of 12 equivalents of carbon, 11 of nitrogen, 
 and 9 of hydrogen. 
 
 MELANCHOLY. (Gr. ptX«?, black, nnd X oXr/, bile.) A 
 disease of the mind, chiefly characterized by ungrounded 
 fear and apprehension of evil. 
 
 MELA'NIA. (Gr. jitXaj.) A genus of fluviatile Pec 
 tinibranchiate Gastropods, having a moderately thick shell, 
 with an aperture longer than it is wide, enlarging opposite 
 the spire, and the columella without folds or umbilicus: the 
 length of the spire is various. They have long tcntacula, 
 with the eyes on their external side, and at about the third 
 of their length from the base. 
 
 ME'LANITE. (Gr. /uAaf.) The black gamet. 
 MELANO'SIS. (Gr.pc\ac.) A malignant disease, char 
 nctcrized by deposition of a black matter in various parts of 
 the body. 
 
 MELA'NTERITE. (Gr. pt\as.) A mineralogical name 
 of the native sulphate of iron. 
 
 MELANTHA'CEvE. (Melanthium, one of the genera ) 
 An order of Endogenous plants, with a regular six-parted 
 inferior perianth, and six stamens with the anthers look 
 ing outwards. The number of species included in it is in 
 considerable ; but among them are the Vcratrum, or white 
 hellebore, and Colchicum, or meadow saffron, the poison- 
 ous qualities of which indicate the general properties of the 
 order. 
 
 ME'LAS. (Gr.fir.Xa?.) A disease endemial in Arabia: 
 it consists in the formation of dark brown or black spots upon 
 the skin. 
 
 MELAS'MA. (Gr. utXnf.) A disease of aged persons, in 
 which a black spot appears upon the skin, which soon forms 
 a foul ulcer. 
 
 ME'LASOMES, Melasoma. (Gr. /itXn?, and otopa, body.) 
 A tribe of Heteromerous Coleopterous insects, comprising 
 those which are of a uniform black or gray colour. 
 
 733 
 
MELASTOMACEiE. 
 
 MELASTOMA'CEjE. (Melastoma, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of Exogenous plants, with polypetalous 
 flowers and strongly ribbed leaves, inhabiting tropical coun 
 tries in great numbers, but unknown in Europe in a wild 
 slate, and only occurring very sparingly in the temperate 
 parts of America. In the equatorial regions of this conti»ent 
 they are extremely numerous ; and some of the species bear 
 berries, the juice of which stains the mouth black, whence 
 their name (iieXas, and oTopa, a mouth). Their most char- 
 acteristic mark is to have the anthers bent downward and 
 prolonged into a horn, which is held fast in sockets of the 
 ovary before the flower expands. Many of the species are 
 ornamental, none are useful. 
 
 MELCHl'SEDE'CIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, sev- 
 eral sects of early heretics have been so termed, from the 
 opinions entertained by them respecting the character and 
 office of Melchisedec, arising from the language of St. Paul 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Theodotians, in the 3d 
 century, are said to have regarded him as superior to Christ. 
 A sect of visionaries in Phrygia, who appear to have been 
 a branch of the Manicheans, are reported to have made 
 Melchisedec an object of adoration. Many divines of later 
 times have entertained the belief that the Son of God ap- 
 peared to Abraham under the form of Melchisedec. (Cuneus, 
 De Rep. Hebrmorum.) 
 
 ME'LCHITES. (Syr. malek, king.) In Ecclesiastical 
 History, the Eulychians, when condemned by the council of 
 Chalcedon, gave this name (royalists, imperialists) to the 
 orthodox, who endeavoured to put the order of the Emper- 
 or Marcian into execution against them. Among Oriental 
 Christians it now designates, in a general manner, all those 
 who are neither Jacobites nor Nestorians, including the 
 Maronites, Catholic Greeks, and non-Catholic Greeks of 
 the three Eastern patriarchates. (Mosheim, Eccles. Hist., 
 vol. ii.) 
 
 MELEA'GRIS. (Gr. a guinea- lien.) A term employed 
 by Linna?us to designate the genus of which the turkey is 
 the type. The head and upper part of the neck is invested 
 with aplumelessand carunculated skin: there is a cutaneous 
 appendage of a similar construction under the throat, and 
 another of a conical form on the forehead, which in the 
 male, when under excitement, can be distended and elon- 
 gated so as hang over the point of the beak. From the 
 lower part of the neck of the adult male hangs a tuft or tas- 
 sel of stitf hairs. The coverts of the tail are shorter and 
 suffer than in the peacock, but can be erected and displayed 
 in the same way. The tarsi of the male are armed with 
 WMfc spurs. The common turkey (Jtteleagris gallopavo, 
 L.) w as introduced into Europe in the 16th century. Its 
 size, and the excellence of its flesh, led to its being culti- 
 vated with peculiar care : it is now common, and widely dis- 
 persed. Its wild original of the American woods is of a 
 greenish colour, with a copper gloss. A second, and much 
 more beautiful species (Me.leagris ocellata, Cuvier), has been 
 discovered in Honduras: its domestication is greatly to be 
 desired. 
 
 MELES. (Lat. meles, a badger.) A genus separated by 
 Storr from the Linnrean Ursus, and characterized by Mr. 
 Bell as follows . Second incisor in the lower jaw placed be- 
 
 5—5 
 bind the others; molars =-— ^, arranged in an uninterrupted 
 
 series ; feet plantigrade ; a glandular pouch underneath the 
 tail, having a transverse orifice. Since the extirpation of 
 the common bear, the badger, Ursus meles of Linnseus, 
 which is a typical species of the present genus, is the sole 
 representative of the Ursine family in our indigenous zoolo- 
 gy. The habits of this quadruped are nocturnal, inoffensive, 
 and slothful ; its food consists of roots, earthnuts, fruits, the 
 eggs of birds, insects, reptiles, and the smaller quadrupeds : 
 its noxious qualities are consequently few and of slight mo- 
 ment, and by no means justify the exterminating war unin- 
 termittingly waged against it. The muscular strength of 
 the badger is great, its bite proverbially powerful ; and a 
 dog must be trained and encouraged to enter willingly into 
 a combat with this species. The long claws of the fore 
 feet enable the badger to dig with effect; and he habitually 
 dwells in burrows, which he digs by choice in declivities 
 covered by thick coppice, or concealed in the recesses of 
 woods. The female prepares a nest of moss and grass, and 
 brings forth her litter of three or four blind young in the 
 slimmer season. 
 
 MELE TIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, the partisans 
 if Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis in Egypt, deposed in a synod 
 it Alexandria about 300, on the charge of having sacrificed to 
 . J'lls during the persecution by Diocletian. He was support- 
 od by numerous adherents; and thus a schism began, which 
 w is partially concluded by the submission of Arsenius, chief 
 of the party, to Athanasius in 333, but does not seem to have 
 been wholly extinct for 150 years. (Mosheim, vol. i.) 
 
 MELICE'RIS. (Gr. ptcXi, honey, and Knpos, wax.) An 
 encysted tumour, the contents of which resemble honey. 
 
 MELILOTUS. (Lat. mel, honey, and lotus, a legumin- 
 734 
 
 MELUSINE. 
 
 ous plant.) A honey-scented plant, with an erect stem and 
 long erect racemes of small yellow or white (lowers, re- 
 sembling those of clover, of which it was formerly regarded 
 as a species. In some parts of Europe two or three species 
 are cultivated as annual fodder-plants. 
 
 MELITCE'A, or MELINCEA. (From Mr.,\ir„m, a state 
 inThessaly; or MtXivaia, a name of Venus, derived from 
 uc\i, honey.) In Zoology, a genus of beautiful corals, and 
 also a genus of butterflies. 
 
 MELLI'PHAGANS, Melliphagidm. ( Gr. fieXi, honey; 
 (tayui, I eat.) A family of Tenuirosters, comprising the 
 birds which feed on the nectar of flowers, 
 
 MELLlTE,orMELILITE. (Gr. jj*Xi, and \t0os, a statu , 
 A yellow crystallized mineral, composed of mellitic acid 
 and alumine. It is very rare, and was first observed in the 
 beds of brown coal in Thuringia. The term mclilitc has also 
 been applied to a yellow mineral which occurs in very mi- 
 nute crystals in the fissures and cavities of lava. It fuses 
 into a glass before the blow-pipe, but its composition lias not 
 been determined. 
 
 MELLITIC ACID. The peculiar acid of the mellite or 
 honeystone of Thuringia. According to Liebig, the ultimate 
 elements of this acid are 4 equivalents of carbon = 24, 4 of 
 oxygen = 32, and one of hydrogen = l. 
 
 ME'LLON. A lemon-yellow substance, composed of 6 
 equivalents of carbon and 4 of nitrogen, obtained by heating 
 dry bisulphuret of cyanogen. 
 
 MELOCA'CTUS'. ( Melon -cactus. ) Round-stemmed, 
 ribbed, succulent plants, covered with spines on the ridge 
 of the ribs, and producing the flowers among wool, on a 
 hairy head or cap, which is protruded from the top of the 
 stem. They were included by Linna;us in his genus Cactus ; 
 and they are, in fact, scarcely distinguishable from those dis- 
 memberments of the genus to which the modern names of 
 Ccreus and Kchino cactus arc applied. For the sake of their 
 grotesque form, they are often cultivated by persons curious 
 in collecting singular vegetables. 
 
 MELODRA'MA. (Gr. jitAos, song, and Sptfpa, drama.) 
 A short drama in which music is introduced ; but differing 
 from the opera, as the greater part of the words tire recited, 
 and not sung. In Germariy, the melodrama is a short dra- 
 matic piece in lyrical verse ; but among ^urselves, and in 
 France, its character is chiefly that of being a vehicle for 
 gorgeous decoration and scenery, with an insignificant plot, 
 usually of a serious or romantic description. 
 
 ME'LODY. (Gr. ntXuoia ; from /jeXo?, a song.) In Mu- 
 sic, the arrangement in succession of different sounds for a 
 single voice or instrument, being distinguished from harmo- 
 ny, which is the result of the union of two or more concord- 
 irig musical sounds. 
 
 ME'LOE. (Gr. wXn, a probe.) A genus of Coleopterous 
 insects, of the section Heteromera, tribe Trachelides, and 
 family Cantharid<e, in the system of Latreille. In this genus 
 the antenna? are composed of short and rounded joints, the 
 intermediate of which are the largest, and sometimes so dis- 
 posed that these organs present in this point, in several 
 males, an emargination or crescent. The wings are want- 
 ing; and the elytra, oval or triangular, with a portion of the 
 inner margin, crossing each other, only partially cover the 
 abdomen, particularly in the females, in which this segment 
 of the body is extremely voluminous. The meloes crawl 
 along the ground, or upon low plants, on the leaves of which 
 they feed. A yellowish or reddish oleaginous liquid exudes 
 from the articulations of their legs. In some districts of 
 Spain these insects are used in the place of the true blister- 
 flies (Cantharides) ; they are also employed by the farriers. 
 Latreille is of opinion that the modern meloes were the Bu- 
 prestcs of the ancients — insects to which they attributed 
 very noxious properties, supposing them to be fatal to the 
 oxen that swallowed them. 
 
 MELOLONTHIDANS, Mehdonthidai. The family of 
 Coleopterous insects, of which the May-chaffer (Melolontha 
 vulgaris) is the type. 
 
 MELPOMENE. (Gr. fieXroftai, I sing.) The muse who 
 presides over tragedy ; represented usually with a mask in 
 one hand, a club or dagger in the other, and with buskins on 
 her feet. 
 
 MELUSI'NE. In the medieval Mythology (if France, a 
 beautiful nymph or fairy, whose history occupies a large 
 space in the popular superstitions of that country. She is 
 represented as the daughter of Helmas, king of Albania, and 
 the fairy Persine ; and as having married Raymund, count 
 of Toulouse, who built her the magnificent castle of Lusig- 
 nan (originally called Lusineem, the anagram of Melusine). 
 Like most of the fairies of that period, she was doomed to a 
 periodical metamorphosis, during which the lower part of 
 her body assumed the form of a fish or a serpent. On these 
 occasions she exerted all her ingenuity to escape observa- 
 tion ; but having been once accidentally seen by her husband 
 in this condition, she swooned away, and soon afterwards 
 disappeared, none knew whither. But her form is said to 
 be seen from time to time on the tower of Lusignan, clad i» 
 
MELYRIS. 
 
 mourning, and uttering deep lamentations ; and her appear- 
 ance is universally believed to indicate an impending calam- 
 ity to tlie royal family of France. 
 
 MELY'KIS. (Gr ucXovpif, an insect mentioned by Ni- 
 cander.) A Fabrician genus of Coleopterous insects, belong- 
 ing to the section Pentanura, subsection Serricornes, tribe 
 Malacodermi, and constituting the family Melyrida in the 
 ■ I of l.atreille; in which it is characterized as follows ; 
 Palpi commonly short and filiform; mandibles emarginated 
 at the punt; body usually narrow and elongated; head 
 covered at the base by a Mat or slightly convex thorax ; joint 
 of the tarsi entire, and the terminal hooks uuidentate or bor- 
 dered with a membrane ; antenna usually serrate, and in 
 the males of some species even pectinate. 
 
 MEMB&A'NA TYMPANI. The membrane which sep- 
 arates Uie internal from the external ear. The drum of the 
 ear. 
 
 M E'MBRANE. The expansion of any of the tissues of 
 
 the body into a thin layer. Anatomists generally enumerate 
 
 kinds of membrane; namely, the mucous, the serous, 
 
 lie fibrous. The mucous membranes are those which 
 
 line the canal* of the body which are exposed to the action 
 
 • or foreign matters — such as the lining of the nose, 
 
 iphagUS, stomach, intestines, Ilc. The serous 
 
 rones form the lining of the sacs or closed cavities, as 
 
 of the chest, abdomen, tec. The fibrous membranes are 
 
 Inelastic, and of a tendinous character; such as the 
 
 dura mater, tlie pericardium, the capsule* of Joints, &c. 
 
 MNON. In Greek Mythology, a fabulous king of 
 
 Ethiopia, smi of the goddess Aurora, who is saul to have as- 
 
 sjated the Trojans in the siege of Troy, and to have been 
 
 slain by Achilles. Several Egyptian kiiiL's of this name are 
 
 ttoned by different Greek writers. Hut the name 
 
 supposed to he a general appellation or epithet 
 
 (M'l .uiiun, beloved of .'I mmuii ; borrowed b> 'the Greek* limn 
 . and erroneously applied by them to 
 particular individuals. The famous statue called by Die 
 tfemnon, at Thebes in Upper Egypt, which possess- 
 ed the real or imaginary property of emitting a sound like 
 thai of a harp, at the rising of the sun. is sup|>osed to have 
 he building called by M. ChampolUOB tlie Rhames- 
 sci hi, from its founder Uhnmescs, or Sesostris, of which the 
 stupendous ruins are still seen between Mediuet-Hubou and 
 Kournnh. (BeeChampollion, Lettres ecrites a" F.gypte etde 
 .Vubir. p. Ml.) The statue of black granite in the British 
 Museum, already styled the brother of the younger Memnon, 
 was found in the Rhamesseion. The real Memnonium was 
 however, probably the temple erected by Amcnoph, or 
 Amenothph. (Cbampollioo, i'A., p. 303.) . 
 
 MK'MOIR. In Literature, two different species of com- 
 position are popularly designated by the terms Memoir and 
 A short biographical notice of an individual, or 
 a short essay on a particular subject (especially to accom- 
 pany and explain a map, view, facsimile, or other repiesenta- 
 tion of a curious object in art, tec.) is called a Memoir. This 
 name is particularly appropriated to pa|icrs read before 
 scientific or literary societies. The account, by an individual, 
 of hi< own life, accompanied with narratives and remarks 
 respecting the personages nnd events of the limes in which 
 he lived, Is termed his Memoirs; being supposed, as the 
 mum; denotes, to huve been drawn up with the object of as- 
 sisting his memory in reflecting on past events. In modern 
 but incorrect diction the life of a person by another is also 
 termed his Memoirs, if drawn up with a somewhat less reg- 
 gulur arrangement, and containing more matter not imme- 
 diately connected with the subject than the species of nar- 
 ration which we term a Life. The French were the earliest, 
 and have always been by far the most successful writers, in 
 this branch of literature. Their historical memoirs, partly 
 autobiographical, and partly the works of authors who had 
 i the papers and memorials of those whose lives 
 they illustrated, form a complete series from the 16th cen- 
 tury to the present time, and throw the greatest light on some 
 portions of history ; while their memoirs of celebrated in- 
 dividuals in the ranks of literature and fashion are still more 
 numerous and interesting. In the last century this branch 
 of literature became so popular, that any distinguished indi- 
 vidual who did not leave authentic memoirs of himself was 
 sure to become the subject, after his death, of fabricated 
 memoirs, published under his name; and this species of 
 falsification, of which Voltaire then complained, appears to 
 be now carried on as extensively ns at any former period. 
 The collections of historical memoirs recently edited in Paris 
 contain three series of historical memoirs relating to French 
 history, and one of English memoirs, translated, illustrating 
 the period of our great civil war and revolution. The latter 
 undertaking was conducted by M. Guizot. 
 
 MEMO'RIAL. In Diplomacy, a siiecics of informal state 
 pa|KT much used in negotiation. Memorials are said to be 
 of three classes. 1. Memorials In the form of letters, sub- 
 scribed by the writer, and speaking in the second person as 
 addicssed to another. 2. Memorials proper, or written rep- 
 
 MENDICITY. 
 
 resentalions, subscribed by the writer, and with an address, 
 but not speaking in the second person. 3. Notes, in which 
 there is neither subscription nor address. Species of the 
 first class of memorials are, circulars from tlie bureau of 
 foreign affairs sent to foreign agents; answers to the me- 
 morials of ambassadors ; and notes to foreign cabinets and 
 ambassadors. 
 
 ME'MORY (Lat. memini, I remember), is defined to be 
 tlie power or capacity of having what was once present to 
 the senses or the understanding suggested again to the mind, 
 accompanied by a distinct consciousness of past existence. 
 The term is also employed, though more rarely, to denote 
 the act or operation of remembering, or the peculiar stale 
 of the mind when it exercises this faculty, in coulrndisiiiic- 
 tion to the faculty itself. Various opinions have been pro- 
 pounded by metaphysicians respecting the nature and origin 
 of the faculty of memory. Upon this point, however, it is 
 not our intention to enter into any details, as this qoeatior 
 is so mixed up with that of other faculties of the mind, such 
 as perception and association, and such metaphysical ques- 
 tions, as personal identity, &.C, as to be inseparable from 
 them ; and to these heads we must refer the reader for in- 
 formation. We may, however, remark, that the ancient 
 Plutonists und Peripatetics ascribed tlie faculty of memory 
 to the common theory of ideas; that is, of images in the 
 brain, or in the mind, of all the objects of thought ; and in 
 this opinion they were supported, with slight modifications, 
 by many other philosophers of antiquity. Hut Dr. Reid, who 
 has examined this question with great acuteness, has satis- 
 factorily demonstrated the theory of the ancients to be very 
 defective. The more modem theories of Locke, Hume, and 
 other philosophers, also meet with little Consideration from 
 the same acute metaphysician, WOO, niter exposing their 
 fallacies, sums up in these words: "Thus, when philoso- 
 phers have piled one supposition on another, ns the giants 
 piled the mountains in order to scale the heavens, it is all to 
 no purpose— memory remains unaccountable; and we know 
 as little how we remember things past u how we are eon 
 scions of the present." (Hied un the Human Mud, p. 159, 
 185.) 
 
 MENA'CHANTTB, Ferruginous oxide of titanium, found 
 In the vale of Menachnn, in Cornwall. 
 
 MENDICANT 1K1ARS. See Orders, Mkndk ant. 
 
 MKMU'CI'l'V. (Lat. mendico, I beg.) The condition 
 of habitual beggars. One of the greatest curses which can 
 afflict a civilized society is the prevalence of mendicity ; and 
 it is very much to be regretted that tlie prejudices of excel- 
 lent and humane persons have so constantly interposed, and 
 still Interpose, difficulties in the way of the adoption nnd en- 
 forcement of correct principles on this subject. For there 
 are too many who persist in seeing in mendicity only the 
 natural expression of Unit indigence Into which numbers are 
 unhappily thrown by the Inequality of property and el 
 tainty of employment prevailing in almost all cominiii 
 and who forget that the encouragement of it affords a pre 
 mium to the idle, the artful, the criminal — to all or any, in 
 short, except those really deserving sulTerers whom it is the 
 object of true charity to relieve. (For Uie law of England, 
 past and present, respecting mendicity, see Vagrancy.) 
 Under the operation of this law, of the national provision of 
 the poor laws, and far more than either the activity of Eng 
 list) industry, mendicity has long been less extensive and 
 public in England than perhaps in any other country. And 
 owing to that very circumstance, it is, perhaps, worse in L'ng 
 land than in any other country ; that is, the established men 
 dicants are more connected with the criminal part of the 
 population. (See the recent report of Uie Constabulary 
 Force Commission.) Ireland has long been unhappily cele 
 bratcd for the prevalence of mendicity. The number of 
 " destitute persons" in the island was estimated by Mr. Stan- 
 ley In 1837 at about 80,000 (Mr. JTicholl's Report on I'uor 
 Laws in Ireland) ; the number of street mendicants in Dub 
 lia at nearly 1000, or almost one twentieth, of tlie population. 
 Mr. Lewis, following the evidence adduced before the Irish 
 Poor Law Commission, divides the habitual mendicant* 
 into — 1. Wandering beggars, chiefly cripples, blind, maimed, 
 &c. 2. Professional strolling beggars, who have no fixed 
 domicile, and live constantly by mendicancy. 3. Town beg- 
 gars, who live by mendicancy, but have a fixed domicile: 
 Uiese, he says, "are generally known by those who relieve 
 them, and their character is not on the whole very bad." 
 4. Poor housekeepers, who are relieved by three or four 
 neighbours, to whom their wants are known, but who would 
 not resort to general begging. (On Local Disturbances in 
 Inland, 1835.) " Mendicancy and wretchedness," says Mr. 
 Nicholl, "have become too common to be disgraceful." 
 And he compares with truth Uie effects of indiscriminnte 
 alms-giving in Ireland to those of indiscriminate legal relief 
 in England. What effect the new system of poor laws may 
 have on this nnd other evils of that country, time must_show. 
 In France, depdts de mrndicite were first founded in 1767; a 
 kind of half way between prisons and hospitals for mendi- 
 
 7:t5 
 
MENILITE. 
 
 cants. Their situation was rendered dependent on their 
 good behaviour. These receptacles held 6000 or 8000 per- 
 sons in 1789. In 1808, by anew law, "vagabonds," mere 
 vagrants, were distinguished from " beggars," i. e., disabled 
 persons, or other persons begging within their own arron- 
 dissement: the former were sent to "maisonsde detention." 
 There are now two gaol depots for Paris, at St. Denis and 
 Villers Coterets. In 1838 the prefet of police reported that 
 they had manifestly diminished mendicity at Paris. (De- 
 gerando, De la Bienfaisance Publique, iii., part 3, b. 1.) 
 "The road to mendicity," says M. Sismondi, "is now too 
 wide and too easy ; instead of calling on religion to smooth 
 it, we should multiply as far as possible the resources of the 
 poor, in order to prevent their being dragged into it." See 
 Poor Laws. 
 
 ME'NILITE. A mineral somewhat resembling semi- 
 opal, found at Menil Montant, near Paris. 
 
 MENIS'CUS. A lens convex on one side and concave 
 on the other. See Lens. 
 
 MENISPE'RMIC ACID. An acid contained in the ber- 
 ries of the Mcnispcrmum cocculus (Cocculus indicus), 
 where it exists in combination with the vegetable alkali 
 called pierotoxia. 
 
 MEN'NONITES. The title by which the Anabaptists 
 of Holland came to be distinguished, after they had put 
 themselves under the guidance of Menno, a native of Fries- 
 land, who undertook to moderate the extraordinary fanati- 
 cism of those sectarians. (Mosheim, transl., ed. 1790. v. 
 490.) See Baptists, Anabaptists. 
 
 MENOBIIA'NCHUS. (Gr. utvut, I remain, (ipayxia, 
 gills.) A Perennibranchiate amphibian, which retains the 
 external gills. 
 
 ME'NOPOME, Menopoma. (Gr. fievw, and irwua, a lid.) 
 A Perennibranchiate amphibian, which retains the opercu- 
 lar aperture, but not the external gills. 
 
 ME'NORHA'GIA. (Gr. unv, a month, and /5cw, I flew.) 
 Flooding ; immoderate menstrual discharge ; haemorrhage 
 • from the uterus. 
 
 ME'NSTRUUM (Lat. mensis, a month), signified, in the 
 language of the old chemists, some preparation or drug 
 which could only operate effectually at a particular period 
 of the moon or month ; but it is now used for any fluid sub- 
 stance which dissolves a solid body. 
 
 MENSURA'TION. Though this term literally signifies 
 the act of measuring, it is usually employed to denote the 
 branch of practical geometry which teaches the methods of 
 calculating the dimensions and areas of figures, the volumes 
 of solids, &c, from the -measurement of certain lines or 
 angles of the figures or solids, which supply the requisite 
 data. 
 
 Every rectilineal plane figure may be decomposed into 
 triangles ; and hence the mensuration of such figures re- 
 solves itself into the determination of the sides or area of a 
 triangle. (Sec Trigonometry.) Solids bounded by planes 
 may, in like manner, be resolved into pyramids, and their 
 contents consequently determined by the methods of ele- 
 mentary geometry. (See Pyramid.) The determination of 
 the lengths of curve lines, the areas of figures bounded by 
 curves, and of solids bounded by curve surfaces, requires 
 the application of the integral calculus. (See Quadra- 
 ture, Rectification.) For the areas and volumes of the 
 most usual geometrical figures, see the respective terms, as 
 Circle, Ellipse, &c. 
 
 ME'NTUM. (Lat. the chin.) In Mammalogy, the term 
 is restricted to the anterior and inferior margin of the man- 
 dible, or lower jaw. The mentum prominulum is that 
 which extends beyond the perpendicular line dropi>ed from 
 the upper margin of the lower jaw ; the mentum abscondi- 
 tum is that which cannot be distinguished. 
 
 MENU, INSTITUTES OF. The name given to the 
 most celebrated code of Indian civil and religious law ; so 
 called from Menu, Menou, or Manu, the son of Brnma, by 
 whom it is supposed to have been revealed. The Hindoos 
 themselves ascribe to this system the highest antiquity; and 
 many of the most learned Europeans are of opinion that of 
 all known works there is none which carries with it more 
 convincing proofs of high antiquity and perfect integrity. 
 Sir W. Jones assigns the date of its origin somewhere be- 
 tween Homer and the Twelve Tables of the Romans ; and 
 Srhlegel asserts it as his belief that it was seen by Alex- 
 ar ier the Great in a state not materially different from that 
 ir. which we possess it. The Institutes of Menu are of a 
 mjst comprehensive nature: they embrace all that relates 
 to human life ; the history of the creation of the world and 
 man ; the nature of God and spirits ; and a complete sys- 
 tem of morals, government, and religion. The work, says 
 Sir VV. Jones, contains abundance of curious matter, inter- 
 esting both to speculative lawyers and antiquaries, with 
 many beauties which need not to be pointed out, and with 
 many b'emishes which cannot be justified or palliated : it is 
 a system of despotism and priestcraft; both, indeed, limited 
 bv law, but artfully conspiring to give mutual support. 
 736 
 
 MERCATOR'S CHART. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these and other defects, as ha> fre- 
 quently been remarked, the most striking features by which 
 the code of Menu is distinguished are the rigour and purity 
 of its morals. Many of its maxims have ail the BU dimity 
 of the precepts of Christianity ; to which, in fact, they bear 
 a close resemblance, not only in the style of thought but oi 
 expression. Thus, "Let not a man complain, even though 
 in pain ; let him not injure another in deed or in thought 
 let him not even utter a word by which his fellow-creatures 
 may suffer uneasiness." Again, " Let him bear a reproach 
 ful speech with patience ; let him speak reproachfully to no 
 man ; with an angry man let him not in return he angry : 
 abused, let him answer mildly." The Inspired words of 
 the Psalmist, " The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
 God," are thus almost verbally rendered, "The wicked 
 have said in their hearts no one sees us: yes, the gods dis- 
 tinctly see them, and so does the spirit within their breasts." 
 The Institutes of Menu have been translated into the Eng- 
 lish and French languages : into the former by Sir VV. 
 Jones in 1794, the latter by Des Longchamps in 1830 (Stras- 
 burg). An edition of the original Sanscrit, together with 
 Sir VV. Jones's translation, was published at Calcutta in 
 182-2-25 by Sir Graves Haughton. 
 
 MENU'RA. (Gr. /jivoi, strength, and ovpn, a tail.) A 
 name invented by Dr. Shaw for a genus of birds peculiar to 
 Australia, the true affinities of which have been the subject 
 of much discussion and diversity of opinion among ornithol- 
 ogists. Cuvier observes that the Manuree, or Ivre-pheas- 
 ants, evidently belong to the order Passerine, and approach 
 the thrushes in their beak, which is triangular at the base, 
 elongated, slightly compressed, aiul emarginate at the point. 
 Only one species is at present known, and this is chiefly pe- 
 culiar for an extraordinary sexual development of the tail 
 feathers of the male. Of these there are three kinds : the 
 twelve common ones, with very fine and widely separated 
 barbs ; two more in the middle, of which only one side is 
 furnished with thickly -set barbs; and two external ones, 
 curved in the figure of an S, or like the arms of a lyre, 
 whose internal barbs, large and thickly set, form a kind of 
 broad riband, while the external ones are very short, be- 
 coming longer only near the tip. The female lias only the 
 twelve ordinary quills. 
 
 MENYA'NTHES. (Gr. ptvoc, and ayDog, flower.) A 
 genus of Gentianaceous plants with powerful tonic proper- 
 ties. The M. trifoliata, a wild aquatic plant with white 
 flowers densely crested with hairs, is employed in medicine 
 as a bitter, emetic, tonic, and diaphoretic. 
 
 MENY'NGES. (Gr. urjviyl, a membrane.) The mem- 
 branes which cover the brain are so called. 
 
 MEPHI'TIS. (Lat.) Any noxious exhalation ; but more 
 particularly applied to carbonic acid gas. Mephitis was the 
 name of a Latin goddess who was invoked by the Romans 
 as their protectress against noxious vapours. 
 
 MERCA'PTAN. A liquid Composed of sulphur, car- 
 bon, and hydrogen, which has received the above name 
 from its energetic action on mercury — corpus mcrcunum 
 captans. (Zeise, Annales de Chimie et Physique, lv., 87.) 
 
 MERCA'TOR'S CHART, or PROJECTION. A repre- 
 sentation of the sphere on a plane, in which the meridians 
 are represented by equidistant parallel straight lines, and 
 the parallels of latitude also by straight lines perpendicular 
 to the meridians. This projection, which is universally 
 adopted for nautical charts, by reason of the facilities which 
 it affords in navigation from the circumstance that the 
 rhumb, or sailing course between two points, is represented 
 by a straight line, was invented by Gerard Mercator (his 
 true name was Kaufman, of which Mercator is the Latin 
 equivalent), a native of Rupelmonde, in East Flanders, 
 born in the yenr 1512. But, though Mercator gave his 
 name to the projection, it does not appear that he knew the 
 law according to which the distance of the parallels from 
 the equator increases. The true principles of the construc- 
 tion were found by Edward Wright, of Caius College, Cam- 
 bridge, who explained them in his treatise, entitled The 
 Correction of certain Errors in Navigation, published in 
 1599, and are us follows : Suppose one of the meridians on 
 the globe to be divided into minutes of a degree ; one of 
 these, taken at any parallel of latitude, will be to a minute 
 of longitude, taken on that parallel, as the radius of the 
 equator to the radius of the parallel; that is, ns radius to 
 the cosine of the latitude, or as the secant of the latitude to 
 radius. This proportion holds true on the map in this 
 sense, that if a minute of the equator be taken as the unit 
 of a scale, and that unit be considered as the radius of the 
 tables, then the representation of a minute of latitude will 
 be expressed by the number in the trigonometrical tables 
 which is the secant of that latitude. Hence, in the map, 
 while the degrees of longitude are all equal, the degrees of 
 latitude marked on the meridian form a scale of which the 
 distances go on increasing from the equator towards the 
 poles, each being (approximately) the sum of the secants of 
 all the minutes of latitude in the degree. The numbers ri» 
 
MERCURIALE. 
 
 milting from the addition of the secants of the successive 
 minutes, reckoned from the equator, form a scale of meri- 
 dional parts, which is given in all books of navigation. 
 The very remarkable property of this projection, namely, 
 that the divisions of the meridian are analogous to the ex- 
 cesses of the logarithmic tangents of half the respective 
 latitudes augmented by 15°, above the logarithm of the ra- 
 dius, was discovered by Bond about the year 1645 ; but was 
 first demonstrated by James Gregory, in his Exercitationes 
 Mathematics, published in 1668. (See the Scriptores Log- 
 arithmiei, vols. ii. and iv.) 
 
 MERCURIA'LE. The first Wednesday after the great 
 vacation of the parliaments, under the old French regime. 
 On that day they met to discuss grievances and deficien- 
 cies, and to reprimand members for misconduct. Hence, 
 an harangue of reproof is popularly termed in French a 
 n.crcm 
 
 Ml'. ItCURY. (Probably from the Lat merx, mrrchan- 
 
 o't'te.) The Latin name of the Grecian Hermes. He was 
 
 of Jupiter and Maia, and discharged the office of 
 
 -eager of the gods. Part of his duty was also to 
 
 conduct the shades of the dead to the infernal regions. He 
 
 over eloquence, profit, good fortune, and theft; in 
 
 which he was himself so great a proficient that, on the day 
 
 of his birth, he stole fifty kine from the herds of Apollo, 
 
 whom he repaid by the gift of his invention, the lyre. (8ee 
 
 the Hymn ascribed to Homer, with the beautiful translation 
 
 of i; by Shelley.) His attributes, exploits, and insignia are 
 
 Welly enumerated by Horace (Ode I., 10) : 
 
 Mercuri facunde, nepos Atlantic, 
 Qui ferns cutiot hominum rreenrum 
 Voce formasfi eatut, et decor* 
 
 More palxatre, 
 Te canam, maftni Jovis et Deorum 
 Nunliwn cjrvasjur tyre pareiitem 
 Calidum, quicu/ud placuit jococo 
 
 Coodere furto. 
 
 Between which passage and the lines of Ovid (Fasti, v. 663 
 -660), a curious coincidence will be found. Mercury was 
 represented as a youth lightly clad, with the petasus, or 
 tvmged hat, and wings at his heels. In his hand he bears 
 the emblem of his herald's office, the caducous, a rod with 
 two serpents twined about it. The more ancient statues of 
 Mercury were square blocks of stone, with a rudely carved 
 head on them. They were set up in great numbers in the 
 streets of Athens. 
 
 Mi'rcury. In the Solar System, the planet nearest the 
 sun. The mean distance of Mercury from the sun is 
 0-3870081, the radius of the earth's orbit being taken as unit ; 
 it is eonnqaantly little more than a third of the earth's dis- 
 tance, and equal to about 36,000,000 of miles. His mean 
 sidereal revolution Is performed in 87-96!r258 mean solar 
 days, and his successive opposition* or conjunctions take 
 ■BCe 'it intervals of 115-877 mean solar days. The orbit Is 
 inclined to the ecliptic in an angle of 7° 0' 9"; and its ec- 
 centricity Is greater than that of any other of the old plan- 
 ets, being 0-205515, the major axis being unit. Mercury be- 
 ins an inferior planet always appears in the neighbourhood 
 of the sun ; his greatest elongation, or ongulnr distance 
 from the sun, amounts only to 28° 48* ; so that he is very 
 seldom visible to the naked eye. His apparent diameter 
 varies from 5" at his superior conjunction when at his 
 greatest distnnce from the earth, to 12" at his inferior con- 
 junction when nearest the earth. At a distance equal to 
 the mean distance of the sun from the earth, the apparent 
 diameter is fi-9". His true diameter, compared with that of 
 the earth taken as unity, is -398, or about 3140 miles. On 
 account of the smallness of the planet and its proximity to 
 the sun, it is difficult to distinguish any variety on the sur- 
 face. The disk is round, and, in a good telescope, exhibits 
 phases ; and the planet is supposed to revolve about its axis 
 in the space of 24 h. 5 in. 28 sec. Mercury is sometimes 
 seen to pass over the sun's disk. This can only happen 
 when he is in one of his nodes nearly at the same time that 
 he is at his inferior conjunction. The phenomena are of 
 more frequent occurrence than the transits of Venus, but of 
 far less nstronomical importance. The five next transits 
 will 1* visible in this country, and will occur at the follow- 
 ing dates: 1845, May 8; 1848, Nov. 9; 1861, Nov. 11; 1868, 
 Nov. 4 ; 1878, May 6. See Planet. 
 
 Me'rcurt. This metal is found chiefly in the state of 
 tvlphuret, which is decomposed by distillation with iron or 
 lime. It is also found native. Mercury is the only metal 
 which is liquid at common temperatures ; it is white and 
 very brilliant. It freezes and assumes a crystalline texture 
 at 40° below zero. Its specific gravity is 13-5. It boils at 
 660°, and its vapour condenses upon cool surfaces in minute 
 orilliant globules. It is not altered by exposure to air at 
 •ommon temperatures, but when kept in vessels to which 
 air has access, at a temperature near its boiling point, it 
 gradually becomes converted into a deep red crystalline 
 robstance, which is the peroxide, or red oxide, of mercury. 
 3 A 
 
 MERGER. 
 
 When mercury is dissolved in cold dilute nitra acid, the 
 pure alkalis throw it down in the form of blacWprotuxide 
 The same oxide is also obtained by triturating calomel with 
 solution of caustic potash. These are the only definite ox- 
 ides of mercury. The equivalent of this metal is about 21X), 
 and the oxides, consisting respectively of 1 atom of mercury 
 and 1 of oxygen, and 1 and 2 are represented by 200 + 8== 
 208, and 200-1-16=216. Mercury is represented in chemi 
 cal formula; by hg., from the Latin hydrargyrum, literal!' 
 signifying water silver. The symbol of the protoxide will 
 then be (hg. + o.), and of the peroxide (hg. + 2 o.). Each 
 of these oxides combines with the acids, and produces tilt 
 protosalts and persalts of mercury. 
 
 Mercury and Chlorine. — There are two chlorides of mr 
 cury ; a protochloride or calomel, and a perchloridc or cor 
 rosive sublimate. Calomel may be obtained by mixing GO 
 parts (1 equivalent) of common salt, or chloride of Bodiuin, 
 with 248 parts (1 equivalent) of protosulphate of mercury, 
 and exposing the mixture in a proper subliming vessel to a 
 red heat ; the chlorine of the salt combines with the mer- 
 cury of the sulphate to form protochloride of mercury (con- 
 sisting of 200 mercury and 36 chlorine) ; and the .sodium of 
 the salt, uniting with the oxygen of the oxide of mercury, 
 becomes soda, which, with the sulphuric acid, forms sul- 
 phate of soda. Calomel may also be obtained by mixing 
 200 parts of mercury with 272 of corrosive sublimate, and 
 subliming the mixture. When thoroughly washed and 
 levigated, calomel Is a tasteless, white powder ; its specific 
 gravity is 7-2. When heated it acquires a yellow colour: 
 and at a temperature below redness it rises in dense white 
 fumes, which are deposited in the form of a white powder 
 upon cold surfaces. It is insoluble In water. When has- 
 tily sublimed it often becomes a crystalline horny muss, 
 and occasionally forms beautiful prismatic crystals. It is 
 sometimes found native ; forming, however, a very rare ore, 
 called, from its appearance, horn quicksilver. 
 
 Perchloride of mercury, or corrosive sublimate, is obtain- 
 ed by sublimation from a mixture of 120 parts of common 
 salt (or 2 equivalents), and 296 (or 1 equivalent) of persul- 
 phate of mercury. It rises in the form of a white crystal- 
 line substance, of an acrid metallic taste, highly poisonous, 
 soluble in 20 parts of cold and in 2 of boiling water. Its 
 specific gravity is 52. When heated it evaporates in acrid 
 fumes, at a temperature below that required for the vola'il 
 ization of calomel. Corrosive sublimate is a compound of 
 1 equivalent of mercury nnd 2 of chlorine. In the above 
 process for [ireparing.it, the chlorine is furnished by the 
 chloride of sodium, nnd sulphate of soda is the other pro 
 duct. 
 
 Bisulphuret of Mercury, known also by the name of cin 
 nabnr or vermilion, Is prepared artificially by heating to- 
 gether 100 parts of mercury with about 20 of sulphur ; they 
 form a black compound, which, when strongly heated, rises 
 in the form of a deep crimson-coloured sublimate; this, re- 
 duced by long trituration into a fine powder, acquires ;> 
 brilliant red colour. It is tasteless, and insolub'e in water ; 
 it consists of 200 mercury and 32 sulphur, or (hg. + 2 s.) 
 A black protosulphurct of mercury (hg.-\-s.) is precipitated 
 by sulphuretted hydrogen from a solution of the protoni- 
 trate. When a mixture of equal weights of finely-powdered 
 peroxide of mercury nnd Prussian blue is boiled in water 
 till the blue colour disappears, the solution yields, when 
 filtered and evaporated, a crop of straw-coloured prismatic 
 crystals, which are bicyanuret of mercury : 2 cy. -f- hg. 
 
 Mercury is found in various parts of the world. Among 
 the principal mines are those of Almaden, nenr Cordova, 
 in Spain; Idrin, in Cnmiola; Wolfsteln and Morsfleld, in 
 the Palatinnte; Guancavelica, in Peru. It is stated by Dr. 
 A. T. Thompson, in his Dispensatory, that most of the mer 
 cury used in this country Is brought from Germany. But, 
 whatever may have been the case formerly, this is not cer- 
 tainly true at present. On the contrary, of 314,286 lbs. of 
 quicksilver imported in 1831, none was brought from Ger- 
 many: 269,558 lbs. were brought direct from Spain, and 
 13,714 lbs. from Gibraltar; of the latter a part was derived 
 from Carniola, and a part from Spain ; 31,014 lbs. were 
 brought from Italy. Only 192,310 lbs. were retained for 
 home consumption In 1831. (Pari. Paper, No. 550. Sess. 
 1833.) Quicksilver Is produced in several of the provinces 
 of China. During the war, when the intercourse between 
 Europe and America was interrupted, the price of quicksil- 
 ver rose to such a height in the latter that it answered to 
 import it from China ; but since the peace It has been regu- 
 larly exported to the latter. At an average of the 14 years 
 ending with 1828, the imports 9f quicksilver by the English 
 and Americans Into Canton amounted to 648,085 lbs. a yoar, 
 worth 340,262 dollars. (Lords Reprrt of 1831, p. 6-< 
 Besides its uses In medicine, mercury Is extensively em- 
 ployed in the amalgamation of the noble metals, In water- 
 gliding, the making of vermilion, the silvering of looking 
 glasses, the making of barometers and thermometers, Akc. 
 
 ME'RGER, in Law, Is the destruction of a lesser estate la 
 
 737 
 
MERGUS. 
 
 lands and tenements by the acquisition of a greater estate in 
 the same •mediately succeeding by the same party and in 
 the same nght. Thus an estate for years is said to merge, 
 or sink, in an estate for life, if there be no other estate vest- 
 ed in another person intervening between the two ; and an 
 estate for life in an estate of inheritance. There is no mer- 
 ger of an estate toil. 
 
 ME'RGUS. (Lat. mergus, the name of a sea-bird, sup- 
 posed to apply to the cormorant.) A Linnsan genus of An- 
 serine birds, characterized by a beak thinner and more cy- 
 lindrical than that of the ducks, and with each mandible 
 armed at its margins with small pointed teeth directed back- 
 wards, like those of a saw ; the upper mandible is curved 
 downwards at its extremity. The goosander (Mergus scr- 
 rator) and the merganser (Mergus merganser) are exam- 
 ples of this genus. 
 
 MERI'DIAN. (Lat. tneridies, mid-day.) In Astronomy, 
 a great circle of the sphere passing through the earth's axis 
 and the zenith of the spectator. It is the circle on which 
 the latitudes of places are reckoned, commencing from the 
 equator, which it intersects at right angles. The terrestrial 
 meridian is the great circle (or rather ellipse) formed by the 
 intersection of the surface of the earth with the plane pas- 
 sing through the poles and the place of the spectator. See 
 Degree. 
 
 MERI'DIAN ALTITUDE. The altitude, or height above 
 the horizon, &c. in degrees, of any celestial object, when it 
 crosses the meridian of a place. 
 
 MERI'DIAN, FIRST. The meridian from which longi- 
 tudes are reckoned. The choice of the first meridian is en- 
 tirely arbitrary; and most nations reckon the longitudes 
 from their capital, or meridian passing through their princi- 
 pal observatories. Thus, in English works, the longitude is 
 reckoned from Greenwich; in French, from Paris; in Rus- 
 sian, from St. Petersburg, &c. Ptolemy employed the Ca- 
 nary Islands, the French formerly reckoned from Ferro, and 
 the Dutch from the Peak of Teneriffe. Mercator chose the 
 island Del Corvo. See Longitude. 
 
 MERIDIAN LINE. A line traced on the surface of the 
 earth, coinciding with the intersection of the meridian of the 
 place with the sensible horizon. 
 
 MERIDIAN OF A GLOBE, OR THE BRASS MERIDI- 
 AN, is a graduated circular ring, within which the globe is 
 suspended and revolves, and by means of which it is con- 
 nected with the frame bearing the horizontal scale. Meridi- 
 an lines are also traced on the globe itself, usually at 15° 
 distance, or a difference of longitude corresponding to an 
 hour of time. It is probable that these, with the parallels 
 of latitude, suggested to Descartes the idea of co-ordinates, 
 which he applied so successfully to connect algebra with 
 geometry. 
 
 MERI'NO SHEEP. A breed of sheep till lately peculiar 
 to Spain, but now reared in Saxony, England, and more par- 
 ticularly in Australia, chiefly for the superior fineness of 
 their wool. The word merino signifies an overseer of pas- 
 ture lands, and is applied to this breed of sheep, because, in 
 Spain, they are kept in immense flocks, under a system of 
 shepherds, with a chief as a head, and with a general right 
 of pasturage all over the kingdom. The best flocks of Span- 
 ish merinos are found in Leon and Castile : of the Saxon 
 variety, at Stolpen and Rochsberg : but merinoes are to be 
 found in North America, the Cape of Good Hope, and above 
 all in New South Wales, which promises to be one of the 
 principal woolgrowing countries in the world. See Sheep. 
 
 ME'RLON. In Fortification, the part of the parapet or 
 cpaulement included between two embrasures. 
 
 ME'RMAID. (Germ, meer, sea, and magd. maid.) A 
 fabulous creature; the fore part woman, the hinder half 
 fish. The species of actually existing animals that, viewed 
 at a distance in the sea, may have originated the idea of 
 mermen and mermaids, are the cetaceous dugong and man- 
 atee; these have their fore fins rudely fashioned like arms 
 and hands, and terminate behind in a fish-like tail. The 
 nipples are pectoral ; and they are often seen ascending to 
 the surface to breathe, clasping their suckling young to the 
 nreast. 
 
 MERO'PIDANS, Mcropida. The family of Insessorial 
 birds, of which the bee-eater (Merops) is the type. 
 
 ME'ROS. (Gr.) In Architecture, the plane face between 
 ihe channels in the triglvphs of the Doric order. 
 
 MERU'LIDANS, Mcrulidas. The family of Dentirostral 
 lerchers, of which the thrush (Merula) is the type. 
 
 MESE'MBRYA'NTHEMUM (Gr. ucnoc, the middle, 0pvu, 
 r grow, and avOos, a flower), is a very large genus of succu- 
 cnt Cape plants, of which many species are conspicuous for 
 Jie beauty of their flowers, which expand in sunshine, and 
 close up in gloomy weather. They are chiefly interesting 
 an account of the hygrometical quality of their fruit, which, 
 when wetted, opens out into numerous radiating valves, and 
 ivhen dry contracts with force into a compact and appa- 
 rently solid body. This fruit is sometimes called the fig- 
 marigold. 
 
 MESSIAH. 
 
 ME'SENTERY. (Gr. peaoi, and cvrepov, an intestine.) 
 The membrane by which the intestines are attached to the 
 vertebra ; it is formed of a duplicature of the peritonaitun, 
 and supports the nerves and vessels of the intestines. 
 
 ME'SMERISM. See Magnetism, Animal. 
 
 MESNE PROCESS. Such process as intervenes be- 
 tween the beginning and end of a suit. It is opposed to 
 final process, or that which takes place by way of execution 
 after judgment. Imprisonment for debt on mesne process 
 was effected by the bare affidavit of one person, statiig 
 that another owes him .£20. It is abolished under certain 
 exceptions, by 1 &. 2 Vict., c. 110. See Arrest. 
 
 MESOCO'LON. (Gr. pecos, and /cuXof, the colon.) The 
 myBentery of the colon : it is an extensive duplicature of the 
 peritonaeum. 
 
 ME'SOLABE. (Gr. ucooc, and XapSavw, I take.) An 
 instrument employed by the ancients for finding two mean 
 proportionals between two given lines, which were required 
 in the problem of the duplication of the cube. (See Kuto- 
 cius on the Works of Archimedes, and the 3d Book of Pap- 
 pus.) 
 
 ME'SOLYTE. (Gr. pcoos, and \iQui, m. stone.) A hy 
 drated silicate of alumina, lime, and soda. It is also called 
 
 MESOPHY'LLUM (Gr. ucco;, and ibvWov, a leaf), is the 
 parenchymatous tissue forming the fleshy part of a leaf be 
 tween the upper and lower integuments. 
 
 MESOTHO'RAX (Gr. utoog, and $u>oal, the chest), in 
 Entomology, is the posterior segment of the alitrunk, which 
 bears the posterior pair of wings and the third or posterior 
 pair of legs. 
 
 ME'SOTYPE. (Gr. ixccoc, and TviToi, form.) A hydrated 
 silicate of alumina and soda. It has also been called natro- 
 lite. It occurs in trap rocks and in the ancient lava of 
 Vesuvius. 
 
 MESS, in Military Language, signifies the public dinner 
 prepared either for the officers of the same regiment, or for 
 those of different regiments, if in garrison, and to the support 
 of which they are bound to contribute a portion of their 
 pay. Generally speaking, only married officers are ex- 
 empted from contributing to, and dining at, the mess; the 
 rest preside over it in rotation, without respect to military 
 rank. 
 
 ME'SSENGER. In Naval Language, a hawser or small 
 cable of about sixty fathoms in length, wound round the 
 capstan, and having its two ends lashed together. When 
 the anchor is to be weighed this rope is attached to the ca- 
 ble by the nippers, and thus acts as an endless rope. Chair 
 messengers are sometimes employed. 
 
 ME'SSENGERS, KING'S. Certain officers employed in 
 the secretary of state's department to convey despatches, 
 either at home or abroad. They were formerly employed 
 in serving the secretaries' warrants for the apprehension of 
 parties charged with high treason, or other grave offences; 
 and in such cases it was not unusual for them to detain 
 their prisoners at their own houses. In the year 1713 the 
 ambassador of the emperor of Morocco was taken into cus 
 tody by a king's messenger, and released only after a lapse 
 of six months. 
 
 MESSI'AD. The name given to the only modern epic 
 poem of Germany ; the subject of which is, as the name im- 
 plies, the sufferings and triumphs of the Messiah. It is 
 written in hexameter verse, for which, as we have else- 
 where observed, the German is better fitted than any mod- 
 ern language, and consists of 20 books. The publication of 
 this poem procured for its author unbounded reputation ; 
 but posterity does not appear to sanction the high award 
 pronounced on it by contemporaneous writers. Schlegel, 
 indeed, maintains that the modern literature of Germany 
 may be said to date from the Messiad ; but this high praise 
 must be understood as referring chiefly to its having been 
 among the first productions in which the power and re- 
 sources of the German language were developed, ratliei 
 than to its innate merits as an epic poem, or to the influence 
 it has exercised over the national poetry of Germany. The 
 reputation of Klopstock among his own countrymen rests 
 chiefly on his Odes ; and it must be admitted that in all 
 those parts of his epic poem into which a lyric spirit could 
 be infused — in other words, whenever the feelings or the 
 sympathies were to be excited— there are few poets, either 
 ancient or modem, to whom he deserves to be postponed ; 
 but, on the other hand, the dignity and sublimity of his 
 sentiments are not (infrequently disfigured by the pedantry 
 and affectation of his style, and the tediousness of his epi 
 sodes. 
 
 MESSI' AH. An old Hebrew word, signifying the anoint 
 ed or sacred, corresponding with the Greek word yptnToc. 
 and in this sense applied to the Saviour, as it was anciently 
 applied by the Jews to their prophets, priests, and kings, il 
 being customary to anoint all these high personages when 
 they assumed their office. We read in Psalm ii. 2. "The 
 kings of the earth set themselves against the Lon" and 
 
 
MESSUAGE. 
 
 against his anointed" (i. e. his Messiah) ; and in Psalm xlv., 
 7, "Therefore God, even ihy God, hath anointed thee with 
 the oil of gladness above thy fellows." This anointing, 
 therefore, was not a sensible unction with external oil or 
 ointment, but a symbol of it ; a spiritual, an internal unction 
 of grace, given by the Holy Ghost — " And God gave not the 
 spirit by measure unto him." St. Luke tells us that our 
 Bavioor applied this anointing to himself at the time when 
 he entered the synagogue ofNazarelh. In the synagogue 
 service there is a pause for any one to speak or read who 
 can enlighten or instruct the people : when this period came, 
 our Saviour stepped forward, took up the Hebrew roll, and 
 opened it at the book of the prophet Isaiah, and read aloud 
 this passage: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 
 he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor," &.c. ; 
 and he closed the book, and gave it to the minister, and 
 sat down. The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue 
 were fastened on him; and he said, "This day is this scrip- 
 ture fulfilled in your ears; and all bare him witness, and 
 wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his 
 month.' 1 CLuke, iv., 17, Ice.) 
 
 ME'riSUAGE t modern LaL messuagium), in Law, is said 
 to be properly a dwelling-house with a small portion of land 
 adjacent, or the site of the manor. It is now one of the 
 general words used in the legal description of dwelling- 
 houses with the land attached. 
 
 M KSTI'NO. In Spanish America, the child of a Spaniard 
 or Creole and a native Indian. Sec Mulatto. 
 
 METABO'LIANS. (Gr. fitra6o\v, change.) A subclass 
 of insects, including all those which undergo a metamor- 
 
 MKTACA'RPAL. (Gr. ficra, between, and Kafr.nc, in the 
 
 tenae of the wrist.) Belonging to the metacarpus, or that 
 
 part of th6 hand which is between the wrist and fingers. 
 
 MET ICEWTRE. (Gr. utra, and kcvtPov, centre.) A 
 
 irst applied by Bouguer to that part of a floating body 
 
 ich, when the body is disturbed from the position of 
 
 brims, the vertical line passing through the centre of 
 
 METAMORPH >tlS. 
 
 buoyancy meets the link which, when the body \3 at rest, 
 passes through the centre of buoyancy and centre of gravity 
 In order that the body may float with stability, the position 
 of the metacentre must be above that of the centre of gravi- 
 ty. See Hydrostatics. 
 
 METAGA'LLIC ACID. When gallic acid is rapidly heat 
 ed up to about 480°, carbonic acid and water are evolved, 
 and a black product remains soluble in the alkalies, and 
 forming insoluble compounds with many of the metallic ox- 
 ides. This product has been termed metagallic acid; its 
 ultimate elements are 12 atoms of carbon =72, 3 atoms of 
 oxygen = 24, and 3 atoms of hydrogen = 3, making its equi v 
 alent = 99. b H 
 
 METALLOI'DS. (Gr. ptmAXoi, a metal, and tiioi, 
 form.) A term sometimes applied by chemists to the in- 
 flammable non-metallic bodies, such as sulphur, phospho- 
 rus, &c. The metallic bases of the fixed alkalies and alka- 
 line earths have also been by some called metalloids, in 
 consequence, probably, of their low specific gravity. 
 
 ME'TALLURGY. (Gr. iieraWov, and tpyov, a work., 
 The art of separating metals from their ores. The principal 
 metallurgic processes are described under the respective 
 metals. 
 
 ME'TALS (Gr. fieraWov), are distinguished by their very 
 peculiar lustre, arising out of their opacity ana reflective 
 power in regard to light. They conduct electricity and heat; 
 and they have not been resolved into other forms of matter, 
 so that they are regarded as simple or elementary sub- 
 stances. When their compounds are electrolysed the metals 
 appear at the negative surface, and are hence considered as 
 electro-positive bodies. They are enumerated in the fol- 
 lowing table, together with the names of the chemist.) by 
 whom they were discovered, the date of their discovery. 
 their specific gravities, melting points, equivalent or atonik- 
 weights, and symbolic abbreviations. For their iudi\ i 
 distinctive characters, see the respective metals. Lnnt; 
 is omitted, inasmuch as its properties and combining w. 
 have not been accurately examined. 
 
 Najum of Metals. 
 
 1. Gold . 
 
 2. Silver . 
 
 3. Iron 
 ! Copper 
 5. Mercury 
 0. Lead . 
 
 7. Tin . 
 
 8. Antimony 
 
 9. Bismuth 
 
 10. Zinc . 
 
 11. Arsenic 
 
 12. Cobalt 
 
 13. Platinum 
 
 14. Nickel . . 
 
 15. Manganese . 
 Ifl. Tungsten 
 
 17. Tellurium . 
 
 18. Molybdenum 
 
 19. Uranium 
 
 20. Titanium . 
 
 21. Chromium . 
 -J. folumbium . 
 
 23. Palladium . 
 
 24. Rhodium . 
 
 25. Iridium . . 
 SK Osmium . . 
 
 27. Cerium . . 
 
 28. Potassium . 
 
 29. Sodium . . 
 
 30. Barium . . 
 
 31. Strontium . 
 
 32. Calcium . . 
 
 33. Cadmium . 
 
 34. Lithium . . 
 
 35. Siliclum . . 
 
 36. Zirconium . 
 
 37. Aluminum . 
 
 38. Glucinum 
 
 39. Yttrium . 
 
 40. Thorium 
 
 41. Mnsnesium . 
 4-2. Vanadium . 
 
 i 
 
 9 
 
 4J 
 
 Author*, ind Dates of their 
 Discovery. 
 
 (Known to the ancients, and 
 represented by the annex- 
 ed planetary symbols, with 
 which they were supposed 
 to be mysteriously connect- 
 ed.) 
 
 Basil Valentine . . 1490 
 
 Agricola 1530 
 
 Paracelsus? .... 1530 
 
 Brandt 1733 
 
 Wood 1741 
 
 Cronstedt 1751 
 
 Gahn 1774 
 
 D'Elhuiart .... 1781 
 
 Muller 1782 
 
 Hielm 1782 
 
 Klaproth 1789 
 
 Gregor 1791 
 
 Vauquelin .... 1797 
 
 Hatchett 1802 
 
 Wollaston .... 1803 
 
 Tennant 1803 
 
 Hisinger 1804 
 
 Davy 1807 
 
 Stromeyer 
 Arfwedson 
 
 1818 
 1818 
 
 Berzclius 1824 
 
 Wohler 1828 
 
 Berzelius 1829 
 
 Bussy 1829 
 
 SefUtrom 1830 
 
 SpetB: 
 Gravity. 
 
 1925 
 
 10-47 
 
 7-78 
 
 8-89 
 
 13-56 
 
 11-35 
 
 7-29 
 
 6-70 
 
 9-80 
 
 700 
 
 588 
 
 8-53 
 
 20-98 
 
 8-27 
 
 6-85 
 
 17-60 
 
 fill 
 
 7-40 
 
 9-00 
 
 5-30 
 
 11-50 
 
 0-86 
 097 
 
 8-60 
 
 8 ! 
 
 Fal>T. 
 2010° 
 1873 
 
 28001 s. f.* 
 1996 
 
 39 
 612 
 443 
 
 497 
 773 
 
 28101 
 oh. bp.T 
 28101 
 ». f. 
 
 6201 
 oh. bp. 
 oh. bp. 
 oh. bp. 
 oh. bp. 
 oh. bp. 
 
 oh. bp. 
 
 Ion. bp. 
 oh. bp. 
 
 36 
 90 
 
 449 
 
 Equivalent 
 Weight!. 
 
 200 
 
 110 
 28 
 64 
 
 200 
 
 104 
 58 
 65 
 72 
 32 
 38 
 30 
 96 
 28 
 28 
 
 100 
 32 
 48 
 
 217 
 24 
 28 
 
 185 
 54 
 45 
 96 
 
 100 
 48 
 40 
 24 
 70 
 44 
 20 
 56 
 10 
 8 
 30 
 10 
 18 
 32 
 60 
 12 
 68 
 
 Abbreviations 
 nr BjrBbelt. 
 
 au. 
 
 «*• 
 
 fe. 
 
 cu. 
 
 hg- 
 
 pi. 
 
 sta. 
 
 an. 
 
 bi. 
 
 zn. 
 
 ar. 
 
 cob. 
 
 pla. 
 
 nic. 
 
 man. 
 
 tu. 
 
 tel. 
 
 mol. 
 
 ur. 
 
 ti. 
 
 chr. 
 
 col. 
 
 pal. 
 
 rh. 
 
 ir. 
 
 08. 
 
 ce. 
 
 po. 
 
 so. 
 
 ba. 
 
 Btr. 
 
 cal. 
 
 cad. 
 
 li. 
 
 si. 
 
 zir. 
 
 al. 
 
 th. 
 
 mag. 
 
 va. 
 
 METAMECO'NIC ACID, is produced by boiling the aque- 1 solved into 1 of metnmeconic ncid and 2 of carbonic oci-.l. 
 i lion of meennic acid. It evolves carbonic acid, and It is represented by 12 car. -j- 4 A. -+• 10 ox. 
 U.comes brown. Two atoms of meconic acid are thus re- 1 METAMO'RPHOSIS. (Gr. /aru, indicating change, anJ. 
 
 * Smith*! forge. 
 
 t OiThydrogec blow-pipe. 
 
 739 
 
METAPHOR. 
 
 pLOfKprj, form.) Transformation. The heroic poem of Ovid, 
 in which he recounts the most celebrated mythological nar- 
 ratives respecting the gods of Greece and Rome, and the 
 changes of this description effected by their supernatural 
 power, is called the Books of Metamorphoses. 
 
 Metamo'rphosis. In Entomology, the change of form 
 which the Metabolian insects and some other animals under- 
 go in passing from one stage of existence to another ; in each 
 of which they manifest different habits, and have a different 
 organization. The three stages of a Lepidopterous insect 
 are larva, pupa, and imago. 
 
 ME'TAPHOR. (Gr. perac^ipui, I transfer : indicating the 
 substitution of one word for another of similar meaning.) 
 In Rhetoric, a figure by which a word is transferred from 
 the subject to which it properly belongs, and applied to an- 
 other which has some similitude to its proper subject, with 
 a view to give energy to the expression of the former. A 
 comparison or simile (see Comparison) appears to be only 
 a metaphor with the addition of a sign denoting that it has 
 been thus transferred. Thus " the silver moon" is a meta- 
 phorical expression ; the " moon, bright as silver," a compar- 
 ison. As language advances from the mere indication of 
 sensible objects by names to the expression of the feelings 
 and wants of a complicated mode of life, it becomes more 
 and more metaphysical in character, until it is found that a 
 very large proportion of the words in common use are either 
 metaphors, or are words derived from foreign languages, and 
 whose primary sense as derivatives is the same with their 
 secondary or metaphorical sense in the language from which 
 they came. Thus, the English word " character," used a 
 few lines above, is drawn from the metaphysical use of the 
 Greek xapujcnj/), which, in its primary signification, denoted 
 something engraven on a hard substance. Metaphors have 
 been divided by writers on rhetoric into several classes; 
 but the most appropriate are those which are termed analo- 
 gical, and which derive their force, not from any actual re- 
 semblance between two objects, but from a resemblance be- 
 tween the relations which they bear respectively to certain 
 other objects. Thus " the sea of life" is a common and ap- 
 propriate metaphor; not from any resemblance between the 
 idea of the visible sea and the complex notion of that ab- 
 straction which we term human life, but because there is a 
 fancied similarity between the position of navigators in an 
 uncertain voyage and that of human beings engaged in the 
 manifold scenes of life. 
 
 ME'TAPHOSPHO'RIC ACID. A term by which some 
 chemists designate the dry, flaky acid obtained by burning 
 phosphorus under a bell glass of air or oxygen. 
 
 METAPHY'SICS. (Gr. pcra, after, and tpvms, nature.) 
 A word employed, in popular usage, to denote all those in- 
 quiries which are conversant about objects other than mere- 
 ly physical and sensible. It is an observation of Sir James 
 Mackintosh, that " the term metaphysics affords a specimen 
 of all the faults which the name of a science can combine. 
 To those who know only their own language, it must, at 
 their entrance on the study, convey no meaning. It points 
 their attention to nothing. If they examine the language in 
 which its parts are significant, they will be misled into the 
 pernicious error of believing that it seeks something more 
 than the interpretation of nature. It is only by examining 
 the history of ancient philosophy that the probable origin 
 of this name will be found, in the application of it as the 
 running title of several essays of Aristotle, which were pla- 
 ced in a collection of the manuscripts of that great philoso- 
 pher after his treatise on physics." The censure thus con- 
 veyed we cannot, with all deference for so eminent an au- 
 thority, regard as more than partially correct. Though the 
 account of the origin of the word is, as far as it goes, the true 
 one, it does not comprehend the whole truth. 
 
 If Sir James Mackintosh had examined the contents of 
 those treatises of Aristotle to which he adverts, he would 
 have found that the title metaphysics was prefixed to therrr, 
 not, as his words imply, merely because they happened, ac- 
 cording to the arrangement of the compiler, to follow the 
 physical treatise ; but also because there was the best possi- 
 ble reason for their being so placed, in the fact that the in- 
 quiries which compose them were conceived by Aristotle 
 himself to admit of a general distinction from that depart- 
 ment of inquiry which he included under the name of phys- 
 ics. The first few chapters of the ra ixera to. (pvatKd are 
 devoted to the elucidation of this very distinction, and to the 
 endeavour to clear up the popular confusions on the sub- 
 ject, by marking at once the objects of the highest philoso- 
 phy, and the faculty whereby they were to be apprehended. 
 Admitting, therefore, as we most readily do, that great mis- 
 apprehensions are popularly entertained with regard to the 
 nature of metaphysics, we shall endeavour, as far as the 
 limits of the present article will permit us, to remove such 
 mistakes, by distinguishing the science of metaphysics from 
 other sciences, with which, as they are closely connected 
 with it, it has too frequently been confounded. 
 Metaphysics we understand to be the science which re- 
 740 
 
 METAYER. 
 
 gards the ultimate grounds of teing, as distinguished from 
 its phenomenal modifications. As a means of attaining this 
 end, it considers the correlative of being, knowledge ; and 
 knowledge, not merely in reference to its form, as it is capa- 
 ble of law and regulation, for that is the province of logic— 
 nor in regard to its history, and the successive stages of its 
 development, which are the objects of psychology, or mental 
 philosophy— but knowledge as it is in relation to being, or 
 objective reality. Philosophers have not been satisfied with 
 marking the resemblances of the appearances in nature, and 
 the order in which they succeed each other, whether those 
 appearances were outward and sensible, or internal and re- 
 vived by observation of their own mental Drocesses ; they 
 have not even been content with the discovery that their 
 knowledge of phenomena was self-consistent, and obeyed 
 certain determined or determinable canons or forms ; they 
 have felt that the highest end of science could then only be 
 attained when all knowledge was perceived to depend on a 
 one ultimate principle, which should demonstrate at once 
 its consistency with itself and its absolute foundation in re- 
 ality. That the science of this ultimate, unity is that to 
 which the greatest philosophers have with more or less dis- 
 tinctness assigned the name of metaphysics, we may safely 
 appeal to the history of philosophy for a sufficient demon- 
 stration. 
 
 Whether the object thus proposed were one which the 
 human faculties are capable of reaching is itself the first 
 problem of metaphysics, and enters not, therefore, into that 
 with which we have at present to do — a definition of the 
 word. We may, indeed, with Hume and his followers, re- 
 ject all such attempts as chimerical, and endeavour to re- 
 solve the speculations to which they have led into the delu- 
 sions of association or caprice ; or we may, with Kant, con- 
 fine ourselves to the critique of our mental laws, and, as the 
 result of our investigation, pronounce that we possess no 
 faculty capable of reaching outward reality. In the first 
 case : if we have been careful to ascertain that our analysis 
 has at every step been legitimate, we are bound to admit, 
 not that metaphysics is an impossible science, but that it 
 does not yet exist as a science. In the second instance, we 
 are constrained to allow that all reality is subjective only, 
 and that we can only know things in relation to our own 
 modes of knowing ; and this is itself a metaphysical princi- 
 ple, preclusive of farther inquiry. In defiance, however, 
 alike of the sneers of the skeptic, and the yet profounder 
 skepticism of the critical philosophy, our own days have 
 witnessed the rise, in Germany and France, of more than 
 one professed system of metaphysical science. The fre- 
 quency of such endeavours as these, undertaken, as they 
 are, by men of such acknowledged acuteness and philosoph- 
 ical insight as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, even if they in- 
 spire us with no hope of a nearer approximation to the ob- 
 jects which they pursue, may at least serve to convince us 
 that the propensity to such speculations constitutes an ina- 
 lienable and indestructible instinct of our intellectual and 
 moral nature. 
 
 ME'TAPEASM. (Gr. prep, utra, signifying change, and 
 TiXaaaui, I form.) In Grammar, a general term, compre- 
 hending all those figures of diction which consist in altera- 
 tions of the letters or syllables of a word ; taking place in 
 three ways — by augmentation, diminution, or immutation. 
 1. Augmentation at the beginning, prosthesis ; in the mid- 
 dle, epenthcsis ; at the end, paragoge ; to which may be 
 added diaresis, adding to the number of syllables by the 
 resolution of a diphthong. 2. Diminution at the beginning, 
 apharesis ; in the middle, syncope ; at the end, apocope; by 
 contraction of two vowels, synaresis or crasis. 3. Immu- 
 tation, antithesis, signifying the change of one letter for an- 
 other ; metathesis, transposition of the order of letters. (See 
 those respective heads.) 
 
 META'STASIS. (Gr. ucra, and oraots, station.) The 
 transference or translation of a disease from one part of the 
 body to another. 
 
 METATA'RSUS. (Gr. utra, and rapaos, heel.) The in- 
 step is so called by surgical writers. 
 
 META'THESIS. (Gr. ixcra, and Seats, position.) In 
 Grammar, the transposition of the letters of a word ; a fig- 
 ure of uncommon occurrence in modern orthography, but 
 which very ordinarily takes place in the gradual formation, 
 of the dialects of a language : e. g., German, ross ; English, 
 horse. See Metaplasm. 
 
 ME'TATOME. (Gr. pera, and tcuvio, I cut.) In Archi- 
 tecture, the space between one dentil and the next. 
 
 META'YER. (Fr.; in Italian, mezzaiuolo ; Lat.colonus 
 medietarius.) In France and Italy, a farmer holding ?nnd 
 on condition of yielding half the produce to the proprietor, 
 from whom he receives tools and stock. Land thus occu- 
 pied is said to be held in metairie. The conditions of the 
 contract, however, vary essentially in different countries 
 and districts. The antiquity of this mode of letting land is 
 very great : it is probably the same which was called by the 
 Romans locatio in partibus (see Plin. Epist.) ; and the farmei 
 
METEMPSYCHOSIS. 
 
 thus holding was nlso termed colons partiarius. It now 
 prevails extensively in the south ar d middle of France, 
 tlir ughout Italy, in parts of Spair, :jij, it is said, in the 
 East. For a very valuable summap' cf the character and 
 effects of this agricultural system, t'je reader may be refer- 
 red x> Mr. Jones's Essay on P'ca'.th , and for a highly-col- 
 oured view of the state of the tenantry under it in some 
 parts of Italy, to Jtf. SismonJi's Etudes sur C Economie Po- 
 litiqi :. 
 
 METE'MPSYCHO'SIS. (Or. ncra, change, and \fm%v, 
 soul.) A Greek word deno'Mg the migrations of the soul 
 throut,.! different success)' t bodies. The doctrine of the 
 transmigration of souls Las rusted in the belief of various 
 religious arJ philosophical -eels from the remotest antiquity. 
 It form d ib«. leading dc-tlrine of one of the most celebrated 
 Is of pHloeophy in the whole heathen world (see 
 PvTiiAuojir*n Vh'lusomiy) ; it was said, too, to have found 
 numcrot j -d'.<:rt-.ts hi Egypt; but it is chiefly among the 
 Indians ''if. \W% doctrine has taken deep and permanent 
 root. \\ lt.i ihcm it appears to have been an .article of faith 
 from the ,«.iod at which we can first perceive any trace of 
 their existence as n nation ; and it is not going too far to say 
 that not only all the opinions, but even all the manners of 
 the Indians, arc at this hour built upon this doctrine. The 
 Indian doctrine of metempsychosis rests on the supposition 
 II beings derive their origin from God, and are placed 
 in this world in an altogether degraded condition, from 
 which they all, but more particularly the human race, must 
 either decline into still lower degradation, or rise gradually 
 to n higher state more accordant with their divine original, 
 according as they give car to the vicious or the virtuous 
 i if their nature. It must be remarked, however, 
 that the Indians make a wide distinction between the fu- 
 ture destiny of those who have passed through life tainted 
 by the usual vires and infirmities of human nature, and Ifaose 
 have been spent in the constant rhscborgeofre- 
 '.igi'ius duties. In the latter case, the soul does not pass 
 through different stages of existence, "but proceeds directly 
 to reunion with the supreme Being, with which it is identi- 
 fied, as a river at its confluence with the sea merges therein 
 altogether. His vital faculties, and the elements of which 
 his body consists, are absorbed completely and absolutely ; 
 both name and form cense ; and he becomes Immortal, with- 
 out parts or members." (See Mr. Colebrooke's translation 
 tracts from the Brahma-Sutras, in the Traiusae. of the 
 Roy. Jis. Soc, vol. ix.) 
 
 M KTF..M l'I( >'.^IS. See Pro em ptosis. 
 
 METEOBO'LOGY. (Gr. utrrtwpoc, atrial, and Aoyof, 
 mtm.1 The science of meteors, or the science which 
 explains the various phenomena which have their origin in 
 the atmoaphi the term meteorology, it is now 
 
 usual to include, not merely the observation of the accident- 
 al phenomena to which the name of meteor is applied, but 
 every terrestrial as well as atmospherical phenomenon, 
 whether accidental or permanent, depending on the action of 
 heat, light, electricity, anil magnetism. In this extended signi- 
 fication, meteorology eomprehendscllniatology.and the g re a t- 
 er part of physical geography; and its object is to determine 
 the diversified and incessantly changing Influences of the 
 four great asients of nature now named, on land, in the sea, 
 and in the atmosphere. See Atmosphere. Climate, and 
 the various terms referred to under Meteors. 
 
 METEORS. (Gr. ucrewpi.) A name given to any phe- 
 nomena of a transitory nature which have their origin in the 
 atmosphere. Meteors are of various kinds. Seme are pro- 
 duced simply bj a disturbance of the equilibrium of the at- 
 mospheric fluid, and are called atrial meteors. (Sec Winds, 
 Whirlwinds.) A second class arise from the deposition 
 of the aqueous particles which the atmosphere holds in so- 
 lution, and which are precipitated in consequence of a dimi- 
 nution of pressure or temperature, sometimes in a fluid and 
 sometimes in a concrete form. These are called aqueous 
 meteors. (See Dew, Foes, Hail, Rain, Snow, Vapour, 
 Jlc) A third class of meteors, or atmospherical phenome- 
 na, are caused by the action of tho aqueous panicles dis- 
 persed in the atmosphere on the rays of light. These are 
 called luminous meteors. (See Fata Morgana, Halo, 
 Mirage, Parhelia, Rainbow.) A fourth class are the ig- 
 neous meteors, comprehending those which present the phe- 
 nomena distinctive of combustion. See Aerolite, Aurora 
 Borealis, Fire Balls, Lightning, Shooting Stars, &c. 
 
 METHE'GLIN. (Germ, roeth, mead.) A beverage made 
 of honcv and water, fermented by the addition of yeast. 
 
 METHOD. From the Greek word uiOodoc, which signi- 
 B journey undertaken in quest of any object, or a way 
 fining any end : hence, in Logic, it denotes a mode of 
 ngating truth. Thus we have the dialectic method, 
 ducrjve method, the analytical method, &c. See Dia- 
 lectics, Induction, Analysis. 
 
 METHODISTS. The body of Christians to whom this 
 name is chiefly applied are the followers of the late John 
 Wesley, the founder of this numerous sect ; hence called 
 
 METHODISTS. 
 
 Wesleyan Methodists. But the term bears a more exten 
 sive meaning, being applied also to several bodies ,ji sec 
 tions of Christians who have seceded or withdrawn from 
 the Wesleyan denomination. 
 
 The origin of the Methodist Society look place at Oxford 
 in 1729. After the Revolution, when the principles of rcli 
 gious toleration were recognised amid the progress of free 
 inquiry, the clergy of the Established Church were thought 
 by some to have sunk into a state of comparative lukewarm- 
 ness and indifference. This alleged degeneracy was observ 
 ed with pain by John Wesley and his brother Charles, when 
 students at the University of Oxford ; and being joined by a 
 few of their fellow-students who were intended for the min- 
 istry in the Established Church, they formed the most rigid 
 and severe rules for the regulation of their time and studies, 
 for reading the Scriptures, for self-examination, and ..tin r 
 religious exercises. The ardent piety and rigid observance 
 of system in everything connected with the new opinions 
 displayed by the Wesleys and their adherents, as well as m 
 their college studies, which they never neglected, attracted 
 the notice and excited the jeers of the various memb 
 the University, and gained for them the appellation of .Meth- 
 odists ; in allusion to the mcthodiei, a class of physicians at 
 Rome who practised only by theory. (Celsus, in Prefat. it 
 Jlctlirina.) 
 
 In the mean time Wesley took orders in the Establish) <! 
 Church, and acted for a few months as assistant to his fa- 
 ther, who was rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire. Alter 
 the death of the latter, he was induced (1735), in company 
 with his brother Charles and two other friends, to accept of 
 an offer to go to Georgia, in North America, to preach the 
 gospel to the Indians. On his return to England in 1737, 
 Wesley officiated in several churches of the establishment. 
 But the higher ranks were offended at bis declamatory and 
 enthusiastic mode of preaching; and the clergy having dis- 
 claimed some of his doctrines, the churches in general were 
 soon shut against him. It was his desire, however, to he 
 allowed to officiate in the pulpit of his native church. Ili- 
 object, in truth, was to effect a reformation in the church 
 not to recede from connexion with it ; and the rules he Ob 
 served himself, and imposed iiihhi his followers, were design- 
 ed as supplementary to the established ritual, not as super 
 ■edlng it. But the circumstances to which we have refer 
 red threw his labours into a different, and ultimately an op 
 positc channel ; and in short, without having at first intended 
 it, he became the (bonder of the most numerous class of 
 era in Qreal Britain. 
 
 Heine thus virtually excluded from the Established Church 
 he preached in Dissenting chapels in London and other phi 
 ces where lie could obtain admission. In course of time, 
 and owing to the vast multitudes that crowded to listen to 
 Ms ministrations, b,. adopted the expedient of officiating in 
 the open air, and commenced field preacher. He first form 
 ed his followers into I separate society in 1738, the year af 
 ter his return from America, though he referred the estab 
 lishment of Methodism to a prior date. (See IVeslcifs Eccl. 
 Hist., vol. iv., p, 175.) Wesley, from this date, devoted U) 
 time and his great talents exclusively to the propagation ol 
 what he regarded the doctrines of tho Gospel, and to the 
 extension of that sect of which lie was the founder. His 
 labours were chiefly confined to England ; but he nlso paid 
 visits to Scotland and Ireland, in the former of which his 
 I was inconsiderable. (Sir 11. .Monerriff's Life of 
 Dr. Erskine, cap. vii.) But while he confined his own In 
 bouts to Great Britain and Ireland, he was not inattentive to 
 the spiritual necessities of other countries, and, by means of 
 a succession of missionaries, propagated his doctrines to n 
 very great extent in America and many of the West Indb' 
 islands. 
 
 The unparalleled success which attended his great mis 
 sionary exertions was not gained without much obloquy and 
 persecution, particularly in the United Kingdom. Owing to 
 the intelligence and liberality of the age, neither himself nor 
 any of his missionaries were exposed to stripes and impris- 
 onment; but all of them met with violent opposition on the 
 part, not merely of clergymen, both Established and Dissent- 
 ing, and the wealthier classes, but nlso of the people ; and 
 some of them were beset with mobs, assai'ed by showers 
 of stones and other missiles, and sometimes dragged through 
 the streets as raving enthusiasts and as disturbers of the 
 public peace. It must, at the same time, be confessed, that 
 the imprudence of some of his followers contnnnted some 
 what to the reproach which they experienced. 
 
 Finding his societies rapidly increasing, and having been 
 refused assistance from the established clergy, Wesley was 
 induced to have recourse to lay preachers ; an expedient 
 which lie was at first exceedingly averse to adopt, but 
 which he afterwards found most efficient in promoting the 
 triumph of his views. He was thus enabled to exercise su- 
 perintendence over all his followers, and greatly to extend 
 his sphere of action. 
 
 Wesley objected to his adherents being called Dissenters 
 
 711 
 
METHODISTS. 
 
 nun required them to attend the Established Church when 
 they had no opportunity of hearing their own preachers. His 
 creed is Armirrian, and differs, therefore, from the system 
 of Calvin in regard to predestination, election, and the ex- 
 tent of the atonement, which he maintained was for all men. 
 He held that repentance preceded faith. He taught that, by 
 virtue of the blood of Christ, and the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit, it was the privilege of Christians to arrive at that 
 maturity in grace and participation of the Divine nature 
 which excludes sin from the hear, and fills it with perfect 
 love to God and men. ( Wesley 3 Plain Ace. of Christian 
 Perfection.) These and other minor opinions, in which lie 
 differed, or seemed to differ, from the creed of the Establish- 
 ed Church, are still retained by the Methodists. (In addition 
 to Wesley's works, particularly his Sermons, see Benson's 
 Apology for the Methodists ; and Mylcs's Chronol. Mist, of 
 the Methodists.) Wesley and his followers, we may here ob- 
 serve, continued, long after their separation from the church, 
 to read the service of that church; nay, the practice was 
 continued, in a few instances, after his death. The great 
 body of the Wesleyans, though they are now classed among 
 Dissenters, are in favour of a national establishment of reli- 
 gion, and give the benefit of their support to the Established 
 Church of England. There is, in truth, a pretty large body 
 who fluctuate between Methodism and the national creed. 
 
 But while this is the case, the Methodists have adopted a 
 system of church discipline and government quite distinct 
 from those of the establishment, and which seems to partake 
 as much of presbytery as of any other polity. Of this sys- 
 tem, which is considerably complicated, the following are 
 the leading features : 1. Each society or congregation is 
 divided into smaller bodies, called classes, each class em- 
 bracing from twelve to twenty persons, one of whom is 
 styled the leader. Each society has also a body of men 
 called stewards, whose office is similar to that of deacon in 
 the Established Church. The duties of leaders — namely, 
 visiting the sick, and holding religious intercourse with the 
 members belonging to their class — are, in many respects, 
 akin to those of lay-elders in the Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland. The leaders, stewards, and minister meet once 
 a week (aad this is called a leaders meeting), on the reli- 
 gious business of the society ; and to account for the funds 
 received from the members in support of schools or of the 
 gospel. 
 
 A number of these societies united constitutes a circuit, 
 which is large or small as the circumstances of each locality 
 require. One of the ministers within the district is termed 
 the superintendent. The ministers officiating in the circuit 
 meet all the classes quarterly, and speak personally to each 
 member. Those whose conduct is devoid of reproach re- 
 ceive a ticket, the chief use of which is to prevent impos- 
 ture. After the conference with the classes another meet- 
 ing (called a quarterly meeting) is held, consisting of all the 
 ministers, leaders, and stewards in the circuit. On this oc- 
 casion the stewards deliver their collections to a circuit 
 steward, and every thing relating to secular matters is 
 publicly settled. At this meeting, also, the candidates for 
 the ministry are proposed; and the stewards, after a definite 
 period of service, are changed. 
 
 From five to ten or fifteen of the circuits, according to 
 their extent, form a district, the ministers in which meet 
 annually, the meeting being termed a district meeting. 
 This assembly has authority " to try and suspend ministers 
 who are found immoral, erroneous in doctrine, or deficient 
 in ability ; to decide concerning the building of chapels ; to 
 examine the demands from the circuits respecting the sup- 
 port of clergymen ; and to elect a representative to attend 
 and form a committee, four days before the meeting of the 
 annual conference, in order to prepare a draught of the sta- 
 tions for the ensuing year. (Myles, ut supra.) The circuit 
 stewards arc present at this meeting during the settlement 
 of all financial matters. The judgment of the assembly is 
 conclusive until the meeting of the conference, to which an 
 appeal is allowed in all cases. 
 
 The conference, which is the supreme judicatory, and 
 whose decisions are final, consists, strictly speaking, only of 
 1 hundred of the senior itinerant preachers, in terms of a 
 deed of declaration executed by Wesley and enrolled in 
 chancery. In this deed the meeting is termed " the Confer- 
 ence of the people called Methodists." But the conference 
 is generally composed of the preachers elected at the pre- 
 vious district meetings to be their representatives, of the 
 superintendents of the circuits, and of every minister who 
 chooses to attend ; all of them being allowed the same right 
 of voting as the hundred, or legal conference. From this 
 body all authority emanates, and by them all regulations 
 to be observed throughout the whole Methodist connexion 
 are framed. In their name are levied all the funds required 
 for carry ng on the operations of the body. Ministers are 
 by them appointed to the stations they are respectively to 
 occupy ; they nominate the superintendents of the various 
 districts , they decide on all cases of appeal ; and, generally 
 742 
 
 METONYMY. 
 
 speaking, the whole state of the connexion conies under 
 their review and control. All their deliberations are carried 
 on with closed doors, so that the people have no check ovei 
 their proceedings; but the results of their discussions are 
 annually published after each meeting, under the title of 
 Minutes of Conference, which imbody the laws of the so- 
 ciety. The gradation of courts, and the supreme authority 
 being vested in the conference, are somewhat similar in 
 spirit and operation to the various judicatories of the Church 
 of Scotland, in which, like the conference of the Methodists, 
 the general assembly is supreme; the chief exception being 
 that the latter judicatory is composed of certain relative 
 proportions of lay elders and clergymen, while the Method- 
 ist conference is confined exclusively to ministers. (Gcna-al 
 Rules of the Methodist Society ; Adam's Religious World, 
 vol. in., p. 113-119.) 
 
 At the death of Wesley in 1791, there were, in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, about 300 itinerant preachers in con 
 nexion with the new sect, and 1000 of what are called local 
 preachers — some of them, however, having very small con 
 gregations — and 80,000 members. But the Wesleyan Meth- 
 odists have established foreign stations in Australia, Van 
 Diemen's Land, Gibraltar, Malta, Germany, &c. ; and so 
 rapidly have they increased, that the number of Wesleyan 
 Methodists in 1840, both at home and abroad, amounted to 
 1,137,424 ; and the total number of preachers, regular and 
 supernumerary, was 5031. 
 
 Various offshoots have taken place from the Wesleyan 
 Methodists at various times : among the most important of 
 which may be reckoned the followers of Whitfield, for- 
 merly the coadjutor, and afterwards the most powerful and 
 eloquent opponent of Wesley, and supporter of Calvinism; 
 the Methodists of Lady Huntingdon's connexion, in whose 
 chapels service is performed according to the ritual of the 
 Church of England ; the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists ; the 
 Primitive Methodists, or Ranters (which see) ; the New 
 Connexion Methodists (which see) ; the Independent Meth 
 odists; Bryanites, Warrenites, &c. Some of tbese sects, 
 particularly the Whitfieldians, are nearly allied in church 
 government ami discipline to the Independents ; and it is not 
 unlikely that a coalition way lake place between them and 
 this latter denomination. (In addition to the works already- 
 quoted, see Journal of John Wesley ; Lives of Wesley, by 
 Coke, More, Southey, &c. ; Nightingale's Portraiture of 
 Methodism ; Mosheim's Church History. For a full ac- 
 count of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
 States, see Dr. Bangs' s History; The Discipline of the 
 Church ; Dr. Emory's Defence of our Fathers, &c. &c.) 
 
 METHYLENE. (Gr. uetiu, wine and v\n, wood.) When 
 wood is subjected to destructive distillation, there is formed 
 along with the tar, acetic acid, and other products, a highly 
 volatile and inflammable liquid, which, when purified by 
 distillation off quicklime, was called spirit or alcohol of 
 wood, or pyroxilic spirit. The hydrocarbon which forms 
 the basis of this form of alcohol, and to which the term 
 methylene has been applied, is presumed to consist of 1 atom 
 of carbon = 6, and 1 atom of hydrogen = 1 : its density (in 
 reference to hydrogen) being just half that of olefiant gas, 
 or = 7. The alcohol of wood is a hydrate of this hydrocar- 
 bon, or a compound of 1 atom of methylene = 7, and 1 
 atom of water = 9 : the equivalent, therefore, of the alcohol 
 of wood is7 + 9 = lG. 
 
 ME'TOCHE. (Probably from /.irrsxw. I partition.) In 
 Architecture, the space between two dentils. 
 
 METOE'CI. (Gr. uctoikoi, sojourners.) The resident 
 aliens, who formed a large class of the inhabitants of 
 Athens. They were distinguished from the few full citi 
 zens by many disabilities and burdens. They had no share 
 in the administration of the state, and were precluded from 
 the power of possessing landed estates. Each was com- 
 pelled to purchase the shelter he received from the state by 
 the payment of a small annual sum {uctoikiov), and to place 
 himself under the guardianship of a citizen (-Kpoardrns), who 
 was his formal representative in the courts of law. They 
 were generally engaged in mercantile and mechanical busi- 
 ness. 
 
 METO'NIC CYCLE. So called from Meton, its inventor 
 (B.C. 432). A cycle of nineteen years, or, more accurately, 
 of 6940 days; at the end of which time the new moons fall 
 on the same days of the year, and the eclipses return in 
 nearly the same order. The reason of this is, that in nine- 
 teen solar years there are 235 lunations (with a difference 
 of a few hours), and very nearly one complete revolution 
 of the moon's nodes. The cycle was corrected by Calippus. 
 See Calippio Period, Cycle. 
 
 METO'NYMY. (Gr. uiTutwuta ; derived from the prepo 
 sition iitra, change, and ovofia, a name.) In Rhetoric and 
 Composition, a figure by which the name of an idea or thing 
 is substituted for that of another, to which it has a certain 
 relation. Thus, the eft'ect is frequently substituted for the 
 cause — "gray hairs" stands for "old age:" the abstract foi 
 the concrete — " What doth gravity" (»'. e., the grave person} 
 
 
METOPA. 
 
 'out of his bed at midnight?" — substance for quality, prece- 
 dent for subsequent, &c. 
 
 The term Mctonomasia (of the same origin as metonomy) 
 was invented during the last century by the French to de- 
 signate a practice which prevailed to a great extent among 
 it! of the Continent, viz., of adopting some name in 
 preference to their own. 
 
 IIETO'PA. (Gr. fitra, between, and omj, a hole.) In 
 Architecture, the square space in the frieze between the 
 triglyphs of the Doric order. It is left either plain or deco- 
 rated, according to the taste of the architect. In the most 
 ancient examples of this order, the metopa was left quite 
 is manifest fioin a passage alluded to in the art. 
 . rECTDRB. 
 METOPO'SCOPY. (Gr. utntvov, a forehead, and cko- 
 tid), I view.) The art of divination by inspecting the fore- 
 iicnd, treated of especially by the famous Cardanus. The 
 figns of the forehead are chiefly its lines; but moles and 
 <pots are also supposed to have their particular meaning, 
 are under the dominion of their several planets. 
 U K'TRE. (Gr. jictDov, measure.) In the classical sense 
 of the word, a subdivision of a verse. The' Greeks meas- 
 ured some species of verses (the dactylic, choriaiiihic. ami 
 tonic, It-c.) by considering each foot as a metre; in 
 
 Jllicrs (the iambic, trochaic, and anapasstic), each dipodia, or 
 
 two feet, formed a metre. Thus, the dactylic hexameter 
 
 ttalne eta dactyls end epondeea: the 
 
 IBmbiC, uancatiCi and trochaic Jj-imr.trr, six of IbOM feet 
 lenectrvely. A line is said to be aeataieclic when the last 
 ryllable of the last foot is wanting ; braehijeataleclic. when 
 wo syllables are cut off in tiic same way ; hypcrcataleptic. 
 When i iperiluous syllable. 
 
 METRONOME. <<;r. iitrpm, and vouog, a late.) An 
 nstrument for measuring musical time. It is contrived cm 
 (he principle of a clock, having a short pendulum, whose 
 _■ movable up and down on the rod, is thus capa- 
 reaatng or di creasing the length of a note or bar as 
 required by the character of the music. The length or du- 
 ration of a note I I the head of a piece of 
 slating that a pendulum of a given length in inches 
 . rolchet, or otlior note, a. the case 
 
 METROPOLIS. (Gr. u»;n?p, mother, and ttoAk, city, or 
 state.) 1. A parent state from which colonies have sprung, 
 in which sense the word is uniformly employed by ancient 
 Greek writers. 2. The chief city of a province in the later 
 ages of the Roman empire. The Christian Church having 
 adopted the secular division of the Roman empire into 
 provinces, the episcopal seat established in every s-h-Ii city, 
 and the bishop of it himself, were termed metropolitan. It. 
 In modern usage, the chief or capital city of an independent 
 Kate. 
 
 METROPOLITAN, in early Ecclesiastical History, was 
 a title applied to the archbishop, or chief ecclesiastical dig- 
 nitary, resident in a city. The establishment of ■netropofl- 
 place at the end of the third century, and was 
 I by the council of Nice. In some of the Protest- 
 ant states of Germany the title exists to the present lime, 
 and the person in possession of it has rank equivalent to the 
 bishop* of the English Church. 
 
 MEZZANINE. (Eat. mezznno, middle.) In Architec- 
 ture, a story of small height introduced between two higher 
 
 MEZZO SOPRA'NO. (Ital.) In Music, a high counter- 
 tenor, having tho C sol ut clef on the second line. 
 
 MEZZOTTNTO. (Ital.Ao//tint«f.) A particular method 
 (if engraving on copper. See Enor aviso. 
 
 MlA'SMA. (Gr. utaivut, / infect.) Infectious or conta- 
 gious matter. The term is generally applied, under the 
 name of marsh miasma (malaria of the Italians), to the in- 
 manations from marshy lands and stagnant waters, 
 which are |>eculiarly characterized by producing various 
 forms of intermittent and remittent fevers. 
 
 MI'CA. (Lat mico, I shine.) A mineral generally found 
 in thin clastic lamina;, soft, smooth, and of various colours 
 and degrees of transparency. Silica, alumina, potash, and 
 iron nre its principal components. It is one of the 
 constituents of granite. In some parts of Siberia and else- 
 where it forms an article of trade, often known under the 
 
 ■ iiry (rlaSS. 
 
 MI'CA SLATE. One of the lowest of tho stratified 
 rocks, composed of quartz and mica. See Geology. 
 
 MI'CUAELMAB. The feast of St. Michael the Arch- 
 angel. It falls on the 29th of September, and is supposed 
 to have been established towards the close of the fifth cen- 
 tury; Brady says in 487. In England, Michaelmas is one 
 of the regular periods for settling rents; and an old custom 
 Is i\\\\ in u>e of having a roast goose for dinner on that day, 
 probably because geese are at that period most plentiful, and 
 in the highest perfection. (See llrand's Pop. JJntiq.) 
 
 MI'CHAEL, SAINT. A French order of knighthood, 
 instituted by Louis XI. in 1409, in honour of St. Michael, 
 
 MICROMETER. 
 
 the supposed ancient protector of Frar« e. The motto oi 
 the order was " immensi tremor oceani." It was at first, and 
 for some time after its institution, in high repute : but under 
 Catharine of MeSicis, who lavished it indiscriminately, it 
 came to be held of no account, from which state it never 
 recovered. 
 
 MI'CROCOSM. (Gr. fitupo; koouoc, little universe.) 
 Man has been called so by some fanciful writers on naturai 
 philosophy and metaphysics, by reason of a supposed cor 
 respondence between the different parts and qualities of his 
 nature and those of the universe. 
 
 MICRODA'CTYLUS. (Gr. utKfoc, and laxrvXos, a 
 digit.) A name proposed by M. Geoffroy for the short- 
 toed genus of wading birds, called by Illiger Dicholophus. 
 See that word. 
 
 MI'CRODON. (Gr. piKpoc, and oootij, a tooth.) The 
 name of a genus of extinct fishes, belonging to the thick 
 toothed or Pycnodont family, in the Ichthyological system 
 of Al'mss'iz. 
 
 MM 'HO' METER. (Gr. ptiepoe, and ucrpav, measure.) 
 An instrument applied to telescopes and microscopes for 
 measuring very small distances, or the diameters of objects 
 which subtend very small angles. A great number of con- 
 trivances of various kinds, and depending on different prin 
 ciples, have been employed for this purpose; but it will be 
 sufficient to cive ■ general description of some of the most 
 useful or remarkable o 
 
 Hire Micrometer. — This instrument, when placed in the 
 tube of a teleso pe, at the focus of the object glass, presents 
 the appearance represented in the annexed figure (fig. 1) 
 
 (10 
 
 A a is a spider's web line, or very fine 
 wire fixed to the diaphragm; and B6 
 and C c are similar wires stretched 
 across two forks, each connected with 
 a milled-headed screw. By means of 
 these screws the two wires, fj b nnd C 
 c which are exactly parallel to ench & 
 other, are movable in the direction per- 
 pendicular to A a : and, in order that the 
 wire A a may be placed in any direc- 
 tion re .; 
 
 an adjusting screw, which works into an interior toothed 
 wheel, nnd turns the apparatus round in its own plane per 
 pendicnlar to the axis of the telescope. 
 
 The method of using the micrometer is as follows; Sup- 
 pose the object to be accomplished were the measurement 
 of the angle of position and distance of two very close stars; 
 the telescope being set and kept on the objects, the microm- 
 eter is turned by its adjusting screw until the spider line A 
 a coincides with the line joining the two stars, or threads 
 them both at the same moment The milled heads of the 
 screws, which carry the two movable wires, are then turned 
 until B h bisect! one of the two stars, and C c bisects the 
 other. The observation is now completed, and it only re 
 mains to ascertain the position and distance indicated by the 
 micrometer. For the first of these purposes, the circumfer 
 ence of the micrometer is divided into degrees and minutes. 
 and read by two verniers: this reading gives the position of 
 A a in respect of the horizontal nnd vertical planes, and 
 consequently the angle of position of the two stars. To find 
 their distance, the head of the screw which carries one of 
 the movable wires, for instance C e, is turned until C c coin 
 cidee with B A; and the number of revolutions, nnd parts of 
 a revolution, required to effect the coincidence, gives the dis- 
 tance of the stars when the value of the scale of the mi- 
 crometer is known ; that is to say, when the number of 
 seconds of space which correspond to one revolution of the 
 screw is known. The screws must be made with great 
 accuracy, and their hends are usually divided into GO equal 
 pans, representing seconds. 
 
 The value of the scale, or of a revolution of the screw, is 
 obtained in the folk wing manner : Set the two wires, B b 
 and C c, apart to a certain number of revolutions, nnd place 
 them in the direction of the meridian. Observe the transits 
 of several stars of known declination over the wires ; then 
 multiply each interval of seconds by 15, and by the cosine 
 of the star's declination ; .and, taking the mean, you have 
 the seconds of space which correspond to a known number 
 of revolutions of the screw. (See Appendix, by the Rev. R. 
 Sheepshanks, to Professor De Morgan's Explanation of 
 the Onomonic Projection of the Sphere.) 
 
 Circular Micrometer.— This instrument, which differs 
 entirely from the above, was first suggested by Boscovich, 
 in the Leipzic Jlcts for 1740, and used by Lacnille in ob- 
 serving a comet in 1742; but seems afterwards to have 
 fallen into disuse, until it was revived by Dr. Olbers, about 
 1798. The principle maybe explained as follows: If the 
 field of a telescope be perfectly circular (which may be 
 effected by means of a dinphragm turned in a lathe), and if 
 its diameter be determined from observation, the paths of 
 two celestial bodies across the field may be considered as 
 two parallel chords, which are given in terms of a circle of 
 
 743 
 
MICROMETER. 
 
 known diameter. The differences of the times at which 
 two stars arrive at the middle of their paths will be their 
 ascensional differences ; and the distance between the chords, 
 which is readily computed from their lengths, gives the dif- 
 ference of the declinations of the two bodies. 
 
 The most approved construction of the annular micrometer 
 is that of the late Fraunhofer. It consists of a disk of parallel 
 plate glass (tig. 2), having in its centre a round hole of about 
 /.. v half an inch in diameter, to the edges of 
 
 MICROSCOPE. 
 
 which a ring of steel is cemented, and 
 afterwards truly turned in a lathe. The 
 disk being mounted in a brass tube, so 
 that it may be accurately adjusted in the 
 focus of the eye-piece, and applied to a 
 telescope, the steel ring is alone visible, 
 and appears as if suspended in the at- 
 mosphere, whence the instrument is call- 
 ed the suspended annular micrometer. 
 The advantage of this construction consists in the accuracy 
 with which the moment of ingress or egress is determined, 
 from the body being seen in the field of view before it conies 
 up lo ihe edge of the steel ring. The annular micrometer is 
 conveniently used for comparing the place of a small star or 
 a comet with that of a known star in nearly the same paral- 
 lel of declination. (Astronomische Jfachrichten, b. iv.) 
 
 Divided Object Glass, or Double Image Micrometer. — 
 This instrument is formed by dividing the object glass of a 
 telescope or microscope into two'halves, the straight edges 
 being ground smooth, so that they may easily slide by one 
 another. A double image of an object in the field of view 
 is produced by the separation of the segments ; and, by 
 bringing the opposite edges of the two images into contact, 
 a measure of the diameter of the object is obtained in terms 
 of the extent of the separation. From its being used to 
 measure the diameter of the sun, this is usually called the 
 hcliomcter {see Heliometer). Instead of a divided object 
 glass, Rainsden preferred a divided lens in the eye-tube, 
 which form of the instrument is called the dioptric microm- 
 eter. The double image micrometer was suggested by 
 Roemer, about 1C78, but first brought into use by Bouguer, 
 about 1748. 
 
 Micro meter by Double Refraction. — The Abbe Rochon 
 conceived the ingenious idea of applying the principle of 
 double refraction to micrometrical measurement. Conceive 
 two prisms, ABC and BCD (tig. 3), formed of the same 
 
 ,'3.) 
 
 M 
 
 
 I 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 / T 
 
 
 
 ■\r 
 
 H 
 
 s 
 
 crystal, and so disposed that the face A 
 B of the first is perpendicular to the axis 
 of the crystal, while, in the second, the 
 axis is parallel to the line of the inter- 
 section of the two faces C B and C D, so 
 that the axes of crystallization of the two 
 prisms are at right angles to each other. 
 The prisms are placed in perfect contact, 
 and cemented by mastic; and together 
 form a plate of which the opposite sides 
 are parallel. Now, suppose a ray of 
 light M I to fall perpendicularly on the 
 face A B, it will proceed through the 
 prism A C B, in the same straight line I 
 O, without being separated, because I O 
 is parallel to the axis of the crystal. But when it arrives at 
 O, and enters the second prism B C D, it will be separated 
 into two: the ordinary ray will continue to follow the same 
 direction I O N P, because the refracting powers of the two 
 prisms are the same ; but the extraordinary ray will take a 
 different direction O R (towards B D, if tlie crystal is attrac- 
 tive, as rock crystal ; but towards A C, if the crystal is re- 
 pulsive, as Iceland spar), and, on emerging from the prism 
 at R, will be refracted in the line R S. The angle P T S of 
 the inclination of the two rays after their emergence from 
 the prism is constant for the same crystal, and must be de- 
 termined by experiment. 
 
 Let us now conceive this apparatus to be placed in the 
 tube of a telescope, of which O (fig. 4) is the object glass 
 (4.) and F the focus, and the 
 
 . telescope directed upon a 
 ^-^° distant object at D (as a 
 ^ ~ZT^Qb planet), the diameter of 
 =T"To — o^ — l3t"2* which, m n, is to be meas- 
 ured. Suppose the double 
 prism at T' : two images 
 will be formed ; the ordinary image at a, and the extraordi- 
 nary image at b'. By sliding the prisms along the tube to- 
 wards O the distance between the images will be increased ; 
 and by sliding them towards the focus F, it will be diminish- 
 ed ; and if placed exactly in the focus, the two images will 
 coincide. Let V denote the visual angle or apparent mag- 
 nitude of the object, / the focal distance F O of the tele- 
 scope, U the constant angle a T b depending on the prism, 
 and D the distance F T: we shall then have the diameter 
 
 where the two images are in contact, then the diameter of 
 the image will be equal to the distance a b ; and we have, 
 consequently, / tan. V = D tan. U. Here the quantities / 
 and U are lound by experiment; whence V the angulai 
 magnitude of the object, becomes known in terms of D. 
 
 The prism micrometer, when constructed in the mannei 
 now described, has this important defect, that the extraordi 
 nary image is accompanied by the piismaiic colours, espe 
 cially if the angle to be measured exceeds a few minutes, 
 and hence Rochon found that he could not use it for meas 
 uring the diameters of the sun and moon. But this defect 
 has been ingeniously remedied by M. Arago, by simply al- 
 tering the arrangement of the apparatus, and giving the 
 double prism a fixed position out of the lube and before the 
 eye-glass. By this disposition two images are formed at the 
 focus, the centres of which are fixed points, whose distance 
 depends on the refracting power of the crystal ; and the con- 
 tact of the images is produced by increasing or diminishing 
 the magnifying power of the eye-glass, instead of altering Hie 
 position of the prism. The magnifying power thus becomes 
 the measure of the visual angle subtended by the diameter 
 of the observed object. 
 
 Various modifications of the three principles now explained 
 have been proposed ; for details respecting which we refer 
 to Brewster's Treatise on New Philosophical Instruments, 
 or to the article "Micrometer," in the Ency. lirit., by the 
 same author ; and to Dr. Pearson's Introduction to Practi- 
 cal Astronomy. 
 
 The micrometer is an instrument of the utmost importance 
 in astronomy, and one, in fact, to which that science is as 
 much indebted as lo the telescope itself. From a paper by 
 Mr. Townley, in the Phil. Trans, tor 11307, it appears certain 
 that a micrometer with a moveable wire was first constructed 
 by our Countryman Gascoigne about the year 1040, and used 
 by him for measuring the diameters of the moon and some 
 of the planets; but as Gascoigne, who was killed in the 
 civil wars in 1044, published no account of his invention, the 
 instrument was entirely forgotten, and the merit of reinvent- 
 ing it, and bringing it into general use. belongs to the French 
 astronomer Azout, who published a description of it in 1007. 
 Huygens, a few years previously, had contrived to measure 
 the diameter of a planet by inserting in the tube of a tele- 
 scope, at the focus of the object-glass and eye-glass, a slip of 
 metal which covered exactly the image of the planet, and 
 then deducing the diameter from the breadth of the slip, 
 compared with the diameter of the field; and Malvasia had 
 employed for the same purpose a reticle or network of line 
 silver wires, crossing each other at right angles, and dividing 
 the field of the telescope into a number of equal squares. 
 (For the history of the invention and successive improve- 
 ments of the micrometer, see the notes by Mathieu to De- 
 lambre's Histoire de I'Astronomie au 18me Siecle, p. 016 and 
 645.) 
 
 MI'CROPHONE. (Gr. ntKpo;, and iiuvij, a voice.) An 
 instrument for increasing the intensity of low sounds, by 
 subjecting a more sonorous body than that which emits the 
 sound to be affected by the vibrations of that body, and 
 thereby also sounding itself; 
 
 Ml'CROPYLE (Gr. pixpos, and irvXr], a gate), in Botany, 
 is a perforation through the skin of a seed, over against the 
 apex of the nucleus. It is what was the foramen or exos- 
 tome of the ovule. 
 
 MI'CROSCOPE. {Gr. piKpos, and (jKu-rrcb), I view.) An 
 optical instrument which enables us to see and examine ob- 
 jects which are too minute to be seen by the naked eye. 
 Microscopes are single or compound, according to the nature 
 of their construction ; a single microscope being one through 
 which, whether it consists of a single lens or a combination 
 of lenses, the object is viewed directly ; and a compound 
 microscope one in which two or more lenses are so arranged 
 that an enlarged image of the object formed by one of them 
 is magnified by the second, or by the others, if there are more 
 than two, and seen as if it. were the object itself. 
 
 Single Microscope. — This instrument is, for the most part, 
 simply a lens or sphere of any transparent substance, which 
 refracts the rays of light issuing from a small body placed in 
 its focus, and gives them such a degree of convergency as is 
 necessary for distinct vision. In order that the rays of light 
 issuing from the several points of a very small body may 
 produce a sensible impression on the retina of the eye, it is 
 necessary that the object be brought very near the eye ; 
 but when this is done, the rays coming from its different 
 points are so divergent as to produce only a confused image 
 Now, if a convex lens be interposed between the object 
 and the eye, and so placed thnt its distance from the object 
 is a little less than its focal distance, the diverging rays issu- 
 ing from the object are refracted by the lens, and enter the 
 eye placed behind it, either parallel, or so nearly parallel its 
 to afford distinct vision. The object is then seen in the di- 
 rection of the refracted rays, and at the distance at which it 
 could lie distinctly seen by the naked eye, and consequently 
 
 of the image =/ tan. V, and the distance aJ = D tan. U. 
 
 Now, if the apparatus be slid along the tube from T' to T, I magnified in the ratio of the distance of distinct vision to the 
 744 
 
MICROSCOPE. 
 
 focal distance of the lens. This ratio is called the magnify- 
 ing power of the lens ; hence, for single microscopes, the 
 magnifying power is equal to the distance at which a small 
 object eon be seen distinctly by the naked eye, divided by 
 the focal distance of the lens; and, as the distance of dis- 
 tinct vision is constant (at least for the same individual), the 
 magnifying power is inversely as the focal distance. If we 
 ■appose Hie distance which limits distinct vision, in respect 
 of minute objects, to be 5 inches (which is about the average 
 lor good eyes), and the focal distance of the lens to be 1 
 inch, the oliject will be magnified 5 times in linear dimen- 
 sions, and -.» limes in superficial. If the focal distance is one 
 tenth of an inch, the magnifying power will be 50 In linear 
 extent, and 2500 in superficial. 
 
 A single microscope may be obtained very easily by 
 piercing a small circular hole in a slip of metal, and intro- 
 ducing into it a drop of water, which will assume n spheri- 
 cal form on each side of the metal. The substance com- 
 monly used for microscopic lenses is plate glass ; but they are 
 sometimes formed of rock crystal, which is better. Flint 
 glass, by reason of its great dispersive power, is unfitted for 
 the purpose. The precious stones, as the garnet, ruby, sap- 
 phire, and diamond, have been proposed ; but the numerous 
 and skilful attempts of Mr. Vnrley and Mr. Pritchard have 
 proved that the advantages arising from the greater refrac- 
 tive power of those substances are more than counter- 
 balanced by their colour, reflective power, double refraction, 
 and heterogenous structure. The crystalline lenses of min- 
 nows nnd other small fishes give a very perfect image of 
 minute objects. 
 When tile object to he examined is of such magnitude as 
 • •nd an angle of some degrees, the requisite distinct- 
 nnnot be given to its whole surface by an ordinary 
 Utdt, iii consequence of the confusion occasioned by the 
 lateral rays; unless, indeed, the rays are only permitted to 
 enter the lens through a very small aperture, whereby the 
 quantity of light is greatly diminished. In order to remedy 
 this inconvenience, Dr. VVollaston contrived a form of lens, 
 to which he gave the name of pcriscopic lens. Its construc- 
 tion is as follows: two plano-convex lenses or hemispheres 
 are ground to the same radius, end between their plane sur- 
 i thin plate of metal, with a circular a|ierture, is in- 
 troduced. The nurture which appeared to give the most 
 i image was alHiut ^th of the focal length in diameter; 
 and, when the aperture was well centered, the visible field 
 \\a< ai much as 20° in diameter. A lens of this kind pos- 
 sesses the double advantage of having a very short focal dis- 
 nnd very little spherical aberration. Dr. Wollaston's 
 ivance may, however, be improved upon in various 
 for example, by filling up the central aperture with a 
 of the same refractive power as the lenses, whereby 
 the loss of light from the double number of surfaces is 
 avoided ; or by grinding away the equatorial parts of a 
 sphere of glass, so as to leave a deep groove nil round it, in 
 the plane of a great circle perpendicular to the axis of vision, 
 and tilling the groove with opake matter. This last construc- 
 tion Is called the Coddington lens (from the name of its pro- 
 ; nnd when executed in garnet, nnd used in homo- 
 geneous liL-ht, it is considered by Sir David Brewstor to be 
 the most perfect of all lenses, cither for single microscopes, 
 or the object lenses of compound ones. 
 
 In using a single lens as a magnifier, it is always necessary 
 that the light be made to pass through a very small aper- 
 ture, in order that the object may be seen distinctly nnd with- 
 out distortion. This necessity arises, both from the spherical 
 aberration and the chromatic dispersion of the light falling 
 on the surface of the lens under an angle of considerable 
 obliquity; and the consequence is, that the quantity of light 
 admitted to the eye is so much diminished that the object 
 cannot be clearly seen. To remedy this inconvenience, Dr. 
 VVollaston proposed a combination of two lenses, called, in 
 (iience, a microscopic doublet, the optical part of which 
 nay he described as follows: M and N (fig. 1) are two 
 plano-convex lenses, whose focal lengths 
 are in the ratio of 3 to 1, or nearly so, and 
 placed one over the other, so that their 
 plane sides are towards the object. The 
 adjustment of the distance between the 
 lenses is best accomplished by trial; and 
 they must, accordingly, be mounted so that 
 the distance may be varied at pleasure. A 
 ji, B is a diaphragm or stop for limiting the 
 aperture. Though it does not appear that 
 the stop was contemplated by Dr. VVollas- 
 ton, who makes no allusion to it, the per- 
 formance of the microscope depends much on its nice adjust- 
 ment, li is obvious that as each of the pencils of light from 
 the extremities of the object is rendered eccentric by the 
 stop, and mnde to pass through the two lenses on opposite 
 sides of the common axis, they are affected by opposite er- 
 rors, which, in some degree, serve to counteract each other. 
 This doublet, when corrwlv made, is infinitely superior to 
 
 any single lens, and will transmit a pencil of from 35° to 50- 
 without any very sensible errors. The original description, 
 by Dr. VVollaston, is given in the Philosophical Transactions 
 for 1829. 
 
 The above construction has been improved upon by sub- 
 stituting two plano-convex lenses for N in the doublet, the 
 plane side of the one being in contact with the convex side 
 of the oilier, nnd the stop being retained between them and 
 the third. This combination is called u triplet ; and its ad- 
 vantage is, that the errors of the doublet are still farther re- 
 duced by the greater approximation to the object, in conse- 
 quence of which the refractions take place nearer the axis. 
 
 Another form of doublet, proposed by Sir John Herschel 
 is represented in the annexed figure (2). It 
 consists of a double convex lens, whose 
 radii of curvature are as 1 to 6; and of a 
 plano-concave, whose focal length is to 
 that of the other as 13 to 5, placed in con- 
 tact with the flatter surface of the former, 
 and having its concavity turned towards 
 the object. Many other combinations have 
 been proposed, but those which have now been described 
 appear to be the most useful. 
 
 When the magnifying power of the lens is considerable, 
 and, consequently, its focal distance very small, it requires 
 to be placed at tile proper distance from the object with great 
 precision ; and, as it cannot be held in the hand with suffi- 
 cient steadiness for any length of lime, it requires to be 
 mounted in a frame having a rack and screw, by means of 
 which its distance from the object can be adjusted with ac- 
 curacy. Mirrors for collecting the light and throwing it 
 upon the object are also necessary for many purposes. 
 
 Compound Microscope. — The simplest kind of compound 
 microscope is formed by the combination of two converging 
 lenses, whose axes are placed in the same straight line. The 
 arrangement of the lenses, 
 and the path of the rays, 
 will be readily understood 
 from the annexed dia- 
 gram (fig. 3). M N is the 
 object-glass, which has a 
 very short focal distance, 
 and P Q, the eye-glass. A 
 small object a b being 
 
 placed before the object- «" 
 
 glass, a little farther from it than the focus or parallel ray.*, 
 a reversed and enlarged image a' b will be formed at some 
 distance behind M N. The lens I' U is placed at such a 
 distance from M N that its principal focus is in the line nt 
 a' b' ; consequently the rays of light from every point of the 
 Image a' // emerge nearly parallel from P (A, and to lie 
 at I! the image a b' is magnified, as If it wore a real object, 
 into a" b", and appears at a distance equal to the limits of 
 distinct vision, which, as stated above, is about 5 inches. 
 
 The magnifying power of this microscope, or the ratio <>f 
 a" b" to a b, is found as follows : In the first place, if we as- 
 sume d to denote the distance of the first image a' b' from M 
 N, and / the distance of a b from M N, or the focal distance 
 of M N, we have this proportion, a' V :ab::d:f. In the sec- 
 ond place, if I denote the limit of distinct vision, or distance 
 of the second image a" b" from P Q,, nnd f the focal dis- 
 tance of P Ci (or distance of o' b' from P U), we shall also 
 have a" b" :a'b'::l:f. These two proportions, being mul 
 
 tiplied together, give — — =7777 ; which, therefore, is the 
 
 magnifying power of the microscope. It thus appears that 
 the magnifying power is inversely as the product of the focal 
 distances of the two lenses, and directly as the distance be- 
 tween them. The magnifying power will therefore be in- 
 creased by increasing the distance between the object-glass 
 and eye-glass ; but a limit is soon placed to this increase by 
 the indistinctness of the image, and, in practice, it is not ad- 
 visable to make the distance of a' b' from M N more than 
 from 5 to 7 inches. Suppose the focal distance of M N to 
 be £th of an inch, and the distance of o' 4' from M N to be 
 5 inches, then a' b' will be 20 limes greater than a b ; and If 
 the focal distance of P Q, be half an inch, and the distance 
 of a" b" from P a be 5 inches, then a" b" will be 10 times 
 greater than a' b', nnd, consequently, 200 times greater than 
 a b; or the magnifying power is 200. 
 
 The great defects of the microscope, when constructed in 
 the manner now described, consist in the smallness of the 
 field of view, and want of achromatism in the object-g^ass, 
 in consequence of which the images a' V and a" b are 
 fringed with the prismatic colours. For the sake of enlar 
 ging the field of view, a third lens, larger than either of 
 the others, and called the field glass, is usually interposed 
 between the image a' b' and the object-glass. 
 
 Reflecting Microscope. — The principle of the reflecting 
 microscope is very simple, and easily conceived. Suppose 
 M N (fig. 4) to be a concave speculum, and a small objecW 
 
 745 
 
(4.) 
 
 MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 ■ to be placed before it at /. A 
 p reflected image of the object 
 
 will be formed at F, where the 
 rays issuing from each point of 
 the object intersect each other, 
 if 1 and magnified in the propor- 
 
 tion of F M to/M. If the image at F is viewed with the 
 naked eye, the instrument is a single reflecting microscope ; 
 but if the image is viewed through a refracting lens P Q, (or 
 a combination of lenses forming an eye-piece), by which the 
 rays are made to converge towards the eye at E, it becomes 
 a compound reflecting microscope. 
 
 The reflecting microscope was first proposed by Sir Isaac 
 Newton in the form now described ; but, on account of the 
 impracticability of illuminating the object, it was long dis- 
 used. It li as, however, been recently revived, under a modi- 
 fied form, by Professor Amici of Modena, who places the 
 object outside the tube of the microscope, below the line 
 N F ; and, in order that an image may be formed in the 
 speculum, the rays issuing from the object fall upon a small 
 plane mirror placed at/, inclined to the axis of the speculum 
 in an angle of 45°, whereby they are thrown upon the spe- 
 culum in the same manner as if the object itself were placed 
 at /. By this means the object can be illuminated with 
 perfect facility. The concave speculum M N is ground into 
 an ellipsoidal surface; the diagonal mirror is placed at the 
 nearest focus/, and the image is consequently formed at the 
 other focus F. The image at F is viewed with a single or 
 double eye-piece, as in other microscopes. 
 
 Solar and Oxyhydrogen Microscopes. — The solar micros- 
 cope is composed essentially of a mirror and two converging 
 lenses. The plane metallic mirror, C D (fig. 5), reflects the 
 sun's rays upon the lens M N, by which they are concen- 
 
 (5.) 
 
 trated upon the object a b placed in its focus. The object, 
 being thus strongly illuminated, is placed before a second 
 lens P Q. (a little before the principal focus), by which the 
 rays are rendered still more convergent, and produce a mag- 
 nified image of the object upon a screen suitably placed at a 
 distance of some feet behind the lens. The object is here 
 supposed to be transparent; if opaque, the light must be 
 thrown upon it in such a manner as to be reflected by it to 
 P Q. The mirror and lens M N are placed in the hole of a 
 window-shutter in a darkened room ; and the mirror must 
 be moveable, in order that the sun's rays may always fall 
 upon it under a proper angle to be reflected to the lenses. 
 Hut the solar microscope is now almost entirely superseded 
 by the oxyhydrogen microscope ; so called because the il- 
 lumination, instead of being produced by the sun's rays, is 
 produced by burning a small piece of lime or marble in a 
 stream of oxyhydrogen gas. In this case the plane mirror 
 C D becomes unnecessary ; and instead of the lens M N a 
 concave speculum is employed, in frontof which the ball of 
 lime is placed, and an intense light thus thrown upon the 
 object a b, the rays from which are brought to foci upon the 
 screen by the lens P Q. For full details respecting the 
 management of this apparatus, which forms a very popular 
 exhibition, the reader is referred to Goring and Pritchard's 
 Micographia. For descriptions of the various kinds of mi- 
 croscopes, see Brewster's Treatise on New Philosophical 
 Instruments ; or the Ency. Brit., art. " Microscope." 
 
 MI'DDLE AGES. (In French, moyen age.) A term 
 usually employed to denote, somewhat vaguely, a space of 
 several centuries in European annals, intervening between 
 what are called the ancient and modern periods of history. 
 The centuries between the ninth or tenth and the end of the 
 fifteenth after Christ, are generally comprehended under this 
 loose denomination. In the work of Mr. Hallam on the 
 Middle Ages, that historian has assumed as his period of 
 commencement the conquest of Gaul by the Franks, about 
 A.D. 500; and, for his conclusion, the invasion of Italy by 
 Charles VIII., about 1500; and with reference to the affairs 
 of the Greeks and their oriental neighbours, he places, as the 
 most convenient limit between ancient and modern history, 
 the era of Mohammed. 
 
 MI'DDLE CADENCE. In Music. See Cadence. 
 
 MI'DDLE LATITUDE SAILING, in Navigation, is a 
 method of converting the departure (or distance on the pa- 
 rallel) into difference of longitude, and the difference of lon- 
 gitude into dcpaiture, when the ship's course is oblique to 
 the meridian. It is rounded on this principle, which, how- 
 ever, is only approximately true in any case, and not even 
 approximately in high latitudes, when there is also consider- 
 able difference between the latitudes left and arrived at; 
 namely, that the departure may be accounted an arc of a 
 746 
 
 MIGRATlOiN. 
 
 parallel of latitude midway between the two extreme latl 
 tudes. Its rules are, 
 
 radius : cos. middl. lat. : : diff. longitude • departure 
 cos. middl. lat. : tan. course : : dhT. lat. : diff. long. 
 See Navigation. 
 
 MI'DDLE RAIL. In Architecture, the rail of a iocs 
 level with the hand, on which the lock is usually fixed. 
 
 MI'DDLE TERM of a Categorical Syllogism, in L.^ic 
 is that with which the two extremes of the conclusion arc 
 separately compared. See Syllogism. 
 
 MI'DSHIPMAN. In the Navy, the step next above • <.hm 
 teer of the first class, which is generally the commencement 
 At nineteen years of age the midshipman passes one exam- 
 ination in seamanship, and another in navigation, when he 
 becomes eligible for a lieutenant's commission. 
 
 MIDSHIPS. The middle of the ship, with reference to 
 length or breadth. 
 
 MI/EMITE. A magnesian carbonate of lime of a green 
 colour, from Miemo, in Tuscany. 
 
 MIGRATION. (Lat. migro, / migrate.) This word is 
 used in Zoology to signify the transit of a species of animals 
 from one locality or latitude to another. The passage is 
 usually to and fro between a temperate and a cold climate, 
 or a temperate and a warm climate; and this periodical 
 change of abode is most general In the arctic species of ani- 
 mals, and least prevalent in the tropical species. The most 
 remarkable, rapid, and extensive migrations are performed 
 by birds, in virtue of their pre-eminent locomotive powers, 
 and of their ability to maintain a long and rapid flight tli rough 
 a medium which offers the least opposition to their progress. 
 The inequalities and alternations of land and water upon the 
 surface of the earth, and the presence of enemies and other 
 dangers, would appear to form insurmountable obstacles to 
 any general or extensive migration of quadrupeds ; yet the 
 musk-ox, the reindeer, the arctic fox, &c, are driven south- 
 ward by the rigours of the polar winter, and return to the 
 extreme latitudes in the summer season. Less regular, but 
 not less general migrations, take place among the quadrupeds 
 which range the tropical continents in seasons of unusual 
 drought. Countless herds of oxen, goaded by intolerable 
 thirst, are thus impelled in an irresistible course over v;l»1 
 tracts of the South American Pampas in quest of water. 
 The valleys of the warmer parts of Africa are occasionally 
 traversed by numerous assemblages of the wild quadrupeds 
 of that continent, migrating under the same stimulus. Lions 
 and other carnivora have on these occasions been seen 
 mingled with, and absolutely hemmed in by, the countless 
 assemblage of antelopes, gnus, and other herbivorous species 
 which constitute their prey. The Scandinavian lemming, 
 however, is the species of quadruped that is most remarkable 
 for its migration. But the migratory periods arc not regular , 
 nor are the immense bodies that travel in a given direction 
 ever known to return. In this respect the migration of the 
 lemmings resembles rather that of the locusts among insects, 
 than the true and regular migration of birds. The ordinary 
 residence and breeding-place of the lemmings appear to be 
 the shores of the arctic ocean. Here, when their numbers 
 exceed the means of subsistence, they congregate together, 
 and commence a migratory course southward, moving in a 
 straight line, crossing rivers, climbing mountains; and while 
 no insurmountable obstacle impedes their progress, they 
 devastate the country through which they pass. The migra- 
 tion of birds nppears to be influenced mainly by the neces- 
 sity of providing sufficient food for their young, and by the 
 temporary continuance of such food in the climates best 
 suited for propagation. 
 
 The arctic and northern seas, which teem with life during 
 the long unbroken day that constitutes the summer season 
 of such latitudes, are resorted to by numerous aquatic birds 
 during the breeding season ; and these birds regularly mi- 
 grate southward when the severities of winter set in. In 
 temperate latitudes, as those of England, certain spring and 
 summer months are peculiarly favourable to the production 
 of insects in their different stages; and our island is accord- 
 ingly frequented by many insectivorous birds, which leave 
 warmer latitudes during these months to breed and rear their 
 young with us. As a general rule, it may be stated that 
 birds misrate southward in the northern hemisphere for food 
 principally ; but that they migrate northward both to feed 
 and breed. The most remarkable summer immigrants that 
 visit England from the south and breed in tbis island, are 
 the swifts, swallows, cuckoo, nightingale, and many other 
 insectivorous Passerine birds ; and it is remarkable that the 
 males of the song birds always prece Je the other sex in their 
 vernal flight. 
 
 The winter immigrants from the north are the species of 
 wild swan; many species of wild duck; the smews, mer- 
 ganser, and other aquatic birds: the woodcock, &x. It oc- 
 casionally happens that a winter immigrant remains with us 
 the whole summer, and breeds. Thus the woodcock's eggs 
 and young have occasionally been taken in our woods; but 
 thi»is an exceptional or individual case. It is a rare occur- 
 
MILDEW. 
 
 (•wicc when a summer immigrant prolongs its sojo xn into 
 
 the winter months, as happens when by late hatching, or 
 
 ileliilitv produced by accident or disease, a swallow or martin 
 
 Died from joining the main body of autumnal 
 
 of its own species, and is seen flying about when 
 
 tally mild day may have called some insects abroad 
 
 In the months of November or December. 
 
 sun of migration is that of association, both in birds 
 and other animals. The swifts congregate for their depart- 
 ure about the middle of August; the swallows assemble 
 together tor the same purpose in September. Their powers 
 are more than equivalent to the extent of space they 
 inverse to reach the warmer latitudes, as the Medi- 
 terranean shores of Africa, where they have been seen in 
 tilths when they have disappeared from us. Yet 
 there have not been wanting naturalists who have believed 
 that the life of the swallow was maintained during the 
 •t its insect food in England, by the same torpidity 
 ables the bat and hedgehog to exist through the 
 ime their vital functions in spring. Thebur- 
 ,1 martin have been explored in winter with 
 (his view; but neither there nor in any other hiding-place 
 has a torpid martin or swift been ever found. It was next 
 conjectured that these birds went under water in autumn, 
 ■ .1 the winter not only torpid, but submerged. The 
 supporters of this theory, however, have neither explained 
 how the difference of specific gravity which makes the body 
 of a swallow float upon water was overcome, nor how the 
 extravasculur plumage was preserved undecomposcd and fit 
 \ months' soaking in water. 
 lOrt migrations of the cuckoo and nightingale arc 
 mable: why should the longer migrations of sum- 
 ling birds of greater powers of flight be doubted ? 
 erratton of swallows In the act of migraine, 
 and the slowly acquired but certain knowledge or their 
 winter resort, have finally put to rest the skepticism as to the 
 i of the swallow tribe, which only the authority of 
 i tent naturalists as White of Sel borne could have 
 red excusable in works of Zoology. 
 M1'l;j' m V. This term Is general! applledtoa] 
 mouldy appearance on the leaves i f plants, which is pr<v 
 duced by innumerable minute fungi, which, If not checked 
 ■.ih, will occasion the decay and death of the 
 on which they grow, and sometimes of the entire plant. 
 l'i agrlcuiture, this appearance Is frequently termed rust, and 
 mes blight. It is common 00 wheat, and on the hop; 
 and. in gardens, on the leaves of the peach, the nectarine, 
 and other fruit trees. The causes favourable to the produc- 
 tior of mildew tire a rich soil and a moist atmosphere, with- 
 oii* a free circulation of air or sunshine. In agriculture, this 
 ocal disease is generally considered without remedy; 
 but, in gardening, it may be checked by the application of 
 powdered sulphur to the leaves covered by the fungi, which 
 i- found to destroy thrin without greatly injuring the leaf. 
 Dry rot is only mildew of a more formidable kind. 
 
 MILK. (Lat millc passuum, a thousand paces.) The 
 Roman pace being "> feet, and a Roman foot being equal to 
 11-69 modern English inches, it follows that the ancient 
 Roman mile Was equivalent to 1G14 English yards, or very 
 nearly ll-12fhs of an English statute mile. 
 
 The English statute mile was defined (incidentally, it 
 would seem) by an act passed in the 35th year of the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, by which persons were forbidden to 
 build within three miles of London ; and the mile wns 
 declared to be 8 furlongs of 40 perches of 1(U feet each. 
 The statute mile Is, therefore, 17G0 yards, or 5280 feet- See 
 Measures. 
 
 The mile is used as an itinerary measure in almost all 
 countries of Europe, particularly those which were formerly 
 under the sway of the Romans; but it is very difficult to 
 conjecture the causes which have given rise to the great 
 diversity of its values. It has been supposed thai in soma 
 countries the Roman mile was confounded with the ancient 
 league. 
 The following table, given on the authority of Kelly's 
 Cambist, shows the length of the modem mile, and also the 
 ie, of various countries, and their relation to the English 
 statute mile: Wi. sut. Mii«. 
 
 Modem Roman mile . . • 1028 — -925 
 
 English statute mile . . • 1760 — 1000 
 
 m mile 1803 — 1-027 
 
 tent Scottish mile . • 1984 — 1-127 
 
 b mile . . . . 2240 — 1273 
 
 French posting league . . . 4203 — 2-422 
 
 -li judicial leagi»3 . . ■ 4635 — 2634 
 
 Portugal league .... 6760 — 3841 
 
 in short mile .... 6859 — 3-897 
 
 ins league .... 6864 — 3900 
 
 i common league . . . 7416 — 4-214 
 
 in mile 8237 — 4680 
 
 ■ mile 8244 — 4-684 
 
 Danfidc mile .... 8475 — 4-815 
 
 MILK. 
 
 YJs. Stat. Mile* 
 
 Hungarian mile . . . . 9113 — 5178 
 
 Swiss mile 9153 — 5201 
 
 German long mile .... 10126 — 5-753 
 
 Hanoverian mile .... 11559 — 6-568 
 
 Swedish mile 11700 — 6648 
 
 According to the same authority, the Arabian mile is 214ft 
 yards, the Persian parasang 6086 yards, the Russian I 
 1167 yards, and the Turkish berri 1826 yards. The Engli h 
 geographical mile is l-60th of a degree of latitude, or about 
 U85 yards; the geographical league of England anil France 
 is 3 such miles, or 6075 yards ; and the German geographic:. I 
 mile is equal to 4 English geographical miles, or 8100 yards 
 See an excellent disquisition on the history of the English 
 mile in the Penny Cyclopaedia. 
 
 M I LI A'KIA. (Lat. milium, millet seed.) A disease at 
 tended by an eruption resembling millet seed. Miliary fever. 
 
 MILIEU (JUSTE)— PARTY OF THE. A French party 
 nickname, arising, it is said, out of n casual expression of 
 King Louis Philippe, but which has obtained a notoriety 
 rather greater than such ephemeral phrases usually acquire. 
 It has served to denote the great party opposed to the Cai lists, 
 or Legitimists, on the one hand, nnd to the extreme left sec 
 lion of the Chamber of Deputies, with its allies the Kepuhli 
 cans, on the other. After the overthrow of the feeble ministry 
 of Lafitte, in March, 1831, Casimir l'erier was authorized to 
 form a new cabinet ; and his administration seems to have 
 realized more than any other the ideal of a government of 
 the Juste Milieu. Under its rule the hereditary peerage was 
 abolished ; the continual street disturbances which had al- 
 most controlled the will of the previous ministry quell. -.1 ; 
 Ancona seized ; and the foundation of the successful interven- 
 tion of France in the llollandolielgie quarrel laid. Parte 
 died of cholera on the 16th of May, 1832. After a short 
 interval he was succeeded by BoaQt ; who lias been perhaps, 
 since that time, more identified with the Juste Milieu party 
 than any other minister : fctoM, Gttizot, Dupta, Thiers, Barn it, 
 the most eminent statesmen of France, having each of them 
 adopted a line nnd formed to a certain extent a party of his 
 own, alternately aided a if the 
 
 partisans of the Juste Milieu. 
 
 MILI'OLA. (Lat. milium, a mi'ht-sred.) The generic 
 name applied by Lamarck to nn extinct mollusk, or zoophyte, 
 which has left its small toiaminiferoits miiltiloculnr shell in 
 mat numbers in the strata of many quarries in the neigh- 
 bourhood of I' 
 
 MILI'TIA. A body composed of citizens regularly en- 
 rolled, and trained to the exercises of war; but not perma- 
 nently organised in time of peace, or. in general, liable to 
 serve out of the country in time of war. Such an establish- 
 ment existl in most European countries under different 
 names. (Sri', Gcakd, National.) In Austria nnd Prussia 
 it is called landwehr; nnd in the latter country receives full 
 pay during a certain part of every year when it is in exercise. 
 Various and unsuccessful efforts were made by German 
 sovereigns, during the wars of the last century, to organize 
 bodies of troops which should be as cheaply raised as militia, 
 and yet be serviceable iii foreign war. Frederick the Great 
 used such troops for garrison service. The militia of England 
 and Scotland now consists of a certain number of men in 
 every county, drawn by lot to serve for five years, nnd liable 
 to be called out and embodied, on danger of rebellion or In 
 v.ision, by proclamation of the king in council, and with 
 notification to parliament, if that body is sitting. During the 
 late war, the militia was kept constantly on foot and might 
 be sent to any part of the kingdom ; so that it differed little 
 from the regular army, except that it could not be sent 
 abroad, and that it was recruited by ballot. But, in addition 
 to the above, a militia called local, or fenribles, in many- 
 instances raised and supported entirely at the expense of 
 some great landed proprietor, was established in every 
 county. After the pence of 1815 the militia was disem- 
 bodied ; but, as we remarked above, it is still linble, if it be 
 considered necessary, to be called out. In Prussia every 
 man who has served his three years, or a single year in cer- 
 tain oases, of lawful senice in the standing army, belongs 
 to the first class of the landwehr until his thirtieth year ; and 
 from that time until his fortieth to the second class. 
 
 MILK. tGerm. milch.) A fluid secreted by peculiar 
 glands in the breasts of the class of animals called Mammalia, 
 and destined for the nourishment of their young. 
 
 The obvious components of milk are cream, curd, and 
 whey— 1000 parts of cream (of cow's milk), of the sp. gr. 
 10244, consist, according to Berzelius, of 
 
 Butter .... 45 
 
 Curd .... 35 
 
 Whey .... .920 
 
 1000 
 The remaining skimmed mUk has a specific gravity of 
 about 1033, and consists of— 
 
 747 
 
MILK FEVER. 
 
 Water 029 
 
 Curd with a trace of butter ... 38 
 
 Sugar of milk 35 
 
 Lactic acid, lactate of potash, and a trace 
 
 of lactate of iron .... 6 
 Muriate and phosphate of potash and 
 
 earthy phosphates .... 2 
 
 1000 
 
 If we subtract the curd, the remaining substances con- 
 stitute whey. The curd of milk, or caseous matter, partakes 
 in many of its chemical properties of the nature of albumen ; 
 in others it resembles vegetable gluten, more especially in 
 the fermentation which it undergoes when kept in a moist 
 state. Sugar of milk is obtained by evaporating whey. 
 When purified it has a sweet taste, and requires 7 of cold 
 and 4 of boiling water for solution, and is insoluble in alco- 
 hol : when digested with nitric acid it is partially converted 
 into mucous, or sacc/iolactic acid, and not, like common 
 sugar, into oxalic acid. This, therefore, though an animal 
 product, closely resembles the vegetable proximate princi- 
 ples ; and milk may hence be considered as partaking of the 
 nature of vegetable as well as animal food. See Dairy. 
 
 MILK FEVER. See Puerperal Fever. 
 
 MILK TREE, so called from its trunk yielding a milky 
 fluid when wounded, is a name applied more particularly to 
 those species in which the fluid is harmless and fit for food ; 
 an uncommon circumstance among lactescent plants, whose 
 secretions are generally dangerous. In the Caraccas there 
 is one sort, the polo de vaca, or cow tree of Humboldt, whose 
 milk is a common article of diet among the natives ; this is 
 the Galactodendron utile. In that and other countries, 
 plants of the Sapotaceous order, especially species of Acho- 
 as, also furnish such a secretion. In Ceylon has been found 
 the Kiriaguni plant, or Tabcm<Emontuna utilis, which is 
 used by the Cingalese in a similar manner. 
 
 MILK VESSELS, in Plants, are the anastomosing tubes 
 lying in the bark or near the surface of plants, in which a 
 white turbid fluid is secreted. They are one of the forms 
 of the vital veins of Schultz, which see. 
 
 MI'LKY WAY, or VIA LACTEA, or GALAXY. A 
 oroad and irregular zone of stars that surrounds the heavens, 
 so distant that their united light gives but an indistinct and 
 undefined whitishness to the whole appearance — whence its 
 name. See Galaxy. 
 
 MILL. (Gr. ix(o\rj ; Lat. mola.) This term seems to have 
 signified originally an engine for grinding corn, but it is now 
 used in a general sense to denote a great variety of machines, 
 whose action depends chiefly on circular motion. The par- 
 ticular purpose is usually indicated by a prefix; thus, bark- 
 miil, cotton-mill, flour-mill, oil-mill, saw-mill, spinning- 
 mill, &c. 
 
 The machinery by which it is necessary to accomplish 
 the ultimate objects of the mill must obviously vary almost 
 indefinitely. Many voluminous works on this subject have 
 been published, as well as separate accounts of particular 
 structures. See Brewster's edition of Ferguson's Lectures ; 
 Gray's Experienced Millwright ; Buchanan on Millwork, 
 hyTredgold; Banks on Mills ; The Repository of Arts, &c. 
 A catalogue of the principal works on the subject of mills is 
 given in Gregory's Mechanics, vol. ii. 
 
 MILL, BARKER'S. See Centrifugal Machine. 
 
 MILLE'NNIUM. (Lat. mille anni, a thousand years.) 
 The reign of Christ with his saints upon earth for the space 
 o;' a thousand years; an idea derived from a passage in the 
 20th chap, of the Apocalypse, and not uncommonly enter- 
 tained by Christians in all ages, but especially in the times 
 of the primitive church. The opinion seems to be traced as 
 far back as to Papias, a father of the second century. It is 
 the subject of much discussion among the writers of that 
 and the succeeding ages; was maintained by Justin Martyr, 
 Irenieus, Tertullian, and many others, and powerfully re- 
 futed by Origen. (See the work of Alstcdius, translated bv 
 Bruton, 1643; Gibbon, ch. xv., with Milman's notes; Ber 
 \ho\Ai,Christologia Judaorum ; Eisenmenger, Das Entdeckte 
 Judenthum ; Lightfoot ; Mosheim, vol. i.) 
 
 MI'LLEPORES, Mi/lepora. (Lat. mille, a thousand, pe- 
 rils, a pore.) A tribe of Lithophytous Polypes, including 
 those in which the calcareous axis is perforated by extreme- 
 ly numerous pores. 
 
 MI'LLET. (Lat. milium ; Fr. millet.) A plant classed 
 by botanists among the grasses, though some of its species 
 attain a height of from 16 to 20 feet in favourable situations. 
 There are many species of this plant ; of which the princi- 
 pal are the Polish, the common or Gorman, and the Indian 
 millet. In several parts of Europe it is cultivated as a grain, 
 and is sometimes employed as a substitute for rice or sago by 
 the poorer classes, but more frequently it is used for feeding 
 chickens and domestic animals. It is cultivated to a con- 
 siderable extent in France, Switzerland, Southern Germany, 
 and most extensively in Egypt, Syria, Nubia, China, arid 
 748 
 
 MINE. 
 
 Hindostan ; but the climate of England is not sufficiently dry 
 and warm to allow of its being cultivated here. 
 
 MI'LLION. A thousand thousand, or, as often defined, 
 ten hundred thousand. See Numeration. 
 
 MILLSTONE GRIT. A geological term applied to a 
 group of strata which occur between the mountain limestone 
 and the superincumbent coal formations; it is a coarse- 
 grained quartzose sandstone. 
 
 MI'LVINES, Milvini. A family of Raptorial birds, of 
 which the kite (Mileus) is the type. 
 
 MIME. (Lat. ntimus; Gr. ui/xos, from uiucouat, Iimilate.) 
 The name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans at once 
 to a species of dramatic entertainment, and to the authors 
 and actors by whom it was respectively composed and per- 
 formed. It consisted chiefly of a rude representation of 
 common life, and resembled the modern farce or vaudeville 
 in its character and accompaniments. Sophron of Syracuse, 
 who lived about 400 years before the Christian era, is con- 
 sidered the inventor of this species of composition. His 
 pieces were read even with pleasure by Plato, who is said 
 to have introduced this kind of dramatic entertainment into 
 Athens. (The Museum Criticum, No. 7, contains severa' 
 fragments of mimes by Sophron.) At what period mimo- 
 graphy was first practised at Rome cannot be precisely ascer- 
 tained ; but in the time of the emperors, and even under 
 Augustus, this species of entertainment had attained a high 
 degree of popularity. Among the Romans, it was of a still 
 more farcical character than among the Greeks, from whom 
 it was borrowed, and bordered more upon such mountebank 
 representations as Punch and Judy among ourselves, and 
 the Fantoccini of the Italians. Mimes originally formed a 
 part of the usual theatrical exhibitions ; but they were soon 
 introduced by the wealthy Romans into their private enter- 
 tainments to divert their guests. At Rome they also held 
 a prominent place at funerals, on which occasions their duty 
 consisted in praising the virtues and exposing the defects of 
 the deceased. It is, however, very probable that less license 
 of caricature was then admissible ; but the highest rank was 
 not exempt from the practice. Thus, Suetonius tells us that 
 the archmime Favo was present at the funeral of Vespasian 
 " Sedet in funere Favo archimimus, personam ejus ferens, 
 imitansque, ut mos est, facta et dicta vivi." 
 
 MI'MUS. (Lat. a mimic.) A genus of Passerine birds, 
 separated by Boie from the thrushes (Tardus of Linnaeus) 
 on account of the more elongated form of the body, and par- 
 ticularly of the tail, the shorter wings, and more curved 
 upper mandible. The type of this genus is the celebrated 
 mockingbird. See that word. 
 
 MI'NA. (Gr. Mva.) A weight and coin in use among 
 the Greeks, but which was different in different states. The 
 Attic mina, which is that most frequently mentioned, was 
 heavier than the Roman pound by about four drachma'. 
 Each mina contained 100 drachms, and was itself contained 
 60 times in an Attic talent. The coin was worth a little 
 more than 3/. of our money. 
 
 MI'NARET. (Arab, menarah, a lantern.) A slender 
 and lofty turret in the mosques of Mohammedan countries, 
 used for the purpose of summoning the people to prayers, 
 and consequently answering the purpose of the belfry in 
 Christian churches. They are usually surrounded with pro- 
 jecting balconies, and are crowned with spires surmounted 
 by a crescent. Before the hour of prayer the criers of the 
 mosques ascend the minarets, whence they summon the 
 people to prayers with the words, " Come, ye people, to the 
 place of rest and integrity; come to the asylum of safety." 
 
 MINDERE'RUS'S SPIRIT. Solution of acetate of am- 
 monia, first recommended as a febrifuge by Raymond Min- 
 dererus, a physician of Augsburg. 
 
 MINE. The name given generally to every system of 
 subterraneous work or excavation which has for its object 
 the discovery and extraction of the metallic ores or other 
 mineral produce. But in addition to the underground works 
 which constitute the mine properly so called, the term 
 usually comprehends also the ground on the surface, to- 
 gether with the numerous appendages which arc required 
 there ; as steam-engines, water-wheels, and other machinery 
 for drainage, the extraction of the ores, and their mechani- 
 cal preparation, with various buildings and erections. The 
 subject of mines is one of the most important within the 
 whole range of human knowledge: their contents constitute 
 the main-springs of civilization ; and the means employed to 
 obtain them are to be ranked among the most extraordinary 
 instances of human enterprise, patience, and ingenuity. 
 The art of mining has been practised from the earliest an- 
 tiquity, and has formed a branch of industry to the most 
 barbarous as well as the most civilized communities. It is 
 true that we can scarcely dignify by the name of mining the 
 operation by which the savage merely collects grains of gold 
 in the sands of rivers, or extracts it by pounding, when me- 
 chanically combined with other substances; but even this 
 simple operation becomes interesting when viewed as the 
 first link in the chain of those elaborate and scientific pro- 
 
MINE. 
 
 cesses now employed in the extraction of metallic and other 
 mineral substances from the bowels of the earth. In Eng- 
 land, mining had a very early origin, compared with the 
 progress of other arts in the country. It was, in all proba- 
 bility, the first source of trade to these islands; and so cele- 
 brated was British tin over the whole of the then known 
 world, that the Phoenicians traded to Cornwall for this metal. 
 At that early period, however, and indeed for centuries after- 
 wards, the art of mining was necessarily in a comparatively 
 rude and imperfect stale, arising from the want of an effect- 
 ive means of drainage and of blasting implements; and it 
 was not until hydraulic machines were applied to raise the 
 waters which accumulated in mines of every description 
 that melals could be followed to any considerable depth, and 
 not until gunpowder had furnished the means of splitting the 
 hardest rock that the miner was enabled to surmount the 
 obstacles which the most indurated strata opposed to his 
 progress. These inventions, therefore, may be regarded as 
 must important epochs in the history of mining: but the 
 present comparatively perfect state of the art ts mainly ow- 
 ing to the invention of the steam engine and the improved 
 manufacture of iron, which took place in the latter part of 
 the last century. The former gave to the miner a power 
 capable of universal application, and of an effect that added, 
 as it were, new regions of subterranean country to his con- 
 trol ; while the latter has proved no less important in con- 
 tributing to the same result, by the improved machinery and 
 apparatus it has placed within his reach. 
 
 The art of mining embraces such nn infinity of topics and 
 processes, differing from each other in proportion to the dif- 
 ference of the locality of the lodes, the habits of the popula- 
 tion, and the character and the resources of the country in 
 which it is practised, many of which, besides, are of so ab- 
 
 struse and complicated a nature as to be utterly unintelJ.o- 
 ble without the most lengthened details, and the introduction 
 of numerous diagrams that would have been foreign to the 
 object of this work, that we shall refrain from entering upon 
 a subject which it would be impossible for us to treat satis- 
 factorily in this place. We must therefore refer the reader 
 to Ure's Diet, of Jlrts, o/c, which contains full details upon 
 the numerous processes connected with this most Important 
 art, and content ourselves with subjoining the following 
 tables : the one made up from the Geo. Vict., containing an 
 estimate of the mineral produce of Great Britain on an 
 average of years and prices ; the other being a Comparative 
 Table of celebrated Mines in Europe and America, which 
 we have borrowed from the Quarterly Mining Review for 
 July, 1835, p. 60. (The various mining terms, as shaft, lode, 
 ice, will be found denned under their respective heads; and 
 the ditlerent metallurgical processes explained under the 
 separate metals.') 
 
 Estimate of the Mineral Produce of Great Britain, on an 
 Average of Years and Prices. 
 
 Quantity. Value. 
 
 Silver . . 10,000 lbs. troy . £30,000 
 
 Copper . . 13,000 tons . . 1,300,000 
 
 Tin . . 5,500 . . . 550,000 
 
 Lead . . 46,000 . . . 950,000 
 
 Iron . . 1,350,000 . . . 10,000,000 
 
 Coal . .32,000,000 . . 12,000,000 
 
 Salt, alum, and other minor produce ) . ...... ^ 
 
 more than ( ,uuu,uuu 
 
 Total value probably exceeds 
 
 £25,830,000 
 
 Comparative Table of celebrated Mines in Europe and America. By J. Burr, Esq. 
 
 Two miles east of Redruth. 
 
 Eleva'inn nf the surface above the 
 level of ihe sea. fn>m 2U0 tu 3tKl 
 fret. Depth of ihe bottom of 
 the mine below the level of the 
 sea, about 1370 feet. 
 
 Primary clay slate, resting imme- 
 diately oo granite, a short dis- 
 tance westward of the mines. 
 The clay slate is intersected by 
 numerous channels of porphyry, 
 which have nearly the same di- 
 rection as the mineral veins, 
 and are often of fftmHiraMn 
 width. The porphyry some- 
 times appears also to form larsr 
 irregular masses in the cm 
 slate. Both rocks are traversed 
 by veins of quanx and clay in- 
 tersecting the metalliferous 
 
 vrlus. 
 
 »ture of the metatifer 
 ous deposiles 
 
 Produce of the ores . 
 
 (At present the richest 
 wines in Cornwall.) 
 
 Four miles north of Zacatecas. 
 
 Elevation of the surface above the 
 level nf the sea, supposed to be 
 about 6000 feet. Elevatior -' 
 the bottom of the mine at 
 the level of the sea, probably 
 near 5000 feet. 
 
 Transition clay slate, alternating 
 with dolomite, and occasionally 
 with greywacke. This clay 
 slate is sometimes decomposed : 
 it rests on syenitic rocks, and 
 is in some places covered with 
 porphyry. 
 
 In Ihe consolidated mines, the 
 eight following lodes are exten- 
 sively worked ; Wheal Fortune 
 lode, Cusvea lode. Heebie'* 
 lode, Old lode, Taylor's lode. 
 Tregonning's lode, Martin's 
 lode, and Glover's lode. In the 
 united mm**, the principal 
 workings are upon Ihe Old 
 lode, and about five or six oth- 
 ers are more or less productive. 
 Numerous smaller lodes or 
 " branches" occur also in both 
 mines. The principal lodes are 
 from 2 or 3 to 7 or 8 feet wide j 
 the "branches" are generally 
 12 or IS inches wide. The d 
 rection of Ihe lodes varies froi 
 nearly east and west to about 20 
 degrees north of east and south 
 of west. The underlie of Ihe 
 principal lodes is from 2 to 3 
 feet per fathom north ; that of 
 the smaller ones about the same 
 south. 
 
 Chiefly copper ore, occasionally 
 native copper, blue and green 
 carbonate of copper. Tin, 
 oxide of tin, also occurs, 
 not in very great abundance 
 
 9^ per cent, of fine copper ; aver- 
 age produce in 100 parts of 
 
 Vtta Grande Mint*. 
 
 (At present the richest 
 mines in Mexico.) 
 
 One principal vein (the Vtta 
 Grande), which is generally 
 separated into 3 branches, and 
 sometimes into four. When 
 ramified, the width extends to 
 60 or 70 feet ; when united, it 
 varies from 8 or 10 to 20 or 30 
 feet. The branches are gener- 
 ally about 10 or 12 feet wide, 
 and the upper one is most pro- 
 ductive. The direction of the 
 Veta Grande is from 30 to 40 
 degrees south of east, and north 
 of west, and its underlie, from 
 two to three feet per fathom 
 south. Other veins of less size 
 occur in the neiehhbourhood of 
 the Veta Grande, which cross 
 it at an acute angle. One of 
 these appears to heave the vein 
 for about 700 feet, being the 
 most remarkable derangement 
 of the kind on record. 
 
 Chiefly red silver, native silver, 
 sulphuret of silver, and argenti- 
 ferous pyrites. 
 
 3£ ox. per quintal. 
 
 Mine of Valcnciana. 
 
 (Richest of the Mexican 
 
 mines at the beginning of 
 
 the present century.) 
 
 One mile north of Guanajuato. 
 
 Elevation of the surface above the 
 level of the sea, 7617 feet. Ele 
 vation of the bottom of the 
 mine above the level of the sea, 
 5730 feet. 
 
 The Vtta Madre of Guanajuato, 
 upon which this mine is work- 
 ed, traverses both clay slate and 
 porphyry, but it is most produc- 
 tive in the former rock. The 
 clay slate is considered by 
 Humboldt to belong to the 
 transition class, but situ' te near 
 the limits of primary farina 
 tions. This rock in depth pass 
 es into chlorite slate, and talc 
 •la'e. It contains subordinate 
 beds of syenite, homblrnd 
 slate, and serpentine. The 
 porphyry rests upon the clay 
 slate, and is conformable to it, 
 both in direction and stratifica 
 lion. 
 
 One Veta (the Vtta Madre) 
 which is often separated into 
 three branches, extending from 
 130 to 160 feet in width. 
 When not ramified, its width 
 varies from 20 or 30 to 60 or 70 
 feet, but is more commonly 
 from 40 to 50 feet. The direc- 
 tion of the vein is north-west 
 and south-east; its underlie is 
 south, and about 6 or 6 feet per 
 fathom. 
 
 Sulphuret of silver, native silver, 
 prismatic black silver, red sil- 
 ver, native gold, argentiferous 
 galena. 
 
 Four ounces of silver per quintal 
 of 100 lbs. Equivalent to 2k 
 parts of metal in 1000 of ore, or 
 £ per cent. 
 
 5fi'n< of HimmtUfurtt. 
 
 (Richest of the Saxon 
 
 mines at the beginning 
 
 of the present 
 
 ceniury.) 
 
 Two miles south-east of 
 Freyberg. 
 
 Elevation of the surface 
 above the level of the 
 sea, 1346 feel. Eleva- 
 tion of the bottom of 
 the mine above the 
 level of the sea, 263 
 feet. 
 
 The rock prevailing 
 the neighbourhood of 
 Freyberg, in which 
 this aud most of the 
 other mines are situ- 
 ate, is a formation of 
 primary gneiss. 
 
 There are five veins 
 worked in this mine. 
 The principal vein 
 (Tticliflacht) is from 
 I foot 6 inches to 3 
 feet in width : the 
 others are from 6 to 12 
 inches wide. The di- 
 rection of this vein i' 
 nearly north and south; 
 its underlie is west, 
 and about 3 feet per 
 fa'hom. Some of the 
 other veins intersect it. 
 
 Argentiferous sulphuret 
 of lead, native silver, 
 sulphuret of silver, red 
 silver. 
 
 Six to seven ounces of 
 silver per quintal of 
 100 lbs- Equivalent to 
 from 3 J to4£ parts of 
 metal in I Out) of ore, 
 or from 3-8ths to near- 
 ly J per cent. 
 
 749 
 
MINE. 
 
 Table — continued. 
 
 Mineral substances ac 
 companying the ares 
 
 Depth of the principal 
 shafts . 
 
 Depth of adit at the prin- 
 cipal shafts . 
 
 Quantity of water 
 
 Power employed 
 drainage 
 
 Probable equivalent in 
 actual horse-power 
 
 Average annual expense 
 in drainage . 
 
 Quantity of ore annually 
 
 produced . . 
 Produce in metal . 
 
 Total returns, or value 
 
 of the above 
 Total costs of the mine 
 
 Clear prnfit to the pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 Amount of capital invest- 
 ed . . 
 
 Interest on capital in- 
 rested . , 
 
 Proportion of costs tore 
 turns . 
 
 Number of men employ 
 ed . . . 
 
 Wages of the miners per 
 
 day 
 Quantity and expense of 
 
 powder 
 Manner in which the 
 
 ores are disposed of 
 
 (At present the richest 
 mines in Cornwall.) 
 
 The ores are generally accompa- 
 nied by " gossan"* in the backs 
 of the lodes, by blende, and by 
 iron, and arsenical pyrites in 
 depth. 
 
 Wool/ 1 * engine-shaft, 243 fath- 
 oms ; Pearce's engine-shajt, 
 275 fathoms. Some of the oth- 
 er eDgine-shafts are scarcely in- 
 ferior in depth. 
 
 At Woolf's engine-shaft, 13 fath- 
 oris. The average depth of iht 
 adit at the other engine-shafts 
 is about 30 or 4U fathoms. 
 
 Varies from 2000 to 3U00 gallon* 
 per minute. 
 
 About 230 fathoms at the Consol- 
 idated Mines; at the United 
 Mines aboul 1 10 fathoms, 
 
 9 steam-engines ; 3 of 90-inch 
 cylinder, 3 of 85, 1 of SO, and 2 
 of 65. A water wheel 48 feet 
 in diameter. 
 
 1500 constantly at work, or a total 
 number of above 4500. 
 
 12,7002., taking the average ' 
 of the last ten years. 
 
 16,400 tons of copper ore, a 
 
 few tons of tin ore. 
 1517 tons of fine copper, a 
 
 little tin. 
 1 19,800*. 
 
 \ 
 
 93.5002. exclusive of lords 
 dues : 98,5001. including 
 lord's dues. 
 
 21,0002. per annum. 
 
 75,0002. 
 
 280 per cent, after paying 
 back the original capital. 
 
 Costs exclusive of lord's dues, 
 78 per cent. 
 
 About 2500 persons, of whom 
 about 1450 are employed under 
 ground. 
 
 Probably about 3 shillings on an 
 average. 
 
 Sold to the smelling companies, 
 and smelted by them at Swan. 
 tea, in South Wales. 
 
 Veia Grande Mines. 
 
 (At present the richest 
 DIMM in Mexico.) 
 
 Mine of yalenciana. 
 
 (Richest of the Mexican 
 
 mines at the beginning of 
 
 the present century.) 
 
 Chiefly quartz, occasionally ame- Quarts, amethyst, carbonate i 
 thysl, carbonate of lime, and lime, pearlspar, and hornstone 
 sulphate of barytes. 
 
 The ores are generally accompa- The ores are accompanied by 
 
 nied by blende, sulphuret of an 
 timouy, and iron pyrites. 
 
 Tiro General. 182 fath >ms ; Gal 
 2ega shaft, 13S fathoms. 
 
 ) adit to this mine. 
 
 About 80 gallons per minute. 
 
 On an average about 150 fathoms. 
 Usually about 10 malacates.t 
 
 32 horses constantly work-- 
 ing, or a total number of 
 about 100 horses. 
 
 20,0002. per annum. 
 
 21.3S0 tons of silver ore. 
 153,000 lbs. troy of silver 
 423,4001. per annum. 
 252,1701. per annum. 
 
 171,2401. per annum. 
 130,0002. 
 
 Nearly 700 per cent, after 
 paying back the original 
 capital. 
 
 About 59 J per cent. 
 
 About 900, of whom nearly ( 
 are employed under ground. 
 
 About 8 or 9 shillings per day. 
 
 Chiefly reduced by the company 
 at the Hacienda of Sanceda, by 
 •melting and amalgamation. 
 
 blende, spathose iron, copper 
 and iron pyrites. 
 
 Tiro General, 310 fathoms. 
 
 There is no adit to this mine. 
 
 The Valenciana was a dry mine 
 from its commencement in 1760 
 to 1780, when it first became 
 troubled wilh wafer, in conse- 
 quence of some of the workings 
 being inadvertently communi- 
 cated with the adjoining mine 
 of Tepeyac ; which, although 
 upon the same vein, was ex- 
 tremely wet. The quantity of 
 water raised during the late 
 working appears to have been 
 about 110 gallons per minute, 
 but the regular influx was much 
 
 A steam-engine of 30-inch cylir 
 der, and 7 malacates. 
 
 About 40,0002. per annum. " 
 
 32,500 tons of silver ore. 
 221,900 lbs. troy silver. 
 About 600,0002. 
 197,9002. per annum. 
 
 Tw r o water wheels, each 
 42 feet in diameter. 
 
 ►2 
 
 I1S,7502. per annum. 
 
 Cannot be ascertained, bul 
 known to have been very 
 small. 
 
 Not known, but certainly 
 many hundred per cent. 
 
 Costs 60 per cent. In the 
 nine years following the 
 proportion was 80 per 
 cent. J at the end of that 
 time the working of the 
 mine was stopped by the 
 revolution in the year 1809. 
 
 3100 Indians and Mestizoes, of 
 whom 1800 are employed under 
 ground. 
 
 From 4 to 5 shillings. 
 
 1420 cwt. ; value 15,8302. 
 
 Sold to the Racatadorei, and re- 
 duced by smeltimr and amalgs 
 malion at Haciendas, in th 
 neighbourhood of Guanaxuato. 
 
 M me of Himmelsfurst. 
 
 (Richest of ihe Saxon I 
 
 miues at the beginnin; 
 
 of the present 
 
 century.) 
 
 Quartz, pearlspar, and 
 calcareous spar. 
 
 The ores are accompa- 
 nied by blende, spath- 
 ose iron, and a little 
 iron and arsenical py- 
 
 47 failiuiii* . - 
 
 50 gallons per minute.. 
 
 troy of 
 
 16 horses constantly 
 at work, or a to- 
 tal number of 
 about 50. 
 
 Cannot be ascertain- 
 ed, but evidently 
 very small. 
 
 630 tons of silver 
 ore. 
 
 6160 lbi 
 silver. 
 
 About 18,0002. 
 
 95002. per annum. 
 
 35G02. per annum. 
 
 Cannot be ascertain- 
 ed, but probably 
 very small. 
 Not known, but 
 probably very 
 high 
 Costs 73 per cent. 
 
 700 miners, of whom 
 650 are employed un- 
 der ground. 
 
 About Is. 6d. per day. 
 
 240 cwt. ; value 10702. 
 
 Delivered to the Gov- 
 ernment, reduction 
 works in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Freyberg, 
 where they are partly 
 mielted, and partly 
 amalramated. 
 
 - Gossan, or Gozzan j oxide of iron and quartz. 
 
 Mines and Minerals, Law or. By the law of Eng- 
 land all minerals are part of the freehold of the soil under 
 which they are found, with the exception of gold' and silver, 
 which are said to belong to the crown. But, by 1 W. & 
 M., c. 50, no mine of copper or lead is adjudged a royal 
 mine, though silver be extracted. A lease of land, with 
 mines mentioned, conveys, it is said, the right to carry on 
 open mines only, and not open new ones, unless expressly 
 reserved ; but that if there are no open mines, the lessee 
 may then dig new or.es, as otherwise the grant would be of 
 none effect. But. unless the lessee be authorized, to dig 
 mines is waste. Mines are not rateable to the relief of the 
 poor, with the exception of coal mines; the latter being ex- 
 pressed in the statute of Eliz., the former are held to be ex- 
 cluded bv implication. But quarries are rateable ; and the 
 750 
 
 t Malacate, a horse whim. 
 
 distinction between a mine and a quarry is taken to be, not 
 the nature of the mineral extracted, but the mode of work- 
 ing: thus, a mine of limestone worked by a shaft is not 
 rateable. The law of mines and minerals is subject to a 
 variety of local customs, of which those of Devon and Corn- 
 wall are the most remarkable. See Stannaries. 
 
 Mine. In Fortification, a subterraneous passage leading 
 to a chamber underneath any place intended to be blown up 
 by gunpowder. See Mutter's Apt of War, and other work* 
 on military engineering of subsequent date. 
 
 MI'NERAL ADIPOCERE. A greasy bitumen, found 
 in the argillaceous ores of iron. See Hatchetine. 
 
 MI'NERAL CAOUTCHOUC. The elastic bitumen 
 found at Castleton in Derbyshire. 
 
 MI'NERAL CHAMELEON. See Manganese. A 
 
MINERAL GREEN. 
 
 mnnganesate of potash, obtained by fusing a mixture of 
 nitre" and black oxide of manganese. So called from the 
 variety of colours which its aqueous solution successively 
 exhibits. 
 
 MINERAL GREEN. Carbonate of copper, obtained by 
 precipitating a hot solution of sulphate of copper by carbon- 
 ate of soda. 
 
 MINERALI'ZERS. The substances with which metals 
 are combined in their ores. Thus, in the native oxide.-*, 
 oxygen is called the mineralizer ; sulphur is also a very 
 common mineralizer, as in the ores of copper, lead, &.c. 
 
 MINERALOGY. A branch of physico-chemical sci- 
 ence, which teaches the properties, composition, and rela- 
 tions of mineral bodies, and the art of distinguishing and de- 
 scribing them. 
 
 " There is no branch of science," says Sir J. Herschcl, 
 " which presents so many points of contact with other de- 
 partments of physical research, and serves as the connect- 
 ing link between so many distant points of philosophical 
 ■peculation, as this. To the geologist, the chemist, the op- 
 tician, the crystallographer, it offers especially the very ele- 
 ments of their knowledge, and a field fix many of their 
 curious and important inquiries; nor, with the excep- 
 tion of chemistry, is there any which has undergone more 
 revolutions, or been exhibited in a greater variety of forms. 
 To ilie ancients it could scarcely be said to be at all known ; 
 and, up to a comparatively recent period, nothing could be 
 BOre imperfect than its descriptions, or mure inartificial and 
 unnatural than its classifications. The more important 
 minerals in the arts, indeed— those used for economical 
 purposes, and those from which metals were extracted — 
 had a certain degree of attention paid to them for the sake 
 of their utility and commercial value, and the precious 
 for that of ornament; but until their crystalline 
 forms were attentively observed, and shown t<r*be determi- 
 nate characters, on which dependence could be placed, no 
 mineralogist could give any correct account of the real dis- 
 tinction between one mineral and another. It was only, 
 however, when chemical analysis had acquired a certain 
 degree of prevision and universal applicability, that the im- 
 portance of mineralogy as a science began to lie recognised, 
 and the connexion between the external characters of a stone 
 and its ingredient constituents brought into distinct notice." 
 
 In the above quotation, the two characters of minerals 
 upon which their classification is founded are adverted 
 to, namely, their structure and their composition ; and, pur- 
 suing these as their leading objects, mineralogists have of 
 late discarded a number of other qualities upon which 
 much Ure as was formerly laid, but which are so variable 
 and indefinite as to be really of little value ; such, for in- 
 stance, as weight, colour, touch, nnd other sensible quali- 
 ties, which often vary in different specimens of the same 
 mineral. 
 
 There are so many disadvantages belonging to any miner- 
 alogical arrangement founded exclusively on crystalline 
 form, or on chemical composition, that, for all practical 
 purposes, it is necessary to blend the two; but since the 
 chemical theory of definite proportionals, or, as it is com- 
 monly called, the atomic theory, has been shown to be ap- 
 plicable to the greater number of mineral combinations, the 
 chemical arrangement of mineral substances has assumed a 
 new and Important aspect: it being o'f course necessary, in 
 describing a mineral, that its crystalline form and modifica- 
 tions should in all cases form an essential part of such de- 
 scription, where at least it can be attained ; for it must be 
 recollected that there are many cases in which minerals do 
 not occur crystallized, and where that characteristic, there- 
 fore, would be totally at fault. It has been well observed 
 by Dr. Thomson (System of Chemistry, Part III., Introduc- 
 tion), "that if mineralogy were to be confined to mere crys- 
 tallized bodies, it would be divested of the greatest part of 
 its utility ; for a very great proportion of those minerals that 
 are of the greatest utility to man, and which, therefore, it is 
 peculiarly important to be able to distinguish from others, 
 are seldom found in the state of regular crystals. How 
 often do the ores of copper, tin, lead, and iron occur in an 
 amorphous state 7 And were a mineralogist incapable of 
 distinguishing them from each other, and from other miner- 
 als, except in the rare cases when they assume a regularly 
 crystallized form, his knowledge would be useless, as far 
 as the important arts of mining and metallurgy are con- 
 cerned." 
 
 Mincrnlogieal analysis, as connected with the atomic 
 theory, has made no inconsiderable progress in the skilful 
 and industrious hands of Berzelius ; but it is still quite in its 
 infancy as regards the foundation of a mineral arrange- 
 ment ; and, before it can be successfully adopted as such, 
 many new analyses, and much laborious revision of for- 
 mer researches, will be requisite. One of the latest authors 
 on mineralogy, who has adopted an arrangement founded 
 upon the chemical composition of minerals, is Dr. Thomas 
 Thomson. He divides minerals into three classes : 
 
 MINERALOGY. 
 
 Class I. jtiid Bases. (Those bodies which become acids 
 when combined with oxygen.) 
 
 Specie*. 
 
 Genus I. Carbon 11 
 
 II. Boron 1 
 
 III. Silicon ? 
 
 IV. Phosphorous. 
 
 V. Sulphur 1 
 
 VI. Selenium. 
 
 VII. Tellurium .... 1 
 
 VIII. Arsenic 5 
 
 IX. Antimony 5 
 
 X. Chromium. 
 
 XI. Molybdenum 1 
 
 XII. Tungstein. 
 
 XIII. Columbium. 
 
 XIV. Titanium. 
 
 XV. Vanadium. 
 
 II. Alkaline Bases 
 
 I. Ammonia 2 
 
 II. Potassium 1 
 
 III. Sodium 7 
 
 IV. Lithium. 
 
 V. Barium 5 
 
 VI. Strontium 6 
 
 VII. Calcium 30 
 
 VIII. Magnesium 37 
 
 IX. Aluminum. 
 
 1. Pure, or combined with bases . 7 
 
 2. Simple salts 24 
 
 ;i. Double anhydrous salts ... 39 
 
 4. Double h vdrous salts, soluble in wa- 
 
 ter 3 
 
 5. Double, insoluble in water, and 
 
 phosphates 4 
 
 C. Double hydrous aluminous silicates, 
 
 or zeolites 39 
 
 7. Triple aluminous salts ... 15 
 
 8. Quadruple aluminous salts . . 12 
 X. Cluciniun 4 
 
 XI. Yttriimi 6 
 
 XII. Cerium 8. 
 
 XIII. Zirconium 5 
 
 XIV. Thorinum 1 
 
 XV. Iron. 
 
 1. Uncombincd, or united to a sin. pie 
 
 substance 13 
 
 2. Oxygen salts of iron ... 22 
 
 Double ditto 10 
 
 Triple ditto G 
 
 3. Sulphur salts of iron . . 2 
 
 XVI. Manganese, 
 
 1. Combined with simple. bodies . II 
 
 2. Simple oxygen salts ... 5 
 
 3. Double oxygen salts ... 5 
 
 4. Triple oxygen salts ... 1 
 XVII. Nickel. 
 
 1. Combined with simple bodies 5 
 
 2. Oxvgcn salts 1 
 
 3. Sulphur salts 2 
 
 XVHI. Cobalt. 
 
 1. Combined with simple bodies . 5 
 
 2. Oxygen salts 2 
 
 3. Sulphur salts 1 
 
 XIX. Zinc. 
 
 1. United to simple bodies ... 4 
 
 2. Oxygen salts 6 
 
 3. Sulphur salts 1 
 
 XX. Lead. 
 
 1. Native, or united to simple bodies 7 
 
 2. Oxygen salts of lead. 
 
 a Simple 7 
 
 b Double 10 
 
 c Triple 2 
 
 3. Sulphur salts 5 
 
 XXI. Tin 2 
 
 XXII. Bismuth. 
 
 1. Native, or combined with simple 
 bodies 6 
 
 2. Oxvgen salt* 2 
 
 3. Sulphur salts 1 
 
 XXUI. Copper. 
 
 1. Nntive, or combined with simple 
 bodies •> 
 
 2. Oxygen salts ... .19 
 
 3. Chlorine salts ... 1 
 
 4. Sulphur salts ... .5 
 
 5. Selenium salts .... 
 XXIV. Mercury 5 
 
 XXV. Silver. 
 
 1. Native, or combined with simple 
 
 bodies w 
 
 751 
 
MINERALOGY. 
 
 Species. 
 
 2. Oxygen salts 1 
 
 3. Sulphur salts 6 
 
 XXVI. Uranium 5 
 
 XXV U. Palladium 2 
 
 Class III. Neutral Bases. 
 
 I. Gold 3 
 
 II. Platinum 1 
 
 III. Iridium 1 
 
 We have given the above as a specimen of a chemical 
 oiineralogical arrangement; and except, perhaps, thai the 
 tast class is unnecessarily separated from the preceding, it is 
 sufficiently simple and explicit. The individual characters 
 of each species, such as colour, fracture, hardness, specific 
 gravity, and crystalline forms, constitute, of course, a neces- 
 sary part of their description. 
 
 One of the most useful practical works on Mineralogy, 
 and, in our language at least, the most available for the use 
 of the student, is Mr. Allan's edition of the Elementary In- 
 troduction to that science of the late Mr. William Phillips. 
 In this work the following order of arrangement is adopted ; 
 and the annexed tables give the distinctive constituents of 
 the respective species. 
 
 N.B.— The proportions are indicated by figures, where ascertained ; when 
 doubtful, are marked thus — . 
 
 EARTHY MINERALS. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Silica 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Quarts . • 
 
 100 
 
 Alu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Opal 
 
 — 
 
 mina. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Flint . 
 
 9S 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Calcciony 
 
 84 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 Jaspar . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hornstone 
 
 71 
 
 16 
 
 Lime. 
 
 Water. 
 
 10 
 
 Man- 
 gan. 
 
 Leelite . 
 
 75 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Karphotite 
 
 37 
 
 29 
 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 Alumo-calcite 
 
 F6 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Garnet . 
 
 43 
 
 16 
 
 20 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 Cinnamon stone 
 
 40 
 
 23 
 
 3! 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 Idocrase 
 
 4(1 
 
 33 
 
 22 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 Gehlenite 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 35 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 
 Prehnile . 
 
 44 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 Stilbite . 
 
 68 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Heulandite 
 
 59 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 Dipyre . . . 
 
 62 
 
 25 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Davyne . . 
 
 45 
 
 34 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 Laumonite 
 
 50 
 
 22 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Zoisite . 
 
 43 
 
 31 
 
 a 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 Epidote . • 
 
 40 
 
 28 
 
 15 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 Axiniie . . 
 
 50 
 
 16 
 
 IT 
 
 
 9 
 
 S 
 
 lsopyre . • 
 Indianite 
 
 49 
 
 43 
 
 14 
 38 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 
 .-1 
 4 
 
 
 Xanthite 
 
 35 
 
 14 
 
 38 
 
 
 13 
 
 Mag- 
 
 Anthophyllite 
 
 63 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 4' 
 
 Amphodelite . . 
 
 46 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 Sniaragdite . 
 
 50 
 
 21 
 
 13 
 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 Anorilnte . . 
 
 45 
 
 34 
 
 15 
 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 Clays . 
 
 75 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 Kerolite 
 
 39 
 
 13 
 
 
 31 
 
 
 17 
 
 Pyrnphyllite . 
 
 60 
 
 30 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 Fahlunite 
 
 48 
 
 29 
 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 
 Chiutolite . 
 
 67 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 lolite . 
 
 50 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 II 
 
 Sordawalite . 
 
 50 
 
 
 Bar. and 
 
 Strontia. 
 
 5 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 Harmotome . 
 
 47 
 
 IS 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 Brcwsterite . a 
 
 54 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 I.i'hia. 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 
 Petal ite . 
 
 78 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 Spodumene . 
 
 6u 
 
 25 
 
 8 
 Lime. 
 
 
 1 
 
 Man- 
 gan. 
 
 Jef&rsnnite . 
 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 Tabular spar . 
 
 12 
 
 
 46 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 Okenire . 
 
 57 
 
 
 27 
 
 16 
 Titan. 
 
 
 Mag- 
 nesia. 
 
 Melinite 
 
 40 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 Gismortdine . 
 
 43 
 
 3 
 
 48 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 Augite . 
 
 53 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 Diupside . 
 
 6fi 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 Babingtonite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bucklandite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hornblende . . 
 
 59 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 Arfwedsonite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hyier.,lir„e . 
 
 56 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 Water. 
 
 26 
 
 14 
 
 Schiller spar . 
 
 43 
 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 29 
 
 Bronzite . 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 Thulite . 
 
 47 
 Alu- 
 
 28 
 Wa- 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Alumina. 
 
 mina. 
 
 ter. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 Corundum 
 
 98 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Diaspnee . . 
 
 85 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gibbsite 
 
 65 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 
 
 Calais . 
 
 74 
 
 19 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 Hydrate of alumna 
 Allophane . 
 
 45 
 
 40 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 42 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 Scarbroite 
 
 43 
 
 48 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Halloysite . 
 
 Worth ite 
 
 34 
 
 26 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 5 
 
 41 
 
 
 
 
 752 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 EARTHY MINERALS- ctmtmutA. 
 
 
 Alu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Alumina. 
 
 mina. 
 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Iffon, 
 
 
 
 ril>ro!i»e 
 
 58 
 
 
 38 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 SiUimamte 
 
 55 
 
 
 43 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Kavamte 
 
 64 
 
 
 34 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Sta'urolite 
 
 D- 
 
 Mag. 
 nesia. 
 
 30 
 
 18 
 
 Fluor. 
 A. 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Automalite . 
 
 60 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 
 24 
 
 Ftueltite 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Topaz . 
 
 58 
 
 
 35 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 Chrysoberyl , 
 
 SI 
 
 
 U 
 
 
 
 
 Spinel . . . 
 
 74 
 
 S 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Sapphinne 
 
 64 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 
 ' 
 
 Fleonaste 
 
 67 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 
 Lime. 
 
 Turnerite 
 
 Mag- 
 
 Wa- 
 
 
 
 
 - J 
 
 Afatrrifsia. 
 
 nesia. 
 
 ter. 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Hydrate of magnesia 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chrysolite 
 
 43 
 
 
 33 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 Olivine 
 
 38 
 
 
 50 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 Ligurite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Forsterite . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Condrodite . 
 
 56 
 
 
 33 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Humiie. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tautolite 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 __ 
 
 Alu- 
 
 
 Serpentine 
 
 40 
 
 15 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 
 mina. 
 
 
 Soapstone 
 
 25 
 
 19 
 
 46 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 
 Steatite 
 
 32 
 
 7 
 
 69 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Potstone 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 49 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 
 Nephrite 
 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 50 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 
 Ncmalite 
 
 52 
 
 29 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Marmolite 
 
 42 
 
 15 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Picrolite , . 
 
 33 
 
 12 
 
 41 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Picrosmine . 
 
 35 
 Zirco- 
 
 8 
 
 55 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Zifconia. 
 
 nia. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Zircon . . 
 
 69 
 
 
 29 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Ostianite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Glucina. 
 
 Glucina. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Euclase * . 
 
 22 
 
 
 44 
 
 3 
 
 31 
 
 
 Emerald 
 
 15 
 
 Glu- 
 
 6S 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 Ce- 
 
 
 Yttria. 
 
 Yttria. 
 
 tina. 
 
 
 
 rium. 
 
 
 Gadolinite 
 
 38 
 
 5 
 
 25 
 
 U 
 
 Iron, 
 
 16 
 Wa- 
 
 
 Thorina. 
 
 Thorina. 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 &c. 
 
 ter. 
 
 
 Thorite . 
 
 58 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 
 ALKALINO-EARTHY 
 
 MINERALS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alu- 
 
 
 Mag- 
 
 
 Potath. 
 
 l'ot»<h. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 mina. 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Mica . . j 
 
 10 
 
 46 
 
 14 
 
 
 10 ' 
 
 20 
 
 S 
 
 43 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 l.ime. 
 
 
 Rubellane 
 
 10 
 
 45 
 
 I'l 
 
 | 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 Margarite 
 
 2 
 
 40 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 o 
 
 Leucite 
 
 
 fit) 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 Herschellite. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Andalusite . 
 
 4 
 
 re 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Bucholzite 
 
 2 
 
 46 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Phillipsite 
 
 l 
 
 4H 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 
 Apopliyllite . 
 
 
 '2 
 
 
 IS 
 
 2'. 
 
 
 Dysclasite 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 26 
 
 Mag 
 nesia. 
 
 
 Nacrite . ■ 
 
 IS 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 Su'ph.A. 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 Hauyne 
 
 16 
 
 3S 
 
 19 
 
 13 
 Water. 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 Weissite 
 
 A 
 
 55 
 
 23 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 Pearls tone 
 
 4 
 
 76 
 
 12 
 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Gieseckite . . 
 
 7 
 
 48 
 
 36 
 
 5 
 
 
 4 
 
 Pinite . 
 
 9 
 
 56 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Pyrargyllite . 
 
 3 
 
 44 
 
 29 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 Felspar 
 
 14 
 
 67 
 
 19 
 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 Latmbite 
 
 7 
 
 45 
 
 37 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 
 Ag.ilmatolite 
 
 7 
 
 56 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 Mag- 
 
 ' 
 
 Chlorite 
 
 7 
 
 52 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 Killinits 
 
 6 
 
 56 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 Lime. 
 
 3 
 
 Couzeranite • 
 
 10 
 
 53 
 
 24 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 Glaucolite 
 
 5 
 
 52 
 
 29 
 
 and 
 Flu. A. 
 
 14 
 I.i. 
 thia. 
 
 
 Lepidolite 
 
 9 
 
 50 
 
 29 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 Soda. 
 
 Soda. 
 
 
 
 Water. 
 
 I.! me. 
 
 
 Mesorype 
 
 16 
 
 48 
 
 27 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Thomsonito . . 
 
 6 
 
 38 
 
 30 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 
 Mesole . 
 
 8 
 
 42 
 
 Sfc 
 
 11 
 
 II 
 
 
 Needlestono . 
 
 6 
 
 47 
 
 26 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 
 Brevicite 
 
 10 
 
 44 
 
 29 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 Gmelinite 
 
 5 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 4 
 
 
 Comptonite. 
 
 
 
 Mag- 
 nesia. 
 
 
 
 Phot. 
 A. 
 
 Lrdereri'e 
 
 4 
 
 50 
 
 22 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Jj» 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 min«. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Hypottilbite . 
 
 2 
 
 54 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 S 
 
 
MINERALOGY. 
 
 ALKAUNO-EARTHY MINERALS- 
 
 -continued. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alu- | 
 
 
 
 
 Snia. 
 
 Soda. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 mini. 
 
 Water. 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 Epistilbite 
 
 2 
 
 59 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 
 Spherostilbite 
 
 1 
 
 56 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 
 and 
 
 
 
 Magne* 
 
 
 Phos. 
 
 
 Potash. 
 
 
 
 sia. 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 3 
 
 54 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 I iluuiboldtilite 
 
 5 
 
 44 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 '. Lajiislazuii . 
 
 9 
 
 51 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 ue 
 
 20 
 
 44 
 
 34 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 34 
 
 30 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 46 
 
 32 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 j Nutulile 
 
 8 
 
 Soli. 
 
 34 
 
 26 
 
 8 
 
 Mur. A. 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 Sotlalite 
 
 26 
 
 36 
 
 32 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Canrricite 
 
 26 
 
 41 
 
 33 
 
 Su!. A. 
 
 
 Iron, 
 be. 
 
 SpinelUae 
 
 18 
 
 41 
 
 29 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 Fericline 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Labradorite 
 
 4 
 
 56 
 
 27 
 
 
 It 
 
 2 
 
 Albite . 
 
 11 
 
 70 
 
 19 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 
 Analcime 
 
 14 
 
 55 
 
 23 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pitclistone 
 
 3 
 
 73 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 Pumice 
 
 3 
 
 77 
 
 IS 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Obsidian . 
 
 10 
 
 n 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Spherulile 
 
 4 
 
 79 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 Magne- 
 
 lia. 
 
 
 3 
 
 Saussurite . ■ 
 
 6 
 
 49 
 
 24 
 
 3 
 
 Water. 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 Scnpolile 
 
 1 
 
 45 
 
 35 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 
 Ektberpio . 
 
 & 
 
 47 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 . 
 
 10 
 
 61 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 34 
 
 
 Chabasie 
 
 2 
 
 51 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 10 
 
 
 Leiyne. 
 
 
 
 
 Bor. A. 
 
 May- 
 
 oesia. 
 
 
 Tourmaline . 
 
 3 
 
 36 
 
 35 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 Lime. 
 
 16 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 40 
 
 32 
 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 Edingtoiiile . 
 
 3 
 
 64 
 
 14 
 
 Water. 
 
 21 
 
 Mag- 
 nesia. 
 
 8 
 
 Krokvdolite . 
 
 8 
 
 51 
 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 34 
 
 Achmite 
 
 11 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 Cummingtnoite 
 
 9 
 
 59 
 
 Zirco- 
 
 nia. 
 
 2 
 
 Lime 
 
 30 
 
 Eudyalite 
 
 14 
 
 54 
 
 II 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 ACIDIFEROl'S EARTHY MlNERALS-conJmued. 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 Boracic acid 
 
 Sulphur. 
 
 40 
 
 Boron. 
 
 ACIWFEROUS EARTHY MINERALS. 
 
 
 
 Alu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alumina. 
 
 Sul. A. 
 
 mina. 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 
 
 Subsulphate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 alumina. 
 
 24 
 
 30 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphate of alu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mina 
 
 36 
 Pho*. A. 
 
 16 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 
 Warelli'.e . 
 
 35 
 
 37 
 
 23 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 Kakoxene . 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 26 
 
 10 
 
 36 
 
 Lithia. 
 
 Amblvgnnite 
 
 54 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Cbiidrenite . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Magne- 
 
 iii. 
 
 Azurite 
 
 43 
 
 35 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 I.iml. 
 
 Carh. A. 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Carbonate of lime 
 
 44 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 Stron- 
 lia. 
 
 Arragonite 
 
 44 
 
 64 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Magne- 
 
 Bitter ipar . 
 
 50 
 
 34 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 Ankerite . 
 
 35 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 Lead. 
 
 Plumbo-calcite . 
 
 43 
 
 Phos. A. 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Apatite 
 
 44 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 
 HcruVrite. 
 
 Fluor. 
 A. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fluor spar . 
 
 28 
 Sul. A. 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 
 
 Anhydrite . 
 
 68 
 
 42 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gypsum • 
 
 46 
 
 Nit. A 
 
 33 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 Nitrate of lima . 
 
 66 
 Bor. A. 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 
 
 Datholite . 
 
 22 
 
 Arsen. 
 
 A. 
 
 38 
 
 5 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 Pharmaeolite 
 
 60 
 
 26 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 Haidiogcrite 
 
 67 
 
 Tung. 
 
 A. 
 
 29 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 Tungstateof lime 
 
 80 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Magnesia. 
 Carbonate of magnesia 
 
 Breunnerite . 
 
 Con lie . 
 
 Sulphate of magnesia 
 
 Nitrate of magnesia 
 
 Wagnerite . 
 
 Boracite 
 Hydro-boracite 
 
 Baryta. 
 Witherite 
 
 Ilaryto.calcite 
 
 Barytes 
 
 Barystrontianite 
 Celestine 
 
 rttria. 
 
 Phosphate of yttr 
 
 
 Caib. 
 
 Magne- 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 Walei 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 48 
 
 2 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 42 
 
 
 9 
 
 Lime 
 
 
 49 
 
 33 
 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 
 Sul. A. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 16 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 
 Nit. A. 
 
 
 
 
 | 
 
 
 72 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 
 
 Phot. 
 
 
 
 
 Fluor. 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 42 
 
 47 
 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 
 Borax. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 69 
 
 31 
 
 
 
 Limt. 
 
 
 60 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 Carb. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 Baryta. 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 78 
 
 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 Sul. A. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cart. 
 
 Stron- 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 ti». 
 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sul. A. 
 
 Bary- 
 ta. 
 
 Lime, 
 Ax. 
 
 
 22 
 
 48 
 
 9 
 
 IS 
 
 3 
 
 
 Sul. A. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 
 
 Phot. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 Yltria. 
 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 35 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 ACIIHFEROUS ALKALINE MINERALS. 
 
 Potaih. 
 
 Nitric Acid. 
 
 Potash. 
 
 
 Nitrate of potash • • 
 
 64 
 
 Sulp. Acid. 
 
 46 
 
 
 Sulphate of potash . 
 
 46 
 
 54 
 
 
 Soda. 
 
 Carbon. Acid. 
 
 Soda. 
 
 Walei 
 
 Carbonate of soda 
 
 35 
 
 60 
 
 15 
 
 Trona .... 
 
 39 
 
 Sulph. A. 
 
 38 
 
 23 
 
 Sulphate of soda . 
 
 45 
 Nitric A. 
 
 35 
 
 20 
 
 Nitrate of soda . . 
 
 63 
 
 Boracic A. 
 
 37 
 
 
 Borate of soda . 
 
 37 
 Muriatic A. 
 
 15 
 
 48 
 
 Muriate of soda . . 
 
 47 
 
 63 
 
 
 Ammonia 
 
 Sulph. A. 
 
 Ammonia. 
 
 
 Sulphate of ammonia 
 
 53 
 
 Muriatic A. 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 Muriate of ammonia 
 
 51 
 
 32 
 
 17 
 
 ACIDIFEROUS ALKAL1NO-EARTHY MINERALS. 
 
 I'vtath. 
 Alum . . • 
 Alum-stone . 
 
 Folyhallite . 
 
 Sul. A. 
 36 
 
 53 
 
 Potash. 
 10 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 Alu- 
 mina. 
 11 
 40 
 
 Lime. 
 19 
 
 Water. 
 45 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 Mag- 
 
 nesia. 
 
 7 
 
 Soda. 
 Cryolite . . 
 
 Fluor. 
 A. 
 44 
 
 Soda. 
 32 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 Glauber ite , . 
 Reussite • • 
 
 Sul. A. 
 67 
 
 67 
 
 22 
 
 Polish. 
 
 29 
 
 
 21 
 
 Mur. A. 
 2 
 
 • 
 12 
 
 Soda-alum . . 
 
 3S 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 
 Water. 
 42 
 
 , 
 
 Giylusiite . 
 
 Carb. A. 
 29 
 
 20 
 
 I 
 
 18 
 
 32 
 
 
 Native carbonate of 
 lime and soda . 
 
 37 
 
 9 
 
 
 39 
 
 10 
 
 Iron, 
 
 be. 
 
 6 
 
 Ammonia. 
 Sulphate of alumina 
 and ammonia . 
 
 Sul. A. 
 37 
 
 Ammo- 
 
 ma. 
 
 ( 
 
 12 
 
 
 45 
 
 Mas- 
 
 nesia. 
 
 1 
 
 MF.TAI.LIFEROUS MINERALS. 
 
 
 
 Sul- 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 phur. 
 
 
 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 Native iron 
 
 97 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Iron pyriles 
 
 47 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 
 White iron 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pyrites 
 
 46 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 
 
 Magnetic 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iron pyrites 
 
 61 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arsenical 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Awn. 
 
 iron 
 
 36 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 43 
 
 Oxydulated 
 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 iron 
 
 72 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 
 
 Spfcular 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iron 
 
 69 
 
 31 
 
 Water. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 Red hematite 
 
 65 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 B 
 
 753 
 
MINERALOGY. 
 
 METALLIFEROUS MINERALS— continued. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 • Iron. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Water. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Ma„gm. 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Franklinite 
 
 46 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 Hydrous ox- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ide nf iron 
 
 57 
 
 26 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 Goethite . 
 
 61 
 
 28 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 Brown hae- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 matite 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Stilpnosider- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ite . 
 
 56 
 
 25 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 
 Mag- 
 nesia. 
 
 Cronstedtite 
 
 42 
 
 18 
 
 II 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 Pinguite . 
 
 25 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 
 37 
 
 
 I 
 
 Anhydrous 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 silicate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iron 
 
 51 
 
 19 
 
 
 29 
 
 I 
 
 Alu- 
 mina. 
 
 Chloropal . 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 41 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Chamoisite 
 
 42 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 
 8 
 
 Siderochiso- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lite . 
 
 53 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 
 4 
 
 Hisiagerite 
 
 37 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 Lime 
 
 Yeaite 
 
 39 
 
 16 
 
 I 
 
 30 
 
 2 
 Sulph. 
 
 12 
 
 Arsen. 
 
 Pitchy iron 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 A. 
 
 ore . . 
 
 24 
 
 11 
 
 29 
 
 
 10 
 Mur. A. 
 
 26 
 Mangan. 
 
 Pyrosmalite 
 
 24 
 
 10 
 
 
 36 
 
 Carb! A 
 
 16 
 
 Spathose iron 
 
 46 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 Phosphate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Phos. A. 
 
 
 iron 
 
 32 
 
 10 
 
 27 
 
 
 31 
 
 
 Heteposite . 
 
 32 
 
 11 
 
 — 
 
 
 48 
 
 9 
 
 Karphosider- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ite . 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 
 Sulphate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 iron 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 45 
 
 
 29 
 
 
 Bntryogene 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 33 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 Misy . 
 
 — 
 
 "* 
 
 
 
 Arsen. 
 
 
 Arsen iate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 iron 
 
 29 
 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 Oxalate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oxal. A. 
 
 
 iron 
 
 41 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 46 
 Tung. 
 
 
 Tungstate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 iron 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 
 2 
 
 71 
 
 4 
 
 Manganese. 
 
 Mang»n. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hausmannite 
 
 78 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 Baryta. 
 
 Braunite . 
 
 68 
 
 29 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Pyrolusite . 
 
 66 
 
 31 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Gray oxide of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 manganese 
 
 68 
 
 22 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 Psilomelane 
 
 55 
 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 16 
 
 Wad . 
 
 48 
 
 21 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 
 Cupreous 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copper. 
 
 
 mangan . 
 
 53 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 Sulph. 
 A. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Gluctna. 
 
 Helvine . 
 
 34 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 38 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 Sihciferous 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 oxide of 
 
 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 
 
 manganese 
 
 36 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 40 
 
 4 
 
 
 Hydmsilicate 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 of manga- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 nese 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Knebelite . 
 
 27 
 
 15 
 
 
 33 
 
 25 
 
 Lime. 
 
 Bustamitc . 
 
 28 
 
 g 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 15 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphur. 
 
 
 Carb. A. 
 
 manganese 
 
 66 
 
 18 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 11 
 
 Carbonate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lime. 
 
 manganese 
 
 39 
 
 17 
 
 
 1 
 
 38 
 
 6 
 
 Pelokonitc . 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 
 Phos. A. 
 
 Huraulite . 
 
 24 
 
 14 
 
 16 
 
 
 8 
 
 38 
 
 Phosphate of 
 
 
 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 
 manganese 
 
 25 
 
 14 
 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 34 
 
 Molybdena. 
 
 Molyhd. 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 molybdena 
 
 60 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oxide of mo- 
 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 lybdena . 
 
 85 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tin. 
 
 Tin. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oxide of tin 
 
 79 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 tin . 
 
 36 
 
 Sulph. 
 26 
 
 Copper. 
 36 
 
 Iron. 
 2 
 
 
 
 Tungittn. 
 
 Tungst. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oxide of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tungsten . 
 
 86 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 Titanium. 
 
 Titan. 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 
 
 Ana'ase 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rutile . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Iserine . 
 
 45 
 
 16 
 
 36 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Brook ite . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 Crichtonitc 
 
 ~ 
 
 ~ 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 Mangan. 
 
 Ilmenite 
 
 59 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Mohsite 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 Lime. 
 
 
 Sphene 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 33 
 
 
 I 
 
 ETALL1 
 
 FEROUS 
 
 MINERALS— contmuea. 
 
 
 Titanium. 
 
 Tit. A. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Water. 
 
 Cerium. 
 
 Lime. 
 
 Uran. 
 
 Pyrochlore 
 
 63 
 
 iu 
 
 4 
 
 Iron, &c. 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 Zircon. 
 
 ^schynite . 
 
 56 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 and 
 
 Yttria. 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 Polymignite 
 
 53 
 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 Cerium. 
 
 Cerium. 
 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 Iron 
 
 Cerite 
 
 51 
 
 IS 
 
 lb 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Silicate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cerium . 
 
 
 
 
 
 and 
 Alum. 
 
 
 Allanite 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 Torrelite . 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 
 and 
 
 Yttria. 
 
 16 
 
 Orthite 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 36 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 in 
 
 anl 
 Cart. in. 
 
 Pyrorthite . 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 27 
 
 5 
 
 41 
 
 Carbonate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Carb. A. 
 
 
 cerium . 
 
 60 
 
 16 
 
 Lime. 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 Fluor. 
 A. 
 
 Yttria. 
 
 Yttro- cerite 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 47 
 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 Fluate of ce- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rium 
 
 66 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 Sulp. 
 Lead. 
 
 Uranium. 
 
 Uran. 
 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 Pitchblende 
 
 82 
 
 5 
 
 i 
 
 Lime. 
 Ac. 
 
 3 
 
 Water. 
 
 5 
 Pho,. A. 
 
 Uranite 
 
 55 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 Copper. 
 
 IS 
 
 IS 
 
 Chalkolite . 
 
 55 
 
 8 
 Carb. A. 
 
 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 Carbonate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 uranium 
 
 
 Sulph. 
 A. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Johannite . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 Tantalum. 
 
 Tantal. 
 
 Oxvgen. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Mangan. 
 
 Yttria. 
 
 
 Tantalite . 
 
 81 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 Lime. 
 
 Yttrotantalite 
 
 51 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Cerium. 
 
 Tin, &c. 
 
 37 
 
 4 
 Zer- 
 
 conia. 
 
 Fergusonite 
 
 44 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 42 
 
 3 
 
 Chnmit. 
 
 Chr. 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 
 Oxide of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 chrome . 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 Alu- 
 
 Chromate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mina. 
 
 iron 
 
 39 
 
 23 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Bismuth. 
 
 Bis- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Native bis- 
 
 muth. 
 
 Sulphur. 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Lead. 
 
 
 
 muth 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 bismuth . 
 
 81 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cupreous bis- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 muth 
 
 49 
 
 13 
 
 38 
 
 
 
 
 Needle ore 
 
 43 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 Oxide of bis- 
 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 muth 
 
 90 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bismuth- 
 
 
 
 Silica. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 Phos. A. 
 
 blende 
 
 62 
 
 9 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 Sulphur 
 
 4 
 
 Telluric bis- 
 
 
 
 
 Tellur. 
 
 & Selen. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 muth 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 Artenic. 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 Anti- 
 
 Native ar- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 mony. 
 
 senic 
 
 96 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Oxide of ar- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 senic 
 
 76 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 
 
 
 
 arsenic . 
 
 70 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 
 
 Arsenical py- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 rites 
 
 65 
 
 5 
 
 2S 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 Sulphur. 
 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 Bright white 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cobalt 
 
 34 
 
 44 
 
 20 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 Tin white 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cobalt 
 
 22 
 
 75 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 Bis- 
 
 Bismuth co- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 muth. 
 
 balt ore . 
 
 10 
 
 78 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Coppei 
 
 cobalt 
 
 44 
 
 
 39 
 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 Earthy cobalt 
 
 61 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 Arsen. 
 A. 
 
 Water. 
 23 
 
 
 
 Cobalt bloom 
 
 31 
 
 9 
 
 38 
 
 22 
 
 Lime. 
 
 Mag- 
 nesia. 
 
 Roselite 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 
 Sulphate of 
 cobalt 
 
 ffickd. 
 
 23 
 
 NickH. 
 
 I 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 A. 
 
 30 
 
 4) 
 
 
 1 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 nickel 
 
 65 
 
 n 
 
 Anti- 
 
 
 
 
 Antimouial 
 
 
 
 moty. 
 
 
 
 
 nickel 
 
 28 
 
 16 
 
 56 | 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 754 
 
MINERALOGY. 
 
 METALLIFEROUS MINERALS- 
 
 METALLIFEROUS MINERALS- 
 
 Pimelite 
 
 Siletr. 
 
 Native silver 
 
 Antimouul 
 lilver 
 
 Telluric lil- 
 ver 
 
 Suljiharel of 
 •liver 
 
 Flexible sut- 
 pkiret of 
 tilvtr 
 
 Sternbergite 
 
 Brittle iu|. 
 phuret of 
 lilver 
 
 Sulphurel of 
 silver and 
 antimony. 
 
 Folybaiite . 
 
 Red silver j 
 
 Miargyrile 
 Sulphurel of 
 nlvcr and 
 copper . 
 
 Selenioret of 
 •ilver 
 
 Selrniurel of 
 silver and 
 copper . 
 
 Iodic silver 
 
 Gin* kothig- 
 
 ^atire «p> 
 
 Sulphurel of 
 copper . 
 Kupfenndig 
 lit -Julphurel 
 of jopper 
 Purple cop- 
 per 
 Grey cojper 
 Copper py- 
 ritea _ 
 
 Seleniuretof 
 copper 
 
 Red oxide ef 
 copper • 
 
 Blaek copper 
 
 Blue carbo- 
 nate of cop- 
 per . . 
 
 Green carbo- 
 nate of cop- 
 per - 
 
 ('hry»'<n!1a 
 Dioptaae 
 
 Sulphate of 
 copper . 
 
 Bmchmtite 
 Kupfer- 
 
 sammterz 
 Muriate of 
 
 copper . 
 Phnaphaleof 
 
 copper . 
 Hylrous 
 
 phosphate 
 
 of copper 
 
 Arseoiate of 
 copper . 
 
 Euchroite . 
 
 Kupfer- 
 •chaum . 
 
 Copper 
 100 
 
 Gold 
 100 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Sulphur, 
 13 
 
 SOphur. 
 19 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 23 
 13 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 II 
 
 Anti- 
 mony. 
 
 Ami- 
 Bony. 
 
 Iron. 
 3 
 2 
 
 Iron. 
 34 
 
 Alu 
 
 mina. 
 
 6 
 
 Lime, 
 
 Cm 
 
 Carb. 
 A. 
 12 
 
 Mtir. A. 
 
 22 
 Arsen. 
 
 A. 
 
 Tin, Ac. 
 3 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Plctinu. 
 
 Platina. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Native pla- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tina 
 
 100 
 
 Palla- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Palladium. 
 
 dium. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Native pal- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ladium . 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Iridium, 
 
 Iridium. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Native iri- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 dium 
 
 100 
 
 
 Rho- 
 
 
 
 
 Iridium and 
 
 
 Osmium. 
 
 dium. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 osmium . 
 
 47 
 Tellu- 
 
 49 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Tellurium. 
 
 rium. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 
 
 
 Native tel- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lurium . 
 
 92 
 
 1 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 Graphic tel- 
 
 
 
 
 Lead. 
 
 
 
 lurium . 
 
 SS 
 
 2S 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Yellow tel- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lurium 
 
 45 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 Black tel- 
 lurium . 
 
 16 
 Anti- 
 
 6 
 
 
 63 
 
 Sulph. 
 11 
 
 Anlim. 
 
 4 
 
 Antimony. 
 
 mony. 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 
 Native an- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 timony . 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Berthierite 
 
 63 
 
 31 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 Sul phuret of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 antimony 
 
 74 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jameson ite 
 
 35 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 Plarionite . 
 
 38 
 
 22 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 Zinkenite . 
 
 45 
 
 23 
 
 
 32 
 
 
 
 Red antimo- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 
 ny - 
 
 75 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 Oxide of an- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 timony . 
 
 84 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 Antimonial 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Water. 
 
 ochre 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Antimon* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 phyllite . 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Uad, 
 
 Lead. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Native lead. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphurel of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lead 
 
 84 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bournonite 
 
 41 
 
 20 
 
 
 Arsen. 
 
 Anlim. 
 86 
 
 Conger. 
 
 Prism, cop- 
 
 
 
 
 At. 
 
 
 
 per glance 
 
 33 
 
 10 
 
 
 IS 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 Native mi- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 nium. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Seleniuretof 
 
 
 Sclen. 
 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 
 
 lead 
 
 70 
 
 28 
 
 
 3 
 Alu- 
 
 
 
 Plomb- 
 
 ■MMH . 
 
 40 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Water. 
 19 
 
 mina. 
 33 
 
 
 
 Carbonate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Carb. A. 
 
 
 lead 
 
 74 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 Sulphate- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 carbonate 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sul. A. 
 
 of lead . 
 
 82 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 Sulphato-tri* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rrliftwli 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 of lead . 
 
 88 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 Cup. sul. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 carbonate 
 of lead . 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 Copper. 
 
 S 
 
 IS 
 
 Mur. A. 
 
 Muriate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lead 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 Cotunnile . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 Murio-car- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 bonate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lead 
 
 60 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 HsBaffeat) of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lead 
 
 76 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 Mag- 
 
 Polyspharite 
 
 
 
 
 Arsen. 
 
 
 nesia. 
 
 Arseniate of 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 Mur. A 
 
 lead 
 
 72 
 
 6 
 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 Sulphate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulph. 
 A. 
 26 
 
 
 lead 
 Cupreous 
 
 sulphate of 
 
 65 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 Copper. 
 
 
 lead 
 
 56 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 
 Molybdaleof 
 
 
 
 
 
 Molyb. 
 A. 
 89 
 
 
 lead 
 
 57 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 Chromate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Clirom. 
 A. 
 32 
 
 
 lead 
 Melano- 
 
 63 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 chroite . 
 
 71 
 
 6 
 6 
 
 
 
 23 
 28 
 
 
 Vauquelinite 
 
 67 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 Tongstate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tung. 
 
 
 lead 
 
 44 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 62 
 Vanad. 
 
 
 Vanadiate of 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 lead 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Zinc 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Silica. 
 
 
 
 Sulphuret of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 zinc 
 
 63 
 
 33 
 
 4 
 
 
 753 
 
 
MINERAL PITCH. 
 
 METALLIFEROUS MINERALS-con<i?M«d. 
 
 MINIATURE. 
 
 1 Zinc. 
 
 Red oxide of 
 zinc 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 74 
 
 Oxygen, 
 lb 
 
 Iron. 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 Siliceous ox- 
 ide of zinc 
 
 54 
 
 13 
 
 
 Silica. 
 25 
 
 Water. 
 
 8 
 
 
 I Carbonate of 
 zinc 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Carb. 
 
 
 
 | Willelmine 
 
 1 Sulphate of 
 
 zinc 
 1 Hopeite 
 
 52 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 
 35 
 
 Sulph. 
 
 A. 
 
 30 
 
 42 
 
 
 Mercury. 
 
 Native quick- 
 silver 
 
 Native amal- 
 gam 
 
 Mer- 
 cury. 
 
 100 
 
 85 
 
 Silver. 
 
 15 
 
 Chlo- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Muriate of 
 mercury 
 
 Iodic mercu- 
 ry . 
 
 So 
 
 15 
 
 Iodine. 
 
 
 
 
 
 COMBUSTIBLE MINERALS. 
 
 
 
 
 bulphur. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Sulphur 
 
 loo 
 Carbon. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Diamond 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 Wumbago , 
 
 92 
 
 8 
 
 Silica 
 
 
 Anthracite 
 
 72 
 
 4 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 24 
 
 
 Naphtha 
 Bitumen 
 Coal .... 
 
 88 
 53 
 
 75 
 
 12 
 7 
 6 
 
 Oiygen. 
 40 
 
 Ante 
 
 14 
 
 Dysodile 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 Amber 
 
 81 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 Hatchetine . 
 
 
 
 
 
 Schererite 
 
 76 
 
 
 
 
 Ozokerite . . . i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mel. A. 
 
 Alumin. 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 Mellite . . . 1 
 
 41 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 Retinasphalt. 
 
 
 
 
 Fossil copil. 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MI'NERAL PITCH, Maltha. A solid, softish bitumen. 
 Sp. gr. about 1*5. 
 
 MI'NERAL TAR. The bituminous substance called pe- 
 troleum. It is brown, viscid, and unctuous. Its specific 
 gravity is 0-88. It is found in Britain, and on the continent of 
 Europe, in the West Indies (Barbadoes tar), and in Persia. It 
 may be resolved by distillation into naphtha and petroleum. 
 
 MI'NERAL WATERS. This term is applied to certain 
 spring waters containing so large a proportion of foreign 
 matter as to be unfit for ordinary use. 
 
 Mineral waters may, in most cases, be artificially prepared 
 by the skilful application of the knowledge derived from | 
 
 analyses, with such precision as to imitate very closely the 
 native springs. When the various earthy or metallic con 
 stituents are held in solution by carbonic acid or sulphuret- 
 ted, they should be placed along with their due proportions 
 of water in the receiver of the aerating machine, and then 
 the proper quantity of gas should be injected into the water. 
 Sufficient agitation will be given by the action of the for 
 cing-pump to promote their solution. (See Ure's Diet of 
 Arts, <5-e.) * 
 
 The following table, and the one on the opposite page, 
 show the composition of several of the principal mineral 
 springs of Europe. 
 
 Tabular View of the Composition of the Principal Mineral Waters of England. 
 One Pint (Wine Measure) contains the following Ingredients : 
 
 
 
 Gases. 
 
 Carbonates. 
 
 Sulphates. 
 
 Muriates. 
 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oxide 
 
 
 3 
 j 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 ._ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 ^ 
 
 r 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 Waters. 
 
 h 
 
 SO 
 
 s 
 
 
 |f*- 
 
 P 
 
 u 
 
 rr». 
 
 •e- 
 
 u 
 
 si 
 
 11 
 
 .s-3 
 
 i |fj 
 
 grs. 
 
 .2 1 
 = -• 
 
 of 
 Iron. 
 
 w 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 ■2 
 
 Authority. 
 
 Sulphurous. 
 
 
 
 
 *r». 
 
 gr>- 
 
 
 
 
 Harrowgate . . . 
 
 M 
 
 1- 
 
 2-3 
 
 
 0-7 
 
 2-5 
 
 
 l-fl 
 
 
 v.- 
 
 II- 
 
 1-5 
 
 
 
 cold 
 
 94- 
 
 Garnet. 
 
 Moffat 
 
 0-f 
 
 0-6 
 
 1-2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 do. 
 
 4-5 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Cheltenham sulphur 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 spring 
 
 
 
 1-5 
 
 
 
 
 23-5 
 
 *" 
 
 1-2 
 
 35- 
 
 
 
 03 
 
 
 do. 
 
 «5- 
 
 Parkes & Brande 
 
 Saline. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cheltenham pure sa- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 line 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15- 
 
 It 
 
 4-5 
 
 50- 
 
 
 
 
 
 do. 
 
 80-5 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Bristol 
 
 
 3-5 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-5 
 
 1-5 
 
 
 1-5 
 
 05 
 
 1- 
 
 
 
 
 74'-' 
 
 b- 
 
 Carrick. 
 
 Buxton 
 
 'i i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-3 
 
 
 
 0-3 
 
 0-2 
 
 
 
 0-3 
 
 
 si- 
 
 1-83 
 
 Pearson. 
 
 Bith 
 
 
 1-2 
 
 
 
 
 
 0-8 
 
 li 
 
 
 9- 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 a trace 
 
 11.' 
 
 ll i;-' 
 
 14 6 
 
 Phillips. 
 
 Scarborough . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20- 
 
 
 9- 
 
 
 
 
 ditto 
 
 
 col.l 
 
 2-9 
 
 Saunders. 
 
 
 
 3--. 
 
 8-5? 
 
 
 
 (V. 
 
 I* 
 
 «■ 
 
 37- 
 
 5-5 
 
 2-5 
 
 5-5 
 
 2 
 
 ditto 
 
 
 do. 
 
 64 a 
 
 Schmeisser. 
 
 Leamingtou New Bath 
 
 ■ i-l 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 l'i- 
 
 
 14- 
 
 53- 
 
 1-5 
 
 
 0-8 
 
 
 da 
 
 88.3 
 
 I.ambe. 
 
 Leamington Old Bath 
 
 0-3 
 
 
 ditto 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 '" 
 
 IS- 
 
 41- 
 
 
 
 
 
 do. 
 
 73-5 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Chalybeate. 
 Tunbridge .... 
 
 n-,-,9 
 
 1- 
 
 ) a trace of } 
 
 
 
 0-03 
 
 
 
 0-17 
 
 0-30 
 
 003 
 
 0-1)-. 
 
 0-23 
 
 
 fa 
 
 0-56 
 
 Scudamore. 
 
 Cheltenham chaly- 
 
 
 
 ( oxygen { 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2-5 
 
 
 li--, 
 
 
 
 (M 
 
 ft> 
 
 2-5 
 
 41-3 
 
 
 
 0-8 
 
 
 do. 
 
 73-8 
 
 Parkes & Brande. 
 
 Bnghton .... 
 
 
 2-2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4- 
 
 3- 
 
 6.75 
 
 
 1 I 1014 
 
 do, 
 
 9-29 Marcet. 
 
 MI'NERAL YELLOW, or PATENT YELLOW. A 
 
 compound of oxide and chloride of lead, obtained by di- 
 gesting powdered litharge in a solution of common salt, 
 washing, drying, and fusing the product. It is used as a pig- 
 ment. 
 
 MINE'RVA. The Latin goddess corresponding to, and 
 confounded with, the Grecian Pallas (LTaAAijc), or Athena 
 (A.'9i)vn)- She was fabled to have sprung in full armour 
 from the forehead of her father Jupiter. Minerva was wor- 
 shipped as the goddess of wisdom, and the patroness of in- 
 dustry and the arts. Athens, the city to which she gave 
 name, was her favourite spot ; and there her worship was 
 celebrated with great splendour, and the magnificent temple, 
 the Parthenon, erected to her honour. But she was also 
 worshipped at Rome with peculiar veneration. There she 
 had three temples : one on the Capitol, which she shared 
 with Jupiter and Juno ; a second on the Aventine ; and a 
 third on the Cslian mount, in which she was worshipped as 
 Minerva Capta, an epithet said to have been applied when 
 her statue was transported from Falerii, after the capture of 
 that city by Camillus. At Rome there were also two great 
 festivals celebrated annually in her honour; the one called 
 756 
 
 Quinquatrus or Quinquatria, the other Ouinquatria Minora. 
 (See these words.) The origin of the name of Minerva has 
 long puzzled etymologists. Cicero says she is called "Mi- 
 nerva, quia minuit or minatur ;" but it has been also fancied 
 that the word is a shortened form of Meminerva (from me- 
 mini, / remember), she being the goddess of memory. It is 
 possibly from the same root as the Lat. mens, mind, which 
 is expressed so clearly in many languages wholly unalhed, 
 of which the Germ, mann (whence the English man), and 
 the Hindostan menn, may serve as examples. But the Tus- 
 can name of the goddess is Menrfa, which seems the im 
 mediate source. She was represented as a young woman, 
 with a grave and noble countenance, clothed in armour 
 see Pallas. 
 
 MI'NIATTJRE. (Fr.) A representation of nature on n 
 very small scale. Miniature Painting is general ly executed 
 on ivory ; and is, as to composition, drawing, and finishing, 
 subject to the same laws as Painting (which see). The out- 
 line is traced upon the ivory with a silver point or penci., 
 and must be extremely light and delicate. This is after- 
 wards drawn in with thin carmine as correctly as possible ; 
 the corrections being made with finely powdered pumice 
 
MINIM. 
 
 Tabular View of the Composition of the 
 
 MINNEIIOFE. 
 Principal Miner:.! Waters of Germany. 
 
 Ingredients found in 16 
 oz. of Water in a dry 
 i grains. 
 
 Carisbail. 
 
 Ems. 
 
 10-7^0 
 
 7-634 
 
 0-540 
 0-045 
 11407 
 
 000192 
 
 07a!>7 
 
 0-0107 
 
 0-0029 
 0-4139 
 026 
 
 0-0037 
 
 Marienbad. 
 Kj-eu'.zbr. 
 
 Auschowiw. 1 £ , er 
 F b! : un'n 1 e'n d '' FnaSeisbr. 
 
 Pyrmont. 
 
 Sra. 
 
 Gcilnau 
 
 Sellers. 
 
 Seidscbutz 
 
 FulUtt. 
 
 Carbonate cf soda . . 
 'Sulphate of soda . . 
 j Muriate of soda . . 
 
 Sulphite of potash . . 
 i Muriate of potash . . 
 
 Carbonate of lime . . 
 ] Sulphate of lime . . 
 
 Sub phutohate of lime 
 'Floate ol lime . . 
 
 Cartonate of magnesia 
 'Sulphate of magnesia . 
 i Muriate of magnesia . 
 
 .N urate of magnesia . 
 
 Alumina .... 
 
 Sub-pbosphate of alum 
 of strontiao 
 
 Sul[.'ute of strootiao . 
 
 Carb'inate of barytes . 
 
 Carbonite of iron . . 
 Carimuate of manga. 
 
 uese .... 
 
 Total .... 
 
 Carbonic acid gas in { 
 
 100 cubic inches . 1 
 
 Temperature (Fahr.) . 
 Analyzed bjr . . . 
 
 SI-69S 
 19695 
 7-975 
 
 2 37 
 
 00017 
 0024 
 1-369 
 
 00024 
 0-007 
 
 0-577 
 00278 
 
 HN 
 
 838 
 
 39-72 
 1243 
 0-93 
 
 4-1300 
 3(460 
 00975 
 
 0-8900 
 0-1760 
 
 00065 
 
 6-197 
 22-544 
 8-996 
 
 4016 
 2-4 
 
 0-669 
 0-4 
 
 0092 
 45-314 
 
 5-00 
 25-50 
 7-96 
 0-93 
 
 1-847 
 
 0014 
 
 0-600 
 
 0-568 
 0-350 
 
 urn 
 
 42-77o 
 
 1 145 .36 
 
 004194 
 
 5-9SS24 
 7-221. 32 
 
 0-32352 
 1-12(364 
 
 001478 
 
 002063 
 
 0-49689 
 0-42846 
 
 04852 
 
 0-7375 
 0-037, 
 0-44949 
 07109 
 
 0-9850 
 
 001366 
 
 1-18278 
 
 0-00851 
 
 0-4985 
 B-S751 
 
 0-0519 
 4 _: 35903 
 
 6-8210 
 0*0420 
 
 0-5430 
 0-2872 
 
 2-9705 
 2-1709 
 0.0247 
 
 0-2695 
 
 0-155 
 
 17.292 
 0-397 
 0-35S 
 
 2 18a 
 
 o-oois 
 1-8780 
 
 0-0027 
 0-0193 
 
 0-0019 
 302 
 
 23-4960 
 
 4-8940 
 
 6-3060 
 1-5050 
 00156 
 
 831380 
 1-6300 
 
 790:0 
 
 (■01)7 
 
 0-0463 
 
 01200 
 
 0127 
 
 0-0012 
 
 123-i 
 
 48 
 
 077 
 2-6 
 00035 
 
 6 403 
 93-l,Bd 
 I9C66 
 
 175 
 
 41-9239 
 
 21-3i<:32 
 
 t/JMU 
 
 20-55412 
 
 12-!<2SS 
 
 2S091C! 130 6S45 
 
 2il 3075 
 
 58 
 
 51 
 
 125 
 
 149-56 
 49* 
 
 154 
 53" 
 
 1C0 
 
 13 
 
 163 3 
 
 130 
 
 61 
 
 
 t Sprud. 165' 
 ) Neub. I3S" 
 > Muhl. IW 
 l Ther. 122° 
 
 IterTelius. 
 
 Kess. 117° 
 Kran. M' 
 
 I- 
 
 56° 
 
 40° 
 
 51" 
 
 58° 
 
 
 58" 
 
 Struve. 1 S'ruve. | Steininann. 
 
 Strove. 
 
 Strata. 
 
 Struve. 
 
 Struve. | Strove. 
 
 S niVB, 
 
 Struve. 
 
 stone, rubbed on with a papas or leather Miitiip. The dead 
 colouring then proceeds, wherein tin- shadows nre left deli- 
 cute and the lights strong, the full elii-ci being afterwa da 
 produced by dotting. The artist usually begins the shadei 
 with vttrmillion ami carmine, giving the strongest touches to 
 the most prominent parts, ami to those where separations 
 ire markeil out in .shades that are obscure. Indigo is nfler- 
 wards used for tin- bluish shades on such parts as recede 
 from the light. Yellow tints, composed of ochre and ver- 
 milion, are usually employed on the sides of the nose to- 
 wards the bottom, under the eyebrows, underneath the 
 cheeks, and on other BOTH rising towards the light. The 
 backgrounds, if dark, are commonly compOMd of bistre, um- 
 ber, or Cologne earth, with black and while; others at I 
 »ellow cast by the use of ochre. The gray back grounds 
 IbUed by black, white, and a little Indigo. When of a 
 or olive hue, Dutch pink, while, and black are the in- 
 i ■ -ill « is. The back ground! are formed In tWO coats, lirst 
 Laying on a light thin tint, and afterwards a darker one of 
 the same colour, evenly and unooth. The dotting is per- 
 formed by separate dots, or by short notching strokes crossing 
 each Other every way so as to have the appearance of being 
 dotted. 
 
 MI'NIM. (Lat. minimus.) In Music, a character Q 
 equal in duration to two crotchets, or half a semibreve. 
 
 Mi'mm. The smallest liquid measure, generally regarded 
 as about equal to one drop. The fluid drachm is divided 
 into sixlv minims. 
 
 MI'NDfS, or MINIMI, ORDER OF THE. A religious 
 order instituted by Sir Francis I)e Paolo in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. The name is derived from the Lat. minimus, the 
 least; by which the founder meant to indicate that humili- 
 ty should be the distinguishing feature of the order. In con- 
 formity with this design the rules he prescribes were of the 
 strictest kind. Resides the three usual vows of poverty, 
 continence, and obedience, the most rigid abstinent . 
 inculcated. Except in cases of illness, the members were 
 prohibited not only from touching animal food, but even 
 butter, milk, or cheese, or indeed any kind of sustenance in 
 the composition of which such materials were used. Their 
 ■..as of the coarsest and meanest kind; the colour 
 being black, like that of the Franciscans. Long before the 
 death of its founder, this order had attained so high a de- 
 gree of celebrity for sanctity that it could boast of monas 
 In Italy, France, Spain, and Germany; and at no very 
 distant period it counted no fewer than 450 religious houses 
 scattered throughout Europe and Asia. (See the Diet, dc la 
 Ccnnrsntion.) 
 
 MINISTER. In Politics, a servant of the sovereign exe- 
 cutive power in a state : generally speaking, the head of a 
 department or branch of government. Usage, in different 
 countries, fixes very differently the limits of that higher class 
 of servants tn which the term is applied. In the British 
 empire, none but the heads of administrative departments 
 are termed ministers: part of whom belong to the cabinet, 
 ani part are not included in it. The cabinet ministers have 
 wired under different administrations; and as our govern- 
 ment is of mixed organization, partly to serve the actual 
 necessities of slate, and partly retaining ancient distinctions 
 of office founded on usage only, some of the ministers hold 
 «ierelv si iccure appointments In France, where the forms 
 
 of government are established more on the principle of 
 utility, there are eight ministers so called: 1, of the interior 
 2, of finance ; 3. of justice ; 4, of public instruction ami 
 ecclesiastical affairs: .">, of commerce and public worl 
 of the marine nnd colonies ; 7, of war ; 8, of foreign affaits. 
 In England, ministers sit and vote in either house of parlia 
 ment— by hereditary right, if peers; as representatives only, 
 if commoners. In France, the same regulation prevails; 
 but ministers have also, by virtue of their office, a right to 
 sit and take pari in the debates in either chamber. In the 
 Untied Slates, no minister (or secretary, in the language of 
 that government) can be chosen either representative or 
 senator. In some European countries ;.as Russia), a distinc- 
 tion is established between the private affairs of the sove- 
 reign and foreign affairs, on the one hand, which form the 
 combined duties of the cabinet ministers ; and the affuirs of 
 the interior, which are enti listed to ministersofstate. There 
 are also in some governments honorary or conference minis- 
 ters, without any real department of duty. The representa- 
 tives of minor sovereigns at foreign courts are usually styled 
 ministers. Instead Of ambassador*. The term mints tif is 
 also frequently used in a sense synonymous with clergyman. 
 
 MI NIUM. (Lat.) In Painting, a red colour, being ;i 
 calx of lead : according to Pliny it was the common red lead. 
 See Lead. 
 
 MINNE'IIOFE. (Genii.; literally courts of lave.) The 
 name given by the Germans to the cours d'anv nr, so famous 
 in the history of chivalry. The subjects brought before 
 these courts were chiefly connected with the Romantic gal- 
 lantry of the period, and consisted either of questions pro- 
 posed with the view to entrap the judges into some awkward 
 decision ; or of serious complaints, resulting from affaires du 
 ccBur, which were discussed and decided upon with all the 
 formality of a court of law. These ininnehofe were for n 
 long period looked upon as forming an indispensable part 
 in all chivalrous exercises. Knights, ladies, and poets par 
 ticipated alike in their proceedings; and large collections 
 of their decisions are still extant. A certain number of 
 ladles, remarkable at once for personal and mental attrnc 
 lions, acted as judges in these courts: the fair sex also 
 conducted the proceedings as counsel, attorneys-general, and 
 solicitors-general, &c. ; and they were attended by a nume- 
 rous train of nobles, knights, and others, who were invested 
 by the court with gradations of rank and precedency analo 
 gous to those conferred by" the sovereign. These courts 
 were held periodically at Signes, Avignon, Lille, and Pierre- 
 feu. The last regular court of this kind was celebrated by- 
 Charles VI. and his wife Isabella of Bavaria ; but they were 
 now and then renewed at irregular intervals, and the last 
 on record took place as laic as the reign of Louis XIV. at 
 Ruelle, at which the princess Maria of Gonzaga presided, 
 and Mademoiselle de Sottdey represented the advocate- 
 general. We subjoin a few specimens of the questions pro- 
 posed in these courts for debate and decision ; from which 
 it will bo evident that although at the present day there 
 would be little difficulty in deciding upon them, they could 
 not fail at that romantic era to excite considerable discussion. 
 1. Which is harder to bear — the infidelity or the death of 
 the beloved ? 2. Whether does a man whose wife, or a lover 
 whose betrothed is unfaithful, suffer most? 3. Who is more 
 culpable — the man who boasts of favours from a lady which 
 
 757 
 
MINNESINGERS. 
 
 lie never received, or he who, having really received them, 
 makes it known 1 (See the Damen Lexicon, Adorl', 1837.) 
 
 Ml'NNES^ENGERS. The most ancient school of Ger- 
 man poets, whose name is derived from the old German 
 word minne (levs). The songs and fame of the Provencal 
 troubadours appear to have penetrated into Germany under 
 the first emperors of the house of Hohenstautfen ; in whose 
 time the crusades and the frequent Italian wars combined 
 to bring their nation, seated as it is in the centre of Europe, 
 in closer communication with those surrounding it. The 
 minnesa'ngers imitated in German the strains of those early 
 poets, and, like them, made love their principal subject ; 
 which was celebrated with much of pedantry and false 
 conceits, but, at the same time, not without generous and 
 chivalric feeling. The verses of the minnesajngers are in 
 the old Swabian dialect of the high German, which, under 
 the Hohenstauffens, themselves of Swabian race, was the 
 court language. As was the case with the troubadours, the 
 minnesaengers belonged to two different classes: there were 
 among them many knights, princes, and even sovereigns ; 
 while there was also another class of more professional 
 poets — wandering minstrels, who attached themselves to 
 the persons of distinguished chiefs, or wandered from court 
 to court. The oldest of the minnesaengers known to us is 
 Henry of Veldeck, about 1170. During the remainder of 
 the 12th and first half of the 13th century, this school of poets 
 flourished ; afterwards it gradually declined, and was suc- 
 ceeded by the less chivalrous and homelier school of the 
 master-singers. We possess the names of more than 300 
 poets, and pieces of the composition of a large proportion of 
 them, who sang during the short period in question. The 
 German amatory poets had their high and low minne, like 
 the celestial and popular Venus of the ancients ; the former 
 an abstract and chivalric devotion to a beloved object, the 
 latter a less elevated passion. The ancient German national 
 epic, called the Nicbelungen-Lied, and the heroic poetry of 
 the Heldenbuch, belong to the same period and dialect, and 
 were works of the same race of poets ; as were also other 
 poetical romances, founded on the foreign traditions of 
 France, Brittany, and elassi' •>' antiquity. 
 
 Mi'NN'vV, or MINIM. ,Lat. minimus, least.) The 
 name of a species of Cyprinoid fish {Leuciscus phoxinus, 
 Gu*' ), and the smallest of the British species of that family. 
 It inhabits many of the fresh-water streams and canals in 
 England, and spawns in June, when each female is attended 
 by two males. 
 
 MI'NOR. In Music. See Major. 
 
 MINO' KIT Y. In Politics, the period during which the 
 sovereign in an hereditary monarchy is incapacitated from 
 exercising the supreme authority, by reason of not having 
 attained the age prescribed by law ; also the state of such 
 incapacity. The royal authority, in hereditary monarchies, 
 never dies ; and when a sovereign deceases leaving a suc- 
 cessor below age, it passes immediately to the person or 
 persons whom the constitution has invested with the au- 
 thority of regent ; as it also does when a king becomes 
 subject to any other incapacity. The term of royal minority 
 is variously regulated by the constitution of different coun- 
 tries. The legal majority of a king of France was fixed at 
 fourteen by an ordinance of Charles V., which has been 
 since followed in that country; but, as a year commenced 
 is reckoned as accomplished, the actual period at which a 
 king of France begins to govern is the age of thirteen years 
 and a day. The same period is fixed by the laws of Spain 
 and Portugal. By the constitution of Great Britain, the 
 sovereign is of full age at eighteen years, as far as can be 
 collected from the statutes passed at several times to em- 
 power the king to name a regent whenever it has been 
 apprehended that the crown was in danger of devolving on 
 it prince under age. 
 
 Minority. In Law, the state of an individual of either 
 sex who has not attained the age prescribed by law at 
 which civil rights can be exercised. In England and in 
 France majority is attained on the completion of the 21st 
 year ; in Germany on the 25th. The distinctions made by 
 the Roman law between different periods of minority are 
 unknown to our law. 
 
 MI'NOR TERM, of a Categorical Syllogism, in Logic, is 
 the su'ijcct of the conclusion. The minor premise is that 
 which contains the minor term. In hypothetical syllogisms, 
 ihe categorical premise is called the minor. 
 
 MI'NOS, in Mythological History, was son of Jupiter and 
 Ettropa, and king of Crete, and so celebrated as a lawgiver 
 on earth that after his death he was appointed judge of the 
 infernal regions, in which office he was associated with 
 Xacus and Rhadamanthus. 
 
 MINOTAUR. (Gr. Mivcdj, and ravpos, ahull.) A fabled 
 n onster of classical antiquity, half man and half bull, fre- 
 quently mentioned by the poets. He was said to be the son 
 of Pasiphae, wife of Minos II., king of Crete, by a bull 
 i-au/Jof); hence the term Minotaur. He lived on human 
 flesh ; hence Minos shut him up in the famous labyrinth of 
 758 
 
 MINT. 
 
 Daedalus, feeding him with criminals, and afterwards with 
 youths and maidens sent from Athens. As is well known, 
 Theseus, by the assistance of Ariadne, succeeded in destroy- 
 ing him, and thereby rescued the Athenians from the obli- 
 gation of sending their children to be devoured. The Diet. 
 de la Conversation gives an ingenious explanation of this 
 mythological story. See also Schwcnk's JWytfwlugisclie An- 
 deutungen, p. 65. 
 
 MI'NSTER (Germ.), was anciently applied only to the 
 church of a monastery or convent; and forms the termina- 
 tion of the name of many places in England in which such 
 churches formerly existed, as Westminster, Leominster, &lv. 
 It is sometimes, but incorrectly, used in common language 
 to signify a cathedral church. 
 
 MI'NSTRELS. (Fr. minestral, or old Germ, minne, love.) 
 Defined by Percy as an order of men in the middle ages who 
 subsisted by the arts of poetry and music, and sang to the 
 harp verses composed by themselves or others. They ap- 
 pear to have been the successors of the minnesoengers, 
 scalds, and bards of different European nations, who, even 
 after the age of chivalry had passed, attempted to gain a 
 subsistence by practising those arts which at an earlier 
 period had procured fame and honour for their predecessors. 
 The origin, character, and decline of the minstrels, are thus 
 ably traced in vol. Ixxiii. of the Edinburgh Review. In the 
 piping times of peace, the minstrel, " omnis luxuries inter- 
 pres," as Pliny said of Menander, sang of mimic war to the 
 dull barons of dungeon castles, who had ears, although they 
 could not read ; who, doubly steeped in the ennui of wealth 
 and want of occupation, listened greedily, like other great 
 men, to their own praises. Minstrelsy supplied the lack of 
 a more refined intellectual entertainment and of rational 
 conversation, as professional gentlemen do now at civic ban- 
 quets: their harpings lulled the rude Sauls to sleep, which 
 is now done by quarto epics. The person of the minstrel 
 Was sacred ; his profession was a passport ; he was " high 
 placed in hall a welcome guest ;" the assumption of his 
 character became the disguise of lovers of adventure. These 
 advantages raised pseudo-laureates, " idle vagabonds," ac- 
 cording to the act of Edward I., " who went about the 
 country under the colour of minstrelsy ;" men who cared 
 more about the supper than the song ; who, for base lucre, 
 divorced the arts of writing and reciting, and stole other 
 men's thunder. Their social degeneracy may be traced in 
 the dictionary : the chanter of the gests of kings — " gestn 
 ducum regiomque" — dwindled into a " gesticulator," a jester ; 
 the honoured joglar of Provence into the mountebank, the 
 juggler, "the jockie," or doggrel ballad-monger. 
 
 Begjrars they are by one consent, 
 And roguee by act of parliament. 
 
 They descended by the usual stages of things of mere 
 fashion: at first the observed of all observers, and therefore 
 then imitated, until they became common — vulgar ; which 
 is but one step, and the test at once of merit, universal 
 acceptance, and the forerunner of disgrace : no sooner taken 
 up by the it iro\hot, than rejected by the exclusive. In 
 Spain, particularly, this occurred very soon. The really 
 good clergy were shocked at their abuses, while the interest- 
 ed grudged the money earned by rivals who interfered with 
 their monopoly of instructing the people in pious prose, or 
 of amusing them with alexandrine legends. Their Latin 
 synonyme for " scald rhymers" — scurra mimus, &.C. — will 
 outlive their sculptured caricatures ; when mendicant monks, 
 minstrels, fools, monkeys, and beasties are pilloried on pin 
 nacle and gargoyle, in cloister and cathedral. The itinerant 
 monks and mountebanks repaid all this, like Falstafj; by 
 showing up the irregularities of regulars and seculars, " in 
 ballads to be sung to filthy tnnes." They undermined their 
 influence. Preachings and songs take part in all national 
 changes; for doctrines precede actions. They were the 
 popular press of the time ; opposed by the privileged orders, 
 and watched by statesmen, as Burleigh afterwards employ- 
 ed agents to listen to street songs — the thermometer of the 
 people's temper. In all these alterations for the worse, the 
 primitive principle " to entertain" remained unchanged. To 
 this the original ballad was sacrificed ; passing from one to 
 another, each minstrel begged, borrowed, or stole from nil 
 quarters. The originals were corrupted and remodelled ; 
 they got their bread by pleasing, " magistcr artis ingcxii 
 que largitor venter." As late as the beginning of last cen- 
 tury, the houses of many leading families, especially in the 
 northern parts of the empire, were provided with minstrels, 
 who were employed in various duties ; all ot them, however, 
 in some degree connected with their original occupation 
 See Bard, Scald, Minnesingers, Ballad. 
 
 MINT. (Germ, miintze.) The place in which the coin 
 of the^ealm is manufactured. The whole of the British 
 coin is issued from, or manufactured in, the Royal Mint in 
 London. The general details of the business of the Mint 
 are briefly stated under the article Coinage. 
 
 The Royal Mint received its constitution of superior officer" 
 
MINT, MASTER OF THE. 
 
 in the 18th year of the reign of Edward II., and continued 
 nearly as then established to carry on its operations within 
 the Tower of London. 
 
 Between the years 1810 and 1815 the present magnificent 
 and commodious building was erected on Tower Hill, at the 
 auxgestion of a committee of the king's privy council, ap- 
 
 (I in 1798 "to take into consideration the state of the 
 coins of the kingdom, and the establishment and constitution 
 of the Mint ;" and in 1815 a new constitution was Introduced, 
 founded upon a report drawn up by the present Lord Mary- 
 borough, who was then master. The chief officers of the 
 mint are the master, the deputy master, the comptroller, the 
 king's (or queen's) assay masters, the clerk of the papers, 
 nnd the clerk of the irons and superintendent of machinery : 
 
 constitute " the mint board," and meet every Wednes- 
 day, or as often as may be required, to transact all the 
 general business of the establishment. The manufacture 
 of the coin is carried on under the direction of the company 
 of moneyers. The other officers are the master's assayer, 
 th" inciter, the chief engraver, the weigher and teller, the 
 surveyor of the meltings, and the solicitor. The duties of 
 these officer* are fully set forth in the "mint indenture." 
 
 tatea to the general history of the coinage, the reader 
 is referred to the new edition of Ruding's Annals of the 
 Coinage. The article " Coinage," in the Encyclopaedia 
 Britanniea, give* an abstract of the duties of the respective 
 officers, and i^ especially valuable as containing the only 
 extant account, illustrated by engravings, of the machinery 
 employed In the mint: this account, though scanty and im- 
 perfect, is tolerably correct. A mass of valuable Informa- 
 tion, and details respecting the whole establishment, will be 
 
 found in the Parliamentary Report of the Select Committee 
 on the Royal .Mint, and Its Appendix, published by order of 
 the Rouse of « lomraons, 30th June, 1837. 
 .Mist. (I. at. mentha.) A name given to several herba- 
 aromatic plants belonging to the natural order Lnbiatct, 
 Spearmint, or Mentha viridia, is that 
 which is so generally used in this country, mixed with vine- 
 gar and sugar, as a sauce. Peppermint, or .Mentha piperita, 
 yields the stimulating oil of the same name, Horseminband 
 
 T, .., ISTER OP THE. An officer in the English 
 administration, generally removable with a change of min- 
 istry. His salary is £2000 a year. See Mist. 
 
 MINI lET. (Fr.) A species of dance, performed in slow 
 time and With measured steps, formerly of great celebrity, 
 but now rarely, if ever, met with. 
 
 t, ininutum.) The sixtieth part of an 
 hour of time, and the sixtieth part of a degree of angular 
 ■pace. In modern astronomical works minutes of time are 
 denoted by the initial letter m, and minutes of space by the 
 dash or acute accent, which was first used by Ptolemy. 
 
 Minttk. In Architecture, the sixtieth part of the diameter 
 of a column ; by which subdivision architects measure the 
 smaller parts of an order. 
 
 MINUTE GUNS. Gone fired at intervals of a minute, 
 as a signal from a vessel in distress. Also in mourning for 
 
 MrNUTES. Originally the rough draught of a public In- 
 strument drawn up by a notary ; so termed because usually 
 written in a smaller character than the instrument itself. 
 The term is now applied to a brief report of (he proceedings 
 of a society drawn up by the clerk or secretary : in which 
 sense ii is nearly synonymous with protocol, which see. 
 
 MI'OCENE. (Gr. uutnv, minor, and koivos, recent.) A 
 term applied by Mr. Lyell, in his Elements of Geology, to 
 iral formations containing a minority of fossil shells 
 of recent species, 
 
 Ml'ftUELETS. In Modern History, a species of partisan 
 troops raised in the north of Spain, anil chiefly in Catalonia. 
 The Uiquelets became first known in the wars between 
 Spain and France in the 17th century. At several periods 
 Qn 1680, 1789, and again in the wars of Napoleon) the 
 French have endeavoured to organize similar corps, to op- 
 pose to the Miquelets in the mountain warfare of those dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 MI'RACLE. (Lat miror, I wonder.) According to the 
 definition of Dr. Johnson, "something beyond human pow- 
 er;" which, though in itself evidently vague and insuf- 
 ■ may be explained by the addition of "a deviation 
 from the established laws of nature." A miracle must be 
 not only superhuman, but preternatural. Some writers add 
 the '• immediate interference of God" as another condition 
 of a miracle; but this assumes a point which is open to 
 controversy, inasmuch as it precludes the agency of evil 
 si irits in such interruptions of the course of nature, which 
 is still a question among theologians. With respect to the 
 Credibility of miracles, the most popular argument against 
 '.hem is that of Hume, who considers no weight of particular 
 oony credible when balanced against our universal ex- 
 ce of the constancy of the laws of nature. " No testi- 
 mony." he says, "is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless 
 
 MISDEMEANOR. 
 
 the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be 
 more miraculous than the fact it endeavours to establish." 
 If the words incredible or contrary to experience be substi 
 tuted for miraculous in this passage, the startline effect of 
 this statement of the argument, in which its eflicai y resides, 
 will disappear, and the question will be left upon the very 
 grounds which the believer would choose for his own posi- 
 tion. Hume was answered by Dr. Campbell, in his Disser- 
 tation on Miracles. (See also Rutherford's Discourse, 
 1757; Douglas's Criterion; Locke's Discourse on Mira- 
 cles ; Lardner's Credibility ; Middleton's Free Inquiry ; 
 Price's JVature of Miracles ; some very valuable remarks 
 of Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity ; Hooker's Eccl. 
 Polity, b. vii., " on Miracles as the Tests of a Supernatural 
 mission ;" Bentham's Rationale of Evidence.) 
 
 MIRA'GE. (Fr.) An optical illusion'very common at 
 sea, and especially in Irish latitudes, and sometimes also 
 witnessed on land, particularly in Egypt and Persia, and on 
 the margin of rivers and lakes, or on the sea-shore. It 
 arises from unequal refraction in the lower strata of the at 
 Biosphere, and causes remote objects to be seen double, as 
 if reflected in a mirror, or to appear as if suspended in the 
 air. When the effect is confined to apparent elevation, the 
 English sailors call it looming; when inverted images are 
 (fanned, the Italians give it the name of Fata Morgana (see 
 the term). Ships in the whale fisheries are often descried, 
 and sometimes known, by means of the mirage, at consid- 
 erable distances. Captain Scoresby recognised his father's 
 ship at the distance of more than 30 miles, and consequently 
 when below the horizon, by its inverted image in the air, 
 though he did not previously know that it was cruising in 
 that part of the fishery. The mathematical theory of the 
 phenomenon is given by Uiot, In the Mcmvires dc I'Institut 
 for 1809. (See also Caddington's Optics ; Biot's Traitt de 
 Physique, tomeiii.; Brewster's Optics, Cabinet Cyclopedia.) 
 
 MI'KROR. (Fr. miroir.) A speculum or looking-glass, 
 or any other polished body capable of reflecting the images 
 of objects, rays of light from which fall upon them. Silver 
 is considered to be the most powerful reflector; but the 
 speculum metal, as now prepared, is scarcely inferior, if at 
 all BO, and I even better. In the very early 
 
 ages of the world, polished metallic specula were employed 
 as mirrors by the Jewish and Egyptian women, especially 
 of brass; but in modern times, quicksilvered plates of glass 
 are alone used as mirrors. 
 
 Concave Mirrors are used to concentrate the rays of the 
 sun in a single point, and thereby produce intense heat. 
 The surfaces formed by the revolution of the ellipse, para- 
 bola, and hyperbola, are such as reflect them accurately to 
 one point ; provided they emanate from one point, are parallel 
 to one another (as the solar rays), or would converge to a 
 more remote point than it is desirable to use. The great 
 difficulty of constructing these has led to the employment 
 of spherical segments, which, though not accurate, yet, un- 
 der proper restrictions, are approximately so. For the math- 
 ematical theory, see Reflection ; see also Burmno Glass, 
 Specui.i'm Telescope. 
 
 MIRZA. (A corruption of the Persian title Emir-Zadeh, 
 sons of the prince.) The common style of honour in Per 
 Bin, when it precedes the surname of an individual. When 
 appended to the surname it signifies prince. 
 
 MISANTHROPY (Gr. uiooe, hatred, and avOpuitoc, a 
 man), signifies a general dislike or aversion to man and man- 
 kind; in contradistinction to philanthropy, which means the 
 love of our species. 
 
 Ml'SCELLANY. (Lat. misceo, / mix.) A word usu- 
 ally applied to a collection of literary works or treatises. 
 The most celebrated collection of works known by this 
 name is Constable's Miscellany. 
 
 MI'SCHNA. The text of the Jewish Talmud, on which 
 the Grmara, or second part, is a commentary. It consists 
 of traditions and explanations of scripture. The former 
 are supposed by the Jews to have been delivered to Moses 
 on the mount, nnd from him to have passed, through the 
 keeping of a succession of prophets and sages, to Rabbi 
 Juda of Tiberias, who committed them to writing. Their 
 compilation is supposed by modem commentators to have 
 taken place about A.C. 150 or 190. See Prideaux, Connex- 
 ion, vol. ii. ; and Lardner, Collection of Jewish and Heathen 
 Testimonies, vol. i.) 
 
 MISDEMEA'NOR, in Law, is any offence which is the 
 subject of indictment and punishment, not of a felonious 
 character; such are seditious acts, perjury, battery, libels, 
 conspiracies, attempts, and solicitations to commit felonies, 
 &c. Over these offences the justices of the peace at quar 
 ter sessions have a general Jurisdiction, although they may 
 be removed by certiorari to the King's Bench ; and in the 
 trial the defendant has had for a long period of time one re- 
 markable privilege, viz., that his counsel might address the 
 jury, which was equally the case in trea^in, but not until 
 the year 1837 in any sort of felony. The ordinary punish 
 ment of misdemeanors are by fine and imprisonments ; some 
 
 759 
 
MISELTOE. 
 
 times by statute, transportation. Misdemeanors have been 
 sometimes termed misprisions ; although this word, in its 
 more restricted signification, is applied to concealments of 
 felony, or treason. 
 
 MI'SELTOE, or MISSELTO. A parasitical plant in- 
 habiting the branches of many kinds of trees in the north 
 of Europe. It is the Viscum album of botanists. Its con- 
 nexion with Druidical ceremonies is well known; but, as 
 tradition tells us that the priests of that superstition only 
 employed the miseltoe of the oak, some doubt has been en- 
 tertained of the plant now so called being really that of our 
 ancient chronicles, because it had not been found upon the 
 oak for many centuries. It has, however, been recently 
 discovered upon that tree in the west of England ; and this 
 leaves no doubt upon the subject. The powder of the leaves 
 or shoots of the miseltoe has been used in epilepsy. 
 
 MISERE'RE. The 50th Psalm, 4th of the Penitential 
 Psalms, is that designated by the Roman Catholic Church 
 under this word, on account of its first words (in the Vul- 
 gate translation, "miserere mei Deus, secundum magnam 
 misericordium tuam"). It is the usual psalm appointed for 
 acts of penitence and mortification. 
 Ml'SERE'RE MEI. A name given to the iliac passion. 
 MI'SERICO'RDIA. A narrow-bladed dagger ; so termed 
 in the middle ages because it was the weapon used by a 
 knight against a dismounted adversary when he enforced 
 him io cry for mercy. 
 
 MISNO'MER. In Law, the description of a person by a 
 wrong name. In grants by deed such mistakes may, in some 
 instances, be corrected by the courts, if the party be suffi- 
 ciently pointed out in the instrument itself. In grants by 
 will such construction will be more liberally exercised. It 
 is said that the law is not so precise as to surnames as with 
 respect to Christian names. The proper mode for the de- 
 fendant to avail himself of a misnomer in an action was 
 formerly by plea of abatement; but now the court will 
 amend on motion (3 & 4 W. 4, c. 42). In criminal cases, the 
 court had the power to amend still earlier (6 G. 4, c. 04) 
 where the defendant was misnamed. But if the prosecu- 
 tor be misnamed in an indictment, the variance is fatal, and 
 the defendant must be acquitted. It is to be observed that 
 mere misspelling is no misnomer, if the name have the 
 same sound with the real one. 
 
 MISPRI'SION. (From the Fr. mespris, contempt, or neg- 
 ligence.) In Criminal Law, in its larger sense, it is used to 
 signify every considerable misdemeanor which has not a 
 certain name given to it in the law ; and it is said that the 
 offence of misprision is involved in every treason or felony 
 Whatsoever. Generally, however, by the word misprision 
 is understood the contempt or neglect, that is, the non-dis- 
 closure or concealment, of any treason or felony, committed 
 or to be committed, whicli a man is cognizant of, but has 
 never assented to ; for if he expressly assented, this makes 
 him, in a case of treason, a principal, and in a case of felo- 
 ny, either a principal or accessory, according to circum- 
 stances. Misprision of treason is punished by loss of the 
 profits of lands during life, forfeiture of goods, and impris- 
 onment for life. Misprision of felony in a public officer is 
 punished by imprisonment for a year and a day; in a com- 
 mon person, by imprisonment for a less discretionary time ; 
 and in both by fine. 
 
 Ml'SSAL. The book containing the ritual for the cele- 
 bration of the various masses of the Roman communion. 
 The missals in use in different churches are not identical in 
 all respects ; but the most important part of them, the canon 
 of the mass, as delivered in the Sncramentary of Gregory 
 the Great, which was taken from that of Pope Gelasius in 
 the 5th century, and which is affirmed by Roman Catholics 
 to be a faithful representation of the ritual of the primitive 
 church, is common to all. 
 
 MISSIONARIES. In ordinary language, ministers who 
 go abroad to preach the gospel to infidel nations. The fol- 
 lowing table of the present condition of some of the more 
 remarkable missionary societies now existing in England 
 is taken from the Penny Cyclopaedia: 1. Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts : receipts, 1837, 
 £43,000; expenditure, .£56,000; subscribers, about 12,000. 
 This society is conducted on the principles of the Church of 
 England, and was incorporated in 1701, chiefly with a view 
 to our then American possessions. 2. Baptist Missionary 
 Society, founded 1786: receipts, 1837-8, £22,000; expendi- 
 ture, £20,000. The operations of this society are chiefly 
 carried on in the East and West Indies. 3. London Mission- 
 ary Society, founded 1795, now chiefly supported by the In- 
 dependents: receipts, 1838, £70,000; expenditure, £77,000. 
 Much connected with the East Indies and the South Seas. 
 4. Church Missionary Society, founded 1804, " for Africa 
 and the East ;" but which has recently sent out missionaries 
 extensively to New Zealand: receipts, £72,000; expendi- 
 ture, £91,000. 5. Wesleyan Missionary Society, founded 
 1817: receipts, £85,000 ; expenditure, £100,000. Its most ex- 
 tensive field of labour is in the West Indies. G. Missions of 
 760 
 
 MITRE. 
 
 the Church of Scotland : chiefly India. 7. Missions of the 
 United Brethren, or Moravians, who have been distinguished 
 in this line of exertion since 1731. The Danish missions are 
 among the oldest Protestant; those of the United States are. 
 now among the most extensive. The history of Roman 
 Catholic missions in the East is detailed in many works. 
 See Duhalde, for China. The rise and fall of Christianily 
 in Japan is narrated by Charlevoix (1715) ; those in Ameri- 
 ca are slightly noticed in the article immediately following 
 this. 
 
 MISSIONS. Stations of missionaries in infidel countries. 
 In Geography, the extensive districts formerly under the 
 control of missionaries of the Church of Rome, on the bor- 
 ders of the Spanish and Portuguese settlements in America, 
 were so called. These missionaries chiefly belonged to the 
 orders of the Capuchins, Dominicans, and Jesuits; but the 
 latter were the most celebrated and the most successful. 
 Their settlements in Paraguay comprehended a vast prov- 
 ince, which they governed with independent authority : in 
 Brazil they had also extensive districts under their control. 
 The downfall of the order was followed by the destruction 
 of these settlements : those of Paraguay were wholly ruined ; 
 those of Brazil, by regulations of the Marquis de Pombal, 
 taken from their spiritual governors and placed on a new 
 footing. The missions of the other orders still continue to 
 subsist on the banks of the Upper Amazon and Orinoco, and 
 in California; but they have undergone severe losses from 
 the revolutionary wars. The success of the experiment of 
 governing the American Indians by missionaries has been 
 the subject of much controversy. It is certain that the 
 Jesuits succeeded better than any other governors have done 
 in rendering them industrious, and subjecting them to disci- 
 pline. But it is contended that this was only effected by an 
 artificial system, which rendered them servile and childish 
 dependants of their spiritual masters, and that this slavish 
 state was injurious to them, not only in a moral, but a phys- 
 ical point of view, inducing premature decay; insomuch 
 that, it is said, the population of all the missions was con- 
 tinually decreasing, although endeavours were made to keep 
 it up by violent seizures of free natives, who were brought 
 by force within their boundaries. See Charlevoix, Hist, du 
 Paraguay; the Lettres Edifiantes ; Raynal, His to ire des 
 hides ; and Southey's History of Brazil: the two last wri 
 ters especially for philosophical views on the subject, al- 
 though the latter is perhaps too favourable ; Humboldt's 
 Personal Narrative, for those on the Orinoco ; Forbes's Cali- 
 fornia, for a very unfavourable view of the condition of 
 those in the latter country. American missionaries have 
 established a government in some of the South Sea Islands. 
 See Ellis's Polynesian Researches ; the Voyages of Capt. 
 Beechey, Capt. Fitzroy, and others. 
 
 MITES. A tribe of minute Acaridan Condylopes, which 
 do not suck their food. Sec Acarus. 
 
 MI'THRAS. The grand deity of the Persians, supposed 
 to be the sun or the god of fire, to which they paid adora- 
 tion as the purest emblem of the divine essence. The Ro- 
 mans also raised altars to the honour of this divinity, with 
 the inscriptions Deo Soli Mithrm, or Soli Deo invicto Mi- 
 thru;. As to the introduction of this Oriental worship in 
 Rome, see Mem. de I'Ac. des Inscr., vol. xvi., p. 270. It 
 was one of those which resisted Christianity the longest. 
 See Beugnot, Destruction du Paganisme en Occident ; Mil- 
 man's Hist, of Christianity. 
 
 MI'THRIDATE. A celebrated medicinal confection, in- 
 vented by Damocrates, physician to Mithridates, king of 
 Pontus, and supposed to be an antidote to all effects of poison 
 and contagion ; its active ingredient was opium. 
 
 MI'TRAL VALVES. The valves of the left ventricle 
 of the heart. 
 
 MI'TRE. (Gr. jiirpa, a head band, or diadem.) The pon- 
 tifical ornament worn on the head by the pope, cardinals, 
 and in some instances by abbots, in the Roman Catholic 
 Church, and in the Protestant Episcopal Church by arch- 
 bishops and bishops, upon solemn occasions. It appears to 
 have been a hierarchal head-covering from the earliest 
 ages of antiquity. Pellerin says it was that worn by the 
 regal pontiffs of the Hebrews, and, with a few slight modi- 
 fications, was afterwards adopted by the Oriental kings and 
 pagan high priests under the name of cidaris. Among the 
 Romans the mitre was originally a sort of head-dress worn 
 by ladies ; and Servius makes it a matter of reproach to 
 the Phrygians that they were dressed like women, inas- 
 much as they wore mitres. There is every reason for ■sup- 
 posing that in England the mitre was worn by the bishops 
 on the first introduction of Christianity into the island ; and 
 it is supposed in Oough's Sepulchral Monuments (vol. i., p 
 153) that the practice was borrowed from the apex or tutu- 
 lus of the Flamen Dialis in ancient Rome. As an heral 
 die ornament, the mitre of a bishop is surrounded by a fillet 
 set with precious stones: the archbishop's mitre, on the 
 other hand, issues from a ducal coronet. 
 Mitre. In Architecture, a junction of two pieces of 
 
MITTIMUS. 
 
 wood or other material at an interior or exterior angle by 
 diagonal filling. 
 
 MITTIMUS. (Lat. we send.) In Law— 1, a writ for 
 lug records from one court to another; 2, a pre- 
 cept under the hand and seal of a justice of peace commit- 
 ting an offender to his charge. See Commitment. 
 
 MIXED CADENCE. In Music. See Cadence. 
 
 MIXED FEVER. A fever intermediate between inflam- 
 matorv and low or typhus fever. 
 
 MI'ZZEN MAST. The name given to the mast which 
 rapports the after sails, being nearest the stern of the ship. 
 
 MNEMONICS. (Gr. /-i/iJ/ii-, memory.) The art of re- 
 liic memory of particular things by artificial aids. 
 rumou process of tying a knot in a handkerchief, 
 fcc, will exemplify the simplest species of mnemonics, in 
 which wo endeavour to connect certain arbitrary acts with 
 peculiar associations, so that the memory of the former may 
 call up the latter. Some persons have taken the precaution, 
 ivering an address by heart, of entering the room 
 in which it was to be spoken, and connecting in their own 
 minds parlicular portions of their inlended language with 
 certain visible objects in the room. The well-known solem- 
 rved on the perambulation of parish boundaries, 
 &c, form another instance of practical mnemonics, the ob- 
 g lo fix the memory of parlicular s|mts in the mind 
 of those present. For the purpose of facilitating the remem- 
 , dales, names, &c, various methods have been 
 v different writers (especially Feinagle and Gray in 
 England) under the names of Mcmoria Technica, or Arti- 
 ficial Memory. 
 
 MNEMO'SYNE. (Gr. /ii>»;/i oov v>t-) In Classical Mythol- 
 ogy, the goddess of memory: daughter, according to the 
 genealogists, of Uranus (Heaven) and Gala (Earth), and 
 uj Jupiter, of (he Nine Muses. Her statues usu- 
 ally have the figure enveloped in long and ample drapery, 
 and the right hand raised towards the chin. 
 
 MOAT. A ditch made round the old castles, and filled 
 with water. In some cases this still remains, as at Lick- 
 bill Castle; whilst In others they are drained and planted, 
 as at the palace of the Black Prince at Ellham. For the 
 most part, however, all traces of them have disappeared. 
 
 The moat surrounding a military fortress of modern con- 
 struction (or the ditch) is left dry ; but where it is capable 
 Of inundation at pleasure, this circumstance is considered 
 an advantage to the system of defence. 
 
 MOBI'LlTY. (I. at. moveo, / move.) One of the gen- 
 eral pro p erties of matter, in virtue of which every' body at 
 rest can he put In motion by the action of a force adequate 
 tn overcome Its inertia. See Matter. 
 
 M< iCIH ST< >NE. A species of agate. 
 
 MO'CKING BIRD. A name given to one of the family 
 nf thrushes, the Turd us polyglottus of Linmeus, on account 
 of the surprising facility ana accuracy with which it can 
 Imitate almost any sound; it is also the finest of natural 
 song-birds, and the vocal organs, which are well developed 
 In all the thrush tribe, find their highest perfection and com- 
 plication in the mocking bird. 
 
 This specie-, in modern ornithological systems, forms the 
 type of a genus (Mimus of Bole) : it includes other spe- 
 des the M. polyglottus, all of which arc natives of 
 America. 
 
 MODE. (Lat. modus.) A term used by Locke to denote 
 
 '•such complex Ideas, which, however compounded, contain 
 
 not in them the supposition of subsisting by themselves, but 
 
 are considered as dependences on, or affections of, sub- 
 
 Of these modes there are two kinds, simple and 
 
 modes are "only variations or different 
 
 combinations of the same simple idea, without the mixture 
 
 of any other, as a dozen or a score, which are nothing hut 
 
 the ideas of so many distinct units added together." Mixed 
 
 ihw/i.. are those "compounded of simple ideas of several 
 
 kind- put together to make one complex one — e. g., beauty ; 
 
 anil consisting of a certain composition of colour and figure, 
 
 delight In the beholder." It need hardly be said 
 
 that this distinction is founded on a very imperfect and false 
 
 The term is now universally laid aside by writers 
 
 on mental philosophy. 
 
 Mode. In .Music, the melodious constitution of the oc- 
 
 consisting of seven essential and natural sounds be- 
 
 key or fundamental. It is not any single note or 
 
 sound, but the order of the concinous degrees of an octave, 
 
 the fundamental note whereof may, in another sense, be 
 
 called the key, as it signifies the principal note which regu- 
 
 rest. The difference between a mode and a key is, 
 
 octave with its natural concinous degrees is called 
 
 a mode with respect to the manner of dividing it, whilst as 
 
 regards its place in the scale of music or pitch it is called a 
 
 key. 
 
 MODEL. (Lat. modulus.) In Mechanics, a small or 
 miniature representation of the structure of a machine, so 
 as to exhibit its mode of working. &c. Owing to the effect 
 <>•" increased mass in making the machine itself, the results 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 obtained from the model exceed those of the machine in a 
 greater ratio than the linear dimensions of the two works. 
 
 Model. In the Fine Arts, that which is nn object of imi 
 tation. In Painting and Sculpture, it is the individual whom 
 the artist procures for getting up his proportions, details, 
 play of the muscles, &c. Also in Sculpture, it is the term 
 applied to the small sketch in wax or clay tor a work of 
 art. In Architecture, it is a small pattern in relief, either of 
 wood, plaster, or other material, of the building proposed to 
 be executed. 
 
 MO'DELLING. In the Fine Arts, the art of making a 
 mould from which works in plaster are to be cast ; also used 
 for the forming in clay of the design itself. 
 
 MODERATORS, SENIOR and JUNIOR. In the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, two public officers appointed annually 
 to perform various duties. They are ex officio examiners in 
 the senate-house. Their name is derived from another of 
 their duties, viz., that of moderating or presiding in the op- 
 ponemies, or exercises publicly performed in the schools be- 
 tween under-g.-aduates candidates for the degree of bachelor 
 of arts. These disputations, relics of the old university sys- 
 tem, are now reduced to little more than matters of form. 
 Moil rator is also the name applied to the president, for the 
 time being, of the General Assembly of the Church of Scot- 
 land, and of the other inferior church courts, the synods, and 
 presbyteries. 
 
 MODI'LLION. (Fr. modillion.) In Architecture, an 
 ornament sometimes square on its profile, and sometimes 
 
 scroll shaped, thus fojj'csj", with the intervention of one 
 
 or two small horizontal members placed at intervals under 
 the corona in the richer orders. They should stand cen- 
 trally over columns when the latter are employed. They 
 are simplest in the Ionic and Composite orders, more carv- 
 ing being bestowed on them in the Corinthian order. The 
 mutule of the Doric order, which should always stand over 
 the centre of a triglyph, is the same sort of thing, and occu- 
 pies the same place in the entablature as the modillion. 
 
 MO'DULATION. (Lat. modulor.) In Music, the act 
 of moving through the sounds in the harmony of any par- 
 ticular key to those of another, or the transition from one 
 key to another. 
 
 MO'DULES. (Lat. modulus.) In Architecture, ■ 
 ure equal to the semi-diameter of a Doric column. It is a 
 term only applied in the Doric order, and consists of thirty 
 minutes. 
 
 MODULUS. In Analysis, the constant coefficient or 
 multiplier in a function of a variable quantity, by means of 
 which the function is accommodated to a particular system 
 or base. Thus, in the theory of logarithms* it is the num- 
 ber by which all the logarithms In one scale of notation 
 must be multiplied to adapt them to the same number In 
 another scale. The only scales or bases actually used in 
 calculation are those of the hyperbolic (or Napierean) and of 
 the common logarithms; nnd the modulus of conversion is 
 0*43439448. For modulus of elasticity, see Elasticity. 
 
 MO'DUS (Modus decimandi, or special manner of ti- 
 thing), in Law, is when lands, tenements, or some certain 
 annual sum or other profit hath been given, time out of 
 mind, to a parson and his successors in full satisfaction nnd 
 discharge of all tithes in kind. It is in some cases a pecu 
 niary compensation, hi others compensation in work and la 
 hour. See Tithes. 
 
 MOGRA'BIANS, or MEN OF THE WEST. A name 
 formerly given to a Bpecics of Turkish infantry, composed 
 of the peasants of the northern parts of Africa, who sought 
 to ameliorate their condition by entering into foreign service. 
 
 MOG'UL, GREAT. The name by which the chief of the 
 empire so called, founded in Hindustan by Babcr in the 15th 
 century, was known in Europe. The last person to whom 
 this title of right belonged was Shah Allum ; and the Mogul 
 empire having terminated at his death in 180G, his vast pos- 
 sessions fell chiefly Into the hands of the East India Com- 
 pany. 
 
 MOHAIR. (Gr. mohr ; Fr. moire ; It. moerro ; Sp. mue, 
 muer.) The hair of a variety of the common goat, famous 
 for being soft and fine as silk, and of a silvery whiteness. It 
 is not produced anywhere but in the vicinity of Angora, in 
 Asia Minor. The exportation of this valuable and beautiful 
 article, unless in the shape of yarn, was formerly prohibit- 
 ed; but it may now be exported unspun. The production, 
 preparation, nnd sale of mohair have long engrossed the 
 principal attention of the inhabitants of Angora ; and it used 
 to form an important article of Venetian commerce. It is 
 manufactured into camlets and other expensive stuffs. 
 Hitherto but little has been imported into England. 
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM. One of the most celebrated sys- 
 tems of religion in the world ; so called from Mohammed, 
 its author and founder, who was born at Mecca, in Arabia, 
 in May, 571. This founder of a new religion, and of a polit- 
 ical power, which, even in his lifetime, extended over his 
 native country, and which, under his successors, threatened 
 
 761 
 
MOHAMMEDANISM. 
 
 to embrace the empire of the world, traced his genealogy in 
 a direct line through eleven descents from Koreish, the 
 founder of the powerful tribe that bore his name, and who 
 again was affirmed to be in direct descent from Ishmael, the 
 ion of Abraham. The future prophet sprung, therefore, 
 from the noblest tribe of the Ishmaelitish Arabs ; and his 
 grandfather was at the time of his birth sovereign of Mecca, 
 and guardian of the Caaba (which from time immemorial 
 had been identified in the minds of the Arabs with every 
 sacred feeling) ; consequently, from the sanctity of his terri- 
 tory and his office, a prince of great power and influence. 
 But, though descended from so powerful a family, Moham- 
 med's early life was spent in comparative dependance. His 
 father was a younger son of Abdol Motalleb ; and having in 
 his early infancy lost both his parents, his only inheritance 
 was five camels and a female slave. On his paternal grand- 
 father was devolved the guardianship of the future prophet ; 
 but of this protector he was deprived by death when only 
 eight years of age. In a dying charge, Motalleb confided 
 this tender plant of the ancient stock of the Koreish to the 
 hands of Abu Taleb, his eldest son, and the successor of his 
 authority, who amply redeemed the trust reposed in him 
 by continuing throughout life the steadfast friend of his 
 ward amid all the difficulties and dangers to which the lat- 
 ter was exposed in the promulgation of his doctrines. His 
 education, however, is said to have been extremely scanty ; 
 and at the early age of thirteen, being intended for a com- 
 mercial life, he accompanied his uncle's trading caravan 
 into Syria. He afterwards entered into the service of Khadi- 
 jah, a rich widow of Mecca, to whom his skill in commerce 
 or his other accomplishments so far endeared him that, at 
 the end of three years, she bestowed upon him her hand and 
 fortune, an alliance which restored him to the station of his 
 family. At this period he was twenty-five, and his wife 
 forty years of age. 
 
 During the first thirteen years of his marriage little or no- 
 thing is known of his history ; but at the termination of that 
 period he withdrew from society, resorted to a cave in the 
 neighbourhood of Mecca, where he gave himself up to con- 
 templation, and laid the foundation of that bold and hazard- 
 ous project which afterward raised iiim to glory and domin- 
 ion. It was in this retirement he gave out that for two 
 years he was in daily communication with the Deity. 
 
 In his 40th year he assumed the prophetic office, and dis- 
 played his views and principles to his domestic circle. His 
 first convert was Khadijah, whom he always regarded with 
 affection, and even reverence, and whom he placed, after 
 her death, among the only four perfect women the world 
 ever saw ; the other three being Miriam, the sister of Moses ; 
 the Virgin Mary ; and Fatima, the youngest of his own 
 daughters. The progress of the new sect was at first very 
 slow. Three years were silently employed in the conver- 
 sion of fourteen (some say nine) proselytes ; but in the fourth 
 year he extended the theatre of his preaching, and proclaim- 
 ed his doctrines publicly to his fellow-citizens. The faith 
 which, under the name of Islam (i. «., salvation), he preach- 
 ed, was compounded substantially of two great principles, 
 which, as Gibbon says, involves an eternal truth and a ne- 
 cessary fiction, namely, that " there is only one God, and 
 that Mohammed is his prophet— the last and greatest of the 
 prophets." He did not, however, aim so much at founding 
 a new religion as reforming the old, as declared by the for- 
 mer prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Christ, 
 by putting an end to those superstitions and idolatries by 
 which the true faith had been corrupted. Being urged to 
 confirm the reality of his divine mission by miracles, he 
 wisely declined the attempt, appealing to the internal evi- 
 dence of his doctrines, and declaring that miracles would 
 depreciate the merit of faith. The only miracle which he 
 professed to have accomplished is a nocturnal journey from 
 Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence through the heavens, on an 
 imaginary animal called Borack, i. e., lightning ; but the 
 words of the Koran are often regarded as figurative and al- 
 legorical. He persevered with assiduity in the public exer- 
 cise of his mission. The citizens of Mecca listened to the 
 exposition of his principles with patience till he attacked the 
 idols of the Caaba. This, however, raised such a storm 
 against him, particularly on the part of the Koreishites, that, 
 notwithstanding the protection of Abu Taleb, who, though 
 not converted to Islamism, continued the warm and stead- 
 fast protector Of his nephew: many of his followers fled to 
 other countries, chiefly to Ethiopia. This happened In the 
 sixth year of his mission, and is called the first Hcirira. or 
 flight. 
 
 In the tenth year of his mission he lost both his wife 
 Khadijah and his uncle Abu Taleb. The death of the lat- 
 ter being the severest blow that the new faith had yet sus- 
 ained, this year is known in the Mohammedan annals as 
 " the year of mourning." The death of Abu Taleb removed 
 the only check to the virulent enmity of the Koreishites ; 
 and a stranser having succeeded to the sovereignty of Mec- 
 ca, nfier a troubled residence of three years, marked, how- 
 762 
 
 ever, by the accession of many proselytes, Mohammed, on 
 the invitation of a deputation from Medina, fled to that city ; 
 and instantly, as if by magic, the proscribed and condemned 
 exile became a powerful, and, as it soon appeared, ar. all 
 but invincible monarch. The flight from Mecca to Medina, 
 which is called the second Hegira, or, par excellence, The 
 Heoira, is the epoch from which the Mohammedans dale 
 their a;ra. It occurred in the 53d year Of Mohammed's age, 
 and 13th of his mission, and coincides with the 10th July 
 A.D. 622. 
 
 Hitherto Mohammed had used only the mild words of 
 persuasion and argument in propagating his religion 
 Throughout the eighty-five chapters of the Koran., pub 
 lished at Mecca, so far from the use of any species of coer- 
 cion being recommended to be employed in support of his 
 faith, he exhorts his followers to bear with meekness the 
 injuries to which their principles might expose them, decla- 
 ring that he had no authority to compel any one to embrace 
 his creed. In the eighteen chapters published at Medina 
 on the contrary, he taught a very different doctrine, and an- 
 nounced that God had commanded him to extirpate idolatry 
 by force of arms, and to force universal submission to his 
 authority. The enjoyments of paradise were promised to 
 " those who fight for the cause of God, whether they lie 
 slain or not." (Sur. 11, 4, 9.) Nor were these mere words 
 of course ; they were soon reduced to practice. Moliam 
 med, soon after his arrival in Medina, assumed the exercise 
 both of the sacerdotal and regal office. The option of friend 
 ship, or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies 
 of Islamism. His petty excursions for the defence or attack 
 of a caravan prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. 
 But what established his power, and laid the foundation of 
 future conquests, was the issue of the battle of Bodr, near 
 Medina, fought in the second year of the Hegira, between 
 the troops of Abu Sophian, the new sovereign of Mecca, and 
 his own, in which the latter, though only a third of the 
 number of the enemy, gained a complete victory, with the 
 loss of only forty men. From this period the progress of 
 Mohammed, if not a complete triumph (for he sustained 
 some defeats), affords an example of perhaps the most rapid 
 success on record ; and at (he lapse of six years, 
 Hegira, his victorious troops entered the city of Mecca — an 
 epoch from which may be dated the final establishment of 
 the Mohammedan faith in Arabia. The few contests thai 
 followed were merely the last struggles of an expiring op- 
 position, and were mostly terminated by Mohammed's gen 
 erals ; while the prophet himself was employed in destroy- 
 ing the idols enshrined in the Caaba, and in consecrating 
 the temple to the worship of the sole God. The year fol- 
 lowing is known in Mussulman history as the "year of em- 
 bassies ;" because missions were sent to the prophet from a 
 majority of the Arabian tribes, giving in their adhesion to 
 his creed, and recognising his authority, both sacred and 
 civil. 
 
 But while his religion was thus triumphant, and was des 
 tined still farther to spread, and to remain, the prophet's 
 own days were drawing to a close. About three years be- 
 fore his death his health had been declining, in consequence 
 of poison that had been administered to him by a Jewess of 
 Chaibor, in order to test the validity of his Divine knowl 
 edge. But his death was occasioned by a fever of fourteen 
 days, on the 6th of June, 632, in the 10th Hegira, in the 63d 
 year of his age. His remains were buried in Medina, in the 
 very room in which he breathed his last ; and though the 
 house itself has long since disappeared, a simple unadorned 
 monument marks the spot where his body reposes. The 
 pilgrim, on his way to Mecca, increases the worth of his pil- 
 grimage if he turn aside to visit also the city which contains 
 the ashes of Mohammed. 
 
 During the life of Khadijah, Mohammed did not avail 
 himself of the right of polygamy : after her death, however, 
 the restraints which policy or conjugal affection had impo- 
 sed on him were laid aside, and the utmost license marked 
 his subsequent career. While he limited the number of 
 wives to four in the case of others, he claimed an exemp- 
 tion to himself on Divine authority, and married no fewer 
 than seventeen according to some authorities, and nine ac- 
 cording to others: strangely enough, all widows except one, 
 Ayesha, the daughter of A'bu Beker. By Khadijah he had 
 four sons and as many daughters, and by an Egyptian con- 
 cubine a fifth son : but his sons all died in infancy ; and of 
 ten daughters notte survived him except Fatima, who was 
 married to her cousin Ali. From this marriage sprang an 
 illustrious offspring, the ancestors of the numerous existing 
 scherifs, or sons of the prophet. 
 
 The religion of the supposititious prophet is contained la 
 the Koran (i. e., book), the contents of which, according tc 
 Mohammedan belief, are uncreated and eternal, subsisting 
 in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen of light 
 on the table of the everlasting decrees, and communicated 
 at different times to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. The 
 Koran, which is written in the purest Arabic, is, with somt» 
 
MOHAMiMEDANISM. 
 
 exceptions, a work characterized by great richness and sub- 
 limity. To the beauty of its style, indeed, its author appeals 
 as a proof of its inspiration ; but Gibbon has remarked, that 
 "his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of 
 the book of Job" (chap. iv\). Its boldest flights, and its 
 a scope, are borrowed from the sacred volume. In- 
 deed, the object of Mohammed seems to have been to recall 
 the inhabitants of the populous country of Arabia to the 
 worship of the only God, and to unite idolaters, Jews, and 
 Christians in the same creed. He taught that the chain of 
 inspiration was prolonged from Adam to the promulgation 
 of the Koran ; that Christ did not die on the cross, but that 
 a phantom, or a criminal, was substituted in his place, and 
 that he was translated to the seventh heaven; that Christ 
 rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet more illustri- 
 ous than himself; and that the promise of the Paraclete, or 
 Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and accomplished 
 in tile person, of .Mohammed, the tM and greatest of the 
 prophets. He taught the existence of angels, good and bad, 
 and of the Uevil or Eblis ; describing the latter as having 
 been expelled from heaven, without hope of recovery, for 
 ng to pay homage to Adam at the divine command. 
 the inspired writings, he acknowledged the Penta- 
 teuch, the l'salms, and the Gospel. The doctrine of the 
 resurrection and the day of judgment formed part of his 
 fuilh. He taught that every man shnll be judged according 
 to his works; but that the believers in UsiBM shall not 
 like the wicked idolaters or infidels) to eternal 
 condemnation, but that, after undergoing a purifying punish- 
 ment, they shall be translated into the regions of bliss. He 
 incubated the absolute and unalterable predestination of all 
 thing-. He called prayer " the pillar of religion" and "the 
 key of Paradise;" and he prescribed five ditl'crent stnted 
 periods of prayer daily, accompanied with as many ablu- 
 i purifications of the body. I »iirinvr prayer he first in- 
 should be turned to Jerusalem, in eom- 
 pUment tO the Jews; but afterward bestowed that honour 
 Ing, anil pilgrimage to Mecca, are the 
 remaining duties of practical religion enjoined on all good 
 Mnssi ■ he last the mn« holy was t»>at of Rnma 
 
 dan, instituted in honour of the month in which Gabnvl ap- 
 peared 10 him in Mecca. Friday was ordained as the Mos- 
 bbath, because it was on that day he made his flight 
 to Medina. He continued the rite of circumcision in com 
 pliuient to the prejudices of his countrymen. He condemn- 
 ed usury, and forbade the drinking of wine. 
 
 The grossly sensual character of Mohammed's paradise 
 constitutes, perhaps, the greatest blemish m his religious 
 system, and has exerted a debasing influence over all the 
 Countries where it has acquired an ascendency. 
 
 To the history of Islamism after the death of its illustri- 
 ous founder we cannot do more than allude. The rival 
 pretensions of Abu Beker and Ali, the latter of whom called 
 himself " the first believer," to succeed Mohammed in the 
 empire he had founded, both gave a temporary check to the 
 progress of the religion, and produced a schism which ex- 
 ; the present day. See Sonmtks, Schiites. 
 Notwithstanding the high pretensions of his competitor, 
 Abu Iteker was elected to the office of supreme head of the 
 Mussulman religion and power, under the title of "Caliph," 
 or " Khahf ;" t. «., successor to the prophet. Under his 
 sway, and that of his two immediate successors, the most 
 brilliant success attended the Arab arms. Indeed, by the 
 20th Hegira, or within ten years of the death of the prophet, 
 Syria, Persia, and Egypt, being conquered, adopted the new 
 faith. Ali was chosen the fi until khnlif, but achieved no- 
 thing very memorable. At his death, which took place by 
 the hands of an assassin, the throne was usurped by a son 
 of Abu Sophian, whose descendants are called the Omay- 
 race of khalifa. They held the sovereignty for nearly 
 100 years, during which time the whole of Africa was over- 
 run, and so far colonized by tribes of Bedouins that it has 
 remained, as to language, manners, and religion, an 
 Arab country. The Islam faith prospered nearly 113 rapidly 
 In the East ; at least, within 80 years from Mohammed's 
 death it embraced all the countries between the Indus and 
 the Atlantic, and from the Indian Ocean to the steppes of 
 al Asia. It has since penetrated even into China, and 
 found its way into many of the islands in the Indian Archi- 
 go. Spain was taken in 711. The Arabs were, for a 
 ^hort lime, masters of the south of France, but were finally 
 driven across the Pyrenees in 732. The Omayzade khalifs 
 in the 133d Hegira (A.D. 750), superseded by the de- 
 scendants of Abbas, one of the uncles of Mohammed. This 
 las; dynasty is known in history as that of the Abbasside 
 khnlif'-. 
 
 Meanwhile the seat of the khalifat was removed from 
 Medina to Damascus, and latterly to Bagdad. Nor was the 
 khalifate Itself of very long standing. It had been tottering 
 for years ; but it tell In the 656th Hegira (A.D. 1258) ; aTnr- 
 tar army having taken Bagdad, and put an end to the nom- 
 inal, sacerdotal, and regal power of the khalifs, the real 
 
 MOLE. 
 
 power having for a long time resided in the Turkish sultans 
 of Asia Minor. The title of khalif is now recognised as one 
 of the attributes of the grand signior as successor of Mo 
 hammed, and of the sophi of Persia as successor of Ali; but 
 it no longer implies the discharge of any religious functions 
 
 But neither the foreign conquests of the Mussulmans, nor 
 the downfall of the khalifat, made any essential change in 
 the political state of Arabia. The people adhere to Mo- 
 hammedanism as the'trite faith, but otherwise are divided 
 into petty tribes and communities, as before the birth of the 
 pretended prophet. Of two attempts made in Arabia to 
 reform the Moslem faith, all traces of the first (A.D. B90), 
 the object of which was to rescind the prohibition of wine, 
 and to prevent the pilgrimages to the holy ashes, have dis- 
 appeared. The other took place in more recent times, 
 namely, in the beginning of the last century. It was made 
 by Addul Wahcb, who proclaimed himself a prophet sent 
 by God to reform the abuses which gradually had been in- 
 grafted on the religion of Mohammed. The chief of the 
 Wahabee doctrines, so called from their author, was, that 
 God was to be worshipped in the strictest unity; ami that 
 no adoration should be paid to Mohammed, or any created 
 being. (See Waiiabeeism.) But while these doctrines 
 were rapidly spreading, and while the cities of Mecca and 
 Medina had fallen into the hands of the new sect, Mehemet 
 Ali, in the name of the sultan, gave 1111 effectual check (1813) 
 to their farther progress, and restored the holy cities to the 
 nominal authority of the Porte. The Wahabee tenets have 
 since been at a stand, or are on the decline, even in Nedsjed, 
 the native province of the founder. (Sec Mulfcda, in vita 
 Muhainmed ; Priileaur' J.ife nf Mohammed, 8vo, 1710; Ad- 
 am' 8 Religious H'orld Displayed; D'lli rbrlot, llildiothraue 
 Orirnt.; (Irecn's Life of Mahomet ; the 'J'ranls of Nie- 
 buhr and others; Burckhardt's Notes on Bedouins and War 
 halncs; Hycaut's Present State of the Ottoman Empire; 
 Lives of Mohammed by Boulainviltier and Oagnicr ; Mill's 
 Hist, of Miihatn. ; Furster's Moham. Unveiled; and tspe 
 cially M'Culloch's Geog. Diet., art. "Arabia.") 
 
 Mi >l |i< iKK. A Portuguese gold coin, value 27». sterling. 
 
 MOJ/NEAU. (Fr.) A mall flat bastion, i~iscd In f-ont 
 
 means of -mall arms. 
 
 MODRE'E MET ALUQTJB, called in this country crys- 
 tallized tin plate, is a variegated primrose appearance, pro- 
 duced upon the surface of tin-plate by applying to it in a 
 lnated state some dilute nilro -muriatic acid for a few sec- 
 onds, then Washing it with water, drying, and coating it 
 with lacquer. The figures are more or less beautiful and 
 diversified, according to the degree of heat and relative dilu- 
 tion of the acid. This mode of ornamenting tin-plate is much 
 less in vogue now than it was a few years ago. ( Ure's 
 Diet. of Arts, Ac.) 
 
 MO'LARS, Molares. (I.at. mola, a mill.) Teeth gen- 
 erally having a tlattened triturating surface, and situated be- 
 hind the incisors, and laniaries when these are also present. 
 In some Mammals, a- the 1 ape ant-eater, all the teeth are 
 molars. They are generally of two kinds ; viz., those which 
 are liable to be displaced and succeeded by others in the 
 vertical direction, and those which are succeeded, and some- 
 times, as in the elephant and kangaroo, displaced by others 
 developed at the back of the mouth, and advancing forwards 
 horizontally : the first are termed false molars, the second 
 kind true molars. 
 
 MOLA'SSE. A provincial name used in Switzerland for 
 a soft, green stands-tone belonging to the Miocene tertiary 
 period. See Geology. 
 
 MOLA'SSES. (Port, melasses.) A brown, viscid, un 
 crystallizable sugar. (See Sugar.) It is sometimes used in 
 England in preparing the coarser sort of preserves, and on 
 the Continent extensively in the manufacture of tobacco. It 
 has a burned but not a disagreeable taste. 
 
 MOLE. A species of the genus Ta/pa (which see), com- 
 mon in this country and other parts of Europe. This quad- 
 ruped exhibits in perfection that modification of structure by 
 which the Mnmmiferous animal is adapted to a subterranean 
 life. Its head is long, conical, and tapering to the snout, 
 which is strengthened by a bone, and by Strong gristles 
 worked by powerful muscjes. The body is almost cylindrical, 
 thickest behind the head, and gradually diminishes to the 
 tail. There is no outward indication of n neck, that part 
 being enlarged to the size of the chest by the massive mus- 
 cles which act upon the head and fore-legs. These, which 
 are the principal instruments by which the mole excavates 
 its long and intricate burrows, are the shortest, broadest, and 
 Strongest, In proportion to the size of the animal, which are 
 to be met with in the Mainmiferous class. The rapidity 
 with which the mole can make its way through a favour- 
 able soil is such, that it may be said to swim in the earth ; 
 and, since it must displace matter so much denser than 
 water, so do its fore-limbs display a mechanism correspond- 
 ingly superior in strength to the analogous extremities or 
 pectoral fins of the dolphin. The food of the mole contain 
 
 763 
 
MOLECULE. 
 
 u! « orms and insects : its voracity is great, and it soon per- 
 ishes if food be scarce or wanting. The ardour of the sex- 
 ual appetite is not less intense and characteristic of this 
 curious quadruped. The sense of sight is very feeble, the 
 eyes being minute and rudimental ; but the other faculties 
 of smell and hearing, as being more serviceable in its dark 
 retreat, are extremely acute. 
 
 The female prepares a nest of dry herbage, roots, and 
 leaves, in a chamber commonly formed by excavating and 
 enlarging the point of intersection of three or four passages. 
 The young are brought forth to the number of four or five in 
 April, and sometimes later. 
 
 The farmer views the operations of the mole as destruc- 
 tive to his crops by exposing and destroying their roots, or 
 by overthrowing the plants in the construction of the mole- 
 hills ; his burrows, moreover, become the haunts and hiding- 
 places of the field-mouse and other noxious animals. The 
 mole is also accused of carrying oft' quantities of young corn 
 to form its nest. Hence every means are devised to capture 
 and destroy it, and men gain a livelihood exclusively by this 
 occupation. Some naturalists, however, plead that the in- 
 jury which it perpetrates is slight, and that it is more than 
 counterbalanced by the benefit which it produces by turning 
 up and lightening the soil, and especially by its immense de- 
 struction of earth worms, and many other noxious animals 
 which inhabit the superficial layer of the ground, and oc- 
 casion great injury to the roots of grass, corn, and many 
 other plants. The soundest practical conclusion lies proba- 
 bly in the mean of these opinions ; and the enlightened agri- 
 culturist, while he takes prompt measures to prevent the 
 undue increase of the mole, would do well to reflect on the 
 disadvantages which might follow its total extermination. 
 
 Mole. In Engineering, a massive work formed of large 
 stones placed in the sea by means of cofler-dams, extended 
 either in a right line or an arch of a circle before a port, 
 which it serves to close, and to defend the vessels in it from 
 the impetuosity of the waves, &c. It is sometimes used 
 synonymously with harbour. 
 
 MO'LECULE. (Eat. inolecula.) A corpuscle or atom, 
 single or compound. Molecules are the elementary particles 
 into which all bodies are supposed to be resolvable. 
 
 MO'LINISM. In Roman Catholic Theology, a system 
 of opinions on the subjects of grace and predestination some- 
 what resembling that advocated by the Arminian party 
 among Protestants. It derived its name from the Jesuit 
 Louis Molina, professor of theology in the university of 
 Evora in Portugal, who laid down a series of propositions 
 on these debated questions in his work, entitled Liberi arbi- 
 trii cum gratia donis, <S-c, concordia, which appeared in 
 1568. He was attacked by the Dominicans on the charge 
 of having advocated in it Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian senti- 
 ments, and accused before the Inquisition: he appealed to 
 Rome, and the cause was debated for twenty years in the 
 congregations, and left at last undecided by a decree of Paul 
 V. in 1G87. Since that period Molinism has been taught as 
 an opinion which believers are free to embrace in Roman 
 Catholic schools, and generally supported by the Jesuit and 
 attacked by the Jansenist party. It must not be confounded 
 with Molinosism : a name which the doctrine of the Quiet- 
 ists has received from the work of a Spanish enthusiast 
 (Molinos) on Mystical Life, condemned in 1C87 by Innocent 
 XI. The French Quietists professed to abjure and oppose 
 the errors of Molinos. (Moshcim, 17th Cent., 14, 2, part i.) 
 See Q.triKTisT8. 
 
 MO'LISITE. A mineralogical name of the crystallized 
 Utttniate of iron of Dauphiny. 
 
 MO'LLAII. The title of the higher order of judges in 
 the Turkish empire. After the three first magistrates of the 
 empire (the two cadil-askers of Roumi and Anatolia, and 
 the istambol -cadissy, or chief ordinary judge of the capital) 
 follow fourteen mollahs, who preside over the fourteen 
 principal seats of justice in the empire; among these, the 
 mollahs of Mecca and Medina have the highest rank. The 
 place of mollah, like all others in the Turkish empire, is 
 held only at the will of the sovereign, and is now granted 
 annually (see D'Ohsson, Tableau de V Empire Ottoman, vol. 
 it.) ; butdisplaced mollahs preserve their rank in the Ulema 
 above their successors. The Turkish mollah must not be 
 confounded with the Tartar mulla, which see. 
 
 MO'LEE. (Ital.) In Music, a sound that is flat as com- 
 pared to another half a tone higher, thence called sharp. 
 
 MOLEUSKS, Mollusca. (Lat. mollis, soft.) The name 
 applied by Cuvier to the great primary division of the ani- 
 mal kingdom which includes all those species having a gan- 
 gliated nervous system, with the ganglions or medullary 
 masses dispersed more or less irregularly in different parts of 
 the body, which is soft and inarticulate. The pulmonary or 
 branchial circulation is separate and distinct, but is aided by 
 the direct propulsion of a heart in one class only. There is 
 always a heart for the systematic circulation, and it mostly 
 consists of one ventricle and one auricle. Some of the mol- 
 lusks breathe air, but the greater part respire through the 
 764 
 
 MOMENT. 
 
 medium of salt or fresh water. The blood of the mollusks 
 is white or bluish. In one class only is there a rudiment 
 of an internal skeleton giving attachment to a part of the 
 muscular system ; in the rest it is absent, and the muscles 
 are attached to various points of the skin. Their contrac 
 tions produce inflections and extensions of their different 
 parts, and, alternating with relaxations, enable the species 
 to creep, climb, swim, burrow, and seize upon various ob- 
 jects, according as the form of these parts may permit; but 
 as the locomotive organs are not supported by articulated 
 and solid levers, the mollusks cannot leap or advance rapid- 
 ly on dry land. Many of the aquatic species are encumbered 
 with a heavy shell. Nearly all the mollusks have an ex- 
 tensive fold of the skin reflected over their body, which it 
 covers like a mantle ; it is sometimes produced into a breath- 
 ing-pipe, or extended and divided in the form of fins. When 
 the mantle is simply membranous or fleshy, or when a horny 
 or testaceous rudiment of a shell is developed, but remains 
 concealed in the substance of the mantle, the mollusk is said 
 to be naked. When the shell is so much enlarged that the 
 contracted animal finds shelter beneath or within it, the 
 species is said to be testaceous. (SeeCoNCHOLOGV.) The mas- 
 ticatory or oral organs present all the various modifications 
 for predatory, omnivorous, or herbivorous habits ; and the 
 stomach may be simple, multiple, or complicated with a 
 peculiar armature. Some of the mollusks are unisexual, 
 others androgynous, a few dicecious. 
 
 With few exceptions, their habits and economy present 
 comparatively little variety or interest, and they are only 
 preserved by their fecundity and vital tenacity. See Mala- 
 cology. 
 
 MO'LOCH. The name of the chief god of the Phoeni 
 cians, frequently mentioned in Scripture as the God of the 
 Ammonites, and probably the same as the Saturn of the 
 Syrians and Carthaginians. Human sacrifices were offered 
 at the shrine of this divinity ; and it was chiefly in the valley 
 of Tophet, to the east of Jerusalem, that this brutal idolatry 
 was perpetrated. Solomon built a temple to Moloch upon 
 the Mount of Olives, and Manasseh long after imitated his 
 impiety by making his son pass through the fire kindled in 
 honour of this horrid king. 
 
 Milton lias described the character of Moloch in the ful 
 lowing well-known lines: 
 
 First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood 
 
 Of human sacrifice and parents' tears; 
 
 Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud 
 
 Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire 
 
 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
 
 Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain, 
 
 In Argob and in Hasan, to the stream 
 
 Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
 
 Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart 
 
 Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
 
 His temple right against the temple of God, 
 
 On that opprobrious hill ; and made his grove 
 
 The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
 
 And black Gehenna call'd, the type of Hell. 
 
 MOLO'SSUS. In Greek and Latin poetry, a foot consist 
 ing of three long syllables, as %uip<h<ra(, regnabant. It is 
 said to deri\ a its name either from a favourite dance of the 
 Molossi, a people of Epirus, or from Jupiter Molossus, in 
 whose honour odes were composed in which this foot had a 
 great share. 
 
 MOLYBDE'NUM. (Gr. no\v6Sos, lead.) This name was 
 originally applied to the native sulphuret of molybdenum, 
 which was considered to be an ore of lead ; it was after- 
 wards shown to be the ore of a peculiar metal, to which the 
 name molybdenum was given. It is white, brittle, very in- 
 fusible, and of a specific gravity about 8'6. It forms two ox- 
 ides and an acid. The equivalent of the metal is about 48; 
 and the molybdic acid consists of 1 atom of molybdenum and 
 3 of oxygen, and is represented by the equivalent 72. The 
 compounds of this acid are called molybdatcs. The molyb- 
 date of lead has been found native. 
 
 MO'MENT. (Lat. movere, to move.) A small but in- 
 definite period of time. Sometimes the word instant is used 
 synonymously with moment. 
 
 Moment, Momentum. These terms have been used by 
 writers on mechanics in various senses. Galileo, in his 
 Dialogues, uses the phrase momentum of a power, or of a 
 weight, applied to a machine, to denote the action, energy, 
 or impetus of the power to move the machine ; so that tit 
 equilibrium subsists between two powers when their mo- 
 ments to move the machine in opposite directions are equal : 
 and he shows that the momentum is proportional to the 
 power multiplied into the virtual velocity. This notion of 
 momentum was also adopted by Wv His, in his Mechanics, 
 published in 1609; and when the term is used with respect 
 to a weight, it is synonymous with the phrase quantity of 
 motion, that is, the product of the mass by the velocity. 
 
 The product of the mass by the square of the velocity, or 
 the living force (sec Force), is sometimes called the moment 
 of the moving force, or the moment of activity ; and the pro- 
 due i of the mass by the velocity and by a line (or, which is 
 
MOMIERS. 
 
 the game, by the square of the velocity and by a time) is 
 tailed the moment of the quantity of motion, or quantity of 
 tction. (Carnot, Principes de I' Equilibre et du Mouvement.) 
 
 Modern writers use the phrase moment of a force with re- 
 spect to a point, to denote the product of the force into the 
 perpendicular let fall from the point upon the line of its di- 
 rection ; and moment of a force with respect to a plane, to 
 denote the product of the force into the perpendicular drawn 
 from its point of application to the plane. These two mo- 
 ment- u« entirely distinct. The first depends upon the di- 
 rection of the force, and is independent of its point of appli- 
 cation ; the latter depends upon the point of application, and 
 is independent of the direction. (See Poisson, Traite de 
 Mecanique.) 
 
 Mom Birr of Inertia, in Dynamics, denotes the sum of the 
 products of all the material elements of a revolving body, 
 each multiplied into the square of its distance from the axis 
 of rotation. It is the integral of the expression fr- d m ; in 
 which d m is the element of the mass, and r its distance from 
 the axis. 8m Rotation. 
 
 Jlo'MIF.K.S. (From the Fr. momerie, Ang. mummery.) 
 The iiiime by which certain religionists of the so-called 
 Evangelical party have been designated in Switzerland, and 
 some parts of France and Germany, since 1818. They ap- 
 pear originally to have bome a considerable resemblance to 
 the Methodists of our own country; for, like the lntter, they 
 at first e m br ac ed no tenets distinct from those of the Estab- 
 lished Church, and wave only distinguished from its members 
 habitual indulgence in devotional contemplation 
 and religious exercises. Hut they did not long continue to 
 harmonize with the preachers of the establishment. One 
 of the moat vehement of the party, in a pamphlet published 
 eased the latter of denying the divinity of our Sa- 
 viour, and of a thorough backsliding from the doctrines of 
 Calvinism : nd the 6 e u er a clergy (la venerable compagnie) 
 haviriL', in the view of allaying asperities, passed a resolution 
 prohibiting any theories of the doctrinal points of religion 
 from being propounded in the pulpit, and having counselled 
 the clergy to avoid disputed points as much as possible in 
 their discourses, the smouldering embers of their hostility 
 to the RsfhHshnd Church burst into a flame. They now be- 
 gan to attack the clergy in the pulpit and in pamphlets, ac- 
 cusing them of having abandoned all gospel truth, and deny- 
 ing their right to be regarded as ministers of the establish- 
 ment. Hut nil their effort* to bring the latter into contempt 
 were unsuccessful : the Genevese remained faithful to their 
 pastors; and in the year 1835 the Momiers possessed only 
 about '.XX) adherents. 
 
 In other parts of Switzerland, however, and more espe- 
 cially in the ennton de Vuud, the zeal of these sectaries was 
 attended with more success. After a few years' toleration of 
 their preaching and proselytizing, during which it was al- 
 leged the Momiers had sown the greatest discord and dis- 
 content among the inhabitants of the canton, the government 
 at last saw the necessity of interference, and in the year 
 1824 promulgated some vigorous ordinances to put them 
 down. These enactments, as might have been expected, 
 failed of their effect. The enthusiasm of the Momiers was 
 redoubled : they were now surrounded with the glory of 
 martyrdom ; and many who before had viewed their zeal 
 With Indifference or contempt, now deeply sympathized In 
 what they could not but regard as an undisguised attack 
 upon the liberty of conscience. In consequence of the gen- 
 eral disgust that ensued on their promulgation, these ordi- 
 nances were at first gradually relaxed, then suffered to lie 
 dormant, and at last repealed in 1831. Since that period the 
 number of the Momiers has gradually diminished ; and in 
 1839, the clergy of this canton resolved by a large majority 
 to revert to the ancient regime of the church. (See the 
 Conversations Lexicon der Oegenwart. 8ee also the Edin. 
 Review, vol. \lii., which contains an interesting account of 
 the rigorous enactments passed against this sect, with some 
 wjviri- remarks on their violence and absurdity.) 
 
 MO'MUS. (Gr. uiaiiof, derision.) The god of raillery 
 and ridicule, and said by Hesiod to have been the progeny 
 of light. 
 
 MONACHISM, MONK, MONASTERY. (All derived 
 from the Gr. iiovos, alone.) Words indicative of certain im- 
 |iortant features in ecclesiastical history. Monnchus, or 
 monk, projierly signifies one who lives a solitary life, and 
 was applied in the first instance to the numerous individuals 
 who began in the second and third centuries to retire from 
 the occupations of the world, and devote themselves in the 
 deserts of F.gypt and Syria to a contemplative and religious 
 .ife. It was not till the middle of the third century that the 
 monkish system, properly so cnlled, was established, by 
 which many persons were congregated together, and bound 
 by vows to the performance of various religious duties and 
 abstinence from worldly enjoyments. These monks are dis- 
 tinguished by the appellation of Otenobites, or Associates, 
 from the ascetics, anchorites, and hermits, who lived apart, 
 not from the world only, but from each other. The monk- 
 
 MONEY. 
 
 ish system originated in Egypt, where St. Anthony founded 
 several associations of this kind. The inmates of the primi 
 tive monasteries were bound by the profession of four ob 
 jects : solitude, labour, fasting, and prayers. They renounced 
 all temporal possessions, and supported themselves entirely 
 with their own hands. Fasting was practised in moderation 
 only ; nor do the early monks appear to have affected piety 
 or regularity by the extravagant austerities of later times. 
 For a useful list of books on the subject, see this article in 
 the Penny Cyclopadia. 
 
 For an account of the progress of this practice, and the 
 rules to which the professors of Monachism were subjected 
 in later times, see Orders (Religious). 
 
 MO'NAD. (Gr. povai, a unit.) In Metaphysics, this 
 word has been used by Leibnitz and his followers, partisans 
 of what has been called the Monadic Theory. " After stud- 
 ying." says Stewart, "with all possible diligence what Leib- 
 nitz has said of his monads in different parts of his works, I 
 find myself quite incompetent to annex any precise idea to 
 the word as he employed it." He then quotes the follow 
 ing as " some of his most intelligible attempts to explain his 
 meaning f " A simple substance has no parts : a compound 
 substance is an aggregate of simple substances, or of mon- 
 ads." " Monads, having no parts, are neither extended, fig- 
 ured, nor divisible. They are the real atoms of nature ; in 
 other words, the elements of tilings." " Every monad is a 
 living mirror, representing the universe, according to its par- 
 ticular point of view, and subject to no regular laws, as the 
 universe itself." " Every monad with a particular body 
 makes a living substance." (,Enc. Ilrit., Preliminary Dis- 
 sertation, note c. c.) The groundwork of the monadic the- 
 ory is to be found in the different philosophical systems of 
 Zeno, Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus : but Leibnitz 
 was the first who reduced it to a system, and its chief sup- 
 porters since his death have been M. Wolf and Madame 
 Duchatelet. 
 
 MONADE'LPHONS. (Gr. povoc, and aSe\(pia, a frater 
 nity.) A botanical term applied to stamens, the filaments 
 of which are combined into a single mass, as in the common 
 mallow. It is the name of some of the classes in the Liu- 
 n.Tan system. 
 
 MONA'NDROUS (Gr. itovoc, and avnp, a man), is a flow 
 er having but one stamen. It is the name of the first class 
 in the I.inn.-ean system. 
 
 MO'NARCHY, (Gr. uompxia ; derived from povoc, sin 
 pie, and ufxcit; to rule.) The government of n single per- 
 son. Monarch and monarchy are equivalent in common 
 speech to king and kingdom ; so that we often read of the 
 Spartan monarchs, &c, although the government of Sparta 
 was under a double race of kings reigning at the same time. 
 Monarchies are usually said to be of four kinds — absolute, 
 limited, hereditary, and elective, which are self-explanatory 
 terms. The only elective monnrchy in Europe was that of 
 [•"land. All absolute and limited monarchies have adopted 
 the hereditary principle. 
 
 MO'NAS. (Gr. povaf.) A genus of extremely minute 
 polvgastric Infusores. 
 
 MO'N ASTER Y. (Gr. pov>s.) The general name for 
 those religious houses appropriated to the reception and 
 maintenance of monks and nuns, but especially of the for- 
 mer. (See Nunnery.) For an account of the origin and 
 object of monasteries, see Monachism, and the authorities 
 there referred to ; and for the habits, rules, and peculiarities 
 of the different orders of monks and nuns, see the respective 
 article*, but more especially Orders (Religious). The 
 English term monastery was variously rendered by the 
 Greek fathers ; thus we find it expressed not only by povaa- 
 rripiov and povrj, but by aipvtiov, a holy place, uavfpa, an en- 
 closure, fpovTtornpiov, a place of meditation, etc. The sup- 
 pression of monasteries was one of the first consequences 
 of the Reformation in nil the countries that abandoned the 
 Popish faith. But even in Roman Catholic states, with the 
 exception of Italy, they have long been on the decline ; and 
 though, since the relaxation of the penal laws, several nun- 
 neries have been established in various parts of Great Brit- 
 ain, there is no reason to suppose that these establishments 
 will ever attain even an approximation to their pristine vig 
 our. 
 
 MO'NDAY. The second day of the week is so called, 
 and means, literally, the day of the moon. Its equivalents 
 in Fr. and Germ, are respectively Lundi and Montag, signi 
 fying also day of the moon. 
 
 MO'NEY.* In Political Economy, the name given to the 
 commodity adopted to serve as the marchandise bannale, or 
 universal equivalent of all other commodities, and for which 
 individuals readily exchange their surplus products or servi 
 ces. 
 
 * Etymologists differ respecting the derivation of the word money. Some 
 contend tint it cornea from monere (to admonish, to inform), became th« 
 itamp impressed on coin* indicates their weight and fineness. Others con- 
 tend that it originate! in the circumstance of silver being originally coined at 
 Rome, in the temple of admonishing Juno, or Juno Afoneta. 
 
 765 
 
MONEY. 
 
 Without the use of money of some sort or other, exchan- 
 ges must have been greatly embarrassed, and the division 
 of employments never could have been carried to any con- 
 siderable extent. Innumerable difficulties would occur in 
 attempting to carry on trade by barter. A., for example, has 
 a quantity of com which he wishes to exchange for cloth 
 belonging to B. ; but the latter being already sufficiently sup- 
 plied with corn, no exchange can take place between them. 
 A. must therefore, if he continue anxious to get possession 
 of the cloth, learn what commodity B. will accept in ex- 
 change for it; and having learned this, he must seek out 
 some third person willing to part with the equivalent de- 
 manded by B. in exchange for corn. It might not, perhaps, 
 be possible for A. to get his purpose effected so easily as has 
 here been supposed, or without negotiating several subsidia- 
 ry exchanges ; but what has now been stated is sufficient to 
 evince the extreme difficulty of carrying on commerce in 
 this way. 
 
 Individuals so placed would naturally endeavour, in seek- 
 ing their own advantage, to obviate, in as far as practicable, 
 such inconveniences ; and it would require but little sagacity 
 to perceive that the best way of accomplishing this would 
 be to acquire some portion of that article, whatever it might 
 be, which was observed to be most in demand, or which 
 passed most readily from hand to hand in exchange for oth- 
 ers ; because, when possessed of it, one would be able, with 
 comparatively little difficulty, to get whatever else he want- 
 ed. Now, this generally desirable article, whether it be 
 corn, salt, cowries, hides, or whatever else, is, in fact, mon- 
 ey. But, though this grand instrument of exchange may be 
 one thing in one country and one state of society, and an- 
 other thing in another country and another state of society, 
 it is never the result of invention or contrivance. It origi- 
 nates in the circumstances natural to society, and is chan- 
 ged, improved, and perfected, according as experience serves 
 to make individuals better acquainted with its nature and 
 functions. 
 
 An article that has been adopted from a sense of its suit- 
 ableness to serve as the ordinary equivalent for other things, 
 or as the common medium of exchange, comes, in the 
 course of time, to be used also as a measure of value, or as 
 a standard by which to compare and estimate the values of 
 other tilings. Thus, instead of saying that an individual is 
 worth 1000 sheep, 1000 quarters of wheat, or 1000 acres of 
 land, these are rated or estimated at their value in money ; 
 and it is said that their owners are worth certain amounts 
 of the latter. Not only, therefore, does the introduction of 
 money contribute in the most effectual manner to the facili- 
 tating of exchanges, but it also gives precision to statements 
 as to values that would otherwise be all but unintelligible. 
 The statement, for example, that an individual was worth 
 1000 head of cattle, or 1000 packs of wool, would convey no 
 clear idea even to dealers in these articles, as their qualities 
 differ so very widely ; and supposing these to be ascertained, 
 there are very few individuals who know anything of the 
 value either of cattle or wool. But by rating them in mon- 
 ey, all these difficulties and ambiguities vanish in an in- 
 stant ; reference is then made to a measure with which 
 everybody is familiar, and eveiy one has a distinct idea and 
 full knowledge of the value of the articles, or wealth of the 
 parties referred to. 
 
 Qualities required in a Commodity fitted to serve as Mon- 
 ey- — An immense variety of commodities have been adopted 
 to serve as money in different countries and states of socie- 
 ty ; but, in the course of no very long period, it is ascertain- 
 ed that no commodity can be advantageously employed as 
 money unless it possess certain properties. First, it should 
 be easy of transportation, and, therefore, should possess 
 great value in small bulk : 2d, it should admit of being rub- 
 bed and carried about without losing much from the wear, 
 and it should admit of being hoarded or kept for an indefi- 
 nite period without loss : 3d, as the products to be exchan- 
 ged for money are of very different value, it should also 
 admit of being divided into the smallest portions without in- 
 jury : 4th, the commodity used as money should be perfectly 
 homogenous ; that is, a given quantity of money in London 
 should be precisely identical with the same quantity in Ed- 
 inburgh, Dublin, and everywhere else: and, 5th, the value 
 of money, or its power of exchanging for or buying other 
 things, should be as invariable as possible, or should change 
 only by slow degrees. These seem to be the qualities most 
 essential to any commodity adopted to serve as money ; and 
 the money of any country may be said to be good or bad ac- 
 cording to the degree in which it possesses or wants these 
 qualities. 
 
 Now it will be found that the precious metals possess all 
 the qualities enumerated above in a far higher degree than 
 any other products with which we are acquainted, and this 
 has doubtless formed the irresistible reason that has led all 
 civilized communities to adopt them as money. The cost 
 of theii production, especially of gold, is so very considera- 
 ble, that they possess great value in small bulk ; their firm 
 
 and compact texture makes them difficult to wear, and they 
 may be kept for any length of time without deteriorating ; 
 they are divisible into any number of parts, and have the 
 valuable property of being easily reunited by means of fu 
 sion without loss ; they are perfectly identical, the physical 
 qualities of an ounce of pure gold or silver taken from the 
 mines in any part of the world being precisely the same 
 with those of an ounce taken from the mines in any other 
 quarter ; and though their value be not invariable, it chan 
 ges, speaking generally, only by slow degrees, and is less 
 susceptible of fluctuation than that of most other articles. 
 No wonder, therefore, when almost all the qualities neces- 
 sary to constitute money are possessed in so eminent a de 
 gree by the precious metals, that they have been used as 
 such in civilized societies from a very remote ajra. They 
 became universally money, to use the words of Mr. Turgot, 
 " not in consequence of any arbitrary agreement among 
 men, or of the intervention of any law, but by the nature 
 and force of things." 
 
 Introduction of Coined Money. — When first brought to 
 market, gold and silver, like copper, iron, or any other met- 
 al, were in the shape of bars or ingots, and were exchanged 
 or bartered for other commodities exactly as these would 
 have been bartered for anything else. The parties having 
 agreed upon the quantity of the precious metals to be given 
 for certain goods, the quantity was next delivered by weight. 
 Nor is this a mere conjectural statement, advanced in a later 
 age to explain appearances, and resting on probability only. 
 Aristotle (Polit., lib. i., cap. 9) and Pliny (Hist. Nat., lib. 
 xxxiii., cap. 3) tell us that such was, in fact, the method by 
 which the precious metiils were originally exchanged for 
 other things in Greece and Italy ; and the sacred writings 
 furnish a striking example of the prevalence of the same 
 primitive practice in the East. It is there stated that Abra 
 ham weighed 400 shekels of silver, and gave them in ex- 
 change for a piece of ground he had purchased from the 
 sons of Heth. (Genesis, xxiii., 16.) It is also mentioned 
 that this silver was " current money with the merchant," an 
 expression which evidently refers to its quality only ; for, 
 Imd the silver been coined, it would have been unnecessary 
 to have weighed it. But the weighing of gold and silver 
 whenever they happened to be exchanged for commodities, 
 and their adjustment to the agreed on weight, must have 
 been a very difficult and troublesome process. There can, 
 however, be no doubt that the greatest obstacle to the use 
 of the precious metals as money would at first be found in 
 the difficulty of determining their purity or fineness with 
 sufficient facility and accuracy. It is, indeed, most probable, 
 that when they originally began to be used as money, their 
 quality would be inferred from their weight and colour. But 
 the extreme inexactness of the conclusions derived from such 
 loose and unsatisfactory data would soon become obvious , 
 and the devising of some method by which the weighine of 
 the metals in exchanges might be dispensed with, and their 
 quality be easily and accurately determined, would be seen 
 to be indispensable to their general use as money. Luckily, 
 such n method was not long a desideratum. It was early 
 discovered that to ascertain its purity, and to obviate the 
 trouble and expense of weighing the metal, all that was ne- 
 cessary was to form it into coins ; that is, to mark each piece 
 with a public stamp or authoritative impress declaring its 
 weight and fineness. Such appear to have been the steps 
 that led to the formation and introduction of gold and silver 
 coins (Goguet, De VOrigine des Loix, i., 269, 4to ed.) ; the 
 employment of which has been of the very greatest utility, 
 and has, perhaps, contributed more than anything else to fa- 
 cilitate commerce, and to accelerate the progress of civiliza 
 tion and the arts.* 
 
 "Without some article of known exchangeable value, 
 such as coin, readily received as an equivalent for other 
 things, the interchange of commodities must hnve been very 
 limited, and consequently the divisions of labour very im- 
 perfectly established. Now money obviates these evils, and 
 by a twofold operation augments production. In the first 
 place, it saves all that time and labour which, while the in- 
 tercourse between man and man is carried on by barter, 
 must frequently intervene before a person can be supplied 
 with the quantity of the commodity which he wants ; in the 
 second place, and in consequence of its saving the time and 
 labour which must otherwise be spent in effecting exchanges, 
 it multiplies the transactions of mercantile industry, and thus 
 allows the divisions of employment to be more thoroughly 
 
 # The Roman jurist* have eixen a clear and concise account of the cir- 
 cumstances that led to the use of money, and of it» functions : " Origo emendi 
 vendendique a permutati^nibus orr.pit: Ohm erim non ita erat nummus ; 
 ncque aliud merx, aliud pretium vocabatur ; sed nnusquisque secundum ne- 
 cessitatem temporum ac rerum. utilibus inutilia permutabat, quando plerum 
 que evenit ut quod atteri superest alteri desit. Sed quia non semper, nee fa- 
 cile ooncurrebat. ut cum tn haberes quod efro desiderarem, iiiTicem haberem 
 quod tu aceipere velles. electa materia est, ciljus publica ac perpe'ua a-stima 
 tio ditneuttatibus permutationnm sequalitate quantitatis tubveniret ; eaqne 
 materia forma publica percussa. usum dominiumque, non tarn ex substantia 
 prcbet quam ex quantita'e ; nee ultra merx utnimque, sed alterum pretiux* 
 vocatux." (jDi'ferf, lib. xviii., tit. i., de Contr. Empt.i 
 
MONEY. 
 
 established. By the first operation it disengages a very con 
 siderable portion oflabour from an unproductive occupation, 
 and enables it to receive a more useful direction ; by the 
 second it increases in a very high degree the productive 
 powers of the labour already usefully employed. It assists 
 every man in availing himself of the skill and dexterity 
 which he may have acquired in any particular calling, and 
 promotes cultivation in a manner suitable to the climate and 
 soil of different districts and different countries. And by 
 both these operations coins increase to an extent, not easy to 
 be calculated, the wealth of civilized communities." (Tor- 
 rent on the Production of Wealth, p. 305.) 
 
 But, however great and obvious the advantages attending 
 the use of the precious metals in the shape of coin, it is ne- 
 cessary lo bear in mind that the nature of exchanges, and 
 the principle on which they are made, are not thereby at all 
 ■Jfected. Equivalents arc still given for equivalents. The 
 exchange of a quarter of corn for an ounce of pure, unfash- 
 ioncd gold bullion, is as much a barter as if it were exchan- 
 ged for an ox or a barrel of beer ; and, supposing the metal 
 to be formed into a coin, or marked with a stamp declaring 
 its weight and fineness, that circumstance could, it is obvi- 
 ous, make no change in the terms of the barter. The coin- 
 ace would save the trouble of weighing and assaying the 
 bullion, lint it would do nothing more. A coin is merely a 
 piece "f metal of a known weight and fineness, and the 
 commodities exchanged for it are uniformly held by the 
 parties to be of equal value; and yet these obvious consid- 
 erations have been very generally overlooked. The notion 
 was long entertained that coins were merely the signs of 
 values! But it is clear that they have no more claim to 
 this designation than bars of iron or cop|>er, sacks of wheat, 
 or aay other article. Coins exchange fof other things be 
 cause tlu-y are desirable articles, which, having been produ- 
 ced by BO expenditure of capital and labour, |>ossess real in- 
 trinsic worth. A draught, check, or lull may not improperly, 
 perhaps, be regarded as the sign of the money or coin to be 
 given for it ; but that coin is itself a valuable commodity. 
 A sovereign is not a sign ; it is the thing signified. 
 
 Privilege of Coining. Legal Tender. — In order to obviate 
 the endless confusion and Inconvenience that could not fail 
 to arise were individuals permitted to coin monev, from the 
 circulation of coins of all weights and degrees of purity, the 
 government of every civilized country lias prohibited the 
 issue of coins by private parties, and has itself supplied those 
 Bi circulation. Generally, also, very severe penalties have 
 been inflicted on the forgers of coin, or on those who fabri- 
 cate counterfeit coins, or coins of less weight than the stand 
 ard, or made up in whole or in part of some baser or less 
 Valuable metal. It is obvious, indeed, that the extensive 
 practice of this offence, by necessarily generating a feeling 
 of Insecurity and suspicion, would check the circulation 
 even of genuine coins, and would consequently in so far de- 
 prive society of the advantages resulting from their employ- 
 ment. It is found, however, that the improvement of the 
 fabric of the coins, by the perfecting of the dies and other- 
 wise, is ■ more effectual means than even the utmost sever- 
 ity of punishment for the prevention of forgery; though 
 some very considerable degree of the latter is, of course, nl- 
 wavs indispensable. 
 
 Where the use of coins has once lieen adopted, all values 
 in contracts and other engagements nre rated or estimated in 
 money ; nnd it is usual in almost all countries to ennct that 
 coins of the legal or standard weight and parity shall he It- 
 gal tender, and to declare that no legal proceedings of any 
 kind shall be instituted on nccount of nny debt or pecuniary 
 obligation against any individual who has offered to liqui- 
 date the same by payment of an equivalent nmount of the 
 recognised coin of the country. A pound troy, or 12 oz. of 
 the metal of which English silver coins are made, contains 
 11 oz. S dwts. pure silver, and 18 dwts. allov. This pound 
 Is coined into 66 shillings; so that each shilling contains 
 80-727 grains fine silver, and 8727 grains standard silver ; 
 and the money pound, consisting of 20 shillings, contains' 
 1614-545 grains pure silver, and 1745-454 grains standard sil- 
 ver. From 1600 down to 1816, the pound weight of stand- 
 ard silver bullion was coined into 62 shillings. All the 
 English silver coins have been coined out of silver of 11 oz. 
 2 dwts. fine, from the Conquest to this moment, except for 
 the short period of sixteen years from the 34th Henry VIII 
 to the 2d Elizabeth. 
 
 The fineness of gold is estimated by carat grains equiva- 
 lent to 2£ dwts. troy ; gold of the highest degree of fineness, 
 or pure, being said to be 24 carats fine. The purity of our 
 present gold coins is 11 parts fine gold and one part alloy. 
 The sovereign, or twenty-shilling piece, contains 113-001 
 grains fine gold, and 123-274 grains standard gold. The 
 pound troy of standard gold is coined into 46 sovereigns and 
 -pj^ths of a sovereign, or into £46 14*. 6d. The mint or 
 standard price of gold is therefore said to be £46 14j. 6<f. 
 per pound troy, or £3 17*. 10Jd. an ounce. The allov in 
 
 coins is reckoned of no value ; it is allowed in order to save 
 the trouble and expense that would be incurred in refining 
 the metals to their highest degree of purity, and because, 
 when its quantity is small, it renders the coins harder, and 
 less liable to be worn or rubbed. Were the quantity of alloy 
 considerable, it would lessen the splendour and ductility of 
 the metals, and would add too much to the weight of the 
 coins. 
 
 Before the art of metallurgy was well understood, the ba- 
 ser metals were frequently used as money. Iron was the 
 primitive money of the Lacedemonians, and copper of the 
 Romans. But both iron and copper deteriorate by being kept 
 and. besides this defect, the rapid improvement of the arts, 
 by lowering their price, rendered their bulk too great in pn> 
 portion to their value to permit of their continuing to be 
 used as money. Copper, indeed, is still used In the form of 
 tokens, convertible into silver in very small payment* In 
 this country, copper pence and halfpence are rated at about 
 72 per cent, above their real value ; but ns their issue is ex- 
 clusively in the hands of government, and as they are only 
 legal tender to the extent of one shilling in any" one pay- 
 ment, this overvaluation is not productive of any bad effect. 
 The use of copper in other countries is limited in much the 
 same way, gold and silver being everywhere the only met- 
 als made use of in the manufacture of the coins used in 
 considerable payments. 
 
 Variation* of the Standard. — The value of nil sorts of 
 property being estimated, and the stipulations in almost all 
 contracts for its purchase, sale, or hire being made in mon- 
 ey or coins, it is plain that no change can take place in the 
 value of such money or coins without virtually subverting 
 these estimates nnd contracts, and enriching the debtor por- 
 tion of society at the expense of the creditor portion, or 
 rice versa. As the cost of producing all commodities is lia- 
 ble to vary from improvements in the arts, the exhaustion 
 of the present or the discovery of new sources of supply, 
 none can be selected to serve as money or coin that may 
 not vary in its cost or real value. It is believed, however, 
 that the precious metals vary less than any material that 
 could be suggested ; nnd, with the exception of the extraor- 
 dinary fall in their value caused by the discovery of the 
 American mines, it seems to have been remarkably con- 
 stant at other periods. 
 
 But, in addition to the fluctuations naturally inherent In 
 the value of coins, arising from variations in the cost of the 
 metal of which they are made, their standard has been re- 
 peatedly changed. Notwithstanding that money or coin, 
 from its being universally used as a scale by which to com- 
 pute the value of nil commodities, and as die equivalent for 
 which they are commonly exchanged, is by far the most 
 important of all the measures used in societv, nnd should, 
 consequently, be preserved as invariable as "possible, there 
 is none that has been so frequently altered. The nccr-si- 
 ties or extravagance of governments have forced them to 
 liorrow ; and, lo relieve themselves of the encumbrances 
 thus contracted, they have almost universally had recourse 
 to the disgraceful expedient of degrading the coin ; that is, 
 of chrativir those who lent them monev to the extent of the 
 degradation, and of enabling every other debtor In their do- 
 minions to do the same. 
 
 The ignorance of the public in remote ages facilitated this 
 species of fraud. Had the names of the coins been changed 
 when the quantity of metal contained in them was dimin 
 ished, there would have been no room for misapprehension 
 But, although the weight of the coins was undergoing per 
 petunl, and their purity occasional reductions, their ancient 
 denominations were almost uniformly preserved ; and the 
 people who saw the same names still remaining after the 
 substance wns diminished — who saw coins of a certain 
 weight and fineness circulate under the names of florins, 
 livres, dollars, nnd pounds— and who saw them continue to 
 circulate as such after both their weight and the degree of 
 their fineness had been lessened, began to think that they 
 derived their value more from the stamp affixed to them by 
 authority of government than from the quantity of the pre- 
 cious metals they contained. This was long a very preva- 
 lent opinion ; but the rise of prices which invariably follow- 
 ed every reduction of the standard, and the derangement 
 that was thereby occasioned in every pecuniary transaction, 
 undeceived the public, and taught them and their rulers the 
 expediency of preserving the standard of money inviolate. 
 
 The standard may be reduced by simply raising the de- 
 nomination of the coin ; by ordering, for example, that a 
 half sovereign should pass' for a sovereign, and the latter 
 for a double sovereign, &c. If injustice be resolved upon, 
 this is the least mischievous way in which it can be perpe- 
 trated, inasmuch as it saves all the trouble nnd expense of a 
 recoinage. But as it renders the fraud obvious and glaring, 
 it has rarely been resorted to ; and most reductions have 
 been effected either by diminishing the weight of the coins, 
 or by increasing the proportion of alloy in the metal of 
 which they are made, or both. 
 
 767 
 
MONEY. 
 
 Originally the coins of all countries seem tc have had the 
 same denominati 3ns as the weights commonly used in 
 them, and contained the exact quantity of the precious 
 metals indicated by their name. Tims the talent was a 
 weight used in the earliest period by the Greeks, the as or 
 pondo by the Romans, the livre by the French, and the 
 pound by the English and Scotch; and the coins originally 
 in use in Greece, Italy, France, and England bore the same 
 names, and weighed precisely a talent, a pondo, a livre, 
 and a pound. The standard has not, however, been pre- 
 served inviolate, either in modern or ancient times. It has 
 been less degraded in England than anywhere else ; but 
 even here the quantity of silver in a pound sterling is less 
 than the third part of a pound weight, the quantity it con- 
 tained in 1300. In France, the livre current in 1789 con- 
 tained less than one sixty-sixth, part of the silver implied in 
 its name, and which it had actually contained previously to 
 1103. In Spain and some other countries, the degradation 
 has been carried still farther. 
 
 From 1296 to 1355 the coins of England and Scotland 
 were of the same weight and purity; but at the last-men- 
 tioned epoch the standard of Scotch money was, for the 
 first time, sunk below that of England ; and by successive 
 degradations, the value of Scotch money, at the union of the 
 crowns in 1600, was only a twelfth part of the value of the 
 English money of the same denomination. It remained at 
 this point till the union of the kingdoms cancelled the sep- 
 arate coinage of Scotland. 
 
 The gold and silver coins of Ireland have been for a con- 
 siderable period the same as those of Great Britain ; but 
 until 1825 they were nominally rated 8J per cent, higher. 
 This difference of valuation, which was attended with con- 
 siderable inconveniences, was put an end to by the act 6 
 Geo. 4, c. 79, which assimilated the currency throughout 
 the empire. 
 
 Mint or Government Valuation of Gold and Silver Coins. 
 — If both gold and silver coins be made legal tender, it is 
 obviously indispensable that their value with respect to 
 each other should be fixed by authority, or that it should 
 be declared that individuals shall be entitled to discharge 
 the claims upon them by payments either of gold or silver 
 coins, according to some regulated proportion — a practice 
 which was long adopted in England. 
 
 But the value of each of the precious metals is liable to 
 perpetual changes; and hence, how accurately soever their 
 proportional value, as fixed by the mint regulations, may 
 correspond with the proportion which they actually bear to 
 each other in the market when the regulation is made, the 
 chances are ten to one that it will speedily cease to express 
 their relation to each other. The moment, however, that 
 such a change takes place, it becomes the obvious interest 
 of every one who has a payment to make, to make it in the 
 overva'ued metal ; which, consequently, becomes the sole, 
 or nearly the sole, currency of the country. Hence the rea- 
 son why the coins of some countries are almost wholly of 
 silver, and others almost wholly of gold. It is estimated, 
 for example, that when it was fixed, in 1717, that the guinea 
 should exchange for 21 shillings, gold was overvalued as 
 compared with silver to the extent of ll£ per cent. (Liv- 
 erpool on Coins, p. 85) ; and as the real value of silver with 
 respect to gold continued to increase during the greater part 
 of last century, the advantage of paying in gold in prefer- 
 ence to silver became more decided, and ultimately led to 
 the universal use of gold in all large payments, and to the 
 fusion or exportation of all silver coins of full weight. 
 (Liverpool, loco cit.) 
 
 In France a different valuation of the metals has had a 
 different effect. Previously to the recoinage in 1785, the 
 Louis d'or was rated in the mint proportion at only 24 
 livres, when it was really worth 25 livres 10 sols. Those, 
 therefore, who should have discharged the obligations they 
 had contracted by payments of gold coin instead of silver, 
 would plainly have lost 1 livre 10 sols on every sum of 24 
 livres. In consequence, very few such payments were 
 made ; gold was almost entirely banished from circulation, 
 and silver became almost the only species of metallic mon- 
 ey used in France. (Say, Traiti d'Economie Politique, torn. 
 I., p. 393.) 
 
 In 1816 a new system was adopted in this country, it be- 
 ing then enacted (56 Geo. 3, c. 68) that gold coins only 
 should be legal tender in all payments of more than 40 shil- 
 lings. The pound of silver bullion that had previously been 
 coined into 62 shillings was then also coined into 66 shil- 
 lings, the additional four shillings being retained by govern- 
 ment as a seignorage or duty (amounting to 6~ per cent.) 
 upon the coinage. To prevent the silver coins from be- 
 coming redundant, government has retained the power to 
 issue them in its own hands. Under these regulations, sil- 
 ver has ceased to be a standard of value, and forms merely 
 a subordinate or subsidiary species of currency, or change, 
 occupying the same place in relation to gold that copper oc- 
 768 
 
 cupies in relation to itself. This system has been found to 
 answer exceedingly well. 
 
 A good deal of difference of opinion has existed as tc 
 whether gold or silver coins are best fitted for being mad* a 
 legal lender. It does not seem that the one possesses any- 
 very striking advantage over the other; none, certainly, 
 that would justify a change, after a selection has been 
 made and acted upon for any considerable period. 
 
 Down to 1026, a seignorage or duty upon the coinage was 
 usually charged upon the gold and silver coins issued by 
 the mint ; and it may be easily shown that the imposition 
 of such a duty, when it is not carried to an undue height) i* 
 advantageous. A coin is more useful than a piece of un 
 coined bullion of the same weight and purity ; the coinage 
 fitting it for being used as money, while it does not unfit it 
 for being used for any other purpose. When, therefore, a 
 duty or seignorage is laid upon coin equal to the expense of 
 coinage, it circulates at its real value ; but when this charge 
 is defrayed by the public, it circulates at less than its real 
 value, and is consequently either melted down or exported 
 whenever there is any demand for bullion in the arts, or 
 any fall in the exchange. It is, indeed, true, that were a 
 seignorage to be laid on gold coins, it would be necessary, to 
 prevent an enhancement of the value of the currency, that 
 their weight should be proportionally reduced ; and it is on 
 this account better, perhaps, to let them remain on the pres- 
 ent footing. But when a seignorage was laid on the silver 
 coins in 1816, it was not necessary to take the circumstance 
 now alluded to into consideration ; for as they were made 
 subordinate to gold, and were intended to serve as change 
 merely, its imposition had no tendency to raise the value of 
 the currency, at the same time that it was calculated effect- 
 ually to prevent the fusion of the coins, and to yield a small 
 revenue to government. 
 
 The exportation and importation of gold and silver coins 
 was formerly prohibited, but in 1819 it was enacted (59 
 Geo. 3, c. 49) that they might be freely exported and im- 
 ported, without being liable to any charge or duty what- 
 ever ; and they may be imported without being either re- 
 ported or entered at the custom-house. This regulation has 
 rendered it next to impossible to ascertain the value of the 
 bullion imported. 
 
 Paper Money. — But, how gTeat soever the advantages re 
 suiting from the employment of gold and silver as money, 
 we are not to suppose that these are obtained gratuitously. 
 The use of a metallic currency is accompanied by a heavy 
 expense ; and there is a much greater difficulty in effecting 
 payments by the agency of coins than one might, at first, be 
 disposed to believe. If the currency of the United Kingdom 
 consisted wholly of gold, it would certainly amount to at 
 least 60 millions sterling ; the expense of which, allowing 
 $th per cent, for the wear and tear, and loss of coins, could 
 hardly be estimated at less than three millions a year. But 
 this heavy expense is really a far less serious obstacle to 
 the exclusive use of the precious metals as money than 
 their weight, and the trouble and expense attending the 
 carrying them about. The weight of 1000 sovereigns ex- 
 ceeds 21 lbs. troy, so that it would be necessary to employ 
 a wagon to make a large payment even in gold. It is also 
 very difficult to employ it in the making of small payments, 
 provided they have to be made at any considerable distance, 
 inasmuch as the expense of sending gold by post, and the 
 premium to guarantee it against loss, amount to a consider- 
 able sum. Hence it is that all commercial nations endeav- 
 our to fabricate a portion of their money of some less valu 
 able and more portable material than bullion ; and hence, 
 also, the origin of bills of exchange, checks, and other de- 
 vices for economizing the use of money. 
 
 Of the substitutes that have been resorted to instead of 
 gold and silver coins, paper notes, payable on demand, have 
 been by far the most generally adopted, and are in all re- 
 spects the most eligible. Intrinsically they are almost des- 
 titute of value, so that their employment and their loss costs 
 next to nothing ;* and they may be carried about or trans- 
 mitted by post with the utmost facility. But lliotish, in 
 these respects, the employment of pieces of paper instead of 
 coins leaves nothing to be desired, it is plain that, having no 
 value in themselves, their value must depend entirely on 
 artificial means or regulations. They are commonly issued 
 as a substitute for or representative of coin, the issuer being 
 bound to pay their value, or the sums they profess to repre- 
 sent, in coin of the standard weight and purity, the moment 
 it is demanded ; and so long as this regulation is really and 
 bond fide complied with, no inconvenience can result from 
 their employment. Practically, however, it is found no easy 
 matter to carry these regulations into effect; and this, and 
 indeed every country in which paper money has been 
 issued, has repeatedly sustained the greatest injury from its 
 
 * The loss of a note is no doubt as severely felt by the holder as the loss of 
 an equivalent amount of coin ; but as the issuer of the note is ben»-6ted by 
 its loss to the same extent that the holder is injured, the society is plaint? 
 neither the better nor the worse for the occurrence 
 
MONEY. 
 
 being issued in excess or ou unsound principles. Paper 
 money, in Tact, can never be either securely or beneficially 
 employed, unless the quantity of it in circulation vary ex- 
 actly as the quantity of gold or silver coins to be substituted 
 in its stead would do were it withdrawn. But having else- 
 
 where inquired into the means by which this identity ne 
 tween the value of coins and paper notes may be bos' 
 maintained, we beg to refer the reader to the article Bank* 
 in this Dictionary for a farther discussion of this important 
 branch of the subject. y 
 
 English Coins. — Account of the English Silver and Gold Coins; showing their Value, the Seignorage or Profit 
 upon the Coinage, and the Price of the Pound Troy of Standard Gold and Silver, from the Conquest to the pre 
 sent Time. 
 
 
 
 Silver. 
 
 
 
 
 Gold. 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 2. 
 
 
 
 3. 
 
 
 «. 
 
 c 
 
 
 6. 
 
 
 7. 
 
 
 s. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Equal to the 
 Mint Price 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mint PriTe 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pound 
 
 
 Profit 
 
 or 
 
 for Standard 
 
 Fineness of 
 
 Pounc 
 
 
 Profit or 
 
 lor Standard 
 
 AD 
 
 Anno Regni. 
 
 the Silver 
 
 Weight 
 
 of 
 
 8a 
 
 enoraj; 
 
 Silver of 
 
 the Gold in 
 
 Weight of 
 
 Seignorage 
 
 Gold of 2i 
 
 
 in the Coint. 
 
 such Si! 
 
 vrr 
 
 on 
 
 he Coil 
 
 - II oz. 2 dwts. 
 
 the Coins. 
 
 such Gold 
 
 
 Carats linr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 coined into 
 
 
 ate 
 
 
 fine, Troy 
 
 
 
 coined into 
 
 
 
 1 roy 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Weight. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Weigh!. 
 
 
 I 
 
 Oz. dwts. 
 
 £. s. 
 
 </. 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 it 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Oris. 
 
 grs. 
 
 £. a. 
 
 d. 
 
 £. s. 
 
 i, 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 lOCC 
 
 Conquest . . . 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1280 
 
 f • r. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 31, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1300 
 
 " . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 :i 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 B| 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1344 
 
 u m.. 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 1 3.1 
 
 23 
 
 3* 
 
 13 3 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 12 10 8 
 
 1349 
 
 ^i — . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 :i 
 
 12 8 
 
 — 
 
 
 14 
 
 a 
 
 11 
 
 B 
 
 13 3 9 
 
 1356 
 
 30 . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 5 
 
 (i 
 
 (1 
 
 10 
 
 1 5 9* 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 ii 
 
 6 
 
 a 
 
 14 8 4 
 
 1301 
 
 18 Bkhi. ■ II. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 5 
 
 (i 
 
 u 
 
 10 
 
 1 5 9J 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 a 
 
 5 
 
 a 
 
 14 9 11 
 
 1401 
 
 3 Henry IV. . 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 15 9} 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 (i 
 
 5 
 
 ii 
 
 14 9 11 
 
 1421 
 
 B Henry V.. . 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1 10 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 i) 
 
 1 10 111 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 16 13 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 a 
 
 16 2 9 
 
 1435 
 
 4 Henry VI. . 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1 10 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 10 111 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 16 13 
 
 1 
 
 5 10 
 
 16 1 11 
 
 1404 
 
 4 Edward IV. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 1 15 2.1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 20 16 
 
 B 
 
 2 10 
 
 a 
 
 18 5 
 
 Mas 
 
 5 . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 t; 
 
 II 
 
 1 
 
 i; 
 
 1 15 21 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 10 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 21 1 10 
 
 1470 
 
 49 Henry VL . 
 
 — ■ 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 1 17 104 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 10 
 
 n 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 21 9 7 
 
 
 •-••2 Edward IV. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 1 18 1 : 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 10 
 
 (I 
 
 7 
 
 ii 
 
 21 15 
 
 1483 
 
 1 Kit-hard III. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 6 
 
 i) 
 
 1 
 
 «; 
 
 1 18 4') 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 10 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 21 15 
 
 
 l Henry VII. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 1 18 4} 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 10 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 21 15 
 
 
 1 Henry VIII. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 17 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 1 18 111 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 10 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 22 
 
 ♦ 1527 
 
 18 . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 1 18 111 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 24 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 B 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 4 
 
 — 
 
 — s 
 
 27 
 
 B 
 
 2 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SJ 
 
 
 
 25 2 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 24 19 6 | 
 
 
 i.»4 :i 
 
 34 . 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 i) 
 
 2 4 4} 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 28 16 
 
 
 
 1 4 
 
 
 
 26 8 | 
 
 1549 
 
 36 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 (1 
 
 2 
 
 (i 
 
 
 
 2 11 ill 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 2 10 
 
 
 
 27 10 : 
 
 1546 
 
 37 . 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 ■l 
 
 1) 
 
 2 15 6 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 a 
 
 5 
 
 (i 
 
 27 10 1 
 
 1541 
 
 1 Edward VI. . 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 a 
 
 2 15 6 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 1 10 
 
 a 
 
 31 7 
 
 1549 
 1551 
 
 
 6 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 3 12 
 3 12 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 (1 
 
 a 
 
 2 19 2J 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 03 
 
 , 
 3M 
 0") 
 
 36 
 33 
 36 
 33 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 1352 
 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 19 31 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 32 17 8 
 
 1553 
 
 1 Mary . . • 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 I) 
 
 2 19 r.A 
 
 23 
 
 3? 1 
 
 aa 
 
 
 
 6 3 
 
 ii 
 
 33 8 
 
 ism 
 
 2 Elizabeth • 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 2 18 6 
 
 23 
 
 36 
 
 a 
 
 5 
 
 ii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 , 
 3M 
 
 33 
 36 10 
 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 32 16 
 
 1600 
 
 43 . ■ 
 
 — 
 
 _ 
 
 3 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 ( 
 
 33 10 
 37 4 
 
 
 10 
 
 1 10 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 33 
 35 14 
 
 1604 
 
 2 James I. . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 2 19 6 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 ma 
 
 2 Charles I. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 2 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 _> 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 41 
 
 ii 
 
 1 1 
 
 a 
 
 39 18 7 
 
 rieee 
 
 18 Charles II. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 2 
 
 1 
 
 a 
 
 II 
 
 a 
 
 3 2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 44 10 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 44 10 : 
 
 1717 
 
 3 George I. . . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 2 
 
 II 
 
 a 
 
 1) 
 
 
 
 3 2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 46 14 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 46 14 6 1 
 
 1816 
 
 56 George III. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 6 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 1) 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 46 14 
 
 t; 
 
 
 
 46 14 6 
 
 II. Account of the Contents or Weight, and of the Value 
 rling, of the principal Gold Coins of different 
 Count 
 
 ■Itulrinn Dominion!. 
 
 Sonverain . 
 
 Double ducat . 
 Bavaria. 
 
 Max d'or, or Maximilian 
 
 Ducat .... 
 Cotcgne. 
 
 Ducat . 
 
 Denmark. 
 
 Christian d'or . • 
 
 England. 
 
 Sovereign .... 
 
 Half sovereign . . . 
 I' ranee. 
 
 I/)uis, or piece of 20 franca 
 Hamburgh. 
 
 Ducat (double in proportion) 
 Hanover. 
 
 George d'or ... 
 
 Ducat 
 
 WoOand. 
 
 Ducat 
 
 Stella. 
 
 Louis 
 
 grains. 
 78-6 
 1064 
 
 528 
 
 52 6 
 
 933 
 
 1131 
 56-55 
 
 89T 
 
 52-9 
 
 Value in 
 Sterling. 
 
 I. d. 
 13 10-92 
 18 9-97 
 
 9 3-70 
 16 6-14 
 
 15 10-5 
 9 4 35 
 
 9 413 
 19 1-37 
 
 GOLD COINS-Continued. 
 
 Milan. 
 
 Sequin 
 
 Dnppia rr pis'ole 
 
 40 Lire piece of 1803 
 
 Wapiti. 
 
 Six ducat piece of 1783 .... 
 
 Three ducat piece, or oncetta, of 1818 
 Netherlands. 
 
 Gold lion, or 14 florin piece . . . 
 
 Ten florin piece (1820) .... 
 Portugal. 
 
 Dobraon of 24.000 reet .... 
 
 Dobra of 12,800 rees 
 
 Moidore or Lisbonnine (I, 4c, in proportion) 
 Pruuia. 
 
 Frederic (double) of 1800 . 
 
 Frederic (single) of 1800 .... 
 Rome. 
 
 Scudo 
 
 Rustia. 
 
 Ducat 
 
 Imperial 
 
 Sardinia. 
 
 Carlino (J in proportion) .... 
 Sazony. 
 
 Ducat ... ... 
 
 rtatnt. 
 
 532 
 88-4 
 179-7 
 
 759- 
 401-5 
 
 152J 
 
 219-8 
 52 9 
 
 134 3-96 
 71 0-70 
 25 1124 
 
 L 
 
 ♦ 1527— Henry VIII.) The Saxon or Tower pound was used at the mint 
 Tower pound was but 1 1 oz 5 dwts., troy ; so that, from the Conquest to the 28 
 
 ♦ I660-IS Charles |L] The seignorage on the coina»s was at this time give 
 Ka of expense. A sepgnoraje of s\* ner cent, was imposed on the coinage of 
 
 3 C 
 
 up to this time, when the pound troy was substituted in its stead. The 
 Edward I., 20 shillings in tale were exactly a pound in weight, 
 n up, and the gold bullion brought to the mint has ever since been coined 
 s'.l ver bv 56 Geo. 3. 
 
 769 
 
MONEIr . 
 
 GOLD COlSS-Continiud. 
 
 Coins. 
 
 Spain. 
 
 Pia da 
 
 SuHden 
 
 Dmat 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Pistole 
 
 Tuscany. 
 
 Zecchino or sequin 
 
 Uniud States. 
 
 * Eagle (J anil $ in proportion) 
 Vtmct. , . 
 
 Zeochino or sequin (£ and J in proportion) 
 £<uf /nrfiej. 
 
 Mohur of 1T70 ..... 
 
 Mohur, half (1787), £ in proportion . 
 
 Mohur Sicca of Bengal .... 
 
 Rupee, Bombay f 1818) .... 
 
 Rupee of Madras (1818) .... 
 
 Pagoda star 
 
 Content! 
 in pure 
 Gold. 
 
 grams. 
 90-1 
 
 51-9 
 103-9 
 
 536 
 246-1 
 
 53-6 
 
 J86S 
 94- 
 
 Sterling. 
 
 15 11-35 
 
 9 222 
 
 15 S 91 
 9 5S3 
 
 43 6-66 
 
 9 583 
 
 33 072 
 
 16 7-64 
 30 1-04 
 29 1-78 
 29 2-42 
 
 7 4-77 
 
 III. Account of the Contents or Weight, and of the \ nlue 
 in British Standard Silver at 5s. 2d. an ounce, of the 
 principal Silver Coins of different Countries. 
 
 Coins. 
 
 Austria. 
 
 Rixdollar, or florin. Convention 
 Copftsuck, or 20 creutzer piece . 
 Halbe copf, or 10 creutzer piece 
 Baden. 
 
 ixdollar 
 
 Bavaria. 
 
 Rixdollar of 1SOO(£ in proportion) . 
 
 Copflsnck 
 
 Brunswick. 
 
 Rixdollar, Convention 
 
 Half rixdollar 
 
 Denmark. 
 
 Ryksdaler 
 
 Half rvksdaler 
 
 Mark/specie, or \ ryksdaler .... 
 England. 
 
 Crown (old) 
 
 Half crown 
 
 Shilling 
 
 Sixpence 
 
 Crown (.new) 
 
 Half crown 
 
 Shilling 
 
 Sixpence 
 
 France. 
 
 F-anc 
 
 Demi franc • 
 
 Genoa. 
 
 Scudo, of 8 lire 
 
 Hamlmreh. 
 
 Rixdollar, specie 
 
 Double mark, or 32 schilling piece (single in 
 
 proportion) 
 
 Piece of 8 schillings 
 
 Hanover. 
 
 Rixdollar, Constitution 
 
 Florin, or piece of J, fine 
 
 Holland. 
 
 Florin or guilder (J in proportion) . 
 
 12 Stiver niece 
 
 Florin of Batavia 
 
 Lubtc. 
 
 Rixdollar, specie 
 
 Mark 
 
 Lucca. 
 
 Scudo 
 
 Malta. 
 
 Ounce of 30 tari of Emmanuel Pinto 
 
 2 Tari piece . 
 
 Milan. 
 
 Scudo of 6 lire (1 in proportion) 
 
 Lira ... 
 
 Modena. 
 
 Scudo 
 
 Naples. 
 
 Ducat, new f J in proportion) < 
 
 Piece of 10 Carlini 
 
 Netherlands. 
 
 Florin 
 
 Half florin (with divisions in proportion) . 
 I Poland. 
 
 Florin, or gulden 
 
 Portugal. 
 
 New crusado (1809) 
 
 Seis vintems, or piece of 120 rees 
 
 Testoon 
 
 Tres vintems, or piece of 60 rees (1802) - 
 
 Halftestoon(1802) 
 
 Portuguese Colonies. 
 
 Piece of 8 macutes, of Portuguese Africa . 
 
 Ditto of 4 ditto 
 
 Prussia. 
 
 Rislollar, Convention .... 
 
 Florin, or piece of J 
 
 Some. 
 
 Scudo, or crowo 
 
 Mezzo scudo, or half crown 
 
 Paolo 
 
 Contents 
 in pure 
 Silver. 
 
 388-4 
 194-2 
 64-4 
 
 429-7 
 214-8 
 85-9 
 42-9 
 403-6 
 201-8 
 
 Value in 
 Sterling. 
 
 2 1-07 
 8-29 
 401 
 
 4 6-23 
 2 311 
 7 fl9 
 
 4 8 36 
 
 2 4-18 
 
 11-27 
 
 6-63 
 
 146-8 
 92-4 
 141-6 
 
 •5-67 
 6-80 
 
 3-2-> 
 
 2-S4 
 
 371-5 
 185-7 
 37-2 
 
 * This value of the American eagle is taken from average assays of the 
 coins of twelve years. 
 770 
 
 SILVER COINS- Continued. 
 
 Rouble .... 
 Rouble of Alexander (1805) 
 20 Copeck piece (1767) 
 5 Copeck piece , 
 
 Sardii— . 
 
 Scudo, or crown (J and jf in proportion) . 
 Saxony. . 
 
 Rixdollar, Convention (£ and J in proportion) 
 
 * . 
 
 Scudo 
 
 Spain. 
 
 * Dollar, of late coinage 
 
 Half dollar, ditto 
 
 Sweden. 
 
 Rixdollar 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Eutu of 4 franken 
 
 Turkey. 
 
 Piastre (1818) • • 
 
 Tus' any. 
 
 United States. 
 
 Dollar 
 
 iVii te.rnberg 
 
 Rixdollar, specie 
 
 Copftsuck 
 
 East Indies. 
 
 Rupee Sicca, coined by the East Jpdia Company 
 
 at Calcutta 
 
 Calcutta (1818) 
 
 Bombay, new, or Surat (ISIS) 
 
 Company's rup. (1635) 
 
 Fanam. Caitanore 
 
 Bombay, old 
 
 Pondieherry ...... 
 
 Ditto, double 
 
 Gulden of the Dutch E. I. Company (1820) 
 
 Silver. 
 
 eraml 
 
 312 I 
 
 278-1 
 
 62 6 
 
 15-3 
 
 324-7 
 
 358-2 
 
 34S-2 
 
 407 6 
 67-7 
 53-4 
 
 370 1 
 
 3591 
 
 sa-8 
 
 175-8 
 175-9 
 164-7 
 
 IK) 
 
 329 
 3r 
 22-8 
 39- 
 
 148-4 
 
 3 2-^3 
 
 8-74 
 
 2-13 
 
 3 9-34 
 
 4 2 CI 
 
 4 6-28 
 
 4 918 
 
 9-45 
 
 7-45 
 
 4 3-C8 
 
 4 2-14 
 
 8-35 
 
 Mncicnt Coins. — We subjoin, for the convenience of guch 
 of our readers as may have occasion to consult works in 
 which reference is made to ancient coins, the following ta- 
 bles of those that were principally current among the Jews, 
 Greeks, and Romans. They were calculated by Dr. Ar- 
 buthnot (Tables of Jlncient Coins, Weights, &c, 4to ed., 
 Lond., 1754), and do not differ materially from the tables 
 of Paucton, whose Metrologie (4to, Paris, 1780) is the most 
 complete and elaborate work that has ever been published 
 with respect to ancient moneys, weights, and measures. At 
 the same time, we confess we should not be disposed to place 
 much reliance on these tables, and we have elsewhere sta 
 ted our reasons for holding this opinion. — (Art. "Money," 
 New Edit. Encyc. Britannica.) 
 
 Jewish Coins. 
 
 Names and Proportio 
 Gerah 
 
 Bekah 
 
 2ii 
 
 Value in Sterling 
 L. s. d. 
 
 , 59 
 TFO" 
 
 
 
 ! Maneh i 
 
 Mina Hebraica S 
 
 3000 60 Talent 
 
 2 3f 
 
 5 14 0$ 
 
 . 342 3 9 
 
 Solidus aureus, or sextula, worth 12 0J 
 
 Sic! us aureus, worth 1 16 6 
 
 A talent of gold, worth 6475 
 
 Grecian Coins. 
 
 1. d. qrs. 
 
 Lepton 0^ 
 
 • ° ° °?i 
 ?1? 
 
 14 
 
 Chalcus 
 
 Dichalcus 1 T 
 
 Hemiobolum 
 
 Obolus 14 
 
 Diobolum . . . . 2 H 
 
 Tetrobolum . • 5 0§ 
 
 Drachma : . 7 3 
 
 Didrachma . 13 2 
 
 2 Tetradrachma 2 7 
 2 2|'4 I drachma ! 
 
 2i 
 
 1 8 
 
 >i 
 
 V: 
 
 Of these, the drachma and didrachma were of silver ; the 
 rest, for the most part, of brass. 
 The drachma is here, with the generality of authors, sup 
 
 *This 
 Spanish dollar. 
 
 coin which is universally circulated under the name o' '}» 
 
MONEYERS, COMPANY OF. 
 
 posed equal to the denarius, though there is reason to believe 
 that the drachma was somewhat the weightier. 
 
 Value in Sterling. 
 L. i. d. 
 
 The Grecian gold coin was the stater aureus, weighing 2 At- 
 tic drachmas, or half if the Hater argenteus; and exchan- 
 ging u«uat'y for 25 Attic drachmas of silver . . . 16 1$ 
 
 But according to our proportion of gold to stiver it was 
 worth 10 9 
 
 There were likewfie the stater Cyzieenus, exchanging for 28 
 Attic drachmia, :r 18 1 
 
 The stater I'hilir. pcus and stater Alexandrinus were of the 
 same nig*. 
 
 Jtater Daricus, according to Josephus, worth 50 Attic dracn- , 
 
 mas. or • lz S Z 
 
 Stater Crcesius of the same value. 
 
 Value and Proportion or the Roman Coins. 
 
 Sterling. 
 t. d. on. 
 
 Teruocius ° ° "TITOS' 
 
 40 
 
 Sembella 1 
 
 55 
 TffB" 
 
 2 Denarius 
 
 ,0 8^ 
 
 1 3$ 
 
 3 3* 
 
 7 3 
 
 Z. *. d. 
 The Roman gold coin, or aureuf, weighed ^rurally double 
 (he dciur.us; its value, according to the proportion of gold 
 
 to ulrer mentioned by Hiny, wai 1 4 3£ 
 
 '<> the proportion that now obtain* among ui .10 9 
 Ace r ting to the decuple proportion mentioned by Livy and 
 
 Jult.u 1'ollux 12 11 
 
 • to the proportion mentioned by Tacitus, by which 
 the aureus exchanged for 25 denarii, its value . . . 16 l£ 
 
 MONEYERS, COMPANY OF. This company, which 
 is of very ancient origin, are officers of the Royal Mint, tin- 
 der whose superintendence and responsibility the various 
 moneys of the realm nre manufactured. They receive the 
 bars of standard metal from the melter, and under their di- 
 rection these are rolled down, cut into blanks, and coined : 
 these processes are descrilwd under the word Coinage. 
 The connexion of the Company of Moneyers with the other 
 officers of the mint will he evident from the duties of the 
 other officers, which are stated under the word Mint. (See 
 bJn Mr. Atkinson's account of the origin and constitution 
 of the Company of Moneyers, in the Parliamentary Report 
 of the Beiect Committee on the Royal Mint, ikjt, p. im.) 
 
 Mi WOCA'RPONS (Gr. uovoc, single, and Knptoc, fruit), 
 is a term invented by Do Candolle to designate what gar- 
 deners call annual plants, and a few others which, like the 
 American aloe, although they may live for many years, yet 
 perish as soon as they have once borne fruit. 
 
 MO'NOCHORD. (Gr. p.ovoc, and x°P&1, *tring.) In 
 Music, an instrument consisting of a single string stretched 
 between two bridges standing on a graduated rule, for the 
 put pose of tNKiMii ins the variety and proportion of musical 
 sounds. The monochord is called the harmonical canon, or 
 the canonical rule. 
 
 MoNOCHROMA'TIC LAMP. When a solution of com- 
 mon stilt is added to spirit of wine, the mixture burns with 
 a flame in which yellow predominates almost to the exclu- 
 sion of the other coloured rays; the consequence is, that 
 objects viewed by this light are all either yellow or black, 
 and deficient in the lints which they exhibit when seen by 
 solar light, or by that of our ordinary combustibles. (8ee 
 Sir David Brewster, in the volume of the Family Library 
 on " Natural Magic"; The term Monochromatic is of the 
 same origin as 
 
 MONOCHROME. (Gr. pjtvoc, and \paua, colour.) A 
 painting executed in a single colour. See Painting. 
 
 MO'NOCOTYLE'DONS. (Gr. povoj, and kotv\ v ^v, a 
 lobe.) A class of plants having but one cotyledon or seed- 
 lobe in the embryo. They are now more generally called 
 Endogens, which see. 
 
 MO'NODELPHS, Monodelphi. (Gr. novo;, and ItX^vc, a 
 womb.) A name given by De Blainville to the first sub-class 
 in his binary division of Mammalia, comprehending those 
 which have no supplementary external pouch or marsupium, 
 but which bring forth the young in a state sufficiently ma- 
 ture not to require such additional protection. It is anti- 
 thetical to Dide'phs. 
 
 MO'NODON. (Gr. uovoc, and oiovs, a tooth.) The gen- 
 eric name of the narwhal, signifying its supposed peculiarity 
 of having but one tooth, which projects like a horn from the 
 forepart of the head : a second tooth, however, is always to 
 t>e found concealed in the adjoining jaw, where it remains 
 <n a rudimcntal state. In the female both tusks are rudi- 
 mentnl. 
 
 MO'NODY. (Gr. pJvoc, and win, a song.) A species of 
 poem of a mournful character, in which a single mourner 
 
 MONOMANIA. 
 
 is supposed to bewail himself: thus distinguished fro.n those 
 pastoral elegies (like the JJaphnis of Virgil) which ace in 
 the form of dialogues. 
 
 MONCE'CIA. (Gr. uovos, and oikos, a hovte.) In Bota 
 ny, the twenty-first class in the system of Linna>us, com 
 prising the Androgynous plants, or those whose structure is 
 both male and female. 
 
 MO'NOGRAM. (Gr. fiovos, and ypduua, letter, or isri 
 ting.) An abbreviation of a name by means of a cipher 
 composed of two or more letters intertwined with each otii 
 er. Monograms were used on coins in Very ancient times, 
 being found on Greek medals of the age of Philip and Alex- 
 ander of Macedon. The Greek monogram of the name of 
 Christ, which resembles P placed perpendicularly in the 
 
 middle of an X, thus ~y^, is found on coins of the age of 
 
 Constantine. By far the greater number of the ancient 
 monograms are still unintelligible, though the labour and 
 research which have been expended in endeavouring to de- 
 cipher their meaning have in many instances been rewarded 
 with success. Among others whose researches on the an- 
 cient monograms may be consulted with advantage, are, 
 Montfaucon, Palaographia Grttca ; Froelich, Jhinal. Reg 
 Syr. ; Combe, Museum Hnnterianum ; Torremuzza, Db 
 scription ties Monnaies de Sici'e ; Pellerin, Recueit des Vil- 
 les, des Peuples, et des Rois ; Mionnet, Traits de la JVumit 
 matique. Monograms are frequently found on coins and 
 maps of the middle aces, and they are also to be met with 
 ns a substitute for the signature of the princes of that period. 
 This class of monograms is of great iiii|>ortnnce in illustra 
 ting the monuments of antiquity, and their investigation coti 
 stitutes a distinct and peculiar branch of diplomatics, lo 
 later times, monograms were frequently employed by print- 
 ers and engravers to record their names at the end or on the 
 title-page of a book, or in some portion of an engraving. A 
 great deal of attention has likewise been bestowed ti|>on this 
 branch of monogranunatic writing, and with considerably 
 more success. The Abbe de Mamllcs, in ltJiVT, was the first 
 who directed attention to this subject ; antl to him succeeded 
 Florent Lecomte (Cabinet des Singularity d'.lrchitictim. 
 ice.) ; Orlandi (Abecedario Pittorico) ; Fr. Chru't (Anzcige 
 und Auslegung der Monotrnimmatum) ; De Virloy (Diction- 
 naire d' Architecture) ; and Bartsch ( Pcintregraveur, a work 
 of great accuracy and research). But the most complete 
 and accurate information on this class of monograms is to 
 be found in the editio optima of Brulliot (Dictionnairc des 
 Monogrammes, &c, arec lesquels les Peintres, 4tc, out di 
 signe leurs Noms, 2 torn., 4(o, Munich, 1832 ; a work which 
 is founded on the principle of considering the first letter ol 
 the monogram as the key to its explanation. 
 
 A monogram is laid to be perfect when it contains all the 
 letters of the word it is intended to represent. (Diet, de la 
 Conversation, <S-e.) 
 
 MO'NOGR API! (Gr. uovos, and ypacjxo I write.) A trea- 
 tise or memoir on a single subject of a limited description. 
 Such, for example, are the gretiter part of the memoirs which 
 are read before learned societies. 
 
 MONOGY'NIA. (Gr. uovoc, and yvvrj, a female.) lit 
 Botany, the name given by Linnaeus in his system to the first 
 order or subdivision in each of the first thirteen classes of 
 plants, comprising such as have one pistil or stigma only in 
 a flower. 
 
 MO'NOLITH. (Fr. monolithe ; from Gr. uovoc, and Aitfos, 
 a stone.) A term recently introduced into England, to sig- 
 nify a pillar or other large substance consisting of a single 
 stone. Herodotus speaks of a huge rock of this sort in front 
 of the temple of Minerva at Sais, which was scooped out, 
 and contained an apartment 18cubits in length, 12 in breadth, 
 and 5 in height. It was said to have been transported from 
 the town of Elephantine by order of King Amasis, and to 
 have occupied 3000 men for three years in conveying it. 
 Some remarkable monoliths have been found in Egypt ; of 
 these, the zodiac of Denderah, and the obelisk of the Luxor, 
 both of which have been removed to Paris, arc well-known 
 examples. 
 
 MO'NOLOGUE (Gr. ^tovoc, and Xoyoc, a discours 
 SOLILOQUY (Lat. solus, alone, and loquor, I speak), is, as 
 its name imports, a speech uttered by one of the dramatis 
 persona? of a play when alone, or, as it is vulgarly termed, 
 speaking to himself. The introduction of the soliloquy is 
 obviously a very unnatural contrivance in the dramatic art, 
 yet its obvious necessity reconciles the spectator to it. In 
 the drama of ancient Greece soliloquies are rare; for the 
 passages at the commencement, or "prologues" of plays, 
 where the first actor comes forward and explains his own 
 character and something of the subject of the piece to the 
 audience, can hardly be termed soliloquies. The speech of 
 Ajax before his death is a celebrated exception. 
 
 MO'NOMA'NIA. (Gr. uovoc, and uaivopm, I rage.) In- 
 sanity upon one particular subject, the mind being in a sound 
 state in reference to other matters. 
 
 771 
 
MONOME. 
 
 MO'NOME, or MONOMIAL. (Gr. fiovos, and vonn, a 
 part.) In Algebra, an expression composed of a single term, 
 ar a series of factors, all which are single terms. 
 
 MONOME'RANS, Monomera. (Gr. novo;, and nipos, a 
 limb.) A section of Coleopterous insects, including those in 
 which the tarsi were supposed to be formed of a single joint. 
 
 MO'NOMY' ARIES, Monomyarim. (Gr. /xovoi, and fituv, 
 muscle.) AH those bivalves or conchifers which have only 
 one adductor muscle, and consequently but one muscular 
 impression on each valve. 
 
 MONONEU RANS, Mononeura. (Gr. novo; ; vtvpov, 
 nerve.) A term applied by Rudolphi to the series or primary 
 division comprehending the animals which he believed to 
 have only the ganglionic system of nerves, as the Mollusks 
 and Insects. 
 
 MONOPETALOUS (Gr. novo;, and ircraXov, a petal), in 
 Botany, is applied to a corolla, the petals of which cohere 
 by their contiguous margins, so as to form a tube. 
 
 MONOPHY'LLUS (Gr. novo;, and <pvX\ov, a leaf), in 
 Botany, is applied to a calyx, the petals of which cohere by 
 their contiguous edges into a kind of tube or cup. 
 
 MONO'PHYSITES. (Gr. novo;, and ipvot;, nature.) A 
 name given in the 5th century to certain heretics who, in 
 the language of the Athanasian Creed, " confounded the sub- 
 stance," that is, the divine and human substance, which are 
 united in Christ, but neither absorbed into the other. See 
 Incarnation, Eutychians, Nestorians. (Mosheim, Keel. 
 Hist., vol. ii.) 
 
 MO'NOPLEU'ROBRA'NCHIANS. (Gr. novo;, and 
 nXcvpa, a side, Ppayxia, gills.) A name given by De Blain- 
 ville to an order of his class Paracephalophora, comprehend- 
 ing those species which leave the branchia? more or less 
 completely covered by a part of the mantle, and situated on 
 the right side of the body. 
 
 MONO'POLY (Gr. novo;, and ruAtw, / sell), in Law, is 
 defined by Sir E. Coke (3 Inst., 181, c. 5) " an institution or 
 allowance by the king, by his grant, commission, or other- 
 wise, to any person or persons, bodies politic and corporate, 
 of or for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using 
 of anything, whereby any person or persons, bodies politic 
 or corporate, are sought to be restrained of any freedom or 
 liberty that they had before, or hindered in their lawful 
 trade." The practice of granting monopolies, giving to one 
 or a few individuals the sole privilege of" producing, import- 
 ing, or dealing in certain articles, has been acted on to a 
 greater or less extent in all countries, and was carried to an 
 oppressive and ruinous extent in England in the reign of 
 Elizabeth and the earlier part of that of James I. At length 
 the grievance became quite insupportable; and notwith- 
 standing the strenuous opposition of the crown, it was final- 
 ly abolished by the famous statute of the 21 Jas. 1, cap. 3. 
 Its provisions did not extend to patents for new inventions, 
 nor to grants by act of parliament to corporations, &c, but 
 it suppressed all private monopolies ; and by giving full 
 freedom to industry and invention, contributed more, per- 
 haps, to accelerate the progress of improvement than any 
 other act in the statute book. 
 
 MONOPO'LYLOGUE. (Gr. novo;, iroXv;, many, and 
 Xoyo;, a discourse) A term recently invented to designate 
 an entertainment in which a single actor sustains many 
 characters. 
 
 MONO'PTERAL. (Gr. novo;, and nrcpov, a wing.) In 
 Architecture, a temple or circular enclosure of columns with- 
 out a cell. 
 
 MO'NORHYME. (Gr. novo;, and pvdno;, measure.) A 
 composition in verse, in which all the lines end with the 
 same rhyme. This species of composition is said to owe its 
 invention to Benin, who wrote in Latin, and dedicated his 
 monorhymes to Pope Alexander III. 
 
 MONO'STOMA. (Gr. novo;, and aiona, a mouth.) The 
 name of a genus of Tremntode Entozoa, including those 
 which have only a single pore, serving at once for nutrition 
 and adhesion. 
 
 MONOTHA'LAMANS. (Gr. novo;, and $a\ano;, a cham- 
 ber.) This term is applied to those univalve shells which 
 have only one chamber. 
 
 MO'NOTHEISM. (Gr. novo;, and $co;, a god.) The 
 doctrine of, or the belief in, the existence of one God ; in 
 contradistinction to Polytheism, the belief in a plurality of 
 Gods. The Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan systems 
 of reVigion are the only pure specimens of Monotheism in ex- 
 istence. It has often been supposed that the Jews alone, of 
 all the nations of antiquity, had conceived the truth of there 
 being only one God; but there can be little doubt that there 
 are no well-founded reasons for this opinion. In the arcane 
 theology of Egypt, not only was the unity of the Deity ac- 
 knowledged, but he was even adored, not as the God of any 
 particular religion, but ns the eternal and omnipotent Gov- 
 ernor of the Universe. In support of this assertion the tes- 
 timony of various heathen writers might be cited ; but the 
 following passage from Jablonski may supersede the neces- 
 sity of adducing any other authority. ' " Those men," he ob- 
 772 
 
 MUNSTER. 
 
 serves, "who were most distinguished for wisdom among 
 the Egyptians, acknowledged God to be a certain unbegotten 
 Eternal Spirit, prior to all things which exist, who created, 
 preserves, contains, pervades, and vivifies everything; who 
 is the Spirit of the Universe, but the Guardian and Protector 
 of men." That many of the priests, and poets, and philoso- 
 phers of Greece were not ignorant of the same truth, is not 
 less evident. In one of the Orphic Fragments, preserved by 
 Proclus, we find it expressly declared that "there is One 
 Power, One Deity, the great Governor of ull things." The 
 verses which, according to Bishop Warburton, were sung in 
 the Eleusinian Mysteries, contained the following passage : 
 "Pursue thy path rightly, and contemplate the King of the 
 world: He is One, and of himself alone, and to that One all 
 things have owed their being. He encompasses them. No 
 mortal hath beheld him ; but he sees everything." In some 
 verses which have been often cited by the fathers from a 
 tragedy now lost, Sophocles has said, "There is, in reality, 
 only one God, who made the heavens and the remote earth, 
 the blue waves of the ocean and the strength of the winds." 
 That Pythagoras admitted the unity of the Deity must be 
 evident to all who have considered his philosophy ; and his 
 monotheism is farther attested not only by the eclectic phi- 
 losophy, but in distinct terms by St. Justin and St. Cyril. 
 Euclid of Megara and Socrates were both Monotheists : 
 Plato was in all probability one likewise. His Trinity, like 
 that of the Magi and the Egyptians, was not a trinity of be- 
 ings, but of modes of being in the Divine Nature. " When," 
 says he, " I speak fairly in my epistles, I commence with 
 God ; when I do not, my letters begin with gods." But if 
 any farther proof were wanting in support of this opinion, 
 the following passage from Origen must be held to be con- 
 clusive : " Many of the old philosophers have said that there 
 is one God, who created all things ; and in this they agree 
 with the law : but some say, in addition, that God hath made 
 and governs all things by ins Word, and that it is the Word 
 of God by which all things are regulated. In this they write 
 consonantly not only with the law, but with the Gospel." 
 (Edin. Review, vol. vii., p. 97, 98.) 
 
 MONO THELITES. (Gr. novo;, and $c\ M , T will:. A 
 sect of heretics, who, while they avoided the error of the 
 Eutychians, and allowed the two natures of Christ to co- 
 exist distinctly in the unity of the person, conceived the in- 
 fluence of the divine will so to predominate over the human 
 substance as to leave to the latter no action or efficiency of 
 its own. 
 
 The origin of this doctrine is ascribed to the Emperor He- 
 raclius, who, in the year 030, attempted to reconcile the 
 Eutychians or Monophysites to the Catholic Church by a 
 middle course of this nature, and published an edict under 
 the advice of some theologians of the day in assertion of it. 
 This opinion was condemned by some provincial and one 
 general council ; and, on the other hand, was maintained by 
 the edict of several succeeding emperors. Nor was tha 
 question finally settled, though silence was frequently com- 
 manded upon it, until it was forgotten in the louder disputes 
 of the Iconoclasts and their opponents. (Combefils, Mono- 
 the'it. Hist., 2 torn., 1048.) 
 
 MONO TON Y. (Gr. novo; , and tovo;, a sound.) An irk- 
 some sameness either in speaking or composition. 
 
 MONOTRE MES, Monotrema. (Gr. novo;, and rprma, a 
 hole.) A tribe of ovo-viviparous Mammalia, of which only 
 two genera are known to exist ; viz., the Platypus or Orni- 
 thorhynchus, and the Echidna, both peculiar to Australia. 
 The term is indicative of the common cloacal outlet for the 
 excrcmental and generative products. 
 
 MO'NOTRI'GLYPH. (Gr. novo;, and TptyXvirro;, thrice 
 cut.) In Architecture, such nn intercolumniation in the 
 Doric order as brings only one triglvph over it. 
 
 MONSEIG'NEUR. A title of courtesy in France, which 
 was prefixed to the titles of dukes and peers, archbishops, 
 bishops, and some other exalted personages, and used in ad 
 dressing them. Monseigneur simply was, before the Revo 
 lution, the title given to the dauphin. Monsieur is now the 
 common title of courtesy and respect in France ; and pre- 
 viously to the revolution in 1830, Monsieur simply was the 
 title of the eldest brother of the king. 
 
 MONSOO'NS. (From a Malayan word signifying sea- 
 sons.) In Physical Geography, the name given to a certain 
 modification or disturbance of the regular course of the trade 
 winds which take place in the Arabian and Indian seas. 
 Between the parallels of 10° and 30° south latitude the 
 eastern trade wind blows regularly: but from the former 
 parallel north wurds the course is reversed for half the year, 
 and from April to October the wind blows constantly from 
 the south-west. During the other six months of the year 
 the regular north-east trade wind prevails. The south 
 west monsoon is supposed to be occasioned by the great 
 rarefaction of the atmosphere over the extensive regions of 
 Eastern Asia during the summer months. See Trad« 
 WiNns. 
 
 MO'NSTER. (Lat. monstrum.) Anything out of the 
 
MONSTERS. 
 
 common order of nature is occasionally designated by this 
 lean; but it is physiologically employed under a more limit- 
 ed acceptation, and applied to animals in which one or mure 
 parts of the body present some congenital malformation. 
 This is sometimes apparent externally, and then must amount 
 to something exceeding any ordinary deformity ; or it may be 
 confined to internal organs. Button, Blumenbach, and Meckle 
 have treated on monstrosity, classifying its modiiications un- 
 der three heads ; the lirst including cases in which parts of the j 
 body are increase! in number ; the second those where certain 
 organs are deficient; and the third including cases in which 
 situation, and structure are concerned. Other writers, 
 u Gcoffroy St. Ililaire {Histoirc dcs Anomalies), have 
 adopted more comprehensive arrangements; arising, how- 
 OUi of the general subdivision of monsters into simple 
 and compound: the former including all uses in which the 
 uts of a single individual only are concerned ; the lat- 
 ter those in which the constituent parts of two or more in- 
 dividuals are united. Simple monsters have again been dis- 
 tributed into three classes. The first including such varie- 
 ; malformation as chiefly affect one organ or system 
 of organs, without materially interfering with any vital func- 
 tion: these anomalies are extremely numerous, and have 
 farther subdivided into cases where size, form, or struc- 
 lure is affected, and those in which the lnalfoimation affects 
 the arrangement, connexion, or number of parts. The sec- 
 ond class in this arrangement Includes eases of extensive 
 malformation, attended by gnat deformity and by disturb- 
 of vital functions. The third class is [united to mal- 
 i lions of the organs of general ion, including among 
 rs the various led hermaphrodites. The 
 
 ry of individual ca>. osUy would be here 
 
 misplaced; several of the most remarkable are detailed in 
 various volumes of the Philosophical Transactions ; in the 
 '1 mnsactions of the .Medico Chirurgical Society ; and in tile 
 • i/cinjiwdia, art. "Monster." 
 MO'NSTERS, or CHIMERICAL FIGURES. In Herald- 
 ry, a species of bearings, of which some arc very common in 
 lOnglish coats of arms, and others common in foreign, al 
 though not often used in our own. The sagittary or centaur, 
 man tiger, sphinx, harpy, triton, and mermaid, are tn 
 compounded Of the human and bestial shape. Of monstrous 
 
 tost common in armorial bearings are the dragon, 
 
 ■ din [a compound of the eagle and the lion), the wyvarn 
 
 (a two-legged dragon) : besides these, there ore the unicorn, 
 the heraldic antelope, liner, and ibex (which are Chimerical 
 figures, but representing the natural beast), 'lie miiMiuon (an 
 animal between the goat and the sheep), and the salamander. 
 Monstrous birds are the phoenix, cannet, martlet, allerion, 
 i uckatrice, Sec. 
 
 Mo.Yi'A'NlSTS. Heretics of the second century, who 
 derive their name from their founder Montanus. a Phrygian, 
 who pretended to inspiration, and declared himself to be a 
 prophet sent from God to complete the Christian scheme, 
 
 and advance it to its highest state of perfection. He affirm- 
 ed himself to be the Paraclete or Comforter, w UOM mission 
 opposed by various sectarians ofthe early centuries to 
 be distinct from that of the Holy Spirit, which was promised 
 to the apostles, and was expected to put the finishing stroke 
 to the revelation of Jesus Christ. The characteristics of this 
 unilar to those which are known by the general 
 Of Gnostic and consisted principally ill great austerity 
 of manners, and a belief in the possibility of an advance from 
 the obvious and literal interpretation of the word of God to 
 a state of interior and spiritual knowledge coincident with a 
 participation in the divine nature itself. 
 
 Mu'.NTANT. (Fr.) In Architecture, any upright piece 
 in B system of framing. 
 MONT DE PIETE. (Hal. Monte di Pieta.) The name 
 i on some parts of the Continent to certain benevolent 
 institutions, established for the purpose of lending money to 
 the poor at a moderate rate of interest. They originated 
 under the papal government in the 15th century, and were 
 
 ■ led to countervail the exorbitiint usurious practices of 
 the Jews, who formed at that period the great money-lenders 
 of Europe. These institutions were afterwards introduced 
 into many of the Continental states; and similar establish- 
 ments existed, and in some cases still exist, at Paris, Madrid, 
 Brussels, Client, Antwerp, &c. Monti frumentarii are pub- 
 lic granaries, from which corn is sold to the necessitous 
 Italians on a principle somewhat analogous to that on 
 which sums are lent by the Mont de Piete. 
 
 MO NTEM. The name given to an ancient custom still 
 prevalent among the scholars of Eton, which consists in 
 their proceeding every third year on Whit Tuesday to a 
 tumulus (Lat. ad montem, whence the name), near the Bath 
 road, and exacting money for salt, as it is called, from all 
 i sent or passers-by. The sum so collected is given 
 to the captain, or senior scholar ofthe school, and is intend- 
 ed to assist in defraying the expenses of his residence at the 
 university, to which he is about to proceed. The origin of 
 this ceremony dates from the establishment of the founda- 
 
 MOON. 
 
 tion of Eton College ; but it was at first held on the 6th o. 
 December, the festival of St. Nicholas, the patron of children 
 and it is only since 1759 that the present was substituted foi 
 the original period of its celebration. It has been the almost 
 invariable practice of the sovereign, the court, and a large 
 portion of the nobility, to honour this festivity with their 
 presence; and so liberal have been their contributions, that 
 the salt money has been known to approach nearly j£l(K)0. 
 (See HuggctVs MS. Collections for a history of Windsor 
 and Eton colleges, in the British Museum ; and Brand's 
 Popular Antiquities.) 
 
 MONTH. (Germ, monat.) The twelfth part of our eai 
 endar year. It is so called from its being the period of the 
 moon's revolution round the earth. See Calendar. 
 
 MO'NUMENT. (Lat.) A memorial for perpetuating the 
 remembrance of nn event; also a cenotaph in memory of 
 the dead. The productions of architecture and sculpture in- 
 tended to transmit to posterity the memory of individuals 
 and events are most generally Called monuments. A 
 those in honour of individuals are tombs and sepulchral 
 edifices or columns. The most ancient are the obelisks and 
 pyramids of Egypt; and perhaps contemporary with t: 
 the tombs of the Persian kings, slill visible in tlie ruins of 
 Persepolis. Greece abounded with monuments of this DO 
 turc. Buildings in that country were Deques 
 commemoration of distinguished |iersons or eve:.!s; and of 
 this class were the Chor.igic monuments, In hoi 
 who had received the pii/.e as choragi in the Lb< 
 musical games. < If MOSS the moat splendid is the climatic 
 monument of I. ysicrates. vulgarly called the Lantern of lie 
 mosthenes. Among (be monuments of this class of the Ro- 
 mans, the triumphal aiiiics are in the first rank. Ti ei-i lumn 
 railed the Monument of London, and the Dul 
 monument, illustrate respectively the definition above given. 
 MOOD. (Lat. modus.) [n Grammar, the designation by 
 the form of the verb of the manner of our conception of an 
 event, or fact; whether as certain, contingent, t 
 sirable, or the like. See Grammar. 
 
 MOOD OF A CATEGORICAL SYLLOGISM, in Logic, 
 is the designation of Its three propositions in the order in 
 which they stand, according to their quantity and quality. 
 
 MOON. ((Jr. fumh Germ, mond.) The satellite of the 
 earth. The moon, after the sun, is not only the most con- 
 spicuous, but, in an astronomical point of view, the most In- 
 Ing ofthe celestial bodies. The variety of her phases 
 her eclipses, and the rapidity with which she changes in l 
 place among the fixed stars, drew the attention ol 
 observers of the heavens; and in modern times, the In 
 tant application of the theory of her motions to no 
 and the determination of terrestrial longitudes has given the 
 Lunar Theory the first rank among the objects of astro 
 nomical science. 
 
 Phases of the Moon.— The different phases of the moon 
 were probably the first celestial phenomena that received a 
 correct explanation. By observing them attentively during 
 the course of a single revolution, it would be inferred thai 
 they are occasioned by the reflection of the sun's light from 
 the spherical surface of the moon ; and accordingly the fact 
 had been recognised by the earliest astronomers. Let T be 
 the place of the earth, and ABC , t 
 
 D E F G II successive portions of 
 the moon in her orbit, the sun be- 
 ing supposed to be situated in the 
 straight line T A, and at so great 
 a distance that lines drawn from 
 it to every part of the moon's or- 
 bit may be regarded as parallel. 
 When the moon is at A, she is in 
 conjunction with the sun, and 
 passes the meridian at the same 
 time; and her illuminnted hemi- 
 sphere being then turned directly away from the earth, no 
 ixjrtion of her disk is visible. A few days after the conjunc- 
 tion the moon begins to appear on the eastern side of the sun 
 at B, having the form of a crescent, the horns of which are 
 turned away from the sun. When she arrives at C, or 90° 
 from her conjunction, the earth is in the plane of the great 
 circle of her orb, which forms the boundary between hei 
 dark and illuminated hemispheres, and consequently half 
 the disk is visible. The moon is then in her first quarter 
 At D more ofthe illuminated hemisphere is turned towards 
 the earth, and she appears gibbous. At E she is in opposi 
 tion to the sun ; the illuminated side is turned directly to the 
 earth, and the disk appears round or full. After passing E 
 the disk begins to wane, and from E to G appears gibbous. 
 When at G, or 270° from the conjunction, she Is In the third 
 quarter. From this point to the conjunction the moon again 
 appears as a crescent, becoming narrower as she approaches 
 to A ; but the horns of the crescent are now turned west 
 ward, that is, away from the sun. The straight line whieh 
 joins A and E is called the line of [hesyiygii's ; that which 
 joins C G is the line of quadratures ; and the points B I; F 
 
MOON. 
 
 Ef, situated at equal distances from those lines, are called 
 the octants. The magnitude of the illuminated portion of 
 the disk is thus seen to depend on the position of the moon 
 relatively to the sun and the earth, and is easily determined 
 by a geometrical construction. The mean period of time in 
 which a revolution of the phases is completed, or in which 
 she passes from one conjunction to the following, is 29 days, 
 12 h., 44 m., 2 8 sec. 
 
 Distance and Magnitude of the Moon. — The moon's dis- 
 tance from the earth is found from her horizontal parallax, 
 which may be determined either by simultaneous observa- 
 tions at stations very distant from each other, or by means 
 of the occultations of fixed stars by the moon. From such 
 observations it is found that the amount of the parallax varies 
 considerably at different times. Its mean value gives the 
 average distance of the moon from the earth, equal to 599 
 of the earth's equatorial semidiameters, or about 237,000 
 miles, which is upwards of 400 times less than the distance 
 of the sun. Combining this result with the apparent magni- 
 tude (31' 26") of the moon's diameter, when at her mean 
 distance, it results that the' diameter of the moon is to that 
 of the earth in the proportion nearly of 3 to 11 ; whence the 
 volume of the moon is only about l-49th of the volume of 
 the earth. 
 
 Inclination and Nodes of the Lunar Orbit. — The moon's 
 orbit is inclined to the ecliptic under an angle of 5° 8' 47*9" ; 
 but the line in which it intersects the ecliptic, or the line of 
 the nodes, does not maintain a fixed position on the plane of 
 the ecliptic. It is observed that the moon passes from one 
 of the nodes to the opposite one in less time than is required 
 to pass through 180° of longitude ; hence the line of the 
 nodes has a retrograde motion on the ecliptic ; and its mo- 
 tion is go considerable that it completes a revolution, or re- 
 turns to its former position, in a period of 6798-28 days, or 
 about 18-6 years. This period is remarkable, as being that 
 after which the eclipses of the sun and moon again return 
 nearly in the same order.- The cause of the regression of 
 the line of the nodes is the attractive power of the sun, 
 which is always tending to draw the moon into the plane of 
 the ecliptic, and which would at length cause hor orbk to 
 coincide with that plane, were the tendency not counteract- 
 ed by the angular motion of the moon round the earth. By- 
 reason of the angular motion the mean inclination remains 
 the same, and the resulting effect is the retrograde motion 
 of the nodes. But as the sun's distance from the earth 
 is a variable quantity, the effect of the solar action in dis- 
 placing the moon's orbit is also variable. Hence, and also 
 on various other accounts, the motion of the nodes, and 
 the inclination of the lunar orbit to the ecliptic, are subject 
 to certain periodical changes, all which must be accurately 
 appreciated and computed in the formation of the lunar ta- 
 bles. See Perturbations. 
 
 Eccentricity of the Lunar Orbit. — The general orbit of 
 the moon is an ellipse, having the earth at one of its foci ; but 
 or. account of the disturbing force of the sun, and the differ- 
 ence of the intensities of this force when the moon is differ- 
 ently situated relatively to the earth and sun, the ellipse is 
 constantly changing its form and position on the plane of 
 the orbit, and hence the numerical values assigned to all 
 its elements are to be considered only as average or mean 
 values. The distance of the moon from the earth when in 
 apogee, or at her greatest distance, is 63842 semidiameters 
 i)f the earth ; and when in perigee, or at her least distance, 
 55-916 semidiameters; whence the eccentricity, or distance 
 of the focus from the centre, is about 0.0G6, half the major 
 axis being taken as unity. According to the best tables, it is 
 00548442. On comparing the positions of the major axis, 
 which is called the line of the apsides, at different times, in 
 respect of the fixed stars, it is found to have a rapid motion 
 eastward, completing a whole circuit in 3232 57 mean solar 
 days, or nearly nine years. But this mean motion is subject 
 to inequalities of considerable magnitude. The different 
 situations of the line of the apsides with respect to the line 
 of the syzygies gives rise to the inequality of the lunar mo- 
 tion, called the evection. See Evkction. 
 
 Different Species of Lunar Months.— As the principal 
 points of the luuar orbit— the syzygies, the nodes, the apsides 
 — are in a state of rotation with different velocities, and in 
 different directions, it follows, that the period of time in 
 which the moon completes a revolution with respect to any 
 of these points, or to the fixed stars, will be different in each 
 case. These periods, which are called lunar months, may 
 be explained as follows : Let E be the 
 centre of the earth, a s b t the orbit 
 of the moon, a b the transverse axis 
 or line of the apsides, s t the line of 
 the syzygies. 7t m the line of the nodes, 
 and A S B N the great circle of the 
 sphere in the plane of the ecliptic. 
 Also, let P be a fixed point on this 
 circle ; and suppose the moon to be at 
 p, or seen in the direction E P. The 
 774 
 
 time which elapses while the moon passes from j., and re 
 turns to the same point of the ecliptic, is called tl ' tropica^ 
 revolution, and differs only about seven seconds rom the 
 time in which the moon returns to the same fixed star, or 
 performs a sidereal revolution. Suppose now the moon to 
 be at s, in the line of the syzygies ; when the moon advan- 
 cing from s, in the direction m b n, has again come round to 
 the same point of the ecliptic, she will not now be in con 
 junction ; for, in the interval, the sun has advanced from S 
 to S' (nearly a twelfth of the circumference), and conse- 
 quently the moon must goon to s', till she overtakes the sun, 
 before she returns to her conjunction. The interval from con • 
 junction to conjunction is the synodic period, and exceeds the 
 tropical period by two days and about five hours. Next, snp 
 pose the moon to be at her perigee a, or seen in the direction 
 E A ; while the moon, after leaving a, is describing her orbit, 
 the line of the apsides E A revolves through the angle A E 
 A', and consequently the moon, after coming into the line E 
 A, must continue to advance till she comes to a' before she 
 arrives again at her perigee. The interval from perigee to 
 perigee is called the anomalistic period ; and it is also longer 
 than the tropical period, though much shorter than the 
 synodic, inasmuch as the line of the apsides requires about 
 nine years to complete its revolution, while that of the syzy- 
 gies is completed in one year. Lastly, suppose the moon at 
 n in the line of the nodes. While the moon is advnjeing 
 round her orbit, the line of the nodes, E N, moves backward 
 into the direction E N'; consequently, the moon will have 
 come up to Iter node at n' before she has completed a revo- 
 lution on the ecliptic. The interval from node to node is 
 called the nodical period, and is shorter than any of the 
 other periods. The following table exhibits, in mean solar 
 days, the mean lengths of the different lunar periods or 
 months : 
 
 « Dars. 
 
 Synodic revolution .... 29-53059 
 
 Sidereal 27-32166 
 
 Tropical 27-32158 
 
 Anomalistic 27-55460 
 
 S7-21222 
 
 deceleration of the Moon's mean Motion. — On comparing 
 observations of the moon made at distant times, it has been 
 discovered that her mean motion has been undergoing a con- 
 stant acceleration since the earliest time*. This acceleration 
 is, however, extremely small, amounting only to 10" in a cen- 
 tury, and therefore is insensible for any moderate interval of 
 time, though it becomes discernible after a few centuries. Be- 
 ing measured by centuries, it is called the secular acceleration 
 of the mean motion. Its physical cause was found by Lap 
 lace to be a diminution of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. 
 
 Eclipses of the Moon. — The diame'.er of the sun being 
 much greater than that of the earth, the earth must project 
 behind it in space a conical shadow, the axis of which is in 
 the plane of the ecliptic, and in the straight line joining the 
 earth and sun. On computing from the relative magnitudes 
 of the earth and sun and the distance of the two bodies the 
 length of this shadow, it is found that it reaches to about 
 216 times the radius of the earth, and consequently far be- 
 yond the orbit of the moon. It is found also that the ap- 
 parent diameter of the conical shadow, at the mean distance 
 of the moon, is about 1° 23'. But the greatest apparent di- 
 ameter of the moon being only 33' 31", or about a third of 
 this distance, it follows that if the moon happens to be sit- 
 uated in the plane of the ecliptic when she is full, or in op- 
 position with the sun, the whole lunar disk will be enveloped 
 in the earth's shadow; and as the moon requires about an 
 hour to pass over a space equal to her own breadth, the 
 whole disk may be involved in the shadow, and the moon 
 remain invisible during a space of about two hours. This 
 phenomenon is a total eclipse of the moon ; and it is evident 
 that if the moon's orbit coincided with the ecliptic, a total 
 eclipse would take place every lunation. In consequence, 
 however, of the inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic, the 
 moon, at the time of her opposition, is in general so far from 
 the ecliptic that her disk does not come into contact with the 
 earth's shadow, and consequently no eclipse takes place. 
 The occurrence of the eclipse, therefore, depends on the dis- 
 tance of the moon from her node at the time of the opposi- 
 tion ; and it results, from the computation of the different 
 circumstances influencing the phenomenon, that the eclipse 
 may take place if the moon is within nbout 12° of her node, 
 and must take if the distance from the node is not greater 
 than 7°. 
 
 Eclipses of the Sun by the Moon. — A solar eclipse is oc- 
 casioned by the moon's body coming between the spectator 
 and the sun, and thereby intercepting the rays coming from 
 the whole or a part of his visible disk. This phenomenon, 
 like an eclipse of the moon, can only happen when the 
 moon is near one of her nodes ; but a total obscuration does 
 not necessarily take place, even when the moon is in the 
 ecliptic at the time of her conjunction; for the magniturit 
 and distance of the moon are so related that the apex of hei 
 
MOON. 
 
 conical shadow sometimes falls short of the earth's surface, 
 though at other times it would reach as far as the earth's 
 centre. When the umbra extends beyond the earth's sur- 
 face, its intersection with the surface marks out a circular 
 s|>ot, within which no part of the sun's disk is visible, and 
 there is a total eclipse. For some distance around this spot, 
 that is lo say, within the penumbra, a part only of the sun 
 will be visible, or there will be a partial eclipse. When the 
 apex of the shadow does not extend to the earth, there will 
 be no total eclipse at any part of the earth ; but a spectator sit- 
 uated in or nearly in the prolongation of the axis of the cone, 
 will see the whole of the moon on the sun, though not large 
 enoogh to cover it ; that is to say, he will witness an annular 
 eclipse. For the method of calculating eclipses of the sun 
 and moon, see Eclipse. 
 
 Rotation and Libration of the Moon. — From the observa- 
 tion of the lunar spots, it is ascertained that the moon has 
 a motion of rotation about an axis nearly perpendicular to 
 the plane of her orbit; and, what is very reinark:ililc. the 
 pcriiHl of rotation is exactly equal to that of her sidereal rev- 
 olution about the earth. Hence the same hemisphere of 
 the moon is always turned towards the earth; but as the 
 'oialion is uniform, while the motion of revolution about 
 •he earth is sometimes faster and sometimes slower than the 
 ■MB, the line which joins the centres of the earth and moon 
 does not intersect the lunar surface always at the same point, 
 but fluctuates a little to the eastward and westward of its 
 mean place, \ pots near the eastern and Western 
 
 borders of the disk alternately disappear and are brought 
 into view. This phenomena is called the libration in longi- 
 tudc. Moreover, as the moon's orbit is inclined to the ecflp- 
 tic in an angle of 5° & 47-9", while the plane of her equate a 
 makes with the ecliptic an angle of only 1° 30', the axis of 
 i is not exactly perpendicular to the plane of the or- 
 bit, whence her jMiles come alternately into view for a small 
 round the northern and southern borders of the disk. 
 This is the libration in latitude. There is also a diurnal li- 
 bration, occasioned by the moon's being seen from the sur- 
 face instead of the centre of the earth. See Lu&vno*. 
 
 Appearance and Physical Constitution of the Moon. — On 
 looking at U c moon with the naked i 
 diversified by dark and bright patches, which, on being ex- 
 amined with a good telescope, are discovered to be moun- 
 tains and I tile] ». That the whole surface of the moon is 
 covered by such inequalities Is evident from the circumstance 
 that the line of separation between the illuminated and dark 
 hemispheres, which, If the surface were even, would be a 
 sharply-defined ellipse, is at all times extremely ragged, and 
 indented with deep recesses and prominent points. The 
 mountains near this line cast behind them long black shad- 
 iike mountains on the earth when the sun is in the 
 ■orison), from the niicrometrical measurement of which the 
 height of the mountains may be calculated. According to 
 Sir .1. Ilerscbel, some of the highest of them exceed 1 j Eng- 
 lish miles in perpendicular altitude. Tycho. the blight 
 spot in the southeast quarter from which the rays seem to 
 run, is apparently a volcanic crater, 50 miles in diameter and 
 16,000 feet deep, surrounded by broad terraces within, and 
 with a central mountain about 5000 feet high. Schroeter 
 has estimated the average height of the lunar mountains to 
 be upwards of 5 English miles; but it is easy to see that the 
 Bent is not susceptible of much accuracy. 
 
 " The generality of the lunar mountains," says Sir J. Hcr- 
 schel, " present a striking uniformity and singularity of as- 
 pect. They ate wonderfully numerous, occupying by far 
 the larger portion of the surface, and almost universally of 
 an exactly circular or cup shaped form, fore-shortened, how- 
 ever, into ellipses towards the limb; but the larcer have for 
 the most part flat bottoms within, from which rises central- 
 ly a small, steep conical hill. They offer, in short, in its 
 holiest |>crfecl!on, the true volcanic character, as it may be 
 : i the crater of Vesuvius ; and, in some of the princi- 
 pal ones, decisive marks of volcanic stratification, arising 
 from successive deposits of ejected matter, may be clearly 
 traced with powerful telescopes. What is, moreover, ex- 
 tremely singular in the geology of the moon is, that although 
 nothing baviug the character of seas can be traced (for the 
 du<ky spots which are commonly called seas, when closely 
 ined, present appearances incompatible with the sup- 
 on of deep water), yet there are large regions perfect- 
 ly level, and apparently of a decided alluvial character." 
 ('Astronomy," Cabinet Cyclopadia, p. 229.) 
 
 The moon has no atmosphere, or at least none of suffi- 
 cient density to refract the rays of light in their passage 
 through it. There is consequently no water on her surface ; 
 and no animal similarly constituted to those which inhabit 
 the earth could subsist there. Her surface presents no ap- 
 nce of vegetation, or of variation which can be ascribed 
 to n change of seasons. Everything appears solid, desolate, 
 and unfit for the support of animal or vegetable life. Wheth- 
 er the materials of which the lunar substance is composed 
 aie of the same nature as those which compose the earth, 
 
 MORDELLA. 
 
 there are no means of knowing. From the eflect of the 
 moon's gravitation in producing the nutation of the earth's 
 axis, the mass of the moon is determined to be very nearly 
 l-80th of the mass of the earth ; whence, as her volume is 
 only l-49th of the earth's volume, it results that her density, 
 as compared with the mean density of the earth, is -615, or a 
 little more than one half. 
 
 MOO'NSTOXE. A variety of adularia, or resplendent 
 felspar; it occurs massive and crystallized. Select rpeci 
 mens are sometimes cut into ring and brooch stones. 
 
 MOOR. An uncultivated surface without trees, and with 
 few grasses or other herbage fit for pasture, and generally 
 containing scattered plants of heath, with a dark peaty soil". 
 Moor lands are generally the least fitted for culture of any 
 description of surface not rocky or mountainous. Moors are 
 covered with a very thin layer of soft, black, sterile soil ; and 
 the subtil is generally gravel, or retentive ferruginous clay. 
 By the destruction of the heath or other bad herbage, and 
 by sowing down with grass seeds, they may be improved. 
 In many cases, also, trees will grow on drained moors; in 
 which case the soil ultimately becomes ameliorated by the 
 fall and decay of the leaves. 
 
 Moor, in Navigation, signifies generally to fix a vessel by 
 two anchors in nearly opposite directions, so that she rides 
 by cither in certain winds, or partly by both in other winds. 
 Also to secure a vessel to weights or chains sunk in har- 
 bours for the panose. These weights are called mooring 
 blocks, and the whole apparatus moorings. 
 
 MOO'RISH AKCIUTKCTURE. See Architecture. 
 
 MOTLAH8. The Mohammedan inhabitants of Malabar, 
 descended from Moors and Arabians who have settled on 
 that coast anil married Malabar women. They are said to 
 form a fourth of the population. They are commercial and 
 industrious on the coast, but a furious race in the interior. 
 (Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, p. 258.) 
 
 MORAl'NE. The name given in Switzerland and Savoy 
 to the longitudinal deposits of stony detritus which are found 
 at the bases and along the v<\<;?* of all the ereat glaciers. 
 The formation of these deposits arc explained by Professor 
 Hows: The glaciers, it is well known, are con- 
 ., mo\ • dow . .varo. in c* 
 introduction of water into their assures, which, in freezing, 
 expands the mass; and the ice being thus loosened or de- 
 tached from the rocks below, is continually pressed forward 
 by its own weight In consequence of this motion, the gravel 
 and fragments of rocks which fall upon the glaciers from 
 the sides of the adjacent mountains are accumulated in Ion 
 gitudinul ridges, or vioraines. From the existence of such 
 deposits in many places where there ure now nogla. 
 combined with the polished appearance of the surfaces of 
 the rocks on the sides of valleys, supposed to have been pro- 
 duced by the friction of moving glaciers, Professor Agassiz 
 infers that the extent of glaciers was formerly much greater 
 than it now is, and that they covered the great valley of 
 Switzerland, with the whole chain of the Jura. (Agassiz, 
 F.tudes sur les Glaciers de la Suisse ; Reports of the British 
 Association for 1840.) 
 
 MORALS. Set Ethics. 
 
 MORA'NA. The old Bohemian goddess of winter and 
 of death : the Maryana of Scandinavia. A grand yearly 
 festival was celebrated in honour of this goddess in the 
 month of March. Her image was conveyed solemnly to the 
 nearest brook or rivulet, and thrown into it amid the rejoi- 
 cings of the people. This festival was called "Das Joden- 
 Austreiben, das Sommer gewinnen ;" and, as the words im- 
 ply, was intended to be symbolical of the end of winter and 
 the return of spring. (See Grimm's Deutsche Mytholoirie, 
 p. 440.) 
 
 MOUA'SS. Moor lands saturated with water to such an 
 extent as not to bear the tread of cattle. A morass is to a 
 moor what a marsh is to a meadow. It is evident that the 
 dr.ainage of morasses and moors, by lessening the evapora- 
 tion of water from their surfaces, must tend to improve the 
 local climate, 
 
 MORAVIAN BROTHERS. See Herrnhut. 
 
 MORBIDE'ZZA. (hal.) In Painting, a softness and 
 delicacy of style. Its opposite is a style whose lines are 
 harsh and angular. 
 
 MO'RDANT. A substance used to fix colouring matters 
 upon different stuffs. (See Dyeinq.) Alumina and oxide 
 of iron are the most important mordants. 
 
 MORDE'LLA. (Lat. mordeo, J bite.) A Linnscan genus 
 of Coleopterous insects, the type of a family (Mordellidce) 
 of Eatreille's Hrteromerans, distinguished by the general 
 form of the body, which is elevated and arched: with the 
 head low ; the thorax trapezoid or semicircular ; the elytra 
 very short, or narrow and pointed at the tips, as well as the 
 abdomen. They are distinguished from their nearest con- 
 geners, as the Pyrochroida, by their extreme agility, the firm 
 texture of their integuments, and their tei ucious and pain- 
 ful bite. The sub-genera of the Mordellida are Ripiphorus, 
 Myodites, Pclecotoma, Anasnis, and Mordella proper : to the 
 
 775 
 
MORDENTE. 
 
 lost sub-genus are now restricted the species of the present 
 family, which have the antenns of equal thickness through- 
 out, and slightly serrated in the males ; the eyes not emar- 
 ginate, and the abdomen terminated by a long point. 
 
 MORDE'NTE. (Hal.) In Music, a grace in use by the 
 Italian school, which is effected by turning upon a note 
 without using the note below. 
 
 MO'REL. (Germ, morchel.) The Morchella csculcnta 
 Is one of the few fungi found in this country which may be 
 used as food with safety. It occasionally occurs in woods 
 and orchards, whence it finds its way to the markets ; but it 
 is of comparatively rare occurrence. It has a hollow stalk 
 an inch or two high, and a yellowish or grayish ribbed head 
 two or three inches deep. 
 
 MORE'SQUE. (Fr.) In Painting, a species of orna- 
 mental painting, in which foliage, fruits, flowers, &c. are 
 combined, by springing out of each other, without the intro- 
 duction of the human figure, or that of any animals ; and 
 receiving its name from having been much used by the 
 Moors, who, however, were not the inventors of it. 
 
 MORGANA'TIC MARRIAGE, or LEFT-HANDED 
 MARRIAGE. (Said to be derived from the Gothic word 
 morgjan, to shorten.) A marriage between a man of supe- 
 rior and a woman of inferior rank, in which it is stipulated 
 that the latter and her children shall not enjoy the rank or 
 inherit the possessions of her husband. Such marriages are 
 not uncommon in the families of sovereign princes, and of 
 the higher nobility in Germany; but they are restricted to 
 personages of these exalted classes. 
 
 MORGUE. (Fr.) The name given to a place in many 
 French towns where the bodies of persons found dead are 
 exposed in order to be recognised and owned by their friends. 
 The clothes in which they were found are placed near the 
 bodies, for their better identification. The Parisian morgue 
 is built on the left bank of the Seine, in one of the most 
 populous neighbourhoods of the city, and presents one of 
 the most disgusting spectacles than can be witnessed any- 
 where. 
 
 MO'RMON. (Gr. uoppwv, a mask.) The generic name 
 for the short-winged, web-footed birds usually called Puf- 
 fins, the singular beak of which gives the head the appear- 
 ance of a grotesque mask. The depth of the base of the bill 
 equals that of the entire head, and frequently the length of 
 the bill itself: the mandibles are compressed, arched, ob- 
 liquely channelled, and notched towards the tip. The eggs 
 and young birds are sought after and taken in great numbers 
 in the Orkneys and Faroe Isles. 
 
 MOKMY'RUS. (Gr. uopuvpo*;, a name given by the 
 Greeks to a shore-frequenting fish of a variegated colour, 
 probably the Sparus mormyrus of Linnaeus.) The name 
 was applied by Linnaeus to a genus of abdominal fishes 
 placed in the Malacopterygian order, between the Lucioid 
 and Siluroid families in the system of Cuvier. The Mor- 
 myri differ from the pikes in little else save in the small size 
 of their mouth, of which the angles are formed by the max- 
 illary liop.es; and a corresponding modification of the ali 
 nientary canal, the intestines being longer, and complicated 
 by two caeca. The Mormyri are confined to the rivers of 
 Africa, and are reckoned the best-flavoured fishes that are 
 caught in the Nile. 
 
 MOKO'CCO. (Fr. maroquin.) A species of goatskin 
 leather, originally imported from the Levant and Barbary 
 state-. It is extensively used in the binding of books. See 
 Leather. 
 
 MO'ROXITE. (Lat. morus, the mulberry tree.) A min- 
 eralogical name applied to one of the varieties of native 
 phosphate of lime of a mulberry colour. 
 
 MOROXYLIC ACID. An acid discovered by Klaproth, 
 combined with lime, in the bark of the Morus alba, or white 
 mulberry tree. 
 
 MO'RPHEUS. In Ancient Mythology, the god of dreams ; 
 the son of 'Yirraj or Somnus, who presided over sleep, with 
 whom he is frequently confounded. The chief distinction 
 between them appears to be this: Morpheus had the power 
 of assuming only the human shape, while the transforma- 
 tions of Somnus were unlimited. He is generally repre- 
 sented as a beautiful youth, with a bunch of poppies in his 
 hand. 
 
 MO'RPHIA. (Lat. Morpheus, the god of dreams.) The 
 narcotic principle of opium. It may be separated from opi- 
 um in the form of white prismatic crystals almost insoluble 
 in water, but soluble in boiling alcohol ; it combines with 
 the acids and forms salts, all of which are powerful seda- 
 tives, and have proved of great value as medicines. Of 
 these the muriate of morphia is perhaps the best. It is com- 
 posed of about 288 morphia (which is its equivalent) and 37 
 muriatic acid. One of the most characteristic chemical 
 properties of morphia and its salts is, that they decompose 
 iodic acid, and consequently immediately discolour its aque- 
 ous solution. The ultimate elements of morphia are carbon, 
 ovygen, hvdrogen, and nitrogen. 
 
 MO'RPHNUS. (Gr. no'pdvos, a name applied by Aristotle 
 776 
 
 MORTALITY, LAW OF. 
 
 to the osprey.) This term is restricted by Cuvier to a genus 
 of Accipitrcs called eagle-hawks, having wings shoiter than 
 the tail, but with long and slender tarsi, and comparatively 
 feeble toes. Some species have the tarsi naked and scutella- 
 ted, as the Morphnus guianensis. 
 
 MORPHO'LOGY. (Gr. uoptyn, form, and Aoyoj, descrip- 
 tion.) That department or division of the science of botanv 
 which treats of the metamorphosis of organs. It appears, 
 from the comparison of one kind of organ with another, that 
 notwithstanding the differences between them, there are so 
 many close analogies, and so much identity of structure, as 
 to render it probable that they are all formed upon one com 
 mon plan, modified according to the purposes for which 
 they are severally destined. The leaf, which is the most 
 universal of the external organs, is taken as the best repre- 
 sentation of this type ; and with the more reason, because 
 all the other parts are found to have a tendency to assume 
 the organization of a leaf when any disturbing cause inter- 
 feres with their development. According to morphological 
 writers, the scale of a leaf-bud is a rudimentary leaf; the 
 petal is a leaf reduced in size, and thinned or coloured, ot 
 both; the stamen is a leaf, whose petiole is represented by 
 the filament, while the two lobes of the anther are the two 
 sides of its lamina; and the pollen is the disintegrated meso- 
 phyll, and so on. These conclusions were for a long time 
 ridiculed by many writers; but they gradually gained ground 
 w r ith philosophical botanists, and are now the foundation of 
 comparative anatomy in plants. At the present day the 
 question is indeed no longer speculative, but is decided by 
 the evidence of our eyes; for all those transformations, the 
 necessity of which morphologists assumed by mere force of 
 reasoning, have now been witnessed by Schleiden and many 
 others, who have traced the development of the organs of 
 plants from their earliest condition, through all their modifi- 
 cations, up to the period of complete development, and have 
 found that they are all deviations from a common type sub- 
 sequent to the first stage of their growth. 
 
 MO'RRIS DANCE. A peculiar kind of dance practised 
 in the middle ages. It is supposed to have been first intro- 
 duced into England from Spain by Edward III., when John 
 of Gaunt returned from that country ; but few traces of it 
 are found earlier than the times of Henry VIII. ; and it is 
 more probable that it was borrowed either from the French 
 or the Flemings. In the morris dance bells were fixed to 
 the feet of the performer, and the great art consisted in so 
 moving the feet as to produce something like concord from 
 the various bells. 
 
 MORS. In Ancient Mythology, the daughter of Night 
 without a father, and goddess of death. The most sublime 
 representation of death personified is to be found in the Para- 
 dise IsOSt. 
 
 MORTA'LITY, BILLS OF. Bills of Mortality are ex- 
 tracts from parish registers, showing the numbers who have 
 died in some fixed period of time, as a year, a month, or a 
 week ; and hence they are called yearly, monthly, or week- 
 ly bills. In general, they also contain the number of bap- 
 tisms, and sometimes the number of marriages. 
 
 The keeping of parish registers was begun in England in 
 the year 1538, in consequence of an injunction issued by 
 Lord Cromwell, the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical af- 
 fairs, after the abolition of the papal authority in the king- 
 dom. In Germany they appear to have been introduced at 
 a somewhat earlier period, for Sussmilch has given extracts 
 from the Augsburg bills which go back to the year 1501 ; 
 and they were established in most countries of Europe about 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The London bills, containing the records of the baptisms 
 and deaths, were begun in the year 1592, but were not kept 
 regularly till after the plague which prevailed in 1603 ; since 
 which time they have continued weekly, and an annual 
 bill has been also regularly published. Their value, how- 
 ever, was very little understood ; nor do they seem to have 
 attracted much notice until 1662, when Graunt published 
 his Natural and Political Observations on the Bills of Mor- 
 tality, a work of great merit, considering the time at which 
 it was written. The ages at which the deaths took place 
 were not inserted in the bills till 1728. Throughout the 
 country the registers were kept, generally speaking, with 
 very little care ; but the recent act for the registration of 
 births, marriages, and deaths, which came into operation in 
 1836, has introduced an incomparably better system ; and, as 
 the sex, ages, and causes of death are now recorded, the public 
 will soon be in possession of far more authentic information 
 than has yet existed on some of the most interesting ques 
 tions of social statistics. (See article " Mortality," in the 
 Encyc. Brit. ; Preface to the Population Returns for 1831 ; 
 Annual Reports of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, 
 and Marriages in England, 1839, et sea.) 
 
 MORTA'LITY, LAW OF. By this term is usually un- 
 derstood a mathematical relation subsisting among the num- 
 bers of persons living at the different ages of life : such tha» 
 having given the number of persons living at any assigned 
 
MORTALITY, LAW OF. 
 
 age, the number of them who remain alive at every subse- 
 quent ape, and consequently the mortality which takes 
 place in the interval, will be expressible by that relation. 
 It must lie obvious that, in speaking of a law of this kind, 
 we can only have regard to the averages of large numbers. 
 In respect of a single individual, or a small number of per- 
 
 ihe uncertainty of the duration of life is proverbial; 
 •nit the case is entirely changed when multitudes are con- 
 
 ■I ; and there are few classes of contingent events of 
 which the results can be predicted with so little risk of de- 
 parture from the truth as the average age to which the lives 
 of a considerable number of persons will be prolonged. 
 
 The circumstances which ntFect the mean duration of 
 human life depend upon a great number of different causes ; 
 as climate, the facility of obtaining subsistence, the state of 
 civilization, the manner of living, progress of medical eci- 
 
 fcc, all of which vary in different countries and at dif- 
 ferent times. The law of mortality, therefore, must vary 
 with these circumstances; and consequently, if expressible 
 by any mathematical function, it must lie one affected by 
 Mtmeric*! coefficients depending on the particular circum- 
 stances. .iihI of which the values can only be determined by 
 I Mtion. The simplest expression which has been pro- 
 posed for representing the course of mortality is that which 
 is derived from the celebrated hypothesis of Demoivre; 
 namely, that, if a number of individuals be taken in any 
 :i\i'n ;. .:ir of age, the number of deaths which take place 
 anion" them will be the same every year until the whole 
 are extinct. In this hypothesis only one numerical quantity 
 requires to lie determined, which is the average extreme age. 
 Demoivre adopted 86; and his hypothesis may therefore be 
 simply enunciated as follows: Out of 86 infants born, 85 will 
 be alive at the end of the first year, 84 at the end of the 
 
 '. and so on to the extremity of life, the decrement 
 being one In each year. For a considerable number of 
 
 about the middle ages of life, this hypothesis of equal 
 decrements represents the observed facts with tolerable ac- 
 curacy; and, as it affords considerable facilities in various 
 calculations, it was formerly much used in the computation 
 of life contingencies. 
 
 If we nipftute a straight line to be divided into a number 
 Of equal parts, representing the nges of human life, and per- 
 pendiculars to he drawn through the points of division pro- 
 portional to the number of survivers at ench age out of a 
 
 number taken at a previous age, a curve line drawn 
 through the extremities of all those perpendiculars will rep 
 • the law of mortality as indicated by the observations, 
 ami the equation of the curve will be the relation between 
 Ihe age and the mortality. Now it is possible to draw an 
 algebraic curve through any number of points; but, in the 
 ml case, this method of proceeding is attended with no 
 advantage; for if the number of points be great, as It ne- 
 ist, the equation is of a high order, and its mi- 
 ni' • ii -il computation impracticable. Lambert, of Berlin, 
 who appears to have been the first who exhibited the law 
 of mortality by a curve line, constructed a somewhat com- 
 plicated empirical formula, which represented the mortality 
 observed in London during some part of the last century 
 wiih considerable accuracy, and which may be adapted to 
 any other est of observation* by giving suitnble values to its 
 Daxaerleai coefficient*. But the most ingenious attempt 
 which has been made to deduce a formula from d priori 
 considerations is contained in a paper by Mr. Benjamin 
 Gompertz, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 
 Mr. Gompertz assumes as a principle that there is a 
 power in human life to resist the effects of disease, or op- 
 |Hise destruction, which loses equal proportions of its in- 
 tensity in successive equal small intervals of time ; and from 
 this he derive* an expression which gives the number of 
 ■irviven (|i) of any number of individuals, taken at any given 
 age, at the end of any number of years (i) counted from 
 that age, in terms of three constants, which may be de- 
 termined from observations. The formula may be given 
 under this form: 
 
 1' ''.'. y = log. I i No. whose log. is (log. p + x log. y), 
 
 I, />. and ij being the constants to be determined. On assu- 
 ming three ages, and taking the corresponding values of zand 
 w tioiu tin; Carlisle table, and determining the constants by 
 means of the three equations so formed, the formula is 
 found to agree with the table through all the ages, within 
 limits w inch may be fairly supposed not to exceed the errors 
 bservntions. 
 On account of the multitude of causes which influence 
 the rate of mortality among the inhabitants of a country, it 
 is plain that any formula deduced from a priori considera- 
 tions ean only be trusted sofar as it is found to agree with 
 experience; and therefore, for all practical purposes, re- 
 -onr e is had to a table showing for each year of age the 
 number of deaths which are observed to take place out of a 
 large number of persons who enter upon that age. The 
 ratio of those two numbers is the measure of the probability 
 
 that an individual entering upon that age will not survive 
 the year, and may be assumed as the law of mortality in 
 respect of that age. The table may be exhibited under dif- 
 ferent forms : the most usual is a table of decrements, which 
 is constructed by supposing a large number of persons, as 
 10,000, for example, to start together in the same year of 
 age (the year of birth is usually assumed), and to write 
 down in the same column the number of them who remain 
 alive at the end of each successive year. From this the 
 number who die in each year, and the chances of sur- 
 viving a year, or any number of years, are easily found. 
 For some purposes, a table of the probabilities of living over 
 a year at each age, or of dying in the course of the year, is 
 more convenient; but either form can be readily reduced to 
 the other. 
 
 The oldest table of mortality we possess is published in 
 the Philosophical Transactions for 161)3, and was construct- 
 ed by Hallcy from the mortuary registers of the town of 
 Breslaw, in Silesia. This town was selected, because the 
 number of births having been nearly equal to the number 
 of deaths for some years, it might be assumed that the popu- 
 lation had remained in a nearly stationary state during that 
 time : an assumption which affords the means of determin- 
 ing the ratio of the number who die at each age to the num- 
 ber who entered upon that age; for it is evident that in a place 
 so circumstanced, and supposing also there is no migration, 
 the number who survive or complete any year of age within 
 a given period is equal to the sum of the deaths at all the 
 greater ages during the same period. For the sake of facili- 
 tating calculations from the table, he reduced the numbers 
 proportionally to 1000, by which number he represented the 
 infants of one year of age. 
 
 This method of determining the mortality front the raor 
 tuary registers, or bills of viortalttij, has been frequently 
 adopted, particularly by Dr. Smart, in the formation of a 
 table showing the mortality in the city of London about the 
 middle of the last century ; by St. Maur, in respect of I'ai is ; 
 and by Dr. Price, for the celebrated Northampton table, 
 presently to be described. But it is evident that as the popu 
 lation of a large town or district of country can never he ah 
 solute! y stationary, and as migration must I-, :onttontiy 
 taking place to a greater or less extent, the method is not 
 absolutely correct; and, in fact, the results to which it leads 
 must be attended with great uncertainty. In order to ob- 
 tain accurate results, it is necessary to know the hum 
 who actually enter upon each year of age, as well as the 
 numbers who die in that age, during the period included in 
 the observation ; and hence, in addition to the mortuary re- 
 gister, an enumeration in each year, or at short intervals, 
 of the community in the several ages of life, is requisite for 
 the accurate solution of the problem. But, although great 
 attention has been given of late years to the statistics of life 
 in various countries of Europe, it is only in a very few in 
 stances that sufficiently accurate data for the construction 
 of a mortality table have been obtained from observations 
 embracing indiscriminately all the different classes of the 
 inhabitants. Of these few, the principal (if not the only) 
 instances arc the observations made in Sweden and Nor- 
 way ; those of Dr. Heysham, at Carlisle ; and more recently 
 by Dr. Cleland, at Glasgow. 
 
 In consequence of the migration which is constantly go 
 ing on among the inhabitants, it is very difficult to obtain 
 with certainty the data necessary for determining the mor- 
 tality of any town or district, even where the registers of 
 births and deaths are accurately kept ; but there are various 
 associations of individuals with respect to which precise 
 data exist. Such, for example, are the religious houses in 
 Catholic countries ; the tontines which were established in 
 different countries of Europe during the last century , the 
 annuitants of the British government; and especially the 
 assurance companies, which are now become so numerous. 
 In all such associations, the numbers who enter upon and 
 die in each year of age can be ascertained with precision 
 from the records of the association, which, therefore, afford 
 the data requisite for determining the rate of mortality at 
 the different ages, without hypothesis of any kind. Tables 
 were thus constructed by Kersseboom, from Dutch registers 
 of annuitants ; by De Parcieux, from the lists of the nomi- 
 nees in the French tontines, chiefly of 1089 and 1696, and 
 from the mortuary registers of. the Benedictines, and of tho 
 nuns in several convents in Paris; and by Mr. Finlaison, 
 from six different classes of annuitants in English and Irish 
 tontines. Of the assurance offices, the Equitable Society is 
 the only one which has as yet published its experience ; 
 but there is little doubt that several of the others have ac- 
 cumulated valuable masses of observations. 
 
 We shall now give a comparative view of the mean du- 
 ration of life at the different ages, computed from some of 
 the best-known tables, premising a short account of each 
 table. For the method of making the computation, see Ex- 
 pectation of Life. 
 
 1. Northampton Table.— This table, which, perhaps, ia 
 
 777 
 
MORTALITY, LAW OF. 
 
 better known in this country than any other, on account of 
 its having been adopted by the greater number of the as- 
 surance offices as the basis of their tables of premiums, was 
 constructed by Dr. Price, from the bills of mortality from 
 1735 to 1780 of the parish of AH Saints, in the city of North- 
 ampton. It cannot be considered as possessing much au- 
 thority, either on account of the accuracy of the data, or 
 the number of lives of which it embraces the history ; and 
 the hypotheses made use of in its formation — namely, that 
 the number of the inhabitants, and the number of annual 
 deaths, remained the same during the forty-six years inclu- 
 ded in the observations, and also that the migrations all 
 took place at the age of twenty years — tend farther to ren- 
 der it of doubtful value. It differs from the other tables in 
 giving a much lower expectation of life at the younger and 
 middle ages ; and although this may be in part owing to 
 an increase in the average duration of life since the middle 
 of the last century, it is probably owing, in a much greater 
 degree, to the inaccuracy of the observations. For the his- 
 tory of this table, see Price on Reversionary Payments, 4th 
 ed., 1783. 
 
 2. Carlisle Table.— This was constructed by Mr. Milne, 
 from registers kept by Dr. Heysham of the births and deaths 
 which took place in the city of Carlisle and its environs in 
 the nine years from 1779 to 1787, the number of inhabitants 
 having been determined by two enumerations which were 
 made during that interval. On account of the accuracy of 
 the data, and the skilful manner in which they were made 
 use of, this table is of great value, and probably gives the 
 most correct view of the mortality among the inhabitants of 
 England generally which has yet been obtained. {Milne's 
 Treatise on Annuities, Sre., 1815.) 
 
 3. Government Tables. — These tables, as already men- 
 tioned, were computed by Mr. Finlaison, from observations of 
 the mortality among the nominees of life annuities granted 
 by the British government. Mr. Finlaison has given twenty- 
 one tables of the probabilities of life ; but the recorded" facts 
 are contained in only six of them, the others being formed 
 by combinations of these six. The two columns in the sub- 
 Joined * Me, fiat males and females respectively, n r e dedu- 
 ces .:o<.n the rate oi mortality adopted by the go /eminent 
 for determining the vaiues of life annuities. (Finlaison' s 
 Report to the Lords of the Treasury, published by order of 
 the House of Commons, 1829.) 
 
 4. Equitable Society's Table. — This table, which was pre- 
 pared by Mr. Arthur Morgan, and published in 1834, exhib- 
 its the mortality which took place in the society from its es- 
 tablishment in 1760 to the end of the year 1829. By reason 
 of the great number of lives contained in it, and the certainty 
 of the data, this is a document of great importance. It will 
 be seen from the subjoined table that, for ages under fifty, it 
 gives a rather more favourable expectation of life than the 
 government table for males, and agrees nearly with the 
 Carlisle table ; but forages above fifty it gives a less favour- 
 able expectation than cither of those tables. The observa- 
 tions commence at the age of ten. 
 
 5. The Friendly Society's Table. — This table was prepa- 
 red by Mr. Ansel 1, from materials collected by the Society 
 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It may be consid- 
 ered as representing the mortality of the labouring classes 
 in England. The observations were from 1823 to 1828. 
 (Ans ell's Treatise on Friendly Societies, 1835.) 
 
 For the sake of avoiding decimal points, the numbers in 
 the subjoined table show the mean duration of life for ten 
 individuals, or the number of years enjoyed by ten individu- 
 als collectively. In respect of a single individual, the mean 
 duration of life is the tenth part of the number given in the 
 table. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 a. 
 § 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 ESS 
 It 
 
 a 
 
 11 
 
 
 1- 
 
 G 
 
 2.2 
 
 387 
 
 5(,2 
 
 655 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 408 
 
 513 
 
 489 
 
 542 
 
 
 
 HI 
 
 393 
 
 488 
 
 456 
 
 511 
 
 433 
 
 
 1 . 
 
 385 
 
 450 
 
 418 
 
 472 
 
 450 
 
 413 
 
 20 
 
 331 
 
 41S 
 
 384 
 
 440 
 
 417 
 
 3"6 
 
 2> 
 
 309 
 
 379 
 
 359 
 
 408 
 
 381 
 
 342 
 
 ■m 
 
 283 
 
 343 
 
 332 
 
 376 
 
 345 
 
 309 
 
 35 
 
 2 -.7 
 
 310 
 
 362 
 
 343 
 
 309 
 
 276 
 
 41 J 
 
 231 
 
 276 
 
 270 
 
 311 
 
 274 
 
 2J6 
 
 4> 
 
 205 
 
 2*5 
 
 233 
 
 273 
 
 239 
 
 216 
 
 .-.1) 
 
 180 
 
 211 
 
 203 
 
 244 
 
 204 
 
 187 
 
 :>"> 
 
 159 
 
 176 
 
 172 
 
 20S 
 
 170 
 
 159 
 
 tin 
 
 132 
 
 143 
 
 144 
 
 173 
 
 139 
 
 133 
 
 t.-, 
 
 109 
 
 118 
 
 116 
 
 140 
 
 111 
 
 109 
 
 ■.■() 
 
 86 
 
 92 
 
 92 
 
 no 
 
 87 
 
 86 
 
 75 
 
 65 
 
 70 
 
 71 
 
 85 
 
 66 
 
 65 
 
 SI) 
 
 43 
 
 65 
 
 49 
 
 65 
 
 48 
 
 48 
 
 
 34 
 
 41 
 
 31 
 
 48 
 
 34 
 
 34 
 
 90 
 
 24 
 
 33 
 
 20 
 
 23 
 
 26 
 
 24 
 
 (r., 
 
 8 
 
 35 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 
 S 
 
 MORTGAGE. 
 
 law of mortality which cannot yet be satisfactorily answer 
 ed, from the want of sufficient data. The Carlisle table 
 gives only an indication of local mortality ; but it may be 
 asked, whether the mortality is the same in different parts 
 even of the same country, or the same in cities as in rural 
 districts 1 Now, the government annuitants resided in all 
 different parts of the kingdom ; and the same may be said 
 of the members of the Equitable Society, though peih ips a 
 majority of the latter were resident in London. But the 
 three tables— namely, the Carlisle table, the table computed 
 from the government male annuitants, and the Equitable 
 Society's table — present a remarkable agreement ; and, so 
 far as their evidence goes, we cannot draw any positive con- 
 clusion, either in favour of a particular district or a select 
 class of individuals. 
 
 It seems to be established beyond doubt that the rate of 
 mortality, at least in England, has undergone a very sensible 
 diminution within a contury, especially in respect of children 
 and aged people. This may be ascribed, in some degree, to 
 the discovery of vaccination, but more especially to the gen- 
 eral diffusion of comfort, and the improved mode of living, 
 among the labouring classes of the community. 
 
 Another question of great importance is, whether the law 
 of mortality is the same for both sexes 1 In the above table 
 it will be seen that there is a remarkable disparity between 
 the male and female annuitants in favour of the latter. 
 This indication of the greater longevity of females is con- 
 firmed by the observations of De Parcieux on the monks 
 and nuns in the French convents ; of Kersseboom, on the 
 Dutch annuitants; of Dr. Price, on the mortality of Chester; 
 and also by the tables constructed from the mortality in 
 Sweden, at Montpellier in France, and in the cities of Am- 
 sterdam and Brussels. It is still, however, open to doubt, 
 whether the superiority shown in the above instances holds 
 generally true. Over the whole population of Belgium, tlie 
 greater part consisting of peasantry and labourers, it is found 
 that the lives of females are shorter than those of male.;, 
 while in the towns the advantage is on the side of the fe- 
 males. We believe the experience of some of the assu- 
 rance offices shows no superiority in the duration of female 
 life. 
 
 The following table, showing the proportion of deaths to 
 the population in the principal states of Europe, according to 
 the latest observations, is extracted from a paper in the Rt- 
 vue Encyclopedique for July and August, 1833. We can- 
 not vouch for its accuracy, but it is probably not far from 
 the truth. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Periods cr 
 Epochs. 
 
 Ratio of Mortals 
 to Population. 
 
 Sweden and Norway 
 Denmark . • 
 European Russia . 
 Kingdom of Poland 
 British Islands 
 Netherlands . 
 Germany Proper . 
 Prussia .... 
 Austrian Empiic . 
 France .... 
 Switzerland ■ 
 Portugal 
 
 Spain .... 
 laly . 
 
 Greece . . . 
 Turkey in Europe 
 Northern Europe 
 Southern Europe 
 The whole of Burope . 
 
 1-21 — 1S2J 
 1819 
 
 1S26 
 
 1S29 
 
 ISIS — TS21 
 
 ls27-I>2S 
 
 1825— !82i 
 
 1K21 — 1S26 
 
 1828 
 
 lt-25— 1827 
 
 1*27—1828 
 
 1815—1819 
 
 1801—1*26 
 
 1X22- 1S28 
 
 1823 
 
 1323 
 
 1 in 47 
 1 45 
 1 44 
 1 44 
 
 l u 
 
 1 38 
 1 45 
 1 39 
 1 40 
 1 39 
 1 40 
 1 40 
 1 40 
 1 30 
 1 30 
 1 30 
 
 1 44 
 1 36 
 
 1 40 
 
 Tliere are many questions of great interest respecting the 
 778 
 
 For an accurate description of the various mortality tables 
 which have hitherto been published, the reader is referred 
 to the excellent article on the subject, by Mr. Milne, in the 
 Ency. Britannica. 
 
 MO'RTAR. (Dut. mortar.) In Architecture, a cement 
 for the junction of stones and bricks, made of lime, sand, 
 and water. In the composition of it stone lime is prefer- 
 able to that burned from chalk, and river to pit or road 
 sand. 
 
 Mortar. A short, wide piece of ordnance for throwing 
 shells, bombs, grape-shot, &x. It is the most ancient kind 
 of cannon. 
 
 Mortar. In Pharmacy, a vessel made eilher of iron, 
 stone-ware, or glass, &c, according to the use to which it is 
 applied, in which substances are either pulverized or dis- 
 solved by means of a pestle. In fine chemical processes 
 recourse is often had to mortars made of agate, flint, oi " 
 porphvry. 
 
 MO'RTGAGE. In Law, a mortgage-deed is ir effect a 
 conveyance, by which a party. grants his interest or a por- 
 tion of it to another, with a condition that if a sum of mon- 
 ey is paid by a stipulated day the grant shall be void. Thus 
 the grantee has a conditional estate, whether of fee-simple 
 or otherwise, according to the terms of the conveyance 
 During the continuance of this estate, the mortgagor, though 
 
MORTIER. 
 
 in possession, is, ir. contemplation of law, only tenant-at- 
 will to the mortgagee ; and, on failure of payment, the es- 
 tate of the mortgagee would become absolute at law. But 
 m equity, the mortgagee's estate is subject to an equity of 
 redemption, or right to redeem on the part of the mortgagor; 
 and a mortgage is thus redeemable so Ion? as the relation 
 of debtor or creditor appears to subsist between the parries, 
 and for twenty years after the last acknowledgment of 
 that relation by the mortgagee, unless, upon his application, 
 the right be previously foreclosed by a decree of the court. 
 
 M< HITLER. (Fr.) The name given to a cap of slate of 
 great antiquity, worn by the first kings of France, and the 
 form of which is still preserved in the cap worn by the pres- 
 ident de lii cour of ParN. 
 
 MORTIFICATION. (Lat. mors, death, and facio, 7 
 cause.) Local death, gangrene. When any portion of the 
 body loses its vitality, a process of separation takes place 
 between it and the living parts that surround it; and when 
 this happens [n certain parts or organs, it i> necessarily total, 
 ploma that attend mortification of the viscera are 
 generally loss of pain, diminution Of fever, small, sinking 
 pulse, hiccough, delirium, cold sweat, and fainting, which 
 death. 
 
 Mortikk ation, in Scottish Law , is nearly synonymous 
 with mortmain in English. By an art of l.">87, land vested 
 in the church was declared to be given for superstitious 
 and to belong to the crown ; and thus the spolia- 
 ; ■■ richly-endowed church of that country, prior to 
 
 the Reformation, was finally legalized. 
 
 MO'RTISE (Pr. mortaiae), Jo Architecture, is the junc- 
 tion of two pieces of wood or other material, the cavity cut 
 lag the receiving correspondent portion of the 
 •rood of the other, which is called a tenon. 
 
 MO'RTMAIN. In Law, an alienation of lands, tene- 
 ments, or hereditaments, to any corporation, sole or aggre- 
 gate, guild, or fraternity. The foundation of the statutes of 
 mortmain is Magna Charts ; by which it was rendered un- 
 lawful for any one to give his lands to a religions house, &c. 
 in order to take them back again to hold of the sane- house : 
 
 by Interpretation, so as to annul gifts 
 of lands which religious houses did not give back to the 
 donor to his own use. but kept in their own hands 
 
 \ peat number of statutes were afterwards passed in 
 
 order to restrict alienations to religious persons and houses, 
 and various devices formed for the purpose of eluding them ; 
 of which the system of uses, which lias become, 
 sort, the foundation of our law id' real property, Was One. 
 L Property, Trust.) But during the whole of 
 this time the king had the power of dispensing with the 
 statutes of mortmain by granting licenses of alienation ; and 
 r was confirmed to the crown by stat. 7& 8VV. 3, 
 c. :(7. Alienation to charitable uses are exempted from the 
 statutes of mortmain; but they are subjected to particular 
 ■ I solemnities by the last mortmain art, 9 O. ~. c. 
 38, The term mortmain is derived from the Latin words 
 moitu.i mantis [dead hand), because the lands so alienated 
 are said to fall Into a dead hand, i. e., one incapable of per- 
 forming the iiMial services required of tenants. 
 
 MO'RTUARY. In Law, a fee paid to the incumbent of 
 by custom peculiar to some places, on the death of 
 iner. It appears to have been a very ancient usage 
 to present the priest, on the solemnization of a funeral, with 
 sonal chattel of the deceased, or a sum of money 
 In lieu of it: under tin; various titles ofpecunla sepiilchra*- 
 lis, sedalium ; In Saxon, soul-shot, .Sec. It had become a le- 
 gal custom as early as the reign of Henry III., when the 
 reservation of a in.irluary appears to have been essential to 
 tile validity of a testament of chattels. The amount was 
 fixed by 21 II. 8, c. (i, according to an ad valorem taxation of 
 the goods of the deceased. Mortuaries (where due by cus- 
 tom) are recoverable in the ecclesiastical courts; and it 
 should appear, since the statute, at common law, although 
 such actions have not hitherto been brought. 
 
 MO'Kl S I .at. the mulberry tree ; Celtic, mor, black), is a 
 small genus of plants, containing some specie3 valuable for 
 their foliage, and others for their fruit. The latter is our 
 mullieiry tree, Moras nigra, whose well-known black, juicy 
 berries are n favourite autumn production ; the former are 
 JU. alba, philippensis, and others, which constitute the best 
 of all food for silk-worms. The latter are found occasion- 
 ally in plantations; but they are too tender to bear our cli- 
 mate well, and cannot be usefully cultivated even in the 
 midland country of England. 
 
 MOSA'IC, oi Ml SAIC. (Gr. uovuatKnv, polished, ele- 
 gant ; from sytja, as being fine or ingenious ?) In Paint- 
 ing, a species of representation of objects by means of very 
 minute pieces of stones or pebbles of different colours, care- 
 fully inlaid upon a ground generally of metal. In St. 
 Peter's at Home are to be seen some works of this sort on a 
 magnificent scale. This art was practised at a very early 
 period, and was re-introduced to Italy by the Byza-tine 
 <;reek=. 
 
 MOTHER OF PEARL. 
 
 MOSA'IC GOLD. Bisulphuret of tin ; a yellow, flaky 
 substance, sometimes employed in ornamental japan woik 
 This term has lately been applied to a superior kind of brass, 
 and to a yellow alloy of copper, zinc, and' gold. 
 
 MOSA'IC WORK. In Architecture, the inlaying pave- 
 ments, walls, &c. with small dies of different coloured 
 stones or glass, in regular figures, or to represent historical 
 or other subjects. 
 
 M< iSLEM. Sec Mussulman. 
 
 MOSUUE. (Arab, medsched.) A Mohammedan place 
 of religious worship. The principal interior decoration of 
 mosques consists in the lamps, which are numerous, and 
 singularly disposed ; the floor is covered with carpets: the 
 direclion of Mecca is denoted by a niche, or by a tablet in- 
 scribed with verses of the Koran, called the Kebla. The 
 principal Arabian and Syrian mosques are most remarkable 
 for their vast quadrangles, surrounded with numerous col- 
 umns ; those O? the Turks for the elegance of their cupolas . 
 The original places of worship of the Arabians were the 
 temples dedicated to the religion of the different nations 
 whom they subdued : such, for instance, as the temple of 
 Jerusalem, the temple of Minerva at Athens, and innumer- 
 able others in Spain, Asia and Egypt It was not until they 
 had consolidated their power that the Arabians devoted 
 themselves to the cultivation of the arts, and gave any indi- 
 cation of that original architectural genius Which afterwards 
 displayed itself in the structure of mosques. At the en- 
 trance of almost every mosque there is a large court plant- 
 ed with bushy trees, in the centre of which, or under a ves- 
 tibule paved with marble, are fountains for the prescribed 
 ablutions of the Mussulmans ; and to these courts is usually 
 attached a small gallery, on which the apartments of the 
 
 ministers of religion, &c. abut. But besides MTUes for 
 
 public worship, there are others set apart for the instruction 
 of young men in the science of legislation and the doctrines 
 of the Koran ; and to this class belong the so-called royal 
 mosques, or jamis, of Constantinople. Most of these 
 mosques have hospitals for the |x>or, sick, or deranged per 
 sons attached to them. Their revenues are often consider- 
 able, and are derived chiefly from endowments in landed 
 property. Tho term mosque is found, with slight variation, 
 in all European languages. The Turkish equivalent is 
 nieschil, which is supposed to be derived from the Arabic 
 meagiad, a place of adoration; and from this are derived 
 respectively the Fr. mnsquee, the Germ, moschee, the Span. 
 mequila, liie Ital. mascheia, and the Eng. mosque. Sec 
 
 MlNARKT. 
 
 Mo'SSKS, in common language, are any minute, small 
 leaved Cry plogamic plants, Tims club moss is a lycopo- 
 dittm ; Iceland and reindeer mosses are lichens; and the 
 numerous species of JuQgermnnnln are all comprehended 
 under the same term. Hut in systematical botany no plants 
 are considered mosses except such ns belong to the natural 
 order Bryaccte or Musci. Such plants nre simple-leaved ; 
 without spiral vessels or stomates; with a distinct axis ol 
 growth; and with the spores or reproductive matter enclo- 
 sed in cases, called sporangia or theca;, covered by a cup oi 
 calyptra. The structure of the sporangia is as complex as 
 that of the stems and leaves is simple. Each sporangium is 
 closed by a lid or operculum ; below which is a transverse 
 membrane, closing up the urn left after the fall of the oper- 
 culum. The edge of the urn is furnished with one or more 
 rows of teeth, in all cases some multiple of 4 ; in the centre 
 is a columella or column, and between the latter and the 
 sides of the urn arc the spores. It is not a little singula! 
 that such plants should have cases called staminidia, con- 
 taining powdery matter ; among which are found animal- 
 cules, not distinguishable from such os are called spermatic, 
 and which swim nbout freely in water. None of the moss- 
 es nro of any known use. 
 
 MOSS LAND. Land abounding in peat moss, but not 
 so much saturated with water as to become peat bog, or 
 mornss. 
 
 MOSS-TROOPERS. In English nnd Scottish History, 
 those inhabitants of the borders of the respective countries 
 who were banded together in clans, and lived by rapine, re- 
 ceived this denomination, from the character of the country 
 over which they "trooped" in their excursions. These ban 
 ditti were little heard of after the union of the two crowns, 
 but not absolutely suppressed until the union of the king 
 doms a century afterwards. 
 
 MOTES, among the Anglo-Saxons, were public courts or 
 conventions of the people assembled for municipal or legis- 
 lative purposes. They were of various kinds; as Wittenage- 
 mote, Folkmote, Burgemote, &c. (See these separate arti 
 cles.) Moteer was a customary service or payment at the 
 mote or court of the lord, from which certain persons alone 
 were exempted by charter or other privilege. 
 
 MOTE'T. (Ital. motetto.) In Music, a composition con 
 sisting of from one to eight parts, of a sacred character. 
 
 MOTHER OF PEARL (Fr. nacre de perles; Germ 
 perlen-mutter), is the hard, silvery, brilliant internal layei 
 
MOTHER WATER. 
 
 of several kinds of shells, particularly oysters, which is often 
 variegated with changing purple and azure colours. The 
 large oysters of the Indian seas alone secrete this coat of 
 sufficient thickness to render their shells available to the 
 purposes of manufactures. The genus of shell-fish called 
 Pentadinai furnishes the finest pearls, us well as mother of 
 pearl ; it is found in greater perfection round the coast of 
 Ceylon, near Ormus in the Persian Gulf, at Cape Comorin, 
 and among some of the Australian seas. The brilliant hues 
 of mother of pearl do not depend upon the nature of the 
 substance, but upon it3 structure. The microscopic wrinkles 
 or furrows which run across the surface of every slice act 
 upon the reflected light in such a way as to produce the 
 chromatic effect ; for Sir David Brewster has shown, that if 
 we take, with very fine black wax, or with the fusible alloy 
 of D Arcet, an impression of mother of pearl, it will possess 
 the iridescent appearance. Mother of pearl is very delicate 
 to work ; but it may be fashioned by saws, files, and drills, 
 with the aid sometimes of a corrosive acid, such as the dilute 
 sulphuric or muriatic; and it is polished by colcothar of 
 vitriol. (Ure's Dictionary of Arts, <$-c.) 
 
 MOTHER WATER. A term applied by chemists to 
 saline solutions from which crystals have been deposited, 
 and which, when poured off and re-evaporated, furnish a 
 second crop. 
 
 MOTION. (Lat. motio.) In Mechanical Philosophy, 
 motion is the change of place ; that is, of the part of space 
 which the body occupies, or in which it is extended. Motion 
 is real or absolute when the moving body changes its place 
 in absolute space ; it is relative when the body changes its 
 place only with relation to surrounding bodies ; and it is ap- 
 varcnt when the body changes its situation with respect to 
 other bodies that appear to us to be at rest. All the phe- 
 nomena of motion are derived by mathematical deductions 
 from the three following laws of motion of Newton: 
 
 1. A body must continue forever in a state of rest, or of 
 uniform motion in a straight line, if it be not disturbed by 
 the action of an external cause. 
 
 2. Every change of motion produced by any external force 
 is proportional to the force impressed, and in the direction 
 of the straight line in which the force acts. 
 
 3. Action and reaction are equal and in contrary direc- 
 tions , that is, equal and contrary changes of motion are 
 produced on bodies which mutually act on each other. 
 
 For the formula which express the relations between the 
 moving force, the spaces passed over, and the times when 
 bodies move in straight lines or curves, with uniform or ac- 
 celerated velocities, see Force and Velocity. For element- 
 ary illustrations of the above three laws, wc refer to Mac- 
 lau riii's Account of Newton's Principia. 
 
 Motion. (Lat. motio.) In Painting and Sculpture, the 
 change of place or position which from certain attitudes a 
 figure seems to be making in its representation in a picture. 
 It can be only implied from the attitude which prepares the 
 animal for the given change, and differs from action, which 
 see. Upon motion, in art, depends that life which seems to 
 pervade a picture when executed by a master. 
 
 Motion. In Music, the manner of beating the measure 
 so as to hasten or retard the pronunciation of the words or 
 notes. 
 
 MOTION IN COURT. In Law, an occasional applica- 
 tion to the court, by the parties or their counsel, for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining some rule or order of court which becomes 
 necessary in the progress of a cause. Motions are either of 
 a criminal nature, as motions for an attachment for a mis- 
 behaviour ; or of a civil nature. A motion in the courts of 
 common law is either for a rule absolute, i. e., to take effect 
 immediately ; or it is for what is termed a rule nisi, or a rule 
 to show cause— j. e., a rule to take effect, unless cause be 
 shown against it by a certain day, when, if no cause be 
 shown, the rule is made absolute on a second motion. Mo- 
 tions are accompanied by affidavits stating the facts on which 
 they are grounded, and generally preceded by a notice to the 
 opposite party. 
 
 MOTION, QUANTITY OF. This term is used by wri- 
 ters on mechanics to denote the product of the mass or mo- 
 ving body by the velocity. See Momentum. 
 
 MOTIVE FORCE. The force which tends to produce 
 motion. It is the same with momentum. 
 
 MOTOR, MOVER. A term applied by anatomists to 
 certain muscles, &c. 
 
 MOTTO (Ital.), is used to signify a word or sentence ad- 
 ded to a device ; and when put upon a scroll, it is commonly 
 employed as an external ornament of coat armour. The 
 use of mottoes for this purpose is very ancient. The term 
 motto is also applied as a sentence or quotation prefixed to 
 any writing or publication. 
 
 MOULD. Soil composed of decayed vegetable matter in 
 a state of minute division, more or less mixed with garden 
 earth. The kinds of mould most in use in horticulture are 
 leaf-mould, formed from the decayed leaves of trees; rich 
 mould, formed of thoroughly decayed stable dung; heath- 
 "80 
 
 MOUNTAIN. 
 
 mould, found on the surface of heath lands ; and peat-mou u, 
 formed of thoroughly decomposed peat. In general, moulds 
 are distinguished from soils by containing a much greater 
 portion of vegetable matters than of earths. 
 
 Mould. (Span, molde.) In Sculpture, the matrix or hol- 
 lowed wrought form into which the liquid or plaster, wax 
 or metal, is run in casting works ol art. 
 
 MOU'LDING (Fr. moule.) In Architecture, the mem- 
 bers of an order, which are shaped into various curved or 
 flat forms, of which there are eight sorts. The fillet, which 
 is square in profile (1) ; the astragal (2) ; tl « toius (3), being 
 
 _, 
 
 Z3 r"~-\ 
 
 j 
 
 T 
 
 larger than the astragal ; the scotia (4) ; the echinus (5), or 
 quarter round ; the inverted cyma, talon, or ogee (6) ; the 
 cyma, cvma recta, or cymatium (7) ; and the cavetto v. 
 hollow (8.) 
 
 MOULD LOFT. A large room in a dockyard in which 
 the several parts of the ship are drawn out in their proper 
 dimensions. 
 
 MOULTING. The fall of the plumage of birds. It may 
 be either partial or total : the complete moult generally 
 takes place annually , the partial moult occurs at the change 
 of plumage to which some species of birds are subject at 
 the breeding season. The moult is always accompanied by 
 the development of a new plumage, which may be of a 
 different colour from that which is lost. See Indumentum. 
 MOU'NTAIN LIMESTONE. A series of limestone 
 strata, the geological position of which is immediately below 
 the coal measures, with which they also sometimes alter- 
 nate. See Geology. 
 
 MOU'NTAIN MILK. A very soft, spongy variety of 
 carbonate of lime. 
 
 MOUNTAIN. (Lat. mons.) In Geography, the term 
 applied to designate the principal elevations on the earth's 
 surface. Mountains and hills, says Bakewell, are relative 
 terms with respect to each other, the highest elevations be- 
 ing denominated mountains, and the lower hills. In the 
 vicinity of Mont Blanc and Mont Rosa, which are more than 
 5000 yards high, the mountains in Cumberland and North 
 Wales would be called hills, though Snowdon rises more 
 than 1100 yards, and Skiddawand Helvellyn more than 1000 
 above the level of the sea. In England, if hills rise abrupt- 
 ly, and are more than 400 yards above the surrounding 
 country, they are generally called mountains. Sec Geology. 
 Arrangement of Mountains. — Mountains are seldom found 
 insulated or detached: sometimes, though rarely, thoy exist 
 in aggregate groups, branching from a common centre, and 
 not externally connected ; but most commonly they are ex- 
 tended in ranges or mountain chains, traversing extensive 
 regions. A single continuous chain is of rare occurrence: 
 in general, a number of chains is associated ; though there 
 does not. seem to be any predominating form of aggregation 
 or direction, at least with reference to the whole surface of 
 the globe. In some instances there is a principal or central 
 chain, with secondary groups branching off from it ; in others, 
 several chains are associated, to no one of which the rest 
 can be said to be subordinate ; and in others again, as the 
 Cordilleras, a series of chain's succeed each other, all run- 
 ning in one constant direction. It has been surmised that 
 the direction of the principal mountain chains is that of the 
 line of greatest length of the continent'or region to which 
 they belong; but this idea, though rendered plausible by 
 some remarkable instances, can scarcely be said to be borne 
 out by the facts. In a very general view, it may be stated 
 that the predominating direction of the great mountain chain? 
 of the old world is from west to east, while those of Araer 
 ca range from north to south. See Geography. 
 
 Another generalization, which seems to be liable to fewei 
 exceptions, is, that mountain chains or ranges present the 
 steepest acclivities on the sides nearest the sea. This ar- 
 rangement is particularly observable on the shores of the 
 Mediterranean: the mountains of Armenia present their 
 precipitous sides to the Euxine, and those of Caucasus and 
 Mozanderan to the Caspian. The western Ghauts face the 
 Indian Ocean ; and the whole range of the Cordilleras, with 
 their prolongation to the Arctic. Ocean, presents its escarp- 
 ments to the great Pacific. On tte hypothesis that the con 
 tinents and mountain masses have been upheaved by a 
 force acting in the Interior of the earth, these peculiarities 
 of configuration afford scope for curicus .'peculation respect- 
 ing the prodigious efficacy of the subterranenn agencies 
 through which the crust of the earth has assumed its actual 
 form. 
 
 Altitude of Mountains.— On taking a general view of the 
 surface of the earth, the elevation of the loftiest mountain 
 chains, enormous as it appears to be, is insignificant iu com- 
 parison of the dimensions of the globe. The radius of the 
 earth is nearly 4000 miles; while the height of the high-*.-' 
 
MOURNING. 
 
 peaks above the mean level scarcely exceeds five miles: the 
 ratio is accordingly 1 to 800 ; so that on a 16-inch globe the 
 corresponding inequality would only amount to the hun- 
 dredth part of an inch. Mountnins, however, exercise a 
 very great influence on the climate of a country, and hence 
 it is of great importance in geography to ascertain their alti- 
 tude and configuration. The methods by which the meas- 
 urement is effected have been explained under the term 
 Heights, Measurement of. 
 
 The following are the altitudes of a few of the most ele- 
 vated peaks in the four quarters of the world. The most 
 extensive list which we have seen is given in Gehler's Physi- 
 calisches Lexicon, art. " Hohenpunckte," where the authori- 
 ties for the different measure* are also stated. 
 
 Europe. — Mont Blanc, Alps, 15.781 ft. ; Mont Rosa, 15,555 
 ft.; Ortter Spitzc, Tyrol, 15,430 ft.; Jungfrauhorn, 13,720 
 ft ; St. Gotnard Pass, 9975 ft.; Hospice, Great St. Bernard, 
 8040 ft.; Mont Perdu, Pyrenees, 11,283 ft.; Le Pic Blanc, 
 do., 10,205 ft. ; Monte Como, Appcnines, 9523 ft. ; Lomnilz, 
 Peak of Carpathians, t-640 ft. ; Parnassus, 8000 ft.; Mula- 
 hnccn. Sierra Nevada, Spain, 11,673 ft.; ^Etna, Sicily, 10,963 
 ft.; Sneehattan, Norway, 8115 ft.; Snaefell, Iceland, 6860 
 ft.: Helvellvn, England, 3055 ft.; Hen Mardui, Scotland, 
 4418 ft. ; MacgiUlcuddy'l Reeks, Ireland, 3410 ft. 
 
 Asia. — Dhnwala-giri, Himalaya, 26,862 ft.; Jnmautri, do., 
 23,5(H)ft.; Elburz, Caucasus, 18,500 ft.; Mouna Kaah. Sand- 
 wich Wands, 18,400 ft.; Demavend, Mazandernn, 14,700ft. ; 
 S, Thibet, 14,500 ft. ; Ophir, Sumatra, 13,842 ft. ; 
 Itnlitzkoi, Altai. 10,735 ft. , Ararat, Armenia, 9500 ft.; Leb- 
 anon, 9530 it. ; Sinai, 5000 ft. ; Tangni, Ural, 4912 ft. 
 
 Jlfrica.— Mountains of Geesh, 15,000 ft.; Peak of Tene- 
 rlffe, 12.238 ft.; Atlas, 11,400 ft.; Niewveldt, Cape of Good 
 ■ . KM Morne, Me of Bourbon, 9600 ft. ; Tri- 
 go. Canaries, 7100 ft. ; Tuivo, Madeira, 5162 ft. 
 
 rim— Sorata, Bolivia. 25.000 ft.; Illimani, Pent, 
 24,450 ft.; Chimbornzo, Andes, 21,440 ft.; Anlisnnn, 10,150 
 ft. ; ( 'atopaxi, 18,890 ft. ; Volcan oe Popocateptl, Mexico, 
 17,711! ft ; Potosi, 16,000 ft. ; Nevado de Mexico, 15,700 ft. ; 
 Lake of Titicaca, 12,000 ft. ; City of Rio Bamba, 10,800 ft. ; 
 White Mountains, New-Hampshire, 0230 ft. 
 
 MOCRNING, may be denned generally as an external 
 indication or manifestation of grief for the death of a friend 
 or relative. Certain usages in regard to mourning have been 
 in force among all nations, barbarous and civilized, from the 
 earliest ages; but except in the grief of which they are in- 
 tended tn be the symbol, no customs exhibit fewer marks of 
 uniformity. Thus, the Chinese mourn in white ; the Turks 
 in blue or in violet : the Egyptians m yellow ; the Ethiopians 
 in gray. In am-ient Borne and I.aceda?mon the ladies mourn- 
 sd in white. In Eastern countries it was regarded as a pe- 
 cii.a:.' mark of affliction to cut the hair; and at Rome, on 
 tne -ontrary, to let it grow. The Greeks adopted the rait 
 em practice, and bestrewed the tombs of those for whom 
 they mourned with their hair. The peculiarities of the an- 
 cient Jews in time of mourning nre well known ; and the 
 various customs, of which so minute an account is contained 
 In the Pentateuch, nre still maintained on these occasions by 
 their descendants. From the commencement of the Christian 
 era, the general colour adopted for mourning throughout Eu- 
 rope has been, with very few exceptions, black. The kings 
 of France mourn in violet. The duration of the period of 
 mourning differs in different countries, but in nil is. usually 
 regulated by the nearness of relationship between the survi- 
 vers and the deceased. Thus, in France, the period pre- 
 scribed by usage is, for a husband, one year and six weeks ; 
 for a father, mother, wife, or child, six mouth* ; for a grand- 
 child, four months and a half; for a brother or sister, two 
 months; for an uncle or aunt, three weeks; for a cousin- 
 gcrman, fifteen days, &c. The rules that determine the forms 
 and duration of court mourning emanate from the sovereicn, 
 but these do not extend beyond the court ; nnd though, on the 
 demise of the crown or a relation, it is expected, in the lan- 
 guage of the Gazette, that the people "put themselves into 
 nt mourning," this is seldom generally compiled with, 
 except when the character of the deceased has been such 
 as to secure wide popularity. (The art. "Deuil," in the 
 Encyclopedic ties Gens du Monde, gives a very complete 
 view of the chief modes of mourning in use in ancient and 
 Bodern times.) See Sepulture, Rites or. 
 
 M< H °SE. (Eat. mus ; probably from the Gr. uvttv, to hide.) 
 The pretty but annoying little Rodent quadruped which in- 
 fests human dwellings and granaries is usually understood 
 oy this word ; the other small species of the genus Mus be- 
 ing distinguished by some prefix, as harvest-mouse, field- 
 e ; and the larger species of the same genus being 
 termed " rats." (For the generic character of the mouse, see 
 Mus.) The common mouse, like the rest of the genus, and 
 indeed the whole of its order, is remarkable for its fecundi- 
 ty ; it produces ordinarily five or six young ones at a birth, 
 and mis several times in the course of the year. In a fort- 
 night the young are able to leave the mothe" and assume an 
 rtdependent existence, and these are soon again able to re- 
 
 MUCUS. 
 
 produce. The harvest-mouse (Mus messorius) is the small 
 est of known mammals ; the length of the head and body b 
 two inches and a half. Its nest is beautifully and elaborate- 
 ly constructed of the panicles and leaves of three stems of 
 the common reed interwoven together, and forming n round- 
 ish ball, suspended on the living plants at a height of about 
 five inches from the ground. The field-mouse is about the 
 size of the house-mouse, but is distinguished by its larger 
 eyes and ears. Many small mouse-like quadrupeds are 
 commonly termed " mice" which really belong to a different 
 genus, or even order, as the dormouse, the field vole, the 
 shrew, &c. 
 
 Mouse. In Naval Affairs, a hump or knot worked an a 
 rope, to prevent a noose from slipping. 
 
 MOUTH. (Sax. mudl.) In Architecture, the same us 
 cavetto, which gee. 
 
 MO'VABLE FEASTS. Certain festivals held in com- 
 memoration of ditferents events recorded in the Gospels and 
 the Acts of the Apostles, and connected with the personal 
 circumstances of Christ during the last year of his earthly 
 life, and after his death. As they are reckoned backward 
 and forward from his resurrection, nnd as the celebration 
 of that day depends on the time of new moon, which varies 
 at different times through the space of a month, these de- 
 pendant festivals also vary in the same way. Easter is 
 always the first Sunday after the first new moon after the 
 21st of March ; and from this all the others are reckoned for 
 each year. 
 
 MO VEMENT. The train of wheel-work of a clock or 
 
 Watch. See HoROLOOY. 
 
 Movement. In Politics, an expression that has been 
 adopted of late years into the political vocabulary of most 
 European nations, signifying that party in a state whose 
 principles consist in a restless endeavour to obtain such con- 
 cessions in favour of popular rights as will ultimately place 
 the chief functions of government in the hands of the peo- 
 ple. It is opposed to the Conservative party, or the parti dr. 
 resistance. 
 
 MOW. A mass of corn in the sheaf, built up in one end 
 of the barn preparatory to being threshed. 
 
 MOWING. The act of cutting down grass, herbage, 
 or corn with a scythe. Mown grass, or herbnge, is cither 
 given to horses and cattle in a green state, or dried and 
 stacked for winter use. When corn or pulse tire mown, 
 they are dried and stacked till a convenient season occurs 
 for separating the corn or pulse from the straw or haum by 
 threshing. 
 
 MO'XA. A soft woolly substance, made in Japan from 
 the leaves of the Artemisia Chinensis, or Chinese niagworts 
 It is used as an actual cautery, by placing a small cone of it 
 u|Kin the skin and setting fire to it, when it burns down to 
 the part and makes a sore, which is kept open if requisite. 
 
 MOYA. Mud poured out from volcanoes. 
 
 MUCI'VORA. (Lat. mucus, slime, voro, / devour.) A 
 name applied to n family of Dipterous insects, comprehend- 
 ing those which feed on the mucus or other juices of plants, 
 or of decomposing animal bodies. 
 
 MUCK, RUNNING A. A phrase which has been adopt- 
 ed into the English language to signify an indiscriminate 
 attack upon friends and enemies; as in the well-known 
 verse, 
 
 Who rum a mucA, and tilts at all he meets. 
 
 This expression is derived from the Javan word amok, 
 which means to kill; the inhabitants of Java, and many 
 other of the Asiatic islands, being remarkable for an irre 
 sistible phrensy resulting from a desire of vengeance, which 
 leads them to aim at indiscriminate destruction, and thus to 
 subject themselves to be treated like wild beasts which it is 
 imi>ossible to take alive. These fits of desperation were long 
 considered peculiar to the class of slaves in the islands above 
 mentioned ; but there are many instances on record where 
 whole villages, and even armies, have, under the influence 
 of a mok, devoted themselves to inevitable destruction to 
 avenge an injury or nn insult. The accounts of the wars 
 of the Javans, says Raffles, in his History of Java, as well 
 as of the Malayus, abound with instances of warriors run 
 ning amok ; of combatants, giving up all idea of preserving 
 their own lives, rushing on the enemy, committing indis- 
 criminate slaughter, and never surrendering themselves 
 alive. The cause of these fits of desperation has been at- 
 tributed to an intemperate indulgence in opium-eating. 
 
 MU'COUS MEMBRANE. The membranous lining of 
 the canals nnd envities of the body which are exposed to 
 the contact of air or other inorganic substances. The basis 
 of this membrane is compact cellular tissue, not gelatinous 
 or adipose, and having a peculiar cuticular covering, beset 
 in some cases with abundant nervous papilla;, in others with 
 the orifices of secretory glands. 
 
 MU'CUS. (Lat.) The secretion of the mucous mem 
 branes, the most characteristic of which is that from the 
 nasal membrane Mucus is viscid, and acquires apparent 
 fluidity in water without being actually dissolved, but gives 
 
 781 
 
MUDAR. 
 
 a ropiness to it when present to a less amount than 1 per 
 cent. With pure water of the temperature of 95°, this ap- 
 uearance ensues in a few hours ; but if the apparent solu- 
 tion be filtered, the mucus remains upon the paper and 
 gradually thickens. It may be repeatedly dried and moist- 
 ened without material change of properties ; it, however, 
 becomes less transparent, yellow, and at length has a puru- 
 lent appearance. When boiled in water, it does not harden 
 and shrink, but becomes tough, and on cooling is found to 
 retain its former characters. When dried it is yellow and 
 translucent ; and subjected to distillation, it yields carbonate 
 of ammonia and empyreumatic oil, and phosphate and car- 
 bonate of lime, and carbonate of soda are found in the ash. 
 It is soluble in dilute sulphuric acid, and blackened by the 
 concentrated acid ; it is not soluble in acetic acid, but yields 
 but a trace of albumen. According to Henle, mucus con- 
 sists of the scales of the epithelium which covers the open 
 cavities of the body. This epithelium or cuticle consists of 
 minute cells of various forms, which are continually wear- 
 ing off and being renovated ; it thus yields scales which mix 
 with the watery secretion, and constitute mucus. 
 
 MU'DAR. The Indian name of Calotropis gigantea, a 
 plant of the Asclepiadaceous order ; a substance used medi- 
 cinally in that country, with great effect in scrofulous cases, 
 but not admitted into the Materia Medica of Europe. It 
 gives its name to mudarine, a peculiar chemical principle, 
 having the singular property of softening by cold and hard- 
 ening by heat. 
 
 MUE'ZZIN, in Mohammedan countries, is the general 
 appellation of those officers, or clerks of the mosques, whose 
 duty it is to proclaim the ezam or summons to prayers at the 
 five canonical hours, viz., at dawn, noon, 4 o'clock P.M., 
 sunset, and nightfall. 
 
 MUFFLE. An arched vessel with a flat bottom, in which 
 substances may be exposed to n red heat without coming 
 into contact with the fuel. See Assaying. 
 
 MU'FTI. The Turkish title of a doctor of the law of the 
 Koran ; derived from fetoas, a rescript or answer to a ques- 
 tion of law addressed to the competent authority; which 
 fetvas it is the province of the mufti to issue. The mufti of 
 Constantinople, or Sheikh-ul-Islam, is the chief functionary 
 of the Turkish church, and represents the sultan in spiritual 
 matters, as the grand vizier does in temporal. 
 
 MUGGLETO'NIANS. A sect of Christians who sprung 
 up in England in 1561, and derived their name from one 
 Aluggleton, a tailor, who, together with an associate called 
 Reeves, gave themselves out for the two last and greatest 
 prophets of Jesus Christ, and asserted that they had power 
 to save or to ruin in a future state whomsoever they pleased. 
 Notwithstanding the absurdity of their pretensions, they ob- 
 tained many adherents ; and the belief in their inspiration 
 has been maintained, though by a comparatively insignifi- 
 cant number, from the period of their first promulgating 
 their opinions down to the present time. A collection of 
 the writings of Muggleton and Reeves, together with other 
 Miiiigletonian tracts, was published in 3 vols. 4to in 1832, in 
 which the reader will find the singular doctrines of this sect 
 fully, but, as appears to us, not very intelligibly set forth. 
 In the religious controversy to which the promulgation of 
 their doctrines gave rise, their chief opponents were the 
 Quakers, and among these were George Fox and William 
 Penn. 
 
 MU'GILOIDS. (Lat. mugil, a mullet.) A family of 
 Acanthopterygian fishes in the system of Cuvier, character- 
 ized by having an almost cylindrical body covered with 
 large scales, and furnished with two separate dorsals, the 
 first of which has but four spinous rays. The mouth is ei- 
 ther edentulous, or is provided with teeth of extremely 
 minute size. This family includes the genera Mugil, Te- 
 tragonurus, and Atherina: it is included in the Cycloid 
 order in the system of Agassiz. 
 
 MULA'TTO. A term in general use in American coun- 
 tries, in which there exists a mixed population of different 
 races and colours, for the offspring of a union between a 
 white and a negro. 
 
 In our West Indian possessions the offspring of a white 
 and mulatto is called a quadroon, or one quarter black; of a 
 white and quadroon, a muster, or one eighth black ; of a 
 white and muster, a mustafina, or one sixteenth black ; after 
 which they are said to be whitewashed, and are considered 
 as Europeans. On the other hand, the offspring of a mu- 
 latto and a negro is called a cabrc ; of a cabre and negro, a 
 griffe; and, generally speaking, after this there is no dis- 
 tinctive appellation but negro. All this is sufficiently sim- 
 ple ; but in the Spanish and Portuguese colonial possessions, 
 the intermixture of Europeans with negroes, mulattoes, &c., 
 and these, again, with other classes, has given rise to a mul- 
 tiplicity of denominations sufficiently vague and indefinite 
 even in these languages, but wholly untranslatable into 
 English. It must be admitted, however, that great ingenuity 
 has been displayed in tracing the amount of European and 
 negro blood that flows in the veins of the mixed races, as 
 782 
 
 MULTINOMIAL. 
 
 the following list of terms (which might be cunsiderabjy 
 augmented) will prove: Zambi, quatralvi, trcsalvi, salta 
 tras, coyote, zambaigi, cambusos, giveros, puchuelas, alba- 
 rassados, barrinos, &c. All these, again, may lie multiplied 
 in arithmetical progression, thus forming a host of modifica- 
 tions, each, however, retaining more or loss his original 
 characteristics, in proportion to the relation in which he 
 stands to his original stock. 
 
 In Spain, the term Mulatto has been employed to desig 
 nate persons having a tincture of Moorish blood. 
 
 MU'LBERRY. The so-called paper mulberry is the 
 Broussonctia papyrifera, and not a morus ; its tenacious, 
 pliable inner bark furnishing a valuable material for the 
 dress of the South Sea Islanders and Chinese. The yellow 
 dyewood called fustic is the produce of another species of 
 this genus, the Broussonctia tinctoria. See Morus. 
 
 MU'LBERRY CA'LCULUS. A urinary concretion, 
 consisting chiefly or entirely of oxalate of lime. Many of 
 these calculi, in form and colour, somewhat resemble the 
 fruit of the mulberry. 
 
 MULCH. Straw or litter half rotten. In Horticulture, 
 when this material is applied round the roots or stems of 
 plants to protect them from the drought or from frosr, they 
 are said to be mulched. 
 
 MULL. A term used in Scotland almost synonymously 
 with Cape, which see ; and applied to various projecting 
 portions of the island, as the Mull of Galloway, of Cantyre, 
 &c. 
 
 MU'LLAS. The priests of Tartary are so called. They 
 form one of the three grand classes into which the Tartars 
 are divided ; the other two being the murzas or nobility, and 
 the peasantry. Their chief duty consists in reading the Ko- 
 ran ; but their stock of knowledge is generally so. scanty, 
 that they are seldom able to interpret the Arabic in which 
 the office of the mosque is performed. The village mullas 
 are generally decently-behaved and respectable men ; " a 
 little too much given to sell charms for the ague, but living, 
 for the most part, among their neighbours a quiet and chari- 
 table life, the arbitrators as well as curates of their seques- 
 tered valleys; and frequently possessing, in addition to these 
 weighty charges, the sinecure office of parish schoolmaster." 
 (Quart. Rev., vol. xxix., p. 129.) The Tartar mul/a and the 
 Persian mollah (which see) have evidently a common ori- 
 gin, but their rank and offices are wholly distinct. 
 
 MU'LLET, in Heraldry, represents the rowel of a spur. 
 In English blazonry it is depicted of five points, in French 
 of six. It is used as the filial distinction of the third son. 
 •See Difference. 
 
 Mullet. The name of the fishes of the genus Mugil, 
 which, in addition to the family characters of the Mugilo'ids, 
 have the middle of the tinder jaw produced into an elevated 
 angular point, adapted, when the mouth is closed, to a cor- 
 responding groove in the upper jaw ; the number of the 
 branchiostegous rays is six. Of this genus there are three 
 British species, viz., the gray mullet (Mugil capito, Cuv.) ; 
 the thick-lipped mullet (Mugil chclo, Cuv.) ; and the short 
 mullet (Mugil enrtus, Yarrell) : of these the first species is 
 the least rare. The red mullets (Mullus surmuletus, Cuv., 
 and Mullus barbatus, Linn.) belong to a different family of 
 fishes : the former of these species was the fish so greatly 
 esteemed by the ancient Romans, and for which such ex- 
 travagant prices were given when it had attained an unu- 
 sually large size. 
 
 MU'LLION, or MANNON. In Architecture, the upright 
 post or bar dividing two liahts in a window. 
 
 MULTA'NGULAR FIGURES, MULTILATERAL 
 FIGURES, or POLYGONS. Rectilineal figures of more 
 than four sides, and each specially denoted by the number 
 of its angular points ; as a pentagon, hexagon, decagon, &c., 
 which have five, six, ten sides or angles respectively. 
 
 MU'LTIARTI'CULATE (Lat. multus ; articulus, a 
 joint), in Zoology, is applied to the antenna; of insects, and 
 to the legs of Crustaceans and Cirripeds, when they are 
 composed of a great number of joints ; also to bivalve shells 
 which have numerous teeth in the hinge. 
 
 MULTICARI'NATE (Lat. multus, carina, a keel), in 
 Conchotomy, is applied to a shell which is traversed by 
 many keel-like ridges ; as the Fusus multicarinatus, Tcre 
 bratula multicarinata. 
 
 MULTIDE'NTATE. (Lat. multus ; dens, a tooth.) In 
 Zoology, when a part is armed with many teeth or tooth- 
 like processes. A family of Nereids is hence termed Multi- 
 dentattB by De Blainville, on account of the structure of 
 their hornv jaws. 
 
 MULTILOBULAR. (Lat. multus ; loculus, a lodge.) 
 In Conchologv, this term is applied to those shells which, 
 like the nautiius, have their cavity divided into many cham- 
 bers. 
 
 MULTINO'MIAL. (Lat. multus; nomen, name.) In 
 Algebra, an expression consisting of several terms (more 
 than two), which are connected by the signs of addition or 
 subtraction, + or — . Sometimes it is called a polynomial • 
 
MULTINOMIAL THEOREM. 
 
 and in modern works, after the French writers, a poly- 
 Home. 
 
 Ml LTINOMIAL THEOREM. A theorem discovered 
 by Demoivre for forming the numeral coefficients which 
 arise in raising any multinomial to any given power without 
 the trouble of actual involution. The binomial theorem of 
 Newton is a particular case of this, viz., that in which the 
 number of terms is only two. 
 
 MC'LTIPLE (Lat. multiplex.) Any quantity which 
 contains another an exact number of times without a re- 
 mainder is a multiple of the latter, and the latter is a sub- 
 multiple or part of the former. 
 
 MULTIPLE POINTS. In Analytical Geometry, when 
 two or more branches of a curve pass through the same 
 point, it Is called a multiple point. 
 
 MULTIPLE VALUES, in Algebra, signify symbols 
 which fulfil the algebraical conditions of a problem when 
 several different values are given them ; as the roots of an 
 equation, certain functions of nn arc or angle, &c. 
 
 Mf'LTIPLlCA ND, in Multiplication, is the number or 
 quantity that is to be repeated the number of times denoted 
 by the multiplier. 
 "Mt.'LTI PLICATION. In Arithmetic, an abbreviated 
 process by which, when a number is to be repeated several 
 times, a result equal to the sum arising from all the repeti- 
 tions is obtained. (See Arithmetic, and Fractions.) A 
 considerable abbreviation of this Is effected by the use of 
 logarithms (nee Logarithms) ; and other methods of short- 
 ening! the work or lessening the degree of attention requisite 
 in performing it have at different times been devised, as 
 Napier's rods, nnd the logarithmic slide rule of Guntcr. See 
 Napier's Rods. 
 
 MULTISPI'RAL. (Lat. multiis; spire, a spiral turn.) 
 In Cnnchology, this term is applied to those opercula of uni- 
 valve sheila which exhibit very numerous and narrow spiral 
 coils round a submednin centre. 
 
 MII.TISTIU'ATF.. (Lat. multiis ; stria, a streak.) In 
 Zoology, when an animal or part is marked with many 
 streaks. 
 
 MULTIVA'LVE. (Lat. multiis; vnlvn, a valve.) In 
 Conchology, when a shell consists of several calcareous 
 pieces, as that of the chiton or barnacle. 
 
 Ml'l.TO'CA. The name given to the code of laws by 
 which the Turkish empire is governed, eonsfstJng of the 
 precepts conta ned in the Koran, the oral injunctions of Mo- 
 hammed, and the decisions of the early caliphs and doctors. 
 It relates t<> every subject of life, nnd comprises various mat- 
 ters appertaining to government, the sultan being the sole 
 judge of its application to particular cases. (See Sultan, 
 Vizir. See also Edinb. Review, vol. x., p. 259.) 
 
 MULTUITOULATE. (Lat. multus; ungula, a hoof.) 
 In Mammalogy, when a quadni|>ed has the hoof divided 
 Into more than two parts, corresponding with three or more 
 dicta, as the elephant, rhinoceros, &c. Kay so denomina- 
 ted a family of hoofed quadrupeds corresponding with the 
 Polysrhii/ir of Aristotle. 
 
 MU'MMIFORM. (Lat. mumia, a mummy ; forma, form.) 
 In Entomology, the nymphs of certain Lepidoptera are so 
 called which resemble an Egyptian mummy. 
 
 MC'.MMY. (Arab, mumia; from mum, tear.) The name 
 given to the dead bodies of men or animals which are by 
 any means preserved in a dry state from the process of pu- 
 trefaction. Mummies have usually been divided into two 
 classes, natural and artificial ; the former arising from pe- 
 culiar conditions of soil and atmosphere, which permit the 
 drying of the animal tissues to be effected with such rapidity 
 that the body is preserved ; the latter embracing the various 
 means that have been employed from the earliest ages to 
 preserve dead bodies from corruption. Of the former, or 
 natural class of mummies, some well-known instances are 
 to be found in the vaults of several Continental churches, 
 particularly at Strasburg, Toulouse, nnd Bordeaux. 
 
 The art of embalming owes its origin to the extreme ven- 
 eration with which the ancient Egyptians regarded the 
 corpses of their relatives, and was practised with such suc- 
 uit, at the lapse of 3000 years, the mummies found in 
 the numerous catacombs of Egypt are still objects of admi- 
 ration. But it was not to the dead bodies of the human 
 species alone that the ancient Egyptians restricted their rev- 
 erence ; they practised embalming also on all the animals 
 which their religion held sacred, and of these upwards of 
 fifty different species have been found embalmed. 
 
 The art of embalming was practised also, to a considera- 
 ble extent, by the ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans, though 
 it never attained such celebrity or perfection among them as 
 among the people from whom it was borrowed. It was also 
 adopted as a national custom by the Guanches, the ancient 
 inhabitants of the Canary Islands, a full account of which 
 Is to be found in the Essai sur les Isles Fortunies, by M. 
 Bory de St. Vincent. 
 
 The account which Herodotus has left us of the Egyptian 
 process of embalming is so minute, and has, besides, been so 
 
 MUMMY. 
 
 amply confirmed in the most essential particulars, not only 
 by the subsequent writers of antiquity, but in still more re- 
 cent times (see the Memoir of M. de Rouyer), that we can 
 not refrain from imbodying it in our pages. There are, says 
 he, persons resident in Egypt who make this art their pro 
 fession. When a dead body is brought to them, they show 
 the bearers three wooden models of mommies imitated in 
 painting, the most elaborate of which are said to be of him 
 (Osiris) whose name I do not think it right to mention on 
 this occasion. The second which they show is simpler and 
 less expensive ; and the third is the cheapest of all. They 
 then demand of the bearers which model they wish to be 
 adopted ; and the latter having decided u|Kin the price, de- 
 part. The most expensive preparation is as follows: First, 
 they extract the brain through the nostrils by means of a 
 hooked iron instrument, partly by pulling it out, and partly 
 by the infusion of drugs. They then, with a sharp /Ethio- 
 pian stone, make an incision in the side In order to extract 
 all the viscera, which they wash with palm wine and purify 
 with pulverized perfumes. Having next tilled the belly with 
 pure ground myrrh, cassia, and all other odoriferous herbs 
 except frankincense, they sow it up, and, rubbing the whole 
 corpse with natron, bury it for 70 days — a longer period not 
 being admissible. At the expiration of the 70 days they 
 wrap the whole corpse in bandages of fine linen, and smear 
 it all over with gum, which the Egyptians are in the habit 
 of usini; instead of glue. The friends of -the deceased, on 
 nsnin receiving the body, have a wooden case made in the 
 form of a human figure, in which they place it; and having 
 shut it up. deposite it in a sepulchral building, setting it up- 
 right against the wall. 
 
 For those again who, on account of the great ex|tense of 
 this mode of embalming, adopt the middle- course, the bodies 
 are thus prepared: They till all the intestines with cedar 
 oil, without either cutting into the body or extracting ihe 
 viscera; and, takine means to prevent the egress of the in- 
 jected liquid, they salt the body for the prescribed number 
 of days. The cedar oil is then taken out ; and such is the 
 pww with which it operates, that it brines with it the bow- 
 els and all the viscera in a state of dissolution. The nairon 
 also destroys the flesh of the body, leaving only the skin <md 
 the bones. The body is then returned. 
 
 The third mode of embalming is that practised on the 
 poor. In this case they inject into the body a mixture of 
 salt and water, wrap it up in natron for 70 days, and then 
 deliver it to the relatives. (Herod., b. 2, c. 186.) 
 
 It was long a matter of uncertainty what became of the 
 intestines after they had been removed from the body of 
 those embalmed according to the first process. Porphyry 
 and Plutarch have both asserted that they were thrown into 
 the Nile ; but modern discoveries in the tombs leave no 
 doubt of the fact that they were embalmed separately, and 
 deposited in four vases in the coflin. (See Sir O. H ilkin 
 son's Manners and Customs of the Jlncicnt Egyptians, vol. 
 ii„ p. 407, 2d series.) 
 
 Diodorus mentions three different classes of persons who 
 assisted in preparing the body for the funeral : the scribe, 
 who regulated the incision in Ihe side ; the pnraschistes,* 
 or cutter ; nnd the embalmers. To these may be added the 
 undertakers, who wrapped the body in bandages, and who 
 had workmen in their employment to make the cases in 
 which it was deposited. Many different trades and branches 
 of art were constantly called upon to supply the undertakers 
 with those things required for funereal purposes: as the 
 painters of mummy cases ; those who made images of stone, 
 porcelain, wood, and other materials; the manufacturers of 
 alabaster, earthenware, and bronze vases ; those who worked 
 in ivory; the leather cutters, and many others. 
 
 With regard to the question, when the custom of em- 
 balming the body ceased in Egypt, some are of opinion that 
 it ceased at an early time, when Egypt became a Roman 
 province. But this has been fully disproved by modern dis- 
 coveries; and it not only nppears that the early Christians 
 embalmed their dead, but, according; to St. Augustine, mum- 
 mies were made in his time, at the end of the 5th century. 
 The oritrin of this opinion is perhaps to be sought for in the 
 circumstance that at the period of the Roman invasion of 
 Esypt the custom may not have been universal ; and Sir G. 
 Wilkinson maintains that it in all probability gradually fell 
 into disuse, rather than thnt it was suddenly abandoned from 
 any accidental cause connected with change of custom oi 
 from religious scruple. 
 
 Since the commencement of the present century, the at- 
 tention of the learned in the chief countries of Europe has 
 
 # The office of parasckiatcj. or d isir ctor, was held in infamr. "At toon.** 
 kits DioHoms, " as ihe paraschittea has made his incision, he runs awav*, 
 being pursued by those who are prpsenl. who throw s'onei at him »mid bit. 
 ler execrations, as if to cast upon him alt the odium of this necessary act." 
 For the Egyptians look upon every one who has offered violence to, or in- 
 flicted a wound or any other injury upon a human body, to be hateful ; but 
 the emba'mers, on the contrary, are held in Ihe grea'est consideration and 
 respect, being the associates of the priests, and permitted free access to 'In 
 templet at sacred persons. 
 
 7S3 
 
MUMPS. 
 
 «een particularly directed to the subject of embalming the 
 dead ; and the researches of numerous travellers, from Bel- 
 zoni downwards to Sir G. Wilkinson, aided by the scientific 
 manipulations of Pettigrew and others, have cleared up 
 many points that were formerly obscure in reference to this 
 art, which was so general in ancient, though wholly un- 
 known in modern Egypt. The following observations, bor- 
 rowed from Dr. Nuttall's Classical and Jirchteological Dic- 
 tionary, k-c, will at once exhibit briefly the state inwhich 
 the mummies are found at the present day, and serve as an 
 appropriate commentary on the description of the process 
 of embalming, as detailed above. The practice of embalm- 
 ing upon the immense scale of the population of a country 
 such as Egypt involves a problem of the highest interest. 
 If to those numberless pits and catacombs of human corpses 
 are also conjoined the mummies of the ibis, dog, ape, cat, 
 and crocodile ; the bull Mnevis, Apis, and Isis; the ram, the 
 fox, and horned asp ; in short, of every reptile of the land — 
 we are lost in surprise and amazement how such a process 
 could be established ; and if by resins, drugs, or spices, from 
 whence such profuse quantities could be procured and sup- 
 plied. These bodies, also, are often enveloped in silks and 
 bandages of stained linen of surprising brightness (and some- 
 times measuring 1000 yards in length — Sir O. Wilkinson) ; 
 they are ornamented with gilding as fresh as when first laid 
 on ; with pieces of coloured glass imitative of the finest gems, 
 evidencing their knowledge of staining and cutting them in 
 a manner which merits notice, as well as their enamels 
 also. All these ornaments found around the mummies are 
 highly preserved, and, as well as the sycamore chests, resist 
 all the injuries of time, and subsist fresh and perfect for the 
 examination of the curious. They usually have the Nubian 
 cast of countenance ; the outline figure traced in black ; and 
 the colours, four in number — blue, red, yellow, and green — 
 laid on without any mixture of shading, but altogether form- 
 ing a composition of very considerable interest. These 
 chests usually have within them small scarabsi, or the idols 
 of Isis and other deities, in clay, and coloured glass, and 
 beautiful enamels. One scarabeus, mentioned in Oreaves's 
 Pyramidographia, was of magnet, which, although 3000 
 years since it was taken from the rock, its natural bed, still 
 retained its attractive magnetic virtue. The recent discov- 
 eries of M. Belzoni add also to our stock of information 
 upon the articles of the wrappers, and prove in this, also, the 
 science and the labour of their embalming, by evincing that 
 there were distinct modes of preservation and of envelopes 
 for every caste — that of the priesthood particularly, with a 
 scrupulosity of minute detail that astonishes and marks their 
 high privileges. Upon examining mummies that have been 
 brought to Europe, a decided similarity of ornament is ob- 
 servable : the better-conditioned being covered with glass 
 ornaments, cut as precious stones, and disposed with the 
 same arrangement of colours, and ottering the same con- 
 struction as the other mummies that are painted; testifying 
 that the ornaments which were costly were preserved for 
 principal personages, while the inferior classes contented 
 themselves with tracing the decorations in paintings. 
 
 It has frequently been maintained that the doctrine of 
 metempsychosis formed part of the ancient Egyptian creed ; 
 but it would seem that the practice of embalming the dead 
 is wholly irreconcilable with such a doctrine. Others have 
 explained this Egyptian usage as if it proceeded from a be- 
 lief in materialism ; but it can surely never be argued that 
 unbelievers in the immortality of the soul would be most 
 anxious to guard against the dissoluion of the body. On the 
 contrary, as Schlegel has well observed, this usage seems 
 rather to set forth an indistinct feeling that this apparently 
 dead matter is still important — some mistaken and imper- 
 fect presentiment that the bond between the soul and matter 
 is not altogether dissolved, and shall yet one day be restored 
 — and that even this matter shall have its portion in immor- 
 tality, and be again animated and awakened. 
 
 MUMPS. This term is generally applied to inflammation 
 of the parotid glands. It is seldom attended by fever or 
 constitutional symptoms, but is occasionally translated to 
 other glandular parts. A gentle dose of physic, and the ap- 
 plication of a piece of flannel dipped in warm salt water, or 
 in solution of acetate of ammonia, is generally all the treat- 
 ment required. From the way in which this complaint 
 sometimes spreads in families or schools, there is some rea- 
 son to believe it to be contagious or infectious. 
 
 MU'NDIC. A Cornish name for iron pyrites. 
 
 MUNDI'FICANT. (Lat. mundare, to cleanse.) A term 
 applied in old pharmacy to certain healing and cleansing 
 ointments and plasters. 
 
 MUNI'CIPAL, MUNICIPALITY. The word municeps, 
 l* the language of early Roman jurisprudence, signified a 
 peifon capable of holding an office or dignity (from munus 
 or munium, an office, and capio, / take). It was appropri- 
 ated in its more particular meaning to those who, by the 
 constitution of Rome, were admissible to certain privileges 
 and honours, but not to the right of suffrage or magistracy, 
 784 
 
 MURAL CIRCLE. 
 
 in consequence of not being full citizens. These were the 
 strangers who in various ways became incorporated with 
 the Roman people without acquiring the right of citizenship 
 The jurisconsult Paulus (as cited by Festus) notices three 
 sorts of municipes: 1. Free strangers settled in Home; 2. 
 Citizens of commonwealths which became absorbed in that 
 of Rome by conquest or submission (quarum civiias universa 
 in civitalem Romanam venit) : such were Alicia, Cere 
 Anagnia; 3. Citizens of allied commonwealths, who retained 
 their citizenship at home while at the same time they be- 
 came municipes of Rome: such were Tibur, Pisa, Arpinum. 
 It is plain that this last is the sense in which the citizen of 
 one state was said to be municipes of another. Towns of 
 the last two descriptions (if the passage of Paulus is cor- 
 rectly understood) were probably comprehended by the 
 Romans under the title of municipia; i. e., towns which 
 possessed their own rights, and the burgesses of which were 
 also municipes of Rome. Such burgesses often acquired 
 full Roman citizenship and even dignity, but seem to have 
 been always (in the republican times) regarded as of recent 
 and comparatively ignoble franchise : as in the passage of 
 Juvenal respecting Cicero (ignobilis et modo Roma; muni- 
 cipalis eques), i. e., one coming from the municipium of 
 Arpinum. By later writers,' municipia are sometimes con- 
 founded with colonies. The word municipal and its de- 
 rivatives have passed into modern usage in two different 
 senses : 1. The local government of a smaU district, espe- 
 cially of a town, and particularly if elective, is termed a 
 municipality: such are municipal corporations in England , 
 2. Every Latin municipium had its own customary law 
 (jus municipale). Hence with later jurists municipal law 
 came to signify the law of particular towns, districts, and 
 provinces. In this latter sense the customs of the French 
 cities and provinces were called municipal laws ; and 
 among modern publicists the word has received a still 
 greater extension, the positive law of a country (in opposi- 
 tion both to natural or moral law and to the law of nations) 
 being often called its municipal law. The same term is also 
 sometimes used rather vaguely in contradistinction to the 
 constitutional or political law of a state, as where crimes 
 are divided into offences against the state and municipal 
 offences. 
 
 MU'NIMENTS. A common name, in legal phraseology, 
 for deeds, charters, &c, chiefly those belonging to public 
 bodies: great ecclesiastical corporations have generally a 
 "muniment-room" in which these are kept. Derived from 
 Lat. munio, / defend ; because, as it is said, these evidences 
 serve to defend the title. 
 
 MURiE'NOIDS. (Lat. murama, a species of eel.) The 
 name of a family of Apodal fishes, including the true eels 
 (Jinguilla), and the eels without pectoral fins (Murana). 
 The fishes of the latter genus are more voracious, and have 
 their jaws armed with more formidable teeth than the Sn- 
 guilla. One species [Murana Helena) was much esteemed 
 by the ancients, who fattened it in ponds expressly con 
 structed for the purpose. The history of Vanlius Pollio, 
 who caused his transgressing slaves to be flung into these 
 ponds as food for the Murana, is well known. 
 
 MU'RAL ARC, or ARCH (Lat. murus, a icatl), is a seg- 
 ment of a large circle fixed in the meridian against the wall 
 of an observatory, for the measurement of the meridian alti 
 tudes or zenith distances of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 MU'RAL CIRCLE, MURAL QUADRANT, in Astron 
 omy, is an instrument, generally of large size, attached to a 
 stone wall or pier of solid masonry, and fixed in the merid- 
 ian for the purpose of measuring the distances of stars from 
 the pole or the zenith. The first mural quadrant, or rather 
 nrch, used at Greenwich, was erected by Flamsteed in 1689, 
 and divided by Abraham Sharp. There are still two quad- 
 rants in the observatory, each about eight feet radius : one 
 of them was erected by Graham in 1725, for the observations 
 of Halley, and was redivided by Bird in 1753 ; the other was 
 constructed by Bird in 1750, and is the instrument with 
 which Bradley and Maskelyne made their most important 
 observations. Experience having shown that entire circles 
 are susceptible of much more accurate division, and much 
 less liable to derangement than quadrants, a mural circle 
 was constructed by Troughton, and placed in the observa- 
 tory in 1812. Since that time the advantages of this con- 
 struction have been fully appreciated, and a mural circle is 
 now regarded as the principal fixed instrument in all the 
 great public observatories. 
 
 Troughton's mural circle is six feet in diameter. II is 
 formed of brass, and fixed by means of sixteen conical radii, 
 concentric to and at right angles with a conical axis nearly 
 four feet long, seven inches in diameter at the extremity at 
 which the circle is fixed, but only half as much at the other 
 extremity. The axis rests and turns in two collars, one 
 towards each end of the cone, fixed at the front and back 
 of a stone pier about four feet in depth. The degrees are 
 cut into five spaces, on a narrow ring of white metal com 
 posed of gold and palladium. The divisions are read bi 
 
MUROHISONITE. 
 
 six micrometers, placed at equal distances round the circle, 
 and s<?cctely fixed to the stone pier. The telescope is fixed 
 at right angles to the axis which works within the conical 
 axis of the circle. It consequently moves in the plane of 
 the circle, and can be clamped in any position, so that the 
 readings may be made on different parts of the circle. In 
 order that the circle may move easily round its axis, and 
 that the lower side of the front socket may be relieved from 
 the load of the instrument, two large friction wheels are 
 suspended in front of the pier from the arms of two levers, 
 which, by means of counterpoises, may be made to support 
 the whole or any part of the weight The details of con- 
 itruction, however, admit of being varied in many different 
 
 The use of the mural circle is to measure angular dis- 
 in the meridian. The axis must therefore be placed 
 exactly horizontal, and the plane of the circle vertical and 
 in thu meridian, and the line of sight at right angles to the 
 axis, and parallel to the plane of the circle. Small errors, 
 however, in the adjustments, scarcely affect the results. 
 The advantages of the mural above all other astronomical 
 circles consist in the permanence of the microscopes, and 
 the facilities for observing stars by reflection. (For a de- 
 tailed description of this instrument, see Pearson's Practical 
 ■Astronomy ; also Dr. Robinson's Description of the Mural 
 Circle of the Jlrmagk Observatory, in vol. ix. of the .Memoirs 
 of the Royal Astron. Society.) 
 
 MU'ROIIISONITE. A variety of crystallized felspar 
 found in the new red sandstone near Exeter : its component 
 parts are silica 686; potash 148; alumina 166: so called 
 from Ha discoverer, Mr. Mnrchison. 
 
 MURDER, in the English law, is defined to be the killing 
 any person under the king's peace, with malice prepense or 
 aforethought, either exureaa i>r implied by law. The word 
 is of the same origin with the German muni, I'r. mrurlrr ; in 
 law Latin, murdrare — to which word, in an indictment, an 
 exception was taken by a prisoner in the reign of W. 3, as 
 not lieing of good Latinity, which was overruled with con- 
 tempt. The malice prepense is the chief characteristic 
 which distinguishes murder from other species of homicide ; 
 and it is the great office of" the jury to determine whether or 
 not such malice has been show n : either express, as evinced 
 by outward circumstances, or implied, as where one delib- 
 erately kills another without provocation, the law implies 
 tnalice. Malice ll also implied where persons having au- 
 thority to arrest or imprison, using the propel means fur that 
 purpose, are reflated in so doing, and killed, which offence 
 is murder. Killing in the prosecution of an unlawful act, 
 when that act is done deliherately and with intention of" 
 hief, either indiscriminately or to particular individuals, 
 is likewise murder, whether or not there was a premeditated 
 detfgn of killing the individual slain. So where particular 
 malice Bgnh Ul an individual is wreaked, by mistake, against 
 another. Whenever, also, death ensues on an unlawful act 
 done in prosecution of nfr/onious intention, it is murder; as 
 where a man is killed by a shot discharged at an animal 
 with intent to kill and steal It, or where the intent is only 
 to do some great bodily harm, and death ensues. When 
 several assemble to commit a breach of the peace forcefully. 
 and happen to kill a man in the prosecution of such inten- 
 tion, they are all guilty of murder. In some cases, alio, 
 nnri.fr may be the consequence of a lawful act criminally 
 ot improperly performed, as by duress in a jail. 
 
 The execution in cases of murder, by 25 G. 2, c. 37, was 
 to take place the next day but one after sentence, unless 
 stayed by the discretion of the judge ; with an exception for 
 Sunday, by 9 G. 4, c. 31 : and it was usual to sentence on 
 Friday, in order that the Sunday might intervene before 
 execution. Hut by 6 Ac. 7 W. 4, c. 30, the time before exe- 
 cution was made the same as in other capital offences. It 
 happened, at a trial for murder at the Devonshire assizes, 
 only a few days after the passing of this act, when two men 
 were convicted, that during the interval which elapsed suffi- 
 cient doubt was raised as to the identity of one of the pris- 
 oners to prevent the execution. 
 
 By the French code penal of 1810, the several kinds of 
 homicide are accurately defined; and the crimes of "assas- 
 sinat, parricide, infanticide, and empoisonnemenl" are cap- 
 ital. But the power given to the jury by the code of 1808, 
 of pronouncing under what circumstances a criminal act has 
 been committed, materially modifies the severity of the law. 
 If extenuating circumstances are found by the jury, the pun- 
 ishment is diminished. 
 
 MU'REX. (Lat. murex, a shellfish.) A name applied 
 by Linnaeus 1o a genus of the Vermes Testacea having a 
 univalve spiral shell, with an oval aperture ending in an 
 entire, straight, or slightly ascending canal. The Mollusks 
 thus characterized form a family (Muricida, or rock-shells) 
 In the Buccinoid tribe of Pectinibranchiate Gastropods of 
 the system of Cuvier, and include the following genera: 
 Murex proper, Brontis, Montf. ; Typhis, Montf. ; Chicoracea, 
 Montf. ; .iquilla, Montf. ; Lotorium, Mart. ; Tritonium, 
 3 D 
 
 MURRAIN. 
 
 Montf. ; Trophona, Montf. ; Ranella, Lam. ; Jlpolhs, Monti". 
 Fusus, Lam. ; l.atkira, Mart. ; Struthiolaria. Lam.; Plev 
 rotoma, Lam. : Clavatula, Lam. ; Pyrula, Lam. ; Fulgur. 
 Montf. ; Fasciolaria, Lam. ; THirbinella, Lam. 
 
 MU'RIACITE. An anhydrous sulphate of lime, contain- 
 ing a little common salt. 
 
 MURIATIC ACID, or HYDROCHLORIC ACID. This 
 acid was original'y discovered by Glauber, and called by 
 him spirit of salt. In its pure or gaseous form it was lir-i 
 obtained by Priestley in 1744 ; and its true composition was 
 shown by Davy in 1809, who proved it to be a compound 
 of hydrogen and chlorine ; hence it has been termed hydro- 
 chloric acid. Muriatic acid gas is procured by acting upon 
 common salt (which is a chloride of sodium) by concen- 
 trated sulphuric acid,: the water of the acid is decomposed, 
 and its hydrogen combines with the chlorine of the salt to 
 form muriatic acid; while the oxygen is transferred to the 
 sodium, which is thus converted into soda, and this unites 
 to the sulphuric acid to form sulphate of soda. CO parts of 
 common salt, and 49 parts of concentrated sulphuric acid, 
 afford, by this mutual action, 37 parts of muriatic acid, and 
 72 of sulphate of soda. Muriatic acid gas may also he formed 
 by passing an electric spark through a mixture of equal vol- 
 umes of chlorine and hydrogen ; or by exposing such mix- 
 ture to the sun's rays, or inflaming them by a taper, they 
 burn with explosion, and form a volume Of muriatic acid 
 equal to the united volumes of the gases. As the specific 
 gravity of hydrogen is to that of chlorine as 1 to 30, the spe- 
 cific gravity of the resulting muriatic acid gas compared 
 with hydrogen will be 18-5, and 100 cubic inches of it will 
 weigh 39 - 3 grains. Muriatic acid gas is rendered liquid un- 
 der a pressure of 40 atmospheres of the temperature of 50°; 
 It extinguishes flame, and is intensely sour, powerfully red- 
 dening vegetable blues. Water absorbs it with much vio- 
 lence, taking up about 480 times its volume. This is the 
 state in which muriatic acid is generally used. Its ipeciflc 
 gravity is about 1-19, and it is commonly obtained by distil- 
 ling a mixture of equal weights of salt, sulphuric acid, and 
 water. When muriatic acid acts upon metallic oxides, it 
 generally happens that a mutual decomposition of the oxide 
 and acid ensues; the oxygen of the oxide unites to the hy- 
 drogen of the acid to form water, and the metal to the chlo- 
 rine to form a metallic chloride. Thus it is that soda and 
 muriatic acid form a chloride of sodium or common salt. 
 The most effective test of the presence of muriatic acid is 
 nitrate of diver, which forms an insoluble chloride of silver 
 in all solutions containing muriatic acid or muriates. 
 
 MU'RICATE. (Lat. muricatus, thorny.) In Zoology, 
 where a surface Is armed with short, but not close- set cones, 
 having a sharp :i)>ex. 
 
 MURTDA5. (Lat. mus, a mouse.) The family of Ro- 
 dents of which the genus Mus is the type : by some natural- 
 ists it is restricted to the genera Mus, Ncsperomys, Den- 
 dromys, Oerbiltus, Hydromys, Hapalotis, and Pseudomys ; 
 by other naturalists it is extended to include the JerboiUa, 
 Muoxida, and Castoridm. 
 
 MU'RINES. (Lat. mus, a mouse.) The name of a tribe 
 of Rodent quadrupeds, of which the genus Mus is the type: 
 it includes the families Murida, Aroicolida, and Scivridoc, 
 and is the most widely distributed of all the Rodent tribes. 
 MURRA'IN (Fr.), is the popular term of a malignant 
 epizootic influenza to which cattle are subject, and which 
 has at various times made terrible havoc among them. It 
 appears to have been long known ; and, from the accounts 
 handed down, does not seem to have changed its characters 
 materially. 
 
 This disease extensively raged on the Continent from 1710 
 to 1746 (Lancisi, Disputatio Historica de Bovilla Peste), 
 and serious visitations of the malady were .also witnessed 
 during the years 1730 and 1731, and from 1744 to 1746: at 
 that time many written descriptions were produced of this 
 pest, among which the work of Sauvages, the celebrated 
 professor of medicine at Montpellier, stands pre-eminent. It 
 produced, in 1757, an extreme fatality among the cattle of 
 this country, an account of which was published in an ex- 
 cellent work by Dr. Layard, a physician of London. 
 
 This disease, as it is met with in England, may 1»3 char- 
 acterized as an extremely malignant inflammatory oedema 
 attacking, and, indeed, confining itself, for the most part, tr 
 one of the hind quarters of the animal. It is most common 
 in the seasons of spring and autumn, and affects principally 
 young cows. The most prominent features are tumefaction 
 and a discolouring of the side affected, with consequent 
 lameness and Inability to move ; a peculiar emphysema of 
 different parts of the body, but particularly over the region 
 of the spine ; and all the symptoms of putrid fever present 
 in diseases of a typhoid character. It speedily runs on tc 
 gangrene, and few animals survive an attack of this kind 
 more than ten or a dozen hours. 
 
 Although the English murrain is somewhat modified in its 
 virulence by season, locality, and the condition of the suf- 
 ferer, it is, nevertheless, generally looked upon as incurable- 
 
 785 
 
MURRHINE. 
 
 When, however, remedial measures are had recourse to, 
 extensive scarification, or, rather, incisions of the affected 
 side, fomentations, and purgatives are most likely to effect 
 the desired object. 
 
 It may be necessary also to remark, that this malady is 
 known to farmers and others in the different counties of 
 England by a variety of terms, none of which are either 
 elegant or expressive ; and, on the other hand, that diseases 
 different altogether from the one under consideration have 
 received the same name : indeed, the word murrain is often 
 and to denote any epizootic affection in cattle. The one 
 just described may, however, be looked upon as the true 
 murrain of this country. 
 
 The murrain which broke out in England about two years 
 ago, and has ever since committed such havoc among the 
 cattle, is travelling steadily northwards ; but the disease has 
 lost much of its original virulence, as almost always hap- 
 pens in the case of epidemics travelling from one country to 
 another. Accidental circumstances aggravate the com- 
 plaint, but in a general way it runs its course now in a few 
 days ; and to all appearance, condition lessened, or " taking- 
 on" stayed, exceeds not from a fortnight to three weeks. 
 Much depends upon the condition of the animal, and in nu- 
 merous instances the distemper touches rather than skaithes. 
 The doctoring process has been generally discontinued ; and 
 the best of all recipes is the warmth communicated by shel- 
 tered fields or sheds, rest, and the absence of disturbing in- 
 fluences. 
 
 The prevention of this disease is even perhaps more im- 
 portant than the medical treatment, and consists in allowing 
 a free access of air to all the buildings, stalls, &c, with daily 
 fumigation of them by chlorine or chloride of lime. Care 
 should be taken to examine three or four times a day (he 
 cattle on every farm, so as to remove as speedily as possible 
 the herilthy ones from those that are affected. 
 
 MU'RRHINE. (Lat. murrhinavasa,Gr. uoppivos.) Mur- 
 rhine vases were a species of ware often mentioned by writers 
 of the Roman empire, the material of which has been much 
 disputed by modern antiquaries. They came from the East, 
 and, according to Pliny, were made of some precious stone 
 found chiefly in Parthia- but some have conjectured that 
 this was an erroneous opinion prevalent among the Romans, 
 and that they were in reality of porcelain, of which the man- 
 ufacture was unknown to the western nations. (See Plin., 
 Hill. Nat., lib. 37 ; and a memoir in the 43d vol. of the Mem. 
 de VJlc. des Jnscr. ; and Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. 
 vii.) 
 
 MU'RRY, or SANGUINE. In Heraldry, a dark red ; 
 one of the colours or tinctures employed in blazonry. It is 
 expressed in engraving by opposite diagonal lines crossing 
 each other: reckoned a dishonourable colour; rarely to be 
 met with in English coats of arms. 
 
 MU'RZAS. The name given to the hereditary nobility 
 of the Tartars, or, more strictly, perhaps, to the second class 
 of their nobility, the first or principal class being designated 
 beys. This titular appellation is also sometimes conferred 
 on the descendants of public officers ; but the latter are look- 
 ed upon as upstarts by the older nobility, and regarded as an 
 inferior race. The Murzas have from the earliest ages been 
 distinguished for their bold and refractory character, and 
 the peculiar privileges they formerly possessed supplied them 
 with the means of giving effect to their turbulent disposi- 
 tions. Since the conquest of Tartary they have sunk into 
 comparative insignificance, though many of them retain a 
 large share of their former property, and have considerable 
 influence among their own countrymen. (See Quart. Rev., 
 vol. xxix., p. 128.) The Tartar muna is evidently of the 
 some origin with the Persian miria ; with which, however, 
 it must not be confounded. See Mirza. 
 
 MUSA'CE/E (Musa, one of the genera), constitute a small 
 but very important natural order of plants, related to the or- 
 ders yielding ginger, arrow-root, and similar substances, but 
 differing in having several stamens instead of one only. The 
 plantain (Musa sapientum), the most valuable product of 
 the vegetable kingdom in hot countries, in consequence of 
 the abundance of nutritious food yielded by its fruit, and the 
 application of its leaves to the purposes of thatching, and of 
 thread obtained from its petioles in the manufacture of the 
 finest muslins, is the representative of the order. Another 
 species is the Musa paradisiaca, or banana; and the singu- 
 lar plants called Strelitzias, with their orange and blue 
 flowers, nre also members of Musacca. 
 
 MU'SCA. (Lat. a fly.) A Linnman genus of Dipterous 
 insects, now expanded into a family (Muscida:) of the fifth 
 tribe (jithericera), of the order Diptera in Latreille's system. 
 It is distinguished by a proboscis always very — -prtt, mem- 
 branous, and bilabiate, generally bearing t\\ ■ . and ca- 
 pable of being entirely withdrawn into the oi. \ ity ; and 
 a sucker of two pieces. The antenna; always terminate in 
 a plate with a lateral seta. The Muscida; are divided into 
 the sub-families Crcophilm, which includes the meat-fly 
 (Musca vomitoria), aad the common house fly (Musca do- 
 786 
 
 MUSES 
 
 mestica) ; the Jlnthornyim, the Hydrornyza, the Scatornyim, 
 the Dolichocera, the Leptopoditm, the Caprornyzw, the Gym- 
 nornyim, and the Hypocera. * 
 
 MU'SCHEL KALK (German), signifies shell-limestone. 
 This name is applied by some English geologists to a lime 
 stone formation belonging to the red sandstone group : it bus 
 not yet been found in England. 
 
 MUSCI. Sec Mosses. 
 
 MUSGTCAPA. (Lat. musca, a fly ; capio, / take.) A 
 genus of Dentirostral Passerine birds, characterized by a de- 
 pressed beak, furnished with hairs at its base, and with the 
 point more or less hooked and emarginate. The genus is 
 now split into various subgenera ; as Vyrannus, Oi/mnoce- 
 phalus, Muscipeta, and Muscicapa proper, &c, included in 
 the family name of Muscicapida. Their general habits are 
 cruel and predatory, like those of the shrikes ; and, acccrd- 
 ing to their size and strength, they live on small birds or in- 
 sects. The smallest and weakest of the Muscicapidm grad 
 ually approach the form of the wagtails. 
 
 MUSCI'D^E. The family of Dipterous insects, of which 
 the fly (Musca) is the type. 
 
 MUSCIFO'RMES. (Lat. musca, a fly ; forma, form.) 
 The name of a tribe of Tipulida:, or crane-flies, comprehend 
 ing those which have a stout body and short legs, resembling 
 the common flies. 
 
 MU'SCLE BAND. In Coal-mines, the black shale con 
 taining imbedded muscle shells. 
 
 MU'SCLE. (Lat. musculus, diminutive of mus, a mouse, 
 from its resemblance to a flayed mouse.) Fleshy fibres sus- 
 ceptible of contractions and relaxations. Some of the mus- 
 cles are obedient to the will, and therefore called volun- 
 tary ; others, such as the heart, are independent of the will, 
 or involuntary ; and others, as the diaphragm and muscles 
 of respiration generally, have a mixed action, being to a cer- 
 tain extent only dependant upon the will. Muscles are ag 
 gregates of minute muscular fibres, which appear to be com 
 posed of small globules ; but we are, in fact, ignorant of the 
 ultimate structure of the muscles, and of the causes on 
 which their wonderful powers depend. They are envel 
 oped in and penetrated by cellular membrane, and abun- 
 dantly supplied by nerves, bloodvessels, and lymphatics. 
 
 Their principal constituent or proximate elementary strue 
 ture consists of albumen, besides which gelatin and fat are 
 derived from their cellular membrane ; and hxmatosin, o» 
 inazome, and other constituents of the blood are also found 
 in them : they therefore constitute the most nutritious spe 
 cies of animal food. See Albumen and Gelatin. 
 
 All the muscles are under the immediate influence of the 
 brain and nerves ; and consequently, when this influence is 
 abstracted, as by the division of the nervous trunks by which 
 they are supplied, the powers and functions of the muscles, 
 whether voluntary or involuntary, are in the first instance 
 disturbed, and afterwards cease altogether. Electricity is ca 
 pable, to a certain extent, of recalling the action of the mus 
 cles, provided it be applied before rigidity ensues ; hence the 
 supposed identity of that power of matter and certain prop- 
 erties of the nerves. The arrangement of the fibres of mus- 
 cles is infinitely various, and adapted to the particular pur- 
 poses which each has to fulfil. In the voluntary muscles 
 the fibres are generally parallel, or nearly so, but in the in- 
 voluntary muscles they are more or less interwoven and in- 
 terlaced. When muscles contract, they become shorter 
 harder, and thicker, and their bundles of fibres are thrown 
 into undulated lines, with a tremulous or vibratory motion, 
 most rapid where the contraction is most powerful, and pro- 
 ducing a distinct sound, which may be most easily heard 
 when the tip of the finger is put into the ear ; it occasions a 
 noise like that of carriages rumbling over a distant pave 
 ment. (Wollaston, Philos. Trans., 1800.) The number of 
 these vibrations amount to between twenty or thirty in a 
 second: these muscular sounds are importantly concerned 
 in the diagnosis of certain diseases through the medium of 
 the stethoscope. 
 
 MUSCOVA'DO. The name given to unrefined or moist 
 sugar. 
 
 MU'SES. (Gr. Movoai, Lat. Musa:.) In the Greek and 
 Roman Mythology, nymphs or inferior divinities, distinguish- 
 ed as the peculiar protectresses of poetry, painting, rhetoric, 
 music, and generally of the belles lettres and liberal arts, 
 with which, indeed, they arc sometimes identified : Quis est 
 omnium, qui modo cum Musis, id est cum humanitate el cum 
 doctrina, habeat aliquod commercium, qui, &c. (Cicero, Tus- 
 culan., lib. v., cap. 23.) Helicon and the region round Par 
 nassus was the favourite scat of the Muses, where they were 
 supposed, under the presidency of Apollo, to be perpetually 
 engaged in song and dance, and in elevating the style and 
 conceptions of their favoured votaries. It appears probable 
 that the early Grecian poets, struck with the beauty and 
 sublimity of the scenery in this part of Greece, ascribed the 
 humanizing influence it was so well fitted to exercise over 
 the mind to the agency of the nymphs and other tutelary 
 deities of the place, to whom they gave the name of Muses 
 
MUSETTE. 
 
 Originally there appear to have been only three of these 
 divinities ;* and their names — Jllncme, Mclcte, and Jlxde, or 
 Memory, Reflection, and Song— sufficiently show the nature 
 of the faculties over which they were supposed to preside. 
 According as the fine and liberal arts were cultivated and 
 expanded, the province of each muse seems to have been 
 more restricted ; and additions were made to their number, 
 which ultimately was fixed at nine. Their names and func- 
 tions are succinctly stated in the following verses of Auso- 
 uius : 
 
 Clio grata canent, transacts tempera reJdit. 
 
 MeJpoment tragico proclamat nxrsta boatu- 
 
 Comical lascivo gaudei sermone Thalia. 
 
 Duli'iloquoa cilaiuos Euterpe Ambus uivet. 
 
 Tcrptuhorc affectui cithahs movet, ini|>eral, auget. 
 
 Plectra gereps Erato, «al!al pede, carmine, tultu. 
 
 Carolina Calliopt libris heroica mandat. 
 
 Crania cceti motua scrutatur. et istta. 
 
 Signal cuncta manu. loquitur Polyhymnia gestu. 
 
 M.alii Agiollinej; vis has motel undique Musas. 
 
 Id ineiio reaidens coniplectiiur omnia l'hsbut. 
 
 r Edyll. 2C. 
 
 MUSE'TTE. A name sometimes given by the Continent- 
 al nations to the bagpipe. The itinerant performers on the 
 musette, who were formerly very numerous in many Euro- 
 pean countries, were called musars. 
 
 MUSE'UM. (Gr. uovacov ; from uovoa, a muse.) A col- 
 lection of curious objects in nature and nrt, but, in most in- 
 stances, the former. The name denotes a temple or place 
 sacred to the Muses, and is said to have been first given by 
 Ptolemy Philadelphui to that part of the royal palace at 
 Alexandria in which he placed the famous library. In Eng- 
 land, the museum at Oxford is the most ancient institution 
 bearing the name. It was founded in 1079, and enriched, 
 in the first instance, chiefly by the contributions of Elias 
 Aahmole; but want of room and of funds has prevented it 
 from affording an adequate exhibition of the various classes 
 of objects for which it was originally destined, and which 
 modern discoveries have so greatly augmented. The foun- 
 dation of the Iirttish .Mns. inn, in London, was laid by Sir 
 Richard Cotton's presenting to it his collection of manu- 
 scripts. Since that period the library has been increased by 
 the addition of the Harleian, Lansdowne, Egcrton, and sev- 
 eral other collections of MSS. ; by extensive purchases out 
 of funds afforded by government; by the deposit of copies 
 of newlv published works, according to the legal right con- 
 ferred on this institution; and by the donations of George 
 III. and IV., the latter of whom presented to it his father's 
 library. In sculpture, the British Museum possesses the col- 
 lection of marbles brought by Lord Elgin from Greece, to- 
 gelher with that called the Townley marbles, and a fine as- 
 semblage of Egyptian works of art. It contains also the 
 HanVlton vases, and the famous Barberini or Portland vase. 
 In several departments of natural history, especially in min- 
 eralogy, it is extremely rich. It was founded by Sir Hans 
 Sloane in 1733, and fills the mansion known by the name 
 ef Montague House, together with adjoining buildings more 
 recently erected. The most celebrated museum in Italy is 
 the Vatican, at Rome ; next to it, that of Florence ; and the 
 Ifuseo Borbonlco, at Naples. In France, as well as in Italy, 
 galleries of pictures are considered as within the meaning 
 of the general term "in usee;" and the museum of the Lou- 
 vre is chiefly remarkable for its contents of this description. 
 MI'SIIROOM (Fr. mousseron, n kind of agaric used in 
 sauces), is, properly speaking, the Jlgaricus composilis, or 
 eatable agaric: a species common in pastures, nnd well 
 known for its excellence as an ingredient in sauces : but the 
 term is generally used in a more extended sense, a,id applied 
 indiscriminately to all firm, fleshy species of the genus Jiga.- 
 ricut. whether eatable or not. 
 
 MUSIC. (Gr. iiovciKn.) The nrt of combining sounds 
 agreeable to the ear. This art becomes a profound science 
 when we investigate the principles on which its combina- 
 tions are founded, and the causes of the emotions it produces. 
 Hebrew Music. — Notwithstanding the great labours of the 
 early fathers of the church, and of many other learned men, 
 there are few materials, even in the Scriptures themselves, 
 for a very satisfactory account of the music of the Jewish 
 nation, whose restricted intercourse with other nations pre- 
 vents our receiving any illustration of it from contemporary 
 writers. All that can be done is to cite a few passages from 
 holy writ relative to the first ages of the world, from which 
 it will be seen that, from a very early period, the nrt con- 
 stantly ministered to the religious ceremonies of the He- 
 brews. Moses (Gen., iv., 21) tells us that Jubal, sixth in de- 
 scent from Cain, was "the father of all such as handle the 
 harp and organ." The organ here mentioned, according to 
 the commentators, was the syrinx, or a species of Pan's 
 pipes. This must have been but a short period after the 
 deluge. Six hundred years after this period Laban re- 
 proaches Jacob thus : " Wherefore didst thou flee away se- 
 cretly, and steal away from me ? and didst not tell me, that 
 
 » Cicero sayi four (Ate ffat. Deorum, iii., cap. 21) ; but in this be ii at 
 Tariance wuh Ibe Greek aulhoritiea. (Pauiantai, lib. iz.) 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 I might have sent thee away with mirth and with song, 
 with tabret and with harp 7" So that at this time vocal and 
 instrumental music was not unusual. For two hundred and 
 fifty years after this period nothing occurs relative to music, 
 when we find Moses, after the passage of the Red Sea, sing- 
 ing with the Israelites on the occasion. Miriam, Aaron's 
 sister, " took a timbrel in her hand ; and all the women went 
 out after her with timbrels and with dances." There seems 
 ground for conjecturing that Miriam, by birth Egyptian, and 
 educated in Egypt, might have learned the use of the tim- 
 brel and the dance in that country. The instruments men 
 tioned during the administration of Moses appear to have 
 been confined to the trumpet and tambourine. After the 
 siege of Jericho, where the rams' horns that ware blown 
 were rather military signals than instruments of music, we 
 have no record of music till the appearance of the canticle 
 of Barak and Deborah, which seems to have been sung in 
 dialogue without instruments, excepting the timbrel and the 
 trumpet before mentioned. From several passages music 
 appears to have been united with prophecy. Samuel (b. 1, 
 ch. x., v. 5) says to Saul, "Thou shall meet a company of 
 prophets coming down from the high place, with a psaltery 
 and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them." These 
 prophets were doubtless poets or psalmodists, improvisator' 
 of verses which they sung to the accompaniment of an in- 
 strument ; and many of the fathers have supposed that the 
 Jews bad a college or school of prophets, which was also a 
 school of music for they almost universally accompanied 
 themselves, or were accompanied by others, with musical 
 instruments. David, who had cultivated music from his in- 
 fancy, seems to have been destined by his family to the pro- 
 fession of a prophet; and Saint Ambrose says that he was 
 chosen by God, above all the other prophets to compose the 
 Psalms. The power that the harp of David had upon Baal, 
 when he was tormented with the evil spirit, is an example, 
 among many others, of the influence of music on the mala- 
 dies of the mind, nnd especially in cases of melancholy. 
 Under the reign of David music was much esteemed. II 
 appointed a great corps of musicians for Uie celebration of 
 the religious ceremonies, and his patronage necessarily ex- 
 tended its influence. David, on all occasions, seems to have 
 been interested in the solemnities of his time : we find him 
 continually dancing and playing before the Lord, with M 
 harps, psalteries, timbrels, cymbals, comets, and trum. 
 As in Egypt, the musicians were confined to one family, 
 that of Levi, which was exclusively consecrated to tin 
 vice of the Lord and the cultivation of music. When Solo- 
 mon was made king, four thousand were the number " which 
 praised the Eord with instruments." Dr. Butney calls the 
 paten of Solomon the Augustan age of the Jews; and though 
 Solomon, unlike his father, was not himself a performer, and 
 ranked " men-singers and women-singers, nnd the delight^ of 
 the sons of men, such as musical instruments," among the 
 vanities of the world, yet he continued the priests nnd Levites 
 in bis employ. In the reign of Jehoshaphat, the Leritl - 
 were useful in the field of battle, and were, by their songs, the 
 cause of the victory that was gained ; and, indeed, this was 
 not the only instance in which they were similarly service- 
 able. Some time before the destruction of the temple and 
 the first Babylonish captivity, music and the sacred rites had 
 met with interruption, both on account of war, and by their 
 intercourse with foreign nations. The captivity was a mor- 
 tal blow to the endeavours they had made to recover their 
 music ; and sixty-six years, the period of its duration, was 
 sufficient to efface all from their remembrance. This ob- 
 livion is feelingly deplored in the 137th Psalm: "How shall 
 we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?' Re-establish- 
 ed, but soon afterwards captives a second time ; again de- 
 livered, and then conquered by the Egyptians, Persians, and 
 Romans successively, the unfortunate Jews had no leisure 
 to cultivate the arts; and it appears probable that their mil 
 sic, which scarcely deserved the name till the reign of David, 
 even at its best epoch, depended for effect more upon the 
 number of the performers than upon any refined knowledge 
 of the art. 
 
 Among the modern Jews, instrumental ns well as vocal 
 music was excluded from the synagogue from the time of 
 the destruction of Jerusalem. The singing they allow at 
 the present day is a modern innovation ; for, according to a 
 passage of their prophets, the Jews consider it contrary to 
 their law, or at least improper, to sing or rejoice until the 
 coming of the Messiah. The German are the only Jews in 
 the present day who have a regular musical establishment 
 in their synagogues. Thev sing in parts, and have preset ved 
 traditional melodies, which are considered very ancient. 
 At Prague an organ is used to accompnny the singing. 
 
 Egyptian Music.— The opinion of the ancients was pretty 
 general that Pythagoras was indebted to the lessons of Jic 
 Egyptian priests for nearly all the science Ire possessed, and 
 especially that of music. "Though Diodorus Siculus assures 
 us that the Egyptians were not allowed to cultivate music, 
 and that thev considered it useless and even injurious to so 
 
 787 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 siety, and the cause of effeminacy; yet Plato, who h.ul 
 visited Egypt, observes, in one of his Dialogues, that none 
 but excellent music was allowed where the youth were as 
 sembled. Though he admits others of their habits were 
 bad, he excepts the music. Strabo tells us that the youth 
 were instructed at the earliest age in music, that the songs 
 were fixed by law, and that the sort of music used was 
 established by the government exclusive of every other sort. 
 The Greeks even attributed the invention of some of their 
 musical instruments to the Egyptians; such as the tri- 
 angular lyre, the single flute, the drum, and the systrum. 
 Herodotus says the Dorians were of Egyptian extraction ; 
 and as the three most ancient modes of Grecian music were 
 the Dorian, the Phrygian, and the Lydian, it is probable 
 that the Egyptian colony that peopled that province carried 
 thither the music and instruments of their country. Like all 
 other professions in Egypt, that of music was hereditary. 
 A similar custom, as we have above stated, prevailed among 
 the Jews ; and Herodotus tells us that the inhabitants of 
 Laceda:monia, who were Dorians, resembled their ancestors, 
 the Egyptians, in this, that their musicians were all of the 
 same family ; and that their priests, like those of Egypt, were 
 taught medicine, and the art of playing upon stringed instru- 
 ments, when they were initiated into the mysteries of reli- 
 gion. The same author mentions that in the processions of 
 Osiris, the Egyptians carried statues of the god, singing his 
 praises, and w'ere preceded by a flute. There is a singular 
 proof of the antiquity of this art to be met with at Rome, on 
 the Guglia Rotta, which Augustus brought to Rome, being 
 one of the largest obelisks that was removed from Egypt, 
 and which was thrown down and broken at the sacking of 
 the city in 1527, by the Constable of Bourbon. It is, among 
 other hieroglyphics, the representation of an instrument, as 
 here given, very like the colacsione (a species of guitar) still 
 in use in Naples. From the pegs 
 it is evident two strings were em- 
 ployed ; and the length of the fin- 
 ger board, if the strings were tuned 
 at a great interval from each other, 
 would afford a very considerable scale of notes. This instru- 
 ment alone proves to what extent music was cultivated in 
 Egypt, and that its inhabitants were acquainted with the 
 method of repeating the scale. Hermes, Toth, or the an- 
 cient Mercury Trismegistus, to whom is ascribed the inven- 
 tion of writing, astronomy, religious rites and ceremonies, 
 has the credit also of having invented the lyre with three 
 strings, which, it is pleasantly said, were types of the three 
 seasons of the year, there being a fourth season neither in 
 Egypt nor among the ancient Greeks. The lowest chord, 
 say they, was the type of winter, the middle one of spring, 
 and the highest of summer. The following, according to 
 Apollodorus, was the origin of the invention : The Nile, 
 after its inundation on one occasion, left, on retirins, a quan- 
 tity of dead animals, and among the rest a tortoise. The 
 flesh soon perished and dried up, from the heat of the sun ; 
 nothing but the shell and the cartilages were left, and from 
 their contraction they had become sonorous. Mercury, 
 strolling on the banks of the river, struck his foot against 
 this tortoise-shell, and was agreeably surprised by the sound 
 it produced ; and this furnished him with the first idea of a 
 lyre. He gave his instrument the general form of the shell, 
 and strung it with the dried tendons of animals, resembling 
 the gut-strings of the present day. The single flute, how- 
 ever, monautos, also invented in Egypt, seems to have 
 greater claims to antiquity than the lyre itself. It was called 
 photinx, or curved flute, by the Egyptians, its form being 
 something like that of a bullock's horn. 
 
 Apnleius, describing the mysteries of Isis, tells us the form 
 of this instrument, as well as the manner in which it was 
 held ; and all the representations of it show that it resem- 
 bled the bullock's horn. Indeed, there can be no doubt that, 
 in the remotest period, the horns themselves were made use 
 of. But it is certain that the Egyptians had instruments 
 much more susceptible of inflection than those whereof we 
 have been speaking ; for on the ceilings and walls of the 
 chambers of the tomb of Osymandyas, at Thebes, which are 
 described very circumstantial- 
 ly by Diodorus, are, among 
 other decorations, several rep- 
 resentations of musical instru- 
 ments: one of which, from 
 Denon, we here subjoin, for 
 the purpose of showine the 
 reader that the harp of the 
 present day is in general form 
 not very dissimilar to that then 
 in Egyptian use, and that per- 
 formance upon it must have 
 required considerable skill. 
 Other representations of harps 
 *~ ) occur ; one has been given by 
 Dr. Burnev. There is one at 
 788 
 
 Ptolemais, a city built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, with fifteen 
 strings, or tw-o complete octaves: this, however, is more 
 triangular in shape, and much more similar to the modern 
 harp. The insuuments in Abyssinia were found by Mr. 
 Bruce to have a close resemblance to those of Egypt. The 
 arts which flourished in tins nation at so early a period 
 would doubtless have continued to do bo under their own 
 kings; but after the subjugation of the nation by CambVMS, 
 525 years before Christ, the arts and sciences under a foreign 
 yoke disappeared, or, rather, ceased to be indigenous in 
 Egypt. The Ptolemies, indeed, encouraged them : but un- 
 der their reigns the professors of the arts were chiefly Gre- 
 cian. The Egyptians had degenerated from the knowledge 
 of their ancestors, whose hieroglyphics they themselves no 
 longer understood. It is probable, however, that music was 
 cultivated under these princes; for at a feast of Bacchus, 
 given by Ptolemy Philadelphus, Athensus says that the 
 choir was composed of six hundred musicians, and of that 
 number one half were performers on the cithara. Accord- 
 ing to the same author, under the seventh Ptolemy, Egypt 
 abounded with musicians; and at this period the practice 
 of music was so common in the country, that there was not 
 a peasant or labourer in the vicinity of Alexandria that was 
 unable to play on the lyre and flute. The father of Cleo- 
 patra, who was the last of the Ptolemies, from his skill on 
 the flute took the title of Auletes, that is, player upon the 
 flute. Strabo says, that notwithstanding the debauched life 
 he led, he found time to apply himself particularly to the 
 practice of this instrument. He thought so highly of his 
 talent in this respect, that he established musical competi- 
 tions in his palace, and himself disputed the prize with the 
 first musicians of the day. Such was the flourishing state 
 of the art in Egypt up to the time of Cleopatra's misfor 
 tunes — an event which ends the history of the empire, and 
 that of the Egyptians. Among the modern Egyptians no 
 remains or traces of the ancient state of the art are now to 
 be found. Still, they are passionately fond of music ; and 
 there are, according to Savary, to be found among them both 
 male and female musicians who sing and accompany them- 
 selves. This author describes them as most successful in 
 their plaintive music; to which, he says, even the Tuiks 
 themselves, the enemies of art, will pass whole nights in 
 listening. 
 
 Grecian Music. — The fables of mythology are so mixed 
 up with the ancient history of all the arts, that it is difficult 
 to separate fact from fiction. Hence the most celebrated 
 authors of the history of music, after delivering faithfully 
 what the ancients have recorded on the subject, have left 
 the reader to shift for himself in analyzing the mass. Bur- 
 ney, of whose history in the two previous articles we have 
 largely availed ourselves, we propose to follow in the follow- 
 ing short account of Grecian music. The Phoenicians came 
 into Greece with Cadmus, the son of Agenor : among them 
 were a class of men well versed in the arts and sciences of 
 their country, who were called Curetes. These established 
 themselves in Phrygia, where they were called Corybantes ; 
 in Crete, where they received the name of Dactyli : they 
 spread also into Rhodes, Samothracia, and other places. In 
 these places, writing and music were the arts principally 
 taught by them. Cadmus, in Samothracia, took to wife 
 Harmonia (sister of Jasius and Dardanus), who was so 
 skilled in music that the Greeks gave her name to the art. 
 Diodorus, in describing the marriage feast of the parties, 
 makes the gods themselves guests. Mercury came with his 
 lyre, Apollo brought a similar instrument, Minerva assisted 
 with a flute, and the Muses also brought their flutes ; Elec- 
 tra, the mother of the bride, celebrated the mysteries of 
 Cybele with dancing, tambourines, and cymbals. How 
 Diodorus was informed of these particulars he does not con 
 descend to tell his readers; but it seems probable that the 
 story was founded on ceremonies which the priests, at cer- 
 tain festivals, performed in honour of Harmonia and Cad- 
 mus. Jupiter, they say, was born at the epoch of the arrival 
 of the Phoenicians ; and the Curetes, it appears, brought him 
 up. At that time they were not acquainted with any musi- 
 cal instruments save those of percussion: they could not, 
 therefore, have taught the Greeks more than the use of 
 these, and they could convey no musical notions except 
 those of rhythm. The inferior divinities— Minerva, Mer- 
 cury, Apollo, and the Muses — afterwards became the pro- 
 tectors of the art, and invented wind and stringed instru- 
 ments. 
 
 These two circumstances are, as the reader will perceive, 
 irreconcilable; and Diodorus committed an anachronism, 
 which may be accounted for if his description was taken 
 from some religious spectacle. The flute with holes, by 
 stopping which many notes were produced, was certainly a 
 more ingenious instrument than the pipes of Pan. This vvaa 
 the invention of Minerva, who performed upon it until she 
 was derided by Juno and Venus for the grimace and wry 
 faces consequent on playing it, when she renounced it in 
 favour of the lyre. The employments ^signed *.o Mercury 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 oy the Greeks may be learned from the pleasantry of Lu- 
 cian. The same personage us the Hermes of the Egyptians, 
 he had the credit of having invented music, and in those 
 days its principal instrument, the lyre In Greece, the lyre 
 he Invented had seven strings, whereas that which he gave 
 the Egyptians had three only. Apollo was another of the 
 Grecian deities whose origin was in Egypt. He was a per- 
 former on the lyre; and there is no necessity to repeat in 
 this place the contest with Pan, and the decision of Midas. 
 under whose form the silly king of Phrygia was represented 
 by some neglected poet. Marsyas was another of Apollo's 
 unfortunate victims ; ti|>on him he wreaked his vengeance 
 with such cruelty that he himself was afterwards ashamed 
 of his conduct, and actually threw aside his lyre for a con- 
 tble period, which, it is said, retarded the progress and 
 perfection of that instrument. Fortunio Liccti, a modem 
 writer, thus explains the story of the flaying .Marsyas alive 
 by Apollo. Before the invention of the lyre, the flute was 
 considered the most important instrument, and its practice 
 enriched the performers on it. As soon as the lyre was 
 beard, it was so captivating that nobody listened to flute- 
 players, and they fell into discredit and were ruined. Now 
 die money of those days, being made from leather hides, 
 pave rise to the story that Apollo had ■tripped Marsyas of 
 his hide. The priestess of Apollo at Delphi delivered, says 
 Plutarch, her oracles to the sound of the flute. Afterwards, 
 when her oracle was in the greatest renown, there were at- 
 tendant choirs and instruments, and dancing and singing. 
 At first the Muses were nothing more than a band of sing- 
 ers ami musicians in the service of Osiris, or the Egyptian 
 us, under the superintendence of Ins son Osiris. The 
 Greeks made them the daughters of Mnemosyne by Jupiter. 
 Those who make them the daughters of Pierus, king of 
 Thrace, do not alter the first account; for the female musi- 
 of Osiris, before they were taken into his service, had 
 been celebrated in Thrace under the name of Muses, and 
 the daughters of that 1'ierus who initialed them became cele- 
 brated under the same name. Bacchus has been so cele- 
 brated in the musical world that we cannot leave him out. 
 DtodoTOJ makes him the inventor of theatrical representa- 
 tions and schools of music, in which those who excelled 
 were exempt from military service. Hence the author says 
 that musical societies have since enjoyed many privileges. 
 
 Certain it is that the Dithyramhi, wl riginated dramatic 
 
 .illations, were as ancient as the worship of Iiacchus. 
 la Athens and in Rome, all persons who appeared on the 
 ringing, dancing, or reciting verses tor the amusement 
 of the people, were called servants of Bacchus; and at all 
 DOS, triumphs, and ceremonies instituted by the 
 ancients in honour of the god, music entered largely Into the 
 programme. This is constantly seen in the bas-reliefs that 
 have come down to us; for wherever there are fauns, satyrs, 
 and bacchanals, we always find a certain set of musicians 
 of some sort in attendance. 
 
 Pan seems to enjoy the first rank in the second class of 
 divinities who patronised music The Egyptians, however, 
 ranked him higher than did the Greeks. Pan, say some, 
 was the inventor of the flute called the syrinx. The fable 
 is pretty u hicli gave rise to the invention. Syrinx, a nymph, 
 being pursued by Pan, flies to the banks of a river, whose 
 t ] mphs she implores to save her. Pan thinks to catch her, 
 but embraces only the reeds. Under this new form, Syrinx, 
 .shaken by the winds, emits certain melodious tones. The 
 god, pleased with the sound, makes an instrument from the 
 reeds, to which he gives the name of Syrinx. Pan is the 
 companion nnd counsellor of Bacchus. Shepherd, musician, 
 dancer, hunter, and warrior, he directs the movements of 
 the bacchanals ; but the perfection with which he plays the 
 Utile is such that Bacchus is never happy without him. The 
 satyrs follow in Pan's train. Silenus was the inventor of 
 several instruments. Like Marsyas, he was bold enough to 
 challenge Apollo; with better fortune, however, as regards 
 tn» result. 
 
 Such was the state of music in Greece under the gods and 
 demi-gods ; that is to say, in those primitive times when 
 one who had signalized himself by a useful invention 
 was deified after his death, nnd considered the protector of 
 irt he had invented. The heroic age followed this; 
 nnd, divesting the subject of fable as much as possible, we 
 ■hall now proceed to the music of that period. Amphion, 
 in, Orpheus, Linus, were at once the first poets and the 
 first civilizers of Greece. Amphion is the first Theban mu- 
 sician mentioned in the history of the art. Homer, how- 
 ever, is silent on his wonderful skill in music, nnd of his 
 having erected the walls of Thebes by the aid of the lyre. 
 Pausanias thinks his musical reputation was acquired by 
 his alliance with Niobe, and Pliny is of the same opinion. 
 Both of them alleso that Amphion learned the art in Lydia, 
 and that, having brought it into Greece, he was thence ac- 
 counted the inventor of the Lydian mode. Chiron, whom 
 Plutarch calls the wise eentaiu, accounted the son of Saturn 
 aid Philyra, wru born among the centaurs in Thessaly; 
 
 that is, among the people of Greece who first trained ana 
 rode the horse. With the reputation of inventor of medicine, 
 botany, and surgery, he lived at the foot of Mount Pelion, in 
 a cavern, which his science made the principal and most 
 frequented school of Greece. Plutarch makes him the in- 
 structer of Hercules in music, medicine, and law, though 
 Dlodorus says that Linus was his master : and here let it 
 be observed, that ancient authors always considered music 
 among the indispensable accomplishments of their heroes. 
 "Nee fides didicit nee natare" was anciently n reproach to 
 any one above the commonest class. Achilles was the moat 
 renowned pupil of Chiron, who bestowed much of his time 
 to instruct him in this art, as the means of not only softening 
 the impetuosity of his character, but of exciting him to he- 
 rote actions. One of the most beautiful paintings of Hen u- 
 laneum represents Chiron teaching the young Achilli 
 play upon the lyre. After Cbiron, Linus and Orpheus ap- 
 pear to have been the first poets and musicians of C.r 
 but it is difficult to decide which was the pupil of the other. 
 Diodorus says that Linus has the priority, and that he added 
 the chord lichanos to the lyre of Mercury, and Invi 
 rhythm nnd melody. The majority of the ancients make 
 him the instructer of Hercules, whom, say they, he found so 
 stupid and obstinate, that having on one occasion given him 
 a blow, the young hero seized his preceptor's instrument 
 and beat his brains out with it. Orpheus, however, whether 
 before or after Linus, acquired the greatest name in Greece. 
 His reputation was fully established at the time of the Ar- 
 gonaulic expedition, in which he was one of the adventurers. 
 Apollonius Rhodius observes, that he not only excited his 
 comrades by the sound of his lyre, but that he also silenced 
 the syrens by the supcriifrity of his singing. The fables uni- 
 versally say that Orpheus travelled in Egypt, where he was 
 instructed in the mysteries of religion, theology, and poetry, 
 and that he was the first who transplanted them to the (.'re- 
 clan shores. According to the custom of the time, he united 
 with the knowledge of music that of the sublime acta 
 Preferring the lyre to all other instruments, of which, 1 
 him, the flute seems to have been the principal, those who 
 followed were content to be Lis imitators. We pass over the 
 btory of his losing Eurydlce, bis wife, the effect his lyre had 
 upon Cerberus and the god of the infernal regions, as known 
 to every render. The instrument that produced these effects 
 was bat B seven-stringed lyre ; two strings having been add 
 ed by himself, by which addition the second tetrachord was 
 completed. 
 
 Obloquitur numcro teptem di&crimina vocuai. — Vkgk 
 From the ■little power which such an instrument possessed, 
 compared with those of modern times, we may infer that 
 it must have been the novelty of the art or the beauty of 
 the poetry which produced such extraordinary impressions, 
 or pcrha|)s both acted upon a very susceptible race of people. 
 The mastery which Orpheus possessed over the Thracians 
 made the women of that country jealous of him; and by 
 them, history relates, he was massacred. In the time of 
 Plutarch, the females of Thrace continued to be reproached 
 with this barbarity. The fable says that his lyre, at the 
 time of his murder, fell into the river Hebrus, down which 
 it floated to Lesbos, where it was deposited in the temple of 
 Apollo. Neanthus, who afterwards purchased it of the 
 priests of the temple, thought, like the nobleman who 
 bought Punchinello, that the possession of it would inspire 
 him : no sooner had he begun to use it than the dogs of his 
 neighbourhood tore him to pieces. After the Argonautic 
 expedition, the most important event in Grecian history is 
 that of the siege of Troy. Homer, who sang three centuries 
 after this period, is the only historian from whom we can 
 extract knowledge respecting the art. He has preserved 
 the names of several musicians, and these are the only 
 ones known from the time of Orpheus up to the time of 
 celebrating the Olympic games. 
 
 The instruments mentioned by Homer, in the Iliad and 
 Odyssey, are the lyre, the flute, the syrinx, or Pan's pipes. 
 The lyre is by him called (popiiiy\, xtBapa, and xtXut ; Aris- 
 tophanes being the first Greek poet who calls it Xvpa. 
 Though Homer speaks of the trumpet, it is thought that this 
 instrument, though common in his time, was unknown to 
 the Greeks at the siege of Troy. With Homer music and 
 poetry are inseparable: «oi<5os, a singer, is the word used 
 by him to express a poet. By him Achilles nnd Paris are 
 both exhibited as playing the lyre ; but the former does it to 
 console himself for the insult that had been offered to him, 
 whilst the latter exercises his skill to forget the disgrace of 
 having sought safety in flight. Achilles sings the deeds of 
 heroes. The song of Paris was more "to the lascivious pleas- 
 ing of the lute," in recounting tales of love. The earliest 
 poet who united music with his art was Tiresias : he was 
 also gifted with prophecy, and was a priest. Thamyris re 
 ceivi s from Homer the appellation KiQupiryrvf, one who sang 
 to the lyre. Plutarch, in his Dialogue on Music, says that 
 he was bom in Thrace, the country of Orpheus; that his 
 
 789 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 voice, though loud, possessed the quality of softness, hut 
 that he was punished with blindness for daring to contend 
 with the Muses in poetry and singing; and that to this pun- 
 ishment was also added the loss of voice, and the talent of 
 touching the lyre. This circumstance is mentioned in the 
 catalogue of the ships. (Lib. ii., v. 594.) According to Di- 
 odorus, Thamyris was of the school of Linus, and Suidas 
 places him eighth of the epic poets who preceded Homer. 
 Clemens of Alexandria says he was th* inventor of the Do- 
 rian mode ; but he is probably wrong, inasmuch as this had, 
 before his time, been imported into Greece by the Egyptians, 
 who invaded that part of Greece which bore the name of 
 Dona. In the eighth book of the Odyssey, Homer gives an 
 eminent place to Demodocus, whom he describes in his char- 
 acter of poet and singer as the glory of the human race. 
 Some have thought that under this name the poet was 
 painting his own portrait. He places him on a throne, a 
 herald announces him, and he has a private table, and in 
 every circustance speaks of the honours that were paid to 
 him. Like Tiresias and Thamyris he paints him blind, 
 which it will be recollected was his own case. The blind- 
 ness of these great poets did not escape Milton, who likens 
 himself to them in this respect, and the coincidence is cer- 
 tainly very singular. The last musician celebrated by Ho- 
 mer is Phemius, who, according to Eustathius, had been 
 his master. He is immortalized in the Odyssey. The po- 
 ets and musicians of Greece appear to have much resem- 
 bled the Celtic bards. They wandered about, singing their 
 works in great cities, and usually found admission to the 
 palaces of princes, where they were treated as though en- 
 dued with inspiration. Hyagnis and Olympus were also 
 celebrated, before the time of Homer, for their .musical tal- 
 ents: the first, according to the Arundelian marbles, flour- 
 ished 150(5 years B.C. He was the inventor of the Phrygi- 
 an flute, and the airs or nomes that were sung to the mother 
 of the gods, to Pan, Bacchus, and other divinities of the 
 counUy. The second is honourably mentioned by the Greek 
 writers. Two musicians of antiquity bore the name of 
 Olympus. The most ancient was the most celebrated. He 
 was a native of Mysia, and the disciple of Marsyas. Bur- 
 ney, in speaking of him, remarks that religion only can im- 
 part permanence to any system of music ; and he conjec- 
 tures that the airs which were sung in the temples in the 
 time of Plutarch were then of the same relative antiquity as 
 to us is the plain chant of the beautiful hymns of the Catho- 
 lic Church. Plato, Porphyry, Athenaius, and the scholiast 
 of Pindar, speak highly of the talents of Thaletas of Crete, 
 the next pact and musician after Uesiod and Homer. There 
 were two of this name, of the same country too. If we 
 are to credit Plutarch, Archilochus contributed more than 
 any other to the advancement of poetry and music. Herod- 
 otus makes him the cotemporary of Candaules, and of Gy- 
 ge3, king of Lydia, 724 years before Christ; but modern 
 chronologists place him much later. v He was a native of 
 Paros. 
 
 Without entering into particulars, it is sufficient to men- 
 tion that at this period melody was strictly confined by the 
 measure of the verse. A different set of feet in a verse 
 necessarily required new airs iu the music. Hexameter 
 was the most ancient species of measure, and so continued 
 till the introduction of lyric poetry. If Archilochus was 
 the inventor of music different to that which suited the hex- 
 ameter verse, lie was indeed the inventor of lyric poetry, 
 which after his time became a species of versification totally 
 distinct from that of the heroic. Archilochus is generally 
 allowed to have been one of the first conquerors at the 
 Pythian games. Tyrtam3, who was a soldier as well as 
 musician, was particularly celebrated for his military songs 
 or airs. The scholiast of Horace makes the Lacedemoni- 
 ans indebted to him for a victory gained by them, in which 
 he led them on to the sound of the military flute, for which 
 they rewarded him with the rights of citizenship. The au- 
 thors who have written on the progressive state of the Gre- 
 cian music unanimously celebrate the talents of Terpander ; 
 but neither the exact time of his appearance, nor the place 
 of his birth, can be ascertained. According to the Arunde- 
 lian marbles, the former was 671 years before Christ. Many 
 have given him the credit of having added the three strings 
 to the lyre: it, however, appears clear that he was the first 
 who used the seven-stringed lyre among the Lacedemoni- 
 ans, by which he gave great offence to the people. The 
 Spartans disliked innovation, and Plutarch relates that the 
 Ephori fined him for his invention. The Arundelian mar- 
 bles state that he obtained the first prize in music at the 
 games instituted sit Sparta to avert the anger of Apollo for 
 the murder of one of his priests by the Dorians. Plutarch 
 says that no other proof of his skill could be wanting, seeing 
 that his name appears four times on the register of the Pyth- 
 i:tn games, where lie carried off successively four of the 
 prizes. At the Grecian games music formed a principal part 
 of the ceremony : the combats were to the sound of music. 
 Fu the dramatic representations, the declamation was accom- 
 790 
 
 panied by an orchestra, and there: were, moreover, particular 
 prizes allotted to the professors of the art. The Olympic 
 games were established in honour of Jupiter Olympius, from 
 which, or from their being celebrated near the temple of 
 Olympia, they took their name. Tiioy were not at first cele- 
 brated at stated intervals, but, after the year 776 B.C., on the 
 second month after the expiration of every fourth year. At 
 first music had but little share in them, but at a later period 
 prizes were given to successful competitors in this art. It is 
 well authenticated that, at a comparatively late period, Nero 
 appeared at them, and of course carried off the prize. The 
 Pythian games, founded for preserving the remembrance of 
 Apollo's victory over the serpent Python, were at first con- 
 fined to poetical and lyrical contests ; but in these music 
 was afterwards admitted to her share of the prizes ; and, in 
 the year 559 before Christ, a crown was decreed to the best 
 performer on the lyre, or, rather, on an instrument with 
 strings. The prize was nothing more than a laurel crown, 
 in memory of the love of Apollo for Daphne; though after 
 wards the apple, a fruit consecrated to Apollo, was added. 
 At these games a peculiar musical composition was per- 
 formed, of considerable length, in allusion to the contest of 
 the god with the serpent: it was composed by Sacadas, and 
 sung for the first time by him at Delphi. The other mu- 
 sicians and poets who distinguished themselves at these 
 games were Alcman of Sardis ; Alca:us of Mitylene, the 
 cotemporary of Sappho (to the latter of whom Aristoxenus 
 and Plutarch attribute the invention of the Mixolydian 
 mode, of which Plato, the advocate of simplicity in music, 
 much complains) ; Mimnermus, famous for his perform- 
 ances on the flute, in the 6th century before the Christian 
 era ; Hesichorus (a sobriquet), whose right name was Tisias ; 
 Simonides, born at Ceos 538 B.C., the master of Pindar ; 
 Pindar himself, born at Thebes, in Boeotia, about 520 years 
 before our era; Myitis, and Astinous. The Pythian games 
 were held at Miletus, Magnesia, and other places, as well 
 as at Delphi, and music and poetry were the chief subjects 
 of contest in them. The Nemaean games, which took their 
 name from Nema;a, a village in Arcadia, were of such 
 high antiquity that their true origin was unknown even to 
 the ancients. The contests were somewhat similar to those 
 at the Olympic games, and it is known that those in music 
 formed a portion. It was at these games that the musician 
 Pylades, of Megalopolis, sang, accompanied by the lyre, an 
 air composed by Timotheus, in which the words were so 
 suited to the circumstances of the battle of Mantinea, that 
 the audience immediately turned their eyes to Philopcemen, 
 who was present, and interrupted the singer by shouts and 
 acclamations of applause. Timotheus, born at Miletus 446 
 B.C., was one of the most celebrated poets and musicians 
 of antiquity. Pausanius tells us that to the seven strings 
 of the lyre he added four more ; though Suidas says that he 
 added but two, the tenth and the eleventh : the consequence 
 whereof was, that for the innovation he was banished from 
 Sparta, and ordered to cut off the additional strings, that he 
 might not corrupt the ears of the youth with too great a va- 
 riety of notes. We have above stated that the Spartans 
 behaved in an equally barbarous manner to Terpander. 
 This Timotheus, who died two years before the birth of 
 Alexander, must not be confounded with the celebrated 
 flute-player who was so great a favourite with that prince, 
 and whose tones animated him to arms. The Isthmian 
 did not differ from the games already described : they receiv- 
 ed their name from being celebrated on the Isthmus of Co- 
 rinth. Other games existed in different cities, as, for instance, 
 the Panathenaic at Athens. Music was cultivated at all, 
 and held in much esteem. 
 
 At Athens, in the time of Pericles, music was considered 
 so necessary a part of education, that not to understand it 
 nor play any instrument was considered a disgrace. Peri- 
 cles was especiatly zealous in his patronage of music. Be- 
 sides regulating the form and increasing the number of mu- 
 sical competitions at the Panathenaic festivals, he built an 
 edifice called the Odeum, for the express purpose of re- 
 hearsals previous to performance in the theatre. If was 
 during his era that Antigonides and Dorion, the two most 
 eminent flute players, flourished. So great appears to have 
 been the passion for flute-playing, that as much as three 
 talents (upwards of .£600) were given for a single flute ; 
 fortunes were realized in manufacturing them ; and the per- 
 formers tived in a splendid and magnificent style. Even 
 the women were performers on the flute. Of these the 
 most renowned was Lamia, to whom, for the benefits she 
 had prevailed on Demetrius to confer upon the city, the 
 Athenians rendered divine honours, and dedicated a temple 
 to her under the name of "Venus Lamia. It seems that ex- 
 ecution on this instrument was carried to a great extent ; for 
 Aristotle cries out against the difficult passages that used to 
 be practised, and even against music generally. The people, 
 however, who, as a mass, are never disposed to give up the 
 pleasures of sense for those of the mind, continued to en- 
 courage these novelties and their authors; and, from being 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 the handmaid, music became the mistress of poetry. The 
 'ustice of the complaints of Plato and Aristotle on this point 
 is confirmed by Aristoxenus, himself well skilled In the art; 
 ■ad Plutarch frequently laments that the theatre had ruined 
 music : though what the latter says must be taken with 
 some allowance, seeing that he was a priest of Apollo, and 
 anxious, doubtless, to confine music to the service of religion. 
 After the complete subjugation of the Greeks, like the rest 
 of the arts, music fell to decay. They continued, indeed, to 
 cultivate music under the Roman emperors, and under their 
 own : even afterwards, under the Turks, it was one of their 
 amusements; but so barbarous is it in the present day, that 
 i' is difficult to conceive that the same nation ever i«>ssessed 
 • music which drew down the admiring plaudits of thou- 
 sands. To form any idea of the ancient Greek music is 
 now past all hope : materials upon which jve could judge 
 have long since passed away; but we will* add, in conclu- 
 sion to this section, the opinion of M. Ginguene on the sub- 
 ject. " We see in the poetical works of the Greeks the va- 
 riety and liveliness of their passions, and these same pas- 
 sions could not be expressed in music without an equal va- 
 riety of # air and modulation. I do not mean by that to say 
 that Greek music was entirely similar to our own : to decide 
 that point it would be necessary to hear and compare the 
 one with the other. I maintain only that Greek music was 
 full of harmony; that it admitted that variety of modula- 
 tion which alone can give pleasure to cultivated minds ; and 
 that to suppose that the Greeks were pleased with a music 
 that comprehended but four notes is one of the greatest fol- 
 ii >:m he Imagined." 
 
 Human .Music. — It is scarcely possible for any nation to 
 \ itliout some sort of music; and it appears that, at a 
 very remote period, such was not the case with the Ro- 
 mans. At . ;ient rude and barbarous, their in- 
 tercourse with the Etruscans, who were much farther ad- 
 din the arts than themselves, would soon have had 
 I upon it. Btrabo and Livy affirm that public music, 
 at used at sacriflei s, was especially learnt by this nation of 
 the Etruscans. Bervius Tullius, 000 years before Christ, in 
 his division of the people into classes or centuries, directed 
 that !•■ of trumpeters, horn- 
 players, and those who sounded the charge, which proves 
 at ieast the number of military musicians, One hundred 
 and fitly years afterwards, the marshal at funerals was, by 
 the laws of the twelve: tables, directed to provide six flute- 
 players. Among the Romans, as was also the cats with the 
 Greek music (see above), music and the drama were insep- 
 arable. In the end these exhibitions became offensive; but 
 the further notice of these is unnecessary in this place. 
 Music, however, was for a long period confined to sacred 
 and it was only after the defeat of Antiochus the 
 Great that the Asiatic custom was introduced of having fe- 
 male musicians — psaltritt — to play at festivals and private 
 banquets. The Etruscan music, which we have already 
 slightly mentioned, was cultivated with success; for all the 
 instruments of the Greeks, which are known to us from their 
 bass reliefs, are to he found in paintings on Etruscan vases: 
 SO that it may be safely assumed that the Romans were ac- 
 customed to the best music that the age afforded. Under 
 Augustus, who was not a great patron of the art, music was 
 not much esteeemed : it is possible he might not have had 
 much taste for it; and yet, when he was getting into years, 
 he engaged a musician to regulate the intonation of his 
 voice. Tiberias banished musicians from the city, which 
 under him became as sad as in the days of Augustus it had 
 been lively. Caligula, however, recalled them. Claudius, 
 though he patronized gladiatorial fichts in preference to 
 music, still encouraged the art; but under Nero it shone In 
 all its ancient splendour. Such was this emperor's delight 
 in it, that he passed a great portion of his time in taking 
 lessons of Torpus, the most skilful harpist and lyrist of his 
 day. We have before stated his ardour in the pursuit of the 
 art to have been so great that he contended at the Grecian 
 games. Nero's successors were patrons of the public games, 
 and of dramatic and musical exhibitions throughout the em- 
 pire. Adrian had always been attached to the arts of 
 Greece. He instituted new games, which his successor 
 Antonine continued. Commodus, whose disposition was 
 similar to Nero's in cruelty, resembled him also in an in- 
 tense "ass on for the stage, on which he delighted to appear 
 as a singer and dancer. The fall of the empire necessarily 
 induced the fall of the urts, and music, of course, among 
 the rest: in short, it disappeared with them — with them to 
 spring into new life and surpass nil its former glory, after 
 centuries had passed away, and all art seemed to have been 
 lost forever. 
 
 Itali i" Music. — Italy has been to the rest of Europe In 
 modern times what ancient Greece was to Rome. Though 
 we cannot so well trace the art of music in its early resto- 
 ration ,-is we can the arts of desizn, we know that to the re- 
 gion and church which brought them forward we are in- 
 debted for the foundation of all that is good in the musical 
 
 art. The plain chant of the Catholic Church, the founda- 
 tion to which we allude, is said to owe its origin to Ambro- 
 sius, archbishop of Milan, in the fourth century. He, it is 
 generally understood, brought it into form and based it up- 
 on rules. Two centuries afterwards Pope Gregory carried 
 it to such perfection that, up to the present hour, it has 
 needed no improvement, indeed seems incapable of im- 
 provement, and remains one of the noblest monuments that 
 the art has produced. The music of Italy, aided by a lan- 
 guage which Metastasio called musica stessa, notwithstand- 
 ing the revolutions it at first underwent, at length became 
 the guide for the rest of Europe. Even out of the church, 
 as early as the 13th century, music was cultivated; for 
 Prince Conrad, in 12G8, went out against Charles I. of Sicily 
 with a female choir singing, accompanied by cymbals, drums, 
 flutes, violins, and other instruments; and it is known that 
 all the courts of Italy were filled with musicians, for the 
 amusement of their sovereigns. At Florence is still in ex- 
 istence a manuscript collection of sacred songs, entitled /^au- 
 di Spirituals, in honour of God, the Virgin, saints, and mar- 
 tyrs, which, as early as 1310, used to be sung by a society 
 called the Laudisti. A society of this sort existed when 
 Dr. Burney was at Florence in l/<0; and he slates that ho 
 often heard them ringing about the streets in three parts, 
 accompanied by a portable organ. When Petrarch was 
 crowned with laurel at Pome, in 1341, music was intro 
 duced to grace the ceremony : and from the account of that 
 ceremony, printed at Padua in l. r >49. It appears that it con- 
 sisted of instrumental as >.• music. To return 
 buck a little, it appears that, In 10-2-J, Guido, a Benedictine 
 monk of Arez/.o, was the first who imagined the scheme of 
 designating by points, distributed upon lines and spaces, the 
 different sounds of the octave. The French have claimed 
 for Hubald and Odo the credit of this invention, a century 
 before the time of Guido, but we do not think the claim 
 established. 
 
 Guido gave to the notes the names ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, 
 taking them from the first S] llahles of the hymn of St. John 
 the Baptist, in which they are certainly found : 
 
 Ut quean; Uxii resonare fibril, 
 Vira r tuli. 
 
 Solve p., Hub fauii realum. 
 
 The syllable ri was afterwards added by a musician called 
 Lc Maire. From a manuscript in the Vatican dedicated to 
 Charles, king^ of Sicily, above mentioned, it appears that 
 Marchetto of Padua had improved the art; for the MS. 
 proves that he was acquainted with dissonances and chro- 
 matic counterpoint That the science was "akin:; vast 
 strides from the old plain chant, is clear from the bull of 
 Pope John XXII., in the early part of the 14th century, 
 wherein complaint is made of what he is pleased to call the 
 abuse of descant; whereby the principles of the nniiphonnl 
 and gradual had fallen into such contempt that the singers 
 could no longer recognise the foundations upon which mel 
 odics were established, and that it exceeded the hounds 
 which the ecclesiastical tones prescribed. Without particu- 
 larizing the steps by which it continued to advance, the Jirs 
 contrapuneti of John de Maris, in 1330, laid down laws of 
 harmony, some of which are observed in composition at the 
 present hour. He says that, in the scale of the octave, 
 there are six species of consonances — three perfect and three 
 imperfect. Of the first sort are the unison, the octave, and 
 the fifth ; of the second sort, the two-thirds, major and mi- 
 nor, and the sixth major. It is curious that he did not place 
 the minor sixth ninom; the number of consonances, since it 
 is but an inversion of the major third, which he admits to 
 be a consonance. Prosdoscimus, in 1412, speaks of the 
 fourth of which no mention is made by I)e Muris, and treats 
 it as a dissonance ; though, he says, it is less so than the 
 second and the seventh, and thnt it may be placed in a mid 
 die class, between consonances and dissonances. Advanced, 
 however, as the science became at this period, it was not 
 until the middle of the 15lh century that the laws of liar 
 niony were fixed on that foundation that still bears the su- 
 iwrstructure of the refined combinations of even modern 
 music. The first treatise on music that was printed in Italy 
 was towards the end of the 15th century, by John Tine- 
 tor; but that published a few years afterwards, by Franchi- 
 no Gafforio (printed in 1496 at Milan), excelled its precur- 
 sor. The claim of the Italians to the invention of counter 
 point has been disputed in favour of the Flemings, and also 
 of the English. There is no doubt that the former contrib 
 uted much to its advancement and perfection ; but the works 
 that are extant, if we are to judge from them, satisfy us that 
 the claim cannot be maintained. In the compositions of 
 this period there is a want of melody which all the display 
 of science and curious combinations they contain could not 
 atone for; but in the 10th century melody and counterpoint 
 were united by the splended genius of Palestrina, and some 
 of his cotemporaries and disciples; and the art was en 
 riched by the treatises of Peter Aaron, Zarlino, Artusi of 
 Bologna, the Venetian Zacconi, and many others, which 
 
 791 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 spread throughout Europe, and left scarcely more to be de- 
 sired on the first principles of music as a science. Pales- 
 trina, the principal cause of this revolution, began his ca- 
 reer by a diligent study of the masters who had preceded 
 him, making himself familiar with their difficulties and 
 with their styles. Applying himself to the simplification 
 and purification of harmony, and to the discovery of more 
 flowing and natural melodies, he nevertheless paid a de- 
 gree of homage to the preceding school, whose pedantry 
 and obscurity he knew how to correct. 
 
 The Gothic style of composing masses and motetts on a 
 canto fermo, which he practised in his early compositions, 
 he entirely abandoned after 1570. His style, upon which 
 he was continually refining, became at last the model of the 
 age; and nfter his time, for a considerable period, the best 
 ecclesiastical compositions were honoured by being called 
 alia Palestrina. Nanino, his fellow student and intimate 
 friend, Cifra, his disciple, Luca Marenzio, and many other 
 masters of the Roman school, gloried to tread in his steps ; 
 while Zarlino at Venice, Costanzo Porta at Padua, Orazio 
 Vecchi and Monteverde at Mantua, Botlrigari and Orturi at 
 Bologna, endeavoured, and with considerable success, to 
 build their counterpoint with the clearness, purity, and ele- 
 gance of the great master of modern music. Among these, 
 Monteverde is particularly to be noticed, for his passing be 
 yond the master whom he followed. He was the first who 
 used double discords, such as the ninth and fourth, the 
 seventh and ninth, and the seventh and second ; as also the 
 unprepared false fifth and seventh. This at the time cre- 
 ated great disputes in the republic of music. Monteverde, 
 in prefaces and letters, defended his practice; but his best 
 defence was to be found in the progress he made. The li- 
 cences he took, far from being offensive to the ear, were 
 soon adopted by others who had abused them. The passion 
 for fugues, canons, and other difficult compositions of that 
 nature, requiring the highest degree of science, continued in 
 the 17th century, which produced many learned physicians. 
 One of the most extraordinary of these was Francesco Sori- 
 ano, who published 110 canons upon the hymn .five Maria 
 Stella, for four, five, six, seven, and eight voices; but Pietro 
 Valentini went far beyond him, and has left, it is to be ap- 
 prehended, all future canonists in a hopeless condition. He 
 wrote one to the words Illos tuos misericordes oculus, &c. 
 resolved in more than two hundred different ways, for two, 
 three, four, and five voices ; another for ninety-six voices ; a 
 third for twenty voices only, but with four different subjects 
 going at tin: same time. Other masters employed themselves 
 in a similar manner. Of the Roman school, "also, Luca Ma- 
 renzio merits special mention here: though great in church 
 music, lie is best known and admired in the exquisite madri- 
 gals he composed, whicli still continue to be performed in 
 this country. Marenzio died at Rome in 1599. At the head 
 of the Venetian school, the Italians themselves place Adri- 
 an Willnert, a Fleming. To him Zarlino attributes the in- 
 vention of composition for more than one choir. He was 
 maestro di capella of the church of St. Mark at Venice. The 
 works he left are voluminous : his disciples were Cipriano 
 Rore, Zarlino, and Costanzo Porta. The Neapolitan school 
 was one of the most celebrated in Italy, and was established 
 in the 15th century, under the reign of Ferdinand of Arragon, 
 a great patron of all the arts. It was at Naples that Gafforio 
 and Tinctor, whom we have before alluded to, Guarnerio, 
 and many others, distinguished themselves. Church and 
 madrigal music there flourished. In the latter branch, Carlo 
 Gesualdo. Prince of Venosn, showed in an eminent desree 
 the power* of that style of writing. The Lombard school 
 registers the names of Costanzo Porta, its head; Gastoldi, 
 Guiseppe Mini, and Paola Cima, of Milan ; Pietro Ponzio of 
 Parma; Orazio Vecchi of Modena; and Claudio Monte- 
 verde, before alluded to. The most celebrated disciples of 
 Porta were Balbi and Piccioli. Orazio Vecchi was among 
 the first composers of dramatic music, and for a considerable 
 time maestro di capella at Mantua. The Bolognese school 
 comprises few writers in the 16th centurv, though in that 
 following, its professors equalled those of the first rank 
 throughout Europe. Andrea Rota may be considered the 
 head of it. Florence, in music, seems to take no distinguish- 
 ed place: we know of Alessandro Strigsrio and Francisco 
 Cortuccia only who enjoyed much reputation. 
 
 Dramatic music appeared in Italy in the 15th century, a 
 musical tragedy having been acted at Rome in 1480; but 
 the real epoch of the music of the drama can scarcely be 
 dated before 1597, and its first appearance was at Florence. 
 Ottavio Rinuccini is recorded as the poet, and Peri as the 
 musician, both Florentines, and the name of the piece 
 Daphne. This priority is, however, disputed in favour of 
 Vincenzo Galileo, the father of the celebrated astronomer, 
 who, desirous of recovering the musical declamation of the 
 Greeks, imagined a recitative applied to the episode of Ugo- 
 lino in Dante. Up to the middle of the seventeenth century 
 the drama was principally recitative, when, in 1649, Cavalii 
 began to introduce more airs than had hitherto been used, 
 792 
 
 which practice was farther extended in the Doria of Cesti 
 composed in 1663; after which, for some time, it degener- 
 ated so much into spectacle, that, in the works represented 
 about the end of the 17th century, neither poet, composer, 
 nor singers are recorded, but the machinist and decoratoi 
 only. Among the composers were, however, men of great 
 knowledge and genius, such as Gasparini, Peru, Colonnn, 
 Lotti, and Alexander Scarlatti, who is said to have been the 
 inventor of the obligato recitative. Great improvements 
 were introduced in the beginning of the lbih century by the 
 pupils of Scarlatti ; viz. Leo, Vinci, Sarro, Hasse, Pernors, 
 Feo, Abos, and particularly Pergolese. About the middla 
 of the century appeared Jomelli, Piccini, Sacchini, Gugliel 
 mi, Traetta, Anfossi, and others, whose names are not less 
 celebrated than their predecessors, and the century closes 
 with Paisiello and Cimarosa. It remained, however, for a 
 Bohemian, Gluck, to accomplish the revolution which has 
 brought the opera to its present state in Europe. The great 
 improvement in instrumental music towards the end of the 
 last century induced operatic accompaniments with all the 
 richness of the symphony, which, under Haydn, Mozart, 
 Cherubini, Spohr, Weber, and many others, seems to have 
 reached almost the height of power and effect that music 
 can give. 
 
 Europe is as much indebted to Italy for the introduction 
 of instrumental as for that of vocal music : the Italians have 
 been the instructors in both. Violin music was cultivated 
 by Corelli and Tartini, and their pupils, before other nations 
 had thought of it ; and the same may be said of the harpsi- 
 chord, from Frescobaldi to Clementi. So, in concerted pie- 
 ces, Boccherini introduced the quintett; and, indeed, short 
 of the symphony, which we owe to the Germans, their early 
 superiority cannot he disputed. In our time a sensible decay 
 is visible in Italian music ; the art seems to have left its an- 
 cient seat to abide in Germany, where it has been cultivated 
 with an ardour and success perfectly astonishing. 
 
 German Music. — Like all other nations, the Germans owe 
 their music to the Italians. They received the Gregorian 
 chant from Italy; and, though they may not have equalled 
 their masters in vocal melody, they have greatly surpassed 
 them in instrumental music. It is certain that, at the be- 
 ginning of the 17th century, the music of Germany was 
 greatly inferior to that of Italy ; and it was not till the end % 
 of this centurv thnt the Germans began to evince high and 
 successful talent for the art. We are not acquainted with 
 any of the earlier music of the German Church— similar in 
 character, we mean, to that produced by the school of Pal 
 estrina in Italy; but in later times the writings for that 
 church, by Graun, Haydn, and Mozart, have never been sur- 
 passed nor equalled ; and though these very much partake 
 of the symphony and drama, there is a pathos of sublimity 
 about them calculated in the highest degree to inspire devo- 
 tion. In the madrigal style we believe they exhibit no Bpe 
 cimens, which is the more remarkable, from the circum- 
 stance of the German school having been considered by 
 some to have been of as early an origin as the Flemish. 
 Their oratorios possess the greatest beauties : we need only 
 name the Jlscension and the Israelites, by Bach ; the Death 
 of Jesus, bv Graun ; and the Messiah, by Handel. Though 
 not so old as that of Italy, the German theatre is neverthe- 
 less of early origin: but until Keyser appeared to compose 
 for the theatre at Hamburg, about the end of the 17th cen- 
 tury, it was without celebrity. During the whole of the 
 last centurv, the German composers bred in the Neapolitan 
 school carried their style into Germany, where it became 
 predominant, and the model of the country. John Adol- 
 phus Hasse had the principal share in the transference of 
 this stvle, which, improved by Graun, Neumann, Gluck, 
 and carried still farther by Haydn and Mozart, has travelled 
 back to Italy, to shine second-hand in Rossini and others, 
 but without the lustre of the Germans. Gluck, of whom 
 we have spoken above, though by birth a German, bei.-r.gs 
 properly to France ; for, strange to say, he was not properly 
 appreciated bv his own countrymen, though in later years 
 thev found out their error, and acknowledge it still by the 
 rapture with which his works are now received. Germany 
 derives its greatest reputation from the success with which 
 it has cultivated instrumental music. In harpsichord and 
 pianoforte music, it may be safelv said they have surpassed 
 all other nations ; for it would be difficult to place names in 
 that respect of equal reputation by those of J. S. Bach and 
 his children, of Havdn. Kolebech, Mozart, Dnssek, Cramer, 
 and a host of others. The music of wind instruments seems 
 to belong now almost exclusively to Germany: their organ 
 IstS are excellent, and their orchestras well regulated. In 
 musical literature thev are superior to every other nation: 
 witness the works of Fux, Mnttheson, Marpurc, Kirlerger. 
 E. Bach, Albrechtsberger, Forkel, Koch, and a host of 
 others, most of them of the 18th century. In the present 
 day, it is by no means surprising that the success of the 
 Germans should be so extraordinary, seeing that there is no 
 school for the education of youth in the country at which 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 music is unt taught and cultivated, even down to those 
 where children receive gratuitous instruction. 
 
 FUmiai Music — The Flemish have been frequently con- 
 founded with French musicians; so that it is rather difficult 
 
 irate, at limes, the one from the other. Louis Guic- 
 eiardini (JJcscrizione di tutti i paesi bassi, published 1536) 
 
 i list of all the musicians born in the Low Countries, 
 who were then dispersed in different parts of Europe, which 
 robs 111* French catalogue of some of its most distinguished 
 name,'. From the 15lh century Flanders, from its com- 
 merce, and wealth, and superfluous riches, was enabled to 
 patf iiise llie fine arts ; and most especially was that the case 
 in the limes of Charles V. and Francis 1. Upon these mon- 
 arch-, who lived less in their own capitals than elsewhere, 
 the arts seem everywhere to have been attendant ; and 
 when we recollect their frequent sojourn at Brussels, An- 
 twerp, ami other lines of Flanders, we are not surprised at 
 the number of excellent musicians that I'landers produced. 
 The .l.ihu Tmctor, of whom wo have heretofore spoken, 
 flourished about 1474: he was a native of Flanders, ami 
 PMMtro di capelli to Ferdinand of Arrngon, Kins of Sicily 
 and .Naples. He is the earliest theoretician whose name 
 has reached us. Soon after, or contemporary with him, 
 was. I., In, i ikeiihi'lm, the first composer of music in parts. 
 From the fragments which have been preserved by Glarca- 
 nus, he appears to have been a learned writer, whose works 
 seem more calculated to please the eye than the ear; and 
 from the authors of the following century who notice him, 
 we learn that he was the wiiter of a inotett in 30 parts. 
 Joaquin, or as the Italians call him, Josquino del Prato, was 
 Okenli' i:u s moat celebrated scholar. The laws and diffi- 
 culties of canon, fugue, augmentation, diminution, inversion, 
 and other practices of church music, were by him observed 
 and overcome in the most felicitous manner; and he has by 
 some been dignified with the title of father of modem har- 
 mony, inasmuch as his era is nearly a century before that 
 ol t'liiistrni.i. Orlando ill Lasso, &-c. It is proper to state 
 that Guicciardini claims Josquin as an Italian ; and, at least, 
 
 • in he no doubt he was educated in Italy, inasmuch 
 as he w as a singer in the chapel of Sextus IV. His compo- 
 sitions were extremely numerous, and as often executed in 
 the beginning of the 10th century as those of Handel were 
 in England fifty or sixty years ago. His death took place at 
 
 la; and his monument is still to be seen in the church 
 
 Gudula. Hohrect, or Obrect, was a good MMMK of 
 this |ieriod. and adds to his talent the honour of having been 
 selected by Krasmus to instruct him in the principles of his 
 art. We must pan shortly over the names of Pierre de la 
 line, or Petraa Platen*!*, as he was sometimes called, Jean 
 
 lioul Veicblot, Nicolas Qambert, maestro di capella of 
 
 Charles V., Jacipies do Wert, I'evernage, Lupi, VVnelrent 
 or Wraelrent. Verjonk, Arkadelt, and others, many of 
 whom are still known to the musical antirptary by their 
 madrigal compositions, though thev were called only songs 
 for parLs in Flanders. Between 1544 and 1555 there were 
 
 than twenty collections of these chansons or madrigals 
 published at Antwerp and Louvain, by Tylman, Sitsaro, 
 and Pierre Phalalee, who were thems elv es pod composers; 
 as were, in the same century, the publishers Khan at Wit- 
 
 ■■, Gnrdano and Scotto at Venice, Ballard in France, 
 and Tallis and Bird in England. After Clemens (non 
 pane.), an elegant and exquisite, though not voluminous 
 writer, and Cvpriano Rore, n pupil of Adrian Willnert, 
 must be recorded the name of Orlando di Lasso, one of the 
 most diligent and celebrated writers of the 16th century. 
 He was born at Mons in 1520, and died at Munich in 1503. 
 Living to a great age. the number of his works exceed those 
 
 if I'ab-trina. Fifty collections of his different works 
 
 are still extant, consisting of masses, motetts, parelnaa, 
 
 . and songs of madrigals, printed in Italy, Germany, 
 
 France, and the Low Countries. Such was his reputation, 
 
 that the following verse was written for his epitaph : 
 
 Hie illcOrlandus Lassum, qui recreat orbern. 
 
 M. Gingtiene, to whom we are much indebted for the ac- 
 count of the restoration of music, speaking of Cipriano 
 Rore and Orlando di Lasso, says, "These two Flemings, 
 having passed the greater portion of their lives in the courts 
 of princes, had acquired a lighter style, and a species of 
 !»• more appropriate to secular music, than that of 
 Palestrina, who, residing at Rome, and writing principally 
 for the church, exhibits in all his productions a gravity be- 
 longing to the siiecies." And again, "They were two mas- 
 ters of harmony; and, the church excepted, they prepared 
 the colours and set the palettes of musicians with many 
 new tints of harmony and modulation, which were exceed- 
 ingly serviceable to those who came after them." These 
 were the two first masters who ventured upon chromatic 
 pa sages, and upon accidental flats and sharps. From the 
 ppocli of these men Flanders ceased to have a school of 
 music especially belonging to itself. 
 
 French Music. — We have stated, in another place, that 
 
 Hubald de St. Amand and Eudes dc Cluni have been nameu 
 by the French writers as having preceded Soldo in the 
 knowledge of the scale ; but, as we are not la a condition to 
 decide between the claimants, we shall content ourselves 
 with the declaration of our conviction, from all that we 
 have read, that France, as respects the art and science of 
 music, was much advanced at a very early period, and that 
 the country certainly boasted of many church musicians be 
 tween the 8th and 11th centuries; for, besides the two we 
 have named, we have Remi, a monk of St. Germain d'Aux- 
 erre, Gerbert le Scholastique, and others whose knowledge 
 is well authenticated. In the 14th century Philippe de 
 V'ury, archbishop of Meaux, applied himself to music and 
 poetry with considerable success. A manuscript preserved 
 in the Vatican proves him to have been well informed upon 
 counterpoint, as far as it was then known and practised: he 
 not only applied himself to church music, but wrote mo- 
 tetts; but these are lost, and perhaps would, if we had them, 
 be now difficult to decipher. Belonging to this century, 
 also, we have, by the assiduity of the Abbe le Breuf, the ac- 
 count of n manuscript by Cuilliiumc dc Macbau. This MS. 
 consists of two volumes of French and Latin )>oems, and a 
 great number of lays, virelays, ballades, and rondeaux, all 
 set to music ; sonic for n single voice, others in three and 
 four parts — triplum. tenor, contra tenor, and a p:\rt without 
 title. In the second volume is an entire mass, including the 
 Credo, in four parts, which it is believed was sung at the 
 coronation of Charles V. in 1364. 
 
 During the 15th and 16th centuries, the art made but little 
 progress in France. Under Francis the First not near mi 
 ninny musicians were to be found in France as in Italy, 
 Qui m any, Fngland. and the Low Countries. The works of 
 
 ( 'laude de Jaime, who probably ought to !"■ placed with the 
 Flemish school, and of Orlando di Lasso, seem to have been 
 admired and performed at this period in the country in 
 which Joaquin was also a favourite. The dearth of waters 
 on the science at tills period, by Clement Jnuneipiin, entitled 
 J„a Bataille ou Defaite des Suisses a la Jvurnie dc Marig- 
 nan, in which imitations of the sounds of battle occur. lie 
 published a collection in 1544, called Inventions Jfu.iicalcs 
 a quartrr. et cinq Parlies. The masters about I his |ieriod 
 were Didier Lupi. Guillaume Belleu, Philibert Janibe de-fer, 
 Sauterne, and Nog Faignent. It is extraordinary that some 
 of the bloodiest tyrants have been great patrons of music 
 and its professors: to Nero and our Henry VIII. may be 
 added, for France, Charles IX., about whom were constant- 
 ly good musicians. Of them, Claude Gondimel did not es- 
 cape in the massacre of the Protestants at Lyons in 157-J. 
 At the end of the 16th century were some minor artists, such 
 as Jean de Castra, Louis Bisson, Nicholas Duchemin, Fran- 
 cois Roussel, Jean Peroin, and others, by whom are collec- 
 tions of madrigals. Francois Mustache dc Caurroy, born in 
 154'.), called, by his contemporaries, " le prince des profes- 
 -•in - de musique," was maestro di capella to Charles IX., 
 Henry III., and Henry IV., and enjoyed considerable reputa- 
 tion ; his works, however, are but little above mediocrity. 
 Jacques Mnuduit was a similar instance of mediocrity rising 
 into celebrity. He composed the requiem lor the funeral 
 of the celebrated Ronsard, which was afterwards performed 
 at that of Henry IV., whose reign was too short to allow 
 the arts of peace to make much progress in France. His 
 son, who came to the throne at the early age of six years, 
 was a great friend to music, and appears to have kept 
 up What might be called a considerable band for that pe- 
 riod. During the reign of Louis XIII., Jean Baptiste Boes- 
 set wrote several part songs, as they were called. About 
 the middle of the 17th century Michael Lambert, who died 
 in 1696, appears to have attracted many scholars by his skill 
 in composition. Dramatic music was introduced into France 
 about 1645. In 1660, at the celebration of the marriage of 
 Louis XIV., the opera of Ercole Amanti was produced, and 
 the foundation of the French opera was thus laid. At this 
 period Lulli, of Florentine birth, had been patronised by the 
 Chevalier de Guise, through whose offices he was put under 
 the best mnsters of the time. Till the year 1686, in which 
 his last opera was brought out, he seems to have been the 
 idol of the court, and to have been considered in France the 
 ne plus ultra of composers. Compared, however, with the 
 Italian opera of the same epoch, his compositions are not far 
 behind, though it was a misfortune for the country that, for 
 so long a period, everything which was not an imitation of 
 the style of Lulli was considered an inferior production. In- 
 strumental music made but little progress in the 17th cen- 
 tury. The most distinguished organists were the three 
 Bournonvilles, and the three Couperins ; Charhonieres, wh 
 died in 1670; Dumont, a good coreposer of church music, 
 who first introduced violin accompaninjents into France; 
 the Abbe de la Barre; and, lastly, Lalande, the most cele- 
 brated French composer of ecclesiastical music, at the end 
 of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. Rnmeau, 
 born nt Dijon in 1683, was destined to rouse the French na- 
 tion, which seemed to have slept since their Fss of Lulli 
 
 '93 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 In the space of twenty-seven 3'ears after 1733 he produced 
 22 operas, and became so great a favourite with the people 
 that it was dangerous to criticise his works. The time has, 
 however, passed in which his operas would be listened to; 
 and but for his theoretical works, the only solid base of his 
 g'.jry, he would long since have been forgotten. Rameau 
 died" in 17G7. His school lasted till about 1775, though since 
 1750 the comic opera has been on the Italian model. Under 
 this, with Dauvergne, le Borde, Floquet, J. J. Rousseau, 
 Duni, and Philidor, French melody has regenerated ; and 
 Monsigny, Gossec, and Gretry completed its improvements. 
 The reform thus effected prepared the French for the recep- 
 on of the Iphigenie of Gluck, in 1774, at which time he 
 ad Piccini and Lucchini for rivals. These musicians have 
 been succeeded by a school which comprises the names of 
 Berton, Mehul, Boildieu, Kreutzer, and others ; and among 
 the Italians who joined their ranks are found those of Che- 
 rubini, Spontini, and Winter. In instrumental composition 
 the French have not been so original, though latterly they 
 have considerably advanced. France is considered deficient 
 in musical literature, and does not attend to its cultivation 
 with that ardour that is so manifest in Italy and Germa- 
 ny. Their conservatory, however, is an establishment like- 
 ly to do honour to the nation ; and the work of Choron — 
 entitled Principes de Composition des Ecolcs <f Italic, adoptes 
 par le Oouvernement Francais, pour scrvir a /' Instruction 
 des Eleves des Maitrises de Cathedrales. Ouvrage clas- 
 sique, formk de la Reunion des Modclcs les plus parfaites 
 en tout genre, in 3 vols, fol., is alone sufficient to redeem the 
 French from the accusation of wanting musical literature. 
 
 English Music. — We are not acquainted with writers in 
 this country of earlier date than those of Italy ; but, for the 
 honour of this country, however much we may have been 
 behind Italy in the restoration of other arts, in that of mu- 
 sic we were formerly quite on a par with the Continent ; 
 and it is singular that in later years we should have lost 
 our character, and, we fear, deservedly, among other na- 
 tions. It is certain that England can boast masses in four, 
 five, and six parts, written by natives, as ancient as those of 
 the Italians themselves; we have also secular music in two 
 and three parts, and in good counterpoint, iu the latter end 
 of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, about which 
 period, to the English musician, the names of William of 
 Newark, Sheryngham, Turges, Tudor, Banester, Browne, 
 and others, are familiar. The first named was one of the* 
 musicians of Henry VI. ; and the compositions of Tudor are 
 known from Prince Henry's (Hen. VIII.) music-book. Hen- 
 ry VHI. is known as a composer from a beautiful anthem in 
 ISoyce's collection of cathedral music; and his patronage of 
 Christopher Tye, the composer of Laudate JYbmen Domini, 
 n motett frequently sung at madrigal meetings in the present 
 day, shows that good music was then first esteemed as it 
 ought to be. Marbeck, in 1550, published the whole of the 
 reformed cathedral service to musical notes, and for his ex- 
 ertions as a reformer he had nearly been brought to the 
 stake. During the reign of Elizabeth the talents displayed 
 by our countrymen appear to have been surpassed in no 
 other country, and music here was then indeed in its palmy 
 state. Tallis, Bird, Morley, Dowland, and Bull were the 
 principal composers of the reign : Elizabeth herself could 
 have been no mean performer, if she was able to play the 
 pieces in her virginal book. Though it does not appear that 
 dames I. took much delight in music, it nevertheless con- 
 tinued to prosper during his sway; indeed, the compositions 
 of Gibbons were, as pieces of church music, perhaps never 
 surpassed in any age or nation : neither are his secular 
 pieces of inferior character. This reign as well as the pre- 
 ceding was fruitful in madrigal writers as well as compo- 
 sers for the church ; among the former of whom were 
 Michael and Thomas Este, Bateson, Ward, Litchfield, Pil- 
 kington, Wilbye, Bennett, Farmer, Ford, and others; and 
 among the last Tomkins, Elway Bevin, and Dr. Nathaniel 
 Gyles. In the time of Charles I. instrumental music was 
 corning into vogue ; the monarch was a pupil of Cooper 
 (who was wont to be called Coperario), and used to practise 
 the viol-di-gamba. He had a band of performers, eighteen 
 of whom are known, including Nicholas Laniere, who was 
 the master of it. The most celebrated men of this reign 
 were Dr. Wilson, William and Henry Lawes, and Dr. Child, 
 who died in 1697, aged 90, after having been organist of St. 
 George's chapel, Windsor, during the extraordinary period 
 of sixty-five years. So intent was Charles upon advancing 
 music, that he granted a charter to the most eminent musi- 
 cians of that day, with many great privileges. The art had 
 been sinking for some years, but its fall was accelerated by 
 the suppression of the cathedral service in 1643 ; and the 
 only persons of whom we hear during the time of Crom- 
 well were William and Henry Lawes. Though these men 
 794 
 
 were favourites of Milton, and the subject of some of hi* 
 verses, they were sadly inferior to Tallis, Bird, and Git 
 bons. During the interregnum the musical flame was 
 chiefly fed at Oxford ; but even there, from the year 1640, in 
 which the king was forced to leave the city, after the battle 
 of Naseby, until 1656, it was nearly extinguished. At the 
 Restoration it appeared again to flourish: Child, Christo- 
 pher Gibbons, Rogers, and Wilson, were made doctors of 
 Oxford ; the choirs again obtained good masters : and thu 
 organs, which had been destroyed by the fiend-like rvge of 
 the Puritans, were again set up, though with difficulty, from 
 the scanty supply of organ builders. Among the musicians 
 who were attached to the court of Charles II. was Henry 
 Purcell, of whom Dr. Burney says, that he, "during a shor' 
 life, and in an age almost barbarous for every species of 
 music but that of the church, manifested more original 
 genius than any musician under similar circumstances, thu* 
 any inquiries into the history of the art have yet discovered 
 in any part of Europe." This truly great man died Nov 
 21, 1695, in the thirty-seventh year of his age ; his principal 
 contemporaries were Dr. Blow, his master, Pelham Humph 
 reys, and John Weldon. After Purcell's death some skilful 
 men appeared as amateurs in the service of the church ; 
 namely, Doctors Holder, Aldrich, and Creyphton : among 
 the professors were Jeremiah Clarke, Goldwi ,, and Doctors 
 Croft, Green, Boyce, and Nares. Croft of all these was un- 
 doubtedly the greatest ; he, like Purcell, was a disciple of 
 Blow : always elegant and simple in his strains, frequently 
 grand and masterly, he lias not left a composition that does 
 not exhibit great learning. His death occurred in 1727, in 
 the fiftieth year of his age. Dr. Boyce occupied the void 
 which Croft's death had created ; he was a good musician, 
 always pleasing, but rarely grand in his compositions. His 
 contemporary, Jonathan Battishill, wrote- some fine compo- 
 sitions for the church, and prepared the way in glee writing 
 for a race of English musicians who are an honour to theii 
 country. The reader will recognise the truth of this asser- 
 tion when he glances at the names of Alcock, Arne, Att- 
 wood, W. Beale, Callcott, Dr. Cooke, Robert Cooke, Crotch, 
 Danby, James Elliott, Harir><-ton, Fnrsiev. Thomas Linley, 
 the Earl of Mornlngton, Shieiu, Stafford i 
 the Wesleys, &c. In dramatic and symphony writing, we 
 regret to say, England is still in her infancy. 
 
 Chinese Music. — The Chinese have had a system of mu- 
 sic from a most remote period, and in its scale it seems to 
 have more resemblance to the Grecian than any other to 
 which it could be compared. From the time of Yao and 
 Chun, which their chronology would carryback two-ohd- 
 twenty centuries before Christ, they have had what they 
 call eight species of sounds: 1st. The sound of dried skins, 
 such as drums ; 2d. The sound emanating from stone, called 
 king; 3d. That of metal, as bells - 4th. That of baked 
 earth, called Mom; 5th. That from silk, called kin and 
 che ; 6th. That from wood, called ya and tihou; 7th. That 
 from bamboo, such as flutes, called koan ; 8th. That from 
 the gourd, called cheng. Their scale consists of 14 notes, of 
 which the seven middle notes correspond to our gamut from 
 /upwards. They seem unacquainted with harmony, and 
 we ought, perhaps, to apologize for saying so much of it. 
 
 Hungarian Music. — About the 9th century the Hungari- 
 ans left Asia to settle in Europe, when they conquered the 
 country that bears their name. Like all the Asiatics, they 
 were attached to music, and at first, doubtless, used only- 
 Asiatic instruments ; these were nearly nil wind instru- 
 ments, and consisted of the trumpet, the flute, the cymbal, 
 and several others. Till the time of Mathias Corvin it was 
 in a state of mediocrity ; he incited the Hungarians to vie 
 with other nations in sciences and arts, of which he himself 
 was particularly fond. Under Ladislas and Louis II. mu- 
 sic was cultivated with great care ; their national songs 
 were, however, the only vocal music thoy possessed till the 
 time of Stephen, king of Hungary, when the ecclesiastical 
 chant appears to have been introduced. In a diploma of 
 Bela III., A.D. 1192, it appears that prince sent an envoy to 
 Paris to be instructed in melody ; perhaps induced to do so 
 by his second wife Margaret, who was daughter of Louis 
 VII. of France. 
 
 All musical ideas are expressed by means of notis on a 
 staff; that is, five equidistant horizontal lines, on or be- 
 tween which the notes are placed. The gamut is a table 
 whereon these notes are placed ; and their relative situa- 
 tions as to acuteness or gravity of tone is ascertained by 
 clefs. The names of the notes, which are six in number, 
 are ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, the lowest of these being the gam- 
 ma of the scale. Modern musicians have used as equiva- 
 lents the first seven letters of the alphabet. The arrange- 
 ment in question is exhibited in the diagram following, a note 
 having been added by the moderns to complete the octave, 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 Clef. 
 
 
 
 
 
 b 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ; 
 
 la 
 
 la 
 
 ml 
 
 h 
 
 re 
 
 ■ : -(P 
 
 U 
 fol 
 (a 
 mi 
 re 
 ut 
 
 la 
 
 K.1 
 
 fa 
 
 S]n>i 
 ut 
 
 M>1 
 
 mi 
 ut 
 
 f. 
 
 flmi 
 re 
 ■1 
 
 nt 
 
 
 
 r&=Z 
 
 
 
 
 (Gamma.) 
 
 
 Dan 
 
 or 
 loweal 
 
 From this diagram it will be seen that the bass clef, also 
 called the P fa ut clef, on whatever lines placed, mokes the 
 notes on the line between the dots lo ■ F or fa ut, whence 
 ■ is mode upwards or downwards; that the tenor, 
 or C sol fa in, clef makes all the notes on the line between 
 the cross or horizontal bars to- or sol fa ut ; and that 
 the treble or G sol re ut clef makes all the notes on the line 
 
 round which the character turns 
 
 G sol re ut ; and it 
 
 is to be observed that these several clefs may be put on any 
 lines of the staff notes, which then take the names, F, C, or 
 G, as the case may be. Thus, 
 
 One of the most important ends gained by the use of these 
 clefs is the avoidance of notes running off the staff, which 
 they otherwise would do, and what aro called ledger lines, 
 
 ,,!jS 
 
 would bo wanted ; thus, -g ^ i l l ' == where 
 
 the ledger lines are those upon which the notes out of the 
 stall' are placed. The lines of a staff are reckoned upwards; 
 thus the lowest line is called the first, the lowest but one 
 the second, and so on. When the F clef is placed on the 
 third line, it is called the barytone clef; when on the fourth, 
 the bass clef. When the C clef is placed on the first line, 
 ft takes the name of the soprano clef; when on the second, 
 the mezzo soprano ; when on the third, the alto or counter- 
 tenor clef; and when on the fourth, the tenor clef. The G 
 i lei || rarely or never now placed on any but the second 
 line, and is then called the treble clef. It may be some- 
 times Ken in old books placed on the first line; when so 
 found, it is called the high treble clef. In keyed instru- 
 ments, the C nearest the middle of the instrument is the 
 note of the tenor or C clef; the G above it to the right is 
 the treble or G clef; and the F below to the left is the F or 
 bass clef note. When to the seven primary notes (see dia- 
 gram) another is added above, the arrangement is called an 
 
 octave ; thus, 
 
 ^ 
 
 After which, 
 
 cdefgabc 
 If more be added, either upwards or downwards, it will be 
 but a return to similar notes either more acute or more grave 
 in pitch ; that is, an octave above or below them respect- 
 .vely. This, which is called the scale, has between its notes 
 ■even intervals, of which those between c and d, d and c, f 
 and g, g and a, and a and b are equal, and are called tones 
 or whole tones ; while those between e and /, and b and c 
 are semitones. To inquire how nature has implanted on 
 the car dissatisfaction from any other position of these 
 semitones in the scale of the octave, is not the object of this 
 treatise. That it is so is certain, and the most uneducated 
 whistler could not avoid it without exertion. The scale is 
 also divided Into two trtrachords, from c to/ and from g to 
 c : each of these consists of two tones and a semitone. 
 There is not a strict mathematical equality between these 
 fourths, hut for our purpose here — and the difference, in- 
 deed, is imperceptible, except to the finest ear — that equality 
 may be as-mmeil. As all melody or air, which is an artful 
 succession of tones, depends on a right perception of the 
 
 ■ ..l 
 
 13 mi 
 
 > " 
 
 » 
 
 G A B C D E 
 
 5 » ? 3 » " 
 3 - a ? s. 
 
 -qr-e- 
 
 ^i^Eg 
 
 G A B C D E f 
 
 ^ — - 
 
 \u- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Q 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ; 
 
 3 
 
 A 
 
 •i 
 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 i. 
 
 1 
 
 places of the semitones, the above preliminaries must oe 
 well understood by the student 
 
 Hy the particular form of a note, its duration, or length of 
 time it is to be held on, is known. There are nine of tlics-j 
 forms, which are exhibited in the subjoined table, in which 
 the first two are now rarely used, though in old « i 
 cal music they are constantly met with. 
 
 The large 
 The long 
 The breve 
 
 . L— — i equal tc 
 
 • (=1 - 
 
 two loop 
 two breves 
 two tcmibrerei 
 
 •Hfc 
 
 WW 
 
 ■ o c 
 
 The aemibreve . . 
 
 • o - 
 
 two minimi . 
 
 • rr 
 It 
 U 
 
 The minim . . . 
 
 ■ :\.t\ . 
 The quaver . 
 
 • °i - 
 
 ■ f - 
 
 ■ t - 
 
 two crotchets . 
 t'.vo q, avers . 
 two semiquavers 
 
 The semiquaver 
 
 The demitemiquaver . 
 
 : \- 
 
 two dcmisciiiiqti:! 
 
 The notes with hooks appended to their tails in 1m 
 quently grouped together; this dues not alter their valm, 
 but it assists the eye in reading off the proportions of Hit 
 
 Thus, 
 
 ^feE^t^S^: , 
 
 Detached. Grouped. Detached. Grouped. 
 
 If a dot be added to the right hand of any note, thus (\; it 
 increases its duration exactly one half. The duration ,., 
 a note is measured by the musician from habit, and is 
 regulated hy beating time ; that is, by the elevation and 
 depression of the Tiand or foot quicker or slower ac 
 cording to the nature of the music performed. A mu 
 sical piece is divided into measures, which are equal 
 portions of time ; and the vertical lines which so divide it 
 are called bars, single lines taking merely that name 
 and th e two thic k ones at the end of a strain double bars. 
 
 -1.1. Every measure must contain 
 
 Thus, 
 
 a certain number of notes according to the time marked nt 
 the beginning of the movement ; and that time is of two 
 sorts — common time and triple time — in which two all others 
 originate. The first is of two sorts : 1st, that in which each 
 bar is equal to a semibreve in duration ; 2d, that in which a 
 minim in duration is equal to a bar. Those common times 
 in which a scinihreve is the measure are marked by a C af- 
 
 ter the clef at the beginning of the staff; thus, - 
 
 When the C has a bar through it, thus -i 
 
 , it denotes 
 
 a quicker measure, thus 
 
 ^^ 
 
 sa • crum con-vi • vi • urn. 
 and is called alia breve, but it is now usually written by di- 
 viding the breve into halves. There is another sort of 
 movement now very rarely used ; it is very quick, and it is 
 
 thus marked, 
 
 The other characters of common 
 
 ; signifying that there are two crotch 
 795 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 els in the bar, of which (the denominator) four make a semi- 
 breve. Triple time is so called from the bars being divisible 
 into three parts : it is beat with the hand down at the begin- 
 ning of the bar, raised a little in the middle, and quite up at 
 the close of it. In this time the denominator of the figures 
 placed at the beginning of the staff is a measure of a semi- 
 breve: thus, if 2 be the denominator, the measure is a min- 
 im, because two minims make a semibreve ; if 4, the meas- 
 ure is a crotchet ; and so on. Hence 1 1 ' signifies three 
 
 rap *i 
 
 minims in a bar ; - V— three crotchets ; ~tr~ three qua- 
 vers. So again with multiples of 3 for the numerator: 
 ~S<~ - signifies three crotchets : ^\i — six quavers ; — ¥J— 
 
 nine quavers ( 
 
 nine semiquavers; 
 
 twelve 
 
 quavers. Others sorts of triple time are used ; but if the 
 leader keep in mind that the denominator always expresses 
 the division of the semibreve, and the numerator the num- 
 ber of those divisions in each bar, no mistake can ever arise. 
 There is a certain stress laid on some part or parts of ev- 
 ery bar, which is called accent ; hence each bar or measure 
 is divided into accented and unaccented parts : the accented 
 are the principal, and those on which the pathos and spirit 
 mainly depend. The beginning and the middle, or the be- 
 ginning of the first half of the bar and the beginning of the 
 latter half, in common time, and the beginning or first of 
 three notes in triple time, are universally accented parts of 
 the measure; so the first and third crotchet of the bar are 
 on the accented part of the measure in common time. In 
 triple time, where the notes, as we have explained, go by 
 threes, the note in the middle is unaccented, and the first 
 and last accented ; the accent, however, on the first is so 
 preponderant, that the last is almost accounted as though it 
 had none. It is on account of accent that it is frequently 
 necessary to begin a movement with only part of a measure. 
 Thus, in the Welsh tune Griffith ap Cwnan, 
 (As written.) 
 
 si^ 
 
 it will immediately be seen that the alteration of the accent 
 entirely changes 
 
 (As changed in accent.) 
 
 fit* 
 
 ^^m 
 
 the character of the air. When the last note of a bar (as 
 in the last bar of the lower example) is connected with the 
 first of the following bar, so as to make only one note of 
 both, it is called syncopation. This is also sometimes used 
 in the middle of a measure ; also when a note of one part 
 ends in the middle of a note of the other: the latter, how- 
 ever, is called binding or legature. 
 
 A rest is a pause or interval inserted when silence is re- 
 quired in the part to which it is written, which silence is to 
 be preserved during the time denoted by the species of rest 
 •ised. The following are the rests that are used : 
 
 ± 
 
 Crotchet. Quaver. Semiquaver. Demisemiquaver. 
 
 It has been already noticed that in the ascent of a note to 
 an octave there are, between the third and the fourth note, 
 and between the seventh and the octave, semitones instead 
 of whole tones ; and this is what is called the diatonic scale. 
 It must, therefore, be evident from this inequality that, sup- 
 posing it were necessary, for the sake of the voice's compass 
 or any other cause, to commence a piece of music higher or 
 lower than it was originally written, the mere shifting the 
 notes higher or lower on the lines and spaces would not 
 represent the same relative proportions in all the intervals ; 
 because the places of the semitones would remain the same 
 on the staff, while their position with respect to the notes 
 would be altered. An expedient is, therefore, wanted by 
 which the places of the notes may be raised or depressed 
 the value of a semitone. The former, that is raising them, 
 is effected by placing sharps before them, thus, # ; and the 
 latter by means of flats, thus, b • I f we want t0 restore any 
 note that has been thus treated to its original place, it is ef- 
 fected by means of a natural, thus, fcl . Two other charac- 
 ters are also used ; the double sharp, thus, ><, which raises 
 a note two semitones, and the double flat b b. which equal- 
 
 ly depresses it. Upon keyed instruments, such us the piano 
 forte and organ, these sharps and flats are represented by 
 short black keys, and there is no distinction between D# 
 and E b, and such want of distinction is an imperfection in 
 the instrument ; for, as we have before hinted, there is not a 
 strict mathematical equality between the semitones of the 
 diatonic scale. The number of these fiats and sharps at the 
 beginning of a staff affect all the notes of the line or space 
 on which they are placed, and are termed the signature. 
 If, in addition to these, in the course of a movement any 
 other occur, they are termed accidental, and only affect the 
 notes which they immediately precede, and those also in the 
 same bar ; but if in the same bar tiny note, after having been 
 accidentally raised, on being repeated, is preceded by a nat- 
 ural, such natural restores it to its original place. 
 
 The ornaments of musical melody are called graces ; the 
 principal of which are the appoggiatura, the shake, the 
 turn, and the beat ; with the mordente, beat, slide, and 
 spring peculiar to the Germans : those of musical harmo- 
 ny are the arpeggio, the tremando, &c. The appoggia- 
 tura, which always occurs on the accented part of the 
 measure, is a small note placed before a large one of longer 
 duration, which it usually deprives of half its value ; thus, 
 
 ' &— * — ' ■ < g fcr 
 
 f ' i . ' r \~ , wherein the small notefc 
 
 are appoggiaturas. Occasionally, the appoggiatura is only 
 one quarter of the note it precedes. The shake is a quick al 
 ternate repetition of a note with the note above it, the mark 
 tr being placed on the lower, and the upper one not express- 
 
 ^ to |£^ -^^ ^^ ^ ; 
 
 When there are a series of ascending or descending shakes, 
 the Italians call it una catena di irilli. What the Ger- 
 mans call the passing shake is thus marked ^5j over the 
 
 note where it is intended, thus 
 
 performed 
 
 f-\ . The mordente of the Italian school 
 is used similarly ; thus [ _(!z£=p^d| , performed 
 
 M. The turn employs the note aoove 
 and that below in the following way, -zJijrzj. 
 
 performed 
 
 The inverted turn, thui 
 
 marked f, turns from the note below that marked instead 
 of above it. Turns on dotted notes are very frequently 
 
 used ; they are written as follows ^^ 
 ft 
 
 performed - 
 
 H. The beat 
 
 is the reverse of the shake without the turn, and is generally 
 made at the distance of the semitone below ; hence all the 
 natural notes, except C and F, require the note below them to 
 
 n W vV 
 
 be accidentally sharpened for the beat; thus z^rgE^ 
 
 yHj^J'r^ 1 ^^^^ — • The half " beat is n,0St 
 
 frequently used in the bass, and is very similar to the acci- 
 acatura of the Italians. The inferior note is struck only 
 once, and at the same time with the principal note, but is 
 
 Eb LL-JL-j S. The Italians use 
 
 immediately quitted, as 
 
 the degree above. The German mordente is a beat com- 
 mencing with the note itself, and is either long or short ; 
 
 thus, 
 
 This differs from the 
 
 (long) (short) 
 
 mordente we have already described by being made with 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 i he next degree below. The Italians use the degree above. 
 The German beat consists of two small notes, forming a skip, 
 descending one degree upon the principal note; written thus, 
 
 performed 
 
 PePp 
 
 Nauinberger calls this grace a double appoggiatura. The 
 German slide consists of two small notes, which move by 
 
 degrees; written thus 
 
 the Italian mordentc, consists of two small notes, sound- 
 
 t i 
 
 -o i ' i 
 
 ed distinctly ; thus, Vfo-f JHE-p -ff-f-f- , performed 
 
 It is the practice of the compo- 
 ser to mark, where necessary, the occasional alteration of 
 these glares l>y sharps, flats, or naturals. The graces that 
 belong to harmony are, the tremolo, or reiteration of one of 
 
 ■ I; the tremando, or general trembling of the whole 
 chord ; and the arpeggio, which is an imitation of the harp, 
 the notes of the chord being struck in quick and repeated 
 
 -ion. The following characters are also used in Mu- 
 sic : the pause /T\ which, placed over a note, signifies that 
 a long continuance of the sound is to be made on that part 
 of the measure, and is equally effective when placed over a 
 
 rest; the repeat Sy, which is a sign placed to show where 
 the performer must return to repeat the passage : the Italians 
 call it il segno ; the direct w, always placed at the end of 
 the staff on tin: line or space which the following note occu- 
 pies. The dots which are found in the inner side of bars 
 show that the measures or bars included by them are to be 
 
 repeated , thus, 
 
 Hi 
 
 3, shows that these two bars 
 
 are to be played twice over, the same object being some- 
 times effected by writing the word bis over them. 
 
 We have already mentioned the single and double bar; 
 all that we have to add on them here is, that, as every bar 
 or measure contains a certain numl>er of notes, so every 
 strain consists of a certain number of measures, which are 
 terminated by the double Car. 
 
 F.iprcssiun, in music, is indicated by the following marks : 
 The lye, which is a convex line over ^ora concave line 
 under — two notes on the same line or space, uniting them 
 into one. It is also used to express syncopated notes where 
 the bar divides them. The slur is n similar line, used over 
 I noies not 00 the same lines or spaces, showing that such 
 notes are to be played smoothly ; and in vocal music it also 
 means that all the notes connected by it are to be sung to the 
 same syllable. The dash is a small vertical stroke | placed 
 over notes that are to be distinctly marked. Sometimes, in- 
 stead of this, the point is used, though it is mostly employed 
 to distinguish those notes from which an intermediate effect 
 between the slur and dash is wanted, yet uniting the one 
 
 and the other ; thus, 
 
 ■ . The other marks of 
 
 expression are the crescendo <, by which the sound is to be 
 1 from soft to loud; the diminuendo >, which is 
 exactly the converse of the last, the union of these two<> 
 indicating that the first part is gradually increased from soft 
 to loud in the middle, and then to soft again ; and the rin- 
 forzando, for which smaller marks of the same sort are 
 used > <, which increase or diminish the sound so mark- 
 ed. In order to save time in writing and copying music, 
 the following abbreviations are used : A single stroke placed 
 over or under a semibreve, or through the stem of a minim 
 or crotchet, divides it into quavers, a double stroke into semi- 
 quavers, and a triple stroke into demiscmiquavers ; tints, 
 
 tefefefc 
 
 The other kind of abbreviation is 
 much used in modern music, and is effected by grouping the 
 
 •terns of minims like those of quavers ; thus 
 
 IP 
 
 per- 
 
 :5E? 
 
 formed 
 
 Melody, which will be perhaps better understood by the a 4th 
 term a tune, is a particular succession of sounds in a single 
 
 part, and is produced by the voice or an instrument. The 
 artful manner of introducing the notes of different lengths, 
 and succeeding one another at intervals pleasing to the ear, 
 is one of the desiderata of the musician ; the other being 
 the successful accompaniment of these single sounds by 
 others, according to the laws of harmony. As respect's 
 tune or air, melody has two motions, either by degrees or 
 by skips : by the former when it moves to the line or space 
 immediately above or below it, and by skips when one or 
 more degrees are omitted between the preceding and fol 
 lowing note. The following example shows each motion 
 
 ~$ ^mm ^m 
 
 The distance be 
 
 tween any two notes is called an interval, and it is ctis 
 tomary to measure it from the lower of the two notes, 
 which by their names indicate the number of degrees 
 whereof the interval consists, remembering that in the di 
 atonic scale whole tones are divisible into semitones. It 
 may be as well to explain here the term diatonic. It is de 
 rived from two (Jreek words, ,'m. through, and rovos, a tone ; 
 because, through the majority of notes in this scale, it pro 
 ceeds by whole tones, five out of the seven being of that 
 description, and the other two being semitones. And again, 
 that the notion of an interval between sounds may lie prop 
 erly acquired and felt, we would hint that it may be com 
 prehended by stretching a string between two lived points. 
 so that upon being struck its vibrations are free and will 
 yield a sound. Now a string half the length similarly 
 stretched will yield a sound exactly one octave higher ; 
 the intermediate lengths, therefore, Iwtween I, which we 
 will assume the first strini: to have been, and K, the length 
 of the second at a certain place, according to a certain ra 
 tio, will yield the different sounds of the octave : thus we 
 may acquire a distinct notion of intervals of sound by ab- 
 solute intervals of length. To return, then, to different in- 
 tervals in the octave. If we count from the lower note to 
 its octave, there will lie found the following intervals: 
 First, the unison, which in harmony is accounted an inter- 
 val, though it be the same identical sound. Second, the 
 minor second, sometimes called the flat second, is the inter- 
 val formed by two sounds at the distance of a diatonic 
 semitone from each other. Third, the major second, con- 
 sisting of a whole tone. Fourth, the minor third, contain- 
 ing a whole tone and a diatonic semitone. Fifth, the ma- 
 jor third, consisting of two whole tones. Sixth, the per- 
 fect fourth, containing two tones and a diatonic semitone. 
 Seventh, the sharp fourth, containing three whole tones, 
 and called thence by the ancients the tritonus. Eighth, 
 the flat fifth, containing two tones and two semitones ; 
 which, however, are not equal to three whole tones, but 
 rather to two minor thirds. Ninth, the perfect fifth, con- 
 taining three tones and one semitone, equal to a major and 
 a minor third. Tenth, the minor sixth, consisting of three 
 tones and two semitones. Eleventh, the major sixth, 
 which consists of four tones and one semitone. Twelfth, 
 the minor seventh, containing four tones and two semi- 
 tones, or ten semitones. Thirteenth, the major or sharp 
 seventh, composed of five tones and one semitone, or eleven 
 semitones. Fourteenth and last, the octave, consisting of 
 eight degrees. The above fourteen intervals are given in 
 the following synopsis : 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "- 1 — rj v 
 
 'g'* — ' 
 
 L-S— 5> J 
 
 L_s, — £ — 
 
 
 Unison!. Minor 2d. Major 2d Minor M Maior 3d. 
 
 Perfect 4th. Sharp 4th, Flat 5th. 
 [or Tritonus.] 
 
 • J 1 
 
 
 
 i — — i 
 
 3 ©- 
 
 ©— 
 
 to 
 
 =— 
 
 eV 
 
 -©- 
 
 -a 
 
 L &r 
 
 Major 6th. Minor 7th. Major 7th. Octave. 
 By inserting the semitones between these intervals, Mm 
 number which we have above stated in each will be easily 
 discovered. When the lower note of any interval is placed 
 an octave higher, or the higher note on octave lower, il is 
 called inversion. Thus 
 
 is converted into a 7th 
 
 a 6th 
 
 a 5th 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 By this operation major are converted into minor inter- 
 vals, and the converse ; for instance, the sharp fourth be- 
 comes a flat fifth, and the unison becomes an octave. We 
 will here mention an ancient division of melodies, which at 
 least ought to be understood by a student, namely, into that 
 of authentic and plagal melodies. The former are those 
 whose principal notes are between the key note and its oc- 
 tave, of which Ihe following is the example given by Cal- 
 cott, in his Grammar, from Handel's Jephtha, 
 
 g^S^ES^ 
 
 (Waft her, angels.) 
 The latter, on the contrary, have their principal notes con- 
 tained between the fifth of the key and its octave, or twelfth ; 
 as, 
 
 — (Hfr 
 
 ^S 
 
 (Streams of pleasure.) 
 (rem Handel's Theodora. 
 
 There are three scales occasionally used in music ; the 
 diatonic, which has already been explained; the chromatic ; 
 and the enharmonic. The chromatic, which, according to 
 some, takes its name from the Greek word xP^jua, colour, 
 because they suppose the Greeks distinguished it by differ- 
 ent-coloured characters ; according to others, because, hold- 
 ing the mean place between the diatonic and enharmonic 
 system, it was like colour between black and white ; or, as 
 others say, because, like colours in painting, it embellishes 
 the diatonic by its semitones — usually ascends by sharps and 
 descends by flats, as follows : 
 
 pgs^§=||||§ 
 
 From this it appears that the chromatic scale consists of 
 thirteen tones, with twelve intervals between them, where- 
 of we have already, among the diatonic intervals, described 
 seven ; the other five form a distinct species of intervals 
 called chromatic. First, the chromatic semitone is the inter- 
 val between any note and the same depressed by a flat or 
 raised by a sharp. Second, the extreme sharp second, which 
 consists of a tone and a chromatic semitone, being composed 
 of two degrees. Third, the extreme flat third, which con- 
 tains two diatonic semitones, consisting of three degrees ; or 
 it is the minor third diminished by a chromatic semitone. 
 Fourth, the extreme flat fourth, containing a tone and two 
 diatonic semitones, and consisting of four degrees; or it is 
 the perfect fourth diminished by the chromatic semitone. 
 Fifth, the extreme sharp fifth, which is the perfect fifth in- 
 creased by the chromatic semitone. Sixth, the extreme 
 sharp sixth, or the major sixth increased by the chromatic 
 semitone, consisting of five degrees; it is divisible into a 
 major third and a sharp fourth. Seventh, the extreme flat 
 seventh, or the minor seventh diminished by a chromatic 
 semitone; it is composed of four tones and two diatonic 
 semitones, and is divisible into three minor thirds. Eighth, 
 the extreme flat eighth, or octave diminished by the chro- 
 matic semitone. This is never used in melody. The above 
 intervals are exhibited in the subjoined synopsis. 
 
 JSXt.tys'*- JZxl.$6'"~ JZr.l.\>? u >- 12xt'.\) 8 th - 
 The enharmonic scale, so called from the augment cv, and 
 signifying extremely harmonious, or well knit togelher, is a 
 series formed by uniting the ascending and descending scale 
 of the chromatic genus. It contains intervals smaller than 
 the semitone: not, indeed, exactly half the semitone; but, 
 f torn their near approximation to it, called the diesis, a Greek 
 word signifying a division. We have before hinted that 
 there is not a strict mathematical equality between the tones 
 in an octave. Our limits do not permit to pursue that 
 question farther than to say, that that tone which is be- 
 tween the fourth and fifth of the scale is divided into nine 
 small parts, called commas; while that between the fifth 
 and sixth of the major scale contains only eight commas. 
 The diatonic semitone contains five commas ; and the chro- 
 matic semitone three or four, according to the magnitude of 
 the tone. Now the enharmonic scale divides each tone into 
 two chromatic semitones and a quarter tone ; but we subjoin 
 a diagram of it. 
 ?'IS 
 
 ^^Ig^R^^^g^^ 
 
 In this scale we have inserted the intervals E|j and E#; 
 also Cb and Bit; but they do not properly belong to the 
 scale, as their distance is less than a quarter tone We 
 have omitted above to state that there is another interval, 
 which, by calculation, is found to be a comma and a half, 
 and is called kyperoche, or an excess. 
 
 As in oratory there is a principal subject whereon the 
 speaker constantly dwells, and to which, after diverging 
 from it, he always returns; so in music there is one sound 
 in which the peice begins and ends, which regulates the rest, 
 and to which regard must be had in all the other sounds of 
 the piece ; and this sound is called the key, and the princi- 
 pal note the key note, or tonic. From the diatonic scale we 
 have seen that the semitones lie between E and F, and B 
 and C ; the key note being C. Now if we wish to make G the 
 key note, it is clear that without some contrivance the wri- 
 ting the notes from G to its octave will throw one of the 
 semitones out of its place ; namely, that between E and F, 
 which, instead of being, as it ought to be, between the 
 seventh and the octave, is between the sixth and the seventh. 
 It is obvious, then, if we raise the natural F a semitone by 
 means of a #, we shall restore the semitone to a situation 
 similar to that which it held in the key of C. By comparing 
 the subjoined scales, this will be more distinctly seen. 
 
 Key of C 
 
 Key of G 
 
 SrwttoM Semitone 
 Now if D be taken as the key note, we shall find it will 
 be necessary to sharpen the C as well as the F, in order to 
 bring the semitones into the places they ought to occupy in 
 the octave; and we shall have two sharps. In order to 
 save the constant repetition of these sharps, it is usual to 
 put them at the beginning of the stafl', where they are called 
 signatures ; th us, 
 
 Ss^igssgg 
 
 In the same way the keys beating flats are marked, saving 
 that the seventh of the original key bears the first flat, as 
 follows : 
 
 fcsk 
 
 s^sisite^ 
 
 Besides thesr scales, which are all constructed with the 
 major third, a/id are therefore called major keys, there is a 
 scale constructed from the natural notes whose third is 
 minor ; thus, 
 
 3C 
 
 -e-cr 
 
 In which it must be observed, first, that the places of the 
 semitones are different; and, second, that the ascending 
 scale always requires the seventh to be sharpened, though 
 it is not sharpened in the descending scale. The sharp in 
 question is, however, always omitted in the signature, and 
 marked accidentally where the melody requires it. It must 
 be here noted, that between the Ft] and G# a harsh chro- 
 matic interval, called an extreme sharp second, occurs; tc 
 avoid which the sixth is sharpened, by which the scale of 
 the minor mode has two notes different from the signature ; 
 but in the descending scale no accidentals are required 
 The minor modes, whether proceeding by sharps or flats, 
 have exactly the same signatures as the major mode. Thur 
 by sharps we have 
 
 ■ fy-G If 
 
 and by flats 
 
 ^^^^tinii 
 
 Major and minor scales which have the same signature* are 
 denominated relative. Thus the relative minor keys of A is 
 E# ; in which case the tonic or keynote of the minor mode 
 is found to be the sixth note ascending of the major *calc 
 bearing the signature ; and the tonics are always one degree 
 below the last sharp of the signature, but in flat signatures 
 always the third degree above the hist flat. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 The change of a melody from its original to a higher or 
 'ower pitch is called transposition, and this may be effected 
 ay altering the signature according to the pilch of the new 
 tonic or key note. This alteration may be also accomplish- 
 ed in every minor melody. If a melody is performed n the 
 relative or tonic minor, being originally major, the change is 
 not culled transposition, but variation. Modulation is the 
 notion of the melody on the key in which it has commen- 
 ced, and the alteration by new tiats and sharps of the orig- 
 inal scale. Modulation comprehends the regular progression 
 of several parts through the sounds that are in the harmony 
 of any particular key, as well as the proceeding naturally 
 and regularly from one key to another. Every scale is im- 
 mediately connected with two others ; one on the fifth 
 above, which adds a sharp to the signature ; the other on 
 the tilth below or fourth above, by which a new flat is added 
 to the signature. These were called by Dr. Boyce attendant 
 knjs. Minor scales have, in like manner, their attendant 
 keys. 
 
 VVe here subjoin, from the late Dr. Calcott's excellent 
 .1 Grammar, the names given to certain notes in the 
 M peculiarly marking their character, though we do 
 not Intend to use then in the following part of this short 
 ■May. 1st. The tonic, or key note, is the chief sound upon 
 which all regular melodies depend, and with which they all 
 terminate. All its octaves, above and below, are called by 
 the s.ime name. 2d. The dominant, or fifth above the key 
 note, in that sound which, from its Immediate connexion 
 witn the tonic, is .said to |MWi it ,' that is, to require the 
 tonic to be heard after it, at the final cadence in the bass. 
 3d. The sub-dominant, or fifth below the key note, is also a 
 species of governing note, as it requires the tonic to be heard 
 after it in the plagal cadence. It is the fourth in the regular 
 ascending scale oi and is a tone below the 
 
 dominant: but the term arises from its relation to the tonic, 
 as the fifth below. These three principal sounds are the 
 radical parts of every scale, of the minor as well as the 
 major; and all melodies are derived from them. 4th. The 
 leading note, or sharp seventh of the scale, is, in Germany, 
 called the subsemitone of the mode ; it is always the major 
 third above the dominant, and therefore in the minor scales 
 requires an accidental sharp or natural whenever it occurs. 
 5th. The mediant, or middle note between the tonic and the 
 dominant ascending, varies according to the mode ; being the 
 greater third in the major scale, and the lesser third in the 
 minor Kale. 6th. The submtdiant, or middle note between 
 the tonic and subdominant descending, varies also according 
 to the mode; being the greater sixth in tin* major scale, and 
 the lesser sixth in the minor scale. 7th. The supcrtonic, or 
 i above the key note, has seldom been distinguished in 
 England by this or any other appellation. In theory it is con- 
 sidered as a variable sound, being a comma higher in the 
 major scale than when the mode changes to the relative 
 minor. 
 
 Harmony consists in the combination of two or more 
 Founds or melodies heard at the same moment, the intervals 
 between such sounds having been already defined. A con- 
 cord is an agreeable relation of two sounds as respects the 
 ear, such sounds which are agreeable compounds singly 
 being agreeable also in succession, subject to certain laws. 
 Concord is, therefore, included under the term harmony, 
 though more properly applied to the agreeable effect of two 
 Bounds in consonance ; whereas harmony involves the agree- 
 ment of n greater number of sounds than two. When two 
 sounds either in consonance or succession are disagreeable to 
 the ear, the relation between them is called a discord. The 
 concord then may be called a harmonical interval, and the 
 discord an inharmonical one; yet by the proper interposi- 
 tion of discords the harmonies of a passage receive a lustre 
 and value from the contrast. They must, however, as we 
 shall presently show, he properly prepared and resolved, as 
 it is technically called. The union of any sound with its 
 third (major or minor) and Its perfect fifth is called a com- 
 mon chord ; to which, if the octave to the sound be added, 
 we have a combination of lour sounds in the harmony; 
 thus 
 
 Major. Minnr. 
 
 So long ns in these chords the C or the A remain the lower 
 note, the chord is called the common chord of C or A re- 
 spectively ; but the moment the position of the lower note 
 is changed, the name of the chord also changes. Thus if E 
 of the common chord of C be used as the lowest or bass 
 
 note, thus 
 
 , the chord is called a sixth ; 
 
 because the key note is then the interval of a sixth upwards 
 from the bass note, and that sixth has for its accompaniment 
 a minor third from E to G. 
 If G be now placed at the bottom and used as the bas» 
 
 note, thus 
 
 , the key note is an interval 
 
 of a fourth above the bass, and the chord is called nfourtn, 
 and, as the example shows, is accompanied by a sixth. From 
 this it is manifest that the sixth and fourth are no more than 
 inversions of the common chord, having the same note C 
 for their expressed or understood bass, which is called the 
 fundamental bass, because it is that on which they are 
 founded ; and the same arrangement equally exists in the 
 common chord with a minor third. The common chord is 
 
 3 5 8 
 expressed shortly tha«, 5 8, or 3 : but they are frequently 
 
 83 5 
 omitted. The second example, or chord of the sixth, is 
 merely figured with a sixth ; and the third example, where 
 G is the lowest note, is denoted by the figures J. 
 
 Of discords, the most simple is tho minor seventh, or, as 
 some call it, the dominant seventh ; because it occurs only 
 on the fifth or dominant of the key, and require* that part in 
 which it occurs always to descend one degree. We here give 
 
 its full accompaniment of four real parts 
 
 As in the common chord either of these four sounds may be 
 placed as the bass or lower note of the chord, yet as 
 with in the common chord the fundamental note of it 
 will be G; B being a third, D a perfect fifth, and F a minor 
 
 ; in each of which 
 
 seventh ; thus, 
 
 cases it would carry the figure 7 below it. Sometimes, how- 
 
 37 53 
 
 5 •» 3 7 
 ever, it is figured below, ^3-5: such positions containing 
 
 8 
 the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth of the root, when the 
 octave is removed. When 1! becomes the buss note, as 
 
 the chord by inversion consists of a minor 
 
 third, an imperfect flat or false fifth, and a minor sixth, and 
 is, as in the example, figured ». If D be next taken as the 
 
 bass note, thus 
 
 , the chord consists of a minor 
 
 third, perfect fourth, and major sixth, and is, as in the ex- 
 ample, figured thereunder 3. If F be used for the lower or 
 
 bass note, thus 
 
 major second, sharp fourth, and major sixth, and is 
 ured 1 
 
 From these observations it nppears, therefore, that the 
 three last chords are properly called derivatives of the minor 
 seventh when accompanied with a major third and perfect 
 fifth. By some authors these three chords are called tho 
 syncopated fifth, the syncopated third, and the syncopated 
 second respectively. Besides the chords within the com 
 pass of the octave, there is the ninth, which is usually ac- 
 
 799 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 eompanied with a third find fifth ; thus, 
 
 . When 
 
 used in a composition of four parts, and marked by a single 
 9, it has the accompaniment of a third and fifth , thus, 
 
 Frequently, however, it is acccoin- 
 
 6 9 8 
 panied by a fourth and fifth, and then is marked with a 
 
 «ouble row of figures ; thus, 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 When 
 
 6 9 8 
 5 4 3 
 trie composition is in only three parts, the fifth is not used. 
 With the third and fifth as an accompaniment, the ninth be- 
 comes then an appoggiatura, continued in the place of the 
 eighth. The ninth has two inversions: one of them figured 
 with a seventh on the third of the fundamental note; the 
 other figured with a fifth and a sixth on the fifth of the fun- 
 damental note. 
 
 When the figures 4 and 6 are dashed, thus 4 ~6-, it indicates 
 that they represent a sharp fourth and a sharp sixth. It 
 will perhaps be useful, in this place, to place before the 
 reader a synopsis of all the discords: from the seventh up- 
 wards they are all inversions of the seventh sharp or flat, 
 with major or minor thirds. 
 
 (I.) (II-) (III.) (IV.) 
 
 #7 
 
 £7 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 In the above table, I. is the second, and it is the lower 
 note Which is the discord ; II. contains four real parts with- 
 
 6 fi 
 out octaves or unisons, and its use is to retard the 4 or ? ; 
 
 3 5 
 IV. is also with four real parts, three of which form a com- 
 mon chord above the bass, which note is the discord ; VI. 
 is the imperfect common chord, with a whole tone added 
 below ; VII. is the major second, perfect fourth, and minor 
 seventh, and is used to retard the common chord by an ap- 
 poggiatura in the bass ; X. is called the chord of the eleventh, 
 of which the figure 4 is the representation, sometimes called 
 the sharp seventh ; XI. is the chord of the thirteenth— the 
 sixth may be either major or minor ; in XII. the fifth must 
 be perfect, the second either major or minor, and either the 
 one or the other may be doubled. The above is a concise 
 view of the figured or thorough bass ; called by the Italians 
 basso continuo ; and the reader will recollect that all chords 
 may be reduced to the fundamental bass by bringing them 
 to the form of the perfect chord, or to that of the seventh. 
 Chords are called relative,ot irrelative, according as a sound 
 
 is or i» not common to both. Thus in 
 
 these two chords, which are irrelative, it will be seen that 
 there is no sound in cither that is common to both ; in the 
 
 chords 
 
 _o the G being found in both chords, 
 
 they are relative. If, in proceeding from one chord to an- 
 800 
 
 other, any note of the previous chord is kept in that winch 
 follows, the process will produce correct harmony. The 
 discords, where they appear, must, of course, l>e prepared 
 and resolved, whereof we shall hereafter speak ; and care 
 must be taken to avoid progressions of fifths ami octaves be- 
 tween the extreme parts when both move the same way 
 Before leaving this part of the subject, we subjoin, as proper- 
 ly belonging to it, what is called the harmony of the scale ; 
 that is, the accompaniment which it carries in ascending ar.i 1 
 descending : 
 
 6 6 
 
 5 4 3 4 5 
 
 3 5 3 2 3 3 
 
 Composition is the art of joining and combining concords 
 and discords in such a manner that their succession and 
 progression may be agreeable to the ear. It may be here 
 mentioned, that melody being chiefly the business of the 
 imagination, its rules serve only to prescribe limits to it ; be- 
 yond which the imagination in searching out the variety and 
 beauty of the airs ought not to go. But harmony is the work 
 of the judgment ; and its rules are more certain and exten- 
 sive, and more difficult in practice. A person, indeed, un- 
 skilled in music may by chance make a piece of good melody ; 
 but a person of judgment does it with certainty. In hai moiiy , 
 the invention has not so much to do ; for the composition is 
 conducted from a nice observation of its rules, assisted also 
 by the imagination. It is not to be expected that in the com- 
 pass of this article space can be afforded for a complete 
 treatise on this part of the subject ; all that we propose is to 
 present to the reader some of the lending rules of the science. 
 
 The different motions of the parts which constitute liar 
 mony are direct and contrary. In the former the parts move 
 the same way, ascending or descending. There is also a 
 third motion, according to some, called the oblique motion; 
 but that may be classed under contrary motion. In direct mo- 
 tion, the parts move the same way, ascending or descending. 
 
 IPPiiP 
 
 In contrary motion, one of the 
 
 parts rises while the other falls, ] 
 
 use of these motions enables the composer to avoid harmoni- 
 cal irregularities in the use of octaves and fifths, and in 
 other points. The following are the leading rules of har- 
 mony, as regards the motions and successions of concords : 
 First, octaves and fifths must not be consecutive in direct 
 
 motion. For instance, ipr J — gz: — tj— |g , where the 
 motion is direct, may be avoided by giving the passage con 
 trary motion ; thus, |[Tf H Si n 5 — I • Second, un 
 
 necessary and distant skips must be avoided as much as pos- 
 sible, and the chords should be kept as close and ns much 
 connected as may be. Third, false relations, such as the 
 extreme sharp second, must be avoided, unless the same be 
 required for the purpose of expressing some particular effect. 
 Fourth, the regular motion of the different parts in harmony 
 must be observed: sharp intervals should ascend after the 
 sharp, while minor or flat intervals must descend after the 
 flat. In observing this rule, however, that of avoiding con- 
 secutive octaves and fifths must, nevertheless, be observed : 
 neither is to be strictly observed where certain effects are re- 
 quired. It is customary for compositions to begin with one 
 of the perfect concords of its key note, namely the octave or 
 fifth ; and it should end in the key note with its common 
 chord for the harmony. It should not begin or end with a 
 sixth, though it sometimes may with a third. To these we 
 may add, that you must not go from an imperfect concord to 
 a perfect concord by similar motion ; such passages beln<» 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 said to contain hidden octaves or fifths, which will be seen 
 by tilling up the diatonic degrees through which one of the 
 parts is conceived to pass. With these prefatory remarks, 
 we shall now proceed to some few details of the laws of 
 Harmony. In proceeding from the unison,.wben both parts 
 move, it is better to go from it to the third minor than the 
 third uiajoi We may go to the minor either by oblique or 
 
 contrary motion, 
 
 ; but to the major it 
 
 must be by oblique or by similar motion, the first being the 
 
 best, 
 
 A fifth after a unison 
 
 '1 S3 1 ff.f ii _ 
 by similar moiion must be avoided : it M ::ood in oblique mo- 
 tion, and is allowed in contrary motion, one part moving a sin- 
 
 gle degree. 
 
 From the unison we may go 
 
 to the sixth minor by contrary motion, \pQ-ci— — | I I : 
 
 1 bY \l p]o 
 It is not good by the other motions, because of the lnrge leap. 
 But from the unison to the sixth major is forbidden. An 
 octave after a unison, except by oblique motion, must be 
 avoided, inasmuch as in two unisions or two octaves it is 
 but the division of a large note into smaller. 
 
 In the second, the lowest note is the discord. It may 
 be prepared In an}- concord, and resolved in any but the 
 eighth ; it must therefore descend to the resolution, 
 
 g^ T^R ^fNl 
 
 ^-w - - 
 
 The preparation of a discord is effected by taking care that 
 the note which Is the discord is heard in the preceding har- 
 mony, iis resolution lieing its descent either a tone or a semi- 
 tone,' according to the mode, after it has been struck. Those 
 seconds are called transient which are introduced with- 
 out preparation on the accented part of the bur, thus 
 
 ; and if these transient seconds be- re- 
 moved to the accented part of the bar, they then become np- 
 poggiaturas. When the second is attended by a fifth and 
 
 6 6 
 
 third, it becomes a chord of 4 or the r ; nnd if the third be 
 
 3 J 
 
 sharp, the minor mode is indicated. 
 
 .54 fl w 'J: »» 
 
 385 A4. 
 
 % 23 
 
 A chord is satu to have four real parts, when it contains four 
 sounds without octaves or unisons : a concord can only have 
 three real parts. When the second is attended by the fourth 
 and fifth, either the fifth or the fourth must be prepared ; 
 and it becomes the chord of the fifth and sixth at the resolu- 
 tion of the second by the bass. 
 
 ^^^^a^fe^^^aj 
 
 s e 
 
 •!:- 1 4 5 
 
 i * 
 
 The second, accompanied with the sixth nnd fourth, is a 
 chord of four real parts, three of them forming a common 
 chord above the bass, which, being the discord, must be re- 
 solved by a descent to the next degree: the sharp fourth 
 usually ascends, but it sometimes remains stationary, 
 
 r *p . This chord, with the minor second, per- 
 6 
 4 
 2 
 feet fourth, and minor sixth, is produced by adding a minor 
 3 E 
 
 semitone below any common chord with a major third ; and 
 also by placing a note one tone below the imperfect common 
 chord, a major second, perfect fourth, and minor sixth ; but 
 in all these the second is resolved by descent. The extreme 
 sharp second with the sharp fourth and major si.xth is a tone 
 and major semitone below the imperfect common chord. 
 The second major with a perfect fourth and minor seventh 
 retards the common chord with a major third by an nppog- 
 
 giatura in the bass; thus, SSEajEBpzri' . The minor 
 
 second, perfect fourth, and minor seventh retard the com- 
 mon, chord with a minor third in a similar manner 
 
 The second is also accompanied witi 
 
 the fourth and sharp seventh, which, when introduced upon 
 a resting bass, allow all the intervals when struck to ascend. 
 
 M^ 
 
 8 7 8 
 
 3 4 3 
 
 2 
 
 When, however, the bass moves, it it 
 
 usual to prepare the upper ports, 
 
 -;■■ 
 
 - 
 
 i- ' Tha 
 
 % 7<V ■ 
 6 A 
 
 fourth may, indeed, be used without preparation, but it falls 
 to the resolution. Both the major and minor sixth are used 
 in the chord with or without preparation ; but they fall to 
 the fifth, by which the common chord preserves its fulness, 
 
 The second may, or may not fill 
 
 S 
 £ 3 
 
 up the chord. If the fifth is taken in the chord for the fifth 
 part, it is suspended, and may or may not be in the prece- 
 ding chord. You obtain the last sixth perfect by it, and retain 
 four single parts in the places where the second is omitted. 
 
 The second, accompanied witli th« 
 
 fourth, fifth, und Beventh,RwraHE, by some is called the 
 
 chord of the eleventh, the fourth being the representative 
 of that interval, which is always perfect, as well as the 
 fifth ; but the second and seventh arc major. Accompanied 
 by the seventh, sixth, and fourth, the second is called the 
 chord of the thirteenth, in which the thirteenth is figured 
 
 2)E|S 
 
 by the sixth, which may be either major or minor, • . 
 
 •Or 
 
 When the second is accompanied by the fifth, :z ^ rr r,e — , 
 
 the latter must be always perfect ; but the second may l.e 
 either major or minor. 
 
 The third major or minor 
 
 is an agree- 
 
 able concord ; of which it Is to be noted that two minor 
 thirds in succession are better than two majors, but mixed 
 thirds in succession are most pleasant to the ear; indeed an 
 octave of major thirds is extremely unpleasant. It is best 
 to begin a regular ascent with a major third, and a descent 
 
 with a minor, 
 
 ; and in two parts 
 
 it is not well to end in a third above the key note. The 
 third is accompanied by a fourth and sixth, - $>y. — a * 2 — . and 
 
 is generally called the small sixth. That species of it 
 wherein the third is minor, the fourth perfect, and the sixth 
 major, is elegit in effect, as the seventh, from which it is 
 derived. The Allowing \« in example: 
 
 801 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 The third is also accompanied by the fourth and sev- 
 enth • but when the third or the tenth is at the top of the 
 
 9 
 chord, it is generally followed by the 7, which fourth, sev- 
 enth, and ninth ought all to descend to the resolution ; 
 
 thus, 
 
 The third accompanied by the 
 
 10 10 9 
 8 7 7 6 
 5 4 4 3 
 
 sixth and seventh is generally followed by the chord of the 
 seventh ; hence the sixth is the only interval wanting prep- 
 aration. 
 
 egfggj^jfej 
 
 The fourth should not be used alone : it should be BfflO- 
 
 ' -J 
 
 ciated with the sixth and octave ; thus, 
 
 Accompanied by the fifth, the fourth is a discoid much 
 used. When introduced on a resting bass, it resolves into 
 the third ; and its effect is so similar to that of the ninth, 
 that they are frequently introduced alternately. 
 
 The chord of the fourth accompanied by the sixth is of 
 great use in harmonical progressions; and when preceded 
 by the common chords to the key note and fourth of the 
 key, and succeeded by the common chords to the fifth of 
 the key and the key note, forms one of the terminations to 
 n musical period called the fourth and sixth cadence ; thus, 
 
 When the seventh accompanies the fourth, and that is fol- 
 lowed by the chord of the third, fifth, and seventh, either 
 the fourth or seventh, or both, should be in some part of the 
 chord preceding it. In the following example both the fourth 
 and seventh are prepared and resolved : 
 
 When, however, the 
 
 chord of the fourth and seventh is followed by the fourth 
 sixth, and eighth, it is frequently used without preparation 
 in either of the positions. The fourth and seventh descend 
 to the resolution, and generally resolve after each other. 
 
 The interval of the sharp fourth, which has been before 
 
 mentioned, is a minor semitone more than the perfect 
 
 fourth, and a major semitone less than the perfect fifth. 
 
 Its natural resolution is that the base shall fall a degree, 
 
 802 
 
 and the upper part rise one, by which the two parte meet 
 in a minor sixth. It is of very great use in modulation, 
 as you can, by introducing it upon the key note, always 
 change the mode you are in, as in the following examples 
 
 In four parts the sixth 
 
 and second are taken with it. 
 
 The interval of the imperfect fifth is a minor semitone 
 less than the imperfect fifth, and a major semitone more 
 than the perfect fourth. In using this chord the highest 
 note falls and the lowest one rises, so that they meet in 
 
 a major third ; thus 
 
 •ifipi 
 
 In four parts it is 
 
 accompanied by a third and sixth, 
 
 The fifth is the next interval which we have to consider 
 of this we have already said that two fifths cannot follow 
 each other, except by contrary motion. From the fifth to 
 the unison is good by oblique motion, and also by contrary 
 motion, one part moving a single degree ; but by similar 
 motion it is bad. From a fifth to either of the thirds is al- 
 lowed by all the motions, but it is best by the oblique ; next 
 to the oblique, the best way to the third minor is by con- 
 trary motion, and to the third major by similar motion, and 
 both by single degrees. A false fifth may succeed a perfect 
 fifth, provided it be also immediately succeeded by a third 
 
 and by contrary motion, 
 
 From the fifth to 
 
 either sixth it is best by oblique motion ; but it is allowed by 
 similar motion if one part move a single degree : it is also 
 allowed ascending, hut not descending, to go by leap from 
 the fifth to the sixth minor, but not to the majoi. 
 
 In passing from the fith to the octave through a sixth, 
 the sixth must be major, never minor; and it must be by 
 
 contrary motion 
 
 An octave 
 
 after a fifth by leap in similar motion must be avoided. By 
 oblique and contrary motion, it is good and allowable by 
 similar motion, one part moving a single degree, as follows: 
 
 jjfe^M^pii 
 
 When a third or a sixth moves to a fifth in similar motion, 
 there is said to be a hidden fift.'i in the passage. The reader 
 will, in the following example, see by the dots where these lie. 
 
 iii§b^M 
 
 £^3j 
 
 In a regular ascent, it is common for a fifth to be succeeded 
 by a sixth, as in a descent it is lor the seventh to he suc- 
 ceeded by a sixth. Of both these, which are termed se- 
 quences, the following are examples: 
 
 $6 56 
 
 S6SS SSC6 56 
 
 '^m 
 
 ^ 
 
 6 76 76 76~ L W~76 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 The chord of the extreme sharp fifth, which consists of two 
 major thirds placed aliove each other, is generally preceded 
 and succeeded by a common chord, or that of the sixth, as 
 in the following examples : 
 
 ^ps^^& 
 
 It is here seen that the extreme sharp fifth to the bass, 
 whether it be in the middle or at the top of the chord, 
 always rises to the resolution. It is called a transient 
 chord. 
 
 The sixth, by inversion, becomes a third ; and it often 
 happens that the bass which accompanies sixths will har- 
 monize equally well with thirds. When accompanied with 
 the fifth, the fifth is treated as a discord ; which we will 
 illustrate by two or three instances. 
 
 Some have given the name of the great sixth to this chord 
 when the sixth is major and the fifth perfect. If the fifth 
 is imperfect and the sixth minor, it is called the chord of 
 the false fifth. It will be seen above that the chord of the 
 great sixth is used on bass notes which ascend a tone to 
 the perfect chord, and that of the false fifth to those which 
 
 .«cend a semitone, 
 
 The species of this 
 
 chord chiefly used in minor keys consists of a perfect fifth, 
 •in extreme sharp sixth, and major third ; and the base of 
 
 ft generally descends, / t7 
 
 The minor sev- 
 
 B^g 
 
 enth accompanied with a third major and perfect fifth is 
 one of the most agreeable of the discords ; it should be 
 beard in the chord which precedes it when used with 
 
 a minor third and perfect fifth, 
 
 B) raising the lower note of a mbur seventh a minor semi 
 tone, the chord of the dimini<!.ed or extreme flat seventh, 
 
 also called the equivocal chord, is produced,/^— g~ } f~ R S~l| 
 
 gB 
 
 Minor 7th. Diminished 7th* 
 This is called the equivocal chord, from the uncertainty 
 of the key note into which it may lead. The preparation 
 of a major seventh is a third, a fifth, a sixth, or an eighth ; 
 its resolution is a third, a sixth, and a fifth from the con- 
 cords in which it is prepared. The ninth major consists 
 of a whole tone, and the minor ninth a semitone major 
 above the octave. The major ninth is prepared by a third, 
 a fifth, and occasionally by a sixth, never by an eighth ; 
 And is resolved by a third, a sixth, or an eighth from each 
 of the concords in which it is prepared. When the ninth 
 is used in four parts, the third and fifth must be taken with 
 it. Besides the above resolutions of the ninth, it may be 
 resolved by the fifth if the base rise a fourth or fall a fifth 
 when the upper part falls one degree for its resolution. It 
 must be accompanied at the resolution by an eighth, if the 
 piece be in four parts. We subjoin a few examples : 
 
 p^m^^^. 
 
 c c 
 
 4 3 
 
 1 6 
 
 4. 
 
 2 * 
 
 u 
 
 The minor ninth is prepared in the third only, and resolved 
 in the eighth if the bass hold on till the resolution is 
 made ; but it is resolved in the third if the bass descend a 
 
 third on the resolution, 
 
 The ninth may have other discords mixed with it, as the 
 fourth ; in which case the fourth must be prepared and 
 resolved as a discord. The seventh may bo also mixed 
 with it ; in which case the seventh must be also separately 
 prepared and resolved. 
 
 We have before defined the word modulation : our inten- 
 tion here is to add ■ few observations on the mode in which 
 it is accomplished, premising that the laws of modulation 
 are dependent on those of harmony. If you desire (o keep 
 in the key, you are to use all the sounds of the scale as much 
 as possible, uniting them in good melody, and dwelling 
 chiefly on those which carry the essential chords; that is, 
 the chords of the seventh and key notes will be frequently 
 wanted, varied so as to avoid monotomy. You must lake 
 cadences or pauses on these two chords only, or at farthest 
 on that of the fourth of the key. You are never lo alter the 
 scale, because the introduction of a flat or a sharp not he- 
 longing to it indicates that the key is abandoned. To modu- 
 late into other keys formal endences are not required ; if 
 they are, they nre usually made at the end or in the middle 
 of a piece. We subjoin the methods for passing from one 
 key to another, which are five in number for the major and 
 four for the minor keys; and these alone can be considered 
 legitimate, unless through the medium of enharmonic modu- 
 lation : leaving the major key of C, 
 
 leaving the minor key of A, 
 
 77 -%#" y Vifr 
 
 Our limits prevent extending this part of the subject to greater 
 length : those who would learn more on this point are re- 
 commended to Frike's Guide to Harmony, Lond., 1793. 
 
 A fugue consists in the repetition of a melody in the dif- 
 ferent parts at different intervals of time, each repenting, ac- 
 cording to certain rules, what the preceding one has per- 
 formed ; the part which leads being called the guide, and 
 that which repeats the answer. The answer is conducted 
 by the same intervals as the gliide. 
 
 Imitation differs from fugue, says Broseard, because in 
 the former the repetition must be a second, third, sixth, 
 seventh, or ninth, or, indeed, nny interval above or below 
 the first voice or guide ; whereas in fugue the repetition 
 must be in the unison, fourth, fifth, or octave : 
 
 The principal rules in writing fugues are—First, to prefer 
 the key note and its fifth before any other for the first and 
 last notes of the fugue ; in which case the melody is to be 
 contained within the octave to the key. Second, if one part 
 begin or end with the key note, the other begins and ends 
 with the fifth, taking care that the different relative inter 
 vals between the notes be regularly preserved. Thirdly, at* 
 
 fid's 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 in diatonic progression either ascending or descending from 
 the key note to its fifth, and the converse, there is one note 
 difference, you are at liberty to make one of those two notes 
 in conjoint degree of that progression that contains the greater 
 number to agree with the progression which is unavoidably 
 used, wherein there is one note less, and that in the middle 
 of the melody. These are the leading rules of the fugue. 
 
 The canon is a species of fugue, which may be infinitely 
 repeated ; it is taken up at the fifth, and at the fourth. 
 When this is done, the whole of the melody must be ar- 
 ranged,, and accidental sharps and flats added to those notes 
 where the use of the natural degrees would prevent the air 
 from being exactly similar ; whence its difficulty. The well- 
 known canon of JV<m Nobis Domine is a fine specimen of 
 canon composition. 
 
 Rhythm, in music, is the accommodation of the long and 
 short notes to the syllables to which the music is set in such 
 a manner as to separate the words properly, and to make 
 the accented syllables of each word so conspicuous that 
 what is sung may be clearly comprehended. In instru- 
 mental music, it is the adaptation of the expression to the 
 sentiment. It is mostly used to signify the duration of sev- 
 eral sounds heard in succession, whether musical by voices 
 and instruments, or without inflexion of tone, as by the beat- 
 ing of a drum, &c. Here we have only to speak of that 
 which is connected with musical melody. Rhythm depends 
 on accent principally, the musical phrase, section, and period. 
 Of accent we have before spoken at nearly the beginning of 
 this article, and we do not think it necessary to add to it in 
 this place, farther than to state that in the beating of time 
 by the hand or foot, as there mentioned, the elevation of the 
 hand is called by the technical name arsis, a Greek word 
 signifying a lifting up ; and the depression of it by the name 
 thesis, signifying the action of laying down expressions — 
 which are also applicable in another sense, as, for instance, 
 when a point or passage is inverted or turned, that is, rises 
 in one part and falls in another, or the converse, it is said to 
 move per arsin et thesin. Emphasis is frequently obtained 
 for particular expressions by throwing the accent on the 
 weak part of the measure, or by the different grouping of the 
 quavers, semiquavers, &c, and also by the mark of em- 
 phasis, RF (signifying rinforzando), placed over a note where 
 the composer is desirous of marking the weak part of a meas- 
 ure with more than its share of importance. Of this the fol- 
 lowing passage from a favourite symphony of Haydn is an 
 example 
 
 (Emphasis.) 
 
 on the note marked with a dash over it. Dr. Calcott thus 
 distinguishes between accent and emphasis : " Accent al- 
 ways requires pressure (on a pianoforte) immediately after 
 the note is struck, and emphasis requires force at the very 
 tims of striking the note." A phrase is a short melody, 
 usually formed of two measures in simple time, though 
 with the ancient writers it is often contained within the 
 bar. Of the common phrase the following is an example : 
 
 Phrases in melody are formed by air ; in harmony they are 
 formed by sequences of chords and discords terminating 
 with a cadence, which is more or less perfect as the pas- 
 gase is more or less finished. The well weaving together 
 of the phrases whereof a strain is composed, so that their 
 proportions may be symmetrical and form a beautiful whole, 
 is one of the tests of a fine composer. Though musical 
 punctuation, unlike that in writing, is without visible char- 
 acters to mark the ends of phrases, and the periods whereof 
 phrases are composed, yet such division does actually ex- 
 ist ; and as an example of punctuation will better than 
 words assist the reader in understanding it, we present to 
 his notice the following well-known passage from the opera 
 •of Don Oiovanni, by Mozart: 
 
 In the four distinct parts into which this melody is divided 
 three of them belong to the chord of the dominant or fifth 
 of the key ; and the other, which is the last, to the tonic 
 804 
 
 MUSQ.UITO. 
 
 or key note. The seventh of the dominant is upon me 
 three first parts ; but to avoid monotony, and yet to punctu- 
 ate the first part, he has only got the A in the bass at the 
 end of the second part. In the other two he has a ]>edal 
 point (or holding on of the bass) of the key note, on which 
 the chord of the seventh of the dominant is struck. A pas 
 sage consisting of two regular phrases, the last ending with a 
 cadence, is called a section; and one or more of these sec- 
 tions constitutes a period. When a period or more than 
 one is terminated by a double bar, the whole is called a 
 strain. We close this article with a synoptical view {trr. 
 opposite page) of the different pitches of the instruments ■ if 
 an orchestra, and of the human voice, from Choron's cele- 
 brated work, to which our acknowledgments are due; as 
 well as to Calcotfs Musical Grammar ; the admirable art. 
 "Music," by Momigny, in the Encyc. Mcthodique; and to 
 Shield's Introduction to Harmony. 
 
 MU'SICAL GLASSES. A musical instrument consist- 
 ing of a number of glass goblets, resembling finger glasses, 
 which are tuned by filling them more or less with water, 
 and played upon with the end of a finger damped. There 
 are few persons at a dinner table who have not tried their 
 skill in producing the sound which the vibration of a finger 
 glass will yield in the way above described. The less the 
 quantity of water in glasses of similar forms and equal ca- 
 pacity, the lower will be the tone of the scale ; hence the 
 facility of forming a complete scale by the quantity of wa 
 ter contained in each. 
 
 The skill, or rather knack, of operating upon the sets of 
 glasses for the production of melodies and harmonies, is 
 that of procuring instantly the required vibration by a gen- 
 tle and rapid action of the finger upon their edges, and so 
 quickly from one to another as to be able to introduce har- 
 monies to the sounds of the air or melody before the vibra- 
 tions of its glasses have ceased. A touch of the finger on 
 the edge of a glass puts of course a stop to its vibration, anil 
 thus prevents confusion. 
 
 MUSK. A peculiar concrete substance, the produce of 
 the Moschus moschifcrus, or musk deer, an animal which 
 inhabits the mountains of eastern Asia. Behind the naval 
 is a bag, which in the adult animal is filled with musk- 
 These bags are imported from China, Bengal, and Russia 
 Musk is originally a viscid fluid, but dries into a brown 
 pulverulent substance, of a strong, peculiar, and highly dif- 
 fusible odour. Its chief use is as a perfume : it has been 
 employed in medicine as a stimulant antispasmodic, but 
 much difference of opinion exists as to its efficacy, and its 
 high price and extreme liability to adulteration are circum- 
 stances against its use. 
 
 MUSK AT. A rich sweet wine made in the south of 
 France of over-ripe muscadine grapes. 
 
 MUSK DEER. {Moschus moschiferus, Linn.) The type 
 of a distinct genus of Ruminants, with canine teeth and 
 without horns. This species is especially remarkable for 
 the large preputial glandular pouch which secretes the 
 well-known substance called musk. 
 
 MUSKET. (Fr. mousquet.) The fire-arm used by the 
 regiments of the line. {See Gun.) A great number of very 
 curious ones, of various dates and countries, from the ear 
 liest period of their use, may be seen in the repository of 
 the Royal Artillery at Woolwich. 
 
 MU'SKETOON. A species of musket, shorter, but thick 
 er and wider in the bore, than the ordinary musket. The 
 musketoon, or mousquetoon, was of French invention, and is 
 described by De Gaya, in 1688 {Traite des Jlrmes), as dif- 
 fering from the carabine in being furnished with a fire-lock 
 instead of a wheel-lock. 
 
 MU'SLIN. A fine thin kind of cotton cloth with a downy 
 nap on the surface. The name is derived from the town 
 Mosul, in Asia, where it was originally manufactured. The 
 first muslin was imported from India into England in 1670; 
 and twenty years afterwards it was manufactured in con- 
 siderable quantities both in France and England. Muslins 
 are now manufactured in immense quantities at Manchester 
 and Glasgow, in France, Germany, and Switzerland, of a 
 fineness and durability that rival those of India, at the same 
 time that they are considerably cheaper. The fineness of 
 some Indian muslins is such that when laid on the grass 
 upon which a little dew has fallen, they are scarcely visible 
 ■See Cotton. 
 
 MUSO'PHAGA. (Gr. uovaa, the generic name of the 
 banana, and (payo), I eat.) A genus of Scansorial birds, 
 characterized by the base of the beak forming a disk which 
 partly covers the forehead. The species of this genus are 
 called "plantain eaters," because their principal food is the 
 fruit of the banana. 
 
 MUSQ.UI'TO. The American name for the species of 
 gnat {Culcx). They abound in damp situations, both in the 
 warmer climates and during the summer months in high 
 northern latitudes. They pierce the skin with a lancetted 
 proboscis, and discharge a venomous liquor into the wound ; 
 they can only be guarded against at night by enclosing the 
 
MUSSEL. MUSTER-ROLL. 
 
 Iykoptical View of the different Pitches of the Instruments of an Orchestra> and of the Human Voice. 
 
 IJiatonic Scale through 
 ei^ht octaves. 
 
 *> 
 
 
 \ 
 
 Trombone, Alto . . - 
 Tenor . . 
 
 Bass 
 
 it 
 
 Truni]»'t ....... 
 
 Ilori^ In B 
 
 iu D 
 
 in C 
 
 ct 
 
 OB 
 
 
 
 Flageolet 
 
 ' iitive flute 
 
 Flute 
 
 
 
 Teaof violin 
 
 ■ tit. 
 
 Double bass 
 
 Pint treble 
 
 i treble.. 
 ■ r tenor. 
 
 Teaor 
 
 Raryton 
 
 -=0 
 
 Gattu .... 
 Pianoforte . 
 Harp 
 
 t-f 
 
 i -!-f 
 
 — 
 
 S»' 
 
 -l-T^t 'r 
 
 
 ~1 vf 
 
 — f f— 
 
 SSfTT 
 
 •H'i""t 
 
 ■;4f«-r 
 
 th> 
 
 i* 
 
 ' — 
 
 l i t) j i j — 
 
 ..*- 
 
 ^s 
 
 
 tfll 
 
 - — I — 
 
 *■ ! 
 
 i | : | 
 I ill 
 
 - 
 
 -M+i 
 
 *-}++ 
 
 UxV~ 
 
 (U_l 
 
 -I 
 
 -I 
 
 1 1 
 
 •*?- 
 
 Organ pipe 
 
 32/eet 
 
 IT. 
 
 bed with a musquito curtain. The Laplanders drive them 
 away by fire, and by coating the naked parts of the body 
 with crease. 
 
 MUSSEL. See Mytilcs. 
 
 MU'SSITE. A pole green mineral from Mussa in Pied- 
 mont ; it is a variety of augite. 
 
 MU'SSULM AN. The general appellation for all who em- 
 brace the faith of Mohammed. The term signifies " re- 
 signed to God;" and is the dual number of the singular 
 moslein, of which muslimim is the plural. The appellation 
 is said to have been first given to the Saracens. 
 
 MUST. The expressed juice of the grape before its con- 
 version into wine bv the process of fermentation. 
 
 MC'STARD. (Fr. moutarde.) The seed of the Sinapis 
 tlba and nigra, ground into powder, and freed from the 
 husks: it is the well-known condiment of the shops, or at 
 lea?t a part of it ; for, in order to reduce the strength of the 
 pure mustard, there is generally a considerable quantity of 
 wheaten flour added. Brown mustard should be the flour 
 of Sinapis nigra exclusively, which is much more pungent 
 *■<■ the other. A desert spoonful of coarsely powdered 
 
 in. I iv. v. vi. I vu. I vm. i 
 
 mustard-seed, taken in a glass of water, generally operates 
 as an emetic ; it is also aperient. A mustard poultice, or 
 sinapism, is sometimes a useful stimulant. 
 
 MUSTE'LA. (Lat. mustela, a weasel.) The generic 
 name under which Linnseus comprehended the Vcrmine 
 or Vermiform quadrupeds of Ray, or the carnivorous Mam- 
 malia, which are distinguished by the length and slender- 
 ness of their bodies, and are thus enabled to wind, like 
 worms, into very small crevices and openings, whither they 
 easily follow the little animals that serve them for food. 
 The otters, skunks, polecats, and weasels were included 
 in this genus, and still constitute the natural family Muste 
 lidie ; and the genus JUuste'a is now restricted to the true 
 weasels, which differ from the polecats in having an ad 
 ditional false molar above and below, and in the existence 
 of a small internal tubercle on the lower " carnassial" o; 
 sectorial tooth ; two characters which, Cuvier observes 
 somewhat diminish the cruelty of their nature. 
 
 MUSTER-ROLL. A specific list of the officers and men 
 in every regiment, troop, or company, made out by th 
 adjutant, and delivered to the inspecting field-officer or pay 
 
 805 
 
MUTE. 
 
 master, &c, by which they are paid, and their strength and 
 condition known. 
 
 MUTE. In Grammar, a vowel (or consonant) is said to 
 be mute when written but not pronounced ; as the vowel 
 e at the end of many English words, in some of which it 
 effects a change in the pronunciation of the preceding 
 vowel, as in wife, life, place, &c, rendering it long ; in 
 others it has no effect, as after a diphthong — house, pro- 
 nounce. In old English, the mute e was very generally 
 added at the end of words, especially nouns ; and in ver- 
 sification the e often ceased to be mute, as is constantly the 
 case in the poems of Chaucer. 
 
 Mute, in Law, is said of a person who refuses to plead 
 to an indictment for felony, &c. By stat. 12 Geo. 3, c. 20, 
 such a person is to be considered as pleading guilty, and to 
 be punished as upon conviction ; but formerly a plea was 
 extorted from him by the inhuman and disgusting process 
 peine forte et dure, which see. 
 
 Mute. A dumb officer of the Seraglio, whose duty it is 
 to act as executioner of persons of exalted rank who have 
 incurred the grand seignior's displeasure. The term mute 
 is also applied to persons employed by undertakers to stand 
 before the door of a house in which there is a corpse, for a 
 short time previously to the funeral. 
 
 MUTI'CA. (Lat. muticus, maimed.) A name applied 
 by Linnaus to the third of his primary divisions of Mam- 
 malia, including the whale tribe, as being maimed, or de- 
 prived of the hinder pair of extremities ; also given by 
 Storr to an order of quadrupeds comprehending those 
 which want either a certain kind of teeth, or are wholly 
 edentulous. 
 
 MU TINY, in Law, is the offence, in a person under 
 military or naval authority, of resisting or refusing obedi- 
 ence to that authority. The Mutiny Act is a statute annu- 
 ally passed since the reign of William and Mary (April, 
 1689), by which the crown is vested with power to form 
 articles of war, and to constitute military courts martial. 
 See Courts Martial. 
 
 MUTULE. See Modillion. 
 
 MU'ZARAB. Christ! ■■• living t-nder the govcrnmrnt 
 of tiie Moors in Spaiu ; s. i billed, it is said, from an Al able 
 word signifying imitators or followers of the Arabs. The 
 denomination is now chiefly remembered in consequence 
 of the celebrated disputes between the supporters of the 
 Muzarabic liturgy, which was preserved by the Christians 
 of Spain (luring their subjection to the Mohammedans, and 
 those of the Roman, introduced by the see of Rome about 
 the lOth century. During the following age this dispute 
 was warmly carried on, and well-known legendary tales 
 nf miracles operated in favour of the ancient ritual were 
 long current in Spain. It was, however, gradually super- 
 seded by the Catholics. It is said that mass is still cele- 
 brated according to the Muzarabic ritual in one chapel at 
 Toledo. A brief but excellent account of the different 
 phases of the Muzarabic controversy is to be found in the 
 Diet, de la Conversation. See also the Penny Cyclopedia, 
 and the authorities there referred to. 
 
 MU'ZZLE LASHING. The lashing by which the muzzle 
 of a gun in a ship is secured to the upper part of the port. 
 
 MY'A. (Gr. uvu)v, a muscle.) A name applied by Lin- 
 na:us to a genus of the Vermes testacea, including those 
 having a bivalve shell, characterized by a hinge with broad, 
 thick, and strong teeth, seldom more than one, and not in- 
 serted into the opposite valve; shell generally gaping at 
 one end. The Mollusks thus characterized form the first 
 family (Myacca) of the tribe Inclusa, among the Acepha- 
 lous Testacea of Cuvier. They have been subdivided into 
 the genera Mya proper, Lutraria, Lam., Jlnatina, Lam., 
 Solemya, Lam., Glycimcris, Lam., Panopma, Lam., Pando- 
 ra, Lam. The true JlfytB include that species of the genus 
 Unio, Brug., which is celebrated by Tacitus for producing 
 pearls, and which is indigenous in some of the rivers of 
 Scotland and England. 
 
 MYCE'LIA. {Gx. nvKtji, a fundus.) The young floccu- 
 lent filaments of fungi. 
 
 MYDRI'ASIS. (Gr.) A paralytic affection of the iris 
 of the eye. 
 
 MY'ELENCE'PHALA. (Gr. ftvcUs, marrow, and cyxc- 
 <]>a\ov, brain.) The name indicative of the condition of 
 the ne'vous system of the primary division of animals, 
 comprehending those which have a brain and spinal chord ; 
 it is synonymous with Vertebrata. 
 
 MY'ELONEU'RA. (Gr. \tvt\bi, marrow, and vevpov, 
 nerve.) A name given by Rudolphi to a group of animals 
 corresponding to the Articulata of Cuvier, viz. Crustacea, 
 Insects, and Anellides, which have a gangliated nervous 
 system, forming a chord considered to be analagous to the 
 spinal marrow of Vertebrates. 
 
 MY'LO. (Gr. nvXn, a grinder tooth.) Names compound- 
 ed of this word are applied to certain muscles attached 
 near the grinder teeth, as mylohyoidcus, mylopharynge- 
 us, &.L. 
 
 R0f> 
 
 MYRTACE^E. 
 
 MYO'LOGY. (Gr. pvwv, a muscle; \oyos, a discourse. 
 The doctrine of the muscles. In the Fine Arts, the term 
 is applied to a description of the muscles of animals. 
 
 MY'OPS. (Gr. pvuty; from uvu, I wink, and uip the 
 eye.) A person who is purblind or near-sighted. This de- 
 fect usually arises from too great convexity of the cornea, 
 causing the rays to come to a focus before they arrive at 
 the retina. It is corrected by the use of glasses which in- 
 crease the divergency of the rays before they enter the 
 cornea, and thereby throw their focus farther back, so as 
 to fall on the retina. 
 
 MY'RIAD. (Gr. uvoia;.) Ten thousand. Often used 
 as expressive of an indefinite multitude. 
 
 MYRIAME'TRE. A French measure equal to ten thou- 
 sand meters ; it is the equivalent of two leagues of the old 
 measure. See Measures. 
 
 MY'RIAPODS, Myriapoda. (Gr. pvptas, ten thousand, 
 and kovs, foot.) The name of a class of Articulate ani- 
 mals, including those which have an indeterminate num- 
 ber of jointed feet, equalling that of the articulation's of the 
 body. 
 
 MYRI'CIN. That portion of wax which is insoluble in 
 alcohol. The wax of the Myrica cerifera affords it. 
 
 MYRIOLI'TRE. A French measure if capacity equal 
 to ten thousand litres, or 610,280 cubic inches. 
 
 M YRISTICA'CEjE. (Myristica, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of arborescent Exogens inhabiting the trop- 
 ics. This has been placed, on account of its apetalous 
 flowers, in JLauracea ; from which it is distinguished by 
 the structure of the calyx, anthers, and fruit. Brown places 
 it hetweenProteacea and Lauraceae ; but the order appears 
 rather to be an apetalous form of Annonacea, with which 
 the trimerous flowers, arillate seed, runcinated albumen, 
 minute embryo, and peculiar properties almost identify it. 
 The bark generally abounds in an acrid juice, which is 
 viscid and stains red. The rind of the fruit is caustic ; the 
 aril and albumen of Myristica moschata, the former known 
 under the name of mace and the latter of nutmeg, are im 
 portant aromalics, abounding in a fixed oil of a consistence 
 analogo - ' 5 : to fat, which, hi a species called Virola, scbifera, 
 is so copious as to be extracted easily by immersing the 
 seeds in hot water. 
 
 MYRMECO'BIUS. (Gr. uvp\xn\, ant; (libs, life.) A 
 gens of Marsupial quadrupeds which feed on ants. The 
 only known species, JMyrmecobius fasciatus, is a native of 
 Australia. 
 
 MYRMECO'PHAGA. (Gr. tuiOuvl, and </><tyu>, / eat.) 
 The name of a genus of Edentate quadrupeds which feed 
 on ants, and are called ant-caters. They are peculiar to 
 the continent of South America. 
 
 MYRMELEO'NIDES. (Gr. pvpunl, and Xtwi-, lion.} 
 The family of insects commonly called ant-lions, having 
 the genus Mi/rmeleon as the type. 
 
 MY'RMIDONS. In Classical Mythology, a people on 
 the southern borders of Thessa'y, who accompanied Achil- 
 les to the Trojan war. Their name is derived by the my- 
 thologists from uvputil, an ant ; and they were said to have 
 arisen from ants, or pismires, in answer to a prayer of 
 CEacus, king of the country, to Jupiter, after his kingdom 
 had been depopulated by a pestilence. 
 
 MYRMILLO'NES. In Roman Antiquity, a species of 
 gladiators, who fought completely armed against the Ecti- 
 arii. Their arms consisted of a sword, headpiece, and 
 shield. On the top of the headpiece they wore a fish em- 
 bossed, called ittp)jivpo$, whence, in all probability, their 
 name is derived. The Myrmillones were also termed 
 Galli, from their wearing Gallic armour; and Scutatores, 
 from the shield by which they were defended. 
 
 MYRO'BALANS. (Gr. uvpo;. an ointment, and 0a\avos, 
 a nut; because formerly used in the preparation of un- 
 guents.) A bitterish austere fruit, brought from India, the 
 produce of several species of Myrobalanus. Myrobalans 
 are used by the Hindoos in calico printing and medicine; 
 they were also formerly employed in Europe (though to a 
 comparatively trifling extent) in the arts and pharmacy. 
 
 MYRRH. This gum resin is imported from Turkey : it 
 is in regular tears and lumps, of a reddish brown colour, a 
 fragrant odour, and a warm but bitter taste. It is probably 
 the produce of a species of Amyris, said to be a native of 
 Abyssinia and Arabia Felix. It is a good stimulating tonic 
 medicine, and is given in doses of from five to twenty 
 grains. 
 
 MYRTA'CEiE (Lat. myrtus), are an important natural 
 order of Polypetalous Exogenous plants, of a woody tex- 
 ture, and frequently forming small trees, found in all tropV- 
 cal and temperate countries, where they are often culti- 
 vated for the sake of their valuable aromatic pro]>erties 
 The spices cloves and pimento are produced by some spe- 
 cies ; the agreeable fruits called guava, jamrosade, and rose- 
 apples are yielded by others; while the enormous gum 
 trees, or Eucalypti, of New Holland, and the Melwuca, 
 which furnishes the stimulating green oil of cajeput, also 
 
MYRTLE. 
 
 nelong to the order. Myrtacea are nearly related to the 
 Onagraceous order, from which they differ in having an 
 indefinite number of stamens ; and to Mclastomacece, which 
 have rostrate inflected anthers and ribbed leaves. Their 
 most essential characters are to have polypetalous, calyci- 
 Hor.il flowers, indefinite stamens, round erect anthers, in- 
 ferior fruit, and dotted leaves with an intra-marginal vein. 
 
 MYRTLE. ( M url, the Persian name, whence ptvproi.) 
 An evergreen fragrant bush, inhabiting all the warmer 
 parts of the basin of the Mediterranean and of the west of 
 Ami. it was considered sacred to Venus, and is at this 
 day regarded with superstitious reverence by the Persian 
 peasant In the latitude of London the myrtle will en- 
 dure the climate only in the warmest and most sheltered 
 spots. 
 
 MY8TACTNE.fi. (Gr. pvcral, moustache.) The name 
 of a family of Infusories of the tribe Trichoda, including 
 those which have superficial cilia, or fine, hair-like pro- 
 -, disposed in groups. Many species of animals de- 
 rive their trivial name from the same root, as the Vesper- 
 ti/iu mystacinus, or whiskered bat; the Caprimulgus mys- 
 ticatis, or bearded goat-sucker ; the Cypsclus iiiystaccus, or 
 bearded swift. &c. 
 
 M VSTERIES, SACRED. (The word mystery lias been 
 by some traced to the Hebrew ^rsjf), to hide, whence mys- 
 tar, a thing concealed ; formed from which is the Gr. 
 piov, old French mestier — Enelish mystery, and old 
 English mister, a trade or craft, the learnine of which was 
 thing occult and mysterious; but the more direct deri- 
 vation appeals to lie from the Gr. /jueoi.) The word mystery 
 is primarily used in shaking of certain truths set forth iii 
 the Old and .New Testament, to the full understanding of 
 which human reason cannot attain. Thus all the Old 
 Testament figures and prophecies were mysteries to the 
 lei part of the Jews, until they received their accom- 
 plishment in Christ. Among the mysteries set forth in the 
 New Testament the most prominent are, the doctrine of 
 the satisfaction of Christ, the forgiveness of sins for the 
 sake of his sufferings, and eternal life in a future world; 
 plritual nnlon between Christ and his church | the 
 grac >n our hear. . 
 
 the resurrection from the dead. 
 
 But the greatest of sacred or scripture mysteries is, doubt- 
 less, the Incarnation of the Son of God": the advent of 
 Christ in the fulness of time, of the seed of Israel, and his 
 participation in our nature, according to the flesh; •' being 
 in the likeness of man," and " found in fashion as a man." 
 but " very Cod of very God." "God over all. blessed for- 
 ever*" "The Word was Kith God and was God," says 
 John; "and the Word was made flesh." This is the 
 mystery, and, "without controversy, great is the mystery 
 iiness" lot Ood-Hkenett), God, manifest in the flesh." 
 or "Cud was manifest in the flesh," as the most correct 
 Is held to be— Otoe t<f>avrp'<iOn tv aapxi. 
 
 The e are some of the numerous mysteries scattered 
 throughout the old and New Testaments, and which right- 
 ly come under the denomination of sacred mysteries. For 
 an account of profane mysteries, see infra. 
 
 UY8 TERIES, PROFANE. In the religions of Pagan 
 
 antiquity, the secret rites and ceremonies performed by a 
 
 few in honour of some divinity were so called. 
 
 h of the Pagan gods," says Bishop Warbarton, "had, 
 
 besides the public and open, a secret worship paid them, 
 into which none were admitted but those who had been 
 'I by preparatory ceremonies, called initiation; and 
 this secret worship was termed the mysteries." The first 
 mysteries of which we have any account were those of 
 
 nd Osiris in Egypt: whence thev were introduced 
 into Greece and Italy, and in process of time disseminated 
 through the northern and western nations of Europe. 
 
 A very clear and concise account of the Egyptian myste- 
 ries has been given by Sir G. Wilkinson, in'his Manners 
 ' \utoma nf the Ancient Egyptians, of which the fol- 
 lowinu abstract will convey their peculiarities and import- 
 "The Egyptian mysteries consisted of two decrees, 
 denominated greater and less; and to become qualified for 
 admission into the higher class the aspirant must have 
 
 ■1 through those of the inferior degree. The prie-ts 
 alone could arrive at a thorough knowledge of the greater 
 
 ries : l*t 1 1 so sacred were these secrets held that many 
 members of the sacerdotal order were not admitted to a 
 participation in them at all, and those alone were selected 
 for initiation who had proved themselves virtuous and de- 
 servingof the honour." " The Egyptians," says Clement of 
 Alexandria, " neither intrusted their mysteries to every 
 one, nor degraded the secrets of divine matters by disclo- 
 sing them to the profane, reserving them for the heir-ap- 
 parent* of the throne, and for such of the priests as excel- 
 
 ' TTta kin»5 ..f !•>;,,? were he hi rh pries's nf the nation, and bv virlue nf 
 
 if |.r-viru<lv to ascending the 
 
 but been, which wis frequently tbe case, members of the mili- 
 
 MYSTERIES, PROFANE, 
 led in virtue and wisdom." But there can bo little doubt 
 that at a later period the same liberality as to the admis 
 sion of the laity which characterized the Eleusinian and 
 other mysteries prevailed in Egypt, and that many laymen 
 and even some foreigners, were admitted to the lesser mys 
 teries. 
 
 Of the origin of the Orphean and Eleusinian mysteries 
 we have already spoken briefly, under their respective 
 heads ; but it has occurred to us that a more detailed ac 
 count of the nature and ceremonies of the latter, more es 
 pecially as with a fvw modifications, arising from the dif- 
 ferent habits of different nations, they constitute the great 
 models on which all succeeding mysteries were formed, 
 might not be considered out of place. These festivals 
 were Instituted at Eleusis, in honour of Ceres and Proser- 
 pine ; the former of whom was believed to have taught 
 the inhabitants the art of agriculture and the holy doctrine 
 -a doctrine which was said not only to purify the heart 
 from sin, and expel ignorance from the mind, but to insure 
 also the favour of the gods, and to open the gates of im- 
 mortal felicity to the initiated. The mysteries, like those 
 ot Egypt, were of two kinds— the less and the greater- 
 held at two different periods of the year, and at two dif- 
 ferent places: the lesser, which were introductory to the 
 greater, being celebrated at Agra:, on the banks of the 
 Ilyfsus ; the greater at Eleusis. The celebration of the 
 greater mysteries occupied nine days, chiefly devoted to 
 sacrifices, processions, and other acts of worship; and 
 during this period the judicial tribunals were closed; an 
 armistice was proclaimed; private enmities were hushed; 
 and death was decreed by the Athenian senate against any 
 one, how high soever in rank, who should disturb the 
 sanctity of the rites. The ceremonies of initiation into 
 both the lesser and greater mysteries were conducted by 
 four priests of the most illustrious families of Greece, 
 called Hierophant, Dadoochos, Mierokeryx, and Epidomias : 
 and these again were assisted by numerous inferior function- 
 aries, to whom various appellations were given Indicative 
 of their several duties. The examination of those who had 
 been purified by the lesser mysteries, and who were prc- 
 parlng for thi ently rigorous. All foreign- 
 
 ers, all who had even involuntarily committed homicide, 
 who had been declared infamous by the laws, or had been 
 guilty of a notorious crime, were excluded; but these regu- 
 lations were not immutable; for various instances might 
 be produced to show that homicides and robbers were 
 sometimes initiated.* Women and children were admissi- 
 ble ; and a child, styled the child of holiness, whose inno- 
 cence, it was believed, of itself endowed him with capaci- 
 ty to fulfil the requirements of the mysteries, was selected 
 to conciliate the deity in the name of the initiated. 
 
 Of the ceremonies which attended the initiation we 
 know little; since every postulant was required, under the 
 most dreadful oaths, to conceal whatever he saw or heard 
 within the hallowed precincts; and he who violated the 
 oaths was not only put to death, but devoted to the exe- 
 cration of all posterity. Yet the priests of ancient, like 
 the Freemasons of modern times, could not prevent the dis- 
 closure of some facts. Crowned with myrtle, and enveloped 
 in robes, which from this day were preserved as sacred 
 relics, the novices were conducted bevond the boundary 
 impassable to the rest of men. The hierophant, with his 
 symbols of supreme deity, and his three assistants, repre- 
 senting the three other gods, were carefully visible. Lest 
 any should have been introduced not sufficiently prepared for 
 the rites, the herald exclaimed, "Far from hence the pro- 
 fane, the impious, all who are polluted by sin !" If any 
 such were present, and did not instantly denart, death was 
 the never-failing doom. The skins of niv -slain victims 
 were now placed under the feet of the no rices, the ritual 
 of initiation was read, and hymns were chanted in honour 
 of Ceres. The novices moved on, while a deep sound 
 rose from beneath as if the earth itself were complaining; 
 the thunder pealed; the lightning flashed, \nd spectres 
 glided throueh the vast obscurity, moaning, ighing, and 
 groaning. Mysterious shades, the messengers of the in- 
 fernal deities — Anguish, Madness, Famine, Lnsease, and 
 Death— flitted around ; and the explanations of the hiero- 
 phant, delivered in a solemn voice, added to the horrors of 
 the scene. This was intended as a representation of the 
 infernal recions, where misery had its seat. As they ad- 
 vanced, amidst the groans which issued from the darkness 
 were distinguished those of the suicides — thus punished for 
 
 tary class one of the four great castes into which the Egyptians, ' ike ">• 
 Hindnos. were divided), they were required by the law to be admitted intoth* 
 tacerdntal order, and instructed in all the secret learning of the priests, pre- 
 riooalv to ejercisinr their priestly office. 
 
 * It has been said that the division nf the Elusinlan Mysteries into the lesser 
 and great arose from the expiatory ablutions and other ceremonies which 
 were imposed upon Hercules, when he aspired to initiation after killing the 
 centaurs; but it is mnre probable that this division, which, as we have re- 
 marked above, was common svith them to the Egyptian mysteries, was CO* 
 val with their introduction into Greece. 
 
 807 
 
MYSTERIES, PROFANE. 
 
 cowardly deserting the post which the gods had assigned 
 tht m in this world. But the scenes which the novices had 
 hitherto beheld seemed to be a sort of purgatory, where 
 pen il fires and dire anguish, and the unutterable horrors 
 of darkness, were believed, after countless ages of suffer- 
 ing, to purify from the guilt acquired in this mortal life. 
 Suddenly the bursting open of two vast gates, with a ter- 
 rific sound, dimly displayed to their sight, and faintly bore 
 to their ears, the torments of those whose state was ever- 
 lasting — who had passed the bounds beyond which there is 
 no hope. On the horrors of this abode of anguish and 
 despair a curtain may be dropped ; the subject is unuttera- 
 ble. Onwards proceeded the novices, and were soon con- 
 ducted into another region ; that of everlasting bliss, the 
 sojourn of the just — of those whose hearts had been puri- 
 fied and whose minds had been enlightened by " the holy 
 doctrine." This was Elysium — the joys of which were 
 equally unutterable, equally incomprehensible, to mortals 
 not admitted into these mysteries. Here a veil was in 
 like manner thrown over this scene. (Cabinet Cyclopedia, 
 vol. 61. 
 
 Like most other questions of this nature, the origin nnd 
 purjHise of these religious institutions are involved in the 
 deepest obscurity ; and all the efforts of the learned that 
 have been directed to the elucidation of this questional all 
 ages, but more particularly in modern times, have ended 
 only in unprofitable conjecture. Referring to the disserta- 
 tions of Bishop Warbuiton and Dr. Leland for the chief 
 views that have been entertained respecting them, we may 
 here briefly observe, that though the mysteries seem to have 
 been instituted for the purpose of enlightening the initiated 
 as to the hidden meaning of religious doctrines and usages 
 of which the great mass of the people were kept in igno- 
 rance, there are no means of approximating even to a con- 
 jecture as to the real nature of the doctrine taught in the 
 mysteries, or the advantages of initiation. Were this the 
 place for such discussions, we think it might be satisfactorily 
 proved that mysteries must form an indispensable part in 
 the religious ceremonies of every people who have attained 
 to a certain degree of civilization. The mythological sys- 
 tems of antiquity were too gross, and the fables of which 
 they were composed too senseless, to be believed by any one 
 into whose mind the light of philosophy had dawned ; and 
 accordingly we find that many of the most distinguished 
 persons embraced and inculcated in private (see Mono- 
 theism) the most heterodoxical opinions respecting the na- 
 tional faith. These opinions were well known to the priests, 
 many of whom were too enlightened to credit the delusions 
 of which they were the ministers, and who might well 
 tremble for the farther spread of doctrines which must 
 inevitab y prove fatal to their influence. It became, there- 
 fore, a matter of state policy to divert into another channel 
 those feelings of religious infidelity which, if communicated 
 to the vulgar, might have ended in popular disturbances, 
 and hence, in all probability, mysteries were instituted, 
 which, while they ministered to "the pride and vanity of 
 human reason by elevating the initiated above the preju- 
 dices of ordinary persons, and gave as it were the sanction 
 of the state to the entertainment of heterodoxical opinions, 
 no less gratified the vulgar by the splendid shows and cere- 
 monies of which they were the vehicle, at the same time 
 that they held out the prospect of initiation to all who might 
 be deemed worthy of the honour. (In addition to the works 
 already quoted, see Sir G. Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, 
 vol. ii. p. 322-332., 2d Series; and the authorities there 
 referred to.) 
 
 My'steries. In Modern Literature, a species of dramatic 
 composition, with characters and events drawn from sacred 
 history. Saint Gregory Nazianzen composed the earliest 
 sacred dramas extant, on the model of the Greek tragedies, 
 but with Christian hymns substituted for the ancient chorus. 
 The mysteries of the middle ages are thought by some to 
 have been first introduced by pilgrims returning from the 
 Holy Land. They originated among, and were probably 
 first performed by, ecclesiastics. However serious and 
 solemn the events which were represented in these sin- 
 gular compositions, there were invariably, in the later mys- 
 teries, two characters introduced to make sport for the mul- 
 titude: namely, the Devil and the Vice — a personage ac- 
 coutred in a long jerkin, a cap with nss's ears, and a 
 dagger of lath. He is now best remembered by the allu- 
 sions to his character and office in the plays of Shaks- 
 peare. Miracles, or miracle-plays, were a species of mys- 
 tery : they are usually said to have represented the martyr- 
 dom of saints. In the 16th century, the mysteries were 
 succeeded by moralities ; which were much in vogue 
 about the time when the Reformation made its chief pro- 
 gress In England. The characters in moralities were 
 allegorical personages. Several of these performances, 
 some by no means destitute of poetical merit, remain to 
 it*. They may be considered as the last stop in the pro- 
 gress made by the dramatic art in modern Europe, before 
 
 NABULUM. 
 
 it reached the station and character which it has ever 
 since retained. 
 
 MY'STICISM. In Religion, a word of very vague sig- 
 nification, applied, for the most part, indiscriminately to all 
 those views or tendencies in religion which aspire towards 
 a more direct communication between man and God, not 
 through the medium of the senses, but through the in 
 ward perception of the mind, than that which is afforded 
 us through revelation. Thus, the Pantheism of the an- 
 cient philosophers and many modern religionists, which 
 supposed a God existing in all space and matter, and re 
 vealed to us in the outward manifestations of things ; the 
 Quietism of Madame Guyon, Fenelon, &c, who sought 
 for direct revelation from the Divinity to the believerln a 
 species of ecstasy ; the Pietism of Molinos, &c. ; the doc- 
 trines of the Illuminati in Germany; the visions of Swe- 
 denborg; and some of the notions prevalent among the 
 Methodists and other sects among ourselves — all approx- 
 imate to mysticism. See, as to the early Christian mys- 
 tics of the East, the first volume of Moshcim ; as to those 
 of the West, the third (transl.) ed., 1790, p. 352. 
 
 MYTHOLOGY. (Gr. nvdoi, fable, and \6yoc, discourse.) 
 By the mythology of a people, we understand the collect- 
 ive body of its traditions respecting its gods and other 
 fabulous preternatural beings. The classical mythology, 
 i.e., that of ancient Greece and Rome, being the best 
 known, is most frequently intended, when the word is 
 used without a distinctive addition ; but the mythologies 
 of the ancient Egyptians, of the Hindoos, and of the north- 
 ern nations of Europe, have also been sedulously examined 
 by modern scholars, and reduced into systems pretty gener- 
 ally known. The learned although singular work of 
 Bryant, Analysis of Ancient Mythology, is a rich repertory 
 of traditions and doctrines, though arranged with a view 
 to the author's own far-fetched theory, h'eightley's My- 
 thology of Ancient Greece and Italy is, perhaps, the most 
 useful manual of those subjects. The work of Creuzer, 
 Symbolik dcr Alten Vtilker, besonders der Griechcn, may be 
 considered among the most erudite and valuable of all the 
 books on classical antiquities. An outline of the chief 
 mythological systems of antiquity will be found under the 
 article Polytheism, to which we beg to refer; and the 
 chief mythological personages are noticed under theii 
 particular heads. 
 
 MYTILA'CEANS, Mytilacea. (Gr. uvtiXoc, a mussel.) 
 The name of the family of Lamellibranchiate Mollusks, 
 having the genus Mytilus, or common mussel, for its type! 
 and characterized by the mantle being open anteriorly, and 
 by having a foot either sufficiently developed for the office 
 of progressive motion, or serving to draw out, direct, and 
 fix the byssus. 
 
 MY TILUS. (Gr. uvtiXoc, a mussel.) A name applied 
 by Linnieus to all those testaceous Vermes having a bivalve 
 shell, rough, and generally affixed by a byssus, with a hinge, 
 mostly without teeth, generally with a subulate, excavated, 
 longitudinal line. The species comprehended under the 
 above phrase are placed by Cuvier in the Testaceous 
 order of Acephalous Mollusks, and have been subdivided 
 into the genus Mytilus proper, of which the common 
 edible mussel (Mytilus edulis) is an example ; Modiolus, 
 Lam. ; Lithodomus, Cuv. ; Anodonta, Brug. ; Avicula, Brug. ; 
 Meleagrina, Lam., which produces the most precious 
 pearls. Extensive establishments are maintained at Cey- 
 lon, and other places, for the express purpose of collecting 
 the Meleagrina margaritifera, or pearl oyster. 
 
 MY'XINE. (Gr. uv\a, mucus.) The name of a genus 
 of Cyclostomous fishes, remarkable for their mucous slip- 
 pery integument : the species called glutinous hag (Myxint 
 glutinosa) is a native of the British seas. Its habits are 
 parasitic, and it is most commonly met with in the interior 
 of a cod upon whose flesh it has been preying. 
 
 N. 
 
 N. One of the liquid series of letters. It is cnmraoi 
 to all known languages, and is interchangeable, more par 
 ticularly in the Latin and Greek languages and those de- 
 rived from them, with a variety of letters. As an abbre- 
 viation N is used for north, numero, &c. ; N. B. for nota 
 bene; N. L. for non liquet, (i. e., the cause is not clear 
 enough to pass sentence on) ; N. P. for not.irius publicus, 
 &c. 
 
 NA'BLUM. One of the most famous musical instru- 
 ments among the Hebrews ; but one whoso form and na- 
 ture are so little known that Calmet thinks it was a harp, 
 Kircher a psaltery or stringed instrument of percussion 
 played on by sticks, and Harmer (Observations on Scrip- 
 ture) hints at its being a bagpipe. Bythncr (I.yru) says 
 the nebel (~!31) was like a leathern bottle, explaining his 
 meaning to be that it bore a resemblance to the ancient 
 
NABOB. 
 
 Greek and Roman lyre, whose body was made of the shell 
 of the tortoise. The authority of Josephus {Ant. Jud., 
 lib. vii., c. 12), if to be relied upon, distinctly shows it 
 with the fingers : his words are, "H<k vufiAa iioScxa <ji9oy- 
 pav< tx ovaa ' rul i &u*]v\ois tcpovtrat. Its having twelve 
 sounds, without telling how those sounds were produced, 
 whether by strings or wind, leaves the matter so doubtful 
 that the reader must decide for himself. 
 
 NABO'B. (A corruption of nawab, from naib, a deputy.) 
 The title of the governor of a province or commander of 
 an army, in India, under the domination of the Moguls. 
 1 he nabob was, properly speaking, a subordinate provin- 
 cial governor under the subahdar ; i. e., governor of a 
 subah, or larger province. In the decay of the Mogul 
 empire, many of the nabobs became virtually independent, 
 until their dominions were reduced by the English. The 
 term nabob is vulgarly applied to those Europeans who 
 have amassed a large fortune in the East Indies, and live 
 r M splendour. 
 
 NA'CARAT. (Span, nacar, mother of pearl.) A term 
 applied to a pale red colour with an orange cast. The 
 nacarat of Portugal is a crape of fine linen fabric, dyed 
 fugitively of this tint, which is used by ladies to give their 
 countenances a roseate hue. The brightest red crapes 
 of this kind are manufactured by the Turks of Constan- 
 tinople, (lire's Dictionary of Arts.) See Roroic. 
 
 NA'CREOUS. (Fr. nacre, pearl.) In /oology, when 
 the surface of a shell or other part reflects iridescent light. 
 I CIUTE. (Fr. nacre.) A mineral of a |H-arly lustre, 
 found crystallized in granite. It is a silicate of alumina 
 and pot 
 
 NA'DIR. (Arab, nazeer, opposite.) In Astronomy and 
 Geo gr aphy, 'he point of the heavens diametrically oppo- 
 site tu the zenith. The zenith and nadir are the two 
 ilie horizon. 
 
 .N'/K'MA. In Unman Antiquities, a funeral dirge sung 
 to the music of times. It is also the name of the Roman 
 goddess h lin presided orer lamentations. 
 
 . VIS. A natural spot or mark u|>on the skin of 
 children at birth. 
 
 NAT. YDS. (Gr. vaiio, I inhabit, or vain, I flow.) In the 
 
 ancient Roman and Greek Mythology, female deities who 
 
 presided over fountains, risers, brooks, &.c. The number 
 
 of these goddesses was indefinite. In his Oeorgics (book 
 
 rgil enumerate* 1G; and Ovid, in his EisrU* 'lunik 
 
 iii., Mj >[« talcs of at least 100 in the river Anio. The most 
 
 beautiful of the Naiads is said to have been Aigle (Virg., 
 
 Many of the Homeric heroes are represented to 
 
 n the offspring of these deities. 
 
 NAILS. (Germ, nagel.) This term is given to the 
 terminal horny appendages of the fingers and toes when 
 they arc in the form of flattened or depressed plates, 
 serving to sup|xirt a broad tactile surface, as in the human 
 fingers. When these appendages are compressed, curved. 
 pointed, and extended beyond the digit, they are called 
 " talons." or "claws;" when they encase the extremity 
 of ■ digit like a box, they are called " hoofs." 
 
 NA'IS. (Cr. vtiias, a naiad.) The name of a genus of 
 minute Abranchiate Anellides, or red-blooded worms, 
 remarkable for their powers of reproducing parts of the 
 body when mutilated ; and for procreating their kind by 
 spontaneous separation of the hinder segments of the trunk. 
 
 NAI'VETE (Fr.), is applied to a certain indescribable 
 
 grace in the female character, resulting from a union of 
 
 great natural shrewdness, unaffected simplicity, and, to a 
 
 certain extent, a disregard of the conventional forms and 
 
 of society. 
 
 NA'KJBD FLOORING. In Architecture, the timber work 
 of a floor, which supports the boarding or ceiling, or both. 
 
 NAME. (Let liomeu ; Germ, nome ; Fr. nom.) The 
 lation by which any individual is known. The cus- 
 tom adopted in |iersonal nomenclature has been based on 
 some uniform principle since the earliest ages ; modified, 
 however, by the varying circumstances of different coun- 
 tries, anil according to the more or less advanced state of 
 civilization of every people. Thus, in the early state of 
 society of the .lews, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, 
 Germans, Gauls, llritons, and indeed of every nation, no 
 individual had more than one name; but in a more ad- 
 vanced or refined period, one or more additional names 
 were given, in order to mark the different families to 
 which Individuals belonged, as well as to distinguish 
 members of the same family from each other. To effect 
 thee objects the ancient Romans, at least those of good 
 family, generally used three names — the pranomen, the 
 nomm, and the cognomen ; the first, which was given on 
 the assumption of the toga viriUs, marked the individual, 
 like our Christian name ; the second distinguished the 
 gens (which see), and the third the familia (which see), 
 to which he belonged. To these, however, was some- 
 times added a fourth name, called the agnomen, which 
 was derived from some distinguishing peculiarities in each 
 
 NAPIER'S RODS. 
 
 individual's character or condition ; thus Publir.s C trne.lus 
 Scipio was named Africanus from his exploits in Africa. 
 The mode of designation adopted in all the countries of 
 modern Europe is founded on a principle somewhat ana 
 logous to that of ancient Rome; with this prominent dif 
 ference, that in the former no nomen or clan appellation 
 intervenes between the pmnomen (or Christian name) and 
 the cognomen (or surname). It would be difficult to give 
 any satisfactory reasons for the adoption of the Christian 
 and surnames most commonly met with among ourselves. 
 Those who are inclined to prosecute inquiry into this com- 
 paratively untouched subject, will find some ingenious 
 hints for their guidance in the Peiui7/ Cuc/vpwdia (art 
 "Names, Proper"), to which we beg to refer. See Sur- 
 name. 
 
 NA'NDU. The name of the American ostrich (Rhea 
 Americana.) See Rhea. 
 
 NANKEE'N. A yellowish or buff-coloured cotton cloth, 
 largely manufactured at Nankin, in China. Its colour is 
 that of the cotton wool of which it is manufactured. They 
 are sometimes bleached, and then they are called white 
 nanknn.i. imitation nankeens are manufactured at Man 
 Chester: but it is admitted these are of an inferior quality 
 to the Chinese, neither lasting so long, nor holding their 
 COloUBO well. 
 
 NANTES, EDICT OF. See Edict. 
 
 NA OS, or NAVE. (Gr. vadi, a temple, or vav;, a vessel.) 
 In Architecture, that part of a temple enclosed by the 
 walls. The part in front of it was called pronaos, and 
 that in the rear /mslicum. In modern architecture, it Is 
 the middle part or alley of a church, between the aisles or 
 wings. 
 
 NA'PHTHA. A limpid bitumen, which exudes from 
 the earth upon the shores of the Caspian and some other 
 eastern countries. Near the village of Amiano, in the 
 state of Parma, there exists a spring which yields this 
 substance in sufficient quantity to illuminate ihc city of 
 Genoa, for which purpose it is employed. It has a peculiar 
 odour, and generally a yellow colour, but may be rendered 
 colourless by distillation. Its specific gravity is about 0.75. 
 It boils at uliout 100°. It is highly Inflammable, burning 
 w ith a WhiM smoky flame. It appears to be a compound 
 of 3fi of carbon with 5 of hydrogen, and is therefore a pure 
 hydro-Carbon. A liquid very similar to mineral naphtha 
 is obtained by the distillation of coal tar. It has sometimes 
 been used in lamps, but is apt to smoke. This variety of 
 naphtha is in great request as a solvent for caoutchouc. 
 
 NA'PIITII.VI, AMIDE. A compound obtained by dis 
 tilling naplhai ate ofaiiuiionia. 
 
 NAPHTI1.VLIC ACID. A crystalline product, resem- 
 bling in appearance benzoic acid, obtained by Laurent from 
 naphthaline. 
 
 N A TIITII ALINE. A substance formed during the de 
 structive distillation of pit-coal for the production of gas 
 It is obtained by re-distilling the coal tar. It is a white 
 crystalline substance, heavier than water, and of a peculiar 
 .aromatic odour. It is extremely volatile, fusing at 180°, and 
 its vapour condenses in large white flaky crystals. It burns 
 with much smoke, and dissolves in alchubol and ether. It 
 consists of 00 carbon, 4 hydrogen, and is therefore a hydro 
 carbon. It combines with sulphuric acid to form the sul- 
 pho-naphthalic acid. 
 
 NAPIER'S RODS, or BONES. An instrument contrived 
 by the celebrated Lord Napier, the inventor of the loga- 
 rithms, for the purpose of performing mechanically the arith 
 metical operations of multiplication and division. Napier's 
 rods consist of small squared pieces of bone or ivory, box 
 or silver, about 3 inches long, and 3-IOths of an inch in 
 breadth, the faces of which are divided into nine little 
 squares or cells, each of which is parted by a diagonal into 
 two triangles. Thus : 
 
NAPLES YELLOW. 
 
 On these cells are engraved the successive columns of 
 the common multiplication table, in such a manner that the 
 units, or right-hand figures, are found in the right-hand tri- 
 angle, and the tens, or left-hand figures, in the left-hand tri- 
 angle. 
 As an example of the manner in which the rods are used, 
 let it be required to multiply the 
 numbers of G795 by 487G. Select 
 the rods which have the figures 
 of the multiplicand inscribed at 
 the top, and place them in their 
 order, with the index rod before 
 them, when they will stand as in 
 the table annexed. Then, oppo- 
 site to the several figures of the 
 multiplier, 4876, on the index, but 
 proceeding backwards, take the 
 numbers in each horizontal co- 
 lumn ; add the pair of digits in 
 each rhombus formed by the ad- 
 jacent triangles of two contiguous 
 cells ; and finally, collect into one 
 sum the rows of the products cor- 
 responding to each digit of the 
 multiplier, transcribed and pro- 
 perly disposed, as under : — 
 
 40770 
 47565 
 54360 
 27180 
 
 33132420 I 
 
 Here, opposite to 6, the last digit of the multiplier, and 
 proceeding from the right along the horizontal column, there 
 occur the figures— first, 0, then 3 and 4, or 7 ; 5 and 2, or 7 ; 
 4 and 6, or 10 ; and lastly, writing down the cipher, and 
 carrying 1 to 3, we get 4. These collected together give 
 40770 for the product of 6795 by 6. In the same manner 
 the other rows are formed, which, being added in the usual 
 manner, the product of the two given numbers is obtained. 
 It is obvious that this method of calculation is much too 
 tedious to be of any real use. 
 
 NA'PLES YELLOW. A celebrated yellow pigment, 
 formerly made by a secret process at Naples, and used not 
 only in oil painting, but as an enamel colour; it is said to 
 be a mixture of the oxides of antimony, lead, and zinc. 
 
 NAPOLEON, CODE OF. It was in 1802, during the 
 temporary calm of the peace of Amiens, that Napoleon, 
 then First Consul, undertook the great task of forming a 
 civil code. It was entrusted to a commission of the coun- 
 sel of state ; of which Tronchet, Rcederer, Portalis, Thibau- 
 deau, Cambaceres, Lebrun, were the leading members. 
 " Tronchet " (said Napoleon himself to Las Casas) " was 
 the soul of the code." (Memoirs, part 3, 234.) And Por- 
 talis has also the credit of a very important share in its 
 composition. But Napoleon himself took a great interest in 
 the subject, and mingled eagerly in the discussions of the 
 commission, as appears by the proces-verbal of these dis- 
 cussions. After all allowances made for the unparalleled 
 flatteries of the Napoleonists, his observations are said to 
 show great intuitive sagacity, much readiness, and a pecu- 
 liarly Inquiring disposition, which often led him to the prin- 
 ciples of things, while men of less natural power and trained 
 in a different school were busying themselves unprofitably 
 with the matters on the surface. " I had at first fancied," 
 he says, " it would be possible to reduce all laws to simple 
 geometrical demonstrations, so that every man who could 
 read and connect his ideas together would be able to decide 
 for himself; but I became convinced almost immediately 
 after that this idea was absurd." (J^as Casas, Mem., part 
 6, 263.) Still, according to himself, he continued to cherish 
 the scarcely less absurd idea, that no other laws might be 
 necessary than those inserted in the code. The second 
 volume of the work of Thibaudeau (Sur le Consulat et V 
 Empire) is, perhaps, the most useful to consult for the his- 
 tory of these discussions. According to him, the secretary 
 Locre did not in any degree improve the speeches of the 
 First Consul in his report. Although the ideas of Napoleon 
 himself are said to have entered largely into the composi- 
 tion of the code, it does not appear clearly in what Impor- 
 tant particulars this was the case, except in one singular 
 instance, that of the law of divorce (book 1, title 6), the li- 
 berty of which he is said to have greatly promoted. The 
 Code Civil is composed of a great number of laws, dated 
 from the " 14 Ventose, an 11" (March, 1803), to 24 Ventose, 
 an 12 (March, 1804), in which latter month they were unit- 
 ed in a single code ; and which was republished under the 
 empire in 1807. The " Code de Procedure Civile" was put 
 in force on the 1st January, 1807 ; the Code of Commerce 
 dates from the same year; the " Code d'lnstructkra Crimi- 
 nelle" from November, 1808; the -Code Penal" from 
 810 
 
 NASAL. 
 
 February, 1810; which last is a revision of the "Code Pe 
 nal" and "Code des Dclits et des Peines" of the Kevolu 
 tion. But the "Code Civil" is that to which the team 
 " Code Napoleon" is in common language particularly ap 
 plied. It consists of three books: the first of "persons," 
 subdivided under eleven titles ; the second " of goods (biens/ 
 and the different modifications of property," comprising four 
 titles; the third "of the different manners in which property 
 is acquired," with twenty titles. These last are again sub- 
 divided into chapters and sections; and the whole code 
 consists of articles numbered in arithmetical order through 
 the whole, in all 2281. The most important provisions of 
 the code as to the civil state of persons are those relating lo 
 marriage and divorce. With regard to property, its funda- 
 mental law is that of equal succession by heir, the abolition 
 of most distinctions between landed and moveable property, 
 and the restraint imposed by it on the testamentary power : 
 making in all a system " fundamentally at variance with that 
 of all the other states of Europe, and of which the ultimate 
 consequences are destined to be more important than any 
 of the other changes brought about by the Revolution.'"' 
 (Allison's History of the French Revolution, vol. vi.) But 
 in this respect the Code Napoleon merely consolidated the 
 revolutionary laws already existing. See Code. 
 
 NA'POLITE. A blue mineral from Vesuvius. 
 
 NARCE'IA. (Gr. vnpxri, torpor.) A vcgeto-alkaline 
 base contained in opium, and discovered by Pelletier in 
 1832. Its salts have the peculiarity of being blue in a cer- 
 tain degree of concentration, and on adding successive quan- 
 tities of water to them the colour changes to violet and red, 
 and lastly disappears. By this character, and by its easy 
 fusibility (at 198°), it is distinguished from the other prin- 
 ciples with which it is associated. Its medical virtues have 
 not been ascertained, nor has its equivalent number been 
 determined. 
 
 NARCI'SSUS. In Mythology, the beautiful son of Cephe- 
 sus and the nymph Liriope, whose history formed one of the 
 most favourite topics with the poets of classical antiquity. 
 Though beloved by all the Grecian nymphs, he treated 
 them with contemptuous indifference ; but having acciden- 
 tally seen his own Image reilected in a fountain, he became 
 so enamoured of it that he languished till he died, and thus 
 realized the prophecy of Tiresias, that he should live until 
 he saw himself. After his death the gods, moved with 
 compassion for liis fate, changed him into the flower which 
 bears his name. 
 
 Narcissus. In Botany, a genus of Endogens, belonging 
 to the natural order of Amaryllidacea, " among which it is 
 known by its flowers growing upon a scape, and having a 
 cup at their mouth," the stamens opposite the sepals being 
 longer than the others. The species are very numerous , 
 and from their delicate shape, soft and various colour, and 
 sweet scent, have long been favourite objects of cultivation, 
 especially the daffodils, jonquils, and tazzettas. Some of 
 the more hardy species grow wild in our woods and under 
 our hedges ; but the finer sorts are natives of more southern 
 latitudes. 
 
 NARCO'TICS. (Gr. vapKy, torpor.) Medicines which 
 produce drowsiness, sleep, and stupor. They appear, in the 
 first instance, to act as stimulants, quickening the pulse, and 
 rousing the energy of the nervous system, and, in very small 
 doses, this is their most obvious operation. In larger doses 
 these effects are followed by a tranquil state of mind, tor- 
 por, and even coma. Considerable skill and experience are 
 required in the successful administration of these medi- 
 cines, both as regards the cases in which they are to be 
 prescribed, the doses in which they are to be given, and the 
 peculiarities of habit which often interfere with and modify 
 their usual effects. They are to be distinguished from at 
 datives, which do not produce preliminary excitement. Opi 
 urn is a narcotic, henbane a sedative. 
 
 NARCO'TINE. (Gr. vapKrj.) A crystallized substance, 
 obtained by digesting the aqueous extract of opium in ether, 
 and evaporating the ethereal solution. It was discovered in 
 1803 by Derosne, and supposed to be the narcotic principle 
 of opium ; but this has since been shown to reside more 
 exclusively in morphia, and narcotine is possessed rather of 
 stimulant qualities, and is the cause, perhaps, of the excite 
 ment which opium occasions. It consists of 65 carbon, 5-5 
 hydrogen, 2*50 nitrogen, and 27 oxygen. 
 
 NARRATION. (Lat. narro, / tell.) In Rhetoric, the 
 term usually applied to the second division of an oratorical 
 discourse, in which the facts of the case are set forth from 
 which the orator intends to draw his conclusions. This pan 
 of a discourse should be characterized by the greatest sim- 
 plicity of style, as well as by absence of all rhetorical orna- 
 ments. 
 
 NARWHAL. The common name of the species of Ce- 
 tacean which has a single long protruded tusk. See Mono 
 don. 
 
 NA'SAL. (Lat. nasus, nose.) A nasal pronunciation is 
 given in some languages to particular letters, as in French 
 
NASALIS. 
 
 to the letters n ;uul m in certain positions. The only sound 
 approaching to nasal in English is that of the double con- 
 sonant nff ; us in thing, ring, &c. 
 
 NASALIS. See Sbmnofithkhus. 
 
 NA'SCENT .STATE. Chemists generally apply this 
 term to gaseous bodies at the moment of their evolution, as 
 it were, from liquids or solids, and before they have assumed 
 the aeriform state. There are numerous cases in which 
 bodies having no tendency to combine under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances readily unite when presented to each other in 
 their nascent states. Hydrogen and nitrogen gases, for in- 
 stance, when mixed together, show no disposition to com- 
 bine ; but when certain organic bodies containing those ele- 
 ments are heated, they are evolved in their nascent states, 
 and combine so as to form ammonia ; it is in this way that 
 ammonia is abundantly produced during the destructive dis- 
 if many kinds of animal matter, and of pit coal. 
 
 NESI'LUM (Lat.), among the ancient Romans signified 
 
 freight, whence it was used for a piece of money put into 
 
 the mouths of deceased persons to enable them to pay 
 
 Charon tat ferrying them over the Styx. A similar custom 
 
 : among the Greeks. 
 
 NA'SUA. [Cat. nasus, a nose.) A genus of Plantigrade 
 Mammalia, so called from the remarkable elongation and 
 upward curve of the nose. The s]>ecies of this gems, .V. 
 rufa., or red coati, and Jf.fusca. or brown coati, are both na- 
 tives of South America. They climb trees in pursuit of 
 b their nests; they burrow for shelter at the 
 foot of large trees, and often undermine them to such an 
 extent that they are liable to be overturned even by a slight 
 wind. 
 
 NA'SUTA. (Lat. nasus.) A term in Zoology, signifying 
 the prolongation of the muzzle into the form of B nose, as 
 in tlie 1'erame/es nasuta, l'lruronectcs nasutus, Truxnlis 
 nasutus ; or the developement of the integument of the 
 face above the muzzle, forming a true nose, as in the pro- 
 boscis monkey, .Simia nasuta. nilgai called a family of 
 Multungulate quadrupeds with the bom prolonged beyond 
 the jaws, and moveable, as in the tapir, ji'asuta. 
 
 hi. A ('ay celebrated with 
 . by the ancients. Of these there were four, 
 which all Roman citizens were bound to observe ; viz. 
 those o: their emperors, of distinguished per- 
 
 sons, and their own. On such occasions every Roman was 
 arrayed in white, and in all his ornament*; among which 
 a ring, called by way of eminence the annul us natalis, was 
 conspicuous. Sacrifices were offered to the genius (which 
 see) of the person; and the day concluded with a sumptu- 
 ous entertainment, to which friends and kindred were in- 
 vited. 
 
 NATATO'RES. (Lat. nato, I swim.) Swimming bird*. 
 The name of the order of birds including those in which 
 • re united by a membrane, whence the order is 
 also termed Palmipedes. The legs are placed behind the 
 equilibrium, anil the body is covered with a thick coat of 
 down beneath the leathers. 
 
 NATATORY. (Lat. nato.) In Zoology when a loco- 
 motive extremity, or other part, is provided with a mem- 
 brane, or with close-set hairs, by which it is adapted for 
 displacing water. 
 
 RATION. Lat A collective appellation for a people 
 inhabiting a certain extent of territory under the same go- 
 vernment. The word is also used in some universities by 
 way of distinguishing students of different districts or coun- 
 tries, as the case ma) be. This latter meaning is borrowed 
 from the custom that was adopted in the University of Pa- 
 ris previously to the institution of faculties, when those who 
 resorted to it from different countries lived under the same 
 Institutions and masters, a commun country, however, being 
 the only bond of union. 
 
 N ATI! 'N A I. DEBT. In Political Economy and Finance, 
 the amount of the sums or obligations owing by a nation or 
 state. 
 
 In modern times, it has been customary, in most countries, 
 on the occurrence of any circumstances that occasioned any 
 considerable increase of expense, to borrow either the whole 
 or some portion thereof, paying a certain stipulated interest 
 for the same. In this country, the practice of borrowing 
 money, in order to defray part of the war expenditure, was 
 introduced In the reign of William III. And how much 
 soever opinions may differ as to the policy of borrowing or 
 fending in ordinary times, it could not, at its introduction 
 into Great Britain, be dispensed with. The Revolution in- 
 volved us in a bloody and expensive contest with Louis 
 XIV., then in the zenith of his power, who espoused the 
 the exiled family of Stuart. But, though great and 
 imminent, the danger from without was inferior to that from 
 within. A numerous and powerful party were favorable to 
 the views of the Pretender; and the imposition of such ad- 
 ditional taxes as would have been required to defray the 
 heavy cost of the contest we were forced to wage for our 
 Liberties and religion, would have given a violent shock to 
 
 NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 industry, and afforded the Jacobites the means of traducing 
 the new government, fomenting popular discontent, and 
 most probably of overturning the revolutionary establish 
 ment. Under such circumstances, the contraction of a debt 
 was not really a matter of choice, but of necessity. The 
 error, if there have been any, consisted in continuing the 
 system of loans after the new government was firmly es- 
 tablished, and when either the whole or a larger portion of 
 the war expenditure might have been defrayed by lazes 
 raised within the year. 
 
 in the infancy of the funding system, it was customary to 
 borrow upon the security of some tax, or portion of B lax, 
 set apart as a fund for discharging the principal and interest 
 of the sum borrowed. This discharge was, however, very 
 rarely effected. The public exigencies still continuing, the 
 loans were, in most cases, either continued, or the taxes 
 were again mortgaged for fresh ones. At length the prac- 
 tice of borrowing for a lived period, or. as it is commonly 
 called, upon terminable annuities, was almost entirely aban- 
 doned, and most loans were made upon interminable annui- 
 ties; that is, government undertake to pay the lenders of 
 any given sum a certain annuity in all time to come, or til! 
 they tind it convenient to pay off the principal ; but the lend- 
 ers have no right or title to demand payment of the latter, 
 that being a matter entirely at the option of government, 
 who may either pay it or not, as they think fit. 
 
 In the beginning of the funding system, the term fund 
 meant the taxes or funds appropriated to the discharge of 
 the principal and interest of loans ; those who held govern- 
 ment securities, and sold them to others. selling, Ofcottrse, 
 a corresponding claim upon some special fund. But after the 
 debt began to grow large, and the practice of borrowing np- 
 on interminable annuities had been introduced, the meaning 
 attached to the term fund was gradually changed ; and in 
 stead of signifying the security upon which loans were nil 
 vanced, it has for a long time signified the principal of the 
 loans themselves. 
 
 During the reigns of William III. and Anne, the interest 
 stipulated for loans was very various. But in the reign 
 of George II. a dUhieal prael *■'. 'ustead 
 
 of varying the Interest upon the loan aco i 
 of the money market at the time, the rate of i:.t< rest was 
 generally fixed at 3 or 3: per cent.; I] \arlntton 
 
 being made in the principal funded. Thus, suppose the go- 
 vernment were anxious to borrow, that they pre fe r red bor- 
 rowing in a 3 per cent, stock, and that they could not nego- 
 tiate a loan for less than <U per cent., they effected their 
 object by giving the lender in return ti nr e very X 1 1 advanced, 
 X150of X3per cent, .stock; that Is, they bound the country 
 to pay him or his assignees £4 10s. a year in all time to 
 come, or otherwise to extinguish the debt by a payment of 
 XI /it i. In consequence of the prevalence of this practice, the 
 principal of the debt now exiting amounts to nearly SJ-Sths 
 more than the sum actually advanced by the lenders. 
 
 This system of funding has been in the last degree in 
 jurious. though some advantages are either derivable or 
 ■apposed to be derivable from it. No doubt it renders the 
 management of debt, and its transfer, more simple and 
 commodious than it would be, did it consist of a number 
 of funds bearing different rates of interest ; and it is con- 
 tended that the greater field for speculation afforded to the 
 dealers in stocks bearing a low rate of interest has enabled 
 government to borrow, by funding additional capitals, for a 
 considerably less payment on account of interest, than 
 would have been necessary had such increase of capital 
 not been made. 
 
 In point of fact, however, these advantages are incon- 
 siderable, while the disadvantages inseparable from the 
 practice of funding a large amount of stock at a low rate 
 of Interest are great and signal. During war, especially If 
 any considerable portion of its expenditure be defrayed by 
 means of loans, the rate of interest uniformly rises, and is 
 usually much higher than during peace. If, therefore, 
 loans were funded in stocks bearing a rate of interest 
 equivalent to the market rate when they were contracted 
 for, the charge on their account might lie reduced soon 
 after the return of peace, according to the fall in the rate 
 of interest; whereas, when loans are funded in stocks 
 bearing a low rate of interest, with a corresponding in- 
 crease of capital, it becomes impossible to take advantage 
 of the fall of interest at the return of peace, and the coun- 
 try is burdened with the war interest in all time to come: 
 It is not easy to exaggerate the injury we have sustained 
 by overlooking this plain principle. In 1815, to specify 
 only one of manv similar instances, government bargained 
 for a loan of X'27,000,000, it being stipulated that every 
 subscriber of XI 00 should be entitled to X174 3 per cent, 
 stock, and X10 4 per cent, stock, making the interest paid 
 on the loan X5 12s. Ad. per cent. The great improvidence 
 of this transaction is obvious. Had from X5 15s. to X6 per 
 cent, of interest been paid for the loan, it might have been 
 obtained without funding any additional capital ; and had 
 
 811 
 
NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 that been done, we should have been able, within two or 
 three years, in consequence of the fall of interest after the 
 peace, to reduce the charge on account of the loan to 3 or 
 3£ per cent. ; but, owing to the way in which the contract 
 was made, we have not had, and will not have, any means 
 of reducing the exorbitant charge on account of this loan, 
 so long as the market rate of interest is above 3 per cent., 
 except by paying £174 for every £100 originally received, 
 exclusive of the £10 of 4 per cent, stock ! But this, 
 as already stated, is only one instance out of many of the 
 same sort. We believe, indeed, that we are within the 
 mark, when we affirm that, owing to this erroneous method 
 of funding, the country is at present paying from £6,000,000 
 to £7,000,000 a year pn account of the public debt more 
 than it would have had to pay had the same sums been 
 borrowed and funded without any increase of capital. 
 
 We have said that an interest of from j£5 15s. to £6 per 
 cent., instead of the stipulated interest of £5 12s. id. per 
 cent., would have enabled the loan of 1815 to be funded 
 without any increase of capital. Now, this is not a hypo- 
 thetical statement. In the year in question, £11,000,000 
 of exchequer bills were funded in a 5 per cent, stock, at 
 the rate of £117 stock for every £100 exchequer bills. 
 This was equivalent to an interest of £5 17s. per cent., 
 being only 4s. 8d. more than the interest paid on the loan, 
 though the subscribers to the latter had £84 of artificial 
 capital created for every £100 advanced, and the holders 
 of the bills only £17 of artificial capital. But, in point of 
 fact, the differences in the rates of interest, after allowing 
 for certain circumstances connected with the loans, 
 amounted to only 2s. 2d. per cent. This shows how little 
 the saving in the charge on account of interest, by funding 
 increased capitals, deserves to be considered as at all de- 
 tracting from the great public loss occasioned by indulging 
 in so wasteful a practice. (For a farther and full dis- 
 cussion of this subject, see the Edinburgh Review, No. 93, 
 art. iii.) 
 
 That this improvident system should have been so ex- 
 tensively acted upon by our finance ministers during the 
 American and French war is the more surprising, seeing 
 that experience had already demonstrated the advantages 
 of funding limited capitals at a comparatively high rate of 
 interest. Owing partly to the scarcity .of capital, but much 
 more to the supposed instability of the revolutionary es- 
 tablishment, the loans during the reigns of AVilliam III. 
 and Anne were mostly contracted at a very high rate of 
 interest. The stock created was the exact amount of the 
 loans, the interest on it being increased according to the 
 supposed insecurity of the government* the scarcity of 
 floating capital, &c. Now, mark the consequences of this : 
 so early as 1716, Sir Robert Walpole, availing himself of 
 the greater facility with which money was procured after 
 the treaty of Utrecht, and of the greater stability of the 
 government, was able, by offering to pay off the creditors, 
 to reduce the charge on account of the debt from £1,508,002 
 to £1,274,146, being a saving of £324,456, or about one 
 fifth part of the entire charge. And in 1749, during the 
 administration of Mr. Pelham, the interest was again re- 
 duced from 4 to 3 per cent. ; a measure which produced a 
 fresh saving of £565,000 a year. 
 
 Happily the practice of funding in a 5 per cent, stock 
 was not entirely abandoned during the late war. In 1822, 
 the total British and Irish 5 per cent, stock amounted to 
 about £150,000,000 ; and, by offering to pay it off, a reduc- 
 tion of interest was then effected to the extent of about 
 £' 1,200,000 a year. And since that period, farther savings 
 have been effected by the reduction of the interest on the 
 4 and 4£ per cent, stock. But, unfortunately, the far great- 
 est proportion of the debt created during the late war, and 
 that with the American colonies, was funded in the 3 per 
 cents. ; and, as already stated, the charge on that portion 
 has, in consequence, been hitherto, and will most probably 
 continue to be, unsusceptible of diminution. 
 
 Payment of National Debt. Sinking Fund.— The pay- 
 ment of the national debt can be effected only by applying 
 to that purpose such surplus revenues as the treasury may 
 have to dispose of. But it was contended by the founders 
 of the sinking fund, established in 1716, and still more 
 strongly by Dr. Price and Mr. Pitt, the founders of the 
 sinking fund of 1786, that if a sinking fund were formed, 
 by applying a certain amount of revenue to buy up stock, 
 and if the dividends on the stock so bought up "were after- 
 wards uniformly applied to the same object, such sinking 
 fund would increase at compound interest, so that the lar° 
 gest amount of debt might be defrayed almost without an 
 effort. Dr. Price illustrated the operation of this principle 
 by calculating the number of globes of gold to which a 
 penny, laid out at compound interest at the birth of Jesus 
 Christ, would now amount to ! But though a calculation 
 of this sort be theoretically true, it is practically false and 
 absurd. The truth is, that no sinking fund, even though it 
 consisted of a clear surplus revenue, ever really operates 
 812 
 
 at compound interest. It is true that, by constantly apply 
 ing the same original amount of free revenue and the div- 
 idends accruing on the stock purchased by it to buy up 
 fresh stock, the reduction of the debt is effected in the 
 same way as if the free surplus revenue had been increas- 
 ing, by an inherent energy of its own, at compound inter- 
 est ; but it is essential to know that though the modus op 
 erandi be the same, the means are radically and totally 
 different. The debt is reduced because a portion of the 
 produce of the taxes is systematically applied to pay it off, 
 and it can never be reduced by any other means. Tc 
 make capital increase at compound interest, it must be 
 employed in some sort of productive industry ; and the 
 profits, instead of being consumed as income, must be reg- 
 ularly added to the principal, to form a new capital. It is 
 unnecessary to say that no such sinking fund has ever ex 
 isted. Those that have been set on foot in this and other 
 countries have all been supported either by loans or by the 
 produce of taxes, and have never paid off a single farthing 
 of debt by their own agency. 
 
 It is clear, from this statement, that when there is no 
 surplus revenue, there can be no sinking fund. Dr. Price, 
 however, did not scruple to lay it down broadly, that to 
 suspend the sinking fund during war, though the expendi- 
 ture might then greatly exceed the income, would be the 
 greatest imaginable folly. (Appeal to the Public on the 
 Subject of the National Debt, p. 17, ed. 1774.) And incon- 
 ceivable as it may now appear, all parties in parliament 
 concurred in the soundness of this opinion, and approved 
 the policy of keeping up the sinking fund machinery du- 
 ring the whole of last war. Hence the loans for the ser- 
 vice of the year had to be increased by the entire amount 
 of the sums placed at the disposal of the sinking fund 
 commissioners ; so that for every shilling's worth of stock 
 transferred to them by this futile proceeding, an equal 
 amount of new debt had to be contracted, exclusive of the 
 loss incurred through the expense of management, &c. 
 
 For upwards of twenty years this contemptible juggle 
 was kept up; parliament and the nation believing, not- 
 withstanding the most decisive experience to the contrary, 
 that it was rapidly diminishing the public debt. Dr. Ham- 
 ilton, of Aberdeen, has the merit of having dissipated this 
 delusion, the grossest, certainly, that ever imposed on any 
 people. He showed, in his work on the National Debt, 
 published in 1813, that the sinking fund, instead of dimm- 
 ing, had really added to the debt ; and he proved to dem- 
 onstration that the excess of revenue above expenditure is 
 the only sinking fund by which any part of the national 
 debt can be discharged. " The increase of revenue," he 
 observes, "or the diminution of expense, are the only 
 means by which the sinking fund can be enlarged, and its 
 operations rendered more effectual ; and all the schemes 
 for discharging the national debt, by sinking funds opera- 
 ting at compound interest, or in any other manner, unless 
 in so far as they are founded upon this principle, are com- 
 pletely illusory." 
 
 The entire amount of the debt contracted from 1792 to 
 1816, both inclusive, amounted to £584,874,557 ; but of this 
 no less than £188,522,350 was made over to the commis- 
 sioners of the sinking fund to be laid out in the paying off 
 debt. But it must not be supposed that the influence of 
 the sinking fund was negative merely, or that it was con- 
 fined to the futile operation of making money be borrowed 
 with the one hand that it might be paid oft" with the other. 
 It is clear that a process of this sort could not take an atow 
 from the public debt ; but, in point of fact, it added consid- 
 erably to its amount. Had the sinking fund not existed, 
 the amount of the loans contracted during the war would 
 have been fully a third less than they really were ; and, 
 as the rate of interest is always greater on large than oil 
 smaller loans, it follows, had this miserable juggle not been 
 kept up, that the money borrowed from 1792 to 1816 wouW 
 have been obtained at a reduced charge, at the same time 
 that the expenses of its management would have been 
 saved. The sinking fund has, therefore, been a costly at 
 well as a delusive piece of quackery. The loss it entaile* 
 on the country during the war has been estimated, appa 
 rently on reasonable grounds, at above £600,000. 
 
 At length the folly of contracting debt, for no other pur 
 pose but to pay it off, became obvious to every one ; and 
 the nominal amount of the sinking fund began to be di- 
 minished after the close of the war. In 1819, it was at- 
 tempted to form a real sinking fund of £5.000,000 ; that is, 
 to maintain a real surplus revenue of that extent. But as 
 this could not always be done, after various modifications 
 an end was put to the entire system in 1829 ; the act 10 
 Geo. 4, c. 27, having enacted that the sum applicable in 
 future to the reduction of the national debt should be the 
 surplus, if any, of the total revenue beyond the total ex- 
 penditure of the kingdom. 
 
 Distribution of the Dividends, or Interest on the National 
 Debt. — It appears from the subjoined account of the num- 
 
NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 oer of dividend warrants issued during the half year ending 
 the 5th of January, 1833, that they amounted in all to 
 about 280,000, and the number has not materially varied in 
 the interval. The large number (87,176) of holders of 
 stock not producing above X5 of half yearly dividend is 
 principally, we believe, ascribable to the circumstance of 
 the Bank of England and the London private banks not al- 
 lowing interest on deposits. 
 
 We may observe, by the way, that the number of per- 
 sons having a direct interest in the funds Is much greater 
 than it would appear to be from this account. The divi- 
 dends upon the tunded property belonging to the Bank of 
 England and other banks, to the Equitable and other in- 
 surant a companies, etc., are paid upon single warrants, as 
 If they were due to so many private individuals, whereas 
 
 they are really paid to these individuals only oecause tney 
 act as factors or trustees for a vast number more. It is, 
 consequently, quite absurd to pretend, as is sometimes 
 done, that any interference with funded property would 
 affect only 280,000 individuals out of a population of 
 25,000,000. Any attack upon the dividends would really 
 be destructive, not merely of the interests of those to 
 whom dividend warrants are issued, but of all who depend 
 on them : it would destroy our whole system of banking 
 and insurance, and overspread the country with bank- 
 ruptcy and ruin. Not only, therefore, is every proposal for 
 an invasion of the property of the landholders bottomed on 
 injustice and robbery, but it would, were it acted upon, be 
 little less ruinous to the community than to the peculiar 
 class intended to be plundered. 
 
 I. State of the Public Funded and Unfunded Debt of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Charge thereon, 
 
 on the 5th January, 1841. 
 
 Great Britain. 
 Debt due lo the South Sea 
 
 Company, at 3 per cent. 
 Old South Sea Annuities, at 3 
 
 per cent. 
 New South Sea Annuities, at 
 
 3 per cen\ 
 5outf> S«-a Annuities, 1751, at 
 
 3 per cent 
 Debt due fi the Bank of Eng- 
 
 latvJ, at 3 per cent. . 
 Bank Anuuilies created in 
 
 . 
 Consolidated Annuities, at 3 
 
 per cent. 
 Reduced Annuities, at 3 per 
 
 cent 
 
 Total at 3 per cent. 
 
 Annuities at 3j per cen 
 anno 1818 
 
 Reduced 8J per cent. Annu- 
 ities . 
 
 New 3^ per cent. Anuuilies, 
 
 New 5 per cent. Annuities, 
 Total, Great Briain 
 In Ireland. 
 
 Irish Consolidated Annuities, 
 at 3 per cent. . 
 
 Irish Reduced Annuities, at 
 3 percent. 
 
 /.. 3A po» ct. Debentures and 
 Stock .... 
 
 Reduced 3.1. per cent. Annu- 
 ities ". 
 
 New 32 per cent. Annuities, 
 
 Debt due 10 the Bank of ire- 
 land, at 4 per cent. 
 
 New 5 pe: cent. Annuities, 
 
 Debt due to the Bank of Ire- 
 land, at 5 per cent. . 
 Total. Ireland 
 
 Total, United Kingdom . 
 Exchequer Bd's outstanding 
 
 Siti Jan., 184 1 
 Total Funded and I'nfund- ) 
 
 ed Debt, 6th January, > 
 • ) 
 
 L. I. d 
 
 3,662,7«4 8 6j 
 
 3,497.670 2 7 
 
 2,460,830 2 10 
 
 523,100 
 
 11,015,100 
 
 825,2.1 19 
 
 362,542,977 8 0$ 
 
 12-.JS61.03O 7 10 
 
 .10,3*5,944 8 9} 
 
 10,159.721 17 I 
 
 66,2',6,849 12 9 
 
 taum i5 4 
 
 r32,4S;.4'i8 7 1} 
 
 3,272,607 7 I 
 
 115,197 10 10 
 
 14,567,562 7 2 
 
 926.633 7 3 
 
 12,390,823 18 10 
 
 1,61 >,3«4 12 4 
 
 6,672 19 
 
 33,"l|u.JWi M 1U 
 >b,37l,725 I llj 
 22.076,575 I 4 
 
 788,447,900 3 3J 
 
 ANNUAL CHARGE. 
 
 At: 
 
 Due to the Public Crtditor. 
 al Interest on Unredeemed Cap- 
 
 ital 
 
 Long Annuities, expire I860 
 
 Annuities prr 4 Goo. 4, c 22, expire 
 
 
 Annuities for a limited term of years, 
 per 59 Gen. 3, c. 34, 10 Geo. 4, c. 
 24, anl 3 Will. 4, c. 14, which ex- 
 pire at various periods, viz., 
 
 Granted up to 5th 
 
 Jan., 1811 . L.1,607,829 18 6 
 
 Deduct, expired and 
 unclaimed up to 
 ditto, including 
 106,1001., Water- 
 loo Annui'ies, 59 
 Geo 3, c. 34 . 292.901 19 
 
 Payable at the National Debt 
 
 Office. 
 
 Life Annuities, per 48 Gen 3, c. 142, 
 
 10 Geo. 4, c. 24, and 3 Will. 4, c. 
 
 ■ 4, viz., 
 Granted up to 5th 
 
 Jan., 1841 . £.1,681,709 9 o 
 Deduct, expired and 
 
 unclaimed up to 
 
 ditto . . 823, 852 8 
 
 Tontine and other Life i ~ , 
 Annuities, per variciu>. l' 
 Acts . ) 
 
 Management .... 
 
 Annual Charge on account of Public 
 Funled Debt 
 
 Interest on Exclieq. Bills. (1840) . 
 
 Total Annual Charge, e xt'UMve oft 
 4S.364/. I If. I ill, the Annual 
 ( harge on Capitals and Long 
 Annuities standing in the Names 
 of the Commissioners on ac- 
 count of Stock unclaimed 10 
 years or upwards, and of un- 
 claimed Dividends, and also on 
 account of Donations and Be- 
 quests 
 
 In Great Britain. 
 
 23,090,662 9 41 
 1,294,140 16 2' 
 
 585,740 
 
 1,314,927 19 3 
 
 857,856 15 6 
 
 19.969 14 4 
 31,230 8 7 
 
 Trl 
 
 3 9j 
 
 27,3VV9I 7 
 97 7 t 
 
 27,S9S,888 14 9 
 
 1,193,278 I II j 
 332 2 10 
 
 6,823 7 3 
 
 1,200,433 12 Uj 
 
 1,200,433 12 J 
 
 1,200,433 12 o:j 
 
 Total Annual 
 Charge. 
 
 29,199,322 6 93, 
 
 II. Account of the Principal and Annual Charge of the Public Debt at different Periods since the Revolution.* 
 
 Debt at the Revolution, in I6S9 
 
 Excess of debt contracted during the reign of William III. above debt paid off 
 
 Debt at the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702 
 
 Debt contracted during Queen Anne's reign 
 
 Debt at the actession of George I., in 1714 
 
 Debt paiil off during the reign of George I. above debt contracted 
 
 Debt at the accession of George II., in 1727 
 
 Debt contracted from the accession of George II. till (be peace of Paris Id 1763, three yean after the accession 
 of George III. 
 
 Deb! in 1763 
 
 Paid during peace, from 1763 to 1775 '•'.'• 
 
 Debt at the commencement of the American war, in 1775 •••••..... 
 
 Debt contracted during the American war 
 
 Debt at the conclusion of the American war, in 1784 
 
 Paid during peace, from 17S4 to 1793 •••••... 
 
 Debt at the commencement of the French war, in 1792 
 
 Debt contracted during the French war 
 
 Total funded an! unfunded debt on the 1st of February, 1817, whea the English and Irish exchequers were 
 
 consolidated 
 
 Debt cancelled from the 1st of February, 1817, to the 5th of January, 1841 
 
 Debt, and charge thereon. 5th of January, 1841 .... . 
 
 £ 
 
 664,263 
 15,730.439 
 
 16,394,702 
 37,750,661 
 
 64,145,363 
 2,053.125 
 
 62,092,238 
 86.773,192 
 
 138.865,430 
 10,281.795 
 
 128,583,635 
 121,267.953 
 
 249,851,628 
 10,50 1, 3«0 
 
 Interest and 
 Management. 
 
 £ 
 
 39,855 
 1,271,087 
 
 1,310,942 
 2,040.416 
 
 3,351,358 
 l,133JB8T 
 
 ~2£i7,55T 
 
 2,634,500 
 
 4,471,571 
 4,980,201 
 
 9,451.772 
 243,277 
 
 9.208,495 
 22,829,679 
 
 32,038,17 4 
 
 2,838,852"" 
 
 * This account has been made up partly from the table in Dr. Hamilton's work on the National Debt (3d ed., p. 100) ; partly from the Pari. Paper, No 
 66, Seas. 1834 ; and partly from the Annual Finance Booh lor the year ending 6th of January, 1841, p. 105, lie 
 
 813 
 
NATIONS, LAW OF. 
 
 NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 III. An Account of the Total Number of Persons to whom a Half Year's Dividend was due at the last Half-yearly 
 Payment thereof, on each Description of Public Stock, and on each Description of Terminable Annuities ; distingulsh- 
 ing the number respectively of those whose Dividends for the Half Year did not exceed £5, £10, £50, £100 £200 
 £300, £500, £1000, £2000, £3000, £4000, £5000, and the Number of those whose Dividends exceed £5000; distin- 
 guishing also„in those above £1000, the Dividends due to any Public Company, or to more than a single Name 
 
 (Pari. Paper, No. 202, Sess. 1833.) 
 
 Number to whom dividends were payable 
 
 On 3/. per cent, reduced annuities . 
 On 31. 10*. per cent, reduced annuities 
 On 3(. 111., per cent, annuities, 1813 
 On 4/. per cent, annuities, 1826 • 
 On long annuities .... 
 On annuities for terms of years 
 On 31. per cent, consolidated annuities 
 On 31 per cent, annuities, 1726 
 On new 3'. 10s. per cent, annuities . 
 On new 51. per cent annuities . , 
 On annuities for terms of years . 
 Totals 
 
 Not exceeding 
 
 * 198 
 1,601 
 9,078 
 1,519 
 28,722 
 t 120 
 26,38 1 
 
 13,749 
 74 
 
 14,699 
 
 10,173 
 
 399 
 
 2,04 » 
 
 8,361 
 
 1,632 
 
 32,601 
 
 ISO 
 
 29,370 
 
 107 
 
 1,757 
 
 98.305 
 
 3,473 
 2,909 
 
 9,612 
 
 40 
 
 6,648 
 
 36 
 
 333 
 
 2X641 
 
 2,175 
 1,561 
 
 3,129 
 
 1,424 
 
 2 
 
 43 
 
 40| 35 
 
 J? 
 
 33,95! 
 
 26,849 
 
 1,232 
 
 5,636 
 
 24,221 
 
 4.5S3 
 
 95,555 
 
 447 
 
 S2.194 
 
 237 
 
 4,839 
 
 279,571 
 
 * Dividends payable 10th of October. 
 
 NATIONS, LAW OP. See Law. 
 
 N ATI' VIT Y. A word used, by way of eminence, to sig- 
 nify the birthday of our Saviour, and of saints and other 
 canonized persons. In Astrology, the word nativity is sy- 
 nonymous with horoscope, which see. 
 
 NA'TRIX. The subgenus of the Linmean Colubri, of 
 which our common harmless snake, Coluber natrix, Linn., 
 is the type. 
 
 NA'TROLITE. A mineral which occurs in small round- 
 ed fibrous masses of a yellowish colour ; it is by some call- 
 ed prismatic zeolite. It is chiefly found in Suabia in amyg- 
 daloidal basalt. It is a hydrated silicate of soda and alu- 
 mina. 
 
 N A'TRON. The German name applied to soda ; hence, 
 also, the German chemists call sodium natrium. It is prob- 
 ably from the ancient term virpov, nitron, or fossil alkali ; 
 hence nitre. It is found in sandy soils of various coun- 
 tries, but more especially in Egypt, where it was anciently 
 employed, to a great extent, in the art of embalming. See 
 Mummy. 
 
 NAT'URAL. In Music, a character marked thus fc|, 
 whose office is to contradict the flats or sharps placed at 
 the beginning of a stave or elsewhere, and by the use of 
 which the note to which it is prefixed returns to the diato- 
 nic scale. 
 
 NATURALIZATION. In Law, the process by which 
 an alien is placed in the same civil condition as if he had 
 been born under the dominion of the state. In England, 
 this can only take place by act of parliament ; and it is 
 provided by stat. 1 G. 1, c. 4, that no bill for naturalization 
 can be received without certain clauses incapacitating the 
 party from sitting in parliament, or being a member of the 
 privy council, &c. See Alien. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY, may be defined to be the history 
 and description of the natural products of the earth, wheth- 
 er minerals, vegetables, or animals, together with a scien- 
 tific development of their causes and effects. The reader 
 will find all the branches of this wide and interesting sub- 
 ject treated at considerable length under their respective 
 heads. 
 
 NATURAL ORDERS OP PLANTS, are groups of gen- 
 era which are supposed to bear a greater resemblance to 
 each other than to anything else. They may be said to be 
 coeval with our knowledge of plants ; for the old ideas of 
 grasses, trees, herbs, corn, and fruit-trees indicate a natural 
 perception of the existence of some such groups. When 
 systematical botany first assumed the semblance of sci- 
 ence, we find the Umbelliferous, Leguminous, Liliaceous, 
 Labiate, and Composite orders, more or less distinctly de- 
 fined. It is, however, chiefly by the labours of botanists 
 !>osterior to the days of Linnteus, especially to Jussieu and 
 his followers, that the present improved limitation of nat- 
 ural orders is owing. It must, however, be confessed that 
 the," are still in great need of regulation, which can scarce- 
 ly, however, be anticipated until something precise shall 
 have been settled concerning the relative value of differ- 
 ences in organization. The most complete account of them 
 in English is that in Lindley's JVatural System of Botany, 
 ed. 2, in which 289 natural orders are enumerated. 
 
 NA'TURAL PHILOSO'PHY, or PHYSICS, is the sci- 
 ence which treats of the properties of natural bodies, and 
 their actions on each other. See Physics. 
 
 NATURE, LAW OP. See Law. 
 
 NAU CA. In Botany, a seed in which the scar of the 
 helum occupies one third part of the external surface, as 
 in the horse chestnut. 
 
 NAUMA'CHIA. (Gr. vauc, a ship, and uaxii "■ fight-) 
 HI 4 
 
 t Dividends payable on 5th of January. 
 
 Among the Romans, a representation of a naval engage 
 ment, which took place most usually in theatres (called, 
 also, naumachia;) made especially for the purpose. These 
 exhibitions were originally instituted for purposes of naval 
 discipline ; but, in process of time, only malefactors or cap- 
 tives whose lives had been forfeited participated in them. 
 They appear to have been conducted on a scale of such 
 magnificence as almost to exceed belief. Within the pla- 
 ces set apart for them whole fleets went through their evo 
 lutions without inconvenience or confusion, and all the 
 appliances of human ingenuity were put in play to give aa 
 air of reality to the representation. We are told by Sueto- 
 nius that in an exhibition of this sort, given by Nero, sea- 
 monsters were seen swimming about in the artificial lake , 
 and in the sea-fight on the lake Fucinus, given by Claudius, 
 there are said to have been no fewer than 19,000 combat 
 ants. Julius Csesar appears to have first given a naumachia 
 on an extensive scale : his example was followed by many 
 of his successors on the imperial throne ; and at last they 
 were frequently exhibited at the expense of private individ- 
 uals, as a means of increasing their popularity. The seats 
 for the convenience of spectators were arranged in a man- 
 ner somewhat similar to those in the amphitheatres. Set 
 Amphitheatre. 
 
 NAU'SEA. (Gr. i<nuc, a ship.) A sensation of sickness, 
 similar to that produced by the motion of a ship at sea. An 
 inclination to vomit. 
 
 NAUTILI'DjE. (Gr. vaunXoc, the name of the argonaut 
 in Aristotle.) The family of Cephalopods with siphonifer 
 ous shells, of which the nautilus is the type. 
 
 NAU'TILUS. (Gr. vnvriXos.) The name of a genus 
 of Tctrabranchiate Cephalopods, including those which 
 have a chambered shell with simple septa, perforated in 
 the centre, concave towards the outlet of the shell, and 
 with the last chamber the largest, and containing the body 
 of the animal. 
 
 NA'VAL ARCHITECTURE. In the small space wo 
 can assign to this subject we shall merely endeavour to 
 convey a general notion of the principles and process of 
 construction. 
 
 Ships are built in different forms, according to the service 
 they are intended for and the burdens they have to carry. 
 It is men-of-war, which, besides possessing in an eminent 
 degree the general qualities of a ship, have to support a 
 heavy armament of cannon, and which are destined to se- 
 vere and long-continued service, that the principles of con- 
 struction have been carried to the greatest perfection. The 
 form of the ship, her strength, or the scantling necessary 
 for the services required of her, are, from our imperfect 
 knowledge of hydrodynamics, the results of experience 
 alone. 
 
 When a ship is to be built, her form is projected in three 
 different planes perpendicular to each other. 
 
 1st. The sheer draught, which is the side view, or pro 
 jection on the plane of the keel. On this are laid off the 
 length, the heights of all the parts from the keel, the posi- 
 tion and rake of the stem and sternpost, the principal 
 frames or timbers of the sides, the ports, decks, channels, 
 place of the greatest breadth or midship frame, stations of 
 the masts, &c. 
 
 The frames before the midship frame are distinguished 
 by letters ; abaft it, by numbers. 
 
 The midship frame is not exactly in the middle of the 
 length, but rather before it. 
 
 2d. The body plan, or end view. This shows the con- 
 tour of the sides of the ship at certain points of her length) 
 and since the two sides are exactly alike, the left half reo 
 
NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 resents the vertical sections in the after part of the body, 
 and the right-hand half those in the fore part. The base of 
 the projection is the midship, or largest section, called also 
 the dead fiat, within which the other sections are delinea- 
 ted. On thi? are exhibited also the beams of the decks. 
 
 3d. The horizontal or floor plane, called also the half 
 breadth plan. The base of this is the section made by the 
 horizontal surfa e of the water and the outside surface of 
 the ship, and is called the upper water line, or load water 
 line. If the ship now be supposed to be lightened uni- 
 formly, she will exhibit another water line, and thus any 
 number of like parallel sections at equal distances down to 
 the keel. 
 
 On this projection the water lines appear as curves, on 
 the sheer draught as straight lines parallel to the keel. 
 
 These three sections correspond to each other upon the 
 same scale, and any point in one Is Immediately referable 
 to the other two projections. 
 
 The several parts are drawn from these plans in their 
 full size nn the floor of the mould-loft, and worked from 
 the moulds or model so taken. 
 
 The place in which the ship is built is called a slip. In 
 the middle, and leading to the water, is a row of piles of 
 stout pieces of wood called the blacks, having a declivity 
 to wards the water of about one inch in one foot. On these 
 the keel, which is of elm, is laid, and its component lengths 
 scarfed together. Under the keel is placed the false keel 
 for defence. At the end farthest from the water is raised 
 the stem, which is, in fact, the keel continued upwards. 
 Inside the stem, and just above the keel, is the apron, a 
 curved timber connecting both. On each side of the upper 
 part of the stem is fixed an upright timber ; these are called 
 the kniirht heads, and the bowsprit lies l>etween them. At 
 the other end of the keel is the sternpost, at which the 
 planking finishes abaft, and on which the rudder Is hung. 
 Inside (or before this) are the inner post and other pieces 
 for strength. Upon the keel is fixed a layer of timber of 
 the same breadth, and rising forward and aft, called the 
 dead wood ; on this are placed the floor timbers : these con- 
 sist of one which crosses the keel to which it is coaked, 
 and the two parts uf a like timber firmly joining it. and 
 projecting beyond Its ends. The several pieces are got 
 into their places by shifting shears. 
 
 The frames consist of pairs of timbers composed of pieces 
 of different lengths, joining the floor timbers, and carried 
 upwards. The length joining the floors is called the first 
 futtock, the next the second futtock, and so on, ending in 
 the tap timbers. The pairs are bolted by iron bolts, and of 
 late adjacent pairs have been thus connected. The frames 
 are supported tenqiorarily by being fixed to the cross spalls, 
 long fir planks laid horizontally about the height of the 
 gun deck. 
 
 Thou frames whose planes are perpendicular to the keel 
 are called square frames ; at the head and stern these 
 planes incline towards the extremities, and are called cant 
 frames. These dh isions of the ship are called, according- 
 ly, square and cant bodies. 
 
 When the framing has assumed its form the ribands are 
 fixed ; these are thick, narrow planks at wide intervals, ex- 
 tending the length of the vessel, marking the direction of 
 the planks ; they are firmly shored, and removed when the 
 planking conies on. The riband lines appear on the half 
 breadth plan as diagonal lines. 
 
 Upon the keel, and over the floor timbers, to which it is 
 scored, is laid the kelson, which Is, in fact, a second keel 
 over the first. 
 
 The stern of square-sterned ships is formed upon the 
 wing transom, the uppermost of the horizontal pieces of 
 called transoms, crossing the sternpost inside. 
 
 The wing transom is secured to the timbers of the side 
 by a strong horizontal knee. 
 
 When the framing is complete, the outside planking is 
 laid on. The wales, thick planks above the water, are first 
 secured to the ribs. The clamps are thick planks inside, to 
 support the ends of the beams of the decks. 
 
 Tli^ lirams support the decks, rest on the clamps, and are 
 secured to the side by knees. 
 
 The iTeast hooks are strong curved pieces of timber cross- 
 ing the stem, and joining the bows. The deck hooks are 
 -ame, being at the decks. The crutches answer a like 
 purpose below in the after part. 
 
 The port sills are the upper and lower edges of the ports. 
 
 The spirketting is the plank of the side between the 
 water way and the port sill. 
 
 The chain wales are thick planks of the outside to re- 
 ceive the chains and preventer-bolts for the support of the 
 tigging. 
 
 The foot waling, or ceiling, is the plank lining the inside 
 of the ship below. 
 
 The limber boards are short, thick pieces of wood resting 
 against the kelson for the convenience of keeping a clear 
 passage to the well. 
 
 in n lun- jAI 
 
 ills ; and b\\ 
 ort is af- \ \ 
 
 The knee of the head, also called the cutwater, is the pro 
 jecting pari of the head ; it is secured to the bows by knees 
 called checks. 
 
 In order to bend wood into the necessary curvature, it is 
 steamed in places for the purpose. When the planking is 
 all complete, the ship is caulked and painted. 
 
 The fastenings of timber are effected by Ik>Ks, treenails, 
 or coaks. The present method of framing ships-of-war is 
 chiefly due to Sir Robert Seppings. We shall describe it 
 here generally : for particulars, see the Phil. Trans., 1814, 
 and the published reports on the subject. 
 
 As the timbers or ribs cannot be procured entire, or of 
 the proper curvature, various methods have 
 been used for joining the several pieces to- 
 gether. A method used till lately consist- 
 ed of an angular chock C, fastened by tree- 
 nails to the ends A B of the timbers. By 
 this plan all stress upon the joint, in what- 
 ever direction, falls on the treenails ; 
 when the chock decays, no support I 
 forded in any sense whatever. 
 
 At present the square ends, A' B', are brought together, 
 while n coak C, or small oak cylinder, is let into each. 
 
 By this plan the two faces resist any effort by pressure 
 from without to close the timbers, and the coak itself re- 
 sists the effort (perpendicular to this last) to make one 
 timber slide past the other by the whole force necessary 
 to cut it off flush with the section. In the single case of 
 lifting one face exactly perpendicularly olf the other, the 
 coak offers no resistance ; this effort, which is that pro- 
 duced by the strain of the rigging on the sides, is opposed 
 by other numerous connections. The method is very an- 
 cient, being used in the construction of the pillars in the 
 temple at Balbec; the advantages of its application to ship 
 building is seen in the frames, which undergo no change 
 of form while hoisting into their places. The efficiency of 
 the plan, however, does not appear in a single length, bat 
 in the system of frames, each joining of which is placed 
 near the middle of the next piece. 
 
 A shelf piece, coaked and bolted to the timbers m ribs, 
 and resting on short vertical pieces of timber 
 called chocks, and sometimes scored to the 
 ribs, is carried like a hoop entirely round the 
 ship. On this the beam ends are coaked ; and 
 over these again is laid a strong water way 
 scored to the beams, and coaked. Besides 
 these the beam end is clasped by two arms of 
 an iron knee, of which the third, which is vertical, is 
 bolted to the chock. 
 
 The shelf binds firmly the ends and sides of the ship 
 together, and resists like an arch all external pressure. 
 
 The spaces between the timbers below are filled up by 
 dry wood driven in tight, and caulked, thus rendering the 
 bottom solid and water-tight, independently of the planking. 
 
 One of the most important improvements is the diagonal 
 framework below. Instead of the former planking in the 
 hold are placed braces, crossing the ribs, to which they are 
 coaked, at an angle of 45°; those in the fore body incline 
 (or rake) aft, and those In the after body forward. They 
 butt against the kelson, and extend nearly to the water ; 
 they are in general placed under every other beam, but 
 closer at the extremities. 
 
 Longitudinal pieces of timbers are laid nearly parallel to 
 the keel over the heads or joinings of the timbers, and 
 bolted through ; these, crossing the diagonals, form a series 
 of rhomboidal figures, across which, inside, are firmly driven 
 trusses, lying the opposite way from the diagonals : these 
 are bolted through, and, when necessary, are further tight- 
 ened by driving in thin Iron plates at the ends. The diag- 
 onals act by the tension of the fibres, the trusses by the 
 thrust, and the whole thus resifts every effort to change 
 the figure of the ship. 
 
 The system was first put into complete practice in the 
 Tremendous, 74, in 1810 ; which ship evinced, in several 
 severe trials, a firmness and dryness not known before. 
 
 M. C. Dupin has shown (Phil. Trans., 1817) that the 
 principal of diagonal framing had suggested itself, and been 
 tried by several French engineers, but as often abandoned 
 The merit, therefore, of Sir R. Seppings, in reducing to 
 practice a system which to others had been attended with 
 insuperable difficulties, more than compensates the want 
 of novelty in the idea itself. 
 
 The ancient square, massive, but weak sterns, have been 
 replaced by Sir R. Seppings by round sterns, corresponding 
 in construction, and therefore in strength, to the bow. 
 These have again undergone various alterations, tending 
 to combine the strength of the new with the imposing ap- 
 pearance of the former stern. 
 
 It is only now by contrasting the solid and immovable 
 frame with the former weak and unconnected structure, 
 that we can fully perceive the inefficiency of the ancient 
 construction. The timbers, instead of forming an inde 
 
 815 
 
NAVAL CROWN. 
 
 pendent system, were often supported in part by the plank- 
 ing itself, as is the case in boats. The masts, resting only 
 upon thsir steps, instead of strong platforms which diffuse 
 the pressure on all sides, and pressed downwards by their 
 weight and by the enormous strain of the rigging, arising 
 from the wind on the sails, forced the keel down, and 
 made the ship leaky. The timbers and framework, being 
 at right angles, without mutual support, the whole stress 
 of the ship came on the fastenings ; and, lastly, the safety 
 of the ship depended entirely upon that of the outside 
 plank, the part most exposed to injury. 
 
 The planks of the decks have also sometimes been placed 
 diagonally ; and lately iron diagonal straps have been added 
 to the upper works inside. 
 
 The extremities being unsupported below by the water 
 droop, or the ship hogs, a three-decker formerly drooped 
 at once, on being launched, 9 inches at each end, which 
 increased with her length of service ; at present, such a 
 ship droops only 3J inches, which, when the materials are 
 set, surfers little or no increase. 
 
 Within the last few years considerable changes have 
 been made by Sir W. Symonds in increasing the beam of 
 the ships, and therefore their stability, and otherwise in 
 the forms. Several improvements have also been intro- 
 duced by Sir O. Lang. 
 
 Exposure to moisture being a cause of the decay of tim- 
 ber, building under cover has long been practised. This 
 also protects the men from the weather. 
 
 The wood usually employed in ship-building is oak. 
 Elm, which does not split readily, is employed for the keel, 
 and for the caps. East India teak, a very heavy durable 
 wood, which does not shrink, nor is liable to splinter from 
 shot, is now very much used. African teak is also much 
 used. Fir is used for light works, masts, &c. 
 
 The bottoms of ships are liable to become covered with 
 weeds and shells, and to be eaten through by worms. To 
 prevent these evils, the bottoms were formerly covered 
 with a thin sheathing of wood, which was replaced when 
 worn. Lead has also been used. Ships are now sheathed 
 a most universally with thin sheets of copper. 
 
 For further information on this subject, reference may 
 be made to the following works : Bouguer, Traiti du JVa- 
 vire ; Clairbois, Traiti Elementaire, ire. ; Chapman's Naval 
 Archit., with Notes by Dr. Inman ; Steel's Elements, with 
 an Appendix by J. Knowles, F. R. S. ; Fincham's Outlines 
 of Ship-butlding ; the article " Ship-building" in the new 
 edition of the Ency. Britannica. 
 
 NAVAL CROWN. Among the Romans, a crown of 
 gold or silver, resembling the prow of a ship, awarded to 
 him who first boarded a hostile vessel. See Crown. 
 NAVE. See Naos. 
 
 Nave. In Mechanics, the middle part of the wheel, 
 from which the spokes radiate. 
 
 NAVIGA'TION. (Lat. navis, a ship), is that branch of 
 science by which the mariner is taught to conduct his ship 
 from one part or place to another. 
 
 To understand the principles of navigation, and their 
 practical application, it is necessary that the mariner should 
 be acquainted with the form and magnitude of the earth, 
 the relative situations of the lines conceived to be drawn 
 on its surface, and have charts of the coasts and maps of 
 the harbours which he may have occasion to visit. He 
 must also understand the use of the instruments by which 
 the direction in which a ship is steered and the distance 
 which she sails are ascertained ; and be able to deduce 
 from the data supplied by such instruments the situation 
 of his ship at any time, and to find the direction and dis- 
 tance of any place to which it may be required that the 
 ship should be taken. 
 
 A curve passing through any two places on the earth, 
 and cutting every intervening meridian at the same angle, 
 is called a rhumb line ; the angle which such a curve 
 makes with each meridian is called the course between 
 any two places through which the curve passes ; and the 
 arc of that curve intercepted between any two places is 
 called their nautical distance. This distance is more than 
 that measured on the arc of a great circle passing through 
 the two places, unless both places are on the same merid- 
 ian, or both on the equator, when the rhumb line and great 
 circle coincide. 
 
 The difference of latitude between any two places is an 
 arc of a meridian intercepted between the parallels of lati- 
 tude on which the places are situated ; and the difference 
 of longitude is the arc of the equator, or the angle at the 
 pole included between the meridians of the places. Hence, 
 when the latitudes or the longitudes of two places are of 
 the same denomination with respect to north or south, east 
 or west, the difference is found by subtracting the less from 
 the greater ; but when of different denominations, what is 
 called their difference is found by taking their sum. See 
 Latitude, Longitude. 
 When a ship has sailed on a rhumb line from one merid- 
 816 
 
 NAVIGATION. 
 
 ian to another, the arc of the parrallel at which the ship 
 has arrived, intercepted between the two meridians, is 
 called the meridian distance which the ship has made , 
 and the sum of all the intermediate meridian distances, 
 computed on the supposition that the distance sailed on 
 the rhumb line is divided indefinitely into small equal parts, 
 is called the departure. 
 
 In the annexed diagram, let P represent the north pole , 
 D E an arc of the equator; P D, P F, P G 
 and P E meridians, and A B a rhumb line 
 passing through A and B ; A S, K H, L I, 
 and B C, arcs of parallels of latitude at the 
 points A, H, I, and B respectively ; and let 
 A H, H I, I B, &c, be so small and so nu- 
 merous that neither they nor A K, K H, II 
 O, I O, &c, may differ sensibly from straight 
 lines. Then if a ship sail from A to B, B C is called the 
 meridian distance ; if from B to A, A S is called the me- 
 ridian distance ; and in either case the sum of K H, O I, N 
 B, is called the departure ; and A K + O H + I N, &c, 
 which is always equal to A C or B S, is the difference of 
 latitude. 
 
 Now, A K H, O H I, N I B, &c, may be considered as 
 identical right-angled plane triangles; and if in the an- 
 nexed plane triangle, right-angled at C, A' B' be taken 
 equal to A B in the preceding figure, A' C 
 to A C, or to its equal AK + HO + IN, 
 and the angle B' A' C to B A C, or O H I, 
 or N I B, then C B in this figure would ac- 
 curately represent KH + OI-j-NB, &c., 
 in the preceding one. That is, in the plane 
 triangle A' B' C, right-angled at C, if A' 
 represent the course from one place to another, A' B' the 
 distance of the two places measured on the rhumb line 
 passing through them ; then A' C will be their difference 
 of latitude, and C B' the departure made in sailing from 
 the one to the other. 
 
 On these principles depend what is called plane sailing ; 
 and it is evident that if any two of the four elements, 
 course, distance, difference of latitude, and departure, be 
 given, the others may be found by the resolution of a right- 
 angled plane triangle. The formula are, 
 
 dep. = dist. X sin. course, 
 
 diff. lat. = dist. X cos. course, 
 
 dist. = dep. X cosec. course, 
 
 dist. = cliff, lat. X sec. course, 
 dep. 
 
 tan. course = -rr-^-. 
 
 diff. lat. 
 
 When a ship sails on a meridian, the diff. lat. is thb 
 same as the nautical distance, and the latitude only, not 
 the longitude, is changed ; and when a ship sails on a par- 
 allel of latitude, the departure is the same as the nautical 
 distance, and the longitude only, not the latitude, is 
 changed : but in sailing in any other direction, both the 
 latitude and longitude are changed. 
 
 For finding the change of latitude corresponding to any 
 course and distance, the principles of plane sailing, already 
 explained, are sufficient ; but to find the change of longi- 
 tude corresponding to any given change of place requires 
 considerations of a different kind. 
 
 Let a ship sail on a parallel of latitude, as from C to 1), 
 and let P C A, P D B, be two meridians pass- 
 ing through C and D, and meeting the equator 
 in A and B ; then A B, or the angle A P B, is 
 the difference of longitude, corresponding to 
 the distance C D sailed on the parallel in the 
 latitude A C or D B. And if F be the centre 
 of the sphere, A F B, C E D, portions of the J 
 planes of the equator and parallel respect- 
 ively, we have, by similar sectors, C D : A B 
 F : : cos. lat ; rad. : : 1 : secant of lat. ; therefore A B = C 
 D sec. lat. 
 
 Hence, again, if in the annexed plane triangle 
 M N O, right-angled at N, the angle M be 
 made equal to the number of degrees and min- 
 utes of the latitude of the parallel on which 
 the ship is sailing, and M N be equal to C D, 
 M O in this figure will be equal to the arc A B - 
 in the preceding one, and will consequently represent the 
 difference of longitude ; for 
 
 M O = M N sec. M = CD sec. lat. 
 
 Therefore, in sailing on a parallel, the properties which 
 connect the latitude of the parallel, the distance sailed 
 upon it, and the corresponding diff. long, are all found in 
 a right-angled plane triangle; the base representing the 
 distance sailed on the parallel, the hypotenuse the diff 
 long., and the included angle the latitude of the parallel. 
 
 When a ship sails on an oblique rhumb, two methods 
 have been proposed for connecting the other elements 
 with the diff. long. : one called the middle latitude method; 
 
 D E:B 
 
NAVIGATION. 
 
 tan. course = ■ 
 
 and the other from the name of its inventor, Mercator's 
 tailing. 
 
 Middle latitude sailing is a compound of plane and par- 
 allel sailing. Referring to the first figure in this article, it 
 is evident that K 11 is greater than C M, but less than A 
 U, ; that O I is greater than M N, but less than Q. R ; and 
 that K H + O I + N B will not ditfer greatly from the me- 
 ridian distance midway between the parallels C B and A S. 
 
 The departure corresponding to course c, and distance d, 
 being therefore found from dep. = d sin. c, and this being 
 taken as a meridian distance in the latitude J (/ + ?), the 
 middle latitude between the latitude / sailed from and that 
 I' arrived at, the tliiT. long, is found approximately from the 
 principle.* of parallel sailing, from the formula, 
 ditr. long. = dep. sec. 4 (/ + I'). 
 
 From this, and from the first and last of the formulae 
 (A.), we immediately deduce the following for middle lati- 
 tude sailing, viz. : 
 
 ., _ , dist. X sin. course 
 
 diff. long. = j— 
 
 cos. mid. lat. 
 
 _ diff. long. X cos, mid, lat (B.) 
 
 diff. lat. 
 
 dep. = diff. long. X cos. mid. lat. 
 In Mercator's sailing the globe is conceived to lie ex- 
 tended from the equator towards the poles, so as to form a 
 cylinder whose diameter is that Of the equator; the cor- 
 responding elementary parts of the meridians and parallels, 
 as projected on the cylindric surface, bearing the same pro- 
 portion to each other as the like corresponding parts do on 
 the spherical surface; the projected rhumb lines being 
 straight lines, and the poles vanishing in infinite distance. 
 Such a cylinder, unrolled on a plane, is called a Mcrcator's 
 chart. Now, considering the earth as a sphere, the merid- 
 ians and tliu equator are equal great circles, and therefore 
 any small rjertioa of a parallel is to a like portion of the 
 meridian In the same proportion as the radius of the paral- 
 lel to the radius of the equator; that is, as the cosine of 
 the latitude to the radius of the tables, or as radius to the 
 secant of Hie latitude. If, therefore, to represent the length 
 of an elementary pardon of the meridian at latitude /, and 
 m' be the projection of m on Mercator's chart; then, gen- 
 erally m' = m sec. /. 
 It fjllowi from this that in Mercator's projection the 
 if latitude, which at the equator are equal to tbOW 
 of longitude, increase with the distance of the parallel from 
 the equator proportionally to the secants of the latitudes. 
 The parts of the meridian thus increased are called merid- 
 ional parts ; and it is a property of the projection that the 
 'I parti of any given latitude are equal to the sum 
 of the secants of the minutes in that latitude. (See Mer- 
 cator's Chart.) The sum of the secants being computed 
 for every minute up to any latitude /, and tabulated, forms 
 what is called a table of meridional parti ; and the differ- 
 ence, or the sum of the meridional parts corresponding to 
 the latitudes of any two places, is called the meridional dill', 
 lat. of those places, the difference being taken when the 
 latitudes are of the same, and the sum when of different 
 denominations. 
 
 It is likewise a remarkable property of Mercator's pro- 
 jection, that any small triangle on the sphere is represented 
 on the chart by a similar triangle, the angles of the original 
 triangle and its representation being equal. Hence the 
 ship's path on the sphere and its projection on the chart 
 cut the meridians under the same angle. If, therefore, A 
 B C be a triangle on the sphere, A C being a portion of the 
 meridian, and A B' C its projection, then A B' and A C 
 will be in the same direction with A B and A C, and B' C 
 r - B will be parallel to B C. In these triangles, 
 
 — 7 therefore, the course A is an nngle common to 
 both ; A C is the diff. lat., A C the meridional 
 diff. lat., C B the departure, C B' the diff. long., 
 A B the distance run, and A B' the distance as 
 projected on the chart, the same scale being 
 used for measuring all the lines in the diagram. 
 Hence from such parts of these triangles as may 
 be determined by observation, or taken from tables, the 
 others may be computed. 
 
 The following formula? are obvious consequences of this 
 construction : 
 
 ■..a! , dep. X mer. diff. lat 
 Wkaca m -£ 
 
 diff. long. (C.) 
 
 tan. course = --?- — v ' 
 
 mer. diff. lat. 
 distance = diff. lat. X sec. course. 
 The course of a ship at sea is determined by the compass 
 (for the description of which see Compass). The needle 
 generally rests in a position pointing northerly and south- 
 erly; and the angle which its direction makes with the 
 true north and south line is called the variation of the com- 
 pass, the variation being denominated easterly or westerly, 
 3 F 
 
 according as the north end of the needle is to the eost or 
 west of the true north. The amount of this deviation 
 differs greatly in different situations ; and it is by no means 
 a constant quantity even at the same place. There are, 
 however, simple astronomical means of finding it at any 
 place; so that, by applying a correction for the variation, 
 either the true course may be gained from an observed 
 compass one, or the compass course from a computed true 
 one. 
 
 Besides the general variation to which we have here 
 adverted, it is found that in ships which have large mi 
 of iron on board, the compass is sensibly attracted, and the 
 effect varies with the direction of the ship's head. Mr 
 Barlow has devised a remedy for this cause of derange 
 ment, which consists in placing a small disk of iron in such 
 n situation behind the compass that its single effect exactly 
 counterbalances the combined force of the more distant 
 masses. See Magnetic Compensator. 
 
 The velocity of the ship, or the rate of sailing, is deter 
 mined experimentally, at the end of every hour, by he 
 the log. (Scehoa.) For changes of velocity between the 
 times of heaving the log, the officer on duty makes the best 
 estimate he can. 
 
 When the wind is adverse or changeable, it is often 
 requisite to sail on different courses; and the crooked line 
 which the ship then describes is called a traverse; and 
 the method of finding a single course and distance equiva- 
 lent to such a compound one is called resolving a traverse. 
 
 This may be done by a geometrical projection, hut it is 
 generally effected in practice by the aid of the traverse ta- 
 ble. From this table the diff. lat. and dep. corresponding to 
 each course and distance is taken, and entered in an appro- 
 priate table, having columns headed N. S. E. W. ; namely, 
 N. and 8. for diff. lat., and E. VV. for departure. The ili'f- 
 ference between the sums under N. and S. shows the diti'. 
 lat., as does the difference between the sums under E. and 
 VV. the departure; and in either case the difference is of 
 the same denomination as the larger sum. The course and 
 distance required are then either found by inspection in a 
 traverse table, or by the formula? (A.). 
 
 When a ship makes considerable way through the wa- 
 ter, and the wind is on the beam, abaft it, or even a little 
 before it, she generally moves forward in the direction ef 
 the fore and aft line; but in rough weather, with the wind 
 forward, she will generally be driven more or le-^s to lee- 
 ward, as will be shown by the direction of the wake, or the 
 ripple formed by the waves dosing behind her. The an- 
 gle which this ripple makes with the direction of the keel 
 is called the leeicay ; and it must be applied as a correc- 
 tion to the course shown by the compass, nnd always al- 
 lowed from the wind -that is, to the left, if the wind is on 
 the right-hnml side of the ship, nnd to the right, if on the 
 left See Leeway. 
 
 All matters relating to the navigation of a ship are en- 
 tered in a systematically ruled book, called the logbook; 
 and what, day after day, is so recorded l» called the ship's 
 journal. The principal columns in the log-book are for the 
 hour of the day, the course, rate of sailing, leeway, and 
 winds; one for general remark, and for entering the par- 
 ticulars and results of celestial observations, for notes on 
 the weather, and memoranda as to all important points of 
 duty in the ship, the sails set and the manner in which 
 the crew are employed. To this is daily appended the lati- 
 tude and longitude of the ship at noon, both as deduced 
 from celestial observations, and as computed from the 
 course and distance since the time when the place was last 
 ascertained. The place determined from the course and 
 distance is called the place by dead reckoning. The bear- 
 ing and distance of the land first expected to be seen, and 
 the course and distance made on the whole, during the day, 
 are also added. 
 
 If the course and distance could always be accurately de- 
 termined, the place of the ship could be computed with 
 corresponding exactness from the principles of which we 
 have above given a concise account. But these data can 
 only be obtained in a roughly approximative form. The ef- 
 fect of unknown currents, unavoidable imperfections in 
 steering, and numberless other sources of error, render the 
 place of the ship, as estimated from the reckoning, very 
 doubtful ; and, in fact, when the mariner is obliged to rely 
 for several days on these data only, he often finds that his 
 expected and his true place are considerably distant from 
 each other. 
 
 In the modern practice of navigation, therefore, the course 
 and distance are only used to enable the seamen to assign 
 approximately the place of his ship between the times at 
 which it is determined, independently, by celestial observa- 
 tions. 
 
 This branch of nautical knowledge, which is generally 
 and properly included in every system of navigation, is call- 
 ed nautical astronomy ; and the improvements which have 
 been introduced in its modern application constitute th# 
 
 817 
 
NAVIGATION. 
 
 chief difference between navigation as practised in our own 
 and former times. 
 
 For a minute explanation of the processes by which the 
 place of a sHp on the wide ocean may be determined, Irom 
 the observed situation of celestial objects with respect to 
 each other and to the horizon, we must refer to works ex- 
 pressly devoted to the subject. But we shall give a short ac- 
 count of the most useful practical methods of finding the lat- 
 itude, the longitude, and the variation of the compass, which 
 are the three principal problems in nautical astronomy. 
 
 Reduction of Altitudes.— Before the altitudes of celestial 
 objects as observed at sea can be employed in the solution 
 of astronomical problems, they must be corrected for the 
 effects of dip and parallax ; and for semidiameter, when the 
 altitude of the upper or lower border, instead of that of the 
 central, has been observed, as in the case of the sun or moon. 
 
 If A = the altitude of the upper or lower border, s = the 
 semidiameter, d the dip of the horizon (that is, the angle 
 through which the sea horizon appears depressed in con- 
 sequence of the elevation of the observer), r the refraction 
 corresponding to the alt. A, and p the horizontal parallax 
 taken from the Nautical Almanac for the time of observa- 
 tion, and A' = the true altitude : then 
 
 A' = A — d^s + p cos. (A — d ^P *) — r. 
 
 In practice, the corrections to be applied to A to obtain 
 A' are taken from tables, and the process of reduction is 
 short and simple. 
 
 To find the latitude from the observed meridian altitude of 
 a known celestial object : 
 
 Let z be the complement of the true altitude, as deduced 
 from the observed one, D the object's declination, and L 
 the latitude; and call z north when the zenith is north, 
 and south when it is south of the object : then L = z ± 
 D ; a formula in which D is + when z and D are of the 
 same, and — when of different denominations, and L is of 
 the same denomination as the greater of z and D. 
 
 To find the latitude from two observed altitudes of the sun, 
 with the time elapsed between the observations : 
 
 Let t = the half elapsed time in degrees, p the sun's 
 polar distance at the middle instant between the observa- 
 tions, s = half the sun, and d = half the difference of the 
 two corrected altitudes ; then compute the angles A, B, C, 
 D. and E, in succession, from the following forrnulie : 
 sin. A = sin. t • sin. p. 
 cos. B = sec. A • cos. p. 
 sin. C = cosec. A ■ cos. s ■ sin. d. 
 cos D = sin. A ■ sin. s ■ cos. d ' sec. C. 
 E = B -f D. 
 And the expression for the latitude is, 
 
 sin. lat. = cos. D " cos. E. 
 There are many other methods by which the latitude 
 may be found, but the two which we have given are those 
 most generally used by seamen. 
 
 We pass on to a consideration of the principles on which 
 the methods of finding the longitude astronomically at sea 
 are founded. 
 
 The longitude is found by comparing the time at the first 
 meridian with the time of the same denomination at the 
 place of observation, allowing 15° of longitude for every 
 hour in the difference of the times. 
 In the annexed diagram, let P A represent the meridian 
 passing over the first point of Aries, P 
 S that passing over the true and P M 
 that passing over the mean place of 
 the sun, and P X that passing over 
 any other celestial object X. Let 
 also P G be the meridian of Green- 
 wich, P N a meridian in west longi- 
 tude, and P O a meridian in east longi- 
 tude. 
 
 Then, for that instant of absolute time, A P G represents 
 the sidereal, SPG the apparent, and M P G the mean time 
 at Greenwich ; twenty-four hours of time being represent- 
 ed by four right angles. A P N, S P N, and M P N, are the 
 sidereal, apparent, and mean time at the meridian P N ; and 
 A P O, S P O, and MPO, the like times at the meridian 
 PO. 
 Now N P G, the longitude of the meridian P N, = A P G 
 -APN = SPG — SPN = MPG — MPN;andGP 
 O, the longitude of P O, = A P O, — A P G = S P O — S 
 P G = M P O — MPG. 
 
 Therefore, the longitude of any place represented in time 
 is equal to the difference of the relative times at the first 
 meridian and the meridian of the place ; the times being 
 both sidereal, both apparent, or both mean time, and both 
 reckoned from the same noon — west when the Greenwich 
 time is greater, and cast when it is less than the time at 
 the place of observation. 
 
 1 he angle X P G, reckoned westerly from P G, is called 
 the meridian distance of the object X from the meridian P 
 G, and X P N its meridian distance from the meridian P N. 
 818 
 
 NAVIGATION ACTS. 
 
 A P X is its right ascension, A P S the right ascension of 
 the sun, and S P M the equation of lime, or the difference 
 between mean and apparent time. 
 
 Now, if a be the altitude of an object X, as observed in a 
 given latitude I, say on the meridian P N, and p = FX, 
 its polar distance ; then, if we put s — £ (a + I + ?)> the 
 angle X P N may be determined from this expression, 
 sin. " A (X P N) = y/ [sin. (s — o) • cos. s • sec. I • cosec. p]. 
 And X P N + A P X — A P S ± S P M = M P N, the 
 mean time at the meridian P N. 
 
 P X, A P X, A P S, and S P M, are furnished by the 
 Nautical Almanac ; and it is evident, therefore, that from 
 an observed altitude of a celestial object, with the data sup- 
 plied by the Nautical Almanac, the mean time at the place 
 of observation may be found. 
 
 With respect to the corresponding Greenwich time, it 
 may be found by means of a chronometer, whose error and 
 rate are ascertained before it is taken to sea. For example, 
 if on May 4th the chronometer be 4 m. fast for Greenwich 
 time, and on May 14th 4 m. 50 s. fast for Greenwich time ; 
 then, if on May 30th, at sea, an altitude be observed to de- 
 termine time at the place of observation, when this chron- 
 ometer shows 5 h. 46 m. 12 s., then the true mean time at 
 Greenwich is 5 h. 40 m. 2 s. ; and if the mean time at the 
 place deduced from the observation be 3 h. 57 m. 48 s. the 
 longitude of the place will be 5 h. 40 m. 2 s. — 3 h. 57 m. 
 48 s. = 1 h. 42 m. 14 s. = 25° 33' 30" west. 
 
 The Greenwich time may also be found by considering 
 the moon in the heavens as the pointer of a Greenwich 
 clock, and her distances from the sun and certain stars as 
 indicating the Greenwich times to which they correspond. 
 These distances are computed, and published beforehand 
 in the Nautical Almanac, for every third hour of Green- 
 wich time ; so that if at any moment we ascertain the 
 moon's distance from some such celestial object, the Green- 
 wich time may be found by comparing that distance with 
 those in the Nautical Almanac. 
 
 The distances there given, however, are the distances of 
 the objects as seen from the centre of the earth ; and, there- 
 fore, before a distance observed on the surface can be made 
 available for finding the Greenwich time, it must be re- 
 duced to what it would have been if the observation had 
 been made at the centre. Many formula; have been de- 
 vised, and numerous and extensive collections of tables 
 have been formed, to assist in making this reduction ; but 
 perhaps the following is as convenient as any other that 
 has been proposed. 
 
 Let m be the moon's app. zenith dist., s the sun's ; M the 
 moon's true zenith dist., S the sun's ; d the app. dist. of the 
 centres of the objects, and D the required or the true dis- 
 tance, and put 
 
 A J (M + S), B = h. ("» + * + d) — d, 
 sin. X = y (cosec. s ■ cosec. m ■ sin.M • sin. S ■ sin. A ■ sin. B) 
 then sin. J D = */ [sin. (A + X) sin. (A — X)]. 
 To compute the bearing of the sun, the altitude, polar dis- 
 tance, and latitude being known : 
 
 Let a — the altitude, I — the latitude, p = the polar dis- 
 tance, S — % (a + I + p), and B the required bearing, or 
 azimuth — estimated from the south when the latitude is 
 north, and from the north when the latitude is south ; to- 
 wards the east when the altitude is increasing, and towards 
 the west when it is decreasing, then 
 
 sin. JB = V [sec. a • sec. I ■ cos. S ■ cos. (S — p)]. 
 If the compass bearing of the object be observed when 
 the altitude is taken, the variation of the compass may 
 hence be found ; for let B' = the compass bearing ; then 
 the variation is B -f B' or B — B\ the sign + being used 
 when one bearing is eastward and the other westward, and 
 — when both are on the same side of the meridian ; and 
 the variation is west when B is to the left, and eastward 
 when it is to the right of B'. 
 
 For an account of the history of navigation, the reader 
 is referred to the Introduction to Robertson's Elements of 
 Navigation. Of modern works on this subject in general 
 use among British seamen, we may notice those by Dr. In- 
 man ; and particularly those of Mr. Riddle and of Lieut. 
 Raper, treating both of the theory and practice. The Epit- 
 omes of Moore, Mackay, and Norie are also very useful 
 compilations, and have long had an extensive circulation. 
 
 NAVIGA'TION ACTS. Several statutes of our early 
 kings were passed with a view to confine particular branches 
 of the English carrying trade to English merchants , but as 
 they were generally enacted merely for some temporary ob- 
 ject, they produced little effect. In 1650 the first naviga- 
 tion act was framed under the republican government; 
 partly with a view to punish the inhabitants of the sugar 
 islands, who were chiefly loyalists, partly in hostility to the 
 Dutch. It prohibited foreign vessels from trading to the 
 English colonies (a prohibition extended, in 1651, to the 
 mother country), without a licence from the council of 
 state. In 1660 the government of Charles II. re-enacted 
 
NAVIRE. 
 
 these prohibitions on a more extended scale. The chief 
 articles of the act 12 Car. 2, c. 18, are, that no goods be car- 
 ried to or from any English colonies but in vessels built 
 within the English dominions, or really the property of 
 Englishmen, and whoso masters, and at least three fourths 
 of the crew, are English ; that no goods of foreign growth 
 or manufacture (with specified exception*), be imported in 
 English vessels, except from the country where they are 
 grown and manufactured; that sugar, tobacco, and other 
 colonial commodities (thence called in trade enumerated), 
 be imported into no part of Europe but England and her 
 dominions. The history of these acts, so much extolled by 
 British politicians, and termed by some the charta maritima 
 of England, and of the modifications which their provisions 
 have since undergone, especially by Mr. Huskisson's act, 6 
 Geo. 4, c. 109, is succinctly traced in note xi. of M'Culloch's 
 edition of the Wealth of Nations. 
 
 S \ \ 1'RE. (F.) An order of knighthood instituted by 
 St. Louis, king of France, in 1269, to encourage the lords of 
 France to undertake the expedition to the Holy Land. Af- 
 ter having fallen into desuetude, it was again revived, with 
 renewed lustre, In 1448, under the name of the order of the 
 This order derived its name either from the cir- 
 cumstance that the collars of the knights belonging to it 
 had a ship pendent from them, or because the knights were 
 allowed to bear in their arms a ship argent in chief. 
 
 .WW (Lat navis, a tkip), in ils most extended signifi- 
 cation is applied both to the mercantile and military marine 
 of a nation ; but it is more commonly restricted to vessel! 
 of tear only, all others being said to belong to the merchant 
 In treating of the navy, it is usual to consider it 
 under two distinct heads, the materiel and personnel : the 
 omprislng all that relates to the construction, arma- 
 ment, and equipment of ihips ; the latter including all who 
 receive rank, pay, or emolument In the service of the navy, 
 and whatever concerns the appointment, station, and du- 
 ties of officers, sailors, and marines. Under the different 
 heads the reader will rind a notice of the chief subjects in- 
 cluded in the materiel of the navy; and we shall in the 
 rticle restrict ourselves to some general remarks 
 % Us history, management, and present state, which 
 may servo to give a coup d'unl of the whole subject, and 
 which could not well be comprised under separate heads. 
 
 The naval history of England is usually divided Into 
 three eras; the first comprising all the period that preceded 
 the reign Of Henry VIII. ; the second ending with the res- 
 toration of Chariest II.; and the third from the Restoration 
 down to the present time. Omitting all that period of Ens 
 li-ii naval history that intervened between the Conquest 
 and the reien of Henry VIII. as too unimportant to be dwelt 
 upon in a sketch of this nature, we may state, before pass- 
 ing to the second period, that the first ship, properly so call- 
 ed, of the British navy, was built by Henry VII. in the third 
 year of his reign. She was called " The Great Harry," had 
 three masts." carried 80 guns, measured 138 feet in length, 
 and 36 feet in breadth from outside to outside, and cost up- 
 wards of £14,000. This ship constituted the most noble 
 monument of Henry VII.'s regard for the navy ; but his de- 
 signs were matured and perfected by his son Henry VIII., 
 in whose reign England may be said to have first pontesaad 
 a permanent navy. Previously to his reign our sovereigns 
 had but few ships ; when they wished to transport an army 
 to France, or to undertake nny considerable naval inter 
 was usually effected by requisitions of ships and 
 seamen from the dinerent seaport towns of the kingdom, or 
 by hiring them from the merchants of Ilaiiiliur a. Lubcck, 
 Genoa, &.c. ; which were dismissed as soon a - the occasion 
 for their service was over. But Henry. « hose naval force, 
 as in the preceding reigns, was chiefly dependent on foreign 
 auxiliaries, caused several "ahlppes royal!" to lie construct- 
 ed tbr the service of the state ; one of which, the " Resent," 
 I 1000 tons burthen, and another, the " ataxia 
 Rose," measured 500 tons burthen, and carried 700 men. 
 At the conclusion of his reign in Jan. 1547, the verified list 
 of the navy amounted to seventy-one ships and vessels of 
 all sorts, measuring 11,268 tons. During the succeeding 
 reit'ns of F.dward VI. and Mary, the naval force of England 
 diminished considerably, and at the demise of the latter in 
 ■ Hinted only to twenty-six vessels, measurintr 7,110 
 tons burthen. During the long and prosperous reign of 
 Elisabeth which ensued, the navy was greatly encouraged. 
 The naval force collected to oppose the Armada, which 
 consisted of 150 ships with nearly 30,000 men, amounted to 
 170 sail equipped with about 15,000 men ; of these 34 ships 
 with 6,225 men, a larger royal armament than had ever be- 
 fore assembled together, belonged to the crown, the re- 
 mainder being made up from London, Bristol, Yarmouth, 
 the Cinque Ports, etc. During the last twenty-five years 
 of Elizabeth's reign the navy almost doubled its number; 
 
 * Down to the year 1543, the "Great Harry" wa» the only ship of that de- 
 ■cripiion in the BritUh fleet She in accidentally burned at Woolwich in 
 fctr iii'.y-fifth year. 
 
 NAVY. 
 
 and at her death, in 1603, it amounted to forty-two ships, 
 measuring 17,055 tons, and carrying 8,346 seamen. The 
 reign of James I. was remarkable for the first able and 
 scientific naval architect, Phineas Pett, to whom the art of 
 shipbuilding was indebted for many improvements. " In 
 my own time," says Raleigh, "the shape of our English 
 ships hath been greatly bettered ; in extremity we carry our 
 ordnance better than we were wont ; we have added crosse- 
 pillars in our royall shippes to strengthen them ; we have 
 given longer fioares to our shippes than in olden times, and 
 better bearing under water." The striking of topmasts 
 was also invented In this reign; and besides the improved 
 shape of the vessels, Raleigh mentions various minor im 
 provements, adding, "to the courses we have devised stud 
 dmgsails, sprttsalls, nnd topsails; the. weighing of the 
 capstan is also new, and the chain-pump and bonnet ; we 
 have fallen into consideration of the length of cables, and 
 by it we resist the malice of the greatest winds that can 
 blow." At the death of James I. in 1625, the royal navy 
 consisted of thirty-three ships, measuring 19,400 tons. The 
 navy was first divided into rates and classes under Charles 
 I., who built several new ships in the beginning of his reign, 
 nnd among others the " Sovereign of the Seas," a larger 
 ship than had ever been built in England, carrying 100 guns, 
 and measuring 1683 tons. But in 16-18 Prince Rupert car 
 ried oft twenty-five ships, none of which ever returned to 
 Englantl ; and so reduced was the navy at the commence- 
 ment of Cromwell's government, thai he could muster only 
 fourteen men-of- war, some of them carrying only forty guns. 
 But his vigorous administration speedily raised the navy to 
 a magnitude and |>ower formerly unknown ; and under the 
 command of Blake, it became not merely equal but superior 
 to that of the Dutch, then the greatest maritime power of 
 Europe. It was during the Protectorate that the classes 
 into which Charles I. had first divided the navy were clear- 
 ly defined, and a regular system established, which has, 
 with little alteration, remained in force down to the present 
 time. At the death of Cromwell in 1658, the navy amount 
 ed to one hundred and titty-seven ships, measuring 21,910 
 tons, and carrying 50,000 men. 
 
 At the restoration of Charles II. in 1660 (from which is 
 dated the third period of English naval history) the whole 
 fleet amounted to only sixty- live ships; but under the able 
 administration of the Duke of York, the royal fleet soon 
 augmented to a fine armament ; and though the retirement 
 of the latter, in consequence of his innbility to take the Test 
 Act, and the subsequent extravagance of the king, caused 
 the navy to decay; yet such prompt and effective measures 
 were afterwards taken by the Duke, on his recall to office, 
 for its restoration, that at the demise of Charles II. the na- 
 vy amounted to 179 vessels, mensuring 103,558 tons. During 
 the foregoing reign, a remarkable change had taker place 
 in scientific and mechanical operations, and the art of ship- 
 building, so long pr actis ed on vague and imperfect principles, 
 began to be more highly and extensively developed ; for not 
 only were the proportions and qualities of vessels improved, 
 but" the mind of the designer was directed to theoretical in- 
 reetigatJon ; and thus, coeval wiih the third period of naval 
 history, may be justly reckoned the full development of the 
 science of naval architecture. On his accession to the throne 
 James II. continued to evince the same warm interest which, 
 as lord high admiral, he had always manifested for the 
 welfare of the navy. He suspended the navy board, and 
 appointed a new commission, with which he joined Sir An- 
 thony Deane, the best naval architect of the time ; four 
 hundred thousand pounds were annually set apart for na- 
 val purposes; and so diligent were the commissioners in 
 the discharge of their duty, that on the abdication of 
 James, in 1688, the navy amounted to 173 sail, measuring 
 101,892 tons, and carrying 6930 guns and 42,003 men. Un- 
 der the administration of William and Mary, who made 
 little alteration in the system adopted by their predecessor, 
 99 new ships were added to the fleet ; and the celebrated 
 engagement off Cape la Hogue, in 1692, gave the British 
 navy an ascendency over that of France, which it has 
 ever since preserved, (iueen Anne at her accession found 
 the navy to consist of 272 vessels, measuring 159,020 tons ; 
 but in the third year of her reign a most destructive storm 
 visited this country and the adjacent coasts, by which the 
 navy sustained great damage and loss. No fewer than ten 
 men-of-war were totally lost, and many more were driven 
 on shore and damaged. All measures adding to the 
 strength and efficiency of the navy were exceedingly popu 
 lar during this reign, and every plan compatible with finan- 
 cial economy was adopted for its benefit ; so that though 
 the numberof ships was less at the end of Anne's reign, 
 1714, than at its commencement, the tonnage had increased 
 8199 tons. During the first four years of George I., large 
 sums were voted for the extraordinary repairs which were 
 required after the long war. A general survey was made 
 of the dockyards and sea-stores ; new dimensions for sev- 
 eral classes of ships were established ; and at the death 
 
 819 
 
NAVY. 
 
 of this monarch, in 1727, the navy consisted of 233 ships, 
 measuring 170,862 tons. The navy remained stationary for 
 the first twelve years of the reign of George II. ; but on 
 hostilities breaking out with Spain, in 1739, the navy was 
 considerably augmented, and a scale of increased dimen- 
 sions was established in 1742. In the wars of 1744 and 
 1755, our naval enterprises were crowned with the most 
 signal success ; and at the demise of George II., in 1760, 
 the navy consisted of 412 ships, measuring 321,104 tons, 
 the vote for the naval service of that year being £5,611,508, 
 51,645 seamen, and 18,355 marines. The unprecedented 
 progress of the navy during the long reign of George III. 
 is familiar to all. It may be sufficient, therefore, to ob- 
 serve, that though the combined fleets of France and Spain 
 appeared to have an ascendency during the American war, 
 the victories of Rodney restored our previous superiority. 
 The nature of the struggle with revolutionary France, the 
 bitterness with which it was carried on, and the fleets re- 
 quired not merely for the protection of our own shores, 
 but for that of our mercantile shipping and of our numer- 
 ous colonies in all parts of the world, led to an immense 
 increase of our naval force ; and while our navy was thus 
 progressively augmented, the decisive victory of the first of 
 June, 1794, followed by those of St. Vincent, Camperdown, 
 the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, almost destroyed 
 every fleet that could be opposed to it, leaving us the un- 
 disputed masters of the ocean. 
 
 From the commencement of hostilities in 1793 to the 
 l>cace of Amiens, the following table will show the losses 
 sustained both by the English and their enemies, includ- 
 ing the ships surrendered to be held in trust : 
 
 Loss sustained by (be English. 
 Ships of tbe line 
 
 Frigates 
 
 Sloops and smaller vessels 
 
 Total . 7 
 
 Captured from the Enemy. 
 Ships of the line , . . SG 
 Frigates . . . .209 
 
 Sloops and smaller vessels . 275 
 
 Total 
 
 570 
 
 From the declaration of war in May, 1803, to the general 
 peace concluded in 1815, the number of ships and vessels 
 of war captured and destroyed by the British, with the 
 amount of loss sustained by bur fleets during the same pe 
 riod, will be found in the following abstract : 
 
 Captured. Destroyed. 
 French, Dutch, Spanish, S ships of the Hue . . 55 14 
 
 Turkish, Danish, American ) frigates 79 23 
 
 In the last seven years of the war the British navai 
 force averaged one hundred and forty ships of the line in 
 commission, and five hundred and eighty frigates, sloops, 
 and smaller vessels ; those in harbour, ordinary, and build 
 ing, being estimated at three hundred during the same pe 
 riod. Since the peace of 1815 great improvements have 
 taken place in every department of naval architecture , 
 masts, rigging, sails, ordnance, implements, and instru- 
 ments, have all undergone revision ; alterations, not only 
 in the form and magnitude of British ships, but even in the 
 arrangement of the materials composing them, have been 
 effected ; and it is perhaps not going too far to assert, that 
 never at any former period was our navy in a condition 
 better calculated to maintain its long undisputed sover- 
 eignty of the ocean. 
 
 The following table will show the foice of the British 
 Navy at five distinct periods : viz. the year after the break 
 ing out of the French revolutionary war ; in 1820, five years 
 subsequently to the peace ; in 1830, on the accession of 
 William IV. ; on the accession of her present Majesty, ir 
 1837 ; and in 1840, the date of the last official list : 
 
 Ships, &c. 
 
 1798. 
 
 1820. 
 
 1S30. 
 
 1837. 
 
 1S40. 
 
 G 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 P 
 
 Tons. 
 
 I 
 
 ■5 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 g 
 
 U 
 
 11 
 143 
 
 7 
 
 16-1 
 
 m 
 
 6 
 
 262 
 4 
 
 311 
 
 £ 
 
 18 
 
 64 
 
 1 
 
 S3 
 
 107 
 469 
 12 
 
 5SS 
 
 Tons. 
 
 | 
 
 a 
 1 
 a 
 
 23 
 163 
 
 IS 
 
 22- 
 
 g 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 219 
 
 11 
 
 289 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 43 
 
 ',S 
 
 H 
 
 96 
 •12-, 
 
 54 
 iVt 
 
 Tons. 
 
 467,765 
 
 c 
 J 
 | 
 I 
 
 2 
 n 
 
 149 
 
 C". 
 212 
 
 O 
 
 51 
 2:il 
 
 15 
 288 
 
 « 
 
 23 
 34 
 7 
 84 
 
 H 
 
 10'. 
 403 
 
 87 
 595 
 
 Tons. ! 
 
 jOftheLin- 
 Undcr ) 
 | small » 
 ; vesv.-is 1 
 jStearneri . 
 
 Grand total 
 
 26 
 109 
 
 13') 
 
 S4 
 82 
 
 166 
 
 12 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 122 
 MS 
 
 321 
 
 
 11 
 
 113 
 
 113 
 
 M 
 
 22 
 95 
 
 149 
 
 ■161 
 
 
 
 402, =155 
 
 127 
 
 36- 
 
 117 
 
 613 
 
 605.527 
 
 544.416 
 
 500,232 
 
 The parliamentary vote for the service of the navy 
 
 1341-42, is as follows : 
 
 To be employed *S, e " & ding officers > ' 
 in the fleet . ^ a y rmes (dltt0 ) , ■ ■ • 
 
 '^r? ° n I Marines ' .' .' .' , 
 Half pay and re- ) Naval officers 
 tired . . 5 Marine officers 
 
 Grand total , 
 
 For the effective service .... .£4,931,905 
 For the non-effective service .... 1,415,002 
 For freight on account of the army and ord- 
 nance departments 267,249 
 
 Total . £6,614,156 
 Classes and Rates. — It is of great importance, in order to 
 insure union in the movements of a fleet, and to facilitate 
 the fitting out and repair of ships, that those of the same 
 rate or class should not differ materially in size or build 
 from each other. Until the Restoration vessels appear to 
 have been " rated" from the complement assigned to each, 
 without any reference to the ordnance they carried ; but on 
 the recommendation of a committee appointed in 1745 this 
 method was superseded by classification according to guns. 
 In 1793 our ships, which, in consequence of the previous 
 wars, had outgrown their establishments of ordnance, 
 were rated anew at so many guns and upwards ; but the 
 latitude of the term "and upwards" giving rise to great ir- 
 regularities, an investigation took place in 1816, when by 
 an order in council the rule which existed previously to 
 1793 was revived, and ships were ordered to be rated 
 thenceforth from the number of guns and carronades actu- 
 ally carried, and not according to the erroneous denomina- 
 tions which had latterly grown into use. His late Majesty 
 William IV. made some alteration in this mode of rating 
 ships, but not such as materially to interfere with the ar- 
 rangement introduced by his predecessor. The royal navy, 
 820 
 
 as at present constituted, comprises three principal classes 
 1. Rated ships and yachts, including razees, frigates, and 
 corvettes. 2. Ships and bomb vessels, including vessels 
 corvette-built or otherwise. 3. Al? smaller vessels, includ- 
 ing brigs, ketches, brigantines, schooners, cutters, tenders, 
 &c. Ships of the first class are commanded by captains ; 
 of the second class, by commanders; of the third class, by 
 lieutenants and subordinate officers. 
 
 By the regulations of 1833, the following rates were es 
 tablished : First rate : all three-decked ships. Second rate : 
 one of her Majesty's yachts, and all two-decked ships 
 whose war complements consist of 700 men and upwards. 
 Third rate : the other royal yachts, and all yachts bearing 
 the flag or pendant of an admiral or captain superintend 
 ent of a dock-yard; and all ships whose complements are 
 under 700 and not less than 600. Fourth rate : ships whose 
 complements are under 600 and not less than 400. Fifth 
 rate : ships whose complements are under 400 and not 
 less than 250. Sixth rate : ships whose complements are 
 under 250. 
 
 Steam vessels are assigned a rate at the discretion of 
 the lords of the admiralty. Ships or vessels fitted as 
 troop ships, surveying ships, fire ships, store ships, or ves- 
 sels used on any temporary service, are also given a rate 
 not above the fourth. Ships of the 1st rate carry 100 guns 
 and upwards ; those of the 2d rate 80 and upwards ; the 
 3d rate from 70 to 80 ; the 4th rate from 50 to 70 ; the 5th 
 rate from 36 to 50 ; and the 6th rate from 24 to 36. (For 
 the chief of these details we are indebted to an able and 
 beautiful little work recently published, entitled an Epit- 
 ome of the Royal Naval Service of England, by Mr. Miles ) 
 Government of the Navy.— The general direction and 
 control of all affairs connected with the navy is intrusted, 
 under her Majesty, to the lord high admiral, or to the com- 
 missioners for discharging the functions of that officer. 
 The duties of the lord high admiral were formerly judicial 
 as well as administrative ; he having not merely to govern 
 the navy, but to preside over a court for adjudging all nau 
 tical cases, and for taking cognizance of all offences com 
 
NAVY. 
 
 nutted on the high seas. But the judicial are now sepa- 
 rated from the other duties of this high functionary, being 
 devolved upon the judge of the Admiralty Court. See Ad- 
 miralty, Court of. 
 
 From the reign of Queen Anne down to the present time, 
 with the exception of the short period during which Wil- 
 liam IV 7 ., when Duke of Clarence, held the office, the du- 
 ties of the lord high admiral have been discharged by com- 
 missioners. These have consisted generally of a first lord, 
 and of four or six junior lords. Civilians may be appoint- 
 ed to these offices ; but at least two of the lords are al- 
 ways professional men. But, though assisted by junior 
 lards practically, all the power and authority of the board 
 is vested in the first lord. The powers exercised by the 
 of Admiralty are very extensive and important. By 
 their orders ships are built, repaired, fitted for sea, or laid 
 up in ordinary, broken up, or sold ; put in commission, or 
 out of commission ; armed, stored, and provisioned ; em- 
 ployed on the home or on foreign stations. All appoint- 
 or removals of commission and warrant officers are 
 made by them, and all instructions lamed hf the guidance 
 of their commanders ; all promotions in the several ranks 
 emanate from them ; all honours bestowed for and without 
 
 eea, and all pensions, gratuities, and superannuations 
 for wounds, infirmities, and long services, are granted on 
 their recommendation. All returns from the fleet are sent 
 to the Hoard of Admiralty, and every thing that relates to 
 the discipline and good order of every ship. All orders lbl 
 • In- payment of naval moneys are issued by the lords com- 
 
 oners of the admiralty ; and the annual estimate of 
 the expenses of the navy, prepared by them, is laid before 
 parliament for its sanction. AH new inventions and ex- 
 periments are submitted to them before being introduced 
 into the service ; all draughts of ships must have their ap- 
 proval ; all repairs, alterations, and improvements in the 
 dock-yards, and all new buildings, of every description, 
 must he decided upon by them before they are undertaken. 
 (Sup. to Encyc. Britan., art. "Navy.") 
 
 I'nder the superintendence of the lords commissioners, 
 the civil departments of the admiralty are directed by a 
 surveyor of the navy, an accountant-general, a storc-keep- 
 cr-gencral, a comptroller of victualling, and a physician- 
 general. 
 There are three gradations of admirals, viz., admirals, 
 
 olinirals, and rear admirals; and each of these dig- 
 nities consists of three divisions, distinguished by the col- 
 our of their flags. Thus, there are admirals of the red, 
 the white, and the blue squadrons, bearing their rwpeettrc 
 '. the main-lop gallant ma-; head; vice-admirals of 
 !. the white, and the blue squadrons, bearing their 
 respective flags at the fore-top-gallant -mast head; and 
 
 tlmirals of the red, the while, and the blue squad- 
 rons, bearing their respective flags at the mizzen-top-gal- 
 lant-mast head. All admirals, whatever be their rank, 
 lake the common title of flag officers. 
 
 Admirals rank with generals in the army, vice-admirals 
 with lieutenant-generals, and rear-admirals with major- 
 generals. The command of each ship is entrusted to a 
 captain, or to a commander, who has under him a certain 
 Bomber of lieutenants, according to the size of the ship, 
 with a master, parser, midshipmen, gunners, &c. A cap- 
 lain of three years' standing ranks with a colonel in the 
 army, and a captain of less than three years' standing with 
 a lieutenant-colonel ; a commander ranks with a major, 
 and a lieutenant with a captain. The captain is responsi- 
 ble for the discipline and efficiency of the crew, and the 
 pood order of the ship. Notwithstanding he is furnished 
 with minute instructions for his guidance in every particu- 
 lar, much must always necessarily depend on his conduct 
 and character. He has power to order punishment to be 
 inflicted ; but it must be done in the presence of all the 
 officers and ship's company. An account, stating all the 
 circumstances, must also be entered in the ship's log, an 
 
 act of which is forwarded each quarter to the admi- 
 This regulation has tended to repress hasty and in- 
 
 ilerate punishment; and has done much to improve 
 the conduct of the officers, as well as to promote the proper 
 
 ,iiine of the navy. 
 Composition of the JVavy. — The navy is composed of 
 two bodies of men — seamen and marines (see Marines) ; 
 
 the officers under whose command it is placed are di- 
 vided into three classes, viz., commissioned, warrant, and 
 officers. Commissioned officers comprise flag officers 
 
 :-upra), commodores, captains, commanders, and lieu- 
 
 ats, appointed by commission from the lords conimis- 
 
 i - of the admiralty, or by a commander-in-chief hav- 
 
 uthority In cases of vacancies by death or the decis- 
 
 of court* martial abroad to make such appointments. 
 
 r mt officers are those who hold their appointment by 
 warrant from the lords commissioners of the admiralty; 
 H this class belong masters, secretaries, physicians, sur- 
 geons, &c Petty officers are divided into two classes, 
 
 NEAP TIDES. 
 
 quarter-deck and working; the former, comprising mid- 
 shipmen, master's assistants, volunteers, &c, are entered 
 by order of the lords commissioners, or by a commander 
 in-chief abroad ; the latter, including captains of the main- 
 top, foretop, tec. &c, are appointed by the captain or com- 
 mander of the ship or vessel to which they belong. 
 
 Any person may enter the navy as a common seamen, 
 on application to the commanding officer of any of her 
 majesty's ships in commission, provided he i>e approved by 
 the examining surgeon, and have not previously betu " dis- 
 charged from the service with disgrace. Persons who 
 have never been at sea are rated as landsmen, and sea- 
 faring men are rated as " ordinary" or " able" seamen, be 
 sides numerous gradations of petty officers, to which they 
 are rated at the discretion of the commanding officer. Sea- 
 men are also obtained for the navy, at the breaking out of 
 a war or any other emergency, by the practice of impress 
 ment. The antiquity and legality of this practice cannot 
 be questioned ; but very great and serious doubts have been 
 and may be entertained as to its expediency. Foreigners are 
 the only persons exempted at common law from impress- 
 ment; but exemptions have been created by acts of parlia- 
 ment In favour of various classes, as landsmen, apprentices, 
 seamen employed in the fisheries, watermen in the ser- 
 vice of fire insurance companies, &c. See Impkessmknt. 
 
 Young gentlemen enter the service as volunteers of the 
 first class ; and every officer commissioning a ship is al- 
 lowed to make one fresh entry. A volunteer must remain 
 two complete years in that capacity, and attain the age of 
 fourteen, before he can he rated a midshipman ; when he 
 has completed six years' service, and attained the age of 
 nineteen he may be examined In seamanship, and also in 
 navigation, for the rank of lieutenant; and should he pass 
 such examinations, he is eligible to hold a warrant as mate, 
 if his conduct be satisfactory to his captain. 
 
 No person can receive a commission as lieutenant un- 
 less he have passed both the above examinations ; bin hnv 
 ing done so, he Is eligible for promotion to that rank. A 
 lieutenant is not eligible for a commander's commission, 
 till he have served two Mars at sen in a ship of war as 
 lieutenant; nor is a commander eligible for a captain's 
 commission till he have served one complete year at sea 
 in a ship of war as commander. 
 
 In 1K)0 a temporary restriction was placed oil promo 
 tions by a minute of the Admiralty Board. This limited 
 the promotion of officers to the rank of captain, and all 
 below that rank to filling up one in three vacancies on 
 the list, with the exception, viz., 1st, of death vacancies 
 on foreign stations, which the commanders-in-chief have 
 authority to fill up; 2d, the reservation to the admiralty 
 of power to promote for ■pedal or brilliant services; 3d, 
 of the occasion of a commander-in-chief striking his flag; 
 and 4th, on the recommendation of the Board of Customs 
 for services in the coast guard. 
 
 Captains and admirals are promoted by seniority, on 
 what is termed a " flag promotion" taking place ; but a 
 captain must have served as under, In command of a 
 rated ship, before he can obtain his flag ; viz. 
 
 In war ------ 4 years. 
 
 In war and peace combined - - 5 — 
 In peace - - - - - - 6 — 
 
 All other classes of officers, as was remarked above, are 
 promoted at the discretion of the Board of Admiralty. For 
 the various important subjects connected with the pay, 
 pension, discipline, &c. of the navy, see the JYavy List. 
 See, also, Statistics of the British Empire ; and the valu- 
 able little work above referred to, Epitome of the Royal 
 Naval Service of England, London, 1841. For other par- 
 ticulars relating to the navy, see Naval Architecture, 
 Ship, and other naval articles, which will be found under 
 their respe ctive heads in this work. 
 
 NA'ZARITE. (Ileb. nazar, to separate), signified, in 
 the Jewish dispensation, one separated to the Lord by a 
 vow. (Numbers, chap, vi.) The chief observances of the 
 Nazarites were, to refrain from drinking wine, to suffer 
 the hair to grow, and to avoid coming in contact with a 
 corpse. This word must be distinguished from Nazarene, 
 which signified a native of Nazareth, and was applied in 
 contempt to the early Christians, Inasiunch as they were 
 followers of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 In some Eastern countries, some Christian communities 
 are still to be met with which have retained the appella- 
 tion of Nazarenes. The sect of Nazarenes, which sprung 
 up in Palestine in the second century, endeavoured to en 
 graft the rites and observances of the Jews on the religion 
 of Jesus Christ ; in this respect they bore a considerable 
 resemblance to the Ebionites, whose contemporaries they 
 were, but with whom they must not be confounded. No 
 traces of them existed in the 5th century. 
 
 NEAP, or NEEP TIDES, are the lowest tides, beinj 
 those which are produced when the attractions of the sui> 
 and moon on the waters of the ocean are exerted in direo 
 
 821 
 
NEAT. 
 
 Uons Perpendicular to each other. When the two forces 
 act in the same or exactly opposite directions, the spring 
 or highest tides are produced. The neap tides take place 
 about four or five days before the new and full moons. 
 See Tides. .... 
 
 NEAT. A term applied to cattle : neat s foot oil is the 
 fat obtained by boiling calves' feet. 
 
 NEBULAE. (Lat. nebula, a cloud.) In Astronomy, the 
 name given, on account of their general cloudy appearance, 
 to a very numerous class of celestial objects, being, how- 
 ever, for by far the greater part, telescopic, and only visible 
 in telescopes of considerable power. 
 
 It is to Sir William Herschel that astronomy is indebted 
 fur the first examination and analysis of these remarkable 
 objects. A few of them have indeed been known since 
 the discovery of the telescope, and one or two of them are 
 visible to the naked eye ; but his powerful telescopes first 
 disclosed the fact of their existence in immense numbers, 
 and in all quarters of the heavens, not indeed distributed 
 uniformly, but, generally speaking, with a marked pre- 
 ference to a broad zone, crossing the milky-nay nearly at 
 right angles, ami whose general direction is not very re- 
 mote from that of the hour circle of Oh and 121". 
 
 Nebula; are divided by sir W. Herschel into the follow- 
 ing classes : — 1st, Clusters of stars, in which the stars are 
 clearly distinguishable ; 2d, Resolvable nebulae, or such as 
 excite a suspicion that they consist of stars, and which 
 any increase of the optical power of the telescope might 
 be expected to resolve into distinct stars ; 3d, Nebulre, pro- 
 perly so called, in which there is no appearance whatever 
 of stars ; 4th, Planetary nebula; ; 5th, Stellar nebula; ; and, 
 6th, Nebulous stars. 
 
 Clusters of Stars. — These are either globular or of an 
 irregular figure, forming bright isolated patches, which 
 attract attention, as if they were brought together by some 
 general cause. The Pleiades is a cluster of this sort ; the 
 naked eye can distinctly perceive six or seven stars in it, 
 and may catch occasional glimpses of a great many more ; 
 but the telescope shows fifty or sixty crowded together, in 
 a very moderate space, and insulated from the rest of the 
 heave;;.;. A luminous spot, called Prcesepe, or the Beehive, 
 in the constellation Cancer, is resolved entirely into stars 
 by an ordinary telescope. In the sword-handle of Perseus 
 is another such spot, crowded with stars, but not so easily 
 resolved. There are a great number of less distinct nebu- 
 lous specks of the same kind, which in ordinary telescopes 
 have much the appearance of comets without tails, and 
 have frequently been mistaken for such ; when, however, 
 they are examined with instruments of great power, such 
 as reflectors of 18 inches, two feet, or more in aperture, 
 any such idea is completely destroyed. They are then, 
 for the most part, perceived to consist entirely of stars, 
 crowded together so as to occupy almost a definite outline, 
 and to run up to a blaze of light in the centre, where their 
 condensation is usually the greatest. Many of them are of 
 an exactly round figure. Others, again, are of an irregular 
 form, and loss definite in their outline, so that it is not easy 
 to say where they terminate. In some of them the stars 
 are nearly all of a size, in others extremely different ; and 
 it is no uncommon thing to find a very red star, much 
 brighter than the rest, occupying a conspicuous situation in 
 the group. Sir W. Herschel regards these as globular 
 clusters in a less advanced state of condensation ; conceiv- 
 ing ai! such groups as approaching, by their mutual attrac- 
 tion, to the globular figure, and assembling themselves to- 
 gether from all the surrounding region. 
 
 Resolvable nebula are considered as objects of the same 
 nature as the preceding ; but as being either too remote, or 
 consisting of stars too faint, to affect us by their individual 
 light. They are universally round or oval ; their irregu- 
 larities of form being extinguished by the distance, and only 
 the general figure of the condensed parts being discernible. 
 In telescopes of insufficient optical power, all the great 
 globular clusters exhibit themselves under this appearance. 
 
 Nebula, properly so called, present a great variety of ap- 
 pearances. One of the most remarkable is in the constella- 
 tion Orion ; and its appearance is very different from what 
 might be supposed to arise from the aggregation of an im- 
 mense collection of small stars. It is formed of little flocky 
 masses, like wisps of cloud ; and such wisps seem to adhere 
 to many small stars at its outskirts, and especially to one 
 considerable star, which it envelopes with a nebulous at- 
 mosphere of considerable extent and singular figure. This 
 nebula was discovered by Huygens in 1056, who gave 
 figures representing its appearance in his telescope. On 
 comparing these with its present appearance, several astro- 
 nomers have concluded that it has undergone a perceptible 
 change ; but the evidence of such change is by no means to 
 be relied on. There is a nebula in the constellation of 
 Andromeda visible to the naked eye, and often mistaken 
 for a comet. Its appearance is described by Simon Marius 
 as that of ;i candle shining through horn. Its form is a 
 822 
 
 NECESSITY, DOCTRINE OF. 
 
 pretty long oval, increasing by insensible gradations of 
 brightness, at first very gradually, but at last more rapidly, 
 up to a central point, which, though very much brighter 
 than the rest, is yet evidently not stellar, but only nebulous 
 matter in a high state of condensation. It has in it a few 
 small stars; but they are obviously casual ; and the nebula 
 itself offers not the slightest appearance to give ground for 
 a suspicion of its consisting of stars. It is nearly half a 
 degree long, and fifteen or twenty minutes broad. Like 
 that last described, a very numerous class of nebula; are of 
 a round or oval figure, increasing more or less in density 
 towards the central point. In this respect, however, they 
 differ extremely ; in some the condensation being slight and 
 gradual, in others great and sudden. They also present 
 great diversity of appearance, in respect of deviation from 
 the spherical form. Some are only slightly elliptic, others 
 much extended in length ; and in some the extension is so 
 great as to give the nebula the character of a long, narrow, 
 spindle-shaped ray, tapering away at both ends to points. 
 Some nebula; are annular; but these are among the rarest 
 objects in the heavens. The most conspicuous is situated 
 half way between the stars /3 and y Lyra, and may be seen 
 with a telescope of moderate power. It is small, and par- 
 ticularly well defined, so as to have, in fact, much more the 
 appearance of a flat oval solid ring than of a nebula. 
 
 Planetary nebula have exactly the appearance of planets 
 — round or slightly oval disks, in some instances quite sharply 
 terminated, in others a little hazy at the bo ders, ;:;;;1 of a 
 light exactly equable, or only a little mottled, which, in 
 some of them, approaches in vividness to that of actual 
 planets. Whatever the nature of these objects may be, 
 they must be of enormous magnitude. One in Aquarius 
 presents a diameter of 20" ; another in Andromeda, has a 
 visible disk of 12", perfectly defined and round. Granting 
 them to be equally distant from us with the stars, their 
 real dimensions must be such as would fill, on the lowest 
 computation, the whole orbit of Uranus. Their intrinsic 
 splendour must also be immeasurably inferior to that of the 
 sun's; for a circular portion of the sun's disk, subtending 
 an angle of 20", would give a light equal to 100 full moans, 
 whereas the nebuhe in question are hardly discernible with 
 the naked eye. 
 
 Stellar nebula are those in which the condensation of 
 the nebulous matter towards the centre is great and sud- 
 den ; so sudden, indeed, as to present the appearance of a 
 dull and blotted star, or a star with a slight burr round it. 
 The nebulous stars present the beautiful and striking phe- 
 nomenon of a sharp and brilliant star, surrounded by a per- 
 fectly circular disk or atmosphere of faint light : in some 
 cases dying away on all sides by insensible gradations, in 
 others almost suddenly terminated. A very fine example 
 of such a star is 55 Andromeda;, R. A. lt> 43m, N. P. D. 
 50° 7. 
 
 "The nebula;," says Sir J. Herschel, "furnish, in every 
 point of view, an inexhaustible field of speculation and con- 
 jecture. That by far the largest of them consist of stars 
 there can be little doubt; and in the interminable range of 
 system upon system, and firmament upon firmament, which 
 we thus catch a glimpse of, the imagination is bewildered 
 and lost. On the other hand, if it be true, as, to say the 
 least, it seems extremely probable, that a phosphorescent or 
 self-luminous matter also exists, disseminated through ex- 
 tensive regions of space, in the manner of a cloud or fog, 
 now assuming capricious shapes, like actual clouds drifted 
 by the wind, and now concentrating itself like a comeiic 
 atmosphere around particular stars, what, we natural'? 
 ask, is the nature and distinction of this nebulous matter ? 
 Is it absorbed by the stars in whose neighbourhood it is 
 found, to furnish, by its condensation, their supply of light 
 and heat? or is it progressively concentrating itself, by the 
 effect of its own gravity, into masses, and so laying the 
 foundations of new sidereal systems, or insulated stars ? It 
 is easier to propound such questions than to offer any pro- 
 bable reply to them." (See Hersckel's Treatise en Astro- 
 nomy, Cabinet Cyclopadia, from which the preceding de- 
 scription is abridged.) 
 
 NECE'SSITY, DOCTRINE OF. That scheme which 
 represents all human actions and feelings as links hi a 
 chain of causation, determined by laws in every respect 
 analogous to those by which the physical universe is gov- 
 erned. This doctrine has been attacked and defended with 
 great zeal, in almost every period of speculative inquiry 
 since the Reformation. The inductive method of research, 
 applied by Bacon and his contemporaries to the phenomena 
 of nature, led very soon to the adoption of a similar method 
 in reference to the phenomena of mind. The discovery, or 
 rather the distinct re-assertion of the law of association, by 
 Hobbes, and the ready solution which it appeared to furnish 
 of states of consciousness, which, without it, would have 
 seemed capricious nnd unaccountable, encouraged many 
 philosophers to attempt its application to every province of 
 the human mind. It is only in connection with this fact 
 
JNECK OF A CAPITAL. 
 
 Uiat tbe prevalence of necessarian views in modern times 
 can be adequately explained. Without venturing an opin- 
 ion on the merits of tbe question at issue, between the ad- 
 vocates of free will and of necessity, we are sufficiently 
 assured of the historical fact, that the distinction between 
 man and nature, between the actions of a self-conscious 
 agent und the workings of blind unintelligent powers, was 
 Considered by the great philosophers of antiquity as the 
 groundwork of their systems of morality, and as involved in 
 th- very conception of moral science. It was natural that 
 this distinction should he felt to be a barrier to the progress 
 of the exclusively empirical psychology to which we have 
 alluded. To the historians of man's nature, the necessity 
 of his actions appeared in the light of an hypothesis which 
 lay at the very foundation of their inquiries, precisely as 
 the natural philosopher is compelled to assume the regular 
 recurrence of the same outward phenomena under the same 
 circumstances. The psychologist considers the suites of 
 which he is conscious, merely as they are related to each 
 other in time; and, thus considered, it seems to him a mere 
 identical proposition to assert that all that can be known of 
 them is the order of their succession. If their succession 
 
 ailiitary or uncertain, nothing could he known of it. 
 and the science which he professes could no longer have an 
 existence. It is in this ■ rather than in the 
 
 tletles by which the doctrine has been some- 
 times defended, that the real strength of the necessarian 
 lies. Bo long as he can maintain the merely phenomenal 
 character of human knowledge, he can reduce his oppo- 
 nents to the dilemma of either denying the possibility of 
 mental science altogether, or of admitting the existence of 
 
 uniform laws which are its only object. In its rela- 
 tion to morality, the doctrine of necessity has been naturally 
 considered ti gerooa consequences. Attempts 
 
 have been mad. 1 by modi it from 
 
 this imputation. Sir James Mackintosh, in particular, has 
 
 • .1 some 1 portion of his Dissertation to the explanation 
 of the principal ethical terms, on the necessarian hypo- 
 . s. sec. vii. p. 393. of the reprint.) 
 Notwithstanding the ingenuity of this ellbrt, tbe stu- 
 dent vi!l probably Sod, on careful examination, that the 
 
 question at issue is left much in the same state as 
 
 NECK OF A CAPITAL. In Architecture, the space 
 above the shaft of a column, between the annulet of the 
 capita] above and the astragal at the top of the shaft be- 
 low. 
 
 NECRO'LOGY. (Gr. viicpof, dead, and \6yos, discourse.) 
 A collection of biographical notices of deceased persons, 
 published shortly alter their death, is commonly called 
 a necrology. The list of deceased benefactors to a mon- 
 astery, cathedra], fcc., was also termed its necrology. 
 
 NECROMANCY. (Or. viKfos, and pdvrcte, prophenj.) 
 Divination by consulting the spirits of the dead. Necro- 
 mancy is prohibited in Deuteronomy; and the passage in 
 the first book of Samuel respecting Ihe witch of Kndor — 
 whether it be understood of an actual evocation, or of a 
 deception practised by a soothsayer — shows that necro- 
 v. real or pretended, was among the usages of very 
 distant times. In Homer, the portion of the Odyssey termed 
 the Neeyomantela exhibits the superstition in a very pecu- 
 liar form. Ulysses performs a sacrifice with peculiar so- 
 lemnities, and pours the sacrificial blood into a ditch : the 
 spectres of the dead rush wildly from the infernal regions 
 to taste Ihe blood; and, discovering that of Tire^ias. of 
 v. huh he w as in search, he compels it to answer his ques- 
 tions. The rest of the book, in which Ulysses appears 
 actually to descend to the shades, and to see the punish- 
 ments of celebrated criminals, is suspected by some com- 
 mentators to have been an interpolation of later times. 
 Similar customs, in practising the art of necromancy, seem 
 to have been followed for a long period in Greece ami Italy. 
 Horace mentions the pouring of the blood of a sacrificed 
 p into a ditch, in order to attract the manes from be- 
 neath. But in Thessaly, the most celebrated of classical 
 regions for its proficiency in the art of magic, peculiar hor- 
 rors >eem to have attended the exercise of necromancy. 
 Krichtho. Lucan's Thessalian witch, reanimates the corpse 
 loldier slain in battle, and compels him to answer her 
 questions respecting futurity. But the stuxa'ywyoi, or pro- 
 mised evokers of spirits, in Thessaly, seem to have per- 
 formed their rites, whether as impostors or as fanatics, with 
 the sacrifices of human beings, and various other enormi- 
 ties. Modern necromancy, like most branches of divina- 
 tion in modern superstition, has been chiefly accomplished 
 by the agency of devils, who, either voluntarily or by com- 
 pulsion, act at the behest of the magician. See Magic, 
 Witch. 
 
 NE'CROLITE. (Gr. vcicpos, and XiOot, a stone.) A 
 mineral which is found in small nodules in the limestone 
 of Baltimore, and which when struck exhale* a fetid odour 
 resembling that of putrid flesh. 
 
 
 NEGATIVE SIGN. 
 
 NECRO'PHAGANS, Jfecropkaga. (Gr. vtupos, and 
 Qayw, I eat.) The name of a family of Clavicorn beetles, 
 comprehending those which feed on dead and decomposing 
 animal substances. 
 
 NECRO'SIS. (Gr. vtKpouv, to destroy.) This term is 
 applied in surgery to the mortification of parts of bones. 
 
 Necrosis, or Spotting. In Botany, a disease of plants, 
 chiefly found upon the leaves and soft parenchymatous 
 parts of vegetables. It consists of small black spots, below 
 which the substance of the plant decays. 
 
 M'.'i "I'AK, in the Mythology of the Greeks and Romans, 
 was the supposed drink of the immortal gods (ambrosia 
 being their food), and was fabled to contribute largely to 
 their immortality. If we believe the accounts of the poets, 
 the qualities of this liquor must have been of a most deli- 
 cious character. It imparted youth, bloom, and vigour to 
 the body, and possessed the power of repairing all the de- 
 fects and injuries of the mental constitution. 
 
 M'.i'T.VIiU'M. (Lat. nectar, honey.) Any part of a 
 flower that secretes a honey-like substance, it is variously 
 applied to modifications of the petals, stamens, and disk, 
 and is now not much empl oyed. 
 
 NEEDLE, MAGNETICAL. A slender magnetized bar 
 of Steel, which, when suspended freely on a pivot or centre, 
 arranges itself in the direction of the magnetic force of the 
 earth. See Compass. M.u.vktism, VARIATION. 
 
 NEEDLE ORE (From the adcoloj form of Its crystals.) 
 
 A native sulphuret of bismuth, copper, and lead: it occurs 
 in the gold mini 
 
 NEEDLE STONE. A species of acicular zeolite found 
 in Iceland. 
 
 NE EXEAT REGNO. In Law, a writ to detain a per- 
 son from going out of the kingdom without the king's 
 license, directed to the slieritl", or to the party himself. The 
 use of the writ Is to prevent a party from withdrawing his 
 person and property from the jurisdiction of the courts in 
 England; but this purpose was served al common law, he 
 fore the late' Insolvent Act, by arrest and bail obtained. 
 This writ lies, therefore, where there is a suit in equity for 
 a demand for which the plaintiff could not arrest :". law; 
 and is always grant! d upon a bill just filed in equity. 
 
 NE'GATIVE, in Logic, denotes the quality of a propo- 
 sition which denies the agreement between the subject and 
 predicate. 
 
 NE'GATIVE SIGN. In Algebra, tbe sisrn of subtract- 
 ion, — . Any quantity to which this sign is prefixed is 
 called a negative quantity. 
 
 The doctrine of negative quantities is attended with con 
 siderable difficulties, ami has given rise to much c!; 
 When a negative Quantity is preceded by a positive quail 
 tily greater than itself, nothing is simpler than the accu- 
 rate notion of its signification. For instance, in the ex- 
 pression a — I), where a is greater than b, no difficulty can 
 arise about the nature of the operation which is Indicated. 
 But in algebra quantities are constantly occurring of the 
 form a — b, where b is greater than a; or of the form — o, 
 where the negative quantity stands by itself; and it is often 
 no easy matter, if, indeed, it be possible, to discover any 
 exact principle by which such expressions are to be inter- 
 preted. 
 
 The definitions usually given by writers on algebra of 
 isolated negative quantities are reducible to two: 1st, that 
 negative quantities are less than nothing ; and, 2d, that 
 they are of the same nature as positive quantities, but 
 taken in a contrary sense, or opposite direction. The first 
 of these definitions, which, indeed, presents itself the most 
 naturally, was adopted by Newton in the .h-ithmctica Uni- 
 versalis, and also by Euler, in his Introductio in Jinalysin 
 Infinitorum. The second definition has been generally 
 adopted by writers on the application of algebra to geom- 
 etry and mechanics. But it has been shown by D'Alem- 
 bert, and more particularly by Camot, in his Geometrie 
 de Position, that both definitions lead to inaccurate no- 
 tions. 
 
 With reg aril to the first definition, D'Alembert reasons ir 
 this manner : Let there be the proportion 1 : — 1 : : — 1:1 
 which is true, because the product of the extremes is equal 
 to the product of the means. Now, If — 1 be less than no 
 thing, much more will it be less than 1 ; therefore, thf 
 second term is less than the first ; consequently the fourth 
 must be less than the third : that is to say. 1 must be less 
 than — 1 ; therefore — 1 is both less than 1 and greater 
 than 1, which is absurd. Carnot farther remarks, that a 
 multitude of paradoxes, or, rather, absurdities, arise from 
 the notion that negative quantities are less than ; for ex 
 ample, — 3 must be less than 2, yet (—3)2 would be greatei 
 than 22, because ( — 3)2 is 9, and 2 2 is 4; that is to say, of 
 two unequal quantities, 2 and — 3, the square of the greatei 
 would be less than the square of the smaller, which is con 
 trary to any clear and distinct notions that can be formed 
 of the nature of quantity. 
 
 The principle that negative quantities arc quantities 
 
NEGLIGENCE. 
 
 taken in a different sense, or opposite di- 
 rection to positive quantities, is shown 
 by Carnot to lead to error by the fol- 
 lowing example : Let A C B D be a 
 1 circle, of which O is the centre, and A 
 B a diameter : we have then AB = A 
 O + O B. Through the centre O draw 
 C D perpendicular to A B, and through 
 any point in the circle E draw the 
 chord E F parallel to C D, meeting A B in G. Let A be 
 the origin of the abscissa ; and make A G = x, and GE = y: 
 then, putting a= the radius of the circle, we have the 
 equation yi = 2 a x — 12. The solution of this quadratic 
 gives jr = i v / 2ai — xl, which, according to the theory 
 under consideration, shows that y has two values equal and 
 directly opposite to each other ; namely, G E represented 
 by the positive root, and the other, G F, represented by the 
 
 negative root ; that is to say, we ha ve G E = + ^/ 2 a % — 12, 
 and G F =: — y/Hax — xi, equations which ought to be 
 true, whatever be the value of A G or x. Let us, there- 
 fore, suppose AG=AO=i'GE will then become O C, 
 and Cl F will become O D ; therefore, the two equations 
 will become GE = |a, andG F = — a, and, consequently, 
 G E + G F = ; that is, A B = 0, which is absurd, although 
 rigorously deduced from the theory. The theory, there- 
 fore, is f>lse. It may be possible, Carnot remarks, to op- 
 pose metaphysical subtleties to this conclusion; but he 
 thinks thai no clear and satisfactory answer can be given 
 to the argument. 
 
 Without entering into metaphysical subtleties, we may 
 remark that there is an evident fallacy jn the above con- 
 clusion, which arises from first assuming the signs -f- and 
 — to be symbols of interpretation, and then considering 
 them as symbols of operation, without regard to their di- 
 rective signification. On making z = a, the two roots of the 
 above quadratic are -f- a and — a, and the signs are by the 
 theory assumed to signify opposition or contrariety of direc- 
 tion. But in the equation -\-x — a = o (from which GE-f 
 GF = » is derived), the directive signification is entirely 
 lost sight of; the signs are regarded as merely symbols of 
 operation ; and the equation being interpreted in the usual 
 way, simply affirms that the difference between the two 
 roots, in respect of absolute magnitude, is nothing. 
 
 Having shown that the usually received notions respect- 
 ing negative quantities are obscure and inaccurate, Carnot 
 proceeds to establish the true principles of their theory. 
 lie concludes, 1st, That an isolated negative quantity is a 
 mere creation of the mind, and that those which result 
 from the operations of the calculus are nothing more than 
 simple algebraic forms, incapable of representing any real 
 and effective quantity whatever. 2d, That each of these 
 forms, taken without reference to its sign, is nothing more 
 than the difference of two other absolute quantities, of 
 which the one that was the greater in the case on which 
 the reasoning was founded, becomes the less in the case 
 to which the results of the calculus producing that form is 
 applicable. 
 
 According to this theory, the true meaning to be attached 
 to the expression negative quantity is this: An absolute 
 quantity, which does not belong to the system on which 
 the reasoning has been established, but to another system 
 related to the former in such a manner that in order to 
 render the formulae for the first system applicable to it, the 
 sign which precedes it must be changed from -f to — , or 
 from — to +. For example, if y represent the difference 
 between the two quantities a and :, it does not follow that, 
 by substituting — y for -j-y, the quantity represented by y 
 becomes negative ; but merely that, of the two quantities 
 a and z, the one which was the greater in the case in 
 which y has the sign + becomes the smaller when the 
 sign of y is changed into — . The preceding remarks will 
 suffice to give a notion of the nature of the difficulties 
 wliich attend the rigorous interpretation of the negative 
 sign in symbolical algebra. For full information on this ab- 
 struse subject, the reader is referred to the following works : 
 Carnot, Geometric de Position ; Mascrcs on the Use of the 
 Negative Sign ; Warren on the Geometrical Representation 
 of the Square Roots of Negative Quantities, 1828 ; Peacock's 
 Algebra ; Id., Report of the British Association for 1834; 
 De Morgan's Trigonometry ; Young's Mathematical Dis- 
 sertations ; and the articles connected with the subject in 
 the Penny Cyclopaedia. 
 
 NE'GLIGENCE. (Lat. negligo, to neglect.) In the Fine 
 Arts, a want of observance of admitted rules and principles 
 in the several parts of the work; such as in costume, in 
 the disposition of the light and shade, &c. 
 
 NE'GROES. The Ethiopian or fourth variety of the 
 human race, according to the division of Blumenbach and 
 his followers, widely spread over the surface of the earth ; 
 occupying almost the whole of Africa south of tiiat great 
 belt of desert which extends, in the latitude of the tropic 
 K24 
 
 NEGROES. 
 
 of Cancer, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. The distinc- 
 tions of this race are marked and peculiar; but they are 
 not universal, or everywhere the same. Thus, the colour* 
 varies, although less so, perhaps, than that of any other 
 of the great varieties of mankind ; the Hottentots, and 
 various southern tribes belonging to the Ethiopian race, are 
 in this and other respects widely different from the-.r 
 brethren. The woolly hair, dark jet colour, and some ex 
 ternal peculiarities of conformation, seem chiefly to belong 
 to those numerous tribes which inhabit the west coast of 
 Africa, between the equator and the tropic of Cancer. But, 
 even within that region, some tribes are to be found whose 
 physiognomy is very different from that which we are ac- 
 customed to regard as representing the Negro type. South 
 of the equator many of the tribes are inferior in strength 
 and stature, and very different in appearance : from this re- 
 gion many of the Brazilian negroes are imported. In New 
 Guinea, off the south-eastern extremity of Asia, a native 
 population is found with most of the characteristics of the 
 African negro. 
 
 The Negro race appears to have been subjected to the 
 tribute of furnishing slaves to its more powerful and Intelli- 
 gent neighbours from a very remote period of antiquity. 
 Many ages before the first European slave ship had visited 
 the coasts of Africa, the Arabs bore off slaves in their cara 
 vans, across the Sahara, to the northern coasts of the con 
 tinent; and even in classical writers (Terence, for exam- 
 ple), we find mention made of black or Ethiopian slaves 
 See Slave Trade. 
 
 By the mixture of the Negro and white races the mulatto 
 is produced ; the Sambo is the offspring of a Negro and an 
 American Indian. The numerous varieties of these mixed 
 races, according to the proportion of Negro, European, 01 
 Indian blood in each, are classed and denominated accu- 
 rately in the West Indies. It may, probably, be estimated 
 that there are now on the continent and islands of Ameri- 
 ca, including Negroes, Mulattoes, but excluding those mixer' 
 races which have a larger proportion of European blood, 
 about ten million individuals of African descent ; viz , 
 
 In the United States .... 
 
 British colonies 
 
 Hayti .... . . 
 
 Spanish, French, &c, West Indies 
 
 Brazil 
 
 The free states of continental America, 
 formerly Spanish colonies . 
 
 3,500,000 
 
 1100,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 2,500,000 
 
 I 1,000,000 
 9,800,000 
 
 Of whom five or six millions are now in a state of slavery 
 the remainder, except in Hayti, forming an inferior and 
 generally an oppressed class of free inhabitants. The ulti- 
 mate destiny of this multitude of human beings is a matter 
 of very anxious speculation. Hayti, peopled by the slaves 
 of the French colony of St. Domingo, who threw off the 
 yoke at the period of the French revolution, is the only re- 
 gion in which they have as yet established an independent 
 community ; and the progress of that community in civiliz 
 ation is not such as to encourage the sanguine hopes of the 
 philanthropist. 
 
 It has long been a favourite theory of many philosophers 
 that the negro races are naturally inferior in point of in 
 tellect, and do not possess the same capacity for improve 
 ment as the Europeans, or people of the Caucasian variety. 
 This supposition has, however, been vehemently denied ; 
 and it has been contended, over and over again, that the 
 peculiar circumstances under which they have been placed 
 sufficiently account for the condition of the Africans — for 
 their want of a literature and their low civilization. That 
 great weight should be attached to the considerations now 
 mentioned is true ; but still we do not think that they are 
 sufficient wholly to account for the existing state of things. 
 Egypt was, at a very remote period, the principal seat of 
 science and of art; and various nations of Africa were in 
 contact with, and had a pretty extensive intercourse with, 
 the Egyptians, and also with the Phoenicians, and alter 
 wards the Romans. But they seem to have profited little 
 or nothing by this association. And while the people of 
 Greece, Asia Minor, and Magna Gracia raised themselves 
 in a comparatively brief period to the highest pitch of 
 civilization and refinement, the nations of Africa continue, 
 without a solitary exception, down even to the present day, 
 immersed in the grossest barbarism. Surely, however, 
 during the space of 3000 or 4000 years, opportunities must 
 have been afforded to some of them to make some ad- 
 vances. But if so, not one has had sagacity to profit by 
 them. Africa, in fact, does not seem to have produced a 
 single great man. She has had no Hercules, no Minos, no 
 Theseus, no Confucius, no Manco Capac. Among all the 
 varieties of superstition that exist in it. we look in vain foi 
 hero-worship — for the divine honours paid in rude but im 
 proving nations in other parts of the world, by the publi 
 
NEHALLENIA. 
 
 gratitude to departed heroes, legislators, and authors of im- 
 portant discoveries in the arts. 
 
 With tiie exception of that of the ancient Egyptians and 
 Ethiopians, whose descent is involved In the greatest un- 
 certainty, almost .til the civilization that exists in Africa 
 seems to he of foreign origin. The introduction of Moham- 
 medanism, though in a debased form, has gone far to ban- 
 ish cannibalism from many countries ; and some of them 
 have also adopted the letters and literature of Arabia. But 
 the progress they have hitherto made is not such as to lead 
 to any very sanguine anticipations as to their future ad- 
 vancement ; and it would not, indeed, be very philosophical 
 to suppose that those who have been wholly unable to 
 produce anything original should attain to much eminence 
 in the practice of foreign arts and sciences. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into any examination of the 
 vexala. qutslio whether the varieties of the human race in 
 Africa originally sprung from different sources, or whether 
 they nil belong to the same stock, but changed to the State 
 in which we lind them by the influence of circumstances 
 in the lapse 0/ ages. Whatever conclusion may be come 
 to on this point cannot in anywise aflect the question as to 
 the comparative intelligence of the African people. The 
 sane: circumstance* that are supposed by those who con- 
 ten, i for the original identity of the races to have so greatly 
 all. . ted their uppearance and physical capacities, could 
 hardly fail to have an equally powerful influence over their 
 mental faculties. This, in fact, is substantially admitted by 
 Dr. Pritcbard, who has ably contended for their common 
 origin, and the ecpiality of their intellect with that of the 
 other races. " The tribes," says he, " in whose prevalent 
 conformation the negro type is discernible in an exaggerated 
 degree, are uniformly in the lowest Stage of human society; 
 
 -iiipid, sensual, anil 
 Indolent Such are the Papals, Rulioms, and other rude 
 hordes on the coast of Western Guinea, and many tribes 
 near the Slave coast, and fu the Itighl of Benin; countries 
 where the slave trade has been carried on to the greatest 
 extent, ami lias exercised its usually baneful influence. 
 On the other hand, wherever we hear of a Negro state, the 
 inhabitants of which have attained any considerable de- 
 pee ot improvement in their social condition, we constant- 
 ly find that their physical characters deviate considerably 
 from the strongly m irked or exaggerated type of the Negro. 
 
 Tie- Ashantee, the Bolema, the Dahomans. are exemplifi- 
 cations of this remark. The Negroes ofGuber and llausa, 
 wlnre a considerable degree of civilization has long ex- 
 isted, are, perhaps, the finest race of genuine Negroes in 
 the whole continent, unless the Joints are to be excepted. 
 Tin.' Jolofj have been a comparatively civilized people from 
 the era of their first discovery by the Portuguese." (Re- 
 Marcktt into the History of Man, il., 338, 3d ed.) 
 
 Here we have it distinctly laid down that the existence 
 of the distinguishing features of the Negro race in a strong- 
 ly marked degree is uniformly associated with the lowest 
 stale of barbarism ; and that as they recede from this 
 jly m arked type, we find a greater degree of civiliza- 
 tion and improvement. The inevitable conclusion is, that 
 every variety of the Negro type, which comprises the in- 
 habitant of almost all central Africa, is indicative of men- 
 tal inferiority ; and that ferocity and stupidity are the char- 
 acteristics of those tribes in which the peculiar Negro fea- 
 ire found mo-it developed. We believe that this is a 
 perfectly correct statement ; and we do not know that any- 
 thing that ran he said could show more conclusively the 
 radical inferiority of the great bulk of the African people. 
 But we do not form our opinion as to their inferiority on 
 their configuration and appearance, but on the fact, that 
 while numberless European and Asiatic nations have 1 at- 
 tained to a high state of civilization, they continue, with 
 few exceptions, in nearly primeval barbarism. It is in vain 
 to pretend that this is the result, of the unfavourable cir- 
 cumstances under which they have been placed. An in- 
 - ii t. enterprising people contend against unfavourable 
 Circumstances, and make them become favourable ; but the 
 Africans, witli the questionable exception of the ancient 
 inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, have never discovered 
 any considerable degree of enterprise or invention, or any 
 wish to distinguish themselves either in arts or arms. 
 From the remotest antiquity down to the present day they 
 have been hewers of wood and drawers of water for others, 
 and have made little or no progress ; and the only legiti- 
 mate inference from this lengthened induction seems to be, 
 that they are incapable of making it; that civilization will 
 not spring up spontaneously among them; and that if it 
 M-er grow up il must be introduced from abroad and foster- 
 ;<! and matured under foreign auspices. (For full informa- 
 tion on this subject, see the elaborate article on Africa in 
 Ihe Geographical Dictionary.') 
 
 NJ'.II ALLE'NIA. The name of an ancient Dutch and 
 Flemish divinity who presided over commerce and naviga- 
 tion Her origin and general character are unknown, and 
 
 NEOMENIA 
 
 even her name suggests only forced and unsatisfactory as- 
 sociations ; but the sixteen altars whereon her image and 
 name were represented, which were found in the island 
 Walcheren in 1647, leave no doubt of her former influence. 
 (See Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, and the authorities 
 there cited.) 
 
 NEITH. One of the most ancient Egyptian deities, sup- 
 posed to be identified with the Grecian Minerva or Rhea. 
 Her name, according to Jablonski, indicates old or harmoni- 
 ous. She was regarded as an incarnation of nature, and as 
 the patroness of all the arts. Her most celebrated temple 
 was at Sais, where she was worshipped with peculiar 
 veneration, and where stood the veiled image so famous in 
 the mythology of Egypt, the rash inspection of which cosl 
 the adventurer either his life or his reason. (See Schiller's 
 poem, " Das verschlricrte Bild zu Sais") 
 
 NEMATOI'DEANS, Jfcmatoidca. (Gr. vtuta, afilament, 
 and ticoi,form.) The name of an order of Ca-lclmintha, or 
 cavitary intestinal worms, comprehending those which are 
 diircious, and have a round, filiform, elongated body. 
 
 NE'MATONEU'RA. (Gr. vtiua, and vtvpov, nerve.) A 
 name proposed for that division of the Raaiata of Cuvier, 
 including animals in which nervous filaments are distinctly 
 traceable, and the alimentary canal floats loosely in a dis- 
 tinct abdominal cavity. 
 
 NEM. CON. A contraction for neminc contradict ntt. 
 signifying no one contradicting: nun. diss., contracted for 
 (Cat.) nemine dissentients, signifies no one dissenting. 
 
 NE'MEAN GAMES. One of the four great national 
 festivals of Greece, in which nil the states participated. 
 (See Games.) They were celebrated at Nemsa (whence 
 their name), a village in the north eastern part of Argolis. 
 By some they are said to have bei a established by th« 
 Epigoni, children of the warriors who besieged Thebes, In 
 memory of Ophaltcs; but others relate that they were first 
 instituted by Hercules, In honour of Jupiter, after his vic- 
 tory over the Nemean lion. They were held every third 
 year, under the presidency of citizens cho en by lot from 
 the states of Argos, Corinth, and Cleono:. The games were 
 the same as those of Olympia. The victorious combatants 
 were crowned with parsley. See especially H :cltsmuth's 
 Historical Antiquities of Greece, Oxf. translation, vol. ii., 
 189 ; and a memoir by Villuison, in the 38th volume of the 
 Mimoires de I' Ac. des Inscriptions. 
 
 NE'MESIS. A Greek divinity, worshipped as the god- 
 dess of vengeance. According to Heslod, she was the 
 daughter of Night, and was represented as pursuing with 
 inflexible hatred the proud and insolent. The reluctance 
 of the Greeks to speak boastfully of their good fortune, 
 lest they should incur a reverse, is well known ; and from 
 various passages in the Anthologia, and other ancient 
 writings, it is clear that this feeling originated in a de-ire 
 to propitiate this divinity. The worship of this goddess 
 was very extensive. Temples were erected to her honour, 
 not only in Greece, but throughout the Roman empire. 
 Nowhere, however, was her worship so pompously cele- 
 brated as at Rhamnus, a town of Attica, where she had a 
 statue 10 cubits high of a single stone, and so exquisitely 
 beautiful as to equal even the finest productions of Phidias. 
 A fragment, supposed to be the head of this statue, was 
 presented to the British Museum in 1820, where it may 
 still he seen. 
 
 NEMO'CERA. (Gr. vnua, a thread, and xcpac, horn.) 
 The name of a family of Dipterous insects, including those 
 which have long filiform antennae. 
 
 NEMOGLOSSA'TA. (Gr. vnua, and y\uiaaa, a tongue./ 
 The name of a tribe of Hynienooterous insects, including 
 those which have a long filiform tongue, as the bee tribe. 
 
 NEO'CORUS. (Gr. vcim, temple, and xopew, I take care 
 of.) In Grecian antiquities, Hie title of officers employed as 
 guardians of temples and their treasures. (See Mem. de I' 
 Ac. des Inscr., vol. xviii., 140.) 
 
 NE'OLOGISM, NE'OLOGY. (Gr. vtof, new, and \oyoc, 
 word.) A new phrase or word introduced into a language, 
 or any innovation on ordinary modes of expression. Most 
 European tongues have their classical diction fixed by pre- 
 cedent and authority ; and words introduced by bold or care- 
 less writers, since this standard was established, go by the 
 name of neologisms until usage has added them at last to the 
 received national vocabulary. Neology, in the last century, 
 was the name given by orthodox divine's in Germany to toe 
 novel system of interpretation which then began to be ap 
 plied by many to the records of revealed religion. Sec Rx 
 
 TIONALIST 
 
 NEOME'NIA (Gr vtoc, new, and unv, a month.) A 
 festival observed by the Greeks at the beginning of every 
 lunnr month in honour of all the gods, but more especially 
 of Apollo, thence called Ncounio;, as being the author of all 
 light, and the grand luminary from which all time receives 
 its distinctions and divisions. At these solemnities the Atheni 
 ans offered up prayers and sacrifices, in the temple of Erech 
 theus, for the prosperity of their city during the month that 
 
NEOPHYTE. 
 
 had commenced. Games were also instituted during their 
 celebration, and grand entertainments given by the richer to 
 the poorer citizens. 
 
 NE'OPHYTE. (Gr. veos, young ; ipvro;, planted.) In the 
 primitive church newly converted Christians were so termed; 
 and the same appellation is still given, in the Roman Catho- 
 lic churcb, to converts made by missionaries among the hea- 
 then, to any person entering on the priestly office, and to 
 those persons newly received into the communion of the 
 church. 
 
 NE'OPLATONI'CIANS, or NEOPLATONISTS. In 
 Ancient Literature, the mystical philosophers of the school 
 of Ani'monius Saccas and Plotinus are commonly so called, 
 who mixed some tenets of ancient Platonism with others de- 
 rived from a variety of sources, and particularly from the 
 demonology of the East. They flourished in the 4th and 
 5th ceniuries of the Christian era. Some, however, have 
 contended that this title is more properly applicable to the 
 eclectic Platonists, or school of Antiochus and Philo. (See 
 Platonists, Eclectics.) For a singular view of the doc- 
 trines and tendency of the Neoplatonists, the reader may 
 consult the Quart. Rev. July, 1840. 
 
 NEPE'NTHE. (Gr. w?, priv., and ircvOoc, sorrow.) A 
 species of magic potion, mentioned by the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, which was supposed to have the power of oblitera- 
 ting all pain and sorrow from the memory of those who par- 
 took of it. It is now used figuratively to express any efficient 
 remedy in giving rest and consolation to an afflicted mind. 
 
 NEPHA'LIA. (Gr. vn<pa\ios, sober.) Grecian festivals 
 or sacrifices instituted in honour of various deities, as Au- 
 rora, Venus, &c. They were so called because no wine 
 was offered during their celebration. It was chiefly at Athens 
 that these festivals were observed. 
 
 NE'PHELINE. (Gr. vcipcXv, a cloud.) A mineral from 
 Somma, near Vesuvius, and Capo di Bovo, near Rome ; in 
 nitric acid its transparent fragments become cloudy. It is a 
 double silicate of alumina and soda. It is also known by 
 the name of sommitc. 
 
 NE'PIIRITE. A hard tough mineral composed chiefly 
 of silica, with lime, soda, and potash. It is difficult to break, 
 cut, or polish; it is slightly translucent, and usually of a 
 greenish colour. It is occasionally manufactured into sword 
 and knife handles, :ind has even been cut into the form of a 
 chain, which, from its extreme toughness, is not easily bro- 
 ken. Little plates of it were formerly suspended from the 
 neck for the cure of nephritic complaints, whence its name. 
 The Chinese are celebrated for articles composed of it. Its 
 essential components are silica, alumina, and magnesia. 
 
 NEPHRI'TIS. (Gr. vt<ppos, a kidney.) Inflammation of 
 the kidney. This disease is attended by pain in the affec- 
 ted part, extending along the ureter, and increased on walk- 
 ing, or in the upright posture ; nausea and vomiting are 
 common attendants, and the appearance of the urine is gen- 
 erally far from healthy. Bleeding, warm baths, sudorifics, 
 and aperients, with opiates and diluents, are the principal 
 remedies resorted to. 
 
 NEPHROSTOMY. (Gr. vi<Ppo<;, and rt/ivu, I cut.) The 
 operation of extracting a stone from the kidney. 
 
 NETOTISM. A word invented to express a peculiar 
 characteristic of many high ecclesiastics in Roman Catho- 
 lic countries, and more partiwlarly of popes : a propensity, 
 namely, to aggrandize their family by exorbitant grants and 
 favours conferred on members of it; literally, on nephews 
 (nepotes). Many of the highest and wealthiest families of 
 the Roman nobility owe their elevation entirely to this spe- 
 cies of patronage. 
 
 NE'PTUNE. The Italian name of the deity called by the 
 Greeks Poseidon (llooeiiuiv). He was brother of Jupiter, 
 and, in the partition of empire after the death of Saturn, the 
 sea fell to his share, but in subservience to the former. His 
 queen was Amphitrite, and his paramours nearly as nume- 
 rous as those of his brother ; but their progeny was not so 
 celebrated, with the exception of the hero Pelops. 
 
 His most famous temples were at the Corinthian isthmus, 
 Hclice.Traizen, and the promontories of Sunium andTama- 
 rus; to which may be added the magnificent temple of 
 Pactum, in Italy, still in existence. Neptune was said to 
 preside over horses and the manger. He is represented sim- 
 ilar in appearance to Jupiter, but his symbols are a trident 
 nnd the dolphin. Ncptunalia were festivals celebrated by 
 the Romans during the months of July, in honour of Nep- 
 tune. There were other festivals in honour of Neptune in 
 his capacity of presiding over horses, called consualia ; but 
 the former were instituted to him in his character of god of 
 the sea. During the solemnity it was customary to live in 
 booths erected on the banks of the Tiber. 
 
 NEPTU'NIAN THEORY. The geological theory of 
 Werner, which refers the formation of all rocks and strata 
 to an aqueous origin. 
 
 NEREI'DEANS, Nercidea. The name of the family of 
 Dorsibrancbiate Annellidans of which the genus Nereis is 
 the type. The characters are, an even number of tentacula 
 «26 
 
 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 attached to the sides of the base of the head, and a ittle 
 farther forwards, two others which are biarticulate, between 
 which are two simple ones. Their branchke consist of 
 small laminae, between which is spread a net-work of ves- 
 sels ; each foot is also furnished with two tubercles, two 
 packets of bristles, one cirrus above and another beneath. 
 
 NE'REIDES. (Gr. Notices.) The daughters of -Wrens 
 and nymphs of the sea. They were originally conceived b 
 be of a beautiful form, but later fictions degraded them tc 
 the idea of a mermaid. The nereids are said by most an 
 cient writers to have been fifty in number, but Propertius 
 makes them a hundred. Among the most famous of thes, 
 goddesses were Amphitrite, Galatea;, Dido, Thetis, fcc 
 Their worship was almost invariably connected with tlia 
 of Neptune. 
 
 NE'REUS. (Gr. Nijpnif.) A marine Grecian deity, son 
 of Ocean and Earth. He possessed the gift of prophecy, and 
 was distinguished for his knowledge and love of trull] and 
 justice. 
 
 NERI'TA. (Lat. Jferita, the name of a shell-Ash in 
 Pliny.) This term was applied by Linnaeus to a genus of 
 his Vermes Testacea, characterized by having a shell with 
 the columella in a straight line, which renders the aperture 
 of a semicircular form: this aperture is always closed by an 
 operculum. The genus is ranked by Cuvier among bis 
 Pectinibranchiate Gastropods, and is subdivided into the 
 subgenera Natica, Lam., Nerita, Valuta, and JVcritina, Lam 
 JVerita proper is a marine shell, while Neritina is an inhabi- 
 tant of fresh waters. Examples of both genera are found 
 fossil in the strata of the Paris basin. 
 
 NE'ROLI. The name given by perfumers to the essen 
 tial oil of orange flowers. It is procured by distillation with 
 water in the same way as the other volatile oils. 
 
 NE'RVINE. A medicine resorted to in nervous affec- 
 tions. 
 
 NE'RVOUS FEVER. A tow fever in which nervous 
 sympfoms, or sensorial debility, are especially prevalent: the 
 treatment consists in allaying nervous irritation and support- 
 ing the strength. 
 
 NERVOUS SYSTEM. In Physiology. The nerves are 
 fibrous chords in direct or indirect connexion * 1th flu I 
 and extending their ramifications into every p;.rt of the bo- 
 dy: their ultimate structure is filamentous, and they consist 
 of a peculiar grey substance, their size depending upon lhe 
 number of filaments enclosed in the common sheath. They 
 are often so interwoven ns to form a kind of network or 
 plexus ; and some of them have what are termed ganglia, 
 or rounded masses of nervous matter, not fibrous, but appa- 
 rently composed of globules disseminated through a vascu 
 Iar network. 
 
 There are two distinct systems of nerves ; one of which is 
 connected with the brain and with the spinal chord, and are 
 media of sensation and of voluntary motion : they are termed 
 the nerves of animal life, or the cerebrospinal nerves. The 
 other system is only in communication with the brain and 
 spinal chord, or with the cerebrospinal nerves, by very small 
 filaments, and they have numerous ganglions throughout 
 their course ; they preside over the nutritive functions, upon 
 which the mind has no direct influence : these are the nerves 
 of organic life, or ganglionic or great sympathetic nerves. 
 
 The cerebrospinal nerves convey impressions from their 
 extremities to the brain, and they also convey the influence 
 of the will from the brain to the voluntary muscles; these 
 passing and repassing, or receptive and emissive influences, 
 are conveyed by distinct sets of nervous filaments, which, 
 however, are generally enclosed in the same sheath, and 
 therefore appear to form a single nerve: the terms centripetal 
 and centrifugal filaments have been distinctively applied to 
 them. 
 
 The history of the nervous system in all its details forms 
 an extended and complicated, but a highly important part of 
 anatomy and physiology* the investigations connected with 
 which have led to many useful practical results, which, 
 however, have thrown but little light upon the cause of the 
 phenomena, or the ultimate nature of the nervous influence. 
 The works of Sir Charles Bell, Dr. Marshall Hall, and Dr. 
 Wilson Philip must be consulted in reference to the func- 
 tions of the different classes of nerves ; there is a good gen 
 eral account of the subject in Baly's translation of Jlullcr's 
 Physiologic 
 
 Nervous System. In Comp. Anat. In some of the 
 lowest organized animals the nervous system has been de- 
 tected in the form of simple filaments; these are afterwards 
 found connected with a nervous rirg surrounding the oeso- 
 phagus. As organization advances, nervous matter begins 
 to be accumulated upon the ring, forming a brain ; and upon 
 different parts of the radiating filaments, forming ganglions. 
 When the principal gangliated filaments are not parallel, 
 or not symmetrical in their course, they are associated with 
 the type of organization which characterizes the molluscous 
 or heterogangliate division of animals. When the gangli- 
 ated filaments are two in number, symmetrical, nnd run 
 
NERVURES. 
 
 , illel with each other along the ventral aspect of the body, 
 ihi arc associated with, and bespeak the type of organiza- 
 Bor characteristic of the articulate or homogangliate division. 
 When tiie brain ceases to present the form of a ring, and 
 sends down the back a prolongation of its substance, called 
 the spinal marrow, the rest of the organization is that which 
 characterizes the vertebrate or myelencephalous sub-kingdom, 
 or primary division of animals. In the vertebrate and arti- 
 culate animals the superficial tract of the spinal or ventral 
 Bitive," the deeper seated tract " motive." 
 NERVU'RES, in Entomology, are corneous tubes for ex- 
 panding the wing and keeping it tense, and to afford protec- 
 tion to the air vessels: they are termed costal, post costal, 
 mediastinal, externo-iiiedian, interno-medinn. anal, axillary, 
 &.C., according to their relative positions. In Botany ner- 
 vurcs are the veins of leaves. 
 
 NESS. The termination of several names of places in 
 Great Britain Where there is a headland or promontory, as 
 Invert is. The word is probably derived from 
 
 the Fr. nez. or the Germ, nase, nose. 
 
 NESTO'RIANB. The followers of NV-torius, patriarch 
 of Constantinople, in the first half of the tilth century. This 
 prelate agitated the Christian world, after the Arian contro- 
 versy bad been quietly settled, by the introduction of certain 
 subtle disputations Concerning the incarnation of our Lord, 
 from whence debates and contentions arose which harassed 
 the church for the space of more than two centuries. He 
 affected to distinguish with peculiar precision between the 
 divine and human natures united in Christ; and. in guard- 
 ing over carefully against the propensity which he «1 i -■ -• »v 
 ered in the Christians of his own day to confuse the two, 
 and look upon them as absorbed into one compound sub- 
 stance, he forbade men to entertain any combined notion at 
 all, and kept constantly before their eyes both the god and 
 the man. lie Insisted, for instance, that the Virgin should 
 no: be entitled Motlur nf dill, butMotktr tf CkritLat of 
 Man, the human nature being essentially distinct from, and 
 only inhabited by. the divine, as a temple by its divinity. 
 The opinions of the Nestorians were, indeed, little more 
 subtle logical refinements u[h>h mysteries which will 
 not bear tie- applii 
 
 of mind which they engendered that chiefly rendered them 
 pernicious, and the tierce passions with which they were 
 Combined thai gave them their celebrity and widely extend- 
 ed infl tortus himself was condemned by the 
 third general council held at F.phesus, in the year 4'A\ '. : his 
 principal adversary lieing the president of the assembly, 
 Cyril, tie learned patriarch of Alexandria. The heretical 
 prolan • d, and banished by the emperor to an 
 | pt, where he died. His opinions, how- 
 ever, spread throughout Asia, and appear to have been car- 
 ried along with the advancing stream of Christianity, to the 
 farthest parts of India and China, lu more central regions, 
 they were soon afterwards counteracted by the spread of 
 the opposite heresy of Butyches. For notices of the opin- 
 ions « bleb, sprang out of these rival dogmatists, see Incar- 
 nation, BuTTomiHS, Monoimiysitks Monotiiemtes. Be- 
 sides the will-known authorities, ihe reader may consult 
 Doucin, Wist, tin .Yit-tnrianismr, 1098; Jlsscmann's Biblioth. 
 Orientalis ; and Grant's residence among the Ncstorian 
 Christians. Bvo, 1841. 
 
 N BSTS, E» I ' LENT. A species of nests built by swal- 
 lows peculiar to the Indian islands, and very much esteemed 
 in China and other parts of the world. The-o nests resemble 
 In form those of Other swallows; they arc formed of a vis- 
 cid substance, and in external appearance as well as consis- 
 tence are not unlike fibrate ill-concocted isinglass. Esculent 
 are principally found in Java, in caverns Usually sit- 
 uated on the sea-coast. Nothing satisfactory is known as 
 to the substance of which these ne<ts ;l re composed. (See 
 the Commercial Diet., art. "Birds' .Nests.") 
 
 N ET, or N 1' AT. In Commerce, something pure and un- 
 adulterated with any foreign mixture. Thus, wines are 
 said to be nrt when not falsified; and coffee, rice, Sec., to be 
 so, when the tilth and ordures are separated from them. The 
 word nrt is also used for what remains after the tare has 
 been taken out of any merchandise ; i. e.. when it is weighed 
 clear of all package. (See Tare.) JVet Produce (Ital.netto 
 proceduto) is used in mercantile language to express what 
 any commodity has yielded, after all tare and charges have 
 been deducted. 
 
 Nl'.T 'Germ, netz), is a textile fabric of knotted meshes 
 for catching fish, and other pur|>oscs. Each mesh should be 
 cured as to be incapable of enlargement or diminution. 
 ITie French government offered in 1802 a prize of 10,000 
 francs to the person who should invent a machine for mak- 
 ing nets upon automatic principles, and adjudged it to TNT. 
 Buron, who presented his mechanical invention to the Con- 
 lervatoirt its Arts • > Mil ins. It does not appear, however, 
 that this machine has accomplished the object in view; for 
 no establishment was ever mounted to carry it into execu- 
 tion. Nets are usually made by the fishermen and their fam- 
 
 NEW CONNEXION METHODISTS. 
 
 ilies during periods of leisure. The formation of a mesh 
 is too simple a matter to require description in this die 
 tionarv. 
 
 NETHINIMS. Among the Jews, the servants of the 
 priests and Levitcs, employed in the lowest and meanest 
 offices about the temple. They were, as the Scripture ex 
 presses it, " the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the 
 house of God." To this office the descendants of the Gibe- 
 onites were originally condemned by Joshua; but at a later 
 period the same duties were assigned to the Canaanites, who 
 bad surrendered themselves and were spared. 
 
 .NETTINGS. Nets of small rope placed in a ship for 
 various purposes, as stowage, or defence against accidents; 
 also a gain st boarding. 
 
 NE'TTLERASH. An eruption upon the skin much re 
 semhling the sting of u nettle. It usually lasts for n few 
 hours, and then disappears or changes its place ; it is relieved 
 by bathing the affected part with a mixture of one part of 
 vinegar and eight or ten of water, and by mild aperient me 
 dicines. 
 
 NEURA'LGIA. (Or. vcvpnv, a nerve, and aXysct pain.) 
 An acute painful affection in the course of the nerves, gene- 
 rally subject to Intermission. One of the most distressing 
 forms of this disease is Ihe tie douleureuz. 
 
 NF.URO'LOGY. (Gr. vcvpov, and Xoyoc, a description.) 
 The doctrine of the nerves. .See Nervous System. 
 
 XEI'RO'MA. (Gr. vcvpov.) A tumour formed in or upon 
 a nervous trunk. 
 
 NEURO'PTERANB, Jfet w op t tr*. (dr. vcvpov, a nerve, 
 itrtpov, a wing.) The order of Tctrapterous Mandibulate 
 insects, including those in which the nervures of the wings 
 are SO disposed BJ to form a more or less regular network. 
 They are distinguished from the Coleopterous, Orthopteroiis, 
 and BemipterOUl orders of four-winged insects, by the first 
 or anterior pair of wings being membranous, diaphanous, and 
 resembling the second pair in texture and properties. The 
 abdomen is unprovided with a sting. The antenna' nre us- 
 ually setaceous. Some neuropterans merely pass through a 
 semi metamorphosis, the rest a complete one; the larva; have 
 always six hooked feet. Man" of these injects arecarnivo- 
 •e a. .1 their last. The uiagoi,-lly may 
 be regarded as the type of this order. 
 
 NEUROTOMY. (Gr. vcvpov, and rr/iru, / cut.) The 
 cutting of a nerve. 
 
 N BUTER (Eat- nrithrr), in Grammar, signifies that gen 
 der which nouns possess that are neither masculine nor fem- 
 inine. JVeuicr or intransitive verbs are those which repre- 
 sent the properties of a state or process, ns I rest, J fall, I 
 grow, tee. See (Jkammar. 
 
 J\Trvtrr\v:\s the first name given to the "labourers" of the 
 hive-bee before it was discovered that they were essentially 
 females, though infertile. 
 
 NEUTRA'LITY. In International Law, the condition 
 of a state which does not take part in a war between other 
 I neutral nation has the right of furnishing to cither 
 of the contending parties all supplies which do not fall with- 
 in the description of contraband of war (see Contraband or 
 War), and to conclude treaties with either unconnected 
 with the subject of the war. It appears to have been the 
 old principle with regard to the maritime trade of a neutral 
 nation, that the property of an owner belonging to the hos 
 tile country might be seized by a belligerent on board a neu- 
 tral [lower's vessel : but the general rule now asserted is 
 that the flag covers the cargo; by which means the right of 
 search, except for specific purposes, is rendered unnecessary. 
 But this rule is in effect set asiile, according to the will 
 ities of the most powerful belligerent, as it was 
 during the late wars between England and the Continental 
 powers. 
 
 \i:i'THA'I.I7.ATION. (Latin neuter, neither.) In 
 Chemistry, the combination of an acid and alkali in such 
 proportions that the peculiar properties of each are render- 
 ed inert. 
 
 NEUTRAL SALTS. Combinations of acids and bases 
 which are neither acid nor alkaline, but in which the acid 
 is exactly neutralized bv the base. 
 
 NETJVAI'XES. (Fr. neuf, nine.) In the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church, prayers offered up for nine successive days, in 
 order to obtain the favour of Heaven. (See the Diet, de la 
 Conversation.) 
 
 NEW CONNEXION METHODISTS, or KILHAM 
 ITES ; so called from Mr. Alexander Kilham, who was 
 the immediate means of their separation from the Wesley- 
 ans, and withdrew from this body on the ground of the al- 
 most Irresponsible power exercised by the Conference. 
 Having petitioned this convocation that the people might 
 have a voice in the formation of the laws by which they 
 were to be regulated, the choice of their own pastors and 
 other officers, and the disposal of their own property, and 
 tho=e demands having been refused, the petitioners re- 
 ceded, and formed (1703) a distinct party, on a more liberal 
 basis. The members of this body do not exceed 13,000 
 
 827 
 
NEWEL. 
 
 [Life ofKilham, by Thorn and Grundel ; General Rules of 
 the JVew Connexion .Methodists.) 
 
 NE'WEL. (Fr. noyau.) In Architecture, the space, 
 either solid or open, round which the steps of a staircase 
 are turned about. 
 
 NEW RED SANDSTONE. The sandstone immedi- 
 ately above the coal measures. See Geology. 
 
 NEWS. (Germ, neues, Lat. novus, Gr. vtoj.) Literally 
 fresh information. This word has been fancifully derived 
 from the initial letters of the four cardinal points of the 
 compass, ?jorth, east, west, and south. 
 
 NEWSPAPERS. Publications in numbers, consisting 
 commonly of single sheets, and published at short and sta- 
 ted intervals, conveying intelligence of passing events. In 
 Rome, under the government of the emperors, periodical 
 notices of passing events (diurna, acta diurna) were com- 
 piled and distributed for general reading; but our accounts 
 of these ancient newspapers, derived from classical sources, 
 are somewhat obscure and uncertain. In modern Europe, 
 the earliest occasional sheets of daily intelligence seem to 
 have appeared at Venice, during the war of 1563 against 
 the Turks (see Gazette) ; and the earliest regular paper 
 to have been a monthly one, published in the same city by 
 the state : but these were distributed in manuscript, and, 
 owing to the jealousy of the government, continued to be 
 so down to very late times. Extraordinary gazettes are 
 said to have been published in England by authority, du- 
 ring the time when the arrival of the Spanish Armada 
 was apprehended ; but the specimens preserved in the 
 British Museum, and so long regarded as authentic, seem 
 now to be demonstrated forgeries. The Mercuries, Intel- 
 ligencers, &c. of the civil wars, seem to have been the 
 first English papers which appeared regularly. The Ga- 
 zette de France appeared regularly from 1631 to 1792, form- 
 ing a collection of 163 volumes ; it was continued, also, 
 but with some interruptions, through the period of the 
 Revolution ; and the name still exists, the journal so called 
 being at present one of the organs of the Carlist party. 
 From their first imperfect beginning, newspapers have 
 gradually increased in number, matter, and consequence, 
 until they form, in many European countries, one of the 
 most important features in the social economy of the peo- 
 ple ; exercising a marked influence on domestic manners, 
 literature, and usages, but more especially powerful as a 
 great political instrument. In France, newspapers are 
 generally undertaken in shares. The editors and principal 
 writers are more responsible and more generally known 
 than in England : this is either a cause or an effect of the 
 ieneral prejudice in that country against anonymous wri- 
 ting, which is by no means so common as among our- 
 selves ; but, perhaps, one of its consequences is, that 
 newspapers are more notoriously under the control of par- 
 ticular sections of the political world, or of powerful indi- 
 viduals. Political newspapers have their subsidiary arti- 
 cles on subjects of theatrical or literary criticism added in 
 the shape technically termed feuilleton, a subdivision of 
 the page. This custom was introduced about 1800 in the 
 most influential paper of that period, and has since been 
 generally followed. The periodical press of France was 
 under strict control during the empire : the censorship was 
 continued until 1819, and re-established in 1820, but again 
 abolished in 1821. At that period a law was passed com- 
 pelling the proprietors to give security for the good conduct 
 of their journals, under a penalty of 10,000 francs in Paris, 
 and various lesser sums in the departments. The censor- 
 ship was, however, again instituted, and again abolished 
 in 1827. By the famous ordinances of 1830 the liberty of 
 the periodical press was suspended. Since the revolution 
 of that year there has been no attempt at re-establishing 
 the censorship, although, in 1835, laws of a very severe 
 character were passed, to subject the proprietors of journals 
 to easier conviction, and heavier punishment, in case of 
 transgressing the existing laws of libel against government 
 or individuals, and extending and multiplying the provis- 
 ions of that law. There were published in Paris, in 1839, 
 309 journals of all sorts, political, literary, scientific, &c. 
 
 In Great Britain, newspapers are subjected to several 
 statutory enactments. By 38 G. 3, c. 78, no person can 
 print or publish any newspaper until an affidavit has been 
 delivered at the stamp office, stating the name and places 
 of abode of the printer, publisher, and proprietor; specify- 
 ing the amount of shares in the undertaking, the title of 
 the paper, and description of the building in which it is in- 
 tended that the paper shall be printed. A copy of every 
 newspaper is to be delivered, within six days after publi- 
 cation, to the commissioners of stamps, under a penalty of 
 £100. Persons publishing newspapers without the name 
 and place of abode of the printer affixed may be- appre- 
 hended and carried before a magistrate ; and peace-officers, 
 by virtue of a warrant from a justice of the peace, may 
 enter any place to make search, &c. By 60 G. 3, c. 9, 
 •very periodical pamphlet or paper, published at intervals 
 
 NEWSPAPER REPORTING. 
 
 not exceeding 26 days, containing public news or intelli- 
 gence, or any remarks thereon, or on any matter in church 
 or state, not containing more than two sheets, or published 
 at a less price than sixpence, shall be deemed newspapers, 
 and subject to the same regulations and stamp duties. By 
 1 W. 4, c. 73, securities may be demanded, to the amount 
 of £400 or £300, from both principal and sureties, when it 
 is intended to publish a newspaper or pamphlet of the de- 
 scription mentioned in 60 G. 3, c. 9. These securities are 
 intended to secure payment of damages or costs which 
 may be incurred in an action for libel against the conduct- 
 or of the paper. The laws respecting the stamp duties on 
 newspapers have been recently placed on a new footing 
 (in 1836). The effect of these restrictive provisions, and 
 of the heavy rate of duty imposed on newspapers In Eng- 
 land, is to create, especially in London, great monopolies, 
 and to diminish the number of periodical papers, at the 
 same time that their importance, and, according to the de- 
 fenders of the system, their respectability and usefulness, 
 is increased. There have rarely been more than five or six 
 daily morning papers in London, and about as many evening. 
 Of one of the former (The Times) the net profits have been 
 estimated, in some years, at £24,000. A morning paper in 
 considerable circulation generally employs an editor, a sub- 
 editor, from ten to fourteen regular reporters (see Newspa- 
 per Reporting), from thirty to thirty five compositors, 
 &c. ; while the power and rapidity of the machinery which 
 produces these huge sheets has been greatly increased of 
 late years by the application of the steam engine. The 
 evening newspapers, the apparatus of which is in other 
 respects less costly, go to an enormous expense in procur- 
 ing rapid intelligence from distant quarters. The irregular 
 or occasional reporters are a numerous class : they multi- 
 ply copies of the pieces of intelligence which they collect 
 by means of polygraphs, and send them round to different 
 newspapers to take the chance of their insertion. 
 
 The following calculation was formed, in 1827, of the 
 number of periodical papers appearing in various countries 
 since which period it is probable that there has been a 
 considerable increase — Great Britain and Ireland, 483-; 
 France, 490; Russia, 288 ; Netherlands (Holland and Bel- 
 gium), 160; German Confederation, excluding Austria and 
 Prussia, 305; Sweden, 82; Denmark, 80; States of the 
 Church, 6 only. It is obvious that without an approxima- 
 tion to the amount of copies of each newspaper, this calcu- 
 lation furnishes no grounds whatever for speculating on 
 the proportion between the demand and supply of news- 
 papers and the population in these respective countries : 
 and wherever (as in England) newspapers are subjected to 
 a heavy duty, each individual paper must necessarily self 
 a greater number of copies than elsewhere, in order to af- 
 ford a profit; but the circulation of some French newspa- 
 pers is said to exceed that of any among ourselves. The 
 United States, at the same time, had 800 newspapers, and 
 have at present upwards of 1000: about fifty of these ap 
 pear daily. (See, among other antiquarian authorities as 
 to early newspapers, IT Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, 
 vol. i. ; Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman : and the Conv. Lex- 
 icon, art. " Zeitung." See also the Commercial Dictionary.) 
 
 NEWSPAPER REPORTING. The name given to that 
 system whereby the parliamentary debates and speeches 
 delivered at public meetings, &c. are promulgated through- 
 out the country. As it is contrary to the rules of both 
 Houses that any stranger should be present, the publica- 
 tion of the debates is held to be a breach of privilege ; but 
 this regulation has always been defeated, either, as in for- 
 mer times, by the means adopted by Dr. Johnson and oth- 
 ers of publishing the speeches of the different member* 
 under fictitious names, or, as at present, by the Houses 
 themselves tacitly giving their sanction to the practice 
 The foundation of the present system of parliamentary re- 
 porting may be fairly ascribed to the late Mr. William 
 Woodfall, whose retentive memory enabled him, al'te 
 having listened to the debates, daily to communicate t< 
 the public, in what he called A hasty Sketch of the Pro 
 cecdings in Parliament last Night, a full and most accuratl 
 account of the different speeches. Secret deliberation! 
 however, have been so long renounced, that the right oi 
 the public to be present, through their agents, the report 
 ers, is as clearly established now as if no theoretical pri 
 vacy had ever existed ; but if any member were repeated!: 
 to insist upon the exclusion of " strangers," as all are call 
 ed who neither are members nor officers of the house 
 there can be no doubt that this abuse of the privilege mus' 
 lead to such a modification of the standing order as wouln 
 deprive individual members of any control over a matte! 
 so interesting to the nation. The process of parliamentary 
 reporting, and the qualifications of those by whom tho 
 task is performed, cannot bo adequately described within 
 the narrow limits of this article; but it is hoped that the 
 reader may be enabled to form some idea of both from the 
 following brief outline. Every publication not copying 
 
NEW STYLE. 
 
 from, or abridging any Othei, but giving original reports, 
 Keeps one of a series of reporters constantly in the gallery 
 of the Lords, and another in the Commons. These, like 
 sentii- ited periods relieved by their colleagues, 
 
 when they take advantage of the interval to transcribe 
 their notes, in order to be ready again to resume the duty 
 of note-taking, and afterwards that of transcription for the 
 press. A succession of reporters for each establishment is 
 thus maintained, and the process of writing from their 
 noics never interrupted till an account of the whole de- 
 bates of the evening has been committed to the hands of 
 the printer. There are only seven publications for which 
 a reporter is constantly in attendance; and these include 
 the London morning newspapers, from which all others 
 that jive debates are under the necessity of copying or 
 abridging them. .The number of reporters maintained by 
 each varies from ten or eleven to seventeen or eighteen. 
 They arc, for the moat part, |entlemen of liberal educa- 
 tion— main having graduated at the Universities of Oxford, 
 idge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Dublin ; and they must 
 all p itent knowledge of the multifarious sub- 
 
 jects which come under the consideration of parliament. 
 The expedition and ability with which their duties are per- 
 formed must be admitted by every one who attends a de- 
 bate and afterwards reads a newspaper, while the correct- 
 nd rapidity with which their manuscript is put in 
 type and printed has long been a subject of surprise and 
 admiration. (.See the Parliamentary Companion, a valua- 
 ble brochure.) 
 
 NEW STYLE. In Chronologv. See Stylb. 
 
 NEW TEST \ME.\T. The name given to that portion 
 of tin; Bible which comprises the writings of the apostles 
 and their immediate disciples. It consists of live historical 
 books, viz.. the respective Gosjiels of Matthew. Hark. 
 Luke, and John, and tin' Aits of the A|N>-tles (attributed 
 to Luke ; of twenty-one apostolical epistles, of which the 
 early fathers have unanimously ascribed fourteen to St. 
 Paul, three to St. John, two to St. Peter, one to St. James, 
 and one to St. Jude ; and of the liook known by the name 
 of the Apocal) p-e or the Revelation of St. John. See Bi- 
 ble. ErtsTI.K, I'.VANOKMSTS. 
 
 NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY, This tennis used in 
 various senses. Sometimes it is used to denote the doc- 
 trine of the universe as delivered by Sir Isaac Newton in 
 the Principia : l imettmes the corpuscular, or modern, or 
 experimental philosophy, as opposed to the theories of 
 Descartes and others ; but most frequently, perhaps, the 
 mathematical theory of universal gravitation. See Gravi- 
 tation. I'ir, 
 
 NEW YEAR'S DAY. The celebration of the com 
 mencomenl of the new year dates from high antiquity. 
 The Jews regarded it as the anniversary Of Adam's birth- 
 day, and celebrated it with splendid entertainments — a 
 ice which they have continued down to the present 
 time. The Romans also made this a holyday, and dedi- 
 cated it to Janus with rich and numerous sacrifices; the 
 i.ewly-elected magistracy entered upon their duties on this 
 day; all undertakings then commenced wen; considered 
 sure to terminate favourably; the people made each other 
 presents id' gilt dates, figs, and plums; and even the em- 
 |*;rors received from their subjects new year's gifts, which 
 at a later period it became compulsory to bestow. From 
 the Romans the custom of making presents on .New Year's 
 Day was borrowed by the Christians, by whom it was long 
 retained ; but even in those countries where it lingered 
 longest, in France and Scotland for instance, it is falling 
 rapid;} into desuetude, nnd congratulatory wishes are now 
 almost universally substituted for the more substantial 
 ts that were formerly conferred, on this day, as marks 
 Of atteclion and esteem. 
 
 NEX'I. (Lat, necto, / bind.) In Roman Antiquities, per- 
 sons freeborn, who, for debt, were delivered bound to a 
 creditor, and obliged to serve him until they could dis- 
 charge it. 
 
 MBKI.UNGEN, LAY OF THE. The name given to 
 the most ancient existing monument of German epic poetry. 
 The origin of this poem is veiled in great obscurity, it is 
 supposed to have existed, in substance at least, two centu- 
 ries before the reign of Charlemagne, and, like the early 
 compositions of poets in all ages, to have consisted origi- 
 nally of detached ballads and poems, which were after- 
 wards gm'ns) ly collected, and at length moulded into the 
 complete for.i in which they at present exist. The last of 
 the modifications which it underwent took place towards 
 the end of the 12th century, and is attributed to the Min- 
 resaenger Henrich von Ofterdingen. The story turn* :pon 
 tie adventures of Chrimhold of Burgundy, who is first won 
 by the valiant Siegfried, and after he is treacherously mur- 
 dered gives her hand to Attila, king of the Huns, chiefly in 
 the hope that through his power and Influence she may be 
 revenged on the murderers of her former lord. The assas- 
 sins, accordingly, and all their kin, are induced to visit At- 
 
 NICE, COUNCIL OF. 
 
 tila, when, by the instigation of the queen, a deadly feud 
 arises, in the course of which almost the whole army on 
 both sides is cruelly slaughtered. By the powerful but re- 
 luctant aid of Diederich of Bern, however, the murderer of 
 Siegfried is at last vanquished and brought bound to the 
 feet of the queen, who relentlessly raises the sword of the 
 departed hero, and with her own hand strikes off the head 
 of his enemy. The famous Hildebrand, whose exploits 
 are depicted on the Hdden-Buch, instantly avenged the 
 atrocious and inhospitable act by stabbing the queen, who 
 falls exulting on the body of her bated victim. The work 
 is divided into thirty-eight books. The Nibclungi n Lied 
 formed for many centuries the chief traditionary record of 
 the romantic deeds and sentiments of the German nation, 
 but at the era of the Reformation it sank wholly into obliv- 
 ion ; from which, however, it has within the last thirty 
 years been rescued, and permanently placed by the labours 
 and commentaries of Began, Zcune, Simrock. and Schlegel, 
 among the most conspicuous monuments of human genius. 
 All the questions relating to its origin, nature, and charac- 
 teristics are discussed with great Interest by the German 
 literati, to many of whom, Indeed, it forms a distinct branch 
 of study ; and we cannot refrain from inserting in our pages 
 Schlegel's notice of this poem which, whatever interest it 
 has excited in Germany, is still comparatively unknown in 
 England. 
 
 Among the heroic poems of those nations which, in con- 
 tradistinction to those of the Qteeks and Romans, whose 
 skilful unfolding of incidents and dramatic vividness of 
 representation were peculiar nnd unrivalled, have remain 
 ed satisfied with a more simple mode of poetry', the jYibel 
 itngen Lied claims a very high place — perhaps among all 
 the heroic chivalrous poems of modern Enrobe, it is enti- 
 tled to the first. It is peculiarly distinguished by its unity 
 of plan ; or rather it is a series of pictures, each naturally 
 following the other, and all delineated with great boldness 
 Bnd simplicity and a total disregard of all superfluities. 
 The German language appears in this work in a state of 
 perfection to which, in the subsequent periods of its early 
 history, it had no pretensions. In addition to all its natu 
 ral liveliness and strength, it seems at that time to have 
 possessed great flexibility, which soon afterwards gave 
 place to a style of affectation, roughness, and indistinctness. 
 The heroic legends of all nations have a great deal in com 
 in hi, so far as their essence and pur|>ose are concerned; 
 their variety is only produced by their being imbued with 
 tin? peculiar feelings and composed in the peculiar meas- 
 ures of different nations. In the A'ibelungen Lied, in the 
 same manner as in the legends of Troy and of Iceland, the 
 interest turns on the fate of a youthful hero, who is repre- 
 sented as invested with all the attributes of beauty, mag- 
 nanimity, and triumph, but dearly purchasing all these 
 perishable glories by the certainty of an early and predict- 
 ed death. In his person, as is usual, we have a living type 
 both of the splendour and the decline of the heroic world. 
 The poem closes with the description of a great catastro- 
 phe borrowed from a half historical incident in the early 
 traditions of the north. In this respect also, as in many 
 o;hers, we cannot fail to perceive a resemblance to the 
 I Had. If the last catastrophe of the German poem be one 
 more tragical, bloody, and titanic than anything in Homer, 
 the death of the German hero, on the other hand, has in it 
 more solemnity anil stillness, and is withal depicted with 
 more exquisite touches of tenderness than any similar 
 scene in any heroic poem with which we are acquainted. 
 The JVibelungen Lied is, moreover, a poem abounding in 
 variety ; in it, both sides of human life, the joyful as well 
 as the sorrowful, are depicted in all their reality. The 
 promise of the opening stanza is fulfilled : 
 
 Von Freuden und Fci'es Zeiten, »on Wrinrn unci von Klagen, 
 Von kuhuer Helden Straiten, mogt Ihr nun WuDder boren tagen. 
 
 (ScklegeVs History of TMerature, F.din., 1818, vol. i., p. 270, 
 272.) See, for farther information, the Conversations-l^exi 
 con, and the works there referred to. 
 
 NICARA'GUA WOOD. The wood of the Casalpina 
 ee.hinata, a tree growing in Nicaragua; it is a species of 
 Brazil wood. It is used with solution of tin as a mordant 
 to dye a bright but fugitive red. Nicaragua woods differ 
 greatly in their quality as well as price ; one sort being so 
 deficient in colouring matter that six pounds of it will only 
 dye as much wool or cloth as one pound of Brazil wood, 
 while another variety of it will produce nearly half the ef- 
 fect of an equal quantity of Brazil wood, and will sell pro- 
 portionally dear. (Bancroft, on Colours, vol. ii., p. 332.) 
 
 NICE, COUNCIL OF. The first, and, according to most 
 writers, the most important, axumenical council held in 
 the Christian Church. It was convened, A.D. 325, at Ni- 
 ca;a, by the emperor Constantine, in order to settle the dif- 
 ferences that had arisen in the Christian Church in respect 
 to the doctrines of Arius. This council was attended by 
 upwards of 250 bishops, of whom a great majority came 
 
 829 
 
NICENE CREED. 
 
 from the East, hv presbyters, deacons, and others from all 
 parts of the Christian world. The chief question, as was 
 remarked above, was the Arian heresy; and the council 
 issued in the excommunication of Arius. (SeeARiANs.) The 
 decision of this council had not the effect of restoring tran- 
 quillity to the Eastern Church, for the Arian controversy 
 was still warmly carried on; but it has supplied that mode 
 of stating the doctrine of the Divinity (as far as relates to 
 the Father and Son) in which it has ever since been re- 
 ceived by the orthodox. See Nicene Creed, Council. 
 
 NICE'NE CREED. The confession of faith in which 
 the consubstantiality of the Father and Son is asserted 
 against the Arians. (See art. Arians.) This creed was 
 commenced by the council of Nice, A.D. 325, and completed 
 by the second general council of Constantinople, A.D. 381. 
 But the words " and the Son," after those " who proceed- 
 eth from the Father," were added by the Latin Church (cer- 
 tainly before A.D. 411), expressing a point of doctrine in 
 which it differs from the Greek. The Nicene creed was 
 generally used by the Eastern churches in the administra- 
 tion of baptism ; but was not inserted in their daily service 
 till the fifth century. In the service of the Church of Rome 
 it was inscribed A.D. 1014. 
 
 NICHE. (Fr. niche.) In Architecture, a square or cy- 
 lindrical recess in a wall, usually made for the reception of 
 a statue. 
 
 NICKEL. A white metal, ductile, malleable, attracted 
 by the magnet, and which, like iron, may be rendered mag 
 netic. Its specific gravity when hammered is about 9. It 
 is rather more fusible than pure iron ; is not altered by ex- 
 posure to air and moisture at common temperatures, but is 
 slowly oxidized at a red heat. It is found in all meteoric 
 iron ; but its principal ore is a copper-coloured mineral found 
 in Westphalia, and called kupferniekel, nickel being a term 
 of detraction used by the German miners, who expected 
 from the colour of the ore to find that it contained copper. 
 The salifiable oxide of nickel consists of 30 nickel + 8 oxy- 
 gen. Its salts are mostly of a grass-green colour, and the 
 ammoniacal solution of its oxide is deep blue, like that of 
 copper. Ferrocyanate of potassa precipitates it of a white 
 or very pale green colour. 
 
 Since the manufacture of German silver, or argentanc, 
 became an object of commercial importance, the extraction 
 of nickel has been undertaken upon a considerable scale. 
 The cobalt ores are its most fruitful sources, and they are 
 now treated by the method of Wcihler to effect the Separa- 
 tion of the two metals. The arsenic is expelled by roast- 
 ing the powdered speise first by itself, next with the addition 
 of charcoal powder, till the garlic smell be no longer per- 
 ceived. The residuum is to be mixed with three parts of 
 sulphur and one of potash, melted in a crucible with a gen- 
 tle heat, and the product being edulcorated with water 
 leaves a powder of metallic lustre, which is a sulphurct of 
 nickel free from arsenic; while the arsenic associated with 
 the sulphur, and combined with the resulting sulphuret of 
 potassium, remains dissolved. Should any arsenic still be 
 found in the sulphuret, as may happen if the first roasting 
 heat was too great, the above process must be repeated. 
 The sulphuret must be finally washed, dissolved in concen- 
 trated sulphuric acid, with the addition of a little nitric ; the 
 metal must be precipitated by a carbonated alkali, and the 
 carbonate reduced with charcoal. 
 
 In operating upon kupferniekel, or speise, in which nick- 
 el predominates, after the arsenic, iron, and copper have 
 been separated, ammonia is to be digested upon the mixed 
 oxides of cobalt and nickel, which will dissolve them into 
 a blue liquor. This being diluted with distilled water de- 
 prived of its air by boiling, is to be decomposed by caustic 
 potash till the blue colour disappears, when the whole is to 
 be put into a bottle tightly stoppered, and set aside to settle. 
 The green precipitate of oxide of nickel, which slowly 
 forms, being freed by decantation from the supernatant red 
 solution of oxide of cobalt, is to be edulcorated and reduced 
 to the metallic state in a crucible containing crown glass. 
 Pure nickel in the form of a metallic powder is readily ob- 
 tained by exposing its oxalate to moderate ignition. ( Ure's 
 Diet, of Arts, i\-c.) 
 
 NICOLAI'TANS. One of the earliest Christian sects, 
 mentioned in the Revelations of St. John, where the angel 
 of God reproaches the church of Pergamos with harbouring 
 persons of this denomination. They are there characterized 
 as inclining to the licentious and pagan practices of the Gen- 
 tiles; but the fathers have also accused them of partaking 
 in a great measure of the Gnostic opinions. It is doubtful, 
 however, whether on this point there be not some confu- 
 sion between the Nicolaitans of the first and the followers 
 of Nicolaus of the second century. (See Mosheim (transl. 
 1790), i., 143. Oiescler's Text Book (transl.), i., 69.) 
 
 NICOTl'NA. A poisonous alkaline base, extracted from 
 the leaves and seed of the Nicotiana tabacum, or common 
 tobacco. It derives its name from Nicot, a Frenchman, 
 who, about 1500, first sent tobacco into France. 
 830 
 
 NIGRINE. 
 
 NICTITA'TION. (Lat. nicto, ricink.) Winking of the 
 eyes. This is generally a nervous affection, and very fre- 
 quently becomes a trick or habit. Where it arises from any 
 local irritating cause, bathing the eyes with warm watei 
 affords relief. 
 
 NIDDUI. A sort of minor excommunication among the 
 Hebrews, which continued usually about a month. If not 
 removed within that period, it was prolonged for*sixty or 
 even ninety days. If during this term satisfaction was not 
 made, the excommunicated person fell into the chcrcm. 
 which was the second species of excommunication ; anV 
 afterwards into the scammatha, which was the most dread 
 ful of all. 
 
 NIDIFICA'TION. (Lat. nidus, a nest; facio, / make 
 The process by which birds construct their nests. 
 
 NIE'LLO. (Ital.) A method of engraving on plate. Set 
 art. Engraving, where the process is described. . 
 
 NIGHT. (Lat. nox, Ger. nacht.) The part of the natu 
 ral dav during which the sun is below the horizon. 
 
 NIGHT HERON. See Ardea. 
 
 NIGHTINGALE. A migratory species of Passerines, 
 and the sweetest of song-birds : the type of the subgenus 
 Lttcinia, which is more closely allied, according to Mr. 
 Blythe, to the thrush family, than to the fauvettes (Curru- 
 cidec), among which it is pfaced by Cuvier. The males of 
 the nightingale reach the southern counties of England 
 sometimes in April, but more commonly not till the begin- 
 ning of May: the females do not arrive till a week or ten 
 days after the males. Migrating from the south, they visit 
 this country for the purpose of breeding, and the famed 
 song of the male is his " love chant," and ceases when his 
 mate has hatched her brood. " Vigilance, anxiety, and cau- 
 tion now succeed to harmony ; and his croak is the hush, 
 the warning of danger, and suspicion, to the infant charge 
 and the mother bird." If by accident his mate be killed, 
 the male resumes his song; and will continue to chant very 
 late in summer unless he can .attract, as he commonly scion 
 docs, another female. The nightingale feeds chiefly on the 
 larva- of insects, which abound at the season of its arrival in 
 this country. The nest is built near the ground; the eggs 
 arc four or five in number, of a uniform dark brown colour: 
 the young are excluded in the month of June, and tire ready, 
 to accompany the parents in their southward migration in 
 the month of August. 
 
 NIGHT-JAR. The name of a remarkable British bird, 
 the type of the genus Caprimulgus, distinguished by the 
 wide gape of its beak, whence perhaps has arisen the popu- 
 lar idea of its sucking the teats of cattle, and its other com- 
 mon name "goat-sucker," the equivalent of which it lias 
 received in most European languages, and which Linua-us 
 has continued in its generic designation. It is scarcely ne- 
 cessary to observe that the structure of the bill renders the 
 act of sucking impracticable in the night-jar or any other 
 bird. The genus Caprimulgus is characterized by a wide 
 and deeply-cleft beak, armed with strong bristles, and capa- 
 ble of engulphing the larger insects; the nostrils placed at 
 its base are like small tubes; the wings are lengthened; 
 the feet short, feathered to the toes, which are connected 
 together by a membrane at their base; the claw of the mid- 
 dle toe is commonly pectinated at the base. The night-jars 
 are most active and hunt their prey in the dusk ; they have 
 the same light and soft plumage as other nocturnal birds. 
 Our common species (Ca/yr. Europams) is remarkable for 
 the loud sound it emits, like the burr or jarring of a spin- 
 ning-wheel. 
 
 NIGHTMARE. An oppressive sensation and struggle 
 during sleep, otherwise called incubus (which see) ; pro- 
 duced usually bv indigestion. 
 
 NI'GHTSHADE. See Dulcamara and Belladonna. 
 
 NIGHT WATCH. A period of the night as distinguish 
 ed by a change of the watch. Among the Romans the 
 night was divided into four watches, each of three hours' 
 duration, and styled first, second, third, and fourth watches, 
 according to the military usage, by which the guard was re- 
 lieved four times during the night. The first watch began 
 at six in the evening and lasted till nine, according to our 
 mode of computing time ; the second lasted from nine till 
 twelve or midnight; the third from midnight till three in 
 the morning (called cock-croiciwr) ; and the fourth com- 
 menced at three and ended at six, thus completing the 
 twelve hours. The Jews originally divided the night into 
 three watches; but at a later period, and previously to the 
 appearance of our Saviour, they adopted the Roman divis 
 ion of the night, which is frequently alluded to in the New 
 Testament. In the Roman mythology, Nox was the god- 
 dess who presided over the night. She is represented 
 clothed with a tunic thickly set With stars ; and in her hon- 
 our the Romans sacrificed a cock during the night. 
 
 Noc e d<-3? Nf'Cli cristalus cxJitur ales, 
 
 Quod 'epidum vigili provocet ore diem. Ovid. 
 
 Xl'GRlNE. (Lat. niger, black.) Silico-cal .-areoiis ox- 
 ide of titanium. It occurs in Ceylon and Transylvania. 
 
NIMBUS. 
 
 NI'MBUS. (Lat.) In Painting and Sculpture, a cir- 
 cular disk round the heads of divinities, and sovereigns and 
 saints. 
 
 NIMBUS CLOUD. In Meteorology. See Cloud. 
 
 M NSIN ROOT. A bitter root, possessed of the me- 
 dicinal qualities of ginseng. It is the root of the .Sium 
 ninzi. 
 
 N I'XTH. In Music, one of the dissonant intervals in mu- 
 sic, lieing, properly, the second double. 
 
 Nl OBE. In Classical Mythology, daughter of Tantalus, 
 and one of the Pleiades, married to Amphion, king nf The- 
 Des. Proud of her numerous :iml floarishing offspring, the 
 provoked the anger of Apollo and Diana, who slew them 
 all : she was herself changed by Jupiter, in Pterygia, into a 
 rock, from which a rivulet, fed by her tears, continually 
 pom ■. 'i'he subject of NIobe and her children was a great 
 favourite with the poets of antiquity. Beside* the beautiful 
 stnrv in ' Kid (.'/,■'. vi., 146), there are numerous epigrams 
 in the Greek Antkologm, which appeal to be descriptive 
 either of the group which we refer Mow, or 
 
 oe similar group. See more especially that begin- 
 ning. 
 
 TavTaXe xat N(o/?a /tAu' tpav <f>ariv ayycXov arac. 
 
 This fable has alto afforded a subject for art, and particu- 
 larly for the sculptor of the beautiful group In the tribune at 
 Florence, known by the name of Niobe and li<r children. 
 attribute it to Bcopas: Winkelman in- 
 clines to believe it the workmanship of Praxiteles. It is 
 beautifully characterized by Ilazlitt. in his "Treatise on 
 Art." in the Knry. Ilritannira. 
 
 NI'PPERS. In Sea language, small ropes 01 Mirages for 
 attaching the messenger to the cable. 
 
 MSI PRIU8. In Law. a term originating in a legal 
 Action, whan the pleadings in a cause In one ofthe superior 
 
 courts Of common law ■• PlbaNNB) are concluded, and 
 
 an issue of fact is raised between the parries. The Issue 
 
 is apiminted, by the entry On the record, or written pn 
 tags, to be tried by a jury from the county, of which the 
 •dings are dated, at Westminster, vwfe»* to/pre the day 
 appointed (n\A prias) the Judges shall nave 
 county in question. The judges of assize, by virtue of their 
 commission of ni-i prlus, try the causes thus apiminted on 
 their several circuits, unless they are dated of London or 
 Middlesex ; in which case they are tried in London or West- 
 minster, at the sittinu's during or alter term. See Courts, 
 Si i'kuiok : and Tkrm. 
 
 MTU A'TKS. Salts nf the nitric acid; thus nitrate of 
 potnasa is a compound of one atom of nitric acid nnd one 
 Nitrk. 
 
 NITRE, Nitrate of Pttasta, Saltpttrt. This salt con- 
 l 54 nitric acid + 48 pOtassa; its equivalent, therefore. 
 
 i- 103. It Is spontaneously generated in the soil. Bad 
 
 talhzes ii|nhi its surface in several parts of the world 
 cially in India, whence nearly the whole of the nitre naed 
 in Britain is derived. It h.-:s Occasionally been produced 
 
 artificially in nitre beds, formed of a mixture of eaieareoat 
 
 soil with animal matter; in these nitrate of lime isslowlv 
 formed, which is extracted by liviviation. and carbon 
 potash lolded to the solution, which, by oooMe decompo- 
 sition, gives rise to the formation of nitrate of |M.tash nnd 
 carbonate of lime: the latter is precipitated ; the firmer re 
 mains in solution, and is obtained in crystals by evaporation. 
 Nitre crystallizes In six-aided prisms, soluble in seven parts 
 of cold water, and in less than ItSWetghl Of boiling water. 
 It has a cooling saline taste, nnd is anhydrous. At 01G° it 
 and at a red heat is decomposed. Its great use is in the 
 manufacture of gunpowder, and in the production of nitric 
 acid. It is also employed in the preservation of meat. 
 
 .Ytirate of soda crystallizes in rhombic crvstals; hence 
 termed cubic nitre. It is found plentifully "in Peru, and 
 is Imported into England from America, it is used as a 
 manure and as a source of nitric acid, but, being slightly de- 
 liquescent, it cannot be employed in the manufacture of 
 pan powder. 
 
 Nitre has sometimes been mistaken for Glauber's salt, 
 and, when taken in the quantity of half an ounce or an 
 ounce, it acts as a powerful poison. In such cases the stom- 
 ach should be evacuRted as rapidly as possible, and the 
 symptoms of spasm relieved by opiates. In doses of 5 to 15 
 grains it is diuretic and diaphoretic. 
 
 NITRIC ACID. This acid is n compound of 1 atom or 
 equivalent of nitrogen = 14, nnd 5 of oxygen (8 X 5) = 40 ; 
 hence its equivalent in the dry or anhydrous state, as it ex- 
 ists, for instance, in nitre, is 14 + 40 = 54. As it usually 
 occurs in the liquid state, it is a compound of 1 equivalent 
 of dry acid, 54, and 2 of water (9 X 2), 18 ; hence the equiv- 
 alent of the liquid acid is 72, It is commonly known in 
 commerce under the name of aqua fortis, and is prepared 
 by distilling a mixture of sulphuric acid and nitre. It is 
 commonly yellow, or even deep orange coloured ; but it may 
 be denrived of nitric oxide, which occasions this colour, by 
 
 NIZAM. 
 
 heat, and is then colourless. It is intensely corrosive and 
 sour, fumes when exposed to air, and has a specific gravity 
 of 1*50 when in its utmost state of concentration. It boils 
 at '.U.s , and freezes at —50°. It is a most powerfully ox- 
 idizing agent, and is decomposed with more or less rapidity 
 by almost all the metals. 
 
 The salts which it forms are called nitrates ; they are all 
 soluble in water; they are decomposed by heat. and. when 
 mixed and gently heated with sulphuric" acid, they evolve 
 nitric or nitrous acid. 
 
 NITRIC OXIDE, or NITROUS GAS. This gas was 
 discovered by Hales, and more accurately studied by Priest- 
 ley. It is obtained during the action of nitric add diluted 
 with about two parts of water upon metallic copper; it is 
 copiously evolved, and may be collected over water. 100 
 cubical inches of this gas weigh between 32 and WW grains; 
 its density, therefore, compared with air, is 1037. It is at 
 once easily rccoirnised by forming orange-coloured fumes 
 whenever it escapes into the air or comes Into contact with 
 oxygen, bo that this gas and oxygen are excellent tests of 
 each other's presence, It consists of equal volumes of ni- 
 trogen and oxygen, or of 1 equivalent of nitrogen and 3 of 
 oxygen; hence it is termed a hinnxide or deutoxide of nitro- 
 gen. The re spec t iv e weight of its components, therefore, 
 are 14 nitrogen -f- 10 oxygen, and the equivalent of the gas 
 is 30. 
 
 NITRITES. Salts of the nitrous acid; thus nitrite of 
 a compound ef 1 atom of nitrous acid and 1 atom 
 of potaaM, fcc 
 
 NITROGEN. (Gr. Vitfov, and yevvauv, to produce.) A 
 simple gaseous boey which forms a constituent part of ni- 
 tric acid, and which, being unrespirable, has also been term- 
 ed azote : from «, privative, and {tan, life. It was Identified 
 as a peculiar lias by Dr. Rutherford in 1774. and shown to 
 
 be one of the components of atmospheric air by Lavoisier 
 in 1774. It is generaHjr obtained by burning a piece of phos- 
 phorus in a jar full of air Inverted over water. The phos- 
 phorus daring its combustion combines with the oxygen of 
 
 the air to form phosphoric acid, which ,- dissolved by the 
 water, .and the remaining element of the air, namely, the 
 nitrogen, remains. Nitrogen is a colourless, inodorous, and 
 MS, not absorbed by water, and having no action 
 on vegetable colours. It extinguishes all burning bodies, anil 
 is itself uninflammable. It is a little lighter than atmospheric 
 air, 100 cubic inches weighing 30*16 mains. Its equivalent 
 is 14, and it combines with oxygen in 5 proportions, giving 
 rise to the following compounds: 
 
 By rolume. Bi Symbob. 
 
 N. (i. S. II 
 1. Nitrous oxide 100 + 50 =14+ 8 = 22=n + o. 
 
 % Nitrous oxide KI0 + 100= 14-f- 16=30= ?i + 2o. 
 
 W. Ilvponitrous acid 100+150=14 + 24 = 38 
 
 4. Nitrous acid 100+200= 14 + 32=46=n4-4s. 
 
 5. Nitric acid 100 + 250 = 14 + 40 = 54 = n -f 5 o. 
 
 NITROMURIATIC ACID. Nitrohydrochlorlc acid of 
 
 modem nomenclature. The mixture of nitric and of muri- 
 atic (or hydrochloric) acid; formerly called iH/ua rciria, 
 from its solvent |>o\ver over gold, the king of the metals. 
 
 NITRON A'PTHALASE. A compound resulting from 
 the action of nitric acid on nap thai in : a modification of it 
 
 lias been termed nitrnnapthnhsr. 
 
 NITROSA'CCHARIC ACID, fly the action of sulphu- 
 ric acid on gelatine a peculiar saccharine matter is formed, 
 which combines with nitric acid, and forms a crystallized 
 acid designated as above. 
 
 NrTROSULPHU'RIC ACID. An acid resulting from 
 the mixture of one part of nitre with eight or ten parts of 
 sulphuric acid. It was originally proposed by Air. Keir as 
 a useful agent for separating the silver from the copper of 
 old plated goods. At the temperature of about 200° it dis- 
 solves silver, while it scarcely acts upon copper or lead, 
 unless diluted, or at higher temperatures. 
 
 NITROUS ACID. When two volumes of nitric oxide 
 and one of oxygen are mingled in an exhausted glass globe 
 they form a dense orange-coloured vaoOUT, which may be 
 liquefied by cold, and which is nitrous acid. Its elements 
 are so condensed that 1 volume of nitrogen and 2 of oxygen 
 form 1 volume of nitrous acid vapour, the specific gravity 
 of which is 3-17. The presence of this vapour renders nitric 
 acid red and fuming, in which state it is commonly termed 
 nitrons acid. 
 
 NITROUS OXIDE. Protoxide of nitrogen ; a gas ob- 
 tained by heating nitrate of ammonia, which salt is thus 
 resolved into nitrous oxide gas and water. When nitrous 
 oxide is respired, it produces effects somewhat similar to 
 those of intoxication ; hence it has been called laughing gSt. 
 
 NIZAM. The title of one of the native sovereigns of 
 India, between whom and the East India Company many 
 subsidiary treaties exist. This title is derived from Nizam- 
 ul -Mulk, who, in the beginning of last century, obtained pos- 
 session ofthe Mohammedan conquests in the Deccan ; his 
 success, us in the sovereignty having assumed his name 
 
NOBILISSIMUS. 
 
 as th8ir title of dignity, which they have retained to this 
 day. 
 
 NOBILISSIMUS, was a title of dignity given to the 
 princes of the imperial family of Rome. It is said by Dou- 
 cine to have originated with Justin, but others hold it to be 
 of much more ancient date. 
 
 NOBl'LITV". The general appellation for a distinguished 
 order of society which exists in every civilized country, 
 with the exception of the United States and Norway. (See 
 Peerage.) In Roman antiquity persons were not noble by 
 birth, but in consequence of the public offices held by their 
 ancestors, who had the sole right to bequeath their images 
 to their descendants {jus imaginum). {See Heraldry.) 
 Originally the patricians were the only nobles, they alone 
 being eligible to the magistracy ; but when the equites, and 
 even the plcbs were admissible, the great body of the nobles 
 began to be formed. The r'nstin any family who was raised to 
 a curule dignity was styled novus homo. See Novt Homines. 
 
 NO'BLE, an English coin of the middle ages, value 6s. 
 8d., current in the reign of Edward III. According to Knigh- 
 ton, the rose noble was a gold coin in use about the year 1344. 
 
 NOCTHORA. See Saoouin. 
 
 NOCTILU'CA. A term applied by Boyle and some of 
 the older chemical philosophers to phosphorus. 
 
 NOCTU'RN. (Lat. nox, night.) An office consisting of 
 psalms and prayers, celebrated in the Roman Catholic 
 Church at midnight, after the example of David (Ps. 118). 
 It was said to have been introduced into the West by St. 
 Ambrose. It now forms part of the service of matins. 
 
 NOCTU'RN ALS. Nocturnal. (Lat. noi, night.) A tribe 
 )f Raptorial birds, including those which fly by night, and 
 have the eyes directed forwards; also a family of Lepidop- 
 terous insects, which, in like manner, are active chiefly in 
 the nigbt season. 
 
 NODE, in Surgery, is a hard tumour upon a bone, which 
 creates considerable pain, and often is attended by caries or 
 necrosis. They are most common upon the tibia and bones 
 of the head and fore-arm, where they are thinly covered 
 by flesh. 
 
 NODES, in Astronomy, are the two points in which the 
 orbit of a planet intersects the plane of the ecliptic. The 
 point in which the centre of a planet passes from the south 
 to the north side of the ecliptic is called the ascending node, 
 and in astronomical computations is usually indicated by 
 the symbol ii ; the opposite point, or that in which the 
 planet passes to the south side of the ecliptic, is called the 
 descending node, and is indicated by JJ- The straight line 
 which joins these two points, formed by the intersection of 
 the plane of the planets orbit with the plane of the eclip- 
 tic, is called the line of the nodes. The nodes of the lunar 
 orbit were anciently called the head and tail of the dragon. 
 
 The position of the nodes on the ecliptic is one of the 
 elements by which the situation of the plane of an orbit in 
 space is defined : in fact, it is easy to see that, if the position 
 of the line of the nodes, and also the inclination of the orbit 
 to the ecliptic, be known, the position of me plane of the 
 orbit is entirely determined. The two nodes being distant 
 180°, it is only necessary to indicate the position of one of 
 them : the longitude of the ascending node, or its distance 
 from the first point of Aries, is the element used by astron- 
 omers. In all the planetary orbits the line of the nodes is 
 variable, having a retrograde motion from east to west in 
 respect of the fixed stars, but so slow that it amounts only 
 to a few seconds in a year. Tbe regression of the moon's 
 nodes is very considerable, as it completes a revolution in 
 about 19 years. {See Moon.) The retrograde motion of 
 the nodes of all the planets is a necessary consequence of 
 their mutual attractions. For the positions and variations 
 of the nodes of the different planets, see Planet. 
 
 NO'DULE. (Lat. nodus, a knot.) Rounded irregular 
 lumps or masses. 
 
 NO'DUS. In Botany, a point situated upon the axis of a 
 plant, whence a leaf or leaf-bud originates. 
 
 NOEL. The French name of Christmas Day, derived 
 either from ding natalis (Lat. birthday), or from an abbrevi- 
 ation of the word Emmanuel. 
 
 NOE'TIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a sect so called 
 from Noetus, an Ephesian, the master of Sabellius. They 
 acknowledged only one person in the divinity ; and, conse- 
 quently, were accused of maintaining that God the Father 
 had suffered on the cross. See Patripassians. 
 
 NO'GGING. In Architecture, brickwork carried up be- 
 tween upricht pieces or quarters. 
 
 NO'GCING PIECES. In Architecture, the horizontal 
 pieces of timber fitting in between the quarters, to which 
 they aie nailed in a brick-nogged partition, which they 
 serve to steady and strengthen. 
 
 NO'LI ME TA'NGERE, in Surgery, is a disease of the 
 skin, commencing with small ulcerations which destroy 
 the part. They sometimes affect the cartilage of the nose, 
 which is destroyed by their progress ; almost all applica- 
 tions rather increase the progress than allay it. 
 832 
 
 NOMOCA.NON. 
 
 NO'LLE PRO'SEOUI. In Law, an acknowledgment 
 or agreement by the plaintiff in a suit that he will not far- 
 ther prosecute it, either as to the whole or a part of the 
 cause of action (as, for instance, where, on the defendant's 
 demurring to one count in a declaration, the plaintiff enters 
 a nolle prosequi as to that count, and proceeds to trial on 
 the other counts) ; or as to one or more out of several de 
 fendants. 
 
 NO'MADES. (Gr. vofiaSes ; from vo/jlos, pasture.) Tribes 
 of men without fixed habitation. The nomades of classi- 
 cal times were generally tribes devoted to pastoral pursuits ; 
 for the ancients knew of no races of savages subsisting 
 wholly by the chase. The principal nomadic tribes of an- 
 tiquity were those of southern Russia and the interior of 
 Asia, from whom sprung, in the decline of the Roman em- 
 pire, many of the tribes which overran western Europe; 
 and, at a later era, those which conquered empires in wes- 
 tern and southern Asia. 
 
 NOME. (Gr. irojtos; from vcuta, I divide.) The Greek 
 names for the provinces into which Egypt was divided from 
 the most remote antiquity. According to Diodorus Siculus, 
 the division into nomes was performed by Sesostris, whom 
 some modern writers consider as identical with the Remeses 
 II. of the monuments ; but it is supposed to have subsisted 
 from the time of the earliest Pharaohs. There were 3ti 
 nomes, which, in the time of Strabo, were thus divided: 
 10 in the Thebaid, 1G in the Heptanomis, or Intermediate 
 district (which, according to its name, probably consisted in 
 earlier times of 7 only), 10 in the Delta. This division 
 was not materially altered until the latest age of the Ro- 
 man government. (See D'Anville, Memoires sur V Egypt ; 
 fVilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyp- 
 tians, vol. ii.) 
 
 NO'MENCLA'TOR. An officer employed by the candi- 
 dates for the great state offices of Rome, to accompany 
 them through the streets and whisper them the names of 
 such citizens as they might meet, in order that they might 
 then address them by name, and canvass their votes. It is 
 derived from Lat. nomen, and the old word calo, / call. 
 
 NO'MENCLA'TURE, was originally applied to a cata 
 logue of the most ordinary words in any language, with 
 their significations, &c, drawn up for the purpose of facili- 
 tating their use and retention to those who are endeavour 
 ing to acquire a language. But, in a more general sense, 
 this term is employed to denote the language peculiar to 
 any science or art: thus we speak of the nomenclature of 
 chemistry, botany, &.C. 
 
 NO'MINALISTS. A term originally applied to a scho- 
 lastic sect which arose in the 11th century. Its founder 
 was John Roscelin, a churchman of Compiegne, who as- 
 serted that general terms have no corresponding reality 
 either in or out of our minds, being, in truth, words, and 
 nothing more {flatus vocis). This doctrine naturally ex- 
 cited great consternation among the schoolmen, with 
 whom, hitherto, all that was real in nature was conceived 
 to depend on these general notions or essences. Its promul- 
 gator underwent much persecution for his opinions, and 
 was ultimately compelled to retract them, as inconsistent 
 with the doctrine of the Trinity as it was then stated. He 
 found, however, an able successor in the person of Peter 
 Abelard, who attracted numerous disciples by his dialecti- 
 cal skill and eloquence, and, with his followers, whom he 
 led in a body to Paris, was the occasion of founding the 
 celebrated university of that city. After his death, the an 
 cient realism was restored to its supremacy ; nor do we 
 meet with a nominalist until the 13th century, when VVil 
 Ham of Occam revived his doctrines under some modifica 
 tions. The last-mentioned philosopher may, in fact, with 
 greater justice, be styled a conceptualist ; as^ie distinctly 
 stated the formation of general terms to depend on the 
 conditions of thought, and hence to possess a species of sub 
 jective reality, as the sign or indication of an actual process 
 of thought, though not either distinct objects of conscious- 
 ness or realities in nature. Those who hold either of the 
 latter theories are realists. The controversy is one which 
 has excited great attention among modern philosophers, 
 among whom Hobbes and Dugald Stewart may be considered 
 strict nominalists, while Locke and Dr. Thomas Brown style 
 themselves conceptualists. There are, however, expressions 
 in Locke's writings which would rather stamp him as a real- 
 ist, under the former of the two modifications which we 
 have given above. (See articles Scholastic Philosophy, 
 Thomists, Scotists.) There are very profound observa- 
 tions on the subject of this controversy in the first volume 
 of Hallam's Literature of the Middle Ages. See aUw 
 Brucker's Historia. Critica Philosophic. 
 
 NO'MINATIVE CASE. In Grammar, that form of n 
 noun which names or designates a substance absolutely, m 
 without relation to any other substance. 
 
 NOMO'CANON. (Gr. vonos, law ; kovuv, canon or rule.) 
 In Ecclesiastical Law, a work in which canons of the 
 Church, and imperial laws touching the same subject, are 
 
NOMOPHYLACES. 
 
 (ollcrted and compared. The first was made by Joannes 
 Schoiasticus (A.D. 551). The most celebrated was that of 
 Photius, patriarch of Constantinople. 
 
 V i M< IPHY'LACES. (Gr. vouoc, the law, and <pv\aKtc, 
 guardians.) Among the Athenians, magistrates or legal 
 officers, whose business it was to see that neither the privi- 
 leged citizens nor the lower classes made any Innovation 
 upon the laws. They held seats in all the public a! 
 
 aid during the public games and festivals had chairs 
 erected for them opposite to those of the archons. This was 
 also the appellation of those officers appointed to coramuni- 
 eatfl to the combatants the laws of the Olympic games. 
 
 NOMOTHETIC. (Gr. vouoc, late, and rtUtiui, I lay 
 down.) A body of citizens nt Athens, chosen by lot out of 
 such as had been judges in the court Heliain, to the number 
 of a thousand. Their office seems to have been a sort of in- 
 rJng laws, with the duty of proposing 
 amendments. 
 
 .V i.N.i; ET DECIM.E. In Ecclesiastical Law, the con- 
 tributions of tenants of the Church were anciently so called : 
 the non:i\ or ninth part, standing for a species of rent, the 
 decimal tor the tithe due to the Church. 
 NONAGE. In Law. See Infant, Minority. 
 NONAGESIMAL (Lat. nonagesimus, the ninetieth), 
 ■nth degree of the ecliptic, reckon- 
 ed from either of the points in which it by the 
 horizon. It is therefore the highest point of the ecliptic at 
 any instant, and its altitude is equal to the distance of the 
 pole from the zenith. The nOnagesimnl is used in calcu- 
 li' the moon. 
 NAGON. (Lat. novem, and ytovta, angle.) In 
 Geometry, a plane figure having nine angles, and, conse- 
 quently, nine sides. The area of a regular nonagon is = 
 10 = 6-181 99 13, the side being 1. 
 Nov COMPOS .MENTIS. (Lat) In Law, a general 
 term lor those afllicted with mental incapacity. See Luna- 
 cy, Idiot. 
 
 NOWCONDUCTOR. This term Is generally limit.-d to 
 certain phenomena connected with the treaefcref heat and 
 electricity through bodies; those substances which resist the 
 direct passage of those influences (and occasionally also of 
 sound) are called mniron'luctors. 
 
 NONCONFOR'MISTS. A g< neral term under which all 
 the religious communities which do not conform to the 
 Utnrgy of the church established in England may be eon* 
 prehended. It belongs more properly to the large body of 
 elersy who, at the Restoration, refused to subscribe to the 
 Uniformity, and were, in consequence, ejected from 
 their benefices on St. Bartholomew's day, 1608. This art 
 w:i< Orel promulgated by Elisabeth, and required all the 
 etetgy to DM the M*C of Common Prayer, and intlicied se- 
 vere penalties upon any one who should be convicted of 
 lehing against it. The act of Charles II. con- 
 tained soil st r i c ter provisions, enjoining every beneficed per 
 son not only to use the book, but to declare his U 
 consent to every part of it: and enacting that, nj 
 
 on a certain day, he should be, ipso facto, ajeetad. 
 Other declarations were also to be subscribed, as, "Thai it 
 is unlawful to lake arms against the king on nny pretence 
 whaisoew;r :" "That no obligation from the covenant lies 
 upon himself or any other person." It is said that two 
 thousand persons resigned their preferments in consequence ; 
 and even alter ibis their party was subjected to the farther 
 infliction of the conventicle acts, which forbade more than 
 live p the family to assemble together in any 
 
 ■ for r. Itgloas worship; and the five mile act, which 
 subjected to penalties and imprisonment any nonconformist 
 clergyman who should lake up his residence within five 
 miles of any corporate town, or other place where he had 
 been minister. See Dissenter*. 
 
 NONES. (Lat. novem, nine.) In the Calendar, one of 
 Ihe three divisions of the Roman month, and so called be- 
 cause they fell on the ninth day, reckoned inclusively, be- 
 fore the ides. In the months of March, May, July, and Oc- 
 tober, the ides fell on' the 15th day of the month, and the 
 nones, consequently, on the 7th. In the other months, the 
 ides were on the 13th day, and the nones on the 5th. See 
 Calendar. Calends, Ides. 
 
 HON EST INVENTUS. {He is not found.) In Law, 
 the formal Latin words anciently used in the sheriff's re- 
 turn to a writ of capias, that the defendant was not to be 
 found within his bailiwick. 
 
 NO'NIUS. A name frequently given to that useful con- 
 trivance, the vernier, for subdividing the divisions of gradu- 
 ated arcs or scales into minute parts, from its invention hav- 
 ing been erroneously ascribed to Pedro Nunez, or Nonius, a 
 Portuguese, who lived in the early part of the 16th century. 
 The contrivance employed by Nonius was widely different 
 from the vernier now universally used. It consisted in de- 
 scribing within the same quadrant 45 concentric arcs, di- 
 viding the outermost into 90 equal parts, the next into 89, the 
 3 G 
 
 NON-RESISTANCE, DOCTRINE OF. 
 
 next into 88, and so on, the innermost being consequently 
 divided into 46 only. With this instrument the observed al- 
 titude of an object could be read off" on the outermost arc 
 only to degrees, but the fractions were obtaineil in the fol- 
 lowing manner: The plumb-line, or movable index, must 
 intersect one of the concentric arcs at, or very near a point 
 of division. Now, it is evident that the number of pans 
 read off at this point must be in the same proportion to th- 
 degrees and fractions of a degree intercepted on the outer 
 most arc, as the number of parts into which the arc 
 Udnlng the point is divided, is to 90°. The division read iiff 
 being therefore multiplied by 90, and divided by the r.u 
 of parts in the arc, gives the observed altitude to fractions 
 of a degree. Thus, if the plumb-line intercept 25 part- ex 
 actly on the arc in which the number of parts is 78. the 
 gle measured will be 28-846 : the fraction is east!] 
 verted into minutes and seconds. Nonius supposed Qui 
 this artifice was known to Ptolemy. It was adopted by 
 Tycho Brahe, but soon abandoned by him for the me 
 of diagonal divisions, in consequence of the difficulty of di- 
 viding accurately the different arcs. (Robin's .Mathemati- 
 cal Tracts, vol. ii.) See Vernier. 
 
 NON-JU'RORS. In English History, that party amor.? 
 the clergy of the national church who refused to take the 
 oath of allegiance to the new government after the Revolt] 
 tlon. As many of these clergy, at the same time that they 
 opposed a conscientious resistance to the usurpations of 
 James II., had, nevertheless, continued to preach submission 
 to his authority, on the principle of his divine right by here- 
 ditary succession to the obedience of his subjects, it became 
 impossible for them with consistency to submit to a mon- 
 arch crowned only by authority or parliament. It was 
 therefore much desired by many friends of the new govern- 
 ment to make some exception in their favour, and relieve 
 them from the necessity of taking the oaths: but an amend- 
 ment made by the House of Lords in the act requiring thi> 
 oath, wbicb purposed to excuse the clergy from taking it 
 unless called on by the privy council, was rejected by the 
 Commons. Eight bishops, including the primate Bancroft, 
 with about four hundred clergy, were, In consequence, ex- 
 cluded from their sees and benefices. The original non- 
 jurors were peaceable and honest men for the most part ; 
 but many of them soon became implicated in all tie 
 lence of the Jacobite faction. See Jacobites, Pretender. 
 NON-NATURALS. A term applied by the old physi- 
 cians to certain matters which are necessary to life, but do 
 not form a part of the living body ; such as air, food, excrc- 
 ep, &.C. 
 NONPAREIL. See Printing. 
 
 NON-RESISTANCE, THE DOCTRINE OF, in Politics, 
 Is that which inculcates the unlawfulness, on religions 
 grounds, of resistance by force to the commands of a prince 
 or magistrate. This is strongly laid down by the Inspired 
 writers, and especially by St. Paul, in the 13th chapter of his 
 Epistle to the Romans. In the ordinary acceptation of the 
 doctrine, it is taken to enforce the duty of obedience to Un- 
 lawful commands of magistrates. But, in that peculiar 
 sense which is attached to it in English constitutional his- 
 tory, it means unqualified obedience to every command, 
 especially of the prince or supreme magistrate, whether law- 
 ful or not; and, consequently, condemns all forcible opposi- 
 tion even to tyranny or usurpation. But the advocates of 
 non-resistance, in this extended sense, do not appear to 
 have ever contended that it applied to commands of inferior 
 magistrates in the same sense and degree as to those of the 
 highest: they therefore supposed a peculiar sanctity in the 
 person and office of the ruler which no other officer possess- 
 ed ; and thus combined the doctrine of divine right with 
 that of passive obedience or non-resistance. These doc- 
 trines are p'ainly laid down in the homilies of the Church 
 of England ; in which, in the phrase of Bolingbroke (State 
 of Parties), they skulked until the reign of James 1. (See 
 especially that On Wilful Disobedience and Rebellion.) But 
 in that reign they were more generally avowed by the 
 learned and loyal ; and, in 1622, the University of Oxford 
 sanciioned them by a solemn decree. The events which led 
 to and followed the great rebellion, naturally led men's 
 minds to pay greater attention to the speculative part of 
 politics ; and, while Hobbes was framing a theory of abso- 
 lute monarchy on the principle of the social contract, a 
 different class of reasoners arrived nt the same result 
 through a peculiar interpretation of Scripture. Sir Robert 
 Filmer (especially in his Patriarcha), Bishoi Sanderson, 
 and others, made the regal power originate in .he patriar- 
 chal ; and endeavoured to prove that all other forms of gov- 
 ernment, being unrecognised by Scripture, were usurpations. 
 Dean Sherlock, the ablest writer of the school of divine 
 right (see his Case of Resistance to Supreme Powers, 1684) 
 endeavoured to prove the absurdity of the theory of the social 
 contract, and to show from Scripture the unlawfulness of re 
 sisting any command, even of a usurping power. It is in an 
 swer to these reasoners that Locke's Essay on Government 
 
NONSUIT. 
 
 was written. In it he confutes the arguments for unqualified 
 non-resistance, by showing that Scripture and reason make 
 no distinction between inferior and superior magistrates, 
 and reducing his opponents to the absurdity of affirming 
 that any command, however extravagant, of the lowest 
 magistrate, must'be obeyed. In 1683, the University of Ox- 
 ford pronounced its second decree in favour of the tenets of 
 divine right and non-resistance. But the current of court 
 opinion changed at the Revolution. The doctrine of non- 
 resistance was almost proscribed ; but maintained by the 
 non-jurors, who professed to obey the usurping government, 
 while they refused to recognise it. In 1709 it was preached 
 by Sacheverell, with the apparently inconsistent result of a 
 riot. His sermon, together with the Oxford decree, were 
 burned by order of the House of Lords. But the doctrine is 
 at this day frequently asserted by the high church party. 
 (See Dr. Puscy's Sermon on the 5th of November, 1838.) 
 
 NO'NSUIT, in Law, is the renunciation of a suit by the 
 plaintiff. It is either adjudged, in consequence of certain 
 neglects or delays in the prosecution of the suit, or it is 
 voluntarily elected by the plaintiff. It is usual to call on 
 the plaintiff, when he is unable to make out a case to sup- 
 port his pleadings for default of the necessary evidence, 
 and the jury are about to give their verdict, to elect, if he 
 pleases, to abandon his prosecution and submit to a nonsuit, 
 upon payment of costs. The effect of which is, that as a 
 nonsuit is not, except in certain ca^es, a peremptory bar, be is 
 able to bring another action afterwards for the same cause. 
 
 Judgment as in case of a nonsuit, arises from the stat- 
 ute 14 G. 2, c. 17, which enacts that where any issue is 
 joined in an action in the courts of record at Westminster, 
 and the plaintiff has neglected to bring the issue to be 
 tried, the court may, unless it sees reason for allowing the 
 plaintiff farther time, give judgment for the defendant as 
 in case of a nonsuit, which has the same force as a non- 
 suit, both as to costs and as to its effects on the action. 
 
 NOOTH'S APPARATUS. A series of three glass ves- 
 sels, placed vertically, for the purpose of impregnating wa- 
 ter with carbonic acid gas. The lower vessel contains the 
 marble and muriatic acid for the evolution of the gas ; the 
 central vessel holds the water through which it is made 
 to pass, under the pressure of the column of water in the 
 third or upper vessel, which is closed by a conical stopper, 
 which serves as a safety valve. 
 
 NO'PAL. The Cactus opuntia. The plant upon which 
 the cochineal insect chiefly breeds. 
 
 NORFOLK CRAG. A tertiary formation which rests 
 on London clay or chalk, and includes marine shells. A 
 line drawn from Cromer on the northern coast of Norfolk 
 to Wayburn, about six miles west, and thence extending 
 southerly about eighteen miles towards Norwich, includes 
 all the regular beds of this rock. See Geology. 
 
 NO'RMAL. (Lat. norma, a rule.) An adjective signify- 
 ing that the ordinary structure peculiar to a family, a ge- 
 nus, or a species, is in no wise departed from. 
 
 Normal. A term sometimes used for perpendicular. In 
 the geometry of curve lines, the normal to a curve at any 
 point is a straight line perpendxular to the tangent at that 
 point, and included between the curve and the axis of the 
 
 NORMAN ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture, 
 and English Architecture. 
 
 NORNS. In Scandinavian Mythology, the three fates, 
 equivalent to the Moirai of the Greeks. Their names were 
 Urd, Worand, and Sculd ; or Past, Present, and Future. 
 They were represented as endowed with great beauty, 
 but of a melancholy and sombre disposition ; they were 
 consulted even by the gods, and their decrees were sure 
 and irrevocable. 
 
 NO'RROY". See King at Arms, Herald. 
 
 NORTH. (Germ, nord.) In Geography, one of the four 
 cardinal points of the horizon ; that which in European lat- 
 itudes is opposite the sun at mid-day. 
 
 NORTHERN LIGHTS. The name popularly given to 
 the aurora borealis. 
 
 NORTHING, in Navigation, is the difference of lati- 
 tude made by a ship in sailing northwards. 
 
 NOSING OF A STEP. In Architecture, the projecting 
 rounded edges of the tread of a step. 
 
 NOSO'LOGY. (Gr. vooo;, a disease, and Xoyo;, a dis- 
 course.) The doctrine of diseases. The term is generally 
 applied to the classification and nomenclature of diseases, 
 and to their general methodical arrangement. See Disease. 
 
 NOSTA'LGIA. (Gr. voartoi,J return, and a\yoi, grief.) 
 A species of melancholy, resulting from absence from 
 home and country. 
 
 NOSTRUM. (Lat.) Literally, our own; applied to 
 3[uack medicines retained for profit in the hands of the in- 
 ventor or discoverer, or of his assignee. 
 
 NO'TABLES. In French history, the deputies of the 
 states under the old regime, appointed and convoked on 
 certain occasions by the king. In 178G this assembly was 
 834 
 
 NOTATION. 
 
 summoned, 1G0 years after its last meeting, and proposed 
 various reforms in different branches of the government ■ 
 it again met, for the last time, in 1788. 
 
 NO'TACA'NTHA. (Gr. pmroc, the back, and aKavOa, a 
 spine.) The name of a family of Dipterous insects, com- 
 prehending those in which the' upper part of" the thorax or 
 scutellum is armed with teeth or spines. 
 
 NOTARIES, APOSTOLICAL AND IMPERIAL. Pub- 
 lic Notaries appointed by the popes and emperors, in virtue 
 of their supposed jurisdiction over other powers, to exer- 
 cise their functions in foreign states. Edward II. forbade 
 the imperial notaries to practise in England. Charles VIII. 
 of France, in 1490, abolished both these classes of notaries, 
 and forbade his lay subjects to employ them. 
 
 NO'TARY,or NOTARY PUBLIC. In English Law, one 
 who publicly attests documents or writings, chiefly in mer 
 cantile matters, to make them authentic in a foreign country ; 
 protests foreign bills of exchange, and the like. The stat- 
 utes 41 G. 3, c. 79, and 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 70, regulate the admis- 
 sion of notaries in England. In London, they must have been 
 apprenticed seven years to a notary before such admission. 
 
 The name notary, among the Romans, appears to have 
 signified a short-hand writer, and to have denoted origi- 
 nally the persons who acted in that capacity, especially at 
 meetings of the senate. Afterwards the notarii were sec- 
 retaries to courts, officers, &c. In modern Europe the no- 
 tary is an officer whose attestation is necessary to the va- 
 lidity of certain instruments, and his duties are more or 
 less important in different countries. In France the no- 
 tary is the necessary maker of all contracts, &c, where 
 the subject matter exceeds 150 francs ; and his instru- 
 ments, which are preserved and registered by himself, are 
 the originals, the parties retaining only copies. The pres- 
 ence and administration of a notary is also essential to the 
 division of lands or goods of inheritance. 
 
 NOTA'TION (Lat. notatio), is defined by Dr. Johnson 
 to be " the act or practice of recording any thing by marks, 
 as by figures or letters." 
 
 Mathematical notation embraces two distinct subjects ; 
 namely, symbols of number and quantity, and symbols of 
 operation. The system of numerical notation adopted in 
 all European countries depends on the very refined idea 
 of giving to each symbol a local as well as an absolute 
 value. A refinement of this sort could only have been 
 adopted by a people considerably advanced in the arts of 
 civilization ; but though the present system has been 
 traced to the Hindus, among whom it appears to have been 
 in use two thousand years ago, the epoch and country of 
 its origin a're entirely unknown. It is probable that the 
 tirst numeral characters consisted simply of strokes or 
 straight lines, which could be easily cut in wood or stone, 
 and would be alike intelligible to all nations. Such charac- 
 ters are, in fact, preserved in the Roman notation with 
 very little change. Thus, assuming a perpendicular line | 
 to signify one, two lines | | would express two. the addi- 
 tion of a third | I | three, and so on till the reckoner had 
 reached ten, which completed the first series of the numeri- 
 cal scale. He might then be supposed to throw a dash 
 across the last stroke or unit to mark the completion of 
 the series ; and thus X would come to signify ten. The con- 
 tinued repetition of this mark would denote twenty, thirty, 
 and so forth, till he arrived at a hundred, or ten tens, which 
 completes the second series, and might be denoted by add- 
 ing another dash to the mark for ten, or by merely connect- 
 ing three strokes, thus \~. The repetition of this symbol 
 would in like manner indicate the successive hundreds, 
 the tenth of which would be marked by the addition of 
 another stroke, so that four combined strokes AA would 
 express a thousand. Such were the symbols originally 
 employed in the Roman notation; in process of time it 
 would be perceived that the inconvenience in writing, aris- 
 ing from so many repetitions of the same character, might 
 be avoided, by adopting symbols for the intermediate num- 
 bers ; and those were furnished by the division of the sym- 
 bols already in use. Thus, having parted in the middle 
 the two strokes X, either the under half A. or tllc upper 
 half V> was employed to signify five. Next, the mark !_ 
 for a hundred was divided into T or L either of which 
 represented fifty. Again, the four combined strokes having 
 come, in the progress of the arts, to assume a round shape 
 (T), was frequently expressed thus ( | ) ; and this last form, 
 by partition, gave the two portions ( | , or | ), to represent 
 five hundred. (Leslie's Philosophy of Arithmetic, Introd.) 
 
 The numeral notation of the Greeks, though far less 
 convenient than that now in use, was formed on a per- 
 fectly regular and scientific plan, and could be used with 
 tolerable effect as an instrument of calculation, to which 
 the Roman system was totally inapplicable. They divided 
 the twenty-four letters of their alphabet into three classes, 
 and, by adding another symbol to each class, they had 
 characters to represent the units, tens, and hundreds. 
 
 Thus, instead of the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, they rep 
 
NOTATION. 
 
 resented the units by the letters a, /?, y, <5, e, c, ?, >?, 9 : the 
 tens were denoted by i, k. A, ;i, v, £, o, tt, j ; and the hun- 
 dreds by ^>, a, t, v, 9, X' "Ai w, ^. 
 
 To represent the thousands they employed the first se- 
 ries with the iota subscribed, a, |8, v, S, c, c, C, 17, 0. With 
 
 these symbols they could express any number under 10,000 ; 
 thus 03 {6, denoted 9999; n\y, denoted 8033: Sa, 4001, 
 
 and so with the others. To denote the myriads they made 
 use of the initial letter M, writing the number over it. 
 
 a Y 
 Thus, M, M, M, fee, corresponded respectively 
 
 to 10,000, 
 
 h. 
 
 30,000, 30,000, &c. M expressed thirty-eight myriads, or 
 
 SroB 
 380,000 ; ' M was equal to 43,720,000 ; so that the letter M 
 placed under any number produced the same effect as is 
 produced in our .system by writing four ciphers to the right 
 of the number. Diophantus and Pappus expressed the 
 myriads mure simply by a point after the number: thus, 
 Srofl'nKt denoted 43,728.025 ; and in this manner they pro- 
 ceeded to 9999-9999, or to any number under 100,000,000, 
 which was the extent of their notation before the time of 
 Archimedes, who showed bow it might be extended indef- 
 .nitely. By assuming 100,000,000, or the square of the 
 myriad, as a new unit, and biking this any number of 
 
 ■ .ible of being expressed by the previous notation, 
 he could represent any number which is expressed in the 
 modern notation by sixteen digits. Assuming, again, the 
 numiier w iiir.h in our system is denoteed by 1 w ith sixteen 
 
 - a second new unit, lie was enabled to express 
 any number consisting of twenty-four digits. This method 
 Can obviously be continued to any length. A great improve- 
 ment was afterwards introduced by Apollonius, who pro- 
 posed the simple myriad. Instead or it- square, for the root 
 of the system; and thus any large number was constituted 
 of periods of four characters, the first of which, on the right 
 hand, represented units, the next, towards the left, the num- 
 ber of myriads, the third the square of the myriads and so 
 
 an to infinity. The different periods were distinguished by 
 
 4 blanks. In this manner a local value was given 
 to the symbols, and a single step only was wanting to as- 
 similate this notation entirely to our own. It only required 
 that to be done for the simple tens which had I • 
 for the myriads or tens of thousands. (For an account of 
 1 notation and arithmetic, see Delambre, .'lstron- 
 omie Jinciennc, tome ii.) 
 
 From an inspection of the manuscripts preserved in pub- 
 lic libraries, it appears that the Arabians had not generally 
 adopted the denary numerals before the beginning of the 
 13th century of our era. For several ages after the forma- 
 tion of their empire, they bind Christian scrilies to keep 
 omits; and though, like most other oriental na- 
 tions, they wrote from right to left, yet they implicitly fol- 
 lowed the Greek mode of ranging the numerals and per- 
 forming the calculations. It is probable that they derived 
 their knowledge of the Indian digits through the m< ilium 
 of the Persians, but the subject is involved in much obscu- 
 rity. The epoch at which the denary numerals were in- 
 troduced into Europe is also uncertain : but it a] 
 have followed, at no great interval, the Saracen 
 in Spain. Vossius places this epoch about the year 1250; 
 l)u Cange thinks they were unknown before the 14th cen- 
 tury ; and they are very rarely to be found In the dates of 
 any writings before the year 1400. They appear to have 
 been first used by astronomers, and afterwards circulated 
 over Europe In the almanacs. 
 
 Symbols of quantity are entirely arbitrary ; but the letters 
 of the alphabet may be said to be exclusively adopted by 
 mathematicians. When the quantities belonging to any 
 investigation are numerous, it may be necessary to have 
 to different alphabets; and it is always of very 
 great importance to select such symbols as will most read- 
 ily suggest the thing signified, as the initial letter of a 
 word, or letters which have acquired a sort of conventional 
 right to be applied to particular purposes. It is unfortunate 
 that so little attention has been paid to this subject, and 
 that some general principles have not been adopted by 
 mathematicians to regulate the choice of symbols, inas- 
 much as the diversity of notation renders it often a trouble- 
 some task to compare with one another different investiga- 
 tions of the same problem, or the results of different meth- 
 ods of analysis. There are, however, a few rules, which, 
 though altogether arbitrary, seem to be recognised by all 
 modem writers of any authority. Thus, in algebra, the 
 letters at the beginning of the alphabet are the symbols of 
 quantities supposed to be known, and those at the end of 
 the quantities sought. In analytical geometry and mechan- 
 
 NOTTURNO. 
 
 ics, x, y, and : are always used to denote the rectangular 
 co-ordinates of a point in space. In trigonometry, the sides 
 of a triangle are usually denoted by a, b, and c, and the an- 
 site by A, B, and C respectively. In astronomy 
 the Greek letters are most frequently used to represent an- 
 gles. Indices are usually employed when it is desirable 
 to retain the sunt' letters for the same class of quantities. 
 
 Symbols of operation are equally arbitrary with those of 
 quantity, but there is much less diversity in the manner of 
 employing them. The signs -f and — , universally used to 
 signify addition and subtraction, seem to have been intro- 
 duced by Siifelius, a German, as the oldest work in which 
 they are found is his rfrithmctica Integra, published at Nu- 
 remberg In 1544. Stifeiius also introduced the character v'. 
 originally r, the initial letter of radix (root), to denote the 
 root of a quantity. The sign of equality = was intro- 
 duced by Robert Recorde, and he gives as a reason that 
 " noe 2 thynges can bo moare equalle," namely than the 
 two parallel lines. In the modern calculus the letters of 
 the alphabet are used as symbols of operation; thus, d for 
 the differential and /for the integral of a quantity. Finite 
 differences and sums are denoted by the corresponding 
 Greek letters A and £, The fluxional notation introduced 
 by New ton, and which continued to be used in this country 
 till foreign books began to be more freely imported, after 
 the last war, has at length been entirely abandoned for the 
 dill, rential notation of Leibnitz and the Bernoullis. The 
 former is, in fact, utterly incapable of representing the ex 
 tremely general processes of modern analysis. (See notes 
 to the r.nglish translation of Lacroir's Klein. Treatise on 
 the Diff. and Integral Calculus ; Lubbock on JVotation, in 
 the Memoir* Roy. Astr. Sue, vol iv. ; art. "Notation," Ed 
 ivhu rgk F. n c uclopcBdia . ) 
 
 NOTCHBOAfiD. (It. nocchia.) In Architecture, the 
 board which receives the ends of the steps in a staircase; 
 so called because it is notched out to receive the cuds of 
 the steps. 
 
 NOTE. (Lat. nota.) In Music, a character by which 
 the elevations and depressions of sound are marked, as well 
 as the swiftness or 1I0WBI ss of their motions. 
 
 N( rTES (Lat. nota:), in Literature, were originally 
 marks affixed by the critics, who reviewed the works of an 
 author, to those places which they considered to be spurious 
 or faulty, or which on any other account w ere worthy of re- 
 mark. In modern limes the meaning of the term has been 
 enlarged, being now used as synonymous with annotation 
 utiti-y. Among the Romans praiseworthy pas- 
 sages were usually marked with LL. [«'. *., laudabiles loci) 
 and faulty passages indicated by 0, a contraction, or, mora 
 properly, a symbol for uQcrnatv. (Per., Sat. iv., 12.) 
 Among the Greeks, goo : vith the letter X, signi 
 
 nifying xpnorov, excellent, and against those which were 
 condemned the word axpnoroi; was written, which Gelii 
 us calls ad notamentum culpa). 
 
 Notes, in printing, are — shoulder notes : these are a< 
 the top of the page in the outer margin, and contain the. 
 book, chapter, or date, or both of them ; side notes or mar- 
 ginal notes, which give an abstract of the text, as in acts 
 of parliament ; or parallel passsiges, and different readings, 
 as in the Bible ; and bottom notes, or foot notes, which are 
 placed at the bottom of the page, and generally contain 
 commentaries and explanatory annotations. 
 
 NOTHING. (ATo thing, the negation of being.) In 
 Mathematical language, the term nothing is of frequent oc- 
 currence, and denotes either the absence of magnitude in 
 circumstances in which magnitude might have existed, as 
 when equals are taken from equals, or it denotes the limit 
 to which a variable magnitude approaches by continual 
 diminution; as when it is said that a magnitude is suscep- 
 tible of all values between nothing and infinity. 
 
 NOTICE, in Law, is that by which a party is supposed 
 to communicate, or to receive, that presumed or real knowl- 
 edge which is necessary to affect the receiver with legal 
 liabilities. For instance, when a party proceeds to recover 
 premises by ejectment, notice must be served by him, ac 
 cording to certain prescribed formalities, on the tenant in 
 possession, in order to compel him to come in and defend 
 the action. This is an instance of actual notice. Con- 
 structive notice is that which is presumed to arise from 
 certain facts : as, for instance, in equity, a purchaser is 
 presumed to have notice of a suit [lending which may af 
 feet the subject matter of the sale, except where, by a late 
 enactment (2 Vict., c. 11), express notice was rendered 
 necessary. 
 
 NOTODO'NTA. (Gr. vuroc, back; S&ovc, tooth.) The 
 name of a genus of Lepidopterous insects. 
 
 NO'TONECTID^E. (Gr. vwror, vticrta, I swim.) The 
 family of Hemipterous insects of which the water- boatman 
 (Notonecta) is the type. 
 
 NOTTU'RNO. In Music, originally synonymous with 
 serenade (which see) ; but applied at present to a piece of 
 music in which the emotions chief! v of love and tenderness 
 
 835 
 
NOUN. 
 
 are developed. Of modern composers Chopin, Field, and 
 Herg are the most distinguished in this department. 
 
 NOUN. (Lat. nomen, a name.) In Grammar, that part 
 of speech which denotes a conception; in contradistinction 
 to an affirmation or judgment, which is expressed by a verb. 
 Nouns are divided into substantives and adjectives ; the 
 first denoting real or supposed substances, the second quali- 
 ties or properties conceived as belonging to substances. See 
 Grammar. 
 
 NOVA'CULITE. (Lat. novacula, a razor.) The stone 
 of which hones are made for sharpening razors. It is of a 
 slaty structure, and owes its quality of giving an edge to the 
 metal to the fine silicious particles which it contains. 
 
 NOVA'TIANS. The followers of Novatian, a presbyter 
 of Rome, who was stigmatized as a schismatic and heretic, 
 and founded a sect of this name in the 3d century, which 
 continued to flourish to the end of the 5th. The aim of 
 Novatian was to deny readmission into the church to all 
 persons who, in time of persecution, or on other accounts, 
 had once lapsed from the faith. In this extreme severity of 
 sentiment he was opposed by the greater numher of the 
 clergy of Rome, and especially by one Cornelius, upon 
 whose election to the see, Novatian, who was a disappoint- 
 ed candidate, withdrew from the communion of the majori- 
 ty, and established a society of which he became himself 
 the first bishop. This sect was also known by the title of 
 Cathari, or Puritans, which they assumed to express the 
 high sense they entertained of the excellence attainable by, 
 and necessary to, all professors of Christianity. 
 
 NO'VEL. (From the Italian novella, derived from the 
 Latin novus, new.) A species of prose fictitious composition. 
 
 The Italian novella, of which the best and earliest speci- 
 mens are those contained in the Decameron of Boccaccio, 
 was rather a short tale, turning on an event, or on a series 
 of adventures of humour, pathos, or intrigue, than a novel 
 in the modern acceptation of the term. In its present sig- 
 nification in the English language it seems to express a spe- 
 cies of fictitious narrative somewhat different from a ro- 
 mance ; yet it would be difficult to assign the exact distinc- 
 tion, and, in the French language, the same name (roman) 
 is used for both ; while it differs from a tale merely in the 
 circumstance that a certain degree of length is necessary to 
 constitute a novel.- 
 
 Although, in fact, the terms novel and romance are often 
 used indifferently, yet they have also often been treated as 
 distinct classes of composition in English literature. Per- 
 haps, if we seek to draw the distinction with as much of 
 accuracy ns the subject will admit, we may say that the 
 proper object of a novel is the delineation of social manners, 
 or the development of a story founded on the incidents of 
 ordinary life, or both together. Thus will be excluded from 
 the class of novels, on the one hand, tales of which the in- 
 cidents are not merely improbable (for this may be the case 
 in a novel), but occurring out of the common course of life, 
 and such as are founded on imaginary times and imaginary 
 manners, tales of supernatural incidents, chivalrous ro- 
 mances, pastoral romances, &c. ; and, on the other hand, 
 we must exclude from the same class fictitious narratives, in 
 which the author's principal object is neither the story nor 
 the costume, but which are obviously written with an ul- 
 terior view, although their incidents and character may 
 perhaps, in other respects, fall under the definition suggested 
 above. Thus, political, philosophical, and satirical fictions 
 are clearly not to be ranked as novels. But it is obvious that 
 no definition can be drawn which shall, on this subject, en- 
 tirely satisfy the caprices of popular language. 
 
 Of the novel, in this confined sense, the works of Richard- 
 son, and those of Fielding and Smollet, afforded, perhaps, 
 the first examples in English literature. The first of these 
 authors gave birth to the sentimental novel, the latter two 
 to the comic or humorous. Marivaux, Prevost, &c, spread 
 the former style of composition in France; where, as well 
 as on the Continent generally, it attained a high degree of 
 vogue. The novel of manners, whether comic or serious, 
 has, perhaps, been always a more popular species of fiction 
 in England. It may be doubted whether the historical fic- 
 tion, to which Sir Walter Scott has given such universal 
 popularity, belongs strictly to the class of novel or romance. 
 By aiming at the delineation of real, although past manners, 
 and by the general turn of the story, it seems to resemble the 
 former ; while the romantic character of many of its inci- 
 dents seems to assimulate it to the latter. 
 
 For the general history of prose fictitious composition, see 
 Romance. 
 
 NO'VELS. (Lat. novelloe constitutiones, new constitu- 
 tion.) In the Roman Law, supplementary constitutions of 
 some emperors, so called because they appeared after the 
 authentic publications of law made by them. Those of 
 Justinian are the best known, and are commonly understood 
 when the general term is used. The Novels, together with 
 the Code and Digest, form the whole body of law which 
 passes under the name of that emperor. 
 836 
 
 NUMBER. 
 
 NOVE'MBER. (Lat. novem, nine.) The eleventn 
 month of the Juli in year ; but the ninth month in the old 
 Roman year, which began with March. Sec Calendar, 
 Year. 
 
 NOVEMSILES. The name given by Romulus to the 
 gods of the Sabines, whom he adopted after the conquest of 
 that people. The term was afterwards applied to those 
 heroes or demigods who, in consequence of their power or 
 virtues, were deified after death. 
 
 NOVENNALIA (Lat. novem, nine, and annus, a year), 
 among the Romans, signified, as the derivation of the term 
 implies, festivals held in honour of the dead every nine 
 years. 
 
 NO'VICE. (Lat. novitius.) A person admitted into a re- 
 ligious community as an inmate, for the purpose of prepara- 
 tion for becoming a member. The state of preparation is 
 termed novitiate. The custom of giving novices the religious 
 dress did not begin until the 12th century. The age of pro- 
 fession is fixed by the Council of Trent at sixteen years. 
 During the period of the novitiate the novice is still at liber- 
 ty to relinquish his intention. The term novice was applied 
 to recruits in the ancient Roman soldiery ; from which cir- 
 cumstance it appears to have been borrowed in ecclesiastical 
 usage. 
 
 NOVI HOMINES, among the Romans, were such per- 
 sons as, by their own personal merit, had raised themselves 
 to curule dignities without the aid of family connexions. 
 This reproach, as is well known, was addressed by Catiline 
 to Cicero. 
 
 NOX. (Lat.) In Mythology, the goddess of night. In 
 the Grecian mythology, she was the daughter of Chaos, the 
 sister of Elpen and Erebus, and the mother of ./Ether, He- 
 mera, Manatas, Momus, the Fates, &c, &c; which were 
 all personifications of the natural phenomena life, sleep, 
 death, &c. 
 
 NOYADES. (Fr. noyer.) The name given to a peculiar 
 punishment resorted to in the first French revolution. The 
 noyades were effected by drawing out a plug inserted in the 
 bottom of a boat in which the wretched victims were launch- 
 ed. The genius of iniquity, says a writer in the Kdin. Re- 
 view, often displays itself in the same invention. It will be 
 remembered that when Nero was desirous of despatching 
 his mother, and found himself at a loss for an expedient, 
 Anicatus proposed to him "the model of a ship upon a new 
 construction, framed in such a manner that a part might be 
 withdrawn, and the unsuspecting passenger committed to 
 the waves." ( Tac. Jinn., lib. xiv., ar. 3.) 
 
 NOYAU. (Fr.) A delightful liqueur; it is flavoured 
 with bitter almonds, or the kernels of peach stones, and con- 
 tains prussic acid. 
 
 NU'CLEUS. (Lat.) Literally, anything round which 
 matter has accumulated, or to which it is affixed. In Bot- 
 any, it is used in various significations : 1. The central fleshy 
 pulpy mass of an ovule. 2. That part of a seed contained 
 within the testa, and consisting of either the embryo and albu 
 men, or of the embryo only. 3. In lichens, the disk of the 
 shield, which contains the sporules and their cases. 4. In the 
 language of the older botanists what is now termed by garden- 
 ers a clove ; that is, the secondary bulb of a bulbous plant. 
 
 Nucleus. In Astronomy, the solid part or body of a 
 comet, as distinguished from its nebulosity. See Comet. 
 
 NU'CULA. (Lat. mix, a nut.) Either the fruit, called 
 otherwise a gland or acorn, or any small, hard, one-seeded 
 pericarp; or the female organ of th* plant Chara. 
 
 NU'DIBRA'NCHIANS, Nudibranchiata. (Lat. nudus, 
 naked; branchia, gills.) The name of an order of herma 
 phodite Gastropodous Mollusks which have the branchise 
 exposed on some part of the back. 
 
 NU'DIPEDA'LIA. (Lat. nudus, naked, and pes, a foot.) 
 A religious ceremony among the Greeks, Romans, and other 
 nations, observed on account of some public calamity, as 
 famine, drought, pestilence; in the celebration of which (as 
 the word imports) the votaries appeared with the feet, un- 
 covered. In various other religious observances this prac- 
 tice was adopted ; thus, the Roman matrons, when they of- 
 fered up supplications to the goddess Vesta, always walked 
 to her temple barefooted : 
 
 Hue pede matronam Dudo descenders vidi. — Ovid 
 
 A similar ceremony existed among the Jews. 
 
 NU'DITIES. (Lat. nuditas, nakedness.) In the Fine 
 Arts, figures entirely divested of drapery. 
 
 NU'ISANCES, in Law, are of two kinds: public or com- 
 mon, which nnnov the king's subjects in general ; and pri- 
 vate, which are defined "anything done to the hurt or an- 
 noyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of an- 
 other." The general remedy for public nuisances, by action 
 on the case for damages. 
 
 NU'LLIPORES, Nullipara. (Lat. nullus, no, poms, a 
 pore.) The name of a family of Lithophytous Polypes, the 
 axis of which present* no visible pores on its surface. 
 
 NU'MBER (Lat. numerus), is defined by Euclid to be an 
 
NUMBERS, BOOK OF. 
 
 assemblage or collection of units or things of the same spe- 
 cie 1 :. This definition excludes the unit itself, or 1. Newton 
 defines number as the abstract ratio of one quantity to an- 
 other quantity of the same species; and hence there are 
 three kinds of numbers, namely, integers, fractions, and 
 surds. Number, abstractedly considered, conveys merely 
 the notion of times or repetitions. 
 
 Mathematicians consider numbers, under different points 
 of view, or with relation to different properties; and hence 
 arise the various distinctions which have been introduced, 
 as even or odd, whole or fractional, rational or irrational, 
 perfect or imperfect, prime or composite, abundant or de- 
 fective, &c. Numbers also acquire various denominations 
 from the manner in which they are composed ; as triangular 
 numbers, pyramidal numbers, polygonal numbers, &c. (See 
 Ihe respective adjectives.) 
 
 The theory of numbers forms one of the most subtle parts 
 of the algebraic analysis. Judging from the fragments which 
 nave been preserved, the ancient mathematicians had push- 
 ed their researches into the properties of numbers to a con- 
 siderable extent; but until the invention of algebra, and the 
 introduction of a more convenient notation, the difficulties 
 of the subject could only be partially overcome. The most 
 nt existing work on algebra is that of Diophantus, and 
 it is devoted entirely to numbers. From the time of Dio- 
 phantus, who lived in the 3d century, to that of Vieta, Ba- 
 chet, and Fermat, who flourished in the Ifith, no advance- 
 ment was made in the theory J but the discoveries of these 
 Illustrious mathematicians carried it far beyond Its ancient 
 limits. Evict was the next from whom it received any con- 
 siderable extension : lie was followed by Lagrange, who 
 added many important theories; and it has received its latest 
 perfection from the hands of Gauss and Legendrc. The 
 theory of numbers may be studied in the following works: 
 the .Arithmetic of Diophantus, with a Commentary by Ba- 
 chet, and notes by Permat, Toulouse, ltiTO; /I faring' t Med- 
 
 itationes Algih. ; F.ulor. fntrml. in Anal. Infinitornm, Opus- 
 cula Analytica, and various papers in the Petersburg^ .Me- 
 moirs ; Lagrange, in the Uerlin Memoirs ; GatUS I'isquisi- 
 tiones j S r itknutitm , or the French translation; Legendrc, 
 Essai stir la Thiorie des Jf ombres, 2d edit., 180ft Pot the 
 mystical properties of numbers the curlons reader may con- 
 sult D. s. Beetti .Irithnnticn. Varies. 1581 ; /'. BungtMu- 
 tnerorum Mysteria, 1901; Taylor's Thmrrtie .'Irithnutie, 
 1816. 
 
 NUMBERS, BOOK OF. See P*wtat*u< r. 
 
 MK'M \. Qr. vtoe, imr, and pnv, a month.) Grecian 
 festivals celebrated at the commencement of every lunar 
 month. In honour of all the god-;, demigods, and heroes of 
 antiquity. They were observed with games and public en- 
 tertainments, the expense of which was defrayed by the 
 wealthy citizens. See Neomcnu.. 
 
 M ME'NIUS. The name under which Cuvier separated 
 
 the curlews, as a distinct genus, from the other Sndopaces 
 ol Liimams. They have a beak arcuated like- that of the 
 ibis, but it is more (lender, and is cylindrical throughout; 
 the tip of the upper mandible extendi beyond the end of the 
 i nil projects a little downward in front of it. 
 The toes :.re palmated at the 
 
 NUMERALS. The symbols or characters by which 
 number I. srr Notation. 
 
 NUMERATION, is the art of classing and expressing 
 numbers. Though the mode of reckoning numbers by tms 
 or dreads has prevailed among all civilized nations, and has 
 become incorporated with the very structure of language, 
 
 there is nothing in the nature of the subject which tendered 
 its adoption a matter of necessity. Any other number might 
 have been Chosen for the root of the numerical scale; and, 
 in fact, if a scale were now to be selected by mathemati- 
 cians familiar with the properties of numbers, there are sev- 
 eral considerations which would lead them to adopt trr.lrr, 
 in preference to ten. The selection often, therefore, which 
 has been almost universal, implies the influence of some 
 common determining principle; and it is easy to see that it 
 from the practice, so familiar in the early stages of 
 ■. . of counting by the fingers on both hands. In various 
 languages, however, traces are found of an earlier and sim- 
 pler mode of reckoning. We mny suppose the earliest of 
 nil to b: that of combining units In pairs. It is still familiar 
 among uportsmen, who reckon by braces or couples. To 
 count by threes was nnother step, and has been preserved 
 by the same class of men under the term leash, meaning the 
 gs by which three dogs, and no more, can be held at 
 n tiic hand. The numbering by fours has had a more 
 application : it was evidently suggested by the 
 Custom of take. g. in the rapid tale of objects, a pair in each 
 hand. Our fishermen, who generally count in this way, call 
 every double pair (of herrings, for instance) a throw or cast ; 
 and tin- term utarp which has exactly the same import, is 
 employed to denote four, in various articles of trade. It is 
 alleged that the Guaranis and Lulos. two of the lowest races 
 of savages inhabiting the forests of South America, count 
 
 NUMISMATICS. 
 
 only by fours ; at least tliey express the number/re by four 
 and one, six by four and two, and so forth. The quinary 
 system, which reckons by fives or pentads, has its founda- 
 tion in nature, being evidently derived from the practice of 
 counting over the fingers of one hand. It appears, from the 
 relations of travellers, to have been adopted by various sav- 
 age nations of America; and we learn from Mungo Park 
 that it is practised by the Yolofs and Foulahs of Africa, who 
 designate 10 by two hands, 15 by three hands, and so pro- 
 gressively. It is even partially used in this country among 
 wholesale traders. In reckoning articles delivered at the 
 warehouse the person who takes charge of the tale, having 
 traced a long horizontal line, continues to draw, alternately 
 above and below it, a icarp, or four vertical strokes, each set 
 of which he crosses by an oblique score, and calls out tally 
 as often as the number five is completed. (Leslie's Philoso- 
 phy of Arithmetic.) 
 
 The mode of reckoning by twelves or dozens may be sup- 
 posed to have had its origin in the observation of the celes- 
 tial phenomena; there being twelve months or lunations 
 commonly reckoned in a solar year. It appears in tire sub- 
 division of weights and measures, as twelve ounces to n 
 pound, twelve inches to a foot ; and is still very generally 
 employed in wholesale business, extending to the second 
 and even the third term of the progression. Thus twelve 
 dozen, or 14-1. make the long hundred of the northern na- 
 tions, or the gross of traders, and twelve times this again, or 
 1728, make the double gross. Traces of reckoning by ttcen 
 ties or scores remain in our own and other European idioms. 
 The expression threescore and ten is familiar. The French 
 language has> no terms for the numbers in the second series 
 of the denary scale above soixante, or sixty. Eighty is ex- 
 pressed by t/uatre-vingts nnd ninctu by quatre-ringts et diz, 
 four timitiis and tm. The inhabitants of Biscay are said 
 still to reckon by the powers of twenty, or the terms of 
 progressive scores; and, according to Humboldt, the same 
 mode of numeration was employed by the Mexicc 
 Arithmetic, Binary, Duodecimals, Sexagesimal- 
 
 The primary object of numeration is to find names for the 
 different numbers; and. as there are an infinity of numbers, 
 while the number of words is limited, it became UMeeMr) 
 to devise gomes} siematic method of combining a few words, 
 so as to express by means of them any number whatever. 
 It is obvious that when large numbers are to be express ed, 
 the lower scales, as the binary, ternary, &c, would be ex- 
 ceedingly inconvenient, on account of the multitude of words 
 that would be required. On the other hand, as a name Is 
 required for at least every unit In the scale, a very high 
 scale would be no less inconvenient. In the denary Kale, 
 the nomenclature is sufficiently convenient, and In our lan- 
 guage almost perfectly regular. A name is given to the Q 
 units of the first order; the unit of the second 'order is ten 
 and. by the different combinations of this word, all number* 
 are named to 'J'.): eleven and twelve are only apparent ex- 
 ceptions. A new appellation is wanted for the unit of the 
 third order, or hundred. This suffices till we reach the 
 fourth order, or thousands : and might even have sufficed 
 to a hundred hundreds, or ten thousand. A thousand thou- 
 sands is called a million, and a million millions a billion. 
 farther continuation is u 
 
 The second object of numeration is to express the nomen- 
 clature thus formed by the combinations of a email DUfllbei 
 of written symbols. This is most conveniently effected by 
 the very refmed artifice of giving to each symbol a local •■<.- 
 well as an absolute value. So that the same symbol, '.', foJ 
 example, is made to express not only 3 units, but 3 tens, 5 
 :; thousands, tee,.\ or 3 tmth parts, 3 hundredth 
 parts, &.c, Recording to its distance towards the left or right 
 from the unit's place in any combination of symb 
 Notation. 
 
 NU'MERATOR, in Arithmetic, is that pnrt of the nu- 
 merical expression of a fraction which indicates how many 
 of those parts into which the unit is supposed to be divided 
 are expressed. Thus, in the fraction -r-" 7 ,, the lower number 
 IS is the denominator, and shows that the unit is divided 
 into 12 parts ; 7 i-- the numerator, and shows how many of 
 those parts ar° to be taken. 
 
 NUMISMATICS. (From the Greek vipiaua, Latin 
 nummus, a coin.) The science of coins and medals. The 
 distinction between these classes of objects is, in modern 
 times, that the coin is struck for the purpose of circulation as 
 money: the medal not as a piece of money, but as a token 
 commemorative of some person or event. But ancient coins 
 termed, in common language, medals. The parts 
 of a coin or medal are, the obverse or face, containing gen- 
 ernlly the head, bust, or figure of the sovereign or person n 
 whose lioionr the medal was struck, or some emblematic 
 figure in the coins of commonwealths ; and the revere, con- 
 taining virions figures or words. The words around the 
 border of the coin form what is termed the legend, those In 
 the midole the inscription ; when occupying the lower ex- 
 Oi 837 
 
Grecian. 
 
 1. Consular. 
 
 Roman, i 2. Imperial. 
 
 u 
 
 s 
 
 ian. < ! 
 
 (I 
 
 NUMISMATICS. 
 
 ■remity of the pieces, and separated from the rest by a hori- 
 zontal line, they are termed tile exergue. 
 
 The earliest Grecian coins which we possess appear to 
 have been nearly of a spherical shape : they contain, on 
 the obverse, some emblems of the particular cities which 
 struck them; and on the reverse, deep indentations made 
 by the puncheon in which the metal was held while the 
 obverse was struck. Then marks, or the die, were soon 
 brought into a more regular shape, sometimes forming a 
 neat square, sometimes a circle. Types were afterwards 
 introduced on both surfaces of the coin by inserting some 
 small object in one compartment of the die. Ancient coins 
 have been divided into various historical series, as exhibit- 
 ed in the following table : 
 
 f I Of Graxia Propria and the Islands. 
 
 Civic. < Of Greek colonies. 
 
 ( Of Gra;co-Asiatic cities. 
 f Kings of Macedon. 
 I Kings of states formed out of the 
 2 Momrrhir > Macedonian conquests : Syria, 
 Egypt, Sec, &c, and the inde- 
 pendent princes of Epirus and 
 Syracuse. 
 ) Roman asses. 
 | Coins of the families. 
 Roman. 
 
 . Grecian : Provinces, Colonies, 
 and Municipia. 
 3 .Meda,Uon,|Grecian. 
 
 1. European; of Thrace, &c. 
 Barbarian. -I 2. Asiatic; of Persia, &c. 
 3. African. 
 
 The objects on Grecian civic coins are either, 1, the em- 
 blems of the cities ; 2, figures of deities, and their attri- 
 butes ; 3, miscellaneous or general symbols, usurped by 
 many states and cities, usually consisting of warlike ob- 
 jects. The legends on Greek republican coins are either 
 the name of the city or its initial letters; or monoerams, 
 t. e., figures forming a portion of the name, in which the 
 characters are so interlaced that a limb of one applies to 
 many. 
 
 The earliest coins which bore the heads of princes were 
 those of Macedon, commencing with Alexander the Great, 
 and closing with the extinction of the dynasty of the Lnui- 
 d.e in the Augustan age. Four principal series of Grecian 
 monarchical coins (either of Greek states, or such as adopt- 
 ed the Greek language and customs) have been formed : 1. 
 Of Macedon ; 2. Of Sicily, Caria, Cyprus, Heraclea, Pontus ; 
 :!. Of Egypt, Syria, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, Thrace, &c, 
 &c, from the era of Alexander the Great down to that of 
 Christ ; 4. Of dynasties which flourished subsequently to 
 the latter era; including some kings of Thrace, Bosphoms, 
 and Parthia, with those of Comagene, Edessa, and Judaa ; 
 to which may be added some lines of Romanized monarch*, 
 as those of Mauritania. The most beautiful monarchic se- 
 ries are those of the Selcucidse in Syria, and Ptolemies in 
 Egypt. The unit of the Grecian silver coinage, in point of 
 value, may be considered as the drachma, which is of a 
 size between our sixpence and shilling; the smallest silver 
 coin is the dichalcos, only J^-th of the drachma ; the largest, 
 the tetradrachma, containing four drachma The common- 
 est gold coin is the didrachma, weighing two silver drach- 
 ma:, and in value 20, or 15*. sterling. Grecian copper coins 
 are generally small. 
 
 The Roman coinage differs from the Grecian in many re- 
 spects ; the greater size of the copjier coins in early times, 
 and their superior workmanship in later, the prevailing 
 simplicity of devices, &c, form characteristic marks of dif- 
 ference. In the first period of the republic they were cast. 
 The consular copper coins have separate symbols for the 
 pieces, according to their respective value ; as the head of 
 Janus for the as, Jupiter for the semi's, &c. The as also 
 bow the impress 1, to denote its quality of unity as a meas- 
 ure of value. The name family coins, applied to many 
 coins of the republic, arose from the custom of inserting 
 the name of some distinguished family in the field of the 
 coins. A silver coinage was first introduced into Rome 206 
 B.C. The oldest coin was the denarius, equivalent to ten 
 asses : the earliest of these have the head of Janus, for 
 which that of Rome was afterwards substituted on the ob- 
 verse, with a variety of symbols on the reverse. The coin- 
 age of gold was introduced into Rome sixty years after that 
 ttf silver : the pieces were, the scrupulum, one third of the 
 tlenarius in weight ; a coin weighing two thirds, and an- 
 other weighing a whole denarius. Afterwards the chief 
 gold coin was the aureus (.twice the weight of the denari- 
 us) and its parts. The imperial Roman coins form by far 
 the most complete and varied series which we possess of 
 ancient or modern times. The symbols on the reverse 
 have been arranged under four heads : as relajjng to reli- 
 
 JS'URSERY. # 
 
 gion, war, games, and the embellishments of the city, un 
 der the numerous subdivisions of these subjects. The ob 
 verses contain the portraits of emperors and empresses 
 The characters on the reverses of the coins are, generally 
 speaking, explanatory of the type ; expressing, in a fevr 
 brief words, the history of some occurrence immediately 
 after which the coin was struck, &c. The legends on the 
 obverse mostly contain titles annexed to the imperial dig 
 nity, often expressed in abbreviations productive of not a 
 little obscurity. 
 
 Not less than three hundred portraits are preserved in 
 the series of Roman imperial coins. The term medallion 
 is applied to those productions of the Roman or provincial 
 mints which, in gold, exceed the size of the aureus ; in sil- 
 ver, of the denarius ; in copper, of the largest copper coin 
 of ascertained value. It is doubtful whether they were in 
 tended for circulation as coins, or struck, like medals among 
 ourselves, as commemorative tokens. 
 
 Modern coins present so wide a variety as to render it 
 impossible to include any classification of them within the 
 limits of the present notice. In England, Roman coins 
 were current until the arrival of the Saxons : we have the 
 coins of five out of the seven kingdoms of the heptarchy; 
 among them some small copper coins, the only specimens 
 of that metal coined before the reign of Elizabeth. Coins 
 struck prior to the reign of Charles II. had their devices 
 impressed by the blows of a hammer. The system of let- 
 tering en Hie edgos, which was succeeded by graining, was 
 invented in order to obviate the fraudulent practice of clip 
 ping and filing the current coin. 
 
 NUMMULI'TES. (Lat. nummus, money, and Gr. Xi0oj, 
 a stone.) An extinct genus of the order of Molluscous ani- 
 mals called Cephalopoda, of a thin lenticular shape, divided 
 internally into small chambers. These occur so abundantly 
 in some parts of the chalk formation, that the name of nuni- 
 mulite limestone is given to the strata so characterized. 
 
 NU'NCIO. An envoy of the pope to the court of an em- 
 peror or king to negotiate ecclesiastical affairs. (See Leo- 
 ate.) Previously to the council of Trent the papal nuncios 
 acted as judges, In the first instance, of ... itter ' Ic 
 within ecclesiastical jurisdiction; but sine thai l thej 
 have formed a kind of court of appeal from the decisions 
 of the respective bishops. This jurisdiction, however, holds 
 good only in those countries which still hold themselves 
 subject to the decretals and discipline of the council of 
 Trent ; for in other kingdoms and states, such as France. 
 Austria, Tuscany, &c, which, though Roman Catholic, hold 
 themselves independent of the Roman pontiff in matters of 
 discipline, the papal nuncio has no jurisdiction whatever. 
 and is invested merely with a diplomatic character, like the 
 ambassadors of any secular power. The term nuncio is thf 
 Italian form of the Lat. nuntius. 
 
 NUNCUPATIVE WILL. (Lat. nuncupo, I name.) In 
 Law, a wiJJ orally delivered by the testator. See Wilt. 
 
 NU'NDINiE. (Lat. nonus, ninth, and dies, a day.) The 
 market-days or fairs at Rome were so called, because they 
 recurred every ninth day. On this day the people from the 
 country and neighbouring towns flocked to Rome with the 
 produce of their farms or Industry. On that day, also, all 
 public proclamations were made, causes heard, witnesses 
 cited, and judgments given. The nundinal were originally- 
 considered as dies nrfasti, on which no other business could 
 be done; but, for the convenience of the country people, 
 this prohibition was removed by the Lex Bartentta. 
 
 NUNS. Female devotees among the Roman Catholics, 
 who, like the monks of the other sex, seclude themselves 
 in religious communities, and make profession of perpetual 
 chastity. See Monachism. 
 
 The origin of this institution is commonly ascribed to St. 
 Syncletica, the contemporary of St. Anthony. Among nuns, 
 as among monks, there are various orders ; some abandon- 
 ing themselves entirely to contemplation and spiritual ex- 
 ercises, but many others to the more act've duties of private 
 and public charitv. 
 
 NU'RSERY. "in Gardening, a plot of ground, oi an en 
 tire garden, set apart for the propagation of plants, more 
 particularly trees and shrubs. The situation ought to be 
 open and airy, and the soil of an average quality, neither 
 too heavy nor too light, so as to be adapted to the majority 
 of plants ; but in a complete nursery there ought also to be 
 shady borders for plants requiring shade, and beds or com- 
 partments of peat-soil, or other peculiar soils, for such plants 
 as are not readily propagated and grown in ordinary soils 
 Where tender plants are propagated, or where hardy plants 
 are to he raised from seeds or struck from cuttings which 
 are not easily germinated or rooted in the open ground and 
 in the ordinary manner, hotbeds, frames, and hand-glasses 
 are also requisite. Every private garden of any extent re 
 quires a nursery to raise and bring forward young plants as 
 a reserve for supplying failures by disease or accident in 
 the general garden ; and in every country where private 
 gardens or plantations of trees are frequent, public or com 
 
NUTATION. 
 
 mercial nurseries are formed by persons who adopt nursery 
 gardening ;is a business. 
 
 N L'TA'TION. In Astronomy, the name given to a small 
 gyratory movement of the earth's axis, in virtue of which, 
 if it subsisted alone, without the precession of the equinox- 
 es, the pcle of the equator would describe among the stars, 
 in a period of about nineteen years, a small ellipse, having 
 its longer axis equal to 18-5", and its shatter to 13-74" ; the 
 longer being directed to the pole of tne ecliptic, and the 
 shorter, of course, at right angles to the longer. 
 
 In order to understand the nature of this phenomenon, it 
 is necessary to consider it in connexion with that of pre- 
 ■i, both depending on the same physical cause, and 
 a. in fact, essential constituent parts of one and the 
 tame great phenomenon. The action of the sun and moon 
 on the protuberant mass about the earth's equator tends 
 constantly to draw the plane of the equator towards that 
 of the ecliptic, or to diminish the angle between them. In 
 consequence of the earth's rapid rotation about its axis, the 
 inclination of the two planes is not permanently altered, 
 hut a motion is communicated to the plane of the equator, 
 ol such a kind that its axis revolves with a slow conical 
 motion about the axis of the ecliptic ; or, which is the same 
 thing, the pole of the equator describes a circle in the heav- 
 if the ecliptic as a centre, keeping con- 
 stantly at the -Hoc mean distance of about — 1° 88' Gr<on it. 
 The direction of this motion Is from cast to west, and its 
 velocity amounts only to SW" annually, so that the whole 
 circle requires Gar its description a period of 25^968 year*. 
 
 Let us now consider what would be the effect of the 
 moon's action independently of that of the sun. The lunar 
 orbit does not coincide with the ecliptic ; it is inclined to it 
 in an angle of about.")- 1 '.!'; and llic |M>sjtiiin of the line in 
 which the two planes Intersect, that is, the line of the 
 nodes, goes back on the ecliptic with a motion which ear> 
 rhM it through a complete revolution in about eighteen 
 aud seven months. The avis of the lunar <>i l>it. 
 therefore, also describes a conical motion about that of the 
 ecliptic, or its pole describes a small circle in the heavens 
 about the pole of the ecliptic, at the distance of 5° 9', and 
 in the tame period of about eighteen years and ■ 
 months. Now, the effect of the moon's attraction qn the 
 parts of the terrestrial spheroid exterior to the inscribed 
 sphere i< to produce a slow conical motion of the earth's 
 axis, not about the pole of the ecliptic, but about the pole 
 of the lunar orbit, which it itself in a state of comparatively 
 rapid motion about the pole of the ecliptic. The point, 
 therefore, in the sphere of the heavens round which the 
 jh.Ic of the earth's equator revolves, being in a state of con- 
 tinual circulation round the pole of the ecliptic, the path 
 which the pole of the equator describe* is not a circle, but 
 a sort of epicycloidal curve, or gently undulated i inir. This 
 will be rendered evident by the annexed figure. Let P be 
 the pole of the ecliptic, which is tapjKMM to be fixed; A 
 the pole of the moon's orbit, moving 
 round the small circle A B C D in the 
 : nearly nineteen years ; a the 
 pole of the earth's equator, which at 
 each moment moves in a direction 
 perpendicular to the varying position 
 of the line A a, and with a velocity 
 varying with the intensity of the act- 
 ing forces during the revolution of the 
 moon's nodes, but, on the whole, so 
 slow as to carry it round only in 
 25,868 years. When, therefore, A arrives successively at 
 B, C, D, and E, the line A a will take the positions 15 /,,'<: c, 
 D d, E e: the earth's pole will thus, in one tropical revolu- 
 tion of A, have arrived at t; and its direction having been 
 always perpendicular to B i, C c, &c, the path which it 
 will have described will lie of the form abode. The same 
 thing will he repeated at each succeeding revolution of the 
 i ile; and it is this alternate increase and diminu- 
 tion of the distances Pa, P c, and P c which constitute the 
 
 phe nenon of the nutation. 
 
 As the effect of the sun or moon in giving the earth a 
 about its centre of gravity varies with the distance 
 of the attracting body from the plane of the equator, it is 
 evident that the effect of the sun is greatest at the solstices, 
 and is reduced to nothing at the equinoxes. On this ac- 
 count, the obliquity of the ecliptic is subject to a small 
 semi-annual variation, depending on the sun alone. This 
 is called the solar nutation. Its existence is, however, only 
 a deduction from the theory of attraction; for its amount, 
 which is less than half a second, is too small to be sensible 
 to observation. The result produced by the combined ac- 
 tion of the sun and moon is called the luni-solar nutation; 
 though the sensible part of it is produced only by the moon, 
 ami follows exactly tie: period of the moon's nodes. 
 The uranographical effect of the nutation is to produce a 
 tation of the apparent obliquity of the eclip- 
 tic, and of the velocity of the regression of the equinoctial 
 
 NU'iR A. 
 
 p lint . Hence arises the distinction between apparent and 
 mean right ascension and declination ; the former being 
 given by direct observation, and the latter being the results 
 obtained xvhen the observed places of objects have been 
 cleared of the periodical fluctuations arising from nutation. 
 Formulae and tables, for the reduction of observations to a 
 common epoch, are given in all works on practical astron- 
 omy. 
 
 The discovery of the nutation of the terrestrial axis be- 
 longs to Bradley, and was a consequence of his other great 
 discover) ', the aberration of light. In prosecuting his ob- 
 servations witli a zenith sector, with a view to establish his 
 theory of the al>erration, he found a greater apparent change 
 in the declinations of stars near the equinoctial colore than 
 could arise from a precession of 50" in a year, and at the 
 same time exnetly the reverse effect in the case of stars 
 near the solstitial colure. In the course of five years, the 
 changes in question amounted, in some instances, to 9" or 
 10" ; and as it was evident that they could not be explained 
 by any alteration of the quantity of precession, Bradley re- 
 verted to an idea which had previously occurred to him in 
 attempting to account for the phenomenon of aberration. 
 '• I suspected," says he, "that the moon's action upon the 
 equatorial parti of the earth might produce these effects. 
 For if the precession of the equinoxes be, according to Sil 
 Isaac Newton's principles, caused by tin' action of the sun 
 and moon upon those pans, the plane of the moon's orbit 
 ne time above ten decrees more inclined to the 
 equator than at another, it was reasonable to conclude that 
 the part of the whole annual precession which arise* from 
 her action would, in different years, be varied in its quan- 
 tity; wbereat the plane of the ecliptic wherein the sun ap- 
 peals keeping nearly always the same inclination to the 
 equator, that part of the precession which is owing to the 
 sun's action may be the same every year; and from hence 
 It would follow that although the mean annual precession 
 proceeding from the joint actions of the sun and moon were 
 50", vet the apparent annual precession might sometimes 
 exceed and sometimes fall short of that mean quantity, ac- 
 cording to the various situations of the nodes of the moon's 
 orbit." 
 
 A long series of observations on stars situated i i dih. « ■ t 
 parts of the heavens proved the correctness of. this theory : 
 and it was found that all the phenomena were capable of 
 being explained on the hypothesis that the |>ole of the i qua- 
 tiir describes a small circle about its mean place, contrary 
 to the order of the signs, and in the same period at that of 
 the revolution of the moon's nodes. Bradley himself after- 
 wards remarked that they would be still more accurately 
 represented by supposing the curve described by the pole 
 about its mean place to be an ellipse instead of a circle. 
 This is confirmed by accurately calculating, from theory, 
 the amount of all the forces which tend to displace the ter- 
 restrial equator. The result shows the path of the pole to 
 be an ellipse, and gives nearly the same values of its semi- 
 transverse and conjugate aves as are given by observation. 
 These values were found by Von Lindenau from a 
 810 observations, embracing three complete revolutions ol 
 the moon's nodes, to be 80-977" and G-682" respectively. 
 The value of the semiaxis major of the small ellipse ima- 
 gined by Bradley is called the constant of nutation, and en- 
 ters as an element into all reductions of astronomical ob- 
 servations. Von Lindenau's determination, above stated, is 
 adopted by the German astronomers. The value generally 
 used by British astronomers is 925' , which was deduced 
 by Dr. Brinkley, bishop of Cloyne, from his own observa- 
 tions with the Dublin circle. Very recently, this Important 
 astronomical element has been investigated by Dr. Robin 
 son, of Armagh, from the Greenwich observations with the 
 mural circle from 1812 to 1835, and the result at which he 
 arrives is 923913". (Memoirs Roy. Jlst. Soc, vol. xi., 1840 ; 
 Airy' s Math. Tracts ; HerseheTs Astronomy.) See Pre- 
 cession. 
 
 NU'TIIATCII. The name of a shy and solitary bird of 
 the genus Sitta (S. Europaa). It frequents woods, nnd feeds 
 on insects chiefly ; but also eats the kernel of the hazelnut, 
 which it cracks by fixing it in a chink, nnd striking it from 
 above with all its force. The nuthatch lays her eggs in 
 holes of trees, and hisses like a snake when disturbed. 
 
 NUT OF A SCREW. In Architecture, a piece of wood, 
 iron, or other metal, pierced cylindrically, wherein is cut a 
 spiral groove, adapted to an external cylindrical spiral cut 
 on a bolt. Its use is to screw two bodies together, a head 
 being placed on one end of the bolt to counteract the action 
 of the nut. Two bodies are thus held together by com- 
 pression, the bolt between the head and the nut being a tie. 
 
 NUTRIA, or NEUTRIA. The commercial name for 
 the skins of Muopotamus Bonariensis (Commersonl, the 
 Coypou of Molina, nnd the Quoiya of D'Azara. In Frnnce 
 the skins were, and perhaps still are, sold under the name 
 of racoonda ; but in England they are imported at nutria 
 t'kins— deriving thejr appellation, most probably, from some 
 i 839 
 
NUTRITION. 
 
 supposed similarity of the animal which produces them, in 
 appearance and habits, to the otter, the Spanish name for 
 which is nutria. Indeed, Molina speaks of the coypou as a 
 species of water-rat of the size and colour of the otter. 
 
 Nutria fur is largely vised in the hat manufacture; and 
 has become, within the last 15 or 20 years, an article of very 
 considerable commercial importance. The imports fluctu- 
 ate considerably. In 1823, they amounted to 1,570,103 
 skins : but they have not, in any other year, been much 
 more than half that number. In 1826, they were only 
 60,871. In 1837 and 1838, the imports were, at an average, 
 358,280 skins a year. Those entered for home consumption 
 pay a duty of l£d. a skin. They are principally brought 
 from the Rio de la Plata. Nutria skins are very extensively 
 used on the continent. Geoffrey mentions* that, in certain 
 years, a single French furrier (M. Bechem) has received 
 from 15,000 to 20,000 skins. 
 
 Like the beaver, the coypou is furnished with two kinds 
 of fur; viz. the long ruddy hair, which gives the tone of 
 colour, and the brownish ash-coloured fur at its base, which, 
 like the down of the beaver, is of much importance in hat 
 making, and the cause of the animal's commercial value. 
 
 The habits of the coypou are much like those of most of 
 the other aquatic Rodent animals. Its principal food, in a 
 state of nature, is vegetable. It affects the neighbourhood 
 of water, swims perfectly well, and burrows in the ground. 
 The female brings forth from five to seven at a time ; and 
 the young always accompany her. 
 
 The coypou is easily domesticated, and its manners in 
 captivity are very mild. (See Martin in the Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society, 1835). 
 
 NU TUITION. See Food, Digestion. 
 
 NUTMEG. The fruit of the Myristica moschata, a beau- 
 tiful tree of the family of the Laurinea of Jussieu, which 
 grows In the Molucca islands. All the parts of this tree 
 are very aromatic ; but only those portions of the fruit call- 
 ed mace and nutmeg are sent into the market. The entire 
 fruit is a species of drupa, of an ovoid form, of the size of a 
 peach, and furrowed longitudinally. The nutmeg is the 
 innermost kernel or seed, contained in a thin shell, which is 
 surrounded by the mace ; and this again is inclosed in a 
 tough fleshy skin, which, opening at the tip, separates into 
 two valves. The nutmeg-tree yields three crops annually ; 
 one in April, which is the best; one in August ; and one in 
 December. 
 
 Good nutmegs should be dense, and feel heavy in the 
 hand. When they have been perforated by worms, they 
 feel light; and though the holes have been fraudulently 
 rtopped, the unsound ones may be easily detected by this 
 criterion. 
 
 Nutmegs afford two oily products. 1. Butter of nutmeg, 
 vulgarly called oil of mace, is obtained in the Moluccas, 
 Dy expression, from the fresh nutmegs, to the amount of 
 50 per cent, of their weight. It is a reddish-yellow butter- 
 like substance, interspersed with light and dark streaks, 
 and possesses the agreeable smell and taste of the nutmeg, 
 from the presence of a volatile oil. It consists of two fats ; 
 one reddish and soft, soluble in cold alcohol; another 
 white and solid, soluble in hot alcohol. 2. The volatile oil 
 is solid, or a stereoptene, and has been styled myristicine. 
 (Ure's Diet, of Jlrts, A'-c.) 
 
 NUTS. (Lat. mix.) The fruit of different species of 
 Coryli or hazels. The kernels have a mild farinaceous 
 oily taste, agreeable to most palates; a kind of chocolate 
 has been prepared from them, and they have sometimes 
 been made into bread. The expressed oil of hazel nuts is 
 little inferior to that of almonds. Besides those raised at 
 home, nuts are imported from different parts of France, 
 Portugal, and Spain, but chiefly from the latter. The 
 Spanish nuts in highest estimation, though sold by the 
 name of Barcelona nuts, are not shipped from thence, but 
 from Tarragona, whence the average annual export is esti- 
 mated at from 25,000 to 30,000 bags, four to the ton. The 
 annual entries of nuts for home consumption amount to 
 from 100,000 to 125,000 bushels ; the dutv of 2s. a bushel 
 yielding from £10,000 to £12,000 nett. (Commercial Diet). 
 
 NU'TTALITE. A mineral associated with calcspar, 
 from Bolton, in Massachusetts : it occurs in prismatic 
 crystals, and appears, from Dr. Thomson's analysis, to be 
 an alumino-silicate of lime, potash, and iron. 
 
 NUX. A kind of fruit, hard, dry, not splitting, and con- 
 taining only one seed ; it is also extended by some writers 
 to any similar fruit, whether it contains one cell or more 
 than one. See Nuts. 
 
 NUX VOMICA. (Lat.) The fruit of a species of 
 utry^hnos growing in the East Indies. It produces the 
 alkaloid salts, strychnia, and bruchia, and is a very viru- 
 ent poison. 
 
 NY'CTALOPS. (Gr. vv$, night, and onropai, I see.) 
 
 * Jlimalcs rfu Museum, vol. vi., p. 82. The figure given is. generally 
 I taking, good ; but Ihe tail is too* hairy, and contradicts the description. 
 840 
 
 OAK. 
 
 One who only sees distinctly in twilight, or the dusk o 
 evening. 
 
 NYMPH, Nympha. (Gr. vv^rj, a nymph.) The Me- 
 tabolian insects are so called when in the second stajre 
 of their metamorphosis, especially when they possess tkt 
 power of locomotion. See Popa. 
 
 NYMPHA'.'A, was the name given to some public bath?- 
 at Rome conseorated to the nymphs, with whose statues 
 they were adorned. 
 
 NYMPHA'CEA. In Zoology, a name given by Lamarck 
 to a family of Bivalves. 
 
 NYMPHjEA'CEjE. {Nymphcea, one of the genera.) In 
 Botany, a natural order of plants, containing the water- 
 lilies of various parts of the world ; they are Polypetaloos 
 Polyandrous Exogens, with the sides of the cells of the 
 fruit covered with numerous seeds. Their steins burrow 
 among the mud of the places where they grow, and have 
 slightly astringent narcotic properties. The species are 
 most valued for the beauty of their flowers, which in Vic- 
 toria regia, are tbe largest in nature, measuring as much 
 as four feet in circumference. 
 
 NYMPHA'LIS. A genus of diurnal Lepidopterous in- 
 sects, now the type of a family. 
 
 NYMPHI'PARA. (Gr. vvpQt), a nymph; pario, I pro- 
 duce.) A hybrid name applied by Reaumur to a family of 
 Dipterous insects, and changed by Latreille into Pupipara. 
 See that word. 
 
 NYMPHS. (Gr. vvpfat.) Female beings, in Grecian 
 Mythology, partaking of the nature of gods and men. They 
 peopled all the regions of earth and water, and were va- 
 riously designated, according to the places of their abode. 
 Thus, the Naiades inhabited the streams, the Oreiades the 
 mountains, the Dryades the woods, the Hamadryades trees, 
 with which they were born and died. They are represent- 
 ed as very beautiful ; they constituted the attendants of 
 various of the higher female divinities, especially Diana, 
 and were also considered as having been the nurses of many 
 of the gods, as Jupiter and Pan. See Naiads, Nereids. 
 
 NYSTA'GMUS. (Gr. wtrraym) A winking of the 
 eyes, as observed to a drowsy person. 
 
 o. 
 
 O. A letter of the vowel series, which, if arranged ac- 
 cording to the nature of the sound, occupies a position 
 between a and u. It is susceptible of numerous inter- 
 changes, for which the reader is referred to the Penny 
 Cyclopaedia. The Greeks had two forms of this letter, o 
 (oniKpov, or little o), and u> (o/ieya, or large o) ; the former 
 of which was equivalent to the short, and the totter to 
 the long pronunciation of this letter in other countries. 
 Among the Irish, the letter O prefixed to a name was 
 originally considered as a mark of family dignity; it is 
 now, however, we believe, considered to be merely equiva- 
 lent to Fitz in England and Mac in Scotland, indicating son. 
 
 O. In Music, the O, circle, or double C, or semicircle, is 
 a note which we call a semibreve, and the Italians circolo ; 
 used by them to mark what they call tempo perfetto, and 
 what we call triple time. 
 
 OAK. (Germ, eiche.) The general name of a well- 
 known hard-wooded forest tree, much cultivated for the 
 purposes of timber, particularly in ship-building, and in 
 other cases when much exposure to the weather is required. 
 There are several varieties of this valuable tree; but the 
 common English oak (Quercus robur) claims precedence 
 of every other. The oak timber imported from America is 
 very inferior to that of this country: the oak from the 
 central parts of Europe is also inferior, especially in com- 
 pactness and resistance of cleavage. The knotty oak of 
 England, the "unwedgeable and gnarled oak," as Sliak- 
 speare called it, when cut down at a proper age (from 50 to 
 70 years), is the best timber known. Some timber is harder, 
 some more difficult to rend, and some less capable of being 
 broken across ; but none contains all the three qualities in 
 so great and equal proportions; and thus, for at once sup- 
 porting a weight, resisting a strain, and not splintering by a 
 cannon shot, the timber of the oak is superior to every 
 other. 
 
 A fine oak is one of the most picturesque of trees : it con- 
 veys to the mind associations of strength nnd duration 
 which are very impressive. The oak stands up against fho 
 blast, and does not take, like other trees, a twisted form 
 from the action of the winds. Except the cedar of Lebanon, 
 no tree is so remarkable for the stoutness of its limbs ; they 
 do not exactly spring from the trunk, but divide from it, 
 and thus it is sometimes difficult to know which is stem 
 and which is branch. The twisted branches of the oak, 
 too, add greatly to its beauty; and the horizontal direction 
 of its boughs, spreading over a large surface, completes the 
 idea of its sovereignty over all the trees of the forest. 
 
OAKUM. 
 
 The oak is raised from acorns, sown either where the 
 ink is to stand, or in a nursery whence the young trees are 
 transplanted. 
 
 The colour of oak wood is a fine brown, and is familiar 
 one: it i< of different shades; that inclined to red 
 is the most inferior kind of wood. The larger transverse 
 nepta are in general very distinct, producing beautiful flowers 
 men em obliquely. Where the septa are small, and not 
 very distinct, the wood is much the strongest. The texture 
 is alternately compact and porous; the compact part of the 
 annual ring being of the darkest colour, and in irregular 
 dots, surrounded by open pores, producing beautiful dark 
 veins in some kinds, particularly pollard o:iks. Oak timber 
 has a particular smell, anil the taste is slightly astringent. 
 It contains gallic acid, and is blackened by contact with 
 iron when it is damp. The young wood of English oak is 
 very tough, often cross-grained, and difficult to work. Fo- 
 reign wood, and that of old trees, is more brittle and work- 
 able. Oak warps and twists much in drying ; and, in sea- 
 sonini, shrinks about 7,'^d of its width. 
 
 i tak Of a good quality il more durable than any other 
 WOOll ili.it attains a like size. Vitruvius says it is of eternal 
 duration when driven into the earth : it is extremely durable 
 in water ; and in a dry state it has been known to last near- 
 ly 1000 years. The more compact it la, and the smaller the 
 pores are, the longer it will last; but the open, porous, and 
 foxy-coloured oak, which grows in Lincolnshire and some 
 other places, is not near so durable. 
 
 the common British Qak (Quercus robur), the 
 sessile fiuited bay oak (Quercus sessilifiora) is pretty 
 abundant in several parts Of England, particularly in the 
 north. The wood of this species is said by Tredgold to be 
 darker, heavier, harder, and more elastic th:* the common 
 oak ; tough, and dilficult to work; and very subject to warp 
 and split in seasoning. Mr. Tredgold seems disposed to re- 
 gard Una species as superior to the common oak for ship- 
 building. But other, and also very high authorities, are 
 Opposed to him on tins |*>int; and, on the whole, we should 
 think that it is sullieiently well established that for all the 
 great practical p u r pe sos io which oak timber is applied, and 
 especially for ship building, the wood of the common oak 
 deserves to be prefened to every other species. A well- 
 informed writer in the Quarterly Review, has the following 
 remarks on the point in question : 
 
 " We may here notice a fact long known to botanists, 
 but of which our planters and purveyors of timber appear 
 to bate bad no suspicion, that there are two distinct species 
 of oak in Kngland — the Quercus robur, and the Quercus 
 i ; the former of which affords a close grained. 
 (bin, •Olid timber, rarely subject to rot; the other more 
 loose and sappy, very liable to rot, and not half so durable. 
 This difference was noted so early as the time of Ray; and 
 Martyn in his Flora Hustica, and Sir James Smith in his 
 Flora liritannica, have added their testimonies to the fact. 
 I supposed to have been introduced 
 tome two or three years ago from the continent, where the 
 oaks are chiefly of this latter species, especially in the Ger- 
 man forests, the timber of which is known to be very 
 worthless. But what is of more importance to us is, that 
 de facto the imposture abounds, and is propagated vigor- 
 ously in the New Forest and other parts of Hampshire, in 
 Norfolk and the northern counties, and about London; and 
 there is but too much reason to believe that the numerous 
 complaints that were heard about our ships being infected 
 with what was called, improperly enough, dry rot, were 
 owing to the introduction of this species of oak into the 
 naval dock-yards, where, we understand, the distinction 
 was not even suspected. It may thus be discriminated 
 from the true old English oak: The acorn stalks of the 
 robur are lornr, "rid its leaves short; whereas the sessili- 
 ftnm has the acorn stalks short, and the leaves long: the 
 ncorns of the former grow singly, or seldom two on the 
 same footstalk ; those of the latter in clusters of two or 
 three close to the stem of the branch. We believe the 
 -hips of the Baltic that are not of larch or fir are 
 built of this species of oak; but if this were not the case, 
 their exposure on the stocks, without cover, to the heat of 
 sunnier, which, though short, Is excessive, and the rifts 
 and chinks which fill up with ice and snow in the long 
 winter, are enough to destroy the stoutest oak, and quite 
 sufficient to account for their short-lived duration 
 
 OA KIJM. The yarns of wntcn rope is composed when 
 twisted into fibre. When mingled with pitch it is used for 
 ■ leaks. 
 
 OA'NNES. In ancient Mythology, the most celebrated 
 divinity of the Babylonians. He was represented as a 
 l oa mon ster, with human feet and hands ; and was said 
 to dwell in the abysses of the Red Sea, whence he was In 
 the habit of issuing daily, and proceeding to Babylon, where 
 he communicated Instruction on religion, the science of 
 government, and the usefu 1 ~rt«. It has been generally 
 mpposed that Oaones was identical with the god Dagon, 
 
 OATH. 
 
 Sea monster, upward man, 
 And downward fish ; 
 
 and it is certain that the worship of marine animals con- 
 stituted a leading feature in the religious observances of 
 the Syrians and the adjacent nations. See Daqo.n. 
 
 OAR. In Nautical Affairs, a long piece of timber, flat at 
 one end, and round or square at the other, by which a boat, 
 barge, or galley, &.C. is propelled through the water. The 
 flat part dipped into tile water is called the blade ; the other 
 other end is the loom, which terminates in the handle. The 
 fulcrum of the oar is the hole in the gunwale called the 
 rowlock, or between two pins called thole pins, or one thole 
 pin with a loose Blrap for confining the oar. There are 
 various nautical phrases contingent upon this term, a few 
 of which may not, perhaps, be out of place here. To boat 
 the oars, signifies to lay them in from rowing ; to feather the 
 oar, to hold the blade horizontally, so as not to catch wind 
 to lie on the oars, to suspend rowing for any interval ; this 
 is also the salute given to persons of distinction in passing; 
 to ship and unship the oars, respectively to fix them and 
 throw them out of the rowlocks. 
 
 OA'SIS. (Derived from the Coptic ouali, Arab. wah.) 
 The name given to those fertile spots, watered by springs 
 and covered with verdure, which are scattered about the 
 great sandy deserts of Africa. The most noted are situated 
 in the Lybian desert. The oases of Egypt are nothing more 
 than valleys or depressions of the lofty plain which forms 
 the extensive table-land of eastern Africa. They bear, in 
 many respects, a similarity to a portion of the valley of 
 Egypt, being surrounded by sleep clilfs of limestone at some 
 distance from the cultivated land, which vary in height in 
 the different oases, those rising from the southern oases 
 being the highest; neither do they present a continuation 
 of cultivable soil, all of them being intersected by patches 
 of desert. They no doubt owe their origin to the springs 
 with which they abound, the decay of the vegetation thence 
 arising having produced the soil with which they are now 
 covered. Their fertility has been deservedly celebrated; 
 but the glowing eulogiums of travellers on their surpassing 
 beauty are probably, In a great measure, to be ascribed to 
 the striking contrast they present to the deserts of burning 
 sand with which they tire surrounded. It may appeal con- 
 tradictory, considering the high opinion the ancients enter 
 tained of the fertility and beauty of the oases, that they 
 should have selected them for places of banishment ; but 
 that such was the case, at least under the Romans, is cer 
 tain. A law of the Digest, lib. 48, lit. 2i refers to this 
 practice; and it has been supposed that the poet Juvenal 
 was one of those who suffered a temporary banishment 
 (relegatio) to the oases, though the evidence of this is by 
 no means clear. {Biographic Universclle, art. Juvenal.) 
 But the fact of their being selected as places of banishment 
 Is not in anywise inconsistent with the received opinions as 
 to their salubrity and fertility. They were selected, not be- 
 cause of their being naturally noxious or disagreeable, but 
 because of their being, as it were, out of the world, and 
 from the extreme difficulty of escaping from them. The 
 larger oases have some fine remnants of antiquity ; the 
 most celebrated of which is the temple of Jupiter Amnion, 
 at Siwah. (See the Geo. Diet., art. "Egypt," and the au- 
 thorities there referred to.) See Desert. 
 
 OAST. The term applied to a kiln for drying hops, and 
 which differs from a kiln for drying corn chiefly in being 
 heated by a stove with flues, instead of an open fire, the 
 smoke and heat of which passes up through the corn. 
 
 OAT FIELD. See Open Field Laud. 
 
 OAT GALLS. See Gail Nuts. 
 
 OATH, Is defined by Paley "the calling on God to wit- 
 ness, i. <-., take notice of what we say ; and invoking his 
 vengeance, or renouncing his favour, if what we say be 
 false, or if what we promise be not performed." By the 
 jurisprudence of nearly all known nations it has been ad- 
 mitted, in one form or another, as the solemn test of truth 
 in judicial proceedings. Thus, as a general rule, all evi- 
 dence in such proceedings must be given on oath by English , 
 law ; and the having taken such oath subjects the witness 
 to the penalties of perjury if his testimony be fnlse. The 
 only exceptions are, 1. In favour of Quakers, Moravians, 
 and Separatists, whose " affirmation" is now admissible in 
 nil judicial proceedings, whether civil or criminal. The 
 1 At 2 Vic c. TZ extends this orivileee to oersnns who have 
 oeen Quakers or Moravians, out nave -ch tnose commu- 
 nities, retaining their objections. 2. Persons entitled to 
 privilege of peerage give in their answers, in chancery, 
 "upon their honour," instead of nn oath ; and corporations 
 put In answers under the great seal. Oaths are administer- 
 ed publicly in court, where the witness is about to give his 
 evidence viva voce ; and, by competent authority, where 
 the evidence is reduced into writing, the attestation ot the 
 witness being termed his " affidavit." 
 
 A; ' believer in a definite form of religion can be a wit- 
 ness, and the oath may be administered " according to suck 
 
 841 
 
OATS. 
 
 forms and ceremonies as he may declare to be binding." 
 (1 & 2 Vic, c. 108.) But persons who cannot take an oath 
 are incapable of being witnesses ; such, therefore, as will 
 not declare their belief in God, in a future state of rewards 
 and punishments, and that perjury will be punished by the 
 Deity, are excluded ; as well as those who, from their 
 years or ignorance, are incapable of comprehending the na- 
 ture of an oath. 
 
 Oaths are still required by law on many occasions be- 
 sides the giving evidence in judicial proceedings, and were 
 formerly in a still greater number, until the 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 
 62, which substituted declarations in a great variety of ca- 
 es, especially relating to the customs, excises, and post- 
 office. Besides the Quakers and Moravians, several small 
 sects of Christians profess conscientious objections to oaths, 
 grounded on the express language of the scriptures. The 
 Church of England, in common with the Catholic Church 
 in all ages, and with most varieties of Christians, considers 
 judicial oaths lawful, and declares them so by her 39th ar- 
 ticle. They have also been held mischievous or unneces- 
 sary by some philosophical writers, especially Bentham, in 
 his Rationale of Evidence. The only answer to his rea- 
 soning appears to be that, however unreasonable the be- 
 lief that the duty of truth is rendered more imperative by 
 the formality of an oath, still, while such belief is a preva- 
 lent one, or while the imagination of witnesses in general 
 is impressed by its solemnity, the convenience of retaining 
 the practice overbalances the disadvantages. 
 
 OATS. See Avena. 
 
 OBE'DIENCE, PASSIVE, in Politics, signifies the un- 
 qualified obedience which, according to some political phi- 
 losophers, is due from subjects to the supreme power in the 
 state ; insomuch that not only its lawful, but its unlawful 
 commands, may not be forcibly resisted without sin. The 
 doctrine of passive obedience or non-resistance was strong- 
 ly professed by the church of England in the time of King 
 James I. ; much commented on by writers, both for and 
 against it, under Charles and James II. ; and condemned 
 at the Revolution. See Non-resistanck and Divine 
 Right. 
 
 O'BELISK. (Or. oPtktoKOs, dim. from :■■■,, Lat. obe- 
 lus, a needlt, or dart.) A lofty quadrangular monolithic 
 column, " diminishing upwards, with the sides gently in- 
 clined, but not so as to terminate in an apex at the top ; 
 neither is it truncated or cut off at the summit, but the sides 
 are sloped oft' so as to form a flattish pyramidal figure, by 
 which the whole is suitably finished off and brought to a 
 point, without the upper part being so contracted as to ap- 
 pear insignificant." Egypt was, properly speaking, the 
 land of obelisks ; and they are unquestionably to be reck- 
 oned among the most ancient monuments of that extraor- 
 dinary people. Much learning and ingenuity has been ex- 
 pended in endeavouring to ascertain their origin, and the 
 purposes for which they were erected ; but it does not ap- 
 pear that any satisfactory solution of the problem has hith- 
 erto been given. It has been frequently asserted that obe- 
 lisks were originally erected in honour of the sun, of which 
 they were said to be symbolical, and that they served the 
 purposes of a gnome or sun-dial ; but this opinion is now 
 almost totally rejected, and it is generally believed that 
 obelisks were nothing more than monumental structures, 
 serving as ornaments to the open squares in which they 
 were generally built, or intended to celebrate some impor- 
 tant event and to perpetuate its remembrance. They were 
 usually adorned with hieroglyphics ; and we learn from 
 the testimony of Diodorus and Strabo that the inscriptions 
 with which they were charged declared the amount of 
 gold and silver, the number of troops, and the quantity of 
 ivory, perfumes, and corn which all the countries subject to 
 Egypt were required to furnish. The two largest obelisks 
 were erected by Sesostris in Heliopolis. They were form- 
 ed of a single block of granite, and measured 180 feet in 
 height. When Egypt became a Roman province, Augustus 
 removed these obelisks to his own capital ; and this prac- 
 tice found numerous imitators both in some of his succes- 
 sors to the imperial throne, and, at a much later period, in 
 many of the Roman pontiffs, from the 16th century down 
 to the present times. Of these obelisks that of the Late- 
 ran, which is the largest now known, being 105 feet in 
 height exclusive of the pedestal, and weighing 440 tons, 
 was brought by Constantine from Heliopolis to Alexandria, 
 and thence by Constantius his son to Rome, where it was 
 erected in the Circus Maximus. The obelisk next in size 
 to that of the Lateran was placed originally in the Vatican 
 circus by Caligula, but it now stands in the piazza of St. 
 Peter's ; its entire height is 132 feet, including the pedestal, 
 &c. The obelisks most generally known, at least in name, 
 are the Luxor, which was removed to Paris in 1833 ; and 
 the two monoliths called Cleopatra's Needles, of which 
 one is standing, and the other on the ground ; but these are 
 smaller than those we have adverted to, the Luxor being 
 76 feet in height, and the Needle of Cleopatra, which still 
 842 
 
 OBJECT-GLASS. 
 
 stands, being about 63 feet in height, exclusive of me ped- 
 estal, &c. A full consideration of the Egyptian obeliski 
 would involve us in the discussion of several most impor- 
 tant questions, on which our limits preclude us from enter- 
 ing. Of these, perhaps the most extraordinary is the won- 
 derful knowledge of mechanical power which the Egyp- 
 tians evinced in erecting and removing such gigantic struc- 
 tures — a feat which it would require the greatest skill and 
 ingenuity of modern engineers, even in the present com- 
 paratively perfect state of mechanical science, to accom- 
 plish. (See the learned treatise of Zoega on Obelisks ; see 
 also Sir O. Wilkinson's Egyptians, vol. iii., passim, which 
 contains some excellent illustrations of the different meth- 
 ods adopted by that people for removing their huge struc- 
 tures from place to place.) 
 
 O'BELUS. In Diplomatics, a mark so called from its re- 
 semblance to a needle (Gr. oBeXos) ; usually thus — or thus 
 -J- in ancient MSS. It was used by Origen, in his Hexapla, 
 to mark the passages where something is found in the Sep- 
 tuagint which is not in the Hebrew. The common use of 
 the line — in modern writing is to mark the place of a 
 break in the sense, where it is suspended, or where there is 
 an ungrammatical transition; but a paragraph introduced 
 where the sense is suspended, is more properly marked by 
 the sign of a parenthesis. 
 
 O'BERON. In Mediaeval Mythology, the King of the 
 Fairies. Wieland's beautiful poem, and Weber's romantic 
 opera of this name, the Midsummer Night's Dream, and 
 innumerable other poems and tales of which he is the hero, 
 have made the name of Oberon so familiar, that it will be 
 unnecessary to do more in this place than to state the origin 
 of the fable. The name Oberon first appears in the old 
 French fabHaux of Huon of Bordeaux ; it is identical with 
 Auberon, or Alberon, the first syllable of which is nothing 
 more than the old German word Alb, elf or fairy, which, in 
 the Helden-Buch and other old German poems, is expressed 
 variously by Alberich or Alban. (See Grimm's Deutsche 
 Mythologie, p. 256.) He was represented as endowed with 
 magic powers, and with the qualities of a good and upright 
 monarch, rewarding those who practised truth and honesty, 
 and | noshing those who acted otherwise. Hi; v. i 
 was Titania, or Mab, whose powers have been so beautiful- 
 ly depicted in Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 OBE'SITY. (Lat. obesus, fat.) Unhealthy fatness. 
 The tendency to the formation of fat is often so excessive as 
 to constitute a disease, and it occasionally prevails in par- 
 ticular habits, so as to cause a most unsightly bulk of body, 
 and to be independent of diet. The celebrated Lambert, 
 who exhibited himself some years ago, was a remarkable 
 specimen of this disease. He died in the fortieth year of 
 his age, and weighed, a little before his death, 739 pounds. 
 There is an account, in the Philosophical Transactions for 
 1813, of a girl, only four years old, who weighed 256 pounds 
 from accumulation of fat. 
 
 When obesity is limited to the abdomen, arising from ex- 
 cessive deposition of fat in the omentum, and producing 
 what is called a pot-belly, or where it is the result of indo- 
 lence and indulgence in luxurious diet, a slow and prudent 
 change from a full to a spare diet, and the judicious use of 
 purgatives and of appropriate modes of exercise, have oc- 
 casionally effected remarkable cures. 
 
 O'BIT. (Lat. obitus, death.) In the Roman Catholic 
 liturgy, a service performed for the repose of a departed 
 soul. 
 
 OBI'TUARY. (Lat. obitarium.) A register in which 
 are enrolled the names of deceased persons for whom obits 
 are to be performed, and the days of their funeral. It is 
 also used for the book containing the foundation or institu- 
 tion of the several obits in a church or monastery. In the 
 former sense it is synonymous with necrology, in the later 
 with martyrology. 
 
 OBJECT-GLASS (of a refracting telescope or micro- 
 scope). The lens which first receives the rays of light 
 coming directly from the object, and collects them into a 
 focus, where they form nn image which is viewed through 
 the eye-glass. 
 
 The excellence of an object-glaas depends on the distinct- 
 ness of the image which it forms. On account of the un- 
 equal refrangibility of the rays of light, it is necessary, in 
 order to procure a distinct image, to employ an achromatic 
 combination of lenses, formed of substances having different 
 dispersive powers, and of such figures that the aberration of 
 the one mav be corrected by that of the other. The sub- 
 stances chiefly used are crown-glass and flint-glass; the 
 dispersive powers of which are respectively as 3 to 5. By 
 combining a convex lens of crown-glass with a concave lens 
 of flint-glass, having their focal distances in that proportion, 
 an image would be formed free from colour, but it would 
 not be free from aberration. The determination of the 
 form of the compound lens which shall give the least possi- 
 ble aberration for parallel rays is a problem which admits 
 of exact calculation. The following are the dimension* 
 
 
OBJECT, OBJECTIVE. 
 
 found by Sir John Herschel for an object-glass of thirty 
 inches focal length, of the form shown in the annexed fig- 
 ure, \\ here A B is the convex lens of crown-glass on the 
 outside towards the object, and C D the concave 
 
 A— lens of flint-glass placed on the inside tow ards the 
 
 /V\ eye: radius of the exterior surface a of the crown 
 
 / Vt lens, 200364 inches ; radius of the exterior sur- 
 face ft of the flint lens, 41-1087 inches- radii of the 
 
 I fl interior surfaces c, 10-1604 and 10-1613 inches. 
 
 \JI ( Encyc. Mitr., art. " Light," $ 471.) When the 
 
 ji j, lenses have the forms here indicated, the focal 
 lengths of each, separately, are in the direct ratio 
 •f their dispersive powers ; and the two inside surf ices 
 have so nearly the same curvature that they may be ground 
 •n the same tool, and united by a cement to prevent the 
 loss of light at the two surfaces. 
 
 Such are the forms indicated by theory ; but the practical 
 difficulties of forming a good achromatic object-glass, for a 
 telescope of large size, are so great that it often costs more 
 than all the rest of the instrument. This, however, princi- 
 pally arises from the extreme difficulty of procuring disks of 
 flint-glass, above a certain size, sufficiently free from veins 
 and imperfections as to be lit for the purpose. No object- 
 glasses of a larger size than seven inches diameter have 
 been made of glass manufactured in this country; and, not- 
 withstanding the success of Fraunhofer at Munich, nnd of 
 Guinand in Switzerland, the procuring of flint-glass fit for 
 object-lenses of a larger size wins 10 be still, in a consider- 
 able degree, a matter of accident. Fraunhofer executed a 
 telescope for the Russian observatory at Dorpat. having an 
 object glass of 9 inches diameter. Another was prepared 
 by him for the King of Bavaria, of IS inches diameter. 
 The object glass of Sir James Smith's large telescope at the 
 Cainpdcn Hill observatory is nearly 13 inches in diameter, 
 and was executed in Paris of glass manufactured by Gui- 
 aand. 
 
 I-. the fine telescopes formerly constructed by Dollond, the 
 object-glasses were composed of three lenses, the two ex- 
 .__ tcrior ones, A B and C D, being of crown-glass, 
 and crn-e" and the Interior, E F. of flint, and 
 concave. This combination gives a mure p?rfect 
 correction of the spherical aberration ; but the ad- 
 vantage is more than balanced by the greater com- 
 plexity of their construction, the risk of imperfect 
 entering, and the lost of light at the six surfaces. 
 They have accordingly been disused. 
 
 Various attempts have been made to dispense with the 
 concave flint lens, by the substitution of some other refract- 
 ive substance. Dr. Blair found that the dispersion of 
 ClOWn-fUss was corrected by a fluid lens, composed of a 
 mixture of solutions of ammoniacal and mercurial salts. 
 He succeeded in making object-glasses in his manner, which 
 at first gave promise of answering well ; but it soon appear- 
 ed that they were not durable, the fluid undergoing some 
 chemical change which entirely destroyed its virtue. Pro- 
 Bnrlow, uf Woolwich, has also made numerous ex- 
 periments on this subject. His correcting lens is formed of 
 the liquid siilphuret of carbon, inclosed between two disks 
 of glass, and a ring of the same material, the fluid being In- 
 troduced at a Ugh temperature. A telescope which he 
 made on this principle had a single object-lens of 7-8 inch- 
 es, and the fluid lens was placed at the distance of 40 inches 
 behind it. The performance of this telescope was, however, 
 far inferior to an ordinary one of the same dimensions, with 
 the common double achromatic object-glass. See Ach- 
 romatism, Less, Tbmmcopk, 
 
 O'BJECT, OBJECTIVE. In Philosophy, opposed to 
 subjective. See Subject, Subjective. 
 
 OBLATE. (Lat. oblatus, offered, In Ecclesiastical 
 Antiquities, 1. A person who, on embracing the monastic 
 state, had made a donation of all his goods to the commu- 
 nity. 2. One dedicated to a religious order by his parents 
 from an early period of his life. 3. A layman residing as 
 an inmate in a regular community to which he had assign- 
 ed his property cither in perpetuity or for the period of his 
 residence. 4. A layman who had made donation, not onlv 
 of his property, but his person, as bondsman to a monastic 
 comti it ity. In France the king possessed, in ancient 
 tinit.fs. a privilege of recommending a certain number of ob- 
 lati, chiefly invalided soldiers, to monasteries, whom they 
 were bound to maintain. 
 
 Oblate, in Geometry, signifies flattened at the poles. 
 Thus, an oblate, spheriod is a spheriod of the same form as 
 that which is produced by the revolution of an ellipse about 
 its shorter axis. Such is the figure of the earth. See De- 
 gree. Earth. 
 
 OBLATION (Lat. oblatio, an offering), means, properly, 
 an ofterinL' presenteil to the church. This practice com- 
 menced at an early period in the history of the church, for 
 originally the Christian priesthood had no other mainte- 
 nance or allowance than the free gifts or oblations of the 
 People In the middle ages, oblations were of various 
 
 OBSERVATORY. 
 
 kinds, and were known by different names, according to tn» 
 purpoM-s for which they were presented. (Sec Palmer, 
 Oris. IAturg., ii., 67.) 
 
 OBLIGATION. (Lat.obligo,/ftin<i.) In the most gen 
 era! -ease, a duty imposed by law, to the fulfilment of which 
 one party is bound towards another. Obligations, according 
 to the civil law, are said to arise in four ways ; out of con- 
 tracts, quasi-contracts, delicts, or quasi-delicts. A principal 
 obligation is that by which a debtor is bound to his creditor ; 
 an accessory obligation, that by which one is bound to 
 another to satisfy the contract of a third party. The Ro- 
 man jurisconsults divided obligations into natural, civil, and 
 mixed, and also into civil and praetorian. An oldigation, by 
 the law of England, is a bond with penalty nnd condition'; 
 it may also be by statute or recognisance. He who enters 
 into an obligation is styled obligor; he towards whom it is 
 entered into, obligee. 
 
 OBLIGA'TO. (Ital.) In Music, a term applied to a 
 movement or coirqiosiiion written for a particular instru- 
 ment. It sometimes means that a movement is restrained 
 by certain rules, to give particular expression to a passage, 
 action. &c. 
 
 OBLI'OUE. (Lat. obliquus.) Not direct, deviating from 
 the perpendicular. Thus, oblique angle, in Geometry, is an 
 angle greater or less than a right angle. Oblique circle, in 
 the Stereograph ic Projection, is any circle oblique to the 
 line of projection. Oblique planes, in Dialling, are such as 
 recline from the zenith. Oblique projection, in Mechanics, 
 is where a body is projected in a line, making an oblique 
 angle with the horizontal line. Oblique sailing, in Navi- 
 gation, is that which includes the calculation of oblique- 
 angled triangles. Oblique sphere, in Geography, is that in 
 which the axis of the world is inclined to the horizon of the 
 place. 
 
 OBLIQUE MOTION. In Music, that wherein one of 
 the parts holds on a sound, while the other rises or falls on 
 any note wh atsoe ver. 
 
 OBLI'QUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. In Astronomy, 
 the inclination of the plane of the earth's equator to the 
 plane of the ecliptic, or the nnglc formed by those two 
 planes, on which the phenomena of the seasons depend. 
 See. Ecliptic. 
 
 O'BLONG. In Elementary Geometry, a rectangle, or 
 right-angled parallelogram, whose length is greater than its 
 
 breadth. An oblong spkiriod hi generated bj the revolution 
 of an ellipse about its longer a\is. nnd therefore elongated 
 at the poles ; hence the temi is used ill contradistinction to 
 oblate spheroid, which denotes a spheroid flattened at the 
 poles. The oblong spheroid is otherwise called the prolate 
 spheroid. 
 
 O'BOE. (Ital.) A musical wind instrument, sounded 
 through a reed. It is shaped somewhat like a clarionet, 
 being slender in the upper part, but spreading out conically 
 at the bottom, and consists of three joints or pieces, besides 
 the reed. Its compass is generally two octaves and a fifth, 
 from C, below the treble clef, to G, the fourth line above 
 the staff - . The ancient name of oboe was wayght, which is 
 still visible in the modern word wait {see Waits) ; and in 
 this form the oboe was in use as far back as the reign of 
 Edward III. It is only since the beginning of the present 
 century that the Italian form of this word came into gener- 
 al use ; previously 10 that period the French name, hnutboi*, 
 was universally current. 
 
 O'BOLUS. (Gr. ft/JoXof.) An Athenian silver coin of 
 very small dimensions; being only equal in value to about 
 lj/i. of our money, or less, according to some computations 
 Seven of them were equal to an Attic drachma. 
 
 OBRI'NE. The nnmo of a military order, instituted in 
 the 13th century by Conrad, duke of Mazovia, in Poland ; 
 styled also the order of Jesus Christ. It was instituted to 
 lew war against the Russians 
 
 OBSCU RANTS, OBSCURANTISM. A kind of phil- 
 osophical nickname, commonly applied, in Germany, to 
 those who endeavoured in their writings to oppose the prog- 
 ress of modern enlightenment (Aufklftrung) and their doc- 
 trines. (See Conv. Lex.) 
 
 O'BSEQUIES (Lat. obsequium, complaisance), were so- 
 lemnities performed at the burials of eminent persons. The 
 term is now used for the funeral itself. 
 
 OBSE'RVANTS, otherwise RECOLLECTS. A branch 
 of the Franciscan order. See Recollects. 
 
 OBSE'RVATORY. A place or building destined for tht 
 pur|)osc of making astronomical or physical observations, 
 anil furnished With appropriate instruments. 
 
 Astronomical observatories appear to have been erected 
 in very early times, the tower of Babel being supposed to 
 have been an edifice of this kind ; and the tomb of Osman 
 diss is celebrated in the history of ancient Egypt as having 
 had a similar destination. The Indians and Chinese have 
 also traditions of observatories which existed in the remo 
 test a«es of their histories. In fact, as the observati"- u 
 the relative positions of the celestial bodies requires lnstru 
 
 843 
 
OBSERVATORY , 
 
 merits of some sort, and as instruments must have a locali- 
 ty, the existence of observatories must have been coeval 
 with the first progress made in practical astronomy. (See 
 Baiily, Histoirede V Astronomic Ancienne.) 
 
 According to Weidler, the first regular observatory in En 
 rope was erected at Cassel, in 1561, by William, landgrave 
 of Hesse. That of Tycho Brahe, in the island of Huen, was 
 founded in 1576. From this time private observatories began 
 to be multiplied; and some of them, as that of Hevelius at 
 Dantzic, produced results which materially contributed to 
 the progress of astronomy ; but it was only in the following 
 century that they came to be regarSed, in the principal coun 
 tries of Europe, as important and necessary public estab- 
 lishments. The royal observatory of Paris was built in 1667, 
 that of Greenwich in 1675 ; the latter being professedly for 
 the benefit of navigation. 
 
 The principal use of astronomical observatories is to con- 
 tain the instruments by which the observations are made 
 that are requisite for forming catalogues of the stars, and ta- 
 bles of the sun, moon, and planets. These observations 
 requiring great precision can only be made with instruments 
 of considerable size, firmly supported, and capable of being 
 accurately placed and maintained in certain determinate 
 positions. In the present state of aslronomy, no observation 
 can be regarded as useful for the purposes just named unless 
 made with an. instrument fixed in the meridian. The in- 
 struments, therefore, which must be considered as essen- 
 tially necessary to an observatory are a transit instrument 
 and sidereal clock, for the purpose of observing right as- 
 censions ; a circle, for observing polar distances ; and a ba- 
 rometer and thermometer, for the purpose of ascertaining 
 the state of the atmosphere, in order to determine the cor- 
 rections to be applied for refraction. Furnished with this 
 apparatus, the astronomer is in a condition to obtain all the 
 data requisite for the formation of catalogues and tables, and 
 for establishing or perfecting the theories of the celestial 
 motions and physical astronomy. Another instrument, 
 though of secondary importance, is also wanted for the ob- 
 servation of phenomenon out of the meridian, as eclipses, 
 occultations, comets, &c. The most convenient instrument 
 for this purpose is the equatorial (see the term) ; and if the 
 astronomer carries his views to the exploring of the sidereal 
 spaces, to observe the forms of nebula', and watch the 
 motions of double and multiple stars, the equatorial must be 
 furnished with a telescope of the largest kind ; or a powerful 
 reflecting telescope, suspended so as to have a free motion in 
 azimuth, may be employed instead of it. In this depart- 
 ment of astronomy all depends on.the goodness of the teles- 
 cope, the objects to be examined being, in fact, only limited 
 by the power of seeing them. But as these researches have 
 no immediate practical application, they are not considered as 
 included among the purposes for which public observatories 
 are established, and are therefore left to the zeal of individ- 
 uals. 
 
 Public observatories are now established and maintained 
 by the governments of almost every civilized country, and 
 the means provided of publishing the observations, and ren- 
 dering their results immediately available to the progress of 
 astronomical science. The number of private observatories, 
 particularly in this country, is very considerable, and several 
 of them, in regard to the the sumptuousness of their instru- 
 ments, vie with, and even excel, the first and best appointed 
 public institutions. The following is a list of the principal 
 public observatories, with their latitudes and longflRdee (in 
 time) from that of Greenwich, as given in the Nautical Al- 
 manac for 1843 : 
 
 
 Latitude. 
 
 Long 
 
 tude. 
 
 Abo ( Finland) 
 
 80 
 
 25 
 
 57 N. 
 
 A. m 
 
 1 29 
 
 s-s E. 
 
 AltO*! . 
 
 53 
 
 32 
 
 45 N. 
 
 39 
 
 46 6 K. 
 
 Armagh .... 
 
 54 
 
 21 
 
 12-7 N. 
 
 26 
 
 3 > 5 W. 
 
 Berlin . .... 
 
 52 
 
 31 
 
 13-5 N . 
 
 63 
 
 3V5 E. 
 
 Bremen 
 
 53 
 
 4 
 
 36 N. 
 
 35 
 
 15 9 E. 
 
 
 52 
 
 12 
 
 61-8 N. 
 
 o o 
 
 23 5 E. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope 
 
 33 
 
 B6 
 
 3 f. 
 
 1 13 
 
 55 E. 
 
 Copenhaevi .... 
 
 55 
 
 41) 
 
 53 N. 
 
 fl'l 
 
 19-8 E. 
 
 Rorpat (Russia) .... 
 
 58 
 
 22 
 
 47 N. 
 
 I 46 
 
 55 E. 
 
 Dublin 
 
 53 
 
 23 
 
 13 N. 
 
 25 
 
 22 W. 
 
 i Edinburgh 
 
 H 
 
 57 
 
 23-2 \. 
 
 12 
 
 43-6 W. 
 
 
 U 
 
 11 
 
 59-4 N. 
 
 24 
 
 37-5 E. 
 
 
 51 
 
 31 
 
 48 
 
 39 
 
 46-5 E. 
 
 1 Greenwich 
 
 tt 
 
 2S 
 
 39 N 
 
 
 
 
 
 I Konigsberg (Prussia) . 
 
 54 
 
 42 
 
 50 N. 
 
 1 22 
 
 0-5 E. 
 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 S 2 N. 
 
 5 21 
 
 3-8 E. 
 
 
 43 
 
 17 
 
 50-1 N. 
 
 21 
 
 29 £. 
 
 j Munich ... . 
 
 43 
 
 8 
 
 46 N. 
 
 46 
 
 26-5 E. 
 
 1 Oxford 
 
 51 
 
 45 
 
 40 N. 
 
 5 
 
 1-5 W 
 
 I Palermo 
 
 3fl 
 
 6 
 
 44 N. 
 
 53 
 
 25-6 P.. 
 
 1 Paramatta ;New Sou* Wales) . 
 
 H 
 
 4S 
 
 49-8 S. 
 
 10 4 
 
 .;■•-,!-; 
 
 { Paris 
 
 4S 
 
 50 
 
 13 N. 
 
 9 
 
 21-5 E. 
 
 Petersburg 
 
 59 
 
 56 
 
 31 N. 
 
 2 1 
 
 15-8 E. 
 
 1 R/>me 
 
 41 
 
 53 
 
 52 N. 
 
 49 
 
 54-7 E. 
 
 ! St. Fernando ( near Cadl^ . 
 
 36 
 
 27 
 
 45 N. 
 
 24 
 
 49 1 W. 
 
 i Turin . ... 
 
 45 
 
 4 
 
 6 N. 
 
 30 
 
 48 4 E. 
 
 1 Vienna .... 
 
 48 
 
 12 
 
 35 N 
 
 1 5 
 
 31 K 
 
 OCCULTATIONS. 
 
 OBSE'SSION. (Lat. obsideo, / besiege.) The state of 
 a person vexed or besieged by an evil spirit. In the 1 inguage 
 of exorcists, demoniacal obsession differed from demoniacal 
 possession : in the latter, the demon had possession of thr 
 patient internally; in the former he attacks him from with 
 out. Thus, the state of Sara, the bride of Tobias, whose 
 bridegrooms were killed by an evil spirit haunting her (Toh 
 iii. 8), was one of obsession. Well-known marks of obses 
 sion were the being miraculously hoisted or elevated in the 
 air, speaking languages of which the patient had no know 
 ledge, aversion to the offices of religion, and so forth. xiu 
 Possession, Demoniac ; Exorcism. 
 
 OBSI'DIAN. So named, according to Pliny, from Obsi- 
 dius, who first found it in Ethiopia. A glassy lava. Vol- 
 canic glass. It is of various colours, but usually black, and 
 nearly opaque. In Mexico and Peru it is occasionally man- 
 ufactured into cutting instruments, or cut into ringstones. I< 
 consists of silica and alumina, with a little potash and ox da 
 of iron. 
 
 OBSI'DIONAL CROWN. (Lat. obsideo, / besiege.) In 
 Roman Antiquities, a crown granted by the state to the gen 
 eral who raised the siege of a beleaguered place. It was 
 formed of grass growing on the rampart. Obsidional coins, 
 in Numismatics, are pieces struck in besieged places to sup- 
 ply the place of current money. They are of various base 
 metals, and of different shapes. Some of the oldest known 
 are those which were struck at the siege of Pavia, under 
 Francis I. 
 
 O'BSOLETE. (Lat. obsoletus.) In Zoology, the term 
 implies that a part, or a spot, or other character, is scarcely 
 discoverable. 
 
 OBSTE'TRICS. (Lat. ars obstetricia, from obstare, U 
 stand so as to give assistance.) The name frequently given 
 to the science of midwifery. 
 
 OBTE'MPER. (Lat. obtempero, I obey.) In Scotch Law, 
 to obev or comply with a judgment of a court. 
 
 OBTU'NDENTS. (Lat. obtundo.) Mucilaginous, oily, 
 and other bland medicines, supposed to sheathe parts from 
 acrimony, and to blunt that of certain morbid secretions. 
 
 OBTURA'TOR MUSCLES. (Lat. obturare, to close up.) 
 Certain muscles which fill up openings in bones. 
 
 O'BVERSE, or FACE. In Numismatics, the side of the 
 coin which contains the principal symbol : usually, in the 
 coins of monarchical states, ancient and modern, the face in 
 profile of the sovereign ; in some instances, the full or half 
 length figure. See Numismatics. 
 
 OCCA'SIONALISM, or the System of Occasional Causes. 
 In Metaphysics, a name which has been given to certain 
 theories of the Cartesian school of philosophers, especially 
 Arnold Geulinx, of Antwerp, by which they accounted for thi 
 apparent action of the soul on the body ; e. g. in the phenome- 
 na of voluntary motion. According to these theories (which 
 were more or less clearly developed by different writers), 
 the will was not the cause of the action of the body ; but 
 whenever the will required a motion, God caused the body 
 to move in the required direction. See Harmony, Pre-es- 
 tablished. 
 
 OCCIDE'NTAL. (Lat. occidens, setting.) In Gem 
 Sculpture, a term applied to those precious stones which 
 possess an inferior degree of hardness and beauty. 
 
 OCCIPITAL BONE. (Lat. occiput, the hind head.) The 
 irregularly shaped bone which forms the posterior and in 
 ferior part of the scull. 
 
 OCCULT A'TIONS. (Lat. occulto, / conceal), sometimes 
 called Lunar Occultations, or Occultations of Stars by the 
 Moon, are those phenomena in which a star or planet be- 
 comes hidden from our view by the intervening passage oi 
 the moon. By analogy, a total eclipse of the sun might be 
 called an occultation of the sun by the moon. 
 
 As the motion of the moon in her orbit is from west to 
 east, it is obvious that, when she is about to pass over a 
 star, the first contact, or the immersion, must occur on her 
 eastern limb ; and the emersion, or re-appearance of the 
 star, must take place on her western limb. It should, how 
 ever, be observed, that some slight exceptions to this rule 
 may be found, where the moon has considerable motion in 
 declination, and where ihe star is only grazed over by a 
 small rjortion of the northern or southern limb. In these 
 few exceptional cases, the disappearance and re-appearance 
 of the star may both occur either on the eastern or the west- 
 ern side of the limb 
 
 An occultation, like a solar eclipse, is presented onty to a 
 portion of the terrestrial globe. For suppose an observer to 
 be stationed at the star, with the moon between him and 
 the earth: that he could perceive the moon's disk projected 
 on that of the earth : then he would observe that Ihe mooa 
 in her passage over the earth, only covered a portion of the 
 terrestrial disk, and it is evident that the phenomenon of tin 
 occultation of the star could only be presented to a portioi 
 of our globe. 
 
 The principles which enter into the calculation of occul 
 tartans are just the same as for eclipses of (he sun ; the oni? 
 
OCCULT SCIENCES. 
 
 lifference consists in the star having neither motion, paral- 
 lax, nor semidinmcter, so that the moon's motion and paral- 
 lax are to be employed in place of the relative motion and 
 the relative parallax. For the mode of conducting the 
 calculation, it will therefore be sufficient to refer to the 
 article Eclipses, page 381 ; and to observe that the consid- 
 eration may perhaps be simplified by giving to the star a 
 motion contrary and equal to that of the moon, and then 
 supposing the moon herself to be stationary. 
 
 In the case of a planet, it may be necessary to take into 
 account its motion and parallax, and perhaps its semidiame- 
 ter, if greater nicety is to be observed. 
 
 For minute details, in reference to the calculation of eclip- 
 ses and occultations In all their varieties, the reader will do 
 well to consult the Appendix to the Nautical Almanac for 
 tile year 
 
 OCCULT SCIENCES. (Lat. occultus,' hid.) A term 
 applied to the Imaginary sciences of the middle ages — ma- 
 gic, alchymy. astrology, especially the former. 
 
 O'CCiTANCV. In Law, tne taking possession by any 
 one of a thing of which there is no owner, and the right ac- 
 quired by such taking possession. Anciently, when a man 
 held land pur autcr vie (for the life of another), and died 
 before that other, as this estate could not descend to his 
 heir, nor revert to the donor until the determination of the 
 life upon it, ii was considered to belong of right to the first 
 who took possession of it, for the remainder of the life, 
 which was termed general occupancy. And, when the gift 
 was to one and his heirs for the life of another, the heir was 
 said to take as special occupant. By the Stat, of Frauds 
 (39C.il, c.3, sec. 12) a man is enabled to devise lands held 
 by bun pur auter vie; and if no such devise be made, and 
 (here be no special occupant, it goes to his executors and 
 ■ raters. 
 O'CEAN. (Gr. uixtavof.) In Geography, the vnst body 
 of water which surrounds the continents, and is the recep- 
 tacle of all their running waters. It is divided by geogra- 
 pher? Into Ave great basins, viz., the Pacific Ocean (so called 
 by reason of its comparative stillness), which separates Asia 
 from America, and is the largest of all the basins ; 2, the At- 
 lantic Ocean, which has Europe and Africa on its eastern 
 shore, and America on its western; 3, the Indian Ocean, 
 which washes the south of Asia, and the Routh-eastem 
 coast of Africa; 4th, the Arctic Ocean, which surrounds 
 the north pole ; and 5, the Antarctic, which surrounds the 
 south pole. Other smaller portions of the great connected 
 body of water are called seas, of which the Mediterran ean , 
 the German, the Baltic, and Black sea?, are the most con- 
 siderable. The superficial extent of the several great basin* 
 is not known with any certainty, nor, Indeed, can their lim- 
 its he exactly defined. From the nearest estimation that 
 can be made of the extent of the continents and principal 
 islands, ii i< supposed that nearly three fourths of the whole 
 surface of the glol>e are covered by water. The Pacific 
 Ocean alone exceeds the whole surface of the dry land. 
 
 Depth of the Ocean. — If the superficial extent of the ocean 
 cannot be easily ascertained, it will readily be supposed 
 that Its depth is a problem of much greater difficulty. The 
 bottom appears, wherever it has been reached by the sound- 
 ing line, to have similar inequalities to those of the surface 
 of the land : hence the depth must be extremely various ; 
 nnd it might be supposed from analogy that the greatest 
 depth of the ocean is at least equal to the height of the 
 highest mountains above its surface. Lord Mulgrave found 
 no bottom in the North Atlantic Ocean with a sounding line 
 of 4680 feet ; and Mr. Scoresby sounded to the depth of 7200 
 feet, without the lead touching the ground. These experi- 
 ments are not altogether to be depended on for the determi- 
 nation of such great depths ; for, the pressure becoming verv 
 great, the lead may be drawn out of the perpendicular di- 
 rection by currents, of which it may encounter more than 
 one, flowing in different directions. Over a great portion of 
 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans no bottom has been found. 
 The depth of the ocean, in general, and the form of the bed 
 on which it rolls, cannot, therefore, lie determined by ex- 
 periment. The mathematical theory of the oscillations of 
 fluids has, however, thrown some light on the subject. La- 
 place demonstrated that the difference which is indicated 
 by observation between the height of two consecutive tides 
 depends on the law of the depth of the sea, and that, but for 
 the influence of accessory circumstances, it would disappear 
 altogether if the depth were constant. It follows, therefore, 
 that, since the difference between the consecutive tides Is 
 extremely small, the depth of the sea, taking in a large ex- 
 tent of ocean, must be nearly uniform ; that is to say, there 
 must be a certain mean depth from which the variations 
 are not considerable. (JYfec. Celeste, book xiii.) 
 
 Level of the Ocean. — Were it not for the disturbing ac- 
 tions of the sun and moon, and of the winds, the level of 
 the ocean would be everywhere the same-, and its surface 
 would have the form determined by the attraction of the 
 whole mass of the earth, combined with the centrifugal 
 
 OCEANUS. 
 
 force belonging to its velocity of rotation ; that is to say, the 
 surface would be that of an oblate spheroid of revolution. 
 This uniformity, however, can never be established. The 
 tide at every instant is at different heights in different parts 
 of the ocean ; and therefore the form of the surface, within 
 the limits of the rise and fall of the tides, is variable. But 
 even if we neglect the alternate rise and fall of the water 
 which constitutes the tides, and tak 1 'he surface of the 
 ocean at its mean height, it is found oy accurate levelling 
 that all its parts do not coincide with the surface of the 
 same spheroid. Gulfs and inland seas, which communicate 
 with the ocean by narrow openings, are affected according 
 to their position with regard to the prevailing winds. The 
 level of the Red Sea was found, by the French engineers in 
 Egypt, to be 32V feet higher than that of the Mediterranean, 
 which is supposed to be a little lower than the ocean. Hum- 
 boldt concluded, from observations made on the Isthmus of 
 Panama, that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico are about 2 
 feet higher than those of the Pacific Ocean. The Baltic 
 and Black seas rise in spring from tho great quantity of river 
 water poured into them, and are lowered in summer by the 
 joint effects of a small supply and increased evaporation. 
 
 Colour of the Ocean. — The usual colour of the ocean is n 
 bluish-green, of a darker tint at a distance from land, and 
 clearer towards the shores. According to Mr. Scoresby, the 
 hue of the Greenland sea varies from ultramarine blue to 
 olive green, and from the purest transparency to great opa- 
 city. The surface of the Mediterranean, in its upper part, 
 is said to have at times a purple lint. In the Gulf of Guinea 
 the sea sometimes appears white ; about the Maldivc Islands 
 black ; and near California it has a reddish appearance. 
 Various causes co-operate to produce this diversity of tint. 
 The prevailing blue colour may be ascribed to the greater 
 refrangibility of the blue rays of light, which, by reason of 
 that property, pass in greatest abundance through the wa- 
 ter. The other colours are ascribed to the existence of vast 
 numbers of minute animalcule; to marine vegetables at or 
 near the surface ; to the colour of the soil, the infusion of 
 earthy substances; and very frequently the tint is modified 
 by the aspect of the sky. The phosphorescent or shining 
 appearance of the ocean, which is a common phenomenon, 
 is also ascribed to animalcule), and to scmiputrusceiit mat- 
 ter diffused through the water. 
 
 Temperature of the Ocean. — Water being a slow conduct- 
 or of heat, the temperature of the ocean is much more uni- 
 form than that of the atmosphere. At a certain distance 
 from the equator, it follows, though not very closely, the 
 mean temperature of the corresponding latitudes, the solar 
 action being greatly moulded by the existence of currents 
 which convey the temperature of one region to another; so 
 that at any place the temperature of the water depends, in 
 some measure, on the direction of the currents. Within 
 the tropics the mean temperature at the surface is about 
 80° of Fahrenheit, and generally ranges between 77° and 
 84°. At great depths the temperature is probably nearly 
 the same under every latitude. In the torrid zone it is 
 found to diminish with the depth ; In the polar seas it in- 
 creases with the depth ; and about the latitude of 70° it is 
 nearly constant at all depths. But the small number of 
 observations which have yet been made on this subject do 
 not indicate any uniform law, according to which the vari- 
 ations of temperature at different depths is regulated. 
 
 Saitness of the Ocean. — The ocean holds in solution a va- 
 riety of saline matters, of which by far the most abundant 
 is common salt, constituting, in general, about two thirds of 
 the whole. The saitness of sea-water at particular places 
 is influenced by temporary causes — storms, for example; as 
 well as by the neighbourhood of large rivers, and perma- 
 nent accumulations of ice. A series of experiments on this 
 subject were made some years ago by the late Dr. Marcet, 
 and the following are the general conclusions which he 
 deduced from them: 1. That the Southern Ocean contains 
 more salt than the Northern Ocean, in the ratio of 1-02919 
 to l - 02757. 2. That the mean specific gravity of sea-water 
 near the equator Is 1-02777. 3. That there is no notable 
 difference between sea-water under different meridians. 4. 
 That there is no satisfactory evidence that the sea at great 
 depths is more salt than at the surface. 5. That the sea, in 
 general, contains more salt where it is deepest, and that its 
 saitness is nlways diminished in the vicinity of large masses 
 of ice. 6. That small inland seas, though communicating 
 with the ocean, are much less salt than the ocean. 7. That 
 the Mediterranean contains rather larger proportions of salt 
 than the ocean. (Phil. Trans., 1819; ProuVs Bridgcwater 
 Treatise.) 
 
 The peculiar bitter taste of sea-water does not appear to 
 belong to it beyond a certain depth, and is ascribed to tho 
 vegetable and animal matter held in a state of decomposi 
 tion near the surface. See Tides. 
 
 OCE'ANUS. In Greek Mythology, the oldest of the Ti- 
 tans : according to some, the son of Ouranos and Gaia. His 
 consort was Tethys, his daughters the Oceanides. In Ho- 
 
 845 
 
OCHLOCRACY. . 
 
 mer, the wold ocean merely designates the "river," or 
 stream, which, according to his notion, encompassed the 
 earth. 
 
 OCHLOCRACY. (Gr. $x*°S< « crowd, and Kparciv, to 
 govern.) A word coined to express the condition of a state 
 in which the populace have acquired an immediate illegal 
 control over the government; and, by a figure commonly 
 used in the exaggeration of political speakers and writers, a 
 government in which the power of the lower classes pre- 
 dominates, either for a time or permanently. 
 
 O'CHRE. (Or. <!>xP lU ) In Painting, a colour prepared 
 from a species of earth. It is of various hues, as yellow, 
 red, green, blue, and black. The colouring matter of ochre 
 is almost always oxide of iron. 
 
 O'CHREA. (Lat. a boot.) A name applied to stipules 
 that are membranous, and surround the stem like a vagina 
 or sheath, cohering by their anterior margins, as in Polygo- 
 num. 
 
 OCHRE OP IRON. A hydrated oxide of iron. 
 
 O'CHROITE. A name given by Klaproth to an earth 
 supposed to exist in the mineral since called cerite. 
 
 O'CREM (Lat.), in Roman Antiquities, were a sort of 
 military boots made of tin, and ornamented with gold and 
 silver. They were equivalent to the Kvnuiics of the Greeks, 
 and the greaves of the English. See Greaves. 
 
 OCTAE'DRITE. Sec Octoedrite. 
 
 OCTAETE'RIS. (Gr. oktid, eight, and trot, a year.) A 
 cycle or period of eight years, at the lapse of which three 
 lunar months were added. This cycle was in use till Me- 
 lon's invention of the golden number, or cycle of nineteen 
 years. 
 
 O'CTAGON. (Gr. oktw, and ytavia, angle.) In Geome- 
 try, a plane figure contained by eight sides, and consequent- 
 ly having eight angles. When the sides and angles are 
 equal, it is a regular octagon. If a denote the side of a 
 regular octagon, the area is a? X 2 tan. 674° = a? X 4-828427. 
 
 Octagon. In Fortification, a place which has eight sides 
 or bastions. 
 
 OCTA'NDRIA. (Gr. oktco, and avnp, a male.) In Bota- 
 ny, that class of plants which has eight stamens. 
 
 OCTANS. In Astronomy, Octans Hadleianus (Hadley's 
 Octant) one of the constellations formed by Lacaille in the 
 southern hemisphere. See Constellation. 
 
 O'CTANT. In Geometry, the eighth part of a circle. In 
 astronomy, octant denotes a position or aspect ; thus the 
 moon is in her octants when she is in the positions inter- 
 mediate between her syzygies and quarters, or at 45°, 135°, 
 225°, and 315° from her conjunction. 
 
 OCTA'NUS. A fever which returns every eighth day. 
 
 OCTASTY'LOS. (Gr. oktw, eight, and otv\ou a column.) 
 In Architecture, a temple or other building having eight 
 columns in front. 
 
 O'CTAVE. (Lat. octavus.) In Music, an harmonical in- 
 terval, containing five tones and two semitones, called, by 
 the ancient authors, diapason. 
 
 Octave, in Ecclesiastical Antiquities, signified the eighth 
 day after a feast, the feast day itself included. Thus, the 
 first Sunday after Easter is the octave of Easter, styled oc- 
 tava infantium, and by other names. The Circumcision 
 (Jan. 1) is the octave natalis domini, the octave of Christ- 
 mas. The introduction of octaves is said to have been 
 founded on and borrowed from the Jewish ritual. The oc- 
 tave of a feast is sometimes called the Utas, or " the Utas- 
 day :" thus, " Wrytyn at Norwich on the Utas-day of Peter 
 and Powll." (Paston Letters, vol. iii., p. 389.) 
 
 OCTA'VO. (Lat.) Usually contracted 8vo; that which, 
 by a peculiar folding, has eight leaves to a sheet. 
 
 OCTO BER. (Lat. octo.) The eighth month of the old 
 Roman year, which began with March. The commence- 
 ment of the year was transferred by Numa Pompilius to the 
 1st of January, but the months retained their names. Octo- 
 ber is now the tenth month. See Calendar. 
 
 OCTOE'DRITE. A mineralogical name applied to the 
 octoedral oxide of titanium. 
 
 OCTOHE'DRON. (Gr. oktw, eight, and 'tfpov, side.) In 
 Geometry, one of the five regular solids, or Platonic bodies, 
 contained under eight equal and equilateral triangles. Let 
 A — the linear edge or side, 
 B =the whole surface, 
 C = the solid content, 
 R = radius of circumscribed sphere, 
 r = radius of inscribed sphere ; 
 then 
 
 A = rv/6 = R^2 = ./(* BV3) = 3/| C\/2), 
 
 B = 12r V3 = 4R V3 = 2A2,/3, 
 
 C = 4r3 v /3 = i R3 = $ A3./2, 
 
 R = rJZ = | A y/Z = J v/B y/i — y% C, 
 
 r = i B.y/3 = i Ay/6 = I y/(By/3). 
 
 O'CTOPODS, Octopoda. (Gr. oktu>, eight ; ttovs, a foot.) 
 The name of a tribe of Dibranchiate Cephalopods, including 
 846 
 
 ODORIN. 
 
 those which have only eight feet or cephalic tentacular ap 
 pendages ; also of a sub-order of Apterous insects, including 
 those which have eight feet, as the Tracheary Arachnidans. 
 OCY'THOE. (Gr. w/cu?, swift, and Seu>, I run.) The 
 name applied by Rafinesque to a naked Cephalopod, supposed 
 to be that which inhabits and constructs the argonaut shell 
 O'DALISQUES, properly ODALIKS. (Turkish, oda, a 
 chamber.) P'emale slaves employed in domestic service 
 about the persons of the wives, female relatives, &c, of the 
 sultan. 
 
 ODD NUMBER. In Arithmetic, any number not divisi- 
 ble by 2 without remainder ; the series of odd numbers is 1, 
 3, 5, 7, 9, &c, and the algebraic form by which they are ex 
 pressed is 2n-f-l. Every prime number, excepting 2, is an 
 odd number. The differences of the successive terms of the 
 series of square numbers produce the odd numbers. 
 
 ODE (Gr. w5n, a song), among the Greeks and Romans, 
 was a short lyric composition, usually intended to be sung, 
 and accompanied by some musical instrument, generally 
 the lyre; hence the expression lyric verse. In the modern 
 sense of the word, the ode appears to be distinguished from 
 the song by greater length and variety, and by not being ne- 
 cessarily adapted to music. It is distinguished also from 
 the ballad, and other species of lyric poetry, by its being 
 confined to the expression of sentiment, or of imaginative 
 thought, on a given subject, not admitting of narrative, ex- 
 cept incidentally. The odes of Pindar, Anacreon, and Hor 
 ace, are, in fact, the models on which the modern notion of 
 the ode is formed, and which have been imitated in similar 
 compositions in modern times. Until the science of Greek 
 metres was so accurately explored as it has recently been, 
 the Pindaric ode was supposed to admit of an excessive ir- 
 regularity in the length and measure of lines ; and hence 
 the Pindaric odes of the last and preceding century are con- 
 structed on a system of absolute license in this respect. In 
 point of fact, however, a scheme of perfect metrical regu- 
 larity pervaded the Greek ode, both in Pindar and in the 
 dramatic choruses, in which a strophe, or succession of lines 
 in varied metre, is exactly answered in the antistrophe or 
 corresponding series. On the other hand, the Anacreontic 
 ode consists of a number of lines of the same metrical length 
 an* arrangement. The Horatian ode, again, is generally 
 constructed on a different system, of which we have only a 
 few instances in Greek, in the Fragments of Alca-us and 
 Sappho : it consists of an indefinite number of stanzas, pre- 
 cisely similar to each other, each forming a complete metri- 
 cal whole. (See Metre.) The Dithyrambic ode (quod 
 vide) was a bacchanalian song; and as, from the attributes 
 of the divinity to which it was dedicated, it admitted great 
 irregularity and license: the name has been transferred in 
 modern times to all odes partaking of a wild and impetuous 
 character. 
 
 O'DERITE. A variety of black mica from Sweden is so 
 called. 
 
 ODE'UM, or ODEON. (Gr. wSn, a song.) In ancient 
 Architeciure, a building wherein the poets and musicians 
 contended for the prizes, both in vocal and instrumental mu 
 sic. Pericles, who was the first person to erect one of these 
 buildings at Athens, instituted it for the choragi of the dif- 
 ferent tribes to rehearse their performances ; but these build- 
 ings in the end were used for far different purposes from 
 those for which they were originally destined. An odeum 
 was to be found in all the principal cities of antiquity. The 
 word odeon has been preserved in most modern languages: 
 thus, there is an odeon in Paris, appropriated to theatrical 
 and other similar purposes ; and in Munich there is a con- 
 cert-room with this name. 
 
 O'DIN. A Scandinavian deity, who seems, like the Ju- 
 piter of the Greeks, to have formed the connecting link be- 
 tween the ancient and more recent systems of their mythol- 
 ogy. The conqueror Odin appears to have been a chieftain 
 who led the Asi (the Goths) from the confines of Asia to 
 northern Europe. But, when deified by public adoration, 
 the attributes of an earlier deity seem to have been transfer- 
 red to him. Odin is the chief of the gods ; by his wife Freya 
 he has two chief sons, Thor and Balder : the death of the 
 latter (for the Scandinavian gods are not all immortal) fur- 
 nishes many legends to the northern mythology, and is 
 known to English readers by Gray's translation, The Descent 
 of Odin. (See this article in the Conv. Lex., and in the En- 
 cycl. of Ersch and Gruber.) The more ancient Odin, among 
 the Romans, was regarded as the representative of their god 
 Mercury- See Wuotan. 
 
 ODO'METER. (Gr. Moc, a road, and unpov, measure,) 
 An instrument attached to the wheel cf a carriage by which 
 the distance passed over is measured. See Perambulator. 
 
 ODONTALGIA. (Gr. oSovs, a tooth, and aXjof, pain.) 
 The toothache. 
 
 ODONTO'LOGY. (Gr. o<5cm<r, nnd \oyos, a discourse.) 
 The branch of anatomical science which treats of the teeth. 
 See Dentes. 
 
 O'DORIN. One of the products of the redistillation of 
 
ODYSSEY. 
 
 the volatile oil obtained by distilling bone ; it has a very 
 eoncentrated and diffusible empyreuraatic odour, and is re- 
 garded by Unverdorben as a peculiar salifiable base. 
 
 ODYSSEY. (Gr. OSvaacia.) An epic poem, attributed, 
 in general, to Homer, but, according to some modern hypoth- 
 eses, not by the hand of the author of the Iliad The sub- 
 'ec of the poem is the return of Ulysses (OSvaacvf) from 
 ■$ 10 his native island, Ithaca. 
 
 (ECO'NOM Y. (Gr. ohoc, a house, and vcpot, I distribute.) 
 In Architecture, the harmonious and skilful combination of 
 the parts of a building, which renders them suitable to their 
 several purposes, and tends to connect them conveniently 
 with each other. 
 
 CE4'UME'NICAL. (Gr. iiKovutvn, scil. yn, the inhabited 
 earth: used in the New Testament.) In the Greek lan- 
 guage applied to ecclesiastical matters in the sense of uni- 
 versal. Several patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome as- 
 sumed the title of ecumenical (particularly John, A.D. 590, 
 and Cyril, his successor), 'apparently in opposition to the 
 pretensions of the bishop of Rome. GEcumenical councils 
 are those to which prelates resorted from every part of 
 Christendom under the jurisdiction of the Roman empire. 
 (Palmer, Church of Christ, vol. ii., p. 150.) See Council. 
 
 C£ CUS. (LaL) In Ancient Architecture, an apartment 
 adjoining a dining-room. 
 
 CEDE'M A. (Gr. otSau>, I swell.) A puffiness or swelling 
 of parts, arising from water collecting in the cellular mem- 
 branes. 
 
 CE'DIPUS. A personage renowned in the early or myth- 
 ological stage of Grecian history, the son of Laius and Jo- 
 casta. An oracle had warned Laius that he should be kill- 
 ed by his son ; in consequence of which he caused the child 
 to be exposed, with one of its feet pierced and fastened with 
 a thong (his name was accordingly derived from the swell- 
 ing of the foot). The slave intrusted with him carried the 
 child to Polvlm-, ting of Corinth, and deceived Laius with 
 a false report- (Edipus, when grown up. dew, in ignorance, 
 his father Laius ; acquired the sovereignty of Thebes, after 
 conquering the Sphynx, and married his mother Jocastn. 
 On becoming acquainted with their fatal destiny, Jocasta 
 killed herself, and (Kdipus deprived himself of sight. Such 
 is the outline of the story familiar to us by the noblest ef- 
 forts of the Greek tragedians. The tale of CEdipus himself 
 affords the subject of two tragedies of Sophocles: the first 
 (U-'.dipus l^yrannus), the most perfect example of dramatic 
 skill which :t it t tt in i t >' has left us; the second ((Edipus at 
 Colonus), perhaps the most beautiful of ancient dramatic 
 poems. The fate of his offspring is portrayed in several of 
 the remaining dramas of the three great tragedians. The 
 H inflicted on (Kdipus seem to us to be wholly unde- 
 served, and of a kind that it is impossible to approve. He 
 was n mere passive instrument in the hands of Fate or Des- 
 tiny, anil was not morally culpable for the death of his fa- 
 ther or the marriage of his mother. The acts, in fact, were 
 the acts of the gods, and not of (Edipus. In themselves 
 they were bad ; but, as he was totally ignorant of, and did 
 not intend them, he is no more to be blamed than a (tatter 
 in tlii.' hand of an assassin is to be blamed for the murder. 
 And hence there can be no renl sympathy r»'th the miseries 
 inflicted on (Edipus, nnd still less with thos* entailed on his 
 offspring, who are made to suffer without ciuse or reason of 
 any kind. 
 
 (EN A NTHE CROCATA. In Botany, the namo given 
 to the hemlock dropwort, a poisonous plant, growing in 
 Pembrokeshire. It is called by the inhabitants of the coun- 
 try five-fingertd root, and has some reputation as a remedy 
 in rnentmni of the skin. 
 
 Cfi'NOM ANC Y. (Gr. oivoc, tome, and pmvrctn, prophecy.) 
 A mode of divination among the Greeks, from the colour, 
 sound, &c, of wine poured out in libations. 
 
 CENOTHIO'NIO ACDD. (Gr. oivof, and Stiov, sulphur.) 
 The acid which is formed during the action of sulphuric 
 acid upon alcohol. 8ertuerner gave it the above name: it 
 iB the sulphovinic acid of Vogel and other chemical writers. 
 
 (ESO'PHAGUS. (Obs. Gr. oictv, to carry, and ipnyio, J 
 eat.) The tube by which food is conveyed from the poste- 
 rior part of the mouth, or pharynx, to the stomach. The 
 gullet. 
 
 (E STRUS. (Gr. oi/rpoc. a gad-fly.) The name of a ge- 
 nus of Dipterous insects, some of which lay their eggs in the 
 skin of quadrupeds, which they pierce for that purpose; 
 others near the nose, up which the larva; creep to the front- 
 al sinuses. The flies of an allied genus (Gasterophilus) at- 
 tach their eggs to the hairs in situations where they can be 
 licked oft" and swallowed ; when, their vitality protecting 
 them from the action of the gastric juice, they are hatched 
 In the stomach, and the larva; attach themselves to the inner 
 membrane, forming what are called " bote" in the horse. 
 
 O'FFERINGS. Literally, gifts presented at the altar in 
 token of acknowledgment of the Divine goodness. Offer- 
 ings constituted a large portion of the Jewish worship. They 
 consisted chiefly of bread salt, fruits, wine, and oil, and had 
 
 OIL GAS. 
 
 different names according to the purposes for which they 
 were employed. A distinction has often been made between 
 offerings and sacrifices (see Sacrifice) ; the former being 
 said to refer only to the fruits of the earth, the latter to ani- 
 mals ; but this can scarcely have been the case, for both the 
 burnt and the sin offering required animals to be sacrificed. 
 Among the Greeks, Romans, and other nations, the same 
 practice prevailed of offering at their altars wheat, tlour, and 
 bread. In a modern sense, the term offering is applied to 
 certain dues payable by custom to the Church, as the Easter 
 offerings, &c. This latter custom has obtained from the 
 first period of Christianity, when those who officiated at the 
 altar had no other maintenance or allowance than the free 
 gifts or offerings (oblationes) of the people. 
 
 O'FFERTOKY. The first part of the Mass, in which 
 the priest prepares the elements for consecration. In the 
 English communion service, it denotes the sentences which 
 are delivered by the officiating priest while the people are 
 making their oblations or offerings. (See Palmer, Orig. 
 Liturgies.) 
 
 O'FFICE FOUND. In English Law, an inquiry execu 
 ted by some officers of the crown, when certain events have 
 occurred in consequence of which the crown becomes enti- 
 tled to take possession of real or personal properly. Such 
 are the finding of treasure under certain circumstances, the 
 intestacy of a bastard, &c. The verdict of a coroner's jury 
 of "felo de se" is an instance of office found, on which the 
 crown is entitled to take possession of the effects of the de- 
 ceased. 
 
 OFFICER, is used generally to signify any person in the 
 enjoyment of a |«ist or office, whether civil or military, un- 
 der the crown. Under their different heads will be found a 
 notice of the chief civil nnd military officers, to these the 
 reader is referred. 
 
 OFFI'CIAL. In the Canon Law, the deputy or licuten 
 ant of a bishop, abbot, &.c, or an ecclesiastical judge ap- 
 pointed by them. The principal official of the bishop is his 
 chancellor, whose jurisdiction is coextensive with the dio- 
 cese. An qfficialis forancus (styled in English law commis- 
 sary) is appointed to part of a diocess when large. The 
 court of the official is styled in the canon law his officiality , 
 
 O'FFICI'NAL. In Pharmacy, such medicines u are di- 
 rected by the Pharmacnjioda to be kepi ready for use in the 
 apothecaries' shops. 
 
 O'FFING. A Nautical term, denoting a part of the sea 
 at a considerable distance from the shore where there is 
 deep water. 
 
 O'FFSET. In Architecture, the superior surface left un- 
 covered by the continuation upwards of u wall where the 
 thickness diminishes, forming a ledge. 
 
 O'FFSETS, in Sun-eying, are short distances from the 
 chain-line, usually measured with a rod, called an oil'set- 
 staff, the most convenient length for which is 6 feet 7 - 2 
 inches, being equal to 10 links of the surveying chain. See 
 
 Sl'RVEVlNQ. 
 
 Offsets. In Gardening, young radical bulbs, when sep- 
 arated or taken off from the parent roots, are so called. One 
 of the chief methods of propagating plants is by offsets. See 
 Propagation of Plants. 
 
 O'GEE. In Architecture, the same as cyma. reversa, see 
 that art., and Moulding. 
 
 O'GHAMS. A |«culiar kind of short-hand writing in use 
 among the ancient Irish, It consisted of certain lines and 
 marks which derived their power from their situation and 
 position as they stood in relation to one horizontal principal 
 line, over or under which they were placed, or through 
 which they were drawn ; the characters or marks, accord- 
 ing to their position, standing in the place of vowels, conso- 
 nants, diphthongs, &cc. (See the elaborate article in Hees's 
 Cyclopedia.) 
 
 O'GIVE. (Etym. uncertain.) In Architecture, the term 
 used by the French for the pointed arch. 
 
 O'GRES. (Fr.) The well known name of those imagi- 
 nary monsters with which the nursery tales of England 
 abound. They are usually represented as cannibals of ma- 
 lignant dispositions, nnd as endowed with gigantic height 
 and power. It is difficult to speak with certainty of the ori- 
 gin of these fabulous creations ; but it is probable that the 
 term ogre is derived from Oegir, one of the giants in the 
 Scandinavian mythology (see Grimes Deutsche Mytholo- 
 gie, p. 146) ; though it has been alleged, with perhaps more 
 probability, that it has been borrowed from the Ogurs, or 
 Onogurs, a desperate and savage Asiatic horde, which over- 
 ran part of Europe about the middle of the 5th century. 
 
 OGY'GIAN DELUGE. The name given to n great in- 
 undation mentioned in fabulous history, supposed to have 
 taken place in the reign of Ogyges in Attica, whose death is 
 fixed, in Blair's Chronological Tables, in the year 1764 be- 
 fore Christ. See Deluge. 
 
 OIL GAS. The inflammable gases and vapours (chi - - 
 hydrocarbons) which are obtained by passing fixed 
 through red-hot tubes, and which may be used as coal gas, 
 
 847 
 
OIL UF BRICKS. 
 
 for the purposes of illumination ; it yields a more brilliant 
 light than the latter, but is too expensive to be generally 
 adopted. The apparatus for the production of oil gas is de- 
 scribed in the Quarterly Journal, vol. viii. A gallon of com- 
 mon whale oil yields from 90 to 100 cubical feet of gas; and 
 an Argand burner, giving the light of six or seven wax can- 
 dles, consumes from 1A to 2 cubical feet per hour ; whereas, 
 to produce the same light, from 5 to 6 cubic feet of coal gas 
 are required. 
 
 OIL OF BRICKS. A term applied by the old chemists 
 to the empyreumatic oil obtained by subjecting a brick which 
 has been soaked in oil to the process of distillation at a high 
 temperature. The oil is used by lapidaries as a vehicle for 
 the emery by which stones and gems are sawn or cut. 
 
 OIL OF VITRIOL. See Sulphuric Acid. 
 
 OIL-PAINTING. Painting in which the medium for 
 using the colours is oil. It is said to have been unknown to 
 the ancients, and not used earlier than the 14th century; its 
 invention being attributed to John Van Eyck, sometimes 
 called John of Bruges. By him it was- supposed to have 
 been imparted to one Antonio da Messina, who first brought 
 it to Venice. Giovanni Bellini, by a stratagem, got posses- 
 sion of the secret from him, and then made it publicly known. 
 Oil-painting, has the advantages, above all other modes, of 
 affording great delicacy of execution, a union and insensible 
 blending of the colours, and, above all, that of imparting 
 great force to its effects. The various colours chiefly used 
 in oil-painting are, white lead, Cremnitz white, chrome, 
 king's yellow, Naples and patent yellow, the ochres, Dutch 
 pink, terra da Sienna, yellow lake, Vermillion, red lead, In- 
 dian and Venetian red, the several sorts of lake, brown pink, 
 Vandyke brown, burned and unburned umber, ultramarine, 
 Prussian and Antwerp blue, ivory black, blue black, asphal- 
 tum. The principal oils are those extracted from the poppy, 
 nut, and linseed. With the latter driers are introduced. 
 
 OILS. (Germ, oehle.) The term oil is applied to two 
 dissimilar and distinct organic products, which are usually 
 called fixed oils and volatile oils. The fixed or fat oils are 
 either of vegetable or animal origin ; they are compounds of 
 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; the relative proportions vary 
 but little in the several species. The following analyses of 
 olive and spermaceti oil may be assumed as types of the 
 rest: 
 
 Olive Oil. Spermaceti Oil. 
 
 Carbon 772 780 
 
 Hydrogen 133 118 
 
 Oxyger. . . . 95 102 
 
 1000 1000 
 
 The fixed oils abound in the fruit and seed of certain 
 plants; they are lighter than water, unctuous, and insipid, 
 or nearly so ; some of these require a low temperature for 
 their congelation, such as linseed oil ; others, such as olive 
 oil, concrete at a temperature higher than the freezing point 
 of water ; some are solid at common temperatures, such as 
 cocoa-nut oil. Some of these oils when exposed to air ab- 
 sorb oxygen, and gradually harden, forming a kind of var- 
 nish ; these are called drying oils, and are the basis of 
 paints, such as linseed oil ; others become rancid, as almond 
 oil. All these oils, like the different kinds of fat, consist of 
 two proximate principles, called stearine and elaine : the 
 former is the fatty portion, which first concretes on cooling 
 the oil, and from which the elaine, or oily portion, may be 
 separated by pressure. These oirs cannot be volatilized 
 without decomposition. At a red heat they are resolved into 
 volatile and gaseous products, among which carburetted hy- 
 drogen, in several of its forms, predominates ; hence the use 
 of these oils, when volatilized and burned by the aid of a 
 wick, as sources of artificial light. The action of the alkali 
 on the fat oils is highly important, as forming soap. 
 
 The volatile oils are generally obtained by distilling the 
 vegetables, which afford them, with water ; they fluctuate in 
 density a little on either side of water: they are sparingly 
 soluble in water, forming the perfumed or medicated waters, 
 such as rose and peppermint water; they are mostly soluble 
 in alcohol, forming essences. A few of them, such as oil of 
 turpentine, of lemon peel, of copivi balsam, &c, are hydro- 
 carbons, that is, consist of carbon and hydrogen only; the 
 greater number, however, contain oxygen as one of their ul- 
 timate elements. They are chiefly used in medicine and in 
 perfumery, and a few of them are extensively employed in 
 the arts as vehicles for colours, and in the manufacture of 
 varnishes ; this is especially the case with oil of turpentine. 
 OI'SANITE. An ore of titanium, from the department 
 of Oise. 
 
 OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN The chief of the 
 band Assassins* who established themselves in the moun- 
 
 OLIVA. 
 
 tainous district of Kohistan in Persia, in the 11th century, 
 was so called. See Assassins. 
 
 OLD RED SANDSTONE. A series of rocks interposed 
 between the mountain limestone and slates. (See Geology.' 
 It is included in Murchison's Devonian System of Rocks. 
 
 OLD TE'STAMENT. The name given to that part of 
 Scripture which contains the collected works of the inspired 
 writers previously to the advent of our Saviour. The period 
 of their being collected is unknown. Some of them were ir 
 existence before the Babylonish captivity (000 years B.C.) 
 others were collected at a later period; and the collection 
 as it at present stands, was completed in the second centur; 
 before Christ. The Jews divided the Old Testament ink 
 the Law, the Prophets, and other writings known by tin 
 name Hagiographa, of which the Psalms were at the head. 
 The contents of the Old Testament may be conveniently di- 
 vided into the Historical Books, of which there are 17; the 
 Poetical, of which there are 5; and the Prophetical, of which 
 there are 16, distinguished into the books of 4 greater and 12 
 minor prophets. The Historical Books include the Penta- 
 teuch, the Book of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 2 Books of Samuel, 
 2 Books of Kings, 2 Books of Chronicles, the Book of Ezra, 
 of Nehemiah, and of Esther; the Poetical Books include the 
 Book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the 
 Song of Solomon : and the Prophetical comprise (of the 
 greater) Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and (of the 
 minor) Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, 
 Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi 
 See Bible, Testament, Prophets, Psalms, &c. 
 
 OLEA'CE^E. (Olea, one of the genera.) The natural 
 order of plants which contains the olive tree and the ash ; 
 it consists of trees or shrubs inhabiting the temperate parts 
 of the world, and distinguished from others by their flowers 
 being monopetalous and diandrous with a valvate aestivation 
 See Olive. 
 
 OLECRA'NON. (Gr. ojAcvr/, the ulna, and Kfavov, the 
 head.) The head of the ulna. The process ot the ulna 
 which forms the elbow. 
 
 OLE'FIANT GAS. This variety of carburetted hydro 
 gen is obtained by heating a mixture of two measures of sul 
 phuric acid and one of alcohol. It is of somewhat les» 
 specific gravity than atmospheric air, 100 cubic inches weigh 
 ing 30*5 grains. It burns with a bright white flame, and pro- 
 duces during combustion such proportions of carbonic ncid 
 and water as show that 1 volume of the gas is constituted 
 of 2 atoms or volumes of hydrogen and 2 atoms of carbon 
 hence the equivalent of olefiant gas is (2 h -f- 12 car.) = 14 
 When two volumes of chlorine are mixed with 1 of olefiant 
 gas, a*fl inflamed, hydrocholoric acid is formed, and the 
 charcoal of the gas makes its appearance in the form of 
 dense black soot. If the mixture, instead of being kindled, 
 be left standing over water, it soon condenses into a liquid 
 looking like oil (hence the term olefiant gas), which is a hy 
 drochloride of carbon. It has an aromatic odour, not un 
 like that of oil of caraways. 
 
 O'LEIC ACID. The product resulting from the actios 
 of alkalies upon the elaine, or liquid part of oils and fats. 
 
 O'LEIN. See Elain. 
 
 O'LEON. A peculiar liquid obtained by the distillation 
 of a mixture of oleic acid and lime. 
 
 O'LERON, LAWS OF. Sec Maritime Law 
 
 OLFA'CTORY NERVES. (Lat. oleo, J smell, and facio, 
 I cause.) The nerves of smell. The first pair of nerves. 
 They arise from the part of the brain called the corpora 
 striata, and, perforating the ethmoid bone, are distributed 
 over the mucous membrane of the nose. 
 
 OLI'BANUM. A gum resin, imported from the Levant, 
 in yellowish- white and nearly opaque drops or tears ; it has 
 a bitterish flavour, and has been used in medicine. When 
 burned it exhales rather an agreeable odour, and is some 
 times called frankincense. It is either the produce of the 
 Juniverus lycia, or of the Boswellia serrata. 
 
 O'LIGARCHY. (Gr. SXiyot, few, and apxetv, to govern.) 
 A state in which the sovereign power is lodged in the hands 
 of a small, exclusive class, is so called. It differs from aris- 
 tocracy, in that the Litter term appears to designate a govern 
 me .tin which the whole of a particular class or interest, e.g., 
 the noble, the wealthy, &c, share directly or indirectly in 
 the management of public affairs; while, in an oligarchy, it 
 is a party or section formed out of one of these classes which 
 enjoys the advantages of government. 
 
 OLI'VA. (Lat. oliva, an olive.) A genus of Pectini 
 branchiate Gastropods, dismembered from the Volutes of 
 Linnreus, and so called on account of the long and elliptical 
 shape of the shell. The aperture is narrow, long, and notch- 
 ed opposite to the spire, which is short ; the folds of the 
 columella are numerous, and resemble stria;. The animal 
 
 * There are few words whose etymology has exercised, and at the mat 
 
 time baffled the ingenuity of the learned, more than this. Perhaps the chasch 
 following may not be very remote from the truth. Throughout all the East I roaeha 
 a preparation of hemp is universally used to exhilarate the spirits by a luxu- 
 rious species of intoxication. This is known to the Orientals hy the name of 
 'lairMM, and those who are addicted to it are called haschischin and has 
 
 848 
 
 two expressions, as Dr. Sacy remarks, which explain why the Is' 
 maelians have been called by the historians of the crusades at one lime As. 
 sissini, and at another Ass cutini. So that, instead of " a secret murderer," 
 assassin implies, in point of fact, "a habitual drunkard." (Quart Hem 
 vol. 24.) 
 
 
OLIVE. 
 
 las a large foot, the anterior portion of which is marked off 
 by an incision on eacli side. The horns or tentacula are 
 •lender, and the eyes arc on the middle of their outer side. 
 The proboscis and the breathing tube are tolerably long ; 
 there is no operculum. The species of Oliva rival the cow- 
 ries in beauty. 
 
 O'LIVE. (Lat. olea.) A genus of trees belonging to the 
 Diandria Monagynia class of plants. The Olea Europaa 
 has an upright stem, with numerous branches, grows to the 
 height of twenty or thirty feet, and differs from most trees in 
 yieldine a fixed oil from the pericarp instead of from the 
 seed. The olive tree has in all ages been held in peculiar 
 estimation; and some authors have styled it a " mine u[>on 
 earth." It was sacred to Minerva. Olive wreaths were 
 used by the Greeks and Romans to crown the brows of vic- 
 tors; and it is still universally regarded as emblematic of 
 peace. The olive flourishes only in warm and comparative- 
 ly dry parts of the world, as the south of France and Spain ; 
 in Italy, Syria, and the north of Africa ; and though it has 
 been raised in the open air in this country, its fruit did not 
 ripen. The fruit is a smooth oval plum, about three quar- 
 ters of an inch in length, and half an inch in diameter; of a 
 deep violet colour when ripe ; whitish and fleshy within; 
 bitter and nauseous, but replete with a bland oil. Olives In- 
 tended for preservation are gathered before they are ripe. 
 In pickling, the object is to remove and to preserve 1MB 
 green by impregnating (hem with a brine of aromatized sea 
 salt ; and for this purpose various methods are employed. 
 But it is chiefly for the sake of its oil that the olive tree is 
 cultivated. Olive oil is p:ile yellow; its density is -910. 
 When fresh, and of fine quality, it is almost tasteless, having 
 only a very slight ami agreeable nutty flavour. It is less apt 
 than most other fixed oils to become viscid by exposure, and 
 hence is preferred for greaatog clock and watch-work. It is 
 hugely MBd as an article of food. It is the principal article 
 of export from the kingdom of Naples. Of 2,791,057 gallons 
 Imported in 1H;m». 3,034,237 were from Italy, 039.468 from 
 Spain. 52,004 fmm Malta, 21.467 from Turkey, 11,300 from 
 the Ionian Wanda, and about 30,000 (at second-hand) from 
 Germany and the Netherlands. There is a duty of eight 
 guineas a ton on olive oil. (See Diet, of Commerce, <$-e.) 
 
 OXTVELE. A peculiar anylaeeooi or crystalline sub- 
 stance, obtained from the gum of the olive tree. 
 
 O'LIVINK. A variety of chrysolite containing oxide of 
 iron, of an olive green colour. It is sometimes found associ- 
 ated with meteoric iron. 
 
 OLLA PODRI'DA. (Span, putrid mixture.) The name 
 given to a favourite dish of alt classes in Spain ; consisting 
 of a mixture of all kinds of meat cut into small pieces, and 
 ■awed with various kinds of vegetables. The epithet 
 podrida is applied to this dish, in consequence of the poorer 
 classes being obliged to serve it up so often that the odour 
 arisiim from long Keeping is far from agreeable. The phrase 
 olla podrida is often used metaphorically in England for any 
 Incongruous melange. 
 
 OLY'MPIAD. (Gr. oAi^iriaj.) In Chronology, a Grecian 
 epoch of four years, being the Interval between the celebra- 
 tion of the Olympic cane - 
 
 The Olympic games, so famous in Grecian history, were 
 said to have been instituted about 1354 years before the 
 Christian era ; but, having fallen into disuse, they were re- 
 rived by Iphttus, king of Elis, 844 years, B.C. About a 
 hundred years Inter, the practice was introduced of desig- 
 nating the Olympic period by the name of the victor. The 
 first who received the honour was Cortebus, and the com- 
 mencement of the Olympiad of Corabus forms the principnl 
 era of Grecian chronology. The games in which he was 
 victor were celebrated about the time of the summer solstice, 
 776 years before the era of the incarnation, in the 3938th of 
 the Julian period, and 23 years, according to the reckoning 
 of Varro, before the foundation of Rome. Before the intro- 
 duction of the Metonic cycle, the Olympic year began some- 
 times with the full moon which followed, sometimes with 
 that which preceded the summer solstice. Subsequent to 
 the introduction of that cycle, the year always commenced 
 with the eleventh day of the moon which followed the sol- 
 stice, and it is usually regarded as beginning on the first day 
 of July. It is necessary to observe, in the comparison of 
 dates, that as the Olympiads begin about the 1st of July, the 
 first six months of a year of our era correspond to one Olym- 
 pic year, and the second to another. The first year of the 
 first Olympiai began 776 years and six months before our 
 era ; hence, in order to reduce the date by Olympiads to our 
 era, the rule is this : Multiply the number of the past Olym- 
 piad by four, and add the odd years ; subtract the sum from 
 777, if before Christ, or subtract 776 from the sum, if after 
 Christ : the remainder will be the year before Christ or after 
 Christ, if the event happened in the first six months of the 
 Olympic year, that is, between July and January ; but if the 
 event happened in the last six months of the Oiympic year, 
 or between January and July, the remainder, in either case, 
 must be diminished by one. For example, the foundation 
 3 H 
 
 OMENTUM. 
 
 of Rome (according to Varro) was laid in the 3d year of the 
 6th Olympiad, and 10th month of that year; required the 
 date 1 Here 5 complete periods are elapsed ; therefore, 5 + 
 4 + 3=23; and 777 — 23=754, which, being diminished by 
 one, gives 753 B.C. for the date. The month corresponds to 
 April. 
 
 The method of computing time by Olympiai s did not come 
 Into use till after the death of Alexander, and first appears 
 in the Parian Chronicle, which was engraved about sixty 
 years after that event The first historian who used it was 
 Timxus Siculus, who wrote a few years later. About 9011 
 years B.C., Eratosthenes of Alexandria digested a chroim 
 logical table of the Olympiads. 
 
 OLY'MPIC GAMES. The greatest of the national fi >U 
 vals of Greece, celebrated once every four years atOlympiu, 
 or Pisa, in Elis, in honour of Olympian Jupiter. Their in- 
 stitution is variously attributed to Jupiter, Pclops, and Hercil 
 lea ; but it appears that they had fallen into disuse for some 
 time, till they were revived by Iphitus, 776 B.C. From ihis 
 period it is that the Olympiads are reckoned. Like the other 
 public festivals, the Olympian games might bo attended by 
 all who bore the Hellenic name; and such was their uni- 
 versal celebrity, that spectators quaternially crowded to wit- 
 ness them, not only from all parts of Greece itself, but from 
 every Grecian colony in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In these 
 games, none were allowed to contend but those who could 
 prove that they were freemen of genuine Hellenic origin, 
 and unstained by crime or immorality. The superintendence 
 of these games belonged sometimes to the Pisans, but for 
 the most part to the Eleans, by whom the Pisans were dc 
 stroyed. On one occasion, in the 104th Olympiad, the man 
 ngement was forcibly seized on by the Arcadians. The con 
 tests at these games consisted in the athletic exercises, and 
 also In those of music and poetry. The orators wire 
 crowned with garlands of wild olive. (See West's Pindar ; 
 Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i., 384; and the other authorities.) 
 The place where these renowned games were celebrated is 
 a plain, now called Anti-Lalla, op|iosite the little town of 
 Lnlla. They commenced a little after the summer solstice, 
 on the 14th of the Attic month Hccatombaxm. 
 
 O'MBRIA. (Gr. outipos, rain.) A name formerly applied 
 to certain fossil Echini, under the supposition of their hav- 
 ing fallen from the clouds. 
 
 OMBRO'METER. (Gr. ou6poc, rain, und ucrpov, mean 
 vre.) A name sometimes given to the rain gauge. See 
 
 RAlNOAfOB. 
 
 < r.MKI.KT. A pancake or fritter made of eggs, common 
 In Spain, France, and Germany. 
 
 < I'.MF.NS. Casual indications, from which men believe 
 themselves enabled to conjecture or foretel future events. 
 The essential characteristic of all omens is their happening 
 by accident ; and it is this which distinguishes tliein from all 
 other modes of divination. This branch of superstition 
 seems nearly as ancient as the world itself; and in none do 
 we find such remarkable Indications of sameness of origin. 
 Many external circumstances appear to be received in almost 
 all countries as ominous. One of the most remarkable in- 
 stances of this coincidence is mentioned in a recent number 
 of the Edinburgh Review. The omens in which the " f 'g*, 
 or secret murderers of India, believe with peculiar dev.,jon, 
 are almost the very same which an ancient Roman would 
 have observed with equal attention ; especially the nppear- 
 nnce of animals on the right or left hand. In classical an- 
 tiquity, however, omens appear to have multiplied, and to 
 have been the subjects of more curious superstition in Intel 
 than in earlier ages. There are numberless omens in Homer ; 
 but they are generally of the simplest description — thunder 
 and lightning; the appearance of some sacred birds, espe- 
 cially, as some critics have observed, those which have the 
 highest flight, and might be supposed to have arrived imme- 
 diately from the throne of Jove himself. Omens, among the 
 Greeks (and, we may add, among almost all nations in peri- 
 ods of ignorance, and among the vulgar of the present day), 
 may be divided into three classes : those derived from natural 
 occurrences, relating to inanimate objects lightning, earth- 
 quakes, phosphoric appearances, &c. ; those derived from 
 animals, especially birds, the region of their appearance, 
 their voices, &c. ; and those which the individual drew from 
 sudden sensations of his own. Sneezing, in most times and 
 countries, has been a peculiarly ominous occurrence. The 
 Romans, as is well known, carried the science of omens to 
 a very profound depth : the flight of birds was the main ele- 
 ment in augury ; the omens afforded by the entrails of sacri- 
 ficed animals, in the learning of exlispicium. One remark- 
 able variety between Greek and Roman divination has often 
 been noticed : the right hand in the former generally denoted 
 good luck, and the left the contrary. Among the Roman* 
 this rule was reversed, nlthough their writers in later time* 
 often adopt the Greek mode of expression. See Augubs. 
 
 OME'NTUM. (So called from Lat. omen, because the 
 soothsayers prophesied from its inspection.) The membrane 
 is formed of a duplicaturc of the peritoneum, and encloses 
 
 849 
 
OMNIBUS. 
 
 more or less fat It is attached to the stomach, and lies on 
 the anterior surface of the intestines. 
 
 O'MNIBUS. (Lat. for all.) The name given to a pecu- 
 liar kind of public carriage, too well known to require to be 
 described, which takes a number of passengers at a cheap 
 common rate. They were first introduced into Paris in 1825, 
 whence they were introduced into London in 1829 ; and 
 they are now to be met with in almost every large town both 
 of this country and the Continent. 
 
 O'MNIUM. In Finance, a term used at the Stock Ex- 
 change to express the aggregate value of the different stocks 
 in which a loan is now usually funded. (See Dictionary 
 of Commerce.) 
 
 O'MNIVORES. (Lat. omn's, all, and voro, / eat.) The 
 name given by Temminck to an order of birds, including 
 those Insessoral species which feed on both animal and 
 vegetable substances ; as the starling. 
 
 OMOHYOl'DEUS. A muscle which pulls the os hyoides 
 obliquely downward: it is sometimes called the coracohy- 
 oideus : it arises from the superior costa of the scapula, and 
 is inserted into the base of the os hyoides. 
 
 OMPHALO'DIUM. (Gr. ou<paXos, the navel.) The cen- 
 tre of the hilum of a seed, through which the nourishing 
 vessels pass from the placenta into the seminal integuments. 
 
 OMPHALO'TOMY. (Gr. on<pa\os, and n^vw, / cut.) 
 The division of the navel string. 
 
 ONAGRA'CE^E. (Onagra, an old name for the genus 
 JEnothera.) An extensive natural order of Polypetalous 
 Exogenous plants, very common in gardens, where they are 
 much valued for the beauty of their flowers. They are 
 known by all the parts of their flowers being arranged in 
 fours. The genera Fuchsia, (Enothera, and Epilobium are 
 common illustrations of the order. 
 
 ONE'IROCRI'TICS, or ONEIROCRITIC AL SCIENCE. 
 (Gr. oveipoi, and uptvio, 1 judge.) The science of interpreting 
 dreams : treated of by Artemidorus, Macrobius, and other 
 classical writers ; by Thomas Aquinas, and others of the 
 schoolmen ; and, among many other moderns, by Cardanus, 
 and Maio, a Neapolitan philosopher. According to all these 
 writers, the secret of oneirocritical science consists in the re- 
 lation supposed to exist between the dream and the thing 
 signified ; but they are far from keeping to the relations of 
 agreement and similitude, and they frequently have recourse 
 to others of dissimilitude and contrariety. 
 
 ONEIRODYNIA. (Gr. Svupoc, and oivvn, pain.) Dis- 
 turbed dreams, including the nightmare and somnambulism. 
 
 ONISCI'DjE. The name of a family of Isopodous Crus- 
 taceans, of which the wood-louse ( Oniscus) is the type. 
 
 O'NOMANCY, or ONO'MOMA'NCY. (Gr. ovoua, a 
 name, and uavreia, prophecy. A species of divination from 
 the letters of a person's name. Many fancies of this sort 
 were current among the ancients ; such as that names in 
 which the numeral letters amounted to the highest sum 
 were most lucky. 
 
 ONOMA'STICON. (Gr. ovoua.) A work containing 
 words or names, with their explanation, arranged in alpha- 
 betical or other order ; a dictionary, commonplace book, &c. 
 The best known work under this title is the Onom. of Julius 
 Pollux, in ten books, a valuable repertory of ancient philo- 
 logical learning. 
 
 ONOMATOPCE'IA. (Gr. Svoua, name ; noiew, I make.) 
 Literally, the making or manufacture of names ; a word ex- 
 pressing by its sound the thing represented. In most lan- 
 guages the cries of animals are thus expressed ; and the line 
 of Aristophanes, 
 
 'O <5 li^idios Sivrrcp T.pofiarov (5rj [3rj Xiyoiv PaSfyt, 
 shows that the modern Greeks have not correctly retained 
 the sound of the eta (which they pronounce like our e), as 
 thi. sound imitated from nature would not be thus represent- 
 ed. Ennius imitated the sound of a trumpet by the word 
 taratantara ; and, to represent the croaking of frogs, Aris- 
 tophanes used (SptKtKtKtl Koa\ Koa\. [Frogs, i., 209.) Greek 
 and German are peculiarly rich in words of this description. 
 M. Charles Nodier has published a dictionary of those in 
 French. (Dictionaire des Onomatopies Francaises.) 
 
 ONTO'LOGY. (Gr. t6 ov, being, and Ao'yo?, discourse.) 
 The science of being in itself, or its ultimate grounds and 
 conditions. See Metaphysics. 
 
 ONY'CHIA. (Gr. ovv\, the nail.) A whitlow. 
 
 ON Y'CHOTEUTHIS. (Gr. owl, a claw ; revdoc, a cala- 
 mary.) The name of the genus of Calamaries, in which 
 die suckers of the cephalic appendages are armed with a 
 nook. 
 
 O'NYX. A regularly banded agate, much prized for 
 cameos, especially where the colours are very distinct and 
 opposed. Any stone exhibiting layers of two or more colours 
 strongly contrasted is called an onyx. 
 
 O'nyx. In Surgery, an abscess of the cornea of the eye ; 
 so called from its resemblance to the stone termed an onyx! 
 
 O'OLITE. (Gr. uov, an egg, and ~SiQos, a stone.) A 
 granular variety of carbonate of lime, frequently called rot- 
 850 
 
 OPERA. 
 
 stone. The frequency of the occurrence of th*> particular 
 form of limestone in a great series of deposits, lying between 
 the subcretaceous formations and the new red sandstone, 
 has caused English geologists to give the whole series the 
 name of oolitic. It is largely developed in England and 
 France. See Geology. 
 
 OOZO'A. (Gr. <aov, an egg, $wov, animal.) A name ap- 
 plied by Ficinus and Carus to a primary division of the ani 
 mal kingdom, including those in which the nervous and 
 sanguiferous systems are incompletely developed, and in 
 which the organization resembles the simple condition of the 
 ovum of the higher classes. This division corresponds to 
 the Acrita. 
 
 OPA'CITY. (Lat. opacus, dark.) In Optics, that quality 
 of bodies which renders them opaque, or incapable of trans 
 mitting light. According to the Newtonian theory of light, 
 opacity in natural bodies arises from the multitude of reflec 
 tions caused in their internal parts. Newton thought it 
 probable that the molecules of opaque and coloured bodies 
 are separated by minute pores, either entirely void, or filled 
 with some subtle matter of a different density from the body. 
 If light enters such a body, and experience proves that it does 
 penetrate the surfaces of opaque bodies, it will be reflected on 
 encountering a molecule ; and, if the molecules are extreme- 
 ly minute (in comparison of those of transparent bodies), the 
 number of reflections may become so great that no part of 
 the light will again escape from the surface. On this hy- 
 pothesis, Sir J. Herschel remarks, that unless we admit a 
 cause of opacity in atoms different from that which causes 
 it in their aggregates, the atoms cannot be otherwise than 
 absolutely pellucid, since no reflections can take place where 
 there are no intervals, and no change of medium. Of the 
 sufficiency of this cause, either in natural bodies or atoms, 
 there does appear, he adds, some room for doubt, as it seems 
 difficult so to conceive their internal reflections that the rays 
 subjected to them shall be all and forever retained, entangled, 
 as it were, and running their rounds from atom to atom, with- 
 out a possibility of reaching the surface and escaping : which, 
 were they to do, it is evident that every body so constituted 
 receiving a beam of light would in fact only disperse it in ali 
 directions in the manner of a self-luminous one. (Ency 
 Jllttr., art "Light") 
 
 O'PAL. A beautiful mineral characterized by its irides 
 cent reflection of light : it is very brittle. It consists of silica 
 with about 10 per cent, of water. Common opal in some of 
 its characters resembles the preceding ; but it has no play 
 of colours, and is abundant the former being a very rare 
 mineral. Opal is found in different parts of Europe, bu' 
 particularly in Hungary ; in the East Indies, &c. (For some 
 curious details as to this stone, see Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. 37 
 c. 6.) 
 
 OPALI'ZED WOOD. Wood petrified by silica and ac 
 quiring a structure resembling common opal. 
 
 O'PEN FIELD LAND. Arable lands unenclosed by 
 hedges or other fences, and in the occupation of different in 
 dividuals, or under different crops. In former times, only 
 those parts of a farm which lay around the farmyard were 
 enclosed, while the more distant parts were open, and called 
 open fields, or out fields. 
 
 O'PENINGS. In Architecture, the piercings or unfilled 
 parts in a wall, left for the purpose of admitting light, air, &c. 
 
 O'PERA. (Ital. work.) A musical drama, in which the 
 music forms an essential part, and not merely an accompanl 
 ment The whole dramatic art of the ancients possessed 
 much of an operatic character. The choric parts were 
 sung ; and if the dialogue was not carried on in the musical 
 tone termed recitative in modern times, it was certainly de 
 livered in an artificially raised and sustained key, very dif- 
 ferent from the ordinary or oratorical speech. The first 
 operas in modern times were performed in Italy, about the 
 end of the 15th century. The Orpheo of Poliziano has been 
 cited as the first complete piece of this sort. Jean Antoine 
 Baif introduced the opera into France, where the earliest 
 representation of this kind is said to have taken place at the 
 marriage of the Due de Joyeuse, in 1582. In 1707, the opera 
 of Arsinbe, consisting of English words adapted to Italian 
 airs, was performed at Drury Lane, and a succession of en 
 tertainments of this kind terminated in the Italian opera. 
 The first attempt at a wholly English opera was made by 
 Sir William D'Avenant, in 1656. The opera was divided 
 into seria and bvffa, according to the subjects and the char 
 acter of the music ; and between the limits of both there is a 
 third species, or mezzo stilo, not very accurately definable 
 The opera, properly speaking, admits only of singing and re 
 citation, although, in some of the German operas, dialogic 
 is also introduced. The romantic opera, which is consider 
 ed as a German invention, is a compound between the two 
 Italian species. Metastasio in Italy, and Goethe in Germany, 
 have both written for the opera ; but those are splendid ex 
 ceptions, and the poetry has, in most instances, been held 
 entirely subservient to the music. At the beginning of last 
 century the opera, on its more general introduction into 
 
OPERA-GLASS. 
 
 France and England, was attacked as an absurdity by at- 
 most all the wits and critics of the day. There were not, 
 however, wanting defenders of this favc urite child of the 
 gay and fashionable world ; and foremost among them was 
 Voltaire, to whose apology for the opera, in the preface to 
 his tragedy of (Edipe, we take leave to refer the reader. 
 
 OPERA-GLASS. A small telescope used in theatres, 
 whence it has its name. 
 
 The common opera-glass is nothing else than the Galilean 
 telescope, invented by Galileo in 1609, which was the first 
 ever employed for the purpose of exploring the heavens. A 
 section of the instrument is represented in the annexed fig- 
 ure. It consists of 
 on object glass A IS. 
 the focal length of 
 ji which is usually 
 
 ~—T from 4 to 8 inches. 
 The eye-glass, C D. 
 is a double concave 
 or plano-concave 
 lens, from half an inch to 2 inches focus ; the distance be- 
 tween the two lenses is equal to the difference of their focal 
 lengths; and the magnifying power is in the ratio of those 
 lengths. Rays of light, R R, rolling on the object glass, are 
 refracted towards the axis X Y, and proceed to meet in the 
 focus of the lens at F. But before they reach that point 
 they are intercepted by the concave lens C D, the focus of 
 which is also at F, and by which they are restored to their 
 parallelism. The rays, therefore, proceeding from the ob- 
 ject enter the eye, which is applied to the lens C D, with- 
 out crossing each other, or forming an image ; and hence 
 the distinctness of the Galilean exceed* that of all other 
 telescopes ; hence, also, there is no inversion of the image, 
 and, as there are only two glasses, the loss of light is incon- 
 ciderable. 
 
 aa A B may be either single or compound. If a 
 single lens of plate-glass is used, it should be nearly con- 
 Vc\o plane; if a convex of plate and a concave of flint be 
 combined to form the compound lens, the former should be 
 nearly convexo-plane, and the latter concavo plane. As to 
 the eye-glass, it is always single ; and the plano-concave 
 form is perhaps better than the double concave, the eye be- 
 ing, in fact, never placed in actual contact with it. For any 
 magnifying power above 3 or 4, it ought to be limited to an 
 nurture rather less than that of the pupil of the eye ; and 
 where distinct vision is desired, the eye should l>e placed as 
 accurately as possible on the axis of the instrument. (Cod- 
 dington's Optics.) 
 
 The area or field of view of this instrument is very limit- 
 ed, and for this reason it cannot be used with any high mag- 
 nifytog power. See Telescope. 
 
 OPB'HCULUM. (Eat. operio, leaser.) The lid of any- 
 thing, applied by botanists to the cap of the pitcher of .W 
 penthes, to the loose apex of such fruits as that of /.ccylhis, 
 to the conical limb of the calyx of Eucalyptus, and to the 
 body which closes u|> the theca of a moss. 
 
 Opkrii i.i m. In Zoology, this term is applied to the ap- 
 paratus supported by four bones which protects the gills of 
 also to the horny or calcareous plate which closes 
 the aperture of univalve shells; and to the four calcanun- 
 ptecea which defend the entrance to the tube of Balanites 
 or bell-bamacles. 
 
 OPHICLEI'DR. (Gr. o$tc, a serpent, and <rXtif, a key.) 
 The largest brass wind instrument used in Uie orchestra of 
 the trumpet species, and forming the bass to that class of 
 instruments ; its compass is from double B b to A b above the 
 line, in the bass clef, being three octaves. 
 
 OPHIDIANS, Opkidia. (Gr. o</x$, and ufoc.form.) The 
 name of the order of reptiles which includes all the serpenti- 
 forin species of that class, corresponding to the Amphibia 
 serprntes of Linnaius. 
 
 OTIIIOMANCY. (Gr. oip-tc, and uavTcin, prophecy.) 
 
 The art of divination from serpents. Thus, the seven coils 
 
 of the serpent seen on the tomb of Anchises were held to 
 
 indicate the numl>er of years of jEneas's future wanderings : 
 
 Septem etcnira gyros, septena, volumina. traxit. 
 
 O'PIIITES. (Gr. o0if.) The name of an early sect of 
 Christian heretics, who emanated from the Gnostics, so call- 
 ed from their worshipping the serpent that tempted Eve. 
 They considered the serpent as the father of all the sciences, 
 which, but for the temptation of our first parents, would 
 never have been known. (Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. i.) 
 
 OPHIU CHU6, or OPMU'CUS ; also called Serpentarius. 
 One of the constellations of the northern hemisphere. 
 
 OPHTII AI.MIA, or OPHTHALMI'TIS. (Gr. o<p0a\uoc, 
 the eye.) Inflammation of the eye. This term is applied to 
 diseased action of various parts of the eye. In common cases 
 its seat is the conjunctiva membrane, and it is relieved bv 
 fomentations of warm water or of decoction of poppy-heads, 
 by leeches, cupping, purging ; and, in violent cases, these 
 depletive measures must sometimes be carried to a consider- 
 
 OPIUM. 
 
 able extent, and a."ded by blisters to the temple or nape o 
 the neck. Emetics have sometimes been of service. When 
 all inflammatory symptoms have subsided, local astringents, 
 and mild strengthening eye- waters, may be resorted to; but 
 so long as any inflammation remains they should be most 
 cautiously applied. Sometimes the iris is the seat of in- 
 flammation. This is attended with fever, great intolerance 
 of light, and pain, and requires the same treatment. It 
 sometimes terminates in a small abscess, which discharges 
 its contents into the interior chamber of the eye, and the 
 sight is destroyed by the permanent damage done to the 
 part. 
 
 There is another form of ophthalmia in which the con 
 junctiva and inner membrane of the eyelids becomes in- 
 flamed and purulent, as in the Egyptian ophthalmia, which 
 form of the disease is highly contagious. The swelling and 
 purulent inflammation of the eyelids is so great as to close 
 or distort them, and the ulceration sometimes extends over 
 the cornea ; the humours escape, the whole organ is fright- 
 fully disorganized, and the agony that attends the whole 
 progress of the worst form of the malady is indescribable. 
 The treatment originally resorted to consisted in bleeding 
 and purging: the plan afterwards adopted was to give nau- 
 seating doses of tartar emetic, to remove the granulations by 
 the scissors or knife, and afterwards to apply solutions of 
 nitrate of silver or alum to prevent their reproduction. 
 
 There is a variety of ophthalmia called metastatic, caused 
 by the translation of some other disease, such as gout, or by 
 the application of some morbid poison to the part. Its treat- 
 ment depends upon its origin. 
 
 The purulent opthalmia of new-born infants generally 
 yields to the skilful application of mild astringent eye-wa- 
 ters, and to gentle aperients. 
 
 After the small-pox and measles, and some fevers, espe- 
 cially in scrofulous habits, the glands of the eyelids form 
 a morbid secretion, which irritates and glues together the 
 parts. This disease has been termed psorophthalmia ; it 
 frequently yields to fomentation with warm water, to a drop 
 of vinous tincture of opium into the eye at bedtime, and to 
 the application of the ointment of nitrate of mercury or red 
 precipitate. 
 
 OPIATE. (Gr. oxoc, juice.) A medicine producing 
 sleep. See Anodyne. 
 
 OPISTHO'GRAPHUM. (Gr. omoQcv, behind, and ypal-ia, 
 I write.) In Classical Antiquity, a set of tickets, or roll of 
 parchment or paper, answering the purpose of a memoran 
 dum book, or commonplace book, to enter notes and othei 
 extemporary matters to be revised afterwards; so called 
 from being written over both on the front and back. Any 
 ordinary MS. in which .he transcriber had employed both 
 the front and back of the papyrus was indeed an opistho- 
 graph, strictly so called; a practice to which allusion if 
 made in the well-known verse of Juvenal : 
 
 Scriptui el in Icreo, nee dum finitin Orestes. 
 
 OPISTHOTONOS. (Gr. oittaOtv, backwards, and rttvu> 
 7 draw.) A spasmodic action of the muscles, by which the 
 body is bent backwards. 
 
 O'PIUM. (Gr. ovoc, juice.) The inspissated juice of the 
 poppy, obtained by wounding the unri|)e seed capsules of 
 the Papaver somniferum, collecting the milky juice which 
 exudes and dries in the sun, and kneading it into cakes. 
 The cakes of the best opium are covered externally with 
 pieces of dried leaves and the seed capsules of some species 
 of Rumcx. It should be of a rich brown colour, tough con- 
 sistency, and smooth uniform texture ; its peculiar narcotic 
 smell should be strong and fresh ; its taste bitter, warm, and 
 somewhat acrid. The chemical analysis of opium has ren- 
 dered it probable that its activity as a medicine depends 
 upon the presence of a peculiar alkaline base called morphia, 
 in combination with an acid which has been termed meconic 
 acid. Opium also contains narcotine, narccine, codcin, gum 
 resin, extractive matter, and small portions of other proxi- 
 mate principles. 
 
 The chief countries in which opium is prepared are India, 
 Egypt, Turkey, and other parts of Asia ; it is even cultivated 
 in Italy, France, and England, but the climate of Europe 
 seems to be too uncertain to allow of its regular production. 
 Opium is pretty extensively used, both as a masticatory and 
 in smoking, in Turkey and India ; but its great consumption 
 is in China and the surrounding countries, where the habit 
 of smoking it has become all but universal. The supplies 
 for the Chinese market are derived from India and Turkey, 
 but chiefly from the former. Indian opium is distinguished 
 Into three kinds : the Patna or that grown in the province of 
 Bahar, the Bernares, and the Malwa; of which the first is 
 in the highest repute. The cultivation of opium in India is 
 a strict government monopoly. Every one who chooses 
 may, within the prescribed regulations, engage in the opium 
 cultivation ; but the drug, when prepared, must all be sold 
 to the government at a fixed price, which is said to be so far 
 from remunerating the growers that, were it not for the 
 
 851 
 
OPOBALSAM. 
 
 advances which government are obliged to make to ena- 
 ble them to carry on the business, the cultivation of opi- 
 um would be discontinued in the greater portion of India. 
 This monopoly has sometimes yielded a nett revenue of 
 £1,000,000 a year. This revenue has, however, of late 
 years materially decreased, owing to the introduction into 
 China of large supplies of opium from Turkey, into which 
 it is found impossible to extend the monopoly. The East 
 India opium is exported in chests of 159J lbs. each. The in 
 traduction of opium into China was a legitimate branch of 
 traffic down to the close of the last century. Ever since 
 that period, however, the trade has been contraband ; but 
 though the Chinese government has issued edict upon edict 
 prohibiting the importation of the drug, the consumption of 
 Indian opium in China has, in little more than forty years, 
 risen from 1000 to about 27,000 chests per annum. Such an 
 extraordinary increase in a trade prohibited by law is at- 
 tributable only to the corruption of the Chinese authorities. 
 At first the trade was carried on at Whampoa, fifteen miles 
 below Canton ; and next at Macao, whence it was driven 
 by the exactions of the Portuguese ; and the principal en- 
 trepot was, till the recent outbreak of hostilities between the 
 British and Chinese, in the bay of Lintin. The opium is 
 kept on board ships, commonly called receiving ships, of 
 which there are often ten or twelve lying together at anchor. 
 The sales are mostly effected by the English and American 
 agents in Canton, who give orders for the delivery of the 
 opium ; which, on the order being produced, is handed over 
 to the Chinese smuggler, who comes alongside at night to 
 receive it. Frequently, however, the smuggler purchases 
 the opium on his own account, paying for it on the spot 
 in silver, it being a rule of the trade never violated that the 
 money must be paid before the opium is delivered. When 
 the drug is landed, the laws are equally set at defiance in 
 its progress through the country, smoking houses being, it is 
 said, everywhere established. During the first ten years of 
 the present century, the exports from India to China were 
 about 2500 chests. In 1821-1822, after the introduction of 
 Malwa opium into the markets of Bombay and Calcutta, the 
 exports increased to 4628 chests ; and owing no doubt to the 
 greatly increased supply and lower price of the article, the 
 exports in 1831-1832 exceeded 20,000 chests, worth more than 
 13,000,000 dollars ; and in 1837-1838 exceeded 30,000 chests, 
 worth 20,000,000 dollars. In the beginning of 1839 the 
 Chinese authorities resorted to decided measures to put a 
 stop to opium smuggling ; but the hostilities that consequent- 
 ly ensued between the two nations not having yet been com- 
 posed, we shall not venture to enter upon so intricate a ques- 
 tion, but shall merely observe, that whatever may be the re- 
 sult of the negotiations now pending, no system of restriction, 
 how rigorous soever, will, in all probability, ever be able to 
 check the smuggling of opium into China, where the popular 
 tastes and habits are so decidedly in its favour. The opium 
 consumed in England is derived chiefly from Turkey ; but 
 the supply is liable to great fluctuations. Thus, in 1830, the 
 quantity imported from Turkey amounted to 192,136 lbs. ; 
 in the following year, to 8,184 lbs.; in 1833, to 72,020 lbs. ; 
 and iu 1834, to 12,438 lbs. This remark is applicable to all 
 the other places whence opium is imported into England, as 
 well as to the quantity annually re-exported from England. 
 Previously to 1828, the duty upon opium was 9s. per lb. ; 
 but in that year it was reduced to 4s. ; and again in 1836 to 
 Is., where it has since remained. 
 
 O'POBA'LSAM. (Gr. ottos, juice, and (iaXaauov, bal- 
 sam.) Balsam or balm of Gilead. A compound of resin 
 and essential oil of a peculiar fragrancy. It exudes from a 
 species of Amyris. 
 
 OPODE'LDOC. A term invented and formerly applied 
 by Paracelsus to a plaster foF all external injuries; but in 
 modern usage it signifies a liniment made by dissolving soap 
 in alcohol, with the addition of camphor and volatile oils. 
 
 OPO PONAX. A gum resin, having a peculiar and 
 rather disagreeable odour, formerly used in medicine. It is 
 the produce of the Pastinaca opoponaz. 
 
 OPO'SSUM. The common name of the Marsupial quad- 
 rupeds of the genus Didelpkis, characterized by three kinds 
 of teeth, viz. incisors, canines, and molars ; by hinder hands, 
 and a prehensile tail. With this organization the opossums, 
 as might be expected, are arboreal in their habits ; and feed 
 on a mixed diet, in which animal food preponderates. The 
 larger species have a well-developed abdominal pouch, in 
 which the young are received at a singularly early stage of 
 development. In some of the smaller opossums the cha- 
 racteristic pouch is nearly rudimentary, and the young are 
 carried by the parent on the back, where they cling to the 
 fur, and likewise hold on by entwining their little prehensile 
 tails round that of the mother : the name Didelpkis dorsi- 
 gera is on this account given to one of the species. The 
 true opossums are now limited to the American continent ; 
 but, during the Eocene period, there were species of Didel- 
 pkis in both France and England. 
 
 OPPOSI'TION (Lat. oppositio.) In a general sense, 
 852 
 
 OPTICS. 
 
 the fact of being in a state of contrary action or disagree 
 ment. In Politics, the name given in Great Britain to the 
 party in parliament opposed to the administration for the 
 lime being, and which would most likely succeed to power 
 were it displaced. A party in parliament which, though 
 opposed to government, has no chance of succeeding to 
 power were ministers dismissed, is not usually characterized 
 by the term Opposition. 
 
 Opposition, in Astronomy, denotes the aspect of two 
 bodies when diametrically opposite to each other. Thus, 
 the moon, or a planet, is said to be in opposition with the 
 sun when it passes the meridian at midnight. 
 Opposition. In the Fine Arts, contrast ; which see. 
 OPS. In Mythology, the Latin appellation of the Greek, 
 goddess Rhea or Cybele ; which see. 
 
 OPSIO'METER. (Gr. oy/iy, sight, and utrpov, measured 
 An instrument for measuring the extent of the limits of dis 
 tinct vision in different individuals, and consequently foi 
 determining the focal length of lenses necessary to correct 
 imperfections of the eye. A contrivance for this purpose, 
 by M. Lehot, is described in the Annates des Sciences a" Ob- 
 servation for June 1829, and in the Notes by M. Ouetelet to 
 the French translation of HerscheVs Treatise on Light. 
 Its principle depends on the appearance presented by a 
 straight line placed very near the eye, in the direction ol 
 its axis ; and the principle is carried into practice by placing 
 a thread of white silk on a narrow rule covered with black 
 velvet, and furnished with a suitable apparatus for marking 
 the exact points at which the thread begins and ceases to 
 be distinctly seen, when held in a certain position with 
 respect to the eye. An instrument for the same purpose, on 
 a different principle, had formerly been suggested by Dr 
 Young. 
 OPTATIVE M£>OD. See Grammar. 
 O'PTIC NERVES. The second pair of nerves. They 
 arise from the thalami nervorum opticorum, and, perforating 
 the bulb of the eye, form the retina. 
 
 O'PTICS. (Gr. o-rrTouai, I see.) That branch of physical 
 science which treats of light and vision. 
 
 The theory of light, and the different hypotheses respect 
 ing its propagation, having been explained under the term 
 Light, and its most remarkable properties being described 
 under their respective heads (Chromatics, Diffraction, 
 Interference, Polarization, Reflexion, Refraction, 
 &c), we shall here confine ourselves to the explanation of 
 the phenomena and laws of vision, and the formation of 
 images; and this, in fact, comprehends all that is meant by 
 Optics, in the strict sense of the word. 
 
 Description of the Eye.— The human eye is of a spherical 
 form, having a slight projection in front. 
 The annexed figure represents a hori- 
 zontal section of it through its axis. It 
 consists of three principal chambers, 
 filled with different humours, or trans- 
 parent media of different refractive pow- 
 ers. The first of these media, occupy- 
 ing the anterior chamber A, is called 
 the aqueous humour, and consists al- 
 most entirely of pure water. The cell 
 in which the nqueous humour is contained is bounded on 
 its anterior side by a strong horny transparent substance, 
 called the cornea, the figure of which is an ellipsis of revo- 
 lution about its major axis. The posterior side of the cell is 
 formed by the iris, a kind of circular, opaque screen, con- 
 sisting of muscular fibres by the contraction or expansion of 
 which an aperture in its centre, called the pupil, is increased 
 or diminished according to the illumination, in order to pro- 
 tect the eye and preserve its sensibility by equalizing the 
 quantity of light admitted into it. The second humour, 
 called the crystalline lens, B, enclosed in its capsule, lies 
 immediately behind the pupil. Its figure is a solid of revo 
 lution, having its anterior surface much less curved than 
 the posterior; and both surfaces are ellipsoids of revolu 
 tion about their lesser axes. The crystalline is somewhat 
 denser towards the centre than at the outside; the increase 
 of density serving to correct the aberration, by shortening 
 the focus of the rays near the centre. The third or vitreous 
 humour, C, fills the posterior chamber of the eye. Thta 
 fluid scarcely differs from the aqueous humour, either in 
 specific gravity, or chemical composition, or refractive 
 power. „_ 
 
 The following are the refractive powers of the different 
 humours of the eye, according to Sir David Brewster, the 
 ray of light being incident on them from air : — 
 
 Crystalline Lens. Vilreoui 
 
 Aqueous 
 Humour. 
 1-336 
 
 Surface. 
 1-3767 
 
 1-3990 
 
 Mean. 
 
 1-3879 
 
 Humour. 
 1-3394 
 
 But as the rays refracted by the aqueous humour pass into 
 the crystalline, and from the crystalline into the vitreom 
 humout, the indices of refraction of the separating surface! 
 of these humours will be — 
 
 : 
 
OPTICS. 
 
 From aqueous humour to outer coat of crystalline - 1-0466 
 From ditto to crystalline, using the mean index - V0353 
 From viterous to crystalline outer coat - 1-0445 
 
 From ditto to ditto, using the mean index - - 1*0332 
 t" Optics," Cab. Cyclopedia.) 
 
 The posterior surface of the cell of the vitreous humour 
 ts covered by the retina, d, a network of inconceivably deli- 
 cate nerves, all branching from the optic nerve, O, which 
 enters the eye obliquely at the inner side of the orbit, next 
 the nose. The relina lines the whole of the cavity C from 
 r to r, at which points the capsule of the crystalline com- 
 mences. Its nerves are Immersed in the pig-mentum nigrum, 
 a very black velvety matter which covers the choroid inein- 
 brane, and the use of which is to absorb and stifle all the 
 litlli t which enters the eye as soon as it has done its office 
 of exciting the retina; thus preventing internal reflection*, 
 and consequent confusion of vision. The whole of these 
 humours and membranes are contained in a thick tough 
 coat, called the sclerotica, which unites with the cornea, 
 and forms what is commonly called the white of the eye. 
 The spot at which the optic nerve, O, enters the eye is 
 totally insensible to the stimulus of light, and is therefore 
 called the punctum cecum. (Herschel on Light, Ency. 
 JUetr.) 
 
 From this description of the eye it is evident that light, 
 in passing through it, must undergo a series of refractions, 
 in the same manner at in passing through ■ system of 
 lenses. When a pencil of luminous rays, proceeding from 
 an exterior point, passes through the transparent cornea, 
 and penetrates the aqueous humour, the divergence Of the 
 rays is diminished by this first refraction. The rays which 
 pass through the pupil undergo a second refraction at the 
 anterior surface of the crystalline, which renders them fur- 
 ther convergent ; and, on leaving the crystalline and past- 
 ing into the vitreous humour, they acquire their final degree 
 of convergence, and proceed to form an image at I foeo* on 
 the retina, or very near that membrane. Experience and 
 calculation prove that when vision takes place with the 
 least effort, the luminous point (or any very small object on 
 which tho eye is fixed) is at such a distance from the eye 
 that the rays enter the eye- with precisely that degree of 
 divergence which is required, in order that after suffering 
 the several refractions they may be brought to meet in a 
 point on the retina itself. Hence it has been concluded that 
 
 the sensation of light is caused by the Impression made bj 
 
 light on the retina, when it is concentrated on it in a tingle 
 point or within a very small spare. 
 The image of an object on the retina is evidently inverted 
 with respect to the |>osition of 
 it s — >. the object itself; for the ray pro 
 
 j£^ (lending from the upper extre 
 mity of an object, a. falls on the 
 JJsJr lower extremity ft' Of the image 
 -> — / on the retina. Writers on optics 
 have often puzzled themselves 
 with attempts to explain the cause of erect vision from nn 
 inverted image; the subject, however, is not worth the dis 
 nia a ton which has been expended on it. " Erect," says Sir 
 J. Herschel, "means nothing more than having the head 
 farther from the ground, and the feet nearer than any other 
 part. Now the earth, nnd the objects which stand on it, 
 preserve the same relative situation In the picture on the 
 retina that they do in nature. In that picture. It is true, 
 men stand with tbsir heads downwards, but then, at the 
 same time, heavy bodies fall upwards; and the mind, or 
 its deputy the nerve, which is present in every part Of the 
 picture, judges only of the relations of its parts to one an- 
 other. How these parts are related to external objects is 
 known only by experience, and judged of at the instant only 
 by habit." 
 
 Another circumstance, the cause of which has also been 
 much discussed, is, that although an image of each object 
 at which we look is formed on the retina of both eyes, the 
 object appears single. Single vision with two eyes is at- 
 tributed, by Dr. Smith, to the habit of referring the two im- 
 pressions made on corresponding points of the two retinas 
 to the same object; and, in fact, if we press slightly on the 
 cornea of one eye, so as to derange Its optical axis, the two 
 images, being no longer on parts of the retina which habit- 
 uallv corresoond. will apuear double. Those who have I 
 had one eye distorted by a blow, see double till habit has I 
 taught them anew to see single, though the distortion re- 
 mains. (For a review of the various theories that have 
 been proposed to account for this phenomenon, the reader 
 may be referred to n paper on the Physiology of Vision, by 
 or Wheats-tone, in the Phil. Trans, for 1838). 
 Straight lines drawn from the extremities of nn object ab 
 meet in a point e, nearly in the centre of the pupil, in the 
 plane of the iris, which point is called the optical centre of 
 the eye, and form the angle acl>, which is called the visual 
 angle. On leaving the crystalline and entering the vitreous 
 humour, the rays are slightlv refrattcd, and form another 
 
 angle, a'cb', the base of which is the magi itude of tne 
 image on the retina. These two angles are not perfectly 
 equal; so that a'b', the magnitude of the image on the 
 retina, or the apparent magnitude, is not exactly propor- 
 tional to the real magnitude, 06, for a given distance. Bui 
 the difference is so small that it may in general be neglected, 
 nnd then the visual angle becomes the measure of the ap 
 parent magnitude ; or the apparent magnitude of an objec. 
 is proportional to its linear magnitude divided by its distanc* 
 from the eye. 
 
 As the judgment which we form of the real magnitude 
 of B distant object depends not only on the apparent inagni 
 tude, but also on our estimation of Its distance, an erroneous 
 estimate of the distance will necessarily produce an illusion 
 with respect to the magnitude. Such illusions tire frequent 
 in the night time, when the darkness prevents us from 
 distinguishing the real places of objects and their rela- 
 tive p< isitions. An unusual increase or deficiency of tht 
 transparency of the nunosphere produces the same eflect , 
 nnd at sea, where little assistance can be derived from the 
 appearance of intervening objects, it requires a particular 
 training of the eye to judge correctly of distances. 
 
 The etl'ert of light on me eye has a sensible duration after 
 the eye is shut, or the luminous object removed. Dnnng 
 the twinkling of the eye, we never lose sight of the object 
 on which we are looking; and if a burning stick be attach- 
 ed to the extremity of a string, and whirled rapidly round, 
 a complete circle of light appears. This persistence of light 
 on the retina gives rise to a great Dumber of illusions; such 
 as the apparent augmentation of volume of a musical chord 
 when in rapid vibration, the train of light which appears 
 to accompany falling meteors, &c. It was estimated by 
 D'Arcy that the light of a live coal, whirled round at the 
 distance of lti."> feet, maintained its Impression dining the 
 seventh part of a second. Experiments, however, of a 
 more accurate kind, have shown that this time is not con- 
 slant, but is influenced by several circumstances. Light 
 must act on the eve lor some continuance of lime in oiler 
 to produce a complete impression ; and it is found that the 
 time during which the Impression that has been produced 
 can preserve an equal intensity after the action of light has 
 ceased, is greater in proportion as the impression is less 
 intense, tin the contrary, the whole duration of the im- 
 pression is greater as the light is more intense. If the im- 
 pression has been made by a strongly illuminated object, as 
 the setting sun, it often passes through a scries of different 
 colours; in other circumstances, it disappears, and is rente/* 
 ed after some seconds; disappears again, and so on severa. 
 times in succession. 
 
 The eye possesses considerable power of adjusting its 
 parts so as to give distinct \ision for all distances within 
 certain limits. The first of these limits Is the least distance 
 from the eye at which small objects, as the print of a book, 
 can be seen without effort; and the second, the distance at 
 which the image of the object becomes confused. The 
 space between these limits is the field of vision ; but both 
 its extent and distance from the eye vary considerably with 
 respect to different individuals, and sometimes even with 
 respect to the two eyes of the same individual. From the 
 known dimensions of the eye, and the refractive powers of 
 its different substances, it is found by calculation that the 
 focal distances of two luminous points, situated at the two 
 limits of the field of vision, differ by about one sixth part of 
 the diameter of the eye. 
 
 All the refractions which take plnce in the interior of the 
 eye are in the same direction ; consequently the eye, regard- 
 ed as an optical instrument, is not achromatic. The ab- 
 sence of colour about the images formed on the retina, ex 
 cepfing in very particular cases, is to be ascribed in part to 
 the small breadth of the pencil of luminous rays which 
 passes through the pupil, but principally to the small focal 
 distance of the eye ; in consequence of which the unequally 
 refrangible rays can never be much separated from each 
 other. It has also been surmised (Coddington's Optics) that 
 a compensation takes plnce between the refractions at the 
 cornea and the crystalline, a ray which is less refracted by 
 the former being more refracted by the latter, in conse- 
 quence of its passing through it at a greater distance from 
 the axis. 
 
 Distinct vision depending on the convergence of the lu 
 minous rays which proceed from an object to a focus on 
 the retina, it follows that if, from any defect in the original 
 structure of the eye, or any deterioration of its form 01 
 powers, the rays which enter the pupil are not rendered 
 sufficiently convergent to meet at the retina, or are rendered 
 too much so, and thereby brought to a focus before they 
 reach the retina, an imperfect nnd indistinct image will be 
 produced. It happens with most persons, between the ages 
 of thirty and fifty, that the crystalline lens begins to undergo 
 a change, by which not only its form, but also its density 
 nnd refractive power, are altered in such a manner as to 
 leave it capable of affording dislinct vision only of vety 
 
 853 
 
OPTIMATES. 
 
 remote objects. This defect is remedied b, „onvex lens, 
 which makes up for the flatness of the crystalline, and ren 
 der* parallel rays slightly convergent before entering the 
 eye. Let a b be an object, c the lens, and e the centre of the 
 eye, and suppose the object to be placed at the focal distance 
 of the lens. Since the object is at the focus, the rays of a 
 pencil diverging from any point a in it will emerge parallel 
 to each other and to ac; they will therefore, after refraction 
 in the eye, be brought 
 to converge on the re- 
 tina at a point a', such 
 that ea' is parallel to 
 a c. Similarly, rays 
 from 6, after refrac- 
 tion through the lens 
 and the eye, will con- 
 verge to the point b', such that e b' is parallel to b e. Thus, 
 a distinct image a' b' will be formed on the retina, and the 
 apparent angular magnitude of the object seen through the 
 lens will be the angle a' eb', which is equal to a cb, the angle 
 subtended by the object at the centre of the lens, and there- 
 fore greater than the angle subtended by the object at e, 
 •he centre of the eye. Hence the image appears enlarged; 
 out the nearer the lens is to the eye, the less will be the 
 difference between the apparent magnitudes of the imnge 
 as seen with and without the lens. When such lenses are 
 employed in the form of spectacles, the enlargement of the 
 image (which in this case is not intended) is hardly sen- 
 Bible, because the lens is commonly of low power, and be- 
 cause the person who must use it, to see distinctly, cannot 
 easily make a comparison between the appearance of an 
 object seen with or without the lens. The lenses of spec- 
 tacles ought to be of the meniscus form {see Lens), in order 
 to refract, without much indistinctness, pencils coming to 
 the eye with any degree of obliquity. Such spectacles are 
 called periscopic, and their advantage was first pointed out 
 by Dr. Wollaston. 
 
 Sometimes the eye is so formed that its power of giving 
 convergence is too great, and the rays are brought to a 
 focus befo.e they reach the retina. Persons bavin' 
 defect are called shortsighted, from their inability to see 
 distant objects distinctly. It arises from an increase of 
 density in the central part of the crystalline ; and its incon- 
 venience is obviated by a concave lens, which increases 
 the divergence of the rays before they enter the eye. For 
 the same reason as mentioned above, the lens should be of 
 the convexo-concave form, that is, convex on the outer 
 side, and concave on the inner side, the curvature of the 
 latter being greater than that of the former. This lens 
 diminishes the apparent magnitude of objects, but the effect 
 is scarcely sensible. (Smith's Optics; Herschel's Treatise 
 on Light, Ency. Metropolitana ; Brewster's Optics, Cabinet 
 Oyclo. ; Coddington's Optics ; Lame, Course de Physique.) 
 For optical instruments, see Lens, Microscope, Tele- 
 scopic &.C. 
 
 OPTIMA'TES. (Litf.) A word sometimes used to de- 
 note the Roman nobility, in contradistinction to the ple- 
 beians, or populares. 
 
 O'PTIMISM. In Moral Philosophy and Theology, the 
 system which regards physical and moral evil as elements 
 of the universal order of things ; so that everything is good, 
 viewed in relation to the whole; or, in the ordinary phrase, 
 in which the doctrine is expressed, "all is for the best." 
 This system was justified, with philosophical inductions, by 
 Leibnitz, in his Thcodicea (which see), and is popularly 
 illustrated by Pope, in his Essay on Man; but it is best 
 known (as far as the name is concerned) by the irony of 
 Voltaire, in his celebrated romance of Candide. The opti- 
 mism of Leibnitz was based on the following trilemma: 
 If this world be not the best possible, God must either — 1, not 
 have known how to make a better; 2, not have been able ; 
 3, not have chosen. The first position contradicts his om- 
 niscience, the second his omnipotence, the third his benevo- 
 lence. (See Creuier ; Ecibnitzii Doctrina de Mundo Opti- 
 mo, Lips. 1795.) 
 
 O'PTIMUS MAXIMUS. Epithets assigned to Jupiter by 
 the ancient Romans to indicate his superlative greatness and 
 gondness. 
 
 O'PTION. (Lat. opto, / wish, or choose.) In Ecclesias- 
 tical Law, a prerogative of the archbishops of the church 
 of England. Every bishop is bound, immediately after his 
 confirmation, to make a legal conveyance to the archbishop 
 of the next avoidance of any one benefice or dignity belong- 
 ing to his see which the archbishop may choose (whence 
 the name}. If the archbishop die before the avoidance hap- 
 pens, tne right of fining it ut> Dassea to his executors or ad- 
 ministrators. 
 
 Option, at the Stock Exchange, sixties s. "?e? ceztsir* 
 •rrar for " the ontioc" o» uuitin? or ca-.iin*. e, seumg o: 
 D'lyina. siocr in time iargvw.wv «.•- a. cemr.r. pnefc 
 
 OPU'NTIA. In Botany, the name given to those Cacta- 
 ceous plants commonly called Indian Jigs. Their stems 
 854 
 
 ORACLES. 
 
 consist os flat joints, broader at the upper than at the lower 
 end, becoming, however, eventually both continuous and 
 cylindrical. Their native country is South America ; but in 
 some places the lava of Mount Etna is covered with them, 
 and the large purplo juicy fruits which they yield find con 
 siderable sale in the Sicilian markets. The cochineal in 
 sect ( Opuntia cochenillifera) is fed on one of the varieties 
 of Opuntia. 
 
 OR. (Fr. gold.) In Heraldry, one of the metals employ 
 ed in blazonry. It is equivalent to topaz among precious 
 stones, and Sol among planets. In engraving, it is represct' 
 ed by a surface sprinkled with equidistant dots. 
 
 ORA. An old Saxon coin, valued at sixteen pence, and 
 sometimes, according to variation of the standard, at twenty 
 pence. The word is of frequent occurrence in Domesday 
 Book, and in the old records of the kingdom. 
 
 O'RACLE. (Lat. oraculurn ; from os, a mou'h.) The 
 name primarily given to the response delivered by the an- 
 cient heathen divinities to those who consulted them re- 
 specting the future, but afterwards applied both to the place 
 where responses were given as well as to the divinities from 
 whom the responses were supposed to proceed. To the de- 
 sire so natural to man to obtain a glimpse into futurity, 
 coupled with the ennobling belief that his destiny was pre 
 determined in a higher sphere, is doubtless to be traced the 
 origin of the art of divination, which has in all, but more 
 especially in the earlier stages of society, exercised so pow- 
 erful an influence over the human mind. But, of all the 
 modes of divination, that by consulting the oracle was the 
 most popular. In other cases, as the interpretation of events 
 depended on man alone, there might be mistake or decep- 
 tion ; but in the oracle, when the deity was believed to pro- 
 nounce either in his own voice or in that of a consecrated 
 agent, it was supposed there could be none. Hence oracles 
 obtained such credit and celebrity in antiquity, but more es- 
 pecially among the Greeks, that they were resorted to on 
 every occasion of doubt and emergency, both by princes and 
 states, as well as by private individuals. 
 
 The general characteristics of oracles were ambiguity, 
 obscurity, and convertibility ; so that rue answer would 
 agree with several various and sometimes directly opposite 
 events. Thus, when Croesus was on the point of invading 
 the Medes, he consulted the oracle of Delphi as to the suc- 
 cess of the enterprise, and received for answer*, that by 
 passing the river Halys lie would ruin a great empire. But 
 whether it was his own empire or that of his enemies that 
 was destined to be ruined was not intimated ; and, in either 
 case, the oracle could not fail to be right. The answer of 
 the oracle to Pyrrhus is another well-known instance of 
 this sort of ambiguity, 
 
 Aio, te, iEacida, Romanos vincere posse, 
 
 as it might either be interpreted in favour of or against 
 Pyrrhus. This ambiguity and equivocation was not, how- 
 ever, the worst feature that characterized the oracles of an- 
 tiquity. They were at once ambiguous and venal. A rich 
 or a powerful individual seldom found much difficulty in ob- 
 taining a response favourable to his projects, how unjust or 
 objectionable soever. Such, for instance, were unquestion- 
 ably the motives that dictated the favourable responses of 
 the Pythia at Delphi to Philip of Macedon, which drew from 
 Demosthenes the famous declaration, that the goddess Phil- 
 ippised. But such and so powerful is the influence of su- 
 perstition, that this system of fraud and imposture maintain- 
 ed a lengthened ascendency, and the interested responses of 
 the oracles frequently sufficed to excite bloody wars, and to 
 spread desolation through extensive states. 
 
 The first oracles had their origin m the East, at a period 
 to which the monuments of profane history do not ascend. 
 The most ancient oracle is supposed to be that of Meroe ; to 
 which were afterwards added those of Thebes and Amnion, 
 in all of which places the worship of Jupiter Amnion pre- 
 vailed. From the Egyptians the use of oracles, along with 
 a knowledge of many arts and sciences, passed to the Greeks, 
 who soon surpassed every other nation both in the number 
 and celebrity of their oracles. It has been affirmed that no 
 fewer than three hundred oracles were established in differ- 
 ent parts of Greece; but of those the oracles of Jupitet at 
 Dodona, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Trophonius near Leha- 
 deia (see these articles), may be mentioned as having en- 
 joyed the highest reputation. f The oracles of antiquity had 
 many leading features in common ; but there were also sev- 
 eral peculiarities about them, of which the variety of modes 
 
 * The Gr=ek verse is, 
 
 KOoiuo? AW StaBas pcfa\r)V apxTV KaraXvou. 
 Thus rendered in Lann, 
 
 Cnesus Ha.vn sunerans magnarum evertet opum vim, 
 .1 does not appear that the Romans ever had regularly establish^ c.n 
 cles anions themselves ; but on various important emergencies they had >■• 
 course to those of Greece, and especia y to that of Delphi. (Lit. 
 15, &c.J 
 
ORAL. 
 
 m which the oracular responses were delivered is one of the 
 nnxsi striking. At Delphi res|Kjnses were delivered by the 
 Pythia, at Amman by the priests, and at Dodona they issued 
 from the hollow of an oak. Sometimes the response was 
 communicated by letter, sometimes the desired information 
 could only be obtained by casting lots ; and sometimes the 
 divinities chose to announce their will by dreams, visions, 
 and preternatural voices. 
 
 Among the Jews there were several sorts of oracles : of 
 these the Urim and Thummim (which see) bore a striking 
 annlogy to the heathen oracles ; and the oracle of Bnth-Kol, 
 or Daughter of the Voice (mentioned in the Talmud, and 
 other Jewish works), which originated alter the lime of 
 Mala/:hi, may be regarded as completely identical with them. 
 The Old Testament teems with instances of the other spe- 
 if oracles, ia which supernatural revelations were made 
 by means of dreams and visions ; but every rational mind, 
 even apart from scriptural authority, can at once perceive 
 the wide distinction between the divine revelations vouch- 
 safed in this manner to the Jews in ancient times, and the: 
 jugglery practised on the Gentile nations by the avarice and 
 canning of the priests. There are two |x>ints respecting ora- 
 cles which have given rise to much controversy : viz. 
 whether oracular responses ought to be ascribed to mere 
 human ingenuity or to diabolical agency ; and at what lime 
 Itogether to be given. With regard to the 
 
 first point, BUMt of the Christian fathers were of opinion that 
 
 they ought to be attributed to diabolical machinations; but 
 those who u : itlsfactorily dl 
 
 of may consult, among others, the treatises of Ant. Van 
 Dc Oraculis F.thnicorum, 1683, and of Fontenelle, 
 ■re des Oracle*. 1689. With regard to the other (pies- 
 lion, at what time the oracles ceased to give responses, it 
 has been frequently asserted that they became silent ever 
 alter the birth of Christ. Bosebiui was the first who main- 
 tained litis opinion ; and many writers of great celebrity, 
 IS to do homage to the great Author of Christianity, 
 have supported his views. In the Hi/mn of the Nativity, the 
 most beautiful of his minor poems, .Milton, in allusion to this 
 theory, says, 
 
 The onclcs arc dumb, 
 No tola or hideous hum 
 King* through thr arched roof in words deceiving. 
 ironi DM shrine 
 Can no more divine. 
 
 With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
 No nightly trance or breathed spell 
 Inspires the paie-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 
 
 It appears, however, from the edicts of the emperors 
 Theodosius, Gratinn, and Valentinian, that oracles existed. 
 and were occasionally at least consulted, down to A.D. 328. 
 For several centuries previously they had been gradually 
 sinking in public esteem, but at that period they entirely 
 i . and there can be little doubt that this desirable con- 
 summation was mainly effected by the enlightening power 
 of Christianity, and by the influence which even at so early 
 a period it had acquired over a large portion of the then 
 civilized world. (In addition to the works already quoted, 
 see JfCul/oc/is Geo. Diet., art. "Delphi;" Clavier, Mem. 
 Oracles des Jtneicns, 1819, tec.) 
 
 O'RAL, Oralis. (Lat. OS. a mouth.) This term is applied 
 to the various parts which form or relate to the mouth of 
 animals. 
 
 ORA'NG, in the Malay language, signifies man ; orang- 
 utan is the man of the woods. It is by this term that we 
 commonly designate the Indian or red orang. (Simia saty- 
 rus, I, inn.) This siiecies inhabits the great islands of Bor- 
 neo and Sumatra, and attains the height of from four to five 
 feet, measured in a straight line from the vertex to the heel. 
 It has neither tail, cheek-pouches, nor Ischial callosites; 
 but has an appendix to the coccum coli, as in man. It w tints 
 the ligament of the hip joint, and acquires an enormous 
 laryngeal pouch when full grown. See Chimpanzee. 
 
 6' RANGE. The well-known fruit of the orange tree, the 
 Citrus aurnntium of botanists. India and China are the 
 native countries of the orange ; and the Portuguese are en- 
 titled to the honour of having transferred the plant to other 
 countries. The principal varieties of the orange tree are the 
 orange, the lime, the lemon, and the citron, fruits which 
 have now become so common as to give a tropical charac- 
 ter to the dessert. The orange is not considered to have 
 been grown in Europe till the 14th century; and in England 
 lh<y have been cultivated in conservatories since 1492. 
 They are propagated either by seeds, by cuttings, by layers, 
 by grafting, or by inoculation ; but the plants grown from 
 seeds require so long to come to perfection that they are 
 seldom so propagated in England. Oranges are imported 
 into tlits country in chests and boxes packed separately in 
 paper. The best are brought from the Azores and Spain ; but 
 very good ones also come from Portugal. Italy, Malta, and 
 other places. The orange trade carried on by this country 
 is of considerable value and Importance. Not only is the 
 fruit held in high estimation, but, from the extreme pro- 
 
 ORATORIO. 
 
 ductiveness of the tree, it is sold at a price little mote, and 
 sometimes even less, expensive than our ordinary domestic 
 fruits. The entries for home consumption at an average of 
 the three years ending 1838, amounted to about 200,000 
 boxes; each box containing about 700 lemons and oranges; 
 the duty amounted to about £60,000 a year. The peel of 
 the orange when preserved is a well-known article of con- 
 fectionary ; its flowers yield an essential oil scarcely less es 
 teemed as a perfume than the celebrated ottar of roses ; 
 while, as if nature had intended every part of it for the use 
 of man, the wood of the tree is susceptible of the highest 
 polish, and is extensively employed in the arts. 
 
 O'RANGEMEN. The name given to the society insti- 
 tuted in Ireland in 1795 to uphold the Protestant religion and 
 ascendancy, and for the discouragement of Catholicism. It 
 had office -hearers, a secret organization, distinctive or orange 
 colours, and occasional processions. It was at length sup- 
 pressed by aci of parliament in 1836. 
 
 ORANGERY. A kind of gallery, in a garden or parterre, 
 to preserve orange trees in during the winter season. For 
 trees in large boxes a proportionably large and lofty house 
 is requisite; it may be Opaque on the north side, with a 
 glass roof, front, and ends, of any convenient or desired 
 length, width, and height For one of moderate size, the 
 height at the hack until may he fifteen feet, at front ten feet, 
 and the width of the house fifteen feet. The floor may be 
 either perfectly level, and the boxes placed on it, the largest 
 behind, so as their loss may form a slope to the front glass, 
 as in the conservatory of Prince Borghese at Rome; or if 
 the trees are young, a stage may be erected for a few years, 
 in order to raise the plants to tin' light: but if the trees are 
 of a considerable size, the Itest way is to have square pits in 
 the floor nt regular distances, somewhat larger than each 
 box, and in these to sink the boxes, covering them with 
 mould, sand, or moss, nearly to the level of the pavement, 
 so that each tree so placed and dressed will appatu as if 
 placed in a small compartment of earth. Such is the plan 
 of the large conservatory in the royal gardens at Monzn. 
 The walk, unless where a stage is adopted, should be in the 
 middle of the house, with corresjionding doors in each end ; 
 
 . like 
 greenhouse plants the wnik should be in Iron;, us in no 
 other situation could the eye of the spectator meet the foli- 
 age of the plants. Where the walk is in the middle, and a 
 double row of trees on each side, as at Monza, the effect in 
 winter is truly magnificent and gratifying. 
 
 Where the trees are to be planted as standards in the bor- 
 ders or floor of the house, it is essentially requisite to the 
 health and beauty of the plants that the building be glazed 
 on all sides. Showers might be supplied in l.oddiges's man- 
 ner ; heat by steam, hot water, or flues ; and in winter the 
 beds might be covered with turf, strowed with daisies, vio- 
 lets, and primroses: these would come early into flower; 
 and if the turf were kept very short about the roots of the 
 flowering plants, and the trees in excellent condition, only 
 those who have seen the first-rate regularly planted stand- 
 ard orange groves of Nervi could form an idea of the effect, 
 which, by contrast with the external winter, would be felt as 
 luxurious, and as anticipating real spring. An orangery is 
 distinguished from a conservatory by its having un opaque 
 roof, while that of the latter is glazed. The orangery at 
 Versailles is the most magnificent that ever was built. 
 
 ORATO'RIO. (Ital., from Lat. oratorium, a small chapel ; 
 which again is derived from orare, to pray.) A sacred mu- 
 sical composition, consisting of airs, recitatives, duets, trios, 
 choruses, ice, the subject of which is generally taken from 
 scripture. The text is usually in a dramatic form, as in 
 Handel's Samson; but it sometimes takes the form of a 
 narrative, as in Israel in Egypt; occasionally it is of a 
 mixed character, as in Haydn s Creation ; and sometimes it 
 consists merely of detached passages from scripture, as in 
 the Messiah. The origin of oratorios has been variously as- 
 scrihed; but the most prevalent opinion regards them as 
 originally founded upon the spiritual songs and dialogues 
 which were sung or recited by the priests of the oratory. 
 (See Oratory.) The more recent introduction of this spe- 
 cies of musical drama is on all sides attributed to St. Phi- 
 lippo Neri, about the middle of the 16th century ; but ora- 
 torios, properly so called, were not produced till about a 
 century afterwards. At first the persons introduced were 
 sometimes ideal, sometimes parabolical, and sometimes, as 
 in the lntt«r oratorios, taken from sacred history ; but this 
 species of drama soon assumed a more regular form, and 
 oratorios became great favourites in Italy, where they were 
 constantly performed during the Carnival ; and they have 
 since given birth to some of the noblest and most elaborate 
 compositions of the great masters both of that and other 
 countries. Oratorios were first introduced into England by 
 the great Handel in 1720, though they were not publicly 
 performed Mil 1732; and such was their success that in 1737 
 they began to be performed twice a week during the season 
 of Lent; a custom which, under the aide management of 
 
 ff*S 0* THl 
 
ORATORY. 
 
 T C. Smith, Linley, and Arnold, &c, successively, was 
 regularly continued down to a very recent period, when, in 
 consequence of the introduction of profane music and other 
 irregularities during the management of Mr. Ashley, they 
 began to degenerate, and were at length discontinued. 
 
 Within the last two or three years similar performances, 
 though not entitled oratorios, have been again revived at 
 Exeter Hall by the Sacred Harmonic Society, on a scale of 
 magnificence previously unknown. 
 
 O'RATORY, signifies, commonly, a room in a private 
 house set apart for prayer. It differs from a chapel, inas- 
 much as it does not contain an altar, nor may mass be cele- 
 brated in it. 
 
 O ratory. See Eloquence, Rhetoric. 
 
 ORATORY, PRIESTS OF THE. Various congrega- 
 tion? of ecclesiastical persons living in community, without 
 being bound by any special vow, have assumed this title. 
 The first congregation of the Oratory was founded by St. 
 Philippo Ncri, at Rome, in the beginning of the 16th cen- 
 tury. Similar societies were soon formed in Italy and the 
 Low Countries, but without any mutual connexion. The 
 congregation of the oratory at Paris was founded by the 
 cardinal Pierre de Berulle in 1611, and had several houses 
 in different parts of the country. It produced many men 
 of celebrity ; among others, Malebranche and Massillon. 
 There can be no doubt that its chief object was to counter- 
 balance the increasing influence of the Jesuits. (See Mo- 
 akeim's Keel. Hist., vol. iv.) 
 
 ORB (Lat. orliis), in the language of the old astrono- 
 mers, usually signifies a hollow sphere; and they s up po sed 
 the heavens to consist of such orbs or spheres, enclosing one 
 another, and carrying with them in their revolutions file 
 different planets. The orbis maximus, or great orb. was 
 that in which the sun is placed. As the orbs were concen- 
 tric, and their number equal to that of the known planets, 
 with one for the DMOn and another for the fixed stars, it was 
 necessary to suppose them to be transparent or crystalline. 
 Orb also denotes any round or circular body, and sometimes 
 it is need synonymously with orbit. 
 
 ORBI'CULATES, Orbiculata. A tribe of Brachyurotis 
 Crustaceans, including those which have an oblong ovoid 
 carapace. 
 
 ORBI'CULUS. In Botany, the whole mass of that part 
 of a flower called the corona in the genus Stapelia; also, a 
 round flat hymenium contained within the peridiuninf some 
 genera of fungi. 
 
 ORBIT. (Lat. orbis, a circle.) In Astronomy, the path 
 which any celestial body describes by its proper motion. 
 Trie orbits of all the planets and satellites are ellipses; and 
 recent, discoveries seem to show that the orbits of double 
 stars, which revolve about each other, are curves of the 
 same kind. Some comets have been supposed to move in 
 hypci liolic orbits. For the magnitudes and eccentricities of 
 the planetary orbits, See Planets. Sec also Moon, Satel- 
 lite, Star. 
 
 Orbit. In Ornithology, the term is applied to the skin 
 which surrounds the eye : this is generally the base of feath- 
 ers, for the facility of its movements, but especially so in 
 the parrot tribe and the heron. 
 
 Orbit. In Osteology, the bony cavity in which the eve- 
 ball is tmbeded. Each orbit is formed bv seven bones— the 
 frontal, maxillary, jttgal, lachrymal, ethmoid, palatine, and 
 sphenoid. 
 
 O'RCHARD. (Gr. opxaros.) An enclosure devoted to 
 the culture of fruit trees. The most productive orchards 
 are generally such as are situated on declivities open to the 
 south or south east, and sheltered from the north, north-east, 
 and west. The most suitable soil is a calcareous loam with 
 a dry subsoil. The climate of orchards so situated is al- 
 ways wanner than any other kind of situation which this 
 country affords, and the subsoil is more certain of being dry. 
 The surface of the soil, in the case of orchards so situated, 
 is generally kept under pasture ; which, while it prevents 
 the earth from being wasted away by rains, is favorable to 
 the running of the roots immediately under the surface, by 
 which they are sooner called into action by heat In spring, 
 and sooner thrown into a torpid state bv cold in autumn. 
 The principal fruits grown in orchards of this description in 
 Great Britain are the apple, the pear, the plum, and the 
 cherry, and. wherever wheat can be ripened In the plains, 
 these fruits will arrive at perfection on declivities such as 
 we have mentioned. 
 
 ORCHESTRA. (Gr. Ipxfarpa, from ipxttnOnt, to dance.) 
 In Architecture, that part in the interior of a ihealre situate 
 immediately between the stage and the place assigned to 
 the audience. In the Greek and Roman the: *re= it was the 
 part appropriated to the chorus and its evo.jtlons, and was 
 almost level with the stage. In thetheatres (..'the moderns, 
 it is the place appropriated to the musicians. The word 
 is also applied to any erection for the performersln a concert. 
 
 ORCHIDA'CE^E. (Orchis, one of the genera.) A natu- 
 ral order of Herbaceous Endogons, inhabiting all parts of 
 
 ORDEAL. 
 
 the world excepting those climates situated upon the verge 
 of the frozen zone, or remarkable for their exceeding dry- 
 ness. They are well known for the singular form of their 
 flowers. Some of them grow in the earth, others inhabit 
 rocks and the branches of trees, and a few appear to be true 
 parasites. They all belong to the class Oynandria at Linnw- 
 us; are often very agreeably scented ; and sometimes produce 
 an aromatic fleshy fruit, as in the case of vanilla, which 
 contains a large quantity of benzoic acid. The nutritious 
 substance called salep is prepared from the amylaceous 
 roots of several terrestrial species. 
 
 ORCHIL. See Archil. 
 
 O'RCIN. A crystallizable colouring matter or principle, 
 obtained from a species of lichen ( Variolana or, 
 
 ORDEAL. (In modern Latin, ordalium ; from the Ger 
 man urtheil, judgment.) The practice of referring litigated 
 questions, and the guilt or innocence of parties under accu- 
 sation to the judgment of God (testified, in popular belief, 
 either by the event of lots, or by the success or failure of 
 certain experiments), is of very ancient date ; and was trans- 
 ferred, with other relics of their Pagan institutions, by the 
 Teutonic nations, when settled in the provinces of ancient 
 Rome, to their new bodies of jurisprudence. The ordeal 
 was awarded in various cases; either arbitrarily by the 
 court, or at the request of a party accused, who was anxious 
 to clear himself; eitiier as an alternative for trial by compur- 
 gation or by battle, or as the regular mode of deciding :m is 
 sue. In the earlier ages of modern European history, the 
 ordeal was under the peculiar protection of the clergy, who 
 afterwards discountenanced it; and its gradual Buppn 
 must be mainly attributed to the decrees of jKipes and coun 
 cils, of which several were pronounced against it in the 
 course of the thirteenth century, beginning with the decree 
 of the fourth Lateran council in 1215. Among the various 
 forms of ordeal in use among different nations, the following 
 are some of the most remarkable. The trial of the eucha 
 rist was used chiefly among the clergy; the accused party 
 took the sacrament in attestation of his innocence, and it was 
 believed that if he were guilty he would be Immediate!) 
 visited with punishment for the sacrilege. Of the same de- 
 scription was the corsnedd, or trial by the consecrated piece 
 of bread or cheese, so much in use among the Anglo Saxons. 
 The triiil of the cross was used, both in civil and criminal 
 questions, in many European countries. See the supple- 
 mentary formula! to those of Mareuifus, cited by Meyer, In 
 stitutions Judiciaircs, liv. ii., c. C. It appears that the liti 
 gants, or the accuser and accused, were to stand upright be 
 fore a cross, and that he who fell or changed his position 
 first was cast or condemned. This popular mode of ordeal 
 was abolished by the capitulary of 816, in the reign of Louis 
 le Debonnaire, as irreverent towards the mystery of the 
 Cross : but the abolition seems only to have been carried in 
 to effect in Italy and the provinces adjoining the seat of em- 
 pire. The ordeal of hot water, in which the accused party 
 plunged his hand into a vessel of boiling water, was used 
 by the Salian Franks, when pagans, as early as the fifth 
 century. It was afterwards extensively practised. In what 
 WIS called the expurgatio simplex, the accused party plunged 
 his arm to the wrist; in the triple ordeal, to the elbow 
 Trials by burning iron were of various sorts : carrying a red- 
 hot bar in the hand, and walking barefoot over heated 
 ploughshares, mentioned in the imperial capitulary of 803, 
 and adopted in England, as is well known from the cele- 
 brated example of Queen Emma. Among the Saxons, the 
 iron was awarded to freemen, the water to those of inferior 
 conditions. There can be no doubt that, in these severer 
 forms of ordeal, some precaution was occasionally used by 
 the clergy, under whose inspection and management the 
 trial took place, to preserve parties whom it was wished " 
 clear from. suspicion from the ordinary consequences of such 
 exposure. There were also ordeals by lot, as by the casual 
 choice between a pair of dice, one marked with a cross and 
 the other blank, mentioned in the laws of the Prisons. The 
 famous trial of the bier, in which the supposed perpetrator 
 was required to touch the body of a murdered person, and 
 was pronounced guilty if the blood flowed, may be regarded 
 as a species of ordeal, although founded more on usage than 
 legal enactment; as this form of superstition did not become 
 prevalent until later times, when ordeals were no longer a 
 recognised part of the law. To the same head may be re- 
 ferred the various absurd and cruel methods wn.cn were 
 adopted in different countries to try susnected witcnes. One 
 of the most remarkable instances of the solemn application 
 of the ordeal in later times took place in 14<)S, when the 
 truth of the doctrines preached by Savonarola, a celebrated 
 monk at Florence, was put to the lest by a challenge l»- 
 tween one of bis disciples and a Franciscan friar to walk 
 through a burning pile. This, however, may be rather re- 
 garded as the appeal of an enthusiast to the d'\ine judg- 
 ment than as an example of a recognised usage Ordeals 
 are of common use in the judicial practice of various 
 heathen nations, especially of the Hindoos 
 
ORDER. 
 
 ny ,on laws, an option was given to the cul- 
 
 prit, in ordinary cases, when presented of a crime by the 
 neighbourhrxxl, or appealed against by the injured party, of 
 defending himself by compurgation, or by the ordeal (of 
 hoi water or hot iron;. It. being a villain, he could procure 
 
 I of his lord in favour of his character, the or- 
 
 rnple; if otherwise, threefold. In the laws of 
 ror. we find thai accusations between 
 an Englishman and a Frenchman were decided, cither by 
 the Roman mode of trial by inquest, by battle, or by the or- 
 deal. In general, it may be considered, as Sir F. Palgravc 
 remarks, rather u having afforded ■ last chance of escape 
 to the accused party, than as an ordinary mode of di 
 oa guilt or innocence ; since it does not appear to have been 
 resorted In in general, unless where the accused failed in 
 clearing himself by the testimony of the neighbourhood t" 
 his character, or to the fact. Thus it MOOO in the same 
 place as torture in the civil law, which, according In prin- 
 ciple, was only applied where [hi IS sufficient In 
 warrant a conviction, and the defendant refused to confess. 
 when, h owev er , the old form of trial by compurgation was 
 abolished in Kngland by the assizes of Hen. II.. tin- trial ley 
 ordeal bftfirnf note iih|K>rtnnt than before. It appears that, 
 • :>t by the Inquest (whence originated the grand 
 jury . the culprit was immediately adjudged, without option, 
 to clear himself hy ordeal ; that, If he escn)icd this test, he 
 was still condemned to abjure the country; so that the pre. 
 Bent became in some sort equivalent to a final trial. 
 
 inflate! or jury trial, at this period, is thought to 
 nave been only awarded M a matter of social favour. But 
 when ordeal had been forbidden by the l-th canon of the 
 
 fourth Lateral) council, in l-l.'i, as before nlioned. It was 
 
 Immediately disused in Kngland ; nml hence, alter a con- 
 siderable Interval, daring which the a ra c itr w of criminal 
 law at ami to have remained in a very uncertain slate, the 
 practice of trial by th«- second inquest, or petty fury, front 
 
 epOon graduallj became the general rule. (8ee 
 
 OS to the early ordeals, Mem. de I'.lc. des laser., vol. xv.) 
 o'KIU.U In the Fine Arts, the regular 
 
 Itlon of the parts of a work, so that neither cot I 
 nor j.ii iay prevail. 
 
 Order. I -tern or assemblage of parts 
 
 •object to certain uniform established proportions, regulated 
 by the office each part ha-s to perform. An order may be 
 ■aid t.i be the genus, whereof the species are Tost 
 i :, Ionic. Corinthian, and Composite; and consists of two 
 
 (»•) 
 
 m 
 
 . ■ \ - 
 
 il parts— a column, A (sec fig. 1), and 
 an entablature, h. These are sui.. 
 the first into three parts, namely, the base C, 
 the shnft I), and the capital K; the second 
 also into three parts — namely, the archi- 
 trave, or chief beam, F, which stands imme- 
 diately on the column; the frieze G, which 
 lie- on the architrave; and the cornice H, 
 which is the crowning or uppermost mem- 
 ber of an order. In the subdivisions certain 
 horizontal members are used, which, lnnn 
 the curved form of their edges, are called 
 mouldings. These are the ovolo, the talon, 
 the ryma. the caveito, the torus, the astra- 
 jnl, the scotia, and the fillet, which are defined under their 
 this work. The character of an order is 
 faspisyed, not only in Its column, but In its general forms 
 ind detail, whereof the column is, as it were, the regulator ; 
 the expression being of strength, grace, elegance, lightness, 
 or richness. Though a building tie without columns, it is, 
 nevertheless, said to be of an order, If its details be regu- 
 lated according to Ibe method prescribed for such order. 
 
 In setting up, or, as it is more technically expressed, in 
 profiling an order, it is usual to make the entablature of the 
 height of one fifth of the entire order. The height of the 
 column is measured in terms of its lower diameter, which is 
 divided into sixty parts, called minutes, used as a scale for 
 the different subdivisions. In the Doric order the semidi- 
 ameier of the column is called n module: it is, however, 
 divided into thirty parts; so that there is, in fact, no essen- 
 tial difference between the scale of this and the other or- 
 ders. The columns vary from seven to ten diameters In 
 height in the different orders. The height of the entabla- 
 ture is usually divided into ten parts, whereof three are as- 
 signed to the architrave, three to the frieze, and four to the 
 cornice; except in the Doric order, in which the height is 
 divided into eight parts, whereof the architrave has only 
 two, the frieze and cornice each three. 
 
 The rule above given for regulating the relative heights 
 of the column and entablature is founded upon the practice 
 of the ancients, who rarely exceeded or fell short of the 
 proportion it establishes. Whether this practice of assign- 
 ing one fifth of the height of the whole order to its entabla- 
 ture was arbitrary or empirical is worth an inquiry, which. 
 We are inclined to think, has not been bestowed upon it in 
 any architectural work, at least not in any one which has 
 
 fallen under our notice : though the principles devolopeu in 
 a work by Le Brun, entitled, Theorie de I'.lrcbitecture 
 Orecque it Romainr, deduites de V Analyse des Monument 
 Antiques (lol., Paris, 1807), If carried through correctly, 
 seems to point to the reason of the practice. One of the 
 most obvious principles of proportion in respect of loads and 
 su|i|Kirts. and one apparently founded on nature herself, is. 
 that a support should not be loaded with a greater ma.-s than 
 itself; or, in other words, that there should be an equalitv 
 between the weights and supports ; that is, in this case be- 
 tween the entablature and column. In respect of the voids 
 left between the columns or .supports below the entablature, 
 there seems to have been a great diversity Of practice ; tor WC 
 find them varying; from WO to -J ],-'. unity lioing the measure 
 of the sup|H>rts. Lc Brun mnkes the areas of the supports, 
 weights, and voids equal to one another; and In the monu- 
 mental aneeanjaaa of the Doric order, such ns the Parthenon, 
 tc, he seems borne out in the law he endeavours to • slab- 
 lien: bat in lighter anechaens, sach as the temple of Bac- 
 chus, at Tens, where the supports are to the vends, as 1 to 
 MS, and in the temple of .Mim-rxa Polios, where the ratio 
 i- 1:-J|s. he can hardly 1m- i met. Indeed, 
 
 there scarcely seems a necessity for such a limitation of the 
 voids as he prescribes, seeing that, without relation sepa- 
 rately to the weight and BBaport, stability would be obtained 
 so long as the centre of gravity of the load tell within the 
 external lace of the support. If, then, it 1m- admitted that 
 as in the tWO SlSIBnlai ihOVe mentioned, the voids should 
 
 be equal to the weights and supports Jointly, we have the 
 
 key to the rule; and. instead of being surprise d at the appai 
 ently strange law Of making tin- entablature one fourth ot 
 the height of the column, xve shall find that none but tho 
 result assumed can flow from the investigation. 
 
 • 
 
 (2.) 
 i Diam. 
 
 
 
 (3.) 
 8 Diam. 
 
 (40 
 
 10 Diam. 
 
 i 
 
 ) I 
 
 
 1 
 
 A 
 
 
 ,i 
 
 
 ■■ : 
 
 ; 
 
 
 : !'l 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tL 
 
 
 ( 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f\~. 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 BC 
 
 ••'• I '•■•■ 
 
 a r. 
 
 
 I ft. 
 
 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 i 
 
 In the fig. 2, let A B be (he height of the column, and let 
 the distance between the columns he one third of the height 
 of the column =C D. Now, if A B be subdivided Into four 
 equal parts, at a, b, and e. and the horizontal lines ad. be, 
 ef, be drawn ; also, if (' I) be di\ ided horizontally into four 
 equal parts, and lines be drawn perpendicularly upwards, 
 inier-ecting the former ones; the void will be divided into 
 16 equal parallelograms, one half whereof are to be the 
 measure of the two semi-supports. BO and DE being 
 made equal then to one fourth of CD, it will be manifest, 
 from inspection, that the two semi-supports will jointly be 
 equal to 8 of the parallelograms above mentioned, or one 
 half of the void. We hax'c now to place the weight or en- 
 tablature, A G II I, upon the supports or columns and equal 
 to them in mass. Set up from A to V another row of paral 
 Iclograms, each equal to those above mentioned, A F K I. 
 These will not be equal to the supports by two whole par 
 al Iclograms, being in number 6 only instead of 8 : dividing, 
 therefore, 8, the number in the supiKirt, by 6, the number 
 already obtained, we have 1*333, &c, which is the height 
 A G must be that the weights may equal the supports, ex 
 ceeding one quarter the height of the column by only —^ 
 of such quarter, a coincidence singularly corroborative of 
 the rule laid down. From inspection of figures 2, 3, and 4, 
 it Is evident that, when the void is Jd of the height of the 
 columns in width, the columns will be 6 diameters in 
 height; when $th of their height, they will be 8 diameters 
 high; and when {th of their height. (5.) 
 
 they will be 10 diameters high ; al- 
 so, that the Intercolumnlation call- 
 ed systylos, or of txvo diameters, is xV- ~~ 
 constant by the arrangement. Let £fj 
 us noxv try the principle in another 
 way : Fig. 5 is the general form of 
 a tetrastyle temple, xvherein the col- 
 umns are assumed at pleasure eight «o 
 diameters high: then 4 X 8 = 32, 
 the nrea of the supports ; and as, to 
 fulfil the conditions, the three voids X- 
 are to equal twice that area, or 64, they must in all, be 
 
 857 
 
 LL 
 
ORDER. 
 
 eqaal to 8 diameters, for %* = 8; and the whole extent, 
 therefore will be 12 diameters of a column. To obtain the 
 height of the entablature, so that its mass may equal that 
 of the supports, as the measures are in diameters, we have 
 only to divide 32, the columns, by 12, the whole extent of 
 the facade, and we have two diameters and two thirds of a 
 diameter for the height of the entablature ; making it a little 
 more than one quarter the height of the column, and again 
 agreeing in terms of the diameter with many of the finest 
 examples of antiquity, or very nearly so. If the pediment 
 be employed, it is evident, the dotted lines A C, C B, being 
 bisected in a and b respectively, that the triangles A E a, 
 , fi . b B F, are equal to a D C and 
 
 D C b, and the loading or 
 weight will not be change^. 
 Similar results are obtained 
 in fig. 6, where the height is 
 10 diameters, the number of 
 columns 6; the whole, there- 
 fore, 180. the supports being 
 60. Here f£ = 3£ diameters 
 will be the height of the en- 
 ■ tablature 
 
 We cannot leave the subject without adverting to the 
 rules given by Vitruvius (chap, ii., book iii.)— rules which 
 were not his own only, but the result of the practice of the 
 time in which he lived, and which, within small fractions, are 
 most singularly corroborative of the assumed hypothesis of 
 making the voids equal to twice the supports. Speaking of 
 the five species of temples, after naming the different inter- 
 columniations, and recommending the eustylos as the most 
 beautiful, he thus directs the formation of temples with that 
 interval between the columns. The rule for designing them 
 is as follows : " The extent of the front being given, it is, if 
 tetrastylos, to be divided into eleven parts and a half, not in- 
 cluding the projections of the base and plinth at each end ; 
 if hexastylos, into eighteen parte ; if octastylos, into twenty- 
 four parts and a half. One of either of these parts, ac- 
 cording to the case, whether tetrastylos, hexastylos, or oc- 
 ttHtyloe, will b'; a measure equal to the diameter of one of 
 the columns. The heights of the columns will be eight 
 parts and a half. Thus, the intercolumniations and the 
 heights of the columns will have proper proportions." Far- 
 ther on in the same chapter he gives directions on arreo- 
 style, diastyle, and systile temples, on which it is unneces- 
 sary here farther to enlarge. Let the above rules be exam- 
 ined. The tetrastvlos is 114 parts wide, and 8£ high : the 
 area, therefore, of its whole front, will be 11 J X 8A = 97$. 
 The four columns will be 4 X 8J = 34, or a very little more 
 than one third of the whole area ; the remaining two thirds, 
 speaking in round numbers, being given to the intercolumns 
 or voids The hexastylos, is eighteen parts long, and eight 
 and a half high : the whole area, therefore, is 18 + 8i = 
 153. The six columns will lie 6 X 8.V = 51, or exactly one 
 third of the whole area ; the voids or intercolumns occupy- 
 ing the remaining two thirds. The octastylos is 24'. parts in 
 extent, and 8A in height : 24£ X 8i = 208$. The eight col- 
 umns will be" 8 X 8A = 68, or very little less than one third 
 of the area, and thevoids or intercolumns about double, be- 
 ing the remaining two thirds. 
 The average of the intercolumniations in the first case 
 
 1U- 4 
 3 
 
 18—6 
 5 
 
 will be 
 
 In the second case 
 
 = 2i diameters. 
 
 In the third case 
 
 24i-8 
 
 — -i ii 
 
 As, in our opinion, a discrepance between practice and 
 theory will not shake the principle, we are not fearful of 
 candidly submitting a synoptical view of some of the most 
 celebrated examples of antiquity in which a comparison is 
 exhibited between the voids and supports, as follows : 
 
 
 
 - i 
 
 
 •s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 ■s.- c 
 
 u 
 
 too 
 
 & 
 
 > 
 
 Temple of Jupiter Nemaeus 
 
 Doric 
 
 0-79 
 
 103 
 
 Par henon .... 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 00 
 
 107 
 
 1-04 
 
 Temple at Bas«3e 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 100 
 
 114 
 
 1 16 
 
 of Minerva, at Sunium . 
 
 
 
 1-00 
 
 1-40 
 
 1.17 
 
 of Theseus, at A'hens . 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 1 00 
 
 113 
 
 1-21 
 
 of Jupiirr Panhellennis 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 100 
 
 1-45 
 
 1-36 
 
 Temple of Erecfheus 
 
 Ionic 
 
 6 
 
 1 00 
 
 0-89 
 
 t 24 
 
 of F'.riuna Virilis 
 
 
 4 
 
 1 00 
 
 IK 
 
 1-71 
 
 on the llvssus 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 i oo 
 
 96 
 
 1-72 
 
 of Bicchus. at Teos 
 
 — 
 
 S 
 
 1 00 
 
 135 
 
 205 
 
 of Minerva Folia* 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 1 00 
 
 1 01 
 
 2-18 
 
 Portico of Septimius Severus 
 
 Corinth. 
 
 1 
 
 100 
 
 0-93 
 
 137 
 
 Maisnn Canve .... 
 
 
 i 
 
 ico 
 
 093 
 
 1-58 
 
 Temple at Jackly 
 
 — 
 
 1 • 
 
 100 
 
 090 
 
 1-62 
 
 Panthson 
 
 — 
 
 ! a 
 
 1 1.00 
 
 1 1-43 
 
 1-84 
 
 (-•) 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 differ 
 
 0127 
 0118 
 0100 
 0129 
 
 ORDERS, RELIGIOUS. 
 
 certain it is, that in every case the former exceed the latter 
 and that, in the early Dorics, the ratio between them near 
 ly approached equality. In comparing, however, the sup- 
 ports with the weights, there is every appearance of that 
 portion of the theory being strictly true ; for, in taking a mean 
 of the six examples of the Doric order, the supports are to 
 the weights as 1 : V16; in the five of the Ionic order, as 1 : 
 1-05; and in the four of the Corinthian order, as 1 : 1-04; a 
 coincidence so remarkable that it must be attributed to some 
 thing more than accident, and deserving much more extend 
 ed consideration than our limits here admit. 
 
 We close this short inquiry by adverting to a curious 
 fact connected with it ; viz., the area of the points of sup- 
 port for the edifice which such an arrangement affords, In 
 fig. 7, the hatched squares represent the quarter piers or 
 columns in a series of intercolumniations 
 every way, such intercolumniations being 
 2 diameters, or 4 semidiameters ; these, 
 added to the 2 quarter piers, will make 6, 
 whose square, 36, therefore, is the area 
 to be covered with the weight ; the 4 quar- ... L 
 ter piers or columns = 4 ; hence the points 
 of support are ■£$ of the area = 0-111. r- 
 Now, in twenty-five of the principal \_ 
 buildings in Europe (see Points or Sup- 
 port), the ratio will be seen to be 0168 on the mear. 
 ing only 0.057 from the result here given ; but it' we take the 
 subjoined buildings, the mean will be found to differ much 
 less, viz : 
 
 Temple of Peace 
 
 S. Paolo fuori le Mura 
 
 St. Sabino 
 
 S. Felippo Neri 
 ORDER OF SUPERPOSITION. A Geological term, 
 implying the regular succession of arrangements which the 
 strata forming the exterior crust of our globe invariably fol- 
 low. (See Geology.) Although certain strata or forma- 
 tions are occasionally wanting, they never depart from a 
 constant order of superposition. 
 
 ORDER OF THE DAY. In Parliamentary usage, one 
 method of superseding a question already proposed to the 
 House is by moving " for the order of the day to be read." 
 This motion, to entitle it to precedence, must be for the or- 
 der generally, and not for any particular order : and, if this 
 is carried, the orders must be read and proceeded on in the 
 course in which they stand. But it can be in its turn super- 
 seded by a motion " to adjourn." See Hatscll's Prcc. Pari., 
 vol. ii., who says that the first instance he has met with of 
 this proceeding was on the first of April, 1747. 
 
 OR'DERS, HOLY. A term, properly speaking, applied 
 to the different ranks of ecclesiastical persons ; but, in ordi- 
 nary language, used to indicate the character of such per- 
 sons. The Roman Catholic Church admits of seven or- 
 ders : four minor, secular, or petty, of doorkeeper, exorcist, 
 reader, and ncolyth : three major, of deacon, priest, and 
 bishop. The first are mere formalities, and generally con- 
 ferred on the same day; the admission to the hitter consti- 
 tutes the sixth sacrament of Romanism : the Reformed 
 churches acknowledge only the three latter orders. (See 
 Episcopacy). The Greek church rejects the four minor, 
 but has the additional one of sub-deacon. See Ordina- 
 tion. 
 
 OR'DERS, RELIGIOUS, are of three kinds; I. Monas- 
 tic ; II. Military ; III. Mendicant. 
 
 I. The monastic orders were distinguished by the rules to 
 which they were subjected by their respective founders. 
 Of these the principal are the Basilian, the Benedictine, and 
 the Augustinian. 
 
 1. The earliest comprehension of ahumber of conventual 
 societies under one rule was effected by St. Basil, archbishop 
 of Caesarea. in Asia Minor, who united the hermits and cen- 
 obites already established in his diocess, and prescribed a 
 uniform constitution for them, in which he strongly recoil 
 mended the obligation of a vow upon admission. This rec- 
 ommendation was a novelty in the monastic system, which 
 had existed up to that time (A.D. 370) without any such 
 imposition. This institution prevailed throughout the east- 
 ern districts of Christendom, and has subsisted in the Greek 
 church up to the present time with little variation. 
 
 2. In the West, the first order of monks was founded by 
 Benedict of Nursia (A.D. 529). He conceived that the 
 ends of monastic seclusion might be better attained by a 
 milder discipline, uniformly imposed, than by the fanatical 
 and arbitrary austerities of many of the European communi 
 ties. While other reformers of the monkish system have 
 aimed at repairing its laxity and degeneracy by the infnsior 
 of greater strictness and severity, he alone seems to hav« 
 adopted a contrary course, and to have provided for the at 
 tainment of more real excellence by the imposition ofmilde* 
 obligations. He insisted, moreover, very strongly, upon th* 
 duties of manual labour and reading, as well as of prayer 
 
ORDINAL. 
 
 as was the custom with other founders, minute di- 
 niplovment of the day. This rule was re- 
 i enturies later by another Benedict, a native of 
 - in tin.' south of France. 
 
 From this remodelled system, which was more severe 
 than its predecessor, and was soon adopted throughout the 
 name monasteries, already exceedingly numerous, 
 arose various branches, all more or less famous in ecclesias- 
 tical history. The order of Cluni, the Cistercians, the Char- 
 treitx, the Camaldulenses, Prtemonstratenses, tec, are dis- 
 tinct oil-shoots from this main trunk, and for many centu- 
 ries have covered the face of Catholic Europe. 
 
 8. The original inhabitants of the monasteries were lay- 
 men ; the spiritual duties of the institution being performed 
 by the pastor of a neighbouring village, or by one or two 
 resident ccclesisastics. St. Augustin set the example of a 
 clerical society, by living, in Common with his inferior cler- 
 gy, under certain instructions which he drew up for their 
 direction. His authority was widely followed In later times ; 
 and the order of Aiigustininn canons, consisting expressly 
 of |icrsons ordained or destined to the sacred profession, 
 claims a place among the three principal monastic institu- 
 tions. These canons were afterward divided into the regu- 
 lar, and secular, according as they observed what tradition 
 affirmed to be rule prescribed by the founder himself, or 
 those of certain bishops, who, in later limes, had reorgan- 
 ized the system. 
 
 II. J. The Military orders form also an important feature 
 In e cc les i astic sj and political history. The necessity which 
 the monks were under, in unsettled times, of assuming 
 arms themselves to defend the possessions which they had 
 nccnmiilaled, may have suggested the first idea of uniting 
 the military with the religions profession. 
 
 The earliest order, however, of this kind — that of St. 
 John of Jerusalem, or the Knights of the Hospital — arose, 
 in the llth century, out of a religious community, to which 
 the care of a hospital in Jerusalem had been consigned. 
 The Hospitallers were afterwards bitter known under tile 
 titles at Knights of Rhodes, and, still later, of Malta. 
 
 2. The Knights Templars also received their appellation 
 from Jerusalem, the place of their origin and early abode. 
 They were founded in 1118; and to them certain military 
 duties were from the first prescribed, as the defence of Pal- 
 atine, and the protection of pilgrims in the Holy hand. 
 After the expulsion of the Christian arms from that region, 
 they spread over Europe, and became a very numerous and 
 powerful body ; until, having excited the fears or avarice of 
 popes and princes, they were condemned by a council as- 
 sembled at Vienna, and exterminated by a vigorous and 
 crne| persecution. 
 
 :i. The third Military order is the Teutonic. This insti- 
 tution, again, was on offspring of the crusades, and a native 
 of Palestine ; originating In the officer of a hospital nt the 
 of Acre. On the termination of the holy wars, these 
 knights became established in Germany, and distinguished 
 themselves by the conquest and conversion of Prussia and 
 Poinerania. Their order only ceased to exist when, at the 
 Kitorni.it on, lot members .abandoned the cause of the papa? 
 cy, and embraced the prevalent opinions of the north of 
 Germany. To these may be added various inferior military 
 orders, especially those of Spain and Portugal. See Cala- 
 trava and Alcantara, Ordkrs or. 
 
 III. 1. The Mendicant orders were the creation of the pa- 
 pacy, for the advancement of its own political purposes. It 
 was in the 13th century that the apprehensions of the holv 
 see were first excited by the rise and spread of heretical 
 opinions : nor, at that period, were either the secular or the 
 regular clergy disposed to rouse themselves from their in- 
 dolence and vice to combat with these active assailants. 
 The counteracting force, also, which the monks had sup- 
 plied, in earlier ages, to the independent spirit of the sec- 
 ular priesthood, had lost much of its efficacy, and, in some 
 measure, been turned against the central authority of Rome. 
 A new ally was required, and was furnished in the order of 
 St. Dominic, which, after completing its first mission in the 
 extinction of the heresy of the Albigenscs, was placed upon 
 a permanent footing by a bull of Honorius III. 
 
 2. The Franciscan friars were of cotem|>orary institution, 
 and avowed the same principles of poverty and mendicity. 
 Our limits allow us merely to mention — 3. The Carmel- 
 ites (who derived their name from Mount Carmel, in Syria, 
 where the order originated); 4. The Angiistininns, who 
 complete the number of the Mendicant orders ; and 5. The 
 
 1 dee JesI'ITS. 
 
 O'RniNAL, or ORDER. The name given in England to 
 an old work containing the ritual or religious ceremonies ne- 
 cessary to be performed before the ordination of a priest. It 
 was composed in the reign of Edward VI., and revised by 
 the English clergy in 1552. 
 
 O'RDIN'AXCI'.. An obsolete word, sianifvin? a decree or 
 enactment. After the time of Philip le Bel (1227), the laws 
 made by French kings were generally termed ordinances 
 
 ORDINATION. 
 
 (ordonnance) ; a term which, in its most comprehensive 
 sense, included also their edicts, declarations, and letters 
 patent. The right to issue ordinances for the execution of 
 the laws (equivalent to proclamations and orders in council) 
 is conferred on the monarch by the French charters ; and it 
 was on an ambiguity of language in the clause conferring 
 this right in that of 1814, that a defence was attempted for 
 the illegal proceedings of the ministers of Charles X. In 1830. 
 The best collection of the Orclonnances des Rots de Franc 
 is that begun by order of Louis XIV., of which the first 
 volume appeared in 1723 : it extends to 12 vols., folio. 
 
 The Self-denying Ordinance, in English History, was a 
 resolution of the Long Parliament, in 1644, by which its 
 members bound themselves not to take certain executive of- 
 fices, particularly commands in the army; the effect of 
 which, as is well known, was the transference of power, 
 first in the army, and then in the state, from the Presbyterian 
 to the Independent party. 
 
 O'RDINAND. (Lat. ordinandus.) In Ecclesiastical An- . 
 liquifies, one about to receive orders. — Ordinant, a prelate 
 conferring orders. 
 
 ORDINARY. A term of the Civil Law for any judge 
 who has authority to take cognizance of causes in his own 
 right, and not by delegation ; used, in Englsh law, with ref- 
 erence to ecclesiastical judges only. Thus, a bishop is ordi 
 nan,' in his own diocess; an archbishop, for the purpose of 
 appeals, in his province. 
 
 Ordinary. In the Court of Session in Scotland, n single 
 judge (by courtesy styled lord), who decides with or with- 
 out n jury, as the case may be. There are five such judges : 
 their decisions may be brought by appeal under review of 
 the divisions of the court to which they respectively belong. 
 See Session, Coi-rt of. 
 
 Ordinary. In the Navy, the establishment of the ship- 
 ping not in actual service. 
 
 Ordinary, in Heraldry, is a portion of the escutcheon 
 comprised between straight oi other lines. It is the simples: 
 species of charge : and many of the most ancient escutch- 
 eons known contnia no other hearing, although in others, 
 also of great antiquity, (he Ordinary itself is charged with 
 other bearings. An ordinary should, it is .-.aid, comprise 
 the fifth of the shield. The number of ordinaries in com- 
 mon use U considerable ; among the chief are the pale, fess, 
 bend, bar, saltier, chevron, cross (which see). Ench of 
 these is usually bounded by straight lines; but the lines may 
 be also diversified in various manners. Thus, an Ordinary 
 bounded by serrated lines is said to be indented ; bounded 
 by undulating lines, wary ; and there are many other devia 
 tions from the straight line, ns irgrailed, inverted, nrbuly, 
 rittritli/, raynnmj, danritty, embattled or crene/ly, battled em- 
 battled, pa-Ussy, nnir/nl, levelled, rscartely, nowy, dovrtail, po 
 teney. When an ordinary has two sides, and is only varied 
 on the upper, it is said to be superingrailed, superinvected, 
 &.c; if only on the lower, subingrailed, &c. 
 
 Ordinary, of Newgate. The clergyman who officiates 
 in this prison is so called, whose duties consist in preaching 
 and rending prayers to the prisoners, preparing condemned 
 criminals to meet their fate, and in accompanying such to 
 the place of execution. 
 
 O'RDINATE. (Lat. ordir.o, / arrange.) In Geometry, 
 a straight line drawn from any point in a curve perpendicu- 
 larly to another straight line, which is called the absciss. 
 (See Absciss.) The absciss and ordinate together are called 
 the co-ordina'es of the point. The situation of a point in a 
 plane is determined when its distances from two straight 
 lines in the same plane are known ; and, when a series of 
 points are so situated in respect of each other that the co- 
 ordinates of each have the same mathematical relation, 
 these (joints form a curve, the nature of which is expressed 
 by the relation of the co-ordinates. See Co-ordinates. 
 
 ORDINA'TION. The ceremony of conferring orders in 
 the church, which is derived, by nil communities that ad- 
 mit a regular commission and succession in the ministry 
 from the time of the apostles, from the authority of Jesus 
 Christ; of whom it is said, in St. John's Gospel (xx., 21), 
 that, after his resurrection, he said, " As my father has sent 
 me, even so send I you :" and then he breathed upon them, 
 and said to them, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose so- 
 ever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them, and whose- 
 soever sins ye retain ihey are retained." Prayer and the 
 imposition of hands nre also mentioned as forming part of 
 the ceremony of ordination of deacons in the Acts; and or 
 dination is even now conferred under similar forms in most 
 Christian churches. 
 
 The Romish Church holds ordination to be the sixth of 
 its seven sacraments, as being an institution of Christ con- 
 ferring a special grace. The Protestants show that it differs 
 from a sacrament, according to the received definition of 
 such, as containing no matter, like the water in baptism, or 
 the elements in the eucharist. They deny that the vessels 
 which are delivered to the newly-ordained person according 
 to the Romish rite, can be taken as the matter of a sacra 
 
 830 
 
ORDNANCE. 
 
 ment, not being recommended by any Scripture authority, 
 nor, indeed, known in the church till the tenth or eleventh 
 century. (See Hooker's Keel. Pol., books vii. and viii.) 
 
 In the Presbyterian church the term ordination has a 
 meaning wholly distinct from that in which it is received by 
 other Christian churches ; being applied exclusively to that 
 solemn act by which a licensed preacher or probationer is in- 
 ducted into the charge of a particular parish or congrega- 
 tion, and not, as is sometimes erroneously asserted, to the 
 act by which he is entitled to preach the Gospel, or, in oth- 
 er words, to the ceremony by which " orders" are conferred 
 in the English Church. In the English Church a clergyman 
 can be ordained but once ; in the Scotch Church he is said 
 to be ordained as often as he leaves one parish to be induct- 
 ed into the charge of another. 
 
 O'RDNANCE. A Military term, applied generally to all 
 sorts of great guns used in war, as cannons, mortars, howit- 
 zers, carronades, &c. See the respective terms. 
 
 O'RDNANCE, BOARD OF. The name given to the 
 • board which provides the troops of the line, the regiments 
 of artillery and engineers, the militia, volunteers, and the 
 navy, with guns, ammunition, and arms of every descrip- 
 tion. The Board of Ordnance also superintends the affairs 
 of the regiments of artillery and engineers, the provision of 
 forage for the whole of the troops at home, and the erection 
 of fortifications and military works at home and abroad, &c. 
 At the head of this board is placed an officer, called the 
 Master-general of the ordnance, who has the military com- 
 mand of the artillery, and of the corps of royal engineers 
 and sappers and miners. Besides the Master-general, the 
 other chief officers connected with the ordnance are the 
 Surveyor-general, the Clerk of the ordnance, and the Store- 
 keeper of the ordnance, which are self-explanatory terms. 
 
 O'RDONNANCE. (Fr.) In Architecture, the right as- 
 signment, for convenience and propriety, of the measure of 
 the several apartments, that they be neither too large nor too 
 small for the purposes of the building, and that they be 
 conveniently distributed and lighted. 
 
 O'READS. (Gr. opos, mountain.) In Greek Mythology, 
 nymphs of the mountains, companions of Diana, and usually 
 invoked along with that goddess. 
 
 ORES. (Germ, erze.) The mineral bodies from which 
 metals are extracted. Metals exist in the ores in one or the 
 other of the four following states : 1. In a metallic state, 
 and either solitary or combined with each other ; in the 
 latter case forming alloys. 2. Combined with sulphur, 
 forming sulphurets. 3. Combined with oxygen, forming 
 oxides. 4. Combined with acids, forming carbonates, phos- 
 phates, &c, which generally go by the name of metallic 
 salts. 
 
 Certain ores which contain the metals most indispensable 
 to human necessities have been treasured up by the Creator 
 in very bountiful deposits, constituting either great masses 
 lit rocks of different kinds, or distributed in lodes, veins, 
 nests, concretions, or beds with stony and earthy admixtures ; 
 the whole of which become the objects of mineral explora- 
 tion. These precious stores occur in different stages of the 
 geological formations; but their main portion, after having 
 existed abundantly in the several orders of the primary 
 strata, suddenly cease to be found towards the middle of 
 the secondary. Iron ores are the only ones which continue 
 among the more modern deposits, even so high as the beds 
 immediately beneath the chalk, when they also disappear, 
 or exist merely as colouring matters of the tertiary earthy 
 beds. 
 
 The strata of gneiss and mica-slate constitute in Europe 
 the grand metallic domain. There is hardly any kind of 
 ore which does not occur there in sufficient abundance to 
 become the object of mining operations, and many are found 
 nowhere else. The transition rocks, and the lower part of 
 the secondary ones, are not so rich, neither do they contain 
 the same variety of ores. But this order of things, which is 
 presented by Great Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, and 
 Norway, is far from forming a general law; since in 
 equinoctial America the gneiss is but little metalliferous ; 
 while the superior strata, such as the clay-schists, the 
 sienitic porphyries, the limestones, which complete the 
 transition series, as also several secondary deposits, include 
 the greater portion of the immense mineral wealth of that 
 region of the globe. 
 
 All the substances of which the ordinary metals form the 
 basis, are not equally abundant in nature ; a great propor- 
 tion of the numerous mineral species which figure in our 
 classifications are mere varieties scattered up and down in 
 the cavities of the great masses or lodes. The workable 
 ores are few in number, being mostly sulphurets, some 
 oxides, and carbonates. These occasionally form of them- 
 selves very large masses, but more frequently they are 
 blended with lumps of quartz, felspar, and carbonate of 
 lime, which form the main body of the deposit; as happens 
 always in proper lodes. The ores in that case are arranged 
 in layers parallel to the strata of the formation, or in veins 
 860 
 
 ORES. 
 
 which traverse the rock in all directions, or in nests or con- 
 cretions stationed irregularly, or finally disseminated in 
 hardly visible particles. These deposits sometimes contain 
 apparently only one species of ore, sometimes several, 
 which must be mined together, as they seem to be of con- 
 temporaneous formation ; whilst, in other cases, they are 
 separable, having been probably formed at different epochs. 
 Under the particular metals will be found an account of the 
 localities of ores, &c. ; but the following general observations 
 may prove useful in presenting a condensed resume of the 
 whole subject. 
 
 1. Tin exists principally in primitive rocks, appearing 
 either in interlaced masses in beds, or as a constituent part 
 of the rock itself, and more rarely in distinct veins. Tin 
 ore is found indeed sometimes in alluvial land, filling up 
 low situations between lofty mountains. 
 
 2. Gold occurs either in beds or in veins, frequently in 
 primitive rocks ; though it is also found in other formations, 
 and particularly in alluvial earth. When this metal exists 
 in the bosom of primitive rocks, it is particularly in schiits 
 it is not found in serpentine, but it is met with in greywacke 
 in Transylvania. The gold of alluvial districts, called gold 
 of washing or transport, occurs, as well as alluvial tin, 
 among the debris of the more ancient rocks. 
 
 3. Silver is found, particularly in veins and beds, in 
 primitive and transition formations ; though some veins of 
 this metal occur in secondary strata. The rocks richest in 
 it are gneiss, mica-slate, clay-slate, greywacke, and old 
 alpine limestone. Localities of silver-ore itself are not 
 numerous, at least in Europe, among secondary formations ; 
 but it occurs in combination with the ores of copper or of 
 lead. 
 
 4. Copper exists in the three mineral epochas: 1. In 
 primitive rocks, principally in the state of pyritous copper, 
 in beds, in masses, or in veins ; 2. In transition districts, 
 sometimes in masses, sometimes in veins of copper pyrites ; 
 3. In secondary strata, especially in beds of cupreous schist. 
 
 5. Lead occurs also in each of the three mineral epochas ; 
 abounding particularly in primitive and transition grounds! 
 where it usually constitutes veins, and occasionally beds of 
 sulphuretted lead (galena). The same ore is found in strata 
 or in veins among secondary rocks, associated now and then 
 with ochreous iron-oxide and calamine (carbonate of zinc) ; 
 and it is sometimes disseminated in grains through more 
 recent strata. 
 
 6. Iron is met with in four different mineral eras, but in 
 different ores. Among primitive rocks magnetic iron ore 
 and specular iron ore occur chiefly in beds, sometimes of 
 enormous size : the ores of red or brown oxide of iron 
 (hematite) are found generally in veins, or occasionally in 
 masses with sparry iron, both in primitive and transmon 
 rocks ; as also sometimes in secondary strata ; but more 
 frequently in the coal-measure strata, as beds of clay- 
 ironstone, of globular iron oxide, and carbonate of iron. 1b 
 alluvial districts, we find ores of clay-ironstone, granular 
 iron-ore, bog-ore, swamp-ore, and meadow-ore. The iron 
 ores which belong to the primitive period have almost always 
 the metallic aspect, with a richness amounting even to 80 
 per cent, of iron, while the ores in the posterior formations 
 become, in general, more and more earthy, down to those in 
 alluvial soils, some of which present the appearance of a 
 common stone, and afford not more than 20 per cent, of 
 metal, though its quality is often excellent. 
 
 7. Mercury, as a sulphuret, occurs principally among 
 secondary strata in disseminated masses, along with com 
 bustible substances ; though the metal is met with occa- 
 sionally in primitive countries. 
 
 8. Cobalt belongs to the three mineral epochas ; its most 
 abundant deposits are veins in primitive rocks ; small veins 
 containing this metal are found, however, in secondary 
 strata. 
 
 9. Antimony occurs in veins or beds among primitive and 
 transition rocks. 
 
 10. 11. Bismuth and nickel do not appear to constitute 
 the predominating substance of any mineral deposits ; but 
 they often accompany cobalt. 
 
 12. Zinc occurs in the three several formations ; namely, 
 as sulphuret, or blende, particularly in primitive and Iran 
 sition rocks ; as calamine, in secondary strain, usually 
 along with oxide of iron, and sometimes with sulphuret of 
 lead. 
 
 In the analysis of ores, it is impossible to lay down any 
 general rule, so numerous are the ores themselves, and so 
 diversified the means necessary to be adopted in the various 
 analytic processes. Under each particular metal will be 
 found an account of its most important ores, and we shall 
 here restrict ourselves to a few general remarks on ihc 
 theory of smelting ores. 
 
 It is probable that the coaly matter employed in that pro- 
 cess is not the immediate agent of their reduction ; but the 
 charcoal seems first of all to be transformed by the atmo 
 spherical oxygen into the oxide of carbon which gaseout 
 
OREXIS. 
 
 jjioduct then surrounds and penetrates the interior substance 
 of the oxides, with the effect of decomposing them, and 
 carrying ort" their oxygen. That this is the true mode of 
 action, is evident from the well-known facts that bars of 
 iron, stratified with pounded charcoal, in the steel-cementa- 
 tion chest, most readily absorb the carbonaceous principle 
 to their innermost centre, while their surfaces get blistered 
 by the expansion of carburetted gases formed within ; and 
 that an intermixture of ores and charcoal is not always 
 necessary to reduction, but merely an interstraiitication of 
 the two, without intimate contact of the panicles. In this 
 case, the carbonic acid which is generated at the lower 
 surfaces of contact of the strata, rising up through the first 
 bed of ignited charcoal, becomes converted into carbonic. 
 oxide ; and this gaseous matter, passing up through the next 
 layer of ore, seizes its oxygen, reduces it to metal, and is 
 itself thereby transformed once more into carbonic acid; 
 and so on in continual alternation. It may be laid down, 
 however, as a general rule, that the reduction is the more 
 rapid and complete the more intimate the mixture of the 
 charcoal and the metallic oxide has been, because the for- 
 mation of both the carbonic acid and carbonic oxide becomes 
 thereby more easy and direct. Indeed the cementation of 
 iron bars into steel will not succeed, unless the charcoal be 
 so porous as to contain, interspersed, enough of air to favour 
 the commencement of its conversion into the gaseous oxide ; 
 thus acting like a ferment in Drawing. Hence, also, finely 
 pulverized charcoal does not answer well, unless a quantity 
 1 iron cinder or oxide of manganese be blended 
 with it, to afford enough of oxygen to begin the generation 
 of carbonic oxide gas ; whereby the successive transforma- 
 tions into acid and oxide are put in train. (For these obser- 
 ve are indebted chiefly to lire's Diet, of Arts, St-e~, 
 aru. " Mine" and "Ores.") See also the art. Geolooy in 
 this work. 
 
 OKK'XIS. (Gr. opcyouat, I labour.) A term applied In 
 medicine to the appetite, or a sense of hunger. 
 
 G'RFRAIES. (Fr. orl'rois, broad welts of gold.) A species 
 of embroidered cloth of gold, worn anciently by the kings 
 and nobles of England. The name was also given to the 
 clothes worn by the king's guards, which were also em- 
 broidered with gold. 
 
 O'RGAN. (Gr. opyavov, an instrument.) In Music, a 
 Ai.nd instrument; so called by way of eminence, being in- 
 deed perhaps less an instrument than a machine containing 
 a collection of instruments, or, in other words, a mechanical 
 orchestra, under the command of a single performer's fin- 
 gers on the keyboard. This instrument was invented at an 
 early period, though until the eighth century it was proba- 
 blv but little used. The Greeks appear to have been ac- 
 oMnted with it; and, in the tenth book of his Architecture, 
 Vitruvius describes an hydraulic organ which was played, 
 or rather blown, by the fall of water, but in what precise 
 manner is not now known. The emperor Julian eulogises 
 rumen! in an epigram; and St. Jerome speaks of 
 one, with twelve pair of bellows, which might be heard at 
 tio: distance of n thousand paces; and of another, at 
 Jerusalem, which might 1m; heard at the Mount of Olives. 
 Its invention is attributed to Clesibius, a barber of Alexandria. 
 
 The size of an organ is usually expressed by the length of 
 its largest pipes ; thus an organ of 32 feet, of 16 feet. &.c, is 
 one whose, lowest bass pipes are of those respective lengths. 
 Church organs consist of two parts ; viz. the great organ, 
 which comprises the main body ; nnd the chair, or choir 
 organ, a smaller one, commonly placed before the other. 
 The organ is provided with at least one set of keys ; and 
 when it has a chair organ and a swell organ, with two, 
 three, or even more. Besides these there are pedals fur the 
 lowest pipes, and composition pedals, which change the 
 stops as required at one pressure ; both of these are acted 
 upon by the feet. There is another pedal to open the swell 
 organ with the right foot. The key boards of organs vary 
 In extent : the York has 6 octaves from C C C (16 feet) to 
 O in alt ; the Birmingham 5J octaves ; but the compass 
 now in general use, here and on the Continent, is from C C 
 (8 feet) to F in alt, 4£ octaves ; the lower notes from C C 
 to C C C (16 feet) being placed on the pedal organ. The 
 G G compass is gradually falling into disuse, a compass 
 which never prevailed on the Continent. Each key, being 
 pressed down with the finger, opens a valve or plug, cor- 
 responding lengthwise with as many holes as there are rows 
 of pipes on the sound board; and the holes of each row 
 are opened and shut by a register or ruler pierced with holes 
 equal in number to the keys. By drawing the register the 
 noles of one row are opened, because they correspond with 
 those of the sound board; so that, by opening a valve, the 
 wind brought to the sound board by means of bellows finds 
 its passage into the pipes which correspond to the open holes 
 of the sound board. By pushing the register or stop, the 
 holes therein not answering to any of those of the sound 
 board, the row of pipes answering to the register so pushed 
 is shut It in obvious, therefore, by drawing several of these 
 
 ORGAN. 
 
 registers or stops, correspondent rows of pipes are opened : 
 hence the rows of pipes become simple or compound ; the 
 former when only one row answers to one register, the lat- 
 ter when several" do so. Organists call a row compound 
 when several pipes play upon pressing one stop. 
 
 Organ pipes are of two sorts, mouth pipes and reed pipes, 
 of each of which there are several species. The first, called 
 pipes of mutation, consist, first, of a foot, which is a hollow 
 cone, and receives the wind that sounds the pipe ; second, 
 the body of the pipe, which is fastened to the foot. Between 
 the foot nnd the body of the pipe is a diaphragm or partition, 
 having a little long narrow aperture to let out the wind ; 
 over this aperture is the mouth, whose upper lip, being 
 horizontal, cuts the wind as it escapes through the aperture. 
 The pii>es are made either of pewter, of lead mixed with a 
 certain portion of tin, or of wood. The tin pipes are always 
 open at their extremities, are of very small diameter, and 
 clear and shrill in their sound. Those of lead and tin mixed 
 are larger, the shortest open, and the longest quite stopped ; 
 the medium ones are partly stopped, and have besides a ' 
 little ear on each side of the mouth, drawn close or set 
 farther apart, for the purpose of raising or lowering the 
 sound. The wooden pipes are made square on the plane, 
 and their extremities are stopi>cd with a valve or tompoin 
 covered with leather, so as to be air-tight. The sound of 
 these is very soft. The large pipes stopped are usually of 
 wood, the small ones of lend. Of course the longest yield 
 the gravest, the shortest the most ncute sounds. Their 
 lengths and widths nre in the reciprocal ratio of their 
 sounds; and the divisions regulated by their rule, which is 
 called the diapason. The pipes, however, which are shut 
 have the same length as those that are open, which give 
 the same sound. 
 
 The reed pipes consist of a foot to carry the wind into the 
 shallot or reed, a hollow half cylinder, whose extremity is 
 fitted into a kind of mould by a wooden tompion. Its other 
 extremity is at liberty ; so that the wind, entering the shal- 
 lot, causes it to vibrate or shake against the reed ; and the 
 longer that part of the tongue which is at liberty is made, 
 the deeper the sound. The mould serving to fix the shallot 
 or reed, the tongue, tompion, &c. serves also to stop the foot 
 of the pipe, nnd to compel the wind to esca|x> wholly nt the 
 reed. In the mould, the part called the tube is soldered, 
 the inward opening whereof is a continuation of the reed. 
 The form of the tube varies in different ranks of pipes. 
 The acuteness and gravity of a reed pipe depends on the 
 length of the tongue, nnd of th'nt of the pipe, taken from 
 the extremity of the shallot to the extremity of the tube. 
 The quality of the sound depends on the width of the reed, 
 the tongue, and the tube ; and also on the thickness of the 
 tongue, the figure of the tube, and the quantity of wind. To 
 vary the character of the sound of the pi|>es a valve or 
 poitvent is added, which introduces the wind by fits and 
 shakes. 
 
 At Ulm, there is an organ in the cathedral 93 feet high 
 and 38 broad ; its largest pipe is 13 inches in diameter, and 
 it is supplied with sixteen pair of bellows. This organ, 
 however, is surpassed by the famous one at Haarlem, which 
 is 103 feet high nnd SO feet broad, and was made in 1738 
 by Christian Muller. The great organ, or manual contains 
 sixteen stops or voices ; the upper manual fifteen stops; the 
 chair organ fourteen stops ; and to the pedals, of which the 
 deepest pipe is 38 feet long, nnd 15 inches in diameter, there 
 are fifteen stops ; being, in all, sixty voices or stops, two 
 tremblans, two accouplemens, and nearly five thousand 
 pipes. The bellows are each 9 feet long and 5 feet broad 
 The organ at Rotterdam is also on a very large scale, and 
 not greatly inferior to that just described ; its reed stops, in- 
 deed, are allowed to be superior. 
 
 At the period of the restoration of Charles II. the organs 
 of this country had. fallen much into decay, and the art of 
 building them was then renewed here by the celebrated 
 Bernard Schmidt, who, to distinguish him from his nephews, 
 Gerard and Bernard, by whom, he was accompanied, ob- 
 tained the name of Father Smith ; and by Harris, from 
 France. The celebrated organ at the Temple church was 
 built by the first-named person. 
 
 The science of organ-building has of late years again re- 
 vived in this country, and indeed in other parts of Europe. 
 The three largest organs in England are in York Minster, 
 the Town Hall, Birmingham, and Christ Church, London. 
 The first-named, by Messrs. Elliot and Hill, has a compass 
 from C C C to C in alt, that is, 6 octaves. The great organ 
 has 24 stops, 4 open diapasons 16 feet, four 16 feet reeds. 
 The choir has 10 stops, from C C C to C in alt. The com- 
 pass of the swell is from C C lo C in alt, and it contains 12 
 stops. The pedal organ has 10 stops compass ; 2 octaves 
 32 feet to 8 feet, 32 feet open diapason metal, do. wood, and 
 do. trumpet ; three 16 feet reed stops, four 16 feet diapasons 
 to 4 feet. There are in all 56 stops, 6 couples, and 7 com- 
 position pedals to shift the stops. There are 4089 pipes in 
 50 ranks. 
 
 861 
 
ORGAN POINT. 
 
 The organ at the Town Hall in Birmingham, which was 
 juilt by Mr. Hill, has a compass from C C C to F in alt. 
 There are 4 rows of keys, and 2 octaves of keys, to play the 
 double pedal-pipes with the fingers, on the bass side of the 
 movements. The great organ contains the following stops : 
 3 open diapasons to 16 feet C, double diapason, and stopped 
 diapason ; 2 principals of metal, and 2 of wood ; a twelfth 
 and 2 fifteenths of metal, 1 of wood ; a reed fifteenth 4 feet, 
 posaune on a large scale (16 feet), trumpet 16 feet, clarion 
 8 feet, sesquialtra 4 ranks, mixture 3 ranks ; two octaves of 
 German pedals ; thirty-two feet metal open diapason to 8 
 feet C ; thirty-two feet wood open diapason to 8 feet C ; 
 two octaves of pedal trumpets 16 feet to 8 feet C. The 
 32 feet pipe with the remainder of the 2 octaves of dou- 
 ble pedal pipes are in front. The choir organ from C C C 
 (16 feet) to F in alt, has open and stopped diapasons, princi- 
 pal, harmonia, flute, fifteenths, cremona, and bassoon, open 
 diapason wood, and dulciana. Swell descends to C C, and 
 has open, double, and stopped diapason, principal, fifteenth, 
 harmonica, horn, trumpet, hautboy, and clarion. 
 
 The ophicleide, or tuba mirabilis, on the swell manual 
 from C C to F, the same compass as the swell, but separate 
 from it, forms its prominent feature, having power equal to 
 the whole of the great organ, with a full, fine, and smooth 
 tone. This magnificent reed is unparalleled in Europe ; 
 and the Birmingham and Liverpool organs are the only in- 
 struments which can boast of its powers. 
 
 The first clavier is the choir, the second the great organ, 
 the third the swell ; the fourth clavier takes any single 
 stop, or all of them, in either choir or swell, without affect- 
 ing either, or, in other words, the performer may play the 
 choir and swell in the usual manner, without at all affect- 
 ing the fourth clavier. To accomplish the mechanical 
 movement requires more draw stops than real stops of 
 pipes, although the same object is gained by the fourth 
 clavier as by a fourth separate organ. The collected 
 lengths of the trackers, or wood rods, which communicate 
 from the keys to the sound boards, would extend four miles 
 and a half. The 32 feet C is 1 foot 8J inches in diameter : 
 the same note, in wood, 3 feet by 2 feet 6 inches, and would 
 hold 12 pipes and 13 gallons of wine. There are two oc- 
 taves and a half of bells. The pedal pipes are played with 
 the fingers, as easily as the great organ, by a newly-invent- 
 ed valve* which resists the pressure of wind. There are 
 at present 63 draw stops in this organ, including the tuba 
 mirabilis, recently inserted, and including coupler stops. 
 The choir and swell have 2 draw stops to each row of 
 pipes, as the fourth clavier may require. 
 
 The Christ Church organ, in Newgate-street, London, 
 which is yet in progress, will be the largest manual organ 
 in Europe, containing 71 stops ; 24 in the great organ, 17 in 
 the choir, 11 in the swell, 10 in the pedal organ, and 8 cop- 
 ulas. This was commenced by Mr. Hill in 1840. The two 
 largest swell organs in Europe have been erected by Mr. 
 Hill during the present year. The one is in St. Peter's 
 Church, Cornhill, and contains 19 stops ; the other is in the 
 new Independent Chapel, Liverpool, and contains 20 stops. 
 These swell organs are about double the size of those in 
 the York and Birmingham organs, and contain many new 
 stops ; such as the wold flute, suabe flute, oboe flute, echo 
 dulciana cornet, piccolo, and other qualities of tone hitherto 
 unknown in this country. 
 
 ORGAN POINT. In Music, a succession of chords, in 
 some of which the harmony of the fifth is taken unpre- 
 pared on the bass as a holding note, whether preceded by 
 the tonic or bv the harmony of the fourth of the key. 
 
 ORGA'NICAL DESCRIPTION OF CURVES, in Ge- 
 ometry, signifies the description of curves on a plane by 
 means of instruments ; as the circle is described by a pair 
 of compasses, the ellipse by means of a thread passing 
 round two pins in the foci, the epicycloids by the revolution 
 of circles on the circumferences of other circles, the con- 
 choid by means of the trammel, the cissoid by the motion of 
 a rectangular ruler, &x. See Schootcn's Exercitationes 
 Mathematical ; Newton's Arith. Universalis ; Maclaurin's 
 Geomrtria Organica, &c. 
 
 ORGA'NIC DISEASE. A disease in which the struc- 
 ture of an organ is morbidly altered ; opposed to functional 
 disease, in which the secretions or functions only are deran- 
 ged, without any apparent change of organization. Tuber- 
 culated induration of the liver is an organic or structural 
 disease of that viscus: the secretion of viscid, unhealthy 
 bile is Afunctional derangement of it. 
 
 ORGA'NIC LAWS. In Modern Political Phraseology, 
 the name given to laws directly concerning the fundamen- 
 tal parts of the constitution of a state. According to the 
 distinction taken by some French writers, fundamental laws 
 are merely declaratory, containing the principles or theory 
 of government. Organic laws are those which apply those 
 
 * For this valve. Mr. Hill had the silver medal awarded In him by the 
 Society for Promoting Arts and Commerce, May 31st, 1841. 
 
 ORIFLAMME. 
 
 principles to the actual condition of society by positive en- 
 actment, and add the sanction of punishment. 
 
 ORGA'NIC REMAINS. The organized bodies, whether 
 of animals or vegetables, found in a fossil state, are so call- 
 ed. See Geology. 
 
 O'RGANISTS. The old name given in the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church to those priests who organized or sang in parts. 
 The name organists of the hallelujah was applied in the 
 13th century to certain priests who assisted in the perform- 
 ance of the mass. They were generally four in number, 
 and derived their name from singing in parts, or organizing 
 the melody appropriated to the word hallelujah. 
 
 ORGANIZATION. (Lat.) The processes by which 
 an organized body is formed : also the totality of the parts 
 which constitute, and of the laws which regulate, an or- 
 ganized body. 
 
 ORGANOGRAPHY. (Gr. opyavov, a tool or instrument, 
 and yp.id><i>, I describe.) A term usually applied to an ac- 
 count of the structure of plants. It comprises all that re- 
 lates to the various forms of tissue of which plants are an- 
 atomically constructed ; explains the exact organization of 
 all those parts through which the vital functions are per- 
 formed ; and teaches the relation which one part bears to 
 another, with the dependance of the whole upon the com- 
 mon system. See Botany. 
 
 O'RGANON. (Gr. opyavov.) In Philosophical language, 
 nearly synonymous with method, and implying a body of 
 rules and canons for the direction of the scientific faculty, 
 either generally or in reference to some particular depart- 
 ment. For an account of the Organon of Aristotle and 
 that of Bacon, see articles Aristotelian and Baconian 
 Philosophy respectively. 
 
 O'RGIES. (Gr. opyia.) In Mythology, the mysteries of 
 Bacchus, as solemnized among the Greeks and Thracians. 
 Writers derive the name from the word opyrj, anger, from 
 the fury and excitement of the Bacchanals, or from the 
 wrath of Ceres against Jupiter. (Clem. Alex.) But these 
 fanciful etymologies, after the manner of the Greeks, seem 
 to show that the word was really of foreign origin, and 
 adopted by thein together with the thing itself. The author 
 of the article " Mysteries" in the Encijc. Brit, would derive 
 it from Hebr. argoz, a chest, from the casket containing the 
 secret symbols of the god. According to his view, the or- 
 gies were the mysteries of Osiris, the Egyptian Bacchus, 
 and from Egypt transplanted to Greece, where they became 
 mingled with the gross corruptions peculiar to Die worship 
 of the Bacchus of Thebes. Others imagine their origin to 
 have been in Thrace. The frantic solemnities of these 
 rites are most poetically described in the Bacchte of Euripi- 
 des. The mysteries which they enveloped are extremely 
 obscure. 
 
 ORGUES. In Fortification, long and thick pieces of 
 wood shod with iron, and suspended each by a separate 
 rope over a gate so as to be ready to be let fall and stop it 
 up upon the approach of an enemy. The term also denotes 
 a machine composed of arquebuses, or musket-barrels, link- 
 ed together so that they may be discharged all at once, and 
 used to defend breaches. 
 
 ORGY'IA. (Gr. opsyw, I stretch out, and yvwv, a limb.) A 
 name applied by Ochsenheimer to a genus of Lepidopterans. 
 
 ORICHA'LCUM. (Gr. opo;, a mountain, and xaXicoc, 
 brass.) Literally, mountain brass. This was the name 
 given to a peculiar kind of mixed metal in general use 
 among the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is proved to 
 have been made on much the same basis as brass ; but 
 various opinions have been entertained respecting the pre- 
 cise nature of the ingredients employed in its composition, 
 and no definite conclusion has been arrived at on the subject 
 
 O'RIEL. (Etym. uncertain.) In Gothic Architecture, a 
 bay window. According to some passages in early writers, 
 it seems also to signify a recess ; but the former is the sig- 
 nification now usually attached to it. 
 
 O'RIENT. (Lat. orior, / rise.) The east, or eastern 
 part of the horizon. In Surveying, to orient a plan signifies 
 to mark its situation or bearing with respect to the four 
 cardinal points. 
 
 O'RIFLAMME. The ancient royal standard of France. 
 It was the banner of the abbey of St. Dennis, which was 
 presented by the abbot to the lord-protector of the convent, 
 whenever engaged in the field on its behalf. This protect- 
 orship was attached to the countship of Vexin ; and when 
 that county was added to the possessions of the crown by 
 Philip I., this banner, which he bore in consequence, be- 
 came, in time, the great standard of the monarchy. By 
 some it is said to have been lost at Agincourt, but, accord- 
 ing to others, its last display in the field was in the reign of 
 Charles VII. Its derivation is uncertain: according to 
 some, " quasi auri flamma." According to Count de Gebe- 
 lin, the last syllable is the same with " fanon" (Germ 
 fahne). Felibien says it was still to be seen, in 1535, in an 
 abbey, almost devoured by moths. (See Mem. de I' Ac. da 
 fnscr., vol. xiii.) 
 
ORIGANUM, OIL OF. 
 
 URI'GANUM, OIL OF. The distilled or volatile oil of 
 the wild marjoram. It is imported from the south of Eu- 
 rope, and used in liniments and embrocations as a stim- 
 ulant. 
 
 OKI GENISTS. An early Christian sect, who pretended 
 to draw their opinions from the writings of the celebrated 
 Origen. They maintained that Christ was the Son of God 
 i my by adoption ; and denied eternity of punishments. 
 They existed in considerable numbers in the fourth, fifth, 
 and sixth centuries, and their tenets spread among the 
 monks of Egypt. This sect of Christians must by no means 
 be confounded with the Origenarians, who sprang up at a 
 somewhat later period than the former, and whose tenets 
 surpassed In abomination even those of the Gnostics. (See 
 . trans!., ed. 1790, i., 392.) 
 ORIGINAL. (Lat. originalis.) In Law, where the sev- 
 eral parts of an indenture are interchangeably executed be- 
 tweea the parties, that part which is executed by the 
 grantor la commonly called the original, the others counter- 
 (.svi Indenture, Counterpart.) But, when all 
 the |>ar;ies execute every part, all are originals. The ori- 
 ginal of any deed or document is the best evidence ; and 
 a copy nut admitted until reasonable proof has been given 
 that the firmer is destroyed, lost, &c, or that it is in the 
 •Ion of the adverse party, who has been duly warned 
 to produce it. (See Evidence.) The writ which a plain- 
 tiff sued out of chancery, in order to commence a suit, was 
 formerly called an "original writ ;" the use of it is abolish- 
 ed, in personal actions, by 'J W. 4., c. 39. See Pleading. 
 
 Original. In the Fiiie Arts, a work not copied from 
 another, but the work of the artist himself. When an art- 
 ist copies his own work, it is called a duplicate. A certain 
 freedom and ease are always discernible in an original, 
 which in a copy are looked for in vain; though copies have 
 tecuted which it is almost impossible to 
 ..I which have deceived even excellent judges. 
 I G1NAL SIN, in Theology, to use the language of 
 • gIMi church in her ninth article, " stnndeth not in 
 the following of Adam ... but is the fault nnd corruption of 
 the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the 
 offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from 
 origin ess, and is of his own nature inclined to 
 
 evil," and it "deserveth God's wrath and damnation." By 
 the following of Adam is here meant the imitation of Adam ; 
 the Pelagians, against whom this article is directed, having 
 held that the words of Scripture, "in Adam have all sin- 
 ned," related not to any inherent vice in the race of 
 Ad am, but to the propensity of mankind to imitate his trans- 
 \iigust., De Nat. ct Oratid.) With this excep- 
 tion, the original depravity of man's nature, and the I 
 quent necessity of " a new birth unto righteousness," have 
 been commonly held by all sects of Christians. But a great 
 and important difference has prevailed as to the character 
 and cause of that depravity. The belief of St. Augustine is 
 thus expressed by Bishop Burnet : "That a covenant was 
 made with all mankind in Adam as their first parent; that 
 he was a penOD constituted by God to represent them all ; 
 and that the covenant was made by him so, that if he had 
 obeyed, all his posterity would have been happy through 
 bis obedience ; but by his disobedience they were all to be 
 esteemed to have sinned in him, his acts being imputed nnd 
 transferred to them all." This doctrine of imputed guilt 
 has been held by many of the stricter sects and varieties of 
 Christians, both in and out of the Church of Rome; it is 
 said by some to be the most consonant to the words of our 
 article, as no doubt it is to the views of the framers of it, 
 whose sentiments were deeply tinctured with Calvinism. 
 But it Bay be questioned whether those words are not as 
 easily applicable to what is, undoubtedly, the more common 
 opinion among Protestant Christians — that original sin is 
 not the sin of Adam imputed to his descendants, but is that 
 actual depravity and tendency to evil which philosophy, no 
 less than religion, recognises as existing in the human 
 mind, and developed with its growth in each individual 
 subject; the source of which, or its permission by the Di- 
 vine Author of Good, is involved in the inevitable obscurity 
 which surrounds the great question of the origin of evil. 
 
 < *Hl LLON. In Fortification, a mass of earth lined with 
 a wall, raised on the shoulder of a bastion for the purpose 
 of covering the retired flank. 
 
 ORI'ON. One of the forty-eight ancient constellations 
 formed by Ptolemy. It is situated in the southern hemi- 
 sphere with respect to the ecliptic, but the equinoctial passes 
 nearly across its middle. Orion is one of the most remark- 
 able constellations in the heavens. It contains seven stars, 
 which are very conspicuous to the naked eye ; four of them 
 form a square, and the three others are situated in the mid- 
 dle of it in a straight line. Two of the four are stars of the 
 first magnitude ; namely, Rigel in the left foot, and Betel- 
 gnese in the right shoulder. The three stars in the middle 
 of the square are of the second magnitude, and form what 
 is called the belt of Orion. They are also popularly called 
 
 ORNITHOLOGY. 
 
 Jacob's staff, and the Yard-wand. This constellation Is 
 represented by the figure of a man with a sword by his 
 side. The name Orion is of great antiquity, and occurs in 
 the books of Job, Amos, nnd Isaiah. Orion contains a re- 
 markable nebula, and thousands of small stars which are 
 only visible in powerful telescopes. 
 
 Orion. In Greek Mythology, the son of Hyrieus ; ac- 
 cording to Homer, a youth slain by Diana, on account of 
 the love borne to him by Aurora ; but according to others, a 
 king and a mighty hunter. Antiquity is full of contradic- 
 tions respecting the origin, character, and fate of this myth- 
 ological personage, and the only point in which it agrees 
 respecting him is his elevation to the stars after his death. 
 Those who wish to see all the circumstances of his history 
 philosophically investigated should consult the dissertation 
 of the late Prof. Midler of Gottingen, Uber Orion, which 
 appeared in the Rhein, Mus. Philul., ii.. 12. 
 
 ORISMO'LOGY. (Gr. opiauos, a term, and \oyo(, a dis- 
 course.) That branch of natural history which relates to 
 the explanation of the technical terms of the science. It is 
 also called Glossology nnd Terminology. 
 
 O'RLO. (Ital. a hem vr edge.) In Architecture, the 
 plinth to the base of a column or a pedestal. 
 
 O'RLOP DECK. The lowest deck, or, rather, partial 
 deck of a ship, below the water, on which the cables are 
 coiled, the sails, &c., stuweil. 
 
 ORMOLU. (Fr.) Bronze or comer, gilt, usually goes 
 under this name. The French are celebrated in this branch 
 of manufacture. 
 
 O'RNAMKNT. (Lat. ornamentum.) In the Fine Arts. 
 ■See Decoration. 
 
 ORNITHI'CNITES. (Gr. opviu a bird, t\voc, a trace.) 
 The footmarks of birds which occur in dillorent strata. 
 Some of these nre very remarkable, as proving the existence 
 of birds nt very remote lieriods ; for instance, at the early 
 epoch of the new red sand-tone formation. An account of 
 these, as occurring in the red sandstone of Connecticut, is 
 given by Professor Hitchcock in the American Journal of 
 Science and the .'Iris. 
 
 ORNTTHoUTKS. (Gr. opvtq, and hOof, a stone.) The 
 name given to fossil hirds. 
 
 ORNITHOLOGY. (Gr. opvic, a bird, and Xoyoc, a de- 
 scription.) The science which teaches the natural history 
 and arrangement of birds. (See Aves for the general or- 
 ganical characters of the class, and the modifications of the 
 feet by which the five orders of the Quinary arrangement 
 are characterized.) 
 
 The subdivision of the class of birds is by no means so 
 clearly indicated by either external or anatomical charac- 
 ters ns that of Mammals, and the systems of Ornithology 
 present, in consequence, greater discrepancy than the Mam- 
 malogical ones. It is not without interest to observe that, 
 if conditions of the procreative function be taken at guides 
 to the primary division of the class, such division will pre- 
 sent the binary character, as in the class of Mammals and of 
 Reptiles ; for example, birds may be divided into two great 
 groups, in one of which the young are able to run about or 
 swim and provide food for themselves the moment they 
 quit the shell ; while in the other, the young are excluded 
 feeble, naked, blind, and dependant on their parents for 
 support. The species comprised in the first of these groups 
 have been termed Aves pracoces, those of the second Aves 
 Altrices. 
 
 Professor Nitzsch divided the feathered tribes into three 
 grand primary groups, corresponding with the three great 
 divisions of the matter of our planet, as air, earth, and wa- 
 ter, which constitute respectively the principal theatres of 
 their vital actions. 
 
 This first order consists of the Raptorial and Passerine 
 birds, the birds of flight par excellence, which he accordingly 
 terms " Luft-vogeln," or Aves acrea. The second order 
 embraces the birds of the earth, " Erd-viigeln," Aves tcrrcs- 
 tres, represented by the ostrich and common fowl. The 
 third great division includes the birds which frequent the 
 waters, Aves aquatics (Wasser-vogeln), typified by the 
 heron and the gull. 
 
 Sandewall's ornithological system has four primary 
 groups or cohorts. 
 
 In the Quinary arrangement of birds proposed by Mr. 
 Vigors, there may be traced a similar principle to that 
 which guided Nitzsch in his ternary classification. Thus, 
 the first order {Raptures, Virg.) includes the birds which 
 soar in the upper regions of the air, which build their nests 
 and rear their young on the highest rocks and loftiest trees. 
 The second order (Insessores) includes the birds which af- 
 fect the lower regions of the air, and which are peculiarly 
 arboreal in their habits ; whence the name of Perchers 
 The third order corresponds with Nitzsch's Aves tcrrestres 
 and is termed, as in the system of Illiger, Rasores. If thr 
 aquatic birds of Nitzsch be divided into those which fie 
 quent the fresh waters, and are restricted to wading int< 
 rivers, lakes, &c.. in search of their food, and those whicl 
 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
 
 have the power of swimming or diving, and for the most 
 part frequent the great ocean, we shall then have the two 
 remaining orders of the Quinary arrangement, viz., Oral- 
 latores and JVatatores. The chief merit of this arrange- 
 ment is its aim to express the natural affinities, and their 
 rircular progression in the whole and in the several parts. 
 
 Linnajus and Cuvier have six orders of birds, which are 
 characterized as follows by the latter naturalist : 
 
 " Of all classes of animals, that of birds is the most 
 strongly characterized — that in which the species bear the 
 greatest mutual resemblance, and which is separated from 
 all others by the widest interval. Their systematic ar- 
 rangement is based, as in the Mammalia, on the organs of 
 manducation, or the beak, and in those of prehension, which 
 are again the beak, and more particularly the feet. 
 
 " One is first struck by the characler of webbed feet, or 
 those wherein the toes are connected by membranes that 
 distinguish all swimming birds. The backward position of 
 their feet, the elongation of the sternum, the neck, often 
 longer than the legs, to enable them to reach below them, 
 the close, glossy plumage impervious to water, altogether 
 concur with the feet to make good navigators of the Pal- 
 mipedes. 
 
 " In other birds, which have also most frequently some 
 small web to their feet, at least between the two external 
 toes, we observe elevated tarsi ; legs denuded of feathers 
 above the heel-joint; a slender shape; in fine, all the 
 requisites for wading in shallow waters in search of 
 nourishment. Such, in fact, is the source of food of the 
 greater number; and although some of them resort exclu- 
 sively to dry places, they are nevertheless termed 'shore- 
 birds' or ' waders' (Or alia). 
 
 " Among the true land birds, the Gallinacea have, like 
 our domestic cock, a heavy carriage, a short flight, the beak 
 moderate, its upper mandible vaulted, the nostrils partly 
 covered by a soft and tumid scale, and always the edges of 
 the toes indented, with short membranes between the bases 
 of those in front. They subsist chiefly on grain. 
 
 " Birds of prey (Accipitres) have a crooked beak, with 
 its point sharp and curving downward, and the nostrils 
 pierced in a membrane that invests its base : their feet are 
 armed with strong talons. They live on flesh and pursue 
 other birds; their flight accordingly is mostly powerful. 
 The greater number still retain a slight web betwixt their 
 external toes. 
 
 "The Passerine birds (Passeres) comprise many more 
 species than all the other families; but their organization 
 presents so many analogies that they cannot be separated, 
 although they vary much in size and strength. 
 
 " Finally, the name of Climbers (Scansores) is applied to 
 those birds in which the external toe is directed backwards 
 like the thumb, because the greater number of them avail 
 themselves of a conformation so favourable for a vertical 
 position to climb the trunks of trees." 
 
 Anterior to Cuvier, but subsequently in the order of pub- 
 lication, is Pallas's modification of the ornithological system 
 of Linnxus. It is contained in his great posthumous work, 
 entitled Zoographia Hosso-Asiatica. He also divides the 
 class of birds into six orders : 
 
 1. Praspetes, having the characters of the Accipitres, with 
 
 which it is synonymous. 
 
 2. Oscines, including the genus Columba, with the Pica and 
 
 certain Passeres of Linnaeus. 
 
 3. Fringillm, corresponding with the Crassirostres, Gra- 
 
 nivora, Enuclcatrices of Ray. 
 
 4. Pulveratriccs, having the characters of the Oallina. 
 
 5. Grallas. This order commences with the genus Otis, 
 
 and includes, as in the system of Cuvier, the Struthi- 
 ous birds with the true waders. 
 
 6. Hydrophilm. The characters of this order corresponds 
 
 with that of the Palmipedes, with which it is equiva- 
 lent. As an example of the views entertained and 
 expressed by Pallas of relations of analogy, the follow- 
 ing passage may be taken from his exposition of the 
 nature of his Hydrophila : " Rostra in hoc ordine ad- 
 moduin variant, ut nullus ordinis character inde desumi 
 possit, et quasi reliquos ordines osmulari videntur ut 
 Diomedcai et Catarracta, Rapaces, ],ari, Sterna, Alca, 
 Cepphi et Colymbi, Oscines ; Uria, Pulveratrices, Jaim- 
 da, Passeres, et tandem Serratirostria genera Phceni- 
 copterum et Plataleam inter Grallas referant." 
 The primary division of the class of birds adopted by the 
 author of the article " Aves," in the Cyclopedia of Anatomy 
 and Physiology, includes seven orders ; the Struthious birds, 
 by virtue of their remarkable anatomical peculiarities, be- 
 ing separated from the Gralla of Linnants and Cuvier. 
 The following are the orders : 
 
 1. Raptores, Accipitres, Linn. Cuv. Birds of prey. 
 2 Insessores, Passeres, Cuv. Perchers. 
 3. Scansores, Cuv. Climbers. 
 4 Rasores, Gallina. Linn. Cuv. Scratchers. 
 864 
 
 ORRERY. 
 
 5. Ccrsores, Illig. Coursers. 
 
 6. Grallatores, Gralla, Linn. Waders. 
 
 7. Natatores, Palmipedes, Cuv. ; Anseres, Linn. Swim 
 
 mers. 
 Scopoli and Latham have divided birds into nine orders; 
 Temminck has sixteen orders ; Brisson has twenty-eight, 
 and Lacepede has thirty-eight orders ; but the principles 
 and the characters on which a classification of birds is most 
 philosophically founded, appear to be sufficiently illustrated 
 in the systems that have been already explained. 
 
 ORNI'THOMANCY. (Gr. />» ? , p„vraa, divination.) 
 Divination by the flight of birds. The Etruscans were the 
 most celebrated practisers of it. See Augurs. 
 
 ORNI'THORHY'NCHUS. (Gr. opvts, fivyxo;, a beak > 
 The name of the genus of Monotrematous Mammals, elm 
 racterized by the form of the mouth, which resembles the 
 bill of a duck. It is peculiar to the" fresh-water rivers and 
 lakes of Australia and Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 OROMA'SDES. In Persian Mythology, the principle of 
 Good, created by the will of the great eternal spirit Ze- 
 ruane Akherene, simultaneously with Ahriman, the princi- 
 ple of Evil, with whom he is in perpetual conflict. Oro- 
 masdes is the creator of the earth, sun, moon, and stars, to 
 which he originally assigned each its proper place, and 
 whose various movements he continues to regulate. Ac- 
 cording to the Persian myths, the world which is to last 
 12,000 years, during which the war between the Good and 
 Evil Principle is to go on increasing, is at length to be con- 
 sumed, the Evil Principle exterminated, and a new world 
 created in its room, over which Oromasdes is to reign as the 
 sole and supreme monarch. The great apostle of the 
 Persians, Zoroaster, was the prophet of Oromasdes ; and 
 there is an old prophecy extant that after the lapse of ages 
 a descendant of Zoroaster shall be sent by Oromasdes to 
 redeem the world. Here we cannot fail to perceive how 
 striking a resemblance exists between the old Persian myth 
 and that grand scheme of redemption communicated by the 
 Almighty to the Jews, and which was consummated by 
 the advent of Jesus Christ.. See Ahriman, Polytheism. 
 
 O'RPHEAN MYSTERIES. The mysteries of which 
 Orpheus was the founder were so called. These myste- 
 ries were at a remote period in the highest estimation, and 
 exercised an important influence over the intellectual de 
 velopment of mankind. Orpheus is said to have been 
 taught his mysteries by the Idaean Dactyl! ; and to have in- 
 troduced them into Thrace, whence they were gradually 
 propagated throughout all Greece by his Initiated followers. 
 The nature of these mysteries is involved in an impenetra- 
 ble veil of obscurity ; but there can be no doubt that they 
 partook of the general character of all mysteries, inculca- 
 ting a purer knowledge of religion than was compatible 
 with the superstitious observances then prevalent. On the 
 union of these mysteries with the Bacchanalian orgies 
 they fell into merited contempt, and were at length gradu 
 ally disused. (See Mysteries.) The initiated in these 
 mysteries, as well as the persons employed to initiate can- 
 didates in them, were called, in some cases, Orpheote'cstie. 
 
 O'RPHEITS. A mythological personage ; according to 
 the common story, a son of the Thraeian river ^Eagrus and 
 the muse Calliope. His power of moving inanimate things 
 by music, the share he bore in the Argonautic expedition, 
 his descent into the Shades to recover his wife Eurydice, 
 and his death by the violence of the Thraeian women, are 
 well-known circumstances in ancient romantic fable. Mo- 
 dems have imagined that his name is a general mythic 
 designation for the earliest bards, who came with their art 
 from Thrace to Greece. Whether any fragments of poetry, 
 either of the real Orpheus or of this supposed school, ex- 
 isted in Grecian classical ages, has been doubted. What 
 passed as the poetry of Orpheus in the time of Aristotle 
 seems to have been decidedly supposititious, as much so as 
 the poems which we possess under the same name, some 
 of which are thought to be as recent as the 4th century 
 after Christ. According to modern theories, the Orphic 
 poetry of ancient times contained the whole body of Gre- 
 cian esoterical religion and import of the Mysteries. (See 
 Lobeck's Aglaophamus ; Bode's Orpheus ; Tiedemann, Ini- 
 tia Philosophic Groecce ; the History of the JJterature of 
 Greece, Lib. U. K. p. 231 ; Mem. de VAcad. des Sri., vol. xii.) 
 
 O'RPIMENT. (Lat. auripigmentum.) Yellow sulphu- 
 rct of arsenic ; it forms the basis of the yellow paint, 
 called king's yellow. The solution of orpiment in ammonia 
 has been used as a yellow dve. 
 
 O'RPIN. (Fr.) In Painting, a yellow colour of various 
 degrees of intensity, approaching also to red. 
 
 O RPINE. The English name for the succulent herba- 
 ceous plant called by botanists Sedum telephium, which see 
 
 O RRERY. A machine for representing to children the 
 motions and relative magnitudes and distances of the bodies 
 composing the solar system. As these machines are often 
 procured by well-meaning but ignorant people at considera 
 ble expense, it may be useful to quote an authority that 
 
ORRIS ROOT. 
 
 will not be called in question. "As to getting correct no- 
 tions on this subject" (the magnitudes and distances of the 
 planets), says Sir John Herschel, " by drawing circles on 
 paper, or, still worse, from those very childish toys called 
 orreries, it is out of the question." (Astronomy, Cab. Cyc, 
 p. 287. For the description of an orrery, see Ferguson's 
 Astronomy, bv Brewster.) 
 
 O'RRIS ROCT The root of the Iris Florentines. It 
 has an aareeablt abur, much like violets, and is sometimes 
 used in perfumed powders ; it is also turned into little balls 
 for issues called orris peas. 
 
 O RTHITE. (Gr. opdos, straight.) A mineral which 
 occurs in straight rays or layers in Scandinavian granite. 
 It contains cerium and vttria. 
 
 OfiTHO'CERATES, Orthocerata. (Gr.o/>0o?,and Kcpas, 
 a horn.) The name of a family of Cephalopods with 
 chambered ciphaniferoua shells, which are straight, or are 
 continued straight after commencing with a greater or less 
 curvature, thus resembling a horn. 
 
 ORTHODOX, or ORTHODOXY. (Gr. opOos, and S^a, 
 opinion.) These terms are restricted in application to right 
 judgments in matters of religious faith ; and although every 
 sect maintains of course 'the exclusive correctness of its 
 own views, yet the title of orthodoxy is appropriated by 
 ecclesiastical' historians to the standard maintained by the 
 Catholic or universal church. The term orthodoi is gene- 
 rally restricted nlso to those principal tenets which have 
 been always held by the great mass of professing Chris- 
 tians: large bodies of dissenters in England are allowed by 
 the church to be orthodox, inasmuch as they hold the three 
 nd therefore profess the principal articles of tin- 
 Christian faith in common with those who differ from them 
 in matters of church authority and discipline. 
 
 ORTHODRCMICS (Gr. opdos, and tpouos, course), in 
 Navigation, is sailing on a right course, or on the arc of a 
 great Circle, which is the shortest distance between two 
 si the sphere. 
 
 CBTHOKPy. (Gr. opdos, and croc, a word), in Gram- 
 mar, signifies, literally, the right use of WOMB; but it is 
 applied, at least by modern writers, to signify that part of 
 which treats of the manner of uttering words, or 
 
 of prono.ncia.tion in its limited sense. See Pronunciation. 
 
 ORTHO'GONAL. (Gr. opdos, and yuiwa, angle.) In 
 Geometry, the same as rectangular or right-angled. 
 
 ORTHOGRA'PHIC PROJECTION The projection of 
 
 |>oints on a plane by straight lines at right angles to the 
 plane. Sr; Projection. 
 
 ORTHOGRAPHY. (Gr. opdot, and ip.«f>.>, I write) 
 That pan of grammar which relates to the method of de- 
 noting Bounds by visible signs, to the different kinds of 
 and their combination into syllables and words. 
 
 ( M'.i iiouraJMiy. In Architecture, a geometrical repre- 
 sentation of an elevation or section of a building. 
 
 O'KTIlolW'fE'.i. (Gr. cpdoc, and mn, breathing.) A 
 •limculty of breathing, whicli is increased by any deviation 
 from tip- ereel posture. 
 
 OKTHOTTKRANS, Ortkoptera. (Gr. opOos, and -ripn. 
 a wing.) An order of insects, including all those species 
 which have the wings disposed when at rest in straight 
 longitudinal folds. Latreilie characterizes the insects of 
 this order as having the body generally less firm in texture 
 than in the Coleoptera, and covered by soft semi-membra- 
 nous elytra furnished with nervures, which, in the greater 
 number, do not join at the suture in a straight line. Their 
 w:inrs are folded longitudinally, most frequently in the 
 manner of a fan, and divided by membranous nervures 
 running in the same direction. The maxilla; are always 
 terminated by a dentated and homy piece covered with a 
 galea, an appendage corresponding to the exterior division 
 of the maxilla; of the Coleoptera. They have also a sort 
 of tongue. 
 
 The Ortkoptera undergo a seml-metamorphosis, of which 
 alt the mutations are reduced to the growth and develop- 
 ment of the elytra and wings, that are always visible in a 
 rudimental state in the nymph. As both this nymph, or 
 semi-nymph, and the larva are otherwise similar to the 
 perfect insect, they walk and feed in the same way. 
 
 The mouth of the Ortkoptera consists of a labrum, two 
 mandibles, as many maxilla, and four palpi: those of the 
 jaws always have five joints; whilst the labial palpi, as 
 in the Coleoptera, present but three. The mandibles are 
 always very strong and corneous, and the ligula is constantly 
 divided into two or four thongs. The form of the antenna; 
 varies less than in the Coleoptera, but they are usually 
 composed of a greater number of joints. Several, besides 
 their reticulated eyes, have two or three ocelli. The infe- 
 rior surface of the first joints of the tarsi is frequently 
 fleshy or membranous. Many females are furnished with a 
 true perforater formed of two blades, frequently enclosed in 
 a common envelop, by means of which they deposit their 
 eggs. The posterior extremity of the body, in most of them, 
 is provided w'. h appendages. 
 
 3 J 
 
 ORYZA. 
 
 All the known Ortkoptera, without exception, are terres 
 trial, even in their two first states of existence. Some are 
 carnivorous, or omnivorous, but the greater number feed on 
 living plants. 
 
 O'RTIVE. (Lat. onus, a rising.) In astronomy, hav- 
 ing reference to the rising of a star or planet; thus, ortive 
 amplitude, or eastern amplitude, is the arc of the horizon 
 intercepted between the point where a star rises and the 
 east point. 
 
 O'RTOLAN. The name given in France and England 
 to a species of Frangillida greatly esteemed for the delicacy 
 of its flesh when in season. It is the ortolano of the [tnl 
 ians, and the fettammer of the Germans. The ortolan i-' • 
 native of northern Africa; but in the summer and autumnai 
 months it resorts to southern Europe, and frequently mi- 
 grates to the central and even the northern parts. There 
 are large establishments in Italy and in the south of France 
 for feeding these birds, the flesh of which is styled by 
 Prince Musignano carne squisita. 
 
 O'RUS, or HORUS. An Egyptian god, son of Isis and 
 Osiris, according to Herodotus (ii. 144) ; answering to the 
 Greek Apollo. He frequently appears in Egyptian paintings 
 sitting on the lap of Isis. (See Egyptian Antiquities, Lon- 
 don, 1836, vol. ii.) 
 ORVTETAN. An antidote to poison, said to have been 
 
 I by a mountebank of Orvieta in Italy. 
 ORY'Cf EROPE. (Gr. opvooio, I dig, anil nous, a foot.) 
 A genus of Edentate Mammals peculiar to the African 
 continent, and provided with feet and claws well adapted 
 for digging; from which circumstance, and the heavy 
 shapeless form of the only known species of this genus, it 
 is commonly called at the Cape of Good Hope the ground- 
 hog. The principal food of the orycterope is the termite 
 anil other species of ants, which it dislodges by its strong 
 and sharp claws, and entraps by means of a long extensi- 
 ble ami Glutinous tongue. It diil'ers from the true ant-eat- 
 ers principally in having molar teeth. The orycterope is 
 about the size of a hog, stands low, has short hair, and is ol 
 grayish-brown colour. It has four toes before and live be- 
 hind, and inhabits burrows. Its tlesh la eaten. 
 
 ( IB Y<T< >'(;.\'0'SY, or ORYCT< >'!.< ><; V. (Gr. opoxros, 
 fossil, and \oyoc, a discourse.) The branch of zoological 
 science which treats of fossil organic remains. These 
 terms are sometimes used to denote those parts of mineral- 
 ogy which have for their object the classification of mine- 
 rals, thiir description, nomenclature, and arrangement. 
 
 < »I{Y"/A. (Arab, aruz.) The name by which rice was 
 known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and which has 
 been adopted by modern botanists as the generic name of 
 the plant yielding that invaluable grain. The genus Oryza. 
 belongs to the class Hrxnndria, order Dygynia ; and has 
 ten glumes to a single flower, and two halea, nearly equal, 
 adhering to the seed. It affords many varieties, of which 
 the most common is the Oryza saliva, or the English rice. 
 This plant is raised in Immense quantities In India, China, 
 and most eastern countries; in the West Indies, Central 
 America, and the United States; and in some of the south- 
 ern countries of Europe. It in fact occupies the same 
 place in most intertropical regions as wheat in the warmer 
 parts of Europe, and oats and rye in those more to the 
 north. Forming, as it docs, the principal part of the food 
 of the most civilized and populous eastern nations, it is 
 more extensively consumed than any other species of grain. 
 It is -light and wholesome, but it is said to contain less of the 
 nutritive principle than wheat When rough, or in its na- 
 tural state in the husk, it is called paddy. There is an 
 immense variety in the qualities of rice. That which is 
 principally exported from Bengal has received the name of 
 cargo rice. It is of a coarse reddish cast, but is sweet and 
 large-grained, and is preferred by the natives to every other 
 sort. It is not kiln-dried, but is parboiled in earthen pots or 
 caldrons, partly to destroy the vegetative principle, so that 
 it may keep better, and partly to facilitate the process of 
 buskin?. Patna rice is more esteemed in Europe than any 
 other sort of rice imported from the East. It is small- 
 grained, rather long and wiry, and remarkably white. But 
 the rice raised on the low marshy grounds of Carolina is 
 unquestionably very superior to any brought from any part 
 of India. 
 
 The produce of lands naturally or artificially irrigated is, 
 as far as rice is concerned, from 5 to 10 times greater than 
 that of dry land having no command of water ; and hence 
 the vast importance of irrigation in all countries where this 
 grain is cultivated. But it is worthy of remark, that owing 
 to the not unfrequent occurrence of severe droughts, there 
 is a greater variation in the crops of rice than in those of 
 any other species of grain. Those who, like the Hindoos, 
 depend almost entirely on it for subsistence, are conse- 
 quently placed in a very precarious situation. There can 
 be no doubt that famines are at once more frequent and sc 
 vere in Hindostnn than in any other quarter. 
 A few years ngo, England was principally supplied witli 
 
 80S 
 
OSCHOPHORIA. 
 
 cleaned rice fiwm Carolina. Latterly, however, the imports 
 of Carolina rice have been much reduced. An improved 
 method of separating the husk, which throws out the grain 
 clean and unbroken, has recently been practised in this 
 country ; and as the grain when in the husk is found to pre- 
 serve Its flavour and sweetness better during a long voyage 
 than when shelled, large quantities are now imported rough 
 from Bengal and the United States. Unquestionably, how- 
 ever, the oppressive discriminating duty of 14s. a cwt. on 
 American and other foreign cleaned rice has done more 
 than anything else to increase the imports of rough grain ; 
 and the fact of the duty on paddy from Bengal being only 
 Id. per quarter, while that on paddy from Carolina is 2s. 
 6d. a bushel, sufficiently accounts for the increased imports 
 from the former. (See Com. Diet., art. "Rice.") 
 
 OSCHOPHO'RIA. A celebrated festival observed by 
 the Athenians; for full information respecting which the 
 reader is referred to Plutarch's IAfe of Theseus, by whom 
 it was instituted. The name is derived from airo tuv (ptpctv 
 rat 00X05, from carrying oaxai, i- e -> boughs hung up with 
 grapes. 
 
 OSCILLA'TION. (Lat. oscillatio.) In Mechanics, the 
 vibration or alternate ascent and descent of a pendulous 
 body [See Pendulum.) The centre of oscillation is a 
 point in the oscillating body, such that if all the matter of 
 the body were there collected the oscillations would be 
 performed in the same time. (See Centre of Oscilla- 
 tion.) The axis of oscillation is a straight line passing 
 through the point of suspension parallel to the horizon, or 
 perpendicular to the plane in which the oscillation is made. 
 Oscillations in small arcs of a circle, or in cycloidal arcs of 
 any length, are isochronal, or performed in equal times. Sec 
 Cycloid. 
 
 OSCILLATO'RIA. Minute filamentous organized beings, 
 which have the faculty of exercising oscillatory movements. 
 OSCULATING CIRCLE. See Osculation. 
 OSCULA'TION. (Lat. osculare, to embrace.) In Geo- 
 metry, one curve is said to osculate another when the two 
 curves are in contact in such a manner that the number of 
 points common to both is the greatest possible. Let A B 
 be a curve, of which AC is the evolute; from P any part 
 -, in A B draw P C, to touch A C in C. 
 With C as a centre, and a radius C P, 
 describe a circle mn; then the circle 
 m n osculates the curve A B at the 
 point P. From the theory of the evo- 
 lution of curve lines, the curvature of 
 A B at the point P is equal to that 
 of the circle; in fact, it is obvious 
 from the development that the curva- 
 ture of the involute at any point be- 
 tween A and P is greater than that 
 01 the circle, and at any point beyond P it is less than that 
 of the circle, consequently at P it is exactly the same as 
 that of the circle described with the radius C P. The circle 
 mm has, therefore, a more intimate contact with AB than 
 any other circle which passes through P. 
 
 The theory of osculating curves in general is most easily 
 explained by the methods of the differential calculus. Let 
 y=.fx and j/ = Fz be the equations of two curves; sup- 
 pose x to become x-\-h, and let the functions f(x + h), 
 F(z-f-A), be developed by Taylor's theorem; then, if all 
 the terms of the first development are respectively equal to 
 the corresponding terms of the second, the curves are the 
 same in every respect, or coincide. If the first terms only 
 are equal, the two curves have only one common point; 
 if the two first terms of the one development are respect- 
 ively equal to the two first of the other, then two contiguous 
 points coincide, or are common to both curves ; if the three 
 first terms in each are respectively equal, the curves have 
 three common points, and so on. Now the number of 
 terms of the first development which can be made equal to 
 the corresponding terms of the second depends on the num- 
 ber of constants in the function fx (supposing F x to contain 
 more constants than fx). The equations of a straight line 
 being 1/ = a 1 + 6, contains two constants; the straight line 
 can thus be made to coincide with two contiguous points 
 of a curve : it then becomes a tangent, and the contact is 
 said to be of the first order. The general equation of the 
 circle is (y — J)2-|-(z — <z)2 = r2, and contains three con- 
 stants ; a circle can therefore be determined which shall 
 Save three common points with a curve : it then osculates 
 the curve, and the contact is said to be of the second order. 
 In general, if the equation of the osculating curve, is of the 
 order n, it may have a contact of the same order with the 
 curve which it osculates; and it is a consequence of this 
 theory that no osculating curve of an inferior order can be 
 made to pass between two curves having a contact of a 
 higher order: for example, no straight line can be drawn 
 through P between the curve AP and its osculating circle 
 m P n. (Lagrange, Theorie des Fonctions Analytiqucs ; 
 Lacroix, Traiti du Calcul Differentiel ct Integral.) 
 
 OSSEOUS BRECCIA. 
 
 OSIA'NDRIANS. In Ecclesiastical History', a sect 
 among the Lutherans; so called from their founder Osi- 
 ander, a celebrated divine. They differed from the fol- 
 lowers of Luther and Calvin as to the efficient cause of 
 justification. 
 
 O'SIER. The name given to various species of willow 
 or salix, chiefly employed in basket-making on account of 
 their tough flexible shoots. (See Loudon's Jlrboretum 
 Britannicum, p. 1490, which contains full information on 
 all the points relative to osiers.) 
 
 OSI'RIS. In Mythology, one of the chief Egyptian di- 
 vinities, the brother and husband of Isis, and, together with 
 her, the greatest benefactor of Egypt, into which he intro- 
 duced a knowledge of religion, laws, and the arts and 
 sciences. After having accomplished great reformations at 
 home, he visited the greater part of Europe and Asia, where 
 he enlightened the minds of men by teaching them the 
 worship of the gods and the arts of civilization ; but, on his 
 return, he found his own subjects excited to rebellion by 
 his brother Typhon, by whose hand he was ultimately 
 assassinated. Both ancient and modern writers have dif- 
 fered considerably respecting the powers and attributes of 
 Osiris.* His principal office, as an Egyptian deity, was to 
 judge the dead, and to rule over that kingdom into which 
 the souls of the good were admitted to eternal felicity. The 
 characters of Osiris, like those of Isis, who was thence 
 called Myrionymus, or " with 10,000 names," were numer- 
 ous. He was that attribute of the deity which signified the 
 divine goodness; and in his most mysterious and sacred 
 office, as an avatar, or manifestation of the divinity on 
 earth, he was superior to any even of the Egyptian gods; 
 for, as Herodotus observes, though all the Egyptians did not 
 worship the same gods with equal reverence, the adoration 
 paid to Osiris and Isis was universal. He was styled "the 
 Manifester of Good ;" and to this title he had an undisputed 
 right, for he appeared on earth to benefit mankind ; and 
 after having performed the duties he had come to fulfil, 
 and fallen a sacrifice to Typhon the evil principle (which 
 was at length overcome by his influence after his leaving 
 the world), he " rose again to a new life," and became the 
 "judge of mankind in a future state." Other titles of Osiris 
 were, " President of the West," " Lord of the East," " Lord 
 of Lords," " Eternal Ruler," "King of the Gods," &c. These, 
 with many others, are commonly found in the hieroglyphic 
 legends accompanying his figure ; and the Papyri frequently 
 present a list of 49 names of Osiris in the funeral rituals. 
 Osiris has been identified with many of the Grecian divini- 
 ties; but more especially with Jupiter, Pluto, and with 
 Bacchus, on account of his reputed conquest of India. 
 Osiris was particularly worshipped at Philae and Abydus: 
 so sacred was the former that no one was permitted to visit 
 it without express permission; and the latter was regarded 
 with such veneration that persons living at a distance from 
 it sought, and with difficulty obtained, permission to possess 
 a sepulchre within its necropolis. The worship of Osiris 
 was at a later period introduced into Rome ; but the prurient 
 imagination of the Romans soon converted the rites and 
 mysteries of this deity into a means for practising the most 
 unbounded licentiousness, which at length reached such a 
 height that his worship was prohibited by law. Osiris was 
 venerated under the form of the sacred bulls Apis and 
 Mnevis ; or as a human figure with a bull's head, distin- 
 guished by the name Apis-Osiris. He is usually represented 
 as clad in pure white ; and his usual attributes are the high 
 cap of Upper Egypt, a crosier, a flngellum, and sometimes a 
 spotted skin, an emblem supposed to connect him with the 
 Grecian Bacchus. (For full particulars respecting the sup- 
 posed history of Osiris, together with explanations thereof, 
 we beg to refer to Plutarch's Treatise on Isis and Osiris ; 
 and for a resume of the whole subject illustrated with 
 ingenious observations, the reader may consult Sir O. 
 Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyp- 
 tians.) See Isis. 
 
 O'SMAZOME. (Gr. oaun, odour, and fyfios, broth.) 
 The extractive matter of muscular fibre, which gives the 
 peculiar smell to boiled meat, and flavour to broth and 
 soup. 
 
 O'SMIUM. A metallic substance found associated with 
 the ore of platinum ; its peroxide is extremely volatile, and 
 has a peculiar pungent odour, which suggested the name 
 of the metal : from ooun, odour. Neither osmium nor its 
 compounds have been applied to any use, and it is a rare 
 substance. 
 
 O'SSEANS, OSSEI, or PISCES OSSEI. In Ichthy- 
 ology, a primary division of the class of fishes, including 
 all those which have a true bony skeleton. 
 
 O'SSEOUS BRECCIA. The cemented mass of bone 
 found in certain caverns and fissures of rocks. 
 
 * So cautious were those initiated into the worship of Osiris, that they 
 made a scruple even of mentioning him ; and Herodotus, wherever he 
 relates anything concerning this deity, excuses himself from tittering hii 
 
OSSIAN'S POEMS. 
 
 O'SSIAN'S POEMS. The name given to a collection 
 of poems, alleged to have been the production of Ossian, 
 the son of Fingal, a Scottish bard, who lived in the third 
 century. They'were first given to the world in an English 
 version by James M'Pherson, Esq., in 1700, with the assur- 
 ance that they were translations made by himself from 
 ancient Erse manuscripts which he had collected in the 
 Highlands of Scotland; and such was the enthusiasm 
 Which their appearance excited, that they may be almost 
 said to have given a new tone to poetry throughout all 
 Europe. There were not, however, wanting many dis- 
 tinguished persons who, from the first, denied their authen- 
 ticity ; foremost among whom was Dr. Johnson, who boldly 
 pronounced the whole of the poems ascribed to Ossian to 
 be forgeries; and his opinion was corroborated by Hume, 
 Gibbon, and many others, who defied M'Pherson to pro- 
 duce a manuscript of any Erse poem of earlier date than 
 the sixteenth century. On the other hand, M'Pherson's 
 assertions as to the genuineness of the poems found w arm 
 suppoiters in Dr. Blair (see his Critical Dissertation on the 
 Puim; of Ossian), Dr. Henry, Lord Kaimes, and many other 
 distinguished names, and almost to a man in the whole body 
 of the Highlanders. In this unsettled state the controversy 
 remained till the year 1800, when Malcolm Laing, so well 
 known for his historical labours, in a Dissertation ap- 
 pended to the second volume of his History of Scotland, 
 endeavoured to establish, from historical and internal evi- 
 dence, that the so called poems of Ossian are absolutely 
 and totally spurious. The sensation created by this Disser- 
 tation was unprecedented. Many converts were made to 
 the opinions therein set forth ; but the general disbelief in 
 the authenticity of the |)oems was not complete till 1805, 
 when a committee of the Highland Society of Edinburgh, 
 which had been appointed in K'.lT to inquire into their 
 nature and authenticity, reported to the etfect "that tiny 
 had not been able to obtain any one poem the same in title 
 and tenor with the poems of Ossian." Since that period 
 utroversy, so far as it regards their translation from 
 manuscripts, may lie said to be terminated. But al- 
 though these poems had never been committed to writing. 
 or rather have not been banded down in writing, there can 
 bo, we believe, but little doubt that many of them still 
 i the Highlands of Scotland, in a dress not very dif- 
 ■ from that in which they were rendered by af*Pherson 
 into English, having been committed to memory, and tmu 
 mitted from one bard or storyteller to another in regular 
 succession; and consequently their pretensions to be re 
 larded ai historical authority on many points can scarcely 
 be denied. Their scene is sometimes laid in Scotland, but 
 mote frequently in Ireland; and they may be justly con- 
 sidered the Iliad and Odyssey of the Celtic race of the two 
 islands, handed down by tradition only — what the poems 
 of Homer were, in all likelihood, to the Greeks themselves 
 before they were acquainted with the art of writing. "The 
 value of Oaston," aay« Mr. Skene, ''as an historical poet, 
 must stand in the highest rank ; while, whether the chief 
 part of these poems are of ancient or of modern composi- 
 tion, there can remain little doubt that in him we possess 
 the oldest reconl of the history of a very remote age." 
 (The Highlanders of Scotland, their Origin, History, and 
 .hitujuities, vol. i., p. 215.) Those who wish to see this 
 subject exhibited in all its bearings though, perhaps, with a 
 slight prejudice against M'Pherson, may consult the elabo- 
 rate article in the Kilin. Review, vol. vi. 
 
 O'SSIFICATION. The formation of bone. The change 
 if any soft solid of the body into bone. 
 
 OSTA'RA. An ancient German and Celtic divinity, 
 worshipped with peculiar veneration by the Anglo-Saxons. 
 Many writers regard her as identical with the Phoenician 
 goddess Astarte ; but, be this as it may, she was regarded 
 as the queen of spring and of the morning ; and from her 
 name is derived the German Ostern, (Anglice, Easter), 
 which period of the year the ancient Germans were in the 
 habit of celebrating with fires and festivals, in gratitude 
 for the advent of spring. (See Grimm's Deutsche Myt/io- 
 logie., p. 181.) The town Osterode on the Hart/, is said to 
 have been named from this goddess. 
 
 OS'TEOCO'LLA. (Gr. ootcov, a bone, and toWa, glue.) 
 An old mineralogical term for encrusting carbonate of lime, 
 to which the property of uniting a fractured bone has been 
 attributed. 
 
 OSTEO'GENY. (Gr. qotiov, a bone, and yevvato, I gene- 
 rate.) The formation or growth of bone. 
 
 OSTEO'LOGY. (Gr. ootcov, a bone, and \oyoc, a dis- 
 course.) The doctrine or history of the bones. See Ana- 
 tomy, Bone. 
 
 Osteology. In Painting and Sculpture, a description 
 .if the bones of animals. 
 
 OSTRA'CEANS, Ostracea. The family of Bivalves 
 of which the oyster (Ottrea) is the type; and which is 
 characterized by the mantle being widely open, without 
 special orifices. 
 
 OTTAVA RIMA. 
 
 OSTRA'CION. (Gr. oorpanov, a shell.) A genus of 
 fishes of the order Sclcrodermi, or rough-skinned, in the 
 system of Cuvier. It is characterized by the armour of 
 regular bony plates soldered together, with which the 
 body is invested; the only movable parts being the tail, 
 fins, mouth, and a small gill flap, which pass, as it were, 
 through holes in the coat of mail. The body generally 
 presents a quadrangular form, whence the name of trunk- 
 fish, commonly given to the species of this genus. 
 
 O'STRACISM. (Gr. oorpaKtonos-) A form of conuem 
 nation at Athens, by which persona who, from their wealth 
 or influence, were considered dangerous to the state were 
 banished for ten years, with leave to enjoy their estates and 
 return after that period. It was not inflicted as a punish 
 ment, but merely as a precautionary measure to preserve 
 the democracy. The process in this condemnation was 
 as follows: The people being assembled, each man wrote 
 the name of the person he wished to banish on a shell 
 (oorpoiKov, whence the name iarpaKicfios), and delivered it 
 to the archons, who counted the numbers. Only one indi- 
 vidual could be subjected to the ostracism at the same 
 meeting, and 6000 hostile votes were necessary to the in 
 ruction of this condemnation. Hence if 0000 votes and up 
 wards were recorded against one or more individuals, the 
 one was banished against whom the greatest number of 
 votes had been given. (See Mem. de V.lcad. des Inscr., 
 vol. xvi.) 
 
 O'STRACODES, Ostracoda. (Gr. oorpaicov, a shell, 
 ttloi, form.) The name of a family of Entomostracaaa 
 comprehending those which have the shell folded in two 
 so as to resemble the shell of a bivalve mollusk. 
 
 O'STRICH. The largest known bird, and the type of 
 the Cursorial or Struthious order. It is distinguished not 
 only from its immediate congeners the Cassowaries and 
 Jlpteryz, but from all other birds, by having only two toes, 
 which correspond with the two outermost toes in the rest 
 of the class. The wings are furnished with loose and 
 flexible plumes, but are long enough to increase its speed in 
 running. The elegance of these feathers, arising from their 
 slender stems and the disunited barbs, has occasioned them 
 to be prized In all ages, and they still constitute a valuable 
 article of commerce. The beak of the ostrich is depressed, 
 of a moderate length, and blunt at the end; the tongue is 
 extremely short; the eye is large, and the lid fringed with 
 short ?imple feathers like eyelashes. The logs are of pro- 
 digious strength, and the tarsi very long. The ostrich has 
 a capacious crop; a strong gizzard; voluminous intestines, 
 with two long coeca, complicated each with a spiral valve, 
 and succeeded by a very long Intestlnum rectum, with in- 
 ternal connivent valves, which latter structure is unique in 
 the class of birds. It is likewise remarkable in this class 
 for its large urinary receptacle. The ostrich abounds in the 
 sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. It attains the height 
 of seven or eight feet; is gregarious in favourable locali- 
 ties; lays eggs of three pounds weight, which are incubated 
 by the male principally, and defended courageously. The 
 ostrich feeds on grain, grass, tec, to aid in digesting which 
 many pebbles are taken into the gizzard ; so obtuse is its 
 taste that it will swallow pieces of metal, wood, &c. When 
 pursued, it dashes stones behind it with great violence, and 
 exceeds in swiftness all other terrestrial animals; it is only 
 the comparatively limited power of sustaining its course, 
 that enables the mounted Arab to run it down. 
 
 OTA'LGIA. (Gr. our, tAc ear, and aXyoi, pain.) The 
 ear-ache. 
 
 OTA'RIA. (Gr. ouj.) The name of the genus of seals 
 characterized by having projecting external ears, and by the 
 double cutting edge of the four middle upper incisors, a 
 structure unknown in other animals : the molar teeth are 
 simply conical, and with a single fang. These seals are 
 principally confined to the southern hemisphere. 
 
 OTI'TIS. (Gr. ovc.) Inflammation of any part of the 
 organ of hearing. 
 
 O'TTAR, or OTTAR OF ROSES. The volatile or 
 odorous oil of the rose ; it is of a soft, buttery consistence, 
 and deposits, when fluid, a crystallizable portion, which is 
 sparingly soluble in alcohol : it is much used as a perfume. 
 The finest ottar of roses is prepared at Ghazedpore in India. 
 
 OTTA'VA RI'MA. (Eighth or octuple rhyme.) An 
 Italian form of versification, consisting of stanzas of two 
 alternate triplets and a couplet at the end ; the verses being, 
 in the proper Italian metre, the heroic of eleven syllables. 
 It is the form peculiarly adopted and embellished by the 
 poets termed Romanzieri, from Pulci to Forliguerra. (See 
 Romanzieri.) It is a happy metre, in the hands of an able 
 versifier, for the expression of feelings varying from the sub 
 lime and pathetic to the humorous : although rather deti 
 cient in variety, and possessing too little repose and solem- 
 nity for the sustained majesty of epic poetry. It has been 
 adopted by the Germans, who have given to it something 
 of an elegiac turn ; and, of late, by English poets, of whom 
 the most distinguished is Lord Byron, who has employed it 
 
 807 
 
OTTER. 
 
 in his Bcppo and Don Juan, works belonging to a mixed 
 ass of poetry, between the serious and the burlesque. 
 
 O'TTER. A quadruped adapted to amphibious habits 
 by its short, strong, flexible, palmated feet, which serve as 
 oars to propel it through the water, and by its long and 
 strong tail, which acts as a powerful rudder, and enables 
 the animal to change its course with great ease and rapidity. 
 The teeth, which consist, in each jaw, of six pointed in- 
 cisors, two strong and sharp canines, and ten trenchant and 
 cuspidated molars, determine the piscivorous diet and pre- 
 datory habits of the species. The otter used to be met with 
 in most of the British rivers and lakes ; but the increase of 
 population, and the unintermitting hostility which its de- 
 struction of the valuable fish of its native streams have 
 called down upon it, have greatly thinned its numbers, and 
 have exterminated it from many of the localities where it 
 was formerly common ; so that the otter, as a captive in our 
 menageries, is now regarded with almost the same interest 
 which an exotic species usually excites. 
 
 The otter selects for its retreat some convenient excava- 
 tion concealed by the overhanging roots of the trees which 
 grow from the banks of rivers, or other natural screen. The 
 female goes with young nine weeks, and produces from 
 three to live cubs in March or April. The usual weight of 
 a full-grown male is from twenty to twenty-four pounds. 
 The fur of the otter is remarkably fine and close. It con- 
 sists of two kinds of hair; the longer and stiller shining 
 hairs, which are greyish at the base and a rich brown at the 
 point, concealing an extremely fine and soft fur of a whitish 
 gray colour, brown at the tip. The hair and fur of the 
 under part of the body, the cheeks, and the inner parts of 
 the legs, is of a brownish gray throughout. 
 
 The otter is hunted in many parts of England, and espe- 
 cially in Wales, with dogs especially trained for this kind 
 of sport, with all the form and circumstance of the chase. 
 " When the otter is found," says Mr. Bell, " the scene be- 
 comes exceedingly animated. He instantly takes the water 
 and dives, remaining a long time, underneath it, and rising at 
 a considerable distance from the place at which he dived. 
 Then the anxious watch that is kept of his rising to 'vent,' 
 the steady purpose with which the dogs follow and bait him 
 as he swims, the attempts of the cunning beast to drown his 
 assailants by diving while they have fastened on him, the 
 baying of the hounds, the cries of the hunters, and the fierce 
 and dogged resolution with which the poor, hopeless quarry 
 holds his pursuers at bay, inflicting severe, sometimes fatal 
 wounds, and holding on with unflinching pertinacity even to 
 the last, must altogether form a scene as animated and ex- 
 citing as the veriest epicure in hunting could desire." {Brit- 
 ish Quadrupeds, p. 133.) 
 
 The few species of otter which have been recognised in 
 distant parts of the world do not greatly differ from the Lutra 
 vulgaris of Europe. The sea-otter is an animal of larger 
 size, and presents such modfications of its palmated feet, and 
 of its teeth, as to form the type of a distinct subgenus (En- 
 hydras), which connects the otter with the seal. 
 
 OTTOMAN. An epithet given to the Turkish empire, 
 i'ioni Othman I., who ascended the throne in the 14th cen- 
 tury. It is also applied to a peculiar kind of sofa much in 
 use in Turkey, and which has been imitated both here and 
 on the Continent. 
 
 OUNCE. (Lat. uncia.) A denomination of weight. In 
 troy weight the ounce is the 12th part of the pound, and 
 weighs 480 grains. In avoirdupois weight the ounce is the 
 16th part of the pound, and equal to 437J grains troy. See 
 Weight. 
 
 OURANO'GRAPHY. (Gr. ovpavog, heaven, and ypatyui, 
 I describe.) A term frequently used to signify a description 
 of the heavens and the heavenly bodies. 
 
 OURO'LOGY, or OURO'SCOPY. (Gr. ovpov, Xcyw, / 
 speak, and cko-km, I view.) The judgment of diseases from 
 an examination of the urine. 
 
 OUTCROP. A Geological term, implying the exposure 
 of a stratum at the earth's surface. 
 
 OUTLAWRY, in Criminal Law, is a punishment inflicted 
 for a contempt in refusing to be amenable to the jurisdiction 
 of a competent court. The act 2 W. 4, c. 39, gives a pro- 
 vision for more expeditious and less expensive proceeding to 
 outlawry in civil cases on mesne process than had previous- 
 ly prevailed. It is issued against a defendant after he has 
 been five times proclaimed at a county court ; but if the de- 
 fendant has previously left the kingdom, he can set it aside 
 by writ of error, or even on motion. The effect of out- 
 lawry in civil cases is a forfeiture of personal goods and 
 chattels immediately upon the outlawry, and his chattels 
 real and the profits of his lands when found on inquisition. 
 
 OUTLIER. In Geology, a portion of a rock or stratum 
 detached and at some distance from the principal mass. 
 
 OUTLINE. In the Fine Arts. See Contour. 
 
 OUTPOSTS. In a Military sense, a body of men posted 
 beyond the main guard ; so called as being the bounds or 
 (units of the camp. 
 
 OVERT ACT. 
 
 OUTRE. (Fr.) In the Fine Arts, anything exaggerated 
 or overstrained. 
 
 OU'TRIGGER. The Sea term for any projecting spar or 
 piece of timber for extending ropes, sails, or other temporary 
 purposes. 
 
 OUTWORKS. In Fortification, works raised on the out 
 side of the ditch of a fortified place, for the purpose of cov 
 ering the place, or keeping the besiegers at a distance. See 
 Fortification. 
 
 O'VAL. (Lat. ovum, an egg.) A popular name for any 
 curve figure resembling an ellipse, or the transverse section 
 of an egg. The carpenter's oval is made up of four circular 
 arcs, joined so as to leave no angular appearance, or present 
 any rapid change of curvature. It may be described as fol- 
 lows : Let A B and C D be the length and breadth of the 
 proposed oval, and let these lines r 
 
 be placed at right angles, and bi- 
 secting each other at E. With C 
 as a centre, and a radius equal to 
 A E, describe an arc intersecting 
 A B in F and G ; with F and G 
 as centres, and a radius equal to 
 A F or B G, describe the small D 
 
 arcs m A m' and n B n' for the ends of the oval ; and witn 
 C and D as centres (or centres near those points), and C D 
 as a radius, describe the arcs m C n and in! D n'. It may be 
 remarked, that the construction will fail when the breadth C 
 D is not greater than half the length A B ; but in this case 
 C D may be produced, and points found in it by trial for the 
 centres of the required arcs. 
 
 The Ovals of Descartes are a species of geometrical 
 curves, proposed by that philosopher as the figures which 
 give, by their revolution about an axis, the true surfaces 
 which should separate two media of different densities, in 
 order that all the rays which proceed from the same point, 
 or converge towards one, may be refracted towards another 
 point, or rendered-parallel or divergent. They may be de- 
 fined as the locus of the vertex of a triangle on a given base, 
 one of whose sides has a given ratio to the sum or difference 
 of a given line and the other side. Their generation has 
 thus some resemblance to that of the ellipse and hyperbola, 
 which are the loci of a triangle on a given base whose sides 
 in the case of the ellipse have a given sum, and in the case 
 of the hyperbola a given difference. (See the Second Book 
 of Descartes' Geometry.) 
 
 Ovals are also produced by the construction of many equa 
 tions of the higher orders, particularly those in which the 
 dimensions are even, as the fourth, sixth, &c. 
 
 OVALBU'MEN. The albumen or white of egg ; a term 
 adopted in order to distinguish it from the albumen of the 
 serum of the blood, which may be called seralbumen. 
 
 OVA'RIA. The two organs which contain the female 
 ova. 
 
 OVA'RIUM. In Plants, a hollow case, enclosing ovules 
 or young seeds, containing one or more cells, and ultimately 
 becoming the fruit ; it is always situated in the centre of the 
 flower, and, together with the style and stigma, constitute 
 the female system of the vegetable kingdom. When it is 
 united to the calyx, it is called inferior ; when separate from 
 it, it is termed superior. 
 
 OVATION. An inferior kind of triumph, which, accord 
 ing to the ancient Roman custom, was granted to distin- 
 guished military leaders. The name is said to be derived 
 either from ovare (to cry O!), the cry of the soldiers; or 
 from ovis, a sheep, the animal sacrificed on such occasions 
 instead of bullocks. According to Dionysius of Halicarnas- 
 sus, the first ovation was celebrated by P. Posthumius Tu 
 bertus (A.C. 503), some years after the expulsion of the 
 kings.' Some antiquaries imagine the distinction between the 
 triumph and the ovation to have originally consisted, not in 
 the greater or less degree of honour, but in the latter being 
 strictly appropriated to successes by which peace was ob- 
 tained, or to distinguish brilliant achievements in time of 
 peace. Thus we find that ovations were permitted, though 
 triumphs were not, in civil wars. An ovation was Celebrated 
 by Mark Antony and Octavius to solemnize their reconcilia- 
 tion. 
 
 OVERHANG. In Architecture. See Batter. 
 
 O'VERSEERS OF THE POOR. Officers annually ap 
 pointed in every parish, under the hand and seal of two jus 
 tices, under the statute of 43 Eliz. Their number, by that 
 statute, is four, three, or two, for each parish. By subse- 
 quent statutes any place maintaining its own poor, whether 
 a parish or not has overseers. Assistant overseers, with a 
 salary, may be elected by the inhabitants of parishes, undsr 
 59 G. 3. See Poor Laws. 
 
 O'VERSHOT WHEEL. In Mechanics, a water-wheel 
 to which the water is conveyed over the top of the wheel 
 and applied above the axle. In this case, the water acta 
 merely by its weight, and not by the impulse of the stream. 
 
 O'VERT ACT. (Fr. ouvert, open.) In Law, an open or 
 manifest act from whence criminality is implied. No in 
 
OVERTURE. 
 
 dictment for high treason is good unless some overt act is al- 
 leged in it. 
 
 O'VERTURE. (Fr. ouverture.) The introductory piece 
 of music prefixed to an opera or oratorio. Iu movements in 
 works of the modern school generally contain snatches of 
 the more prominent and leading airs in the opera, and intro- 
 duce the audience to a general notion of the emotions which 
 it is the desire of the author to excite. 
 
 The word overture also signifies a proposal; in which 
 sense it is always used in the Presbyterian church to indi- 
 cate those resolutions proposed by presbyteries and synods, 
 and afterwards laid before the General Assembly, either for 
 Its sanction or rejection. 
 
 O'VIDUCT, Otiductus. (Lat. ovum, an egg; duco, / 
 conduct.) The tube which conducts the ovum from the 
 ovary either to the uterus or to an external outlet. In Mam- 
 mals this part is termed the Fallopian tube, from the cir- 
 cumstance of its having been first described by Fnllopius, 
 about the year 1500, in the human subject, in which this 
 tube or canal passes from each side of the fundus of the 
 uterus to the ovarium. See Fallopian Tube. 
 
 OVTFEBOU8 and OVTGEEOUB. (Lat. ovum, fero 
 and gero, I bear.) In Zoology, certain receptacles, in which 
 the eggs are received after having been excluded from the 
 ordinary formative organs of the ovum, are so called, as the 
 long pouches appended to the Under part of tbe body in 
 many of the Entomostracous and Parasitic Crustaceans. 
 Likewise the ciliated plates (beneath the tail of the higher 
 oceans, as the crab and lobster), to which die eggs are 
 attached after having quitted the oviducts, are called 
 ovigerous. 
 
 OVl'PAROTJS. (Lat. ovum, and pnrio, I product-.) The 
 mode of generation by the exclusion of the germ in the form 
 and condition of an egg, the development of which lake* 
 place out of the body either wiih or without incubation. 
 rahee, reptiles, and birds arc called Oviparous Vertehrata, 
 although some of both the former classes hntch the egg 
 within the body and bring forth their young alive, as the 
 Viper and dog-fish. 
 
 O'YIS. (Lata sheep.) The name by which Linnaeus 
 and Cuvier distinguish the sheep as a genus from the goats 
 and antelope*. The character assigned by Cuvier to the 
 genus Ovil is as follows: "Horns directed backwards, and 
 llien Inclining spirally more or less forward*; ih>- profile or 
 chaufitin more or le-s convex, and no beard :" to this may 
 be added an Interdlgltal sebaceous sac on the fore part of 
 each foot The Mouflons or Musmons of Africa end Sar- 
 dinia, from which it is generally believed ourdomestJi 
 of sheep are derived, form the •: mm** of Lin- 
 
 and Otis musimt-n at Hchreber. The coat of 
 wild sheep consists of coarse, still", Ion*;, and nearly Straight 
 hairs; hut they possess the same character, that of an im- 
 bricated surface, which gives to the shorter and finer wool 
 of the domestic races the titling property on Which its pecu- 
 liar utility de|>ends. See Hair. 
 
 Of i nimais belonging to Great Britain sheep 
 
 are, with the exception perhaps of ho r s e* and cattle, by far 
 the moat important They can be reared m situations and 
 upon soils where other animals would not live. They afford 
 a large supply of food, and one of the principal materials of 
 clothing. Wool has long been a staple Commodity of this 
 country, and its manufacture employs an immense number 
 of people. "The skin, dressed, forms different parts of our 
 apparel, and is used fur covers of books. The entrails, 
 properly prepared and twisted, serve for strings for various 
 musical instruments. The bones, calcined (like other I 
 in general), form materials for tests for the refiner. The 
 rsilk is thicker than that of cows, and, consequently, yields 
 a greater quantity of butter and cheese : nnd, in some places, 
 is so rich that it will not produce the cheese without a mix- 
 ture of water to make it part from the whey. The dung is 
 a remarkably nch manure, insomuch that the folding of 
 sheep is become too useful a branch of husbandry for the 
 farmer to neglect. To conclude, whether we consider the 
 advantage* that result from this animal to individuals in 
 particular, or to these kingdoms in general, we may, with 
 Columella, consider this, in one sense, as the first of the do- 
 mestic quadrupeds. ' Post majorcs quadrupedes ovilli p 
 secuvda ratio est ; qua?, prima sit si ad utilitatis magnitudi- 
 nem rrfcras. -Vnrn id pracipue contra frigoris vioh utium 
 •yit. corporibusque nostris libcraliora prabet vein m 
 
 egantium mensas jucundis et vumerosis dapibus 
 ■ •-'" (De Re Rust ten, lib. vii., cap. 2.) And, in ad- 
 dition to what Mr. Pennant has so forcibly stated, sheep are 
 ilarly deserving the attention of the agriculturist, both 
 from the influence of Improvements on the breed, nnd from 
 their generally affording larger profits than can he obtained 
 from the rearing and feeding of cattle. (Statistics of the 
 npire, vol. i., p. 492.) 
 
 The principal varieties of the English sheep are the large 
 Lincolnshire, the Dorset breed, the South-down and the 
 Cheviot. 
 
 OVIPOSITOR. 
 
 The Lincolnshire sheep are of a large size, big-honed, anu 
 afford a great quantity of wool, owing to the rich marshes 
 on which they feed; but their flesh is coarser, leaner, and 
 less finely flavoured than that of the smaller breeds. 
 
 The Dorset sheep are mostly white-faced ; their horns are 
 finely curved, their fleece clear and white; but many of 
 them are without wool upon their bellies; their legs are long 
 and small, and their general form handsome and well-pro- 
 portioned. This breed is prolific, nnd is principally esteemed 
 for producing lambs at an earlier period than other varieties. 
 "Great numbers of these premature victims to luxury ma 
 yearly sent to the London markets, where they fetch the 
 price of 10s. Gd. to 15s. per quarter. The manner of rearing 
 the lambs is curious: they are imprisoned in little dark 
 cabins ; the ewes are fed on oil-cakes, hay, corn, turnips, or 
 cabbages, which are given them in a field contiguous to the 
 apartments where the lambs are kept; and at proper inter 
 valfl the nurses are brought In to give suck to their young 
 ones, while the attendants at the same time make their lodg- 
 ings perfectly clean, and litter them with fresh straw. 
 Great attention is paid to this, as much of the success of rear 
 ing these iiiiSMMUIIIltlM productions depends upon warmth 
 and cleanliness." 
 
 The South-down sheep have dun or black faces, and are 
 of tbe same hardy nature as the Cheviot breed, being able 
 to live and thrive on the barest chalk hills. Their wool is 
 fine and their mutton well-flavoured. They have of late 
 years, In consequence of these valuable qualities, extended 
 to most parts of England, and have been introduced into Ire- 
 land. The Cheviot breed have no horns, and are mostly 
 white-faced and white -legged : the body is long, with fine, 
 clean, small-boned legs ■ the limtton is highly esteemed for 
 its flavour. They are valuable a* mountain sheep, on ac- 
 count of their hardiness and the superior value of then 
 wool. There is a singular variety of sheep in the northern 
 climates of Europe, in which the monstrosity of super- 
 numerary horns has become hereditary: these are called 
 many-homed sheep, and have from four to eight horns 
 growing irregularly from the head. 
 
 It is not possible to form any accurate estimnto either of 
 the number of sheep or of toe quantity of wool annually 
 produced in this country. With the exception of Mr. Luc- 
 cock's, most of the statements put forth with respect to both 
 these points seem very much exaggerated. Hut Mr. L.'s 
 estimate, which is considerably under any that had previous- 
 ly appeared, was drawn up with great care, and is supposed 
 to approach nearer to accuracy. 
 
 According to Mr. Luccock, the 
 Number of long-woolled sheep in ) , ..n^ 
 
 England and Wales, in 1800, was \ ^*V«» 
 Of short wool led, ditto, . 
 
 Total number shorn 
 Slaughter of short-woolled sheep per 
 
 annum 
 
 Carrion of ditto 
 
 Slaughter of long-woolled ditto 
 
 Can ion of ditto 
 
 Slaughter of lambs . 
 
 Carrion of ditto 
 
 Total number of sheep and lambs 
 
 In some parts of England there has been BB i: 
 the number of sheep sine. lstH); but in others there has 
 been a decrease. But we have been assured by competent 
 judges that, on the whole, the number has not sensibly 
 varied in the interval. 
 
 In the General lieport of & 111., Appendix, p. 
 
 6) the number of sheep is estimated at 2,800,000; and, al- 
 lowing for the increase that has taken place since 1814, 
 they may now be estimated at about 3,500,000. Hence thf 
 total number of shoe,, in Great Britain will be 39,648,000. I» 
 is not supposed that there are 2.000,000 of sheep in Ireland 
 (statistics of the British I'.iupin; vol. )., p. 496.) 
 
 The foreign breeds of sin. ugly numerous, 
 
 but of these, perhaps, the Asiatic variety is the most singular. 
 In India, the sheep is long-tailed; and in Persia, Tartary, 
 and China, &c, the tail is not only elongated, but loaded 
 with a mass of fat, in some instances weighing ten pounds 
 The power which this animal possesses to accommodate it- 
 self to dill - almost unlimited : in the hot 
 plain* of Asia its covering becomes coarse and scanty, while 
 in the frozen regions of Thibet its thick wool has an under 
 lining of the finest kind, forming an important article in 
 manufacture* and commerce. (See the Geo. Diet., art. 
 ' and the authorites there cited.) 
 
 i >'\ "IS AC, Ovisaecus. (Lat. ovum, an egg, and saceus, a 
 sack.) The cavity ia the ovary which immediately con- 
 tains the ovum. In Mammals, it forms, after the ovum is 
 expelled, the em 
 
 OV'IT'O'SlTOll (Lat OVUm, nnd peno, 1 place), in En 
 tomology, is the instrument by which an insect conducts its 
 
 14,854,299 
 
 19,007,607 
 
OVOLO. 
 
 eggs to their appropriate nidus, and often bores a way to it ; 
 the same instrument is, in some genera, used as a weapon 
 of offence, when it is called the "aculeus." 
 
 O'VOLO. (Ital.) In Architecture, a moulding whose 
 profile is the quadrant of a circle ; though in Grecian archi- 
 tecture there is a deviation from that exact form, which is 
 most apparent at the upper portion, where it resembles the 
 form of an egg, whence this moulding derives its name. 
 
 OVOVIVl'PAROUS. (Lat. ovum, an egg; vivo, I live; 
 and pario, I produce.) The mode of generation by the ex- 
 clusion of a living foetus more or less extricated from the 
 egg-coverings, which has been developed within the body 
 of the parent without any vascular or placental adhesions 
 between the ovum and the womb. The marsupial animals 
 among the Mammalia, the viper and salamander among 
 Reptiles, the blenny and dog-fish among fishes, the Paludina 
 vivipara. and many bivalves among Mollusks, the scorpion 
 and flesh-fly among insects, the earth-worm, and many of 
 the intestinal worms, are examples of ovoviviparous animals. 
 
 O'VITLUM. (Lat. ovum, an egg.) The name of a genus 
 of Pectinibranchiate Gastropods, characterized by having a 
 shell of an oval form, and with a long and narrow aperture, 
 without furrows or teeth, on the side of the columella; the 
 spire is concealed, and the two extremities of the aperture 
 are equally prolonged into a canal. 
 
 This diminutive is also applied to the Ovum of the Mam- 
 malia on account of its relatively minute size : it is, how- 
 ever, a true ovum, having all the essential parts, as the 
 germinal spot, germinal membrane, vitellus, vitelline mem- 
 brane, and Chorion. See Ovum. 
 
 Ovulum. In Botany, a small pellucid pulpy body, borne 
 by the placenta. of a plant, and gradually changing into a 
 seed ; it consists of a central nucleus, enclosed within a 
 definite number of coats, varying from one to two, and fur- 
 nished with an aperture or foramen, through which im- 
 pregnation takes place. 
 
 OVUM. (Lat. an egg.) In Anatomy, the body formed 
 by the female in which, after impregnation, the develop- 
 ment of the foetus takes place. It is generally formed in a 
 special organ, called the ovarium : but in some of the sim- 
 plest animals, as the Polypes, the common cellular paren- 
 chyme of the body seems to have the unlimited faculty of 
 producing the ova. The essential, and, apparently, first- 
 formed, part of an ovum, is a minute pellucid cell, called the 
 "germinal vesicle," which is characterized by an opaque 
 speck or nucleus called the "germinal spot." The vesicle 
 i< immediately surrounded by a stratum of granules or nu- 
 cleated cells, which form the "germinal disk." These 
 parts flo;U in a greater or less quantity of fluid and granules, 
 called the yolk, which is generally of some well-marked 
 colour, as yellow, green, violet, red, through the presence 
 of a minutely diffused oil. The yolk is inclosed in a thin, 
 delicate, structureless coat, called the " vitelline mem- 
 brane," and this is finally surrounded by an outer tunic, 
 called the "chorion." Between the chorion and vitelline 
 membrane there is commonly a greater or less quantity of 
 albumen. In the birds, this fluid, which is called the 
 " white," and the "yolk," is in great quantity ; the chorion 
 is laminated, and the outer layer is combined with earthy 
 salts to give due firmness, and preserve the shape of the 
 egg while subject to the weight of the parent during incu- 
 bation. Two twisted strings of firm albumen called "cha- 
 lazse," are continued from each end of the yolk, a little 
 below the poles, and serve to keep uppermost the " cicatric- 
 ula or "tread," formed by the impregnated germinal ves- 
 icle and disk. A space intercepted between two of the lay- 
 ers of the chorion, or "membrana pntaminis," at the great 
 end of the egg, contains a small quantity of gas, containing 
 more oxygen than atmospheric air: this space is called the 
 " vesica aerea." For the chemical properties of ovum, see 
 Eoq.) 
 
 Ovum. In Architecture, the same as Ovolo ; which see. 
 
 OWL. See Nocturnals and Strix. 
 
 OWLING. In Law, so called from its being generally 
 committed during the night. An offence consisting in con- 
 veying sheep or wool to the sea side in order to export 
 them. This offence was formerly capital, particularly if 
 the offenders neglected to surrender after proclamation 
 made for that purpose : it is now punishable with seven 
 years' banishment. 
 
 OWL, THE. Among the ancients, generally was con- 
 sidered as an omen of misfortune or death. As, however, 
 according to Philostratus, the Egyptians represented Miner- 
 va under the form of an owl, the Athenians, so peculiarly 
 under the care of this goddess, looked upon the appearance 
 of this bird as a favourable omen. From this circumstance 
 It formed, upon ancient coins, the symbol of Athens and 
 her foreign possessions. 
 
 OX. Synonymous with the generic name Bos, which 
 see ; in a more restricted sense it signifies the castrated 
 male of the domestic variety. 
 
 OXALAMIDE. See Oxamide. 
 870 
 
 OXYGEN. 
 
 O'XALATES. Salts of the oxalic acid. 
 
 OXA'LIC ACID. A vegetable acid, first discovered In 
 the juice of the Ozalis acctosella ; it was afterwards as- 
 certained that the same acid might be produced artificially 
 by the action of the nitric acid upon sugar : this process 
 yields it in slender prismatic crystals, intensely sour, and 
 soluble in about ten parts of cold water. These crystals 
 consist of 1 atom of real acid and 3 of water : the equiva 
 lent of the acid is 36 ; and in its anhydrous state, as it exists 
 in the dry oxalates, it is constituted of 2 atoms of carbon 
 (6X2) = 12, and 3 of oxygen (8 X 3) = 24 : so that it may- 
 be represented by an atom of carbonic acid and one of car- 
 bonic oxide. Solutions of oxalic acid, or of soluble oxa- 
 lates, yield an insoluble precipitate in solutions containing 
 lime and its salts : hence its use in the laboratory as a test 
 of the presence of that earth. The solution of oxalate of 
 ammonia is generally used for the purpose. Oxalic acid is 
 a powerful poison, and, from its resemblance to Epsom salt, 
 it has sometimes been sold and mistaken for that harmless 
 aperient. In such cases, the best antidote is a mixture of 
 chalk and water, and where it is immediately administered 
 it generally prevents the accession of fatal symptoms ; il 
 forms an insoluble oxalate of lime, which is inert. 
 
 OXALLDA'CEyE. (Oxalis, one of the genera.) A nat- 
 ural order of herbaceous or shrubby Exogens, inhabiting the 
 hotter and temperate parts of the world. Their foliage i« 
 generally acid, and fit to supply the place of sorrel. Oxalis 
 acetosella contains pure oxalic acid, and many are used in 
 Brazil against malignant fevers. 
 
 O'XAMlDE. A white substance produced during the 
 destructive distillation of oxalate of ammonia : hence its 
 name, compounded of oxalis and ammonia. 1 1 is a compound 
 of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, in such propor- 
 tions as to form oxalate of ammonia by the addition of one 
 atom of water. (See Dumas, Theoric des Amides, Cliim 
 Jipp. aux Jlrts, v. 84.) 
 
 OX'GANG (Germ, ochs, an ox, and gang, a walk), in 
 English Antiquities, was used to signify as much land as a 
 single ox could ear or plough in a season. The oxgang was 
 contracted ir expanded according to the quality of the land ; 
 forty acres constitutiiig the ;-. atttfwm and six the nunimunt 
 of the measure. 
 
 OXIDATION or OXIDIZEMEXT. The act of combi 
 nation with oxygen. 
 
 O'XIDE. (Gr. oF,uf, acid, and £i<5oj, form.) Compounds 
 containing oxygen, hut which are not acid, have been term- 
 ed oxides. The metallic oxides are a most important class 
 of bodies. To designate the different oxides of one base we 
 generally use the first syllable of the Greek ordinal numer- 
 als, designating the first, second, third, &.C., oxides by the 
 terms protoxide, deutoxide, tritoxide, &c. ; and when the 
 base is saturated with oxygen (still not acid) it is termed a 
 peroxide,. Compounds of bases with one atom and a half 
 oxygen, or of two base and three oxygen, are now general 
 ly distinguished by the term sesquioxid.es. 
 
 O'XYGEN. (Gr. o^uc, and ytivntiv, to generate.) This 
 important clement was discovered in 1774, by Dr. Priestley. 
 It has been termed dephlogisticated air, vital air, and empy- 
 real air. As it forms a component part of many of the 
 acids, it was termed, at the framing of the new nomencla- 
 ture, oxygen gas. There are several compounds of oxygen 
 which, when exposed to heat, are decomposed, and yield 
 the gas in a state of purity: of these the best is chlorate of 
 potash ; but as that salt is expensive, we generally resort 
 to black oxide of manganese, which, at a dull-red heat, 
 gives out a considerable quantity of tolerably pure oxygen 
 gas. 
 
 Oxygen gas is colourless, tasteless, and inodorous ; it is 
 electro-negative, and therefore, when compounds containing 
 it are electrically decomposed, it always appears at the pos- 
 itive surface. It is a little heavier than atmospheric air, in 
 the proportion, that is, of 11 to 10 ; 100 cubical inches 
 weighing 34'6 grains. It is not absorbed by water, and is 
 neither acid nor alkaline. It has a powerful attraction for 
 most of the simple substances, especially for the electro- 
 positive bodies : the act of combining with it is called oxida- 
 tion. The compounds thus formed are divided into acid* 
 and oxides : among the latter are the alkalis, and almost all 
 salifiable bases. Oxidation is often attended with the ev- 
 olution of heat and light, as in all processes of combustion 
 in atmospheric air : sometimes it is slow, and unattended 
 with such phenomena, as in the gradual rusting of metals. 
 Oxygen is a most powerful supporter of combustion ; it con- 
 stitutes one fifth of the bulk of the atmosphere, and is the 
 principle which enables combustible bodies to hum in it. 
 The product of combustion, that is, the oxide or acid, is 
 sometimes itself gaseous, as when charcoal, by burning, is 
 converted into carbonic acid; or it is liquid, as hydrogen, by 
 combustion, produces water; or it is solid, as when iron, hy 
 burning, produces oxide of iron. Oxygen gas is also essen- 
 tial to respiration ; that is, to the evolution of carbonic acid 
 from the blood. 
 
OXYGONE. 
 
 OXY'GONE. (Gr. o?us, and yuvia, angle.) In Geom- 
 etry, a term applied to figures in which all the angle* are 
 acute. 
 
 OXYHY'DROGEX BLOWPIPE. When a mixture of 
 one volume of oxygen and two of hydrogen are burned 
 while laming from a small aperture, they produce-in/Blfse 
 heat; and instruments under the above name have been 
 contrived for their sale combustion, so as to avoid the risk 
 of explosion. 
 
 t>'.\ Y.MEL. (Gr. o\vs, and pt\i, honey). A mixture of 
 honey and vinegar. It is sometimes made the vehicle of 
 medicines, as oxymel of squills, &c. 
 
 OXYMCBIATE OF LIME. The valuable bleaching 
 compound obtained by exposing slaked quicklime to the ac- 
 tion of chlorine is commonly so termed; it is, however, a 
 chloride of lime. 
 
 O'XYMI IU.VTIC ACID. This name was originally 
 applied to chlorine, under the idea that it constated of ant- 
 acid and oxygen. The fallacy of that opinion was 
 first demonstrated by Davy, who showed that, in all the ap- 
 parent cases of the evolution of oxygen from chlorine, its 
 source was referable to the presence of water or of an ox- 
 ide. Chlorine possesses a Stronger attraction for bases 
 than oxygen ; so that, when metallic oxides are exposed to 
 don, the chlorine combines with the metal to form a 
 chloride (formerly called a muriate), and the oxygen is 
 evolved. 
 
 OXYO'PIA. (Gr. o£u$, and u4,the eye.) Preternatural- 
 ly acute 
 
 OXYU'RES, Oxyuri. (Gr. olvs, and ovpa, a tail.) The 
 of a family of puprvorOUS llvmcnoplerans, compre- 
 hending those which have a sort of tail, or terminal ap- 
 pendage, produced by an external ovipositor or borer. A 
 of intestinal wormi (Celelmlntnansj is also called 
 On '. r 
 
 OYER. From the Norman French oyer, to hear.) In 
 Law, when an action is brought on a bond or other spe- 
 cialty the defendant, previously to pleading in lur. may 
 crave oyer of the Instrument on which the action is 
 brought; that is, to have it read to him; which prayer in- 
 cludes that of a copy also. Whenever otTer of a deed is 
 party relying on it (by what is 
 terme.i the other party may crnvc oyer. 
 
 Oyer, N not, in trictness, demandable of a record, or of an 
 act of I 
 
 OYER \M> TERMINER. (Fr. to hear and determine.) 
 In Law, a Commission directed to the judges, and other 
 
 gentlemen of the courts to which it Is issued, by virtue of 
 wliii h they have power, as the terms Imply, to hear and de- 
 ■ 
 
 OYF.7. (Pliir. Imperative of the some verb.) " Hear 
 ye." The cry of ushers In Norman courts of justice, met- 
 amorphosed Into the English "O 3 
 \.\IT1'. See OI8A.RITX. 
 
 OYSTER. (Lat. oetrea, an mister.) This name i 
 erally understood to signify the species of Ostracean bivalve 
 called • . which is one of a numerous genus, 
 
 characterized by an Inequivalve shell, composed of two ir- 
 regular laniellated valves, of which the convex or under 
 ilieres t.i rocks, piles, or to the shell of another indi- 
 vidual. The animal is unprovided with either a liyssus or 
 a foot ; it is the best flavoured of its class, and has, con- 
 sequently, been always much esteemed. Vast beds of oys- 
 ' iallv formed, and attended to with great care, 
 at the estuary of the Thames and many other localities, 
 where the temperature of the water is somewhat raised by 
 a mixture of salt and fresh water, in which they best thrive. 
 Certain restrictions and regulations are enforced in refer- 
 ence to the sale of oysters in the metropolis, in order to fa- 
 vour the multiplication and rearing of this valuable bivalve. 
 They are permitted to be sold from August to May, the 
 close months being May, June, and July. They cast their 
 spat or spawn In May, when they are said to be sick; but 
 begin to recover in June and July, and in August they are 
 perfectly well. Oysters differ in quality, according to the 
 different nature of the soil or bed. The best British oys- 
 re found at Purficet; the worstnear Liverpool. The 
 nursing and feeding of oysters is almost exclusively carried 
 on at Colchester, and other places in Essex. The oysters 
 are brought from the coast of Hampshire, Dorset, and oth- 
 er maritime counties, even as far as Scotland, and laid on 
 beds or layings in creeks along the shore, where they 
 grow, in two or three years, to a considerable size, and 
 nave their flavour improved. There are said to be about 
 200 vessels, from 12 to 40 or 50 tons burden, immediately 
 employed in dredging for oysters, having from 400 to 500 
 men and hoys attached to them. The quantity of oysters 
 bred and taken in Essex, and consumed mostly in London, 
 is supposed to amount to 14.000 or 15,000 bushels a year. 
 8upp. to Hum. lirit., art. " Fisheries.") Oysters formed a 
 great luxury among the Romans, and, as in France, were 
 served at the commencement of a repast. The largest atui 
 
 PACKET. 
 
 best of Italy were caught on the shores of the Lucnne . 
 but the Romans used to send vessels even to the coast of 
 Britain in quest of this luxury, the British oysters being 
 then, as now, in the highest estimation. 
 
 o/.-K'NA. (Gr. ost<i, / smell.) An ulcer in the nose, 
 which discharges a foetid purulent matter, and is some- 
 times symptomatic of caries of the bones. 
 
 P. A consonant of the labial series. As was to be ex- 
 pected from the approximation of this letter in sound to 
 b, it is susceptible of interchange with the latter in nearly 
 all the languages of which we have any knowledge, but 
 more especially in the German. Both in this country 
 and on the Continent there are whole districts in which 
 not only is the ear of the natives insensible to the differ- 
 ence between the sound of the letters, but, with a tenden- 
 cy to error of which it would be vain to investigate the 
 cause, they are almost invariably confounded in pronuncia- 
 tion. Of this peculiarity several counties of Wales among 
 ourselves, anil the whole of Lower Saxony in Germany, 
 present noted examples. For the most usual abbreviations 
 of this letter, see Aurkeviation. 
 
 P. In Music, an abbreviation of the Italian word piano, 
 soft, denoting that the force of the voice or instrument is to 
 be diminished. I'.P. means pin piano, or more sort; and 
 P. P. P. pianissimo, as soft as possible. 
 
 PACE. (Fr. pas.) A denomination of linear measure, 
 of uncertain extent; assumed by some to be 5 feet, by oth 
 ers 4"4. It is the quantity supposed to be measured by the 
 foot from the place where it Is taken up 10 that where it is 
 set down. The ancient Roman [Mice, considered as the 
 thousandth part of a mile, was five Unman feet, and each 
 foot contained between 11 00 and 1101 modern English 
 inches; hence the pace was about 58"1 English incites, and 
 the Roman mile, the millepassus, equal to 1014 yards. Sec 
 Mu.k. 
 
 PA'CTTA, 'Pronounc ' m .hePer- 
 
 sian pacu shah, foot oftte shah.) A till, of honour, given, 
 in the origin or the Turkish empire, to the ministers and 
 chief assistants of the sultan, whether military or learned. 
 (See Von Hamcr's History of the Turkish Empire, vol. I., 
 p. 137.) In process of time attributed particularly to the 
 governors of provinces, styled pacha'iks. The well-known 
 distinction of ranks between the two classes of pachas con- 
 sists in the number of horse tails which are carried before 
 them as standards, the higher having three and the lowet 
 two. There were until recently 25 pnchaliks, subdivided 
 into sangiacates, besides various indej)endent jurisdictions 
 scattered over the empire. 
 
 PA'CHACA'MAC. The name given by the idolaters of 
 Peru to the being whom they worshipped as the creator of 
 the universe ; this divinity was held in the highest venera 
 tion. In the fruitful valley of Pachacama 'whence the 
 name) the incas dedicated to his honour a temple of such 
 splendour and wealth, that notwithstanding the rapacity of 
 the Spanish soldiers, by whom it was plundered previously 
 to the arrival of Pi/.arro, that general is said to have drawn 
 from it treasures to the amount of 900,000 ducats. The 
 ruins of this temple which still remain, furnish a high no 
 tion of its former magnificence. 
 
 PA'CHYDE'RMATA. (Gr. ira%vi, thick, and hpfia, 
 skin.) An order of quadrupeds, including the elephant, 
 horse, pig, &c, distinguished by the thickness of their hides. 
 
 PACHYGLOSSATKS, Varhyglossi. (Gr. iravvs, anc 
 yXuo-ffa, a tongue.) The name of a family of parrots 
 (Psiltacini), comprehending those which have a thick pro- 
 tractile tongue. 
 
 PACHYO'TES, Pachyoti. (Gr. x-axuc, and ovc, an ear.) 
 The name of a family of bats (Cheiroptera), including those 
 which have thick external ears. 
 
 PACI'FIC. The name given by Magalhaens, the first 
 European who traversed it, to the ocean which extends 
 between America on the east and Asia and Australia on 
 the west, in consequence of his enjoying fair weather on 
 entering it, after having previously experienced a track of 
 bad weather and tempestuous gales in the straits which 
 bear his name. The Pacific is the greatest expanse of wa 
 ter on the globe. 
 
 PACIFICA'TIOX, EDICTS OF. The term usually ap 
 plied to the edicts issued by the French monarchs in favour 
 of their Protestant subjects, in the view of allaying the 
 commotions occasioned by their previous persecutions. The 
 first edict of this nature was promulgated by Charles IX. 
 in 1562; but the most celebrated was the edict of Nantes 
 (which see), issued by Henry IV. in 1598, and revoked by 
 Louis XIV. in 1685. 
 
 PA'CKET, in Navigation, meant originally a vessel ap 
 pointed by government to carry the mails between the 
 
PACKFONG. 
 
 moiner country and foreign countries or her own dependen- 
 cies. It is now used as nearly synonymous with an ordi- 
 nary vessel, chiefly of small burden, that freights goods or 
 passengers. 
 
 PA'CKFONG. The Chinese name of the alloy of nick- 
 el and copper commonly called German silver. It is an al- 
 loy of 7 parts of zinc, 2'5 copper, and 6-5 nickel. 
 
 PACK/HORSE. A horse employed to carry goods on its 
 back in bundles, called packages or packs. In countries 
 not yet Intersected by regular roads this is the only mode 
 of transiiorting goods from one part to another. In Britain, 
 horses were formerly employed for this purpose, but for 
 these, carts and wagons are now substituted. In Spain, 
 mules and asses are still so employed, and in Asia and Afri- 
 ca, camels and dromedaries. 
 
 PA'COS. The Peruvian name of an earthy-looking ore, 
 which consists of brown oxide of iron, with imperceptible 
 particles of native silver disseminated through it. (See 
 Ure's Dictionary of Arts, <$-c.) 
 
 PA'DDING, in Calico-printing, is the impregnation of the 
 cloth with a mordant. 
 
 PA'DDLE. A kind of oar used by savage nations in nav- 
 igating their canoes. The paddle is broader at the end than 
 the common oar; and being employed at the stern of the 
 canoe, not only impels her forwards, but regulates her course 
 exactlv like a rudder. See Sculling. 
 
 PADDLES. See Steam Navigation. 
 
 PA'DDOCK. This term was formerly applied to a strip 
 of ground in a park, paled round, for hounds to run matches 
 in; but at present it is chiefly used to denote a small en- 
 closure under pasture, immediately adjoining the stables of 
 a domain, for turning in a sick horse, a mare and foal, or 
 any similar purpose. 
 
 PADI'SHA. (From pad, protector or throne, and shah, 
 prince.) A title of the Turkish sultan and Persian shah. 
 Formerly the Turkish emperor conferred this title upon the 
 kings of France alone among the European sovereigns, but 
 we believe that the honour is now likewise shared by the 
 emperors of Austria and Russia. See Pacha. 
 
 PA'DUAN COINS. In the Fine Arts, coins forged by 
 the celebrated Paduans, Cavino and Bassiano ; who were 
 also the artists employed on the pope's medals, from Julius 
 [II. to Gregory XIII. (1571). These coins hold the first rank 
 in imitations of ancient medals for their masterly execution. 
 M. Beauvais says of them, "that they are seldom thinner 
 than ihe ancient coins themselves; that they seldom appear 
 as worn or damaged, while others very frequently do, espe- 
 cially in the reverse, which sometimes, ns in many Othos, 
 appear half consumed by time; and while (he observes) 
 counterfeit medals are very commonly of as irregular a form 
 ;'s the real, those of the Paduan masters are generally cir- 
 cular." Slill more modern forgers, who were without the 
 talents which these Paduans possessed to engrave dies, have 
 been content to mould them from their productions; but 
 these are cast coins, which it requires no very extraordinary 
 knowledge to detect. The marks of the file upon their edges 
 are mostly a sure sign of the imposition; those, however, 
 who collect these objects of art should be constantly on their 
 guard. 
 
 PiE'AN. (Gr. Tlaidv.) Among the Greeks, properly a 
 hymn in honour of Apollo, who was also called Pa;an. Also 
 a war song before or after battle: in the first case in honour 
 of Mars, in the second as a thanksgiving to Apollo. 
 
 P.*:an. In Ancient Poetry, a foot consisting of four sylla- 
 bles, of which there are four kinds; the Pa;an primus, se- 
 cundus, &c. See Foot. 
 
 PjE'DOBA'PTISTS. (Gr. rraic, a child, and Paim^u, I 
 baptize.) Those who hold that baptism should be admin- 
 istered during infancy. The great majority of Christian 
 churches which allow the baptism of infants are thus de- 
 nominated from that circumstance, and are thereby distin- 
 guished from the Antipa:dobaptists, i. «., those who deny the 
 validity of infant baptism. See Baptists. 
 
 PA'GAN (Lat. paganus; from pagus, a village), among 
 the Romans, was, as the term imports, applied to all who 
 lived in villages, in contradistinction to the inhabitants of 
 cities. In its present signification it is the opposite of Chris- 
 tian, being synonymous with heathen, gentile, and idolater; 
 and was originally so applied because the inhabitants of 
 villages continued to adhere to their idolatrous practices 
 after Christianity had been introduced into towns and cities. 
 The precise period when the term pagan was first used 
 in its present acceptation has not been ascertained. See 
 Heathen. 
 
 PAGANA'LIA. (Lat.) Festivals held in each Roman 
 pillage in honour of the local tutelary divinities. They were 
 Instituted by Servius Tullius, who commanded every in- 
 habitant of each pagus, or village, to assemble annually on 
 a certain day, and oner public sacrifices. In instituting these 
 festivals Servius had both a political and religious object in 
 View; for, as every inhabitant was compelled to bring a 
 <mall coin, varying with the age and sex of the bearer, he 
 872 
 
 PAGANISM. 
 
 was annually acquainted with the strength of each district, 
 and consequently with that of the kingdom. 
 
 PA'GANISM. A general appellation for the religions 
 worship of the whole human race, except of that portion 
 which has embraced Christianity, JiuUeism, or Mohamme- 
 danism. Under the head Polytheism, we have given a 
 brief outline of the different kinds of pagan worship, and we 
 shall in this place confine our remarks to the origin of the 
 system. 
 
 That in the most ancient times one God, sole, eternal, in 
 divisible, the creator of the universe, was acknowledged arid 
 worshipped, has been proved by the most profound investi- 
 gators of antiquity. The existence of this belief may not 
 only be traced in the tradition of all people, but is expressly 
 affirmed by some of the greatest philosophers of the heathen 
 world. Nothing, indeed, could exceed the contempt with 
 which some of them regarded the gods of the vulgar, though 
 fear of danger or some other cause often taught them to con- 
 ceal the sentiment. 
 
 The causes of idolatry were manifold, and were mostly 
 of oriental growth. A great king regarded it as below his 
 dignity to enter into the minute details of administration : he 
 placed vicars or ministers over provinces and cities, over the 
 great departments of national polity. If the onerous charge 
 was inapplicable to an earthly, it was still more so to the 
 celestial Sovereign : hence the subordinate deities which 
 we perceive in the religious systems of all nations — the pre- 
 siding genii of the Chaldieans, the numerous gods of Greece 
 and Rome. The worship due to the Supreme alone was 
 soon transferred to those imaginary entities, which, from 
 functionaries, were transferred into so many independent 
 chiefs, until the simple primeval notion of the divine unity 
 was lost. The other causes of idolatry are foreign to our 
 purpose: the one already assigned, which is indisputably 
 the most ancient and the most obvious, is of itself sufficient 
 to account for the fact. 
 
 In its origin paganism, as a system, was simple. A few 
 great divinities were placed in heaven to guide the affairs of 
 the visible and invisible worlds. By degrees each great 
 planet, each law of nature, each region and city, nay each 
 river, fountain, wood, tree, mineral, had its tutelary divinity. 
 The laws of nature were often inexplicable; what more ob- 
 vious than to infer that each was subject to a superior pow- 
 er? As the ideas of men became more precise and refined, 
 gods were placed over human faculties and passions: thus 
 the understanding and the will, love and revenge, were the 
 offspring of certain deities. Mere abstractions were similar- 
 ly personified ; until the empire of reason, of sentiment, and 
 of morals, was as much pervaded as earth, air, and ocean 
 with these visionary beings. But might not men themselves 
 attain to that mysterious dignity ? might they not become at 
 least a sort of demigods — a distinction earned by some un- 
 common merit? In all countries we find instances of deifi- 
 cation. Nor need this surprise. The human mind is na- 
 turally prone to exaggeration — the human heart to be led 
 astray by the intensity of its own feelings. Thus he who 
 during life, proved himself a benefactor to his countrymen, 
 who taught them useful arts, or freed them from some im- 
 pending evil, would be regarded with affectionate admira- 
 tion by his contemporaries ; and time, which so constantly 
 increases every object, would convert a great exploit, a 
 shining virtue, into a divine effort. But it not unfrequently 
 happened that men were often deified for brute strength, un- 
 accompanied by those elevated mental qualities which form 
 the noblest distinction of the hero. It may, however, be ob- 
 served, that in such cases men were always reverenced for 
 the quality most wanted in a state. If a district were infest- 
 ed by wild beasts, or by predatory savages, a Hercules arose 
 to free it. If a country required laws, a Minos established 
 them. If the culture of the grape was unknown, a Bacchus 
 appeared to teach it. Such benefactors, it was believed, de- 
 served, as they certainly obtained, the peculiar favour of 
 heaven — rewards which far transcended those bestowed on 
 other men. In most cases, however, each was held to be a 
 divinity, or at least the offspring of one. As the generation 
 of the gods was a received tenet, and their union with mor- 
 tals of constant occurrence, imagination had little difficulty 
 in the filiation of a benefactor. Most nations were eager to 
 proclaim a god as their founder ; and when one laid claim 
 to the honour, the example was speedily followed by others 
 with equal appearance of justice. Hence the prodig'ous 
 number of divinities; heaven and hell, the earth and the 
 planets, air and ocean, the whole frame of nature, every 
 part of the universe, visible and invisible, even the realms 
 of imagination, being pervaded by their. ; and hence idolatry 
 became a complicated system, endless in its forms of wo* ' 
 as in its objects. 
 
 It has indeed been contended that even in the most unen 
 lightened times, men — except, perhaps, the grossest in com- 
 prehension — were never so absurd as to receive this almost 
 infinite plurality of deities; that each derived its name from 
 its being a distinct manifestation of the divine energy ; that 
 
PAGE. 
 
 *.hc Neptune of the sea, the Apollo of the sun, the Minerva 
 of the understanding, the Jove of the thunder, were mere 
 denominations, founded on the distinct modes in which the 
 Supreme manifests himself to the world : in short, that those 
 denominations were but so many imaginative terms for the 
 emanations of the all-pervading Deity ; and that under each 
 distinct emanation this deity might be worshipped without 
 the charge of idolatry. But this hypothesis is too refined to 
 be just, and is contrary to experience. The known progress 
 of the human mind is from sensual to ideal, not from the 
 ideal to the sensual; philosophy is the end, not the begin- 
 ning of knowledge. If that great patriarchal truth, the uni- 
 ty ni the Godhead, was obscured by successive ages of ig- 
 norance, it could be regained only by an opposite and equal- 
 ly laborious process of the intellect; and even when thus 
 recovered, it could not be communicated without danger to 
 the multitude. (Cab. Cyc. ; Arts, be, of the Greeks and 
 liumavs, vol. ii.) Sec Monotheism. 
 
 PAGE. (Modern Latin pagius, of uncertain derivation ; 
 according to some, from pagus, village.) In high life, a 
 youth attached to the service of a royal or noble pane 
 Iu the ancient Persian court (which has been not ill termed 
 the archetype of all courts), we find the usage of employing 
 a number of youths of the noblest families of the empire in 
 personal attendance OH the sovereign. Among the reeks 
 and Romans (to whom monarchical institutions, strictly so 
 called, were unknown), no analogous custom appears to have 
 prevailed. Among the northern nations, on the other hand, 
 thit son was common. The name pages, 
 however, appears confined to slaves and attendants of an in- 
 ferior description, in modern Europe, until the reigns of 
 Charles VI. and VII. of France. (Fauchct's Origine des 
 Cheoaliers.) As chivalric institutions prevailed. Hie office, 
 by whatever name called, became of imparlance; courts 
 and castles were the schools in which the young noble pass- 
 ed through the degree of |wge, in order to reach the farther 
 of etqake and knight, when he became " bore de 
 page." In the Ititli century the chivalrous character had 
 become much adulterated; but the custom of bringing up 
 sons as pages at courts continued until the disorder and 
 licence ol the age rendered the service so dangerous that it 
 [bt by the better classes as a mode of edu- 
 ! for their children. Pages then became, as they are 
 now, mere relics of feudal custom: from some courts (the 
 n, for instance) they have entirely disappeared ; and 
 the young noblemen of the cadet school perform the office 
 of pagt ■ on solemn occasion*), (See Butrte Palaye, .i/< 
 
 tfrie; .Mem. dr I'.-Jc. dis fnscr., vol. xx.) 
 Paoi:. In Printing, one side of the leaf of a book. A folio 
 volume con in every sheet; a ipiarto 8, an oc- 
 
 tavo It;, n duodecimo 24, and an octodecimo (18mo.) 36 pages. 
 \ NT, in It) genera] sense, a public representation 
 or exhibition of a showy and splendid character. It was a 
 very early custom in the middle ages, both in England and 
 on the Continent, to celebrate festive decisions of a public 
 nature, as royal visits, marriages, Ilc.. by some ornamental 
 show m the public streets of cities. During the period of 
 Chivalry these shows began to be exhibited with the addi- 
 tion of masked figures, representing allegorical personages, 
 with appropriate scehery ; and as, in process of time, speeches 
 in verse or prose were put into the mouths of these figures, 
 ami -urn. inn, ;i kind of dramatic entertainment jierformed 
 beuveen them, the pageant consequently holds a place in 
 our early literature. The earliest speaking pageant of which 
 
 we have any account W8J presented on the triumphal entry 
 of Henry VI. into London, in 143); and the poetical part of 
 it is conjectured to have qeen supplied by Lydgate. The 
 reign of Henry VIII. was fertile in pageants of an extraor- 
 dinary magnificence and splendour; but in that of queen 
 Elizabeth they assumed a different form, and were both de- 
 vised and enacted, with much more elegance : partly from 
 the tincture of romantic gallantry which distinguished the 
 court of tiie maiden queen, and was perceptible in all the 
 homage rendered to her by her subjects, and partly from the 
 sudden Jcvelopement oC the poetical genius of the nation. 
 The pageants gradually became more dramatic, and thus 
 approximated more nearly to the more elegant character of 
 the mosque (see Masque), which, under her successor, be- 
 came the fashionable court entertainment. Pageants, how- 
 ever, were still presented by the city of London, which re- 
 tained a |K>et Inureat of its own for the purpose of inditing 
 the spokei part of them, down to the year 1700, or there- 
 abouts, and the lord mayor's procession still retains some 
 char.ii n ri>tics of these ancient entertainments. The deriva- 
 tion of this word is wholly unknown, and has afforded much 
 sco|>e to the fancy of etymologists. 
 
 I' A GINA. (I/at.) In Botany, the surface of a leaf. 
 
 PAGCDA. (Pers. poutghad, a houseofan idol.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, the East Indian name for a temple containing an 
 idol. Sometimes it signifies the idol itself. The pagoda is 
 generally of three subdivisions. First, an apartment whose 
 ceiling is a dome resting on columns of stone or marble; this 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 part is open to all persons. Second, an apartment forbidden 
 to all but Brahmins. Third and last, the cell which contains 
 the statue of the deity, enclosed with a massy gate. 
 
 Pagoda, is also the name of a gold coin, value from ij. to 
 9s. current in several parts of India. It is also the naB e of 
 a silver coin of the same value, on which are stamped im- 
 ages of the Hindoo gods. 
 
 PA'GODITE. A species of steatite or serpentine, which 
 the Chinese carve into figures. 
 
 PAGU'RIANS, PagurioUe. (Lat. pagurus, hermit-crabs ) 
 The name of a tribe of Macrurous Decapod Crustaceans, of 
 which the genus Pagurus is the type. Most of the species 
 of this family inhabit, purasittcaily, the deserted shells of 
 univalves. 
 
 PAl'NIM. A poetical expression used by English writers 
 for pagan. 
 
 PAINS AND PENALTIES, BILL OF. A species of 
 process employed to inflict punishment on state offenders 
 out of the ordinary course of justice. Every bill brought 
 into parliament for thepurpose of inflicting such punishment 
 is a bill of pains and penalties, of which bills of attainder 
 (see Attainder) are, properly speaking, a species; but the 
 term is more commonly confined to bills introduced to In- 
 flict specified penalties for particular acts. The latest in- 
 stance of this extraordinary proceeding was the bill of point 
 and penalties against Queen Caroline (1820), introduced into 
 the House of Lords, and passed by them, but which was not 
 carried into the Commons, 
 
 I' A I NTLlt. In Naval language, a rope used to fasten a 
 boat either alongside of the ship to which it belongs, or to 
 some wharf, quay, &.c, as occasion requires. 
 
 l'Ai'NTKHS'" colic. The peculiar disease, which 
 usually terminates in palsy and mental Imbecility, to which 
 painters and others subject to lead poisons are subject. It is 
 also called colic of Poitou and Devonshire colic; the minora 
 employed in lead-works being also liable to its attacks. See 
 Colic. 
 
 PAINTING (Fr. peinture, Lat. pictura), sttictly defined, 
 is an art which, by means of lines and colours, represents on 
 a plane surface all objects presented to the eye or to the im- 
 agination. The etymology of the word (ypaiptu , used to ex- 
 press painting among the Greeks, being the same as that 
 employed for writing, mullll to identity the tools with which 
 it was performed among thai people: viz., a style or pen of 
 wood, used on a levigated plane of wood, metal, or some 
 other prepared ground ; the mode, letters or lines. Until its 
 operations became founded on the faithful representations 
 of visible objects of nature, undlsfigured by mannerism and 
 modification from the fashion and habits of a country, such, 
 for instance, as we meet with in the Indian, Egyptian, and 
 Chinese representations of the human form, it is scarcely 
 entitled to the appellation of art; hence we shall, in this 
 article, dismiss, with very few remarks, its appearance in 
 those countries where traces of it in that condition are to be 
 found, reserving the principal part of this article for that de- 
 velopment, simplicity of end, and uniformity of pursuits, 
 which enabled the Greeks, the great arbiters of form, to 
 carry It to n degree of excellence which no subsequent age 
 or nation has been able to reach, or even rival. 
 
 It seems probable that drawing and recorded language 
 were coeval in invention. In Greek we have mentioned 
 that the same word (ypaQtiv) expressed the act of perform- 
 ing one as well as the other. Goguet, in his Origine des 
 I. oil. says that the first essay of the art of writing, using the 
 expression in its most general sense, was by means of the 
 representation of corporeal objects. Its invention would 
 thus be carried back to a period almost as remote as that 
 of the existence itself of the human race. The earliest peo- 
 ple, he says, naturally used this method for exhibiting theii 
 thoughts, and commenced by representing to the eye the ob 
 jects they wished to impress on the mind. The origin, hoxv- 
 ever, of painting, properly so called, involved as it is in the 
 greatest obscurity, presents one of the most difficult ques- 
 tions in the history of the arts ; and opinions are very much 
 divided as to the country that gave birth to it. Some au- 
 thors have assigned its invention to a period antecedent to 
 the siege of Troy. (Plin., 1. vii.) Others, to one long after. 
 (Plin., 1. xxxv.) Pliny says, that the Egyptians boasted of 
 being acquainted with the art six thousand years before the 
 Grecians; but his words are, "Affirmant, vana predica- 
 tione, ut palum est." Profane no less than sacred history 
 rejects such a chimnsra. But, though such a period of an 
 tiquity be fabulous, it is quite certain that painting was much 
 used by them at a very early period. It is argued by Gog-iet 
 that, as much as it was in his power, Cambyses destroyed 
 the monuments of art he found in Egypt. Hence may be 
 considered as posterior to his invasion such of the monu- 
 ments as display specimens of the art. The epoch whereof 
 we are speaking is 525 B.C. This, however, is an argument 
 far from satisfactory, where all is conjecture. The sped 
 mens of Egyptian paintings now extant exhibit a collection 
 of representations of human and other figures which indi 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 eate extremely slender advances in the art. They are all 
 rudely and falsely drawn : no notion of grouping, as we un- 
 derstand it, nor sentiment, appears in any of their produc- 
 tions. As the Phoenicians were an early cultivated people, 
 and have the credit of the invention of letters, they may, 
 perhaps, have a claim to the invention equal to that of any 
 other nation. In the time of Solomon, 992 B.C., they were 
 bo well skilled in the arts that that king employed them in 
 building the temple. The Scriptures record the magnificence 
 and splendour of their buildings, abounding with decorated 
 apartments and sculptured ornaments ; and we know, from 
 the coins of the Phoenicians that have reached us, that in 
 the design and execution of their coinage they were not far 
 behind the Greeks. 
 
 "Thou, also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it be- 
 fore thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem/' 
 are the words with which the fourth chapter of Ezekiel 
 commences; the words in the Septuagint being Siaypdif/cig 
 sir' aiiTiiv irohv rrjv 'Upovaa\^n. This is about 590 B.C., and 
 would tend to show that the art was practised by the Jews 
 so early as that period. The commandment, "Thou shalt 
 not make to thyself any graven image," which some sects, 
 even in the present day, construe into a prohibition against 
 all art, was merely a prohibition of the worship of idols; for 
 we find Moses himself, by the command of God, employing 
 sculpture for the sanctuary. The employment of art of this 
 nature is found, also, in many other passages of Scripture, 
 which will doubtless occur to the reader. 
 
 The Persians, the Arabians, and the Parlhians, from the 
 peculiar opinions they entertained, could have no claims 
 either to the origin or improvement of the art of painting. 
 With them the representation of the human figure in a state 
 of nudity was considered almost as indecorous as the ap- 
 pearance before them of a naked man himself. Their fig- 
 ures are clothed almost invariably with drapery, falling in 
 clumsy folds profusely plaited. Worshippers of fire, they 
 used no representations of the Deity ; and it is curious that, 
 in their successful invasion of Egypt, they imbibed no taste 
 for the arts and religion of tlrat polytheistic country — not 
 that they '>' ' perl) '.ps, \r< the former, much to acquire. 
 
 The art of painting in China, if we may judge at it from 
 the time it first became known in this country, has remain- 
 ed the same time immemorial. It has never exceeded the 
 bounds of imitation, and even in that respect it is devoid of 
 taste and truth. The human figure with the Chinese is a 
 distorted misrepresentation, and their perspective is attained 
 by piling one object on the top of another till the picture is 
 all earth and no sky. Invention and imagination were nev- 
 er known among them ; and though in many respects inge- 
 nious in manipulation, their dexterity is exhausted in paint- 
 ing the fins of a fish, or the petals of a plant. In such a 
 country it would be vain to look for the origin or progress 
 of the art. 
 
 Etruscan art is known to almost every person by the 
 vases that bear that name. In the article Architecture 
 we have touched upon the perfection, at a remote period of 
 time, of the arts of Etruria; a country which, in its ancient 
 state, was the most powerful and civilized in Italy. Diodo- 
 rus speaks of the rich and powerful cities in their territo- 
 ries, and of the uncontrolled sway which their fleets exer- 
 cised on the seas encircling the peninsula. Though the 
 history of this nation is involved in obscurity, though the 
 Romans strove to remove all the memorials of their ancient 
 fame, sufficient information has reached us to demonstrate 
 the height of perfection to which they carried the fine arts. 
 About twelve miles from the town of Civita Vecchia stood 
 the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinia, near which are 
 found a considerable number of sepulchral grottos, whereof 
 some are decorated with paintings and figures much in the 
 style of those on the Etruscan vases. These antiquities 
 have been published, with a detailed description and plates, 
 by the late Mr. Byres. Some of the pictures represent com- 
 bats, and in others the subjects are dances of females, all 
 executed with considerable spirit. The pottery, however, 
 which we have above noticed, appears to afford the greatest 
 number of their specimens of the arts of design: the forms 
 displayed in the contours of the vases, no less than the paint- 
 ings with which they are decorated, evince a wonderful at- 
 tainment of elegance in design, purity of form, and ingenui- 
 ty in its delineation. The power over line, and the facility 
 of execution they reached, may be easily conceived from the 
 absorbent nature of the material upon which they wrought. 
 No retouching was possible ; but the whole must have been 
 completely arranged in the mind before it could be struck 
 off" by the artist. Pliny states that, in his day, the town of 
 Ardea, an ancient city of Etruria, contains some paintings 
 which he ascribes to a period anterior to the foundation of 
 Rome, and mentions with surprise their then perfect state of 
 preservation. At Lacuvium, also, he describes some pic- 
 tures of Atalanta and Helen, which were simply painted on 
 the wall, and exhibited great merit in execution These 
 Caligula, after a fruitless attempt, failed in removing. Cere, 
 874 
 
 another Etruscan city, boasted some paintings of an early 
 date. All these specimens are doubtless of a remote epoch , 
 but attempts to fix it with precision would not be likely to 
 bring us to the exact or even proximate period of their exe- 
 cution. The history of painting, however, can only be told 
 under the head of Grecian art, to which we shall now pro- 
 ceed, premising that in our account we shall use most freely 
 the Lectures on Painting of the late Henry Fuseli, professor 
 of painting of the Royal Academy, who, whatever may be 
 thought of his pictures, was an enthusiastic lover of his art, 
 a scholar, and a critic of the highest order. 
 
 The vocabulary of the technical expressions, nature, beau 
 ty, grace, taste, copy, imitation, genius, and talent, is ex 
 plained as follows: By nature is meant the general and per 
 manent principles of visible objects, neither disfigured by 
 accident nor distempered by disease, neither modified by 
 fashion nor local habits. Beauty is that harmonious whole 
 of the human frame, that unison of parts to one end, which 
 enchants us. It is the result of the standard set by the great 
 masters of the art, the ancients, and confirmed by modern 
 imitation. Grace is an artless balance of motion and re- 
 pose, springing from character, founded on propriety, and 
 neither falling short of the demands nor overleaping the 
 modesty of nature. Applied to execution, it is that dexter- 
 ous power which hides the means by which it is attained. 
 By taste is meant not crudely the knowledge of what is 
 right in art, but an estimation of the degrees of excellence 
 by comparison, proceeding from justice to refinement. Copy, 
 though generally confounded with imitation, is essentially 
 different in operation and meaning. Precision of eye and 
 obedience of hand are the requisites of the former, without 
 pretence to choice or selection ; whereas choice, directed by 
 judgment or taste, is the essence of imitation. " Of genius 
 I shall speak with reserve," says the professor; "for no 
 word has been more indiscriminately confounded :" by ge- 
 nius is meant the power which enlarges the circle of human 
 knowledge, which discovers new materials of nature, or 
 combines the known with novelty ; whilst talent arranges, 
 cultivates, and polishes the discoveries of genius. 
 
 Religion was the motive of Greek art ; it was therefore 
 natural that they should endeavour to invest, tueir own au- 
 thors, for they considered themselves of divine origin, with 
 the most perfect form; and as man possessed that exclu- 
 sively, they completely and intellectually studied his ele- 
 ments and constitution. The climate that was favourable 
 to the development of that form, the establishment of exer- 
 cises by their civil and political institutions, created models 
 in nature which raised Greek art to the highest excellence. 
 
 Skiagrams, or simple shaded outlines, similar to those 
 known under the name of silhouettes, were the first essays 
 of the art. They had no addition of character or feature 
 but what the profile of the object thus delineated could af- 
 ford. "Greek art had her infancy; but the Graces rocked 
 the cradle, and Love taught iier to speak. If ever legend 
 deserved our belief, the amorous tale of the Corinthian 
 maid, who traced the shade of her departing lover by the 
 secret lamp, appeals to our sympathy to grant it." 
 
 The next step of the art was the monogram, which is the 
 outline of figures without light or shade, with the addition, 
 however, of parts within the outline. From this to the mo- 
 nochrom, or painting of a single colour on a tablet primed 
 with white, then covered with what was called punic wax, 
 first amalgamated with a resinous pigment, generall/of a 
 red, sometimes of a dark brown or black colour, was the 
 next advance. Through this inky ground the outlines were 
 traced with a firm though pliant style, called a cestrum : 
 the line could be altered with the finger or a sponge, and 
 easily replaced by a fresh one. When the whole was set- 
 tled it was suffered to dry, and covered with a brown en 
 caustic varnish ; the lights were worked over again, and 
 rendered more brilliant with a more delicate point, accord 
 ing to the gradual advance from mere outlines to some indi 
 cation, and at last to masses of light and shade: thence to 
 the superinduction of different colours, or the invention of 
 the polychrom, which, by the addition of the pencil to the 
 style, raised the stained drawing to a legitimate picture, and 
 at length produced that vaunted harmony, the magic scale 
 of Grecian colour. If these conjectures be founded in fact, 
 the supposed momentaneous productions on the Etruscan 
 vases, which we have above noticed, would be no longer 
 matter of astonishmnt; and, indeed, it appears much more 
 likely that such should have been the case, than that the 
 figures so drawn should have been "the magic produce of 
 a winged pencil," rather than "the result of gradual im- 
 provement by exquisitely finished monocliroms." 
 
 The period at which the pencil supplanted the cestrum 
 cannot be ascertained. Apollodorus, in the 93d Olympiad, 
 and Zeuxis, in the 94th, are said to have used it with free 
 dom and power; Parrhasius painted the battle of the La- 
 piths and Centaurs on the shield of the Minerva of Phidias, 
 to enable Mys to chase it ; but this was most probably a mo- 
 nochrom, designed with the cestrum for greater accuracy 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 1 1 was nearly a century after this tliat Apelles and Proto- 
 genes had a competition in drawing lines with the pencil, in 
 which delicacy and evanescent subtlety being the charac- 
 teristic, some notion of their mechanical skill may be form- 
 ed. Of the encaustic method used by the ancients no ac- 
 count can be given on which reliance may be placed. " The 
 mi >st probable account," says Fuseli, "is, that it bore some 
 resemblance to our oil painting; and that the name was 
 adopted to denote the use of tile materials Inflammable or 
 prepared by fire, the supposed durability of which, whether 
 applied hot or cold, authorized the terms iicKavac and 
 inussit." 
 
 Polygnotus is the first great name that appears on record 
 at a period when some satisfactory history of the art might 
 be commenced. He flourished about 400 years B.C. So 
 great was his success in the Piecile at Athens, and the 
 Lesche or public hall at Delphi, that, in a general council 
 of the Amphictyons, it was solemnly decreed that his ex- 
 I henever he travelled in G-eece, should be borne at 
 the public charge. From the description of his pictures by 
 Pnusrimas, it would seem that composition in painting, as 
 we now understand that term, was DO) at all understood, 
 inasmuch as that author begins his description at one end 
 of the picture and finishes at the opposite extremity, which 
 pretty plainly that there could be no central group 
 10 which the rest were subordinate. Aristotle says 
 that Polygnotus improved his model; and it would be un- 
 just to pronounce, considering the variety of powers by which 
 the pans of his pictures were distinguished, that the primi- 
 tive arrangement we have just mentioned arose from want 
 of comprehension in the artist. 
 
 After Aglaophon, Phidias, Pnnamus, Colotes and Evenor, 
 the father of Parrhaarus, came Apollodonis, the Athenian. 
 "'Plus painter applied the essential principles of Polygnotus 
 to the delineation of the species, by investigating the leading 
 forms that discriminate tin: various classes of human quali- 
 ties and passions. The nculeness of his taste led him to 
 discover that as all men were connected by one general 
 form, so they were separated each by some predominant 
 .1 bo . . ' them to a class." 
 Pliny and Plutarch considered Apollodonis as the first 
 COiourlst of his nee. It is probable from their descriptions 
 that he was the inventor of local colour and tone, which 
 received from the former the term splendour. Zeu\is suc- 
 ceeds! to Apollodonis, and, by uniting in one figure the 
 most perfect parts of many models, produced an ideal form. 
 which, in his opinion, eonstltated the supreme degree of 
 human beauty. Lucian describes a picture he exhibited 
 at the Olympic games as remarkable for its invention. It 
 was the representation of a female Onl'iur suckling her 
 young, and the account is to be found in the memoir in- 
 scribed with the name of Zeuxls. This artist used hut U;\v 
 colours; but he seems to have understood the extension 
 of light to masses, from the circumstance Of his painting 
 monochroms on a black ground, adding the lights in white. 
 "I'inxit et monochromat't ex albo," says Pliny. 
 
 Parrhasius. a native of Ephesus, but a citizen of Athens, 
 was the son and disciple of Evenor, and cotemporary of 
 7-euvis. By his subtle examination of outline, he 
 lished that standard of divine and heroic form which 
 raised him to the authority of a legislator from whose de- 
 cisions there was no appeal. That he was a thorough 
 master of allegory is evident from his embodying by signs, 
 Universally understood, the Athenian people (AHMOX), in 
 which he expressed at once its contradictory qualities. 
 "Perhaps," observes Fuseli, " he traced the jarring branch 
 es to their source, the aboriginal moral principle of the 
 Athenian character, which he made intuitive. This sup- 
 position alone can shed a dawn of possibility on what else 
 appears impossible." In his competition with Timanthes 
 the Cythnian, or, as some say. of Sicyon, he had the mor- 
 tification to have been declared by a majority of votes in- 
 ferior to him. The subject of the competition in which he 
 was thus defeated was the contest of Ajax and Ulysses for 
 the arms of Achilles. 
 
 No picture of antiquity has acquired so much celebrity 
 as the sacrifice of Iphigenia In Aulis by Timanthes. Quin- 
 tilian informs us that it was painted in contest with Colo- 
 tes of Tcos, an artist from the school of Phidias, and cfhwn- 
 ed with victory at its rival exhibition. This picture, which 
 has been the subject of the unlimited praise of critics of an- 
 tiquity, has, in modern times, been the subject of criticism, 
 from the circumstance of Timanthes hiding the face of the 
 fcther (Agamemnon) of the victim to be immolated in his 
 nantle, unable by his art to express the intensity and agony 
 of his grief. Upon this Sir Joshua Reynolds observes, in his 
 Eighth Discourse, "If difficulties overcome make a great 
 part of the merit of art, difficulties evaded can deserve but 
 little commendation." The French critic, Falconet, has 
 not been less unsparing than the president in his condem- 
 nation of the artifice. The answer of Fuseli to these crit- 
 ics appears to us satisfactory. He says, " The subject of 
 
 Timanthes was the immolation of Iphigenia. iphigenia 
 was the principal figure; and her form, her resignation, or 
 her anguish, was the painter's principal task: the figure of 
 Agamemnon, however important, is merely accessory, and 
 no more necessary to make the subject a completely tragic 
 one than that of Clytemnestra, the mother; no more than 
 that of Priam, to impress us with sympathy at the death 
 of Poly.xena." Again, "They ascribe to impotence what 
 was the forbearance of judgment. Timanthes felt like a 
 father; he did not hide the face of Agamemnon because it 
 was beyond the power of his art — not because it was be- 
 yond the possibility, but because it was beyond the dignity 
 of expression ; because the inspiring feature of paternal at 
 fection at that moment, and the action which of necessity 
 must have accompanied it, would either have destroyed 
 the grandeur of the character and the solemnity of the 
 scene, or subject the painter with the majority of his 
 judges to the imputation of insensibility." The same ex- 
 pedient to express grief was adopted by Michael Angela in 
 the figure of Ahijam, and by Raphael in the Expulsion 
 from Paradise, borrowed from Masaccio. These were the 
 artists who formed the second school of art, and establish- 
 ed its end and limits. On it was founded the third period 
 of style, in which refinement induced a grace and beauty 
 to forms not to be surpassed. The masters of this period 
 were Apelles, Protngcnes, Aristides, Euphranor, 1'ausias, 
 and the pupils of I'amphilus and his master Eupotnpue. 
 This last-named artist was of Sicyon; and his authority 
 was so great that out of the Asiatic and Grecian schools of 
 painting he formed a third, by dividing the last into the 
 Attic and the Sicyonian. When consulted by Eysippus 
 (.Pliny, 1. xxxv.) on a standard of imitation in art, he point 
 ed to the crowd (Kissing by; observing, that nature, not an 
 artist, should be the object of imitation. I'amphilus, a 
 Macedonian, the master of Apelles, and the most scientific 
 artist of his day, adopted the doctrines of EuiKimpus. To 
 the art of painting lie joined the study of mathematics, nnd 
 held the opinion that without the aid of geometry no painter 
 could ever arrive at ]ierfection. In Apelles of Cos, or, accord- 
 ing to Lucian, of Ephesus, we are told by Pliny unrivalled 
 excellence was found. Grace was his powerful and pecu- 
 liar faculty, in which, and in knowing where to stop, he 
 surpassed all that preceded him. and left not his equal in 
 the world. The story of the lines which were drawn by 
 himself and l'rotogeiics in competition with each other is 
 not a legendary tale, but ■ well-attested fact; into the na 
 
 tore of them, however, it would be now useless and una- 
 vailing to inquire. Aristides of Thebes, and cotcm|Kirary 
 of Apelles, was the first who, by the rules of art, attained 
 a perfect knowledge of expressing the passions and all'ec- 
 tions of the mind. The history we have of the picture 
 which Alexander, at the sacking of Thebes, sent to Pella, 
 proves his power of infusing the passions into his works 
 In it were expressed the anguish of maternal nllection and 
 the pangs of death. Euphranor. the Isthmian and pupil 
 of Aristides, Is laid to have carried still farther the refine 
 ments of that expression so powerful in the hands of bis 
 mister. Skilled in sculpture as well as painting, his con 
 ceptions were noble and elevated, his style masculine and 
 bold; and he was the first who distinguished himself by 
 imparting majesty to his heroes. 
 
 Asclepiodorus, the Athenian sculptor as well as painter, 
 was. as the latter, celebrated for the beauties of a correct 
 style and the truth of his proportions. Apelles nllowed 
 himself to be, in these respects, as much inferior to this ar- 
 tist, as he was to Ainphion in the good ordering and dispo- 
 sition of his figures. About this period appeared Nichoma- 
 cbus, Nicophanes, Pyreicus, and others. Nicias, an Athe- 
 nian, 322 B.C., was in great repute for the great variety and 
 noble choice of his subjects, for the mode of distributing his 
 lights and shadows, and for consummate skill in the repre- 
 sentation of quadrupeds, in Rome, about 301 B.C., Fnbius, 
 a noble Roman, painted the Temple of Health, and gloried 
 so much in the art that he assumed the surname of Pictor. 
 Without a farther enumeration of masters we may add, 
 that for a long period after the reigns of Vespasian and his 
 son Titus, painting as well as sculpture continued to flourish 
 in Italy. Even under their successors, Domitinn, Nerva, 
 and Trajan, they met with as much encouragement as in 
 the most palmy state of the arts in Greece. Under Adrian, 
 Antonine, Alexander Severus, Constantine, and Valentini- 
 an, the art of painting continued to be an object of interest ; 
 but at length, in the reign of Phocus, with the fall of the 
 empire, with the rest of the noble arts and sciences, it was 
 involved in the common heap of ruins. 
 
 Painting In Italy owe* the dawn of its restoration to the fee- 
 ble rays that emanated from the pencil of Giovanni Cimabue, • 
 who was nobly descended, and born at Florence in the middle 
 of the thirteenth century. He was the disciple of some in- 
 different painters, who had been brought from Greece by 
 the government of Florence : these he soon surpassed both 
 in drawing and colouring. Without the art of managing 
 
 875 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 his lights and shadows, and but slenderly acquainted with 
 the rules of perspective, he nevertheless laid so firm a 
 foundation for the future improvement of the art, as to en- 
 title him to the name of the father of the first age of modern 
 painting. His death took place in the year 1300 at Florence, 
 where, and at Pisa, some of his productions are still to be 
 seen. Giotto, his pupil, also a Florentine, was a more able 
 painter, than his master. He divested himself of the 
 shackles in which the system of the Greek art of that age 
 had bound his master, adding somewhat of grace to his 
 figures and nature to his colouring. Of a picture which he 
 painted in the Church D'Ogni Santi at Florence, represent- 
 ing the death of the Virgin with the Apostles about her, 
 Vaeari related thatM. Angelo da Buonaroti used to say that 
 the truth could not be nearer approached than in it, "Non 
 potere essere piii simile al vero di quello, ch' era." He was 
 the friend of Dante and Petrarch, and painted the portrait 
 of the former. On his decease, in 1336, the city of Florence 
 erected his statue in marble over his tomb 
 
 In the year 1410, thirty years before the invention of 
 printing by Gutemburg, John Van Eyck, born in the Low 
 Countries in 1370, is understood to have invented the art of 
 painting in oil, which he taught to Antonello of Messina, 
 who visited Flanders to become acquainted with the se- 
 cret; he it was who first practised and taught it in Italy. 
 The principal masters who flourished in this first period of 
 the resuscitation of the arts were Andrea Orgagna, so cele- 
 brated for his Loggia in the great square at Florence, Pie- 
 tro, Cavallino, Stefano, Bonamico, Buffalmacco, Pietro, 
 Laurati, Lippo, Spinello, Casentino, Pisano. &c. The art 
 did advance, though but slowly, gathering little strength 
 till the appearance of Masaccio. "Sculpture had already 
 produced respectable specimens of its reviving powers in 
 the bassi-relievi of Lorenzo Ghiberti, some works of Dona- 
 to, and the Christ of Phillippo Brunelleschi, when the first 
 symptoms of imitation appeared in the frescos of Tommaso 
 da San Giovanni, commonly called Masaccio, from the total 
 neglect of his appearance and person. Masaccio first con- 
 ceived that parts are to constitute a whole ; that compo- 
 sition ought to have a centre, expression truth, and execu- 
 tion unity : his line deserves attention, though his subjects 
 led him not to investigation of form ; and the shortness of 
 his life forbade his extending those elements which Ra- 
 phael, nearly a century afterwards, carried to perfection." 
 Masaccio, who was born in Tuscany in 1417, is considered 
 the father of the second or middle age of painting. His 
 death, caused, it is supposed, by poison, occurred in 1443. 
 Andrea Montcgna, born at Padua in 1431, was a disciple 
 of .lacopo Squarcione. Though correct in his drawing, 
 well versed in perspective, and apparently acquainted with 
 the antique, albeit the best antique statues had not then 
 come to light, his neglect of nature induced a crudeness of 
 taste and grotesqueness of fancy. He died in 1517, having 
 been the first who practised the art of engraving in Italy. 
 In this place we must not forget the master of so great a 
 man as Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Veroachio, a Floren- 
 tine, born in 1432. He was well skilled in geometry, op- 
 tics, music, architecture, sculpture, and painting; the last 
 whereof he is said to have abandoned, because, in a pic- 
 ture whereon he was engaged of the baptism of our Sa- 
 viour, his pupil, Leonardo, had, under his order, painted in 
 an angel, holding up some part of our Saviour's garment, so 
 far excelling Andrea's own figures that, enraged at being 
 outdone by a youth, he resolved never again to wield the 
 pencil. It was said lie was the first who preserved indi- 
 vidual likeness by moulding the face in plaster of Paris. 
 Leonardo da Vinci, of noble descent, and born about 1445 
 in a cagtle so named, near Florence, surpassed all his pre- 
 decessors. His powers seem to have been unlimited: he 
 was an admirable sculptor and architect, a skilful musician, 
 an excellent poet, expert in anatomy and chemistry, and 
 well versed in all parts of the mathematics. Rubens had 
 a very high opinion of his works, and especially of his Ce- 
 nacolo, in the refectory of the Dominicans at Milan, which 
 " he abandoned without finishing the head of Christ, ex- 
 hausted by a wild chase after models for the heads and 
 hands of the apostles : had he been able to conceive the 
 centre, the radii would have followed of course." He was 
 many years director of the academy of painting at Milan, 
 which city he much benefitted by his contrivance of the 
 canal that supplies it with water from the river Adda. 
 He had the honour of expiring in the arms of Francis I. — 
 an honour by which destiny atoned to that monarch for 
 his future disaster at Pavia, when he became a captive. 
 His death took place in 1520. The last master of this pe- 
 riod was Bartolomeo della Porta. Though not endowed 
 with the comprehension of Leonardo, he first gave grada- 
 tion to colour, form and masses to drajiery, and dignity to 
 execution. Fra Bartolomeo, as he was called, being a 
 member of a religious order, was a native of Savignano, a 
 village about ten miles from Florence, and was born in 
 1469. Nudities were scarcely ever represented by him, 
 876 
 
 though he was a perfec master of drawing the humar 
 figure. Fuseli says of him, " He was the true niastei of 
 Raphael, whom his tuition weaned from the meanness of 
 Pietro Perugino, and prepared for the mighty style of 
 Michael Angelo Buonaroti." Of this master, the greatest 
 beyond comparison that ever appeared, we cannot refrain 
 from again quoting the same author at considerable length, 
 to which, if necessary, might be added the testimony of 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose parting wish, when he took 
 leave of the Royal Academy, was, that the last words lie 
 might pronounce within its walls might be the name of this 
 wonder of mankind. "Sublimity of conception, grandeur 
 of form, and breadth of manner, are the elements of 
 Michael Angelo's style. By these principles, he selected 
 or rejected the objects of imitation. As painter, as sculp- 
 tor, as architect, he attempted, and, above any other man, 
 succeeded, to unite magnificence of plan, and endless va- 
 riety of subordinate parts, with the utmost simplicity and 
 breadth. His line is uniformly grand ; character and beau- 
 ty were admitted only as far as they could be made sub- 
 servient to grandeur. The child, the female, meanness, 
 deformity, were by him indiscriminately stamped with 
 grandeur. A beggar rose from his hand the patriarch of 
 poverty ; the hump of his dwarf is impressed with dignity ; 
 his women are moulds of generation; his infants teem 
 with the man ; his men arc a race of giants." Again, 
 "He is the inventor Of epic painting, in that sublime circle 
 of the Sistine Chapel, which exhibits the origin, the pro- 
 gress, and the final dispensations of theocracy." Michael 
 Angelo was of noble family, and born at Castel Caprese, 
 near Florence, in 1474. His master was Domenico Ghir- 
 landaio. He died in great wealth, at Rome, in 1504 ; from 
 thence his remains were removed to Florence, and there 
 honourably interred. His principal disciples were Marcello 
 Venusti, II Rosso, Giorgio Vasari, and Fra Bastiano. Ra 
 phael Sanzio d'Urbino was born on Good Friday in the 
 year 1483, and died on Good Friday in the year 1520. The 
 grace and mild genius of Raphael were, perhaps, much 
 more capable of exciting our sympathies than the burst of 
 inspiration which the works of the last-named master uni- 
 versally exhibited. As Michael Angelo was the father of 
 epic painting, so was Raphael that of dramatic painting. 
 " If, separately taken, the line of Raphael has been ex- 
 celled in corrections, elegance, and energy, his colour far 
 surpassed in tone, and truth, and harmony; his masses In 
 roundness, and his chiaro-oscum in effect: considered as 
 instruments of pathos, his picture* have never been equal- 
 led; and in composition, invention, expression, and the 
 power of telling a story, he has never been approached." 
 Giulio Romano was his greatest pupil. His conceptions 
 were more extraordinary, more profound, and more elevated 
 than even those of the master himself. His style was 
 drier and harder than any of Raphael's school, ami he u a-, 
 frequently harsh and ungraceful. He died at the age of 
 fifty-four, in the year 1546. 
 
 Giorgio del Castel Franco, called, because of his size and 
 beauty, Giorgione, and Tiziano Vecelli, combined to form the 
 alluring and fascinating charm of colour. Born in the Vene- 
 tian States, and in the same year, 1477, they laid the foun- 
 dation of the Venetian school. Of the latter, our professor 
 says, " he penetrated the essence and the general principle of 
 the substances before him, and on these established his the- 
 ory of colour. He invented that breadth of local tint which 
 no imitation has attained ; and first expressed the negative 
 nature of shade: his are the charms of glazing, and the 
 mystery of reflexes, by which he detached, rounded, con- 
 nected, or enriched his objects. His harmony is less indebted 
 to the force of light and shade, or the artifices of contrast, 
 than to a due balance of colour, equally remote from mono- 
 tony and spots. His backgrounds seem to be dictated by na- 
 ture. Landscape, whether it be considered as the transcript 
 of a spot, or the rich combination of congenial objects, or as 
 the scene of a phenomenon, dates its origin from him: he is 
 the father of portrait painting, of resemblance with form, 
 character with dignity, and costume with subordination." 
 Antonio La;ti, or Allegri, called Coneggio, from the place of 
 his birth, in the duchy of Modena, completed the charms of 
 colouring and chiaro-oscuro. Giulio Romano, when be saw 
 the Leda and Venus he had painted for Frederic duke of 
 Modena, declared he thought it impossible for colouring to 
 be carried farther. His chief works are at Modena and Par- 
 ma; at which last place he passed the greater portion of his 
 life, and died at the age of forty, in the year 1534. Though 
 the power of Correggio's colouring was great, still sweater 
 was that of his ohiaro-oscuro. "The bland central light of 
 a globe, imperceptibly gliding through lucid demi-tints into 
 rich reflected shades, composes the spell of Coneggio, and 
 affects us with the soft emotions of a delicious dream." The 
 merits of Raphael are pathos and character; the power of 
 Titian was his colour, and of Correggio his harmony. We 
 have not space to dwell on the lively genius of Pordinone, 
 who disputed the superiority of Titian, the meagre style of 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 Andrea Vannuchi, surnamed del Sarto, nor the extraordin- 
 ary vigOU and puerile imbecility of conception of Pellegrino 
 Tibaldi ; but we must not pass without notice tlie name of 
 Sebastiano del Piombo, a Venetian, who died at the age of 
 62, in 1547. His name, Del Piombo, is derived from an of- 
 fice be held in the management of the lead mines, given him 
 by pope Clement VII. For some time he practised the 
 science of music, to which he was bred ; but the fascina- 
 tions of painting drew him aside from his original pursuit, 
 and he became a disciple of old Gio-Balino, continued his 
 studies under Giorgione, and having attained considerable 
 'ion in colouring, went to Rome. Here he so ingra- 
 liated himself with Michael Angelo, by joining the party 
 against Raphael, that lie was assisted in his designs by that 
 mat matter, and especially in that wonderful picture, now 
 in the .National Gallery here, of the Raising of Lazarus, 
 which gained the universal applause of Rome, and was 
 even put on a par with the celebrated picture of the Trans- 
 figuration, by Raphael. Equally favoured by Michael An- 
 ns Daniel Ricciarelli of Volterra, in whose picture of 
 I and the Women, in the Descent from the Cross, as 
 well as in that of Sebastian's just mentioned, the master hand 
 that directed them is manifest. The depravation of the style 
 of Michael Angelo is sufficiently visible in the works of 
 i \ ':isari, lHirn at Arezzo in 1514, to whom the world 
 is more indebted for the labours of his pen, in the History of 
 the Lives of the most celebrated Painters, (sculptors, and 
 Architects, first published at Florence, in 1550, man those 
 of his pencil : him Fuseli describes as the most superficial 
 artist, and the most abandoned mannerist of his time. "He 
 overwhelmed the palaces of the Medici and of the popes, 
 the convents and churches of Italy, With a deluge of medio- 
 crity, commended by rapidity and shameless bra vara of band : 
 he alone did more work than all the arti-ts of Tuscany to 
 ■ether; and to him may be truly npplied, what he had the 
 insnleiin- to say of Tintoretto, that he turned the art into a 
 boy's toy." Felibien has taxed him with the flattery of the 
 s'of his time, and partiality to those of his own coun- 
 try ; but his work is, nevertheless, a valuable record of the 
 lives of men to whom the world is much beholden ; and 
 contains many interesting anecdotes, which, but for him, 
 would have been lost forever. His death happened in 1578. 
 Primaticcio, the scholar of Giulio Romano, made abbe of 
 St. Martin de Troyes by Francis the First, studied and 
 spread the style of his master in France, where he decorat- 
 ed the palaces of that king with mythology and allegory, in 
 which he was assisted by his pupil, Nicolo del 1'Abbate, an 
 excellent artist. Primaticcio continued in France from the 
 period of his first establishment there; lived In great pomp 
 and state, more like a nobleman than a painter, through four 
 several reigns, and died at the age of 80, in the year 1570. 
 After Polidoro da Caravaggio, whose abilities were waited 
 on the representations of Roman military basso-relievos, the 
 Roman school scarcely deserves notice till tli* appearance 
 of Nicolas Poussin of Andilly, a town in Normandy, who 
 was born in 1594. He was descended of a noble family of 
 Picardy ; but that his productions have shed a ray of lustre 
 on the family which no nobility of blood could have effect- 
 ed, his designation by the name of the French Raphael suf- 
 ficiently testifies. Nicolas was the disciple of Simon Yarin, 
 a French painter of mediocrity, and afterwards studied in 
 the academy of Domcnichino, nnd also in company with the 
 famous sculptor Francesco Fiammingo, who was born in the 
 lame year, and bred in the same house with him. After a stay 
 of more than 16 years in Rome, he was invited, by a letter un- 
 der the hand of Louis XIII. himself, to return to his native 
 country, where he was received with every honour, and de- 
 clared first painter to the king, and had a considerable pen- 
 sion conferred upon him. Upon the death of this king, and 
 that of the cardinal Richelieu, he returned to Italy, to settle 
 his affairs and return with his family; but on his arrival in 
 Rome, he entirely laid aside his intention of returning, and 
 ended his days in Rome, at the age of 71 years. "Such 
 was his attachment to the ancients, that it may be said he 
 imitated their spirit than copied their relics and painted 
 sculpture. The costume, the mythology, the rites of anti- 
 quity, were his element ; his scenery, his landscape, are pure 
 classic ground. His eye, though impressed with the tint, 
 and breadth, and imitation of Tiziano, seldom inspired him 
 to charm with colour; crudity and patches frequently de- 
 form his effects." The mantle of Correggio seemed to have 
 fallen on Partnegiano, though he possessed not the mode of 
 expressing that expanse of harmony which no other eye 
 than that of Correggio has conceived. Francesco Mazzuoli, 
 called from Parma, the place of his birth, Parmegiano, was 
 born in 1504, and died at the early age of thirty-six. "That 
 disengaged play of delicate forms, the 'Svcltezza' of the 
 Italians, is the prerogative of Parmegiano, though nearly 
 always obtained at the expense of proportion. His grandeur, 
 as conscious as his grace, sacrifices the motive to the mode, 
 simplicity to contrast. His St. John loses the fervour of the 
 apostle in the orator ; his Moses the dignity of the lawgiver 
 
 in the savage. With incredible force of chiaro-oscuro, ne 
 united bland effects and fascinating hues; but their frequent 
 ruins teach the important lesson, that the mixtures which 
 anticipate the beauties of time, are big with the seeds of 
 premature decay. 
 
 Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Lodovico Cai 
 acci, with his cousins Annibale and Agostino, founded a 
 school at Bologna, in which it was proposed to select the 
 beauties, correct the faults, supply the defects, and avoid the 
 extremes of the different styles, and so attempt to form a 
 perfect system. The recipe of ingredients for the formation 
 of a perfect painter are contained in a sonnet by Agostino, 
 well known to artists ; they are as follows:— Roman design, 
 Venetian motion and shade, Lombardy's dignified tone of 
 colour, the fierce style of Michael Angelo, Raphael's sym- 
 metry, Titian's truth to nature, and Cooefflo'a sovereign 
 purity : add to these the decorum and solidity of Tibaldi, the 
 learned invention of Primaticcio, and a little of Parmegiano'B 
 grace; or, to save all this trouble, imitate the works of our 
 dear Nicolo. This was empiricism unworthy of such men 
 as the Caracci, whose talents were splendid, and of a very 
 high order. Lodovico was ■• the sworn pupil of nature." 
 "Agostino, with a singular modesty, which prompted him 
 rather to propagate the fame of others by his graver, than hv 
 steady exertion to rely on his own power for perpetuity of 
 name, combined with some learning a cultivated taste, cor 
 rectness, though not elegance of form, and a < 'orreggiesque 
 colour." Annibal, whose taste was unequal to both of 
 these, though his power of execution was far superior, was 
 born at Bologna, in 1560, and was the disciple of his cousin 
 Lodovico. His great work was the I'arnese Palace, in 
 which, whilst we admire the vigour of the execution, we 
 cannot help lamenting the choice of" subject, which is "a 
 chaotic series of trite fable and bacchanalian revelry, with- 
 out allegory, void of illusion, merely to gratify the puerile 
 ostentation of dauntless execution and academic vigour." 
 Such was the veneration of Annibal Caracci for the genius 
 of Raphael, that his deathbed request was to l>e buried in 
 the same tomb with him, which request was complied 
 with, in the Pantheon at Rome, 1609. This eclectic Bolog 
 nese school did not last long; its scholars soon followed 
 each his own pecuHaf taste. Its principal eleves were 
 Schidone, Giiido, Lnnfrtinro, Albani. Zampieii called Do 
 menichino, and Francesco llarbieri, called Guercino. The 
 merits of these are summed up as follows, by the admirable 
 critic we have so often quoted in this article : — " Schidone, 
 whose mind was in his eye, embraced and often applied the 
 harmony and colour of Correggio ; whilst Lanfranco strove 
 without success to follow him through the expanse of his 
 creation and masses. Grace attracted Guido, but it was the 
 studied grace of theatres ; his female forms era abstracts of 
 antique beauty, attended by languishing attitudes, and ar- 
 rayed by voluptuous fashions. His male forms, transcripts 
 of models found in a genial climate, are sometimes charac- 
 teristic of dignified manhood, or apostolic fervour, some- 
 times stately, courteous, insipid." " ilis Aurora deterred 
 to precede a more majestic Sun. and Hours less clumsy." 
 His colour is occasionally bland and harmonious, some 
 times vigorous, and sometimes insipid. Albani formed Ne- 
 reids on plump Venetian models, and contrasted their 
 pearly hues with the rosy tints of Loves, the juicy brown 
 of fauns and satyrs of rich marine or sylvan scenery. Do- 
 menichino aimed at the beauty of the antique, the expres- 
 sion of Raphael, the vigour of Annibal Caracci, the colour 
 of Lodovico ; and, mixing something of each, fell short of 
 all ; whilst Guercino broke through all academic rules, sac- 
 rificing mind, form, and costume to effects of colour, fierce 
 ness of chiaro-oscuro, and intrepidity of hand. From this 
 period the art dctlined rapidly in Italy ; it was, indeed, held 
 up for a short period by the exertions of Nicolas Poussin, 
 of whom we have already spoken. Pietro da Cortona and 
 Luca Giordano possessed very considerable talents ; but 
 they were much abused in their exercise by the implicit 
 obedience to the tasteless commissions of their employers 
 Germany, though without much apparent intercourse at 
 the time with Italy, had profited by the progress of the 
 arts ; therefore, towards the end of the fifteenth century, 
 we find the works of Albert Durer had succeeded the rude 
 and uncouth productions of Schon, Wolgemuth, and Altor- 
 fer. Albert Durer was born at Nuremberg on Good Friday, 
 1471. Notwithstanding his style was crude and ungraceful, 
 his prints were esteemed throughout Italy, copied at Ve- 
 nice by the celebrated Marc Antonio, and so much admired 
 by even Raphael himself that he decorated his own cham- 
 ber with them, and often lamented that such a man had 
 been educated in a country where the want of models 
 and works of art must have so retarded his progress. 
 His principal works were painted at Prague, for the Em- 
 peror Maximilian I. He died in 1528. Fuseli says of him, 
 " Albert Durer was, in my opinion, a man of great ingenu- 
 ity, without being a genius. He studied, and as far as his 
 penetration reached, established certain proportions of the 
 
 877 
 
PAINTING. 
 
 human frame, but he did not invent a style : every work of i 
 his is a proof that he wanted the power of invention, of 
 concluding from what he saw to what he did not see ; that 
 he copied rather than selected the forms that surrounded 
 him, and, sans remorse, tacked deformity and meagreness 
 to fulness, and sometimes to beauty." Lucas of Leyden 
 was but a clumsy imitator of Albert. Aldegraver, Beheim, 
 and George Pentz, from the study of Raphael, known to 
 them through the medium of Marc Antonio's prints, and 
 from the styte of Michael Angelo, distilled through prints 
 from Tibaldi's pictures, seem to have made some advances 
 in the art. The knowledge, however, of its state in Italy, 
 nttracted hosts of German, Dutch, and Flemish students, 
 who, " though content to feed on the husks of Tuscan de- 
 sign, imbibed the colour of Venice, and spread the elements 
 of that excellence which distinguished the succeeding 
 schools of Flanders and of Holland." 
 
 Feter Paul Rubens, born in Cologne in 1578, and Rem- 
 brandt Van Rhyn, born near Leyden in 1600, by their extra- 
 ordinary powers showed that Italy was not the only spot 
 in which the art could take root, but that Flanders and Hol- 
 land afforded a soil in which it could flourish. The former 
 of these, bred at Antwerp under the instructions of Otho 
 Van Veen, had, previous to his journey to Italy, acquired 
 an unbounded power over the instruments of his art, and 
 on his arrival was the successful competitor for fame with 
 those masters whom he selected as objects of emulation. 
 Venice was the centre of attraction for him; and there, 
 from the splendour of Paulo Veronese, and the glow of Tin- 
 toretto, he compounded " that florid system of mannered 
 magnificence which is the element of his art, and the prin- 
 ciple of liia school." His scholars saw through the eye of 
 their master instead of seeing though that of nature ; but 
 from this censure must be excluded the illustrious name of 
 Vandyck, and that of Abraham Diepenbeck. Of the por- 
 traits of Vandyck no mention is here necessary to enhance 
 the esteem in which they are held. " The fancy of Diepen- 
 beck, though not so exuberant, excelled in sublimity the 
 imagination of Rubens ; his Betlerophon, Hippolitus, Ixion, 
 Sisyphus, fear no competitor among the productions of his 
 master." Rembrandt, except in what relates to form, was 
 a genius of the highest order. " In spite of the most por- 
 tentous deformity, and without considering the spell of his 
 chiaro-oscuro, such were his powers of nature, such the 
 grandeur, pathos, or simplicity of his composition, from the 
 most elevated or extensive arrangement to the meanest and 
 most homely, that the best cultivated eye, the purest sensi- 
 bility, and the most refined taste dwell on them equally en- 
 thralled. His followers, if such they deserve to be called, 
 were a race of "colourists, content to tip the cottage, the 
 hamlet, the boor, the ale-pot, the shambles, and the haze of 
 winter with orient hues or the glow of setting summer suns. 
 
 Switzerland rests its title to distinction on the names of 
 Hans Holbein and Francesco Mola; the former of Basil, 
 born in 1498, died in London at the age of 46 ; the latter, 
 the scholar of Giuseppe d'Artino and Francesco Albani, 
 was born at the village of Coldre in 1621, and died in Rome 
 in 1666. The Swiss school exhibited a style poised between 
 the emaciated dryness of Albert Durer and the bloated cor- 
 pulence of Goltzius. 
 
 The school of the Caracci seems to have taken its deepest 
 root in France, which, with few exceptions, has not pro- 
 duced artists greatly above mediocrity. The exceptions, 
 however, which are to be named are, Nicolas Poussin, who 
 has already been mentioned : to this must be added those 
 of Eustache Le Sueur, Charles Le Brun, Sebastian Bour- 
 don, and Pierre Mignard. " The Seven Works of Charity, 
 by S. Bourdon, teem with surprisingly pathetic and always 
 novel images ; and in the Plague of David, by Pierre Mignard, 
 our sympathy is roused by energies of terror and combina- 
 tions of woe which escaped Poussin and Raphael himself." 
 
 From what cause may be difficult to say, but the labours 
 of the Spanish school were confined almost within the nar- 
 row limits of individual imitation. The degree of perfection 
 in this respect was, indeed, great, though the means pursued 
 were very different ; and the works of Diego Velasquez, 
 Joseph Ribera, and Murillo, though never approaching the 
 great style of art, impress us with respect for their powers, 
 and deservedly received the homage of the Spanish nation. 
 
 In this country, Henry VIII. was the first monarch who 
 seems to have taken any interest in the art. He invited 
 Titian to England, and patronised Holbein and Torregiano. 
 But this patronage, very unlike that bestowed by Francis I. 
 on Andrea del Sarto, Primaticcio, Nicola, Cellini, and others, 
 was so restricted in the choice of subjects, that neither 
 Henry nor his daughter Elizabeth deserve our veneration 
 for the assistance they rendered to the arts of the country. 
 In the court of Henry's father a profligate Flemish painter, 
 of the name of Mabuse, had indeed been employed ; but it 
 is not known whether he came here at that king's solicita- 
 tion or driven by his own distresses. The pencil of Holbein 
 among its other employments, was of course employed to 
 
 portray the beauties of Henry's wives, or of those he in- 
 tended to make so ; sometimes, indeed, to obtain a just report 
 of the latter he was despatched to the Continent ; and in 
 the case of Anne of Cleves, through his faithless pencil 
 Cromwell, the minister, lost his head. It" painting was at 
 this period likely to have taken root and flourished here, 
 the Reformation, and the worse than absurd edicts passed 
 by Edward VI. and Elizabeth, forbidding statues and pic- 
 tures in churches, were nipping frosts that destroyed its 
 growth. Charles was the first real patron of the aits that 
 governed this country. By him was Rubens invited to the 
 country; but the unfortunate fate of the monarch inter- 
 cepted the progress that art then seemed likely to make. 
 "His son, in possession of the cartoons of Raphael, and 
 with the magnificence of Whitehall before his eyes, suffered 
 Verrio to contaminate the walls of his palaces, or degraded 
 Lely to paint the Cymons and Iphigenias of his court ; 
 whilst the manner of Kneller swept away completely what 
 yet might be left of taste under his successors." The state 
 of art continued extremely low in this country till the ap- 
 pearance of Reynolds. Walpole says, that in the commence- 
 ment of the reign of George I. the arts of England were 
 sunk almost to the lowest ebb. The names of Reynolds, 
 Hogarth, Gainsborough, and Wilson, in their time, entitled 
 this nation to some rank in the art ; though we have as yet 
 had no indication of that great style of art whose history 
 has occupied a considerable portion of the preceding pages. 
 The names we have mentioned have been succeeded by 
 others, and some now living, which have, perhaps, not only 
 prevented the accusation of a retrograde movement, but 
 have raised the art generally in the country higher than it 
 was ever known in a preceding period — yet much remains 
 to be done. The genius of" the nation seems bound up in 
 commerce and politics; total ignorance of the first principles 
 of art seems still to pervade those who only are capable of 
 affording patronage ; and many a collector, on whose walls 
 hang the most splendid specimens of the Roman and 
 Florentine schools, must, if he will speak the truth, admit 
 that his admiration of the tobacco pipes, pewter pots, and 
 vulgar boors of the Dutch school, a school of low ideas and 
 good painting, is more profound than of the sublime concep- 
 tions of Raphael and Michael Angelo. 
 
 Practice of Painting. — The nature of this work precludes 
 a very enlarged notice of the theory and practice of painting : 
 we shall, however, subjoin a few leading observations on 
 the subject. One of the principal requisites for its success 
 ful practice is anatomy. It is obvious that to represent sue 
 cessfully the human form, its construction in the skeleton, 
 and the tendons and muscles by which the bones of the 
 skeleton are connected and move, is knowledge that must 
 be acquired, inasmuch as they appear more or less th rough 
 the integuments with which they are covered. Without 
 this knowledge the living model becomes useless to him; 
 for that, after a very short period of standing, sinks into 
 languor, which an acquaintance with the origin and insertion 
 of muscles enables the painter to correct, and thus animate 
 the work. It was the constant observation of the youth in 
 their gymnastic games that enabled the Grecians so success- 
 fully to display and develop the muscular system in their 
 sculpture ; these afforded models of the most perfect nature. 
 Comparative anatomy is another of the requisites to be ac- 
 quired by the artist ; since the painting of animals must 
 necessarily involve a want of the same information as is 
 requisite for the human figure. Symmetry, which results 
 from the relative proportion of the parts to each other, fol- 
 lows from the knowledge of anatomy. It is by the knowl- 
 edge of this that the length of a finger may be made to 
 measure the height of a figure. Without the most thorough 
 acquaintance of the rules of perspective, no objects can be 
 placed properly in a picture. Some have said that though 
 it is a science of the first importance to a painter, yet he is 
 not to be too strictly confined to its rules, but to endeavour 
 to render them subservient to his own purposes. We con- 
 fess that such is not our opinion ; nor can we conceive how 
 any violation of truth, which any infraction of the rules of 
 perspective would be, can be made agreeable in a picture. 
 The rules, too, of perspective are so simple, and their piac- 
 tice so easily acquired, that no excuse can be admitted for 
 the neglect of so indispensable an accomplishment. The 
 science of optics is so far necessary as to enable the artist to 
 determine how the reflexes against the sides of surfaces in 
 shade would affect the intensity of them. This is called 
 chiaro-oscuro. The determination of shadows, and the 
 direction in which they would fall, depends upon the science 
 of optics combined with that of perspective. As perfect 
 form is produced by leaving out peculiarities, and retaining 
 only general ideas, so this principle, extended in the other 
 branches of the art, gives what is called the grand style to 
 invention, to composition, to expression, and even to colour- 
 ing nnd drnpery. Invention in painting is not the same as 
 in poetry, inasmuch as that the subject is supplied by lh« 
 poet or historian. The subject should be general, and kept 
 
PAIRING. 
 
 Irce from all that might tend to embarrass or divide the at- 
 tention of the spectator. " Whenever," observes Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, in his Fourth Discourse, "a story is related, every 
 man forms a picture in his mind of the action and expression 
 of the persons employed. The power of representing this 
 mental picture on canvass is what we call invention in a 
 painter ; and us in the conception of this ideal picture the 
 mind does not enter into the minute particularities of the 
 dress, furniture, or scene of action, so, when the painter 
 comes to represent it, he contrives those little necessary 
 concomitant circumstances in such a manner that they shall 
 strike the spectator no more than they did himself in his 
 first conception of the story." The painter may deviate 
 from strict historical truth in pursuing the grandeur of his 
 design, such being but poetical licence. " A painter of por- 
 traits retains the individual likeness; a painter of history 
 shows the man by showing his actions. He has but one 
 sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit." Expression, 
 whicli in painting signifies the representation of the emotions 
 and passions of the mind, must, like invention, not descend 
 to peculiarities. Thus Bernini, in representing David casting 
 the stone from his Mine, mistook accident for generality 
 when he made him bite his under lip. Colouring, also, has 
 its laws, and in this the same general principle must be at- 
 tended to. " All trifling or artful play of little lights, or an 
 attention to a variety of tints, is to be avoided ; a quietness 
 and simplicity must reign over the whole work, to which n 
 breadth of uniform and simple colour will very much con- 
 tribute. Gr.uideur of etfect is produced by two different 
 ways, which seem entirely opposed to each other. One is 
 by reducing the colours to little more than chiaro-oscuro, 
 which was often the practice of the Bologncse schools; and 
 the other by making the colours very di-tinct and forcible, 
 such as we see in those of Koine and Florence ; but still 
 the prodding principle of both those manners is simplicity." 
 Drapery, again, is managed by the same general laws: 
 minute attention to the minor details of drapery injure the 
 genera! etfect ; the folds should communicate easily, and be 
 so cast as to have the appearance of accident; they must 
 also be so contrived as to give the greatest ellect to the figure. 
 Artifice is as much as possible to be avoided. 
 
 Annihal Caned considered twelve figures sufiicient for 
 any story ; more than that, he thought, could only be em- 
 ployed to fill up space, or, as he expressed himself, they 
 would be figures to be let. 
 
 Mating is divided into twelve branches, which their 
 names sufficiently explain ; viz. history, which comprises 
 mystery and allegory ; grotesque, such as the celebrated 
 Loggia at the Vatican : portrait, fancy, animals, fruits and 
 flowers, battle pieces, landscape, sea views ; still life, which 
 comprises all inanimate objects, but is chiefly applied to 
 DOMiehold furniture, and instruments and architecture. 
 
 PAI'RING. In Parliamentary language, that practice by 
 which two members of the House ot Commons, of opposite 
 political opinions, agree to absent themselves from divisions 
 of the house during a stated period. See Parliament. 
 
 PA'LACE. (Lat. palatium, whose etymology is not pre- 
 cisely ascertained.) In Architecture, a word generally used 
 to denote the residence of kings and princes. On the Conti- 
 nent, however, the term is used with a much more extended 
 signification: and even in this country the residences of 
 bishops, anil of some noblemen, are so called. 
 
 PA'LACE COURT. A court of justice erected by 
 Charles I., and made a court of record, with power to try 
 personal actions between party and party within a liberty 
 extending to the distance of twelve miles round Whitehall. 
 The judges are, the steward of the king's household and 
 knight-marshal for the time being, and the steward of the 
 court or his deputy. 
 
 PA'LADIN. In the Romances of the Middle Ages, a 
 term derived from the Roman Palatums (from palatium, o 
 palace), having its origin in the customs of the Byzantine 
 court, by which the officers of the palace (palatini, comites 
 palatii) were regarded as the highest dignitaries of the coun- 
 try ; hence palasln, or paladin, in the early French romances, 
 for a lord or chieftain ; and the name was thence appro- 
 priated by the Italian romantic poets to the heroes of their 
 legends, the warriors of Charlemagne. 
 
 PALAiO'GRAPHY. (Gr. ira'Aaio?, ancient, and YpdQw, 
 I write.) The science or art of deciphering ancient inscrip- 
 tions, including the knowledge 6f the various characters 
 used at different periods by the writers and sculptors of 
 different nations and languages, their usual abbreviations, 
 initio* s, tec. The science termed diplomatics is, in effect, a 
 branch of palaeography. (See Diplomatics.) Among many 
 other modern authorities on this subject, the reader may be 
 referred to Mr. Ottley's remarkable paper in the Archieologia, 
 Tol. xxvi., on an ancient MS. of Aratus ; Champollion, 
 Trax.t d'Jircheologie ; the publications of the Ecole des 
 Charles, under the directions of M. Champollion, at the 
 Hoyal Library at Paris ; Kopp, Bilder und Schriften der 
 'until, 1819; Paleeo-Critica, 1817 The most valuable 
 
 PALE, WITHIN THE. 
 
 compilation of palceographical knowledge is to be found in 
 the Traite de Diplomatique of the Benedictines of St. Maur, 
 6 vols., 4to, 1748. See also Alatfei, J.itoria Diplomatica, 
 1727 ; Trombelli, Arte di Conosccre C Eta de' Codici, 1778. 
 But, as Mr. Ottley truly observes, " nothing is more fallacious 
 than the idea of being able to determine the ages of ancient 
 inscriptions from the particular forms of their characters ; 
 and it is mere folly upon such grounds to attempt to build 
 anv solid argument." 
 
 PALEONTOLOGY. (Gr. ™Aa<0{ ; ov, being; Xoyo;, 
 a discourse.) The branch of zoological science whicli 
 treats of fossil organic remains. 
 
 PALA20THKKll\M. (Gr. iraXatbs, and Snpiov, beast.) 
 The name of a genus of extinct Pachyderms. It was 
 characterized by having twenty -eight complex molar teeth, 
 four canines, and twelve incisors, four in each jaw. Cuvier 
 concludes that the paloeothcres, like the tapirs, had also a 
 short fleshy proboscis. Their remains characterize the 
 gypsum quarries belonging to the eocene tertiary formaUoai 
 near l'aris. They have also been found in the corresponding 
 strata of the Isle of Wight. About twelve species of this 
 extinct genus are already known. 
 
 PALAESTRA. (Gr. nuXatcTpu.) Properly, a wrestling 
 place or school (ir«X>;, wrestling) ; and hence the place 
 where public games of strength were performed, and, by 
 metaphor, such games llir-mselvi m l.-ttiriium paluslnr, 
 Horace;. In Architecture, the palti-slrn was a part of the 
 gymnasium (see I'ausan., vi. SQ, '2, and 2:1. 4), especially 
 appropriated to the athletes. The art of wrestling was 
 termed pahestrice (TTaXaiarpiKn). 
 
 PALAN'UIT.V A sort of chair or chaise used by the 
 Chinese, and In most parts nf the Bast, as a vehicle of con- 
 veyance from one place to another. They are furnished 
 with cushions and curtains; many of them are lilted up in 
 the most costly style, and are usually borne by eight men, 
 who relieve each other at intervals. 
 
 PA'LATALS. (Lat. palatum, the palate.) The letters 
 d, g, soft and hard.j, k, I, n, mid o. are so called, from the 
 organ chiefly employed in their pronunciation. 
 
 PA'LATE. (Lat. palatum.) In Anatomy, the roof of 
 the mouth. That part which is formed by the lower por- 
 tions of the superior maxillary and palatine hones is called 
 the "hard palate;" that which is due to the extension of 
 membranous and muscular substance unsupported by bone 
 is termed the "soft palate." In Zoology, the modifications 
 of the bony palate, and the "palatal ridges," and other 
 inequalities of the soft parts, are of use in the discrimination 
 of the species of Mammalia. 
 
 Palate, in a flower, is the convex base of the lower lip 
 of a personate corolla. 
 
 PALA'TLN'ATE. The name formerly given to two 
 states of Germany, which were designated, by way of dis- 
 tinction, the Upper and Lower Palatinate, and, though not 
 contiguous, were under the control of the same sovereign 
 till KJ20. At that period they underwent great changes, 
 which it would be out of place hereto indicate; but since 
 the wars of the first French revolution, which contributed 
 more than any event on record to unsettle the ancient land- 
 marks, they have been divided among different German 
 sovereigns, and their very name has disappeared from the 
 maps of Germany. The word Palatinate is of feudal origin, 
 and signifies, in a more restricted sense, the province or 
 seigniory of a palatine ; t. e., of n high dignitary during the 
 middle ages, who originally held office in the court of the 
 sovereign, and was designated the comes palatii, but who 
 afterwards obtained the privilege of exercising the same 
 power, rank, and jurisdiction, within his own province or 
 district, as the comes palatii exercised in the palace. 
 
 PALATINE, COUNTY. See County. 
 
 PALATO-PHARYNGEUS. A muscle which arises at 
 the root of the uvula and soft palate, and is inserted into 
 the upper and back part of the thyroid cartilage ; it draws 
 the uvula and soft palate downwards and backwards, and 
 pulls the thyroid cartilage and pharynx upwards. 
 
 PALE. (Lat. palus, a stake.) In Heraldry, the first and 
 simplest kind of ordinary. It is bounded by two vertical 
 lines, at equal distances from the sides of the escutcheon, 
 of which it encloses one third. It seldom contains more 
 th%i three charges. The pallet, when borne by itself, is 
 one half of the pale ; but sometimes as many as three pal- 
 lets are borne together. A coat bisected by a vertical line, 
 with a different field on each side of it, is said to be party 
 (or divided) per pale. The pale is a very ancient and hon- 
 ourable bearing. 
 
 PALE, WITHIN THE. An expression well known in 
 Irish history, applied to that portion of Ireland to which for 
 some centuries after its invasion by the English, under 
 Henry II. in 1172, the dominion of the latter was confined. 
 The limits of the pale seldom extended beyond the modern 
 province of Lcinster, and were frequently much less 
 considerable. (Statistier \f the British Empire, vol. 1, p. 
 429.) 
 
 8TP 
 
PALEiE. 
 
 PA'LEiE. (Lat. palea, chaff.) A name given to the 
 bracts that are stationed upon the receptacle ol Composita? 
 between the florets, and having generally a membranous 
 texture and no colour; also the interior bracts of the 
 flowers of grasses. 
 
 PA'LES. The Italian goddess presiding over cattle, 
 who was worshipped with great solemnity. Her festivals, 
 called Palilia, were celebrated on the 21st of April, the 
 day upon which, according to tradition, the foundations of 
 Rome were laid by Romulus — the dies natalis urbis Roma; 
 —as a great rustic holiday. On this day the shepherds 
 purified their flocks by making them pass round a great tire 
 made of laurel, pine, and olive branches, sprinkled with 
 sulphur. An offering of wine, milk, and millet was then 
 placed on the altar of the goddess, who was entreated to 
 bless the earth and the flocks with fecundity, and to avert 
 injury from them both. The term palilia is frequently 
 written parilia in the ancient MSS. ; but no doubt can be 
 entertained as to the correctness of the former. 
 
 PALE'TTE. (Fr.) In Painting, the light board held 
 by a painter while at work, on which the colours are ar- 
 ranged in their various tints. 
 
 PA'LFREY. A word seldom used, except in novels 
 and romances to signify a small or gentle horse, such as is 
 fit for a lady's use. It is also used by the old poetical 
 writers for a horse used by kings or noblemen, or on state 
 occasions. 
 
 PALI'CI. In Grecian Mythology, twin divinities, wor- 
 shipped in Sicily, and especially in the neighbourhood of 
 Etna ; sons, according to some, of Jupiter and Thalia, the 
 daughter of Vulcan ; according to others, of Vulcan and 
 .(Etna, daughter of Ocean. Their heads appear on coins 
 of Catania. Their name is said to be derived from return- 
 ing (ttoXiv 'iKzodai) out of the earth, under which their 
 mother had borne them. (JEschyl. JEtna, apud Macrob. 
 Saturn, v. J 9.) Their celebrated Sicilian temple is men- 
 tioned by Virgil : — 
 
 Pinguis ubi et placabilis ara Palici. — JEn., ix., 5S3. 
 
 PALI'LLOGY, or PALILOGY. (Gr. va\iv, again, and 
 tayu>, / speak.) In Rhetoric, the repetition of a word, or 
 fragment of a sentence, for the sake of greater energy : also, 
 epanalepsis and epizeuxis. Thus, Cicero (pro Gee., ix., 24), 
 "Ferro, inquit, ferro, te rejeci;" "The living, the living, 
 shall praise thee" (Psalms). A peculiar species of palilogy, 
 also called deuterologia, or anadiplosis, is where the last 
 word of a verse, or of a paragraph in prose, is repeated at 
 the beginning of the next : 
 
 Supervenit ^Egle— 
 ^gle naiadum pulcherriina.— Virg. Eclog., vi., 20. 
 
 The innocent sleep — 
 Sleep that knits up the ravell'd brow of care.— Macleth. 
 
 PA'LIMPSEST. (Gr. ittikiv, again, and uVaw, / rub or 
 efface.) The name given to a sort of parchment, from which 
 whatever was written thereon might be erased, so as to ad- 
 mit of its being written on anew. The term means literally 
 twice-rubbed (membrana iterum abrasa, charta deletilis), not 
 as the glossary of Ducange would seem to denote, because 
 the parchment had twice undergone erasure, or the writing 
 been twice obliterated ; but because it had been twice pre- 
 pared for writing, which was principally effected by rubbing 
 it with pumice, first in the course of manufacture after the 
 skin had been cured, and again by the same process after 
 the original writing had been taken away by washing or in 
 any other manner. The strict and precise sense of palimp- 
 sest is, therefore, " twice prepared for writing ;" the repeti- 
 tion of such preparation being the prevailing idea in the 
 etymology, and not erasure, as some have erroneously sup- 
 posed. The great antiquity of the practice of making pa- 
 limpsests may be gathered from an extract from a letter from 
 Cicero to Ttebatius : " Ut ad epistolas tuas redeam, catera 
 belle, &c. ; nam quod in palimpsesto, laudo equidem parsi- 
 mohiam ; sed mirror quid in ilia chartula fuerit, quod delere 
 malueris quam hax non scribere; nisi forte tuas formulas. 
 Non enim puto te meas epistolas delere, ut reponas tuas. 
 An hoc significas, nihil fieri ? Frigere te 1 Ne chartam 
 quidem tibi suppeditare 1" (Oic. ad Fam., 1. 7, c. 18.) But 
 while there can be no doubt as to the antiquity of this prac- 
 tice, the attention of the learned was first directed to we 
 subject in modern times by Montfaucon, in a curious essay 
 entitled Dissertation sur la Plante appellee Papyrus, &c, 
 which appeared in the Mem. de VAcad. Fran., vol. vi., and 
 in which the origin of the Palimpsest MSS. is briefly and 
 plainly described in the following words : 
 
 " Cela (le papier bombycin) vint fort a propos dans tin 
 temps, oil il paroit qu'il y avoit grande disette de parche- 
 min ; ce qui nous a fait perdre plusieurs anciens auteurs : 
 voicy comment. Depuis le 12e siecle, les Grecs, plongez 
 dans 1'ignorance, s'aviserent de racier les ecritures des an- 
 Jiens MSS. en parchemin, et d'en iter, autant qu'ils pouvoi- 
 ent, toutcs les traces, pour y ecrire des livres d'Eglise : ce 
 fut ainsi qu'au grand prejudice de la republique des lettres, 
 880 
 
 PALLADIUM. 
 
 les Polyhes, les Dions, les Diodores de Sicile, et d'autres 
 auteurs que nous n'avons plus, furent metamorphosez en 
 Triodions, en Pentecostaires, en Ilomelies, et en d'autres 
 livres d'Eglise. Apres une exacte recherche, je puis assu- 
 rer que des livres ecrits sur du parchemin depuis le 12e sie 
 cle, j'en ay plus trouve dont on avoit racle l'ancienne ecri 
 ture, que d'autres. Mais comme tons les coplstea n'estoient 
 pits egalement habiles a effacer ainsi ces premiers auteurs, 
 il s'en trouve quelques-uns ou 1'on pent lire att moins une 
 partie de ce qu'on avoit voulu rattirer." 
 
 We have already seen that the practice of which Mont- 
 faucon speaks had a much more ancient date than that 
 which he assigned to it ; although it was in all probability 
 most frequent during the middle ages, when, in consequence 
 of the scarcity and expense of parchment, and the growing 
 demand for the writings of the fathers and of books of de- 
 votion, the monks were induced to efface the writings of the 
 ancient authors to make room for their own. Our limits 
 preclude us from entering at length into the means adopted 
 by the monks of effacing the original writing, or of that still 
 more interesting process by which in recent times the ori- 
 ginal writing has been again brought to light, and which has 
 thus put us in possession of some most valuable works and 
 fragments of the classic authors which had been given up 
 as lost. On these points we beg to refer the reader to an 
 able article in the Edin. Rev., vol. xlviii., in which all thai 
 has been done in the restoration of ancient MSS. is set forth 
 with great clearness and brevity, and shall content ourselves 
 with observing that the most important of these discoveries 
 are the treatise of Cicero, De Republicn, which was found 
 in the Vatican library at Rome, in a MS. which had been 
 rewritten, with a Commentary of St. Augustin on the 
 Psalms ; and the Institutions of Oaius, found also in the 
 same place. For the restitution of the former the learn- 
 ed world is indebted to Angelo Maio, the principal libra- 
 rian of the Vatican library at Rome, who may, indeed, be 
 regarded as the hero of palimpsests ; and for the latter to 
 the labours of Bluhm and Goeschen, who were sent to 
 Rome for the purpose of examining MSS. by the Royal 
 Academy of Sciences at Berlin. 
 
 PALl'NDROMUS. (Gr. waX<t>, and c/>o/,oc, a course.) 
 A verse or line which was the same when read backwards 
 or forwards. The well-known verse which has been put 
 into the mouth of the devil may serve for tin example : 
 
 Signa te, slgna, temere me tang is et angis. 
 
 PALINGENE'SIA. (Gr. tta\iv, and ycvanc, birth.) In 
 Philosophy, a new or second birth — regeneration. The doc 
 trine of the destruction and reproduction of worlds and liv- 
 ing beings is Oriental ; but the word in question appears to 
 be of Stoical origin. (Diog. Laert., vii., 72.) The Stoics 
 are said to have held that the deiiiiurgus, or Creator, had 
 absorbed all being in himself, and reproduced it out of him- 
 self. In the language of the New Testament, it is used for 
 moral regeneration. (Titus, iii., 5.) 
 
 PALINODE. (Gr. raAti', again, and u>o?i, song.) In 
 Poetry, a recantation : properly.a piece in which the poet 
 retracts the invectives contained in a former satire. (See 
 Mem. de VJlcad. des Inscr., vol. xii.) 
 
 PALINU'RUS. The steersman of the vessel of ^Eneas, 
 drowned, according to Virgil, off the coast of Italy (*5En., v.), 
 and afterwards met with by the Trojan hero in the shades. 
 A promontory on the coast received his name. 
 
 PA'LISADES, or PALISADOS. In Fortification, stakes 
 driven into the ground, and sharpened at the top, for the 
 purpose of defence against the surprise of an enemy. They 
 are usually 9 or 10 feet long, and planted so ns to make an 
 angle inclining outwards from the work. 
 
 PA'LLA. In Latin, the long outer garment appropriate 
 to Roman females of respectable rank. A port of it was 
 thrown over the left shoulder, and hung down from the 
 arm. It is particularly described by Apuleius {Met., xi.). 
 The palla was not worn by men, except some effeminate 
 persons : although the long robes of barbarians are some- 
 times called by its name by Latin writers. There seems 
 to have been a shorter palla. (Martial, i., 93.) 
 
 PALLA'DIUM. (Gr. Ila^aSiov.) A wooden statue of 
 Minerva or Pallas, which was said to have fallen from the 
 skies as a sign to Ilus, the founder of Troy, to convince him 
 he was under the guidance of Jupiter. On its presenrntlrtfl 
 depended the safety of Troy; and, accordingly, Ulysses ;i 
 Diomed were commissioned to steal it, and performed il 
 enterprise. According to other accounts, the palladium was 
 conveyed from Troy to Italy by ./Eneas, and was afterwards 
 preserved with great care in the temple of Vesta at Rome. 
 The word palladium passed into European languages, in 
 which it signifies that particular law or privilege which is 
 regarded as the safeguard of the people's liberties. The 
 trial by jury and the freedom of the press are each called 
 the palladium of the British Constitution. 
 
 Palladium. A metal discovered in 1803 by Wollaston, 
 associated with the ore of platinum. It resembles platinum 
 
PALLAS. 
 
 in colour and lustre, and it is ductile and malleable, but very 
 hard. Its specific gravity is 118. Its fusibility is interme- 
 diate between gold and platinum ; it is oxidized and dissolv- 
 ed by nitric acid : its oxide forms red salts. 
 
 PA'LLAS, or, more properly, PALLAS ATHE'NE. In 
 Mythology, the Grecian goddess of wisdom, identified at a 
 later period n ith the Roman Minerva, to whom were as- 
 signed ;ill the attributes of her Grecian sister. The term is 
 probably derived from the Gr. r-ahXctv, to brandish a spear. 
 See Minerva. 
 Pallas. One of the four small planets which revolve 
 : he orbits of Mars and Jupiter, discovered by Dr. 
 Otters, of Bremen, on the 28th of March, 1802. Us symbol 
 is a lance %. On account of the minuteness of this planet, 
 and the nebulous appearance by which it is surrounded, it 
 is extremely difficult to arrive at any certain conclusion re- 
 specting its real magnitude. Sir W. Herschel estimated its 
 diameter at eighty miles, and Schroeter at 2099 miles, or 
 nearly the size of Mercury ; but astronomers prefer the for- 
 mer measure. The light of the planet undergoes consider- 
 able variations, the cause of which is unknown. The fol- 
 lowing are the elements of the orbit given by Encke, in the 
 Berlin Jistronomisches Jahrbuch for 1831 : 
 
 Semi-axis major = 2*77263, 
 
 Eccentricity = 0-24199, 
 
 Period of re volution = 1086-25 days, 
 
 Inclination = 34° 35' 49-1", 
 
 Longitude of ascending node = 172° 38" 29-8", 
 
 Longitude of perihelion = 121° 5' 0-5". 
 
 The motion of the planet in its orbit is greatly disturbed 
 iiy the powerful attraction of Jupiter. See Planet. 
 
 PA'LLETS, in Clock and Watch-work, are the pieces 
 connected with the pendulum or balance which receive 
 ihe Immediate Impulse of the swing-wheel, or balance- 
 wheel. They an of various forms and constructions, ac- 
 cording to the kind of escapement employed. 
 
 PALiaOBRA'WCHLATES, l'alliobranchiata.) Lat. pal- 
 lium, a mnntlr. and branchla, gill*.) The name of an order 
 of Acephalous MoUusks, including those in which the gills 
 are situated on the internal surface of the lobes of the man- 
 tle. 
 
 PA'LLIUM. (Lat. a cloak.) A vestment which, by an- 
 cient usage, is sent from Rome to all archbishops of the 
 Rom in Catholic Church, and to the four Latin patriarchs 
 of the Ea*t, on their accession. The history of this man, 
 and the gradual submission of the Western patriarchs to it, 
 thereby acknowledging in the end the complete authority 
 of the see of Koine, is carefully traced by M. Rheinwald, in 
 the new Enryclopadia of Ersch and Gruber, art. "Pallium." 
 It is now a short white cloak, with a red cross, encircling 
 the neck and shoulders, and falling on the back. It was 
 the custom, at the period of the greatest power of the Ro- 
 man see (introduced by Gregory VII. himself), for the 
 archbishops to come to Rome for the purpose of receiving 
 it : it is now delivered as a mandatory, or merely by a dele- 
 gate from Rome. Some simple bishops receive the pallium 
 as a mark of honour. The cloth of which the pallium is 
 made is woven from the wool of ten white lambs, blessed 
 at Rome on the festival of St. Agnes, and deposited on the 
 tomb of St. Peter daring the eve of his festival. 
 
 PALM. (Lat. palma, the hand.) An ancient measure 
 of length taken from the extent of the hand. There were 
 two different palms ; one corresponding to the length of the 
 hand, and the other to the breadth. The Roman palm was 
 about 8A English inches. The English palm is understood 
 to be 3 inches. 
 
 PALMA'RES. (Lat. palma, the hand.) Muscles be- 
 longing to the hand. The palmaris brevis is situate be- 
 tween the wrist and little linger, and assists in contracting 
 the palm of the hand ; the palmaris longus is situate on 
 the forearm, and bends the hand. 
 
 PA'LMER. In Ecclesiastical History, a name popularly 
 given to crusaders returned from the holy war, or pilgrims 
 from Palestine, from the branch of palm-tree which they 
 were wont to carry with them as a staff in commemoration 
 of their journey. 
 
 PA'LMIPEDS, Palmipedes. (Lat. palma, o palm, and 
 pes, a foot.) The name given by Cuvier and Temminck 
 to an order of birds corresponding to the Ansercs of Lin- 
 nteus, and the Natatores, or swimming-birds, of Illiger. 
 
 PA'LMISTRV. (Lat. palma, the hand.) A species of 
 divination, which foretold future events from the inspec- 
 tion of the lines and marks on the hands and fingers. See 
 Chiromancy. 
 
 PALM OIL. An article imported from the west coast 
 
 of Africa : it is solid, and of a reddish-yellow colour. It is 
 
 used in the manufacture of soap : candles have been made 
 
 of its stearine, and it is sometimes burned in lamps, and 
 
 I made into ointments. It is chiefly the produce of the Ela- 
 
 ' tut Guineensis. 
 
 PALM, ORDER OF THE FRUITFUL A society 
 3 K 
 
 PAM. 
 
 formed In 1617 in Germany, and connected by a species ol 
 chivalrous institution, for the preservation and culture of 
 the German language. Lewis, prince of An ha It, was the 
 first head of the order. This body is said to have done 
 much for the German language, but to have ended by at 
 tempting too much in the way of refinement and innova- 
 tion. It was dissolved in 1680. (Ersch and Gruber's En- 
 cyclopedia.) 
 
 PALMS, called by Linmeus, from their noble and stately 
 appearance, the princes of the vegetable kingdom, are , 
 natural order of Arborescent Endogens, chietly inhabiting 
 the tropics, distinguished by their fleshy, colour les- 
 parted flowers, enclosed within spath.es ; their minute em- 
 bryo, lying in the midst of albumen, and remote from the 
 hilum ; and rigid, plaited or pinnated tnartlculated leaves, 
 sometimes called fronds. Wine, oil, flax, flour, 
 salt, says Humboldt, are the produce of this tribe ; to which 
 Von Martins adds thread, utensils, weapons, food, and hab- 
 itations. The most common species is the cocoa-nut. Their 
 wounded stems, or spathes, yield in abundance a saccha- 
 rine fluid, known in India by the name of toddy. The suc- 
 culent rind of the date is a most nutritions as u ell ai agree- 
 able fruit. Sago is yielded by the interior of the trunks of 
 nearly all, except Areca catechu, the well-known pisang, or 
 betel-nut: the fruit of the latter species is remarkable for 
 Its narcotic or intoxicating power. The common canes or 
 rattans of the shops are the flexible stems of species of the 
 genus Calamus. 
 
 PALM-SUNDAY (Dominica Palmarum, Pascha Flori 
 dam), the Sunday before Easter, is the day of celebration 
 of the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem. But the 
 custom of carrying pan branches on particular day= I of fes 
 tivity (jliuo&opta) was an older Jewish observance. The 
 feast of Palm Sunday appears to have been observed all 
 along in the Eastern Church, but is said to have been revi- 
 ved in the West by Gregory the Great. The earliest known 
 Latin homily for the day is by the Venerable Beda, 
 
 PALP. (Lat. palpus, a feeler.) A jointed sensiferous 
 organ, attached in pairs to the labium and mazilla of in 
 sects, and termed respectively "labial" and "maxillary" 
 palpi, or feelers. 
 
 PALPA'TORS, Palpatores. The name of a family of 
 Clavicorn beetles, including those which have very long 
 maxillary feelers, or palps. 
 
 PALSY, sre Paralysis. 
 
 PALU'DAME'NTUM. The peculiar military dress oi a 
 Roman general (Imperator), In the times of the republic 
 (Apul. Apologia), afterwards adopted by the eni|«rors. It 
 was worn only in the campaign, and exchanged for the toga 
 In Rome. Vitellius, according to Tacitus, was advised not 
 to enter the city in It, as it would be making it look like a 
 city taken by storm. (Wist., ii., 89. See Mem. de I'Acad. 
 des Inscr., vol. xxl.) 
 
 PALUDI'NA. (Lat.palus, amarsh.) A genus of fresh- 
 water or marsh snails; so called from their location in 
 marshes, ditches, and slow streams. Many species are 
 common in Great Britain ; a beautiful example, called the 
 agate marsh-shell (Paludina achatina, Lam.), may be found 
 in the smaller tributaries of the Thames. 
 
 PA'MPAS. The name given to one of the great systems 
 of South American plains, which can scarcely, with pro- 
 priety, be called deserts, inasmuch as they are covered with 
 luxuriant herbage, and inhabited by vast herds of wild cat- 
 tle and droves of horses. The region of the Pampas forms 
 the basins of the Paraguay and La Plata, and includes the 
 vast plains of Buenos Ayres, extending from the foot of the 
 eastern ridge of the Andes to the "sea-like Plata," and 
 stretching southward into the deserts of Patagonia. 
 ( TrailPs Physical Geography.) 
 
 PA'MPHLET. A word for which various etymologies 
 have been suggested ; as, for instance, pagina lilata, a 
 threaded page, i. e., leaves stitched together with a thread ; 
 while others consider it to be derived simply from pampier, 
 or papier, paper. It signifies a short treatise or essay, gen- 
 erally speaking on some subjects of temporary interest, 
 which excites public attention at the time of its appear- 
 ance. We commonly understand by the word pamphlet a 
 production of the above character when it comes from Uie 
 prrbllshers merely stitched together in sheets, and not 
 bound. The word is of considerable antiquity, being used 
 by Chaucer. Pamphlets became of common use in politi 
 cal and religious controversy about the middle of the 16th 
 century ; in England, under the reign of Elizabeth ; in 
 France, during the wars of religion. 
 
 PA'MPRE. (Fr.; from Lat. pampinus, a cluster.) In 
 Sculpture, ornaments consisting of vine leaves and grapes. 
 
 PAN. (Gr. nrfv.) The chief rural divinity of the 
 Greeks, who presided over flocks and herds. He was said 
 by some to be the son of Mercury ; and his birthplace was 
 Arcadia, to which province his worship seems to have been 
 confined in early times. The introduction of his worship 
 Into the other Grecian states is thus accounted for. When 
 
 881 
 
PANACEA. 
 
 rf'hilippides, an Athenian courtier, was traversing Mount 
 Parthenius, above Tegea, a short time before the battle of 
 Marathon, he was encountered by Pan, who commanded 
 him to ask the Athenians why they paid no respect to a 
 divinity who had ever been friendly to them, and was still 
 ready to promote their welfare ; and in consequence of this 
 remonstance, the Athenians, after the defeat of the Per- 
 sians, dedicated a temple to this divinity beneath the 
 Acropolis, and propitiated his favour by annual sacrifices 
 and torch races. He was represented with the head and 
 breast of an elderly man, while his lower parts were like 
 the hind quarters of a goat, whose horns he likewise bore 
 on his forehead. His emblems were the shepherd's crook 
 and pipe of seven reeds, his own invention. The name 
 Pan is derived probably from the Gr. irnctv, to tend flocks, 
 which, as being the most general mode of life in primitive 
 times, has led to the belief that this god was a symbol of 
 Universal Nature, an idea to which Milton alludes in the 
 beautiful lines, 
 
 While Universil Pall, 
 Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance, 
 Led on the eternal spring. 
 
 PANACE'A (Gr. irav, all, and aiceouat, I cure) signifies 
 a remedy which professes the power of curing all sorts of 
 diseases. The word is said to be derived from Panacea, a 
 daughter of Esculapius, the goddess of health, to whom, in 
 conjunction with her better known sister, Hygeia, the pow- 
 er of healing all diseases was ascribed. 
 
 PA'NATHEN^E'A. (Gr. WavaOnvaia ; from rrav, all, 
 and A07vuioc, Athenian.) The great national festival of 
 the inhabitants of Attica, celebrated in honour of Minerva. 
 There were two solemnities of this name, the great and lit- 
 tle. The former were celebrated once in every five years ; 
 the latter in every third year, or, as some think, every 
 year. The exhibitions at these festivals were torch races, 
 gymnastic, and musical, and poetical contests, with sacrifi- 
 ces and feasts ; and, at the great Panathentea, the sacred 
 stole (;rf)rAoO, decorated by the hands of chosen virgins 
 with embroidery representing the deeds of heroes and pa- 
 triots, was hung like a sail on a machine in the form of a 
 ship, and thus conveyed up to the Acropolis in a procession, 
 and placed on the statue of Minerva. 
 
 PANCA'RTES, or PANCHART.<E. In Diplomatics, 
 royal charters, in which the enjoyment of all his posses- 
 sions (enumerated in the instrument) is confirmed to a 
 subject. The word, however, is used in other and looser 
 significations. 
 
 PANCRA'TIUM. (Gr. rravKpanov ; from irav, all, and 
 rpareiv, to subdue.) A kind of athletic contest practised 
 by the Greeks, which combined wrestling and boxing to- 
 gether. 
 
 PA'NCREAS. (Gr. irav, and KDcas, flesh, from its fleshy- 
 consistence. ) A glandular viscus of the abdomen, situated 
 under and behind the stomach ; its duct enters the duo- 
 denum, into which it conveys a fluid very like the saliva. 
 It use appears to dilute the bile, and render il more mis- 
 cible with the food. It is commonly called the sweetbread 
 in animals. 
 
 PAND^EMO'NIUM. (Gr. -rrav, and Saiuav, a demon.) 
 The general appellation bestowed by Milton on 
 
 The hiirh capital 
 Of Satan and his peers.— Par. Lost, i. 81. 
 
 PANDANA'CE^E. (Pandanus, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of Arborescent Endogens inhabiting the 
 Indian Archipelago, and most of the tropical islands of the 
 old world. They have the aspect of gigantic pine-apples, 
 bearing the flowers of a sparganium ; and are remarkable 
 among arborescent Monocotyledons for their constant ten- 
 dency to branch, which is always effected in a dichotomous 
 manner ; and also for their leaves being arranged so dis- 
 tinctly in a spiral manner that they have acquired the 
 common name of screw pines. The seeds of Pandanus are 
 
 PA'NDECTS, or DIGEST. (Gr. navSe/cra ; from mv, 
 everything-, and Sc%ouat, I receive.) The great compila- 
 tion of the Roman law published by the Emperor Justinian. 
 Sec Diqest. 
 
 PANDO'RA. (Gr. rrav, and Siapov, a gift.) Literally 
 the all-gifted. In Grecian Mythology, the name given to 
 the first mortal female, according to Hesiod, that ever 
 lived. She was formed of clay by Vulcan, at the request 
 of Jupiter, and was created for the purpose of punishing 
 Prometheus (see Prometheus) for his numerous impieties. 
 All the gods vied in making her presents: thus, from 
 Venus she received beauty, from the Graces the power 
 of captivating ; Mercury taught her eloquence, and Mi- 
 nerva wisdom ; but Jupiter gave her a box filled with in- 
 numerable evils, which she was desired to give to the man 
 who married her. She was then conducted to Prometheus, 
 who, sensible of the deceit, would not accept of the pre- 
 sent ; but his brother Epimetheus. not gifted with the 
 inme prudence, fell a victim to Pandora's charms, accept- 
 er 
 
 PANORAMA. 
 
 ed the box, from which, on its being opened, there issued 
 all the ills and diseases which have since continued to 
 afflict the human race. Hope alone remained at the 
 bottom of the box, as the only consolation of the troubles 
 of mankind. 
 
 PANDOU'RS. A kind of light infantry, formerly or- 
 ganized as separate corps in the Austrian service ; raised 
 from the Servian and Rascian inhabitants of the Turkish 
 frontier, and originally under leaders of their own, styled 
 Harumbachas. Since 1755, they have been included in 
 the regular army. 
 
 PANDURIFORM. Literally, fiddle-shaped; applied by 
 botanists to the leaves of some plants. 
 
 PANEGY'RIC. (Gr. Adyoc iravrjyvpiKos, a speech ad- 
 dressed to a general assembly, and Tavrjyvpis, panegyric.) 
 In Oratory, an eulogy or harangue, written or spoken, in 
 praise of an individual or body of men. Among the an- 
 cients, orations were recited in praise of the departed on 
 various occasions, before solemn assemblies : hence the 
 name. Among the later Romans, the baser practice pre- 
 vailed of reciting panegyrical orations on distinguished 
 living persons in their presence. Among the moderns, 
 panegyrical oratory has been chiefly confined to funeral 
 discourses from the pulpit. In France, however, the eloges 
 or orations, pronounced in some literary and scientific so- 
 cieties on the decease of a member, bear something of the 
 character of classical panegyrics. 
 
 PA'NEL. In Law, said by Sir II. Spelman to mean 
 "schedula," or "pagina," as a panel of parchment, &c. 
 It commonly designates the roll containing the names of 
 jurors whom the sheriff returns to pass on a trial. In 
 Scottish law, the accused person in a criminal action, from 
 the time of his appearance, is styled the " pannel." 
 
 PA'NIC (Lat. Pan), is usually applied to a sudden and 
 groundless alarm. The word originated in the stratagem 
 which Pan had recourse to, during the Indian expedition 
 of Bacchus, on being surrounded by a numerous army ; viz. 
 ordering his men suddenly to raise a simultaneous shout, 
 which, favoured by the echoes of a rocky valley, had the 
 appearance of so augmenting their numbers that the enemy 
 were inspired by terror, and instantly took to flight. 
 
 PA'NICLE. A form of inflorescence in which the 
 primary axis develops secondary axes, which themselves 
 produce tertiary ; or, In other words, a raceme bearing 
 branches of flowers in place of simple ones. 
 
 PA'NNEL, or PANEL. (Fr. panneau.) In Architec- 
 ture, an area sunk from the general face of the surrounding 
 work. In Joinery, it is a tympanum, or thin piece of wood, 
 framed or received in a grove by two mounters or upright 
 pieces, and two traverses or cross pieces. 
 
 PA'NOPLY. (Gr. irav, and btrXot; armour.) Literally 
 all the armour that can be worn for defence : complete 
 armour. 
 
 PANO'PTICON. (Gr. nav, and oizrouat, I see.) A term 
 coined by Jeremy Bentham to denote the plan of the prison 
 which he designed and recommended for adoption in his 
 Theory of Punishments. This building was distinguished 
 by three leading properties, for an account of which the 
 reader is referred to vol. xxii. of the Edin. Review, p. 19, 
 20 ; but its greatest peculiarity consisted in its form, and in 
 the disposition of its cells, which were so constructed that 
 the inspector could see each prisoner, at all times, without 
 himself being seen; and hence the origin of the term. 
 
 PANORA'MA. (Gr. rrav, all, and op iu>, I see.) A pic- 
 ture in which all the objects of nature that are visible from 
 a single point are represented on the interior surface of a 
 round or cylindrical wall, the point of view being in the 
 axis of the cylinder. The rules according to which the 
 different objects are represented in perspective are easily 
 deduced from the consideration that the lines on the pano- 
 rama are the intersections of the cylindrical surface of the 
 picture, with one or more conical surfaces having their 
 summits at the point of view, and of which the bases are 
 the lines of nature which the artist proposes to represent. 
 In executing this kind of perspective, the artist divides the 
 horizon into a considerable number of parts, twenty, for 
 example, and draws, in the ordinary way, on a plane sur- 
 face, a perspective view of all the objects comprised in each 
 of these portions of the horizon. He then paints on a can- 
 vass, representing the development of the cylindrical sur- 
 face, the twenty drawings, In as many vertical and parallel 
 stripes : and the picture is completed by stretching the can- 
 vass on the cylindrical wall of the rotunda which is to con- 
 tain the panorama. When a painting of this kind is wel.' 
 executed, its truth is such as to produce a complete illusion 
 No other method of representing objects is so woil calcu- 
 lated to give an exact idea of the general aspect and appear- 
 ance of a country as seen all round from a given point. 
 
 The first panorama exhibited in London was painted by 
 Barker in 1793 ; it represented the objects about Portsmouth 
 and the Isle of Wight. A panorama of London was the 
 first that was introduced into Germany, in 1800. Since 
 
PANSTEREORAMA. 
 
 that time they have become common in all the principal 
 cities of Europe. 
 
 PAXSTE'REORA'MA. (Gr. itav, arcpeds, solid, and 
 opa<i>, I see.) In Relievo, a model of a town or country in 
 cork, wood, pasteboard, or other substances. 
 
 P.VNSY. (Fr. pensee, a thought.) A term applied 
 chiefly to the garden varieties of Viola tricolor, and others 
 which are usually cultivated under the name of heart's 
 ease. See Viola. 
 
 PA'iNTAGRAPH. (Gr. vav, and ypa<put, I write.) Fre- 
 quently, but improperly, written Pcntagraph. An instru- 
 ment for copying, reducing, or enlarging plans. It consists 
 of a jointed rhombus, ABCD, made of wood or brass, and 
 having the two sides B A and B C 
 h extended to double their length. 
 
 The side A D and branch A E are 
 graduated from A, in such a man- 
 / \ ner that if O and T be correspond- 
 
 . / \ ing divisions, A O is to B O in the 
 
 >C same ratio asATtoBEorBF. 
 
 Small sliding boxes for holding a 
 pencil or tracing point, are brought 
 to the corresponding graduations, 
 and fixed in their positions by 
 screws, and a third is fixed at the 
 point F. Now, Bince in every po- 
 sition of the instrument the two 
 sides A D and B F are parallel, and the points O and T are 
 so taken that O A : A T : : O B : B F, the three points O, T, 
 and F, must necessarily range in a straight line ; conse- 
 quently, if any one of these three points be taken as Uie 
 centra of motion, and another of them be carried along the 
 boundaries of any figure, the third will trace out :t similar 
 figure, reduced or enlarged according as it is nearer to or 
 farther from the centre of motion than the point which is 
 carried along the figure to be copied. Suppose the point O 
 to be made the centre of motion, the tracer to be fixed at 
 F, and the crayon or drawing point at T, the division of 
 A D corresponding to O ; then, while F is carried along any 
 figure, T will describe a similar figure reduced in the pro- 
 portion of O T to O F, or of O A to O B. But if the tracer 
 be fixed at T, and the drawing point at F, the copy will be 
 enlarged in the proportion of O B to O A ; or, if the fulcrum 
 be placed atT, the tracer at O, and the crayon at F, the 
 figure delineated will lie enlarged in the proportion of OT 
 to T F. If the points O and T be brought to coincide with 
 E and D, and the fulcrum be placed at D ; then, the dis- 
 tance ED and DF being equal, the original figure will be 
 transferred into a copy of exactly the same dimensions. 
 The pantagraph was invented by the Jesuit Christopher 
 Scheiner in 1G03, and is described by him in a tract entitled 
 Pantographice sive Ars Dclincandi, 6-e., published at Rome 
 in 1033. A more perfect instrument for accomplishing the 
 same objects has recently been invented by Professor Wal 
 lace, of Edinburgh, who hai given it the name of Eido 
 graph : for a description of which, see the Transactions of 
 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xiil. ; or Wallace's 
 Geometrical Theorems and Analytical Formula, 1839. Both 
 instruments may be so modified as to produce a reversed 
 representation of the figure to be copied ; an application 
 which is extremely useful for the purposes of copper-plate 
 engraving and lithography. 
 
 PA'NTALOON. One of the chief characters In all 
 pantomimic representations." He was originally dressed 
 in a manner similar to that from which a well-known 
 article of modern dress has derived its name. His name 
 Is said by antiquarians to be derived from the Italian 
 words " Pianta-leone," as it were the " lion-planter," in 
 allusion to the boastful language of ihe Venetians. (See 
 Lord Byron's Childe Harold, canto iv.) The pantaloon of 
 the original Italian pantomime was a Venetian burgher. 
 
 1' A N'T K'C I IN ICON. (Gr. irav, and ti X vv, art), signifies 
 a place In which, as the term imports, every species of 
 workmanship is collected and exposed for sale. The large 
 building near Belgrave-square is an excellent specimen of 
 this modern invention. 
 
 PA'NTHEISM. (Gr. Tlav, and Qtot, God.) In Meta- 
 physical Theology, the theory which identifies nature, or 
 the ri irav, the universe in its totality, with God. This 
 doctrine differs from atheism in the greater distinctness 
 with which it asserts the unity and essential vitality of 
 nature, parts of which all animated beings are. The 
 most ancient Greek philosophers were pantheists in this 
 sense, Anaxagoras being the first who distinctly stated 
 the coexistence with nature of a reasonable creator — " a 
 mind, the principle of all things." In this sense, too, 
 Spinoza may be called a pantheist. The pantheism of 
 Schelling, and many modern German philosophers, is of 
 a different stamp. According to these thinkers, God is 
 conceived as the absolute and original Being, revealing 
 himself variously In outward nature, and in human Intelli- 
 gence and freedom. It is not easy to see how pantheism 
 
 PAPACY. 
 
 in this sense differs from the Christian view of Go 1, as ex 
 pressed in the sublime language of St. Paul, " In whom we 
 five, and move, and have our being." The world is, indeed, 
 conceived to b,; animated by the presence and agency of 
 the Deity ; but his distinctness and independent subsistence 
 are definitely laid down as the condition and ground of all 
 phenomenal existence, and of reason itself. God may exist 
 without the world, but the world is inconceivable without 
 God. (See this article in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclo- 
 paedia.) It must, however, be remarked, that many pseudo- 
 philosophers of modern times assume the name of Pan- 
 theists as a convenient medium for the dissemination of 
 atheistical opinions, which they have not the courage boldly 
 to avow. 
 
 PANTHEI'STIC. (Gr. IW, and Oroc, God.) In Sculp- 
 ture, a term applied to statues and figures which bear the 
 symbols of several deities together, the meaning of which 
 has been a subject of much dispute among antiquaries. 
 
 PANTIIE'OX. (Gr. wMtov ; from irav, all, and Stoj, a 
 god.) A temple dedicated to all the gods. Two magni- 
 ficent structures of this kind existed in antiquity ; one at 
 Athens, the other at Rome. The latter, which still exists, 
 though comparatively in ruins, is one of the most splendid 
 remains of the ancients. The foundation of this building 
 is generally ascribed to Agrippa, the son in-law of Augustus. 
 It now forms a Christian church, dedicated to the Virgin 
 Mary and All Saints, and generally called the Rotunda. 
 The form is circular, and its root' a hemispherical dome 
 144 feet diameter, its height being the same from the pave- 
 ment to the top of the dome. It has a noble Corinthian 
 portico, consisting of sixteen granite columns of the Co- 
 rinthian order, of which eight stand in front. Pliny ranked 
 this edifice as one of the wonders of the world. Since its 
 erection it has been grievously spoiled of its ornaments. 
 The term pantheon has been applied to places of public 
 exhibition in which every variety of amusement is found. 
 It is also used for a work containing a view of the mytho 
 Iol'v, or all the gods of the ancients (as the term imports), 
 as in Tookr'.-i Pantheon. 
 
 V ANTOCHRONO'METER. (Gr. suv, x/>o«>j. time, nnd 
 pcrpov, a measure.) A term recently invented and applied 
 to an instrument which is a combination of the compass, 
 the sun-dial, and the universal time-dial, and performing 
 the offices of nil three. 
 
 PANTOLO'GIA. (Gr. irav, and \oyos-) A work ol 
 universal instruction or science; equivalent to dictionary 
 or encyclopedia, which see. 
 
 PA'NTii.MlME. ,d uiptu, I imitate.) A 
 
 species of theatrical entertainment, in which, according to 
 the derivation of the word. Ihe whole action of the piece 
 should be represented by gesticulation, without the use of 
 words: also, a theatrical performer skilled in mimicry. 
 The English pantomime is an amusement peculiar to our 
 theatre. A class of actors in vogue at Rome, who per- 
 formed pieces in dumb show, expressing everything by 
 their dancing and gestures, were also called pantomimes, 
 and were, in all probability, the archetypes of this species 
 of amusement among ourselves. (See the Conversations- 
 Lexicon; and as to ancient pantomimes, Mem. de PJlc. 
 des Inscr., vol. xxiii.) See Mimes. 
 
 PA'PACY. The office of pope, or, historically, the suc- 
 cession of popes in the see of Rome. The origin of the 
 term is oriental. The word papas was used in lower 
 Greek, with the signification of father, and is still applied 
 by the Greek Church to the priests of that communion. 
 In the Western Church, the title was not uncommonly 
 given to bishops in general, and was not confined to the 
 Roman pontiff for several centuries. In this article it will 
 be our endeavour to trace, with the conciseness which our 
 limits demand, the steps by which the bishops of Rome 
 attained to the vast religious and political importance 
 which they once possessed, and of which they still retain 
 the shadow. 
 
 1. It is generally agreed that a certain degree of defer- 
 ence was paid to the church of Rome by the Christian 
 societies dispersed throughout the empire in the primitive 
 age. As St. Peter appears to have held a certain pro- 
 minency among the apostles, so was his see looked up to, 
 and its advice occasionally resorted to, by the other metro- 
 politan churches, which, though its equal in rank, might 
 allow to it some moral superiority. But, as the other 
 apostles did not hesitate to rebuke St. Peter, when his con- 
 j duct appeared to their judgment to deserve it, nor to take 
 the lead and initiative when he paused in the career which 
 the Holy Spirit pointed out, so we find Irenasus of Lyons 
 j interfering to check the dogmatism of Victor of Rome, and 
 Cyprian maintaining the validity of heretical baptism, in 
 concert with the Asiatic church, and in opposition to the 
 Roman. 
 \ 2. It is in the fourth century that the first dawn of sub- 
 ; stantial power appears in the Roman sec. Upon the recog- 
 ! nition* of Christianity by the civil government, the bishw 
 
PAPACY, 
 of Rome is found in the enjoyment of precedence among 
 the prelates of the empire. The patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople is expressly exalted by Theodosius (A.D. 381) to 
 the second rank. The canons of the council of Sardis, 347 
 (the genuineness, however, of which is suspected), allow 
 bishops in certain cases an appeal to the Roman pontiff. 
 Even the removal of the seat of government to Constan- 
 tinople, although the t*ery fact of its residence at Rome had 
 undoubtedly contributed to the pre-eminence of its bishop 
 in earlier times, seems to have favoured the pretensions 
 which the popes began now openly to maintain. Rome 
 was no longer under the immediate eye of the emperor. 
 The patriarch of Constantinople, although he enjoyed the 
 imperial favour up to a certain point, was not allowed to 
 outstep it, and was subject to be deposed if he forgot for a 
 moment the relative position in which he stood. The em- 
 perors of the West, on the other hand, took up their abode 
 at Milan, or Ravenna ; and when they had been overturned, 
 and the barbarians began to found new dynasties upon the 
 ruins of the Italian provinces, the popes were among their 
 most useful instruments in civilizing and consolidating the 
 fragments of their power. 
 
 Again, the nearer contact which thus took place between 
 the Italian clergy and the children of the pagans of the 
 north, afforded the popes an opportunity of diffusing the 
 idea of their own supremacy, at the same time that they 
 extended the limits of Christianity; and while Antioch 
 and Alexandria were trembling before the birth of Moham- 
 medanism, and Constantinople was losing, one by one, its 
 fairest provinces and strongest partisans, the dominion of 
 the Western primacy was acquiring daily a wider basis 
 and a more devoted people. 
 
 3. With Gregory I., at the end of the sixth century, com- 
 menced one of the most important epochs in the papal 
 history. The system of aggrandizement, of which he laid 
 the foundations, consisted in the conversion of the heathen, 
 upon the principle above mentioned, and the connexion of 
 the monastic orders with the Roman see, by releasing them 
 from the immediate jurisdiction of their own diocesans. 
 
 4. The next important step in our history is the famous 
 donation of Pepin, by which the Italian provinces which 
 the French king had conquered from the Lombards, were 
 transferred by him, not to his own dominions, nor to the 
 Greek emperor, who had the ancient hereditary claim, but 
 in temporal sovereignty to the pope. But even this political 
 power, thus acquired, was not in itself pregnant with such 
 important consequences, as the principle which was sanc- 
 tioned by the immediate occasion of the donation ; for 
 Pepm had taken counsel with pope Zachary, whether he 
 should be justified in overturning the throne of the im- 
 becile prince whose servant he was. and had been formally 
 authorized so to do. However, the possessions which thus 
 came into the hands of the Roman bishops, confirmed and 
 enlarged by the addition of the territory of Rome itself, by 
 Charlemagne, at the close of the eighth century, have con- 
 tinued up to this day, with little extension or diminution, 
 to form tha temporal patrimony of St. Peter. It is to be 
 observed, that the nature and extent of the power accorded 
 to the popes by Charlemagne, has given rise to much dis- 
 pute ; and the partisans of the Roman see have been 
 charged with giving to it a false and exaggerated colouring. 
 "The most probable account of the matter," says Mosheim, 
 " seems to be this, that the Roman pontiff possessed the 
 city of Rome and its territory, by the same right that he 
 held the exarchate of Ravenna, and the other lands which 
 he received from Charlemagne ; that is to say, that he 
 possessed Rome as a feudal tenure, though charged with 
 less marks of dependence than other fiefs generally are, 
 on account of the lustre and dignity of the city, which had 
 so long been the capital of the empire." (Cent. VIII., pt. 2, 
 cap. 2. note.) 
 
 5. The dissensions which took place among the succes- 
 sors of Charlemagne in the 9th century afforded a tempting 
 opportunity for political encroachment on the part of the 
 Roman bishops. In 879, Charles the Bald was proclaimed 
 emperor by Pope John VIII., and his immediate successors 
 received their nomination also from the same source. It 
 was in the same century that the forgery of the decretal 
 epistles gave a colour and authority to many temporal 
 claims of the Roman see. 
 
 6. It was not, however, till the pontificate of Gregory 
 VII. (1073-1086), that the principle of temporal aggrandize- 
 ment, which we have been tracing, received a systematic 
 development. The grand project which that prelate enter- 
 tained was, to reduce the whole territory of Christendom to 
 n feudal subjection to the holy see. He assumed the right 
 ol appointment to all the crowns of Europe ; and with such 
 success that when his principal opponent, Henry IV. of 
 Germany, had succeeded in dispossessing him of his pontifi- 
 cal chair, and placing therein the antipope, Clement HI., 
 the victorious monarch continued to recognise, in the crea- 
 ture whom he had thus installed in the papal prerogatives. 
 
 884 
 
 PAPER. 
 
 the very same authority which Gregory had claimed over 
 him, and received from his hands his own imperial crown. 
 A main feature in this political scheme was the reduction 
 of the. whole body of the clergy into immediate dependants 
 upon the papal throne. In order to effect this, the law of 
 celibacy was strictly enforced ; the elections of bishops by 
 their diocesan clergy discouraged and almost abolished"; 
 and their investiture by their national sovereigns, in itself a 
 monarchical usurpation, became the great subject of conten- 
 tion between the pope and the emperor ; in which, though 
 the former was finally unsuccessful, yet principles were 
 advanced during its progress, and claims bequeathed to pos- 
 terity, which smoothed the way for the more fortunate ag- 
 gressions of later pontiffs, and exalted the power of the pa- 
 pacy to its greatest height under Innocent III., at the begin- 
 ning of the 13th century. 
 
 7. The power of excommunication had long been exer- 
 cised and wantonly abused before the time of Gregory ; the 
 interdict, by which a whole state was laid tinder a spir- 
 itual ban, was not adopted till about that period. This 
 weapon was unsparingly wielded by Innocent HI. ; and 
 the degradation to which John of England was sub- 
 jected by him through these means is one of the strongest 
 instances of the extent to which the papal power was ad- 
 vanced. But Innocent, although his clergy were better 
 disciplined subjects, and his pretensions invested with 
 the superior efficacy of prescription, had new and greater 
 difficulties to contend with than his famous predecessors. 
 At this time the tide of human opinion was already on the 
 turn. Numerous reforming sects arose and threatened to 
 undermine the fidelity of the lower classes ; the princes 
 were more conscious of the yoke which had been iini>osed 
 upon them, and more anxious to avail themselves of an op- 
 portunity to cast it off: the clergy also, the main stay of the 
 papal cause, were beginning to excite general murmurs by 
 their corruption of manners. It is between Gregory and 
 Innocent, therefore, that the period of the substantial great- 
 ness of the Roman see must be placed by the historian who 
 contemplates both eras from a distance, and observes the 
 seeds of decay which began to manifest themselves in the 
 latter. The violence, however, and assumption of power, 
 which had increased up to this time, continued to grow un- 
 der the successors of Innocent, who appear not to have felt, 
 even up to the Reformation itself, that the foundations of 
 their authority were slipping rapidly from under them. But 
 the same causes which we have enumerated as counteract- 
 ing the apparent glory of Innocent's pontificate continued to 
 work steadily against his successors ; and at length when 
 Luther arose to combine the force resulting from the three, 
 the papacy, though relaxing nothing from its extravagant 
 pretensions, found itself suddenly shorn of one third of its 
 subjects entirely, and deprived of a great proportion of its 
 authority over the rest. From that time to the present, the 
 power of the papacy has continued to retrograde, even in 
 spiritual matters. It has been forced to concede a certain 
 degree of independence to the clergy of France, and to enter 
 into disadvantageous concordats with Napoleon and some 
 of the German princes. It has even encouraged its writers 
 in disclaiming the schemes of its earlier pontiffs, and allows 
 them to assert the interference of the church between the 
 prince and the subject to be tyrannical and unchristian. 
 Its spiritual influence, however, although harassed on all 
 sides by the free and discursive opinions of the day, con- 
 tinues still, from its combined, pressure and elasticity, to 
 be the most remarkable feature of modem history ; its 
 share in the recent political events of Europe has been very 
 great, while the number of its subjects is probably at this 
 moment much greater than at the times of Gregory or In 
 nocent. 
 
 PAPA'VERA'CEjE. (Papaver, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of narcotic plants, belonging to the Polypeta 
 lous division of the Exogenous class, and nearly related to 
 Ranunculacea, with which it corresponds in habit and the 
 structure of the seeds, but differs in having parietal pla 
 centa? and a calyx of only two pieces. The common poppy, 
 the horned poppy, argemone, and some other genera, are 
 well-known species, either cultivated for the sake of their 
 flowers, or destroyed as showy but troublesome weeds 
 Opium is the inspissated juice of Papaver somnifcrum. 
 
 PA'PER. (Gr. xdirvpo*; ; Fr. papier.) A thin and flexi 
 hie substance of varjous colours, but most commonly white, 
 used for writing and printing on, and for various other pnr 
 poses. It is manufactured of vegetable matter, reduced to 
 a pulp by means of water and grinding ; and is made up 
 into sheet*, quires, and reams, each quire consisting of 
 twenty-four sheets, and each ream of twenty quires. 
 ^»For the chief purposes to which paper is applied in mod- 
 em times the ancients had recourse to a variety of matori 
 als ; stone, tablets of wood, plates of lead, skins, parch- 
 ment, linen, layers of wax, tablets of ivory, and, above all, 
 the papyrus. The ability to write, created a necessity for 
 some material on which to inscribe ; and all these various 
 
PAPER. 
 
 materials were resorted to in succession, as the ineligibility 
 of each induced a fresh endeavour to discover some more 
 desirable substitute. 
 
 As our present object is to trace the progess of pa|>er, rath- 
 er than to enter into a minute account of those materials 
 which were employed antecedent to its manufacture, it 
 will not be necessary to dwell upon the other substances, 
 which are as diversified as human ingenuity could devise ; 
 but pass on to the papyrus, the immediate prccur- 
 per, and the article from which it was first manufactured. 
 Egypt has the honour of the invention; and Isidore even 
 fixes the locality at Memphis; the date remains ir. some 
 obscurity, ti.though it has been warmly disputed. Varro 
 the Koiiian. ascribes it to the time of Alexander the Great, 
 after th .'...inding of Alexandria ; but we find in Pliny the 
 re'-it.tl of a passage, extracted from the writings of Cassius 
 Hemina, an ancient annalist, in which he speaks of some 
 bunks found in the tomb of NlM when it was opened, 
 53.» years after his decease, and asserts that lb 
 M of paprr, and had been interred with him. As Numa 
 I Alexander 300 years, this circumstance. If ad- 
 mitted, would carry back the date of the invention anterior 
 to that time. However, the antiquity of such n date is 
 much doubted ; but as Tliny gives an account of the man- 
 ner of making the papyrus paper, and it seems to have 
 been in high reputation in the time of Alexander the Great, 
 it is probable that such improvements were made during 
 his reign as to enhance the value and increase the manu- 
 facture. 
 
 It is true that papyrus continued in use long after the in- 
 vention of paper; and this is the argument by which it is 
 contended that the manufacture was of more modern date, 
 although the only fair inference seems to be that it was only 
 I pensive. It appears, however, that after this time 
 papyrus paper was chiefly manufactured at Alexandria, and 
 continued a source of profit to that city up to the fifth cen- 
 tury, to the close of which it remained in general use 
 throughout Europe; Italy retained it to the eleventh, and 
 • ven so late as the twelfth century. 
 
 We have thought it but right thus briefly to narrate the 
 differences of opinion which have prevailed respecting the 
 origin of paper. Our own belief is, that the transition of 
 of the papjrmi in its natural state to that in its 
 manufactured was so gradual, that it does not leave room 
 to fix on any precise point al which to say that the papyrus 
 became paper. Probably the tirst step arose from the tier- 
 ception that the leaf was not strong enoiiL'h fur its ptapo- 
 ses ; and then how simply came the remedy of plnring the 
 leave! together, the waters of the Nile, amid which the 
 plants grew, serving to cement them: afterwards came a 
 to flatten the transverse leaves ; and mis simple 
 ■ems to give the origin of paper. We believe that 
 many an invention for which the learned have contended, 
 has advanced by steps as simple and as gradual, leaving it 
 impossible to decide at what point invention began, since it 
 was only improvement that was taking place. 
 
 The next improvement in paper was its manufacture 
 from cotton. It is supposed that the Chinese and Persians 
 attainted with this material fur its production, and 
 that the Arabians learned it from their conquest in Tnrtnry. 
 The ancient paper bears no marks of the wire through 
 which the water is drained in modern paper-making; and 
 it is therefore inferred that a different process was employ- 
 ed. Paper made from cotton was in use earlier with the 
 Greeks than with the Romans. The manufacture of paper 
 from cotton cannot be traced farther back than to the tenth 
 century ; nnd the oldest manuscript document written on 
 this cotton paper is dated 1050. 
 
 When or by whom linen paper was invented seems un- 
 certain : some give the credit to Germany, some to Italy, 
 some to Greece ; but the Chinese appear to have the best 
 pretensions. The Rev. Dr. Dibdin, in his Typographical 
 JtKttquttiet, says that " the art of paper -making with linen 
 rags is supposed to have been discovered in the eleventh 
 century ; though Father Mahillon thinks it was in the 
 twelfth. Montfaucon acknowledges that he has not been 
 able to meet with a single leaf of paper with a date an- 
 terior to the death of St. Louis in 1270." Its introduction 
 into England took place about the year 1342, in the re ; gn of 
 Edwani III., although some have supposed it as earlv as 
 1320. France had it in 1314, and Italy in 1367. The Ger- 
 mans possess a specimen bearing the date of 1308, although 
 it has been surmised that this single instance may have 
 been a mixture of linen with cotton. 
 
 In the Preface to the Kalendars of the Exchequer, pub- 
 ■Jshed by the Record Commission, it is stated that " some of 
 trie letters addressed to Hugh le Despeneer. from Gascon y 
 (at various periods in ttie reign of Edward II.), are written 
 on very stout and beautiful vellum, others on paper, of a 
 sound and strong fabric, well-sized, and such as may alto- 
 gether be called a good article. And although, in the Tow- 
 er, there are a few letters upon cotton paper, yet parch- 
 
 ment or vellum was generally used , and these are among 
 the earliest examples of any continued correspondence upon 
 the more commodious material, which in England was 
 very rarely employed. It is highly probable that, in the 
 south of France, the supply was received from the Moorish 
 merchants or manufacturers of Spain." " The original re- 
 gister of the privy seal of Edward the Black Prince, from 
 July, 20 Edw. III., to January, 21 Edw. III., forming one 
 volume, is on paper. 
 
 It is a commonly received opinion that the first paper 
 mill was erected in England during the reign of Elizabeth ; 
 though it has been asserted that the first mill was set up 
 in Charles the First's reign, by a German of the name of 
 John Spilman, or Spielmnn ; that the king granted him n 
 patent, and a salary of £900 a year. Both these opinions 
 are proved to be erroneous by an entry in the privy-purse 
 expenses of Henry VII., dated May 35th, 1498, published in 
 the Exeerpta Historica. " For a rewarde yeven at tlie pa- 
 per mylno, 1(5*. &d„" which establishes with certainty an 
 anterior date of full fifty years. Dr. Dibdin gives this ac- 
 count of Spilman, on the authority of Dr. Harris ; but the 
 statement is invalidated by Mr. Ntcholls, in his Progri 
 of Queen Elizabeth, who has reprinted in that work a poem 
 of the date 1588, of which the following is the title: J 7V 
 seription and playne Discourse of Paper, nnd the ichoh 
 ll'-n, jitts that Paper brings, with liehearsall, and letting 
 foorth in Verse a Paper-viyll built near Dartkford, by an 
 high Germnine, ca/lid Matter Spilmav, Jeirr'lir r.< the 
 Qmmm'j .Majestic, 1588. Perhaps no other manufacture 
 ever remained so long nearly stationary : though within the 
 last fifty years such great and rapid Improvement! have 
 been made in it as to equal, if not to surpass, any other 
 branch of manufacturing industry. 
 
 The application of paper to the purposes of writing and 
 printing, dad the fact of its being Indispensable to the prose 
 cation of the latter, render its manufacture of Hie highest 
 utility and Importance. But. even in a commercial point of 
 view, its value is very considerable. Prance, Holland, and 
 Genoa had, for a lengthened period, a decided superiority 
 in this department. The finest and best paper being made 
 of linen rags, its quality may be supposed to depend, in a 
 con-iderable degree, on the sort of linen usually worn in 
 the country where it is manufactured ; and this circum 
 is said to account for the greater whiteness of the 
 Dutch and Belgian papers as compared with those of the 
 French and Italians, and. still more, of the Germans. The 
 rags used in the manufacture <>( writing paper in Great 
 Britain, are collected at home ; but those used in the mmu 
 facture of the best printing-paper are Imported principally 
 from Italy, Hamburgh, and the Austrian states, by way of 
 Trieste. 
 
 We believe, however, that it was owing rather to the 
 want of skill than, as has sometimes been supposed, to the 
 inferior quality of the linen of this country, that the manu- 
 facture of paper was not carried on with much suc< 
 England till a comparatively recent i>eriod. During the 17tli 
 century, most part of our supply was Imported from the 
 Continent, especially from France. The manufacture if 
 said to have been considerably improved by the French ref- 
 Ogeei who fled to this country in 1685. But H is distinctly 
 stated in the Uritish Merchant (vol. ti., p. 2C6), that hardly 
 any sort of paper, except brown, was made here previously 
 to the Revolution. In lf>90, however, the manufacture of 
 white paper was attempted ; and, within a few years, most 
 branches were much Improved. In 1721 it is supposed that 
 there were about 300,000 reams of paper annually produced 
 in Great Britain, which was equal to about two thirds of 
 the whole consumption. In 1783 the value of the paper 
 annually manufactured was estimated at £780,000. At 
 present, besides making a sufficient quantity of most sorts 
 of paper for our own use, we annually export about .£100,000 
 worth of books We still, however, continue to import cer- 
 tain descriptions of paper for engravings from France, and 
 a snmii supply of paper-hangings. The duty on both 
 amounts to about jE2800 a year. 
 
 In 1813, Dr. Colquhoun estimated the value of pa|ier an- 
 nually produced in Great Britain at £2,000,000; but Mr. 
 Stevenson, an incomparably better authoritv upon such 
 subjects, estimated it at only half this sum. From informa- 
 tion obtained from those engaged in the trade, we incline to 
 think that the total annual value of the paper manufacture 
 in the United Kingdom, exclusive of the duty, mav at 
 present amount to about £1,200,000 or XI, 300,000. There 
 are about 700 paper-mills in Ensrland, and from 70 to 80 in 
 Scotland. The number in Ireland is but inconsiderable. 
 About 27,000 individuals are supposed to be directly en- 
 gaged in the trade ; and, besides the workmen employed in 
 the mills, the paper manufacture creates a considerable 
 demand for the labour of millwrights, machinists, smiths, 
 ca rpen t er s, iron and brass-founders, wire-workers, woollen 
 manufacturers, and others in the machinery and apparatus 
 of the mills. Some parts of these are very powerful, and 
 
 S85 
 
PAPER. 
 
 subject to severe strain ; and other parts are complicated 
 and delicate, and require continual renovation. Owing to 
 this, the manufacture is of much greater importance, as a 
 source of employment, than might at first be supposed, or 
 than it would seem to be considered by government, who 
 have loaded it with an excise duty amounting to more than 
 three times as much as the total wages of the work-people 
 employed ! 
 
 We pass on from this brief account of the history and 
 statistics of paper to the mechanical process of its pro- 
 duction ; only remarking, that many articles have been 
 resorted to in its manufacture — the tendrils of the vine, the 
 stalks of the nettle, the thistle, and mallow ;* the bark of 
 the willow, the hawthorn, the beech, the aspen, and the 
 lime. Some patents have been obtained for making it of 
 straw ; and the bine of the hop, it is presumed, might fur- 
 nish material for the supply of paper to all England ; but, 
 leaving these inferior substitutes, we shall confine our- 
 selves to the description of paper made from linen rags, 
 that being the staple of the manufacture. 
 
 The rags in the London market are sold to the manu- 
 facturers according to their respective quality, under the 
 terms fine, 2d, 3d English rags ; and SPFF, SPF, FF, &c. 
 foreign rags : fine, being wholly linen, and of the best 
 quality, is used for the finest writing-paper, and so in their 
 gradation down to the commonest, which is coarse, often 
 canvass, and can only be made into an inferior printing- 
 paper when it has been thoroughly bleached. In these 
 Inferior papers some cotton is mixed. There are also the 
 strong, coarse bags in which the rags are packed, and the 
 coloured rags, only fit for the most common papers ; though 
 out of these the blue are usually sorted for the purpose of 
 making blue paper. It is necessary that these rags should 
 be dusted ; and, to accomplish this, they are either placed 
 In a cylinder formed of wire net, turning on pivots at each 
 end, and enclosed in a box which receives the dust as it 
 falls through the net-work, or else their sorting takes place 
 over a table frame covered with wire net, through which 
 the dust falls into a box beneath as the workwoman pro- 
 c< ?ds In her labours. T) f\rs '' the^l modes, however 
 t preservation of •. e health of those employed in 
 the work. The rags are th :n cut into pieces not exceeding 
 three or four inches square, the parts that have seams be- 
 ing thrown into a separate heap, or the sewing-thread might 
 make filaments in the paper. In this process the rags are 
 scrupulously sorted according to their texture and degree 
 of strength, not according to their colour ; for, were they 
 not carefully arranged by this rule, the fine in texture 
 would be reduced to a pulp long before the coarse, and be 
 lost in the preparation ; or, if preserved, when reduced to 
 pulp, would not be found of the same consistency as the 
 coarser sorts, and the paper, when manufactured, would 
 necessarily be clouded and inferior. It is for these reasons 
 that this part of the process is important. When carefully 
 sorted, and the different degrees of texture having, by a 
 longer or shorter process, been reduced to a pulp of similar 
 consistency, they may then be mixed together ; but this 
 cannot be previously done. While in this state the rags 
 often appear so dirty and discoloured as to preclude all 
 hope, to an-lnexperienced eye, that they can ever assume 
 the purity of that beautiful fabric so valuable to the artist 
 and the scribe. This purification used formerly to be ef- 
 fected by water running through a receptacle filled with 
 the rags, which in its passage eventually carried oil" their 
 soil ; but the present more expeditious process is that of 
 boiling them, mixed up with lime, in a species of chest, so 
 perforated as to allow the admission of steam ; and by this 
 means they are partially bleached. It is but due to the 
 superior cleanliness of our own country to state, that the 
 rags collected in England require little bleaching; but, as 
 these form a small proportion of the quantity used in our 
 extensive manufactories, bleaching takes an important 
 place in the process. The superfluous moisture is squeezed 
 from the rags, and they are placed in a sort of chamber or 
 receiver, which is air-tight, and pipes are conducted into it 
 from a retort, which convey chlorine, formed, by the ap- 
 plication of heat, from manganese, common salt, and sul- 
 phuric acid. This part requires much care ; for if carried 
 beyond its due point, it proves most injurious to the dura- 
 bility of the fabric. The rags when taken from this cham- 
 ber are strongly imbued with a most nauseous smell, and 
 
 * The works of the Marquis de Villette, published in London. 17S6, in 
 21rao, are printed on paper made of marshmallow ; and at the end are spe- 
 cimens, in single leaves, of paper made of the nettle, hops, moss, reed, three 
 of three species of conferva, couch erass, spindle trees, wayfaring tree, elm, 
 I'B-.e tree, yelloir'willow, sallow willow, poplar, oak, two of burdock, colts- 
 :jn\. and thistle. 
 
 The Chinese make their piper in large sheets of the raw vegetable mate- 
 rial ; it has all ttie appearance of the pulp having been laid on a Bmooth, Hat 
 surface with a bruvh, similar to painting, having one side smooth, and the 
 other with the marks of ihe brush on it. It is unequalled in its quality of 
 receiving a flue anJ delirati tmirrmion of engravings, either from copper or 
 wood. 
 
 require profuse and frequent washings. After this pro 
 cess they are put into the beating engines, and pass 
 through a sort of trituration, which reduces them to a 
 coarse and imperfect pulp, which is called half stuff or first 
 stuff, and this is again levigated until it assumes the ap 
 pearance of cream. 
 
 The state and quality of this pulp is of the utmost im 
 portance to the final perfection of the paper. If, in the levi 
 gation, the fibre should have been so entirely destroyed as 
 to reduce it to jelly, the paper will inevitably prove liable 
 to break, moulder away, and be rotten ; and this must re- 
 sult whatever the previous excellence of the material. A 
 fibre is absolutely necessary to the production of a service- 
 able paper. Mr. Murray, in a little work on the subject full 
 of practical science, recommends that a small proportion 
 of unbleached flax should be added to the half staff— an 
 expedient that would doubtless much increase the strength 
 and durability of our manufacture. But, unfortunately, so 
 far from means being taken to improve its consistency, 
 others are resorted to, for the sake of an increased profit, 
 which deteriorate almost to destruction : we mean the in 
 traduction of plaster of Paris, or other earthy substances, 
 into the pulp ; and this can never be done without ensuring 
 brittleness and want of cohesion as the result. While the 
 pulp is in this state, the size, made from sheep-skins and 
 other animal substances, together with a solution of alum, 
 is introduced, excepting only in the manufacture of writing 
 paper, and then the sheets are most generally sized after 
 their formation. 
 
 Having described the preparation of the material, we 
 shall pass on to its formation into paper. 
 
 The fine pulp, or stuff, as it is technically called, is 
 transferred into a chest or large tub with a revolving agi 
 tator ; from thence into a vat, usually about 5 feet in 
 diameter, and 2£ feet in depth, and sustained at a proper 
 temperature by means of a fire ; and it is generally arranged 
 for this vat to be placed against a wall of the room, that 
 the fuel to the fire may be supplied at an aperture externa! 
 ly, to prevent any injury from smoke. During the whole 
 of the subsequent process it is requisite that the pulp in 
 the vat should be stirred up at sftort intervals, to keep it 
 of an equal consistency. There are three workmen em- 
 ployed in this stage of the operation, called the dipper, the 
 coucher, and the lifter. The dipper is provided with a 
 mould, formed of well-seasoned mahogany, across which 
 parallel wires are stretched close together, a few other 
 stronger ones being also placed at right angles with then!. 
 and at some distance from each other. The lines formed 
 in the paper by these wires are called water-marks ; but, 
 in the modern improvement of wove paper, these an 
 avoided by using wire cloth woven in a loom, which, being 
 tightly stretched over the frame, produces no water-mark 
 This mould is provided with another frame, called a 
 deckle, which fits it exactly, and forms a boundary line to 
 the sheet of pvper, which would otherwise have a rough 
 and jagged edge. This contrivance, by supplying sin edge 
 to the mould, gives it the character of a sieve, which en- 
 ables the dipper, after he has dipped the mould into the 
 vat, and taken in a sufficient quantity of the pulp, and 
 given it a gentle motion to equalize its thickness, to drain 
 the water away ; he then removes the deckle, replaces it 
 on another mould, and proceeds as before ; while the sec- 
 ond workman, the coucher, removes the sheet of paper 
 thus made on to a felt, being a piece of woollen cloth, and 
 then returns the mould to the dipper, who, in the mean- 
 time, has been operating with another mould, and forming 
 another sheet: they thus exchange the moulds, the one 
 dipping, and the other couching, until they have completed 
 six quires of paper, which is called a post. When this 
 quantity is completed, the heap is conveyed to the vat 
 press, and subjected to heavy pressure. These six quires 
 remain in the vat press until the dipper and the coucher 
 have perfected another post, when they are removed to 
 give place to it ; and then the office of the third workman, 
 the lifter, commences. He separates the sheets of paper 
 from the felts, and forms them into a pile, which is again 
 subjected to a second press, which detaches from them a 
 great quantity of moisture. Here it remains until the 
 workmen are prepared to replace it with a similar quantity, 
 when it is taken to the drying rooms, and hung up on lines 
 to dry. These lines are carefully covered with wax, both 
 to prevent adhesion and contraction ; and the opening of. 
 the windows should be strictly attended to, that the drying 
 may not proceed too rapidly. This being accomplished, it 
 is taken down, shaken, to make the ciust fall out, and u 
 separate the sheets from each other, and laid up in heaps 
 ready to be sized. The size is prepared of a due consistence 
 twice filtered, and a portion of alum added. The workmas 
 dips a handful of the sheets, holding them open tit the 
 edges, that they may more equally imbibe the moisture, and 
 after this process they are again subjected to the press 
 They are afterwards dried, sorted, brought under repeated 
 
PAPER. 
 
 and excessive pressure, and, finally, made up into quires 
 and reams. 
 
 But as the process of paper-making most necessarily be 
 comparatively slow when practised by hand, machinery 
 has been resorted to, which has nearly supplanted the old 
 method. We believe France has the honour of the inven- 
 tion, although it has been greatly improved in England by- 
 Messrs. Donkin and Co. That in most general use here is 
 after Fourdrinier, who invented the endless web of wire. 
 One of these machines can produce 25 superficial feet of 
 paper per minute; and it is this which enables us to enter 
 into competition with the foreign market, which we could 
 Dot otherwise do, on account of the difference in the value 
 of manual labour. In the old method, it took three months 
 after receiving the rags into the mill to complete the paper: 
 by the machine, they can receive the rags on one day, and 
 deliver the paper made from them on the next. 
 
 The stuff having been prepared and bleached in an ei- 
 peditious manner by machinery, is emptied into the chest 
 or tub, as before, and from thence is delivered gradually 
 into the vat, where it is kept in continual motion by means 
 of revolving fans, called hogs. Nearly at the top of the vat 
 there is a gate, which can be raised or lowered at pleasure, 
 by means of which the flow of stuff is regulated on to the 
 lip or trough, from which it falls upon tin: mdlMI web of 
 fine wire, which is kept continually moving in a horizontal 
 direction over a series of revolving rollers, and is placid 
 immediately under the hanging lip of the trough, so that 
 the pulp may have the shortest distance possible to fall. 
 These revolving rollers prevent the wire web from falling 
 in or bagging, and keep it level ; and as it is preserved at a 
 due tension from side to side, it has all the ap|>earance of 
 a table. A leather strap, or ledge of wood, on each side, 
 f'rms the boundary line of the paper, answering the pur- 
 pose of the deckle in the hand-making process; these are 
 movable, according to the intended width of the paper. 
 The long cascade or continuous stream of pulp, regulated 
 with reference to the proposed thickness of the paper to be 
 made, thus gently descends on this moving wire plane, 
 which is perpetually travelling onward and onward; and, 
 
 sorted to, by rt ol crank, which gi.-es the web' 
 
 a jerking motion at short intervals, and diffuses the liquid 
 pulp unvaryingly over the surface. At the end Dearest to 
 the trough the pulp is, of course, perfectly thud ; but, as the 
 web travels on, tin; moisture partially sinks through the 
 tper lures of the webbing, and the material coagulntes. 
 There has been a fashion prevalent of late years of having 
 pajier barred or ribbed: this appearance is given at tins 
 'tincture. While yet moist, just before passing from the 
 wire webbing, it is subjected to the pressure of a wire roller, 
 which gives the indentations of the strips or lines; this 
 cylinder is called a tlainlij ; from this it travels to a web of 
 cloth or felt, during which advance it is subjected to heavy 
 pressures, from passing between rollers covered with felt, 
 and called the prating rollers. This process 1 answers to 
 the wet press in the hand-made paper ; and formerly this 
 was the termination of the labours of the machines, the re- 
 maining work of drying, &c., being accomplished by hand. 
 Hut an incalculable Improvement took place in the addition 
 of the drying rollers. These are three cylinders of polished 
 metal, winch effect in a few moments the perfect drying of 
 the paper : while yet moist it passes over the first moderate- 
 ly warm ; again over the second, of larger diameter, of 
 greater warmth; and again over the third with an aug- 
 mented heat. The paper is now perfectly dry, and any 
 casual inequalities are removed from its surface. The final 
 action of this wonderful machine is to wind the paper 
 round a last roller or reel, which, when full, is exchanged 
 for another, and so on successively. 
 
 Here the work of the machine is finished ; and the paper, 
 being in long webs of many yards, requires to be cut into 
 sheets. Aftc - different methods had been tried, a supple- 
 mentary machine has been invented, which receives the 
 well from off the reel on to a drum, cuts it into sheets of 
 projier length with a circular knife, continually revolving, 
 while the divided web proceeds; and these sheets are re- 
 ceived and placed in regular heaps by children. 
 
 Mr. Dickinson has recently made great improvements in 
 the machine, which has consequently been followed by a 
 corresponding improvement in the paper manufactured by 
 the house of Messrs. John Dickinson & Co., which has long 
 been celebrated for producing paper of a superior quality. 
 
 The manufacture of the paper being thus completed, the 
 sheets are separately examined, and every knot or blemish 
 carefully removed, the torn or damaged ones «being laid 
 apart. In this state they are subjected to the action of a 
 powerful press, in the full and open size of the sheet: they 
 are afterwards cut round the edge, and then counted into 
 quires of twenty four sheets, which are folded in the mid- 
 dle, and put into reams, each ream containing twenty- 
 quires, of which the two on the outside are made up of 
 
 PAPIER-MACHE. 
 
 twenty sheets each from the damaged sheets that were 
 thrown out. In this state they are again pressed, and finally 
 tied up in wrappers. These wrappers are stamped by the 
 exciseman; and by the act 6 &. 7 Will. 4, c. 5-2, the paper 
 is charged with an excise duty of three halfpence a pound. 
 When the duty on paper was charged according to the 
 size, the makers were obliged to be particular in the dimer. 
 sions. The following table shows the exact size of the dif- 
 ferent writing, drawing, and printing papers, as enforced by 
 the excise under the powers vested in them by act of par- 
 liament 
 
 Double Atlas . 
 Grand Eagle, or Dou- 
 ble Elephant . 
 Double Demy 
 Coliimbier 
 Atlas 
 
 Altai, Mull . 
 Imperial 
 Double Crown 
 Elephant 
 
 il . 
 l/>n? Kuyal . 
 Km ,1 . . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Double Pott . 
 l-arre Fan 
 Smill Fan 
 Medium 
 
 Extra Lug* Post . 
 ' 1 luu Tost 
 Snwll l'oit 
 Demy, single 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Demy 
 
 Short Demy . 
 
 Bastard . 
 Cronn . 
 
 iwa 
 . 
 Littrw Foolscap . 
 Ml 
 
 Pint TabU. Second Table. Third Table, 
 
 Writing. 
 
 3ftJ by 22 
 27i ' l&J 
 
 |M 
 
 tej 
 
 16$ ' 13£ 
 iii ' 12* 
 
 Drawing. 
 
 Inc .a. 
 
 55 by 3l£ 
 
 40 26} 
 
 3-lJ 23.$ 
 34 26+ 
 
 31 s>. 
 
 I'.' I 
 [f, 
 
 1-4 
 
 23j 20i 
 MX ISA 
 
 Jul 
 
 on* 
 
 a 
 
 3?i by 26 
 
 ui i9j 
 
 *4 » 
 
 22 
 311 
 
 It Will be seen, by the preceding table, that ue largest 
 sheet of hand-made paper Is 4 feet 7 inches In length by 'J 
 
 feet 7 Inches and a half in breadth ; while machine-made 
 paper is of the width of 5 feet, ami appears to be unlimited 
 as to its length. 
 PAPER HANGINGS. This important and elea 
 
 stitute for the ancient "hangings" of tapestry or cloth came 
 into use about 200 years ago : the manufacture lias under- 
 gone a gradual succession of Improvements, and has now 
 reached a high state of beauty and perfection. The pattern I 
 on these papers are sometimes produced by stencil plates, 
 but more commonly by blocks, each colour being laid on by 
 a separate block cut in wood or metal upon a plain or tinted 
 ground. The patterns are sometimes printed In varnish or 
 size, and gilt or copper leaf applied ; or bisulphurate of tin 
 (aurum musinum) is dusted over so as to adhere to the pat- 
 tern ; and in what are c&]\edJlock papers, dyed wools minced 
 into powder are similarly applied. Powdered steatite, or 
 French chalk, is used to produce the peculiar gloss known 
 under the name of satin. Striped papers are sometimes 
 made by passing the paper rapidly under a trough, which 
 has parallel slits in its bottom through which the colour is 
 delivered ; and a number of other very ingenious and beau- 
 tiful contrivances have lately been applied in this important 
 branch of art. The invention of the paper machine, by 
 which any length of paper may be obtained!, effected a 
 great change in paper hangings, which could formerly only 
 be printed upon separate sheets, and were much more in- 
 convenient to print as well as to apply to the walls. A 
 plausible suggestion upon the subject of " intellectual paper 
 hangings," will be found in No. 504 of the Penny Maga- 
 zine. The reduction of the duty on paper, and the repeal 
 of that on paper hangings, not only create a greater demand 
 for, but are likely to lead to farther improvements in this 
 manufacture. 
 
 I'APER MONEY. See Banks. 
 
 PAPER SAILOR, or PAPER NAUTILUS. See Ar- 
 gonaut. 
 
 PAPIER-MACHE. A name given to articles manufac- 
 tured of the pulp of paper, or of old paper ground up into a 
 pulp, bleached, if necessary, and moulded into various 
 forms. This article has lately been used upon an exten 
 sive scale for the manufacture of mouldings, rosettes, and 
 other architectural ornaments ; pilasters, capitals, and 
 even figures as large as life, have also been made of\t. It 
 is lighter, more durable, and less brittle and liable to dam- 
 age than plaster, and admits of being coloured, gilt, oi 
 otherwise ornamented. Another article sometimes goes 
 under the same name which is more like pasteboard, con- 
 sisting of sheets of paper pasted or glued and powerful!) 
 pressed together, so as to acquire, when dry, the hardness 
 
 bu7 
 
PAPILIONACEjE. 
 
 of board, and yet to admit, while moist, of curvature and 
 flexure : tea-trays, waiters, snuff-boxes, and similar articles 
 are thus prepared, and afterwards carefully covered by 
 japan or other varnishes, and often beautifully ornamented 
 by figures or landscapes and other devices, &c, occasion- 
 ally inlaid with mother of pearl. A mixture of sulphate 
 of iron, quicklime, and glue, or white of egg, with the piflp 
 for papier-mache, renders it to a greater extent water- 
 proof; and the farther addition of borax and phosphate of 
 soda contributes to make it almost fire-proof. The chief 
 papier-mache manufactory in England is that of Bielefeld, 
 in Wellington street, Strand, who has recently published 
 a concise history of the manufacture, embellished with 
 numerous illustrations. 
 PAPILIONACE^E. See Lequminaceje. 
 PAPILIONA'CEOUS. A name given to the corolla of 
 leguminous plants, from its fancied resemblance to the fig- 
 ure of a butterfly : it is that of the garden pea and bean, 
 and consists of a large upper petal or vexillum, two lateral 
 petals called al;e, and two intermediate petals forming a 
 carina. 
 
 PAPILIO'NHLE. (Lat. papilio, a butterfly.) The name 
 of a family of Lepidopterous insects, of which the genus 
 Papilio is the type. See Diurnals. 
 
 PA'PIST. (Lat. papa, the pope.) A word in common 
 use to designate a member of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 It has a shade of meaning somewhat different from Roman- 
 ist, being employed generally with a certain degree of 
 prejudice and obloquy attached to it. 
 
 PA'PPUS. A name given to the calyx of Compositre, 
 which exists in the rudimentary condition of a cap or mem- 
 branous coronet, or of slender hairs, or in some other simi- 
 lar condition. 
 
 PAPY'RI. The name given to the written scrolls, made 
 of the papyrus, which have been found in various places, 
 but more especially in Egypt and Herculaneum. The pro- 
 cess of making papyri was as follows : The interior of the 
 stalks of the plant, after the rind had been removed, was 
 cut into thin slices in the direction of their length; these 
 being laid on a flat board in succession, similar slices were 
 placed over them at right angles ; and their surfaces being 
 cemented together by a sort of glue, and subjected to a 
 proper degree of pressure, and well dried, the papyrus was 
 completed. The length of the slices depended, of course, 
 on the breadth of the intended sheet, as that of the sheet 
 on the number of slices placed in succession beside each 
 other ; so that though the breadth was limited, the papyrus 
 might be extended to an Indefinite length. Many of the 
 papyri which have been preserved, vary greatly in their 
 texture and appearance : they are generally fragile and 
 difficult to unrol until rendered pliable by gradual exposure 
 to steam or the damp of an English climate ; and some are 
 bo brittle that they appear to have been dried by artificial 
 means. {Sir G. Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the 
 Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii., p. 147-8.) Much interest was 
 excited by the discovery of the papyri rolls at Herculaneuni, 
 and great expectations were entertained by archaeologists 
 that many of the valuable remains of antiquity would be 
 restored to the world ; but " after all the trouble that has 
 been taken, and all the ingenuity that has been displayed 
 in unrolling and deciphering many of them, little or nothing 
 has been found worthy of the pains. They consist chiefly 
 Df Greek sophists and rhetoricians; works on music, medi- 
 ».ine, and the arts ; and some on natural and moral philos- 
 ophy," &c. All the deciphered papyri are contained in the 
 work Herculanicnsium Voluminum quw supcrsunt, publish- 
 ed at Naples, 1827. 
 
 PAPY'RUS. In Botany, a Cyperaceous plant found in the 
 districts of many tropical countries, but especially in the 
 valley of the Nile, and whose soft cellular flower-stem af- 
 forded the most ancient material from which paper was 
 made. Among the ancients the term papyrus formed the 
 general appellation for all the different plants of the genus 
 Cyperus, which was extensively used for making mats, 
 baskets, boats, and many other purposes; the species con- 
 fined to the manufacture of paper being usually designated 
 Cyperus papyrus, or Byblos. The latter was' particularly 
 cultivated in the Sebennytic nome; though other parts of 
 the Delta also produced it, and probably even some districts 
 in Upper Egypt. The paper made from it differed in qual- 
 ity, being dependant upon the growth of the plant and the 
 part of the stalk whence it was taken. Tbe process of the 
 manufacture is minutely described by Pliny in his Hist. 
 Jfat. xiii., 11, 12. The period at which paper began to be 
 manufactured from the papyrus Is involved in great obscu- 
 rity ; but there can be little doubt that Pliny was greatly in 
 error when he assigned it a date posterior to the reign of 
 Alexnnder the Great; for we meet with papyri (see above) 
 of the most remote Pharaonic periods, the same mode of 
 writing on which is shown from the sculptures to have been 
 common in the aire of Sitphis or Cheops, the builder of the 
 treat pyramid, more than 2000 years before the Christian 
 
 a j i i 
 
 
 1 It 
 
 
 T. 
 
 A. 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 IC~~^ 
 
 o 
 
 't 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 PARABOLA. 
 
 era. The manufacture of paper from the papyrus contln 
 ued in general use down to the end of the 7th century, 
 when it was superseded by parchment (which see). 
 PAR OF EXCHANGE. See Exchange. 
 PA'RABLE. (Gr. Ttapa66\n; from ir.ipatiaXXu), I com 
 pare.) In Rhetoric, in the original sense, a comparison ; 
 but the word has become, in modern language, appropriate 
 in a particular meaning. The parables of the New Testa- 
 ment are illustrations, in the form of short tales, after the 
 oriental manner, in each of which not only a moral or reli- 
 gious truth is conveyed, but the objects contained in the 
 hidden sense are distinctly represented by parallel objects 
 or types in the external narrative. 
 
 PARA'BOLA. In Geometry, one of the conic sections . 
 formed by the intersection of the cone with a plane parallel 
 to one of its sides. Considered as a plane curve, the para- 
 bola may be defined as follows : A point F, and a straight 
 line B B', being given by position in a pkme, let another 
 point D be supposed to move in such a manner that its dis- 
 tance D F from the given point 
 is always equal to its distance 
 D H from the given straight line ; 
 the point D will trace out the 
 parabola. 
 
 The given line B B' is called 
 the directrix of the parabola; 
 the given point F is the focus ; 
 the straight line F C, drawn 
 through F perpendicular to the directrix, is the axis ; any 
 Straight line parallel to C F is a diameter; the point in 
 which the diameter meets the curve is the vertex of the 
 diameter ; and a straight line, quadruple the distance be- 
 tween the vertex of any diameter and the directrix, is called 
 the latus rectum or parameter of that diameter. 
 
 From the preceding definition of the curve its algebraic 
 equation is easily found. Let A be the origin of the rect- 
 angular co-ordinates, A K — x, K !) = </. and A l' = AC 
 = a ; we have D K* or y* = D F2 — F K^ ; but DK = D B 
 = C K = x + a, and F K = A K — AF=i — o ; therefore 
 yi = (i + a) 2 — (x — a)*, whence yi = iax ; or, If we as- 
 sumc p = 4 a (= the parameter of the axis), the equation 
 becomes y * = ;» x ; that is, the square of the ordinate is 
 equal to the rectangle under the absciss and the parame- 
 ter. This property holds true of every other diameter as 
 well as of the axis, the ordinate being taken parallel to the 
 tangent at the vertex of the diameter. It was on account 
 of this property that the curve received its name. 
 
 Let FD=r, and the angle A F 1) — <j> ; then F K = 
 — r cos. 6, and consequently CK = 2i — r cos. <j>. But 
 by the definition of the curve, CK = FD = r; there- 
 
 2a 
 
 fore r = 2i — r cos. d>, whence r = r— ; ■ — -. This 
 
 r 1 -J- cos. a) 
 
 is the polar equation of the parabola. 
 
 Let T t be a tangent to the parabola through D ; it is a 
 property of the curve that the angle H D T, and conse- 
 quently the vertical angle A 1) t, is equal to F D T. A ray 
 of light, therefore, falling on the curve In the direction A 
 D, and being reflected by it, would pass through the point 
 F; and as this takes place with regard to every ray parallel 
 to the axis, it follows that the concave surface formed by 
 the revolution of a parabola about its axis is that by wliich 
 all the parallel rays of light are collected into a single 
 point. Hence the point F is called the focus, or burning 
 point. 
 
 Another remarkable property of the parabola is the fol- 
 lowing: Let P A be a tangent to the curve at P, and from 
 A and B, points in the tangent, let 
 A C and B D be drawn parallel to 
 the diameter P M N ; then A C : 
 B D : : P A2 : P B*. For, making C 
 M and D N parallel to P B, and as- , 
 suming p be the parameter of the 
 diameter P N, we have, from a 
 property already mentioned, M C- = p- PM, and N D 2 = ? 
 P N ; therefore M C* : N B-2 : : P M : P N, or P A* Pit-:. 
 A C: B D. Hence the parabola is the curve described by a 
 projectile in a vacuum ; for a body projected from P in the 
 direction P A. and not resisted, would pass over spices in 
 that direction proportional to the times; and", in conse- 
 quence of the accelerating force of gravity, it falls through 
 spaces A C and B D in the perpendicular direction propor- 
 tional to the squares of the times, or proportional to the 
 squares of P A and P B. See Gunnery. Projectile. 
 
 The parabola is remarkable, as being the first curve of 
 which the indefinite quadrature was found. Let P N be a 
 diameter, and P B a tangent at its vertex, and B II and D N 
 respectively parallel to P N and P 1! ; it was demonstrated 
 by Archimedes that the area contained by P N, N D, and 
 the parabolic arc P C D, is equal to two thirds of the par- 
 allelogram P B D N. 
 
 The curve which has now been described is called the 
 conical or Jlpollonian parabola ; but the term parabola la 
 
PARABOLIC CONOID. 
 
 nlso applied to all algebraic curves of a higher order de 
 termined by an equation of the form y m + a = a m x a . The 
 curve whose equation is y 3 = ai x is called the cubical par- 
 fil)ol;i ; and that which has for its equation y3 = az 2 , the 
 scmicubical parabola. This latter curve is celebrated in 
 the history of the algebraic analysis as being the first curve 
 that was rectified, or found equal in length to an assignable 
 ■might line ; and the honour of the discovery belongs to an 
 Englishman, William Neil, who died in 1670 at the early 
 age of thirty three. The same discovery was made nearly 
 at the same time by Van Heuraet in Holland : till then it 
 hid been supposed by geometers impossible 10 
 straight line equal to the arc of any algebraic curve (the 
 rectification of the cycloid had been found by Sir Christo- 
 pher Wren) ; but the discovery of the method of fluxions 
 soon showed that there are innumerable classes of curves 
 susceptible of indefinite rectification. In fact, till parabolas 
 of this form y 2n + ' =ax? n , where n is any number what- 
 ever, miy be rectified. (Montucla, Hiitoire des Mathema.- 
 tiaum. torn. ii.. p. 151.) See Conic Sections. 
 
 PARABOLIC CONOID. The solid generated by the 
 rotation of a parabola about its axis. It is equal in content 
 to i the circumscribed cylinder, and to ~ of the cone having 
 the same base and altitude. 
 
 P \i; ABO'LIC CURVE. A curve of which the equa- 
 tion is of the form y=a + b z + c x- -f- d i 3 -4- tec. Curves 
 of this kind are frequently employed for the purpose of re- 
 presenting a number of observations, or for approximating 
 to the anas of other curves; for it is always possible to 
 rtiij..- ■ paratoMo curve to pass through any number of 
 points in a given curve, by making as many of the coef- 
 :, h, c, tec. indeterminate, as there are points given ; 
 and the curve thus descrilied will differ less from the given 
 •' ■orditig as the number of points is greater. But 
 the area of the parabolic curve can always lie determined ; 
 therefore that of the other curve may lie found to any re- 
 quired degree of approximation. 
 
 PARABO'LiC BPINDLE. The solid conceived to be 
 formed by the rotation of a parabola about its base, or 
 double onlii! 
 
 PARABO'LOID, i< sometimes used to denote the para- 
 bola- of tin.' higher orders ; and sometimes the solid formed 
 by the rotation of a pirabola about its axis, or the parabo- 
 lic conoid. 
 
 l'AHACi: I.S1STS. Followers of the school of Para- 
 celsus in medicine, physics, and mystical science. The 
 founder of this school may perhaps be called with Justice 4 
 the in i t distlngalsbed quack who ever made a figure in 
 the world. He practised medicine "with the boldness of a 
 wandering empiric." and established a successful opposi- 
 tion to the traditionary doctrines of the so called schools 
 of Hippocrates and Aristotle. Be mingled his medical and 
 chemical knowledge with the speculations of the Cabbala, 
 and with a ttteoaophy of his own. Be died in 1541. His 
 followers continued to influence the schools of Germany 
 for more than a century. (See Hallam's Introduction to 
 the. Literature, of the Middle Ages, 1., 5-11, 639 ; ii., 70, «tc. ; 
 and Mosheim, vol. ivj 
 
 PARACENTESIS. (Gr. irapxcvTcu), I perforate.) The 
 operation of tripping any of the cavities of the body for 
 the purpose of w ithdrawing a contained fluid. 
 
 I'M! AC I'.'NTRIC. (Gr. irapa, and Ktvtpov, centre.) In 
 the higher Geometry, the name given to a curve line hav- 
 ing this property, that a heavy body descending along it 
 by the force of gravity will approach to. or recede from a 
 cmtrr fir fixed point, by equal distances in equal times. 
 
 PARACENTRIC MOTION, in Astronomy, denotes the 
 rate tit which a planet approaches nearer to, or recedes 
 farther from the sun or centre of attraction, in a given 
 interval. 
 
 I' \K ACE PHALOPHO'RES. (Gr. Tapn, beside kcQoXv, 
 head, and 0/pui, I carry.) A name given by M. De Blain- 
 vllle to a class of Mollusks, comprehending those in which 
 the head is but little distinct from the body, but always 
 provided with some of the organs of sense, 
 
 I'AK ACHI'TE. (Fr. parer, to ward off, and chute, fall; 
 a guard against falling.) An apparatus resembling the 
 common umbrella, but of far greater extent, intended to 
 enable an aeronaut, in case of alarm, to drop from his bal- 
 loon to the ground without sustaining injury. This is ef- 
 fected by means of the resistance of the atmosphere. 
 When the parachute is detached from the balloon, and 
 abandoned with its load in the air, it must proceed at first, 
 from the continued action of gravity, with an accelerated 
 motion, until the increased velocity produces a resistance 
 equal to the force of attraction, or the weight of the appa- 
 ratus with its load. After this equilibrium has been at- 
 tained, the parachute will descend with a nearly uniform 
 velocity. According to theory, this terminal velocity, sup- 
 posing the surface of the parachute to be flat, is equal 
 to that which a heavy body would acquire in falling through 
 
 PARADISE. 
 
 the altituue of a column of air incumbent on that surface, 
 and having the same weight as the whole apparatus. A 
 circular parachute having a diameter of 30 feet, and weigh- 
 ing with its load 2-25 pounds, would acquire a terminal ve- 
 locity of about 13 feet per second ; and a person descending 
 with it at this rate would receive the same shock on reach- 
 ■t the ground as if he dropped freely from a height of 2J 
 feet. (For the method of solving this problem, see Hut- 
 ton's Mathematical Tracts, vol. iii., p. 316.) The actual re- 
 sistance of the air is, however, greater than is given by 
 theory, and is, besides, augmented by the concavity of the 
 parachute, which occasions an accumulation of the fluid; 
 but, on account of the action of the wind, the axis of the 
 parachute will probably become inclined to the vertical, in 
 which case the resistance will sutler a diminution. 
 
 One of the most remarkable instances of descent from 
 a great height with a parachute is that of Garnerin, a 
 Frenchman, who ascended in a balloon from an enclosure, 
 near North Audley Street, in London, on the 2d of Sep- 
 tember, M08, After hovering seven or eight minutes in 
 the atmosphere, he cut the cord by which his. parachute 
 was attached to the balloon. It instantly expanded, and 
 for some seconds descended with an accelerating velocity, 
 till it became tossed extremely, and took such wide oscilla- 
 tions that the basket or car was at times thrown almost 
 into a horizontal position. The intrepid aeronaut narrowly 
 escaped destruction by being precipitated on the houses in 
 St. I'ancras, and at last fortunately nine to the ground in 
 a neighbouring laid. He seemed to be much agitated, and 
 trembled exceedingly at the moment he was released from 
 the car. [Eney. JJrit., "Aeronautics.") 
 
 A recent experiment of this kind, made by Mr. Cocking, 
 was attended with fatal consequences. Having conceive, i 
 a notion that the vibration might be avoided by giving the 
 machine a different form, this j ,r- jector constructed MM In 
 the form of an inverted unibrelli, that is. having the con- 
 cave side uppermost, and bound to a strong wooden hoop 
 to prevent it- collapse in the descent. The diameter of the 
 hoop was 34 feet; and there ml also a hole of 6 feet in 
 diameter in the middle of the parachute, which, it was 
 would also contribute to give greater mnnrtinw 
 Having attached himself to this machine, be 
 from Vauxhali Gardens on the 24th of July, 1837. On 
 being cut away from the balloon the parachute descended 
 
 rapidly, and with violent oscillations : the hoop broke, and 
 the unfortunate projector fell, dreadfully mangled, at I.e,\ 
 near Blackheath. The persons in the car of the balloon 
 were also placed in great danger, having narrowly escape ! 
 sullocation from the quantity of gas expelled in conse- 
 quence of the great velocity with which the balloon darted 
 upwards immediately on being liberated from the para 
 chute. They suffered extreme pain, and for a time were 
 deprived of sight ; but fortunately they bad carried up with 
 them n large bag filled with atmospheric air, by means of 
 which they were enabled to breathe. Without this, they 
 would probably have perished. 
 
 PA'RACLETE, 'Gr. ziijjukAi?™?. advocate.) A name 
 attached to the Holy Spirit, as an advocate, intercessor, or 
 comforter of mankind ; such as he is represented, John, 
 xiv., 16, 26; Rom. viii., 26. It war not an uncommon opin 
 ion of the early heretics, that the Paraclete, whose mission 
 was promised by Christ, was to appear corporeally upon 
 the earth, and complete the dispensation announced by our 
 Lord and the apostles; and they drew u distinction between 
 the person of the Comforter and the effusion of his grace 
 upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost. Accordingly, 
 several of them, Simon Magus, Manes, and others, gave 
 themselves out as this expected Paraclete ; and Tertulltan 
 himself was at one period infatuated by the claims ad- 
 vanced by Montanus to this personification. 
 
 PARACRO'STIC. A poetical composition in which the 
 first verse contains, in order, all the letters which commence 
 the remaining verses of the poem or division. According to 
 Cicero (De Uivinatione, it., 54), the original Sibylline verses 
 were paracrostics. See Acrostic. 
 
 PARACYA'NOGEN. When cyanuret of mercury is do 
 composed by heat, a brown solid matter remains, having the 
 same composition as cyanogen, hence designated as above. 
 
 PARA'DE. (Fr.) The place where troops draw up to 
 do duty, mount guard, etc. The original meaning of the 
 word is show or ostentation ; and it is used as above, be- 
 cause, on these occasions, officers and men are expected to 
 be in full uniform, or completely equipped. 
 
 PA'RADIGM. (Gr.naOaSnyua, an example.) In Rheto- 
 ric, a general term, used by Greek writers in the sense of 
 'example," or " illustration," of which "parable" acd " It 
 Die" are species. (Quintilian, v. 2.) Hence, in early the- 
 ology, those writers who narrated the lives of rel.gious 
 persons, by way of examples of Christian holiness, were 
 stvled Paradigmatics. 
 
 PA'RADISE. (Gr. Tapnlctooc : said to be derived from 
 a Persian or Chaldaic word, or from the Arabic firdauz, a 
 
 889 
 
PARADOX. 
 
 fruitful valley.) This name, of oriental origin, was used 
 by the Greek historians to denote the extensive parks or 
 pleasure grounds of the Persian monarchs. (Xenophon, 
 Cyrop. and CEconom. ; Diod. Sic. xvi., 41 ; xviii., 36 ; de- 
 scribed by Quintus Curtius, viii., 1, who does not use the 
 word. See also Jluhts Gellius, ii., 20.) The Septuawnta 
 have employed the word in their translation of Gene™ ii., 
 8. to signify the abode in which Adam and Eve were 
 placed by their Creator. It also occurs in other parts of 
 their translation. (Numbers, xxiv., 6; Genesis, xiii., 10; 
 Ez., xxviii., 13; xxxi., 8.) It is used in the N. T., in the me- 
 morable passage, Luke, xxiii., 43. The speculations into 
 which this mysterious passage has led learned and pious 
 men, in ,all ages of the church, form too extensive a subject 
 to be entered upon here. The mythologies of many nations 
 contain similar ideas, whether derived from the ancient 
 tradition of a paradise, or formed out of the inherent sense 
 of man of his own imperfection and longing after a better 
 state, from which he imagines himself to have fallen. 
 (See, especially, the first part of Buttmann's JUythologus, 
 and Bryant's Mythology.) The rabbis have formed, as 
 usual, a strange collection of legendary tales out of the 
 simple narrative of Scripture. According to them, there is 
 an upper or heavenly, and a lower or earthly paradise. 
 The lower is situated somewhere under the terrestrial equa- 
 tor. Each is divided into seven dwellings, and each of 
 these is twelve times 10,000 miles in length and breadth. 
 A column ascends from the lower to the tipper heaven, by 
 which the souls of the blessed mount after a temporary 
 sojourn in the former. A wall of partition divides paradise 
 from hell ; and this will fall when the Redeemer comes, 
 and all Israel be gathered together in blessedness. 
 
 The celestial paradise is generally referred to as identical 
 with heaven, or the place of bliss hereafter. Some critics, 
 who weigh very nicely our Lord's expression in addressing 
 the penitent thief, "To-day shalt thou be with me in para- 
 dise," have imagined the existence of a distinct abode for 
 the souls of the just before the final judgment. When we 
 consider, however, that, upon the authority of another pas- 
 sage in Scripture, we affirm that our Saviour went down 
 into hell bet veen his death and resurrection, it will be bet- 
 ter, perhaps, not to affix too definite a meaning either to the 
 one expression or the other. 
 
 The local situation of the terrestrial paradise has been a 
 favourite subject of speculation, both with the fathers of 
 the church and with later inquirers. The reader may con- 
 sult, if he will, the first volume of the compilation called 
 the Jlncient Universal History, where the matter is seri- 
 ously discussed at great lengtli; he will also find it treated 
 in an entertaining article of the Knc. Mctropolitana. (See 
 also Schulthess, Das Paradise, Zurich, 1816.) The most 
 ordinary opinion has placed it on the Euphrates and Tigris. 
 Josephus regards the Pison mentioned in Genesis as the 
 Ganges, the Gihon as the Nile. Hardouin places his in 
 Palestine. 1 1 net (De la Situation du Paradis Terrestrc, 
 1691) enumerates a variety of these theories. The para- 
 dise of the Moslems is termed in the Koran Gannath, or 
 the Happy Gardens; and its description is evidently bor- 
 rowed from the notions of the rabbis and oriental Chris- 
 tians. See, chiefly, chapters lv., lvi. ; but these passages, 
 although flowery enough, contain a very small part of the 
 extravagances, chiefly drawn from tradition, which make 
 up the vulgar Mohammedan notion of paradise. (See, in 
 addition to the authorities already cited, a learned article 
 in the unfinished Encyclopedia of Ersch and Gruber.) 
 
 PA'RADOX. (Gr. irapaiotyf, contrary to received opin- 
 ion.) A term applied to any proposition which seems to 
 be absurd, or at variance with common sense, or to contra- 
 dict some previously ascertained truth ; though, when prop- 
 erly investigated, it may be found to be perfectly well 
 founded. The reader will find in Bishop Horsley's 19th 
 sermon the nature of a paradox, and the points wherein it 
 differs from a contradiction, clearly illustrated. 
 
 PARADOXUS. (Gr. irapaiolos, wonderful.) A name 
 devised to express the obscure nature of a genus of Trilo- 
 bitei (fossil Crustaceans), to which it is attached, and 
 which is characterized by the absence or indistinct nature 
 of the prominent, even-formed eyes which are borne on 
 the shield of all other Trilobites. The segments extend 
 beyond the sides of the body, and are free at their lateral 
 extremity. It serves also as a specific name for obscure 
 and anomalous animals; as the Omithorhynchus paradox- 
 us, J.epidosiren paradoxa, X-c. 
 
 PA'RAFINE. A substance contained in the products 
 of the distillation of the tar of beech wood. It is a taste- 
 less inodorous fatty matter, fusible at 112°, and resists the 
 action of acids and alkalis. It appears to be a hydro-car- 
 bon. Its name is compounded of parum, little, and affinis, 
 akin, to denote the remarkable chemical indifference which 
 is its characteristic feature. A similar substance has been 
 obtained by Dr. Christison from the petroleum of Rangoon. 
 PARA'GIUM. (Lat. par, equal.) In Feudal Jurispru- 
 
 PARALLAX. 
 
 dence, the body of nobles (peerage) was so termed ; the 
 word likewise expressed equality of condition in various 
 legal relations, as, for example, between the lords in part- 
 nership of a fief. Parage was also a custom by which the 
 elder of several coheirs of a fief rendered homage for Die 
 whole, and thereby guaranteed the enjoyment of it to his 
 coheirs as well as himself; in the same manner, one of sev- 
 eral copurchasers might be admitted to a similar privilege. 
 
 PARAGO'GE. (Gr. -rrapa, by the side of, and ay o, I bring.) 
 In Grammar, a figure by which one or more fetters are 
 added at the end of a word ; e. g., in the ordinary forma- 
 tion of diminutives in most languages. See Metaplasm. 
 
 PARAGO'GIC LETTERS. (Gr. wapayioyn, an addi- 
 tion.) In the Semitic languages, letters which, by their 
 addition to the ordinary form of the word, import additional 
 emphasis, or some peculiar inflexion into the sense. Their 
 real meaning and authority have been much debated among 
 Hebrew scholars. 
 
 PA'RAGRAPII (Gr. -KapaypaQoc), ordinarily signifies a 
 small subdivision of a connected discourse, and is indicated 
 by the sign 11 in modern orthography. 
 
 Paragraphe, as used by Greek rhetorical writers, is a po 
 etical figure employed when the writer sums up in a few 
 words the substance of a previous passage, by way of tran- 
 sition to a new one. It was probably so called by analogy. 
 (Eustathius on Horn. II., i., 304.) 
 
 PARALEl'PSIS. (Gr.7rapa/Wcd, I omit.) InRhetoric, 
 the artificially exhibited omission or slight mention of some 
 important point, in order to impress the hearers with indig- 
 nation, pity, &c, called by the Latins prffiteritio, omissio, 
 &c. ; as in the famous lines — 
 
 Occidat iiladies aevo, nee posfera credant 
 Sxcula ; nos certe, taceamus, et obrula multa 
 Node tegi nostra? patiamur crimina gentis. 
 
 The passage, Hebr., xii., 32, may be given as another, in- 
 stance ; or the following from Cicero : " Pratereo ilium ne- 
 farium conatum tuum," &c. (Cone. c. Jlntonium.) 
 
 PARALIPO'MENA. (Gr. trapa\u-K6ptva, things left out 
 or aside.) A term applied, in Bibliography, to works of a 
 supplementary character. The two books of the Old Tes- 
 tament, called by us, after St. Jerome, the Chionicies, are 
 also termed Paralipomena. 
 
 PARALLACTIC INSTRUMENT. An astronomical 
 instrument for determining the moon's parallax, described 
 by Ptolemy in his Almagest, and usually called Ptolemy's 
 Rules. The term parallactic is sometimes applied to the 
 equatorial ; but in this sense the proper word would seem 
 to be parallactic, as derived not from parallax, but from 
 parallel, the instrument being constructed for the purpose 
 of following the stars in their diurnal parallels. (Lalande, 
 Astronomie, $2278.) 
 
 PA'RALLAX. (Gr. irrrpa'Walis, change.) A change of 
 place or of aspect. The term is used in astronomy to de- 
 note the difference between the apparent place of a celes- 
 tial object and its true place, or that in which it would be 
 seen if the observer were placed at the centre to which the 
 motion is referred. When the point of reference is the 
 centre of the earth, the change or aspect is called the diur- 
 nal parallax ; when it is the centre of the earth's orbit, 
 the change is called the annual parallax. 
 
 Diurnal parallax.— Let C be the centre of the earth, A 
 the place of the observer, Z his 
 zenith, and S a celestial body. 
 On observing the body from A, 
 it will be seen in the direction A 
 S, making the .ingle Z A S with 
 the zenith. But if the observer 
 could be placed at C, he would 
 see the body in the direction C S, 
 making the angle Z C S with the. 
 zenith. The difference between 
 these two angles Z A S and Z C 
 S is the parallax of S, which, 
 therefore, is equal to the angle A S C. Hence it appears 
 that the parallax of a celestial body is the angle comprised | 
 between two lines drawn from the body, the one to the I 
 centre of the earth, and the other to a point on its surface. 
 On account of the immense distance of the fixed stars, the ' 
 diurnal parallax is altogether insensible with regard to I 
 them. It may amount to a degree in respect of the moon; 1 
 but the greatest parallax of the nearest planet does not ex- 
 ceed 30". 
 
 It is evident, from the inspection of the figure, that although 
 the distance of the object S remain the same, the angle 
 A S C is not a constant quantity, but is greatest when S is 
 seen in the direction of the horizon A H, and diminishes as 
 the altitude of S increases, until it vanishes altogether at 
 the zenith, where the two lines A S and C S merge into 
 the line C Z. In order to discover the law of this varia 
 tion, let a = C A, the semidiameter of the earth; <f=CS, 
 the distance of the observed object from the centre ; Z = 
 Z A S, the apparent zenith distance ; and P=ASC, th« 
 
PARALLAX. 
 
 parallax. Now, the sides of a triangle being in the same 
 proportion as the sines of their opposite angles, we have 
 
 PARALLEL LINES. 
 
 d : a : : sin. Z : sin. P, whence sin. P = -- sin. Z. But as P 
 
 a 
 is always a very small angle, the arc may be substituted 
 for the sine without sensible error, and the formula becomes 
 
 a 
 P = - sin. Z ; that is to say, the parallax is proportional to the 
 
 sine of the zenith distance. At the horizon Z is a riL'ht an- 
 gle, and sin. Z = l: in this cose, therefore, the < 
 
 for the parallax becomes Y = %. This is called the hori- 
 
 d 
 zontal parallax ; and when its amount has been determined 
 by any means with respect to a celestial body, the parallax 
 idy at any altitude is found by multiplying the hori- 
 zontal parallax by the cosine of the altitude, or sine of the 
 zenith distance. 
 
 Since the parallax of a body is given in terms of its dis- 
 tance and the earth's semidiameter, it follows, reciprocally, 
 that the distance of the body is given in terms of its paral- 
 lax. The determination of the parallaxes of the different 
 bodies of the solar system is therefore a problem of great 
 importance in astronomy; but it is attended with COnsldera- 
 ble difficulty in practice, although the principle on which it 
 dependj is extremely simple. It may be described as fol- 
 lows : Let two observers- be station- 
 ed at ti, I C, of which 
 the latitudes are supposed to be 
 known, and which are both situa- 
 ted on the same meridian, and let 
 them simultaneously observe the 
 zenith distances of the body M 
 (•appose the moon). These abser- 
 vmtions will give the angles Z O M 
 and Z'o' M, ami. consequently, M 
 OCandMO'C. The angle OCC 
 is also known, being the difference 
 or the sum of their latitudes, according as thev ere on the same 
 WOW : the equator. ' esCO and 
 C O' of the quadrilateral M O C O', being radii of the earth, 
 •apposed to be known; he trilateral is 
 determined, and its diagonal <-' M may easily be compBted 
 by the rales of plane trigonometry. Bat when C M Is found, 
 the horizontal parallax is also determined, being equal, by 
 what has been already shown, to the quotient obtained by 
 dividing the radius o by the distance C M. In tins man- 
 ner the horizontal parallax of the moon was determined by 
 Lacaille and L-ilande ; the former observing at the Cape of 
 Good II. .p . and the latter simultaneously at lierlin. There 
 Ods, however, by which the lunar parallax may be 
 determined l.y observations made at a single place. 
 
 mean horizontal parallax amounts to 57' 
 4-17' , or '95116 of a degree. In respect of all the other 
 «olar system the parallax is an extremely 
 small quantity, and, excepting perbapa in the case of Mars 
 cannot be determined by the method now described with 
 sufficient precision and certainty. That of the sun, the 
 ■riant of all, is most accurately found by observa- 
 tion- of the transits of Venus over his disk, as was fir«t 
 suggested by James Gregory, in his Optica Promota. It 
 <>nly to 8.6"; whence we infer that the mean dis- 
 tance of the sun from the earth is 23984 times the length 
 ot the earth's radius, or about 93,000,000 miles. (See Sun ) 
 This determination suffices for finding the parallaxes and 
 distances of all the planets in the system • for in conse- 
 quence of the relation established by Kepler's third law be- 
 tween the distances and periodic times, when the distance 
 of any one planet from the sun is known, that of everv other 
 can be deduced from the times of revolution. (See Kep- 
 ler's Laws.) e 
 When the parallax of a celestial body has been deter- 
 mined, we can find not only the distance of the bodv but 
 also its diameter and real magnitude. For the apparent di- 
 ameter being found by observation, the true magnitude is 
 given by this pro|>ortion : The horizontal parallax is to the 
 apparent radius, as the radius of the earth to the true radi 
 us of the body. 
 
 Sect of parallax is to depress the observed bodv in 
 the verticlc circle, or to increase its zenith distance. If the 
 body at the time of the observation is on the meridian, the 
 parallax only affects its declination ; but if it is not on the 
 meridian, the observed right ascension and declination are 
 both altered, and the effect on each of these co-ordinates 
 nwst be computed from the previously known horizontal 
 parallax by the rules of spherical trigonometry. The com- 
 putation, in the case of the moon, is considerably compli- 
 cated by the earth's elliptirity. 
 
 Annual Parallax.— In what has vet been said the centre 
 
 rth has been taken as the point of reference, and 
 
 therefore regard has only been had to the difference of ap- 
 
 parent situation occasioned by the eccentric position of the 
 observer at the surface of the earth. But the sun, and not 
 the earth, may be regarded as the centre to which the mo- 
 tion is referred; and the position of any celestial body of 
 which the distance from the sun is not so great as to he in- 
 comparable with thesemidiame erof the earth's orbit, would 
 be ditlerent if viewed from the sun from what it Is when 
 viewed from the earth. This difference is called the annual 
 parallax, or parallax of the great orb. It is the angle under 
 which the semidiameter of the earth's orbit would be seen 
 trom a superior planet, or from a fixed star. Such, how- 
 ever, is the enormous distance even of the nearest fixed 
 stars, that excepting two or three instances, which perhaps 
 may be still regarded as doubtful, not one of them has yet 
 been discovered to be sensibly affected by annual parallax • 
 though observations hnve been carried to such nicety that 
 did the quantity in question amount to a single second, it 
 could not possibly have escaped detection. 
 
 From observations of right ascension and declination, Pi- 
 azzi deduced a parallax of 4" for Birius, and of 57" forl'ro- 
 cyon, and Calandrelli one of 4" for a Lyra;; but these de- 
 terminations have been proved to be erroneous. Dr. Brink- 
 ley conceived that his observations with the Dublin circle 
 indicated a sensible parallax in the three stars, a Lyra;, a 
 Cygni, and a Aquilte; but Mr. Pond showed that no sensi- 
 ble parallax in any of these stars could be deduced from 
 the Greenwich observations, and Mr. Airv has confirmed 
 this conclusion In rasped of a Lyns. Mr. Hendereon, how- 
 ever, has found a probable parallax in the star a CentRUri 
 from bis observations made at the Cape of Good Hope. Sir 
 William Herschel first pointed out the micrometrical meas- 
 urements of the distances of two stars very close to each 
 other, or nearly in the same line of vision, as a likely meth 
 od of detecting parallax ; for the apparent distance between 
 two such stars, if either has a sensible parallax, must vary 
 at different times of the year; and this method has very 
 recently been applied by Stiuve. at Dorpat, to „ l.\ne, anil 
 by Beesel, at Koiiigsbcrg. to the double star 61 Cygni. The 
 results obtained by the latter arc the most unequivocal By 
 
 '■ -m 
 tain, i thov.il 
 the parallax = 0-348", a little more than the third if a sec- 
 ond of space. Assuming this determination, and astrono- 
 mers sum to regard it as established within certain smalt 
 limits, the distance of the star from the earth must lie 519,300 
 times He- sun's distance— a distance M enormous that light, 
 which travels at the rate of 198,000 miles in a sec,, nil, would 
 require 9J years to pass through it. {Monthly .Vuticcs of 
 the H. Jlstr. 8oe. for May, 1840. For the history of re- 
 searches on the subject of the annual parallax, sec Mem. 
 R. Jistr. Soc.. vol. xii.) See Star. 
 
 PARALLE'LEPIPED (Gr. rrapannl-emncgov), frequent- 
 ly, but incorrectly, written Paralltlopiped. A solid con- 
 tained by six planes, three of which are parallel to the 
 other three. The content of this solid is found by multiply- 
 ing the area of one of its faces by its distance from the op- 
 posite face. Consequently, parallelepipeds on equal bases, 
 and of the same height, are equal. 
 
 PA'RALLEL LINES, in Geometry, are defined by Eu- 
 clid to lie "straight lines which are in the same plane, and 
 being produced ever so far both ways, do not meet." 
 
 The subject of parallel lines is one of the most difficult In 
 the elements of geometry, and has accordingly given rise to 
 much learned discussion. The difficulty consists in demon 
 strafing that two parallel lines, when they meet a third 
 line, nre equally inclined to it, or make the alternate angles 
 with it equal. In order to demonstrate this proiiosition, 
 Euclid nssumes as an axiom that "If a straight line meet 
 two straight lines, so as to make the interior angles on the 
 same side of it less than two right angles, these straight 
 lines, being continually produced, will at length meet on 
 the side on which the angles are which are less than two 
 right angles." But this is not a self-evident truth : it is, hi 
 fact, a projiosition which requires to be demonstrated ; and 
 the converse of it, namely, that two straight lines which 
 meet one another make with any third line the interior an- 
 gles less than two right ancles, forms the 17th proposition 
 of Euclid's first book. Geometers have attempted in many 
 different ways, but without complete success, to remove 
 this blemish from the Elements. The methods which they 
 have employed for this purpose are of three kinds: 1. By 
 adopting a new definition of parallel lines; 2. By introdu- 
 cing a new axiom ; 3. By reasoning merely from the defini- 
 tion of parallel lines and the properties of lines already 
 demonstrated. 
 
 Some geometers, among whom are Wolfius, Boscovich, 
 and Thomas Simpson, have adopted the following as the 
 definition of parallel lines; namely, that "straight lines are 
 parallel which preserve always the same distance from 
 eachother;" but this, like Euclid's definition, ns remarked 
 by ' D'AIcmhert, is begging the question. The correct defi- 
 nition would be, that "two straight lines are parallel when 
 
 801 
 
PARALLELOGRAM. 
 
 mere are two points in the one from which the perpendicu- 
 lars drawn to the other, and on the same side of it, are 
 equal." The difficulty then consists in demonstrating that 
 all the perpendiculars drawn from the one of these lines to 
 the other are equal. Another definition, which has been 
 adopted by Varignon, Bezout, and others, is, that "parallel 
 lines are those which make equal angles with a third lino 
 towards the same parts, or make the exterior angle equal 
 to the interior and opposite." When this definition is 
 adopted, the difficulty consists in proving that straight lines 
 which are equally inclined to one given straight line must 
 be equally inclined to all the other straight lines which fall 
 upon them. 
 
 Of the new axioms which have been substituted in place 
 of Euclid's, we shall merely notice that given by Thomas 
 Simpson, in the second edition of Elements ; namely, that 
 "If two points in a straight line are posited at unequal dis- 
 tances from another straight line in the same plane, those 
 two lines, being indefinitely produced on the side of the 
 least distance, will meet one another." By help of this 
 axiom he proves that if two straight lines are parallel, the 
 perpendiculars to the one terminated by the other are equal, 
 and also perpendicular to the other parallel ; and thence 
 the proposition from which all the rest follows, namely, 
 that if a straight line fall on two parallel lines, it makes the 
 alternate angles equal. Playfair remarks on this method, 
 that it is extremely plain and concise, and perhaps as good 
 as any that can be followed when a new axiom is assumed. 
 
 Legendre, in his Elements of Geometry, has attempted to 
 overcome the difficulty of parallel lines by previously dem- 
 onstrating that all the angles of a triangle are equal to two 
 right angles, from which proposition it is easy to prove every 
 thing with respect to parallels. His demonstration how- 
 ever, is of too refined and subtle a kind to be admissible 
 into the Elements. (See the Notes to Playfair's Euclid, 
 Legendre's Geometry, and Leslie's Geometry. But the 
 reader who wishes to have a complete view of what has 
 been written on this subject should consult a learned excur- 
 sus to the first book of Camerer's Euclid, Berlin, 1825; and 
 also Colonel P. Thomson's Geometry without Axioms.) 
 
 It may be remarked that the whole of the difficulty which 
 exists with respect to the doctrine of parallel lines is of a 
 metaphysical rather than a mathematical kind ; and the 
 learner need not perplex himself about subtleties which can 
 hardly be considered as affecting the rigour of geometrical 
 truth. 
 
 PARALLE'LOGRAM. (Gr. napa\\r,\oypauua.) A 
 plane four-sided figure, of which the opposite sides are pa- 
 rallel. The area of a parallelogram is found by multiply- 
 ing the length of one of its sides by that of the perpendicular 
 let fall upon it from the opposite side. Hence parallelograms 
 on equal bases, and of the same altitudes, are equal. 
 
 PARALLEL PLANES, are such as never meet, though 
 indefinitely produced. 
 
 PARALLEL RULER. A mathematical instrument, 
 formed of two equal rulers connected by two cross bars or 
 blades moveable about joints, so that, while the distance 
 between the two rulers is increased or diminished, their 
 edges always remain parallel ; and consequently if the edge 
 of one of the rulers -be applied to a straight line, a parallel 
 straight line may be- drawn along the edge of the other 
 ruler. 
 
 PARALLEL SAILING, in Navigation, is sailing on a 
 parallel of latitude, or circle parallel to the equator. See 
 Navigation. 
 
 PARALLELS OF ALTITUDE, in Geography, are 
 small circles of the sphere parallel to the horizon; also cal- 
 'ed almacantars. 
 
 PARALLELS OF DECLINATION. In Astronomy, 
 small circles of the sphere parallel to the equator. 
 
 PARALLELS OF LATITUDE, on the Terrestrial 
 Sphere, are small circles parallel to the equator ; but in the 
 Celestial Sphere, they are parallel to the ecliptic. 
 
 PARALLEL SPHERE, in Geography, is that position of 
 the sphere in which the equator coincides with the hori- 
 zon, and the poles are in the zenith and nadir. This is the 
 appearance which the sphere would have to a spectator 
 placed at the pole. The stars neither rise nor set, but move 
 constantly in circles parallel to the horizon ; and the sun 
 rises and sets only once a year. 
 
 PARA'LOGISM. (Gr. napa, beside, and Xo'yo?, reason.) 
 In Logic and Rhetoric, a reasoning which is false in point 
 of form ; i. e., in which a conclusion is drawn from premises 
 which do not logically warrant it. It is the opposite to a 
 syllogism or correct logical deduction. See Syllogism. 
 
 PARA'LYSIS. (Gr. mp >\vu, 1 toeaken.) Palsy. A di- 
 munition or loss of power of any part of the body. In gene- 
 ral one side only is affected, or the upper or lower extremi- 
 ties. Whatever debilitates the system may produce palsy ; 
 It is also produced by pressure upon certain parts of the 
 brain and spinal marrow, and occasionally by, poisons, by 
 local injuries, and by the sudden suppression of certain 
 892 
 
 PARASITE. 
 
 evacuations. It frequently produces a distortion of tne 
 mouth or eye, the speech becoming indistinct, and the 
 judgment often impaired. The treatment of palsy depends 
 upon a careful consideration of its cause ; more or less de- 
 pletion is generally required, together with purges and ner- 
 vine stimulants, such as ammonia, &.c, and bUsters to the 
 head and neck. 
 
 PARA'METER. In Geometry, a constant straight line, 
 belonging to each of the three conic sections : otherwise 
 called the latus rectum. In the parabola, the parameter is 
 a third proportional to the absciss and its correspoi dins at- 
 dinate; in the ellipse and hyperbola, the parame er of a 
 diameter is a third proportional to that diameter and its 
 conjugate. The term is also used in a general sense, to 
 denote the constant quantity which enters into the equa- 
 tion of a curve. 
 
 PARA'MO. (Sometimes rendered, though incorrectly, 
 by desert or heath.) The name given in South America to 
 a mountainous district covered with stunted trees, exposed 
 to the winds, and in which a damp cold perpetually pre- 
 vails. Under the torrid zone, the Paramos are generally 
 from 10,000 to 12,000 feet in height. Snow often falls on 
 them, but remains only a few hours ; in which respect they 
 are distinguished from the Nevados, which enter the limits 
 of perpetual snow. The Paramos are almost constanly en- 
 veloped in a cold thick fog ; so that when a thick small rain 
 falls, accompanied with a depression of the temperature, 
 they say at Bogota, or at Mexico, cae un paramito. Hence 
 has been formed the provincial word emparamarse — to be 
 as cold as if one were on a paramo. (Huvib. Pers. JVar., ii_ 
 p. 252.) 
 
 PA'RANA'PHTHALINE. A substance so termed from 
 Gr. napa, near to, because it closely resembles naphthaline. 
 It appears to be a mixture of paraffine and naphthaline. 
 
 PARA'NTHINE. A rare mineral, so named byHaiiy; 
 the same as Scapolite. 
 
 PA'RANYMPH. (Gr. napavv^ot.) A bridesman. It 
 is translated in our version of the Scriptures by " master of 
 the feast." 
 
 PA'RAPET, or BREAST-WORK. (Ital. parapetto, 
 breast-work.) In Fortification, a wall or screen raised on 
 the extreme edge of a rampart or other work, through 
 which embrasures or openings are cut for the canons to fire 
 through. The solid parts of the parapet, between the em- 
 brasures, are called the merlons. In common language, a 
 parapet is a breast-wall, raised on the edges of bridges, 
 quays, &c. to prevent people from falling over. 
 
 PA'RAPH. (Gr. napa, and airrta, I touch.) In Diploma 
 tics, the figure formed by a flourish of the pen at the con- 
 clusion of a signature. This formed, in the middle ages, 
 a sort of rude provision against forgery, like the flourishes 
 in the plates of bank notes. In some countries (as in 
 Spain), the paraph is still a usual addition to a signature. 
 PA'RAPHERNA'LIA. (Gr. 4>cpt'n, a dowry.) In the 
 Civil Law, the apparel, jewels, &.c. of a wife, which are 
 held to belong to her as a species of separate property. The 
 husband may dispose of them in her lifetime, but cannot 
 bequeath them away from her ; and if he have not parted 
 with them before his death, she may retain them against 
 his executors and all other persons, except his creditors, 
 where his other funds are not sufficient to satisfy their 
 claims. 
 
 PARAPHO'NIA. (Gr. -napa, and q)oivn, voice.) Altera- 
 tion of voice. 
 
 PA'RAPHRASE. (Gr. nap a, beside, and (ppdlw, I speak.) 
 In Rhetoric, the rendering of a passage or portion of writ- 
 ing in other phraseology, more distinct and easier of explan- 
 ation, and therefore usually at greater length. A loose 
 translation, or one in which a new series of ideas and illus- 
 trations conveying the same general meaning with those 
 of the original is substituted for them, is also termed a pa- 
 raphrase, although not with strict propriety. 
 
 PARAPHY'SES. (Gr. irapa, and qjvats, nature.) A 
 term used in describing mosses, to denote the sessile ovate 
 abortive bodies placed below the theca. 
 
 PARAPLE'GIA. (Gr. napair\n(wu>, I strike inharmoni- 
 ously.) Palsy of the upper or of the lower half of the 
 body. 
 
 PA'RASANG. (Gr.) A Persian measure of length; ac 
 cording to Herodotus, equal to 30 stadia, and (reckonings 
 stadia to the English mile) equal to 3$ English miles. The 
 length of the parasang was reckoned differently by different 
 authors; and such are the discrepant estimates of the an- 
 cients that some have assigned it the length of 60 stadia. 
 The word is supposed to be derived from the Persian seng, 
 signifying a stone. 
 
 PARASCE'NIUM. (Gr. irapa, and aKnvri, a scene.) In 
 Antiquities, called also postscenium, the back part of a 
 theatre beyond the stage, or the room to which actors 
 withdrew on quitting the stage. It was equivalent to the mo- 
 dern green room. 
 PA'RASITE. (Gr. napa, at hand, and airoc,food.) Origt- 
 
PARASITES. 
 
 naily, according to Crates in Athenaeus, a term of honour, 
 being the ap|>ellation of certain ministers at sacrifices, 
 whose office is not distinctly ascertained. (See Mem. de 
 I' Acad, des Jnscr., vol. xxxi.) The habits of a luxurious age 
 produced the race of poor companions, ready guests at the 
 table of a patron, who formed a standing character in the 
 later Greek comedy. Some attribute the first conception of 
 the dramatic personage to Araros, the son of Aristophanes. 
 Diphilus, according to Athenants, gave the most complete 
 portrait of it in his comedy of Telesias. Our notions of the 
 ancient parasite are now derived chiefly from the Latin 
 ;omic poets. Ingenious writers have divided parasites into 
 four classes: 1. The poor confidential friend, whose ser- 
 vices to his patron are sometimes rendered with a mixture 
 of leal attachment, us In the character of Ergasilus in the 
 Captives of Plautus. 2. The guest who is invited with a 
 view to make him pay for his reception by the exertion of 
 is of entertainment (Anglice diner-out), the "ri- 
 diculi" and " derisores" of Plautus, and who alone are de- 
 scribed under the name of parasites by Julius Pollux: Vibi- 
 dius mid Ualatro, the two umbrae of Mac.enas at the supper 
 of' Nasidienus, seem to have partaken of this quality. 
 These degenerated, thirdly, into the class of mere buffoons, 
 who were invited to play tricks and undergo practical jokes, 
 under pain, as Ergasilus complains, in the play already 
 cited, if they refused to lend themselves to the manual 
 pleasantries of their guests, of " taking up their beggar's 
 wallet and marching." The fourth and worst class, koXukcs, 
 were the attendant flatterers of their patron. Such is Ar- 
 or Loaf-eater, the humble companion of Pyrgo- 
 in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus; and the best 
 known of all parasites, Gnalho, in the Eunuch of Ter- 
 rence. 
 
 PA'EASITES. In Zoology, this term, as designative of 
 a group of animals. is variously applied by different natural- 
 ists. Lamarck includes undeV it a family of antennated 
 Arachnidans; Cuvier, Latreille, and Kirby apply the term 
 to an order of Apterous insects ; Straus to a tribe of Crus- 
 taceans: but all the sections include animals of parasitic 
 habits. 
 
 PAB \SIT1'CAL PLANTS, arc those which grow into 
 the tissue of other species, and feed upon their juices. Of 
 this kind are themisletoc, the broom rape ( Orobanche), the 
 iMthrxa ; and among exotics, the monstrous Rafflesia. 
 Such species have no proper roots. The term parasitical 
 is, however, often applied to ino-ses. ( (rctiidaceous plants, 
 nUaadstas, and the like, which are mostly Epiphytes, 
 Bowing upon the bark of trees, but deriving their food from 
 the air by means of their own roots. 
 
 PAHA BTATAL (Gr. vapa, from, and iortjut. I stand.) 
 In Architecture, pilasters, or rather square pillars, which 
 stand insulated. See Ami. 
 
 PAitATA'XIS. (Gr. irapaTaoca). I arrange side by side.) 
 mar, opposed to Syntax. The mere ranging of pro- 
 positions one after another, as the c or r espon ding Judgments 
 present themselves to our mind, without marking their 
 dependence on each other by way of consequence or the 
 like. 
 
 PA'RBI'CKLE. In Naval language, to roll a cask or 
 any cylindrical body by pulling upon ropes fastened to- 
 wards the place where the cask is to go, and laid along the 
 ground or an inclined plane, and then over the ends or 
 
 f.YKCJE. The Latin name of the Fates. According to 
 'art. " Parcae," in the Encyclopedia of Ersch and 
 G ruber ), the original ltmnan Parca (the harsh or avaricious 
 goddess) was equivalent to Mors, the goddess of death, the 
 third of the Fates. It was not until the Augustan age, 
 when the Greek and Roman mythology became mingled, 
 that the Parca; became plural, (Virg., Ee. iv., 47), and ac- 
 quired their similarity to the Greek Moirai, Clotho, Lache- 
 sis, and Atropos. 
 
 PARCEL A ROPE. In Naval language, to cover it 
 smoothly with tarred canvass, which is then bound over 
 with spun-yarn. 
 
 PARCENERS. In Law. See Coparceners. 
 
 PA'RCHMF.NT. (Fr. parchemin.) A material formed 
 of the prepared skins chiefly of sheep and goats, when in- 
 tended to be written upon. A similar preparation of calves', 
 kids', and lambs' skins is called vellum. The skins are first 
 prepared as for tanning ; then shaved down and pumiced; 
 and lastly stretched and carefully dried. The parchment of 
 lining Is. made of the skins of asses, calves, and wolves; ass 
 skin is used for battledores; and goat skin is preferred for 
 sieves. For some kinds of bookbinding, parchment is dyed 
 green by verdigrease. (See Ure's Dictionary of Arts.) 
 
 Parchment was known at a very early period. It was 
 used for writing as early as the year 250 before the Chris- 
 tian era, by Eumenes, king of Pergamus; who, desirous of 
 collecting a library which should vie with that of Alexan- 
 dria, but prevented by the jealousy of the Ptolomies from 
 obtaining a sufficient quantity of papyrus, had recourse to 
 
 PARHELION. 
 
 this substitute ; and its invention at Pergamus claimed and 
 secured to it the lasting name of Pergamena: whence 
 parchment. (Sir G. iVilkinson's Manners and Customs of 
 the Anient Egyptians, iii., 151.) In the beginning of the 
 eighth century, the use of papyrus was almost entirely su- 
 perseded by parchment, on which we find that all the pub- 
 lic documents under Charlemagne and his dynasty were 
 written. When the different kinds of parchment came into 
 use for the purposes of writing, they were rolled up before 
 they could be sealed: hence the word volumen, from Lat. 
 volvere, to roll. And as parties wrote to the very bottom ot 
 the parchment, »'. «., to the place where the cord used for the 
 folding was fastened, we may account for the well-known 
 expression, opus ad umbilicum perductum. 
 
 PA'RDON. In Law, it is a part of the prerogative of the 
 crown to pardon all otfences merely against the crown or 
 the public, excepting the offence of committing any person 
 to prison out of the realm, which, by the Habeas Corpus 
 Act, is made a pra.munire, unpardonable even by the king: 
 and excepting those oftences in the prosecution of which 
 private justice is in some measure concerned, as nuisances 
 and offences against a popular or penal statute, after infor- 
 mation; for thereupon the informer has a private property 
 in his part of the penalty. Pardon is granted under the 
 great seal, or by warrant under the sign manual, counter- 
 signed by one of the principal secretaries of state; or by act 
 of parliament. Its enact is, in almost all cases, to make the 
 offender a new man, and to discharge him from all the pe- 
 nal consequences attached to his offence. 
 
 PARE'CBASIS. (Gr. nupn, and ckShivu, I go out of.) 
 The word used by Greek authors to signify what by the 
 Latins is called digression; by Quintilian (iv. 14,) termed 
 " aliens rei, sed ad utilitaiein cau.se perlinentis, extra ordi- 
 nem occurrens tractalio." 
 
 PAREGO'RIC. (Gr. napnyopcv, I assuage.) Thnt 
 which allays pain. Paregoric elixir is a camphorated tinc- 
 ture of opium flavoured by oil Of aniseed. 
 
 PAREI'RA BRA'VA. The root of the Cissampelos pa- 
 reira, brought from South America. It has a sweetish and 
 a bitter flavour, and has been used in nephritic complaints 
 and some nffections of the bladder. 
 
 PARE'LLA. In Botany, a kind of lichen ; fhe Lecanora 
 paralla, found on rocks in mountainous countries, especially 
 in the north of Europe. It is the Perelle of Auvergne, where 
 it is extensively used by the dyer, and is found equal to or- 
 chil (Hocalla tinctoria). 
 
 PARE'MBOLE. (Gr. mpa, and r/i« (1 AAu, / throw in.) 
 In Rhetorick, a figure by which a paragraph is inserted in 
 the middle of a sentence with which it does not grammati- 
 cally cohere, by way of explaining something. It is also 
 called paremptosis, and is a species of parenthesis. 
 
 PARENCHY'.MA. (Gr. xapiyxvuv, to strain through.) 
 The spongy and cellular tissue of animals and vegetables. 
 The old physiologists supposed that the crude juices under- 
 went a kind of filtration in the cellular substance. 
 
 PARENCHYMATOUS ENTOZOONS, Parenchyma- 
 tosa. (Gr. Tmpiyxvua.) An order of Entozoa, including 
 those which have their nutrient canals simply excavated in 
 the parenchymatous tissue of which their entire body is 
 composed. See Sterelmintha. 
 
 PARE'NTHESIS. (Gr. ™pa and Iv, and the verb riQnut, 
 1 place.) In Rhetoric, a figure by which a scries of words 
 is inserted in n sentence, having no grammatical connexion 
 with those which precede or follow, with the object of ex- 
 plaining some detached portion of the sentence. In ancient 
 authors, a parenthetical form of writing is even more com- 
 mon than among moderns ; because much which a Greek 
 or Roman author would have convesed by way of parenthe- 
 sis is now inserted in separate explanatory notes. 
 
 PA'RGASITE. A variety of actinolite, from Pargas, in 
 Finland. 
 
 PA'RGET. (Etymology uncertain.) In Architecture, 
 the plaster formed of lime, hair, and cow-dung, used for 
 coating the flue of a chimney. 
 
 PARHE'LION, or MOCK SUN. (Gr. rapa, and ^iof, 
 the sun.) A meteor which consists in the simultaneous ap- 
 pearance of several suns, "fantastic images of the true one." 
 These images appear at the same height above the horizon 
 as the true sun, and they are always connected with ona 
 another by a white horizontal circle or halo, of which the 
 pole i* nt the zenith, and the apparent semiiliameter equal 
 to the sun's distance from the zenith. The images or mock 
 suns, which appear on the same side of this circle with 
 the true sun, are tinted with the prismatic colours, and 
 sometimes a part of the circle itself contiguous to them ap- 
 pears coloured. But those which appear on the circumfer- 
 ence opposite to the sun are always without colour ; whence 
 it may be conjectured that those (as well as the lumin- 
 ous ring itself) are produced by reflection, and the others 
 by refraction. In general when these phenomena are pro- 
 duced, the sun is surrounded by one or more concentric 
 circular corona; which exhibit the colours of the rainbow 
 
 893 
 
PARIAN CHRONICLE. 
 
 and sometimes arcs of circles, or even entire circles, appear 
 touching the corona;. These also are coloured, and contain 
 other parhelia. The phenomenon has been described by 
 Aristotle, Pliny, Scheiner, Descartes, and many others; but 
 the most perfect apparition yet recorded is that which was 
 observed by Hevelius at Dantzic, on the 20th of February, 
 1661. It is represented in the annexed figure. Parhelia 
 have continued visible for two, three, or 
 four hours. In general two, but some- 
 times four, and even six or seven are visi- 
 ble together. 
 
 No very satisfactory explanation of the 
 cause of these curious but rare phenome- 
 na has yet been given. Huygens supposed 
 them to be produced partly by the reflec- 
 tion and partly by the refraction of the 
 sun's rays, falling on an infinite number of small cylinders 
 of ice suspended vertically in the atmosphere, and having 
 certain determinate positions relative to the sun and the ob- 
 server. This theory is explained at length in the second 
 volume of his Opera Posthuma. (See also Smith's Optics ; 
 Priestley on IAght ; Biot, Traite de Physique, torn, iii.) 
 
 Fraunhofer, in a memoir on halos and parhelia, published 
 in Schumacher' s Jlstronomische Abhandlungen, p. iii., has 
 attempted to explain these phenomena on a different prin- 
 ciple. On looking at the sun through a horizontal grating 
 of very fine wires, two images of the sun appear, one above 
 and the other below the true sun ; and, if there is some in- 
 equality in the distances between the wires, the images ap- 
 pear slightly coloured, and a vertical streak of light is seen. 
 Fraunhofer thinks that this affords a clue to the theory of 
 the parhelia; for if the small spherules of moisture floating 
 in the atmosphere are disposed in horizontal parallel lines 
 with tolerable regularity, two vertical parhelia (but this is 
 a very rare phenomenon) will be seen ; and if they are dis- 
 posed in vertical lines, the more common phenomena of 
 horizontal parhelia with the luminous circles may be pro- 
 duced. It must be confessed, however, that even when 
 this arrangement of the particles of vapour in parallel lines 
 is admitted, several circumstances attending the phenomena 
 will still remain unexplained. 
 
 Paraselcnm, or linages of the moon, are also seen under 
 similar circumstances as parhelia : the same theory will of 
 course applv to both. 
 
 PA'RIAN CHRONICLE. (So called from the island of 
 Paros, where it was originally found.) The name given to 
 one of the celebrated marbles imported into England with 
 the rest of the collection known by the name of the Arun- 
 delian. In its perfect state it contained a chronological re- 
 gister of the principal events in the history of ancient 
 Greece during a series of 1318 years, beginning with the 
 reign of Cecrops, the first king of Athens, B.C. 1582, and 
 ending with the archonship of Diognetus ; but the last 
 ninety years are nearly obliterated by the injuries of time, 
 so that the part which now remains ends at the archonship 
 of Diotimus, B.C. 354. 
 
 The marble on which the chronicle is engraved is 5 inches 
 in thickness, .and measured, when Selden viewed it, 3 feet 
 7 inches by 2 feet 7; but one corner had been broken off". 
 It contained originally about 100 lines, each consisting on 
 an average of 16 words, or 130 letters; so that the whole 
 might have heen comprised in six octavo pages. 
 
 This venerable monument was purchased at Smyrna, 
 with many others, by Mr. W. Petty, who was employed by 
 the Earl of Arundel, in the year 1624, for the purpose of 
 collecting marbles, books, statues, and other curiosities in 
 Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. When brought to England, 
 in 1627, it was placed in the gardens belonging to Arundel 
 House, the site of which is now occupied by Arundel, 
 Norfolk, Surrey, and Howard streets, in the Strand; and 
 early on the following day it was examined, with eager 
 curiosity, by some of the most distinguished literati of 
 that time ; among whom were Sir R. Cotton, Selden, Pat- 
 rick Young, and Richard James. After much labour it 
 was deciphered, and a copy of it published by Selden in the 
 year 1628, accompanied with a Latin translation and com- 
 mentary. 
 
 During the civil wars, and the subsequent usurpation of 
 Cromwell, the Parian Chronicle was unfortunately broken 
 into smaller fragments, and almost entirely defaced. The 
 upper part, containing nearly half the original tablet, is 
 said to have been used in repairing a chimneypiece or 
 hearth in Arundel House; but luckily the inscription, or 
 at least as much of as it could be made out, was pre- 
 served in the copy which Selden had previously taken and 
 published. In the year 1667 the remaining fragments were 
 presented by the Hon. Henry Howard, grandson of the first 
 collector, to the University of Oxford, where they are now 
 deposited. 
 
 The genuineness of this valuable relic of antiquity was 
 universally acknowledged throughout Europe as soon as its 
 contents were made known. Its authority was considered 
 894 
 
 PARING AND BURNING. 
 
 as equal, if not superior, to any other ; writers of the first 
 eminence derived the greatest advantage from it in their 
 historical and chronological researches ; and it was not till 
 the year 1788, when the Rev. John Robertson, a gentleman 
 of considerable learning and industry, published an elatx ..■ 
 ate volume called A Dissertation on the Authenticity of the 
 Parian Chronicle, in which he maintained it to be a fabrica- 
 tion of modern times, that its authenticity was impeached. 
 The doubts and objections of Mr. R. we're founded on the 
 following considerations : 
 
 1. The characters have no certain or unequivocal marks 
 of antiquity. 2. It is not probable that the chronicle was 
 engraved for private use. 3. It does not appear to have 
 been engraved by public authority. 4. The Greek and Ro 
 man writers, for a long time after the date of this work, 
 complain that they had no chronological account of the af 
 fairs of ancient Greece. 5. This chronicle is not once men- 
 tioned by any writer of antiquity. 6. Some of the facts 
 seem to have been taken from authors of a later date. 7. 
 Parachronisms appear in some of the epochas, which we 
 can scarcely suppose a Greek chronologer, in the 129th 
 Olympiad, would be liable to commit. 8. The history of 
 the discovery of the marbles is obscure and unsatisfactory ; 
 and, 9. The literary world has been frequently imposed upon 
 by spurious books and inscriptions, and therefore we should 
 be extremely cautious with regard to what we receive un- 
 der the venerable name of antiquity. 
 
 These observations were made the subject of separate 
 chapters and disquisitions, and were illustrated with such 
 candour and extensive erudition that for a short time the 
 credit of the Parian Chronicle was shaken in the public 
 opinion. Early, however, in the following year, the objec- 
 tions of Mr. Robertson were replied to by Mr. Hewlett, in a 
 pamphlet entitled A Vindication of the ' A uthenticity of the 
 Parian Chronicle, Lond., 1789"; by Mr. Gough, in the ninth 
 vol. of the Archa:ologia ; and by Porson, in the Monthly Re- 
 view ; and the result of their inquiries, coupled with the 
 defence of Wagner (Giitt., 1790), and the more recent in- 
 vestigations of Hales in his Chronology, and of Boeckh in 
 the second volume of his Corpus Inscriptionum, leave no 
 doubt respecting the authenticity and antiquity of the Parian 
 Chronicle. It is impossible within our limits to give a de- 
 tailed account of the manner in which these different 
 writers have disposed of the arguments of Mr. Robertson ; 
 suffice it to say, that they have established satisfactorily 
 that the Parian Chronicle is written in pure and classical 
 Greek ; that the characters bear several marks of antiquity ; 
 that the events it recounts are infinitely too minute and de- 
 tailed to have been forged ; and lastly, that the silence of 
 classical writers respecting it (which Is perhaps the strong- 
 est argument against its antiquity) may be easily accounted 
 for from the retired and insular situation of Paros. (The 
 reader will find in vol. i. of Hale's Analysis of Chronology, 
 an examination of the dates assigned to the different events 
 recorded^ in the Parian Chronicle. See also the Penny 
 Cyclop.) • 
 
 PARIAN MARBLE. See Marble. 
 
 PA'RIAS. The lowest class of the inhabitants of some 
 parts of Hindostan, who have, properly speaking, no caste, 
 and are supposed to be descended from original races of oc- 
 cupiers long since conquered by foreign invaders. In the 
 widest sense, the term appears to comprehend all the differ- 
 ent classes of distinct non-Hindoo tribes, and degraded or 
 foreign races, not comprised in the four Hindoo castes; 
 forming, probably, nine tenths of the whole population, ex 
 clusively of the Mussulmans. 
 
 PARI'ETAL. (Lat. paries, a real'.) In Botany, any 
 organ which grows from the sides of another. Those 
 ovaries are parietal which grow from the sides of a calyx ; 
 and placenta? or ovules have this name when they proceed 
 from the sides of the ovary. 
 
 PARIETAL BONES. Two arched and irregularly 
 square bones, one on each side of the superior part of the 
 skull. So called from paries, a wall, because they protect 
 the brain like walla. 
 
 PAR-IMPAR. Among the Romans, the game of even or 
 odd. The game was played exactly as it is at present among 
 the children of our own country. 
 
 PA'RING AND BURNING. The operation of paring 
 off" the surface of worn-out grass land, or lands covered with 
 coarse herbage, and burning it for the sake of the ashes, and 
 for the destruction of weeds, seeds, insects, &c. Agricul- 
 turists differ as to the value of this mode of improving land • 
 the greater number preferring a naked fallow even for one 
 or two years, alleging that more injury is done by the vege- 
 table matter lost in burning, than benefit obtained by the 
 ashes produced. Where the object is to bring land abound- 
 ing in coarse herbage immediately into a state of good cul- 
 ture, paring and burning is evidently the most rapid mode 
 that can be employed ; and if the soil contains calcareous 
 matter, burning will have nearly the same effect on it as 
 if a dressing of quicklime had been applied. Much, how- 
 
PARISH. 
 
 ever, depends on the mode in which the land is treated af- 
 terwards. 
 
 PA'RISH. (Or. TapoiKia, a neighbourhood.) Properly, 
 mistical division of a town or district subject to the 
 ministry of one pastor. In the earliest ages of the church, 
 the parochia was the district placed under the superintend- 
 ence of the bishop, and was equivalent to the diocess. It 
 denoted, says Bingham, not only what we now call a parish 
 church, but a city with its adjacent towns or country re- 
 gions. It was not until the Christians became sufficiently 
 Numerous to present distinct congregations in the smaller 
 towns and villages that the bishop appointed his presbyters 
 to reside among them, and thus subdivided his diocess into 
 several parishes. This constitution is recognised in sev- 
 eial councils and other monuments of the fifth century'- It 
 is. Indeed, probable that in many cities there existed more 
 than one church and congregation even in the time of the 
 untie*; but it does not appear whether these deserved 
 the n.uiio of parishes, as being each under the distinct 
 superintendence of its respective pnstor. But although 
 parishes were originally ecclesiastical divisions, they may 
 now be more p ro p erty considered as coming under the class 
 of civil divisions; and consequently claim our attention un- 
 der this he id. It is not easy to determine the era of the 
 of England into parishes; they are mentioned in 
 the laws of King Edgar so early as 970, when the whole 
 kingdom seems to have been divided into parishes; but it 
 is probable that the division was not made at once, but by 
 It is, according to Blackstone, pretty clear and 
 certain that the boundaries of parishes were originally as- 
 certained by tho^e of manors; for it very seldom happen 
 that a manor extends itself over more parishes than one, 
 thimsrh there are often many manors in one parish. The 
 paroehl il division of England was nearly the same in the 
 rei!:n of Edward I. [13(19-1307) as at present. 
 
 Parishes are frequently intermixed with one another. 
 This seems to have arisen from the lord of the manor hav- 
 ing had a panel of land detached from the main part of his 
 estate, but not sufficient to form a parish of itself. It was 
 natural for him to endow the church which he had erected 
 tie with the tithes of these disjointed 
 peeially If it happened that there was no church 
 in any lordship adjoining to them. 
 
 The boundaries of parishes dc|iend on Im memoria l cus- 
 tom; but it la probable that they were not settled with 
 very minuie precision till the introduction of the poor laws, 
 when, in consequence of the claim for relief upon their 
 particular parishes given to the poor, it became a mat- 
 ter of consequence to define exactly tho limits of each 
 parish. They cannot now be altered but by legislative en- 
 actment. 
 
 In the northern counties, where the parishes sometimes 
 embrace thirty or forty square miles, the poor laws, the due 
 administration of which must always depend OH an intimate 
 knowledge of the situation and character of every one ap- 
 plying for relief, could not be properly carried into effect. 
 To remedy this inconvenience, an act was passed in the 
 13th of Charles II. permitting townships and villages, 
 though not entire parishes, severally and distinctly to main- 
 tain their own poor. Hence townships in the north of Eng- 
 land may lie regarded as divisions subordinate to parishes; 
 and are, in practice, as distinctly limited as if they were 
 ■epscata parishes. 
 
 Towns originally contained but one parish ; but, from the 
 increase of inhabitants, many of them are now divided into 
 several parishes. 
 
 Besides parishes, or townships, there are places which 
 are deemed extra-parochial, or not within the limits of any 
 parish. These were formerly the site of religious houses, 
 or of castles, the owners of which would not permit any in- 
 terference with their rights.. At present they enjoy some 
 most valuable privileges; among others, a virtual exemp- 
 tion from the poor's rate, because there is no overseer on 
 
 wl i the order of a magistrate may be served — from the 
 
 militia laws, because there is no constable to make the re- 
 turn — and from repairing the highways, because there is no 
 surveyor. Their tithes are, by immemorial custom, paya- 
 ble to the king instead of the bishop. The number of such 
 places is not inconsiderable, amounting to more than 200. 
 It seems highly inexpedient that any part of the country 
 should enjoy such an exemption from burdens imposed for 
 the benefit of the community. Extra-parochial wastes and 
 marsh lands, when improved and drained, are assessed to 
 all parochial rales in the parish next adjoining. In some 
 counties, liberties interrupt the general course of law as af- 
 fecting hundreds, in the same manner as extra-parochial 
 p.aces do with regard to parishes. This inconvenience is 
 parteularly felt in Dorsetshire. The number of parishes 
 and parochial chapelries in England and Wales is not ex- 
 actly ascertained ; but there are not many doubtful cases, 
 nui *or any general purpose they may safely be taken at 
 »$700 About 550 parishes extend into two counties, or 
 
 PARLIAMENT. 
 
 into more than one hundred or other divisions (Black- 
 stone's Commentaries, Introd., $ 4 ; and Preliminary Re 
 marks to Census of 1831, p. 14-18.) 
 
 The parishes of Scotland are purely ecclesiastical : for an 
 account of the system on which they are divided, we must 
 refer the reader to the article Presbytery. 
 
 PARISH CLERK. The name of one of the lowest func- 
 tionaries of the English Church. Parish clerks are regard- 
 ed by the common law as persons having freeholds in their 
 office ; and consequently, though they may be punished, 
 they cannot be deprived, by ecclesiastical censures. In 
 former times parish clerks were frequently it; orders, and 
 even at present this is sometimes the case. They are gen- 
 erally appointed by the incumbent, but by custom may be 
 chosen by the inhabitants. 
 
 PARK. A considerable extent of pasture and wood land 
 surrounding or adjoining the country residence of a man of 
 wealth, devoted to purposes of recreation or enjoyment, but 
 chiefly to the support of a herd of deer, though sometimes 
 to cattle and sheep. Parks were originally nothing more 
 than portions of forest scenery appropriated by the lord of 
 the soil lor the exclusive use of aniin tls of the chase; but 
 this is now become in many cases a secondary considera- 
 tion, and the chief uses of a park are as indications of 
 wealth and extent of territory, and as grazing ground for 
 domesticated animals. 
 
 PARK OF ARTILLERY". An assemblage of the heavy 
 ordnance belonging to an army, with its carriages, ammuni- 
 tion wagons, and stores, on ground contiguous to that oc- 
 cupied by the troops when encamped. See Artillery 
 Park. 
 
 PA'RLIAMENT. (In modern Latin parliamcntum, ill 
 French parlement ; from the Fr. parler, to speak.) The su 
 preme legislative assembly of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Origin of Parliament. — By the principles of the feudal 
 system, every sovereign and every great feudatory had his 
 council, composed of his greater and lesser vassals, which 
 occasionally assembled to assi-t him both in judicial and 
 legislative matters; and which was held in theory to lie 
 permanent, so that its assent was necessary 10 the validity 
 of his acts. And it was al-o as ancient custom, in several 
 of the western kingdom* of E uro pe, for such potentates to 
 hold assemblies of ihcir barons at the great festivals of the 
 year, termed cours plenieres and parlement ; principally, 
 however, if not entirely, for the mere purpose of show and 
 magnificence. But occasionally such special assemblies 
 were summoned for more Important purposes ; and the 
 meeting in 114G, at which the crusade of Saint Louis was 
 Undertaken, is said to furnish the first occasion in which 
 the word parliament is used for a deliberative assembly. 
 In France, however, the word was afterwards transfer- 
 red to signify the principal judicial courts of that county. 
 (See Parliament.) The only realms in which it ap- 
 pears to have become appropriated to the great legisla- 
 tive assemblies are England. Scotland, and the Norman 
 kingdom of Sicily. The parliament of the latter country 
 consisted, in the 13th century, of spiritual and temporal 
 barons, summoned by the king's writ; and occasionally, 
 but not uniformly, of deputies from the towns similarly 
 summoned. 
 
 All the extensive and laborious researches which have 
 been made, of late years, towards dispelling the obscurity 
 which rests over the commencement and early constitution 
 of our parliaments, have only shown that little new infor- 
 mation is attainable on the subject. We can, indeed, con- 
 jecture pretty accurately the process by which meetings of 
 delegates for the purpose of apportioning taxation became 
 gradually assemblies, granting or refusing supplies with ab- 
 solute nuthority ; anil that by which a convention sum- 
 moned for the object of representing grievances to the sov- 
 ereign, and giving their approbation to his acts, became a 
 sovereign legislative body. But to investigate the internal 
 changes in the assembly itself, the mode by which it be- 
 came divided into distinct chambers, the manner in which 
 the peerage was formed as a distinct body out of the free 
 baronage of the country, and that in which the lower house 
 acquired the features of a regular representative body, 
 may be safely pronounced, with our present knowledge, 
 impossible. 
 
 The Norman and Plantagenet kings had two councils— 
 the great council of the kingdom, and the lesser or privy 
 council ; and it may be freely stated, after making all de- 
 ductions from the principle on the score of arbitrary powers 
 occasionally exercised by the sovereign, that, ever since the 
 Norman conquest, the supreme legislative power in Eng- 
 land has been placed in the king and great council conjoint- 
 ly. It was, moreover, in early times, a court of crimina 
 judicature also, and aided the sovereign in all the more im- 
 portant transactions of his government. It interfered even 
 in matters of ecclesiastical discipline ; in questions of peace 
 and war, of grace and justice ; and, by war cf advice, in 
 the appointment lo "acant offices, civil or ecclesiastical. 
 
 895 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 The meetings of the great council were at stated festivals 
 under the Norman kings; but after the civil wars in the 
 reign of Stephen they were summoned at irregular periods. 
 The inferior or privy council, which, as well as the great 
 council, is indifferently termed curia regis in early writers, 
 was composed of members named by the king, and con- 
 stantly attended on his person ; and this inferior body usurp- 
 ed, during the decadence of the great council, and before 
 the full establishment of parliament, many of the legisla- 
 tive functions of the former: but by Magna Charta all aids 
 and scutages were to be assessed by the great council ; 
 which thus, in principle at least, possessed a control over 
 the extraordinary revenues of the crown. Any meeting of 
 the great council, or of a portion of it, went by the ordinary 
 name of a " parliament," or colloquy. 
 
 But of the constituent parts of this assembly, and the 
 changes which took place in it, no writers give a satis- 
 factory account. All we know is, that it was supposed 
 to consist of all the tenants in chief of the crown ; but, 
 by the charter of King John, the archbishops, bishops, 
 abbots, earls, and greater barons, were to be summoned 
 personally ; the other tenants in chief by the sheriffs and 
 bailiffs. From this distinction is supposed to have arisen 
 the institution of the peerage as a separate body from the 
 lesser nobility, which so peculiarly distinguishes the con- 
 stitution of England from those of all other feudal mon- 
 archies. 
 
 From these mixed assemblies to a representative body the 
 change proceeded by steps, which it is impossible wholly 
 to trace. The first vestiges, perhaps, of representation, ap- 
 pear in the 15th year of King John, when, for a particular 
 purpose, writs were issued to the sheriffs, commanding them 
 to return four knights for each county, "ad loquendum cum 
 rege de negotio regni," at Oxford. But the better known 
 and more distinct evidence of the beginning of the system 
 is found in the Earl of Leicester's parliament after the bat- 
 tle of Lewes, in 43 Hen. 3, when four knights for every 
 county (except nine) were summoned to attend with the 
 barons, probably as representatives of the inferior nobility 
 or lesser barons ; and in the following years were issued 
 the earliest writs of summons to parliament. These were 
 to archbishops, bishops, and abbots; to certain earls and 
 barons of the party of the Earl of Leicester ; and to the 
 sheriffs of counties and boroughs, to return two knights and 
 burgesses, besides four from each of the Cinque Ports. And 
 although no subsequent writs directed to the sheriffs for the 
 purpose of county elections are in existence earlier than 18 
 Edw. I., nor of borough elections earlier than the 23d of the 
 same reign, yet it is at least highly probable that the exam- 
 ple set by the rebellious Earl of Leicester was ever after 
 substantially followed, and that the representatives of coun- 
 ties and towns were occasionally summoned to parliament, 
 as well for the purpose of assessing tallage and other aids 
 demanded, as for that of giving their counsel respecting 
 other affairs of the government. Edw. I. usually held four 
 parliaments in a year; nor does it appear that these were 
 legislative assemblies : they were rather supreme courts of 
 justice, chiefly attended by the ordinary or privy council- 
 lors of the king; while the legislative assembly, certainly 
 composed, after the 23d of this reign, of lords spiritual and 
 temporal and representatives of the commons, was sum- 
 moned to meet the king occasionally during one of these 
 parliaments. 
 
 The constitutional law of the country, whatever it may 
 have been in practice, was first declared by the statute 15 
 Edw. 2, which annulled the award against the king's fa- 
 vourites, the Despencers. In this act the legislative au- 
 thority was declared to reside in the king, with the assent 
 of the prelates, earls, barons, and commons, assembled in 
 parliament ; and from that time the real existence of that 
 body, and of the form of government which has ever since 
 subsisted, has been uninterrupted, except only during the 
 period of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The division of parliament into two houses took place at 
 a period which it is not possible to ascertain ; but it is prob- 
 able that the three orders met in separate conventions for 
 the purpose of assessing taxation, and that the representa- 
 tives of the commons were at no period admitted to sit in 
 the same chamber with the earls and barons after these 
 were expressly summoned by the king. Although the 
 numbers of both houses have varied materially, no funda- 
 mental alteration in their constitution took place from this 
 time until the union with Scotland. (See the Report of 
 the Lords' Committee on the Dignity of a Peer ; Hallam's 
 Constitutional History of England.) 
 
 House ok Lords. — 1. Temporal Peers. — The origin of 
 the English peerage is involved in the same obscurity which 
 rests on other parts of our early constitutional history. 
 The greater barons, as before stated, appear under the first 
 Plantagenet kings to have been those who were personally 
 summoned to the council, while inferior tenants in cnpite 
 "■ere summoned together by a f eneral compellation ; but at 
 
 what period their dignity became strictly hereditary is un 
 known. 
 
 Baronies are either by tenure, by writ, or by patent 
 The first were the original feudal titles, in which dignity 
 was invariably attached to the possession of land. The 
 greater barons, who sat of right in the great council, are 
 supposed, up to the reign of Henry HI., to have been those 
 who were in the possession of entire baronies. But from 
 the date of 22 Edw. 1, it appears that the possessors of en- 
 tire baronies ceased, of right, to be summoned to parlia- 
 ment ; and it is therefore generally held that no barony by 
 tenure subsists at the present day, although some recent ef- 
 forts have been made to establish a title to this peculiar dig- 
 nity ; the latest claim having been made on the barony of 
 Berkeley, by virtue of possession of the castle of that name. 
 Baronies by writ were created by writ of summons to par- 
 liament, which constituted an individual so addressed by 
 name, baron of the realm, and, it is supposed, also made 
 that dignity hereditary. The earliest writ of this descrip- 
 tion was issued 49 Hen. 3 ; and two now existing baronies 
 (Despencer and Roos) are considered to have been created 
 by it. In the case of a barony by writ, the dignity is not 
 conferred until the person so summoned has actually sat 
 in parliament. Baronies by writ descend in fee to all the 
 heirs of the body of the person first created. If there be 
 no son, and more daughters than one, the title falls into 
 abeyance until only one daughter, or the sole heir of only 
 one daughter, survives. 
 
 Baronies by patent are created by letters patent, under 
 the great seal, conferring the dignity on the donee ; in 
 which are inserted words of limitation. These are usually 
 to the heirs male of the body of the donee ; and where 
 there are no words of limitation in letters patent, it is held 
 that the dignity will pass in the same course. Otherwise, 
 the limitation is to other classes of heirs, or to specified 
 persons, and their heirs by way of remainder. See Re- 
 mainder. 
 
 Fiscountcies are always created by letters patent. This 
 is the most modern of English titles of peerage ; and was 
 first conferred on John Viscount Beaumont, 18 Hen. 6. The 
 title vice-comes, or vice-earl, had been long employed to 
 denote the sheriff of a county. 
 
 Earldoms were introduced into England by the Normans 
 at the Conquest. The dignity of an earl seems to have 
 been originally attached to the possession of a particular 
 tract of land ; but in the reign of Edward III. it began to be 
 conferred by charters or letters patent, with an express lim- 
 itation either to heirs general or heirs male of the body of 
 the grantee. The word earl is -of Saxon origin ; but an- 
 swers in dignity to the count (comes), in languages of Latin 
 descent. 
 
 Of Marquisates, the first was that of Dublin, conferred 
 on Robert De Vere, Earl of Oxford, for life, by Richard 
 II. The term marquis is derived from the Latin marchio, 
 signifying a military officer, governor of the mark or fron 
 tier. This dignity has been always conferred by letters 
 patent. 
 
 Dukedoms are the highest titles of the English peerage. 
 The first was created 2 Edw. 3, when Edward the Black 
 Prince was made Duke of Cornwall. It has been a ques- 
 tion whether the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster were 
 not duchies by tenure ; but every other dukedom is a mere 
 personal honour, and conferred by charter or letters patent. 
 The term duke is derived from the Latin dux, leader of an 
 army ; answering to the German herzog, which has the 
 same signification. 
 
 All peerages are forfeited by attainder for high treason ; 
 and attainder is consequent either on judgment or on out 
 lawry, upon an indictment for that offence. Nothing but a 
 reversal of such act of attainder by parliament can restore 
 an attainted person, or his posterity, to the lost dignity. 
 But where a peerage is vested in a person in tall male, with 
 remainder over to another in tail male, if the first be at- 
 tainted the peerage is forfeited as to him and his issue 
 male ; but, failing such issue male, the dignity becomes 
 vested in the remainder- man, or his descendant. 
 
 Peerages by writ are also forfeited by attainder for fel 
 ony ; but not peerages by charter or letters patent. 
 
 By the twenty-second and twenty-third articles of the 
 Union between England and Scotland, sixteen represent- 
 atives are elected by the Scots peers to serve in every par- 
 liament of the United Kingdom. The eldest sons of Scot- 
 tish peers were rendered, by a decision of the House of 
 Commons shortly after the union, incapable of sitting in 
 parliament. It was held for a long time that a Scottish 
 peer could not sit in the House of Lords if he became a 
 peer of Great Britain ; but the point was decided the other 
 way in 1780. 
 
 By the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland 
 (39 & 40 G. 3, c. 67), twenty-eight lords temporal are elect- 
 ed for life by the peers of Ireland. Peers of Ireland, who 
 are members of the House of Commons, are not eligible to 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 serve as peers while they continue members of the former 
 house. 
 
 2. Lords Spiritual. — The right of the two archbishops 
 and twenty-four bishops of England and Wales to sit and 
 vote in parliament as members of the House of Lords, la 
 generally said to belong to ihem as barons of the realm. 
 It is undoubtedly probable that at the period of the Con- 
 quest a change took place in the tenure of the lands which 
 were held by bishops and the high regular clergy ; and 
 that the Norman tenure by barony, then introduced for 
 the first time, was made to comprehend both spiritual and 
 temporal possessions, which under the Saxon kings had 
 been regarded in a different light. But it is most probable 
 that the dignitaries of the church were constituent mem- 
 ber! of the great council of the realm, by the English as 
 well as all other feudal constitutions, independent of their 
 quality sis barons (see Hallam, Middle Jlges, c. viii., part 3) ; 
 but that the place which was assigned them in the Bouse 
 of Lords, when the two houses became separate, was in 
 virtue of their baronial character. Under the Plantagenet 
 kings the clergy were summoned to meet by their represent- 
 atives, as well as the laity, when subsidies were required; 
 and under Edward I. (see Luders on Parliaments, chap. 
 iii.) attempts were made to unite them and the laity togeth- 
 er in Parliament; but they were always resisted by the 
 clergy, and at last they ceased altogether to attend in any 
 capacity, retaining their own assemblies. (See Convoca- 
 tion.; At the period of the dissolution of i lasieries by 
 
 Henry VIII., the spiritual lords consisted of the then arch- 
 bishops and bishops, and of twenty-six mitred abbots, and 
 two priors, all of whom were then removed on the dissolu- 
 tion of their houses. The present spiritual lords have the 
 same rights and privileges in every respect as the temporal, 
 except that it is still a disputed point in constitutional law 
 whether they have a right, on charge of treason and felony, 
 to a trial by the peers ; and it is also doubted whether they 
 have judicial power, as peers, in capital cases. 
 
 By the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland, 
 four lords spiritual from among the archbishops and bish- 
 ops of that country sit in the House of Lords by rotation of 
 
 House or Commons. — I. Persons qualified to serve in it. 
 — Persons Incompetent to sit as members of parliament 
 are, first, those labouring under the incapacities of alien- 
 ship, attaint, outlawry in criminal proceedings, minority, 
 lunacy, ft£. ; next, those who are disqualified by the pos- 
 offices, or by certain other temporaiy 
 i. peers, Scotch peers, Irish peers for 
 be eldest sons of Scotch peers for places 
 in Scotland, the fifteen Judges of England, the Scotch judg- 
 es anil barons of the Scotch exchequer, arc ineligible. 
 Where tin: influence of government is supposed to have a 
 direct control over the party, a disqualification has been 
 ■ I by various statutes. Persons concerned in the man- 
 Bgement of the revenues, with some few exceptions, are 
 ineligible. So are persons holding new offices under the 
 crown created since 1705, together with other persons men- 
 tioned in Anne, c. 7. So pensioners during pleasure or 
 for a term years, police magistrates, government contractors, 
 and placemen in public offices, specified in 15 O. 2, c. 22. 
 There are also offices connected with the excise and cus- 
 toms which only disqualify the holder from sitting and vo- 
 ting, but not from being elected. Persons returned on a 
 double return are not competent to sit until the return is de- 
 cided by a committee. 
 
 The acceptance of any office of profit from the crown by 
 a member vacates his seat, by 6 Anne, c. 7. And there are 
 two places of no profit, the acceptance of which Is consid- 
 ered to vacate a seat: viz., the stewardship of the Chiltern 
 Hundreds, and the stewardship of the manor of East Hun- 
 dred. Officers of the nrmy and navy receiving new com- 
 missions are excepted from this statute: so are those who 
 accept a foreign employment, as ambassadors. 
 
 A member becoming a bankrupt is incapable of sitting and 
 voting for a year, unless within that time the commission 
 is superseded, or the creditors paid ; if this be not done 
 within the year, the seat of the member is vacated. 
 
 Whether a resolution of the house can render a person 
 ineligible, may still be considered an undecided question. 
 
 II. Electoral. Franchise. — Since the Acts of Union with 
 Scotland and Ireland, and the changes introduced by the 
 Reform Act, the House of Commons consists of 658 mem- 
 bers— 500 English and Welsh ; 53 Scotch ; 105 Irish— divi- 
 ded as follows : 
 
 English and Welita. Scotch. Iriih. 
 
 .159 30 64 
 
 .337 23 39 
 
 . 2 Dublin 2 
 
 _2 
 
 500 53 105 
 All persons are competent to vote in the election of mem- 
 3L 
 
 Counties 
 Boroughs 
 Universities — Oxford 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 bers of parliament except infants, worncr., ■iliens (ui"e."« 
 made denizens by letters patent or naturalized by act of par- 
 liament), persons convicted of felony and certain other in- 
 famous crimes, peers; Irish peers, unless themselves mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons ; and persons holding va- 
 rious employments under government not freehold offices. 
 There are also some temporary disqualifications, arising 
 out of employment in particular characters at elections, 
 and the receipt of public alms. They must, however, 
 possess a certain qualification, which (except in the uni- 
 versities, in which the right of voting belongs to all such 
 as have attained certain academical degrees) is one of 
 property. 
 
 1. In English and Welsh counties, the right of voting be 
 longs to all such as possess a freehold estate in lands, 
 tenements, or hereditaments, of the value of 40s. pel an- 
 num above reprises; or who are seised of lands or ten- 
 ements in copyhold, or any other non- freehold tenure for 
 life, or for a larger estate of the value of 10/. per annum ; 
 or entitled as lessee or assignee to lands or tenements for the 
 unexpired residue of a term of not less than sixty years of 
 the same value, or of a term of not less than twenty years 
 of the value of 50/. per annum; and occupiers of lands find 
 tenements at a bona fide rent of 50/. or more per annum. 
 But freehold tenements for life, if under the value of Mi/. 
 per annum, do not confer a vote, unless the party is in lhr ai 
 tual occupation of them, or unless they have conic to bun li 
 devise, marriage, ate, and not by gift or sale. And inlhecasu 
 of freeholds and copyholds, possession for six mom 
 
 the last day of July in the year in which lbs voter is real* 
 tercd is a necessary condition; in that of leaseholds. &.<-., 
 twelve months. 
 
 2. The qualifications of voters in cities and bor oughs , bi 
 England, were, under the law as it stood before tbi 
 
 Act, extremely various, and depending more on the local 
 law of'ivery place than on the general custom of the coun- 
 try. J'he principal franchises were; — 1. In respect of prop 
 erty ; thus freeholders to the amount of 40*. voted in many 
 towns and cities which were counties of themselves : lease- 
 holders, copyholders, &c, in other places; nnd burgage 
 tenants. The franchise of burgage tenure, which existed in 
 some towns, depended on the possession of certain ancient 
 tenements, which conferred a right to vote. 2. In raspt ol 01 
 corporate privileges. Freemen or burgesses, and in London 
 liverymen (see Corporation), enjoyed, by virtue of their 
 privilege, a right of voting in corporate towns. 3. In re- 
 spect of Inhab i tan cy. Voters in this respect were of linn 
 sorts: Inhabitants paying scot and lot; Inhabitants boats* 
 holders, housekeepers, pot-wRllers (i. «., pot boilers), legally 
 settled; Inhabitant! householders resiant ; inhabitants gen- 
 erally. In many towns, several of these qualifications 
 were recognised at the same time as conferring a right to 
 vote. 
 
 The alterations introduced into the system of borough 
 qualifications by the English Reform Act were twofold. In 
 the first place, a new franchise is created which is every- 
 where the same. Every capable person who occupies with- 
 in the limits of a borough any house or building falling 
 within the specifications of the act, which is either sepal 
 ately or jointly with land held within the same borough as 
 owner, or of the same landlord, of the clear yearly value 
 of 10/., is entitled to vote ; provided he has occupied such 
 premises for twelve months previous to the last day of July 
 in the year in which he is registered ; and provided he has 
 been rated, nnd paid all rates for the relief of the poor due up 
 to the 6lh of April next preceding, and also all assessed tax- 
 es. In the next place, former franchises are modified as fol 
 lows : Freemen, and, in cities being counties of them 
 selves, freeholders and burgage tenants, are to retain their 
 qualification. But no one can claim to be registered as a 
 burgess or freeman who was admitted since the 1st of 
 March, 1831, except he derive his title through birth or ser 
 vitude; or for a freehold or burgage tenement for an estate 
 acquired since that day. All other borough franchises are 
 abolished, saving their rights to individuals possessed of 
 them at the passing of the Reform Act. 
 
 Finally, the act requires that every person, in order to be 
 registered as a voter for a city or borough, must have resi- 
 ded for six calendar months next previously to the last day 
 of July in that year within such city or borough, or within 
 seven miles of it. And it is also provided, that no tenement 
 situate within a borough, and capable of conferring a qual 
 ification on its occupier to vote within the borough, shall 
 give a vote for the county. 
 
 Several boroughs in Wales, as well as in Scotland, are 
 contributary ; several towns being joined in one for the pur- 
 pose of returning members to Parliament. 
 
 The system of registration of voters, in England and 
 Wales, was framed by the Reform Act. In counties, the re- 
 gister is formed by the overseers of the poor in every parish 
 or township making the list by inserting all persons who 
 have delivered to them, before the 20th of July In each year 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 a. claim to vote i» respect of property situate within their 
 district. The lists thus drawn up by the overseers, accord- 
 ing to a form specified in the act, are delivered to the high 
 constable, and by him to the clerk of the peace for the coun- 
 ty. The overseers are empowered to object to any person 
 on their list whom they conceive not entitled to vote. They 
 are also to receive written notices of objection by third par- 
 ties, who are themselves voters or claimants, duly delivered 
 to them, and to mark the names of all parties so objected to 
 on the list. The lists thus formed are revised by the bar- 
 rister or barristers appointed for that purpose. These offi- 
 cers are nominated by the senior judge of assize travelling 
 the summer circuit within his district; and by the chief jus- 
 tice of the King's Bench in the metropolitan county and 
 boroughs. Their courts, for the purpose of revising the 
 lists and deciding on claims and objections, must be held 
 between the 15th September and 25th October in every 
 year. The lists revised by them form the register for the 
 county, which is the authentic list of voters until the next 
 registration. Any person having his name and qualification 
 once inserted in the register is not bound to make a claim 
 another year. 
 
 In cities and boroughs the course is somewhat different. 
 On or before the last day of July in every year the over- 
 seers are to make out an alphabetical list of persons entitled 
 to vote under this act ; and another of persons entitled to 
 vote in respect of ancient rights (except freemen, the list 
 of whom is to be made by the town clerk, and in London 
 by the clerks of the several companies). Any person 
 whose name has been omitted in either of these lists is to 
 give notice of a claim, in writing, to the overseer or town 
 clerk. Objections are to be made, in boroughs, only by par- 
 ties whose names are inserted in the list. The lists are re- 
 vised by the barristers in the same manner as those for the 
 counties, and delivered to the returning officer. 
 
 3. In Scotland, the right of voting in counties is declared 
 by the Scotch Reform Act, 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 65, to be in the 
 owners of ancient rights (termed superiorities) not acquired 
 since 1831 : in such persons as have been owners for six 
 months previous to the last day of July of " any lands, feu 
 duties, or other heritable subjects," of the annual value of 
 10/. after deductions. Where two or more parties are in- 
 terested in any subject to which a right of voting is for the 
 first time attached by the act, as life-renter and as fiar, the 
 right shall be in the former. The right is also extended to 
 tenants for life, or on lease of fifty-seven years or more, 
 at £10 per annum ; tenants on lease of nineteen years or 
 more, or occupants at £50 per annum ; and tenants who 
 have paid for their interest a price of £300. 
 
 4. In Scottish boroughs, the right of voting is in occupiers 
 of houses, &c. (as in the English Reform Act) of the year- 
 ly value of £10. Claims by qualified persons to vote for 
 counties are to be lodged with the schoolmaster, and he is 
 to make out the lists of claimants and objections. Claims 
 for votes in boroughs are given in to the town clerk, and the 
 lists made out by him. The sheriff holds courts to decide 
 on questions relative to the registration : his powers and du- 
 ties are analagous to those of the revising barrister in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 5. In Ireland, the right of voting in counties is in free- 
 nolders at £10 per annum (by the act 10 G. 4, c. 8, which 
 abolished the old 40s. qualification) ; and by 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 
 88, in leaseholders for sixty years at £10 per annum, for 
 fourteen years at £20 ; and in copyholders at £10 per annum. 
 
 6. In counties of cities and counties of towns in Ireland, 
 the franchise is in £10 freeholders, £20 leaseholders, £10 
 householders, and in the 40s. freeholders entitled under 4 
 G. 4, c. 55 ; but not in any persons acquiring such freeholds 
 eince 1831, except by descent, marriage, &c. ; and in £10 
 occupiers who have occupied for six months : in all other 
 boroughs, in £10 occupiers (the franchise being the same as 
 in England, with the exception that the words " or other 
 building" are omitted) who have occupied for six months. 
 The existing rights of freemen, &c, are Baved. Registra- 
 tion in Ireland takes place at a special session, before the 
 assistant barrister or chairman of each county ; parties 
 desirous to be put on the register, whether for counties 
 or boroughs, having previously given notice to the clerk 
 of the peace, his deputy, or the high constable. Persons 
 declared by the assistant barrister to be entitled, verify 
 their title by affidavit, which is filed of record. An appeal 
 is given to the judges of assize. A certificate of registry 
 is given to each registered voter. Freeholders at £50 per 
 innuni may be registered at assizes, or before a judge in 
 Dublin. 
 
 III. Mode of Election. — 1. In England and Wales, when 
 the sheriff receives the writ commanding him to return a 
 knight or knight of the shire, or division of the shire, he 
 makes proclamation, within two days after receiving the 
 writ, at the place where the election is to be holden ; that 
 is, the principal polling place. Counties and divisions are 
 subdivided into convenient districts, with a polling place 
 
 in each. On the day fixed, after the Bribery Ait has been 
 read, the candidates are proposed ; and the election pro- 
 ceeds. In boroughs, the sheriff (or other officer to whom 
 the writ is directed) sends his precept to the returning 
 officer, who ants in the same manner as the sheriff in the 
 county ; and boroughs are similarly divided into polling 
 districts. 
 
 When a candidate is proposed, he may be called on by 
 any other candidate, or any two of the electors, to swear 
 to his qualification. The qualification required liv 9 Anne, 
 c. 5, is, for a knight of the shire £600 per annum in lands 
 and tenements, freehold or copyhold, for his own life, or a 
 greater estate ; for burgesses, £300 per annum of similar 
 property. Eldest sons of peers, or of persons qualified to 
 sit as knights of the shire, are themselves qualified. Mem- 
 bers for the universities are not required to possess any 
 qualification. 
 
 It is still questionable whether the returning officer can 
 refuse to return a candidate who refuses to take the quali- 
 fication oath before the poll. After the election, and 
 before he takes his seat, each member must deliver to the 
 clerk of the house a paper signed by himself containing a 
 description of his estate of qualification, and is sworn to its 
 value at the same time at which he takes the other oaths. 
 His qualification may then be questioned in a petition 
 against his election. 
 
 When more candidates are proposed than the number to 
 be returned, the election is decided by the sheriffs de- 
 claring the majority on view (by calling on them to hold 
 up their hands). But a poll may be demanded by a candi- 
 date or elector, either before or after such declaration by 
 the sheriff. 
 
 The poll must commence on the day on which it is de- 
 manded, or on the day after. By the Reform Act (s. 58), 
 three questions only can be asked of any person offering to 
 vote as to his right — whether he is the same person whose 
 name appears on the register, whether he has already voted, 
 whether he has the same qualification for whicli his name 
 was inserted on the register ; and he may be required to 
 take the oath specified in the act as to his person and quali- 
 fication. Besides this, the oaths of allegiance, and supre- 
 macy, and abjuration, may be put to an elector at the 
 request of any candidate, unless the elector be a Roman 
 Catholic, in which case he may be required to take the 
 oath specified in 10 G. 4, c. 7 : all the foregoing oaths are 
 to be taken before commissioners. The bribery oath may 
 also be administered at the poll by the returning officer. 
 There are also certain local oaths, required by net of par- 
 liament to be taken at the election for particular bo- 
 roughs. 
 
 By the Reform Act the poll was limited, in England and 
 Wales, to two days' duration, both in counties and bo- 
 roughs. And now, by a recent enactment, the poll is de- 
 clared, in counties, the day next but one after its close ; in 
 boroughs, the day after its close. By 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 1, the 
 duration of the poll in boroughs was further limited to a 
 single day. The return is made, in counties, by tacking 
 the names of the persons chosen to the writ ; in boroughs, 
 by tacking them to the precepts and returning them to the 
 sheriff, who then tacks them to the writ, and forwards the 
 whole together to the clerk of the crown in chancery. 
 Where the votes are equal, it is the practice to make double 
 returns. 
 
 2. In Scotland, the sheriff fixes the day for a county 
 election at not less than ten or more than sixteen days 
 after the writ is received : the counties are divided into 
 polling districts, not exceeding fifteen in number ; and the 
 poll lasts two days. In boroughs similar regulations are 
 adopted to those in England ; but the sheriff, or his substi- 
 tute, superintends the poll, which may last three days. 
 The sheriff is the returning officer. 
 
 3. In Ireland, the sheriff proclaims the time and place 
 of a county election five days after receiving the writ; and 
 from ten to sixteen days after such proclamation the election 
 is held. In boroughs, the sheriff of a county of a city ot 
 town, the mayor, sovereign, or other returning officer, holds 
 the election, not later than eight days after receipt of the 
 precept from the sheriff. The poll shall commence on the 
 day on which it is demanded, and continue five days, but 
 may be closed on any day on which not more than twenty 
 persons have polled. 
 
 ■ IV. Election Committees.— In the first parliament of 
 James I. a committee of privileges and returns was ap- 
 pointed, to which the trial of every petition against ar 
 election was referred which was not heard before the 
 House of Commons. A similar committee was appointed 
 at the commencement of every session, until the present 
 practice of trying such petitions before select committees 
 began. This practice is founded on a variety of statutes, 
 beginning with 10 G. 3, c. 16, commonly called the Gren- 
 ville Act, consolidated by 9 G. 4, c. 22. 
 There are six sorts of petitions referred to a select com- 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 mitiee : 1. Complaining of undue election. 2. Of undue 
 return. 3. That no return has been made to the writ in 
 due time, &c. 4. That the return is not according to the 
 requisition of the writ ; or complaining of special matters 
 contained in it (as double returns or special returns). 5. 
 To oppose the right of election, or of appointing returning 
 officers, determined by a select committee, and related to 
 the house. 6. To defend such right. The four first may 
 be subscribed by any candidate or person claiming a right 
 to vote ; tile two last by all persons. A petition to be ad- 
 milted as a party to defend such return, or oppose the 
 prayer of such petition, is addressed to the house, and not 
 referred to a committee. An election petition is presented 
 to the house by a member within a certain time limited by 
 the house. No proceedings will be had on petitions com- 
 plaining of nn undue election or return, fcc., unless the 
 subscriber, within fourteen days after its presentation, or 
 farther time limited by the house, enter into certain recog- 
 nizances for the payment of costs and compliance with 
 other conditions. 
 
 When such a petition is presented, a day and hour are 
 appointed by the house for taking it into consideration. At 
 that time, under the Grenville Act, if 100 members were 
 present, the parties and agents attending, thirty-three were 
 selected by ballot; which number, on each party striking 
 off one alternately, was reduced to eleven. If more than 
 one petition isjto be taken into consideration on the same 
 day, successive lists of thirty-three were formed, two, three, 
 or more, according to the number of members present in 
 the house. Voters, petitioners, members against whom 
 petitions are presented, and those whose return has not 
 been brought in, were disqualified from serving, anil their 
 I drawn, were sot aside. If no party appeared to 
 OflMM the petition, the clerk of the house and the peti- 
 tioner reduced the list to eleven. This system was con- 
 siderably altered by the provisions of 2 & 3 Vict., c. 38, 
 an act introduced by Sir Robert Peel. Under it a gener- 
 al committee of elections is appointed by the speaker at 
 ihe beginning of every session. This general committee 
 chooses six members and a chairman to form a select com- 
 mittee to try an election petition, out of the whole list of 
 members, divided and corrected in the manner therein spe- 
 
 < itiell. 
 
 The same nicety, it is said, is not required in election 
 petitions, as to their form, as in pleadings at law ; but it is 
 HOW decided, by a series of precedents, that it is necessary 
 that the matter intended to be proved should be sufficiently 
 set forth in the allegations of the petition ; and that, on 
 the hearing of the petition, it will not be competent to the 
 party to go Into evidence in proof of facts not distinctly 
 alleged therein. But there is considerable variety in the 
 decisions as to what is sufficiency of allegation. An 
 election |ietition, when once presented, can only be with- 
 drawn by permission of the house: to which jurisdiction 
 in this respect is still left by the Grenville Act. The 
 house will therefore require to be satisfied that there is no 
 fraud or concert in the withdrawal. Supplemental election 
 petitions may be presented, on the discovery of new mat- 
 ter after the presentation of the lirst petition. 
 
 In petitions of the first four classes, parties (if the elec- 
 tion is defended) are required to send in to the clerk of the 
 House of Commons lists of the votes to which they intend 
 to object. 
 
 Select committees sit every day ; but with power to ad- 
 journ for twenty-four hours on their own authority, and 
 for a longer period on leave obtained from the house on 
 motion. Members may only absent themseUes by leave, 
 or on excuse to be allowed by the house : if any are absent 
 other* ise, the committee cannot sit. Committees are not 
 dissolved by prorogation of parliament, but adjourned to 
 the next time of meeting. 
 
 In the first four classes of petitions, the committee have 
 to try the merits of the election ; and to determine, by 
 their votes, whether the petitioners, or the sitting mem- 
 bers, or either of them, were duly returned ; or whether 
 the election is void, and a new writ ought to issue. The 
 fifth class raises the question as to the right of election, 
 or of nominating returning officers, ice. The determina- 
 tion of the committee is in each case final and conclusive ; 
 and is embodied in its report to the house at the conclu- 
 sion of its sittings. A committee has also the power, if it 
 pleases, of making a special report, instead of deciding 
 generally on the merits ; in which case the house makes 
 such order on the report as may seem proper. An exami- 
 nation into the bad votes given on each side is termed a 
 scrutiny ; and the effect of it is, that if on balancing the 
 number of good votes retained after such examination the 
 petitioner has the majority, it is reported that he ought to 
 have been returned. Where an incapacitated person has 
 been elected, the principle of parliamentary law is, that if 
 his disqualification was sufficiently known to the electors 
 at the time they returned him, their votes are considered 
 
 as lost ; and it is reported that the next on the poll ought 
 to have been returned. If the fact of his disqualification 
 was not known, the election is simply void. It appears, 
 however, not to be absolutely decided whether the incapa- 
 city which renders the votes thrown away must be an in- 
 herent or contingent incapacity ; as, for example, where it 
 was publicly knoicn that a candidate was disqualified by 
 reason of having been guilty of acts of bribery with refer- 
 ence to the election. In this case it has been argued that 
 the election is not void, but that the votes given for the 
 person so disqualified are thrown away. In other cases, 
 bribery, treating, undue interference, fcc, have the effect 
 of avoiding elections; and the report is, that a new writ 
 ought to issue. 
 
 Finally, an election committee has the power of de- 
 claring either the petition, or the opposition to it, " frivo- 
 lous and vexatious" in its report ; the effect of which is to 
 fix the party against whom such declaration is made with 
 the payment of costs. These costs are ascertained by 
 application to the speaker, who directs two persons to tax 
 them, and then grants a certificate ; on production of 
 which in a superior court judgment may be entered up for 
 the amount. 
 
 V. Mode of Jlsicmbling Parliament. — Parliament can 
 only be convened by the authority of the king ; and, by 6 
 W. & M., c. 2, must be held at least once every three 
 years ; but, in point of fact, as the Mutiny Act, Land Tax, 
 and Malt Act are only passed for a single year, the sittings 
 of parliament are of necessity annual. The same order by 
 the king in council which commands the lord chancellor 
 to cause the great seal to be affixed to a proclamation for 
 dissolving parliament, is accompanied with a warrant to 
 issue writs for a new one. Writs for the return of mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons are directed to the sheriffs 
 of counties, with certain exceptions : viz. the returning 
 officer* of places counties in themselves, the Bishop of 
 Durham, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the 
 Chamberlain of the County Palatine of Chester, the 
 Constable of Dover, and the Warden of the Cinque Ports 
 On a vacancy during the sitting of parliament, the writ 
 issues under warrant of the speaker by the authority of 
 the house itself. 
 
 VI. Meeting of Parliament. Preliminary Proceedings. — 
 The new parliament meets on the return day of the writ, 
 unless prorogued by writ of prorogation ; but when it is 
 intended that it should meet for the actual despatch of 
 business on the day to which it is prorogued, notice to that 
 effect Is given by proclamation forty days before ; and tho 
 parliament begins only on the day to which it is prorogued. 
 The acts of meeting and passing a statute constitute to- 
 gether a session. Upon the assembling of parliament the 
 king meets it in person, or by representation, and explains 
 in his speech the reasons of convening it. In modern 
 times, the speech is not delivered until the commons have 
 chosen a speaker, which they receive a command from the 
 king to do. 
 
 The first occasion on which this important officer is ex 
 pressly named occurs in the parliament 51 Kdw. 3. His 
 duties are — to act entirely as the servant of the house 
 which appoints him. He takes the chair, which he can 
 not do unless forty members are present ; maintains order, 
 by naming (if necessary) members who are disorderly • 
 explains and informs on questions of order or practice, if 
 he is referred to. He can neither speak nor vote unless in 
 case of equality of votes ; or in committees of the whole 
 house, where, as soon as the chair is taken, he is reduced 
 to the footing of an ordinary member. 
 
 On the first day of the meeting of every new parliament 
 certain oaths are administered to the members by the 
 Lord Steward of the King's Household : these are the 
 oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration ; but, by 
 the Roman Catholic Relief Act, members professing that 
 religion take, instead of these oaths, a declaration substi- 
 tuted for them. By 33 G. 2, c. 20, they are also required 
 to make oath that they are qualified, and deliver in their 
 qualification at the table. But, previous to being sworn, 
 every person returned is to all intents and purposes a 
 member of the house, except as to the right of voting only. 
 Before the king's speech is taken into consideration, it is 
 usual to read a bill as a matter of form. The king's speech 
 being then reported to the house, an address of thanks, as 
 moved or as amended, is returned. The usual committees 
 are then appointed : of these the committee of privilege is 
 the only one of which the duties are at present of a prac- 
 tical kind. 
 
 The method of proceeding in making laws is, for the 
 most part, similar in the two houses ; but different in pub- 
 lic and private bills. 
 
 VII. Method of Proceeding on Bills in general.— Statutes 
 are divided into public and private ; and the distinction, in 
 a parliamentary sense, is merely derived from the payment 
 of fees, which are due on private and not on public act* 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 constitutionally, public acts are, in general, such as relate 
 to the kingdom at large ; private acts, to individuals and 
 classes. Many acts, however, which immediately concern 
 classes only are within the category of public acts ; as, l'or 
 instance, acts concerning all spiritual persons, or all lords 
 of manors. Judicially the distinction between the classes 
 is, that the courts of justice are officially bound to notice 
 public acts ; but private acts must be formally shown or 
 pleaded. This rule, however, admits of certain technical 
 exceptions. 
 
 All private bills affecting the peerage must begin with 
 the lords ; all bills which, directly or indirectly, impose a 
 charge on the people must begin with the commons. This 
 class, therefore, includes all bills under which tolls may 
 be levied for private benefit ; such as bills for making 
 roads, canals, railways, bridges, inclosure bills, and bills 
 containing clauses inflicting pecuniary penalties for offences 
 against private property, &c. 
 
 All other private bills may begin with either house in- 
 differently ; but, in practice, one large class of private 
 enactments — viz. estate bills, which enlarge or alter the 
 power of individuals in disposing of their proprerty ; divorce 
 bills ; bills to enable parties, under statutable restrictions, 
 to alienate, &c, begin in the lords ; that house, from its 
 judicial character, being best fitted for the discussion of 
 similar subjects. On the other hand, bills concerning the 
 parliamentary rights, &c. of particular places, usually com- 
 mence, by custom, in the commons. There is one instance 
 of a bill which begins with neither house, but with the 
 crown ; viz. a bill for a general pardon. Bills are always 
 read in each house, after leave has been given to bring 
 them in, three timeB before they are passed (with the ex- 
 ception of bills of grace, such as for a general pardon, which 
 are passed on the first reading). General petitions against 
 a bill are usually ordered to lie on the table until the second 
 reading; on which occasion counsel are heard agains(JR bill, 
 whenever leave is given for their introduction. The second 
 reading affords the legitimate period for discussion on the 
 principle of the bill ; and the bill is then i,as indeed it is, 
 on principle, in every stage) open to the proposal of amend- 
 ment.". If a bill be rejected, either on the first or second 
 reading, it cannot be again proposed that session. After 
 the second reading, the bill is committed ; i. «., referred 
 either to a select committee, or, if the bill be of importance, 
 to a committee of the whole house. Such a committee 
 requires, m the commons, the presence only of forty mem- 
 bers; in the lords, of all members in attendance. In com- 
 mittee the bill is debated clause by clause, with the advan- 
 tage that members are not restricted, as in a debate of the 
 house, to speaking once. The proper province of the com- 
 mittee is to consider the bill in its details. When the bill 
 has gone through the committee, the chairman reports it to 
 the house, with such amendments as the committee may 
 have made. The house can then agree or disagree with 
 the amendments of the committee. (See Amendment.) 
 The bill is then engrossed, and afterwards read a third time. 
 In the commons, it is usual to read a bill which originates 
 with the lords the third time on the same day on which it 
 is reported. A new clause added to a bill on the third 
 reading is termed a rider. A bill thrice read, and passed, 
 admits of no farther alteration, except for clerical errors. 
 A bill sent from the commons to the lords is usually read 
 the first time in the latter house on the day on which it is 
 brought; and, when it has passed through the different 
 stages, is sent back to the commons, with the amendments, 
 if any have been made, with which the commons then 
 agree or disagree ; the same process, substantially, being 
 followed, vice versa, where the bill originates with the 
 lords. The amendments returned with a bill from one 
 house to another are taken into separate consideration ; and 
 the amendments, if agreed to, are always considered as 
 proceeding from that house in which the bill first originated. 
 If one house cannot agree to the amendments proposed by 
 the other, a conference is usually held between members 
 deputed by each house, who can only make use of the in- 
 structions delivered by the house in their arguments, the 
 conference being desired by that house which disagrees 
 with the amendments in question. If the house which 
 amends is not satisfied at the first conference with the 
 reasons alleged for its disagreement by the other, it desires 
 another conference ; if this too is unsuccessful, what is 
 termed a free conference may be demanded, in which the 
 managers of the conference are not under the same re- 
 strictions as to instructions, but may urge their own argu- 
 ments. If one or more free conferences fail of producing 
 unanimity, the bill is dropped. It is necessary to observe, 
 that in bills of supply (which originate in the commons) 
 the lords cannot make any except verbal amendments, 
 they must either admit or reject altogether. When a bill 
 has passed both houses, it is deposited in the House of 
 Lords, to wait for the royal assent (except in the case of a 
 bill of supply, which is presented by the speaker to the 
 <)00 
 
 throne). The royal assent is given either in person, or by 
 letter patent under the great seal, notified by commission. 
 The bill then becomes a statute, is transcribed into a roll 
 by the clerk of the parliament, delivered into chancery, 
 and by usage, although not necessarily, printed at the king's 
 press. 
 
 VIII. Method of Proceeding on Private Bills.— Petitions 
 for private bills must be presented in the Commons within 
 fourteen days after the first Friday in the session ; and, on 
 being presented by a member, are referred to a committee, 
 which is then named, consisting of five members selected 
 by the committee clerk. The committee on the petition 
 ascertains whether or not the standing orders applicable to 
 the case have been complied with, in which case they 
 make their report, accordingly, to the house : leave is then 
 given to bring in a bill, unless, as in some cases, it is expe- 
 dient first to re-commit the report. The bill having been 
 read a first time, after an interval, which is varied in prac- 
 tice according to the nature of its subject, the House pro- 
 ceeds to the second reading ; on which occasion objections 
 to the principle of the bill are usually made, specific objec- 
 tions to its provisions being more properly reserved to a la- 
 ter stage. A member may, individually, oppose a private 
 bill in any stage, or he may present a petition against it. 
 On the bill being read a second time, it is referred to a 
 committee, which is formed in the same manner as the 
 first committee on the petition. In the comlnittee on the 
 bill all the blanks left on its first introduction are filled up, 
 and amendments introduced, and, if unopposed, the hill is 
 reported. Opposition to a private bill, in a committee of the 
 House of Commons, is conducted as follows : The petition 
 against the bill, having been referred to the committee, is 
 read there ; if the parties supporting it appear, the promo- 
 ters of the bill first state their case, and produce and sum 
 up their evidence in support of its preamble ; the opponents 
 next state their case, and produce and sum up their evi- 
 dence against it ; the promoters then reply, and the com- 
 mittee vote. If the committee resolve that the preamble 
 is proved, the clauses are read, and the opponents are at 
 liberty to make objections to each successively, the promo- 
 ters not being called upon otherwise to offer evidence in 
 support of them. The presence of five members of the 
 committee is necessary to any proceeding. A committee 
 cannot dissolve itself, and consequently its existence con- 
 tinues until it has reported to the House ; although by ad- 
 journing indefinitely, or by voting the chairman out of the 
 chair, they might in effect entirely release themselves from 
 the duty imposed on them ; but the House, in similar cases, 
 has exereised the power of ordering the committee to pro- 
 ceed forthwith. 
 
 When the report is brought up and read, as in the case 
 of other bills, it is ordered to lie on the table. After seven 
 days, the amendments having been read and agreed to, it 
 is ordered to be engrossed ; after which it is competent to 
 any member to move the third reading of it. Additional 
 clauses added at this time are termed riders. When pass- 
 ed, the member who presented the petition, with seven 
 others, takes it to the House of Lords, and delivers it to the 
 lord-chancellor. If the lords make amendments, the con- 
 currence of the Commons to these amendments is moved 
 by the same member. Should the lord's amendments not 
 be agreed to (a rare occurrence in private bills), a confer- 
 ence is held by a deputation from both Houses ; and, should 
 the disagreement continue, the bill is finally withdrawn, or, 
 rather, dropped. 
 
 IX. Standing Orders of the J/ovse of Commons. — These 
 are a series of regulations, adopted by way of resolutions of 
 the House at various periods, from 1685 to the present time, 
 relating partly to the internal order, &c, of the House, 
 partly to certain preliminaries and forms required on the 
 introduction of particular bills, both public and private, and 
 to the promulgation of statutes. The most numerous of 
 these relate to private bills, and specify the mode of sign 
 ing and presenting, the time for delivering notices and their 
 necessary contents, the formalities to be required respect- 
 ing instruments, and a variety of other particulars. When 
 a resolution is made which is intended to be permanent, it 
 is usual to add the form, " Ordered that the said resolutions 
 be standing orders of the House." Standing orders on pri- 
 vate bills are sometimes (but only on special application) 
 dispensed with by the House, or farther time, &.c, given 
 for complying with them. 
 
 X. Rules of Business in the two Nouses.— In the Com 
 mons, a house for the transaction of business consists of 
 forty members, by an order of the year 1640 ; and, if a less 
 number be present, the speaker will not take the chair. 
 This rule extends to committees of the whole House. The 
 speaker of the House of Commons cannot speak in the 
 House ; the speaker of the House of Lords may. A call of 
 the House of Commons is an expedient to secure attendance 
 for an important occasion : when it is made, members ab- 
 sent without leave may be ordered to be taken into custody 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 No member can be present on the debate of a bill or other 
 business concerning himself. The order "for the sergeant- 
 at-arms to take into custody strangers that are in the gallery 
 of the house" is repeated every year, the first instance hav- 
 ing been in 1705 ; so that the House of Commons is suppo- 
 sed to sit with closed doors, although the order is partly 
 permitted to be infringed. When the speaker's mace lies 
 upon the table of the House of Commons, it is a house ; 
 when under, a committee ; when out of the house, no busi- 
 ness can be done ; when in the hands of the sergeant at the 
 bar, no motion can be made. 
 
 With regard to the manner of speaking and voting in the 
 Commons, motions are made, and petitions presented, by a 
 member in his place ; the readings of bills, &c, are moved 
 at the table. The member who moves a motion puts it in 
 writing, and delivers it to the speaker, who, when it has 
 been seconded, puts it to the house ; it cannot then be 
 withdrawn except by leave of the house. The motion to 
 adjourn is put in order to supersede a motion of which the 
 house is already in possession. The motion for reading 
 the order of the day has equally the effect of superseding 
 tin.' existing question. The motion for the previous question 
 has been commonly but mistakenly attributed to Hir Harry 
 Vane, as its inventor. It can take place only in a house, 
 and not in a committee ; in which latter the equivalent 
 motion is, that the chairman do now leave the chair. The 
 H»ntini names the member whom he ttnt perceives to rise 
 in order to speak, but the house is not bound by the speak- 
 er's decision. It is understood to be the rule that a member 
 -jieak even after the question put, if the affirmative 
 voice only has been given, and the negative not yet given. 
 The effect of the speaker's " naming a member," on the 
 occasion of disorder in the house, is that such member, af- 
 ter being heard, it" he pleases, is directed to withdraw, and 
 the house then considers what penalty to inflict. In the 
 commons, votes are given by aye and no; if a division is 
 demanded, the speaker (by a resolution of 160.')) appoints 
 two tellers on each side to count. Strangers are directed 
 to withdraw, and the doors closed before the question is 
 put. On a division one party leaves the body of the 
 house, the other remains; and the general rule is, that 
 the side wbich is for the innovation joes out ; thus, on the 
 ion on a bill, the affirmative voices go oat: but this 
 rule is governed in its application by various sjiccial 
 nsafOB . On a division in a committee of the whole house, 
 the ayes go on one side, and the Does on the other. The 
 Speaker has the casting vote in a house, the chairman in a 
 committee. 
 
 In the House of Lords. — The general rules of proceeding 
 in the House of Lords vary little in material points from 
 those adopted by the commons. The speaker can debate 
 as well as vote. Votes are given seriatim, the youngest 
 baron voting first. The privilege of the lords to vote by 
 proxy is only by license from the king. Proxies from spirit- 
 ual lords are only to spiritual ; proxies from temporal only 
 to temporal. No lord can hold more than two proxies. 
 The lord-chancellor is ex officio speaker of the House of 
 Lords ; and, as he is able to speak and vote, he has no 
 casting vote : the rule, therefore, in case of equality of 
 always Is that the presumption is in favour of the 
 negative side. 
 
 With regard to messages between the two houses, those 
 from the commons to the lords are sent by one member, 
 but will not be received unless eight, at least, attend in all. 
 ices from lords to commons are sent by two masters 
 in chancery; or, on special occasions, by two judges. Mes- 
 sages from the king are of various sorts : those to the com- 
 mons, to desire any proceeding on their part, are usuallv 
 written in the king's own hand ; those which are sent 
 when a member of the house is put under arrest on ac- 
 count of the public service, are verbal, and delivered by a 
 minister of the department of service concerned. (See 
 It's Precedents in Parliament.) 
 
 XI. Jurisdiction of Parliament as a Court of Justice. — 1. 
 For the trial of a peer, indicted for treason or felony, or for 
 misprision of either, the lords spiritual and temporal sit as 
 the court of the lord high steward of England, an office 
 which is, in general, created pro hiic vice by a commission 
 under the great seal. But, if the trial should occur during 
 the sitting of Parliament, it is said to be before the same 
 court " of our lord the king in Parliament ;" in which case 
 the high-steward is only, as it were, pro tempore speaker 
 of the house, and has a vote with the other peers ; where- 
 as in his- own courts, held in the recess of parliament, he is 
 •udi:e of the court, and, like any other judge, sole arbiter on 
 the question of law. 
 
 2. The House of Lords has also a twofold jurisdiction : 
 first, in criminal cases : second, in civil cases. 1. The first 
 ll for the trial of high crimes and misdemeanors by the 
 method of parliamentary impeachment by the House of 
 Commons. (.See Impeachment.) The proceeding on a bill 
 of attainder, or of pains and penalties, is, in fact, a legisla- 
 
 tive act, and not a judicial one. (See Attainder, Pains 
 and Penalties, Bill of.) 2. The jurisdiction of the House 
 of Lords, in civil cases, is divided by Lord Hale into their 
 jurisdiction in the first instance, and in the second instance 
 as a court of appeal ; but the former, which consisted in 
 special powers of interference, occasionally exercised for 
 particular purposes, is now obsolete. In the last instance, 
 the House of Lords is the supreme court of judicature in the 
 kingdom. Appeal lies to it, by writ of error, from the Court 
 of King's Bench, and from the subordinate court of appeal 
 of the Exchequer Chamber; and appeal from the High 
 Court of Chancery also, not only in order to obtain the re- 
 versal of a decree, but also on any interlocutory matter. 
 On writs of error, the House of Lords pronounces the judg- 
 ment; on appeals, it gives directions to the court below to 
 rectify its own decree. 
 
 XII. Privilege of Parliament, in the ordinary sense of 
 the words, denotes the privileges of individual members of 
 either house, enjoyed by virtue of their seats. These pri- 
 vileges are partly limited by known precedent, or by statute ; 
 but they are to a great extent customary, and the houses 
 themselves constitute the only tribunals before which the 
 inquiry whether "heir privileges have been violated or not 
 can be instituted. 
 
 The first privilege is freedom of speech in debates : thi> 
 claim is sanctioned by the statute 2 W. k. M. 2, which de- 
 clares the liberties of the people. This privilege does not 
 extend to the publication of what Is spoken : If a member 
 publish his speech without the nuthority of the house, he 
 is liable to the common legal tribunals for its contents. An 
 exception to the privilege BUM) Is to be found in the juris- 
 diction of the house itself; Which has the power of com- 
 mitting, expelling, or lining (the latter not exercised 
 the reign of Elizabeth) a member for a libel or contempt 
 against the dignity of the house. 
 
 T^ next privilege, of freedom from arrest in civil suits 
 Is probably as old as parliament Itself. Privilege of parlia- 
 ment was formerly supposed to exempt peers and mi D 
 of the House of Commons from civil actions as well 
 rests; but this was finally abolished by 10 V..'.\. This i.» 
 the privilege of peerage, riot of parliament ; consequently it 
 extends to Scotch and Iri.-h peers. The exemption does not 
 extend to criminal cases, or breaches of the pence ; or to 
 attachments in case of contempt by tire superior court 
 And, by a peculiar process enacted by 10 G. 3, a member 
 of parliament may be made a bankrupt. Unless the com- 
 mission is supersedi'd within twelve months from its being 
 issued, he vacates his seat. The liberation of parties im- 
 properly arrested i- efl ued cither by the authority of the 
 houses themselves, or, when parliament is not sitting, or (in 
 the case of peers) when it is dissolved, by writ of pri\ 
 or on motion in the superior courts. The duration of the 
 privilege, in the case of members of the lower house, is not 
 exactly defined. It is the general opinion that it extends 
 forty days after every prorogation, and forty days before the 
 next appointed meeting. Members of parliament are not 
 liable to be called on to serve as jurors during sitting or ad 
 journment. 
 
 The old privilege of franking was fixed, by 4 G. 3, c. 24, 
 to continue daring the same period which is mentioned as 
 that of freedom from arrest. By 35 G. 3, C. 53, it was re- 
 strained to letters within an ounce in weight, and the num- 
 ber to ten sent and fifteen received. It is now altogether 
 abolished. 
 
 The general or " ancient and just" privileges of the houses 
 are, as has been said, undefined. " The law of parliament,' 
 says Ha Ham, "as determined by regular custom, is incorpo- 
 rated into our constitution ; but not so as to warrant an in- 
 definite uncontrollable assumption of power in any case, 
 least of all in judicial r n oc e e a lngs, where the form and es- 
 sence of justice are inseparable from each other." 
 
 Besides the general privilege of parliament, we may here 
 briefly notice the privileges claimed by the two houses, or 
 by members of them, with respect to the conduct of their 
 legislative proceedings. 
 
 Two privileges peculiar to the House of Lords are, 1. 
 That possessed by every peer of giving his vote by proxy. 
 (See ante. Rules of business in the two Houses.) 2. That 
 which he possesses of entering on the journals of the house 
 his dissent from a vote of the house, together with his rea 
 sons for it, which is styled bis protest. The first protests, 
 with reasons annexed, are said by Lord Clarendon to have 
 been made in 1641. 
 
 Of the peculiar privileges of the House of Commons, the 
 most important is that of originating all money bills; and 
 this, in principle, is a very ancient part of the constitution. 
 But it was not before 16'JO that it was fully established that 
 the lords could not alter, any more than originate, any rate 
 or tax granted by the commons. This privilege is now un 
 derstood under the following limitations: In bills of aid 
 and supply, the lords can neither originate them nor make 
 any alterations beyond verbal amendments, n bills which 
 1 301 
 
PARLIAMENT. 
 
 impose pecuniary burdens as a collateral object — such, for 
 example, ns bills for turnpike roads and canals, or for the 
 management of the poor— the lords may make amend- 
 ments, but not such as affect the quantity, disposition, or 
 collection of the rate. No amendments may be made by 
 the lords which appear likely, in their consequences, to 
 bring a charge on the people ; nor can they insert or alter 
 pecuniary penalties and forfeitures in a bill. 
 
 By a resolution bearing date 1667, and. now strictly ad- 
 hered to, any proposition for taxing the subject must be first 
 examined by a committee of the whole house, and their 
 opinion reported. The effect of this rule is, that subjects 
 on which frequent speaking by the same member, and other 
 departures from regular proceedings are desirable, are dis- 
 cussed in a meeting unfettered by some of the special rules 
 of the house. 
 
 When a bill of supply has received the concurrence of 
 the lords, it is returned to the commons, and by them pre- 
 sented to the throne. 
 
 XIII. Adjournment. — An adjournment is a continuance 
 of the session from one day to another. This is done by 
 each house for itself, either from day to day, or over a re- 
 cess, as at Christmas and Easter. In neither house can the 
 speaker adjourn unless upon motion of the house. The 
 king can signify his desire of an adjournment ; but has no 
 further power. 
 
 XIV. Prorogation of Parliament. — A prorogation is the 
 continuance of parliament from one session to another: 
 and is made by the royal authority, either expressed by the 
 lord chancellor in the king's presence, or by writ under the 
 great seal, or by commission. In the proclamation for pro- 
 rogation, if it is intended that parliament, when next it 
 meets, shall proceed to the despatch of business, notice is 
 given of that purpose ; and such notice bears date usually 
 fort}' days at least before the day appointed for nAting; 
 but, in time of rebellion or danger of invasion, the King is 
 empowered to call together parliament with fourteen days 
 notice only. 
 
 XV. Dissolution of Parliament is effected either, 1. By 
 the iting's will, which i.- the exercise of one of !. ; • highest 
 pie, natives: this is usually done by proclamation after 
 parliament has been prorogued. 2. By the demise of the 
 crown ; but, by 7 & 8 W. 3, the existing parliament con- 
 tinues six months after that event; assembles immediately, 
 if under prorogation or adjournment; and if there be no 
 parliament at the time, the members of the last parliament 
 are empowered to reassemble themselves. 3. By efflux of 
 time ; viz: at the end of every seventh year, if not sooner 
 ■ii*. ilvetl by the Septennial Act, 1 G. 1, s. 2, c. 38. The 
 ■even }ears are counted from the day on which parliament 
 was appointed to meet in the writ of summons. 
 
 Pa'ruament, or Parlement. (Fr. parlement.) The 
 tille of certain high courts of justice under the old French 
 monarchy. The French parliament, like those of England 
 and Naples, was, in its origin, a convocation of the great 
 vassals of the crown, who treated of judicial as well as 
 political matters in their assemblies. Saint Louis was the 
 king who first introduced into this body counsellors of in- 
 ferior rank, chiefly ecclesiastics, as legal assistants ; and 
 the earliest registers of the proceedings of the parliament, 
 which afterwards became fixed at Paris, are of the date of 
 1254. The important step of rendering that court perma- 
 nent, and fixing its seat in the capital city, is generally at- 
 tributed to Philip the Fair (1304) : from that time the great 
 barons gradually discontinued their attendance, and the 
 lawyers occupied the higher places and more important 
 functions of the court. The twelve peers of France, how- 
 ever, remained constant members of the parliament, after 
 the other great vassals had, by disuse, ceased to be consid- 
 ered as members of it (although they, likewise, in process 
 of time, ceased to take part in its judicial business). The 
 parliament of Paris henceforward remained the chief tri- 
 bunal of the country until the revolution, with the excep- 
 tion of the short period of its suppression by Louis XV., in 
 1771 ; but as the great fiefs of the French monarchy were 
 successively united to the crown, the supreme feudal court 
 of each was invested with the title and attributes of a par- 
 liament. These were fixed nt Toulouse, Grenoble, Bor- 
 deaux, Dijon, Besancon, Rouen, Aix, Pau, Rennes, Metz, 
 Douay, Nancy. The most remarkable prerogative exercised 
 by the parliaments is one of which the origin has not been 
 satisfactorily accounted for; that of registering the edicts of 
 the sovereign, and thereby giving them the force of law. 
 M. Mever (Institutions Judiciaires, liv. iv., ch. 9,) supposes 
 that it arose from the character of the parliament, as the 
 court >f the feudal lord of each province: thus, the edict 
 of the king of France was referred to the parliament of 
 Bordeaux, to examine whether it interfered with the special 
 rights and duties of the same sovereign as duke of Guienne, 
 &c It appears, however, to have been the received doc- 
 trine, by the end of the 14th century, that this formality of 
 registration was essential to the validity of an edict in every 
 902 
 
 PARR. 
 
 province. Hence the important part which the parliaments, 
 and especially that of Paris, so often enacted in French 
 history, in modifying the otherwise absolute power of the 
 monarchs. (See Bed of Justice.) It was usual for the 
 parliament of Paris, and undoubtedly legal, although no. 
 customary, for the other parliaments, to convey remon- 
 strances to the king on the subject of his edicts. But 
 Louis XIV., ordained that these remonstrances should 
 always be presented after they had testified their obedience 
 by registering them. The parliaments had also a power of 
 a legislative character, that of pronouncing arrets de rcgle- 
 ment, by which they gave authoritative decisions on legal 
 questions, not only binding on present but in future cases. 
 The counsellors of parliament were, by a law of Louis XL, 
 immoveable except in case of legal forfeiture ; but the place 
 of counsellors and presidents early became purchasable, 
 and afterwards transmissible by hereditary descent. Hence, 
 in part, the powerful esprit de corps which distinguished 
 those bodies. As a high court of appeal, the parliament of 
 Paris was divided into five chambers ; one termed the great 
 chamber, three des enquites, one des requites. Besides 
 these, the chambre de la tournel'e, in which criminal cases 
 were tried, was a fluctuating court, in which members of 
 all the regular chambers sat in turn. 
 
 PA'RLOUR (Fr. parler, to speak), signified, originally, 
 the little room in which, in former times, the nuns and 
 monks used to give interviews to their visiters ; or in which 
 the novices used to converse together at the hours of re 
 creation. 
 
 PARME'NIANISTS. In Ecclesiastical History, a nam* 
 given to the Donatists (see that articje), from Parmenianus, 
 Bishop of Carthage, one of their chief leaders, and an 
 antagonist of Augustine. 
 
 PARNA'SSUS. In Mythology, a celebrated mountain 
 in ancient Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and, 
 from the numerous objects of classical interest of which it 
 formed the theatre, considered " holy" by the Greeks. On 
 its side stood the city of Delphi, near which flowed the 
 Castalian spring, the grand source of ancient inspiration; 
 and from this cirenmsta iphodoal 'ang^agn, the 
 
 word Parnassus has come to signify poetry itself. A good 
 collection of the Italian poets, printed at Milan, bears the 
 title // Parnasso Italiano. 
 
 PA'RODY. (Gr. uapa, and ait), a song.) A species of 
 composition in which the form and expressions of portions 
 or passages of grave or serious writings arc closely imi- 
 tated in similar passages of a ridiculous character. Parody 
 is a species of burlesque (see Burlesque) ; but the imita- 
 tion is more close and exact than in ordinary burlesque 
 composition. Antiquity has left us no complete works of 
 this species, although some fragments are preserved by 
 Athemeus and other writers. The Batrachomyomnchia, 
 the authorship of which is attributed to Homer, though a 
 very ingenious specimen of the burlesque, is not, in the 
 modern sense of the word, a parody. The French critics 
 do not seem to draw an adequate distinction between the 
 nature of a parody and a travestie. 
 
 PAR'O'L. (Fr. parole.) In Law, word of mouth. Thus, 
 a parol agreement is contrasted with one in writing, parol 
 wiih written evidence, &.c. For the legal principles bear 
 ing on this distinction in different cases, see Agreement, 
 Contract, Evidence. 
 
 PARO'LE. In Military matters, the allowing of prisoners 
 to enjoy certain indulgences, on their giving their word of 
 honour (parole d'honneur) that they will not serve, during 
 the continuance of the war, against the country by which 
 they are liberated, or upon their pledging their word to 
 abide by such other conditions as may be stipulated. 
 
 PA'RONOMA'SIA. (Gr. irapa, and ovoua, a name.) In 
 Rhetoric, a figure by which the same word is used in dif- 
 ferent senses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition 
 to each other ; so as to give a kind of antithetical force to 
 the expression. 
 
 PARONY'CHIA. (Gr. -rapa, and ovvF,, the nail.) A 
 whitlow. 
 
 PARO'NYMOUS. (Gr. ovoua, name.) In Grammar, 
 words of similar derivation, or principal words with their 
 derivation : e. g., cquus, eques, equito ; man, manhood, man ■ 
 kind. 
 
 PARO'TID GLAND. (Gr. vapa, and ou$, the ear.) A 
 large gland situated under the ear, between the maxillary 
 process of the temple-bone and the angle of the lower jaw 
 It secretes saliva, which is carried into the mouth by the 
 Stenonian duct. 
 
 PAROTI'TIS. Inflammation of the parotid gland. The 
 mumps. 
 
 PA'ROXYSM. (Gr. unfa, and o\v<;, sharp.) In Medi- 
 cine, the periodical exacerbation of a disease. 
 
 PARR. This name is applied in most parts of England 
 and Scotland to the young of the salmon (Salmo salar, 
 Linn.) up to near the end of their second year, when thejr 
 lose their dark lateral bars by the superadditiou of a silvery 
 
PARREL. 
 
 pigment, and congregate together for their seaward migra- 
 tion. From the circumstance of the milt and roe being 
 developed at this immature period, a precocious condition 
 by no means uncommon in the cold-blooded tribes, the parr 
 has been regarded by some ichthyologists as a distinct 
 species, and was described as such by Willoughby ami Hay, 
 under the name of Salmo salmulus. See Salmon. 
 
 PA'RREL. In Naval language, the collar of greased 
 rope, or trucks, by which the yard is confined to the mast, 
 while it slides up and down it. 
 
 PA'RRICIDE. (Lat. pater, a father, and ca;do, I kill), 
 implies, properly, the murder or murderer of a father. But 
 the term is also extended to the murder of any near rela- 
 a husband, wife, mother, &x. ; and even to that 
 of distinguished or sacred ]>ersons, as a king, archbishop, 
 &c. The Athenians had no law against parricides, from 
 an opinion that human atrocity could never reach to 
 the guilt of panidde. This was aNo originally the case 
 at Kane : but at a later period parricide was punished by 
 the Roman law with greater severity than any other kind 
 of homicide. The delimiuent, after being scourged, was 
 sewn up in a leathern sack, with a live dog, a COCk, a 
 viper, and an ape, and so cast into the Tiber. The Eng- 
 lish laws treat this crime only as simple murder; but in 
 some of the German states the criminal convicted of par- 
 ricide is put to death with exquisite torture, the penalty be- 
 ing that such persons shall lie beaten to death with iron 
 'inning with the feet, and gradually ascending to 
 the bead. 
 
 PA'USEE. (1'ers. parsi.) The name given by English 
 writers to tip' Persian refageet, driven from their country 
 by the persecutions of the Mussulmans, who now inhabit 
 various parts of India. Their principal emigration to 
 Baroach, Surat. and the ncighbourin:; coast, is supposed 
 to have taken place alimit the end of the eighth century. 
 The sacred fire, the emblem of their religion (seeGcEBREs), 
 called bclircm, is believed by them to have been brought by 
 the tirst emigrants from Persia, and, alter many changes 
 of place, is now preserved at Odisarl and Nausnri, near 
 imbav. In tiiis latter city, under the pro- 
 li 
 colony .1 considerable numbers and of great opulence. 
 .:ne particularly distinguished in the art 
 of shipbuilding, and the dock yard of Bombay is now al- 
 most exclusively in their hands. Their character is vari- 
 ously estimated by different observers; but all agree in 
 attributing to them Industry and economy, and attachment 
 to their religion, and to those of the higher class Btrong 
 
 sentiments of honour and honesty. Their number is said 
 to equal 700,000; and at Bombay, according to late calcula- 
 least 90,000. 
 
 PA'KSING. The art of resolving a sentence into its 
 grammatical elements or parts. 
 
 PA'RSON. (Lat persona eccleshe.) In Law, one that 
 has full ]«)ssession of all the rights of a parochial church. 
 His title is derived from the Latin persona, because in his 
 parson the church itself which he occupies is represented ; 
 and he is a corporation sole. A parson, or rector, has the 
 freehold of the parsonage-house, the glebe, the tithes, and 
 other dues, during his life. Pour requisites are necessary 
 to constitute a parson : holy orders, presentation, institu- 
 tion, anil induction. See these terms. In common lan- 
 guage, parson is a vulgar term for a clergyman of any 
 kind. 
 
 PART. (Lat. pars.) • In Music, a single piece of the 
 score or partition, being one set of the successions of sounds 
 which constitute the harmony. 
 
 PAKTK'RKE. (Fr.) A system of beds of different 
 shapes and sizes in which flowers are cultivated, connected 
 together, with intervening spaces of gravel or turf, for 
 walking on. The form of the beds may vary according to 
 the taste of the designer; but their breadth should never 
 be mater than will admit of the spectator who wishes to 
 gather flowers, or the gardener who is to cultivate them, 
 reaching the middle. Where the object is chiefly to pro 
 duce a display of flowers, the beds should be of simple 
 ■■•. ith few acute angles, as these can never be com- 
 pletely covered with plants ; but where the object is to dis- 
 play a curious figure, to be seen from a point considerably 
 above the level of the parterre, the beds may be formed of 
 arabesque shapes, or like the figures used in embroidery 
 ami lace-work. Figures of this description are generally 
 Bfanted with dwarf box, kept low by clipping, with only 
 here and there a flowering plant, or a small shrub, placed 
 in the broadest parts of the beds or scroll-work. Parterres 
 of this description were in use during 'he time of the Ro- 
 mans, a- appears by the description of Pliny's own garden, 
 by himself, in which the letters composing his name were 
 of box, kept regularly dipt, a practice not uncom- 
 mon in Rome and its neighbourhood at the present day. 
 Embroidered parterres, however, were brought to the high- 
 est degree of perfection in the time of Louis XIV., when 
 
 PARTIDAS, LAS SIETE. 
 
 the arabesque style of ornament was introduced into every 
 thing. Die flowers and flowering shrubs in culture in those 
 days were comparatively few ; and hence the leading fea- 
 tures of the parterre were beds of turf, always an object 
 of luxury, and requiring to be kept up at considerable ex- 
 pense of watering in the climate of France, and scroll-work 
 of box. This description of parterre was imitated in Eng- 
 land; but smooth green turf not being here an object of 
 luxury, beds of flowers became more frequently substituted 
 in its stead; and, as the number of foreign flowers intro- 
 duced increased, the number of turf beds and scroll-work 
 diminished, till, at the present time, the latter is rarely to 
 be met with. In mis manner has gradually arisen the mo 
 deru English flower garden, which consists of small beds, 
 more or less orbiculate, and scattered over a surface of 
 smooth turf, so as to combine into groups, which are plant- 
 ed with flowers, or low flowering shrubs: sometimes In 
 masses of only one kind in a bed, and at other times of 
 several kinds mixed together. 
 
 Parterre. In French, the pit of a theatre. 
 
 PA'KTHENON. (nupOevtiv.) The magnificent temple 
 of Minerva in the Acropolis of Athens, so called in honour 
 of the Virginity of that goddess (from raptitios, a virgin.) 
 It was a peripteral OCtOStyle of the Doric order, with seven- 
 teen columns on the sides, each 6 ft. Sin. in diameter at 
 the base, and 34 ft. in height, elevated on three steps. Its 
 height, from the base of the pediments, was 65AL, and the 
 dimensions of the area i>3:i ft. by 109 ft. The eastern pedi- 
 ment was adorned with two groups of statues, one of which 
 represented the birth of Minerva, the other the contest of 
 .Minerva with Xepiune for the government of Athens. On 
 the metopes was sculptured the battle of the Centaurs with 
 the Lapittue; and the frieze contained a representation of 
 the Panathenak festivals. Ictinus, Calibrates, and Car- 
 pion were the architects of this temple ; Phidias was the 
 ariist; and its entire cost has been estimated at 1A million 
 sterling. Of this building, eight columns of the eastern 
 front, and several of the lateral colonnades are still stand- 
 ing. Of the frontispiece, which represented the contest of 
 Neptune and Minervn, nothing remains but the head of a 
 l women without heads. 
 
 The combat i oirs and the Lapitha! is in better 
 
 preservation ; but of the numerous statues with which this 
 temple was enriched, that of Adrian alone remains. The 
 Parthenon, however, dilapidated as it is, still retains an 
 air of Inexpressible grandeur and sublimity: and it forms 
 at once the highest point in Athens, and the centre of the 
 Acropolis. It is hardly necessary to inform the reader that 
 the chief portion of the sculpture of tile Parthenon is now 
 placed in the British Museum, where it forms, with some 
 additions, the collection of the Elgin Marbles. See Elgin 
 Marbles. 
 
 PAinTCIPANTS. A semi-religious order of knight 
 hood, founded by Pope Sexlus V., in 1586, in honour of 
 Our Lady of Loretto. The members of this order were 
 allowed to marry. The order was soon extinguished; and 
 the title of Knights of Loretto is now conferred on some 
 civil servants of the pope. 
 
 PA'RTICII'LES. (Lat. pnrticipium.) A part of speech 
 which partakes of the properties both of a verb nnd an ad- 
 jective. It may be described either as a verb without 
 affirmation, or as an adjective with the addition of the 
 notion of time. (See Grammar.) 
 
 PA'RTICLE. (Lat. pariicula, little part.) In Grammar, 
 a general term to express the subordinate or secondary 
 parts of speech — the adverb, the preposition, and the con- 
 junction. But it is more in accordance with grammatical 
 precision to apply this term to those minor words to be met 
 with in all languages, which serve apparently to give clear- 
 ness and precision to a sentence, but respecting whose 
 exact use Grammarians are not agreed. To this class be- 
 long the Gr. yt, apa, rot, in, &c. ; the Germ, ja, wohl, &c. ; 
 and the English now, then, truly, &c. The term particle is 
 also applied by grammarians to those words or enclitics (as 
 they are called, from Gr. tv and k\ivu>, I lean) which can- 
 not be used separately, but must form part of the preceding 
 word, as in viruntqve. 
 
 Particle, in Physics, denotes the minutest parts into 
 which a body can be mechanically divided. It is, in general, 
 used synonymously with molecule, corpuscle, atom ; but 
 sometimes these terms are distinguished. 
 
 PARTI'CULARISTS. In Theology, those among the 
 Reformed who have held the doctrine of God's particular 
 decrees of salvation and reprobation. As a party name, it 
 seems to date from the Synod of Dort. That branch of the 
 Baptists attached to high'Calvinistic opinions is still called 
 the church of the Particular Baptists. 
 
 PARTI'DAS, LAS SIETE. (Span, the seven parts.) 
 A celebrated ancient Spanish code of laws, drawn up in 
 the reign of Alphonso X. of Castile (about 1260), so call 
 cd from the number of principal parts into which it is 
 divided. This famous collection did not acquire the obli 
 
 903 
 
PARTITION. 
 
 gatory virtue of a code until 1338, when sanctioned by 
 Alphonso XI. 
 
 PARTITION. (Lat. partitio.) In Music, the arrange- 
 ment of the several parts of a composition on the same 
 page or pages, ranged methodically above and under eacli 
 other, S3 that they may be all under the eye of the per- 
 former or conductor, and sung or played jointly or sepa- 
 rately as the composer intended. It is commonly called a 
 score. 
 
 Partition. In Architecture, the vertical assemblage 
 of materials which divides one apartment from another. 
 It is usually, however, employed to denote such division 
 when constructed of vertical pieces of timber called quar- 
 ters. 
 
 Partition. In Politics, the division of the states of a 
 sovereign or prince, after his decease, among his heirs, as 
 was the custom in some of the princely families in the 
 ancient German empire ; or among other powers, such as 
 that of the states of the king of Spain, which was in 
 contemplation (against all justice) between William III., 
 Louis XIV., and the Dutch, by the treaties of 1698 and 
 1699, when Charles II., the reigning monarch, was with- 
 out near heirs. But the most celebrated partitions in his- 
 tory, to which the name has become almost exclusively 
 attached, were those of Poland, by Russia, Prussia, and 
 Austria. The first of these took place in 1772, when vari- 
 ous provinces were wrested from the republic in pretended 
 (Satisfaction of ancient claims, and the old and vicious con- 
 stitution guaranteed by the three powers. The second was 
 submitted to by Stanislas in 1793, when Russia obtained 
 the remainder of Lithuania, and Prussia Dantzic, Thorn, 
 and an extensive district. This partition was followed by 
 the insurrection under Kosciusko, which brought about the 
 third and last partition in 1795, when the remnant of the 
 country was dismembered. It was organized in 1807, alter- 
 ed in 1815; but the conditions under which Poland was 
 then annexed to Russia, as a separate kingdom, were en- 
 tirely set aside after the Polish insurrection of 1830, and it is 
 now substantially and in fact a province of Russia. These 
 partitions overturned the ancient balance of power in Eu- 
 rope, and prepared the way for the violent changes which 
 followed the French revolution. (See Koch, Revolutions 
 de r Europe ; Rulhieres, Histoire dc V Jinarchie de Pologne; 
 Ferrand, Histoire des Trois Demembrcmens dc Pologne, 
 3 vols., Paris, 1820 ; Ed. Rev., vol. xxxvii., p. 462.) 
 
 PARTNERSHIP. A relation established between two 
 or mure persons, by an agreement to combine property or 
 labour in furtherance of a common undertaking, and for the 
 acquisition of a common profit. A community of profit be- 
 tween the parties is the true criterion of a partnership; 
 for one partner may stipulate to be free from loss, and this 
 stipulation would be effectual as between himself and his 
 partners, though lie would be liable equally with them to 
 the world at large. A dormant partner, that is, one who 
 in point of fact participates in the profits of a firm, but is 
 not held out as a member of it, will nevertheless be liable 
 for its engagements, because he takes part of that fund 
 Which is a security to creditors for payment of their debts. 
 There is no particular form necessary to the constitution 
 of a partnership, nor is it necessary that the contract should 
 be in writing. It may be dissolved at the individual plea- 
 sure of any one partner, if no stated period has been fixed 
 for its continuance; and, even if such a period has been 
 fixed, it will be dissolved, in the absence of any proviso to 
 the contrary, by his bankruptcy, attainder, or death, or by 
 marriage, in the case of a female. Courts of equity, also, 
 will put an end to it by decree, on p-"of of lunacy or gross 
 misconduct. A partnership is by any of the above matters 
 terminated as between the partners themselves ; but, to 
 prevent a continuing liability to strangers, public notice of 
 the dissolution is necessary. One partner cannot sue an- 
 other at law in respect of the partnership account, unless 
 a balance has been struck, the remedy being in equity, 
 which affords a machinery better adapted to the investiga- 
 tion of accounts. As regards the rights of third persons 
 against the partnership, it is a general rule that it will be 
 bound by the engagements of any one partner acting with 
 reference to the joint business, either by his simple jcon- 
 tracts on the purchase and sale of goods, or by negotiable 
 instruments circulated on its behalf. 
 
 PA'RTNERS OF THE MASTS. The woodwork round 
 the mast at the deck, to strengthen and support the deck 
 against the pressure of the mast. The term is also ap- 
 plied to the similar supports round the capstan and pumps. 
 
 PA'RTRIDGE WOOD. A variegated wood imported 
 from Martinique : it is said to be the produce of the Heis- 
 tcria coccinea. 
 
 PA RTY. In Politics, a body of men united under dif- 
 ferent leaders for promoting, by their joint endeavours, the 
 national interest, upon some particular principle in which 
 they are all agreed. The origin of party may be traced to 
 that law of the human mind which is founded in our 
 904 
 
 PASaUINADE. 
 
 natural desire of sympathy, and our disposition to aflbrd it. 
 From the earliest ages down to the present time, the prin- 
 ciple of mutual co-operation has been adopted with suc- 
 cess in executing favourite designs, and in aiming at the 
 accomplishment of certain ends. Among the ancient Ro 
 mans, for example, "idem sentire de republica" formed a 
 principal ground of friendship and attachment; and the 
 same feeling, modified by different forms of government 
 and other circumstances, is at present in full operation in 
 all the civilized states of Europe and America. The bene- 
 fits of party may be briefly stated to be, increased energy 
 in pursuit of a common object, regular co-operation, mutual 
 control and regulation, and an advantageous division at 
 labour. But, though party or combination may in this 
 manner be productive of good results, like every other 
 principle and feeling in our nature, it is liable to be abused, 
 and there can be no doubt that it is frequently attended 
 with such evil consequences as greatly to countervail its 
 admitted benefits. It involves a frequent sacrifice of in 
 dividual notions of what is just and proper, and tempts 
 bodies of men to act in a way that would often be deemed 
 discreditable in individuals. Perhaps the worst effect ot 
 party is its tendency to generate narrow, false, and illiberal 
 prejudices, by teaching the adherents of one party to regard 
 those that belong to an opposing party as unworthy of con- 
 fidence ; and in making them oppose good measures be 
 cause they happen to be proposed by a different party, and 
 support bad measures, because they are proposed or sup- 
 ported by their own party. A thorough-going party ad- 
 herent is, in fact, a political slave ; a person who allows 
 others on all occasions to think for him ; who, as far as 
 politics is concerned, has no principle or rule of action, save 
 that of slavish adherence and blind obedience to the dicta- 
 tion of the leader of his party. (The uses and abuses of 
 Party are discussed with great ability in vol. XXX. of the 
 Edin. Review). The different parlies, both of England 
 and other countries, will be found under their respective 
 heads. 
 
 Party. In Heraldry — as party per pale, fess, &c. ; terms 
 used to signify the division of a shield by a line running in 
 the direction of either of these ordinaries. 
 
 PARTY WALL. In Architecture, the wall separating 
 two buildings belonging to different owners or occupiers. 
 The regulations relative to the thickness of party walls in the 
 metropolis have been the subject of several statutes, begin 
 ning with one passed 19 Car. 2, and ending with the 14 Geo. 
 3, better known by the name of the Building Act. This last 
 governs the thickness of all party and external walls to be 
 built after 24th day of June, 1774. 
 
 PARULIS. (Gr. vapu, and ov\ov. the gum.) A gumboil. 
 
 PA'RUS. (Lat. parus, a titmouse.) A genus of Coniros 
 tral Passerine birds allied to the crow?, characterized by 
 having the conical beak straight and rather slender, with 
 few hairs at its base ; nostrils round, and covered by reilected 
 bristly leathers ; the hind toe is strong, and armed with a 
 long hooked claw. To this genus belong the native birds 
 commonly called tits or titmice, of which the tomtit (Parus 
 emrvleu*, Ray) is the best known species. The great tit 
 (Parus major), the marsh tit (Parus palustris), the cole tit 
 (Parus ater), and the crested tit (Parus cristatus), have the 
 bill longer and more pointed ; the last-named species is rare 
 in this country. They are active little birds, continually 
 flitting from spray to spray, and suspending themselves in 
 all kinds of attitudes, rending apart the seeds on which they 
 feed, devouring insects, and not even sparing small birds 
 when they happen to find them sick and are able to destroy 
 them. They store up provisions of grain, build their nests 
 in the holes of trees, and produce more eggs than is usual 
 among the Passerine birds. 
 
 PA'SCIIAL CYCLE. The name given to the cycle which 
 serves to ascertain when Easter occurs. It is formed by 
 multiplying by each other the cycle of the sun, which con- 
 sists of 28, and the cycle of the moon, which consists of 19 
 years. See Passover. 
 
 PA'SCHAL FLOWER. The Anemone Pulsatilla ; so 
 called from its flowering about Easter. 
 
 PASI'GRAPHY. In Literature. (Gr. vag, universal, 
 and ) pctpu), I write.) The imaginary universal language, 
 to be spoken and written by all nations, the invention of 
 which has exercised the ingenuity of so many learned men, 
 has been denoted by this word. Leibnitz seems to have 
 been one of the first who conceived this to be possible 
 Many writers in Germany (where the name was invented) 
 have followed him in the endeavour to devise schemes foi 
 this fanciful object. In England, Bishop Wilkins, in the 
 reign of Charles II., invented a scheme for a universal lan- 
 guage, grammar, and character. 
 
 PASGUINA'DE. (Ital. pasquinata.) A satirical writing 
 directed against one or more individuals. A mutilated an- 
 cient statue of a gladiator dug up at Rome about 300 years 
 ago, which now lies in the court of the Capitol, was popular- 
 ly termed, by the Romans, "Pasquino," from the name, it is 
 
PASS. 
 
 said, of a barber of eccentric and well-known character, op- 
 posite to whose house it was originally set up. This statue, 
 and another, called by the populace Marl'orio, which was 
 situated near it, were used for the purpose of bearing satiri- 
 cal placards, often reflecting on the court and Church of 
 Koine, which were utiixed to them at night, not unfrequent- 
 ly in the form of a dialogue between the two statues. So 
 annoying did I'asquin often become to the government, that 
 on one occasion a serious design was entertained of throw- 
 ing him into the river ; but the ministers of the reigning pon- 
 laJd to have dissuaded him from it, representing that 
 if ibis wire done •■ the frogs in the Tiber would croak louder 
 than ever Pasquin had spoken." He has, however, lost his 
 public spirit, and rarely or never ventures to attack the 
 [lowers that be. Hut his statue is still the occasional recep- 
 tacle of jocose comments on private matters. M. Matthews 
 (Diary of an Invalid) mentions an instance which occurred 
 during his stay at Koine. A man of the name of Ca isar 
 (common among the townsfolk there) had married a girl of 
 the name of Roma. Pasquin was placaided wiih "Cave, 
 Oasar, ne tua Roma respublica fiat." The man replied by 
 Marlonu, • OajBBf imiierat." To which the retort WSJ " Ergo 
 coronahitiir." Hence Pnsquinata and Pasquilles became, in 
 Italy, conventional words to signify wriiings of that descrip- 
 tion, and have been naturalized in other languages. In 
 French and German they have been used in the legal 
 vocabulary for libel. 
 
 in a military sense, signifies a strait or narrow de- 
 file which shuts up tiie entrance into a country. 
 
 IGE. (Lat. passus, a step.) In Architecture, the 
 part of a building allotted for giving access to the different 
 apartments. 
 
 Passage. In Music, a portion of an air or tune consisting 
 of one. two, or three measures. 
 
 PASSAGE, BIRDS OP. See Migration. 
 
 PASSANT. In lleraldry.a term used to describe a beast 
 when represented in a walking position. Passant guard ant, 
 walking with the full face turned towards the spectator. 
 
 PASSEPARTOUT. In Engraving, a plate or wood 
 block, Whose centre part is entirely cut out round the outer 
 part, whereof a border or ornamental design is engraved, 
 H i vi ng as a frame to what may he placed in the centre. 
 
 seres, or Passerines. (LuL passer, a 
 The name given by Linnecus and Cuvier to the 
 typical order of birds, including those which neither mani- 
 fest the violence of birds of prey, nor have the fixed regimen 
 of the terrestrial birds, but which feed on insects, fruit, or 
 grain, according to the llendemssi or strength of their beak ; 
 some, with sharp and toothed mandibles, pursue and feed on 
 •mail birds. All the Passerines have short and slender legs, 
 with three toes before and one behind ; the two external toes 
 being united by a very short membrane. They form the 
 most extensive and varied order of birds, and are the least 
 readily recognisable by distinctive characters common to the 
 whole group. Their feet, being more especially adapted to 
 lie labours of nidilication, have neither the webbed 
 Mriirtuo ,,t those of the swimmers, nor the robust strength 
 and destructive talons which characterize the feet of the 
 bird of rapine, nor yet the extended toes which enable the 
 leader to walk safely over marshy soils, and tread lightly on 
 ■j leaves of aquatic plants; but the toes are slen- 
 der, flexible, and moderately elongated, with long, pointed, 
 and slightly curved claws. 
 
 The Passerines in general have the females smaller and 
 lees brilliant in their plumage than the males; they always 
 live in pairs, build in trees, and display the greatest art in 
 the construction of their nests. The young are excluded in 
 a blind and naked state, and wholly depend for subsistence, 
 during a certain period, on parental care. The brain arrives 
 In this order at its greatest proportional size; the organ of 
 voice here attains its utmost complexity ; and all the chnrac- 
 i if the bird, as power of flight, melody of voice, and 
 beauty of plumage, are enjoyed in the highest perfection 
 r other of the groups of this extensive and varied 
 order. 
 
 The beak of the Passerines varies in form according to 
 the nature of their food, which may be small or young birds, 
 carrion, insects, fruit, seeds, vegetable juices, or of a mixed 
 kind. The modifications of the rostrum have therefore 
 nfliirdeil convenient characters for the tribes or subdivisions 
 at* the order: these are termed, 1. Dentirostres ; 2. Coniros- 
 /invirostres;4.Fissirostres. See those words. 
 
 PASSIFLORA'CEjE. (Passiflora, or Flos passionis, one 
 of the genera.) A natural order of twining plants with very 
 showy dowers, furnished with numerous rays of brilliant 
 colours between the corolla and the stamens. They chiefly 
 Inhabit the hotter parts of the world, nnd bear a fruit not 
 unlike that of the gourd, to which natural order they are re- 
 .nted. Independently of the beauty of their flowers, some 
 yield fruits, eaten under the name of granadilla and water 
 lemon; and others have a hard, black wood, not unlike 
 •bony 
 
 PASSPORT. 
 
 PASSING NOTES. In Music, graces wherein two note* 
 are connected by smaller intervening notes. 
 
 PA'SSION. (Lut. patior, I suffer.) The sufferings of our 
 Lord, which is described as having endured between the 
 Last Supper and the moment of his death. Passion week is 
 that in the course of which these sufferings took place ; 
 namely, that Immediately preceding Easter. i,See as to its 
 solemn ceremonial in the Romish Church, this article in the 
 Encyclopedia of Ersch aHd Gruber.) It was variously called 
 Hcbdvmada luctuosa, invfficiosa, panosa, indutgentia, nigra, 
 sanrta. ultima. 
 
 PA'SSIONS. The name popularly given to the different 
 emotions of the mind, as love, anger, &.c. Various ingenious 
 speculations have been instituted to ascertain whether the 
 precise situation of the impetus of the passions be in the 
 spiritual or material part of man. Some philosophers, and 
 among these Des Cartes, consider them wholly seated in the 
 corporeal system. Mallebranche regards them as those 
 agitations of the soul which proceed from uncommon influ- 
 ence and motion in the blood and animal spirits. " Though 
 the passions," says Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, 
 "dwell between the confines of sense and reason, yet they 
 rather follow sense than reason, because they are drowned 
 in corporeal organs of sense. They are commonly reduced 
 into two inclinations, irascible and concupiscible. Tho 
 Thomists subdivide them into eleven, six in the cording and 
 five in the invading. Aristotle rcduceth all to pleasure and 
 pain. Plato to love and hatred. Vivcs to good and bad. 
 If good, it is present, and then we absolutely joy and love ; 
 or to come, and then we desire and hope for it ; if evil, we 
 absolutely hate it ; if present, it is sorrow ; if to come, fear. 
 . . . All other passions are subordinate unto these four, or six 
 assume will — love, joy, desire, hatred, sorrow, fear. The rest, 
 as anger, envy, emulation, pride, jealoiisie, anxiety, minute, 
 shame, discontent, despair, ambition, avarice, &c, are re- 
 ducible unto the first" (i. e., the irascible). With several 
 writers it has been a question whether the passions be each 
 a distinct innate rliwpoalrtoa, or merely modifications of those 
 dispositions which are common to all mankind. The theo- 
 ries and conjectures of philosophers upon this subject are al- 
 most boundless; but to pursue them would be of little ad- 
 vantage, even if our limits permitted, and we shall merely 
 refer the reader for ample particulars to the works of Hume, 
 Reid, Hartley, Locke, Lord Karnes. &.c. (See al 
 yersuch Ubcr die IMdensckaftcn, 2 thle. Halle, 18(15.) 
 
 Passions. In Painting and Sculpture, the representation 
 in the countenance and oilier parts, of the violent emotions 
 of the mind, produced by anger, fear, grief, &.c. The ex 
 predion of the passions is a language without which the 
 palmer can never hope for success ; it is in this that he has 
 the means of appealing to the sympathy of the spectator. 
 The close observation of nature under similar circumstances 
 is the only mode by which his aim can be accomplished. 
 
 PA'SSOVER, or PASCHA. A festival among the Jews 
 which derives its English name from God's passing over the 
 bouses of the Israelites, and sparing their first born, when 
 those of the Egyptians were put to death. The name of 
 possover or paschal lamb was likewise given to tho lamb 
 slain in memory of that deliverance. The festival lasted 
 seven days, beginning on the evening of the 14th of the 
 month Ni-an, and commenced with killing the lamb. The 
 regulations appointed for this festival tire detailed in Exod 
 xii. 
 
 That the passover had a typical reference to our Saviour 
 has been the universal belief of the Christian world in all 
 ages, and is mainly grounded on passages in St. John and 
 St. Poul. (John, xix., 30; 1 Cor., v., 7.) Christ is said to be 
 our passover; his blood being shed to protect mankind from 
 the divine justice, as the blood of the paschal lamb, which 
 was sprinkled upon the door-posts of the Israelites' houses, 
 preserved them from the visitation of the angel of the Lord 
 
 PA'SSPORT. A warrant of protection and authority to 
 travel, granted to persons moving from place to place by the 
 competent officer. The word appears to be derived from 
 the maritime usage of some continental countries, of giving 
 similar authorities from the admiral of a naval station to 
 vessels leaving harbours within his jurisdiction. As pass- 
 ports are not required in our own country, the only species ' 
 known to British travellers is that of foreign passports, which, 
 for an Englishman travelling on the continent of Europe, 
 are usually made out by the resident minister or consul of 
 the country he intends first to visit, in London, or at one of 
 the jxirts. They nre also granted by the Foreign Office on 
 payment of fees, which now (1841) amount in all to £2 Is. 
 They are subject to visa or inspection by the proper au- 
 thorities at the place where the traveller disembarks, and 
 also at other places where he may reach, according to the 
 police regulations of each particular country, and on passing 
 the frontiers of states. Austria is, we believe, the only Eu- 
 ropean state which at this time requires absolutely the visa 
 of an ambassador or minister df her own for travellers en- 
 tering her domains by land. In France, and in many contl 
 3M* 905 
 
PASTE. 
 
 ntmtal countries, home passports are necessary for the native 
 traveller. According to the letter of the French law (since 
 1796), a Frenchman cannot pass the limits of the canton in 
 which he is domiciled without a passport; but in practice it 
 is not required within the extent of the department. Legal- 
 ly speaking, the strict formalities of an internal passport, in 
 France, require the direction of a journey to be specified, and 
 its exact execution attested by the visas and signatures of 
 the police authorities at every place mentioned in it; and 
 these laws are, from their severity, so incapable of complete 
 execution, that it is a common saying, that no man but a 
 rogue is ever entirely en regie with respect to his passport, 
 suspicious characters being usually the most particular in 
 their attention to formalities, for fear of detention. A French- 
 man travelling without a properly authenticated passport is 
 liable to arrest and detention for a period not exceeding a 
 month. The fees fixed in France are two francs for a pass- 
 port to travel at home, and ten to go abroad. 
 
 PASTE. (Fr. pate.) In Gem Sculpture a preparation 
 of glass, calcined crystal, lead, and other ingredients, for imi- 
 tating gems. This art was well known to the ancients, and, 
 after being long lost, was restored, at the end of the fifteenth 
 century, by a Milanese painter. 
 
 Some modern artists have succeeded in obtaining a com- 
 position possessing a hard, fine, and brilliant lustre or ap- 
 pearance ; but pastes, or mock diamonds, as they are called, 
 depend most for brilliancy on the art displayed in setting the 
 foil or tinsel behind them. Several recipes have been given 
 by M. Fontanien ; but the most useful, and that generally 
 employed for the production of artificial diamonds, is the 
 following : Take of litharge 20 parts, of silex 12, of nitre 4, 
 of borax 4, and of white arsenic 2 parts. These ingredients 
 are to be well mixed together in a crucible and melted ; the 
 fused metal is thrown into water ; and should any of the 
 lead employed be reduced to the metallic state, it becomes 
 separated by this process, and the glass is remelted for use. 
 For the finer kinds rock crystal is used instead of flint or 
 sand, as it occurs in a much purer state ; i. e., more free 
 from the admixture of metallic oxides, which give to vitre- 
 ous compounds their different colours. In place of the above, 
 Loysd recommends the following ingredients to form a com- 
 pound, having t'te same specific gravity as the oriental dia- 
 mond, and on this account considered superior, as it more 
 nearly approaches the gem with regard to its refractive and 
 dispersive powers ; but, like the former, it requires to be kept 
 for some two or three days in a fused state, in order to expel 
 the superabundant alkali and to perfect the refining. A 
 moderate degree of heat fuses it. The following is its com- 
 position : Take of white sand purified by being washed, first 
 in muriatic acid and afterwards in pure water, until all 
 traces of acid are removed, 100 parts ; red oxide of lead 
 (minium) 150 parts ; calcined potash 30 to 35 parts ; calcined 
 borax 10 ; and oxide of arsenic 1 part. (See the Polytechnic 
 Journal for July, 1841.) 
 
 The term paste is also applied to the earthy mixture for 
 pottery and porcelain ; also to dough, and to the solution of 
 starch or wheat flour, made by first mixing it with a proper 
 portion of cold water, and then adding boiling water under 
 constant stirring, so as to form an even solution. Alum is 
 often added to paste to strengthen it. 
 
 PA'STEL. (Lat. pastillus.) In Painting, a crayon formed 
 with any colour and gum water, for painting on paper or 
 parchment. The great defect of this mode of painting is its 
 want of durability. See Crayon. 
 
 PA STERN. The part of the horse's foot under the fet- 
 lock to the heel. 
 
 PASTICCIO. (It.) In Painting, a picture painted by a 
 master in a style dissimilar to that in which he generally 
 painted. David Teniers could, for instance, imitate, with 
 surprising exactness, the styles of many of the first masters 
 of Italy and Flanders. The same may be affirmed of Luca 
 Giordano, a Neapolitan artist. ■ 
 
 PASTl'L. In Pharmacy, a kind of lozenge. A compound 
 of charcoal with odoriferous substances, which diffuses an 
 agreeable perfume during its slow combustion. 
 PA'STORAL. See Eclogue, Bucolic, Idyl. 
 PA'STOUREAUX. (Old Fr. shepherds.) Insurgent pea- 
 sants, who took up arms in France during the absence of 
 King Louis IX. on his crusade. They were led by an apos- 
 tate Cistercian monk, who took the name of " Jacob, Master 
 of Hungary," who seduced them to follow him in various 
 f»natical extravagances. They committed various excesses, 
 from the frontier of Flanders, on which they first assembled, 
 to Bourges, where their leader was killed in a tumult, and 
 his horde dispersed. 
 
 PASTURE. Land under a particular description of 
 grasses and herbage, which is eaten on the spot by horses, 
 cattle, &x. Hill pasture is a term applied to hilly and 
 mountainous lands, which are kept perpetually under the 
 natural grasses and herbage which spring up on them ; while 
 artificial pastures are such as are sown by art on lands which 
 are occasionally subjected to the plough. In all artificial 
 S06 
 
 PATHETIC NERVES. 
 
 pastures the principal grass is rye grass, and the principul 
 herbage plant the white clover. Perpetual pastures are 
 such as are never subjected to the plough, and never receive 
 any other manure than what is left on them by the pasturing 
 animals; but artificial pastures are occasionally mown, and 
 sometimes receive a top-dressing of dung, or some mixture 
 of dung and earth, lime, &c. 
 
 FATAVTNITY. A term in use among critics to denote 
 a provincial idiom in speech ; so named after that of Livy, 
 the historian, from his being born at Pada-vium, a provincial 
 town of the Roman empire. Wherein the alleged defect of 
 Livy's writings consists has never been distinctly poinled 
 out by any critic, ancient or modern. 
 
 PATE. In Fortification, a kind of platform encompassed 
 with a parapet, and having nothing to flank it. 
 
 PATEE, or PATTEE. (Fr.) In Heraldry, a sort of cross, 
 small at the centre and widening towards the ends, which 
 are very broad. 
 
 PATE'LLA. The small, flat, and somewhat heart- 
 shaped bone, which is placed at the fore part of the knee 
 joint, and commonly called the kneepan. 
 
 PATELLOI'DS, Patelloidea. The name of a family of 
 Cyclobranchiate Gastropods, having the limpet (Patella) as 
 the type. 
 
 PA'TEN. (Lat. patina.) In Ecclesiastical usage, the 
 stand or saucer on which the chalice rests. It was fre 
 quently highly ornamented by artists in the 15th and 16th 
 centuries. In the administration of the Eucharist in 
 England, the paten is the vessel on which the bread is 
 placed. 
 
 PA'TENT, in Commercial Law, is defined a privilege 
 from the crown granted by letters patent, conveying to the 
 persons specified therein the sole right to make, use, or dis- 
 pose of some new invention or discovery, for a limited pe- 
 riod. This power is said to be inherent in the crown ; but 
 was first defined by stat. 21 J. 1, c. 3, which gives the term 
 of fourteen years oi under, " so they be not contrary to the 
 law, nor mischievous to the state, by raising prices of com- 
 modities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconve- 
 nient." Ever since the reign of Anne it has been a con- 
 dition in patents, that the inventor shou' , by an instru- 
 ment technically called a "specification," particularly de- 
 scribe and ascertain the nature of his invention ; on failure 
 of which the patent becomes void. These letters are ob- 
 tained on petition to the crown, and are granted on the 
 recommendation of the attorney or solicitor general. An 
 injunction may be obtained, or an action brought, for 
 the infringement of a patent; but it is necessary to show 
 the novelty and utility of the invention, and that it is of 
 something capable of being turned immediately to account 
 in commerce ; no patent will be good for a mere philo- 
 sophical principle neither organized nor capable of being 
 so. It is now held that a new process or method, as well 
 as an article, may be the subject of a patent. A party who 
 believes himself to have discovered an invention, but has 
 not yet been able to reduce it to practice, may enter a 
 caveat ; that is, an instrument by which notice is desired 
 to be given by any one who may seek a patent for a simi- 
 lar invention. The law of patents has been recently 
 amended by 5 k. 6 W. 4, c. 77, and some difficulties under 
 which inventors were placed, particularly as to the strict- 
 ness of the specification, removed ; but the policy of some 
 of the clauses is questioned. 
 
 The phrase letters patent is also frequently applied to the 
 state documents or ordinances of the German sovereigns : 
 in which sense it is equivalent to the bulls of the pope, or 
 the ukases of the czar. 
 
 PATENT YELLOW. A pigment obtained by fusing a 
 mixture of oxide and chloride of lead. 
 
 PA'TERA. (Lat. patere, to be open.) In Roman Anti- 
 quities, a large open goblet or cup of gold, silver, marble, 
 or earth, &c, used in offering libations to the gods. 
 
 Patera. In Architecture, the representation of a cup, 
 usually in bas relief, and employed to decorate friezes, fas 
 cia?, imposts, &c. 
 
 PATERI'NI. One of the names by which the Pauli- J 
 cians, a sect which appeared in Italy in the 11th century, 
 were very commonly known. The origin of the term is ! 
 obscure, as is also the connexion of the sect with the 
 Manicheans of the East. (See Faber on the Church of tht 
 Waldenscs and Jllbigenses.) 
 
 PA'TERNO'STER. The Latin expression for Our Fa- 1 
 ther, signifying the Lord's Prayer. See Rosary. 
 
 PATER PATRA'TUS. In Roman Classical Antiqui- 
 ties, the chief of the fecials or herals; specially named for 
 the performance of certain solemn acts, such as declara 
 tions of war. 
 
 PATHE'TIC. (Gr. TraOsriKOS ; from itaaxu, I suffer.) In 
 Painting and Sculpture, the expression of the softer or mora 
 sorrowful passions. Its tendency is to depress and com- 
 pose the feelings of the spectator. 
 PATHETIC NERVES. A pair of small nerves, which 
 
PATHOGNOMONIC. 
 
 Influence the expression of the face. They rise in the 
 brain, and supply the trochear muscle of the eye. 
 
 PATHOGNOMONIC. (Gr. vadoe, a disease, and yvam, 
 opinion ) Symptoms which are peculiar to particular dis- 
 eases, and by which they are recognised, are termed par- 
 thognomonic symptoms. 
 
 PATHCLOGY. (Gr. 77,<0oj, and Aovos, a discourse.) 
 laterally, the doctrine of disease. As physiology teaches 
 the nature of the functions of the body in a state of health, 
 so pathology relates to the various derangements of these 
 functions which constitute disease. Its objects, therefore, 
 are to ascertain the various symptoms which characterize 
 the disorders of each organ of the body, and especially the 
 diagnostic and pathognomic symptoms, which afford the 
 i discrimination between diseases that resemble 
 one another; to determine the causes, both predisposing 
 and exciting, by which diseases are induced; to point out 
 the tendency and probable issue of each disease from the 
 Wring appearance of the symptoms; and finally to ex- 
 plain the symptoms of recovery, and the nature and opera- 
 tion of the remedies adapted to the various circumstances 
 lyi'i periods of diseases. (Conversations Lexicon.) 
 
 PATHOS (Gr. TtaOog, suffering), is applied in literary 
 to any composition calculated to excite all, but 
 Chiefly the tender, emotions of the mind. In France, this 
 term is generally used in a somewhat disparaging sense, 
 being applied to that species of composition which indulges 
 in strained and unnatural declamation. 
 
 PATINA. (Gr. naravn, a dish.) In Numismatics, the 
 fine rust with which coins become covered by lying in pe- 
 culiar soils, which, like varnish, is at once preservative 
 and ornamental. It is, says Mr. Piukerton, a natural var- 
 nish, not Unliable by any etfort of human art; sometime* 
 ite blue, like that of a turquoise; sometimes of ■ 
 bronze brown, equal to that observable In ancient statues 
 of bronze ; sometimes of an exquisite green, a little on the 
 azure hue, which last is the most beautiful of all. It is 
 also found of • tine purple, of olive, and of a cream colour, 
 or pale yellow, which last is exquisite. The Neapolitan 
 patina Is of a tight green ; and, when, free from en 
 or blemish, is very beautiful. Sometimes the purple pati- 
 na gleams through an upper coat of anothor colour, with 
 as line efl'ect as a variegated silk or gem. In a few in- 
 stances a rust of deeper green is found, and it is sometimes 
 ■potted with the red or bronze shade, which gives it the 
 ire of the East Indian stone called bloodstone. 
 These rusts are all, when the real product of time, as hard 
 as the metal Itself, and preserve it much better than any 
 artificial varnish could have done; concealing, at the same 
 time, not the most minute particle of the impression of the 
 coin. Gold admits no ru^t but iron-mould, when lying in a 
 soil Impregnated with iron. Silver takes many kinds, but 
 chiefly green and red, which yield to vinegar; for in this 
 metal the riht is prejudicial. 
 
 I' \ TOI8. (Supposed to be derived from Lat. pater, a 
 father.) A word in general use in most European coun- 
 piifying the dialect peculiar to the lower classes. 
 
 PATRES CON8CRIPTI. See Conscript Fathers. • 
 
 PATRIARCH. (A compound of narnp, father, and 
 ap\oi, I govern.) The title given by the sacred writers to 
 ids of families recorded in Scripture, from 
 Adam to Jacob and his sons. This title was assumed also 
 in the early ages of the church by the bishops of the prin- 
 cipal cities of the empire, as Rome, Constantinople, Anti- 
 och, &c. The name was adopted from the practice of the 
 Jews ; who, after the dispersion, subjected themselves to 
 the spiritual superintendence of the patriarchs resident at 
 Tiberias and Babylon. The first mention of a Christian 
 patriarch occurs about 440. They were, for the moat part. 
 superior to archbishops or metropolitans, being set over 
 several provinces. This, however, was not always the 
 case. The patriarchs of Ephesus and Caisarea, for in- 
 stance, were subject to the bishop of Constantinople, and 
 were only on a par with diocesan prelates. (See Hooker, 
 Eccles. Polity, 6, 7 ; Mosheim, vol. i., pp. 179, 349, trans., 
 1790.) 
 
 PATRI'CIANS. (Lat. patres, fat hers.) The first order 
 or nobility of the Roman people. When the constitution 
 of Rome was monarchial, they elected the king ; and after 
 the expulsion of theTarquins all the great officers of state, 
 as consuls, pra'tors, &.C., were chosen from their body for 
 tinny generations. Of the patricians, also, the senate was 
 composed; but, in after times, both this and the great 
 magistracies were thrown open to the plebeians. The sub- 
 divisions of this order were as follow: First, they were 
 into three tribes, called Ramnenses, Titienses, and 
 Luceres; of which the first contained the original patri- 
 cians of Romulus, the two latter being probably admitted to 
 their privilege at dilferent subsequent times. Each of these 
 tribes again was divided into ten curies, and each curia 
 again contained ten clans, or gentes. The general assem- 
 bly of the patrician houses, who constituted the uopulus, 
 
 PAULICIANS. 
 
 in contradistinction to the plebs, or plebeian citizens, w»s 
 called comitia curiata, because they voted therein by 
 ries ; and this, in the earliest times, was the Roman popu- 
 lar assembly, to which plebeians were not admitted. 
 
 PATRICK, SAINT, ORDER OF. An Irish order of 
 knighthood, instituted by George III. in 1783, composed of 
 the sovereign, a prince of the blood royal, a grand master, 
 and fifteen knights ; the lord-lieutenant of Ireland for the 
 time being is grand master. 
 
 PATRIPA'SSIANS that, pater, father, and paasM, 
 suffering), are persons who, by overlooking the distinction 
 between the persons of the Trinity, are reduced to allow 
 that the Father himself suffered on the cross. This aigu 
 ment has been advanced against heretics of various de- 
 nominations, and the title has, in consequence, been ap- 
 plied to many such. It is the Sabellians, however, who 
 considered the Father, Son, and Spirit as three modes or 
 representations of the one God, that are generally oppro- 
 briously designated ny this term. Sec Sabellians. (See 
 also J\in.theim, vol. i., cent. 4.) 
 
 PATRI'STIC. (Lat. pater, father.) In Theology, of 
 belonging to the fathers of the church ; as patristic the 
 gy, literature, studv. 
 'PATRO'LE. (Fr. patrouille.) In Military language 
 detachment, ordinarily of from four to eight men, unde, 
 corporal, charged to march in a given circuit, through t 
 streets of a garrison town, in order to repress disorder 
 The patroles are drawn from the posts of the city, and 
 set out at an hour fixed by the commandant. They are 
 usually accompanied, in Continental towns, by an officer 
 of police. 
 
 PATRON. (Lat patronus ; from pater, father.) The 
 relation of patron and client, in Ancient Rome, has been 
 explained under the head Client. After the extinction 
 of republican sentiments and usages, the term patron was 
 still applied to advocates who defended causes for hire. 
 But the right of patronage, analagrtB* to that which had 
 subsisted under the commonwealth, may be said only to 
 have existed in the relation between masters and frced- 
 pmu, the latter of whom were placed and v rious ohllga 
 to their lorme .-viors. i.. tin a age . theRi man 
 Catholic church, a patron saint is the peculiar protector of 
 each country, community, profession, &c., or of individuals. 
 The prime minister of the pope is termed the cardinal- 
 patron. (As to the Roman patrons, see Mem. de VJicad. 
 des Inscr., vol. xii.) 
 
 PATRONAGE. In the Church of Scotland, the right 
 of presentation to livings in lay patrons was recognised by 
 the old practice of the church, with the exception of the 
 period from 1690 to 1712; during which lay patronage was 
 abolished, and the right of presentation lodged in the heri- 
 tors (land owners) and members of the kirk session. In 
 1712, lay patronage was restored ; but still under the con- 
 trol of the parishioners, whose rail (as it was termed) was 
 necessary to ratify the presentation. But the call gradu- 
 ally became a mere nominal ceremony ; and disregard to 
 the expressed wishes of the parishioners in one or two in- 
 stances was the cause of the great secession from the Scot- 
 tish kirk. (Sec Burghers.) In 1834, by an act of Assem- 
 bly (see Veto Act), the right of the parishioners was fully 
 revived ; it being expressly enacted that the disapproval of 
 a majority should invalidate the presentation. This act of 
 the General Assembly, however, is found by the courts of 
 law not to be efficient. The abolition of patronage is de- 
 sired by a large portion of the Scottish public; and it is 
 highly probable, unless some legislative arrangement be 
 come to on the subject, that the present disputes in the 
 Scotch church will terminate in a new secession. 
 
 PATRON Y'MIC. (Gr. -rtarnp, and ovn,ta, a name.) A 
 name which designates a person by alluding to some of his 
 ancestors, either immediate or remote ; as Pelides, i. «., 
 Achilles, the son of Peleus; jEncides, i. e., Achilles, the 
 grandson of jEacus. Patronymics were chiefly employed 
 by the classical poets of antiquity. 
 
 PA'ULI ANISTS. A sect of heretics who embraced the 
 Sabellian doctrines of Paulus of Samosata, a bishop of An- 
 tioch in the third century, from whom they derired their 
 name. See Sabellians, Patripassians. 
 
 PAULI'CIANS. A sect of heretics, whose history is in- 
 terwoven with that of the Greek church in the 9th and 
 10th centuries, who appear to have arisen in considerable 
 numbers in Armenia, and to have adopted the name by 
 which they are distinguished, from Paulus, one of their 
 leaders, in order to avoid the imputation of connexion with 
 the Mnnicheans, with which they were generally charged. 
 Their opinions are to be collected only from the allegations 
 of their enemies, who accused them of holding the doctrine 
 of the two principles, and denying the Inspiration of the 
 Old Testament to have proceeded from the Supreme God. 
 At the same time, the charges which were brought against 
 them, alleging their contempt for the worship of the Virgin 
 and of the cross, seem to point them out as in some respect* 
 
 907 
 
PAUPER. 
 
 genuine reformers in doctrinal points, and to have led their 
 bigotted enemies to invent other and more scandalous im- 
 putations against them, for the sake of more effectually 
 blackening their character. In the East, they underwent a 
 series of persecutions for two centuries : a remnant, how- 
 ever, survived in the country of their birth. A colony of 
 Paulicians was transplanted to Bulgaria and Thrace, from 
 whence, in the 11th century, they spread themselves over 
 the West, where they were known under the names of 
 Cathari, Paterini, &c, and have been supposed to have 
 been connected with the Albigenses of the south of France. 
 (See Moshcim, vol. ii. ; Faber on the Chrirchcs of the Wal- 
 denscs and Jllbigenses, 1838.) 
 
 PAUPER. See Poor Laws. 
 
 PAUSE. (Gr. navu), I stop.) In Music, a character de- 
 noting silence in a part for a certain time, according to the 
 sort of pause marked. 
 
 PAVAN. (Lat. pavo, a peacock.) A slow and stately 
 dance, formerly practised in England, but now confined to 
 the Spaniards. It derived its name from the peculiarity 
 of the dresses of those who engaged in it, the motion of 
 which produced a fancied resemblance to the peacock's 
 tail. 
 
 PA'VEMENT. (Lat. pavimentum.) In Architecture, a 
 causeway or floor paved with stone, brick, or other hard 
 material, for greater convenience of walking. See Roads. 
 
 PA'VESE, or PAVOIS. A large shield, used in the war- 
 fare of the middle ages to cover assailants advancing to the 
 walls of a fortress. 
 
 PAVI'LION. (Fr. pavilion.) In Architecture, a project- 
 ing apartment on the flank of a building, usually higher than 
 the rest of it. Summer houses in gardens are sometimes 
 called by this name, but improperly. The term pavilion is 
 also used to signify a military tent. 
 
 PA'VO. (Lat. a pea-fowl.) The name given by Linnre- 
 us to the genus of Gallinaceous birds, of which the splendid 
 Indian peacock (Pavo indicus, Linn.) is the type. They 
 are characterized by a crest of peculiar form, and by the 
 tail coverts of the male extending far beyond the quills, and 
 being capable of erection into a broad and gorgeous disk. 
 The shining, lax, and silky barbs of these feathers, and the 
 eye-like spots which decorate their extremities, are known 
 to every one. The Indian pea-fowl exist wild in the north 
 of India, whence they were introduced into Europe by Alex- 
 ander the Great. A distinct species of pea-fowl exists in 
 the Isle of Java. 
 
 PAWNBROKER. A species of banker, who advances 
 money at a certain rate of interest upon the security of 
 goods deposited in his hands ; having power to sell the goods 
 if the principal sum, and the interest thereon, be not paid 
 within a specified time. The practice of advancing money 
 to the poor, either with or without interest, seems to have 
 been occasionally adopted in ancient times; but the first 
 public establishments of this kind were founded in Italy, 
 under the name of Monti di Pieta, in the 14th and 15th cen- 
 turies, and were intended to countervail the exorbitant usu- 
 rious practices of the Jews, who formed at that period the 
 great money lenders of Europe. From Italy these establish- 
 ments gradually spread over the Continent, in many parts' 
 of which they still exist. (See Mont de Piete.) For a 
 view of the advantages and disadvantages of pawnbroking, 
 and the law as to pawnbrokers, &c, see the Commercial 
 Diet. 
 
 PAX. An allegorical divinity among the ancients, wor 
 shipped as the goddess of peace. She had a celebrated tem- 
 ple at Rome, which was built by Vespasian, and was con- 
 sumed by fire in the reign of Commodns. This term is 
 sometimes applied to a small image of Christ, because, in 
 former times, the kiss which the people gave it before leav- 
 ing church was called the kiss of peace. But the common 
 pax, or osculatorium, was a metallic plate with a crucifix 
 engraved on it. It is now disused. (See Ducange, Oscula- 
 torium ; Milner, in the Jlrchaologia, vol. xx., p. 534.) 
 
 PA'YM ASTER-GENERAL OF THE FORCES. This 
 office was formerly extremely lucrative, from the interest on 
 the large sum of money which remained for a long time in 
 the possession of the paymaster. In 1782 it was deprived 
 of these extraordinary emoluments, and the salary fixed at 
 .£4000 a year. The paymaster is constituted by letters 
 patent under the great seal ; he is, ex officio, of the privy 
 council, sometimes of the cabinet. In the Pay Office there 
 are under him a deputy-paymaster, accountant-general, 
 cashier, and various assistants. 
 
 PAYMASTER OF THE HOUSEHOLD. An officer in 
 the lord steward's department. This office has superseded 
 that of the ancient cofferers. It has a salary of .£450 per 
 annum. 
 
 PEACE, JUSTICES OF. See Justices. 
 
 PEAK. In Naval language, the name given to the upper 
 corner of those sails which are extended by a gaff, or by a 
 yard crossing the mast obliquely; as the mizzen yard of a 
 *hip, &c. 
 
 90R 
 
 PEAT. 
 
 PEARLASH. Impure carbonate of potash. See Pot- 
 ash. 
 
 PEARLS. These are substances formed by certain bi- 
 valve Mollusks, consisting of concentric layers of a fine 
 compact nacre, or substance identical with that whicii lines 
 the inside of the shell ; they are sometimes found free and 
 detached within the lobes of the mantle, but most common 
 Iy adherent to the nacrous coat of the shell, which on that 
 account is termed "mother of pearl." The species of bi- 
 valve which produces the most valuable pearls is the pearl 
 oyster of Ceylon, Meleagrina margaritifi-rn. Lam. A pure 
 pearl is generally spherical, and has a white, or bluish, or 
 yellowish white colour, with a peculiar lustre and irides- 
 cence, and consists of alternating concentric layers of mem- 
 brane and carbonate of lime. When steeped in dilute mu- 
 riatic acid, the carbonate is decomposed with effervescence, 
 and films of membrane remain undissolved. 
 
 Pearls were in the highest possible estimation in ancient 
 Rome, and bore an enormous price. Principium culmrnque 
 omnium rerum prctii, margarita tenent. (Plin. Hist. JVat., 
 lib. ix., c. 35.) Their price in modern times has very much 
 declined ; partly, no doubt, from changes of manners and 
 fashions, but more, probably, from the admirable imitations 
 of pearls that may be obtained at a very low price. Ac- 
 cording to Sir. Milburn, a handsome necklace of Ceylon 
 pearls, smaller than a large pea, cost from £170 to £300; 
 but one of pearls about the size of peppercorns may be had 
 for £15: the pearls in the former sell at a guinea each, and 
 those in the latter at about Is. Od. When the pearls dwin 
 die to the size of a small shot, they are denominated seed 
 pearls, and are of little value. They are mostly sent to 
 China. One of the most remarkable pearls of which we 
 have any authentic account was bought by Tavernier, at 
 Catifa, in Arabia, a fishery famous in the days of Pliny, for 
 the enormous sum of £10,000! It is pear-shaped, regular, 
 and without blemish. The diameter is -63 inch at the larg- 
 est part, and the length from 2 to 3 inches. It is in the pos- 
 session of the shah of Persia. 
 
 The pearl oyster is fished in various parts of the world, 
 particularly on the west coast of Ceylon ; at Tuticoreen, 
 in the province of Tinnevellcy, on the coast of Coroman- 
 del ; at the Bahrein Islands, in the Gulf of Persia ; at the 
 Sooloo Islands ; off the coast of Algiers ; off St. Margarita, 
 or Pearl Islands, in the West Indies, and other places on 
 the coast of Colombia ; and in the Bay of Panama, in the 
 South Sea. Pearls have sometimes been found on the 
 Scotch coast, and in various other places. 
 
 The pearl fishery of Tuticoreen is monopolized by the 
 East India Company, ar.d that of Ceylon by government. 
 But these monopolies are of no value ; as in neither case 
 does the sum for which the fishery is let equal the ex 
 penses incurred in guarding, surveying, and managing the 
 banks. It is therefore sufficiently obvious that tlii 
 ought to be abolished, and every one allowed to fish on 
 paying a moderate licence duty. The fear of exhausting 
 the banks is quite ludicrous. The fishery would be aban- 
 doned as unprofitable long before the breed of oysters had 
 been injuriously diminished, and in a few years it would 
 be as productive as ever. Besides giving fresh life to the 
 fishery, the abolition of the monopoly would put an end to 
 some very oppressive regulations enacted by the Dutch 
 more than a century ago. (For full details respecting the 
 pearl fishery, see the Commercial Diet.) 
 
 PEARLSINTER. In Mineralogy, a siliceous mineral 
 found in volcanic tufa : it is also called fiorite. 
 
 PEARLSTONE. A variety of obsidian, a volcanic pro- 
 duct of a pearly lustre : it is a silicate of alumina. 
 
 PEASTONE, or PISOLITE. A variety of limestone 
 composed of globular concretions of the size of a pea. 
 
 PEAT. The natural accumulation of vegetable matter 
 on the surface of lands not in a state of cultivation; al- 
 ways more or less saturated with water, and generally 
 abounding in modifications of extractive matter, varying 
 with the nature of the plants of which the peat is com- I 
 posed. 
 
 Peat is generally of a black or dark brown colour, or, 1 
 when recently formed, of a yellowish brown : it is soft, 
 and of a viscid consistence ; but it becomes hard and dark- 
 er by exposure to the air. It is generally more or less 
 mixed with earthy substances. When steeped in water it 
 gives out a brown liquor, more or less dark. When thor 1 
 oughly dried it may be set fire to, and burns slowly, giving 
 out a gentle heat without much smoke. This smoke com- ; 
 municates a peculiar flavour to all the articles with which 
 it conies in contact ; and this flavour is considered a char- 
 acteristic of spirits which have been distilled in vessels 
 heated by this kind of fuel, and also of malt, corn, and fish 
 which have been dried by it. Peat abounds in every part 
 of the world, but more especially in the cold moist climates 
 of temperate recions. It covers many thousand acres in 
 Ireland, and in the Highlands and western counties of the 
 Lowlands of Scotland, and in the western counties of 
 
PEATS. 
 
 England : bill, all these bogs are rapidly disappearing, in 
 consequence of being drained, and having their surfaces 
 slightly covered with earth, and stirred and sown with 
 grass seeds. 
 
 When peaty matter accumulates on the sides of declivi- 
 ties it is generally comparatively dry, and is then called 
 hill-peat , but when peat accumulates on hollow places, or 
 on flat surfaces, it is generally thoroughly sat ur ate d with 
 water, and is then called peat-bog. In most cases the prin- 
 cipal plant which forms the peatty matter is the Sphag- 
 num pal ustre of Linnsus ; a moss which is common on all 
 moist, peaty surfaces throughout Europe, and is frequent 
 in many parts of North America. This moss continues 
 growing upwards from the (>oints of the shoots, while de- 
 cay is advancing in a similar manner from their lower ex- 
 thus forming a thick, close mass of vegetable 
 matter, which rots below as it increases in height. The 
 rotten part is frequently dug out and dried, to be used as 
 fuel, or to be mixed with dung or lime and rotted into 
 manure. 
 
 When peaty mutter accumulntes on a surface which 
 abound! in springs, the water sometimes oozes out beneath 
 the peat, and between it and the natural soil, in such 
 quantities as to raise up the layer of peat, and float it off to 
 a distance: sometimes carrying everything before it, and 
 ending by burying under it lands in a state of culture. 
 About the middle of the 18th century, a remarkable irrup- 
 tion of this kind took place near Annan in Dumfriesshire ; 
 and such irruptions are frequent in Ireland. The circum- 
 stance- favourable to the growth of peat are a soil abound- 
 ing In springs, a flat surface or hollow surrounded by hills, 
 and b moist rllnwitit. Hence peat bogs are mem abundant 
 in Ireland, and in the western counties of Scotland, than 
 in any oilier part of the British empire. 
 
 When an accumulation of peat has taken place in a 
 level situation, or on a declivity not abounding in springs, 
 the matter accumulated is comparatively dry, and is then 
 called peat moss. One of the most remarkable peat moss- 
 es in Britain is the Flanders Moss, in Stirlingshire. It 
 rests on a flat surface of excellent alluvial soil, of which it 
 bout 4000 acres. Great part of this peat moss, be- 
 ing quite light, has been cut into small pieces, and floated 
 otl", by means of a stream of water, to the sea; thus expo- 
 sing the natural soil, and rendering it fit for culture. This 
 operation was commenced at lilair Urummond, towards 
 the end of the last century, by the celebrated Lord rTnmttf, 
 I continued by his son, Mr. Drummond. 
 IM'. ITS. Peat bog cut out in small square or rcctangu- 
 , and dried for being used as fuel. These pieces 
 are cut out with light spades In the summer season, spread 
 abroad to dry, and afterwards carted home and put up in 
 stacks or heaps, which are thatched to exclude the rain. 
 Mis are afterwards used as fuel, not only for do- 
 mestic purposes, but for burning lime, and for heating kilns 
 for drying corn, &c. To facilitate the drying of peat, the 
 water is sometimes pressed out of the square pieces after 
 they are cut, anil thrown out of the bog, by a compressing 
 machine, which also renders the material more compart 
 and durable in the fire. Peats are also sometimes charred 
 try a smothered combustion, so as to be rendered better 
 adapted to serve as a substitute for pit-coal, coke, or char- 
 coal, in smelting iron or other metals, in generating steam, 
 8lc. Attempts have been made to separate astringent mat- 
 ter from peat, and to use it in tanning leather. 
 
 PEAT BOIL. Peat in a state of decomposition, on which 
 corn or other agricultural crops may be grown. The pro- 
 cess of turning living peat into peat soil is greatly facilita- 
 ted by draining, and by laying earth or lime on its surface, 
 and afterwards mixing the earthy matter with the neat 
 by ploughing or digging. In this manner every kind of 
 peaty surface may be rendered available for agricultural 
 purposes : and accordingly, in Ireland, in Lancashire, and 
 in Ayr-shire, good crops of corn, potatoes, and artificial 
 erases are produced on the surface of peat lands, which 
 consist of a layer of peat from five to twenty feet in depth. 
 The plants which thrive best on the surface of beds of 
 peat of this description are those which extend their roots 
 immediately under the surface. Hence few trees will 
 thrive in such soils, with the exception of the spruce fir, 
 the silver fir, the birch, and two or three kinds of willows. 
 Peaty soil is extonsively used in gardening, in the culture 
 of plants which are found growing on this soil in a wild 
 state. 
 
 Peat from wood, or woody peat, is a composition of the 
 branches, trunks, and roots of trees, with their leaves, and 
 the shrubs and plants which have grown up among them, 
 which have lain so long in water as to have decayed into 
 a mass soft enough to be cut with a spade. The colour is 
 a blackish brown, like that of mossy pent; and it may be 
 used as manure, for fuel, and for the growth of plants. 
 Pe»t of this description is found in some parts of Holland, 
 sad also in the Vale of Kennett, in Berkshire ; but is most 
 
 PECTINIBRANCHIATES. 
 
 abundant in North America, where it forms the soil in 
 which many of the plants and trees of that country thrive 
 with the greatest vigour. Wherever it can be found, it Is 
 the most suitable of all kinds of peat for garden purposes. 
 This kind of peat is frequently burned for its ashes, both 
 in Britain and Holland; and these, from the alkali they 
 contain, are found an excellent manure. 
 
 Peat, sandy, or sandy peat, is mossy peat in a state of de 
 cay or mould, naturally mixed with sand brought over it, 
 from soil lying above its level, or by the overflowings of 
 rivers. It is used in gardening for the same purposes as 
 heath soil. 
 
 PE'BBLES. A term applied to rounded nodules, espe- 
 cially of siliceous minerals, such as rock-crystal, agates, 
 &c. Among opticians the term pebble generally means the 
 transparent and colourless rock-crystal or quartz (pure 
 silica), which is used as a substitute for glass in spectacles: 
 its extreme hardness renders it more durable, and little apt 
 to be scratched. 
 
 PE'CCARI. A Pachydermatous quadruped allied to the 
 hog ; but generally distinguished by the absence of the 
 outer toe of the hind foot, and the presence of a peculiar 
 gland, which exudes its secretion by an orifice situated on 
 the back ; whence Cuvier devised the name Dicotyles 
 (two navels) for the genus. The incisor and molar teeth 
 resemble those of the hog, but the canines do not project 
 from the mouth. The metacarpal and metatarsal bones of 
 their two middle and largest toes are confluent, as in the 
 Ruminants; with which their stomach also, divided into 
 three compartments with cscal appendages, presents a 
 marked analogy. Two species of peccari are known, both 
 natives of South America; viz., the collared peccari 
 (Dicotyles torquatus), and the white-lipped peccari (Die. 
 labiatus, Cuv.). 
 
 PECHBLEND, or PITCHBLENDE. An ore of ura 
 ■Jam. 
 
 PECK. A measure of capacity containing two gallons, 
 or the fourth part of a bushel. The imperial peck con- 
 tains 55455 cubic inches. See Measure. 
 
 PE'CORA. (Lnt. pecus, a sheep.) The name given by 
 Linnaeus to an. order of Mammals corresponding with the 
 Ruminantia of Cuvier. 
 
 P'ECTEN (Lat. a comb'i, in Comparative Anatomy, i* 
 the vascular membrane, in structure resembling the cho- 
 roid, plicated with parallel folds like the teeth of a comb, 
 and extending, in the eyes of birds, from the back of the 
 retina through the vitreous humour to, or near to, the crys- 
 talline lens, where it mostly terminates in a point This 
 organ resembles a flattened conical bag, whence it is also 
 termed " marsupium." 
 
 In Zoology, the name is applied to the genus of bivalve 
 shells commonly called " clams." They have a hinge like 
 that of the oyster ; but have been removed on account of 
 their shell being Inequivalve, semicircular, always regu- 
 larly marked with ribs, which radiate from the summit of 
 each valve to the circumference, and furnished with two 
 angular productions, called " ears," which widen the sides 
 of the hinge. 
 
 The animal is chiefly remarkable for the little dark 
 green metallic globule which terminates most of the ten- 
 tacles of the exterior row of those at the circumference of 
 the mantle. These specks are conjectured to be rudimen- 
 tal organs of vision, whence Poli was induced to call the 
 soft parts of the pecten " argus." 
 
 PE'CTIN. (Gr. ot;/ctoc, coagulated.) Also termed Pec- 
 tic .-hid. The gelatinizing principle of certain vegetables, 
 such as currants, apples, &c. It may be abundantly ob- 
 tained from some of the esculent roots, especially carrots, 
 whence their excellence as an ingredient in soup. To ob- 
 tain it from this source the carrots are rasped, and the 
 pulp strongly pressed, so as to render it as dry as possible ; 
 in this state it is washed in repeated portions of cold soft 
 water, till all soluble matters are removed from it. The 
 pulp thus prepared is then boiled with 5 parts of bicarbon- 
 ate of potash to every 100 of the washed pulp ; the decoc- 
 tion is filtered, and chloride of calcium added to it, which 
 forms a bulky precipitate of pectate of lime ; this is well- 
 washed, and the lime removed by very weak muriatic 
 acid. Pectin, or pectic acid, thus obtained, is in the form 
 of a jelly, which forms insoluble compounds with the 
 earths and several of the other metallic oxides. It seems 
 doubtful whether this jelly is not a. product, resulting from 
 the action of the alkaline carbonate of the lignin of the 
 carrot. It must, however, be easily formed; for when 
 carrots are stewed or boiled for a length of time, they be- 
 come very gelatinous. When pectic acid is boiled in a 
 strong solution of potassa, oxalate of potassa is produced. 
 
 PECTINA'TUM TECTUM. (Lat. pecten, a comb.) In 
 
 Architecture, a roof which has obtained this name from 
 
 its shape resembling that of a comb, and contrived to 
 
 throw off the rain water in two ways. 
 
 PECTINIBRANCHIATES, Pectinibranchiata. (Latin, 
 
 909 
 
PECTORALS. 
 
 petted and branchia, gills.) The name given by Cuvier 
 to his sixth order of Gastropods. It is the most extensive 
 division of that class, since it includes almost all the spiral 
 univalve shells, as well as several which are merely coni- 
 cal. The order is thus characterized by Cuvier: "The 
 branchia?, composed of numerous leaflets or fringes, ranged 
 parallel like the teeth of a comb, are affixed in two or 
 three lines (according to the genera) to the floor of the 
 respiratory cavity, which occupies the last whorl of the 
 shell, and which communicates outwards by a wide aper- 
 ture between the margin of the cloak and the body. Two 
 genera only — Cyclostoma and Hdicina — have, instead of 
 branchia-, a vascular network clothing the ceiling of the 
 cavity, in all respects the same as that of the order ; and 
 they are the only ones which respire the atmosphere, wa- 
 ter being the medium of respiration to all the rest." 
 
 All the Pectinibranchiates have two tentacula and two 
 eyes, raised sometimes on pedicles ; a mouth in the form 
 of a proboscis, more or less lengthened ; and separate sex- 
 es. The penis of the male, attached to the right side of 
 the neck, cannot, in general, be drawn within the body, but 
 is reflected into the branchial cavity ; it is sometimes very 
 large. The Paludina alone has the organ concealed, and 
 it comes out through a hole pierced in the right tentacu- 
 lum ; the rectum and the oviduct of the female also creep 
 along the right side of the branchial cavity ; and there is 
 between them and the branchia a peculiar organ, conr 
 posed of cells filled with a very viscous fluid, the use of 
 which is to form a common envelop for the enclosure of 
 the eggs, and which the animal deposits within them. 
 The form of that envelop is often very complicated and 
 very remarkable. 
 
 The tongue is armed with little hooks (or curved spi- 
 nules), and wears down the hardest bodies by slow and oft- 
 repeated frictions. 
 
 The grand difference between these animals lies in the 
 presence or absence of the canal formed by the prolonga- 
 tion of the margin of the branchial cavity on the left side, 
 and which passes along a similar canal or sinus in the 
 shell, to enable the animal to breathe without leaving its 
 shell. There is also this distinction between the genera, 
 that some want the operculum; and the species vary in 
 the filaments, fringes, and other ornaments that deck the 
 head, the foot, or the cloak. 
 
 PE'CTORALS, or PECTORAL FINS. (Lat. pectus, 
 the breast.) The anterior and lateral pair of fins, which 
 represent, in fishes, the fore legs or anterior members of 
 other vertebrate animals. 
 
 PECULA'TION. (Lat. pcculium.) A term of the Ro- 
 man law, rendered in that of France by concussion. The 
 embezzlement by a public officer of public money. Pecu- 
 lation, in the Roman law, also comprehended offences re- 
 lating to the coin. 
 
 PECU'LIAR. In Ecclesiastical Law, an exempt juris- 
 diction, which is not under the ordinary of the diocess, 
 but has one of its own. They are — royal, of which the 
 king is ordinary; peculiars of archbishops, bishops, deans, 
 chapters, prebendaries, and the like ; to which were for- 
 merly added peculiars of monasteries, the jurisdiction over 
 which, by 31 H. 8, c. 13, was granted to the ordinary 
 within whose diocess they were situate, or to such per- 
 sons as the king should appoint. 
 
 PE'CULIUM. (Lat.) In the Roman Law, the proper- 
 ty which a slave might acquire independent of the con- 
 trol of his master. This property was frequently permit- 
 ted to accumulate, so as to enable the slave to purchase 
 his freedom. The son being, on the principles of the Ro- 
 man law, unemancipated during the lifetime of his father, 
 whatever property he might acquire appertained in strict- 
 ness to the latter ; but, by degrees, certain species of prop- 
 erty acquired by the child obtained the title and character 
 of peculia. Of these, however, the only one which was 
 absolutely the child's was that which the son acquired in 
 military service (peculium castrense), or in public service 
 of any kind, which, by a legal fiction, was regarded as 
 equivalent to military. 
 
 PE'DAGOGUE. (Gr. iraifiayioyos ', from irai;, boy, and 
 ayutyof, leader.) Among the ancient Greeks, a slave 
 charged with the personal care of a boy from the earliest 
 age after infancy (from the milk, in the loose phrase of 
 Plutarch ; from about the age of seven, as it is more ac- 
 curately stated by jEschines) until he became a youth 
 (ucipaicwv), i. e., until the seventeenth or twentieth year. 
 The pedagogue's duty was to attend his charge on all oc- 
 casions when he left his father's house ; to the lecture- 
 rooms of masters, the theatre, &c. (See especially Plato, 
 Sympos.) He was also entrusted with the duty of in- 
 structing and disciplining the child in inferior branches of 
 education and ordinary manners. He was, consequently, 
 of a very superior order of oommon slaves, and must be un- 
 derstood as excepted when Aristotle recommends that a 
 child should be left to converse as little as possible with 
 910 
 
 P.EER. 
 
 persons of the servile class. (Politic., vi\., 156.) The cus 
 torn of entrusting children to slaves in this manner was ' 
 common in other Grecian states ; the Romans also em- 
 ployed a slave for similar purposes, with the title of cui- 
 tos or magistcr. 
 
 In modern times, and especially in Germany, the word 
 pedagogic is used to signify the science or art of education. 
 
 PEDAL HARMONIES. In Music, the same as Organ 
 Point, which see. 
 
 PEDALMA'SCHI. A Turkish officer, whose duty con 
 sists in looking after the interests of the Sultan in cases of 
 legacies. The Ottoman treasury receives through this | 
 officer a tithe of all bequests made to heirs male. 
 
 PE'DALS (Lat. pes, afoot), in such musical instruments 
 as the organ, harp, and pianoforte, are either keys acted 
 on by the feet of the performer (whence the name), to 
 modify the tone of these respective instruments, or levers 
 acting on the swell of the organ, and on the stops. The 
 invention of the pedals or foot-keys of the organ is attribu 
 ted to a German named Bernhard, who lived in the 15th 
 century. It was long, however, before their utility and 
 importance were acknowledged by other nations ; and it 
 is a singular fact that though England was the first to in- 
 troduce the organ generally into the church, she was the 
 last to adopt this invention. Within the last twenty years 
 many improvements have been made in the construction 
 of pedals, and few organs, except those of small dimen 
 sions, are now built without thetn. See Organ. 
 
 PE'DATE. In Botany, a palmate leaf with the two 
 lateral lobes themselves divided into smaller segments, the 
 midribs of which do not run directly into the common cen- 
 tral point; as in the leaf of Jirum dracunculus. 
 
 PE'DESTAL. (Lat. pes, a foot.) In Architecture, the 
 substruction to a column or wall. The component parts 
 of a pedestal are three ; the base, the die, and the cornice. 
 The whole height of a pedestal is from one quarter to one 
 third of the height of the column, with its entablature. 
 
 PE'DICEL. (Lat. pes.) One of the ramifications of 
 that part of a flower called the peduncle. 
 
 PEDICE'LLATES, Pedicellata. (Lat. pes.) The name 
 of an order of Echinoderms, comprehending those which 
 have the vesicular pedicellate organs, which are termed 
 feet In this class, but which project from various parts of 
 the surface of the boay. 
 
 PE'DIMANES, Pedimani. (Lat. pes, and manus, a hand.) 
 The name of a family of Marsupial animals, of which the 
 opossum (Didelphis) is the type; they are distinguished by 
 the opposable property of the hinder thumb or hallux, the 
 fore feet being organized like those of ordinary Unguiculate 
 quadrupeds. 
 
 PE'DIMENT. (Lat. pes.) In Architecture, the low 
 triangular mass representing the gable of a roof over the 
 front of a building, portico, door, window, &.c. ; though 
 sometimes these ornaments are terminated upwards by seg- 
 ments of circles. A pediment is frequently ornamented 
 with sculpture. The heights of pediments are seldom more 
 than two ninths of their width. 
 
 PE'DIPALPS, Pedipalpi. (Lat. pes; and palpo, I feel.) 
 A name given to a tribe of pulmonary Arachnidans, com 
 prehending those which have the feelers in the form ol 
 pincers, or armed with a didactyle claw ; as the scorpions 
 
 PEDLAR. See Hawker. 
 
 PEDO'METER, or PODOMETER. (Gr. vovs, the foot, 
 and pcrpuv, measure.) An instrument for the purpose ol 
 registering the number of paces taken by a man in travel- 
 ling or walking, whence the distance is ascertained. It it 
 usually in the form of a watch, and receives its movement 
 from the motion of the body, so that it advances one divi- 
 sion at each step. The number of divisions may be noted 
 by an index or hand, in the same manner as the number of 
 vibrations of a watch-balance. The best constructioa, or 
 rather the only one now used in this country, is that of Mr. 
 Pavne, watchmaker, of Bond Street See Perambulator. 
 
 PEDU'NCULATES, Pedunculata. The name of an order 
 of Cirripeds, comprehending those which have the body 
 supported by a flexible tubular stem. 
 
 PEDU'NCULUS. (Lat. pes, a foot.) That part of a 
 branch or stem that immediately bears the flowers. 
 
 PEEP-O'-DAY BOYS. The well-known appellation ol 
 certain insurgents who appeared in Ireland in 1784. They 
 obtained this name from visiting the houses of their antag- 
 onists, called defenders, at break of day in search of arms. 
 
 PEER. (From the Latin par, French pair.) Equal, 
 which meaning it still retains in the language of the com- 
 mon law, as trial by jury is said to be by the peers, oi 
 equals, of the defendant. In this sense, the name remains 
 as a relic of feudal institutions, according to which every 
 rank of society formed an association for the purpose ol 
 mutual defence and the decision of disputes ; as the tenants 
 of a lord paramount or inferior, who met as equals (pares 
 curioe) in the court over which he presided. Hence, :n the 
 French monarchy, the highest vassals of the crown foruiod 
 
PECiASUS. 
 
 a rank apart, and were called pares or peers with reference 
 to each other; and the designation became a title of honour. 
 The peers of France differed in number at different periods 
 of the eaily French monarchy, as their domains became 
 united to the crown ; but, according to heraldic theory, there 
 are six temporal — the Dukes of Burgundy, Aquitaine, and 
 Normandy, and Counts of Flanders, Toulouse, and Cham- 
 pagne; and six spiritual — the Archbishop of Rheum, and 
 the Bishops of Laon, Beauvais, Noyon, Chalons, and Lan- 
 gres. In later times new peerage! were created, as the 
 duchy of Britany and counties of Artois and Anjou. At 
 last the title remained as a simple dignity ; and Louis XIV. 
 increased the number of dukes and peers (dues et pairs) 
 until at last they amounted to thirty-seven. They had no 
 privileges except precedence, and a seat in the parliaments. 
 On the restoration of Louis XVIII., hereditary peerage was 
 established in France on the model of that of England, but 
 was abolished in 1831 ; and the members of the present 
 Chamber of |>eers are nominated for life by the people. For 
 the history and privileges of the English peerage, see Par- 
 liament. There is a curious analysis of the English peer- 
 age in the Quart. Review, vol. 41. 
 
 PE'GASUS. In Greek mythology, a winged horse, pro- 
 duced by Neptune ; or, according to some authors, which 
 sprung from the blood of Medusa when Perseus cut off her 
 head, See Bei.lehopuo.n. 
 
 Pegasus. This name Is applied, In Zoology, to a genus 
 of Liphobranchiate fishes with large pectoral fins, by means 
 of which they arc enabled to take short saltatory flights 
 through the air. 
 
 Pegasus. One of the 48 nncicnt constellations of Ptol- 
 emy, situated in the northern hemisphere. 
 
 PELA'GIANISM. The religious system promulgated by 
 PeUgiua, a British monk of the fifth century, who, after 
 attaining to considerable notoriety in his own day by first 
 eliciting the dIsCDatloa of the great questions respecting 
 grace and predestination, has succeeded in bequeathing his 
 name as a n raj gnnrr nn in all after ages for those who have 
 held the extreme opinions by which be was distinguished. 
 His tenets are thus clearly stated by a modern writer: — "1. 
 That the sins of our first parents are imputed to themselves 
 alone, and not to their posterity ; that we derive no corrup- 
 tion from their fate ; that we inherit no depravity from our 
 origin, but enter into the world as pure and unspotted as 
 Adam at his creation. It was a necessary inference from 
 this doctrine that infant baptism is not a sign or seal of the 
 remission of sins, but only a mark of admission into the 
 kingdom of Christ. 'J. That our own powers are sufficient 
 for our own justification ; that as by our own free will we 
 run Into sin, so by the same voluntary exercise of our facul- 
 ties we are able to repent and reform, and raise ourselves to 
 the highest degree of virtue and piety; that we are indeed 
 assisted by that external grace of God which has taught us 
 the truths of revelation, which opens to us our prospects, 
 and enlightens our understanding, and animates our exer- 
 tions after holiness; that the internal or immediate opera- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit is not necessnry either to awaken us 
 to religious feeling, or to further us in out progress towards 
 holiness ; In short, that man, by the unnssistcd agency of 
 his natural perfections, under the guidance of his own free 
 will. Is enabled to work out his own salvation." ( rVad- 
 dington's Hist, of Ike church.) These opinions were for- 
 mally condemned by a decree of Pope Zosimus, about 418, 
 and again by the council of Ephesus, in 431. Their prin- 
 cipal opponent was the famous Augustin, who, in the 
 course of his arguments against them, ndvanced an expla- 
 nation of the questions involved in the discussion, which 
 has been stigmatized as leading directly to the opposite ex- 
 treme of fatalism. (See Mosheim, vol. ii., cent 5.) The 
 Pelagian opinions respecting original sin are condemned in 
 the 9th article of the English church. 
 
 PEI-ECA'NIDiE. The name of a family of swimming 
 birds, of which the pelican {Pelicanus) is the type. 
 
 PELLA'GRA. (Lat. pellis, the skin, and a;ger, sick.) A 
 disease of the skin somewhat resembling elephantiasis, and 
 occasionally producing great constitutional derangement. 
 It is endemic in certain districts of Italy, especially in the 
 Milanese. 
 
 PE'LLICLE. (Lot. pellis.) A thin membrane. In 
 Chemistry, the term is applied to the film of salt or other 
 substances which forms upon the surface of solutions dur- 
 ing evaporation. 
 
 PE'LLITORY OF SPAIN. The root of the jlnthemis 
 pyrethrum. It has a pungent flavour, and when chewed 
 promotes the flow of saliva, and Is often useful in toothache. 
 
 PE'LTA. (Lat. a shield.) In Botany, a term used in 
 describing lichens to denote a flat shield without any elevated 
 rim, as in the genus Peltidea. 
 
 1'ELTA'STiE. Light-armed infantry were so named 
 among the Greeks, from carrying the pelta or target. (See 
 Mem. de CJlc. des Inscr., vol. xxxii.) 
 
 P.E LTATE. (Lat pelta, a shield.) A leaf or any other 
 
 PENDULUM. 
 
 organ which is fixed to the stalk by the centre, or by some 
 point distinctly within the margin, as in the Tropteolum. 
 
 PE'LTRY. (Germ, peltz, from Lat. pellis, a skin.) The 
 name given to the skins of different kinds of wild animals 
 found in high northern latitudes, particularly in America; 
 such as the beaver, sable, wolf, bear, &c. When the skins 
 of such animals have received no preparation, they are 
 termed peltry; but when the inner side has been tanned 
 by an aluminous process, they are denominated furs. 
 
 PE'LVIS. (Gr. irtXus, a basin.) The inferior part of the 
 abdomen, the bony circumference of which is formed by the 
 two ossa innominati, the sacrum, and the os cocc fg is . It 
 contains the rectum, the urinary bladder, and internal or 
 gans of generation. 
 
 PE'MPHIGUS. (Gr. -xtu<!>tl, a vesicle.) A fever attended 
 by almond-shaped vesicular eruptions. 
 
 PE'NALTY. (Lat. poena, punishment), is of three kinds, 
 says Lord Coke ; pa-na pecuniaria, pmnu corpora/is, and 
 pa-na exilii. Where anything is prohibited by statute under 
 a penalty, if the penalty, or part of it, be not appointed by 
 the statute to the informer, it goes to the crown. Penal 
 statutes are to be construed strictly. See Statute. 
 
 PE'NANCE. See Penitence. 
 
 PENA'TES. The household gods of the ancient Ital- 
 ians, who presided over families, and were worshipped in 
 the interior of each dwelling. The term is derived from 
 penitus, within. Penntes is, in fact, a generic term, compri 
 sing in its strict sense all the gods worshipped In the interior 
 of the house, and consequently including the Lares, with 
 whom they are continually mentioned in conjunction. The 
 number and names of the Penates were indeterminate. As 
 there were public as well as domestic Lares, so there were 
 public Penntes, who exercised a general influence over the 
 destinies of the whole Koman people. Thus Tncitus re- 
 lates, that "delubrum Vests cum 1'enatibus BopoU Romani' 
 was consumed, along with other very ancient temples, in 
 the great lire during the reign of Nero. But the term may, 
 perhaps, be considered as belonging to the rhetorical style 
 of that author, and to signify merely the tutelary god of the 
 republic. 
 
 The subject of the domestic deities of the Romans, the 
 Lares and Penates, is involved in great obscurity, from the 
 conflicting statements of the classic authors re <|ncii ml' them. 
 Those who wish to see the question Investigated in all its 
 bearings may consult Mailer's Etruscans, vol. ii., p. 90, &c. ; 
 Jaekel, De Diis Domesticis ; Hartunc, Religion ier Homer, 
 &c. (See also the notes by Prof. Ramsay, of Glasgow, ap- 
 pended to his valuable little work entitled Elegiac Extracts 
 from Tibul'us and Ovid, with English Introductions and 
 Notes, 12mo, 1840.) 
 
 PE'NCIL. (Lat. penicillum.) In Painting, Drawing, 
 Ice., the instrument wherewith the colours are applied. 
 Pencils are of various sorts, sizes, and materials, suited to 
 the nature of the work. The black lead pencil is made of 
 long slips of black lead (plumbago or graphite), inclosed in 
 cylindrical pieces of cedar, and is too well known to need 
 farther description. 
 
 PENCIL OF LIGHT, In Optics, is a collection of the 
 rays or evanescent streams of light converging to a point, 
 as the focus of a lens or mirror. 
 
 PE'NDANT. (Lat. pendo, / hang.) In Gothic Archl 
 tecture, an ornamented polygonal piece of stone or timber 
 hanging down from the vault or roof of a building. Of stone 
 pendants some exquisite examples may be seen in Henry 
 VII.'s Chapel at Westminster. In ancient writers tho 
 springers of arches, which rest on shafts or corbels, are 
 called pendants. 
 
 Pendants of a Skip, are those streamers or long colours 
 which are split or divided into two parts ending in points, 
 and hang at the mast-head or at the yard arm ends. 
 
 Pe'ndant. In Painting, &c, a picture or print which, 
 from uniformity of size and subject, seems to hang up as a 
 companion to another. The term may also be applied to 
 bassi rilievi of similar sizes. 
 
 Pendant is also the general term for all kinds of orna- 
 ments worn in the ears by both sexes in savage, and by fe- 
 males, chiefly, in civilized countries ; usually termed car 
 rings, which see. 
 
 PENDE'NTIVE. (Lat. pendo, I hang.) In Architec- 
 ture, the portion of a vault between 
 the arches under a dome, called by 
 the French fourche, or panache, let- 
 tered a in the diagram, by which it 
 will be seen that it falls at its supe- 
 rior part into a circle inscribed in the square formed on the 
 plan of the four arches. Hence it is obvious that a dome 
 may be formed by means of pendentives over any regular 
 polygon. 
 
 PE'NDULUM. (Lat. pendulus ; from pendo, / hang.) 
 If any heavy body, suspended by an inflexible rod from a 
 fixed point, be drawn aside from the vertical position, and 
 then let fall, it will descend in the arc of a circle of which 
 
 9U 
 
PENDULUM. 
 
 the point of suspension is the centre. On reaching the ver- 
 tical position it will have acquired a velocity equal to that 
 which it would have acquired by falling vertically through 
 the versed sine of the arc it has described, in consequence 
 of which it will continue to move in the same arc until the 
 whole velocity is destroyed ; and, if no other force than 
 gravity acted, this would take place when the body reach- 
 ed a height on the opposite side of the vertical equal to the 
 height from which it fell. Having reached this height it 
 would again descend, and so continue to vibrate forever ; 
 but in consequence of the friction of the axis, and the re- 
 sistance of the air, each successive excursion will be dimin- 
 ished, and the body soon be brought to rest in the vertical 
 position. A body thus suspended, and caused to vibrate, is 
 called a pendulum ; and the passage from the greatest dis- 
 tance from the vertical on the one side to the greatest dis- 
 tance on the other is called an oscillation. 
 
 In order to investigate the circumstances of the motion, 
 the body must be regarded as a gravitating point, and the 
 inflexible rod as devoid of weight. This is denominated the 
 simple pendulum, and the problem to be resolved is to deter- 
 mine the motion of a point constrained to move in a cir- 
 cular arc in virtue of the accelerating force of terrestrial 
 gravity. 
 Let C be the lixed point, A D B the arc described by the 
 pendulum, C D the vertical, and P the place 
 of the pendulum at a given instant. Draw 
 P E perpendicular to C D, and put D E = z, 
 j E ? = y, the arc D P = s, D H (the versed 
 ' \ — j V / A sme °f l ** e arc D A) = A, and the radius C D 
 \^r^7*P = I ; also, let v = the velocity at P, and t = 
 
 D the time of descent through A P. 
 The equation of the circle being y* = 2lx — z 2 , we have 
 Idx 
 the differential equation ds = .- . . ; and, by the 
 
 doctrine of falling bodies, the velocity at P is that which a 
 body would acquire in falling through H E, or equal to 
 
 yf&gM. E (g being the accelerating force of gravity) : there- 
 
 d s 
 
 fore v = */2g(h — *). But dt-=. — : therefore, on substitu- 
 
 v 
 ting the values of ds and v above given, we get the equation 
 
 '._£ dx 
 
 ' ~~ >/2g " y/[ (h—x) (»*— as» ) ] ' 
 This equation, being developed and integrated, gives the 
 time of descent from A to D, or the time of a semi-oscilla- 
 tion, as follows (t being the ratio of the circumference to 
 the diameter, or = 3-14159) : 
 
 When the arc of vibration is small, it is only necessary 
 to take account of the first two terms of the series ; whence 
 the time of a whole oscillation from A to B, which we shall 
 denote by T, is given by the formula, 
 
 T=*V^x(l+|) ; 
 
 and if the arc is so small that h (its versed sine) becomes 
 
 evanescent in comparison of 8', we have simply T = 1: \/ -. 
 
 g 
 Whence it appears that the time of an oscillation in an in- 
 finitely small arc is directly as the square root of the length 
 of the pendulum, and inversely as the square root of the 
 accelerating force of gravity. 
 
 Suppose gravity to be a constant force (as it is at any giv- 
 en place on the earth's surface), the time of oscillation is 
 proportional to the square root of the length of the pendu- 
 lum ; consequently, <f T' denote the time of oscillation of a 
 seconds pendulum, and V its length, we have T : T' : : <Jl : 
 Jl'. Now, let N be the number of oscillations the first pen- 
 dulum makes in a gi?en time, and N' the number the sec- 
 ond makes in the same time ; then, the number of oscilla- 
 tions being evidentlj in the inverse ratio of the times, we 
 have N : N' : : T' : Y ; or N : N' : : Jl' : Jl, whence 1 = 
 N' 2 
 ^-l ; so that, if the length of one pendulum be known, we 
 
 can compute the length of another pendulum by observing 
 the nun. her of oscillations that each makes in any given 
 time ; for example, an hour. 
 
 In Ilk it manner, if we suppose the same pendulum to be 
 transported to different parts of the earth (in which case I 
 is constant and g variable), and assume that the values of 
 N and g at the first station become respectively N' and tr' 
 
 11 
 at the second, we shall have T : T' : : — : .— ,; whence e' 
 Jg Jg * 
 
 X* . N' 2 
 
 ~~ T2 g 
 
 ■g = 
 
 N- 
 
 g. So that the force of gravity at 
 
 different places may be compared by observing the number 
 of oscillations which a pendulum makes at each place in a 
 fiven time. Or, if we suppose the times of oscillation con- 
 912 
 
 stant (that is, if we suppose two pendulums so adjusted as 
 to beat seconds at two different stations), and / and g varia- 
 
 , I , V 
 
 ble; then, since T = 7rv-, and T' = 7rv/-r, we shall 
 
 II g 
 
 have - = — , , or i = *— : whence the length of the soc- 
 
 g g g 
 
 onds' pendulum at any place is directly proportional to the 
 intensity of gravity at that place. 
 
 According to the theory of falling bodies (see Gravity}. 
 the time t in which a body falls through the space s. by the 
 accelerating force of gravity, is given by the equation t =r 
 
 \/ — . Let 2s = I ; then t = \/ - . But the time T, of the 
 g g 
 
 oscillation of a pendulum whose length is /, is T= rr -J — ; 
 
 g 
 therefore T : t : : *r: 1 ; consequently the time of the oscilla- 
 tion of a pendulum is to the time that a heavy body would 
 fall freely by the force of gravity through half its length, as 
 the circumference of a circle to its diameter. 
 
 If we suppose the time to be expressed in seconds, and 
 make T = l, we shall have g = iz 2 1- Now, Captain Kilter 
 found the length of the simple pendulum at London to be 
 30-13929 inches, and we know that tt 2 = 9-8696 ; therefore 
 g= 9-8696 X 39-139 = 386-29 inches, or g = 322 feet. It 
 follows, therefore, that the space through which a body 
 falls freely at London in a second of time is 16-1 feet. 
 
 Compound Pendulum. — The simple pendulum, as above 
 defined, is only a theoretical abstraction ; for the oscillating 
 body can neither be so small that it may be regarded its a 
 mathematical point, nor can the rod be entirely devoid of 
 weight. When the body has a sensible magnitude, and the 
 suspending-rod a sensible magnitude and weight as they 
 must have in all actual constructions, the apparatus is 
 called a compound pendulum ; and instead of being support- 
 ed by a single point it is supported by an axis, or by a series 
 of points situated in the same straight line. According to 
 this definition, any heavy body oscillating about an axis of 
 suspension is a compound pendulum. 
 
 In every compound pendulum there is necessarily a cer- 
 tain point at which if all the matter of the pendulum were 
 collected the oscillations would be performed in exactly the 
 same time. This point is the centre of oscillation. (Sic 
 Centre of Oscillation.) It is situated in the vertical 
 plane passing through the centre of gravity of the pendu- 
 lum, and at a distance'from the axis of suspension (the axis 
 being always supposed horizontal), which is determined by 
 the following formula : Let d m be the element of the mass 
 of the compound pendulum, r its distance from the axis of 
 rotation, and x the distance of the centre of oscillation from 
 the same axis ; then 
 
 x=:lr 2 dm-i-lrdm; 
 
 that is, the distance of the centre of oscillation from the 
 axis of suspension is equal to the moment of inertia of the 
 oscillating body divided by its moment of rotation. This 
 value of x is the length of the isochronous simple pendu- 
 lum, and is what is always to be understood by the term 
 length of a pendulum. 
 
 The centre of oscillation possesses a very remarkable 
 property, which was discovered by Huygens ; namely, that 
 if the body be suspended from this point, or a horizonta. 
 axis passing through it parallel to the former axis of suspen 
 sion, its oscillations will be performed in the same time as 
 before ; in other words, the axis of suspension and oscilla- 
 tion are interchangeable. This property furnishes an easy 
 practical method of determining the centre of oscillation, 
 and thence the length of a compound pendulum. 
 
 Applications of the Pendulum. — The most important ap- 
 plication that has been made of the pendulum is to the 
 measurement of time. It is said that Galileo, while a 
 young man, having had his attention drawn to the oscilla- 
 tions of a lamp suspended from the roof of a church in Pisa, 
 perceived that, although their extent was gradually dimin- 
 ished, they continued to be made in equal times, and thence 
 conceived the idea of employing a pendulum as a means of 
 measuring small intervals of time in astronomical observa- 
 tions. But though a pendulous body, by the isochronism 
 of its oscillations, furnishes a means of dividing time intr. 
 equal portions, it could obviously be of no great use until a 
 method was devised of continuing the motion, and register- 
 ing the number of oscillations. The application of clock- 
 work to this purpose has been claimed for various individ- 
 uals, but is generally and deservedly ascribed to Huygens ; 
 and the invention, one of the most important that ever was 
 made in reference to practical astronomy, dates from the 
 year 1656. 
 
 Huygens' researches on the subject of the oscillations of 
 the pendulum are contained in his admirable work entitled 
 Horologium Oscillatorivm. He soon found that the oscilla- 
 tions in circular arcs of different amplitudes are not equal, 
 the wider requiring rather a longer time than the narrflw 
 
PENDULUM. 
 
 er ; and, with a view lo remedy this defect, he undertook to 
 investigate the nature of the curve in which the oscillations 
 would be performed in equal times, whatever might be the 
 extent of the arc described. The curve possessing this re- 
 markable property was found to be the cycloid. (See Cy- 
 cloid.) The next object was to devise a means of causing 
 a pendulum to vibrate in such a manner that its centre of 
 oscillation shall describe the arc of a cycloid. This was 
 also effected by Huygens by the following construction, 
 which depends on another property of the cycloid, namely, 
 that its evolute is a similar curve : If A C 
 and B C be two semicycloids, or semicy- 
 cloidal cheeks, each equal to the half of 
 »B A V B, touching A B in A and B, and 
 • meeting one another in C ; and if there be 
 fixed at C a pendulum P, hanging by a 
 thread P C, equal in length to the semi- 
 cycloid ; then P, in its oscillations, will describe the cy- 
 cloidal arc A V B. Nothing more simple or beautiful in 
 point of theory could be conceived than this construction; 
 but, on attempting to reduce it to practice, it was soon 
 found to |>ossess no advantage, in consequence of the me- 
 chanical difficulty of making the cycloidal cheeks with the 
 requisite accuracy, and the impossibility of obtaining a 
 flexible string of invariable length. Huygens himself show- 
 ed that Ihe error of a hundredth of an inch in the form of 
 the curve would cause a greater irregularity than a circular 
 vibration of 10 or 12 degrees. Accordingly, the use of cy- 
 cloidal cheeks was abandoned, and the attention of artists 
 directed to the means whereby the oscillations might l>e 
 confined within very small circular arcs, in which case any 
 inequality in the lengths of the arcs becomes insensible. 
 In clocks of the best construction the arc of vibration is 
 Ball ; ami the pendulum is made very heavy, in or- 
 der that, by pr»mif ln| a great momentum, it may be less 
 affected by the imperleclions of the machinery. 
 
 M ti'suiinn /'< ndulum. — The value of the pendulum as 
 a regulator of timepieces depends on the isochronism of its 
 oscillations; which, in 1U turn, depends on the invariability 
 of the distance between the points of suspension and oscil- 
 lation. But, as every known substance expands with heat 
 and contracts with cold, the length of the pendulum will 
 vary with every alteration of temperature, and the rate of 
 ihe clock consequently undergo a corresponding change. To 
 MMUltemct this variation, numerous contrivances have been 
 employed. The principle is, however, the same in all ; 
 and consists in combining two substances, whose rates of 
 expansion arc unequal, in such a manner that the expan- 
 sion of the one counteracts that of the other, and keeps the 
 centre of oscillation of the compound body always at the 
 distance from the axis of suspension. A brief descrip- 
 tion of the two coui|>ensation pendulums in most common 
 use — the Mercurial Pendulum and the Gridiron Pendulum 
 — will sufficiently explain the means by which compensa- 
 tion is obtained. 
 
 Mercurial Pendulum. — This was the invention of Mr. 
 George Graham, a celebrated watchmaker, who subjected 
 it to the test of experiment in the year 1721. The rod of 
 the pendulum is made of steel, and may be either a flat bar 
 or a cylinder. The boh or weight is formed by a cylindrical 
 glass vessel, about 8 inches in length and 2 inches in di- 
 ameter, which is tilled with mercury to the depth of about 
 6i inches. The cylinder is supported and embraced by a 
 stirrup, formed also of steel, through the top of which the 
 lower extremity of the rod passes, and to which it is firmly 
 fixed by a nut and screw on the end of the rod. Now the 
 effect of an increase of temperature on this apparatus is 
 evidently as follows : In the first place, the Tod expands, 
 and the distance between the axis of suspension and the 
 bottom of the stirrup is increased. In the second place, by 
 the expansion of the mercury in the cylinder, its column is 
 lengthened, and the distance of its centre of gravity from 
 the bottom of the stirrup consequently increased. But, as 
 the expansion of mercury is about sixteen times greater than 
 that of steel, the height of the mercurial column may be so 
 adjusted by trial that the expansion of the rod and stirrup 
 shall be exactly compensated by that of the mercury, and 
 the centre of oscillation of the whole suffer no change. 
 This pendulum Is, perhaps, the most perfect of all compen- 
 sators ; but, as its adjustments are attended with consider- 
 able difficulty, it is seldom used excepting in astronomical 
 observatories. 
 
 Gridiron Pendulum. — This was contrived by Mr. Har- 
 rison, the inventor of the chronometer. It consists of a 
 frame of nine parallel bars of steel and braf.a, arranged and 
 connected as In the annexed figure. The mts marked s are 
 of steel ; the four marked b are of brass; the centre rod, of 
 steel, is fixed at top to the cross bar connecting the two 
 middle brass rods, but slides freely through the two lower 
 bars, and bears the bob B. The remaining rods are fastened 
 to the cross pieces at both ends, and the uppermost cross 
 piece is attached to the axis of suspension. Tt is easy to 
 3 M 
 
 see, from the mere inspection of the figure, that 
 the expansion of the steel rods tends to lengthen tkii\isfit 
 the pendulum, while that of the brass rods tends 
 to shorten it; consequently, if the two expan- 
 sions exactly counteract each other, the length 
 of the pendulum will remain unchanged. The 
 relative lengths of the brass and steel bars are 
 determined by the expansions of the two met- 
 als, which are found by experiment to be, in 
 general, nearly as 100 to 61. If, then, the 
 lengths of all the five steel bars added to- 
 gether be 100 inches, the sum of the lengths 
 of the four brass bars ought to be 61 inches. 
 When the compensation is found on trial not to 
 be perfect, an adjustment is made by shifting 
 one or more of the cross pieces higher on the 
 bars. 
 
 Harrison's pendulum has been greatly im- 
 proved by Troughton, who substituted for the two pair ot 
 brass rods two cylinders of brass, sliding the one within the 
 other, to which the steel rods are attached. For a descrip- 
 tion of this, and various other modes of compensation, we 
 refer the reader to an excellent chapter on the subject by 
 the late Captain Kater, in the volume of Mechanics in the 
 Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 
 
 Application of the Pendulum to the Determination of the 
 relative Force of Gravity at different Places. — There are 
 two methods of determining the relative intensity of gravity 
 by means of the pendulum. According to the first, the ab 
 solute length of the simple pendulum which makes a cer 
 tain number of oscillations in a given time is accurately as- 
 certained at each of the places, and the comparative force 
 
 of gravity is then given by the formula g' = — g. Accord 
 
 ing to the other method, an invariable pendulum is swung 
 at the different places, and the number of its oscillations 
 noted at each, when the relative gravity is given by the for- 
 
 N'» 
 mula g = ™- g. Each of these methods has been follow- 
 ed in the delicate experiments which have been made for 
 the purpose of determining the figure of the earth ; but 
 though the results of both appear to l>e nearly equal in point 
 of accuracy, the latter method, on account of its affording 
 greater facilities in practice, is now generally adopted. 
 
 It will readily be conceived that a pendulum would be 
 altogether unfit for the purpose of determining the minute 
 variations of gravity if it were attached to a clock, or any 
 machinery by which its motions could be influenced. It 
 must be suspended from a very firm support, to which it can 
 communicate no vibratory motion; and the most delicate 
 precautions are necessary to avoid the effects of friction, and 
 other disturbing causes, by which the experiment may be 
 influenced. The method followed by the French astrono- 
 mers, in their operations connected with the measurement 
 of the meridian, was this: The pendulum was composed of 
 a sphere of platinum, suspended by a slender iron wire from 
 a knife edge of hardened steel resting on plane surfaces of 
 polished agate. It was placed in front of a well-regulated 
 astronomical clock, with which its oscillations were com- 
 pared, and the distance between its centres of suspension 
 and oscillation determined by calculation from the length 
 of the wire and the diameter of the sphere, ascertained by 
 actual measurement, A different and in many respects 
 preferable mode of measuring the lengths of the seconds' 
 pendulum, was adopted by Captain Kater, grounded on the 
 property of oscillating bodies discovered by Huygens ; name- 
 ly, that the centres of suspension and oscillation are con- 
 vertible. From this property it follows that if two knife 
 edges, turned in opposite directions, are inserted in the same 
 pendulum, and the mass be so adjusted, by means of a 
 movable weight sliding on the rod, that the oscillntions are 
 performed in exactly equal times when the pendulum is 
 suspended from either knife edge, then the distance between 
 the knife edges is the true length of the isochronous simple 
 pendulum. In this manner the measurement is effected 
 more directly, and no calculation is required for finding the 
 centre of oscillation. A third method, lately put in practice 
 by the celebrated astronomer Bessel, consists in suspending 
 a ball and wire first from the upper end and then from the 
 lower end of a rod of a given length, the ball being in both 
 cases at the same distance below the rod. From the differ- 
 ence of the times of oscillation of the two pendulums thus 
 I formed, the length of the simple pendulum can be computed 
 in terms of the rod, which is the difference of their lengths. 
 The French method is described, with all the requisite de- 
 tails, In the third volume of Base Metrique, in Detamire'* 
 Astronomic, tome lii.; and in the Jlecueil d' Observations 
 Giodesiques, <$-e., by Biot and Arago, Paris, 1821. Captain 
 Kater's pendulum is described in the Phil. Trans, for 1818; 
 and Bessel's in his Untersuchungen iibrr die IJivgn des ein 
 fachen Seeundenpendels, Berlin, 1828. 
 
PENDULUM. 
 
 Captain Kater's pendulum was formed of a very thin bar 
 *f plate brass, with a heavy bob and moveable weight, by 
 means of which the isochronism was obtained when the 
 suspension was made from the opposite knife edges. But a 
 much simpler modification has been adopted in the recent 
 experiments. The experimental pendulums of the 
 (« Royal Astronomical Society consist merely of a 
 A plain straight bar of iron or copper, 2 inches wide, 
 half an inch thick, and about 62£ inches long. At 
 the distance of 5 inches from one end of the bar is 
 placed the apex of one of the knife edges, A ; and at 
 the distance of 39-4 inches therefrom the apex of the 
 other knife edge, B ; and the required adjustment to 
 synchronism is produced by filing away one of the 
 ends of the pendulum until the vibrations are found 
 by trial to be equal in both positions of the pendulum. 
 It is obvious that, for the purpose of merely ascer- 
 taining the variations of gravity a bar of this form 
 £ B with a single knife edge would equally answer the 
 purpose ; but the advantage of the double suspension 
 is this, that besides having two distinct and indepen- 
 dent pendulums, each of which is a check upon the 
 W other, it furnishes the means of ascertaining whether 
 the pendulum has sustained any accidental injury, which 
 would be immediately discoverable from the inequality of 
 the number of vibrations between the two knife edges. 
 
 Corrections. — In order that the results of different sets of 
 experiments may be exactly comparable with each other, 
 several corrections must be applied. The first of these is on 
 account of the length of the arc of vibration, which, being 
 of a finite and variable extent, the duration of the oscilla- 
 tions is consequently unequal, but always greater than in 
 the case of an infinitely small arc. The number of oscilla- 
 tions is reduced to the case of an infinitely small arc by the 
 formula. 
 
 M sin. (A + a) sin. (A — a) 
 32 (log. sin. A — log. sin. a) 
 
 where N is the number observed, M the logarithmic modu- 
 lus = "4342945, A the initial, and a the final arc of vibration ; 
 and as the arcs are always small, the computation may be 
 shortened by using the arcs instead of the sines. 
 
 In the second place, all the experiments must be reduced 
 to a common standard of temperature, which, in this coun- 
 try, is assumed at 62° of Fahrenheit. Let e denote the rate 
 of expansion of the metal, t the mean height of the ther- 
 mometer at the time of the experiment ; then the correction 
 of the number of vibrations on account of the temperature 
 isN X Ae(« — 62°). 
 
 A third correction is required on account of the atmo- 
 spheric pressure. The effect of the pressure of the atmo- 
 spere on the pendulum is to diminish the force of gravity in 
 the ratio of the specific gravity of the pendulum to that of 
 the air ; and on this principle the correction was formerly 
 applied, regard being had to the height of the barometer. 
 But it was recently remarked by Bessel that the pendulum 
 drags with it a certain portion of air, the amount of which 
 depends on the form of the pendulum ; and, consequently, 
 the specific gravity of the actually moving mass cannot be 
 previously computed, but must be ascertained for each pen- 
 dulum by actual experiments in air and in a vacuum. See 
 a paper on this subject by Mr. Baily, in the Phil. Trans. 
 for 1832. Also Memoirs of the Royal Jlstr. Soc., vol. vii. 
 
 Application of the Pendulum to the Determination of the 
 Figure of the Earth. — The ellipticity of the earth is deduced 
 from the observed number of oscillations made by an in- 
 variable pendulum at different latitudes, by means of the 
 following theorem : Let N = the number of oscillations 
 made by a pendulum at the equator in a mean solar day, 
 N' = the number of oscillations made by the same pendu- 
 lum at the latitude I, G = the force of gravity at the equa- 
 tor, and g = the same force at the latitude I ; then, sup- 
 posing the figure of the earth to be that of an oblate spheroid 
 of revolution, we have g = G (1 + n sin. 2 ')- But, by the 
 property of the pendulum, g : G : : N 2 : N2 ; therefore, 
 N'2 = N 2 (1 + n sin - 2 0- In this equation the quantity n 
 depends upon the centrifugal force of rotation at the equa- 
 tor, and the ellipticity ; and, according to a theorem discov- 
 
 5 
 ered by Clairaut, its value is -■ m — e, m being the ratio of 
 
 the centrifugal force to gravity, and e the ellipticity. Newton 
 
 1 5 
 
 showed that m = — -, whence n = — c ; therefore, 
 
 289 -* X -soy 
 
 as N' 2 is given by observation, the only unknown quantities 
 in the equation N' 2 = N 2 (1 -f- n sin. 2 /) are N2 and n : so 
 that, by combining the results at two different latitudes, we 
 can determine these quantities, and, consequently, c. The 
 length of the seconds' pendulum being also proportional to 
 the intensity of gravity, it is obvious that the lengths might 
 be substituted in the above equation for N' 2 and N 2 . 
 The seventh volume of the Mtvwirs of the Royal Jistr. 
 914 
 
 PENITENCE. 
 
 Society contains the results of experiments made with tne 
 invariable pendulum at 79 different latitudes. The values 
 of N 2 and n, deduced from the whole of these results, are, 
 respectively, 
 
 N2 = 7441625711, n = -00514491 ; 
 
 whence the ellipticity deduced from the whole is ,. ,„„ • 
 
 .&S5-26 
 It is remarkable that all the pendulum experiments agree 
 in giving a greater ellipticity to the earth than is found by 
 the comparison of measured arcs of meridian. 
 
 As the force of gravity varies inversely as the square of 
 the distance from the centre of the earth, a correction is ob 
 viously required for the differences of altitude of the sta- 
 tions where the observations are made. Accordingly, the 
 results at every station are reduced to what they would have 
 been if the observations had been mide at the level of the 
 sea. Let h = the height of the station above that level, 
 and R = the radius of the earth ; g = the force of gravity 
 at the station, and g' the same force of the level of the sea ; 
 then g : g 1 : : R2 : (R -f- A) 2 ; whence, expanding the quan- 
 
 V- 
 tity (R-4-A) 2 , and leaving out — - as insensible, we have 
 
 g 1 -=.g ( 1 + =- ), in which we may substitute for g' and g 
 
 either the lengths of the seconds' pendulum, or the square 
 of the number of its oscillations at the station and the level 
 of the sea. The result, however, is modified by the local 
 attraction of the mass of ground surrounding the station, and 
 Dr. Young assumes that the formula should be multiplied 
 by the fraction "6. 
 
 The following table, from Mr. Airy's treatise on the Fig- 
 ure of the Earth {Ency. Mctrop.), shows the length of the 
 seconds' pendulum in English inches at a few of the sta- 
 tions, where it has been actually determined. It is to be 
 remarked, however, that some degree of uncertainty attends 
 all the results, on account of the error in the correction for 
 the density of the air, which may amount to about -0018 for 
 each. 
 
 Station. 
 
 latitude. 
 
 Length of 
 l'endulum. 
 
 Observers. 
 
 o 
 
 ' 
 
 Inches. 
 
 
 Spitsbergen 
 Unst . 
 
 79 
 
 50 N. 
 
 39-2 14B9 
 
 Sabine. 
 
 60 
 
 45 
 
 39-17162 
 
 Riot and Kater. 
 
 I.eith Fort . 
 
 55 
 
 59 
 
 39-15546 
 
 Jliot and Kater. 
 
 London . • 
 
 51 
 
 31 
 
 3!)- 13929 
 
 Kater. 
 
 Paris . 
 
 48 
 
 50 
 
 39-12S51 
 
 J Uurda Biot, and 
 / Canine (mean). 
 
 M.nleaux 
 
 ■11 
 
 50 
 
 39 11296 
 
 Biot. 
 
 New York . 
 
 40 
 
 43 
 
 3;il0t20 
 
 Sabine. 
 
 Formentera . 
 
 38 
 
 40 
 
 3909510 
 
 Biot (twice). 
 
 Sandwich Isles . 
 
 te 
 
 52 
 
 3904690 
 
 Freyciuet. 
 
 Trinidad 
 
 10 
 
 39 
 
 390IS88 
 
 Sabine. 
 
 St. Thomas . 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 39-02071 
 
 Sabine. 
 
 Ra.hi.-i . 
 
 12 
 
 59 S. 
 
 39 02433 
 
 Sabine. 
 
 isle of France 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 39-04 6S4 
 
 Freyctnet k Duperry. 
 Freyciuel & Fallows. 
 
 Cape of Good Hope 
 
 3.', 
 
 55 
 
 39 07SU0 
 
 PENICI'LLATE. (Lat.pcnicillum.a pencil.) In Zoolo 
 gy, when a part supports one or more small bundles of di 
 verging hairs. 
 
 PENI'NSULA. (Lat. pene, almost, and insula, an isl- 
 and.) A portion of land, as the term implies, nearly 
 surrounded by water; as Africa, the Morea. California. In 
 common parlance, the term Peninsula is usually applied to 
 Spain and Portugal ; and the struggle so long maintained 
 between these countries, aided by the British, and the 
 French, at the commencement of the present century, is 
 called the Peninsular war. 
 
 PE'NITENCE, or PENANCE, in the Roman Catholic 
 Church, is one of the seven sacraments. Priestly orders 
 give the power to confer this sacrament; but, as a matter 
 of discipline, their power is not exercised without authority 
 from the Ordinary, either general or special, except in cases 
 of necessity. The terms penitence and penance are like- 
 wise used for the good works commanded by a priest to a 
 penitent, to be performed in satisfaction of the sins of which 
 he absolves him. Public penance, in the earlier times of 
 the church, was imposed for great offences committed after 
 baptism. It consisted in exclusion from the church, solitude, 
 prayer, and fasting, and the readmission was only gradual ; 
 the penitent being first allowed to approach the doors of 
 the church; then to attend at sermons and readings, but 
 not at prayers ; then to pray, kneeling, &x. The time of 
 penance varied according to different usages: St. Basil 
 mentions two years for theft, seven fir sensuality, fifteen 
 for adultery, twenty for homicide, and the whole life for 
 apostacy. Public penance for secret sins was generally 
 remitted about the 7th century ; and its commutation for 
 the repetition of prayers and bestowing of alms began in the 
 next. These alms were frequently applied by the penitent 
 to the purchase of masses for himself or others. Afterward* 
 the usage of pilgrimage as a mode of penance became 
 general ; and, finally, indulgences began to be sold in thr 
 12th century. 
 
PENITENTIARY. 
 
 PENITENTIARY. A prison in which convicted of- 
 fenders are placed and subjected to a course of instruction 
 and discipline, with a view to their reformation. Imprison- 
 ment after conviction is of two kinds : the simply repressive 
 and penal, and that which is at the same time reformatory. 
 But it is obvious that there is no advantage in attempting 
 to produce the latter effect in those short imprisonments of 
 a year or a few months, which form the ordinary punish- 
 ments of our law for smaller offences. Crimes of a higher 
 order are with us usually punished by transportation ; and 
 hence there is less room for the development of the peni- 
 tentiary system among ourselves than in other European 
 countries, and in the United Suites at America. At Genoa, 
 '.lie convict is only subjected to the penitentiary system at 
 the end of the first year of his imprisonment; some writers 
 on the subject recommend two years as a more appropriate 
 limit for the commencement of this species of discipline. 
 In England, the first act for the establishment of peniten- 
 tiaries was passed in 1776, at the,suggestion of the philan- 
 thropist Howard and judge Blackstone ; and attempts were 
 made in consequence, at Gloucester and other places, with 
 little success. In 181-2 the act was passed under which the 
 Milbank prison was erected as a general penitentiary for 
 England and Wales. It is now adapted to contain 800 
 male and 400 female prisoners. The chief object in peni- 
 tentiaries, besides conferring moral and religious instruction 
 on the prisoners, is to employ them in some useful labour ; 
 but there is always considerable difficulty in carrying into 
 effect this part of the system, especially so as to reconcile 
 It with the necessity of keeping prisoners separate as fur us 
 possible. At Milbank, tailoring forms the principal occu- 
 pation of a large proportion of the inmates. See Prisons. 
 
 PENITE'NTIARV, GRAM). An officer of the Roman 
 Catholic church, usually a cardinal, appointed by the pope 
 :<> grunt absolution in cases reserved for the papal authority, 
 dispensations for marriage, &c. In like manner, bishops 
 appoint penitentiaries to perform the like office in such 
 cases as are reserved for episcopal absolution. Brief* 
 granted by the grand penitentiary are at the present time 
 entirely gratuitous, and headed with the words " pro Deo." 
 PENITENTS. A name given in Roman Catholic coun- 
 tries to certain religious fraternities, distinguished by their 
 particoloured garments. Of these there were a great 
 variety In France, Spain, and Portugal, &c. ; but the 
 extraordinary were the \V'hi:e Penitents, a body of fanatics, 
 who appeared in the north of Italy in 13011, clothed in 
 white, and bearing crucifixes, under the guidance of a 
 priest, whose real history seems unknown, but concerning 
 whom many strange «tories were told ; among others, that 
 he pro f mo d to be the prophet Elias, and that his mission 
 was to announce thi immediate destruction of the world. 
 The contagion of this outburst of religious feeling extended 
 to Tuscany, and thence over the whole of Italy ; and ma 
 accompanied by a general cessation of violence and private 
 war. Hut it lasted only a few months. (Waddington, 
 Hist, of Ike Church, p. 546, and the authors there referred 
 to.) 
 
 PEN'XATULA'RI/E. (Lat. penna, a feather.) The 
 name of a family of Polypes, of which the sea-pen (I'cn- 
 natula) is the type. 
 
 PF.'NNON. A term sometimes poetically used for a 
 Streamer or banner; but restricted in the middle ages to the 
 banner of a knight, baronet, or esquire. 
 
 PE'NXY. The twelfth part of a shilling. The penny 
 was formerly a silver coin, first struck in England bv the 
 Saxons. It contained the 240th part of their pound, and its 
 weight was about S2J grains. Till the time ol Edward the 
 First the English penny was struck with a cross so deeply- 
 sunk in it that it might, on occasion, be easily broken and 
 parted into halves, thence called halfpenny ; or in four 
 parts, thence called fourthings, or farthings. Edward the 
 r'ir<t also reduced the weight of the penny to a standard ; 
 ordering that it should weigh the 20th part of an ounce. 
 It afterwards suffered successive diminutions, till, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, its value was reduced to the 62d part of 
 an ounce of silver. This proportion is still observed. 
 
 PENNYWEIGHT. A weight equal to twenty-four 
 grains, or the 20th part of an ounce troy. This was the 
 weight of the silver penny in the time of Edward the First. 
 See Penny. 
 
 PEN'S. (Lat. penna, a feather.) Well-known instru- 
 ments for writing, usually formed of the quills of the goose, 
 swan, or some other bird. Metallic pens have been occa- 
 sionally employed for a lengthened period; but it is only 
 within these few years that they have been extensively 
 intr<Kluced. They first began to be largely manufactured 
 by Mr. John Perry, of London. Mr. P. having succeeded 
 in giving to his pens a greater degree of softness and elasti- 
 city than was possessed by any metallic pens previously in 
 use, they speedily obtained a very extensive sale. This 
 success brought crowds of rivals into the field ; so that 
 metallic pels are now manufactured in vast quantities, 
 
 PENTAMETER. 
 
 and of an immense variety of forms. But though they navo 
 superseded to a very considerable extent the use of quills, 
 and have some peculiar advantages, it does not appear 
 possible to give them the elasticity of the quill, nor fit them 
 so well for quick and easy writing. In the manufacture of 
 steel pens the best metal, made from Dannemora or hcop (l) 
 iron, is employed. It is laminated into slips about 3 feet 
 long and 4 inches broad, of a thickness corresponding to the 
 desired stiffness and flexibility of the pens. These slips arc 
 subjected to the action of a stamping-press, somewhat similar 
 to that for making buttons. The point destined for the ni!) 
 is next introduced into an appropriate gauged hole of a little 
 machine, and pressed into the semicvlindrical shape ; where 
 it is also pierced with the middle slit, and the lateral ones, 
 provided the latter are to be given. The pens are now 
 cleaned, by being tossed about among each other, in a tin 
 cylinder about 3 feet long, and inches in diameter ; whicli 
 is suspended at each end upon joints to two cranks, formed 
 one on each of two shafts. The cylinder, by the rotation 
 of a fly-wheel acting upon the crank-shafts, is made to de- 
 scribe such revolutions ns agitate the pens in all directions, 
 and polish them by mutual attrition. In the course of four 
 hours several thousand pens may be finished upon this 
 machine. (See Commercial Diet., and Ure's Diet, of JlrU, 
 
 PE'NSIONARY, THE GRAND, of Holland, was the 
 prime minister of the states of the province of Holland. He 
 proposed the measures to be discussed in the assembly of 
 the states. He also transacted business with foreign minis- 
 ters, and fulfilled other baportanl functions. His term of 
 service was five years, and he was capable of re-election. 
 
 PENSIONER. Literally, one who receives a pension or 
 allowance. At the universities of Cambridge, however, 
 and Dublin, this term has a peculiar meaning, being applied 
 to those students who live at their own expense, t. e., without 
 any support from the beneficent foundations of the re- 
 spective colleges. In this sense it is synonymous with com- 
 moner, at Oxford, 
 
 PENTA'CRINITES. (Gr. irtvrc.jfoe, and xpivov, lily.) 
 The name of a tribe of Bchinoderms, comprehending those 
 in which the animal consists of an angular, jointed, flexible 
 column, fixed at the base, and supporting on its free ex- 
 tremity a concave disc or body, terminating in five dichoto- 
 mizing, jointed, semicvlindrical arms. Most of the species 
 and genera of this tribe arc extinct. 
 
 PENTADO'RON. (.Gr. xcvtc, and Swpov, a palm.) In 
 Ancient Architecture, a brick of five palms in length, used 
 by the Greeks in the construction of their public edifices. 
 
 PE'NTAGON. (Gr. van, and yu>v,a, angle.) In 
 Geometry, a plane figure, having five angles, or contained 
 by five sides. It is a rtgiilar pentagon when the sides and 
 angles are equal, and is consequently inscribable in a circle. 
 The length of the side of a regular pentagon is equal to 
 twice the sine of 36°, radius being unit; and its area= 3 
 sin. 36° X cos. 36° ; or, making the side = s, the area = | 
 si X tan. 54°. It is a remarkable property of the regular 
 pentagon, that the square of its side is equal to the sum of 
 the squares of the sides of the hexagon and decagon in- 
 scribed in the same circle. 
 
 PENTAGRAPH. See Pantaobaph. 
 
 PENTAME'RANS, Pentamera. (Gr. tcvtc, and mpo^, 
 a joint.) The name of a section of Coleopterous insects, 
 including those which have five joints on the tarsus of each 
 leg. 
 
 PENTA'METER. (Gr. vtvtt, and /irrpov. meature.) A 
 species of verse consisting of five feet or measures (whence 
 Uie name), and which when subjoined to a hexameter veree 
 constituted what is denominated elegiac. The scheme of 
 the pentameter is as follows : 
 
 — | --^ 1-1 I I - I 
 
 Or more properly thus, 
 
 _rr|_rr|__|__ |^_| 
 
 It must be observed, that the ca?sural pause at the third 
 foot must always terminate a word ; and, as a general rule, 
 the last word of the verse must consist of two syllables, 
 although a quadrisyllable, especially in proper names, is 
 sometimes admitted. 
 
 The first Greek elegiac writers were Callinus and Tyrtants, 
 who were followed by Minmermus, Theognis, and Solon, 
 in their own country ; and by Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, 
 and Ovid, in Rome. The variety of themes sung by these 
 different writers proves the capacity of this measure for 
 adaptation to every subject, whether mournful, as the term 
 elegiac would imply ; or political and warlike, like the 
 strains of Tyrta-us and Callinus ; or erotic, like those of 
 Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid; or historical and mythologi- 
 cal, like the Fasti of the last. The pentameter has not 
 been generally introduced into any modern language with 
 which we are acquainted : though Goethe and Schiller 
 have left us some excellent specimens of the facility with 
 which it might be engrafted on the German language. The 
 
 015 
 
PENTAPOLIS. 
 
 hexameb.i and pentameter distich is beautifully described 
 in the following lines of Schiller : 
 
 Im Hexameter steigt des Springquells flussige Saule ; 
 Iin Pentameter drauf fallt sie melodisch herab. 
 
 Thus admirably rendered by Coleridge, who was long con- 
 sidered as the original author : 
 
 In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column : 
 Jn the pentameter aye falling in melody back. 
 
 Every page of Ovid's Her aides, or Tristia, illustrates the 
 manner in which the hexameter breaks, as it were, and 
 falls back in the pentameter, thereby adding a most exquisite 
 grace to the rhythm : indeed the secret genius of the metre 
 appears to consist in this play. The following instances, 
 taken from Penelope's letter to Ulysses, will illustrate the 
 truth of this observation : 
 
 Again, 
 
 Troja jacet certc. Danais invisa pueltls : 
 Vix Friamus tanti totaque Troja fuit. 
 
 Besides this peculiarity in the pentameter, grammarians 
 have pointed out several others, an observance of which is 
 necessary to constitute a perfect pentameter. Of these per- 
 haps the most important is the axiom, that although either 
 a spondee or a dactyl may be used at pleasure in the first 
 two feet of the verse, a dactyl should be preferred to a 
 spondee whenever practicable ; and a comparison of the 
 ancient authors will show, that on the frequent use of the 
 former much of the beauty of this elegant measure depends. 
 See Hexameter. 
 
 PENTA'POLIS. (Gr. rrtiire, and rc-Xi?, a city.) A name 
 given by the ancient Greeks to certain countries which were 
 remarkable for having five distinguished cities ; thus there 
 was the Pentapolis of Lybia, Italy, and Asia Minor: but 
 the most celebrated was the Pentapolis Cyrenaica (or of 
 Egypt), whose five cities were Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, 
 Cyrene, and Apollonia. 
 
 PE'NTASTYLE. (Gr. irerre, and o-ruXoy, a column.) 
 In Architecture, a building having five columns in front. 
 
 PE'NTATEUCH. (Gr. wevrarcvxav ; from ttcvtc, and 
 Ttvxov, an instrument), signifies the five volumes of the 
 books of Moses ; viz. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 
 and Deuteronomy. 4 
 
 1. The book of Genesis (as the term implies) gives an 
 account of the creation of the world and of man ; the fall 
 of man ; the flood ; and the history of the Jewish patriarchs, 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, down to Joseph (1750 B.C.). 
 This book was looked upon with great veneration by the 
 Jews, as comprising the history of their venerable founder 
 Abraham, and his nearest descendants, around whom many 
 of their peculiar customs and laws were intertwined ; but 
 it is no less valuable to the Christian world, both from its 
 venerable antiquity, and from its furnishing rich materials 
 for historical, geographical, and antiquarian investigations. 
 It contains, besides, numerous subjects for moral and reli- 
 gious reflections, which are referred to in many other later 
 portions of the Old and New Testament. 2. The book of 
 Exodus (Gr. c£, and iSog, a vmy), narrates the fortunes of 
 the descendants of Abraham after their migration to Egypt ; 
 the birth of Moses, and his endeavours to emancipate the 
 Jewish nation from Egyptian bondage ; their escape from 
 Egypt ; their journey through the wilderness ; and the de- 
 livery of the law to Moses. This book, besides being pecu- 
 liarly valuable in a religious point of view, possesses also 
 great interest from marking the transition of the Jewish 
 people from the pastoral or nomadic to the agricultural or 
 fixed mode of life. 3. The book of Leviticus (so called 
 from Levi, a priest), consists chiefly of the law and ordi- 
 nances of the Jewish priesthood, or regulations as to the 
 different kinds of sacrifices to be offered up ; the duties of 
 masters towards their slaves ; regulations as to marriage, 
 &c. It is replete with interesting antiquarian matter. 4. 
 The book of Numbers (so called from its giving an account 
 of the numbering of the people), contains besides an enu- 
 meration of many civil and ceremonial ordinances ; and 
 embraces an historical period of 38 years, chiefly relating to 
 the captivity and the wilderness. 5. The book of Deuter- 
 onomy (Gr. SevTepos, second, and vouos, law), contains chiefly 
 (as the origin of the term implies) a condensed summary of 
 the laws and ordinances delivered in the three preceding 
 books. 
 
 There are two ancient and authentic copies of the Penta- 
 teuch : the one written in Samaritan or Phoenician charac- 
 ters; the other in Chaldean, wh'ich was adopted by the 
 Jews, in preference to the former, after their return from 
 Babylon. The differences between the two are represented 
 as not material ; but it is imagined that some alterations and 
 additions have been made in the Samaritan text, in order to 
 favour the peculiar prejudices and claims of that people. 
 
 The Pentateuch was, down to a recent period, universally 
 attributed to Moses ; but some German theologians have at- 
 01 R 
 
 PERAMBULATOR. 
 
 tempted to prove, in our opinion with but little success, that 
 Moses was not the author. There are no doubt several 
 passages, especially in Deuteronomy, which could not possi- 
 bly have been written by Moses ; but these can easily be 
 accounted for as interpolations of a copyist, and do not 
 affect the authenticity of the whole Pentateuch. The chief 
 arguments for the genuineness of the Pentateuch are ably 
 given in the Penny Cyclopaedia, to which we beg to refer 
 the reader. 
 
 PENTA'THLIUM. (Gr. mvre, and 06X05, a contest ) A 
 general appellation given by the Greeks to their five chief 
 bodily exercises ; viz. running, leaping, throwing the quoit 
 or discus, hurling the javelin, and wrestling. These live 
 exercises were termed Quinquectium by the Romans. 
 
 PE'NTECOST. (Gr. Trcvr^ooroc, fiftieth.) A Jewish 
 festival ; so called because it was observed on the fiftieth 
 day after the feast of unleavened bread ; i. e., the fifteenth of 
 the month Nisan, and next day after the Feast of the Pass- 
 over. Being celebrated, seven weeks after this latter, it 
 also obtained the name of the Feast of Weeks. It occurred 
 about the beginning of the harvest, and seems to have been 
 instituted as an acknowledgment of the goodness of God in 
 giving the fruits of the earth. It also commemorated the 
 giving of the law on Mount Sinai upon that day. The dif- 
 fusion of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles upon the same 
 day, as recorded in Acts ii., has occasioned its observance 
 to be continued among Christians. In England it is known 
 by the name of Whit Sunday ; and in Germany by that of 
 Pfingsten. 
 
 PENTELA'SMID^E. (Gr. kcvtc, and tXao-pa, o layer.) 
 The family of Pedunculate Cirripeds, of which the common 
 barnacle (Pentelasmis crocea) is the type. The principal 
 organs of the body are protected by five shelly plates. 
 
 PENTE'LICAN MARBLE. See Marble. 
 
 PE'NULT, or PENU'LTIMA. (Lat. pene ultima, almost 
 last.) In Grammar and Prosody, the last syllable of a word 
 but one. 
 
 PENU'MBRA. (Lat. pene, almost, and umbra, shadow.) 
 An imperfect shadow. The penumbra of the earth is 
 occasioned by the apparent magnitude of the sun's disk 
 and is that portion of space behind the earth within which 
 a body will be illuminated by a part only, and not by th< 
 whole of the disk. It is thus distinguished from the umbra, 
 or perfect shadow, which is the conical space within Which 
 no part of the disk is visible. Let S be the sun, E the earth, 
 A D the orbit of the moon ; and let a A, a C, d B, d D, be 
 tangents to S and E. As soon as the moon passes the point 
 A, a portion of the sun's disk at a will be intercepted, and 
 the visible portion will become ( i \ 
 
 less and less until the moon 
 reaches B, where total darkness 
 begins. From A to B, therefore, 
 the moon is in the penumbra. 
 The umbra extends from B to C. 
 When the moon passes C, it will again receive the light 
 from the border of the solar disk at a, and will be in the pe- 
 numbra from C to D. The whole penumbra thus forms a 
 cone, of which the apex is at O, and the angle at the apex 
 equal to A O D. As the obscurity evidently becomes 
 greater in proportion as more of the solar disk is concealed, 
 and insensibly merges into total shade, it is extremely diffi- 
 cult in eclipses of the moon to determine by observation 
 the exact time at which the moon's limb passes the point B 
 or C, and the eclipse begins or ends. 
 
 In solar eclipses those parts of the earth which are cover- 
 ed by the penumbra of the moon are only partially deprived 
 of the sun's light. Let E be the moon, and A D part of the 
 earth's orbit. To a spectator on the earth, placed between 
 A and B, a part of the sun's disk is concealed, and the sun 
 is partially eclipsed. The limits are calculated from tha 
 known magnitudes and positions of the sun and moon, and 
 their respective distances from the earth. See Eclipse. 
 
 Penumbra. In Painting, &c, the boundary of shade and 
 light where the one blends with the other, the gradation 
 being almost imperceptible. 
 
 PEPERI'NO. An Italian name for a particular kind of 
 volcanic rock, formed by the cementing together of sand, 
 cinders, &c. 
 
 PE'PLUM. An upper garment anciently wom by the 
 Grecian, and especially by the Athenian females: it was 
 without sleeves, and fastened by a clasp on the arm or 
 shoulder. The celebrated peplum of Minerva was carried 
 every year, in the Panathenaic processions of Minerva, from 
 the Ceramicus to the temple of Ceres, and thence to the 
 Parthenon, where it was offered to the goddess. The an- 
 tiquity of this kind of ceremony is evinced by the passage 
 in the Iliad (book v.) where the Trojan women offer a simi- 
 lar robe. 
 
 PEPPER. See Piper ace; e, Pimento. 
 
 PE'PTIC, relating to digestion. See Dyspepsia. 
 
 PERAMBULATOR. (Lat. ambulo, / walk.) A ma- 
 chine for measuring distances on roads ; also called odome- 
 
PERCEPTION. 
 
 tcr and surveying wheel. Various sorts of machines have 
 been constructed for this purpose, both in ancient and mod- 
 ern times. One is described by Vitruvius in his work De 
 Arch.itectu.ro., lib. x., c. 14. The machine commonly em- 
 ployed consists of a wheel, to which a sort of double pole is 
 attached, carrying an apparatus of clock-work, which is set 
 in motion by the revolution of the wheel, and shows the 
 number of miles, furlongs, &c, passed over by an index and 
 dial. The apparatus may be drawn along by a person on 
 foot or by a carriage, to which it is more usually attached. 
 For the sake of facility in reckoning, the circumference of 
 the measuring wheel is made equal to an aliquot part of a 
 mile ; usually half a pole or 99 inches. (See the Repository 
 of Arts, vi.. 249.) 
 
 PERCE'PTION. (Lat.) In Mental Philosophy, that 
 power, act, or state of the mind, which has a conscious 
 reference to external objects. Various theories of percep- 
 tion have arisen among philosophers, differing as this refer- 
 ence is supposed to be more or less immediate, or as the ob- 
 jects to which it refers are conceived to possess an independ- 
 ent reality or not. These theories are designated by the 
 terms idealism and realism; which latter is subdivided into 
 natural or positive, and relative or negative realism. The 
 •est known system of idealism is that of Bishop Berkeley. 
 See Idealism. 
 
 According to the scheme of negative or relative realism, 
 all that we can know of an object is the feeling which it 
 excites in our minds. The cause of this feeling we neces- 
 sarily judge to be something external to ourselves; but 
 it is in itself we have DO means of knowing. This is 
 the view adopted by the great majority of philosophers, from 
 Plata and Aristotle down to Kant and Brown. 
 
 Tin- theory of natural realism is the one supported by Dr. 
 Reid under the name of the common-sense system. This 
 philosopher conceives the object in perception to be in some 
 way immediately present to our consciousness; its qualities 
 ore not merely felt by us, hut discovered in it. We derive 
 a certain sensation from the whiteness or roundness of an 
 object; but it is the object itself and not our minds that are 
 white or round. This doctrine, which was also that of the 
 ancient Stoics, and expressed by them in nearly the same 
 words as ttiose used by Reid (see Cicero, Acad. Quest.), is 
 in tact rather a statement than an explanation of the prob- 
 lem. It has been recently supported with great acuteneu 
 by a learoed writer in the F.ilnt. lirriiw. No. 113, to which 
 we refer our renders for a full account of all possible tiieo- 
 IK-rception. 
 
 PERCH, in Land Measure, is the fortieth p:irt of a rood, 
 or ei|iial to 30*, square yards. Perch is also sometimes 
 used as a denomination of long measure, when it signi- 
 fies the same thing as a rod or pole, being 5A yards, or 16£ 
 
 PERCHERS. The name of an order of birds including 
 •.lie Scantores and Passeres of Cuvier. See Insessores. 
 
 PERCHLO'RIC ACID. When sulphuric acid is poured 
 upon chlorate of potash, gaseous oxide of chlorine is evolv- 
 ed, and the saline matter which remains is a mixture of In- 
 sulphate of potash and perchlorate of potash; by washing 
 it with cold water the former salt is dissolved, but the latter 
 remains in the form of a white powder. When this is mixed 
 with half its weight of sulphuric acid, diluted with one third 
 of water, and heat applied, white vapours rise, which con- 
 dense as a colourless liquid in the receiver. This is a solu- 
 tion of perchloric acid, which consists of one equivalent 
 of chlorine = 36, and 7 equivalents of oxygen (8 X 7) = 56 ; 
 the equivalent of the perchloric acid, therefore, is (36 + 56) 
 SB 92. Perchlorate of potash requires 65 parts of water at 
 60° for solution. 
 
 PE'RCOIDS, Percoida. (Lat. percn, a perch.) The name 
 of the tribe of Acanthopterygian fishes of which the genus 
 Perca is the tvpe. 
 
 PERCU'SSION. (Lat.) In Mechanics, the striking of 
 one body against another, or the shock arising from the col- 
 IWpn of two bodies. See Collision. 
 
 PERCUSSION CAPS. See Gun. 
 
 PERCUSSION, CENTRE OF. That point in a solid 
 body revolving on an axis at which, if an obstacle were there 
 applied sufficient to resist the rotation of the system, no mo- 
 tion would be communicated to the nxis ; or, which is the 
 same thing, if the axis were not fixed the system would ac- 
 quire no tendency to revolve through the shock applied at 
 that point. The centre of percussion is in the straight line 
 passing through the centre of gravity perpendicular to the 
 axis ; and its distance from the axis is expressed by the for- 
 mula J r* d m + f r d m, where d m is the element of the 
 
 mass, and r the distance of dm from the axis. See Cen- 
 thk. 
 
 PERCUSSION OF FLUIDS. See Hydrodynamics. 
 
 PEREDI'OLA. (Gr. TTcpu'cu,, I bind round.) The mem- 
 brane by which the sporules of Algaceous plants are im- 
 tnttiiate'.y covered 
 
 PERIBOLOS. 
 
 PER'ENNIALS. (Lat. perennis, lasting throughout the 
 year.) In Botany, those plants whose roots remain alivo 
 more years than two, but whose stems flower and perish 
 annually. Gardeners generally call them herbaceous plants. 
 They differ from annuals and biennials not only in the time 
 of their duration ; but also in this, that the two former per- 
 ish as soon as they have flowered, the act of reproduction 
 exhausting their vital energies. Notwithstanding this dis 
 Unction, it is not at all times easy to say whether a plant is 
 a perennial one or not ; as, for instance, in the Agave Ameri- 
 cana, commonly called the American aloe. This plant is her- 
 baceous, and lives for many years; but when it flowers it 
 dies: so that in one respect it is annual, its whole life being 
 regarded as only one season of growth ; in another res|»ect 
 it is truly perennial. Such perennials are called by De Can- 
 dolle monocarpic. 
 
 PERE'NNIBRANCIIIATES. Pcrcnnibranchiata. (Lat. 
 perennis; branchia, gills.) The name of that division of 
 Batrachian reptiles including the species which preserve 
 the external branchia;, or branchial apertures, throughout 
 life; as the Siren, Proteus, and Mcnopoine. 
 
 PE'RFECT CADENCE. In Music. See Cadence. 
 
 PERFECTIBILITY. The capability of arriving at pn 
 fection. This word, which is entirely modern, and scarcely 
 as yet admitted in our language on classical English au- 
 thority, is commonly used in reasoning on the social con- 
 dition of mankind. The theory of the indefinite perfecti- 
 bility of the human faculties, which constitutes the basis 
 of many modern system-, is perha|is nowhere so plainly de- 
 veloped ns in the Preface to the Tableau Historique de I'En- 
 tendement Iliiiuaiv of Condorcet. 
 
 PE'RFECT NUMBER. In Arithmetic, a number equal 
 to the sum of all its divisors. Thus 6 is a perfect number, 
 for its divisors are 1, 2, and 3 ; and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. In like 
 manner, 28 is a perfect numlier, for its divisors are 1, 2, 4, 
 7, 14 ; the sum of which = 28. 
 
 In general, every number of the form 2" — ' (2 n — 1), tho 
 latter factor being a prime, is a perfect number, the sum el' 
 its divisors being equal to the number itself. The difficulty, 
 therefore, of finding perfect numbers arises from that of 
 finding primes of the form 2" — 1, which is very laborious. 
 The only values of x yet discovered which make 2" — la 
 prime number are 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, and 31. Substituting 
 these values of a successively iii the formula of the perfect 
 number, we shall obtain the following results' 
 
 If n = 2, then 2 (22 — 1) = 6 
 n = 3, » W — 1)=28 
 
 n = 5, 2< (* — 1) = 496 
 
 n = 7, 2« (27 — 1) = 8128 
 
 n = 13, 212(213 — 1) =33550330 
 n = 17, 216 (2n_i) = 8589869056 
 n = 19, 2i s (2»—l) = 137438691328 
 7i = 31, 23«(23i — 1) =230584300813995212** 
 
 all which are perfect numbers. 
 
 PE'RFECT TENSE. That form of the verb denoted 
 in English by the auxiliary have, which designates an ac- 
 tion finished at the time when we speak of it. Also termed 
 the preterite tense, from Lat. pnetcritum, past. 
 
 PERFU'ME. (Fr. parfum.) A term used to denote tho 
 volatile effluvia from any body affecting the organ of smel 
 ling, or the substance emitting those effluvia. Perfumes 
 were in general use among the ancients (see the Quart. 
 Rev., vol. xxiii.) ; and in France, Germany, Spain, and Por- 
 tugal, and even, though not to so considerable an extent, in 
 England, they are regarded almost as necessaries. In gen- 
 eral they are made of musk, ambergris, civet, rose, and cedar 
 woods, orange flowers, jessamines, jonquils, tuberoses, and 
 other odoriferous flowers. Aromatic drugs, such as s to rax, 
 frankincense, benzoin, cloves, &c. ice, enter into the com- 
 position of a perfume; and many perfumes are composed of 
 aromatic herbs or leaves, as lavender, marjoram, sage, 
 thyme, &c. &c (See the article "Perfumery" in Ure's 
 Vict, of Arts, eye.) 
 
 PERGAME'NEOUS. (Lat. pcrgamena, parchment.) In 
 Entomology, when a part consists of a thin, tough, semi- 
 transparent substance, somewhat resembling parchment. 
 
 PE'RGULA. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, a sort of 
 gallery in a house. It is used by Plautus to signify a bal- 
 cony, in which the courtezans placed themselves to catch 
 the attention of passengers. By Winckelman it is thoughl 
 to be an arbour in a garden, or a terruce overhanging one. 
 
 PERIA'NTHIUM. (Gr. vipi, around, and avtioe, a flow 
 er.) A calyx and corolla, the limits of which are undefined, 
 so that they cannot be satisfactorily distinguished from each 
 other; as in many Monocotyledonous plants. 
 
 PERl'BOLOS. (Gr. iript. and (iaXXu, I cast.) In Ar- 
 clutecture, a court or enclosure entirely round a temple, 
 surrounded by a wall. One of the most extraordinary ex- 
 amples of a peribolos is at Palmyra, where the great tempi* 
 is surrounded by a wall with two rows of interior columns, 
 each side whereof is from 700 to 800 feet long. 
 
 917 
 
PERICARDITIS. 
 
 PERICARDI'TIS. Inflammation of the pericardium. It 
 is of the same origin as 
 
 PERICA'RDJUM. [Gr. ictpi, about; Kapiia, the heart.) 
 The membranous sac which surrounds the heart. 
 
 PERICA'RPIUM. (Gr. Tcept, and Kapiroi, fruit.) Every 
 part of a ripe fruit on the outer side of the plauent 
 
 PERICHCE'TIAL. (Gr. jrepi, and yjurn, a bristle , The 
 leaves situated at the base of the seta: of mosses. 
 
 PERl'COPE. (Gr. Kepi, and kotttw, J cut; something 
 cut out, an extract.) A word used by theologians to signify 
 a passage of the Bible extracted for the purpose of reading 
 in the communion service and other portions of the ritual ; 
 or as a text for a sermon or homily. 
 
 PERICRA'NIUM. (Gr. -Ktpi, and upavtov, the skull.) 
 The membrane of the bones of the skull. 
 
 PE'RIDOT. In Mineralogy, the prismatic chrysolite. 
 
 PE'RIDROME. (Gr. -mpi, and ipouos, a course.) In 
 Ancient Architecture, the space in a peripteral temple be- 
 tween the walls of the cell and the columns. It is a term 
 that may be applied to any gallery of communication round 
 an edifice. 
 
 PE'RIGEE. (Gr. -ictpi, and yn, the earth.) In Astrono- 
 my, that point of the moon's orbit which is nearest to the 
 earth. Anciently the term perigee was applied to the or- 
 bits of the sun and planets, as well as the moon, because 
 they were supposed to circulate round the earth. Since 
 the true centre of motion has been discovered, the term peri- 
 helion is used to denote the corresponding points. 
 
 PERIGON1UM. (Gr. -Kept, and yuvopat, 1 grow.) A 
 synonym of the word perianth. 
 
 PER1GYNIUM. (Gr. ncpi, and y«wj, a female.) The 
 irceolate body formed in the genus Carcx by two bractea-, 
 which become confluent at their edges, and enclose the pis- 
 lilhun, leaving a passage for the stigmata at their apex. 
 Also used occasionally to denote that organ commonly 
 called the disk. 
 
 PERI'GYNOUS. A term applied to stamens which 
 originate from the sides of a calyx. 
 
 PERIHE'LION. (Gr. ntpi, and }j\iof, the sun.) In As- 
 • v. toe point : -> the >rbit of e. planet or comet which 
 ia ae ii- t 1 sua. It is the extremity 01 the lUctjor axis of 
 the orbit nearest to thai focus in which the sun is placed; 
 and its position, or longitude, is one of the elements by which 
 the orbit is determined. See Planet. 
 
 PERI'METER. (Gr. rccpi, and pzrpov, measure.) In 
 Geometry, the circuit or boundary of any plane figure. In 
 round figures it is the equivalent to circumference, or peri- 
 phery; but the term is more frequently applied to figures 
 bounded by straight lines. 
 
 PE RIOD (Gr. ictpioSos), in Astronomy and Chronology, 
 denotes at interval of time at the end of which the same 
 phenomenon again takes place. The period of a planet is 
 the time in which it performs a revolution in its orbit. P'or 
 chronological periods, see Cycle. The term is also used 
 in arithmetic, to denote the recurrence of a series of digits 
 or numbers in the same order, as in circulating decimal 
 fractions. 
 
 Period, or Sentence, in Rhetoric, has been defined "a 
 passage, i. e., series of words, developed in properly connect- 
 
 ?id parts." In a stricter sense, a period is a sentence so 
 rained that the grammatical construction will not admit a 
 close, and the meaning remains suspended until the end of 
 .it. A sentence in which the sense would permit of a stop 
 before its completion is, in this sense, not a period. The 
 Greek and Latin languages were much more periodic than 
 most modem tongues; that is, they admitted of the con- 
 struction of sentences so that a single grammatical connex- 
 ion should run through a great series of words, while a 
 similar -cries, in a modern languge, would be so arranged 
 as to form several distinct grammatical wholes. 
 
 Period, the Julian. In Chronology. See Julian Pe- 
 riod. 
 
 PERIO'DIC ACLD. An acid analogous in composition 
 to the perchloric, consisting of 1 equivalent of iodine -f-7 
 equivalents of oxygen. 
 
 PERIODICALS. In Literature, strictly publications 
 continued in numbers, appearing at regular intervals. But 
 papers of the same description appearing at uncertain in- 
 tervals (especially in Germany), are often comprehended 
 under this general name. The first periodical in the char- 
 acter of a review was the Journal des Savans, begun in 1G63. 
 
 PERICE'CI, or PERIGECIANS. (Gr. Tczpi, about, and 
 aiKtio, I dwell), in Geography, is used to denote those in- 
 habitants of the globe who live under the same parallel of 
 latitude, hut on opposite meridians; that is, in places which 
 have the same latitude, but differ in longitude by 180°. 
 I Stay have their spring, summer, winter, and autumn in 
 ti.a Bame months of the year; but when it is noon with the 
 one it is midnight with the other. 
 
 PERIOSTEUM. (Gr. -ntpt, and oartov, a bone.) The 
 membrane which invests the bones. It is of a fibrous tex- 
 ture, and vascular. 
 91S 
 
 PERISTALTIC. 
 
 PERIO'STRACUM. (Gr. r.epi, and oorpaxov, a shell.) 
 The layer of animal substance, or cuticle, which covers the 
 outer surface of shells, and which the French concholo- 
 gists term drap marin. 
 
 PERIPATE'TiCS. That school of ancient philosophers 
 which derived its origin from Aristotle. The name was 
 given from the Gr. ntptTcuTci or walks in the Lyceum, the 
 scene of Aristotle's instruction. (For the doctrines of the 
 Peripatetics, see Aristotelian Philosophy.) The imine 
 diate successors of Aristotle in the peripatetic doctrine were 
 Theophrastus, Eudemus the Rhodian (from whom is de- 
 rived the title of the Eudemian Ethics), Dicuarchus of 
 Messana, Aristoxenus of Tarentum, and Strato of Lampsa- 
 cus; among the later Peripatetics are preserved the names 
 of Glycon of Troas, Hieronymus of Rhodes, Stc. It would 
 be unreasonable to expect that so elaborate a system aa 
 that of Aristotle should have received any important ad- 
 dition to its leading doctrines at the hands of his followers. 
 They contented themselves either with defending and in- 
 terpreting their master's doctrines, or with applying his 
 method to the explanation of natural philosophy. Under 
 their bands his system seems to have degenerated into a 
 species of empirical materialism, a scheme as widely at 
 variance with his genuine doctrines, as was the dry scho- 
 lastic formalism which in the dark ages passed for the phi- 
 losophy of Aristotle. (For notices of the later Peripatetics, 
 see Cicero, Acad. Quo-it., and De Finibus, c. 5; Lactant. 
 De Ira Dei, c. 10 ; Plutarch, De Solcrtid, &c.) The Peri- 
 patetic school produced no men of note after its great found- 
 er, which is attributable to the current of free speculation 
 being shackled by the authority of Aristotle, whose dogmas 
 it was content to illustrate without daring ever to Impugn ; 
 and in this respect its spirit was remarkably contrasted with 
 the scepticism of the new Academy. (See Hitter's Hist, 
 of Anc. Philosophy, book ix., ch. i.) 
 
 PERIPETEl'A, or REVOLUTION. (Gr. TtptTcereia.) 
 According to Aristotle, in his Art of Poetry, a necessary 
 condition or circumstance of the drama; being a change of 
 fortune from happiness to misery, or the reverse, which 
 takes oHce 'r the situation of the principal personage. Set 
 
 CATASTROPHE, -.'RAMA. 
 
 PERI'PHERY. (Gr. rcept, and <pcpu, J carry.) In Ge- 
 ometry, the circumference of a circle or ellipse, or of any 
 other curvilinear figure. 
 
 PERl'PHRASIS, or CIRCUMLOCUTION. (Gr. ncpt 
 and (ppdiu), J speak.) In Rhetoric, the use of several words 
 to express the sense of one, or of a more invrlved and pro 
 lix form of expression to convey a meaning which mighi 
 be adequately denoted by a shorter phrase. 
 
 PE'RIPLUS. (Gr. -cctpl, and tc\ovs, sailing.) A cirrum 
 navigation. The word is only used as the title of some 
 fragments which remain to us of narratives of voyages o. 
 the classical ancients. The Periplus of Hanno is a Greek 
 translation (real or supposititious) of an inscription said to 
 have been erected at Carthage in memory of a voyage 
 along the western coast of Africa, respecting which much 
 discussion has arisen among modern geographers. The 
 date of this voyage is uncertain, but generally fixed by con- 
 jecture at 400 or 500 years before Christ The Ptriplus of 
 Scylax, which is supposed to belong to the age of Augus- 
 tus, contains a succinct account of some journeys along the 
 coasts of Europe and Asia. Two works bearing the same 
 title pass under the name of Arrian, who wrote in the sec- 
 ond century after Christ; the first contains a description of 
 the Euxine, the second of the Erythrtean Sea (Persian 
 Gulf). 
 
 PERIPNEU'MON Y. (Gr. -xept , and tcvcw, / breathe.) In- 
 flammation of the lungs. See Pneumonia. 
 
 PERI'PTERY, Peripteral. (Gr. ictpi, and Tcrtpov, a 
 wing.) In Architecture, a building surrounded with a 
 wing, aisle, or passage. The word peripteral characterizes 
 one of the species of Greek temples, in which the cell is 
 surrounded by a single row of columns, to distinguish i: 
 from the word dipteral, which designates a temple with 
 two ranks of columns. 
 
 PE'RIS, in the Persian Mythology, are a class of inrmi- 
 nary beings closely allied to the elves or fairies of more 
 northern latitudes, supposed to be the descendants of the 
 fallen angels, and excluded from Paradise till they have 
 made atonement for their sins. (See Moore's beautiful 
 poem, " Paradise and the Peri," in JLalla Rookh.) 
 
 PERI'SCII. (Gr. irepi, and aicia, shadow.) A name ap- 
 plied by the ancient geographers to the inhabitants wnnin 
 the arctic and antarctic circles, because, as the sun at cer- 
 tain times of the year does not set to them in the course of 
 his diurnal revolution, their shadows describe an entire 
 circumference. 
 
 PE'RISPERM. (Gr. Ttt.pt, and enctpua, a seed.) A term 
 used by some to denote the testa, and by others the albu- 
 men of a seed. 
 
 PERISTA'LTIC. (Gr. rctptoTtWo), I contract.) A term 
 applied to the peculiar motion of the intestines, by v> hich 
 
PERISTOMES. 
 
 Hieir contents are gradually propelled from one end of the 
 canal to the other. 
 
 PERISTOMES, Peristomidx. (Gr. -cpi, and otouh, a 
 mouth.) The name of a family of Pectinibranchiate Gas- 
 tropods, including those species in which the shells h wi- 
 the margin of the aperture or mouth unbroken and con- 
 tinuous. 
 
 PE'RIST YLll.'M. (Gr. -tpi, and otvXos. a column.) In 
 Architecture, a court, square, or cloister, with columns on 
 three sides : hence improperly so called. In peristylia with 
 columns on each of the four sides, that towards the south 
 was frequently higher than the rest. This species was 
 called a Rhodian peristylium. 
 
 PERTTHE'RIDES. (Gr.) In Architecture. See An- 
 
 PERITONjE'UM. fr.r.^rpiTttvu), /extend round.) The 
 membrane \\ 'Inch envelops the abdominal viscera, and lines 
 the cavity of the abdomen. Hence also peritonitis, or In- 
 flammation of the peritoneal membrane. 
 
 1'EIUTKO'CHK M. (Cr. T:i:pirp>xc<d- Irun about.) In 
 ante*, a wheel or circular frame of wood, fixed upon 
 a cylinder or axle, round which a rope is wound; and the 
 wheel and cylinder beins moveable about a common axis, 
 a power applied to the wheel will r:'ise a weight att icbed 
 to the rope with so much the greater advantage as the cir- 
 cumference of the wheel is greater than that of the cylin- 
 der. This mechanical power is called the ori.-i in piritro- 
 chio ; the windlass and capstan are constructed on the same 
 princi; 
 
 PE'RJUUY (Lat. pejero), in Law, is a wilful false oath 
 taken in a court of justice, by a witness lawfully required 
 to depose the truth in a matter of some consequence t > 
 the point in question. A false oath, therefore, tal, 
 fore no court, or before a court incompetent to try thi 
 in question, does not constitute the Offence of perjury. Per- 
 jury is a mi-demeanor at common law, and by several stat- 
 utes punishable by fine and Imprisonment, and by transpor- 
 tation for a term not e\e, eding seven years. 
 
 PERKUNOS. One of the chief divinities of ancient 
 Prussia, who, together with Rikollos and Potrimpos, formed 
 the i - ' 81 cnic and '\e 
 
 ;s the god of the elements ; and 
 his u Pi iland, and Bohemia, 
 
 Whan lies erected to his honour. 
 
 (See Grimm's Deutsche MftAelagie*) 
 
 PE'RMIT. An order or written permission from an offi- 
 cer of the customs, authorizing the removal of goods sub- 
 ject to excise duties from one place to another. 
 
 PERMUTA'TION, in Algebra, denotes the arrangement 
 of any determinate number of th'ui'.'s or letters in all jiossi- 
 ble orders one alter tin; other. I'or example, two letters. 
 a b, give the two permutations ab and ba; and three let- 
 six permntatkms abc, acb, bar, ben. 
 cab, and r.ba. Permutation is effected by placing the let- 
 ters in all possible orders, SO that all the letters enter into 
 each t h enters into it only once; and is. there- 
 
 fore, distinguished from eombinatiun, which implies that the 
 arrangements are so made that any two of them dirter in 
 re. |>.rt of one at least of the letters which enter into the 
 results, without regard to the order of the arrangement 
 
 i tin- number of permutations that can be made 
 upon any number of letters a, taken together, we mav rea 
 son in this way : Suppose the total number of permutations 
 that can be mule of h — 1 letters to be known, and let it be 
 designated by (I. Let us consider one of ihe given li 
 /. by Itself, and suppose it to be placed on the right of each 
 of the a permutations given by the other n — 1 letters; there 
 will result U permutations of'n letters, each ending with/. 
 But as each of the n letters may be considered separately 
 in the same manner as/, it follows that the total number 
 of permutations of the ■ letters is equal toQXn. Lctn = 
 S : u tii -11 denotes the number of psrmatstkms of one let- 
 ter; whence U= Land QX>i = 1X2. Letn = 3; Q then 
 denotes the number of permutations of two letters, which 
 is just found equal to 1X2. Therefore, Ox»i= 1X2X3. 
 Let ii = 4; 0. then denotes the number of permutations 
 that can be made on three letters, or 1X2- X3. There- 
 for.-. QX* = 1X2X3X4. 
 
 In general, the number of permutations that can be made 
 upon 7i biters, taken together, is expressed by the contin- 
 ued product 
 
 lX2x3X....(n— l)Xn. 
 example, the number of changes that can be rung upon 
 twelve bells is 1X2X3X4X5X0X7X8X9X10X11X12 = 
 418001600. 
 
 PERNIO. See Chilblms. 
 
 PERORA'TION. (Lat. per, and os, mouth.) The con- 
 eluding part of an oration, in which either the arguments 
 and representations of the speech are briefly recapitulated, 
 or a !,"ri and comprehensive conclusion deduced from 
 them, or a brief appeal made to the sentiments or passions 
 of the audience, 
 
 PERPETUITY. 
 
 PERO'XIDE. The highest degree of o.xidizement of 
 which a metal or other substance is susceptible without 
 becoming an Held, 
 
 PEUPENIM'CITLAR. In Geometry, a straight line is 
 said to be perpendicular to another straight line when the 
 adjacent angles formed by their intersection are equal, and, 
 consequently, each is a right angle. A straight line is per- 
 pendicular to a curve at a given point when it is [icrpen- 
 dicular to the tangent to the curve at that point. In this 
 case the perpendicular is usually called a normal to the 
 curve. (See Normal.) A straight -hie is perpendicular to 
 a plane when it is at right angles with every straight line 
 in the plane passing through the point of intersection. A 
 plane is per|>endicular to a plane when any straight line in 
 the first which is perpendicular to tho common intersec- 
 tion of the two planes is also perpendicular to the second 
 plane. 
 
 PERPETUAL MOTION. In Mechanics, a machine 
 which, when set in motion, would continue to move for- 
 ever, or, at least, until destroyed by the friction of its parts, 
 without the aid of any exterior cause. The discovery of 
 the perpetual motion has always been a celebrated problem 
 in mechanics, on which many ingenious, though in gen- 
 eral ill-instructed, persons have consumed their time; but 
 all the labour bestowed on it has proved abortive. In fact, 
 the impossibility of its existence has been so fully demon- 
 strated from the known laws of matter, that it is rather an 
 insult than a praise to say of any one that he has occupied 
 himself with the research. Nevertheless, the pursuit ofthfl 
 chimera has been tho cause of many Useful inventions. 
 
 In speaking of the perpetual motion, it is to be under 
 stood that from among the forces by which motion may be 
 produced we are ti> exclude not only air and water," but 
 other natural agents, as heat, atmospheric changes, &c. 
 The only admissible agents are the inertia of matter, and 
 its attractive forces, which may all bo considered of the 
 same kind as gravitation. 
 
 It is an admlttBd principle in philosophy that action and 
 reaction are equal, and that, when motion is communicated 
 from one body to another, the first loses just as much as is 
 id. B;.t e\cry moving body Is contin- 
 ually retarded by two passive forces, the resistance of the 
 air and friction. In order, therefore, that motion may be 
 continued without diminution, one of two tilings is neces- 
 sary — either that it be maintained by an exterior force (in 
 which case it would cease to be what wo understand by a 
 perpetual motion), or that the resistance of the air and fric- 
 tion be annihilated, which is physically Impossible. Tho 
 motion cannot be perpetuated till these retarding forces are 
 compensated, and they can only be compensated by an ex- 
 terior force ; for the force communicated to any body cannot 
 be greater than the generating force, nnd this is only suffi- 
 cient to continue the same quantity of motion when there is 
 no resistance. To find the perpetual motion is, therefore, a 
 proposition equivalent to this — to find a force (either an at- 
 tractive force like that of gravitation or magnetism, or an 
 elastic force, that of a spring, for example) greater than it- 
 self. 
 
 But it may be argued that, by some arrangement or com- 
 bination of mechanical powers, a force may be gained equal, 
 to that which is lost in overcoming friction and atmospheric 
 resistance. This motion at first mention appears plausible, 
 and is, in fact, that by which most spectators have been led . 
 astray. It is, however, entirely erroneous ; for by no mul- 
 tiplication of forces or powers by mechanical agents can the 
 quantity of motion be increased. Whatever is gained in 
 power is lost in time ; the quantity of motion transmitted by 
 the machine remains unaltered. 
 
 Although the perpetual motion has been demonstrated 
 again and again to be impossible on any known principle 
 of mechanics, projectors have not thereby been deterred 
 from the pursuit. In 1795 the Academy of Sciences at 
 Paris resolved not to consider or admit into their Memoirs 
 any future proposal for the discovery of the perpetual mo- 
 tion ; yet such appears to be the seductive nature of the 
 subject, that innumerable schemes, designs, and project 
 for accomplishing it have since been, and even to the pres 
 ent time continue to be, put forward ; and there are very 
 recent instances of men of no common attainments and rep. 
 utntion, and well versed, moreover, in the principles of me- 
 chanical science, who have been deceived by the ingenious 
 frauds of charlatans and impostors into a belief of its actual 
 discovery. (Montucla, Hist, des Math., tome iii., p. 813; 
 Repertory of Arts, vols, vil., and xiv. ; London Journal of 
 Jlrts, May, 1827 ; Airy, Trans, of the Cambridge Phil. Soc, 
 vol. iii., part 2; Poppe, Wander der Mrehnnik, 1832; and 
 various papers in the earlier volumes of the Memoircs de 
 I'Jlcad. des Sciences, and the Philosophical Transactions.) 
 
 PERPETUl'TY, in the doctrine of Annuities, is the sum 
 
 of money which will purchase a certain annuity to continue 
 
 forever. This is equal to the product of the annuity into 
 
 the number of years in which the simple interest of any 
 
 ' 91<* 
 
PERRY. 
 
 sum will equal the principal. For example, if the rate of 
 interest be 4 per cent., the simple interest of any sum will 
 amount to a sum equal to the principal in twenty-five years. 
 The value, therefore, of the perpetuity of j£100 per annum 
 is £2500. The number of years is equal to unit divided by 
 the rate of interest, or 100 divided by the rate per cent. 
 
 PE'RRY. (Lat. pirum, a pear.) A fermented liquor 
 made from pears, in the same manner as cider from apples. 
 The pears best fitted for producing perry are exceedingly 
 harsh and tart ; but it is itself pleasant and wholesome. 
 
 PERSECUTIONS. The name by which several periods 
 in the history of the Christian Church are historically dis- 
 tinguished. Of these by far the most sanguinary occurred 
 in the first centuries of the Christian era, and originated in 
 the desire of the Gentile nations to extirpate the followers 
 of the Christian faith. On the accession of Constantine to 
 the throne of the Western world, these Gentile persecutions 
 ceased ; and the subsequent history of the Church is disfig- 
 ured by persecutions raised by the more powerful against 
 the weaker of the Christian sects. 
 
 PERSEUS. Son of Jupiter and Danae, one of the most 
 distinguished heroes of the Grecian mythology. His history 
 is too well known to be recapitulated here. His chief ex- 
 ploit was the conquest of Medusa (which see). 
 
 Perseus. One of the forty-eight ancient constellations, 
 situated in the northern hemisphere. 
 
 I'EKSEVE'RANCE.or FINAL PERSEVERANCE. In 
 Theology, the continuance of the elect in a state of grace to 
 the end of their lives, which, according to some theologians, 
 must always be the case with him who has once been truly 
 called into such a state. Since God is represented as the 
 image of perfection and immutability in himself, so, it is ar- 
 gued, having once begun the preparation of a human being 
 for a blessed eternity, he will not leave his work unfinish- 
 ed ; but the person concerned must necessarily persevere to 
 the end in a state of acceptance, under the absolute decree 
 of which lie was originally elected unto life. 
 
 PERSIAN WHEEL. In Mechanics, a contrivance for 
 raising water to some height above the level of a stream. 
 In the rim of a wheel turned by the stream a number of 
 strong pins are fixed, from which buckets are suspended. 
 As the wheel turns, the buckets on one side go down into 
 'lie stream, where they are filled, and return up full on the 
 >ther side till they reach the top. Here an obstacle is pla- 
 ced in such a position that the buckets successively strike 
 Against it and are overset, and the water emptied into a 
 ".rough. As the water can never be raised by this means 
 higher than the diameter of the wheel, it is obvious that 
 ills rude machine is capable of only a very limited .applica- 
 jon. Sometimes the wheel is made to raise the wuter only 
 'i the height of the axis. In this case, instead of-huckets, 
 •he spokes are made hollow, and bent into such a form that 
 .vhen they dip into the water it runs into them, and is thus 
 •otiveyed to a box on the axle, whence it is emptied into a 
 astern. Such wheels are in common use on the banks of 
 '.he Nile, and elsewhere. 
 
 PERSISTENCE (Lat. per, through ; sisto, / remain), in 
 Optics, signifies the duration of the impression of light on 
 .lie retina after the luminous object has disappeared. Thus, 
 if a lighted torch is whirled round rapidly, a continuous cir- 
 cle of light is seen. A great number of illusions of the same 
 kind, as the augmentation of the apparent volume of a mu- 
 sical chord when in vibration, the luminous train accompa- 
 nying a falling meteor, &c, are explained by this property 
 of vision ; and it has been ingeniously applied by Professor 
 Wheatstone to measure the velocity of electric light. 
 
 PERSON. See Grammar. 
 
 PERSONAL PROPERTY, according to the division 
 recognised by our law, is best defined negatively, as inclu- 
 ding everything which may be made the subject of proper- 
 ty, and which is not legally considered as appertaining to 
 land. The original distinction was undoubtedly between 
 things moveable and immoveable. But, on the one hand, a 
 personal interest may be acquired in things immoveable, 
 i. e., in land by lease for years (chattels real) ; while, on the 
 other hand, some things not affixed to the soil, and some 
 bare rights and privileges are considered as freehold. The 
 distinction, ttierefore, is scarcely maintained with philo- 
 sophical accuracy, although we may still consider that ev- 
 erything which is of a freehold nature is either obviously or 
 constructively connected with the enjoyment of land, or, in 
 technical language, savours of the realty ; while everything 
 wholly unconnected with land falls under the denomina- 
 tion of chattels personal. The term chattel is derived from 
 the barbarous Latin word catallum. 
 
 Besides chattels real, already adverted to, personal prop- 
 erty is said to be either in possession or in action. The 
 fust class of objects includes everything comprehended un- 
 der goods and chattels, ready money and stock, or such ani- 
 mals as are the subjects of property : the second class are 
 legally termed choscs or things in action, and are defined to 
 be things to which a man has a bare right without any oc- 
 920 
 
 PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 cupation, the possession whereof may be recovered by a 
 suit or action at law. Of this class, therefore, are all debts, 
 and the securities for them, unless these securities attach 
 on land. Sums of money due on bond, on bills of exchange, 
 and promissory notes, property in the funds, all fall within 
 this comprehensive class, which, originally so trifling as la 
 be hardly noticed in early jurisprudence, now comprehends 
 by far the greater part in value of the moveable property of 
 our commercial community. 
 
 PERSONIFICA'TION, or PROSOPOPOEIA. Tn Thoto- 
 ric and Composition, a figure of speech, being a spcc.es of 
 metaphor (see Metaphor), by which inanimate objects, or 
 abstract notions, are represented as endued with life and 
 action: sometimes by being addressed as living agents (see 
 Apostrophe) ; at other times, by being coupled with attri- 
 butes which belong only to living agents. 
 
 PERSPECTIVE. (Lat. perspicio, / look through.) In 
 the Fine Arts, the art of delineating on a given transparent 
 plane or superficies objects as they appear to an eye placed 
 at a given height and distance. From the definition, it is 
 evident that, to delineate the true appearance of an object 
 on a plane surface, it becomes necessary to know the laws 
 according to which the apparent linear dimensions of an ob- 
 ject increase or decrease ; and they are these generally : 1. 
 The visual angle, or the apparent magnitude of a line, will 
 be less the greater the distance, and the converse ; 2. It will 
 be less the more obliquely a line is viewed ; 3. The law of 
 diminution will be nearly in proportion to the'obliquity and 
 distance conjointly. In the following diagram, let the eye 
 
 of the spectator be at I, and -let E F G H be the plane on 
 which the appearance of objects is observed. This is called 
 the perspective plane, or plane of the picture. Now the ap- 
 pearance of every object to be delineated will vary accord- 
 ing to the plane in which it stands, considered with respect 
 to.tlie perspective plane ;■ hence the particular situations of 
 object-planes are the main points for consideration. It is 
 manifest that any plane passing through the eye can only 
 be seen on the perspective plane as a line : for the eye, hav- 
 ing neither elevation above nor depression below such plane, 
 can see no part of its surface, its edge being all that is visi- 
 ble tq the eye. Of such planes two are of primary impor- 
 tance in perspective, viz., the horizontal plane, O K L M, 
 parallel to the horizon; and the vertical plane, Q. P R -\, 
 perpendicular to the last. The first intersects the perspect- 
 ive plane in the line L K, called the horizontal line ; and the 
 last in the line Q, P, called the vertical line. Planes not 
 passing through the eye must have a direct or an oblique 
 situation relative thereto. If the former, it must be paral- 
 lel to the perspective plane, which is supposed to be placed 
 directly before the eye ; thus, the plane A B C D is a direct 
 one, and parallel to the perspective plane G E. Of the 
 planes situated obliquely to the eye, the most considerable 
 is A E H D, which is called the ground plane, and is paral- 
 lel to that of the horizon. From the foregoing observations, 
 then, it appears that objects in the surfaces of the horizon 
 tal and vertical planes cannot be seen by the eye at I, and 
 therefore cannot be represented on the perspective plane 
 If O B he tin object in the direct plane, and from the ex- 
 treme points O and B the visual rays O 1, B I be drawn to 
 the eye at I, they will pass through the perspective plane in 
 the points o and b, and by joining them the right line o b 
 will be the representation of the line or object O B on the 
 perspective plane. In like manner, the representation of 
 O A is o a, and b r and a » will be the representation of U 
 R and A N, and consequently rAonofRBAN, &c, &.c. 
 So all lines parallel to A B or C D in the object-plane will 
 have their perspective lines parallel to a ft and c d in the 
 picture on the perspective plane ; and, however the object- 
 plane A C may be divided, their representations on the per- 
 spective-plane or planes of the picture will divide that in a 
 similar mannor. Any point B in a direct plane lias the 
 same ratio of distance from the horizontal and vertical 
 planes as its perspective has from the horizontal and verti- 
 cal planes, viz., that of the distances of the planes from the 
 eye, from the nature of similar triangles: hence the forms 
 of objects on the perspective plane, when they are present- 
 ed in a direct view, may be drawn with facility. The last 
 species of plane whereon it is "apposed we may view the 
 natural object is that of the grou-'d itself, as A D H E. above 
 which the eye has more or lest <in elevation ; as t P, equal 
 
PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 io 1 Y. This is hence called the ground plane, and its in- 
 tersection, II E, with the perspective plane is called the 
 ground line. It is more important than all others, as being 
 the common table, as it were, on which everything is pla- 
 ced. In respect to this horizontal plane, we have seen that 
 the two remote angles thereof, A and D, are represented by 
 by a and d in the perspective plane ; the other two angles, 
 E and H, are in the same plane also, as being common to 
 both ; therefore, by drawing the lines a E and d H, there 
 will be formed the figure E and H on the perspective plane, 
 which will be the correct perspective appearance of the 
 ground plane A D II E. Thus, a E is the perspective of 
 l P of N P, and d H of D II ; and lines that are paral- 
 lel in the ground plane and perpendicular to the perspect- 
 ive plane are not so in their perspective picture, but con- 
 to a point i, called the point of sight, in the perspect- 
 ive plane, because exactly opposite to the eye, or the point 
 in which a per[>endicular from the eye falls on the plane. 
 In the ground plane draw V W parallel to A D ; its per- 
 spective v w will be parallel to a d in the picture, and adwv 
 will be toe |>erspective of the part A DVVV In the original 
 plane. We shall now proceed to a demonstration of what 
 relate* to forming the perspective appearance or picture of 
 the ground plane and objects upon it. Let A B C D, in the 
 following diagram, be a right-lined figure on the ground 
 
 plane VGKC, contiguous to, and at right angles with, the 
 perspective plane Y Z S R. F II is the distance of the plane, 
 and II I the height of the eye at I. II E is parallel to G B 
 or C K, and bisects A D and B C in the points F and E. On 
 the point E raise the perpendicular E M, equal to II I, and 
 draw the lines li M, C M, G I, and K I. Draw the visual 
 Una II I A, I B, and I M, which is called the principal ray, 
 and is perpendicular (o the perspective plane in the point i. 
 Now i! is evident that the plane I II II M intersects the 
 perspective plane in the line A i, and the ray B I, beinfj In 
 the laid plane G M, must intersect the line A t in some 
 point /;, which Is, therefore, the perspective of the point B : 
 hence A b is the perspective of the line A B. Also, as the 
 plane 1 K (' M intersects the perspective plane R Z in the 
 line D i. and the ray I C is in that plane, and intersects the 
 line t It in the point e, that point will be the perspective of 
 the |Kiini C, and D c that of the line D C. Joining the 
 |Kiint< h c, the line 6 c will be the perspective of the line B C 
 H the cround plane. Let A B equal D C, then B C will be 
 parallel io A I) ; and as in this case A o is equal to D c, 6 e 
 will Ik; parallel to A D also. From this it is manifest that 
 all right lines, uBC tn the ground plane, which are paral- 
 lel tn the ground line A D, ioi7/ also be parallel to the same 
 in their representations on the perspective plane. It is, more- 
 over, evident that the representations A b, F e, D c, of all 
 tines A B, F E, D C, perpendicular to the ground line A D, 
 converge or tend to the point of sight i in. the perspective 
 plane. If l.ie line A B be carried out infinitely in the direc- 
 tion of V, then, supposing the point B to move along that 
 line continually, the visual ray B I will keep rising on the 
 plane I G II M towards I M, making the angle B I M less 
 and less, till the point B being at an infinite distance the ray 
 I I! will coincide with I M, and consequently the line A i 
 will be the perspective of A B continued infinitely. So Di 
 will be the representation of the line D C continued infi- 
 nitely. Hence the triangle Ail) will, on the perspective 
 plane, be the true representation of the plane A B C D car- 
 rinl out infinitely on the plane of the horizon. Hence, also, 
 the line Y i Z is the perspective of the horizon or boundary 
 of the sight at an infinite distance; and therefore all ob- 
 jects on the plane of the horizon will, in their representa- 
 tions, be seen to rise from the ground line towards the point 
 of sight, and lessen in appearance as they grow more dis- 
 tant, till at last they vanish in the horizontal line Y Z. We 
 now come to lines which lie oblique to, or make an angle 
 with, the ground line A D, or any other parallel to It. Make 
 A L equal to A G or I i, and draw A p to make any angle 
 p A R or p A D with the base A D, acute or obtuse. Then 
 in the horizontal line Y Z take i X, equal to Lp, and draw 
 P X and i X ; the plane I X p A will intersect the perspect- 
 ive plane in the line A X. Draw the visual ray lp, which, 
 Deing in the plane I Xp A, must go through the perspective 
 plane somewhere in the line A X, which suppose at r. 
 Then is tlie point r tho perspective of p ; and, since the 
 point p is supposed to pass from A to p, in describing the 
 
 line A p its perspective r will move in the plane A Z front 
 A to r, and describe the line A r, which, therefore, will be 
 the representation of the line A p. If A p be carried out 
 infinitely, and the point p supposed to move constantly 
 therein, its representation r will appear to move towards 
 X, till at length the point p being at an infinite distance, r 
 arrives at and coincides with X in the horizontal line. A X 
 is, therefore, the representation of the line A p infinitely 
 continued ; and X is called the accidental point, to which 
 the representations of all lines parallel to A p tend. Let 
 L P be taken equal to A L, and i Z equal to i I ; then, join- 
 ing A P and i Z, the triangles A P L and i Z I are equal. 
 Then will the plane t" A P Z intersect the perspective plane 
 in the line A Z, which will be the representation of the line 
 A P carried to an infinite distance. But, since A L is equal 
 to L P, and L P is parallel to A D, therefore A P is the diag- 
 onal of a square, and contains an angle D A P of forty-five 
 degrees with the ground line A D; bence the point of dis- 
 tance Z is that to which all rays parallel to A P tend in 
 the perspective plane. Let A B equal A D ; then is A B C D 
 a geometrical square, and its diagonal A C, whereof the 
 representation is At; and the point c is, therefore, that in 
 which the perspective diagonal A Z intersects the ray or 
 radial line i D. Make i Y equal i Z, or i I, and join 1) Y, 
 nnd it will be the perspective diagonal of D B (the other 
 diagonal of the square A C) infinitely continued, and D b 
 the representation of the diagonal D B, determined by the 
 intersection of the lines D Y and A i, as before. Thus it is 
 demonstrated that A b c D on the perspective plane A S Z Y 
 is the true picture or perspective representation of the ori- 
 ginal square A B C D on the ground plane, as required. 
 
 From the above principles are deduced the common 
 rules of perspective, of which we shall give two or three 
 examples. A B C D is a ground plane, whereon are seated 
 the objects O and O'. The line A I! is the plan of the 
 plane of the picture, or its intersection with the ground 
 plane; nnd CDYZ is the plane of the picture, or the 
 perspective plane, as we have before called it. It will be 
 observed, that one of the objects, O, lies obliquely towards 
 tho perspective plane, and the other is parallel to it or 
 direct We will first deal with the former. From the 
 station of the eye, E, parallel to a e and eb, two of the 
 sides of the object, draw the lines EA and E B, cutting 
 the plane of the picture in A nnd B. Then will A be the 
 vanishing point of all lines parallel to a e, as will be B of 
 all lines parallel to eb. E' is the place of the eye at the 
 intersection of the ground plane with the picture, being a 
 perpendicular from A B to E'. If II II' be the horizontal 
 line, then II E", equal to A E', is the place of the eye on 
 the perspective plane. From the different i>oints of the 
 object aeb draw towards E, as a centre, the visual rays 
 ac, ed, bf, intersecting A It in t, i/. and /; nnd from them 
 continue upwards indefinitely the verticals c c', d (T, ff. 
 
 which will be the boundaries of the sides ae and eb re 
 spectively. On the plan continue one of the sides a e till 
 it intersects the picture in A, and make CA' on the perspec- 
 tive plane equal to A A on the plan ; and draw the vertical 
 A' A", which will be the line of heights on w hich they are 
 to be set out. Then, if A' p be the height of the object O, 
 lines drawn from A' and p to the vanishing point II will 
 intersect the verticals in o and r and s' and f/. In like 
 manner, lines drawn from t' and r' towards the vanishing 
 point II will give the representation of the other side. 
 Lines drawn in opposite directions at the top of the figure 
 (dotted in the diagram), will enable the draftsman to draw 
 diagonals from whose intersection a vertical may be raised 
 
 921 
 
PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 for crowning the object with a pyramid or other figure. In 
 respect of the object O', which on the plan is a square 
 circumscribing a circle, the object being direct or parallel 
 to the picture, all those lines parallel to it will be hori- 
 zontal, and the vanishing point of the returning sides p x, 
 qy will be found in E' (or E" in the picture), which, as in 
 the former case, is found by a line from E parallel to those 
 sides intersecting the picture. Similarly, a line from E 
 parallel to xq, intersecting the picture in <5, will be the 
 vanishing point of all diagonals of a square in that direc- 
 tion. The visual rays tending to E, shown at gkl, &c, 
 ore to be transferred to the picture by verticals as before. 
 In this object, hh' h" will be seen to be the line of heights, 
 on which all heights are to be set out. The perspective 
 extent of a circle is easily obtained by lines bounding its 
 convexity, transferred by the visual rays s km to the pic- 
 ture, which, aided by the diameters, will give the form 
 required. To give the reader a general notion of the com- 
 mon mode of proceeding in perspective representations of 
 buildings, we present the following diagrams. B is the 
 pl*n of a building to be thrown into perspective, inclined 
 
 o the plane of the picture at any angle v h a. The vanish- 
 ing points of all lines parallel to ab are found by a line 
 from the eye parallel to ab, cutting the picture in V. Si- 
 milarly, V is found to be the vanishing point of all lines 
 parallel to cd. If oft be conlinued to A, it gives the place 
 of the line H H', whereon the heights of the different parts 
 of the elevation A may be set according to their several al- 
 titudes. The place of the horizontal line is chosen so as 
 to afford the most agreeable representation of the object ; its 
 height depending, of course, on that at which the eye 
 would most probably be placed, or might be supposed to 
 be. The visual rays to the eyes are shown by the dotted 
 lines. Having thus prepared the geometrical plan and 
 elevation of the object, the plane of the picture is set out 
 as under ; and the reader must observe that the whole ex- 
 tent of it horizontally must not take in an angle of more 
 
 than sixty degrees, that being as great as the eye can take 
 in without turning the head, though, in internal views, 
 a greater extent is generally tolerated. It is to be observed, 
 that in this diagram the representation, for fh> «ake of 
 greater distinctness, is doubled in dimensions from tne plan. 
 The place of H H' is transferred to the picture and the 
 height carried down from it to the vertical lines, whose 
 places have been found by the visual rays above men- 
 tioned. The vanishing points V and V are transferred to 
 the horizontal line V V, and the horizonal lines in the sides 
 tend thereto. It is obvious that a similar process enables 
 U22 
 
 PERTURBATION. 
 
 the draftsman to make internal representations, the pnn 
 ciples whereon they are conducted being precisely the 
 same. It is needless to expatiate on the importance of 
 perspective to the painter ; and, though Fresnoy has ad- 
 vised that " the compasses should be rather in his eyes than 
 in his hands," it is clear that without a knowledge of its 
 laws he can never hope to succeed. 
 
 That perspective was unknown to the ancients, as some 
 have supposed, is a mistake. What has led to such an 
 error has been, perhaps, the violation of its rules in basso 
 relievo, and particularly in those on the Trajan column, 
 where attention to them would have been Impossible, if not 
 improper. Another ground for the supposition is the igno- 
 rance of perspective displayed in the paintings of Hercu- 
 laneum and Pompeii. But such examples are no proof 
 How many painters of our own days, some of them even 
 possessing a certain sort of reputation, are sadly ignorant 
 upon the subject. The truth is, that the ancients were not 
 only eminent for their success in painting walls with archi- 
 tectural subjects, but they were also known to have re- 
 quired the practice of this branch of the arts in the decora- 
 tions of their theatres. To such a point of perfection was it 
 carried, if we may rely on Pliny, that in the decorations of 
 the theatre of Claudius Pulcher the imitations were so 
 striking that the birds attempted to alight on the tiles of the 
 roofs. This probably, however, is but a figurative descrip- 
 tion of the work, and that it was so intended ; for otherwise 
 it would be drawing rather too largely on our credulity 
 Vitruvius tells us, in the Preface to his seventh Book, thai 
 perspective was well understood at a very early period. 
 His words arc, " Agathasius, at the time when ^Eschylus 
 taught at Athens the rules of tragic poetry, was the first who 
 contrived scenery, upon which subject he left a treatise. 
 This led Democritus and Anaxagoras, who wrote thereon, 
 to explain how the points of sight and distance ought to 
 guide the lines, as in nature, to a centre ; so that, by means 
 of pictorial deception, the real appearances of buildings ap- 
 pear on the scene, which, painted on a flat vertical surface, 
 seem nevertheless to advance and recede." Neither was 
 the practice of perspective confined to the representations 
 just mentioned. Its knowledge was c. . :.::.. equally 
 neceseary'in pictures. The painter Pantybjln <. whose cele- 
 brated school of design was at Sicyon, tang a perspective 
 publicly, and carried his opinions on ibis head to such an 
 extent that he considered no perfect painting could be exe- 
 cuted without a knowledge of geometry. " Omnibus letteris 
 eruditus praicipue arithmetical et geometric, sine quibus 
 negabat artem perfici posse." 
 
 The earliest authors on the subject, whose works have 
 reached us, are Bartolomeo Bramantino of Milan, whose 
 work, Regole di Prospettiva e Misure dclle. Jintichita di 
 Lombardia, appeared in 1440 ; and Pietro del Borgo, who, 
 as he died in 1443, probably wrote earlier. Baltazzan 
 Peruzzi, improving on the methods of Pielro, whom he had 
 carefully studied, very considerably advanced the science. 
 Guido TJbaldi followed him; and, publishing his work at 
 Pesaro, in 1600, established its principles on a basis which 
 left little to be done by our countryman Dr. ISrook Taylor, 
 the first Englishman who wrote scientifically on the subject. 
 The works on the subject are in every language very 
 abundant; but, in our own, the work of Thomas Malton, 
 published in folio, London, 1776, entitled, A complete Treat- 
 ise on Perspective, in Theory and Practice, on the Principles 
 of Dr. Brook Taylor, is the most valuable to the student, 
 and should be in the hands of every one who has a desire 
 to be thoroughly acquainted with the subject. 
 
 PERSPECTIVE AERIAL. See'AERiAL. 
 
 PERSPIRA'TION. (Lat. perspiratio.) The vapour se- 
 creted by the ramification of the cuticular arteries over the 
 surface of the body. In the healthy state it is slightly acid 
 and saline. According to Lavoisier and Seguin, the great- 
 est amount of perspiration exceeds six pounds in the twenty- 
 four hours, and the smallest two pounds; it is at its maxi- 
 mum immediately after taking food, and decreases during 
 digestion. Whatever quantity of food is taken, or whatever 
 are the variations of the atmosphere, the snme person, after 
 having increased in weight by all the food he has taken, re- 
 turns in twenty-four hours nearly to the same weight ho was 
 the day before, provided he is not growing and has not in- 
 dulged' in any excess. 
 
 The substances perspired are water, carbonic acid, saline 
 substances, lactic acid, and some organic matter. In cer- 
 tain cases of disease, the perspiration is not only greatly 
 modified as to quantity, but often as to quality. 
 
 PERTURBA'TION. In Astronomy, the deviation of a 
 celestial body from the elliptic orbit which it would describe 
 if acted upon by no other attractive force than that of the 
 sun, or central body about which it revolves. If the planet! 
 exercised no attraction on each other, the orbit described by 
 each of them would be accurately an ellipse, having the 
 sun in one of its foci; and the law of the motion such that 
 the area described by a straight line joining the centre of 
 
PERTURBATION. 
 
 the sun and the planet would describe equal areas in equal 
 times. But in consequence of the universal gravitation of 
 matter, every body in the system is more or less alfected by 
 the attractive influence of all the others, and is, consequent- 
 ly, forced to deviate from the path it would describe in vir- 
 tue of the central force acting alone. The forces which 
 cause these deviations are called the perturbing lories ; and 
 the determination of their efl'ect on each orbit is the great 
 problem of physical astronomy. 
 
 The simplest case of the problem is a system in which 
 there arc only three bodies — a central body and two revolv- 
 ing bodies, disturbing the motions of each other. Sucb : lor 
 example, would be the case of the sun, the earth, and the 
 moon, if all the other planets were conceived to lie annihi- 
 lated, or at so great a distance that their disturbing force 
 was rendered insensible. For the sake of perspicuity, let 
 one of the revolving bodies be called the disturbed, and the 
 other the disturbing body. Now it is by no means difficult 
 to obtain a genera) idea of the effects thai must be produced 
 by the disturbing force. It is easy to see, for example, that 
 in certain positions of its orbit the motion of the disturbed 
 body must be accelerated, and in others retarded ; that in 
 one case it may be drawn above, and in another depressed 
 below the plane of the orbit it would describe about the 
 central body. But a far more difficult problem remains — 
 namely, that of determining the ultimate ellcct of the re- 
 ciprocal action of the revolving bodies after an infinite num- 
 re\ ■lotions. When the mnisrtn ■ id di-t wcm of the 
 bode-- <r.- supposed to be given, this is a problem of pure 
 mathematics ; but such is its difficulty, that even when re- 
 stricted to three bodies, its general solution transcends the 
 power of analysis; and it is only in a iKirlicular case (that, 
 however, which is presented by nature), namely, when the 
 if the disturbing body is very small in comparison of 
 the central one, that mathematicians have succeeded in in- 
 tegrating the equations of motion, and determining the final 
 
 y to conceive that if the problem presents great 
 difficulties when only three bodies are taken into considera- 
 tion, these difficulties must be infinitely increased when it 
 is attempted to investigate the reciprocal actions of all the 
 Individuals composing the solar system. To determine the 
 circumstances of the motions of about thirty bodies projected 
 in space and abandoned to their mutual attractions, is a 
 problem, indeed, which far transcends the power <u' any 
 known calculus. Nevertheless, there are circumstances in 
 the peculiar constitution of the solar system which enable 
 us not only to foresee the general efl'ect, but to determine 
 the form, and dimensions, and position of an orbit, and the 
 place of the body in it, at any given time, pastor future, with 
 all the precision which astronomical observations admit of. 
 These circumstances are the following : [n llie first place, 
 by reason of the immensely preponderating attraction of the 
 sun, the force by which any plaint is attracted by another 
 is extremel) feeble in companion of that bv which it is re- 
 tained in the orbit it would describe If there was no other 
 body than Itself and the sun. Hence the deviations from 
 that orbit are small, and the disturbing action of each planet 
 admits oi being computed Independently of the others. In 
 conil place, all the largo planets are confined to a 
 zone of a few degrees in breadth, and therefore can exert 
 only a comparatively feeble influence in drawing one an- 
 other from the planes of their orbits. In the third place, 
 the system is broken up into subordinate and partial sys- 
 tems, which are almost independent of one another. Thus, 
 for example, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn form a system, in 
 which the two planets exert a very sensible action on each 
 other, but are very little affected by the influence of any 
 other body ; and the same is the case, though in a less de- 
 \\ iih Venus and the Earth. By reason of these cir- 
 cumstances, mathematicians have been enabled to accom- 
 plish what would otherwise have been impossible, and to 
 express the disturbing forces of the several bodies of the 
 system by algebraic equations, from which the positions of 
 all the planets and the principal satellites are computed for 
 several years to come, and reduced into tables for the pur- 
 posos of navigation. 
 
 The inequalities produced in the motions of the planets 
 by their reciprocal actions are divided into two kinds. The 
 first depend on the configurations of the planets, that is, the 
 relative positions they have with regard to each other ; and, 
 as the inequalities depending on this cause increase, dimin 
 ish, and disappear after certain intervals of time, they are 
 called periodic inequalities. Those of the second kind are 
 independent of the re'ative positions of the planets: they 
 are also periodic, but their periods are incomparably longer 
 than those of the first kind; hence they ate called secular 
 inequalities, as If their periods were not to be reckoned by 
 but by eenturles. It is by the discovery of the peri- 
 odic nature and ultimate compensation of all the inequali- 
 ties of both kinds, occasioned by the perturbing forces, that 
 the permanent stability of the system is demonstrated. 
 
 In order to assure the stability of the planetary orbits, 
 three elements must remain constant, or be subject only to 
 small periodic fluctuations. These are, 1. The major axis 
 of the orbit, or the planet's mean distance from the sun ; 2. 
 The inclination of its orbit to a fixed plane; and, 3. The ec- 
 centricity of the orbit. Now, with respect to the major ax- 
 es, it has been demonstrated by Lagrange that they are 
 exempted altogether from secular inequalities, and are sub- 
 ject only to periodical changes depending on the configura- 
 tions of the planets. They are therefore restored to their 
 former values when the planets resume the same relative 
 positions; and their mean values, and, consequently, the 
 mean motions which depend upon them, remain unalter- 
 ably the same. With regard to the inclinations and eccen- 
 tricities, they are affected both by periodic and secular in- 
 equalities; but their secular changes are confined within 
 very small limits, and ultimately work out a compensation, 
 Besides, the inclination- and eccentricities of the different 
 orbits are connected with each other in such a manner, that 
 whatever any one orbit gains in either of these respects is 
 lost among the others. These relations are defined by the 
 two following theorems discovered by Lagrange, than which 
 analysis has furnished no more remarkable or beautiful re- 
 sults: 
 
 1. If the mass of every planet be multiplied by the square 
 root of the major axis of its orbit, and the product by the 
 square of the tangent Of its inclination to a fixed plane, 
 the sum of all these products will be constantly the same 
 under the influence of their mutual attraction. 
 
 2. If the mass of each planet be multiplied by the squire 
 root of the axis of its orbit, and the product by the square 
 of the eccentricity, the sum of all such products throughout 
 the system is invariable. 
 
 From the periodic nature of the changes produced in the 
 three elements mentioned above, it follows that the whole 
 effect of the perturbing forces is to cause the system to 
 oscillate about a mean state, and that the inequalities of the 
 planetary motions are all compensated in the long run; 
 and that, consequently, the system contains within itself no 
 element to endure forever, 
 
 of 
 theory are. In a speculative pi bit of view, by far the most 
 Ing i.i the whole range of astronomical discovery. 
 They are not deduced, however, from the solution of the 
 general problem of the motion of bodies mutually attracting 
 each other, but are founded OH certain conditions u Inch be- 
 long to the individual system; viz., 1. That the eccentrici- 
 ties of the orbits are Inconsiderable; 2. That the inclina- 
 tions to the plain- of the ecliptic are small ; and, 3. That all 
 the planets, primary and secondary, move in the same di 
 rection. Now these conditions are not necessary conse- 
 quences of gravitation. For anything that has been proved 
 to the contrary, a system might exist under the Newtonian 
 law of gravitation In which not one of them would bo satis- 
 fied. Of their final causes, however, we are, and may ever 
 remain, entirely ignorant ; but the fact of their existence 
 (for the chances are almost as infinity to one that they art 
 not accidental) proves clearly enough that the primitive im • 
 pulse which determined the directions of the different mo- 
 tions must have been communicated to all the planets and 
 satellites by the same mechanical cause. 
 
 The history of the problem of the perturbations dates 
 from the discovery of universal gravitation. Newton him- 
 self pointed out the general effects which the mutual attrac- 
 tions of the planets must have in disturbing the motions of 
 each other, and applied his theory to the investigation of the 
 precession of the equinoxes, and the inequalities of the 
 moon. The problem of three bodies was solved by Clairaut, 
 D'Alembcrt, and Euler, about the middle of the last century. 
 Euler first pointed out the periodic nature of the variations 
 of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn occasioned by their mutual 
 perturbations. Laplace remarked, that on taking account 
 of some of the first terms of the analytical development of 
 the expressions of the perturbed orbits, those on which the 
 secular inequalities depend arc capable of increase only 
 within certain limits ; and Lagrange demonstrated generally, 
 that no secular inequality, or term proportional to the time, 
 can possibly enter into the expression of the greater axis of 
 the orbit, or the mean motion which depends on it. It may 
 be said that the discoveries of these two great mathemati- 
 cians completed the theory of gravitation, inasmuch as every 
 inequality in the system not previously accounted for was 
 by them referred to its proximate cause, and its analytical 
 expression assigned. The labours of all succeeding mathe- 
 maticians in the department of physical astronomy have 
 been confined to the extension and simplification of their . 
 theories. 
 
 For a popular account of this subject, the reader may con 
 salt Laplace's System* du Monde; Sir J. UerstheVs Trea- 
 tise on Astronomy; nndJliry's Gravitation. The mathe- 
 matical theory is contained in the Mecanique Cileste, and 
 other works on physical astronomy. (See, also, Playf air's 
 
 923 
 
PERTUSSIS. 
 
 Outlines of Nat. Phil. ; Woodho use's Astronomy, vol. ii. ; 
 Pontecoulant, Theorie Jlnalytique du Systeme du Monde ; 
 Gautier, Essai Historique sur le Probleme des Trois Corps.) 
 
 PERTU'SSIS. The whooping cough. 
 
 PERU'VIAN BALSAM. The produce of the Myroxy- 
 lon Peruvianum ; a tree which grows in the warmest parts 
 of South America. It is obtained by boiling the twigs in 
 water. It is a thick brown liquid, of a fragrant odour, and 
 a pungent and bitterish flavour. 
 
 PERUVIAN BARK. See Cinchona. 
 
 PERVIGILIUM. (Lat. from vigil, watchful; a watch 
 lasting through the night.) The nocturnal festivals to some 
 deities were so styled by the Romans. The Pervigilium 
 Veneris, a beautiful relic of Latin poetry, is attributed by 
 some critics to Catullus. 
 
 PESTILENCE. (Lat. pestis.) Any contagious or infec- 
 tious disease which is endemic or epidemic, and mortal. 
 The term is also used in a moral sense. See Plague. 
 
 PE'TALISM. (Gr. ncraXov, a leaf.) In Antiquity, a 
 form of condemnation practised at Syracuse, by which per- 
 sons who, from their wealth or influence, were considered 
 dangerous to the state, were banished for five years, with 
 leave to enjoy their estates and to return after that period. 
 It was, in fact, only another form of the Athenian ostracism 
 (see Ostracism) ; with this difference, that in the latter 
 the condemnation was written on shells and lasted for ten 
 years, whereas in petalism leaves were made use of, and 
 the condemnation lasted only five years. 
 
 PE'TALITE. A Swedish mineral of a gray or reddish 
 colour and a foliated texture. It is a silicate of alumina and 
 lithia, and contains between five and six per cent, of the 
 latter alkali. 
 
 PETALO'CERANS, Petalocera. (Gr. TttraXov, a leaf; 
 Kepas, a horn.) A tribe of Coleopterous insects, including 
 those which have antenna: terminated by a foliated mass. 
 
 PETALOI'DEUS. (Gr. ttctoXov, and ciSos, like.) A 
 term applied by botanists to any organ the texture and col- 
 our of which resemble a petal. 
 
 PETALS. (Gr. ircTaXov.) In Botany, the divisions of 
 the corolla of a plant. 
 
 PETA'RD. (Fr.) In Artillery, an engine formerly much 
 used lor breaking down gates, barricades, &c. The petard 
 had some resemblance to a high-crowned hat. It was 
 formed of gun metal, was about seven inches deep, and 
 five inches in diameter at the mouth, and held from nine 
 to twenty pounds of gunpowder. When about to be used 
 it was screwed to a thick plank, and suspended before the 
 gate to be burst open. Petards were first used by the 
 French Hugonots at the siege of Cahors in 1579. Their 
 use is now discontinued ; and it has been discovered that 
 gunpowder in loose bags is equally efficacious. 
 
 PETASUS. (Gr.) A broad-brimmed hat used on jour- 
 neys by the classical ancients ; hence a petasus with wings 
 attached to it is the emblem of the celestial traveller Mer- 
 cury. 
 
 PETAURIST, Petaurus. (Gr. rerao), I expand, and ovOa, 
 a tail.) The name of a genus of Marsupial animals which 
 have the power of taking extensive leaps through the air, 
 like the flying squirrel, by means of outstretched tegumen- 
 tary folds between the fore and hind extremities, aided by 
 an expanded tail. 
 
 PETE'CHI^E. (Ital. petichia.) Small red spots produced 
 by the effusion of drops of blood in the skin, immediately 
 under the cuticle. They resemble flea-bites, and usually 
 indicate an altered and impure state of the blood. 
 
 PE'TER-PENCE. The popular name of an impost, 
 otherwise termed " the fee of Rome," or, in the Anglo- 
 Saxon, "Romescot:" originally a voluntary offering by the 
 faithful to the see of Rome; afterwards a due levied in 
 various amounts from every house or family in a country. 
 Peter-pence were paid in France, Poland, and other realms. 
 In England this tax is recognised by the Norman laws of 
 William the Conqueror. Edward III. discontinued the pay- 
 ment when the popes resided at Avignon ; but it was after- 
 wards revived, and finally ceased in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 
 PE'TIOLE. That portion of a leaf that connects the 
 amina with the stem of a plant ; the footstalk. 
 
 PE'TITION (Lat. peto, / aslc), signifies generally a sup- 
 plication preferred by one person to another, who is sup- 
 posed to be capable of granting the request. The right of 
 the British subject to petition either house of parliament, 
 or the king, is founded on the Bill of Rights. But this act 
 is not considered as having repealed 13 C. 2, stat. 1, c. 5, by 
 which it is criminal to solicit or procure the putting the 
 hands of more than twenty persons to a petition for altera- 
 tions in church or state, unless by consent of three or more 
 justices, or a majority of the grand jury at assizes or sessions, 
 &c. ; and repairing to the king or parliament to deliver such 
 petition with above the number of ten persons is also ren- 
 dered ciiminal. 
 
 Petition. In Law, an application in writing, addressed 
 (C the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, or to the 
 924 
 
 PEUTINGERIAN MAP. 
 
 equity side of the Court of Exchequer, in which certain 
 facts are set forth as the ground on which the petitioner 
 rests his prayer for the order and direction of these respect- 
 ive courts. Petitions are of two kinds— cause petitions, and 
 exparte petitions. The former are those in regard to mat- 
 ters of which the court is already in possession, by virtue 
 of there being a suit concerning their substance (the peti- 
 tioner in this case being either generally a party to such 
 suit, or in some way or other possessing an interest therein) ; 
 the latter (exparte petitions) are so called when there is no 
 suit existing about the matter of the petition. Both these 
 kinds of petitions are susceptible of numerous subdivisions. 
 PETI'TIO PRINCI'PII. (Lat. a demand of the principle.) 
 In Logic, a popular designation for a species of vicious rea- 
 soning, which consists in tacitly assuming the proposition 
 to be proved as a premise of the syllogism by which it is to 
 be proved ; vulgo, begging the question. 
 
 PETONG. The Chinese white copper ; it is an alloy of 
 copper and nickel. See Pakfono. 
 PETRELS. In Ornithology. See Procellarije. 
 PETRIFA'CTIONS. (Lat. petra, a stone, and facio, / 
 make.) A general term by which naturalists designate the 
 conversion of vegetable or animal materials into a stony 
 substance. The word is equivalent with such expressions 
 as "organized fossils, organic remains," &c. ; which, how- 
 ever, are all liable to exception on the ground of not dis 
 tinctly explaining what they are meant to define; and 
 though the term petrifaction is itself open to censure on the 
 same score, it does not seem that any other word more ac- 
 ceptable to the naturalist has hitherto been found to super- 
 sede it. The branch of science which treats more peculiar- 
 ly of substances in a petrified state is usually denominated 
 Oryctology, which see. 
 
 PETROBRU'SIANS. The followers of Peter de Bruys, 
 a heretic or reformer of the 12th century, who declaimed 
 with great success against the vices of the clergy, and 
 gathered around him considerable numbers of adherents in 
 the south of France. The exact opinions which he ad- 
 vanced are only to be collected from the assertions of his 
 adversaries, who, at a time when the lower classes through- 
 out Europe were listening eagerly to violent and, perhaps, 
 fanatical oppungers of the dominant church, did not fail to 
 exaggerate and discolour their doctrines to suit their own 
 purposes. Besides the vague charge of Manicheism which 
 was made against most of these sectarians, the imputations 
 cast upon them chiefly refer to their contempt for the ordi- 
 nances of the church ; in which it is very probable that, 
 along with the real abuses of the day, the crucifixes, ima- 
 ges, and relics, the ignorant multitude may have included 
 the sacraments and other purer ceremonies in one indis- 
 criminate abhorrence. A treatise was composed against 
 them by St. Bernard. (See Faber's Jllbigenses and Wal 
 denses : IVaddington's History of the Church, ch. xviii.) 
 
 PETRO'LEUM. A brown liquid bitumen, found in sev 
 eral parts of Europe, in Persia, and in the West Indie3 
 It is often termed Barbadoes tar. \ 
 
 PE'TROLINE. A substance obtained by distilling th* 
 petroleum of Rangoon ; analogous to paraffine. 
 
 PE'TROSI'LEX. A variety of flint or hornstone. The 
 term is sometimes applied to compact felspar. 
 
 PETU'NTZE. (Chinese.) A decomposing variety ol 
 felspar, used in China in the manufacture of porcelain. 
 
 PETWORTH MARBLE, called also Sussex Marble. K 
 is a variously coloured limestone, occurring in the weald- 
 clay, and composed of the remains of fresh-water shells. 
 See Geology. 
 
 PEUTINGE'RIAN MAP or TABLE. (Germ. Peutingei 
 Tafel'; so called from Conrad Peutinger, a native of Augs- 
 burgh, who was the first to make it generally known.) The 
 name given to a map of the roads of the ancient Roman 
 world, written on parchment, and supposed to have been 
 constructed about the time of Alexander Severus, A.D. 226. 
 The original, which is 21 feet in length, and only 1 foot in 
 width, is deposited in the imperial library at Vienna ; but 
 copies of it are to be found in the Ptolemy of Bertius ; in 
 Home, Orbis Delineato ; in Bergier, Historique des Grande 
 Chemins de Empire Romain; and part of it in Murray's 
 Encyclopaedia of Geography. Combined with the celebra- 
 ted Jlntonine Itinerary, which it serves admirably to illus- 
 trate, though it differs from the latter in several essential 
 particulars, the Peutingerian Table may be justly regarded 
 as one of the most valuable bequests of ancient geography 
 to modern times. In this table the high road which traver- 
 sed the Roman empire in the general direction of east and 
 west is made the first meridian, and to this every part is 
 subjected. The objects along this line are minutely and 
 faithfully exhibited ; but of those lying to the north and 
 south of it only some general notion can be conveyed. From 
 the novel and peculiar construction of the table, every ob- 
 ject is of course enormously extended in length, and reduced 
 in breadth. (See Mannert's Introduction to his new edi- 
 tion of the Peutingerian Table, Leipsic, 1824.) 
 
PEWTER. 
 
 PEWTER. An alloy of tin with lead and antimony 
 frequently bears this name ; but the best pewter was for- 
 merly made of 12 parts of tin with 1 of antimony, and a 
 very small addition of copper. A fine pewter is made, ac- 
 cording to Aiken, by fusing together 100 parts of tin, 8 of 
 antimony, 1 of bismuth, and 4 of copper. The use of these 
 additions to tin is to harden it and preserve its colour; and 
 a good pewter, when clean and polished, has a silvery lus- 
 tre, and does not readily tarnish. Common pewter, of which 
 measures and pewter pots ue made, is an alloy of lead and 
 tin. 
 
 PHAETON. (Gr. Qacduv, shining.) In Mythology, the 
 son of Apollo and Clymenes, one of the Oceanides, accord- 
 ing to most writers. The fable of his adventures is well 
 known. Taunted with his doubtful origin, he asked his 
 father to lend him the chariot of the sun for a day, as a 
 proof of his lili.il rights. Unable to guide the fiery steeds, 
 he was dashed to the ground by Jupiter with a thunder- 
 bolt, to prevent his consuming the heavens and earth. The 
 best known narrative is that in Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 
 PHAGEDENIC. (Gr. <payctv, to eat.) A term applied to 
 ulcers which rapidly corrode and destroy the parts which 
 they attack. 
 
 PHALA'NGER, Phalangista. (Gr. (fiaXayl, a phalanx.) 
 The name of a genus of Marsupial animals, including those 
 in which the second and third toes of each hind foot are 
 united together as far as the last phalanx in a common cu- 
 taneous sheath, and which have a hinder thumb, but no 
 lateral cutaneous parachute. 
 
 PHALA'.N'GES. In Anatomy, the small bones of the 
 fingers apil toes. 
 
 PIIAl.A'.N'GIUM, or Shepherd Spider. The name of a 
 genus of Arachnidans, including those in which all the legs 
 are ve/y long and slender; the tarsi sometimes consisting of 
 more thai. tiltv joints. 
 
 I'll A'LANX. (Gr. ^iXayl-) The close order of battle, 
 in which the heavy armed troops of a Grecian army were 
 usually drawn up. There were several different arrange- 
 ments of the phalanx peculiar to different states; but the 
 most celebrated was that invented by Philip of Macedon. 
 The men stood close together, sometimes with their shields 
 locked, in ranks of several men in depth, displaying in 
 front a row of long-extended spears. The phalanx, whose 
 charge was irresistible in a smooth plain by a lighter body, 
 was found to l>c overmatched by the combined strength and 
 activity of the Roman legion, which was able to take ad- 
 vantage of any inequality of ground, and charge in flank 
 and rear ; and when once an accident offered an opening in 
 the unwieldy mass of the enemy, their confusion was inevi- 
 table, and rally hopeless. The phalanx is described in most 
 works on Grecian antiquities ; but see especially the Mem. 
 de CAc. del Inscr., vol. XJtiv., xxv., and the Essay in vol. xli. 
 by M. de Maignal. 
 
 PHA'LERA. In Roman Military Antiquities, various 
 kinds of ornaments were so called, chiefly, but not exclusive- 
 ly, appropriated to the equipment of horse soldiers ; it was 
 also applied to the frontlets of the horses themselves. It is 
 evidently, however, as the ornament of the man, and not 
 the horse, that Virgil uses the word in the lines — 
 Buy aim phatrnu Hamnetis et aurea bullis 
 Ciogula . . . humeri! nrquicquam fonibus ap'af. 
 
 (See the 3d and 2id Memoirs of M. le Beau on the Roman 
 Legion, in Mem. del" Acad, des Inscr ., vols. xxviii. and xxxlx.) 
 
 PHA'LEROPE, Phaleropus. (Gr. (baXcpoc, scolloped, and 
 rovs, a foot.) The name of a wading bird, with the toes 
 provided with s collop ed membranes. 
 
 PHA'NERONEURANS, Phaneroneura. (Gr. 6avepoc, 
 and vtvpov, a nerve.) A name applied by Rudolphi to all 
 those animals in which the nerves are distinctly eliminated. 
 
 PHATA'SMAGO'RIA. (Gr. (bavraopa, appearance, spec- 
 tre, and ayopaojiai, I collect.) An optical apparatus, by 
 means of which the images of objects can be magnified or 
 diminished at pleasure, and motion given to them whereby 
 a strong illusion Is produced. The Apparatus is, in fact, 
 nothing more than a magic lantern, in which the images nre 
 received on a transparent screen, and the sliders on which 
 the figures are drawn rendered perfectly opake, excepting 
 in the figures themselves ; so that all light is excluded, ex- 
 cepting that which is transmitted through the image. The 
 lantern, mounted on wheels, is made to recede from or ap- 
 proach to the screen, by which the enlargement or diminu- 
 tion of the image is effected; and in order to preserve dis- 
 tinctness in the picture, the tube in the side of the lantern 
 which carries the lens is, by a particular mechanism, drawn 
 out or pushed in, so as to increase or diminish the distance 
 between the lens and the slider, according as the lantern 
 approaches to or recedes from the screen. The phantasma- 
 goria affords a very popular exhibition in lecture rooms. 
 (See Mutton's Dictionary ; Young's Natural Philosophy ; 
 Halle's Matiirl. Magic.) 
 
 PHA'RISEES. A sect among the Jews, whose name is 
 derived from Pharos, a Hebrew word signifying separated 
 
 PHASIANID.E. 
 
 or set apart; because they separated themselves from the 
 rest of the nation, and pretended to the distinction of pecu 
 liar holiness. The time of their origin is not accurately de 
 termined ; but they are referred to by Josephus 3s a consi 
 derable sect, B.C. 110. In the time of our Saviour they 
 constituted the most influential party among the Jews. 
 Though their rivals the Sadducees numbered among them 
 selves some individuals of the highest rank, and those who 
 affected to be conversant with the manners and philosophy 
 of the Greeks and Romans, the Pharisees embraced a greater 
 proportion of the upper classes, and were supported by the 
 admiration of the people, and the national feeling in fa'vour 
 of the opinions and habits of their ancestors. Besides being 
 strict interpreters of the written law, their sect superinduced 
 upon it what they called the traditions of the ciders, and 
 asserted that Moses delivered an oral law as a supplement 
 to that of the Scriptures. They are frequently reproached 
 by our .Saviour with explaining the latter by the former, so 
 as in effect frequently to destroy the validity of the written 
 law. They also attached a mistaken importance to many 
 outward ceremonies of human invention, which they ob- 
 served with a studied ostentation which gained for them 
 the esteem and veneration of the multitude. They main- 
 tained, in opposition to the Sadducees, the popular doctrine 
 of the resurrection ; which, h ow eve r , they appear to have 
 corrupted with some vague notions touching the transmi- 
 gration of souls. 
 
 PHARMACO LOGY. (Gr. dtapuaxov, a medicine, and 
 Xoyoc.) The historv of the properties and uses of drugs. 
 
 PHARMACOPOEIA. (Gr. dtappanov, and wvtHV, to 
 make.) A book containing directions for the preparation 
 of medicines. 
 
 PHA'RMACY. (Gr. Qapuaxov.) The branch of know- 
 ledge which relates to the medical and chemical history of 
 the different articles of the Materia Medica ; to the mode 
 of prescribing them, their effects, and composition. 
 
 PHARMAKOLITE. In Mineralogy, a term applied to 
 the native arseninte of lime. 
 
 PHA'ROS. Properly the name of an island at the mouth 
 of the harbour of Alexandria, on which a lighthouse was 
 erected ; whence it came to be applied as a common name 
 for all lighthouses. .Sc«Liohthoise. 
 
 PHARYNGO'TOMY. (Gr. <t><,pvy\, and repute, I cut.) 
 The operation of making an external opening into the wind- 
 pipe, necessary in certain cases of suffocation. 
 
 PHA'RYNX. (Gr. (btpciv, to convey; because the food 
 is conveyed by it into the oesophagus and stomach.) The 
 bock part of the mouth : it is somewhat funnel-shaped, at- 
 tached to the fauces behind the larynx, and terminating in 
 the rcsophngus. 
 
 PHASCOLA'RCTOS. (Gr. <baoKu>Xoc. a pouch, and 
 npKToc, a bear.) The name of a genus of Marsupial ani- 
 mals, of which the koala is the type : its dentition is like 
 that of the kangaroo rats; but it has no tail, and has short 
 hind legs. 
 
 PHA'SCOLOME, Phascolomys. (Gr. (baaxtaXoc, and uvc, 
 a mouse,) The name of a Marsupial quadruped, commonly 
 called the wombat, which has the teeth of a Rodent ani- 
 mal, with the exception of an additional true molar on each 
 side of both jaws. 
 
 PHASE (Gr. ipaoic, appearance), in Astronomy, denotes the 
 different appearances of the moon or inferior planets, accord- 
 ing as a greater or smaller portion of the hemisphere il- 
 luminated by the sun is visible to the observer. The phases 
 of the moon sometimes denote in particular the new moons, 
 the full moons, and the quarters, these being the principal 
 phases. 
 
 Phase, in Natural Philosophy, denotes the particular 
 state, at any given instant, of a phenomenon which under- 
 goes a periodic-change, or increases to a given point, and 
 then diminishes in a regular gradation. Thus we speak of 
 the phase of a tide, the phase of an eclipse, &c. 
 
 PHASIA'NIDiE. (Gr. <baaiavo;, a pheasant.) The name 
 of a family of Gallinaceous birds of which the genus Pha- 
 sianus is the type. The pheasant is a native of warmer 
 and drier climates than England, as the Linnsan specific 
 name (Phasianus colchicus) implies. Cuvier states that it 
 was brought from the banks of the Phasis by the Argo- 
 nauts, and subsequently became diffused over all temperate 
 Europe. It is consequently a matter of difficulty to pre- 
 serve the species in this country ; and were it not for the 
 assistance which the common fowl affords in hatching the 
 eggs of the pheasant, the breed would probably soon be- 
 come extinct ; for although the female produces a great 
 many eggs in the artificial preserves of the wealthy sports- 
 man, yet she soon forsakes the task of incubation, when 
 disturbed, as is too often the case, by the male. 
 
 When roused the pheasant will not unfrequently perch 
 upon the first tree ; and seems more intent upon the dogs 
 than the approach of the sportsman; they betray them 
 selves likewise by the habit which they have of crowing 
 or making a chuckling noise at the time when they perch 
 
PHENECIN. 
 
 P oxes destroy many pheasants ; and as these are commonly 
 females engaged in incubation, the tendency to diminution 
 of the race from this cause is increased. But the chief 
 loss of the pheasant-breeder is caused by the mortality of 
 the young b'mls, about the time of changing their nestling 
 feathers, produced by the development of great numbers 
 of a peculiar species of Entozoon (Syngarnus trachealis) 
 in the windpipe. This accumulation occasions a difficulty 
 of breathing; and the convulsive attempt to gasp the air, 
 or expel the worms, has occasioned the name of " the 
 gapes" to be given to this disease. 
 
 The best remedy is a preventive treatment, by due atten- 
 tion on the part of the keepers to the young pheasants in 
 keeping them clean, and administering plenty and variety 
 of food. When the disease is far advanced, obliging the 
 birds to breathe air strongly impregnated with fumes of to- 
 bacco, carefully watching its effects, is the best remedy. 
 
 The male pheasant is distinguished, like most GaUinacca, 
 by its superiority in size and brilliancy of plumage from the 
 female; and the dependency of this difference on the gene- 
 rative function is proved by the remarkable instances of as- 
 sumption on the part of the female of more or less of the 
 male livery, consequent tqion the abrogation of that func- 
 tion in her either by agi, or by injury or disease of the fe- 
 male organs. The food of the pheasant varies according to 
 the season : in winter it consists chiefly of grain and seeds ; 
 in spring and summer of insects and nutritive bulbous roots, 
 as that of the "crow-foot" (Ranunculus bulbosus). 
 
 The pure breed of Phasianus colchicus is distinguished 
 by the absence of the white ring round the neck, and the 
 reddish copper tint of the croup. Another species, from 
 China, with a white ring round the neck, and a greener 
 cast of colour, especially upon the croup, has also been im- 
 ported, and turned wild. It seems to have produced a pro- 
 lific race of hybrids with the common pheasant. 
 
 China produces several other species, which are re- 
 markable for their superb and brilliant plumage; as the 
 golden pheasant (Ph. pictus), Amherst's pheasant (Ph. 
 Jlmhcrstii) ; both of which have a gorgeous rutr round the 
 neck, and the latter is remarkable for its exceedingly long 
 tail. A like appendage characterizes the magnificent 
 Reeve's pheasant (Ph. Rccvcsii). The silver pheasant 
 (Ph. niycthemcrus) from China, and the Phasianus linratus 
 from the mountains of Thibet, approach nearer in their 
 carriage to the common fowl. 
 
 PHE'NECIN, (Gr. (poivil, purple.) The purple powder 
 which is precipitated when sulphuric solution of indigo is 
 diluted with water. It appears to he a hydrate of indigo. 
 PHENGITES MARBLE. .S™ Marble. 
 PHENO'MENON; plural, Phenomena. (Gr. Qatvto, I 
 shine.) In Natural Philosophy, this term is usually applied 
 to those appearances of nature of which the cause is not 
 immediately obvious: such as the phenomena of light, of 
 the magnet, of electricity, &c, produced by physical experi- 
 ments ; or unusual natural appearances, as meteors, co- 
 mets, earthquakes, &c, which occur without the interven- 
 tion of human agency. 
 
 PHIGA'LIAN MARBLES (so called from having been 
 discovered near the site of Phigalia, a town of Arcadia), 
 the name given to a series of sculptures in alto relievo, now 
 deposited in the British Museum, where they form part of 
 the collection known by the name of the Elgin Marbles. 
 They originally formed the fringe round the interior of the 
 cella of the temple dedicated to Apollo the Deliverer; a 
 dtle conferred on him by the Phigalians in gratitude for his 
 having delivered them from a pestilence. They represent 
 the combat of the Centaurs and the Lapithte, and that of the 
 Greeks and Amazons. The similarity, both in design and 
 execution, which they bear to the decorations on the Par- 
 thenon leaves no doubt that they are the workmanship of 
 the same master minds which designed, constructed, and 
 adorned that splendid monument of the golden age of art. 
 See Parthknon, Elgin Marbles. 
 
 PHILADE'LPHES. (Gr. 0<X fw , Hove. rtftX^c. brother.) 
 A secret society, said to have existed in France during the 
 government of Napoleon, and to have produced the conspi- 
 racy of Colonel Malet in 1812. An account of it is given, 
 but we do not know how far it is to be understood as nar- 
 rating matters of fact, in the Histoire ties Societes Secretes 
 de V Jinnee, published in 1814. 
 
 PHILANTHRO'PINISM. A name given in Germany to 
 the system of education on natural principles, as it is 
 termed, which was promoted by Basedow and his friends 
 in the last century, and mainly founded on the notions of 
 Locke and Rousseau. An institution for the purposes of 
 education, founded under the protection of the Duke of 
 Dessau, in 1774, was the first so called " Philanthropin." It 
 was dissolved in 1793; and of the similar institutions after- 
 wards founded, only one, it is said, has continued to main- 
 tain itself. But the influence of the labours of the Philan- 
 thropinUts has undoubtedly entered largely into the modern 
 svsteni of education. (Conv. I,cx.) 
 926* 
 
 PHILOLOGY. 
 
 PHILANTHROPY. (Gr. </hAiw, I love, and avGpwzoc, « 
 man.) A general term for a benevolent feeling towards the 
 whole human race. It is opposed to misanthropy. 
 
 PHILIBEG, or FILIBEG. Sec Kilt. 
 
 PHILI'PPIC. The title of several orations of Demosthe- 
 nes against Philip king of Macedon, the spirit and aniiuo 
 sity of which has caused the name to be transferred to 
 similar compositions. Thus Cicero gave this name to the 
 orations which drove Mark Antony from Home, and impel- 
 led the senate to prosecute the war against him after the 
 murder of Julius Cesar. 
 
 PII1LOCTETES. In Mythology, the son of Paan ; ac 
 cording to some authors, one of the Argonauts. The friend 
 and companion of Hercules, and one of the most celebrated 
 heroes of the siege of Troy, though but little referred to in 
 the Iliad. His adventures, too long to be here recounted, 
 form the subject of one of the tragedies of Sophocles. 
 
 PHILO'LOGY. (Gr. 0iAto), / love, and Xoyus, speech, 
 discourse.) This word appears to have been used by the 
 classical ancients to designate the whole circle of belles-let- 
 tres, and even of the sciences : cultivated as they then were 
 very imperfectly, and more in a theoretical than an induc- 
 tive shape ; considered not with respect to their respective 
 subject matters, but to the language in which they were 
 conveyed. A philologist was one who studied or taught 
 the elegance of diction, as applicable to every branch of hu- 
 man learning; nor can the meaning of the designation be 
 very accurately distinguished from that of the ypuufiHTiKos, 
 or grammarian : while sometimes the term philology was 
 usurped in a wider sciijc, so as to comprehend learning in 
 general. After the revival of letters, the word was intro- 
 duced into modern European languages, but in a much 
 more restricted signification. It then comprehended gram- 
 matical criticism and etymology, and some branches of ar- 
 cheology; and as these studies were almost confined to the 
 ancient languages, and other relics of classical antiquity, 
 which alone were then studied in a scientific manner, the 
 only philologists were the learned investigators of the Greek 
 and Latin idioms and literature. Commentaries on ancient 
 authors, etymological works, and glossaries of their lan- 
 guage, grammars, &c, were then the class of writings usu- 
 ally denominated philological; and although the field of 
 philoiogy, considered In this sense, is now more extensive, 
 as the modem European and non-European languages have 
 also become the subjects of accurate investigation, it is with 
 the same general meaning that the word is chiefly used, at 
 least among English writers, at the present day. It is de- 
 fined by Johnson "criticism, grammatical learning." In 
 this popular sense philology may be said to embrace, 1 . Ety- 
 mology, or the science of the origin of words; 2. Gramma?, 
 or the science of the construction of language in general, and 
 of individual languages; 3. Literary criticism, or the inves- 
 tigation of merits and demerits in style and diction. 
 
 Of late years, however, a new and very extensive prov- 
 ince has been added to the dominion of philology ; namely, 
 the science of language in a more general sense, consider- 
 ed philosophically with respect to the light it throws on the 
 nature of the human intellect and progress of human knowl- 
 edge ; and historically, with reference to the connexion be- 
 tween different tongues, and the connexion thus indicated 
 netween different nations and races. Some attempts have 
 recently been made to confine the use of the word philolo- 
 gy to this particular branch of learning. It comprehends, 
 1. Phonology, or the knowledge of the sounds of the human 
 voice ; which appears to include orthography, or the sys- 
 tem to be adopted when we endeavour to render, by our 
 own alphabet, the sounds of a foreign language; 2. Ety- 
 mology ; 3. Ideology, or the science of the modification of 
 language by grammatical forms, according to the various 
 points of view from which men contemplate the ideas 
 which words are meant to express. 
 
 Classical Philology. — By German writers the use of the 
 word philology is still not uncommonly restricted to this 
 branch of study. The earliest commentators, lexicograph- 
 ers, and grammarians, whose works we possess, flourished 
 in Greece and Rome at various periods between the Chri» 
 tian era and the fall of the Roman empire. During the 
 middle ages the knowledge of the classical languages, or of 
 the works written in them, ceased to be cultivated as a sci- 
 ence. Philology was revived about the end of the 14th and 
 beginning of the 15th century, and chiefly by the labours of 
 various learned Greeks expelled from their own country by 
 the encroachments of the Romans. In the 15lh century, 
 Italy was peculiarly animated with a zeal for classical lit 
 erature, which, in fact, essentially injured, during the whole 
 of that period, the cultivation of the native language of the 
 country. In the following age, the cultivation of this study 
 passed chiefly into the hands of the French, Dutch, and 
 Germans ; nor was it long retained in any perfection among 
 the students of the first of these nations. In the hands of 
 the industrious writers of Holland nnd Germany classical 
 philology assumed a new form. Less elegant, and pursued 
 
PHILOLOGY. 
 
 In a less poetical mind than it had been among the Italians, 
 it became a vast and laborious science, exacting the seve- 
 rest industry, and no common ingenuity. During the 16th 
 ind 17ih centuries, philologists may be said to have been 
 chiefly occupied in collecting the materials of knowledge : 
 the task of criticism, and of separating the true from the 
 false in classical idiom and diction, began with the 17th ; 
 and the earliest name in this department of study is, per- 
 haps, still the most illustrious; that, namely, of Richard 
 Bentlcy. Since his time, we have had many distinguished 
 classical scholars in our own country, cs|>ecially in the pres- 
 ent day, which has produced Parr, Person, and Elmsley; 
 but Germany still remains the true nursery of classical re- 
 search ; and the school of Wolf, Heyne, and Hermann, in 
 that country, has laid down canons of inquiry, as to the 
 genuineness and authority of some of the earliest works in 
 the ancient languages, winch have imparted a new charac- 
 ter to Classical criticism in general. See Language, Clas- 
 ■IC8. 
 
 Philology, Sacred. The art of criticising the langua- 
 ges and dialects of the Hebrew and Hebra SO Greek writers 
 in order to elucidate the meaning of the sacred Scriptures. 
 The Hebrew language, consisting principally of the old 
 Phoenician, with admixtures of the Aram awn from Meso- 
 potamia, introduced by Abraham and bis horde, received 
 also a few modifications, owing to the long servitude of the 
 Israelites In Egypt. How old the book of Job may be, is 
 still a vczato aurstin among critics, some of whom SU| pose 
 that it was originally written in Arabic and afterwards 
 translated, while others trace it to a remote period of 11'- 
 brew literature ; but whether it be older or not than the 
 woiks of Moses, the Pentateuch must ever be considered 
 the basis of the Hebrew as a fixed written language. The 
 institution of the schools of the prophets under the Judges 
 no doubt tended to give that polish anil poetic character 
 seen in the writings of David and .Solomon ; but the He- 
 brew language remained essentially the same down to the 
 conquest of Palestine, first by Sbalmaneser (who introdu- 
 ced an Arama-nn population in lieu of the expelled ten 
 tribes) : and, secondly, by Nebuchadnezzar, who (B.C. 588) 
 took the holy city, and captured the two remaining tribes, 
 transporting them also, according to a still prevalent eastern 
 Custom, into bis own territories. The Jews, however, du- 
 ring their captivity at Babylon, not only acquired new hab- 
 its, but received many additions to their language, both of 
 words and idioms; and henceforward they sp.'kc a dialect 
 usually known as the Hebrao-Jlramaic, bearing nearly the 
 same analogy to the Hebrew that the modern Italian bears 
 to the Latin. In the later historical writers traces may be 
 discovered of this corruption. The prophecies of Hnggai, 
 Zechariah. and Malaehi, also, though very pure, p r e sent I 
 few instances of Chnldeian ; but the new dialect is most of 
 all perceptible in the Targums and other uninspired com- 
 mentaries by which alone the Scriptures could he made in- 
 telligible to the common people. Schultens, Iloscnmuller, 
 the elder Michaelis, Bishops Louth and Horsley, Gesenius, 
 Ewald, and Prof. Lee have successfully laboured in eluci- 
 dating the history of the Hebrew language ; nnd the best 
 editions of the Hebrew Scriptures are by Kennicott and De 
 Rossi. After the cessation of Hebrew prophecy on the 
 death of Malaehi, about 400 years B.C., the Aramaean dia- 
 lect prevailed more or less, owing lo the adherence of the 
 Jews to their national language, down to the capture of 
 Jerusalem by Titus. The conquests of Alexander, how- 
 ever, had an undoubted influence over the learned castes, 
 who gradually became acquainted with the Greek lan- 
 guage ; and accordingly (B.C. 280), Ptolemy Philadelphus 
 Invited five Jewish Fcribes to Alexandria for the purpose of 
 translating into Greek the Pentateuch, that part of the 
 Jewish history relating to the Egyptians. Some years af- 
 terwards the other bonks of the Old Testament were trans- 
 lated by different hands ; but the name Scptuagint (see 
 Septitaoint) is a misnomer; and the story connected with 
 It (resting wholly on the very questionable authority of 
 Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus) is quite unworthy of credit. 
 The work, however, is written in good Macedonian Greek 
 (Koivij AtdXeKTOf), with a few Hebrew admixtures; and 
 hence the Septuagint should be studied In connexion with 
 the New Testament, which presents similar features. In 
 the time of Christ the Aramaic (as the Gospels furnish 
 abundant proof) was the vulgar language of Palestine ; and 
 even Galilee had a separate though cognate dialect. (Luke, 
 xxii., 59 ; Acts, ii., 7.) After the descent of the Holy Spir- 
 t, the followers of Christ became gifted with that power of 
 expression necjssary to carry the tidings of the Gospel into 
 distant countries ; and the Greek language, so far as the 
 regions west of Palestine were concerned, was the great 
 medium of communication. Hence the Evangelists and 
 Apostles wrote in this language. But though their ideas 
 were inspired, their words were of their own creation ; and 
 nence arose those peculiarities of diction, Hebrew expres- 
 sions, etc., the understanding of which is absolutely neces- 
 
 PHCENIX. 
 
 sary to an intimate acquaintance with the inspired writers 
 of Christianity. This, indeed, constitutes the science of 
 sacred philology ; nnd in this work the labours of Wet- 
 stein, Mill, Griesbach, and Scholz have been employed in 
 producing a pure Greek text from the examination "of the 
 best MSS. ; while the most celebrated critics of the New 
 Testament, Bengel, the younger Michaelis, Kiiinoel, De 
 Wette, Bp. Marsh, Stuart, Ernesti, Winer, and Robinson 
 have spent their best days in elucidating the meaning of 
 the Evangelists and Apostles — the gnat pillars of the 
 church, of which Christ is the head corner-stone. 
 
 PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. See Alchemy. 
 
 PHILO'SOPHY (Gr. ftXcia, I luce, and co<j>ia, wisdom) 
 in common acceptation, is a general term, signifying the 
 sum total of systematic human knowledge. It is commonly 
 divided into three grand departments ; metaphysics, physics, 
 and ethics. If we include in the first logic, tliis may be re- 
 garded as a complete distribution of science, properly so 
 called. The first has for its object those truths which go 
 beyond mere experience ; as the nature of being, of God, 
 of the soul, tec, as they are in themselves, or as they are 
 apprehended by us. (See Metaphysics.) The second re- 
 lates to objects as they are in nature, as subject to the rela- 
 tion of cause and efiect. The third contemplates human 
 actions as they ought to be, not merely as they are ; and 
 takes account of the ideas of duty, freedom, responsibility, 
 and the like — of all, in short, which constitutes the distinc- 
 tion between an action and asj i r< nt. 
 
 This word was first used by the Pythagoreans, .'mil adopt- 
 ed from them by Socrates, who considered btmaelfa lover 
 or seeker of wisdom only ; in distinction from a sophist, or 
 one who conceives himself to be in the possession or exer 
 cise of wisdom. 
 
 Many valuable histories of philosophy have appeared of 
 late years, estiecially in Germany. The most celebrated 
 are those of Brucker, Tennemann, and Ritter. A sketch 
 of the history of philosophy written by the late Mr. Dugald 
 Stewart, originally prefixed to the Kuryclopadia Brita /mi- 
 ca, is now printed in a separate volume. 
 
 PHILTER. (Gr. <bt\tw, 1 love.) A drug or preparation 
 supposed by the ancients to have the power of exciting 
 love. Nothing certain is known respecting the cotnpesi- 
 tion of these celebrated potions ; but there can be no doubt 
 that recourse was frequently had to them by the ancients, 
 and that their operation was so violent that many persons 
 lost their lives and their reason by their means. The 
 Thessalian philters were in the highest celebrity. (See 
 Juv., vi., 610.) 
 
 PHI'LYRA. In Mythology, one of the Ocennides, and 
 mother of the centnur Chiron by Saturn, who visited her 
 in the shape of a horse. Alarmed at the monstrosity of 
 her offspring, she implored Saturn to change her nature ; 
 when the god granted her request, and changed her into a 
 linden tree, which is still called in Greek by her name. 
 Her son received the gift of Immortality. 
 
 PHLEBOTOMY. (Gr. 0An|, a vein, nnd tcuvw, I cut., 
 The ojierntion of opening a vein for the purpose of taking 
 awny blood. 
 
 PHLEGETIION. (Gr. 0Aty/0mr, burning.) The MSB 
 of fire which, according to the poets of Rome and Greece, 
 washed the shores of the infernal regions. It is also the 
 name of one of the rivers of the infernal regions. See 
 Cocytus. 
 
 PHLOGI'STON. (Gr. QXoyttu), I burn.) An imaginary- 
 principle, by which Stahl and the chemists of his school 
 accounted for the phenomena of combustion ; the matter 
 of fire fixed in combustible bodies. 
 
 PHLYCT^E'NA. (Gr. (bXvKraiva.) A small vesicle 
 which contains a serous fluid. 
 
 PHLYZA'CIUM. (Gr. ifXvluv, to be hot.) A pustule 
 upon the skin. 
 
 PHOCA'CEANS, Phocacea, or Seal Tribe. The name 
 of the family of carnivorous and amphibious Mammals of 
 which the seal (Phoca) is the type. See Seals. 
 
 PHOCrE'NA. (Gr. tbwicatva, a porpoise.) A subgenus 
 of dolphins, distinguished by the absence of the beak-like 
 prolongation of the jaws. 
 
 PHOCE'NIN. A peculiar fatty matter contained in the 
 oil of the porpoise (Delphinum). When saponified it yields 
 a volatile odorous acid, called phocenic acid. 
 
 PHOE'BUS. (Gr. ifioifioc, brilliant.) A name of Apollo, 
 often used in the same sense as Sol. 
 
 PHCENICO'PTERUS. (Gr. <boii>il, red, and itrtpov, a 
 wing.) The generic name of the flamingo : also a term ap- 
 plied to other animals which have red wings, as the Bom 
 bycilla phanicoptera. 
 
 PHGS'MX. In Mythology, a bird of great celebrity 
 among the ancients ; nnd, from the peculiar circumstances 
 connected with its origin, longevity, and death, regarded as 
 the emblem of immortality. She was described as of the 
 size of an eagle, her head finely crested, her body covered 
 with a beautiful plumage, and her eyes sparkling like stars 
 
PHOLADEANS. 
 
 She was said to live 500 or 600 years in the wilderness, 
 when she built for herself a funeral pile of wood and aro- 
 matic gums, which she lighted with the fanning of her 
 wings, and thus apparently consumed herself, but not real- 
 ly; this being merely the process by which she endowed 
 herself with new vitality : she then 
 
 Four periods of history are mentioned by ancient writers 
 as having been graced by the appearance of the phoenix. 
 The first was in the reign of Sesostris ; the second in that 
 of Amasis ; the third in that of Ptolemy III., king of Egypt ; 
 and the fourth in that of Tiberius. There is, however, a 
 great discrepancy of opinion on this point, as well as on 
 every other relating to the phoenix. The history and ima- 
 ginary attributes of the phoenix have formed a theme to 
 poets in every age ; and in most languages its name has 
 passed into a proverb. By the fathers of the church it was 
 frequently brought forward as an illustration of the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection (see Spanheim, De Usu et Prces- 
 tantia Numismatum, diss, v., c. 13, and the authorities ci- 
 ted in that learned work) ; and it appears on the coins of 
 several Roman emperors, sometimes as a symbol of their 
 own apotheosis, sometimes as an emblem of the renovation 
 of the world and the revival of the golden age under their 
 beneficent rule. The chief ancient authorities with regard 
 to the phoenix are Herodotus, b. ii., c. 73 ; Ovid, Met., xv., 
 391 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat., x., 2 ; and Tacitus, Annal., vi., 18. 
 Besides these, the reader may consult, in the third volume 
 of Wernsdorf, Pacta Minores (to which the editor has pre- 
 fixed a learned introduction), the poem De Phmnice, which 
 is usually attributed to Lactantius, and in which every cir- 
 cumstance on record with regard to the phoenix has been 
 chronicled with the most laborious precision. The reader 
 will also find in Metral's work, Le Phoenix, on VOiseau du 
 Soleil (Paris, 1824), a resume of all that has been written, 
 both in ancient and modern times, respecting the history 
 and peculiarities of the phoenix. 
 
 Phoenix. One of the modern constellations in the south- 
 ern hemisphere. 
 
 PHOLA'DEANS, Pholadem. (Gr. (p^coc, a lurking- 
 place. The family of Lamellibranchiate Bivalves of which 
 the genus Pholas is the type : they are remarkable for the 
 hiding-places which they excavate for themselves in rocks 
 and clay. 
 
 PHONE'TIC WRITING. (Gr. <puvr,, sound.) That 
 writing in which the signs used represent sounds; in op- 
 position to ideographic, in which they represent objects, or 
 symbolically denote abstract ideas, as in the figurative part 
 of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The signs representing 
 sounds are usually arbitrary, or at least have become so in 
 process of time ; as in the ancient Roman alphabet, of 
 which the letters are for the most part derived from the 
 Hebrew or Phoenician, in which languages they may have 
 originally partaken of a symbolical character. But, in a 
 species of phonetic writing which is intermixed with the 
 figurative hieroglyphics in Egyptian inscriptions, every let- 
 ter is denoted by a figure representing some object, the 
 name of which begins with that letter. See Hieroglyphics. 
 
 PHO'IVICS. (Gr. fwvtj.) The doctrine of sound : the 
 same as acoustics. (See Sound.) As sound, like light, is 
 subject to certain laws of reflection and refraction, the sci- 
 ence, like that of light, may be treated under three heads; 
 namely, direct, reflected, and refracted sound. In allusion 
 to the corresponding branches of optics, these have been 
 denominated phonics, cataphonics, and diaphonics. 
 
 PHO'NOLITE. (Gr. (puvn, and hOos, a stone.) A spe- 
 cies of compact basalt; sonorous when struck. 
 
 PHO'RCUS. In Mythology, a marine deity, son of Pon- 
 tus and Terra; father of the Gorgons, the dragon that 
 guarded the apples of the Hesperides, and other fabulous 
 monsters. 
 
 PHORONO'MIA, or PHORONO'MICS. (Gr. qjtpu, J 
 bear or carry.) A term sometimes used to denote the sci- 
 ence of motion. In this sense it was employed by Her- 
 mann, a mathematician who flourished in the beginning of 
 the 18th century, in a work entitled Phoronomia, seu de 
 Viribas et Motibus Oorporum Solidorum et Liquidorum 
 (Amstol., 1716), and of great merit for the time in which 
 it appeared. The term mechanics being now employed 
 generally to signify the doctrine of moving bodies, phoro- 
 nomia, or phoronomics, seldom occurs in works of modern 
 science. 
 
 PHOSGENE GAS. (Gr. 0w?, light, and yiyvopai, I 
 produce.) A compound of chlorine and carbonic oxide, 
 made by exjiosing equal measures of those gases to the 
 sunshine, or to bright daylight. They will not unite in the 
 dark. 
 
 PHO'SPHATES. Salts containing phosphoric acid. 
 
 PHOSPHITES. Salts containing phosphorous acid. 
 
 PHOSPHORE'SCENCE. The emission of light by sub- 
 •tances at common temperatures, or below a red heat. 
 028 
 
 PHOTOGENIC DRAWING. 
 
 PHOSPHORESCENT ANIMALS. Those species are 
 so called which have the faculty of emitting a luminous 
 fluid. They are much more numerous than the electric 
 animals ; belonging to most of the Invertebrate classes, 
 and frequently rendering vast tracts of the ocean luminous 
 by their prodigious numbers. The glow-worm {Lampyris), 
 the phosphorescent sea-pen (Pennatula phosphorea), and 
 the brilliant pyrosome (Pyrosoma Jltlanticum), are among 
 the most remarkable of these animals. 
 
 PHO'SPHORITE. Native phosphate of lime. 
 
 PHO'SPHORUS. (Gr. 0w<r, light, and d> £ p w , / carry , 
 So called from its property of shining in the dark. It was 
 discovered in 1668 by Brandt, an alchemist of Hamburgh, 
 and was originally obtained by distilling urine ; but it is 
 now always extracted from bone earth, by a process contri 
 ved by Scheele. The bones are calcined, so as to destroy 
 the animal matter, and, being powdered, are mixed with 
 water, to which half their weight of sulphuric acid is add- 
 ed. The bone earth, consisting chiefly of phosphate of 
 lime, is thus decomposed, sulphate of lime is formed, and 
 phosphoric acid is evolved ; or, rather, superphosphate of 
 lime, which, being much more soluble than the sulphate, re- 
 mains in the liquid, and may be obtained by its evapora- 
 tion ; it is mixed with about half its weight of charcoal, 
 and put into a well-luted earthen retort, the beak of which 
 dips into water. At a bright red heat, the phosphorus 
 distils over into the water. It is purified by carefully melt- 
 ing it under water, and straining it through a piece of cha- 
 mois leather. 
 
 Pure phosphorus is almost colourless, and semitranspa- 
 rent ; it may be cut wit h a knife, and its surface has a waxy 
 lustre. It fuses at 108°, boils at 550°, and is converted into 
 vapour, having, according to Dumas, a density = 4 - 35. It is 
 sparingly soluble in fixed and volatile oils, and in ether and 
 alcohol ; but insoluble in water. It shines in the dark, 
 and emits a luminous vapour, undergoing a slow combus- 
 tion, and exhaling a peculiar smell like garlic. When 
 rubbed, or heated to a temperature of about 110°, it takes 
 fire and burns with great rapidity, with a white flame, 
 emitting abundance of acid fumes ; in oxygen gas its com- 
 bustion is so intensely brilliant that the eye can scarcely 
 bear the light. 
 
 The product of the perfect combustion of phosphoius is 
 phosphoric acid, a fusible substance, very soluble in water, 
 and intensely sour. It appears to consist of 1 equivalent of 
 phosphorus = 16, and 2£ of oxygen = 20 ; its equivalent 
 being 36. 
 
 There are two other acids of phosphorus : namely, the 
 phosphorous acid, consisting of 16 phosphoius + 12 oxygen ; 
 and the hypophosphorous acid, which appears to be a com- 
 pound of 2 equivalents of phosphorus (16X2) =32, and 1 of 
 oxygen = 8. When phosphorus is boiled in a solution of 
 caustic potash a gas is evolved, which is remarkably dis- 
 tinguished by its spontaneous inflammability ; each bubble, 
 as it rises through the water, taking fire upon the surface, 
 and producing a beautiful ring of smoke : this gas is com- 
 monly called phosphuretted hydrogen. Phosphorus may be 
 made to combine with the greater number of the metals, 
 forming compounds called phosphurets. 
 
 PHOTOGE'NIC DRAWING. (Gr. q\us, and ytyvouat, 
 I generate.) When the article Daguerrotype, was writ- 
 ten, under which we have adverted to the extraordinary 
 results obtained by Daguerre, the mode by which they 
 were produced had not been made public ; since that time, 
 however, all the details of the manipulation have been 
 fully disclosed, and they are extremely interesting and cu- 
 rious, though the explanation or theory of the process is 
 still somewhat obscure. The whole subject has lately ac- 
 quired much additional importance from its extended ap- 
 plications ; namely, from architectural objects, sculpture, 
 and interiors of rooms, to portraits, and more lately to 
 groups, and even whole-lengths ; and it is undergoing al 
 most daily extension and improvement. 
 
 The outline of the process is as follows : — A piece of cop- 
 per is plated in the usual way with silver by passing the 
 metals together Ihrough a rolling mill, and is then cut into 
 pieces of a proper size. The silver surface is carefully pol- 
 ished, and cleansed by wiping it over with a piece of cotton 
 dipped in dilute nitric acid, washing, and drying. When 
 thus duly prepared — and much depends upon the manner 
 in which these preliminary operations are performed and 
 the materials used — the plate is subjected to the diffused 
 vapour of iodine, which forms a slightiy brown or yellow 
 film upon the silver ; it is then ready to be subjected to the 
 action of the image to be represented, which is thrown 
 upon it, care being taken to exclude all other light, by an 
 instrument upon the principle of the camera obscura. In 
 the course of a few seconds or minutes, the requisite time 
 depending upon the intensity of the light, the plate is re 
 moved ; and though nothing is as yet visible upon it, it has 
 received the image, which is brought out and rendered evi 
 
PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 dent by subjecting it, inclined at an angle or about 45°, to 
 the vapour of mercury. This operation is performed in a 
 box with a glass side, at the bottom of which is a basin of 
 mercury heated to about 170°, so that the operator may sec 
 the progress of the appearance of the image, and remove 
 the plate when it is perfect; but light must be as far as pos- 
 sible excluded, and more especially daylight. The plate is 
 then washed by cautious immersion in a solution of hypo- 
 .sulphite of soda, and lastly with boiling distilled water, and 
 allowed to dry: it is now perfect, may be exposed to light 
 without injury ; but must be carefully protected from all 
 friction by covering it with a glass. The action of the va- 
 rious .-hades of light upon the film of iodine, and the subse- 
 quent influence of the mercurial vapour, upon which the 
 visibility of the picture depends, have not been satisfactorily 
 explained, and require further experimental elucidation 
 The perfection of the drawing, and the extraordinary man 
 ner in which the minutest details are represented, we have 
 noticed in our former article ; they must, however, be seen 
 to be accurately judged of and duly appreciated. 
 
 The term " Photogenic Drawing" has usually been applied 
 to a process very different from the preceding ; namely, to 
 iepres<Mit,itions of various objects upon paper imbued with 
 some of the salts of silver. If a piece of paper be dipped 
 into a weak solution of nitrate of silver, earefully dried, 
 and preserved out of the contact of light, it remains white ; 
 but if exposed to light it gradually becomes discoloured, 
 acquiring a brownish or gray tint, and ultimately blackens, 
 the depth of colour depending upon the intensity of the 
 light ;i rui duration of exposure. If any opaque or translu- 
 cent object be laid upon a sheet of paper so prepared, so as 
 wholly or partially to intercept the incident light, a repre- 
 sentation of the object is obtained upon the paper. Where 
 the light has been wholly intercepted, it remains white; 
 Where partially so, various shades are produced; and wher- 
 ever the light has fallen without interruption, the utmost 
 lined, if, for instance, a portrait painted in 
 transparent colours upon a plate of glass be laid upon a 
 the prepared paper, and exposed to the solar light, 
 a copy is obtained in which the lights of the original are 
 ■hndea, and the shades lights in proportion to their intensity : 
 but if such a picture be taken upon a very thin piece of 
 paper, this may be again copied by a repetition of the pro- 
 Ihen the lights and shades will be as in the origi- 
 nal. It is, however, obvious that such a photograph will 
 only be durable whilst kept in the dark, and that exposure 
 to light will gradually obliterate the whole; to fix it, the 
 paper m tst be washed in a solution of hyposulphite of lime 
 i>r of soda, which removes all remaining and unaltered salt 
 of silver, but leaves the image untouched. In this process 
 the paper, after having been impregnated with nitrate of 
 silver, or with ammonia-nitrate of silver, is generally dipped 
 in a dilution of common salt, by which chloride of silver is 
 finned, and this is more susceptible of the influence of light 
 than the mere nitrate. 
 
 In this article we hnve merely given an outline of the 
 theory of the process of photogenic drawing ; the use of 
 I silver for this purpose, and the mode of copying 
 painti n gs on glass, was originally suggested about forty years 
 ago by Mr. Wedgwood and Sir II. Davy. '1'be interest ex- 
 cited by Dagnenvi discoveries induced various experiment- 
 alists to resume the inquiry ; and many new and important 
 nected with it have accordingly been brought to 
 light, especially by Mr. Pea Talbot and SirJ. F. VV. HereeheL 
 whose communications are published in the Philosophical 
 Transactions ; and by Mr. A. Taylor, who has written a 
 «ma]| tract upon the subject. 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHY. .See Photooemc Drawing. 
 
 PHOTO'METER. (Gr. f>u>{, light, and ucrpov. measure.) 
 An instrument for measuring the intensity of light, or of 
 illumination. 
 
 The most elegant instrument which goes under this name 
 '« the photometer invented by the late Sir John Leslie. It 
 
 (1.) 
 
 is merely the differential thermometer of 
 the same ingenious philosopher, having 
 one of its balls diaphanous, and the other 
 coated with China ink, or blown of deep 
 black enamel ; and the whole covered 
 by a case of thin transparent glass, to de- 
 fend the balls from the disturbing influence 
 of currents of air. The photometer has 
 two general forms ; the one portable (fig. 
 ^> 1.) in which the black ball is about an 
 
 inch higher than the other, and bent forward to the same 
 vertical line, or the axis of the translucent cylindrical case ; 
 and the other stationary (fig. 2,) having both its balls of the 
 same height, and reclining in opposite ways ; the case being 
 composed of a wide cylinder surmounted by the larger seg- 
 ment of a hollow glass sphere. The latter form of the in- 
 strument, though less commodious, is better adapted for nice 
 observations; since, besides receiving the light more regu- 
 larly, its balls, from bcw» on 'he same level, are not liable 
 3 N 
 
 PHOTOMETRY. 
 
 to be any how disturbed in their indications by different 
 strata of unequally heated air. 
 
 The theory of this photometer depends on the assumed 
 principle that the intensity of light is proportional to the 
 heat excited by its incidence on the black ball. When the 
 instrument is exposed to light, the rays which fall on the 
 clear ball pass through it, without suffering obstruction ; but 
 those which strike the dark ball are stopped and absorbed at 
 its surface, where, assuming a latent form, they act as heat, 
 which, by expanding the air within the ball, causes the 
 liquid in the stain to descend. This heat will continue to 
 accumulate till its farther increase comes to be counteracted 
 by an opposite dispersion, caused by the rise of temperature 
 which the ball has acquired. Hut, in still air, the rate of 
 cooling is, within moderate limits, proportional to the ex- 
 cess of the temperature of a given surface above that of 
 the surrounding medium. Hence the space through which 
 the coloured liquid sinks in the stem will measure the 
 mentary impressions of light, or its actual intensity, (i.is- 
 lie on the Relations of Jlir to Heat and Moisture.) 
 
 The graduation is entirely arbitrary, and may be regulated 
 according to fancy or convenience. Leslie adopted the same 
 scale or divisions as in the differential thermometer, 
 degrees of which correspond to one of the centigrade ther 
 mometer. When the temperature of both balls is exactly 
 the same, that is, when the instrument is excluded from 
 light, the liquid in the stem next the coloured hall stands at 
 zero. In this country the direct impression of the sun at 
 noon, about the summer solstice, forces the liquid down to 
 90° or 100°. The greatest force of the solar beams, In the 
 depth of winter, measures only about 35°. At the altitude 
 of 3° above the horizon, the whole effect of the sun's rays 
 does not exceed one degree. The indirect light from the 
 sky at noon in summer is from 30° to 40°; in winter from 
 10° to 15°. Comparing the illuminating power Of the solar 
 rays with that of artificial lights, Leslie found the light 
 emitted by the sun 12,000 times more powerful than ih 
 a wax candle; that is to say, if a portion of the luminous 
 solar matter, rather less than half an Inch In diameter, were 
 transmitted to our planet, it would throw forth a light equal 
 to the effect of 12,000 candles. 
 
 It has been objected that the instrument now described bj 
 only a species of thermometer, and not strictly a photome- 
 ter; since it measures heat, and not light. To this objec 
 Don Sir J. Leslie replies by .asking. "What does the 
 mometer itself indicate except expansion? As heat i- 
 measiired by the expansion it occasions, so light is deter- 
 mined by the intensity of the heat which in every supposi- 
 tion invariably accompanies it. What other mode, alter 
 all, could be imagined for detecting the presence of light 7 
 How can an unknown quantity be expounded but in term 
 of one already known?" (Ency. lirit., art. " Climate. ") 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that the same quantity of 
 light emitted by terrestrial bodies of different kinds is not 
 always accompanied with the same degree of heat. Thus, 
 phosphorus burns in oxygen gas with intense splendour, 
 and yet gives out far less heal than the comparatively dull 
 combustion of hydrogen in the same gas; and the photome- 
 ter is more affected by a fire so dull that not a single letter 
 could be discerned in a well-printed page, than by the de- 
 gree of daylight by which the same page could be read 
 with pleasure and facility. For a particular description of 
 the photometer, and on account of its numerous applica- 
 tions, see Leslie's Experimental Inquiry into the JVaturc 
 and Propagation of Heat, 1804. 
 
 PHOTO'METRY. (Gr.^wj, and utrpov, measure.) The 
 science which treats of the measurement of light. At 
 tempts to determine the relative intensities of different 
 lights were made at an early period in the histnry of ex- 
 perimental science. For the purpose of comparing the light 
 of Sirius with that of the sun, the celebrated Huygcns em- 
 ployed a tube having a very small aperture at one end, into 
 which was inserted a minute globular lens, which allowed 
 only the 27664th part of the solar disk to be seen, and this 
 small portion afforded a light which appeared equally bright 
 with Sirius; whence he concluded the distance of Sirius to 
 he 27064 times greater than that of the sun. (liny genii 
 Cosmotheoros.) Celsius appears to have been the first who 
 proposed to measure light directly by means of what he 
 called a lucimeter. His method, however, which was an 
 extremely imperfect one, consisted simply in observing the 
 greatest distance from the eye at which small circles painted 
 on paper were distinctly visible in different lights. It was 
 reserved for Bouguer to establish photometry on true prin- 
 ciples. Having been induced by Mairan's remarks on the 
 relative proportion of the sun's light at the summer and 
 winter solstice to investigate the subject, he undertook a 
 series of experiments, of which the results were first pub 
 Iished in his Essai d' Optique, 1729; and afterwards in his 
 Traiti £ Optique sur la Gradation de la Lumiire, which 
 appeared in 1760, two years after his death. In the same 
 rear aoneared the Photometria of Lambert; in which the 
 
PHOTOPHOBIA. 
 
 subject was treated more generally, and with great mathe- 
 matical elegance. The principle adopted by Bouguer and 
 Lambert is extremely simple. Though the eye cannot 
 judge of the proportional force of different lights, it can dis- 
 tinguish in many cases with great precision when two sim- 
 ilar surfaces presented together are equally illuminated, or 
 when the shadows of an opaque object thrown upon them 
 by different lights are equally dark. But, ns the particles 
 of light proceed in straight lines, they must spread uni- 
 formly, and hence their density will diminish in the dupli- 
 cate ratio of their distances. From the respective situa- 
 tions, therefore, of the centres of divergency when the 
 contrasted surfaces become equally bright, we may easily 
 compute their relative degrees of illumination. The objec- 
 tion to this method is, that the apparatus admits of no 
 certain standard of comparison. Even the light of the sun 
 itself, at the same altitude, and in the same climate, is sub- 
 ject to considerable variation ; much more so any artificial 
 light, the force of which must always be influenced by a 
 number of undefinable circumstances. In this respect, 
 therefore, the photometer described in the preceding article 
 has a great and decided advantage. 
 
 A simple and elegant application of the principle of Bou- 
 guer was made by the late Dr. Ritchie. His apparatus 
 consists of a rectangular box, about an inch and a half or 
 two inches square, open at both ends and blackened within, 
 to absorb extraneous light. Within, inclined at angles of 
 45° to its axis, are placed two rectangular plates of plane 
 looking-glass, cut from one and the same strip, to ensure 
 equality of their reflecting powers, and fastened so as to 
 meet at the top, in the middle of a narrow slit about an 
 inch long, and an eighth of an inch broad, which is covered 
 with a slip of fine tissue or oiled paper. In comparing, by 
 means of this instrument, the illuminating powers of two 
 different sources of light, they must be placed at such a 
 distance from each other, and from the instrument between 
 them, that the light from every part of each shall fall on the 
 reflector next it, and be reflected to the corresponding por- 
 tion of the oiled paper. The instrument is then moved 
 nearer the one or the other, till the two portions of the paper 
 corresponding to the respective mirrors are equally illumin- 
 ated, of which the eye can judge with considerable certainty. 
 
 The modification of this method, which consists in con- 
 trasting the shadows of an opaque object formed by different 
 lights, is usually ascribed to Count Rumford, by whom it 
 was proposed in the Phil. Trans., vol. lxxxiv., but was long 
 before used by Lambert. It is generally supposed that the 
 equality of two shadows can be appreciated with more 
 certainty than that of two lights ; but, when the lights are 
 of different colours, their estimation by either method ad- 
 mits of little precision. 
 
 M. Arago has proposed a method of determining the rel- 
 ative intensities of different lights entirely different in prin- 
 :iple from any of the preceding, and probably susceptible 
 3f much greater accuracy. It is founded on the properties 
 of polarized light. When two lights are to be compared, 
 the rays from each are polarized by causing them to pass 
 through a plate of tourmaline cut parallel to the axis, or by 
 reflecting them from a plate of glass, on which they fall at 
 the polarizing angle. They are then received on a plate of 
 rock crystal, cut perpendicularly to the axis, and observed 
 through a doubly refracting prism. Each light will thus 
 give two images tinged with the complementary colours. 
 The images are then brought into such a position that the 
 red of the one falls over the green of the other. If the 
 two lights are equal in intensity, this superposition will 
 produce a white image ; if unequal, the image will be 
 slightly coloured with red or green, according as the one or 
 the other predominates. The apparatus which this method 
 requires is somewhat complicated, and its manipulation 
 must be attended with considerable trouble. (See the 
 Notes to the French translation of Sir J. HerscheVs Trea- 
 tise on Light, Paris, 1833.1 
 
 PHOTOPHO'BIA. (Gr. ^wc, light, and 0o/? £ a>, I terrify.) 
 An intolerance or dread of light ; it is a symptom of inter- 
 nal ophthalmia. 
 
 PHRASE. (Gr. Qpaois, speech or expression.) In Music, 
 a short melody in which a perfect musical idea is not en- 
 tirely developed. 
 
 PHRASEO'LOGY. (Gr. foams, and Xoyof, science), 
 properly the science or know-ledge of style ; but used in 
 common language to signify the peculiarities of diction of 
 * writer, school, &.C. 
 
 PHRA'TRY. Gr. <j>p irpi'n.) A subdivision of Athenian 
 citizens, analogous to the Spartan obe and Roman curia, 
 distinguished by particular rites and ceremonies that bound 
 its members together. Each of the four ancient tribes was 
 divided into three phratries, and each phratry into thirty 
 sections or clans, which bore a name exactly answering to 
 the Roman gens (vivos) ', and this division remained subse- 
 quently to and independent of the ten tribes of Cleisthenes. 
 The free Athenians registered their own or their adopted 
 930 
 
 PHRENOLOGY. 
 
 children in the phratries to which they themselves be 
 longed, at the festival of the Apaturia; but what the age 
 of registry was is uncertain. 
 
 PIIRE'NIC. (Gr. <pptvts (plural of <ponv, the mind), the 
 diaphragm.) Relating to the diaphragm. 
 
 PHRENI'TIS. (Gr. <pp n v, the mind.) Inflammation of 
 the brain or its membranes. 
 
 PHRENO LOGY. tGr. qjp n v, the mind, and \oyo;, dis- 
 course), ought, according to its etymology, to signify mental 
 philosophy. The word has, however, been appropriated by 
 craniologists, on account of the light which their observa- 
 tions of the convolutions of the brain, and corresponding 
 elevations on the skull, are supposed to throw on the na 
 ture and province of our different faculties. Those who 
 wish to judge how far this pretension is justifiable may con- 
 sult the works of Dr. Spurzheim and of Mr. Combe on the 
 subject. These gentlemen divide our faculties into threo 
 classes : the intellectual or perceptive, the sentiments or 
 emotions, and the animal propensities. To the first of these 
 is assigned the anterior portion of the head ; the second 
 occupies the middle and upper; while the posterior region 
 and the cerebellum are allowed to the third and most in 
 glorious division. That this distribution, in its general out 
 line, is borne out by facts, observation is sufficient to con 
 vince us; but whether the subdivision of those regions into 
 minute special organs corresponding to distinct faculties is 
 equally well supported, and whether the mental analysis 
 implied in it can be considered sound and accurate, are 
 questions which our limits forbid us to discuss. We s-.ili 
 join, however, for the reader's convenience in consultation, 
 the following outline of the different faculties, with their 
 uses and abuses, which we have borrowed from the Intro- 
 duction to Mr. G. Combe's Notes on the United States oj 
 America, during a Phrenological Visit in 1838-0-40, as 
 probably containing the most recent as well as the most 
 authentic account of the present state of this much can- 
 vassed science. The subjoined figure will be of use in 
 illustrating the observations. 
 
 This figure shows the three great phrenological divisions 
 of the brain. The line B runs through the centre of ossi- 
 fication of the parietal bone 
 (the organ of Cautiousness, 
 No. 12), and terminates in the 
 centre of ossification of the 
 frontal bone situated at the 
 point where it touches the 
 line A A (the organ of Cau- 
 sality, No. 35.) The portion 
 above the line B is named 
 the coronal region, and serves 
 to manifest chiefly the moral 
 sentiments. The line A cor- 
 responds to the posterior lat- 
 eral edge of the superorbiter 
 plate, on which the anterior 
 lobe of the brain rests. The 
 s]>ace before the line A A indicates the size of the anterior 
 lobe, the region devoted to the manifestation of the intel- 
 lectual faculties. If the space before the lower A be long, 
 the organs of the observing faculties are large ; and if the 
 space forward from the point where the line B meets the 
 line A A be long, the reflecting organs are large. The space 
 below B and behind A A manifests the propensities com- 
 mon to man with the lower animals. We may remark that 
 in the above figure the coronal region would be said to be 
 large, indicating powerful moral sentiments; the intellect 
 ual region about an average, and that of the so called ani 
 mal propensities moderate. 
 
 The faculties generally recognised by phrenologists ate 
 the following.* 
 
 * T\\p organs arc double, each faculty having two lying in corresponding 
 situations of the hemispheres of the brain ; eicept in those organs, such as 
 individuality, eventtuility, Untvolmet, tfc, represented in toe tig. by 22, 
 a), 13, &'., which occupy the central part of the scull. 
 
I\i PENOLOGY. 
 
 Order I. Feelings. 
 Propensities — Common to Man with the Lower 
 Animals. 
 (The Love of Life. 
 *■. Appetite for Food. — Uses: Nutrition. — Abuses: 
 ( Gluttony and drunkenness. 
 
 1. Amativeness — Produces sexual love. 
 
 2. Philoproqenitiveness. — Uses : Affection for young 
 and tender beings. — Abuses : Pampering and spoiling chil- 
 dren. 
 
 3. Concentrativeness. — Use s : It renders permanent 
 emotions and ideas in the mind. — Abuses : Morbid dwelling 
 on the internal emotions and ideas, to the neglect of exter- 
 nal impressions. 
 
 3. a. Inhabitiveness. — Use s : It produces the desire of 
 permanence in place. — Abuses : Aversion to move abroad. 
 
 4. Adhesiveness. — Uses: Attachment, friendship, and 
 society result from it. — Abuses : Clanship for improper ob- 
 jects, attachment to worthless individuals. 
 
 I it ati veness. — Uses : Courage to meet danger nnd 
 difficulties tendency to oppose and attack what 
 ever requires opposition, and to resist unjust encroachments. 
 — Abuses : Love of contention, and tendency to provoke 
 and IWllllI This feeling obviously adapts man to a world 
 in which danger and difficulty abound. 
 
 0. Dkstructiveness. — Uses: Desire to destroy noxious 
 objects nnd to kill for food. It is very discernible in car- 
 nivorous animals. — Abuses: Cruelty, murder, desire lo tor- 
 ment; tendency to passion, rage, and harshness and severity 
 in speech and writing. This feeling places man in harmo- 
 ny with death and destruction, which are woven into the 
 system of sublunary creation. 
 
 7. ^i.( retiveness. — Uses : Tendency to restrain within 
 the mind the various emotions nnd ideas that involuntarily 
 present themselves until the judgment lias approved of 
 giving them utterance ; it is simply the propensity to conceal, 
 and is an Ingredient in prudence. — Abuses: Cunning, de- 
 ceit, duplicity and lying. 
 
 8. Acquisitiveness. — Uses : Desire to possess, and ten- 
 dency to accumulate articles of utility to provide against 
 want. — Abuses : Inordinate desire of property, selfishness, 
 avarice, theft. 
 
 9. Cosstructiveness. — Uses: Desire to build and con- 
 struct works of art. — Abuses: Construction of engines to in- 
 jure or destroy, and fabrication of objects to deceive man- 
 kind. 
 
 Genus II. Sentiments. 
 
 1. Sentiments common to Man with the Lower Animals. 
 
 10. Self-esteem. — Uses: Self-respect, self-interest, love 
 of independence, personal dignity.— Abuses : Pride, disdain, 
 overweening conceit, excessive selfishness, love of domin- 
 ion. 
 
 11. Love of Approbation. — Uses: Desire of the es- 
 teem of others, love of praise, desire of fame or glory. — 
 Abuses : vanity, ambition, thirst for praise independently of 
 praisewortliiness. 
 
 12. Cautiousness. — Uses: It gives origin to the senti- 
 ment of fear, the desire to shun danger, and circums|>ection ; 
 anil it is an ingredient in prudence. — Abuses : Excessive 
 timidity, poltroonry, unfounded apprehensions, despondency, 
 melancholy. 
 
 13. Benevolence. — Uses: Desire of the happiness of 
 others, universal charity, mildness of disposition, and a 
 lively sympathy with the enjoyment of all animated beings. 
 — Abuses : Profusion, injurious indulgence of the appetites 
 and fancies of others, prodigality, facility of temper. 
 
 II. Sentiments proper to Man. 
 
 14. Veneration. — Uses : Tendency to venerate or res- 
 
 * Thne rrs^ns are not fully ascertained, but some facts indicate that they 
 tie in the base of ihe brain. The first it not marked on the bust, but the 
 second is indicated by 6 a. on Fix- 1. 
 
 Feeling or Touch. 
 
 Taste. 
 
 Smell. 
 
 Hearing. 
 
 Sight. 
 
 poet whatever is great and good; gives origin to religious 
 adoration. — Abuses : Senseless respect for unworthy objects 
 consecrated by time or situation, love of antiquated customs. 
 abject subserviency to persons in authority, superstitious 
 awe. 
 
 15. Firmness. — Uses; Determination, perseverance. 
 steadiness of purpose.— Abuses: Stubbornness, infatuation. 
 tenacity in evil. 
 
 1(3. Conscientiousness. — Uses: It gives origin to the 
 sentiment of justice, or respect for the rights .of others, open- 
 ness lo conviction, the love of truth. — Abuses : Scrupulous 
 ! adherence to noxious principles when ignorantly embraced, 
 excessive refinement in the views of duty and obligation, 
 excess in remorse or self-condemnation. 
 
 17. HorE.— Uses ; Tendency to expect future good; >• 
 cherishes faith. — Abuses : Credulity with respect to the at- 
 tainment of what is desired, absurd expectations of felicitv 
 not founded on reason. 
 
 18. Wonder. — Uses: The desire of novelty ; admiration 
 of the new, the unexpected, the grand, the wonderful, anr< 
 extraordinary. — Abuses : Love of the marvellous and occult 
 nnnitojgsn lllllnnMllllll ; belief in prodigies, magic, ghosts 
 and other supernatural absurdities. 
 
 19. Ideality. — Uses: Love of the beautiful and splen- 
 did, desire of excellence, poetic feeling. — Abuses : Extrnv- 
 gnnce and absurd enthusiasm, preference of the showy ano 
 glaring to the solid and useful, a tendency to dwell in tur 
 regions of fancy and to neglect the duties of life. 
 
 19. a. The organ of Sublimity ; but not sufficiently aso- 
 tained. 
 
 20. Wit. — Gives the feeling of the ludicrous, and dispose: 
 to mirth. 
 
 21. Imitation — Copies the manners, gestures and ac 
 tions of others, and appearances in nature generally. 
 
 Order II. Intellectual Faculties. 
 Genus I. External Senses. 
 
 Uses : To bring man into com 
 municntion with external objects, 
 and to enable him to enjoy them. 
 — Abuses: Excessive ind n I 
 in the pleasures arising from the 
 senses, to the extent ot impairing 
 bodily health and debilitating or 
 . deteriorating the mind 
 
 Genus II. Knowing Faculties, which perceive the 
 Existence and Uualities of External Objects. 
 
 22. Individuality— Takes cognizance of existence and 
 simple facts. 
 
 23. Form — Renders man observant of form. 
 
 24. Size — Gives the idea of *pace, and enables him to ap 
 preciate dimension and distance. 
 
 25. Weight — Communicates the perception of momen- 
 tum, weight, and resistance, and aids equilibrium. 
 
 26. Colouring — Gives perception of colours and their 
 harmonies. 
 
 Genus III. Knowing Faculties, which perceive the 
 Relations of External Objects. 
 
 27. Locality— Gives the idea of relative position. 
 
 28. Number— Gives the talent for calculation. 
 
 29. Order — Communicates the love of physical arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 30. Eventuality — Takes cognizance of occurrences or 
 events. 
 
 31. Time— Gives rise to the perception of duration. 
 
 32. Tune. — The sense of Melody and Harmony arises 
 from it. 
 
 33. Language — Gives facility in acquiring a knowledge 
 of arbitrary signs to express thoughts, readiness in the use 
 of them, and the power of inventing and recollecting them. 
 
 Genus IV. Reflecting Faculties, which compare, 
 judge, and discriminate. 
 
 34. Comparison — Gives the power of discovering analo- 
 gies, resemblances, and differences. 
 
 35. Causality — Traces the dependences of phenomena, 
 and the relation of cause and effect. 
 
 The most accredited works in favour of phrenology are 
 Mr. Combe's writings, and the Phrenological Journal, which 
 is ably conducted. The most hostile inquiry into the pre- 
 tensions of phrenology to be regarded as a science appeared 
 in 1826, in the Edinburgh Review. In that article, which 
 was well known to have emanated from the pen of Mr 
 (now Lord) Jeffrey, the views of the phrenologists are 
 treated with ridicule, and their weak side subjected to one 
 of the most vigorous attacks ever made in literary criti- 
 cism. 
 
 PHRYGA'NHLE. Case-worm fiies. The family of Tri 
 chopterous insects of which the genus Phrygania is the> 
 type. Set Trichopterans. 
 
 931 
 
PHRYGIAN MARBLE. 
 
 PHRYGIAN MARBLE. See Marble. 
 PHRYGIANS. An early sect of heretics ; so called from 
 
 *irygia, the country where they ahounded. They regard- 
 ed Montnnus, the founder of the Montanists, (which see), 
 
 4 their prophet ; and their distinguishing characteristic was 
 
 He spirit of prophecy to which they laid claim. 
 
 PHTHIRI'ASIS. (Gt.<f>dap,alouse.) A disease in which 
 the body is overrun with lice. 
 
 PHTHISIS. (Gr. tpdtvu, ■ I consume.) Consumption, 
 which see. 
 
 PHYCOMA'TER. (Gr. Qvkos, sea-weed, and unrtjp, 
 mother.) The gelatine in which the sporules of Algaceous 
 plants first vegetate. 
 
 PH YLA'CTERY. (Gr. <j>v\aKTnpiov, a protection or pres- 
 ervation.) An amulet or preservative against infection. 
 The phylacteries of the Jews were derived from the in- 
 junction contained in Exodus, xiii., 9 ; and consisted of slips 
 of parchment inscribed with verses of the law, enclosed in 
 cases and worn during prayer on the arm and between the 
 eyes. 
 
 PHY'LjE. (Gr. <pv\t], a tribe.) The tribes into which 
 the whole of Attica was divided in antiquity. Originally 
 there were but four phylae, which were frequently remodel- 
 led, but remained the same in number till soon after the 
 expulsion of the Pisistratidte, when Cleisthenes caused 
 their number to be increased to ten. What the precise na- 
 ture of the change effected on this occasion was is not 
 known, but it is probable that the new tribes embraced a 
 large number of citizens that had been excluded from the 
 former. The phylse were afterwards increased to twelve, 
 by the addition of two in honour of Antigonous and his son 
 Demetrius. The Athenian senate was composed of fifty 
 delegates from each of these tribes. 
 
 PHY'LARCH. (Gr. 0vXnpxos, ruler of a phyle.) An 
 Athenian officer appointed for each phyle or tribe, to super- 
 intend the registering of its members and other common du- 
 ties. The title answers to that of the Roman tribune, but 
 its functions never reached the same importance. 
 
 PHYLLO'DIA. (Gr. <pv\\ov, a leaf.) A term applied 
 to the petioles of certain leafless plants which become so 
 much developed as to assume the appearance of leaves, all 
 the functions of which they perform. 
 
 PHYLLONY'CTERANS. (Gr. <j>vWov and vuKTtpis, a 
 tat.) The name of a primary division of the order Chei- 
 roptera, including the " foliated bats," or those species which 
 have the ears and nose complicated by grotesque and vari- 
 ously-figured membranous foliations, serving the purpose of 
 antennae, and augmenting the sense of touch in these night- 
 flying and short-sighted species. The tribe is also charac- 
 terized by having a single finger, the innermost armed with 
 a hooked-shaped claw, and the molar teeth beset with 
 sharp-pointed tubercles adapted for crushing insects. 
 
 PHYLLO'PHAGANS, Phyllophaga. (Gr. 0uXXor, and 
 +ayu>, I eat.) The name of a tribe of Marsupials, includ- 
 ing the Phalangers, Petaurists, and Koala; also of a tribe 
 of beetles, including those which live by suction of the 
 tender parts of vegetables, as the leaves and succulent 
 sprouts. 
 
 PHY'LLOPODS, Phyllopoda. (Gr. <pv\\bv, and ttou?, 
 a foot.) The name of a tribe of Crustaceans, compre- 
 hending those in which the feet are of a flattened leaf-like 
 form. 
 
 PHY'LLOSTOMES, Phyllostomata. (Gr. (pvWov, and 
 oro/ia, a mouth.) A family of bats, including those in which 
 the nose supports a simple leaf-shaped appendage. 
 
 PHYSA. (Gr. Qvaa, a bubble.) A genus of fresh-water 
 snails; so called from the thinness and inflated appearance 
 of the shell. Several species of bubble-shell are found in 
 England ; as Physa fontinalis, in the Thames ; Physa alba, 
 in North Wales ; Physa hypnorum, common in ponds and 
 slow streams. 
 
 PHY'SALIS, or PHYSA'LIA. (Gr. Qvaa.) The name 
 of a hydrostatic Acalephan, commonly called the Portu- 
 guese man-of-war, remarkable for its size, the brilliancy 
 of its hues, and the severe burning pain produced by its 
 contact. 
 
 PH Y'SALITE. In Mineralogy, a species of topaz. 
 
 PHYSCO'NIA. (Gr. (fivaicwv, a big-bellied fellow.) This 
 term is applied to various enlargements of the abdomen un- 
 connected with dropsy or with accumulations of air, such as 
 morbid states of the liver or of the spleen. 
 
 PHY'SICS. (Gr. <f>vois, nature.) The science of nature. 
 In modern language, however, the term has a less general 
 signification than its derivation implies. Nature signifying 
 the assemblage of all the bodies of the universe, the science 
 of nature comprehends every species of knowledge which 
 regards the external world. But bodies may be studied un- 
 der three different points of view ; they may be examined 
 with relation to their different properties, with relation to 
 their constituent parts, and with relation to their appear- 
 ances and exterior qualities. These three distinct views 
 five rise to the three great divisions of natural science ; 
 932 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 namely, Physics, Chemistry, and Natural History . Phyt- 
 ics has for its object the properties of bodies, chemistry 
 studies their elementary principles, and natural history ob- 
 serves their physiognomy or external appearance. 
 
 PHYSIO'GNOMY. (Gr. tpvets, nature, and yvu>iiu>v, a 
 rule or measure.) The art of interpreting the indications 
 ot the inward disposition supposed to be afforded by the out- 
 ward appearance, especially the features of the face. (See 
 L-avater's Physiognomy.) 
 
 PHYSIOL'OGY. (Gr. (pvais, and \oyo$, a discourse.) 
 The science of things generated or alive; but usually re- 
 garded as the doctrine of vital phenomena. This science is 
 divided, according to the two great classes of generated be- 
 ings, into animal and vegetable physiology. Some philoso- 
 phers have proposed to change the term for " biology ;" but 
 the restricted application of bios to the life of an individual 
 in other English compound words, as "biography," would 
 be an objection to this change, even if the word physiology 
 were less appropriate than it is, or if its use in the sense 
 above defined had not been sanctioned by philosophers of 
 other nations. 
 
 The chief object of the physiologist is to ascertain the 
 precise mode in which each part or organ of a living being 
 reacts when stimulated. When the precise conditions and 
 mode of the reaction of the circulating fluid upon the solids, 
 and reciprocally, are understood, a true and intelligible defi 
 nition of life may, perhaps, be given. 
 
 In animal physiology, the simplest condition under which 
 life can be contemplated is that which it presents in the 
 torpid hybernater. • 
 
 During this state a dark nutrient fluid, the venous blood, 
 (see Blood), is propelled, by the contractions of a hollow 
 muscle (see Heart), along the arteries to every part of the 
 body, whence it is again returned to the heart by the veins. 
 With respect to this chief manifestation of life in the torpid 
 animal it may be asked, What is the cause or condition of 
 the reaction of the fibres of the hollow muscle upon the 
 stimulating fluid ? How does each tissue of the body select 
 from the currents flowing through the terminal capillaries 
 the appropriate particles for its growth or reparation, and, 
 in return, add to the blood, either directly or through the 
 medium of lymphatic vessels, its effete particles 1 These 
 are questions which physiology has yet to resolve : the elec- 
 tric conditions of the parts concerned have not been ascer- 
 tained. The blood is maintained in a fit state for the pres- 
 ervation of the tissues of the torpid animal by slowly part- 
 ing with some noxious or useles principles, through the ex- 
 cretion of the kidneys, and of the different mucous and se- 
 rous surfaces. The reaction of the circulating fluids upon the 
 solids supersedes the ordinary chemical reaction, by which 
 they would be decomposed and destroyed, and thus the tor- 
 pid animal is kept alive ; but it is the life of the plant or 
 of the ovum. The functions of circulation, nutrition, exe- 
 cution, are manifested when life is thus reduced, as in the 
 plant, to its simplest condition ; and these must, therefore, 
 be its most essential actions. In the torpid animal, the phe 
 nomena of irritability and contractility of muscular fibre are 
 superadded, as in the action of the heart ; and this is de- 
 pendent on the connexion of the muscular fibre with a 
 nerve. The power of the external decomposing forces ia 
 increased by elevation of temperature ; and the stimulus of 
 heat produces in the torpid animal, in a manner not under- 
 stood, a reaction of the mucous surface of the lungs : this 
 reaction influences, through the nerves, the muscles of res- 
 piration, and atmospheric air is inspired and brought into 
 contact with the thin membrane over which the pulmonary 
 capillaries are richly spread. The result of this contact is 
 the immediate elimination of the carbon from the blood, 
 which changes its dark for a florid red colour ; or converts 
 it from venous to arterial blood. 
 
 The blood, so changed, stimulates in a different and more 
 potent manner the parts over which it is distributed ; the 
 heart contracts more vigorously and frequently ; the brain 
 and nervous system now receiving more blood, and that of 
 a different kind, begin to react on the application of stimuli 
 to which they were before insensible. 
 
 First, self-consciousness ; then sensation of external im- 
 pressions ; lastly, the propagation of a stimulus to the 
 muscular system generally, which produces the reaction 
 of vibratile contraction of its fibre, and by which the ani- 
 mal moves its parts upon each other, or its entire body upon 
 external matter, are successively manifested ; and to circu- 
 lation, nutrition, excretion, and respiration, are now added 
 the functions of sensation and voluntary motion. But with 
 this greatly increased activity of the whole organic ma- 
 chinery, there is a proportional increase of vital decompo- 
 sition; t.e., of abstraction by the tissues of assimilating 
 particles from the capillary blood, and of addition to the 
 same of effete particles; and those actions demand not 
 only increased activity in the organs which eliminate the 
 waste and noxious particles from the blood, and expe! them 
 from the body, but also a means of supplying new iiond 
 
PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Tills Is effected by digestion, chylification, and lacteal 
 absorption. 
 
 It is the consciousness of this want that impels the newly 
 roused hybernating animal to seek for its appropriate food: 
 the first use to which the machine is put is to supply itself 
 with the means for its continued activity; and this com- 
 pletes the circle of the functions by which animal life is 
 maintained, as respects the individual being. 
 
 It is a law, that the renovation of the parts of a living 
 body should not be uniform : at first the power is in excess, 
 and the body grows ; afterwards it is unequal to the waste, 
 and the body shrinks ; it is at no period, perhaps, quite 
 perfect; the machinery of renovation thus, in time, be- 
 COmea unequal to its office, and the ordinary chemical de- 
 compositions and recom positions take the place of those 
 in which life had before essentially consisted. 
 
 A given term of life characterizes each sjiecies of ani- 
 mal , but that the species should continue, it is necessary 
 that the death of the individual be compensated for. This 
 is effected by the power which living beings possess of 
 detaching a portion of themselves ; which pOfltM contains 
 in itself, potentially, all the faculties or functions of life; 
 develops their organs progressively, and according to the 
 pattern of the parent from which it was derived ; and 
 when arrived at maturity, in like manner generates or 
 wparates another portion of itself, with similar powers of 
 development and growth; then decays and dies. Thus 
 the species of living beings are maintained by the function 
 of generation through a long, but apparently not an indefi- 
 nite period of time; for the history of the changes of the 
 earth's surface teaches us that the duration of the exist- 
 -|>ecies, as well as of the individual, is limited, and 
 that many species have become extinct. So far, however, 
 as observation has been able to reach, the death of a species 
 seems to have been rather a violent than a natural one. 
 We have, as yet, had no experience of the extinction of a 
 by a gradual abrogation of the procreative powwu 
 in the individuals of successive generations. Of the intro- 
 duction of new species we know of no natural cause, nor 
 can hardly form a conception of such. 
 
 The science of physiology is that of the different func- 
 tions of which life is the manifestation : that is to say, 
 of circulation, nutrition, excretion, respiration, sensation, 
 muscular contraction, digestion, absorption, generation: 
 with other subordinate faculties, as the maintenance of 
 equable temperature, the production of vocal sounds, the 
 mental phenomena. To explain rtinofl function-;, we most 
 first know the instruments by which they are pertained ; 
 secondly, the matters which they attract, those which 
 they reject, and the nature of that which remains; thirdly, 
 by what forces these matters are transported, attracted, 
 retained, and rejected ; and finally, the nature of the 
 stimuli appropriate to each part, and the node in which 
 such pari reacts when stimulated. Physiology has thus 
 many detriments, and each department has Its anato- 
 mical, chemical, dynamical, and what may be termed its 
 pure I v physiological line of research. 
 
 PHYSIOLOGY, VEGETABLE. See Botany. 
 
 PIIY'SOGRADES, Physograda. (Gr. ipvaic, air, and 
 pradior, I proceed. The name of a tribe of Acalepha;, com- 
 prehending those which swim by means of air-bladders. 
 
 PilYTl'PIIAGANS, Phytiphaga. (Gr. 0uror, a plant, 
 and Qiiyut, f cat.) The name of a tribe of Cetaceous Mam- 
 mals, synonymous with Herbimra. Also, applied by La- 
 marck to a section of his order of Trachclipod MoUusks, 
 
 PH YTO'GRAPHY. (Gr. furor, a plant, and yp, ( fw, I 
 describe.) That branch of science which concerns itself 
 with the rules to be observed in describing and mmtlW 
 plants. See Botany. 
 
 PHYTO'LOGY. (Gr. dmrov, and \oyoc, a discourse.) 
 A book containing herbs and plants. 
 
 PHYTO'PHAGOUS. (Gr. furor, a plant, and f ayu>, 
 
 tat.) Plant-eating. 
 
 PHYTO'ZOONS, Phytozoa. (Gr. (fwrov, a plant, and 
 tftaov, an animal.) This term is applied by various na- 
 turalists to different sections of the sub-kingdom Zoopkyta 
 of Cuvii r. 
 
 PIA MATER. A thin vascular membrane covering the 
 convolutions of the brain and the spinal marrow. 
 
 PIA'NO. In Music. See P., &c. 
 
 PIA' NO-FORTE. (It.) A musical stringed instrument 
 jC the keyed species. Its name, compounded of two Italian 
 words, signifying soft and loud, was probably given to it 
 to distinguish it from the harpsichord and spinet, in which 
 no lightness of touch could lessen the strength of the 
 sound produced from the quills always striking the strings 
 with equal force; whereas, in the piano-forte, the strings 
 are put in vibration by means of small hammers, connect- 
 ed by levers with the key or finger board, which hammers 
 Quit the string the moment it is struck, a damper falling 
 down upon it the moment the finger quits the key. The 
 invention of the piano-forte is ascribed to a German named 
 
 P1CTURESQ.UE. 
 
 Schroeder, who lived at the beginning of last century ; bat 
 it was first introduced into England in 1706, by Zu'mpe, 
 by whom it was greatiy improved. Within the present 
 century this instrument has received many useful and 
 valuable improvements, from the hands both of English- 
 men and foreigners ; so that it may be now fairly regarded 
 as, next to the organ, the noblest and most elegant instru- 
 ment in the whole compass of musical practice. Many 
 distinguished musicians have devoted themselves to the 
 composition of pieces for this instrument ; and several of 
 the most distinguished composers in modern times, among 
 whom we may mention Hummel, Czemy, Herz, Kalk 
 brenner, Cramer, Moscheles, Chopin, Thnlberg, Liszt, &c % 
 have made the instrument itself almost their exclusive 
 study. There is an excellent article on the piano- forte in 
 the British and Foreign Review for 1839. 
 
 PI'ARISTS. (Patres Scholarum Piarum.) Members of 
 a religious order founded at Rome by Cazalanza, a Spanish 
 nobleman, early in the seventeenth century. They wen 
 bound by a special vow to devote themselves to the pur- 
 pose of education. They still continue to superintend a 
 great number of schools in Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, &c. 
 
 PIA'STIIE. A silver coin used in Spain, Italy, Turkey, 
 South America, the East Indies, &c, varying in value in 
 every country. See Money. 
 
 PIA'ZZA. (Ital.) In Architec'ure, a square open space 
 surrounded by buildings. Improperly used in England to 
 denote a walk under an arcade. 
 
 PI'BROCH. Martial music produced by the bag-pipe of 
 the Highlanders. It is said to signify also the instrument 
 itself; but the former meaning, if, indeed, there are any in 
 stances of the latter to he found in any classical writer, 
 has received the sanction of the two most celebrated | 
 of their time, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott. The con 
 noisseurs, says the latter writer, in pipe-muate, atlect to 
 discover, in a well-composed pibroch, the imitative sounds 
 of march, conflict, flight, pursuit, and all the "current of a 
 heady fight." (See a note in Hi-attic's Essay on I.avghter 
 and Ludicrous Composition, chap, iii., for a description of 
 the nnture of the pibroch.) The 17th stanza of the 3d 
 canto of the Lady of the Lake, in v. Inch the effects of this 
 martial music are so admirably depicted, must lie familiar 
 to every reader. 
 
 PI'CA. In Printing, a type of a moderate size ; so called 
 because it was used in printing the Pic, the service-book 
 of old Catholic times, which again is supposed to derive 
 its nppellalion from the piecolour of the text and rubric. 
 
 PI'CAMAR. The bitter principle of tar; whence it 
 derives its name {in pice amarum). 
 
 PICA'RDS. The name of a fanatical and immora' sect 
 of Christians, who sprang up in Bohemia in the fifteenth 
 century. They derived their name from Picard, a native 
 of Flanders, who styled himself the New Adam, and at- 
 tempted to revive the absurdities of the Adamites of the 
 second century in imitating the state of primeval inno- 
 cence. They were completely annihilated by Zisca, the 
 great general of the Hussites, who, struck with their 
 abominable practices, had inarched against them. 
 
 PI'CHDRIM IiKAN. An oblong heavy seed brought 
 from Brazil, and nsed medicinally in the cure of colic. 
 It has a musky odour, and is supposed to be the produce 
 of a species of Laurus. 
 
 PICI. (Lat. picas, a woodpecker.) The name given by 
 Linna-us to a group of birds, corresponding to the Scansores 
 and part of the Passeres of Cuvier. 
 
 PICIDjE. Woodpeckers. The family of birds of which 
 the genus Picvs is the type. 
 
 PI'CKET. In Fortification, a stake used in laying out 
 ground to mark the bounds and angles. Pickets are of 
 various lengths, according to the purpose they are to serve. 
 One end is sharp and shod with iron, and the other some- 
 times carries a small flag, for the purpose of rendering it 
 visible at a distance. 
 
 PI'CROMEL. (Gr. ru-f>oc, bitter, and pcXt, honey.) A 
 peculiar substance, of a sweetish bitter taste, which exists 
 in bile. 
 
 PICROTO'XIA. (Gr. rttxpoc. Utter. st J . *< •'-„■ J ' '~ 
 son.) A poisonous bitter princ !, -e \vy..ci. e\.si» in the 
 Corculus inilicus. 
 
 PICTS WALL. One of the barriers erected by the 
 Romans across the northern [Kirt of our island to restrain 
 the incursions of the Scots. 
 
 PICTURE'SaUE. (Equivalent to the Ital. pittoresco, 
 and the Germ, malerisch.) In the strict sense of the 
 word, all objects which afford fit combinations of form and 
 colour for the imitation of the painter. In literary compo- 
 sition, a style which represents objects and events in such 
 a manner as to call up vivid impressions, as it were, of 
 visible reality, is termed picturesque. 
 
 A great diversity of opinion prevails as to the precise 
 nature of that quality which peculiarly recommends ob- 
 jects for pictorial representation ; but it would be impossible 
 
PIEDROIT. 
 
 in this place to lay down any general rules on the subject, 
 that would be of any use for the guidance of the student. 
 Meanwhile, however, it may be necessary to notice the 
 fact, that the term picturesque is used in a totally different 
 sense from that above adverted to, being applied by many 
 writers to such natural objects as have a somewhat rugged 
 appearance, in contradistinction to those objects which 
 have a sublime or beautiful character. Thus, in water, 
 that of which the surface is broken, and the motion abrupt 
 and irregular ; and, among trees, " not the smooth young 
 beech, nor the fresh and tender ash, but the rugged oak, 
 or knotty wich elm, is picturesque. Nor is it necessary 
 they should be of great bulk ; it is sufficient if they are 
 rough and mossy, with a character of age, and with sudden 
 variations of their forms. Among animals, the ass is ge- 
 nerally thought to be more picturesque than the horse ; 
 and among horses, it is the wild and rough forester, or 
 the worn-out cart-horse, to which that title is applied. 
 In our own species, objects merely picturesque are to be 
 found among the wandering tribes of gipsies and beggars, 
 who, in all the qualities that give them that character, 
 bear a close analogy to the wild forester and the worn- 
 out cart-house ; and again to old mills, hovels, and other 
 inanimate objects of that kind." Such objects, it is argued, 
 are neither beautiful nor sublime ; and though far less 
 universally pleasing and alluring than those which possess 
 the qualities of beauty or sublimity, are nevertheless en- 
 dowed with qualities of their own, which are not only 
 highly suited to the painter and his art, but attractive also 
 to the rest of mankind whose minds have been at all cul- 
 tivated or improved ; and to such objects the term pictur- 
 esque ought to be exclusively applied. It is impossible, we 
 believe, to invalidate this argument, for the circumstances 
 are sufficiently striking and general to admit of a satis- 
 factory solution ; though it must be conceded that great 
 caution is necessary before joining a third and distinct 
 character to the two "graces which it is universally ad- 
 mitted embellish natural forms — the sublime and beauti- 
 ful. But on this question our limits preclude us from 
 entering ; anc' we must refer the rea Jer to Price's elabo- 
 rate worx on t:ie Picturesque for full information. (See 
 also the Quart. Rev. vol. iv.) 
 
 PIEDROIT. (Fr.) In Architecture, a pier or square 
 pillar partly hid within a wall. It is without base or 
 capital, therein differing from a pilaster. 
 
 PIE'NO. (It.) In Music, a term denoting that the com- 
 position where the word is appended is full, that is, for all 
 the performers. 
 
 PIE POUDRE COURT. In English Law, a court 
 established to decide on the spot disputes arising at fairs 
 or markets. It was styled in Lat. curia pedis pulverizati, 
 and derived its name from the itinerant " dusty-footed" 
 dealers (in old Fr. pied pouldreux), for whose convenience 
 it was principally instituted. 
 
 PIER. In Architecture, the solid between the openings 
 of a building, or that from which an arch springs. An 
 abutment pier, in a bridge, is that next the shore. For the 
 . mode of building the piers of a bridge, see Bridge. 
 
 Pier. In Engineering, identical with mote, and is used 
 to designate the masses of building erected to form har- 
 bours, landing-places, &c. 
 
 PIERCED. In Heraldry, a term used when a charge 
 is represented as perforated, so as to show the field un- 
 der it. 
 
 PIE'RIDES. A name of the Muses, who were so called 
 from Pieria, a district of Thrace. This was also the name 
 of the nine daughters of Pierus, the king of Emathia, 
 whose profound acquaintance with the fine arts tempted 
 them to challenge the Muses to a contest of musical skill ; 
 but, being worsted, were changed by the latter into mag- 
 pies. In memory of their victory over the Pierides, the 
 Muses are considered, by some authors, to have adopted 
 the name. 
 
 PI'ETISTS. The name given to certain reformers of 
 the doctrines and practice of the Lutheran church, that 
 arose in Germany towards the end of the seventeenth 
 century, and caused great dissensions in that body. The 
 Pietists may be divided into two classes, of which the one 
 proposed to effect merely an amendment of life and man- 
 ners, and to promote a more evangelical spirit and con- 
 ception of gosj>el truth than was cherished by the reformed 
 churches, which, at the period in question, had degene- 
 rated into great coldness and formality. Out of the dis- 
 cussions which this agitation excited there arose, how- 
 t ver, a more violent and fanatical sect, who accompanied 
 the assaults they made on the doctrine and discipline of 
 the church, by the assertion of various mystical extra- 
 vagances. Arnold, Dippelius, and Petersen were their most 
 distinguished leaders. The same school of theologians 
 gave birth to the celebrated enthusiast Jacob Behmen. "(See 
 JHosheim, vol. v., p. 312, trans. 1790.) The term Pietist 
 is at present applied, in Germany, much in the same sense 
 934 
 
 PILE. 
 
 of disparagement as the word Methodist is vulgaily used 
 among ourselves, to those persons who make a display of 
 strong religious feelings. 
 
 PIEZO'METER. (Gr. vie^to, I press, and perpov, mea- 
 sure.) An instrument for ascertaining the compressibility 
 of liquids. 
 
 PI'GMENT. (Lat. pigmentum.) A term applied by 
 anatomists to the mucous secretion which covers the iris 
 of the eye, and gives it its various colours ; and to the dark 
 matter which covers the anterior surface of the choroid 
 membrane, and the interior surface of the ciliary processes. 
 
 Pigment. In Painting, a general term denoting any- 
 colour used by artists. 
 
 PI'GMY, or PYGMY. Gr. vvyuaiog, sc. avnp, from 
 TTvyutj, a cubit ; a diminutive man.) By ancient authors on 
 natural history, this name was applied to a fabulous race of 
 dwarfish and deformed human beings; it is now restricted 
 to a species of ape, the Simia troglodytes of Blumenbach, 
 or the Chimpanzee. (See Tyson's Anatomy of a Pygmic, 
 with an Essay concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients, 
 fol 1699.) Ancient fable (as ancient as Homer, 11., b. 3), 
 described a nation of pygmies dwelling somewhere near 
 the shores of the ocean, and maintaining perpetual wars 
 with the cranes ; of which Athenaeus gives the mytholo 
 gical origin. Ctesias the Greek historian, as quoted by 
 Photius, represented a nation of them as inhabiting India, 
 and attending its king on his military expeditions. Other 
 ancients believed them to inhabit the Indian island.; ; and 
 Aristotle places them in Ethiopia, Tliny in Transgangetic 
 India. Some modem lovers of the marvellous have con- 
 structed these stories from the legends of pigmy nations 
 inhabiting the northernmost part of the earth. These nu- 
 merous fables appear to originate partly, as Strabo long ago 
 observed, in the stunted growth of particular races, under 
 the sufferings of a severe climate or great privations; thus, 
 the Esquimaux, or Laplanders, furnish the ancient P*orth • 
 men with their legendary " Dwergar," or nations of mali 
 cious dwarfs. Some of the low-caste races, which inhabit 
 the forests of interior Hjudostan, are feeble and puny enough 
 to have given origin to the account of Ctesias; while the 
 pygmies of the Malay Archipelago, and the interior of 
 Africa, were probably apes. (See the Encijc. Metropo- 
 litana.) 
 
 PIG NUT. The bulbous root of the Bunium bulbocas- 
 tanum ; so called because pigs are fond of and dig foi 
 them. 
 
 PIKE. In Ichthyology, the English term for a fish be 
 longing to the order Malacopterygii, section Mdominolcs, 
 family Esocidae, and genus Esox. See Malacoftery 
 
 GIANS. 
 
 Pike. In Military affairs, an offensive weapon used in 
 antiquity and modern times, down to the invention of the 
 bayonet, by which it has been universally superseded, con- 
 sisting of a shaft of wood of 12 or 14 feet in length, sur- 
 mounted with a fiat pointed steel, commonly called the 
 spear. It was chiefly used I"' the infantry. 
 
 PILA'STER. (Ital. pilastN. > In Architecture, a square 
 pillar engaged in a wall, usually projecting not more than 
 one fifth or one sixth -f its width. Pilasters are subject to 
 the same rules of proptu'ion as columns. 
 
 PI'LCHARD. In Ichthyology, the common name for a 
 fish closely resembling the common herring; but smaller, 
 and at the same time thicker and rounder. They are found 
 chiefly on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, particularly 
 the latter, where they are taken in great numbers from July 
 to September. It is a saying of the Cornwall fishermen, 
 that the pilchard is the least fish in size, but greatest 
 in number and for gain, taken from the sea. For some 
 curious details on the pilchard fishery, see the Commercial 
 Diet. 
 
 PILE. In Heraldry, an ordinary which "•» represented of 
 a wedge-shape, tapering from the chief dow. vards towards 
 the point; said to represent the piles on whicn bridges and 
 other erections are founded. 
 
 Pile. In Artillery, a heap of shot or shells, piled up by 
 horizontal courses in a pyramidal or wedge-like form. The 
 form of the pile is determined by that of the base, which 
 may be a triangle, a square, or a rectangle. In a triangular 
 pile the base is an equilateral triangle, and there is o e shot 
 at the vertex. The number in the sveessive horizontal 
 courses, reckoned from the top downwa* "*, are represented 
 by the triangular numbers 1, 3, 6, 10 . . . *m (?i + 1), the 
 sum of which is \n (n + 1) (n + 2) ; which, therefore, is 
 the number of shot in a pile of n courses. See Figuratb 
 
 NCMBERS. 
 
 If the base is a square, the number in the successive 
 courses is represented by the series of squares, 1, 4, 9. 1(1, 
 &c. ; and the number in the pile of n courses is {n(»-f 1) 
 (2 n + 1). 
 
 If the base is a rectangle, n the number of shot in the 
 shortest side (or the •imber of courses), and n-\-d th«j 
 number in the longest sic?&, then the number in tne pile con 
 
PILE DRIVER. 
 
 Onued unlil there is a single row of d + 1 shot at the top is 
 in(H + l)C2n + l + 3d). 
 
 PILE DRIVER. An engine for driving down piles. It 
 consists of a large ram or block of iron, which slides be- 
 tween two guide posts. Being drawn up to the top, and 
 then let fall from a considerable height, it comes down on 
 the head of the pile with a violent blow. It may be worked 
 by men or horses, or a steam engine. 
 
 PILES, in Building, are timbers driven into the ground 
 orbed of a river, for supporting the foundations of an ed- 
 ifice, or the piers of a bridge. They may be round or 
 square, and formed of -any wood which does not rot under 
 water: oak, elm, and chiefly fir, are employed. The end 
 of the pile which penetrates the ground is pointed and 
 ihod with iron, and the top is bound with a strong iron band 
 or hoop, to prevent the piles from being split by the violent 
 strokes of the rain by which they are driven down. 
 
 Piles. A disease originating in the morbid dilatation of 
 the veins of the lower part of the rectum, and upon the 
 verge of the anus, and frequently caused by costivenoss 
 and irregularity of alvine evacuation; the contents of the 
 rectum pressing upon ilie veins, and preventing the return 
 of their blood, so that they become turgid and varicose, 
 often forming bleeding or ulcerated enlargements and tu- 
 mours. Mild aperients, es|>ecially sulphur and castor oil, 
 are necessary in the relief of the early stage of piles: 
 when there is much Inflammation, cold and astringent lo- 
 tions may he used, and the pain is often relieved by flMDeit- 
 tation with decoction of poppies. When the turnouts are 
 large and flaccid, an ointment of powdered galls, with a 
 little opium and acetate of lead, often affords relief; and, 
 in old relaxed piles, the internal use and local application 
 of copaiba balsam, and even Hani's paste, which contains 
 black pepper, do good. In many cases of protrusions of 
 the tumours, they require removal by ligature or by the 
 knife. 
 
 PI'LGR IMAGE. A journey undertaken for devotional 
 to some spot hallowed by religious associations. 
 
 The custom of making these pilgrimages has long been 
 recommended »nd enjoined by the Roman Church, and they 
 .ire frequently ipoeed by way i r penance; the" remission 
 of sins, and various spiritual advantages, being promised as 
 the reward of the faithful and pious pilcrim. There exist 
 traces in the history of the early church of such journeys 
 being occasionally undertaken from the natural motives, 
 we may suppose, of curiosity, or of a deeper interest; in 
 l time the custom of celebrating festivals in hon- 
 our of martyrs at the place of their sepulture drew larger 
 numbers together from a distance, who, doubtless, soon be- 
 gan to look with some complacency upon their own merils 
 in doing honour to the saints at the expense of fatigue or 
 danger to themselves. But the systematic establi-luuent 
 of pilgrimage as a meritorious work seems to bo of much 
 later dare. That which was undertaken to the tomb of 
 St. Martin of Tours is among the earliest canonic illy en- 
 joined. Such places of devotion became gradually very 
 numerous; of which, however, Jerusalem was held nat- 
 urally in the highest estimation. The difficulties which 
 presented themselves to the pilgrims who attempted to ac- 
 complish this journey, when Palestine had fallen into the 
 bands of the Baracens, were the proximate cause of the 
 excitement which armed Europe to the rescue of the Holy 
 Land. The cupidity of the persons in whose custody these 
 shrines were, and the immorality which ensued from the 
 desultory habits which the pilgrims acquired, called forth 
 -i animadversion of the church, at the council of 
 in the 9th century; but the evil seems to have 
 continued steadily on the increase, until, at the time of the 
 Reformation, we find what was originally a harmless, and 
 even a pious practice, degenerated into "one of the most 
 crying abuses of the ecclesiastical system. The earliest 
 pilgrimage on record is. perhaps, that of Helena, the wife of 
 Constantine, to the Holy Land. (See Schroeck's Kirchcn 
 htr. parts, 8, 19, 23,25). 
 
 But pilgrimages are not confined to Christian naiions. 
 According to a command in the Koran, every good Mussul- 
 man is enjoined once in his lifetime to repair to Mecca; 
 and tlure are many other places, especially in Persia, en- 
 dowed with sufficient sanctity to attract multitudes of pil- 
 grims. The Hindoos have also their pilgrimages, the most 
 celebrated of which is to the city of Juggernaut, where 
 stands the temple erected in honour of the deity of the 
 "same name ; a full account of which will be found in the 
 0*0. Diet., art., "Juggernaut." Among existing Christian 
 pilgrimages, the most celebrated is that of Marianzell, in 
 Austria. 
 
 PILl'DICM. The orbicular hemispherical shield or apo- 
 thecium of a lichen, the outside of which changes to pow- 
 der, as in Oalycium. 
 
 PILLAR. In Architecture. See Column. 
 PILLORY. (Fr. pllori; supposed from pilier, a pillar.) 
 A wooden engine on which offenders were formerly cx- 
 
 PIONEERS. 
 
 posed to public view, and generally to public insult. It 
 was a common punishment in England, and by tl 
 ute of the pillory," 51 Hen. 3, c. ti, appointed for forestal- 
 led, users of deceitful weights, perjury, forgery, &c. By 
 56 G. 3, c. 138, it was abolished in all cases except perjury; 
 and, as it was discretionary in that instance, it had been 
 long wholly disused. It was finally abolished in 1837 by 
 the statute J Vict., c. 23. The French punishment of the 
 same description is now termed the "carcan," from the iron 
 collar by which the neck of the criminal is fixed to a post; 
 anciently, '• pllori." It is not now specifically appropriated 
 to particular crimes, but in heavy cases accompanies thf 
 sentence of imprisonment or forced labour. 
 
 PILOSE. (Lat. pilus, a hair.) In Zoology, when nn a 
 imal or part is covered with hair. 
 
 PI'LOT. A |ierson qualified and appointed by prop* 
 authority to conduct ships in and out of particular harbours 
 or along certain coa>t*. at a certain fixed rate, de|iending on 
 the draught of water. The pilot has the charge of the 
 vessel while in pilot water, and the captain or master ne- 
 glects or Opposes the pilot's advice on his own responsibil- 
 ity. (See M'Culloch's Commercial Vict.) 
 
 IT .Ml". LITE. (C.r. -ntucXii, fatness.) A green hydrated 
 silico aluminous mineral, containing oxide of nickel, of a 
 grtatf feel. 
 
 PIMEWTO. The berry of the Myrlus pimento; all 
 spice, or Jamaica pepper. .See Pipkraceje. 
 
 PIN. A small bit of wire, usually brass, with a point at 
 one end a spherical head at the other. No fewer than 
 fourteen distinct operations are necessary in making this lit- 
 tle article; for an account of which see Ure'sVict.ofjIrts, 
 &-c. There is a good account of this manufacture in Bab- 
 bnge's Economy of Manufactures. See also Wealth of Na- 
 tions, p. 3; where the pin is cited as nn admirable in- 
 stance of the good ellects of a division of labour. 
 
 Pin. A term of Chinese diplomacy, signifying a petition 
 or address from foreigners to the emperor of China or any 
 of his viceroys or deputies, 
 
 PINACOTHE'CA. (Gr. rival, « picture, and riG^i, J 
 phcr."; In Ancient Architecture, the apartment in B house 
 for tho reception of paintings. 
 
 PINCHBECK. An alloy of copper of zinc; a species 
 of brass much resembling what is now term* d Mosaic 
 gold. It was brought into notice by a person of the above 
 name. 
 
 Pl'NEAL GLAND. A small henrt-shnped protuberance 
 of the brain, hanging by two peduncles from the beds oftha 
 optic nerves immediately over the corpora yuadrigemina. 
 Some fanciful physiologists have asserted that it is the seat 
 of the soul. 
 
 PINE. See Abies. 
 
 PI'NION. In Mechanics, a small wheel which plays in 
 the leeth of a fairer, or sometimes only an nrbor or spin 
 die, having notches or leaves, which are caught success 
 Ively by the teeth of the wheel, and the motion thereby 
 communicated. 
 
 IT'MTE. (From the mine Pini, at Schnceberg in Saxo- 
 ny.) A soft crystallized mineral, composed of alumine, si- 
 lex, and oxide of iron. 
 
 PINK, DUTCH. In Painting, a colour of a reddish hue. 
 
 PI'NNA. (Lat. pinna, a Jin.) The name of a genus of 
 Ostracean Acephalous Mollusks, commonly called " wing- 
 shells," remarkable for the size of the byssus, by which 
 they adhere to rocks, and which the natives of Sicily man- 
 ufacture into gloves, socks, and other articles of sale. 
 
 PI'NNACE. A small light vessel with sails and oars: 
 it is at present generally understood as one of the boats 
 belonging to a ship of war. 
 
 PI'NNACLE. (Lat. pinna.) In Architecture, a small 
 square or polygonal pillar, generally, though not necessari- 
 ly, applied at the angles of a building, terminating upwards 
 pyramidally, and embellished with foliage at the angles of 
 the pyramidal part. 
 
 PI'NNATES. A term applied by Linnams to the feet of 
 those birds which have the toes bordered by a scalloped 
 membrane, as the coots. 
 
 PINNA'TIPEDS, Pinnatipedia. (Lat. pinna, a fin, nnd 
 pes, afoot.) A term applied by Temminck to an order of 
 birds comprehending those which have the digits bordered 
 bv membranes. 
 
 PI'NNITEDS, Pinnipedes. The name of a section of 
 crabs (Brachyurous Decapod Crustaceans), in which are 
 comprehended those that have the last pair of feet, if not 
 more, terminated by a flattened joint fitted for swimming. 
 
 PI'NNOTHERES. (Gr. rtwodnpnc, from Lat. pinna, 
 and Gr. dnpnw, J pursue.) A small parasitic species of crab, 
 which takes up its abode in the shell of the pinna and oth- 
 er bivalves. 
 
 PINT. A measure of capacity, being the eighth part of a 
 gallon. See Measures. 
 
 PIO'NEERS, in the Military Art, are certain soldiers, in 
 all infantry and cavalry regiments, whose business it is to 
 
pirE. 
 
 eicar the road before an army, to sink mines, and throw- 
 up works and fortifications. Pioneers are provided on a 
 march with hatchets, axes, spades, pickaxes, and all other 
 necessary implements. 
 
 PIPE. A wine measure, usually containing 105 (very 
 nearly) imperial, or 126 wine gallons. Two pipes, or 210 
 imperial gallons, make a tun. But, in practice, the size of 
 the pipe varies according to the description of wine it con- 
 tains. Thus, a pipe of port contains 138 wine gallons, of 
 sherry 130, of Lisbon and Bucellas 140, of Madeira 110, and 
 of Vidonia 120. The pipe of port, it is to be observed, is 
 seldom accurately 138 gallons, and it is usual to charge 
 what the vessel actually contains. 
 
 PIPE CLAY. A species of clay, abounding in Devon- 
 shire and other parts of England, employed in the manu- 
 facture of various sorts of earthenware. 
 
 PIPERA'CE^E. (Piper one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of shrubby or herbaceous Exogens, inhabiting the 
 hotter parts of the world. According to Illume and Rich- 
 ard they are monocotyledonous; but that they are really 
 dicotyledonous is proved by their medullary rays, articulated 
 leaves, and two-lobed embryo. They are closely related to 
 Polygonaccce, Saururaccee, and Vrticacea, from all of 
 which they are distinguished by obvious characters. Com- 
 mon pepper represents the ordinary property of this ord; r. 
 The cubebs of the shops is the produce of the Piper cubeba 
 and caninuin ; betel, an acrid, stimulating substance, much 
 used for chewing by the Malays, is obtained from Piper be- 
 tel and siriboa. Black pepper is the unprepared fruit of 
 Piper nigrum, and white pepper is the same deprived of its 
 pulpy covering. Long pepper consists of the half-ripe 
 flower-heads of Piper longum and chaba. 
 
 PTPERLV. A white crystallizable substance extracted 
 from bl ick pepper. It is tasteless, and free from pungency, 
 the acrimony of pepper residing in a peculiar fixed oil. 
 
 PI'RACY. (Gr. imparts; from itttpa, an attempt.) In 
 Law, an offence which consists in the commission of those 
 acts of robbery and depredation upon the high seas which, 
 if committed on land, would have amounted to felony there. 
 By the statutes 11 &. 12 W. 3, c. 7, and 6 G. 1, c. 19, piracies 
 committed on the sea or in haven, &c, where the admiral 
 has jurisdiction, may be tried at sea or on land, in his ma- 
 jesty's islands, &c, by commissioners under the great seal 
 appointed for that purpose, who may commit the offenders, 
 and call a court of admiralty for the purpose of the trial. 
 By the same statutes various acts are enumerated as amount- 
 ing to piracy, and aiders and abettors of pirates are declared 
 accessories, punishable as principals. By subsequent enact- 
 ments, nets of trading with pirates, and acts of hostility 
 committed by natural-born subjects against his majesty's 
 subjects under colour of a foreign commission, are declared 
 piracy. In the realm of England, felonies, robberies, and 
 murders, committed by pirates, are triable under 28 H. 8, c. 
 15, by the king's commission of oyer and terminer, as if the 
 offences had been committed on land. (See as to the pi- 
 rates of antiquity, the Mem. de VJic. des Inscr., vol. xii.) 
 
 Piracy is also frequently used to signify any infringement 
 on the law of copyright. It is extremely difficult to lay 
 down any general principle on which to decide as to what 
 is and what is not piracy. Generally it is held, that one 
 writer may borrow the ideas or theories of another; but 
 that he must dress them up and explain them in a different 
 way, and in his own language. This, however, is often 
 done so as merely to evade the law : and it were well, in or- 
 der to make greater attention be paid to originalitv, were the 
 law as to piracy less lax than it is at present. "(See as to 
 the existing law of piracy the art. " Copyright— Books" in 
 Com. Diet.) " c 
 
 PISALPHA'LTUM. Mineral pitch ; an indurated bitu- 
 men. 
 
 PI'SCES. (Lat. pisces, a fish.) The name of the fourth 
 great subdivision of Vertebrate animals, or the class of fish- 
 es characterized by a branchial respiration, a bilocular heart, 
 and a covering of scales. The r.asal cavities do not com- 
 municate with the mouth, but have only external apertures. 
 
 1 1 sees. (The Fishes.) One of the twelve zodiacal con- 
 stellations, the twelfth in order from Aries. See Constel- 
 lation, Zodiac. 
 
 PISCIS AUSTRALIS. (The Southern Fish.) One of 
 Ptolemy's 48 constellations, in the southern hemisphere. 
 The brilliant star Fomalhaut, of the first magnitude, be- 
 longs to this constellation. 
 
 PIf CIS VOLANS. A small modern constellation of the 
 southern hemisphere, formed by Iiaycr. It is situated on 
 the autartic circle. 
 
 PISE. (Fr.) In Architecture, a species of wall con- 
 structed of stiff earth or clay, carried up in moulds, and 
 rammed down as the work is carried up. 
 
 PISI'DIUM. (Lat. pisum, a pea.) A genus of fresh wa- 
 ter Gastropods; so named on account of the resemblance of 
 the shell to a small pea. Many of the species are British ; 
 936 
 
 PITYRIASIS. 
 
 as Pisidium obtusale, which may be found in the New Riv- 
 er ; P. pvsillum, P. nilidum, P. pulchellum, &c. 
 
 PI'SOLITE. (Gr. iriaov, and XiOos, peastone.) A concre 
 tional carbonate of lime. The concretions generally con 
 tain a central grain of sand. 
 
 PISTA'CHIA or PISTA'CHIO NUTS. (Ger. pistacher, . 
 Du. pistasjes; Fr. pistaches; It. pistacchi, fastucchi; Sp. 
 alfocigos ; Lat. pistacie.) The fruit of the Pistachia vera, 
 a kind of turpentine tree. It grows naturally in Arabia, 
 Persia, and Syria ; also in Sicily, whence the nuts are an 
 nually brought to us. They are oblong and pointed, about 
 the size and shape of a filbert, including a kernel of a pale 
 greenish colour, covered with a yellowish or reddish skin. 
 They have a pleasant, sweetish, or unctuous taste, resem- 
 bling that of sweet almonds ; their principal difference from 
 which consists in their having a greater degree of sweet- 
 ness, accompanied with a light grateful flavour, and in be 
 ing more oily. Pistachios imported from the East arc supe- 
 rior to those raised in Europe. 
 
 PISTI'LLUM. The organ which occupies the centre of 
 a flower, within the stamens and disk (if the latter be pres- 
 ent). It is distinguished into three parts: an upper or stig- 
 ma, a lower or ovarium, and a central part or style. It is 
 the female organ of the flower, and contains the ovules or 
 young seeds within the ovary. 
 
 PISTOLE. A gold coin common in many parts of Ger 
 many, equivalent to about 8s. 6d. sterling. 
 
 PI'STON. In Machinery, a short cylinder of wood or 
 metal, which fits exactly the cavity of a pump or barrel, 
 and works up and down in it alternately. Two sorts of pis- 
 tons are used in pumps: one hollow, with a valve, used in 
 the sucking pump : and the other solid, which is employed in 
 the forcing pump. See Pump. 
 PIT. See Shaft. 
 
 PITCH. (Fr. picts.) In Music, the degree of acuteness 
 or graveness of a note. 
 
 Pitch. (Germ, pech.) The same as Asphalt and Bl 
 tumen, which see. 
 
 Pitch. The residuum which remains after boiling tar in 
 an open iron pot, or in a still, till the volatile matter be driv 
 en off. It is most extensively used in ship building. 
 
 PITCHBLENDE. A mineral found in Saxony ; it is a 
 compound of the oxides of uranium and iron. 
 
 PITCH OF A ROOF. In Architecture, the inclination 
 of the sloping sides to the horizon. It is usually designated 
 by the ratio of its height to its space. 
 
 PfTCHSTONE. A silicious mineral, the fracture of 
 which resembles that of pitch or resin. It is of various 
 colours. 
 PITCOAL. See Coal and Geology. 
 PITH. A cylindrical or angular column of cellular tis 
 sue, arising at the neck of the stem of a Dicotyledonous 
 plant, and terminating at the leaf-buds, with all of which, 
 whether they are lateral or terminal, it is in direct commit 
 nication. It forms the centre of a stem, and is covered over 
 by the wood. Its use is to act as a reservoir of nutritious 
 matter for the voting leaves when first developing. 
 
 PITHE'CUS. (Gr. niOnnoc, an ape.) The subgeneric 
 name of the orantr utan ; Pithicus satyrus, (lent)' 
 
 PITOT'S TUBE. In Hydraulics, an apparatus, so called 
 from the name of its inventor, for measuring the velocity of 
 a stream, or of a body moved through stagnant water. A 
 tube open at both ends is bent into two unequal branches at 
 right angles to each other. It is then placed in the stream, 
 the longer branch in a vertical position, and the shorter 
 turned round so that the water enters directly into the orifice, 
 which should be somewhat contracted. When thus placed, 
 the water enters the tube with the velocity of the stream, 
 and the pressure causes it to rise in the upright branch of 
 the tube to the height from which it must have fallen in or- 
 cer to acquire this velocity. The height to which the wa- 
 ter rises in the tube is measured by placing a graduated rod 
 in the tube of such specific gravity as to float on the water ; 
 or if the tube is of glass, the height may be measured ex- 
 ternally. The corresponding velocity is obtained from the 
 formula u = ,/(2,s-A) ; where v denotes the velocitv, g the 
 accelerating force of gravity, and k the height to which the 
 water rises in the tube, all expressed in units of the same 
 denomination. The result is tolerably accurate, except 
 when the velocity is small ; but the effect is somewhat di- 
 minished by the friction on the tube. 
 
 PI'TTACAL. (Gr. mrra, pitch, and KnXXo<:, ornament.) 
 A fine blue substance, obtained by the action of a solution 
 of harvtnupon the heavy oil of tar. 
 
 PITUI'TARY GLAND. A gland situated within the 
 cranium, between a fold of the dura mater, in the sella tur- 
 cica of the sphenoid bone. 
 
 PITUI'TARY MEMBRANE. The mucous membrane 
 of the nose. 
 
 PITYRI'ASIS. (Gr. Tirvpov, bran.) A cutaneous dis- 
 ease consisting of irregular scaly patches, unattended by 
 inflammation. When it affects infants, it Is called dandriff 
 
PIU. 
 
 A similar exfoliation of the cuticle in reddish patches is 
 not uncommon in adults. Soap and water, and mild cool- 
 ing lotions, or very weak nitro-muriatic lotion, are the best 
 applic 
 
 I'll'. (Itnl.) In Music, a word frequently prefixed to 
 another to increase the strength of its meaning; as piu. alle- 
 gro, a little quicker. 
 
 PIVOT. , Fr.) In Military language, that officer or sol- 
 dier upon whom tin- different wheelings are made in the 
 »arious .volutions of the drill, 4tc. 
 
 PlVOT. In Mechanics, the extremity of the axle about 
 which a body revolves. 
 
 PLACA HI). (Said to be from the Greek v\a{, a tablet.) 
 A writing affixed to a wall, post, fcc., in a public place, i> 
 commonly so called; and us this was in ancient times the 
 common mode of publishing proclamations and edicts, and 
 ■Jm of giving notoriety to UbeH and seditious advertisements 
 the word is not uncommonly used in early modern writers 
 in both th. Be senses. 
 
 PLACE'NTA. (Or. -\axovs, a cake.) The after-birth. 
 In the human subject it is a single suhcircular, flattened, ami 
 lobulated Organ), composed of the capillary extremities of the 
 total hypogastric arteries and umbilical vein, and of a fine 
 cellular structure, which receives the maternal blood from 
 the tartuona uterine or decidual arteries. 
 
 The placenta forms a simile lobe in the New World mon- 
 keys, the hats, the Inseclivora, and the Rodenlia. It sur- 
 round- the lictus like a broad hoop in the Carnivora. It is 
 bilobed in the Old World monkeys; and subdivided into 
 separate lobes, called cotyledons, in the true Rumi- 
 tianti i. The placenta is replaced by a diffused vascular 
 villosily of the chorion in the Camellida, the ordinary Pa- 
 chyderms, and the Cetacea. The placenta is absent and 
 to lie \ascularin the Marsupialia. 
 
 I'm -k'nta. In Botany, a copious development of cellu- 
 lar tissue, formed at some point of the inside of acnrpcllum, 
 mil out of which the ovules or young seeds arise. 
 
 PLACENTA'LIA, The name of that primary divi-ion 
 Of toe class .Mammalia which includes the orders that have 
 either a placenta or a vascular chorion, by which the tirlus 
 is attached to the parietes of the uterus. 
 
 PLA'CITA (Lat.), la the Middle Ages, were public 
 
 courts 01 in which the sovereign presided when 
 
 a consultation was held ii|hui the affairs of the stale. They 
 
 tied " Generalia Placlta," because "n.-neralitas uni- 
 
 versoriim majorum lam clericorum ijiiam laicorum ibidem 
 COBVeniebat. The same custom appears to have e\isie,| 
 in Trance, with a slight modification. Accniding to the 
 
 iol in the Exchequer, lib. ii., let. 13, this teuu was 
 also applied to penalties or tines. 
 
 PLA'OAL MELODIES. (Gr. -\nyioc, oblique.) In Mu- 
 - have their principal notes lying between the fifth 
 . and its octave or twelfth. 
 
 PLA'GIARIBM. (From the Latin legal term plagium, 
 which signified the offence of stealing a slave, or kidnapping 
 a free person into slavery.) A plagiary, in the modern sense 
 of the word, is one who borrows without acknowledgment, 
 in literary composition, the thoughts or words of another; 
 and the theft itself is styled plagiarism. 
 
 PLA'GIOBTOMEB, Plagiertona. (Gr. *>ny ( oc, trans- 
 versa, and oroua, a mouth.) A tribe of Cartilaginous fishes, 
 comprehending all those which have the mouth situated 
 transversely beneath the snout. Also the name of a genus 
 of Univalve Mollosks. 
 
 PLAGUE. "A typhus fever eminently contagious, and 
 attended by excessive debility: at an uncertain period of 
 the disease earbonclea or buboes ensue." This is Onllen's 
 brief but correct definition of this horrible disease. The beat 
 account of the plague, and of its ravages, is to be found in 
 i's work on the Rise and Decline of Disease. See 
 also the article Cholera in this work. 
 
 PLAID. A striped or variegated cloth much worn by the 
 Highlanders of Scotland, forming a prominent part of the 
 national costume, and indicating, by the variety of its pat- 
 terns, the different Scottish clans. ^ 
 
 PLAIN CHANT. In Music, n term in ancient ecclesias- 
 tical music to signify the chief melody, which was confined 
 within the natural sounds of the scale. 
 
 PLAINS. In Geography, the general term for all those 
 parts of the dry land which cannot properly be called moun- 
 tainous, and which compose by far the greater part of the 
 earth's surface. Plains have different physical appearances 
 according t: their geographical position, and the peculiar 
 cnaracterist a of each have procured for them different 
 names ; thus we have the steppes of Asia, the deserts of 
 ! the pampas of South America, and the prairies or 
 
 savannahs of North America. See these different terms. 
 
 PLAN. (Lat. planus.) A drawing of something on a 
 plane. 
 
 Plan. In Architecture, an horizontal section of the walls, 
 partitions, staircases, &c, of a building, showing the dis- 
 tribution of the ground plot. 
 
 PLANET. 
 
 PLANA'RIA. (Lat. planus, flat.) The name of a genu* 
 of Sterelmintha, or Parenchymatous Intestinalia of Cuvier, 
 which do not inhabit the interior of animal bodies, but close- 
 ly resemble, in their organization, the parasitic species of 
 Trematode Entozoa. They lead from this order to the 
 Suctorious Anellides or leeches. 
 
 PLANE, in Geometry, is a surface without curvature; or 
 it is a surface such that if any two points whatever in it be 
 joined by a s traig ht line, the whole of the straight line, will 
 be in the surface. 
 
 PLANE PROBLEM, in Geometry, is a problem which 
 can be solved by the intersections Of straight lines and cir- 
 cles, without the aid of the conic sections or anv of the 
 higher curves. Such problems as require the construction 
 of the conic sections were called, by the ancient geometers, 
 sol i'l problems. 
 
 PLANT, BAILING, in Navigation, is the art of determin- 
 ing the ship's place, on the supposition that she is moving 
 on a plane, or that the surface of the ocean is plane instead 
 of being spherical. On arcountof the magnitude of the ter 
 restrial radius, this sup|H>silion may h<- adopted for short dis- 
 tances without leading to great errors; anil it affords great 
 facilities in calculation, for the place of the ship is found by 
 the solution of a tight Titled plane triangle. The part of 
 the meridian between the ship and the parallel of latitude 
 of the place whence she departed forms the perpendicular 
 of the triangle; Mm dfatnet on the parallel between the 
 place of departure and the foot of the perpendicular is the 
 base of the triangle (technically called the departure); and 
 the distance sailed is the hypothenu.se. The angle at the 
 ship is called the C mrse. and the other acute angle the 
 complement of the curse. Nov.. of these tour things, the 
 perpendicular, the departure, the distance sailed, and the 
 course, any two being given, the triangle can be laid down 
 on the chart, and all the other parts of it found. S 
 oation. 
 
 PLA'NLT. (Gr. drnp TrAni-t/rrjc, wandering star.) The 
 name given by the aHcient Breaks to a few bright and con- 
 spicuous stars which are constantly changing their apparent 
 d sphere, and thus s ppear to winder 
 among the constellations. The modern discover] ..t satel- 
 lites anil peiiodic comets has rendered it DOCessan to adopt 
 a more precise definition, in order to individualize the class 
 of objects to which the term is applied ; and accordingly 
 modern astronomers understand by the term planet, a body 
 which, in a telescope of sufficient power, exhibits a round 
 and well defined disk, and which revolves aliout the sun in 
 an elliptic orbit, not differing very greatly from a circle. 
 
 The number of planets, Including the earth, at present 
 known to belong to the solar system, is eleven. l'ive of 
 them — namely. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn 
 — have been known from the earliest ages of astronomy ; 
 Uranus was discovered by Sir William Hersehel in 1781 ; 
 Ceres by Piazzi, at Palermo, on the tirst day of the pi 
 century; and the discovery was soon followed by that of 
 Juno, Pallas, and Vesta. The last four are never visible to 
 the naked eye; under favourable circumstances Uranus 
 may be discerned without a telescope ; and Mercury, 
 tnotish it appears as a large star, is seldom to be seen (in 
 our climates at least), in consequence of its proximity to the 
 sun. 
 
 Of the apparent Motions of the Planets. — On watching 
 the motions of any of the conspicuous planets for a few 
 days or weeks, their change of position among the fixed stair 
 becomes sufficiently apparent, even without the aid of an 
 instrument to measure their relative distances. Their path* 
 deviate little from that followed by the sun in his apparent 
 annual revolution through the heavens ; but their motion 
 are exceedingly irregular. Sometimes they advance rnpir" 
 ly, then relax in their speed, come to a stop, and then mo\'"» 
 for a while in an opposite direction. Through the most con- 
 siderable part of their orbits they move like the sun from 
 west to east, in opposition to the apparent diurnal inotior ■ 
 their course is then said to l>e direct. When it lies in the 
 opposite direction, their motion is retrograde ; nnd between 
 each change from the one direction to the other, they re- 
 main for a few days stationary. On the whole, however, 
 the direct motion prevails, am] the planets make the entire 
 circuit of the heavens. These phenomena, which are cail 
 ed the stations and rctrogradations of the planets, may be 
 exhibited in the following manner: Let E C represent tna 
 ecliptic developed on a 
 plane surface : the path 
 of a planet, found by lay- 
 ing down its observed po- 
 sitions with reference to 
 the ecliptic from day to 
 day, will present the "appearance of the zigzag line P Q, R S 
 From P to Q the motion is direct, but becomes slower at 
 the planet approaches to d. AtQit is stationary; front 
 Q. to R retrograde ; at R again stationary ; from R to S di 
 rect, and so on. Such is the general character of the ap 
 
 937 
 
PLANET. 
 
 parent motion; but the arcs and times o(" retrotrradation 
 differ greatly in respect of the different planets. 
 
 Mercury and Venus exhibit phenomena peculiar to them- 
 selves, inasmuch as they never appear in the opposite 
 quarter of the heavens to the sun, but oscillate about the 
 sun from side to side ; the oscillations of the former being 
 much quicker, and performed in a much smaller arc than 
 those of the latter. The distance of Venus from the sun 
 never exceeds an arc of about 47° i. and at its greatest dis- 
 tance the planet does not continue above the horizon more 
 than about 3 hours after sunset. Its brilliancy, however, 
 is such, that it may frequently be seen in the morning sev- 
 eral hours after the sun has risen. Mercury never recedes 
 farther from the sun than 28° 20', and does not appear 
 above the horizon more than 1 h. 40 m. after sunset, or be- 
 fore sunrise. For these reasons, Mercury and Venus were 
 regarded by some of the ancient astronomers as satellites 
 of the sun, and supposed to describe orbits round that lumi- 
 nary. The other planets, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, be- 
 ing frequently seen in opposition to the sun, and at all dif- 
 ferent distances from it, were supposed to have independent 
 motions. 
 
 In order to explain and represent the apparent motions of 
 the planets, the ancient astronomers had imagined various 
 hypotheses, of which the most celebrated is that of epicycles 
 and deferents, invented by the geometer Apollonius ; and 
 adopted by Ptolemy, after whom it was called the Ptolemaic 
 system of the universe, and implicitly believed in during 
 many centuries. According to this hypothesis, each planet 
 moves uniformly in a smali circle, called the epicycle, the 
 centre of which is carried along, with a uniform motion, in 
 the circumference of another large circle, called the deferent, 
 which has the earth at its centre. (See Epicycle.) By 
 supposing the velocity of the planet in its epicycle to be 
 greater than that with which the centre of the epicycle is 
 carried along the deferent, and by assigning proper relations 
 between the lengths of the radii of the epicycles and defer- 
 ent cirties (their absolute lengths are immaterial), the ap- 
 parent geocentric motions may be represented with till the 
 exactness of which the ancient observations admitted. 
 Ptolemy placed the earth ai the centres of the universe, aad 
 nearest to it the moon. Next to the moon was Mercury, 
 then Venus, then the sun; after which followed in order 
 Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; the distances of the three last 
 being a/ranged according to their respective periods of revo- 
 lution ; it being natural to suppose that those which required 
 the longest time to complete their periods must revolve in 
 the widest circles. At the present day, and familiar as we 
 now are with the true nature of the celestial motions, this 
 complicated system appears abundantly absurd ; but it 
 should be recollected that Ptolemy possessed no means of 
 forming any accurate notions of the distances of the planets : 
 he was unacquainted with the alternate increase and dim- 
 inution of their apparent diameters, with the phases of 
 Venus, and all the other information afforded by the tele- 
 scope; in short, he' knew of no phenomenon which could 
 not be reconciled to his theory ; and lie does not appear to 
 have ever regarded his system of epicycles and deferents 
 in any other light than a mere hypothesis, by meanatof 
 which the celestial motions could be reduced to calculation. 
 All the apparent irregularities of the planetary move- 
 ments are got rid of at once by referring them to the sun 
 as a centre, instead of the earth. This great step in theo- 
 retical astronomy was made by Copernicus, who first dem- 
 onstrated that all the phenomena were explicable in the sim- 
 plest manner by supposing the sun to be placed at the com- 
 mon centre of the planetary motions, and ascribing to the 
 earth a double motion ; namely, a diurnal rotation about its 
 axis, and an annual revolution about the sun. On this hy- 
 pothesis, the truth of which has been established by a mul- 
 titude of different considerations, the stations and retrogra- 
 dations of the planets, and all the geocentric appearances 
 which so much perplexed the ancient astronomers, become 
 simple consequences of relative motion. In order to illus- 
 trate this, let us consider the appearances which must re- 
 sult from the combined motions of the earth and an inferior 
 planet ; that is, a planet nearer to the sun than the earth 
 is. Let S be the sun, A B C D the 
 orbit of the earth, and abed that of 
 Mercury, both moving in the same 
 direction, or in the order of the let- 
 •^B ters. Suppose A to be the position 
 of the earth, and a that of Mercury 
 at its greatest eastern elongation ; the 
 line A a will be a tangent to the orbit 
 at a. As the earth advances from A 
 towards B, and the planet from a to- 
 ward b, the angle of elongation S A a will continue to di- 
 minish, till the earth arrives at a certain point B, when the 
 planet is at b in the same straight line with the earth and 
 the sun, the angles A S B and a S b described by the earth 
 and the planet being proportional to the respective mean 
 038 
 
 angular motions. In this situation the planet is said to lie 
 at its inferior conjunction. When the earth has passed B, 
 the planet, advancing with a more rapid angular motion, 
 will begin to appear on the western side of the sun, and the 
 angle of elongation continue to increase, till the planet ar 
 rives at c, and the earth at C, where the visual line is again 
 a tangent to the orbit. The angle of elongation has now 
 attained a second time its maximum value, and from this 
 point will continue to decrease, till it vanishes altogether 
 when the earth arrives at D and the planet at d. the three 
 points I) S and d being in the same straight line. The 
 plenet is now at its superior conjunction, and beyond the 
 sun. Soon after this the planet reappears on the 
 side of the sun; and the angle of elongation continues to 
 increase till the planet comes round to c, and the earth ar 
 rives at E, where the line E e is again a tangent to tin: or 
 bit. The earth, the planet, and the sun have now precise 
 ly the same relative situations in respect to each other as 
 they had when the earth was at A and the planet at <;. so 
 that the series of changes will here recommence and pro- 
 ceed in the same order as before. The intervals after which 
 these phenomena occur may be easily computed from a 
 knowledge of the periods of revolution of tiie earth and 
 planet, and of the proportion of the radii of their respective 
 orbits, which is, moreover, known immediately from the 
 observed angle of greatest elongation, S A a; for, since S 
 a A is a right-angle, we have S A to S a as radius to the 
 cosine of S A a : that is, the radius of the planet's orbit i^ 
 equal to the radius of earth's orbit multiplied by tin- cosine 
 angle of greatest elongation. 
 
 From the preceding figure, it is easy to see how the phe- 
 nomena of the stations and retrogradations must arise. A t 
 the point b, where the planet is at its inferior conjunction, 
 the earth and planet are both moving in the same direction ; 
 but, as the planet is moving faster, it will leave the earth 
 behind it ; and the apparent motion, as seen from the eaj th, 
 will be the same as if the pianet stood still, and th 
 moved in a contrary direction, with a velocity equal to the 
 difference of their relative motions. The apparent motion 
 of the planet is, therefore, contrary to the apparent motion 
 of the su t, i n i consequent!} retrograde. At th* 
 conjunction d, the planet and earth are moving in opt* 'ile 
 directions in respect of the line I) d; the relative motion is 
 therefore the same as if the planet stood still, and the earth 
 was moving in its proper direction with a velocity equal to 
 their united motions: the apparent motion of the planet in 
 this situation is therefore direct. At the points of greatest 
 elongation, a and c, the planet is moving in the direction of 
 the line of vision, A a or C e, and the earth perpendicular 
 (nearly) to that line; the apparent motion of the planet »t 
 those points is therefore direct. But since it is direct at a 
 and c, and retrograde at b, there must be a point between .i 
 and b, and another between b and c, where the apparent 
 motion is neither direct nor retrograde, that is, where the 
 planet appears stationary. The problem of determining the 
 stationary points is one of pure geometry, and very easily 
 resolved when the orbits are supposed to be circular, and 
 the motion uniform; but, in the case of elliptic orbits and 
 unequable motion, it is considerably more complicated. 
 The stationary points of Mercury are variable from 15° to 
 20° of elongation from the sun; those of Venus are about 
 29°. Mercury continues to retrograde about twenty-two 
 days, Venus about forty-two. 
 
 The apparent motions of the superior planets, or those 
 which are at a greater distance from the sun than the earth 
 is, are explained with equal facility. As their orbits em 
 brace that of the earth, they are not confined to certain 
 limits of elongation from the sun, but appear at all distances 
 from it, even in the directly opposite quarter of the heavens. 
 When they are in conjunction, they are situated beyond the 
 sun, in the same straight line with the sun and earth; and 
 when the earth comes between them and the sun, they are 
 said to be in opposition. All the superior planets, when in 
 opposition, and for some time before and after, appear to 
 have a retrograde motion ; but the extent of the arc of retro- 
 gradation, the time during which the motion is retrograde, 
 and the velocity, are very different in respect of the different 
 planets. Marscontinues to retrograde about 73 days, Jupiter 
 121, and Saturn 138. 
 
 Phases of the Planets.— It is a necessary consequence of 
 the Copernican theory, that the planets, supposing them to 
 be, like the earth, round opake bodies illuminated by the 
 sun, must exhibit phases like the moon, according to the 
 angles under which the illuminated half of their surfices 
 is seen from the earth. When viewed though the telescope, 
 this is found to be the case with Mercury and Venus, and 
 to a certain extent also with Mars ; and the appearance of 
 the phase is, in every case, exactly such as is determined a 
 priori, on the supposition that the planet is seen by the re- 
 flected li^htof the sun. Let S be the sun, E tin earth, and V 
 Venus, in different positions of her orbit. When the planet 
 is at its superior conjunction a, the whole of its iVuminatcd 
 
PLANET. 
 
 ,. and it consequently exhibits 
 '.: the points of greatest elongation, b and b, 
 one half only of the illuminated hemisphere is visible, ana 
 it therefore appears half-mooned at these jioints. Ate, the 
 inferior conjunction, the 
 (lark Mile is turned direct- 
 ly to the earth, add it is con- 
 sequently invisible. Be- 
 tween a and b, the planet 
 will therefore appeal gib- 
 bous /. '.. more than the 
 half fall J : ;uul between 6 
 .•mil c it will appear in the 
 h/nn of a crescent, like the moon in its first or last quarter. 
 The phases of Mercury arc precisely similar. With respect 
 to the superior planets, the absence of phases is a | 
 
 co n sequence of their great distances, from the sun in com- 
 parison "i' the earth's distance. Let .S be the sun, E the 
 earth, and M Mars. It is evident that, as 
 the earth L'oes round its orbit, the smallest 
 
 portion of the enlightened hemisphere, ro x n, 
 will he Visible when the earth is at K. or in 
 such a position that the angle S E M is a 
 right angle. Bnppose a line, therefore, to be 
 
 drawn from the centre of the planet perpen- 
 dicular to E M, and Intersecting tin; surface 
 in z, the visible surface will be contained be- 
 tween x and ?i, so that the disk will ap|>ear 
 to lie gibbous, hut can never appear as a 
 ^*^, _ crescent. These phenomena prove in the 
 •"Jp" most convincing manner that the planets are 
 
 op.ike spherical bodies, deriving their light 
 from the sun. 
 
 l)istancrs aid Periodic Times of the Planets. — Practical 
 IJ furuMies various methods of detenu 
 
 of the planets from tin- sun in terms of the earth's 
 
 distance, and the times in which they complete their revo- 
 lutions. It has already been slated, "that the distances of 
 nil Venus may be compared with that of the earth 
 ■ n. Ill the case 
 i approximation to toe tela 
 of tile radius vector (the line which joins the pit 
 the sun) may be obtained by observing the angular velocity 
 of its apparent rein-gradation about the tune when it is in 
 opposition. Thus, conceive V. c to be a small portion of the 
 earth's orbit described in a given 
 interval of time, a day, tor example, 
 and M m to be the corresponding 
 ™ portion of the orbit of Han d 
 
 in the same interval, the planet 
 being near the opposition. Join e 
 *t, .mil draw en parallel to S M. As s en from '-. Mars 
 will appear to have retrograded from n to m ; therefore the 
 n t ik is given by observation, and consequently its 
 complement m a E becomes known (lor the arc E e, being 
 very small, may be regarded as a straight line). Now, in 
 the triangle rS K. right-angled at E, the angle at .-• is given, 
 being tin angle described by the radius vector of the earth 
 
 in the given interval; consequently the angle B«E becomes 
 
 known, and hence also S e \m. Supposing, therefore, the 
 
 die time of Mars to be known, the arc M m, or the 
 
 M S m. will be given ; and therefore m B e, which is 
 
 it- difference from E S /-, becomes known. In the triangle 
 
 8 e ra, we have therefore given the two angfcs S e m, and 
 
 ami consequently also the third angle e m S, whence 
 
 the triangle is given in species, and the ratio of S e to S m is 
 
 determined, lint S m is the distance of Mars from the sun. 
 
 which, therefore, is determined in terms of the radio 
 
 tor of the earth. 
 
 The method of finding the planet's distance, which has 
 just been described, requires that the periodic time be pre- 
 viously known. There are various methods of determining 
 the periodic time, independently of a knowledge of the (lis 
 of the planet from the earth. One is to observe the 
 times at which the planet is in either of its nodes, i. e., when 
 it passes through the plane of the ecliptic. As the orbits 
 are all inclined to the ecliptic, and have the sun nearly at 
 their centres, they are intersected by the plane of the eclip- 
 tic in two opposite |M>ints, which are called the nodes. Now 
 it is easy to ascertain by observation when a planet is in its 
 nixie ; for, as it then passes from the one side of the ecliptic 
 to the other, from the north to the south side, for example, 
 we have only to convert the oliserved right ascensions and 
 declinations into longitudes and latitudes, and the change 
 from north to south latitude between two successive obser- 
 vations will indicate that the planet has passed its node in 
 tin; interval; while a simple proportion, grounded on the 
 quantity of its motion in latitude, will fix the precise hour 
 and minute at which it was in the ecliptic. The interval 
 between two successive passages of the planet through the 
 same node dilfcrs from the sidereal period, or the interval 
 which the planet occupies in returning to the same point of 
 
 the heavens, or the same star, as seen from the centre of 
 the sun, by a very small quantity, depending on a minute 
 motion of the node, and which in a general view of the 
 subject may be disregarded. 
 
 Another and more convenient method of finding the 
 period of a superior planet consists in determining, from the 
 observations of a tew consecutive days, the exact time a 
 which it is in opposition to the sun." At this instant the 
 longitude of the planet is 180°, and on the day of the oppo- 
 sition it passes the meridian twelve hours after the sun. 
 The interval between two successive returns to the opposi- 
 tion is the synodic period of the planet; this differs very 
 considerably from the sidereal period, but the latter isea.-ily 
 deduced from it. Let E and J be the positions of the earth 
 and Jupiter, when Jupiter is in opposi- 
 tion. The next opposition will take j 
 place after the earth has made a com- 
 plete revolution, together with a certain 
 arc r, which we shall call z, corre- 
 sponding to Jupiter's angular motion in 
 the interval. Now the number of days 
 between the two oppositions, or fl 
 nodic period, is known : call this 365 -(- 
 t; then the time in which tin- arc E a 
 or x has hem described becomes t days. 
 We have therefore 305 : t : : 300° : x; whence i, or the 
 angle J Sj, is known. Hut, if p denote the sidereal period, 
 
 we shall have x : 300° : : t :p, and therefore p — - -^i. On 
 
 x 
 ace, unit of the orbits not being exactly circular, these intet 
 vals are not quite equal; but by taking the average of a 
 considerable number of observed oppositions, the inequalities 
 
 disappear, and the mean synodic periods (and consequently 
 tin- sidereal periods) are obtained with the utmost accuracy 
 The following table exhibits the mean sidereal periods of 
 the planets, ami their mean distances from the sun, in 
 terms of the mean distance of the earth from the sun being 
 •"PI I equal to unity. (Baily's Astronomical Tables.) 
 
 
 .Mc-.ii Slderal 1 ■ 
 
 ftoee from 
 
 
 ri 
 
 'in. 
 
 
 
 
 Mrrciiry 
 
 ST's, 
 
 D40MI 
 
 Vrnus '. 
 
 22-i 71 
 
 minus. 
 
 •Jin- Karii . 
 
 
 1 OlUHtll) 
 
 Mara .... 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 Ceres .... 
 
 
 2 67244 
 
 Fallal ... 
 
 
 
 Jupiter .... 
 
 (S92-SS482I 
 
 .-> J tnt 
 
 .... 
 
 
 
 I'ratKn .... 
 
 3U6s6-s20K)0 
 
 19IS2390 
 
 Relations between the Periods and Distances. — On com 
 paring the columns of the above table, the idea ofa certain 
 
 relation between the periods and distances cannot fail to 
 suggest itself, as they both increase in a tolerably regular 
 progression (the four small planets between Mars and 
 Jupiter being accounted as one), though the periods in- 
 cn ie in a much more rapid proportion than the distances. 
 Jupiter, for example, is live times more distant from the 
 sun than the earth is, but his period is nearly twelve times 
 that of the earth. Kepler, the great founder of physical 
 astronomy, undertook to Investigate the analogy ; and, 
 after a most laborious comparison of the numbers (and 
 their various powers) representing the periodic times and 
 the mean distances of the six planets known in his age, 
 discovered this most remarkable law; "That the squares 
 of tiic periodic times of any two planers are to each other 
 in the same proportion as the cubes of their mean distances 
 from the sun." {See Kepler's Laws.) Taking, for ex 
 ample, the earth and Mars, whose periods are respectively 
 305-250 and 686*979 days, and distances in the proportion 
 of 1 and 1-5-237, it will be found that (305'250)2: (080-9792:: 
 1 : (1-5237)3, very nearly. Nor Is this merely an empirical 
 relation, deduced from observed facts, but not referable to 
 any known cau^e ; on the contrary, it is a necessary result 
 of the law of gravitation, and pregnant with Important con- 
 sequences. From its being observed in the planetary sys- 
 tem, it follows that all the planets are bodies of the same 
 kind as the earth, and that they are all acted upon in the 
 same manner by the solar attraction (modified only by the 
 distance), which alone determines their periods, and retains 
 them in their orbits. 
 
 A curious relation of the numbers which express the 
 relative distances of the planets from the sun was dis 
 covered by M. Bode, an astronomer of Berlin. Let the 
 number 10 be assumed to represent the distance of the earth • 
 from the sun ; then the distances of the other ) 'anets mav 
 be expressed in round numbers as follows : 
 
 Mercurv . .4=4 
 
 Venus 7=4 + 3-2" 
 
 The Earth . . . . 10 = 4 -4- 3-2: 
 
 939 
 
PLANET. 
 
 Mars 16 = 4 + 3-2.; 
 
 The four New rianets . . 28 = 4 + 3-23 
 
 Jupiter 52=4 + 32i 
 
 Saturn 100 = 4 + 3-2> 
 
 Uranus 196 = 4 + 3-26 
 
 It ha i been conjectured by Kepler that an unknown planet 
 must exist circulating between the orbits of Mars and Jupi- 
 ter, a conjecture which was strangely verified by the dis- 
 covery of tour planets circulating in that region, nearly in 
 equal periods, and at equal distances from the sun, and 
 exactly in the place where a planet was wanting to fill up 
 the above progression. The progression is, however, purely 
 empirical, and not even very accurate ; yet it agrees so 
 well, on the whole, with the actual distances of the planets, 
 that one can scarcely help thinking it must be connected 
 in some manner with the essential constitution of the 
 planetary system. 
 
 Heal Dimensions of the Planetary Orbits. — Hitherto we 
 have spoken of the distances of the planets from the sun 
 only in relation to the sun's distance from the earth ; but 
 it is interesting to determine what these distances actually 
 are in terms of some measure with which we are familiarly 
 acquainted. In consequence of Kepler's law of the rela- 
 tion between the periods and distances, if the real dimen- 
 sions of any one orbit have been ascertained, those of all 
 the other orbits will be found immediately when the 
 periodic times of the planets are respectively known. In 
 fact, the dimensions of the orbits having been already stated 
 in terms of that of the earth, it is only necessary to find the 
 earth's distance from the sun, in order to find the respective 
 distances of all of them. Now, to find the earth's distance 
 from the sun is the same thing as to find the sun's hori- 
 zontal parallax, that is, the angle which the radius of the 
 earth would subtend if seen from the sun ; for the determi- 
 nation of that angle gives the relation between the earth's 
 distance and its seinidiameter, which is known from the 
 actual measurement of degrees of the terrestrial meridian. 
 Of the various methods which astronomers possess of de- 
 termining the sun's horizontal parallax, the most accurate 
 is that which depends on observations of the transits of 
 Venus over the sun's disk ; a phenomenon, however, of 
 very rare occurrence, so that the method can very seldom 
 he practised. 
 
 When Venus is at her inferior conjunction, and at the 
 same time very near one of her nodes, the planet will be 
 projected on the disk of the sun ; and through the effect of 
 her proper motion, combined with that of the earth, will 
 be seen as a black spot to pass over, or transit, the solar 
 disk, describing a chord which will be referred to different 
 positions on the disk by observers stationed at different 
 uoints on the earth's surface. Let E be the earth, V Venus, 
 
 S the sun, and C 
 Da portion of 
 x „ Venus's orbit, de- 
 scribed while she 
 is transiting the 
 sun's disk. Sup- 
 pose A and B to 
 De the two opposite extremities of the earth's diameter 
 which is perpendicular to the ecliptic : a spectator at A 
 would see the centre of Venus projected on the sun's disk 
 at a, and describing in her successive positions the chord a' 
 a a" ; while a spectator placed at B would, at the same 
 instant, see her projected on the disk at ft, and describing 
 the chord 4' b b 1 ' . Now it is evident that if there be any 
 means of measuring the distance between the two chords 
 a' a" and ft' b", or the line a b, that distance will give the 
 sun's horizontal parallax; for the two triangles A V B and 
 a V b being similar, a ft is to A B as o V to A V, or ns the 
 distance of Venus from the sun is to the distance of Venus 
 from the earth. But the relative distances of the earth 
 and Venus from the sun are known ; therefore the ratio of 
 a V to A V is known, and consequently that of a ft to A B. 
 This ratio is that of 68 to 27, or 2J to I (very nearly) ; 
 therefore the distance a A as seen from the earlh is 2£ 
 times greater than A B as seen from the sun, or, which is 
 the same thing, equal to 5 times the sun's horizontal paral- 
 lax. The whole difficulty of the problem, therefore, con- 
 sists in determining the distance of the two chords a' a" 
 and ft' ft", or their relative positions on the sun's disk, from 
 which their distance can be deduced. One of the best ways 
 of accomplishing this is to note, witli great accuracy, the 
 instants at which Venus enters and emerges from the solar 
 disk, so as to obtain the exact time occupied in the transit; 
 for, the relative motion of Venus being accurately known, 
 the time occupied in the transit gives the length of the chord 
 described ; and the sun's apparent diameter being also 
 known, the arcs cut oft* by a' a" and A' ft" are thus found, 
 and the difference between the versed sines of those arcs is 
 evidently the distance between the chords, or the line a ft. 
 The problem, however, is rendered much more complicated 
 bv the earth's rotation, and other circumstances here neg- 
 040 
 
 lected, of which it U unnecessary to take account in a 
 general explanation. 
 
 The last transit of Venus took place in 1769, and was the 
 occasion of the first of the celebrated voyages of Captain 
 Cook to Otaheite. It was observed at Otaheite, at Wardhi.s 
 in Norway, at Uajaneburg, and Kola in Lapland ; at Peters- 
 burg, Paris, California, Hudson's Bay, &c. The general 
 result of all the observations gave the sun's horizontal 
 parallax equal to 8-5776". Hence the sun's distance is given 
 in terms of the earth's radius by the proportion 
 
 sin. 8-5776" : radius : : radius of earth : sun's distance : 
 whence, on reducing the radius of a circle to seconds, we 
 
 u ., , ,. . 360 X 60 X 60 
 
 have the sun's distance = ,— =x- — — "4047 
 
 8-5776 X 2 x 3-14159 
 
 terrestrial radii. Assuming the earth's scmidiamcter («* 
 Earth) to be 4000 miles in round numbers, the sun's dis- 
 tance from the earth will therefore be 24047 x 4000 = 
 96,188,000, or about 96 millions of English miles. 
 
 This application of the transits of the inferior planets tn 
 the important purpose of determining the sun's distance from 
 the earth was first pointed out by James Gregory, in his 
 Optica Promota, published in 1663. Those of Venus recui 
 alter intervals of 113 years; but as Venus returns to her 
 conjunction at nearly the same point of her orbit in about 
 eight years, and the difference of her latitude at two succes- 
 sive conjunctions amounts only to 20' or 24', which is less 
 than the sun's diameter, it will generally happen that two 
 transits take place within eight years; the first before the 
 planet has passed the node, and the second after the passage 
 of the node. But three transits cannot take place within 16 
 years ; hence, after two transits have occurred within 8 
 years, another cannot be expected before 105, that is, 113 — 
 8 years, and may not happen until after 121 years. The 
 two last transits took place in 1761 and 1769; the two next 
 will take place in 1874 and 1882; after which there will 
 not be another till 20X14. By reason of the small distance 
 of Mercury from the sun, the difference between his hori- 
 zontal parallax and that of the sun cannot be so accurately 
 ascertained: and hence the transits of that planet, (hough 
 of more frequent occurrence than those of Venus, cannot 
 be employed with such certainty in determining the sun's 
 parallax. 
 
 Having found the mean distance of the earth from the 
 sun in terms of a known unit, the mean distances of all 
 the other planets from the sun, the ratios of which to that 
 of the earth were given above, may be expressed in the 
 same terms. They are, in round numbers, as follows : 
 
 Mercury 
 Venus . 
 The Earth 
 Mars 
 Ceres 
 Jupiter . 
 Saturn . 
 Uranus . 
 
 Mile; 
 
 37,000,000 
 
 68,000,000 
 
 96,000,000 
 
 142,000,000 
 
 282,000,000 
 
 485,000,000 
 
 8110,000,000 
 
 1,800,000,000 
 
 Inclination and Nodes of the Planetary Orbits. — The 
 planes of the planetary orbits are inclined to each other 
 under different angles, and. in determining the circumstances 
 of a planet's motion, one of the first steps to be taken is to 
 fix the situation in space of the plane in which it moves. 
 For this p^-pose it is necessary to refer it to some other 
 plane whose situation is assumed to be known. The plane 
 of the ecliptic is that to which we naturally refer the bodies 
 of the solar system, and the line of the equinoxes is taken 
 as the origin of angular reckoning in that plane. Hence, to 
 determine the position in space of the plane of a planet's 
 orbit, we must determine its inclination to the ecliptic, and 
 the position of the line in which it intersects the ecliptic 
 with respect to the line of the equinoxes. Let S be the sun, 
 P N R the orbit of a planet, and p N & 
 the projection of that orbit on the plane 
 of the ecliptic, intersecting the line of 
 the equinoxes S Q, in Q. ; then Q, is the 
 point from which the longitudes are 
 reckoned, N is the node, S N the line of _ / 
 the nodes, or line in which the plane of D o 
 the orbit intersects the ecliptic, the angle 
 (iSN the longitude of the node as seen 
 from the sun, and P N p the inclination of the orbit. If R 
 be supposed to be on the south side of the ecliptic, and P 
 on the north side, and the planet's motion to be in the di- 
 rection R P, then N is the ascending- node. The place of 
 the node is determined by observing the planet when its 
 latitude is very nearly equal to nothing; and the equinoctial 
 point Q. being known, the geocentric longitude of the node 
 (the angle formed by drawing straight lines from (1 and N 
 to the earth) is determined by observation ; whence there 
 are sufficient data for computing, by a trigonometrical pro? 
 cess, the heliocentric longitude U S N, and also the inclina- 
 tion P N p. The places of the nodes are not absolutely 
 
PLANET. 
 
 nied. In consequence of the mutual attractions of the 
 planets to eacli other, they have a slow retrograde motion 
 in respect of the fixed stars. The inclinations are also 
 subject to a slight variation, but so small as to amount at 
 most to a few seconds in a century. Hence, in mentioning 
 the longitudes of the nodes, and the inclinations of the orbits, 
 it is necessary to state the epoch to which the values refer. 
 In the following table the values correspond to the 1st Jan- 
 uary, 1801 ; excepting those for Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and 
 Pallas, which are referred to January 1, 1820 : 
 
 1 
 
 Planet. 
 
 Inclination. 
 
 Longitude of 
 ascending node. 
 
 
 O ' " 
 
 O ' " 
 
 Mercury 
 
 7 91 
 
 45 57 30-9 
 
 Venus 
 
 3 23 235 
 
 74 54 12-9 
 
 Man 
 
 1 ill 62 
 
 4* 3-5 
 
 Vesta 
 
 7 8 90 
 
 103 13 18-2 
 
 Juno 
 
 13 4 97 
 
 171 7 40-4 
 
 Ceres . ■ 
 
 10 37 26-2 
 
 80 41 24 
 
 l'lUit 
 
 34 34 550 
 
 172 39 268 
 
 Jupiter 
 
 1 IS 51-3 
 
 98 26 IS-9 
 
 Saturn 
 
 2 29 35-7 
 
 111 56 37-4 
 
 Unous 
 
 46 28-4 
 
 72 59 353 
 
 The ancients gave the name of zodiac to that zone of the 
 heavens within which the planets were observed to move, 
 and which, consequently, had a breadth of 11°, or twice the 
 inclination of the orbit of Mercury. The inclinations of the 
 four recently discovered planets being greater than that of 
 Mercury, they so beyond the zodiac, and hence have been 
 named the i ztra-todiaeai planets. 
 
 I of the Planetary Orbits. — When the inclination 
 of a planet's orbit and the situation of the line of the nodes 
 have been determined, the radius vector of the planet, at 
 any instant, may be computed in terms of the sun's distance 
 from the earth, from the planet's latitude and longitude 
 found by n single observation. By computing, therefore, the 
 values of its radius vector at a great many different points 
 of the orbit, and laying down each on paper at the proper 
 angle of elongation round the sun, the form of the orbit 
 whirh the planet describes will be ascertained. A few ob- 
 servations of this sort will show that the radius vector va- 
 ries in length, and, consequently, that the orbit is eccentric. 
 This fact was known from the time of Ilippnrchus; but the 
 true form of the planetary orbits was not discovered till 
 Krpler found, by a laborious computation of the distances 
 of Mars at us oppositions, from the observations of Tycho 
 Brnhe, that the orbit of that planet is an ellipse. He subse- 
 quently found the same thing to bo true of the orbit of the 
 earth, arid of the other planets then known; and hence es- 
 tablished the litst of those important laws respecting the 
 planetary motions which still go by his name, viz. that the 
 orbits of all the planets are ellipses, of which the sun occu- 
 pies one of thi' foci. See Kepler's Laws. 
 
 The same observations which show the orbit to be an el- 
 lipse will also serve for the determination of its eccentrici- 
 ty, which is half the difference between its greatest and 
 least distances. The only element which then requires to 
 be known, in order to fix the path described by the planet 
 in space, Is the position of the orbit on its plane, or the 
 situation of its transverse axis with respect to the line of the 
 /, equinoxes. Let A B P be the projec- 
 
 rs~ tion of an orbit on the plane of the 
 
 A I / \ ecliptic, A B its transverse axis, and 
 
 ' / / 8 Q. the line of the equinoxes, S being 
 
 the focus occupied by the sun. The 
 point A is the perihelion of the orbit, 
 '-' and B the aphelion ; the line A B is the 
 line of the apsides ; and the position of 
 A B with respect to S Q, will be known 
 oy means of one of the angles QSA or QSB, which are 
 respectively the longitudes of these points. In modern ta- 
 bles, the angle Q. S A, or longitude of the perihelion, is that 
 whose value is given. The following table shows the ec- 
 centricities and longitudes of the perihelia of the different 
 planets ; the epoch, as before, being January 1, 1801, for the 
 nld planets, and 1820 for the four new ones : 
 
 Planet. 
 
 Eccentricity. 
 
 Longitude of Peri- 
 helion. 
 
 Mercury • . 
 
 0-205515 
 
 O ' " 
 
 74 21 47 
 
 Venus . . 
 
 0006861 
 
 12? 43 53 
 
 The Earth 
 
 0016784 
 
 99 30 5 
 
 Man 
 
 093307 
 
 332 23 57 
 
 Vesta 
 
 0-0S91S0 
 
 249 33 24 
 
 Juno 
 
 0-257848 
 
 53 33 46 
 
 Cerrs 
 
 0078439 
 
 147 7 31 
 
 Pallas 
 
 0-24164 -J 
 
 121 7 4 
 
 Jupiter 
 
 004SI62 
 
 It 8 35 
 
 Saturn 
 
 o-o^r.l 
 
 89 9 30 
 
 Uranus 
 
 ii0it;crn 
 
 167 31 16 
 
 The eccentricities of all the planets are subject to a very 
 •mail secular variation ; the line of the apsides is also in 
 
 a state of continual but slow revolution, so that the petr 
 helia are gradually shifting their places on the planes of the 
 orbits. In the case of all the planets excepting Vencs the 
 motion of the line of the apsides is direct; that is to sav, 
 it is in the same direction as the motion of the planet in its 
 orbiL The perihelion of Venus, referred to the fixed stars, 
 moves in a contrnry direction. 
 
 .Motion of the Planets in their Orbits. — When the six 
 elements of which numerical values have now been given, 
 viz. the mean distance and periodic time, the inclination 
 of the orbit and longitude of the node, the eccentricity and 
 longitude of the perihelion, have been determined for each 
 planet, it will be possible to compute the position of a planet 
 in its orbit, provided we know the law according to which 
 the planet moves at every point of the orbit, and also the 
 instant of time at which it occupied any given point. The 
 motion in the orbit is given by the second of Kepler's laws; 
 viz. "The areas described by the radius vector are propor- 
 tional to the times employed in describing them." Thus, 
 if the planet has moved from A to P (see the preceding 
 figure), or the radius vector SP has described the nrea 
 A S P in the time t, and the area A S/> in the time t' ; then 
 t : f : : sector PSA: sector p S A. The problem which 
 proposes to find the point P, or the angle ASP (which is 
 called the true anomaly), from the condition that the area 
 ASP shall be to the whole ellipse as the given time in 
 which A P is described is to the time of a whole revolution, 
 is important in practical astronomy, and known by the name 
 of Kepler's problem. See Kepler's Problem. 
 
 Magnitude and Rotation of the Plnntts. — When the plan 
 ets are examined through powerful telescopes! they ate 
 seen to be round bodies, having measurable, and e\eii eon 
 siderable, apparent diameters. The distance of n planet 
 being known, if the visual angle subtended by its diameter 
 he measured by the micrometer, the real magnitude of III 
 diameter will be discovered. In this manner it is found 
 that nil the planets are incomparably smaller than the sun, 
 though some of them are vastly larger than the earth. The 
 diameter of Jupiter is eleven times greater than tint of the 
 earth, whence his volume is about 1980 times greater than 
 the earth. That of Saturn is little less considerable. The 
 surfaces of the larger planets are also seen to he diversified 
 by dark patches or s|to;s, from the attentive observation of 
 which it is found that they resemble the earth in having a 
 rotation about their own axes. Mercury, Venus, and Mars 
 revolve about their axes in nearly the' same time ns the 
 earth ; Jupiter and Saturn in less than half that time The 
 four new plnntts, Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, ore bo 
 small and indistinctly seen that their diameters cannot be 
 accurately measured, and their periods of rotation are tin- 
 known. Pallas, considered to be the largest of them, was 
 supposed by Sir William Herschel to have a diameter of 
 only 80 English miles. In the following table the true di- 
 ameters and the volumes are given in terms of the diamo- 
 ter and volume of the earth, supposed to be unit: 
 
 Planet. 
 
 Diameter. 
 
 Volume. 
 
 Sidereal Rota- 
 tion. 
 
 
 
 
 /p.T. m. $te. 
 
 Mercury . • • 
 
 0-398 
 
 0-063 
 
 24 5 28 
 
 Venus . , 
 
 0-975 
 
 0927 
 
 23 21 7 
 
 The Earth 
 
 1-000 
 
 1-000 
 
 24 
 
 Mars 
 
 0-517 
 
 0139 
 
 24 39 21 
 
 Jupiter 
 
 10-860 
 
 12f 0-900 
 
 9 55 50 
 
 Sa'urn . . 
 
 9-992 
 
 99500D 
 
 10 29 17 
 
 Uranus 
 
 4-332 
 
 80-490 
 
 unknown. 
 
 (For other particulars respecting the appearances and phys- 
 ical condition of the several planets, their masses, densities, 
 &c. sec the respective terms.) 
 
 The force which retains the planets in their orbits is the 
 attraction of the sun ; and, if they were acted upon by no 
 other force, the laws of Kepler would be accurately observ- 
 ed, and the elements of their orbits would remain invaria- 
 ble. But each planet exercises an attracting force on every 
 other, in consequence of which their motions, though prin- 
 cipally obedient to the predominating influence of the sun 
 are affected by a number of forces of which the intensities 
 and directions are perpetually changing. Hence all the 
 elements of the orbits, their magnitudes and forms, their 
 inclinations to the ecliptic, nnd their positions on their 
 planes, are in a state of constant oscillation ; fluctuating, 
 however, between certain mean values from which they 
 never greatly depart. See Gravitation, Perturbation. 
 
 Hypothesis of Laplace, respecting the Formation of the 
 Planetary System. — The motion of the planets in elliptic 
 orbits, and the relation between their periods and distances, 
 are necessary consequences of the law of gravitation which 
 prevail? throughout the universe ; but the solar system 
 presenw several remarkable phenomena of which gravita- 
 tion fail* to give any account, which cannot be supposed to 
 be the effect of accident, and which lead almost irresistibly 
 to the conclusion that all the bodies which beb ng to it have 
 had a common origin, and been formed under the agency 
 
 941 
 
PLANE TABLE. 
 
 of the same mechanical laws. All the planets, as well as 
 satellites, move in the same direction, from west to east. 
 The orbits of all the large planets are situated very nearly 
 in the plane of the ecliptic ; and, so far as has been discov- 
 ered, they all revolve about their axes in the same direc- 
 tion, also from west to east. To account for these phe- 
 nomena, Laplace has hazarded the speculation that all the 
 planets and satellites have had their origin in the solar at- 
 mosphere, which he supposes to have extended beyond the 
 orbits of the most distant planets, and to have undergone a 
 progressive contraction by the radiation of heat into the 
 stellar spaces. Now, as the solar atmosphere partakes of 
 the sun's rotation about its axis, and in fact may be regard- 
 ed as part of his mass, in proportion as its limits are con- 
 tracted by cooling the rotatory motion must increase, ac- 
 cording to a well-known principle of mechanics ; and the 
 centrifugal force thus becoming greater, the point or limit 
 at which it is balanced by gravity approaches nearer the 
 centre. Supposing, therefore, the atmosphere to have ex- 
 tended this limit at any epoch, it must, in cooling, have 
 abandoned the molecules situated there and at the different 
 limits successively produced by the increased velocity of the 
 sun's rotation. This effect, however, would only take place 
 at the equator ; for on the parallels of latitude the centrifu- 
 gal would not equal the attractive force. Thus, zones of 
 vapours would continue to be abandoned at the equator ; 
 and if the condensation of the molecules of these zones con- 
 tinued without any disunion taking place, the matter would, 
 in the long run, form a solid or liquid ring, circulating about 
 the sun hfcthe plane of his equator. But the uniformity 
 which would be necessary for the production of this effect, 
 both in all the parts of the zone and in the cooling, must 
 render such a phenomenon extremely rare. In fact, the 
 ring of Saturn is the only instance of it in the planetary 
 system. In almost every case each zone of vapours must 
 have been broken up into numerous masses, which, mov- 
 ing with nearly the same velocities, would continue to cir- 
 culate about the sun, nearly at the same distances. These 
 separate masses would assume the spheroidal form, with a 
 motion of rotation in the same direction as their revolving 
 motion ; in short, they would become so many planets in 
 the state of vapour. But if any one of them was considera- 
 bly larger than the rest, it would finally, by its attraction, 
 unite all the others about its centre ; and thus the zone origi- 
 nally abandoned would be transformed into a single sphe- 
 roidal mass of vapours, circulating about the sun. This 
 latter case must have been the most common. An instance, 
 however, of pennanent separation occurs in the four small 
 planets between Mars and Jupiter. 
 
 Conceiving the planet to have been detached from the 
 solar atmosphere in the manner now described, the fur- 
 ther cooling would occasion a nucleus to be formed at its 
 centre, which would progressively increase by the conden- 
 sation of the vapours surrounding it. The condition of the 
 planet would now perfectly resemble that of the sun, and 
 consequently similar results would follow from the con- 
 tinuance of the condensation. Hence the formation of the 
 satellites from the atmospheres of the planets, as the planets 
 are formed from that of the sun. 
 
 This hypothesis of Laplace does not explain the origin of 
 the comets, which may be regarded as small nebulosities 
 wandering from one solar system to another, and formed by 
 the condensation of nebulous matter, which appears to be 
 scattered through the universe in great profusion. What- 
 ever may be the fate of the hypothesis, it must be allowed 
 the merit of assigning a mechanical cause for some of the 
 most remarkable phenomena of the universe, without in- 
 voking the aid of any other force than that of gravity— a 
 property which belongs to matter in every form. See As- 
 tronomy, Satellite, Star, Sun. 
 
 PLANE TABLE. An instrument employed in land-sur- 
 veying, by means of which a plan is made on the spot, 
 without any protraction or measurement of angles. It con- 
 sists of a plane rectangular board, about sixteen inches 
 square, to the under side of which a centre is attached with 
 a ball and socket, or parallel plate screws, by which it can 
 be fixed upon a staff-head or three-legged stand, and set 
 horizontal by means of a circular spirit level. A boxwood 
 frame is accurately fitted round the edges of the board, for 
 the purpose of stretching and retaining the drawing paper. 
 It is usual to divide one face of the frame into 360° from a 
 centre in the middle of the board ; but this graduation is 
 scarcely of any use, and may be dispensed with. The re- 
 verse face of the frame is divided into equal parts, as inches 
 and tenths, for the convenience of ruling parallel lines and 
 squar' ., and for shifting the paper. A compass-box with a 
 magnetic needle is screwed into one side of the table, to in- 
 dicate the bearings, and to enable the surveyor to set up the 
 Instrument at a new station parallel to the position it had 
 at a former one. A brass rule or index, with a sloping edge, 
 and having perpendicular sight-vanes erected at each ex- 
 tremity, completes the apparatus. 
 942 
 
 PLASHING. 
 
 The plane table is used as follows: Two stations are se- 
 lected as the extremities of a base line, the distance be- 
 tween which is accurately measured, and a line drawn on 
 the paper, representing that distance according to the as- 
 sumed scale. The instrument is then set up at one of the 
 stations, and a fine needle or pin being stuck into the table, 
 at one extremity of the line drawn on the paper, the edge 
 of the index is brought to press gentlv on the pin and coin- 
 cide with the line, and the table turned round till the object 
 at the second station is bisected through the sight-vanes, 
 the table is then clamped, and the direction of the magnetic 
 meridian marked. The fiducial edge of the index, still in 
 contact with the upright pin, which serves as a centre, is 
 then directed successively to all the different objects which 
 have been selected as stations, and lines drawn on the pa- 
 per in the direction of each. This being done, the table is 
 removed to the second station, and the pin placed at the 
 corresponding point on the paper, which forms a second 
 centre. The edge of the ruler is then directed, as before, 
 to each of the objects which were observed from the first 
 station, and lines drawn in those different directions. The 
 intersections of the lines drawn from the second centre 
 with those drawn from the first, marks on the paper the po- 
 sition of each of the observed objects. 
 
 The plane-table is not susceptible of great accuracy, but 
 it is extremely useful in forming a sketch-map, or filling up 
 the details of a survey, where the principal points have 
 been fixed by the theodolite, or some equivalent instrument. 
 See Surveying. 
 
 PLANET A'RIUM. A machine for exhibiting the rela- 
 tive motions of the planets, and their positions in respect of 
 the sun. See Orrery. 
 
 PLA'NIPENN ATES, Flanipennes. (Lat. planus, fiat ; 
 penna, a feather.) The name of a tribe of Neuropterous in- 
 sects, comprehending those which have flat wings, of which 
 the inferior pair almost equal the superior ones, and are 
 simply folded underneath at their anterior margin. The 
 antenna? are multiarticulate, much longer than the head, 
 without being subulate or styliform. The maxillary palps 
 are usually filiform or somewhat thicker at the extremity, 
 shorter than the head, and composed of from four to five 
 joints. The ant-lions (Myrmeleon) and termites are exam- 
 ples of this tribe. 
 
 PLA'NISPHERE. A projection of the sphere and its 
 various circles on a plane. See Projection. 
 
 PLANK. (Fr. planche.) In Architecture, a board that 
 exceeds nine inches in width. 
 
 PLANO-CONCAVE. In Optics, a lens which is plane 
 on one side and concave on the other. Plano-convex is a 
 lens plane on one side and convex on the other. See Lens. 
 PLANO'RBIS. (Lat. planus, and orbis, an orb.) A ge- 
 nus of marsh snails, so called from the form of the shell, 
 which is that of a flattened orb, arising from the volutions 
 being coiled on the same plane. Man/ species of this ge- 
 nus are common in Britain. 
 PLANT. In Natural History. See Botany. 
 PLANTA'GENET. The surname of the royal family 
 of England from Henry II. to Richard HI. inclusive. The 
 origin of the name is involved in deep obscurity. The best 
 antiquaries derive it from the well-known story of the Earl 
 of Anjou, the ancestor of the royal race, who having made 
 a pilgrimage to Rome, where he was scourged with broom 
 twigs, assumed the name of Plantagcnista (literally, a 
 broom twig), which his descendants retained. The name 
 Plantagenet belongs to the noble house of Buckingham. 
 
 PLANT A'TION. A piece of ground planted with trees, 
 for the purpose of producing timber or coppice wood. In 
 new countries not generally cultivated, and more especially 
 in warm climates, the term plantation is applied to land 
 employed in the culture of the more important crops ; such 
 as the sugarcane, coffee, pepper, cotton, &c. In Britain 
 it is exclusively applied to lands planted with trees or 
 shrubs. 
 
 PLA'NTIGRADES, Plantigrada. (Lat. planta, the sole 
 of the foot ; gradior, / march.) The name of a tribe of Car 
 nivorous Mammals, comprehending those which apply the 
 whole or a great part of the sole to the ground in progressive 
 motion. 
 
 PLA'NTING. The art of forming plantations of trees. 
 Also the art of inserting plants in the soil by the spade, 
 dibble, trowel, or by other means in use in agriculture and 
 gardening. See Arboriculture. 
 
 PLA'SHING. A mode of repairing or modifying a hedge 
 by bending down a portion of the shoots, cutting them half 
 through near the ground, to render them more pliable, and 
 twisting them among the upright stems, so as to render the 
 whole effective as a fence, and at the same time preserve 
 all the branches alive. For this purpose the branches to 
 be plashed, or bent down, must not be cut more than half 
 through, in order that a sufficient portion of sap may rise up 
 from the root to keep alive the upper part of the branches. 
 Where hedses are properly formed and kept* they can very 
 
PLASTER. 
 
 seldom require to be plashed ; but this mode of treating a 
 
 hedge is most valuable in the case of hedges abounding 
 
 Willi hedge row trees, when from neglect, or from any other 
 
 • hedge has become of irregular growth. 
 
 PLA'STER. In Architecture, the materi.il of which or- 
 naments are cast, and also that with which the fine stuff 
 or gauge for mouldings and other parts it) mixed, when 
 juick setting is required. 
 
 Plaster. In Pharmacy, a compound, generally of oxide 
 of lead and olive oil, for external applications. 
 
 PLASTER OF PARIS. Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, 
 commonly termed plaster stone, and found abundantly near 
 . 
 
 PLA'STIC. (Gr. irXatrcu, I form.) In Sculpture, that 
 
 which can be modelled, as clay, &c. In the arts it has a 
 
 IMm extended signification, and signifies M O M materials and 
 
 circumstances which are susceptible of being formed and 
 
 id to the purpose wanted. 
 
 PLASTIC CLAY. A clay used in the manufacture of 
 also Geology. 
 
 PLATAN 1ST, 1'tatanista. A name applied by Pliny to 
 a li-ii in the liver Ganges, having a snout and a tail like a 
 dolphin, but much larger. In modern Zoology, it is the 
 generic appellation of the Gangetic dolphin (DelpMnu* 
 gangcticus, Cuv.). 
 
 PLATBAND. (Fr. plate and bande.) In Architec- 
 ture, ■ square moulding projecting less than its height or 
 breadth. The fillets between the flutes of columns are 
 sometimes called, hut improperly, by this name It is also 
 ins used to denote the lintel of a door. 
 
 PLATE. (Fr. plane.) In Architecture, a piece of tim- 
 ber lying horizontally on a wall for the reception of the ends 
 -, joints, ratters, &c. 
 
 Plate. The name Usually given to gold and silver 
 wrought into articles of household furniture. For the regu- 
 lations under which the manufacture of plate is carried on, 
 Com. Diet. 
 
 PLATFORM. (Fr. plateforme.) In Architecture, a 
 plane surface, lying level, of any materials used in a founda- 
 tion or elsewhere, for the reception of the foundations of a 
 building, or for the piers of a bridge: also a level scaffold, 
 raiseil above the ground for a temporarnry purpose. 
 
 Pl.vtkorm. In Artillery, an elevated floor on whic'j guns 
 
 PLATING. The art of coveting copper and other metals 
 with silver or gold: it is elfected in various Hays. - 
 linn- tl.e silver is attached lo and rolled out of the copper 
 by prea-ure ; sometimes the one metal is precipitated from 
 lulions upon the other; and, of late, manufacturers 
 have availed themselves of electro-chemical decomposition 
 for the purpose. See Voltatype. 
 
 PLATINUM. So called from the Spanish word plata, 
 .mi aiii unit of its colour.) A metal of a white colour, 
 exceedingly ductile, malleable, and difficult of fusion. It is 
 the heaviest substance known, its specific gravity being 21 '5. 
 It undergoes no change from air or moisture, and is not at- 
 tacked by any of the pure acids; it is dissolved by chlorine 
 and nitromuriatic acid, and is oxidized at high temperatures 
 by pure potassa and litliia. It is only found in South 
 America and in the Uralian Mountains: it is usually in 
 small grains of a metallic lustre, associated or combined 
 with palladium, rhodium, iridium, and osmium ; and with 
 copper, iron, lead, titanium, chromium, gold and silver ; it 
 is also usually mixed with alluvial sand. The particles are 
 seldom so large as a small pea, but sometimes lumps have 
 been found of the size of a hazel nut to that of a pigeon's 
 egg. In 1^-20. it was first discovered in a vein associated 
 with gold by Boussingault, in the province of Antioquia, in 
 South America. When a perfectly clean surface of platinum 
 is presented to a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas, it has 
 the extraordinary property of causing them to combine so as 
 to form water, ana often with such rapidity as to render the 
 metal red hot : spongy platinum, as it is usually called, ob- 
 tained by heating the ammonio-muriate of platinum, is most 
 effective in producing this extraordinary result ; and a jet of 
 hydrogen directed upon it may be inflamed by the metal 
 thus ignited, a property which has been applied to the con- 
 struction of convenient instruments for procuring a light. 
 The equivalent of platinum Is about 98. It is precipitated 
 from its nitromuriatic solution by sal ammoniac, which 
 throws It down in the form of a yellow powder, composed 
 of bichloride of platinum and sal ammoniac. 
 
 PLATO'NIC BODIES. The five regular geometrical 
 solids, so called because they were treated of or described 
 by Plato. They are the tetraedron, the hexaedron, the oc- 
 taedron, the dodecaedron, and the icosaedron. Besides these 
 five, there can be no other solids bounded by like, equal, and 
 regular plane figures, and whose solid angles are all equal. 
 
 PLA'TONISM. The philosophy of Plato. To give a 
 satisfactory account of the system of this great thinker, 
 within the limits which the nuture of the present work 
 
 ecessarily impose upon us, would be an undertaking of no 
 
 PLATONISM. 
 
 common difficulty. Those of our readers who arc adequate- 
 by conversant with the original writings of Plato must be 
 well aware that the views entertained in our own country 
 of his philosophical character and merits are, to say the 
 least, partial and incomplete ; while those who add to this 
 knowledge an acquaintance with the researches of our 
 German contemporaries on this subject will admit the possi- 
 bility, at the same time that they appreciate the difficulty, 
 of attaining a fuller and more adequate comprehension 
 The leading characteristic of the mind of Plato Is its com 
 prehensiveness. This quality discovers itself equally in the 
 form in which his philosophy is communicated, and in that 
 philosophy itself. The form to which we allude is, it is 
 well known, that of the dialogue. The Dialogues of Plato 
 are at once vivid representations of Athenian life and char- 
 acter, and constituent parts of a system of universal philos- 
 ophy ; the harmonious productions of a genius which <-■ un- 
 billed the dramatic imagination with the scientific Intellect 
 in a degree which has never before nor since been equalled. 
 It is in this circumstance that we must seek alike for the 
 Influence which Plato's writings have exerted, and for the 
 difficulty of rightly apprehending their meaning. What has 
 been said of history in general may with equal truth be Bp- 
 plied to the Platonic dialogues — that they are "philosophy 
 teaching by examples." In place of a formal refutation of 
 sophistrv. we are introduced to living sophists; in the room 
 of an elaborate system of philosophy, we meet the pr< 
 philosophers of his day, reasoning and conversing with dis- 
 ciples eager in the pursuit of knowledge — with Athenians 
 full of natural piejudices, with men abounding with indivi- 
 dual peculiarities). 
 
 Under no other or less complex form of composition could 
 Plato have accomplished the manifold purposes which he 
 had in view ; purpose! not of the philosopher only, but of 
 the reformer and educator of the moral and intellectual na- 
 ture of his countrymen. In most of his dialogues, one or 
 other of these intentions is the prominent one ; in some the 
 refutation of false philosophy, in others the establishment 
 of his own ; while others again seem chiefly designed U 
 exemplifications of scientific method generally ; though we 
 agree with Schleiermacher in thinking, that there are none 
 watch do not contribute to the gradual development of his 
 own system. 
 
 But it is not merely in the form in which his doctrine* 
 are clothed that we discern the comprehensiveness of 
 Plato's genius. The same quality is as we have said, 
 equally apparent in the philosophy of which his dlali 
 are the vehicle. By referring to the articles Eleatic, Iobic, 
 and Pythagorean Philosophy, the reader will he able to 
 form some conception of the systems which preceded that 
 of Plato. In each of these some leading idea is taken up, 
 and traced, generally to the exclusion of all others, through 
 all its possible consequences. These three schools may. 
 indeed, be severally taken as the representatives of the 
 three constituent portions of universal philosophy: the 
 Eleatics of the logical or dialectic ; the Ionians of the physi- 
 cal ; and the Pythagoreans, though in a less exclusive de- 
 gree, of the ethical clement. It was in Plato that these 
 different tendencies first converged. Each viewed by Itself 
 was essentially partial and one-sided, and, with whatever 
 of truth it might contain, must necessarily, by its very ex 
 clusiveness, combine much of error. Of this circumstance 
 the sophists had taken advantage, and, by setting the doc- 
 trines of one system in contradiction to those of another, 
 had succeeded in the introduction of a universal skepticism. 
 Plato was thus led clearly to discern the necessity of lay- 
 ing the foundations of science deeper than they had been 
 laid by his predecessors. The ultimate unity or all knowl- 
 edge, properly so called, and the mutual dependence of all 
 its parts on each other, is the fundamental intention of his 
 philosophy. How this first principle was to be attained, 
 whether, indeed, it were attainable or not, could only be 
 ascertained by a previous inquiry into the nature, not of 
 being, but of knowledge. This is one mark which distin- 
 guishes Plato from earlier speculators ; and it is important 
 to bear it in mind, if we would form a correct estimate of the 
 services rendered by him to the progress of philosophy. 
 The hint was unquestionably given by Socrates, but Plato 
 was the only one among his immediate disciples who ap- 
 pears to have followed it up. He may, in truth, be styled 
 the founder of the ancient psychology; and the dialogue 
 entitled Theatetus may be considered one of the most im- 
 portant contributions to the most important branch of that 
 science, the theory of perception and judgment, which an- 
 tiquity affords. It is in this dialogue that the negative side 
 of the inquiry into knowlege, which we have alluded to, is 
 contained. Knowledge, it is there shown, Is not to be con 
 founded either with the impressions on the senses, or with 
 the judgments (&$if) founded upon them. Sensation, by 
 its very nature, is relative only : it is the joint effect of the 
 conditions of our internal constitution and a motion, or 
 change, communicated from without. Judgment, in so far 
 
 943 
 
PLATOON. 
 
 ss it is founded on a prior impression, can have no validity, 
 *ave in reference to that impression. Pure knowledge, 
 therefore, if it exist at all, must be found in some other di- 
 rection. It is here that the celebrated doctrine of ideas 
 finds its place. Without entering into the question more 
 deeply than our limits allow, it is sufficiently clear that no 
 other word, such as conception, notion, or the like, is ade- 
 quate to convey all that Plato meant by an idea. Having 
 failed in finding alike knowledge in the senses and perma- 
 nent being, its object in nature, he was driven, in order to 
 avoid the sophistic doctrine of the relative nature of all 
 knowledge, to seek for the true objects of reason in some- 
 thing distinct from the material universe. In place of the 
 doctrine of Protagoras, " Man is the measure of all things,'' 
 he substituted, " God is the measure of all things ;" mean- 
 ing by this, as he elsewhere explains himself, that in the 
 divine nature reason and being are one. From this original 
 unity, which is denominated by Plato the good, or the su- 
 preme good, proceed, on the one hand, human reason ; on 
 the other, those ideas which constitute all in nature that is 
 real ; all, that is, which the reason can apprehend. We 
 might hence be led to suppose that the modern term " law," 
 may be correctly used in place of the Platonic " idea." 
 But, when we examine the matter more narrowly, we shall 
 find an essential difference between the two words, not 
 merely in the ontological or theological considerations just 
 alluded to, but also in the habit, which Plato inherited from 
 his master Socrates, of referring the laws of the universe 
 to a moral or teleological standard. The three great ideas 
 of truth, beauty, and order or fitness, are the ultimate uni- 
 ties to which he conceives it to be the business of the rea- 
 son to refer all its conceptions. These ideas are them- 
 selves included in the highest unity, or God, from whom it 
 is that they derive their reality. But the supreme nature 
 is to as incomprehensible ; it is in the consciousness of our 
 separation from the great source of being that philosophy 
 takes its rise. The senses it is which first suggest to us 
 this want : we strive to bring their phenomena under gen- 
 eral conceptions ; and every attempt to understand the sen- 
 sible is a self-recognition of the reason, and a step towards 
 divinity. Theology is, therefore, the ultimate science in 
 which all the other sciences converge: dialectics, as the 
 science of the true ; ethics, as the science of the morally 
 beautiful ; and physics, as that which discerns the order 
 and fitness of outward things. Such is a very imperfect 
 sketch of the Platonic idea of science in its three constitu- 
 ent parts. The threefold division above given we nowhere 
 find expressly laid down in the written works of Plato ; but, 
 besides that it is throughout implied, the fact that it is 
 taken for granted by his immediate successors, Xenocrates 
 and Aristotle, justifies us in supposing that it formed part 
 of Plato's oral communications. But, besides this compre- 
 hensive view of universal science, we are indebted to Pluto 
 for many valuable discoveries, and many more most preg- 
 nant hints, in subordinate branches of inquiry. Among 
 these may be enumerated the discussion of the theory of 
 pleasure and pain, and their relation to desire and emotion, 
 In the Philcbus ; of the first principles of the science of 
 grammar in the Cratylus and Sophist ; of the nature of 
 mathematical science, and its place in general philosophy, 
 Rep. vi., &c. The ethics of Plato, though, in many im- 
 portant respects, they must be allowed to be greatly defec- 
 tive, as, in particular, in the omission of the notions of duty 
 and responsibility, are yet far from deserving the contemptu- 
 ous treatment they have met with from certain writers 
 among ourselves. In the Republic, which contains the 
 substance of his moral doctrines, the intention of Plato 
 manifestly was to develop the idea of perfect humanity, 
 alike in the individual, and in what he regarded as an en- 
 larged transcript of the individual, the state. (See Ethics.) 
 The most important contribution to the study and right un- 
 derstanding of the Platonic philosophy, with which modern 
 times have furnished us, is to be found in the arrangement 
 of his Dialogues, and the introduction prefixed to each, by 
 the celebrated Schleiermacher, a work which has recently 
 been translated into English. See also Ritter, Gesch. der 
 Philosophic, b. viii. ; and, for some abstruse portions of Pla- 
 to's doctrine, Trendelenburg's Idea Plat, ex Aristot. Must. 
 
 The best editions of Plato's works are those of Bekker 
 and Hallbaum. For an account of his life, see Ast's Leben 
 und Sckriften Platon. 
 
 PLATOO'N. In the art Military, a small, square body 
 of musketeers, drawn out from the main body to strengthen 
 the angle of a larger square, or to do duty in ambuscades 
 or defiles, &.c, when there is not room for whole regiments 
 or battalions to act. 
 
 PLA TYRHINES. Platyrhina. (Gr. rWuj, wide, and 
 piv, a nose.) The name of a section of the Linntean genus 
 Simia, including those species which have the nostrils sep- 
 arated by a wide interspace. These monkeys are peculiar 
 to the New World. 
 
 PLA'TYSOMES. Platysoma, (Gr. jrAaruj, and cwua. 
 
 PLEADING. 
 
 body.) The name of a family of Coleopterous insects, com- 
 prehending species with a wide and much depressed bodv. 
 These insects are found under the bark of trees, and forin 
 the genus Cucitjus of Fabricus, now subdivided. 
 
 PLEA'DING. (Lat. placitum, Norman French plaid, i > 
 gether with the verb placitare, to plead; derived from placi 
 turn, the decree or sentence of a judicial or legislative au 
 thority.) Pleadings, in English law, are the preparatory al 
 legations in writing which intervene between the com- 
 mencement of a cause and its trial. 
 
 The first object in deciding a dispute between two litigant 
 parties is always to ascertain the subject for decision. This 
 must be accomplished by disengaging the point in debate 
 from all the extraneous matter in which the complaints and 
 answers of the respective parties have involved it. This is 
 the principle from which all the subtleties of the system of 
 pleading, commonly called special pleading, are derived ; 
 and, in so far as it has departed from this object, it has 
 wandered from its original purpose. 
 
 Pleadings were conducted orally in the first times of our 
 jurisprudence ; the parties, or their advocates, exposing the 
 state of facts on which they relied successively before the 
 judge, who moderated between them, and answering each 
 other until the judge was able to fix upon the point at issue, 
 as it was called ; that is, the question, whether of fact or 
 law, on which the judge, or the jury, was eventually to de- 
 cide. Hence issues are said to be in fact or in law. The 
 same principle governs the course of written pleadings now 
 adopted. 
 
 The plaintiff, or complaining party, having summoned the 
 defendant into court, by a writ stating the nature of his 
 complaint, makes his first statement, which is termed a 
 declaration. The defendant may now answer him, either 
 by denying that there is any ground in law for the action, 
 either because there is defect in substance in the plaintiff's 
 alleged right, or defect in form in his proceedings ; or by 
 controverting the facts which he alleges, or alleging new 
 facts in answer to them. In the former case the defendant 
 demurs to the declaration ; in the latter case he answers by 
 one or more pleas. 
 
 A demurrer may take place either at this or at any sub 
 sequent stage of the proceedings ; and may be made either 
 by plaintiff or defendant. And it is either general to sub 
 stance, or special to form. (But, by the increased liberality 
 of the courts, many errors in form may now be amended, 
 on application, which formerly were fatal.) If the demurrer 
 comes to be argued (which is done in term time, or in bench, 
 before all the judges of the court in which the action is 
 brought), the court will examine the whole pleadings on 
 both sides ; and their decision on the point of law is final as 
 to the action. 
 
 The defendant may answer or traverse the facts ; 1 . By 
 pleading what is termed the general issue ; a form which, 
 in its original signification, implied an absolute denial of the 
 facts on which the plaintiff founded his complaint; and 
 concludes with the words, "and of this the said defendant 
 puts himself on the country," that is, offers to have the 
 issue tried by a jury. But, by the refinements introduced 
 into pleading, the general issue was gradually admitted, in 
 each of the several forms of action to which we shall 
 presently refer, not only to deny the plaintiff's facts, but to 
 allow the defendant to bring forward other facts in answer; 
 although these more properly form the subject, 2, of special 
 pleas. When the defendant admits all or a part of the 
 plaintiff's facts, but relies on certain other facts as exon- 
 erating him from the liability asserted by the plaintiff, he 
 ought to state these facts in answer; for instance, in ordei 
 to answer the claim of a debt, that it is barred by length of 
 time, or that the defendant has a set-off to allege against 
 it ; this is termed a plea by way of confession and avoid 
 ance. The plea stating such new facts concludes with the 
 assertion, " and this the said defendant is ready to verify." 
 To this the plaintiff may reply in his second statement, 
 called a replication, either by denying the defendant's facts, 
 that is, a replication by way of traverse, or by alleging fresh 
 ones ; the defendant may deny these, or again allege fresh 
 ones, in his rejoinder ; sometimes a surrejoinder, a rebutter, 
 and a surrebutter may be added ; and the edifice of plead- 
 ing is raised by stories gradually narrowing, by the exclu- 
 sion of superfluous facts, until it reaches its summit in the 
 production of one or more issues, either in law or fact, the 
 decision of which finally arranges the dispute ; and, by 
 what are called the new'rules of pleading, framed in 1834, 
 many defences which might formerly have been given un- 
 der the general issue must be pleaded specially. 
 
 Thus, in an action of debt, the defendant pleads specially 
 the statute of limitations, that is, that more than six yean 
 have passed since the cause of action accrued ; the plaintiff 
 replies, admitting the length of time, hut allegins that the 
 defendant has since promised to pay the debt ; this the de 
 fendant denies in his rejoinder; and hereupon, i. e., on th» 
 fact of the promise, issue is joined. 
 
PLEASURE-GROUND. 
 
 A plaintiff complains of breach of covenant by his lessee, 
 In not repairing premises. The defendant pleads, admitting 
 the lease and the want of repair; but alleges that he had 
 received from the plaintiff a release from all his liability. 
 The plaintiff replies, admitting the release, but asserting 
 that it was obtained from him by force or duress. The de- 
 fendant may, perhaps, deny the legal sufficiency of this 
 ground, or demur to the replication ; or he may traverse it 
 in his rejoinder, denying the force or duress. In the former 
 case, an issue of law is raised for the court; in the latter, 
 an issue of fact for the jury. 
 
 The attorneys for the parties deliver in their respective 
 _s on paper to the officers of the court. When issue 
 is joined, these pleadings are entered on a parchment roll, 
 and the issue is likewise entered ; in the form of appointing 
 a day for the trial of the demurrer, if the issue lie in law; 
 or in the form of a precept to the sheriff of the county 
 named in the pleadings, to summon twelve good and lawful 
 men for the trial of the issue in fact. This roll is called the 
 record, and is preserved as an authentic memorial of the 
 proceedings in the case ; the verdict and the judgment being 
 entered on it. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the forms of pleading as appli- 
 cable to every injury of which complaint can be made in 
 the courts of common law. But, according to the nature of 
 the injury complained of, his action will assume a particu- 
 lar form, allotted by law to enable him to recover the par- 
 ticular remedy he seeks. See Action, and the Forms or 
 A< now, under their several heads. 
 
 PLEASURE-GROUND. That portion of ground adjoin- 
 ing a dwelling in the country which is exclusively devoted 
 to ornamental and recreative purposes. In the ancientstyle 
 of card ruing, the pleasure-ground was laid out in straight 
 ilar or symmetrical forms, commonly bor- 
 rowed from architecture; but, in the modern style, it is laid 
 out in winding walks, and in forms borrowed direct from 
 nature. A portion of lawn or smooth grassy surface may 
 be considered as essential to the pleasure-ground under both 
 
 PLEBEIANS. The free citizens of Rome who did not 
 
 com" under the class of the patricians or clients. Though 
 always personally independent, they had in early times no 
 political power, the government being entirely in the hands 
 of the patricians, who, with their clients and the king, 
 formed the original people. The class of plebeians was of 
 after growth, and probably drew it-< numbers from various 
 :.s from clients whose obligations were dissolved 
 by the decay of the houses of their patrons, and the inliabi- 
 onqucred states who were admitted to rights of cit- 
 izenship. The plebeian families with patrician names are 
 ■apposed to have arisen from marriages of disparagement 
 contracted between the higher and lower classes. 
 
 As this body, from its constitution, naturally grew in vigour 
 while the patricians became weaker, it soon formed the 
 main strength of the Roman armies, and became desirous 
 of sharim: in the advantages of the conquests made by its 
 while the patricians, on their part, tenaciously 
 clung to all their privileges, and, far from yielding to the 
 demands of the other party, exercised the severe rights 
 which as creditors they possessed over the liberties of many 
 of its members. This state of things produced a continued 
 series of collisions between the two orders, in which the 
 latter gradually gained ground, till, in the last ages of the 
 republic, it was admitted to a full share of all the powers 
 anil privileges before confined to one order. 
 
 PLEBISCI TUM. (Lat. a decree of the people.) In Ro- 
 man History, a law enacted by the common people, under 
 the superintendence of the tribune or some subordinate ple- 
 beian magistrate, without the intervention of the senate. 
 Tin- term, however, is used in a more peculiar sense, being 
 applied chiefly to the law made when, upon a misunder- 
 standing with the senate, they retired to Mount Aventine. 
 
 PLE'CTOGNATHES, Plectognathi. (Gr. irAtVw, / con- 
 nect, and yvaOoc, ajavi.) The name of an order of fishes, 
 Including those which have the maxillary bones anchylo- 
 sed to the sides of the intermaxillaries, which alone form 
 the jaws. 
 
 PLE'CTROPO'MA. (Gr. 7rXr/<crf>ov, a spur, and maita, a 
 lid.) A name applied by Cuvicr to a genus of Percoid fish- 
 es, characterized by having the angle of the preoperculum 
 produced, or divided into a series of spines, like those which 
 arm the rowel of a spur. AH the species are exotic, and 
 belong to warm climates. 
 
 PLE'CTRUM. (Gr. irXi;<rTpov ; from ir\vaou>, I strike.) 
 The small ivory instrument with which the ancients struck 
 J»e lyre. 
 
 PLEI'ADES. In Mythology, the seven daughters of At- 
 las and Pleione were so called, whose names were Alcyone, 
 Maia, Electra, Merope, Calano, Sterope, and Taygeta. 
 They were loved for seven years by Orion, from whose so- 
 licitations they were at length released by the interposition 
 of Jupiter, who transformed them to the stars, where they 
 3 O 
 
 PLOTT1NG-SCALE. 
 
 now form a cluster in the neck of the constellation 'laurus. 
 Only six of these stars are visible to the naked eye : and the 
 ancients supposed that the seventh concealed herself, out of 
 shame for having bestowed her love on a mere mortal. 
 Sisyphus, while her sisters were the favourites of divine 
 personages. 
 
 PLE'NARTY. (Lat. plenus, full.) In Law, the state 
 of a benefice, office, &c., when full : in opposition to va- 
 cancy. 
 
 PLENE ADMINISTRATIS (Lat.) In Law, a plea 
 pleaded by an executor or administrator to an action on o 
 liability of the deceased, that he has fully administered his 
 goods. 
 
 PLE'NICORNS, Plenicornia. (Lat. plenus, full, and 
 cornu, a horn.) The name of a tribe of Ruminants, inclu 
 ding those which have horns composed of an uniform solid 
 osseous substance, as the antlers of deer. See Cornua. 
 
 PLENIPOTENTIARY. See Ambassador. 
 
 PLE'ONASM. (Gr. ir\cov, more.) In Rhetoric, a re 
 dundant phrase or expression, sometimes introduced to gtw 
 additional energy, at other limes needless and ungraceful. 
 
 PLE'SIOMO'hTlllSM. (Gr. irXnaios, near, and v „a$n 
 form.) A term applied to crystallized substances the forms 
 of which closely resemble each other, but arc not absolutely 
 identical. The primary form of sulphate of strontia If ■ 
 rhombic prism very similar to that of sulphate of baryta . 
 but, on measuring the inclination of corresponding sides on 
 each prism, the difference exceeds ii°. Similar differences 
 are observable in the rhomboedrons of carbonate of lime 
 and carbonate of iron. Such substances, therefore, arc 
 plesiomnrphous. 
 
 PLE'SIOSAUR, Plesiosaurus. (Gr. rXqcrio?, and onvpoc, a 
 lizard.) The name of a genus of extinct marine saurians, 
 chiefly remarkable for their length at neck. The head is 
 small, but like that of a crocixlile ; the vertebra; are articu- 
 lated generally by nearly plane surfaces ; the cervical ver- 
 tebra 1 have an articular surface, divided by a longitudinal 
 impression, for a rudiments] rib on each side, and two m< 
 cular foramina beneath the digital bones of both the hind 
 and fore extremities are flattened, and are enveloped in a 
 sheath of sKin like the paddles of the Cetacea. The re- 
 mains of the Plesiosauri occur in the formations from the 
 muschel-chalk to the chalk inclusive; but are most com- 
 mon in the lias and kimmcridge clav beds. 
 
 PLE'THORA. (Gr. irAijflai, /fill.) A redundant ful- 
 ness of the blood-vessels. It results from various eau 
 generally referred to sanguine plethora, to which the robust 
 and athletic are most subject ; and to serous plethora. 
 which attacks debilitated constitutions. 
 
 PLEU RA. (Lat.) The membrane which rovers the 
 inner surface of the thorax and its viscera. It forms two 
 distinct portions, or bags, which, being applied laterally to 
 each other, form the partition called the mediastinum. 
 
 PLEURI'TIS, Pleurisy. Inflammation of the pleura. 
 This disease begins with fever, cough, pain in the side, a 
 peculiar hard and strong pulse : the symptoms often run on 
 with great rapidity, attended by very painful respiration and 
 other alarming symptoms, (See Pneumonia.) The treat- 
 ment must be prompt and decided, it consists in bleeding, 
 blisters, and purging ; and in the after treatment, great care 
 must be taken against an insidious and local form of the 
 disease, which often extends to the lungs. 
 
 PLEU'RONEOTIDrE. (Gr. *\cvpa, a side, and vexrnc, 
 a swimmer.) The name of a family of Jugular fishes 
 which swim on their side, and of which the genus Pteu~ 
 ronectes, or sole, is the type ; they are commonly called 
 flat-fishes. 
 
 PLI'UA. (Lat. plico, / entangle.) A disease said to be 
 peculiar to Poland, Lithuania, and Tartary, in which the 
 hair becomes matted and inextricably entangled. It is often 
 called Plica Polonica. 
 
 PLI'CIPENNATES, Plicipennes. (Lat. plico, / fold, 
 and penna, a feather.) The name of a tribe of Neuropte- 
 rous insects, comprehending those which have the inferior 
 wings wider than the others, and folded longitudinally. 
 The mandibles are wanting in this tribe, which is repre- 
 sented by the genus Phruganea, or caddis-flies. 
 
 PLINTH. (Gr. irXivflof, a brick.) In Architecture, the 
 lowest member of the base of a column, bearing, as its 
 name indicates, the form of a square brick or tile. (See 
 Base.) Sometimes the abacus of the Tuscan capital is 
 called the plinth of the capital. 
 
 PLI'OCENE. (Gr. ttXciikv, greater, and Kanoc, recent.) 
 A geological term applied to the most modern of the divis- 
 ions of the tertiary epoch, because the major part of its fos- 
 sil testacea are referable to recent species. See Geology. 
 
 PLCTTING, in Surveying, signifies describing or laying 
 down on paper the several angles and lines of n tract of 
 land which has been surveyed and measured. It is usually 
 performed by means of a protractor (see the term) ; some- 
 times by the plotting scale. 
 
 PLO'TTING SCALE A mathematical instrument used 
 
 945 
 
PLOTUS. 
 
 in plotting, or setting off the lengths of lines in surveying. 
 It consists of two graduated ivory scales, one of which is 
 perforated nearly its whole length by a dovetail-shaped 
 groove, for the reception of a sliding piece to which the 
 second scale is attached, and with which it moves, the 
 edge of the second being always at right angles to the edge 
 of the first. By this means the rectangular co-ordinates of 
 a point are measured at once on the scales ; or the position 
 of the point laid down on the plan. 
 
 PLO'TUS. A genus of web-footed birds of the family 
 Pelicanidm, and nearly allied to the cormorants. They are 
 generally known by the name of Jlnhina-a, or "darters," 
 from the rapidity with which they shoot down into the wa- 
 ter in the capture of fish. The white-billed anhinga (Plo- 
 tus melanogaster) is the most common and best-known spe- 
 cies : it is a native of the tropical regions of both North and 
 South America. 
 
 PLOUGH. (Germ, pflug.) An implement drawn by 
 horses and guided by a driver, by which the surface of the 
 soil is cut into longitudinal slices, and successively raised 
 up and turned over. The object of the operation is to ex- 
 pose a new surface to the action of the air, and to render it 
 fit for receiving the seed, or for harrowing, or for other op- 
 erations of agriculture. Ploughs are of two kinds : those 
 without wheels, commonly called swing-ploughs ; and 
 those with one or more wheels, called wheel-ploughs. 
 The essential parts which compose both kinds of ploughs, 
 £fre, the beam by which it is drawn ; the stilts or handles 
 by which the ploughman guides it, being two levers con- 
 nected with the beam ; the coulter fixed into the beam, by 
 which the furrow-slice is cut ; the share, also attached to 
 the beam, by which the slice is raised up ; and, finally, 
 the mould-board, by which the slice is turned over. The 
 most improved form of the swing-plough is that in general 
 use in Scotland and the North of England, which is known 
 as a modification of what is called Small's improved swing- 
 plough. The most improved wheel-plough is the same 
 implement, with a wheel attached to the beam, for the pur- 
 pose of keeping the share at a uniform distance beneath the 
 surface. The subsoil plough, the invention of Mr. Smith, 
 of Deanston, in Stirlingshire, is the swing-plough, of a 
 somewhat stronger construction than that in common use, 
 but without the coulter and the mou!d-board. The use of 
 this implement is to follow the common plough, and loosen 
 the subsoil at the bottom of the furrow without raising it 
 to the surface. The most improved form of this implement 
 contains a muzzle (the instrument by which it is drawn,) 
 so contrived as that the horses may walk on the firm soil . 
 The use of the subsoil-plough is one of the greatest mod- 
 ern improvements that has been introduced into the cul- 
 ture of arable land. Draining-ploughs are of different 
 kinds. The mole-plough, instead of a share and mould- 
 board, has a small iron cylinder attached to the lower ex- 
 tremity of the coulter, and which, being drawn through 
 grass land, leaves in its track a small opening, which has 
 been compared to the underground track of a mole, and 
 into which the water percolates from the surface through 
 the narrow slit formed by the upper part of the coulter, and 
 is thus carried off to an cpen drain. The other kinds of 
 draining ploughs cut out the soil, raise it to the surface, 
 and turn it over in the manner of the common plough, thus 
 leaving a deep furrow, which is commonly farther deepen- 
 ed and modified by the spad'!, and afterwards partially 
 filled with stones, draining tiles', or other materials through 
 which water may find its way, and finally, covered with 
 the surface soil. Draining-ploughs, though, in theory, 
 promising a saving of manual labour, yet, in practice, are 
 found inconvenient, from the number of horses required to 
 work them. Their use is, therefore, generally confined to 
 free, deep, loamy soils, with an even surface. 
 
 PLOUGHING. The act of turning over the soil by 
 means of the plough. Trench ploughing is effected by the 
 ploueh passing twice along the same furrow ; the first" time 
 for the purpose of throwing the surface soil into the bottom 
 of the furrow ; and the second time for raising a furrow- 
 slice from under that which had been already turned over, 
 and raising it up, &c, turning it upon the first furrow-slice, 
 by means of which the surface soil is entirely buried, and a 
 stratum of subsoil laid over it : thus effecting in the field 
 what trenching with the spade does in the garden. Trench 
 ploughing can only he employed with advantage where the 
 subsoil is naturally dry and of good quality, or where it has 
 been rendered so by draining and subsoil ploughing ; for 
 bad subsoil brought to the surface would be unfit for re- 
 ceivinc seeds or plants. See Plough. 
 
 PLUG. In Architecture, a piece cf wood driven hori- 
 zontnlly into a wall, its end being then sawn away flush 
 with the wall, to afford a hold for the nailing up dress- 
 ings, &c. 
 
 PLUMBA'GIN. A crystallizable substance, extracted 
 from the root of the Pluribago Europata. 
 
 PLUMB A' GO, Graphite~Black Lead. This useful sub- 
 946 
 
 PNEUMATICS. 
 
 stance is a compound of carbon, generally with a minute 
 quantity of iron ; there is, however, some doubt as to the 
 nature of the combination. The finest plumbago is from 
 Borrodale in Cumberland. 
 
 PLUMB-LINE, PLUMMET. (Lat. plumbum, lead.) A 
 heavy body (usually a piece of lead, whence the name) 
 suspended by a flexible thread for the purpose of indicating 
 the perpendicular to the horizon, or the direction of terres- 
 trial gravity. In former times, the plumb-line constituted 
 an essential part of the apparatus employed for adjusting 
 astronomical instruments ; but it is seldom used in modern 
 observations, excepting those made with the zenith sector, 
 its place being either more conveniently supplied by the 
 spirit level, or the method of determining the zenith point 
 by combining direct and reflected observations rendering it 
 unnecessary. For the common artificer's plummet, see 
 Level. 
 
 PLU'MULA. (Lat. pluma, a feather.) The growing 
 point of the embryo, situated at the apex of the radicle and 
 at the base of the cotyledons, by which it is protected 
 when young. It is the rudiment of the future stem of a 
 plant. 
 
 PLUPE'RFECT TENSE. (Lat. plus qu'am perfectum, 
 more than perfect.) In Grammar, the tense which denotes 
 that an action was finished at a certain period to which the 
 speaker refers. 
 
 PLURAL. See Grammar. 
 
 PLURA'LITY. In Ecclesiastical Law, the holding of 
 more than one benefice. It was ordained in the council of 
 Lateran, A.D. 1215, that whosoever should take any bene- 
 fice with cure of souls, if he should before have attained a 
 like benefice, should, ipso facto, be deprived of the latter. 
 Exceptions were made to this rule in certain cases of in 
 commendam, by a constitution published in the council of 
 Lyons ; but it could always be evaded by dispensation from 
 the pope. Since the Reformation, dispensations in Eng- 
 land are granted by archbishops. The first English enact- 
 ment on the subject was that of 21 H. 8, c. 13, and render- 
 ed the former benefice void if of the value of £8 or above. 
 A benefice, therefore, with which another may be held, 
 must be below that value in "the king's books." By the 
 4th canon, 41, no license or dispensation for the holding of 
 more benefices than one can be granted to any one, unless 
 a graduate as A.M. in one of the universities ; and he must 
 reside a reasonable time on each benefice, and licensed as a 
 preacher ; nor may they be more than thirty miles asunder ; 
 and he must have under him a preacher properly licensed 
 in that where he resides least. Formerly, dispensations 
 even from the injunctions of this canon were obtained from 
 the crown ; but none, it is said, since the Revolution. The 
 practice was very common in this country in Roman Cath- 
 olic times ; and though, as we have already observed, re- 
 strained bv various statutes, still subsists to a considerable 
 extent. Until every benefice is made capable of supporting 
 an incumbent, it is manifestly impossible to abolish it en- 
 tirely ; and, in the case of an individual holding one rich 
 and one poor living together, the arrangement may fre- 
 quently be practically advantageous. Under the existing 
 laws (1836), dispensations for holding two benefices may be 
 obtained on various pleas ; but measures of farther restraint 
 are understood to be in contemplation. 
 
 PLUS. In Algebra, the additive or positive sign -f-, 
 which, beine placed between two quantities, signifies that 
 they are to be taken collectively, or added together. Ac- 
 cording to Dr. Hutton, this character was first used by Sti- 
 felius, as a contraction of the letter p, the initial of plus. 
 
 PLUTO. (Gr. WSovtuv.) Called also Hades (kiSv;). 
 Ai'doneus (A.~iSm>evs) by the Greeks, or Orcus by the Ro- 
 mans, was the brother of Jupiter and Neptune, and lord of 
 the infernal regions. He is not, like his brothers, celebra- 
 ted for amours, but remained faithful to Proserpine, whom 
 he carried away from the plains of Sicily, and made his 
 queen. 
 
 Pluto is represented as an old man with a dignified but 
 severe countenance, holding in his hand a two-pronged 
 fork. 
 
 PLUTO'NIC ROCKS. Unstratified crystalline rocks, 
 probably formed at great depths beneath the surface by 
 igneous fusion. The term is opposed to volcanic rocks, also 
 formed by fire, but having cooled near the surface. See 
 Geology. 
 
 PLUTUS. (Gr. ir>.ovroc, wealth.) The god of riches, 
 said to have been the son of Jasius and Demeter or Ceres. 
 There are no particulars known as to his worship ; but he 
 is introduced as an actor in the play of Aristophanes which 
 bears his name, and he bears a part also in the Timon of 
 Lucian. 
 
 PLUVIAMETER. (Lat. pluvius, rain.) See Rai* 
 Gauge. 
 
 PNEUMA'TICS. (Gr. irvcvua, air or breath.) The sci- 
 ence which treats of the mechanical properties of elastic 
 fluids, and particularly of atmospheric air. 
 
PNEUMATICS. 
 
 Elastic fluids are divided into two classes — permanent 
 gases, and vapours. The gases cannot be converted into 
 the liquid state by any known process of art ; whereas the 
 vapours are readily reduced to the liquid form by pressure, 
 of diminution of temperature. In respect of their mechani- 
 cal properties there is, however, no essential difference 
 between the two classes. 
 
 Elastic fluids, in a state of equilibrium, are subject to the 
 action of two forces; namely, gravity, and a molecular 
 force acting from particle to particle. Gravity acts on the 
 gases in the same manner as on all other material substan- 
 ces ; Imt the action of the molecular forces is altogether dif- 
 ferent from that which takes place among the elementary 
 particles of solids and liquids ; for, in the case of solid bod- 
 ies, the molecules strongly attract each other (whence re- 
 sults their cohesion), and, in the case of liquids, exert a 
 feeble or evanescent attraction, so as to be indifferent to in- 
 ternal motion ; but, in the case of the gases, the molecular 
 forces nre repulsive, and the molecules, yielding to the ac- 
 tion of these forces, tend incessantly to recede from each 
 other, and, in fact, do recede, until their farther separation 
 is prevented by an exterior obstacle. Thus, air confined 
 within a close vessel exerts a constant pressure against the 
 interior surface, which i< not sensible, only because it is 
 balanced by the equal pressure of ihe atmosphere on the 
 exterior surface. This pressure exerted by the air against 
 of a vessel within which it is confined is called its 
 elasticity, or elastic force, or tension. 
 
 ion* nf F.(iuilibriiim. — In order that all the parts 
 of an elastic fluid may be in equilibrium, one condition only 
 is necessary ; namely, that the clastic force be the IBM at 
 ut situated in the same horizontal plane. This 
 condition is likewise necessary to the equilibrium of liquids, 
 and the same circumstances give rise to it in both cases ; 
 namely, the mobility of the particles, and the action of 
 gravity upon them. Conceivo a close vessel to be filled 
 with air, or a gas ; and let a and ft be two molecules situated 
 in the same horizontal plane. It is evident that if the two 
 molecules are in a state of equilibrium, the force with 
 which a repels b must be exactly counteracted by that with 
 which b rejiels o, for otherwise motion would take place. 
 The same thing takes place in res|iect of every horizontal 
 Metal of tin- gu; but the pressure on each section varies 
 with its altitude. Suppose c and d to be two molecules 
 situated in a horizontal section, lotcer than that in which 
 are a and 4. It is evident that the molecules c and d sus- 
 tain a greater pressure, than a and ft; for, in the first place, 
 the whole of the pressure on a and ft is transmitted to them 
 by the principle of the equality of pressure in all directions; 
 and, in the second place, they sustain a new pressure, 
 arising ftsn the weight or gravity of all the molecules 
 situated between the two horizontal planes aft and cd. 
 
 The principle which has just been explained is proved 
 experimentally by the diminution of the pressure of the 
 atmosphere at greater altitudes. A column of air reaching 
 from the ground to the top of the atmosphere exerts a pre s- 
 sure equal to the weight of a column of mercury M the 
 same diameter, and whose height is equal to that in the 
 barometric tube. Now, on carrying the barometer to the 
 top of a mountain, for example, the mercurial column is 
 observed gradually to become shorter as we ascend ; and 
 the diminution of the column, and consequently of atmo- 
 spheric pressure, is connected with the increase of altitude 
 by a certain constant law, which enables us to deduce the 
 one from the other, and to apply the barometer to the very 
 Important purpose of determining the relative altitudes of 
 places on the surface of the earth. See Hlhjiits, Mea- 
 surement or. 
 
 JL.au) of Mariotte. — In order to determine the relation be- 
 tween the density and pressure of the elastic fluids in the 
 state of equilibrium, let ACB be a graduated bent tube 
 (like a siphon barometer), having two unequal 
 branches, of which the shorter is hermetically 
 sealed at IS. and the longer open at A. Let a 
 small quantity of mercury be poured into the 
 tube, just enough to fill the bend, and intercept 
 the communication between the air in C B and 
 the external atmosphere, and let the level EF 
 be marked at which it stands in the two branches 
 of the tube. It is evident that in this state the 
 pressure of the air imprisoned between E and B 
 is exactly equal to that of the atmosphere. Now, 
 let mercury be poured into the tube at A ; it will 
 ~~ rise slowly in the branch E B, and much more 
 rapidly in the open branch FA. Let mercury 
 then be continued to be poured in until it stands 
 at two points, D and E', so situated that the alti- 
 tude of D above E', or D F', is juat equal to the height of 
 the column in the barometer, or about 30 inches. In this 
 state, the elasticity of the air in the space E'B is in equi- 
 librium with the pressure arising from the weight of the 
 mercurial column F' D, and the pressure of the atmosphere 
 
 exerted on D. But the weight of the mercurial column 
 F' D is just equal to the atmospheric pressure, consequently 
 the air in E' B is compressed by a force equal to r.\ Ice tiie 
 atmospheric pressure. Now, on observing the length of the 
 column E'B, it will be found exactly one half of EB, or 
 the air has been reduced to half its former volume. On in- 
 creasing the length of the open branch of the siphon, and 
 pouring in a proper quantity of mercury, it is found that a 
 pressure of three atmospheres reduces the volume of air at 
 B to one third, and of four atmospheres to a fourth of its 
 first volume; whence it is inferred, generally, that the 
 volumes of gases arc inversely as the pressures which they 
 support. This fundamental property of elastic fluids is 
 called the Daw of Mariotte, from its having been discovered 
 by that philosopher In France. It has been verified in 
 several ways, on all the known gases; and, in the case of 
 dry air, its verification has been pushed, by MM. Dulong 
 and Arago, to pressures equivalent to twenty-seven atmo- 
 spheres. (Lame Cours de Physique.) It also holds true in 
 respect of vapours or steam, subjected to a smaller degree 
 of pressure than that which is necessary to reduce them to 
 the liquid stale ; and even for mixtures of different gases. 
 It is important, however, to observe, that it is supposed no 
 variation of temperature has taken place dming the experi- 
 ment. The apparatus above described is called a mano- 
 meter. 
 
 The density of bodies being inversely as their volumes, 
 the law of Mariotte may be otherwise expressed, by saying, 
 the density of an clastic fluid is directly proportional to the 
 pressure it sustains. Under the pressure til a single atmo 
 sphere, the density of air is about the 770th part of that of 
 water; whence it follows that, under the pressure of 770 
 atmospheres, air is as dense as water. Thus, the average 
 atmospheric pressure being equal to that of a column of 
 water of about 32 feet in altitude, at the bottom of the sea, 
 at a depth of 24640 (= 770 X 32) feet, or 4$ miles, air would 
 be heavier than water; and though it should still remain 
 in a gaseous 6tate, it would be incapuble of rising to the 
 surface. 
 
 Effects of Heat on the Elasticity of the Gases. — The re- 
 pulsive energy of the mulctih s of the elastic fluids is greatly 
 augmented by an increase of temperature ; and it is of One 
 utmost importance in many physical inquiries to ascertain 
 the relation between the temperature and the elastic force. 
 If the air and several other gases, sustaining the same con- 
 stant pressure, are exposed to an increase of temperature 
 which affects all of them equally, it is proved, by obsenra- 
 tion, that they all undergo an equal expansion ; that is to 
 say, the increase of volume of all the gases is the same for 
 equal augmentations of temperature, and proportional to 
 these augmentations. Experience also shows that, within a 
 considerable range of temperature, the indications of the 
 air thermometer differ very little from those of the mer- 
 curial thermometer; so that, within this range, the ex- 
 pansion of any gas whatever is proportional to the increase 
 of temperature indicated by the degrees of the ordinary 
 thermometer. From the temperature of melting ice to that 
 of boiling water, or from zero to 100° o/ the centigrade ther- 
 mometer, Gay-Lussac found the expansion of air subjected 
 to a constant pressure, to be in the ratio of unity to 1*375 ; 
 which gives an expansion of 0-00375 for each centigrade 
 degree. This being assumed, let V be the volume of any 
 gas at the zero temperature, P its elastic force, or the 
 pressure it sustains, and D its density. Let a — -00375, and 
 suppose the values of V and D to become V and D' when 
 the temperature is increased t degrees ; then the pressure P 
 being supposed constant, we have evidently 
 
 V' = V(l-f at); 
 and the density being inversely as the volume, we have, 
 also, 
 
 D' = _E_. 
 
 1 + at 
 
 Now, suppose the pressure to be varied without any 
 change of the temperature, and let p denote the new 
 pressure, and d the corresponding density ; the law of 
 Mariotte gives 
 
 Prf 
 
 P : D' : : p : d, whence p = 
 
 I)' ' 
 
 and, on substituting for D' its value given by the preceding 
 
 p 
 formula, and making — = k, we obtain 
 
 p = kd{\+at) 
 for the expression of the elastic force of any gas in a 
 function of its density and temperature. 
 
 The coefficient k is constant for the same gas, but has a 
 different value for different gases, depending on their densi- 
 ties or specific gravities. With respect to atmospheric air, 
 its value may be found thus : The density of air, compared 
 with water, is 0-0013, and that of mercury 13-59; there- 
 
 947 
 
PNEUMATICS. 
 
 tore, supposing the height of the barometer to be 30 inches, 
 the value of k, or the height of a column of air of uniform 
 density, exerting on its base a pressure equal to that of 
 
 13.59 
 the atmosphere, is 30 in. X — — = 313860 inches, or 26155 
 
 feet (about five miles), the temperature being that of freez- 
 water. 
 
 Of the Motion of the Gases. — Elastic fluids, in escaping 
 from a vessel by a small orifice, or tube, into a vacuum, 
 observe, like liquids, a law first discovered by Torricelti ; 
 namely, that the velocity of the molecules, when they 
 escape from the orifice, is equal to that which they would 
 have acquired by falling through a height equal to the 
 height of a vertical column of uniform density, producing 
 the same pressure as is exerted by the gas at the level of 
 the orifice. Thus, it has just been shown that the pressure 
 of the atmosphere, when the barometer stands at 30 inches, 
 and the temperature is that of freezing, is equal to that 
 which would be produced by a column of air of uniform 
 density extending to an altitude of 26155 feet. Now, puiting 
 ,f=the accelerating force of gravity = 32 feet per second, 
 the veloc.ty which a heavy body would acquire by falling 
 in a vacuum from a height of 26155 feet, is *S{2g- X 26155)= 
 8^/26155=1294 feet in a second; which, therefore, is the 
 velocity with which air rushes into a vacuum. If the tem- 
 perature varies, the velocity will vary also, and will become 
 1%)4 y/(l -j- a t). P'or example, if the temperature were 16° 
 centigrade (about 61° of Fahrenheit), the velocity would be 
 1332 feet per second. 
 
 Since the densities of the gases are proportional to the 
 pressures they support, air will always rush into a vacuum 
 with the same velocity, whatever its density may be in the 
 vessel from which it escapes ; for the homogeneous column 
 of the same density, and exercising the same pressure as the 
 air in the vessel, must, in all cases, have the same altitude. 
 
 The velocities with which the different gases enter a 
 vacuum are inversely as the square roots of their densities ; 
 for they are proportional to the square roots of the altitudes 
 from which the molecules are supposed to fall, and these 
 altitudes are inversely as the densities. Thus, hydrogen 
 gas, the lightest of all the gases, and whose density is only 
 0-0688 of that of air, would enter a vacuum with a velocity 
 of 4933 (=1294 divided by the square root of 0-0688) feet in 
 a second. It is to be remarked, however, that all those laws 
 relative Ik the flow of gases, are rather inferences from 
 theory than truths demonstrated by direct experiment. 
 
 In the case of air or any gas flowing into a space con- 
 taining a gas of an inferior density, the velocity will be the 
 same as that of an incompressible liquid, of similar density 
 with the effluent gas, and capable of exercising a pressure 
 equal to the difference between the pressures of the two 
 gases. Taking, for example, the case of a gas flowing from 
 a gasometer into the atmosphere: let h denote the height 
 of the barometer, and A + H that of the column of mercury 
 exercising a pressure equal to the elasticity of the effluent 
 gas, so that H is the difference of the two pressures. Also, 
 let A denote the density of mercury, d that of the gas in the 
 gasometer corresponding to the pressure h + H, and v the 
 velocity per second ; then 
 
 "=* / ( 2 ^ H f) =8 v( H f)- 
 
 Now if, in the formula p = kd(l + at), we substitute 
 the pressure in the gasometer (A-fH) A for p, and also 
 for k its value as above determined in feet, this expression 
 will become 
 
 c=1294 ^)/t|h (1 + ^' 
 
 where v is expressed in feet. If, therefore, A denote the 
 area of the orifice in feet, the volume or number of cubic 
 feet discharged in a second will be v A. It is to be observed, 
 that the volume thus determined is the volume of a gas of 
 the same density as in the gasometer ; if it were required 
 to find the number of cubic feet, at a different density, cor- 
 responding to the pressure of a mercurial column whose 
 height = A', it would be necessary to multiply the above 
 expression by the ratio (A -f- H) H- A'. 
 
 From the experiments of D'Aubuisson, it has been ascer- 
 tained that air, in passing through an orifice pierced in a 
 thiu plate, forms a vena contractu, whose area, as in the 
 case of a liquid, is 0-65 of the area of the orifice. The ap- 
 plication of cylindric adjutages increases the quantity issu- 
 ing through the orifice to 0-93, and a conical tube to 0-95. 
 The length of the adjutage may be 20 or 30 times the 
 diameter of the orifice before the discharge begins to be 
 diminished by friction. If, therefore, we suppose the gas 
 to flow through a cylindric tube, and assume the multi- 
 plier 93 ; and also express the area of the orifice in terms 
 of the diameter of the tube, which we shall suppose =m 
 feet; then, observing that 4 A = 3-14159 »»>*, the formula 
 for the number of cubic feet discharged in a second, the 
 948 
 
 PNEUMOBRANCHIATES. 
 
 density being measured by A + H, will become 
 
 945OTV lATH (1 + at) i 
 The principle of the lateral communication of mmon 
 holds good with respect to the gases as well as the liquids. 
 On this principle we may explain a curious fact, observed 
 in the efflux of air from a blowing machine, and in the 
 escape of steam from the valves of boilers. If a circular 
 disk of four or five times the diameter of the orifice bo 
 placed close to it, not only will it not be forced away by the 
 current of the elastic fluid, but it will be retained by a con- 
 siderable force ; insomuch that if the orifice be directed 
 downwards, the disk, though formed of a dense metallic 
 substance, will be supported in opposition to its gravity. 
 Let air, issuing with considerable force through the aper- 
 ture A B, have its course interrupted by the 
 metallic plate C D ; the current will assume 
 the form of a conoid E A B F, containing 
 the cavity E G F. At first, the space C G D 
 will be filled with the effluent air ; but if a 
 lateral communication of motion takes place, the air in this 
 conoid will join itself to that which escapes by the edges of 
 the plate, and a vacuum be formed in the space CGD, and 
 the plate C D be forced towards the aperture by the pressure 
 of the atmosphere on the opposite side. But as it ap- 
 proaches the orifice, the action of the effluent air will be- 
 come more intense, and the dimensions of the void space 
 be diminished, so that the plate will assume a position in 
 which the forces tending to move it in opposite directions 
 will be balanced. 
 
 It has been demonstrated by Newton, in the second book 
 of the Principia, that the velocity with which sound is 
 propagated through the air is the same as that which a 
 heavy body would acquire by falling through half the 
 height of the homogeneous atmosphere, and, consequently, 
 equal to 8-y/13078, or, about 915 feet per second. But this 
 theoretical determination is found to differ considerably 
 from experiment, which gives a velocity of 1125 feet per 
 second, when the temperature of the air is at 62° of Fahren- 
 heit's thermometer. Laplace suggested a very probable 
 explanation of this discrepancy; namely, that the con- 
 densation caused by the vibrations produced a degree of 
 sensible heat by which the elasticity of the air is increased, 
 or, rather, the density diminished, while the clastic force 
 remains the same. In consequence of this extrication of 
 heat, the number given by the formula of Newton must be 
 multiplied by the square root of the number which ex- 
 presses the ratio of the specific heat of the air under a con 
 stant pressure to its specific heat under a constant volume 
 This number is found by experiment to be 1-375, the square 
 root of which is 1-173 ; and, on applying this correction, 
 with the proper corrections for temperature, the theoretical 
 determination docs not differ very widely from the experi- 
 mental result. See Sound. 
 
 Pneumatics forms a branch of physical science which has 
 been entirely created by modern discoveries. Galileo first 
 demonstrated that air possesses weight. His pupil, Torri- 
 celli, invented the barometer ; and Pascal, by observing the 
 difference of the altitudes of the mercurial column at the 
 top and the foot of the Puy de Home, proved that the sus- 
 pension of the mercury is caused by the pressure of the 
 atmosphere. Otto Gnericke, a citizen of Magdeburg, in- 
 vented the air-pump about the year 1654; and Boyle and 
 Mariotte, soon afterward* detected, by its means,the principal 
 mechanical properties of atmospheric air. Analogous pro- 
 perties have been proved to belong to all the other aeriform 
 fluids. The problem of determining the velocity of their 
 vibrations was solved by Newton and Euler, but more com- 
 pletely by Lagrange. The theoretical principles relative to 
 the pressure and motion of elastic fluids, from which the 
 practical formula! are deduced, were established by Daniel 
 Bernoulli, in his Nydrodynamica, (1738); but have been 
 rendered more general by Navier (Mem. de I' Acad. 1830). 
 The experiments of D'Aubuisson, above referred to, are 
 given in different volumes of the Annates de Chimie (1826, 
 1828, 1829). See Gas, Resistance, Vapour. 
 
 PNEUMATIC RAILWAY. See Railroad. 
 
 PNEUMATO'MACHI. (Gr. -nvcvpa, spirit, and ^ayn, 
 contest.) In Ecclesiastical History, a name of reproach, 
 given by the orthodox to those various classes of heretics 
 who, in the fourth and fifth centuries, impugned the di 
 vinity of the Holy Ghost. See Macedonians. 
 
 PNEUMATO'SIS. (Gr. Trrevparow, I inflate.) Emphy- 
 sema. A collection of air in the cellular membrane, ren- 
 dering the part tumid, elastic, and crepitating when pressed. 
 It rarely arises spontaneously, but generally from some 
 wound which affects the lungs, and by which the nir 
 spreads through the cellular membrane. In some rare 
 cases it is an effect of certain poisons. 
 
 PNEUMOBRAN'CHIATES, Pneumobranchiata. (Gr 
 HVflspai air, fifuyxfj gills.) A name applied by Hunter tfl 
 
PNEUMONIA. 
 
 the Perennibranchiate reptiles of recent zoologists; and by 
 Lamarck to an order of Gastropodous mollusks. 
 
 PNEUMONIA, or PNEUMONITIS. An inflammation 
 of the lungs. This disease generally attacks those of robust 
 habit after exposure to the cold or wet, and suppressed 
 perspiration; it is sometimes produced by any inordinate 
 ttaroon of the longs. Fever, cough, difficult breathing, a 
 Ftrorg, hard, and quick iiul.se, usher in the disease, which, 
 Jf neglected, sometimes proceeds so rapidly as to end in 
 suffocation ; it may also prove fatal by terminating in sup- 
 puration and gangrene. A free and abundant e.\|>ectoration, 
 perspiration, or diarrhoea, are favourable symptoms of its 
 termination in resolution. Large bleeding at the outset, re- 
 pealed, however, with much circumspection, local bleed- 
 [ng, purges, and diaphoretics of calomel and antimony, and 
 afterwards small doses of opium, hemlock, and such reme- 
 ■piiet the cough, tuid procure sleep, constitute the 
 1 principles of treatment. 
 
 IWKl'MOTHO'RAX. (Gr. rrai/m, and S(..fta£, chat.) 
 initiation of air in the sac of the ple'trn. 
 
 FOA. (Gr. von, grass.) A name given by botanists to a 
 genus of grasses of considerable extent, and very abundant 
 in the pasturages of Europe. One of the commonest of all 
 - the Pao annua. Poa trivialis and pratensis are 
 <.lher species, sown extensively as a part of the artificial 
 natural and lawns, which are n«T commonly made with 
 instead of "hay seeds." In general, they 
 appear to be nutritious and agreeable to cattle. 
 
 POACHERS. 8eeGxMm Laws. 
 
 POCO. (Ital.) In Music, a word frequently prefixed to 
 another to lessen the strength of its signification; aspoeo 
 i little slow. 
 
 I'O'DAGRA. (Gr. ttov^, the foot, and aypa, a seizure.) 
 
 'I T. 
 
 l'( tDESTAt One of the chief magistrates of Genoa and 
 
 ' ■lied. 
 
 PODE'TIA. (Gr. tovc, a foot.) The stalk-like clonga- 
 '.i.ins of the thsllus, which, in certain lichens, support the 
 fructification, as in Cenomyce. 
 
 P( KDICEP8. (Gr. divided foot.) A genus of birds, com- 
 monly called Grebes, placed in the order of Palmipeds by 
 Cuvicr, but forming the transition from the mat 
 swimmers by having the wens of the toes incomplete, and 
 formed l>y a scalloped membrane, as in the coot. The legs 
 ;ue. however, placed far back, so as to render them efficient 
 i swimming, while their use in walking on dry land 
 is proportionally deteriorated; the feet are admirably or- 
 ganized for propelling the body through the water; and the 
 grebe, which dives more than it swims, assists the feet with 
 i simultaneous action of its wings; but the*-, like the pec- 
 toral fms of fishes, serve mainly to direct and vary the 
 of 1Mb bird. 
 
 PO'DIUM. (LaL) In Architecture, the part In an am- 
 phitheatre projecting over the arena, above which It was 
 raised about 12 or 15 feet: in this part sat the persona- 
 ges of distinction. The word is also used to signify a bal- 
 
 COIIV. 
 
 PCE'CILS. (Gr.) A celebrated portico or gallery at 
 
 Athens, where /.eno inculcated his doctrines. The Pcecile 
 
 was adorned with the statues of gods and benefactors; and 
 
 ire of Polygnotus, so well known to the classical 
 
 reader, which represented Miltiades at the head of the 1000 
 
 at the battle of Marathon, was here suspended for 
 
 POS'CILOPODS, Pacilopoda. (Gr. rocuiof, varied, and 
 rouf, a foot.) The name of an order of Kntomostracous 
 Crustaceans, including those which have feet of different 
 forms and uses, the anterior ones lieing ambulatory or pre- 
 hensile, the posterior branchial and natatory. 
 
 POETRV. (Gr. -noinnic, a poem, and iroinTixri re\vn, the 
 art of poetry ; from irottio, J make, according to Aristotle, 
 becnttse the writers of each different class of poems, epic, 
 &.c, were said, in common language, to " make" 
 them ; and called ciro-Koiot, rXtytiorotoi, epic-makers, and 
 elegy-makers. De Poet^ sec. hi.) To produce a complete 
 and satisfactory definition of poetry has been, hitherto, un- 
 ully attempted by writers on taste, and by poets 
 themselves. A popular one, sufficiently adapted to general 
 notions, is furnished by the doyen of living critics, Lord Jef- 
 The end of poetry is to please; and the name, we 
 think, is strictly applicable to every metrical composition 
 from which we derive pleasure without any laborious ex- 
 : ihe understanding." (Ed. Rev., xi., p. 216.) But, 
 in the first place, it has i>een truly observed that "verse is 
 the limit by which poetry is bounded : it is the adjunct of 
 poetry, but not Its living principle." " Poetry ,"^nys Cole- 
 i -idse," ' is not the proper antithesis to prose, but to science. 
 Poetry is opposed to science, and prose to metre." "The 
 proper and immediate object of -science is the acquirement 
 or communication of truth ; the proper and immediate ob- 
 ject of |Kietry is the communication of immediate pleasure." 
 In tbe next "place, Lord '"(Trey's definition would clearly in- 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 elude burlesque composition. Is this strictly poetry ? It 
 was included, certainly, in their rather artificial analysis of 
 poetry by ancient critics : in the Poetics of Aristotle the rules 
 of comic composition are as elaborately laid down as those 
 of any other species. Yet the excitement of the ridiculous 
 is altogether of a different nature from that produced by po- 
 etry in the modern sense of the word ; which is necessarily 
 either elevating, imaginative, or tender. And this it does, 
 as Coleridge, with a true poetical feeling has described it, 
 by communicating to the reader " thai pleasurable emotion, 
 that peculiar state and degree of excitement which arises in 
 the poet himself In the act of composition. (Literary Re- 
 mains.) The end of poetry, then, appears to be to produce 
 intellectual pleasure by exciting emotions either of the ele- 
 vated or patiietic order. But in what mode does poetry ef- 
 fect this? The sight of a distressed object raises tender 
 feelings ; a tale of distress does the same : to be witness of 
 some stupendous event, or great natural phenomenon, ele- 
 vates them; and so does the description of such. Vet this 
 tale or description is not poetry. Some dramas, almost ut- 
 terly destitute of poetical merit, retain a hold on theatrical 
 audiences merely because they are transcripts of painful 
 scenes actually occurring in do mest ic life. 15ut these are 
 not poetry, although cop • Ontiy mistaken for it. So, again, 
 the mere narration of a grar.d ana surprising circumstance 
 is not poetry, however akin to poetical the emotion it in- 
 spires. Few jiassages in poetry retain a greater hold on the 
 imagination than the well-known accounts of Napoleon 
 amid the fires of Moscow, or the sack of Rome by Bourbon, 
 or the execution of Charles the First, or mere descriptions 
 of the Alps or Niagara : the most prosaic writer who treats 
 these subjects, if he only adhere to truth and bring out its 
 striking particulars, cannot fail of producing an effect which 
 may be termed, as regards the reader, |x>clical ; but not by 
 the employment of poetry. This consideration leads us to 
 its great characteristic. It is essentially a creative art : its op- 
 eration is "making," not transcribing. "Imitation" it is. as 
 Aristotle defines it; not because it copies, but because it has 
 its model in nature, and can never depart far from it with- 
 out losing its character. Lord Bacon explains this by say- 
 ing, that poetry "doth raise and erect the mind, by submit- 
 ting the shows of thini;.-; tu t.'ir desire of tin mind." The 
 imagination alters these 'shows of things" by adding or 
 subtracting qualities, and pociry produces to view the forms 
 which result from the operation. 
 
 But Lord Jeffrey goes on, in the passage which has been 
 already quoted, to give an analysis of the elements of poeti- 
 cal pleasure, which appears to us singularly clear and ac- 
 curate. "This pleasure may, in general, be analyzed intr. 
 three parts: that which we receive from the excitement of 
 passion or emotion; that which is derived from the play of 
 Imagination, or the easy exercise of reason; and that which 
 n the character and qualities of the diction." The 
 two first are the vital and primary species of poetical de- 
 light. And this analysis may lead us to consider the facul- 
 ties by the exercise of which these several pleasures are 
 produced — faculties widely different, yet all poetical ; some 
 of them more and MOM less essential to the production of 
 poetical pleasure ; some less and some more conspicuous in 
 different poets; all united in hardly any. 
 
 1. Imagination is, emphatically, the great poetical facul- 
 ty. It is " the first moving or creative principle of the mind, 
 which fashions out of materials previously existing, new ma- 
 terials and original truths." It is "a complex power, in- 
 cluding those faculties which are called by metaphysicians 
 conception, abstraction, and judgment :" the first enabling 
 us to form a notion of objects of perception and knowledge ; 
 the second "separating the selected materials from the 
 qualities and circumstances which are connected with them 
 in nature;" the third selecting the materials. (Stewart: 
 see the article "Poetry" in the F.ncycl. Britannica.) Its 
 operations are most various, and it exhibits itself in poetry 
 in very different degrees and forms. It may shine here and 
 there, chiefly in comparison, or in bold and pleasing meta- 
 phor, breaking the chain of a narrative, as in Homer and 
 the earlier poetry of most nations ; it may hurry image on 
 image, connected only by those exquisite links of thought 
 which are present in the mind of the poet, in daring, com- 
 pressed, rapid language, as if language were inadequate to 
 its expression, as in the inspired prophets, in jEschylus, and 
 often in Shakspeare ; it may predominate in entire sustained 
 conceptions, grasping at general features, as in Milton ; it 
 mav cling more closely to the " shows of things," dwelling 
 in particulars, reproducing with startling vividness images 
 little altered, graphic and minute, as in Dante; and here it 
 often approaches to fancy. Imagination, combined in a 
 ereater or less degree with thought or reflection, but with 
 little of the other poetical qualities, produces a kind of po- 
 etry which suits the taste of a refined and thoughtful class, 
 but has little hold on the general mind ; departing too wide- 
 ly from Milton's rule in being, if simple, neither " sensuous 
 nor passionate," of which striking examples may be found 
 
POETRY. 
 
 m Wordsworth, and sometimes in Goethe, awriterof a very 
 different cast. 
 
 2. No distinction has given critics more trouble, in the 
 way of definition, than that between imagination and fancy. 
 "Fancy," it has been said, "is given to beguile and quicken 
 the temporal part of our nature; imagination to incite and 
 support the eternal." "The distinction between fancy and 
 imagination," says another, "is simply that the former alto- 
 gether changes and remodels the original idea, impregna- 
 ting it with something extraneous ; the latter leaves it un- 
 disturbed, but associates it with things to which in some 
 view or other I* bears a resemblance." Now the latter is 
 aa operation of thought, wit, or judgment; and this, per- 
 haps, will lead us to a right conclusion. The poetry of true 
 fancy ". merely that of imagination "at a lower point of 
 excitement," or employed on les3 elevated subject matter. 
 Th'; poetry of the Midsummer Night's Dream, for instance, 
 may be termed either imaginative or fanciful with equal 
 correctness. But there i3 also a spurious fancy, the off- 
 spring of a quick wit, adopting poetical diction : are we 
 wrong in calling this the real quality of one of the most 
 charming of modern poets, whose wit is very nearly allied 
 to imagination, yet not the same — Thomas Moore ? 
 
 3. Lord Jeffrey, as we have seen, associates with the 
 pleasure of imagination that derived from " the easy exer- 
 cise of reason." This is produced chiefly by the faculties 
 of thought, wit, and reflection. It may, indeed, be doubted 
 whether the expression of thought, however energetic and 
 acute, clad in current poetical diction, is really poetry. Cer- 
 tainly it is so, if at all, in a very inferior degree to that of 
 the imagination. And yet when we reflect how much of 
 the pleasure which we derive from verse is of this kind, 
 how many of the greatest names in the history of poetry 
 are distinguished for this alone, and that one great literary 
 nation (the French) seems to have placed its idea of poetry 
 entirely in the expression of thought and feeling, and chiefly 
 the former, we can scarcely refuse it an important place. 
 It also takes many shapes. It appears in the form of witty 
 or acute conceits, as in Donne and Cowley, and many 
 French and Italian poets, r- VM \y allied to that spurious 
 
 ave spoken. It lightens in flashes of 
 high-minded indignation or keen sarcasm in Juvenal ; as- 
 sumes a still loftier moral tone in Persius, and often in Dry- 
 den, mixed with grave, energetic, powerful reflection. It 
 takes the easier tone of acute knowledge of the ways of 
 man, and light satire, in the pages of Horace, and enlivens 
 the charming narrative of Ariosto. It often assumes a 
 rhetorical character, as in Corneille and Lucan. There is 
 a trivial experiment by which the difference between this 
 and imaginative poetry may be tested. Turn both into 
 prose ; the latter re.ains its poetical character; the former 
 seems to lose it. 
 
 4. The expression of passion, sentiment, or pathos, is the 
 most common and universal of all sources of poetical pleas- 
 ure. It is the very soul of all early and simple poetry ; it 
 pervades no less that of the most civilized communities. 
 Yet this class of poetry is less truly and emphatically poeti- 
 cal than the imaginative, although more popular. The 
 pleasure occasioned by it is of a mixed nature : it arises 
 from the excitement of peculiar sympathies, not produced, 
 but heightened only, by the form in which that excitement 
 is conveyed. This is the reason why mere popularity is not 
 a test of the excellence of poetrv. "The uncritical' reader 
 calls that the best poetry by which he is best pleased. De- 
 votional poetry, for instance, appeals to an elevated and 
 universal class of sympathies; and on this account often 
 passes for worth more than, as poetry, it really is. The 
 highest attribute of a poet, in this branch of the poetical 
 faculty, is a sensibility to all the springs of our passions, 
 joined with the art of expressing it; these, when united 
 with that power of personification which is more peculiarly 
 the dramatic faculty, produce the drama in its highest and 
 noblest shape, such as it is exhibited by Shakspeare, and 
 hy him alone. But the power of giving language to the 
 sentiments of any common and elevated passion is by itself 
 a grea t t poetical merit. The passion of love is the staple of 
 numberless bards. The passion for war or conflict, unhap- 
 pily natural to man, is a source of poetry : it is impossible 
 not to perceive in Homer and Scott, independently of their 
 art of narration and energy of description, an exultation in 
 the animal excitement of the imaginary battle, the certami- 
 nis gaudia of the savage Attila, peculiarly and intensely 
 poetical. The sentiment of self-love, the natural propensity 
 toexhibitself to self in a romantic or elevated point of view, 
 forms a great part of the charm of such a muse as that of 
 Byron. Again, independently of the direct expression of 
 Reeling, there is in some poets a general colouring derived 
 from It, thrown as a light veil over all the objects present- 
 ed, which is a singularly attractive attribute. Such is the 
 tinge of grave and serious tenderness which shades the po- 
 etry of Sophocles and Virgil, and assumes, perhaps, a more 
 teminine character in that of Tasso. 
 
 950 
 
 POINTS OF SUPPORT. 
 
 These are the more strictly subjective qualities of true 
 poetry. There are others, of a more objective character, 
 which can scarcely be said to belong to it strictly as po 
 etry, and yet can scarcely be excluded from a general re 
 view. 
 
 5. The dramatic faculty, of which we have already spo- 
 ken, seems to consist in acute powers of observation of th»> 
 varieties of human character, together with the rarer power 
 of delineating it with such force as to bring the imaginar 
 person distinctly before the reader. It is the wonderfa 
 and unique characteristic of Shakspeare, in whom all indi 
 viduality, as has been often observed, seems absolutely lost 
 If we are to look for a second to Shakspeare in tin- 
 faculty, we shall find him, among poets, only in Scott. Bui 
 it is a power often much developed in writers who are not 
 poets in any sense, such as Le Sage and De Foe. 
 
 0. The descriptive faculty is of the same kind ; that of 
 bringing the objects of external nature, or passing seen 
 whatever sort, vividly before the reader's fancy. When 
 the objects or scenes so represented are such as the painter 
 might choose with advantage for the exercise of his art, the 
 faculty is properly termed picturesque, though that word is 
 often of a looser acceptation. It is obvious that this also is 
 a faculty common to poets, with many others who are not 
 so ; but sustained energy of description, as in Homer, forms 
 a magnificent groundwork for strictly poetical ornament. 
 In the poetry of modern times, especially in this country, 
 and in Germany, the description of external nature hat) been 
 mads subservient to the purposes of imagination and reflec- 
 tion by writers of high genius ; and this combination pecu- 
 liarly characterizes the taste of the age. 
 
 7. Lord Jeffrey ranks last the pleasure derived from die 
 tion as of a secondary order, which it undoubtedly is, aad 
 yet almost essential. The highest poetry, without beauty 
 of style, is rarely or never popular. We have no space to 
 characterize minutely this poetical quality; but, by way of 
 example, it may suffice to observe, that Virgil is, perhaps, 
 of all poets, he of whoso charm the greatest proportion is.- 
 derived from simple beauty and felicity of diction ; through 
 a whole range of ill-chosen subjects, always graced 
 ways equable, and as nearly approaching to faultlessness as 
 human skill can construct. 
 
 8. Lastly, we must not omit the pleasare of melody: not 
 essential to poetry, since there may be poetry without 
 verse; not always a merit of the poet's own, since much 
 depends on the ianguage; and a Greek or Italian poet 
 talis paribus, will ever be preferable to an English or Ger- 
 man one, on this account alone; but a grace which height- 
 ens the charm of the noblest poetry, and sometimes capti- 
 vates the sense even in the most indifferent. 
 
 POIKILI'TIC FORMATION. (Gr. ttoikiAo?, van 
 ted.) In Geology, a term applied to the new rid sandstone 
 formation, in consequence of the varieties of colours which 
 it exhibits. 
 
 POI'NDING. In Scottish Law, a species of diligence 
 (i. c, process), whereby the property of the debtor's move- 
 ables is transferred to the creditor. Poindings are either 
 real or personal ; the former affecting the debtor's move- 
 ables on the lands to which the debt attaches, the other his 
 moveables generally. The effect of real poinding is to give 
 the user of it right to the rents. 
 
 POINT. A steel instrument used by engravers for tra- 
 cing the work on a copper-plate. 
 
 Point. In Heraldry, an ordinary somewhat resembling 
 the pile (see Pile), but issuing from the base of the escutch- 
 eon instead of the chief: seldom used in English, but fre- 
 quently in foreign armories. 
 
 Point. In Music, a character used by many instead of 
 the dash, its chief use being to distinguish those notes from 
 which an intermediate effect is required dissimilar to the 
 dash. 
 
 POINT BLANK, in Gunnery, denotes the position of the 
 gun when pointed so that its axis is parallel to the horizon. 
 Point-blank range is the distance to which a shot fired in 
 the point-blank or horizontal direction is carried. 
 
 POI'NTING, in Artillery, denotes placing the gun s:i as 
 to give the shot a particular direction. This is usually 
 done by help of the gunner's quadrant or level. See Lr- 
 
 VEL. 
 
 POINTS. Small flat pieces of cordage put through tho 
 sails in horizontal rows, for the purpose of reefing them. 
 
 POINTS OF SUPPORT, in Architecture, are the col 
 lected areas on the plan of the piers, walls, columns, &c, 
 upon which an edifice rests, or by which it is supported. It 
 is evident that the smaller their total area, compared with 
 the superficies of the whole building, the greater is the ski: 
 exhibited by the architect; and this for many reasons, not 
 the least whereof is the greater resultant economy. We 
 subjoin a table of some few buildings in Europe, examined 
 in this respect. They are arranged in the order of the ratio 
 of their points of support, whose area, as well as their totsO 
 superficies, are added in separate columns. 
 
POINTS OF THE COMPASS. 
 
 Ra io " 
 
 
 Total Area 
 
 •Area of 
 
 Area to 
 Points of 
 SapporL 
 
 Edifice. 
 
 in English 
 
 peel. 
 
 Points of 
 Support 
 
 00j6 
 
 Temple of Claud. us in Roma, now 
 
 
 
 
 Church of St. S-efano 
 
 36,726 
 
 2,051 
 
 100 
 
 Church of St. Sauino in Rome (de- 
 
 
 i,543 
 
 
 
 15,139 
 
 0-MS 
 
 Church of St. Paul in Rome, without 
 
 
 
 
 the walli of the city 
 
 106,513 
 
 12,655 
 
 127 
 
 Temple of Peace in Rome . 
 
 67,123 
 
 S.57I 
 
 0124 
 
 Church of St. Filipfo Neri, Naples . 
 
 
 2.944 
 
 0:139 
 
 Church of Si. 'Giuseppe, Palermo 
 
 26,046 
 
 3,611 
 
 0140 
 
 Church of Notre Dame, raris . 
 
 67,343 
 
 8.784. 
 
 0-146 
 
 Church of St DmiiMcr., Palermo 
 
 34,144 
 
 4.9S8 
 
 0IM 
 
 Chufuh of St. Sulpice, Paris 
 
 60,760 
 
 9,127 
 
 0-134 
 
 Pantheon, or Church of St Genevieve, 
 
 
 
 
 Paris 
 
 60,2S7 
 
 9,269 
 
 OIn 
 
 Church of St. Peter, ad Vincula, Rome 
 
 21,520 
 
 3,353 
 
 157 
 
 Church of S' Vital, Ravenna 
 
 - r>, 
 
 1,142 
 
 0-16.1 
 
 Temple of Juno Lucina, Sicily . 
 Central building of Baths of Diode* 
 
 0-21 
 
 1,110 
 
 01 b7 
 
 
 
 
 
 351,636 
 
 5S,797 
 
 0-169 
 
 Cathedral, Milan .... 
 
 
 21,365 
 
 0-1711 
 
 St. Paul's, London .... 
 
 
 11.311 
 
 U 172 
 
 npical Pawum . 
 
 15,353 
 
 2,Nl'J 
 
 176 
 
 Central building of llatbi of Caracalla, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 43,91 1 
 
 0-194 
 
 1. Dirgenli.Siril} . 
 
 
 
 Jul 
 
 91a. M. del Pion, Florence 
 
 S4.-U2 
 
 17,030 
 
 0-217 
 
 Mn*jue of Sta. Sophia, Coustantitio- 
 
 
 
 
 
 103,200 
 
 
 232 
 
 n it Rome .... 
 
 
 7JKM 
 
 23. 
 
 Aucient Temple Galuzxo, Rome 
 
 
 
 
 . Home .... 
 
 
 59,30- 
 
 
 Hotel des Invahdrs, Paris . 
 
 29,003 
 
 7,790 
 
 POINTS OF Till. COMPASS. In Geography and Nav- 
 igation, ihe points of division of the circle r epraae 
 
 horizon, or of the compass c.-iril over which the magnetic 
 
 needle is suspended. A diameter of the circle being drawn 
 tit the meridian, or north and south directions, 
 and another at right angles to it to represent the directions 
 east and (rest, ihe circle li thus divided Into tour quarters, 
 eacli of which is subdivided Into eight et|n:il juris, so that 
 the whole circle is divided into thirty-two equal parts; and 
 
 of the c. rnpass. 
 ag in place with refer 
 
 ■MS to the lour principal or cardinal point*, namely, the 
 north, south, east, ;unl vvest points. .»e Compass. 
 
 POINTS OF THE ESCUTCHEON, In Heraldry, are 
 nine. Theae tire marked by letters in the cot attached to 
 the article Heraldry, which Is copied from those in the 
 ordinary English works on the element! of the science. 
 The) are— A, dexter chief; H, middle chief; C, sinister 
 chief (Fr. chef, head) ; D, honour point ; 1", less point, 
 which is the centre of the shield (fascia, belt, or sash, from 
 the belt encircling the middle of a man) ; F, nombril point 
 dexter base; H, middle base; and I, sinister 
 It w li in- observed, that the greater part of these 
 names are taken from those parts of the human body which 
 the shield was taken figuratively to represent. 
 
 POFSON. (Fr. poison.) A substance which disturbs, 
 nspends, or destroys one or more of the vital functions. 
 
 Poisons are classified by Orlila under the four heads of Irri- 
 tants, Narcotics, Narcotico acrids, and Putrefiants or Septics. 
 See Toxicology. 
 
 POISON-FANG. The superior maxillary teeth of cer- 
 tain species of serpents are so called; which, besides the 
 cavity tor the pulp, appear to lie perforated by a second 
 longitudinal canal, which is open at both ends, and receives 
 at that next the base of the fang the termination of the duct 
 of the poison gland. The tooth essentially consisLs of a 
 narrow anil thin plate, bent upon itself lengthwise, and with 
 the approximated margins adherent together. In some 
 poison-fangs the line of adhesion is visible along the convex 
 side of the tooth. 
 
 There is generally but one poison-fang on each maxillary- 
 hone, as in the viper and naia; but sometimes there are a 
 few additional teeth behind the principal fang. The fang 
 ordinarily lies recumbent: hut when the serpent designs to 
 strike with this wea|>on, it is erected by a rotatory movement 
 of the jaw, and the poison-gland is at the same time com- 
 pressed ami emptied of its secretion, which is injected 
 through the hollow fang into the wound. 
 
 POISON-GLAND. Those glands which secrete an acrid 
 or venomous liquor, which is conveyed along an instrument 
 capable of inflicting a wound, are so termed. The glands 
 at the sides of the head of poisonous serpents, those at the 
 base of the hollow jaws of the centipede, at the aculeated 
 tail of tin- scorpion, communicating with the sting of the 
 bee or tin- spur of the omithorhynchus, are examples. 
 
 POLA'CC \. A peculiar vessel with three m-ists, navigated 
 Chiefly in the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean. 
 
 POLAI'BE. A peculiar rig of a vessel, having pole 
 
 . no tr ,f, it' y ii"-«t'/r>«!s jo croistrees, whereby the 
 
 y in' :■.!<• >.rl vj .iu;i<ii xlm'st closedown to the yard 
 
 D1\t Sf'o-V 
 
 POLARIZATION OF LIGHT. 
 
 POLAR. Having reference to poles ; as pclar circles, 
 polar regions, polar projection, «fcc. 
 
 POLA'KITV. In Physics, that property of bodies in 
 consequence of which, when at liberty to move freely, they 
 arrange themselves in certain determinate directions, or 
 point, as it were, to given pules. Thus, an lion bar acquires 
 polarity by magnetism, and, when suspended from a single 
 point, arranges itself in the direction of the magnetic meri- 
 dian, or points to the magnetic poles of the earth. When 
 light is supposed to consist of material particles emitted from 
 the sun, it is necessary, in order to explain certain phe- 
 nomena of optics, to .-i>sintie that the particles are endowed 
 with polarity, which merely signifies that the opposite sides 
 of a particle have different physical properties. See Polari- 
 zation. 
 
 PO'LARIZA'TION OF LIGHT. Light which has un 
 dergone certain reflections or refractions, or been subjected 
 to the action of material bodies in any one of a great num- 
 ber of ways, acquires a certain modification, in consequence 
 of which it no longer presents the same phenomena of 
 reflection ami transmission as light which has not been 
 subjected to such action. This modification is termed the 
 polarization of light; its rays being supposed, according to 
 particular theoretical views, to have acquired poles (like 
 the in.. with opposite properties. 
 
 The polarization of light may be effected in various ways, 
 but chiefly in the following: 1. By reflection at a proper 
 angle from the surfaces of transparent media, as glass, 
 water, &.c. 2. By transmission through crystals possessing 
 the properly of double refraction. 3. By transmission 
 through a sufficient number of transparent uncrystallized 
 plates placed tit proper angles. I. By transmission through 
 a number of other bodies Imperfectly crystallized, as agate, 
 mother of pearl, tec The following experiment will serve 
 to Illustrate the lirst of these modes, and also give a clear 
 idea of the difference between common and polarised light. 
 Let A and li be two metallic or pasteboard tubes, open at 
 both ends, and titling into each 
 so as to turn stiffly. Into each 
 of these let a piece of polished 
 ■ one of its 
 sides roughened, and blackened / 
 with melted pilch or black var- 
 nish so its to destroy its internal reflection.be fixed in such 
 a position that Its surface makes an angle of 33 degrees 
 with the axis of the tubes. Let the tubes now lie placed 
 so that the light from the sun, or any luminary, falling on 
 the plate M, shall be reflected along the axis ; and let the 
 tube A be lived in that position. The light which traverses 
 the axis of the tube will tall on the plate N, from which 
 it will be again reflected, and may be received by the eye, 
 or on a screen. The apparatus being thus arranged, let 
 the tube li be turned round within A, carrying with it the 
 reflector N, which in its revolution will always preserve 
 the same inclination to the axis of the tube; and the ray 
 of light reflected from N will describe a conical surface. 
 Now, on attending to the ray reflected from N, it will be 
 observed in the course of the revolution constantly to vary 
 in intensity : at two opposite points it will acquire a maxi- 
 mum of intensity ; and at other two opposite points, inter- 
 mediate between these, it will entirely disappear. On 
 comparing the positions of the reflecting planes at the 
 occurrence of these phases, it will be found that the inten- 
 sity of the light is »re:ttest when the plane N is parallel 
 to M. and that there is no reflection from N when the two 
 planes are at right angles. It thus appears that a ray of 
 light reflected from the surface of glass at this particular 
 angle of 'XP is incapable of being reflected a second time 
 from a simihir surface, perpendicular to the former, at an 
 equal angle of incidence. This property is expressed by 
 saying that the light reflected from M is polarized in the 
 plane of reflection. It has, in fact, acquired some property 
 or modification, in virtue of which, while it preserves the 
 power of being again reflected in the same plane, ft ceases 
 to be subject to the ordinary law of reflection in a perpen 
 dicular plane. 
 
 If the ray reflected from M, instead of being received on 
 a second reflecting surface N, be thrown upon a crystal of 
 Iceland spar, or any doubly refracting crystal, so placed 
 that its principal plane {i.e., the plane passing through the 
 direction of the ray and the shorter diagonal of the rhom- 
 bus) la parallel to the plane of reflection M, then there 
 will only be a single refraction ; the extraordinary ray 
 will disappear, and the ordinary ray alone be produced. 
 Hut if the face of the crystal be turned round 90°, the 
 phenomena are reversed; the extraordinary ray alone is 
 produced, and the ordinary one disappears. The light, 
 therefore, in consequence of its reflection from the surface 
 M, ceases to obey the same laws of double refraction as 
 ordinary light 
 
 When the ray reflected from M is received perpendicu- 
 larly on a tourmaline plate, it will present different phe- 
 
POLARIZATION. 
 
 nomena of transmission according to the position of the 
 axis of the plate, that is, the axis of the crystal from which 
 the plate was cut. If the axis is parallel to the reflecting 
 plane, the whole of the light will be transmitted through 
 the plate ; but if the plate he turned round in its own 
 plane until the axis becomes perpendicular to the reflecting 
 plane, no portion of the light will be transmitted. 
 
 From these experiments it appears that light polarized 
 by reflection possesses the following characters, which are 
 invariably found to belong to all polarized light, in what- 
 ever way the polarization may have been produced : 1. It 
 ie incapable of being reflected by polished transparent 
 bodies at certain angles of incidence, and in certain posi- 
 tions of the plane of incidence. 2. It is incapable of under- 
 going division into two equal pencils by double refraction, 
 in positions of the doubly refracting bodies in which a ray 
 of ordinary light would be so divided. 3. It is incapable of 
 being transmitted by a plate of tourmaline when incident 
 perpendicularly upon it, in certain positions of the plate ; 
 and is readily transmitted by it in certain other positions, at 
 right angles to the former. 
 
 The polarization of light by reflection is only effected 
 completely when the light falls on the reflecting surface at 
 a particular angle; and it has been mentioned that, in the 
 case of glass, the angle which the direction of the ray must 
 make with the surface is about 33°, or the angle of incidence 
 (the complement of the former) must be 57°, in round num- 
 bers. Thlfl angle is called the polarizing angle. It is dif- 
 ferent for different substances ; but from an extensive series 
 of experiments with a great number of different bodies, Sir 
 David Brewster found the following remarkably simple and 
 beautiful relation to subsist in all cases between the polari- 
 zing angle and the refractive power of the medium, viz. 
 The tangent of the polarizing angle for any medium is the 
 index of refraction belonging to that medium. 
 
 All reflecting substances are capable of polarizing light if 
 Incident at proper angles ; but metallic bodies, and bodies 
 of very high refractive power, like the diamond, appeal to 
 do so only imperfectly, the reflected ray not entirely disap- 
 pearing iu circumstances when a perfectly polarized ray 
 would be completely extinguished. 
 
 When light is reflected at an angle greater or less than 
 the polarizing angle, it is partially polarized. A second 
 reflection in the same plane renders the polarization more 
 complete ; and, by repeating the reflections a sufficient 
 number of times, it may be polarized at any angle of inci- 
 dence. 
 
 The second method of effecting the polarization of light, 
 above mentioned, is by transmission through doubly refrac- 
 ting crystals. When a ray of common light is separated 
 Into two by double refraction, both the pencils, at their 
 emergence from the crystal, are found to be completely 
 polarized ; but in different planes, at right angles to each 
 other. This may be proved by receiving them on a reflect- 
 ing surface at the polarizing angle, or by examining them 
 through a plate of tourmaline, or by interposing a second 
 Crystal also having the power of double refraction ; and in 
 all cases each pencil will exhibit the same phenomena as 
 light polarized by reflection. Let a ray of light fall on a 
 rhomboid of Iceland spar, it will be separated into two, of 
 which call O the ordinary ray and E the extraordinary ray. 
 Let both pencils be received on a second rhomboid, and the 
 following phenomena will be observed. When the rhom- 
 boids are in similar positions, or have their homologous 
 faces parallel, neither of the pencils will be separated by 
 the second crystal ; but O v. :M produce only an ordinary 
 ray, and E only an extraordinary ray. On turning the 
 second crystal round through an angle of 90°, O produces 
 only an extraordinary ray, and E only an ordinary ray. In 
 intermediate positions, each pencil is separated by the second 
 crystal into two, in the same manner as ordinary light. 
 This experiment, which was first made by Huygens, and 
 accurately described by him, may be made as follows : 
 Take two pretty thick rhomboids of Iceland spar, and lay 
 them down (the one over the other) on a sheet of white 
 paper, having a small and well-defined black spot on it. 
 When the rhomboids are so placed that their homologous 
 sides are parallel, the spot will be seen double through the 
 combined crystals, as if they formed one piece ; both images 
 will be equally bright, and the line which joins them will 
 be parallel to the principal sections of the crystals. This is 
 shown *it A in the figure below. If we now turn round 
 the upper nystal in the horizontal plane from left to right, 
 two new faint images will make their appearance, as at II. 
 Continuing to turn, the four images will be all equally 
 luminous, as at C, where the crystal has been turned 45°. 
 As the rotation proceeds, the two original images become 
 extremely faint, as at D. When the crystal has been turned 
 90°, there will again be only two images, as at E : two new 
 faint images will again appear at F. At G, where the angle 
 of rotation is three quadrants, the four will be again equally 
 bright ; farther on at H they will become unequal ; and at 
 952 
 
 ABCDEFGII 
 
 POLEMOSCOPE. 
 
 I, when the revolution is pre- 
 cisely 180°, they will all co- 
 alesce into one bright spot. 
 From all these appearances 
 it follows that the ordinary ray is polarized in the principal 
 plane of the crystal, and the extraordinary ray in a plane 
 perpendicular to the principal plane. 
 
 The phenomena produced by the polarization of light are 
 among the most splendid and singular in the whole range 
 of physical science. They lay open many new views ol 
 the constitution of natural bodies, and their explanation 
 constitutes the principal part of the theory of light. The 
 general explanation, according to the Newtonian theory of 
 emission, is this : The molecular forces of the crystal, acting 
 on the particles of light, give them a rotatory motion round 
 their centres of gravity, till their axis assume certain deter- 
 minate positions, after which they remain at rest. There 
 are, however, cases in which the luminous particles, in 
 traversing the crystal, assume no fixed position, but oscillate 
 about their centres of gravity in regular periods, termed by 
 Newton fits ; and there are even cases in which it is neces- 
 sary to suppose that they are endowed with a continuous 
 rotation. In giving a rational account of these complicated 
 phenomena, and reducing them to calculation, the followers 
 of the undulatory theory have been more successful, and 
 the whole are connected and explained by a simple hy- 
 pothesis, which may be enunciated as follows : 
 
 "Common light consists of undulations in which the vi- 
 brations of each particle are in the plane perpendicular to 
 the wave's motion. The polarization of light is the reso- 
 lution of each vibration into two, one parallel to a given 
 plane passing through the direction of the wave's motion, 
 and the other perpendicular to that plane, which become 
 in certain cases the origin of waves that travel in different 
 directions. When we are able to separate one of these 
 from the other, we say that the light of each is polarized. 
 When the resolved vibration parallel to the plane is pre- 
 served unaltered, and that perpendicular to the plana is 
 diminished in a given ratio (or vice versa), and not sepa- 
 rated from it, we say that the light is partially polarized." 
 (Jliry's Mathematical Tracts, p. 339.) 
 
 The polarization of light by reflection was accidentally 
 discovered by Malus, a French engineer officer, in the year 
 1810 ; and the phenomena, which appeared the most re- 
 markable of any that had yet been observed, both on account 
 of their splendour and their intimate relations witli the 
 more interesting parts of physical optics and the theory of 
 light, soon began to be studied wish great care, and to be 
 varied in every possible way, by Malus himself, by Biot, 
 Arago, Dr. Young, Seebeck, Sir David Brewster, Sir John 
 Herschel, and many others. But the individual who beyond 
 all doubt contributed most to connect them with theory, 
 and to show their mutual relations and dependences, was 
 Fresnel, whose success in deriving them, by a priori reason- 
 ing, from the principles of the undulatory hypothesis of 
 light, was so complete as to place the evidence of the truth 
 of that theory on almost the same footing of credibility as 
 that of gravitation itself. Analogous phenomena to those 
 of the polarization of light have been found to belong also 
 to radiant heat. Professor Forbes of Edinburgh, who has 
 been the most successful investigator in this interesting de- 
 partment of physics, has shown that heat is polarized both 
 by reflection and refraction. He has also succeeded in 
 depolarizing heat, and thereby proved that heat possesses the 
 property of double refraction. 
 
 See Mai as, Theorie de la Double Refraction; Fresnel, 
 Memoires de V Institut, 1824, 1826, 1827; Herschel's Treatise 
 on Light, Ency. Metr.; Brewster's "Optics," Cabinet Cyclo- 
 pedia ; various papers in the Phil. Trans, from 1813 to 
 1819 ; Jlinfs Math. Tracts, 2d ed. 1831 ; and the various 
 scientific journals. 
 
 POLE. In Surveying, a measure of length, containing 
 16A feet or 5J yards ; it is the same as rod. Sometimes the 
 term is used as a superficial measure ; a sguare pole de • 
 noting 5* X 5i yards, or 30J square yards. 
 
 POLEMICS, or POLEMICAL THEOLOGY. (Gr. 
 iro\eno$, war.) The same as controversial. The term is 
 not necessarily applicable to theology only, but it is gene- 
 rally so applied; and it reflects little credit on human 
 nature that such a subject should have been treated in 
 such a manner as the appellation indicates. 
 
 PO'LEMOSCOPE. (Gr. -noleuos, war, and r-Ao-rw. / 
 view.) An instrument imagined by Hevelius, for seeing 
 objects which cannot bo seen by direct vision. It consists 
 of a mirror placed obliquely in a tube or box, having an 
 opening in the side opposite the mirror, so that rays from 
 any object falling on the mirror are reflected to the eye of 
 the spectator. Hevelius chose the name of polemoecop* 
 because he thought the Instrument might be app'led, in 
 time of war, to discover what was j:<>iii<; on in the camp of 
 the enemy, while the spectator remained concealed behind 
 a wall or other defence, and therefore could not employ a 
 
POLES. 
 
 iclescope. Opera glasses are sometimes constructed on 
 this principle, for the purpose of enabling a person to see 
 others on the right or left, while he appears to look straiglu 
 forward. 
 
 POLES (Gr. 7T<5Aos.) In Geometry and Astronomy, 
 the extremities of an axis of rotation of n sphere or 
 ■pheroids. In spherics, the poles of a great circle are the 
 extremities of the straight line jierpendicular to the plane 
 of the circle, and passing through its centre. The poles of 
 Ike ecliptic are the points about which the stars are carried 
 by the slow motion of the precession of the equinoxes ; 
 the poles of the equator, or poles of the tcorld, are the two 
 points about which the stars i>erform their diurnal rotation ; 
 the poles of the horizon nre the zenith and nadir ; the poles 
 of the meridian are the points of the horizon due east and 
 
 Poles, in Physics, nre the points of a body in which its 
 attractive or repulsive energy appears to be concentrated. 
 Thus, the poles of a magnet are the opposite points in which 
 the magnetic force is collected. 
 
 POLICE, is a term employed to designate those regula- 
 tions which have for their object to secure the maintenance 
 of good order, cleanliness, health, Ilk. in cities and country 
 districts; and it is also used to designate the description of 
 force by which these objects are effected. This force dif- 
 fers from military in its being commanded by civil officers, 
 and not being under military law ; but it is generally drilled 
 and .-tuned .n a half military manner, and has a distinctive 
 uniform. The police force is employed alike to prevent 
 and detect offences; and may be cither open or secret. 
 By an open police is meant officers dressed In their accus- 
 tomed uniform, and known to every body ; while, by a 
 lies is mi -ant adeem whom it may be difficult or 
 im|iossil)le to distinguish from certain classes of citizens, 
 who-e draM and manners they may think it expedient to 
 assume. The latter are employed that they may, without 
 he suspicion of guilty parties, or of those who are 
 projecting some outrage, acquire their confidence, and, by 
 making themselves masters of their secrets, secure their 
 -ion or prevent the outrage. It is needless to say 
 that the employment of a police force of this description is 
 with many inconveniences ; and sometimes it is 
 believed the officers have Stimulated to the commission of 
 the wry nflbnees ihey were employed to detect and prevent. 
 Still, however, it does not seem that it should be altogether 
 - with ; and under proper regulations, it aflbrdi not 
 only the best meaJts of detecting crimes, but also of prevent- 
 ing the Pom mission of such as require any previous combi- 
 nation or aiiangcment. 
 
 The organization and efficiency of the police differ in dif- 
 ferent places. Its expenses are usually deflated by a rate 
 laid on the inhabitants of the town or place where it is es- 
 tablished. The metropolitan police was newly organized a 
 ago, and is now a most effective force. The city 
 ot London is not under the charge of the metropolitan po- 
 1 1<- -, lor is protected by a body of men, organized on the 
 plan tind in imitation of that body, but placed under the 
 city authorities. The metropolitan police amounts in all to 
 nearly 4(100 men. 
 
 The police or constabulary force of Ireland is armed, and 
 has more of a military than of a civil character. Accord- 
 ing to recent arrangements, a lord-lieutenant is appointed to 
 each Iri~.fi county, through whom all communications to the 
 Irish government are made. The lords-lieutenant are as- 
 sisted in the discharge of their duties by an indefinite num- 
 ber of deputy lieutenants. All these officers act gratuitous- 
 ly, and are removeable at pleasure. 
 
 onstabulary force of Ireland amounted, In 1840, to 
 about 71)50 men, exclusive of a temporary police force of 
 about t>50 men. 
 
 I'( )' LIC Y. Sec Assurance. 
 
 POLISH, Polishing: (Lat. polio, to make smooth.) In 
 Sculpture, the operation of giving a smoothness and gloss 
 to any surface. The polishing of marble is effected by first 
 nibbing the surface with freestone ; after which it is wrought 
 upon with pumicestone ; and lastly with the finest emery 
 po-A dor. from which the glossy surface is obtained. 
 
 POLITICAL ARITHMETIC. See Statistics. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY.* Political science is com- 
 monly divided into two great departments. One of these 
 has for .us object to ascertain and establish the principles 
 according to which the governments of states may be best 
 ! : to discriminate between the legislative, judicial, 
 and executive departments, and to assign to each its proper 
 tactions, limits, and duties; to determine to what hands, 
 ami under what conditions and limitations, the supreme 
 power may be most advantageously committed, and how 
 its vari jus subordinate officers should be selected and con- 
 trolled , to decide, in fine, how the government, under any 
 
 v. from oiicqc, a house or famity, I ouot, a law. Hence, po- 
 litical economy icay be >«id to ba to the »tate what private economy is to a 
 •inrlc family. 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 given set of circumstances, should be framed, so that it 
 may be most likely to promote the well being of those sub- 
 jected to its authority. This is what is commonly called 
 pure politics. The other department of political science 
 has a different, more practical, and not less important object 
 in view. Those engaged in its study do not inquire into the 
 best methods of distributing political power, or of constitu- 
 ting the governing body ; but, taking them as they exist, 
 they endeavour to ascertain the rules and principles — the 
 UgtM ligum, as they were termed by Bacon — according to 
 which all governments, however formed, should act so as 
 to procure for their subjects the greatest amount of wealth, 
 civilization, and happiness. This department of the science 
 has received the name of political economy ; and we thai) 
 endeavour, in this article, to give a brief ex position of its 
 objects and principles. To enlarge on its importance would 
 be superfluous. The history of the human race proves that 
 national prosperity, or the well-being of the bulk of the peo- 
 ple, is not the exclusive attribute of any particular spe- 
 cies or form of government. It has been and may be en- 
 joyed by all countries, how different soever their political or- 
 ganisation, provided that they adopt a sound system of po- 
 litical economy : and it can be enjoyed by none who do not. 
 Without, therefore, undervaluing the other great branch of 
 the political sciences, or that which treats of the coi:st:;u- 
 tion of governments, this seems to poteen at least eqouj 
 claims on the public attention. Its leading principles and 
 rules nre applicable at all times and under all circumstan- 
 ces; they are equally suitable to despotic monarchies and 
 to republics, and cannot be neglected or contemned by 
 either without the most injurious consequences. 
 
 It is In general said of political economy that its object is 
 to ascertain the circumstances most favourable for the pro- 
 duction of wealth, and the laws \\ hich determine its dis- 
 tribution nmnng the different ranks and orders into which 
 society is divided ; and this definition seems quite unexcep- 
 tionable, provided it lie clearly understood thai by wealth, 
 in this science, is meant only those articles or producu 
 which require some portion of human industry for their 
 production, ncquisi:ion, or preservation, and which, conse- 
 quently, possess exchangeable value. A commodity or 
 product is 001 valuable merely because it is useful or desi- 
 rable ; but it is valuable when, in addition to these qual- 
 ities, it can only be procured or enjoyed through the inter- 
 vention of labour. It cannot justly be said that food or 
 clothes are more useful than atmospheric air; and yet they 
 are possessed of that value in exchange of which the latter 
 is wholly destitute. The reason is, that food and clothes, 
 nre not, like air, gratuitous products; they cannot be had at 
 all times, in any quantity, and enjoyed without any volun- 
 tary' exertion. On the contrary, labour is always required 
 for their production or appropriation, or both j ami as do one 
 will voluntarily sarriiii e the fruits of his industry without 
 receiving an equivalent, they nre truly said to possess ex- 
 changeable value. 
 
 The production and distribution of such articles as exist, 
 and may be obtained in unlimited quantities independently 
 of voluntary human agency, form no part of the investiga- 
 tions of the political economist. The results of the industry 
 of man comprise the only subjects that come within the 
 scope of his inquiries. This may, indeed, be said to be the 
 science of values, or of the circumstances which determine 
 the production and distribution of products possessed of ex- 
 changeable value, or which will be received as an equiv- 
 alent for something else which it has taken some labour to 
 produce or obtain. 
 
 The word value is very frequently employed to express, 
 not only the exchangeable worth of a commodity, or its ca- 
 pacity of exchanging for other commodities, but also its util- 
 ity, or capacity of satisfying our wants, or of contributing 
 to our comforts and enjoyments. But it is obvious that the 
 utility of commodities — that the capacity of bread, for ex- 
 ample, to appease hunger, and of water to quench thirst — 
 is a totally different and distinct quality from the capacity 
 of exchanging for other commodities. Dr. Smith perceived 
 this difference, and showed the importance of carefully dis- 
 tinguishing between utility, or, as he expressed it, "value in 
 use," and value in exchange. But he did not always keep 
 this distinction in view, and it has been very often losi sight of 
 by subsequent writers. There can be no doubt, indeed, that 
 the confounding of these opposite qualities has been one of 
 the principal causes of the confusion and obscurity in which 
 many of the branches of the science, not in themselves dif- 
 ficult, have been involved. When, for example, it is said 
 that water is highly valuable, a very different menning is 
 attached to the phrase from what is attached to it when it is 
 said that gold is valuable. Water is indispensable to ex 
 istence, and has, therefore, a high degree of utility, or of 
 " value in use ;" but as it can generally be obtained in large 
 quantities, without much labour or exertion, it has, in most 
 places, but a very low value in exchange. Gold, on the 
 contrary is of comparatively little utility ; but as it exists 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 only In limited quantities, and requires a great deal of labour 
 on its production, it has a comparatively high exchangeable 
 value, and may be exchanged or bartered lor a proportion- 
 ally large quantity of most other things. Those who con- 
 found qualities so different must obviously arrive at the most 
 er -oneous conclusions. And therefore, to obviate all chance 
 of error from mistaking the sense of so important a word 
 as value, it is better not to use it except to signify exchange- 
 able worth, or value in exchange, and to employ the word 
 utility to express the power or capacity of an article to sat- 
 isfy our wants or gratify our desires. 
 
 Capacity of appropriation is indispensibly necessary to 
 make anything wealth. A man is not said to be wealthy 
 because he has an indefinite command over atmospheric 
 air, the rays of the sun, or the articles with which, in com- 
 mon with others, he is gratuitously furnished by nature ; 
 for this being a privilege which he enjoys in common with 
 every one else, can form no ground of distinction : but he is 
 said to be wealthy according to the degree in which he can 
 afford to command those necessaries, conveniences, and 
 luxuries that are not the gifts of nature, but the products cf 
 human industry. 
 
 The proper meaning to be attached to the term wealth 
 being thus ascertained, we shall now proceed to show that 
 labour is the only source of wealth; and having done this, 
 we shall next inquire into the means by which labour may 
 ,»e rendered most efficient, that is, into the means by which 
 the greatest amount of wealth may be obtained with the 
 least expenditure of labour: when this inquiry is com- 
 pleted, we shall have exhausted that great department of 
 the science which treats of the production of wealth. 
 
 I. Production or Wealth. 
 
 1. Labour the only Source of Wealth. — It may be neces- 
 sary, perhaps, to observe at the outset, that by production, 
 In this science, is not meant the production of matter, that 
 being the exclusive attribute of Omnipotence ; but the pro- 
 duction of utility, and consequently of value, by appropri- 
 ating and modifying matter already" in existence, so as to fit 
 it to satisfy our wants and contribute to our enjoyments. 
 Nature spontaneously furnishes the matter of which all 
 commodities are made ; but until the labour lias been ap- 
 plied to appropriate that matter, or to adapt it to our use, it 
 is wholly destitute of value, and is not, nor ever has been 
 considered as forming wealth. Were we placed on the 
 banks of a river, or in an orchard, we should infallibly per- 
 ish of thirst or hunger, unless by an effort of industry we 
 raised the water to our lips, or plucked the fruit from its 
 parent tree. It is seldom, however, that the mere appro- 
 priation of matter is sufficient. In the vast majority of ca- 
 ses, labour is required not only to appropriate it, but to con- 
 vey it from place to place, and to give it that peculiar shape 
 without which it may be totally useless, and incapable of 
 administering either to our necessities or our comforts. 
 The coal used in our fires is buried deep in the bowels of 
 the earth, and is absolutely worthless until, by the labour 
 of the miner, it has been extracted from the mine, and 
 brought into a situation where it may be made use of. 
 The stones and mortar used in building our houses, and the 
 rugged and shapeless materials that have been fashioned 
 into the virious articles of convenience and ornament 
 with which they are furnished, were, in their original 
 state, destitute alike of value and utility. And of the in- 
 numerable variety of animal, vegetable, and mineral prod- 
 ucts which form the materials of our food and clothes, 
 none were originally serviceable, while many were ex- 
 tremely noxious to man. The labour that has subdued 
 their bid qualities, that has given them utility, and fitted 
 them to satisfy our wants, and to minister to our comforts 
 and enjoyments, is plainly, therefore, the only source of 
 wealth. " Labour," to use the words of Adam Smith, 
 " was the first price, the original purchase-money, that was 
 paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by 
 labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally 
 purchased."— ( Wealth of Nations, p. 14.) 
 
 Those who observe the progress and trace the history of 
 the human race in different countries and states of society, 
 will find that their comfort and happiness have in all ca- 
 ses been principally dependent on their ability to appro- 
 priate the raw products of nature, and to adapt them to 
 their use. The savage whose labour is confined, like that 
 of the Australian, to the gathering of wild fruits, or of 
 shell fish on the sea-coast, is placed at the very bottom of 
 the scale of civilization, and is, in point of comfort, deci- 
 dedly inferior to many of the lower animals. The first 
 step in the progress of society is made when man learns to 
 hunt wild animals, to feed himself with their flesh, and 
 clothe himself with their skins. But labour, when con- 
 fined to the chase, is extremely barren and unproductive. 
 Tribes of hunters, like beasts of prey, whom they closely 
 resemble in their habits and modes of subsistence, are but 
 thinly scattered over the countries which they occupy; 
 
 a r d notwithstanding the fewness of theii numbers, any un- 
 usuaJ deficiency in the supply of game never fails to re- 
 duce them to the extremity of want. The second step in 
 the progress of society is made when the tribes of hunters 
 and fishers devote themselves, like the ancient Scythians 
 and modern Tartars, to the domestication of wild animals 
 and the rearing of flocks. The subsistence of herdsmen 
 and shepherds is much less precarious than that of hunt- 
 ers ; but they are almost entirety destitute of the various 
 comforts and elegances that give to civilized life its chief 
 value. The third and most decisive step in the progress of 
 civilization, in the great art of producing the necessaries 
 and conveniences of life, is made when the wandering 
 tribes of hunteis and shepherds renounce their migratory 
 habits, and become agriculturists and manufacturers. It is 
 then that man begins fully to avail himself of his product- 
 ive powers. He then becomes laborious, and, by a neces- 
 sary consequence, his wants are then, for the first time, ful- 
 ly supplied, and he acquires an extensive command over 
 the articles necessary for his comfort as well as liis sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 The importance of labour in the production of wealth 
 was very clearly perceived by Locke. In his Essay on 
 Civil Government, published in 1689, he has entered into a 
 lengthened, discriminating, and able analysis, to show that 
 it is from labour that the products of the earth derive al- 
 most all their value. " Let any one consider," says lie, 
 "what the difference is between an acre of land pianted 
 with tobacco or sugar, sown with wheat or barley, and an 
 acre of the same land lying in common, without anv hus- 
 bandry upon it, and he will find that the improvement 
 of labour makes the far greater part of the value. I think 
 it will be but a very modest computation to say, that of 
 the products of earth useful to the life of man, nine tenths 
 are the effects of labour; nay, if we will rightly estimate 
 things as they come to our use, and cast up the several 
 expenses about them, what in them is purely owing to na- 
 ture, and what to labour, we shall find that in most of 
 them ninety-nine hundredths are wholly to be put on the 
 account of labour. 
 
 "There cannot bo a dearer demonstration of anyl 
 than several nations of the Americans are of this, .h> 
 are rich in land, and poor in nil the comforts of life ; whom 
 nature having furnished as liberally as any other people 
 with the materials of plenty, i. c., a fruitful soil apt to pro- 
 duce in abundance what might serve for food, raiment, 
 and delight ; yet, for want of improving it by labour, have 
 not one hundredth part of the conveniences we enjoy ; 
 and the king of a large and fruitful territory there feeds, 
 lodges, nnd is clad worse than a day labourer in England. 
 "To make this a little clearer, let us but trice some of 
 the ordinary provisions of life through their several prog- 
 resses before they come to our use, and see how much 
 they receive of their value from human industry. Bread, 
 wine, and cloth are things of daily use and great plenty ; 
 yet, notwithstanding, acorns, water, and leaves or skins 
 must be our bread, drink, and clothing, did not labour fur- 
 nish us with these more useful commodities ; for whatever 
 bread is more worth than acorns, wine than water, and cloth 
 or silk than leaves, skins, or moss, that is solely owing to la- 
 bour and industry : the one of these being the food and rai- 
 ment which unassisted nature furnishes us with ; the oth- 
 er, provisions which our industry and pains prepare for us ; 
 which how much they exceed the other in value when any 
 one hath computed, he will then see how much labour 
 makes the far greatest part of the value of things we enjoy 
 in this world. And the ground which produces the mate- 
 rials is scarce to be reckoned in as any, or, at most, but a 
 very small part of it ; so little, that even among us, land 
 that is wholly left to nature, that hath no improvement of 
 pasturage, tillage, or planting, is called, as indeed it is, 
 waste; and we shall find the benefit of it amount to little 
 more than nothing. 
 
 " An acre of land that bears here twenty bushels of 
 wheat, and another in America which, with the same 
 husbandry, would do the like, are, without doubt, of the 
 same natural intrinsic value (utility). But yet the benefit 
 mankind receives from the one in a year is worth five 
 pounds, nnd from the other possibly not worth a penny, if 
 all the profit an Indian received from it were to be valued 
 and sold here ; at least, I may truly say. not one thousandth. 
 It is labour, then, which puts the greatest part of value 
 upon land, without which it would scarcely be worth any- 
 thing. It is to that we owe the greatest part of all its use- 
 ful products; for all that the straw, bran, bread, of that acre 
 of wheat, is more worth than the product of an acre of 
 as good land which lies waste, is all the effect of labour 
 For it is not barely the ploughman's pains, the reaper's and 
 thrasher's toil, and the baker's sweat is to be accounted into 
 the bread we eat ; the labour of those who broke the oxen, 
 who dicged and wrought the iron nnd stones, who felled and 
 framed the timber employed about the plough, mill, oven, or 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 anv other utensils, which are n vast number, requisite to 
 this com; from its being seed to be sown to its bein:: made 
 bread, must -ill be charged on the account of labour, and re- 
 ceived as an elTect of that ; nature and the earth famished 
 only the almost worthless materials as in themselves. It 
 would be a strange catalogue of things that industry provi- 
 ded and matle use of about every loaf of bread before it 
 
 or use, if we could trace them; iron, wood, leath- 
 er, bark, timber, stone, bricks, coals, lime, cloth, dyeing 
 drugs, pitch, tar, masis, ropes, and all the materials mode 
 use of in the ships that brought away the commodities 
 made use of by any of the workmen to any part of the work ; 
 all Which it would be almost impossible, at hast too long, 
 to reckon up." 
 
 Mr. I.ocke has here all but established the fundamental 
 principle upon which this science rests. Had he carried 
 
 sis a little further, he could not have failed to per- 
 ceive that neither water, leaves, skins, nor any one of the 
 spontaneous products of nature, has any value, except what 
 
 i the labour required for its appropriation. The 
 
 utility of such products makes them be demanded, but it 
 
 does "nut girt them value; this is a quality which can be 
 
 communicated only through the agency of voluntary labour 
 
 ■rt or oilier. An object which it does not require 
 
 any portion of labour to appropriate, or to adopt to our use, 
 
 may, like atmospherical air, be of the very highest utility ; 
 
 but' as it is the free gift of nature, it is quite impossible it 
 
 should have the smallest value. 
 
 That commodities could not be produced without the co- 
 
 i of the powers of nature, is most certain. We are 
 
 very far, indeed, from wishing to depreciate the obligations 
 
 we arc under to ourcomnion mother, or to exalt the benefits 
 
 man owes to his own exertions by concealing or underra- 
 
 r which he enjoys throngs the bounty of nature. 
 
 But it is the distinguishing i of the services 
 
 rendered by the latter that they are gratuitous. They are 
 
 infinitely useful, and they are, at the same time, Infinitely 
 
 cheap. They are not, like human service-;, sold for a price ; 
 
 they are merely appropriated. When a fish is caught, or 
 
 do the Nereids, or wood nymphs, nuke 
 
 of nature 
 
 in producing it should be paid for, betore it be carried 
 
 off and i. by man 1 When the miner has dug 
 
 his way down to the ore, does Plutus interpose to prevent 
 
 its appropriation ? Nature is not, as so many would have 
 
 ose, frugal and grudging. Her rude products, and 
 her capacities ami powers, are all ottered freely to man. 
 She neither demands nor receives a return for her favours. 
 Her services are of inestimable utility ; but being granted 
 freely and unconditionally, they are wholly destitute of 
 value, and are, consequently, without the power of commu- 
 nicating that quality to anything. 
 
 The utility of water, or its capacity to slake thirst, is equal 
 at all times and places; but as this quality is communi- 
 cated to it by nature, it adds nothing to its value, Which is, 
 in all cases, measured by the labour required for its appro- 
 priation. A very small expenditure of labour being required 
 lo raise water from a river to the lips of an individual on i:s 
 banks, its value, under such circumstance*, is very trifling 
 indeed. But when, instead of being upon its banks, the 
 consumers of the water are five, ten, or twenty miles dis- 
 tant, its value, being increased proportionally to the greater 
 expenditure of labour upon Its conveyance, may become 
 very considerable. This principle holds universally. The 
 utility of coal, or its capacity of furnishing heat and light, 
 makes it an object of demand; but this utility, being a free 
 gift of nature, has no influence over its value or price: this 
 depends entirely on the labour required to extract the coal 
 from the mine, and to convey it to the consumers. 
 
 '• Si je retranche," to use a striking illustration of this 
 doctrine given by M. Canard, " de ma montre, par la 
 pensee, tous les travnux qui lui ont ete successivement ap- 
 pliques, il nc restera que quclques grains de mineral places 
 dans I'interieur de la terre, d'ou on les a tires, et ou III n'ont 
 aucune valeur. De meme, si je decompose le pain que je 
 mange, et que j'en retranche successivement tous les tra- 
 vaux successifs qu'il a repus, il ne restera que quelques tiges 
 i'herbes graminees, eparsCs dans des deserts incultes, et 
 sans aucune valeur." 
 
 It is true that natural powers and products may sometimes 
 be appropriated or engrossed by one or more individuals to 
 the exclusion of others, and those by whom they are so en- 
 grossed may exact a price for them ; but does that show that 
 Ihey cost tho engrossers any thing 1 If A. have a waterfall 
 on his estate, he may, probably, get a rent for it. It is plain, 
 however, that the work performed by the waterfall is as 
 completely gratuitous as that which is performed by the 
 wind that acts on a windmill. The only difference between 
 them originates in this,— that all individuals having it in 
 their power to avail themselves of the services of the wind, 
 uo one can intercept the bounty of nature, and exact a 
 •rice for that which she freely "besi-vv; whereas A., by 
 
 appropriating the waterfall, and consequently acquiring a 
 command over it, has it in his power to prevent its being 
 used at all, or to sell its services. He can oblige B., C, and 
 D. to pay for liberty to use it ; but as they pay for that which 
 costs him nothing, he gains the whole that they lose ; so 
 that the services rendered by the waterfall are still so much 
 clear gain — so much work performed gratuitously for so- 
 ciety. 
 
 Had Mr. Senior attended to this principle, he would not 
 have made the strange supposition, that if aerolites con- 
 sisted wholly of gold, they would, according to the princi- 
 ples now explained, be destitute of value. * If, indeed, they 
 were so very abundant as lo supply every one with as much 
 gold as he desired, they would have no value whatever, other 
 than what they might derive from the trouble of gathering 
 them ; but, if they existed only in limited quantities, and 
 were quite incapable of supplying the demand for gold, the 
 fortunate finder of one of them would be able to sell it, or 
 exchange it, for the same quantity of produce it would 
 have commanded had it been produced, like other gold, by 
 the Inliour of the miner, smelter, &.C. But it is obvious 
 that its value is, in Ibis case, derived from circumstances 
 which, though extrinsic to itself, depend Wholly on the ex- 
 penditure of labour; and that. In fact, it is measured or de- 
 termined by the labour requiied to produce gold under ordi 
 nary circumstances, precisely in the same way that the 
 value of the waterfall is determined by the quantity of la- 
 bour it will save to the party by whom it is bought or 
 rented. 
 
 Labour, therefore, is the sole source of exchangeable 
 value, and, consequently, of wealth. It is the talisman 
 that has raised man from the condition of the savage — that 
 has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields , 
 that lias covered the earth with cities, and the ocean Willi 
 shi|>s; that has given us abundance, comfort, and elegance, 
 instead of want, misery, and barbarism : — 
 
 "All il tlie gift of Industry ; whate'er 
 
 Exabs, rmijcllitliri, and renden life 
 
 DeUjhiAil." 
 
 The fill th.it it is only through the 
 
 agency of labotu venlencea 
 
 required for the use and accommodation of man can be ob- 
 tained, being thus established, it necessarily follows, that 
 the great practical problem involved In that p.art of the 
 science which treats of the production of wealth must re 
 solve itself into a ; the means by which labour 
 
 may be rendered most efficient. Every measure that has 
 any tendency to add to the power of labour, or, which is the 
 same thing, to reduce llie cost of commodities, must add 
 proportionally to the means of obtaining wealth and riches; 
 while every measure or regulation that has any tendency to 
 waste labour, or to raise the cost of commodities, must 
 equally lessen these means. This, then, is the simple and 
 decisive test by which to judge of the expediency of all 
 measures affecting the wealth of a country, and of the 
 value of all inventions. If they render labour more pro- 
 ductive — if, by reducing the value of commodities, they 
 render them more easily obtainable, and bring them within 
 the command of a greater portion of society, they musf be 
 advantageous; and conversely. Considered in this point of 
 view, that great branch of ihe science which treats of the 
 production of wealth will be found to be abundantly sim- 
 ple, and easily understood. 
 
 Labour, according as it is applied to the raising of raw 
 produce, to the fashioning of that raw produce when raised 
 into articles of utility, convenience, or ornament, or to the 
 conveyance of raw and wrought produce from one country 
 or place to another, is said to be agricultural, manufactur- 
 ing, or commercial. An acquaintance with the particular 
 processes, and most advantageous methods of applying la- 
 bour in each of these grand departments of industry, forms 
 the peculiar and appropriate study of agriculturists, manu 
 facturers, and merchants. It is not consistent with the ob- 
 jects of the political economist to enter into the details of 
 particular businesses and professions. He confines himself 
 to an investigation of the means by which labour in general 
 may be rendered most productive, and how its powers may 
 be increased in all the departments of industry. 
 
 In thus endeavouring to exhibit the importance of labour, 
 and the advantages which its successful prosecution confers 
 on man, it must not be supposed that reference is made to 
 the labour of the hand only. This species, indeed, comes 
 most under our observation : it is that, too, without which 
 we could not exist, and which principally determines the 
 value of commodities. It is questionable, however, whether 
 it be really more productive than the labour of the mind. 
 The hand is not more necessary to execute than the head 
 to contrive. Some very valuable discoveries have no doubt 
 been the result of accident; while others have natuially 
 grown out of the progress of society, without being materi- 
 
 * An. " Political Economy," £/.cyc!of.-oi.a Mitropvlitni. 
 
 y5;> 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 ally advanced by the efforts of any single individual. These, 
 however, have not been their only, nor, perhaps, their most 
 copious sources; and every one, how little soever he may 
 be acquainted with the history of his species, is aware that 
 we are indebted to the labour of the mind, to patient study 
 and long-continued research, for numberless inventions, 
 some of which have made almost incalculable additions to 
 our powers, and changed, indeed, the whole aspect and con- 
 dition of society. 
 
 2. Means by which Labour may be facilitated. — Having 
 thus endeavoured to show that man is indebted to labour or 
 industry for all those articles or products which constitute 
 wealth, or which are not freely bestowed by nature, we 
 have next to inquire into the means by which labour may 
 be rendered most productive, or by which the greatest 
 amount of wealth may be obtained with the least labour, 
 or at the least expense. 
 
 It may seem on a cursory view as if an inquiry of this 
 sort would necessarily branch out into an infinity of details. 
 But, in so far as this science, which deals only with the 
 general principles applicable to all departments of industry, 
 is concerned, such is not the case. On the contrary, it will 
 De found, supposing the security of property, without which 
 there can be neilher industry nor accumulation, to be estab- 
 lished, that all the means by which labour may be facilitated 
 and wealth increased resolve themselves, 1st, into the bet- 
 ter division and combination of employments among indi- 
 viduals and nations ; and, 2d, into the more extensive or 
 more judicious application of capital or stock in industrious 
 undertakings. All the improvements that ever have been 
 or ever will be made in the great art of producing the vari- 
 ous necessaries, conveniences, and enjoyments of human 
 life may be classed under one or other of these heads; that 
 is, they will be found to consist either in the better distribu- 
 tion of employments, or in the greater command and better 
 application of capital. Without availing themselves of these 
 means no people can make any advance in civilization. 
 And, supposing property to be equally well protected, it will, 
 generally speaking, be found that those nations have been 
 the wealthiest, most cultivated, and refined, in which the 
 division of labour has been carried to the farthest extent, 
 and capital been most abundant and most judiciously ap- 
 plied. 
 
 Division of Employments. — The division of employments 
 can only be imperfectly established in rude societies and 
 thinly-peopled countries ; but in every state of society — in 
 the rudest as well as the most improved — we may trace its 
 operation and effects. The various physical powers, tal- 
 ents, and propensities, with which men are endowed, fit 
 ihem for different occupations ; and a regard to mutual in- 
 erest and convenience naturally leads them, at a very early 
 period, to establish a system of barter and a division of em- 
 ployments. It was speedily seen that by separating and 
 combining their efforts so as to bring about some desirable 
 end, they might, with ease, accomplish tasks that could not 
 otherwise be attempted. Even in the simplest businesses 
 this co-operation is required: neither hunting nor fishing, 
 any more than agriculture or manufactures, can be advan- 
 tageously carried on by solitary individuals. Man is the 
 creature of society ; and is compelled, in every stage of his 
 progress, to depend for help on his fellows:— Qud alio 
 fortes sumus qunn quod mutuis juvamur officiis ? Instead 
 of trusting to his own unaided efforts for a provision of the 
 various articles required for his subsistence, comfort, and 
 security, he instinctively associates himself with others, and 
 finds in this association the principal source of his superior 
 power. Perceiving that he can obtain an incomparably 
 greater command of all that he deems useful or desirable 
 by applying himself in preference to some one department 
 of industry, he limits his attention to it only. As society 
 advances, this division extends itself on all sides : one man 
 becomes a tanner or dresser of skins; another a shoemaker ; 
 a third a weaver; a fourth a house-carpenter; a fifth a 
 smith, and so on ; one undertakes the defence of the society, 
 and one the distribution of justice; and each endeavours 
 to cultivate and bring to perfection whatever talent or ge- 
 nius he may possess for the particular calling in which he 
 is engaged. The wealth and comforts of all classes are, in 
 consequence, prodigiously augmented. In countries where 
 the division of labour is carried to a considerable extent, 
 agriculturists are not obliged to spend their time in clumsy 
 attempts to manufacture their own produce, and manufac- 
 turers cease to interest themselves about the raising of corn, 
 and the fattening of cattle. The facility of exchanging is 
 the vivifying principle of industry; it stimulates agricultu- 
 rists to adopt the best system of cultivation, and to raise the 
 largest crops, because it enables them to exchange whatever 
 portion of the produce of their lands exceeds their own 
 wants for other commodities contributing to their comforts 
 ffnd enjoyments; and it stimulates manufacturers and mer- 
 chants to increase and improve the quantity, variety, and 
 nuality of their goods, that they may thereby obtain greater 
 956 
 
 supplies of raw produce. A spirit of industry is thus unl 
 versally diffused ; and that apathy and languor which cha 
 racterize a rude state of society entirely disappear. 
 
 But the facility of exchanging, or the circumstance of be 
 ing able readily to barter the surplus produce of our own 
 labour for such parts of the surplus produce of other peo- 
 ple's labour as we may desire to obtain and they may choose 
 to part wilh, is not the only advantage of the separation of 
 employments. Besides enabling each individual to addicl 
 himself in preference to those departments which suit his 
 taste and disposition, it adds very largely to the efficacy ol 
 his powers, and enables him to produce a much greater 
 quantity of useful and desirable articles than he could do 
 were he to engage indiscriminately in different businesses. 
 Dr. Smith, who has treated this subject in the most mas- 
 terly manner, has classed the circumstances which conspire 
 to increase the productive powers of industry, when labour 
 is divided, under the following heads : — First, the increased 
 skill and dexterity of the workmen ; second, the saving of 
 time which is commonly lost in passing from one employ- 
 ment to another ; and, third, the circumstance of the divi- 
 sion of employments having a tendency to facilitate the in- 
 vention of machines and processes for abridging and saving 
 labour. A few observations on each of these heads are 
 subjoined. 
 
 1st. With respect to the improvement of the skill and dex- 
 terity of the labourer. — It is sufficiently plain that when a 
 jierson's whole attention is devoted to one branch of busi- 
 ness, when all the energies of his mind and powers of his 
 body are made to converge, as it were, to a single point, he 
 must attain to a degree of proficiency in that particular 
 branch, to which no individual engaged in a variety of oc- 
 cupations can be expected to reach. A peculiar play of the 
 muscles, or sleight of hand, is necessary to perform the 
 simplest operation in the best and most expeditious manner, 
 and this can only be acquired by habitual and constant 
 practice. Smith has given a striking example, in the case 
 of the nail-manufacturer, of the extreme difference between 
 training a workman to the precise occupation In which lie 
 is to be employed, and training him to a similar and closely 
 allied occupation. " A common smith," says he, " who, 
 though accustomed to handle the hammer, has never been 
 used to make nails, if, upon some particular occasion, he is 
 obliged to attempt it, will scarce, I am assured, be able to 
 make above two or three hundred nails in a day, and those, 
 too, very bad ones. A smith who has been accustomed to 
 make nails, but whose sole or principal business has not 
 been that of a nailer, can seldom, with his utmost diligence, 
 make more than eight hundred or a thousand nails in a day. 
 But I have seen several boys, under twenty years of age, 
 who had never exercised any other trade but that of mak- 
 ing nails, and who, when they exerted themselves, could 
 make, each of them, upwards of two thousand three hun- 
 dred nails in a day, or nearly three times the number of the 
 smith who had been accustomed to make them, but who 
 was not entirely devoted to that particular business." 
 ( Wealth of Motions, p. 4.) 
 
 2d. The influence of the division of labour in preventing 
 that waste of time in moving from one employment to ano- 
 ther, which must always take place when an individual en- 
 gages in different occupations, is even more obvious than 
 its influence in improving his skill and dexterity. When the 
 same person carries on different employments, in different 
 and perhaps distant places, and with different sets of tools. 
 he must plainly lose a considerable portion of time in pass- 
 ing between them. If the different employments in which 
 he is to be engttged could be carried on in the same work- 
 shop, the loss of time would be less; but even in that case 
 it would be considerable. "A man," as Dr. Smith haf 
 justly observed, "commonly saunters ". little in turning his 
 hand from one sort of employment to another. When he 
 first begins the new work, he is seldom very keen and 
 hearty ; his mind, as they say, does not go along with it, 
 and for some time he rather trifles than applies to good pur- 
 pose. The habit of sauntering and of indolent careless ap 
 plication, which is naturally, or rather necessarily, acquired 
 by every country workman, who is obliged to change his 
 work and his tools every half hour, and to apply his hand 
 in twenty different ways almost every day of his life, ren 
 ders him almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable o/ 
 any vigorous application, even on the most pressing occa 
 sions. Independent, therefore, of his deficiency in point of 
 dexterity, this cause nlone must always reduce considera 
 bly the quantity of work which he is capable of perform 
 ing." ( Wealth of Nations, p. 5.) 
 
 3d. With regard to the influence of the division of employ 
 ment in facilitating the invention of machines, and pro 
 cesses for abridging and saving labour. — It is obvious that 
 those engaged in any branch of industry will be more likely 
 to discover easier and readier methods of carrying it on 
 \\ liea the whole attention of their minds is devoted exclu- 
 sively to it, than if it were dissipated among a variety of 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 objects. But it is a mistake to suppose, as has been some- 
 times done, that the inventive genius of workmen and arti- 
 ficers is alone whetted and improved by the division of la- 
 bour. As society advances, the study of particular branches 
 of science and philosophy becomes the principal or sole oc- 
 cupation of the most ingenious men. Chemistry become? a 
 distinct science from natural philosophy ; the physical as- 
 tronomer separates himself from the astronomical observer; 
 the political economist from the politician ; and each, medi- 
 tating exclusively or principally on his peculiar department 
 of science, attains to a degree of proficiency and expertness 
 in it which the general scholar seldom or never reaches. 
 And hence, in labouring to promote our own ends, we all 
 necessarily adopt that precise course which is most advan- 
 tageous for all. Like the different parts of a well-constructed 
 engine, the inhabitants of a civilized country are all mutu- 
 ally dependent on and connected with each other. Without 
 any previous consent, and obeying only the powerful and 
 steady impulse of self-interest, they universally conspire to 
 the same great end; and contribute, each in his respective 
 spherr, to furnish the greatest supply of necessaries, lux- 
 uries, conveniences, and enjoyments. 
 
 Probably, however, the most advantageous result of the 
 division of laliour may be found in the circumstance of its 
 enabling manufactures or others engaged in any complicated 
 busiii'— or department of industry, to employ work-people 
 of very various degrees of skill and force. In the cotton 
 manufacture, for example, some processes thnt are indis- 
 tble may be quite as well performed by children and 
 women as by the most expert and powerful workmen. It 
 is ciear. however, that but for the distribution of the 
 labour required to bring about any result among different 
 individuals possessing the degree of skill and strength ne- 
 cessary in each particular part of the process, none could 
 be employed but those who possessed the skill and strength 
 reuuir' <! in tin- most difficult and laborious; and, conse- 
 quently, workmen at 30s. or 40*. a week would have to en- 
 gage in tasks that might be as well or better performed by 
 girls at 5.». or 6s. a week. In all the great departments of 
 industry it is of the utmost importance to separate the pro- 
 s requiring peculiar skill, dexterity, and force from the 
 others, and to appropriate them exclusively to certain classes 
 of individuals; and to perform the operations requiring less 
 skill, or less strength, by sets of inferior labourers. The 
 success of most industrious undertakings depends, in fact, 
 principally on the sagacity with which this distribution of 
 employments is made, or with which the skill and power 
 of the work-people are prop or tioned to the results to be 
 produced. (For further illustrations of this principle see 
 Babbagc's Economy of Manufactures, p. 172, ic.) 
 
 It is necessary to bear in mind that the advantages derived 
 from the division of labour, though they may be, and in fact 
 are, partially enjoyed in every country and state of society, 
 ran only be carried to their full extent where there is a great 
 power of exchanging, or an extensive market. There are an 
 infinite variety of employments which cannot be separately 
 carried on without the precincts of a large city; and in nil 
 cases the division becomes more perfect, according as the 
 demand for the produce is extended. It is stated by Dr. 
 Smith that ten Inbourers, employed in different departments 
 in a pin manufactory, can produce 48,000 pins a day, and 
 since his time the quantity has been more than doubled ; 
 but it is evident that if the demand were not sufficient to 
 take off this quantity, ten persons could not be constantly 
 employed in the business ; and the division of employments 
 in it not being carried so far, the laliour would be less eco- 
 nomically and efficiently applied, and the cost of the pins 
 proportionally increased. The same principle holds uni- 
 versally. A cotton mill could not be constructed in a small 
 country having no intercourse with its neighbours. The 
 demand and competition of Europe, Asia, and America have 
 been necessarry to carry the manufactures of Glasgow, 
 Manchester, and Birmingham to their present state of im- 
 provement. 
 
 Territorial Division of Labour, or Commerce. — Besides 
 that sort of division of labour which enables each individ- 
 ual in a limited society to confine himself to a particular 
 employment, there is another and most important branch 
 of the division of labour, which not only enables particular 
 individuals, but the inhabitants of entire districts, and even 
 nations, to addict themselves in preference to certain bran- 
 ches of industry. It is on this territorial division of labour, 
 as it has been appropriately termed, that the commerce 
 carried on between different districts of the same country, 
 and between different countries, is founded. The variations 
 in the situation, soil, climate, mineral products, &c., of the 
 different districts of an extensive country, render them more 
 suitable for some than for other species of industry. A 
 district where coal is abundant, which has an easy access 
 to the ocean, and a considerable command of internal navi- 
 gation, is the natural seat of manufactures. Wheat and 
 ether species of grain are the proper products of rich arable 
 
 soils ; and cattle, after being reared in mountainous dis- 
 tricts, are most advantageously fattened in meadows and 
 low grounds. Nothing can be more obvious than that the 
 inhabitants of these different districts will be able, by con- 
 fining themselves to those employments for the prosecution 
 of which they have some peculiar capability, to produce a 
 much greater quantity of useful and desirable articles than 
 they could do were they to engage indiscriminately in 
 every possible employment. Can it be doubted that a vastly 
 greater supply of manufactured goods, corn, and cattle is 
 produced by the inhabitants of Glasgow, the Carse of Gow 
 rie, and Argyleshire respectively confining themselves to 
 manufactures, agriculture, and the rearing of cattle, than 
 if each endeavoured directly to raise these various pro 
 ducts '! 
 
 But it is easy to see that foreign trade, or the territorial 
 division of labour between different and independent coun- 
 tries, contributes to increase the wealth of each in precisely 
 the same manner that the trade between different provin- 
 ces of the same kingdom contributes to increase their 
 wealth. There is a still greater difference between the 
 productive powers with which Providence has endowed 
 different and distant countries, than there is between the 
 productive powers of the provinces of the same country; 
 and consequently the establishment of a free intercourse be- 
 tween them must be proportionally more advantageous, In- 
 deed, there are a great many products, and some of them 
 of the very greatest utility, that cannot be raised except in 
 particular situations. Were it not for commercial inter- 
 course, we should not be able to obtain the smallest supply of 
 tea, spices, raw cotton, raw silk, gold and silver, and a thous- 
 and other equally useful and desirable commodities. Pro- 
 vidence, by giving different soils, climates, and natural pro- 
 ductions to different countries, has evidently provided for 
 their mutual intercourse and civilization. By permitti ng the 
 people of each to employ their capital and labour in those 
 department! in which their genera plural situation, the phy- 
 sical capacities of their soil, their national character and 
 habits fit them to excel, foreign commerce, or the territorial 
 division of labour, has a wonderful Influence in multiplying 
 the products of arts and industry. Where the freedom of 
 commerce is not interfered with, each country necessarily 
 devotes itself to such employments ns are most beneficial 
 for itself. And this pursuit of individual advantage is 
 in the highest degree conducive to the good of the whole. 
 By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by 
 using most efficaciously the particular powen bestowed by 
 nature, commerce distributes labour most effectively and 
 economically ; while, by increasing the mass of necessary 
 and useful products it diffuses opulence, and binds together 
 the universal society of nations by the common and power 
 ful ties of mutual interest and reciprocal obligation. Com 
 merce enables each particular state to profit by the inven 
 tions and discoveries of every other state. It creates new 
 tastes and new appetites, and it also gives the means and 
 the desire of gratifying them. The progress of domestic in- 
 dustry is accelerated by the competition of foreigners. Com- 
 merce has either entirely removed or greatly weakened a 
 host of unworthy prejudices. It has shown that nothing 
 can be more illiberal and absurd than that once prevalent 
 dread of the progress of others in wealth and civilization , 
 and that the true glory and real interest of each particular 
 people will be more certainly advanced by endeavouring to 
 emulate and outstrip its neighbours in the career of science 
 and civilization, than by labouring to attain a barren pre- 
 eminence in the bloody and destructive though necessary 
 art of war. 
 
 The influence of commerce in giving increased efficacy 
 to labour, and augmenting nationnl wealth, may lie easily 
 illustrated. Thus in the case of the intercourse' or territo 
 rial division of labour carried on between England andPor 
 tugal, our superior wool, and our command of coal, of skil- 
 ful workmen, of improved machinery, in short, of nil the 
 instruments of manufacturing industry, enable us to produce 
 cloth at a much cheaper rate than trie Portuguese ; but, on 
 the other h»..id. the soil and climate of Portugal being pe- 
 culiarly favourable for the cultivation and growth of the 
 grape, she is able to produce wine at an infinitely less cost 
 than it can be produced here. And hence it is obvious that 
 England, by confining herself to the manufacture of cloth, 
 in which she has a natural advantage, and exchanging h 
 with the Portuguese for wine, will obtain n vastly larger 
 supply of that commodity than if she attempted to cultivate 
 the grape at home ; and Portugal, by exchanging her wine 
 for the cloth of England, will obtain a much greater quan- 
 tity of cloth than if she attempted to counteract the inten- 
 tion of nature by converting a portion of her capital and in- 
 dustry from the raising of wine, in which she has an ad 
 vantage, to the manufacture of cloth, in which the ad van 
 tage is on the side of another. 
 
 What has been already stated is sufficient to expose the 
 sophism of the French economists, who contended, that as 
 
 iff 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 aa equivalent must be always given for commodities brought 
 from abroad, it is impossible foreign commerce should be a 
 means of increasing wealth. " How," they asked, " can the 
 wealth of a country be increased by giving equal values for 
 equal values V They admitted that commerce might be 
 the means of making a better distribution of the wealth of 
 the world ; but as it did nothing more than exchange one 
 sort of wealth for another, they denied that it could make 
 any addition to its amount. At fust sight, this sophistical 
 and delusive statement appears sufficiently conclusive ; but 
 a very few words will be sufficient to demonstrate its fal- 
 lacy. The advantage of commerce does not consist in its 
 enabling others of the parties who carry it on to obtain ar- 
 ticles of greater value than those they give in exchange. It 
 may have cost as much to produce the cloth with which the 
 English merchant purchases the wine of Portugal as it did 
 to produce the latter, or it may have cost more. But then 
 it must be observed, that in making the exchange the value 
 of the wine is estimated by what it takes to produce it in 
 Portugal, which has peculiar capabilities for that species of 
 industry, and not by what it would take to produce it in 
 England were the trade put an end to ; and in like manner, 
 the value of the cloth is estimated by what it takes to pro- 
 duce it in England, and not by what it would take to pro- 
 duce it in Portugal. The advantage of the intercourse con- 
 sists in this, that it enables each country to obtain commo- 
 dities for the production of which it has no natural capabil- 
 ity, and which it would therefore cost vastly more to pro- 
 duce directly at home, at the price required to produce them 
 under the most favourable circumstances, and with the least 
 possible expense. The gain of the one party is not the loss 
 of the other. Both benefit by the intercourse, for it enables 
 both to save labour and expense in the production of com- 
 modities ; so that the wealth of the two countries is not only 
 better distributed, but is also greatly increased, by the ter- 
 ritorial division of labour established between them. 
 
 " The commerce of one country with another is merely 
 an extension of that division of labour by which so many 
 benefits are conferred on the human race. As the same 
 country is rendered richer by the trade of one province with 
 another; as its labour becomes thus infinitely more divided 
 and more productive than it could otherwise have been ; and 
 as the mutual interchange of all those commodities which 
 one province has, and another wants, multiplies the accom- 
 modations and comforts of the whole, and the country be- 
 comes thus in a wonderful degree more opulent and happy ; 
 so the same beautiful train of consequences is observable in 
 the world at large — that vast empire, of which the different 
 kingdoms may be regarded as the provinces. In this magni- 
 ficent empire, one province is favourable to the production 
 of one species of produce, and another province to another. 
 By their mutual intercourse, mankind are enabled to distri- 
 bute their labour as best fits the genius of each particular 
 country and people. The industry of the whole is thus ren- 
 dered incomparably more productive ; and every species of 
 necessary, useful, and agreeable accommodation is obtained 
 in much greater abundance, and with infinitely less ex- 
 pense." (Mill's Commerce Defended, p. 38.) 
 
 The supply of a great city with its various articles of pro- 
 vision and consumption, affords, as has been justly observed, 
 one of the most striking instances of the benefits resulting 
 from the division and combination of employments on the 
 most extensive scale. In illustration of this, it may be 
 stated, that at this moment (1841), there are not less lhan 
 two millions of inhabitants congregated within ten miles 
 round St. Paul's, comprising a large proportion of the weal- 
 thiest individuals in the kingdom. The production of the 
 provisions and other accommodations required by this vast 
 population employs not only a very large proportion of the 
 people of the United Kingdom, but also an immense number 
 of labourers in the most distant countries. The Chinese 
 furnish the tea; the planters of Jamaica and Demerara the 
 sugar and coffee ; Ceylon and the Eastern Archipelago the 
 spices ; the Portuguese and French the wines ; the people 
 of Cashmere in Central Asia the shawls ; the Australians 
 and Germans the wool; the Americans the cotton; the 
 Italians and Chinese the silk; the Norwegians tnt- lobsters ; 
 the Spaniards and the people of the Azores the oranges, 
 and so forth, required for the supply of London. And yet, 
 notwithstanding the extreme diversity of the sources whence 
 they are brought, and of the conditions under which they 
 are produced, every article is supplied to the exact extent 
 to which it is wanted ; and every individual in this im- 
 mense city may get, on the shortest notice, any quantity of 
 any article, how great or how small soever, that lie requires. 
 There is no excess at one time, or scarcity at another. The 
 supply of every article is adjusted to the demand with a 
 precision that any one not acquainted with the circumstan- 
 ces would. <i priori, have pronounced impossible. 
 
 And how, it may be inquired, are these astonishing results, 
 this constant and equable supply of infinitely varied wants, 
 brought about? Had government undertaken such a task, 
 958 
 
 it certainly would have exhibited, even with the assistance 
 of a whole army of officers and purveyors, a signal and to- 
 tal failure ; but it is now effected with the utmost facility 
 by the efforts of individuals, who, in the prosecution of 
 their own interests, confer inestimable advantages on this 
 great city, and, indeed, enable it to subsist. Every retail 
 dealer is aware of the ordinary or average demand of his 
 customers for the article or articles in which he deals ; and 
 in like manner the wholesale dealers, who commission ar- 
 ticles of the producers, are each and all aware of the quan- 
 tity that will be taken off by the retailers, whose agents they 
 are, and of the periods when they will have to be supplied. 
 In this way the aggregate and individual wants of any pop- 
 ulation, how great soever, come to be accurately known ; 
 and the quantity of labour required to supply the different 
 articles of which they stand in need, and no more, is put in 
 motion. 
 
 It would be unnecessary, in a work of this kind, to dwell 
 on the advantages resulting to society from the formation 
 of improved roads, canals, and other easy means of com- 
 munication. At bottom, however, the principal advantage 
 of these consists in the facility which they afford for ena- 
 bling products to be conveyed from one place to another; 
 that is, for enabling the division of labour between differ- 
 ent parts of the country to be carried to the greatest 
 extent. And the same principle that teaches us that it 
 is for the public advantage to construct new and improved 
 roads, and to promote to the utmost the facilities of inter 
 course between the different parts of the United Kingdom, 
 should teach us to abolish, in as far as practicable, all re- 
 strictions on the intercourse with foreign countries, and to 
 give full scope to the territorial division of labour between 
 our people and those of other nations. All the arguments 
 that can be used for the opening of new roads, the throwing 
 of bridges over ravines and rivers, and otherwise improving 
 the means of internal intercourse, apply with but little 
 variation, and with equal force, to the abolition of restric- 
 tions on the exportation of native and the importation of 
 foreign produce; the object of the one class of measures as 
 of the other is to facilitate the interchange of the various 
 products of art and industry, and consequently to enable 
 capital and labour to be employed in the channels in which 
 they are sure to be most productive. (See the art- Com- 
 merce in this Diet., and the authorities therein referred 
 to.) 
 
 The various provisions made by society for its protection, 
 and for securing and preserving the rights and privilages of 
 individuals, owe their origin to this principle. Government 
 itself is wholly founded on a sense of the advantages re- 
 sulting from the division of employments. "In the rudest 
 state of society each man relies principally on himself for the 
 protection both of his person and of his property. For these 
 purposes he must be always armed, and always Watchful : 
 what little property he has must be moveable, so' as never 
 to be far distant from its owner. Defence or escape occupy 
 almost all his thoughts, and almost all his time ; and after 
 all these sacrifices, they are very imperfectly effected. ' If 
 ever you see an old man here,' said an inhabitant of the 
 confines of Abyssinia to Bruce, 'he is a stranger; the na- 
 tives all die young by the lance.' 
 
 " But the labour which every individual who relies on 
 himself for protection must himself undergo is more than 
 sufficient to enable a few individuals to protect themselves, 
 and also the whole of a numerous community. To this 
 may be traced the origin of governments. The nucleus of 
 every government must have been some person who offered 
 protection in exchange for submission. On the governor 
 and those with whom he is associated, or whom he ap- 
 points, is devolved the care of defending the community 
 from violence and fraud; and so far as internal violence is 
 concerned, and that is the evil most dreaded in civilized so 
 society, it is wonderful how small a number of persons can 
 provide for the security of multitudes. About fifteen thou- 
 sand soldiers, and not fifteen thousand policemen, watch- 
 men, and officers of justice, protect the persons and property 
 of the seventeen millions of inhabitants of Great Britain. 
 There is scarcely a trade that does not engross the labour of 
 a greater number of persons than are employed to perform 
 this the most important of all services." (Senior on Politi- 
 cal Economy.) 
 
 Definition and Employment of Capital.— The capital of 
 a country consists of those portions of the produce of indus- 
 try existing in it that may be made directly available, either 
 for the support of human beings, or the facilitating of pro- 
 duction. It consequently comprises all those articles that 
 may be employed for the subsistence, clothing, and lodging 
 of the labourers engaged in industrious undertakings ; and 
 the various animals, tools, and machines of which they may 
 avail themselves in performing their tasks. It is usual to 
 call the former, or the food, clothes, &c, required for the 
 subsistence of the labourer, the corn used as seed and in 
 the feeding of horses, coal, &c, circulating capital ; while 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 those articles that are more slowly consumed, as the lower 
 animals, the houses, and the various instruments and ma- 
 chines that either arc or may be employed in industrious 
 undertakings, are called fixed capital. But though this dis- 
 tinction be convenient for some purposes, no distinct line of 
 demarcation can be drawn between the different varieties 
 of capital, and they are alike indispensable to the success- 
 ful prosecution of most branches of industry. Without a 
 supply of the first, or circulating capital, that is, without a 
 supply of food, clothes, 4tc, it would plainly be impassible 
 to engage in any sort of undertaking where the reiurn was 
 at all distant; and without the second, or fixed capital, that 
 Ls, without the aid of tools and machines (which are merely 
 a more complex species of tools), there are but few sorts of 
 labour that could be carried on at all, or with any advan- 
 tage. But the progressive nature of man, his foresight and 
 inventive faculty, lead him, even in the earliest aires, and in 
 the rudest states of society, to provide a reserve of food, and 
 to contrive tools and instruments to assist him in his opera- 
 tions. The American hunters make use of clubs and slings 
 to abridge, their labour and facilitate the acquisition of 
 game ; and the same principle which prompts them to con- 
 struct and avail themselves of those rude instruments never 
 to operate: it is always producing some new im- 
 provement, and in an advanced and refined period substitutes 
 shi|>s for canoes, muskets for slings, steam-engines for clubs, 
 and cotton-mills for distaffs. 
 
 Hence it is only by the employment and co-operation of 
 both descriptions of capital that wealth can he largely pro- 
 duced, and universally diffused. An agriculturist OUgfal 
 have an ample supply of carts and ploughs, of oxen and 
 ■iid, generally, of all the instruments and animals 
 used in his department of industry; but were he destitute 
 of circulating capital, or food and clothes, he would be un- 
 able to avail himself of their assistance; and instead of till- 
 iiiL' the ground, would have to resort to some species of ap- 
 propriative industry: and, on the other hand, supposing he 
 wi re abundantly supplied with provisions, what could he- 
 do without the assistance of a fixed capital or tools ? What 
 could the most skilful husbandman perform without his 
 spade and plough ? a weaver without his loom ? a carpen- 
 ter without Ins saw, his hatchet, and his planes. 
 
 The division of labour cannot be carried to any consid- 
 erable extent without the previous accumulation of capital. 
 Before labour can be divided, "a stock of goods of different 
 kinds must be stored up somewhere, sufficient to maintain 
 the labourer, and to supply him with materials and tools. 
 A weaver cannot apply himself entirely to his peculiar 
 . unless there is beforehand stored up somewhere, 
 either in his own possession or in that of some other per- 
 son, a stock sufficient to maintain him, and to supply him 
 with the materials and tools of his works, till he has not 
 only completed but sold his web. This accumulation must, 
 evidently, be previous to his applying himself for so long a 
 BUS to such a peculiar business. ( Wealth of Nations, 119.) 
 
 As the accumulation of capital must have preceded the 
 division of labour, so its subsequent division can 
 only be perfected as capital is more and more accumulated. 
 Accumulation and division act and react on each other. 
 The quantity of work which the same number of people can 
 perform increases in a great proportion with every fresh 
 subdivision of labour; and according as the operations of 
 each workman are reduced to a greater degree of identity 
 and simplicity, he has, as already explained, a greater chance 
 Of di -covering machines and processes for facilitating his 
 separate task. The quantity of industry, therefore, not only 
 • in every country with the increase of the stock or 
 capital which sets it in motion; but, In consequence of this 
 the division of labour is extended, new and more 
 powerful implements and machines are invented, and the 
 same quantity of labour is made to produce an infinitely 
 greater quantity of commodities. 
 
 Besides enabling labour to be divided, capital contributes 
 to facilitate labour and produce wealth in the three follow- 
 ing ways : 
 
 First. — It enables work to be executed that could not be 
 executed, or commodities to be produced that could not be 
 produced, without it 
 
 Second. — It saves labour in the production of almost every 
 species of commodities. 
 
 Third. — It enables work to be executed better, as well as 
 tiore expeditiously. 
 
 With regard to the first advantage derived from the em- 
 ployment of capital, or the circumstance of its enabling 
 commodities to be produced that could not be produced 
 without it, it is plain, as already observed, that the produc- 
 tion of such commodities as require a considerable period 
 for their completion could not be attempted unless a stock 
 of circulating capital, or of food and clothes sufficient for the 
 maintenance of the labourer while employed on them, was 
 previously provided. But the possession of fixed capital, or 
 of tools and machines, i9 frequently as necessary to the pro- 
 
 duction of commodities as the possession of circulating capi- 
 till. It would, for example, be quite impossible to produce 
 a pair of stockings without the aid of wires; and although 
 the ground might be cultivated without the aid of a plough, 
 it could not be cultivated without the aid of a spade or a 
 hoe. If we run over the vast catalogue of the .arts practised 
 in a civilized country, it will be found that extremely few 
 can be carried on by the mere employment of the lingers, 
 or rude tools with which man is furnished by nature. It is 
 almost always necessary to provide ourselves with the re- 
 sult of previous industry and invention, and to strengthen 
 our feeble hands by arming them, if we may so speak, " with 
 the fotce of all the elements." 
 
 In the second place, besides supplying many s p ecies of 
 commodities that could not be produced without its co-oper- 
 ation, the employment of capital occasions a saving of la- 
 bour in the production of many others ; and, by lowering 
 their cost, brings them within the reach of a tar greater 
 number of consumers. We have been so long .accustomed 
 to profit by the services of the most commodious and pow- 
 erful machines, that it requires a considerable effort of ab- 
 straction to become fully aware of the advantages we owe 
 to them. But if we compare the arts practised alike by 
 highly civilized societies and those in a less advanced state, 
 we can hardly fill of being convinced that we are" indebted 
 to the employment of m ichinery for a very large propor- 
 tion of our superior comforts and enjoyments. Suppose, 
 that, like the Peruvians, and many other people of the New 
 as well as the Old World, we were destitute of iron, and 
 unacquainted with the method of domesticating and em 
 ploying oxen and horses, how prodigious a change l"r file 
 worse would be made in our condition ! It was customary. 
 in some countries, to make cloth by taking up tore 
 thread of the warp, and passing the woof between them by 
 the nnassisted agency of the band ; so that years were con- 
 sumed in the manufacture of a piece which, with the aid 
 of the loom, may lie produced in as many days. Nothing, 
 perhaps, has contributed so much to accelerate the progress 
 and diffuse the blessings of civilization, as the establishment 
 ofacommerci.il intercourse between different and distant 
 nations. But how could this be effected without tin' con 
 struction of vessels, and the discovery of the art of OSVlgB 
 tionl And if we compare the early navigators, creeping 
 timidly along the shore in canoes formed out of t r< 
 hollowed by fire, and partly by the aid of a Stone hatchet 
 or the bone of some animal, with those who now boldly 
 traverse the trackless ocean in noble ships, laden with the 
 produce of every climate, we shall have a faint idea of the 
 advance of the arts, and whit we owe to machinery and 
 science. Those who have distinguished themselves in this 
 career, though they have rarely met with that gratitude 
 and applause from their fellow-citizens to which they had 
 so just a claim, have been the great benefactors of tin- hu- 
 man race. By pressing the powers of nature into our ser- 
 vice, and subjecting them to our control, they have given 
 man almost omnipotent power, and rendered him equal to 
 the most gigantic undertakings. Without their assistance 
 we should he poor indeed! Such as the naked and half- 
 famished savage of New Holland is at this day, such would 
 the Athenian, the Roman, and the Englishman have been, 
 but for the invention of tools and machines, and the em- 
 ployment of the natural agents in the great work of pro 
 duction. 
 
 The third advantage derived from the employment of 
 capital consists in its enabling work to be done better, as 
 well as more expeditiously. Cotton, for example, might be 
 spun by the hand ; but the admirable machines invented by 
 Hargreaves, Arkwright, and others, enable a hundred or a 
 thousand times as much yarn to be spun as could be effect- 
 ed by means of a common spindle, at the same time that 
 they have improved its quality and given it a degree of fine- 
 ness and of evenness, or equality in its parts, which was 
 never previously attained. A painter would occupy months, 
 or it might be years, in painting with a brush the cottons, 
 or printed cloths, used in the hanging of a single room ; and 
 It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the best artist 
 to give that perfect identity to his figures which is given to 
 them by the machinery now made use of for that puriwse. 
 Not to mention the other and more important advantages 
 resulting from the invention of moveable types and print- 
 ing, it is certain that the most perfect manuscript, one on 
 which years of patient and irksome labour have been ex- 
 pended, is unable, in point of delicacy and correctness, to 
 match a well-printed work, executed in the hundredth part 
 of the time, and at a hundredth part of the expense. The 
 great foreign demand for English manufactured goods re- 
 sults no less from the superiority of their manufacture than 
 from their greater cheapness; and for both these advan- 
 tages we are principally indebted to the excellence of our 
 machinery. 
 
 There are other considerations which equally illustrate 
 the extreme importance of the accumulation and employ 
 
 959 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 ment of capital. The food and other accommodations en- 
 joyed by a nation cannot be increased except by an increase 
 in the number of its labourers, or in their productive powers ; 
 but, without an increase of capital, it is in most cases im- 
 possible to employ more workmen with advantage. If the 
 articles applicable to the support of the labourers, and the 
 tools and machines with which they are to operate, be re- 
 quired for the maintenance and efficient employment of 
 those already in existence, there can be no additional de- 
 demand for others. Under such circumstances the rate of 
 wages cannot rise ; and if the number of inhabitants be in- 
 creased, they must be worse provided for. Neither is it at 
 all probable that the powers of the labourer should be aug- 
 mented, except capital be previously increased. Without 
 the better education and training of workmen, the greater 
 subdivision of their employments, or the improvement of 
 machinery, their productive energies can never be material- 
 ly increased ; and in almost all these cases additional capital 
 is required. It is seldom, unless by its means, that work- 
 men can be better trained, or that the undertaker of any 
 work can either provide them with better machinery, or 
 make a proper distribution of labour among them. Should 
 the work to be done consist of a number of parts, to keep a 
 workman constantly employed in one only requires a much 
 larger stock than when he is occasionally employed is every 
 different part. " When," says Dr. Smith, " we compare the 
 state of a nation at two different periods, and find that the 
 annual produce of its land and labour Is evidently greater at 
 the latter than at the former, that its lands are better culti- 
 vated, its manufactures more numerous and more flourish- 
 ing, and its trade more extensive, we may be assured that 
 its capital must have increased during the interval between 
 these two periods, and that more must have been added to 
 it, by the good conduct of some, than had been taken from 
 it, either by the private misconduct of others, or by the pub- 
 lic extravagance of government." ( Wealth of Nations, 
 152.) It is therefore apparent that no country can ever reach 
 the stationary state, so long as she continues to accumu- 
 late additional capital. While she does this she will have 
 an increased demand for labour, and will be uniformly aug- 
 menting the mass of necessaries, luxuries, and conveniences, 
 and consequently, also, the numbers of her people. But 
 with every diminution of the rate at which capital has been 
 accumulating, the demand for labour wil.l decline. When 
 no additions are made to capital, no more labour will be, or, 
 at least, can be advantageously employed. And should the 
 natural capital diminish, the condition of the great body of 
 the people will deteriorate ; the wages of labour will be re- 
 duced ; and pauperism, with its attendant train of vice, 
 misery, and crime, will spread its ravages throughout society. 
 
 Objections to Machinery unfounded. — But, admitting what 
 has been stated, still it may be, and, indeed, has been con- 
 tended, that how advantageous soever to the country, ma- 
 chines, on their first introduction, frequently injure the la- 
 bouring class, by lessening the demand for labour and the 
 rate of wages. In point of fact, however, it admits of de- 
 monstration that every introduction of improved machinery 
 is sure to increase the aggregate demand for labour ; at the 
 same time that, by reducing the cost of commodities, it en- 
 ables the labouring class, in common with the rest of so- 
 ciety, to obtain a greater command over necessaries and 
 conveniences. It sometimes, indeed, happens that the in- 
 troduction of machinery is injurious to the labourers em- 
 ployed in a particular department ; but if it displace them, 
 it cannot fail to occasion a more than equivalent demand 
 for their services in other departments. The introduction 
 of moveable types and printing threw out of employment all 
 those who had been previously engaged in the copying of 
 manuscripts ; but, at the same time, it is certain that this 
 invention, by cheapening and multiplying books, has made 
 at least from a hundred to five hundred persons be employ- 
 ed in the book trade for.one that was employed in it when 
 it began to be introduced, or that would have been employ- 
 ed in it at this moment had it not been discovered. 
 
 Precisely similar results follow in all cases in which any 
 peculiar description of hand labour is superseded by ma- 
 chinery. At this moment we have an example of the prin- 
 ciple before us in the business of hand-loom weaving, which 
 is in the course of being superseded by the introduction of 
 power-looms, the hand-loom weavers being, like the copy- 
 ing clerks in the 15th and 16th centuries, involved in the 
 greatest difficulties. But these, how severe soever in the 
 meantime, will be but of temporary duration, and society 
 will be perpetual gainers by the change. Power-looms are 
 introduced only because they do their work cheaper than 
 it can be done by the hand. But the wealth of those who 
 buy the products of the power-looms is not affected by the 
 change ; and whatever they may save through the reduc- 
 tion of their price will be laid out on other things, the pro- 
 duction of which will, in the end, fully absorb the unem- 
 ployed hand-loom weavers, at the same time that the cheap- 
 ened products will be brought within the command of new 
 960 
 
 classes of purchasers, and that the demand for them evil] 
 be proportionally increased; and this, it is plain, will open 
 a new field for the employment of many additional hands in 
 the construction of machinery, and in the various suboi 
 dinate departments connected with the manufacture. To 
 suppose, indeed, that the introduction of improved machinery 
 should, under any circumstances, entail a real injury on so- 
 ciety, is to suppose what is contradictory and absurd; it is 
 equivalent to supposing that society might be injured by an 
 increased productiveness of soil, and an increased salubrity 
 of climate; it is to suppose that wealth may be too much 
 increased, and that the necessaries and conveniences of 
 life may be too widely diffused. 
 
 Circumstances most favourable for the Accumulation of 
 Capital. — Having thus endeavoured to point out the vast 
 importance of the employment of capital, and the manner in 
 which it co-operates in facilitating production, we proceed 
 to explain the circumstances most favourable for its accu- 
 mulation. Now, as capital is nothing but the accumulated 
 produce of previous industry, it is evident that its increase 
 will be most likely to be most rapid where industry is most 
 productive ; or, in other words, where the profits of stock 
 are highest. The man who can produce a bushel of wheat 
 in three days may accumulate twice as fast as the man 
 who, either from a deficiency of skill, or from having to cul- 
 tivate a bad soil, is forced to labour six days to produce the 
 same quantity ; and the capitalist who can invest stock so 
 as to yield him a profit of ten per cent., has it equally in his 
 power to accumulate twice as fast as he who can only ob- 
 tain five per cent, for his capital. Experience, too, shows, 
 that while high profits afford greater means of saving, they 
 act as incentives to accumulation. Hence it is found that 
 in those countries most rapidly increasing in wealth and 
 population, the rate of profit is always comparatively high. 
 Thus in the United States, the rate of profit is usually twice 
 as high as in Great Britain or France ; and it is to this that 
 the more rapid advancement of the former in wealth and 
 population is entirely to be ascribed. We do not mean to 
 say that high profits are necessarily, and in every instance, 
 accompanied by a great degree of prosperity. Countries 
 with every other advantage for the profitable employment 
 of industry and stock may be subjected to a despotical gov- 
 ernment, which does not respect the right of property ; and 
 the want of adequate security thence resulting may be suf- 
 ficient to paralyse all the exertions of those who are other- 
 wise placed in the most favourable situation for the accu- 
 mulation of capital. But we have no hesitation in laying it 
 down as a principle which holds in every case, and from 
 which there is really no exception, that if the governments 
 of any two or more countries be about equally liberal, and 
 property in each be about equally well secured, their com- 
 parative prosperity will depend on the rate of profit: wher- 
 ever profits are high, there is a great demand for labour, 
 and the society rapidly augments both in population and 
 riches. On the other hand, wherever they are low, the de- 
 mand for labour is proportionally reduced, and the progress 
 of society rendered so much the slower. But however high 
 the rate of profit, had men always lived up to Iheir incomes, 
 that is, had they always consumed the whole produce of 
 their industry in the gratification of their immediate wants 
 and desires, it is obvious there could have been no such 
 thing as capital in the world. High profits are advanta 
 geous, because they afford the means of amassing capital ; 
 but something more is necessary to make us use these means, 
 and this is the accumulating principle. The desire implant- 
 ed in the breast of every individual of rising in the world, 
 and improving his condition, has prompted mankind to save 
 a portion of their income, or of the produce of their industry, 
 from immediate consumption, and to set it apart as a fund, 
 or capital, to assist them in their future undertakings. It is 
 to this principle, therefore, or rather to its effect, parsimony, 
 that we owe our capital ; and it is to capital that we owe 
 almost all our comforts and enjoyments. Without its as- 
 sistance and co-operation, labour could not have been di 
 vided ; arts could not have made any progress ; and man- 
 kind must have continued to shelter themselves, as in the 
 earliest ages, in caves and forests, and to clothe themselves 
 with the skins of wild animals. All the accumulated 
 riches of the world, the cities which cover its surface, the 
 ships which traverse its seas, and the innumerable variety 
 of improvements, owe their origin to this principle— to the 
 desire to rise in the world, and consequently to save and 
 amass. 
 
 It has been wisely ordered that this principle should be 
 as powerful as it is advantageous. "With regard to pro- 
 fusion," says Smith, " the principle which prompts to ex- 
 pense is the passion for present enjoyment; which, though 
 sometimes violent, and very difficult to be restrained is, in 
 general, only momentary and occasional. But the principle 
 which prompts to save is the desire of bettering our condi- 
 tion; a desire which, though generally calm and dispas- 
 sionate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves in 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 till we go into the grave. In the whole interval which sep- 
 arates the two moments, there is scarce, perhaps, a single 
 instance in which ;tny man is so perfectly and completely 
 sat'sfied with his situation as to be without any wish ot'al- 
 teiation or improvement of any kind. An augmentation of 
 fortune is the means by which the greater part of men pro- 
 pose and wish to better their condition. It is the means the 
 most vulgar and the most obvious ; and the most likely way 
 of augmenting their fortune is to save and accumulate some 
 part of what they acquire, either regularly and annually, or 
 upon some extraordinary occasion. Though the principle 
 of expense, therefore, prevails in almost all men upon some 
 and in some men upon almost all occasions, yet 
 in the greater part of men, taking the whole course of their 
 life at an average, the principle of frugality seems not only 
 to predominate, but to predominate very greatly." ( Wealth 
 if Nations, 151.) 
 
 It is this principle which carries society forward. The 
 spirit of parsimony, and the efforts which the frugal and in- 
 dustrious classes make to improve their condition, in most 
 balance not only the profusion of individuals, but 
 also the more wasteful profusion and extravagance of gov- 
 ernment. The spirit of economy has been happily com- 
 pared by Smith to the unknown principle of animal life, the 
 vis medicatriz natum, which frequently restores health 
 and vigour to the constitution, in spite both of disease, and 
 of the absurd prescriptions of the physician. 
 
 But however great the capacity of the principle of accu- 
 mulation to repair the waste of capital, we must take care 
 not to fall into the error of supposing, as very many have 
 done, that its operations are in all cases promoted by a large 
 public expenditure. To a certain extent this is indeed true. 
 A modi rate increase of taxation has the same effects on the 
 habits and industry Dfa nation that an increase of Ins family, 
 or of !ii< Decenary and unavoidable expenses, has upon a 
 ulividiial. Man is not influenced Bolely by hope — 
 power fully operated upon by (car j taxation brings 
 the latter principle into the held. To the desire of rising in 
 the world inherent in the breast of every individual, an in- 
 crease of taxation superadds the fear of being cast down to a 
 lower station— of being deprived of conveniences and grati- 
 fications which habit has rendered almost indispensable; 
 and the combined Influence of the two principles produces 
 efforts that could nol be produced by the unassisted agency 
 of cither. They stimulate individuals to endeavour, by in- 
 Sbrts of industry and economy, to repair the breach 
 taxation has made in their fortunes ; and it not unfrequent- 
 ly happens that their efforts do more than this, and that, 
 conseque nal wealth is increased through the 
 
 tnere i-e of tanrjon. Hut we must be on our guard against 
 vhe abuse Of this doctrine. To render an increase Or taxa- 
 tion a cause of greater exertion, economy, and invention, its 
 should be slow and gradual; and it should never 
 be carried to such a height as to incapacitate individuals 
 from meeting the sacrifices it imposes on them by such a 
 moderate degree of Increased exertion and economy as it 
 may be in th<":r power to make, without requiring any very 
 violent change in their habits. The increase of taxation 
 must not be such as to render it impracticable to overcome 
 its influence, or to induce the belief that it is impracticable. 
 Difficulties that seem to be surmountable sharpen the in- 
 ventive powers, and are readily grappled with ; but an ap- 
 parently insurmountable difficulty, or such an excessive 
 weight of taxation as it was deemed impossible to meet, 
 would not stimulate, but destroy exertion. Instead of pro- 
 ducing new efforts of ingenuity and economy, it would pro- 
 duce only despair. Whenever taxation becomes so heavy 
 that the produce it takes from individuals can no longer be 
 replaced by fresh efforts, these efforts uniformly cease to be 
 made ; the population becomes dispirited, industry is par- 
 and the country rapidly declines. 
 
 Ambition to rise is the animating principle of society. 
 Instead of remaining satisfied with the condition of their 
 fathers, the great object of mankind in every age has been 
 to rise above it — to elevate themselves in the scnle of wealth ; 
 to continue stationary, or to retrograde, is not natural to so- 
 ciety. Man from youth grows to manhood, then decays and 
 dies ; but such is not the destiny of nations. The arts, sci- 
 ences, and capital of one generation become the patrimony 
 of that which succeeds them, and in their hands are aug- 
 mented and rendered more efficient; so that, if not counter- 
 acted by the want of security, or by other adventitious 
 the principle of improvement would always operate, 
 and would secure the constant advancement of nations in 
 wealth and population. 
 
 Such is a short outline of the circumstances on which the 
 production of wealth depends. It is difficult in separately 
 considering the influence of the combination and division of 
 employments, and of the introduction and improvement of 
 machinery, to avoid ascribing an undue degree of import- 
 ance to the one immediately under consideration. But 
 neither U entitled to any pre-eminence over the other. 
 3 P 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 They are alike important; or rather, we should say, they 
 are alike indispensable to the production of wealth, it 
 would, indeed, be quite as profitable to inquire whether the 
 heart or the lungs be most essential to animal existence, as 
 it is to inquire whether the division and combination of em 
 ployments, or the command of capital, including tools and 
 machines, be most essential to the growth of opui> 
 civilization. Without their combined and powerful aid, 
 man must have continued sunk in primeval barbarism and 
 ignorance. Take away the division and combination of 
 employments, and the isolated efforts of individuals will be 
 wholly unable to produce any considerable result; and lake 
 away capital, or the aid derived from previous sa\ iiii;s, and 
 from tools and machinery, and we shall immediately sink 
 to the level of the Australian savages. 
 
 It would be inconsistent with the objects and limits of this 
 work to enter farther into details. The sketch now given 
 comprises, we believe, an accurate statement of the grea* 
 principles that lie at the bottom of the science, and by the 
 application of which a correct judgment may be formed of 
 most practical measures affecting the production of wealth* 
 But those who wish for mure detailed statements, and ex- 
 positions of difficulties, must resort to works especially ap- 
 propriated to such investigations. 
 
 The second great division of Political Economy has for 
 its object to inquire into the laws which regulate the distri- 
 bution of wealth among the various ranks and orders of the 
 community. 
 
 II. Distribution or Wealth. 
 
 The inhabitants of such countries as have made any con 
 sidernble progress in civilization may be divided into the 
 three great classes of labourers, landlords, and capitalists; 
 that is, into those who employ themselves for hire in any 
 undertaking, those to whom the lands belong, and those 
 who are the owners of capital. An individual may combine 
 in his own person each of these separate characters ; but 
 they are, notwithstanding, sufficiently well marked to ad- 
 mit of their classification and separate consideration in the 
 case of all individuals. And whatever be the condition of 
 any country or society, whether it be rude or refined, rich 
 or pour, every person belonging to it, who is not a p 
 who does not subsist on the bounty of others, may lie 
 reckoned in one or other of these classes. The) divide 
 among them all the wealth of the community. Public 
 functionaries of all sorts, and the various individuals en- 
 gaged in what arc called lilieral or learned prdfee 
 change their services for valuable considerations. The 
 whole subsistence of such persons, in so far as they depend 
 upon their employments, Is derived from wages; and tinw- 
 are as evidently labourers as if they handled a spade or a 
 plough. "Every man," says Dr. Paley, "has his work. 
 The kind of work varies, and that is all the difference there 
 is. A great deal of labour exists besides that of the bands I 
 many species of industry besides bodily operation ; equally 
 necessary, requiring equal assiduity, more attention, moie 
 anxiety. It is not true, therefore, that men of elevated sta- 
 tions are exempted from work; it is only true that there is 
 assigned to them work of a different kind : whether more 
 easy or more pleasant may be questioned ; but certainly not 
 less wanted, nor less essential to the common good." (As- 
 size Sermon, 29th July, 1795.) Hence it is that the inquiry 
 into the distribution of wealth among the different orders of 
 the society, resolves itself into an investigation of the laws 
 which regulate wages, rent, and profit, and of the best 
 methods of providing for the exigencies of the poor, or 
 of those who are unable to provide for themselves. We 
 believe, however, that it will be the preferable plan to 
 refer the consideration of these topics to the heads now 
 mentioned, which will, consequently, comprise all that 
 is essential to a general view of this department of the sci- 
 ence. 
 
 Among the many works that have been written on this 
 science, the first place is due to the Wealth af Nations, by 
 Adam Smith : an edition of this work was published in 1838, 
 in one volume, 8vo., with notes and illustrations by the au- 
 thor of this article. See also Ricardo's Principles of Politi- 
 cal Economy and Taxation ; Torrens on the Production of 
 Wealth; Senior's art. on Political Economy in the Encyclo- 
 pedia Metropolitana ; M'Culloch's Principles of Political 
 Economy ; Say, Traiti d' Economic Politique, &c. 
 
 PO'LITICS (Gr. ttoXi?, a city), may be considered either 
 as a science or an art, according to the manner in which it 
 is treated. Political science is that which treats of the theo- 
 ry and practice of government, and the subjects which it 
 comprises have been arranged under the following heads: 
 1. Natural law; 2. Abstract politics, i. c., the object of a 
 state, and the relations between it and individual citizens; 
 3. Political economy ; 4. The science of police, or municipal 
 regulation ; 5. Practical politics, or the conduct of the im- 
 mediate public affairs of a state; 6. History of politics; 7. 
 History of the European system of states, being the only sys- 
 
POLL. 
 
 tern in which the modern art of politics has received a prac- 
 tical development; 8. Statistics; 9. Positive law relating 
 to state affairs, commonly called constitutional law; 10. 
 Practical law of nations; 11. Diplomacy; 12. The technical 
 science of politics, an acquaintance with the forms and style 
 of public business in different countries. The ancient Greek 
 writers treated the science of politics uniformly with refer- 
 ence to an imaginary perfect state ; the constitution of which 
 each propounded according to his own speculative views, 
 and then proceeded to show in what respects existing gov- 
 ernments differed from this ideal standard, the cause of 
 these variations, &c. 
 
 POLL. In Politics. See Parliament. 
 
 POLLARD. A tree with the head cut off at the height 
 of 10 or 12 feet from the ground, for the purpose of inducing 
 it to throw out branches all round the section where ampu- 
 tation has taken place ; which branches are cut off peri- 
 odically, when they attain the length of 8 or 10 feet, to be 
 used as fuel, fence wood, or for other rustic purposes. Pol- 
 lard trees are for the most part found in hedgerows, which 
 they greatly injure by the dense shade produced by their 
 branches on the plants below ; and excepting when the 
 round formal heads of the pollards enter into combination 
 with overgrown hedge plants, or with large trees which 
 have not been pollarded, they disfigure the landscape, from 
 the sameness of their appearance, and their expression of 
 meanness, as compared with that of trees undecapitated and 
 left in all their native luxuriance. In the time of Evelyn 
 the term pollard appears to have been chiefly applied to 
 trees which were lopped or deprived of their side branches, 
 excepting a few at top, leaving the tree standing like a 
 naked pole. Examples of this kind of pollard are frequent 
 among the hedgerow elms in the neighbourhood of London. 
 The decapitated tree, now called a pollard, was in Evelyn's 
 time called a dottard. 
 
 POLLEN. In Botany, the pulverulent substance which 
 fills the cells of the anthers of a plant, consisting of a mul- 
 titude of little hollow cases filled with a fluid holding very 
 minute molecular matter in suspension. The latter is 
 eventually discharged by the grains of pollen through their 
 hollow tubes, and is supposed to be the spermatic fluid of a 
 plant. 
 
 POLLEN TUBES, are the tubular processes emitted 
 by the pollen when it comes in contact with the stigma of 
 a plant, and which are supposed to conduct the impreg- 
 nating matter down the style into the ovules through the 
 foramen. 
 
 POLL TAX. A tax still levied in many of the Conti- 
 nental states, and formerly also in England, in proportion 
 to the rank or fortune of the individual. In England this 
 species of tax was first levied in 1378; and, as is well 
 known, it was from the brutality with which the levying 
 of it was accompanied, that the rebellion of Wat Tyler 
 took its rise in 1381. Various poll faxes were levied at dif- 
 ferent periods in the subsequent history of England ; but 
 they were finally abolished in the reign of William HI. See 
 Taxation. 
 
 PO'LLUX. In Astronomy, one of the twins forming the 
 constellation Gemini. (See Castor.) Pollux is also the 
 name of a star of the second magnitude in the same con- 
 stellation. 
 
 PO'LYARCHY. (Gr. iroXwj, many, and apxciv, to gov- 
 ern.) A word sometimes used by political writers in a 
 sense opposed to monarchy: the government of many, 
 whether a privileged class (aristocracy), or the people at 
 large (democracy). 
 
 POLYCHROTTE. (Gr. rto\v;, and xP™< colour.) A 
 term applied to the colouring matter of saffron, in conse- 
 quence of the variety of colours which it exhibits when 
 acted upon by various re-agents. 
 
 PO'LYCHREST. (Gr. to\vs, and xP>W°<, useful.) A 
 term applied by the old chemists to certain preparations 
 which they regarded as possessed of multifarious virtues. 
 Polyckrest salt was the sulphate of potash. 
 
 POLYGALA'CEiE. (Polygala, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of irregular Poiypetalous Exogens, possessing 
 tonic, astringent, and nephritic properties. The species are 
 also sometimes cultivated for the sake of their beautiful 
 flowers; they usually inhabit temperate climates, and are 
 particularly common at the Cape of Good Hope. Rhatany 
 root, a powerful astringent, belongs to Krameria, a genus 
 of this order. 
 
 POLY'GAMOUS (Gr. iro'bvs, and ya/jo;, marriage), in 
 Grasses, signifies when one of the two flowerets of which a 
 spikelet consists is unisexual, the other hermaphrodite, as 
 in Spodiopogon, &c. ; in other plants it expresses the pres- 
 ence in the same individual of male, female, and hermaph- 
 rodite flowers. 
 
 POLY'GAMY. (Gr. 7ro>uj, and ya/jos, marriage.) The 
 custom of having several wives; a custom apparently com- 
 mon to all nations in remote antiquity, and common now to 
 most of those in which the tie of marriage is recognised, 
 962 
 
 POLYGASTRIA. 
 
 and to which Christianity has not extended. It was ad 
 mitted among the Patriarchs, and under the Mosaic dispen- 
 sation (Exod., xxi., 10 ; Deut., xxi., 15) ; and Selden ( Uxor 
 Hebraica) has shown its prevalence among the Jews, with- 
 out mentioning the extraordinary instances of sovereigns, 
 such as David and Solomon, recounted in Scripture. It may 
 be questioned, however, whether it continued at the period 
 of our Saviour's preaching. Certainly his injunctions in re- 
 gard to marriage seem rather to be founded on the suppo- 
 sition of monogamy ; and the absence of positive injunctions 
 against polygamy has been relied on by some modern dis- 
 putants, with very little reason, as an authority that the li- 
 cence assumed by the holy men of the Old Testament is 
 not revoked. The severer manners of Western nations 
 seems to have repudiated it. It was no part of Grecian 
 manners: the notion that the Athenian laws allowed of 
 two wives (founded in part on a passage in Jlthaueus, 1. 
 xiii., eh. 1), seems a mistake; but it appears to have been 
 allowed to a citizen, in addition to his lawful wife, herself 
 a citizen, to live in a kind of legitimate concubinage with a 
 female not belonging to that class. Thus (if there is any 
 truth in the story of Socrates' two wives) his plague, Xan- 
 tippe, was the wife by night, while the softer Myrto was 
 only a wife by courtesy. In republican Rome no such li- 
 cence was known ; but under the emperors the practice of 
 polygamy seems to have crept in, though repudiated both 
 by the moral sense and civil usages of the people. Valen- 
 tinian I. legalized it by an edict. But the Christian ecclesi- 
 astics of the empire strenuously opposed it ; and it disap- 
 peared altogether, we believe, from Christendom with the 
 fall of the Roman empire. In the East it has continued to 
 prevail. 
 
 A few bold writers in modern times have raised the de 
 fence of polygamy, grounded on the supposed absence of its 
 express prohibition. Bernardus Achinus, a well-known and 
 able, but unsteady theologian of the 16th century, who be 
 longed by turns to the Roman Catholic and Protestant com- 
 munions, is among the most remarkable. Lyserus (Polyga- 
 mia Triumphratriz) adopted a still more decided view. 
 The Rev. Mr. Madon, in his Thelyphlhora (a work which 
 excited an extraordinary and very unfavourable sensation 
 on its appearance), limited the privilege of polygamy to 
 men ; and asserted that the injunction of St. Paul, that a 
 bishop "should be the husband of one wife," plainly dem- 
 onstrated its lawfulness in others; meaning one wife at a 
 time : a supposition which is not improbable, although it 
 will scarcely support his conclusions. But a greater num- 
 ber of philosophical writers have sought for a .justification 
 of the practice in the East. Voltaire, Montesquieu, and 
 others, defend it on the ground of the rapid decay of female 
 beauty in those regions. Montesquieu also relies on the 
 strange notion, that the number of females in eastern coun 
 tries is much greater than that of males; which the trav- 
 eller Bruce asserts on the authority of his own observa- 
 tions. But the supposed fact on which these reasonings 
 rest seems to be altogether imaginary. At all events, the 
 practice of polygamy in the East is confined to so few that 
 it can have little direct effect on manners, and none on 
 population. Mr. Urquhart, who endeavours to place Turk- 
 ish usages in a favourable contrast with those of the West, 
 after to a certain extent defending polygamy, says rathet 
 inconsistently, "While the law of nature renders this prac- 
 tice an impossibility as regards the community, it is here 
 still farther restrained, among the few who have the means 
 of indulging in it, both by the domestic unquiet that results 
 from it, and by the public censure and reprobation of which 
 it is the object." (Spirit of the East.) He adds, that in his 
 time "a case of polygamy was unknown in Candia, among 
 a population of 40,000 Mussulmen." And Niebuhr says, 
 that in Arabia the conduct of those who take more than 
 one wife "is blamed by all other men." But it seems 
 scarcely to have occurred to most reasoners that while po- 
 lygamy is rare, its recognition is almost always accompa 
 nied with the toleration of concubinage by public morality. 
 The man who is not rich enough to take two wives, or who 
 does no', choose to encounter the household disturbances 
 which follow such an arrangement, falls entirely in with 
 the public opinion of his class, in taking into his family a 
 recognised concubine to dwell with his lawful Bpouse. Our 
 Western manners divide the female part of the community 
 into two classes : a greater number, treated with the high- 
 est respect, and in whom perfect purity is presumed; a 
 smaller number, abandoned to utter degradation. Where 
 polygamy and concubinage are recognised, there is probably 
 much less gross prostitution ; but the general character of 
 the sex stands on a lower basis. 
 
 POLYGA'STRIA. (Gr. iroXus, and yaorrjp, a stomach.) 
 The name of the most minute and simple class of Infuso 
 ries, and of the whole animal kingdom. The Polygastri 
 ans are characterized by Ehrenberg as animalcules devoit 
 of spinal marrow, and of vascular and respiratory organs 
 with many stomachs, of an indefinite form, and androgv 
 
POLYGLOT. 
 
 nous, with spurious locomotive organs of various nature. 
 They are all endowed with an organization characteristic of 
 the animal kingdom; and manifest such modifications of 
 internal structure and external form that they can be di- 
 vided into twenty-two families, of which eleven ore naked 
 and eleven clothed in a siliceous case. Forty-eight species, 
 referable to twenty-one distinct genera, are provided with 
 eyes or coloured eye-specks; and, among these, nervous 
 ganglia have been detected beneath the eye in Amblyophis 
 and Euglena. They occ\tr in all parts of the world, and 
 diner according to diversity of climate, region, kind of wa- 
 ter, &c. They are invisible to the naked eye ; but, by their 
 immense numbers, can impart a distinct colour to the water 
 in which they swarm : they are one of the causes of the 
 phosphorescence of the sea. They enjoy the most exten- 
 sive powers of reproduction ; and through their faculty of 
 spontaneous fission, the individual becomes constant, and, 
 as it were, perpetually renews its youth. By virtue of the 
 imperishability of their external cases the Polygastria have 
 formed vast masses of rock, ns at Bilin in Bohemia, where 
 a single stnluin, extending over a wide area, is no less 
 than 14 feet thick ; and this consists exclusively of the 
 cases of liacillaria, Gaillonella, tec, united together with- 
 out any visible cement. They sometimes so choke up wa- 
 ter by their vast numbers as to cause the death of fishe9 
 contained therein. They appear never to sleep ! thev are 
 very tenacious of life, and fall into a kind of torpidity by 
 
 - of dryness, heat, or cold. The more minute - 
 are probably often suspended in the air. They act accord- 
 ing to external circumstances, as the higher organized ani- 
 I 'hey are injuriously affected or killed by strong 
 poisons; but can sometimes support great degree* of warmth 
 and cold, and can live with or without lighl ; their motions 
 are slow. Ehrenberg calculates that the Monas punrtum, 
 if it were to continue its ordinary rate of motion in a Straight 
 line, would traverse one mile of space in five years : while 
 the Navicula grandis would require forty vears to travel 
 over the same distance. But their movements manifest the 
 phenomena of consciousness and choice, and their muaca- 
 lar power is indicated by the strong maxillary apparatus 
 with which many are provided. 
 
 POLYGLOT. (Gr. iroAtif, and >,W™, language.) A 
 word generally applied to such Bibles as have been'printed 
 with the text represented in various languages. The most 
 a instance of this parallel representation of various 
 (■•vis is tin- work of Origen, known by the name of the 
 Hexapla, in imitation of which several similar editions of 
 the Scriptures have been published since the invention of 
 printing; of which the most important are, 1. The Complu- 
 tensian, or edition of Cardinal Xinicncs, printed at Alcnla 
 in Spain. 1515, in four languages, comprehended in six vols., 
 folio. 2. The Planlin, Antwerp, 157-J. 3. The Pttfrbt, 
 Of Dfl Baey, Paris, 1545, 4. The English, or Walton' s'Poly- 
 
 Clot, London, 1657. These contain among them the He- 
 rew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan texts with Latin 
 versions of each ; the Scptuagint, the Greek of the New 
 it, the Italic and the Vulgate; with some of the 
 Hebrew and Chaldee paraphrases, and ropious indexes and 
 grammatical illustrations. 5. flutter's Polyglot, Nurem- 
 berg, 1599, contains twelve languages; the Hebrew, Syri- 
 ac, Greek, Latin, German, Bohemian, Italian, Spanish, 
 1, English, Danish, and Polish. 
 
 PCLYOON (Gr. iro^v?, and yiovia, angle), according to 
 Eurlid, is any plane rectilinear figure having more than four 
 sides or four angles; but, in treating of polygons generally, 
 geometers also include the triangle and the <i indrangle. 
 If the sides of the polygon are all equal, it is said to bo a 
 regular polygon; otherwise it is irregular. Every regular 
 polygon can be circumscribed by a circle, or have a circle 
 Inscribed in it; but of irregular polygons, excepting trian- 
 gles, there is only one case in which a circle will pass 
 through all their angular points; namelv, when the poly- 
 gon has an equal number of sides, one half of which are 
 equal to one another, and the other half also equal to one 
 another, but different from the former, and the equal and 
 unequal sides are placed alternately. It is obvious that 
 all the angles of such a figure are equal. 
 
 Euclid has shown in the Elements how to inscribe a tri- 
 angle, a square, and a pentagon in a given circle; and as 
 any arc of a circle may be bisected geometrically, and the 
 halves again bisected continually, it follows that any regu- 
 lar polygon, of which the number of sides is 2", (n being 
 any number whatever), or 3 X 2», or 5 X 2n, may be in- 
 scribed in a circle by elementary geometry. Until a re- 
 cent discovery respecting the division of angles was made 
 by Gauss, it was supposed that if the number of sides of 
 a polygon was any other prime number than 3 or 5, the 
 figure could not be inscribed in a circle ; but this geometer, 
 in his Disquisitiones Arithmetics, has demonstated that 
 every polygon, the number of whose sides is a prime num- 
 ber of the form 2° + 1, may be geometrically inscribed in a 
 circle. When n = 1, this form gives 3, or the triangle ; 
 
 POLYGONAL NUMBERS. 
 
 when n = 2, it gives 5, or the pentagon ; when n = 3, it 
 gives 9, which is not a prime; when n==4, it gives 17, 
 whence a seventeen-sided figure may be inscribed in a cir- 
 cle geometrically. The next prime is found by making 
 n := 8, when the form gives 257. 
 
 In order to investigate the general properties of polygons, 
 it is necessary to divide them into two classes, convex and 
 concave; the first comprehending those of which all the 
 interior angles are leas than 
 two right angles (fig. 1), and 
 the second those which have 
 one or more re-entering angles, 
 as C (tig, 2). If we call those 
 the interior angles of the poly- 
 gon which belong to the inte- 
 rior of the figure (whether less or greater than two right 
 angles), and those exterior angles which are obtained by 
 subtracting each interior angle from four right angles, the 
 two following theorems will be true of the polygons of 
 both classes: 
 
 1. The sum of the interior angles of a polygon is equal 
 to as many times two right angles as there are sides minus 
 two. Thus, let S denote the sum of the Interior angles, K 
 a right angle, and n the number of sides of the polygon ; 
 then S = 2 (n — 2) R. 
 
 2. The sum of the exterior angles of a polygon is equal 
 to as many times two right angles as there are sides plus 
 two. Let S' be the sum of the exterior angles, as above 
 defined ; then S' =2 (n + 2) R. 
 
 Any polygon may be decomposed into triangles by draw- 
 ing straight lines from one of its angular points to each of 
 the opposite angles, and the area of the polygon is the sum 
 of the areas of all the component triangles. But a beauti- 
 ful theorem was found by L'Huilier of Geneva, by means 
 of which, when the sides and angles of a polygon are 
 known, the area is found Without decomposing it into tri- 
 angles, which, when the number of sides is considerable, 
 leads to laborious calculations. The theorem is this: The 
 double of the surface of any rectilinear figure is equal to the 
 sum of the rectangles of its sides, taken two and two, ex- 
 cepting one, multiplied by the sine of the sum of the sup- 
 plements of the interior angles contained between each 
 pair of sides. Thus, in the preceding figure (fig. 1), let A, 
 B, 0, I'. E be the supplements of the interior angles at 
 those points ; then 
 
 2 area = A B X B C sin. B 
 
 -f ABxCDsin. (B4-C) 
 -f-ABxDEsin. (B + C+D) 
 -fBCxCDsln. C 
 
 -J-BCXHKsin. (C + D) 
 -fCDxDEsin. D. 
 This formula also gives the area of the polygons of the 
 second class (fig. 2) ; only the supplement of the re-enter- 
 ing angle C must be taken with the negative sign. (See 
 L'Huilier' s Polygonometrie, Geneve, 1789.) 
 
 Polygon, in Fortification, is either exterior or interior. 
 The exterior polygon is the figure formed by lines connect- 
 ing the angles of the bastions with one another all round 
 the work ; the interior polygon by lines connecting the 
 centres of the bastions all round. 
 
 POLYGONA'CEiE. (Polygonum, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of herbaceous, rarely shrubby, apetalous 
 Exogens, inhabiting the whole world ; distinguished from 
 most other plants by the cohesion of the scarious stipules 
 into a sheath, technically called an ochrea or boot, and by 
 their triangular fruit. Sorrel on the one hand, and rhu- 
 barb on the other, represent the general qualities of this 
 order. While the leaves and young shoots are acid and 
 agreeable, the roots are universally nauseous and purga- 
 tive. Rumex acetosa contains pure oxalic acid, and many 
 species of Polygonum are used in dyeing. The Rheum or 
 rhubarb, and Rumex or dock, are well-known plants of 
 this order; which is also sometimes remarkably astrin- 
 gent, as in the case of the Coccoloba uvifera, or sea-side 
 grape of the West Indies, an extract of whose bark forms 
 a kind of kino. 
 
 POLYGONAL NUMBERS, in Arithmetic, are the suc- 
 cessive sums of a series of numbers in arithmetical pro- 
 gression. When the common difference of the series in 
 arithmetical progression is 1, then the sums of the terms 
 give the triangular numbers; when the common differ- 
 ence of the terms of the arithmetical series is 2, the sums 
 of the terms are the square numbers ; when the difference 
 is 3, the sums are the pentagonal numbers; and so on. 
 Thus : 
 
 ( Common difference = 1 ; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, &c, 
 
 \ Triangular numbers 1,3, 0, 10, 15, 21, &c. 
 
 ) Common difference = 2; 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, &c. 
 
 J Square numbers 1,4, 9, 1G, 25, 36, &c. 
 
 j Common difference = 3 ; 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, &c. 
 
 I Pentagonal numbers 1, 5, 12, 22, 35, 51, &.C. 
 
 ^ 963 
 
POLYGON OF FORCES. 
 
 and so on. These numbers are called, in general, polygo- 
 
 * nal, from possessing this property, that the 
 
 b, m (■ . same number of points may be arranged in the 
 
 .->• ; . '■»' form of that polygonal figure to which it be- 
 
 V \ /-' eC; j '" longs. For example, the pentagonal numbers 
 
 • ' • /, / 5, 12, 22, 35, 51, &c, may be severally arranged 
 
 *i..,. ... '.'i in a pentagonal form. Thus, in the annexed 
 
 » m figure, 5 points form the pentagon abode; 12 
 
 the pentagon af g h i, with the former enclosed; 22 the 
 pentagon a k I mn, with the two former enclosed. 
 
 A very general and remarkable property of polygonal 
 numbers was discovered by Fermat, though it has yet 
 been demonstrated only in respect of the triangular and 
 square numbers. It is this: Every number whatever, is 
 the sum of one, two, or three triangular numbers ; the sum 
 of one, two, three, or four squares ; the sum of one, two, 
 three, four, or five pentagonal numbers ; and so on. See 
 Figcrate Numbers. 
 
 POLYGON OF FORCES. In Mechanics, the name 
 given to a*theorem, the discovery of which is attributed to 
 Leibnitz. The theorem is this : If any number of forces 
 act upon a point, and a polygon be taken, one of the side3 
 of which is formed by the line representing one of the 
 forces, and the following sides in succession by lines rep- 
 resenting the other forces in magnitude, and parallel to 
 their directions, then the line which completes the poly- 
 gon will represent the resultant of all the forces. 
 
 PO'LYGONOMETRY. The doctrine of polygons, as 
 trigonometry is the doctrine of triangles. The properties 
 of polygons are usually investigated by resolving them into 
 triangles ; their areas, however, may be found, when so 
 many of their sides and angles as suffice to determine them 
 are known. See Polygon. 
 
 PO'LYGRAM. (Gr. iroAws, many, and ypappa, a line.) 
 A figure consisting of many lines. 
 
 POLYGRAPH. (Gr. iroAus, and y/>a'0u>, / write.) In 
 Bibliography, a name invented to designate a collection of 
 different works either by one or several authors. 
 
 POLY'HALITE. (Gr. ttoXvs, and &Xg, salt.) A mineral 
 found at Ischel, in Upper Austria, composed of muriate of 
 soda, and of the sulphates of magnesia, lime, and potash. 
 
 POLYHE'DRON. (Gr. rroXvs, and {Spa, seat.) In Ge- 
 ometry, a solid body bounded by many faces or planes. 
 When all the faces are regular polygons, similar and equal 
 to each other, the solid becomes a regular body. It may 
 be demonstrated that only five regular solids can exist; 
 namely the tetraedron, the Hexaedron, the octaedron, the 
 dodecaedron, and the icosaedron. See the terms ; see also 
 Platonic Bodies. 
 
 Polyhedron. In Optics. See Polyscope. 
 
 POLYHY'MNIA, the muse who presided over lyric 
 poetry : 
 
 Nee Polyhymni* 
 Lesboam refugit tendere barbital. Bom. Od., i., I. 
 
 PO'LYMI'GNITE. (Gr. ttoAu?, and piyvvpi, I mix.) A 
 mineral which occurs in small prismatic crystals of a 
 metallic lustre ; its constituents are titanic acid, zirconia, 
 lime, yttria, oxides of iron, cerium and manganese, mag- 
 nesia, potassa, silica, and oxide of tin. It is found in Nor- 
 way. 
 
 POLYNO'MIAL, or MULTINOMIAL, in Algebra, de- 
 notes a quantity having many terms. Such, for example, 
 is the expression a-\-2b-\-3c-\-nd, &c. 
 
 POLYO'PTRON. (Gr. jroXuj, and ovrpov, a looking- 
 glass. In Optics, a glass through which objects appear 
 multiplied, but diminished. It consists of a lens one side 
 »f which is plane, but in the other are ground several 
 spherical concavities. Each of these concavities becomes 
 a plano-concave lens, through which an object appears 
 diminished ; and when there are a numher of them to- 
 gether, the object will be seen through each, and thus 
 multiplied. 
 
 PO'LYPES, Polypi. (Gr. tt'.Au?, and nov;, afoot.) The 
 name of an extensive group of radiated animals in the sys- 
 tem of Cuvier, associated together by the common charac- 
 ter of a fleshy body, of a conical or cylindrical form, com- 
 monly fixed by one extremity, and with the mouth situated 
 at the opposite end and surrounded by more or less nu- 
 merous arms or tentacles. Under this external form is 
 masked various grades of organization, of which three at 
 least have been well defined by recent and minute anatom- 
 ical researches. 
 
 The lowest grade of organization is manifested by the 
 fresh-water polype (Hydra), and the compound marine 
 corallines (Scrtularia, Tubxdaria, <5f-e.). The body here 
 consists of a granular parenchyma, having a contractile 
 power in every part, not requiring a distinct allocation and 
 arrangement of muscular fibres. When it is defended, as 
 in the Corallines, by a polypary, it can be retracted into its 
 cell without being folded upon itself. The oral tentacles 
 are not provided with vibratile cilia ; the stomach is not 
 distinct from the parietes of the body. The polypes thus 
 964 
 
 POLYTHEISM. 
 
 organized have been termed Dimorphea, by Ehrenberg; 
 and J\Tudibrachiata, or Hydriform Polypes, by Dr. Farre 
 In the second group of Polypes the body is distinctly mem- 
 branous and fibrous, and the stomach forms a separate 
 pouch suspended in its centre. The stomach has but one 
 external orifice, which serves for mouth and vent; but 
 posteriorly it communicates with the main cavity of lhe 
 body. This is divided into several compartments "by ver- 
 tical partitions passing from the walls of the cavity to those 
 of the stomach ; and with the chambers thus formed the 
 tubular arms surrounding the mouth communicate : these 
 arms are not ciliated externally. This group of Polypes has 
 been termed Anthoioa by Ehrenberg: it includes the Sea 
 anemonies, Madrepores, Coral-polypes, &c. In the third 
 and highest group of Polypes the parietes of the stomach 
 are not only distinct from those of the body, but are con- 
 tinued into an intestinal tube, which is reflected forward, 
 and terminates in a distinct anal aperture near the mouth : 
 the tentacula are provided with vibratile cilia. The l'o 
 lypos of this division are aggregated or compound, anil pro- 
 vided with flexible or calcareous cells : they have been 
 termed Bryoioa by Ehrenberg, and Ciliobrachiata by Dr. 
 Farre. All the groups of Polypes propagate by gemmation, 
 and likewise by ova, which are first developed into ciliated 
 and locomotive gemmules. In the Ciliobrachiata the sexes 
 are distinct. 
 
 POLYPHEMUS. See Cyclops. 
 
 POLYPUS. In Surgery, a fleshy tumour, which is oc 
 casionally formed in the nostrils : the same term ts also ap 
 plied to a fleshy tumour of the uterus. 
 
 POLYSA'RCIA. (Gr. noXvs, and oap\, flesh.) Corpu- 
 lency. 
 
 PO'LYSCOPE. (Gr. iro\vs, and oKoirea, I view.) In 
 Optics, a lens plane on one side and convex on the other ; 
 but of which the convex side is formed of several plane 
 surfaces, or facettes, so that an object seen through it ap 
 pears multiplied. The reason of the multiplication of the 
 image is this : When the opposite sides of a thick piece of 
 glass are not parallel, an object seen through it appears 
 out of its true place on account of the refraction ; conse 
 quently, if a lens is ground so that portions of its convex 
 surface are differently inclined to its plane side, the object 
 will appear in dill'erent places at the same time. The po- 
 lyscope may be used to collect the images of several dis- 
 persed objects into a single point, or to collect parts of the 
 same object represented in different places, so as to form a 
 single image. The instrument is a mere toy, and only 
 used for the purpose of amusement. 
 
 POLYSPA'STON. A term used by some of the old 
 writers on mechanics to denote an assemblage of pulleys 
 for raising heavy weights. 
 
 PO'LYSTYLE. (Gr. iroXvg, and orvXo;, a column.) In 
 Architecture, an edifice in which there are a great number 
 of columns. 
 
 POLYTE'CHNIC SCHOOL. (Gr. ttoAus, and tc X >"1, 
 art.) This establishment was founded in 1794, at Paris, by 
 a decree of the National Convention. Its object is to in 
 struct youth in the mathematical, physical, and chemical 
 sciences. Napoleon, who introduced various modifications 
 into its constitution, gave a military turn to its discipline. 
 It prepares pupils for the artillery service, and civil and 
 military engineering. The number is limited to 300. 
 Youths are admitted between the ages of sixteen and 
 twenty, and the course of study lasts two years. In the 
 lists of its professors have been included the illustrious 
 names of Lagrange, La Place, Monge, Berthollet, &.c. ; 
 and from the ranks of its pupils have proceeded, almost 
 without exception, all the mathematicians and philoso- 
 phers of France who have attained to eminence during the 
 last half century. 
 
 POLYTHALAMA'CEANS. Polythalamacea. (Gr. tto- 
 Aus, many, and SaXapos, a chamber.) A name applied by 
 De Blainville to an order of Cephalopods, including those 
 which have many-chambered shells. Like all divisions 
 founded merely on external or dermal characters, it con- 
 tains animals of different degrees of organization, and 
 which cannot be grouped together in the same order in a 
 natural system. See Tetrabranchiates. 
 
 POLYTHE'ISM. (Gr. ttoAu?, and Oeos, God.) The doc 
 trine of a plurality of Gods. Sabianism (or planet wor- 
 ship), Zendism, dtemon worship, hero-worship, and animal 
 worship, together with the feticism of some Negro tribes, 
 may all be considered as varieties of Polytheism. That 
 the first deviation from pure Theism, such as we believe 
 to have been at the outset revealed to man, was into the 
 worship of the sun, moon, and stars (the host of heaven 
 Hebr. Tsaba, a host ; whence Tsabianism, or Sabianism, 
 which see), is sufficiently probable. The origin of the 
 worship of the good and evil principle as distinct deities, 
 which characterized the religion of some oriental nations, 
 is not so easily explicable. Some have attributed it to the 
 recognition of the opposites to those phenomena, which 
 
POLYZONAL LENS. 
 
 had been deified in the Sabian notions ; e. g., darkness as 
 contrary to light, night to day, &c. ; some to traditionary 
 belief in the existence of evil or reprobate spirits; some to 
 a mere philosophical theory adapted by priests to popular 
 comprehension Demon worship, or the worship of inter- 
 mediate intelligences, appropriated to external objects, and 
 subordinate to the highest God, was a natural effect of Sa- 
 biaiiisui. The worship of heroes, or deified mortals, arose 
 again from it in a later stage of society ; and the most 
 probable theory of the greatest systems of Polytheism 
 which have been recognised by divisions of the human 
 race, viz., the Egyptian, Greek, Indian, and Scandinavian, 
 seems to be this, that hero worship, the most congenial of 
 all to the vulgar imagination, superseded former modes of 
 belie! ; that the gods were actually baraes, who had grad- 
 ually absorbed to themselves the honours formerly paid to 
 demons and intelligences, and to the host of heaven, so 
 that their attributes, in later mythology, piesenl a vague 
 mixture of the characters of all.' If, however, this be the 
 ■BOB, it remains to be explained how, after the gods of 
 Olymptu had acquired their station and attributes in the 
 BlWllM religion, a secondary race of heroes, the nputcc, 
 properly so called (whose worship is quite of recent ori- 
 gin, and certainly posterior to Homer), should have found a 
 place in the same mythology. The strange system of ani- 
 mal worship seems peculiar to ancient Egypt, and has been 
 derived by some from the natural circumstances of the 
 country ; the scarcity of domesticated animals having given 
 them an importance which the priests made use of and 
 connected with superstition. As to the theory and general 
 
 history of Polytheism, the following among many other 
 
 l«>"ks may be mentioned : StillimgJUtt'i Ongmu Soar*; 
 
 f the H !»ry of Man; Court u 
 nmitif; Bryan? s Mythology ; the Works ot 'Her- 
 der; liarburtun's Die , Cudwortk'M Intetiee- 
 tval Sy.iti m ; f'ossius, Dr. (Jrigine ldololatriir. ; Jlim. de 
 I' Acad, des Inscr., vol. xxxviii. 
 POLYZONAL LENS. (Or. iroAtrfc and Gov* una.) 
 , The name given by Sir David ifrewster 
 to a burning lens constructed of several 
 zones or rings, each of which may be 
 again composed Of separate segments. 
 In the annexed limine, A BCD is a cen- 
 tral lens formed of one piece of glass ; 
 1'. I' G II is a middle ring, or zone, com 
 posed of four separate pieces; I K L M 
 is another ring composed of eight segments, and surround- 
 ing the former The number of zones, and of parts in each, 
 is great or as small as we please. 
 '1 his method of forming lenses is attended with several 
 important advantages. The difficulty of procuring flint 
 ■officiant purity to render it lit for the construction 
 of a solid lens of large dimensions is removed, and the ex- 
 pense greatly diminished. If impurity exist in any of the 
 spherical segments, or if an accident happen to any of 
 them, it can easily be replaced. Another advantage attend- 
 ing the construction is, that it enables us to correct, very 
 Marly, the spherical aberration, by making the foci of each 
 /one coincide. Lenses of this kind have been made in 
 if crown glass, and have been introduced- into the 
 principal French light-houses. One was constructed, un- 
 der the directions of Sir David Hrewstcr, for the Commis- 
 sioners of the northern light-houses. It was made of pure 
 flint glass, was three feet in diameter, and consisted of nu- 
 nd segments. (See Brewster's Treatise on 
 JtttB Philosophical Instruments ; and ''Optics" in Lard- 
 I i/clop<edia.) 
 POLY'ZOON'S. Polyioa. (Gr. roAvf, and gamr, ani- 
 mal.) A class of compound animals resembling in their 
 organs of support the Sertularians, but in their internal or- 
 ganization approaching nearly to the Compound Asridians. 
 POMA'C&E. (Lat. pnriKim, an apple.) That division 
 of the natural order Rosacea to which the apple, pear, 
 quince, and medlar belong. It differs from Rosacea proper 
 in having an interior ovary. 
 
 POMEGRA'NATE. The fruit of the Pvnica granatum. 
 The pulp is acid, and the rind highly astringent. The dried 
 flowers, which are also astringent, were formerly used in 
 medicine, under the name of Bnlaustinc flowers. 
 
 POMtE'RIUM. (Lat. post, bi/iind, and murus, a wall.) 
 In Roman Antiquities, a space of ground, both within and 
 without the walls of a city, kept free from buildings (Livy, 
 xiii.), and const-crated by a religious ceremony derived from 
 the Ktruscans. (See n memoir of D'Anville on the extent 
 of ancient Rome, Mem. de VAcad. des Inscr., vol. xxi., p. 
 206.) When it was found necessary to extend the limits of 
 any city, a new pomozciuia was formed, and the former one 
 desecrated. 
 
 POMO'NA. The Italian goddess of fruit-trees. Her 
 worship was assiduously cultivated at Rome, where there 
 was a jhimin psmtmalia, who sacrificed to her every year 
 for the preservation of the fruit. The story of Pomona and 
 
 POOR, THE 
 
 Vertumnus is well known. (See Ovid. Met., xiv., 623. 
 The name is derived from poma, fruit. 
 
 PO'MPHOLIX. (Gr. vo/Kpof, a bubble.) An alchemical 
 term for oxide of zinc. 
 
 Po'mpholix. In Medicine, a vesicular eruption upon the 
 skin. 
 
 PO'MUM ADA'.MI. Adam's apple. The protuberance 
 in front of the neck formed by the thyroid gland. It has 
 been fancifully supposed to represent the forbidden apple 
 eaten by Adam. 
 
 POND. An artificial excavation in the soil, or a natural 
 hollow dammed up for the purpose of detaining water, gen- 
 erally made in fields in order to supply drink to pasturing 
 animals. The essential difference between B pond and a 
 lake is, that the former is formed by art, the water being 
 often ponded, or impounded, by a bank of earth thrown 
 across a natural gutter, hollow, or bourne containing a 
 stream. In Gloucestershire, Kent, and other counties 
 where the soil does not abound in springs, the formation of 
 l>onds in the fields is as essential to the business of farming 
 as the building of farm offices. A pond in a garden, when 
 of a round form, is termed a basin ; and when of some 
 lencth, with parallel sides, a canal. 
 
 PO'NE. (Lat.) In Law, a writ which lies to remove 
 actions of debt, detinue, writs of right, nuisances. &c, out 
 of the county or other inferior court into the Common Pleas, 
 and sometimes into the Queen's Bench. 
 
 PONS VAKO'LII. The bridge of VarolhlS. An arched 
 eminence of the medulla oblongata, formed by the two exte- 
 rior crura of the cerebellum becoming Battened, and passing 
 over the crura of trie cerebrum. 
 
 PO'NTKK. In <;iass Manufacture, an iron instrument 
 by which the hot glass is taken out of the glass pot. 
 
 PO'NTIA. (Gr. flovTta, one of the names of the goddess 
 of love.) A genus of butterflies, of which the common white 
 or cabbage butterfly {Pontia brasska) is a well-known na 
 tlve sp» 
 
 I'O'NTIFEX. (Lat.) The highest Roman sacerdotal 
 title. Noma instituted four pontincesj chosen from the pa- 
 biclans; to which were added, long subsequently, four ple- 
 beians. Syllo increased their number to fifteen. The col- 
 lege was divided into two classes, distinguished by the epi- 
 thets majoret and mi n ores ; but it is not certain whether 
 this difference of title marked out the patricians from the 
 plebeians, or the more ancient members from the seven 
 added by Sylla. The pontifices judged in all causes rela- 
 ting to sacred things, and inspected the conduct of the infe- 
 rior priests. They were a self-elected body down to the 
 latter ages of the republic, \\ ben the power of election was 
 sometimes held by the people. It was finally vested in the 
 emperors, who added as many to their numbers as they 
 thought fit. The chief of the pontinces was called the pon- 
 t'fez maxim us, and was always created by the people, being 
 generally chosen from those who had borne the first offices 
 in the state. His station was one of great dignity and pow- 
 er, as he not only had supreme authority in religious mat- 
 ters, but, in consequence of the close connexion between 
 the civil government and religion of Rome, he had also 
 considerable political influence. The title of pontile* iua.\- 
 imtis being for life, Augustus never assumed it till the death 
 of Lepidus, after which it was always held by himself and 
 his successors to the time of Theodosius. The insignia 
 consisted of the toga preetexta, and a conical woollen cap 
 with a tassel (galcrus). (See the Mem. de V Ac. des Inscr., 
 vols, xii., xv., xxiv., xxxvii.) From this word the well- 
 known title of PontilT in modern Europe is derived. " Su- 
 preme Pontiff" is a common style of the pope. 
 
 PONTOO'N. A Military term, denoting a kind of flat- 
 bottomed boat, generally lined within and without with tin. 
 Our pontoons are about 21 feet long, five feet broad, and two 
 feet deep. They are carried along with an army for the 
 purpose of making temporary bridges, called pontoon bridges, 
 by which an army is pursued over rivers. 
 
 POOP. A partial deck extending close aft, above the 
 complete deck of the vessel. A sea coming over the stern 
 is said to poop the vessel. 
 
 POOR, THE. (Lat. pauperes.) In Political Economy, 
 the term employed to designate those persons, or that por- 
 tion of the population of any county, who, being destitute 
 of wealth, are, through age, bodily or mental infirmity, want 
 of employment, or other cause, unable to support them- 
 selves, and have to depend for support on the contributions 
 of others. 
 
 The first notice of the poor bv the legislature of England 
 appears to have occurred in 1376 ; and there does not seem 
 to be any good grounds for thinking that any portion of the 
 people were known bv tills designation previously to the 
 14th century. The truth is, how paradoxical soever the 
 statement may at first appear, that the poor, as a class, owe 
 their existence to the abolition of villenage and the progress 
 of civilization. Previously :o this abolition, the grear bulk 
 ot' the jieople were in a state of predial slavery, or in a con 
 
 965 
 
POOR, THE. 
 
 iition closely resembling that of the Spartan helots. But 
 in such a state of society the class of persons now known 
 as the destitute poor could not exist. It is essential to the 
 idea of slavery, whether predial or absolute, that the mas- 
 ters should provide their bondsmen or slaves with at least 
 the necessaries of life; and, in the event of their neglecting 
 to do so, the law, if it interfere, merely directs that they 
 shall fulfil this natural obligation, or that otherwise tbey 
 shall sell or assign their slaves to those by whom it will be 
 fulfilled. But after the establishment of corporate bodies 
 in the towns and cities, and the growth of manufactures 
 and commerce had given birth to a class of free labourers, 
 the poor began to make their appearance, and to attract the 
 notice of the legislature. Free labourers owe no compul- 
 sory service to any one. They are their own masters, and 
 may employ themselves in any way not injurious to others 
 they think fit. But it is plain that such persons cannot, in 
 the event of their becoming infirm or destitute, claim to be 
 supported by any particular individual or class of individ- 
 uals. They are not bound to serve any one when in health, 
 and, consequently, no one can be bound to provide for them 
 when in want. Under such circumstances, they have no- 
 thing to look to but the compassionate chanty of individ- 
 uals or the public. But as the conduct of individuals must, 
 in such matters, be left to be determined by their own sense 
 of what is right and proper, we shall now, without alluding 
 farther to them, briefly inquire what, in this respect, is the 
 duty of the public, or whether, and to what extent,it should 
 interfere to relieve the destitute. 
 
 The poor and destitute may be divided into two great 
 classes: the first consisting of maimed and impotent per- 
 sons, or of those whom natural or accidental infirmities dis- 
 able from working; and the second, of those who, though 
 able and willing to work, are unable to find employment, or 
 do not receive wages adequate for their support and that of 
 their families. There is a very wide difference in the situ- 
 ation of these classes ; and the same means of relief that 
 may be advantageously afforded to the one may not, in va 
 rious respects, be suitable for the other. 
 
 I. With respect, however, to the first class, or the impo- 
 tent poor, there does not seem to be much room for doubt 
 as to the policy, as well as humanity, of giving them a legal 
 claim to relief. It has sometimes, indeed, been contended, 
 that, by affording relief to those who are unable, from age 
 or the gradual decay of their bodily powers, to provide for 
 themselves, the motives that induce individuals, while in 
 health, to make a provision against future contingences are 
 weakened ; so that, in attempting to protect a few from the 
 effects of their own improvidence, an injury is done to the 
 whole community. This statement is, probably, true to a 
 certain extec. ■ though it be difficult to imagine that any 
 considerable potion of a moderately inlelligent population 
 will ever be tempted to relax in their efforts to save and 
 accumulate, when they have the means of doing so, from a 
 knowledge that the workhouse will receive them in old 
 age ! But whatever may have been the faults of individ- 
 uals, it would be abhorrent to all the feelings of humanity 
 to allow them to suffer the extremity of want. An indi- 
 vidual is unfortunate, perhaps, or he may not have been as 
 thrifty or as prudent as he ought ; but is'he, therefore, to be 
 allowed to die in the streets'? It is proper, certainly, to do 
 nothing that can really weaken the spirit of industry ; but 
 if in order to strengthen it, all relief were refused to the 
 maimed ana impotent poor, the habits and feelings of the 
 people would be degraded and brutalized by familiarity 
 with the most abject wretchedness ; at the same time, that, 
 by driving the victims of poverty to despair, a foundation 
 would be laid for the most dreadful crimes, and such a 
 shock given to the security of property as would very much 
 overbalance whatever additional spur the refusal of sup- 
 port might give to industry and economy. It does, there- 
 fore, appear sufficiently clear that this class of poor should 
 be supported in one way or other ; and that, when the par- 
 ties are either without relations or friends, or when these 
 do not come voluntarily forward to discharge this indispen- 
 sable duty, the necessary funds should be provided by a tax 
 or rate, made equally to affect all classes ; for, if they be not 
 so raised, the poor will either not be provided for at all, or 
 the burden of providing for them will fall wholly on the 
 benevolent, who should not, in such a case, be called upon 
 to contribute more than their fair share. 
 
 II. The only question, then, about which there seems to 
 be any real ground for doubt or difference of opinion is, 
 whether any legal claim for relief should be given to the 
 tble-bodied poor, or to those who are able and ready to 
 work, but who cannot find employment, or cannot earn wa- 
 jea adequate for their supporj ? Now this, it must be con- 
 i ;ssed, is rather a difficult question, and one which does 
 n ■', perhaps, admit of any very satisfactory solution. On 
 the whole, however, it appears, for the reasons we shall 
 now shortly state, that it should, under certain restrictions, 
 bo decided in the affirmative. 
 
 In the first place, it may be observed, that, owing to cIim 
 ges of fashion, to the miscalculation of producers and mer- 
 chants, and to political events, those engaged in manufac- 
 turing employments are necessarily exposed to many vicis- 
 situdes ; and when their number is so very great as "in this 
 country, it is quite essential that a resource should be pro- 
 vided for their support in periods of adversity. In the even 
 of no such provision being made, and of the distress bein; 
 at the same time extensive and severe, the public tranquil- 
 lity would most likely be seriously endangered. Lord Ba- 
 con has observed, that "of all rebellions, those of the belly 
 are the worst." It would be visionary, indeed, to Imagine 
 that those who have nothing should quietly submit to suiter 
 the extremity of want^without attacking the property of 
 others; and hence, if we would preserve unimpaired the 
 peace, and, consequently, the prosperity, of the country, we 
 must beware of allowing any considerable portion of the 
 population to fall into a state of destitution. But without 
 the establishment of a compulsory provision for the support 
 of the unemployed poor, it is difficult to see how they could 
 avoid occasionally falling into this state. Through its in- 
 strumentality, however, they are sustained in periods of ad- 
 versity without being driven by necessity to commit crimes 
 It must, indeed, be admitted that a provision of this sort is 
 very liable to abuse. Means have, however, been devised 
 for checking this tendency; and, whatever Imperfections 
 may, after all, attach to it, it has not yet been shown how 
 security and good order could be maintained in periods 
 when either employment or food was deficient, were it 
 abolished. 
 
 In the second place, supposing it were possible to main 
 tain tranquillity without making a legal provision for the 
 support of the unemployed poor, the privations to which, 
 under such circumstances, they would be forced to submit, 
 would, in all probability, lower their notions as to what was 
 necessary for their comfortable subsistence, and exert a 
 most pernicious influence over their conduct and character. 
 It is, perhaps, unnecessary to enter into any statements to 
 show the importance of endeavouting to guard against any 
 such obviously mischievous results. But Mi. !';<r'- 
 made some observations on this point, which are so striking 
 and conclusive that we cannot forbear laying them 1> 
 the reader. " It is to be remembered," says he, " that even 
 those who most strongly assert the Impolicy and i 
 tendency of our poor laws admit that causes wholly uncon- 
 nected with these laws do, at times, depress the condition 
 of the labourer. Poor families are often thrown into a stale 
 of severe necessity by long-continued illness or nnB.void.ible 
 misfortunes, from which it would be impossible for them te. 
 return to the enjoyment of decent competence if not sup- 
 ported by extraneous means. It is well known, too, that ;> 
 genera! rise in the price of commodities is seldom immedi 
 ately followed by a rise in the wages of conn try labour. Iu 
 the mean time, great suffering must be endured by the whole 
 class of peasantry', if no legislative provision existed for their 
 relief; and when such a rise of juices goes on gradually in- 
 creasing for a series of years, as sometimes happens, the 
 ■Offerings resulting from it must be proportionally p. i 
 The question at issue is simply this, whether that suffering 
 be calculated to cherish habits of sober and self-denying 
 prudence, or to generate a spirit of careless desperation ? 
 
 "During these periods of extraordinary privation the la- 
 bourer, if not effectually relieved, would imperceptibly lose 
 that taste for order, decency, and cleanliness which had 
 been gradually formed and accumulated in better times by 
 the insensible operation of habit and example: and no 
 strength of argument, no force of authority, could again in- 
 stil into the minds of a new generation, growing up under 
 more prosperous circumstances, the sentiments and tastes 
 thus blighted and destroyed by the cold breath of penury. 
 Every return of temporary distress would, therefore, vitiate 
 the feelings and lower the sensibilities of the labouring 
 classes. The little progress of improvement mad. in hyp- 
 pier times would be lost and forgotten. If we ward off a 
 few of the bitterest blasts of calamity, the sacred flame may 
 be kept alive till the tempest be past; but if once extin- 
 guished, how hard is the task of rekindling it in minds long 
 inured to degradation and wretchedness !" (Inquiry into 
 the Depreciation of Agricultural JmIouv, p. 32.) 
 
 In the third place, it will, we suppose, l<e admitted that, 
 when a considerable number of destitute poor persons are 
 thrown out of employment, a provision of some sort or other 
 should be made for their support. Suppose now that it is 
 made, not by a compulsory rate, but by the charitable con 
 tributions of the benevolent: it is contended that such n 
 mode of relieving their distress tends to nourish the better 
 feelings of the poor, and that many would rather choose to 
 undergo the greatest privations than submit to solicit a 
 share of this charitable contribution, who yet would make 
 no scruple of claiming it had the state given them a legal 
 right to look to it for support. But, admitting the truth of 
 this statement, it has been already seen that it is not for 
 
POOR, THE. 
 
 the advantage of society that the poor should be forced to 
 submit to such extraordinary privations. It is, besides, 
 abundantly certain that many would not be influenced by 
 the motives alluded to; and in the event of the distress 
 being either very severe, or long-continued, even those 
 
 disinclined to become a burden on others might be 
 forced to beg a pittance. And it is pretty obvious, notwith- 
 standing all that has been said to the contrary, that the 
 necessary result of such a state of things would be far 
 more prejudicial to the character of the poor — that it would 
 do more to prostrate their pride and independence, and to 
 sink them in their own estimation, than the acceptance of 
 relief from a poor's rate, it is idle, indeed, to talk about 
 the Independence of a man who is receiving charity ; but 
 an individual supported by a poor's rate cannot fairly be 
 garded in such a point of view, lie is merely sharing in a 
 public provision made by the state; and, as all property 
 has been acquired with the knowledge that it was respon- 
 sible to this claim on the part of the poor, it cannot justly 
 be considered as entailing any burden on any particular 
 individual. It may, therefore, one should think, he fairly 
 presumed that the pride and indei>endence of the poor will 
 be more likely to be supported under a system of this sort 
 than if they were obliged to depend, in periods of distress, 
 on the bounty of others. Wherever the poor have not ei- 
 ther de jure or de facto a claim for support, they must una- 
 voidably, in such periods, be allowed to beg. But of all 
 the icourgei that afflict and disgrace humanity, there is, 
 perhaps, none more destructive than the prevalence of 
 m en di c ity. A common beggar is the most degraded of be- 
 ind the expe ri e nc e of Inland, down to a very late 
 date, as well as of France, Italy, Spain, and, in short, of 
 every country where there is no established provision for 
 
 ipportofthe poor, shows that wherever they are com- 
 pelled to depend on n preearfcma a resource as charity, we 
 look in vain lor that manliness and independence of char- 
 acter among the labouring classes which distinguish those 
 of England, and find in their stead all those degrading vices 
 which a sense of insecurity, and the prevalence of beggary, 
 are sure to produce. 
 
 The |)eople and legislature of England hnve acquiesced 
 in the justice and expediency of the principles now laid 
 down. A compulsory provision for the support of the poor 
 has, in fact, existed in England tor a lengthened period. It 
 grew out of the ini|Hitent attempts made in the reigns of 
 Henry VIII., Edward VI., and the earlier part of that of 
 Elizabeth, to suppress mendicancy, and, at the same time, 
 to provide for the poor by voluntary contributions. At 
 length the earlier statutes on the subject were consolida- 
 ted, and the principle of compulsory provision carried to 
 the fullest extent by the famous statute of the 43 Eliz., c.2, 
 which enacted that all maimed and impotent persons should 
 be p r o vi ded lor at the expense of their respective parishes, 
 and that employment should l>e found for the unemployed 
 able bodied poor. From this remote period, the law" of 
 England has regarded every parish in the light of a family, 
 the richer members of which were bound to provide for 
 those who. through inability, misfortune, or want of work, 
 could not provide for themselves. This, nlso, is the princi- 
 ple Unbodied in the law of Scotland with respect to the 
 poor; and, provided the means tor carrying it into effect be 
 so contrived that indigence and suffering may be relieved, 
 without at the same time encouraging Indolence and vice, 
 the ivstem would seem to be quite unexceptionable. Prac- 
 tically, however, this has been found to be a problem of 
 
 diBgly difficult solution ; and this difficulty has made 
 not a few conclude that, however administered, all sys- 
 tematic, attempts to relieve the poor are necessarily, in the 
 end, productive of increased want and misery. 
 
 The poor, no doubt, arc naturally anxious that the com- 
 pulsory provision for their support should be raised to the 
 highest limit; and that their necessities should not only be 
 relieved. I nit that they should be able, without molestation, 
 to eat the bread of idleness. But wherever the assessment 
 and adndnistration of the provision for their support is left 
 to the care of those on whom the burden of its payment 
 really falls, this tendency to abuse is not long in being ef- 
 fectually provided against; and the sustaining and benefi- 
 cial influence of the system alone remains. The complica- 
 ted code of laws respecting settlements, and the establish- 
 ment of workhouses, owes its origin to this principle — to 
 the wish of the legislature to relieve the poor, and, at the 
 same time, to prevent the abuse of the rates; and there is 
 unquestionable evidence to show that, from the establish 
 ment of the system in KMKi down to about 1780, the devices 
 in question were effectual for their object ; and that while 
 poverty was relieved, no encouragement was given to sloth, 
 or to early and improvident unions. But soon after this 
 period various innovations were made on the old law, 
 which broke down most of the securities against the abuse 
 of the rales ; and in 17'J5 the pernicious principle was 
 adopted of mixing together wages and poor rates, and of 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 eking out what was supposed to be a deficiency in the for- 
 mer by payments from the latter! In consequence of this 
 subversion of the principle on which the poor rates had 
 been previously administered, they began rapidly to in- 
 crease, and threatened to swallow up the whole, or, at 
 least, a very large part of the surplus produce of the land 
 Various devices were resorted to, in the view of checking 
 the evil; but, unaccountable as it may appear, not one of 
 them bad for its object to revert to "those practices and 
 mode of administering the law which the experience of 
 more than 830 years had shown were fully effectual for the 
 prevention of abuse. At length the Poor Law Amendment 
 Act was passed in 1834, which introduced a totally new 
 system for the administration of the poor laws. Under 
 this act the country has been divided into unions of more 
 or fewer parishes, according to circumstances, the adminis- 
 tration of all matters relating to the poor in these unions 
 being intrusted to a board of guardians elected by the rate- 
 But these guardians are themselves controlled by, 
 and, in fact, are merely the executive officers of, a central 
 board of three commissioners established in London, who 
 hnve power to issue rules and regulations as to the man- 
 agement of the poor, which all guardians, and other infe- 
 rior officers, are bound to obey. The central board is as- 
 sisted by deputy commissioners, who attend at meetings of 
 guardians, explain the law, and adjudicate or report upon 
 extraordinary net that the rules laid down by 
 
 the central board are complied with. The whole that can 
 be said in favour of this law is. that the pr«>r rates have 
 been materially reduced since its introduction ; but we in- 
 cline to think that the reduction would hnve been about as 
 great had the system for the regulation of the compulsory 
 provision that prevailed in the reign of George II. been re- 
 vived, with a tew alterations; while many penrtokm con- 
 sequences, Inseparable from the existing system, would 
 have been avoid. alth of A'ations, M'Culloch's 
 
 cd., note xxii.) 
 
 We subjoin a table of the sums expended for the relief 
 and maintenance of the poor of England and Wales at dif- 
 ferent periods since 1748. with an estimate of the population 
 
 
 Year* 
 
 Pnor. 
 
 \ 
 Population. 
 
 
 ■favosa 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 1743, IT 19, 17 .0 
 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 
 177i, 1776 
 
 1,690 
 
 7,(HHi,HO0 
 
 
 I7SS, I7S4, 1785 
 
 2,004,239 
 
 8,(«M!,<W0 
 
 
 181)1 
 
 4.0 17. 87 1 
 
 8,*72,000 
 
 
 1 ill 
 
 6.6.6,100 
 
 10,160,000 
 
 
 ls.!l 
 
 6,9' 9, 2,0 
 
 11.978,000 
 
 
 1831 
 
 6,79^,888 
 
 I3.Sd7.IIO0 
 
 
 1835 
 
 5,5.'6,4IS 
 
 14,7.0,000 
 
 
 1S39 
 
 4.406,907 
 
 15,577,000 
 
 POPE. A title derived from an oriental word signifying 
 father, and in earlier times applied indiscriminately to all 
 bishops, and in the East even to ministers; but for many 
 centuries the term has been confined to the bishop of Rome, 
 who is also designated by Roman Catholics as the Holy 
 Father. Src Papacy. 
 
 POPERY. Sre Papacy. 
 
 POPLl'TFAL. (Lat. poples, the ham.) Relating to the 
 posterior part of the knee joint or ham. 
 
 POPULATION. (Lat. populus, people.) The inhab- 
 itants or people of any particular territorv or district. 
 
 POPULATION, LAW OR I'KINCIl'Li: OF, in Politi- 
 cal Economy, means the law according to which the popu- 
 lation of any country would increase, independently of 
 immigration or emigration, under any assumed set of cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 The law of population, or of the increase of the human 
 species, has not, till a comparatively recent period, attract- 
 ed that attention to which it is eminently entitled. It was 
 formerly taken for granted that every increase of popula 
 tion was an advantage, and it was usual for legislators to 
 encourage early marriages, and to bestow rewards on those 
 who brought up the greatest number of children. But the 
 researches of Mr. Malthus * have shown the mischievous 
 nature of such interferences: they have shown that every 
 increase in the numbers of a people, occasioned by arti- 
 ficial expedients, and which Is not either accompanied or 
 preceded by a corresponding increase of the means of sub- 
 sistence, can be productive only of misery or of increased 
 mortality; that the difficulty never is to bring human be- 
 ings into the world, but to feed, clothe, and educate them 
 when there ; that mankind do everywhere increase their 
 numbers, till their farther multiplication is restrained by 
 the difficulty of providing subsistence, and the poverty of 
 some part of the society; and that, consequently, instead 
 of attempting to strengthen the principle of Increase, we 
 should rather endeavour to strengthen the principles by 
 which it is con trolled and regulated. 
 
 * Essay on the Principle- of Population, piusim. The first edition of thb 
 work was published in 17S8. 
 
POPULATION. 
 
 In order briefly to show the principle on which the in- 
 crease of population depends, we may state that the sexual 
 passion or instinct has appeared in all ages and countries 
 so nearly the same, that it may, in the language of geome- 
 ters, be called a constant quantity. Now, it has been 
 shown by the experience of America, and of other coun- 
 tries under nearly similar circumstances, or where there 
 has been a nearly equal command over the means of sub- 
 sistence, that population has gone on, for a lengthened pe- 
 riod, doubling in every twenty or five and twenty years. 
 But the same principle or instinct that doubles the popula- 
 tion of any particular country in this short period is every- 
 where in existence, and is everywhere about equally 
 powerful. And, such being the case, it may be asked, Why 
 does not population everywhere increase with the same 
 rapidity as in Kentucky or Illinois 1 The reason is, that 
 the increase of population must always depend upon, and 
 can never for any considerable period exceed, the increase 
 of the food and other accommodations required for the 
 subsistence of human beings ; and this increase being very 
 different in different countries, the progress of population 
 must vary accordingly : in some it may be rapid, in others 
 slowly progressive, and in others stationary, or even retro- 
 grade. 
 
 It is certain, however, that the principle of increase in the 
 species is sufficiently powerful to keep the population of 
 the most favoured countries, or of those where wealth is 
 most easily obtained and rapidly increased, quite up to the 
 level of the means of subsistence. This is evinced by the 
 poverty of a considerable portion of the people of such 
 countries, by their usually having more claimants for employ 
 than employers, or by the demand for labour being rather 
 greater than that for labourers ; in short, by the constant 
 pressure, as it were, of a part of the population against the 
 limits of subsistence. But, when such is the case, even in 
 the most favourably situated countries, it is quite obvious 
 that if the principle of increase were allowed to exert, its 
 full force in countries placed under less favourable circum- 
 stances — if the same habit of early and universal marriage 
 were indulged in the latter as in the former, it could not 
 fail to occasion the most deplorable results. Man cannot 
 increase beyond the means of subsistence ; and where these 
 are either stationary, or but slowly advancing, any such de- 
 velopment of the principle of increase as is exhibited in 
 countries where these means are increasing most rapidly 
 would be productive only of increased misery and mortality. 
 And hence, in the vast majority of cases, the principle of 
 increase is restrained and controlled by prudential consid- 
 eraii ins. Man is not, like the lower animals, actuated only 
 by instinct. To occasion a marriage, it is not always enough 
 that the parties should be attached to each other. The 
 obligation of providing for the children that may be expect- 
 ed t" spring from it, is one that cannot fail to awaken the 
 forethought and to influence the conduct of all but the 
 most improvident and thoughtless. If the situation of those 
 who might be disposed to enter into a matrimonial alliance 
 be such as to preclude all reasonable expectation of their 
 being able to bring up and educate their children, without 
 exposing themselves to privations, or to the risk of being 
 cast down to a lower place in society, they may not impro- 
 bably either relinquish all thoughts of forming a union, or 
 postpone it till a more convenient opportunity. No doubt 
 there are very many individuals in all countries who are 
 not affected by such considerations, and who, seeing the 
 future through the deceitful medium of their passions, are 
 not deterred from gratifying their inclinations by any fear 
 of the consequences. But the great majority of every so- 
 ciety act on sounder principles. They are anxious not to 
 preserve merely, but to improve their condition in societv, 
 and cannot bear the idea that their family should be in'a 
 worse situation than themselves. Hence the reason that in 
 all old settled or densely peopled countries, marriages are 
 deferred to a much later period than in colonies and newlv 
 settled countries, where there are comparatively great fa- 
 cilities for gaining a livelihood, and that a much larger pro- 
 portion of the population find it expedient to pass their 
 lives in celibacy. And it is fortunate that such is the case 
 —that the forethought and good sense of the people, and 
 their laudable wish to maintain and better their condition, 
 make them control the violence of their passions, and dis- 
 regard the dicta of spurious advisers. It is quite obvious 
 that if the capacity of multiplication, or the principle of 
 increase, in densely peopled countries, vvnere there is a 
 comparatively great difficulty in obtaining supplies of food, 
 were not checked by the prevalence of moral restraint, 
 arising from the consideration of the circumstances under 
 which society is placed, it would occasion the constant 
 pressure of misery and famine. There is no alternative. 
 The population of every country has the power, supposing 
 food and other necessary accommodations to be adequately 
 supplied, to go on doubling every twenty or five and twenty 
 ft»M ; but as the limited extent and limited fertility of the 
 9G8 
 
 soil render it impossible to go on permanently producing 
 food in this ratio, it unavoidably follows that unless the 
 passions be moderated, and a proportional diminution be 
 effected in the number of marriages and births, the stand- 
 ard of subsistence will be reduced to the lowest assignable 
 limit, and famine and pestilence will be perpetually at work 
 to relieve the population of wretches born only to be starved. 
 
 Although, therefore, the principle or instinct which 
 prompts to the increase of the species be alike powerful in 
 the most opposite conditions and states of society, its (level 
 opment depends on a variety of circumstances. Generally. 
 however, there can be no question that it is sufficiently 
 powerful, even where the means of subsistence ate ac- 
 quired with the greatest ease, to keep population on a level 
 with these means ; and in all but the most favoured situa 
 tions, it could hardly fail, if not controlled by other circum 
 stances, to make the increase of population outrun that < f 
 the means of subsistence, and, consequently, to occasion an 
 increase of misery and mortality. But this tendency is sel 
 dom or never allowed to exert its full influence. The prin 
 ciple of increase, though one of the strongest implanted in 
 our nature, is, after all, governed less by instinct than by- 
 reason. At all events, it is invariably found, when we 
 look at nations or great masses of individuals, that the 
 period and frequency of marriages and the rate of increase 
 are determined by the state of the population with respect 
 to food, and that the latter is never outrun by the former. 
 
 The principle of increase is not, therefore, the bugbear, 
 the invincible obstacle to all real improvement it has been 
 represented by those who have overlooked the influence ol 
 moral causes in modifying and controlling its action. That 
 the tendency to increase is not inconsistent with the im- 
 provement of society is a fact, as to which, indeed, there 
 can be no dispute. Without going back to antiquity, let 
 any one compare the state of this or any other European 
 country 500 or 100 years ago with its present state, and he 
 will be satisfied that prodigious advances have been made, 
 that the means of subsistence have increased much more 
 rapidly than the population, and that the labouring classes 
 are now generally in the possession of conveniences and 
 luxuries that were formerly not enjoyed even by the richest 
 lords. The principle of increase is not, however, merely 
 consistent with the continued improvement of the bulk of 
 society — it is, in fact, the great cause of this improvement, 
 and of the wonderful progress made in the arts. Had the 
 principle been less powerful, or had it not existed at all, 
 every new discovery, by diminishing the necessity tor 
 others, would have occasioned a decline in the spirit of 
 invention, and society would long since have been either 
 in a languishing or a stationary state. But the increase of 
 population, though generally subordinate to the increase of 
 food, is always sufficiently powerful to keep invention on 
 the stretch. All that numerous class who live by their la- 
 bour* and who are either striving to raise themselves to a 
 higher station, or to maintain their present position, are at 
 this moment impelled by the same powerful motives to in- 
 vent and contrive new and more powerful methods of pro- 
 duction that impelled their ancestors 5000 years ago; and 
 so it will be in all time to come. The curis actions mortalia 
 corda will never cease to operate, and will secure the con- 
 tinued advancement of society. To suppose, as some have 
 done, that the extraordinary progress already made in 
 science and the arts would have been equal or greater had 
 the tendency to increase been less powerful, is in truth 
 equivalent to supposing that industry and invention would 
 be promoted by lessening the motives to their exercise, and 
 the advantages derivable from tbem. There might, perhaps, 
 have been less squalid poverty among the very dregs of the 
 population, had there been no principle of increase; but it 
 is a contradiction to pretend, had such really been the case, 
 that the powers and resources of industry would have been 
 so astonishingly developed, that scientific investigations 
 would have been prosecuted with equal perseverance and 
 zeal, that so much wealth would have been accumulated 
 by the upper and middle classes, or that the same circum- 
 stances which urged society forward in its infancy would 
 have continued in every subsequent age to preserve their 
 energy unimpaired ; and it may well be doubted whether 
 an exemption from the evils incident to poverty would not 
 have been dearly purchased, even by the very lowest clas- 
 ses, by the sacrifice of the hopes and fears attached to their 
 present condition, and the extraordinary gratification they 
 now reap from successful industry. 
 
 If these conclusions be well founded, it follows that the 
 schemes proposed for directly repressing population in the 
 ancient and modern world, besides being for the most part 
 atrocious and disgusting, have really been opposed to the 
 ultimate objects their projectors had in view. Could the 
 rate of increase be subjected to any easily applied physical 
 control, few comparatively among the poorer classes would 
 be inclined to burden themselves with the tn^k of providing 
 for a family; and the most effective stimulus to etjfrtion 
 
POPULIN. 
 
 being destroyed, society would gradually sink into apathy 
 and languor. It is, therefore, to the principle of moral res- 
 traint, or to the exercise of the prudential virtues, that we 
 should exclusively trust for the regulation of the increase of 
 population. In an instructed society, where there are no 
 institutions favourable to improvidence, this check is suf- 
 ficiently powerful to confine the progress of population 
 within due limits, at the same time that it is not so powerful 
 as to hinder it from operating, in all cases, as the strongest 
 ncentive to industry and economy. 
 
 Mr. Martina's Essay on Population made a great sen- 
 sation at the time when it appeared, and is valuable from its 
 showing conclusively that the principle of increase is strong 
 enough, without any adventitious encouragement, to keep 
 population always on a level with the means of subsistence. 
 In other rcs|)ect9, however, it is altogether defective. Mr. 
 Malthas has not shown that the mischievous consequences 
 that miylit otherwise result from the operation of the prin- 
 ciple of Increase are sure to be countervailed by the opera- 
 tion of those prudential considerations to which it necessa- 
 rily gives rise ; nor has he shown the important and power- 
 ful influence of the principle in securing the continued im- 
 provement of society. One of the best expositions of the 
 theory of papulation is that given by Bishop Sumner in his 
 Records of the Creation. See also the note on Population 
 in irCulloeh'l edition of the Wealth of Nations. 
 
 POTI LIX. A crystallizable substance separated from 
 the bark of the Popu'lus tremula. 
 
 PO'Rt ATI',. (Lat, porcn, a ridge.) In Entomology, 
 when a surface has several parallel elevated longitudinal 
 ■ 
 
 PO R< ' E LAIN. See Pottery. 
 
 PORCELLANITE. An opake brittle variety of jasper. 
 
 PORCH. (Fr. porche.) In Architecture, an arched or 
 flat or ceiled vestibule at the entrance of a church or other 
 buildinir. 
 
 PORES. In Natural Philosophy, the small interstices 
 between the particles or molecules of matter which com- 
 ■ .dies. There are many considerations which prove 
 thai all bodies, even the densest are composed of molecules, 
 not in absolute contact, but separated from each other by 
 intervals, which, though so small as to be inappreciable to 
 the sense>., have, nevertheless, a magnitude considerable in 
 i of the molecules themselves. The porosity of bo- 
 dies may be demonstrated in many cases by very simple ex- 
 periments. If a piece of wood, or marble, granite, or other 
 compact stone, he plunged under water and placed under 
 the receiver of an air-pump, on withdrawing the external 
 pressure the air which had been dispersed through the inte- 
 rior cavities, or pores, will issue from every point of their 
 surface, and rise in a torrent of bubbles. In like manner, 
 mercury is forced through a piece of dry wood or leather, 
 and made to fall In a finely divided shower. A body plunged 
 deep under a liquid sustains a pressure, in consequence of 
 which it is contracted in all its dimensions, and the liquid 
 penetrates the body without producing any apparent disrup- 
 tion of Hs parts. Iron, by being hammered, is reduced in 
 Volume; and the dimensions of all bodies are affected by 
 heat and cold. The facility with which translucent sub- 
 stances are penetrated by the rays of light evinces extreme 
 porosity. And this penetration is not confined to bodies 
 which are usually termed diaphanous; for gold itself, one of 
 the most opake of the metals, when beaten into extreme 
 thinness, transmits a soft green light. All these facts prove 
 the existence of pores; and it has been inferred that gold 
 has more pores than solid parts ; whence' water, or any sub- 
 stance of the same specific gravity, must have many times 
 more pores than solid parts. 
 
 P< ) R IT I ) K A . ( Lat. ]>orus, a pore, and fero, / earn/.) A 
 name invented and applied by Mr. llocu' to a group of Po- 
 lyps, Including the genera Cellepora, Millepora, and Tubu- 
 lipora: also used by Dr. Grant to designate the class of 
 organized beings including the marine and fresh-water 
 • 
 
 PC/RISM, (Gr. Topia/ia; from 7ropi?u), / investigate), in 
 Geometry, is defined by professor Piny Fair to be " n proposi- 
 tion affirming the possibility of finding such conditions as 
 will render a certain problem indeterminate, or capable of 
 innumerable solutions." 
 
 According to Pappus, the porisms constituted one of the 
 eighi subjects which formed the ancient geometrical analy- 
 Euclid composed a treatise on porisms in three books, 
 of which no trace now remains, except some obscure hints 
 ved in the mathematical collections of Pappus. Prom 
 the manner In which the porisms are mentioned by Pappus, 
 it is evident that the ancients set a high value on this class 
 of propositions; but the description which he has given of 
 them is 90 vague that geometers were long unable to divine 
 his meaning, or to discover the peculiar circumstances in 
 respect of which a porisni differs from an ordinary problem. 
 The subject, indeed, battled the ingenuity of the most emi- 
 nent mathematicians, until it was taken up by Dr. Simson, 
 
 PORPHYRY. 
 
 of Glasgow, who at length succeeded in restoring a great 
 number of Euclid's porisms, together with their analysis. 
 The propositions thus restored form a part of his posthu- 
 mous works, published in 1776, at the expense of Earl Stan- 
 hope. It still remained, however, to inquire into ihe proba- 
 ble origin of the porisms, or the steps by which the ancient 
 geometers had been led to their discovery; and also to 
 point out the relations in which they stand to other classes 
 of geometrical truths. This was accomplished by the 
 late Professor Playfair, In an admirable paper, 'On the 
 Origin and Investigation of Porisms," published in vol. 111. 
 of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
 and afterwards in the 3d volume of his collected Works 
 Edin. 1822. 
 
 The nature of a porism, and the manner in which it is 
 derived from an ordinary proposition, will be best illus 
 trated by an example. The following proposition is one of 
 those selected by Mr. Playfair for the purpose: 
 
 A triangle ABC being given, and also a point D; to 
 draw through 1) a straight line D E, such 
 that perpendiculars being drawn to it c 
 
 from the three ancles Of the triangle, 
 namely, A E, BG, DP, the sum of the 
 two perpendiculars on the same side of 
 I) E shall be equal to the remaining per- 
 pendicular, or that A E and B G together 
 shall be equal to C I'. 
 
 Sup|Hisc it done: bisect AB in II; 
 join Cll (intersecting I) E in L), and 
 draw II K perpendicular to D E. 
 
 Because A B is bisected in II, the two perpendiculars 
 A E and BG are together double of II K : and, as they are 
 equal to CF, by hypothesis, CF must also be double of 
 HK, and CL of I, II. Now, (.'II is given In position and 
 magnitude, therefore the point I. is given : and the point U 
 being also given, the line DL is given in position, which 
 was to be found. 
 
 The construction is obvious. Bisect A B in II, join C II, 
 and take II L equal to one third of C II ; the Straight line 
 which joins the |Miinls D and L is the line required. 
 
 Xow, it is plain that while the triangle ABC remains 
 the same, the point I. also remains the same, wherever the 
 point D may tie The point I) may therefore coincide with 
 L; and, when this happens, the position of the line to be 
 drawn remains undetermined ; that is to say, any line what- 
 ever drawn through I. will satisfy the conditions of the 
 problem. Here, then, we have an indeterminate t 
 problem, and. of consequence, a porism, which may lie ihns 
 enunciated : 
 
 A triangle beirg given in position, a point In it may be 
 found such that any straight line whatever being drawn 
 through that |>oint, the perpendiculars drawn to ibis straight 
 line from the two angles of the triangle which tire on one 
 side of it, will be, together, equal to the perpendicular that 
 is drawn to the same line from the angle on the other side 
 of it. 
 
 For examples of porisms, see Simpson's Opera Reliqua ; 
 Playfair*! paper above mentioned ; a (taper by Prof, Wal- 
 lace, entitled "Some Geometrical Porisms, etc." in the 
 Edinburgh Transactions, vol. iv. ; Stewart's General The- 
 orems, 1746; Leslie's Geometrical Analysis; and I.ry- 
 bourn's Mathematical Repository. See, also, Traill's Ac- 
 count of the IJfe and Writings of Robert Simpson, M.D.; 
 and Chasles, Apercu Historique sur V Origin e et le De- 
 veloppemcnt des Methodes en Geometric, Brux. 1837. 
 
 The term porism is also used by the Greek geometricians 
 to signify merely the corollary to a proposition. 
 
 PORO'SITY. A property of matter, in consequence of 
 which its molecules are not in absolute contact, but sepa- 
 rated by intervals or pores. The quantity of matter in a 
 body is inversely as its porosity; whence the ratio of the 
 porosity of one body to another may be determined from 
 their weight. See Porks. 
 
 PO'RPIIYRY. (Gr. iropfvpa, purple.) In Statuary, an 
 extremely hard stone of a red, or rather purple and white 
 colour, more or less variegated, its purple being of all grada- 
 tions, from violet to a claret colour. It is susceptible of a 
 very high polish. Egypt and the East furnish very plenti- 
 ful strata of this material. It is also found in Minorca. 
 The extreme ease with which the ancients seem to have 
 cut this substance, and worked it in sculptural subjects, has 
 been a matter of much discussion among the moderns. Dr. 
 Lister, in a paper of the Philosophical Transactions, seems 
 to think that the ancients possessed the secret of tempering 
 steel better than the modems. The French cut it wi:h an 
 iron saw without teeth, using a kind of freestone pulverized 
 and mixed with water. And Cosmo di Medici is said to 
 have distilled a water by the help whereof Francesco Taddi, 
 his sculptor, gave his tools a hardness and temper capable 
 of working the hardest and most compact substances. 
 
 Porphyry. In Geology, an unstratified or igneous rock 
 containing embedded crystals of felspar. The term was 
 
PORPITA. 
 
 ffiginally applied to a red rock of this kind found in Egypt, I 
 Alluded to in the preceding article. See Geology. 
 
 PO'RPITA. (Gr. vof-nri, Jinnulus clypei.) The name 
 »f a genus of sea-nettles {Jlcalephm) characterized by an 
 internal circular flattened disk of a calcareous and horny 
 texture. , 
 
 PORRECT. (Lat. porrigo, / extend.) In Zoology, when 
 a part extends forth horizontally, as if to meet something. 
 
 PORRI'GO. (Lat. porrigo.) The ringworm, or scald- 
 head. 
 
 PORT. See Harbour. 
 
 Port is, usually, the adverb of larboard ; as, the ship 
 heels to port, for the larboard side. Put the helm a-port, 
 
 ate. 
 
 Port. The opening or embrasure in the ship's side for 
 a gun. The ports of the lower deck are defended, when at 
 sea, by strong covers hanging from hinges; the ropes by 
 which these are held up, or open, are called port lanyards, 
 and consist of a pendant passing through a leaded hole in 
 the side, with a tackle. 
 
 PORTAL. (Fr. portail.) In Architecture, the lesser of 
 two gates, when they are of two dimensions, at the entrance 
 of a building. 
 
 PORTCU'LLIS. (Fr. portecoulisse.) In Fortification, 
 a sort of machine composed of several large pieces of wood, 
 laid across one another, like a harrow, and pointed with 
 iron, used formerly to be hung over gateways or fortified 
 places, to be let down in case of a surprise, and when there 
 was not time to shut the gate. 
 
 PORTE, THE SUBLIME. The official title of the 
 government of the Ottoman empire: said to be derived 
 from a gate of the palace at Broussa, the original metro- 
 polis of that empire, called Bab Humayoor, the sublime 
 gate. 
 
 PO RTER. A liquor brewed from malt, part of which 
 has been more highly dried than that used for ale. It is 
 hopped in the same way as ale ; and its deep colour is 
 finally given to it either by burned sugar, which usually 
 goes under the name of colouring, or, more legitimately, by 
 roasted or parched malt. Porter was first browed in 1799 
 The malt liquor previously drunK consisted i .' tlirr 
 ale, beer, and " twopenny ;" and a mixture of either of these 
 kinds was a favourite beverage under the name of half-and- 
 half;" or a mixture was drunk called "three threads," con- 
 sisting of equal portions of each of the above kinds of liquor, 
 for a draught of which the publican had to go to three dif- 
 ferent casks. About 1722, Harwood. a London brewer, com- 
 menced brewing a malt liquor, which was intended to unite 
 the flavours of ale and beer, or ale, beer, and "twopenny;" 
 and, having succeeded, he called his liquor "entire," or 
 "entire butt;" a name intended to intimate that it was 
 drawn from one cask or butt only. A mixture of ale or 
 porter, drawn from different casks, is very commonly drunk 
 in London at the present time. Harwood's liquor obtained 
 the name of porter from its consumption by porters and 
 labourers. From 1722 to 17fil, the retail price of porter was 
 3d. per pot, when it was raised to 3£d., at which it con- 
 tinued till 1799; it has never been higher than 6<£., nor, 
 during the present century, lower than at the present time 
 (September 1841), when the price is Ad. The following 
 account of the fluctuations of the price per barrel, since 
 1816, is from a private source: In July, 1816, the price was 
 reduced from 45a. to 40s., but, in October, was again ad- 
 vanced to 45s; in January, 1817, a further advance was 
 made to 50s. ; and, in December of the same year, it reached 
 55s. In 1819, 1820, and 1822, the price was successively re- 
 duced from 55s. to 50s., 45s., and 40s. In January, 1824, 
 it was advanced to 45s. ; in November, 1825, to 50s. ; but a 
 few months afterwards it again fell to 45s. Since the abo- 
 lution of the beer duties, in 1830, the price has been 33s. per 
 barrel. 
 
 PORT-FIRE. In Gunnery, a paper tube about ten 
 inches long, filled /with a composition of meal-powder. 
 sulphur, and nitre, rammed moderately hard ; used to fire 
 guns and mortars instead of a match. {Hutton's Diet.) 
 
 PO'RTICO. (Ital.; from porticus, Lat.) In Architec- 
 ture, a place for walking in under shelter, occasionally 
 raised aftet the manner of a gallery with arches. Some- 
 times the portico is vaulted, and sometimes it is with a 
 flat ceiling. The most usual application of the word is 
 to the projection supported by columns placed before a 
 building. 
 
 PO'RTIO, or PORTION, is a term anatomically applied 
 to two branches of the seventh pair of nerves ; the portio 
 dura, or hard portion, and the portio mollis, or soft portion : 
 the former is the facial nerve, the latter the auditory or 
 acoustic nerve. 
 
 PORTLAND roWDER. A mixture of several in- 
 digenous bitter hjrli.i which was once a celebrated remedy 
 in the gout. 
 
 PO'RTLAND STONE. A granular limestone, belong- 
 ing to the upper part of the oolite formation, and abounding 
 970 
 
 POSITION. 
 
 in the island of Portland, upon the coast of Dorsetslme 
 See Geology. 
 
 PORTLAND VASE. A celebrated cinerary urn or vase 
 long in possession of the noble family of the Barberini at 
 Rome (whence it was called the Barberini vase); from 
 whom it came into the possession of the Portland family, 
 who deposited it, in 1810, in the British Museum, of which 
 it is one of the most valuable reliques. This beautiful ipeci 
 men of ancient art was found in the tomb of the Emperor 
 Alexander Severus and his mother Mamnuea. It is de- 
 scribed by Montfaucon (Jlntiq. Ezplique, toin. v.), who was 
 evidently mistaken in representing it as formed of a precious 
 stone. The substance is said to be of glass, or composition ; 
 it is of a deep blue or violet colour, and the figures in the 
 scene depicted on it are white. The subjects are mytho- 
 logical, but have been very imperfectly explained. (See 
 two memoirs upon it, by Dr. King and VV. Harsh, in the 
 8th volume of the Archaologia, and one by Dr. Darwin, in 
 the Notes to his Botanic Garden.) The late Mr. Wedg- 
 wood made a mould of this vase, and took from it a number 
 of casts, made with the greatest skill, and perfectly resem 
 bling the original. 
 
 PO'RTRAIT. (Fr. pourtrait.) In Painting, the repre 
 sentation of an individual, or, more strictly speaking, of 
 a face, painted from real life. Portraits are of full length, 
 half length, &c. ; and are executed in oil or water colours, 
 crayons, &c. 
 
 PORTREE'VE, or PORT GREVE. ■ (Ang. Sax 
 Anciently, the principal magistrate in ports and maritime 
 towns. According to Camden, this was the ancient title 
 of the officer who was afterwards called mayor, in Lon- 
 don. 
 
 PORT ROYALISTS. The name popularly given to 
 the members of the celebrated convent of the Port Royal 
 des Champs. It was founded about 1204, by Matthieu de 
 Marli, on the eve of his departure for the Holy Land ; and, 
 though originally limited in its means and objects, it grad- 
 ually acquired such importance as to have secured for it a 
 prominent place in the history of Europe. It would be out 
 of place ^e^e to. give any details of Its varied tor! 
 iua controversies which it carried in is 
 century— the period of its greatest importance; and we refer 
 the reader to the learned work of Reuchlin (QeachichU von 
 Port Royal), for full information. (See, also, the eloquent 
 article in vol. lxxiv. of the Edin. Review.) It was abolished 
 by Louis XIV., as a nest of Jansenists and heretics. Among 
 the distinguished names connected with the Port Boys), are 
 those of Lancelot, Paschal, Arnauld, Nicole de Sacy, and 
 Tillemont. The school books which were published for 
 the use of that institution, were translated into all the lan- 
 guages of Europe, and maintained their reputation long 
 after its abolition ; and, though they are now fallen into 
 disuse, the following deserve especial mention : 1. Nouvelle 
 Methode pour apprentlre la iMngue Latine; 2. JfowtlUt 
 JSlethode pour apprendre la Langue Grccquc ; 3. Gram- 
 maire Generate, A'-c. 
 
 POSITION. (Lat. pono, T place.) A rule in Arithmetic, 
 called also the rule of supposition, or rule of false. It con- 
 sists in assuming a number, and performing upon it the 
 • operation described in the question, and then comparing 
 the result with that given in the question, in order to dis- 
 cover the error of the assumption. Writers on arithmetic 
 divide the rule into two parts, single position and double 
 position; the former comprehending those questions in 
 which the results are proportional to the suppositions, and 
 where, consequently, only one assumption is required ; the 
 latter those in which the results are not proportional to the 
 suppositions, and where two suppositions are necessary in 
 order to deduce the true answer. To simple position be- 
 long such questions as the following: What number is that 
 from which, if a third and a fourth of itself be subtracted, 
 the remainder is 60 ? Double position comprehends ques- 
 tions of this sort : What number is that which, being mul- 
 tiplied by 6, the product increased by 18, and the sum 
 divided by 9, the quotient shall be 20 1 It will be observed, 
 that both these questions are immediately solved by a 
 simple algebraic equation; and, in fact, the same pro- 
 cess is performed in the arithmetical operation in the as- 
 sured number, which, in the algebraic, is performed on the 
 unknown quantity. The rules given for the solution of 
 questions in double position, are founded on certain prin- 
 ciples of algebra, which may be applied with much greater 
 facility to the immediate solution of the questions them- 
 selves. Such questions, therefore, cannot be considered as 
 properly belonging to arithmetic, but to what may lie deno- 
 minated numerical analysis. Position is also called the 
 rule of trial and error, and is sometimes employed with 
 good effect in approximating to the roots of numerical 
 equations. 
 
 Position. In Painting, the placing of the model in the 
 manner best calculated for the end in view by the artist. 
 Such positnns as are most natural and easy, and which 
 
POSITIVE ELECTRICITY. 
 
 •xhibit ilie peculiar habit of the individual, in portrait paint- 
 ing, are preferable. 
 
 POSITIVE ELECTRICITY. See Electricity. 
 
 POSITIVE QUANTITY, in Algebra, denotes an affirm- 
 ative or additive quantity ; which character is indicated by 
 the sign +, called, in consequence, the positive sign. The 
 term is used in contradistinction to negative ; negative quan- 
 tities beinc such as are subtractive, and marked by the 
 sign — , which is called the negative sign. See Sign. 
 
 PO'SSE O ►MITA'TUS. (Lat.) In Law, the power of 
 the county, which the sheriff is empowered to raise in case 
 of riot. possession kept on forcible entry, rescue, or other 
 force made in opposition to the king's writ or execution of 
 It is said to include all knii/hts and other men, 
 above the age of fifteen able to travel, within the county. 
 if the peace may also raise the posse in order to re- 
 move a lone in making entry into or detaining lands. 
 
 POST. (Fr. |K>ste.) In Architecture, any vertical piece 
 of timber; as a truss post, door post, a quarter in a par- 
 
 In Public Economy, a messenger, courier, or con- 
 iliat travels at stated periods, and generally with 
 more than ordinary speed, employed to convey letters or 
 other despatches, whether of government or individuals. 
 
 USIlOMKN. (Lnt.) The name applied by La- 
 treille to the five posterior segments of the ubdomen of 
 Hexapod insects; and to the tail of Crustaceans, which 
 lalogous but more numerous segments. 
 
 POSTAGE. The duty or rate of charge levied on letters 
 or oilier articles conveyed by post 
 
 PO'STBA. (Lnt.) In Law, the return of the judge 
 before whom a cause is tried, after verdict, of what was 
 done In the cause, which is endorsed on the back of the 
 ni>i prins record. 
 
 I'' i STKKN. (Fr. posterne.) In Architecture, a small 
 door at the back of a building. 
 
 Postkhn. In Fortification, a small gate, usually made 
 in the angle of the flank of a bastion, or in that of the 
 eurtain. 
 
 'Lat.) Tn Architecture, the portico at 
 the bw r of a temple. See. Nvos. 
 
 rOSTl.tMl'NIL'M, or JUS POSTLIMINY (Lat. limen, 
 a thrrsiiutd.) Ill National and Civil Law, the right by 
 virtue of which persons taken by an enemy return to their 
 former state of freedom, with their former rights and pro- 
 perty, on its termination; and property so taken reverts to 
 Its former owners. 
 
 POST OBIT. (Lat. post obitum, after death.) A bond 
 given for the; purpose of securing a sum of money on the 
 death of some s|>ecified Individual. 
 
 POST OFFICE. A place for the reception and distribu- 
 tion of the letters and despatches that are to be or that have 
 been carried by the post ; where the duties on them are 
 paid, and where the various departments connected with 
 the business of the post are conducted, or superintended. 
 
 The conveyance of letters by post is one of the few in- 
 dustrious undertakings w T hich arc certainly better managed 
 by government than they could be by individuals. It is 
 able to the satisfactory working of the post-office, 
 that it should lie conducted with the greatest regularity anil 
 : and that all the departments should be made 
 ■been Sent to each other, and conducted on the same plan. 
 It is plain that such results could not be obtained in any 
 extensive country otherwise than by the agency of govern- 
 ment ; and the interference of the latter is also required to 
 make arrangements for the safe and speedy conveyance of 
 letters to, from, and through foreign countries. 
 
 The organization of the post office supplies one of the 
 most striking examples of the advantages resulting from 
 the division and combination of employments. " Nearly 
 the same exertions that are necessary to send a single letter 
 from Falmouth to New York will suffice to send 50,000. 
 If every man was to effect the transmission of his own 
 correspondence, the whole life of an eminent merchant 
 might be passed in travelling, without his being able to 
 deliver all the letters which the post-office forwards for 
 him in a single evening. The labour of a few individuals, 
 devoted exclusively to the forwarding of letters, produces 
 results which all the exertions of all the inhabitants of 
 Europe could not effect, each person acting independently." 
 (Senior on Political Economy.) 
 
 Posts appear to have been established for the first time, 
 In modern Europe, in 1479, by Louis XL of France. They 
 finally intended to serve merely for the conveyance 
 of public despatches, and of persons travelling by autho- 
 rity of government. Subsequently, however, private Indi- 
 viduals were allowed to avail themselves of this institution 
 for forwarding letters and despatches; and governments, 
 by Imposing higher duties or rates of postage on the letters 
 and parcels conveyed by post than are sufficient to defray 
 I the establishment, have rendered it pro- 
 ductive of a considerable revenue. Nor, while the rates of 
 
 POST OFFICE. 
 
 postage are confined within reasonable limits, and do not 
 materially affect the facility of correspondence, is there, 
 perhaps, a less objectionable tax. 
 
 The post office was not established in England till the 
 17th century. Post-masters, indeed, existed in more ancient 
 times; but their business was confined to the furnishing of 
 post horses to persons who were desirous of travelling ex- 
 peditiously, and to the despatching of e xtr a ord inary packets 
 upon special occasions. In 1635, Charles I. erected a letter 
 office for England and Scotland ; but this extended only to 
 a few of the principal roads ; the times of carriage were 
 uncertain; and the post-masters on each road were required 
 to furnish horses for the conveyance of the letters at the 
 rate of 2\d. a mile. This establishment did not succeed ; 
 and, at the breaking out of the civil war, great difficulty 
 was experienced in the forwarding of letters. At length a 
 post office, or establishment for the weekly conveyance of 
 letters to all parts of the kingdom, was instituted in 1649, 
 by Mr. Edward Prideaux, attorney-general lor the Common 
 wealth ; the immediate consequence of which was a saving 
 to the public of .£7,000 a year on account of post masters. 
 In 1657, the i>o>t office was established nearly on its present 
 footing, and the rates of postage that were then lived were 
 continued till the reign of Queen Anne. (Black. Com., 
 book I., c. 8.) 
 
 From the establishment of the jxist office by Cromwell 
 dpwn to 1784, mails were conveyed either on horseback, or 
 in carts made for the pnrpoae; and instead of being the 
 most expeditious and safest conveyance, the post had 
 become, at the latter period, one of the slowest and most 
 easily robbed of any in the country. In 1784, it was usual 
 for the diligences between London and Bath to accomplish 
 the journey in seventeen hours, while the post took forty 
 hours; and on other roads the comparative rale of travel- 
 ling of the post and stage coaches was in about the same 
 proportion. The natural consequence of such a difference 
 in point of despatch was, that a very great number of letters 
 were sent by other conveyances than the mail : the law to 
 the contrary being easily defeated, by giving them the form 
 of small parcel •=. 
 
 Under these circumstances it occurred to Mr. John 
 Palmer of Bath, comptroller-general of the post office, that 
 a very great improvement might be made in the convey- 
 ance of letters, in respect of economy, as well as of speed 
 and safety, by contracting with the proprietors of stage 
 coaches for the carriage of the mail ; the latter being bound 
 to perform the journey in a specified time, and to take a 
 guard with tin; mail for its protection. Mr. Palmer's plan 
 encountered much opposition, hut was at length carried 
 into effect with the most advantageous results. The use 
 of mail-coaches speedily extended to most parts of the em- 
 pire ; and, while letters and parcels were conveyed in less 
 than half the time that had been required under the old 
 system, the coaches by which they were conveyed afforded, 
 by their regularity and speed, a most desirable mode of 
 conveyance for travellers. Mr. Palmer was the author of 
 several other improvements in the economy of the post- 
 office ; nor is there any individual to whom the department 
 owes more. (Macphcrson' s Annals of Com. anno 1784.) 
 
 Within the List lew years, however, the construction of 
 railways between most of the great towns of the empire 
 has gone far to supersede the use of mail coaches on the 
 principal lines of road, and has added prodigiously to the 
 facilities of correspondence and travelling. The journey 
 from London to Liverpool, which had been accomplished 
 by the mail in about twenty or twenty-two hours, is now 
 accomplished, by railway, in nine or' ten hours! and on 
 other roads in the same proportion. The great expense of 
 the post office consists, in fact, not so much in the convey- 
 ance of letters from place to place, as in their previous col- 
 lection and their distribution after they have been conveyed 
 to their destination. This necessitates the establishment 
 of a vast number of subordinate offices in tho remoter parts 
 of the kingdom, many of which do not defray their ex- 
 penses. This is particularly the case in Ireland, where, in 
 1838, the expense of collecting the gross post office revenue 
 amounted to 39/. 16s. 4\d. per cent. 
 
 Revenue and Rates 'of Postage.— During 1838 the post 
 office of the United Kingdom produced a gross revenue of 
 £2,346,278, and a nett revenue, after deducting the expense 
 of collection, of £1,676,522. This large revenue was de- 
 rived from rates of postage, varying with the distance 
 according to which letters were conveyed, but so that at an 
 average thev amounted to nbout Id. or 7.W. for a single 
 letter. Put the fact that the post office revenue had con- 
 tinued nearly stationarv during the twenty years ending 
 with 1838, notwithstanding the vast increase in that period 
 of population and of the intercourse between the different 
 parts of the empire, was a conclusive proof that the rate* 
 of postage had been carried to a vicious excess ; and that 
 in the arithmetic of the post office, as well as of the cus 
 toms, two and two, instead of always making four, some- 
 
 971 
 
POST OFFICE. 
 
 times make only one. The effectual reduction of these 
 rates was therefore urgently required, not only because of 
 the importance to a commercial and manufacturing com- 
 munity of having the charge for the conveyance of corres- 
 pondence fixed at a moderate amount, but because it was 
 all but certain that moderate rates of postage would be more 
 productive of revenue. It did not, however, follow, that 
 because an average charge of 7d. or 7£d. each on all letters 
 conveyed by post was very decidedly too much, that the 
 plan for making an invariable charge of Id., whether the 
 letter were conveyed one mile or 1000 miles, should have 
 neen adopted. This was to rush from one extreme to 
 another, and to endanger a considerable amount of revenue 
 without any equivalent advantage. It must, no doubt, be 
 admitted that the proposal for a uniform penny rate of post- 
 ige, had many recommendations in its favour. Being 
 calculated at once to obviate trouble and save expense, it 
 could not fail to be acceptable (what reduction of taxation 
 is not?) to a large portion of the public, particularly to 
 persons engaged in business. We believe, however, that 
 the scheme was more indebted for its popularity to the 
 oppressiveness of the old rates of postage than to any in 
 trinsic merits of its own. Had these been reduced four or 
 five years previously to a reasonable amount, that is, had 
 letters of 1 oz. weight coming from Scotland or Ireland to 
 London been reduced to 6d., and other letters in proportion, 
 and mercantile circulars been allowed to pass under covers 
 open at the ends at Id. or 2d. each, we venture to say that 
 the clamour for a uniform rate of penny postage would not 
 have made any way. But in this, as usually happens on 
 similar occasions, those who delay to make reasonable and 
 necessary concessions at the outset, are in the end compelled 
 to concede a great deal more than would at first have been 
 satisfactory. This, at all events, has been eminently true 
 in the present instance. The clamour for a uniform penny 
 rate became too powerful to be resisted ; and parliament, 
 whether it were so inclined or not, was obliged to lend its 
 sanction to the measure. And under the provision of the 
 act 2 & 3 Vict., cap. 52, it has been enacted that all inland 
 letters, without regard to the number of enclosures, or the 
 distance conveyed, provided they be paid when posted or 
 despatched, shall, if not exceeding J oz. weight, he charged 
 Id. ; 1 oz. 2d. ; 2 oz. Ad. ; 3 oz. 6d. ; and so on ; 2d. being 
 added for every additional ounce up to 16 oz., beyond which, 
 With the following exceptions, no packet, whether subject 
 to postage or not, is received : 
 
 1. Parliamentary petitions and addresses to her Majesty. 
 
 2. Parliamentary proceedings. 
 
 3. Letters and packets addressed to or received from 
 places beyond spa. 
 
 4. Letters and packets to and from public departments, 
 and to and from public officers that formerly franked by 
 virtue of their offices. 
 
 5. Deeds, if sent open, or in covers open at the sides. 
 They may be tied with string and sealed, in order to pre- 
 vent inspection of the contents ; but they must be open at 
 the sides, that it may be seen that they are entitled to the 
 privilege. 
 
 With these exceptions, all packets above the weight of 
 16 oz. will be immediately forwarded to the Dead Letter 
 Office. 
 
 But all letters not paid when they are posted or despatch- 
 ed are charged double the above rates. 
 
 All parliamentary and official franking has been put an 
 end to; but members of either house of parliament are 
 entitled to receive petitions to parliament free of charge, 
 provided such petitions be cent in covers open at the ends, 
 and do not exceed 6 oz. weight. 
 
 To facilitate the working of the plan, envelopes and 
 stamps for single, double, &c. letters, are furnished by the 
 post office, and have been widely distributed. 
 
 Such are the more prominent features of the new sys- 
 tem ; and none can deny that it has the recommendations 
 of simplicity and cheapness in its favour, and that it has 
 greatly facilitated correspondence. But it may nevertheless 
 be doubted whether its adoption was expedient. It is cer- 
 tainly very convenient for merchants, bankers, middlemen, 
 and retail dealers, to get letters for Id., that previously cost 
 them Id. or "l\d. ; but their satisfaction is not the only thing 
 to be attended to in forming a fair estimate of the measure. 
 .The public exigencies require that a sum of above fifty 
 millions a year should be raised, one way or other ; and so 
 long as we are pressed by an unreasoning necessity of this 
 sort, it is not much to say in favour of the repeal or dimi- 
 nution of any tax, that those on whom it fell with the 
 greatest severity are delighted with the reduction. Sugar 
 has in England become a necessary of life ; and its con- 
 sumption, to say the least of it, is quite as indispensable to 
 the bulk of the people, and especially to the labouring 
 classes, as the writing of letters. But would it, therefore, 
 be a wise measure to repeal the duty on sugar, or to reduce 
 it to Is. a cwt. ? It has been alleged, indeed, that taxes on 
 972 
 
 POTASSIUM. 
 
 the transmission of letters are objectionable on principle, 
 and should therefore be repealed, independently altogether 
 of financial considerations. But it is easier to make an 
 allegation of this sort than to prove it. All taxes, however 
 imposed, if they be carried (as was the case with the old 
 rates of postage) beyond their proper limits, are objection- 
 able ; but provided these be not exceeded, we have yet to 
 learn why a tax on a letter should be more objectionable 
 than a tax on the paper on which it is written, on the food 
 of the writer, or on fifty other things. 
 
 During the first year (1840) of the new system, the nett 
 revenue of the Post Office fell off about £1,200,000 ! No 
 doubt, however, the revenue will increase in subsequent 
 years, with the increasing population and wealth of the 
 country. But it would have done this under any system 
 of moderate duties ; and its future increase, whatever it 
 may be, is consequently no proof of the superiority of the 
 present system. 
 
 POST POSITION. In Music, retardations of the har- 
 mony, effected by placing discords upon the accented parts 
 of a bar not prepared and resolved according to the rules 
 for discords. 
 
 POSTSCE'NIUM. (Lat. post, behind, and scena, a scene.) 
 In Architecture, the back part of the theatre behind the 
 scenes, furnished with conveniences for robing the actors 
 and depositing the machinery. 
 
 PO'STULATE. (Lat. postulare, to demand.) In Geom- 
 etry, something to be assumed, or taken for granted. Euclid 
 has constructed his Elements on the three following postu- 
 lates : 1. That a straight line may be drawn from any one 
 point to any other point. 2. That a terminated straight line 
 may be produced to any length in a straight line. 3. That 
 a circle may be described from any centre at any distance 
 from that centre. (Plaijfair's Euclid.) 
 
 Postulate. In Logic and Philosophy, a proposition of 
 which the truth is demanded or assumed for the purpose of 
 future reasoning. 
 
 POTA'SH. The saline matter obtained by lixiviating 
 the ashes of wood. When purified by calcination it is 
 termed pearlash, and is in that state an impure carbonate 
 of potassa. The production of potash is carried on upon a 
 large scale in Russia and America ; it can only be thus 
 obtained in countries where there are vast natural forests, 
 and where the value of timber is little more than that of 
 the labour of felling it. See Potassium. 
 
 POTASSA. See Potassium. 
 
 POTA'SSIUM. This extraordinary metal was discovered 
 by Davy in the year 1807, and was one of the first fruits of 
 his masterly researches into the chemical powers of elec- 
 tricity. Its properties are so remarkable, that it was for a 
 time doubted whether it could with propriety be placed 
 among the metals ; but the progress of discovery has re- 
 moved all difficulty upon that point, by making us acquainted 
 with other metallic substances, the properties of which are, 
 as it were, intermediate between those of potassium on 
 the one hand, and the common metals on the other. One 
 of the striking peculiarities of potassium is mechanical 
 rather than chemical, namely, its low specific gravity, it 
 being the lightest known solid ; another is its intense affinity 
 for oxygen, and its consequent energetic action when placed 
 upon water, where it immediately takes fire. The specific 
 gravity of potassium is -865 at the temperature of 60° ; it is 
 solid at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere; at 
 80° it becomes soft, and at 150° is perfectly liquid ; at 32° 
 it is brittle, and has a crystalline texture. In colour and 
 lustre it resembles mercury. Its attraction for oxygen is 
 such that it immediately loses its brilliancy on exposure to 
 air, and becomes converted into potassa ; heated in the air 
 it burns with a purple flame. The equivalent of potassium 
 is 40, and that of potassa or protoxide of potassium is 48. 
 When potassium is heated in oxygen it absorbs a larger 
 quantity of that element and becomes a peroxide, which, 
 however, is immediately converted into protoxide by the 
 action of water. Protoxide of potassium exists in the state 
 of hydrate in what is called caustic potash, which is a ' 
 compound of 48 potassa -f- 9 water. This substance fuses 
 at a dull red heat: it is very soluble and deliquescent, and 
 powerfully corrodes almost all animal textures. It is the 
 lapis causticus of old pharmacy. Dissolved in water it 
 forms soap ley, or the liquor potassa of the Pharmacopoeia. 
 This solution is obtained by pouring water upon a mixture 
 of equal parts of quicklime and carbonate of potassa ; the 
 lime abstracts carbonic acid from the carbonate, and 
 becomes converted into an insoluble carbonate of lime, 
 whilst the evolved potassa is taken up by the water. The 
 solution thus obtained is powerfully alkaline and caustic; 
 and, as it soon absorbs carbonic acid when exposed to air, 
 it should be carefully preserved in well-stopped phials. 
 Free potassa is easily detected and recognised, when in 
 solution, by its alkaline reaction upon proper vegetable 
 colours,' rendering, for instance, the yellow of turmeric 
 brown, and the blue of violet green ; when excess of tar- 
 
POTATOES. 
 
 taric acid is added to it, it yields a white granular precipi- 
 tate of bitartrnte of potassa, and an alcoholic solution of 
 earbazotic acid yields with it yellow and difficultly soluble 
 crystals of carbazotate of potassa. When potassa is in 
 Combination, as, for instance, when any of its salts are dis- 
 solved in water, they are best detected by a strong solution 
 of chloride of platinum, which causes a yellow precipitate 
 of the potasslo chloride of platinum. 
 
 When iwtassium and sulphur are heated together, they 
 combine and form a sulphuret of potassium. Wilh the 
 Mills, potassa forms a variety of useful salts; such as nitre, 
 or nitrate of potassa, wilh nitric acid; sulphate of potassa, 
 with the sulphuric acid ; and carbonate of potassa, with 
 the carbonic acid. The latter is a very important salt: it 
 forms great part of the residuum or ash of burnt wood, 
 from which il is obtained by li.\iviation, and brought to this 
 country from Russia and America, under the name of pearl- 
 ash and potash. It consists of 48 potassa + 22 carbonic 
 acid ; it is deliquescent, uncryslallizable, and has an alka- 
 line reaction. When carbonic acid is passed through a 
 solution of this sort, it becomes converted into bicarbonate 
 of potassa, composed of 48 potassa -f- 44 carbonic acid. 
 m burns with great splendour in chlorine, and 
 form- chloride of potassium ; it also combines with iodine, 
 and fluorine. 
 
 POTATOES. The common name for the roots of the 
 Solatium tuberosum* which see. 
 
 POTE'NTIAL MOOD. ( Lat. possum, / am able.) In 
 Grammar, that mood of the verb which expresses an action 
 conceived as possible; denoted in English by the auxiliary 
 verb mat) or might. 
 
 POTE \TI.VI. UIALITIES. In Scholastic Philosophy, 
 neb U a*e supposed to exist in a body »'n potcntia only. In 
 Grammar, a mood of the verb, also called the optative; by 
 some considered as the same with the subjunctive. 
 
 POTITII. The Roman priests of Hercules, who were 
 said to have been instituted by Evander Of nn inferior 
 grade to them, but in the service of the same god, were 
 the Pinari ; but these became extinct through the means of 
 Appius Claudius. 
 
 3 TONE. A tough variety of steatite, sometimes 
 manufactured into culinary vessels. It is the lapis ollaris 
 of Pliny. 
 
 POTTERY AND PORCELAIN. The better kind of 
 pottery, called in this country Staffordshire ware, is made 
 of an artificial mixture of alumina and silica; the former 
 obtaim cl in the form of a fine clay, from Devonshire chiefly ; 
 ami the latter consisting of chert or flint, which is heated 
 Bad-hot, quenched in water, and then reduced to powder. 
 Each material, carefully powdered and sifted, is diffused 
 through water, mixed by measure, and brought to a due 
 oonsirtency by evaporation: it is then highly plastic, and 
 formed upon the potter's wheel and lathe into various cir- 
 cular vessels, or moulded into other forms, which, after 
 having been dried in a warm room, are enclosed in baked 
 i bling bandboxes, and called seggars ; these 
 ad in the kiln so as nearly to fill it, leaving only 
 "tmb for the fuel; here the ware is kept red-hot 
 for a considerable time, and thus brought to the state of 
 biscuit. This is afterwards glazed, which Is done by dip- 
 ping the biscuit-ware into a tub containing a mixture of 
 about 60 parts of litharge, 10 of clay, and 20 of ground flint, 
 ditluseil in writer to a creamy consistence; nnd when taken 
 out enough adheres to the piece to give an uniform glazing 
 when again heated. The pieces are then again packed up 
 in the seggars, with small bits of pottery interposed between 
 each, and fired in a kiln as before. The glazing mixture 
 B very moderate heat, and gives an uniform glossy 
 coatins, which finishes the process when it is intended for 
 common white ware. 
 
 The patterns upon ordinnry porcelain, which nre chiefly 
 in blue, in consequence of the facility of applying cobalt, 
 arc generally first printed off upon paper, which is attached 
 to the plate or other article while in the state of biscuit ; 
 the colour adheres permanently to the surface when heat is 
 properly applied : other mineral colours, such as the oxides 
 of chrome and manganese, are also occasionally employed 
 in the same way. 
 
 The manufacture of Porcelain is a more refined branch 
 of art ; the materials are selected with the greatest caution, 
 it being necessary that the compound should remain per- 
 fectly white after exposure to heat: it is also required that 
 it should endure a very high temperature without fusing, 
 and at the same time acquire a semivitreous texture, and a 
 peculiar degree of translucency and toughness. These 
 qualities nre united in some of the oriental porcelain, or 
 China, and in some of the old Dresden ; but they are rarely 
 found coexistent in that of modern European manufacture. 
 Borne of the French and English porcelain, especially that 
 made at Sevres and Worcester, is extremely white, and 
 duly translucent ; but it is more apt to crack by sudden 
 changes of temperature ; more brittle, and consequently 
 3R 
 
 POULTRY. 
 
 requires to be formed into thicker and heavier vessels ; ana 
 more fusible than the finest porcelains of Japan and China. 
 
 The colours employed in painting porcelain are the same 
 metallic oxides used for colouring glass, and in all the 
 more delicate patterns they are laid on with a camel-hair 
 pencil, and generally previously mixed with a little oil of 
 turpentine. Where several colours are used, they often re- 
 quire various temperatures for their perfection ; in which 
 case those that bear the highest heat are first applied, and 
 subsequently those which are brought out at lower temper- 
 atures. This art of painting on porcelain, or in enamel, is 
 of the most delicate description: much experience and 
 skill are required in it, nnd with every care there are fre- 
 quent failures ; hence it is attended with considerable ex- 
 pense. The gilding of porcelain is generally performed by 
 applying finely divided L'old mixed with gam-Water and 
 borax ; upon the application of heat the gum burns off, and 
 the borax vitrifying upon the surface causes the gold lirmly 
 to adhere ; it is afterwards burnished. 
 
 In the manufacture of various kinds of pottery employed 
 in the chemical laboratory, and especially in regard to cru- 
 cibles, many difficulties occur; and many requisites are ne- 
 cessary, which cannot be united in the same vessel. To 
 the late Mr. Wedgwood we are indebted for vast improve- 
 ments in this as well as in other branches of the nrt. Cru- 
 cibles composed of one part of pure clay mixed with about 
 three parts of coarse and pure sand, slowly dried and an- 
 nealed, resist a very high temperature without fusion, nnd 
 generally retain metallic substances ; but where the metals 
 are suffered to oxidize, there are few which do nut act 
 upon any earthen vessel, and some cause its rapid fusion, 
 as the oxides of lead, bismuth, fcc. Where saline fluxes 
 are used, the best crucibles will always sutler; but plati- 
 num may often be employed in these cases, and the chem- 
 ist is thus enabled to combat many difficulties which were 
 nearly insurmountable before this metal was thus applied 
 Whenever silica nnd alumina are blended, as in the mix- 
 ture of clay and sand, the compound softens, nnd the vessel 
 loses its shape when exposed to a long-continued white 
 heat, and this is the case with the Hessian crucibles : con- 
 sequently, the most refractory of all vessels are those made 
 entirely of clay, coarsely-powdered burned day being used 
 as a substitute for the sand. Such a compound resists the 
 action of saline fluxes longer than any oilier, and is there 
 lore used for the pots in glass furnaces. A Hessian cruci- 
 ble lined with .purer clay is rendered much more retentive ; 
 nnd a thin china cup, or other dense porcelain, resists the 
 action of saline matters in fusion for a considerable time. 
 Plumbago is a very good material for crucibles, and applica- 
 ble to ninny purposes; when mixed with clay it forms a 
 very difficultly fusible compound, and is protected from the 
 action of the air at high temperatures : it is well calculated 
 for small table furnaces. 
 
 POULP. The English generic name of the eight-footed 
 Dibranchiate Cephalopoda (Octopi), which have a double 
 alternate row of suckers on each foot. 
 
 PO'ULTRY. Different kinds of birds reared for the pro- 
 duction of eggs, feathers, and for the use of their bodies as 
 animal food. The domestic poultry in common use in Brit- 
 ain arc the common domestic fowls, or cock and hen, the 
 turkey, the duck, and the goose ; to which may be added, 
 *s occasionally reared, the guinea fowl and the peacock. 
 The most generally useful kind of poultry is the common 
 domestic fowl, which, though a native of India, accompa- 
 nies man through all climates, but which is only productive 
 of abundance of eggs when well fed and warmly lodged. 
 Hence, all poultry-houses, when not built ndjoining an 
 apartment in which fire is kept, or over a stable or cow- 
 house, where they might benefit by the heat generated by 
 the larger animals, ought to be furnished with flues, or 
 some other means of generating heat artificially during win- 
 ter and spring. Without some mode of effecting this, poul 
 try will seldom produce abundance of eggs in cold weather, 
 particularly in the colder parts of Britain. Hence, in Scot 
 land, the common hen roosts in the same room that the cot- 
 tager lives in ; and the poultry-house of the small farmer is 
 a loft either over his kitchen, or over his cow-house. In 
 the management of poultry it is not sufficient to supply 
 abundance of food and warmth, but it is equally necessary 
 that they have ample space for exercise. This space should 
 always contain living plants of various kinds, and some 
 gravelly or sandy soil ; because worms, snails, nnd insects, 
 as well as occasionally grass and herbage, form a part of 
 the food of poultry ; and sand or gravel is swallowed by 
 them for the purpose of promoting digestion. Hence, no 
 healthy poultry can ever be reared in towns, however much 
 the natural food may be imitated by the supply of animal 
 matters, herbage, and sand : the want of exercise in poultry 
 so circumstanced will soon become evident from the ap- 
 pearance of the fowls, and from the soft shell of their eggs, 
 in consequence of the animal functions not being efficiently 
 performed. 
 
 973 
 
POULTRY-HOUSES. 
 
 POULTRY-HOUSES. Structures in which poultry are 
 kept in the night time ; the principal features of which 
 ought to be, that each kind of bird shall be separately lodg- 
 ed, and that all shall have access to an ample field, contain- 
 ing a pond and a heap of gravel. See Poultry. 
 
 POUNCE. A powder to prevent ink from spreading 
 upon paper after erasures: it is either sandarach (resin of 
 the juniper) in powder, or the powdered bone of the cuttle- 
 fish. The term pounce is also applied to the coloured pow- 
 ders used by pattern drawers for sprinkling over pricked 
 papers. 
 
 POUND. (Lat. pondus, weight.) A measure of weight. 
 In England two different pounds are used ; the pound avoir- 
 dupois, and the pound troy. The pound avoirdupois weighs 
 7000 grains troy, and the pound troy 5760 grains. The for- 
 mer is divided into 16 ounces, and the latter into 12. (See 
 Weight.) Pound is also a denomination of money ; the 
 pound sterling being equal in value to 20 shillings, or 240 
 pence. Anciently 240 pence were equivalent to a pound of 
 silver; hence the origin of the term. 
 
 POUPART'S LIGAMENT. The tendinous attachment 
 of the external oblique muscle of the abdomen to the supe- 
 rior and anterior spinous process of the os ileum and os 
 pubis. 
 
 POU'RPRESTURE, or PU'RPRESTURE, in Law, is 
 said to be when any man takes unto himself or appropri- 
 ates anything that he ought not, whether it be in any juris- 
 'diction, land, or franchise ; and generally when anything is 
 done to the nuisance of the king's tenants, by way of nui- 
 sance or hurt to the king's highways or demesnes, by en- 
 closing, &c. Pourpresture may also be by tenant against 
 lord of the fee, or by one neighbour against another. 
 
 POURSUIVANT. See Pursuivant. 
 
 POWER, in Algebra and Arithmetic, denotes the product 
 arising from the continued multiplication of a quantity or 
 number into itself. The successive powers of a number are 
 formed and indicated as follows : Thus, taking the num- 
 ber 3, 
 
 3i as 3, the 1st power of 3 ; 
 3 X 3 or 32 = 9, the 2d power, or square of 3 ; 
 
 32 X 3 or 33 = 27, the 3d power, or cube of 3 : 
 
 33 x 3 or 34 = 81, the 4th power of 3, &c. 
 
 In like manner, the successive powers of the quantity a are 
 a), a 2 , a 3 , a*, &c. The numbers indicating the powers are 
 called the exponents ; and it is obvious from their formation 
 that powers of the same quantity are multiplied by adding 
 their exponents, and divided by subtracting their exponents. 
 Powers are considered as negative or fractional which have 
 negative or fractional exponents. 
 
 Power, in Mechanics, denotes a force which being ap- 
 plied to a machine tends to produce motion. A mechanical 
 power denotes one of the six simple machines; viz., the 
 lever, the inclined plane, the screw, the wheel and axle, the 
 wedge, and the pulley. 
 
 Power. In Law, a term commonly applied to designate 
 a reservation made in a conveyance, either for the party 
 conveying or for some other party, to enable him to do cer- 
 tain acts regarding the property conveyed. Powers are 
 either common law authorities, or have their validity from 
 the Statute of Uses. To the former class belong powers 
 granted by will or by act of parliament to certain persons to 
 sell estates, &c. The latter are of several sorts — 1. Powers 
 appendant, or appurtenant, are powers granted to one who 
 has an estate given him by the deed creating the power, 
 and strictly depending on the estate so limited ; as where 
 an estate for life is limited to a man, with power to grant 
 leases in possession. 2. A power collateral, or in gross, 
 given also to one having an interest, either granted by the 
 same deed, or subsisting previously to its execution ; but it 
 enables him to create such interests only as will not attach 
 on the interest limited to him, as a power to tenant for life 
 to appoint the estate after his decease among his children. 
 3. A power simply collateral is one given to a party who 
 has not any interest in the land, either after, or subsisting 
 immediately up to, the period of the execution of the deed. 
 
 POWER OF ATTORNEY. In Law, an instrument by 
 which a party empowers another to perform certain acts 
 for him, either generally, or for a particular purpose ; such 
 as to accept and negotiate letters of exchange, to receive 
 dividends, &c. An instrument by which a party authorizes 
 his attorney to appear and plead for him is termed a war- 
 rant of attorney (see that article). 
 
 POWERS, GREAT, OF EUROPE. In the language of 
 modern diplomacy, England, France, Austria, Russia, and 
 Prussia, are so called. 
 
 POZZUOLA'NA. Volcanic ashes used in the manu- 
 facture of a mortar which hardens under water. They are 
 exported from Pozzuoli, a town in the Bay of Naples. 
 
 PR^AM. A sort of lighter used in Holland and the 
 Baltic. 
 
 PRA'CTICE. A rule in arithmetic for expeditiously 
 974 ' 
 
 PRAETORIAN COHORTS. 
 
 solving questions in proportion ; or, rather, foi abridging th» 
 operation of multiplying quantities expressed in different de 
 nominations : as pounds, shillings, and pence ; yards, feet, 
 and inches, &c. 
 
 PRvE-A'DAMlTES. A term given to those inhabitants 
 of the earth who are presumed, by some writers, to have 
 lived before Ad-tm. In support of this theory, a work was 
 published in 1655, by Isaac de la Pyreri, which proved the 
 means of converting many to its author's opinions. 
 
 l'RJECORDIA. (Lilt, prae, before, and cor, the heart.) 
 The fore part of the chest. 
 
 PREFECT. (Lat. praefectus.) A common name of va- 
 rious Roman functionaries; among others a military officer, 
 who had the command of the cavalry of a legion. The 
 praetorian praefect was the commanding officer of the prae- 
 torian cohorts, who were the imperial guard, and always 
 stationed at Rome. This office, after the time of.Severus, 
 engrossed the highest powers to which a subject could at- 
 tain. (See Pr*torian Cohorts.) Prefect was likewise 
 the title given to the imperial governor of Egypt, which 
 was on a different footing from the other provinces, which 
 were superintended by senatorial men with the titles cil 
 proconsul and propraetor. The praefect of Egypt, on the 
 contrary, was always of the equestrian order, and was a 
 military governor. This anomaly is said to have arisen 
 from a prophecy which foretold that Egypt should recover 
 its liberty when the Roman fasces and pni'tcxta should 
 come to it; and which Augustus took advantage of, to 
 bring that province more immediately under his own super- 
 intendence. 
 
 PRjEMUNI'RE. In Law, a name given to a species of 
 offence, in the nature of a contempt, against the king and 
 his government. The name is derived from the words 
 " praemoneri," or " pra'muniri facias," which are used in 
 the beginning of the writ preparatory to the prosecution of 
 the offence : " Cause A. B. to be forewarned that he appear 
 before us," &c. The first statute of praemunire was pass- 
 ed in the reign of Edward I. to restrain the encroachments 
 of the Romish clergy; and several subsequent statutes be- 
 fore the Reformation have extended the number of penal 
 acts under this title. The principal were those proceeding 
 from an assumption of authority in England by virtue of 
 papal and other foreign provisions. But, by still later stat- 
 utes, acts of a very miscellaneous character have been ren- 
 dered liable to the penalties of praemunire, as refusing to 
 take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, &c. 
 
 PR^ENO'MEN. See Cognomen, Name. 
 
 PR^ETE'XTA. (Lut.) A long white robe with a pur- 
 ple border, originally appropriated by Tullus Ilostilius to 
 the Roman magistrates and some of the priests ; but after- 
 wards worn by the children of the higher classes ; by boys 
 till the age of seventeen (when they assumed the toga viri 
 lis), and by girls till they were married. 
 
 PR^E'TOR. A Roman magistrate ranking in dignity 
 next to the consuls. Anciently the name of praetor was 
 common to all the chief magistrates ; but, on account of the 
 continual absence of the consuls in foreign wars, and their 
 consequent inability to discharge many of their civil duties, 
 a new civil magistrate was created to supply their place 
 (A.U. 389), to whom the title of praetor was specially as- 
 signed. He was at first elected from the patricians, but 
 the office was afterwards i A.U. 418) thrown open also to 
 the plebeians. When it was found that a single praetor 
 was inadequate to the due discharge of his duties, in con- 
 sequence of the great influx of strangers, another was add- 
 ed (A.U. 519) to administer justice in cases in which they 
 were involved, with the epithet percgrinus attached to his 
 title, to distinguish him from the more ancient and honour 
 able magistrate, the prmtor vrbanus, as he was called. 
 This latter dignitary corresponded in many respects to the 
 lord-mayors, mayors, or provosts of our country, combining 
 with their functions the judicial power of lord-chancellor. 
 Besides this, he performed the duties of the consuls on 
 many occasions in their absence, presiding in the assembli is 
 of the people, and convening the senate. So long as t.Je 
 Roman empire was confined to Italy, the number of praetors 
 did not exceed two ; but on the reduction of Sicily and Sar- 
 dinia to the form of provinces, two more were added to 
 govern them, and again two more were created on the sub- 
 jection of hither and farther Spain to the Roman yoke. 
 The praitors on being elected determined their province, 
 like the consuls, by casting lots. Under the emperors the 
 powers of the praetors were reduced, their principal func- 
 tions being transferred to the praetorian praefect ; but the 
 name of the magistrate continued to the time of Justinian. 
 (See Nicbuhr's Roman History.) 
 
 PRvETO'RIAN COHORTS. A body of troops among 
 the Romans, distinguished from the rest of the army by 
 double pay and superior privileges, first instituted by Augus- 
 tus, and called by that name, in imitation of the select 
 band which attended a Roman general in battle. At their 
 first institution they were nine in number, three being sta- 
 
PR^ETOMUM. 
 
 tioned at Rome, and the rest in the adjacent towns of Italy, 
 and consisted of Italian soldiers only. Tiberias assem- 
 bled them all at Rome, and placed them in a permanent 
 camp ; a measure which, while it answered the purpose of 
 keeping the citizens in awe, proved dangerous and some- 
 times destructive to his successors. The emperor Severus 
 disarmed the old guards, and established the praetorian co- 
 hoits on a new footing, increased their number, and filling 
 them entirely with troops draughted from the armies of the 
 northern frontier. The command of these troops was vest- 
 ed in an officer called the Pratorian prefect, who, as the 
 government gradually degenerated into a military despot- 
 ism, rose, from the station of simple captain of the guards, 
 not only to be the head of the army, but of the provinces, 
 and even of the law. In every department of administra- 
 tion he represented the person and exercised the authority 
 of the ein|ieror. The praitorian bands were deprived of all 
 their privileges by Diocletian, who replaced them by other 
 troops, and were Anally abolished by Constantine. 
 
 I'R.V: T< I'RUM. That part of a Roman camp in which 
 the general's tent stood, and where he took the auspices. 
 It was railed a few feet above the level of the rest of the 
 camp. Of the four gates of the Roman camp, that which 
 lay next the enemy was called the praetorian gate. 
 
 "PRAGMA TIC SANCTION, more correctly Pragmatic 
 Rescript. A term of which the use seems to have origina- 
 ted in the Byzantine empire, signifying a public and solium 
 constitution or decree pronounced by a prince ; distinguish- 
 ed from the simple rescript, which was a declaration of 
 law in answer to a question propounded on behalf of an in- 
 dividual. In Eur op ea n history several important treaties 
 are called by the name Pragmatic Sanction ; among whicll 
 the principal are — 1. The ordinance of Charles VII. of 
 France, in 1438, which constituted the foundation of the 
 liberties of tho Gallican church. 2. Charles VI., emperor 
 of Germany, being without male descendants, endeavour- 
 ed by an instrument termed the Pragmatic Sanction to se- 
 cure the succession to his female helri ; which caused the 
 Bavarian war of succession, 1740. 3. The law of succes- 
 sion to the kingdom of Naples, when ceded by Charles II. 
 of Spain, in 1750, to his third son and his posterity. 
 
 PRAIRIE. (Fr.) A term in common use for the vast 
 plains or savannahs of the Mississippi and Missouri. See 
 Savannahs. 
 
 PHASE. Green quartz. The colouring matter of this 
 mineral appears to be actinolite. 
 
 PRA'XEANS. A sect of heretics that sprung up in Asia 
 ■nd century; so called from their founder, Praxeas, 
 tic lueresiarch. The distinguishing characteristics 
 of this sect were their denial of plurality of persons in the 
 godhead, and their belief that it was the Father himself 
 who suffered on the cross. The Monarchic!, Sabellians, 
 and P.itriprisr-ians adopted these sentiments. 
 
 PREA'MBLE. The commencement of a statute, which 
 recites the intention of parliament in framing it, and is oft- 
 en admissible in argument to prove its meaning. 
 
 PUE'BF.NI). 1. 1, it. prabenda.) The share of the estate 
 of a cathedral or collegiate church received by a preben- 
 dary'. To all such churches there are several prebendaries 
 attached, who reside and officiate in rotation. 
 
 PRECE'DENCY. (Lat. precede / go first.) The rela- 
 tive rank of men and women in the etiquette of society ; 
 strictly it means the order in which they follow one an- 
 other in a state procession, which it is part of the office of 
 herald's duty to ascertain and preserve. The following 
 are the degrees of precedency commonly recognised in Eng- 
 land among men: 1. The Sovereign. 2. The Prince of 
 Wales. 3. The Queen's consort. 4. The Queen Dowa- 
 ger. 5. The princes of the blood according to seniority. 6. 
 The Sovereign's uncles. 7. Cousins of the Sovereign. 8. 
 Husbands of princesses. 9. The archbishop of Canterbury. 
 10. The lord high chancellor. 11. The archbishop of York. 
 12. Lord high treasurer. 13. Lord president of the privy 
 council. 14. Lord privy seal. 15. Lord high constable. 
 1G. Earl marshal. 17. Lord high admiral. 18. Lord stew- 
 ard of the household. 19. Lord chamberlain of the house- 
 hold. (The last five, however, take precedence only of all 
 their degree : »'. e., if dukes, tbey precede all dukes ; if 
 marquises, all marquises, &c.) 20. Dukes. 21. Marquises. 
 22. Dukes' eldest sons. 23. Earls. 24. Marquises' eldest 
 sons. 25. Dukes' younger sons. 26. Viscounts. 27. Earls' 
 eldest sons. 28. Marquises' younger sons. 29, 30, 31. The 
 bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester. 32. Other 
 bifhops according to priority of consecration. 33. Barons. 
 34 Speaker of the House of Commons. 35. Viscounts' eld- 
 est sons. 36. Earls' younger sons. 37. Barons' eldest sons. 
 38. Knights of the Garter. 39. Privy councillors. 40. Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer. 41. Chancellor of the duchy of 
 Lancaster. 42. Lord chief justice of K. B. 43. Vice-chan- 
 ehellor. 44. Master of the Rolls. 45. Lord chief justice of 
 C. P. 46. Lord chief baron of the Exchequer. 47. Judges 
 and barons of the Exchequer of the degree of the coif, by 
 
 PRECESSION OF THE EQ.UINOXES. 
 
 seniority. 48. Knights bannerets made by the king in pet- 
 son. 49. Viscounts' younger sons. 50. "Barons' younger 
 sons. 51. Baronets. 52. Bannerets not made by the king 
 in person. 53. Knights grand crosses of the Bath. 54. 
 Knights commanders of the Bath. 55. Knights baehelon. 
 56. Companions of the Bath. 57. Eldest sons of the young- 
 er sons of peers. 58. Baronets' eldest sons. 59. Knights of 
 the Carter's eldest sons. 60. Bannerets' eldest sons. 61. 
 Knights of the Bath's eldest sons. 02. Knights' eldest sons. 
 63. Baronets' younger sons. 64. Esquires of the King's 
 body. 65. Gentlemen of the privy chamber. 66. Esquires 
 of the knights of the Bath. 67. Esquires by creation. 68. 
 Esquires by office. 69. Younger sons of knights of the Gar 
 ter. 70. Younger sons of bannerets. 71. Younger sons of 
 knights of the Bath. 72. Younger sons of knights bache- 
 lors. 73. Gentlemen entitled to bear arms. 
 
 PRE'CEDENTS, in Law, are defined authorities to be 
 followed in courts of justice. Precedents, strictly speaking, 
 are only binding on tribunals when they are in the shape of 
 actual judicial dicisions of the point in question. What En- 
 glish lawyers term an extrajudicial opinion — i. e., the opin 
 ion of a judge pronounced where it was not called for to 
 decide the issue — can only have authority from the character 
 of the individual judge, and not as a precedent When the 
 principles of equity were as yet unsettled, it was held by 
 many that precedents were inapplicable in that branch of 
 law; as its very name seemed to imply that each case 
 should be governed by the judge's opinion of its individual 
 merits. But Lord Keeper Bridgman, among others, serious- 
 ly refuted this supposition; and precedents have long been 
 of as much authority in courts of equity as in those of com- 
 mon law. A form of an instrument or a pleading, from 
 which others corresponding in circumstances may be cop 
 ied, is also termed a pn cedent. 
 
 PRECETTOIUF.S. In the Middle Ages, a kind of bene 
 fices possessed by the more eminent Knight* Templar, 
 whom the grand master Created and styled I'nrciptorcx 
 Tcmpli ; whence the name. Of these preceptories, 16 are 
 recorded as belonging to the Templars in England (see Mon 
 Jing.) ; but it is averred by some writers that these places 
 were merely cells, subordinate to their head-quarters, the 
 Temple in London. Srr Commanpkry. 
 
 PRECE'SSION OF THE EQUINOXES. A term used 
 In BStromrmy to denote a small annual variation in ihe po- 
 sition of the line in which the planes of the ecliptic and 
 equator intercept each other, in consequence of which the 
 sun returns to the same equinoctial point before completing 
 his apparent revolution with respect to the lived stars. 
 
 The longtitudc of a star is counted on the ecliptic east 
 ward from the first point of Aries, or the vernal equinox. If 
 the line of the equinoxes, therefore, maintained always the 
 same position with res]iect to the celestial sphere, thelong- 
 titudes of the stars would be invariable. But on comparing 
 the actual state of the heavens with the observations re- 
 corded by ancient astronomers, it is found that the longti- 
 tudes of all the stars have considerably increased, and all 
 to the same degree; so that the celestial sphere appears to 
 turn round the axis of the ecliptic with a slow motion from 
 west to east, or in the same direction as the sun in his an- 
 nual revolution. The phenomena, however, will be in all 
 respects the same, if, instead of supposing the whole firma 
 ment to advance in the order of the signs, we suppose the 
 axis of the earth's equator to have a slow motion about the 
 axis of the ecliptic in the opposite direction. This will give 
 to the line of intersection of the two planes (which is the 
 line of the equinoxes) a retrograde motion from east to 
 west, in consequence of which the sun, whose motion is 
 from west to east, arrives at the equinoctial point soonei 
 than if they remained at rest ; and therefore the equinoxes, 
 and the seasons which depend on them, come round before 
 the sun has completed an entire circuit of the sphere. On 
 this account the motion has been called the precession of 
 the equinoxes. 
 
 Although the existence of the precessional motion of the 
 equinoctial points was known at an early period in the his- 
 tory of astronomy, the imperfection of instruments prior to 
 the sixteenth century did not permit of observations be- 
 ing made with sufficient accuracy to determine its precise 
 rate, which must therefore be deduced from comparisons of 
 the longtitudc of the same star calculated from modern ob- 
 servations ; although, on account of the extreme slowness 
 of the motion, the determination must be liable to some un- 
 certainty, unless a considerable interval of time has elapsed 
 between the epochs of observation. According to Bradley's 
 observations, the longtitude of the star Spica Virginis. at 
 the beginning of the year 1760, was 200-4944°. At the be- 
 ginning of 1802 Maskelvne found the longtitude of the same 
 star to be 201-0781°. The difference is 0-5837° in 42 years, 
 which gives 50-3" in a year. The comparison of a great 
 number of observations on different stars gives 50-1" for the 
 annual precession. According to this estimate, the equi- 
 noctial points retrograde on the ecliptic at the rate of one 
 
PRECESSION OF THE EQ.UINOXES. 
 
 degree in 716 years, and therefore will require a period of 
 about 25,800 years to make a complete revolution. 
 
 The physical cause of the precession of the equinoxes is 
 the combined action of the sun and moon on the mass of 
 matter accumulated about the earth's equator, and forming 
 the excess of the terrestrial spheroid above its inscribed 
 sphere. The matter of this spheroidal shell, in reference to 
 the effect of the solar attraction on it, may be regarded as 
 forming a ring about the earth in the plane of the equator. 
 Now tiie solar force, acting on the part of the ring which is 
 above the ecliptic, may at every point be resolved into two 
 parts, one parallel to the plane of the equator, and the other 
 perpendicular to it; and the resultant of all the latter 
 forces must be a force tending to impress on the ring a mo- 
 tion round the intersection of its plane with the ecliptic. 
 The same thing holds true of the other half of the ring 
 which is under the ecliptic. If the earth, therefore, had no 
 motion of rotation, the plane of the equator would turn 
 round the line of its intersection with the ecliptic until it 
 coincided with the latter plane. But while the equator has 
 this tendency to revolve about an axis in its plane, it has also 
 a rotatory motion about an axis perpendicular to its plane ; 
 it will therefore, according to a well-known theorem in me- 
 chanics, not revolve on either of these axes, but on one 
 which divides the angle between them, so that the sine of 
 its angular distance from each axis is in the inverse ratio 
 of the angular velocity round that axis. See Rotation. 
 In order to illustrate this, let E K F H be the earth's 
 equator, A the centre, A B the axis of 
 rotation, S the sun, and E F the diame- 
 ter of the equator perpendicular to A S ; 
 and suppose the earth to be in the posi- 
 tion it occupies at the summer solstice. 
 We may also suppose the centre of gravity A to be at rest, 
 as the efl'ect in question is not altered by the orbital mo- 
 tion. It is plain that if the earth were a sphere, the sun's 
 attraction would have no tendency to give it an angular 
 motion about the centre A ; for all the matter being sym- 
 metrically arranged about the line S A, the efl'ect of the 
 attraction on any point on one side of that line would be ex- 
 actly compensated by the attraction on the corresponding 
 point on the opposite side. But the earth being an oblate 
 spheriod, we must consider the effect of the sun's attraction 
 on the mass of matter exterior to the sphere which touches 
 the spheroid at its poles. Now let K be arr element of the 
 protuberant matter, which we may suppose to be all accu- 
 mulated in the plane of the equator; the sun's attraction on 
 K, acting in the line which joins S and K, may be resolved 
 into two parts — one of them acting in the plane of the equa- 
 tor, and the other in a line perpendicular to that plane. 
 The part of the solar force acting on K perpendicularly to 
 the equator, tends to give that plane a rotatory motion about 
 the axis E F, by drawing K towards the plane of the eclip- 
 tic ; but the earth at the same time revolves about the axis 
 A B, which is perpendicular to E F. In consequence of 
 this compound motion the axis of rotation will change its 
 position from A B to A D, the pole B moving in a direction 
 opposite to that of the rotation ; and as the solar force con- 
 tinues to act at every instant, the pole B will have a contin- 
 uous slow motion about the pole of the ecliptic, and the 
 plane of the equator, which is perpendicular to A B, will at 
 every instant intersect the ecliptic in a new line, which will 
 slowly recede or go backward on the ecliptic in the direc- 
 tion opposite to that of the earth's rotation. 
 
 The motion now described may be assimilated to that of a 
 top put into rapid motion, with its axis inclined to the horizon. 
 In this position the axis of the top slowly revolves about 
 the vertical drawn from the point on which it rests, describ- 
 ing the surface of a cone ; and any section of the top per- 
 pendicular to the axis, if produced to meet the horizon, will 
 at every instant intersect that plane in a new line ; ancj the 
 line of intersection will revolve with a motion correspond- 
 ing to that of the axis in the direction opposite to that of the 
 rotation. 
 
 The attraction of the moon on the spheroidal shell pro- 
 duces a similar effect to that of the sun, and in a still great- 
 er degree, in the ratio of about 5 to 2. It is easy to see that 
 the effect of both those bodies in displacing the equator of 
 the terrestrial spheroid must vary with their position in re- 
 ference to it ; for if they moved in the plane of the equator, 
 there would evidently be no displacement, and their power 
 to produce it is greatest when the earth is in such a ix>si- 
 tion that the inclination of the equator to the ecliptic, or to 
 the plane of the lunar orbit, is a maximum. This ine- 
 quality of action gives rise to another highly important as- 
 tronomical phenomon ; namely, an apparent vibratory mo- 
 tion of the equator, which Bradley (who first discovered its 
 cause and period) significantly denominated the nutation of 
 the earth's axis. See Nutation. 
 
 In consequence of the precession of the equinoxes the 
 sun's place among the zodiacal constellations, at any given 
 season of the year, is now greatly different from what it 
 076 
 
 PRE-EXISTENOE. 
 
 was in remote ages. Sometime before the age of Ilippar- 
 chus the first points of Aries and Libra corresponded to the 
 vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and those of Career ami 
 Capricorn to the summer and winter solstices. These points 
 have now receded 30° from the constellations to which the) 
 then corresponded. The vernal equinox now happens whe* 
 the sun is in Pisces, the summer solstice when he is ii 
 Gemini, the autumnal equinox when he is in Virgo, and tin 
 winter solstice when he is in Sagittarius. Astronomers 
 however, still employ the term thefirstpoint of Juries to de- 
 note the position of the vernal equinox. On this account 
 the signs of the zodiac, or ecliptic, which are fixed in respect 
 of the equinoctial points, must be .carefully distinguished 
 from the constellations, which are moveable with respect to 
 those points. (See Airy's Mathematical Tracts ; F.ncyc. 
 Brit., iirt. " Precession ;" Woodhouse's Physical Astronomy ; 
 La Place, Jlfecanigue Celeste; Poisson, Sur le Mouvcm'ent 
 da la Terre autour de son Centre de Gravite, in the Mem. 
 de VAcad. des Sciences de Paris, torn, vii., 1829.) 
 
 PRECI'PITATE. (Lat. prreceps, headlong.) A result 
 of chemical decomposition, in which a substance is thrown 
 down in a solid, and generally in a finely divided state, from 
 a liquid. 
 
 PREDA'CEANS. (Lat. prada, booty.) The English 
 name used by Kirby as synonymous with the Carnassiers 
 ofCuvier. SceFERiNEs. 
 
 PREDESTINA'TION. (In Gr. vpaopiatioc, Rom., viii., 
 29; Eph. i., 5, 11.) The belief that God has from all eter- 
 nity decreed whatever comes to pass. In a theological 
 sense, it is thus defined in the 17th Article of our church- 
 " Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, 
 whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he 
 hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to de- 
 liver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chos- 
 en in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to 
 everlasting salvation." The Lambeth Articles, agreed to 
 in 1595 by a portion of the clergy, assert that " God from 
 eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life, certain he 
 hath reprobated." Theological writers have generally for- 
 borne to use the word predestination with respect to the re- 
 jected : " Nefas est dicere Deum aliquid nisi bonum praedes 
 tinare." (August., He Dono Persevcrantiw.) See Elbc 
 tion, Calvinism. 
 
 PREDETERMINATION. In Scholastic Philosoph) 
 that concurrence of God which determines men in the per- 
 formance of their actions, good or evil ; called physical pre- 
 determination, or promotion. 
 
 PRE'DIAL. (Lat. prcedium, farm.) Of or belonging to 
 a farm. Thus we often read of predial slaves and slavery 
 in opposition to domestic ; predial disturbances in Ireland, 
 &c. 
 
 PRE'DICABLE. In Logic, a term which can bo affirma- 
 tively predicated of several others. The notions expressed 
 by such terms are formed by the faculty termed abstraction, 
 after the particular circumstances characterizing each indi- 
 vidual have been withdrawn from it. The predicnhlc? are 
 commonly said to be five ; genus, species, difference, pro- 
 perty (which has been subdivided into four heads by no 
 very intelligible system of classification), and accident 
 (which is either separable or inseparable). See these terms 
 and Logic. 
 
 PKEDI'CAMENTS, or CATEGORIES, in Logic, are a 
 certain number of general heads, or, in logical phraseology, 
 summa genera, under one or other of which every term may 
 be arranged. Aristotle enumerated ten predicaments; 
 others, by subdividing some of these, have increased their 
 number. Those of Aristotle are — substance, quantity, qua- 
 lity, relation, place, time, situation, possession, action, suf 
 fering. It is evident that all these may be arranged under 
 two grand heads — substance and attribute. See Category, 
 Attribute. 
 
 PRE'DICATE. In Logic, is, of the two terms of a pre 
 position, that which is affirmed or denied of the other. See 
 Term, Proposition, Logic. 
 
 PREDISPO'SING CAUSE, in Medicine, is any circur. 
 stance wiiich renders the body susceptible of disease. 
 
 PRE-EXISTENCE. In Philosophy, the existence of any 
 thing before another ; commonly used for the existence of 
 the human soul, in some former condition, before it became 
 connected with its present body. It was the doctrine of the 
 Pythagorean school, and connected with their peculiar te- 
 net of the Metempsychosis. It was a'so the doctrine of 
 Plato ; and he uses in support of it arguments which hav# 
 exercised a strong influence on many minds, and to this 
 day are constantly recurring to those who study the subject 
 on independent principles; particularly the rapidity of 
 learning in early childhood, which he explains as an effort 
 of reminiscence, not acquisition. Others have enlisted into 
 the service those peculiar sensations which are sometimei 
 raised by scenes, persons, sounds, words, though seen or 
 heard, as our reason would persuade us, for the first time, 
 as if we were conscious of some prior familiarity witb 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tnem. This poetical, rather than philosophical view of the 
 subject, is beautifully illustrated in a well known ode of 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 PRIST ACE. (Lat. pre, and fari, to speak.) The obser- 
 vations prefixed to a work or treatise, intended to inform 
 the reader of its plan and peculiarities. There are few 
 subjects which afford so wide a fleld for the display of skill 
 and address as preface writing ; anil those who wish to 
 ;n unrivalled exhibition of these qualities may con- 
 suit some of Dr. Johnson's prefaces, either to his own Writ- 
 ings or to the numerous works which he edited. 
 
 PRE'FECT. An important political functionary in mo- 
 dern France. Under the old rfigime, the officers who were 
 Bent round to the provinces to superintend the details of ad- 
 ministration on behalf of the king were at first styled mai- 
 tres des requites. These were made permanent local offi- 
 cers in the reign of Henry II., and afterwards attained many 
 additional powers, with the title of intendants. These were 
 abolished at the Revolution, when various attempts were 
 made to establish elective local governments. By a law of 
 the year 1800 prefects were first appointed for the de|>art- 
 l i tli powers similar in many respects to those of the 
 old intendants, with a council of the prefecture, and a gen- 
 eral council of the deiKirtinent ; which, however, fill into 
 di-usc. With slight variations, the prefects retain the same 
 jurisdiction. They are, in some respects, analogous to our 
 sheriffs ; but with far greater powers. They possess not 
 the nominal only, but the actual direction of the police es- 
 tablishment, within their respective departments, together 
 with extensive p owe rs of municipal regulation ; the nrron- 
 into which the department* are sub- 
 divided are under sous-prefets appointed by them. Their 
 power, however, is considerably controlled by that of the 
 council of tlie prefecture, which acts in some measure as a 
 court of ap|ieal from the prelect, taking cognisance of vari- 
 I within the sphere of his administrative interfer- 
 ed disputes arise upon it. 
 
 PKE'II.N I'J'K. A mineral of a greenish colour, allied to 
 the zeolites; originally discovered at the Cape of Good 
 IIo|xt by ( oionel Prehn. 
 
 PRELACY. See Episcopacy. 
 
 PRE'LATE. (Lat. prclatus.) A term commonly ap- 
 plied to bishops, archbishops and patriarchs, in Christian 
 Churches. Anciently, mitred abbots seem nlso to have 
 been called prelates. 
 
 PRECLUDE (Lat. pre, before, and ludo, / play.) In 
 Music, the preface or introduction to a movement, and usu- 
 ally consisting of a few bars of harmony in the same key as 
 ■■incut which it precedes ; being, in fact, a prepara- 
 tion to the car for what is to follow. 
 
 PRE'.MIEK. (Fr.) The name generally given to the 
 prime minister of England. 
 
 PRE'MISES. In Logic, the two first propositions of a 
 >•} Uogism an so called. See Syllogism. 
 
 PREMf CN8TRANTS. A religious older of regular can- 
 ons instituted in 1120 by St. Norbert (whence they are also 
 called Xorbcrtines), at Premonstratum, In Picardy, which 
 is said to have derived its name from having been pointed 
 cut by the Virgin. The canons of this order followed the 
 rule of St. Austin, and were sometimes called White Can- 
 ons, from the colour of their habits. They were brought 
 into England about 1140, where they are said to have estab- 
 lished thirty-five houses of their order. 
 
 PREXSICI I.A'XTIA. (Lat. prehendo, / seize.) A 
 name applied by llliger to an order of Mammalia, corres- 
 ponding with the Olirts of Linna.-us and the Rvdentia of 
 Cuvier, and indicative of the prehensile faculty with which 
 the fore paw is endowed in most of the species of this order. 
 
 PREPARATION. In Music, the previous adjuslment of 
 two notes by whose introduction a note which is to become 
 a discord is heard in the preceding harmony. See Music. 
 
 PREPOSI'TION. (Lat. prepono, I place before.) In 
 Grammar, that part of speech which denotes the relations 
 between objects: as in, to, upon. See Grammar. 
 
 PREROGATIVE. (Lat. prarogativa, applied in ancient 
 Rome to that tribe, or century, which had the privilege of 
 giving its votes (rogare suffragia) first at the comitia.) A 
 word in English law, signifying the king's special rights, 
 both as chief of the kingdom in point of honour, and as su- 
 preme magistrate intrusted with the execution of the laws. 
 Prerogatives are said to be of two kinds, direct and inciden- 
 tal; the first, such as belong to the king essentially by vir- 
 tue of his high political character ; such as the inviolability 
 of his person, the appointment to offices and places of trust, 
 the command of the army, the power of making war and 
 peace, the supremacy of the national church, his legislative 
 authority, &c. ; and the latter, such exceptions as are made 
 In his favour from the ordinary rules of law in private mat- 
 ters. Such are, with respect to debts, the power to levy 
 first execution before oth;r creditors, and of levying by the 
 prerogative writ of exten ; ; the power of taking goods and 
 chatties in succession, which no other corporation can do ; 
 3 U 
 
 PRESBYTERY. 
 
 exemption from all customs general ahd special as to an 
 scent of lands, in a case where any such cuforfl would have 
 the effect of preventing lands held jure corona from passing 
 to the successor ; the abstract dominion of all lands arid 
 hereditaments by the fiction of universal occupancy; the 
 right to derelict lands by the sudden retiring of tl e sea ; ue 
 dominion of seas, navigable rivers, &.c. 
 
 PRERO'GATIVE COURT. The court in which wills 
 are proved, and administrations taken, which belong to the 
 archbishop, by his prerogative. Sec Law, Ecclesiastk al 
 
 PRESBYO'PIA. (Gr. TrpcoSvs, old, and tftf, the eye.) 
 An imperfection of vision commonly attendant upon the 
 more advanced periods of life, in which near objects are seen 
 less distinctly than those at a distance. It is usually caused 
 by flattening of the cornea; hence convex sped: 
 required, ft often happens that one eye is more affected 
 than the other, in which case glasses of different foci should 
 be used. 
 
 PRE'SBYTER. (Gr. nptaSvrtpoi, elder; by which word 
 it is translated in our New Testament.} tine of an ord*" 
 of ministers in the Christian church, frequently alluded 
 in the Scriptures as having, in its several members, u 
 spiritual care of distinct congregations, and exercising res 
 class a general superintendence over the concerns of ti 
 church. It is allowed that, up to the time of Calvin, thei 
 never existed a church in which there was not an order c 
 presbytery, or priests, subordinate to that of bishops; nni 
 although the words themselves are sometimes confounded 
 in the New Testament, the assertors of episcopacy point 
 out the distinction between the offices as accurately pre 
 served throughout. See Episcopacy and Presbytery. 
 
 PRESBYTE'RIANS. The name given to that sect of 
 Christians who have embraced the Presbyterian form of 
 government. See Presbytery. 
 
 PRE'SBYTERY (Gr. -rrptaSvrcpioi', a council or a 
 of elders), is that form of ecclesiastical polity according lo 
 which there is no gradation of order in the church, but 
 which vest! church government In a society of clerical and 
 lay presbyters, or, in common phraseology, ministers Bbd 
 lay elders, all possessed officially of equal rank and power. 
 The Presbyterians maintain that the words presbyter (jrpia 
 Svrcpof) and bishop (nrier/toiraj) are synonymous* and inter 
 changeable terms ; that we nowhere read in the New Testa 
 ment of bishops ami presbyters or of pastors of difierenl rank. 
 in the same church; that till ministers of tlie gospel, being 
 ambassadors of Christ, are inherently equal ; and thai dea- 
 cons are laymen, whose sole doty it is to take charge of tie 
 poor. Among other proofs they quote the following: "The 
 elders (.irpiadvTtpot) who are among you I exhort, who am 
 also an elder (avpirpteSvTtpo;). Feed the flock which is 
 among you. taking the oversight thereof (£7r<<7*o7rouiTcs, act- 
 ing as bishops over them), not by restraint, but willingly ; 
 not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being 
 lords over God's heritage." (1 Peter, v., 1, 2, 3.) It is 
 contended that, in this passage, the identity of presbyter and 
 bishop is apparent; and that the apostle himself, at at of 
 ficer of the church, was simply a presbyter or elder. (See 
 also Hebrews, xiii., 7, 17; 1 Thess., v., 12, 6.) On these 
 grounds the Presbyterians assume that "the very cliiefest 
 apostles" were presbyters, or labouring ministers ; and that 
 every faithful pastor of a flock ordained by the imposition 
 of hands, as sanctioned and taught in Scripture, is a suc- 
 cessor of the apostles in every respect in which divinely in 
 spired men can be regarded as having any successors. It is 
 farther argued, in support of the polity under review, that 
 Timothy himself, though said to be a bishop, was ordained 
 " with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." (1 
 Tim., iv., 14.) 
 
 It is, however, admitted by the Presbyterians that episco- 
 pacy was introduced at an early period into the Christian 
 church, and has hitherto been the prevailing polity; but 
 they insist that as St. Paul presided at the ordination of 
 Timothy, not as supreme over his brethren, but as moderator 
 or chairman for the occasion, primus in paribus, so the mod- 
 erator of a presbytery, instead of being changed or re-elected, 
 had in course of time been declared permanent ; and hence 
 the origin of the episcopal order. (Moshcim, i., 90; Hill's 
 Thcol. Institutes.) 
 
 But while the Presbyterians trace the origin of their 
 church to the practice of the apostles, and affirm that there 
 are no intimations of episcopacy in Scripture, or in the 
 writings of the apostolical fathers, they admit that presby- 
 tery, as it now obtains, did not exist between the 2d century 
 and the reformation of religion. " The first reformers, who 
 believed that the distinction between bishops and presbyters 
 had no foundation in Scripture, and who wished to apply an 
 effectual remedy to the abuses which appeared to them to 
 have arisen in the progress of human inventions, of invest- 
 ing bishops with jxiwers superior to presbyters, did not con- 
 sider the antiquity or universality of that practice as any 
 reason for its being continued. Recurring to what they con 
 sidered the primitive Scripture model, they laid the foundf - 
 
 977 
 
PRESBYTERY. 
 
 tion of presbvterian church government on this principle, 
 that all members are equal in rank and power; and they 
 did not admit any official preference, but that which is con- 
 stitued by voluntary agreement for the sake of order." (Hill's 
 Theol. Inst., p. 167.) 
 
 The first presbyterian church, in modern times, was found- 
 ed in Geneva, by John Calvin, about 1541 ; and Ihe system 
 was thence introduced into Scotland, with some modifica- 
 tions, by John Knox, about 1560, but was not legally estab- 
 lished there till 1592. For about a century from this date 
 there was a continual struggle in Scotland between presby- 
 tery and episcopacy for superiority. The latter (which was 
 patronized by the court) predominated in 1606 ; but was 
 superseded by the former (to which the great body of the 
 people were attached) in 1538. Presbytery kept its ground 
 from this period till the revolution in $660, when episcopacy 
 again obtained the ascendancy, which it maintained till 
 1688 ; soon after which it was abolished, and the national 
 church of Scotland declared presbyterian — a form which it 
 has since retained. The most numerous bodies of dissenters 
 from the Scottish established church, such as the Associate 
 and Relief Synods, are also Presbyterians ; their cause of 
 secession being that the church had relaxed the strictness of 
 presbyterian principles. 
 
 Presbytery has never flourished greatly in England. Here 
 the first presbyterian church was formed at Wandsworth, 
 Surrey, in 1572, about 20 years before presbytery was estab- 
 lished by law in Scotland ; but though the system was never 
 palatable to the English nation generally, an attempt was 
 made to make the established church presbyterian in the 
 reign of Charles I. This object was signally promoted by 
 the famous Assembly of Divines at Westminster. In 1649, 
 presbytery was sanctioned by the English parliament, and 
 the established church was nominally presbyterian from 
 this date till the restoration in 1660; yet it was never gen- 
 erally adopted, or regularly organized, except in London 
 and in Lancashire. (Murray's Life of Samuel Rutherford, 
 Earn., 1828, chap, viii.) Upwards of 2000 presbyterian 
 clergy were ejected from their cures in England, in conse- 
 quence "of the Act of Uniformity in 1662. There are still 
 many congregations (about 150) in England, particularly in 
 the northern counties, called presbyterian; some of them in 
 full connexion with the Scottish church, others differing 
 materially from that polity, while not a few of them have 
 adopted nearly the same church government with the Inde- 
 pendents. In Ireland, chiefly in the province of Ulster, there 
 are about 450 presbyterian congregations. There are up- 
 wards of 100 such congregations in our North American 
 possessions; and presbytery has also been introduced to a 
 greater or less extent in the other British colonies. 
 
 In the United States of America presbytery embraces up- 
 wards of 2800 congregations, with 2000 ministers. (American 
 Almanac for 1840.) The same system, though somewhat 
 modified from that which obtains in Scotland, is the estab- 
 lished church in Holland. (Steven's Brief View of tlie 
 Dutch F.ccles. Establishment, ed. 1839.) It still exists, 
 though to a very limited extent, in Geneva; it prevails also 
 less or more in several of the other Swiss cantons. 
 
 The constitution of the church of Scotland, which has 
 long been the most perfect and efficient model of presbytery, 
 is as follows: The kirk session is the lowest court, and is 
 composed of the parochial minister and of lay elders, the 
 number of whom varies in different parishes, but is general- 
 ly about 12. The minister is moderator ex officio. This kirk 
 session exercises the religious discipline of the parish ; but 
 nn appeal may he made from its decisions to the presbytery, 
 the court next in dignity. The presbytery, from which there 
 is a power of appeal to the synod, is composed of the min- 
 isters of a number of contiguous parishes (varying in num- 
 ber in different cases), with a lay elder from each. A mod- 
 erator, who must be a clergyman, is chosen every half year. 
 A presbytery generally meets once a month, but it must 
 meet at least twice a year; and it may hold pro re nata 
 meetings. This court takes young men on trial as candi- 
 dates for licence; ordains presentees to vacant livings; has 
 the power of sitting in judgment on the conduct of any of 
 its members, and can de|K>se them ; and has the general 
 superintendence of religion and education within its bounds. 
 The number of presbyteries is at present 82. The synod, 
 which meets twice yearly, is formed of the members, both 
 lay and clerical, of two or more presbyteries. At every 
 meeting a moderator is chosen, who must be a clergyman ; 
 and a sermon is preached before the court proceeds to busi- 
 ness. The number of synods is sixteen. The general as- 
 sembly is the highest ecclesiastical court, its decisions being 
 supreme. It meets annually in the month of May, and sits 
 for ten successive days. Unlike the inferior courts, it con- 
 sists of representatives chosen by the various presbyteries, 
 royal burghs, and universities of Scotland. The number of 
 representatives from presbyteries depends on the number of 
 members of which each is composed. No presbytery sends 
 less than 'two ministers and one lay elder; and none more 
 978 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 than six ministers and three elders. The total number of 
 members of the general assembly is 386, of whom 218 are 
 ministers. This supreme court has of late consisted of more 
 than this number, as the church has admitted the minister*) 
 of quoad sacra parishes as constituent members of ecclesias- 
 tical courts; but the civil law has not given its sanction to 
 this measure: indeed the question is at present sub jud:ce. 
 The assembly chooses a new moderator yearly, who, in re- 
 cent times, is always a clergyman. A sermon is preached 
 before the opening of the court. The assembly is honoured 
 with the presence of a nobleman as representative of th<"; 
 sovereign, under the title of lord high commissioner ; but this 
 high functionary takes no part in the proceedings of the 
 court, except in opening and closing or dissolving its sittings, 
 and has no voice in its deliberations. The assembly before 
 its close appoints a commission, which is equivalent to a 
 committee of the whole house, being composed of all the 
 members of assembly, and one minister additional, named 
 by the moderator. The commission meets quarterly ; but 
 may hold pro re nata meetings. 
 
 The income of the clergy, which may average about £250 
 yearly, including manse and glebe, is regulated by the state ; 
 and they are nominated to livings by patronage. They have 
 no liturgy, no altar, no instrument;;! music. The Scottish 
 presbyterians do not kneel, but stand in time of prayer ; and 
 in singing the praises of God they sit. The sacrament of 
 the Supper is not administered in private houses to any per- 
 son under any circumstances whatever. (The Directory 
 for the Public Worship of God, by the Wcstmivstrr Assem- 
 bly of Divines.) Pluralities have been prohibited; and the 
 residence of clergymen within their respective parishes has 
 always been imperative. Their creed is rigid Calvinism, 
 and may be found embodied in the Westminster Confession 
 of Faith and the Darker and Shorter Catechisms. But 
 though the faith of the Scottish Presbyterians, whether 
 churchmen or dissenters, is Calvinislic, "not a few of the 
 Presbyterians in other countries have adopted an Anninian, 
 and not unfrequently a Unitarian creed. (Adam's Relig. 
 World Displayed, ii., 289-305; Lord King's Jni/uiry into 
 the Constitution of the Primitive Church; Forbcs's Presby- 
 terian Jitters.) 
 
 Presbytery. In the Scottish Kirk, a district composed 
 of a number of adjacent parishes. See the preceding ar- 
 ticle. 
 
 Presbytery. In Architecture, a portion of the choir or 
 chancel of a church arranged with seats for the dignitaries 
 of the establishment. 
 
 PRESCRTPTION. A title acquired by use and time to 
 incorporeal hereditaments, such as a right of way or of com- 
 mon, and the like. All prescription is either personal, as 
 when it is in a man and his ancestors, or it is in right of a 
 particular estate; which last being in a man, and those 
 whose estate he hath, is called prescription in a que estate. 
 It presupposes a grant, and can therefore give a title to 
 those things only which can pass by grant. After uninter- 
 rupted enjoyment for thirty, and in many cases for twenty 
 years, a prima facie title arises by prescription to the thing 
 enjoyed ; and unless such enjoyment have continued under 
 some consent or agreement, the title becomes, in sixty years, 
 absolute and indefeasible. The time of prescription in most 
 of the ordinary instances to which it applies is now regu- 
 lated by 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 71. 
 
 PRESENTATION. In Law, the appointment of a 
 clergyman to a benefice by the patron, which takes place 
 by presenting him to the bishop for institution. 
 
 PRESENTATION, FEAST OF. In Ecclesiastical 
 Usage, the same with the Purification of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin. See Purification. 
 
 PRESENTMENT, in Criminal Law, is defined to be an 
 information made by the jury in a court before a judge who 
 has authority to punish an offence. Properly speaking, it is 
 the notice taken by a grand jury of their own knowledge, 
 without any bill or indictment found before them, at the 
 suttof the king, of any offence, nuisance, libel, &c. of which 
 they are competent to take notice. An indictment, correct- 
 ly speaking, is that which is drawn up and engrossed to be 
 found by the grand jury, founded on their presentment or 
 note of instruction. Presentment is also comprehensively 
 taken to include inquisitions of office and indictments, as 
 well as presentments strictly so called. 
 
 PRESIDENT. (Lat. prtesideo, I sit foremost.) A title 
 applied to many officers in various capacities, but generally 
 denoting a pre-eminency, either temporary or fixed, among 
 a number of individuals assembled for a definite purpose. 
 Thus the superior of a board or council, &c, is generally 
 entitled president, as is the individual called to preside over 
 an occasional meeting, or to fill the chair at a club, dinner, 
 &c. ; although the old English title of chairman is frequent- 
 ly used on such occasions. 
 
 The supreme executive officer of the United States of 
 America is styled president. The qualifications required 
 of a person raised to this dignity are, to be a natural born 
 
PRESIDENT, LORD, OF THE CUONCIL. 
 
 citizen of the age of thirty five years, and to have resided 
 fourteen years within the States. The election is by elec- 
 [ colleges in every state. These colleges contain, in 
 each state, a number of electors equal to all the senators 
 and representatives of that state in congress ; but their ap- 
 pointment varies in different states, and at different time-; ; 
 sometimes it is made by their respective legislatures, some- 
 times by general election throughout the state, sometimes 
 part of the electors are chosen by district nnd part by gen- 
 eral election. The colleges in each state vote by ballot for 
 a president (and at the same time for a vice-president) ; 
 and the votes of all the electors, taken in this manner, are 
 counted by the president of the senate : when, if any |ierson 
 have an absolute majority of votes, he is duly elected ; if not, 
 the election is made by the house of representatives be- 
 tween the three persons having the highest number: in 
 which case the voles are taken by states, and a majority of 
 tales is necessary to constitute a choice. On two oc- 
 ca>ion<, of which the last was in ISM, no candidate having 
 bad a majority of the whole number of voters, the house 
 of representatives has proceeded to irakc the election ; and, 
 on the last of these occasions, a maeirity of states chose a 
 candid ate (Adams) who had a stn iter number of electoral 
 votes than one of his opponents (Jackson). On one occa- 
 sion, in 1800, the states balloted thirty six times before any 
 candidate could obtain an absolute majority. Should the 
 
 I die during his term of office, he is succeeded by 
 president, an event which nas recently occurred. 
 
 In his legislative capacity, the president has the power 
 
 of approving bills sent to him alter puling both houses of 
 
 Of of returning them to the DOOM in which they 
 
 jinated with his objections anne\ed. In the latter 
 
 case, tin; bill nni-t be considered by that house; and if, on 
 
 reconsideration, it obtain a majority of two third" in both 
 
 II passes into a law. In his executive capacity, he 
 is commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the Union, 
 and of the state militias when called into the service of the 
 Union ; he has the power of reprievii><r and pardoning, ex- 
 cept in cases of Impeachment; he has power to make trea- 
 ties, with the consent of the senate (by a majority of two 
 
 he nominates ambassadors, consuls, judges of the 
 supreme court, and all other officers of the United States 
 !>pointments are not vested elsewhere by the con- 
 stitution. 
 
 1'lt BSIDENT, LORD, OF THE COUNCIL. The fourth 
 grant officer of state in England; appointed by letters patent 
 under the great seal, durante bene placito. 
 
 PRESS. (Ft. presse.) The midline by which books, 
 &c, are printed. Very little improvement in the construc- 
 tion of this instrument took place from the first introduction 
 of the art into Europe till the late Earl Stanhope applied 
 the powers of his mind to the subject, and introduced a new 
 press of a decidedly superior construction. The old press 
 was nude of wood, with an iron screw that had a bar fitted 
 in it; to the lower end of this screw was attached, hori- 
 zontally, a tilt piece of wood, called the platen, which was 
 brouch' down by meaus of the screw, and pressed the paper 
 upon the U'e of the types; and thus the impression was 
 obtained. This press has, however, entirely given place to 
 presses made of Iron. Lord Stanhope's press is construct- 
 ed of iron, with a screw; but the bar is fixed to an upright 
 spindle, to which a lever is attached connected with a se- 
 cond lever fixed to the top of the screw by a connectinz bar. 
 These two levers are placed nt different angles to each 
 other; and when the platen is brought down to the face of 
 the types, and power is wanted, the two levers take such a 
 position with each other so as to act with the greatc<t ad- 
 vantage, and thus an almost incredible secession of power 
 is gained, which enables the pressman to print larger sheets 
 of paper in a superior manner, with less labour, and with 
 greater ease to himself. This pre 5 .s maintains its superiority 
 over all others. 
 
 This great improvement in the printing press that Lord 
 Stanhope had accomplished, excited other ingenious men 
 to exert their abilities in attempts at further improvements ; 
 amons whom was a Mr. George Clymer, an American, who 
 bronchi forward an iron press, called the Columbian press, 
 in which he discarded the screw, and obtained hi- |>ower 
 entirely by levers. This press has ereat power, and conse- 
 quently creat strength, and is made of a size to print larger 
 sheets of paper than any other ; but for the common run of 
 printing it does not work so easy as the Stanhope press. 
 These two are looked upon as the best presses. 
 
 There nre a variety of others which are great improve- 
 ments upon the old construction, and which are held in 
 estimation by printers, but the limits of this work will not 
 admit of the details of their respective merits. 
 
 The book press, in the warehouse department, used for 
 pressinj books previous to their delivery, is the common 
 screw press, with a perpendicular screw, and screwed down 
 by means of an iron bar: it is also used for pressing paper, 
 when wetted, previous to being printed on, for the purpose 
 
 PRICE. 
 
 of making it in better condition for the process ; and alst in 
 cylindrical or machine printing to cause it to lie Hat, other- 
 wise it is apt to wrinkle, particularly large sheets, in being 
 carried round the cylinders, upon a flat surface. In large 
 establishments Brahman's hydraulic press is generally used 
 for these purposes, as being much more powerful, and also 
 more expeditious, not only in its use, but also in its effect. 
 
 Press. A machine for the purpose of compressing or 
 squeezing bodies. Any of the mechanical powers may be 
 used for this purpose. When constructed on a laj p 
 the hydrostatic pressure of water is the ; Iv em 
 
 ployed. See Hydrostatics. 
 
 Prkss is metaphorically applied either to the whole liter- 
 ature of a country, or to that part of it more immediately con- 
 nected with newspapers or other periodical publications. 
 
 PRESSIRO'STER* Pressirostres. (Lat. pressus, flat- 
 tened; rostrum, a beak.) A tribe of wading birds, including 
 those which have a flattened or compressed beak. 
 
 PRE'SSURE. Dr. Young defines pressure to be "a force 
 counteracted by another force, so that no motion is pro- 
 duced. (Lectures on Nat. Phil.) Thus, when a heavy 
 body is supported on a table, or the ground, the force of ter- 
 restrial gravity, which, if the supi>ort were removed, would 
 cause the body to descend towards the centre of the earth, 
 being destroyed at every instant by the resistance of the 
 support, produces I V pressure and a moving 
 
 force differ from one another only In this respect, that the 
 infinitely small velocities which ihe pressure tends to pro- 
 duce nre incessantly destroyed by the resistance of the ob- 
 stacle; whereas those that are actually produced at every 
 instant by the moving forces are accumulated in the moving 
 body, and produce a finite velocity after a finite time. The 
 pressures of two different bodies nre, therefore, to each 
 other as the masses multiplied by the infinitely small ve- 
 locities which they tend to produce in the same instant of 
 time, and which they would produce if the bodies were free 
 to move. 
 
 The pressure of a solid body is exerted in the direction of 
 the resultant of all the forces by which the body is acted 
 u|ion. In the interior of liquid and aeriform bodies, the 
 pressure is equal in all directions. (Set Hydrostatics, 
 Pneumatics.) Centre of Pressure, in Hydrostatics, I 
 l>oint of a plane or side of a vessel containing a liquid n 
 which, if a force were applied equal to the total pre- 
 and with the Opposite direction, it would exactly balain ■ 
 effort of the total pressure. 
 
 PRKSSWORK, in Prinlinz, is the operation of taking im- 
 pressions from tyi>es. &c. i,y means of the press; distinct 
 from composing, which is arranging the types to pre] 
 them for press. 
 PRESTO. (It.) InMii-ic. VcAlleoro. 
 PREHU'MPTION OF LAW, is the assuming the truth 
 of n certain state of facts by the ordinary custom of the law. 
 It is either "juris ct de jure," which is a presumption which 
 no evidence to the contrary can be admitted to traverse, as 
 the presumption of incapacity in a minor with guardians to 
 net without their consent; or it is "juris" only, which may 
 he traversed by evidence, as where the property of goods 
 is presumed to be in the possessor until the contrary i- 
 shown. 
 PRESUMPTIVE HEIR. See Heir. 
 PRETE'NDER. The name by which the Chevalier 
 Charles Stuart is usually known, from his having pretend- 
 ed a right to the British crown, from which he had been ex- 
 cluded. 
 
 PRE'VOTALES, COURS. (Fr. courts of prevots, or 
 provosts.) Certain tribunals of summary jurisdiction, which 
 existed in France before the Revolution, were called by this 
 name. They were the courts of the prevots of Francs and 
 of Paris, of the prevots des marechaux (see Provost, Pro- 
 vost-Marshal, &c), and exercised a summary jurisdic- 
 tion over vagrants, highway robbers, disturbers of the peace, 
 &c. These ancient institutions furnished Napoleon with 
 the model of certain extraordinary courts, with mixed civil 
 nnd military judges, which were formed in 1803 for the pur 
 pose of preserving public order in a summary manner. All 
 these unconstitutional tribunals were abolished by the first 
 charter of 1814 ; but with provision for the restoration of 
 the Courts Prevotales, should it be thought necessary. They 
 were accordingly established in 1815, to last for two years ; 
 but expired in 1818. 
 
 PRIA'PUS. (Gr. U piairoc.) A divinity introduced into 
 Grecian mythology after the time of Alexander. He was 
 the god of fruitfulness, and by the Romans was looked 
 on particularly as the guardian of gardens, in which ii- 
 decent and rudely sculptured wooden statues of him were 
 usually set up. 
 
 PRICE (Fr. prix), in commerce, means the value or ex- 
 changeable worth of any commodity or product estimated 
 or rated in money, or simply the quantity of money fojr\ 
 which it will exchange. The price of a commodity rises* 
 when it fetches more, and falls when it fetches less money. 
 
 979 
 
PRICE. 
 
 Price of freely produced Commodities .—The exchangea- 
 ble value of commodities— that is, their power of exchanging 
 for or buying other commodities— depends, at any given pe- 
 riod, partly on the comparative facility of their production, 
 and partly on the relation of the supply and demand. If 
 any two or more commodities respectively required the 
 same outlay of capital and labour to bring them to market, 
 and if the supply of each were adjusted exactly according 
 to the effectual demand — that is, were they all in sufficient 
 abundance, and no more, to supply the wants of those able 
 and willing to pay the outlay upon them, and the ordinary 
 rate of profit at the time, they would each fetch the same 
 price, or exchange for the same quantity of money or any- 
 thing else. But if any single commodity should happen to 
 require less or more capital and labour for its production, 
 while the quantity required to produce the others continued 
 stationary, its value, as compared with these, would, in the 
 first case, fall, and in the second rise ; and supposing the 
 cost of its production not to vary, its value might be increas- 
 ed by a falling off in the supply, or by an increase of de- 
 mand, and conversely. 
 
 But it is of importance to bear in mind, that all variations 
 of price arising from any disproportion in the supply and 
 demand of such commodities as may be freely produced in 
 indefinite quantities, are temporary only ; while those that 
 are occasioned by changes in the cost of their production are 
 permanent, at least as much so as the cause in which they 
 originate. A general mourning occasions a transient rise in 
 the price of black cloth ; but supposing that the fashion of 
 wearing black were to continue, its price would not perma- 
 nently vary ; for previously those who manufactured blue 
 and brown cloths. &c, would henceforth manufacture only 
 black cloth ; and the supply being in this way increased to 
 the same extent as the demand, the price would settle at its 
 old level. Hence the importance of distinguishing between 
 a variation of price originating in a change of fashion, or 
 other accidental circumstances — such, for example, as a de- 
 ficient harvest — and a variation occasioned by some change 
 in the cost of production. In the former case, prices will 
 at no distant period revert to their old level ; in the latter, 
 the variation will be lasting. 
 
 When the price of a freely produced commodity rises or 
 falls, such variation may evidently be occasioned either by 
 something affecting its value, or by something affecting 
 the value of money ; but when the generality of commodi- 
 ties rise or fall, the fair presumption is, that the change is 
 not in them, but in the money with which they are com- 
 pared. This conclusion does not, however, apply in all 
 cases; and we believe that most part of that fall in the 
 price of commodities which has taken place since the 
 peace, and which has been so generally ascribed to a rise 
 in the value of money occasioned by a decline in the pro- 
 ductiveness of the mines, has been caused by the increased 
 productiveness of industry, arising from the abolition of op- 
 pressive restraints on commerce, the opening of new and 
 more abundant sources of supply, and the discovery of new 
 means and improved methods of production. 
 
 Price of monopolized Commodities. — Exclusive, however, 
 of the commodities now alluded to, there is a considerable 
 class whose producers or holders enjoy either an absolute 
 or a partial monopoly of the supply. When such is the 
 case, prices depend entirely or principally on the proportion 
 between the supply and demand, and are not liable to be in- 
 fluenced, or only in a secondary degree, by changes in the cost 
 of production. Antique statues and gems, the pictures of the 
 great masters, wines of a peculiar flavor produced in small 
 quantities in particular situations, and a few other articles, 
 exist under what may be called absolute monopolies; 
 their supply cannot be increased ; and their price must 
 therefore depend entirely on the competition of those who 
 may wish to buy them, without being in the slightest de- 
 gree influenced by the cost of their production. 
 
 Monopolies are sometimes established by law ; as when 
 the power to supply the market with a particular article is 
 made over to one individual or society of individuals, with- 
 out any limitation of the price at which it may be sold ; 
 which, of course, enables those possessed of the monopoly 
 to exact the highest price for it that the competition of the 
 buyers will afford, though such price may exceed the cost 
 of production in any conceivable degree. Monopolies of 
 this sort used to beeommon in England, particularly in the 
 reign of Elizabeth>but they were finally abolished by the 
 famous act of the 21 Jac. 1, c. 3, an act which, by estab- 
 lishing the freedom of competition in all businesses car- 
 ried on at home, has been productive of the greatest advan- 
 tages. 
 
 The rights conveyed by patents sometimes establish a 
 valuable monopoly ; for they enable the inventors of im- 
 proved methods of production to maintain, during the con- 
 tinuance of the patent, the price of the article at a level 
 which may be much higher than is required to afford them 
 the ordinary rate of profit. This advantage, however, bv 
 980 
 
 PRIMATE. 
 
 stimulating invention, and exciting to new discoveries, or 
 which it is the natural and appropriate reward, instead of 
 being injurious, is beneficial to the public. 
 
 There are also partial monopolies, depending upon situa- 
 tion, connexion, fashion, &c. ; these and other inapprecia- 
 ble circumstances sometimes occasion a difference of 30 per 
 cent., or more, in the price of the same article in shops not 
 very distant from each other. 
 
 Generally speaking, the supply of monopolized commodi- 
 ties is less liable to vary than those that are freely pro- 
 duced ; and their prices are commonly steady. But there 
 are various exceptions to this rule ; and of these the partial 
 monopoly of the supply of corn, which the existing corn 
 laws secure to the British agriculturists, may be taken as 
 an example. The variations in the harvests of particular 
 countries, and their average equality throughout the world, 
 expose a nation which shuts foreign corn out of its porta to 
 vicissitudes of price, from which it would enjoy a com para- 
 tive exemption were its ports always open. Sometimes 
 the expiration of a monopoly, a patent for example, ha- oc- 
 casioned a sudden and extraordinary increase of supply, 
 and consequent fall of price ; entailing, of course, a serious 
 loss on the holders of large stocks of goods produced under 
 the monopoly. 
 
 New Sources of Supply. — The effects on prices produced 
 by the opening of new markets, or new sources of supply, 
 are familiar to every one. The fall that has taken place in 
 the price of pepper, and of most sorts of commodities brought 
 from the East, since the opening of the trade in 1814, is a 
 conspicuous proof of what is now stated. 
 
 Influence of Taxes on Prices. — It is unnecessary to dilate 
 on a topic so familiar to every one. When a tax is laid on 
 a commodity, its price necessarily rises in a corresponding 
 proportion ; for otherwise the producers would not obtain 
 the ordinary rate of profit, and would, of course, withdraw 
 from the business. A considerable part of the price of 
 many articles in this and other countries really consists of 
 the tax or duty laid upon them. 
 
 These statements will probably suffice to give our readers 
 a general idea of the principles which determine the value 
 of commodities. To go deeper into the subject would in- 
 volve us in discussions that belong to political economy, 
 and which are nowise suited for such a work as this. 
 
 Such, however, of our readers as wish for full and satis- 
 factory information as to these topics, and the practical 
 operation of the different circumstances to which we have 
 now adverted, would do well to consult Mr. Tooke's His- 
 tory of Prices. This work is especially valuable for the 
 rare union which it exhibits of a perfect knowledge of prin- 
 ciples with the most extensive acquaintance with practical 
 details. 
 
 PRICKING-UP. In Architecture, the first coating of 
 plaster in work of three coats upon laths. It is executed 
 with coarse stuff in London, usually compounded with road 
 stuff, or Thames sand. The surface is scratched over, to 
 form a better key for the next coat. 
 
 TRICK-POST. In Architecture, a post in wooden build- 
 ings framed intermediately between two principal posts. 
 
 PRIEST. (Gr. Tipca6vTtpos, elder.) Etymologically, the 
 Christian priest is merely a minister who presides over the 
 spiritual affairs of a congregation. The word, however, is 
 commonly used also to represent the Greek Hpsvs, who, 
 like the Jewish priest, had both a sacrificial and mediato- 
 rial character; and the Roman Catholic looks upon the 
 Christian priest in the same light. 
 
 PRIM^E VIjE. (Lnt. the first passages.) Medical men 
 apply this term to the stomach and bowels. 
 
 PRI'MAGE. A certain allowance paid by the shipper or 
 consigner of goods to the master and sailors of a vessel for 
 loading the same. It varies in different places according to 
 their respective customs. 
 
 PRI'MARY COLOURS. The colours into which a ray 
 of white solar light may be decomposed or separated. 
 Newton supposed them to be seven ; red, orange, yellow, 
 green, blue, indigo, and violet. Mayer considered some of 
 these to be secondary colours, and that there are only three 
 primary colours in the solar spectrum ; namely, red, yellow, 
 and blue, certain portions of which constitute white light 
 and all the other colours. (Opera inedita, 1775.) Dr. 
 Young assumes red, green, and violet as the fundamental 
 colours. (Lectures on Nat. Phil., p. 439.) In fact, any 
 three prismatic rays may be assumed as the primary colours, 
 and nil the rest compounded from them, provided we attend 
 only to the predominant tint resulting, and disregard its di- 
 lution with white. (Herschel on Light. § 518.) See Chro 
 matics, Light. 
 
 PRIMARY ROCKS, or PRIMITIVE ROCKS. See G» 
 
 OLOGY. 
 
 PRl'MATE. (Lat. primus, first.) A prelate of superior 
 dignity and authority. In England, the archbishop of York 
 is entitled Primate of England ; the archbishop of Canter 
 bury, Primate of all England. 
 
PRIMATES. 
 
 PRIMATES. The name given by Linnaeus to the first 
 order of animals in his Systema jYaturiB, which associated 
 man with tho monkeys and hats, and corresponded to the 
 Bimana, Quadrumana, and Cheiroptera of Cuvier. 
 
 PRIME NUMBERS, in Arithmetic, are numbers which 
 have no divisors, or Which cannot be divided into any less 
 number of equal integral parts than the number of units of 
 which they are composed ; such are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, &c. 
 
 A general method of rinding prime numbers, beyond a 
 certain limit, by a direct process, is one of the most difficult 
 problems in the theory of numbers ; and, though often 
 sought after, has not yet been discovered. Many remarka- 
 ble properties of numbers have, however, been detected, by 
 means of which it is in most cases not difficult to determine 
 whether an assigned number is prime or not. Some of 
 roperties are the following: 
 
 1. Every prime number above 3 is comprehended in one 
 of these forms, 6 n -J- 1, or 6 n — 1 (« being any whole num- 
 ber; ; that is to say, if a prime number be increased or di- 
 minished by unity, the result is a multiple of 6. In order 
 lo prove tins, it will be sufficient to remark that every whole 
 number is necessarily comprised in one or other of these six 
 forms (where n is successively 0, 1, 2, 3, &c.), 
 
 6n-f 1, 6n+2,6n + 3, 6n + 4, 6x + 5, Cn-f (i. 
 Now the second, fourth, and sixth of these forms, being di- 
 visible by 2, cannot give prime numbers. The third gives 
 only numbers divisible by 3; therefore the primes can only 
 be of the fWm Gn-4-1, or6n-f-5. But 6n-f 5 = 6*t-f-6 — 
 1 = 0(71 + 1) — l = Gn' — 1. n' being any whole number; 
 refore, that all prime numbers are conipre- 
 i ii one of the tonus lin-fl, or G n — 1. 
 
 2. In like manner, every prime number above 2 is of one 
 of tiie forms 4 n -f- 1, or 4* — 1; and every prime number, 
 excepting 2, of one of the forms Hn + 1, 8 n + 3, 8n-f-5, 
 8n-f-7. In fact, prime numbers may be divided in this 
 manner into classes, according lo any modulus, at pleasure; 
 the last four forms, however, are those which possess the 
 most distinctive propel 
 
 Although every prime number is comprehended in one 
 forma, tbe convene proposition is not true ; name 
 ly, that every number in one of these forms is a prime 
 number. No direct rule has yet been giver, by which it 
 can be determined a priuri whether a given number be 
 prime or nut. 
 
 3. If a number cannot be divided by another number less 
 than (he square root of itself, that number is n prime. 
 
 4. If a denote any prime number, the product, 1*2*3*4 
 • • • (n — 1), increased by unity, is divisible by n. 
 
 It is frequently of use in arithmetical investigations to 
 know whether a number is prime or not; tables of them 
 ordlngly been formed to a certain extent, and are 
 given in various works. Vega's tables contain the prime 
 numbers under 400,000. The largest prime number which 
 has yet been verified is 231—1 = 2147483647. This was 
 found by Euler. 
 
 Fur properties of prime numbers, see Fermat's edition of 
 Diopkantus ; Eider's Algebra, and Analysis Infinitorum ; 
 ", Essai sur la Tkeoric des Nombrcs ; Bartow' » 
 Elementary Investigations, Src; and especially the Dtti- 
 quisilioncs Arithmetic* tit Gauss, of which there is a 
 French translation by Delisle. 
 
 Prime and Ultimate Ratios. — A method of calculation 
 invented by Newton, and employed in the Principia, being 
 an extension and simplification of the ancient methods of 
 exhaustions. It may be thus explained : Let there be two 
 variable quantities constantly approaching each other in 
 value, so that their ratio or quotient continually approaches 
 to unity, and at last differs from unity by less than any as- 
 signable quantity ; the ultimate ratio of these tWO quanti- 
 ties, is said to be a ratio of equality. In general, when 
 different variable quantities respectively nnd simultaneously 
 approach other quantities considered as invariable, so that 
 the differences between the variable and invariable quanti- 
 ime at the same time less than any assignable quan- 
 tity, the ultimate ratios of the variables are the r 
 
 riable quantities or limits, to which they continu- 
 ally and simultaneously approach. They are called prime 
 ratios, or ultimate ratios, according as the ratios of the va- 
 riables are considered as receding from, or approaching to, 
 the ratios of the limits. (See Principia, book i.) 
 
 PRI'MER, signified anciently a religious work employed 
 in the Roman Catholic service ; but it is now generally 
 denote the first book for children. 
 
 PRIMER SEISIN. (Norm. Fr.) An ancient branch of 
 the royal prerogative in England, whereby it had pi 
 for a year of the; lands and tenements of which a tenant in 
 capita died seised, if the heir was of full age; or, if not, 
 until he was of age. 
 
 PRIME VERTICAL. In Astronomy, the vertical circle 
 of the sphere which intersects the meridian at right an- 
 gles, and passes through tbe east and west points of the 
 
 PRINCE OF WALES. 
 
 horizon. In dialling, prime vertical dials are those which 
 are projected on the plane of the prime vertical, or a plane 
 parallel to it. 
 
 PRI'MINE. In Botany, the outermost sac or covering 
 of an ovule; either composed of cellular tissue only, ot 
 traversed by numerous veins or bundles of tubes. 
 
 PRIMING. (Lat, primus, first.) In Architecture, the 
 first coat of painting. 
 
 PRIMIPI'LUS. In Ancient History, the name of the 
 centurion of the first cohort of a legion, who had charge 
 of the Roman eagle. This office was one of considera- 
 ble dignity, and entitled its holder to various privilege* 
 which conferred both rank and emolument. On quitting 
 his charge, the primipilus assumed his place among the 
 members of the equestrian order, with the title primipi 
 larius. (See Adam's Horn. Antiquities ; Jllcm. de I' Acad 
 des Inscr., vol. xxxii.) 
 
 PRIMITIVE. The first fruits of any production of the 
 earth, which were uniformly consecrated to the Deity by 
 ail the nations of antiquity. S«* First Fruits. 
 
 PRIMITIVE. In Grammar, a word neither derived from 
 any other language, nor compounded from any other words 
 of the same ; as horse, man. 
 
 PRIMITIVE COLOURS, In Painting, are red, yellow 
 and blue, from the mixtures whereof all other colours may 
 be obtained. 
 
 PRIMOGENITURE. The right of the eldest son. and 
 those who derive through the eldest son, to succeed to the 
 property of the ancestor. Among ancient nations, tho 
 Jews alone appear, as far as is known, to have recognised 
 this usage among their institutions. For some notice of the 
 policy of the system of primogeniture, see BCCCISBIOR, 
 Law or. 
 
 PRIMULA CEiE. (Primula, one of the genera.) A nat- 
 ural order of herbaceous Exogens, inhabiting the northern 
 and colder parts of the globe. It is nearly allied to all the 
 regular Monopetaious orderB, with a capsular superior fruit, 
 especially to .Solanacee and Eriraenr. from both of which 
 it is readily known by the stamens being placed 
 the segments of the corolla. In this respect it agrees with 
 Myrsinacea, which differ chiefly in their fleshy fruit and 
 arborescent habit. The cowslip, from which a sedative 
 wine is m ide ; the primrose, auricula, and the acrid cycla- 
 men ; together with anacallut, or the herb pimpernel, 
 which regularly closes its floweis at the approach of rain — 
 are species of this order. 
 
 PRl'MUM MO'BILK, in tho Ptolemaic Astronomy, is the 
 outermost sphere of the universe, which gives motion to all 
 the others (». c. those of the moon, planets, &.c] ami car- 
 ries them round with it in its diurnal revolution. Its centre 
 Is the centre of the earth. 
 
 PRI'MURIEB, or PRIMARY QUILLS. (Primores, 
 Linn.) The latest (bathers of the wings; they rise from 
 the pinion -hones, or I ■ mding to the metacarpus 
 
 and digits. 
 
 PRINCE. (From the Latin princeps, /rsi, leader, or fore 
 most.) This title is probably of Teutonic origin: the Gor- 
 man equivalent, furst, has the same etymological significa- 
 tion, and the Latin nation appeus to have translated it. In 
 England, the title is applied only to members of the royal 
 family ; and in no case, except that of the eldest son of the 
 reigning king (Prince of Wales), is it connected with a ter- 
 ritorial distinction. On the Continent, the rank of princes 
 is various : in France, under the old regime, the title be- 
 longed only to certain families of high distinction, connect- 
 ed with the royal blood ; it ranks in Germany below that of 
 duke. 
 
 PRINCE OF WALES. The title bestowed by patent 
 on the heir apparent to the crown of England. He is born 
 Duke of Cornwall, &c. ; but the title of Duke of Cornwall 
 does not necessarily belong to the heir apparent, as it can 
 only be held by the first begotten (not eldest) son of a king : 
 thus Henry VIII. was not, in the life of his father, Duke of 
 Cornwall. The origin of the title of Prince of Wales is as 
 follows: When Edward I. subdued Wales, he promised 
 the people of that country, upon condition of their submia 
 sion, to give them a prince who was born amongst them, 
 and who could speak no other language. Upon their ac- 
 quiescence with this deceitful offer he conferred the princi- 
 pality */ Wales upon his second son Edward, then an in- 
 fant," born within the principality, and unable to speak any 
 language. Edward, by the death of his cider brother Al- 
 fonso, became heir to the crown, and from that time this 
 honour has been appropriated to the eldest sons of the 
 Kings of England. The Earldom of Chester, which is 
 likewise usually conferred upon the heir-apparent, was 
 once a principality, and erected into that title by parliament 
 in the 21st of Richard II. : it was then appointed to be given 
 to the kind's eldest son. But the whole acts of that parlia- 
 ment were repealed in the reign of Henry IV., although ti.e 
 earldom has usually been since given with the principality 
 of Wales. The revenue of the last Prince of Wales wai 
 
 Q31 
 
FRINUEPS SENATUS. 
 
 £125,000 ; £60,000 being paid from the civil list, and £65,000 
 from the consolidated fund. His income was last regulated 
 ay 35 G. 3, c. 125. To compass the death of the Prince of 
 Wales or' violate the chastitv of his consort, is high trea- 
 son within the statute of 25 "Ed. 3. The Prince of Wales 
 has a household of his own, of which the chief officers are 
 a comptroller and auditor-general, treasurer, vice chamber- 
 lain Gloucester king-at-arms, and herald; besides another 
 class of officers belonging to the duchy of Cornwall, and 
 another as great steward of Scotland. As Duke of Corn- 
 wall and Earl of Chester, the prince appoints sheriffs, &c, 
 for those co'inties. By a statute of the order of the Garter, 
 issueu in 18o5, the Prince of Wales was declared a constit- 
 uent part of the original institution. Hence every prince 
 becomes a Knight of the Garter the moment he is created 
 Prince of Wales. For the constitutional question raised in 
 1788, respecting the right of the Prince of Wales to the re- 
 gency, see Regent. 
 
 PRINCEPS SENA'TUS. Prince or first of the senate. 
 In Ancient Rome, the citizen whose name was inscribed 
 first on the list of the senate by the censors was so called. 
 The high dignity was not connected with any office, and 
 was conferred, in later times, only on those who were re- 
 cognised as the most considerable citizens of the state. Be- 
 fore the second Punic war, it seems to have belonged to the 
 oldest of those who had held the office of censor; but the 
 fust deviation from this practice was in favour of Fabius 
 Maximus. This title was the first germ of the imperial au- 
 thority of Augustus. (See Senate.) There is a memoir 
 on the subject in vol. xxiv. of the Memoirea de V Academic 
 des Inscriptions. 
 
 PRINCIPAL. (Lat. princeps, chief.) In Architecture, 
 a main timber in an assemblage of carpentry. Thus, in a 
 roof, the strong rafters used for trussing the beams are called 
 principal rafters. 
 
 Principal. The name of which the heads of the Scot- 
 tish universities are distinguished. 
 
 Principal. In the Fine Arts, the chief circumstance in a 
 work of art, to which the rest are to be subordinate. 
 
 PRI'X CTPE3. The name given to one of the four grand 
 divisions of the Roman infantry. It was their duty to as- 
 sume the initiative in an engagement, for which they were 
 admirably qualified, being the choice men of the Roman 
 army, and from this circumstance their name is said to be 
 derived. The other three bodies were the velites, hastati, 
 and triarii, which see. (See Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscr. vol. 
 vxix.) 
 
 PRI'NCIPLE. (Lat. prlncipium.) In Chemistry, a term 
 sometimes applied to certain proximate components of or- 
 ganic bodies, such as bitter principle, febrifuge principle, 
 narcotic, principle, &c. This term, however, is now almost 
 disused, it having been found that each bitter, febrifuge, 
 narcotic, or other substance, generally contains a principle 
 peculiar to itself upon which its powers depend, and that 
 there is no such common or universal principle as was for- 
 merly supposed. For the same reason the term " principle 
 of inflammability," or phlogiston, is rejected, as applied in 
 common with '• nervous principle," &c, to an imaginary 
 
 PRINCIPLES. In the Fine Arts, those general and 
 fundamental truths from which the rules and maxims of 
 art are deduced. To each art particular principles are at- 
 tached on which its theory is founded. These principles, 
 before they can be said to have stability, must be found to 
 depend on certain truths, which, recognised by every one, 
 and indisputable, oblige the mind to concur in the deduc- 
 tions that result from them. Before a law in any art is 
 laid down, it is necessary to trace it to the principles from 
 which it springs, though there may be causes which prevent 
 those principles being universally admitted; such as igno- 
 rance, prejudice, love of novelty, and the like. Indeed, 
 there is an everlasting contest between truth and error in 
 all hum-in institutions. The former, like light, is acknow- 
 ledged by all, though our passions and interests too often 
 tempt us to obscure it; but, as darkness itself proves that 
 light exists, so falsehood only enables truth to shine with 
 greater lustre. 
 
 PRINTING. (Fr. imprimerie.) Letterpress printing, to 
 which this article is confined, is the art of taking impres- 
 sions from engravings in relief. * 
 
 The process is generally limited to printing from types, 
 and from engravings on wood. 
 
 The history of its origin is enveloped in mystery; and 
 this art, which commemorates all other inventions, which 
 hands down to posterity every important event, which im- 
 mortalizes the actions of the great, and which, above all, 
 extends and diffuses the word of God to all mankind; this 
 very art has left its own origin in obscurity, and has given 
 employment to the studies and researches of the most 
 .earned men in Europe, to determine to whom the honour 
 if the invention is due. 
 
 Some writers maintain that the art was practised as far 
 P82 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 back at least as the building of Babylon ; and hold that the 
 characters impressed on the bricks found on the supposed 
 site of that city are literally printed : we are in possession ol 
 metal stamps, with words engraved in relief, which the 
 Romans made use of to mark their various articles. On 
 this subject Mr. Landseer, in his Lectures on the Ait oj 
 Engraving, 8vo. 1807, observes, "Had the moderr art of 
 making paper been known to the ancients, w- had proba- 
 bly never heard the names of Faust and Finiguerra; for 
 with the same kind of stamps which the Roman tradesmen 
 used for their pottery and packages, books might also have 
 been printed; and the same engraving which adorned the 
 shields and pateras of the more remote ages, with the addi- 
 tion of paper, might have spread the rays of Greek and 
 Etrurian intelligence over the world of antiquity. Of the 
 truth of this assertion I have the satisfaction to lay b 
 you the most decided proofs, by exhibiting engraved Latin 
 inscriptions, both in cameo and intaglio, from the collection 
 of Mr. Douce, with impressions taken from them at Mr. 
 Savage's letterpress but yesterday (in 1805). One of these 
 is an intaglio stamp, engraved on stone, with which a Ro- 
 man oculist was used to mark his medicines; the Other, 
 which is of metal, and in cameo, is simply the proper name 
 of the (Roman) tradesman by whom it has probably been 
 used. 'Tirus Valagini Mauri.'" Of the latter stamp, tht> 
 following impression is a facsimile : 
 
 *gC-'s«£.-asEJ!E2£25KK5l. J*T- CU^i:?^. 
 
 Papillon's relation of the two Cunio, who engraved on 
 wood the heroic actions of Alexander the Great, and printeii 
 impressions from the. a in the year I2£5, the tru 
 has been defended by Zani, Ouley, and S'.otjr , Oil print ol 
 St. Christopher carrying the Infant Jesus across the sea. 
 with an inscription and the date 1423 ac the bottom on tin 
 same block, in the library of Earl Spencer ; and the decre 
 of the government of Venice, of the date 11th Or 
 1441, respecting "playing cards, and coloured figures prist, 
 ed," the "art and mystery of making which had fallen u 
 total decay at Venice, in consequence of the great qua 
 which were made out of Venice, and prohibiting the I 
 duction of them under pain and forfeiture and fine — a de 
 cree which carries th" » r * of printing hick into the 
 century: tuese circumstances, taken together, prove th: ! 
 the knowledge and tile practice of the art of printing i xi>t 
 ed in Europe long before the time which is usually attribu- 
 ted to it, although it had not been applied to the multiplica- 
 tion of books. 
 
 According to Du Halde and the missionaries, the art oi 
 printing from engraved blocks of wood was practised in 
 China nearly fifty years before the Christian era ; and from 
 the early commercial intercourse of the Venetians with that 
 country, there is reason to believe that the knowledge el 
 the art and of its application to the multiplying of b 
 was "derived from thence; for Venice is the first place in 
 Europe of which we have any account in which it was 
 practised, as appears by the decree above mentioned, which 
 is the most ancient document in existence respecting print 
 tag; but the date of this application of the art, or the place 
 where it was first practised, it is impossible to determine. 
 From that decree and the existence of the print of St. 
 Christopher, it would seem that it had been long applied to 
 the production of playing cards, and of religious subjects ; and 
 when it was extended to books, they were printed by the Chi- 
 nese method, still in use, each page being engraved on a block 
 of wood: end if this plan was followed, as most probably it 
 was. from its being the most expeditious, and the most correct 
 — of fastening a page of manuscript on the face of the Mod; 
 and engraving from that,instead of drawing the characters on 
 the wood— it would at once account for the diversity of char- 
 acters found in the block hooks, which varied with the differ- 
 ent handwritings of the scribes, and has completely puzzled 
 the learned, who endeavour to ascertain the printer by com- 
 paring the characters with some other work ; as well as for 
 their great similarity to manuscripts, for which they 'were 
 sold. This appearance too was aided by their being printed 
 on one side of the paper only, the indention being remover 
 by burnishing the back, and two leaves were pasted to 
 gether, thus making them such perfect facsimiles of rnnntl 
 scripts as to require even at the present day great discrimi- 
 nation and even chemical skill to distinguish them 
 each other; and as these books had neither names, dates, 
 nor places affixed to them, it is now impossible to asci 
 by whom, when, or where they were executed; and thus 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 die fabrication of these pseudo-manuscripts involved the 
 list introduction of the art of printing books in Europe in 
 complete obscurity. 
 
 About the year 1450, the great and accumulating expense 
 of engraving blocks for each separate work of the increas- 
 unber of books produced by means of printing, led 
 to the important improvement of the art of casting separate 
 metal types, and substituting them for the wooden blocks 
 previously used. This formed a new epoch in the art, and 
 is now termed, erroneously, the origin of printing. Alter a 
 lapse of many years, several cities claimed the honour of 
 this invention, but time has reduced these claims to two — 
 Haarlem and Menu; and this rivalry baa employed the stu- 
 dies and the pens of many learned men, who have laboured 
 to prove the respective claims of these cities to the imagi- 
 nary honour of the invention of printing; for what can be 
 more Imaginary than such an honour ? seeing the art had 
 practised in Europe, privately and publicly, in a modi- 
 lied form, for sixty or seventy years previously to the period 
 Which forms the subject in dispute. The claims of Haarlem 
 rest upon the statement of Hadrian Junius, who gives it 
 upon the testimony of one Cornelius, who had been a ser- 
 vant of Laurence Coster, for whom the invention is claim- 
 ed ; but this testimony is, in our opinion, utterly worthless. 
 Modern research gives the credit of the introduction of nm\ e 
 able metal types [unquestionably a grand improvement), to 
 Peter SchoeSer, the assistant and son-in-law of John Fust 
 or Faust of Mentz, so well know-:) in Europe as Dr. Faus- 
 tus. Of two writers who have supported the respective 
 claims of these two places, it has been observed, that it 
 now seems to be allowed that lleinecken has paid too little 
 attention to the antiquity of the claims of Haarlem, and 
 Meermtin infinitely too much. 
 
 The first edition of the Speculum Humana Salvationis 
 was printed Haarlem, about the year 1440 as 
 
 is supposed, and is one of the earliest productions of the 
 press of which the printer is known, and of which we shall 
 nave occasion to speak hereafter. But the celebrated Bi- 
 hle, known as the ".Mentz Bible without date," is the lir-i 
 Impor: n of printing with metal types: this was 
 
 exec i by '• iteinb r and Fusl a 1450 
 
 and 1453, and was the occasion of the secret being divulged, 
 of pro by mechanical means, as is mentioned 
 
 in the article Black Lkttkr. Then followed " the Psnl- 
 tcr, of 14.T7," by Fust and Schoefter. These works are ex- 
 aCBted in SUCb a m inner that, with all our boasted skill, and 
 our improvements in the art, we are decidedly of opinion, 
 perfect facsimiles, taking the ink and workmanship into 
 account, could not have been executed in England so lately 
 as twenty-five years ago. When the secret was made 
 known, books avowedly printed Issued from the press in all 
 of Europe, far beyond what could have been calcula- 
 ted upon Iran ■ new discovery; for before the year 1500, 
 there were printing offices in upwards of 220 places— in 
 i. Bavaria, Bohemia, Calabria, the t'n tnoneee, Den- 
 mirk, England, Flanders, France, Franconia, the Frioul, 
 Geneva. Genoa, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Lora- 
 bardy, Mecklenbtug, Moravia, Naples, the Palatinate, Pied- 
 Poland, Portugal, Rome, Sardinia, Upper and Lower 
 ly, Silesia, Spain, Bwabia, Switzerland, Thessa- 
 Turkev, Tuscany, the Tyrol, Venice, the Veronese, 
 • tialii, Wirtemberg, &c. "The number of places in 
 Which the art was practised, the wide extent to which 
 it had spread in so short a space of time, combined with 
 the skill which the early printers displayed In their works, 
 appear lo us to be totally incompatible with the date gener- 
 ally assigned to the invention; and we are of opinion that, 
 after having been long practised in private, it emerged into 
 publicity in a state nearly approaching to perfection. 
 
 It is impossible in this short and rapid sketch of the his- 
 tory- of the art to enter into detail, or to trace its progress bj 
 the dilferent cities and towns, or even in the different coun- 
 \here it was first publicly practised after the secret 
 was divulged : in fact, it would be impossible to arrive at any 
 satisfactory conclusion ; for as the first printers neither 
 alii veii their names, dates, nor places where their produc- 
 tions were executed, the greatest research could only result 
 in vagueness and uncertainty. There has been great differ- 
 ence of opinion among bibliographers who have written 
 on the subject, even respecting the first edition of the Latin 
 translation of the Bible; and Meerman has enumerated ten 
 ancient editions without date, in favour of the priority of 
 each of which pretensions have been advanced and sup- 
 ported. 
 
 William ('avion is generally regarded as first who intro- 
 duced the art of printing into England, and practised it at 
 minster; but a prior claim is advanced in favour of 
 Oxford, which has occasioned much controversy. Dr. Dib- 
 din, in his Typographical Antiquities, says, "Although 
 Caxton is called by me the first English printer, yet I fully 
 believe in the authenticity of the Oxford edition of the F.x- 
 pesirio sancti Jeronimi in simbolo apostolorum, &.C., of the 
 
 date of 1468, whicn was printed by a foreigner at Oxfcrd, 
 who was interrupted in the prosecution ot his typographi- 
 cal labours." Several copies of this work are in existence; 
 one is in the Bodleian library, another in the public library 
 at Cambridge, anil a third In the British Museum : Herbert 
 mentions a fourth in the Earl of Pembroke's library ; a tiftn 
 in All Souls library, of which a doubt may be entertained ; 
 and Hearne speaks of a sixth copy in the school tower at 
 Oxford. Those who deny the priority for Oxford argue that 
 the date is incorrect, cither from accident or design ; that 
 being in Reman numerals an X is omitted, and that the real 
 date of the book should be MCCCCLXXV111. 
 
 Caxton, during a long residence on the Continent on con»- 
 mercial affairs and political missions, in the reign of Henry 
 VII., acquired a practical knowledge of the art, and on his 
 return to England established a printing-office in a chapel 
 adjoining to Westminster Abbey, where, for many years, be 
 was indefatigable in translating and preparing works lor the 
 press, and in printing them ; and to him may be fairly as- 
 cribed the merit of being the first to introduce the practice 
 of printing generally into England. He printed many books 
 on a variety of subjects; and all the productions of his 
 press are objects of great interest to book collectors. He 
 commenced printing in England about the year 1474, and 
 was followed by Wynkyn de Worde, Richard Pynson, &.C 
 
 In the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Seventh are 
 the following entries : 
 
 "June (i, 1498. To the Printers at Westmr, X'l." 
 
 "Nov. 1, 1504. To Bichard Pynson, the Prynter, in re 
 wards, X'l." 
 
 '• 21. For prynling of new I toilette, XI 13*. Ad." 
 
 "July 12, 1505. To ltie. Pynson opon a prist for masse 
 be printed, £10." — Excerpta Hutorica, Bvo, 1833. 
 
 Dr. Dibdiii relates, that, in 1524, Dr. Robert Wakefield, 
 
 chaplain to Henry VIII., published his (JiiiIki dt J.uudiltus 
 
 tt triiuii /.iiirruaruii), .Irutitcir, ("Unliluica-, it JJc- 
 
 braica, &.c, 4to. The printer was Wynkyn de VVorde ; and 
 the author complains that he was obliged to omit his whole 
 third part, because the printer had no Hebrew t] ; 
 have now in the llrilish loimdcries, in addition lo the Koman 
 
 Engru sing, Ethiopic, Btru an, German, Gn el,. A: 
 
 thic, Hebrew, Hibernian or Irish, Malabaric, 
 .Malayan, N'ugari or Brahmin, Persian, Philosophical, Runic, 
 
 Russian, Samaritan, Sanscrit, Savon, Sclavonian or ancient 
 
 Script ill imitation of writing, Swedish, Syrinc, 
 Tamoul, Telega, Turkish ; also black letter, and mil le ; and, 
 in addition, a great variety of fancy types. 
 
 The first book in Which Greek types occur is t III 
 ficcs, printed in the year 1465, in which the characters are 
 .so imperfect that the words are with difficulty deciphered; 
 and the first bonk printed in Koman character.-, was I Icero's 
 Epistola Fnmiliurta, by Sw cynheim and i'annartz, at 
 Koine, in 1407. The Italic type was the invention of Aldus 
 Manutius, the celebrated printer at Venice, about 1501), and 
 dedicated by him to the States of Italy, from which it took 
 its name. 
 
 The art appeared to start into publicity in a state of per- 
 fection. As it extended, the workmanship became much in 
 ferior; so that while the productions of the first printers 
 were executed in a very superior style, and the embellish- 
 ments showed a great proficiency both in design and en- 
 graving, the productions of their competitors had all the 
 crudeness and imperfection of a new Invention : and in the 
 17th century it had r et rogr a ded to a very low state. At the 
 commencement of the 18th century, Caslon made great im 
 provement in types; and about 1750 Baskerville of Binning 
 ham also made great improvements, both in types and print 
 ing, which were subsequently carried on by Bensley, Bui 
 mer, Corrall, Davison, MCreeiy, Whittingham, and a few 
 others, in London ; the Foulis, at Glasgow; the Bnllantynes 
 in Edinburgh ; Bodoni at Parma, and Didot at Paris. 
 
 Many of the manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries 
 were written in a beautiful manner, and embellished by 
 borders round the pages, and by the large letters at the com- 
 mencements of chapters being drawn and coloured with 
 brilliant colours, heightened with burnished gold, and fin- 
 ished with taste, delicacy, and great ability, so as produce a 
 most splendid effect. These were called illuminated manu- 
 scripts. On the first production of books by the process of 
 printing these ornamental letters were left blank, and both 
 these letters and the borders were finished by hand in the 
 usual manner, which gave to the bookaperfect resemblance 
 to a manuscript, of which it became by these means a com- 
 plete facsimile. This is the case with the Mentz Bible by 
 Fust and Gutenberg. The first printers soon began to print 
 these large ornamented letters, the letter itself being in some 
 Instances red and the ornamental part blue, in others the 
 letter is blue and the ornamental part red ; and those were 
 afterwards finished by hand, as is apparent in the Psalter 
 of 1457, printed by Fust and Schoeffer, who also showed 
 great ingenuity and skill in the large letter B in the same 
 
 083 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 book, which is printed with re I ink, and the ornamental 
 part, consisting of a flourished li le, as if it had been drawn 
 with a pen, extending from the top to the bottom of the 
 folio page, with blue ink. Of two copies which we have 
 examined, one was in the library of Geo. III. at Bucking- 
 ham Palace, and the other in the possession of Earl Spencer. 
 
 The first edition of the Speculum Humana Salvationis, 
 which was printed at Haarlem, about the year 1440, by 
 Laurence Coster, has engravings on wood printed in a 
 different coloured ink from the body of the work. A copy 
 of this rare and curious work, which we examined some 
 years ago in the valuable collection of the Messrs. Long- 
 man, impressed us momentarily with the idea that the en- 
 gravings were pen and ink drawings, and that the ink had 
 turned brown with age, so precisely was this effect produced 
 by the tone of the ink. 
 
 We mention these early specimens of printing with col- 
 oured inks, and in the case of the Psalter having two blocks 
 of wood with two different colours, as being produced by 
 means of the press, coeval with the generally received 
 opinion of the invention of printing, to show the impossibility 
 of the case. For, looking at the freedom of the engraving 
 in the letter B, and the skill of the workman in printing it, 
 it must be evident to every person conversant with the 
 art that this perfection could only be obtained by long prac- 
 tice ; anil the contrast between these productions of the first 
 practitioners and their competitors, when the art became 
 public, puts the question beyond a doubt, as an examination 
 of the facsimiles given by Heinecken from Fables printed 
 at Bamberg about 1461, from the Lcgcndes printed at the 
 same place about 1470, and also the Fables of jEsop by 
 Caxton, will, we think, satisfy the most scrupulous and 
 skeptical. 
 
 Towards the end of the 15th century the art was extend- 
 ed to the imitation of pen and ink sketches with a coloured 
 ground, by the great masters of painting; and in a few 
 years it was farther extended to the imitation of drawings 
 in clare-obscure, and that with such success as to induce 
 some of the first artists to encourage it by drawing the sub- 
 jects on the blocks. The first practisers of this extension of 
 the art were, Michael Wolgemuth of Nuremberg, who fur- 
 nished the designs for the Nuremberg Chronicle, and also 
 engraved them on wood, and Mair, a native of Landshut, 
 the disciple of Martin Schiin ; between whom the priority 
 rests of printing in clare-obscure. After them were Girolomo 
 Mocetto, Lucas Cranach, Baldassar Peruzzi, Hans Burgh- 
 inair, and Ugo da Carpi (who has been generally regarded 
 as the inventor of this style of printing, but dates prove this 
 opinion to be erroneous), Domenico Beccafumii, John Ulric, 
 Albert Altdorfer, Hans Baldung, Lucus Jacobs Leyden 
 (called Lucas Van) ; all these were born in the 15th cen- 
 tury. In the lGth century, there were Antonio da Treats, 
 Giovanni Nicolo Vicentino (called Rossigliani), Herbert 
 Goltz or Goltzius, Andrew Andreani, Henry Goltz or Goltz- 
 ius, Abraham Bloemaert, Paul Moreelze, Bartolomeo Corio- 
 lano, Giovanni Batista Coriolano, Christopher Jeglier, George 
 L'AUemand, and Frederic Bloemaert. In the 17th century, 
 there were Louis Businck, Vincent le Sueur, Antonio 
 Maria Zanetti, Nicholas le Sueur, Comte de Caylus, Ed- 
 ward Kirkhall, and John Baptist Michael Papillon. This 
 last-mentioned engraver, in his treatise on Engraving on 
 Wood, expressly states that Albert Durer engraved some 
 subjects on clare-obscure, and that he had examined them 
 in the collection of the king of France; Parmigiano also 
 superintended the printing in this manner of a number of 
 his own designs ; Titian, Ilaffaelle, and other eminent mas- 
 ters made designs on the blocks for printing ; and the author 
 of Jin Enquiry into the Origin of Printing in Europe states, 
 that " one of the greatest princes and connoisseurs of our 
 age used to say, he saw nothing in prints that could give 
 him the pleasure he received from looking at the wood 
 prints, done in chiaro-oscuro by Hugo di Carpi." This 
 prince was the Duke of Orleans, regent of France. 
 
 After these were John Baptist Jackson, who executed a 
 number of subjects, of a large size, in clare-obscure, copied 
 from celebrated paintings in churches in Italy, and from 
 private collections ; he afterwards established a manufac- 
 tory at Chelsea for printing paper-hangings in oil colours, a 
 speculation, however, which was unsuccessful. Some of 
 his productions printed in colours were complete failures, 
 the oil having spread in tbe paper ; and the subjects being 
 in the first instance engraved with strong lines, they have 
 the appearance of coarse engravings coloured by children. 
 Jackson flourished from 1720, to 1754. Mr. John Skippe, an 
 amateur, executed many subjects in clare-obscure very 
 adroitly. 
 
 Gubitz, an engraver at Berlin, has produced a great num- 
 ber of subjects printed in colours, of a very superior charac- 
 ter, but none of tliem can be called imitations of drawings. 
 The writer of this article was the first who attempted to 
 imitate drawings in water colours by means of the common 
 printing press, and accomplished the applying of all the col- 
 984 
 
 ours used by artists to the composition of printing ink, thus 
 serving as a pioneer to more skilful persons who might de- 
 vote themselves to this branch of art; and he succeeded in 
 producing facsimiles of the drawings of different artists m 
 as to deceive every one who examined them Messrs. 
 Whiting and Branston, of Beaufort House, applied printing 
 in coloured inks to the prevention of forgery, and to em- 
 bossing on paper ; and Messrs. Vizetelly and Branston have 
 produced some very tasteful things in colours; but neither 
 of these establishments has, to our knowledge, turned their 
 attention to the imitation of drawings. Mr. Baxter is now 
 pursuing the subject, and has executed many very superior 
 specimens in a manner that would have been deemed total- 
 ly impracticable twenty -five years ago. The result is con- 
 firming the most sanguine expectations we ever entertained 
 on the subject ; and we are decidedly of opinion that the 
 powers of the printing press in producing works of art are 
 far from being fully developed. 
 
 The art of taking impressions in gold from types, and from 
 engravings on wood and metals in relief, generally called 
 printing in gold, is executed most successfully by the com- 
 mon printing press. It is also accomplished with bronze of 
 different colours in the most delicate engravings ; but how- 
 ever beautiful the effect of bronze may be at first, it unfor- 
 tunately is not permanent. 
 
 After tins brief sketch of the history and progress of the 
 art of printing in Europe, an art more important in the 
 effects it has produced on the human mind, and, conse- 
 quently, on the state of society, than any other that has 
 ever been practised, we shall lay before the reader a short 
 outline of the practical part, for the better understanding of 
 which, we shall subjoin a glossary of the chief technical 
 terms in common use. 
 
 The first operation, called composing, is to arrange the 
 separate letters called types (see Types) into words, lines, 
 and pages. These pages, being placed upon a large flat stir 
 face, called an imposing stone, in such an order that when 
 they are printed, and the slicet of paper is folded, the pages 
 will follow each other consecutively, are then wedged up in 
 an iron frame, termed a chase. This operation is styled in) 
 posing. 
 
 A printing press is a machine on which the matter to be 
 printed is laid on an even surface horizontally placed, cither 
 of stone or iron ; and the pressure upon the types is produced 
 by a parallel surface of wood or iron, technically a platen, 
 by means of a screw, or lever, or both combined. See 
 Press. 
 
 Perhaps the most satisfactory way of explaining the pro 
 cess generally, will be to take a printing-office just com- 
 mencing, and describe the whole arrangement, and follow, 
 in the order of its proceeding, the execution of a work from 
 its being put in hand to its completion. 
 
 The office having been supplied with all the necessary 
 materials ; viz., frames, cases, case racks, bulks, boards, 
 board racks, imposing stone, furniture, quoins, mallet, shoot- 
 ing-sticks, brass rule, chases, and types, in the quantity and 
 variety that may be judged necessary ; and also presses 
 with their accompaniments, hanks and horses, with a sink, 
 lye trough, wetting trough, and paper boards ; and in tlio 
 warehouse, with a gathering table, poles, a peel, and a press 
 to press the books before they are delivered — it may be said 
 that the office is in a state to commence business. 
 
 The compositor now proceeds to lay the letter into as 
 many cases as may be judged expedient in the first instance 
 (see Case), laying the Italic in cases distinct from the 
 Roman, each letter or sort in the box appropriated to it: 
 having done this with one fount, he will put the cases into 
 the case rack, and proceed with another fount, till the whole 
 of the letter is laid ; he will put the superfluous sorts either 
 into a fount case or into coffins ; and he will then be ready 
 to take copy. 
 
 The pressman has to adjust his press, place the footstep 
 so as to give him the greatest advantage in the pull, fix the 
 rounce, place the girths so that the carriage shall run in and 
 out properly, fix the back stay, justify the platen so that it 
 shall bear equally on all parts of the form, and cover bis 
 tympans and frisket; and he is also ready to proceed in his 
 work. 
 
 The compositor having taken copy, and received direc 
 tions respecting the measure, the length of the page, any 
 peculiarity in the spelling of particular words, the use of 
 capital letters, the punctuation, the words that are to be in 
 Italic or small capitals, and any other directions that may 
 be deemed necessary, proceeds to make his measure, and cut 
 a composing rule ; fie then begins to compose, letter by let- 
 ter, till he has formed a word; he separates this from the 
 following word by a space, and so continues till he has 
 composed a line; he then justifies this lint, ;y increasing 
 the space between the words or lessening it according to 
 circumstances, so that the line shall he toleralOy tight in the 
 composing stick; and thus proceeds till lie has completed a 
 page; after having set the head line and direction linf 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 with the signature, he ties a page cord round it, to preserve 
 it from tailing asunder, puts it on a page-pu|>er, and places 
 it on the bottom of his frame; and thus continues, page 
 after page, till he has composed a sheet. 
 
 It may !>e necessary to state that every line is of the same 
 length, whether the types fill it out or not j the last line 
 of u paragraph, lines of poetry, and short lines of any other 
 description, are filled up with quadrats to the proper length, 
 in order that they be secured from derangement by being 
 wedged up in the chase ; which is termed locking-up. 
 The pages are then taken to the imposing stone, and ar- 
 d in the proper order ; the page papers removed ; a 
 • It i hen placed over them (see Chase), furniture put 
 al«out tliem (see Furniture), and the pagecords taken 
 a\\ ay ; proper quoins are then selected, and the form is 
 locked up. It is then taken to a press, and one impression 
 is printed ; this is styled the first proof, which is folded and 
 taken u> the reader with the copy; a boy reads the copy to 
 him, while lie examines the proof and marks the errors of 
 tiir compositor, and puts a query to any doubtful mutter for 
 the author's consideration ; the proof is then returned to the 
 com|K>siior. who corrects the errors anil mistakes, and a 
 second impression is printed with more care, and generally 
 on betti'i paper; this is styled a clean proof ; it is examined 
 by the first proof to see that the errors of workmanship are 
 corrected, which is termed revising, and then sent out with 
 the copy to the author ; he makes what alterations and 
 corrections he may think necessary (see Correcting) ; 
 tins,' are corrected by the compositor; anolher impression 
 hi printed, revised, and read finally and with care for press; 
 the mucin is then adjusted (see Margin) ; and the correc- 
 tions being carefully made, it is taken to the press to bo 
 printed <>if. 
 
 In the mean time, afler the author has returned the sheet 
 for press, the warehouseman delivers out the proper quan- 
 tity of paper, which the pressman wets, by drawing the pa- 
 ' tin? extent of three, four, five, or six dips for each 
 quire, through clean water, according as the paper may be 
 hard sized or POKXtt, and also as the form may be solid or 
 open; the paper as it is wetted is laid upon a board, opened 
 out, and another board is laid upon it with weights; on the 
 following day it is turned, which causes fresh surfaces to 
 come into contact with each other, and diffuses the moisture 
 equally throughout every part of the heap; it will be in 
 good condition to print on the next day. This wetting the 
 pa|Mr causes it to receive the impression of the ink in a 
 much more perfect manner than it could possibly be made 
 to do i! dry. 
 
 The pressman having received the forms lays the inner 
 form on the press, and prints one copy, which is called a 
 ias he takes to the person appointed to revise it, 
 and while that is doing proceeds lo secure the form on the 
 table of the press by means of quoins; to place his tympan 
 sheet ; infix the jMiints which make small holes in the piper 
 that enable him to cause the pages to fall precisely on the 
 back of each other when the second side of the paper is 
 printed, anil to produce an even and uniform impression in 
 f iges ; lie then cuts his friskct, which preserves the 
 Bttgin ol Hie paper clean, and, when the revise is correct- 
 ed, proceeds to ink the surface of the types by means of 
 halls or rollers. When the whole impression of one side of 
 the paper is printed, he lifts the form off the press, washes 
 the ink off the face of the type with lye, and rinses it with 
 water. He then proceeds in a similar manner with the outer 
 form, which completes the sheet; and thus sheet after 
 sheet. 
 
 [fit lie intended to have large paper copies of a work, the 
 attention of margin is made when the number of small pa- 
 per copies is printed off from each form. 
 
 When the sheet is printed the compositor lays it up, dis- 
 tributes the letter, and proceeds, sheet after sheet, till the 
 body of the work is finished ; then the title, dedication, 
 introduction, contents, and any other prefatory mat- 
 ter. i< proceeded with, these being always printed the last. 
 The warehouseman then takes the printed sheets away, 
 and hangs them up on poles to dry, varying the number (if 
 sheets hung up together from five or six to ten or eleven, ac- 
 cording to the state of the weather, the heat of the room, or 
 ure of business; when these sheets are dry they 
 are taken down from the poles, carefully knocked up, and 
 put away in the warehouse in piles ; when the book is near- 
 ly finished from ten to fourteen consecutive sheets are laid 
 upon the gathering table in order, and collected sheet by 
 sheet by boys, who deposit each gathering in a heap at the 
 end of the table, which is generally what is styled a horse- 
 shoe table, so that when a boy has deposited his gathering he 
 has only to turn himself and begin again. These gather- 
 ings are then carefully collated, to ascertain that the differ- 
 en' sheets are correct and in order, and folded up the mid- 
 dle When the work is finished the gatherings are put to- 
 getnrr, each of which forms a copy of the work, and press- 
 ed ; the work is now completed, and awaits the order of the 
 
 bookseller, &c, to deliver the copies cither to himself, the 
 bookbinder, or to others, according to circumstances, 
 
 A new method of obtaining impressions from types by 
 means of cylinders has been introduced, and the power gen- 
 erally employed is steam. Mr. Konig, a Saxon, had con- 
 sidered that steam might be employed with advantage to 
 expedite the process ; but not receiving encouragement on 
 the Continent to enable him to prosecute his plans, he came 
 to England in 1804, and, after explaining hi> views to some 
 of the principal printers in London, Mr. Thomas Bensley, 
 Mr. George Woodfull, and Mr. Richard Taylor embarked in 
 the undertaking, but Mr. Win .dial I soon withdrew. After 
 innumerable experiments, and a great outlay of capital, the 
 result was not satisfactory; but the experience gained by 
 prosecuting these experiments resulted in the production of 
 a machine to print with cylinders instead of a fiat surface, 
 as was the case with the printing press, which was limited 
 in the size of the paper by the size of the press and the 
 power of the pressman. In cylindrical printing, by which 
 the pressure is communicated in lines, the size may be very 
 considerably increased. 
 
 The first machine that was constructed was capable of 
 printing 1000 copies per hour of double demy paper on both 
 siiles. while a press is estimated to print 2M copies of a 
 single sheet on one side only, in the same time. 
 
 When this machine was completed, the proprietors of 
 the Times newspaper, ever ready to adopt an) improvement 
 that would expedite its publication, without regarding ex- 
 pense, agreed with Ihe patentees for two machines ; and 
 on the 98th „r .November, 1814, the Times was published, 
 executed by cylindrical printing, the moving power being 
 steam: these were the only machines constructed under 
 the first patent. 
 
 Various improvements and simplifications of this complex 
 machine were soon eflected by diderent ingenious men, and 
 were adopted by many printers. They have become H 
 valuable for the publication of periodicals where the num 
 ber of copies is great, and also for newspapers; for their 
 power of printing sheets of paper of a si/.'- tar beyond the 
 capability of any press, and their rapidity of throwing off 
 copies, enable the editors to increase tin delay 
 
 commencing the printing off for a considerable nine later 
 than before their introduction, and thus avail linn 
 of any intelligence that might arrive in the interval. 
 
 Perhaps the most complete machine for priming one side 
 of the paper is that used at the office of the Timet; the 
 carriage on which the pages to be printed are laid, ti 
 under the printing cylinders, of which there are four, and 
 back again nineteen times in a minute, producing two Im- 
 pressions in going, and tuo in returning, or seventy-six in a 
 
 minute, being 'i,:">ti0 copies of four pages of thai newspaper 
 in the hour, at its ordinary rate of working. The paper is 
 laid on at both ends of the machine, two persons laying on 
 at each end; and the printed sheets are delivciou two at 
 each end. 
 
 The types are inked by means of rollers, and the appa- 
 ratus for this pur)iosc was the invention of Mr. Edward 
 Cowper; the paper is secured in travelling round the cylin- 
 ders by means of tapes, ns first practised by Mi. Konig : the 
 chief improvements in this machine are known as those of 
 Messrs. Applegalh and Cowiier, by the former of whom it 
 was constructed and fitted up. 
 
 This machine has the appearance of four single machines 
 formed into one, and working at less speed than separate 
 machines are in the habit of doing, many of which are 
 capable of printing 1500 per hour ; and we have no hesita- 
 tion in saying, that if it were requisite for the sake of 
 despatch, the principle might be extended, and a machine 
 constructed to print 6000 or 8000 an hour without diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 The idea of cylindrical printing in England originated 
 some years anterior to Mr. Kdnig submitting his plan, for 
 the late Mr. William Nicholson took out a patent for the 
 purpose, dated 29th April, 17'H), but it was never acted on ; 
 and, as to the use of steam as the motive power, the late 
 Mr. Alexander Tilloch is known to have slated previously 
 to the introduction of these machines, that he had long had 
 it in contemplation to apply steam as the power to print off 
 the Star newspaper. 
 
 The late Sir William Congreve took out a patent for a 
 machine to print two colours at once, which was made by 
 Messrs. Donkin .and Company, and completely answered 
 the purpose. This machine was intended to print stamps 
 and bank bills, which Sir William stated would be inimita- 
 ble, except by the machine of which he was the patentee ; 
 but he was too sanguine, and the opinion was fallacious, 
 for nothing in the process of printing is more easy to execute 
 at the common press by a common workman than this 
 inimitable plan for preventing forgeries. 
 
 Glossary to the Article Printing. 
 
 Alteration of Margin, is increasing the space between 
 
 985 
 
PRINTING. 
 
 the pages, so as to enlarge the margiv jf a book, and make 
 it proportional in large paper copies. 
 
 Back Stay, is a girth or strap of strong leather attached 
 to the hack of the carriage, and fastened to the hind part of 
 the press ; its use is to check the carriage in running out 
 beyond the point which will allow the tympan to rise clear 
 of the front of the platen. 
 
 Balls are used for coating the face of the type or engraving 
 \tith ink for the purpose of obtaining impressions. They 
 consist of the ball-stock, stuffed with carded wool, and not 
 many years ago were covered with an undressed sheep- 
 skin, the hair taken off, termed a pelt. The noisome smell 
 which these balls occasioned in a printing office by the 
 means used to keep them in good working order, induced 
 many persons to turn their attention to the providing of a 
 substitute for them ; but long without success : at length 
 Mr. B. Foster introduced composition balls, made of glue 
 and treacle melted together and cast in a dished mould, so 
 that the edges are thinner than the middle, and attached to 
 a piece of canvass as a substitute for the pelt ; these balls 
 were found to answer so well, and be so free from any 
 noxious smell, that they have generally superseded the pelt 
 balls. 
 
 Bank. A table placed at the side of a press, on one end 
 of which the horse containing the paper to be printed is 
 laid, and at the other the sheets printed during the opera- 
 tion. 
 
 Board Rack. Grooves formed in some recess, or under 
 the imposing stone or a bulk, or in a closet, to receive letter 
 boards on which types are placed that are not in immediate 
 use. 
 
 Carriage. That part of a press on which the types are 
 placed to be printed, which is run in till they are imme- 
 diately under the platen, and, when the impression is taken, 
 run out, in order to change the sheet of paper, and to ink 
 the types again. 
 
 Case Rack. A frame of wood of the width and depth of 
 a case, with ledges attached to the inside of the upright 
 parts to receive those cases which are not in use. 
 
 Coffin. A piece of strong paper twisted into a conical 
 shape like a sugar paper, into Which any superfluous types 
 are temporarily deposited. Also that part of the carriage 
 of a wooilen press in which the stone is bedded. 
 
 Composing Rule. A piece of brass rule, the width of 
 which is eiiual to the height of the types, cut to the length 
 of the line, and laid in the composing stick, upon which the 
 compositor arranges the types ; it facilitates the pi'cess, 
 and by means of it he empties his stick when it is full. 
 
 Composing Stick. An instrument of simple construction, 
 in which the compositor arranges the words and lines. It 
 has a slide, which is secured by a screw, by means of which 
 he is enabled to make the lines of any length that may be 
 required. 
 
 Diicction Line. A line of quadrants at the bottom of 
 each page, in which is inserted the first word of the next 
 page, which is called the catch-word ; in the first page of 
 each sheet there is also inserted in it the number of the 
 volume, if more than one, and the signature. 
 
 To Distribute. To replace the letters in their respective 
 situations in the eases, after a sheet has been printed otf, to 
 enable the compositor to proceed with the work. 
 
 Footstep. An inclined plane fixed under the front side 
 of the press, for the pressman to place his foot upon when 
 at work, to enable him to exert his strength to advantage. 
 
 Form. A chase with one or more pages wedged up in it. 
 
 Fount Case. A case of large dimension in which the 
 superfluous sorts of a fount are placed, as a depot, till they 
 be wanted. 
 
 Frame. It is made of wood, of a height to suit a man 
 standing to work at it, on which the cases are placed. It 
 is much higher at the back than the front, which brings 
 the most distant boxes nearer to the compositor's hand. 
 
 Friskct. A light iron frame, attached to the tympan by 
 joints or pivots, which turns down upon the tympan over 
 the sheet of paper to be printed, to preserve the margin 
 clean, and to retain the paper in its position ; to effect this, 
 the frisket is covered with paper, and openings cut in it the 
 size of the pages to be printed. 
 
 Girths. Two pieces of girthweb or strong leather, 
 fastened at one of the ends to the wheel, and wound differ- 
 ent ways round it, and the other ends attached to the ex- 
 treme ends of the carriage ; by this means turning the rounce 
 on& way causes the carriage to run in under the platen, and 
 turning It the reverse way causes it to run out again. 
 
 Head Line. The line at the top of the page, which con- 
 tains the folio or number of the page, and frequently the 
 title of the book, or the subject of the chapter or of the 
 page. 
 
 Horse. An apparatus of a desk-like shape, placed on 
 the bank close to the tympan of the press, on which the 
 paper to be printed Is laid. 
 
 Inner Form. The chase and pages in proper order, 
 
 wedged up, which contains the 2d, 3d, 6th, 7th, 10th. 11th 
 14th, and 15th pages of a sheet in octavo ; it Invariably con- 
 tains the second page of a sheet, whatever may be the size 
 of the book. 
 
 Justifying. Putting equal space between the words in 
 each line; making the lines of precisely the same length ; 
 placing the marginal notes opposite the references ; making 
 the pages uniformly of one length; and adjusting anj pecu- 
 liar matter, so that the whole shall be tight and proper 
 when wedged up. 
 
 To Knock-up. At press, it is for the pressmen to make a 
 pair of balls. In the warehouse, it is to make the printed 
 sheets even at the edges, which is performed by taking held 
 of a parcel of sheets by the two edges, holding them slack 
 in the hands, and letting them fall on their bottom edge by 
 their own weight, then by a sleight of hand throwing them 
 flat on the board, repeating the operation till all tl 
 are even at the edges, when they are placed in piles uatil 
 they are gathered. 
 
 To Lay-up. This is the operation of washing the ink off 
 the types after the impression is printed, by laying the form 
 on a letter board, loosening the quoins, and working the 
 letter with the hand, pouring on it plenty of water to clean 
 the types for distribution. 
 
 Letter Board. A board on which pages of types are 
 placed for distribution, and also when they are net imme- 
 diately wanted. There are two ledges of wood grooved in 
 on the under side, which project a little more than an inch. 
 on which it rests, which allows it to be set over other types 
 on boards without putting them in confusion. 
 
 Lye Trough. A shallow trough, lined with lead, suffi- 
 ciently capacious to admit a board on which a form \< laid ; 
 this trough has some lye in it, with which the surface of 
 the letter, the chase, and the furniture is brushed over, to 
 remove the ink which has accumulated during the process 
 of printing; the form is then taken out, set upon its edge, 
 and rinsed with water. The lye is composed of water and 
 pearl ash. 
 
 Mallet. (Fr. maillet.) A wooden hammer, with which 
 the quoins are tightened, and also loosened ; and which is 
 also used fix general purposes. 
 
 Measure. (Fr. mesure ) The space in the r 
 stick between the end and the slide, which is the length of 
 a line, however huge or small the page may be, is styled 
 the measure. 
 
 Outer Form. The chase and pages in proper order. 
 wedged up, which contains the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 
 13th, and 16th pages of a sheet in octavo; it invariably 
 contains the first and last pages of a sheet, whatever in: y 
 he the size of the book. 
 
 Page Cord. Small twine, even and strong, which is 
 used to tie round the pages of types, to secure them from 
 accidents till they are imposed, when the cords are taken 
 off. 
 
 Page Papers. Pieces of stout and smootli paper, on 
 which the pages of types in the progress of a work are 
 placed in a safe place till a sheet is ready to be ini| osed. 
 
 Paper Boards. Boards on which paper is laid when 
 wetted ; also those boards used in pressing books: they are 
 of various dimensions, according to the size of the paper. 
 They differ from letter boards in being smooth and even on 
 both sides. 
 
 Peel. A thin piece of wood with a long handle affixed 
 to it, in the shape of the letter T ; it is used lor hanging 
 the sheets of a book upon the poles to dry, and for taking 
 them down again. 
 
 Platen. A thick piece of wood, or more generally now 
 made of iron, perfectly level on its under side, attached im- 
 mediately under the moving power of a printing press, 
 which produces the impression. 
 
 Point. There are always two points used in press work, 
 when a sheet of paper is printed on both sides ; they are 
 made of thin iron, with a notch at one end, and a projecting 
 spur or point at the other end ; they are attached to the 
 tympan by screws, and lie flat upon it; the spurs being 
 under the sheet of paper to be printed make' small boles in 
 it, so that when the reiteration or second side is printed the 
 spurs are placed in these holes, which cause the pages to 
 fall exactly on the back of each other. 
 
 Poles. Long pieces of fir wood, about an inch and a 
 half thick, and three or four inches broad, placed across 
 the warehouse and other rooms in a printing-office, at about 
 eight or nine inches apart, and about fourteen inches front 
 the ceiling; their ends rest in notches cut in .stretchers 
 fastened to the wall. Their use is to hang the damp printed 
 paper upon to dry, which is done with facility by means of 
 
 til G 1)Gg1 
 
 Quadrats. (Fr. quadrat.) Pieces of metal of the same 
 body as the tvpe, but cast lower in height; used to fill up 
 short lines, anil to form a blank line or lines where necessary ; 
 being cast lower than the type, they do not produce anv 
 impression on the paper. 
 
PRINTING INK. 
 
 Quoin. A. wedge about half an inch thick and of various 
 widths, to wedge up the pages of type in a chase. 
 
 Holhr. (Fr. rouleau.) The roller has nearly superseded 
 the use of halls for inking the surface of the t.'pes. It is 
 formed of a composition of glue and treacle cast on a wooden 
 cylinder, turning on its axis in a light frame. 
 
 Rounce. The rounce is the handle by which the car- 
 (iage of the pros-, on which the form to be printed is laid, 
 is run in under the platen and out again ; it is fixed on the 
 spit, which is the axis, thai passes through the drum, a 
 cylinder of wood on which one end of the girths are fasten- 
 ed. The whole apparatus is generally termed the rounce. 
 
 Run-in. The act of placing the carriage with the form 
 of types under the platen, to obtain an impression. This is 
 i by turning the rounce. 
 
 Run out. The act of withdrawing the carriage with the 
 form of types from under the platen, by turning the rounce 
 tile reverie way from the preceding, after the impression is 
 taken. 
 
 tick. An Implement for tightening and loosen- 
 ing the quoins tint wedge up the pages in a chase. It is in 
 the shape of a wedge, about two inches hioad and nine 
 inches long, and is usually made of box wood. In use the 
 small end is placed against the quoin, and the other struck 
 by the mallet. 
 
 Signature. A letter of the alphabet placed at the bottom 
 of the first page of a sheet, and so on to each sheet con- 
 secutively through the alphabet, with the exception of the 
 letters J, V, and VV ; their use is to facilitate collating a 
 book, as a guide to the bookbinder in folding the sheets, 
 and as a ready means of referring to any part of a work 
 i i.- hound. 
 
 Sun':. A corner of the pressroom, generally inclosed and 
 
 lined with lead, with loose hoards upon the lead; in this 
 
 sink are placed the lye trough and a wetting trough; it is 
 
 ban the forms are washed, rinsed, and laid up. 
 
 la always n pipe to carry off the waste water. 
 
 ■Sorts. It is generally used in the plural ; it means any 
 
 letter, point, mark, space, or quadrat, that is either deficient 
 
 or redundant in quantity. A work runs upon sorts ; that 
 
 number of some particular letters are required 
 
 than the regular proportion, an index for instance. 
 
 Space. A piece of metal cast lower than a type, so as 
 not lo print, used to separate words; they are of different 
 thick; 10 enable the compositor to arrange liie 
 werii, at equal distances fr eaeh other in the same line. 
 
 'Jiimpnn. A wooden frame attached to the carriage of 
 lie press b] joints, and covered with parchment, on which 
 
 the sheet of paper to he printed is laid; there is another 
 frame rilled the inner tympan, which fits into this, also 
 .1 wilii parchment; between these are placed pieces 
 of woollen Cloth, termed blankets, which form a soil medium 
 between the types and the platen that tends to produce an 
 equal Impression, 
 
 '. A sheet of paper, the same that a work 
 is printed on, laid upon the tympan, and fastened to it at 
 tin- corners with paste; it is the guide on which the 
 to he printed are hid, by which means the margin is kept 
 regular and uniform. 
 
 / Trough. Two troughs joined together and lined 
 with lead; one deep, containing the water; the other shal- 
 low, of sufficient size to contain a paper hoard. The paper 
 is wetted for priming by drawing it through- the water, and 
 opening it out on the board. 
 
 PRINTING INK. A composition with which the face 
 of types and engravings in relief arc coated previous to ob- 
 taining an Impression from them: il is made of different 
 colours ; but books, and the generality of printing, are exe- 
 cuted with black ink. Its Composition, generally speaking, 
 is linseed oil boiled to a varnish, with colouring matter 
 added to it. The preparation of this article was long kept 
 a profound secret by the few manufacturers of it in England, 
 who completely monopolized the trade, till Mr. VV. Savage 
 published a treatise on the subject, in which he gave the 
 process in detail for making printing ink of every quality 
 and colour, which may be consulted with advantage by 
 tho-e who are interested in the subject. 
 
 PRIOR, PRIORESS. (Eat.) The heads of certain con- 
 vents of monks or nuns, which are thence denominated 
 priories : the prior is inferior in dignity to the abbot. 
 
 PRISCI'LLIANISTS. In Ecclesiastical History, heretics 
 of the 4th century; so named from Priscilllan, bishop of 
 Atila in Spain, who was put to death in A.D. 382 by Maxi- 
 mus, tyrant of Gaul, for heresy, on the accusation of another 
 bishop, Iihacius: one of the earliest instances of persecution 
 10 death for that offence. The opinions of Priscillian and 
 his followers are said to have been Manichcenn ; but it is 
 remarkable that Snip. Severus, himself sufficiently zealous 
 against their doctrines, admits that their persecutor Iihacius 
 was :\ man of disreputable character, and that purity and 
 austerity of manners were often sufficient with him to 
 ground an accusation of Prisciilianism. This affords a 
 
 PRISON. 
 
 curious parallel with the history of the 12th and 13th cen 
 tuiies, when accusations of Manicheism were liberally 
 brought against sectaries whose avowed tenets extended 
 only to the reformation of ecclesiastical matters and deniaJ 
 of the church's authority. (See .Vosheim. cent, iv.. Dart 2.1 
 
 PRISM. In Geometry, a solid contained by p, nr.es of 
 which two that are opposite are equal, similar, and parallel, 
 and all the rest parallelograms. Prisms take particular 
 names from the figures of their ends, or opposite equal and 
 parallel sides. When the ends are triangles, they are called 
 triangular prisms ; when the ends are square, square prisms ; 
 when the ends are pentagonal, ]>entagonal prisms ; and so 
 on. A ri^Ar. prism has its sides perpendicular to its ends ; 
 an oblique prism is that of which the sides are oblique to 
 the ends. The solid content of a prism is found by multi- 
 plying the area of the base into the perpendicular altitude ; 
 hence all prisms are to one another in the ratio compounded 
 of their bases and altitudes. 
 
 Prism. In Dioptrics, a piece of glass or other diaphanous 
 substancV, in form of a triangular prism, employed to sepa- 
 rate a ray of light into its constituent pans or colours by 
 refraction. The prism Is the instrument by means of which 
 most of the remarkable phenomena of light and colours are 
 exhibited. See CHROMATICS, OPTICS, REFRACTION. 
 
 PRISMATIC COLOURS. The colours produced by de 
 composing light by a prism. Set Primary Colours. 
 
 PRISMATIC COMPASS. A surveying instrument, much 
 used on account of its convenient size and form in military 
 sketching, and for filling up the details of a map where 
 great accuracy is not required. The construction is as fol- 
 lows : The compass Cant, divided into degrees and minutes, 
 is attached to the needle, and turns with it. On one side 
 of the COmpass-bOX stands a perpendicular slip, called the 
 sight-vane, having a long, narrow, perpendicular slit in it, 
 along the middle of which a line thread is stretched. On 
 one side of the box, opposite to the sight-vane, there is a 
 prism, through which and through the sight-vane an object 
 is observed, and bisected by the thread. The use of the 
 prism is this — the rays of light passing from the thread ti. 
 the eye are refrs • g through th" prism, so thai 
 
 the thread appears to be prolonged, and to intersect the rir 
 cle on the card on which the divisions are; consequently 
 the magnetic azimuth of any object which the thread hi 
 sects is indicated immediately by the division wiih which 
 the thread coincides. The angle between two 
 thus obtained, being equal when the stations are on oppo ,; / 
 sides of the meridian to the sum of their azimuths, ami hi 
 the difference Of the azimuths when they are on the sane 
 side of the meridian. The' caul is divided to 15' of 
 which is, perhaps, a smaller angle than can be measured by 
 this instrument. (See Simms's Treatise on MatkematicoJ 
 Instruments.) 
 
 PRISMOID. An imperfect prism; a figure resembling a 
 oi i ni. but not answering exactly to the definition. 
 
 PRI'fll IN. (Fr. prendre, tn take.) Imprisonment is used 
 in most civilized states for three purposes: for safe custody 
 of persons charged with offences, for the detention of debt- 
 ors, and for punishment; under which latter head the refor- 
 mation of prisoners must be comprehended, as being prop- 
 erly only an adjunct to punishment. The first principles ol 
 order seem to require that these three classes of prisoners 
 should be kept entirely distinct, and, If possible, in separate 
 places of confinement ; hut even the former rule has been 
 generally very imperfectly observed, white the latter is in 
 most places impracticable by reason of expense. The alle- 
 viation of the horrors of imprisonment, by physical improve- 
 ment of the condition of prisoners and the imparting ofreli 
 gious instruction, has been from very early times an object 
 with philanthropists ; but the adaptation of imprisonment 
 to serve the end of punishment has been, comparatively 
 speaking, only very recently attempted. The Society of the 
 Brothers of Mercy, in Italy, paid much attention to the for- 
 mer subject in the 15th anil 16th centuries; and the names 
 of S. Carlo Borromeo and St. Vincent de Paule have deri- 
 ved from it much of their lustre. But the earliest instance 
 of a prison managed on any principles of policy and hu 
 inanity seems to be that of the Penitentiary at Amsterdam, 
 erected in 1595; an example which was soon followed by 
 somo of the German towns, especially Hamburg and Bre- 
 men. In England it is well known that the impulse o» 
 prison Impro v e m ent was first communicated by the celebra- 
 ted Howard, whose sruTerings, when taken by a privateer 
 and imprisoned at Brest, (hiring the seven years' war, are 
 said to have first directed lis attention to the subject. The 
 fruits of his observations, in his repented visits to most of 
 the prisons of Europe, were given to the world partly in his 
 publications, and partly on examination before a committee 
 of the House of Commons in 1774. To his suggestions, and 
 those of Jonas Hanwnv, are principally owing the provisions 
 of the 19 G. :t. c. 74 (passed in 1778)," truly called the basis 
 of succeeding legislation on the subject. Solitary Imprison- 
 ment Was then first instituted. The woiks of Neeld and 
 
 987 
 
PRISON 
 
 others, and the labours of the Prison Discipline Society 
 (founded, we believe, chiefly by Mr. Fowell Buxton), kept 
 the attention of the public fixed on the subject. In 1813, 
 the construction of the Milbank Penitentiary was begun, in- 
 tended as a species of model prison; but that establishment, 
 from many errors committed in its foundation and first man- 
 agement, was long before it answered in any degree the 
 views of its projectors. Meanwhile, practical improvement 
 had proceeded much farther in the United States of Ameri- 
 ca, where the experiments of solitary confinement and of 
 association in silence were both first instituted on any ex- 
 tensive scale, and have formed the basis of two different 
 systems, which now divide the suffrages of observers. Eu- 
 rope has, in this matter, taken lessons from America ; and 
 the reports of French visiters (Messrs. Beaumont and De 
 Tocqneville, 1834 ; Messrs. De Metz and Blouet, sent by 
 government, 1837), of Dr. Juliers, sent from Prussia, and 
 Mr. Crawford from England, have contributed largely to 
 the present state of public opinion on the subject. In 1834, 
 inspectors were appointed to report annually on »he state of 
 English and Scottish prisons — a measure which had been 
 earlier adopted with reference to Ireland ; and their reports 
 may be consulted with great advantage, both with a view 
 to the actual state of prisons and their prospective reform. 
 The " Third Report of the English Inspector for the Home 
 District" (1838) is particularly valuable, from the historical 
 sketch it contains, and from the comparison there instituted 
 between thp separate and the silent systems. The chief 
 heads of improvement in prison discipline which have been 
 recommended or introduced since public attention was call- 
 ed to the subject are, 1. Inspection and control; 2. Classifi- 
 cation; 3. Separate or solitary punishment; 4. The "silent" 
 or non-intercourse system ; 5. The introduction of labour ; 6. 
 Religious and intellectual instruction. — 1. The first of these 
 is matter rather of practical than theoretical development. 
 The history of the plan originally suggested by General 
 Bentham and his brother, the philosopher, which has form- 
 ed, to a certain extent, the basis of later experiments, is 
 mentioned under the head Penitentiary. 2. Classifica- 
 tion, under the English jail acts of 1823 and 1824, has been 
 extensively introduced into prisons. It is, of course, a great 
 improvement on the indiscriminate mixture of prisoners of 
 all classes and characters which formerly prevailed ; but, 
 as a means of reformation or of punishment, it has not an- 
 swered the views once entertained of it. And the reason is 
 obvious : the only object of classification is the exclusion of 
 the moral influence of more or less corrupted minds ; but by 
 no system of classification (and as many as fifteen classes 
 have been introduced in some prisons) can this be exclu- 
 ded. In every class, whether arranged according to age, or 
 degree of offence, or in any other practicable mode, there 
 will probably be some unusually depraved characters; and 
 then the experiment must fail. The only perfect classifica- 
 tion is that which constitutes the basis of, 3. The separate 
 system, namely, the entire separation of prisoners from each 
 other in solitary cells. When this has been carried to ex- 
 cess as a means of punishment, namely, seclusion by day 
 and by night, without labour, without employment, with 
 only the occasional silent visits of the turnkey or the medi- 
 cal attendant, it has generally proved more than human 
 nature can bear, at least for any time; but separate confine- 
 ment with labour as an alleviation, and with occasional vis- 
 its for religious consolation and instruction, is a very differ- 
 ent mode of treatment. The separate system is that estab- 
 lished in the great eastern penitentiary of Pennsylvania, in 
 Philadelphia, now in operation for ten or eleven years ; and in 
 that of Glasgow— which may be mentioned as models in their 
 kind. 4. The difficulty of enforcing solitary confinement, in 
 some American prisons, seems to have led to the adoption 
 of the silent system ; of which the prison at Auburn, in the 
 State of New-York, affords the most celebrated instance. 
 The prisoners work together in the dav, but are prevented 
 from all communication : at night they are separate. It 
 was, we believe, introduced several years ago in the Maison 
 de Force at Ghent. In England, it is in operation at Cold- 
 bath Fiel ,1s, Wakefield, and elsewhere. With respect to 
 the comparative advantages of the two systems, the work 
 of Messrs. Beaumont and De Tocqueville may be consulted 
 for an impartial summary of evidence, without the expres- 
 sion of decided opinion. (Part I., chap, ii., s. 3.) The " sep- 
 arate" was recommended in 1832 by the committee on sec- 
 ondary punishments, and is advocated by Mr. Crauford, in 
 his Report on the Penitentiaries of the United States, 1837, 
 and in Hip fourth Report abov« alluded to; by Dr. Juliers; 
 by Messrs. De Metz and Blonett, and by M. Moreau-Chris- 
 tophe in various works. The silent system seems to be 
 supported by M. Lucas, De la Reformc des Prisons, 1836; 
 while, in his Thiorie de V Emprisonnement, he attempts to 
 reconcile the two ; by Messrs. Berenger and Gasparin ; and 
 by Mr. Inspector Williams (fourth Report, England ; North- 
 ern and Eastern Division). The chief objections to the 
 separate system are, 1. As a punishment, its inequality, 
 
 PRIVATEER. 
 
 being felt far more severely by some than others ; but to 
 this it may be answered, that those who do feel it are pre- 
 cisely those whom it is most desirable to affect—the more 
 depraved. 2. Its effects on the mind and passions in some 
 respects ; a very difficult and delicate subject, and by far 
 the most serious charge against it. 3. That even as a sys- 
 tem of reform, for which, in subjects presenting any prospect 
 of amendment, it is best calculated, it is utterly useless in 
 short terms of imprisonment. " Those best acquainted with 
 the subject in the United States," says Mr. Williams, "con- 
 ceive that two years' imprisonment are required before any 
 impression can be made, and from four to six years to 
 achieve the work of reformation." To the silent system, 
 its enemies object, 1. The extreme difficulty of carrying it 
 into successful operation. 2. Its supposed effect in" irrita- 
 ting, degrading, and even brutalizing the minds of prisoners, 
 by its vexatious discipline. They appeal in support of this 
 position to the quantity of punishment (corporal, or by soli- 
 tary confinement) which is required to carry it into effect 
 In Wakefield and Coldbath Fields, upon this system, 20,257 
 punishments were inflicted on 13,188 prisoners, or two on 
 each on the average ; while in all England the proportion 
 was found to be 54,825 punishments to 109,495 prisoners, or 
 one to two only. But this is explained in some degree, in 
 the latter prison at least, by the number of short imprison- 
 ments. 5. With respect to the introduction of labour into 
 prisons of punishment, the chief question seems to be, 
 whether it ought to form part of the punishment, and be of 
 a vexatious and severe nature, or whether it should be used 
 as an alleviation to the rigour of separate confinement, as a 
 preparation of the criminal for re-entrance into society. 
 The former is the principle commonly adopted in England ; 
 the ordinary sentence, for many offences, being imprison- 
 ment with hard labour, and with occasional intervals of sol- 
 itary confinement ; the treadwheel being the most common 
 species of labour. On this subject the reader may consult 
 the original article "Prisons" in the Enc. Britannica ; but 
 the views of the author are somewhat too dogmatically ex- 
 pressed. The policy and practicability of making prison 
 labour pay or contribute largely towards the maintenance 
 of the prison has not been much discussed in England, 
 where, from our less economical habits, the experiment hns 
 hardly been tried. In America several are said to afford a 
 revenue to the state. (See Messrs. De Beaumont and 
 Tocqueville.) In Belgium they have long been rendered 
 very productive : the works of the present very able in- 
 spector-general, M. Ducpetiaux, contain ample information 
 on the subject. The 16th and 17th Reports of the Irish In- 
 spectors refer largely to it : from the latter it appears that 
 the cost of work has been more than repaid by the return 
 in every prison ; but it does not appear clearly what is com- 
 prehended under the former head, and the numbers seem 
 not altogether accurate. There are, however, serious moral 
 objections to plans combining economical advantage will: 
 punishment and reformation. It is impossible to conclude 
 an article on this subject without noticing that terrible de- 
 fect in our institutions, the want of any control over, or pro 
 vision for, offenders discharged from prisons ; a defect which 
 the abolition of transportation, without any substitute, will 
 render even more conspicuously injurious than it has hith- 
 erto been. Most of the best modern authorities on this 
 subject are referred to in the course of this article : see also 
 the article " Gefangniss" in the Conversations lexicon, and 
 the German works mentioned at the end of it ; and the Ed. 
 Rev., vols, xxii., xxx„ xxxv., and xxxvi. 
 
 The last prisons act is the 2 & 3 Vict., c. 56 (1839). By 
 this act, separate confinement is for the first time distin- 
 guished from the severer punishment of solitary confine- 
 ment. Thejustic.es are empowered to make rules for classi- 
 fication, &c, subject to the approval of the secretary of 
 state. According to the reports of 1838, 133,312 persons 
 were confined in the prisons of England and Wales during 
 that year ; of whom 23,808 were committed for trial at as- 
 sizes and sessions, 56,736 on summary conviction. 
 
 PRISONS, MAMERTINE. Certain fearful places of 
 confinement in ancient Rome, chiefly intended for stato 
 prisoners. They were constructed by Ancus Martius, ot 
 large uncemented stones ; and, from the specimens of them 
 which remain, it is difficult to imagine a more horrible 
 place for the confinement of a human being. There were 
 two apartments, one above the other, to which there was 
 no entrance except by a small aperture in the upper roof; 
 and a similar hole in the upper floor led to the cell below, 
 there being no staircase to either. The upper prison was 
 27 feet long by 20 wide, and the lower, which was elllpti 
 cal, was 20 by*10; the height of the former was 14 feet, of 
 the latter 7. None but persons of distinction had the priv- 
 ilege of occupying these prisons. 
 
 PRIVATEE'R. A vessel belonging to one or more pri- 
 vate individuals, sailing with a license from government 
 in lime of war, to seize and plunder the ships of the enemy 
 The practice of granting commissions to privateers first be 
 
PRIVILEGE. 
 
 came general in the war between Spain and the revolted 
 Netherlands, at the end of the sixteenth century ; when it 
 was extensively made use of by the Prince of Orange as a 
 means of annoying the Spanish trade. 
 
 PRl'VILEGE. (Lat. privilegium : defined by Cicero, lex 
 privato homini irrogata.) In the ordinary acceptation of 
 the word, a law, or an exception from the common provis- 
 ions of law, in favour of an individual or a body. Privilege 
 is said to be personal or real ; that is, attached to the per- 
 son only, or to the person in respect of a particular place ; 
 as to a member of one of the universities, an officer of one 
 of the courts at Westminster. The privileges chiefly recog- 
 nised by the English law are privilege of parliament (see 
 Parliament), and the privilege to sue and be sued, accord- 
 ing to particular provisions, allowed to officers and attend- 
 ants in the courts of justice. 
 
 IMU'VITY", In Law, is a peculiar mutual relation which 
 subsists between individuals connected in various ways ; so 
 tint, besides those who are actually parties to a transac- 
 tion, other* connected with these parties are said to be 
 privy to the transaction, and are bound by its consequences. 
 I sorts of privity are enumerated by writers on law ; 
 but those of most ordinary occurrence are three : privity of 
 blood, of estate; and of contract. The former subsists be- 
 tween an ancestor and his heir ; the second between lessor 
 and lesseei tenant for life and reversioner created by the 
 UM instrument ; and privity of contract between those 
 who axe parties to a contract, which species of privity is 
 person il only. 
 
 PRIVY CHAMBER, GENTLEMEN OF THE. Offi- 
 cers at the king's household, instituted by Henry VII. 
 Their proper duties arc to attend the king and queen at 
 court in their diversions, progresses, Slc. There are also 
 four gentleman ushers of the privy chamber, whose office 
 is to wait in the presence chamber, attend on the king's 
 person, and note affairs under the lord-chamberlain and 
 vice-chamberlain. 
 
 Hi I V V COUNCIL. See Council, Privy. 
 
 PRIVY BEAL, LORD. The fifth great officer of state 
 in Engl and, who has the custody of the privy seal of the 
 kin'.', used to all grants, charters, pardons, &c, before they 
 conn- ii the great seal. 
 
 PRIZE. Anything captured by a belligerent using the 
 right Of war: in common language, only ships thus cap- 
 tured, with the property taken in them, are so called. Pri- 
 zes t then in war are condemned by the proper judicature 
 in the courts of the captors : such condemnation is held to 
 divest the title of the proprietor and confer a new owner- 
 ship. In order to give jurisdiction to a court of prize, il is 
 deemed necessary, by the law of nations, that the property 
 captured should lie in possession of the captors in the'r 
 own potts, those of an ally, or of a neutral ; but no be^i- 
 gcrent |)owcr has a right to capture in the ports of a neu- 
 tral country, or within ■ marine league of her shores ; nor 
 does a capture made then render the adjudication valid. 
 Subject to capture are hostile property, I. <•., the property of 
 persons domiciled in a hostile country, and neutral property 
 contraband of war. Sc^Contraband. 
 
 PRO* A, FLYING. A narrow canoe about 30 feet long 
 by :i foot wide, used in the I. acholic Islands. The lee side 
 is ll it, being the mere longitudinal section of the common 
 form, and the head and stein exactly alike. A slight frame- 
 work projects several feet to windward, bearing a small 
 block of wood like a canoe : this float supports the vessel 
 from oversetting to that side, as she would otherwise do, 
 and the framework affords support for a weight acting 
 against the pressure of the sail. The vessel is steered by 
 a paddle at either end, and moves with great velocity, ei- 
 ther backwards or forwards, being adapted to a side wind 
 in running between two places. The sail is mat, with a 
 boom, upon one mast. Proa is also the name for large 
 boats used by the Malays, propelled both by oars and sails. 
 
 PR* lAU'LION. (Gr. iroo, and auXi;, a hall.) In Archi- 
 tecture, the same as vestibule ; which see. 
 
 l'RO'BABILISM. In Theology and Ethics, a theory 
 professed by some casuistical divines, chiefly of the Jesuit 
 order, according to which it is lawful to follow a probable 
 opinion in doubtful points, although other opinions may 
 seem to the mind of the inquirer more probable. Those 
 who teach this doctrine are styled Probabilists. This and 
 the other tenets of the once celebrated science of casuistry 
 are ably touched on by Mr. Hall am, in vol. iii. of his Liter- 
 ature of Europe. 
 
 PROBABILITY, THEORY OF. A very extensive and 
 Important application of analysis, having for its object the 
 determination of the number of ways in which a future or 
 uncertain event may happen or fail, in order that we may 
 be enabled to judge whether the chances of its happening 
 or failing are the greater, and in what proportion. 
 
 In this theory the word chance is used to signify the oc- 
 currence of an event in a particular way, when there exist 
 two or more ways by which it may take place, and no rea- 
 
 PROBABTLITY, THEORY OF. 
 
 son can be assigned for its happening in one way rathet 
 than another. For example, if a die be thrown op Into the 
 air, it will necessarily fall on one or other of its six faces ; 
 but as we know of no reason why it should fall on the 
 face marked one rather than on that which ta marked two, 
 or on any other face, and as the circumstances are precisely 
 the same in all the cases, we say the chance of its falling 
 on any one face is equal to the chance of its falling on mij 
 other. Suppose, again, a die, having four of its lues white, 
 and the other two black, to be tossed up. There are lour 
 ways in which the die may fall so as to turn up a white 
 face, and two in which it may turn up a black face ; we 
 therefore say the chances of its turning up a white face are 
 to the chances of its turning up a black face us lour to two. 
 In ordinary language, when an event is said to happen by 
 chance, it is merely implied that the cause is unknown, or 
 cannot be certainly appreciated. 
 
 The term probable, in its common acceptation, is applied 
 to any contingent or future event, to denote that in our 
 judgment the event is more likely to happen than not to 
 happen. In mathematical language probability has a defi- 
 nite signification, Suppose five balls to be placed in an 
 urn, three of them white, and two black ; and, one of them 
 being drawn out at random, let it be proposed to assign B 
 measure of the probability of its being a white or a black 
 ball. In this case there are five chances in all, three of 
 which are in favour of a white ball, and two in favour of a 
 black. The probability of drawing at the first trial any 
 particular ball will evidently be represented by the fraction 
 i ; hence the probability of drawing a white ball is }, and 
 the probability of drawing a black ball f. Now it is obvi- 
 ous that the absolute number of balls in the urn will not 
 affect the relative probabilities, so long as the proportion of 
 white to black balls remains unaltered. Suppose, for exam 
 pie, the number of balls increased to fifty, of which thirty 
 are white and twenty black; the probability of drawing a 
 white ball at the first trinl must still remain the same, there 
 being always three chances in favour of a white ball for 
 every two in favour of a black. Whatever, therefore, the 
 number of balls in the urn may be, the probability of draw- 
 ing one of a particular colour must remain the same, so 
 long as the ratio of the number of balls of that colour to 
 the whole number in the urn remains unaltered. Hence 
 we derive the following definition, which is, in fact, the 
 basis of the whole doctrine of probabilities : 
 
 The probability of the occurrence of any event is inea 
 stired by a fraction, the numerator of which expresses the 
 number of chances favourable to the occurrence of the 
 event, and the denominator the whole number of chances 
 favourable and unfavourable. 
 
 This fraction is called the mathematical probability. It 
 is important to remark, that all the chances are considered 
 as equal ; for example, that, in drawing a ball from the 
 urn, any one ball has the same chance of being drawn as 
 any other. 
 
 Every contingent event gives rise to two opposite pro- 
 babilities — one, that the event will happen; the other, that 
 it will not ; and the sum of these probabilities is always 
 equal to unity. Thus, in the preceding example, the pro- 
 bability that a white ball will be drawn from the urn is }, 
 and the probability that a black ball will be drawn (i.e., 
 that a white ball will not be drawn) is | ; and | + } = | = 1. 
 In general, let m denote the number of chances favourable 
 to an event, and n the number of unfavourable chances; 
 then, the whole number of chances, or ways in which the 
 event can happen or fail, being m-f-n, the probability that 
 
 the event will happen is , the probability that it will 
 
 7«-f-n 
 
 not happen , and the sum of these probabilities is 1. 
 
 m + n 
 Hence, if j> denote the probability of the occurrence of any 
 event, the probability that it will not occur is 1 — p. For 
 instance, let p= the probability that an individual of a 
 given age will live over one year; then 1 — p is the proba- 
 bility that he will not live over the year, or that he will be 
 dead within the year. As the individual must either be 
 alive or dead, the sum of the probabilities must necessarily 
 amount to certainty, which is represented by unity, and 
 hence the probability of any contingent event is always a 
 fraction less than unity. 
 
 Probability of simultaneous Events.— The probability of 
 the simultaneous occurrence of several independent events 
 is calculated as follows : Let it be required for example, 
 to determine the probability of throwing aces with two 
 dice. Let the dice be called respectively A and B. The 
 probability that A will tum up ace is i ; and if a person 
 were to purchase the chance of receiving a sum of jC36 on 
 the occurrence of this event alone, the proper sum he 
 ought to pay for the chance is j£6. But. if the sum is to 
 be received only on condition of A and B both turning up 
 ace, the above probability will only be beneficial to him 
 
PROBABILITY, THEORY OF. 
 
 provided B also turns up ace. Now, the probability of this 
 event is likewise { ; therefore, the prooability of receiving 
 the sura is i of }, that is ^\, and the price to be paid for 
 the chance is | of £6, that is, £1. 
 
 The same reasoning may be applied to any number of 
 independent events ; and the conclusion, which is perfectly 
 general, may be expressed by the following rule; "The pro- 
 bability of the occurrence of several independent events is 
 obtained by multiplying together their separate proba- 
 bilities." Thus, let p denote the probability of an event A, 
 q that of an event B, r that of an event C, &c. ; then the 
 probability of the joint occurrence of those events is ex- 
 pressed by the continued product pqr, &c. 
 
 Probability of successive Events. — The probability of the 
 successive recurrence of the same or different events is 
 determined precisely in the same manner. For example, 
 let the probability be required of throwing ace twice suc- 
 cessively with the same die. The probability of ace turn- 
 ing up at the first throw is f, and at the second £; the 
 probability of ace turning up at both throws is, therefore, \ 
 of J =: Jg. Hence, the probability that ace will not turn 
 up both at the first and second throw is 1 — ^ = |^. 
 This last probability, it is necessary to remark, is quite 
 distinct from the probability that ace will not turn up in 
 either throw, and which is found thus : The probability 
 that ace will not be thrown at the first throw is | ; and the 
 probability that it will not be thrown at the second also | : 
 hence, by the former rule, the probability that it will not 
 be thrown at either throw is f X | = ||-. This, added to 
 Jg, the probability that ace will be thrown both times, 
 does not give the sum equal to unity, for there are still two 
 cases to be taken account of Ace may be thrown at the 
 first throw, and not at the second ; or ace may not be 
 thrown at the first throw, but thrown at the second. The 
 probability that ace will turn up at the first throw is |, and 
 that it will not turn up at the second throw j ; hence, the 
 probability that it will turn up at the first, and not at the 
 second is, iX|= 5 5 r The probability that it will not 
 turn at the first, but turn up at the second, is f + 1 = ;, 5 B - ; 
 and the sum of these, added to the sum of the probabilities 
 of the two former cases, gives a result equal to unity. A 
 distinct enumeration of the different suppositions that may 
 be made relative to the ace point, in two successive throws 
 of the same die, will render this reasoning more obvious. 
 The event can happen only in one of four ways, which, 
 with their respective probabilities, are as follows: 
 
 1. Ace at both throws, probability =36" 
 
 2. Ace at neither throw, probability = ^-J. 
 
 3. Ace at first, not at second, probability = J. 
 
 4. Ace at second, not at first, probability = A 
 And the sum of these fractions is |£ = 1. 
 
 This reasoning may be rendered general. Suppose m 
 = the number of white balls in an urn, and n = the num- 
 ber of black baris in the same urn, and that when a ball 
 has been drawn it is immediately replaced in the urn, so 
 that at each trial the whole number of chances is m + n. 
 Let p— the probability of drawing a white ball on any 
 trial, and q — ihe probability of drawing a black ball; we 
 
 have then p = _^_, an d ? = _4_ . And first let us 
 
 m-f-n m -J- n 
 
 consider the probabilities of the different possible events 
 that may happen on two trials. 
 
 The only possible ways in which the balls can be drawn 
 in two successive trials are these four : 
 
 1. First white, second white; probability = p Xp = p 2 ; 
 
 2. First white, second black; probability =p X q—pq; 
 
 3. First black, second white; probability = oXp=/>? ; 
 
 4. First black, second black; probability = yX q — q 2 ; 
 Adding together these probabilities we get 
 
 P 2 + 2pq + q 2 =(p + q)2, 
 and the sum is equal to unity, as will be evident by sub- 
 stituting for p and q their values in terms of m and n. 
 
 It thus appears, that the probabilities of all the different 
 combinations that can be formed in two trials, are respect- 
 ively given by the development of the binomial (p + q)2. 
 It will be observed, that the term 2pq gives the proba- 
 bility of drawing a ball of each colour in the two trials, 
 without distinction of order; that is, the white ball may be 
 drawn either at the first or second trial. 
 
 Now, let the number of trials, instead of being two, be 
 increased to any number u; the probabilities of the dif- 
 ferent combinations will be given by the development of 
 the binomial (p-j- ? )u. This development is 
 
 pu + . 
 
 1" ' ■ 1-2 r 
 
 , u(u — l)(u — 2) ...(u — B-f-1) 
 
 f mr . 3 ..... , p "~ v ?v + &c - 
 
 990 
 
 The first term p< indicates the probability of drawing a 
 white ball in each of the u trials, or that all the balls 
 drawn will be white. The second term up*— l g denotes 
 the probability of drawing u — 1 white balls and one black 
 ball in u trials, without regard to the order; that is to Bay, 
 the black ball may be drawn at the first, second, third, or 
 any other trial. The general term 
 
 u(u — \){u — 2).... (u — •b + 1) 
 
 1.2.3 v ^ V ?V 
 
 gives the probability that in u trials u — v white balls will 
 be drawn, and v black balls, without distinction of older. 
 If the probability of drawing the ball in a determinate 
 order of succession were required ; for instance, if it were 
 required to determine the probability of drawing u — v 
 white balls successively, and then v black balls ; the co- 
 efficient of the term must be suppressed, and the probability 
 becomes pu—vyv. 
 
 The practical question that most frequently arises is, not 
 to determine the probability of the repetitions of an event 
 in any precise order, but the probability that the number 
 of repetitions will exceed or not exceed n certain limit. 
 Thus, in the preceding example, suppose it were required 
 to assign the probability that not fewer than u — v white 
 balls will be drawn in u trials ; it is evident that as the 
 first term gives the probability of drawing a white balls, 
 the second term that of drawing u — 1 white bolls, and so 
 on, and as each of these combinations satisfies the con- 
 dition, the required probability will be found by taking the 
 sum of all the terms of the development of (,? + ?)" from 
 the first to that in which the factor pu— v ^v appears, both 
 inclusive. As an example, let it be required to determine 
 the probability of throwing ace at least twice in four throws 
 of the same die. Here we have p = J, ? = §, « = 4, and 
 u — u = 2, whence v = 2. Now, the development of 
 (p + ?) 4 t0 the term in which p 2 q 2 occurs, is p*-\-4pSq 
 + 6p^y2, which, on substituting for p and q their values, 
 
 171 
 
 becomes (<)4 + 4 Q)3 X ! + 6 (i)2 X (f)*= ~ = between 
 
 J 296 
 ' and J. Again, suppose the question were to assign the 
 probability of throwing ace at least once in four trials, we 
 should have u — t> = I, and therefore r=:3. Now, the 
 term of the development of (p + y)^ in which pq3 occurs, 
 is the fourth, or last but one ; the sum of the first four 
 terms, therefore, gives the required probability. But the 
 calculation of this sum is easy ; for, since the sum of all 
 the terms is (p + fl)4 = l, and the least term is y4, the sum 
 
 ofthe first four is l — ?4 = l — (f)4 = l — — = lll . 
 v 6 1296 1296 
 
 Probability derived from Experience. — In what precedes 
 it has been supposed that the number of ways in which an 
 event can arrive are known d priori ; but it may happen, 
 and indeed does happen, in the greater number of the most 
 important questions to which the calculus of probabilities 
 is applied, that the number of chances favourable and un- 
 favourable to the occurrence of any particular event is 
 unknown, and that the ratio of the one to the other can 
 only be inferred from considering the ways in which the 
 event has been observed already to happen. Recurring to 
 the case of the urn — let us suppose the urn to contain a 
 certain number of balls of different colours; but that the 
 number of each colour is unknown, and that, from having 
 observed the result of several trials, we have to determine 
 the probability of drawing a ball of a particular colour at 
 the next trial. The method of proceeding is as follows : 
 Taking a simple case ; suppose the urn to contain only 
 four balls, of two colours, white and black, and that, on 
 four successive trials (the ball drawn being in each case 
 replaced in the urn), three white balls and one black have 
 been drawn. Three hypotheses may be formed respecting 
 the number of balls of each colour in the urn ; and if p = 
 the probability of drawing a white ball, and q= that of 
 drawing a black ball, on any hypothesis, the three hypo- 
 theses, with the corresponding values of p and q, will be 
 as under, viz. : 
 
 1. 3 white, 1 black, p = |, ?= } ; 
 
 2. 2 white, 2 black, p = f , q = £ ; 
 
 3. 1 white, 3 black, p=%, ?=£• 
 
 Now, on calculating from each of these hypotheses the 
 probability of the event observed, namely, of drawing 
 three white balls and one black in four -trials, which proba 
 bility, by what was shown above, is expressed by 4pia. 
 we have, 
 
 by 1st hypothesis, 4ptq = fl, 
 
 by 2d hypothesis, 4p3 ? = ^.« > 
 
 by 3d hypothesis, Ap q = -fa. 
 
 The numerators of these fractions, which represent the 
 relative probabilities of the event which has happened on 
 
PROBABILITY, THEORY OF. 
 
 PROCEDENDO. 
 
 each of the hypotheses, may be considered as giving the I Simpson, Daws of Chance, 1740; Condorcet, Essai sur 
 
 ' : causes of V Application de V Analyse a la Probabilite dcs Decisions 
 
 relative probabilities of the hypotheses as to the 
 the event, or to the state of the urn by which the event was 
 determined; and. as one or other of these hypotheses 
 must necessarily be true, the sum of their probabilities 
 must be unity ; whence the probability of each hypothesis 
 is respectively 
 
 27 te 3 
 Tff' Iff> Iff" 
 This result may be expressed generally as follows: The 
 probabilities of the different hypotheses are found by di- 
 viding the probability of ihc event which has been observed, 
 calculated, according to each hypothesis, by the sum of its 
 probabilities calculated on all the hypotheses. 
 
 Now, in order to find the probability of drawing a white 
 ball nt the next trial, we may reason in this manner : if 
 the first hypothesis be true, the chance of drawing a white 
 ball is J, and the probabilit) of the hypothesis being true is 
 |i ; therefore, the compound probability of both hypo- 
 thesis and event, is | X $^ = j%\. If the second hypo- 
 thecs be true, the probability of drawing a white ball is 
 |, and the probability of the hypothesis is }£; therefore, 
 the compound probability is £ X {g = fVV If ,he thinl 
 hypothesis be true, the chance of drawing a white ball 
 is i, and the probability of the hypothesis is ^g ; therefore, 
 the joint probability of the hypothesis being true, and of 
 the event arising, is I X {\ = T g j. Adding together these 
 partial probabilities, the whole probability of drawing a 
 white ball at a future trial is y S V+ j^j + yii = f ST" 
 
 In like manner, the probability of drawing a black ball 
 at a future trial, is 
 
 t v- " " i - v i •; I 3 v 3 6 3 
 
 4 X 4 7i T^ 1 x 4 R T" I x J IT — T8f " 
 
 And the sum of the two probabilities is 1, ns it ought to be, 
 since the ball must necessarily be white or black. 
 
 The method of proceeding which has been followed in 
 this particular case is quite general, and applicable to all 
 cases where it is required to compute the probabilities of 
 events depending on causes not known « priori, but only 
 inferred from experience. It may be stated generally as 
 follows : let c, c', c", c'", tec. be so many independent causes 
 (or hypotheses), each of which may give rise to an event 
 1 '. j and let the probabilities of the existence of these causes 
 be respectively It, h' A", A'", &c, und those of the events 
 calculated according to each hypothesis p,p', p" p"', &-C. ; 
 then the probability of the event E is kp-\-h'p -f-A"p" 
 -4-A">'" + &.c. 
 
 The preceding examples will suffice to give some idea 
 of the manner in which the probability of the occurrence 
 or failure of events depending on chance is submitted to 
 numerical estimation ; but for the methods of applying the 
 calculus in particular eases, and especially when the for- 
 mula: involve high numbers, and the ordinary processes 
 of arithmetic become unavailable, reference must be made 
 to works specially devoted to the subject, a list of which is 
 given at the end of this article. 
 
 The calculus of probabilities had Its origin in the specu- 
 lations of Pascal, Fermat, Huygens, and other eminent 
 mathematicians of the 17th century. It was first applied 
 to the solution of questions connected with games of 
 chance ; but it has since, by the researches of James Ber- 
 noulli, Montmort, Demoivre, D'Alembert, Simpson, Con- 
 dorcet, Lagrange, La Ploce, Poisson, and others, become 
 one of the most interesting branches of mathematics, and 
 been applied with equal success and advantage to numerous 
 important questions belonging to natural and political phi- 
 losophy. One of its most familiar and useful applications 
 is to the subject of annuities, assurances, reversions, and 
 other interests depending on the average duration of human 
 life, and the expectation of the continuance or survivorship 
 of lives of given ages. (See Annuity, Expectation of 
 Lifk.) Another important application is to determine the 
 most probable mean or average, of a great number of ob- 
 servations; and hence its utility in many cases of practical 
 astronomy and general physics. (See Probable Error.) 
 Condorcet has applied it to determine the value of testi- 
 mony, the verdicts of juries, and the best mode of consti- 
 tuting tribunals, and of collecting votes in elections. In such 
 applications, it is true, assumptions more or less arbitrary 
 must bo admitted, and great uncertainty will always attach 
 to results which are influenced by human will or caprice; 
 nevertheless, the knowledge derived from an accurate and 
 systematic analysis of the circumstances concerned, and of 
 the consequences of their various combinations, affords im- 
 portant aid in guiding our judgments, and may be of great 
 use in the practical affairs of life. 
 
 The following are the principal works on the subject: 
 Montmort, Analyse des Jcuz de Hasard, (1st ed., 1708; 2d, 
 1713); Bernoulli, Ars Conjeetandi, 1713; De Moivre, Doc- 
 trine of Chances (1st ed. 1718; 3d, greatly enlarged, 1785) ; 
 
 rendu/ s a la Plurality des Voix, 1785; La Place, Theorie 
 Analytique des Probabilites, 3d edit., 1820 ; Poisson, Ke- 
 cherches sur la Probabilite des .lugemens, 1837; the article 
 in the Kncyc. Metropol. by Professor de Morgan, and that 
 in the Encyc. Brit, by Mr. Galloway (which is published 
 separately). For elementary works, the reader may oe 
 referred to Simpson's Daws of Chance, and Dae rail's 
 Traite E'ementairc, &c. ; and for an explanation of the 
 objects and results of the science, without mathematical 
 investigation, to Professor De Morgan's Essay on Probabil- 
 ities, and on their Application to Difc Contingencies and 
 Insurance Offices, in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 
 
 PRO'BABLE ERROR. In Astronomy and Pin 
 when the value of tiny quantity or element, as the declin- 
 ation of a star, the latitude of a place, the specific gravity 
 of a body, &c, has been determined by means of a number 
 of independent observations, each liable to a small amount 
 of error, the determination (in whatever way it may have 
 been deduced from the observations) will also be liable 
 to some uncertainty ; and the probable error is the quantity, 
 which is such that there Is the same probability of the dif- 
 ference between the determination and the true absolute 
 value of the thins to be determined exceeding or falling 
 short of it. Thus, if twenty measurements of an angle have 
 been made with the theodolite, and the arithmetical mean 
 or average of the whole gives. 50° i!7' 13"; and if it be an 
 equal wager that the error of this result (either in excess 
 or defect) is less than two seconds, or greater than two 
 seconds, then the probable error of the determination is two 
 seconds. The method of computing the probable error, 
 which is deduced from the theory of probability, is as fol- 
 lows: Let I, I', I", &c. be the observed vulues, A the num- 
 ber of observations, m the average value (i.e., the sum of 
 the observed values divided by number of observations) : 
 then if we call I — m the error of the observation /, and 
 X(l — m)i the sum of the squares of the errors of till the 
 
 observations, the probable error is "674489 X ; 
 
 A 
 that is, the square root of the sum of the squares of the 
 errors, divided by the number of observations, and multi- 
 plied by the decimal -674489. 
 
 It is frequently convenient to compute the probable er- 
 ror of a result from another function, which is cnllcd the 
 weight. The weight is the square of the number of obser 
 rations divided by twice the sum of the squares of the er- 
 rors; and the probable error is -476936 divided by the 
 square root of the weight. This definition agrees with the 
 former, for -674489 = 476936 X -s/ 2 - 
 
 PROBANG. A flexible piece of whalebone with a ball 
 of sponge attached to its extremity, for the purpose of re- 
 moving obstructions in the esophagus. 
 
 PRO'BATE OF TESTAMENTS. In Law, the exhibit- 
 ing and proving "ills and Testaments before the ecclesias- 
 tical judge delegated by the ordinary of the place where the 
 party dies. It is done by granting letters testamentary to the 
 executor under seal of the court ; and such probate is evi- 
 dence in questions relating to the personal estates. 
 
 PROBE. (Lat. probo, 1 try.) A surgical instrument, 
 generally made of silver wire, rounded at one end, and 
 pointed nt the other, for the purpose of examining wounds. 
 
 PRO'BLEM. In Geometry, a proposition requiring same 
 operation to be performed or construction to be executed ; 
 such as to bisect a line, to describe a circle pasting through 
 three given points. In Algebra, a problem requires some 
 unknown truth to be investigated, or discovered and dem 
 onstrated. 
 
 PROBOSCI'DIAXS, Proboscidia. (Lat. proboscis, a 
 trunk.) The name of a family of Pachydermatous Mam- 
 mals, including those which have the nose prolonged into 
 a prehensile trunk or proboscis; as the elephant and mas 
 todon. 
 
 PROBO'SCIS, in Mammalogy, signifies the prehensile 
 organ formed by a prolongation of the nose, of which the 
 trunk of the elephant is an example. In Entomology, the 
 oral instrument of the Diptera is so called, in which the or- 
 dinarv trophi are replaced by an ex-articulate sheath, ter- 
 minated by a pair of tumid lobes (labella), and containing 
 one or more lancet-shaped instruments (scapella), covered 
 by a valve. In Malacology, the same term is applied to 
 the tongue of certain Gastropods, when it is so long as to 
 be capable of being protruded for some distance from the 
 mouth ; in which case it is generally organized at the ex- 
 tremity for the purpose of boring the shells of other testa- 
 cen, and of destroying by suction the soft parts of the inhab- 
 itant. 
 
 PROCEDE'NDO (or Procedendo in Doqueli). A writ 
 which lies where an action has been removed from an in- 
 ferior to a superior jurisdiction, and it does not appear to 
 the court that the suggestion on which the removal took 
 
PR0CELLAR1A. 
 
 place was sufficiently proved to send the cause back to the 
 inferior court for farther proceeding. 
 
 Procedendo ad Judicium. A writ which issues out of the 
 ut of chancery, commanding inferior courts to proceed 
 judgment where it has been unjustly delayed. 
 PROCELLA'RIA. (Lat. procella, a storm.) A Linna?- 
 an genus of web-footed birds, now the type of a family of 
 the Longipennate Palmipedes in the system of Cuvier, 
 characterized by the beak being hooked at the tip, with its 
 extremity appearing as though a piece had been articulated 
 to the rest; the nostrils are united to form a tube, which 
 '' lies along the back of the upper mandible; and their feet, 
 instead of a back toe, have merely a claw implanted in the 
 heel. Those species in which the lower mandible is trun- 
 cated belong to the true Procellarice. Some smaller spe- 
 cies, with a shorter bill, rather longer legs, and black plu- 
 mage, commonly called Storm-birds, or Mother Carey's 
 chickens, are associated under the generic name Thalassi- 
 droma. Tile Procellaria range over the high seas at the 
 greatest distance from land. Their name of Petrel, which 
 is a diminutive of Peter, has been applied to them from 
 their habit of walking on the waves, which they do with 
 the assistance of their wings. 
 
 PRO'CESS, in the language of English Common Law, 
 is used in two senses: to signify the whole proceedings in 
 an action or prosecution ; and to signify the means whereby 
 the defendant in an action is compelled to appear in court. 
 When actions were commenced by original writ (see Plead- 
 ing), original process was that which was founded on that 
 writ, commencing with notice, writ of attachment, &c. 
 Mesne, or intermediate process, was, properly speaking, 
 such process as issued pending the writ, on some collateral 
 or interlocutory matter ; as, to summon juries or witnesses. 
 But in popular language it was taken to signify the whole 
 process, from the commencement of the suit, before the 
 final process which ended it. Thus a defendant was said 
 to be arrested on mesne process, t. e., on a writ of capias 
 issued pending the suit. This was done originally when 
 On i»fendant, being summoned or attacbed, neglected to 
 appear or made default. In course of time, by a legal fic- 
 tion, the summons and neglect were supposed; and the 
 writ of capias became the commencement of the proceed- 
 ings, to which the term mesne process was still, inaccu- 
 rately, applied. The term mesne process is now commonly 
 applied to the writ of summons, which is the instrument 
 now in use for commencing personal actions. Thus the 
 popular inaccuracy of language is retained. Final pro- 
 cess is the writ of execution used to carry the judgment 
 into effect. In ordinary language, the regular proceedings 
 of every court of judicature in a suit are called its process. 
 
 PROCE'S VERBAL. In the language of French juris- 
 prudence, an authentic written minute or report of an offi- 
 cial act or proceeding, or statement of facts. The term is 
 also used to signify minutes drawn up by a secretary or 
 other officer of the proceedings of an assembly. 
 
 PROCLAMATION. Public notice given by the king to 
 his subjects. (See Kino, Privy Council.) The power of 
 issuing proclamations is a branch of the king's prerogative, 
 and vested in him alone. They have a binding force on 
 the subject, in so far as they are grounded on and enforce 
 the laws of the realm. They may be said to be of two 
 sorts: the one, enforcing an actually existing law by giving 
 it a particular application of time, place, and circumstance ; 
 the other, exercising an extraordinary power vested in the 
 king, which until so exercised is dormant; as a proclama- 
 tion to prohibit any subject from leaving the realm during 
 a certain time. Proclamations must be under the great 
 seal. By 31 H. 8, c. 8, it was enacted that the king's proc- 
 lamations should have the force of law ; an enactment 
 which, while it subsisted, did, in effect, make a complete 
 revolution in the government of this country. It was, 
 however, repealed five years afterwards by 1 E. 6, c. 12. 
 Nevertheless, in later times, it was held by crown lawyers, 
 that the king might suspend or dispense with an existing 
 law in favour of particular circumstances. But by 1 W. & 
 M., stat. 2, c. 2, it is declared that no such power exists. 
 
 PROCO'NSUL. Originally an officer invested with con- 
 sular command without the office. Thus, a consul some- 
 times had his command prolonged to him after his year of 
 magistracy had ceased, with the title of proconsul. The 
 provinces which at first were governed by pretors were, 
 for the most part, subsequently put under proconsuls and 
 proprietors, who were at first especially appointed at the 
 Comitia Trilmta; but afterwards, by the Sempronean law, 
 entered on their provincial jurisdictions forthwith, on the 
 expiration of their year of consulship or praetorship. The 
 office was properly annual ; but it might be prolonged, as 
 was done in the case of Ca;sar. In the time of the repub- 
 lic the proconsul held the military command as well as the 
 civil jurisdiction of his province, and accordingly had about 
 aim a large staff of officers, as the lieutenants or legati, 
 Xtefects, &c. But Augustus, on assuming the chief power 
 993 
 
 PRODOMUS. 
 
 in the state, remodelled the system by a new partition of 
 the provinces, and by separating the civil jurisdiction, whick 
 was left the proconsul, from the military command. Un 
 der the emperors, the proconsuls and proprietors were thus 
 distinguished ; the former being appointed to the province 
 under the especial superintendence of the senate, the latto 
 to those which the emperor held. 
 
 PROCRU'STES. In Mythology, a famous robber of an 
 cient Greece, who tortured his victims by placing them oi 
 an iron bed, which their stature was maile to fit by stretch 
 ing or mutilating them so as to suit its dimensions ; whenct 
 the well-known metaphorical expression, the bid of Pro 
 crustes. He was killed by Theseus, near Hermione, in Ar 
 golis. According to a recent critic (Bottiger), Procrustes, 
 Sinis, Philyocamptes, &c, were all difl'crent names for one 
 real or fabulous robber, derived from the different kinds of 
 violence applied by him to travellers. 
 
 PRO'CTOR. (Lat. procurator.) In Ecclesiastical Law, 
 he who undertakes for his fee to manage a cause in the 
 ecclesiastical or civil court, being duly admitted under 53 
 G. 3, c. 127, exercising the same office which is performed 
 by attorneys and solicitors in courts of common law and 
 equity. 
 
 PROCTORS. In the English Universities, both at Ox 
 ford and Cambridge, two masters of arts are appointed ati 
 nually to this office. Each college, in both, nominates a 
 proctor in rotation, according to a cycle of yean drawn up, 
 on mathematical principles, to suit the number of fellows 
 on the foundation of each. The proctors are ofHcen of 
 considerable importance ; being, in the first place, the chief 
 police magistrates for the time being of each university. 
 They, with their deputies the pro-proctors, have power not 
 only to enforce the rules of academical discipline on the 
 students, but also an extensive summary authority over the 
 townspeople, according to the special privileges of the uni- 
 versities. They also have, in both universities, peculiar 
 legislative authority as assistants to the heads of houses. 
 and official votes in the election of many professors and 
 other officers. The proctors must be masters of arts, and 
 their standing as such, at Oxford, from four to ten years. 
 
 PRO'CURATOR. (Lat. pro, for, and cura, care.) A 
 Roman provincial magistrate, whose office it was to man 
 age the affairs of the revenue, and exercise a judicial au- 
 thority in matters pertaining to it. Sometimes the pro- 
 curator discharged the office of governor, especially in a 
 small province, as did Pontius Pilate in Judea ; in which 
 case, but not otherwise, he had the power of inflicting 
 capital punishment. This magistracy did not exist under 
 the republic, its duties being comprised under those of the 
 prretor or proconsul, but was instituted by Augustus. They 
 were called Procuratores Ctcsaris, to distinguish them from 
 the common procurator, who was merely an agent employ- 
 ed by private persons to manage their affairs in their ab- 
 sence when an action was brought against then). 
 
 Procurator, Procureur, <$-c. In the Civil Jurispru- 
 dence, one who undertakes the care of any legal proceed- 
 ings for another, and stands in his place by virtue of a 
 power or procuration from him. A mandator!/ is said to 
 differ from a procurator in that the latter acts only by vir- 
 tue of an express written instrument. In France, before 
 the revolution, the procureurs (procuratores ad litcs) were 
 officers legally empowered to carry on suits on behalf of 
 clients. This body was abolished in 1791, and that of 
 avotics substituted in its place. The procureurs du roi, in 
 France, are officers Of whom one is appointed to every tri- 
 bunal of arrondissement, together with a sufficient number 
 of "substitutes." 
 
 PROCUREUR-GENERAL. The public advocate of the 
 crown in France. Every parlcment or cour sovveraine had, 
 before tne revolution, a procureur- general attached to it. 
 Under the present system of judicature, one of these officers 
 is established in every cour royale, for the criminal part of 
 its proceedings ; and under him an avocat-gencral, tor the 
 civil department of the court. The public accusers in the 
 inferior courts of assize, and premiere instance, are termed 
 respectively procureurs criminels and procureurs du roi. 
 These officers are charged with the conduct of all criminal 
 proceedings on behalf of the prosecution; and are placed 
 under the immediate control of the minister of justice. 
 
 PRO'DIGY (of very doubtful etymology), in ordinary 
 modern language signifies a surprising though natural event ; 
 in contradistinction to miracle, which is something out of 
 the course of nature. Among the Romans, however, any 
 extraordinary event or appearance, to which, from insuffi- 
 cient acquaintance with natural history, they could not as- 
 sign a cause, was termed a prodigy, and regarded as a su- 
 pernatural event, indicative of favourable or (more gener 
 ally) of unfavourable dispositions of their gods. Hence the 
 number of recorded prodigies, many evidently false, some 
 real but misunderstood, which Livy has inserted in his 
 annals. 
 PRO'DOMUS. (Gr. ir/>o, and Souos, house.) In Ancient 
 
PRODUCT. 
 
 ^rchitect'tre, the portico before the entrance of the cella 
 )f a temple; the same as pronaos. See Naos. 
 
 PRO DUCT, in Arithmetic and Algebra, is the result of, 
 •>r quantity produced by, the multiplication of one number 
 Dy another, or a quantity of any kind by a number. See 
 Multiplication. 
 
 PRODU'CTA. An extinct genus of fossil bivalve shells, 
 closely allied to the living genus Terebratula. They only 
 occur in the older secondary rocks. 
 
 PRO'EM. (Gr. rrpo upi, / go be/ore.) A term formerly 
 used for preface which see. 
 
 Ph >JEMPTCSIS. (Gr.Ttpn, before, and t/ijriirrui, I fall 
 upon.) The term applied to the lunar equation or addition 
 <)f a clay to prevent the new moon happening too soon ; 
 ivhich must be effected by the addition of a day every 330 
 /ear* rnd another every 2400. The opposite term is me- 
 lemptnsis, which is used to signify the solar equation ne- 
 cessary to prevent the new moon from falling a day too late, 
 or the suppression of the bissextile every 134 years. 
 
 PROFESSOR. The recognised title, In all universities, 
 of the public and authorized teachers In the various facul- 
 ties. In the origin of those institutions the degrees confer- 
 red on students were, in fact, licences to commence as pub- 
 lic teachers; and the terms master, doctor, and professor 
 seem to have been used indifferently. Hut as in process of 
 time the great Ixxly of graduates ceased, in most of them, 
 to have any concern in public instruction, a separate body 
 used teachers gradually arose; endowed in some 
 Instancea with salaries, in others paid by fees. These were 
 the professors. But in those universities in which collegi- 
 ate foundations prevailed, as In Oxford and Cambridge, 
 Been fell into a secondary situation. The neces- 
 sary business of instruction was transacted, and still con- 
 tinues to be so, hy the functionaries of the several colleges. 
 The professors, therefore, and the Instruction which they 
 convey hy lectures, have become only auxiliaries, instead 
 of principals, and attendance on their lectures is in few 
 cases compulsory. On the other hand, in universities des- 
 titute, or nearly so, of collegiate endowments (as those of 
 Scotland, Germany, and others founded on the German 
 model), the professors have become at once the governing 
 body of the university, and the sole recognised fiincliona- 
 ricsforthe purpose of education. 
 
 PROFI'LE. (Fr. profil.) In Architecture, the contour 
 of the different parts of an order. 
 
 Profile. In the Fine Arts, an outline of the principal 
 parts of an object, free from ail foreshortening, showing 
 their real projections, indentations, tec. 
 
 PRO PIT (Fr. profit), in Political Economy means the 
 advantage or gain resulting to the owner of capital from its 
 employment In industrious undertakings. It is the premi- 
 um, as it were, on accumulation. Were there no profit, 
 there would be little or no motive to save and amass; and 
 all lie vast advantages that society derives from the form- 
 ation and employment of capital would be unknown. But 
 without taking into account the security and consequence 
 conferred on the possessors of capital or wealth, and look- 
 ing only at its tangible results, profit consists of that part of 
 the produce raised by the agency of capital employed in 
 Industrious undertakings that remains in the hands of those 
 by whom it is employed after replacing the capital itself 
 or such portions of it as may have been wasted in the busi- 
 nesses, and every expense necessarily incurred in superin- 
 tending its employment. 
 
 The rate of profit is the proportion which the amount of 
 profit derived from an undertaking bears to the capital em- 
 ployed in it. 
 
 Thus, suppose an agriculturist employs a capital equiva- 
 lent to 1000 qunrters of corn, or £1000, in the cultivation of 
 a farm, and that the net surplus produce remaining to him 
 at the end of the year, after his capital has been replaced, 
 and he has been indemnified for the trouble of superintend- 
 ence, and for every necessary expense incurred in the man- 
 agement of the farm, is 100 quarters, or £100 ; this net sur- 
 plus would form the profits of the agriculturist, being to the 
 capital by whose agency they are obtained in the ratio of 
 100 to 1000, or at the rate of ten per cent. 
 
 It has been shown by Dr. Smith and others, that the 
 capital vested in different businesses yields, provided they 
 be not subjected to any species of monopoly, about the 
 same rate of net profit; and we shall now endeavour 
 shortly to state the circumstances which seem to determine 
 this rate. 
 
 In this investigation it is not necessary to inquire whether 
 the capital engaged in certain businesses yields rent as well 
 as profits, or profits only. The competition of the pro- 
 ducers will always reduce profits in different businesses to 
 what is, taking all things into account, nearly the same 
 common level ; and, as rent is in every case a surplus over 
 and above profits, it may in this investigation be left wholly 
 out of view. The laws by which profits are regulated in 
 countries' where the best lands only are cultivated, and no 
 3 R 
 
 PROFIT. 
 
 rents are paid, are in no respect different from those which 
 regulate them in countries where cultivation has been 
 widely extended, and where lands of superior fertility yield 
 a high rent. 
 
 Suppose, therefore, that rent is deducted, or set aside, it 
 follows that the whole of the remaining produce of indus- 
 try must, in the first instance, be dividedbetween capitalists 
 and labourers ; that i.;, between those who furnish the capi 
 tal and those who furnish the manual labour made use of 
 in the production of commodities. And hence, were taxa- 
 tion either unknown or constant, the proportion of the pro 
 duce of industry under deduction of rent falling to the 
 share of the capitalists could not be increased without the 
 proportion falling to the share of the labourers being at the 
 s:ine time diminished, and conversely. But the share of 
 the produce of industry falling to the capitalists includes, 
 besides profit, the portion required to replace the capital 
 wasted in production, and to defray the wages of superin- 
 tendence. So that the rate of profit is not, as has boon al- 
 ready stated, determined by the ratio which the share of 
 the produce of industry that goes in the first instance to the 
 capitalists, after ever)' sort of outlay has been deducted, 
 bears to the total capital employed. 
 
 Suppose, for example, that an agriculturist employs a 
 quantity of capital of the value of 1000 quarters of corn, 
 or £1000, in cultivating a farm ; that half this capital con- 
 sists of seed, horses, and other instruments used in agri- 
 culture, the other half being employed In the payment of 
 wages; and suppose that after his rent has been deducted 
 or set aside, lie has produce equivalent to 1200 quarters, or 
 £1200; of this sum 1000 quarters, or £1000, must go to re- 
 place his capital ; and supposing that his taxes amount to 
 100 quarters, or £100, it follows that 100 quarters, or £100 
 will remain for his profits, which are consequently sit the 
 rate of ten per cent. Now, in this case — and this ease is, 
 mutatis, mutandis, the case of every man engaged in busi 
 neat — it is obvious that the rate of profit may be raised in 
 three, but only in three ways; viz., 1. By industry becom- 
 ing more productive ; or 2. By a reduction in the rale of 
 wages ; or 3. By a reduction in the amount of taxation. 
 And it may lie reduced by the opposite circumstances ; or 
 1. By industry becoming less productive ; or 2. By a rise in 
 the rate of wages ; or 3. By a rise in the amount of taxa- 
 tion. Profits cannot be affected in any way not referable to 
 one or other of these heads. 
 
 To revert to the previous example, let it be supposed, 
 other things remaining the same, that the quantity of pro- 
 duce is increased, hy means of the better application of the 
 capital and labour employed, from 1200 quarters, or £1200, 
 to 1300 quarters, or £1300; the gross amount of profits 
 would in this case be increased from 100 quarters, or £100, 
 to 200 quarters, or £200, and the rate of profit would be 
 raised from 10 to 20 per cent. A similar result would be 
 produced, other things being the same, were wages redu- 
 ced from 500 quarters, or £500, to 400 quarters, or £400 ; 
 nnd were taxation reduced from 100 quarters, or £100, to 
 50 quarters, or £50, the rate of profit would be raised from 
 10 to 15 per cent. On the other hand, If we suppose that 
 the quantity of produce, instead of being increased, Is di 
 mulshed, or that wages or taxes are augmented, the gross 
 amount of profit, and the rate of profit, will be propo.tion 
 nlly lessened. 
 
 Had it not been for the gradually decreasing productive- 
 ness of the capital laid out on the lands, the productiveness 
 of industry would have increased with every discovery and 
 invention for saving labour; so that, without a correspond- 
 ing increase of wages and taxes, the rate of profit would 
 have been continually increasing. But, though improve- 
 ments may materially increase the productiveness of agri- 
 cultural industry for a lengthened period, the increase can- 
 not be permanent ; inasmuch as the growth of population 
 never fails, in the end, to force recourse to inferior lands, 
 which, of course, yield less produce in return for the same 
 outlay. This decreasing productiveness of the capital ap- 
 plied to the soil has a double influence over profits ; for, in 
 the first place, it lessens the quantity of produce obtained 
 by the outlay of capital and labour; and, in the seoond 
 place, it increases the portion of that produce going to the 
 labourer as wages. The latter must always get enough to 
 enable him to subsist and continue his race ; and though, 
 in the event of his resorting to a lower species of food or an 
 inferior standard of comfort, a rise in the price of raw pro- 
 duce may not be followed by a rise of wages, yet, speaking 
 generally, the one Is always consequent to the other. The 
 cost of food is the main regulator of wages; and it is quite 
 impossible to go on, for any lengthened period, by taking 
 bad land into cultivation, or forcing the good land, making 
 constant additions to its cost, without ultimately raising 
 wages. Manufacturing industry, or the adaptation of mat- 
 ter to our use, necessarily becomes, from the influence of 
 discoveries and inventions, more and more productive as 
 societv advances; so that the decreasing fertility of the 
 
 9U3 
 
PROFIT. 
 
 soil is at bottom the only cause of whatever reduction in 
 the rate of profit is to be ascribed to a decline in the pro- 
 ductiveness of industry ; and it is pretty frequently also the 
 cause of those reductions that are occasioned by a rise m 
 the rate of wages. The latter, it is true, is also brought 
 about by an increased demand for labour, and by a greater 
 prevalence of moral restraint. But a rise of wages caused 
 by the increased cost of necessaries does not depend on 
 contingent circumstances, or on the forethought of the la- 
 bourers. It must be experienced in every country and state 
 of society, according as it becomes more and more difficult 
 to obtain supplies of food for an increasing population. 
 The absolute wages of the labourer, or the quantity of ne- 
 cessaries and conveniences given him for his labour, may 
 be,, and indeed frequently are, diminished in the progress 
 of society ; but when cultivation is far extended, he is uni- 
 formly almost in the receipt of a larger share of the pro- 
 duce of his labour; so that, as has just been observed, 
 profits are reduced in an advanced stage of society, because 
 the quantity of produce is diminished, and because the'la- 
 bourers get a larger share of this diminished quantity. 
 
 The theory of Smith, as to the circumstances which de- 
 termine the rate of profit, differs widely from the above. 
 He seems to have had no idea of the important principle 
 which shows that, despite the countervailing influence of 
 improvements, the capitals successively applied to the land 
 are sure, in the long run, to decrease in productiveness. 
 And not imagining that there was any natural cause why- 
 the produce obtained by the outlay of equal amounts of 
 capital and labour should ever be diminished, he supposed 
 that profits were lowered through the competition of capi- 
 talists ; that when capital increased, the undertakers of 
 different businesses became anxious to encroach on each 
 other ; and that, in order to attain their object, they ottered 
 their produce at a lower price, and gave higher wages to 
 their workmen. 
 
 But though, at first view, this theory appear sufficiently 
 plausible, it will not bear the least examination. It is easy 
 to see that competition cannot occasion a general fall of 
 profits. All that competition can do, and all that it ever 
 does, is to reduce the profits obtained in different business- 
 es and employments to the same common level, to prevent 
 particular individuals realizing greater or lesser profits than 
 their neighbours. Farther than this competition cannot 
 go. The common and average rate of profit depends not 
 on it, but on the excess of the produce obtained by em- 
 ploying capital after it is replaced, along with every con- 
 tingent expense. Competition cannot affect the produc- 
 tiveness of industry, neither can it, speaking generally, af- 
 fect the rate of wages ; for, such as the ordinary demand 
 for labour is, such will be its supply, and it has no influ- 
 ence over taxation. It is plain, therefore, that it has no- 
 thing to do with the determination of the common and 
 average rate of profit. It hinders individuals from getting 
 more or less than this common rate ; but it has no farther 
 effect. 
 
 Hence it appears, that that fall in the rate of profit that 
 is usually observed to take place as society advances is not 
 owing to an increase of capital, or to the competition con- 
 sequent upon that increase, but to an inability to employ 
 capital with the same advantage as before ; resulting (1,) 
 from a decrease in the fertility of the soils to which re- 
 course must be had, or (2,) from a rise of wages, or (3,) 
 from an increase of taxation. Of these causes, one may be 
 the more powerful at one period, and another at a different 
 period. The first not only lessens the quantity of produce 
 raised by the outlay of capital and labour, but it also, as 
 already seen, generally raises, in the end, the rate of pro- 
 portional wages. It is, of course, impossible to lay down 
 any fixed principles with respect to the influence of taxa- 
 tion. In the progress of society, it may increase or dimin- 
 ish. It has been shown that the heavy taxation of Holland, 
 during the last century, was the principal cause of the low 
 rate of profit in that country (Principles of Political Econ- 
 omy, 2d ed., p. 494) ; and, no doubt, profits in England are 
 sensibly affected by our taxation. 
 
 The principles already established show, 1. That so long 
 as the productiveness of industry is undiminished, profits 
 cannot be reduced otherwise than by a rise of wages or of 
 taxes ; 2. That so long as the rate of wages is constant, 
 profits cannot be reduced, unless industry become less pro- 
 ductive, or taxation be augmented ; and, 3. That so long as 
 taxation remains constant, profits cannot be reduced, unless 
 industry become less productive, or wages be raised. It is 
 supposed, in these cases, for the sake of simplicity, that 
 when one of the regulating principles of profit remains con- 
 stant, the other two vary in the same way. But they might 
 vary in different ways ; and if so, their influence on profits 
 would obviously depend on the extent to which the varia- 
 tion in the one exceeded the variation in the other. Sup- 
 pose, for instance, that while the productiveness of industry 
 remains constant, a rise of wages and a reduction of taxa- 
 994 
 
 PROGRESSION. 
 
 tion are experienced; the effect of this variation will plain. 
 Iy depend on the rise of wages exceeding, falling short, oi 
 being identical with the reduction in the amount of taxa- 
 tion : if it exceed the reduction of taxation, profits will be 
 lowered proportionally to the excess ; if it be less than the 
 reduction of taxation, profits will be proportionally raised ; 
 and if the rise of wages and the reduction of taxation be 
 exactly equivalent, profits will, of course, undergo no change. 
 PROGNO'SIS. (Gr. -npo, and yivmcKiji, I know.) An 
 opinion respecting the progress and termination of a dis 
 ease. 
 
 PRO'GRAMME. An old university term, signifying an 
 outline of the speeches or orations to be delivered on a par 
 ticular occasion ; but now applied in a more extended sens© 
 to the outline of any entertainment or public ceremony. 
 
 PRO'GRESS. The state journeys of royal personages 
 were called by this name in old English etiquette. In the 
 reigns of Elizabeth and James they were frequent, and 
 somewhat costly to the wealthier subjects, inasmuch as 
 they were usually honoured with the onerous privilege of 
 affording hospitality to royalty. The " progresses" of 
 Queen Elizabeth form the subject of a work by Mr. Nich- 
 oll. (See also Quart. Rev., vol. xii.) Perhaps the most 
 celebrated progress in English history is that of James I. 
 from Scotland to London on his accession. 
 
 PROGRE'SSION. (Lat. progressio.) In Arithmetic, a 
 series of numbers proceeding according to a certain order. 
 It is arithmetical, geometrical, or harmonical. 
 
 An Arithmetical Progression is a series of numbers, in- 
 creasing or decreasing by equal differences. Thus, 
 increasing, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, &c. 
 decreasing, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, &c. 
 Or, generally, a±d, a±2d, a±3J, a±4d, ±, &c. 
 Let a denote the least term, 
 2 the greatest term, 
 d the common difference, 
 n the number of terms, 
 s the sum of all.the terms ; 
 
 then the principal properties of an arithmetical progression 
 are expressed by the following formula:: 
 
 a = i — (n — 1) d, z = a + (n — 1) d, 
 
 _ z — a z — a ■ ^ _ a + z 
 
 n — 1 d ' 2 
 
 and these expressions become still simpler when the first 
 
 torm, a, is nothing. 
 
 A Geometrical Progression is a series of numbers in- 
 creasing or decreasing in a certain constant ratio ; or such 
 that the quotient of any one of them by that which imme- 
 diately precedes is constantly the same. Thus, 
 
 increasing, 1, 2, 4, 8, 1G, &c. 
 decreasing, 81, 27, 9, 3, 1, &c. 
 Or, generally, a, ra, r?a, r^a, &c. 
 
 _ a a a 
 
 Or a, -; -p.— v &c. ; 
 
 ■ r j«z' r° 
 
 where a is the first term, and r the common ratio in tne 
 one case, and 1 ~-r the common ratio in the other 
 
 Let a denote the least term. 
 z the greatest term, 
 r the common ratio, 
 n the number of terms, 
 s the sum of the terms ; 
 
 then the principal properties of a geometrical progression 
 are expressed as follows : 
 
 — — t i = ar»-l (-)n-l 
 
 n = log. — h log. r, s = - 
 
 a r" — 1 
 T~~ r— 1 a ' 
 
 Some of these formula? may be more conveniently ex- 
 pressed in terms of s which does not enter into any one of 
 the first four. Thus, 
 
 , — 1 s — a 
 
 a = -^— js; or a = zr— (r — 1) *; r — ^^. 
 
 An Harmonical Progression is a series of numbers in 
 harmonical proportion, or such that, of any three consecu- 
 tive terms, the first is to the third as the difference between 
 the first and second is to the difference between the second 
 and third. (See Harmonical Proportion.) The recip- 
 rocals of an arithmetical progression form an harmonical 
 progression. Thus, the reciprocals of the arithmetical 
 series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. are 
 
 L '. Li, ', &x 
 which form an harmonical progression. 
 
PROHEDRI. 
 
 PRO'HEDRI. (Or. irpdcSpoi.) Certain Athenian officers 
 chosen to superintend the proceeding! in the two legisla- 
 tive assemblies ; so called because they had the privilege 
 of sitting la the front seats (irpocSpta). The probedri of the 
 senate v. ere ten in number. (See Prytanes.) The pro- 
 hedri o the ecclesia were more in number, one being ap- 
 pointed from each tribe, which did not contain the prytanes 
 for the Jme being. Their duties only extended to the one 
 Inv of the people, a new set being elected each time; 
 anil one of their number was nppointed epistates or presi- 
 dent. Their employment was to propose the subject of de- 
 bate to the people, and to count the votes. 
 
 PROHIBITION. In Law, a writ to forbid any court 
 from proceeding in a cause then depending, on suggestion 
 that the cause of it does not pro|>crly belong to that court. 
 In modem times, the writ of prohibition is chiefly used 
 where parties have been impleaded before the ecclesiasti- 
 lurts. It issues properly out of the court of King's 
 h ; but may also be had in some cases out of the 
 Chancery. Common Pleas, or Exchequer. It is the proper 
 remedy where the court against which it is sued has ex- 
 ceeded its jurisdiclion in taking cognizance of matters not 
 properly belonging to it. It is Ranted on motion ; but if 
 the question of jurisdiction be doubtful, the courts direct 
 the parly suing the writ to declare in prohibition. This 
 proceeding rested originally on a fiction of law. The plain- 
 tiff assumed that the writ had been granted, and brought 
 his action against the defendant, on the supposition that he 
 was proceeding in the case, notwithstanding the prohibi- 
 tion : and the merits were then tried on demurrer. Rut 
 now, by 1 \V. 4, c. 21, the declaration concludes with a 
 prayer tat a writ. 
 
 I'UO'JECTILE (Eat. projicio, / throw forward), in Me- 
 chanics, is a body which, having had a motion in space 
 impressed on it by the action of an external force, is aban- 
 • i by this force, and left to pursue its course. Thus, a 
 stone tiirown from the hand or a sling, an arrow shot from 
 a bow. and a bullet discharged from a cannon, are projec- 
 tiles while they continue in motion. 
 
 .Motion of Projectiles. — When a heavy body is projected 
 from the earth, it is subject to the action of three separate 
 and Independent forces: 1. The projectile force, or that by 
 which It was put in motion, nnd in virtue of which, if no 
 other force interfered, the body would continue for ever to 
 move forward in a straight line with the same constant ve- 
 locity. 2. The force of gravity, by which it la at every in- 
 pulled towards the earth in a vertical line. 3. The 
 nice of the atmosphere, which, acting in the direc- 
 tion opposite to that in which the body is moving, tends at 
 ■verv instant to destroy its motion, or to bring it to rest. 
 
 When the projectile is a body possessing considerable 
 iensity. and the motion is slow, the resistance of the air is 
 Inconsiderable, and the body describes almost the same 
 path as if it had been projected in a vacuum ; but when 
 the velocity is great, as in the case of a cannon-ball (and it 
 Is only in such cases that the -theory of the motion of pro- 
 lectiles has any practical application), the resistance of the 
 air becomes enormous, and causes the projectile to deviate 
 widely from the path it would have pursued if this force 
 had not been in action. The direct investigation of the 
 path of a pro j ectile in a resisting medium bcin™ a problem 
 of the hi'_'her mathematics, and attended with very consid- 
 erable difficulty, the way in which the subject can be ren- 
 dered most intelligible is, to proceed, in the first place, on 
 the supi>osition that there is no resistance, and determine 
 the circumstances of the motion of a body supposed to obey 
 only the impulse by which it was projected and the force 
 af gravity, and then to consider the resistance, as n disturb- 
 ing force, nnd find the correction that must be applied in 
 consequence to the path determined on the previous sup- 
 position. 
 .Motion of Projectiles in vacuo. — In order to determine 
 the path of a projectile on the sup- 
 
 T T/ _ n position that it is not resisted by 
 
 £f-T--\ l ' ie atmosphere, suppose it to be 
 
 J_|__\b_x projected from the point A with a 
 <j V velocity a, in the direction AT; 
 
 ^ since gravity acts only in the ver- 
 
 tical direction, it is evident that the 
 rmdy will move in the vertical plane passing through AT. 
 Let A C D, therefore, be its path or trajectory in this plane : 
 and let A X nnd A Y be the rectangular co-ordinates of the 
 curve, A X being horizontal, nnd AY in the direction of 
 gravity. At the end of any given time t, let P be the place 
 of the" projectile; i = AQ, its absciss; and y=PCl, its 
 ordinate: also let g he the accelerating force of gravity 
 (=32 feet per second), and A the angle T A X. 
 
 The body being projected in the direction of the tine A T 
 with a velocity = a, its velocity in the horizontal direction 
 will continue uniform, and = <i cos. A. In like manner. Its 
 velocity in the vertical direction A Y, due to the projectile 
 force, is = a sin. A ; and at the end of any time t the spaces 
 
 PROJECTILE. 
 
 passed over in those directions, if gravity did not act, would 
 be respectively, t a cos. z, and t a sin. A. Rut the space 
 through which a heavy body falls by the action of gravity 
 in the time t is h g f. 2 ; and as this is in the vertical direc- 
 tion, and opposite to A Y, it must be joined to the resolved 
 part of the projectile motion in that direction, with a con 
 trary sign. We have, therefore, 
 
 i = fa cos. A, y= to sin. A — h.S tl • • ■ • (*•) 
 On eliminating t from these two equations, and supposing 
 the velocity a to be that which a body would acquire in 
 falling from a height = A, so that a=:^2gh, we obtain the 
 following for the equation of the curve, described by the 
 projectile : 
 
 y = xtnn. A — — — - .... (2.) 
 
 ■ 4Acos.-A ' 
 
 This equation belongs to a parabola whose axis is vertical, 
 or parallel to A Y. The summit of the parabola is found 
 
 by differentiating the equation, and making j = 0, which 
 
 gives z = 2Acos. A sin. A, and consequently y= A sin.2 A, 
 for the values of x and y at that point. 
 
 In order to find the amplitude or range of the projectile, 
 that is, the point B in which it again passes through the 
 horizontal plane from which it was projected, we have 
 only to suppose, in the above equation, y = 0. This gives 
 
 i = 4A cos. A sin. A = 2A sin. 2A 
 for the value of A B ; and, as the sine of an angle contin 
 ties to increase lo 90°, the value of A R will be greatest 
 when A, the angle of projection, is 45°. The amplitude is 
 then,=2A, or twice the altitude due to the initial velocity. 
 At every other inclination there nre two angles which give 
 the same range, the one as much less than 45° as the other 
 is greater. 
 
 The velocity v, at any point in the curve, is found by 
 
 dx'- + dy* 
 
 means of the differential formula u* = -r-: — . On dif- 
 
 at- 
 
 ferentiating the values of x and y in the equations (1), ruJ 
 adding the results, we find 
 
 o2=<j2 — 2<i£-r.sin. A+^tf. 
 Let A = the height from which a body must have fallen to 
 acquire the velocity t>, then o- = 2o-A. Rut we have also 
 
 al = 2gh, and t= r ; substituting, therefore, these 
 
 ^ a cos. A 
 
 values in the above equation, we obtain 
 A- = A — x tan. A + 
 
 4A cos.^ A ' 
 
 and comparing this with the value of y in equation (2), wc 
 have ultimately A-f-y = A. 
 
 From this equation it appears that if in A Y a point II be 
 taken, such that A H = A, the height from which a heavy 
 body must fall to acquire the initial velocity, and a straight 
 line H H be drawn through 11 parallel to the horizon, or to 
 A X, the velocity of the projectile in the curve at any 
 point P is equal to that which a heavy body would acquire 
 by falling freely from the line II H' to P. The line H IP, 
 as is easily proved, is the directrix of the parabola; and 
 hence all the parabolas described by bodies projected from 
 the same point, and with the same velocities, though with 
 different elevations, have the same directrix, and conse- 
 quently their foci in the circumference of the same circle. 
 
 Thus it appears that the theory of the motion of projec- 
 tiles in a vacuum is extremely simple ; but, as has been 
 already mentioned, the resistance which the air opposes to 
 their motion, particularly when the velocity is great, is by 
 far too considerable to be neglected ; in fact, it changes en- 
 tirely the form of the trajectory, and the law of motion by 
 which it is described. 
 
 Motion of Projectiles in a resisting Medium. — When the 
 resistance of the air is taken into account, the determina- 
 tion of the path described by a projectile is a problem of 
 far greater difficulty, though still capable of rigid solution, 
 on assuming an algebraic relation between the velocity 
 and the resistance ; but when it is considered that, In or- 
 der to compute the trajectory of a resisted body, it is ne- 
 cessary not e r to assume a law of resistance which we 
 never can be .fiilte sure is the true one, but also to know 
 accurately the initir" velocity of ihe body, together with 
 its density, form, ana dimensions, it is easy to see that no 
 great practical advantage is likely to be obtained in any 
 case from the theory, and that recourse must be had to ex- 
 periment. The problem, however, regarded merely as a 
 mathematical speculation, possesses considerable interest, 
 and has been discussed by Newton in the Principia (Scho- 
 lium, prop. 10, lib. H.)i by John Bernoulli, Dr. Brook Tay- 
 lor, Hermann, Euler, and others. For the solution, see 
 
 995 
 
PROJECTION. 
 
 Irfsgendie, Exercises de Calcul Integral, torn, i.; Poisson, 
 Traiti de JUecanique. 
 
 The hypothesis usually made with respect to the resist- 
 ance is, that it is proportional to the square of the velocity. 
 On this hypothesis it was shown by Newton that the tra- 
 jectory has more resemblance to a hyperbola than a para- 
 bola. The two branches A C and C D are dissimilar ; and 
 M the motion in the descending branch 
 C D becomes constantly more nearly 
 vertical and uniform, so that ultimate- 
 ly the body would describe a vertical 
 line with B uniform velocity. This 
 branch of the curve has therefore a 
 vertical asymptote M O, to which it 
 continually approaches. The other branch A C has like- 
 wise an asymptote, which makes an angle with the axis A 
 B, and intersects it at a distance A N from A, depending 
 on the initial direction and velocity of the projectile. 
 
 Some anomalous circumstances are observed in experi- 
 ments with artillery, which are quite beyond the reach of 
 theoretical calculation. Bullets are frequently driven to 
 the right or left of the plane in which they were projected, 
 as if a force acted upon them sideways as well as vertical- 
 ly, and in this case their path becomes a curve of double 
 curvature. Dr. Hutton ascribes this chiefly to a whirling 
 motion acquired by the bullet about an axis, in consequence 
 of its friction against the sides of the piece ; for this rota- 
 tory motion, combined with the progressive motion, causes 
 each part of the ball's surface to strike the air in a direc- 
 tion different from what it would do if there were no such 
 whirl. Euler, on the other hand, attributes the lateral de- 
 flection chiefly to the irregularity of the figure of the ball, 
 and in a small degree to its rotation. Mr. Robins found 
 the range of shot extremely uncertain, falling sometimes 
 200 yards short of what it did at other times, though there 
 was no visible cause of difference in making the experi- 
 ment; and Dr. Hutton states that he often experienced 
 a difference of one fifth or one sixth of the whole range, 
 both in the deflection to the right or left, and also in the 
 extent of the range of cannon shot. Sec Gunnery, Re- 
 sistance. 
 
 PROJECTION. In Perspective, the representation of 
 any object on the perspective plane. See Perspective. 
 
 PROJECTION OF THE SPHERE. In Geography, the 
 representation of the several parts of the surface of the 
 sphere on a plane, according to some geometrical law by 
 which the different points in the representation can be ac- 
 curately referred to their relative positions on the sphere. 
 It is a problem of much importance, in consequence of its 
 application to the construction of maps, charts, planis- 
 pheres, &c. 
 
 Projections are of various kinds, according to the situa- 
 tions in which the eye is supposed to be placed in respect 
 of the sphere and the plane on which it is to be projected ; 
 but there are three which, by reason of the frequency of 
 their use, are particularly deserving of attention ; namely, 
 the orthographic, the stereographic, and the central or gno- 
 monic. 
 
 1. Orthographic Projection. In this projection the eye 
 is supposed to be at an infinite distance, and the plane of 
 vrojection, i. e., the plane on which the representation is 
 made, perpendicular to the direction of the rays of light, 
 which are all parallel to each other. The laws of this 
 orojection are easily deduced. 1. Any point in space is 
 projected by drawing a straight line 
 from it perpendicular to the plane of 
 projection. 2. A straight line perpen- 
 dicular to the plane of projection is 
 projected into a point. A straight 
 -^ line A B, parallel to the plane of pro- 
 jection P O., is projected into an equal 
 straight line a b ; and a straight line C D, inclined to the 
 plane of projection, is projected into a straight line c d, 
 which is shorter than C D, in the proportion of the cosine 
 of the angle of inclination to radius. 3. A plane surface 
 perpendicular to the plane of projection is projected into a 
 straight line. 4. A circle parallel to the plane of projec- 
 tion is projected into an equal circle ; but a circle oblique 
 to the plane of projection is projected into an ellipse, of 
 which the greater axis is equal to the diameter of the cir- 
 cle, and the lesser axis is equal to that diameter multiplied 
 by the cosine of the obliquity. 
 
 Orthographic projections of the sphere are usually made 
 either on the plane of the equator, or on the plane of a 
 meridian. When on the plane of the equator, the meri- 
 dians are all represented by straight lines intersecting in 
 the centre of the projection, and the parallels of latitude 
 by circles whose radii are respectively equal to the cosines 
 of the latitude. When the representation is on the plane 
 of a meridian, the other meridians are represented by ellip- 
 ses, and the parallels of latitude by straight lines parallel 
 to the diameter of the projection. Orthographic projections 
 
 PROJECTION OF THE SPHERE. 
 
 of a hemisphere have this defect, that they are much 
 crowded and distorted near the circumference of the repre- 
 sentation, as may be inferred from the above figure ; all the 
 points in the arc A C being compressed within the line a c 
 (which is equal to the versed sine of the arc), while an arc 
 at the vertex of the hemisphere is projected into a line 
 nearly equal to itself. 
 
 The orthographic projection has a multitude of other 
 applications. The plans and sections by which artificers 
 execute their different constructions are orthographic pro- 
 jections of the things to be constructed ; and a solid body 
 may be represented in all its dimensions by orthographic 
 projections on two planes at right angles to each other. 
 See Descriptive Geometry. 
 
 2. Stereographic Projection. — In this projection the eye 
 is supposed to be situated at the surface of the sphere, and 
 the plane of projection is that of the great circle, which is 
 every where 90 degrees from the po- c 
 
 sition of the eye. Thus, let A C B E 
 represent a sphere cut by a plane P (1 
 passing through the centre, and per- 
 pendicular to the plane of the great 
 circle ABE; and let E be the position 
 of the eye in this circle. If straight 
 lines be drawn from E to any points 
 A D B in the opposite hemisphere, the points ad b in whicri 
 those lines cut the plane P Q, will be the stereographic 
 projections of A D B. 
 
 Some of the principal properties of this projection are 
 the following: 1. The projection of any circle on the 
 sphere which does not pass through the eye is a circle ; and 
 circles whose planes pass through the eye are projected 
 into straight lines 2. The angle made on the surface of 
 the sphere by two circles which cut each other, and the 
 angle made by their projections, is equal. 3. Let C be the 
 pole opposite to E, and c its projection ; then any point A is 
 projected into a point a, such that c a is equal to half the 
 tangent of the arc A C. 
 
 3. Gnomonic or Central Projection. — In this projection 
 the eye is situated at the centre of the sphere, and the 
 plane of projection is a plane which touches the sphere at 
 any point assumed at pleasure. The point of contact is 
 called the principal point ; and the projections of till other 
 points on tile sphere are at the extremities of the tangents 
 of the arcs intercepted between them and the principal 
 point. As the tangents increase very rapidly when the arcs 
 exceed 45°, and at 90° become infinite, the central projection 
 cannot be adopted for a whole hemisphere. 
 
 The orthographic and stereographic projections were both 
 employed by the ancient Greek astronomers for the purpose 
 of representing the celestial sphere with all its circles on a 
 plane. The first was called by them the analemma. Ptolemy 
 wrote a treatise on this projection ; and the Arabs derived 
 from it the fundamental theorems of trigonometry. The ste 
 reographic projection appears to have been invented by Hip 
 parchus, and was denominated by the Greek astronomers 
 planisphere. The name stereographic (derived from are 
 peo;, a solid) was given to it by the Jesuit Aguilon, because 
 it results from the intersection of two solids, the cone and 
 the sphere. Hipparchus and Ptolemy appear (though they 
 do not expressly mention it) to have been acquainted with 
 its principal property, namely, that circles on the sphere 
 are projected into circles, which affords great facilities for 
 the construction of maps. The second property, not less 
 remarkable, that all circles in the projection intersect each 
 other in ang'.es equal to those made by the corresponding 
 circles on the sphere, is of modern discovery, and appears 
 to have been first demonstrated by Dr. Halley, in 1690, in 
 No. 219, of the Phil. Trans., where the discovery is attrib- 
 uted to Demoivre or Hooke. From the equality of the an- 
 gles, it follows that any very small portion of the spherical 
 surface and its projection are similar figures — a property of 
 great importance in the construction of maps, hut which is 
 not peculiar to this projection, as it belongs also to Merca- 
 tor's ; and numerous other relations may be assigned be- 
 tween the original and projected figures in which it will 
 hold good. The gnomonic projection is also described by 
 Ptolemy ; but as the Greeks had no idea of the trigonomet- 
 rical tangents, the polar distances were expressed by the 
 ratios of the sines to the cosines of the arcs. 
 
 In constructing maps of countries, the object sought to 
 be attained is to lay down the places in their true relative 
 positions, and at the same time to preserve as much as pos- 
 sible the same scale of distances throughout. In the three 
 projections which have been explained, equal portions of 
 the spherical surface are represented by unequal portions 
 of a plane surface, and the deviation from equality becomes 
 greater from the centre to the circumference of the projec- 
 tion. The degrees of latitude are greatly contracted towards 
 the circumference in the orthographic projection, and en- 
 larged in the gnomonic, so as in both cases to produce a 
 great distortion. Geographers have, accordingly, attempted 
 
PROJECTURE. 
 
 to correct this deviation by placing the point of view at 
 some finite distance without the sphere. This gives rise to 
 which was proposed by Laliire. 
 Globular Projection. — Let A C B be the hemisphere to be 
 represented on the plane passing through the 
 diameter A B, and let E be the position of 
 the eye in a straight line passing through the 
 centre O perpendicular to A B ; the represen- 
 tation will be perfect, if the several arcs A M, 
 Mi', F C, have each the same ratio to their 
 projections A N, N G, G O. This cannot be 
 accomplished accurately, but the nearest ap- 
 proximate will be obtained by placing the point E in such a 
 u that if F be the middle point of the arc AC, its 
 corresponding point G is also the middle of A O. The pro- 
 blem therefore, is to find a jwiint E in C D, such that on 
 drawing the line EF to bisect A C it shall also bisect the 
 radius A O. Draw F L perpendicular to O C, and join F O. 
 [1 is evident that F L is half the side of the inscribed square, 
 and G O is half the radius; therefore F I. is to G O as O F 
 or ' ) C to O L. But F L : G O : : L E : O E ; therefore, 
 I. i: . O E : : O C : O L, and consequently L O : O E : : 
 C L : O L ; whence O E • C L = O L*. But D L • C L = 
 P I.-: = L2 ; therefore O E = D L, or D E = O L, the co- 
 sine or sine of 45°; consequently, by the trigonometrical 
 tallies, I) E = -71, the radius being unity. 
 
 The projections which have now been explained we sel- 
 dom used in delineating the features of a single country, or 
 n siu;ill |Kirtion of the earth's surface. For this purpose it 
 Ik found more convenient to employ some of the methods 
 •I di velopment of the spherical surface explained under 
 the term Map. 
 
 The projection of the circles of the sphere on a plane is 
 ■ problem of which the solution is easily found, either by the 
 method! of the descriptive geometry, or by common alge- 
 bra, or spherical trigonometry. Whatever be the situation 
 of the eye, every circle on the sphere, not passing through 
 the eye, tonus the base of B cone, of which the eye is the 
 apex ; and the intersection of this cone with the plane of 
 projection gives the curve into which the circle is projected. 
 This curve, therefore, can be no other Ihnn a conic section, 
 and its equation can never exceed the second degree. On 
 forming the genera] equation, and assigning a particular po- 
 
 Mtion to the eye and the plane of projection, all the proper- 
 ties of the ditlerent kinds of projection are readily deduced. 
 
 The tubjecl is explained in a popular manner in Murray's 
 leipmdia of Geography (Introduction), Maltc Bran'* 
 rnphij, and most other works on that science; and 
 I mathematically by Lambert in his Beit rage. Sec. 
 Berlin, 1772; by Killer in ihe Petersburg Commentarirs for 
 1777; by Lagrange in the Iiirlin Memoir* for 1779; and by 
 in ■ Memoir which is translated in the Philosophical 
 ■ for August and September, 1828. 
 l'K< UE'CTI'RE. In Architecture, the jutting or leaning 
 outwards of the mouldings and other members of architec- 
 ture beyond the face of a wall, column, &c. 
 
 I'KOI. A'PSUS. (Lat.) A protrusion or Ailling down of 
 n part of a viscus that is uncovered. 
 
 PROLATE SPHEROID. In Geometry, o spheroid pro- 
 duced by the revolution of an ellipse about its transverse 
 diameter; so called in opposition to the oblate spheroid, 
 which is produced by the revolution of the ellipse about its 
 shorter 
 
 PROLEGO'MENA. (Gr. vpo\ty6pcva.) In Literature, 
 preliminary or introductory observations or dissertations 
 
 Ketived to any work. The fimoits dissertation prefixed by 
 mbert to the Encyclopedic, and the dissertations pre- 
 fixed by Dugnld .Stewart, Playfair, Leslie, and Mackintosh 
 to the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, are 
 among the best specimens of prolegomena. 
 
 PRtyLEGS, in Entomology, are the fleshy, exnrticulate, 
 pediform, often retractile organs, which assist various larva; 
 in walking and other motions, but which disappear in the 
 perfect insect. 
 
 PROLE'PSIS. (Gr. ■nOo\aitGd vll) , I anticipate.) In Rhe- 
 toric, a figure by which the speaker anticipates and answers 
 imaginary objections, such as might be raised against the 
 sentiments which he is urging. 
 
 PRO'LOGUE. (Gr. irpciXoyof.) A piece in verse, recited 
 before the representation of a play, and serving as an intro- 
 duction to it. See Epilogue. 
 
 PHI H.U'SION. (Lat.) A classical word which has been 
 adopted In a rather general sense by authors unwitting to 
 entitle their own productions by a more ambitious d« 
 Hon; an essay or preparatory exercise, in which the writer 
 bis own strength, or throws out some preliminary re- 
 marks on a subject which he intends to treat more profound- 
 ly. The early and fugitive pieces of some poets (as the 
 Gules and others attributed to Virgil) have been termed, by 
 critics, their prolusions. 
 
 PROMETHEANS. A term applied to small glass tubes 
 containing concentrated sulphuric acid, and surrounded with 
 
 PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 an inflammable mixture, which they ignite on being pressed, 
 and thereby give instantaneous light. The term is derived 
 from 
 
 PROME'TIIEL'S. (From Gr. unns, counsel.) Accord- 
 ing to the most ordinary form of his legend in Greek my 
 thology, one of the Titans, who was exposed to the wrath 
 of Jupiter on account of his having taught mortals the arts, 
 and especially the use of fire ; which he was said to have 
 stolen from heaven, concealed in a pipe. According to an 
 other story, Prometheus was actually the creator of men ; 
 and in the Protagoras of Plato he is made not to have ere 
 ated, but to have inspired them with thought and sei.se. 
 His punishment was to be chained to a rock on Caucasus, 
 where a vulture perpetually gnawed his liver; from which 
 he was finally rescued by Hercules. This legend has formed 
 the subject of the grandest of all the poetical illustrations el 
 Greek supernatural belief, the Prometheus BoundatM 
 lus. Many have recognised in the indomitable resolution 
 of this suffering Titan, and his stern endurance of the evils 
 inflicted on him by a power with which he had vainly 
 warred for supremacy, the prototype of the arch-fiend ol 
 Milton. Others have sought for a recondite analogy, ami 
 discovered in the tortures endured by Prometheus 
 crifice for mankind, whom he had benefited, a foreshadow- 
 ing of the great invsterv of Christianity. 
 
 PRO'MlSSORY NOTE. A note or writing by which an 
 individual, or number of individuals, promise or i 
 undertake or perform some specified act. in ordinary Ian 
 guage, however, it is applied to engagements to pay certain 
 specified sums of money at certain dates. Such documents, 
 if drawn on pro|x.-r stamps, are legal negotiable instruments 
 that enjoy the same privileges as bills. 
 
 PRO'MONTORY. (Lat pro, and mons, a mountain.) In 
 Geography, a |H>int of land, whether high or low is indiffer- 
 ent, projecting into tie I u'E. 
 
 PROMU'SCIS. The name of the suctorious organ of the 
 Hemipterous insects, formed by the union of the two jaws 
 {maxilla) to the lower lip, which they embrace; thus form- 
 ing a jointed organ, containing four long capillary lancets 
 and a short tongue. 
 
 PRONA'OS. (Gr. -rpo, and i/aoj, a temple.) In Archi- 
 tecture, the front porch of a temple. Seetixos. 
 
 PRONATOR MUSCLES. Those which are used in 
 turning the palm of the lend downwards. 
 
 PRONOUNS In Grammar, parts of s|>cech which are 
 used in the stead of nouns, to avoid needless or inconvenient 
 s|iccitication. Pronouns are divided into substantive or 
 personal, and adjective; the latter including possessive, dc 
 monstrativc, rr/atiue, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns 
 
 PROOF. (From the verb to prove.) In Engraving, tin 
 impression taken from an engraving to prove the state ot it 
 during the progress of executing it; also one taken before 
 the insertion of the letters are engraved on the plate. 
 
 Proof. In Printing, an impression on which the errors 
 and mistakes arc marked for the purpose of being correct- 
 ed. Proofs are — first proof, which is the impression taken 
 With all the errors of workmanship. After it is read by 
 the copy, and the errors corrected, which if not many, and 
 carefully done, another Impression is printed with more 
 care, to send to the author; this is termed a clean proof. 
 ( )n it lie makes his corrections and alterations : when those 
 are altered in the ty|>es, another proof is printed, and read 
 over carefully, previously to the whole number being print- 
 ed ofl"; this is called the press proof. 
 
 Proof. See Evidkni k. 
 
 PROOF SPIRIT. A mixture of equal weights of abso- 
 lute alcohol and water; the s|>ccific gravity of such a mix- 
 ture is 0-917 ; but the density of the proof spirit of commerce 
 is 0-930. 
 
 PROPAEDEUTICS. (Gr. rpo, and zairW, / instruct.) 
 A term used by German writers to signify the preliminary 
 learning connected with any art or science : that in which 
 it is necessary to be instructed, in order to study with ad- 
 vantage the art or science itself. 
 
 PROPAGANDA. The name given to an association, or, 
 as it is termed, the congregation De propaganda. Fide, estab- 
 lished at Rome by Gregory XV. in 1622, for diffusing a 
 knowledge of Christianity throughout the world. It is a 
 committee of cardinals and special agents of the pope, under 
 whose presidency it meets every week. Its duties are, the 
 superintendence and assistance of missionaries in all parts 
 of the globe, the maintenance of recent converts, the pub- 
 lication of religious works in foreign languages, &c. De- 
 rived from this celebrated society, the name propaganda is 
 applied in modern political language as a term of reproach 
 to secret associations for the spread of opinions and princi- 
 ples which are viewed by most governments with horror 
 and aversion. 
 [ PROPAGA'TION OF PLANTS. The greater number 
 of plants are propagated naturally by means of seeds ; but, 
 in addition to these, many plants are extended over the Stfl 
 I face on which they take'root by the production of runner? 
 
PROSTATE GLAND. 
 
 as it may be thought desirable to enlarge upon or make j 
 known. 
 
 PRO'STATE GLAND. In Comparative Anatomy, the | 
 prostate gland retains its single compact form in most of the 
 Quadrumann, but is bifid in the Ruminnntia ; in the Ro- 
 dentia and Insectivora it is resolved into numerous slender 
 elongated coecal tubes ; in the mole it is remarkable for its 
 periodical increase of size. 
 
 PRO'STATES. (Gr.) The name given to the guardians 
 of the foreign settlers at Athens, whose business it was to 
 represent them in courts of law, and protect them from in- 
 jury. 
 
 PRO'STHAPHE'RESIS. (Gr. -npoaSzv, and aipaipcoic, 
 subtraction.) A term used by the older writers on astrono- 
 my to signify the difference between the true and mean mo- 
 tion, or the true and mean place of a planet, or the quantity 
 which must be taken from or added to the mean anomaly, 
 in order to get the true anomaly. Let P (or P') be the place 
 of a plant in its orbit, S the sun, C the centre 
 and A the perihelion of the orbit; the angle A 
 S P is the true anomaly, A C P is the mean 
 anomaly ; and the difference between A S P and 
 A C P is S P C, which is the proslhapheresis. 
 If A C P be less than a right angle, S P C must 
 be added to A C P in order to get the true ano- 
 maly ; but if it be greater than a right angle, the angle S P 
 C must be deducted. The angle S P C is called by modern 
 writers the equation of the centre, or equation of the orbit. 
 PROSTHESIS. (Gr. Ttpoc, and n0 W i, / place.) A fig- 
 ure of grammar by which one of more letters are added to 
 the commencement of a word ; as in the common English 
 participles, Aeloved, iereft, &c. See Metaplasm. 
 
 PRO'STYLE, or PROSTYLOS. (Gr. irpo, before, and 
 o-ruAus, a column.) In Architecture, a temple or other build- 
 ing with columns in its front face. 
 
 PRO'TASIS. (Gr. npdracis, from irporcivw, I stretch 
 or put forth.) In Grammar and Rheloric, every properly 
 constructed period (see Period) is said to be naturally divisi- 
 ble into two parts ; of which the first is termed protasis, the 
 second apodosis. In the ancient drama, the protasis was 
 the exposition, usually contained in the first part of the piece, 
 either by way of soliloquy or dialogue, serving to make 
 known the characters and the plot to the audience. 
 
 PROTEA'CEiE. (Protea, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of arborescent, rigid, useless Exogens, inhabiting the 
 hotter parts of the world, and found in dry, sterile, stony, 
 exposed places, especially near to the sea coast. They are 
 known from Elaagnaccce by the woody texture of their 
 leaves ; by the irregular calyxes having a valvate estivation, 
 with the stamens placed upon the lobes; and by the dehis- 
 cent fruit. The genera Banksia, Dryandra, Protea, and 
 Grevillea, are cultivated for the sake of their beautiful fo- 
 liage and flowers. The seeds of Guevina are sold in Chili 
 for the same use as hazel nuts with us. One of the larger 
 timber trees of New Zealand is the Knightia excclsa, a plant 
 of this order. 
 
 PROTE'CTOR. In English History, a title which has 
 been three times assumed by daring statesmen: 1. Richard, 
 duke of York, in 1453, was appointed by parliament protector 
 duiing pleasure. 2. The duke of Somerset, being consti- 
 tuted one of Henry VIII.'s sixteen executors, obtained a 
 patent from the young king, Edward VI., in 1548, constitu- 
 ting him protector, with the assistance of the other fifteen 
 as councillors; but he only enjoyed this dignity a few 
 months, and his loss of it was soon followed by his death. 
 3. Cromwell took the title of lord protector of the common- 
 wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the 12th Dec, 
 i653, when the " Barcbones Parliament" resigned its au- 
 thority into his hand. His son Richard succeeded him in 
 his title and authority, but was never formally installed pro- 
 tector. 
 
 PRO'TEST. In Parliamentary Law, is a privilege pecu- 
 liar to the members of the upper house of parliament of en- 
 tering (by leave of the house always presumed) their dis- 
 sent from a motion or resolution agreed to by a majority of 
 the house, together with their reasons for dissenting. The 
 paper embodying these reasons of dissent is called a protest, 
 and is entered on the journals. Protests, with the reasons, 
 were first set down, according to Lord Clarendon, in 1641. 
 See Parliament. 
 
 PRO'TESTANTS. A general name applied to the vari- 
 ous denominations of Christians which have sprung from 
 the adoption of the principles of the Reformation in the 16th 
 century. The term was assumed, in the first instance, by 
 the reformers of North Germany, who, in the year 1529, 
 formally protested against a decree of the imperial diet held 
 at Spires, which ordained that the question between the 
 parties should remain unsettled, some restrictions being 
 laid upon the progress of the new opinions, until the calling 
 of a general council, the time of which was left uncertain. 
 The Protestants accordingly assorted that the decree was 
 unfav Durable and unjust to their party, and claimed the im- 
 1000 
 
 PROTRACTOR. 
 
 mediate summons of a lawful council, which they kuew it 
 was the interest of the papacy, under the circumstances, to 
 delay. In the early period of the Reformation, the princi- 
 pal reformed churches were two, those of the followers of 
 Luther and of Calvin, the partisans of Zuingli having be 
 come nearly identified with the latter. Since that time the 
 number of subdivisions upon every point of doctrine and 
 discipline has been infinite. The general bond of union, 
 however, among all, continues to this day to be the asser- 
 tion of private judgment, and rejection of any infallible head 
 of the church, or ultimate authority in pope or council. We 
 believe, also, that no Protestant church has ever relapsed 
 into any one of the prominent results of the Romish system 
 — such as the doctrine of the seven sacraments, of transub- 
 stantiation, or of purgatory, the celibacy of the clergy, or 
 veneration of images or relics. 
 
 There are, however, two lines of argument upon which 
 these principles are maintained, the respective assumption 
 of which seems to constitute the strongest line of distinction 
 among Protestants. The first is that to which the German 
 and Swiss reformers most generally leaned, which con- 
 siders the Bible to contain within itself so complete a re- 
 pository of divine truths as to be its own interpreter, as well 
 as the evidence of its own authenticity and inspiration. The 
 English reformers, on the other hand, endeavoured to base 
 their doctrines upon the practice of the first three centuries, 
 and appealed therein to similar principles with the Roman 
 church, which they maintained to be corrupt, not In its 
 orisin, but in its growth. 
 
 PRO'TEUS. A marine deity of the Greeks, celebrated 
 for his gift of divination, and the power of changing his 
 form, by which means he eluded those who resorted to him 
 for information. 
 
 Pro'tkus. In Zoology, this name was originally and 
 very aptly applied to a genus of Infusories, which, during 
 life, never for a single minute maintain the same form ; this 
 peculiarity is strikingly manifested, as in the common species 
 called Proteus diffiuens. The term was subsequently used 
 by Laurenti to designate a singular amphibious reptile, pe- 
 culiar to certain subterranean waters in Carniola, and which, 
 like the American siren, retains the external gills, together 
 with internal lungs or air-bags, throughout life. 
 
 PROTHO'NOTARY. (Lat. proto-notarius, or first vo- 
 tary.) A title originally of the Byzantine empire. The 
 Apostolical prothonotaries of the Papal court are officers 
 having precedence of the other notaries or secretaries of 
 the Roman chancery; the papal "notaries participant" 
 rank after bishops, but before abbots. In England, officers 
 in the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas had this 
 title, until the recent changes in those courts. 
 
 PROTHO'RAX. (Gr. vpo, before, and duiOai,. a shield.) 
 In Entomology, signifies the first segment of the thorax in 
 insects ; by Kirby the term is restricted to the upper part 
 only, or shield of that segment. 
 
 PROTHY'RIDES. (Gr. jr//o, and Ovpa, a door.) Sec An- 
 
 PROTHYRUM. (Gr. vpo, and Ovpa.) In Architecture, 
 a porch before the outer door of a house. 
 
 PRO'TOCOL. (From the Latin protocollum : a word 
 derived from the Greek -npwros, first, and Ko)t\a, glue ; but 
 the etymological signification attached to this derivation 
 seems unknown.) The word protocol, in the French lan- 
 guage, signifies the formulae or technical words of legal in- 
 struments ; in Germany, it has been used to denote tho 
 minutes or rough draught of an instrument or transaction. 
 It is in the latter sense that the word has been borrowed 
 by diplomacy, in which it signifies the original copy of any 
 dispatch, treaty, or other document. 
 
 PRO'TOTYPE. (Gr. TrpuTos, first, and rvxoc, a mark.) 
 In the Fine Arts, the original pattern or model of a thing 
 whereon are founded principles of imitation. 
 
 PROTOZO'A. (Gr. rrpwrof, and swov, animal.) A namo 
 synonymous with acrita and oozoa, and applied to the sim- 
 plest animals, or those which stand, as it were, on tho first 
 step of organization. 
 
 PROTRA'CTOR. A mathematical instrument for lay- 
 ing down angles on paper, used in surveying, plotting, &c. 
 
 In its simplest form, the protractor consists merely of a 
 semicircular limb of metal, divided into 180°, and subtend- 
 ed by a diameter, in the middle of which is a notch to mark 
 the position of the centre. On placing this notch over the 
 angular point, and laying the diameter along a given straight 
 line, an angle of any number of degrees may be made by 
 marking the point on the paper which coincides with the 
 given degree on the limb, and joining this point with the 
 centre, when tho instrument is removed. The protractor Is 
 rendered more commodious by transferring the di\ 
 the edge of a parallel ruler. 
 
 When a survey is to be plotted on a Huge scale, and i! 
 becomes necessary, in consequence, to lay down the angles 
 with considerable precision, a more complex apparatus is 
 required. The most approved form of the protractor may 
 
PROVERBS. 
 
 be described as follows : It consists of an entire circle, con- 
 nected with its centre by four radial bars. The centre of 
 the metal is removed, and a circular disk of glass fixed in its 
 place, on which are drawn two lines crossing each other at 
 right angles, the |>oint of intersection denoting the centre of 
 the protractor. Kound the centre, and concentric with the 
 circle, is fitted a collar carrying two arms, one of which has 
 n vernier at its extremity adapted to the divided circle; and 
 the other a milled head, which turns a pinion working in B 
 toothed rack round the exterior edge of the instrument. 
 The rack and pinion give motion to the arms, which can 
 thus be turned quite round the circle, and set the vernier to 
 any angle that may be required. Each of the two arms is 
 prolonged beyond the edge of the protractor, and carries a 
 line steel pricker, which is pressed down when the instru- 
 ment is placed in its required position, and makes a small 
 puncture in the paper. It is essential that the points of the 
 two prickers, and the centre of the instrument, be accurate- 
 ly in the same straight line. (Simms on Mathematical In- 
 struments.) 
 
 In Anatomy, the muscles which draw forwards a part 
 arc termed protractors. 
 
 PRO'VERBS. (Eat. proverbium.) A familiar saying, 
 which h:is lieen variously defined. In point of form, there 
 are two species of proverbs ; one containing a maxim direct- 
 ly expressed in a concise and familiar style; the other, in 
 Which a maxim is expressed metaphorically, e. f, "honesty 
 is the best |Kilicy," or, rather, nllcgorically, e. /r. "strike." 
 while the iron is hot." In point of substance, proverbs are 
 for the most part rules of moral, or, still more properly, of 
 prudential, conduct. 
 
 In dramatic literature, chiefly French, the term has been 
 applietl to short pieces, in which some proverb or popular 
 nyiilg is taken as the foundation of the plot. They ori- 
 d in the fondness of the higher class of France for 
 private theatricals, which became a sort of passion about 
 the middle of the last century. ( ' mirtiitelli was the mo-t 
 successful writer of proverbs at the time of their highest 
 popularity. Those of M. Theodore Leclercq, at the present 
 time, hive met with considerable success. 
 
 PROVERBS, THE OP SOLOMON. One of the can 
 onlcal books of the Old Testament According to the ar- 
 rangement in its present shape, the first nine tnioks form a 
 s of introduction ; those from the tenth to the twenty- 
 fourth contain the proverbs of Solomon, properl y so called j 
 and the remainder furnishes a kind of appendix ; Including 
 the thirtieth and thirty-first, which contain the proverbs of 
 Agur. the son of Jakob, and of king Lemuel. 
 
 PR< IVI'NCl V. Those countries were called by the Ro- 
 mans provinces which, having been reduced under their 
 power, were subjected to government by magistrates sent 
 from Some. The laws of a province were generally set- 
 lied by ten commissioners, dispatched from Rome in con- 
 junction with the victorious general. In its modem accepta- 
 tion, province signifies a grand division of a kingdom or state, 
 comprising several cities, towns, &.c, nil under the game 
 government, and usually distinguished by the extent either 
 of the civil fir ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 
 
 PROVISIONS, in the Navy, daily, 1 lb. of biscuit, 1 ox. 
 of cocoa, 4 ox. of tea, $ of nn imperial pint of spirits, or 1 
 imperial pint of wine, J lb. of beef with j ">• of flour, and } 
 lb. of pork with £ a pint of peas on alternate days, or 1 lb. 
 of fresh meat with 9 oz. of vegetables. Part of the flour 
 may be exchanged for suet, currants and raisins; 1 pint of 
 oatn.e il, and 10 oz. of sugar a week. After ten days of salt 
 provisions, an allowance of lemonade. 
 
 PROVI'SO. In Law, a condition inserted in a deed on 
 which its validity depends, commencing usually with the 
 words '• provided that ;" as also in acts of parliament. 
 
 PROVTSOR The title, in the ancient French Universi- 
 ties of an officer charged with the management of their ex- 
 ternal affairs, both spiritual and temporal, and to a certain 
 extent with their discipline also. The provisor of the Bor- 
 iKmne was an officer of high importance among the clergy. 
 The principals of Napoleon's lyceum had the title of provi- 
 sors, and the modem royal colleges retain it for the same 
 functionary. 
 
 I'RO'VOST (contracted from Lat. propositus, placed 
 orer). The title of the chief municipal magistrates of Scot- 
 land, equivalent to mayor in England. The chief magis- 
 trates of Edinburgh and Glasgow are styled Lord Provost. 
 
 PROVOST OF A UNIVERSITY. See University. 
 
 PttO'XENE. (Gr. irfolcvoc.) In Grecian Antiquities, 
 officers at Sparta who had the charge of superintending 
 strangers. (Herodot., vl.) In the flourishing time of the 
 (Jreci m republics, wealthy and distinguished men of par- 
 ticular states seem to have accounted it an honour to act as 
 protectors of the citizens of foreign commonwealths: thus, 
 Alcibiadc was proxmtts of the Spartans at Athens. 
 
 PRO'XIMATE PRINCIPLES. Distinct compounds 
 which exist ready formed in animals and vegetables, such 
 as albumen, gelatine, fat, &c., in the former; and sugar, 
 
 PRURIGO. 
 
 gum, starch, resins, &c, in the latter, which are so called, 
 without reference to their ultimate composition. 
 
 PRO'XY. (Lat. proximus.) In Parliamentary Law, 
 every peer, spiritual or temporal, can (by license, supposed 
 to be obtained from the king) constitute another lord of par- 
 liament, of the same order with himself, his proxy, to vote 
 for him in his absence. Proxies cannot be used when the 
 house is in committee, nor can a proxy sign a protest. By 
 an order of 2 O, 2, no peer can hold more than two proxies. 
 See Parliament. 
 
 PRUD'HO'MME. (Lat. homo prudens.) In France 
 during the middle ages, municipal tribunals composed of 
 citizens exercising n sort of conciliatory or equitable juris- 
 diction, as arbiters of disputes, inspectors of police, &c., were 
 termed councils of prud'hommes. In 1806, a court of this 
 denomination was re-established at Lyons by a law of Na- 
 poleon; its principal office is the decision of disputes be- 
 tween masters and workmen in the silk manufacture. 
 
 PRU'NING. The art of cutting off parts of plants, and 
 more especially of trees and shrubs, with a view to strength- 
 ening those which remain, or of bringing the tree or plant 
 into |Kirtictilar forms, calculated to Increase particular pro- 
 ducts. Pruning, therefore, varies according to the kind of 
 plant or tree to lie pruned, and according to the object in 
 view. In the case of forest trees, the general object of prim 
 ing is to increase the quantity of timber in the trunk by 
 diminishing the side branches, commencing at the lower 
 part of the tree when it is quite young, and gradually ad- 
 vancing upwards as the tree increases in growth. In the 
 case of hedges, the object is* to produce a dense mass from 
 the ground upwards, which is effected by shortening the 
 side branches. In the case of pruning trees which are cul- 
 tivated for the sake of their fruit or blossoms, the object is 
 to thin out the branches so as to admit the light and air 
 more freely to their leaves and blossoms, and to concentrate 
 and increase the nourishment to the branches which re- 
 main. In the case of trees, or shrubs cultivated for the 
 beauty of their shapes, whether natural or artificial, the ob- 
 ject of pruning is to deprive the trees or shrubs of all those 
 branches which deviate from or interfere with the natural 
 shape, or with the form which is intended to b ■ produced 
 by art. In pruning witli a view to produce fruit, it is ne- 
 cessary to know on what description of brandies and buds 
 the fruit is produced. In some trees, as in the peach, it is 
 generally produced on the wood of the preceding year; in 
 others, as in the npple and |>ear, it is generally produced on 
 wood of two years' growth ; and in the vine it is produced 
 on shoots of the current year. The general effect of pruning 
 on plants is to increase their longevity; since the tendency 
 of all vegetables is to exhaust themselves, and, consequent- 
 ly, to 8hor:en their duration, by the production of seeds. Is: 
 the operation of pruning, the shoots are cut offclose to the 
 buds, or at a distance from them not greater than the diame- 
 ter of the branch to be cut off; because, without the near 
 proximity of a bud, the wounds will not heal over. In 
 shoots which produce their buds alternately, the cut is made 
 at the back of the bud, sloping from it, so as that it may bo 
 readily covered by bark in the same or in the following 
 year. This is readily done with a pruning knife, by a 
 slanting cut, made at an angle of 45° with the direction of 
 the branch ; but. In the case of branches where the buds 
 are produced opposite each other, either one bud must bo 
 sacrificed, or the branch must be cut olf at right angles to 
 its line of direction ; and is more conveniently done by the 
 pruning shears. The operation of pruning may in many 
 cases be superseded by rubbing off, or pinching out, tho 
 leaf-buds, so as to prevent superfluous shoots from being 
 produced. 
 
 PRU'NING KNIFE. A knife the blade of which has a 
 straight edee, formed of well-tempered steel, and of no 
 great breadth, with a narrow point, in order that it may bo 
 more readily introduced among crowded branches. For- 
 merly, pruning knives were hooked at the |ioint ; but the 
 cuts made by such knives had a tendency to crush tho 
 shoot, and leave a rough section, more readily injured by 
 the air and water, and less likely to be speedily healed 
 over. Such knives, when of a large size, were called 
 pruning hooks. 
 
 PRU'NING SHEARS. Shears in which one of the blades 
 moves on a pivot which works in an oblong opening, instead 
 of a circular one, bv which means a draw cut is produced 
 similar to that effected by a knife, instead of the crushing 
 cut produced by common shears, which fractures the sec- 
 tion left on the branch, and renders it liable to become 
 diseased or to decay, instead of being covered over with 
 fresh bark. Pruning shears are particularly adapted for 
 cutting spiny or prickly shrubs, such as the different species 
 of thorns, gooseberries, or roses. 
 
 PRURI'GO. (Lat. prurio, / itch.) An itching of the 
 skin with the eruption of small pimples. The term is also 
 medically applied to irritation of various parts of the body 
 from other causes, as from vermin, worms, &c. 
 
 1001 
 
PRUSSIAN BLUE. 
 
 PRU'SSIAN BLUE. This beautiful dark-blue pigment 
 was accidently discovered in 1710 by Diesbach, a chemist 
 of Berlin. The process for its preparation was first pub- 
 lish©/; in the Philosophical Transactions for 1724, by Dr. 
 V5 w l.vard. It is made by adding solution of ferrocyanuret 
 of po:assium to persulphate of iron. The ferrocyanuret of 
 potassium is prepared by gently igniting carbonate of potassa 
 with animal matters, such as horns, hoofs, or dried blood, in 
 iron vessels, by which cyanuret of potassium and some 
 cyanuret of iron are formed ; the soluble parts are then 
 washed out with water, and sulphate of iron added until 
 the Prussian blue which is formed ceases to be decomposed 
 by the free potassa contained in the solution ; the ferro- 
 cyanuret of potassium is then set to crystallize, and separated 
 by repeated crystallization from sulphate of potassa. It is 
 thus obtained in truncated octoedral crystals of a yellow 
 colour, commonly called Prussiate of potash. It is much 
 used as a test of the presence of metals, and especially of 
 iron, the peroxide of which it throws down from its solutions 
 in the state of Prussian blue. This compound has generally 
 been considered as a ferrocyanate of the peroxide of iron ; 
 but, according to Berzelius, it is a double cyanuret ; that is, 
 a ferrocyanuret of the sesquicyanuret of iron. Ferrocyanuret 
 of potassium (prussiate of potash) is composed of 2 atoms of 
 cyanuret of potassium (66 X 2) = 132, and 1 atom of cyanuret 
 of iron (28 + 26) = 54, and has, therefore, the equivalent 
 (132 + 54) = 186. 
 
 PRU'SSIC ACID. The composition and chemical cha j 
 racters of this acid are given under the head of hydrocyanic 
 acid. Prussic acid is frequently used medicinally as a 
 powerful sedative and anti-irritant, especially to allay cough 
 in phthysis, and to mitigate the spasmodic action in whoop- 
 ing-cough ; but from its poisonous nature it requires to.be 
 employed with much caution. The antidotes for prussic 
 acid, where it has been taken as a poison, are solution of 
 chlorine, by which it is chemically decomposed ; and am- 
 monia, which combines with it, and acts as a stimulant. 
 
 PRY'TANES. (Gr. TrpvTavcts-) The Athenian senate 
 consisted of 500 persons, elected fifty from each of the ten 
 tribes ; each of these fifties took it by turn to preside with 
 the title of Prytanes, having one tenth of the year a 
 to it ; or, more accurately speaking, 34 days were allotted 
 to each of the first four tribes, and 35 to the last six ; the 
 Attic year consisting of 354 days. Each fifty was again sub- 
 divided into five bodies of ten, which, when prytanes, took 
 it by turns to .perform the duties of prohedri (-.potipot), 
 seven days being allotted each. From these prohedri, again, 
 was chosen by lot an epistates (mirrdri/s) or president, 
 whose office lasted one day. 
 
 PSALM. (Gr. uVaA/jo?, from if/aWa, I sing.) A sacred 
 song or hymn, originally accompanied with music. The 
 book of Psalms is called, la the Hebrew, Thehillim (praises), 
 in conformity with the general object of the collection. It 
 seems to have been an article of faith, with most of the 
 early fathers, that the Psalms were all of them composed 
 by David ; a strange notion, which the internal evidence of 
 several immediately refutes. The Jews divide them into 5 
 books, ending with the 40th, 71st, 88th, 105th, and last, 
 respectively. They, as well as all Christians, retain the 
 number 150 ; but the divisions have varied. There is an 
 apocryphal 151st added in' some Greek versions. The 119th 
 and following psalms to' the 134th, called by some "gradual 
 psalms," or "psalms of the stairs," a term of which various 
 explanations have been given, are thought bv Calmet and 
 others to have been composed on the occasion of the 
 deliverance from Babylon ; possibly by Esdras, who is con- 
 sidered as the first collector of the Psalms; but they were 
 at least partially used before, as early as the reign of Heze- 
 kiah. 
 
 PSA'LMODY. A general term applied to the whole 
 subject of psalm-singing, &c. 
 
 PSA'LTER. A book of devotion containing the psalms. 
 See Palmer's Origines JMurgicce, vol. i., p. 207. 
 
 PSALTE'RIUM. (Lat. a psalter or psalm book.) The 
 name of the manyplies or third cavity of the complex 
 stomach of the ruminant quadrupeds, so called because it is 
 occupied by numerous broad folds of membrane resembling 
 the leaves of a book. 
 
 PSA'LTERY. A stringed instrument in use among the 
 ancient Jews, by whom it was called nablum (which see). 
 It resembled, according to Burney, partly the lyre and partly 
 the harp. 
 
 PSE'PHOI. (Gr.) A general name given to several 
 things made use of by the Greeks in giving their suffrages, 
 and in their computations, as small stones, shells, beans, &c. 
 They were synonymous with the calculi and tabellm of the 
 Romans, which see. 
 
 PSEUDEPl'GRAPIIY. (Gt.\f/evX n s, false ; and emypaM, 
 inscription.) T , iscription of false names of authors to 
 works. This v, , carded to a great extent among the 
 Christians of the fourth and following centuries. Thus, 
 the verses known by the name of Sibyline are evident 
 1002 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY. 
 
 Christian forgeries; and it is extremely difficult to distin- 
 guish, the spurious works of the Fathers from the true. 
 (See Gieseler, Text-book of Eccl. Hist., 1st period, chap. 3, 
 sec. 52, for a good section on Christian pseudepigraphy 
 Fabricii Codex Pseudcpigraphus ; Barbier, Vict, dcs Quo 
 rages Anonymes et Pseudonymcs, contains a notice of most 
 works falsely ascribed to their alleged authors in the French 
 language.) 
 
 PSEU'DOBLEPSIS. (Gr. iPcvSn;, and (iXi^is, tight.) 
 There are various- forms of false vision, some apparently 
 dependent upon nervous irritation, others upon organic 
 derangement. Specks, network, colours, and imaginary 
 bodies floating or dancing before the eyes, distoited vision, 
 double vision, are among the most common modifications 
 of this complaint. They occur in plethoric as well as in 
 debilitated habits, and are the consequence occasionally of 
 intense study, of weakening evacuations, of debauchery, of 
 hysteria, and of hypochondriasis ; the treatment, therefore, 
 which is required is very various. Attention to the stomach 
 and bowels, local bleeding, camphor, ether, and other ner 
 vine stimulants, change of scene and occupation, varied 
 exercise, are among the efficient remedies. A very alarm- 
 ing case of double vision, with coloured circles in rapid 
 motion dancing before the eyes, of two years' continuance, 
 and brought on by too intense application of study, gave way 
 to cupping and to a journey to the Highlands. 
 
 PSEU'DO BULB. In Botany, an enlarged aerial stem, 
 resembling a tuber, from which it scarcely differs, except in 
 being formed above ground, in the epidermis, being often 
 extremely hard, and in retaining upon its surface the scars 
 of leaves that it once bore. 
 
 PSEUDODIP'TERAL. (Gr. ipcvlvs, false, Sis, twice, 
 and -KTtpov, a wing.) In Architecture, a term denoting a 
 building or temple wherein the distance from each side of 
 the cell to the columns on the flanks is'equal to two inter- 
 columniations ; the intermediate range of columns which 
 would stand between the outer range and the cell being 
 omitted. 
 
 PSEUDOISODO'MUM. (Gr. rpzvfm, icoi, equal, and 
 <5ouoj, a house.) In Ancient Architecture, a species of 
 masonrj ■ • ich the .- thickness, ai I length of the 
 
 courses are diilerent. bee Isodomum. 
 
 PSEU'DOPODS. Pseudopoda. (Gr. ipev&ns, and ttovs, 
 foot.) A name applied to a tribe of Polygastric lnfusories, 
 including those in which the body, by various contractions 
 and changes of form, produces pcdiform processes. 
 
 PSEUDOSCO'RITONS, Pseudo-scorpiones. A family 
 of Arachnidans, including those with an oblong body divided 
 into several segments, with two or four eyes, and six or 
 eight legs, as the book-crabs (Chelifer). 
 
 PSEUDO'THYRON. (Gr. ipcviris, and dvpa, a door.) 
 In Architecture, a false door. 
 
 PSI'TTACINES, Psi'tacini. (Parrot tribe.) The name 
 of a tribe of Scansorial birds, of which the genus Psitlncus 
 is the type. 
 
 PSO'AS MUSCLE. (Gr. uW, the loins.) A large mus- 
 cle upon the fore part and sides of the lumbar vertebra. It 
 bends the thigh forwards, and assists in turning it outwards. 
 
 PSO'PHIA. (Gr. ipo^ew, / make a noise.) A subgenus 
 of storks, having a shorter bill than the rest, with the head 
 and neck covered only with a kind of down, and the cir- 
 cumference of the eye naked. They frequent wooded 
 regions, and subsist on grains and fruits. The best known 
 species (Psophia crepitans) is a native of South America, 
 and is remarkable for the ambiguous sound which it emits 
 from time to time, and whence its specific name is derived. 
 This bird is easily tamed by the Spanish settlers in South 
 America, and is even taught by them to guide and defend 
 the common poultry from the rapacious birds, as a shep- 
 herd's dog guards his sheep from the wolves. 
 
 PSO'RA. (Gr.) The itch. See Itch 
 
 PSORIA'SIS. A rough scaly state of cuticle, sometimes 
 continuous and sometimes in patches, generally accompanied 
 by chaps or fissures. 
 
 PSY'CHE. (Gr.) In Mythology, a nymph whom Cupid 
 married, after she had been persecuted by Venus. The 
 word signifies the soul, of which Psyche was considered 
 the personification. This beautiful allegory is first known 
 to us by the romance of Apuleius : but it is presumed to be 
 of much earlier origin from its occurrence in relics of art. 
 Lafontaine made it the subject of a pastoral, and Mrs. Tighe, 
 recently, of a poem. 
 
 PSYCHO'LOGY. (Gr. xf/u\fi, the soul, and Ao'jo?, dis- 
 course.) In its larger acceptation, may be taken as synony- 
 mous with mental philosophy. The word is more frequently 
 used in reference to the lower faculties of the mind, and 
 the classification of the phenomena which they present. 
 All psychology is built on experience, either immediate, or 
 revived by the memory and imagination. But. in reflecting 
 on our intellectual faculties, we discover in them certain 
 laws, which, as soon as they are presented lo us, we at 
 once recognise as universal and necessary ; certain condi 
 
PSYCHO MA NCY. 
 
 lions without the fulfilment of which we are sensible that 
 no act of intellection could have taken place. This uni- 
 is something very different from the empirical 
 truth, as a matter of fact, which we attribute to the laws 
 lion, which are, indeed, universal, but which 
 might, for aught we can see, have been different from 
 what tlmy are. Corresponding to this distinction, German 
 writers have discriminated between a higher, or rational, 
 and a lower, or empirical psychology : the first, that of 
 Kant, who sought, in all our mental faculties, to determine 
 that only which is necessary and immutable ; the second, 
 thaj of Hartley, who treats all our intellectual acts u alike 
 
 i mere history, de|>endent for their validity only 
 on' the fict that they do really recur in such and such 
 order. The psychology of Aristotle was of the latter de- 
 scription. He, consequently, regarded the science as form- 
 ing one of the physical sciences, or those which are conver- 
 sant with the contingent and changeable. Many pregnant 
 psychological truths are discoverable in that philosopher's 
 work on the soul ; in particular, the doctrine of association, 
 
 ter-light of all sound experimental psychology, 
 rirt enunciation to him. Among later writers 
 who hive made valuable contributions to the science may 
 be enumerated Hobbes, Locke, Hartley, and Sir Thomas 
 The value of these authors' writings in this 
 peculiar province cannot be too highly appreciated. It is 
 only when psychology intrudes upon the domain, or usurps 
 the attributes, of the higher philosophy, that its claims 
 
 be resisted. As a preparation for meta p h y sical 
 
 • logical thought, and, indeed, as an indispensable 
 
 for the science of man, whether history, politics, 
 or ethics, ll is not easy to exaggerate its importance. 
 
 [OMA'NCY. <:r. vx'/, and fiuvrua, prophecy.) 
 of divination, In which the dead were supposed 
 . communicate the wished for infor- 
 ui itioa. 
 
 PSYCHRCMETER. (Gr. sluxPof, cool; pcrpov, mea- 
 sure.) An instrument invented by Professor August of 
 Berlin, for measuring the tension of the aqueous vapour 
 
 i in the atmosphere, it consists of two v. ry sen- 
 
 b kept n.uistened, but so that DO drop 
 r remains suspended from it. The thermometers 
 
 being then Creely exposed to the air, the temperature indi- 
 each is observed, and also the height of the 
 barometer, from which data the tension of the vapour is 
 computed by means of this formula: 
 
 e— e" — 000031 482 (t — f) b ; 
 
 where b is the height of the barometer (in Piris lines), t 
 i-rature of the air (in centesimal degrees), t' the 
 
 tent] • i iture of the wet bulb, c' the tension of vapour cor- 
 ng to the temperature t', and e the tension of the 
 
 vapour actually contained in the air. The Instrument is 
 in the work of August, Sur Irs Progris de V Hy- 
 
 g mint trie dans les Demurs Temps, Berlin, 1831): also in 
 buck tlrr .M,teorologie. of Kffimptz ; and Quete- 
 
 let's Correspondence Mathimaliijue et Physique, 3me s rie, 
 
 tome J. 
 
 PTERODA'CTYLE, Ptrrodactylus. (Gr. rrtpiv, a wing, 
 
 ;, a digit.) The name of a genus of extinct rei>- 
 
 tiles, in which the second digit of the hand is of extreme 
 
 length, and is considered to have supported an aliform ex- 
 
 of the skin. 
 
 PTE'ROPODS, I'trropoda. (Gr. irrepw, and iron?, a foot.) 
 The name of a class of Mollusks, comprehending those 
 which have a natatory wing-shaped expansion on each side 
 of the head and neck. 
 
 PTERY'GIAXS, Pterygia. (Gr. zripvl. a wing.) A 
 name applied by Latreille to a group of Mollusks, corres- 
 ponding to the Cephalopods and Pteropods of Cuvier, both 
 of which have locomotive organs, composed of wing-like 
 expansions of the skin. 
 
 PTERY'GODA. (Gr. irrepvl.) Latreille has given this 
 term to two small, hard, moveable bodies, in the form of 
 little elytra, directed backwards, and terminating at the 
 origin of the wings. They arise from the two sides of the 
 anterior extremity of the trunk, near the exterior base of the 
 two first legs, instead of from the second segment of the 
 trunk, like true elytra. They are present in Lepldopterous 
 and Strepsipterous insects. 
 
 PTERYGOID. (Gr. nrrpoj, and cifos, form.) Wing- 
 shaped. The name is applied to processes of the sphenoid 
 bone, which complete the osseous palate behind, and form 
 distinct bones in the oviparous vertebrate animals. 
 
 PTl'SAN. (Gr. irwinta, 1 bruise.) A weak diluent drink. 
 
 PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM. See Astronomy. 
 
 PTOLEMA'ITES. A sect of ancient heretics among 
 the Gnostics, who maintained that the Mosaic Law came 
 partlv from God, partly from Moses, and partly from the 
 traditions of the Jewish doctor.?. (See Mosheim's Church 
 History.) 
 
 PULLEY. 
 
 PTY'ALISM. (Gr. TrnmAiyu, / spit.) An increase' 
 flow of saliva. Salivation. 
 
 PUBE'SCENT. (Lat. pubescens, haii-y.) In Zoology, 
 when a part or whole is covered with very tine recumbent 
 short hairs. 
 
 PU'BLICANS. (Lat. publicani.) The farmers of the 
 public revenue of Rome. They formed two distinct classes , 
 the farmers-general of the revenues, who were regarded as 
 belonging to one of the most honourable grades of citizens. 
 and deputies or under publicans of an inferior caste, \\ hose 
 reputation was on a par with that of the most degraded 
 citizens. Hence, in the New Testament, the rtXuvat, a 
 word rendered publicans by the Latin translators, are almost 
 always placed in juxtaposition with sinners. (See Milmaris 
 Mist, of Christianity.) This term was also applied as a 
 nickname to the Albigenses, which see. 
 
 PUBLIC SAFETY, COMMITTEE OF. (French Revo 
 lution.) This famous body was formed out of the conven 
 tion, April f», 17SI3, and invested with very general powers 
 to provide for the supposed welfare of the state ; even the 
 power of arrest and imprisonment was soon conferred upor 
 it. After the downfall of the Girondist parly (see GlROM 
 distks), this committee became the virtual government of 
 France, by a decree of Dec. 4, 1793. Its members were, at 
 this period, elected every month, but in general the same 
 were re-elected. From this period its history is, in effect, 
 that of the revolution. It appointed tribunals, composed 
 of committees, invented with sovereign power to tr\ 
 against the state, over the whole country. It was in the 
 committee of public safety that the opposition to Robes- 
 pierre originated; but, on the overthrow of that personage, 
 its powers were limited by the convention; and, on the 
 introduction of the new constitution of October, 17!M, it 
 became extinct along with the assembly out of which it 
 had been formed. 
 
 PUCK. In Medieval Mythology, the " merry wanderer 
 of the night," whose character and attributes are so beau- 
 tifully depicted in the Midsummer Night's Dream. This 
 Celebrated fairy i< known by a variety of names; as Robin 
 Good-fellow and Friar Rush in England; and in Germany, 
 as Kurcht RuprtdU; but it is by his design ii< a 
 that he is most generally known both in England, Ger- 
 many, and the more northern nations. He was the chief 
 of the dome-tic tribe of fairies, or brownies, as they nre 
 called in Scotland ; and innumerable stories are told of his 
 nocturnal exploits, among which, drawing the wine, and 
 cleaning the kitchen while the family were asleep, are 
 the most prominent The word is probably derived from 
 the old Scandinavian piiki. a boy; it is also synonymous 
 with pug, or monkey, whose form this fairy is said to have 
 most frequently assumed. 
 
 PU'DDING-STOM;. A conglomerate of rounded peb- 
 bles cemented together by a fine-grained and generally 
 silicious or sandy paste. When select specimens are cut 
 and polished, they resemble a section of a plum-pudding, 
 and are often used for ornamental purposes, such as snulf 
 boxes and slabs. 
 
 PUE'RPERAL FEVER. A fever attended by peritoneal 
 inflammation, which comes on about the third day alter 
 delivery. The usual febrile symptoms are attended with 
 great tenseness and tenderness of the abdomen ; the milk 
 disappears, and the bowels are usually affected by diarrhoea. 
 It is most common in the autumn, and appears to be con- 
 tagious. It is an alarming disease, and requires great 
 promptitude and judgment in its treatment. Bleeding, 
 modified according to the circumstances of the case, purging 
 with calomel, saline sudorifics, and occasionally opium, to 
 quiet pain and induce rest, are among the remedial means ; 
 but it often happens that great irritability of the stomach 
 and bowels, or even incessant purging and vomiting, are 
 predominant symptoms, and the fever assumes a typhoid 
 character, in which case the system requires support from 
 cordials. 
 
 PU'GGING. In Architecture, the stuff made of plaster 
 laid on the sounding boarding under the boards of a floor, to 
 deaden the sound between one story and another. 
 
 PU'GIL. (Lat. pugillus.) A quantity of anything which 
 mnv be taken up between the thumb and two fingers. 
 
 PUISNE JUDGE. (Norm. Fr. puisne, younger.) The 
 judges and barons of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, and 
 Exchequer, with the exception of the chief justices and 
 chief bar hi, are so called. 
 
 PU'LLEY. In Mechanics, one of the six simple machines, 
 or mechanical powers. It consists of a wheel, moveable 
 about an axis, and having a groove cut in its circumference, 
 over which a cord passes. The, axle is supported by a box 
 or sheave, called the block, which may eithet be moveable, 
 or lived to a firm support. 
 
 A single pulley serves merely to change the direction of 
 motion; but several of them may be ccnoincd In various 
 ways, by which a mechanical advantage or purchase is gain- 
 ed, greater or less, according to their number and the mode 
 
 100" 1 
 
(2.) 
 
 PULMOGRADES. 
 
 of combination. The purchase gained by any 
 combination is readily computed by comparing 
 the celerity of the weight raised with that of 
 the moving power, according to the principle of 
 virtual velocities, whicli is alike applicable to 
 all machines of whatever kind. In fig. 1, which 
 represents a system where the several portions 
 of the cord are parallel to each other, suppose 
 the weight W to rise one inch, the two blocks 
 would approach each other by that quantity, 
 and, consequently, the length of cord connect- 
 ing a single pair of pulleys would be shortened 
 by 2 inches, so that the power P would descend 
 2 inches. Let the number of pulleys in each 
 block be n ; then, while the weight ascends 
 1 inch, the power descends 2 n inches, and, 
 consequently, when there is equilibrium, the power is to 
 the weight as 1 to 2 n. 
 
 In the combination represented in fig. 2, the 
 purchase is much greater. Here the pulleys are 
 all moveable, and each is supported by a separate 
 cord, having one end fastened to a fixed obsta- 
 cle and the other attached to the succeeding 
 pulley, excepting the upper block, which is fixed. 
 fji| It is evident that, for every inch the weight on 
 % V the first pulley a ascends, the second, b, ascends 
 two ; the third, c, ascends four, and so on ; 
 the velocity being doubled by each additional 
 pulley. The purchase finally obtained is, there- 
 fore, = 2"; or the power is to the weight as 
 l:2n. 
 The third combination, fig. 3, has still greater efficacy. 
 (3.) In this system, each cord is fastened to the 
 weight, and, passing over a pulley, is attached 
 to another pulley, excepting the last, which 
 supports the power. While the weight W rises 
 1 inch, the first moveable pulley,/, will sink 1 
 inch, which allows the cord applied to it to 
 slacken 2 inches, and this joined to the inch 
 which the weight ascends allows the second 
 moveable pulley, g, to descend 3 inches. This 
 allows the next pulley in succession to descend 
 6 inches, which, joined to the 1 inch which the 
 weight ascends, gives 7 inches for the descent of the third 
 pulley. In like manner, it is found that the descent of the 
 fourth pulley is 15 inches. Hence, one moveable pulley al- 
 lows the weight to descend 2X1 + 1=3 inches ; two such 
 pulleys, 2x3 + 1 = 7 inches ; 3 pulleys, 2 X 7 + 1 = 15 
 inches ; four pulleys, 2X15 + 1 = 31 inches, and so on ; so 
 that the purchase obtained by n moveable pulleys, is 2 " + ' 
 — 1, or the power is to the weight as 1 to 2 n + ' — 1. The 
 theoretical advantage thus computed is, however, in all the 
 cases, greatly diminished by friction, and the rigidity of the 
 rope. 
 
 The two last combinations are of little, if any, use in 
 practice, but various modifications of the first are common. 
 Smeaton's pulley, or Smeaton's tack, as it is usually called, 
 contains two rows of wheels, one tinder the other, in each 
 block, and a single cord is made to pass over them in such 
 a manner that the power and the weight both act in the 
 same line with the centres of the two blocks, so that there 
 is no tendency to twist. But this ingenious arrangement is 
 open to several objections, and particularly the great amount 
 of lateral friction of so many independent wheels. In 
 White's pulley (see fig. 1), the wheels in each block turn 
 on the same axis, and, consequently, revolve in the same 
 'ime; and they are of different sizes, their dimensions being 
 so proportioned that a point on the circumferrence of any 
 wheel moves with the velocity of the rope on that wheel. 
 To effect this the diameter of the wheels in the upper block 
 must be as the numbers, 1, 3, 5, &c, and in the lower as 2, 
 4, 6, &c. Instead of separate wheels, the upper and lower 
 Slocks are cut in grooves in the above proportions, whereby 
 the friction is reduced to that of one wheel in each block. 
 
 PU'LMOGRADES, Pidmograda. (Lat. pulmo, a lung, 
 gradior, / advance.) The name of a tribe of Acalephans, 
 including those gelatinous species which swim by the con- 
 traction of the vascular margin of the disk-shaped body, 
 where respiration, also, probably takes place. 
 
 PU'LMONARIES, Pulmonaria. The name of the order 
 of Arachnidans, including those which breathe by means 
 of pulmonary sacs or lungs. 
 
 PU'LMONATES, Pulmonata. The name of an order of 
 Gastrnpodous Mollusks, including those which breathe air, 
 to which the blood is exposed while circulating through a 
 vascular network which lines the internal surface of the 
 bronchial cavity. 
 
 The order is subdivided into the Pulmonata terrestria, 
 
 comprehending the Linntean genera Umax and Helix, with 
 
 Clausilia, Drap., and Jlchatina, Lam. ; and the Pulmonata 
 
 aquatica comprehending the genera Onchidium, Buchanan ; 
 
 1004 
 
 PUMP. 
 
 Planorbis, Cuv. ; Lymnaa, Lam. ; Physa, Drap. ; Auricula, 
 Lam. ; Conooulus, Lain. 
 
 PU'LPIT. (Lat. pulpitum.) In Architecture, the raised 
 part in a public building from which an oration is delivered. 
 In the ancient theatre it was the higher part of the stage 
 whereon the musicians stood. 
 
 PULSE. (Lat. pulsus.) The pulsation of the arteries, 
 depending upon the impulse given to the blood by the action 
 of the heart. (See Hkart.) The pulse is usually felt by 
 pressing the radial artery at the wrist, and the rapidity, 
 regularity, and force of the circulation is thus judged of, 
 and furnishes an important criterion of the phenomena and 
 progress of disease. The range of the pulse as to frequency, 
 in a healthy adult, is usually between 00 and 80, but there 
 are persons whose pulses rarely beat 00 times in a minute, 
 and others, not out of health, in whom the frequency ex- 
 ceeds 80; the pulse, in short, is extremely capricious, and 
 before any correct inferences can be drawn from it, the pecu- 
 liarities of each individual require to be carefully considered ; 
 slight mental affections, indigestion, irritability, and many 
 other causes producing modifications of the pulse, do not ad- 
 mit of any general description. The terms hard, full, soft, 
 and wiry pulse, are used to indicate other obvious modifica- 
 tions independent of the number of pulsations. The average 
 rate of the pulse of a healthy infant is, for the first year, 
 from about 120 to 108; for the second year, from 108 to 90; 
 for the third, from 100 to 80 ; from the seventh to the twelfth 
 year, tjie pulsations are about 70. When the pulse exceeds 
 140 beats in a minute it is not easy to count it precisely, and 
 to this it attains in some febrile diseases. 
 
 An intermitting pulse is by no means uncommon, and 
 often produced by trivial causes ; with many persons in per- 
 fect health the pulse will be subject to very extraordinary 
 irregularities ; and there are cases on record in which a per- 
 son's pulse which has always intermitted in a state of health 
 has acquired regularity on the accession of disease. The 
 state of the digestive organs has often a marked influence 
 upon this condition of the pulse. 
 
 Pulse. Leguminous plants cultivated for their pods or 
 seeds, such as the pea, bean, kidney-bean, &c. 
 
 PULVI'LLI, in Entomology, are the cushions of short 
 hairs very closely set, or a membrane capable of being in- 
 flated, or very soft and concave plates, which cover the un- 
 derside, or their apex, of the four first joints of the mantis oi 
 tarsus, and sometimes even of the ends of the moveable 
 spines situated at the apex of the tibia, which act so as to 
 produce a vacuum, and enable the insect to suspend itself, 
 or walk against gravity. 
 
 PU'LVINATEI). (Lat. pulvinar, a pillow.) In Archi 
 tecture, a term used to express a swelling in any portion of 
 an order, such, for instance, as that of the frieze in the 
 modern Ionic order. 
 
 PU'MICE. (Lat. ptimex.) A porous volcanic product, 
 consisting chiefly of silica and alumina, with traces of pot 
 ash, soda, and oxide of iron. 
 
 PUMP. A machine for raising water. Though the 
 forms under which this useful engine is constructed, and 
 the mode in which the power is applied, may be modified 
 in an infinite number of ways, there are only three which 
 can be considered as differing from each other in principle. 
 These are, the sucking pump, the forcing pump, and the 
 lifting pump, so called from the manner in which they act. 
 
 The sucking pump, or common household pump, is an ap- 
 paratus of which the principle and construction will be evi- 
 dent from the annexed figure. A A is a pipe of any con- 
 venient length, the lower end of which reaches ,. . 
 below the surface of the water in the well or re- ^ 'i 
 servoir; B is a barrel, generally of greater diam- 
 ter than the pipe ; C a valve opening upwards ; _ , 
 Da piston moved by the rod E: in this piston "J 
 there is also a valve opening upwards. When 
 the piston is raised, the air in the barrel between 
 the valves is expanded, and its tension, conse- 
 quently, diminished; the pressure of the air in 
 the pipe, therefore, opens the valve C, and the 
 whole air in the pipe and barrel becomes less 
 dense. In this state the atmospheric pressure on 
 the surface of the water causes it to rise in the 
 pipe, until the tension of the confined air becomes INM 
 equal to the pressure of the atmosphere. ' 
 
 If 
 
 On 
 
 Eb 
 
 again depressing the piston, the valve in it opens, and the 
 air passes through it from the bane! as it descends; but the 
 valve C is closed by the downward pressure, and the vol- 
 ume of water which has entered the pipe remains. On 
 again raising the piston, the same effect is repeated, and an 
 additional quantity of water enters the pipe. Thus, by the 
 alternating motion of the piston, a column of water is raised 
 in the pipe until it reaches the piston when at the bottom of 
 the barrel, and the whole of the air below it has been < v 
 eluded. On raising the piston when the water has reach 
 it, the fluid will be compelled to follow by the pressure 
 the atmosphere on its surface in the well. When the pu 
 
PUMP. 
 
 Ion Is again depressed, the water flows through the valve in 
 it, and ascends into the barrel, and by the succeeding strokes 
 of the piston is lilted up until it reaches and flows out of 
 the spout F. 
 
 Although in theory the limit of the height to which water 
 may be raised by the Bucking pump, from the surface of the 
 fluid in the well to the highest position of the moveable pis- 
 ton, is about 34 feet (the height of a column of water which 
 balances the pressure of the atmosphere), it is not found 
 practicable, with pumps of the ordinary construction, to 
 raise it more than aboul 23 feet. The difference arises from 
 (he difficulty of making the apparatus absolutely air-tight. 
 The forcing pump is represented in tig. 2. The piston- 
 rod E D is attached to a solid plunger D, 
 adjusted to the cavity of the barrel. A 
 pipe G H, furnished with a valve F, open- 
 ing outwards, communicates with the 
 barrel at G. On elevating the plunger D, 
 the water will ascend through the valve 
 C, in the same manner as in the sucking 
 pump, till the barrel is filled to D. Now, 
 when the plunger is depressed the valve 
 C will shut, and the water between D 
 and C be forced through the valve F Into 
 the pipe G H. When the plunger is 
 raised, the valve at F shuts, the pressure 
 on its under side being removed, so that the 
 water which was forced into the pipe by 
 the previous stroke cannot return into the 
 barrel. At the next stroke of the piston 
 more water is again forced into the pipe, and so on till it is 
 faised to the height required. 
 
 In this pump the pipe A A may he dispensed with, and 
 the barrel B immersed in the reservoir ; in which case the 
 action of the pump is independent of the atmospheric pres- 
 sure, and could be maintained equally well in a vacuum. 
 In order to produce a continued stream through the pipe 
 G H, an nir vessel, m n, may be attached 
 to the lateral branch above the valve F, 
 fig. 3. The pipe G II reaches to near the 
 bottom of the air vessel ; and when the 
 water has been forced into the vessel by 
 the action of the pump, until it reaches 
 nbove the lower end of the pipe at G, it 
 is evident that, as all communication is 
 then cut offwith the external atmosphere, 
 every additional quantity of water thrown 
 into the vessel will tend more and more 
 to compress the air within it, which, act- 
 B^-^ ing by its pressure on the surface of the 
 
 water, forces it through the pipe G 11 in a 
 continued stream. 
 The lifting pump is represented by fig. 4. The barrel of 
 the pump is immersed in the water and fixed to an immove- 
 (l.i nble frame. The piston with its bucket and 
 
 jj valve C, opening upwards, is attached at E to 
 [j"l another frame, GIIIK tt, consisting of two 
 n ~/rJt\-j'-J strong iron rods, H I and L K, which move 
 tli rough holes in the framework to which the 
 pump is fixed. An inclined branch M N, either 
 fixed to the top of the barrel, or moveable by 
 means of a ball and socket, is fitted exactly to 
 the barrel, and furnished with a valve at M. 
 Suppose the barrel immersed in the water to a 
 certain depth : if the piston frame be now 
 thrust down by the handle at G, the piston 
 will descend, and the water be forced by its 
 upward pressure through the valve C, so as to 
 maintain the same level in the pump as in the 
 well. Hut when the piston frame is elevated, the valve 
 Will shut (as shown in the figure), and the water above C 
 be lifted vp with the piston, and forced through the valve 
 M into the branch M N, from which its return will be pre- 
 vented by the shutting of the valve M when the piston de- 
 scends. 
 
 In ench of these different kinds of pumps which have 
 been described, the total effort required to work the machine, 
 independently of friction, is equal to the weight of a column 
 of water, the base of which is equal to the area of a section 
 of the working barrel, and the altitude equal to the distance 
 between the surface of the water in the reservoir and the 
 point to which it is raised. In the sucking pump the whole 
 of this effort is expended in raising the piston ; in the forcing 
 pump one part is expended in raising and the other in de- 
 pres^ing the piston, and it is advantageous to dispose the 
 machinery so that these two parts shall be nearly equal. In 
 •mall pumps for domestic purposes, the strength of man is 
 usually employed as the moving power ; but in raising water 
 from great depths, as the bottom of mines, the steam-engine 
 Is applied to this purpose. (See Fire Engine.) For an ac- 
 count of the mechanism of different kinds of pumps, see 
 Gregory's Mechanic*, vol. ii. 
 
 PUNISHMENT. 
 
 The chain pump used in ships of war consists of aa end 
 less chain moving over a wheel on the gun-deck, which ia 
 turned by winches, and over a roller in the pump-well, hav- 
 ing saucers or flat circular pistons at certain intervals. .Near 
 the pump-well, on the side on which the chain on turning 
 the winches ascends, are a few feet of pipe ; through this 
 the saucers raise the column of water, which, being lifted 
 over the upper orifice of the pipe, falls into the cistern, and 
 thence into the waste-pipe, called the pump-dale, wiiich 
 carries it overboard. The descending portion of chain fills 
 through another cose called the back case. Chain pump*, 
 in large ships, throw out a ton a minute. 
 
 I'l 'Ml'KKNTCKEL. The name of a species of bread 
 peculiar to Westphalia: it consists of bran, lias a little acid- 
 ity, but is agreeable to the taste, and very nourishing, and 
 remains moist for several months. It forms the chief food 
 of the Westphalian peasants ; hut it is regarded as a great 
 delicacy in other parts of Germany, whither it is exported in 
 large quantities. They sometimes weigh 60 lbs. The term 
 is said to be of French derivation, and originated in a French 
 soldier having rejected the bread with disgust, exclaiming, 
 " C'est bon pour Nickel ;" t. «., for his horse. 
 
 PUN. A play upon words, the wit or point of which de 
 pends on a resemblance Between the sound and syllables of 
 two or more words, which have different, and perhaps op- 
 posite, meanings. See Paronomasia. 
 
 PU'NCHEON. In Architecture, a short post. The small 
 quarters in a partition above the head of a door are called 
 puncheons. 
 
 Puncheon. A measure of capacity for liquids, contain- 
 ing 34 gallons, or one third of a tun. 
 
 PU'NCTATE. (Lat. punctum, a point.) In Zoology, 
 when a part is beset with many points, or minute impres- 
 sions, which do not perforate the surface. 
 
 PUNCTU ATION. In Writing, the dividing words, prop- 
 ositions, or sentences from each other by means of certain 
 marks or points, designed to facilitate the upprehension, 
 or to regulate the enunciation of written language. Points 
 or stops are said to have been first used by Aristophanes, 
 the Alexandrian grammarian; but the modern system of 
 punctuation is due to Manutius, a learned printer, who lived 
 at Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. The marks most 
 commonly in use are, 1. The comma (,), which is placed 
 between the less important divisions of a sentence or pas- 
 sage ; as, for instance, before and after qualifying proposi- 
 tions or clauses; between single words not connected by 
 conjunctions ; before conjunctions which unite sentences, 
 &c. 2. The semicolon (;), which distinguishes the longer .« 
 or more important members of a sentence ; as when the lat- 
 ter part is an inference from, or qualification, explanation, or 
 illustration of, the former. 3. The colon (:), which is chief- 
 ly used to distinguish such members of a sentence as are 
 themselves divided by semicolons into two or more principal 
 parts. 4. The period or full stop (.), which stands at the 
 end of a complete sentence. Besides these may be enumer- 
 ated the note of interrogation (?) or inquiry ; of exclama- 
 tion (!), expressing admiration, endearment, or any consider- 
 able emotion ; the parenthesis ( ), used when a clause is in 
 serted which interrupts the progress of the sentence ; with 
 other marks, either less commonly used, or the rules for 
 whose use are less easily defined. 
 
 PU'NDIT (more correctly written Pandit). The title of 
 learned Brahmins in Hindoostan. The term is used ironi- 
 cally in England to designate any one who makes a vast 
 show of learning without possessing it in reality. 
 
 PU'NIC WARS. The name given to the celebrated 
 contests in which the Romans and Carthaginians were en- 
 gaged for more than three centuries, and which finally ter- 
 minated in the destruction of Carthage. The first com- 
 menced A.C. 264, and ended A.C. 241 ; the second lasted 
 from A.C. 218 to A.C. 202 ; the third from A.C. 149 to A.C. 
 147, ending with the destruction of Carthage. 
 
 PU'NISHMENT. (Lat. pojnn, punishment.) In Juris- 
 prudence, the infliction of suffering, under leg:il sanction, 
 upon those who have violated the law. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, that both in legislation and in pub- 
 lic opinion respecting punishment, the vindictive theory 
 which considered it as a retribution for crime, and to be go- 
 verned by our moral feelings of indignation against the of 
 fender, has far too generally prevailed, and that the primary 
 end, the interests of society, has been overlooked. But we 
 are not quite certain whether the present course of opinion 
 does not run too exclusively in the contrary direction ; and 
 whether those who adopt the common formula, that " Ihe 
 object of all punishment is the prevention of the offence in 
 future," have reflected on all the consequences of that po- 
 sition. 
 
 For instance, it is the common practice in this country as 
 well as in others, to connect the administration of justice 
 with the enforcement of the tenets of religion and morality. 
 In passing sentence, wherever there is any peculiarity in 
 the case calculated to call forth such observation, the judge 
 
 1005 
 
PUNISHMENT. 
 
 rarely fails to comment on the moral deformity of the act; 
 not merely in its tendency to injure society, but subjective- 
 ly, as evidencing moral depravity in the person committing 
 it. The solemnities of public worship which form part of 
 the ceremonial ; the public harangues of the judges (as, for 
 instance, in the English custom of charging the grand jury) ; 
 the language in which the jury is commonly addressed, 
 both by the judge and the advocates ; all these seem based 
 on the assumption that the moral quality of acts is one 
 of the matters to be brought under their consideration. But 
 if the judge has really no concern whatever with that mo- 
 ral quality, and is simply there to see that society may be 
 guarded, us far as possible, from exposure to material injury 
 by fraud or violence, all these ceremonies are utterly out of 
 place. They must either be defended as politic devices, 
 employing the machinery of religion to aid in terrifying of- 
 fenders from the commission of crime ; or as concessions to 
 popular ignorance. And it is certain that in such a case 
 they had far better be abolished altogether, as they strongly 
 lead the mind to dwell on that false view of the object of 
 punishment, which it is the object of Bentham and his 
 school to extirpate. 
 
 Again, in popular estimation, the moral atrocity of an 
 offence is one of the elements in the correct measure of 
 punishment. On whatever ground philosophers may ob- 
 ject to sanguinary laws, this plain objection is that which 
 has always prevailed in the public mind. In the case of 
 forgery, for example, the feeling of the majority triumphed 
 in the end over the severity of the law, not because it was 
 thought disproportioned to the injury inflicted on society, or 
 to the importance of repressing the crime, but because it 
 was thought not to deserve it in a moral point of view. 
 Now all such expressions of sentiment, on the theory in 
 question, is founded on a wrong principle ; and the writers 
 who adhere to it are forced to admit this feeling as a dis- 
 turbing cause, preventing the right doctrine from being ful- 
 ly carried out ; they are forced to admit, as part of their de- 
 finition of a good punishment, that it shall not be such as 
 to shock the popular notion of moral justice; which is, in 
 other words, to admit that penal laws must be governed in 
 part by principles which they condemn as altogether wrong; 
 a very mischievous concession for a legislator to make. 
 
 That the interest of society is the great object of punish- 
 ment must be conceded on all hands. That the specific ob- 
 ject of preventing the offence from being committed is a 
 very important part of that general object, probably by far 
 the most important, may also be conceded. But the ques- 
 tion is, whether the general object does not comprehend 
 other particular objects also; and whether a punishment, 
 which should answer in the highest degree the advantage 
 of repressing that particular offence, or class of offences, 
 might not be imperfect notwithstanding. 
 
 This question can only be solved by deciding the great 
 preliminary difficulty of political science, in which so many 
 others are involved; whether the ruling power, which we 
 call the state, or society, or the legislature, has or has not 
 any moral authority. Those who conclude that it has no- 
 thing to do beyond preserving the personal security and 
 property of individuals, of course deny that it has any. 
 But those who believe that it has, also, what may be 
 termed a paternal power, and is entrusted by Providence 
 with the maintenance of religion and moral principle, must, 
 consistently admit that there may be a moral object in pun- 
 ishment beyond the mere prevention of the offence. 
 
 And it must be observed in passing, that those who do 
 hold the state to possess such a moral authority, and have 
 such moral duties imposed upon it, need not, therefore, hold 
 those to be its principal objects. It may very well be that 
 the primary object of the association of men in a political 
 body is security and self-defence; yet that such association 
 may have other ends not inconsistent with this. And al- 
 though those other ends are in themselves incomparably the 
 most important, it does not at all follow that they are the 
 most important as regards the state. When men enter into 
 a particular contract with each other, their mutual duties 
 under that contract are primarily those connected with the 
 object of that contract ; they may have other and more im- 
 portant mutual duties, which yet, as regards that contract, 
 are secondary. No religious man will deny that the con- 
 nexion of master and servant involves some duties of a 
 »ery exalted character; but the principal object of that con- 
 nexion is, nevertheless, the rendering of service in view of 
 a remuneration. 
 
 We have not space here to pursue this line of reasoning; 
 but must proceed to take the moral vocation of the state as 
 admitted, and consider the effect of that admission on the 
 theory of punishment. In the first place, it would be a mis- 
 take to suppose that it justifies retribution as an object of 
 punishment. No one can apportion retributive justice who 
 cannot judge of the motives of actions. The moral autho- 
 rity of the state, even by those who have carried its divine 
 character to the highest point, has only been likened to the 
 1006 
 
 PUPE. 
 
 paternal ; and no l»ther has the right to chastise a child b) 
 way of retribution. He has no right to punish at all, except 
 with a view to reformation. Omitting this mistaken end, 
 the real objects of punishment may be classed as follows : 
 
 I. The interests of society ; which must be subdivided 
 into, 
 
 i. Its security from the injury to person or property occa 
 sioned by the crime. 
 
 ii. Its moral and religious improvement. 
 
 And II. The reformation of the offender. This is admit 
 ted as one of the ends of punishment by all writers • but 
 Bentham and his followers regard it as such only so far as ' 
 it conduces to the security of society by preventing the repo 
 tition of the offence ; those who embrace the higher view, 
 both on this account, and also as the fulfilment of the duty 
 of the state towards the offender himself. Considered in 
 either view, it is clearly a secondary object only, the good 
 of society being the first. 
 
 The security of society is attainable by punishment in 
 four ways : 
 
 1. By forcibly preventing the offender from repeating his 
 offence ; as by death, mutilation, or perpetual imprisonment. 
 
 2. By reforming the habits of the offender, and thereby 
 taking away the desire. 
 
 3. By deterring the offender from repetition by the fear of 
 fresh punishment. 
 
 4. By deterring others through example. And this last is 
 clearly the chief practical end of all legal inflictions. The ad- 
 mission of other principles, while it seems necessary in or- 
 der to satisfy our conception of the existence of the state as 
 a moral agent, need not prevent the legislator from keeping 
 this steadily in view. 
 
 Our limits forbid us from pursuing farther the analysis 
 of punishment, and pointing out in what manner the differ- 
 ent kinds and degree of it principally in use follow, or de- 
 part from, their legitimate ends. We will conclude with 
 the classification of punishments given by Bentham, in his 
 Thcorie des Peines, to use the title of the work as given by 
 his translator Dumont. If Bentham's theory be defective ia 
 its main principles (and although we have presented the 
 reader with some arguments against it, we do not assert that 
 they must be conclusive with all), it is at all events only 
 from being imperfect, not erroneous : as far as it goes, it is 
 logical, consistent, and definite. And as he was nearly the 
 first writer who introduced anything like clearness or ar- 
 rangement into the popular notions on penal laws, so we are 
 inclined to think that, on the whole, he has done more for 
 society in this particular than in any other of the various 
 subjects to which he applied his reforming genius. It must 
 not be forgotten that Sir S. Komilly and Sir J. Mackintosh 
 were the pupils who carried his speculations into practice. 
 
 He divides punishments into corporeal and privative. The 
 first of these are, 1. Simply afflictive, those which consist in 
 the mere infliction of temporary pains, the lash, &c. 2. 
 Complexly inflictive, in which pain is joined with perma- 
 nent loss ; as in the old punishments of mutilation and dis- 
 figurement. 3. Restrictive, under which he classes together 
 (perhaps rather inappropriately) imprisonment, or the total 
 deprivation of liberty, and banishment, which deprives of a 
 certain portion of liberty. 4. Active or laborious ; such as 
 the galleys, hard labour, &c. Transportation combines this 
 character with the former. 5. Privative punishments are 
 those which deprive the criminal, 1. Of life. 2. Of repute 
 tion only ; such, perhaps, as the amende in French law. 3. 
 Of property: fine, and confiscations. 4. Forfeiture of condi 
 tion; which, more or less, accompanies infamous punish 
 ments ia most countries ; e.g., civil infamy, in France, is at 
 tended with various disabilities. These eight comprehend 
 all the simple forms of punishment in ordinary use ; but he 
 adds a few, which he terms anomalous, and only mentions 
 to hold them up to general reprobation. J. What he calls 
 vicarious punishments ; as when the family of a suicide are 
 punished by the forfeiture of his chattels. 2. Transitive ; 
 when the penalty passes to future generations: corruption 
 of blood in the English law. 3. Collective, of which he 
 gives, as an instance, the punishment of corporations for the 
 acts of individual corporators ; a more ordinary one is, the 
 compelling the inhabitants of a hundred to make good the 
 damages occasioned by a riot. 4. Fortuitous; where indi- 
 viduals wholly unconnected with the offender are implica- 
 ted, as it were, casually, in the consequences of his crime ; 
 of which he gives, as an instance, the avoidance of mesne 
 conveyances by some kinds of confiscation, and consequent 
 loss of innocent purchasers ; and the imposition of deodands, 
 where no negligence is imputed. (See, also, Ed. Jiev.. vol 
 xxii., where his work is reviewed ; Lucas, Systemc Penal.) 
 
 PU'PA. (Lat. pupa, a puppet.) A genus of land snails, 
 so called from the resemblance of the shell to the pupe, or 
 chrysalis of an insect. Several species are British, as Pupa 
 umhi'/rata, Drap. ; P. marinnata, Drap. ; P. edentula, Drap. 
 
 PUPE. (Lat. pupa.) The name of the oviform nymphs 
 of Lcpidopterous insects ; also applied to Metabolian in 
 
PUPIL. 
 
 sects generally, whea in the second stage of their meta- 
 morpha 
 
 PU'PIL. (Lat. pupa.) A term applied to the central 
 Boning of the eye, liecause it reflects the diminished image 
 of the person who looks into it. It is the central aperture 
 of the trit. 
 
 PU'PIPARES, Pupipara, (Lat. pupa, and pario, I bring 
 forth.) Those insects are said to he pupiparous which pro- 
 duce their young in the condition of a pupe or nymph ; as 
 :-fly, Hippobosca equina. 
 
 i'\"\'\ VORES, Pupivora. (Lat. pupa and voro, I devour.) 
 The name of a tribe of llymenopterous insects, comprehend- 
 ing tfaose of which the larva live puasitically in the interior 
 of the larva; and pups of other insects. 
 
 PUKA'NA. (Sanscrit, a poem.) The sacred books of 
 India which contain the explanation of the Shaster (which 
 »ee.) There are eighteen books of the Puranas; chiefly 
 filled with legends of the inferior gods and the heroes of 
 n. (See Mem. de l\icad. des Inscr., vol. xxxviii.) 
 It should he stated, that Professor Wilson intimates his dis- 
 Um received opinion as to the great antiquity of the 
 Puranas and believes the writings now known under that 
 name to he mere Imitations of lost originals. (Preface to his 
 translation of the Vishnu Purana.) See Asiatic Journal, 
 Dec 1-40. 
 
 PURBECK LIMESTONE. Sec Geology. 
 
 PU'RCHASE, in Law, means, generally, the acquisition 
 of lands or tenements by any other means than descent; 
 as by devise, gift, deed, or agreement. 
 
 .Ti'KY. \ place appointed for the satisfaction 
 of t em poral punishments, which, according to the Roman 
 Catholic Church, are distinguished from the eternal, of 
 which the latter only are remitted to OS by the death of 
 Christ. There is none, perhaps, of the peculiar articles of 
 the Rnmbb faith in favour of which so little can be advanced 
 from the language of scripture ; and it may be safely averred 
 that it wis not from that source that the opinion ever gained 
 •i of men's minds. It seems to be a natural but too 
 strict an inference from the imperfectly disclosed economy 
 Of the divine judgments, winch we find to admit of every 
 decree of severity in this life,, ami are liable to conclude 
 from analog}' must be subject to some equivalent adjustment 
 in the next. Accordingly, we discover some imperfect 
 recognitions of the idea in individual writers several cen- 
 tre it can be proved that it formed an established 
 nrtlclc of faith. August in is considered the earliest of these ; 
 and he speaks vaguely and inconsistently. It was first in- 
 culcated as a doctrine by Gregory the Great, who seems to 
 have connected it with the then popular belief that the 
 world was closely approaching to its end. It was much dis- 
 eossed between the Greeks and Latins at the council of 
 Ferrara, 1438. The present Roman Catholic belief Is thus 
 l in the creed of Pope Pius IV. : " Constanter teneo 
 purgatorium esse, animnsque lb) detentas suflragio fidelium 
 juvari." To which it may be added, that the sins punished 
 in Purgatory are of two kinds — mortal, repented of; and 
 venial. This article of the creed is derived from the canon 
 of the council of Trent on the subject, sess. 25. The "Romish 
 doctrine" of Purgatory is condemned by Art. 22 of the Eng- 
 lish Church. The reader will find the general argument 
 for Purgatory well stated (among Protestants) by Hooker in 
 bis 3d Sermon : the Intter part, in \vhich he replied to it, is 
 lost. It is also set forth with much learning and modera- 
 tion in Tracts for the Times, No. 79. 
 
 PURIFICATION. An observance enjoined by the law 
 of Mo<es upon occasion of certain accidental defilements, 
 which are scrupulously recorded in the Levitical code. 
 The purification was generally by water ; and in the case 
 of women, who were considered impure after childbirth for 
 the space of forty days if delivered of a male, and eighty If 
 of a female, the offering of a lamb and some other sacrifices 
 was required. The purification of the Virgin Mary Is a fes- 
 tival in the calendar, and is observed on the 2d of February, 
 being forty days after Christmas. This festival was estab- 
 lished in the 6th century, and is variously termed in ecclesi- 
 astical antiquities by the names of {ii7u7rfii<7-J7, Festum Can- 
 delarum, Candlemas, the Presentation. The processions of 
 this day were instituted by Gregory the Great. For an ac- 
 count of the ceremonies of purification among the Greeks 
 and Romans, see the article Lustration. 
 
 PU'RIM. The name of the solemn festival among the 
 Jews in which they commemorate their deliverance from 
 the wiles and stratagems of Haman, as recorded in the 
 book of Esther. The observance of this festival has been 
 religiously maintained by all the Hebrew race from its 
 institution down to the present time. It is held in Feb- 
 ruary. 
 
 PU'RIST. A name sometimes applied to rigorous critics 
 of puritv in literarv style. 
 
 PU'RITANS. The name by which the dissenters from 
 the Church of England were generally known in the reign 
 of Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts. The term was as- 
 
 PUTREFACTION. 
 
 sumcd, as the word implies, from the superior purity of doc- 
 trine and discipline which the more violent reformers claim- 
 ed as their own ; maintaining that they followed the word 
 of God alone, purified from all human inventions and super- 
 stitions, of which they believed the English church to re- 
 tain a considerable share, notwithstanding its alleged re- 
 formation. According to Fuller, the use of the name com- 
 menced about 1564. (See Nealc's History of the Puritans.) 
 See Dissenters. 
 
 PU'RLINE. In Architecture, a pieoe of timber lying oj, 
 the principal rafters to support them in the middle. 
 
 PU'RPLE. (Gr. iroptpvfia.) In Painting, a colour pro- 
 duced by the mixture of red and blue, and thence partaking 
 of the hue of each. Among the ancients, purple was al- 
 ways the distinguishing badge of power and distinction ; and, 
 of all the various kinds in use, the Tyrian dye is the most 
 celebrated. This colour was produced from an animal juice 
 found in a shellfish, called rnnrex, or conchylium, the quali- 
 ty of which, however, varied with the different coasts on 
 which it was caught. 
 
 PURPLE OF CASSIUS. A compound of the oxides of 
 tin and gold, obtained by adding protochloride of tin to a soiu 
 tion of chloride of gold. The true nature of the compound 
 has not been determined ; it is used as a purple colour for 
 porcelain painting, ami also for staining glass, to which it 
 imparts a fine ruby red. 
 
 I'U'RPURA. An eruption of small purple specks and 
 patches, caused by extravasation of blood under the cuticle ; 
 it is generally attended by constitutional debility, and often 
 by fever. Aperient medicines, and sometimes purgatives, 
 carried to a greater or less extent, followed by mild tonics, 
 and In some cases by wine, bark, and acids, ate the princi- 
 pal remedies ; but in the treatment, much will depend ujion 
 the concomitant symptoms. 
 
 In Zoology, purpura is a generic name of the univalve 
 Gnsteropod which secretes the purple fluid which formed 
 the base of the Tyrian dye.' 
 
 PU'RPURE. Purple. In Heraldry, one of the colours ar 
 tinctures used in blazonry. It is equivalent to amethyst 
 among precious stones, Mercury among planets. In en- 
 graving it is represented by diagonal lines from the sinister 
 to the dexter side of the escutcheon. 
 
 I'CRPU'RIC ACID. A substance resulting from the ac- 
 tion of nitric acid ii|«in uric acid ; it forms deep red or pur- 
 plr compounds with ino-t I 
 
 PURPU'RIFF.RS, Purpurifrra. (Lat. purpura, purple, 
 fero, I bear.) The name of a family of GastropodotU Mol- 
 lusks, including those species which secrete the purple sub- 
 stance forming the celebrated dye of the ancients, 
 
 PU'RSER. An officer in the British navy, whose chief 
 duty consists in keeping the accounts of the ship to which 
 he heloncs : b'lt he also acts as purveyor. 
 
 PURSriVA'NTS. In Heraldry, a' kind of probationers 
 in the Heralds' College of England, not admitted to the full 
 privileges of the college, but advanced by succession into its 
 higher offices. They are styled Portcullis, Rouge Dragon, 
 Blur. .Mantle, and Uouge Oroix. 
 
 PURVE'YANCE, or POURVEYANCE. (Fr. pourvoir, 
 to provide.) In English Law, the providing necessaries for 
 the king's house. The right of purveyance, or pre-rmp 
 tion, i. e., of buying necessaries for the household, inipres 
 sing horses and carriages for use, or, on payment of a set- 
 tled price, even against the will of the owner, was a valu- 
 able part of the ancient prerogatives of the kings of Eng- 
 land, especially in times when the court was frequently in 
 progress. It was abolished by 12 C. 2, c. 24, and has only 
 been occasionally revived since that time by temporary 
 acts for special purposes. The name of " purveyor" had 
 long before become so odious, that by 36 Ed. 3, c. 2, it was 
 changed into " buyer." 
 
 PUS. (Lat.) A bland, yellowish fluid, somewhat like 
 cream, found in abscesses, and formed upon the surfaces 
 of what are termed healthy sores ; it is heavier than wa 
 ter, and viewed under the microscope, appears composed 
 of translucent globules floating in a colourless fluid. 
 
 PUTA'MEN. In Botany, the Inner coat, or shell, or 
 stone of a fruit: commonly called the endocarpium. 
 
 PU'TLOGS. (Etym. uncertain.) In Architecture, short 
 pieces of timl>er used in scaffolds wherever the scaffold 
 boards lie. They are placed at right angles to the wall, 
 one end of them resting on the ledges of the scaffold, and 
 the other on holes left in the wall. 
 
 PUTREFA'CTION. (Lat. putrefactio.) The siwnta 
 neous decomposition of animal and vegetable substances, 
 attended by the evolution of ftetid gases. The putrefac- 
 tion for putrefactive fermentation) of animal substances is 
 usually attended by more foetid and noxious exhalations 
 than those arising from vegetable products. This appears 
 principally referable to the more abundant presence of ni- 
 trogen in the former ; and hence those vegetables which 
 abound in nitrogeniferous principles (such as most, if not 
 all, of the cruciform plants) exhale peculiarly nauseous ef- 
 
 1007 
 
PUTTY. 
 
 fluvia : hence, also, such animal products as are destitute 
 of nitrogen are either unsusceptible of what is commonly 
 called putrefaction, or suffer it slowly and imperfectly. 
 The formation of ammonia, or of ammoniacal compounds, 
 is a characteristic of most cases of animal putrefaction ; 
 while other combinations of hydrogen are also formed, es- 
 pecially carburetted hydrogen, together with complicated 
 and often highly infectious vapours or gases, in which sul- 
 phur and phosphorus are frequently discerned. These 
 putrefactive effluvia are, for the most part, easily decompo- 
 sed, and resolved into new and comparatively innocuous 
 compounds, by the agency of chlorine ; hence the impor- 
 tance of that body as a powerful and rapidly acting disin- 
 fectant. 
 
 The rapidity of putrefaction, and the nature of its pro- 
 ducts, are to a great extent influenced by temperature, 
 moisture, and access of air ; they do not ensue below the 
 freezing point, nor in dry substances, nor under the entire 
 exclusion of oxygen ; and hence various means suggest 
 themselves of retarding or preventing putrefaction, as well 
 as of modifying its results: a temperature between 60° and 
 80°, a due degree of humidity, and free access of air, are 
 the circumstances under which it proceeds most rapidly. 
 The most effective antiputrefactives or antiseptics are sub- 
 stances which either absorb or remove a portion of the wa- 
 ter or moisture, and enter into new combinations with the 
 organic matter ; hence the great efficacy of certain salts, 
 sugar, alcohol, and several other applications, among which, 
 perhaps, the most remarkable are some of the volatile oils, 
 such especially as kreosote and other empyreumatic pro- 
 ducts obtained by the destructive distillation of wood, and 
 pyroligneous acid, and pyroligneous spirit ; the latter is emi- 
 nently useful in the preservation of dead bodies for the pur- 
 poses of dissection, and, when properly and sufficiently in- 
 jected into the vessels, and externally applied, indefinitely 
 suspends all the ordinary steps of the putrefactive process. 
 
 The astringent or tanning principle of vegetables is also a 
 powerful preserver of most organic tissues : it enters into 
 chemical combination with the albuminous and gelatinous 
 membranes and fibres ; and the resulting compound, of 
 which leather furnishes a characteristic example, is com- 
 paratively little prone to change, although the tanning ma- 
 terial itself, as well as the animal principles with which it 
 unites, are separately liable to decay. 
 
 Among saline substances, the antiputrefactive powers of 
 salt are commonly known : when a piece of flesh is salted, 
 brine runs from it, in consequence of the energy with which 
 the salt abstracts the component water of the muscular 
 fibre ; the flesh becomes indurated, and its susceptibility to 
 putrefactive changes greatly diminished ; it becomes at the 
 same time less easy of digestion as an article of food. Cor- 
 rosive sublimate is a far more powerful preservative than 
 common salt ; and it appears to act not by the mere abstrac- 
 tion of water, but by entering into chemical union with the 
 fibre. Sulphate of copper and several other metallic salts 
 are similarly efficacious ; and the most putrcscible substan- 
 ces, such as the brain for instance, after having been steep- 
 ed in such solutions and dried, will remain without 
 farther change for an indefinite period : the poisonous na- 
 ture of these and many other metallic salts prevents their 
 employment in the preservation of articles of food. 
 
 It is probable that the ancient Egyptians employed sever- 
 al of the above-mentioned antiputrefactive and preservative 
 substances in the preparation of their mummies, which 
 have remained for so many hundred years without signs of 
 decay or decomposition ; yet in these and similar ca<-es, 
 when by the careful application of various solvents the 
 preservative substances are removed, the flesh resumes its 
 susceptibility of putrefaction. 
 
 The inhabitants of northern climates avail themselves of 
 freezing to prevent the putrefaction of their food, and the 
 supplies of game and other articles in the Russian markets 
 are retained in a frozen state ; our fishmongers resort to the 
 same expedient for the preservation of their unsold fish, 
 which is daily removed to the icehouse after having been 
 exhibited in their shops; salmon is packed in ice for the 
 purpose of transport and preservation. 
 
 It is curious to remark the wonderful influence of vitality 
 in opposing those chemical changes which constitute putre- 
 faction, and in retaining that arrangement of the organic 
 elements requisite for the functions of life ; when a part of 
 the body dies, the phenomena of gangrene or mortification 
 ensue ; that is, of local putrefaction : the putrefactive chan- 
 ges are the more energetic in consequence of the proximity 
 of the dead part to the living. 
 
 All organic tissues may be indefinitely preserved by cau- 
 tious desiccation ; and it is in consequence of the absence 
 of component water that the animal part of bone resists pu- 
 t efaction : dried bones may thus be stored up for ages, and 
 when it is required to extract their nutritive parts, these are 
 found unimpaired. 
 PU'TTY. In Architecture, a very fine cement used by 
 1008 
 
 PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 
 
 plasterers, made of lime only. It differs from fine stuff h. 
 the manner of preparing it, and in its being used without 
 hair. Also a composition used by glaziers, consisting of oil, 
 whiting, &c. 
 
 PY'CNITE, or SHORLOUS TOPAZ. (Gr. swtvas, 
 thick.) A prismatic mineral found at Altenburg in Saxony. 
 
 PY'CNOSTYLE. (Gr. ttvkvos, and oruAoc, a column.) 
 In Architecture, an arrangement of columns, in which the 
 intercolumniacions are equal to one diameter and a half of 
 the columns. 
 
 PY'GMY. See Pigmy. 
 
 PYLA'GORAS. (Gr. TrvXayopas, so called from the as- 
 sembly of the Amphictyons at Thermopyla-.) The title of 
 one of the two deputies from each confederate at the Am- 
 phyctyonic Council. His functions comprised the diplo 
 matic and deliberative duties of the mission : while the care 
 of the sacred rites fell on his colleague, the Hieromnemon 
 (itpouvtjijioi'). 
 
 pYLORI'DEANS, Pyloridea. (Gr. rtAr/, an entrance, 
 ovpos, a guard, and citW, form.) The name of a tribe of 
 Lamellibranchiate Bivalves, comprehending those which 
 have a shell open at both extremities. 
 
 PYLO'RUS. (Gr. rroXr/, an entrance, and ovpof, a guard.) 
 The aperture of the stomach into the duodenum ; it guards, 
 as it were, the entrance into the intestinal canal. 
 
 PYRA'LLOITE. (Gr. irrp, fire, and aAAoc, another.) A 
 mineral which undergoes various changes of colour when 
 heated. 
 
 PY'RAMID. (Supposed to be from Gr. -m p, fire, from 
 the resemblance of the form to a spire of flame ; but for a 
 more probable derivation of the word, see infra, Pyramids 
 of Egypt). In Geometry, a solid contained by a plane 
 polygonal base and other planes meeting in a point. This 
 point is called the vertex of the pyramid ; and the planes 
 which meet in the vertex are called the sides, which are 
 necessarily all triangles. 
 
 The principal properties of pyramids are the following 
 1. Every pyramid is equivalent to one third of a prism hav- 
 ing the same base and altitude. Hence, 2. AH pyramids 
 having equivalent bases and equal altitudes are equivalent 
 
 3. The solid content of a pyramid is measured by the pro- 
 duct of the area of the base into one third of the altitude. 
 
 4. If a pyramid is cut by a plane parallel to its base, the 
 frustum (or part comprehended between the base and the 
 section) is equal to the sum of three pyramids havine for 
 their common altitude that of the frustum, and of which 
 the bases are respectively the lower base of the frustum, 
 the upper base of the frustum, and a mean proportional be- 
 tween them. (See Legendre's Geometry, and Notes.) 
 
 Pyramids are denominated from the figures of their bases 
 being triangular, quadrangular, pentagonal, &c, according 
 as the base is a triangle, a quadrangle, a pentagon. 
 
 PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. Celebrated monuments of* 
 massive masonrv, which, from a square base, rise by rcgu 
 lar gradations till they terminate in a point, but so that the 
 width of the base always exceeds the perpendicular height 
 The pyramids commence immediately south of Cairo, hut 
 on the opposite bank of the Nile, and extend in an uninter 
 rupted range for many miles in a southerly direction, para] 
 lei with the banks of the river. 
 
 The three largest are situated in the vicinity of Ghizeh, 
 not far from Cairo ; and of these the loftiest is called the 
 pyramid of Cheops, from the prince by whom it is supposed 
 to have been erected. The side? of its base, which are in 
 the line of the four cardinal points, measure at the founda- 
 tion 763-4 feet ; so that it occupies a space of more than 13 
 acres. Its perpendicular height is 480 feet, being, conse 
 quently 43 feet higher than St. Peter's at Rome, and 130 
 feet higher than St. Paul's. Supposing this pyramid to be 
 entirely solid, its contents would exceed three millions of 
 cubic yards, and the mass of stone contained in it would be 
 six times as great as that contained in the Plymouth break- 
 water! (.F.tn/ptian Antiquities, Library of Entertaining 
 Knowledge, i'i., 213). This huge fabric consists of succrs 
 sive tiers of vast blocks of calcareous stone, rising above 
 each other in the form of steps. The thickness of th« 
 stones, which is identical with the height of the steps, de- 
 creases as the altitude of the pyramid increases, the great- 
 est height being 4628 ft., and the least 1-686 ft. The mean 
 breadth of the steps is about 1 ft. 9 in. The best nuthori 
 ties a»ree in estimating the number of steps or tiers of stone 
 at 203. According to the information communicated to 
 Herodotus by the priests, 100,000 men were employed for 
 twenty years in the construction of this prodigious edifice ; 
 and ten years were employed in constructing a causeway 
 
 s 
 
 : 
 
 * Chambers and scenes have been explored in some of the principal 
 pyramids. Belzoni was the first whow investigation, of the pyramids ex- 
 cited eeneral attention ; but more recently the re-searche. of Colonel How- 
 ard Vyse have been attended with sreater success. The latter eentlemal 
 ha. opened and explored four new chambers in the «reat pyramid ; he ah* 
 opened the third pyramid of Ghizeh, of the previous opening of which M 
 
 opened the third pyramid 
 tradition exists. 
 
PYRAMIDAL NUMBERS. 
 
 by which to convey the stones to the place, and in their 
 conveyance. (Lib. ii., § 124.) 
 
 The oilier pyramids are of inferior dimensions ; but they 
 lire mostly all, notwithstanding, of vast magnitude — instur 
 montium eductce : they are not all of stone, some of them 
 being ol brick. 
 
 M my learned dissertations have been written, and many 
 fanciful and a few ingenious conjectures have been framed, 
 ount for the original use and object of these imperish- 
 tructures. But the difficulty of the subject is such, that 
 hitherto no satisfactory conclusion has been arrived at. 
 In the remotest antiquity their origin was matter of 
 doubt, and nothing certain was known with respect to 
 them or their founders. (Plin. Hist. JWit., lib. 30, § 12.) 
 On the whole, however, it would seem to be most proba- 
 ble that they were intimately connected with the religion 
 of the ancient Egyptians: and that they were at once a 
 mba and temples, but participating more of the 
 totter than of the former character. (For some remarks on 
 this part of the subject, see Shaw's Travels, p. 170, &c., 
 tto edit. ; and Greaves's Pyramidographia, in his Works, 
 vol. i.) 
 
 It has long been customary to regard the Pyramids as 
 monuments merely of the power and folly of the monarchs 
 by whom they were raised, and of the bondage of their sub- 
 jects. This, however, seems to be a very superficial, pre- 
 judiced view of the matter. The varying magnitude of the 
 pyramids, the fact of their being scattered over n space ex- 
 tending lengthwise about 70 miles, and their extraordinary 
 Bomber, appear to show pretty conclusively that they must 
 have been constructed from a sense of utility or duty; and 
 not out of caprice, or from a vain desire to perpetuate the 
 names or the celebrity Of the founders. If we had asuffi- 
 ! antiquity, it would probably be found 
 that the motives which led to the construction of the pyra- 
 mid- were, at bottom, nearly identical with those which 
 led to the construction of St. Peter's and St. Paul's ; and 
 that they are monuments of the religion and piety, lis well 
 as of the pOWOI Of the Pharaohs. 
 
 The pyramids were esteemed by the ancients as one of 
 the seven wonders of the world, and most deservedly; for 
 it i< Impossible to look at these stupendous structures with- 
 out being overwhelmed with a sense of their sublimity. 
 I. too. with some of the most inlere<iing 
 IV of the human race. Herodotus. Plato, 
 and Pythagoras beheld them with wonder and admiration ; 
 lUexandflr the i; rent and Napoleon marshalled their hosts 
 under their shadow ; and they are probably destined to sur- 
 vive long alter the proudest monuments of the present gen- 
 eration have crumbled into dust. 
 
 The etymology of the word pyramid is involved in as 
 great obscurity ai the object of the structures themselves. 
 The most una] derivations that have been assigned to the 
 term almost all proceeded on the supposition that it is of 
 origin, than which nothing can be more erroneous. 
 Perhaps toe most probable conjecture is that of De Sacy, 
 which is as follows: The if in inpapuf he regards as a 
 Greek termination ; the first syllable mi he holds to be the 
 Greek version of the Egyptian article pi (and so written by 
 the Greeks from their wish to derive the word from rvp, 
 firr) ; and he refers the syllable p ip to the root ram, which, 
 In the Egyptian language, signified separating or setting 
 apart from common use: consequently, the word pyramid 
 will denote a sacred place or edifice set apart for some reli- 
 gions purpose. (De Sacy, Observations sur C Origin/- da 
 jV*om domic par Irs Grrcs et les Arabs aux Pyramides 
 d'JKgypte.) See JUCulloch's Gcog. Diet., art. " Egypt," 
 and the authorities there cited. 
 
 PYRAMIDAL NUMBERS, in Arithmetic, are numbers 
 formed by the successive sums of polygonal numbers, in 
 (lie same manner as the polygonal numbers are formed from 
 arithmetical progressions. Thus: 
 
 Arithmetical progression, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. 
 Polygonal numbers, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, &c. 
 
 Pyramidal numbers, 1, 4, 10, 20, 35, &c. 
 
 gfcoFlouRATE Numbers and Polygonal Numbers. 
 
 PYREN'E'ITE. A mineral found in the limestone of 
 the French Pyrenees; it appears to be a variety of the 
 garnet. 
 
 PYRETO LOGY. (Or. -rvferoc, fever, and Aoyof, o dis- 
 oovrsr.) The doctrine of fevers. 
 
 PYRE'XL'E. (Or. re/), fire, and t\tc, habit.) Fevers; 
 attended by fever. 
 
 PYRI'TES. (Gr. irvp.) Sulphurets of copper and Iron, 
 commonly distinguished as copper and iron pyrites. The 
 former is the principal ore of copper ; the latter is an 
 abundant natural product of a brass-yellow colour. When 
 exposed to nir and moisture, especially after having been 
 heated. It absorbs oxygen, and yields sulphate of iron, or 
 green vitriol. Tbe term is derived from mp, fire; either 
 because they sometimes spontaneously ignite, or as being 
 hard enough to strike fire with steel 
 3 s 
 
 PYROMETER. 
 
 PYROACE'TIC SPIRIT. A liquid formed during the 
 destructive distillation of acetate of lead. When carefully 
 purified, it has a peculiar spirituous odour, is limpid, and 
 very inllammable ; its specific gravity is OTihJ, and it boils 
 at 132°. It consists of 3 car. + 3 b. + ox. Hence 1 equiv- 
 alent of acetic acid (4 car. -f-3 h. + 3 ox.) corresponds to 1 
 equivalent of pyroacctic spirit and 1 of carbonic acid . 
 hence dry acetate of baryta is resolved by heat into car- 
 bonate of baryta and pyroacetic spirit. The term acetone is 
 now commonly applied to this compound. 
 
 PYRO-ACLDS. (Gr. m>0.) The prefix pyro is usual], 
 applied to the products which are obtained by snbjei 
 certain organic acids to heat. The acids are thus modifier), 
 and give rise to distinct classes of salts. Thus we have 
 the pvrogallic, pyromalic, pyrotartaric acids, &c. 
 
 PY'ROCHLORE. (Or. Ttvp, and xAu>/)o{, green.) A 
 name given bv Werner to the octoedral ore of titanium. 
 
 PYROLI'GNEOUS ACID. (Gr. zvp, and Lat. lignum, 
 wood.) This term is generally applied to the acid liquor 
 which passes over along with tar and gaseous pro. 
 when wood is subjected to destructive distillation, 
 acid liquor is an impure vinegar, from which acetic add is 
 obtained as follows: The pyrol igneous acid, freed from 
 tar, is saturated with chalk or powdered slaked lime, filter- 
 ed, and evaporated, by which an impure acetate of lime is 
 obtained ; this is gently heated, so as to destroy part of its 
 empyreumatic matter without decomposing the acetic 
 acid ; it is then mixed with sulphate of soda, which yields, 
 by double decomposition, sulphate of lime and acetate ef 
 soda ; the acetate of soda is filtered off the sulphate of 
 lime, evaporated, heated, and redissolved and crystallized. 
 In this way a pure crystallized acetate of soda is, by proper 
 management, obtained, which is mixed in a retort or still 
 with a proper proportion of sulphuric acid, and a gentle 
 heat applied, which causes the strong acetic acid to distil 
 over, and sulphate of soda remains behind. This acetic 
 add is In a high state of concentration; it is lowered by 
 the addition of water, and if intended for the table or for 
 domestic use, as a substitute for other forms of vinegar, it 
 is usually coloured with a little burned sugar. The char 
 coal which is the residue of this distillation of wood i< ef 
 an excellent quality — that employed in the manufacture of 
 gunpowder is thus prepared. This manufacture of v.- 
 is now carried on upon a very large scale, and the ur 
 part of the vinegar used for domestic purposes and in I he 
 arts, in many of which it is largely consumed, to derived 
 from this sourer. 
 
 PYHOLIGNEOD8 SPIRIT. See Pyroxylic Spirit. 
 
 PYROLU'SITE. A mineralogical term applied by some 
 to the common black or binoxidc of manganese, from the 
 facility with which it is resolved by heat into oxygen ami 
 a suboxide. 
 
 PY'ROMAXCY. (Gr. -nvp, and imvreti, prophmj.) 
 Among the classical ancients, a species of divination by 
 means of the firo of the sacrifice ; in which, if the Haines 
 immediately took hold of and consumed the victims, or if 
 they were bright and pure, or if the sparks rose upward in 
 a pyramidal form, success was said to be indicated. If the 
 contrary took place, misfortunes were said to be presaged. 
 
 PYRO'METER. (Gr. trvp, and pcrpov, measure.) An 
 instrument for measuring the degrees of heat. According 
 to this definition, the pyrometer is synonymous with ther- 
 mometer; but though the two terms are sometimes applied 
 Indifferently to the same instrument, the term pyrometer 
 is generally understood to denote either an instrument in- 
 tended to measure higher temperatures than can be meas 
 ured by the ordinary thermometer, or an instrument for 
 comparing the expansions of different metals. 
 
 Various contrivances have been employed for the above 
 purposes. Musschenbroek, the original inventor of the py- 
 rometer, adopted the following method : A prismatic rod 
 (about six inches long) of the metal under trial being at- 
 tached at one extremity to an immoveable obstacle, and 
 heated by lamps, the other end is necessarily pushed for- 
 ward ; and this being fastened to the end of a rack playing 
 into a pinion, communicates a revolving motion to an axle to 
 which a train of wheel work is attached, whereby the 
 minutest expansion of the heated bar is rendered sensible, 
 and measured by an index on a dial. The principle of this 
 apparatus is sufficiently simple ; but the uncertainty attend- 
 ing the motion of so many loosely connected wheels and 
 pinions must have rendered its indications of little value; 
 and the method is liable to a still more serious objection, 
 namely, that the temperature communicated to the bar by 
 the lamps is entirely unknown. Desaguliers, and afterwards 
 Ellicott, made several improvements in the construction of 
 the instrument, tending to give it a more equable motion 
 and to increase its delicacy. Graham substituted a microme- 
 ter screw for the wheels and levers that bad formerly been 
 employed ; and on this principle Mr. Smeaton contrived an 
 ingenious apparatus, which is described in the Phil. Trans , 
 vol xlviii. 
 
 1009 
 
PYROMORPHITE 
 
 Various other forms of the pyrometer have been proposed, 
 to render it better adapted for the measurement of expansion 
 by heat ; among which the most perfect perhaps are those 
 contrived by Ferguson, De Luc, and particularly that em- 
 ployed by Ramsden for determining the expansion of the 
 glass rods used in measuring the base on Hounslow Heath 
 for General Roy's survey. (See Phil. Trans., 1785.) 
 
 For ascertaining the temperatures of furnaces, and other 
 very high temperatures, the pyrometeis now described are 
 inapplicable. In order to remedy this deficiency, Wedgwood 
 availed himself of the property which clay possesses of 
 contracting by heat, and remaining afterwards in that state 
 of contraction. He found, by repeated trials, that fine porce- 
 lain clay contracted uniformly with the degree of heat ap- 
 plied to it; accordingly, by measuring the dimensions of a 
 cylindrical piece of this substance (which may be done with 
 great accuracy, by observing the depth to which it will sink 
 between two scales of metal inclined to each other under a 
 small angle), and the subjecting it to the heat of a furnace, 
 and applying the scale again to it when cold, an indication 
 of the degree of heat to which it has been subjected is given 
 by the amount of its contraction. Wedgwood divided his 
 scale into 240°; and, in order to compare it with that of 
 Fahrenheit's thermometer, made use of a piece of fine silver 
 fitted to the same mould as the pyrometric pieces of clay. 
 Having determined the expansion of the silver between 50° 
 and 212° of Fahrenheit's scale, the silver and clay were 
 subjected to the same heat ; and, by a comparison of the 
 expansion of the one with the contraction of the other, he 
 estimated that each degree of his scale was equal to 130° 
 of Fahrenheit's. He also estimated that the zero of his 
 scale corresponded with 1077 - 5° of Fahr. ; and from these 
 data comparative tables of the two scales are formed. The 
 objections to this method are, that as clay is a heterogeneous 
 mixture, it is not very probable (and there are no means of 
 ascertaining the fact) that its contractions are equal at 
 different temperatures; and that different portions of clay- 
 possess different degrees of contractibility. It was also sur- 
 mised that a long or frequent exposure to inferior degrees 
 of heat will cause it to contract, even after it has undergone 
 the action of n high temperature ; but this appears to have 
 been disproved. (Phil. Trans., 1782, 1784, 178G.) 
 
 Guyton Morveau invented a platina pyrometer as a sub- 
 stitute for Wedgwood's. In a solid plate of highly baked 
 porcelain a groove was cut containing a flat bar of platina, 
 an inch and three quarters in length, two tenths of an inch 
 broad, and one tenth of an inch thick. One end of the bar 
 abuts against the bottom of the groove, the other presses 
 against the short arm of a bent lever, of which the long arm, 
 moving on a pivot, becomes the index of the instrument, 
 and marks the degrees on a scale fixed to the porcelain. 
 With this instrument he made numerous experiments, the 
 general result of which proved that Wedgwood had assigned 
 by far too high a temperature for the degrees of his scale. 
 (Annates de Chimie, torn, xl vi. ; Nicholson's Journal, vol. vi.) 
 
 A pyrometer, invented by Professor Daniel), is described 
 in the eleventh volume of Brande's Quarterly Journal. 
 The part on which the heat acts consists of a rod or wire of 
 platina, about ten inches in length, and about a seventh of 
 an inch in diameter, placed within a tube of black lead 
 ware, and having one end fixed at the bottom of the tube : 
 to the other end is attached a fine wire of platina, which, 
 after passing two or three times round the axis of a wheel, 
 is fastened to a spring by which it is always preserved at 
 the same degree of tension. The teeth of "the wheel play 
 into a pinion, the axis of which carries an index, whose 
 revolution shows, on a greatly magnified scale, the expan- 
 sion and contraction of the platina rod. With this instru- 
 ment experiments were made to determine the fusing points 
 of the different metals ; the results agreed nearly with those 
 of Morveau, but differed widely from those of Wedgwood. 
 Mr. Daniell subsequently made great improvements upon 
 this apparatus, or rather invented a second pyrometer, 
 which is described in the Phil. Trans., for 1830, and the 
 Phil. Magazine for 1831 and 1832. 
 
 For Mr. Prinsep's method of determining high tempera- 
 tures from the fusing points of pure metals and different 
 metallic alloys, see Phil. Trans., 1828; or Phil. Mag., new 
 series, vol. iii. (See Library of Useful Knowledge ; Grego- 
 ry's Mechanics ; Encyc. Brit.) 
 
 PYROMO'RPHITE. (Gr.irvp, and uoptbr,, form.) Native 
 phosphate of lead. When heated before the blowpipe, it 
 fuses into a globule, which assumes a polyhedral crystalline 
 form as it cools. 
 
 PY'ROPE. (Gr. irvp, and urtfV, the eye.) A fiery or bril- 
 liant red garnet. 
 
 PYRO'PHORUS. (Gr. rrvp, and Qtput, I bear.) A sub- 
 stance which spontaneously takes fire when exposed to air. 
 Hcmberg's pyrophorus is made by mixing equal weights of 
 alum and brown simar, and stirring the mixture over the 
 fire in an iron ladle till quite dry; it is then put into an 
 earthen or coated glass bottle, and heated red-hot so long as 
 1010 
 
 PYRRHIC DANCE. 
 
 a flame appears at the mouth ; it is then removed, carefully 
 stopped, and suffered to cool. The black powder which it 
 contains becomes glowing hot when exposed for a few 
 minutes to the air: the experiment succeeds best in a damp 
 state of the atmosphere, and the ignition is frequently ac- 
 celerated by breathing upon the powder. A mixture <.f*3 
 pans of lampblack, 4 of dried alum, and 8 of carbonate of 
 potassa, may be substituted for the above, and calcined in 
 the same way : 27 parts of sulphate of potassa and 15 of 
 calcined lampblack, heated to redness in a crucible, aaJ 
 then carefully preserved out of contact of air, also yields a 
 good pyrophorus. 
 
 It appears from Gay Lussac's experiments that the essen- 
 tial ingredient in pyrophorus is sulphuret of potassium ; tho 
 charcoal and alumina only act by being interposed between 
 its particles ; but, when the mass once kindles, the charcoal 
 takes fire and prolongs the combustion. An excellent pyro- 
 phorus is atlbrded by heating tartrate of lead red-hot in a 
 glass tube, in which it may afterwards be hermetically 
 sealed. When the tube is broken, and the black powder 
 within it shaken out through the air, it burns with the emis- 
 sion of a dense smoke of oxide of lead. This curiously 
 shows the spontaneous inflammability of minutely divided 
 lead. 
 
 PYRO'RTHITE. (Gr. -vp, and opQos, straight.) A 
 mineral resembling ortJiite, but differently •iffected by heat. 
 
 PYRO'SIS. (Gr. -nvpou, I burn.) A disease of the 
 stomach, attended by a burning sensation, and the throwing 
 up of a quantity of saline and sour fluid ; it is sometimes 
 called water brash and black water: it is a variety of heart- 
 burn. 
 
 PYRO'SMALITE. (Gr. wp, oaur,, odour, and \i6os, a 
 stone.) A native submuriate of iron, which, when heated, 
 exhab s the odour of chlorine. 
 
 PY'ROSOME, Pyrosoma. (Gr. mp, and aojua, a body.) 
 The generic name of certain compound Ascidians, remarka- 
 ble for the brilliant phosphoric luminosity which they emit. 
 
 PY'ROTE'CHNY (Gr. imp, and Tt\vi h art), signifies, in 
 its widest sense, the art or science which teaches the man- 
 agement and application of fire to certain operations ; but 
 it is most usually restricted to those articles and instruments 
 manufactured for amusement, or for grand public occasions. 
 The origin of artificial fireworks is lost in obscurity. They 
 were in general use in China long before their introduction 
 into Europe, which is comparatively of recent date. The 
 finest inventions of this kind are due to the celebrated Rug- 
 gieri, father and son, who executed in Rome and Paris, and 
 the principal capitals of Europe, the most brilliant fireu oiks 
 that were ever seen. 
 
 Fireworks are divided into three classes : 1. Those to he 
 set oft" upon the ground ; 2. Those which are shot up into 
 the air ; and 3. Those which act upon or under water. 
 
 The three prime materials of this art are, nitre, sulphur, 
 and charcoal, along with filings of iron, steel, copper, zinc, 
 and resin, camphor, lycopodium, &c. Gunpowder is used 
 either in grain, half crushed, or finely ground, for different 
 purposes. The longer the iron filings, the brighter red and 
 white sparks they give ; those being preferred which are 
 made with a very coarse file, and quite free from rust. 
 Steel filings and cast-iron borings contain carbon, and afford 
 a more brilliant fire, with wavy radiations. Copper filings 
 give a greenisn tint to flame, those of zinc a fine blue 
 colour; the sulphuret of antimony gives a less greenish blue 
 than zinc, hut with much smoke ; amber affords a yellow 
 fire, as well as colophony and common salt; but the last 
 must be very dry. Lampblack produces a very red colour 
 with gunpowder, and a pink with nitre in excess. It serves 
 for making golden showers. The yellow sand, or glistening 
 mica, communicates to fire-works golden radiations. Ver- 
 digris imparts a pale green; sulphate of copper and sal- 
 ammoniac, a palm-tree green. Camphor yields a very 
 white flame and aromatic fumes, which mask the bad smell 
 of other substances. Benzoin and storax are used also on 
 account of their agreeable odour. Lycopodium burns with 
 a rose colour and a magnificent flame ; but it is principally 
 employed in theatres to represent lightning, or to charge the 
 torch of a fury. (See, for full information as to the various 
 processes adopted in the construction of fire-works, lire's 
 Diet, of Jirts, &-c., art. " Fire-works.") 
 
 PY'ROXENE. (Gr. vvp, and levo;, a stranger.) The 
 augite, supposed to have pre-existed in the volcanic mine- 
 rals containing it, and not to have been formed by fire. 
 
 PYROXY'LIC SPIRIT. (Gr. m<p, and \v\ov, wood.) 
 This is one of the products of the destructive distillation of 
 wood. Its specific gravity when rectified is 0804 : it boils 
 at 150° ; it burns with a blue flame, and may be used as a 
 substitute for alcohol in lamps, for which purpose it is often 
 sold under the name of naphtha. It is assumed to be the 
 hydrate of a peculiar hydrocarbon which chemists have 
 designated by the term methylene (from ucdv, wine, and v\n, 
 wood). 
 
 PY'RRHIC DAN'CE, called by the Romans Pynhica 
 
PYRRHONISTS. 
 
 Saltatio. A species of warlike dance, said to have, been 
 inveuted by Pyrrhus I" grace the funeral of his father 
 Achilles, though this point is involved in obscurity. This 
 dance consisted chiefly in such an adroit and nimble turning 
 of the body as represented an attempt to avoid the strokes 
 of an enemy in battle, and the motions necessary to perform 
 it were looked upon as a kind of training for the field of 
 battle. This dance is supposed to be described by Homer 
 as engraved on the shield of Achilles. Lord Byron describes 
 the Sulioles as still performing this dance [Childe Harold) ; 
 and in the famous ode on the aspirations of Greece after 
 iiberly, lie exclaims: 
 
 *' You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet j 
 When: is ihe'Pjrrhic phalanx gone? 
 Of two such lessons why forget 
 The nobler and the manlier one ?' a ' 
 
 PY'RRHON'ISTS. The followers of Pyrrho, a philoso- 
 pher of Klis, and disciple of Anaxarchus, who flourished 
 about liifl) B.C. Their tenets, which have come to us only 
 through the reports of unfriendly writers, are said to have 
 been so absurdly sceptical, that the Pyrrhonists would not 
 put even its much confidence in the MOM! M was necessary 
 for the preservation of their existence; but this seems partly 
 refuted by the age at which Pyrrho himself died, which 
 was ;«) years. There is a summary of the doctrines of Pyr- 
 rhonism in the 2d vol. of the historical part of the Encyc. 
 litana. See Scepticism. 
 
 PYTIIAGURE'ANH. The followers of Pythagoras, a 
 
 Dative of S;i s, born B.C. .570 : said to have been the first 
 
 Greek who assumed the title of a philosopher. Pythagoras, 
 aliei travelling through Egypt and the Ka.-I in search of 
 iiistnii'tion, finally fixed bis abode at f'rotona, one of the 
 Dorian colonies ill the south of Italy. He here attached to 
 himself n large number of youths of noble descent, whom 
 l.e formed into a secret fiaternity for religious and political 
 Bewail a.s philosophical purposes; and by their assistance 
 produced many benefni.il changes in the institutions of 
 Croton and the other Gneco-ltalian cities. Of the strictly 
 philosophical tenets of the Pythagoreans very imperfect 
 rccotds are preserved. Many of the doctrines ordinarily 
 imputed to Ihem aie evidently the fabrication of the later 
 Pytfaa| !~s of visionaries who lived during the 
 decline of the Roman empire. The fragments of Philolans, 
 appaicntly a genuine follower of Pythagoras, have been 
 '■ d by Boeckh; but these, c billed with what ac- 
 counts we can glenn from Plato, Aristotle, and others, are 
 far from being sufficient to give us the information necessary 
 for a clear understanding of this very singular system. One 
 po nt is sufficiently evident, that the Pythagor ea ns were the 
 greatest mntliemaiicians of" their time, and that they sought 
 in the study of mathematical relations that solution of the 
 principal philosophical problems for which their contempo- 
 raries, the Ionic and Identic philosophers, sought, the first 
 in physical, the others in ontological hypotheses. Bearing 
 this peculiarity distinctly in mind, the student of the history 
 of philosophy Will be prepared lor much in the Pythagorean 
 doctrine which would Otherwise seem capricious and unin- 
 telligible. To reduce, the phenomena presented to the senses 
 to b moony with the? laws of reason is the first endeavour 
 of philosophical thinkers: to determine its own limits, and 
 the necessary laws of Its operation, is among the last of ihe 
 
 problems of which the reason enters 00 the solution. The 
 relations of space and quantity, as they are the most obvious, 
 are also the most distinct and definite forms, in which the 
 laws of the outward world can present themselves to this 
 faculty. We cannot, therefore, feel surprise when we dis- 
 cover in the early mathematicians that error which has 
 more or less prevailed among all great mathematicians who 
 meddled with philosophy — the error of striving to enlarge 
 the domain of their favourite science beyond its legitimate 
 bounds. Precisely as the atomic philosophers have en- 
 deavoured to explain nil things by a diversity in the figure 
 of their ultimate parts, the Pythagoreans seemed to have 
 found, in the number and proportions of those parts, the 
 true essence of the things themselves. Having proceeded 
 th.is far, they went a step farther. > They perceived that 
 the universe and its parts are obedient to certain laws, and 
 that these laws can be expressed by numbers. By a rnis- 
 tak. prevalent during every period of speculation, they 
 mi-took the necessary conditions of a thing's subsistence 
 for the essence of that thing itself, and at once pronounced 
 that numerical relations were not merely all that could be 
 understood in outward phenomena, but were, in fact, all 
 (hat was real in them. Units of number grew gradually 
 into iioints in space, and these inlo material atoms. To 
 every order of existence, even to many abstract conceptions, 
 a distinct number was assigned. God is represented as the 
 original unity ; the human soul, the earth, the planets, the 
 animal creation, have each their own peculiar arithmetical 
 essence ; as have also the abstractions justice, opportunity 
 (xaipit), opinion, &c. In many of these numbers, it is not 
 difficult to imagine a symbolical meaning ; but how far any 
 
 QUADRANT. 
 
 such ^leaning was contemplated by the Pythagoreans must 
 remain matter of doubt. 
 
 The outlines of a dualistic scheme are discernible in a 
 singular table Of opposites {avarotxia}, preserved to us by 
 Aristotle, in which the two principles of the universe are 
 successively represented under the form of limit and the 
 unlimited, odd and even, one and many, right and left, male 
 and female, still and moved, straight and curved, light and 
 darkness, good and evil, square and oblong. 
 
 But it would far exceed our limits to enumerate the 
 various fanciful disguises under which Ihe Pythagoreans 
 voluntarily or involuntarily concealed the result of their 
 meditations. Their moral system is more intelligible, being 
 founded, as the tone of their general doctrines would lead 
 us to anticipate, on the ideas of law and harmonv. Every 
 state, and every member of a suite, is to exhibit, each in his 
 degree, a miniature resemblance of the universal constitu- 
 tion of the world. This essentially Greek idea they sought 
 to realize in themselves by a long course of propaedeutic 
 discipline, in which music, plays a conspicuous part. That 
 the Pythagoreans wire strongly influenced by their doctrines, 
 is sufficiently apparent in the length of time during which 
 their brotherhood continued. Philolans, Lysis, Cleinins, 
 Kurythcs, and Archytes, in all probability genuine Pythn- 
 goreans, were contcuqioraries of Plato and Socrates. (See 
 'J'liirlwall's Hist, of Greece, vol. ii., c. 12.; Hitter's Hist 
 of Philosophy, b. iv. ; Boeckh's Philolans, etc.) 
 
 The doctrine of meltiiipsychosis, or the transmigration of 
 souls through ditl'erent orders of animal existence, is the 
 main feature by which the Pythagorean phiiceopt 
 popularly known. It is, however, by no means certain 
 that the genuine Pythagoreans held this doctrine in a literal 
 sense, it may have been only a mythical way of commu- 
 nicating their belief in the individuality and post mortem 
 duration of the soul. 
 
 PY'THIAN GAMES. One of the four great national 
 festivals of <;reece, celebrated every fifth year in honour 
 of Apollo, near Delphi. Their Institution is variously re- 
 ferred to Ampliiclyon, son of Deucalion, founder of the 
 council of Amphictyons, and Diomed, son of Tydeus ; but 
 the most common legend is, that they were founded by 
 Apollo himself, after he had overcome the dragon Python 
 The contests were the same as those at Olympia, and the 
 victors were lewarded with apples and garlands of laurel. 
 As is well know n, the priestess who delivered the oracle at 
 Delphi was called Pythia. Stc Delphi. 
 
 PYTHON. (Gr. irvduv.) The name of a genus of 
 large non-venomous Ophidian reptiles, having anal hooks, 
 and a double series of sub caudal scuta;. 
 
 PYX. The name given to the box in which the In 
 kept bv the Roman Catholic priesthood. 
 
 PYXI'DIUM. (Gr. nvln, a small box.) A fruit which 
 divides circularly into a lower and upper half, of which the 
 latter acts as a kind of lid. 
 
 PY'XIS NATJTICA. The Mariner's Compass. A con- 
 stellation of the southern hemisphere, formed by Lacaille. 
 
 PYX, TRIAL OF. See Coinaoe. 
 
 a. 
 
 Q.. (Fr. queue, a tail ; its form being that of O with a 
 tail.) In all the languages in which it is used it is invaria- 
 bly followed by u. Q. is used as an abbreviation for ques- 
 tion : Qy. for query ; Q.. E. D. for quod erat demonstran- 
 dum, which was to be demonstrated, &c. 
 
 UUADRAGE'SIMA. (Lat. fortieth.) In the Calendar, 
 a term applied to the time of Lent, because it consists of 
 about forty days. Quadragesima Sunday is the first Sun- 
 day in Lent, and about the fortieth day before Easter. 
 
 Q.UADRA'NGLE. In Geometry, a plane figure having 
 four angles, and consequently four sides. 
 
 ftUA'DRANS. A division of the Roman as, consisting 
 of one fourth of it, or three ounces when the as was of its 
 full weight. (.See As, Teruncils.) A farthing. Before 
 Edward I. the smallest coin was a penny or starling. It 
 was marked with a cross, so as to admit of being quartered ; 
 but, to avoid unfair cutting, half pence and farthings were 
 coined in the above reign. 
 
 aUA'DRANT. In Geometry, the fourth part of a cii- 
 cle ; an arc of 90 degrees. 
 
 Quadrant is also a mathematical instrument, formerly 
 much used in astronomy and navigation. The instrument 
 is variously contrived and fitted up, according to the purpose 
 for which it is intended ; but it consists essentially of a limk 
 or arch of a circle equal to the fourth of the circumference, 
 and divided into 90°, with subdivisions. The mural qua- 
 drant is of considerable size (6 or 8 feet radius, for example), 
 the axes of which moves in a wall or solid piece of mason- 
 ry. Ptolemy, in the Almagest, describes a quadrant with 
 which he determined the obliquity of the ecliptic. Tycho 
 
 1011 
 
QJJADRANTAL TRIANGLE. 
 
 Brahe had a large mural quadrant for observing altitudes, 
 and others which revolved on a vertical axis for measuring 
 azimuths, l'icnrt, in his measurement ot the earth, used a 
 quadrant for his terrestrial angles. In 1725 a mural qua- 
 drant, by Graham, was erected in the Royal Observatory at 
 Greenwich, which, in 1750, was replaced by Bird's quadrant, 
 with which Bradley made his celebrated observations. The 
 quadrant has, however, of late years been entirely super- 
 seded by the mural circle; it having been found that the 
 circle, on account of the symmetry of its form, and the ad- 
 vantage which it possesses of allowing the readings to be 
 made at different parts of the limb, is an instrument much 
 more to be relied on. (See Mural Circle.) Hadleifs 
 quadrant, in its principle and application, is the same as the 
 sextant, by which it has been superseded. (See Sextant ) 
 For further information respecting the quadrant, see La- 
 lande, Jlstronoraie, s. 2311.; Vince's Practical Astronomy ; 
 Pearson's Practical Astronomy ; and the Penny Cyclopedia. 
 
 Quadrant, in Gunnery, or the gunner's square, is an in- 
 strument used for elevating and pointing cannon, mortars, 
 &c. It consists of two rectangular branches of wood or 
 brass, having a quadrantal arch between them, divided into 
 90°, and furnished with a thread and plummet. One of the 
 branches being placed in the mouth of the piece, the de- 
 gree intersected by the thread on the limb shows the ele- 
 vation. 
 
 QUADRAN'TAL TRIANGLE, in Trigonometry, is a 
 spherical triangle which has one side equal to a quarter of 
 a circle, or 90°. 
 
 QUA'DRANT OP ALTITUDE. An appendix to an 
 artificial globe, consisting of a thin pliable slip of brass, 
 which is applied to the globe, and used as a scale for mea- 
 suring the distances between points in degrees. It is gra- 
 duated into 90°, the degrees being of the same length ns 
 jhose on one of the great circles of the globe. At the end 
 where the division terminates a nut is rivetted on, and fur- 
 nished with a screw, by which it is attached to the brass 
 meridian of the globe at any point. This point being placed 
 in the zenith, and the quadrant applied to the globe, its 
 zero coincides with the horizon, and consequently the alti- 
 tude of any point along its graduated edge is indicated by 
 the corresponding division. 
 
 QUADRA'TIC EQUATION, in Algebra, is an equation 
 of the second degree, or one which involves the second 
 power, or square, of the unknown quantity. 
 
 Quadratic equations are of two kinds, incomplete and 
 complete. The incomplete equation is that which contains 
 only terms affected by the square, and not by the simple 
 power of the unknown quantity. It is also called an cqua 
 tion of two terms, because by means of proper reductions 
 of the known quantities, it may always be put under the 
 form ax'i — b; or a pine quadratic, because, on dividing by 
 the coefficient of z 2 , it contains only the square of the un- 
 known quantity in one term, or is of the form xt — c. 
 
 The complete quadratic equation consists of three terms, 
 containing the square of the unknown quantity in one, the 
 simple power in another, and the known quantities in a 
 third. It is also called an affected quadratic, and its general 
 form is a x2 + b x -f- e srO. 
 
 When the proposed equation consists of only twV> terms, 
 the method of linding the value of the unknown quantity 
 is obvious. Let the equation after reduction be z 2 = p, 
 then x = ^/p. Now, if p be a number, its square root, 
 which is tlie value of x, can either be found exactly, or to 
 any required degree of approximation; and if p be an alge- 
 braic quantity, its square root will be found either exactly 
 or approximately by the ordinary methods of extraction. 
 There is, however, a circumstance respecting the sign of the 
 root which must be attended to. The root of any quantity 
 may be either positive or negative, because the square of 
 -f a and of — a is equally a 2 ; whence y/ai = ± a, and the 
 equation z 2 = p gives two values of x, namely, z = -j- -v/p. 
 and x = — */p. 
 
 As the square of any quantity, whatever be its sign, is 
 always positive, it follows that a negative quantity can 
 never be formed by the multiplication of any real quantity 
 into itself, and hence an equation of the form z 2 = — p 
 can have no real root. When such an equation occurs in 
 the solution of a problem in which only real quantities are 
 concerned, it shows that some contradiction is involved, 
 either in the data, or in the reasoning by which that result 
 has been 'produced. 
 
 A complete quadratic equation is always reducible to the 
 form i2 j- a x=z-j^b; and in order to deduce from it the 
 value of x, it is necessary to add some known quantity to 
 both sides by which the first will be rendered an exact 
 square. The square of the binomial x -+- u, is 12+ 2 u x + 
 u2 ; on comparing this with x*-\- a x, it is evident that if we 
 suppose a = 2u, or u — %a, and consequently 1*2=; £ a 2 , the 
 quantities z 2 -f- 2 u x + w2 and z2 + a x + $ a 2 will be equal ; 
 and therefore, since z 2 + 2 u x -\- u 2 is the square of x + u, 
 so x 2 •+- a x -f- i a 2 must be the square of x 4- i a 2 , which is 
 1012 
 
 aUADRATIO EdUATIOJS. 
 
 equal to 1 + u. If, therefore, the proposed equation be x- 
 + ai = 4, let i a% be added to both sides, and it becomes x 2 
 + a x + i a- = $ a 2 -f- b, which, on extracting the square 
 
 root, gives r + £a = ± V ^ +6; therefore, by transposi- 
 
 In like manner, it will appear that, if the proposed equa- 
 tion were x3 — ax — b, the equation giving the value of x 
 
 will be x 
 
 — -=4- \f a l 
 
 + 4; whence 
 
 *=?Wl 
 
 + b. 
 
 The quantity b retains the same sign in the resolved as in 
 the original equation. 
 
 From these considerations the rules for the solution of 
 quadratic equations in general follow so obviously that it is 
 unnecessary to state them in form. The double sign, how- 
 ever, which appears in the root, and which shows that the 
 unknown quantity in every quadratic equation has two dis- 
 tinct values, requires some further attention. 
 
 Taking an example in numbers, let the proposed equation 
 be xt. -f- 2 x = 35. Adding to each side the square of half 
 the coefficient of x, or of 1, it becomes z 2 + 2 x + 1 = 3(5 ; 
 m hence z 4- 1 = + 6, and, consequently, x = — 1^6; that 
 is, z= + 5, or 1= — 7. Now, if we transpose the abso- 
 lute term of the proposed equation xi + 2 x = 35 to the left 
 side, it becomes xl 4- 2 x — 35 = ; and it is easy to see 
 (and may be proved by actual multiplication), that x2 4-2z 
 — 35 arises from the product of two factors x — 5 and z4- 
 7; therefore (z — 5) (z 4- 7) = 0. But this last equation 
 may be satisfied in two ways, viz. either by making x — 5 
 = 0, or by making z4-7 = 0. If z — 5 = 0, then z = 5; 
 and if z-j-7 = ; then z = — 7. There are two values of 
 x, therefore, which alike satisfy the proposed equation 
 nearly, -{- 5 and — 7, and these are the two ropts found 
 above by the direct solution. 
 
 What has been now said in respect of the particular ex- 
 ample is true of quadratic equations in general. Every ex 
 preaoion of the form i'+ih- b is decomposable into two 
 factors, z — p and z + y, in which p and q arc quantities in- 
 dependent of x, and depending only on a and b. Hence the 
 equation z 2 -f-az — 6 = is identical with the equation (x 
 — P) ( x ~\~q) = 0', and this last is obviously satisfied alike 
 by making z — p — 0, or by making z4-y = 0, that is, by x 
 = +'/> or ksb — q. 
 
 It follows, therefore, that every quadratic equation has 
 necessarily two roots, and it is obvious that it can have no 
 more than two ; for if it could be supposed to have three, 
 or any greater number, then the expression z2 4- a x — J 
 would be resolvable into as many separate factors of the 
 form z — p, x — q, z — r, &c. But this is evidently impos- 
 sible ; for the product of three such factors would necessa- 
 rily contain the third power of z, or z3 which the given 
 equation does not. The resolution of equations into as 
 many factors as there are roots is a property belonging to 
 equations of every degree. See Equations. 
 
 The consideration of the nature of the factors into which 
 the proposed equation can be resolved leads to some im- 
 portant consequences. The hypothesis z 2 + az — * = (z — 
 p) (z4-?)givesz 2 4-az — i:=z 2 — {p — q)x — p 17 ; whence, 
 since z is an inde erminate quantity, we must have = — 
 (jo — q) and bi=.pq. Now, since-f-p and — q are the two 
 roots of the equation i2 + ai = J, it is evident that p — q is 
 their sum, and — pq their product; therefore, because/* — 
 ? = — a, the sum of the two roots of any quadratic z 2 + 
 a x = b is equal to the coefficient of the second term, having 
 its sign changed ; and their product is equal to the absolute 
 number or term which does not contain z, having its sign 
 also changed. 
 
 The roots of quadratic equations may be exhibited by a 
 geometrical construction. All quadratics belong to one of 
 the four forms, 
 
 z 2 -f- a x = b c, z 2 — a z = b c, 
 z 2 -f- a x = — Ac, z2 — ax= — be. 
 
 Now to construct the first form, let a circle be described 
 on a diameter = a, or radius 
 = i a : in the circle inflect a 
 straight line, A B = b — c, 
 and produce it to C, so that 
 AC = i, and consequently jrf. 
 B C =: e ; and draw CDE 
 through the centre O, meet- 
 ing the circle in D and E; 
 then C D and C E are the 
 two roots of the equation. For let C D = x, then C E = z 
 4- a, and the rectangle C D • C E = z (z + a) = z 2 -}- a x. 
 But by construction G A ■ C B = b c, and bv the property of 
 the circle C D-CE = CACB; therefore, z 2 + a z = b e, 
 which was the equation given. 
 
 To construct the second form, namely, z 2 — a x = b e, let 
 C E = x ; then CD = i — o, and, consequently, CE'CD 
 
QUADRATO. 
 
 = x{x — a) — x2 — ax; but, as before, C E • C D — C A • 
 CB = Jt; therefore i2 — a z — b c, and the roots of the 
 equation are E and C D. In these two cases, if 4 — cz= 
 0, the straight line C 15 A becomes a tangent to the circle ; 
 and if ft — c be greater than a, another line may be taken 
 which is a mean proportional between b and c, and which 
 will tie the tangent to the circle, so that the construction is 
 possible in all cases. 
 To construct the fourth form, i' 2 — az = — be, let a cir- 
 cle be described with the radius J a as 
 before, and inflect in it a straight line 
 A B = b + c ; take A C = A, and 
 through C and the centre O draw the 
 diameter E D ; then E C and C D are 
 the two roots of the equation or value* 
 of x. For, since EDz:a,il'KC = i, 
 then C D = o — X, and therefore E C ■ 
 CD = i(o — x) = ax— x2. But EC- 
 CD=AC-CB = fte; therefore a x 
 — z--=bt; or i 2 — a x — — ft c. The same construction 
 gives the third form, i 2 + a i = — ft c ; but the two roots are 
 in this case both negative, namely — EC and — CD. 
 
 Hence it follows that every geometrical problem produc- 
 ing a quadratic equation can be constructed by means of a 
 circle tnd straight lines; and, reciprocally, all problems re- 
 Ing circle* ar.d straight lines may lie resolved algebrai- 
 callv liv means of quadratic equations. 
 
 QUADRATO, or QUA'DRO. (It.) In Music, a name 
 given to the note 11 in the natural or diatonic scale, marked 
 thus z. being a semitone mil or higher than It ma or [>. 
 
 QUADRATRIX In Geometry, a transcendal curve, by 
 means of which the quadrature of curvilinear spaces can 
 ■ ratined mechanically. The best known of these 
 • is the (Jiitutratriz of JJinostratna, so called from its 
 n mited inventor, a brother of Menechmus and disciple of 
 I'lato. This curve is generated as fol- 
 lows — 
 
 In the circular quadrant CAB, sup- 
 pose the radius C A to revolve uniform- 
 ly about ('. parsing through the different 
 1 positions C K, C k, &.c, till it arrives at 
 the" position C B ; and that during the 
 B same time a line A L, at right angles to 
 ** C A, moves parallel to itself with a uni- 
 
 form motion from the position A L, passing through the dif- 
 ferent positions M N. m n. &c, and arriving at C B at the 
 it that C K coincides with C B; then the con- 
 tinual intersection of the revolving radius and the parallel 
 Ik i will trace the qundratrix A P Q. 
 
 from this mode of describing the curve, it is easy to see 
 how it may bo applied to divide an angle into any number 
 of equal parts. Let it be required, for example, to trisect 
 the angle AC*. Having applied the qundratrix to C A, 
 take A M equal to a third of A m, and through M draw M N 
 perpendicular to A 0, meeting the curve in P; join C P, 
 and the angle A P H equal to one third of A C k; for by 
 the nature of the qundratrix A M : A m : : A K : A k. 
 
 The application of this curve to the quadrature of the 
 circle depends on the property that the line C Q is a third 
 proportional to the quadrantal arc A B, and the radius. 
 
 Hence the arc A B = " , and consequently the area of 
 
 CB3 
 
 the quadrant C A B= - . 
 
 If the qundratrix be continued beyond A, without the cir- 
 cle, it will consist of a series of infinite hyperbolic branches, 
 cutting the axis C A produced, in points which are separa- 
 ted from each other by a space equal to 2 A C. 
 
 Other curves may be formed in a similar manner, by 
 whicli the quadrature of the circle would be obtained. 
 Thus, instead of supposing the lines M N, m n to be inter- 
 sected by the radiants C K, k, we may suppose straight 
 lines drawn from K k parallel to A C, intersecting M N, m 
 n in r and s ; these intersections form a different curve, 
 which is called the Quadratrix of Tschirnhausen. 
 
 Let A M = x, M P = y, and AC = a; then, since x : a : : 
 7r x 
 A K : A B, or J it, we have A K = -_— . Hence the equa- 
 tion of the quadratrix of Dinostratus is y = (o — x) tan. 
 
 : — ; and that of the quadratrix of Tschirnhausen y = a 
 * a 
 
 -. (Montucla, Histoirc des Mathcmatiques ; Pca- 
 2 a 
 ■ Collection of Examples; Leslie's Geometry of Curve 
 
 (AI'VDRATURE, in Astronomy, denotes the position of 
 hen she is 90° from the sun, or at one of the 
 two points of her orbit equally distant from the conjunction 
 and opposition. 
 
 Qcadrature, In Geometry, signifies the determination 
 
 ClUADRICOKNS 
 
 of the area of a curve, or finding an equal square The 
 differential element of the area of a curve referred to rect- 
 angular co-ordinates is y d x ; and since y is given in terms 
 of x by the equation or the curve of which the area is pro- 
 posed to be found, the problem of quadratures in general 
 reduces itself to the integration of the differential X d x, in 
 which X is an algebraic function of x and known quanti- 
 ties. In the applications of the higher geometry, a problem 
 is conceived to be resolved when it is reduced to quadra- 
 tures; that is, when the variable quantities have I 
 arated, and its solution been made to depend on finding tli« 
 values of one or more integrals of the form / X d z. ?n 
 the case of some curves, parabolas, for example, of differ 
 ent orders, expressed by the equation }»ra Xu, the inte 
 gral is four.d in finite terms ; in regard to other curves, the 
 circle, for example, it can be represented by a converging 
 series ; but it frequently happens, especially in the applica- 
 tions to physical astronomy, that the expression re| 
 
 by X is too complicated to allow of the integral / X d i 
 
 being found by a converging series ; and when this ocean, 
 the only thing that can be done is to find values of it for 
 particular cases only, that is to say, for portions of the area 
 corresponding to values of z, taken within certain limits. 
 The method of quadratures accordingly forms an important 
 branch of the Integral Calculus. 
 
 The quadrature of the circle is a problem of great celeb- 
 rity in the history of mathematical science. The whole 
 circular area being equal to (he Rectangle under the radi- 
 us, and a straight line equal to half the circumference, the 
 quadrature would be obtained if the length of tie 
 ference were assigned; and hence the particular object 
 aimed at in attempting to square the circle is the determina- 
 tion of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter. 
 This ratio can only be expressed by infinite series, of which 
 many have been given that converge with great rapidity. 
 See ('tin ik. 
 
 It is necessary to make a distinction between the definite 
 and the indefinite quadrature. The definite quadrature 
 would be that which would give either the area of tin 
 whole Circle, or of snnie particular portion of it, without 
 giving that of every other portion ; the Indefinite quadrature 
 
 would give the area of any seclor whatever. i>r the lei. gib 
 of any arc which could lie assigned. James Gregory on 
 dertook to demonstrate that the definite quadrature i-: im- 
 possible: Ilnvgens, however, objected to bis reasoning; and 
 the opinion of geometers seems to be, that no satisfactory 
 demonstration has yet been given of the absolute Impossi- 
 bility of solving the problem. Ithas indeed been proved by 
 Lambert and Legendre that the ratio of the circumference 
 to the diameter, and its square, are irrational numbers 
 But irrational quantities may be susceptible of ge. I 
 construction ; and if a Btraight line equal to the circumfer- 
 ence of a circle having a given radius could be constructed 
 geometrically, the quadrature of the circle would bi 
 plished, although the length of the line could not be ex- 
 pressed by a finite number. With regard to the Indefinite 
 quadrature. Newton lias demonstrated in the I'rivripiu 
 (though in a manner not altogether unobjectionable) thai 
 no curve which returns into itself, like the circle or ellipse, 
 is susceptible of it 
 
 Numerous pretenders to the discovery of the quadrature 
 of the circle have appeared at various times, and occasion- 
 ally present themselves even at the present day. They arc 
 only to be found among those who have an imperfect 
 knowledge of the principles of geometry ; and when their 
 reasoning happens to be intelligible, their paralogisms are 
 in general easily detected. With a view to discourage the 
 futile attempts so frequently made on this and similar sub- 
 jects, the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in 1775. publicly an- 
 nounced, that, it would not examine in future any paper 
 pretending to the quadrature of the circle, the trisection of 
 an angle, the duplication of the cube, or the discovery of the 
 perpetual motion ; and shortly after the Royal Society 
 adopted a similar resolution. For the history of this fa 
 mom problem, see the third supplement to the 4th volume 
 of Montucla. 
 
 It was stated in the article Circle that the approxima 
 tion to the numerical ratio of the circumference to the di 
 ameter had been computed by De Laguy to 128 places of 
 decimals. It should have been added, that the approxima 
 tion was carried bv Vega to 140 figures; and Montucla 
 mentions a Mrs. in the Radclilie Library at Oxford, in which 
 it is carried to 154 figure--. Very recently (May. 1841) a 
 paper was communicated by Mr. Rutherford of Woolwich 
 to the Royal Society, In which the number is extended to 
 and which is presumed to be accu- 
 rate to the last figure, the computations having been actu- 
 ally carried to 210 figures 
 
 QUA'DRICORNS, QvnJritomia. (Lat. quatue.r, four 
 and coma, a horn.) The name of a family of Apterous 
 
 1013 
 
Q.UAD11IFORES. 
 
 Insects, comprehending tho.se which have four antennae. A 
 species of antelope with four horns is called Antilope quad- 
 
 QUA'DRIFORES, Quadrifora. (Lat. quatuor, and foro, 
 / pierce.) A name given by Latreille to a family of 
 Sessile Cirripeds, comprehending those in which the oper- 
 cular covering of the tube is composed of four valves or 
 calcareous pieces. 
 
 QUADRI'GA. (Lat. quatuor, and jugum, a yoke.) In 
 Antiquity, a car or chariot drawn by four horses, which 
 were harnessed all abreast, and not in pairs. The quadri- 
 ga is often met with on the reverse of medals, which are 
 I hone* termed nummi quadrigati, or victoriati, from there 
 being a representation of a figure of Victory holding the 
 reins. 
 
 QUA'DRI HY'DRCCA RBON. A liquid hydrocarbon, 
 in which 4 atoms of hydrogen and 4 of carbon are so com- 
 bined and condensed as to constitute one atom of quadri 
 hydrocarbon. 
 
 QUADRILATERAL. (Lat. quatuor, four, and latus, 
 a side.) In Geometry, a plane figure contained by four 
 straight lines. It comprehends the square parallelogram, 
 rectangle, rhombus, rhomboid, and trapezium. The most 
 general properties of a quadrilateral figure are the two fol- 
 lowing: 1. The sum of the four angles is equal to four 
 right angles; 2. The sum of the squares of the sides is 
 equal to the sum of the squares of the two diagonals to- 
 gether, with four times the square of the straight line which 
 j tins the middle points of the diagonals. 
 
 QUADRILATERALS, Quadrilatcra. (Lat.) The name 
 of a tribe of crabs (Brachyurous Crustaceans), comprehend- 
 ing those In which the carapace or shell is more or less 
 square-shaped. 
 
 QUADRIPE'NNATES, Quadripcnnes. (Lat. quatuor, 
 and pennri, a wing.) The name of a section of Anelytrous 
 injects, including those which have four wings. 
 
 QUADRIRE'ME. (Lat. quatuor, and remits, an oar.) 
 A ship of war in use among the ancient Greeks and Ro- 
 mans ; so called because it had four banks of oars. See 
 Gai >.ey. 
 
 t. . \ DRISU'LCATES, Quadrisulcata. (Lat. quatuor, 
 and sulcus, a furrow.) A name applied to those Ungulate 
 quadrupeds in which the hoof is divided into four "parts, 
 corresponding to the four digits. 
 
 QUADRI'VIUM. (Lat.) In the language of the schools, 
 the four lesser arts — arithmetic, music, geometry, and as- 
 tronomy. See Trivium. 
 
 QUA'DRUM. In Music, the same as natural, which 
 see. 
 
 QUA'DRUMANES, Quadrumana. (Lat. quatuor, four, 
 and maims, hand.) The name of an order of Mammals, 
 comprehending those in which the four extremities are ter- 
 minated by a hand; as the ape, baboon, &c. The hinder 
 extremities are always terminated by more perfect hands 
 than the fore extremities, in which the thumb is some- 
 times wanting, or, as in the South American monkeys, in- 
 capable of being opposed to the other digits. 
 
 QUA'DRUPEDS, Quadrupedia. (Lat. quatuor, four; 
 pes, afoot.) All Vertebrate animals with four extremities 
 fitted for terrestrial progression were formerly so called, the 
 scaly reptiles being distinguished, as oviparous quadrupeds, 
 from the hairy, warm-blooded, viviparous four-footed mam- 
 ;a:ils. But as there are both reptiles and mammalia which 
 have only two legs, and as those of both classes which 
 agree in having four legs differ essentially in the Important 
 characters on which classific distinctions are now founded, 
 the term quadruped is no longer used in a strict zoological 
 sense as indicative of a particular group of animals. 
 
 QUADRUPLE. In Arithmetic, fourfold; the product 
 of any magnitude or quantity multiplied by 4. 
 
 QU^E'STOR. A Roman magistrate whose office it was 
 to collect the public revenue, whence their name (from 
 qua-ro. / seek) was derived. Two qua>stors were originally 
 chosen by the kings in the earliest times of the city; and 
 after their expulsion the appointment remained in the 
 hands of the consuls till the year 307 A.C., when they be- 
 gan to be elected by the people at the Comiria Tributn. 
 Soon after this two more qurestors were appointed to attend 
 the consuls in war ; and from this time they might be cho- 
 sen indifferently from plebeians and patricians, the former 
 '.lass having been previously excluded. As the Roman 
 empire was extended over all Italy, and the other countries 
 that finally owned its sway, the number of qua»stors was 
 increased, so that one was appointed to each consul or 
 pra-tor when he went to his province; and this was done 
 generally by lot, but sometimes the superior magistrate was 
 allowed to choose his own quaestor. The qusestorship was 
 •he first step of preferment which cave admission into the 
 senate; but it was sometimes held by those who had been 
 consuls. Under the emperors the office underwent many 
 changes ; Augustus deprived them of the charge of the 
 treasury, which he imposed on the praetors, and gave them 
 1014 
 
 aUANTITY. 
 
 the superintendence of the public records; but the finite* 
 otiiee was restored to them by Claudius. 
 
 QUA'GGA. The riame of a Solipedous quadruped, oi 
 species of Emma, allied to the zebra. 
 
 QUA'GMIRE. Boggy ground saturated with water ti 
 such a degree as to be more like mud than firm soil. 
 
 QUAIL. A genus of Gallinaceous birds {Coturnis, Cuv.) 
 allied to the partridge, but of smaller size, with a rnon 
 slender beak and shorter tail, and without red eyebrows oi 
 spurs. 
 
 QUA'KERS, or FRIENDS. A religious sect, which 
 had its origin in England about the middle of the 17th 
 century, and spread, by the emigration of its members, who 
 were exposed to many restrictions and persecutions in this 
 country, over various parts of Europe and North America. 
 The founder of the sect was George Fox, who, being equal- 
 ly dissatisfied with the tenets of the established church 
 and those of the Puritans, succeeded in attaching to him 
 self various persons who agreed with him in the view 
 which he took of the internal operation of religion on men's 
 hearts, conceiving it to supersede all the observances of 
 different denominations, nor to be evidenced in any degree 
 by them. The Quakers, therefore, reject both the sacra 
 ments ; nor do they appoint any order of ministers, but 
 consider the instruction and edification of their congrega- 
 tions to be the province of whatsoever person of either 
 sex conceives himself to be impelled thereto at the time 
 by an internal suggestion of the Spirit. Upon doctrinal 
 points, however, they assert themselves to maintain opin- 
 ions coincident with those generally received by the ortho- 
 dox. Their internal affairs are managed by yearly, quar- 
 terly, and monthly meetings, of which the former in this 
 country is held in London, and embraces representatives 
 for all the rest. A similar arrangement takes place among 
 the females of the society, who are allowed a considerable 
 share in the management of the affairs of their own sex. 
 
 This society is distinguished in its intercourse with the 
 world by great seriousness of deportment, uniform sober- 
 ness in drese, and generally a scrupulous avoidance of 
 everything which can encourage vanity and frivolity. 
 They are all sensitively averse from all matters of cere- 
 mony, which they conceive to have their origin in flattery 
 and deception. Their refusal to take judicial oaths 
 in former times to subject them to very severe penalties 
 Dp to the accession of James II. their history is an unvaried 
 series of persecutions ; either such as they endured in com- 
 mon with other dissenters, or such as were peculiar to 
 themselves in consequence of their refusal to pay tithe* 
 and to take oaths. Under James, the severity of trie penal 
 laws was relaxed; but William ILL was the first prince 
 who enacted laws for the especial relief of the Quakers. 
 From this time, their affirmation is received in lieu of oath 
 in judicial proceedings; and an alteration in the method 
 of levying tithes has been provided, by which their scru- 
 ples are satisfied. (See, among other authorities respect- 
 ing the Quakers, Fox's Journal; Barclay's Apology, Bud 
 Sevell's History of the Rise, <S-c. of the Quakers (1722). 
 The Quakers of the present day are thought to be a de- 
 creasing sect. In 1836, the number of their congregations 
 was estimated at 398. (Congregational Magazine.) Thej 
 are most numerous in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, 
 Cumberland, and Essex. 
 
 QUA'KING BOG. Peat bog in a growing state, and so 
 saturated with water that a considerable extent of surface 
 will quake or shake, when pressed on by the foot or any 
 other body. Such bogs are unfit for any useful purpose 
 till they are drained. 
 
 QTJA'LITY. (Lat. quails.) In Physics, some property 
 or affection of bodies. Sensible qualities are those which 
 immediately affect the senses; as figure, taste, &c. 
 
 Quality, in the philosophy of Kant, the second cate- 
 gory (there being four in all), comprising the notions of 
 existence or reality, non-existence or negation, and limi 
 tation. 
 
 QUA'NTITY. (Lan. quantus, how much.) A property 
 of anything capable of being increased or diminished. 
 Quantity is distinguished into continued and discntr. It is 
 continued when the parts are connected together, and b 
 then called magnitude, which is the object of geometry. It 
 is discrete when the parts have an unconnected and inde- 
 pendent existence, forming multitude or number, which is 
 the object of arithmetic. The quantity of matter in any 
 body is proportional conjointly to the magnitude and den 
 sity of the body, and is measured by its absolute weight. 
 Quantitv of morion is used synonymously with momentum, 
 to denote the product of the quantity of matter in the 
 moving body by its xelocity. Algebraic quantities are tlw 
 expressions of indefinite numbers. 
 
 Quantity. In Prosody, the amount of time in a sylln 
 ble. Syllables are either short or long; the former being 
 the unit or smallest measure of time, the latter constating 
 of two times. Tliis distinction is clearly marked in tho 
 
QUARANTINE. 
 
 ancient languages, in which some syllables are necessarily 
 long or short by position, others by the nature of the vow- 
 l inch they contain ; and, in the Latin language, some 
 common, or susceptible of being sounded as long or short, 
 ding to certain rules of elegance or convenience. All 
 the metrical system of the ancient languages is founded on 
 quantity. In most modem languages there is, strictly 
 uig, no quantity, as distinct from emphasis or accent ; 
 the long syllables being those which receive the arsis, the 
 short those which receive the thesis. In the German lan- 
 , however, critics have endeavoured to establish a 
 entional system of quantity, and thus to adapt that lan- 
 guage to regular versification in the ancient Greek and 
 oetres. See Rhythm, Metre. 
 QUA'RANTINE. (Ital. quaranto, forty.) A period of 
 time of variable length, during which a vessel from certain 
 or ports, said or supposed to be infected with cer- 
 tain diseases, is not allowed to communicate with the shore, 
 il under particular restrictions. A ship in qq iran- 
 tine carries a yellow flag at the main ; and when released 
 from this condition, she is said to obtain pratique. The 
 term is derived from the Ital. quaranto, forty, it being 
 generally supposed that if no infectious disease break out 
 within 40 days or six weeks, no farther danger is to be a|i- 
 prehended. It is universally believed that the Venetians 
 were the first to adopt regulations for guarding against the 
 Introduction of infected persons into their ports ; but there 
 is now no civilized country In which it is not practised. 
 (For full particulars on the history and policy of quaran- 
 ee the Com. Diet.) 
 QUA'RE MPEDIT. In Law, a writ lying for one who 
 right of advowson against a person who hinders or 
 disturbs him In his right by presenting a clerk when the 
 church Is void. 
 QUART. A measure of capacity, being the fourth part 
 
 :i. Sre MEASURES. 
 
 ' ;i \ RT \X. (Lat quartos, fourth.) A species of in- 
 termittent fi which returns every fourth day. 
 
 '.1 E. 
 
 QUARTA'TION. In Metallurgy, the separation of sil- 
 ver fi 
 
 silver from gold by the action of nitric acid, 
 it is necessary that there should be at least three parts of 
 si'ver to one of gold, otherwise the gold protects the silver 
 from the action of the acid ; so that, in thus separa t i n g 
 
 precious metals, it is customary, where gold : 
 pred iminates, to add silver till it constitutes at least three 
 
 fourths of the alloy. 
 
 ttTER. The fourth part of anything. As a term 
 Of Weight, it denotes the fourth of a hundred weight, or 
 
 ds ; as a dry measure, il signifies the fourth of a 
 
 chaldron. 
 
 Utarter. The after part of the ship's tide. On the 
 quarter. Implies the bearing or position of an object seen 
 i :ili lit and abeam. 
 
 QUARTER DAYS. Tin- days usually regarded in ling 
 land and most Continental countries (but not In Scotland) 
 as beg! ini kg the four quarters of the year. They are, 
 l. i,: i of March); J. Midsummer Day (June 
 
 mas Day (Sept. 29th); and 4. Christmas 
 Day I Dei , 25th). 
 
 QUARTER DECK. The portion of the uppermost deck 
 of a ship between the main and mizen masts. This is the 
 "parade" in men-of-war. 
 
 QUA'RTERING. In Heraldry, the division of a shield 
 by two lines, less-wise and (Kile-wise, meeting in the centre 
 ol the shield. In marshalling, whenever a husband can 
 place his wile's arms on an escutcheon of pretence {see 
 rcHBOtt), the children may bear them quarterly, with 
 their own : whence arises the great variety of quartering* 
 in the shields of Some families. 
 
 QUARTER MASTER. In the Navy, a petty officer, 
 who, besides other duties of superintendence cons the ship, 
 and attends lo her steerage. 
 
 Ui:arter-master. In the Army, an officer whose busi- 
 ,t is to look after the quarttrs of the soldiers, and at- 
 tend to their clothing, bread, ammunition, &c. There is a 
 quarter-master attached to every regiment, whether of foot, 
 cavalry, or artillery. 
 
 QUA'RTER ROUND. In Architecture. See Echinus 
 and Ovolo. 
 
 QUA'RTERS. The stations of a ship's crew in time of 
 action, lo which they are summoned by beat of drum, or by 
 tin- boatswain's pipe. 
 
 QUARTERS and QUARTERING. (Fr. quartiers.) In 
 Architecture, the upright posts in partitions to which the 
 laths ■ in irti-rs me either single or double ; the 
 
 formes being sawn stuff two inches thick, and four inches 
 broad: the filler usually sawn to a scantling four inches 
 square, or four inches by a less width. No quarters should 
 ever be more than fourteen inches apart, quartering is a 
 term properly applied only to an assemblage of quarters, 
 
 QUEEN. 
 
 though it is not unfrequently used to denote the quarters 
 themselves. 
 
 QU'A RTEfi SESSIONS OF THE PEACE. In Law, a 
 court held by two justices at least, one of whom must be 
 of the quorum, quarterly, in every county ; having a juris- 
 diction originally in mutters touching the breach of the 
 peace only, but since extended by various statutes. (See 
 Justices of the Peace.) Quarter sessions in boroughs, 
 since the Municipal Corporation Act, are held by the re- 
 corders. 
 
 QUARTER STAFF. A weapon of defence ; so called 
 from the manner of using it, one hand being placed in the 
 middle, and the other equally between the middle and end. 
 
 QUA'RTETT. A piece of music arranged for foul 
 voices or four instruments. Of the latter the most cele- 
 brated are arranged tor two violins — a tenor violin, and a 
 violoncello; and many of the most distinguished composers, 
 among whom we may mention Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, 
 Romberg, Spohr, Ries, Onslow, &c, have not disdained to 
 devote 1 their talents to this species of composition. The 
 term yuartctt, though strictly any piece in four parts, is sel- 
 dom applied except to instrumental pieces. 
 
 Ul.'A'RTILE ASPECT, in Astrology, denotes the as- 
 pect or appearance of two planets, whose positions are at a 
 distance of 90° on the radian. 
 
 QUA'RTINE. The fourth envelope of the vegetable 
 ovuluui. beginning to count from the outside. 
 
 QUART! ). A name given to books composed of sheets 
 of p;i|ier folded into four leaves. It is abbreviated 4to. 
 
 QUARTODECIMA'NTES. In Church Ilisiory, those 
 who imitated the Jrics in celebrating Easter on the 14th day 
 of the paschal moon, instead of the Sunday next following, 
 were so called, after they had been excommunicated as 
 heretics by the councils ol Nice, Constantinople, and Ephe- 
 sus. See Eastek. 
 
 QUARTZ. A German term, now universally adopted 
 in scientific language, and commonly applied in mineralogy 
 to the purer varieties of silica, especially to rock crystal. 
 
 QUASIMO'DO. In the Roman Catholic Calendar, the 
 first Sunday aft • called because the Introit 
 
 for that > '■'•■ gtniti 
 
 infantes." ;i Pet., ii., 1.) It is also called Dominica in 
 albls, .is being the day on which those who had been bnp- 
 tlzcd on Easter Sunday deposited their white robes in the 
 sacristy. 
 
 QUA'SSlA. The wood of the Quassia ezcelsa, or ama- 
 ru ; a native of South America, and some of the west In- 
 dian islands. It yields an intensely bitter infusion, which 
 may be made with one drachm of the shavings of quassia 
 to a pint of boiling water: of this a wine glass-full may be 
 taken twice a day, with or without other additions, its a 
 tonic. It is a good vehicle for most of tin.- metallic salts, 
 which are not decomposed by il, as by many other bitter 
 vegetable infusions. A strong Infusion of quossi 
 ened with brown sugar, is a safe and effective poison for 
 
 QUATRAFN. (Ital. quattrino.) In Poetry, a pi 
 sisting of four verses, the rhymes usually alternate ; somc- 
 imies also, especially in French poetry, intermixed, the first 
 and fourth, second and third, rhyming together. 
 
 QUA'VER. (Sax. pazian.) In Music, a character, £, 
 whose measure is equal to half a crotchet, or one eighth 
 of a semi breve. 
 
 QUEEN. (Anglo-Sax. cwen, wife.) 1. A female sov- 
 ereign; entitled queen regnant, or queen regent. She has, 
 in Great Britain, the same power, prerogatives, &c., as a 
 king, which is expressly declared by stat. 1 Mir. 1, St. 3, 
 c. 1. In France, where females do not succeed to the 
 throne, the title queen regent has been given to the mothers 
 of kings holding sovereign authority, or a portion of it, 
 during the minority of their sons; as Catherine do Medicis 
 in the reign of Francis II. ; Mary de Medicis, in that of 
 Louis XIII. 
 
 2. Queen Consort. The wife of a king. Her rights and 
 dignities (in England, as well as most other countries) ap 
 pear to be similar in many respects to those of the ''Augus- 
 ta," or Piissima regma conjux divi imperatoris, in imperial 
 Rome. The English queen, like the Roman empress, is ca- 
 pable of receiving a erant from her husband, or making one 
 to him; therein differing from all other wives. She can 
 also purchase and convey land, &c, without his concur- 
 rence, and sue and be sued alone : in short, she is looked 
 upon in all legal proceedings as a feme sole. But, except 
 where she enjoys specific exemptions, she is only on a foot- 
 ing with oilier subjects; and this also is according U» the 
 Roman maxim, "Augusta legibus soluta non est." By the 
 Statute of Treasons, 25 Ed. 3, to compass or imagine the 
 death of the king's "companion," and also to violate and 
 defile her, is treason. The queen, if accused of treason 
 herself, is tried bv the peers of parliament; as Ann Boleyn 
 in 28 Hen. 8. The consort of George IV. was proceeded 
 against by the method of a bill of pains and penaltic* 
 
 1015 
 
aUEEN POST. 
 
 Queen-gold was a duty amounting to one full tenth of the 
 value of fines, &c, on grants by the crown, anciently due to 
 the queen : which Charles t. purchased of his consort Hen- 
 rietta, in Ui35, for £10,000, but which was not revived after 
 the restoration. The queen consort has a separate house- 
 hold, consisting of six ladies of the bed-chamber, a cham- 
 berlain, vice-chamberlain, mistress of the robes, master of 
 the horse, and three equerries, attorney and solicitor gener- 
 al, &c. 
 
 3. Queen Dowager. The widow of a deceased king. She 
 continues to enjoy most of the privileges which belonged to 
 her as queen consort. Nor did she, in ancient times, lose 
 her dignity on remarriage; for Catherine, queen dowager of 
 Henry V., after she had married Owen Tudor, maintained 
 an action by the name of Catherine Queen of England. 
 But it is held that no man can marry a queen dowager 
 without special license from the king, on pain of forfeiture 
 of lands and goods, according to an act of 6 Hen. 6, which, 
 however, is not printed among the statutes. The revenue 
 of a queen dowager is settled by statute. By 1 £ 2 W. 4, 
 c. 11, his late majesty was empowered to settle j£100,000 
 per annum on his queen, to commence at his decease. 
 
 4. Queen Mother. A queen dowager who is also mother 
 of the reigning sovereign. 
 
 QUEEN POST. In Architecture, an upright post in a 
 roof for suspending the beam when the principal rafters do 
 not meet in the ridge. See Roof. 
 
 QUERCITRON BARK. The bark of the Quercus ni- 
 gra, or American oak ; it is a highly valuable dye-stuff, and 
 is used in the production of some of the most durable yel- 
 lows. 
 
 QUE'RCUS. (Lai.) This is the most important genus 
 of trees found in the cold countries of the world, on account 
 of its producing the various kinds of timber called oak. 
 The species are not, however, confined to Europe, or simi- 
 lar latitudes, but occur abundantly in the equinoctial parts 
 of Asia and America ; they have not, however, been found 
 south of the equator. It is usually recognised by the cup 
 in which the acorn is seated ; but in some tropical species 
 the acorn is so small as to be buried in the cup, when the 
 fruit nearly resembles that of the chesnut (Castanea). The 
 valuable oak of Great Britain is obtained from two native 
 species: the one Q. pedunculata. the long-stalked or white 
 oak ; the other Q. sessUiflora, the sessile-fruited or red oak. 
 A prejudice has arisen against the timber of the latter, 
 which, however, appears to be unfounded, as it is found to 
 be in point of strength and durability fully equal to the 
 other. Oak timber, however, is affected very much by soil 
 and climate; and hence we have oak of bad quality from 
 both our native species. What is called wainscot oak is 
 probably ttie timber of Q. sessUiflora, grown rapidly in the 
 dense forests of Hungary ; by some persons, however, it is 
 supposed to be furnished by an Oriental species called Q. 
 cerris, or the mossy-cupped. The Esculus of Virgil, whose 
 acorns were eatable, appears to have been a sweet-fruited 
 variety of Q. sessUiflora. Besides the species already men- 
 tioned, the Quercus ilex, or European oak, the Q. subcr, or 
 cork tree, whose bark is in such extensive use, and the Q. 
 ballotn, or Spanish ilex, whose acorns are sweet and eata- 
 ble, are the more important species. Those from North 
 America, although fine trees, are inferior to the oaks of Eng- 
 land as regards their timber, and require hotter summers 
 than we have in these islands. Oak galls are produced 
 upon Q. infectoriu, in the Levant, by the puncture of a 
 cynips. The s|>ccies are excessively confused by botanists; 
 but a full popular account of this genus will be found in 
 Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum. For a few popular de- 
 tails, see also the article Oak, in this work. 
 
 QUESTION. The application of torture to prisoners un- 
 der criminal accusation, according to the laws of France be- 
 fore the Revolution. The question was of two kinds: one, 
 where strong evidence, but insufficient of itself to justify a 
 condemnation to death, existed against a prisoner on a cap- 
 .tal charge ; he might then be subjected to torture to pro- 
 duce confession. This was termed the question prepara- 
 toire. It was abolished by an ordinance of Louis XVI. in 
 1780. The other, termed question prealable or definitive, 
 ,vas applied to the prisoner when convicted of a capital of- 
 fence, in order to make him discover supposed accomplices. 
 It was abolished by the National Assembly. The prepara- 
 tory question was also of two sorts : one, avec reserve de 
 preuves, in which case, if the criminal did not confess under 
 the torture, the other evidence was considered as still sub- 
 sisting against him, so as to justify his condemnation to 
 some lighter punishment ; the other, sans reserve de preuves, 
 in which case, if he persisted in his denial, he was acquit- 
 ted altogether. It was at the option of the judges, accord- 
 ing to their opinion of the amount of evidence, to decide to 
 which of these questions the accused should be subjected. 
 The modes of torture applied, varied in France, being fixed 
 by the several parliaments within their separate jurisdic- 
 tions. Those in coxnmon use at Paris were — the question 
 1016 
 
 Q.UIETISM. 
 
 by water, which consisted in stretching the limbs of the suf- 
 ferer on a board by means of screws, and forcing him to 
 swallow large quantities of water; ami the boots, in which 
 his legs were enclosed in wooden cases, the whole tightly 
 compressed with ropes, and wedges driven with a mallet 
 between the two cases. The question varied in degree, be- 
 ing ordinary or extraordinary, at the discretion of the judg- 
 es. Children and adolescents, old men, and women with 
 child, were excepted from torture by the French law. And, 
 by an ordonnance of 1670, the second application of the 
 question was forbidden in all cases. 
 
 Torture has been applied, as a mode of extorting confes 
 sion, in all countries into which the principles of the civil 
 law have been imported ; although the barbarity and un- 
 certainty of the practice were remarked upon even in the 
 best times of Roman jurisprudence. The observations of 
 Cicero on the subject are well known; and Ulpi.in, the 
 greatest authority on the civil law, speaks even more direct 
 ly. -"Res est fragilis et periculosa (the torture), et qua: veri 
 tatem fallit: nam plerique patientia sive duritia tormento 
 rem ita et tormenta contemnunt, ut exprimi eis Veritas nullo 
 modo possit; alii tanta sunt impatientia ut quidvis mentiii 
 quam pati mallent." It is, however, an important remark, 
 that as, by the strict principles of jurisprudence, the torture 
 was only applied in cases where there already existed a 
 mass of evidence against the prisoner, sufficient, in ordinary 
 judgment, to warrant his condemnation, it did, in fact, ali'ord 
 him an additional chance of escape; and that, however 
 great its absurdity on every supposition, its barbarity rather 
 arose from its liability to abuse than its legitimate Infliction. 
 
 The practice of judicial torture was not a part of the com- 
 mon law of England, except in one particular case. The 
 rack is said to have been first introduced into this country 
 by the dukes of Exeter and Suffolk, in the minority of Henry 
 VI. ; at all events, it was then first made a common engine 
 of discovery in state matters. It was used, on warrant from 
 the privy council, on prisoners in the Tower of London for 
 a long period afterwards, and more especially in the reign 
 of Elizabeth, to enforce confessions or accusation of accom- 
 plices from recusant priests, and others suspected of being 
 engaged in treasonable plots against her. It was probably 
 employed in the examination of Guy Fawkes, alter the de- 
 tection of the Gunpowder Plot; as has been conjectured, 
 among other reasons, from the feeble and trembling hand in 
 which the signature of that criminal to his las', confession 
 is written, when compared with that in which he subscribed 
 his former declarations. On the trial of Felton lor the as- 
 sassination of Villiers, duke of Buckingham, the judges were 
 consulted by the privy council as to the lawfulness of the 
 infliction of torture : and on their asserting it to be illegal, it 
 was not applied: there is, however, reason to suppose that 
 it was used at least in one subsequent case in the reign of 
 Charles I. (See Jardinc on Torture, 1837.) 
 
 The exception to which allusion has been made, by 
 which torture was in one case recognised by the common 
 law, is the celebrated Peine Forte et Dure. It has, indeed, 
 been said, and was asserted by the judges in 8 Hen. 4, that 
 this infliction was only introduced in consequei.ee of the 
 first statute of Westminster ; but it is at least highly proba- 
 ble that before that period persons refusing to plead were 
 subjected to imprisonment and ill-treatment to induce them 
 to do so. After that statute, the judgment appears only to 
 have been to strait and severe confinement; nor was it until 
 the reign of H. IV. that its horrible character seems to have 
 been fully determined by law. After that time, the prison- 
 er was remanded to the place from whence he came, laid 
 on the ground in a dark room, and " as many weights as he 
 can bear, and more," laid upon him; with no sustenance 
 except a morsel of the worst bread and n draught of the 
 worst water, on alternate days; and so to remain until he 
 pleaded or died ; which alternative, according to the later 
 practice, was soon decided, as the weights laid on were suf- 
 ficient to cause speedy death. The peine forte et dure was 
 not unfrequently put in practice until the beginning of the 
 last century ; and as late as the commencement of the reign 
 of George III. the enforcing prisoners to plead by squeezing 
 their thumbs, and other modes of torture, was a Common 
 Old Bailey practice. By 12 G. 3, c. 20, any person standing 
 mute, or not answering directly to the arraignment, incurred 
 conviction. 
 
 QUI'CKLIME. Pure or caustic lime. See Lime. 
 QUI'CKSILVER. Sec Mercury. 
 QU'IETISM. A name generally applied to the opinions 
 of enthusiasts, who conceive the great object of religion to 
 be the absorption of all human Sentiments and passions into 
 devout comemplation and love of God. This idea has found 
 its admirers and encomiasts in all ages. A sect called by 
 this name (in Greek, Hesychasta) existed among the reli- 
 gious of Mount Athos; and in the 17th century it was giver, 
 in France to a peculiar class of devout persons with a ten- 
 dency towards a higher spiritual devotion » Inch seems to 
 have arisen, in great measure, out of a natural opposition 
 
aUINCUNX. 
 
 to the hierarchal coldness and positive morality of Roman 
 Catholic religion at that time, especially under the influ- 
 ence of the Jesuit.-*. A Spanish priest, Molinos, published 
 at Rome a work entitled The Spiritual Guide (1675), of 
 which the ardent language attracted a multitude of parti- 
 sans. Its leading feature was the description of the happi- 
 ness of a soul reposing in perfect ijuiet on God, so as to be- 
 come conscious of His presence only, and untroubled by ex- 
 ternal things. He even advanced so far as to maintain that 
 the soul, in its highest state of perfection, is removud even 
 beyond the contemplation of God himself, and is solely oc- 
 cupied in the passive reception of divine influences. The 
 work of Molinos was afterwards condemned on the appli- 
 cation ot the Jesuits. Akin to the ideas of Molinos seem to 
 have been those of the' French Quietists, of whom Madame 
 de la .Mutie Guyon and Fenelon are the most celebrated 
 names. The former was at one time treated as insane, on 
 account of some strange delusions which led her to repre- 
 sent herself (unless she was calumniated) as the mystical 
 woman of the Apocalypse ; at another she was admitted to 
 the intimacy of M.ulame do Maintenon, and high in court 
 favour. Fenelon praised her in his treatise Sur la Vie Ju- 
 ■i: (1091), in which many of the must dangerous tenets 
 of Quietism were contained. The writings of the latter 
 upon this subject were finally condemned by Innocent XII.; 
 and the example of the archbishop in submitting to the de- 
 cision, and declaring hiinsell satisfied and convinced by the 
 opinion of the Church, has been dwelt on by pious writers 
 as a signal triumph of a truly religious mind. The dissolute 
 conduct of some hy|>ocritical priests, nnder the pretence of 
 inculcating the tenets and pracfee of Quietism, bronchi it 
 eventually into disrepute more than the npealed condemna- 
 tions of the head of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 QI.'l'NCUN'X. The Latin term properly for that dispo- 
 sition of live objects in which they are made to occupy the 
 four corners and point of intersection of the diagonals of a 
 square ; but the word is extended to any number of things 
 so arranged i:i lines that the members of each succeeding 
 line stand behind the spaces between those of the preceding 
 one. Troops were frequently drawn up in thia enter) which 
 llso a favourite arrangement for plantations of vines. 
 
 QUINDE'CAGOX. In Geometry, a plane figure hounded 
 by lit ■ I he regular quindecagon is inscribable in 
 
 a circle by elementary geometry. (Euclid, book iv.) 
 
 QUINDECE'MVIRI. Roman magistrates, whose duty 
 it was to take care of the Sibylline books, and consult them 
 on critical occasions when the senate deemed their advice 
 «iy. They were exempted from the privilege of 
 serving in the army, and from other offices in the city; and 
 their priesthood, which was probably in service of Apollo, 
 lasted for life. Their number, as their name imports, was 
 fifteen by Sylla's appointment ; but originally they had been 
 ten, an equal number being elected from patricians and ple- 
 beians; and by Julius Cesar they were raised to sixteen. 
 
 QU'IXIA, or QUININE. An alkaline base obtained 
 from yellow bark ; the Cinrhnna cordifolia. This sub- 
 tfance, combined with sulphuric arid, forms the anarteca 
 iato, which Is now so extensively used as a medicine, 
 it substitute for the various forms of Peruvian bark. 
 To obtain quinin, bruised yellow bark is boiled in repeated 
 [tortious of water, acidulated by sulphuric acid, till all its 
 soluble matters are extracted; a little excess of quicklime 
 is then added 10 the strained decoction, and the precipitate 
 which is formed is collected, washed, and carefully dried; 
 ; t la then digested in alcohol, which takes up the quinia, 
 ind from which it may be obtained in the form of a yellow- 
 sh uncrystallizable substance by careful evaporation. It is 
 dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, and the sulphate of qui- 
 nine, or quinia, crystallizes from its concentrated solution 
 in fine silky prisms, which effloresce on exposure to air. 
 Sulphate oi" quinia is difficultly soluble in water, and in- 
 tensely bitter. It is administered as a tonic and febrifuge 
 of from one to five or six grains. 
 
 QUINQUAGE'SIMA SUNDAY, in the Calendar, is the 
 seventh Sunday before Easter, and consequently about the 
 fiftieth day before that festival ; whence the origin of the 
 term. 
 
 QUINQUA'TRUS. In Roman Classical Antiquities, the 
 of Minerva, which began on the 14th of the Kal. of 
 April, and lasted five days. It is in allusion to the well- 
 known attributes of the goddess thnt Juvenal makes this 
 the s >oa 'ii in which her youthful votaries pray for forensic 
 success. 
 
 Elnquiumet famam Dfmoslhenes et Ciceronis 
 optere, et totis Qulnquatnbm nptat. 
 
 QUINQUEXNA'LIA, or LUDI QUINQUENNALES. 
 In Classical Antiquity, public games celebrated every five 
 years. They were instituted by the emperors in commemo- 
 ration of different events of their respective reigns. Medals 
 "ii these occasions have been discovered, bearing the 
 • the reign of Posthumus. 
 QCLXQUERE'MIS. (Lat. quinque, five, and remus, an 
 
 auoiN. 
 
 oar : in Greek, izevniprtf.) The name of a class of Roman 
 war ships which were rowed by five banks of oars, whence 
 the name is derived. The substitution of the quinquereme 
 for the trireme, as the ordinary war vessel, gradually took 
 place in the course of the fourth century before Christ; i:. 
 the interval between the Peloponnesian and first Punk 
 wars. The number of vessels of this large class employed 
 in the latter is perfectly surprising. According to Polyblus, 
 the Romans lost TOO in the course of it; the Carthi 
 500. In A.U.C. 498 (the year in which Regulus was sen; 
 to Africa) the Romans had 330, the Carthaginians 350: 
 each quinquereme of the former nation car: ied 300 rowers 
 and 120 soldiers, in all 140,000 men; the Carthaginians, ac- 
 cording to the same computation, amounted to 150,000 : 
 numbers which would be scarcely credible, were they not 
 given by so exact an author. See Trireme, Galley. 
 
 QUIN'QUINA. Peruvian bark. The bark of various 
 species of Cinchona, which see. 
 
 QUI'NSEY. (Fr. squinance.) Inflammation of the ton 
 sils. This is common inflammatory sore tnroat: it is not 
 infectious. It begins with pain on one side of the throat, 
 and swelling of the tonsil, attended by febrile symptoms, 
 which sometimes run high, especially as the tumefaction 
 advance* I there is grott restlessness and anxiety, and often 
 the utmost dilliculty of swallowing even liquids, and of 
 breathing. The disease has proved fatal by producing suf- 
 focation, but it generally terminates in resolution, or suppu- 
 ration : in the latter case the abscess bieaks, and a good 
 deal of pus is discharged, and the patient is at once relieved 
 of all his urgent sjuiptoins; but it occasionally happens that 
 the other side of the throat becomes alfected, and goes 
 through the same stages. 
 
 QlTXTAIX. An ancient pastime, in which a post wr.s 
 erected, with n cross-piece turning upon a pivot on the top 
 of it, to one end of which a sand-bag was suspended, and 
 nt the other a board was fixed. The play consisted in ri- 
 ding or tilting against the board with a lance, and passing 
 without being struck behind by the sand bag. 
 
 QUI'NTAL. An old denomination of weight, being the 
 same with the hundred weight, or equal to 1 1-2 pounds. 
 
 QUINTESSENCE. A term applied by tin u lei chew 
 ists to alcoholic tinctures or essences, made by digestion at 
 common temperatures or in the sun's heat. 
 
 QITXT1LE. In Astrology, an aspect of two planets 
 dist int from each other the 5th of the zodiac, or 72°. 
 
 QUI'NTLLLANS. A sect of ancient heretics ; so called 
 from Quintilia, their founder and leader. Their chief |e- 
 culiarities consisted in attributing extraordinary gifts to Eve 
 for having eaten of the tree of knowledge, and In admitting 
 women to the sacerdotal and episcopal office. 
 
 QUI'NTIXE. (Lit. quintus.) A name given in botany 
 to the fifth or innermost envelop of the vegetable ovulum. 
 the most external being the first or primine. 
 
 QUI'NTUPLE. In Music, a species of time, now seldom 
 used, containing five crotchets in a bar. 
 
 QUINZAINE. In Chronology, the fourteenth day after 
 a feast day, or the fifteenth, if the day of the feast be inclu- 
 ded. But a different rule seems to have prevailed on the 
 Continent. (See Sir H. Nicotas's Chronology of History, 
 p. 105.) 
 
 QUI PRO QUO, or QUID PRO QUO. (Lat. one for 
 another.) A conventional term borrowed from the French, 
 who use it in the sense of an error committed by mistaking 
 one thing or person for another ; especially a verbal am- 
 biguity. 
 
 QUIRI'NUS. An Italian warlike divinity, supposed by 
 some to be the same as Mars. When the Romans deified 
 Romulus they called him by this name, and the festivals 
 instituted in his honour Quirinalia. 
 
 QUIRK. In Architecture, a piece of ground cut off from 
 a square plot. 
 
 QUIRKED MOULDING. In Architecture, one whose 
 convexity is sudden, being in the form of a conic section. 
 
 QUI T.\.M. (Lat. who as well.) In Law, a penal action, 
 in which half the penalty is given to the crown and the rest 
 to the informer. The plaintiff describes him as A. B. "qui 
 t an pro domino rege quam pro se ipso," — who sues as well 
 for the king as himself. 
 
 QUIT RENT. (Lat. quietus redditus.) In Law, a small 
 rent payable by tenants of manors in token of subjection 
 See Rent. 
 
 QUO'DLIBET. (hut. what you please.) In the language 
 of the schoolmen, questions on general subjects within the 
 range of their inquiries were termed questiones quodlibeticas, 
 or miscellaneous. In French the word quodlibet, or quolibet, 
 is retained, in the sense of a slight jeud'esprit pun, &c. Wha> 
 is termed in music a " pot-pourri" was also called in Ger- 
 many a (juodliliet. 
 
 QUOIN. (Fr. coin.) In Architecture, the comer or ia 
 lenial and external angle of a building, or of any part of & 
 I ullduig. 
 
 Quoin. In Artillery, a loose wedge of wood put below 
 
 1017 
 
Q.UORUM. 
 
 the breech of a cannon, for the purpose of adjusting its ele- 
 vation. 
 
 aUO'RUM. A term derived from the words used in the 
 Latin form of the commission issued to justices of the peace ; 
 in which the expression occurred, " quorum unuin A. B. esse 
 volumus,"--"of whom we will that A. B. be one;" thus 
 rendering it necessary that certain individuals (said to he of 
 the quorum) should be present at the transaction of business. 
 Hence when in an assembly, committees, &c, it is necessary 
 that a certain number should be present to give validity to 
 its acts, that number is generally said to constitute a quorum. 
 
 QUOTA . (Lat. quot, how many.) That part which each 
 member of a society has to contribute or receive in making 
 up or dividing a certain sum. 
 
 QUOITDIAN. (Lat. quotidianus.) That form of ague 
 which returns daily. 
 
 QUOTIENT (Lat. quoties, how often), in Arithmetic, is 
 the result of the operation of division ; and may be either a 
 magnitude of any denomination, or an abstract number. 
 When a magnitude of any kind is proposed to be divided 
 into any number of parts, and the divisor is, consequent- 
 ly, an abstract number, the quotient is of the same kind 
 with the dividend or quantity proposed to be divided ; 
 but when the dividend and divisor are both things of the 
 same denomination, or both magnitudes of any kind, the 
 quotient is an abstract number, and is the ratio of the one 
 magnitude to the other. 
 
 QUO WARRANTO. In Law, a writ, filed in the Court 
 of King's Bench by the attorney-general, or an individual in 
 his name, calling upon the person informed against to show 
 by what title he holds any office, franchise, or liberty. The 
 proceedings on a writ of quo warranto presenting many diffi- 
 culties, it has been superseded in modern times by what is 
 termed an information in the nature of a quo warranto. 
 
 R. 
 
 R. One of those letters belonging to the series called 
 liquids or semivowels. It was called the litcra canina by 
 the Latins, from some fancied resemblance it bears in sound 
 to the snarling of a dog. At the commencement of English 
 words, derived from the Greek through the medium of the 
 Latin, r is usually followed by h, to represent the force of p, 
 as in rhetoric, rhapsody ; and the same observation applies 
 to this letter when it Gccurs in the middle of an English 
 word derived from a Greek compound, as in diarrhaa, from 
 Sia and pew. This letter is susceptible of numerous inter- 
 changes, more especially in Latin ; for a complete list of 
 which see the Penny Cyclopedia. As an abbreviation, R., 
 among ourselves, stands for rex or regina, and in ancient 
 times for Roma ; R. P. for respublica, &c. In medicinal pre- 
 scriptions, R. stands for recipe or take. 
 
 RA'BBI. A Hebrew term for doctor or teacher; the 
 termination being properly the first pronoun possessive. This 
 word, which is frequently found in the New Testament, is 
 in use at the present day, the rabbis being the expounders of 
 the law, and more particularly of the Talmud, or commen- 
 taries of later doctors." See Talmud. 
 
 RA'BDOMANCY. See Rhabdomancy. 
 
 RACA. An ancient Syriac word, signifying vanity or 
 folly, and pronounced by the Jews with certain gestures of 
 indignation. Our Saviour, in using the word (Matt., v., 22), 
 intimates that whoever should apply this word to his neigh- 
 bour, should be condemned by the council of the sanhedrim. 
 
 RACE'ME. (Lat. racemus, a bunch of grapes.) In Bot- 
 any, a form of inflorescence, in which the flowers are stalked 
 along a common unbranched axis, as in the hyacinth. 
 
 RACE'MIC ACID. (Lat. racemus, a bunch of grapes.) 
 An acid found, together with the tartaric acid, in the tartar 
 obtained from certain vineyards on the Rhine. It is the 
 paratartaric acid of Berzelius. It is less soluble in water 
 than tartaric acid, and differs in the form of its crystals and 
 in its salts; yet it appears to be isomeric, and to have the 
 same equivalent with the tartaric acid. 
 
 RACHI'LLA. (Gr. pa%i?> a spine.) A branch of in- 
 florescence; the zigztig centre upon which the florets are 
 arranged in the spikelets of grasses. 
 
 RA'CHIS. (Gr. pa\i;.) A branch which proceeds in 
 nearly a straight line from the base to the apex of the in- 
 florescence of a plant. It is also applied to the petioles of 
 the leaves of ferns. 
 
 Rachis. A term applied by Illiger and other zoologists 
 to the vertebral column of mammals and birds. 
 ' RACHI'TIS. (Gr. pax'S- t/le spine, the part principally 
 affected.) The rickets. A disease generally confined to 
 childhood, known by a large head, protruded breastbone, 
 flattened ribs, tumid belly, emaciated limbs, and great gen- 
 eral debility ; the bones in general, and especially the spine, 
 are variously distorted and deficient in bony matter: the sys- 
 tem occasionally rallies from this state as growth advances, 
 1018 
 
 RADIANT HEAT. 
 
 but there is more or less deformity left. Tonics, cold bath 
 log, regular and proper exercise, very careful nursing, and 
 occasionally rhubarb and tonic aperients, are the principal 
 remedies ; and where particular bones are inclined to bend, 
 attempts must be made to throw the weight orfthein. This 
 disease is frequently symptomatic of a scrofulous state of the 
 glands and viscera; the stomach and bowels are always 
 greatly deranged ; and as there appears to be a deficiency 
 of the hardening matter of the bones, various salts of lime, 
 and even phosphate of lime, have been prescribed ; the only 
 apparent use of some of these remedies is to reiiuer the gas 
 trie juice less acrid and acid. 
 
 RACK. (Sax. wroccan, to strain, torment, fee. ; evident 
 ly of the same origin as the Germ, rachen, Ang. to wreak.) 
 An instrument of torture formerly used in England. Ac- 
 cording to Coke (who, however, merely reports the story on 
 traditional authority), the rack was first introduced into the 
 Tower by the Duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower in 
 1447 ; and thence called " the Duke of Exeter's daughter." 
 (3 Inst., p. 34.) Stowe, in his Chronicle, says that the 
 duke's daughter herself invented it. The earliest mention 
 of the use of the " rack or brake" is by Holinshed, under the 
 year 1467. But it first became common in the reign of Henry 
 VIII. Under that prince, the remaining Tudors, James I., 
 and Charles I., down to 1040, the rack was a common imple- 
 ment of torture for prisoners confined in the Tower, and in- 
 flicted by the warrant of the council or under the sign manual. 
 The rack consisted of an oblong frame of wood, composed 
 of four beams, a little raised above the ground ; the sufferer 
 was fastened by the hands and feet to the corners, where 
 two cross beams joined the longer ones, sometimes by sniill 
 cords attached to each finger and toe ; and the cords were 
 twisted by means of rollers, so as to raise him from the 
 ground, and stretch his body with extreme violence, disloca- 
 ting the limbs, and, according to the Jesuit writers, who have 
 left the most vivid representations of the sufferings of their 
 companions under the state persecution of Elizabeth, some 
 times extending the sufferer " more than a palm beyond his 
 usual stature !" (Jenner, Societas Europaa, p. 12 ; see also 
 .Tardive's Reading on the Use of Torture in England. 1837.) 
 The Roman equideus is often translated rai ' 
 writers ; but whether the equuleus was something similar 
 to the English engine, or a wooden horse (as the derivation 
 of the word implies), or, in short, what was its form and 
 description, antiquaries have not been able to discover. (See 
 among other authorities the learned treatise of Magius, De 
 Equuleo.) 
 
 Rack. A railed convenience formed above the manger 
 in a stable for the reception of the hay. It should be con- 
 structed with openings at the bottom for the seed or dust 
 to pass through. 
 
 Rack. In Machinery, a rectilinear sliding piece, having 
 teeth cut on its edge so that they may work with those of a 
 wheel or pinion which drives or follows the rack. The rack 
 may be regarded as a toothed wheel whose radius is in- 
 finite. 
 
 RACK RENT. See Rent. 
 
 RACO'VIANS. In Eccl. History, the Unitarians of Po- 
 land are sometimes so called; from Racow, a small city of 
 that country, where Jacobus a Sienna, its head, erected a 
 public seminary for their church in 1600. Here the "Ra- 
 covian Catechism," originally composed by Socinus, and re- 
 vised by his most eminent followers, was published. (Mo- 
 sheim, Eccl. Hist., cent. 16, sec. 3.) 
 
 RA'DIANT. In Geometry, a straight line proceeding 
 from a given point, or fixed pole, about which it is conceived 
 to revolve. When several radiants, forming a system, are 
 constrained to revolve in such a manner that all the inter- 
 sections excepting one are carried along given straight lines 
 or curves called directrices, then the remaining intersection 
 traces a curve whose equation is of an order which is a certain 
 determinate function of the orders of the several directrices. 
 Thus, if all the intersections but one are carried along straight 
 lines, the remaining one describes a conic section. The theory 
 of the description of lines of the second order by the intersec- 
 tion of radiants is given by Newton in the Principii. ; and 
 the subject is treated more generally by Mnclaurin in his 
 Geometria Organica, and by some recent writers in the An- 
 nates des Mathematiqucs. See, also, Leslie's Geometry of 
 Curve Lines; Carnot, Essai sur la T/ieoris des Trans 
 
 RA'DIANT HEAT. When a hot body is suspended in 
 the air, a quantity of heat is emitted in all directions by its 
 surface, passing off in right lines like radii drawn from 
 the centre to the circumference of a circle ; these rays pass 
 freely through the air without affecting its temperature ; 
 when they impinee upon surrounding bodies, they aie either 
 reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. The quantity of these 
 rays, or of radiant heat, which is thus emitted, is greatly 
 dependent upon the nature of the heated surface ; it is . 
 smallest from polished metallic surfaces, and greatest from 
 rough and unmetallic surfaces. The radiating pow»r for 
 
RADIAR1ES. 
 
 instance, of polished silver, heated up to 212°, being = 1, 
 that of a surface of writing paper is about = P. Whether 
 colour lias or has not any effect upon this escape of heat 
 from surfaces, is a doubtful question. 
 
 That this radiant heal is susceptible of reflection, may be 
 shown by holding a piece of polished tin plate opposite a 
 fire In such a position as admits the reflection of the flame 
 !i it, when an impression of heat is at the same 
 time perceived upon the face; If the surface of the tin plate 
 be roughened or covered with paper, scarcely any heat is then 
 thrown oh", but the plate itself becomes hot in consequence 
 of the absorption of the rays. This terrestrial radiant heat, 
 ■illy when it emanates from surfaces which are not 
 luminous, as from a flask of hot water, for instance, is to a 
 great extent arrested in its progress by a plate of transparent 
 in which respect It appears to be unlike solar heat, 
 Which passes freely through ail transparent media ; but there 
 are some substances which do not thus impede its progress ; 
 among them, a transparent plate of rock-salt is most remark- 
 able, the rays proceeding through it with little interruption ; 
 such substances, therefore, have been lennedtAernupksuous 
 bodies. (See Melloni, .-lu nates dc Cliim. et Phys., vol. liii.) 
 
 RA'DIARIES, Rndiaria, or Radiate. (I. at. radius.) 
 The name given by Cuvler to the lowest organized of the 
 primary divisions of the animal kingdom] because certain 
 of tlo- "animals therein included have u radiated form of a 
 pari or the whole of their body. See Acrita, Nkmato- 
 
 NKI'RA, Zoot'IlYTA. 
 
 K IPIATINQ POINT. In Optics, any point "from which 
 
 light proceed. 
 RADIATION. (Lat. radius, a ray.) In Physics and 
 irology, the emission of rays of light or heat from a 
 luminous or heated body. 
 
 The theory of the radiation and conduction of heat, which 
 long remained one of the most obscure parts of physical in- 
 qolry, has been reduced, by the successive labours of Pre- 
 L< slie, Fourier, Biot Laplace, Poisson, Melloni, Forbes, 
 and others, to a purely mathematical form, and thereby 
 I in the same rank with physical optics, with which, 
 ny princlpli 
 Tii" ■ni.-rii laws of tin ' which have 
 
 'sed by experiment, are the following: 1. Like 
 all Olhel emanations, Its intensity, in a vacuum, varies in 
 the ratio of the inverse square of the distance from the radi 
 ; .int. In air and the gases, the decrease is a little 
 ice of a partial absorption. 2. The amount 
 of tadil lion, or the rate at which B body parts with its heat, 
 is projx rtional to the excess of the temperature of the body 
 above that of the medium In which it is placed. This prin- 
 ciple was assumed by Newton ; and it follows from it that 
 If the 'imes of cooling lie tiken In an arithmetical progres- 
 sion, the beat will decrease in a geometrical progre 
 The principle, how ever, is found by experiment to hold good 
 only within a certain range' of temperature, not exceeding 
 5ip of Fahrenheit At the higher tenfperatores Dulong and 
 Petit found the rate of cooling to be more rapid than in tin,' 
 ted, 3. All bodies placed in an enclosed space as- 
 sume in time the temperature of the enclosure. 4. Heat is 
 i oiii every point of the surface of a hot body in all 
 directions, and the intensity of the heating ray is as the sine 
 of the angle which it makes with the surface. This result, 
 which is by no means obvious, was discovered by Leslie; 
 end il< physical cause is, that radiation takes place not from 
 the surface alone, but from particles situated within a cer- 
 tain minute but sensible depth, which is different for differ- 
 ent surfaces. 5. The intensity of radiation varies with the 
 nainre of the radiating body, and the state of its surface 
 with regard to polish, colour, source of heat, &c. It is 
 for rough and dark surfaces, and least for bright 
 surfaces of polished metal. 
 
 The velocity with which radiated heat is propagated 
 through space is entirely unknown. It is certain, however, 
 mat it is very great, and probably not inferior to that of 
 light. 
 The doctrine of the radiation of heat was first stated in a 
 Mil satisfactory manner by Prevost of Geneva, about 
 R90. Its leading principle being that all bodies are iierpetu- 
 innging their heat with one another, it is sometimes 
 called the theory of exchanges. As this emission of heat 
 cannot be attributed to the body which receives it, but for 
 the same radiating body and the same state of surface de- 
 pend! only on the temperature of the body, we are led to 
 ■appose that radiation takes place with greater or less in- 
 tensity at all temperatures; that it is reciprocal between 
 distant hodies; and that it subsists when the temperatures 
 are equal though in this case no alteration of temperature 
 ■ e. By a close attention to the phenomena, we are 
 also led to infer that the faculty of the emission (and also of 
 of heat belongs to all the molecules of s body ; 
 and, consequently, that radiation takes place not only at the 
 siirl aces, but also iu the interior of solids and liquids, in the 
 same manner as it takes place in air, or differing only in con- 
 
 RADICAL REFORMERS. 
 
 sequence of its more rapid absorption. Fourier and Laplace 
 were thus led to view the constituent molecules of all bodies 
 as so many foci of radiating heat. This heat is radiated by 
 every molecule In every direction, and is propagated through 
 the pores or void spaces of ponderable matter, until it is en- 
 tirely absorbed by the molecules which it encounters. In 
 solids and liquids the absorption take place at very small 
 distances; in air and the cases at very great distances. The 
 mathematical theory of heat is founded on this hypothesis 
 of molecular radiation. 
 
 Solar and Terrestrial Radiation. — The measure of heat 
 received from the sun, and of that which is constantly 
 escaping from the earth into the regions of space, are among 
 the most important elements of meteorology. It" the earth 
 were not surrounded with the atmosphere, the quantity of 
 solar light received at any time on a given portion of its sur- 
 face would be proportional to the inclination of the ray to 
 the surface, or to the cosine of the sun's zenith distance ; 
 but owing to the modifying effects of the atmosphere, it 
 would appear from the results of experiments that so far 
 from this law holding good, the force of the sun's direct 
 radiation rather increases with the latitude. Professor 
 Daniell (Meteorological Essays, p. 238) suggests that as the 
 cooling power of the air has been proved to be in proportion 
 to its elasticity, it is reasonable to suppose that the difficulty 
 with which heat p asse s through the atmosphere is in the 
 same ratio. The proportion of solar heat absorbed in trav- 
 ersing the atmosphere vertically has been estimated by 
 Leslie and Pouillet at 85 parts in 100; by Kaniptz at 32; 
 and by Prof. Forbes at 20. 
 
 The force of solar radiation is measured by the excess of 
 the tempernture which a body assumes when exposed to 
 the direct action of the sun's rays above that which it would 
 have in the shade. This excess may be roughly measured 
 
 by two co m thermometers, one placed in the shade, and 
 
 the other exposed to the sun, and having its bull) covered to 
 prevent reflection. The most accurate measurement is, 
 however, given by the actinomcter, an instrument invented 
 by Sir J. Ilerschel, in 1821. for the dynamical measurement 
 •-'•."soi , prion of this valuable Instrument, 
 
 ill (j i. -tions fi •■ of oi 1 it, are given in 
 
 the Report of the President, and Council of the Royal .Society 
 on the Objects of .Scientific Inquiry in 1'hysics and Meteor- 
 ology, 1840. 
 
 From certain experiments made by Pouillet at Paris, lie 
 inferred that the whole amount of solar heat annually radi- 
 ated to the earth is equal to that which would suffice to 
 melt a stratum of ice about 14 metres or 4ti feet thick en 
 crusting the whole earth (Elements dc Physii/ue tide Mete- 
 orologie); but in a subsequent memoir (Siir la Chaleur 
 Solairc) he estimated the same quantity at 31 metres, or 102 
 feet. 
 
 The measure of terrestrial radiation is of equal importance 
 with Unit of solar radiation, but no perfect instrument has 
 vet been contrived for its determination. The best means 
 consist in the daily register of the minimum temperature 
 shown by a register thermometer, the bulb of which is placed 
 in the focus of a parabolic metallic mirror pointed towards 
 the clear aspect of the sky, and defended from currents. It 
 may he supposed that the same atmospheric causes which 
 obstruct the passage of radiant beat from the sun oppose 
 also its transmission from the earth into space. 
 
 From the theory of terrestrial radiation, a curious deduc- 
 tion was made by Fourier, with regard to the temperature 
 of the region of space through which the enrlh moves in its 
 orbital revolution. On computing the temperature which it 
 is necessary to suppose the planetary spaces to possess in 
 order that the thermometries] state of the earth's surface 
 may be such as is actually observed, lie found that the ex- 
 isting phenomena correspond to those which would result 
 from the supposition that the regions of space have a tem- 
 perature of about — 58° Fahrenheit. Bvanberg arrived at 
 the same conclusion by a different process ; but others have 
 given very different estimates. Thus Poisson makes it — 13° 
 cent. or-j-8£° Falir., and Pouillet supposes it to be below 
 — 1150. cent, or — 175° Fahr. (See Leslie's Experimental 
 Inquiry into the JVature and Propagation of Neat, 1801 ; 
 Prevost, Essai svr la Calorique Rayonnante, 180!) ; Fourier, 
 Theorie. Jlnatytique de la Chalnir, "1822 ; Laplace, Median 
 ique Celeste, tome v.; Poisson, Theorie Mathemaliquc de la 
 Chalew, 1835; Kcllavd's Theory of Heat, 1837; Reports to 
 the British .Issociation for 1832, 1835, and 1840.) 
 
 RA'DICAL (Lat. radix, a root), in Chemistry, is a term 
 occasionally used as synonymous with base: thus sulphur 
 and phosphorus are the radicals of the sulphuric and phos- 
 phoric acids. The term compound radical is applied to cer- 
 tain organic combinations; in this case compoundsof hydro- 
 gen, carhon, or nitrogen constitute the principal radicals. 
 
 RA'DICAL BASS. In Music, the some as fundamental 
 bass, which see. 
 
 RA'DICAL REFORMERS. In Politics, that poliiical 
 party in England which desires to have the abuses which. 
 
 ioiy 
 
RADICAL SIGN. 
 
 <rom lapse offline or any other cause, may have crept into 
 the government, completely rooted out (as the origin of the 
 term implies) ; all our institutions remodelled ; and, in short, 
 a larger portion of the democratic spirit infused into the con- 
 stitution. 
 
 RA'DICAL SIGN. In Algebra, the symbol ,/, denoting 
 the extraction of a root. It is a modification of the letter r, 
 the initial letter of radix or root. To distinguish the par- 
 ticular root which is to be extracted, a number is prefixed 
 to the symbol ; thus, ty, %/, 4/, &c., denote respectively the 
 square root, cube root, fourth root, &c. ; but as the square 
 root or second root was the first considered, the number is 
 usually omitted, and merely the symbol ,/ written. Frac- 
 tional exponents are frequently used instead of the radical 
 sign. A radical quantity is a quantity to which the radical 
 sign is prefixed. 
 
 RA'DICLE. In Botany, that portion of an embryo which 
 eventually becomes the descending axis or root. It is the 
 low est of the two opposite cones of which an embryo plant 
 consists. 
 
 RA'IMOLITES. A genus of fossil shells; the inferior 
 valve of which is in the shape of a reversed cone, the 
 superior valve convex. 
 
 RA'DIUS. (Lilt, b ray.) In Geometry and Trigonometry, 
 the semidiametcr of a circle, or straight line drawn from the 
 centre to the circumference. In the trigonometrical tables 
 the sines, cosines, tangents, &c. of circular arcs are express- 
 ed in parts of the radius, which is usually assumed equal to 
 1. The radius is equal to the side of the inscribed hexagon ; 
 or it is equal to an arc of 57295780, or 570 17' 44-81", the 
 semicircumferences, or 180°, in parts of the radius 1 being 
 3-1415927. 
 
 Radius. In Osteology, a bone of the forearm; so called 
 from its supposed resemblance to the spoke of a wheel. Its 
 upper end, which is the smallest, is formed into a round 
 hollowed head, and is articulated with the small head at 
 the side of the pulley of the humerus, whilst the rounded 
 border of it next the ulna is articulated with the lesser 
 sigmoid cavity of that hone ; its lower extremity is articu- 
 lated with the bones of the wrist. 
 
 RADIUS OF CURVATURE. In the higher Geometry, 
 the radius of curvature at any point of a curve line is the 
 radius of the circle which osculates the curve at the given 
 point (see Osculation), or has the same curvature as the 
 curve at that point. The curvature of a circle being uni- 
 form, and inversely as the radius, the radius of the osculat- 
 ing circle enables us to judge of the curvature of any curve 
 line at its different points. The general expression for the 
 radius of curvature, r, of any plane curve defined by the 
 equation y=f(z), is 
 
 r _ (dx* + dy2)% _ 
 dxdly 
 (See Evoltjte.) From this expression the value of r is 
 readily found when the equation of the curve is given ; it 
 is a property of lines of the second order, that the radius of 
 curvature is equal to the cube of the normal divided by the 
 square of the semiparameter. 
 
 The expression for the radius of curvature of a surface 
 represented by the equation z=/(z?/), at any point whose 
 co-ordinates are x, y, z, is as follows : Make 
 
 dy 
 
 ~=m, 
 
 dx 
 
 dy 
 
 dlz 
 
 ■ = t, 
 
 E: 
 
 dx 
 
 d*i dlz 
 
 dx 2 dxdy dy' 
 
 and let R denote the radius of curvature of a normal section 
 of the surface ; then 
 
 y 1+ pi + g 2((l+p 2 ) + 2p g OT+a + g^)m 2 ) 
 r-J-2s»n + tm a 
 RA'DIUS VE'CTOR. In Astronomy, is the straight line 
 drawn from the centre of force to the point of the orbit, 
 where the body is supposed to be. A body projected in 
 space, and subjected to the action of a centripetal force, as 
 gravity, which varies in the inverse ratio of the distance, 
 describes a conic section which has one of its foci at the 
 centre of force. In the parabola, let p denote the param- 
 eter; and in the ellipse and hyperbola, let a denote the 
 eemitrunsverse axis, and e the eccentricity ; also let r denote 
 the radius vector, and v the angle which it makes with the 
 transverse axis; then the expression for the radius vector 
 in the parabola, the ellipse, and the hyperbola respect- 
 ively, is 
 
 §j» _ a 2 — e- e2 — a? 
 
 1 + cos. v a + e cos. v a-{- e cos. v ' 
 
 These expressions are called the polar equations of the 
 three curves. 
 RA'DIX, or ROOT. Sec Root. 
 1020 
 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 RAFT. A species of float formed of various logs or 
 planks, fastened together side by side, so as to be conveyed 
 Rom one point to another. This means of conveying tim 
 her to the sea-coast is advantageously practised in many 
 places. The following notice of the plan adopted on the 
 Rhine, of bringing the vast quantities of trees felled near its 
 source down to the navigable stations on its banks, may be 
 interesting to the reader : 
 
 A little below Andernach the little village of Namedy 
 appears on the left bank, under a wooded mountain. The 
 Rhine here forms a bay, where the pilots are accustomed 
 to unite together the small rafts. of timber floated down the 
 tributary rivers into the Rhine, and to construct enormous 
 floats, which are navigated to Dordrecht, and sold. These 
 machines have the appearance of a floating village, com- 
 posed of J2 or 15 little wooden huts, on a platform of oak 
 and deal timber. They are frequently 800 or 900 feet in 
 length, and 00 or 70 in breadth. The rowers and workmen 
 sometimes amount to 700 or 800, superintended by pilots, 
 and a proprietor, whose habitation is superior in size and 
 elegance to the rest. The raft is composed of several layers 
 of trees, placed one on the other, and bound together : a 
 large raft draws not less than or 7 feet of water. Several 
 smaller ones are attached to it, by way of protection, besides 
 a string of boats loaded with anchors and cables, and used 
 for the purpose of sounding the river and going on shore. 
 The domestic economy of an East Indiainan or an English 
 man of war is hardly more complete. Poultry, pigs, and 
 other animals are to be found on board ; and several butchers 
 are attached to the suite. A well-supplied boiler is at work 
 night and day in the kitchen ; the dinner hour is announced 
 by a basket stuck on a pole, at which signal the pilot gives 
 the word of command, and the workmen run from all 
 quarters to receive their messes. The consumption of pro- 
 visions in the voyage to Holland is almost incredible ; some- 
 times amounting to 40,000 or 50,000 pounds of bread ; 18,000 
 or 20,000 of fresh, besides a quantity of salted meat; and 
 butter, vegetables, &c. in proportion. The expenses are so 
 great, that a capital of three or four hundred florins is con- 
 sidered necessary to undertake a raft. Their navigation is 
 a matter of considerable skill, owing to the abrupt windings, 
 the rocks, and shallows of the river; and some years ago 
 the secret was thought to be monopolized by a boatman of 
 Rudesheini and his sons. (Jlutumn on the Rhine.) 
 
 RA'FTER. (Sax. ncfter.') In Architecture, an inclined 
 piece of timber in the side of a roof ; in the provinces called 
 a spar. It is of various sorts, as will be seen under the art 
 Roof, which see. 
 
 RAG-STONE. A dark gray silicious sandstone. 
 
 RAIL. In Architecture, the horizontal part in any piece 
 of framing or panelling. Thus, in a door, the horizontal 
 pieces between which the panels lie are called rails, whilst 
 the vertical pieces between which the panels are inserted 
 are called styles. 
 
 RAIL, or" WATBR-RAIL. (Rallus aquaticus of Lin.) 
 A native species of a genus of Mncrodiictyle or long-toed 
 waders, destitute of alar spines or a frontal shield. 
 
 RAI'LING. A fence or barrier made of posts and rails. 
 The most ordinary fence of this description in the country 
 is formed of wooden posts let in the soil, so as to stand up- 
 right, to which are nailed or morticed horizontal wooden 
 rails, one above another, at such a distance as to prevent 
 domestic animals from penetrating through them. In some 
 cases one horizontal rail is fixed to the posts near the 
 ground, and another near the top of the post, and the in- 
 terval between them is rendered impervious to cattle by up- 
 right rails nailed to the top «nd bottom horizontal rail. 
 Iron railings are generally formed in this manner. 
 
 RAILROADS, or RAILWAYS. Roads constructed of 
 tracks of iron called rails, on which the wheels of carriages 
 roll, and to which they are confined by ledges or flanges 
 raised either on the rail or on the tires of the wheels. 
 
 Theory of Railways. — The object to he obtained by the 
 construction of roads of every kind is to effect the trans- 
 port of loads by the least possible expenditure of tractive 
 force; and one road is better or worse than another, ceteris 
 paribus, according as the same moving power is capable of 
 drawing upon it a greater or less amount of load. Since 
 the moving power, whatever it may be, is expended tr. 
 overcoming the resistance which the carriages on which 
 the load is borne offers, this object can only be attainable 
 by the adoption of such expedients as will permanently 
 diminish the amount of that resistance. The causes of 
 resistance to the motion of a carriage along the road are the 
 following: 
 
 1. Roughness or Unevcnness of the Road Surface. — All 
 asperities formed by stones or other hard substances pro- 
 jecting above the general surface of the road produce a 
 resistance to the moving power, since, when the wheels 
 encounter them and pass over them, the weight of the 
 load, resting as it does upon the wheels, must lie raised 
 through a height corresponding with such projections- 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 no, when such projections are frequent or continued, 
 this expenditure of the moving power is also continued, 
 and the MM species of resistance is produced as if the 
 moving power had continually to raise an equivalent 
 weight. In like manner, if cavities or ruts occur on the 
 road surface, the wheels sink into them, and the moving 
 power is constantly expended in raising the load out of 
 these cavities. All roughness or unevenness of surface 
 oonsisting of nothing more than a multitude of such pro- 
 jections and cavities, inure or less minute in magnitude, 
 the same causes operate by such means in absorbing the 
 snoring power. 
 
 2. Softness of the Road. — However free the rond surface 
 may he from asperities or cavities, if its substructure be of 
 such n nature that it will yield to the pressure of the 
 wheels, a resistance will be produced to the moving power, 
 the amount of which will be more or less, according to the 
 degree in which this softness or yielding quality exists. 
 The « heels sinking into a cavity produced in the soft sur- 
 face of the road by their pressure, the moving power is 
 ■fleeted in nearly the same manner as if it bad to draw the 
 load out of the cavity which it makes for itself, and a cor- 
 
 ling amount of resistance is the consequence. 
 
 3. .In licit;/ of the Road Surface. — When the surface of 
 the road is not perfectly horizontal, but forms an inclined 
 plane up which the load is to be drawn, a resistance will 
 be produced by the gravity or weight of the load, which 
 will be proportional to the steepness of the acclivity: thus, 
 if the road surface rise, in the direction of the motion, one 
 perpendicular foot in 5() feet of distance, then as much 
 moving power will be absorbed in going over every 50 feet 
 of distance as would lift the entire load through one foot of 
 perpendicular height. 
 
 f resistance differs from the former causes. 
 In oath the former the resistance to the moving power 
 would he equally produced in whichever direction the load 
 is drawn ; but the effect of an acclivity is to increase the 
 resistance only in the ascending direction. In the descend- 
 ing direction, on the other hand, it will have the effect of 
 assisting the moving power, by causing the gravity of the 
 load to co-operate with that power in overcoming the other 
 i ice. In all roads, therefore, on which the traffic is 
 equal in both directions, the advantage derived from de- 
 scending acclivities is to be placed against the power ex- 
 pended in ascending them. The principles on which the 
 ■a of the best possible arrangement of the acclivities 
 on roads of different kinds depends are of great importance, 
 not only with reference to the working of roads, but also in 
 laying them out, or originally constructing them ; and there 
 is none about which theie has been, and still is, a greater 
 difference of opinion among engineers and men of practical 
 science. 
 
 Such, therefore, being the sources of resistance, the 
 qualities which must be imparted to a road, to diminish as 
 much as possible the resistance to the moving power, must 
 be the following: 
 
 1st. SfnoethneM and evenness of th ) road surface. 
 
 2d. Hardness and durability of the road >truclure. 
 
 'M. Stall an arrangement of the acclivities that the effect 
 of the gravity of the load shall produce on the whole the 
 least amount of resistance, or that it shall contribute the 
 greatest amount of advantnge to the moving power. 
 
 In ordinary roads, formed of gravel, broken stone, or 
 pavement, the entire surface is constructed in an uniform 
 manner, so that every part of it is equally adapted to the 
 motion of the wheels; and, as the tractive power com- 
 monly used is the strength of horses, the structure of the 
 road must also be more or less made with a view to their 
 qualities. Thus it might happen that the great degree of 
 smoothness and hardness which would contribute most 
 effectually to diminish the resistance of the carriages, would 
 be incompatible with the continued health and soundness 
 of the horses working on it. The paved streets of a town, 
 by reason of their hardness, produce less resistance to the 
 motion of carriages than the softer gravel roads of the 
 country, but they are incomparably more injurious to the 
 which work upon ttrem. 
 
 This difficulty is met by appropriating certain parts only 
 of the road to the action of the wheels, and imparting to 
 in the highest practicable degree, the qualities neces- 
 sary to diminish the resistance, and to give the greatest 
 durability to the road; and, on the other hand, to adapt that 
 part of the road appropriated to the horses to the peculiar 
 action of their feet, and to the circumstances of the struc- 
 ture and health of the animal. 
 
 This has been accomplished by constructing upon the 
 roadway parallel tracks, with a width corresponding to the 
 distance between the wheels, and between these tracks 
 forming n path suitable to the horses. 
 
 Another advantage attending such nn arrangement is, 
 that the extent of the road surface adapted to the action of 
 the wheels is extremely limited, and a greater amount of 
 
 ex|>ense can be incurred in giving it the necessary smonin- 
 ness, hardness, strength, and durability, than could be at 
 all practicable if these qualities were to be imparted, as in 
 common roads, to the whole extent of the road surface. 
 
 Such are the general principles which have' led. through 
 a succession of stages of progressive improvement, to that 
 most perfect of all the instruments of transport which 
 human invention has yet devised — the modern railway. 
 Such a road consists of two parallel tracks of iron firmly 
 maintained in their places, the upper surfaces of which 
 are rendered in a very high degree smooth and level, a 
 strength being given to them which renders them capable 
 of sustaining enormous loads without being deranged in 
 their structure or position. The carriages are maintained 
 upon such tracks or ledires by means of a projecting flange 
 which is constructed upon the inside of the tires of the 
 carriage wheels, nnd which, by pressing on the inside of 
 either rail, prevents the carriages from escaping from the 
 rails. The general method of constructing such ronds will 
 be rendered most easily and agreeahjy intelligible by a 
 brief view of their history from their first invention to their 
 present state. 
 
 History of Railways. — About the middle of the 17th 
 century, the transixirt of coals from the pits to the harbour 
 was effected in the coal districts of Northumberland and 
 Durham by laying down parallel tracks of timber with a 
 horse-path between them, the wheels being confined upon 
 the beams or rails of timber by ledges or flanges projecting 
 from the inside of the tire of the wheels. These timber 
 rails were constructed in pieces of about six feet long with 
 a section of about four inches square : they were supported 
 on pieces of timber called sleepers laid at right angles to 
 them transversely on the road. These sleepers were laid 
 at about two feet apar t, so that each pair of parallel rails 
 was supported by three sleepers; besides giving support to 
 the rails, these sleepers also had the effect of maintaining 
 the rails in gauge, or in keeping them at a fixed distance 
 asunder. The rails were fastened to the sleepers by pins 
 driven quite through the rails, and half way through the 
 sleepers; to preserve the uniformity of the upper surface 
 of the rail, these wooden pins were planed off at the top. 
 
 The necessity of giving room for the flanges of tho 
 wheels, running as they did below the surface of the rail, 
 and the small depth between the surface of the rail and 
 the sleeper, rendered it impossible to protect the sleepers 
 effectually from the action of the horses' feet by any cover 
 iin of gravel or other material. The sleepers were conse- 
 quently subject to be worn nnd destroyed. The rails, also, 
 being worn by the action of the wheels still more rapidly 
 than the sleepers, required to be frequently replaced; and, 
 each new rail being pinned down to the same sleeper, the 
 ends of the s'eepers were gradually perforated by so many 
 holes that the sleepers were weakened, and required to be 
 soon replaced. These defects were remedied by the adop- 
 tion of the double timber railway, which consisted in Jay ing 
 upon the surface of the timber rails, above described, addi- 
 tional rails of timber of equal scantling, attached to the 
 lower rails by wooden pins, passing quite through the upper 
 and half through the lower rails, in the same manner as 
 the lower rnils themselves were attached to the transverse 
 sleepers. This change was attended with mnny advantages. 
 Besides the increased strength given to the rails by the 
 double timbers, the depth of the sleepers Ulow the upper 
 surface of the superior rail, allowed the sleepers to be pro- 
 tected from the action of the horses' feet by covering them 
 with broken stones, gravel, or other road materials. The 
 structure of rails and sleepers also being stronger and more 
 weighty, and held down by the road material with which 
 the sleepers were covered, allowed a packing or ballasting 
 to be driven under the rails, so as to give greater stability 
 and firmness to the rond. Another advantnge obtained by 
 this arrangement was, that when the superior rnils were 
 worn by the action of the wheels, they could be replaced 
 by new ones without disturbing the inferior rails ; and as 
 the places of the joints, and those at which they were at- 
 tached by pins to the inferior rails, could be varied at 
 pleasure, the pinholes made in the inferior rails would not 
 come in the same place, or near eaeh other, so as injuriously 
 to weaken the latter. 
 
 The next improvement consisted in the addition of a plate 
 or bar of iron, about two inches broad and half an inch thick, 
 laid along the upper surface of the superior rail, and attach- 
 ed to it by nails or iron pins countersunk in it. The wheels 
 of the carriages ran upon this iron rail, which formed a 
 more durable surface than that of the wood. In the United 
 States of America, railways of this construction are still in 
 very general use. They are recommended in that country 
 by the abundance and cheapness of timber, and the com- 
 parative high cost of iron. Such a road is tolerably efficient 
 where the traffic is light, and can therefore be resorted to 
 in localities and circumstances In which an adequate re- 
 turn could not be obtained for the capital necessary for the 
 
 1021 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 construction of these timber railways in America many | 
 other improvements have been introduced, more especially 
 in the substructure of the road. In laying out the roadway 
 for the reception of the rails, two parallel trenches are cut 
 along the line of way corresponding to the distance between 
 the "ails, and transverse trenches at right angles to these are 
 cut to receive the sleepers : these trenches are respectively 
 bottomed with a ballasting of broken stone, on which the 
 rails and cross-sleepers rest. This basis answers the double 
 purpose of a firm and durable support for the road and an 
 effectual means of drainage. The scantling of the timbers 
 used for the rails is usually six inches in width by ten inches 
 in depth : they are attached to the sleepers, so as to be at 
 once kept from springing from them and from altering their 
 gauge, by the following means : A notch is cut in the sleeper 
 corresponding to the size and form of the rail ; and the rail, 
 at the place where it is let into the sleeper, is formed with 
 a vertical surface on the outside, and a levelled surface on 
 the inside, increasing in width downwards. When let into 
 the notch of the sleeper, the levelled part of the rail is forced 
 into the corresponding cavity of the notch by a wedge driven 
 between the outside edge of the rail and the outer surface 
 of the notch. 
 
 An expedient based upon the general principle of rail- 
 ways has been adopted, but from what date we are not in- 
 formed, in the streets of some of the Italian cities, and more 
 particularly in those of Milan. Paralleled tracks of hewn 
 stone are laid down to receive the wheels of carriages, and 
 such a width is given to them as to be accommodated to 
 any variations which are usual in the structure of carriages. 
 This width is also such that the wheels are not liable to 
 run off these flagged paths by any irregularity in the course 
 which the horse takes in drawing the carriage. 
 
 Great facility of draught is obtained by this expedient, 
 which has been of late years adopted with some improve- 
 ment in England. A flagged trackway of this kind was 
 constructed some years ago, and is still in operation, extend- 
 ing from the West India Docks, along the Commercial Road, 
 towards the City of London, and a similar expedient has 
 been more recently proposed to facilitate the application of 
 steam power on common roads. Stone track ways of this 
 kind have been accordingly laid down on some parts of the 
 high road between London and Birmingham. This expe- 
 dient has the advantage in one respect over railways, inas- 
 much as the carriages are not confined by flanges or any 
 other expedient to the stone paths on which the wheels 
 move, and consequently the same carriages which run upon 
 thein may also move on other parts of the road. Thus, one 
 carriage may pass another, while both used the same line 
 of stone rails, which cannot be effected when carriages are 
 confined to the rails. 
 
 In the progress of improvement, the timber railway above 
 described was succeeded by the last iron plate railway, or 
 tramway, which was a long period used exclusively in the 
 coal districts, and in public works generally, and is still to 
 a considerable extent adopted, especially in the railways 
 which are carried through the workings of mines, and on 
 which the product of the mine is conducted in wagons, be- 
 ing pushed by men or drawn by horses to the foot of the 
 shaft. 
 
 The Plate Railway, or Tramway. — About the year 1770 
 tramways of cast iron came into use in the collieries in the 
 north of England. These railways consisted of two rails 
 of cast iron laid parallel to each other at a distance from 
 three to three and a half feet asunder. They were usual- 
 ly supported either on timber or stone bearing. A cross 
 vertical section of these as first used is represented at fig. 1 ; 
 where A A' represents the timber supports, B C D, B' C D' 
 
 t i 
 
 3-6 
 
 represent the sections of the rails, C D, C D' represent the 
 horizontal plates attached by nails or pins to the sleeper. 
 On this plate the wheels of the wagon rolled. The ledges 
 B C, B' C' rose perpendicularly two and a half inches on 
 the outside edges C' of each plate C D'. These ledges, by 
 pressing on the outside of the wheels, prevented the wagon 
 from escaping from the road. They were subsequently 
 raised o"~ the inside of the horizontal plate, so as to act on 
 the inside of the wheels. 
 
 In order to give such rails strength in the vertical direc- 
 tion, to supersede the necessity of a continued support be- 
 neath them, they were afterwards cast with a ledge beneath 
 them, projecting downwards from the outside edge of the 
 horizontal plate. A side view of such a rail is represented 
 In fig. 2, and a cioss section of the rails in fig. 3. The up- 
 10*8 
 
 («.) 
 
 (3.) 
 Li 
 
 -l(L£ 
 
 right ledges B C, B' C (fig. 3) rising from the horizontal 
 plates C D, C D', and coming within each wheel, kept the 
 wheels on the rails; and the ledge D E, D'E', projecting 
 downwards, and increasing in depth towards the middle of 
 the distance between the supports, as represented in tig. % 
 gave the necessary strength to the rail. The outlines of 
 this ledge formed each a curve, so that the strength at dif- 
 ferent points between the supports might be proportioned 
 to the mechanical effect of the vertical pressure. The 
 flanges B C, B' C are the same height throughout the whole 
 length of the rail. 
 
 These tramways were for a long period constructed ex 
 clusively of cast iron ; but, when improved methods of roll 
 ing malleable iron were contrived, they were formed by 
 rolling ; and for nearly twenty years back they have been 
 constructed exclusively of wrought iron. 
 
 Edge Railway. — Within twenty years after the first in- 
 troduction of tramways of iron, the form of rail called the 
 edge rail was brought into use. This rail is constructed in 
 the form of a bar of iron, whose width is considerably less 
 than its depth, placed, as the name implies, with its narrow 
 edge presented upwards. Owing to its depth being much 
 greater than its width, its power, in proportion to its weight 
 to resist vertical pressure, is very considerable. The wheels 
 were retained on rails of this description by flanges project- 
 ing from the inside of their tires. These flanges, at the 
 point where the wheels rest on the rails, descend below the 
 rails; and the wheel cannot pass off the rail towards the 
 outside, unless the flange rolls over the rail. 
 
 For a long period after their first adoption, edge railways 
 were confined to the mining districts, and more particularly 
 to the collieries, where they were used for the transport of 
 the products of the mines to the places of shipment; but 
 this species of road acquired vastly increased importance 
 when passengers and goods came to be transported on it by 
 locomotive engines, which took place between Liverpool 
 and Manchester in the year 1830. Since that time, the 
 construction of railways adapted for general traffic, at a 
 speed which until within the last ten years would have 
 been thought impossible, has been carried to a great extent 
 in England, and in the United States. Lines of railway 
 with the same object have likewise been projected, and 
 some of limited extent constructed in different parts of Eu- 
 rope. The general flatness of Belgium offering the greatest 
 facilities for the construction of this kind of road, lines of 
 railway have been brought into operation between the chief 
 towns "of that country, and it is intended to continue these 
 lines to Aix-la-Chapelle, from which a line was recently 
 opened to Cologne. The Times, of Dec. 16, 1841, gives a 
 list of the various railroads projected, in progress, and com- 
 pleted, in Germany, down to that date. 
 
 In France, the only railways worked by steam power, 
 adapted for passengers, which have yet been brought into 
 operation, are the short lines connecting Versailles and St. 
 Germain with Paris. Several others of greater extent are, 
 however, in progress; among which may be mentioned, 
 more particularly, the Paris and Havre line, by which, com 
 bined with the London and Southampton railway, the 
 French metropolis will be accessible by a journey of twenty 
 four hours or less from London. 
 
 Within the limits of the present article, it would not be 
 possible to trace, in the order of time, the succession of im 
 provements by which the present methods of laying out 
 and constructing railways for the swift transport of passen- 
 gers by steam power have been attained. When the Liver- 
 pool and Manchester line was first brought into operation, 
 little, comparatively, was understood of the capabilities of 
 such means of intercommunication; and that line may be 
 regarded as an experimental railway, the results of which 
 have supplied the data on which others have since been 
 constructed and worked. The form, strength, and weight 
 of the rails— the mode of fixing them on the road— the 
 weight, power, and proportions of the engines— the form, 
 strength, and weight of the carriages and wagons— '.lie mag- 
 nitudes of the trains, and the speed of transport, have all 
 been subject to change from year to year, and almost l'-nm 
 month to month, since the opening of that line in 1830 to 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 me present time. We shall not, therefore, attempt to trace 
 these improvements; but shall briefly explain the forma- 
 tion and construction of railways, according to the methods 
 and principles at present generally received. 
 
 Of the Formation and Construction of Railways. — What- 
 ever be the moving power to be used for the transport of 
 loads upon a railway, its force must be proportioned to the 
 average resistance of such loads, and it must be capable of 
 K its energy to the same extent as that resistance is 
 subject to variation. The great perfection which has been 
 attained in the construction of the rails, and in the methods 
 ol fixing them in their position upon the road, is such, that 
 the resistance offered to the tractive power by loads moved 
 on a straight and level railway may be regarded as practi- 
 cally uniform, so that the moving power by which a load is 
 transported at a given speed on a straight and level line of 
 railway is subject to a resistance as unvaried and as uni- 
 form iis any to which moving |>o\vers are usually submitted 
 in any of the processes Of art; but as the amount of resist- 
 ance to the tractive powers upon a .straight and level rail- 
 way is diminished by the perfection thus attained in the 
 construction of the road, so, in the same degree, is nny re- 
 duced by a departure from a perfect level more 
 sensibly felt. Thus, if the resistance to the moving power 
 on a straight and level railway, by a load moved at a given 
 speed, be MOal to the 250th part of the load, an acclivity 
 which would rise at the rate of one foot in 250, or nearly at 
 the r^te of 20 perpendicular feet in a mile, would produce 
 a resistance to the moving power, by reason of the ascent 
 alone, equal to a 250th part of the loud, and therefore equal 
 to the resistance which the moving power would sustain on 
 a level line. It follows, therefore, that, under such circum- 
 stances, in drawing a load up such an acclivity, the moving 
 power would have to overcome twice the resistance opposed 
 to it on a level ; for the same causes which produce on a 
 level a resistance amounting to the 250lh part of the load 
 equally produce this resistance in ascending the acclivity, 
 in addition to which there Would bean equal amount of re- 
 nce due to the ascent. If, therefore, under such cir- 
 cumstances, the moving power were required to draw the 
 load up the acclivity at the same speed as that at which it 
 drew it on the level, the machine exerting that power must 
 
 ■ ■lowed with properties in virtue of which it is capable 
 ing its energy, without injury to its structure, iu the 
 proportion of two lo • 
 
 Whether such limits of variation in the resistance or in 
 the moving jxiwer as are here referred t<> for the sake of il- 
 lustration be those which are requisite in practice or not, it 
 i- apparent that some practical limits must exist to the varia- 
 tion of the resistance; nnd that, whatever these limits may 
 be, corresponding limits must be imposed on the acclivities 
 or gradients, as they have been called, which are admissi- 
 ble on the railway on which such moving power is to be ap- 
 plied. If the moving power be incapable of increasing its 
 energy in a greater proportion than two to one, then the 
 Steepest gradients must not create more than twice the re- 
 sistance (in the level parts of the line ; and, if the resistance 
 on the level parts of the line be equal to the 250th part of 
 the biad, the steepest gradients ought not exceed one in 250. 
 This, however, proceeds on the supposition that the same 
 speed is required to be maintained iu ascending the acclivi- 
 ties as on the level. 
 
 When a carriage of any kind changes the direction of its 
 motion, it does not accomplish this by suddenly passing from 
 motion In the one direction to motion in the other. Many 
 mechanical effects, which will be sufficiently obvious, for- 
 bid this. The change of direction is, on the other hand, 
 affected gradually, by causing the carriage to move in a 
 curve. Now, in such a motion, it is evident that the wheels 
 which traverse the outer part of the curve will in the same 
 time move over a greater space than those which traverse 
 the inner part; in fact, the inner and outer wheels move 
 over arches of circles which have the same centre, the 
 outer arch being longer than the inner. If the wheels, 
 therefore, be (as they always are) of the same magnitude, 
 the outer wheel must revolve oftener on its axle in passing 
 o\er the curve than the inner: but, besides this, the posi- 
 tion assumed by the wheels in passing round a curve is dif- 
 ferent from that which they have when moving In a straight 
 line. If a four-wheel carriage move along a straight road, 
 its axles will beat right angles to the direction of its motion, 
 and therefore parallel to each other ; but if it move in a 
 curve, which it does in turning a corner, then its axles are 
 no longer parallel, but each of them is directed to the centre 
 of the curve which the carriage describes. The mechanism 
 by which this effect is provided for by four-wheel carriages, 
 used on common roads, is the perch or pivot on which the 
 axle of the fore wheels is made to turn. By this pivot the 
 fore axle may be placed nt any required angle with the axle 
 of the hind wheels. As the wheels of all such carriages 
 revolve independently of each other, each upon its own axle, 
 • the wheels on the same axle may revolve at different speeds. 
 
 These two provisions, therefore, are brought into play when 
 a common carriage changes its direction. The outer wheels, 
 in turning round the curve, move faster than the inner, and 
 the axles throw themselves out of parallelism, and take the 
 directions of the radii of the curve. 
 
 The peculiar structure of railway carriages excludes the 
 possibility of either of these provisions fur turning round a 
 curve. To maintain in security the carriages on the rails, 
 it has been found necessary to fix the axles truly square 
 with the carriages, and therefore to exclude the pivot or 
 perch by which a common carriage is turned. It has like- 
 wise been found necessary to key the wheels firmly upon 
 the axle, so that the wheels and axle shall turn together, in- 
 stead of the axle being fixed, as in a common carriage, and 
 the wheels turning upon it. The mechanism of a railway 
 carriage is therefore essentially adapted to rectilinear mo- 
 tion, and it contains no expedient by which it can move 
 round a curve. When such a carriage, therefore, tirst en- 
 counters a curve, its tendency is to proceed in the continua- 
 tion of the straight line in which it has previously moved, 
 and which forms a tangent to the curve. If this tendency 
 were allowed to take effect, the outer wheel would run Off 
 the rail on the outside of the curve, and the inner wheal 
 would come oil" the rail in the space between the rails. This 
 is prevented by the tlange which projects from the tire of 
 the outer Wheel, and which, at the point where that wheel 
 rests upon the rail, descends below the rail. When the 
 wheel makes an effort, in virtue of the tendency to recti- 
 linear motion, to pass off the rail, the flange comes in con- 
 tact with the inside of the rail, and, by pressing upon it, 
 throws the carriage inwards; and this taking place with 
 the fore wheels, the direction of the body ol' the carriage is 
 shitted, and it is thrown more nearly square with tin- rails. 
 This action of the flange is continued while the carriage is 
 passing r< >und the curve, and it is to it alone that the change 
 of direction of the carriage is due. 
 
 The tires of the wheels of railway carriages have usual- 
 1> a COnlca] form given to them, becoming gradually smaller 
 
 from the flange outwards ; and, w hen a carriage rests straight 
 
 upon the rails, the distance between the flnngi 
 wheels being less than the distance between the rails, a 
 small spare is left between thi' flanges and the tails, tn al- 
 low some play to the flanges without letting them Strike the 
 rails. When thi mes to acurve, the flange of 
 
 the outer win el comes Into contact wiBl the outer rail, and 
 the whole play of the flanges is given to the space between 
 the flange of the inner wheel and the inner rail. In conse- 
 
 ■ '.' the conical form of the tires of the w 1 
 outer wheels, in this case, rest upon a thicker part of the 
 cone than the inner, and the actual diameter on which they 
 revolve is consequently greater than that on which the in- 
 ner wheels revolve. This effect has been generally regard- 
 ed as an expedient sufficient to enable railway carriages to 
 run round curves of a certain limited radius; but that this 
 is an error may lie easily shown — if, to a four-wheel car- 
 riage, wheels of equal diameter be attached, smaller wheels 
 being put on the one side than on the other, and if such 
 wheels were attached to their axles, so that the axles re- 
 volve with them, and if at the same time the axles be fixed 
 square with the carriage, such a carriage will be found to be 
 incapable of moving in a curve, notwithstanding the inequali- 
 ty of its wheels. 
 
 The pressure of the flange on the rail being, therefore, 
 the only means of turning a railway carriage round a curve, 
 and such pressure being attended by friction, and therefore 
 by increased resistance to the moving power, curves as well 
 as acclivities are a cause of resistance, and this resistance 
 will be great in proportion to the rapidity of the curve or 
 the shortness of its radius. But, independently of this ef- 
 fect of curves, a more serious objection to those whose radius 
 is under a certain limit of magnitude arises from the liabili- 
 ty of the carriages to run off, by the flange encountering any 
 obstacle or inequality which would cause it to pass over the 
 rails. 
 
 The section of a railway is therefore limited by those cir- 
 cumstances which govern its acclivities, already explained, 
 and which are equally related to the amount of the resist- 
 ance on level rails, and to the practical limits of the varia- 
 tion of the moving power; and the plan is, on the other 
 hand, limited by the necessity of effecting every change of 
 direction of the line by curves whose radius shall have such 
 a magnitude as to exclude all danger of the carriages run- 
 ning off the line. In the laying out of a railway, therefore, 
 limitations of iu section and plan must be kept constantly in 
 view. 
 
 Since the natural surface of a country is rarely adapted 
 to the conditions which have been thus shown to be ne- 
 cessary to the formation of a railway, an artificial surface 
 must generally be formed by raising some and lowering 
 other parti of the country through which the railway is to 
 pass. The expedients by which this is accomplished are 
 attended with more or less difficulty and expense, and the 
 
 1023 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 construction of these timber railways in America many 
 other improvements have been introduced, more especially 
 in the substructure of the road. In laying out the roadway 
 for the reception of the rails, two parallel trenches are cut 
 along the line of way corresponding to the distance between 
 the tails, and transverse trenches at right angles to these are 
 cut to receive the sleepers : these trenches are respectively 
 bottomed with a ballasting of broken stone, on which the 
 rails and cross-sleepers rest. This basis answers the double 
 purpose of a firm and durable support for the road and an 
 effectual means of drainage. The scantling of the timbers 
 used for the rails is usually six inches in width by ten inches 
 in depth : they are attached lo the sleepers, so as to be at 
 once kept from springing from them and from altering their 
 gauge, by the following means : A notch is cut in the sleeper 
 corresponding to the size and form of the rail ; and the rail, 
 at the place where it is let into the sleeper, is formed with 
 a vertical surface on the outside, and a levelled surface on 
 the inside, increasing in width downwards. When let into 
 the notch of the sleeper, the levelled part of the rail is forced 
 into the corresponding cavity of the notch by a wedge driven 
 between the outside edge of the rail and the outer surface 
 of the notch. 
 
 An expedient based upon the general principle of rail- 
 ways has been adopted, but from what date we are not in- 
 formed, in the streets of some of the Italian cities, and more 
 particularly in those of Milan. Paralleled tracks of hewn 
 stone are laid down to receive the wheels of carriages, and 
 such a width is given to them as to be accommodated to 
 any variations which are usual in the structure of carriages. 
 This width is also such that the wheels are not liable to 
 run oft" these flagged paths by any irregularity in the course 
 which the horse takes in drawing the carriage. 
 
 Great facility of draught is obtained by this expedient, 
 which has been of late years adopted with some improve- 
 ment in England. A flagged trackway of this kind was 
 constructed some years ago, and is still in operation, extend- 
 ing from the West India Docks, along the Commercial Road, 
 towards the City of London, and a similar expedient has 
 been more recently proposed to facilitate the application of 
 steam power on common roads. Stone track ways of this 
 kind have been accordingly laid down on some parts of the 
 high road between London and Birmingham. This expe- 
 dient has the advantage in one respect over railways, inas- 
 much as the carriages are not confined by flanges or any 
 other expedient to the stone paths on which the wheels 
 move, and consequently the same carriages which run upon 
 them may also move on other parts of the road. Thus, one 
 carriage may pass another, while both used the same line 
 of stone rails, which cannot be effected when carriages are 
 confined to the rails. 
 
 In the progress of improvement, the timber railway above 
 described was succeeded by the last iron plate railway, or 
 tramway, which was a long period used exclusively in the 
 coal districts, and in public works generally, and is still to 
 a considerable extent adopted, especially in the railways 
 which are carried through the workings of mines, and on 
 which the product of the mine is conducted in wagons, be- 
 ing pushed by men or drawn by horses to the foot of the 
 shaft. 
 
 The Plate Railway, or Tramway. — About the year 1770 
 tramways of cast iron came into use in the collieries in the 
 north of England. These railways consisted of two rails 
 of cast iron laid parallel to each other at a distance from 
 three to three and a half feet asunder. They were usual- 
 ly supported either on timber or stone bearing. A cross 
 vertical section of these as first used is represented at fig. 1 ; 
 where A A' represents the timber supports, B C D, B' C D' 
 
 (J.) 
 
 S i 
 
 -6 D C| 
 
 (f.) 
 
 A.' 
 
 represent the sections of the rails, C D, C' D' represent the 
 horizontal plates attached by nails or pins to the sleeper. 
 On this plate the wheels of the wagon rolled. The ledges 
 1! C, B' C rose perpendicularly two and a half inches on 
 the outside edges C of each plate CD'. These ledges, by 
 pressing on the outside of the wheels, prevented the wagon 
 from escaping from the road. They were subsequently 
 raised 0~ the inside of the horizontal plate, so as to act on 
 the inside of the wheels. 
 
 In order to give such rails strength in the vertical direc- 
 tion, to supersede the necessity of a continued support be- 
 neath them, they were afterwards cast with a ledge beneath 
 them, projecting downwards from the outside edge of the 
 horizontal plate. A side view of such a rail is represented 
 In fig. 2, and a cioss section of the rails in fig. 3. The up- 
 lOiS 
 
 
 
 ! : " ; i 
 
 
 
 
 (3.) 
 11 
 
 A (1 
 
 B 
 
 jeH 
 
 fi r 
 
 it 
 
 
 
 right ledges B C, B' C (fig. 3) rising from the horizontal 
 plates CD, CD', and coming within each wheel, kept the 
 wheels on the rails ; and the ledge D E, D' E', projecting 
 downwards, and increasing in depth towards the middle of 
 the distance between the supports, as represented in fig. 2, 
 gave the necessary strength to the rail. The outlines of 
 this ledge formed each a curve, so that the strength at dif- 
 ferent points between the supports might be proportioned 
 to the mechanical effect of the vertical pressure. The 
 flanges B C, B' C are the same height throughout the whole 
 length of the rail. 
 
 These tramways were for a long period constructed ex 
 clusively of cast iron; but, when improved methods of roil 
 ing malleable iron were contrived, they were formed by 
 rolling; and for nearly twenty years back they have been 
 constructed exclusively of wrought iron. 
 
 Edge Railway. — Within twenty years after the first in- 
 troduction of tramways of iron, the form of rail called the 
 edge rail was brought into use. This rail is constructed in 
 the form of a bar of iron, whose width is considerably less 
 than its depth, placed, as the name implies, with its narrow 
 edge presented upwards. Owing to its depth being much 
 greater than its width, its power, in proportion to its weight 
 to resist vertical pressure, is very considerable. The wheels 
 were retained on rails of this description by flanges project- 
 ing from the inside of their tires. These flanges, at the 
 point where the wheels rest on the rails, descend below the 
 rails; and the wheel cannot pass oft' the rail towards the 
 outside, unless the flange rolls over the rail. 
 
 For a long period after their first adoption, edge railways 
 were confined to the mining districts, and more particularly 
 to the collieries, where they were used for the transport of 
 the products of the mines to the places of shipment; but 
 this species of road acquired vastly increased Importance 
 when passengers and goods came to be transported on it by 
 locomotive engines, which took place between Liverpool 
 and Manchester in the year 1830. Since that time, the 
 construction of railways adapted for general traffic, at a 
 speed which until within the last ten years would have 
 been thought impossible, has been carried to a great extent 
 in England, and in the United States. Lines of railway 
 with the same object have likewise been projected, and 
 some of limited extent constructed in different parts of Eu- 
 rope. The general flatness of Belgium offering the greatest 
 facilities for the construction of this kind of road, lines of 
 railway have been brought into operation between the chief 
 towns of that country, and it is intended to continue these 
 lines to Aix-la-Chapelle, from which a line was recently 
 opened to Cologne. The Times, of Dec. 1G, 1841, gives a 
 list of the various railroads projected, in progress, and com- 
 pleted, in Germany, down to that date. 
 
 In France, the only railways worked by strain power, 
 adapted for passengers, which have yet been brought into 
 operation, are the short lines connecting Versailles and St 
 Germain with Paris. Several others of greater extent are, 
 however, in progress; among which may be mentioned, 
 more particularly, the Paris and Havre line, by which, com 
 bined with the London and Southampton railway, the 
 French metropolis will be accessible by a journey of twenty 
 four hours or less from London. 
 
 Within the limits of the present article, it would not be 
 possible to trace, in the order of time, the succession of im 
 provements by which the present methods of laying out 
 and constructing railways for the swift transport of passen- 
 gers by steam power have been attained. When the Liver- 
 pool and Manchester line was first brought into operation, 
 little, comparatively, was understood of the capabilities of 
 such means of intercommunication; and that line may be 
 regarded as an experimental railway, the results of which 
 have supplied the data on which others have since been 
 constructed and worked. The form, strength, and weight 
 of the rails— the mode of fixing them on the road— the 
 weight, power, and proportions of the engines — thr form, 
 strength, and weight of the carriages and wagons— the mag- 
 nitudes of the trains, and the speed of transport, have all 
 been subject to change from year to year, and almost from 
 month to month, since the opening of that line in 1830 to 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 tne present time. We shall not, therefore, attempt to trace 
 these improvements; but shall briefly explain the forma- 
 tion and construction of railways, according to the methods 
 and principles at present generally received. 
 
 Of the Formation and Construction of Railways. — What- 
 ever be the moving power to be used for the transport of 
 loads upon a railway, its force must be proportioned to the 
 average resistance of such loads, and it must be capable of 
 varying its energy to the same extent as that resistance is 
 subject to variation. The great perfection which has been 
 attained in the construction of the rails, and in the methods 
 ol living them in their position upon the road, is such, that 
 the resistance offered to the tractive power by loads moved 
 on a straight and level railway may be regarded as practi- 
 cally uniform, so that the moving power by which a load is 
 transported at a given speed on a straight and level line of 
 railway is subject to a resistance as unvaried and as uni- 
 form as any to which moving powers .ire usually submitted 
 in any of the processes of art; but as the amount of resist- 
 ance to the tractive powers upon a siniight and level rail- 
 way is diminished by the perfection thus attained in the 
 construction of the road, so, in the same degree, is any re- 
 duced by a departure from a perfect level more 
 sensibly felt. Thus, if the resiMance to the moving power 
 on a straight and level railway, by a load moved at a given 
 speed, be equal to the 250th part of the load, an acclivity 
 which would rise at the rate of one foot in 250, or nearly at 
 the rate of 20 perpendicular feet in a mile, would produce 
 a resistance to the moving power, by reason of the ascent 
 alone, equal to a 290th part of the bad. and therefore equal 
 to the resistance which the moving power would sustain on 
 a level line. It follows, therefore, that, tinder such circum- 
 stances, in drawing a load up such an acclivity, the moving 
 power would have to overcome twice the resistance oppOSM 
 to it on a level , for the same causes which produce on a 
 level a resistance amounting to the 250th part of the load 
 equally produce this resistance in ascending the acclivity, 
 in addition to which then' would be an equal amount of re- 
 .;< e due to the ascent. It', therefore, under such cir- 
 etunstancea, the moving power were required to draw the 
 load up the acclivity at the same speed as that tit which it 
 drew it on the level, the machine exerting that power must 
 be endowed with properties in virtue of which it is capable 
 of varying its energy, without injury to its structure, in the 
 proportion of two to one. 
 
 Whether such limit:, of variation in the resistance or in 
 the moving |xiwer as are here referred to for the sake of il- 
 lustration be those which are requisite in practice or not, it 
 is apparent that sosm practical limns must exist to the varia- 
 tion of the r. .1 that, whatever these limits maj 
 be, corresponding limits must lie imposed on the acclivities 
 ox gradients, as they have been called, which are admissi- 
 ble on the railway on which such moving power is to be ap- 
 plied. If the moving power i» Incapable of increasing its 
 
 eneigy in a greater prop or tion than two to one. then the 
 • it gradients must not create more than twice the re- 
 sistance on the level parts of the line ; and. if the resistance 
 on the level parts of the line be equal to the 250lh part of 
 the load, the steepest gradients ought not exceed one in 230. 
 This, however, proceeds on the supposition that the same 
 speed is required to be maintained in ascending the acclivi- 
 00 the level. 
 When a carriage of any kind changes the direction of its 
 motion, it does not accomplish this by suddenly passing from 
 motion in the one direction to motion in the other. Many 
 mechanical effects, which will be sufficiently obvious, tor- 
 bid this. The change of direction is, on the other hand, 
 effected gradually, by causing the carriage to move in a 
 curve. Now. in such a motion, it is evident that the wheels 
 which traverse the outer part of the curve will in the same 
 time move over a greater space than those which traverse 
 the inner part; in fact, the inner and outer wheels move 
 over arches of circles which have the same centre, the 
 outer arch being longer than the inner. If the wheels, 
 therefore, be (as they always are) of the same magnitude, 
 the outer wheel must revolve oftener on its axle in passing 
 over the curve than the inner: but, besides this, the posi- 
 tion assumed by the wheels in passing round a curve is dif- 
 ferent from that which they have when moving in a straight 
 line. If a four-wheel carriage move along a straight road, 
 its axles will beat right angles to the direction of its motion, 
 nnd therefore parallel to each other ; but if it move in a 
 curve, which it does in turning a corner, then its axles are 
 no longer parallel, but each of them is directed to the centre 
 of the curve which the carriage describes. The mechanism 
 by which this effect is provided for by four-wheel carriages, 
 used on common roads, is the perch or pivot on which the 
 axle of the fore wheels is made to turn. By this pivot the 
 fore nxlc may be placed at any required angle with the axle 
 of the hind wheels. As the wheels of all such carriages 
 revolve independently of each other, each upon its own a vie, 
 ■ the wheels on the same axle may revolve at different speeds. 
 
 These two provisions, therefore, are brought into play when 
 a common carriage changes its direction. The outer wheels, 
 in turning round the curve, move faster than the inner, and 
 the axles throw themselves out of parallelism, and take the 
 directions of the radii of the curve. 
 
 The peculiar structure of railway carriages excludes the 
 possibility of either of these provisions for turning round a 
 curve. To maintain in security the carriages on the rails, 
 it has been found necessary to fix the a.vles truly square 
 with the carriages, and therefore to exclude the pivot or 
 perch by which a common carriage is turned. It has like- 
 wise been found necessary to key the wheels firmly upon 
 the axle, so that the wheels and axle shall turn together, in- 
 stead of the axle being fixed, as in a common carriage, and 
 the wheels turning upon it. The mechanism of a railway 
 carriage is therefore essentially adapted to rectilinear mo- 
 tion, and it contains no expedient by which it can move 
 round a curve. When such a carriage, therefore, first en- 
 counters a curve, its tendency is to proceed in the continua- 
 tion of the straight line in which it has previously moved, 
 and which forms a tangent to the curve. If this tendency 
 were allowed to take affect, the outer wheel would run off 
 the rail on the outside of the curve, and the inner wheel 
 would come off the rail in the space between the rails. This 
 is prevented by the Ilnngo which projects from the tire of 
 the outer wheel, and which, at the point where that wheel 
 rests upon the rail, descends below the rail. When tin: 
 Wheel makes an effort, in virtue of the tendency to recti- 
 linear motion, to pass off the rail, the flange comes in con- 
 tact with the inside of the rail, and, by prelum upon it, 
 
 throws the carriage inwards; and this taking place with 
 
 till' fore wheels, the direction of the body of the carriage is 
 shifted, and it is thrown more nearly square with the rails. 
 This action of the tlange is continued while the carriage i- 
 pas-ing round the curve, and it is to it alone that the change 
 of direction of tin.' carriage la due. 
 
 The tires of the wheels of railway carriages have usual- 
 ly a conical form given to them, becoming gradually smaller 
 
 from the flange outwards ; and, w hen a carriage re Ms straight 
 upon the rails, the distance between tin 
 Wheels being leu than the disiam i e rails, a 
 
 small space is left between the flanges and the rails, to al- 
 low some play to the flanges without letting them Btrike the 
 rails. When the carriage comes to a curve, the flange of 
 the outer wheel conns into contact w iffl the outer rail, and 
 the whole play of the flanges is given to the space between 
 the flange of the inner wheel and the Inner tail. In conse- 
 quence of the conical form of the tires of the win el . the 
 outer wheels, in this case, rest upon a thicker part of the 
 cone than the inner, and the actual diameter on which they 
 
 revolve is consequently greater than thai on which the in- 
 ner wheels revolve. This effect has been generally regard 
 cd as an expedient sufficient to enable railway carriages In 
 run round curves of a certain limited radius; bui that this 
 is an error may lie easily shown — If, to a four-wheel car- 
 riage, Wheels of equal diameter be attached, smaller wheels 
 being put on the one side than on the other, and if such 
 wheels were attached to their axles, so that the axles re 
 VOlve with them, and if at the same time the axles be fixed 
 square with the carriage, such a carriage will be. found to be 
 incapable of moving in a curve, notwithstanding the inequali- 
 ty of its wheels. 
 
 The pressure of the flange on the rail being, therefore, 
 the only means of turning a railway carriage round a curve, 
 and such pressure being attended by friction, and therefore 
 by increased resistance to the moving |M)wer, curves as well 
 as acclivities are a cause of resistance, and ibis resistance 
 will be great in proportion to the rapidity of the curve or 
 the shortness of its radius. But, independently of this ef- 
 fect of curves, a more serious objection to those whose radius 
 is under a certain limit of magnitude .arises from the liabili- 
 ty of the carriages to run off, by the flange encountering any 
 obstacle or inequality which would cause it to pass over the 
 rails. 
 
 The section of a railway is therefore limited by those cir- 
 cumstances which govern its acclivities, already explained, 
 and which are equally related to the amount of the resist- 
 ance on level rails, and to the practical limits of the varia- 
 tion of the moving power; and the plan is, on the olher 
 hand, limited by the necessity of effecting every change of 
 direction of the line by curves whose radius shall have such 
 a magnitude as to exclude nil danger of the carriages run- 
 ning off the line. In the laying out of a railway, therefore, 
 limitations of its section and plan must be kept constantly in 
 view. 
 
 Since the natural surface of a country is rarely adapted 
 to the conditions which have been thus shown to be ne- 
 cessary to the formation of a railway, an artificial surface 
 must generally be formed by raising some and lowering 
 other parts of the country through which the railway is to 
 pass. The exgiedients by which this is accomplished are 
 attended with more or less difficulty and expense, and the 
 
 1023 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 skill of the engineer is eminently required in the selection 
 of such a course for a proposed line of railway as will be 
 attended with the least expensive construction, due regard 
 being had to the permanent expense of working and main- 
 taining it. 
 
 When a railway is proposed to be constructed between 
 two points, which are called its terminii, the engineer 
 makes himself generally acquainted with the country be- 
 tween these terminii, and selects that course for the line 
 which, with least deviation from a straight line joining 
 the proposed terminii will afford the greatest facilities for 
 the formation of the artificial surface of the railway, lim- 
 ited as it must be in respect to its acclivities, and to the 
 curves by which its various changes of direction are effect- 
 ed. This is first accomplished by an eye survey or general 
 reconnaissance of the country. An instrumental survey is 
 afterwards made along the direction which has been se- 
 lected for the line, and a nearly accurate profile of the coun- 
 try from terminus to terminus, in the proposed direction is 
 obtained. This being accomplished and reduced to a draw- 
 ing, as represented in fig. 4, a line ABCDEFGHIKis 
 
 (4.) 
 
 drawn, regulated by the degrees of inclination which have 
 been decided to be the best practical limits of the accliv- 
 ities. This line will, as represented in the figure, in some 
 places, as A B, C D, E F, G H, I K, pass above, and in oth- 
 ers, B C, D E, F G, H I, below, the natural surface of the 
 ground. It is therefore to be considered that, in the one 
 case, the artificial surface of the line must be elevated 
 above the natural surface ; and that, in the other case, 
 some expedient must be provided by which the artificial 
 surface may pass at the requisite depth below the natural 
 surface. 
 
 The surface of a railway is raised above the natural sur- 
 face of the ground by either of two expedients ; 1st, by form- 
 ing a mound of earth with sloping sides, having the rail- 
 way on its summit j^this is called an embankment (fig. 5) ; 
 
 (5.) 
 A" 
 
 2dly, by constructing a bridge by which the railway can be 
 conducted, at the requisite elevation, above the natural 
 surface of the ground, in the same manner as a road is 
 constructed over a river; such a bridge is called a via- 
 duct. Such structures are formed either of masonry or of 
 cast iron ; but in countries such as the United States, where 
 timber is abundant, cheap viaducts of carpontry are fre- 
 quently used. 
 
 The surface of a railway is conducted below the natural 
 surface of the ground by either of two expedients : 1st, by 
 forming an excavation, or artificial valley, with sloping 
 sides, along the bottom of which the railway is construct- 
 ed ; such an excavation is called a cutting (fig. 0) ; 2dly, by 
 
 (0.) 
 
 
 -2V 
 
 ■ 
 
 tndermining the ground and constructing a subterranean 
 archway or vault of sufficient magnitude, the roof of which 
 is usually lined with masonry, and along the bottom of 
 which the railway is conducted : such an archway is called 
 a tunnel. 
 
 In laying out a railway, the disposition of its cuttings and 
 embankments must be kept in view. In general, the mate- 
 rial by which the embankments are formed is obtained 
 from the cuttings ; and, with a view to the saving of ex- 
 pense, the engineer so arranges his section that the quan- 
 tity of stuff required for the formation of embankments 
 shall be as nearly as possible equal to that supplied by the 
 cuttings. If there be an excess of stuff from the cuttings, 
 1024 
 
 ground must be obtained in some position near the euttii,<r» 
 whereon it can be thrown. This is technically calk i ,.ut 
 ting it to spoil. 
 
 If, on the other hand, there be an excess of embank: . 
 then the stuff necessary for the formation of such emlm.ik- 
 ment must be obtained from some excavation made neat 
 the embankment expressly to supply the stuff' for the em- 
 bankment This is called side cutting. 
 
 The distance along which the stuff obtained from a da- 
 ting is carried before it is laid down to form the embank- 
 ment is called the lead ; and the quantity of labour neces- 
 sary to form an embankment out of an adjacent cutting is 
 determined by the number of cubic yards of stuff necessary 
 to form the embankment multiplied by the average lead, or 
 the mean distance to which such stuff has to be carried. 
 
 Where a very low and long embankment occurs, it may 
 happen that the lead is so long that the expense of funning 
 the embankment from the nearest cutting would be greater 
 than the expense of putting the cutting to spoil, and of form 
 ing the embankment from side cutting. These are ques- 
 tions which are determined in each individual case with 
 reference to the price of land and labour. 
 
 When the elevation above the natural surface of the 
 ground at which the railway must be carried is so great 
 . as to render an embankment impracticable, or attended with 
 a disproportionate expense, a viaduct is resorted to ; and, on 
 the other hand, when the excavation necessary to give an 
 open cutting would be productive of objectionable expense, 
 then the railway is conducted under the ground through a 
 tunnel. 
 
 The slopes A B, A' B\ fig. 5, 6, forming the sides of em- 
 bankments and cuttings, depend on the nature of the soil or 
 strata through which the cuttings are made, and of which 
 the embankments are formed. In general, every material 
 has a certain angle at which it will rest, all more steep an- 
 gles causing it to slip or fall: this angle is called, in me- 
 chanics, the angle of repose. In the strata through which 
 railway cuttings are made, and from which embankments 
 are usually formed, the slopes of the sides are rarely less 
 than 1 J foot horizontal to 1 foot vertical, and they vary be 
 tween that and 2 feet horizontal to 1 foot vertical. When 
 the material is gravel, sand, loose chalk, or gravelly clay. 
 a slopeof ljto 1 is generally found sufficient; but with cer- 
 tain descriptions of clay, such as that called the London 
 clay, a more gradual slope must be allowed. With such 
 material, the slopes are constructed at 1 % or 2 horizontal to 
 1 vertical ; but in general it is better, even at Increased ex- 
 pense of earthwork, to allow a sufficient slope in the cm 
 mencement, and thereby avoid the continual expense at 
 tending slips, as the gradual decadence of the sides of cut- 
 tings and embankments is called. 
 
 The face of slopes, both of cuttings and embankments 
 should be covered with soil and sown with grass seeds, n 
 as to produce a turf, which gives a farther security againsi 
 slips. They may be also, especially the slopes of embank 
 ments. planted with shrubs; care being taken, however, not 
 to obstruct the ventilation of the road. 
 
 When the stratum through which a catting is required tc 
 be made is rock or hard stratified chalk, it will stand with 
 perpendicular sides ; and, ir such cases, cuttings of great 
 depths may be made at a trifling sacrifice of land. The 
 Olive Mount cutting on the Liverpool and Manchester rail- 
 way is, ut the deepest parts, above 100 perpendicular feet 
 from the natural level of the surface to the level of the 
 rails ; and cuttings of still greater depth and much greater 
 extent, through stratified chalk, are executed on the Brigh- 
 ton railway, of which the sides are perpendicular. 
 
 In most cases, however, where cuttings attain to these 
 extraordinary depths, tunnels would be less expensive. It 
 sometimes happens that the material of the cutting is re- 
 quired for an adjacent embankment; and, under such cir- 
 cumstances, if the sides of the cutting can be perpendicu- 
 lar, and the sacrifice of land small, it may be preferable to 
 tunnelling. The materials from the Olive Mount cutting 
 above mentioned were required for the formation of the 
 broad green embankment adjacent to it. 
 
 Drainage.— The formation level, as the artificial surface 
 of the road Intended to receive the rails and their sup- 
 ports is called, should be properly drained. This is effected 
 by a centre drain, carried along the middle of the road, with 
 cross drains at proper intervals communicating with side 
 drains in the cuttings, and discharging the water down slo- 
 ping drains descending the sides or embankments. The cen- 
 tre and cross drains are covrred drains, formed either of 
 brick or stone, or, more economically, of tiles made of a 
 proper form for the purpose. 
 
 Road Structure.— -The surface of the road being prepared 
 to receive the rails, the props or chairs which, at fixed in- 
 tervals, form the support of the rails must next be laid down. 
 These are sustained on supports of cither of two kinds : 
 
 1st. In cuttings or on well-consolidated embankments, 
 stone blocks are provided, roughly formed into a rectangu- 
 
RAILROADS. 
 
 lar parnllelopiped, the base of which is a square whose fide 
 Is 2 feet, and the height of which is 1 foot. A bottoming of 
 broken stone and gravel being spread to receive these, they 
 are set upon it by raising them repeatedly by means of a 
 lever, and letting them fall in the place where they are in- 
 tended to rest, until they beat for themselves a solid and 
 unyielding bed. It was the practice to lay these blocks so 
 that their sides were parallel and perpendicular to the sides 
 of the railway. In fig. 7 is represented the plan of a rail- 
 
 (7.) 
 
 s s s 
 
 iti fTJ-rxLDn m nh 
 
 ■in I , " I i - I i.:JJ 1 M I " 1 i i,\ LiJ LP 
 
 - * 
 
 miminiiiaiM pin - 
 
 I 
 
 nr 
 
 -U5DI 
 
 I EL I i 
 
 GXEO-iyi'ryi ryLCTiryL, 
 
 !T 
 
 1 a I l J I ! J I I J I i J I i a | i b-t- 
 
 HlilllllL'ILHi»IHr 
 
 way thus laid on blocks, showing its drainage, consisting, as 
 is usual with railways having extensive traffic, of two lines. 
 The line U H, K' K' is appropriated to carriages moving in 
 one direction, and the line rr,r / r' to carriages moving in 
 the other direction. By thus causing carriages moving in 
 the same direction to be confined to the same line, the col- 
 lision of trains meeting is prevented. The centre drain run- 
 ning between the two lines of railway is represented at 
 li I) I). The cross drains are shown atCCC, communica- 
 ting with the Mile drains S S S. 
 
 The blocks are represented at B B, supporting the rails, 
 and laid with their sides parallel and perpendicular to the 
 rails. 
 
 This arrangement has lately been superseded by the di- 
 agonal arrangement of blocks, represented in fig. 8. It is 
 
 www 
 
 _A^\ /X /\ /\ /\ 
 
 considered that this arrangement gives the block a better 
 bearing on its bed ; but the chief advantage attending it, as 
 compared with the former position of the blocks, is that it 
 renders the base of the block more accessible for repairing 
 and adjustment, from time to time, when the road is in op- 
 eration. 
 
 2dly, On embankments newly made, or other parts of 
 the line where the foundation of the road is liable to yield 
 under the operation of the traffic upon it, wooden sleepers, 
 8 S, fig. 9, extending across the road, are used instead of 
 
 (0.) 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 rii 
 
 fSl 
 
 Ei 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 ■ni 
 "li 
 
 "SI ■ 
 
 I s 
 ," ; 
 
 hi - 
 
 El , ,. 
 
 ;j . 
 
 
 1 — 
 
 £J 
 
 
 _J 
 
 H 
 
 U J 
 
 U 1 
 
 
 stone blocks to support the chairs. These are usually 
 formed of larch : the tree is split along the centre, so as to 
 form two sleepers, one side of which is flat, and the other 
 convex. They are usually from 8 to 9 feet long, and from 
 9 to 10 inches broad on the flat side ; and from 4 to 5 inches 
 deep, measured in the thickest part. They are laid across 
 the road, with the flat side downwards. The chairs are fas- 
 tened to them by pins on the convex side, in the same man- 
 ner as they have been already described to be fastened to 
 the blocks. Bach pair of opposite chairs being thus con- 
 nected, by being attached to the same sleeper, the rails are 
 3T 
 
 kept in gauge, notwithstanding the yielding of the I'ounda 
 tion under the sleeper. 
 
 Until within a recent period, stone blocks were universal- 
 ly regarded as the best permanent support lor the rails 
 wherever they could be laid upon a solid and durable foun- 
 dation, and wooden sleepers were only resorted to as teinpo- 
 rary supports, to be ultimately superseded by stone blocks 
 whenever the foundation of the road should be properly con 
 solidated. Opinion has, however, undergone some Change 
 on this subject, and wooden sleepers are now sometimes 
 used in preference to stone blocks for permanent purposes : 
 whether they will prove economical, when submitted to t lie- 
 trial of a long period of time, experience alone can decide. 
 
 The chairs, which are the immediate supports or props on 
 which the rails rest, are attached to the centre of the upper 
 surfaces of the blocks in the following manner: Two holes 
 are drilled in the blocks to a sufficient depth, about 2 inche* 
 in diameter, into which plugs of oak or other hard wood 
 are driven; holes are then bored in these, 3-8ths of an incl 
 in diameter, corresponding in position with two holes in the 
 chair of cast iron, which is to support the rail. Iron pins 
 of half an inch in diameter are then driven through the 
 holes in the chairs into the holes in the block, a piece of 
 patent felt being placed between the chair and the block ; 
 and the chair is thus firmly fastened to the block. 
 
 The chairs are formed of cast iron, formed with a cavity 
 corresponding to the magnitude and form of the rail : they 
 vary very touch in their size and form, according to the 
 opinion or judgment of the engineer. A cross vertical sec- 
 tion of one of the most common forms 
 of chair, fixed on a block, now in use, 
 with the rail resting in it, is repre- 
 sented in fig. 10. 
 
 A great variety of expedients have 
 been resorted to to maintain the rail 
 fixed in its position in the chair. 
 Pins and wedges of iron were first 
 used of various forms, and applied in 
 various ways. These, however, have now been very gen- 
 erally superseded by the simple contrivance of a wooden 
 block or wedge, driven in between the side of the chair, as 
 represented at n, lis;. 10. These wedges are prepared by 
 previously passing them through a hydrostatic press, so as to 
 harden them by exposing them to a severe pressure. Besides 
 affording a very enbctnaJ fastening to the rail In the chair, 
 these wedges, from the nature of the material, soften the 
 jar which attends the transition of the wheels over the 
 chairs. 
 
 IVeigkt and Form of Rails. — The weight and form of the 
 rails have been subject to great variation, since the exten- 
 sion of railwoys to the rapid transport of passengers. This 
 has not arisen so much from ignorance of the mechanical 
 properties of the metal thus applied, as from the varying 
 weight and speed of the engines and loads transported upon 
 them. The weight of the engines was, in the commence- 
 ment, limited to tons; but the most common weight of 
 these machines at present is 12 tons; and their speed, as 
 well as the amount of loads which they draw, have un- 
 dergone a corresponding increase. The strength and solid- 
 ity of the structure on which this extraordinary traffic is car- 
 ried have necessarily undergone corresponding changes. 
 The Liverpool and Manchester railway was first laid down 
 with rolled iron rails, weighing 35 pounds per yard, support- 
 ed on chairs 3 feet asunder. These, were, however, soon 
 found insufficient in strength, and they were replaced by 
 rails weighing 50 pounds per yard, supported on bearings 
 at the same distance asunder. 
 
 The distance between the bearings or chairs has also 
 been subject to change. The necessary strength or weight 
 of tho rail will evidently depend on this distance; the 
 greater the distance between the props, the greater must be 
 the strength of the rail ; and, so far as regards the expense, 
 the engineer has to balance the cost of heavier rails against 
 the saving effected by a diminished number of hlocks and 
 chairs. But, independently of the consideration of expense, 
 the effect upon the carriages and engines is to be considered. 
 Between chair and chair, a slight flexure of the rail takes 
 place, and the wheels have consequently to pass over a se- 
 ries of eminences, so as to give to the carriages a pitching 
 motion, the intervals and degree of which must depend 
 conjointly on the strength of the rails and the distance be- 
 tween the chairs. 
 
 The least distance between the chairs now used is 3 feet, 
 and the greatest 5 feet ; 50 lb. rails are very generally used 
 on 3 feet bearings ; 65 lb. rails on 4 feet bearings ; and 75 lb. 
 rails on 5 feet bearings. All these varieties of construction 
 are used in different parts of the Liverpool and Manchester 
 railway. The Grand Junction railway, extending from 
 Birmingham to Newton, is laid down uniformly with fi5 lb. 
 rails on 4 feet bearings, and the London and Birmingham 
 railway has, in different places, all the above varieties. 
 
 The form of the rail has been much varied. The fish 
 
 1025 
 
RAILROAD. 
 
 bellied rail was considered to have the most advantageous 
 form, when the Liverpool and Manchester railway was 
 first brought into operation, and for some years afterwards. 
 This form gives increased depth to the rail at the parts 
 most distant from the supports ; and, in theory, it is un- 
 questionably the most correct, the strength of every part to 
 resist vertical pressure being the same. But various prac- 
 tical objections have been found against it, which our limits 
 will not allow us to examine or discuss ; and the fish-bellied 
 rail has accordingly been altogether superseded by the 
 parallel rail, which is a rail whose cross section is the 
 same at every part. Nothing can be more varied or more 
 capricious than the forms given to the cross section of rails 
 by different engineers. The figures 11 to 18, represent a 
 i'p.w of this great variety. 
 
 (15.) (IK) (17.) (18.) 
 
 The form, however, which has obtained most general 
 favour at the present time is that which is represented in 
 fig. 13, the cross section of which is nearly the same as the 
 longitudinal section of a dumb bell. This form of parallel 
 rail has the advantage of being capable of being reversed, 
 either side being turned upwards. 
 
 In some rare instances, modern railways in England have 
 been laid down on continuous bearings. The rails, in such 
 cases, are supported immediately on the longitudinal truck- 
 ers without chairs. This is the case in the Manchester 
 (19.) and Bolton railway, and in the Great 
 
 ■r, Western railway : a section of a rail, as 
 
 attached to a longitudinal trucker sup- 
 port without a chair, is represented in 
 fig. 19, where R is a section of the rail, 
 P an iron pin attaching it to the trucker 
 B. These pins are placed at regular 
 distances along the outside base of the 
 rail. 
 
 A section of the rail with its trucker 
 support, used on the Great Western rail- 
 way, is given in fig. 20. These rails are 
 fastened to the truckers by screws on 
 each side. They weigh from 40 to 50 
 lbs. per yard. 
 
 Gauge of the Railway. — The gauge, or the distance be- 
 tween the rails, on which depends the distance between 
 the wheels of the carriages and engines, and to a certain 
 extent their structure, has recently been a subject of much 
 discussion. It is contended by some that all railways con- 
 structed in the same country ought to have the same gauge ; 
 that, though it is not contended that the gauge now in use 
 is the best that could possibly have been adopted, yet that, 
 extensive. ..ines of road having been constructed with that 
 gauge, more disadvantage will attend any departure from 
 it than could be balanced by any advantages that could 
 attend any other magnitude of gauge. 
 
 In the colliery railways in the north of England, the rails 
 had been laid at 4 feet 8J inches asunder ; and on the 
 Liverpool and Manchester railway, the first line intended 
 for general traffic, was laid down by Mr. Stevenson with 
 the same gauge. The lines of railway subsequently pro- 
 jected, extending from Liverpool and Manchester to Bir- 
 mingham (and thence to London), to Preston, Wigan, 
 Bolton, Leeds, and other places, were laid down with the 
 same gauge, since the carriages and engines would neces- 
 sarily have to pass from one to the other. But when rail- 
 ways began to be constructed in Belgium and other parts 
 of the Continent, where the same reason for uniformity of 
 gauge did not prevail, the same gauge nevertheless was 
 adopted. The first conspicuous departure from this uni- 
 formity took place in the Great Western railway, extending 
 from London to Bristol, which was laid down with a gauge 
 of 7 feet; and the Eastern Counties railway next adopted 
 a gauge of 6 feet. 
 
 The gauge of a railway can be regarded as nothing more 
 than its linear modulus, or the index to its general scale. 
 There is nothing per se to give one gauge a preference over 
 another ; but, as the magnitude of the gauge determines 
 the general magnitude and scale of the railway, and of 
 everything connected with the railway, including wagons, 
 coaches, and engines, bridges, viaducts, tunnels, cuttings, 
 &c, and, in short, all the works, whether of a moveable 
 1036 
 
 RAIN. 
 
 and perishable or fixed and permanent nature, it is a matter 
 of the greatest importance that it should be determined 
 with a just regard to the traffic of the line. 
 
 Curves on Railways. — Willi a view to insure the public 
 safety, the legislature has generally required that no curve 
 shall be allowed upon a main line witli a less radius than 
 one mile : the exceptions to this are where one railway 
 passes into another ; and at the termini, or the entrance of 
 depots or stations. In such situations the trains must 
 slacken their speed, and therefore a sharp curve is attended 
 with less danger. It has appeared, however, that these 
 restrictions upon the radii of curves have been more strin- 
 gent than safety requires. In a course of experiments 
 made by Dr. Lardner, within the last two years, it has 
 been established that curves of a mile radius produce no 
 sensible increase of resistance at the usual speed of rail- 
 way trains, and therefore curves of considerably less radius 
 may be traversed at that speed without danger. We may 
 here state, that on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway 
 there are many curves in the main line with radii under 
 half a mile, which are traversed at the usual speed with 
 perfect safety. 
 
 Motive Power on Railways. — The motive power on rail- 
 ways for general traffic is at present steam power, and is 
 either locomotive engines, which move along the railway 
 with the load which they draw ; or stationary engines, 
 which, by means of ropes extended along the line of rail- 
 way, draw the loads in either direction. See Locomotive 
 Engine and Stationary Engine. 
 
 Resistance of Air to Railway Trains. — Until very re- 
 cently, it has been considered by engineers that the resist- 
 ance to railway trains was almost entirely due to friction 
 and mechanical effects, and that that part of the resistance 
 which depends on the atmosphere formed so inconsiderable 
 a portion of the whole that it might be disregarded in 
 practice. The result of a course of experiments, made 
 within the last two years, by Dr. Lardner, the details of 
 which may be seen in the Proceedings of the British Asso- 
 ciation, have, however, indicated a serious amount of 
 resistance due to the air. If Dr. Lardner's conclusion shall 
 be confirmed by further experience, the great expense at 
 tending the maintenance of very high speed on railways, 
 and the improbability of attaining in the ordinary work of 
 a line the extraordinary velocity which some persons now 
 contemplate, will be apparent. 
 
 Speed of Railway Traffic. See Locomotive Enoine. 
 For the details of the structure and operation of railways, 
 see the Treatise by Nicholas Wood, 3d edition, London, 
 1838 ; The Steam Engine, <§-c, by Dr. Lardner, 7th edition, 
 London, 1840. 
 
 Railway, Pneumatic or Atmospheric. The name 
 given to a system of locomotion on railways by means of 
 the pressure of the atmosphere. A simple and ingenious 
 apparatus for this purpose was invented a few years ago, 
 and is now being exhibited on the West London Railway 
 at Wormwood Scrubs. Those who desire to see a brief 
 though clear account of this invention, with a resume of 
 the advantages likely to accrue from its being generally 
 adopted, may consult the well-reasoned letter of Mr. Pim, 
 addressed to the President of the Board of Trade (1841). 
 (See also a treatise on this subject, by Mr. Samuda.) 
 
 RAIN. (Ger. regen.) In Meteorology, water falling 
 from the atmosphere in drops. 
 
 The theory of rain is not yet very satisfactorily estab- 
 lished. One of the most ingenious explanations, and indeed 
 the only one which rests entirely on known principles, 
 was proposed by Dr. James Hulton in the Philosophical 
 Transactions of Edinburgh, for 1787. It is now a well- 
 ascertained fact, though it was only matter of conjecture to 
 Dr. Hutton, that the capacity of air for moisture, or the 
 quantity of moisture which a given volume of air will hold, 
 increases with the temperature, but in a much faster ratio 
 than the temperature ; and hence it follows that if two 
 equal portions of air at different temperatures completely 
 saturated with moisture are mingled together, a precipita- 
 tion must take place in consequence of the mixture, which 
 will have the mean temperature of the two portions, being 
 unable to sustain the mean quantity of vapour. For ex- 
 ample, suppose that while the temperature increases in an 
 arithmetical ratio, the capacity for retaining moisture in- 
 creases in a geometrical ratio, and that at the temperature 
 of 15 centesimal degrees air can hold 200 parts of moisture , 
 then at 30 degrees it will hold 400 parts, and at 45 degrees 
 800 parts. Now, suppose two equal bulks of damp air, at 
 the respective temperatures of 15 and 45 degrees, to b« 
 mixed together, the compound must contain 1000 parts of 
 vapour, or either half of it 500 parts ; and the temperature 
 of the compound will bo 30 degrees. But at this tempera- 
 ture the air is saturated with 400 parts, and consequently 
 there will be a precipitation of 100 parts from each of the 
 given bulks. 
 It is obviously not necessary that the commingled por 
 
RAIN. 
 
 uons of ail should be fully saturated with moisture, as 
 assumed in the above example ; rain will be precipitated it' 
 the two musses approach the point of saturation, but the 
 quantity will be proportionally less. It is also a conse- 
 quence of the theory, that for a given difference of heat the 
 precipitation will be greatly increased at the higher tem- 
 peratures ; and this is conformable to experience, for 
 showers are most copious during hot weather, and in tropi- 
 cal countries The circumstances, therefore, on which, 
 according to ihis theory, the quantity of rain precipitated 
 :> time depends, are the following: The previous 
 dampness of the commixed portions of air ; the difference 
 of their respective tcmi>eratures ; the elevation of their 
 tnperature ; and the extent to which the combina- 
 tion takes place. 
 
 The principal objection to this theory is, that the quantity 
 of rain which actually falls in a given portion of time is 
 often very much greater than can be supposed to be pro- 
 duced by any probable extent of cooling that can take place 
 in the free atmosphere in that time, unless, perhaps, we 
 have recourse to the supposition of a cold and warm cur- 
 rent driving swiftly in opposite directions, and continually 
 mixing their conterminous surfaces. Sir J. Leslie (Encyc. 
 Iirit., art. " Meteorology") compute! that if two currents 
 lit' moist air were driving along in opposite directions, with 
 velocities whose sum is 30 miles an hour, the one having a 
 temperature of 70° of Fahrenheit, and the other of 50°, 
 the deposition of moisture in the space of an hour would 
 be equal to the height of an inch. If the sum of the oppo- 
 site velocities amounted to lio miles an hour, and the inter- 
 mingling influence extended to but a quarter of an inch at 
 the grazing surfaces, there would still be produced in the 
 same tune a fall of rain reaching to half an inch in altitude. 
 ; utilities agree sufficiently with observation in 
 certain cases ; but the objection still recurs that rain fre- 
 quently falls from clouds which appear to move very 
 slowly, and when, consequently, the supposition of such 
 velocities is inadmissible. 
 
 It is the opinion of Mr. Luke Howard, and some other 
 writers on meteorology, that Dr. Hutton's theory is insuffi- 
 cient to explain the phenomena ; and that the immediate 
 cause of rain is to be ascribed, in many instances at least, 
 to the electric action of the clouds on each other. They 
 suppose tin; hygromctric moisture in the air to be kept 
 ■Upended by the mutual repulsions of the electric atmo- 
 spheres of the particles ; and that when the electricity is 
 from any cause withdrawn, the suspending power j| like- 
 wise removed, and the particles coalesce and fall in conse- 
 quence of their gravity. That rain is connected in some 
 way or other with the electric state of the atmosphere, is a 
 position which may be readily conceded; but as the dis- 
 turbance of the electric equilibrium remains to be accounted 
 for, this theory, as it at present stands, brings us no nearer 
 to definite ideas. 
 
 Some extraordinary falls of rain have been recorded, the 
 accounts of which, if not given on apparently unexception- 
 able testimony, would scarcely fail to be regarded as fabu- 
 lous. On the 85th October. 1825, a fall of 30 French inches 
 ih), within 24 hours, occurred at Genoa ; and on 
 the 9th October, 1827, there fell at Joyeuse, in the south of 
 France, n quantity equal to 31 English inches within the 
 space of 22 hours. (Prof. Forbe's Report on Meteorology, 
 in the Reports of the British Association for 1840.) 
 
 A curious circumstance attending the fall of rain if, that 
 the quantity collected in rain gauges placed at the surface 
 of the ground is considerably greater than when the instru- 
 ments, are placed at some elevation above the surface. On 
 an average of 13 years the quantity of ruin which fell 
 annually in the court of the observatory .it Paris was 50 
 centimetres (22 English inches) ; while the mean quantity 
 which fell on the terrace, at the height of 28 metres (92 
 feet) above the court, was only 5(1 centimetres, or 89ths of 
 the former quantity. A g:mge placed on the top of York 
 Minster, at an elevation of 212 feet 10 inches, showed a fall 
 of 14'.M>3 inches between February 1833 and February 1834 ; 
 while two perfectly similar instruments, one placed on the 
 top of the Museum of that city, at a height of 43 feet 8 
 inches, and the other on the ground, gave respectively 
 19-853 inches and 25-700 inches. (Reports of the British 
 Association fur 1834.) It is supposed that this phenomenon 
 depends, in some measure at least, on the circumstance 
 that the drops of rain, descending from the higher regions 
 with the temperature belonging to the elevation, cause a 
 condensation of vapour in the lower strata, and probably 
 of fogs, which are always denser near the surface of the 
 ground, and which yield a considerable deposition of water. 
 Any hypothesis of this kind, however, is quite insufficient 
 to explain the great difference observed at York between 
 the products of the rain gauges on the ground and the top 
 of the Minster, and which is most probably to be abscribed 
 to some imperfection in the action of the instrument when 
 exposed to gales of wind. It has been suggested that eddies 
 
 RAINBOW. 
 
 are formed round the rim of the funnel, which have the 
 effect of diverting part of the rain. 
 
 Main drops vary in size from perhaps the 25th to the 3d 
 part of an inch in diameter ; and, like other falling bodies, 
 descend with a continually accelerating velocity until the 
 resistance of the air becomes equal to their weight, after 
 which the descent is uniform. The terminal velocity is 
 proportional to the square root of the diameter of the drop, 
 but it is perhaps not possible to determine with certainty 
 the actual terminal velocity corresponding to a drop of any 
 given diameter. 
 
 The Malaga quantity of rain which falls in a year at anv 
 given place depends upon a great variety of circumstances, 
 as latitude, proximity to the sea, elevation of the region, 
 configuration of the country and of the mountain ranges, 
 exposure to the prevailing winds; and in general on the 
 different local causes which influence climate. Humboldt 
 estimates that the average depth of rain which annually 
 falls at the latitudes of 0°, 19°, 45°, and 60°, may he taken 
 respectively at 98, 80, 29, and 17 inches ; but this estimate 
 must be regarded rather as a rough approximation to the 
 ratio in which the quantity decreases on going from the 
 equator, than as indicating the actual averages at any par- 
 ticular place; and it is observed that though the annua' 
 depth be greatest towards the equator, the number of rain> 
 days in the majority of" places increases with the latitude. 
 
 The greatest depth of rain which has been registered at 
 nny place in a year is at Muranham, lat. 2£° S., and which 
 is stated by Humboldt to be 277 English inches. But this 
 is greatly above the average, and indeed more than double 
 the annual quantity which has lieen observed at any other 
 locality. At St. Domingo the annual full is estimated tit 
 120 inches; at Cayenne, 116 inches; in the island of 
 Granada, 112; at the Havannah, 91 ; at Calcutta, from 70 
 to 118; at Bombay, from 83 to 96 ; the island of Martinique, 
 87 inches ; and at Sierra Leone, 86. Of European Coun- 
 tries, Portugal appears to be the most humid, 123 inches 
 having been observed at Coimbra in a year. The average 
 depth at Paris is 19-1 inches (Arago, Journal de Physique, 
 1816); Berlin, 20-9; Brussels, 19; Florence, 41-3; Lyons, 
 39-5; Maestricht, 361 ; Marseilles, 18-4; Padua, 36.6 ; Peters- 
 burg, 182; Rome, SI'S; Rotterdam, 22-4 ; Stockholm, 18-7; 
 Vienna, 17. For places in Great Britain the following 
 averages were deduced by Dr. Dalton from observations of 
 a number of years : Manchester, 36-140 inches ; Liverpool, 
 34-118; Lancaster, 39-714; KendaL 53-944; Dumfries, 36-918, 
 Glasgow, 21-331: London, 90-686. Mr. Howard gives the 
 annual average at London equal to 24 - 9 inches ; Professor 
 Phillips at York, 25-7; and Mr. Adie at Edinburgh, 25 
 inches. (On the theory of rain, see Kamptz, Lchrbuck det 
 Meteorologie ; Munckci irr (elder's Physicalisches WbrUr 
 buch ; Daniell's Meteorological Essays, &c.) 
 
 RAINBOW. (Germ- regenbogen ; Lat. iris; Fr. arc ea 
 ciel.) The brilliant-coloured arch which makes its appear- 
 ance when rain >s falling in the region of the sky opposite 
 to the sun, and the sun is shining at the same time. 
 
 This well-known meteor presents, when perfect, the ap- 
 pearance of two concentric arches ; the inner being called 
 the primary, and the outer the secondary rainbow. Each 
 is formed of the colours of the solar spectrum ; but the 
 colours are arranged In the reversed order, the red forming 
 the exterior ring of the primary bow and the interior of the 
 secondary. The innermost bow is a segment of a circle 
 whose radius subtends nn angle of about 42° ; the radius 
 of the outer subtends an angle of about 51° ; and the com 
 mon centre is situated in the prolongation of the straight 
 line which passes through the centre of the sun and the 
 eye of the spectator. From the conditions invariably ac- 
 companying its appearance, the colours of the rainbow 
 were known at an early period to be produced by the sun's 
 rays passing through the drops of falling rain ; but the 
 phenomenon is a complicated one, and was not fully and 
 satisfactorily explained until Newton had discovered the 
 compound nature of solar light, and the different refrangi 
 bility of the component rays. 
 
 In order to explain the phenomenon of the rainbow, let 
 us suppose a beam of light admitted through a small hole 
 in the shutter of a darkened room to fall on a spherical 
 globule of water at I (fig. I,) m the direction of S I, and 
 trace the path of the light in the 
 interior of the globule. On enter- 
 ing the globule at I it is refracted, 
 and consequently decomposed, the 
 rays of each colour being deflected S.. 
 under a different angle from its 
 original direction. For the sake 
 of perspicuity, we shall confine R y 
 our attention to the red ray. Let 
 I K be the direction of the ray after the first refraction. On 
 meeting the surface of the drop at K a portion of the light 
 will effect its escape, and be again refracted in the direction 
 K P, while the remaining portion will be reflected vy th» 
 
 1027 
 
RAINBOW. 
 
 •urface in the direction K L, the lines I K, K L making 
 equal angles with a tangent at K. But on arriving again 
 at the surface at L, this portion of the ray which was re- 
 flected from K will be again divided into two parts ; one 
 part will escape at L, and be refracted in the direction L Q, 
 while the other part will be reflected by the surface, and 
 proceed in the direction L M. At M the phenomenon will 
 be related ; part of the remaining light will escape and 
 be refracted in the direction M R, and the other be reflected 
 in the direction M N. This process will be repeated indef- 
 initely ; but the intensity of the light is diminished at each 
 successive impact, and after a few reflections the quantity 
 which emerges becomes insufficient to make an impression 
 on the eye. All this may be shown experimentally by 
 causing a beam of light to fall upon a glass cylinder rilled 
 with water, and placed in a darkened room ; the red light 
 emerging at the points KLM will be seen when the eye 
 is placed in the straight lines K P, or L Q, or M It. 
 To apply this experiment to the explanation of the rain- 
 bow, it is necessary to determine 
 the inclination of the emerging to 
 the incident ray. We shall first 
 take the case of two refractions 
 with a single intermediate reflec- 
 tion. Let S I (fig. 2) be the inci- 
 dent ray, I K the direction after the 
 first refraction, K the point of re- 
 flection, L the point of emergence, 
 and L R the direction of the emer- 
 ging ray ; also let S I and R L be produced to meet in T. 
 The angle S T R is called the angle of deviation, and the 
 object is now to find an expression for its value in terms of 
 the angle of incidence. Let O Be the centre ; draw O I P 
 and O L, and join O T, which will evidently pass through 
 K. Let us now assume, 
 
 t = O I T == S I P the angle of incidence, 
 r = OKI = OIKthe angle of refraction, 
 D = S T R the angle of deviation ; 
 then, since OKI=KIT + KTI,and KIT = OIT 
 — O I K, we have r = i — r + £ D, whence 
 D = 4r — 2i . . . . (1.) 
 Here D is expressed in terms of r and i ; but by the theory 
 of refraction we have also the relation 
 
 sin. i=:n sin. r . . . . (2.) 
 (where n is the index of refraction for the red ray), bo that 
 the value of D depends only on that of i. 
 
 The angle of incidence, i, may have any value between 
 90° and 0. But it is obvioua that between those values D 
 must have a maximum ; for when S I falls perpendicularly 
 on the globule there is no deviation, and when S I merely 
 touches the globule the deviation usain vanishes. To find 
 the determinate value of i at which the maximum takes 
 place, differentiate the equation fl), and make the differen- 
 tial of D equal to zero; this gives di=2d r . Equation 
 (2) also gives cos. i d i — n cos. r d r ; whence we obtain, 
 by eliminating d r, and dividing both sides of the resulting 
 equation by d i, n cos. r = 2 cos. i. On substituting for cos. 
 r in this equation its value found from (2), the following 
 expression is obtained : 
 
 cos. t" = v^J (n 2 — 1). 
 This is the value of i corresponding to the maximum de- 
 viation expressed in terms of n. But in respect of the red 
 rays, the value of n is found experimentally to be 108 -£• 81 
 rs 1-3333 ; and the corresponding value of t given by the 
 trigonometrical tables is i = 59° 23' 30". From this the 
 values of r and D are readily deduced ; and the three values 
 are as follows : 
 
 i = 59° 23' 30", r = 40° 12 7 10", D = 42° 1' 40". 
 The next step towards the explanation of the phenomenon 
 is, to show that no other light than that which falls on the 
 drop under the angle of incidence corresponding to the great- 
 est deviation, will be refracted in sufficient quantity to make 
 a sensible impression on the eye. Now since S I is the in- 
 cident ray, with respect to which the deviation is a maxi- 
 mum, the rays which are situated very near to S I, on either 
 side, will enter the drop at very nearly the same angle of 
 incidence, and consequently will emerge very nearly paral- 
 lel to L R. With respect then to the pencil of light which 
 falls on the drop at the angle of incidence corresponding to 
 the maximum deviation, all the rays of red light which it 
 contains, and which emerge after the first reflection, will on 
 their emergence be parallel, and enter the eye situated in 
 the straight line L R in sufficient number to make a vivid 
 impression on the retina. But with respect to a pencil fall- 
 ing on the drop at a small distance from '., and consequently 
 under a different nngle of incidence, the red rays at their 
 emergence will not be parallel, but divergent ; and the light 
 will consequently diminish in intensity as it recedes from 
 the drop, and at the distance of the spectator will be much 
 1028 
 
 (3.) 
 
 too faint to produce a distinct impression. It is on this d<» 
 icate principle that the phenomenon principally depends. 
 
 The above principles being clearly understood, all the 
 circumstances of the phenomenon admit of easy explana- 
 tion. Let ABC (fig. 3} be a section of a drop of rain made 
 by the plane passing through the 
 centre of the sun, the centre of 
 the drop, and the eye of the spec- 
 tator; and suppose the rays from 
 the sun's centre to fall on it in 
 the direction S A. Let E be the 
 position of the eye of the specta- 
 tor, whose back is turned towards 
 the sun, and draw E F parallel 
 to S A. Now suppose the line 
 E T to be drawn so as to make E^ 
 with E F an angle of 42° 1' 40", 
 
 and to meet the drop at C; then, since the whole of the an 
 terior surface of the drop is illuminated by the rays S A, 
 some one of those rays must fall on it under an angle of in- 
 cidence, such that after being refracted at A, reflected at 15. 
 and again tefracted at C, it will emerge parallel to C E, and 
 consequently make with E F the maximum angle of devia- 
 tion. The spectator will therefore see the red colour of the 
 spectrum in the direction E O. But it is obvious that all 
 these conditions will be fulfilled in respect of every drop of 
 rain which the line E C will meet, on supposing it to revolve 
 about E F as an axis at the same angle of inclination. Hence 
 the red rays thus refracted form the surface of a cone, the 
 axis of which is the prolongation of the straight line drawn 
 from the centre of the sun to the eye ; and as the eye of the 
 spectator is at the apex of the cone, a circular segment of 
 red light will be visible, the other part of the circle being 
 cut off by the horizon. 
 
 What has now been said has reference only to rays com- 
 ing from the sun's centre ; but the same thing must happen 
 with respect to rays coming from every point of the sun's 
 disk; and as the sun's diameter subtends an angle of about 
 30', the spectator will consequently see a band of red light 
 of the breadth of about 30'. 
 
 The explanation which has now been given of the ap- 
 pearance of the red light applies to all the other colours of 
 the spectrum, the only difference being in the value of the 
 index of refraction. For the violet ray, in passing from air 
 to water, the index is 109 -j- 81 ; we have therefore n ss 
 T3468 ; and on computing from this the values of i, r, and 
 D, by means of the preceding formula 1 , there results, approx- 
 imately, 
 
 i = 58° 40' 3", r = 39° 24' 20", D = 40° 17'. 
 In this case, therefore, the angle of maximum deviation is 
 less than for the red ray, and hence the violet is within the 
 red. The breadth of the violet band will obviously be the 
 same as that of the red, as both depend on the same cause ; 
 namely, the magnitude of the sun's apparent diameter. 
 
 As the red and violet are the rays whose indices of refrac- 
 tion are the least and greatest respectively, all the other 
 prismatic colours will lie between these two, and occupy 
 bands of the same breadth, but with considerable blending 
 into each other ; for the distance between the centre of the 
 red and the centre of the violet, being equal to the differ- 
 ence between their respective angles of maximum deviation, 
 amounts only to 42° 2*— 40° 17' = 1° 45'. The whole 
 breadth of the interior or primary bow is this quantity plus 
 the sun's apparent diameter, or about 2° 15'. 
 
 The size of the bow depends upon the height of the sun 
 above the horizon. When the sun is in the horizon, the 
 bow will be a semicircle to a spectator on a plane ; but on 
 the summit of a mountain, he may see a segment greater 
 than a semicircle. 
 
 We have now to explain the formation of the exterior 
 bow. In this case, the light suffers two reflections in the 
 interior of the globule, and the path of a ray, as represented 
 in fig. 1, is S I K L M R. If we denote the angle of devia- 
 tion, or the angle formed by S I and M R, the incident and 
 emerging rays by D', and take as before i and r to represent 
 the angles of incidence and refraction, it is easy to find the 
 equation, 
 
 jy = 6 r — 2 i — 180°. 
 On proceeding from this by the same method as oefore, to 
 find the value of i corresponding to the maximum value of 
 D', the following equation is obtained : 
 
 cos. i = y/l (»2— 1). 
 
 Substituting for the constant n its val ues in respect of the red 
 and violet rays, the values of t, and consequently of r and 
 D', are obtained. They are as follows : 
 
 red, i = 71° 50', r=45°27', D' = — 50° 59'; 
 violet, i = 71° 26', r zs 44° 47', D' — — 54° 9' ; 
 the minus sign indicating that the incident and emergent 
 rays intersect before the drop. 
 
RAIN-GAUGE. 
 
 from these values it appears that in the case of the ex- 
 terior Ikjw the deviation is least in respect of the red ray, 
 mil greatest in respect of the violet ; the order of the colours 
 is therefore reversed, the red occupying the innermost band, 
 and the violet the outermost, as represented in fig. 4, where 
 E it is the red and E V the 
 violet ray, the eye of the 
 spectator being at E. The 
 breadth from the middle of 
 the red to the middle of the 
 violet is 3° 10/, or nearly 
 double that of the interior 
 bow. The interval between 
 the red of the interior bow 
 and the red of the exterior 
 is 50° 5'/— 42° 2', or 8° 57'. 
 All these values, deduced 
 as above from the theory 
 of refraction, are found to 
 agree exactly with ihose 
 found by actual measurement. 
 
 Hr. llalley, in the Phil. Trans, for 1700, has computed 
 the diameters of the rainbows formed by three, four, and 
 five reflections; but these bows are rarely if ever seen, the 
 light being tin) faint to make an impression on the eye. Su- 
 pernumerary or spurious rainbows arc sometimes seen with- 
 in the primary and without the secondary bow, and having 
 the same order of colours as the bows to which they respec- 
 tively belong. They are explained by Dr. Young on the 
 theory of the Interference of light. (Phil. Trans. 1804; 
 I^ect., vol. i., p. 470.) An inverted or distorted iris is some- 
 observed lying on the ground, formed by the drops of 
 dew suspended from the lops of the blades of grass, or from 
 spidcis' webs. In favourable circumstances lunar rainbows 
 are sometimes seen ; but their colours are faint and scarcely 
 perceptible, 
 'i'lir tirst explanation of the true theory of the rainbow if 
 iy ascribed (see Newton's Optics) to Antonio De Do- 
 rnmis, archbishop of Spalalro, whose work Ue Radiis Visis 
 et I.vcis, was published at Venice in Kill, but slated to have 
 been written twenty years previously. It would appear, 
 however, from the account of this work given by Boscovich, 
 Moniucla, Priestley, and Biot, that the merit of Ue Domini* 
 was confined to a vague statement or surmise, unsupported 
 by experiment, that the interior bow is formed by two re- 
 fractions and an Intermediate reflection. He gave no reason 
 for the precise angle which its diameter subtends j and with 
 il to the exterior how, his attempt to explain its forma- 
 tion is wholly erroneous. The true theory of the exterior 
 bow, and the determination of the particular angles of devi- 
 ation under which alone the rays transmitted to the eye are 
 sufficiently dense to be visible, belongs to Uescartes. The 
 explanation given by Descartes, in his Dioptrics, is complete 
 in every respect, excepting as to the cause of the colours, 
 the theory of which was supplied by Newton's great dis- 
 covery of the unequal refrangibility of the different rays. 
 (See Montucln, Histoire ties Mathcmaliqv.es, vol. i., p. 700; 
 Priestley on Vision, p. 107 ; Biot, Traite de Physique, torn. 
 
 iii., p. 400. 
 
 RAIN GAUGE, also called OMBROMETER. UDOME- 
 TEK, and PU'VIAMKTER. An instrument tor measur- 
 ing or gauging tlie quantity of rain which falls at a given 
 place. 
 
 " The rain-gauge may be of very simple construction. A 
 cubical box of strong tin or zinc, exactly 10 inches by the 
 side, open above, receives at an inch below its edge a funnel, 
 sloping to a small hole in the centre. On one of the lateral 
 edges of the box, close to the top of the cavity, is soldered 
 a short pipe, in which a cork is fitted. The whole should 
 be well painted. The water which enters this gauge is 
 poured through the short tube into a cylindrical glass vessel, 
 graduated to cubic inches and fifths of cubic, inches. Hence, 
 one inch depth of rain in the guage will lie measured by 100 
 inches of the graduated vessel, and l-100th inch of rain may 
 be very easily read off. 
 
 " It is very much to be desired that, being of such easy 
 construction, more than one of these gauges should be erect- 
 ed; or at least one placed with its edge nearly level with 
 the ground, nnd another upon the top of the highest build- 
 ing, rock, or tree in the immediate vicinity of the place of 
 Observation, the height of which must be carefully determ- 
 ined, it having been satisfactorily ascertained that the height 
 of the gauge above the ground is a very material element 
 of the quantity of rain which enters it. The quantity of 
 water should be daily measured and registered at 9 a. m." 
 (Report of the President and Council of the Royal Society on 
 the Instructions to be prepared for the Scientific Kxpcdition 
 It the Jlntartic Regions, 1840.) 
 
 A convenient form of the instrument is represented in the 
 
 anm.w.d figure, when- the rain which enters the funnel is 
 
 ted in a cylindrical vessel of copper, connected with 
 
 which at the lower part is a glass tube with an attached 
 
 RAMPART. 
 
 scale. The water stands at the same height in 
 the cylinder and glass tube, and being visible 
 in the latter, the height is read immediately on 
 the scale ; and the cylinder and tube being con 
 structed so that the sum of the areas of their sec- 
 tions is a given part, for instance a tenth, of the 
 area of the funnel at its orifice, each inch of 
 water in the tube is equivalent to the tenth of an 
 inch of water entering the moutfpof the funnel. 
 A stop-cock is added, by which the water is 
 drawn off when the observation is made. 
 
 RAISING PLATE, or UPPER PLATE. In Architec- 
 ture, the plate or longitudinal timber on which the roof 
 stands raised or placed. 
 
 RA'JAH. The hereditary princes of the Hindoos are so 
 termed. They belong to the caste of warriors, or Cshatriya, 
 and are generally dependent on Europeans, except in those 
 parts of the country which the European arms have not as 
 yet penetrated. See Caste. 
 
 RAKE, TO. The sea term for incline, and applies to the 
 masts, stem, and stern-post, &c. ; the bowsprit, instead of 
 raking, is said to sleeve. Masts generally rake aft, and in 
 peculiar rigs only forward. The rake of the mast has an 
 influence on the sailing of the vessel, and the masts of some 
 schooners rake excessively. The principal effect seems to 
 be to diminish the effect common to all the sails, of depress 
 ing the ship's head. 
 
 To rake a ship, is to fire into her head or stern in the di- 
 rection of her length, or along her decks. It is similar to 
 what engineers term enfilading. 
 
 RAM. In Hydraulics. See Hydraulic Rah. 
 
 RAMADAN, or KIIA.M AUAN. The name given to the 
 great fast or Lent of the Mohammedans. It commences 
 with the new moon of the ninth month of the Mohammedan 
 year: and, while it continues, the day is spent uninterrupt 
 edly in prayers and other devotional exercises. Even the 
 night is passed by the more rigid of the faithful in the 
 mosques, which are splendidly illuminated on this . 
 but, generally speaking, the arrival of sunset is the signal 
 for a more than usually unlimited Indulgence in the plea- 
 sures of the table; and, on the third evening of the fast, the 
 grand vi/.ier commences a series of otlicial banquets. The 
 Ramadan ends on the day preceding the only other great 
 festival of the Mohammedans — the Bairum (whii 
 equivalent to our Kaster. 
 
 R AM A YA'NA (Sanscr. the Career or Travels of Rama), 
 the oldest of the two great Sanscrit epic poems, 
 the life and actions of the bero Kama, and his wile Situ ; 
 ami especially Kama's expedition to Ceylon, to re 
 from the tyrant Kawana. The poem is thought to have been 
 composed before the Christian era ; but there is no certain 
 indication of il~ in A translation of it was commenced by 
 Messrs. Carey and Marshman (printed at Serampore); and 
 another by A. YV. von Schlegel (Bonn, 18-20). 
 
 RAM, BATTERING. See Battering Ram. 
 
 RAME'NTA. In Botany, thin, brown, foliaceous scales, 
 appearing sometimes in great abundance upon young shoots, 
 and particularly numerous and highly developed upon the 
 petioles and the backs of the leaves of ferns. 
 
 RA'MISTS, or RA'MEANS. In Philosophy, the partisans 
 of Pierre Rame, better known by his Latin name of Ramus, 
 royal professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Paris in the 
 reign of Henry II. He perished in the massacre of St. Bar 
 tholomew. His system of logic was opposed to that of the 
 Aristotelian party; and during the latter half of the 16th 
 century a vehement contest was maintained between their 
 respective adherents in France, Germany, and other parts 
 of Europe. (Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Eu- 
 rope, vol. ii., ch. 3.) " He conferred," says the same writer, 
 "material obligations on science by denying the barbarous 
 method of the schoolmen. What are the merits of his own 
 method, is a different question." (lb. vol. i., ch. 7.) 
 
 RAMNE'NSES, or RAMNES. The name of the first 
 century of the 300 horsemen who constituted the cnvalry of 
 Rome under the early kings. Most probably the name also 
 applied at first to the original century of patrician houses 
 established by Romulus, and distinguished them from the 
 Tatienses and Luceres ; whose names, in like manner, must 
 he supposed to extend not merely to the two remaining cen- 
 turies of cavalry, but to the two centuries of tribes respect 
 ively instituted bv Romulus, on the accession of the Sabines 
 and Tarquinius Priscus. (See the histories of Niebuhr and 
 Arnold.) 
 
 RAMP. (Fr. Rampe.) In Architecture, a concave bend 
 or slope in the cap or upper member of any piece of ascend- 
 ing or descending workmanship. 
 
 RA'MPANT. (Fr.) In Heraldry, a term used to describe 
 lions, tigers, bears, tec, when represented as standing erect 
 on their hind legs. 
 
 RA'MPART, or RAMPIER. In Fortification, the wall 
 which surrounds a fortified place. It is built of the earth 
 taken out of the ditch ; though the lower part of the outei 
 
 1029 
 
RAMS' HORNS. 
 
 slope is usually constructed of masonry. The advantage 
 of eartn is, that the balls instead of splintering the work, 
 and rebounding in various directions to the great injury of 
 the besieged, pass forward into the earth, and bury them- 
 selves there. This also renders the rampart of earth much 
 more durable under the fire of the besiegers than masonry 
 would be. The usual height of the rampart is about three 
 fathoms, and its thickness about ten or twelve feet. See 
 Fortification. 
 
 RAMS' HORNS. In°Fortification, the name given by 
 Belidor to the tenailles. See Tenaille. 
 
 RA'NA. (Lat. a frog.) The generic name of the tail- 
 less Batrachian reptiles, which have the hind legs longer 
 than the fore, and webbed toes fitted for swimming, and 
 not expanded at the extremity. Their head is flat, muzzle 
 rounded, and the opening of their jaws large ; the tongue 
 in most of them is soft, and not attached to the bottom of 
 the gullet, but to the edges of the jaw, with the free end 
 turned backwards. There are hut four toes to the ante- 
 rior feet; the hind ones frequently exhibit the rudiment of 
 a sixth. 
 
 There are no ribs to the skeleton, and a prominent carti- 
 laginous plate supplies the place of a tympanum, and ren- 
 ders the ear visible externally. The eye is furnished with 
 two fleshy lids, and a third, which is transparent and hori- 
 zontal, concealed under the lower one. Inspiration is ef- 
 fected by the muscles of the throat, which, by dilating, 
 draw in air by the nostrils, and by contracting while the 
 nostrils are closed by the tongue, compel the air to enter the 
 lungs; expiration, on the contrary, is produced by the mus- 
 cles of the lower part of the abdomen. The young frog, 
 which is called a tadpole, is at first furnished with a long 
 fleshy tail, and a small horny beak, having no other ap- 
 parent limbs than little fringes on the sides of the neck. 
 These disappear in a few days, and the hind feet of the 
 tadpole are very gradually and visibly developed ; the fore 
 feet are also developed, but under the skin, through which 
 they subsequently penetrate. The tail is gradually ab- 
 sorbed. The beak falls and discloses the true jaws, which 
 at first were soft and concealed beneaih the skin ; and the 
 branchiae are absorbed, leaving to the lungs alone the func- 
 tion of respiration in which they participated. The eyes, 
 which at first could only be discerned through a transpa- 
 rent spot in the skin of the tadpole, are now visible with 
 their three lids. Tadpoles reproduce their limbs almost 
 like salamanders. 
 
 The period at which each of these changes takes place 
 varies with the species. In cold and temperate climates, 
 the perfect animal passes the winter under ground, or in 
 the mud under water, without eating or breathing; though 
 if it be prevented from respiring during the summer for a 
 few minutes by keeping its mouth open, it dies. 
 
 RA'NDOM SHOT. A shot discharged with the axis of 
 the gun above the horizontal or point blank direction. 
 
 RANGE, in Gunnery, is the horizontal distance to which 
 a shot or other projectile is carried. Were it not for the 
 resistance of the air, the path described by a projectile 
 acted upon by the force of gravity would be a parabola ; 
 and the greatest range would be obtained by discharging 
 the projectile at an angle of 45° of elevation. But by rea- 
 son of the atmospheric resistance, the path actually de- 
 scribed is very different fron» a parabola, and the elevation 
 vvhich gives the greatest range can only he determined by 
 experiment. See Gunnery, Projectiles. 
 
 Range. A certain quantity of cable drawn up out of the 
 cable tied and laid along the deck, equal in length to the 
 depth of water, in order that the anchor, when let go, may 
 reach the bottom without being checked. 
 
 RA'NGER. Formerly a sworn officer of the king's 
 forests, whose principal duty it was to see and inquire of 
 trespassers in his bailiwicks, and present them at the next 
 court holden for the forest ; but now merely an officer of 
 state. See Forest. 
 
 RA'NIDJE. The family of Batrachian reptiles, hav- 
 ing as the type the frog {Rana temporaria, Linn.) See 
 Rana. 
 
 RA'NTERS. A sect which oriainated in a secession 
 from the Wesleyan connexion, on the ground that the 
 Wesleyans paid too much attention to order and decorum 
 in the conducting of public worship, and that they were de- 
 ficient in zeal in obtruding the gospel on the minds of the 
 people by open preaching in the streets and fields. The 
 ministers of this party parade the streets, preaching, sing- 
 ing hymns, and inviting the populace to come to their 
 places of worship. They admit of female preaching; a 
 thing unknown to every other body of Methodists. Their 
 Rhapels are about 400 in number; their preachers, 2700; 
 their members, 34,000. (Bourne's Hist, of the Prim. Meth- 
 odists.) 
 
 RA'NULA. (Lat rana, a frog, to which it has been 
 supposed to bear some resemblance.) A tumour under the 
 ongue, generally arising from some obstruction of the ducts 
 1030 
 
 RASORES. 
 
 of the salivary glands ; when they break they are apt tc 
 leave a very troublesome ulcer. 
 
 RANUNCULA'CEjE. (Ranunculus, one of the genera.) 
 Exogenous Polypetalous plants, in almost all cases herba- 
 ceous, inhabiting the colder parts of the world, and un- 
 known in hot countries, except at considerable elevations 
 They are of great importance, in consequence of their usu- 
 ally poisonous qualities, as evinced by aconite and helle- 
 bore in particular, which are the roots of several species. 
 Some of them are objects of beauty, as the larkspurs, rn 
 nunculus, anemone, and poeony. A few are amply astrin- 
 gent, as the coptis or gold thread of North America. Tin; 
 plants of this order are readily known by having an indefi 
 nite number of hypogynous stamens, separate carpels, ex 
 stipulate undotted leaves, and an herbaceous stem. 
 
 RANS DES VACHES. (Germ. Kuhreigen.) The name 
 of the simple and beautiful melody which the Swiss herds- 
 men are in the habit of playing on the Alpine horn, and 
 sometimes of singing, when they drive out their herds to 
 the mountains. It consists of a few simple intervals, and 
 has a beautiful effect in the echoes of the Swiss moun- 
 tains. The natives regard it almost with rapture, and are 
 said to be seized with irrepressible longings to return to 
 their native country when they hear it played in a foreign 
 land. 
 
 RAPE. (Lat. raptus.) In Criminal Jurisprudence, a 
 well-known and detestable offence commiited against wo- 
 men. This oflence has been most properly viewed by all 
 legislators as one of the gravest character, and has been 
 usually visited with the highest penalties. The accusation 
 of rape, it is true, is one that may be easily made, and is, 
 no doubt, sometimes preferred in cases where consent has 
 been given. The proof, therefore, should be clear in pro- 
 portion to the enormity of the crime ; but when proved it is 
 one that should very rarely indeed escape the utmost ven- 
 geance of the law. Capital punishment for this offence 
 was abolished in 1841. 
 
 Rape. An Anglo-Saxon territorial division, of which 
 the etymology is uncertain. Sussex is the only county di- 
 vided into rapes; each containing three or four hundred. 
 These subsisted as military divisions at the time when 
 Domesday Book was compiled. They were formerly under 
 the superintendence of " rasse-reeves," subordinate to the 
 sheriffof the county. 
 
 Rape. A plant belonging to the cabbage family (Bras- 
 sica rapa, Linn.), cultivated in fields for its seeds, which 
 are crushed for oil; and sometimes for its leaves, which 
 are fed off by sheep. In Belgium another species or vai iet y 
 of Brassica is cultivated for these purposes, called cubyn. 
 the Brassica oliefera of De Candolle. 
 
 RAPHE. (Gr. pu<bn, a suture.) In Botany, the vascu- 
 lar cord communicating between the nucleus of an ovule 
 and the placenta, when the base of the former is removed 
 from the base of the ovulum. 
 
 Raphe. In Anatomy, a term applied to parts which look- 
 as if they had been sewed or joined together. 
 
 RATIIIDES. (Gr. piitpy.) Certain needle-like trans- 
 parent bodies found lying in the tissue of plants. They 
 were formerly thought to be peculiar organs, but are now 
 known to be the crystals of various salts. 
 
 RAPTO'RES. (Lat. raptor, a robber.) Rapacious birds, 
 or ravenere. The name of the order of birds called Jiccipi- 
 tres by Linnsus and Cuvier, including those which live by- 
 rapine, and are characterized by a strong, curved, sharp- 
 edged, and sharp-pointed beak : and robust short legs, with 
 three toes before and one behind, armed with long, strong, 
 crooked talons. 
 
 RARE'FACTION. In Physics, an augmentation of the 
 intervals between the particles of matter, whereby the 
 same number of particles occupy a larger space. The term 
 is chiefly used in speaking of trie aeriform fluids, the terms 
 dilatation and expansion being applied in speaking of solids 
 and liquids. In the free atmosphere rarefaction is caused 
 by diminishing the pressure, and hence the air becomes 
 rarefied at elevations above the general level. The limits 
 to which rarefaction may be carried are not known ; but it 
 has been proved by experiments with the air-pomp, that 
 air may be rarefied so as to occupy a volume 13,000 times 
 greater than it occupies under the ordinary pressure. 
 
 RASKO'LNIKS. (Russ. raskolo, a dieision.) The 
 name of the largest and most important body of dissenters 
 from the Greek Church in the Russian dominions. They 
 designate themselves Starowerzt, or the Orthodox ; but dif 
 fer from the Greek Church only in the outward forms of 
 religion, and in maintaining a more strict ecclesiastical dis- 
 cipline. This body was formerly subjected to persecution , 
 but it is now treated with comparative toleration, though 
 its members are still excluded from the service of the state. 
 Their number is said to be about 300,000. 
 
 RASO'RES. (Lat. rado, I scratch.) Gallinaceous birds, 
 or scratchers. The name of an order of birds, including 
 those which have strong feet, provided with obtuse claws 
 
RAT. 
 
 for scratching up grains, fcc, and the upper mandible 
 vaulted, with the nostrils pierced in a membranous space 
 at its base, and covered by a cartilaginous scale. Sre Gal- 
 
 RAT. The name of a large, destrictive, and very pro- 
 lific species of the genus Mas (Mus decumanus, Linn.), 
 introduced into the British Islands from Asia ; not, as is 
 commonly believed, from Norway. It has spread over all 
 the country, and multiplied at the expense of the old Brit- 
 ish species called the "black rat" (JMus rattus. Linn.). 
 See Mus. 
 
 RATCHET, in Clock and Watch Work, is the name 
 given to an arm or piece of mechanism, one extremity of 
 which abuts against the teeth of a ratchet wheel, and the 
 other extremity is either freely jointed to a reciprocating 
 driver for the purpose of communicating a continuous mo- 
 tion to the Wheel, or is attached to ■ fixed centre to ensure 
 the wheel against reverse motion. In the former case it is 
 ■lao called a click or jmul, In the lattrr ■ • 
 
 RATCHET WHEEL. A wheel laving teeth formed 
 like those of a saw, against which the ratchet abuts. 8m 
 Ratchet. 
 
 RATE OF A SHU*, in the Royal Navy. The navy is 
 divided into three classes. Rated ships, commanded' by 
 captains; sloops and vessels, by commanders; and the 
 third class by lieutenants. Hated ships arc divided into six 
 1st, all three-deckers; 2d, two-deckers, having 700 
 men and upwards (war establishment); 3d, ships baring 
 
 from IM to HO0 men; 4th, ships having from 000 to 400 
 men; 5th, ships having from 400 to 250 men; Gth, ships 
 having under 250 men. 
 
 ■is of a Vessel is measured by the leg, which 
 see. Various plans have been proposed for this purpose 
 by various tonus of the log itself, by the rise of water in 
 tubes communicating with the sea, and (by Captain Hur- 
 ney) by the measure upon a body towed astern .and puiling 
 on a spring. Hut the violence and Irregularity of the pull, 
 and the uncertainty in reading the result, have probably 
 combined to set aside thhi last plan, which, in theory, seems 
 to promise some advantages; because the pressure, increas- 
 ing IS the square of the velocity, would show very small 
 ocity: for the same reason, howl 
 -nit shown in a heavy sea would be too . 
 cert. in and simple method of ascertaining the velocity at 
 any instant, with precision, is one of the most important 
 fleshier fit II towards the perfection of naval science. 
 
 BATHOFFITE. in Mineralogy', a species of garnet 
 found la Sweden, accompanied liy calcspar and horn- 
 blende. 
 
 RATIFICATION. (Let retain, determined, facio, / 
 make.) The solemn act by which a c omp e ten t authority 
 Idlty to an instrument, agreement, &c. The term 
 U ordinarily used In International law for the sanction 
 governments to treaties contracted bv their repre- 
 sentatives. In Preach law, ratification is defined the a;>- 
 probation or confirmation of what has been done or prom- 
 ised. Thus, in many instances, a person, on attaining his 
 majority, ratifies acts done by himself Of his guardian in his 
 minority. And ratification is either express ,, r tacit; the 
 latter resulting, by implication, from his silence for ten 
 :ter attaining his majority. 
 
 B \ TIO (Lnt.), in Geometry, is defined bv Euclid (Ele- 
 m ent.t, book v., def. 3) to be "a mutual relation of two 
 magnitudes of the same kind to one another in n 
 quantity." This definition has been much erltjd 
 Barrow (Lectienee Math.) calls it a metaphysical definition, 
 inasmuch as it is not properly a mathematical definition, 
 since nothing in mathematics depends on it, or can be de- 
 duced from it; and supposes that Euclid had probably no 
 other design in making it than to give a general summary 
 idea of rario to beginners. It has been remarked, that as 
 the word quantity in our language, if not quite synonymous 
 with magnitude, has a signification only a little more gen- 
 eral, the definition as above rendered is either tautological 
 or unmeaning. Or. Bimsoa supposes it to be the interpola- 
 tion of some unskilful editor. Leslie (Elements of Geome- 
 •niously supposes that the Greek word TrnXtKOTva, 
 which is usually translated quantity, may have reference 
 tude or number, as well as to magnitude, and that 
 Euclid's definition maybe rendered as follows: "Ratio is 
 a certain mutual habitude of two homogeneous magnitudes 
 with respect to quotity, or numerical composition." Dr. 
 Willis (Opera Mathematica, torn, ii., p. 6(15) translates the 
 himc word by the Latin qua.ntuplir.itas, which refers to the 
 number of times the one magnitude is contained in the 
 -ither. Dr. Peacock (..1/grbra, p. 309) remarks, that there 
 is no geometrical definition of ratio by which the equiva- 
 lence of different modes of representation may be ascer- 
 tained as necessary consequences; and for this reason, ra- 
 tios in geometry are only considered in connexion with 
 enrh other, as constituting, or not constituting, a proportion. 
 in arithmetic and algebra, a ratio may be defined as the 
 
 RATTLESNAKE. 
 
 fraction whose numerator is the antecedent, and den<«ui 
 nator the consequent of the ratio; and hence. In those sci- 
 ences, the theory of ratios become identified with the theo- 
 ry of fractions. (For an account of what has been written 
 on the subject of geometrical ratios, see Camcrcr's Euclid, 
 Excursus ad lib. v., Berlin, 18 
 
 RATION. In the Army, a portion of food and nmmu 
 nition, &c, distributed to each soldier lor his daily main 
 tenance. The rations of officers vary according to the num 
 ber of servants in their pay. 
 
 RATIONAL. In Arithmetic and Algebra, an expres 
 sion in finite terms; or one in which no extraction of a root 
 is left ; or, at least, none such indicated, which cannot be 
 actually performed by known processes. The contrary of 
 these are called surd or irrational quantities. Thus. % 9, 
 12A, are rational quantities; and y/% %/i, &c„ are irration- 
 al or surd quantities, because their values can only be ap- 
 proximately, and not accurately, assigned. 
 
 RATIONAL HORIZON. In Geography, the plane 
 parsing through the centre of the earth parallel to the sen 
 tible huri-.un of the place to which it is red rred. See 
 Horizon. 
 
 RATIONALISM. The interpretation of scripture truths 
 upon the principles of human reason ; vvJiich has become 
 famous in the present day by the theological systems to 
 which it has given birth in Germany. The history of the 
 progress of the opinions of the reformed churches of that 
 country may be found in Dr. Pusey's essay upon this sub- 
 ject. He conceives the ]>■>. imical discussions which pre- 
 vailed throughout those comniuniiies in the 17th and first 
 half of the following century to have prepared the way for 
 the reception of the low views of Christianity, as a moral 
 system, which were derived from the writings of the con- 
 cealed or avowed deists of this country. Herbert, Tyndal, 
 Morgan, Toland. &.<•.; and from the tone with which they 
 were reviewed by the sincere, but odd. theologians of the 
 Orthodox party. From the middle of the last century there 
 has arisi n in Germany a succession of divines — Hnuingar- 
 ten, Mlehaelis, Sender, Bichborn, Paulas Bretschneider, 
 &.'•., who have endeavoured either to affix a lower and 
 more human ci'. ble operations of God 
 
 upon men throng ' Ity, or to reduce the accounts 
 
 which we have of the foundation of our religion to the mix- 
 ture of truth and error natural to fallible men. They have 
 I the genuineness of almost all the separate parts 
 of Scripture, and the accuracy of all their supernatural 
 narratives. The discredit into which these theologians ap- 
 pear to have fallen arises, in a great measure, from the ina- 
 bility they have shown to produce a connected and con 
 sistent system of religion upon the low ground which they 
 have taken up. Of later years a much more spiritual con- 
 ception of the nature of scripture promises .and Christian 
 assistances is observable in the writings of German divines, 
 under the operation of which their theological criticism has 
 already assumed a more dignified and exalted tone. The 
 sensation created by Strauss's Life of Christ, the latest, 
 and In some respects the most remarkable production of the 
 nationalist school, may probably have aided in this reac 
 linn. (See the article " Rationnlismus," in the Con v. Lrxi- 
 rnn. The English reader may consult the writings of Mr. 
 Hugh Rose and Dr. Pusey on the subject of German ra- 
 tionalism; Jltkinson's View vfU'ninrsitics in Clermavy ; 
 Hawkins's Germany, and two articles in the Church of 
 England Quarterly Review, Oct. 1837, and Jan. 1S18.) 
 
 RATLINES. Small horizontal lines or ropes extended 
 over the shrouds, thus forming the steps of ladders for 
 going up and down the rigging and masts. To rattle the 
 rigging, is to fix these ratlines. 
 
 RATTANS, or CANES. The long slender shoots of a 
 prickly bush (Calamus rotavg, Linn.), one of the most use- 
 ful plants of the Malay peninsula and the Eastern islands. 
 They are exported to Bengal, to Europe, and above all to 
 China, where they are consumed in immense quantities. 
 For cane-work they should be chosen long, of a bright pale 
 yellow colour, well glazed, and of a small size; not brittle 
 or subject to break. They are purchased by the bundle, 
 which ought to contain 100 rattans, having their ends bent 
 together, and tied in the middle. In China they are sold by 
 the picul, which contains from 9 to 12 bundles. Such as 
 are black or dirk-coloured, snap short, or from which the 
 glazing flies off on their being bent, should be rejected. 
 When stowed as dunnage, they are generally allowed to 
 pass free of freight. (Milburn's Orient. Com., Src.) The 
 imports into this country are very considerable. (See Com 
 Diet.) 
 
 RATTLESNAKE. One of the most deadly of poison- 
 ous serpents is so called, on account of the peculiar rattling 
 instrument which it carries at the extremity of the tail, 
 and which is formed of several horny flattened rings, loose 
 ly attached together, which move and rattle whenever the 
 snimal shakes or niters the position of the tail. These 
 rings increase In number with the age of the animal, and It 
 
 1031 
 
RATTLESNAKE ROOT. 
 
 Is asserted it acquires an additional one at each casting of 
 the skin. The generic name of the rattlesnake, Crotalus 
 (from the Greek kootoXos, a rattle), relates to the above 
 mentioned peculiarity. Two species are well distinguish- 
 ed ; viz. the Crotalus horridus of the United States, and the 
 Crotalus durissus of Guiana. The genus is peculiarly 
 American. In common with the boa, the rattlesnakes 
 have simple transverse plates beneath the body and tail. 
 Their muzzle is hollowed by a little round depression be- 
 hind each nostril. The habits of the rattlesnake are slug- 
 gish ; they move slowly, and only bite when provoked, or 
 for the purpose of killing their prey. They feed principally 
 upon birds, rats, squirrels, &c, which it is believed they 
 have the power of fascinating. 
 
 RATTLESNAKE ROOT. The root of the Polygala 
 Senega, a stimulant said to have proved a serviceable rem- 
 edy in cases of the bite of the rattlesnake. 
 
 RA'VELIN, in Military Works, is a detached work com- 
 posed of two embankments forming a salient angle. It is 
 raised before the curtain on the counterscarp of the work, 
 serving to cover it and the adjacent flanks from the direct 
 fire of the enemy. When used to cover the approach to a 
 bridge, it is caMed a tete du pont. It is also used in field 
 fortification. 
 
 RAY, Rata. (Lat. radius, a ray.) A genus of cartila- 
 ginous Plagiostomous fishes, recognisible by their horizon- 
 tally flattened and broad, disk-shaped body, which is chiefly 
 composed of the immense pectoral fins, the jointed and 
 branched rays of which diverge, like the rays of a fan, and 
 support a broad duplicature of the skin, which is continu- 
 ous anteriorly with that of the side of the flattened head ; 
 whence the name of the genus. The Rata of Linnteus are 
 now divided into many subgenera, of which the sting ray, 
 eagle ray, electric ray, fire flare, skate, &c, are the respect- 
 ive types. 
 
 Ray. In Optics, a beam of light propagated in a straight 
 line from some luminous point. A ray of white light may 
 be divided by refraction into a number of distinct rays of 
 different colours. See Refraction. 
 
 RA'YAH. The designation by the Turkish government 
 of its non-Mohammedan subjects, who pay the capitation 
 tax. Under Bajazet I. the taxable Rayahs in Turkey, in 
 Europe, were numbered at 1,112,000; under Selim, the late 
 sultan, 1,337,000. 
 
 RAZE'E. (Fr.) The term used for any vessel cut down 
 to an inferior class, as a 74 to a frigate, &c. By razeeing, 
 the draught of water is diminished, while the centre of 
 gravity is lowered, and the qualities of the vessel have gen- 
 erally, though not invariably, been improved. 
 
 REACH. That portion of the length of a river in which 
 the stream preserves the same direction. 
 
 REACTION. A term used in Mechanics to denote the 
 •eciprocaHty of force exerted by two bodies which act mu- 
 tually on each other; or the general fact, collected from 
 observation, that any two bodies repelling or attracting each 
 other are made to recede or approach with equal momenta. 
 Newton's third law of motion is, that "reaction is always 
 contrary and equal to action, or that the mutual actions of 
 two bodies are always equal, exerted in opposite directions." 
 In the mathematical consideration of mechanics, this prin- 
 ciple must be assumed as* necessary axiom or law ; and, in 
 fact, as is remarked by Dr. Young (Nat. Phil.), there would 
 be something peculiar, and almost inconceivable, in a force 
 which could affect unequally the similar particles of mat- 
 ter ; or in the particles themselves, if they could be sup- 
 posed of such different degrees of mobility as to be equally 
 moveable with respect to one force, and unequally with re- 
 spect to another. The principle may, therefore, as justly 
 be termed a necessary law as an experimental fact. 
 
 REA'DER. In Ecclesiastical matters, one of the five in- 
 ferior orders in the Romish Church. In the Church of Ens 
 land, a reader is a deacon appointed to do divine service In 
 churches and chapels of which no one has the cure. There 
 are also readers (priests) attached to various eleemosynary 
 and other foundations. 
 
 REAL. See Money. 
 
 REA'LGAR. Red sulphnret of arsenic. It is found na- 
 tive, and is composed of 38 arsenic -f- 16 sulphur. 
 
 RE'ALISM, in Philosophy, has two distinct meanings, 
 according ; ,s it is used in contradistinction to idealism or to 
 nominalism; in the former case relating to the theory of 
 perception, in the second to the theory of abstraction and 
 generalization. For the first, see Perception and Ideal- 
 ism ; for the second, Scholastic Philosophy, Tiiomists, 
 Rcotists, and Nominalists. 
 
 REAL PRESENCE. See Transubstantiation. 
 
 REAL PROPERTY. Real property is commonly said 
 to consist in " lands, tenements, and hereditaments ;" of 
 which terms the last is, in fact, coextensive witli the term 
 real property itself, expressing the same thing by the quality 
 which the logicians would term its difference, viz., that it 
 descends to the heir wherever held in perfect right : thus 
 1033 . 
 
 REASON. 
 
 distinguished from all other species of full property, which 
 if possessed in equally absolute right, descend to the execu 
 tors or administrators of the party. Hereditaments, then 
 are either corporeal or incorporeal ; the first being land and 
 its visible adjuncts recognised by the law as appertaining to 
 it, consisting principally of whatever is fixed thereon ; the 
 second, to follow Blackstone's division, are chiefly ten — ad- 
 vowsons, tithes, rights of common, rights of way, offices, 
 dignities, franchises, corodies (pensions charged on ecclesi- 
 astical property, now obsolete), annuities charged on land, 
 and rents reserved out of lands and tenements. The quali- 
 ty of the property which the man may possess in those ob- 
 jects included under the term real (technically called hia 
 estate) may vary in tenure or in degree. See Freehold, 
 Copyhold, Fee Simple, &c. 
 
 REAM. A quantity of paper, consisting generally o( 
 twenty quires of twenty-four sheets each ; but what is call- 
 ed the printer's ream contains 21£ quires, or 516 sheets. See 
 Paper. 
 
 RE'APING. Cutting down corn or pulse with a sickle, 
 hook, or scythe, or by a reaping machine. These opera- 
 tions are more advantageously performed when the corn or 
 pulse is not quite ripe than when it is thoroughly ripe ; be- 
 cause in the Litter case the seeds are apt to drop out in the 
 process of handling, turning, and drying. 
 
 REAR. The third or last division of a fleet, commanded 
 by a rear admiral. 
 
 REAR GUARD. That part of an army, a regiment, or 
 battalion, which marches after the main body. Rea? rank 
 signifies the last rank of a battalion when drawn up in open 
 order. 
 
 REA'SON. (Lat. ratio.) That particular faculty in man 
 of which either the exclusive or the more intense enjoy- 
 ment distinguishes him from the rest of the animal creation. 
 Like most of the terms in the science of mind, that of reason 
 has been employed in a great variety of significations. Du- 
 gald Stewart takes it in its widest sense, and comprises un- 
 der it all the operations of the intellect upon the materials 
 of knowledge which are furnished in the first instance by 
 sense and perception. Its office is to distinguish the true 
 from the false, right from wrong, and to combine means for 
 the attainment of particular ends. According to this defi 
 nition, therefore, the province of reason is coextensive with 
 the range of human activity, and it directs itself to the three 
 supreme objects of desire to man — the good, the beautiful, 
 and the true. Mr. Hume, however, withdraws the discern- 
 ment of right and wrong, and of the beautiful and its con- 
 trary, from the domain of reason ; and, on the other hand, 
 also, denies the certainty of the truth which it enunciates, 
 and limits its convincing force merely to a certain weight of 
 probability. Locke's usage of the term, again, partaking as 
 it does of the general looseness of his phraseology, is very 
 different. In one passage reason is declared to be the fac- 
 ulty which finds out the means, and rightly applies them, to 
 discover either the certain agreement or disagreement of two 
 ideas, or their probable connexion. But, in another place, 
 it is said to be conversant with certainty alone ; white the 
 discovery of what, as probable, enforces a contingent assent 
 or opinion, is ascribed to an especial faculty, which is called 
 the judgment. Bird, on the other hand, confines the latter 
 term to the apprehension of intuitive truth ; but agrees so 
 far with Locke as to make it one part of reason, whose 
 other part is reasoning, both demonstrative and moral. On 
 the whole, however, it is clear that in the mind of Locke 
 the terms reasoning and reason were nearly, if not quite, 
 equivalent. But reasoning and deduction are evidently not 
 the source either of the dignity or the authority of the hu 
 man intellect. The discursive faculty can never establish 
 any other than a conditional truth, which predisposes some 
 anterior and pre-established verity as its basis and verifica- 
 tion. If there were not in the human mind something pri- 
 mary, unconditional, and absolute, to which all reasonings 
 might be referred, as to their source and foundation, the 
 discursive process would proceed into infinity, and its con 
 elusions be, as Hume asserts that they are, without any 
 power to enforce assent. But there are unquestionably in 
 the human mind certain necessary and universal principles, 
 which, shining with an intrinsic light of evidence, are them 
 selves above proof, but the authority for all mediate and 
 contingent principles. That which is thus above reasoning 
 is the reason. 
 
 In the language of English philosophy, the terms renson 
 and understanding are nearly identical, and are so used by 
 Stewart; but in the critical philosophy of Kant a broad dis- 
 tinction has been drawn between them. Reason is the 
 principle of principles ; either speculatively verifies every 
 special principle, or practically determines the proper ends 
 of human action. Approximately, it may be called the sum 
 of what, in Scotch philosophy, has been denominated the 
 laws of man's intellectual constitution. The understand- 
 ing, on the other hind, is coextensive with the vernacular 
 use of reason. It is that which conceives of sensible ib- 
 
REBATE. 
 
 jects under certain general notions, which again it compares 
 one with, another, or with |>ariicnlar representations of 
 them, or with the objects themselves. It is. therefore, the 
 faculty of reflection and generalization. But the act of 
 comparison is called a judgment; and the understanding, 
 when it enunciates its conceptions, becomes also the fac- 
 ulty "f judging. But the truth of a proposition which is not 
 identical, or the enunciation of a primary truth, cannot be 
 immediately certain. To prove it, recourse must be had to 
 other propositions previously admitted ; the understanding, 
 that is, must deduce one judgment from another, and go be- 
 comes the discursive faculty, or reasoning. Farther, in dis- 
 covering these mediate truths, and in the regular and me- 
 thodical disposition of them for the purpose of conclusion, 
 as well as in the selection of means for the accomplishment 
 of its < nds, it exhibits itself as a power of adaptation. 
 
 ipting this distinction between reason and under- 
 standing much of the difficulty involved in the considera- 
 tion of instinct will be removed. Instinct is defined to be a 
 natural impulse in animals, by which they are directed to 
 certain actions necessary to the continuation of the individ- 
 ual and of the species, and enabled to perform them uner- 
 ringly. Independent Of instruction and experience. To this 
 definition it is usual to add — without deliberation, and with- 
 out a view to the end which their actions will effectuate. 
 But these words, while they apply to the instinctive princi- 
 ple in its lowest manifestation, do not belong to it in its 
 Ugliest That in some cases the spontaneity of the animal 
 operates unconsciously is fully established by experience. 
 The solitary wasp does not itself feed u|>on flesh, and it 
 Cannot know that a larva is to issue from the egg which it 
 is placing In the sand ; but yet it depositee in the same hole 
 I Lhe exact number of green worms that is sufficient 
 for the sustenance of the wasp-worm until, being trans- 
 formed into b (Iy.it will be capable of finding food for itself. 
 In other cases, it is iui|iossible to deny the presence of judg- 
 ment anil design, of reasoning and adaptation. It is essen- 
 li.il 10 the ii) 'lupine of the water-moth, or cod-bait, which, 
 by means of the gluten which proceeds from its body, cov- 
 ers itself wilh pieces of straw or wood, and of gravel or 
 light shells, that it should maintain itself in equilibrium 
 with the water in which it lives. To accomplish this, 
 when its coating is ton light it is observed to add a piece of 
 gravel, and a pace of wood when it is too heavy. The for- 
 ties in i> be designated as pure instinct, the latter as 
 instinctive intelligence. Vet, however we may be con- 
 strained to assign understanding and intelligence to the op- 
 erations of lhe interior animal-., they are manifestly desti- 
 tute of reason. Bowever exquisite may be the construction 
 of the bee's cell, it is impossible to ascribe to it a knowl- 
 of the mathematical principles of its construction. 
 The bee is born an artist; and prior to, and independently 
 Of all instruction and experience, is perfect in its works, and 
 chooses it- means with an unerring certainty. But the 
 f the rational creature proceed slowly, through diver- 
 mi ot't-ie|K-ated experiments, to realize the principles 
 of the act which are present to its mind ; while the means 
 it employs are as various as the individuals, and seldom 
 the best and most appropriate. Again, the acts of the infe- 
 rior animals are solely subservient to the continuation of 
 the individual, or the propagation of its kind ; whereas the 
 works of the rational animal fall short of perfection in 
 many respects, and are rendered still more difficult by a 
 voluntary combination of the beautiful with the simply 
 Useful and necessary. 
 
 REBATE. (I'r. rabattre.) In Architecture, the groove, 
 . or channel, sunk on the edge of any piece of mate- 
 rial. 
 
 REBEC. A Moorish word, signifying a stringed instru- 
 ment somewhat similar to the violin, having three strings 
 tuned in fifths, and played with a bow. It was introduced 
 by the Moors into Spain. It appears to have been much 
 t festive entertainments. Hence Byron, speaking of 
 Seville, says, 
 
 Nor here war'j clarion, but love'f rtbtc sounds. 
 
 Milton, in i: Allegro, calls it the "jocund rebec." 
 
 REBE'LLK IN, CIVIL. In Scottish Law, by a peculiar 
 fiction, a debtor who disobeys a charge on letters of horn- 
 ing to pay or perform in terms of his obligation is accounted 
 a rebel, by reason of his disobedience to the king's com- 
 mand cult lined in the writ. The penal consequences for- 
 merlv nttaching to this construction of the law were abol- 
 ished by 20 G. 2, c. 50. 
 
 REBELLION, THE GREAT. The revolt of the Long 
 Parliament against the authority of Charles I., in English 
 History, is commonly so denominated. Nevertheless, as 
 arbitrary and unconstitutional acts were undoubtedly com- 
 mitted on both sides during the struggle which preceded 
 l "tual resort to arms, a constitutional lawyer may con- 
 sider it questionable whether the parliament may be more 
 justly said to have rebelled against the king, or the king 
 
 RECKONING. 
 
 against the state. The question is very (airly discussed I y 
 Mr. Hallam in his Constitutional History of England. The 
 commencement of the rebellion may be dated from the 
 votes of the two houses concerning the militia (Feb. 1642), 
 by which they endeavoured to seize on the military power 
 of the realm ; immediately after which the king left London 
 for the north of England, and hostilities speedilv began 
 (See Clarendon, vol. i., p. 2.) In the summer of 1042 the 
 parties first took up arms ; the king's standard was set up 
 August 25, and the civil war was ended by the submission 
 of the king to the Scots In April, 164C. The period of the 
 rebellion is, however, extended, in ordinary language, so as 
 to include the Commonwealth or Protectorate, down to the 
 restoration of Charles II. in May, 1660. 
 
 RE'BUS. An antiquated species of ingenuity, a great 
 favourite with our ancestors ; being an enigmatical repre- 
 sentation of a name or thing by using figures for letters, 
 syllables, or parts of words : thus an eye, and a ton or bar- 
 rel, represent the family name of Eyton ; an instance of a 
 rebus borne by way of device, as they very commonly were. 
 {See Device.) In heraldry, a coat of arms alluding to the 
 name of the bearer (otherxvise called armes parlantes) is 
 also called a rebus ; e. g., three trouts for Troutbeck, three 
 cups for Butler, etc. The term is said to be derived from 
 an annual practice of the priests of Picardy, which consist 
 ed in satirizing tne people of their vicinity on the recur- 
 rence of the Carnival in ingenious squibs, entitled "De re- 
 bus qua.' geriintur." 
 
 REBUTTER. In Law, the fifth stage of the pleadings 
 in a suit, or the plaintiff's answer to the defendant's re- 
 joinder. See Pleading. 
 
 RECE'PTACLE, In Botany, has four different significa- 
 tions : 1. That part of a flower upon which the carpetla 
 are situated; or, in other words, the apex of the peduncle, 
 or summit of the floral branch, of which the carpella are 
 the termination. 2. The axis of the theca of Triclmmanes 
 and Uynienophyllum, among ferns. 3. That part of the 
 ovarium from which the ovula arise, and which is com- 
 monly called the placenta. And, 4. That part of the axis 
 of a plant which bears the flowers when it is depressed in 
 its development; so that, Instead of being elongated into a 
 rachis, it forms a flattened area, over which the flowers are 
 arranged, as in Coinposita-. 
 
 RECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES. See Prei es- 
 
 SION. 
 
 RECE'SS OF THE EMPIRE. In History, the name 
 given in judicial language to lhe decrees of the German 
 diet. They are thought to have been so termed from being 
 pronounced at the time when the diet was about to " re- 
 cede" or separate. .See Diet. 
 
 RE'CHABITES. A religious order among the ancient 
 Jews, instituted by Jonadab, the son of Rechab, from whom 
 they derived their name. It comprised only the family and 
 posterity of the founder, who was anxious to perpetuate 
 among them the nomadic life ; and with this view prescri- 
 bed to them several rules, lhe chief of which were — to ab- 
 stain from wine, from building houses, and from planting 
 vines. These rules were observed by the Rechabiies with 
 great strictness. (See Jer. xxxv., 6.) In recent times, a 
 branch of the body called teetotallers, has assumed the 
 name of Rechabites. «. 
 
 RE'CIPE. The symbol ft at the head of a medical pre- 
 scription generally means recipe, or " take." Dr. Paris says 
 tliis character is a relic of the astrological symbol of Jupiter, 
 a plar~t under the ascendancy of which herbs were often 
 collected or prepared. {Pharmacologia.) 
 
 RECITIIOCAL. In Arithmetic, the quotient resulting 
 from the division of unity by any number. Thus, J is the 
 reciprocal of 2; and, conversely, 2 is the reciprocal of J. 
 
 RECIPROCAL FIGURES, in Geometry, are two figures 
 of the same kind (triangles, parallelograms, prisms, pyra- 
 mids, &c), so related that two sides of the one form the 
 extremes of an analogy of which the means are the two 
 corresponding sides of the other. 
 
 RECI'PROCAL PROPORTION, is when, of four terms 
 taken in order, the first has to the second the same ralio 
 which the fourth has to the third ; or when the first has to 
 the second the same ratio which the reciprocal of the third 
 has to the reciprocal of the fourth. In works of arithmetic, 
 the case which gives rise to this class of relations is called 
 inverse Proportion, or the Rule of Three Inverse. 
 
 RE'CITATIVE. (Lat. recitare, to recite.) In Music, a 
 species of singing differing but little from ordinary speaking. 
 It is used in operas, &c., to express some action or passion, 
 or to relate a story, or reveal a secret or design ; and, though 
 written in true time, the performer may alter the parts of 
 the measure as he thinks most suitable to produce certain 
 effects, those that accompany him being dependant on his 
 pleasure. 
 
 RE'CKONING. In Navigation, the estimated place of a 
 ship, calculated from the rate as determined by the log, and 
 the course as determined by the compass, the place from 
 
 1033 
 
RECLINATION. 
 
 which the vessel started being known. An elegant and 
 ready method for solving this problem has been recently 
 given by Professor Gill, of New-York, in the first number 
 of his Mathematical Miscellany, much more accurate llian 
 the method usually given by writers on navigation. (See 
 Navigation.) Dead reckoning means the same as reckon- 
 ing, due allowance being made for drift, lee-way, currents, 
 fcc. 
 
 RECLINA'TION (Lat. reclino, / repose), in Dialling, is 
 the angle which the plane of the dial makes with a vertical 
 plane which it intersects in a horizontal line. 
 
 RECLU'SE. The common title of a class of religious 
 persons in Roman Catholic countries. See Inclusi. 
 
 RECOGNISANCE. In Law, an acknowledgment of a 
 debt upon record. By a fiction of law, the obligation which 
 a party enters into before a court of record or magistrate 
 duly authorized, with condition to do some particular act — 
 as to appear at the assizes, keep the peace, &c. — is in the 
 form of a recognisance; the party acknowledging himself 
 to be indebted lo the king, the plaintiff, &c, with condition 
 that the obligation shall be void on performance of the 
 thing stipulated. 
 
 RECOl'L, in Artillery, is the rebound or resilience of a 
 piece of ordnance when discharged. This has been em- 
 ployed for the determination of the explosive force of gun- 
 powder; but the method does not appear to be susceptible 
 of much accuracy. See Gunnery. 
 
 RE'COLLETS, or RE'COLLECTS. Monks of the or- 
 der of St. Francis under a reformed rule. The first separa- 
 tion from the original body seems to have taken place to- 
 wards the end of the 14th century, when some religious 
 persons, desirous of returning to stricter discipline, assumed 
 the title of Brothers of the Observance. From these origi- 
 nated the Recollects (living in a state of recollection, or re- 
 clusion), first established in Spain by the Count de Belalca- 
 zar, about 1484, and afterwards introduced into Italy. After 
 much opposition, they acquired the possession of great 
 wealth and court favour in France, during the 16th and 17th 
 centuries. 
 
 RECORD Literally an authentic account of any fact or 
 transactor, in v. riling, contained in rolls of parchment, 
 wood, oi any other durable substance, and preserved in a 
 court of record. See Archives. 
 
 Record. In Law, the authentic testimony in writing, 
 contained in rolls of parchment, of the judgment of a supe- 
 rior court, and of the other proceedings in a case. Records 
 are said to be of three kinds— judicial records; ministerial 
 records on oath, being offices or inquisitions found ; records 
 made by conveyance or consent, as fines,, recoveries, or 
 deeds enrolled. (See Court.) Trial by record is used 
 where a matter of record is pleaded in any action, as a fine, 
 judgment, &c. ; and the opposite party pleads "null tiel re- 
 cord," that there is no such record existing. On this issue 
 is joined, which can be tried only by inspection of the re- 
 con 1. 
 
 RECORDA'RI FA'CIAS LOQUE'LAM. In Law, a 
 writ to remove proceedings out of an inferior court to the 
 King's Bench or Common Pleas. It is directed to the sheriff, 
 commanding him to make a record of the plaint and other 
 proceedings, and then to send up the cause. It is the com- 
 mon mode by which an action of replevin is transferred from 
 the sheriff's to the superior courts. 
 
 RECO'RDER. The chief judicial officer of a borough or 
 city, exercising within it, in criminal matters, the jurisdiction 
 of a court of record ; whence his title is derived. This ju- 
 risdiction is now made uniform in extent throughout all bor- 
 oughs, and is rendered equal to that of the quarter sessions 
 of a county. Recorders were formerly chosen without re- 
 striction by the corporations with which they were connect- 
 ed ; but by the existing municipal system the appointment is 
 vested in the crown, and the selection is confined to barris 
 ters of five years' standing. 
 
 Recorder. The name of a musical instrument some- 
 what resembling the flageolet, formerly in use in this coun- 
 try. It had a peculiarly pleasing tone ; hence Milton speaks 
 of 
 
 The Dorian mood 
 Of flutes ai,d soft recorders. 
 
 The etymology of the term is involved in great obscurity. 
 RECO'VERY, or COMMON RECOVERY. In Law 
 (see Fine), a mode of assurance in the form of a fictitious 
 action, by means of which conveyances were made by va- 
 rious tenants possessed of limited rights in real property (by 
 tenants in tail more particularly). The effect of a common 
 recovery duly suffered was to raise an absolute bar, not only 
 if all estates tail, but of all estates in remainder and re- 
 version expectant on such estates tail ; and to give the re- 
 coverer a fee-simple absolute. A common recovery, how- 
 ever did not bar a springing use, or an executory devise. A 
 common recovers Iso avoided all charges, leases, and in- 
 cumbrances made by those in reversion or remainder. By 3 
 fc 4 W. 4. c. 74, common recoveries are abolished, and a 
 1034 
 
 RECUSANTS. 
 
 new mode of conveyance for the use of tenant in tail sub 
 stituted for them. See Estate Tail. 
 
 RE'CTANGLE. In Geometry, a right-angled parallelo- 
 gram. When the adjacent sides are equal, it becomes a 
 square. The area of a rectangle is numerically expressed 
 by the product of the two numbers which express the 
 lengths of its adjacent sides, and hence the term rectangle is 
 sometimes, but incorrectly, used for product. 
 
 RECTIFICA'TION. In Geometry, the determination of 
 a straight line, whose length is equal to a portion of a curve 
 It is effected by the integral calculus. 
 
 If the curve be entirely in one plane, the length of the 
 arc is J ^/ d y* + d x 2 ; or if it be a curve of double cur- 
 vature, its length isj ^/d x 2 -\-dy 2 + d z*. In the former 
 case, the equation of the curve being single will give a val- 
 ue of d y or d x, as may be found most convenient ; and this 
 being substituted in the above formula, and the expression 
 integrated between the specified limits, the actual length is 
 obtained. In the second case, the equations upon two of 
 the planes of projection being given, the values of d y and 
 d z can be obtained in terms of du (it being another varia- 
 ble), and the values of y and z in terms of u; then these 
 substitutions being made, the process is the same as before. 
 See Integral Calculus. 
 
 It will, however, very rarely happen that the rectification 
 can be obtained in finite terms, as the substitutions generally 
 introduce radical expressions into the differential, which are 
 hardly ever so connected with the rational parts as to be 
 susceptible of a finite integral ; and hence it has been an ob- 
 ject with mathematicians to transform the expressions into 
 others, the successive terms of which are so related as to 
 diminish at a very rapid rate. In this case, the approxima- 
 tion to the value of the arc is rendered comparatively easy. 
 The first curve which was rectified was the semicubic.il 
 parabola; and the merit belongs to a Mr. Neal, whose rec- 
 tification was published in 1657. Two years later the same 
 curve was rectified by Van Heureat, in Holland. 
 
 Rectification. A Chemical term, generally Implying a 
 second or more frequently lepeatcd distil u,ion ; t us, 
 tified spirit of wine," means spirit which hxa been redistil- 
 led, and by which it is to a great extent freed from water, or 
 rendered stronger. 
 
 RECTILI'NEAL, or RECTILI'NEAR FIGURE, in Ge- 
 ometry, is a figure bounded by straight lines. 
 
 RE'CTOR. (Lat. rector ecclesire, ruler of the church), is 
 a person who hath the charge and care of a parish church. 
 The other rector is a layman, or a college or corporate body 
 (see art. Tithes). He is bound to provide a vicar to serve 
 the church in his place, and to allow the small tithes, or a 
 sufficient stipend, tor his maintenance. The term rector is 
 also employed in Scotland to designate the head master of a 
 public school or academy. 
 
 RECTRI'CES. (Lat. rectrix, a guide.) The name of 
 the tail feathers of a bird, which, like a rudder, direct its 
 flight. 
 
 RE'CTUM. (Lat. straight.) The last portion of the 
 large intestines; so named from an erroneous notion of the 
 old anatomists that it was straight. 
 
 RECU'MBENT. (Lat. recumbo, I lie down.) In Zoolo- 
 gy, when a part is leaning or reposing upon any thing. 
 
 RECU'RRENT NERVES. Two branches of nerves 
 from the par vngum, in the cavity of the thorax, are so call 
 ed ; they are distributed to the muscles of the larynx and 
 pharynx. 
 
 RECU'RRING DECIMALS, or CIRCULATING DE- 
 CIMALS, in Arithmetic, are decimals which arise from the 
 expansion of a fraction whose denominator includes one or 
 more prime numbers, as factors, different from 2 or 5, and 
 not included in the numerator. In this case the samo 
 figures are continually repeated in the same order. Thus, 
 T 2 r = ' 181818, &c. ; • =-1428571428571, &c, ad infinitum. 
 Their value can always be found by taking one of the pe- 
 riods for a numerator, and as many nines for the denomina- 
 tor as there are figures in the period, and reducing the re- 
 sulting fraction to its lowest terms. Thus, ^gffg-g being 
 so reduced, is found equal to J. 
 
 Recurring decimals were first noticed by Dr. Wallis , but 
 their properties have not been extensively investigated. 
 
 RECU'RRING SERIES. In Algebra, a series in which 
 the coefficients of the successive powers of x are formed 
 from a certain number of the preceding coefficients accord 
 ing to some invariable law. Thus a-f-(o-f-l)i-j-(2a 
 + 2) xi + (3 a -f 3) i3 -f. (5 a + 5) x n - + . . . is a recurring 
 series, the coefficient of each term being the sum of the 
 coefficients of the two preceding terms. The value of the 
 terms of such a series can always be exhibited in a finite 
 form. (See Euler, Jntroductio in Jinalysin Jnfinitorum; 
 Bourdon's Jilgebra, &c.) 
 
 RECU'SANTS. In English Hist try, a term applied to 
 
RED. 
 
 Uiost who refused to acknowledge the king's supremacy as 
 head of ihe church, chiefly Papists. 
 
 RED. One of the primary colours. See Chromatics. 
 
 REDAN. In Fortification, a kind of rampart placed in 
 tdl snee of the principal works to defend the least protect- 
 ed parts. The redan usually consists of a rampart of earth ; 
 and it la the simplest kind of field fortification. See For- 
 tikication-. 
 
 BED BOOK. The name given to a book containing the 
 names of all persons in the service of the state. The lied 
 Book of the Exchequer is an ancient record, in which are 
 registered llif names of all those that held lands per baro- 
 niam in the nine of Henry II. 
 
 KE'DDLE. A sort argillaceous mineral, deeply tinged 
 with red by oxide of iron. The best specimens, used as 
 drawing chalk, are brought from Germanv. 
 
 REDE'MPTORISTS. A religious order founded in Na- 
 ples by Llguori in 1732, and revived in Austria in 1820. 
 bound by the usual monastic vows, and devote 
 • tu the education of youth and the propagation 
 of Catholicism. They style themselves members of the 
 order of the Holy Redeemer (il Santo Redemptore), whence 
 their name ; hut they are also often called LiguorisU, from 
 the name of their founder. 
 
 RED LEAD. An oxide intermediate between the pro- 
 toxide and peroxide of lead. See Lbad and Minium. 
 [LED MARL. New red sandstone. See Geolooy. 
 
 BJ I) PRECIPITATE. The peroxide of mercury, ob- 
 tained by the decomposition of nitrate of mercury by heat. 
 
 • -I.-RY. 
 
 REDOU'BT. In Fortification, a term applied to nearly 
 
 I of work intended to fortify military position!; as 
 
 also to works constructed within others to prolong their de- 
 
 l to detached works used to secure some piece of 
 
 ground which would be useful to the besiegers, and thereby 
 
 i.reate dela) In offensive operation-. 
 
 REDU'CLNG SCALE. A scale used by surveyors for 
 turning links Into roods and acres by ins|>eclion. 
 
 CTION. The process of converting a metallic 
 1 . 
 
 i int action 
 Of hi and some deoxidizing agent; upon the large scale, 
 charcoal is almost always resorted to. 
 
 Reduction. In Arithmetic, the changing of quantities 
 from one denomination to another. 
 
 REDUCTION OF FIGURES, in Practical Geometry. 
 similar to the given ones, but of 
 ditler. i,t (g< nerally smaller) dimensions. The pentagraph 
 and the promotional compasses are the readiest and most 
 accurate methods of performing these' reductions; but in 
 <:e of these, many different methods ure taught in 
 works of practical geometry. The simplest Is here an- 
 
 I! C D be the figure to be reduced, and a b be 
 
 the line which is homologous to A B. At a convenient 
 place on the paper draw a b, parallel to A B, and equal to 
 the reduced line. Draw A a, I! 4, meeting in O, and from 
 O draw Lines to all the other angles of the figure; then 
 draw b c parallel to 15 < '. a . d parallel to A D, &c. ; and join 
 the hut two jmiiits. Then abed is the reduced figure 
 sought. 
 
 U Ike proposed figure be curvilinear, inscribe any po- 
 lygon within it, and draw the similar polygon as above 
 directed; then trace the curve through the angles of the 
 polygon. 
 
 R KIM r'NDANT HYPERBOLA. A line of the third or- 
 der, having three pairs of asymptotic branches. Its proper- 
 ties may be seen in Newton's F.numeratio. 
 
 REEF, in Navigation, signifies to diminish the surface of 
 the sails on the increasing of the wind. Sails attached to 
 yards are reefed at the head. Strong horizontal bands of 
 canvas^, from three to six feet apart, extend across the sails ; 
 re called reef bands ; and there are usually four in 
 each topsail, and two in the foresail and mainsail. The 
 reef hand is commonly pierced with two holes in each cloth 
 (or breadth of canvass) in the sail ; through each hole are 
 drawn two reef points — short pieces of flat rope, each hav- 
 ■ye in one end, and hung one before and the other 
 abaft the sail, each passing through the eye in the end of 
 the other. The sail being lowered and trimmed to the 
 wind so as to shake, the extremities of the reef band are 
 drawn up towards the yard arm by the ropes called reef 
 the men then going out upon the yard, which they 
 lean o\,-r while their feet an: supported by the foot ropes, 
 gather up the loose canvass of the call till they reach the 
 
 REFLEXION. 
 
 reef band, which they keep extended tight along the yard 
 until the earings are passed or secured, the weather earing 
 being passed first; they then tie the two reef points of each 
 pair together over the yard, and the sail is reefed, the but 
 face having been thus diminished by the depth of one reef. 
 Gaff sails are reefed at the foot. The sail being lowered 
 enough to slack the canvass, the earing which is on the 
 after leech is brought or hove down to the boom end by a 
 strong rope called a reef pendant ; the men then standing 
 wherever they can reach the foot of the sail, tie the points 
 under it. When the yard is not lowered, as in reeling the 
 courses, the sail is partly clued up for reeling. 
 
 Reef, or Coral Reef, is also applied to a chain of rocks 
 in various parts of the ocean lying near the surface. See 
 Geolooy. 
 
 REEL. A lively dance peculiar to Scotland, generally 
 written in common time of four crotchets in a bar, but 
 sometimes in gig time of six quavers. 
 
 Reel. An angler's implement attached to the butt of the 
 rod, for the purpose of winding in the line when a fish is 
 hooked. The barrel of the reel should be of sufficient di- 
 ameter to wind in quickly, as a fish is often lost by not being 
 able to bring him rapidly within reach of the landing net; 
 especially where, as in fly-fishing, a great length of line has 
 been thrown out. 
 
 RE-E'NTER. In Engraving, a word which denotes the 
 passing of the graver into those incisions of the plate, so as 
 to deepen them, where the aquafortis has not bitten in suf 
 ficieutly. 
 
 RE-E'NTERING ANGLE. In Fortification the angle 
 of a work whose point turns inwards towards the defended 
 place. 
 
 REEVE. (Ang. Sax. gerefa, an officer or governor.) A 
 word of a very general application, entering into the com 
 position of some titles yet in use. Hence sheriff, t. c., shire 
 reeve, the governor of a shire or county ; borough-reeve, 
 port-reeve, Sec. 
 
 Reeve. The Sea term for putting a rope through a block 
 or any hole through which it is intended to run. 
 
 REFETJTION, (Lei reficio, / restore.) In the Ian 
 gunge of Ecclesiastical communities, a spare meal, sufficient 
 only to maintain life ; whence the hall in convents when 
 meals arc taken is termed n | 
 
 REFE'CTORT. (Lat. refectorum.) In Architecture 
 an apartment wherein niealsare taken. 
 
 REFER E'N DA RTE& In the early monarchies of Europi 
 after the fifth century, public officers charged with the duty 
 of procuring, executing, and despatching diploma- ana 
 charters. The office of great referendary, in the French 
 monarchy, became merged in that of chancellor. 
 
 REFLE'CTING CIRCLE. An astronomical instrument 
 for the measurement of angles by reflection. (S«e Be I 
 tant.) The term is also applied to a surveying instrument, 
 invented by .^ir Howard Douglas, which combines the ad- 
 vantages of the Hadley's quadrant and the protractor. The 
 object of it is to protract, or lay down on the plan, the an- 
 gles measured with the instrument from the instrument it- 
 self, without any intermediate step, or even a register ol 
 their values. The advantage of such an instrument must 
 be obvious in military surveys, where expedition is Impor- 
 tant, while accuracy is thereby far more efficiently insured 
 than by the old and more tedious process. It is also ail 
 vmntageously used in forming general sketches of a country. 
 
 RE'FLEX. (Lat. reflecto, / bend back.) In Painting, 
 the illumination of one body, or a part of it, by light re- 
 flected from another body. The foundation of the law of 
 reflexes de|>end3 upon the knowledge that every body in 
 light reflects that light to a certain degree, in the same way 
 that flame does. The stronger, therefore, the light on the 
 body, the stronger will be the reflex, distances being equal. 
 Again, the more directly the light falls on a body, the more 
 influence it will have in imparting a reflex. 
 
 REFLE'XION, in Mechanics, denotes the rebound or re- 
 gressive motion of a body from the surface of another body 
 against which it impinges. In Natural Philosophy, the term 
 is applied to the analogous motions of light, heat and sound, 
 when turned from their course by an opposing surface. The 
 laws of the reflexion of light form the branch of science 
 called catoptrics ; those of the reflexion of sound are some- 
 times called catapkonics. See Sound. 
 
 The simplest view which can he taken of the mechanical 
 action whereby reflexion is produced, is to assimilate it to 
 that which takes place when an elastic body impinges on 
 another body which it cannot move out of its place. If 
 light, heat, and sound are propagated by the pulses of an 
 elastic medium, the same theory will apply to them ; and it 
 is to be remarked, that in all cases of rsnexion the change 
 of motion which takes place follows precisely the same 
 laws as that which is produced by the impact of two elastic 
 bodies. 
 
 Reflexion of IAght. — When we consider only the direction 
 of the rays of light after being reflected from a polisbca 
 
 1035 
 
REFLEXION. 
 
 surface, and leave its quantity or intensity out of view, the 
 laws of reflexion are extremely simple. Suppose A B (fig. 
 1,) to be a smooth polished surface, or mir- 
 ror, and a ray of light proceeding in the di- 
 ,ii reclion L P to impinge on the surface at P, 
 and to he reflected from it in the direction 
 P R. Through the point P draw P CI a nor- 
 mal or perpendicular to the surface ; then, 
 adhering to the definitions adopted by most 
 writers on optics, the angle L P Q. is called the angle of in- 
 cidence, Q. P R the angle of reflexion, the plane in which are 
 the two straight lines L P and P d is called the plane of in- 
 cidence, and the plane determined by Q. P and P R the plane 
 of reflexion. Now the two general laws of reflexion are 
 these: 1st. The plane of reflexion coincides with the plane 
 of incidence ; or the three straight lines L P, P Ct, and P R, 
 are in one plane. 2d. Tile angle of reflexion is equal to 
 the angle of incidence, and on the opposite side of the nor- 
 mal. These laws hold true, whatever be the nature of the 
 reflecting surface, or the origin of the light which falls on 
 it. Experience offers no exception to them whatever ; and 
 all the phenomena of reflexion from mirrors or polished 
 surfaces, whether plane or having any regular curvature, 
 are readily deduced from them as simple geometrical conse- 
 quences. 
 
 Reflexion from Plane Mirrors.— -To determine the path 
 of the reflected rays, and the formation of images by plane 
 mirrors, suppose M N (fig. 2) to 
 be an object placed before the plane 
 reflecting surface A B, and the eye 
 to be situated at E. The rays of 
 light which proceed from the point 
 M, and are reflected to the eye at 
 E, will impinge on the mirror at P, 
 and appear to come from a point 
 m, which, in respect of the plane 
 A B, is symmetrical with M ; that is to say, placed in the 
 straight line which is drawn from M perpendicular to the 
 surface, and at the same distance from A B on the opposite 
 side. For let M K be the perpendicular, and let it be con- 
 tinued till it meet the prologation of E P in m ; then, from 
 the equality of the angles of incidence and reflexion, the 
 angles M P K and E P B (which are the complements of 
 those angles) are equal ; hence M P K= K P to ; and the 
 two right angled triangles K P M and K P m, hiving also a 
 common side, are every way equal ; whence K in = K M. 
 Ir. like manner, the rays which issue from N, and are re- 
 flected to E, will appear to proceed from a point n symmet- 
 rical with N ; and as the same thing is evidently true with 
 respect to every other point of the object, a perfect image 
 to n of" «he object will be formed on the opposite side of the 
 mirror, and at the same distance. It will be observed that 
 the image is not, properly speaking, reversed, like writing 
 looked at through the opposite side of the paper: the spec- 
 tator sees the same side of the object as if he stood in front 
 of the mirror, and viewed the object directly ; but, in the 
 reflected image, right takes the place of left, and left of 
 right. 
 
 lirfltxion from Curve Surfaces. — In order to apply the 
 two general laws of reflexion to the determination of the 
 direction of a ray reflected from a curve surface, it is as- 
 sumed that the reflexion takes place at each point of the 
 surface in the same manner as it would from a plane 
 touching the curve surface at that point, and the problem 
 therefore becomes that of determining the direction of the 
 normal at the given point ; for, when the direction of the 
 incident ray, and of the normal at the point of incidence, 
 are both known, the plane of the reflected ray, and the 
 position of the ray in that plane, are both given. The 
 mirror may be concave or convex ; and the incident rays 
 may be parallel or divergent. 
 
 Let D (fig. 3) be the centre of a concave mirror, D C its 
 axis, C the centre of curvature at D ; and assume the semi 
 
 (3.) 
 
 diameter of the mirror D P to be 
 small in comparison of its radius of 
 curvature C D. Now suppose a ray 
 
 f^j=z; k- of light L P, parallel to the axis, to 
 
 I ^ "" fall on the mirror at P; then, if we 
 
 P R c draw P C, and make the angle C P R 
 
 ^ =CPLorPCD, PR will be the 
 
 direction of the reflected ray ; for, by 
 the nature of curvature, C P is a normal to the surface, the 
 arc D P being small. But, on the hypothesis of D P being 
 small, we have also R P=R D; and by reason of the 
 equal angles R P C and R C P, R P = R C, therefore R D 
 = RC; or R is ^1 given point, and, consequently, all the 
 rays which fall on the mirror parallel to C D are reflected 
 into the same point R. From this property the point R, 
 which Insects the radius C D, is called the principal focus 
 of the mirror, or the focus of parallel rays. See Focus. 
 
 If the reflecting surface were a portion of a paraboloid, 
 then all rays parallel to the axis would be accurately re- 
 1036 
 
 fleeted into the focus at R, whatever the extent of the sur- 
 face might be ; but, on account of the practical difficulty of 
 grinding and polishing curve surfaces of any other form 
 than the spherical, the concave and convex mirrors requi- 
 red for optical purposes are always spherical. 
 
 Suppose, next, the rays to diverge from a point in the 
 axis of the mirror. Let L (fig. 4) be the luminous point, C 
 the centre of curvature, and 
 P R the reflected ray. To 
 find the point R, let I = L P C 
 — R P C; and let R, C, L 
 denote respectively the acute 
 angles at the points indicated 
 by these letters. We shall 
 then have, obviously, R — I 
 = C, and I + L = C ; whence L + R = 2 C. Now, since D 
 P is supposed to be an arc of a small number of degrees, D 
 P may he regarded as a straight line perpendicular to L D ; 
 and since the angles R, C, L are also small, we may sub- 
 stitute for the arcs to which they respectively correspond 
 
 ..... ., .PDPDPD 
 
 their trigonometrical tangents, namely, .-—p. — — i =;•« 
 
 Hence, if we assume DL = p,DE = },DC=r, the radi- 
 us of curvature, the above equation R + L = 2C will be- 
 come 
 
 * + !*} 
 
 V 9 r 
 which gives the relation between p and q, r being a con 
 stant quantity for the same mirror. If, therefore, L be a 
 given point, then p has a given value, and q is also deter- 
 mined ; so that all rays diverging from the point L, and 
 falling on the mirror, are reflected into the point R. As the 
 two quantities p and q enter symmetrically into the equa- 
 tion, each being expressed in terms of the other by the 
 same formula, the points R and L are interchangeable; 
 that is, if R be taken as the radiating point, then L is the 
 focus of the reflected rays. Hence L and R are called con 
 jugate points, or conjugate foci. 
 
 Since the reciprocals of p and q always make up the 
 same sum, when one of those quantities increases the other 
 diminishes, and vice versa. II. therefore, L approaches to- 
 wards C, R will also approach towards C (the origin being 
 supposed at D), and they will ultimately coincide at that 
 point, so that a ray issuing from C would be reflected back 
 on itself. If L recedes from C, then R recedes from C, or 
 approaches D. Suppose L to be at an infinite distance ; in 
 this case 1 -r-p = 0, and the equation gives q — $ r, or D R 
 = £ D C ; so that R becomes the principal focus, as it evi- 
 dently ought ; for when L is at an infinite distance, the 
 rays L P are parallel to the axis. 
 
 It is evident from the above equation that so long as p 
 and q have the s:ime sign, that is, so long as L and I? are 
 on the same side of the mirror, each of those quantities 
 must be greater than \ r. Suppose the radiating point L to 
 be placed between D and 
 C (fig. 5), and let D L or 
 p become less than i r. 
 In this case, q must be- 
 come negative ; that is to 
 say, the rays which ema- 
 nate from L must become 
 divergent after reflexion, 
 
 and have the same direction as if they diverged from a 
 point R' on the opposite side of the mirror, and of which 
 the distance q from D is determined by the equation 
 
 = -. This point R' is called the virtual focus 
 
 p q r 
 
 the reflected rays. 
 
 The same construction and equation (with the proper 
 changes of sign) apply 
 equally to convex and con- 
 cave mirrors. Let L (fig. 
 6) be the luminous point, 
 from which diverging rays 
 fall on the convex mirror 
 P D, of which C is the 
 centre of curvature. De- 
 noting, as before, D L, D 
 R, and D C, by p, q, and r respectively, and nssumlng tin 
 constant r to be positive, then, by exactly the same reason- 
 ing as above, we shall find the equation 
 
 X 1 __ 2 
 
 q V r 
 
 In this case, p and q increase or decrease simultaneously 
 and if we suppose p to increase to infinity, or the inciden 
 rays to become parallel, then we have again }=Jr; so 
 that, for parallel rays, the conjugate focus is at the middle 
 of the distance between D and C. When the mirror 
 convex, the conjugate focus is always the virtual focus. 
 
(-■) 
 
 REFORM ACT. 
 
 From what has now been shown, it is easy to see in 
 what manner images are formed by concave or convex 
 mirrors. Let M N (fig. 7) be an 
 object placed before a concave 
 mirror A B, beyond its centre 
 of curvature C. On tracing 
 the path of the rays M A, M D, 
 M it, after reflexion, they will 
 be found to meet in the point 
 Bs m, and those which proceed 
 from N will, in like manner, be 
 found to meet in i> : whence, rays diverging from every point 
 of the object between M and N will meet, after reflexion, in a 
 point situated between m and v ; and in this manner an in 
 verted Image m n of the object will be formed. The mag- 
 nitude of the image la to that of the object as D m to D M, 
 or as the distance of the image from the mirror is to the 
 distance of the object from the mirror ; and the image will 
 be more brilliant in proportion as the rays of light coming 
 from the object are collected within a smaller space. If 
 the object were placed at m n, then an enlarged image 
 would be formed at M N. It is on this principle that re- 
 fecting telescopes and microscopes are constructed. See 
 Telescope, .Microscope. 
 
 Iij of reflected Light. — It has now been shown 
 thai die pith of the reflected light can be determined in all 
 Itta geometrical precision, when the form of the 
 surface is known ; but the case is very different 
 when the question is to determine the quantity or propor- 
 tion of the light which is thrown into a different direction 
 by an opposing surface. The following laws, however, 
 bibbed by experiment : 1st. The quantity of 
 light regularly reflected increases with the angle of inci- 
 dence, hut does not vanish entirely when that angle be- 
 comes 0. 2d. It depends both on the nature of the medium 
 through which the light is passing when it falls on the re- 
 flecting surface, and on that of the substance on which it 
 falls. 3d. Bodies of different natures, placed in the same 
 circumstances, reflect very different proportions of the inci- 
 dent light. 
 
 On this subject a great number of experiments were 
 made by Bouguer, and more recently by Arago, Fresnel, 
 Mr. Potter, and others. The following numerical relations 
 are given by Bouguer : When a beam of light, the intensi- 
 ty of which is represented by 1000, falls upon water so as 
 to make an angle of 0° 30 with the surface, the inten- 
 sity of the reflected light is represented by 721 ; nt an angle 
 of 15° with the surface, by 211 ; at an angle of 30°, by 65 ; 
 and at an angle from 60° to 90°, by 18. Of 1000 rays fall- 
 ing upon a surface of glass, and making an angle of 5° with 
 the surface, 543 are reflected ; 300 when the angle is 15° ; 
 US when 300 ; 85 when 60 3 , or above. Of 1000 rays fall- 
 ing on a polished surface of black marble, 600 are reflected 
 when the angle with the surface is 3° 15' ; 156 when 15°; 
 51 when 30°; 23 when 60° and upwards. Mercury and 
 metallic mirrors give a less rapid diminution. Of WOO in- 
 cident rays, 700 are reflected when the angle with the sur- 
 face is very small ; and about 600, or more than half, 
 when the angle approaches to 90°, or the incident ray is 
 nearly perpendicular to the surface. (Traitt (TOptique. 
 See also the Edinburgh Journal of Science for 1830 and 
 1832.) 
 
 In order to produce reflexion in a greater or less degree, 
 the only indispensable condition is, that light pass from one 
 medium to another having a different refractive power. In 
 passing through a perfectly homogeneous medium, no re- 
 flexion takes place ; but whenever there is a change of me- 
 dium (and this change may occur in the same substance by 
 an inequality of density in the different parts, or a different 
 arrangement of the particles), more or less reflexion takes 
 place at the surface which separates the two media. 
 Thus, in passing through the atmosphere, the solnr light 
 undergoes an infinite number of partial reflexions before it 
 arrives at the earth, as every successive thin stratum of 
 air, by reason of itsjnereasing density, forms, as it were, a 
 different medium. See Refraction, Astronomical. 
 
 If any surfaces could be formed of so perfect a polish as 
 to reflect the whole of the incident light, the eye would be 
 unable to distinguish them ; and, unless by coming in actu- 
 \1 contact with them, we should have no reason to suspect 
 their existence. Bodies are only visible in consequence of 
 rays irregularly reflected from their surfaces meeting the 
 eye ; for rays which are regularly reflected only show the 
 luminous points from which they emanate, and not the sur- 
 faces on which they fall. If the lunar surface were as 
 perfectly polished as a globule of pure mercury, the moon 
 would present to us only a reflected image of the sun. See 
 Light, Optics. 
 REFORM ACT. In Politics. See Parliament. 
 REFORMATION. An important era in political and 
 ecclesiastical history, when the doctrines and usages of the 
 Romish church, then dominant throughout the western 
 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 states of Christendom, were first successfully called In 
 question. This event is commonly dated from the year 
 1517, when Luther began to oppose the pope and con 
 demned the sale of indulgences. Mosheim assigns toil the 
 date 1520, when Luther was excommunicated. 
 
 Prior to the Reformation, the pope claimed of divine 
 right, and exercised, absolute authority over the whole 
 Christian church, with the exception of those states and 
 provinces in which the Eastern or Greek church was estab- 
 lished. Not only was his authority regarded as supreme 
 on subjects of doctrine and discipline, but his decisions 
 were considered as infallible ; and whoever ventured to 
 question or gainsay them was treated as a heretic, and 
 was liable to such canonical censures and temporal penal- 
 ties as the canon law determined. Of course, the exercise 
 of private judgment in religious and ecclesiastical matter*. 
 or the right of the people to peruse the sacred volume, was 
 peremptorily denied. Nothing, therefore, could be more 
 absolute than was the government of the Christian church 
 under the see of Home. His holiness, also, laid claim to 
 supremacy even in temporal things throughout the wide 
 range of his religious authority ; though the exercise of this 
 supremacy was not always quietly submitted to; nay, was 
 sometimes resisted with success, lie regarded all parts of 
 the world not inhabited by Christians as uninhabited, and 
 gave full power to those Christians who might occupy 
 them to make war on the Inhabitants ; and the countries, 
 if conquered, were parcelled out according to his sovereign 
 pleasure. But while the absolutism claimed by the Roman 
 pontiff was calculated to arouse jealousy and opposition, 
 which, indeed, it did, in some degree, in different places 
 and at various times, these feelings were greatly increased 
 by several other causes : such as the immoral lives of the 
 clergy ; the facilities by which their immoralities were 
 pardoned ; the exorbitant wealth of the church ; the great 
 personal immunities of ecclesiastics, and their encroach 
 ments on the jurisdiction of the laity. These and similar 
 circumstances, which the invention of the art of printing 
 and the revival of learning had tended more thoroughly 
 and widely to disclose, gradually prepared the public mind 
 for that reformation of religion of which, in this article, wc 
 intend briefly to give an account. 
 
 Without minutely mentioning the frequent, but compar- 
 atively feeble opposition, to which the absolutism in the 
 government of the church had, in various periods, given 
 rise, it may suffice here to confine ourselves to an account 
 of that course of opposition, in the 16th century, which ter- 
 minated in the Reformation. 
 
 According to the doctrine of the Romish church, all the 
 good works of the saints, over and above those necessary 
 for their own justificalion, nre deposited, together with the 
 infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury 
 The keys of this treasury were committed to St. Peter, and 
 his successors, the popes, who may open it at pleasure, 
 and by transferring a portion of this superabundant merit 
 to any particular person for a sum of money, may convey 
 to him either the pardon of his own sins, or a release foi 
 any one in whose happiness he is interested, from the 
 pains of purgatory. Hence the origin (which took place in 
 the 11th century) of the sale of indulgences. Pope Leo X., 
 under the pretence of raising contributions towards building 
 the church of St. Peter at Rome, granted, in 1517, the right 
 of promulgating those indulgences in Germany, together 
 with a share in the profits arising from the sale of them, 
 to the archbishop of Magdeburg, who, as his chief agent 
 for retailing them in Saxony, employed Tetzel, a Domini- 
 can friar, of dissolute morals, but of great activity and en- 
 ergy of character. Tetzel, assisted by the monks of his 
 order, executed the commission with great zeal, but with 
 little discretion or decency ; and, by disposing of them at a 
 very low price, carried on for some time an extensive and 
 lucrative traffic among the credulous and ignorant. The 
 princes and nobles were irritated at seeing their vassals 
 drained of their wealth to replenish the treasury of a pro- 
 fuse pontiff. Men of piety regretted equally the corruptions 
 of the church and the delusions of the people. Even the 
 most unthinking were shocked at the scandalous behaviour 
 of Tetzel and his associates. But it was reserved to Mar 
 tin Luther, formerly a monk of the Augustine order, and 
 at that time professor of theology at Wittenberg, effectually 
 to expose the artifices of those who sold, and the simplicity 
 of those who bought indulgences, and to shake the founda- 
 tions of the papal see itself. What were the motives 
 which first induced this distinguished person to oppose this 
 traffic cannot now be ascertained. The traffic was not a 
 novelty, as it had been practised througtorat Christendom 
 for several centuries. Some writers havd*nagined, though 
 with what justice is not evident, that his opposition was 
 fnunefed in jealousy, because this gainful trade had not 
 been conferred on the Augustinians, to whom he belonged, 
 but on the Dominicans, a rival order. But, whatever were 
 his motives, his opposition at first was confined simply to 
 
 1037 
 
REFORMATION. 
 
 tne sale of indulgences. His memorable theses, ninety-five 
 in number, against this practice, were affixed to the doors 
 of the cathedral of Wittenberg, 31st October, 1517 ; while 
 from the pulpit he inveighed bitterly against the irregulari- 
 ties and vices of the monks who published indulgences, as 
 well as against the abuse itself. The sentiments contained 
 in his theses he proposed not as points fully established, or 
 of undoubted certainty, but merely as subjects of Inquiry 
 and disputation : he appointed a day on which the learned 
 were invited to impugn them, either in person or by wri- 
 ting ; and to the whole he subjoined solemn protestations 
 of his high respect for the apostolic see, and of his implicit 
 obedience to its authority. No opponent appeared at the 
 time prefixed. Meanwhile the theses spread over Ger- 
 many with astonishing rapidity; they were everywhere 
 read with the greatest avidity ; and all admired the bold- 
 ness of the man who had ventured to attack the plenitude 
 of papal power. Meanwhile Tetzel, in opposition to Lu- 
 ther, published counter-theses at Frankfort on the Oder ; 
 Eckius, a celebrated divine of Augsburg, endeavoured to 
 refute Luther's notions; and l'rierias, a Dominican friar, 
 master of the sacred palace and inquisitor-general, wrote 
 against him with uncompromising virulence. But this op- 
 position was of little or no avail. Luiher supported his 
 views by arguments founded on reason or derived from 
 scripture, and his cause was found daily to gain strength. 
 
 Leo, naturally fond of ease, and occupied in the pursuits 
 of pleasure and ambition, paid little or no attention to the 
 dispute that was thus raging in Germany, and at first de- 
 spised it as a mere monkish squabble. But the tidings of 
 Luther's rapid success, and the clamours of the ecclesiastics 
 for aid and vengeance, at length roused him from his apathy, 
 and induced him to take prompt steps to put a stop to the 
 spread of heresy. On the 21st Aug. 1518, he summoned 
 Luther to appear at Rome within sixty days, before the 
 auditor of the chamber and the inquisitor-general Prierins, 
 who had written against him, whom he empowered jointly 
 to examine his doctrines and to decide concerning them. 
 This was evidently an unjust tribunal by which the deci- 
 sion was to be made ; and through the influence of Frede- 
 rick the elector of Saxony, who was favourable to the new 
 doctrines, and of others, and by a submissive letter written 
 to the Pope by Luther himself, his holiness agreed to refer 
 the hearing and determining of the cause to his legate in 
 Germany, Cardinal Cajetan, a Dominican, eminent for 
 scholastic learning. 
 
 The reformer accordingly appeared before Cajetan, who, 
 after some discussion, commanded him to retract his 
 opinions; but Luther, with that intrepidity of mind which 
 was his grand characteristic, declared that he could not, 
 with a safe conscience, renounce opinions which he be- 
 lieved to be true, nor should any consideration induce him 
 to do what would be so base in itself, and so offensive to 
 God. The result was, that Luther, who, with his friends, 
 suspected that even the imperial safe-conduct would not 
 be able to protect him from the legate's power and resent- 
 ment, was induced to withdraw secretly from Augsburg, 
 and return to Wittenberg ; previously to which, however, 
 he prepared a solemn appeal from the pope, ill-informed at 
 that time concerning his cause, to the pope when he should 
 be better able to judge respecting it. (Secken, Comment., 
 lib. i., p. 14 ; Luthcri Opera, i., p. 160.) But so impatient 
 were Luther's enemies at Rome, that even before the sixty 
 days had expired, he was there condemned as a heretic ; 
 and Leo, in several of the briefs and letters, had stigma- 
 tized him as a child of iniquity, and as given up to a repro- 
 bate mind. But Luther, convinced that his views were 
 agreeable both to Scripture and reason, was not to be de- 
 terred from teaching and promulgating his opinions both 
 from the pulpit and through the press ; and as every step 
 taken by the court of Rome against him convinced him 
 that Leo would soon proceed to the most violent measures, 
 he had recourse to the only expedient in his power in 
 order to prevent the effect of the papal censures. He ap 
 pealed to a general council, which he affirmed to be the 
 representative of the Catholic church, and superior in- 
 power to the pope, who, being a fallible man, might err, as 
 St. Peter, the most perfect of all his predecessors, had 
 erred. As opposition against him increased, and as the 
 controversy advanced, Luther's views began to expand ; 
 and in his disputation with Eckius, he went so far as to 
 question the supremacy of the pope over the church, as 
 well as the doctrines of purgatory, auricular confession, 
 and absolution ; and he, about the same time, published 
 several treatises, in. which he more openly expressed his 
 dissent. Luther nmy now be said to have embraced the 
 fundamental tenet which now characterizes all sects of 
 Protestants, and which was subversive of the slavish <Ae- 
 dience in points of doctrine and discipline which had 
 hitherto been paid to the holy see; namely, that scripture 
 is the only rule of faith and manners, and that this rule is 
 'a be interpreted by the exercise of private judgment. A 
 
 step was at this period (June, 1520) taken by the court ot 
 Rome fatal to the object which it had in view. The itojie 
 issued a bull condemning, as heretical and offensive to 
 pious ears, forty-one propositions extracted out of Luther' 
 works; all persons were forbidden to read his works on 
 pain of excommunication ; those who possessed :< copy of 
 them were commanded to commit it to the flames ; and he 
 himself, if he did not within sixty days publicly recant his 
 errors and burn his works, pronounced a heretic, excom 
 municated, and delivered unto Satan; and all secular 
 princes required, under pain of incurring the same censure 
 to seize his person, that he might be punished as his crimes 
 deserved. 
 
 This sentence, while it did not disconcert or intimidate 
 Luther, excited more indignation than terror among his 
 followers, and gave a fresh impulse to the spread ot" the 
 new doctrines. In some cities the people violently ob- 
 structed the promulgation of the bull ; in others, the per- 
 sons who attempted to publish it were insulted, and the 
 bull itself was torn in pieces and trodden under foot. Lu- 
 ther, after renewing his appeal to the genenil council, 
 published remarks on the papal bull; and, being now 
 persuaded that Leo had been guilty both of impiety and 
 injustice in his proceedings against him, assumed a bolder 
 tone, and declared the pope to be that man of sin, or Anti- 
 christ, whose appearance is foretold in the New Testa- 
 ment. He declaimed against his tyranny and usurpations, 
 and exhorted all Christian princes to shake off' such an 
 ignominious yoke. .Nor did he stop here. As Leo had, in 
 execution of the bull, appointed Luther's works to be burnt 
 at Rome, the latter, by way of retaliation, assembled all 
 the members of the university of Wittenberg, and, with 
 great pomp, in presence of a vast number of spectators, 
 cast the volumes of the canon law, together with the bull 
 of excommunication, into the flames ; and his example was 
 imitated in several cities of Germany. This took place on 
 the 10th of December, 1520; and, on the 6th of the ensuing 
 month, the pope launched a second bull against him, by 
 which Luther was finally expelled from the communion 
 of the church. Thus separated from till connexion with 
 the see of Rome, Luther applied himself mure assiduously 
 than ever to the study of the word of God, as the only 
 standard of theological truth ; and while lie w as thus 
 enabled to attack with the greater success most of the 
 peculiar papal doctrines, both theological and ecclesiastical, 
 he exposed, at the same time, the unmoral and secular 
 lives of the clergy ; and thus laid the foundation of that 
 reformation of religion which at first he never contem- 
 plated, but which has been characterized "as a revolution 
 in the sentiments of mankind, the greatest as well as the 
 most beneficial, that has happened since the publication of 
 Christianity." (Robertson's Charles V., 8vo ed., vol. ii., 
 p. 12.) 
 
 A spirit of inquiry having, by means of Luther's preach- 
 ing and* publications, and the violent procedure of the 
 court of Rome, been excited in the public mind, the pro- 
 gress of the reformed doctrines was rapid and general, and 
 threatened to embrace the whole of Germany, notwith- 
 standing the Emperor Charles V. co-operated with the 
 pope to check and destroy them. Luther, too, was pro- 
 tected, from various motives, not merely by the Elector of 
 Saxony, but by many other princes ; and the new views 
 were adopted and sedulously propagated by Melanchthon, 
 Carlostadius, and other eminent men. Erasmus, too, 
 though he did not long follow in the same course as the 
 German reformer, and ultimately wrote against some of 
 his views, yet discovered and exposed, with great learning 
 and ability, many errors both in the doctrine and worship 
 of the Romish church, and may be considered as his 
 auxiliary in the work of reformation. 
 
 Under such circumstances it was that the imperial diet 
 at Worms was held, January, 1521, to which the different 
 princes were invited, in order to concert the most proper 
 measures for checking the progress of those new and dan- 
 gerous doctrines, which threatened to disturb the peace of 
 Germany, and to overthrow the religion of their ancestors. 
 An attempt to condemn him in his absence was frustrated 
 by a majority of the members of the diet ; and Luther, 
 under a safe conduct, was summoned to appear before 
 them. He did not hesitate to attend ; but neither threats 
 nor entrenties could induce him to retract any of his opin- 
 ions, or to consent to their being tried by any other rule 
 than the word of God. He was allowed to leave the city 
 in safety; but an edict was published in the emperor's 
 name, after his departure, putting him under the ban of the 
 empire. The circumstances, however, in which Charles 
 was placed — the commotions in Spain, and the wars in 
 Italy and the Low countries, together with the prudent 
 precaution of the Elector of Saxony in concealing Luther 
 in the castle of Wartburg, all concurred in preventing the 
 edict being carried into effect. During his confinement his 
 opinions continued to gain ground ; and the Augustiuians 
 
REFORMATION. 
 
 of Wittenberg ventured on an alteration in the established 
 forms of public worship, by abolishing the celebration of 
 private masses, and by giving the cup as well as the bread 
 to the laity in administering the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Bupper. In a short lime, however, the new views were 
 condemned by the university of Paris, and a refutation of 
 them Hiis attempted by Henry VII I. of England. But 
 neiiher of these intimidated Luther. He published ani- 
 madversions on both with as much virulence as if he had 
 been dealing with an ordinary adversary. 
 
 Meanwhile an attack no less violent, occasioned by a 
 similar cause, was made on the Romish church in Switzcr- 
 luml. The Franciscans being intrusted witli the sale of 
 indulgences in that country, executed their commission 
 with the same indiscretion and rapacloaanett which had 
 rendered the Dominicans so odious in Germany. But they 
 were met and opposed (1518) by Zuinglius, a man not In- 
 ferior to Luther himself in zeal and intrepidity, and who 
 
 ■i with perhaps more daring and rapid steps to 
 Overthrow the whole fabric of the established religion. 
 Notwithstanding that the universities of Cologne and Lou- 
 vain pronounced his doctrines to be erroneous, the cantons 
 of Zurich, Berne, Basil, and Schatfhauseu embraced his 
 opinions. Several conferences were at different times 
 held between the Roman Catholics and the " Evangelicals," 
 as the followers of Zuinglius were called ; and all of them 
 tendi il to the spreail of the reformed faith. After a con- 
 ference held at Berne in 1538, the council of that canton, 
 considering the result to be in favour of the Evangelicals, 
 published ten theses, which embodied the substance of the 
 ion in Switzerland; and most of the leading 
 principles contained in them are acknowledged by the re- 
 fonneil churches generally, however widely they may 
 differ among themselves on some abstruse points. 
 
 The Swiss and the German reformers were at first un- 
 acquainted with the proceedings of each other, though 
 both were animated by the same spirit, and, in different 
 
 pursuing a similar object. Hut, while they both 
 
 and exposed the usurpations and errors of the 
 stnmEsh church, and generally agreed In their sentiments, 
 they entertained very different theological opinions; and 
 thus was sown the seeds of those divisions which have 
 glutted the reformed churches. The chief subject 
 of dispute between the two reformers was concerning the 
 manner in which the body and blood of Christ were pre- 
 sent in the Eucharist Luther and his followers, though 
 they rejected the papal belief of trnnsuhstantintion, were, 
 nevertheless, of opinion that the body and blood of Christ 
 were really present in the Lord's Supi>er, in a way which 
 they could not pretend to explain. Zuinglius and his ad- 
 herents repudiated the doctrine, and taught that the bread 
 and wine used at the Eucharist were no more than ex- 
 ternal symbols to excite the remembrance of Christ's suf- 
 ferings i.i the minds of those who received it. Both parties 
 maintained iheir opinions with equal obstinacy; and, as 
 this dispute threatened to retard the great work of reforma- 
 tion, and to bring discredit on its adherents, the Landgrave 
 invited Luther and Zuinglius, with several of the 
 n*OM eminent of their respective followers, to a conference 
 at Marburg, in order to promote unanimity and peace. 
 After a disputation of four days, however, neither of the 
 contending parties could be persuaded to abandon their 
 views. But as both agreed in their sentiments, not only as 
 to the popish hierarchy, but as to the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of Christianity, they parted in Christian charity, 
 though not in brotherhood, agreeing to refrain from open 
 controversy. 
 
 The straggle between the Roman Catholics and the re- 
 formers still raged in Germany. At the diet of the empire, 
 held at Spires in 1526, the emperor's ambassadors used 
 their utmost endeavours to suppress all disputes about 
 religion, and insisted on the vigorous execution of the 
 
 ■ which had been pronounced against Luther and 
 his followers at Worms. This attempt was successfully 
 resisted by the majority of the members; and it was at last 
 unanimously agreed to present an address to the emperor 
 estreating him to call a general council without delay ; and 
 thai the princes of the empire should in the meantime be 
 allowed, in their respective dominions, to manage religious 
 matters as they should think proper. These resolutions 
 proved favourable to the cause of the Reformation, and 
 gave an impetus to the expression of the public voice. The 
 war in which at this time the emperor was engaged with 
 the pope, gave a decided advantage to the friends of the 
 reformed faith, and greatly increased their number. At a 
 diet, however, held in the same place in 1529, the power 
 which had been given to princes of managing ecclesiastical 
 affairs until the meeting of a general council, was revoked 
 by a majority of votes, and every change declared unlaw- 
 ful that should be made in the established religion before 
 the determination of the approaching council was known. 
 After many ineffectual remonstrances and arguments, six 
 
 princes of the empire and thirteen imperial cities " pro- 
 tested" against this decision. Hence arose the denomina 
 lion of "Protestants :" a term at first applicable only to th 
 Lutherans, but now common to all who have separated 
 from the church of Rome. 
 
 As the reformed doctrines in Germany had not yet been 
 reduced to a system, the Elector of Saxony ordered Luther 
 and other divines, to commit to writing the leading articles 
 of their religious system, along with the principal points on 
 which they differed from the church of Rome. In com- 
 pliance Willi this order, Luther delivered to the elector at 
 Torgau seventeen articles, which had been agreed on at a 
 
 conference at Bolzbach; hence called the Article, of 
 Torgau. This declaration of the sentiments of the re 
 formers was enlarged and rendered more minute and per- 
 spicuous by Melanclithon, who performed the task with 
 equal ability and elegance. 
 
 In 1530, Charles convoked a diet of the empire at Augs 
 luir^, and directed the reformers to lay before it an account 
 of their tenets in German and Latin. The work prepared 
 by Luther and Mctanchthon was presented to the diet; 
 hence called the Confession of Augsburg, or Conftttio 
 Jlugustana, which was read aloud by the chancellor to 
 the assembly. It contained twenty eight chapters, of 
 which twenty-one were illustrative of the religious opin- 
 ions of the Protestants, ami the remaining seven of the 
 .errors and superstitions of the papal faith. Hut alter much 
 'disputation, not only was it rejected, but the diet published 
 a decree condemning most of the peculiar tenets held by 
 the Protestants, ana forbidding any person to protect or 
 tolerate such as taught them; enjoining a strict observ- 
 ance of the established rites, with other articles equally 
 galling and tyrannical. Hut the Protestants were now too 
 powerful a body, and their view, hail assumed so com- 
 pletely the form of a system that they were not easily dis- 
 mayed. On the contrary, they assembled at Smalcalde, 
 where they concluded a treaty of mutual defence, both 
 religions and political, against till aggre -or-, ami formed 
 
 the Protestant suite- of the empire! into .,ne regular com- 
 bination. Thus, in the year 1530, was the Reformation 
 virtually established in Germany; first, by tin' publication 
 of the Confession of Augsburg; and, second, by the league 
 of Smalcalde, which made that creed the bond of union of 
 a powerful political confeder • 
 
 It may here be mentioned that the followers of Zuin 
 glius, or Sacramenfariana, .as tiny were sometimes called, 
 
 presented their confession of faith on the p.arl of four cities. 
 Strasburg, Memmingen, Lindau, nnd Constance ; generally 
 known by the Confession of Strasburg, or Confcssio Tetra 
 politana. The reformed cantons of Switzerland were not 
 allowed to join the league of Smalcalde, Inasmuch as they 
 refused to sign the Confession of Augsburg ; and thus the 
 Swiss Evangelicals, or Sacramentarians, continued distinct 
 from the Lutherans (as they still do), though they joined 
 in a separate league with the city of Strasburg and the 
 Landgrave of Hesse, who adopted their views. The Hel- 
 vetic Confession of Faith, founded on the articles of Berne 
 already referred to, was finally published in 1532. The 
 reformed doctrines had early spread to Geneva ; and John 
 Cauvin, or Calvin, of that city, after the death of Zuin- 
 glius, carried them farther than the Swiss Protestants had 
 done. He ••bolishcd all festivals except the Sabbath) dis- 
 carded all church ceremonies, used leavened bread for the 
 sacrament, and taught the doctrines of predestination and 
 election in all their rigour. {.Sre Presbytery, in this 
 work.) Calvinism thus became the third great branch of 
 the Reformation, Luther and Zuinglius being respectively 
 at the head of the other two. The systems of Zuinglius 
 and Calvin, however, gradually merged together, and ihey 
 may now be considered as one, having the same confession 
 of faith. 
 
 It wouhl exceed the bounds to which we must neces- 
 sarily confine ourselves in this article, were we !o trace 
 the history of the Reformed faith after the treaty of Smal- 
 calde: that treaty, among other results (such as con- 
 ferences, meetings of councils, particularly the celebrated 
 council of Trent in 1549), gave rise to a war between the 
 emperor and the Protestants. But the peace of Augsburg, 
 in 1555, terminated those and similar calamities which had 
 so long agitated the empire. The following are the lead- 
 ing articles of that peace : namely, that the Protestants 
 who followed the Confession of Augsburg should in future 
 be free from the jurisdiction of the pope, and from the 
 authority and superintendence of the bishops; that all the 
 inhabitants of the German empire should be at perfect 
 liberty to judge for themselves in all matters, religious and 
 ecclesiastical ; that all persons, whatever be their religious 
 opinions, should enjov equal civil rights and privileges ; m 
 other words, that a complete toleration in religious matters 
 should obtain ; and that all those who should persecute 
 any person under religious pretences should be declared 
 and treated as public enemies of the empire, invaders of its 
 1 1039 
 
REFORMATION, JUBILEE OF. 
 
 liberties, and disturbers of its peace. Thus was the Re- 
 formation final I v established in many parts of Germany as 
 it exists, without any very marked change either as to its 
 extent or to its principles, at the present day. The con- 
 ditions on which this desirable object was obtained were 
 honourable to both parties, both Catholic and Protestant, 
 and, generally speaking, to the German character. This 
 happy state of things was broken many years after by the 
 thirty years' war (1619-48) ; but the treaty of Westphalia, 
 which terminated this war, confirmed the articles of the 
 peace of Augsburg, and extended its benefits to the Calvin- 
 ists as well as to the Lutherans. Equal religious rights 
 and privileges were extended to all, as is still happily the 
 case 
 
 While these events were taking place in Germany and 
 Switzerland, the spirit of inquiry, which had been evoked 
 so signally in these countries, spread, and roused most of 
 the nations of Europe to a greater or less extent from their 
 mental inactivity or superstitious credulity: the doctrines 
 of the Reformation found their way partially into France , 
 also into Spain and Italy. Prior to Luther's death (1546) 
 these doctrines had made many converts in the Nether- 
 lands; and in the time of Philip II. the "Seven United 
 Provinces," which separated from the rest, proclaimed 
 liberty of conscience, and adopted the tenets of Calvinism, 
 to which they have ever since adhered. 
 
 About the year 1556, the Lutheran creed was adopted 
 as the state religion in Denmark and Norway. This creed 
 was propagated in Sweden soon after Luther's rupture 
 with the church of Rome, by Olaus Petri, one of his dis- 
 ciples. Both Lutheranism and Calvinism early gained an 
 extensive footing in Poland, which they still retain. To 
 Hungary and Transylvania a similar remark applies. The 
 history of the Reformation in the British empire is well 
 known, and need not be detailed here. Though the Pro- 
 testant episcopal church is the established religion in Ire- 
 land, more than three-fourths of the people of that country 
 retain their hereditary attachment to the papal creed. Al- 
 together, not more than a fourth of the population of 
 Europe are Protestant ; of the remainder, about two-thirds 
 still adhere to the Romish faith, the two great exceptions 
 being Turkey, where Mohammedanism is established ; and 
 the east of Europe and other contiguous provinces, where 
 the Greek church prevails. Protestantism, besides, is the 
 predominant religion in the United States, and in almost all 
 the British colonies. See Christianity. 
 
 Independently of the truth or falsehood of the doctrinal 
 and other points on which the reformed church dissents 
 from that of Rome, the Reformation was the cause of many 
 interesting and important advantages. It burst the fetters 
 by which the human mind had previously been bound, and 
 restored it to liberty. It made religion an object of the un- 
 derstanding, and not of the eye ; of the heart, rather than 
 of the memory. " On the whole, the Reformation has been 
 an incalculable good to Europe ; it has purified religion and 
 morals ; it has improved the intellect, and has guaranteed 
 civil liberty." {Dunham's Hist, of the Germanic Emp., b. 
 iii., c. 2.) It has contributed to improve even the Church 
 of Rome itself both in science and in morals. "The desire 
 of equalling the reformers in those talents which had pro- 
 cured them respect ; the necessity of acquiring the knowl- 
 edge requisite for defending their own tenets, or refuting the 
 arguments of their opponents ; together with the emulation 
 natural between two rival churches, engaged the Roman 
 Catholic clergy to apply themselves to the study of useful 
 science, which they cultivated with such assiduity and suc- 
 cess, that they have gradually become as eminent in liter- 
 ature as they were, in some periods, infamous. The same 
 principle occasioned a change no less considerable in the 
 morals of the Romish clergy. Many of them have, in con- 
 sequence, been distinguished for all the accomplishments 
 and virtues which can adorn their profession, and differ 
 greatly from their predecessors before the Reformation, both 
 in their maxims and in their conduct." (Robertson's Charles 
 V., vol. v., p. 414-15; Hist, of the Great Reformation in 
 Germany and Switzerland, by D'Aubigne ; F. Paul, Hist, of 
 the Council of Trent, &c.) 
 
 REFORMATION, JUBILEE OF THE. The two hun- 
 dredth anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation 
 at Geneva, was solemnized under this title in August, 1835. 
 The canton, since the Congress of Vienna, having become 
 "mixed" in religion, the government took no part in this 
 festival, the expenses of which were defrayed by voluntary 
 subscription. Invitations were sent to the Protestant clergy 
 of all countries, both Lutheran and Calvinist, to attend its 
 solemnization : 61 were present from France, 12 from Eng- 
 »Mid, 3 from North America. The account of this great 
 meeting is published under the title of Jubilt de la Reforma- 
 tion de Ginevc, Genev., 1835. 
 
 REFORMED CHURCH, comprises, in a general sense, all 
 those bodies of Christians that have separated from the 
 Church of Rome since the era of the Reformation ; but it is 
 1040 
 
 
 REFRACTION OF LIGHT. 
 
 applied in a restricted sense to those Protestant churches 
 which did not embrace the doctrines and discipline of 
 Luther, and more particularly to the Calvinistic churches 
 on the Continent. 
 
 REFRA'CTION. (Lat. refractus, broken.) In Mechan 
 ics, the change of direction which takes place in the motion 
 of a body when it passes obliquely out of one medium into 
 another of different density. The term is chiefly applied tc 
 the deviation from their rectilinear course of the rays of 
 light in passing through transparent substances. 
 
 REFRACTION OF LIGHT. The deviation of a ray of 
 light from its original path in entering a medium of a differ 
 ent density. This change of direction, which takes place 
 at the surface of separation of two media, is the ultimate 
 fact from which many of the most interesting phenomena 
 of light receive their explanation. The laws by which it is 
 regulated, and the investigation of the consequences of 
 those laws, form the branch of natural philosophy usually 
 termed Dioptrics. 
 
 The phenomenon may be observed as follows : Suppose 
 a beam of light proceeding from a luminous (1.) 
 
 point S (fig. 1) to be admitted through a S x 
 small hole A in the side of a vessel A B ; 
 then, the vessel being empty, the light will 
 fall on the bottom at a point L in the same 
 straight line with S and A. Now let water 
 be poured into the vessel, and suppose the 
 beam of light to fall on the surface of the 
 water at P ; then it will be seen that the light no longer 
 continues its course in the same straight line, but is bent, or 
 refracted, at P, and proceeds through the water in a straight 
 line P R, more nearly perpendicular to the surface. A simi- 
 lar deviation takes place in all cases in which light passes 
 from one transparent medium into another ; but the magni- 
 tude of the angle R P L, or the amount of the refraction, 
 varies according to the nature of the two media, and the de- 
 gree of obliquity with which the incident ray falls on the 
 surface of separation. 
 
 Through P draw ftPja normal to the surface ; then S 
 P Q, is the angle of incidence, R P q is the angle of refraction, 
 and the following laws are found to be observed in all cases : 
 
 1. The refracted ray P R is in the same plane with S P 
 and P Q. ; that is, with the incident ray and the perpendicu- 
 lar to the surface at the point of incidence. 
 
 2. The incident ray S P and the refracted ray P R are a! 
 ways on opposite sides of the perpendicular Q. P q. 
 
 3. Whatever be the inclination of the incident ray to the 
 surface, the sine of the angle of incidence has to the sine of 
 the angle of refraction a constant ratio. 
 
 These three laws, which hold good for curve surfaces as 
 well as for planes, enable us to determine the path of the 
 refracted ray with mathematical precision when the form 
 of the surface and the nature of the refracting medium are 
 both known. The first two are easily verified, and have 
 been known from the days of Ptolemy. The third, which 
 is very remarkable, was first enunciated in the Jjioptrics of 
 Descartes, published in 1637 ; but the discovery belongs to 
 Willebrod Snell, professor of mathematics at Leyden, who 
 died at an early age in 1626. Snell, indeed, made no men- 
 tion of the sines of the two angles, but the relation which 
 he affirmed to subsist is identical with the law as stated by 
 Descartes. Through P (fig. 2), the point of incidence, as a 
 
 !•) 
 
 aL—^!£- 
 
 V it- 
 
 centre, let a circle be described meeting 
 the incidental ray in T, and the refracted 
 in R, and through R draw R M perpen- 
 dicular to the surface A B, meeting P L 
 in M ; draw also R c, M d, T e, respective- 
 ly perpendicular to Q, q. Now the propo- 
 sition affirmed by Snell was, that for 
 every inclination of S P to the surface 
 the line P R is to P M in a constant ratio. 
 ButPR = PT, and PT:PM : :T e: M d; 
 or as T e : R c, therefore T e is to R c in a constant ratio ; 
 and these are obviously the sines of incidence and refraction 
 respectively to the same radius. Descartes, in stating the 
 law of the sines, made no mention of Snell, leaving it to be 
 inferred that he himself was the discoverer of the property 
 in question, which, in fact, is usually ascribed to him by the 
 French authors. It is, however, by no means certain 
 (though asserted by various writers) that Descartes was ac- 
 quainted with what had been done by Pnell, as the work 
 of the latter existed only in manuscript when the Dioptric* 
 made its appearance. 
 
 Let i denote the angle of incidence, r the angle of refrac- 
 tion, and let n :1 be the constant ratio of the sines in pass- 
 ing from a given medium A into another given medium B ; 
 we have then, by the third law above stated, sin. t'=n sin. 
 r, for every value of i. The quantity n, which is constant 
 for the same two media, is greater than unity when the re- 
 fracting power of the first medium A is less than that of the 
 second B, and vice versd. Its value must be determined in 
 every case by experiment ; and as it is relative to both 
 
REFRACTION OF LIGHT. 
 
 media, it is convenient for the purpose of comparing the re- 
 fractive powers of different substances to refer them all to 
 some common medium A, usually assumed to be an abso- 
 lute void, and in this case the quantity n is called the prin- 
 cipal index of refraction of the medium B, or simply the in- 
 dex of refraction. We have therefore this definition : 
 
 The index of refraction of any transparent substance is the 
 ratio of the sine of incidence to the sine of refraction, when 
 light passes from a vacuum into the substance. 
 
 As there is no known substance of such a nature that 
 light entering it from a vacuum is refracted so as to make 
 the anele of refraction greater than the angle of incidence, 
 the index of refraction is always greater than unity. Of all 
 known substances, that which possesses the greatest refrac- 
 tive power is eliminate of lead, for which the index of re- 
 fraction i- '.i; hence in the equation sin. 1= n sin. r, all the 
 values of n which have yet been experimentally determined 
 lie between 1 and 3. 
 
 From the formula sin. t = n sin. r some remarkable con- 
 sequences are readily deduced. Suppose i to have its great- 
 ilue, namely flip, in which case the incident ray be- 
 comes parallel to the surface of the medium. We have 
 then sin. t = 1 ; and the formula become! 1 = n sin. r, 
 whence sin. r— \-h-n, which is the limiting value of r. In 
 the case of water the index of refraction n = 1-336 (or nearly 
 £), and the arc whose sine is the reciprocal of this quantity 
 is 48° -27' 40" : consequently light cannot enter water more 
 obliquely than under an angle of 48° 28'. Thus, suppose a 
 (3.) I A B C D (fig. 3) to be filled with 
 
 __ _ P p water, and a part of the surface A P to be 
 
 " covered over; then, on drawing a line P 
 M, making with the perpendicular P (A an 
 i c angle U P Q = 4r£> So*, the part A P M D 
 will remain in per fe ct darkness, however 
 i ered part of the surface P 11 may be illuminated. 
 It is B principle in optics, that If a ray of litrlit passes from 
 a point A to a point 11 alter any number of refractions or re- 
 fcc l lon s, a ray will pass from B to A by follow hil' precisely 
 course In an opjiosite direction. From this it fol- 
 lows that If a ray of light S P (fig. 4) falling on the exterior 
 
 W.) 
 
 vi r 
 
 A V . I! 
 
 o\ \Jb\ 
 
 surface A B of a medium is refracted into 
 the direction P K, then on arriving at the 
 interior surface C D it will suffer another 
 re fraction, and escape from the medium in 
 the direction II .•>, making with K k (the 
 ]>crpendiculnr to C D at 1! , the nngle s 11 
 k equal to the angle 8 P Q.. With respect 
 to the surface C 1>, PHK becomes the nn- 
 gla of incidence, and k Rs the angle of re- 
 fraction ; ami if we suppose the ray to pass from the medium 
 into a vacuum, and n to be the index of refraction of the 
 
 medium, we have sin. «' = - sin. r. Now, since n is greater 
 
 n 
 than unity, r is greater than t ; and if we suppose those an- 
 gle.-, to increase until r, or the angle kR s becomes a right 
 angle, then sin. r=l, and we have sin. its 1 -f-n, for the 
 limiting value of i, beyond which the ray will not leave the 
 surface at K ; for if sin. «' be greater than 1 -f-«, it follows 
 that sin. r must be greater than unity, which is impossible. 
 Hence it follows that if the ray P R fall upon the interior 
 surface, making with the normal K R an angle greater than 
 1 -f-n, it will not leave the medium, but be reflected internal- 
 ly from R. 
 
 This property admits of various practical applications. 
 For ordinary glass the value of n is about 3, so that in pass- 
 ing from glass to air we have sin. t = § sin. r. Now let t in- 
 crease until r = 90°, then sin. t = $• whence t = 41° 49', 
 which therefore is the limiting value of the angle of incidence 
 when light peases from glass into air. Let ABC (fig. 5) be 
 ,* ■. a triangular glass prism having the angle 
 
 „ rr at A a right angle, and the sides A B and A 
 
 \ C equal, so that B and C are each angles of 
 
 a j\ I , B 45° ; and conceive a ray of light 3 P to fall 
 perpendicularly on the surface A C at P. 
 This will continue its course through the 
 glass in a straight line until it meets the side 
 B C in R, making with R CI (the normal to 
 B C) the angle of incidence 8 R Q = 45°. 
 But this angle being greater than 41° 49', the ray will not 
 leave the medium, but be reflected at the interior surface in 
 the direction R T, which, since the angles of incidence and 
 reflection are equal, will be perpendicular to S R, so that the 
 ray will fall perpendicutary upon the surface A B, and pass 
 through it without refraction. The prism thus produces the 
 same effect as a diasonal mirror placed in the plane B C. 
 
 When the index of refraction for each of two media has 
 been determined, the refraction which takes piF.ce .n -toss- 
 ing from the one medium to the other is also known, 'he con - 
 stant ratio of the sines of incidence and refraction being. In 
 this case, the ratio of the indices of the two media. Let m 
 De the index of refraction for the medium A, and n the in- 
 3 U 
 
 'TA 
 
 dex for the medium B ; then, in passing from A into B, we 
 
 have sin. •'= -sin. r. Thus, the index of refraction for 
 
 water is 1-338, and for amber 1-547; therefore in passing 
 out of water into amber the constant ratio of the sines 
 of incidence and refraction will be 1-158, the quotient which 
 arises from the division of 1-547 by 1-336. An baffle 
 diate consequence of this is, that when a ray of light en 
 ters a medium after having passed successively through 
 several others, the path of the ray in the last median! will 
 be the same as If it had entered that medium directly na- 
 iler the same angle of incidence as that by which it entered 
 the first ; and if the media are bounded by parallel surface, 
 the direction of the ray alter escaping from the last surface 
 will be parallel to its primitive direction. (6 ) 
 
 Thus, let the ray S P (lit'. 6), entering the s 
 medium A at P, be refracted into the direc- \ 
 tion P 11, and on entering the second median) ^>f 
 B be again refracted into the direction R V, A ' 
 the path of the ray V X after leaving the 1; 
 second medium will be parallel to 8 P, pro- ^ 
 vided the surfaces at P and V are parallel ■ 
 and in all cases the ray will emerge at V 
 under the same angle Of Obliquity as it entered the iir;t stir 
 face at P. 
 
 The principles which have now been laid down are suffi- 
 cient to enable us to compute the path of a ray of light 
 through any diaphanous substance, or through different sub- 
 stances in succession, when the index of refraction belonging 
 to each substance is known. The following table (from 
 Brewster's Optics, Cab. Cyclopedia, p. 370) gives the in 
 dices of refraction for the greater part of the substances 
 which have yet been examined. 
 
 Table of the Refractive Powers of Solid and Fluid Bodies. 
 
 
 Index of 
 
 
 Index of 
 
 
 Refraction 
 
 
 Refract ion 
 
 Realgar, artificial . 
 
 2-549 
 
 I'late glass, from 1-514 
 
 
 Ortohednte . 
 
 2-500 
 
 to ... . 
 
 1-542 
 
 Diamond 
 
 2439 
 
 Crown glass, from 1-525 
 
 
 Nitrite of lad 
 
 2322 
 
 to ... . 
 
 1481 
 
 Dlcnde .... 
 
 2-260 
 
 Oil of cloves . 
 
 I'M 
 
 Phmphorus . 
 
 Sulphur melted 
 
 MM 
 
 2- US 
 
 Balsam of eapivi . 
 Gum arabic . 
 
 I-S2S 
 1 -A02 
 
 Zircon .... 
 
 1-981 
 
 Oil of beech nut . 
 
 1-500 
 
 Glass— lead 2 parti, flint 
 
 
 Castor oil 
 
 1-490 
 
 1 part 
 
 1-830 
 
 C'ajeput oil . . 
 
 1-4.S.) 
 
 Garnet .... 
 
 1-815 
 
 Oil of turpentine . 
 
 1 475 
 
 Ruby .... 
 
 1-779 
 
 Oil of olives . 
 
 1.470 
 
 Glass— lead 3 parti, flint 
 
 
 Alum .... 
 
 1-457 
 
 1 part 
 
 2023 
 
 Fluor spar 
 
 1-434 
 
 Sapphire 
 
 i-m 
 
 ric acid 
 
 l.43t 
 
 spindle 
 
 I-7M 
 
 Nitric acid . 
 
 1-410 
 
 Cinnamon itnne . 
 
 1-759 
 
 Muriatic acid 
 
 1-410 
 
 Sulphuret of carbon 
 
 1-768 
 
 Alcohol . . . , 
 
 1-372 
 
 Oil of c™ . 
 
 1.641 
 
 Cryolite 
 
 1-349 
 
 Balsam of Tolu . 
 
 i 629 
 
 Water .... 
 
 1-336 
 
 Guianim 
 
 1-619 
 
 Ice .... 
 
 1-309 
 
 Oil of anise seed . 
 
 1 601 
 
 Fluids in minerals, 1-294 
 
 
 Quartz .... 
 
 154>3 
 
 to ... . 
 
 1131 
 
 Hock-salt 
 
 1-557 
 
 Tnbasheer . 
 
 Mil 
 
 Sugar melted 
 
 1 •->.! 
 
 Ether expanded to thrice 
 
 
 Canada balsam 
 
 1--.I9 
 
 its volume . 
 
 1 0V7 
 
 
 
 Air ... 
 
 l-QOUM 
 
 Table of th 
 
 e Refrac 
 
 live Powers of Gase 
 
 1, 
 
 
 Index of 
 
 
 Index of 
 
 
 Refraction 
 
 
 Refraction 
 
 Vapour of sulphuret of 
 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 1-000449 
 
 carbon 
 
 1-001530 
 
 Carburetted hydrogen . 
 
 1 000443 
 
 Phosgene 
 
 1-001159 
 
 Ammonia . . 
 
 1 •000386' 
 
 Cyanogen 
 
 Chlorine 
 
 1-000834 
 
 Carbonic oxide 
 
 1-000340 
 
 1 -0011772 
 
 Sitrous gai . 
 
 i-eoosoa 
 
 Olefiant gas . . 
 
 1000678 
 
 Azote .... 
 
 1-000300 
 
 Sulphurous acid • • 
 
 1-000665 
 
 Atmospheric air . 
 
 1-000294 
 
 Sulphurettnd hydrogen . 
 
 1-000644 
 
 Oxygen .... 
 
 1 •000272 
 
 Nitrous oxide 
 
 1-000503 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 1-00013.1 ' 
 
 Hydrocyanic acid . . 
 %furiatic acid . * 
 
 1000451 
 
 Vacuum 
 
 1 0011000 | 
 
 1-000449 
 
 
 1 
 
 In the preceding remarks, light has been regarded as a 
 homogeneous substance, all the parts of which have the 
 same index of refraction. This, however, is not the case ; 
 refraction never takes place without a separation of the dif 
 ferently coloured rays, so that for every transparent body 
 the index of refraction changes with the colour of the light 
 The numerical value of the Indices, given in the above ta 
 ble, correspond to the yellow or green rays which occupy 
 the middle of the dispersed pencil. For the different re- 
 frangibilities of the primary rays, see Chromatics, Dispeb 
 bion, Spectrum. 
 
 Double Refraction.— The phenomena and laws of refrac- 
 tion, which have yet been considered, belong to those cases 
 in which n single refraction takes place on the entrance of 
 ;-.2ht into .. .i:ffVei.t medium, or in which a pencil of light on 
 enter-inn ^ rcfr.-icMr.g medium continues to form a single pen 
 cil, and to afford a single image of the object from which it 
 proceeds. There are, however, a multitude of substances 
 which, either in their natural state or under accidental cir 
 
 1041 
 
REFRACTION OF LIGHT. 
 
 eumstances, exercise a peculiar influence on light, causing 
 it, in its passage through them, to follow two distinct paths, 
 forming with each other an angle of greater or less amount. 
 Such substances are called doubly refracting substances, 
 and the phenomenon itself is called double refraction. 
 
 The substances or media which produce only single re- 
 fraction belong to one or other of the four following classes ; 
 1. Gases and vapours. 2. Fluids. 3. Substances which 
 have passed from the liquid to the solid state so rapidly as 
 to prevent the molecules from taking a regular crystalline 
 arrangement: for example, glass, glue, &c. ; gums, resins, 
 &c. 4. Crystals whose primitive form is the cube, regular 
 octahedron, or rhomboidal dodecahedron, or which belong 
 to the tessular system of Mohs. AH other substances, as 
 the salts, precious stones, crystals not belonging to the above- 
 named forms ; all bodies belonging both to the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms, in which there exists any disposition to 
 a regular arrangement of the molecules, as horn, mother of 
 pearl, &c. ; and, in general, all bodies unequally compressed, 
 or which have not the same structure in all directions, sep- 
 arate the light which they refract into two distinct pencils, 
 which pursue separate courses, and are governed by totally 
 different laws. 
 In order to give an idea of this remarkable phenomenon, 
 (7.) let A B C D X (.fig. 7,) be a crystal of 
 
 Iceland spar (carbonate of lime), having its 
 faces made smooth either by cleavage or by 
 >fi grinding, and let it be laid on one of its 
 faces on a sheet of white paper over a 
 black spot O; then, on looking through 
 the crystal, two spots will be seen, one at 
 O, and the other at E. On turning the 
 crystal round on its axis, but always keep- 
 ing the same face on the paper, one of the images, O, will 
 remain invariable, while the other E, will appear to describe 
 a circle about O. If instead of a round spot the object 
 viewed be a straight line; then, on looking through the 
 crystal, a double image of the line will be seen, one pass- 
 ing through O, and the other through E. On turning the 
 crystal as before, it will be seen that the distance between 
 the two lines varies, but that they always remain parallel 
 to each other; and that in the course of a complete revo- 
 'ution of the crystal about its axis there are two positions 
 in which the images will coincide, and two other positions, 
 midway between the former, in which they will attain a 
 maximum distance. These phenomena show that a ray 
 of light, S I, on entering the face of the crystal at I, is sep- 
 arated by refraction into two pencils, I O and I E ; and it 
 is found that on emerging from the crystals the two pencils 
 make the same angle with the surface, and continue their 
 course in a direction parallel to each other and to the inci- 
 dent ray S I. 
 
 If we cause a beam of solar light to fall on the crystal, 
 and examine the paths of the two pencils, it will be found 
 that I O follows the laws of ordinary refraction, the sine of 
 incidence being to the sine of refraction in a constant ratio, 
 and the pencil continuing in the same plane with the inci- 
 dent ray and the normal to the surface at the point of inci- 
 dence : hence I O is called the ordinary pencil. But I E is 
 found to follow an entirely different law, and is therefore 
 called the extraordinary jiencil. If, for example, the inci- 
 dent ray S I is perpendicular to the face of the crystal, the 
 ordinary refraction does not take place, the angle of inci- 
 dence being zero ; hut in this case the angle of refraction of 
 the extraordinary pencil, I E, is 6° 12', and it is not in the 
 same plane with the normal and the incident ray. 
 
 From a careful examination of the phenomena it is also 
 found that although a ray of light falling on the face of the 
 crystal is refracted generally into two pencils, there is one 
 particular direction in which the incident ray undergoes 
 only the ordinary refraction. This direction is parallel to 
 A X, the shorter axis of the crystal, and is called the axis 
 of double refraction. It is, therefore, to be observed that the 
 axis of double refraction of a crystal is not a fixed line, but 
 a determinate direction with reference to the faces of the 
 crystal, every line parallel to A X, forming an axis of double 
 refraction. In some crystals the extraordinary ray is re- 
 fracted towards the axis A X, in others it is refracted from 
 it. In the first case the axis is called a positive axis of re- 
 fraction ; in the second it is called a negative axis. 
 
 In the crystal we have now been considering (Iceland 
 spar), there is only one direction in which the double re- 
 fraction does not take place, but in many other crystals 
 there are two directions which have this property. In 
 examining the phenomena of double refraction in a great 
 number of crystallized substances, Sir David Brewster 
 found that all those crystals whose primitive and simplest 
 form has only one axis of figure, or one pre-eminent 
 line about which the figure is symmetrical, have only 
 one axis of double refraction. The primitive forms 
 which have only one symmetrical a?:':- of figure are the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 1042 
 
 1. The rhomb with an obtuse summit ; as Iceland spar, 
 
 tourmaline, quartz, &c. 
 
 2. The rhomb with an acute summit; of which form are 
 
 corundum, sapphire, ruby, cinnabar, and arseniate of 
 copper. 
 
 3. The regular hexaedral prism ; as emerald, beryl, arse- 
 
 niate of lead, &c. 
 
 4. Octohedron with square base ; as zircon, oxide of tin, 
 
 prussiate of potash, &c. 
 
 5. Right prism with square base ; as arsenate of potash, 
 
 phosphate of magnesia, &c. 
 
 In all these forms, and in the primitive forms to which 
 they belong, the line A X is the axis of figure and of 
 double refraction ; and it is the only direction in which 
 there is no double refraction. Sec Brewster's Optics, p. 
 149.) 
 
 The property of possessing two axes of double refraction 
 was discovered by Sir David Brewster in 1815, and he found 
 that it belonged to all crystals, whether chemical bodies or 
 mineral substances, which are included in the prismatic 
 system of Molts, or whose primitive forms are, 
 
 1. A right prism, base a rectangle. 
 
 2. A right prism, base a rhomb. 
 
 3. A right prism, base an oblique parallelogram 
 
 4. Oblique prism, base a rectangle. 
 
 5. Oblique prism, base a rhomb. 
 
 6. Oblique prism, base an oblique parallelogram. 
 
 7. Octohedron, base a rectangle. 
 
 8. Octohedron, base a rhomb. 
 
 In all these forms there is no axis about which the crystal 
 is symmetrical. 
 
 In all cases of crystals with two axes of double refrac- 
 tion, both the pencils are refracted according to the laws of 
 extraordinary refraction. In a substance called analcime 
 Sir D. Brewster found there were several planes along 
 which if the incident ray passes it will not suffer double 
 refraction, whatever be the angle of incidence. Each of 
 these planes, therefore, may be considered as containing an 
 infinite number of axes of double refraction, or lines in 
 which there is no double refraction. No other substance 
 has vet been found possessing the same property. (Optici, 
 p. 155.) 
 
 Another very remarkable property is, that in crystals 
 which have only one axis of double refraction the axis has 
 always the same position, being, in fact, in till cases, the 
 axis of symmetry ; but in crystals which have two axes of 
 double refraction, the axes change their position according 
 to the colour of the incident light. Sir John Herschel, to 
 whom this discovery is due, found that in crystals of 
 Rochelle salts the inclination of the two axis for violet 
 light is 56°, while for red light it is about 76°. In other 
 crystals, as nitre, the inclination of the two axes is greater 
 for the violet than for the red rays; but in all cases the line 
 which joins the extremities of the nxes for all the rays is a 
 straight line. 
 
 The property of double refraction was discovered by 
 Bartholin, in 1669, and was first explained by Huygens on 
 the hypothesis of the propagation of light by means of an 
 elastic medium. The phenomena have been studied with 
 great assiduity in modern times, and, in fact, the investiga- 
 tion of their laws forms one of the principal parts of 
 physical optics, and has mainly contributed towards the 
 establishment of the now generally received theory of un- 
 dulation. Newton docs not appear to have paid much 
 attention to the subject, and his theory of emission does 
 not very readily accommodate itself to the explanation of 
 the phenomena ; though it must be owned that the sup- 
 porters of that theory have succeeded, by means of certain 
 arbitrary hypotheses, in constructing mathematical for- 
 mula; which represent the greater part of the known facts. 
 For the complete explanation of all the phenomena, the 
 undulatory theory requires two postulates, or assumptions: 
 1. That the vibrations of the ether take place transversc/y, 
 or in the direction perpendicular to the visual ray ; and, 2. 
 That the elasticity of the medium is unequally developed 
 in the interior of the refracting crystal. The first of these 
 assumptions is analagous to what takes place when a blow 
 is given to a cord tightly stretched ; the motion is commu- 
 nicated rapidly in the direction of its length, while the 
 vibrations are at right angles to that direction. With respect 
 to the second assumption, the facts which are known re- 
 specting the constitution of crystals render it exceedingly 
 probable, a priori. All diaphanous bodies which refract 
 light only in a single direction, and,according to the Car 
 tesian law, are found to have the same tenacity and the 
 same elasticity in till directions, and their linear dilatations 
 by heat are also the same ; but it has been established that 
 with respect to all crystallized substances, which possess 
 the property of double refraction, the elastic force with 
 which they resist compression is greater in certain direc- 
 tions than In others ; and also that linear dilatation corre- 
 sponding to the same increase of temperature varies with 
 
\ i;i 
 
 REFRACTION, ASTRONOMICAL. 
 
 the direction in which it is measured. These facts prove 
 that the matter of the crystal possesses an elasticity vary- 
 in? with the direction ; and it seems natural to suppose that 
 the ether within it must have the same property. On these 
 two assumptions, namely, transverse vilirations, and un- 
 ly developed elasticity of the medium, Fresnel has 
 meted a mathematical theory of double refraction, 
 from which all the phenomena which have yet been ob- 
 served are deduced as simple corollaries. (See Sir J. 
 tiers Treatise on Light, Ency. Metropol. ; Airy's 
 .Mathematical Tracts, 2d ed. ; Pouillct, Kit nuns tie Phy- 
 lique.) 
 
 R INFRACTION, ASTRONOMICAL. Refraction, in As- 
 tronomy, is the apparent angular elevation of the celes- 
 tial bosses alMive their true places, caused by the refraction 
 of the rays of light in their passage through the earth's 
 atmosphere. 
 
 It It found by experiment, that the refractive power of a 
 gas or aeriform substance, is proportional to its density. 
 .Now the earth's ntmosphere is not a medium of uniform 
 density, but of a density continually diminishing as the dis- 
 irom the centre is increased. For the purpose of 
 illustration, the atmosphere may be regarded as composed 
 of a great but finite number of concentric spherical strata, 
 each having a uniform density greater than that of the 
 stratum by which it is enveloped, but less than that of the 
 stratum which it envelopes. Hence, on entering each Suc- 
 re stratum, the light must undergo s slight deviation 
 from its rectilinear course, and 
 the amount of all these devia- 
 tions constitutes the phenome- 
 a non of astronomical refraction. 
 Let A A, B B, C C, represent 
 the boundaries of the succes- 
 sive strata, and suppose a ray 
 of light proceeding from the star S to enter the highest 
 stratum A A obliquely at a. If no devintion took place, 
 y would continue to advance in the same straight 
 8 a; but in consequence of entering a denser medium 
 it is refracted, according to the law of Descartes, into a 
 direction, oft, more nearly perpendicular to the surface of 
 phericnl stratum. At ft it again enters a medium of n 
 • r density, anil is refracted into the direction ft c, still 
 approaching the perpendicular to the surface. On arriving 
 at c the phenomenon is repeated, and the ray Is bent from 
 the direction be into the direction cO; so that m pTTfng 
 from B to O the ray of light, instead of describing the 
 itndghl line S O, describes the polygon S aft eO, and to a 
 spectator at O the star will appear to be situated at S'in the 
 direction O c. Hence the star appears to be elevated above 
 its true place ; and the angle S' O S, which is the difference 
 • 11 its true and apparent elevations, is the astronomi- 
 cal refraction. If we suppose the number of the strati to 
 become Infinitely great, then the angular deviation at each 
 successive stratum will become infinitely small: and the 
 path of the ray, instead of being a polygon, will be a con- 
 tinuous cuive, which, according to the laws of refraction, 
 will lie wholly in the same vertical plane. 
 Since the ratio of the sines of Incidence and refraction is 
 int, it is evident that the total eflect will be the great 
 Bit when the luminous rays enter the atmospheric strata 
 with the greatest oliliquity ; that is to say, when the object 
 is seen in the horizon. At the zenith there is no refrac- 
 tion ; in descending from the zenith to the horizon it con- 
 tinually Incr ease s , according to a certain law, Which may 
 be determined theoretically if the refractive power of atmos- 
 pheric air at a given density and temperature, the dilatation 
 of air by heat, and also the law of the \ariation of the 
 density and temperature in ascending Into the higher regions 
 of the atmosphere, are supposed to be known. At a me- 
 dium density, and at the temperature of melting ice, Biot 
 and Arngo found by experiment that for any altitude ex- 
 Og 10° above the horizon the law of atmospheric re- 
 fraction is represented by the formula r = 60-6" tan. (Z — 
 325 X r), in which r is the refraction corresponding to a 
 given zenith distance Z. Bradley had given the formula 
 r = 57" tan. (Z — 3-25 r). From either of these it appears 
 that the increase of refraction Is nearly proportional to the 
 tangent of the zenith distance, but at low altitudes the ex- 
 becomes much more complicated. 
 The following table given by Mr. Ivory (Phil, transac- 
 tions for 1838, part 2) shows the amount of refraction at 
 different zenith distances, the temperature being 50° of 
 Fahrenheit, and the height of the barometer 30 inches. 
 
 REFRACTIVE POWER. 
 
 Zenith Dis- 
 tance. 
 
 Refraction. 
 
 Zenith Dis- 
 tance. 
 
 Refraction. 
 
 3M-68" 
 446-42 
 
 509-86 
 693-96 
 
 646 21 
 707-43 
 778 92 
 866-76 
 971-93 
 11013d 
 
 1466-8 
 1729-5 
 
 20 
 30 
 41) 
 45 
 SO 
 65 
 60 
 65 
 70 
 75 
 80 
 81 
 
 1U3U" 
 21 26 
 83-72 
 4S-99 
 58 36 
 69-52 
 83-85 
 100-85 
 124-65 
 159 16 
 214-7U 
 830-19 
 353-79 
 
 t>2° 
 83 
 84 
 
 854 
 86 
 
 86 J 
 
 67* 
 88 
 S8j 
 i-9 
 
 SUA 
 
 tual 'emperature and barometric pressure is obtained by 
 
 multiplying the tabular refraction by — 
 
 l + e(t— 50) 30 
 where A is the observed height of the barometer reduced 
 to the fixed temperature of 50° Fahr., t the temperature of 
 xc U' rss »he same scale and 1 1= -002183. 
 
 The existence of astronomical refraction was known at 
 an early period, though its amount and laws have only 
 been ascertained in recent times. Ptolemy, In his book on 
 Optics, remarks that in consequence of refraction a star is 
 brought nearer the zenith, and that the eflect is greater in 
 the case of a low than a high star; but as no mention is 
 made of the subject in the Almagest, it was not then re- 
 garded as an element of astronomical calculation. Similar 
 notions appear in the Optics of Alhazen. Wallher was 
 the first who began to estimate the effects of refraction near 
 the horizon ; and Tycho Brahe constructed, from observe. 
 tions, the first table. He supposed the horizontal refine 
 tion to be 34', which is very near the truth (its mean 
 amount being 33') ; but he supposed it to vanish at the alti- 
 tude of 45°, though its mean amount at that altitude 
 appears, by the preceding table, to be nearly 1 minute. 
 Dominic (Jassini gave an empirical formula for computing 
 the refraction at any altitude ; but the solution of the pro- 
 blem on true principles was first undertaken, and, In fact, 
 fully accomplished, by Newton, though his results did not 
 represent the observations, in consequence of the Imperfect 
 knowledge which then existed respecting the physical con 
 stitutiou of the almosphere. 
 
 REFRACTION, TBBEB8TRIAL. The atmospherical 
 refraction which has just been explained, is the effect pro- 
 duced by the whole atmosphere on a body placed entirely 
 beyond it; but as the density of the atmosphere varies with 
 the height, it is evident that the apparent place of any 
 object placed on a different level from that of the observer 
 must be ntl'ected in a greater or less degree by refraction. 
 Whether the rays of light come from a more elevated ob- 
 ject, and consequently pass from a rarer into a denser 
 medium, or from an object depressed below the horizon of 
 the observer, and consequently pass from a denser into a 
 rarer medium, they are equally bent downwards, and con- 
 sequently the apparent place of the object is raised. This 
 refraction between terrestrial objects is called terrestrial re- 
 fraction ; and as the density of the air near the surface of 
 the earth is liable to great irregularities from being irregular 
 ly heated, its effects ghe rise to many very remarkable phe- 
 nomena. Among these are looming or mirage, the fata 
 morgana (see the terms,, and the occasional ap p eara n ce 
 above the horizon of distant i bjects which, in the ordinary 
 state of the atmosphere are, invisible. Sometimes, in conse- 
 quence of the rarefaction of the air In the neighbourhood of 
 a .surface of water, or of a building, or of the earth itself, 
 a distant object appeaH to be depressed instead of being 
 elevated; and occasionally it is at once both depressed and 
 elevated, so as to appear double, in which case one of the 
 images is generally seen in an inverted position, as if a re- 
 llexion had taken place. In very exact observations, as in 
 geq detl c ai surveys, it is found that the refraction is not 
 always confined to the same vclircal plane, but sometimes 
 produces a deviation amounting to a few seconds later 
 ally. 
 
 REFRACTIVE POWER, in Optics, is the degree of in 
 fluence which n diaphanous body exercises on the light 
 which passes through it. For the measure of this influence 
 modern writers generally adopt the square of the index of 
 refraction, diminished by unity, or n- — 1, where n denotes 
 the principal index of refraction. (See Refraction) The 
 reason of this is founded oft certain dynamical considera- 
 tions regarding the physical cause of refraction. According 
 to the Newtonian theory of emission, the velocity of light 
 is accelerated on entering a denser medium by reason of the 
 increased molecular attraction ; and the law of refraction is 
 explained by supi>osing the index of refraction of any sub 
 
 stance to be the ratio of the velocity of light in that sub 
 The correction (omitting some small terms) for the ac- stance to its velocity in a vacuum. Thus, let u denote the 
 
 velocity of light in a vacuum, and v its velocity while 
 passing thiough a diaphanous substance, then v •?- u — n ; 
 or, since sin. t — sin. r = n the sine of incidence is to the 
 sine of refraction inverse,* as the velocity in a vacuum to 
 the velocity in the medium. Now the increment of the vis 
 viva, or the excess of the square of the new velocity above 
 that of the former, is v 2 - u 2 and the ratio of '-its w th» 
 
 MW3 
 
REFRAIN. 
 
 squat e of the former is (v2 — a 2 ) : « 2 , which is the same as 
 the ratio of n? — 1 to unity. 
 
 According to the undulatory theory, the velocity of light 
 is diminished on entering a denser body. In this case, w2 — 
 e>2 is the loss of vis viva; and the ratio (it 2 — v 1 ) : v l , or 
 n 2 — l to 1, is the ratio of vis viva which is lost to that 
 which is retained. In either case, the ratio n2 — 1 to 1 
 forms the measure of the refractive power of the substance 
 of which n is the index of refraction. 
 
 Some modern authors employ the phrase absolute refrac- 
 tive power to denote the ratio of the refractive power of a 
 substance (as above defined) to its density ; that is to say, 
 the ratio (n- — 1) : D, where D stands for the density of the 
 body. Sir Isaac Newton {Optics, p. 247,) calls this the 
 '' refractive power of a body in respect of its density ;" and, 
 as it is a consequence of the theory of emission that the re- 
 fractive power must be proportional to the density, the ratio 
 («2 — 1) : D, according to this theory, is constant for the 
 same medium ; that fe to say, its numerical value depends 
 only on the nature of the medium, and is independent of 
 its condition ; so that a liquid and its vapour ought to have 
 the same absolute refractive power, which is contradicted 
 by the experiments of Arago and Petit. 
 
 The French authors use the term puissance refractive to 
 denote the refractive power, or the number n2 — 1, while 
 they express the absolute refractive power, or the ratio 
 (n2 — 1) : D, by the term pouvoir refringent. It is con- 
 venient to have different names for the two things, which 
 are totally different, at least in their numerical measures. 
 Thus hydrogen gas has a smaller index of refraction, and 
 consequently a smaller refractive power, than any other 
 substance ; but its absolute refractive power, or pouvoir re- 
 fringent, is greater than that of any other substance. (For 
 a table of the values of the ratio (n? — 1) : D for a con- 
 siderable number of different substances, see Brewster's 
 Optics, Cab. Cyclopaedia.) 
 
 REFRA'IN. The burden of a song, &c. See Burden. 
 
 REFRANGIBILITY, in Optics, is the disposition of the 
 rays of light lo be refracted or bent in passing obliquely 
 from one transparent medium into another; but the term 
 is chiefly used to denote the degree of that disposition pos- 
 sessed by.the differently coloured rays. See Refraction, 
 Spectrum. 
 
 RE'FUGE, CITIES OF. Six cities appointed, according 
 to the words of Moses, under the Jewish dispensation (Deu- 
 teron., xix., 2, 9), for the safety of those who had caused the 
 accidental death of any one. If a deliberate murderer fled 
 to one of these cities, the elders of the city were to deliver 
 him " into the hands of the avenger of blood." The cities 
 are enumerated in Joshua, chap. xx. 
 
 REFUGEE. A name which has been given in history 
 and political phraseology indiscriminately to persons who 
 flee from religious or political persecution in their own coun- 
 try, and take refuge in another. It was originally applied 
 to the French Protestants (refugies) who found an asylum 
 in this country, and among various Continental nations, after 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. 
 
 REGA'LIA. (Lat. rex, a Icing.) In Politics, the privi- 
 leges, prerogative, and right of property, belonging, in virtue 
 of office, to the sovereign of a state. The latter class of ob- 
 jects are most commonly termed regalia minora; as, in 
 some countries, waifs, strays, and newly-formed land, &c. ; 
 in England, forfeitures, &c. ; while the former are known 
 by the epithet majora. Regalia, in English Heraldry, the 
 royal insignia, crowns, sceptres, globes, crosses, &c, used at 
 the coronation : also the crown jewels. Regalia of the 
 church, the privileges which have been conceded to it by 
 kings : sometimes the patrimony of a church. 
 
 REGA'RDANT. (Fr.) In Heraldry, literally, looking 
 behind ; applied to any animal whose face is turned towards 
 the tail in an attitude of vigilance. 
 
 REGA'TTA. (Ital.) A word used originally by the 
 Venetians to signify a grand fete, in which the gondoliers 
 contested for superiority in rowing their gondolas; but the 
 term has been adopted into all the languages of modern 
 Europe, in which it signifies a brilliant species of boat race. 
 In England, festivities of this species are almost of weekly 
 occurrence during the summer season. 
 
 REGEL, or RIGEL. A star of the first magnitude, con- 
 sating the left heel of the constellation Orion. 
 /REGENERATION. In Theology, the new birth of man 
 <mto righteousness, following on the abolition of the original 
 corruption of his nature. Similar language was used re- 
 specting the admission of proselytes to the privilege of Ju- 
 daism : so, also, in other religions. The Sanscrit name for 
 a Brahmin Is said to signify "twice-born;" and Tertullian 
 says that the heathens used baptism in their mysteries, "in 
 regenerat'tonem." When our Saviour admonished Nicode- 
 mus not to marve' at his words, "Ye must be born again," 
 he added, with reference, doubtless, to the doctrines already 
 t-iught among the Jews, " Art thou a master of Israe. 1 aid 
 1044 
 
 REGICIDE. 
 
 knowest not these things V (John, iii., 10.) That baptism 
 is " a sign of regeneration," as expressed in the 27th Article 
 of the Church of England, is admitted by nearly all Chris- 
 tians. (Rom., vi., 4, 11; Tit., iii., 5; John, iii., 5.) But 
 whether the new birth to which allusion is made in these 
 solemn passages actually takes place by and through bap- 
 tism ; whether baptism, duly administered by those author- 
 ized, is in itself an " opus opcratum," in the language of the 
 schools ; or whether the regeneration spoken of as the con- 
 dition of our salvation takes place after, and independent of 
 baptism, by the operation of the Spirit on the inner man — 
 this is a question on which Protestants have never asueed 
 among themselves, and which divides the English church at 
 this day. The former is the commonly received or Catholic 
 doctrine; and has been so from very early times, as far as 
 we can conclude from the language of the fathers and an- 
 cient forms of the church. But it does not appear to be posi 
 tively declared by the Church of" England, though inferred 
 from various passages in the baptismal service. 
 
 RE'GENT. (Lat. rego, /govern.) The person who ex 
 ercises the powers of a sovereign during the absence, inca 
 pacify, or minority of the latter. In most hereditary gov 
 ernments the maxim is, that this office belongs to the nearest 
 relative of the sovereign capable of undertaking it ; but this 
 rule is subject to many limitations. The kings of France ex 
 ercised at various periods the power of fixing, by ordinance 
 or will, the regency, in case of their decease leaving issue 
 under age; and also the period of their son's majority. 
 Nevertheless, these wills have been at various times disre- 
 garded in favour of what was esteemed the principle of the 
 monarchy. Thus, the testament of Louis XIII., by which 
 he declared his wife future regent, but limited her power in 
 the essential prerogative of the choice of a council, was set 
 aside as to this limitation, and she was appointed regent 
 with full prerogatives. The testament of Louis XIV., as to 
 a regency during the minority of Louis XV., was set aside 
 by the parliament of Paris immediately after his death. In 
 England, the right to appoint the regent is now full;.- recog- 
 nised to belong to parliament ; although, in 1788, on the oc- 
 casion of the first illness of George HI., much discussion 
 took place as to the absolute right which some supposed to 
 inhere in the heir apparent. The recency, in the event of 
 the demise of the present sovereign leaving issue, is vested 
 by act of parliament in her majesty's consort. 
 
 "RE'GENT MASTERS, or REGENTS. In the English 
 Universities, a term borrowed from the ancient usages of 
 the University of Paris. In that institution graduates in the 
 faculties, within a certain period after their degree, had the 
 privilege, which they were hound to exercise, of giving pub- 
 lic lectures (docendi, legendi, regendi scholas). The same 
 custom was adopted at Oxford and Cambridge ; although the 
 regent masters were at an early period succeeded in the per 
 formance of this office by the established professors. The 
 regents still form the governing body of the universities, in 
 the convocation and congregation at Oxford, and in the 
 academical senate of Cambridge. Sec Master of Arts. 
 
 RE'GICIDE. (Lat. rex, king, and ca-do, / kill.) The 
 offence of slaying a king or other sovereign. The early 
 Greek republics, unaccustomed to the legitimate rule of 
 monarchs, saw, in the occasional subjugation which they 
 underwent from successful partisans, a mere usurpation, or 
 tvranny ; and tyrannicide was with them only the slaying 
 of a public enemy. And the hatred which attached itself 
 in the minds of the Roman people to the royal name and 
 authority made them regard the acts of the elder and younger 
 Brutus, even to the latest days of the republic, and long after 
 the establishment of the empire, as virtuous and honour- 
 able. Hence the perverted morality on this peculiar sub- 
 ject which continues to prevail, more or less, even to the 
 "present day, as false in logic as contrary to the plain rules 
 of conscience; for it is obvious that, to each individual, a 
 wealthy or powerful oppressor, who commits injuries against 
 him and his friends for which the law can give him no re- 
 dress, is just as fair a subject for illegal vengeance as a king 
 to any member of the community. Yet no one ever sought 
 seriously to set up the right of assassination in such cases , 
 as Buchanan, Languet, Mariana, and others have done in 
 that of kings. English history has three notorious instances 
 of kings (Edward II., Richard II., and Edward V.) murder- 
 ed by powerful and rebellious subjects. But France, above 
 all other countries, is fertile in examples of regicide, effect- 
 ed or attempted by private individuals under the influence 
 of religious and political fanaticism. Henry HI. and IV. 
 both fell by the hands of Roman Catholic zealots. The 
 »eader will find in the Discourse of Pete Mathieu on the 
 Death of the latter (lately republished in Cimbcr, Archives 
 Curieuses), a singular example of the fanaticism of cruelty 
 in the way of retaliation, excited, and not unnaturally, by 
 the repetition of such monstrous and desperate acts. But 
 the savage execution of Ravaillac did not deter Daniien, in 
 the reign of Louis XV., from attempting the same offence 
 from the same motives. The murder of the Due de Berri, 
 
REGIMENT. 
 
 and the repented attempts on the life of Louis Philippe, from 
 political enthusiasm, show hut too plainly that the inorhid 
 which actuated those celebrated assassins have 
 hut taken in modern limes another direction. The murder 
 of Gustavus, iing of .Sweden, by Ankarstrom, is, |>erhups, 
 the most deliberate instance of this crime on record ; for 
 the criminal, though rancorous and determined, was no 
 zealot. It must he added, that the application of the term 
 regicide to the members of the commission which sat in 
 judgment on Charles I., and to the majority of the conven- 
 tion which condemned Louis XVI., is a violation of that 
 moral sense which judges unerringly of actions; whatever 
 the sharacter of their conduct might he, it was altogether 
 dilieient from assassination ; and to confound Vane or Car- 
 not with Kivaillac and Fieschi, under a similar designation, 
 ils hui those of temporary party malice. 
 KE'GIMEN'T. (Lat. rego, J rule.) A body of ir 
 
 f infantry) of several battalions, or (if cavalry) of 
 several squadrons, under the command of a colonel. The 
 British army consists, at present, of three regiment- of hone 
 Sixteen regiments of cavalry, of which four are 
 heavy dragoons, five light dragoons, four hussars, and four 
 lancers; three regiments of foot guards, divided into the 
 I guards, the Scots fusiliers, and the Coldstream 
 guards; and ninety-nine regiments of infantry, exclusive of 
 regiment of artillery, and the royal corps of m a- 
 M any of the regiments in the British army are dis- 
 tinguished by the name of the counties or diMrii Is where 
 the men were originally enlisted. Thus the 3d regiment is 
 called the East Kent regiment; the 6th, the Royal War- 
 ire, ate, &.c. No rule Is established with regard to 
 the number Of men of which a regiment should consist : both 
 in England and on the Continent this point is settled either 
 iee of sen id' in time of war, or the principles 
 Of economy in time ol' |M;ace. In the British army, the three 
 ts of horse guards consist, at present, each of 38 offi 
 non riiiinimsshsiiid officers, 351 privates, and 274 
 The ordinary cavalry regiments have each at an 
 -7 commissioned officers, 31 non-commissioned offi- 
 cers, 304 privates, and 383 horses. The grenadier regiment 
 of guards consists of three battalions ; and has '.it;,, < 
 
 non-commissioned officers, and 2080 privates. The other 
 two regiments of foot guards consist also of two battalions 
 each, and have each ill officers, 109 non-cot IsBioned offi- 
 cers, and l~->0 privates. The royal regimentof artillery con- 
 nine battalions, having 4 111 officers and 6062 non- 
 commissioned officers and men, exclusive of the horse bri- 
 gade, the engineers, and sappers and miners. {Stat, of the 
 tim. Empire, vol. ii., p. 433.; 
 
 RE*GISTER, LORD; or LORD CLERK REGISTER. 
 A Scottish officer of state, who has the custody of the nr- 
 ehlVOS; hence also termed eustOS rotuloruni. He was of 
 Old the principal clerk of the kingdom, from whom other 
 clerks derived their authority. Th • office was formerly at 
 hut since 1777 for life. Salary X'I200 a year. He 
 ted in his duties by a resident deputy. 
 
 RE'GISTRY OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND 
 DEATHS. Down to the year 1836, in consequence of the 
 t the system of registration, no complete or accurate 
 information could he obtained as to the amount of births, 
 marriages, and deaths throughout England ; but at that 
 |>eriod the necessity of having it superseded by a better sys- 
 tem was admitted, which was finally accomplished by the 
 act 6 it. 7 Will. 4, c. 80. 
 
 This act, passed in pursuance of the recommendation of 
 a committee of the House of Commons on parochial regis- 
 ters (1833), embodies a plan for the effectual registration of 
 births, deaths, and marriages in England and Wales. To 
 give uniformity to the system, it is conducted under the 
 superintendence of an officer resident in London ; and there 
 also a central place of deposit is provided for certified copies 
 of all parochial registers, with ready means of finding any 
 entry in them. It is provided that in every case of birth the 
 following circumstances shall be recorded: viz., the time 
 and place of birth ; the name (if any) and sex of child ; 
 name and surname of father ; name and maiden surname of 
 mother ; rank or profession of father ; the signature, descrip- 
 tion, and residence of the informant ; and also the baptismal 
 name of child. If added after registration of birth. In every 
 it ilk the register is to record the time and place of 
 death ; the name and surname, sex, age, and rank or pro- 
 of the deceased; the cause of death ; and the signa- 
 ture, description, and residence of the informant. In all 
 e entries must be signed by the informant, and also 
 by the registrar, who discharges this duty without any im- 
 mediate expense to the parties requiring registration, his re- 
 muneration being derived from moderate fees paid out of 
 s rates. The insertion of the cause of death, along 
 with the period of death, and the residence, sex, age, and 
 will, in time, afford data of the 
 Importance to medical science, and to the improve- 
 ment of vital statistics 
 
 REGIUM DONUM. 
 
 The central office in London for the deposit of cerliheu 
 copies of registers, and the general supervision and conduct 
 of the business of registration, is called the General Regis- 
 ter Office. It is presided over by a registrar general appoint- 
 ed under the great seal, having under him an assistant re- 
 gistrar, chief clerk, and a numerous body of subordinate 
 clerks. From this office communications emanate to all 
 superintending registrars, registrars of births and deaths, 
 and registrars of marriages, who all act within their respec- 
 tive districts under the directions of the registrar-general, An 
 whom is vested the power of dismissal. 
 
 There are at present 619 superintendent registrars, who 
 may each appoint a deputy, with the approval of the regis- 
 trar-general, Of these superintendents 562 have 
 the office as clerks >'i boards of guardians for the poor, or 
 have been appointed by tin- guardians, and 57 ha 
 appointed by the registrar-general. Each 
 registrar serves within the district to which he I appointed, 
 which comprises one or more registrar's dii 
 
 There are 2197 registrars of births ami deaths, who may 
 each appoint a deputy, with the approval of the guardian-, 
 or of the poor law commissioners. < >f these registr 
 have been appointed by the boards of guardians established 
 under the Poor Law Amendment Act; and 216 n 
 trars of temporary districts, appointed by the poor | 
 missloners. Each registrar is appointed to some one of the 
 
 2197 registrars' districts, into which the whole of 
 
 and Wales has been divided: and he must reside in that 
 
 district, and register all births and deaths that occur in it. 
 
 Marriages are registered, 1st, By clergynn 
 lished church, of w hom 11,694 have been furnished with 
 books for this purpose, idly. By registrars of mai 
 
 whom there were. 00 the 1st of January, I 
 last are appointed by the ni|H>rintendent registrars, and re- 
 gister marriages solemnized in their presence in registered 
 places of worship, or in the superintendent registrar's office : 
 297 of the total number of 716 are also \i-'i\-::-c- 
 and deaths. 3dly. By ii offlc< r- of I lu 
 
 whom there are 90. AmHthly, ll.\ thi 
 gOgOM, Of whOBI there are 36. 
 
 The clergyman, ami tic various officers, amounting in all 
 to about 14,400 to whom the business of registration is com- 
 mitted, are bound to make quarterly deliveries of certified 
 copies of all entries in their respective registers during the 
 previous quarter, to the superintendent registrars of the dis- 
 trict to which they respectively belong; anil these certified 
 copies are transmitted In- the superintendent registrars to 
 trar-general, The certified copies are made on 
 separate leaves of paper of a uniform size and peculiar tex- 
 ture, having a distinguishing water mark. On being re- 
 ceived at the general regl ter office in London (whiiher 
 they are sent by post), they are carefully examined; and 
 any defects being noted, are mule the subject of communi- 
 cation with the person from whom the defective copy came, 
 who is required either to furnish another copy, or a satis- 
 factory explanation. They are then arranged, paged, and 
 inserted in books for reference. 
 
 Alphabetical indexes of birllis, deaths, and marriages arc 
 prepared and kept in the general register office; and any 
 person, on payment of is., may search these hldi 
 any entry, and, on finding it, may, if he wish, obtain, for 2s 
 6d., a stomped copy of -uch entry, which will be "received 
 as evidence of the birth, death." or marriage to which tin 
 same relates, without any farther or other proof of such 
 entry." There are separate alphabetical indexes for the 
 births, the deaths, and the marriages in each quarter. Thf 
 registrar-general is bound to furnish, once a year, one of the 
 principal secretaries of stale witli a general abstract account 
 of the births, deaths, and marriages registered during thf 
 foregoing year, to be laid before parliament. Three reporti 
 of the registrar-general have already been published; and 
 in a statistical |y>int of view, the sound, accurate, and judi 
 cious information which they embody, cannot be too high 
 Iv appreciated, (statistics of the. licit. Empire.) 
 
 RE'GISTRY OF DEEDS, in Law, exists in Englanf 
 only in certain districts; in the three ridings of Yorkshire, 
 and in Middlesex, it is established by act of parliament. It 
 does not extend to copyhold estates, or to lenses not exceed- 
 ing twenty-one years in possession. The intention of the 
 registry was to give notice to purchasers of incumbrances 
 existing on estates. But its value, in this respect, is ma- 
 terially lessened by the prevalence of the equitable doctrine 
 of notice; namelv, that where a party is, either actually or 
 constructively, aware of incumbrances not registered, he is 
 bound bv such knowledge. 
 
 REGISTRY OF SHU'S. See Ships, Registry of. 
 
 RE'GIUM DO.NUM. (Lat. royal gift.) Anannualgrant 
 of public money in aid of the maintenance of the Presby- 
 terian clergy In Ireland. It was instituted by William HI. 
 In 1690, and remodelled In 1790. The stipends are paid to 
 ministers both of the "Synod of Ulster" and "Seceding 
 
 Synod," the two principal divisions of the sect 
 
 1045 
 
REGIUS PROFESSORS. 
 
 REGIUS PROFESSORS. The name given to those pro- 
 fessora in the English universities whose chairs were found- 
 ed by Henry VIII. In the Scotch universities, in which 
 the patronage of bv far the greater number of chairs is vest- 
 ed in the civil bodies, those professors are called regius pro- 
 fessors who have been appointed by the crown. 
 
 REGLET. (Lat. regula.) In Architecture. Sec Fillet. 
 
 REGRATING. Sec Forestallinq. 
 
 REGRE'SSION. (Lat. regressus, a going backwards.) 
 In Astronomy, the regression of the moon's nodes is the mo- 
 tion of the line of intersection of the orbit of the moon with 
 the ecliptic, which is retrograde, or contrary to the order of 
 the signs. This motion of the nodes of the lunar orbit takes 
 place with considerable rapidity, the whole revolution be- 
 ing accomplished in about 18A years. The nodes of the 
 planetary orbits also regress on the ecliptic ; but, in the case 
 of the planets, the regression is extremely slow, that of the 
 nodes of Mercury, which is the must rapid, amounting only 
 to about 4\J seconds of a degree in a solar year. See Node, 
 Planet. 
 
 REGULAR BODIES. Sec Platonic Bodies. 
 
 REGULAR FIGURES, in Geometry, are equilateral and 
 equiangular polygon* Circles can be described within and 
 about such figures ; but such figures can be described by 
 geometrical methods only in particular cases. General ex- 
 pressions for the radii of the circles described within and 
 about them (r and R), and for their areas and angles, can, 
 however, be given in neat forms. Thus, if n denote the 
 number of sides of the polygon, and if u° represent the nth 
 part of 1800, we shall have, a being the side, R = ka cosec. 
 u°, r = ka cot. v.°, area = 4,n a 2 cot. u Q . 
 
 Tables of the values of cosec. u° and cot. u°, computed 
 from these expressions, may be seen in most works on men- 
 suration adapted to the values of n as far as 12. (See Hut- 
 ton's .Mensuration.) 
 
 RE'GULARS. In the Roman Catholic Church, those 
 that profess and follow a certain rule of life, and observe 
 the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, are so 
 called. 
 
 REGULATOR. In Machinery, a general name for any 
 of which the object is to produce the uniform 
 movement of machines. The regulators most commonly 
 applied arc Uiefly and the governor, for which see the re- 
 spective terms. 
 
 The regulator of a watch is the spiral spring attached to 
 the b dance. This ingenious contrivance, the invention of 
 Hooke, has contributed as much to the improvement of 
 watches as the pendulum to the improvement of clocks. 
 
 In a paper published in the Memoirs of the Koyal Astro- 
 nmaical Society, vol. xi., the present Astronomer Royal has 
 investigated the mathematical problem of the motion of the 
 regulator applied to the clock-work by which motion la given 
 to large equatorial telescopes. For this purpose, absolute 
 Uniformity of motion is of very great importance. The 
 construction usually adopted, in this country at least, de- 
 pends on the same principle as that of the governor of the 
 Steam-engine. Two balls suspended from the upper part of 
 a vertical axis by rods of a certain length, are made to ex- 
 pand by the rotatory velocity of the axis ; and when the 
 expansion reaches a certain limit, a lever is pressed against 
 some revolving part, whereby a friction is produced which 
 immediately checks the velocity. Now the uniformity of 
 the rotatory motion of the spindle depends upon the as- 
 sumption, that if upon the whole the retarding forces are 
 equal to the accelerating forces, the balls will move in a 
 circle, and in no other curve. But this assumption is incor- 
 rect j for the balls may move in a curve differing insensibly 
 from an ellipse ; and, in some instances, Mr. Airy observed 
 the balls to revolve in an ellipse of considerable eccentrici- 
 ty. When this takes place, the rotatory motion of the spin- 
 dle becomes exceedingly variable. This injurious effect 
 may be partly counteracted Uy constructing the apparatus 
 so that the revolutions shall be either very slow or very 
 quick ; the former method has the effect of giving greater 
 smoothness of motion, but the second insures more com- 
 pletly that the object observed shall remain steady in the 
 field of the telescope. 
 
 RE'GULUS. In Chemistry. The old chemists designa- 
 ted several of the brittle or inferior metals by this term, 
 when freed from impurities and obtained in their metallic 
 state: it is thus that they speak of regulus of antimony, 
 of bismuth, &c. 
 
 REHABILITATION, in Foreign Criminal Law, is the 
 reinstatement of a criminal in his personal rights which he 
 has lost by a judicial sentence. Thus, in Scotland, a par- 
 don from the king is said to rehabilitate a witness labour- 
 ing under infamia juris. In France, persons condemned to 
 imprisonment or compulsory labour may demand their re- 
 habilitation five years after the expiration of their penalty: 
 the demand is considered by the cour royale of the district, 
 and pronounced upon by the king in his privy council. Va- 
 rious singular fr.rms were attached to the process of reha- 
 1016 
 
 REJOINDER. 
 
 bilitation in ancient times. There are extant letters or 
 Charles VI., given in 1383, permitting a criminal whose 
 hand had been cut off for homicide to replace it by anofhei 
 made in such fashion .as he may choose. 
 
 REHEA'RSAL. The recital in private of an opera, ora- 
 torio, or, in short, any dramatic work, previously to public 
 exhibition. 
 
 REIN-DEER. (Germ, rennthier.) Cerrus tarandus, 
 Linn. A large species of Cervus with branched, recurved, 
 round antlers, the summits of which are palmated. These 
 antlers are remarkable for the size of the branch which 
 comes oil" near the base, and is directed forwards, called 
 the brow-antler, and which is said to be used by the animal 
 to clear away the snow from the hidden lichens which 
 constitute the food of the rein-deer during the long and se- 
 vere winter of Greenland, their native clime. As the fe- 
 male also possesses antlers of similar form, but smaller 
 upon the whole than those of the male, their function as 
 instruments to obtain food is rendered more probable, since 
 in the deer which do not exist in artic climes the females 
 are destitute of antlers. These appendages of the rein 
 deer are annually shed and renewed in both sexes. 
 
 The length of a full-grown male is about nine feet, th.it 
 of the head is fifteen inches. They are well clothed with 
 hair, which becomes thicker, longer, and of a whiter col- 
 our in the winter season ; at which time the male has a 
 white beard, like the goat. The rutting season, is at the 
 beginning of winter, and the hind brings forth one, rarely 
 two calves, in May or June. 
 
 The rein-deer is swift of foot, sharp-sighted, has an acute 
 smell and hearing. It is more cautious and timid in herds 
 than when solitary. It can swim well, and ofien crosses 
 lakes and rivers. 
 
 The flesh of the rein deer, which is held in great esteem 
 by the Greenlanders, is usually eaten raw, or dried with the 
 smoke of the lichen nivalis. The blood is boiled with ber- 
 ries mixed with the fat, which is also preserved separately 
 and used as lard. The half-digested contents of the paunch 
 of the rein-deer is the Greenlander's prime luxury; nor is 
 the trail rejected. The hide of the rain-deer supplies the 
 Greenlander with a beautiful material lor his lent, his 
 clothing, his bedding. The bones and antlers are worked 
 into implements for domestic use, for lishi.ig and hunting 
 The tendons are split into threads. 
 
 The Greenlanders likewise use the spare hides of the 
 rein-deer as an article of barter. 
 
 REI'NECKE (The Fox). The name of a celebrated 
 popular German epic poem, which, during the latter part of 
 the middle ages and the early centuries of modem times, 
 enjoyed an almost European reputation. It became first 
 known through the medium of a Low German version in 
 the 15th century ; and it has, with few interruptions, ever 
 since involved the German literati in discussions as to its 
 origin, which are yet apparently far from being settled. It 
 contains a humorous and satirical account of the adven- 
 tures of Reinecke (the fox) at the court of King Nodel (the 
 lion); exhibits the cunning of the former, and the means 
 which he adopted to rebut the charges preferred against 
 him, and the hypocrisy and lies by which he contrived to 
 gain the favour of his sovereign, who loaded him with hon- 
 ours. The king, the officers of his court, and all his sub- 
 jects are represented, as In F.sop's Fables, under the names 
 of the animals test suited to their respective characters ; 
 and the pocrn is an admirable satire on the intrigues prac- 
 tised at a weak court. The most successful versions of 
 this poem are those of Goethe, in hexameters ; of Soltau, 
 in the measure of the original; and the more recent at- 
 tempt of Ortlepp. This poem appears, in some form or oth- 
 er, to have been known throughout Europe. For full infor- 
 mation respecting it. the reader may consult Moon (Roman 
 du Jienard, Paris, 1820) ; and the Reinhart Fuchs, by Jacob 
 Grimm (Berlin, 1834). 
 
 REINFORCE, in Artillery, is that part of a gun nearest 
 to the breech, made stronger to resist the explosive force of 
 the powder. See Gun. 
 
 REINFORCE RINGS, are flat hooplike mouldings on the 
 reinforces on the side nearest the breech. There are Usu- 
 ally two, the second being rather smaller than the first. 
 
 REIS-EFFENDI. The name given to one of the chief 
 Turkish officers of state. He is chancellor of the empire 
 and minister of foreign affairs, in which capacity he ne- 
 gotiates with the ambassadors and interpreters of foreign 
 nations. 
 
 REITERS. (Germ, routers, riders.) The German cav- 
 alry of the 14th and 15th centuries were so called; espe- 
 cially in France during the religious wars, in which they 
 served on the Protestant side. At that period they were 
 light-armed, and carried a long sword and carbine. 
 
 REJOI'NDER. In Law the fourth stage in the plead- 
 inL's in an action, being the defendant's answer to the plain- 
 tiff's replication. The next allegation of the plaintiff is 
 called a surrejoinder. See Pleading. 
 
ILELAI3. 
 
 RELAIS. In Fortification, a narrow walk of four or Ave 
 feet wide, left without the rampart to receive the earth 
 wliich may be washed down and prevent its falling into the 
 ditch. It is sometimes, for greater security, pallisaded. 
 
 RELA'PSE (LaL relabor, I fall bark), is applied, in Ec- 
 clesiastical Law, to a heretic who falls back into an error 
 wliich he has abjured. 
 
 RELATION, INHARMONIC. In Music, a term deno- 
 ting that a dissonant sound is introduced which is not heard 
 in the preceding chord. 
 
 RELE'ASE (Fr. relaiser), in Law, signifies, properly 
 speaking, a discharge of a right: 'e. g., 1. A release of land 
 is a discharge or conveyance of a man's right in lands and 
 tenements to another that has some former estate in pos- 
 session, on which principle the common mode of convey- 
 ance by lease and release is founded ; i. <•., releasing all the 
 right of the releasor to a party already in possession under 
 a lease for a year. 2. A release of a right of action ; which 
 may l>e pleaded in bar. {See Pleading.) A release "of 
 all demands" discharges all sorts of actions, rights, titles, 
 conditions, executions, np|)cals, covenants, contracts, annu- 
 •inces, &c. 
 
 RI'.'LICS (Lai. rebqoaO, in the Romish Church, are the 
 remains of saints and holy men, or of their garments, tc, 
 which are enjoined to be held in veneration, and are con- 
 sidered, in many instances, to be endued wilh miraculous 
 n. They are preserved In the churches, to which 
 they are often the means of attracting pilgrimages, and in 
 very ignorant times and places have lieen actually made ob- 
 jects of adoration. The virtues which are attributed to 
 them are defended by such instances from scripture as that 
 of the miracles that were wrought by the bones of Elisha. 
 (9 Kings, xiii., 21.) 
 
 RELIE'F, In Feudal Law, is derived from the Latin re- 
 levare, to lake up; because the tenant, by payment of the 
 was said to tike up the lief which had fallen to the 
 lord by the death, &c, of his predecessor. ''The heir," 
 says Blackstone, " when admitted to the feud which his 
 ancemor possessed, used generally to pay a fine or acknowl- 
 edgment to the lord in horses, arms, money, or the like, for 
 ; which was called a relief, lie- 
 cause it taised up and re-established the inheritance; or, in 
 the words of the feudal writers, ' incertam et caducam her. - 
 ditatem relevabat.' " Reliefs, together with the other inci- 
 dents of feudal tenure, were aliolished in England by stat. 
 19 Cai w. System. 
 
 Relief. In Architecture, the projection of a figure or 
 ornament from the ground or plane on which it is sculp- 
 tured. In Sculpture, when the whole of the figure stands 
 out, the work is denominated alto-riHevo ; when only half 
 out, d, mi-rilii rii ; and when its projection is very small, it 
 is called baeto-rilievo. 
 
 RELICT, IWievo. In Sculpture, that species of sculpture 
 in wliich the figures are engaged on or rise from a ground. 
 There are three sorts of rttfew- •basso rilievo, in wliich the 
 figures or other objects have but small projection from the 
 ground on which they are sculptured ; mezzo-rilievo, in which 
 the ngures stand out about half their natural proportions, the 
 other half appearing immersed in the ground ; and, lastly, 
 in wliich the figures stand completely out from 
 the ground, being attached to it only in a few places, and in 
 others worked entirely round like single statues ; such are 
 the metopaj of the Elgin marbles in the British Museum, 
 which marbles also, in the Panathenaic procession, exhibit 
 some exquisite examples of hasso-rilievo. 
 
 BELIEF SYNOD. A respectable body of Presbyterian 
 dissenters in Scotland, whose ground of separation from the 
 established church was the violent exercise of lay patron- 
 age which obtained in the latter. Though patronage, or 
 the appointment of clergymen to church benefices by pre- 
 sentations had been established by act of Parliament in 
 17]\>, yet a minority of the clergy were opposed to that 
 measure; at least to the intrusion of n minister into paro- 
 chial charge contrary to the sentiments of the people. The 
 majority of the Church, however, entertained different 
 and rigorously enforced the provisions of the act of 
 1713. With this state of things the people generally, but 
 particularly in rural districts, were dissatisfied; and hence 
 the origin of the Secession Church, and the Relief. See 
 Bcroukrs. 
 
 The origin of the Relief may he dated in 1752. Six of 
 the ministers of the Presbytery of Dunferm'ine having re- 
 fused, contrary to the express authority of the General As- 
 semhly of the Church of Scotland, to assist at the admis- 
 sion of Mr. Richardson to the parish of lnverkeithing (the 
 people being unwilling to receive him as their pastor), were 
 summoned before this venerable court for contumacy. They 
 pleaded conscientious scruples; but this representaiion had 
 no effect on the assembly ; and, as an example to the church, 
 f>ii'- of the six recusants was peremptorily deposed from the 
 office of the ministry, while the remaining live were sus- 
 pended. Mr. Gillespie, minister of Carnock, the individ- 
 
 REMAINDER. 
 
 ual deposed, still claimed his pastoral relation to his flock; 
 and though deprived of the use of the parish church, 
 preached In the fields, attended not merely by his former 
 hearers, but by many others attracted by the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances of the case. A chapel was afterwards built for 
 him in the neighbouring town Of Dunfermline, where he 
 continued to preach till his death, and to oppose the law of 
 patronage in the church. Mr. Gillespie for a t'aw years 
 stood alone; hut in consequence of the violent settlement of 
 a clergyman in the town of Jedburgh, the great body of the 
 people of that place, forsaking the established church, gave 
 acall (1759) to .Mr. Thomas Boston, minister of a neighbour- 
 ing parish, to be their pastor. Mr. Boston, for whom they 
 erected a chapel, accepted the invitation, and withdrew 
 from the Church of Scotland. Owing to exactly similar 
 circumstances, the people of the parish of Kilconipihar, in 
 l'il'eshire, followed the example set them in Jedburgh, and 
 chose Mr. Collier to be their minister; On the 22d of .No- 
 vember, 1759, Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Boston, with a lay elder 
 from each of their congregations, met in a prcsbyteritm ca- 
 pacity at Colinsbursh, in the last mentioned parish, to in 
 dud Mr. Collier to his charge. On the evening of the same 
 day these three ministers met, and agreed to form them 
 selves Into an ecclesiastical body, to be called the"Pres 
 bytery of Relief, for the relief of Christians oppressed in 
 their Christian privileges." This sen gradually gained ac- 
 cession to their number from causes similar to those which 
 we have already detailed, and at length formed themselves 
 into a synod, which, .at this date 1H ;j), embraces eleven 
 presbyleries. including llli congregations ; being, in point of 
 numbers and Influence, the third ecclesiastical body in Scot- 
 land. The founders of the Relief professed to differ from 
 the established church on no point other than the right of 
 patrons to appoint ministers against the inclinations of the 
 people. This still constitutes the leading characteristic of 
 the sect: but on this they have engrafted voluntary church 
 principles, or are hostile to the principle of a national Church, 
 or to state endowments of religion. The Secession and 
 Relief are at present engaged in considering overtures made 
 mutually to each other for forming a union of the two de- 
 lations. The Relief Synod have a professor of di- 
 vinity in their own connexion. (Smith's Hint. Sketches of 
 the Relief Church ; Hutchison's Compendious View of the 
 Synod of Relief; Adam's Relig. World Displayed, vol. iii., 
 p." 223-232; MKerroa's Hist, of Secession, v. i., 319-324, 
 326-32HU 
 
 RELIEVING TACKLES. Temporary tackles attached 
 to the end of the tiller In bad weather to assist the helms- 
 man, and in case of accident happening to the tiller ropes. 
 They are also strong tackles from the wharf to which the 
 ship is hove down, passed under her bottom and attached 
 to the opposite side, to assist in righting her afterwards, as 
 well as to prevent her from oversetting entirely. 
 
 R E'LICIUARY. A receptacle for the relics venerated in 
 Roman Catholic churches. The difference between a reli 
 quary and a case (Fr. chasse) used for the same purpose is, 
 th it the former is smaller in dimensions, and contains only 
 small fragments; the latter, In many Instances, entire bodies. 
 
 REMAI'NDEB. The difference of two quantities left 
 after the less is subtracted from the greater. 
 
 Remainder. A remainder, in Law, is a future estate in 
 land, tenements, or hereditaments, limited to arise after the 
 determination of another estate ; as if land be granted to 
 A for twenty years, and afterwards to B and his heirs for 
 ever, B has a remainder in fee. An estate in reversion is 
 the residue left in the grantor, to commence in posses- 
 sion after the determination of some particular estate grant- 
 ed out by him ; as if A, being seised in fee-simple, gives to 
 B and his heirs male of his body (thus creating an es- 
 tate tail), on the failure of such heirs male the land given 
 reverts to A, who, therefore, prior to such failure, has an 
 estate in reversion in the lands. Remainders are either 
 vested or contingent ; vested or executed, where the estate 
 is invariably fixed, to remain to a determinate person after 
 the preceding estate (called the particular estate) is spent. 
 In this case, the remainder man has a present interest to be 
 enjoyed in futuro. Contingent remainders, otherwise called 
 executory, are defined to be " where the estate in remainder 
 is limited to take effect either to an uncertain person, or 
 upon an uncertain event ; so that the particular estate may 
 chance to be determined, and the remainder never take ef- 
 fect" The doctrines of law with reference to these es 
 tates have gradually been moulded into a system so intri 
 cate, and replete with the most refined distinctions, that it 
 would he impossible to give a cursory view of this brarxb 
 of our jurisprudence. An instance of a vested remainder 
 is to be found in the example before cited of an estate 
 granted to one party for a term of years, and afterwards to 
 another in fee simple. A contingent remainder limited to 
 nn uncertain person is where, for instance, there is an estate 
 to A for life, and afterwards to B's eldest son (then unborn). 
 And in order to prevent the accumulation of future possi 
 
 1047 
 
REMBLAl. 
 
 bie estates, the rule of law is, that no limitation by way of 
 remainder or executory devise (i. c, a grant of a contingent 
 remainder by will) shall be good which is to take effect af- 
 ter the determination of a lite or lives in being and 21 years 
 (the period of minority) afterward!. An instance of a con- 
 tingent remainder limited on an uncertain event is, where 
 land is given to A for life, and in case B survives A then to 
 B in fee. 
 
 The particular estate, which precedes (in legal language 
 supports) a vested remainder, may be either of years, or of 
 freehold ; to support a contingent remainder it must neces- 
 sarily be of freehold. 
 
 REMBLAl. (Fr.) A term used in Fortification to de- 
 note the earth or materials used in filling up a trench or ex- 
 cavation. It is opposed to deblai, which denotes the mate- 
 rials excavated. 
 
 REMEMBRANCERS. Officers of the Court of Exche- 
 quer, who perfona various functions, the chief of which is 
 to put the judges of that court in remembrance of such 
 things as are to be called on or done for the king's benefit. 
 They were formerly three in number ; the king's remem- 
 brancer, the lord treasurer's remembrancer, and the remem- 
 brancer of first fruits ; but the duties of the second of these 
 officers were merged in the first by 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 99. 
 
 RE'MIGES. (Lat. remigo, / row.) The quill feathers 
 of the wings of a bird, which, like oars, propel it through 
 the air. 
 
 RE'MIPEDS, Remipcdes. (Lat. rema, an oar; pes, a 
 foot.) • The name of an order of Coleopterous insects, inclu- 
 ding those which have tarsi adapted for swimming. See 
 Nbctopods. 
 
 REMITTENT FEVER. Any fever which suffers a de- 
 cided remission in its violence during the twenty-four hours, 
 but without entirely leaving the patient, is called a remit- 
 tent; it differs from an intermittent in there never being a 
 total absence of fever. These fevers are most common in 
 autumn, and they vary in degree from extreme mildness to 
 alarming violence, and are both inflammatory and malig- 
 nant. The remittent fever of children, or, ns it is often 
 called, the infantile fever, is generally symptomatic either 
 of worms in the intestines, or of a foul state of bowels, aris- 
 ing from inattention to diet, or from the indigestible trash 
 which children frequently indulge in: the tongue is very 
 foul, the head aches, the belly is tumid, food is loathed ; 
 the child is drowsy all day, but restless and often deliri- 
 ous at night, and the bowels torpid. A proper system of 
 purging is the most essential part of the treatment in these 
 cases; and under it the symptoms, though often alarming 
 and obstinate, gradually give way. Calomel, with scam 
 many and jalap, aided, if necessary, by infusion of senna and 
 aperient salts, are the principal remedies, and saline draughts 
 and diluents in the intervals. If bifious diarrhoea ensue, 
 with vomiting, the irritability of the stomach must be allay- 
 ed by effervescing salines, and that of the bowels by very 
 mild aperients; if the head is much affected, cold nnd evap- 
 orating lotions may be used. Good air, thorough ventila- 
 tion, and light farinaceous diet, with the above treatment, 
 generally effect a cure ; but the disorder is often very obsti- 
 nate, and continues for three weeks or a month. The yel- 
 low fever, or bilious remittent of hot climates, and especially 
 of the West Indies, is another form of this fever : it appears 
 to be produced by marsh miasma. In all these fevers par- 
 ticular symptoms occasionally present themselves, which 
 require particular modes of treatment ; and this must also 
 be modified according to the Inflammatory, malignant, ner- 
 vous, or intermittent form which they may assume or pass 
 into. 
 
 REMONSTRANTS. In Ecclesiastical History. SeeAR- 
 
 MIN1ANS. 
 
 RE'MPIIAN. An idol worshipped by the Israelites while 
 in the wilderness, according to the language of St. Stephen, 
 as recorded in the Acts, "Ye took up the tabernacle of Mo- 
 loch, and the star of your god Remphan." In this passage 
 commentators are agreed that St. Stephen quotes the words 
 of Amos, "Ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch 
 and Chiun, your images." Chiun and Remphan are, there- 
 fore, the same, and both are thought to he personifications 
 of Sinus, the Dog-star. (Enc. Brit.) Chiun is supposed 
 by some to be the same word as Chan or Khan, Chagan, 
 KOnig, "king;" Remphan or Raiphan, "high or exalted 
 light." 
 
 RENAL GLANDS. There is a glandular body upon 
 each kidney of a somewhat triangular shape, small in the 
 adult, but in the foetus longer than the kidney ; it is called 
 the renal, or supra-renal, gland or capsule: it has no excre- 
 tory duct, and its use is unknown. 
 
 RENDERED. In Architecture. See. Rendered and Set. 
 
 Rendered and Floated. In Architecture, plastering of 
 three coats on brickwork. 
 
 Rendered and Set. In Architecture, a term used to 
 denote plastering of two coats on naked brick or stonework. 
 If the work is to be of tlire> coats, it is called roughing in. 
 1048 
 
 RENT. 
 
 Pricking vp is the first of three-coat plaster on ^ath, or on 
 brickwork, that has been previously rendered. The mate- 
 rials for rendering and pricking up are the same. 
 
 Rendered, Floated, and Set for Paper. In Aichi- 
 tecture, plastering of three coats ; the first being lime and 
 hair upon brickwork ; the second, the same compound, with 
 the addition of a little more hair, and then flouted with a 
 long rule; the third, fine stuff mixed with white hair. 
 
 RENNET, or RUNNET. The prepared inner membrane 
 of the calf's stomach, which has the property of coagula- 
 ting the albumen of milk and converting it into curd and 
 whey. • 
 
 RENT. (Lat. reditus ; Fr. fermage, lover des terres.) 
 In Political Economy, and in ordinary language, the sum 
 paid by the farmers or lessees of lands to the landlords. 
 
 In order to acquire clear and correct ideas with respect to 
 the nature and origin of rent, it is necessary to discriminate 
 between the sources whence it usually arises ; that is, be- 
 tween the portion paid for the use of the natural and inhe- 
 rent powers of the soil, and the portion paid for the use of 
 the buildings, fences, drains, roads, anil other improvements 
 made upon the soil. Two farms may be naturally of about 
 equal goodness, and equally well situated; but if little or 
 no capital have been laid out on the one, while a great deal 
 has been judiciously laid out on the other, they will let for 
 very different sums. It is usual, no doubt, to class all sums 
 derived from land, whatever may be their origin, under the 
 common name of rent; but it is obviously necessary, in an 
 inquiry of this sort, to distinguish between tin; Bums paid 
 for the use of the land and those paid for the vise of the 
 improvements, if there be any, made upon it. Landlords 
 are, for the most part, capitalists as well as owners of the 
 soil ; nnd the sums paid to them by their tenants for the 
 use of the capital expended upon the soil, though included 
 under the term rent, are substantially and in tact profits, 
 and depend wholly on the circumstances by which they are 
 governed. Rent really, therefore, consists of that portion 
 of the gross sum paid for land, that is, paid for the use of 
 the natural and inherent powers of the soil, or that would be 
 paid for the land supposing it to be in a State of nature, and 
 without any improvement upon it. The owners of tit-- soil 
 receive this portion of their gross income, not because they 
 are capitalists, but because they are landlords. And we 
 shall now briefly endeavour to exhibit the origin of this pay- 
 ment, or of rent, in the scientific and restricted .sense of the 
 term. 
 
 Origin of Rent. — On the first settling of any country 
 abounding In large tracts of unappropriated land, rent, in 
 the sense now explained, is unknown : and for this obvious 
 reason, that no person will pay rent for what may be' pro 
 cured in unlimited quantities for nothing. In such countries 
 rent only begins to appear when the best of the unappropri 
 atcd lands have become private property nnd been occupied. 
 Suppose, however, this comes to be the case, and that the 
 population has increased, so that the demand lor raw prod- 
 uce can no longer be supplied by the culture of the best 
 lands : under these circumstances, it i-i plain either that 
 population must become stationary, or that the price of raw 
 produce must rise so as to enable inferior lands to be culti- 
 vated. No advance short of this will procure another 
 bushel of corn ; and competition will not, as will be imme 
 djately seen, allow prices to rise permanently above this 
 level. Under the circumstances supposed, the inhabitants 
 have but one alternative. If they pay a price sufficient to 
 cover the expense of cultivating secondary lands, they will 
 obtain additional supplies ; if they do not, they must be 
 without them. 
 
 Suppose, now, that the price rises so as to pay the expense 
 of raising corn on soils which, in return for the same ex- 
 penditure that would produce 100 quarters on lands of the 
 first quality, will only yield 90 quarters ; it is plain it will 
 then be indifferent to a farmer whether he pay a rent of 
 ten quarters for the first quality of land, or farm the second 
 quality, which is unappropriated and open, without paying 
 any rent. If the population went on increasing, lands 
 which would yield only 80, 70, 60, 50, &c, quarters in re- 
 turn for the same expenditure that had raised 100 quarters 
 on the best lands might be successively brought under cul- 
 tivation. And when recourse has been had tn these ini'erint 
 lands, the corn rent of those that are superior would plainly 
 be equal to the difference between the quantity of prc.dnce 
 obtained from them and the quantity obtained from the 
 worst quality under tillage. Suppose, for example, that the 
 worst quality cultivated yields 60 quarters, then the rent of 
 the first quality will be 40 quarters, or 100 — 60; the rent of 
 the second quality will, in like manner, be equal to the dif- 
 ference between 90 and 60, or 30 quarters ; the rent of the 
 third quality will be equal to 80 — 60, or 20 quarters, and 
 so on; the produce raised on the land last cultivated, or by 
 means of the capital last applied to the soil, being all the 
 while sold at Its necessary price, or at that price which is 
 sufficient merely to cover the cost of its production, incln- 
 
RENT. 
 
 ding therein the ordinary rate of profit on the capital of the 
 cultivators. If the price were above this level, agriculture 
 would be a peculiarly profitable business, and tillage would 
 be inunediatelj extended: if, on the other hand, the price 
 fell below this level, capital would be withdrawn from the 
 hnnis thrown out of cultivation. Under 
 such circumstances, it is clear that rent could not enter into 
 the price of that portion of the necessary supply of produce 
 by means of the capital last applied to the soil. Its 
 price Is exclusively made up of wages and profits. The 
 proprietors of the superior lands obtain rent ; but this is the 
 necessary result of their greater fertility. The demand 
 cannot be supplied without cultivating inferior soils, the 
 produce of which must necessarily sell for such a price as 
 will afford the ordinary rate of profit to their cultivators. 
 This price will, however, yield a surplus over and above 
 dinary rate of profit to the cultivators of the more fer- 
 tile hinds; and it u this surplus that forms rent. 
 
 In u far, therefore, as rent is a return for the use of the 
 ■oil, and not for the capital laid out on improvements, it 
 results entirely from the necessity of resorting, as population 
 Increases, to soils of a decreasing degree of fertility, or of 
 applying capital to the old land wilh a less return. It va- 
 ries inversely as the produce obtained by means of the cap- 
 ital and labour employed in cultivation ; increasing when 
 the profits of agricultural labour diminish, and diminishing 
 when they increase. Profits are nt their maximum in coun- 
 e AUStraliai Indiana, and Illinois; and generally in 
 all situations in which no rent is paid, and the best of the 
 good Lands only are cultivated; but it cannot be said that 
 nuts !wu: attained their maximum so long as capital yield- 
 plus in the shape of profit 
 A (pi Liter of wheat may be raised in Kent or Essex, or in 
 the Cane of Cowrie, for a. fourth or a. fifth part, perhaps, of 
 the ej i iv to raise it on the worst soils in culti- 
 
 vation in the less fertile parts of the country. The same 
 article cannot! however, have two or more prices at the 
 same time and iii the- same market And it is plain, that if 
 the price be not such as will indemnify the producers of the 
 wheat raised on the worst soils, they will cease bringing it 
 to 10 irket, and the required supplies will no laager he ob- 
 tained ; while, if the price exceed this sum. fresh capital 
 will he applied to its production, and competition will soon 
 sink prices in their natural level ; that is, to such a sum as 
 will afford tie' common and ordinary rate of profit to the 
 raisers of that portion of the required supply which is pro- 
 duced under the- most unfavourable circumstances, or at the 
 The cost of producing this |H>rtion gov- 
 erns th> price of" the whole crop, it is plainly, therefore, 
 me thing to the consumers whether, in an advanced 
 ty, the excess of return over the cost of pro- 
 i on superior lands belong to a non-resident landlord 
 i occupier. It must belong to the one or the other. 
 Cora la not high because rent is paid but rent is paid ba- 
 con] is high; because the demand is such that it 
 Ik- supplied without cultivating soils of a diminished 
 degree of fertility as compared with the best. Suppose 
 there i< in any country an effectual demand for ten millions 
 of quarters of corn ; that nine millions may be raised upon 
 lands that yield a high rent; but that it is necessary to raise 
 the other million on inferior hinds, which yield nothing but 
 the common and average rate of profit to their cultivators. 
 Under these circumstances, it is clear that the relinquishing 
 Of the rents payable by the cultivators of the superior lands 
 Would he no boon to the cultivators of those that are infe- 
 rior. It would not lessen their expenses ; that is. it would 
 not lessen the capital and labour employed by them in the 
 production of that portion of the required supply raised on 
 the4r lands ; and unless it did this, it is obviously impos-u- 
 ilemand not to decline, that it could lower 
 price- . Although, therefore, landlords were to give up the 
 whole of the rents, their doing so would have no influence 
 over prices. Such nn net would turn farmers into landlords, 
 and landlords Into beggars; but there its effect would stop. 
 Hut the cuse is entirely different when the cost of production 
 varies. If if diminish, the competition of the producers will 
 Infallibly sink prices in the same proportion. If it increase, 
 no supplies will be brought to market unless the price rise 
 to o corresponding level. In no case, therefore, whether 
 the demand he great or small, whether it be for one thou- 
 sand or one million quarters, can the price of raw produce 
 ever permanently exceed or fall below the sum necessary 
 to pay the cost of producing that portion of the required 
 supply that is raised on the worst land, or by means of the 
 pital laid out on the soil. 
 It has been objected to this theory, that, though it may 
 apply in unappropriated countries like New Holland, it will 
 not apply in countries like Englnnd, where land is univer- 
 sally appropriated, and where, it is alleged, the worst quali- 
 ield some small rent to the proprietor. 
 It may he Observed of this objection, that, even if it were 
 well founded, it would not practically affect the conclusions 
 
 previously established. There are in England and Scotland 
 vast tracts of land which do not let for tW. an acre ; but to 
 cultivate them would require an outlay of many thousands 
 of pounds, and the rent would Consequently bear so small a 
 proportion to the expenses of production as to become alto- 
 gether evanescent and inappreciable. 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, that there is in this, and 
 most other extensive countries, a great deal of land which 
 yields no rent. In the United States and Russia, such is 
 unquestionably the case; and yet no one psamroe* to say 
 that the laws which govern rent in them are dilferent from 
 those which govern it in England and !•' ranee. The poor 
 est lands are always let in Immense tracts. If it were at 
 tempted to let particular portions ef these traits separately, 
 no one would offer for them ; but they ap.pear to \ ield rent, 
 because, though they really fetch nothing, the more fertile 
 s]xits with which they are intermixed may. in most cases, 
 be let for a larger or smaller rent. But, though every rood 
 of land in Britain paid a high rent, it iniirlit still be truly af- 
 firmed that such rent did not enter into the pi ice of raw 
 produce. The rent of a country consists of the difference, 
 or the value of the difference, heiw eon the prt duce obtained 
 through the agency of the capital first applied to the land 
 and that which is last applied to it. It would, as already 
 seen, he exactly the same thing to a cultivator, whether he 
 paid a rent of ten quarters to a landlord for land yielding, 
 witn a certain outlay, loo quarters of corn, or employed the 
 same capital in cultivating inferior land yielding only 90 
 quarters for which he paid no rent. Were it possible al- 
 ways to go on obtaining equal returns for every equal addi- 
 tional capital applied to the superior soils, no pers.ui. it is 
 obvious, would ever resort to those of inferior fertility : and. 
 under such circumstances, the largest population might be 
 supported on the smallest extent of land. But such is i < l 
 the law under which food is obtained : and the fact that in 
 the progress of society new and less fertile land is to variably 
 brought under cultivation, demonstrates that additional cap- 
 ital and labour cannot be indefinitely applied with the same 
 advantage to the old land. The state of a country may be 
 such, the demand for agricultural produce mnj be eo great, 
 that every quality ef land yields rent; but it is the same 
 thing, in respect of this theory, if there be any capital em- 
 ployed on land which yields only the ordinary rate of profit, 
 whether It be employed on old or new land. And that Ihere 
 is everywhere a very large amount of capital employed in 
 such a manner, is a fact of which there cannot he any douh 
 whatever. The owners and occupiers of land are inlluen 
 ced by the same principles, in the employment of their cap- 
 ital and labour, that influence other men. Like them, they 
 endeavour, in prosecuting their own interest, so to adjust the 
 capital they employ that the last quantity laid out may yield 
 the common and ordifTarv rate of profit, neither more nor 
 less. Suppose, fo r e xam ple, that a landlord occupies a farm 
 which he might let for £200 a year, producing, with a cer- 
 tain outlay of capital, 300 quarters of wheat. If the farm 
 be managed with the requisite skill and attention, the wheat 
 should, at an average, sell for so much money BS is equiva- 
 lent to the rent, the expense of labour, and the profit on the 
 capital employed. Suppose, now, that the landlord finds 
 that by laying out additional capital on the farm it may be 
 made to yield 10, 20, 50, or 100 quarters more, he will make 
 the outlay, provided the additional produce yield the ordi- 
 nary rate of profit. He will not wait, before commencing 
 the improvement, until prices rise to a still higher elevation. 
 It will be quite enough to induce him immediately to set 
 about it that they are such as afford a fair prospect of real- 
 izing the usual return on the capital to be expended. He 
 will, in fact, act exactly as the merchant or manufacturer 
 acts who sends another ship to sea, or builds another colton 
 mill, whenever he supposes that (he capital so embarked 
 will yield customary profits. And, supposing that the farm 
 is let to a tenant, he, it is obvious, will do the very same thing 
 as the proprietor, if he obtain so much more profit as will, 
 over and above the usual return, suffice to replace the cap- 
 ital itself previously to the termination of his lease. Wheth- 
 er he will employ this additional capital depends entirely 
 on the circumstance of prices being such as will repay his 
 expenses and profit! ; for he knows he will have no addi- 
 tional rent to pay. Even at the expiration of his lease, the 
 fact of an additional capital having been employed would 
 not occasion nny rise of rent, unless in so far as some por- 
 tion of it, by being permanently incorporated with the soil, 
 may increase its productive powers; and were his landlord 
 to require more rent because a greater moveable capital had 
 been employed, he would cease to employ it, since by the 
 supposition he gets only the same profit he might get by 
 employing it in any other department of industry. 
 
 If we reverse the previous suppositions, and suppose that 
 the owner of a farm finds that, owing to a fall in the price 
 of corn, the capital employed in its cultivation does not yield 
 the common and ordinary rate of profit, he will then, acting 
 on the same urinciple that led him in the other case to mi 
 
 1049 
 
RENT. 
 
 crease ihe capital on the farm, withdraw a part, or, it may 
 be the whole, of such capital : and, supping it to be let, 
 the rent would be proportionally reduced at the end of the 
 lease, or sooner. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that we mean to affirm that these 
 results follow immediately, and without any difficulty, on a 
 rise or fall of prices ; on the contrary, they take place only 
 by degrees ; and are often productive, on the one hand, of 
 peculiar advantages, and, on the other, of peculiar sacrifices. 
 But, in purely theoretical inquiries, or such as have the es- 
 tablishment of principles for their object, such accidental 
 circumstances may be overlooked ; and it may, generally 
 speaking, be said that the last portion of capital laid out on 
 the soil yields only the common and average rate of profit. 
 If, on the one hand, it were to yield more, fresh capital 
 would be drawn to agriculture, and competition would sink 
 prices to such a level that they would only yield this rate. 
 If, on the other hand, the capital last applied to the soil 
 should yield less than this common and average rate, it 
 would be withdrawn until, by the rise of price, the last re- 
 maining portion of capital left this rate to its owners : and 
 hence it follows that, whether the last quality of land taken 
 into cultivation yield rent or not, the last capital applied to 
 the land yields only the common and average rate of profit ; 
 and, consequently, the price of the produce which it yields, 
 and which determines the price of all the rest, is totally un- 
 affected by rent. 
 
 It is farther said by those who have cavilled at this theo- 
 ry, that it represents the cultivation of bad land as the cause 
 of rent ; whereas it is, they affirm, the growing demand of 
 the population for food that is its cause, it being the rise of 
 price consequent upon this increased demand that occasions 
 the cultivation of bad lands, and the payment of a rent for 
 those that are superior. This, however, is, at best, mere 
 verbal trilling. The demand of the population for corn ele- 
 vates its price to such a height as is necessary to obtain the 
 required supply, and may, therefore, be truly said to be the 
 cause of its being produced ; but rent originates in the pecu- 
 liar circumstances under which supplies of corn are produ- 
 ced. Were it not that it is most frequently necessary, in 
 obtaining increased supplies of corn, to resort to soils of dif- 
 ferent degrees of fertility, or to apply capital, with a less 
 return, to the old land, rent would be altogether unknown; 
 nor, though the demand for corn were increased in a ten- 
 fold proportion, would prices be permanently elevated. It 
 does, therefore, seem to be logically, as well as substantially 
 correct, to affirm that the decreasing fertility of the soil is 
 the immediate cause of rent, and that its amount is deter- 
 mined by the extent to which bad land is cultivated or good 
 land forced 
 
 This analysis of the nature and causes of rent discovers 
 an important distinction between agricultural, and commer- 
 cial, and manufacturing industry. In manufactures, the 
 worst machinery is first set in motion, and every day its 
 powers are improved by new inventions, and it is rendered 
 capable of yielding a greater amount of produce with the 
 same expense ; and as no limits can be assigned to the 
 quantity of Improved machinery that may be introduced, 
 as a million of steam engines may be constructed for the 
 same, or rather for a less proportional expense than is re- 
 quired for the construction of one, competition never fails 
 to reduce the price of manufactured commodities to the 
 sum for which they may be purchased, according to the 
 least expensive method of production. 
 
 In agriculture, on the contrary, the best machines, or best 
 soils, are brought first into use ; and recourse is afterwards 
 had to inferior soils, or those requiring a greater expenditure 
 to make them yield the same supplies. It is true that im- 
 provements in the construction of farming implements, the 
 discovery of more efficient manures, and the introduction 
 of more prolific crops and improved systems of management, 
 increase in a high degree the productiveness of the soil, 
 and proportionally reduce the price of raw produce ; but a 
 fall of price, though permanent in manufactures, is only 
 temporary in agriculture. When the price of corn is re- 
 duced, all classes obtain greater quantities than before in 
 exchange for their products, or their labour ; hence the 
 rate of profit, and, consequently, the accumulation of capital, 
 are both increased ; and this increase, by causing a greater 
 demand for labour and higher wages, leads, in the end, to 
 an increase of population, and a further demand for raw 
 produce and an extended cultivation. Agricultural im- 
 provements obviate, sometimes for a lengthened period, the 
 necessity of having recourse to inferior soils ; still, however, 
 this effect cannot be permanent. The stimulus which they 
 at the same time give to population, and Ihe natural ten- 
 dency of mankind to increase up to the means of subsistence, 
 is sure, in the lop;.' run, to raise prices, and, by forcing re- 
 course to poor lands, rents also. 
 
 In illustrating tin i important distinction between agricul- 
 ture and manufacturing industry, Mr. Malthus has set the 
 theory of rent in a striking point of view. "The earth," I 
 1050 
 
 he observes, " has been sometimes compared to a vast 
 machine, presented by nature to man for the production of 
 food and raw materials ; but to make the resemblance more 
 just, as far as they admit of comparison, we should consider 
 the soil as apresent to man of a great number of machines, 
 all susceptible of continued improvement by the application 
 of capital to them, but yet of very different original quali- 
 ties and powers. 
 
 " This great inequality in the powers of the machinery 
 employed in procuring raw produce, forms one of the most 
 remarkable features which distinguishes the machinery 
 of the land from the machinery employed in manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 " When a machine in manufactures is invented which 
 will produce more finished work with less labour and capi 
 tal than before, if there be no patent, or as soon as the 
 patent is over, a sufficient number of such machines may 
 be made to supply the whole demand, and to supersede en- 
 tirely the use of all the old machinery. The natural con- 
 sequence is that the price is reduced to the price of pro 
 duction from the best machinery ; and if the price were to 
 be depressed lower, the whole of the commodity would be 
 withdrawn from the market. 
 
 "The machines which produce corn and raw materials, 
 on the contrary, are the gifts of nature, not the works of 
 man ; and we find by experience that these gilts have very 
 different qualities and powers. The most fertile lands of a 
 country, those which, like the best machinery in manufac- 
 tures, yield the greatest products With the le-ist labour and 
 capital, are never found sufficient to supply the effective 
 demand of an increasing population. The price of raw 
 produce, therefore, naturally rises till it becomes sufficiently 
 high to pay the cost of raising it with inferior machines 
 and by a more expensive process ; and, as there cannot be 
 two prices for corn of the same quality, all the other ma- 
 chines, the working of which requires less capital compared 
 with the produce, must yield rents in proportion to their 
 goodness. 
 
 "Every extensive country may thus be considered as 
 possessing a gradation of machines for the production of 
 corn and raw materials, Including 
 
 all the various qualities of poor land, of which a very i:\r~s3 
 territory has generally an abundance, but the inferior 
 machinery which may be said to be employed when good 
 land is farther and farther forced for additional produce. 
 As the price of raw produce continues to rise, these inferior 
 machines are successively called into action; and as the 
 price of raw produce continues to fall, they are successively 
 thrown out of action. The illustration here used serves to 
 show at once the necessity of the actual price of corn to 
 the actual produce, and the different effect which would 
 attend a great reduction in the price of any particular 
 manufacture and a great reduction in the price of raw pro- 
 duce." {Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, 
 p. 37.) 
 
 It appears, therefore, that in the earlier stages of society, 
 and when only the best lands are cultivated, rent is un-j 
 known. The landlords, as such, do not begin to share in 
 the produce of the soil until it becomes necessary to culti- 
 vate lands of an inferior degree of fertility, or to apply capital 
 to the superior lands with a diminished return. Whenever 
 this is the case, rent begins to be paid ; and it continues to 
 increase according as cultivation is extended over poorer] 
 soils, and diminishes according as these poorer soils are 
 thrown out of cultivation. Rent, therefore, depends exclu- 
 sively on the extension of tillage. It is high where Ullage 
 is widely extended over inferior lands, and low where it 
 is confined to the superior descriptions only. But in no case 
 does rent enter into price ; for the prrduce raised on the 
 poorest lands of a country, or by means of the capital last 
 applied to the culture of the soil, determines the price of 
 the entire crop; and this produce yields only the common 
 and average rate of profit. 
 
 Influence of Situation on. Rent. — In the previous state- 
 ments we have, to simplify the consideration of the ques- 
 tion, omitted to notice the influence of situation on rent, ir 
 
 is plain, however, that this is a very important ele it ir 
 
 determining its amount; and that difference of situation 
 has precisely the same sort of influence over rent as ditl'er- 
 ences of fertility. Thus, suppose two fanners employ 
 equal quantities of capital, as 5000 quarters each, In the cul- 
 tivation of farms of the same goodness, the one situated in 
 the immediate vicinitv of London, and tin: other in York 
 shire ; and suppose, farther, that London is the market to 
 which the produce of both farms is sent, and that the cost 
 of conveying corn from Yorkshire to London is 5s. a quar- 
 ter: under these circumstances, if the gross produo 
 farm were 1000 quarters, of which the landlord leceived 
 one fifth part, or 200 quarters, as rent, the farm near EjOB 
 don would fetch £50 a year more than the farm in York- 
 shire. For, as the corn raised in the districts adjacent to 
 London is not adequate for its supply, its price in the city 
 
RENT. 
 
 most suffice to pay those who hring any portion of the 
 w\ supplies from the greatest distance, as well for 
 the expenses of carriage as for those of production ; and 
 the fanner in the immediate vicinity, who gets this Increased 
 price for his produce, will have to pay a proportional in- 
 of rent, in the same way that the occupier of good 
 land has to pay an increased rent ; when inferior lands are 
 taken into cultivation. 
 
 It would, on many accounts, he desirable readily to dis- 
 tinguish between that portion of the gross rental of a coun- 
 try "which is to he considered as rent, properly socalleil, at 
 as the remuneration paid to the landlords for the use of 
 the natural powers of the soil, and that portion which is 
 the return lo, or the interest upon, the capital laid out upon 
 houses, feno s, drains, mads, and other improvements. 
 But how desirable soever, it is admitted by all practical 
 men that it is quite impossible to make such a distinction 
 with anything approaching to accuracy. No two of the 
 most i.mrists, supi>osing them to be desired to 
 
 resolve the gross rental of a single improved farm into its 
 tuent parts, would arrive at the same result. Im- 
 provements become so much blended with the natural 
 powers of the soil, that the influence of the one cannot be 
 separated from that of the other ; and it is merely the joint 
 value of the two that can be estimated. No doubt can, 
 however, be entertained by any one who reflects for a mo- 
 ment mi the vast sums, the many hundreds, or rather 
 thousands of millions, that have been laid out u|H>n the soil 
 italn, that the payment made to the landlords 
 for the use of its natural powers is inconsiderable, compared 
 with that made to them on account of improvements ; and 
 hence the inequality and mischievous operation of taxes on 
 rent. TWO landlords receive equal rents from their estates; 
 but the rent of one is principally a consequence of natural 
 fertility, while that of the other is derived principally from 
 outlay's of capital. What, then, could be more unfair than 
 to subject them both to the same equal lax 1 And yet the 
 amount of their rents is the only criterion to which recourse 
 could he had in fixing the amount of the tax ; for all the 
 tax collectors in the world could not separate between what 
 was and 
 
 on capital. Such a tax would op|Wse 
 the most effectual obstacle to Instead of 
 
 carrying capital from other employments to the land, it 
 would henceforth be carried from the land to them. The 
 object would not then be to have an estate look well, but 
 to have it look ill ; and it may be said of estates as of indi- 
 viduals 
 
 Pauper videri Cinna vutt, et est paupei. 
 The effects that were formerly produced by the taille, 
 and that are now produced by the contribution fonciire in 
 France, and the fluctuating land taxes Imposed in other 
 countries, abundantly confirm the truth of this statement. 
 Their influence has been most disastrous. 
 
 The theory oi'rent explained in this article was first pro- 
 mulgated and satisfactorily established in a tract on the 
 rorn laws, published at Edinburgh in 1777. by Dr. James 
 Anderson, si native of llerinamlston in Mid Lothian, editor 
 of the Bee and other publications. But notwithstanding 
 the clear and able manner in which he explained the theory, 
 and its Ingenuity and Importance, his elucidations do not 
 appear to have attracted the least attention; and seem, 
 Indeed, to have been completely forgotten. So mucb so 
 this case, that when, in 1815, Mr. Malthus and Sir 
 Edward West published tracts explaining the nature nnd 
 origin of rent, they were universally believed to be the 
 authors of the theory. Although, however, there is, we 
 believe, no doubt as to their originality, still they were 
 merely the expositors of a theory that had been clearly and 
 ably explained above forty years previously to the publica- 
 tion of their tracts. 
 
 Kent, in Law, is defined "a certain profit issuing yearly 
 out of lands and tenements corporeal," not necessarily, 
 although by English usage generally, consisting in money. 
 There are at common law three kinds of rents: 1. Itent- 
 service ; having some incident of feudal service connected 
 with it, for which the landlord might distrain of common 
 light. 2. Rent-charge, where the owner of" the rent had no 
 future interest or reversion expectant on the land ; as where 
 one having parted with his land reserved a rent with a 
 clause of distress in the deed, by which the land was charged 
 with the payment of the rent. 3. Rent-seek, rcditus siccus, 
 which was rent reserved by deed without a clause of dis- 
 But the common remedy of distress was extended 
 to all these divisions of rent by 4 G. 2, c. 38. (See Dis- 
 tress.) The ordinary remedy by action is in debt, for the 
 breach of the express contract ; or covenant may be brought 
 fir tie- breach of a covenant to pay rent. And these actions 
 may be brought at am- time within twenty years after the 
 cause of action shall have accrued. A " fee-farm-rent" is 
 a rent is^uiim out of an estate in fee. The common term 
 " rack rem" has no particular legal acceptation, and merely 
 
 REPEATING CIRCLE. 
 
 means a rent at or near the full value of the premises de- 
 mised. 
 
 REPE'AT. In Music, a character :$: denoting the repe- 
 tition of the part which it bounds. It is sometimes cx- 
 pressed by dots against the bar, and sometimes by the wordi 
 Da Capo. 
 
 REPEATING CIRCLE. In order to diminish the effect 
 of errors of graduation, nnd to obtain very accurate measure- 
 ments by means of comparatively small, and, therefore, 
 portable instruments, a method of observing was invented, 
 or rather brought into use, by Borda, which is now exten- 
 sively employed, especially in geodetioe] operations. The 
 method, which consists in moving the telescope successively 
 over portions of the graduated limb corresponding to the 
 angle to be measured, and reading only the multiple arc, 
 may be advantageously applied to circular instruments 
 destined for very dilierent purposes : as, for example, to an 
 instrument for the measurement of the' zenith diss: 
 stars or terrestrial objects, or the distance of two trigono- 
 metrical Station*, tB which case it is simply called repeating 
 circle; to a reflecting circle used fir observations at sea, 
 when it becomes a repealing reflecting circle ; or to a theo- 
 dolite, when it becomes a repeating theodolite. 
 
 For the purpose nf giving an idea of the principle of this 
 method, we borrow the following illustration from Sir J. 
 Herschel : " Let P CI l>e two objects, which we may suppose 
 fixed for purposes of mere explanation ; and let K L dc a 
 
 telescope moveable on O, the con in axis of two circles, 
 
 A M L and A B C, of which the former, A M L, is abso- 
 lutely fixed in the plane of tin- objects, and carries the 
 graduations freely moveable on the axis. The telescope is 
 attached permanently to the latter circle, and moves with 
 it. An arm, O o A, carries the index or 
 vernier, which reads off the graduated 
 limb of the fixed circle. This arm is 
 provided with two chimps, by which it 
 can be temporarily connected with either 
 circle, and detached at pleasure. Sup- 
 pose now the telescope directed to P. 
 Clamp the index O A to the inner circle, 
 and inn i imp •! read 
 
 oil'; then carry the telescope mund to 
 the other object Q. In so doing the inner 
 circle, and the index arm, which is 
 clamped to it, will also be carried round over an arc A B 
 on the graduated limb of the outer equal to the nngle P O 
 (A. Now clamp the index to the oulir circle, and unclamp 
 the inner, and read ort". The difference of readings will of 
 course measure the angle POft; hut the result will be 
 liable to two sources of i rr*>r, that of graduation, and thai 
 of observation, both of which it is our object to get rid of 
 To this end transfer the telescope back to P, without un 
 clamping the outer circle ; then, having made the Usectioi 
 ill P, clamp the arm to b, and unclamp it from B, and agah 
 transfer the telescope to Q, by which the arm will now 1)6 
 carried with it toC over a second arc I! C equal to theanglf, 
 P O Q.. Now again read oil'; then will the difference be- 
 tween this reading and the original one measure ticice the 
 angle P O (i, affected With both errors of observation, but 
 only with the same error of graduation ns before. Let this 
 process he repealed as often as we please (suppose ten 
 times) ; then will the final arc A I! C 1) read off on the cir- 
 cle be ten times the required angle, affected by the joint 
 errors of all the ten observations, but only by the same con- 
 stant error of graduation, which depends on the initial and 
 final readings off alone. Now the errors nf observation, 
 when numerous, tend to balance and destroy one another' 
 so that, if sufficiently multiplied, their influence will (lis 
 appenr from the result. There remains, then, only thi 
 constant error of graduation, which conies to be divided ir 
 the final result by the number of observations, and Is there 
 fore diminished in its influence to one tenth of its possibh 
 amount, or to less if need be." (Astronomy, Cab. Cyc, p. 
 105.) 
 
 When the repeating circle is used for measuring zenith 
 distances, it is constructed so as to be capable of being 
 turned round on a vertical pivot, tin,' direction of which 
 passes through its centre, and to which its plane is parallel, 
 and also of turning in its own plane about a horizontal axis. 
 The instrument being placed in the same vertical plane 
 with the star, the telescope is directed to the star and the 
 bisection made ; the telescope, which carries the verniers 
 with it, is then firmly clamped to the circle and the circle 
 turned round 180° in azimuth about the vertical pivot If 
 the circle be now kept fast, the telescoiie undamped and 
 carried round till the star is again bisected, it is plain that 
 the arc of the limb passed over by the verniers in con>c 
 quence of this motion of the telescope will be double the 
 zenith distance of the star. The same process is repeated 
 as often as may be thought necessary. For the purpose of 
 geodetica] measurements the circle is usually furnished 
 with two telescopes, one on the face, and the othot oa Hip 
 
 toil 
 
REPELLENTS. 
 
 bar k and so placed that the optical axes of both are ex- 
 actly in the plane of the circle. The circles used by 
 Mechain and Delambre in the operations connected with 
 the measurement of the French arc of meridian, were 
 about 4-10ihs of a metre (nearly 16 inches) in diameter, 
 and were divided into arcs equivalent to about 32 sexagesi- 
 mal seconds, which were subdivided into tenths by the 
 verniers. 
 
 The merit of first applying the ingenious principle of 
 repetition to angular measurements belongs to Tobias 
 Mayer; but it was Borda, as above stated, who first brought 
 the instrument into general use. 
 
 For a description of the repeating circle, its adjustments, 
 and the method of using it, see Biot, Astronomic Physique, 
 tome i. ; Delambre, Astronomie, or Base Metrique, tome i. ; 
 Puissant, Traite de Geodesic ; Itapcr's Practice of Navi- 
 gation, &c. The comparative advantages and defects of 
 the instrument are very clearly stated in a paper by 
 Troughton in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Royal 
 Astronomical Society. 
 
 REPE'LLENTS. Applications to the surface of the body 
 which appear to make disorders retreat inwards. 
 
 REPE'LLING POWER. See Repulsion. 
 
 RETENT. (Lat. repo, / creep), in Zoology, is used in 
 the same sense as creeping, and is applied to those animals 
 which move with the body close to the ground, either 
 without the aid of legs, or by means of more than four pairs 
 of short legs. 
 
 RE'PETEND. In Arithmetic, that part of a repeating 
 decimal which recurs continually ad infinitum. It is called 
 a simple repetend when there is but one figure, as -333. . . ad 
 inf. ; and a compound repetend when there are more figures 
 
 than one in the repeating period, as -029029 ad inf. It 
 
 is usual to mark the first and last figures of the period by 
 dots placed over them ; thus the repetends above mentioned 
 are written -3, and '029. 
 
 REPLE'VIN, in Law, is an action of tort, in which the 
 plaintiff seeks the recovery of goods illegally distrained. 
 See Action. 
 
 REPLICATION. In Law, the third stage in the plead- 
 ings in nn action, being the plaintitF's answer to the defend- 
 ant's plea. Sec Pleading. 
 
 REPO'SE. (Lat. repono, I lie down.) In the Fine 
 Arts, the absence of that agitation which is induced by the 
 scattering and division of a subject into too many uncon- 
 nected parts, in which case a work is said to want repose. 
 Where repose is wanting from this cause, "the eye," says 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, " is perplexed and fatigued, from not 
 knowing where to rest, where to find the principal action, 
 or which is the principal figure ; for where all are making 
 equal pretensions to notice, all are in danger of neglect." 
 
 REPRESENT A'TION. (Lat. representation In Poli- 
 tico, the part performed by a deputy chosen by a constitu- 
 ent body to support its interests, and act in its name on a 
 public occasion. Thus a plenipotentiary represents the 
 sovereign or the state which delegates him at a foreign 
 court. But the most ordinary use of the word is to express 
 the principal function of the delegate of a constituency in 
 a legislative assembly. Representation, in this sense, was 
 unknown to the political systems of the ancients, and 
 seems to have originated in the necessities and usages of 
 feudal times; the lord not being able to levy aid from his 
 vassals without their consent, it became customary for 
 these to delegate powers to individuals from among their 
 numbers to attend his summons, and confer with him re- 
 specting the aid required. Hence, in our own country, the 
 representation of county freeholders by knights, of com- 
 munities by their chosen burgesses, in parliament. The 
 Baost complete early model of a representative feudal as- 
 sembly is to be found in the parliament of the Sicilies un 
 der the Suabian kings; but England is the only country in 
 which it has expanded regularly into a legislature. 
 
 The chief question, in political science, regarding the 
 system of representation is, how far each delegate repre- 
 sents the opinions of the local body which sends him, and 
 is bound to act in obedience to their directions. This was 
 unquestionably the early notion of representation. But the 
 constitutional principle of English statesmen has been in 
 general very different. It is, that each member represents, 
 not the local body, but the entire nation. The ties which 
 bind him to his constituents are altogether subordinate to 
 those which attach to him in a general character. He is 
 bound to sacrifice not only the wishes, but the immediate 
 and local interests of the body which sends him, if they 
 are in opposition to the general good of the country. The 
 most popular and best known exposition of this doctrine is 
 perhaps to be found in Burke's famous speech to the electors 
 of Bristol. It follows as a corollary, that constituencies act 
 unconstitutionally in demanding pledges of candidates for 
 their representation as to the part which they are to take 
 on particular questions. But this, like other rules of con- 
 stitutional conduct, must not be pressed too far. Constitu- 
 1052 
 
 REPTILES. 
 
 encies, as well as representatives, are bound to use theil 
 powers for the general good of the nation ; and there may 
 be occasions, although rarely, on which those powers are 
 best used by taking security of the representative that his 
 conduct, on some very important and critical questions, 
 will be in accordance with what they deem the national 
 view. (See Bentham's Rationale of Representation.) 
 
 Representation. In Painting and the other Arts, the 
 transference to a plane of a solid mass, or the appearance 
 of an object to the eye. 
 
 REPRIE'VE. (From the Fr. reprendre, to take back.) 
 In Law, the suspension of the execution of sentence, on 
 judgment in a criminal case for a certain time. Reprieve 
 at the will of the judge is arbitrary ; and the latter has povv 
 er to give it where he is dissatisfied with the verdict, in 
 order to give time to apply to the crown for a pardon. Re- 
 prieve is also ex necessitate legis ; as, a woman capitally 
 convicted has a right to a reprieve during pregnancy ; or 
 when a party becomes insane between judgment and award 
 of execution. 
 
 REPRI'SALS, LETTERS OF. In National Law, the 
 capture of property belonging to the subjects of a foreign 
 power in satisfaction of losses sustained by a citizen of the 
 capturing state. (See Letters of Marque.) Letters of 
 reprisal are grantable by the law of nations, where the sub 
 ject of one state has been oppressed or injured by the sub- 
 jects of another, and where justice has been refused on ap 
 lication by letters of request. The mode of serving out let- 
 ters of marque and reprisal in time of truce was regulated 
 by statute 4 Hen. 5, c. 7, but has been long disused. The 
 power of granting letters of marque and reprisal is some- 
 times given by proclamation of the king in council to the 
 lords of the admiralty. 
 
 REPRI'SES. In Law, deductions or payments out of 
 the value of lands; such as rent-charges, or annuities. 
 
 REPROBA'TION, in Theology, is a term commonly 
 applied to the supralapsarian tenet of the consignment of 
 all mankind to eternal punishment, with the exception of 
 those whom God has arbitrarily selected for eternal happi- 
 ness. See Election, Predestination. 
 
 REPRODUCTION. (Lat. reproduco, I reproduce.) This 
 word, in Physiology, is sometimes used for generation ; but 
 it signifies properly the power which a fully developed or- 
 ganized being possesses to push forth and form anew parts 
 of the body which have been cut oil'. Vegetables possess 
 this facility in an eminent degree, and animals have the 
 power of reproduction in proportion as they resemble vege 
 tables in the simplicity of their organization ; thus the 
 freshwater polype Hydra ciridis, when divided into many 
 pieces, reproduces all its characteristic organs out of each 
 piece. Worms and other Annelides can reproduce many 
 segments of the body. Snails can push forth new horns. 
 and even reproduce a great part of the head. Lobsters 
 and spiders thus gain new claws or legs. Newts and liz 
 ards reproduce their tails. 
 
 REPTA'TION. A mode of progression by advancing 
 successively parts of the trunk, which occupy the place of 
 the anterior pirts which are carried forwards, as in ser- 
 pents: also applied to the slow progression of those ani- 
 mals whose extremities are so short that the body touches 
 the ground. 
 
 RE'PTILES, Reptilia. (Lat. repo, I creep.) The name 
 of a class of cold-blooded Vertebrate animals, including 
 all those which have lungs, and a heart composed of two 
 auricles and one ventricle. Those which retain their gills 
 during the whole or a part of their existence are termed 
 Batrachians or Amphibia: the latter name Linnaeus ap- 
 plied to the whole group, as well as to certain true fishes. 
 (See Amphibians, Ciielonians, Saurians, Ophidians and 
 Batrachians.) Cuvier, in characterizing the class of rep- 
 tiles as defined by him, well observes, that as it is from 
 respiration that the blood derives its heat, and the muscu- 
 lar fibre its susceptibility of nervous irritation, the blood of 
 reptiles is cold, and the muscular energy less than thr.t of 
 quadrupeds, and much less than that of birds. Thus we 
 find their movements usually confined to crawling and 
 swimming; for though at certain times several of them 
 jump and run with considerable activity, their habits are 
 generally lazy, their digestion excessively slow, and their 
 sensations obtuse. In cold or temperate climates, almost 
 nil of them pass the winter in a state of torpor. Their 
 brain, which is proportionally very small, is not so essen- 
 tially requisite to the exercise of their animal and vital 
 faculties as to the members of the two first classes: theil 
 sensations seem to be less referred to a common centre, for 
 they continue to live and to exhibit voluntary motions long 
 after losing their brain, and even after the loss of their 
 head. A communication with the nervous system is also 
 much less necessary to the contraction of their fibres, and 
 their muscles preserve their irritability after being severed 
 from the body much longer than tnose of the preceding 
 classes: their'heart continues to pulsate for hours after it 
 
REPUBLIC. 
 
 has been torn away, nor does its loss prevent the body 
 from moving tor a long time. 
 
 The imaUnessof the pulmonary vessels permits reptiles 
 
 ad the process of respiration, without arresting the 
 
 course of the blood; thus they dive with more facility, 
 
 and remain longer under water than either the Mammalia 
 
 or birds. 
 
 No reptile hatches its eggs. The young Batrachians on 
 quitting the e»g have the form and branchits of fishes, and 
 some of the genera preserve these organs even after the 
 development of their lungs. 
 
 The quantity of respiration in reptiles is not fixed, like 
 that of the Mammalia and birds, but varies with the pro- 
 portion of the diameter of the pulmonary artery compared 
 to that of the aorta. Thus tortoises and lizards respire 
 more than fron, &c; and hence a much greater differ- 
 ence of sensibility and energy is manifested In this class 
 Btween one of the Mammalia and another, 
 or between birds. .See Erpktoloov. 
 
 BEPU'BLIC. (Lat. respublica, commonwealth.) That 
 form of government in which the supreme power is vested 
 in the people. A republic may be either an aristocracy or 
 a democracy: the supreme power, in the former, being 
 i to the nobles or a few privileged individuals, as 
 was formerly the cast; in Venice and Genoa; while, in the 
 latter, it is placed in the hands of rulers chosen by and 
 from the whole body of the people, or by their representa- 
 tives assembled in a congress or national assembly. The 
 free towns of the Continent, Hamburg, Frankfort, Lubeck, 
 and Bremen, are instances of this latter form of govern- 
 ment ; inn the most perfect example of it is to be found in 
 d States, m Texas, and in some of the South 
 confederations which have shaken off the Span- 
 ish yoke In Switzerland, aristocracy is blended with de- 
 111 the form of g overnment. 
 
 REQUE'ST, LETTERS OF. In Ecclesiastical Law, 
 an instrument by which the regular judge of a cause 
 waive or remits his own jurisdiction, under the provisions 
 of the Statute of Citations, 23 II. 8, c. 9; in which event 
 the Jurisdiction of the appellate court attaches. 
 
 BEQUESTS, COURT OF. 1. An ancient court of equi- 
 ty, interior to the Court of Chancery, of which the lord 
 1 was chief judge ; taken away by 16 & 17 C. 1, 
 c. 10. •_'. The Court of Conscience, or of Requests, of Lon- 
 don, for the recovery of small debts, was erected in the 9th 
 year of 11. 8, with jurisdiction between citizens and free- 
 men in cases of debt or damages under 40«., extended in 
 the paign of G. 3, to X'5. Th« local courts instituted In 
 many parts of the kingdom for the recovery of small debts 
 by summary process are hence called popularly Courts of 
 Many of them are very recently erected, or in 
 of erection, under local acts. The number of 
 ed in the Southwark Court of Requests in 1837, 
 under 40*., was 11, 171 ; above that sum, 3333. 
 
 BE'QUIEM. I. a.) In the Roman Catholic Church, a 
 i 'rmed for the repose of the souls of deceased per- 
 sons. It is so called from the prayer commencing "Requi- 
 im dona iis Domlne. The term is also applied 
 to grand musical compositions performed on solemn occa- 
 sions in honour of deceased civil or ecclesiastical dignita- 
 ries. The requiems composed by Mozart, Jomelli, and 
 Cherubini are well known. 
 
 RE'SCRIPTS. (Lat. rescribo, I write back) In the 
 Civil Law, answer! of popes and emperors to questions in 
 Jurisprudence propounded to them officially. Those of the 
 Roman emperors constitute one of the authoritative sources 
 of the civil law. 
 
 RE'SCUE. In Law, in the more general sense, a spe- 
 cies of resistance against lawful authority; as, by deliver- 
 ing one arrested out of the hands of those who have legal 
 custody of him. In a more restricted application, the term 
 rescue means the taking away and setting at liberty, 
 against law, any distress taken for rent, or services, or 
 damage feasant 
 
 RESEDA'CE-dE. (Reseda, one of the genera.) A natu- 
 ral order of herbaceous or suffrutescent Exogens, inhabit- 
 ing Europe and Asia. There are but three genera belong- 
 ing to it ; and of these but one species, the common viig- 
 nonettr, a Barbary plant, now a universal favourite tor 
 the sake of its peculiar fragrance, is the only species pos- 
 isessinu' anv interest except to the botanist. 
 
 BESERVOIR. (Fr.) A tank, or pond, in which water 
 Is collected and preserved in order to be conveyed through 
 pipes for the supply of a town, &c. Thus, Edinburgh is 
 chiefly supplied with water by springs collected in a mag- 
 nificent reservoir seven miles distant from the city. The 
 term is also applied to a place where water is collected 
 and preserved for the more regular supply of a fountain 
 or drinking trough in seasons when it is not naturally 
 abundant. 
 
 RESIDENCE OF CLERGYMEN ON THEIR BENE- 
 FICES, is enjoined oy the common law of England, as 
 
 RESISTANCE OF FLUIDS. 
 
 well as by the canon law and many statutory provisions 
 These last are now consolidated by 1 & 2 Vict., c. 106. 
 Under that act, an incumbent is considered to be non-reVi- 
 dent if he is absent for one or more periods exceeding in 
 the whole three calendar months in each year ; and will 
 be liable to the penalties unless he has obtained a license 
 for non-residence from the bishop, or is within any of the 
 statutory exemptions. The license may be given when 
 there is no house or fit place of residence, to reside in some 
 fit or convenient house described in the license, which 
 must be within three miles of the church ; or within two, 
 if the church be in a city, market, or borough town. The 
 statutory exemptions are in favour of a variety of officers 
 of cathedral and collegiate churches ; who may not, how 
 ever, be absent on account of their residence and perform 
 ance of duty elsewhere for more than five months. Li 
 censes for absence from the benefice may also be granted 
 by the bishop, on petition, for a few other causes: incapa- 
 city of mind or body; the dangerous illness of a wife or 
 child, part of the family— in which case the license is only 
 for six months, and requires the archbishop's renewal, 
 and in case a house convenient for residence cannot be 
 procured within the benefice. The penalties are fixed in a 
 graduated scale, being the prenxtures of portions of the 
 value of the benefice, and may be proceeded for in the 
 bishop's court. The bishop may also proceed l>y monition 
 and sequestration. 
 
 RE'SIUUE. In Law, the remainder of a testator's es- 
 tate after payment of debts and legacies: if this remainder 
 be bequeathed to any one, he is styled the residuary lega- 
 tee, if a legatee dies before the testator, the li | 
 lost or lapsed legacy, anil sinks Into the residue; and this 
 provision of the law is extended to devises of real property 
 by 7 G. 4, and 1 Vict., c. 26, (the Wills Act) s. 25. See 
 Lkoacy, Will. 
 
 BE'SLN. [Qt.ptrwfl from fScui, I flow.) A proximate 
 principle common in the vegetable kingdom, the ultimate 
 components of which are carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. 
 There are many varieties of resin. Their general charac- 
 ters are fusibility and Inflammability ; solubility in alcohol, 
 insolubility in water. They are generally separable into 
 two distinct portions by the action of cold and of hot al- 
 cohol. They nre valuable as ingredients in varnishes, and 
 several of them are used in medicine. They are often 
 naturally blended with modifications of gum, in which 
 case they constitute the series of gum rrsins. The specific 
 gravity of the resins varies between 1-0 and 1-4. They 
 become negatively electric by friction. The commonest 
 resin in use, usually called rosin, is obtained by distilling 
 turpentine : the volatile oil i«sses over, and the resin re- 
 mains in the still. 
 
 RESI'STANCE, in Mechanics, denotes generally a force 
 acting in opposition to another force, so as to destroy it or 
 diminish its effect. Resistance is sometimes considered as 
 of two kinds, active and passive ; the active resistance be- 
 ing that which corresponds to the useful effect produced 
 by a machine, and the passive that which belongs to the 
 inertia of the machine. Thus, in raising water from a 
 well, the active resistance to the force employed is meas- 
 ured by the quantity of water which is raised; and the 
 passive resistance by the force required to overcome the 
 weight of the bucket and the rope, the friction of the pul- 
 ler on its axle, &c. 
 
 RESISTANCE OF FLUIDS. In Hydrodynamics, the 
 force with which a solid body moving through a fluid is 
 resisted or retarded. Of all the different kinds of resistance 
 which manifest themselves among bodies, there is none of 
 greater importance than this, on account of its application 
 to the theory of naval architecture. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton wns the first who gave a general theory 
 of the motions and actions of fluids. (See Hydrodynam- 
 ics.) The Newtonian theory of the resistance of fluids, 
 which is given in the second book of the Principia, is 
 founded on the assumption of the perfect intermobility of 
 the particles of the fluid, and the equal propagation of pres- 
 sure in all directions. These arc, indeed, the characteris- 
 tic properties of fluidity ; nevertheless, the results of the 
 mathematical theory differ so widely in many cases from 
 actual experiment, that some philosophers have called in 
 question the accuracy of the principles from which they 
 are derived. The theory, however, notwithstanding its de 
 fects, furnishes some propositions of great practical use, 
 and, indeed, forms the groundwork of all our knowledge on 
 the subject. We shall here give a general view of its 
 leading principles. 
 
 It is evident that a solid body, in moving through a fluid, 
 must communicate a motion to the fluid particles with 
 which it successively comes in contact. Now, the quantity 
 of motion communicated »o thofluid is necessarily equal to 
 that which is lost by the solid, and may therefore be taken 
 as the measure of the resistance. To determine this quan 
 tity of motion, let us conceive a cylindrical or prismatic 
 
 1053 
 
RESISTANCE OF FLUIDS. 
 
 body, terminated by a plane perpendicular to its axis, to be 
 propelled through a non-elastic fluid in the direction of its 
 axis, so that the particles of the fluid strike against the 
 plane perpendicularly: and let A denote the area of the 
 anterior surface of the body, p the density of the fluid, and 
 v the velocity of the motion, during the small interval of 
 time d t. Then the space described by the body in the 
 time d t is v d t ; the volume of the fluid displaced in that 
 time is A v d t ; the mass of the fluid displaced is p A v d 
 t; and the momentum or quantity of motion imparted to 
 the fluid is pAvdtXv = pAv*dt. LetR denote the re- 
 sistance of the fluid, we have then 
 
 R = pAv*dt. . . . (1.) 
 From this equation it appears that the resistance upon a 
 plane surface, moved perpendicularly through a non-elastic 
 fluid at rest, is proportional to the density of the fluid, to 
 the area of the plane, and to the square of the velocity. 
 
 We may deduce from equation (1) a measure of the 
 force of resistance by comparing it with the pressure of 
 gravity. Let A denote the height from which a heavy 
 body must fall in order to acquire the velocity v, and let g 
 be the accelerating force of gravity (32 feet in a second) ; 
 we have then (sec Force) v- = Zgh, mnd by substituting 
 this in equation (1), we get 
 
 K = 2pAhXgdt . . . . (2.) 
 Now, since g is the velocity generated by gravity in one 
 second, g d I is the velocity geneiated in the time d t ; and 
 since 2 p A A expresses the mass of a prism of the fluid, 
 having A for the area of its base and 2 A for its altitude, 
 2pAhXgdt is the quantity of motion which the prism 
 would acquire by the free action of gravity in the time d t ; 
 in other words, its weight. We have, therefore, this prop- 
 osition : The direct resistance of an unclastic fluid on any 
 plane surface is equal to the weight of a column of the fluid 
 having the surface for its base, and for its altitude twice 
 the height due to the velocity tcith which the surface moves 
 through the fluid. Let W be the weight of the unit of vol- 
 ume of the liquid ; we have then 
 
 R = 2WAA. . . . (3.) 
 The above measure of the force of resistance is deduced 
 on the supposition that the direction of the motion is per- 
 pendicular to the plane. If the shock is received obliquely, 
 the resistance will be greatly diminished. Let A B repre- 
 sent the profile of the plane, and M N the 
 E direction of the motion of the plane in stag- 
 nant water, or of a vein of fluid DCBE 
 striking against the plane, supposed to be 
 fixed. Let F be the intersection of M N 
 with A B, and draw B C perpendicular to 
 M N. Now, if A denote the area of the 
 given plane A B, v the velocity of the mo- 
 tion, and K the direct resistance due to the 
 velocity v (that is, the resistance which the 
 plane would sustain if placed perpendicular- 
 ly to M N) ; then (1) we have R = p A »2 d 
 t. On F N take F G, to represent R. This 
 force F G may be resolved into two, F H perpendicular 
 and H G parallel to A B, of which the latter produces no 
 effect on the plane ; hence the resistance is diminished, by 
 reason of the oblique impact, in the ratio of F II : F G, or 
 of sin. i : 1 (('denoting the angle of incidence A F N). But, 
 again, the absolute resistance is also proportional to the 
 number of filaments which strike the plane ; and it is ob- 
 vious that the number which would strike it in the oblique 
 position A B is less than the number which would strike it 
 if directly opposed to the stream, in the ratio of B C : B A, 
 or of sin. i : 1. Compounding this with the former ratio, 
 the total diminution of resistance is as sin. 2; : l ; that is to 
 say, the absolute resistance or pressure in the direction F 
 H perpendicular to the plane is R sin. 2i. 
 
 It still remains to find the effective impulse or resistance 
 in the direction of the motion. Draw H I perpendicular to 
 M N. The force in the direction F H may be resolved into 
 F I and I H, of which the effective part is F I. Hence the 
 effective impulse is to the absolute oblique impulse as F I to 
 F H, or as sin, i : I ; consequently the effective impulse on 
 the plane in the direction M N is R sin. 3j. Let this be de- 
 noted by R' ; we have then 
 
 R' = R sin. H = p A v 1 d t X sin. $i . . . . (4.) 
 If we denote by A' the area of the projection of the plane 
 A B upon a plane perpendicular to M N, we have A' = A 
 cos. A B C = A sin. i; and since p i>2 d t = 2 W A, the 
 above fWmula becomes, by substitution, 
 
 R' = 2 W A' A sin. 2« (5.) 
 
 From this last formula the effective oblique impulse in 
 the direction of the stream upon any plane surface is easily 
 computed. For other surfaces than planes, it is necessary 
 to find an expression for the resistance on the differential 
 element of the surface, which may be regarded ns coinci- 
 1054 
 
 ding with its tangent plane; and the sum of all these re- 
 sistances, found by the usual process of integration, will 
 give the whole resistance on the surface. For a surface o( 
 revolution we have 
 
 therefore, 
 
 d A' = 2-v dy and sin. 2j = ( — - J ; 
 
 R' = 4 7T W A 
 
 fdy3 
 
 Numerous experiments have been made for the purpose 
 of ascertaining how far this theory of the resistance of fluids 
 agrees with the actual facts, or for forming an empirical 
 theory for the guidance of the engineer. Of the details of 
 these experiments our limits will not permit us to give an 
 account; but the principal experimenters, and works in 
 which the results may be found, are the following: Sir 
 Isaac Newton (Principia, lib. ii.) ; Mariotte (Traitv des 
 Mouvemcns des Fmuz) ; Gravesan.^e (System of Natural 
 Philosophy) ; D. Bernoulli and Krafft (Comment. Petropol.) ; 
 Borda (Mem. de VJlcad. des Sciences de Paris, 1763 and 
 1707) ; Condorcet, D'Alembert, and Bossut, by order of the 
 French government in 1775; Bossut (Hydrodynamique) ; 
 Du Buat (Principes d' Hydrauli/jue) ; Robins (Gunnery); 
 Don George d'Ulloa (Kr.aman Maritime) ; Coulomb (Mem. 
 de V Institut. torn, iii.) ; Vince (Phil. Truns.); Button 
 (Tracts.) ; Beaul'oy (Nautical and Hydraulic Experi- 
 ments) ; Russel (Trans, of the Royal Society of Edin. vol. 
 xiv.), &c. The general Jesuits of the experiments may be 
 stated as follows: 
 
 I. The force of resistance on bodies moving in fluids is 
 proportional to the square of the velocity, at least within 
 the limits of 2 to 10 feet per second. This is in accordance 
 with the theory. 
 
 II. The direct resistance on bodies moving with the same 
 velocities is nearly in the ratio of the surfaces. 
 
 III. The resistances on surfaces moving obliquely do not 
 by any means vary in the ratio of the squares of the sines 
 of the angles of incidence, especially when the incidence 
 is very oblique ; and for such motions the theory must be 
 entirely abandoned. 
 
 The above results are, however, considerably modified 
 by various circumstances, of which the principal are the 
 following: 
 
 1. The form of the body. The Newtonian theory takes 
 account only of the anterior surface of the body; but it was 
 clearly established by the experiments of Du Buat that the 
 form of the hinder part is not less cfficaeVus in modifying 
 the resistance. A prismatic body, 1 a\i^s its prow and poop 
 equal and parallel surfaces, being plunged horizontally into 
 a stream, will require, in order to keep it immoveable, a 
 force in the direction of its axis equal to the difference of 
 the real pressures exerted on its prow and poop. If the 
 fluid is at rest, this difference will be nothing, because the 
 opposite dead pressures are equal ; but in n stream there is 
 superadded to the dead pressure on the prow the active 
 pressure arising from the deflection of the filaments of the 
 fluid, which being turned aside and rendered divergent by 
 the obstruction of the anterior surface, a part of the pres- 
 sure of the circumambient fluid is employed in turning 
 them into the trough behind the body, and consequently 
 there is less pressure on the posterior surface than if the 
 body were at rest in stagnant water, so that the body is im- 
 pelled backwards. This force is called by Du Buat the 
 non pressure ; by Beaufoy the minus pressure. Now, the 
 whole impulse to be withstood if the body is in a stream, 
 or the resistance to be overcome if it moves in stagnant 
 water, is the sum of the active pressure on the fore part 
 and the non-pressure on the hinder part; and this does not 
 depend solely on the form of the prow and poop, but also, 
 and perhaps chiefly, on the length of the body. The non- 
 pressure on a cube was found by experiment to be reduced 
 to a fourth part, by making the length of the body triple of 
 the breadth. The mere lengthening of a ship, without 
 changing the form of the prow or poop, increases the speed. 
 
 2. Another circumstance which modifies the general re- 
 sults is the velocity of the body. It was ascertained, by 
 Mr. Russel's experiments on canal boats, that the resistance 
 does not follow the ratio of the squares of the velocities, 
 excepting when the velocity is small and the depth consid- 
 erable ; but that the incremr nts of the resistance are great- 
 er than those due to the squares of the velocities as the ve- 
 locity approaches to a certain limit depending on the depth 
 of the fluid ; and that immediately after passing this limit 
 the resistance suffers a sudden diminution, and becomes 
 much less than that due to the square of the velocity. In 
 a canal about live and a half feet deep this limit (which is 
 the velocity of the wave generated by the motion of the 
 body) was found to be from 11 to 12 feet per second, or 
 about eight miles per hour. 
 
 3. A third cause which modifies the theory is the adhe- 
 sion of the molecules of the fluid, which is most sensible 
 
RESISTANCE OF FLUIDS. 
 
 when the motion is slow and the body small and very long. 
 In such cum, it becomes necessary to add a term depending 
 on the Ant power of the velocity. 
 
 4. The resistance is also influenced by the depth of the 
 body under the surface of the water. When the body is 
 near tat surface the resistance is greater than when it is at 
 the depth of six feet. When a body floats, the fluid is heap- 
 ed up, as it were, before the anterior surface, by which the 
 resistance is increased. 
 
 5. In elastic fluids, as the density increases with the pres- 
 sure, the density of the fluid before the anterior surface in- 
 
 ith the velocity, and the increments of the resist- 
 ance are greater than in the ratio of the square of the velo- 
 city In this case, also, we may conceive a velocity so 
 gieat that the pressure on the posterior surface becomes ne- 
 gative, as in the case of a cannon ball projected with a ve- 
 locity greater than that with which air rushes into a vacuum. 
 When this takes place the fluid is not even in contact with 
 l lor surfaces of the ball, and the character of the 
 is wholly changed. See Projectiles. 
 li. When a body moves in a fluid a portion of the fluid 
 adheres to the body, and accompanies it in its motion ; 
 the form of the moving body is altered, and the 
 increased. The quantity of thud thus dragged 
 aluiiL' i^ independent of the velocity, and was estimated by 
 l)u Hunt, from experiments made on sphere* vibrating in 
 water, to increase the quantity of displaced fluid in the 
 i to l'O. His experiments od prisms also showed 
 Put the quantity of dragged fluid was proportional to the 
 bulk of the moving body. Mr. Bally (Phil. Trans. 1832) 
 t lie mean results of his experiments on pendulums 
 ■Winging in air, the ratio 1 to lr4li as the increase of the 
 displaced fluid from this cause ; and remarks that the quan- 
 ired to depend on the form as well as magnitude 
 Of the moving body, but not on its weight or specific gravity. 
 
 ulcta considerably difies tl 
 
 rib made known by Du Buat in 17S6, was over 
 i experimenters, until re-discovered by Beasel 
 in ISO) when eogaged on experiments to determine the 
 length of the seconds' pendulum. 
 
 [derations, it may be inferred that the 
 e R opposed to any body moving through a fluid, 
 considered as a pressure of so many pounds weight, will be 
 d by an equation of this form. 
 
 R=(n» -r-n) WA1; 
 where W is the weight in pounds of the unit of volume of 
 the fluid (one cubic foot) ; A the area of the greatest trans- 
 ion of the body, expressed in square feet; h the 
 height In feel line to the velocity, so that h = t?2 -i. 64 ; nn d 
 m and n numerical coefficients, constant for bodies of simi- 
 . but variable for bodies of different figures, and to 
 be determined by experiment for each kind of body; m hav- 
 ing reference to the impulse and pressure on the nnterior 
 and n to the non-pressure on the posterior part. 
 rhe following are a few of the cases for which values of m 
 and n have been found. 
 
 When a thin plate is directly opposed to the impulse of a 
 stream, the value of tn + n appears to increase with the 
 area. If A is equal to a tenth of a square foot, m-f-n = 
 1-4 ; and If A = 1 square foot, m -4- n = 1*9. The value of 
 m-f-n for surfaces of larger dimensions has not been suf- 
 ficiently determined. For a prismatic body terminated by two 
 planes, the pressure against the anterior force remains con- 
 stant ; but the non-pressure, or value of n, diminishes as 
 the length increases. For a cube held fast in a stream, Du 
 Buat found m-f-n = l - 46; and for a prism whose length 
 was from three to six times the square root of its face, m-f- 
 n=l-34. But when the bodies moved in still water, he 
 found, as for the thin plate, nt + n =. 1-43 ; for the cube, m 
 -\- h ss 1*17; and for the prism, m-\-nz= 1-10. 
 
 By means of these values the actual resistances are read- 
 ily computed for each body, when the velocity Is given. 
 Suppose the velocity to be 3 feet per second, and the oppos- 
 ing surface in each case to be 1 square foot. For v = 3, we 
 have h = 9 -^ 64 = -1406. With respect to W, the weight 
 of an imperial gallon of water, at temperature 62° and un- 
 der the mean pressure, is 10 lbs. avoirdupois ; but an impe- 
 rlsj gallon contains 277 - 27 cubic inches, whence the weight 
 of a cubic foot of water is 62 - 3 lbs. avoirdupois. Hence, if 
 the bodies are impelled through stagnant water with a ve- 
 locity of 3 feet per second, the absolute resistances in each 
 case are as under : 
 For the thin plate R = 1-43 X 62-3 x -1406 = 12-5 lbs. 
 For the cube R = M7 X 623 x -1406 = 10-2 
 
 For the prism R = 1-10 X 623 X -1406 = 9-6 
 
 The effect produced by the addition of a poop or prow 
 was also determined by Du Buat. The addition of a poop 
 to a prismatic body whose length is four or five times its 
 breadth only diminishes the resistance by a tenth part. But 
 when a prow consisting of two equal vertical planes, mak- 
 ing with each other an angle of 60°, was added, the re- 
 
 RESPIRATION. 
 
 sis-tance was reduced to about a half. On giving the prow 
 the form of a scmicylinder, the resistance wat also reducee 
 about a half. The section of the prow being a triangl 
 whose height was double the base or breadth of the prism 
 the resistance was reduced to two fifths. In general, a 
 prow having a curved surface produces a greater diminu- 
 tion .of the resistance than one of equal magnitude termi- 
 nated by plane surfaces. 
 
 For a sphere moving in water or in air with a moderate 
 velocity, the experiments give /« + ?£ = 06; but this value 
 increases when the velocity becomes great, as in the case of 
 a projectile. The experiments of Bosaut on the model of a 
 ship moved in the direction of its axis gave m-\-n = 0-16. 
 This may be considered as the value corresponding to the 
 solid of least resistance. For the effect with which solid 
 bodies resist an etlort tending to break or crush them, see 
 Strength of Materials; and for the resistance of the 
 atmosphere on a p r o j e ctile, see Gunnery, Projectile. 
 
 RESISTANCE, SOLID OF LEAST. In Mechanics, 
 the solid whose figure is such that in Its motion through a 
 fluid it sustains, the least resistance of all others having the 
 same length and base ; or, on the other hand, being station- 
 ary in a current of fluid, offers the least interruption to the 
 progress of that fluid. In the former case, it has been con- 
 sidered the best form for the stem of a ship ; in the latter, the 
 proper form for the pier of a bridge. The determination of 
 the curve whose revolution gives the body having this pro- 
 perty is a problem which can be solved by the ordinary me- 
 thods of maxima and minima, when the law of resistance 
 is assumed. On the hypothesis that the resistance is pro- 
 portional to the square of the velocity, Newton gave the 
 following construction : Let a curve D G be so taken that it 
 
 from any point N In it, an ordi- t\ 
 
 nate N M be drawn perpendi- 
 cular to the axis A II, and from 
 a given point C the line G U 
 be drawn parallel to the tan- 
 gent N T at N, cutting the axis 
 in R; then If M N : G R : : G 
 Ra : 4 B R • B G2, the solid generated by the revolution of 
 this curve about the axis A B will be the solid of least re- 
 sistance. [Prtneipta, lib. it., prop. 34.) 
 
 RESOLUTION. (Lat. resolutio.) In Medicine and 
 Surgery, this term implies the cessation or dispersion of in- 
 flammatory action without the formation of an abscess or 
 mortification. 
 
 Resolution. In Music, the writing out of a canon or 
 fugue in partition from a single line. 
 
 Resolution c a Discord. The descent by a tone or 
 a semitone, according as the mode may require, of a dis- 
 cord which has lieen heard in the preceeding harmony. 
 
 Resolution or Equations. The finding the values 
 which the unknown quantity or quantities must have, so as 
 to fulfil the conditions expressed in the proposed equation ; 
 viz. of rendering the aggregate value of all the positive 
 terms equal to the aggregate value of all the negative terms. 
 These values arc called the roots of the equation. See 
 Equation. 
 
 Resolution of Forces. Sec Resultant. 
 
 Resolution, or Solution, in Mathematics, is the orderly 
 enumeration of the things to be done to obtain what is re- 
 quired in a problem. A problem mny be divided into three 
 parts— the proposition, the resolution, and the demonstra 
 tion. 
 
 RE'SONANCE. (Lat. resonans.) In Music, the return- 
 ing of sound by the air acting on the bodies of stringed mu- 
 sical instruments. 
 
 RESPIIIA'TION. (Lat. respiro, / breathe.) The func- 
 tion by which the nutrient circulating fluid of an organized 
 body is submitted to the influence of air, for the purpose of 
 changing its properties. The great end which appears to 
 be answered by respiration is the removal of carbon, in the 
 form of carbonic acid, from venous blood. This g.is is ac 
 cordingly found in the air which is expired from the lungs ; 
 and the blood, having lost its carbonic acid, at the same 
 time loses its dingy hue, and acquires the florid red which 
 characterizes arterial blood. It has been shown by Dr. 
 Stevens that a peculiar attraction exists (not chemical) be- 
 tween oxygen and carbonic acid, which acts through mem 
 branes, and in consequence of which the carbonic acid ap- 
 pears to be attracted, as it were, out of the venuos blood, by 
 the oxygen of the air in the cellular structure of the lungs; 
 while, at the same time, a portion of oxygen, probably 
 equal in bulk to that of the emitted carbonic acid, is ab- 
 sorbed by the blood, and contributes to its arterial charac- 
 ters. The change from the arterial to the venous state, and 
 consequently the formation of carbonic acid, appears to take 
 place in the capillary junctions of the artery and vein ; but 
 how it is there effected we know not. 
 
 From the quantity of carbonic acid emitted from the lungs 
 in a given time, it has been attempted to ascertain the quan 
 tity of carbon which is thus thrown off; but the usual estl 
 
 1055 
 
RESPIRATOR. 
 
 mates upon this subject, which place it at about 12 ounces 
 in the 24 hours, are probably overrated, inasmuch as that 
 quantity of carbon is more than exists in the food daily 
 taken into the stomach. If we average it at G ounces, it 
 will probably be nearer the truth ; and 6 ounces of charcoal 
 are equal to 22 ounces of carbonic acid gas. Besides car- 
 bonic acid, there is also a quantity of aqueous vapour 
 thrown out with the expired air; this is probably chiefly 
 produced by the superficial exhalents of the lungs, but it 
 may also be partly derived from transpiration from the 
 blood It has not been satisfactorily ascertained whether 
 nitrogen is taken up by the blood as well as oxygen, 
 though experiments have rendered it probable that a por- 
 tion of that component of the atmosphere is also absorbed. 
 
 Respiration of Plants. See Botany. 
 
 RESPIRATOR. An instrument fitted to cover the mouth, 
 over which it is retained by proper bandages : it is construct- 
 ed of a series of flattened silver or gilt wires, over and be- 
 tween which the air passes and repasses in the act of respi- 
 ration and of speaking. It is presumed that the warm air 
 emitted from the lungs imparts its excess of temperature to 
 the small metallic bars, and that these in their turn impart 
 heat to the cold air drawn through them at each inspiration ; 
 so that in this way the low temperature of the external air 
 in cold weather is mitigated before it reaches the lungs, and 
 its supposed noxious influence prevented. When a handker- 
 chief is tied over the mouth, and we are obliged to breathe 
 through the nose, the extreme low temperature of the ex- 
 ternal air is similarly mitigated before it reaches the lungs. 
 
 RESPONDENTIA. In Mercantile Law, a species of 
 contract ; which differs from bottomry in that the loan is 
 effected on the security of the freight, and not on that of 
 the ship itself. See Bottomry. 
 
 REST. In Music, a pause or interval of time, during 
 which there is an intermission of the voice or sound. A 
 rest may be for a bar, or more than a bar, or for a part of a 
 bar onlv. 
 
 RESTITU'TION, WRIT OF, in Law, lies where judg- 
 ment has been reversed, to restore to the defendant what 
 he has lost. It can properly only be granted where the 
 party cannot be restored by the ordinary course of law. 
 Restitution of goods to a party robbed was unknown to the 
 common law ; but the stat. 21 II. 8, c. 11, first saw it. By 
 the statute 7 & 8 G. 4, c. 29, s. 57, it is now in the power of 
 the court to award a writ of restitution of goods and chat- 
 ties, and to restore them in a summary manner, where a 
 thief or fraudulent taker has been indicted on the part of 
 the owner and convicted. Such restitution cannot be grant- 
 ed of a valuable security, where the property has passed 
 into other hands by a bona fide the transaction. But a writ 
 of re'titution will reach goods stolen, although they have 
 been sold in market overt. Restitution can only be had 
 from the person in possession of the goods at the time of 
 and after the felon's conviction. 
 
 RESTORATION, THE, in English History, is applied by 
 way of eminence to the accession of Charles II. to the throne 
 after an interregnum of eleven years and four months, from 
 Jan. 30, 1049, when Charles I. was beheaded, till May 29, 
 1660. The latter day is appointed in the liturgy of the En- 
 glish Church as an anniversary festival in commemoration 
 of the restoration of the monarchial form of government in 
 these realms. 
 
 RESU'LTANT, in Dynamics, is the force which results 
 from the composition of two or more forces acting upon a 
 body. When the two forces act upon a body in the same 
 line of direction, the resultant is equivalent to the sum of 
 both ; when they act in opposite directions, the resultant is 
 equal to iheir difference, and acts in the direction of the 
 greater. If the lines of direction of the two forces are in- 
 clined to each other, then, on taking in each direction from 
 the point where they intersect a straight line to represent 
 each of the forces respectively, and constructing a parallel- 
 ogram of which these lines are the sides, the resultant is 
 represented both in intensity and direction by the diagonal 
 of the parallelogram passing through the point of intersec- 
 tion. By combining this resultant with a third force, a new 
 resultant will be obtained ; and in this manner the resul- 
 tant of any number of forces may be determined. See Com- 
 position of Forces. 
 
 RESURRE'CTION. (Lat. resurgo, / rise a/rain.) The 
 history of the resurrection of our Saviour is detailed in the 
 separate narration of each of the four Evangelists, nnd is 
 also referred to and insisted on in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and in every one of the Epistles. The importance of this 
 history, as an evidence of the truth of Christianity, is point- 
 ed out in a peculiar manner by Paley (Evidences /part 2, ch. 
 31 ; namely, that it was alleged from the beginning by all 
 .he propagators of Christianity, and relied on as the great 
 »2st of the doctrines which they taught; consequently, if 
 the fact be untrue, they must ail have been either deceiv- 
 ers, or deceived in a point on which it is morally impossi- 
 ble they could be so. 
 1050 
 
 RETICULUM. 
 
 RESUSCITA'TION. (Lat. resuscitare, to arouse.) This 
 term is generally used to signify the restoring to animation 
 of persons apparently dead. The first and principal object 
 in these cases is to aerate the blood by the artificial intro- 
 duction of fresh air into the lungs, and to restore the nat- 
 ural function of respiration ; the lungs, therefore, must be 
 inflated, and proper stimulants applied when necessary ; 
 among these, in cases of drowning and of apparent death from 
 exposure to cold, friction and warm bath are eminently im- 
 portant : after hanging, the vessels of the brain often require 
 to be unloaded by venesection in the jugular vein. Electri- 
 city is sometimes resorted to, but generally hopelessly. In 
 all these cases no time should on any account be lost, as 
 everything depends upon prompt treatment, as well as 
 upon proper means; and many lives have been lost for 
 want of immediate aid, and skill in applying it. The at- 
 tempts to restore suspended animation should not he given 
 up till unequivocal proofs of death are manifest. (See 
 Drownino.) The details of the management of different 
 cases of apparent death are too extensive to come within our 
 limits : upon this subject the reader may advantageously 
 consult Taylor's Elements of Medical Jurisprudence. 
 
 RETA'INER. In old English Law, a servant not dwel- 
 ling in the master's house or employed by him in any dis- 
 tinct occupation, but wearing his livery (i.e., hat, badge, or 
 suit), and attending on particular occasions: an important 
 relic of the times of private warfare. The giving liveries, 
 or retaining- this class of servants, was forbidden by many 
 statutes with little effect. The statutes themselves were 
 repealed by 3 Car. 1, c. 1 ; but the usage had then nearly 
 ceased. 
 
 RETAINER, or RETAINING FEE. In the language of 
 the Bar, a fee given to a counsel to secure his services; or 
 rather, as it has been said, to prevent the opposite side from 
 engaging them. A special retainer is for a particular cast- 
 expected to come on. A general retainer is given by a par- 
 ty desirous of securing a priority of claim on the counsel's 
 services for any case which he may have in any court 
 which that counsel attends. The effect of it is merely this, 
 that if a counsel having a general retainer receive a special 
 retainer on the other side, he cannot accept it until twenty- 
 four hours after notice shall have been given of its arrival 
 to the party so generally retaining him ; when, if he does 
 not receive a brief or a special retainer from the latter, he is 
 bound to accept it. The same word in its strict legal accep- 
 tation signifies the engagement of an attorney by his client, 
 which enhances the mutual duties implied by the law be- 
 tween them. 
 
 RETARDA'TION. The act of hindering the free pro 
 gress of a body, and ultimately, therefore, stopping it. It 
 arises from the opposition of the medium in which the body 
 moves, or from the friction of the surface upon which it 
 moves. See Friction, Resistance. 
 
 RE'TE MUCO'SUM. (Lat.) The soft nnd apparently 
 fibrous matter, or layer, situated between the cuticle and 
 the cutis ; it is the seat of the colour of the skin. It is black in 
 the negro, and the colouring matter is of such a nature as to 
 admit of being bleached by the action of chlorine. 
 
 RE'TIARIES, Retiaria. (Lat. rete, a net.) In Entomo- 
 logy, those spiders are so called which spin a web or net to 
 entrap their prey 
 
 RETI A'RIUS. (Lat. rete, a net.) The name of a class 
 of Roman gladiators armed in a peculiar way. The retia- 
 rius was furnished with a trident and net, with no more 
 covering than a short tunic ; and with these implements he 
 endeavoured to entangle and despatch his adversary, who 
 was called secutor (from sequi, to follow), and was armed 
 with a helmet, a shield, and sword. 
 
 RETI'CULATE. (Lat. rete.) In Zoology, when a sur- 
 face has a number of minute impressed lines which inter 
 sect each other in various directions, like the meshes of a 
 net. 
 
 RETI'CULATED WORK. In Architecture, that where- 
 in the stones are square and laid lozengewiso, resembling 
 the meshes of a net. This species of masonry is scarcely 
 ever practised in the present day ; but it was very common 
 among the ancients. 
 
 RETI'CULATES, Reticulata. (Lat. reticulum, a net.) 
 The name of a section of Lithophytes, comprehending those 
 in which the polype cells have a reticulate disposition on 
 the surface of expanded plates. 
 
 RE'TICULE. In a telescope, a network of some fine 
 fibres crossing each other at right angles, and dividing the 
 field of view into a series of small equal squares. It ■»* 
 been long used for observations on the quantity of the en 
 lightened parts of a luminary during eclipses: and is found, 
 under most circumstances, well adapted for the purpose, 
 when placed in a convenient position in respect to the ob 
 jcct-glass of the telescope. The term reticule is also ap 
 plied to a well-known article, formerly of network, but now 
 of every description of materials, used by Indies. 
 
 RETI'CULUM. (Lat.) The name of the " honeycomb 
 
n.) 
 
 - 
 
 RETINA. 
 
 bag," or second cavity of the complex stomach of the Ru- 
 minant quadrupeds ; so called because of the reticulate or 
 honeycomb-like disposition of the mostly hexagonal cells 
 which occupy its inner surface. 
 RETINA. (La*, rete.) The pulpy expansion of the op- 
 
 in the interior of the eye ; it is the seat of vision. 
 RETINASPHA'LTUM, or RETINITE. (Gr. pcnvn, 
 resin, and ao^aXrov, bitumen, retinite.) A substance dis- 
 covered by Mr. H.uchett, associated with Bovey coal, and 
 which has since been found in other coal strata. When 
 in alcohol it yields a portion of resin, nnd asphal- 
 nis; it appears, therefore, to be a substance inter- 
 mediate between resin and bitumen, and renders it probable 
 that bitumens are of resinous origin. 
 RETINITIS. Inflammation of the retina. 
 RETIPEDS, Rttipedes. (Lot. rete, and pes, afoot.) 
 The name given by Scopoli, to one of the divisions of a bi- 
 nary arrangement of birds, including all those which have 
 the skin of the tarsi divided into small polygonal scales. 
 
 RETI'REJD FLANK. In Fortification, a flank having 
 an arc of a circle with its convexity turned towards the 
 place. 
 
 ETORT. A chemical vessel employed in a variety of 
 distillations. It is generally made 
 of glass or earthenware, and 
 sometimes is provided with a 
 6topper so placed above the bulb 
 as to enable substances to be in- 
 
 0\ troduced into it without soiling 
 =<C? J the neck ; in this case it is called 
 (2.) ^—^ a tubulated retort. A receiver is 
 
 illy nnnexed to it for the pur- 
 pose of collecting the products of distillation. Fig. 1 repre- 
 sents a plain retort and receiver; In tig. 2, both are tubula- 
 ted. 
 
 RETOUCH. In Tainting, Sculpture, &.C., a verb used to 
 denote the rea|i|i|ication of the master's hand to a work 
 which lie h;il theretofore considered in a finished state. 
 
 RETRACE. In Paintine, &c, a verb used to denote the 
 renewal of the outline of a drawing. 
 
 RETRENCHMENT. See Fortification. 
 
 RETROCE'DENT. A term applied in Medicine to those 
 es which move about from one part of the body to an- 
 other; as rctroccdcnt gout, when it leaves the toe for the 
 stomach. 
 
 KKTKO'JRADATION. A term applied to the apparent 
 motion of a planet when it is contrary to the order of the 
 signs, or when the planet appears to move westward among 
 the B«ed stars. See Planet. 
 
 RET! "K.N", in Law, in its most usual signification, is ap- 
 plied to writs. The return to a writ is, properly speaking, a 
 recital by tin- sheriff or other officer to whom it was directed 
 of what he has done in execution of it , as, for exnm- 
 plc, in cases of civil process, that the defendant cannot be 
 found (technically called, non est inventus), has no goods 
 within the sheriff's bailiwick (nulla bona), and so forth. 
 Tins is endorsed on the writ ; nnd the writ is then delivered 
 into the court whence it issued on the "return day," or day 
 when the writ is returnable. The remedy against the sher- 
 iff for a false return is by action on the case. The return 
 of members of parliament is thus, strictly speaking, the re- 
 turn by the sheriff, or other returning officer, of the writ ud- 
 dre-ed to him, certifying the election in pursuance of it. 
 See Parliament. 
 
 Return. In Architecture, a projecture, moulding, or 
 wall continued in a different or opposite direction. 
 
 REVEILLE. (Fr. literally, awake.) The name given 
 to the practice prevalent throughout all the European ar- 
 mies of beating the drum at daybreak, to awake the soldiers 
 and put a stop to the challenging of the sentries. The 
 equivalent tune played on the bugle in the evening, to sum- 
 mon the soldiers within their barracks, is called the retreat. 
 
 REVELATION, in a theological sense, is a communica- 
 tion of truth made by God to man ; but it is understood 
 that those truths only are revealed which are communica- 
 ted by direct and special means, that is, by divine inspira- 
 tion. Such fragments of the divine will and economy as 
 are taught men by their own faculties and instincts are dis- 
 tinguished under the term natural religion. 
 
 RE'VELS, MASTER OF THE, or LORD OF MIS- 
 RULE. The name of an officer formerly attached pro tem- 
 fwre to royal and other distinguished houses, whose duty 
 t was to preside over the Christmas entertainments. This 
 office was first permanently instituted in the reign of Henry 
 VIII.; nnd appears to have gone out of fashion towards the 
 end of the 17th century. 
 
 REVE'NDICATION. A term of the civil law, signify- 
 ing a claim legally made to recover property, by one claim- 
 ing as owner. The right of property must, generally speak- 
 ing, lie complete, to proceed to the action of revendication ; 
 thu?, no such action can be brought for corporeal things un- 
 til after delivery, by which they pass. 
 3 X 
 
 REVERSIONARY PAYMENTS. 
 
 RE'VENUE. (Fr.) The name was given to the income 
 of a state derived from the customs, excise, taxation, and 
 other sources, and appropriated to the payment of the na- 
 tional expenses. Most useful and comprehensive tables, 
 showing the revenue and expenditure of Great Britain, will 
 be found in the Parliamentary Papers printed every session. 
 
 RE'VEREND. (Lat. reverendus.) A title of respect giv- 
 en to the clergy. In Roman Catholic countries the mem- 
 bers of the different religious orders are styled reverend. 
 In England deans are very reverend, bishops right reverend, 
 and archbishops most reverend. In Scotland, the principals 
 of the universities and the moderator of the General As- 
 sembly for the time being are styled ver% reverend. 
 
 REVE'RSE. in Numismatics, the opposite to the ob 
 verse or face of the coin or medal. See Obverse, Numis- 
 matics. 
 
 REVE'RSION, in Law, is defined to be the residue of tin 
 estate in lands, tenements, or hereditaments, left in the 
 grantor, to commence in possession after the determination 
 of some particular estate granted by him. 
 
 REVE'RSION OF SERIES, in Algebra, is the method 
 of expressing the value of an unknown quantity which is in- 
 volved in an infinite series of terms, by means of smother 
 series of terms involving the powers of the quantity to 
 which the proposed series is equal. Thus, if the proposed 
 series be 
 
 z = a x + b x 2 + c z> -\- d x* + . . . ad inf. .... (1.) 
 nnd if we assume 
 
 z=»Ai + B*3-f Cz' + D2*+ ... ad inf. . ... (2.) 
 the original series will be reverted on determining the coef- 
 ficients A, B, C, D, &.c. 
 
 The ordinary method substituting the last series (2) and 
 its powers for z nnd its powers in the series (1), and equa- 
 ting the coefficients, whereby the values of A, B, C, D, &c., 
 are obtained. But this method, though given by Newton, 
 by whom the problem was first proposed, becomes unman- 
 ageable after a few steps ; and is moreover defective, inas- 
 much as it does not show '.he connexion of the coefficients, 
 nor the law by which they are formed. A general formula 
 was given by Arbogast (balcul des Derivations), whereby 
 they may be continued with comparatively little trouble to 
 almost any extent The values of the first four coefficients 
 are, 
 
 A=I,B = -* C= 9 -i. 2 -^ e , 
 
 D = 
 
 5 4' — 5abc + a 1 d 
 o7 
 
 (See also Woodekousc's Principles of Analytical Calcuta 
 tion, arts. 72 and 73 ; nnd the Penny Cyclopedia, where the 
 values of the coefficients are given to eleven terms.) 
 
 REVE'RSION, REVERSIONARY PAYMENTS. In 
 the doctrine of Annuities, a reversion is a payment which 
 is not to be received, or n benefit which does not begin, un- 
 til the happening of some event, as the death of a person 
 now living. Payments which arc to be received at the end 
 of a specified period of time are usually called deferred pay- 
 ments. 
 
 The present value of a sum of money to be received on 
 the death of an individual of a given age depends evidently 
 upon the chances which the individual has of surviving 
 each future year of age, combined with the interest of mon- 
 ey. The method by which the value is calculated, from an 
 observed or assumed law of mortality, has been explained 
 under the term of Assurance ; and for the sake of facilita- 
 ting calculations of this kind, which are of very frequent 
 occurrence in the affairs of life, extensive tables have been 
 published, computed from various hypothesis of mortality, 
 and at different rates of interest. Such tables are usually 
 exhibited in the form of Annuity Tables, from which the 
 solutions of all questions relating to assurances and rever- 
 sions are easily deduced. See Annuity and Assurance. 
 
 Let A denote the value of an annuity of II, on a life of a 
 given age, V the present value of II. to be received at the 
 end of the year in which the life fails (the year being sup- 
 posed to commence with the day on which the annuity is 
 payable), r the rate of interest, and v — 1 -r- (1 ■+• r) ; then. 
 V = v (1 -f- A) — A, or V = v — (1 — v) A. 
 
 Suppose, for example, that on the death of Ji, whose 
 present age is fifty five, the sum of 50001. is to revert to B, or 
 his assigns, and that B proposes to sell his interest in this 
 reversion ; and let it be proposed to calculate the sum which 
 he ought now to receive, allowing the purchaser interest at 
 the rate of 4 per cent, per annum. In the table given under 
 the term Annuity, the value of an annuity of £1 on a male 
 life aged fifty-five is 110392. At 4 per cent, we have r = 
 „ 12-0392 
 
 •04, and v — 1 -f. 104: therefore V = — - 110392 = 
 
 1"04 
 •5370. This is the value of the reversion of £\ ; conse 
 quently jC5000 X '5370 = £2685 is the sum which B. should 
 receive for his reversionary interest. 
 
 1057 
 
REVETEMENT. 
 
 When the reversionary benefit consist? of an annuity to 
 Commence upon the death of an individual, and to continue 
 for a term of years certain, its value is found by computing 
 the value of the annuity for the assigned period, and pro- 
 ceeding as in the above example ; but when it consists of an 
 annuity commencing upon the death of one individual, and 
 terminable upon the death of another, it becomes necessary 
 to have recourse to tables of annuities on joint lives. Thus, if 
 A becomes entitled upon the death of B to an annuity of XI 
 for the remainder of his life, the present value of the rever- 
 sion, or of A's interest, is equal to B — A B ; where I! de- 
 notes the present value of the annuity on the life of B, and 
 A B the value of the annuity on the joint lives of A and 
 B, that is, to continue only so long as both remain alive. 
 
 The four following rules give the solution of all the coses 
 of reversionary annuities which can arise when three lives 
 are concerned, and it is seldom that a case occurs in prac- 
 tice involving a greater number. It is to be observed, that 
 the two letters A B standing together denote, as above, 
 the value of an annuity on the joint lives of A and B, V 1! 
 that of an annuity on the joint lives of B and P, and A P 
 Q. that of an annuity on the joint continuance of the three 
 lives A, P, Q, and so on. Let R be the value of the re- 
 versionary annuity in each case. 
 
 1. On a single life A, after the longest of two lives P 
 and Q; R = A — AP— A Q + AP tt. 
 
 2. On the longest of two lives A, B, after a single life 
 P; R=A+B— AB — AP — BP + APB. 
 
 3. On a single life A, after two joint lives P, Q*; R = 
 A — APQ. 
 
 4. On two joint lives A, B, after a single life P ; It = 
 AH — A B P. 
 
 When reversionary benefits are contingent on lives falling 
 in an assigned order, as for instance an annuity to be re- 
 ceived upon the death of A provided he die while B is 
 living, the formula becomes more intricate, and could scarce- 
 ly he explained without entering into details inconsistent 
 with the nature of this work. For full information on the 
 subject, see the Treatises of Baily (1813), and Milne (181G). 
 We may remark, however, that the formula for the solu- 
 tion of questions connected with this subject may be great- 
 ly simplified by the use of an appropriate notation: for ex- 
 amples of which see De Morgan's Essay on Probabilities, 
 Cabinet Cycl. : and Hardy's JVew and General JVotation 
 for Life Contingencies (1840) ; in which last work the so- 
 lutions of all the cases of annuities and assurances which 
 can arise, when not more than three lives are concerned, 
 are arranged in a convenient table. 
 
 REVE'TEMENT. In Fortification, a strong wall of 
 brick or stone built round the lower part of the rampart, 
 to support the earth and prevent it rolling into the ditch, 
 as well as to increase the difficulty of escalades 
 
 REVIEW. The name now commonly -assumed, by lit- 
 erary usage, for periodical publications consisting of a col- 
 lection of critical essays. The Journal des Savans, com- 
 menced at Paris in 1665 by M. de Sallo, is commonly cited 
 as the first review properly so called. The most distin- 
 guished modern journals under the name of review in 
 France are, the Revue Encyclopediaue, the oldest of them 
 (now extinct) ; the Revue Fraiifaise, and Des Deux 
 Mondes ; and the Revue Britannie/ue, which consists of 
 translations from the English. In England the Monthly 
 Review (established in 1749) was the first publication of its 
 kind. The establishment of the Edinburgh Review In 
 1802, followed by that of the Quarterly in 1809, may be said 
 to have commenced a new era in criticism ; from that time 
 reviews have been adopted as the organs for conveying the 
 opinions of sects and parlies in religion and politics, as well 
 as in literature. All the leading works of this description 
 (the Edinburgh, Quarterly, Foreign Quarterly, British and 
 Foreign, Westminster, British Critic, Church of England, 
 and Dublin) now appear quarterly, or nearly so. The 
 management of reviews in England is in the hands of an ed- 
 itor; whose name, however, does not appear, the publisher 
 being the party responsible. The articles are also always 
 anonymous : the Westminster only, some time ago, adopt- 
 ed the practice of putting the initials of contributors, or ini- 
 tials assumed by them, at the foot of their papers. All 
 these reviews adhere to their designation, the articles ad- 
 mitted being in the form Qf reviews on some work or works 
 specified at the head, although, in point of fact, the latter 
 are often not even noticed by the reviewer, his remarks be- 
 ing more in the form of a general essay than of a review. 
 In this way they serve the purpose of affording govern- 
 ments or political parties the means of making statements 
 of facts, or declarations of opinion, which do not involve 
 them in the difficulties of direct responsibility, and yet are 
 generally understood to convey their sentiments. The pay 
 of writers in reviews is various, depending not only on the 
 means of the review, but en the rules adopted by particu- 
 lar editors ; for some have thought proper to equalize their 
 rate of remuneration, others to retain in their own hands 
 1058 
 
 RHAMNACEJE. 
 
 the power of estimating contributions according to their 
 supposed value. The French "revues," are conducted on 
 a different plan. Articles, in general, have the name of the 
 contributor attached; and the form of a "review" is not 
 preserved, tales, poetry, essays on the politics of the day, 
 &c, being admitted indiscriminately. 
 
 But besides Fiance and England, reviews have been long 
 established in the other European states, and in America , 
 but this species of publication has taken the deepest root in 
 Germany, where reviews may be said, without exaggera- 
 tion, to appear daily, though none of mem possess the iiitlu 
 ence of our Edinburgh or Quarterly Review The (ibtttn- 
 ger Gelehrte Anieige, which is the oldest, still exists, and 
 maintains a high character for ability and impartiality. 
 
 Review. In Military language, an inspection of the ap- 
 pearance and regular disposition of a body of troops assem 
 bled for that purpose. 
 
 REVISE. See Correctinq. 
 
 REVI'VOR, BILL OF, in Law, is a continuance of an 
 original bill in a court of equity, when by death some party 
 to it has become incapable of prosecuting or defending a 
 suit, or a female plaintiff has incapacitated herself by mar- 
 riage from suing alone. A bill "of revivor and supple 
 ment" continues a suit upon an abatement, and supplies 
 defects arisen from some event subsequent to the institu- 
 tion of the suit. 
 
 REVOCA'TION, POWER OF. In Law, a power con 
 tained in a voluntary deed of conveyance to uses, by which 
 the grantor retains the liberty to revoke the uses granted 
 by the deed. Voluntary estates made with power of revo- 
 cation are held fraudulent under stat. 27 Eliz., c. 4, as 
 against purchasers. 
 
 RE'VOLUTE. (Lat. revolve, / roll back.) In Zoology, 
 when a part is rolled outwards or backwards. 
 
 REVOLU'TION. In Politics, a word of somewhat in 
 definite meaning, but usually denoting an extensive change 
 in the political constitution of a country accomplished in a 
 short time, whether by legal or illegal means. The term 
 Revolution, in English History, is applied by way of emi- 
 nence to the year 1638, universally regarded as the great 
 era of English liberty — when William 111. and Mary acce- 
 ded to the throne on the forced- abdication of James II. 
 
 Revolution. In Geometry, the motion of a point or 
 line about a centre. 
 
 Revolution, in Astronomy, is used to signify the period 
 in which a planet, satellite, or comet returns to the place 
 in its orbit from which we estimate its setting out. 
 
 It INVOLUTION, FRENCH (ERA OF THE). In Chro- 
 nology, this was substituted for the Christian era in all pub- 
 lic acts and documents, by a decree of the National Con 
 vention in 1793 ; and fixed at the 22d September, 1792, the 
 day of the foundation of the French Republic. It was 
 abolished by Napoleon, and the Christian era restored, in 
 1806. 
 
 REX SACRO'RUM. In Roman History, a priest ap- 
 pointed after the expulsion of Tarquii. <: superintend cer- 
 tain holy rites which had always been performed by the 
 king in person. {Lie. ii., 2.) 
 
 RHABDOLO'GIA. (Gr. p,i(3loc, a rod, and Aoyoc, a de- 
 scription.) The name given by Napier to a method of per 
 forming multiplication and division by means of a set ol 
 figured rods or scales. Sec Napier's Rods. 
 
 RHA'BDOMANCY. (Gr. fafJSot, and whmta, pro/ihecy.) 
 Properly, divination by a rod or wand. Some persons have 
 been believed to be endowed by nature with a peculiar 
 sense or perception, by which they are enabled to discover 
 things hid in the earth, especially metals and water. But 
 a more prevalent opinion has been, that the discovery of 
 these substances might be effected by means of a divining 
 rod. The divining rod is a brancli of a tree, generally 
 hazel, forked at the end, and held in a particular way, by 
 the two ends, in the hands of the adept; and is supposed 
 to indicate the position of the substance sought by bending 
 towards it with a slow rotatory motion, the adept, accord 
 ing to modern practice, being placed in contact with some 
 metallic or other magnetic substance. The art is said tr 
 be occasionally practised in the south of France and 1 taly, 
 under the names of metalloscopy, hydroscopy. fcc. Cam 
 petti, an Italian, in the beginning of the present century, 
 excited much attention by his professed powers of rhab 
 domancy. 
 
 RHAMNA'CE^R. (Ithamnus, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of arborescent or shrubby Exogens, inhabit- 
 ing all parts of the world excepting the arctic region* 
 The berries of various species of Rhamnus are violent pur- 
 gatives ; while the fruit of some, as the jujube, is harmless 
 and eatable. Rhamnus trangu/a yields the best Kind ot 
 charcoal lor gunpowder. From the berries of R. inn; ton- 
 us and others a yellow dye is obtained, but, in general, the 
 species are neither useful nor ornamental. They are all 
 small-flowered pnlvpeta lous or apetalous plants, with four 
 or five stamens alternating with the lobes of the calvx. 
 
RHAMPHASTOS. 
 
 RHAMPHA'STOS. (Gr. fiau+os, a br.ak.) The name 
 
 genus of Scansorial birds [Toucans) in the system of 
 
 r, distinguished by an enormous beak, nearly as 
 
 thick and as long as the body in some species. The com- 
 
 .lion by which this disproportionate beak is rendered 
 
 igeable and portable is an extremely light and cellular 
 
 structure internally. It is arcuated near the extremity, 
 
 and in old toucans is irregularly indented along the edge*. 
 
 The toucans are distinguished from the hornbills by the 
 
 ■rial modification of their feet, in which two la 
 bind are opposed to two in front; and by their long, nar- 
 row, and ciliated tongue. They are confined to the hot 
 climates of America, where they live in small Hocks, feed- 
 ing on fruit, insects, and the eggs and callow offspring of 
 Other birds. 
 
 RHAPO WTICI.V. A substance obtained from the 
 Rheum rh'i/tuntic.um in the form of yellow scales ; insolu- 
 ble in cold water and in ether, and tasteless and inodor- 
 It dissolves in 24 parts of boiling water, and in 2 of 
 ohol. 
 dHA'PSODIST. (Gr. p<KTW, I aew or siring- together ; 
 i fiiuir.) A class ot persons who are said to have 
 nourished in the age of Homer, whose occupation it was 
 01 commit to memory poems, which they re- 
 cited for the amusement of their auditors. It has i>eon 
 
 supposed that by means of persons of this class the poems 
 of Homer were preserved till the invention of writing se- 
 ruri il them more permanently, and among them is divided 
 the honour of the authorship of the Iliad and 04f»t4f by 
 these \\ ho deny the individuality of Homer. Hut the feet 
 of the existence of such a class with higher pretensions 
 
 than to the faculty of making short extemporaneous offa- 
 ls highly doubtful, as it re^ts mainly on the assumed 
 feci that the art of writing was unknown in Ionia in the 
 Homeric age. 
 
 RHEA. iC.r. (jcio, I .AW.', In Classical Mythology, 
 
 daughter of Cceius and Terra, wife of Saturn, and mother 
 
 res, .luno, Pluto, ti.r. She is frequently con- 
 
 ded with Ops, Terra, and Cybele. For the particulars 
 
 of her history, see S i 
 
 Rhea. The name of a genus of Btruthious birds, of 
 which the three-toed ostriches of South America are the 
 re pre* 
 RHE'IN. An inodorous bitterish substance of a yellow 
 ir, obtained by gently heating powdered rhubarb with 
 Id of the sp. gr. 1*37, evaporating to the 
 ■ nee of syrup, and diluting with cold water. 
 RHE'TORIC. (Gr. firjropiKn. sc. tc\vh, the, rhetorical 
 art ; from pt^riop. art orator.) In the widest sense in which 
 the word is occasionally used by modern writers, the art 
 of prose Composition generally. In the most restricted 
 and most etymological sense, the art of oratory, or of ad- 
 log public assemblies. In an intermediate sense, in 
 which, perhaps, it is most commonly employed, the art of 
 argumentative composition. This comes nearest to the 
 lication which Aristotle, the earliest extant writer of 
 a formal treatise on rhetoric, attached to the title of his 
 I t, when he defined it to be the art of discovering 
 and employing topics of persuasion. He arranged these 
 topics or means of persuasion under three beads. First, 
 those which arise from the character of the orator him- 
 self; i. e„ the character in which, by what must be term- 
 ed rhetorical artifice, he places himself before his hearers. 
 
 It is obvious that a speaker addressing an assembly, u ho 
 is known by them to be actuated by honest motives, and 
 to understand the subject on which he speaks, advances 
 by tin; mere possession of these adventitious attributes a 
 long way towards the end and aim of or 'lory, viz., per- 
 il. Hence it is that Aristotle presents, as one of the 
 chief branches of rhetoric, the art liy which the speaker 
 jar writer, as it were, invests himself with these attributes, 
 and thus ensures a more favourable reception to his argu- 
 ment. The art of moving the passions by the use of such 
 arguments and representations as are proper to excite each, 
 belongs also, in Aristotle's arrangement, to this division of 
 
 abject. In his second division he treats of argument 
 itself, considered with respect to its cogency or inconclu- 
 
 tess in point of form ; and hence logic, in this point of 
 view, becomes ancillary to, or a subdivision of, rhetoric. 
 The third division of the subject exhibits the modes of 
 
 I ision arising from style, arrangement, delivery, and 
 action ; and to this third branch writers, who have treated 
 of rhetoric in its more limited sense, have usually confin- 
 ed themselves. 
 As the work of Aristotle is the first, so it is the only 
 a ttic treatise on rhetoric which the ancients have 
 left us, among whom the art was much more diligently 
 cultivated than among the moderns. Public speaking was 
 of infinitely greater importance in the classical common- 
 wealths than in any modern state; even in our own, 
 where most sedulously studied and most valued, it is but 
 a subsidiary accomplishment. The true momentum of 
 decision, that which convinces or dissuades, lies in the 
 
 RBBKANTHBLE. 
 
 pen of the writer, rather than the voice of the orator ; and 
 while in the Grecian republics assemblies were 
 swayed by oratory to determine on a particular 
 action, its principal use now appears to be to arraign, to 
 vindicate, or to explain, the actions of individuals. French 
 oratory, from the nature of its subject, is and alv, 
 confined within narrow limits. Probably pulp',' 
 in modern European society, answers most nearly to the 
 classical notion of rhetoric; and, had it ever been sub- 
 jected to systematic rules, would have been found most 
 nearly to conform to those which the ancl 
 US. Among the Romans, oratory did not begin : 
 tivated as a science until just at the period when its polit- 
 ical importance was about to cease. Rhetoric, under the 
 Roman empire, was taught as a regular science : but its 
 practical display was confined to the orators of the forum, 
 among whom the art gradually declined, from the tenden- 
 cy of the crvil law, during the last period of Its 
 ment, to conduct all process by written rather tl 
 method. On the other hand, the rules of rhetoric were 
 applied to the construction of declamations, a species of 
 fictitious argument much in vogue during the decline of 
 Roman literature; and of panegyrical harangues. The 
 study of rhetoric, in this perverted sense of the word. i. c., 
 of declamatory speaking or writing, found peculiar favour 
 in the African and oriental schools of the Roman empire. 
 Some of the early Christian writers, especially TertulUan, 
 afford evident tokens of having acquired the art of compo- 
 sition under such discipline. \, , ELOQUBSCK. 
 
 RHEU'MATISM. (Gr. icvpartcuoc.) A pain! 
 tion of the joints, attended by swelling or stiffness; and 
 also affecting the muscular, tendinous, and til 
 lures. It is occasionally accompanied by f>\er, whin it 
 constitutes acute rheumatism, or rheumatic freer : in which 
 case the joints are much swollen and excessively painful ; 
 the pulse frequent, but seldom bard : the perspiration usu- 
 ally abundant and acid; the tongue extremely foul, and 
 the bowels costive; headache is Beldom complained of, 
 and delirium very rare. In this form of the di 
 translation or metastasis to the heart is not uncommon, 
 The treatment consists in occasional venesection ; in the 
 use of purgatives and sudorific-, and occasionally of tonics, 
 more especially cinchona: calomel and opium are also 
 largely, and often very successfully emplo 
 rheumatism is not in general attended by any very re- 
 markable constitutional symptoms, it occasionally leads 
 to permanent distortion of the joints; affects the 'perios 
 teum, tendons, and ligaments ; and is most common in 
 debilitated habits, when the health has been broken by- 
 previous disease or over exertion of body or mind. 
 Opium, especially in the form of Dover's powder, is gener- 
 ally necessary in this disorder to procure rest. The bow- 
 els should be kept moderately active by warm purees, and 
 tonics and alteratives cautiously administered. A course 
 of sarsaparilla is often extremely serviceable : colchictim 
 has been resorted to, but with most uncertain success. 
 
 RHINO'CEROS. {Gt. pn.anoac; Ktpacahorn.) The 
 name of a genus of Pachydermatous mammals, character 
 ized by one or two horny productions upon the nose. A 
 species of hornbill is also called rhinoceros, on account ot 
 the remarkable recurved horny process which rises from 
 its upper mandible. 
 
 KIII.NSHURGERS. The name of a sect of Christians 
 which sprung up in Holland in the 18th century. They 
 seem to have separated from the church for the mere sake 
 of separation, for they held all its doctrines, but rejected 
 all discipline ; no other profession being required from its 
 members than a belief that Christ is the Messiah, and that 
 the Scriptures are inspired. They allowed of no priests : 
 any member (women alone excepted) might preach and 
 expound in their meetintrs, which were held in, so called, 
 colleges of piety. At one period they had formed eighteen 
 of these in different towns ; but from the large license of 
 the interpretation of Scripture which they enjoyed, several 
 ran into enthusiasm, and having no principle of cohesion 
 they soon fell to pieces, and are now completely extinct. 
 See Society. 
 
 RHIITPTE'RANS, Rhipiptera. (Gr. /W, a fan ; rre- 
 Oiv, a wing.) A name proposed by Latreille to supersede 
 that of Strcpsiptcra, by which Kirby designated a new or 
 der of insects which he had discovered. The new name 
 has nothing to recommend it, since it signifies a character, 
 founded on the presence of pterygoda, common to other 
 orders of insects, as the Lepidopterans. 
 
 RHIZA'NTHEjE. (Gr. pi^a, a root; avOnc, a fiowir.) 
 A class of plants occupying a station between sexual and 
 asexual species, and appearing to be an intermediate form 
 Of organization between Endogens and the lower orders of 
 vegetation. They agree with the former in the presence 
 of sexes, and in their flowers having sometimes a ternary- 
 structure ; but they have scarcely any spiral vessels ; and 
 their seeds appear, as far as they have been examined, to 
 consist of a mass of spores, without a special embryo. In 
 
 1059 
 
RHIZOMA. 
 
 their succulent texture, in their colour, often in their pu- 
 trid odour when decaying, in the sporuliferous seeds, and 
 in their parasitical habits, these plants resemble Fanga- 
 ce<e ; while in their flowers and sexes they accord with 
 Aracece, or similar Endogens. They are in all cases para- 
 sites, and destitute of proper leaves, in lieu of which some 
 of them have scales imbricated over their stems. Not- 
 withstanding their parasitical habits, some are of extraor- 
 dinary size : the flowers of Raffiesia arnoldi are as much 
 as nine feet in circumference. 
 
 RHIZO'MA. In Botany. See Rootstock. 
 
 RHI'ZOSTOMES, Rhizostoma. (Gr. pi^a, and cropa, 
 a mouth.) A genus of Medusa, including those which 
 have the absorbing orifices of their nutrient canals of 
 3mall size, and situated in great numbers on the branches 
 of arms, or peduncles, extending from the centre of the 
 Inferior surface of the disk. 
 
 RHO'DIUM. (Gr. po&ov, a rose ; on account of the rose- 
 red colour of some of its salts, especially of the chloride, 
 when dissolved in water.) A metal discovered in 1703, by 
 Wollaston, associated with palladium in the ore of pla- 
 tinum. It is of a whitish colour, very difficult of fusion, 
 and very hard. Its specific gravity is about 11, and its 
 equivalent about 52. It has been used for the points of 
 metallic pens. 
 
 RHO'MBOID. In Geometry, a quadrilateral figure 
 which has its opposite sides equal. When its angles are 
 right angles, it is called a rectangle. 
 
 RHOMB SPAR. A crystalline magnesian carbonate of 
 time. 
 
 RHO'MBUS. In Geometry, a plane figure bounded by 
 four equal straight lines. When its angles are right an- 
 gles, it becomes a square. 
 
 RHONCUS. (Gr. poyx°(-) A rattling or wheezing 
 sound : the term is chiefly applied to sounds occasioned 
 by certain morbid states of respiration, as indicated by the 
 stethoscope. 
 
 RHU'BARB. The root of the Rheum palmatum, and 
 perhaps some other species, cultivated in China for the 
 supply of the drug market. The varieties of rhubarb 
 known in commerce under the names of Russian, Turkey, 
 and Indian rhubarb, are all derived from one source ; but 
 the select pieces are sold under the name of Russian and 
 Turkey rhubarb, and those of somewhat inferior quality 
 as East Indian. To judge of the quality of rhubarb, it 
 should be cut or broken ; when good it is of a mottled red- 
 dish or brownish red colour ; that which is very pale or 
 very dark coloured, and either so soft as to be spongy, or 
 hard and stony in texture, is bad. Rhubarb is a valuable 
 article of the materia medica, being an aperient, and at 
 the same time a tonic and astringent. The average dose 
 of powdered rhubarb is twenty grains, which after its pur- 
 gative operation leaves a certain astringent effect upon 
 the bowels ; hence its use in diarrhoea : from two to five 
 grains operates as a tonic, and is very useful in some 
 forms of dyspepsia. A mixture of one part of rhubarb 
 with two of powdered sulphate of potash is an excellent 
 aperient for children. It is occasionally given as a tinc- 
 ture or infusion ; but the powder is the best form, cither 
 in a little plain, or peppermint water, or in the form of 
 pill. 
 
 RHUMB. A circle on the earth's surface making a 
 given angle with the meridian of the place, marking the 
 direction of any object through which it passes. The 
 divisions on the compass card are called rhumbs. See 
 Mercator's Chart. 
 
 RHUMB LINE. In Naval Affairs, the track of a ship 
 which cuts all the meridians at the same angle; called 
 also the loxodromic curve. This being the simplest curve, 
 is the route universally pursued; but a ship sailing on this 
 curve never looks direct for her port until it comes in sight. 
 See Loxodromic Curve. 
 
 RHYME. (Gr. fivdfios, measure; or Germ, reim.) In 
 Poetry, the correspondence of sounds in the last words or 
 syllables of verses. The latter is the true rhyme of modern 
 European languages. There are rhymed verses in the 
 Latin classical poets, where the jingle seems intentional, 
 and more distinct examples of it in the fragments of Roman 
 military songs, &c., which have come down to us. But 
 in the earlier period of the decay of the Latin language, 
 when accent was substituted for metre in the rhythmical 
 arrangement of the verse, rhyme made its way into the 
 composition of church hymns, &c. It has been attempted, 
 but with little success, to deduce this innovation from the 
 Goths, and from the Arabians; but the former, like the old 
 Teutonic races, probably used alliteration, but no rhyme in 
 their verses; and the latter could not have influenced 
 European literature until a period long after that in which 
 rhyme first appears. A rhyme in which the final syllables 
 only agree (strain, complain), is called a male rhyme; one 
 in which the two final syllables of each verse agree, the 
 last being short (motion, ocean), female ; and the latter is 
 1060 
 
 RIDER. 
 
 sometimes extended in Italian poetry to three sylltil •■ 
 (femorc, immemore), when the verse is called sdructv >'■ 
 In English such a licence is hardly permissible, except i- 
 burlesque poetry (see Uudibras and Don Juan for in 
 stances). By the strict rules of French prosody, the ma! 
 and female species of rhymes must be alternately use/ 
 however intricate the disposition of the verse maybe; at 
 though the last short syllable is generally mute, or verv 
 slightly sounded. Rhymes which extend not only beyond 
 the three last syllables, but through the whole structure of 
 the lines, are used in Arabian and Persian poetry. Rhymes 
 in which the consonants of the last syllable in each verse 
 are identical (dress, address) are vicious in English, but 
 rather admired in French poetry. One more singularity of 
 English poetry deserves notice: while, from the irregularity 
 of our spelling, many syllables rhyme with each other, al- 
 though widely dissimilar in orthography (woo, pursue), 
 there are, on the other hand, rhymes which speak to the 
 eye, and not to the ear; i.e., in which the orthography of 
 the rhyming syllables is the same, but the pronunciation 
 different; as, wind, find; gone, alone. In the following 
 triplet of Dryden, 
 
 'Tis nothing yet; then poor and naked come, 
 
 Thy father will receive his unthrift home, 
 
 And thy hlessed Saviour's hlood discharge the mighty sum, 
 
 it will be seen that the first and third lines rhyme in a 
 legitimate manner, although the last syllables are differently 
 spelt; while the first and second rhyme to the eye only, 
 and not to the ear. This is a licence only rendered ad- 
 missible by precedent. 
 
 RHYNCHOPHORES, Rhyncophora. (Gr. puyxoc, a beak, 
 and (pcpti), I carry.) The name of a family of Coleopterous 
 insects, comprehending those which have the head pro 
 longed in the form of a snout or proboscis. 
 
 RHYTHM. (Gr. pvdftos-) The consonance of measure 
 and time in poetry, prose composition, and music, and by 
 analogy in dancing. Each verse or eacli period may be 
 considered as a whole, within which the poetical rhythm 
 is regular and exact, within certain limited variations, the 
 rhetorical less perfect, and the pleasure derived from it 
 rather matter of taste and experience than of rule. Those 
 parts which receive the ictus or stress of the rhythm are 
 termed arsis (elevation), the remainder form the thesis 
 (depression) ; the former is frequently denoted to the eye 
 by the accent marked ', when in a foreign or unknown 
 word we wish to direct the voice in pronunciation to em 
 ploy the correct emphasis. The smallest rhythmical divi 
 sion is the foot, by which every union of arsis and thesis is 
 understood. A short syllable is an original unit of time ; a 
 long syllable contains two units. The number of feet enu- 
 merated In classical writers on metre amount to twenty- 
 eight, including all the varieties which may be formed out 
 of two, three, or four syllables, long and short, and varying 
 from two to eight units of time. Sec Foot, Metre. 
 
 RIAL. A gold coin current in the reigns of Henry VI 
 and Elizabeth : under the former its value was 10*., under 
 the latter 15s. 
 
 RIBS. In Architecture, curviform timbers to which, in 
 an arched or coved plaster ceiling, the laths are nailed. 
 
 Ribs. A term for the timbers of a ship which spring 
 from the keel, as the ribs of an animal from the back 
 bone. 
 
 Ribs. In Anatomy, the lateral appendages of a vertebra, 
 especially when devsloped so as to encompass the trunk 
 In the human subject there are twelve ribs. 
 
 RICE. See Oryza. 
 
 RICE PAPER. This substance is said to be a mem 
 brane of the Artocarpus incisa, or bread-fruit tree. (Set 
 Artocarpej:.) It is brought from China in small pieces, 
 dyed of various colours, and is used as a material for paint-, 
 ing upon, and for the manufacture of several fancy and 
 ornamental articles. It is sometimes erroneously stated to 
 be prepared from rice. (See Brewster, Edinb. Journ. of 
 Science, vol. ii.) 
 
 RICI'NIC ACID. One of the products obtained by dis 
 tilling castor oil at a high temperature. 
 
 RICKETS. See Rachitis. 
 
 RICOCHE'T FIRING, in Gunnery, is a mode of firing 
 with small charges from pieces of ordnance elevated at 
 small angles, as from 3° to 6°. It is a very destructive 
 method; as the rebound causes the shot or shell to pass 
 along a great space almost upon the ground, destroying all 
 that it meets with in its way. The word signifies, literally, 
 the sort of motion which is familiarly called ducks-and- 
 drakes, as applied to a flat stone thrown on the suitacc of 
 the water under a very small angle. 
 
 RIDEAU. In Fortification, a small elevation of earth 
 extending itself lengthwise on a plain, serving to cover a 
 camp from the approach of the enemy, or to give other ad- 
 vantage to a past. 
 
 RI'DER. A term used to signify any addition>to mami 
 
RIDGE. 
 
 scripts or other documents, inserted after their Comple- 
 tion. 
 
 RIDGE. In Architecture, the upper horizontal timber in 
 a roof, against which the rafters pitch. 
 
 HIDING. Tiie three divisions of the county of York 
 are so termed, by a corruption of the Saxon word trithing 
 or trilling (third part). 
 
 RIDo'tTO. (ltal.) A favourite Italian public enter- 
 tainment, coisibting of music and dancing; held generally 
 on tUt eves 
 
 Rl'FLE GUNS. Muskets or pieces of ordnance, whose 
 barrels, instead of being a clear cylinder inside, are fur- 
 rowed with spiral channels. The object is to give the 
 ball a rotatory motion about an axis, in consequence of 
 which it preserves its direction with much greater cer- 
 tainly than when fired from the common clear barrel. See 
 
 A body of men armed with rifles are called riflemen; 
 
 but the term is most frequently applied to the military 
 
 iled the rifle brigade, and to the GOlh regiment 0? 
 
 the British army, which is dressed in green and armed with 
 
 RIG. The peculiar manner of fitting the masts and 
 rigglnfl to the hull of any vessel; thus, schooner rig, ship 
 imply the masts and sails of these vessels without 
 regard to toe hull. 
 
 IH'GGING. The system of cordage by which the masts 
 
 are supported, and the sails extended or taken in. The 
 
 hence divided into standing rigging and running 
 
 The standing rigging consists of the pendants, 
 
 short strong ropes first put over the lower mast heads, and 
 
 mollies tor hooking tackles to; the shrouds, 
 
 id backstays. The lower rigging implies that of 
 
 t masts; the topmast rigging that of the topmast, 
 
 i. The M/.e, strength, number of ropes, &c. of the 
 
 rigging, are all matters determined by experience. A com- 
 
 cription of rigging is to be found in the well-known 
 
 work of Darcy L 
 
 RI'GGING LOFT. The room or rooms iu which the 
 
 i- picpared. 
 BIGHT. In Geometry, a term sometimes used synony- 
 mously with straight, as right line; but generally as oppo- 
 sed to oblique. Thus, a right angle, the angle formed by 
 jlit lines perpendicular to each other, or an angle 
 
 Of 90°; right rum-, cijlindir, prism, pyranwi, &r., figures 
 whose sides are perpendicular to the plane of the base. 
 
 Right-angled Triangle. A triangle having one right 
 angle. 
 
 J :i;r /it- angled Triangle. In Numbers. A favourite spec- 
 ulation of the Platonic school of mathematicians was to 
 find rational numbers which should designate the sides 
 of a right-angled triangle. Pythagoras gave the formula; 
 
 7,^-1 . n2+l 
 
 n, , and ■ 
 
 2 2 
 
 nZ— 1, and n* + 1, where n is either odd or even. Various 
 other forms have been given by subsequent writers. The 
 determination of such sets of formulae forms a branch of 
 the DiophanUne Analysis. 
 
 RIGHT SPHERE. In Geography, the position of the 
 ■pbere when the equator cuts the horizon at right angles. 
 
 RIGHT ASCENSION, in Astronomy, is the angle at the 
 pole of the equator formed by two great circles, one of 
 which passes through the first point of Aries, and the other 
 through a celestial body, and is consequently measured by 
 the arc of the equator intercepted between those circles. 
 llight ascension and declination are the two co-ordinates to 
 which the positions of celestial objects are referred. 
 
 RIGHT DIVINE. See Divine Right. 
 
 RIGHT OF PRO'PERTY. (Lat. jus proprietatis ; I'r. 
 droit de propriete.) In Political Eaonnmy, the right which 
 states, bodies of individuals, and individuals have to the 
 exclusive use and enjoyment of such lands, natural powers, 
 and products as have been appropriated or set apart for any 
 peculiar purpose. 
 
 Origin of this Right. — It would occupy the reader's 
 time to no good purpose were we to state the different 
 theories that have been advanced by jurists and writers 
 on public law, to account for the origin of this right.* This, 
 Indeed, appears to us to be sufficiently obvious. All the 
 rude products furnished by nature have to be appropriated ; 
 and not one in a thousand, perhaps, of these products is, 
 aural state, capable either of supplying our wants 
 or administering to our comforts. Hence the necessity not 
 only of applying labour in the appropriation of natural 
 products, but In fashioning and preparing them so as to 
 be useful ; and hence, also, the origin of the right of pro- 
 I>ertv. 
 
 If a number of individuals be set down together on the 
 on unoccupied and unappropriated island, abound- 
 
 ■ , where n H odd. Plato gave 2 n, 
 
 nitrd acd curious reader may consult Pufiendorff, lib. iv.. 
 
 RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 
 
 ing with natural products, such as game, trees laden wiln 
 fruit, &c, each will have quite as good a right as another 
 to take the game or the fruit. But those who do so, or who 
 have, through their skill and industry, appropriated a por- 
 tion of the common stock, will obviously be entitled to the 
 exclusive use of such portion. We shall not undertake to 
 decide whether there be or be not a principle inherent in 
 man that at once suggests to every individual that it is his 
 duty not to interfere with what has been produced or appro- 
 priated by the labour of others ; it is sufficient for us to 
 know that the briefest experience would point out to every 
 one the necessity of respecting this principle. If A climb 
 a tree and bring down fruit, which, as soon as he comes to 
 the ground, is taken from him by others, he will not again 
 engage in any similar undertaking till he be well assured 
 that he shall be permitted exclusively to profit by what has 
 been obtained through his sole exertions; nor will others 
 engage in any such undertaking without a Blmll 
 ranee. No doubt, therefore, the right of property has had a 
 very remote origin. The necessity for its establishment 
 is so very obvious and urgent, that it -must have been all 
 but coeval with the formation of societies. All have been 
 impressed with the reasonableness of the maxim which 
 teaches that products acquired by the labour of a man's 
 body, and the work of his hands, should be considered as 
 exclusively his own. Even among the rudest savages the 
 principle of meum and tuum is recognised; the bows and 
 arrows of the huntsman, and the game he has killed, being 
 regarded by him as his own. and his right to their exclusive 
 possession being respected by his fellows. The right of 
 property, like other rights, is, no doubt, perfected only by 
 degrees, and is necessarily limited and adapted to the statt 
 of society at the time. Thus, among hunters, ihe fcra 
 naturas on which they subsist, not being bred under thi 
 care or inspection of individuals, are, so long as they rut 
 wild in the forest, the common property of the tribe, an* 
 only become the property of individuals after they havr 
 been appropriated or caught by their labour or Ingenuity. 
 As society advances, the right of property expands. The 
 modern Tartars, like the ancient Scythians, estimate theii 
 wealth by the number of their cattle. Their right to the 
 animals which they have domesticated and reared is deem- 
 ed sacred and inviolable ; but the pasture grounds belong, 
 like the hunting-grounds of the Indians, to the whole so- 
 ciety ; and as the flocks are driven from one place to an- 
 other, the grounds may be successively depastured by the 
 cattle of every different individual. The moment, how- 
 ever, that men began to renounce the pastoral for the agri- 
 cultural mode of life, a right of property in land began to 
 be established. The soil cannot lie cultivated, its fertility 
 cannot be increased, nor can it be made to produce those 
 crops which yield the largest supplies of food and other ne- 
 cessary accommodations, without continuous labour, and 
 persevering attention. 
 
 Pater ip« Colcndi 
 Haud facilem esse viam voluit. 
 
 Hence the origin of property in land. Nothing, it is plain, 
 could ever tempt any one to engage in a laborious employ- 
 ment; he would neither domesticate wild animals, nor 
 clear and cultivate the ground, if, after months and years 
 of toil, when his flocks had become numerous, and his har- 
 vests were ripening for the sickle, a stranger were allowed 
 to rob him of the produce of his industry. The utility, or 
 rather necessity, of enacting some general regulations, that 
 should secure to every individual the peaceable enjoyment 
 of the produce he had raised, and of the ground he had 
 cultivated and improved, is, indeed, so very obvious, that it 
 suggested itself to the first legislators. The author of the 
 book of Job places those who remove their neighbours' 
 landmarks at the head of his list of wicked men ; and the 
 early Greek and Roman legislators placed these marks 
 under the especial protection of the god Terminus^ and 
 made their removal a capital offence. (Goguet, del' Ori- 
 gins des Loix, lib. i., art. 2.) Society may, in fact, be said 
 to have grown out of the institution of a right of property 
 in land. " Bad not," says Mr. Justice Blackstone, " a sepa- 
 rate property in lands, as well as moveables, been vested in 
 some individuals, the world must have continued a forest, 
 and men been mere animals of prey. Whereas now, so 
 graciously has Providence interwoven our duty and our 
 happiness together, the result of the institution of property 
 has been the ennobling of the human species, by giving it 
 opportunities of improving its rational faculties, as well as 
 exerting its natural. Necessity begat property ; and in order 
 to ensure that property recourse was had to civil society, 
 which brought along with it a long train of inseparable 
 concomitants-states, government, laws punishments and 
 the public exercise of religious duties. Thus connected to- 
 gether, it was found that a part only of society was suffi- 
 cient to provide, bv their manual labour, for the necessary 
 subsistence of all ; and leisure was given to others to culti 
 
 loot 
 
RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 
 
 rate the human mind, to invent useful arts, and to lay the 
 foundation oi society." [Comment., hook ii., cap. 1.) 
 
 It is obvious, from what has now been slated, that the 
 law of the land is not, as Dr. Paley has affirmed, the real 
 foundation of the right of property. It has a much more 
 remote and more solid foundation. It grows out of the cir- 
 cumstances under which man is placed; and could not he 
 overthrown or set aside without depopulating the earth, 
 and throwing mankind back into primaval barbarism. The 
 obvious utility of securing to each individual the peaceable 
 enjoyment of the land. he has enclosed and cultivated, and 
 of the produce raised or acquired by his labour, has un- 
 doubtedly formed the irresistible reason that has induced 
 every people to make the right of property a part of the 
 law of the hind, and to guard it by the strongest sanctions. 
 The security of property is, in truth, the principal founda- 
 tion on which society rests. Until property had been pub- 
 licly guaranteed, men must have looked on each other as 
 enemies rather than as friends. The idle and improvident 
 are always desirous of seizing on the earnings of the la- 
 borious and frugal;- and if they were permitted to prosecute 
 their attacks, they would, by generating a feeling of inse- 
 curity, effectually check both industry and accumulation, and 
 sink all classes to the s ime level of hopeless misery as them- 
 selves. The security of property is, if possible, still more 
 necessary to accumulation than production. No man ever 
 denies himself an immediate gratification, when it is within 
 liis power, unless he thinks that, by doing SO, his present 
 forbearance will obtain for him a greater accession of com- 
 lorts and enjoyments, or that it will obviate some probable 
 and considerable evil at a future period. Where the right 
 of property is vigilantly protected, an industrious man who 
 gains a< much by one day's labour as is sufficient to main- 
 tain him two, is not idle the second day, but accumulates 
 tiie surplus produce above his wants as a capital ; the In- 
 consequence and enjoyments which the possession 
 of capital brings along with it being, in the great majority 
 amiu than sufficient to counterbalance the desire 
 of immediate gratification. But, wherever property is inse- 
 cure, we look in vain for the operation of the principle of 
 accumulation. "It is plainly better for us," is then the In- 
 variable language of the people, "to enjoy while it is in our 
 power, than to accumulate property which we shall not be 
 permitted to use, and which will expose us to the depreda- 
 tions of those who exist only by the plunder of their more 
 Industrious neighbours." 
 The security of property is violated not merely when a 
 deprived of the power of peaceably enjoying the 
 fruits of his industry; it is also violated, and perhaps in a 
 still more unjustifiable manner, when he is prevented from 
 using the [lowers with which nature has endowed him in 
 any way, not injurious to others, he may consider most for 
 iii- own advantage. Of all the species of property which a 
 man can possess, the faculties of his mind and powers of 
 his body are most particularly his own. He should, there- 
 fore, he permitted to enjoy, that is, to use or exert, these 
 powers at his discretion. And hence the right of property 
 is as much infringed upon when a man is interdicted from 
 engaging in a particular branch of business, as it would be 
 were he unjustly deprived of the produce he had raised. 
 Every monopoly which gives to a few individuals the ex- 
 clusive power of carrying on certain branches of industry is 
 thus, in fact, established in direct violation of the property 
 of every one else. It prevents them from using their na- 
 tural capacities, or powers, in the manner they may con- 
 sider best; and as every man who is not a slave is justly 
 held to be the best, and, indeed, only judge, of what is ad- 
 vantageous for himself, the principles of natural law and 
 the right of property are boih subverted by his exclusion 
 from any employment. In like manner, the right of pro- 
 perty is violated when regulations are made to force indi- 
 viduals to employ themselves or their capital in a particular 
 way. The property of a landlord is violated if he be com- 
 pelled to adopt any system of cultivation, even supposing it 
 were really preferable to that which he was previously fol- 
 lowing. The property of the capitalist is violated when he 
 is obliged to accept a lower interest for his stock than he 
 might have obtained ; and the property of the labourer is 
 violated whenever he is obliged to engage in any particular 
 occupation. It follows, too, that every restraint on the 
 freedom of commerce is an infringement of the right of pro- 
 perty. If I, the lawful owner of any given article, am pre- 
 vented from exchanging for any other I may be desirous to 
 obtain, the right of property is as much invaded as if I were 
 debarred from making any direct use of the article. Had 
 this circumstance been adverted to, it is probable the re- 
 strictive system would not have made quite so much pro- 
 gress as it has done. 
 
 Effects of the Insecurity of Proper!)/. — The finest soil, 
 
 the finest climate, and the finest intellectual powers, can 
 
 00 people from becoming barbarous, poor, and mis- 
 
 r they have the misfortune to be subjected to a 
 
 1089 
 
 government which does not respect and support tne ngnt or 
 property. All those vast and fruitful countries, comprising 
 the fairest portion of the earth, that stretch from the Black 
 Sea to the Persian Gulf, and from the western shores of 
 Morocco to the confines of China, once the seat of the most 
 renowned empires, of arts and civilization, are now, through 
 the want of security and freedom, become the most deplor- 
 able spectacles of extreme misery. "No care," says Mr. 
 Kinneir, speaking of some of the most fertile provinces of 
 Asia Minor, " is taken to improve the land ; nor can this be 
 matter of surprise, when we reflect that the farmer is liable 
 to be turned out at a moment's warning, and is certain of 
 being taxed, or rather plundered, in exact proportion to the 
 yearly produce of his farm. It is not, indeed, uncommon, 
 should there be a prospect of a plentiful harvest, for the 
 crops upon the grounds to be seized by the pacha, at a low 
 valuation, and then put up to the highest bidder !" (Journey 
 in Asia Minor, &rc. p. 53.) The same intelligent traveller 
 observes, in speaking of sJyrin, •• that the Grand & 
 the lord of the soil, and the miri or capitation tax, is regu- 
 larly paid into the public treasury. The pachas derive 
 their revenues from levying arbitrary contributions in 
 money and in kind upon the merchants, citizens, villagers, 
 and cultivators of the land. This unjust and uncertain 
 mode of taxation is rendered still more afflicting by the man- 
 ner of collecting it. The troops and followers of the pacha, 
 a licensed banditti, disperse themselves over the country ami 
 villages, where they live at free quarters, and fur everj 
 piastre that is received by their master at least three have 
 been exacted from the unfortunate proprietor. Under 
 such a system, neither agriculture, commerce, arms, arts, 
 nor sciences, can ever make the least progress; and it is 
 deeply to be lamented that no successful eflort has hitherto 
 been made to wrest so noble a country from those who are 
 so unworthy to possess it." (Ibid. p. 174.) 
 
 Had it been possible for arbitrary power to profit by the 
 lessons of experience, it must long since have perceived 
 that no! only tin- wealth of its subjects, but its own, would 
 be most effectually increased by maintaining the security of 
 property. Were the governments of Turkey nnd Persia to 
 establish a vigilant system of police, to secure to each indi 
 vidua! the unrestrained power of disposing of the fruits of 
 his labour, and to substitute a regular plan of taxation in 
 the room of the present odious system of extortion am! 
 tyranny, industry would gradually revive ; capital and pop 
 ulation would he augmented ; and a moderate land-tax, or 
 reasonable duties on a few articles in general demand, 
 would bring a much larger sum into Ihe coflers of the 
 treasury than all that is now obtained by force and violence, 
 'fhe stated public burdens laid on the Turks, Persians, Sec, 
 are light compared with those imposed on the English, 
 Dutch, and French. But the latter know that when they 
 have paid the taxes due to government they will be permit- 
 ted peaceably to enjoy or to accumulate the residue of their 
 wealth; whereas the subjects of eastern despotisms have, 
 generally speaking, no security, that the moment after they 
 have paid their stated contributions, the pacha, 0) 
 his satellites, may not strip them of every additional far- 
 thing they possess ! Security is the foundation, the principal 
 element, in every well-digested system of finance. When 
 maintained inviolate, it enables a country to support, with- 
 out much difficulty, a very heavy load of taxes; but where 
 there is no security, where property is a prey to rapine and 
 spoliation, to the attacks of the needy, the powerful, and 
 the profligate, the smallest burdens are justly regarded as 
 oppressive, and uniformly exceed the means of the im- 
 poverished and dispirited inhabitants. 
 
 Power of bequeathing Property. — To perfect the right of 
 property, it is necessary not only that an individual should 
 have the power freely to dispose of it during his lifetime, 
 but also that he slioflld have power to bequeath it to 
 others in the event of his death. Nihil enim tarn con- 
 veniens est naturali tequitate, say the Roman jurists; quant 
 roltintatan Domini, volcntis rem suam in alium transfcrrc, 
 ratamhaberi. (Instit., lib. ii., tit. i., s. 40.) Itisev: 
 the being enabled to bestow our property on those who 
 occupy the chief place in our aftections mui I 
 ful effect in stimulating industry. When a man is nssured 
 that he is not labouring for strangers, that the fruit of his 
 industry will not fall into the hands of an unknown succes- 
 sor, but will descend lo his children or his friends, he finds, 
 as it were, his existence indefinitely extended, and r 
 with unimpaired enercv to exert himself for the benefit of 
 those who are to perpetuate his family and name, am! 
 whose welfare, perhaps, is as dear to him as his own. The 
 power of bequeathing property connects the future with 
 the present; without it, no undertaking would be entered 
 upon which did not promise an adequate retuin during the 
 lifetime of the projector. But in civilized soclei 
 
 plans of the capitalist are not circumscribed by the brief 
 duration of human life. He plants forests by which he 
 can never expect to be enriched ; he raises edific 
 
RIGHT OF PROPERTY. 
 
 and intended to outlive many generations; and executes 
 Innumerable Improvements, of which posterity alone can 
 reap tlie benefit. And lie does all this because he is per- 
 mitted to name his successors; to transmit hia property and 
 with whom lie is connected by the ties of 
 kindred, affection, or gratitude, and in whose welfare he 
 deep interest. 
 
 Numerous difficult and important questions have, how- 
 ever, to be decided in framing regulations as to the be- 
 queathing of property by will ; and as our purpose at present 
 in point out the principle on which the power is 
 conceded, we shall defer the notice of the conditions which 
 should limit its exercise to the article Succession, Law or. 
 
 Property in liild .iuimals. — It is clear from what has 
 been previously stated, and from the nature of the thing, 
 that nothing can lie made property unless it he susceptible 
 Bf appropriation ; and, on this ground, it has sometimes 
 - Cted to the game laws, that Ih-.v have made a pro- 
 perty of that which, being Incapahleot appropriation, should 
 belong to the community, or to the captors. In support of 
 
 . of tiM matter the rule of the Roman law has been 
 appealed to. where it is laid down — Fcru) ujitur brstiu, it 
 volucres, el jiisccs, (t omnia animalia ijiur mart, ruin. i 1 ti rra 
 nnscunlur, simul oti/uc ab aliquo cajita fturint, jw 
 
 '/••tint ; quod enim antr nulling ttt, id 
 
 iiaturnli ratione uccupntiti conctditur. (Instil., lil). ii., lit. i.. 
 
 Bill it is distinctly laid down in the same article 
 
 we have borrowed this paragraph, that the propri- 
 
 ite has full power io prohibit ai . 
 
 . U]xni it to kill wild animals. Without this proviso, 
 
 luld not, in fact, lie any such tiling as a real property 
 
 in land; and this is, in truth, all that is meant When it is 
 
 said that game is property. A partridge or hare la mine .0 
 
 i remains on my estate; hut the moment it trans- 
 
 i to the estate or another, it becomes the property 
 
 of the owner of such estate. Poachers are punished, not 
 they have killed wild animals, but partly and prin- 
 cipally because in doing so they invade the right of property 
 by killing it without leave on lands belonging to other par- 
 i blch they had no right to enter, and partly because 
 they have not paid the tax demanded by government from 
 all who kill game. 
 
 oiettmes Indispensable for the interests of society 
 to appropriate the whole' or a portion of the Landed property 
 more individuals to some public purpose, as the 
 formation of a road, a canal, &c. But property should 
 wantonly taken for such purposes, nor lill the ad- 
 vantages to be obtained by its cession have been fully estab- 
 lished before some competent tribunal ; and when this has 
 
 le, full compensation should in every case he given 
 to those who are thus called upon to give up their properly 
 for the promotion of the public hue 
 
 e of a Community of floods. — Those 
 schemes of policy that have been founded or projected 
 either upon the the principle of communion of goods, or 
 of an equal partition of the land among the differ) nl fami- 
 inging to the society, are bottomed on the most arro- 
 ws, and would, if they could be acted upon, be an 
 bar to every Improvement. Those who have ad- 
 -i hemes, struck with the evils arising from 
 the violations of private properly to which the ill-regulated 
 cupidity of some and the wretchedness of others are per- 
 petually gi\ in» birth, seem to have thought that the crimes 
 and disorders that were thus occasioned might be advanta- 
 geously and completely got rid of by abolishing the right of 
 property, and Obliging men to labour in common, and giving 
 each individual an equal share of the produce raised by the 
 joint labour of all. They imagined that they w ould, In this 
 
 idiate that selfishness which was so fruitful a source 
 
 of mischief ; that as no one could be either richer or poorer 
 than his neighbour, no one would be the object of envy or 
 attack ; and that the principal sources of discord and crime 
 being thus ihied up, men would henceforth live together 
 like brothers and be anxious only to promote each other's 
 welfare. But these expectations are wholly inconsistent 
 vvitli the nature of man, and cannot, therefore, be realized. 
 
 • as well attempt to eradicate the feelings of hun- 
 ger and of thirst, as id' self interest ; and if we could eradi- 
 cate il, we should eradicate the principle which impels man 
 to labour, which prompts him to contrive, invent, and amass. 
 There Is plainly nothing hlameable in, our preference of our- 
 selves io others. The desire of aggrandizement becomes 
 injurious only when it prompts individuals to endeavour to 
 advance their own interests by acting unjustly by their fel- 
 low-men ; for, otherwise, it is the source of all that is most 
 advantageous to society. And it is mainly for the purpose 
 nf obviating this abuse, and of protecting every one in the 
 enjoyment of his property, that governments have been in- 
 stituted. Hanc enim ob eautam, says Cicero; m 
 
 tiiur. respublica civitatesque coiistituta; sunt. JVara 
 etti ilur.p natural contrregabantur homines, tamen apt custo- 
 dittrcrum euarum urbiumprasidia quarcbant. 
 
 RIGIDITY. 
 
 It is idle, therefore, to think that the feelings of self-in- 
 terest can ever be eradicated from the human breast. All 
 that the adoption of the system of those who propose to 
 i -stahli.-h a communion of labour and of goods could do, 
 would be to give the principle of selfishness a different di- 
 rection from what it takes when left to itself; Io lender it 
 a source of idleness and poverty, instead of labour and 
 wealth. Suppose you have a community of a thousand in- 
 dividuals who live and labour in common ; in this, as in ali 
 similar cases, it would be obvious lo every Individual that 
 if, on the one hand, he made any unusual exertions, ether 
 of body or mind, he would reap only the thousandth part of 
 the advantages derivable from them; while, on ihe other 
 hand, it must be equally obvious, that if lie contrive to 
 avoid performing his due share of wink, or obtain more 
 than his fair proportion of its produce, he will he the sol* 
 gainer. Under such circumstances, it is clear not only that 
 society could make no farther progress, hut that it" must 
 gradually, and not very slowly, retrograde. The principle 
 of sell-interest would not be annihilated ; on the contrary, 
 it would i ■ ever ; but inasmuch as no one could 
 
 henceforth expect to advance himself by industry, ingenui- 
 ty, or frugality, a regard for his own interest won; 
 him to follow an opposite course, and would infallibly 
 prompt him to labour as little and to consume as much as 
 ■ Us produced bj such a system would besoin- 
 tolerable that it could not be continued. But if ii i 
 
 should, instead of the industry, invention, and wealth pro- 
 minent of private property, and the 
 eonsequent efforts of Individuals to advance themselves in 
 
 trie scale Of Society, have universal idleness, indifference, 
 
 nost abjeel misery. We should purchti 
 
 emplion from those crimes and disorders incident to an ad- 
 vanced Stage Of society, and which the adoption of good 
 laws and a vigilant System of police go far to repress, by 
 
 the annihilation of everything that raises civilized man 
 above ibe condition of the savage, and by subjecting all 
 : universal poverty. 
 
 Jnconvenunces of Jigrarian Jmics. — The attempt to found 
 a society upon I D , w, or U|kmi the principle of 
 
 iMslon of land among the different 
 families of the society, is as much opposed to tho nature of 
 B communion of goods; but were the system in 
 other respects as advantageous as it is the reverse, it could 
 not be maintained for any considerable period. Though tho 
 lir.-t settlers of an unoccupied countrj were lo adopt this 
 plan, it would, in less than a dozen years, be wholly sub- 
 vened, and there would be the greatest Inequality In their 
 fortunes. This would arise trim differences of strength, 
 talent, and conduct, from the varying numbers and conduct 
 of children, uud the other unforeseen accidents and occur- 
 rences which are always affecting the circumstances of In- 
 dividuals. It is absurd to suppose that an equality of con- 
 dition could be maintained, notwithstanding the operation 
 of such powerful causes of derangement, without resorting 
 to the most atrocious system of tyranny, without equalizing 
 tire number of children, and abstracting a portion of the 
 of the industrious and frugal to bestow them on 
 the idle and Improvident But it is unnecessary to dwell on 
 Midi crude absurdities. The distinction of rich and poor is 
 not, a-- some shallow sophists would seem to suppose, arti- 
 ficial, but real; it is as much a part of the order of I'rovi 
 ■ ii of the sexes. It depends on Ihe 
 differences of the physical and menial powers and disposi- 
 tions of different individuals, and of the different circum- 
 stances under which they happen to be placed ; and to 
 attempt to obliterate this distinction by encroaching on the 
 right of property, and enacting agrarian laws, or laws of a 
 similar tendency, is to attempt to accomplish what is in its 
 nature impracticable, at the expense ol great and certain 
 mischief and Inconvenience. 
 
 RIGHT, PETITION OP. A declaratory enactment 
 passed by the parliament of 1628, to which this name was 
 given by the (Valuers, who were desirous lo imply by it 
 that the franchises therein specified were not newly ac- 
 quired, and that the law was. merely explanatory of the 
 ancient constitution. It was calculated to protect the sub- 
 ject against forced loans, benevolences, taxes imposed with- 
 out consent of parliament, arbitrary imprisonments, &c. 
 Much delay and some evasion took place before Charles I 
 could he induced to give the royal assent to this measure. 
 
 RIGHTS, BILL OF. See Bill of Rights. 
 
 RIGI'DITY. In Mechanics, a resistance to change of 
 form. In all theoretical investigations respecting the appli- 
 cation Of forces through the intervention of machines, those 
 machines are assumed (except cords) to be perfectly rigid, 
 so far as the forces employed are able to affect their inte- 
 gltty of form and siriicmre. Rigidity is often, in the arts, 
 called stiffness, and is opposed to flexibility. 
 
 1'h, rigidity of cords, or the difficulty with which they 
 an- bent into any given curve, is the chief cause of the loss 
 of power orisine from their employment in machines. The 
 
 * 1063 
 
RIGORISTS. 
 
 »aw 01 their loss of force may be thus expressed: The re- 
 sistance arising from the stiffness of cords is as the weights 
 which stretch the cords multiplied by the thickness of the 
 cords, and divided by the radii of curvature of the surfaces 
 over which they pass. It is, however, necessary to state 
 that experiments exhibit great discrepancies with this theo- 
 retical law. 
 
 RI'GORISTS. In Ecclesiastical History, a name some- 
 times given to the extreme Jansenist party. (See Mosheim, 
 vol. v., p. 221, transl. ed., 1790.) 
 
 RI'MOSE. (Lat. rima. a cleft.) In Zoology, when the 
 surface of an animal or part resembles the bark of a tree, 
 having numerous minute, narrow, and nearly parallel exca- 
 vations, which run into each other. 
 
 RINFORZA'NDO. (It. strengthening.) In Music, a 
 a direction to the performer, denoting that the sound is to be 
 increased. It is marked thus < ; when the sound is to be 
 diminished (diminuendo) this mark > is used. 
 
 RING. In Geometry, the figure enveloping a sphere 
 which moves with its centre always in a given curve, most 
 commonly a circle. For the principal properties of this 
 solid, see Hnchette, Oeometrie Descriptive. 
 
 The term is also sometimes applied to designate the area 
 of the space between two concentric circles. 
 
 RING BONE. In Farriery, a callus growing in the hollow 
 circle of ihe little pastern of a horse, just above the coronet. 
 RING OF SATURN. See Saturn. 
 RINGS, FAIRY. This name is given to irregular circles 
 in pastures and lawns on which Agarics spring up, and 
 which become much more verdant than the surrounding 
 grass. They are caused by the centrifugal growth of the 
 spawn of the Agaric, which radiates from a common centre, 
 and bears the fructification, which is what appears above 
 ground, only at the circumference. The verdure of the grass 
 where these fungi grow seems to he caused either by their 
 manuring the ground when they decay, or by the nitrogen 
 they give oil; which is an active stimulant to vegetation, 
 The application of fairy rings was given to this phenome- 
 non from their being regarded as the places where the fai- 
 ries held their noctural revels. 
 
 RING SAIL. A small and light sail set on a mast on the 
 taffrnil. Also a studding sail set upon the gatf of a fore 
 and aft sail. 
 
 RI'NGWORM. This disease appears in circular patches 
 upon the neck, forehead, or scalp; it begins with clusters 
 of little pustules, which form scabs, leaving a red, pimply- 
 surface and destroying the roots of the hair as it proceeds, 
 which it does, if not prevented, over the greater part of the 
 head. It is most common in children of a feeble, flabby 
 habit ; but as it is communicable by contagion, it generally 
 spreads rapidly in schools and families by the frequent con- 
 tact of the heads of children, or by the use of the same 
 caps, combs, towels, &c. ; so that when it once appears, 
 the diseased boys should be strictly removed from the others. 
 The treatment consists in shaving the head, and using fre- 
 quent and regular ablutions in the first instance, sponging 
 the part with weak soap and water; when the scabbing be- 
 gins, other applications must be used, the selection of which 
 must entirely depend upon the degree of irritation and other 
 circumstances. Solutions of nitrate of silver, sulphate of 
 copper, iodide of potassium, or of iron, pitch, and tar oint- 
 ments, petroleum and naphtha, mercurial ointments of dif- 
 ferent kinds, and various other stimulants ; as also some- 
 times sedatives, are resorted to, to get rid of the morbid 
 state of the part ; but so whimsical and obstinate is the dis- 
 ease, that it is impossible to lay down any mode of treat- 
 ment which can be considered as approaching to a specific. 
 Except in particular cases, no internal medicine has ap- 
 peared to he of use. 
 
 RI'OT, in Law, is said to be a tumultuous disturbance of 
 the peace by three persons or more assembling together of 
 their own authority in order to assist each other against 
 any one who shall oppose them in the execution of a pri- 
 vate purpose, and afterwards executing the same in a vio- 
 lent and turbulent manner. A rout is said to be a disturb- 
 ance of the peace by persons assembled together to do a 
 thinsr, which, if executed, would make them rioters, and 
 making some motion towards that object; an unlawful as- 
 sembly, a similar disturbance by persons who neither exe- 
 cute their purpose, nor make any actual motion towards the 
 execution of it. 
 
 RIPIE'NO. (It. full.) In Music, a term signifying full, 
 and is used in compositions of many parts, to distinguish 
 those which fill up the harmony and play only occasional- 
 ly, from those that play throughout the piece. 
 
 RIPPLE-MARKS. The peculiar undulated marks, 
 which the receding waves leave on the sea beach, and 
 which are occasionally found in some of the older strata of 
 rocks, and are considered as announcing a similar action at 
 a remote period. The wind blowing over a sandy district 
 sometimes occasions a similar appearance. 
 
 RITORNE'LLO. (It. a return.) In Music, properly a 
 106* ^ ' 
 
 RIVER. 
 
 short repetition, such as that of an echo, or of the last words 
 of a song, especially if such repetition be made after a voice by 
 one or more instruments. But by custom this word is now 
 used to denote all symphonies played before the voice* 
 begin, and which seem to prelude or introduce what follows. 
 RI'TUAL. (Lat. ritus, o rite.) A book in which tiie 
 different rites or services of the church are contained. 
 
 RI'VER. (Lat. rivus.) In Physical Geography, an inland 
 current of water, formed within a certain portion of the 
 earth's surface by the confluence of brooks, small streams, 
 or mountain torrents, and discharging itself into the ocean, 
 a lake, marsh, or other river. There are few subjects in 
 physical geography which present so wide a field for specu- 
 lation as rivers, whether we regard them in an historical, 
 political, economical, or scientific point of view. They are 
 associated with the earliest efforts of mankind to emerge 
 from a state of barbarism ; but they are no less ten 
 to nations which have reached the acme of civilization. In 
 the earliest ages they were regarded with veneration, and 
 became the objects of a grateful adoration surpassed only by 
 that paid to the sun and the host of heaven. Nor is this 
 surprising; for in countries where the labours of the hus- 
 bandman and shepherd depended for a successful issue on 
 the falling of periodical rains, or the melting of the collect- 
 ed snows in a far-distant country, such rivers as the Nile, 
 the Ganges, and the Indus were the visible agents of na- 
 ture in bestowing on the inhabitants of their bunks all the 
 blessings of a rich and .oontaneous fertility; and hence 
 their waters were hel^iacred, and they received, and 
 to this day retain, the adoration of the countries through 
 which tiiey flow. But it is by countries which have al- 
 ready made progress in civilization (to which, indeed, they 
 largely contribute) that the advantages of rivers me best ap- 
 preciated, in their adaptation to the purposes of navigation, 
 and in their application to the useful arts. Like the veins 
 and arteries of the human body which convey life and 
 strength to its remotest extremities, rivers vivify, maintain, 
 and excite the efforts of human industry ; whether we re- 
 gard them near their source as the humble instruments of 
 turning a mill, in their progress as facilitating the transport 
 of agricultural or manufacturing produce from one district 
 to Knother, or as enriching the countries at their mouths 
 with the varied products of distant lands. This has been 
 so admirably expressed by Pliny, that we cannot refrain 
 from embodying his words in our pages. "The beginnings 
 of a river," he says, "are insignificant, and its infancy is. 
 frivolous: it plays among the Howers of a meadow ; it wa- 
 ters a garden, or turns a little mill. Gathering strength, in 
 its youth it becomes wild and impetuous. Impatient of the 
 restraints which it still meets with in the hollows among 
 the mountains, it is restless and fretful ; quick in its turning, 
 and unsteady in its course. Now it is a roaring cataract, 
 tearing up and overturning whatever opposes its progress, 
 and it shoots headlong down from a rock ; then it becomes 
 a sullen and gloomy pool, buried in the bottom of a glen. 
 Recovering breadth by repose, it again dashes along, till, 
 tired of uproar and mischief, it quits all that it has swept 
 along, and leaves the opening of the valley strewed with 
 the rejected waste. Now quitting its retirement, it comes 
 abroad into the world, journeying with more prudence and 
 discretion through cultivated fields, yielding to circum- 
 stances, and winding round what would trouble it to over- 
 whelm or remove. It passes through the populous cities, 
 and all the busy haunts of man, tendering it: services on 
 every side, and becomes the support and ornament of the 
 country. Increased by numerous alliances, and advanced 
 in its course, it becomes grave and stately in its motions, 
 loves peace and quiet, and in majestic silence rolls on its 
 mighty waters till it is laid to rest in the vast ai 
 
 Most large rivers have their origin in very elevated moun- 
 tains, or on high table lands, the height and direction of 
 which chiefly determine their size and course?. For full in- 
 formation on the various points involved in this subject, we 
 beg to refer the reader to the article "Rivers" in the Encf. 
 Brit.; and we shall in this place confine our remarks to 
 some of their most striking peculiarities — periodical inunda- 
 tions, occultations, and reappearance. 
 
 The periodical inundations of rivers depend on great falls 
 of rain in mountainous regions, or on the pelting of snows 
 in the neighbourhood of their source. The period depends 
 on the return of these seasons in different places. Within 
 the tropics, the rainy season occurs usually about the time 
 when the sun passes the meridian towards the tropics ; and 
 continues until his return to the same place. The rise of 
 the Orinoco commences in May, its Inundation begins In 
 June, and the waters relurn to their channel in September ; 
 from which time they decrease until April of the succeed- 
 ing year. In the Lower Mississippi, whose inundations be- 
 gin in March, and are at their height in June, arc found 
 those enormous rafts of driftwood (formed during the inun- 
 dations), which sometimes extend for ten or twelve miles 
 in one mass, rise and fall with the stream, yet have a luxu 
 
RIVERS. 
 
 2 nation on their summits. The great rivers of Asia 
 -the Ganges, the Indus, the Tigris, and Euphrates — have 
 also their periods of inundation, depending on the circum- 
 
 determining the setting in of the rains on the moun- 
 
 ivhich they originate. In the Ganges the waters 
 begin to Increase in April, and at the end of July the coun- 
 try, lor a hundred miles along its banks, presents the ap- 
 pearance of a vast lake interspersed with insulated villages 
 and woods. It nt of all inundations, those of the Nile are 
 the moat celebrated; nor is it ]>ossible to find anywhere 
 
 errestrial objects a more striking instance of the 
 stability oftbe laws of nature, than the periodical rise and 
 fall of this mighty river. We know by the testimony of 
 antiquity that the inundations of the Nile have been the 
 Kiine. With respect to their season and duration, for three 
 thousand years. Indeed, their certainty regulates the pub- 
 lic revenue; for when, by means of nifometers, it is ascer- 
 tained that the waters promise an unusually prosperous 
 
 'lie ta.ves are proportionally increased. Shortly 
 after Hie commencement Of the rains of Abyssinia, in June, 
 
 I begins to rise, and attains its greatest height in 
 August. At Cairo the greatest rise is twenty-eight feet; 
 but in the valley of the -Nile, with a mean breadth of three 
 or four leagues, it is only four feet. It decreases gradually 
 until the following May; and as soon us the waters are 
 within their usual channel, the soil, moistened and en- 
 riih-d by the sediment deposited from the inundation, is 
 diligently cultivated by the natives. Pliny thus speaks of 
 the iimnd ition : "Justuiu incrementiim est cuhitoruin 1G, 
 minores aqua? non omnia rigant: ampliores detinent tar- 
 dius reeedendo. lliec serendi tempora absumunt: ills non 
 dant sitienle. Clrumqiie reputat provincial. In duodecim 
 
 mem scntiant, in tredecimetiamnnmesajrit; qua- 
 tuordecim culuti hilaritatem alterant, quindecim sccurita- 
 teni, sevdecini dellclas." (Hist. Nat., lib. v., 9.) 
 
 The i >il' « If a" hi iiml reappearance of some rivers have 
 attracted attention in every age ; nor has any satisfactory 
 explanation been yet assigned for this extraordinary phe- 
 nomenon. In the Memoir of the Abbe (iuettard, the phe- 
 nomenon in question is accounted for by the spongy na- 
 ture oftbe sbil through which such rivers How; thus the 
 Oo adi a na , one of the largest rivers in Spain, suddenly dis- 
 appears in the marches near the. village of Castillo de Cer- 
 rera, and after pursuing a subterraneous course for twelve 
 ST fourteen miles bursts again into day. Limestone dis- 
 tricts aiiord many specimens of this phenomenon; one of 
 the nu»t sirikiiu; of which is the occult alion of the Rhone 
 near the »<ir^r called the Perte. There are also some cu- 
 rious Instances in Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Rut no coun- 
 try surpa ■«■ G re ece in the number of its subterranean 
 the peculiarities of which are often clothed in 
 splendid mythological fictions by her ancient hards. The 
 waters of many valleys in the Peloponnesus have no other 
 outlets than Upiftp t, or chasms, which engulf them; such 
 are the millets ol the valleys of Tegea, Mantinca, Astea, 
 Stymphalus, Peneus, &c. A familiarity with such phe- 
 nomena, and a poetieal temperament, readily led the ancient 
 Qteeks to conceive still more distant secret communica- 
 tions ; and the imagination which peopled every grove, and 
 animated every stream with presiding deities, could easily 
 itself to the story of the river god Alpheus, who 
 was said to pursue his favourite nymph Arethusa beneath 
 the bed of the ocean from Greece to the shores of Sicily. 
 ( Traill's Physical Geography.) 
 
 
 
 Leneth in 
 
 Propor- 
 tional 
 
 Area of 
 
 Hash in 
 English 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Riven. 
 
 Length. 
 
 English 
 Milis. 
 
 Magni- 
 tude of 
 Basin. 
 
 Europe 
 
 
 
 
 
 '1 h.tmes . . . 
 
 
 ISO 
 
 
 5600 
 
 Rhine .... 
 
 <4 
 
 810 
 
 I2J 
 
 70 000 
 
 Loire .... 
 
 4T 
 
 720 
 
 P 
 
 48,000 
 
 lo . . . . 
 
 2-F 
 
 400 
 
 27,000 
 
 Elba .... 
 
 4* 
 
 820 
 
 9, 
 
 50,000 
 
 Vistula . . 
 
 4 i 
 
 7(j0 
 
 13j 
 
 76,000 
 
 Danhue 
 
 91 
 
 1750 
 
 56 
 
 310,000 
 
 Dnieper 
 
 7* 
 
 1390 
 
 36 
 
 200,000 
 
 Dun .... 
 
 7 4 
 
 13d0 
 
 37 
 
 205,000 
 
 .Uia. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wolga 
 
 14 
 
 2520 
 
 94 
 
 520,000 
 
 res . 
 
 9} 
 
 mo 
 
 42 
 
 230,000 
 
 
 "4 
 
 to 2 
 
 2070 
 
 721 
 76 2 
 
 400,000 
 
 t ... 
 
 rsoo 
 
 420,000 
 
 K>n.'-'«;,nr Great River 
 
 
 
 
 
 of Cim* 
 
 2l i 
 
 3870 
 
 138 
 
 760,000 
 
 Amour, Chinese Tartars; 
 
 16 1 
 
 13* 
 
 2 ISO 
 
 164 
 
 900.000 
 
 Lena, Asiatic Russia . 
 
 2430 
 
 174 
 
 9f0,000 
 
 Illlo . . . 
 
 15 
 
 2700 
 
 236 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 Africa. 
 
 *i 
 
 2330 
 
 90 \ 
 
 500,000 
 
 America. 
 
 
 
 
 uncertain. 
 
 S». l.awrence. including 
 
 
 
 
 
 lakes 
 
 221 
 
 4050 
 
 109 
 
 noo,noo 
 
 ipi/i . . . 
 
 I9" 5 
 
 3420 
 
 249 
 
 1 ,36S; ,000 
 
 . 
 
 t3 !i 
 
 2430 
 
 225 
 
 1,240,000 
 
 Aiiiiz-n, not including 
 
 
 
 
 
 A raguay . 
 
 22$ 
 
 4095 
 
 395 
 
 2.177.000 
 
 The preceding table, from Dr. Traill's valuable Treatise 
 on Physical Geography, shows the length of the course 
 of twenty-two of the principal rivers of the world, and the 
 area of their respective basins, together with their propor- 
 tional lengths in English miles; a calculation wtt'ch has 
 been obtained by multiplying them by 180, being the dis- 
 tance between the remotest sources of the Thames, which 
 is assumed as unity, and its embouchure at the Nore. 
 
 For an account of the phenomena of the Australian riv 
 ers, which, in apparent contrariety to the laws of nature, 
 in other parts of the world, become narrower the farther 
 they flow from their source, see the Gtog. Jjut., art 
 " Australia." 
 
 River. In Hydraulics, a current of water flowing in an 
 open channel. The velocity of a current of water flowing 
 in an open channel depends on the volume of water, the 
 form of the channel, and its inclination; and the deter 
 mination of the relations subsisting among these three 
 quantities is a problem of great practical importance, the 
 solution of which must he derived partly from experiment, 
 and partly from the general theory of the motion and re- 
 sistance of fluids. 
 
 If water, whether flowing in pipes or open channels, 
 suffered no raeJstpaM from the solid matter with which it 
 comes in contact, the velocity would depend solely tt|>on 
 the accelerating force of gravity, and at any point of the 
 channel would be in proportion to the square root of the 
 dilference of level between that point and the source. Rut 
 
 this velocity, if not constantly Impeded, would soon lire 
 
 enormous, and render rivers the immediate Instrument! Ol 
 devastation and ruin to the earth. The Rhone, for exam 
 pie, which receives its principal waters at an elevation of 
 900 feet above the level of the sea, would enter the hay of 
 Marseilles with a velocity of 104 miles in an hour, such 
 being the velocity due to a heavy body filling from a 
 height of !)00 feet. Even the Thames, which has a de- 
 scent of only 100 feet, would acquire a velocity of 54 miles 
 in an hour. 
 
 The forces which tend to impede this constantly in- 
 creasing velocity depend upon the quantity of surface ex- 
 posed to friction and the velocity of the stre in. Let I de- 
 note the length of a portion of the stream through which 
 the velocity and the form of the channel remain the same, 
 and c the length of the line of intersection of the channel 
 with a vertical plane perpendicular to the stream (i. /.•., tiie 
 perimeter or boundary of the transverse section minus the 
 superficial breadth); then the surface exposed ii friction 
 is represented by c I. With respect to the velocity, it is 
 found by experiment that the resistance is expressed by a 
 function of the velocity made up of two parts, one depend- 
 ing on the velocity simply, and the other on its square. 
 Hence, denoting the friction or resistance by /, and the 
 mean velocity by v, and assuming m and n, two constant 
 numbers, to be determined by experiment, the resistance 
 will be expressed by this formula : 
 
 /=(t»t- r iiti , )(;. 
 
 Now the force which opposes the velocity is the resist 
 ance, and the force which tends to accelerate it is the com 
 ponent of the weight in the direction of the slope ; and as 
 the velocity of the portion under consideration is regarded 
 as uniform, these two forces must be equal to each other. 
 Let o denote the area of the transverse section of the 
 stream, then the bulk Is a I, and its weight gal; the re- 
 solved part of which in the direction of the slope \s g a I 
 sin. i, where «' is the Inclination of the surface to the hori- 
 zon. We have, therefore, f=gal sin. i, or (viv + nv 2 ) 
 cl=.gal sin. t ; whence for any length I for which the 
 area of the section, the slope, and form of the channel re- 
 main unchanged, we have (m v -f- n »2) c = g a sin. i. 
 
 If we assume R = a -i-c (the area of the section divided 
 by the length of its boundary diminished by the width), 
 then the formula becomes m v -4- n v 2 = g R sin. i. This 
 quantity R is what is usually called the radius of the sec- 
 tion, and sometimes the hydraulic depth. It is the depth 
 which the river would take if it flowed in a rectangular 
 channel, whose breadth is equal to the bottom and sides 
 of the actual bed. 
 
 The constants m and n have been determined experi- 
 mentally by Prony (Recherchcs Physko-Mat/iematiques sur 
 la Theorie des Eaux Courantcs, Paris 1804). On reducing 
 his measures to English feet, and rejecting the term m v, 
 which is small in comparison of n v 2 , the formula becomes, 
 
 v — 10953 v/R sin. i. 
 Eytelwein (Handbuch der JMechanikfcstcr Korper vnd 
 der Hydraulik, Rerlin, 1801) gives v = 9487 v/R sin. i. As 
 a sufficiently near approximation, we may assume v = 100 
 v/R sin. i ; and if we denote the fall in feet each mile by 
 A, we shall have sin. i = h -f- 5280, and the formula will 
 become on reduction v = V -v/R A nearly. This gives the 
 velocitv in feet per second. To find the velocity in miles 
 
 IMS 
 
RIVOSE. 
 per hour, we must multiply by 3600, and divide by 5280, 
 which gives v=zjg ^/R~h ; a formula found to be suffi- 
 ciently conformable to experiments. 
 
 From the above formula the mean velocity v is given, 
 when R and h are determined; or, generally, any one of 
 the three quantities, the mean velocity, the hydraulic 
 depth, and the fall, is determined in terms of the other two. 
 It is necessary to observe, that the velocity is not the Utme 
 in all the parts of the section of the stream. The fila- 
 ments of water in contact with the bottom and sides of the 
 channel are arrested by the friction, and in their turn re- 
 tard the filaments next above them in consequence of their 
 adherence or viscidity ; so that the filaments which stiller 
 the least retardation are those at the surface and nearest 
 the middle of the stream. On the other hand, the hydro- 
 static pressure tends to give the greatest velocity to the 
 filaments which are deepest under the surface. By the 
 combination of these two causes, the greatest velocity in 
 an open channel of a symmetrical form is at the middle, 
 and at a small depth under the surface. 
 
 The mean velocity, which has been denoted by v, is that 
 which, when multiplied by the area of the transverse sec- 
 tion, gives the total quantity of water which passes through 
 the section in a given time. Du Buat found that the great- 
 est velocity is to the mean velocity of the whole section in 
 the ratio nearly of 5 to 4; so that if the greatest velocity is 
 experimentally determined, we may assume the mean ve- 
 locity to be 4-5ths of the quantity given by the experiment. 
 It was found by Du liuat that if from the square root of 
 the velocity in the middle of the stream, expressed in inches 
 per second, unity be subtracted, the square of the remain- 
 der gives the velocity at the bottom. 
 
 Since the mean velocity of a river is proportional to the 
 square root of the hydraulic depth (the inclination remain- 
 ing the same), it follows that on contracting the channel 
 the velocity will be increased. When a river receives a per- 
 manent addition, the first effect is to increase the velocity, 
 whereby the attrition on the sides and bottom is also in- 
 creased ; and the sides being generally of softer materials, 
 the consequence is that the width, and sometimes though 
 more rarely, the depth, is increased until the resistance i i 
 again equal to the accelerative force, and the velocity be- 
 comes uniform. 
 
 It is frequently of great importance to determine the 
 whole quantity of water furnished by a river, or, as it is 
 called, the discharge. For this purpose the figure of the 
 bed must be accurately determined, which may be done by 
 soundings. This also gives the area of the section, and 
 consequently the hydraulic depth. The velocity at the 
 surface may be determined by means of a float; or at a 
 small depth under the surface by the instrument called 
 Pitot's tube (see the term), or by measuring the force of 
 the current by means of a dynamometer. 
 
 See, in addition to the works above quoted, Bossut, 
 Traiti </' Hydrodynaminue ; Navier, Lec-ons sur I' 'applica- 
 tion de In JHicaniqiu; lielidor, Architecture Hydraulique. 
 
 RIVO'SE. (Lat. rivus, a brook.) In Zoology, when the 
 surface of an animal or part is marked with furrows which 
 do not run in a parallel direction, and are rather sinuate. 
 
 RIXDOLLAR. (A corruption of Germ, reichsthaler, or 
 dollar of the empire.) A silver coin of different values in 
 different countries. See Money. 
 
 ROACH. The curve, or arch, which is generally cut in 
 the foot of some square sails, from one clue to the other, to 
 Keep the foot clear of stays and ropes. 
 
 ROAD, or ROADSTEAD. A place of anchorage. A 
 vessel when at anchor is termed a roadster, in contradis- 
 tinction to another under sail. 
 
 ROADS, tire pathways formed through a country, by 
 which passengers and commodities may travel, or be trans- 
 ported, with more or less facility and expedition, from one 
 place to another. Roads are of various kinds, according to 
 the state of civilization and wealth of the country through 
 which they are constructed, and according to the nature 
 and extent of the traffic to be carried on upon them, from 
 the rude paths of the aboriginal people, carried in direct 
 lines over the natural surface of the country, passable only 
 by foot passengers or pack-horses, to the comparatively per- 
 fect modern road, carried on an artificial causeway, and 
 reduced to a nearly level surface at enormous expense by 
 means of vast excavations, extensive embankments, bridges, 
 viaducts, tunnels, and other expedients supplied by the skill 
 and ingenuity of the civil eneineer. 
 
 Advantages of Roids. — There is no expedient which 
 more powerfully conduces to the advancement of a people 
 in civilization, or to the extension of their prosperity and 
 national wealth, than the construction of good roads, con- 
 necting the various centres of commerce and of industry 
 about which tin- may have collected themselves. The 
 invention of priming, the expedient of money, the adoption 
 of a uniform system of weights and measures, would sever- 
 ally be Ineffectual, or productive of advantages of a very 
 10CG 
 
 ROADS. 
 
 limited extent, if the intercommunication of those whose 
 feedings and ideas are expressed and conveyed in print, and 
 among whom money is made to circulate, and whose com 
 merce is stimulated and facilitated by the uniform module 
 of quantity supplied by weights and measures, were not 
 facilitated and expedited by the means of conveyance su[i- 
 plied byroads. Without roads, the interchange of advan- 
 tages, moral, intellectual, and physical, which now takes 
 place in all highly civilized countries between the rural and 
 the urbane population, could not be maintained; without 
 them, indeed, large towns or cities could not continue to 
 exist. The supply of the population collected in such 
 places with the various products of agriculture, necessary 
 to their physical existence, could not be sustained. N<>r, oil 
 the other hand, would the rural population affording that 
 supply be benefitted by a return in exchange of the refine- 
 ments of the town, and the various articles of luxury and 
 necessity obtained by commerce from every part of the 
 globe. 
 
 But roads are not less necessary for the advancement of 
 agriculture itself, than for the due maintenance of the 
 necessary relations between the towns and the country 
 Without the aid of roads, it would be Impossible to apply 
 those arts to ihe soil by which increased powers of produc 
 tion are given to it. Without roads, tlie various kinds of 
 manure, by which the scientific farmer knows how to raise 
 augmented crops, could not lie transported lo his fields from 
 the place, often distant and difficult of access, where such 
 manures are found. Roads may then, in fact, be considered 
 as a system of veins and arteries, by which all those prin- 
 ciples necessary for the maintenance of the prosperity of a 
 country are kept in circulation. 
 
 History of Roads. — The importance of roads to the wel- 
 fare of nations was not unknown to tne ancients. The 
 senate of Athens, the government of the Lacedemonians, 
 the Thebans, and other states of Greece, bestowed much 
 care upon them; but, as might naturally be expected, the 
 first great advances in tint art of intercommunication by 
 roads were due to a people essentially commercial. The 
 invention of paved roads is traced to the Carthaginians. 
 Ron •■. e 't awake to th< .-. 
 
 quered people, followed in tile steps of the Carthaginians, 
 and vastly extended and improved their processes in the 
 construction of roads. 
 
 The Via Appia, the Via Aurelia, and the Via Flaminia 
 were the first great monuments of the Roman people in tins 
 department of art. Under Julius Ca'sar, the capital of the 
 empire was made to communicate with all the chief towns 
 by paved roads; and during the last African war, a road 
 or this kind was constructed from Spain through Gaul to 
 the Alps. After this, these great lines of communication 
 were extended through Savoy. Dauphine, and Provence: 
 through Germany, every part of Spain; through Gaul, and 
 even to Constantinople ; through Asia, Hungary, Ma 
 and to the mouths of the Danube. Neither did the inter- 
 position of seas obstruct the labour or daunt the enterprise 
 of this great people. The lines of communication thus con- 
 structed to the shores of the continent of Europe v 
 tinned at corresponding points of the neighbouring islands 
 and continents. Sicily. Corsica, Sardinia, England, Africa, 
 and Asia were accordingly intersected and penetrated by 
 roads, forming the continuation of the great European lines. 
 These gigantic works were not mere paths prepared for the 
 action of the feet of horses and the wheels of carriages, 
 formed upon the natural surface of the ground, but were 
 constructed on principles in some respects as efficient as 
 those which modern engineering has supplied ; forests were 
 opened, mountains excavated, hills lowered, valleys tilled 
 Up, chasms and rivers bestridden by bridges, and marshes 
 drained, to an extent which would bear no mean comparison 
 to the result of the great engineering enterprise of recent 
 times. 
 
 English Roads. — The first roads of artificial construction 
 in England were those formed by the Romans w bile it was 
 a Roman province. A grand trunk road was carried through 
 the country north and south, and another nearly at nghj 
 angles to it east and west. These main lines tv< re supplied 
 with branches, extending in every direction which the 
 conquerors found it expedient to render accessible to their 
 arms. The Roman road called Wailing Street commenced 
 from Ricbborough in Kent, the ancient Kuterpiac, and being 
 carried through London in a north fwesterlj direction, was 
 continued to Chester. The road called Ermine Street 
 commenced from London, and passing through Lincoln 
 was carried thence through Carlisle into Scotland. The 
 l'oss Way passed from Hath, in a direction north enst, and 
 joined tlie Ermine Street. The road called Ike 
 tended from Norwich, in a southward direction, to Dorset- 
 shire. 
 
 The example thus afforded by their conquerors was not 
 followed by the Britons, who, unconscious of the many ad 
 Tantages attending facilities of intercommunication, relapsed 
 
ROADS. 
 
 barbarous neglect of roads ; and while the Roman 
 re allowed to fall inio decay, new roada were not 
 constructed. For many centuries, .such intercourse m was 
 ween the various parts of this country took 
 clusively by rude paths, capable of being 
 i foot, or at best ijy horses, carried over the natural 
 surface of the ground in Ati :ii<rlit directions from place to 
 place. Hill ■ were surmounted, valleys crossed, and rivers 
 forded, in the same manner as the savages of the most 
 Wilds of America now communicate with each 
 with the settlers. It was not till the reign of 
 Charles II. that any attempt was made by the legislature 
 ive the' roads of the country. In the 18th year of 
 of that monarch, the first turnpike-road was es- 
 . by law, whereon toll was taken. It passed through 
 Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. It was 
 not, however, till about a century from the present time, 
 that any grant or effectual attempts were made to establish 
 a system of good roads through the country. Till nearly 
 the middle of the last century, most of the goods were con- 
 veyed from place to place in Scotland on pack-horses. 
 Oatmeal, coals, turf, and even straw and hay, wen 00n- 
 this way; but In carrying goods between distant 
 
 iry to employ a cart, as nil that a horse 
 could carry on his back, was not sufficient to defray the 
 long Journey, The lime that the carriers usually 
 i" perform their journeys seems now almost In- 
 credible: the common carrier between Selkirk arnl I'.din- 
 distance of thirty-eight miles, required a fortnight 
 g and returning. The road, lbr a con- 
 extent, lay al .in of ihe district called 
 Gait Water; the lied of the stream, when not Rooded, being 
 
 as the ^t level and easiest to travel in. 
 
 means of travelling between large towns 
 iter. In 1678, a contract was made' to establish a 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of forty- 
 four mlli i, was to be drawn bj six horses, and 
 tween the places, to and from, wa 
 
 : even so recently u.s the year 
 
 from Edinburgh to Glasgow took a 
 
 ley. 
 
 _ In the j ear i ,r.:t. there was hut one stage coach between 
 
 Edinburgh and London, which started once a month from 
 
 each place, and took a fortnight to perform the journev. 
 
 Al ihe present time, after the lapse of not so much I 
 
 • i coaches daily start from each of 
 
 ihe other; besides several steamships of 
 
 magnitude, which sail weekly from each place, 
 
 commodation and luxury of floating 
 
 nd completing the journey, in common with the 
 
 in less than forty-eight hours. If each of the 
 
 ■ tlmated as conveying ten passengers daily, 
 
 ■no would thus convey daily between these 
 
 01 above 4000 monthly. If an 
 
 equal number he estimated as conveyed by the steam ships, 
 
 lid have the present intercourse in passengers he- 
 
 London and Edinburgh amounting to about 8000 
 
 monthly ; whereas, in 1763, the numher conveyed by stage 
 
 between these places monthly could not have ex 
 cceded twenty-five, and hy all the means of conveyance 
 
 ting probably did not exceed fifty. 
 It happens that the line of road now occupied by the 
 Liverpool and .Manchester Railway and its branches, and 
 
 I daily hy thousands of passengers, at a speed of 
 twenty-five miles an hour, including stoppages, was, in ihe 
 year 1770, travelled over by Mr. Arthur Yoimg, who has 
 led us in Ins Tour the following account of the state of the 
 roads at that time: "I know 'not in the whole range of 
 language terms sufficiently expressive to describe this in- 
 fernal road. I.et me most seriously caution all travellers, 
 who may accidentally propose to travel this terrible coun- 
 
 ■ >id it as they would the devil ; for a thousand to 
 one they break their necks, or their limbs, hy overthrows 
 or breakings-down. They will here meet with ruts, which 
 I actually measured, four feet deep, and floating with mud 
 only from a wet summer. What, therefore, must it he 
 after a winter 7 The only mending it receives is tumblin" 
 
 loose stones, which serve no other purpose than 
 Jolting a carriage in the most intolerable manner. These 
 are not merely opinions, but facts; for I actually passed 
 
 us broken down in these eighteen miles of exe- 
 memory." With the exception of a few rare in- 
 
 of important roads, constructed under special acts 
 
 ment, the roads of England have not been con- 
 structed on any scientific principle, and are, in rnosl cases 
 
 oincident with the foot and horse paths adopted 
 
 irly inhabitants of the country. These rude paths 
 having been formed at an early period, the only roads of 
 
 communication between the chief towns were gradually 
 
 improved, so as to be capable of being travelled over by 
 
 r I surface of the ground was 
 
 In time covered with an artificial coating of gravel or stones; 
 
 hills too steep to be surmounted hy carriages were eitnei 
 levelled, and the material obtained" from their excavation 
 thrown into the valleys, or the roads were carried round 
 them; at a liter period fences were added; and thus, by 
 slow degrees, the oid horse-path grew into the modern 
 road. How fir removed from a truly good and scion 
 tine line of communication such a road must be, will be 
 apparent to any one who considers what the principles 
 ought to be on which a road should he laid down and con 
 structed. 
 
 The Art of Road making— -When it is proposed to con- 
 struct a line of road extending between two places, the 
 engineer upon whom such a duty devolves first makes 
 himself well acquainted with the surface of the country 
 lying between the two places, so as to obtain an acquaint- 
 ance with the face of the country, somewhat approaching 
 to that which would lie supplied hy a superficial model of 
 it. which would exhibit all its inequalities and undulations 
 of surface. He is then to select what he considers, all 
 circumstances being taken into account, the best general 
 route for the proposed road. lint, previously to laying it 
 
 out with accuracy, it is necessary to mike an instrumental 
 
 survey of the country along the route thus solecTcd ; taking 
 ihe levels from point to point throughout the whole dis- 
 tance, and making borings in all places where excavations 
 are required, to determine the strata through which such 
 cuttings are to he carried, and the requisite inclinations of 
 s well of the cuttings as of 
 the embankments to be formed by the material thus ob- 
 tained. It is also requisite, in the selection of the route 
 for the proposed road, to have regard to the supply of 
 materials, not only for first constructing it, but for main- 
 taining it in repair: thus, the position of gravel pits and 
 
 quarries in the neighbourhood of the proposed line, and 
 
 the mi lo them, should he well ascertained. 
 
 The results of such an investigation should he reduced 
 to a plan and section: the plan of the road being on a 
 not less than 66 yards to an Inch, and the section not less 
 ithan 30 feet to an inch. 
 
 The loss of tractive power, and danger to travellers pro- 
 duce'! specially necessary 
 th t a proper limitation should be imposed upon the incli- 
 nn'ions or acclivities on every line of road on which much 
 traffic is carried on. As, however, this reduction of hills 
 in a country where much Inequality of surf ice exists is 
 attended with a considerable outlay of capital, the engineer 
 
 will have to balance the cost of constructing a road having 
 the best possible inclinations against the advantages to be 
 
 obtained in the permanent working of the road : and if the 
 expected traffic he not such as to yield advantages propor- 
 tionate to the capital absorbed, greater rates of inclination 
 must he allowed to the hills, with a view to diminish the 
 extent of the works, and to render the expense of con- 
 structing the road proportionate to the traffic expected 
 upon ii. 
 
 A dead level, even where it can he obtained, is not the 
 best .course for a road ; a certain inclination of the surface 
 facilitates the drainage, and keeps the road in a dry state. 
 There is a certain inclination, depending on the degree of 
 perfection given to the surface of the road, and on the 
 structure of the carriages worked upon it, which cannot 
 he exceeded without a direct loss of tractive power; this 
 inclination or acclivity is that, in descending which, at a 
 uniform speed, the traces slacken, or which causes the car- 
 riages to prevs on the horses: the limiting inclination 
 within which this etfect does not take place is called the 
 angle of reposa. 
 
 On all acclivities less steep than the angle of renose, a 
 certain amount of tractive force is necessary in the descent 
 as well as in the ascent ; and the mean of the two draw- 
 ing forces, ascending and descending, is equal to the force 
 along a level road. Thus, on such acclivities as much 
 power is gained in the descent as is lost in the ascent; 
 but on acclivities which are more steep than the angle of 
 repose, the load presses on the horses during their descent, 
 so as to impede their action, and their power is expended 
 in checking the descent of the load ; or, if this effect be 
 prevented by the use of any form of drag or break, then 
 the power expended on such drag or break corresponds to 
 an equal quantity of mechanical power expended in the 
 ascent, for which no equivalent is obtained in the descent. 
 
 On well-constructed roads, with carriages such as now 
 are generally used in England, the angle of repose may be 
 taken at about one in thirty-six ; and this is consequently 
 an acclivity which ought not to be exceeded on roads over 
 which much traffic is carried. 
 
 The expedients by which the requisite inclinations are 
 obtained on common roads are the same as those which 
 are resorted to in the construction of railways. See Rail- 
 roads. 
 
 The exact course of the road and the degree of its »c 
 clivities being determined, the next thing to be considered 
 is the formation of its surface. The qualities which ought 
 
 1007 
 
ROADS. 
 
 to be imparted to it are twofold— first, it should be smooth ; 
 secondly, it should be hard ; and the goodness of the road 
 will be exactly in the proportion of the degree in which 
 these qualities can be imparted to it, and permanently 
 maintained upon it. An error prevailed among road en- 
 gineers until a very recent period. It was considered that 
 smoothness of surface alone was sufficient for the perfection 
 of a road ; and that, provided it could be made sufficiently 
 durable, it was unimportant how soft or yielding the coat- 
 ing of the road might be. This error, into which, among 
 others, Macadam himself fell, was based upon a neglect 
 of one of the most important circumstances to be con- 
 sidered in the construction of a road. The main object to 
 be attained by all roads is the diminution of the resistance 
 which a carriage opposes to the tractive power. Other 
 things being the same, it was sufficiently apparent that 
 this resistance would be diminished by increasing the 
 smoothness of the road surface. But roughness or un- 
 evenness of surface is not the only cause of resistance to 
 the tractive power : if two roads have their surfaces 
 equally smooth and even, but one is soft and elastic, so as 
 to yield under the pressure of the wheel, recovering its 
 form as^he wheel advances, and the other is hard and 
 unyielding, the resistance to the tractive power will be 
 greater on the soft and yielding road than on the hard and 
 unyielding ro id ; and this augmentation of resistance will 
 be in proportion to the softness of the surface. That this 
 would be the case, admits of immediate demonstration on 
 mechanical and mathematical principles ; but, without 
 resorting to these, it must be sutficiently apparent from 
 the results of the most common experience. A surface of 
 velvet may be as smooth and even as a surface of ice ; 
 but if an ivory ball be rolled on the latter, it will continue 
 its motion much longer than on the former. In fact, the 
 wheels of a carriage in passing along a soft road sink into 
 its surface, as the ball would sink into the pile of the vel- 
 vet ; and although, in virtue of its elasticity, the surface 
 of the road, like that of the velvet, may recover its smooth- 
 ness after the pressure has been removed from it, still a 
 resistance will be offered to the drawing or impelling 
 power, which would not be produced by a hard and un- 
 yielding surface equally smooth. 
 
 Macadamhation. — This process, which has received its 
 name from M tcadam, to whose labours the improvement 
 of the roads of England within the last half century owes 
 so much, consists in forming the road crust of stones, 
 broken with a hammer into angular pieces of a small and 
 uniform size. This method, however, is one which was 
 long practised in various parts of Europe. When the 
 stones of which the road crust is to be formed are broken 
 to the proper magnitude and form, they are spread over 
 the surface of the road in a layer of 3 or 4 inches thick. 
 After this has been consolidated by carriages working upon 
 it or by rollers, another layer of broken stones of equal 
 depth is laid upon it; it is consolidated in like manner; 
 and thus one layer is laid over another until an artificial 
 crust is formed of broken stones of sufficient thickness to 
 give the requisite strength to the road. 
 
 A coating or road crust thus formed might be constructed 
 on any substratum whatsoever, and a smooth and appa- 
 rently good road would be obtained. It was the practice 
 of Mr. Macadam to disregard the nature of the substratum ; 
 and he maintained that if it was not such a bog as would 
 not allow a man to walk over it, he would even prefer it 
 to a hard bottom. 
 
 Telford's System.— The improvement in road-making 
 which consisted in a due attention to the substratum or 
 foundation of the road, so as to give increased facility to 
 the tractive power by rendering its surface hard and un- 
 yielding, is due to the late Mr. Telford. The following is 
 a description of the method of constructing such a road 
 practised by that eminent engineer. 
 
 Upon the level bed prepared for the road materials a 
 bottom course or layer of stones is to be set by hand, in 
 form of a close firm pavement. The stones set in the 
 middle of the road should be 7 inches in depth ; at 9 feet 
 from the centre tho depth should be 5 inches ; at 12 feet, 
 4 inches ; and at 15 feet, 3 inches ; the entire width of the 
 road being 30 feet. These stones are to be set on their 
 broadest edges lengthwise across the road, and the breadth 
 of the upper edge should not exceed 4 inches. All the 
 irregularities of the upper part of this pavement are to be 
 broken off by hammers, and all the interstices to be filled 
 with stone chips firmly wedged or packed by hand with a 
 light hammer ; so that, when the pavement is finished, its 
 crots section shall have a convexity of surface of about 4 
 inches in the centre above the extreme edges ; 18 feet in 
 the centre of this pavement are to be coated with a layer 
 of hard broken stones, 6 inches deep ; of these 6 inches, 4 
 must be first put on and worked down by carriages and 
 horses in the ordinary traffic of the road, care being taken 
 constantly to rake in the ruts until the surface has become 
 IOCS 
 
 ROASTING. 
 
 firm and the crust consolidated. After this, the remaining 
 2 inches of stone may be put on ; the whole of this stone, 
 forming 6 inches of crust, is to consist of pieces broken as 
 nearly as is practicable into a cubical form, and of such a 
 magnitude that they can pass through a ring of 2£ inches 
 internal diameter. The spaces on each side of the middle 
 18 feet are to be coated with broken stone or well-cleansed 
 strong gravel up to the level of the footpath or other 
 boundary of the road, so as to make the whole convexity 
 of the road G inches in the middle above the level of the 
 edges ; and the whole of the materials thus formed and 
 consolidated should be covered with a coating IS inches 
 deep of good gravel, free from clay or earth. 
 
 Such was the method practised by Mr. Telford in the 
 construction of great main roads, such as that between 
 Holyhead and Shrewsbury. In the streets of towns, and 
 other places where roads have to bear a still heavier traffic, 
 such a road as that above described is found to be subject to 
 a superficial wear, so rapid as to produce an intolerable 
 quantity of dust in summer and of mud in winter. In such 
 places recourse has been generally had to pavement. The 
 first object to be secured for a durable pavement, as well as 
 in other roads, is to secure a good foundation. The best 
 method is to lay a foundation of gravel or broken stone, the 
 bed of which should be formed with a convexity sloping to 
 each side by a fall of about 1 in 50. After the first layer of 
 broken stone is put on, the street should be open for car- 
 riages to pass over it until it is consolidated, all ruts being 
 carefully raked in. The same process should be repeated 
 with each successive layer, until a sufficiently solid founda- 
 tion is obtained for the pavement. On this foundation a 
 pavement formed of blocks of stone is laid, the blocks be- 
 ing 10 inches in depth, from 10 to 15 inches in length, and 
 from 6 to 8 inches in width. Such is the structure which is 
 requisite for the streets which are the main thoroughfares 
 of a great city ; a pavement with less strength of foundation, 
 and formed of smaller blocks of stone, being used for the 
 streets of less intercourse. 
 
 To many inconveniences produced in the great thorough- 
 fares of London, such as Oxford-street, Holborn, Fleet- 
 street, the Strand, &c, by reason of the rapid wear of eve- 
 ry kind of pavement hitherto adopted, a suspension of the 
 intercourse during the frequent repairs, the dust in summei 
 and the mud in winter produced by a surface of broken 
 stones, and the intolerable noise produced by every species 
 of stone pavement, have lately excited much inquiry as to 
 the possibility of constructing some road having sufficient 
 strength for a traffic so enormous, sufficient durability to 
 prevent the inconvenience of the frequent suspension of in 
 tercourse by the necessity of repairs, and presenting a sur- 
 face which, while it would be free from the noise of a stone 
 pavement, would not be attended with the inconvenience 
 of dust and mud produced by. a surface of broken stone. 
 This problem appears to be in a great degree solved by the 
 adoption of a pavement of wood. A short piece of Oxford- 
 street was thus paved in the beginning of 1839 ; and after a 
 successful trial of several months, the same pavement was 
 extended nearly throughout the whole extent of that street; 
 and at the present time (1842) this method of pavement is 
 in process of construction in several other thoroughfares of 
 London. The idea of a wooden pavement is not new. In 
 the northern parts of Germany and in Russia such pave- 
 ments have been long in use ; some of the main streets of 
 Petersburgh and Vienna have long been paved in this man- 
 ner. A few years ago a series of experiments were made 
 at New York, to determine the best description of paving 
 for a street. One of the methods adopted was a tesselated 
 pavement, formed of hexagonal blocks of pine wood, mea- 
 suring 6 inches on each side of their transverse section, and 
 12 inches in depth. From the manner in which the timber 
 is cut its' fibres are vertical, and therefore the tendency to 
 wear from vertical pressure is small. The blocks are coat- 
 ed with pitch or tar, forming a smooth upper surface. 
 
 Various methods have been proposed for laying the wood 
 pavements of London: but as these methods are severally 
 as yet only in process of trial, nothing is practically known 
 of their respective merits. There appears, however, to be 
 sufficient to justify a well-grounded expectation that wood 
 pavements of some form or other will soon supersede all 
 others for the great thoroughfares of towns. 
 
 Concerning the formation of roads of various kinds, their 
 drainage, fencing, their management, repairs, &c, much 
 might be said; but the limits which must he imposed on 
 this article compel us to refer the reader for these details to 
 Sir Henry Parnell's Treatise on Roads. See also the En- 
 cyclopedic, article " Chemin ;" Bergier, Histoirr des Grands 
 Ckcmins de V Empire Romain ; Jlnna/cs des Pouts et Cltaus- 
 sees ; Anderson's Commerce; M'Culloch's Treatise on 
 Commerce, Library of Useful Knowledge ; Mr. Telford's 
 Reports. 
 
 UOA'STING, in Chemical Metallurgy, means the pro- 
 tracted application of heat to metallic ores, below their 
 
ROB. 
 
 fusing points. It is generally resorted to to expel volatile 
 natters, especially sulphur, arsenic, carbonic acid, water, 
 fee. 
 
 BOB. A term of Arabic origin, applied by old pharma- 
 ceutical writers to thin extracts or inspissated juices. 
 
 RO'BBERY (from the Germ, rauben, to rob), in Law, is 
 denned a felonious taking of money or goods of any value 
 from the person of another, or in his presence, against his 
 will, by violence or putting him in fear; and this, whether 
 the fear be of injury to the person's property or character. 
 But it is necessary that the fear be of immediate injury, not 
 of some future injurious results ; and then the money must, 
 generally speaking, be taken immediately upon the threat 
 made, anil not afterwards given from fear of consequences. 
 But the extortion of money by threat to accuse of an infa- 
 mous crime was made robbery by 7 1 8 G. 4, c. 29. The 
 law on the subject is now collected in the recent statute 1 
 Vict., c. i!9 ; and robbery is capital only when the robber 
 "at the lime, or immediately before or after," stabs, cuts, or 
 wounds anv |" 
 
 ROBES,'. MASTER OF THE. An officer in the royal 
 household, whose duty, as the designation implies, consists 
 in ordering the sovereign's robes. Under a queen, this of- 
 fice, which has always been one of great dignity, is per- 
 formed by a lady, who enjoys the highest rank of the ladies 
 in the service of the queen. 
 
 ROC, or RU'KH. The well-known monstrous bird of 
 Arabian mythology, of the same fabulous species with the 
 8imurg of the Persians. In the notes to vol. iii. of Mr. 
 Lane's edition of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments are 
 some curious extracts from the writers of old voyages of 
 that nation ; showing that the tale was either founded on, 
 or supported by, the wonderful accounts of travellers. 
 Even Sitibad's well known adventure, when his crew broke 
 the roc's egg, and were attacked in consequence by the en- 
 raged pair of birds, is borrowed from the serious narration 
 of Ibn-EI-Wardee. The roc is also described by Marco 
 Paulo. (Marsden's transl., p. 707.) 'The size of this famous 
 IWTMliri is, of course, described with all the luxuriance of ori- 
 ental imagination. Ibn-EI-Wardee makes one of its wings 
 10,000 fathoms long. Mr. Lane appears to think that this 
 extravagant fiction was suggested by the condor; but the 
 size and power of that bird are much exaggerated, even in 
 the common accounts. The bearded vulture of Egypt seems 
 a better archetype of the rukh. In a drawing from an Il- 
 luminated Persian MS., which Mr. Lane has copied, the 
 roc, or rather simurg, which is represented as performing 
 the slight operation of carrying off three elephants in its 
 beak and claws, is something like a cock, with eagle's 
 wines and an extravagant tail. The simurg is a creature 
 of importance in Persian Mythology : it is the phoenix of 
 oriental fable, one only living at a time, and attains the age 
 of 1700 years. (See the notes to Southey's Thalaba.) 
 
 ROCELLIC ACID. An acid obtained from the Rocella 
 tinctoria. 
 
 ROCIIE'LLE SALT. The tartrate of soda and potassa. 
 it is a double salt, composed of 2 equivalents of tartaric 
 acid (66 X 2) = 132, 1 equivalent of potassa = 48, and 1 of 
 soda = 32. Its crystals, which are large and well-defined 
 prisms, often presenting eight, ten, or twelve sides, include 8 
 equivalents (9 X 8) = 72 of water. 
 
 ROCK. See Geology. 
 
 ROCK CORK. A variety of asbestos, which see. 
 
 ROCK CRYSTAL. A common minernlogical term ap- 
 plied to crystallized silica: it is also called quartz. 
 
 RO'CKET. In the Military Art, a very destructive spe- 
 cies of tire- work, the best kind of which was invented by 
 the late Sir William Congreve, and called after him the 
 Congreoe rocket. The body of the machine is cylindrical, 
 and its head conical. It is filled with very inflammable 
 materials ; on the combustion of which, as in the common 
 sky-rocket, the body is impelled forward with a continual 
 acceleration. 
 
 ROCKING or LOGGING STONES. See Geology. 
 
 ROCK SALT. Common salt found in masses or beds in 
 the new red sandstone, as in Cheshire and elsewhere. See 
 Geolooy. 
 
 ROCK SHELLS. The common name of certain Uni- 
 valves, characterized by the long straight canal which ter- 
 minate* the mouths of their shells. See Murex. 
 
 ROCKWORK. In Architecture, masonry wrought in 
 imitation of rough stone, in various arrangements, and 
 chiefly used in basements of buildings. 
 
 Rockwork, in Gardening, is applied to a quantity of 
 stones, fragments of rock, or even vitrified bricks, piled to- 
 gether in such a manner as to form a nidus for the growth 
 and display of alpine plants. When the pieces of rock are 
 of such forms as can be connected together so as to present 
 the appearance of stratification, that mode of arranging 
 them may be adopted ; and the soil and plants may be 
 placed in vertical, oblique, or horizontal fissures, or on 
 ledges, according to the lines of stratification. When, bow- 
 
 ROLLING PENDULUM. 
 
 ever, as is most frequently the case, land or water-worn 
 stones are used, they may be distributed over a mound of 
 earth, not uniformly, but in groups, with smooth surfaces 
 of soil between, in the manner that may be observed in na 
 ture, where stones of different sizes are seen riMng out of 
 the surface of a green hill or hillock. When agglutinated 
 masses of vitrified bricks are used, either alone oi mixed 
 with land stones of different sizes, they mav be distributed 
 over a mound, or along a bank of soil, in such a manner as 
 to produce a varied surface, without attempting to imitate 
 nature, and with interstices between them for inserting the 
 plants. Imitations of conical hills, caverns, precipices, and 
 even the Alps, on a small scale, have been made in rock- 
 work ; but these, and all other imitations of nature, require 
 to be designed and directed by the eye and mind of an art- 
 ist. In general, the piles of stone called rockwork, in bo- 
 tanic and flower gardens, might with more propriety be 
 called heaps of stones. 
 
 ROD. A measure of length, otherwise called a pole It 
 is 54 yards, or 16A feet ; and four of these make the Gun 
 ter's chain. 
 
 RO'DENTS, Rodentia. (Lat. rodo, I gnaw.) The name 
 given by Cuvier to the nitres of Linnaeus, an order of Un- 
 guiculate Mammals, comprehending those which have two 
 long chisel-shaped incisors in each jaw, and no canines, 
 but a vacant interspace between the incisors and the molars ; 
 the lower jaw is articulated by a longitudinal condyle, in 
 such a way as to allow of no horizontal motion, except 
 from back to front, and vice versa, as is requisite for the ac- 
 tion of gnawing. The molars also have flat crowns, whose 
 enamelled eminences are always transverse, so as to be in 
 opposition to the horizontal motion of the jaw, and to in- 
 crease the power of trituration. The genera in which these 
 eminences are simple lines, and the crown is very flat, are 
 more exclusively frugivorous ; those in which the eminen 
 ces of the teeth are divided into blunt tubercles are omniv 
 orous ; while the small number of such as have no points 
 more readily attack other animals, and approximate some 
 what to the Carnaria. The form of the bodv in the Roden 
 tia is generally such that the hinder parts of it exceed those 
 of the front, so that they rather leap than walk. In some 
 of them this disproportion is even as excessive ns it is in the 
 kangaroos. In the whole of this class the brain is almost 
 smooth, and without furrows ; the orbits are not separated 
 from the temporal fosste, which have but little depth ; and 
 the eyes are altogether lateral. The inferiority of these 
 animals is visible in most of the details of their organiza- 
 tion. Those genera, however, which possess stronger cla* 
 icles have a certain degree of dexterity, and use their fore 
 feet to convey their food to the mouth. 
 
 RODOMONTA'DE. A term that has passed into most 
 European languages ; from Rodomont, a boisterous charac- 
 ter in the Orlando Furioso — signifying a boastful mode of 
 talking. 
 
 ROE. The ova of osseous fishes which are developed 
 simultaneously and in great numbers are so called. 
 
 ROESTONE. A granular limestone, or oolite ; which 
 see. See also Geolooy. 
 
 ROGA'TIONS. (Lat. rogo, Task.) In the Ritual, pub- ' 
 lie supplications or litanies were anciently so termed, until 
 the latter designation began to supersede every other. 
 (Palmer, Orig. Liturgica, vol. i., p. 270.) In the Calendar, 
 the three Rogation days are the Monday, Tuesday, and 
 Wednesday next before Ascension-day. 
 
 ROGUE'S YARN. A yarn of a different twist and col- 
 our from the rest, and inserted in the royal cordage, to iden- 
 tify it in case of its being stolen. 
 
 RO'LLERS. The name given by seamen to unusually 
 heavy waves, which set in upon a coast or island without 
 wind. They are frequent at Ascension. 
 
 RO'LLING, in Mechanics, is when all the parts of the 
 surface of one body come into successive contact with 
 those of another, and under such conditions as that, at eve- 
 ry instant, the portion of the two surfaces which have been 
 in contact are exactly equal. When this condition is not 
 fulfilled, the one surface is said to slide upon the other. 
 The friction of bodies in rolling is much less than in that 
 of sliding ; and hence the advantage of wheels to all kinds 
 of carriages. See Friction. 
 
 Rolling. In Naval language, the lateral oscillation of a 
 vessel. This motion, which is often very great when the 
 vessel is running before the sen, endangers the masts, 
 strains the sides, and loosens the decks at the waterways ; 
 it is also liable to cause the guns to break adrift. When 
 the centre of gravity is too low, the oscillations begin and 
 end violently. The changes in the stowage necessary to 
 modify the nature or extent of the roll are made by seamen 
 from experimental knowledge. 
 
 RO'LLING PE'NDULUM. A cylinder caused to oscil- 
 late in smnll spaces on a horizontal plane. Its mathema- 
 tical expressions are interesting, but it has been applied to 
 no important practical purpose. 
 
 1069 
 
ROLLING TACKLE. 
 
 RO'LLING TA'CKLE. A tackle or pulley hooked to 
 the weather quarter of a yard, and to a lashing or strap 
 round the mast near the slings or parrel of the yard ; the 
 object of it is to keep the yard constantly over to leeward 
 thereby depriving it of play and friction when the ship rolls 
 to windward. 
 
 ROLLS, MASTER OF THE. A high officer of the 
 Court of Chancery, second only to the lord chancellor. He 
 is appointed by the crown by letters patent, and holds his 
 office for life. The master of the rolls administers justice 
 jii a separate court called the Rolls. He has the power of 
 bearing and determining originally the same maiters as the 
 lord chancellor, excepting cases of lunacy and bankruptcy ; 
 but all orders and decrees pronounced by the master of the 
 rolls must be signed by the lord chancellor before they are 
 enrolled. The master of the rolls is also the chief of the 
 twelve masters in Chancery, and chief clerk in the Petty 
 Bag Office : he is the keeper also of all the records of the 
 Court of Chancery after the decrees and orders have been 
 enrolled ; and on that account he was anciently styled 
 fruanlien des rolles. The master of the rolls ranks imme- 
 diately after the chief juitice of the King's Bench: his sal- 
 ary, by the stat. 6 Geo. 4, c. 84, is A"7000 a year. 
 
 "Before the passing of the act 3 &. 4 W. 4, c. 94, the mas- 
 ter of the rolls did not hear motions, pleas, or demurrers ; 
 and whatever was presented for his decision, other than 
 the hearing of causes, was brought before him by petition. 
 By the above-mentioned act, however, this was altered ; 
 and motions, pleas, and demurrers are now heard by him in 
 the same manner as by the other equity judges. By the 
 act 1 & 2 Vict., chap. 94, entitled " An Act for the better 
 Custody of the Public Records," the master of the rolls for 
 the time being is entrusted with the custody both of the 
 public records and those of the common law courts and 
 Court of Exchequer. 
 
 ROMAN ALUM. An alum extracted from the volcanic 
 rocks of the Solfaterra near Naples : it crystallizes in 
 opaque cubes, and appears to contain more alumina than 
 the common octoedral alum. 
 
 ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture. 
 
 ROMAN CA'THOLICS, ROMANISTS, OR PAPISTS. 
 The names by which Protestants designate the members of 
 the large and ancient church, which regards the bishop or 
 pope of Rome as its infallible spiritual head, and assumes 
 to itself the title of the Catholic, or universal. A rapid re- 
 view of the external fortunes of this system, as connected 
 with the holy see, will be found in the article Papacy; the 
 principal doctrines, also, by which it is distinguished are 
 detailed under the several heads. (See Transcbstantta- 
 tion, Mass, Penance, Purgatory, &c.) It will be suffi- 
 cient in this place to point out the general argument upon 
 which the Roman system has been erected. 
 
 The Roman doctors hold that the Scripture is not suffi- 
 cient for its own interpretation. The books which compose 
 the canon of the New Testament are, they conceive, de- 
 sultory and incomplete; being many of them written for 
 special occasions, at a period considerably later than the 
 foundation of the religion in various districts, in some of 
 which whole generations of believers may have passed 
 away without having seen or heard of their precious con- 
 tents. It is not to be supposed, however, that doctrines so 
 important as those shadowed forth in the Epistles of St. 
 Paul, or the Gospel of St. John, could have been left un- 
 taught to the churches which flourished before their publi- 
 cation or beyond their reach. It must be admitted, there- 
 fore, they argue, that the first preachers of Christianity 
 must have been commissioned and instructed to deliver 
 these same doctrines orally; and it is affirmed that several 
 important doctrines are imperfectly developed in Scripture, 
 and would not be understood, except for some such illustra- 
 tion by the way, the result of which is conveyed in the 
 creeds of the first centuries. It is also affirmed that the 
 practice of the primitive church, the infallibility of which 
 is assumed, authenticates various articles of Roman belief, 
 of which only very slight hints are to be found in Scripture, 
 and such, perhaps, as would not have been discovered but 
 for this very evidence from the usage. This line of argu- 
 ment is admitted also by many Protestants, the facts al- 
 leged being disputed, and opposite results obtained. It 
 must be allowed, however, that the Catholics do not ad- 
 vance any article of belief without pointing out some sup- 
 posed ground for it in Scripture, although the only shadow 
 of proof of this kind is in some cases to be found nowhere 
 but in the writings which Protestants esteem apocryphal. 
 But wh"e Protestants may refer to the practice of the' prim- 
 itive church, and the traditions which must have circulated 
 in those ages, as a genuine historical evidence of the scrip- 
 tural interpretation of the earliest and purest times, they 
 find too much contradiction in the individual witnesses to 
 consider any one system deduced therefrom as infallibly 
 right. The Romanists, on the contrary, attaching more im- 
 portance to this kind of evidence, and labouring under the 
 1070 
 
 ROMANCE. 
 
 same difficulty in discriminating between genuine and cor 
 rupt traditions, take refuge in the idea of a spiritual head 
 of the church, an authorized interpreter of tradition, an in- 
 fallible expounder of the faith, and him they seat in the 
 chair of St. Peter at Rome; maintaining that the dogmas 
 which have been advanced from this source have always 
 been those of the Catholic Church, and always authentic. 
 In later times, however, a question has been much agitated 
 respecting the relative authority of popes and councils: the 
 superiority of each has been maintained by different classes 
 of theologians, and it is certain that in some cases the de- 
 cision of popes have been ultimately reversed by councils. 
 It is clear that there cannot be anywhere an authority com- 
 petent to settle the question ; but it is believed that the opin- 
 ion now generally acquiesced in is, that the two are co-or- 
 dinate powers, and that infallibility resides in the decrees 
 of a pope in council. 
 
 ROMA'NCE. In Literature, a work of fiction in prose 
 or verse, containing the relation of a series of adventures, 
 either marvellous or probable. A tale confined to the lat- 
 ter class of events has, indeed, been considered to be more 
 strictly designated by the term novel. (Sec Novel.) But 
 as our nomenclature for works of tiction is not very precise 
 or accurate, the name romance is very frequently used to 
 comprehend both. 
 
 The term romance is derived from the class of languages 
 in which such fictitious narratives, in modern times, were 
 first widely known and circulated. These were the tongues 
 derived from the Latin, Italian, Spanish, and French, which 
 were all Roman dialects, in contradistinction to the Euro- 
 pean languages of Teutonic origin. Fut the "langue Ro- 
 mano" more properly signifies the dialect of southern 
 France, Catalonia, &.c, of which the Provencal was a va- 
 riety. 
 
 The famous Milesian Tales of antiquity are thought to 
 have been, in classical times, the class of writings 
 approaching to our modern romances. All the original 
 Greek compositors of this kind have perished. But we 
 have, in the Golden Ass of Apuleius, a Latin imitation of 
 these, written in the later times of the Roman empire. It 
 contains a series of wonderful adventures, sorceries, trans- 
 formations, love, religion, &c. ; and although it has been as- 
 serted that the romance, in its proper sense, was unknown 
 to the ancients.it would be difficult to say In what respect, 
 except the total absence of chivalrous sentiment, which is 
 of modern growth, this curious fragment differs from those 
 later inventions which we have agreed to call by that name. 
 
 The same may be said, and with even greater strictness, 
 of the Greek pastoral romances; a class of works apper 
 taining to a later period, of which the famous Daphnis and 
 C/iloc of Longus is the first known specimen. They con- 
 tain narratives of amours, adventures, &.c, usually inter- 
 mixed with some supernatural interference; and they have 
 the great characteristic of a modern novel — a pair of lovers, 
 by way of hero and heroine, whose attachment is generally 
 brought to a happy termination. 
 
 The earliest modern romances were collections of chival- 
 rous adventures, chiefly founded on the lives and achieve- 
 ments of the warlike adherents of two sovereigns, one of 
 whom, perhaps, had only a fabulous existence, while the 
 annals of the other have given rise to a wonderful 
 fables — Arthur and Charlemagne. These romances were 
 metrical compositions in that branch of the modern French 
 language termed the langue d'oii, which prevailed through 
 out the north of France, and especially in Normandy. Be 
 sides these, a great variety of smaller tales, some chival 
 rous, some marvellous, some simply ludicrous, termed fabli 
 aux, exist in the same language. The date of these compo 
 sitions extends from the r2th to the 15th centuries. 
 
 From the hands of these rhymers the tales of chivalry 
 passed first into those of prose compilers, who reduced them 
 into a form more resembling that of our modern romances. 
 The French prose romances of chivalry, still confined to 
 the same classes of subjects, belong to the 14th and 15th 
 centuries. These, again, gave birth in two different coun- 
 tries to two widely differing series of works of imagination. 
 In Italy, the poets termed Romanzieri, taking the adven- 
 tures of the knights of Charlemagne as their subject, trans- 
 ferred the rude conceptions of their predi cessors into one 
 of the most finished and enchanting forms of poetry to 
 which modern fancy has given birth. Boiardo, in the latter 
 half of the 15th century, was the first of these poets ; and 
 the names of Pulci, Ariosto, and Tasso, three of the greatest 
 in Italian literature, grace their long catalogue. In Spain 
 and Portugal a new class of chivalrous romances was called 
 into existence. Lobeira, a Portuguese, in the 14th century 
 composed the first four books of Amadis de Gaul. This fa- 
 mous work resembles in character the French romances of 
 chivalry, but narrates the exploitsof anew and entirely too* 
 aginary hero. Amadis was finished, and a long list of similar 
 romances added to it by subsequent Spanish and Portuguese 
 writers. In these, while adventures became more and mure 
 
ROMANCE. 
 
 marvellous, the fanciful spirit of chivalry was more and 
 more carried into wild exaggeration. They became, how- 
 ever. >n popular as to lie. transplanted into most European 
 3, and even in France to supersede the hemic tales 
 -and Charlemagne. Thej declined with the ad- 
 vance of a better taste in literature after the art of printing 
 had been for some time introduced ; and were finally driven 
 OOt of fashion by the wit of Cervantes, whose Don Quixote 
 is .'limed, in great measure, against them. 
 
 Meanwhile, a new species of notion had acquired vane 
 in Italy, to which the term novel was first applied. This 
 iiiormis or humorous tale ; of which the Decamr 
 ron of Boccaccio contains the earliest, and by far the most 
 popular collection. The stories were derived from many 
 originals ; but especially from tbe fabliaux, of which men- 
 been already made. The Italian Xovellieri are 
 extremely numerous ; but their compositions are always 
 short, and would, in our modem language, be designated by 
 the term talc rather than novel or romance. They flour- 
 ished in the loth and 16th C e nturie s. From tin 
 
 ved the comic satirical tale of Spain ; a more sus- 
 tained and looser class of composition, of which I.azarillo 
 n a". II far ache are the best known 
 But in these, which were also caricatures of 
 the chivalrous romances, ■ long course of independent ex- 
 ploits of the hero formed the substance of tbe work, and not 
 a story possessing an individual [H>int and interest. 
 
 of which the first part was published in 
 
 the joint result of the romances of chivalry, which 
 
 inded to ridicule, and of the romances of low life, 
 
 Of Whose character it contains a large intermixture. Al- 
 
 rvantes had more In view, perhaps (the satirical 
 
 Object of bis writing), than the direct delineation of man- 
 ners and occurrences, such as we now expect in a novel, 
 yet it may lie fairly said that bis immortal work is the first 
 of its kind in which human nature is brought on the Stage 
 alike unadorned and undegruded ; neither exaggerated by 
 the ridiculous costume of chivalry, nor lowered by the fa- 
 miliar buffoonery of a comic tale. While, therefore, it has 
 been the source of numerous imitations in its satirical char- 
 wide popularity has produced much more' lasting 
 effects in another manner: it gave the first example of a 
 work of fiction in which the grave and gay events of life 
 Bright be mingled together; ami in which, 
 
 ments of the author might lie conveyed through 
 the medium of fictitious personages and . . 
 
 On the other hand, the chivalrous romance had been 
 
 sei/.ed. at tin earlier period, by a very different (renins from 
 
 I applied to another object The fic- 
 
 rtahelnis (the Hittcriet of Omrgantuanai I'anta- 
 
 (rruel) cannot be termed romances ; but their popularity 
 
 treat, that France was inundated for more than a 
 
 century afterwards with Rabelaisian tales; and many of 
 
 the elements of the modern low r once, comic hyperbole, 
 
 I trie humour, and much freedom and grossness of de- 
 lineation, have been undoubtedly derived to us from Rabe- 
 lais and his admirers. Swift and Sterne were both cs-en- 
 tially imitators of this singular g< 
 
 In the 17th century, l.e Sage naturalized the Spanish ro- 
 e in France. His works present a singular mixture of 
 different styles, although all derived from the same coun- 
 try. In Gil Bias, for example (if that work be not actually 
 li origin), we have something of the humour of 
 Dun Quixote, the form as well as much of the substance of 
 Guzman d'Mfarache, &c. ; and much intermixture of a class 
 of tales of love and intrigue, which, coming originally from 
 the Italian novellieri, had acquired a certain chivalrous col- 
 ouring in passing through the hands of Spanish imitators. 
 There is, moreover, a touch of French taste and philosophy, 
 such as afterwards, when mixed with satire, nave birth to 
 the modern philosophical tale or romance, of which Vol- 
 taire's writings contain the best known specimens. 
 
 After Le Sage, a new class of romances suddenly grew 
 into fashion in France— the heroic; derived, indeed, in part 
 from an earlier source, the pastoral romance of the 16th 
 century. Of these, the Clclie and Cassandre of Mademoi- 
 selle Scudery were among the most popular examples, al- 
 thougfa they have long ceased to be read. This species of 
 composition was, in fact, a revival of the old chivalrous ro- 
 mance, without its supernatural marvels, but with even 
 greater exaggeration of sentiment. Its temporary success is 
 rather to be attributed to a caprice of fashion than to the 
 natural progress of taste. It was not, however, wholly 
 without its use, as it called back some degree of sentiment 
 and high feeling into the romance, which was in danger of 
 degenerating wholly into a comic cast. 
 
 During the 18th century, the romance and novel enjoyed 
 a popularity, both in England and France, which threw 
 comparatively into the shade every other species of ficti- 
 ious literature. It would be impossible to continue such a 
 sketch as the present, so as to trace out the various styles 
 and species of those compositions which grew into vogue 
 
 ROMANTIC. 
 
 by the success of distinguished writers iu each respective 
 branch. Iu England. Richardson transferred into ordinary 
 life somewhat of the retined sentiments which distinguish- 
 ed the heroic romance, and thus formed the basis of the 
 modern English novel, properly so called, or novel of m;m- 
 : ners. His Pamela appeared in 1740; his last work, .Sir 
 , Charles Gratuli.-ini, in 1".">3. Fielding and Smollett, about 
 the same time, revived the old comic romance, adapted to 
 English scenes and characters, Sterne did tin- same by 
 
 the humorous or Rabelaisian style of writing, but added ail 
 intermixture of pathos which had certainly never been 
 
 joined before with so incongruous a c panion. To these 
 
 four writers, in conjunction with Goldsmith's / 
 iVak'firld. confessedly an independent original, almost till 
 the English fictitious prose literature of the last century 
 which is not imitated from foreign works may be said to 
 owe its existence. In France, Marivauv. Prevost, and, with 
 a wore taste than theirs, the younger t'rebillon. formed 
 the national manner iu this class of writing for some time. 
 Their productions have much of the same character with 
 Richardson, but a far lower tone of morality, and 
 
 less life like description. Hut the popularity of the famous 
 a new turn, not only in France, but 
 over Europe, to the public taste in this branch of writing. 
 Marivaux and I'revost may be said to have been Rousseaorl 
 models, as to the externals of his great romance; but its 
 tone and sentiment are peculiarly its own. In France, after 
 many Inferior imitators. Madame de Staei, the first of fe- 
 male novelists, must be classed as the best and latest disci- 
 ple of the school of Rousseau. In Germany, his st\ le had 
 even greater success; and he may be said to ha-. 
 into hie at once the taste and the power of that people and 
 
 literature for fictitious composition. Wleland, Kotzebue, 
 and Goethe (.Sorrows of Hi rtlur and Wilhclm M* 
 all, though with much originality of their own. essentially 
 followers of Rousseau ; Lafontaine, and many other inferior 
 w liters, more direct imitators. 
 
 In our own ti s, (virile the novel of manners continues 
 
 to maintain its empire in popular estimation, another spe- 
 cies of romance— the historical — litis likewise acquired a 
 most powerful hold on the public taste, which, even more 
 than the first, is chiefly of English original. Tile historical 
 romance, in which fictitious scenes and personages are 
 made to serve as vehicles for the historical portraiture of 
 past limes, had, especially in Germany, been cultivated 
 
 w ith success before the writings of sir Walter Bcott ; but it 
 is to his adoption of [his branch of composition, and the ex- 
 traordinary talent which he devoted to it, that it 
 popularity and universal imitation are entirely owing. 
 
 ROMANCE'RO. In Spanish, the general name for a 
 collection of the national ballads or romances; so called 
 from the Roman or Romanic tongue, which, in the early 
 part of the middle ages, seems to have been the common 
 appellation of all Ihe dialects spoken from the Alps to the 
 western extremity of the .Mediterranean. The /,' 
 
 the most celebrated of these collections, was pub- 
 lished in 1604-14. 
 
 ROMANE'SQUB. (Fr.) In Painting, appertaining lo 
 fable or romance. In historical painting, it consists in the 
 choice of a fanciful subject rather than one founded on fact. 
 The romaiir.iijue is different from romantic, because the lat- 
 ter may be founded on truth, which the former never is. 
 
 Romanesque, in Literature, is applied to the common dia- 
 lect of Languedoc and some other districts in the south of 
 France, which is a remnant of the old Romanee language, 
 now nearly extinct. This term must not he confounded 
 with Romaic, which is used to signify the language of mod- 
 ern Greece. 
 
 RO'MAN ORDER. See Composite Order. 
 
 RO'.MAN SCHOOL. This school of painting, which, 
 like the Florentine, addressed itself to the mind, is formed 
 upon antique models. Its style was poetical ; embellished 
 with all the grandeur, pathos, and freedom from common 
 matters that the happiest imagination could conceive. In 
 touch its masters were easy, correct in drawing, learned 
 and full of grace. In composition it is somefimes whimsi 
 cal, yet always elegant. The heads of the figures are al- 
 ways drawn with gre.at respect to truth and expression, and 
 it exhibits great intelligence in contrasting attitudes. It is 
 in colouring that it displays the greatest marks of negligence, 
 while in draperies it is eminently successful. At the head 
 of this school was RatTaelle; and among its other principal 
 masters were Ciulio Romano, Zuccaro, M. A. Caravaggio, 
 Baroccio, Andrea Sacchi (perhaps the best colourist of this 
 schooU. 
 
 ROMA'NTIC, ROMANTICISM. By romantic is un- 
 derstood that singular intermixture of the wonderful and 
 the mysterious with the sublime and beautiful which intro 
 duces us into an enchanted existence, and raises us above 
 the bare realities of life by its dazzling peculiarities. Anti- 
 quity was a stranger to this feeling, nor had the classic 
 languages any term to express it. See Chivalry. 
 
 1071 
 
ROMAN VITRIOL. 
 
 Almost all authors concur in the difficulty of giving a pre- 
 cise signification to the term romantic. The Dictionnaire 
 de V Academic Francaise says, "Le romantique est un genre 
 nouveau. Romantique se dit encore des ecrivains qui nffec- 
 tent de s'affranchir des regies de composition et do style 
 etablies par l'example des auteurs classiques." This defi- 
 nition, thougli far from being precise, is perhaps the best 
 that has hitherto been given; and instead of attempting to 
 rival it, we shall content ourselves with placing it before 
 the reader. 
 
 The term romanticism — an offshoot of romantic — is of re- 
 cent invention, and is applied chiefly to the fantastic and 
 unnatural productions of the modern French school of nov- 
 elists, at the head of which are Victor Hugo, Balzac, "George 
 Sand," &c, and their imitators in France and other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 ROMAN VITRIOL. Sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol. 
 
 ROMANZIE'RI. In Italian Literature, a series of poets 
 who took for the subject of their compositions the chival- 
 rous romances of France and Spain ; and, with one or two 
 exceptions only, those relating to the exploits of Charle- 
 magne and his fabulous Paladins. The earliest of these 
 poets flourished in the latter end of the 15th century. Boi- 
 ardo, although not absolutely the first in order of time, is 
 considered as having laid the groundwork, in his Orlando 
 Innamorato, of the edifice of fiction raised by his successors. 
 Pulci, in the Morgante JUaggiore, was the first who allied 
 the romantic incidents and sentiments of chivalry with light 
 and humorous satire. Berni remodelled the work of Boiar- 
 do. Ariosto, in the Orlando Furioso, carried this species of 
 poetry to the highest degree of perfection. These are the 
 tour principal Romanzieri ; but many other poets of the 
 same school flourished until the end of the 16th century. 
 Tasso composed one of his early poems (11 Rinaldo) on the 
 common model. In the beginning of the 18lh century, the 
 Abate Fortiguerra compiled his Ricciardetto, a poem of a 
 semi-burlesque character, intended originally as a parody, 
 but completed as a serious composition ; and thus closes tile 
 list of the Romanzieri. All these poets adopted the ottava 
 rima, invented by Boccaccio (see Ottava Rim a). In their 
 poems the thread of the main narration is frequently inter- 
 rupted by a multiplicity of minor adventures and intrigues ; 
 and this complication of plot appears to have constituted 
 one of the characteristic features of the chivalrous epic. In 
 most of them (from the time of Pulci) each book begins 
 with a sort of prologue, more or less connected with the 
 subject which follows : and these prologues form, perhaps, 
 the greatest charm of the poem of Ariosto; effecting the 
 transitions from one subject to another by means of some 
 touch of pathetic or elevated reflections, or of light humour 
 and playful satire, generally in the form of an address to 
 the supposed audience, the poem being framed on the model 
 of a tale recounted by a minstrel to an assembly of knights 
 and ladies. 
 
 ROMA'NZOFITE. A mineral from Finland of a brown 
 colour; it is a triple silicate of lime, alumina, and iron. 
 
 RO'NDEAU. (Fr.) In French Poetry, a little poem of 
 thirteen verses, divided into three unequal strophes, with 
 two rhymes (eight lines masculine and five feminine, or 
 vice versa). The two or three first words of the first verse 
 serve as the burden, and recur in that shape after the eighth 
 and thirteenth verses. There are also double rondeaux and 
 single rondeaux ; the latter an obsolete but easier kind of 
 verse. In Music, the term rondeaux is applied to a light air, 
 in which the first strain forms the burden, and as such is 
 frequently repeated : it is also written rondo. 
 
 RO'NDEL. In Fortification, a small round tower, erect- 
 ed in some particular cases at the foot of the bastion. 
 
 ROOD. (Ang. Sax. rode, beam ; used for the Cross.) The 
 crucifix, sometimes also the image of a saint, was so called 
 in old English churches. Roods were set in shrines or tab- 
 ernacles, and the place where they stood was called the 
 rood-loft, which was commonly over or near the passage 
 out of the body of the church into the chancel. They were 
 all ordered to be taken down in 1548 (Burnet, Hist, of the 
 Reformation, vol. ii., book 1), but restored for a short time 
 under Queen Mary. (Archceologia, vol. i.) 
 
 Rood. A square measure, the fourth part of a statute 
 acre, and equal to 40 perches or square poles. 
 
 ROOF. In Architecture, the uppermost part of a build- 
 ing, containing the timber work, with its covering of slate, 
 lead, tile, or other material. Carpenters, however, restrict 
 their use of the word to the timber framing alone. 
 
 The inclination of the sides of a roof will, considering the 
 species of covering to be the same in all, depend very much 
 on the temperature of the country to which it is to be adap- 
 ted. In the southern countries of Europe roofs do not re- 
 quire much elevation, while as we proceed northward they 
 require a far greater pitch. In the warm, or, rather, hot 
 climates, buildings require nothing more than a terrace for 
 their covering ; but in the temperate climates, wherein the 
 latitude exceeds 42 degrees, experience shows that the flat 
 1072 
 
 ROOF. 
 
 covering of a building cannot be practised with any expec 
 tation of durability. The rains of hot climates are violent, 
 while those of temperate climates are searching. In the 
 more northern latitudes, the moisture, the driving nature of 
 the rain, and, in addition, the duration of the snow on the 
 roofs, require, it is obvious, a more considerable inclination. 
 Such materials as lead, copper, sine, and the like, which, 
 supposing them one piece, as, in fief, when used, they ought 
 to be, are not fair examples from wftkh to draw inferences 
 in the theory whereof we speak ; for, if well executed, they 
 must either of them be consideied as one homogeneous 
 piece : but in the case of tiles, whetber of marble, stone, or 
 clay, the case is far diflerent. Without entering minutely 
 into the details of this subject, we wiU merely observe that, 
 supposing the inclination of a roof to He zero at the equator, 
 if we add to it an inclination of three degrees for every cli- 
 mate from the equator to the polar ciix.'e, each climate be- 
 ing taken at 2° 42' 30", we obtain resul.s which show that 
 the roofs and pediments of temples of antiquity must have 
 been well studied in that useful point of view which re- 
 garded their durability and impenetrability by rain. The 
 Encyc. Met. we believe to have been the first instrument of 
 promulgating this curious theory ; and believing in it as we 
 do, we can, if it be not true, only use the Italian saying, " si 
 non e vero, e ben trovato." The theory would give an in- 
 clination to roofs at Athens of 1CJ degrees, and they are 
 very nearly so inclined; the temple of Minena being 16 
 degrees, and that of the temple of Eretheus li$ degrees. 
 In Rome, according to this theory, the inclination of a roof, 
 and, consequently, pediment, should be 22 degrees ; aud ex- 
 perience finds it varying from 23 degrees to 24i. The ad- 
 vocates for the propriety of strictly copying Greek forms 
 and details under the latitude of London will, if they have 
 studied the aesthetics of the art, find no Jittle difficuliy in 
 establishing their doctrines after weighing this matter im- 
 partially. But our limits prevent farther observation; we 
 will merely subjoin a table conformable to tho theory : 
 
 
 
 
 Inclination ot 
 
 Place. 
 
 Latitude to 
 
 Length of 
 
 Roof, supposing 
 
 o ear est Minuie. 
 
 longest Day. 
 
 Covering to be 
 
 
 
 
 Roman Tiles. 
 
 Carthagena , 
 
 37° 3^ 
 
 14h. 42m. 
 
 19° 12' 
 
 Palermo . 
 
 3d 7 
 
 14 48 
 
 19 43 
 
 (Latitude of 
 Athens is 38° 5') 
 
 I • • 
 
 
 (see above.) 
 
 Lisbon . • 
 
 33 42 
 
 14 60 
 
 20 
 
 Madrid 
 
 40 25 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 
 Naples 
 
 40 50 
 
 15 2 
 
 21 12 
 
 Rome . . 
 
 41 54 
 
 15 10 
 
 22 
 
 Paris 
 
 43 SO 
 
 16 6 
 
 27 36 
 
 London 
 
 51 31 
 
 16 34 
 
 30 24 
 
 Amsterdam 
 
 52 22 
 
 16 44 
 
 31 24 
 
 Edinburgh 
 
 55 57 
 
 17 32 
 
 36 12 
 
 Petersburgh 
 
 59 56 
 
 13 44 
 
 43 24 
 
 A roof, as respects its construction, involves some knowl 
 edge of mathematics. Of the general principles on which 
 its proper construction depends, we shall here subjoin some 
 account. The obvious mode of covering a building, where 
 a greater or lesser inclination of the sides of the roof is re- 
 quired by the climate, is to place two sloping rafters C C 
 upon the walls B B, as in the subjoined 
 diagram (fig. 1), meeting at the apex A ; 
 where we will suppose them so connect- 
 ed with a hinge as to be inseparable, but 
 capable of descending by their gravity, 
 as shown in No. 2. The walls are con- 
 sidered as solid masses, moveable on 
 points P. If the walls be not of suffi- 
 cient weight, the thrust that will be thus 
 exerted on them by the tendency of the 
 rafters to spread at their feet will throw 
 the walls out of an upright, as in No. 2, 
 and the whole assemblage will be de- 
 stroyed. By the laws of mechanics it is 
 known that the horizontal thrust thus 
 acting on the walls is proportional to the 
 length of a line d e, drawn at right angles to the rafter, in- 
 tersecting a vertical line drawn from the apex, which it is 
 manifest must increase as the roof becomes flatter. To 
 counteract the thrust above mentioned, nothing more is ne- 
 cessary than to tie together the feet of m.) 
 the rafters, as in the following diagram 
 (fig. 2) : in which A B is the tie in ques- . 
 tion, and thence is called a tie-beam. If ' 
 the extent be not very great, the rafters 
 may be kept from spreading by a minor tie, as at <i b, called 
 a collar. Beyond certain lengths or spans, however, it will 
 occur to the reader that a tie-beam will itself have a tenden- 
 cy to bend, or sag, as the workmen call it, in the middle , 
 and from this circumstance a fresh con- (3.) 
 trivance becomes necessary, which will ^jtifc» 
 be seen in the annexed diagram (fig. 3), ^>*<^' 
 
 marked c d : this is called a kingpost, or, rr 
 
 more properly, king piece, inasmuch as it ' ' 
 
ROOK. 
 
 does not perform the office of a post, but rather of a tie, forit 
 ties up the be;im to prevent its bending. If the rafters be so 
 long as to be liable to benil, two pieces a a, called struts, 
 are introduced ; which, having their footing against the 
 ■ides of the kin"; |>ost, act as posts to support or strut up the 
 rafters at their weakest point. The piece of framing thus 
 contrived is altogether called a truss. It is obvious that by 
 means of the upper joints of the struts we obtain more 
 { jicteof support (fig. 4), or rather suspension ; and that but 
 m \ for the compressibility of the timber, 
 
 there would belno limit to the space 
 which a roof might be made to cov- 
 This compressibility takes place 
 1 at those points where the fibres of 
 the wood are pressed at right angles, or nearly so, with 
 their direction, and many ways are adopted for avoiding this 
 inconvenience. There is a species of roof, dependent in 
 construction on the principles we have just described, which 
 we shall here briefly notice, and whereof the following is a 
 » > diagram (fig. 5). This roof has three 
 
 _ w n A points of support. A, B, A ; the posts 
 A A, A A are called queen posts ; the 
 collar A B A is here a straining- piece, 
 instead of a tie, as it was in tlie ex- 
 ample of ties first noticed, its operation being exactly the 
 reverse of a tie. The curb or mansard roof is one in which 
 * story is obtained, as may be seen in the annexed diagram 
 (fig. 6). Its principles are the same as 
 those already mentioned, and do not here 
 require farther notice. In the execution of 
 roofs the expense of trussing every pair of 
 rafters would be unnecessary, and the prac- 
 tice would also load the walls with a far 
 greater weight than would be expedient: it is therefore the 
 custom to p r M o these principal parts of a roof at certain 
 Intervals, widen, however, should never exceed ten feet. 
 The rafters which are actually trussed are called principal 
 rafters ; and by the intervention of the purlinc A in the di- 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ffig. 7.) 
 
 agruut (fig. 7), are made to bear the 
 smaller or common rafters, which 
 are notched down on it. These com- 
 mon rafters are received by or pitch 
 upon a plate B, called a pole-plate ; 
 and the principal rafters, which full 
 on the tie-beam, nre ultimately borne by the wall-plate C. 
 (fig. 8.) When beams, in either roofs or floors, are 
 . — t V , " — . so long that they cannot be procured in one 
 * r *T^ ' piece, two pieces to form the required length 
 
 cm 
 
 _} are scarfed together, by indenting them at 
 their joints and bolting them together, of 
 
 Which practice two modes are here subjoined (fig. 8). 
 
 ROOK. The name of a well-known species of crow 
 (Corvus frugilcgus, Linn.), resembling in size and colour 
 the carrion crow, but differing in haviing the base of the 
 Ml whitish and scurfy, and bare of feathers. "This," says 
 Montague, "is acquired by the bird's habit of thrusting its 
 bill Into the ground after worms and various insects. The 
 rook is content with feeding on the insect tribe, particularly 
 the larva; of the cockchaffer ; and while following the plough 
 to remove from the newly-made furrow this destructive 
 grub, it more than repays the husbandman for the grain 
 which it may afterwards pick up. The rook is gregarious 
 at all seasons, resorting constantly to the same trees every 
 spring to breed, when the nests may be seen crowded one 
 over another upon the upper branches. It lays four or five 
 eggs, much like those of the crow, of a greenish colour, 
 spotted and blotched with dusky. After their young have 
 taken wing, they all forsake their nest-trees, returning to 
 them again in October to roost; but as winter comes on, 
 they generally select more sheltered places at night in some 
 neighbouring wood, to which they fly off together." (Mon- 
 \ague. Ornithological Dictionary.) The wood or grove of 
 'all trees, in which rooks congregate and build their nests, 
 is called a rookery. 
 
 ROOT. In Arithmetic, a number which being multi- 
 plied into itself any number of times produces another num- 
 ber, called a power, of which power the original number is 
 the root. The root takes the name of the power whose 
 root it is. Thus, it is called the square root, if the power 
 is a square ; the cube root, if the power is a cube, and so on. 
 
 Root. That part of the central axis of a plant which is 
 formed by the descending fibres, and whose function is to 
 attract liquid food from the soil in which it is mingled. It 
 differs from the stem in not having leaves or buds upon its 
 surface, and in its tendency to burrow under ground, re- 
 treating from light ; nevertheless, some kinds of roots are 
 exclusively formed in air and light, as in the ivy, and other 
 such plants. 
 
 ROOT OF AN EQUATION, in Algebra, signifies the 
 value of the unknown quantity which enters into the equa- 
 tion. See Equation. 
 
 ROO'TSTOCK. In Botany, a prostrate rooting thick- 
 3 Y 
 
 ROSEMARY. 
 
 ened stem, which yearly produces young branches or plants. 
 It is common in Iradacees and Epiphytous Orchidacie, and 
 is often confounded with the root. Ginger and orris root 
 are common instances of it. 
 
 ROSA'CE^E. (Rosa, one of the genera.) A large and 
 important natural order of plants, the species of which are, 
 for the most part, Inhabitants of the cooler parts of the 
 world. They are in some cases trees, in others shrubs, and 
 in a great number of instances herbaceous perennial plants ; 
 scarcely any are annuals. No natural orders contain more 
 species of general interest, in the beauty of their Sowers or 
 their perfume : there is the rose itself, and various species 
 of the genera Rubus, Spiraa, Petcntilla, Gcum. and I'nrus 
 The apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, nectarine, apricot, 
 and similar valuable fruits, are the produce of others. The 
 white thorn, with all its numerous exotic allies, belongs to 
 the genus Crataegus. As medicinal plants, some are of 
 considerable importance. The root of Potent ilia rcptiuis. 
 Geum urbanam, and others, is powerfully astringent; the 
 bark of Prunus cucevmilia has some reputation as a febri- 
 fuge ; an Abyssinian plant called Brayera anthelmintica 
 has energetic vermifugal qualities ; and finally, prussic 
 acid is obtained from the leaves and seeds of the almond, 
 peach, plum, and other related species. This important as- 
 semblage of plants is distinguished by having several pe 
 tals ; separate carpels ; distinct, perigynous, numerous sta 
 mens ; alternate leaves, and an exogenous mode of growth 
 
 RO'SARY. (Lat. rosarium, a rose-bed.) A Roman 
 Catholic devotional practice ; which consists in reciting 15 
 times the Paternoster, or Lord's Prayer, and 150 limes the 
 Ave Maria, or angelical salutation ; but as the computa- 
 tion is made by means of beads, the string of beads used 
 for this purpose has acquired the popular name of a rosary. 
 The rosary is thus three times the ordinary chaplet. It is 
 instituted in honour of the fifteen principal mysteries in the 
 life of our Saviour and the Virgin Mary. Some have at- 
 tributed its institution to St. Dominic; others (among whom 
 is Mosheim. cent. x.. part 2, c. 4) give it a higher antiquity. 
 The festival of the Kosary falls on the first Sunday in Oc- 
 tober. Its name was changed by Gregory XIII. from that of 
 St. Mary of the Victory, given by Pius V. on its original in- 
 stitution in honour of the battle of Lepanto, which took 
 place on that day. 
 
 ROSE. (Lat. rosa.) In Botany, the English name for 
 the well-known and universally cultivated flower of the ge- 
 nus Rosa. (See Rosacea.) It would occupy too much 
 space to point out even cursorily the various ceremonies 
 in which this flower plays a distinguished part ; suffice it to 
 say, that in the earliest ages it was regarded with even 
 more favour than at the present times, and both at public 
 and private festivals was considered an indispensable in- 
 gredient. (See the Damcn lexicon.) In architecture, the 
 sculptured representation of this flower is found in the cen- 
 tre of each face of the abacus in the Corinthian capital, 
 and is called the rose of that capital. Roses are also used 
 to decoiate the caissons in the soffilts of coronas and ceil- 
 ings. 
 
 ROSE ENGINE. In Mechanics, an appendage to the 
 turning lathe, by which a surface of 
 wood or metal, as a watch-case, is en- 
 graved with a variety of curved lines. 
 The assemblage of these lines present- 
 ing some resemblance to a full-blown 
 rose, is called by the French roscttt; 
 and hence the engine by which tbe or- 
 nament is produced is called a rose en- 
 gine. The mechanism by which the fig- 
 ures are produced is sometimes called 
 a camb, and may be described as fol- 
 lows : " A wheel upon me axle C turns 
 uniformly in the direction A B I) E. A 
 rod m n moves in guides, which only 
 permit it to ascend and descend perpen- 
 dicularly. Its extremity m rests upon a 
 path or groove raised from the face of 
 the wheel, and shaped into such a curve 
 that as the wheel revolves the rod m n shall bo moved 
 alternately in opposite directions, through the guides, with 
 the required velocity. The manner in which the velocity 
 varies will depend on the form given to the groove or chan- 
 nel raised upon the face of the wheel ; and this may be 
 shaped so as to give any variation to the motion of the rod 
 to n which may be required for the purpose to which is to 
 be applied." {Gardner's Mechanics, Cabinet Cyclopedia, p. 
 250.) 
 
 The purpose of the machine is therefore to convert a unl 
 form rotatory movement into a varied rectilinear and alter- 
 nating movement. It is also used in macninery for spin- 
 ning, and for lace-making. 
 
 ROSE'MARY (Lat. ros marinus, sea dew), is the name 
 given to a small evergreen shrub of the Labiate order, 
 which inhabits rocky hills in the neighbourhood of the Me»U 
 ' 1073 
 
ROSE-XOBLE. 
 
 lerranean. and which is commonly cultivated in our par- 
 dens. It has verv narrow green leaves, turned back at the 
 edge, and hoarv underneath. The flowers are of a dull 
 leaden blue, or even white. It has been employed in infu- 
 sion as a remedv for headache, and is extensively employed 
 In the manufacture of pomatums for promoting the growth 
 of hair. Oil of rosemary is what gives the green colour to 
 these preparations. It is also said to be one of the ingre- 
 dients in Eau de Cologne. Narbonne honey is also said to 
 owe its peculiar flavour to bees feeding on the blossoms of 
 the rosemary. The gray bushes, mantled with dew drops, 
 on the rocky - coasts of France and Italy, are said to justify 
 the singular name that has been given to the plant. It is 
 the Xijin-wri? cTt6anatiaTiKij of Dioseorides. 
 
 ROSE-NOBLE. A gold coin of the value of 6>. 8d, 
 first coined in the reien of Edward III. 
 
 ROSEO'LA, called, from its rose colour, a rash ; fre- 
 quently symptomatic of different febrile complaints, of dis- 
 ordered stomach and bowels, of teething, and of any con- 
 stitutional irritation. Acidulated drinks, mild aperients and 
 sudorincs, and strict attention to the diet, with caution 
 against the application of, or exposure to, cold, so as to cause 
 a retrocession, are the principal points to be attended to. 
 
 ROSES. FESTI V AL OF. A rural festival of some parts 
 of France, in which the !«:=? -behaved maiden of the town 
 or village (called La Rasir-t) is annually crowned with ro- 
 ses in the church, whiter she is conducted with great 
 pomp by the villagers. These festivals were originally cel- 
 ebrated on the 8th of June at Salency. a village of Picardy, 
 under Louis XIII. ; but they were afterwards introduced 
 into Surene, near Paris, whence they extended to many oth- 
 er places, and have latterly even penetrated to Moravia. 
 The Persians have also an annual festival of roses which 
 consists of bands of youth parading the streets with music, 
 and offering roses, as the Italians during the carnival con- 
 fetti, to all they meet, for which they receive a trifling gra- 
 tuitv. 
 
 ROSES. WHITE AND RED. In English History, the 
 well-known feuds that prevailed between the houses of 
 York and Lancaster are so called, from the emblems adopt- 
 ed by their respective partisans ; the adherents of the house 
 of York having the white, those of Lancaster the red rose, 
 as their distinguishing symbol. These wars originated with 
 the descendants of Edward in. ; and after extending over a 
 period of more than eighty years, during which England 
 funned an almost uninterrupted scene of bloodshed and de- 
 vastation, were finally put an end tn by the victory of Henry 
 Tndor, earl of Richmond, over Richard in., in 1485, the 
 victor uniting in his own person the title of Lancaster 
 through his mother, and that of York by his marriage with 
 the daughter of Edward VI. Since that period the rose 
 has been the emblem of England, as the thistle and sham- 
 rock (see those terms) are respectively the symbols of Scot- 
 land and Ireland. 
 
 ROSETTA STONE (so called from Rosetta, a village 
 of Egypt where it was discovered by the French. The 
 name given to the celebrated stone, now in the Briti-h Mu- 
 seum, which has played so distinguished a part in all mod- 
 ern hieroglyphical researches. It is a piece of black ba- 
 salt, three feet in length, and about two feet and a half in 
 breadth, and contains parts of three different sculptured in- 
 scriptions : one in sacred characters, or, as they are termed, 
 hieroglyphics ; the second in enchorial characters (i. «., in 
 those of the country, <* in modified conventional hierogl vph- 
 ks) ; and the third in Greek. From the last, or Greek in- 
 scription, it appears that tt»e inscriptions are either entirely 
 or substantially identical, and form a royal decree which 
 was ordered to be sculptured in the languages above speci- 
 fied. The inscriptions are a good deal mutilated, particu- 
 larly the hieroglyphical ; but they are still sufficiently dis- 
 tinct to allow the hieroglyphical and enchorial characters 
 to be compared with each other and the Greek. As the 
 discovery of this stone presented to the learned the first 
 opportunity of viewing the Greek in juxtaposition to the 
 Egyptian language, great hopes were entertained that a key 
 would thereby be obtained to the decypherine of the nu- 
 merous monuments of ancient Egvpt." It would appear, 
 however, from the investigations of Dr. Young and Cham- 
 pollion. whose attention has been deeply engrossed with 
 this subject, that the Greek does not faithfully represent the 
 enchorial text, but gives merely its substance. According 
 to the Greek inscription, the stone was erected in the reign 
 of Ptolemy Epiphanes (A.C. 194 . whose benevolence it de- 
 scribes, and enumerates his victories and the principal po- 
 litical transactions of his reign. See Hieroglyphics. 
 
 ROSICRU'CIANS. A sect of visionary speculators who 
 existed in Germany about the beginning of the 17th century. 
 They ascribed, indeed, a much higher antiquity to them- 
 selves : but it is probable that if any body of philosophers 
 who adopted this title ever existed in reality, they were the 
 alchemists, fire philosophers, or Paracelsists of the 16th cen- 
 tury, who adopted this mode of giving vogue and fashion to 
 1074 
 
 ROT. 
 
 I their tenets. Germany was innodated with tracts, from 
 I 1600 to 1630, purporting to come from supporters or from en- 
 emies of this sect, in which their opinions and intentions 
 are canvassed, but generally in a wild and unintelligible man- 
 ner. From one of these, a Treatise on the Laws of the Rosi- 
 crucians, by RUter von Maier (1618), we learn that the fra- 
 ternity had six fundamental laws: — 1. That their chief 
 end and object was to cure the sick without fee or re- 
 ward. 2. That in travelling they were to chnn<ie their hab- 
 its and dress, so as to accommodate themselv- 
 the countries in whflh they sojourned. 3. To meet once a 
 year on a certain day and at a certain place, kept secret 
 from the rest of the world. 4. To fill up vacancies in their 
 body by electing members. 5. To use the letters R C a* 
 their common symbol. 6. That the fraternity should re 
 main undivulged for one hundred years from its foundation. 
 It appears probable that the device of the rose issuing out of 
 the cross, which was the same with Martin Luther's seal, 
 was adopted for the purpose of attracting the notice of the 
 religious : the rose was explained to represent the blood of 
 Christ. It would appear from these laws that some species 
 of Freemasonry was intended ; and the Rosicrucians have 
 been by some connected with the Freemasons : but there 
 is. in point of fact, no evidence that any such society existed 
 at all. and the name and other circumstances were probably 
 only the device of some alchemists, who usually conveyed 
 their own notions under cover of symbolical language. An- 
 drea, a German scholar, is staled in the Conversations Lexi- 
 con, to have been the original propagator of the reports con- 
 cerning the Rosicrucian society. The Rosicrucians have 
 been also connected in various ways, by public opinion, with 
 the Cabalists. Illuminati. tc. ; and the division of spiritual 
 beings inferior to the angels into sylphs and gnomes, which 
 furnished Pope with the machinery of the Rape of the Lock, 
 is of Rosicrucian or Cabalistic origin. It is found in that 
 singular work, the Comte de Gaoaiis, which obtained a sud- 
 den popularity in the beginning of the last century; in 
 which the author professes himself a member of the I 
 crucian fratemitv. (See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. v.) 
 
 ROSIN. .SYe Resin. 
 
 ROSTE'LLUM. (Lat rostrum.) An elevated and rath 
 er thickened portion of the stigma of Orchidaceous plants, 
 from which the peculiar gland separates by which the pol- 
 len masses of some species of that order are eventually 
 held together. It was formerly supposed to be the point 
 through which impregnation is effected ; but this is now 
 known to have been an error. 
 
 Rostellcx. The name of the mouth of the louse and 
 similar Apterous insects, in which the ordinary trophi are 
 replaced by an exarticulate retractile tube, from which a re- 
 tractile sipbuncle is protruded. The uncinated proboscis of 
 the tape-worms ( Tttnia) is also so called. 
 
 ROSTER, in Military affairs, is applied to the plan or ta- 
 ble bv which all militarv duty is regulated. 
 
 RO'STRULUM. (Lat. dim. of rostrum, in Entomology, 
 is the name of the oral instrument of the flea and oiher 
 Aphanipterans ; in which the ordinary trophi are replaced 
 by a bivalved beak, between the valves of which there are 
 three lancet-shaped instruments. 
 
 ROSTRUM. (Lat) Literally the prow of a ship, bm 
 metaphorically applied to the pulpit or pleading place in 
 the Eoinan forum, which was decorated with the prows of 
 vessels taken from the enemy. (See JTeihuhr's Roman 
 History.) 
 
 ROT. A term applied to a well-known disease peculiar 
 to sheep. It is often called great rot. and hydrophic rot. 
 &c. ; but it is more popularly known by the single term of rot. 
 Many causes have been assigned for it ; as the Fascicola 
 kepdiica, or fluke worm ; some particular plants eaten as 
 food ; ground eating ; snails, and other ingesta : but as most 
 of the supposed deleterious herbs have been tried by way 
 of experiment, and have failed to produce the disease, so i. 
 is attributable to some other cause. Neither is there satis- 
 factory reason to suppose that the fluke worm is the original 
 cause of it, but a consequence ; since we know that the bili- 
 ary vessels of other animals, as horses, asses, rats. & 
 ten have them : and above all, because that they are not al- 
 wavs present in the rotted subject From long experience, 
 and the almost invariable effect produced by a humid state of 
 atmosphere, soil, and product we are warranted in conclud- 
 ing these are the actual and immediate agents : perhaps the 
 saturated food itself is sufficient to do it The morning dew 
 has been supposed equal to it Bakewell, when his sheep 
 were past service, used to rot them purposely, that they 
 might not pass into other hands. This he always readily 
 did by overflowing his pastures. But great differences of 
 opinion exist as to the quantity, form, and varieties of mois- 
 ture productive of this fatal disease. It is said that land on 
 which water flows, but does not stagnate, will not rot how- 
 ever moist: but this is contradicted by the experience of 
 Bakewell. who used merely to flood his lands a few times 
 only, to rot his sheep. It is also said they are safe from rot 
 
ROTATION. 
 
 on Irish bogs, salt marshes, and spring-flooded meadows, 
 which experience seenis to verify. It is also said that the 
 hay made from unsound land will rot; but this wants 
 confirmation. When salt marshes are found injurious, it is 
 only when the rain has saturated, or rather super-saturated 
 such marshes. That pmria exhalations unaccompanied with 
 moisture can occasion rot, wants confirmation also ; for these 
 commonly go together, and it is difficult to separate their ef- 
 l perhaps, the actual quantity or water immedi- 
 ately received by land, but the capacity of that land to return 
 the moisture, which makes it particularly ofarottingquality. 
 
 The signs of rottenness are sufficiently familiar to persons 
 about sheep. They first lose flesh, and what remains is 
 flabby and pale ; they also lose their vivacity. The naked 
 parts, as the lips, tongue, &c, look livid, and are alternate- 
 ly hot and cold in the advanced stages. The eyes look sad 
 and glassy, the breath is fetid, the urine small in quantity 
 and high-coloured; and the bowels are at one time costive, 
 and at another affected with a black purging. The pelt will 
 come off on the slightest pull in almost all cases. The dis- 
 ease has different degrees of rapidity, but is always fatal at 
 last. This difference in degree occasions some rotted sheep 
 to thrive well under its progress to a certain stage, when 
 they suddenly fall off, and the disease pursues the same 
 course with the rest. Some graziers know this crisis of de- 
 clension, as it has been called, and kill their sheep for mar- 
 ket in the immediate nick of time with no loss. In these 
 >ease are to be traced by ordinary inspec- 
 existence of the flukes, and. still more, a certain 
 state of liver and of its secretions, are characteristic marks 
 to the wary and experienced. 
 
 The treatment of rot is seldom successful unless when it 
 is early commenced, or when of a mild nature. A total change 
 of food is the first indication, and of that to a dry whole- 
 kind : all the farina; are good, as the meals of wheat, 
 barley, oats, peas, beans, &c. Carrots have done good, 
 mixed with these: broom, btirnet, elder, and melilot, as diur- 
 hava also becu recommended; but it is necessary to 
 ■ e that there is seldom any ventral effusion but in the 
 latter stages of the complaint. As long as the liver is not 
 wholly disorganized, the cure may be hoped by a simple re- 
 moval of the cause, which has been shown to be a variable 
 temperature, with excessive moisture of pasturage, which 
 • be aided 'by such remedies as assist the action of 
 ihe biliary system. Salt acts in this way, and thus salt 
 marshes are good : salt may also be given in the water. 
 Salt appears the principal ingredient in Flesh's patent re- 
 storative for sheep ; for it states it to be composed of turpen- 
 tine, sal ammoniac turmeric, quicksilver, brimstone, salt, 
 opium, alkanet root, bark, antimony, camphor, and distilled 
 water ; but of this medley none of the articles can be in 
 sufficient quantity to prove useful but the salt. In the more 
 advanced stages of the disease, whe'i the liver has become 
 materially affected, it is prudent to rub the belly of each 
 sheep with half a drachm of mercurial ointment every other 
 day for a week. Give also the following, every morning: 
 Watery tincture of aloes, hnlf an ounce ; decoction of 
 willow bark, four ounces ; nitric acid, twenty-five drops. 
 (Loudon's Ency. of Agriculture.) 
 
 Rot. In timber. See Dry Rot. 
 
 ROTATION. (Lat. rota, a ickeel.) In Mechanics, the 
 motion of a solid body about an axis. Rotatory motion is dis- 
 tinct from progressive motion, though both are frequently 
 found to coexist in the same body. The planets, for exam- 
 ple, at the same time that they have a progressive motion in 
 their orbits, revolve also about axes passing through their 
 respective centres of gravity. It is the rotatory motion of the 
 earth about its axis which produces the alternations of day 
 and night; and a slow but constant change of position in 
 that axis, arising from the attractions of the sun and moon 
 on a body not absolutely round, gives rise to the astronomi- 
 cal phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes. 
 
 The determination of the circumstances of the rotation 
 of a planet about its axis is a problem of physical astrono- 
 my, not less interesting or important than that of the plan- 
 et's motion in its orbit. It was, in fact, long considered as 
 the more difficult problem of the two; but, according to the 
 methods of modern analysis, both form a part of the same 
 theory, and their solutions are deduced from the same gen- 
 eral equations of motion. 
 
 Iu relation to practical mechanics, the problem of rotation 
 is also of great importance ; inasmuch as it comprehends 
 the methods of computing the performance of machines, the 
 forces necessary to overcome their inertia, and the proper 
 relations and most advantageous disposition of their several 
 parts, in order that the required effect may be produced by 
 Ihe smallest expenditure of power and the least strain or in- 
 jury to the machine itself. 
 
 In all investigations relating to the motion of bodies about 
 axes, the terms moment of force, moment of inertia, angular 
 velocity, are of constant occurrence ; it is therefore impor- 
 tant to keep in view the exact meaning of those terms. 
 
 The moment of a force exerted in turning a bodv about an 
 axis, is the product obtained by multiplying the "force into 
 the perpendicular from the axis upon the line of its direc- 
 tion ; or it is the force multiplied into the leverage. Thus, 
 if F be force supposed to act in a plane perpendicular to the 
 axis, A a line drawn from the axis perpendicular to the di- 
 rection of the force, the moment of the force is F A. . But 
 as force is measured by the velocity which it communicates 
 to a siven mass, this is usually expressed by M VA; where 
 V is the velocity which the force F communicates to the 
 mass M. when directed to its centre of gravity, in the time 
 which is assumed as unity. 
 
 The moment of inertia of a body in respect of a given 
 axis, is the sum of all the products obtained by multiplying 
 each element of the body into its distance from the axis. 
 Thus, if to be one of the constituent elements of the body, 
 and r the distance of wi from the axis, then the moment of 
 inertia is £ r m : the summation denoted by X being extend- 
 ed to every element m. Sec Moment. 
 
 The different particles of a solid body revolving about an 
 axis move with a velocity proportional to their respective 
 distances from the axis ; and the velocity of the particle 
 whose distance from the axis is unity is the angular veloci- 
 ty of rotation. If this be denoted by u, then the velocity 
 of a particle whose distance from the axis is r will be r u>. 
 
 These definitions being premised, we may now state a 
 few of the more remarkable properties of rotary motion. If 
 the motion is produced^)' impulse, and the moving body is 
 not acted apon by any accelerating forces, so that the veloc- 
 ity is uniform, the fundamental theorem (which is easily 
 deduced from the property of the lever) is, 
 
 , . moment of impelling force 
 
 angular velocity = — " . 
 
 moment of inertia 
 
 In the case of a body turning about a fixed axis, it is sup 
 posed that the impelling force acts in a direction perpendic 
 alar to the plane passing through the axis of rotation 
 and the point at which the force is applied. If the impel 
 ling force is not perpendicular to this plane, it must be re- 
 solved into two parts, one of which is perpendicular to the 
 plane, and the other parallel to it ; and it is only the form 
 er part which tends to produce rotation, the latter being de- 
 stroyed by the resistance of the axis. 
 
 \Vhen all the different particles of a body are acted upon 
 by accelerating forces (as in the case of a pendulum drawn 
 aside from the position of rest and abandoned to the action 
 of gravity), the angular velocity becomes a variable qua;;;: 
 ty, and is expressed by this formula, 
 
 dm moment of the imp elling force s 
 
 it moment of inertia 
 
 where d <j is the element of the velocity, and d t the ele- 
 ment of the time. The moment of the impelling forces is 
 computed from this expression, Ymvh; where m is the 
 mass of an element of the body. Aits distance from the axis 
 of rotation, and » the velocity due to the accelerating force 
 From the above formula, it is obvious that the computation 
 of the moment of inertia must enter into every question 
 connected with rotatory motion. 
 
 Principal Axes. — Generally speaking, any change whici 
 is made in the position of the axis about which a body re 
 volves must be accompanied with a change in the momen. 
 of inertia. Hence, if a point (which is not the centre ol 
 gravity) be taken in a solid body, all the axes which pass 
 through that point (and they may be infinite in number' 
 will have different moments of inertia, and there must ex 
 ist one in respect of which the moment is a maximum, and 
 another in respect of which it is a minimum. Those axes 
 in respect of which the moment of inertia is a maximum or 
 minimum are called ihe principal axes of rotation. 
 
 If for any point taken in a solid body, we proceed by the 
 usual methods of maxima and minima to find the position 
 (relatively to the principal lines of the body) of that line or 
 axis about which the moment of inertia is the greatest or 
 least possible, the analysis leads to a cubic equation, cf 
 which all the three roots are real. Hence, for every point 
 of a body, however irregular, there are three principal axes. 
 Further examination shows that these axes form a system 
 of straight lines at right angles to each other. One of them 
 is such that the moment of inertia with respect to it is the 
 least possible ; with respect to another, the moment is the 
 greatest possible ; and although with respect to the third 
 the moment is not. strictly speaking, the greatest or least, 
 vet it possesses this characteristic of maxima and minima, 
 that its differential coefficient is nothing, or its value is not 
 affected bv a very small change in the position of the axis. 
 If the form and structure of the revolving body be such 
 that the moments of inertia about two of the principal axes 
 are equal, then every line in the plane of those axes pas- 
 sing through their points of intersection will be a principal 
 axis. For example, in the spheroid of revolution, the polar 
 diameter forms one of the principal axes ; the two others 
 are in the plane of the equator, and consequently equal J 
 v 1075 
 
ROTATION. 
 
 and it is obvious from the symmetrical form of the body 
 that every equatorial diameter will have the same mo- 
 ment of inertia, or be a principal axis. If all three princi- 
 pal axes are equal, as in the case of a sphere when the 
 point in which the axes meet is the centre, then every line 
 passing through the same point is a principal axis. From 
 this it follows that with respect to any point taken in a sol- 
 id body there are either three principal axes, or else an in- 
 finite number. 
 
 It is a property of the principal axes, that if a body be- 
 gins to revolve about any one of them it will continue to 
 revolve about the same axis uniformly and perpetually, 
 unless the motion is deranged by the action of a disturbing 
 force. The centrifugal forces about a principal axis exactly 
 counterbalance each other, and the axis remains unmoved 
 without the aid of any support. There is, however, an es- 
 sential difference in this respect between one of the axes and 
 the two others. If a body begins to revolve about an axis 
 very near to one of the axes for which the moment of iner- 
 tia is the greatest or least possible, the axis of actual rota- 
 tion will continue to oscillate about that principal axis, nev- 
 er deviating from it beyond certain narrow limits, and the 
 angular velocity will only suffer small periodic alterations ; 
 but if the body begins to revolve about an axis which is 
 very near to the intermediate principal axis, the axis of rota- 
 tion will deviate from the principal axis indefinitely, and 
 the velocity of rotation will not remain constant. Hence 
 the rotation about two of the principal axes is stable ; about 
 the third unstable. 
 
 When a solid body revolves about a fixed axis, there are 
 certain points in the body having determinate situations 
 with respect to the axis of rotation and centre of gravity, 
 which, on account of their remarkable properties, require 
 to be distinguished. Thus, in computing the effects of ma- 
 chinery, it is often necessary to determine the situation of 
 the point at which if the whole mass of the revolving body 
 were concentrated the rotatory effect would remain unalter- 
 ed. Thispoint is called the centre of gyration. The centre of 
 oscillation of a body suspended by an axis is the point at 
 which if all the matter were collected the oscillations 
 would be performed in the same time. The centre of per- 
 cussion is the point at which if the body encountered an im- 
 moveable obstacle the motion would be arrested without 
 producing any strain on the axle. For the properties of 
 these centres, and the method of computing their positions, 
 •ee Centre. 
 
 Motion of a Body entirely free. — If a body is retained by 
 no rued point, but is at liberty to move in any direction, and 
 if a force be applied to it in a direction which passes through 
 its centre of gravity, all the points of the body move forward 
 in straight lines parallel to each other and to the direction of 
 the impelling force. But if the direction of the force does 
 not pass through the centre of gravity, the body will ac- 
 quire two motions — one progressive, and the other rotator)' ; 
 and these two motions are entirely independent of each 
 other, that is to say, each is performed exactly in the same 
 manner as if the other did not exist. The progressive mo- 
 tion is the same as if the direction of applied force had 
 passed through the centre of gravity, and the rotatory motion 
 communicated to the body is the same as if the centre of 
 gravity had been a fixed point In consequence of this 
 property the general problem of determining the motions of 
 a body subjected to the action of given forces resolves itself 
 into two ; of which the first is to determine the motion of 
 the centre of gravity of the moving body, and the second to 
 determine at every instant the position of the axis and the 
 velocity of rotation. 
 
 In the solution of the latter problem the following elegant 
 theorem, first given by Frisi, is of important use : When a 
 body revolves on an axis passing through its centre of grav- 
 ity, and a force is impressed tending to make the body re- 
 volve about another axis also passing through its centre of 
 gravity, the body will revolve about neither, but on a third 
 axis, which lies in the same plane with the other two, and 
 so situated as to divide the angle which they contain into 
 two parts, such that the sines of the parts are to each other 
 in the inverse ratio of the angular velocities with which 
 the body would have revolved about the said axes respect- 
 ively. It is evident that this conclusion will hold good if 
 the angular motions about both axes are impressed simulta- 
 neously ; and as the velocity about the new axis may in like 
 manner be compounded with another velocity about a diff- 
 erent axis, it follows that if several angular motions about 
 given axes are impressed on a body at the same time, the 
 position of the resultant axis and the velocity of rotation 
 may be readily computed. 
 
 If the primitive axes are at right angles to each other, 
 then the square of the angular velocity about the resultant 
 axes is equal to the sum of the squares of the velocities 
 about the primitive axes. These properties form the theory 
 of the composition of rotatory motion. For their demon- 
 stration the reader may be referred to Airy's Mathematical 
 3076 
 
 ROUNDEL. 
 
 Tracts, "Precession" and "Nutation;" or to the article 
 " Rotation," in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britan 
 nica. 
 
 The principal application of the theory of the rotation of 
 bodies entirely free is to the planets, and particularly the 
 earth. It is to be observed, however, that the change 
 which is continually taking place in the position of the 
 terrestrial axis of rotation is only in respect of fixed points 
 in space ; for it can be shown that since the earliest record- 
 ed astronomical observations, the position of the poles of 
 rotation on the earth's surface has undergone no alteration 
 whatever. 
 
 The principal works on the subject are Euler's Thcoria 
 Motus Corporum Solidorum, 1765; Vince, Phil. Trans., 
 1780 ; Frisii, Opera, torn, ii., 1793 ; JltwoooVs Treatise on 
 the Rectilinear Motion and Rotation of Bodies, 1784 ; Lan 
 den's Mathematical Memoirs, 1789; Laplace, Mecanique 
 Celeste ; Lagrange, Mecanique Analytique ; Poisson, Traite 
 de M canique, &.C. 
 
 ROTATION OF CROPS. In Agriculture and Garden- 
 ing, it is found that the same annual crop cannot be ad- 
 vantageously cultivated on the same soil for more than one 
 or two years ; and hence one kind of crop is made to suc- 
 ceed another. And the number of cultivated crops being 
 limited, when the whole course has been gone through 
 once, it is again repeated ; and hence the origin of the 
 word rotation. But as the same number and kind of crops 
 are not always grown in regular succession, but a change is 
 frequently made according to general principles, the term 
 used in that case is succession of crops. The principle on 
 which the succession of crops is founded is, that every kind 
 of plant not only extracts nourishment from the soil, but 
 exudes into it excrementitious matter, which is found in 
 jurious to that species, though it may prove nutritious to 
 another species. As a general principle of guidance in de- 
 termining the succession of crops, it is considered advan- 
 tageous that a crop cultivated for its leaves or roots should 
 succeed one cultivated for its ripened seeds ; that the cereal 
 grasses should be succeeded by leguminous plants; tap- 
 rooted plants, or plants bearing tubers, by fibrous-rooted 
 plants ; and plants which form a compact covering on the 
 surface, such as corn and legumes sown broadcast, by plants 
 which only partially cover the surface, such as crops 
 grown in rows sufficiently wide to admit of cultivation be- 
 tween. It may also be adopted as a rule, that where land 
 is to be subjected to a crop of the same plants for a number 
 of years, as in permanent pasture, the plants composing the 
 crop should be of several different kinds, by which means 
 the excrementitious deposit of one species becomes the nu- 
 triment of another. Hence the propriety of sowing clover, 
 ribwort, and other taprooted dicotyledonous herbage plants 
 anions pasture grasses. 
 
 RO'TATORIES, Rotatoria. (Lat. rota, a wheel.) Wheel 
 animalcules. See Rotifers. 
 
 RO'TIFERS, Rotifera. (Lat. rota, and fero, / carry.) 
 The name of a class of highly organized Infusorial ani- 
 mals, outwardly distinguished by certain ciliated appendages 
 at the anterior part of the body, which seem to move in a 
 rapid rotatory manner, and by their superior size. They 
 are commonly termed " wheel animalcules." 
 
 ROTTEN STONE. An earthy mineral found near 
 Bakewell in Derbyshire, in Wales, and at Albany in New 
 York. It is much used for polishing metals ; and consists, 
 according to R. Phillips, of 86 alumina, 10 carbon, and 4 
 silica. It resembles tripoli. 
 
 ROU'BLE. A Russian silver coin of different values. It 
 was first struck at Moscow in 1654. Catherine II. caused 
 some gold coins to be struck with this name ; but they are 
 no longer current. See Money. 
 
 ROUE'. In the beau monde, a person devoted to a life 
 of pleasure and sensuality, but not so completely vitiated in 
 his character and manners as to be excluded from society. 
 The term is said to have been first used in this sense by 
 Philip of Orleans, the regent of France. 
 
 ROUGE. A species of lake prepared from the dried 
 flowers of the Carthamus tinctorius, or safflower. Rouge 
 is the only cosmetic which can be applied without ultimate 
 injury to the complexion. 
 
 ROUGH-CAST. In Architecture, the plastering of 
 walls with mortar and fine gravel, left rough without any 
 smoothing. 
 
 ROUGHING IN. See Rendered and Set. 
 
 ROUGH STUCCO. In Architecture, stucco floated and 
 brushed in a small degree with water. 
 
 ROUND. The property of a circle, sphere, or right 
 cylinder, and indeed of any solid of revolution, though most 
 commonly confined to the sphere and cylinder. 
 
 ROU'NDEL. In Heraldry, an ordinary in the form of a 
 circle. It is improper to say a roundel or, gu'es, &c, de- 
 scribing it by its tincture ; unless, first, in case of counter- 
 changes ; secondly, where the roundel is o* fur, o\ of pqual 
 tinctures, as a roundel ermine, a roundel cheeky of or and 
 
ROUNDELAY. 
 
 azure, sic. ; otherwise, roundels have distinguishing names, 
 according to their tinctures. A roundel or is called a be- 
 zant, from the gold cuius of the Greek or Byzantine empire; 
 a. roundel argent, a' plate ; gules, a torteau, a kind of cake; 
 azure, hurt, a species of flower ; vert, pomme ; sable, pellet ; 
 purpure, golpe. A field or charge, with equidistant round- 
 els, is said to be bczanty, p'aly, &c, according to the tinc- 
 ture. 
 
 BOU'NDELAY, in Poetry, is properly a short poem of 
 thirteen verses ; eight in one rhyme, and five in another. 
 5m Rondeau. 
 
 ROUND HEADS. A nickname given to the Puritans 
 at trie time of the civil wars by the Cavaliers, from the 
 close black skull-cap, reaching" down to the ears, which 
 was then worn by staid and serious persons; or, more 
 probably, from the custom that prevailed among them of 
 g the hair closely cut to the head. 
 
 ROUND ROBIN. (Fr. rond ruban.) A phrase origin- 
 ally derived from a custom of the French officers, who, on 
 signing a lemonstrance to their superiors, wrote their names 
 in a circular form, so that it might be impossible to ascer- 
 tain who had headed the list. It is now used to signify any 
 act by which a number of individuals bind themselves to 
 pursue a certain line of conduct. 
 
 BOUND TABLE, KNIGHTS OF THE. The name 
 given to the famous order of knights that existed in Eng- 
 ender the reign of King Arthur, by whom it was 
 (bunded. The members of this order are said to have been 
 fun.. i>i number, and derived their name from a huge round 
 marble table round which they were accustomed to sit. 
 Their adventures form the themes of much of the early ro- 
 muiii,'- poetry and ballads of England; and our own limes 
 have been peculiarly fertile in clearing away much of the 
 iiy in which tile well-known names of Tristram, 
 Launcelot, and other members of this order were enveloped. 
 Sir \V. .Scott's labours in this field are too well known to 
 require any remark. (See SclUcgeT* Ilistury of Literature, 
 which gives a masierly sketch of the influence of the 
 Round Table on the romantic poetry of that and succeed- 
 ing ag< 
 
 KOI i'. A Scotticism for auction. 
 
 ROW. To propel a boat by oars. Rowing is reckoned 
 the most favourable application of human strength ; the 
 whole force is, however, not effective on the oar. as the 
 part inside the actual fulcrum, which is in the water, acts 
 backwater. Some nations take short strokes, which 
 they rise up in making; the English prefer a long stroke 
 Bitting, which, to say the least, saves much exertion. As 
 the theory of rowing involves the resistance of fluids, it is 
 rily defective. 
 
 ROYAL. In Naval affairs, the sail above the top- 
 gallant sail. The term royal is also applied, in artillery, to 
 a kind of small mortar. 
 
 Ko\ 'AGISTS. The name applied originally to the ad- 
 herents of the Bourbon family after the revolution of lT'J-2; 
 but now in common use to designate the party attached to 
 mams of the Spanish and Portuguese thrones. 
 
 ROYAL OAK, Robur Carolinum. In Astronomy, a con- 
 stellation formed by Halley in the southern hemisphere. 
 See Constellation. 
 
 ROYALS. The name given by way of eminence to the 
 first regiment of foot in the British service : it is sup- 
 poaed to be the oldest regular corps in Europe. (James's 
 Military Diet.) 
 
 RUBEFA'CIENTS. (Lat. rubefacio, / make red.) Sub- 
 stances which, when applied to or rubbed upon the skin, 
 induce a redness or blush upon the part, not followed by 
 blister. 
 
 KU'BELLITE. Red schorl or tourmaline. There is a 
 magnificent group of crystallized rubellite in the British 
 Museum, from the cabinet of the late Mr. Greville. 
 
 BUBE'OLA. The measles. This disease is preceded 
 by fever, with swelling and inflammation of the eyes ; an 
 oppressive cough ; and about the fourth day there is an 
 eruption of small red points, perceptible to the touch, 
 which continues for four or five days, and then goes off, 
 with desquamation of the cuticle ; but the fever, cough, 
 soreness of the eyes, and irritable state of bowels are apt 
 to continue for some time after the entire disappearance of 
 tho eruption. The most alarming cases are those in which 
 the inflammatory symptoms and fever run very high, and 
 which sometimes require bleeding, or blisters and cupping 
 upon the chest ; or in which there is a putrid tendency, with 
 B nark livid colour. 
 
 RD'BEZAHL. The name of a famous spirit of the 
 Rlesengeblrge in Germany, who is celebrated in innumer- 
 able sagas, ballads, and titles, and represented under the 
 various forms of a miner, hunter, monk, dwarf, giant, &c. 
 Be is said to aid the poor and oppressed, and shows be- 
 nighted wanderers their road; but wages incessant war 
 with the proud and wicked. The origin of the name is 
 obscure. 'See the Talcs of Musaus.) 
 
 RULE OF THREE. 
 
 RU'BICEL. A term applied to the Brazilian rubv. 
 RU'BBIC. (Lat. ruber, red.) In the language of the old 
 copies of manuscripts, and of modern printers, any writing 
 or printing in red ink. The date and place on a title page 
 being frequently in red ink, the word rubric has come to 
 signify the false name of a place on a title page. Many 
 books printed at Paris bear the rubric of Genoa, London 
 &c. But the most common use of the word is in ecclesins 
 tical matters. In MS. Missals, the directions prefixed to 
 the several prayers and offices were written or printed in 
 red ink; and hence, the rubric familiarly signifies the order 
 of the liturgy, in Roman Catholic countries aa well as is 
 England. 
 
 RU'BY. A crystallized gem of various shades of red. 
 found chiefly in the sand of rivers in Ceylon, Pegu, and 
 Mysore. Among lapidaries, the scarlet-coloured is some- 
 times called spinelle ruby; the pale or rose red, ba/asi 
 ruby; and the yellowish red, rubicelle. It is inferior in 
 value and beauty to the red sapphire, or oriental ruby of 
 the jewellers. It consists of 83 alumina, 9 magnesia, and 
 7 or 8 chromic acid ; the latter gives its colour. 
 
 RUDDER. A heavy flat piece or frame of wood, hung 
 u|K)ii the stern post by means of pintles and gudgeon 
 the purpose of steering the ship. The rudder is turned 
 round the stern post as an axis, by the tiller, which enters 
 the rudder head. In vessels drawing much water the 
 rudder is deep and narrow; in flat-bottomed vessels, it is 
 shallow and broad. When carried to a considerable breadth, 
 as in the Chinese vessels, it is pierced with holes, which 
 preserves an increased leverage with a diminished direct 
 resistance from the water. 
 
 When the rudder is broken off by the ship getting 
 aground, or by a heavy sea, a temporary one is made by 
 a topmast and other spars placed parallel, and loaded at 
 the bottom with pigs and ballast, and confined to the stern 
 post by hawsers leading on each side of the keel. 
 
 Rudder Coat. A covering of tarred canvass loosely 
 put round the rudder head to keep the water from entering 
 by the aperture, while it admits of the rudder being turned 
 freely round. 
 
 Rudder Pendants. Strong pieces of rope ending in 
 chains, by which the rudder, if unshipped, is held to the 
 ship's quarter. 
 
 Rudder Shock. A piece of wood fitting between the 
 head of the rudder and the rudder hole, to prevent the 
 play of the rudder in case of the tiller being removed. 
 
 RUDE'NTURE. (Fr.) In Architecture, the rope or 
 staff with which the lower parts of the flulings of columns 
 are often filled. BBS Cabling. 
 
 RUDIA'RIUS. (Lat.) The term applied to a discharged 
 gladiator. The word is derived from the stall' (rudis), 
 which was given him in token of his dismission. 
 
 RUDO'LPHINE TABLES. A set of astronomical tables 
 computed by Kepler, and founded on the observations of 
 Tycho Brahe. They were called the Rudolphine Tables 
 in honour of Rudolph II., emperor of Bohemia, who, upon 
 the death of Tycho in 1601, conferred upon Kepler the 
 title of imperial mathematician, and undertook to defray 
 the expenses of their preparation. Owing to various causes 
 the work was not completed till 1027, when the tables 
 were published at Ulm. They are the first that were ever 
 calculated on the hypothesis that the planets move in 
 elliptic orbits, and they contributed greatly to the progress 
 of modern astronomy. For a detailed account of this very 
 remarkable production, see Delambre, Astronomic Modern, . 
 torn, i., p. 557. 
 
 RUFF. The name of the male of the Machetes pugnax, 
 which is distinguished at the breeding season by a ruff or 
 tuft of wide-spreading feathers, projecting behind the eyes 
 and from the upper part of the neck. The female is called 
 the reeve. See Machetes and Tringa. 
 
 RULE, in Arithmetic, denotes a certain prescribed series 
 of numerical operations, adapted to discover from the g ; -3n 
 conditions to which an unknown number is subjected what 
 that number is. They are generally distinguished by par- 
 ticular names, according to the purposes for which they 
 are given, or the particular nature of the business for 
 which they are required ; as the rules of interest, the rules 
 of fellowship, &.c. 
 
 Rule. In a monastic sense, a system of laws or regula- 
 tions by which monasteries and other religious houses are 
 governed, and which the monks, nuns, nnd novices vow at 
 their entrance to observe. See Orders, Monastic. 
 
 Rule. In Law. an order of one of the three superior 
 courts of common law. Rules are either general or par- 
 ticular; the former being such orders relating to matters 
 of practice as are laid down and promulgated by the court 
 for the general guidance of the suitors : the latter are such 
 orders as are confined to the particular case in reference 
 to which they have been granted. See Courts or Law, 
 and Pleading. 
 
 RULE OF THREE, in Arithmetic is the rule by which 
 
 1077 
 
RULES. 
 
 when three numbers are given ■ fourth is to be found, so 
 that the four shall be in direct or inverse proportion, as the 
 case may require. 
 
 RULES. In the Fine Arts, those laws and maxims 
 founded on the general and fundamental truths of nature by 
 which artists are guided in their compositions. 
 
 RULES. BRASS. Pieces of brass of different thick- 
 nesses made letter high, to print with. They are made in 
 lengths of fourteen inches, but of late years lengths half as 
 long again have been made. One of the edges is bevelled 
 so as to print a fine line, and when a thicker line is re- 
 quired the bottom edge is placed uppermost, which is the 
 full thickness of the brass ; by this means lines of different 
 thicknesses are obtained, and also double lines, a thick one 
 and a fine one, when required. They are used for column 
 lines in table work ; to separate matter that requires to be 
 distinct ; and to be placed round pages. 
 
 In cases where diagrams are required, and there is no 
 engraver within reach, they may be formed by a clever 
 workman with brass rule. Of late years many ingenious 
 and elaborate imitations of architectural drawings of build- 
 ings, with pillars, &c. have been made with brass rule ; 
 vnd in this department of art Mr. Ebenezer Parkes, of 
 Fetter Lane, has displayed great skill and ingenuity. 
 
 RULE, CARPENTKX'S. A folding ruler, generally 
 used by carpenters and other artificers, having a variety of 
 scales adapted to facilitate the calculations of most frequent 
 occurrence by inspection. Sometimes it has a sliding piece 
 in one of its legs, by which its use is greatly extended. See 
 Sliding Rule. 
 
 RULE, GAUGING, is a rule adapted in the same man- 
 ner to discover the contents of casks and other vessels. 
 It is used by the officers of excise in surveying the articles 
 in the process of manufacture that are liable to duties. See 
 Gauging. 
 
 RUM. A spirituous liquor distilled from the fermented 
 juice of the sugar cane, or from molasses. Its flavour is 
 due to the presence of a peculiar volatile oil : its average 
 proportion of alcohol fluctuates between 50 and 56 per 
 cent. The rum consumed In the United Kingdom is en- 
 tirely til? produce of the West Indies, and to a great ex- 
 tent of Jamaica ; and for this preference it is indebted 
 partly to its superior quality, and partly to its being pro- 
 tected against rum of East India produce by a differential 
 duty of 6s. per gallon ; the duty on West India rum being 
 As., that on East India rum being 15s. per gallon. The 
 quantity of rum entered for home consumption for the 
 vears 1830-10, averaged 2.670.515A gallons; the duty on it 
 for the three years, 1837-38-39, averaged XI. 372,540; and 
 in 1840, the gross amount was £1,154,544. The consump- 
 tion of rum in this country has long been gradually de- 
 clining. 
 
 RUMEN. (Lat.) The name of the paunch or first cavity 
 nf the complex stomach of the Ruminant quadrupeds. 
 
 RU'MINANTS, Ruminantia. (Lat. mmino, / chew the 
 cud.) The name given by Cuvier to the Pecora of Lin- 
 rtreus, an order of Ungulate Mammals, including those which 
 have a complicated stomach of four cavities so disposed as 
 to allow of rumination, and a cloven hoof. 
 
 RUMINA'TION. (Lat. rumino.) The act by which 
 food once chewed and swallowed is a second time subjected 
 to mastication. Digestion is always preceded by this action 
 in the order of Mammals, hence called "Ruminants;" but 
 very rarely, and as an exceptional case, in any other ani- 
 mal. The stomach of the Ruminants is specially organized 
 for rumination, consisting of four distinct cavities, till of 
 which communicate with a muscular canal at the termina- 
 tion of the (esophagus. Hard, solid, or coarsely masticated 
 food, passes from the beginning of the muscular canal into 
 the first cavity of the stomach, called the rumen, or paunch. 
 Water is received into the second cavity, called the reticu- 
 lum, and almost exclusively occupies the honeycomb cells 
 of that cavity ; it is gradually mixed with the coarsely di- 
 vided food which is undergoing mastication in the rumen. 
 When this is sufficiently advanced, a portion of the mass is 
 received into the muscular canal at the termination of the 
 oesophagus; it is there moulded into a ball, and propelled 
 by a rapid and inverted action of the muscles of the gullet 
 into the mouth, where it is more perfectly masticated, 
 mixed with fluid, and again swallowed. It now passes 
 directly into the third stomach, called the psalterium, from 
 the broad leaf-like plates of membrane with which it is oc- 
 cupied ; here the superfluous fluid, which otherwise might 
 have too much diluted the gastric juice, is absorbed, and 
 the subdivided cud passes gradually into the fourth or true 
 digesting stomach, called the abomasus. In the camel tribe, 
 water-cells are developed at the sides of the rumen, in ad- 
 dition to those of the reticulum, and the psalterium is not 
 ! bv any contraction from the abomasus. 
 RUMP PARLIAMENT. In English History, after the 
 dissolution of Richard Cromwell's parliament, and his own 
 demission of the protectorate, a council of officers, at whose 
 1078 
 
 RUTACEiE. 
 
 head were Desborough, Lambert, and otheis, having seizes 
 the supreme authority, found it advisable to call together 
 the remnant of the Long Parliament, which had l^en 
 forcibly dissolved by Oliver. It was' assembled in May, 
 1659; and consisted of little more than seventy members, 
 those who had been excluded not Being allowed to resume 
 their seats. This body soon became odious to the Presby- 
 terian and Royalist parts of the nation, and by its own as- 
 sumption of power displeased the officers who had called 
 it again into being. It acted, however, with some vigour 
 and determination, and defeated a variety of royalist con- 
 spiracies; but having ventured so far as to cashier Lam- 
 bert and otheis of the leading officers, the troops again sur- 
 rounded Westminster Hall, and expelled it, on the 13th 
 October in the same year. But Fleetwood, who had the 
 command of the army, being unable to keep together the 
 distracted government, the officers once more invited the 
 parliament to sit again, which it did on the 26th of Decem- 
 ber. It once more assumed absolute authority ; but Gen- 
 eral Monk took part against it. On his invitation a good 
 many of the excluded members went to the house (Feb. 21), 
 and thus placed the Independents, who had hitherto ruled! 
 it, in a minority ; and, having passed some measures re- 
 versing its former acts, the parliament dissolved itself. It 
 got its nickname from being, as it were, the remnant and 
 fag-end of the old Long Parliament, and was treated by the 
 nation with general contumely and derision. But it cannot 
 be denied that, utterly unable as it was to command the 
 divided nation, it showed boldness and vigour in its con- 
 duct, which, with a little more popularity, would probably 
 have ensured great successes. Vane and Hazlerig were its 
 leading members. 
 
 RU'NCINATE. In Botany, hooked back, or curved in 
 a direction from thelipex to the base : as the lobes of the 
 leaf of the dandelion. 
 
 RUNES. (Germ. Runen), arc properly the signs or let- 
 ters of the ancient alphabet peculiar to the northern 
 nations (Germans and Scandinavians). Schlegel deduces 
 this alphabet from the Phoenicians. {Lectures on Ancient 
 and Modern Literature.) Others have su; i] 
 boen derived from ti.at of the Romans ; but its o 
 consisting only of sixteen letters has been urged as an 
 argument against this hypothesis. The runen inscrip- 
 tions found in Germany (especially Northern Saxony) are 
 thought by some to have tokens of an origin somewhat 
 different from the Scandinavian. (Grimm on the German 
 Runes, 1821.) The antiquity of both has been much dis- 
 puted. Of those found in Gothland, it is said that the 
 oldest are not earlier thin A.D. 1200, the latest 1449 ; 1300 
 stones with Runic inscriptions have, it is said, been dis- 
 covered in Sweden ; many in Denmark ; none in Lapland 
 or Finland. Runic staves are mas*ive sticks, generally of 
 willow, inscribed with Runic characters, probably of 
 magical import. (See Conv. Lexicon.) 
 
 RUPEE. A coin of different values, current in different 
 parts of the East Indies. See Money. 
 
 RU'PIA. (Gr. puiro?.) An eruption of flattish vesicles, 
 succeeded by an ill-conditioned discharge, which concretes 
 into thin scabs easily rubbed off and regenerated ; they 
 generally occur as a consequence of poor diet and weak 
 habit of body. Light nutritious food, tonics, and alteratives 
 are the remedies. 
 
 RUPTURE. Set Hernia. 
 
 RU'RAL ECO'NOMV. The general management of 
 territorial property, either by the proprietor or his agent 
 On a small seile, the agent is termed a bailiff or farm 
 servant ; and on a large scale, a land steward or factor. 
 The duties of the latter are to collect the rents, and seo 
 that the different clauses in the leases by which the 
 tenants hold their lands are fulfilled; and of the former, 
 to cultivate the land in such a manner as to produce the 
 greatest profit, or to fulfil the intentions of the proprietor 
 as to the kind of produce which he considers it desirable 
 to obtain. See Agriculture. 
 
 RUST, in its ordinary acceptation, is the reddish peroxide 
 which is found on the surface of iron when exposed to 
 moisture. 
 
 Rust. In Horticulture. See Mildew. 
 
 RU'STIC. (Lat. rus.) In Architecture, a term applied 
 to work jagged out into an irregular surface. Work also 
 which is left rough, without tooling. 
 
 RUTA'CEvE. (Ruta, one of the genera.) A natural 
 order of plants, composed principally of trees and shrubs 
 inhabiting the warmer parts of the world, seldom of her- 
 baceous plants. The species arc sometimes very orna- 
 mental, especially those belonging to the genera Correa, 
 Boronia, and Diosma. Some, as the common rue, thn 
 bucku plant, &c, are remarkable for having a powerful, 
 peculiar, unpleasant odour, and antispasmodic quality; 
 and a {ew have a febrifugal bark. The JJictamnus albue 
 or Fraxinel'a, is extremely fragrant, and gives off an in 
 flammable vapour. 
 
RUTIDOSIS. 
 
 RUTIDO'SIS. (Gr. pvns, a farrow.) A disease of the 
 eye, In which the cornea appears shrunk and puckered. 
 Ilis produced by a wound, or by a deficiency of the aqueous 
 humour, which happens from old age or fevers, or occa- 
 sionally from the action of an extremely arid atmosphere. 
 After death it is produced by the evaporation of the 
 humour through the cornea, and the consequent 
 shrinking from that membrane. 
 
 li i "II LITE. (Lat. rutilua, red.) Native oxide of tita- 
 nium. 
 
 K V A'COLITE. (Gr. j>va\, a stream, and XtOos, a stone.) 
 A name given to glassy felspar. 
 
 RYE. (Ger. roggen ; Du. rog, rogge), according to 
 a native of Crete ; but it is very doubtful if it be 
 found wild in any country. It has been cultivated from 
 time immemorial, and is considered as coming nearer in 
 Its properties to wheat than any other grain. It is more 
 common than wheat in many parts of the Continent ; 
 being a more certain crop, and requiring less culture and 
 m mure. It is the bread corn of Germany and Russia. In 
 Britain it li now very little grown, being no longer a bread 
 corn ; and therefore of less value to the farmer than barley, 
 oats, or peas. 
 
 RYOTS. (Arab, a subject.) The name given to the 
 cultivator* of the soil in Hindostan. Their social condi- 
 tion presents many singular and interesting features, to 
 some of which we shall lure advert. In all eastern coun- 
 tries the rulers may be said to be the proprietors of the 
 soil ; but in India the cultivators have a perpetual, heredi- 
 i transferable right of occupancy, so long as they 
 continue to pay the share of the produce of the land de- 
 manded by the government, The value of this right of 
 . to the rural population depends on the degree 
 ince which they have been able to oppose to the 
 exactions of arbitrary governments. In Bengal and the 
 adjacent provinces of India, from the peculiarly timid 
 character of the Inhabitants, and the open and exposed 
 nature of the country, this resistance has been trifling 
 Indeed ; and consequently the value of the right of occu- 
 pancy in the peasant, or ryot, has been proportionally 
 reduced. This, also, may Tie considered, though with 
 some modirk u'tons, as being nearly the condition, in this 
 respect, of the inhabitants of every' part of the great plain 
 of the '. Ing more than half the population 
 
 of Hindostan. Rut where the country is naturally difficult, 
 the people hive been able more effectually to resist the 
 encroachments of the head landlord, or state, and to retain 
 a valuable share in the property of the soil. This has 
 been particularly the case along the ghauts, as in Bednore, 
 Canara, Malabar, &c. ; the inhabitants of which provinces 
 not only lay claim to a right of private property in the 
 soii, bit have been generally ready to support their claim 
 by force of arms. There can be no question, indeed, that 
 the same modified right of property formerly existed every- 
 where ; and it is indeed impossible that otherwise the 
 land should ever have been reclaimed from the wilder- 
 ness. Bat in those parts of India which could be readily 
 overrun by a military force, the right of property in the 
 soil has long been little else than the right to cultivate 
 rernal acres for behoof of others, the cultivators 
 reserving only a bare subsistence for themselves. 
 
 Under the Mogul emperors, the practice in Bengal was 
 to divide the gross produce of the soil, on the metayer prin- 
 ciple, into equal shares ; whereof one was retained by 
 the cultivator, the other going to government as rent or 
 tax. The officers employed to collect this revenue were 
 called zemindars ; and in the course of time their office 
 Mams to have become hereditary. It may be remarked 
 that, in Persian, zemindar and landholder are synonymous ; 
 -nd this etymology, coupled with the hereditary' nature 
 )f their office, which brought them exclusively into con- 
 tact with the ryot or occupier, as well as with the govern- 
 ment, led many to believe that the zemindars were in 
 reality the owners of the land, and that the ryots were 
 their tenants. This, however, it is now admitted on all 
 hands, was an incorrect opinion. The zemindars in reality 
 were t ax-githerers, and were, in fact, obliged to pay to 
 the government nine tenths of the produce collected from 
 the ryots, retaining only one tenth as a compensation for 
 their trouble ; and, so long as the ryots paid their fixed 
 contribution, they could not be ousted from their posses- 
 r be In anywise interfered with. 
 
 But notwithstanding what has now been stated, the 
 perpetual or zemindary settlement, established by Lord 
 Coruwallis in Bengal, in 1793, was made on the assump- 
 tion that the zemindars were the proprietors of the soil. 
 His lordship, indeed, was far from being personally satis- 
 fied tint such was really the case ; but he was anxious to 
 class of large proprietors, and to give them an 
 interest in the Improvement and pros|>erity of the country. 
 It is clear, however, that this wish could not be realized 
 without destroying the permanent rights of the ryots; for, 
 
 RYOTS. 
 
 unless this were accomplished, the zemindars could not 
 Interfere in the management of their estates. The inter- 
 ests of the zemindars, and the rights of the ryots, were 
 plainly irreconcileable ; and it was obvious that the former 
 would endeavour to reduce the latter to the condition of 
 tenants at will. But this necessary consequence was 
 either overlooked or ineffectually provided against The 
 zemindars became, under condition of their paying the 
 nt or quit-rent due to government, proprietors or 
 owners of the land. The amount of the assessment was 
 fixed at the average of what it had been for a few years 
 previously, and it was declared to be perpetual and in- 
 variable at that amount. When a zemindar fell into 
 arrear with government, his estate might be either sold or 
 resumed. 
 
 That the assessment was at the outset, and still is too 
 high, cannot well be doubted ; and it must ever be matter 
 of regret that the settlement was not made with the ryots, 
 or cultivators, rather than with the zemindars; but, not- 
 withstanding these and other defects, the measure was, 
 on the whole, a great boon to India. Until the introduc- 
 tion of the perpetual system into Bengal, the revenue was 
 r aiseal in it, as it continues to be in the rest of India down 
 to the present day, by a variable as well as a most oppres- 
 sive land-tax We all know what a pernicious influence 
 tithe has had in this country; but suppose that, instead 
 of amounting to 10, tithe bad amounted to 50 per cent, of 
 the gross produce of the soil, it would have been an 
 effectual obstacle to all improvement; and the country 
 would now have been in about the same state as in the 
 days of Alfred, or of William the Conqueror. 
 
 In France, Italy, and other parts of Europe, where the 
 metayer system is introduced, the landlord seldom or nevel 
 gets half the produce, unless he also furnish the slock and 
 finning capital, and, in most cases, the seed. But in India 
 neither the government nor the zemindars do anything of 
 the sort: they merely supply the land, which is usually 
 divided into very small portions, mostly about six, and 
 rarely amounting to twenty-four acres. A demand on 
 the occupiers of such patches for half the produce is quite 
 extravagant ; and hence the excessive poverty of tl peo- 
 ple, which is sucli is , i itaj er l» I . :'. istii., however, 
 the perpetual system Is vastly preferable in principle, and 
 also in its practical influence, to any other revenue system 
 hitherto established In India. It set limits to fiscal rapa- 
 city, and established, as it were, a rampart beyond which 
 no tax-gatherer dared to intrude. The enormous amount 
 of the assessment, and the rigour with which payment 
 was at first enforced, ruineil an immense number of zemin- 
 dars. But their lands having come into new and more 
 efficient hands, a better system of management was intro- 
 duced, and the limitation of the government demand gave 
 a stimulus to improvement unknown in any other part of 
 Hindostan. This, in fact, was the grand desideratum. A 
 land-tax, that may be increased should the land be im- 
 proved, is all but certain to prevent any such improvement 
 being made. ' This has been its uniform operation in every 
 country in the world tint has had the bad fortune to be 
 cursed with such a destructive impost. But a heavy land- 
 tax, provided it be fixed and unsusceptible of Increase, i>: 
 no bar to improvements, unless in so far as it tends to de- 
 prive the proprietors and occupiers of land of the mean? 
 of making them. There is, in such a case, no want of 
 security ; and the cultivator is not deterred from attempt- 
 ing improvements, or of bringing superior enterprise and 
 industry to operate on his estate, by the fear that the tax 
 will, in consequence, be increased. 
 
 The truth of what is now stated has been fully evinced 
 in Bengal during the last twenty or thirty years ; for both 
 the population and the land revenue of that part of our 
 Indian empire have greatly increased. A great deal of 
 waste land has been cultivated, and various works have 
 been undertaken that would not be so much as dreamed 
 of in any other part of our empire in the East. But, with 
 all this, there has been but little, if any, improvement in 
 the condition of the people of Bengal under our govern- 
 ment. They, in fact, are practically excluded from at least 
 all direct participation in the benefits resulting from the 
 limitation of the assessment. They have merely ex- 
 changed one task-master for another. It is their landlords 
 who h ave been the great gainers. The oocupiers still, 
 generally speaking, hold under the metayer principle, pay- 
 ing half or even more of their produce as rent ; so that 
 their poverty is often extreme, and their condition not in- 
 frequently inferior even to that of the hired labourer, who 
 receives the miserable pittance of two annas, or about 3d. 
 a d iv as wages, • ,. 
 
 It seems, however, as if there were some strange fatality 
 attending the government of India : and that the greatest 
 talents and the best intentions should, when applied to 
 legislate for that country, produce only the most pernicious 
 projects. The perpetual settlement carried into effect by 
 
RYTINA. 
 
 Lord Cornwa'lis in Bengal was keenly opposed by Lord 
 Teignmouth, Colonel Wilkes, Mr. Thackeray, Sir T. Monro, 
 and others, whose opinions on such subjects are certainly 
 entitled to very great respect ; and it would seem that the 
 Board of Control became, at length, favourable to their 
 views. In consequence of this change of opinion it was 
 resolved to introduce a different system, under the super- 
 intendence of its zealous advocate, Sir Thomas Monro, 
 into the presidency of Madras, or Fort St. George. This 
 new system has received the name of the ryotwar settle- 
 ment. It proceeds on the assumption that government 
 possesses the entire property of the soil, and may dispose 
 of it at pleasure : no middlemen or zemindars are inter- 
 posed between the sovereign and cultivators ; the ryots 
 being brought into immediate contact with the collectors 
 appointed by government to receive their rents. It is im- 
 possible for us to enter into the details of this system, 
 which are complicated in the highest degree ; but we beg 
 to refer the reader for full information to the Oeog. Diet., 
 art. " India, British." 
 
 KY'TINA. (Gx.jivns, a furrow) The name of a genus 
 of herbivorous Cetaceans, of which a species inhabiting 
 the coasts of Kamtschatka (Rytir*a stclleri), with a wrin- 
 kled and furrowed integument, is the type. 
 
 s. 
 
 IS. A sibilant articulation, found in all the languages of 
 which we have any knowledge. S may be Regarded as a 
 species of semivowel, from its forming a kind of imperfect 
 sound without the aid of any of the vowels ; and from its 
 peculiar quality of being able to be sounded before ali the 
 consonants, it has been termed by grammarian! suaipotcs- 
 tatis litera. It is susceptible of numerous interchanges, 
 both in the ancient and modern languages. As an abbre- 
 viation, S is used for socius, societas, south, solo, &c. 
 
 SA'BAISM, or SAB^EISM. (From the Heb. zaba, lord ; 
 whence Sabaoth, &c, or army, the host of heaven.) The 
 religion which has for its objects of worship the sun, moon, 
 and other heavenly bodies. This belief prevailed in very 
 remote ages in the Asiaticcountries between the Euphrates 
 and the Mediterranean ; and Chaldtea, the native land of 
 astronomy, was its most celebrated seat. Many allusions 
 are made to this species of worship in the Old Testament, 
 especially in the invectives of the prophets against the 
 various forma of idolatry borrowed by the Jews from their 
 heathen neighbours. (See Sale's Preliminary Discourse 
 to the Koran.) There is a valuable memoir on the Sabaism 
 of the ancient Persians by Foucher, .Mem. de VAc. des Inscr., 
 vol. xxv., p. 100. See also Russell's Connexion of Sacred 
 and Profane History, vol. i. 
 
 SABA'OTH. A Hebrew word, signifying hosts or armies. 
 It occurs in the New Testament as a designation of the 
 Almighty (the Lord of Sabaoth). • 
 
 SABA'SIA. In aticient Mythology, festivals in honour 
 of various divinities, entitled Subasii : the origin of which 
 term is not clear. Mithras, the sun, is called Sabasius in 
 ancient monuments, whence the word seems to have some 
 connexion with the root of Sabaism (see above) ; but 
 Bacchus was also thus denominated, according to some, 
 from the Saba;, a people of Thrace : and the nocturnal 
 Babasia were celebrated in his name. Jupiter Sabasius 
 is thought to be the same as *3Cgiochus ; the Phoenician 
 word tsebaoth signifying kids, as the Greek ai\ a goat. 
 But there is, probably, some more general oriental meaning, 
 which has not yet been reached. 
 
 SABBATA'RIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, various 
 sects have been so called ; particularly a subdivision of 
 the Anabaptists in the 16th century, who observed the 
 Jewish sabbath. The Sabbatians of the 4th century were 
 followers of Sabbatius, a Novatian bishop, who attempted 
 to introduce some Jewish observance into the church. 
 They are said to have had the singular peculiarity of ab- 
 horring the use of the right hand ; whence they were 
 called ApioTtOoi, or left-handed. 
 
 SA'BBATH. A Hebrew word signifying rest, applied 
 by the Jews to the seventh day of their week (our Satur- 
 day), on which they were commanded to abstain from all 
 manner of work, because " in six days God created the 
 heavens and the earth, and rested the seventh day." The 
 universal practice of the Christian church from the earliest 
 period, in conformity to what may be gathered from some 
 passages in the Acts of the Apostles, has set apart the first 
 day of the week (Sunday) for the especial worship of God, 
 in memory of the resurrection of our Lord on that day. 
 The obligation upon which the observance of Sunday rests 
 has been placed upon different grounds. The most preva- 
 lent opinion supposes the commandment given to the Jews 
 originally to be of universal obligation, as far as the observ- 
 ance of one day in seven, But there have been many 
 1080 
 
 SACK. 
 
 divines in all ages who have held that all the formal o'; ,U 
 gations of Judaism, as well those of the commandments u 
 those of the Levitical law, were abrogated on the advent 
 of our Saviour, and consider the consent of the church 
 and the practi< — »f the Apostles to be the only sufficient 
 authority for ti.is observance. It is upon this principle 
 that the Continental churches hold themselves justified in 
 indulging in all sorts of worldly recreation on Sundays, 
 after the services of public worship are concluded. Arch- 
 bishop Whately has recently drawn attention to the subject 
 by his able arguments against the popular opinions on 
 which the observance of the Sabbath is made to rest. 
 
 The name Sabbatarians was given to some early sects 
 of Judaising Christians, who insisted on the observance of 
 the Sabbath (Saturday) under the new dispensation. 
 
 SABBA'TICAL YEAR. Every seventh year amtng 
 the Jews was so called, because on that year the land 
 was allowed to lie fallow, and the people were supported 
 by the tripled produce of the year preceding. (Exod., xxiil., 
 10; Levit., xxv., 3, 20.) 
 
 SABE'LLIANS. Heretics of the 3d century, followers 
 of Sabellius, whose system was an attempt to explain the 
 doctrine of the Trinity by representing the Father as the 
 sole person, and the Son and Spirit as attributes, or ema- 
 nations from him. Thus they compared the Divinity to 
 the sun ; of which the Father would be analogous to the 
 substance, the Son to the light, and the Holy Ghost to the 
 heat. This scheme has been known in later times as 
 that of the Modal Trinity ; and some divines of the or- 
 thodox English Church have found themselves entangled 
 in it, when attempting to explain accurately the mysteri- 
 ous doctrine to which it refers. On the other lumd, their 
 opponents have been led, inadvertently in some cases, to 
 make too formal a distinction of the Three Persons, and 
 have thereby subjected themselves to the charge of Trithe- 
 ism. (See Moshcim, transl. ed., 1790, vol. i., p. 305.) 
 
 SA'BIANS. A Christian sect, also called Christians of 
 Saint John ; thought by sonic to be the remnant of the 
 Jewish Hemerobaptists found in Persia and Arabia, prin- 
 cipally at Basra. (See Mem. de VAc. des Inscr., vol. xii. ; 
 and Moshcim, vol. iv.) 
 
 SA'BLE. A small quadruped, allied to the martin-cat, 
 celebrated for the fine quality and rich colour of its fur, of 
 which the hairs turn with equal ease in every direction. 
 A single skin of the darker colour, though not above four 
 inches broad, has been valued as high as £15. The sable 
 (Mustela zibellina, Linn.) is principally a native of the 
 northern regions of Asia : it is hunted and killed for the 
 Russian market, either by a single ball, a blunt arrow, or 
 traps, by exiles or soldiers sent for that purpose in the des- 
 erts of Siberia. The skin is in the highest perfection from 
 November to February. A nearly allied animal, called 
 the "fisher," inhabits North America, and is similarly 
 sought after and destroyed for its fur. 
 
 Sable. In Heraldry, black : derived, probably, from 
 the fur of the animal sable. One of the colours, or tinc- 
 tures, employed in blazonry. It is equivalent to diamond 
 among precious stones, Saturn among planets. In engra- 
 ving, it is represented by vertical and horizontal lines 
 crossing each other. 
 
 SACCHA'RIC ACID. (Lat. saccharum, sugar.) An 
 uncrystallizable acid product, formed along with oxalic 
 acid during the action of nitric acid on sugar. 
 
 SA'CCHAROID. (Lat. saccharum, and Gr. afios, form.) 
 A texture resembling that of loaf sugar ; as saccharoid 
 carbonate of lime, &c. 
 
 SACCHARO'METER. (Lat. saccharum, and Gr. pzrpov, 
 a measure.) An instrument for determining the specific 
 gravity of brewers' and distillers' worts. 
 
 SA'CCHARUM. See Sugar. 
 
 SACCHOLA'CTIC ACDD. (Lat. saccharum, and lac, 
 milk.) An acid obtained by digesting sugar of milk in 
 nitric acid. It is identical with that obtained from gum, 
 and termed mucous acid. 
 
 SA'CER MO'RBUS. (Lat. sacred disease.) One of the 
 names applied by the older writers to epilepsy, though 
 other disorders were also occasionally similarly desig 
 nated. 
 
 SACK. (Fr. vin sec, from which the term is generally 
 supposed to be derived.) A Spanish wine of the dry kind. 
 The important part which it plays in Shakspeare is well 
 known. Falstaff calls it sherris sack, v\ hich means sher- 
 ry sack; so called, says Blount, in his Olossographia. 
 from Xeres, a sea town of Corduba, where that kind of 
 sack is made. At a later period, sack seems to have been 
 used as a general term for all kinds of sweet wines ; and 
 it has been conjectured that, instead of being a corruption 
 of the French sec, as above noticed, it derives its name 
 more probably from a common practice of the Spaniard*, 
 of putting their sweet wines into sacks made of goal 
 skins, and thus transporting them from one vilace to ap 
 other, 
 
SACKBUT. 
 
 It may be interesting to observe, that the term sack, in 
 the sense of a lin%, is found in all the European and many 
 Asiatic languages. 
 
 BA'CK BUT. A wind instrument of the trumpet species, 
 but differing from the common trumpet in form and size. 
 It is of low or bass pitch, and is drawn out or shortened 
 by means of sliders, according to the acuteness or gravity 
 of (be tone to be produced. It is, in fact, the trombone of 
 the It;' 
 
 SA'CRAMEN'T. (Lat. an oath.) The military oath 
 takes by every Roman soldier, by which he swore to obey 
 hi* commander and not desert his standard. 
 
 me nt. In Theology, a word which does not oc- 
 cur in Scripture, nor possesses any exact equivalent there ; 
 but employed very early by writers in theology to signify 
 certain distinctive ceremonies of the Christian faith. Our 
 Saviour appointed the baptism of believers as an initiatory 
 rite ; be also commanded the observance of the supper of 
 the Lord to be held in remembrance of him. These, then, 
 are the badges by which Christian men are known, and 
 by which they make profession of their belief. The ex- 
 pressions of Scripture, moreover, with which the apptint- 
 ment of these ceremonies is attended, have been generally 
 Considered to attach some ulterior meaning to them. The 
 one is called the second birth, the other is said to be the 
 communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ; 
 and the mysteries which seem to be concealed under these 
 terms have been made the subjects of various interpreta- 
 tion;. According to the general consent of ancient ortho- 
 doxy, the sacraments have In themselves a peculiar effica- 
 rrtng grace upon the recipient, and imparting to 
 linn the benefits of the Christian covenant. The Romish 
 ( 'linn ii Is accused of holding the extreme opinion that this 
 conferred ex opere opcrato, by the mere act, the re- 
 cipient remaining passive ; that they fail of operation only 
 where he is under the influence of positive sin; but that 
 the administration of the Eucharist to a dying man uncon- 
 icious of the whole proceeding, would have the same ef- 
 fect as (f he received it in the most holy frame of mind. 
 The English Church requires the worthy acceptation of 
 in himself, as is expressly stated, with a tacit nt- 
 i this superstitious notion, in its twenty-fifth arti- 
 cle. It guards, at the same time, against the idea very 
 generally held among the Protestant Churches abroad, and 
 our own dissenting sects, in the words with which the 
 article begins: "Sacraments ordained of Christ be not 
 tokens of Christian men's profession ; but, 
 rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs 
 ind Cod's will towards us, by the which he doth 
 islbly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also 
 strengthen and confirm our faith in him." 
 
 The question as to the number of such ceremonies must 
 be settled by the definitions of a sacrament which theolo- 
 gians shall propound. It is agreed that a sacrament is a 
 federal rite, Instituted by Christ or the Apostles, with a 
 ppolntment of matter by which some interior 
 me wing Is signified, and the form or manner of its appli- 
 cation. This definition is conceived by Protestants to re- 
 strict the number to two only; the Romanists extend it to 
 seven, adding to Baptism and the Lord's Supper, Confir- 
 mation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unc- 
 tion. 
 
 BA'CRED WAR. The most remarkable known by this 
 name in classical history is that which commenced with 
 the seizure of Delphi by the Phocians, B.C. 357, and was 
 ended by the conquest of the Phocians by Philip of Mace- 
 don, n.C. :i4(i, according to the chronology of Clinton. 
 [Fasti ffetlenici.) 
 
 BA'CRIFICE. Generally any offering made to the 
 Deity ; but more properly that of a victim upon an altar, 
 accompanied by customary ceremonies and forms of 
 prayer, with the idea of gratifying God and averting his 
 displeasure. In the Scriptures we meet with offerings, 
 both of fruits and of animals, antecedent to any command 
 or institution of God; such as those of Cain and Abel; of 
 Noah and the Patriarchs ; many of which, nevertheless, 
 ribed as acceptable to him. In the Levitical Law, 
 however, sacrifices are ordained by divine appointment ; 
 and a question arises as to the probability of a similar 
 command having been in fact given to our first parents. 
 The universality of the practice undoubtedly requires 
 either the supposition of an original revelation, or the dis- 
 covery of a common principle impelling all men alike to 
 the adoption of what at first sight seems to militate against 
 our ideas of reason, and the absurdity of which has, we 
 know, been represented in the strongest light by the sages 
 of all nations at a certain period of the Intellectual devel- 
 opment of each. Those divines who consider the ap- 
 pointment to have emanated directly from God conceive it 
 to have been, from the first, typical of the last and great- 
 flce — that of our Saviour on the cross. It may 
 faiily be asked of those who look for logical reasons for 
 a|l divine appointments, whether, upon human principles, 
 
 SAFETY LAMP. 
 
 it seems the more probable that the sacrifice of Christ be- 
 ing predetermined, the notion should be familiarized to 
 mankind by ordaining a previous practice ; or that, the 
 practice existing and having a meaning of its own in all 
 minds, the new revelation should be accommodated to our 
 notions by adopting that very practice for its foundation ? 
 If, on the other hand, we follow the general current of 
 modern opinion upon this subject, and Inquire for some 
 general principle of our nature to account for the univer- 
 sal reception of the ideas, we may discover it perhaps in 
 the perpetual sense of obligation with which the enjoy- 
 ment of prosperity is properly accompanied, and which in 
 some minds takes the form of grateful acknowledgment, 
 and the devotion to the giver of some portion of the gifts 
 by which we are ourselves gratified ; and in others be- 
 comes an uneasy scruple, and suggests the voluntary sur- 
 render of a part with a view to the more secure enjoy 
 ment of the remainder. 
 
 SA'CRILEGE. (Lat. sacrilegium.) The profanation 
 of anything or place consecrated to the service of God. 
 
 SA'CRISTY. (Lat. sacer, sacred.) In Architecture, 
 an apartment attached to a church, in which the conse- 
 crated vessels of the church, and the garments In which 
 the clergyman officiates, &c, are deposited. 
 
 SA'CRUM. The posterior bone of the pelvis, articula- 
 ted to the last lumbar vertebra, and firmly united on each 
 side to the hip bones; below, the os cor,cy<?i* is attached 
 to it. It probably derives its name from having been of- 
 fered by the ancients in sacrifices. In young subjects it 
 is composed of live or six pieces united by cartilages, but 
 in more advanced age it becomes one bone. 
 
 SADDER. A work in the modern Persian tongue, com- 
 prising a summary of various parts of the Ztnda\ 
 sacred books of the ancient Persians (which see). The 
 authority and character of the Sadder are supposed to be 
 very small ; some attribute it to the Parsees, and give it 
 an antiquity of several centuries ; others consider it n 
 more modern forgery. (See Mem. de I' Ac. des Jnscr., vol. 
 xxxviii.) 
 
 SA'DDLE. In Sea Language, a lump of wood acting 
 as a seat or rest to the heel of a boom, and haped ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 SA'DDUCEES. A peculiar sect of religionists raong 
 the Jews. It is remarked that during the time that proph- 
 ets are recorded to have arisen among the Jews, then is 
 no account of the existence of any sects among them : 
 they frequently fell away into total idolatry ; but when 
 ever recalled from that corruption, they appear to have 
 reverted In a l>ody to the pure religion of their ancestors, 
 and never to have been separated in religious distinctions 
 among themselves. The most ancient sect was that of 
 the Sadducees, whose founder, Sadok, lived about 350 
 years B.C. He appears to have restricted the providence 
 of God to the distribution of the temporal rewards and 
 punishments which form the main feature of the old dis- 
 pensation. In the time of our Saviour his followers en- 
 tirely rejected the doctrine of a resurrection. They were 
 assimilated also to the Epicureans in maintaining the per- 
 fect freedom of human actions ; and, like those pagan 
 philosophers, were few in number, and only of the high- 
 est and most literary classes. They were distinguished 
 also from the Pharisees by the rejection of traditions, and 
 by strict adherence to the written law alone. (See Mil- 
 man's Hist, of Christianity, vol. i., p. 75, 211.) 
 
 SA'FETY LAMP. A [amp invented by Sir H. Davy, 
 which is so constructed as to burn without danger in an 
 explosive atmosphere. Flame may be considered as va- 
 pour or aeriform matter In a state of intense ignition ; the 
 temperature, therefore, of flame is always very high. It 
 is, however, independent of its luminosity ; for some of 
 the dimmest flames, those of pure hydrogen gas, and of al- 
 cohol, for instance, are those which are hottest; and that 
 this is so may be shown by projecting into them finely 
 powdered substances, such as magnesia or lamp-black, or 
 by holding in them fine platinum wire, when the intensity 
 of their temperature is rendered evident by those substan- 
 ces becoming white hot. And whenever flames emit 
 much light they derive that property from the presence of 
 finely divided matter diffused through them : thus, the in- 
 tense brilliancy of the flame of phosphorus appears to 
 depend upon the particles of incombustible phosphoric 
 acid diffused through it; and the bright light emitted by a 
 gas flame depends upon finely-divided charcoal, which is 
 ignited by the gas and at the same time burned. The 
 correctness of this theory of flame is shown by the circum- 
 stance of its being extinguished by cooling ; and this is 
 best effected by causing it to pass through a piece of fine 
 wire gauze, which, when held horizontally in the midst 
 of the flame, extinguishes its upper part: the inflammable 
 vapour or gas, and the soot or carbon, pass through, but 
 in passing are so far cooled as to be extinguished ; they 
 may, however, be rekindled by applying a flame above 
 the wire gauze. That the wire gauze merely acts by 
 
 1081 
 
SAFETY VALVE. 
 
 its cooling power, is shown by the flame 
 passing through it when it acquires a white 
 heat, or when its meshes are not fine enough 
 to exert a due cooling power ; it is also found 
 that very hot flames, such as that of hydro- 
 gen, will pass through tissues which are im- 
 pervious to flames of a lower temperature, 
 such as that of a common candle or a gas 
 flame. (See Flame.) The application of 
 these principles to the construction of the 
 safety lamp is as follows : The flame of a 
 small oil lamp C is surrounded by a cylinder 
 of wire gauze A B (doubled at A, where like- 
 ly to become hottest, and protected by the 
 stout wire frame D), and burns within it, the 
 air having free ingress and egress. When it 
 is immersed in an explosive atmosphere, such 
 as that of a coal mine infested by fire-damp, 
 the inflammable gas enters from without 
 and burns in the cage ; but, in consequence 
 of the cooling power of the wire gauze, no 
 flame can pass outwards so as to ignite the sur- 
 rounding atmosphere : the miner, therefore, is warned of 
 his danger by the appearance of the lamp. As long as 
 the external atmosphere is safe, the lamp burns as usual ; 
 but upon the approach of the fire-damp the flame is more 
 or less enlarged ; and in the most explosive condition of 
 the surrounding air the cylinder appears filled with a blue 
 lambent flame, which flickers within it, the wick of the 
 lamp appearing for the time extinguished. It is, however, 
 rekindled as the air becomes more pure ; or should the 
 fire-damp greatly predominate, it may be entirely extin- 
 guished. Before this happens, however, the miner is duly 
 apprised of his danger, and has time to retreat. (See 
 Vavy on the Safety Lamp.) 
 SAFETY VALVE. See Steam Engine. 
 SA'FFLOWER. The dried flowers of the Carthamvs 
 Unctorius, or bastard saffron, used as a dye stuff, and in 
 ••he preparation of the pigment called rouge. 
 
 SA'FFRON. The prepared stigmata of the Crocus sat- 
 iaus. Tue stigmata .• Jiis purple crocer are of a 
 grange colour, and when in quantity have a peculiar and 
 pery characteristic odour ; they are used in medicine, 
 chiefly as a rich yellow or orange colouring matter. Saf- 
 fron is now chiefly imported from the south of Europe, es- 
 pecially Spain ; it was formerly largely cultivated in this 
 country in the vicinity of Saffron Walden in Cambridge- 
 shire. Saffron is often largely adulterated with the petals 
 of other plants, especially with those of the marigold. 
 
 SAGA. The general name of those ancient composi- 
 tions which comprise at once the history and mythology 
 of the northern European races. Their language is differ- 
 ent from the modern Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, 
 and is more powerful and expressive than either of these 
 later dialects. Of the mythological sagas the most fa- 
 mous are the saga of Regnar, Lodbrok, the Hervarar saga, 
 the Voluspa saga, and the Wilkina saga. The historical 
 are very numerous ; the Jomsvilkingia saga and the Kaf 
 linga saga comprehend much of the early annals of Nor- 
 way and Denmark ; the Eyrbiggia saga is the chief his- 
 torical document of ancient Iceland. It is, however, to be 
 remembered, that the chief object of the relators is the in- 
 terest of the narrative ; so that as mere histories they are 
 of imperfect value. Many of them are collected in the 
 great work of Snorre Sturleson called Heimskringla. The 
 most classical period of these compositions is considered 
 by antiquaries to fall within the 12th and 13th centuries. 
 
 SAGA PENUM. A fetid gum-resin brought from Persia 
 and Alexandria, probably the produce of a species of ferula. 
 It is occasionally used in medicine as a nervine and stim- 
 ulating expectorant. Its odour somewhat resembles that 
 of assafcetida, but it is much weaker. 
 
 SA'GGER. A clay used in making the pots in which 
 earthenware is baked, and which are called saggers or 
 seggcrs. 
 
 SAGGING TO LEEWARD. A Nautical term, deno- 
 ting the movement by which a ship makes considerable 
 lee-way. 
 
 SAGI'TTA. (Lat. arrow, or dart.) One of Ptolemy's 
 48 constellations in the northern hemisphere. See Con- 
 stellation. 
 
 Saoi'tta. A term used by the older writers on trigo- 
 nometry to denote the versed sine of an arc : from its re- 
 semblance to an arrow standing on the chord of the double 
 arc. 
 
 SAGITTA'RIUS. (Lat. the Archer.) One of the twelve 
 constellations of the zodiac. It is represented on celestial 
 globes and charts by the figure of a centaur in the act of 
 shooting an arrow from his bow. 
 
 SAGI'TTATE. (Lat. sagitta, an arrow.) In Zoology, 
 a part of an animal is so called when it is triangular and 
 hollowed out at the base, with posterior angles. 
 1082 
 
 SAIL. 
 
 SA'GO. A species of fecula or starch obtained from the 
 cellular substance of an East Indian palm tree, the Sagus 
 farinifera. It is usually granulated, and known in the 
 trade under the name of pearl sago. 
 
 The tree, when at maturity, is about 30 feet high, and 
 from 18 to 22 inches in diameter. Before the formation of 
 the fruit, the stem consists of an external wall about 2 
 inches thick, the whole interior being filled up with a sort 
 of spongy, medullary matter. When the tree attains tc 
 maturity, and the fruit is formed, the stem is quite hollow 
 Being cut down at a proper period, the medullary part is 
 extracted from the trunk, and reduced to a powder like 
 sawdust. The filaments are next separated by washing. 
 The meal is then laid to dry ; and being made into cakes is 
 baked and eaten. For exportatation, the finest sago meal 
 is mixed with water, and the paste rubbed into small grains 
 of the size and form of coriander seeds. This is the species 
 principally brought to England, for which market it should 
 be chosen of a reddish hue, and readily dissolving in hot 
 water into a fine jelly. Within these few years, however, 
 a process has been invented by the Chinese for refuting 
 sago, so as to give it a fine pearly lustre ; and the sago so 
 cured is in the highest estimation in all the European 
 markets. It is a light, wholesome, nutritious food. It is 
 sent from the islands where it is grown to Singapore, where 
 it is granulated and bleached by the Chinese. The export 
 trade to Europe and India is now principally confined to 
 that settlement. (Jlinslic's Mat. Indica ; Crawfwd's East. 
 Jlrchip., vol. i., p. 383-393 ; vol. iii., p. 348 ; Bell's Review of 
 the Commerce of Bengal. <$-e.) 
 
 The consumption of sago has undergone an almost in- 
 credible increase within the last twenty years, which is 
 wholly ascribable to the reduction, in the interval, of the 
 oppressive duties by which the article was formerly load- 
 ed. — (Papers published by the Board of Trade.) 
 
 SA'GUM. The military dress of the Roman magistrates 
 and dignitaries ; a cloak fastened at the breast with a clasp. 
 The same name was given to the ordinary dress of several 
 barbarous nations. Thus Tacitus says of the Germans, 
 tegvmen omnibus sagvm : and Varro and Diodorus Siculus 
 represent it <.s the costume of the G 
 
 SA'HLITE. In Mineralogy, a variety of augite from the 
 silver mine of Sahla in Sweden. 
 
 SAIL. A surface obtained by canvass, mat, or other 
 material, by the action of the wind on which, when ex- 
 tended, the vessel is moved. A sail extended by a yard 
 hung (slung) by the middle and balanced, is called a square 
 sail: a sail set upon a gaff or a stay, is called a fore and 
 aft sail; which terms refer to the position of the yard, 
 gaff, or stay, when the sail is not set. The upper part of 
 every sail is the head, the lower part the foot ; the sides in 
 general are called leeches ; but the weather or side edge of 
 any but a square sail is called the luff, and the other edge 
 the after leech. The upper two corners are tarings, but 
 that of a jib is the head ; the lower two corners are In gen- 
 eral clues; the weather clue of a fore and aft sail, or of a 
 course while set, is the tack. The edges of a sail are 
 strengthened by a rope called the bolt rope. The ropes at 
 the upper and lower edges are the head and toot ropes of 
 the sail. The canvass or sail-cloth is made in bolts ; and 
 the qualities are numbered from No. 1, which is the Wrong- 
 est, and is used for storm sails, to No. 8, which is used for 
 the smallest sails, as small studding sails, &c, which the 
 seamen commonly caWflying kites. The cloths in a square 
 sail are seamed vertically ; in a fore and aft sail they are 
 parallel to the after leech. In this way the strain of the 
 sheet diffuses itself over the canvass both a Ion;; and across 
 the cloths. Discussions have, however, arisen as to the 
 best mode of seaming. When a seam opens, the sail often 
 splits. Captain Cowan took out a patent for horizontal 
 seaming; he remarks (Essay on the Construction of Sails, 
 &rc.) that such sails when they split remain full, and are 
 less liable to blow away, and that they also were round to 
 last much longer. The plan, however, has not been ap 
 proved. Diagonal seaming, which has also had its advo- 
 cates, is defective in principle ; for it must bring the strain 
 of a sheet either on a single cloth, or entirely across the 
 stitctics. 
 
 Sails take their names from the mast, yard, or stay upon 
 which they are stretched. Thus, the principal sail ex- 
 tended upon the main mast is called the main sail ; the 
 next above, which stands upon the main-top mrrst, is the 
 main-top-mast sail; above which is the main top-gallant 
 sail; and above all, the mainroyal. In like manner, there 
 are the fore sail, the fore-top sail, the fore-top-gallant sail, 
 and the fore royal; and similar appellations are given to 
 the sails supported by the mhicn or after mast. The main 
 stay sail, main-top-mast stay-sail, &c, are between the 
 main and fore masts; and the mizzen stay-Bait mizztn-top- 
 mast staysail, &c, are between the main md miz/en 
 masts. Between the fore-mast and bowsprit ire the fore 
 stay-sail, the fore-top-mast stay-sail, the jib, and sometimes 
 
SAILING. 
 
 a fining jib and middle jib. Square sails extended by yards 
 under the bowsprit and jib-booms are called sprit sails ; 
 and liif studding tails are those which are extended upon 
 the different yards of the main mast and fore mast. 
 
 set sail. To shorten sail, is to take in 
 some sail. To louse sails, is to spread or hang out the sails 
 that hid been furled to air them, or for the purpose of set- 
 ting afterwards. To strike sail, is to lower the yard or 
 gali'ol a sail when set, in token of salute. 
 
 Dmmon theory of sails which assume the impact 
 of columns oi ;iir is radically defective ; for it is a fact fa- 
 miliar tn sailors that the reef points, or any light stuff by 
 accident in the same situation, bang vertically in the hol- 
 low of the sail, as in a calm, thereby proving that the sail 
 is Ailed with a mass of air, quiescent or nearly so, and 
 maintained in a state of statical pressure; whereas, if the 
 common theory were true, the points would lie fiat to the 
 Harass, as weeds are pressed against the bank of a stream. 
 Hence it follows that (as all sailors believe who have nut 
 mixed with their practice the fragments of imperfect the- 
 ories) there is a certain extent of hollow or belly which la- 
 the effect of the sail. It of course adds to the ef- 
 fect of sails to wet them, by swelling the threads and 
 closing the pores: this practice is often resorted to in 
 ahaae. 
 
 SAILING. In Navigation, the art of directing a ship 
 on ,i given line laid down in a chart. It is called plane 
 galling when the chart is constructed on the supposition 
 e irth's surface (or rather the surface of the ocean) 
 is an extended plane ; and globular sailing, when the chart 
 is a globular chart, or constructed on the supposition that 
 u is a sphere. Sec Navigation. 
 
 BAILING ORDER, or ORDER OF SAILING. Any 
 determinate order preserved by a squadron of ships. It 
 usually implies 1,2, or 3 parallel columns, but is at the dis- 
 position of the admiral. 
 
 SAINFOIN. (Jledysamm onabrychis.) A plant of the 
 
 family of the I.rguminosec. It will not thrive well except 
 
 when the soil or subsoil is calcareous, and is consequently 
 
 rally met with in this country; though it is ex- 
 
 on the Cotswold Hills, and on the 
 
 Hants, Wilts, &c. It generally re- 
 
 i eight or ten years — a much longer jieriod than it 
 
 Prance. It is made Into hay, the after crop being 
 
 eaten In' eatde. 
 
 r JOHN, KNIGHTS OF; or HOSPITALLERS. 
 A military order of religious persons. Tiny derived their 
 name from a church and monastery dedicated to St. John 
 the Baptist, founded at Jerusalem about 1046, by merchants 
 from Amalli, the brotherhood of its member! being devoted 
 ;tv of taking care of poor and sick pilgrims. The 
 oiriar wa a military brotherhood by Raymond 
 
 du l'uy, Its principal, early in the 12th century. It was 
 divided into three ranks— knights, chaplains, and servitors ; 
 and in its military capacity it was bound to defend the 
 church against the Infidels. It possessed various posses- 
 sions and settlements at different times in different parti of 
 the East. In the 13th century, being driven from Palestine, 
 Jits of this order lived their principal seat first in 
 Cyprus and afterwards at Rhodes, where they remained 
 from 130'J to 1522, when the Island was captured by Solyman 
 II. After several changes of settlement, they were fixed in 
 1530 by Charles V. at Malta and its dependant islands, 
 whence they took the nameof Knights of Malta. Here they 
 BHint&ined themselves until 1798, when the island was ta- 
 ken by Napoleon. The order, however, continued to sub- 
 sist, notwithstanding the loss of its sovereign possessions 
 both in Malta and in Tuscany: the seat of the chapter is 
 now at lerrara. Before the French Revolution the number 
 of knights was estimated at 300U. The temporal powers 
 of the order were chiefly concentrated in the hands of the 
 grand master ; but he was, in fact, controlled by the gov- 
 ernors of the eight languages. These were, of Provence, 
 Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, Germany, Castile, and 
 England. The lands were divided into priories, com- 
 m ambries, and bailliages. The spiritual power was exer- 
 cised by the chapter, consisting of eight ballivi conven- 
 tuales. The knights were under the rules of the order of 
 St. Augustine ; but Protestants were not bound to celibacy. 
 They were required to be necessarily of good descent ; but 
 those whose proofs of noble ancestry were unquestionable 
 were termed cavalieri digiustizia, while others who could 
 not show such proofs might bo admitted on account of 
 rits as cavalieri di grazia. See Hospitallers. 
 
 SAINTS. (L at. sancti, holy persons.) Pious men, who, 
 according to a custom early prevalent among Christians, 
 were commemorated with honour after their death in the 
 services aril cercmoiries of the church. This distinction 
 was originally applied to the apostles and eminent martyrs 
 whose places of burial were regarded with 
 ITectlon bv the faithful in the neighbourhood, and 
 memorials or relics of whom were carefully cherished 
 among them. The observance of particular days in the 
 
 SAL AMMONIAC. 
 
 honour of the saints was also a very early custom : but the 
 natural feeling which prompted this and" other tributes of 
 gratitude and respect towards them became gradually cor- 
 rupted. The intercession of the saints was supposed to 
 have iwwer with God, and individuals put themselves un- 
 der the especial patronage of one or more among the num- 
 ber, which in later times was vastly augmented, giving to 
 them the honour and worship due to God alone, and con 
 ceiving themselves sufficiently protected by the influence 
 of their prayers. It was affirmed that miracles were per 
 formed at their tombs and by their relics, and the greatest 
 rivalry and contention arose between the votaries of the 
 shrines of different saints, and sometimes those of the same. 
 For the manner of enrolment among the number of saints, 
 see art. Canonization. (See Bingham and Palmer's Ori- 
 gines Liturgies, as to the progress of the invocation of 
 saints in the church, vol. i.. ~Tti, &c.) 
 
 SAINT SHION1ANS. Claude Henri, Covint de S. Si 
 mon, of the ancient family of that name, born in 1760, was 
 engaged during the greater part of his life In a series of un 
 successful commercial enterprises, a traveller, and in the 
 early portion of his life a soldier in America ; but having 
 dissipated a considerable fortune, and been unable to draw 
 the attention of the public to a variety of schemes, political 
 and social, which he was constantly publishing, he at- 
 tempted suicide in 1820; he lived, however, a few years 
 looser, and died in 1896, leaving his papers and projects to 
 Olinde Rodriguez. St. Simon's views of society and the 
 destiny of mankind are contained in a variety of works, 
 and especially in a short treatise entitled the Jfouveau 
 Christianisme., published after his death by Rodriguez. 
 This book does not contain any scheme for the foundation 
 of a new religion, such as his disciples afterwards invent- 
 ed. It is a diatribe against both the Catholic and Protes 
 tant sects for their neglect of the main principle of Chris- 
 tianity, the elevation of the lower classes of society ; and 
 inveighs against " 1'exploitation de 1'homme par I'homme," 
 the existing system of Individual industry, under which 
 capitalist and labourer have opposite interests and no com 
 mon object. The principle of association, and just division 
 of the fruits of common labour between tt." members os 
 society, he imagined to be the true remedy for its present 
 evils. After his death these ideas were caught up by a 
 number of disciples, and formed into something resembling 
 a system. The new association, or St. Simonian family, 
 was chiefly framed by Rodriguez, Bazar, Thierry, Cheva- 
 lier, and other men of talent. After the revolution of July, 
 1830, it rose rapidly into notoriety, from the sympathy be- 
 tween the notions which it promulgated and those enter- 
 tained by many of the republican party. In 1831, the so- 
 ciety had about 3000 members, a newspaper (the Globe), 
 and large funds. The views of the St. Simonian family 
 vvero all directed to the abolition of rank and property in 
 society, and the establishment of association (such as the 
 followers of Mr. Owen in this country have denominated 
 co-operative), of which all tho members shonld work in 
 common and divide the fruits of their labour. But with 
 these notions, common to many other social reformers, 
 they united the doctrine, that the division of the goods of 
 the community should be in due proportion to the merits 
 or capacity of the recipient. Society was to be governed 
 by a hierarchy, consisting of a supreme pontiff, apostles, 
 disciples of the first, second, and third order. It was not 
 until about this period (1830) that they began to invest 
 these opinions with the form and character of a religion ; 
 but shortly after having done so they went into great ex- 
 travagances. There was a disunion among them as to the 
 fittest person to preside in the society ; and consequently 
 Messrs. Bazar and Enfantin divided, for some time, the 
 duties and dignity of the " Supreme Father," as he was 
 termed. But on the 19th Nov., 1831, Bazar and many 
 others left the society, of which Enfantin remained the 
 supreme father. Their doctrines and proceedings now be- 
 came licentious and immoral to the last degree. On the 
 22 Jan., 1832, the family was dispersed by the government. 
 Enfantin and Rodriguez were tried on various charges, and 
 imprisoned for a year. The former afterwards collected 
 again a part of the society at Menilmontant ; but it broke up 
 for want of funds. Some former members of the St. Si- 
 monian association are now in places of rank and consider- 
 ation : some of the most extravagant have gone to the 
 East; but Enfantin, we believe, has no followers. 
 
 SA'LAMANDER, Salamandra. (Gr. caXu/iavif a.) The 
 name of a genus of Batrachian reptiles, now limited to the 
 terrestrial species of long-tailed Caducibranchiate Batra- 
 chians, or those which lose their gills before arriving at 
 maturity, but retain their tails. This appendage is changed 
 in the progress of growth in the true salamander from a 
 compressed to a rounded form. The female brings forth 
 the young alive, which are hatched in the oviduct; and 
 the sexes frequent the water at the season of reproduction 
 See Batrachia and Triton. 
 
 SAL \MMO'NIAC. Muriate of ammonia ; hydro 
 
SALEP. 
 
 chlorate of ammonia. A compound of 17 of ammonia and 
 37 hydrochloric acid. Its name is derived from the Tem- 
 ple of Amnion, in Egypt, where it was originally made by 
 burning camels' dung : it is now largely manufactured In 
 this country. See Ammonia. 
 
 SALEP. See Salop. 
 
 SAL GEM. Common salt. 
 
 SALICA'CEjE. (Salix, the principal genus.) A na- 
 tural order of Achlamydaceous Exogens, distinguished by 
 a two-valved capsule, and numerous seeds tufted with long 
 hairs. The genus Salix comprehends the plants called 
 osiers, sallows, and willows, and U of great economical 
 value, not only for the purpose of the busket-maker, but 
 because several species have a bark which has been found 
 by Davy to contain as much tannin as the oak ; and a 
 crystallizable principle called salicine has been obtained 
 from Salix helix and others, which, according to Magendle, 
 arrests, the progress of a fever with the same power as the 
 sulphate of quiiiia. The poplars, aspens, and abele trees 
 also form a part of this order. 
 
 SA'LICIN. A bitter crystallizable substance extracted 
 from willow bark. It exists in several species of willow ; 
 and a similar substance has been extracted from the bark 
 of the poplar, especially of the Populus tremula. Its ulti- 
 mate elements are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, so that 
 it differs from the vegeto-alkalis in containing no nitrogen. 
 
 SA'LIC LAW. The law of that community of the na- 
 tion of Franks which inhabited the country between the 
 Meuse and the Rhine— the law of the Ripuarian Franks 
 governing those who dwelt between the Rhine and the 
 Loire. The origin of the name Salian, given to this por- 
 tion of the Franks and their law, is uncertain: some de- 
 rive it from the river Saale, in Saxony, on the banks of 
 which they suppose them to have inhabited before the 
 period of their emigration westward. The body of law in 
 question was republished and reformed by Charlemagne in 
 798, and is still preserved, both in the earlier and in the re- 
 modelled shape. The most celebrated portion of it is con- 
 tained in the title 62 De Jllode, where it is declared that 
 "no portion of the inheritance in Salic land (terra salica) 
 can fall to females ; but that the whole must pass to the 
 males." What those lands were which are intended by 
 the term Salic, has afforded room for infinite discussion 
 among French antiquaries. It is supposed by Ducange 
 that they were those lands which were acquired by Franks 
 at the period of the conquest, and held by military service 
 only. But it seems that the exclusion of females was only 
 to take place where males were to be found in the same 
 degree of kindred to the ancestor. However this may be, 
 the fundamental law which excludes females from succes- 
 sion to the crown of France received, in very early times, 
 the appellation of the Salic law, and was supposed by her 
 lawyer* to be derived from the provisions of this ancient 
 code. It was, indeed, a custom prevalent from the earliest 
 times, as we learn from Tacitus, among the Germanic 
 tribe:?. It was observed in France under the first race ; 
 but the first occasion on which it was publicly canvassed 
 was in 1316, when Jeanne, the daughter of Louis Hutin, 
 was excluded from the crown in favour of Philip V., her 
 uncle. In 1328 it was contested by Edward III., who claim- 
 ed by a prior title to Philip of Valois, if females were ad- 
 missible ; being the son of Isabella, sister of Louis Hutin. 
 From this pretension arose the wars between England and 
 France, which occupied the whole of the following cen- 
 tury. In 1593 the famous arret of the parliament of Paris 
 was pronounced, by which all treaties made to transfer the 
 crown to a foreign dynasty were declared null, as contrary 
 to the "Salic" and other fundamental laws. The same 
 law has been recognised in all countries of which the 
 crown has devolved upon the royal house of France, and 
 forms now the foundation of the pretensions of the Infante 
 Don Carlos to the throne of Spain. It was also consider- 
 ed as established in those great fiefs of the crown of France 
 which had been granted to princes of the blood by way of 
 apanage ; and by this means, on the death of Charles duke 
 of Burgundy, leaving a daughter only, the dukedom of 
 Burgundy proper reverted to Louis XI. as a male fief. 
 (See Mem. de I'Jic. des Inscr., vol. xx. ; Meyer's Origines 
 Judiciaires ; HallartCs Middle Jlges.) 
 
 SALICO'aUES. The French term for the family of 
 Macrourous or long-tailed Crustacea of which the shrimp 
 (Crangon vulgaris) is the type. 
 
 SALIENT. (Lat. salio, / leap.) In Heraldry, a term 
 used to describe a beast when represented as leaping or 
 springing. 
 
 SA'LIENT ANGLE, In Geometry and Fortification, 
 an angle of a polygon projecting outwards in reference to 
 the centre of the polygon. An angle pointing inwards is 
 called a re entering angle. All the angles of any regular 
 figure, as the triangle, square, hexagon, &c, are salient. 
 
 SALIE'NTIA. (Lat. sallo, I leap.) The third order in 
 the Mammalogical system of Illiger, including the Mar- 
 supial genera Hypsiprymnus and Halmaturvs, or the po- 
 1084 
 
 SALMON. 
 
 toroos and kangaroos, whose progression is by successive 
 leaps. 
 
 SALI'FEROUS ROCKS. The new red sandstone svs 
 tern of some geologists. See Geology. 
 
 SALIFI'ABLE BASE. This term, which is of frequent 
 occurrence in chemistry, is chiefly applied to those metal- 
 lic oxides which combine in definite proportions with the 
 acids, so as to form distinct salts : ammonia, and the vegeto- 
 alkalis are also, upon the same principle, salifiable bases. 
 
 SA'LII. The Roman tlamens, or peculiar priests of 
 Mars. They were twelve in number, and were instituted 
 by Numa to guard the ancile, or sacred shield of Mars. 
 They used on solemn occasions to proceed through the city 
 dancing, whence they derived their name (from salire, to 
 dance). 
 
 SALI'VA. (Lat.) The fluid secreted into the mouth 
 by the salivary glands ; its principal use is to lubricate the 
 parts, and to assist in rendering the food of a proper con- 
 sistency to be swallowed. 
 
 S ALIVA'TION. The excessive flow of saliva which is 
 produced by the continuous use of mercury and of some 
 other remedies. 
 
 SALIX. (Lat. a willow,) is a genus of plants consisting 
 of numerous species, all either trees or bushes, occurring 
 abundantly in all the cooler parts of the northern hemi- 
 sphere. Some of them, like S. alba, acquire the dimen- 
 sions of the largest forest trees ; others are lost among the 
 grass with which they grow, as S. herbacea. They are the 
 last kind of ligneous plants that disappear before the rigours 
 of an arctic climate, the only tree found on Melville Island, 
 nine inches high, having been a willow (Salix arctica). 
 Few extend into warm regions, the Salix babijlonica, or 
 weeping willow, being the best known instance. Their 
 timber, when they form any, is light, tough, soft, and unfit 
 for purposes of construction : it is chiefly used for turnery, 
 and fo.r coarse in-door purposes. Many species have long 
 flexible shoots, and are called osiers, under which name 
 they are extensively employed by the workers in wicker ; 
 others are not flexible, but form small trees or rough bushes, 
 named sallows. The latter, called Saulcs marceaux by the 
 French, yield the best kind of charcoal for military pur- 
 poses ; they are all, however, burned for the, preparation 
 of this substance. The bark of S. helix, fragilis, pentan- 
 dria, and others, has been found useful in intermittent 
 fevers ; and as these maladies are most common in the 
 low marshy places where salices abound, it has been sup- 
 posed that they are the means which the Creator has given 
 us for protecting ourselves against such disorders. The 
 species intermix very freely, forming mules and hybrids, 
 which have led botanists to create a prodigious number of 
 false species. 
 
 SALLY PORTS, in Fortification, are underground pas- 
 sages leading from the inner works to the outward ones, for 
 the troops to sally out. They are otherwise called pastern 
 gates. 
 
 SA'LMON. (Lat. salmo.) The excellent and highly 
 valuable fish so called in England is the Salmo salar of 
 Linnffius, not of Rondeletius. Both species exist in our 
 rivers, the latter having been recognizably and accurately 
 defined under the name of Salmo eriox, or bull trout, which 
 it is to be hoped will be retained for this species, notwith- 
 standing that the name of Salmo salar may have been ap- 
 plied to it by the older ichthyologist. 
 
 The normal locality of the salmon is at the mouth or 
 estuary of the larger rivers, which, in the season of sexual 
 excitement, they ascend, sooner or later, in the summer 
 months, according as circumstances may influence their 
 coming into breeding condition. At first they a.«cend only 
 so far as the tide wave reaches, and retire with the ebb ; 
 but as the quantity of roe and milt increases, the Instinct 
 which teaches the fit locality for oviposition becomes more 
 imperative, and few are the natural obstacles Which the 
 salmon does not overcome in its endeavour to reach it. 
 
 The great value of the fish renders an accumte know- 
 ledge of it, under the disguise of its immature form and 
 markings, of the highest importance; but the difficulties 
 which attend the observation of the migratory Inhabitants 
 of the water have only very lately been overcome in the 
 present instance. The proof that the small Salmonoid 
 fish, called the parr, is, as many naturalists had suspected, 
 the young of the salmon, has been elicited by the careful 
 and repeated observations and experiments of Mr. Shaw of 
 Drumlanrig, of which the following condensed account is 
 taken from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edtn. 
 burgh. 
 
 In the river Nith, Dumfries, the salmon oviposits in the 
 month of January. On the 10th of January, Mr. Shaw ob- 
 served a female salmon of about 16 lbs. weight, and two 
 males of nt least 25 lbs., engaged in depositing flieir spawn. 
 The spot which they had selected for that purpose was a 
 little apart from some other salmon which were encaged 
 in the same process, and rather nearer the side of the stream, 
 although still in pretty deep water. The two males kep. 
 
SALMONOIDS. 
 
 ip an Tit«w»»nt tonflict during the whole of the day for 
 po*e»sio: cS ti*. female, and in their struggle frequently 
 drove each other almost ashore, and were repeatedly on the 
 Burface, displaying their dorsal fins and lashing the water 
 with tlif-ir tails.— The female throws herself at intervals of 
 a few minutes on her side ; and while in that position, by 
 the rapid action of her tail she digs a receptacle in the gravel 
 for her ora, a portion of which she deposits, and again turn- 
 ing upon her side she covers it up by the renewed action of 
 the tail ; thus alternately digging, depositing, and covering 
 the ova, until the process is completed by the laying of the 
 whole mass, an operation which generally occupies three 
 or four days. The embryo fish, conspicuous by the two 
 dark eye-specks and the vascular vitelline sac, presented 
 some appearance of animation in the ovum on February 
 26th. that in, forty-eight days after having been deposited; 
 and on 8th April, or 90 days after impregnation of the ova, 
 the young were excluded. The head is large in proportion 
 to the body, which measures |ths of an inch in length ; the 
 vitellicle is i of an inch in length, and resembles a light red 
 currant; the tail is margined like that of the tadpole, with 
 a continuous tin running from the dorsal above to the anal 
 beneath. The vitelline sac and its contents are absorbed 
 by the 30th May, or in about fifty days, until which time 
 the young fish "does not leave the gravel. The terminal 
 fringe-like tin now begins to divide itself into the dorsal, adi- 
 pose, caudal, and anal fins; and the transverse bars on the 
 sides of the body make their appearance. At this period 
 the young salmon measures an inch in length, and is very 
 active, and continues in the shallows of its native stream 
 till the following spriiui, when It has attained the length of 
 from three to lour inches, and is called the "May parr:" 
 they now descend into deeper parts of the river, but remain 
 there over the second winter. In April, the caudal, pecto- 
 ral, and dorsal fins assume a dusky margin ; the lateral bars 
 begin to be concealed by a silvery pigment; and the migra- 
 tory dress, characteristic of the salmon fry or smolt, is as- 
 sumed. The fish now begin to congregate in shoals, and to 
 migrate seaward. 
 
 The full-grown salmon averages a weight of between 25 
 lbs. and :}."> I ba. ; but instances are recorded of their attaining 
 to 55 lbs., 6fh>s., 70 lbs., 74 lbs., and 83 lbs. The last-cited 
 weight was That of a female salmon, which came into the 
 f Mr. Groves, the fishmonger, in Bond Street, 
 about the season of 1821 ; it was a short fish for the weight, 
 but of very unusual thickness and depth. When cut up, the 
 tlesh was tine In colour, and proved of excellent quality. 
 antics. 
 
 SA'LMONOIDS, Salmonida. A family of soft-finned 
 Abdominal fishes, of which the salmon is the type, having 
 their upper law formed in the middle by the intermaxillary, 
 and at the sides by the maxillary bones, both of which sup- 
 port teeth ; they are also characterized by a posterior small 
 adipose dorsal fin, and the body is covered with regular 
 cycloid scales. They pass, by almost imperceptible grada- 
 tions, into the Clupeoid or herring family, with which they 
 have been united by M. Agassiz, to form a common group 
 termed llalecoids. Those species of Sal monoids which, 
 like the Clupeoids, inhabit the sea, not only approach the 
 land, but ascend the rivers to near their source, in order to 
 deposite their ova. 
 
 B A I.D X, or SALOON. (It snlone.) In Architecture, 
 a large state apartment; or, as its name imports, a great 
 hall, or one for the reception of works of art, and usually 
 running up through two stories of a house. Salon is also 
 applied to the reunions of the French capital, which have 
 always exercised considerable Influence upon the country 
 in all that relates to fashion, literature, and even politics. 
 M. Guizot's admirable little work upon the Salons of Paris 
 is well known. It was recently well reviewed in the Jour- 
 nal drs Debats. 
 
 SA'LOP. The prepared root of the Orchis mnscula. It 
 consists principally of a modification of gum, much resem- 
 bling tragaeantk, with a small quantity of starch ; it is 
 sometimes used as an article of food. 
 
 SALP, Salpa. (Lat. salpa, a stock-fish.) A name ap- 
 plied to a genus of soft-shelled or tunicated Acephalous 
 Molliisks, which float in the sea, protected by a transparent 
 gelatinous coat, perforated for the passage of water at both 
 extremities. 
 
 BA'LPINX. (Gr. aa\iriyh a trumpet.) The Eustachian 
 tube, or channel of communication between the mouth and 
 ear. 
 
 SAL SEIGNETTE. Tartrate of potassa and soda. See 
 Rochelle Salt. 
 
 SALT. (Lat. sal, Germ, salz.) This term, though in 
 ordinary language limited to common salt, or sea salt, is 
 app'ied in chemistry to all combinations of acids with alka- 
 line or salifiable bases. The term has also been extended 
 to certain binary combinations of chlorine, iodine, bromine, 
 and fluorine with the metals ; and these have been called 
 haloid salts (from uA$, ssa salt, and Lidos, form), inasmuch 
 
 SALUTES. 
 
 as modern chemistry has taught us that sea salt belongs to 
 this class. Certain definite combinations of the sulphurets 
 with each other have of late been called sulphur salts ; but 
 the former appellation of double sulphurets is, perhaps, more 
 properly applicable to such compounds. 
 
 Sea salt is a compound of 1 equivalent of sodium = 24, 
 and 1 of chlorine = 36 ; its equivalent, therefore, is (24 -f- 
 36) tt 60: and it is a chloride of sodium. The circum- 
 stances which gave rise to the notion of its containing mu- 
 rialic acid and soda, and being therefore a muriate of soda, 
 will be apparent by reference to the article Muriatic Acid. 
 For rock-salt, see Geology. * 
 
 The nomenclature of salts has reference to the acids 
 which they contain ; sulphates, nitrates, carbonates, tec, 
 implying salts of the sulphuric, nitric, and carbonic acids. 
 The termination ate implies the maximum of oxygen in the 
 acids, and ite the minimum: thus the salts of sulphurous 
 and nitrous acids are called sulphites and nitrites. When 
 salts contain 1 equivalent of acid and 1 of base, they are 
 called neutral salts : where 1 equivalent of acid is combined 
 with 2 of base, they are termed basic salts, subsalts, or di- 
 salts ; and where there are 2 equivalents of acid and 1 of 
 base, the salt is a supersalt, or bisalt. Thus, the terms sub- 
 acetate and diacetate of lead are synonymous; so are super- 
 carbonate and bicarbonate of potash. Many salts are hy- 
 drous ; that is, they contain a definite proportion of watei 
 of crystallization; others are destitute of water, and are 
 dry or anhydrous salts. Some salts attract moisture when 
 exposed to air, and are said to be deliquese ; others suffer 
 their water to escape and become opaque, or pulverulent : 
 these are called efflorescent salts. 
 
 Salt is, next to bread, the most important necessary of 
 life. It is one of the most important British minerals and 
 is procured in immense quantities, both from fossil beds and 
 brine springs, in Cheshire and Worcestershire. Previously 
 to the discovery of the fossil beds during the 16th century, 
 and subsequently, a good deal of salt continued to be made 
 by the evaporation of sea water in salt pans, at Lymington 
 and many other places ; but the works at these places are 
 now all but abandoned ; while not only has the quality of 
 the article in question become greatly improved, but, in- 
 stead of being imported as formerly, it is now largely ex- 
 ported. The consumption of Great Britain only, exclusive 
 of Ireland, amounts to about 180,000 tons; and the foreign 
 exports to about 300,000 tons per year, of which the United 
 States, Canada, the Low Countries, Russia, Prussia, and 
 Denmark are the chief consumers. Previously to 1823, an 
 oppressive tax of 15*. per bushel, or about thirty times the 
 original cost price of the article, was imposed on salt; but 
 in that year it was reduced to 2s., and two years subse- 
 quently was totally repealed. During the existence of tho 
 duty, the retail price of salt was 4£d., it is now only \d. per lb. 
 
 In ancient Rome, salt was subjected to a duty, vectigal 
 salinarium (see Burman, Dissertatio de Vectigalibus l'op. 
 Rom., c. 6) ; and it has been heavily taxed in most modern 
 states. The gabclle, or code of salt laws formerly estab- 
 lished in France, was most oppressive. From 4000 to 5000 
 persons are calculated to have been sent annually to prison 
 and the galleys for offences connected with these laws, the 
 severity of which had no inconsiderable share in bringing 
 about the Revolution. 
 
 SA'LTATORY. (Lat. salto, / leap.) In Zoology, the ex- 
 tremities of an animal which by their form and proportions 
 are adapted for leaping, are called pedes saltatorii; as the 
 hind legs of the kangaroo, cricket, &c. 
 
 SA'LTIGRADES. Saltig-rada.- (Lat. saltus, a leap, and 
 gradior, / walk.) The name of a tribe of spiders which 
 seize their prey by leaping upon it from a distance. 
 
 SA'LTIRE. In Heraldry, an ordinary in the form of a cross 
 of St. Andrew : formed by two bends, dexter and sinister 
 crossing each other. Charges having length (swords, batons, 
 &c.) placed in the direction of the saltire, are said to be 
 borne saltire-wise. 
 
 SALT MARSH. Land under pasture grasses or herbage 
 plants, subject to be overflown by the sea, or by the waters ot 
 estuaries or the outlets of rivers, which, in consequence 
 of proximity to the sea, are more or less impregnated with 
 sea salt. 
 
 SALT MINE. See Geology. 
 
 SALT OF LEMONS. Binoxalate of potassa is usually 
 sold under this name, and is used for the removal of iron- 
 moulds and other stains from linen ; it is generally effectual, 
 and does not corrode. 
 
 SALT OF SORREL. Oxalate of potash. 
 
 SALTPE'TRE. (Lat. saL, salt, and Gr. irerfa, a stone, 
 from its being found in certain stony soils.) Nitrate of 
 potash. An anhydrous salt composed of 1 equivalent of 
 nitric acid = 54, and 1 of potassa = 48. gee Nitre. 
 
 SALT, SPIRIT OF. See Muriatic Acid. 
 
 SALT SPRINGS. See Geology. 
 
 SALU'TES. In Military and Naval Discipline, an exnt- 
 bition of respect performed in different ways, according to 
 
SALVAGE. 
 
 circumstances. In the arm}', the officers salute their supe- 
 riors by dropping the point of their sword. In the navy, 
 th 3 usual mode of salutation is by firing a certain number 
 of guns, which la regulated according to the rank or station 
 of the individual. (See Miles's Epitome of the JVavai Ser- 
 vice of England, 1841.) 
 
 SA'LVAGE, in Mercantile Law, is defined to be a com- 
 pensation to be made by the ship-owners or merchant to 
 other persons by whose assistance the ship or lading may 
 be saved from impending peril, or recovered after actual 
 loss. Salvage may become due — 1. On rescue from perils 
 of the sea. In this case, the salvor, or rescuer, has a lien 
 on the goods preserved until a recompence is made him. 
 The amount of this recompence may be fixed by a jury ; 
 but if the salvage happen at sea, or between high and low 
 water mark, the court of admiralty has also jurisdiction to 
 fix the amount on suit brought ; and by 12 Anne, st. 2, c. 18., 
 and other statutes, summary powers for the same purpose 
 are given to inferior officers in certain cases. 2. On rescue 
 from the hands of enemies. In this case, the old law was, 
 that if a ship was retaken from enemies before it was taken 
 home or condemned by the captor, the original owner could 
 recover her on payment of salvage to the recaptor; but if 
 retaken at a later period, she became lawful prize to the 
 recaptors. But by 13 G.2, c.4, s. 18, and other statutes, the 
 right of the original owner has been extended to all cases of 
 recapture. Salvage, on recapture by a king's ship, was fixed, 
 in 1793, at one eighth, and by a private vessel at one sixth. 
 
 SALVATE'TTA. (Lat. salus, health.) A vein of the 
 arm terminating in the fingers. It was formerly regarded 
 as having peculiar influence on the health when opened 
 
 SAL VOLATILE. Carbonate of ammonia. The term is 
 often applied to a spirituous solution of carbonate of am- 
 monia flavoured with aromatics. 
 
 SAMAN^E'ANS, SARMA'NES, GERMA'NES. Names 
 given by different classical writers to a sect of philosophers 
 of India. Clement of Alexandria derives the name from 
 Gr. ocuvos, venerable. But it is more probably oriental ; the 
 word schamrnan, in India, signifying a philosopher. The 
 Samanrcans are particularly distinguished by those who 
 mention them from the Brahmins. Saint Jerome and Cle- 
 ment of Alexandria represent them as priests of Buddha; 
 and the same name appears in the Cha-Men of the Chinese, 
 and Sammono-Codom of Siam. (See Buddhists.) There 
 is a memoir on the subject by M. de Guignes. (Mem. de 
 VJic. dcs Inscr., vol. xxvi. See also Hist, de VAcad. des 
 Inscr., vol. xxxi. ; and Mem., vol. xl.) 
 
 SAMA'RA. An indehiscent superior fruit, being a few- 
 seeded, indehiscent, dry nut, elongated into wing-like ex- 
 pansions; as in the fruit or "key" of the ash-tree, &c. 
 From this root is formed the word samaroid, expressing a 
 resemblance to a samara. 
 
 SAMA'RITANS. The inhabitants of the city and dis- 
 trict of Samaria to thcnorth of Judea. The city was the 
 capital of the kings of Israel ; and after the captivity of that 
 portion of the Jewish nation, a colony of Luthites, who are 
 supposed to be Scythians, was settled in the country by 
 the kings of Assyria. It is stated that they were instructed 
 in the Jewish religion by a priest who was sent to them for 
 that purpose by Esarhaddon, in order to avert the anger, 
 as was supposed, of the god of the country. The Samari- 
 tans professed belief in the Pentateuch only, but no idola- 
 trous practices are imputed to them ; and it was probably 
 their spurious origin which excited against them the jea- 
 lousy and affected contempt of the Jews, to which many 
 passages of the New Testament so pointedly refer. 
 
 SA'MIAN EARTH and STONE. A species of marl 
 from the island of Samos. 
 
 SA'MSON'S POST. A strong pillar resting on the kel- 
 son, and supporting a beam of the deck over the hold, and 
 thus acting to keep the cargo in its place. Also a tempo- 
 rary or moveable pillar carrying a leading block for various 
 purposes. 
 
 SA'MUEL, BOOKS OP. Two canonical books of the 
 Old Testament. The first twenty-four chapters of the first 
 book contain all that relates to the prophet Samuel himself, 
 beginning with the government of Eli. The second book, 
 together with the remainder of the first, carries on the his- 
 tory of the Jews to the death of David. It is traditionally 
 said that the prophet Samuel composed the first part, and 
 the prophets Gad and Nathan the remainder. 
 
 SANCTIFICA'TION, in Theology, denotes the state of 
 those Christians who, having lost the inclination to vice, 
 have become pure and holy, and wholly devoted to works 
 of goodness. This state is produced by the special opera- 
 tion of the Holy Ghost, and ensues upon justification; 
 which see. 
 
 SA'NCTUARY. (Lat. sanctus, holy.) The innermost 
 chamber of the tabernacle, and in after times of the temple, 
 among the Jews, in which was kept the ark of the cove- 
 nan'., and which was regarded as the especial residence of 
 the Most High. It is also called the Holy of Holies, and 
 '086 
 
 SANSCRIT. 
 
 was never entered except once a year, and then only by 
 the high priest on the day of the great expiation of the sin» 
 of the people. For the mystical signification (if this act, 
 see Hebr. ix. 24. 
 
 By the Roman Catholics, the part of the church imme- 
 diately round the altar is called the sanctuary, which is 
 supposed in many respects to bear an analogy to that of the 
 Jews. 
 
 From the time of Constantine downwards, certain church- 
 es have been set apart in many countries to be an asylum 
 for fugitives from the hands of justice. This seems to have 
 been originally intended only to prevent sudden violence, 
 and to give time for the regular administration of the law, 
 and perhaps, in the case of certain delinquencies, for the 
 intercession of the church. But in England, particularly 
 down to the Reformation, any person who had taken refuge 
 in a sanctuary was secured against punishment, if within 
 the space of forty days he gave signs of repentance and 
 subjected himself to banishment. 
 
 SAND. (Germ.) Finely divided silicions matter consti- 
 tutes common river and sea sand; particles of other sub- 
 stances are often blended with it, and sometimes it becomes 
 calcareous from the prevalence of carbonate of lime. 
 
 SA'NDALS. A species of slippers worn by the ancient 
 Jews, Greeks, and Romans. They consisted of a sole with 
 a hollow part at one extreme, to embrace the ancle and 
 leave the upper part of the foot bare. Originally sandals 
 were made of leather; but they afterwards became articles 
 of great luxury, being made of gold, silver, or other precious 
 stuff, and most beautifully ornamented. 
 
 SA'NDARACH. The resin of Callitris quadrioalvis is 
 so called. The powder of this resin is sometimes used un- 
 der the name of pounce, to prevent ink from sinking into 
 paper. 
 
 SANDEMA'NIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, the fol- 
 lowers of Robert Sandeman, who published his opinions in 
 1757 in a series of letters. They are of a highly Antino- 
 mian character, and their distinguishing opinion is well 
 expressed in Sandeman's epitaph, where " the ancient 
 faith," for which he " long and boldly contended," is said 
 to be " that the bare work of Jesus Christ, without a deed 
 or thought on the part of man, is sufficient dfc>resent the 
 chief of sinners;" faith, according to them, m:ing only a 
 simple assent to the divine testimony concerning the Re- 
 deemer. The real founder of the Sandemnnians was John 
 Glass, the father-in-law of Sandeman. The adherents of 
 the former have retained the name of Glassites, but are 
 confined entirely to Scotland, from which church their 
 founder originally dissented ; whereas the followers of San- 
 deman have extended to England and America as well as 
 Scotland. This sect has never been numerous, and it is 
 now, we believe, nearly extinct. 
 
 SA'NDERLING. The name of a small wading bird, a 
 species of Tringa (TV. arenaria, 111.), which frequerls 
 many of our shores, but is not a plentiful bird. 
 
 SANDIVER. The impurities which collect upon glfsa 
 during its fusion in the furnace are so called. 
 
 SA NDPIPER. A name applied to different species cl 
 the genus Tringa, but properly restricted to the Tringa hy 
 polecuus of Linmcus, which is the type of the subgenus 
 Totanus. 
 
 SA'NDSTONE. Stone composed of agglutinated grains 
 of sand, which may be calcareous or siliceous. See Ge- 
 ology. 
 
 SA'NGIAC. A Turkish officer, governor of a sangia- 
 cate, or district forming part of a pachalic. There were 
 two hundred and ninety such districts in the Turkish em- 
 pire before the recent losses of territory on the side of 
 Greece and the Caucasus. 
 
 SANGUISO RBE^E. (Sanguisorba, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of herbaceous or undershrubby Exogens, 
 usually combined with Rosacea, as a sub-order ; but appa- 
 rently distinct, on account of the constantly apetalous 
 flowers, indurated calyx, and solitary or almost solitary 
 carpels. Their general character is that of astringency. 
 Burnet, the Sanguisorba officinalis, is sometimes grown as 
 a pasture plant. 
 
 SANGUISU'GES, Sanguisuga. (Lat. sanguis, blood, 
 and sugo, J suck.) The name of a family of Hemipteroua 
 insects, including those which suck the blood of animals: 
 also applied to a family of Abranchiate Annelidans, of 
 which the leech (Sanguisuga medicinalis, Sav.) is the type. 
 
 SA'NHEDRIM. (Heb.) The highest judicial tribunal 
 among the Jews, consisting of seventy-one members, in- 
 cluding the high priest. Its origin is referred by some wri- 
 ters to the institution by Moses of a council of seventy per- 
 sons on the occasion of a rebellion of the Israelites in the 
 wilderness. (See Milman's Hist, of Christianity, i 339. 
 
 &.C.) 
 
 SA'NIES. (Lat.) A thin, unhealthy, purulent discharge 
 from wounds or sores. 
 SA'NSCRIT. The learned language of Hindostw* f%« 
 
SANS-CULOTTES. 
 
 literal moaning of the word Sanscrita is po'islud, and it is 
 Bed by grammarians in the sense of " regularly inflected or 
 formed." {Colebroo lie's He mains, vol. ii., p. 2.) And it is a 
 question whether, in its present form, it was ever a spoken 
 language, although the theory of Schlegcl is, that it was 
 Imparted by the conquering or Brahminical caste. It con- 
 stitutes the most ancient literature of the Hindoos, and is 
 radically connected with the various dialects of Hindustan, 
 so that they may be regarded as more or less deflected from 
 It. Colebrookc, however, is of opinion that " there seems 
 no good reason for doubting that it was once universally 
 spoken in India ;" and he says, that " those who are learn- 
 ed !u Sanscrit, at the present day, deliver themselves with 
 such fluency as is sufficient to prove that it may have been 
 spoken in former times with as much facility as the con- 
 temporary dialects of the Greek language, or the more mo- 
 dern dialects of the Arabic tongue." Nine tenths of the 
 " Hindustani," it is said, may be traced to the Sanscrit; the 
 remaining tenth is thought to be, perhaps, founded on the 
 old " Hindi" language, which Sir VV. Jones thought anteri- 
 
 i, conceiving the Sanscrit to have been introduced by 
 conquerors in some very distant age. In the Hindoo drama, 
 the gods and saints are made to speak in Sanscrit ; while 
 women, benevolent genii, fee., speak another dialect, and 
 the lower personages a third. (See also Professor Wilson's 
 Hindoo Theatre, Introduction.) The attention of European 
 inquirers was directed to the Sanscrit and its cognate Ian 
 
 bj Sir William Jones. Since his time the study ho? 
 inoi. great progress in England, where it has been especial- 
 ly furthered by the labours of Houghton, Wilkins, and 
 
 in ; und more in Germany, where Frederic Schlegcl 
 (Sprache, i-c. tier Indicr, 1808) was the first to excite the 
 spit it of Investigation. He was followed by his brother. A 
 W. Bchlegel (who edited the Bhagavat Gita, translated 
 into English by Mr. Wilkins), and many others. Among 
 recent German philologists, Bopp deserves the highest name 
 for his researches in this direction. (See Quart. Rev., vol. 
 xlv., fee. where it is said that in the course of thirty years 
 nearly 700 works on, and translations from the Sanscrit, 
 have appeared.) The intricate connexion of Sanscrit with 
 the principal varieties of the Caucasian speech, and espe- 
 cially the Zend, Greek, and Sclavonic, has greatly added to 
 the interest respecting it. 
 
 CULOTTES, or BREECHESLESS. A name 
 first given in ridicule to the Jacobins and other extravagant 
 
 Eatriots in the French Revolution, and afterwards assumed 
 y them as a title of honour ; like the old nickname of 
 "guex" (beggars), in which the revolters of the Nether- 
 land- prided themselves. We have never been able to as- 
 certain tin; real history of this famous appellation, but we 
 believe that Camilla Desmoulini was one of the first who 
 rendered it popular: his blasphemous application of it at 
 his trial is well known. It acquired great celebrity after 
 the "journee" of the 20th June, 1792, when one of the 
 principal standards borne by the insurgents was a pair of 
 black breeches, with the inscription, "Tremblez, tyrans! 
 voici les Sans Culottes." Subsequently the French nation 
 adopted it with the utmost gravity in the original Republi- 
 can calendar. The five supernumerary days (the twelve 
 months containing thirty a piece), were named Sansculot- 
 tides ; and were festivals dedicated to " Genius," "Labour," 
 " Actions," " Rewards," " Opinion." In Leap-years there 
 was to be a sixth Snnsculottide, the festival of the Revolu- 
 tion. Future generations will find some difficulty in believ- 
 ing the narrative of the ludicrous farces with which nation- 
 al caprice interspersed the great tragedy of the French Rev- 
 olution. 
 
 SA'NTALIN. The colouring matter of red sandal or 
 saunders wood, from which it is separated by digesting the 
 rasped wood In alcohol, and then adding water to the tinc- 
 ture ; it falls in the form of a bright red precipitate, soluble 
 in alcohol and in alkaline solutions. 
 
 SA'NTONIN. A proximate vegetable principle, obtained 
 from the seed of the Artemisia santoniea. It is white, crys- 
 tallizable, bitterish, and very little soluble in water, bat 
 more so in alcohol. 
 
 SAP. The fluid which is absorbed by the roots from the 
 earth, then sent Upwards into the stem, and afterwards 
 conveyed from the leaves, where it is assimilated and al- 
 tered, to the bark. In its crude state it consists of little ex- 
 cept water holding earthy and gaseous matter in solution, 
 especially carbonic acid; but as it rises through the tissue 
 of the stem it dissolves the secretions it meets within its 
 course, and thus acquires new properties, so that by the 
 time it reaches the leaves it is entirely different from its 
 stale when it first enters the root. The course taken by 
 the sap in its passage through the stem is by the whole of the 
 tissue included within the bark, provided it is all permeable ; 
 but as, in many plants, the central part of the stem becomes 
 choked up with solid matter deposited in the tissue, it usu- 
 ally happens, especially in trees, that the course of the sap 
 Is confined to the outer part of the wood, hence called sap- 
 
 SAPWOOD. 
 
 wood. It is not certainly known through what kind of lis 
 sue the upward motion of the sap takes place, but it is pro- 
 bable thiil it is carried onwards through all the tubes and 
 vessels of the wood and their intercellular passages. The 
 dotted vessels of the wood seem more especially destined to 
 fulfil this office when the sap is in rapid motion ; but as 
 they afterwards become empty, while the ascent of the sap 
 continues, there can be no doubt that the woody tubes or 
 pleurenchyma oiler the most constant means by which the 
 sap is conveyed. In Fortification, sap is a trench or ap- 
 proach made under cover of gabions, fee. 
 
 SAPAN WOOU. A dye-wood produced by certaii. spe- 
 cies of Ctfsatpina. It has long been used in India, and re- 
 sembles Brazil wood in its colour and properties. 
 
 SAP GREEN, The inspissated juice of the berries ol 
 the buckthorn (lihamnus catharticiis). It is used by \va 
 ter-colour painters as a green pigment. 
 
 SAl'llK'NA. (Gr. ati<t>os, visible.) The large vein ol 
 the leg which ascends over the external ancle. 
 
 SAPIND.VCE.A5. (Snpindus, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of exotic trees and shrubs, the larger part of 
 which occur in South America. They usually have com 
 pound leaves and inconspicuous flowers, resembling those 
 of European maples ; and many of them are climbing 
 plants. The order is poisonous in various degrees ; never- 
 theless, the nrillus of Bligha sapida is an esteemed fruit in 
 Africa and the H'rt Indies, where it is called the al;n\ 
 The most singular property observed in the order is that of 
 having an astringent quality, and forming a lather when 
 agitated In water, whence the name of the typical genus — 
 from sapo, soap. 
 
 SA'PONIN. A peculiar substance contained in the root 
 of the Saponaria officinalis. It is the cause of the lather 
 which that root forms with water. 
 
 SAPOTA'CEJE. (Sapota, the name of one of the spe 
 cies), are a small natural order of Exogenous trees. Inhabit- 
 ing the West Indies and other tropical countries. They in 
 some cases produce eatable fruits, known by the colonial 
 names of sapodilla, marmalade apple, star apple, Surinam 
 medlar, fee. Their juice is white, like milk ; and, unlike 
 the secretions of most lactescent families of plants, may be 
 used for alimentary purposes. The fruit of tome yields a 
 creasy lubstance , whence one of them, Bassia, has gamed 
 the name of shea, or butter tree in Africa. 
 
 SAPPARE. In Mineralogy, a term applied to the eijau- 
 
 itr. 
 
 SAPPERS AND MINERS ROYAL. The name given 
 to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the corps 
 of Royal Engineers. Their duties consist in building fortifi- 
 cations, in executine field works and in performing similar 
 operations, under the direction of their superior officers. 
 They were first embodied at the end of the American war, 
 under the name of " Royal Military Artificers;" and alter 
 being formed into independent companies, were stationed at 
 Portsmouth, Chatham, and some other military and naval 
 arsenals. In 1812 they received their present designation ; 
 and, at the same time, an institution was formed at Chatham 
 for instructing the men in all the duties of military engineer- 
 ing. This corps consists of 13 companies, each of 66 men : 
 some of which nre employed in the colonies ; others in the 
 mechanical operations connected with the survey at pre- 
 sent carried on by the Board of Ordnance; and others re- 
 main at Sandhurst and Addiscombe, to execute the various 
 military works undertaken for the instruction of the cadets 
 of these seminaries. 
 
 SA'PPHIC. The name given to a species of verse ; from 
 Sappho, the famous Greek poetess, by whom it was said to 
 be invented. It consists of eleven syllables of five feet, ol 
 which the following is a plan : 
 
 This measure was afterwards introduced into Latin, and re- 
 ceived, as the reader is aware, great improvements in the 
 hands of Horace and Catullus. The rules for the compo- 
 sition of Greek are much less strict than those for the com- 
 position of Latin sapphics. The sapphic strophe consists 
 of three sapphic verses, followed by a versus Jldonicus, oi 
 Adonian verse ; which see. This species of verse has been 
 successfully imitated in German and English. 
 
 SA'PPHIRE. (Gr. oaQupos.) A very hard gem, consist 
 ing essentially of crystallized alumina. It is of various 
 colours ; the blue variety being generally called the sap 
 phire, the red the oriental ruby, the yellow the oriental 
 topaz. 
 
 SAPRO'PHAGANS, Saprephaga. (Gr. omrf>os,decompos 
 ing matter, and 0ayto, / eat.) The name of a tribe of Co 
 leopterous insects, comprising those which feed on animal 
 and vegetable substances in a state of decomposition. 
 
 SA'PWOOD, is He external part of the wood of Exo 
 gens, which, from being the latest formed, is not filled up 
 with solid matter, or with the colouring principles which 
 are deposited in wood after a certain time. For these rea- 
 sons, sapwood is that through which the ascending fluidf 
 
 1087 
 
SARABAITES. 
 
 of plants move most freely; and not being solidified by the 
 earthy and other substances eventually Incorporated with 
 wood, is quickly decomposed when exposed to the action of 
 air and moisture. Hence, for all building purposes the sap- 
 wood is, or ought to be, removed from timber. The sap- 
 wood or unsolidified wood of all trees is much the same in 
 its power of resisting decomposition, that of the oak and 
 lignum vita? perishing quickly as poplar and other valueless 
 timber ; and chemists have ascertained that if the hardest 
 heartwood is reduced to its original condition of sapwood 
 by the abstraction of the matter of solidification, all those 
 pioperties which give heartwood its value are destroyed. 
 
 SA'RABAITES. A kind of oriental monks or cainobites, 
 described by Cassian in his Institutions ; and supposed to 
 be the same with those called Remoboth by St. Jerome 
 (Epist. xviii.) and East., and characterized as vicious and 
 ignorant. They seem to have been seceders from the ordi- 
 nary monastic life, who formed a species of society rather 
 resembling that of the Moravians of the present day, and 
 without community of goods. ( WaddingtotC 's Hist, of the 
 Church, ch. xix.) 
 
 SA'RABAND. (Span.) In Music, a composition in tri- 
 ple time very similar to a minuet. When denoting music 
 for the dance, it is to the same measure which usually ter- 
 minates when the beating hand rises ; being thus distin- 
 guished from the courant, which ends when the hand falls. 
 
 SARCOCE'LE. (Gr. aap\, flesh, and K>i\n, a tumour.) 
 A tumefaction of the testicle. 
 
 SA'RCOCO'LLA. (Gr. aapl, and KoWa, glue.) The 
 concrete juice of the Penma sarcocolla, a plant growing in 
 the northern parts of Africa. It somewhat resembles gum 
 arabic ; but it is soluble in alcohol, and its aqueous solution 
 is precipitated by tannin. 
 
 SA'RCOLITE. (Gr. co.pl, and AtOoj, a stone.) A varie- 
 ty of zeolite of a flesh colour. 
 
 SARCO'LOGY. (Gr. aop\, and \oyoc, a discourse.) The 
 history or doctrine of the fleshy parts of the body. 
 
 SARCO'PHAGUS. (Gr. aapl, and 0ayu>, / consume.) 
 In Antiquities, a stone receptacle for a dead body. The 
 name originates in the use of the lapis Assius, stone of 
 Assos (in Asia Minor,) said to have been prepared in anti- 
 quity for this purpose, on account of its supposed property 
 of corroding dead bodies, so as to consume them entirely in 
 forty days ; which, together with other incredible qualities, 
 is ascribed to it by Theophrastus and Pliny. One of the 
 most celebrated specimens of this object of art is the great 
 sarcophagus taken by the British in Egypt in 1801, common- 
 ly called that of Alexander: it is deposited in the British 
 Museum. Dr. Clarke, the traveller, wrote an essay to 
 prove that the Macedonian conqueror had really been en- 
 tombed in it; but this opinion seems unfounded. 
 
 SARDO'NIC LAUGH. A convulsive laugh, said to 
 have been first observed in those who ate the herb sardo- 
 nic/., which grows in Sardinia. 
 
 SA'RDONYX. (Gr.) A reddish yellow or orange col- 
 oured chalcedony or cornelian; it is often blood red by 
 transmitted light. 
 
 SA'ROS. An ancient astronomical period, the origin and 
 exact length of which are unknown, though they have been 
 the subject of much disputation. George Syncellns, who 
 wrote in the eighth century, cites a passage from Berosus, 
 reported by Julius Africanus, in which mention is made of 
 three periods— the Sossos, the JYcros, and Saros ; and the 
 Saros is stated to be 3600 years. According to Lalande 
 (Astronomic, § 1572), Syncellus also cites Anianus and 
 Panodorus, who assigned the lengths of these periods as 
 follows : the Sossos, 60 days ; the Neros, 600 days ; and the 
 Saros, 3600 days, or 9 common years, 10 months, and 11 
 days. Legentil, after Fugeres, supposes the Saros to be 10 
 years ; Freret supposed it to be 19J years ; Giraud, 3600 Ju- 
 lian months, which make 3711 lunations, or 31 years. Sui- 
 das states that the Saros was aperiod of lunar months equal 
 to 18£ years ; and Halley (Phil. Trans. No. 194), adopting 
 the same notion, and supporting himself by a passage in 
 Pliny, supposes it to be identical with the lunar period of 18 
 years, or rather of 223 lunations, which corresponds almost 
 exactly to 242 nodical revolutions of the moon (see Moon), 
 and consequently brings back the eclipses in the same or- 
 der. But Goguet (Origine des Loix, i$-e.) remarks, that the 
 statement of Suidas is not supported by that of any ancient 
 author; and that there is no reason to suppose that Pliny, 
 in tne passage in question, had the Saros in view. By 
 some authors the Saros lr\s been confounded with the Me- 
 tonic cycle. 
 
 SARRACENIA'CE^E (Sarracenia, one of the genera), 
 are curious herbaceous plants, inhabiting the bogs of North 
 America, and having their leaves hollowed out into tubes 
 or pitchers open at the upper end. Their flowers are some- 
 thing like those of Papaveraceee, to which they are doubt- 
 less allied. 
 
 SARSAPARI'LLA. The root of the Smilax sarsaparil- 
 ta. Several varieties of this drug are imported from South 
 1088 
 
 SATELLITE, 
 
 America : that which is now generally preferred is the red- 
 dish fibrous root, known in the market under the name of 
 Jamaica or red sarsaparilla. What is termed Lisbon sar- 
 saparilla is less fibrous, and more mealv and white in the 
 interior. This root, though long employed in medicine, 
 seems only lately to have been properly estimated. It was 
 formerly regarded as a specific in syphilis ; but this opinion 
 is now given up, and it is used as a powerful and valuable 
 alterative medicine in many disorders of debility, but mora 
 especially in those cachectic habits which present symp- 
 toms formerly mistaken for venereal— such as pains of tho 
 bones, nodes of the periosteum, loss of strength and flesh, 
 and other characters of what is sometimes called a broken 
 constitution. In these cases a course of sarsaparilla has 
 often effected a cure, especially if resorted to in time, when 
 all other remedies, and more especially mercurials, had 
 failed. It must be taken in pretty large doses; that is, in 
 quantities not less than an ounce to an ounce and a half a 
 day, and persevered in for six, eight, or ten weeks ; or a quan- 
 tity of extract or syrup, or rather preparation equivalent to 
 that weight of the dried root : a concentrated liquid extract, 
 and a syrup, are now prepared, which are the best forms. 
 They are apt to disagree with weak stomachs ; but general- 
 ly, by proper management and perseverance, this difficulty 
 may be got over. Where it agrees, the strength is gradual- 
 ly regained, the pains and other symptoms abate and van- 
 ish ; and the only other effect observed is, either that the 
 bowels are rather more open than usual, or the flow ol 
 urine or the perspiration increased. 
 
 SARTO'RIUS MUSCLE. (Lat. sartor, a tailor.) A 
 muscle of the thigh attached at the upper extremity to the 
 edge of the anterior superior spinous process of the ileum, 
 and at the lower to the inner side of the head of the tibia 
 It is concerned in bending the leg obliquely inwards, and in 
 crossing the thighs ; thence called sartorius, or the tailor's 
 muscle. 
 
 SASH. (Fr. chassis.) In Architecture, a piece of fram- 
 ing for holding the squares of glass in a window. It is ot 
 two sorts — viz. that called the French sash, which is hung 
 like a door to the sash-frame ; and that in which it moves 
 vertically from being balanced by a weight on each side, to 
 which it is attached by lines running over pulleys at tho 
 top of the sash-frame. When in a window both the upper 
 and lower sashes are moveable the sashes are said to be 
 double hung, and single hung when only one of them 
 moves. 
 
 SASH-FRAME. In Architecture, the wooden frame into 
 which the sashes are fitted. 
 
 SA'SSAFRAS. The wood of the Lauras sassafras, a 
 native of North America, and growing abundantly upon the 
 banks of the river Sassafras ; whence its name. It has a 
 warm aromatic flavour, and the decoction is diuretic and 
 diaphoretic. It was formerly used in cases of stone in the 
 lil adder (hence its name has by some been derived from 
 saxum, a stone, and frangere, to break). It has also been 
 extolled as an antisyphilitic remedy, and in rheumatic and 
 cutaneous affections : it is now scarcely ever employed ex- 
 cept as an ingredient in the compound decoction of sarsa- 
 parilla. 
 
 SA'SSOLIN. Native boracic acid, from the vicinity of 
 Sasso, in Florence. 
 
 SA'TAN. A Hebrew word signifying enemy or adver- 
 sary, and used as such, without any reference to the Evil 
 Power itself, in one or two passages of the Old and New 
 Testaments. The equivalent term in Greek for this word 
 is StaSoXoi, literally one who accuses or calumniates ; whence 
 the word devil is derived. 
 
 SATELLI'TE (Lat. satelles, un attendant), in the Solar 
 System, is the attendant of a planet; a body which revolves 
 about the planet, and follows it in its orbit round the sun. 
 Hence the satellite is sometimes called a secondary planet, 
 or merely a secondary; the planet about which it revolves 
 being the primary. 
 
 The planets which are accompanied by satellites are the 
 Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The Earth has one 
 satellite, namely, the Moon; Jupiter has four; Saturn sev 
 en ; and Uranus certainly two, if not six. For the Earth's 
 satellite, see Moon. 
 
 Satellites of Jupiter. — These bodies were first observed 
 by Galileo, and their discovery followed immediately that 
 of the telescope. With a telescope of ordinary power they 
 may be seen (unless when eclipsed by the shadow of the 
 planet, or concealed behind its disk), on any clear night, at 
 different distances from the planet, and arranged nearly in 
 a straight line, in which they appear to oscillate backwards 
 and forwards with different velocities, and performing un- 
 equal excursions; so that their arrangement with respect 
 to the planet, or configurations, are constantly changing. 
 Sometimes they are observed to pass before Jupiter, in 
 which case they cast a shadow on his disk like a small, 
 round, black spot, whence they are inferred to be opak« 
 bodies illuminated by the sun ; at other times they pass be 
 
SATELLITE. 
 
 hind the planet nnd are concealed from our view; and all 
 these phenomena occur in regular order, and, with respect 
 to each satellite, after the same intervals of time. 
 
 An attentive examination of the apparent motions of the 
 satellites soon renders it evident that they revolve round 
 Jupiter in small but unequal orbits, the planes of which 
 are nearly coincident with that of the equator of the planet, 
 which is inclined in a small angle to the ecliptic. Obser- 
 vation also shows that the motions of the satellites about 
 their primary are regulated by the same laws as ore ob- 
 served by the planets in their revolutions round the sun. 
 The orbits are ellipses of small eccentricity, of which Jupi- 
 ter occupies one of the foci ; the areas described by the ra- 
 dius vector are proportional to the times of description; and 
 the squares of the periodic times are respectively proportion- 
 al to the cubes of the mean distances. Thus Jupiter and 
 his satellites form a system in miniature entirely analogous 
 to that of the sun and planets. 
 
 The satellites are distinguished as the Jir.tt, second, third, 
 and fourtli, nccording to their respective distances from Ju- 
 piter, the lirst being that which is nearest the planet. The 
 following table shows their mean distances (in terms of the 
 equatorial radius of Jupiter), times of revolution, mosses as 
 compared wilh Jupiter, and diameters in Knglish miles: 
 
 Satellite. 
 
 Mean Distance 
 
 Period icTirae. 
 
 Mass. 
 
 Diameter 
 in Miles. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 9 62347 
 28-89836 
 
 Dayt. 
 Kt>9l4 
 
 3 .Vim 
 
 7-1545S 
 16-6 4377 
 
 0-000017 
 9000823 
 
 0-00*083 
 0-00004:1 
 
 2 f W8 
 2068 
 3377 
 2890 
 
 The mean distances are found by measuring the angular 
 distances from Jupiter at the time of the greatest elonga- 
 tions, and the masses were determined by Laplace from the 
 theory of gravitation. On account of the minuteness of their 
 apparent diameters, it is difficult to determine their true di- 
 ameters with precision. The second, which is the smallest, 
 at the mean distance of the planet subtends an angle of 
 rstber less than 1" ; and the third, which is the largest, an 
 angle of less than 15". {Memoirs Royal Astronomical So- 
 ciity, vol. iii., p. 301.) 
 
 Small as tin; satellites of Jupiter are in comparison of the 
 primary plaint, they are in themselves bodies of considera- 
 ble magnitude. As compared with the Earth, their diamc- 
 lay be approximately stated as follows: That of the 
 first rather less than \. of the second i, of the third \, and 
 of the fourth more than i. The third is about the size of 
 Mars. These (bur moons must present to the inhabitants 
 of Jupiter a s|>cctacle of endless variety. 
 
 Although their orbits are doubtless elliptical, the eccentri- 
 cities of the first and second are so small as to lie Insensible 
 to observation. That of the third is sufficiently sensible; 
 and that of the fourth still greater, but subject to considera- 
 ble variations. The direction of the motions of the satellites 
 in their orbits is from west to east, according to the general 
 analogy of the planetary system; and, from observed peri- 
 odical defalcations of light to which they are subject, it has 
 been inferred that, like our own moon, each of them revolves 
 about its avis in the same time as that in which it completes 
 a sidereal revolution about the planet. 
 
 Prom the preceding table it will be seen that the periodic 
 time of the first satellite is nearly half of that of the second, 
 and that of the second nearly half of that of the third. The 
 mean angular motions of these three satellites, therefore, 
 form very nearly the progression 1, J, £; so that the mean 
 motion of the first satellite, added to twice that of the third, 
 is very nearly equal to three times the mean motion of the 
 second. Another equally singular analogy is, that the mean 
 longitude of the first, minus three times that of the second, 
 plus tw ice that of the third, Is always very nearly equal to 
 two right angles. These two results subsist equally in re- 
 spect both of the sidereal and synodical motions and longi- 
 tudes ; and it follows as a consequence of the last, that for 
 a great number of years at least, the three first satellites 
 cannot be eclipsed at the same time, for in the simultaneous 
 eclipses of the second and third the first will always be in 
 conjunction with Jupiter, and vice versa. 
 
 On account of the shortness of the periods of revolution, 
 the eclipses of the satellites (especially of the first) take 
 place very frequently ; and they are phenomena of consid- 
 erable importance in astronomy, from their affording signals 
 by means of which the differences of terrestrial longitudes 
 are determined, in the same manner as in the case of an 
 eclipse of the moon. The method, however, is not capable 
 of the same precision as is afforded by lunar observations. 
 
 The eclipses of Jupiter's satellites have also a historical 
 Interest, from having led Rrcmcr to the important discovery 
 of the successive propagation and velocity of light. When 
 Jupiter is in opposition with the sun, and his distance from 
 the earth, consequently, less than his distance from the sun 
 by the whole radius of V— "birth's orbit, the eclipses are 
 
 SATIRE. 
 
 observed to happen about 16 m. 26 sec. earlier than they 
 happen when the planet is in conjunction, and its distance 
 from the earth greater than its distance from the sun by 
 the same quantity. This phenomenon can only be explain- 
 ed by supposing that light occupies 16 m. 26 sec. in travers- 
 ing the earth's orbit, nnd, consequently, 8 m. 13 sec. In 
 coming from the sun to the earth, which gives a velocity of 
 about lihJ,000 miles in a second. The theory, with its oon- 
 sequences, has lieen amply confirmed by Bradley's discov- 
 ery of the aberration, See Aberration. 
 
 Satellites of Saturn. — Saturn, as has already been turn 
 tioned, is accompanied by seven satellites. The most rife 
 tant, which is by far the largest, was discovered by Huy 
 gens in 1665. Four others were first seen by Dominie t !as 
 sini about twenty years afterwards; but the two 
 ones, which can only be seen under very peculiar circum- 
 stances, and with the aid of the most powerful telescopes, 
 were discovered by Sir William Herschel, in 1789. < >n tie- 
 count of the difficulty of observing the satellites of tbis 
 planet, their theory has been little studied. The third law 
 of Kepler, which connects the periods and distances, is 
 found to be preserved, as in the system of Jupiter. The 
 planes of their orbits coincide nearly with that of the riim. 
 with the exception of the seventh, which makes an angle 
 with that plane of about three or four degrees. The orbit 
 of this last is sensibly elliptical, the eccentricity be 
 Owing to the obliquity of the orbits to Saturn's ecli|>tir, the 
 satellites are not eclipsed in every revolution, but (with the 
 exception of the two interior ones) only fall into the shadow 
 of the planet at the times when the ring is seen from the 
 earth nearly edgewise. The following table shows their 
 mean distances from Saturn in terms of the equatorial ra- 
 dius of the planet, and their periods of sidereal revolution . 
 
 Satellite. 
 
 Mean Distance. 
 
 Periodic Time. 
 
 
 
 d. n. t>i. 
 
 1 
 
 3-3^1 
 
 22 38 
 
 2 
 
 4-300 
 
 1 8 53 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 21 18 
 
 4 
 
 6-819 
 
 2 17 45 
 
 5 
 
 9 524 
 
 4 12 2i 
 
 6 
 
 1*091 
 
 15 22 41 
 
 7 
 
 64-369 
 
 79 7 55 
 
 The two interior satellites appear to just skirt the exterioi 
 edge of the ring. The seventh, like the satellites of Jupi 
 ter, exhibits periodical changes in the intensity of its light, 
 whence it is inferred that it revolves on its axis in the same 
 time in which it completes its orbital revolution. 
 
 Satellites of Uranus. — Sj r John Herschel remarks that, 
 with the exception of the two interior satellites of Saturn, 
 the attendants of Uranus are the most difficult objects to 
 obtain a sight of, of any in our syctem. Their existence 
 was first discovered by Sir William Herschel, who sus- 
 pected their number to be six ; but he was only able to ob- 
 tain micrometrical measures of the distance of l wo of them, 
 and only those two have yet been seen by any o.her astron- 
 omer. Sir W. HerscheFs observations are given in the 
 Phil. Trans, for 1788 and 1797, and again in the vol. for 
 1815. They were made between the years 1787 and 1798 ; 
 and from the latter period until 1828, the planet having been 
 unfavourably situated, these satellites remained unobserv 
 ed, and had even fallen out of notice. Between the latter 
 year and 1834 a series of observations, recorded in the Me- 
 moirs of the R. Aslr. Society, vol. viii., were made by Sir 
 John Herschel for the purpose of verifying his father's re- 
 sults, which, with respect to two satellites, were confirmed 
 in the amplest manner. The periodic times deduced from 
 his observations are respectively 8 d. 16 h. 56 m. 31-3 sec, 
 and 13 d. 11 h. 7 m. 126 sec. The orbits are nearly circu- 
 lar, and almost perpendicular to the ecliptic, being inclined 
 to that plane in an angle of 78° 58' ; and what is extremely 
 remarkable, as contrary to the otherwise unbroken analogy 
 of the solar system, the motions of the satellites in their or- 
 bits are retrograde, or from east to west. The following 
 table shows the distances (in radii of Uranus) and periods 
 of all the satellites, according to Sir William Herschel. 
 (Hersckel's Jlstromy, Cab. Encyc.) 
 
 
 Mean Distance. 
 
 Sidereal Period. 
 
 
 
 d. h. m. I. 
 
 1? 
 
 13- 120 
 
 5 21 25 
 
 2 
 
 17022 
 
 8 16 56 5 
 
 3? 
 
 19-845 
 
 10 23 4 
 
 4 
 
 22-752 
 
 13 II 8 69 
 
 5? 
 
 45-SOT 
 
 33 1 48 
 
 6? 
 
 91-008 
 
 107 16 40 
 
 SATIN. A closely woven silk, generally dressed with 
 gum, especially when intended for ribands, dresses, &c. 
 
 SATIN SPAR. A fibrous variety of carbonate of lime 
 assuming a silky appearance when polished. 
 
 SATIRE, in Literature, has been defined a representation 
 of vice, or of the ridiculous, either in the form of discourse 
 
 1089 
 
SATIRE. 
 
 or put In dramatic action. The word satire must not be 
 confounded M to its etymology with the satyri of the 
 Greeks, which were burlesque dramatic pieces, in which 
 the persons represented a band of satyrs. {.See Drama.) 
 The modern word satire, Latin satira, is derived from the 
 lanx satura — a dish full of various fruits and herbs which 
 was carried in procession at the feasts of Ceres. Whence 
 the word came to signify a poem full of miscellaneous mat- 
 ter without orderly method ; and in this sense only it was 
 probably employed by Lucilius, the first writer of satires : 
 although the title so usurped by him was afterwards only 
 applied to poems of a similar character with his own, viz., 
 containing moral reflection, interspersed with critical touch- 
 es directed against real or imaginary personages. 
 
 Satire, in the literary sense of the word, as designating a 
 species of composition, is usually confined to a species of 
 poetry ; but prose works, of which the contents are of a sa- 
 tirical character, are often comprehended under the same 
 appellation. Dramatic writings, also, are not satires in the 
 stricter sense of the word, although their contents be of a 
 satirical character. According to their subjects, satires are 
 divided into political and moral, and these again severally 
 subdivided into", personal and general, Political satires, in 
 almost every language, have been nearly confined to prose ; 
 the moral satire alone has found its appropriate vehicle in 
 verse. The only Greek satirist of whom any fragments 
 have reached us was Archilochus, and his attacks were 
 evidently directed against individuals. Aristophanes pos- 
 sessed a vein of satirical power, both in the indignant and 
 ludicrous strain, which has never been surpassed; and his 
 dramas contain not only sarcasms on individuals, but also 
 political and ethical lessons of the highest value. But the 
 moral satire, properly so called, was invented by the Ro- 
 mans, not only in form, but in substance also, and by them 
 carried to perfection ; and it is remarkable that the only 
 species of Roman poetry which has any degree of originali- 
 ty is that which would seem to have accorded the least 
 with the grave and austere turn of the genuine Roman 
 character. 
 
 Of the three Roman satirists whose works have reached 
 us, Horace, the earliest, excels in conveying moral and pru- 
 dential lessons in beautiful and precise language, in light 
 allusions to the follies or excesses of his time; sometimes 
 though rarely, assuming the comic character, but generally 
 evim -ins; more of the indefinable quality termed by us hu- 
 mour than is shown by any other classical writer, with the 
 exception of Aristophanes. Whether the various person- 
 ages introduced by Horace, for the most part rather as ex- 
 amples to be shunned than as individuals to be held up to 
 laughter or contempt, were intended to represent to his 
 readers, by allusions now undiscernihle, actual characters 
 known to them, is a matter not easily ascertainable. The 
 same may he said with respect to Juvenal, whose selected 
 victims are for the most part exalted or notorious person- 
 ages of the generations immediately preceding his own; 
 and it is not ascertained, although it has often been conjec- 
 tured, that their names were intended to conceal those of 
 cotemporaries of his own. Juvenal, without either wit or 
 humour, excels in the deep tones of moral indignation be- 
 fitting the scandalous excesses of the times in which he 
 lived: his exalted notions of virtue, and even of sanctitv, 
 arc so far superior to the ordinary standard of moral excel- 
 lence to be drawn from classical writers, that it has been 
 conjectured that he, as well as Persius, had made some ac- 
 quaintance, either directly or indirectly, Willi the lessons of 
 Christianity. Persius, although he occasionally rises into 
 very elevated flights of poetry, does not afford many exam- 
 ples of the peculiar excellences of the satirist. 
 
 In the literature of the modern nations, the fate of satire 
 has been ihnMippeo that which has befallen many other 
 species Hhs, which nn. The name and form of the ancient 
 satire tes that the Saros-was - a many writers, who have pro- 
 duced,Vears; and Halley (PAubesides cold or exaggerated 
 imitative notion, and supporting true spirit of satire, in its 
 moral blmoses it to be identical witdelicate irony, has been 
 inherilefrather of 223 lunations, wuch originality of thought 
 to tie do\242 nodical revolutkvantiquated form of writing. 
 Thus in Viiiently bring&J is, or was, generally cited us the 
 prince ofGoguet (Onis satires are closely formed on the 
 model of hf Suuj-and are elegant and correct in style. Be- 
 sides him,\U4gnier and many other writers have adopted 
 the same line. But the true satirists of France are Rabe- 
 lais, in his inimitable romances ; Montaigne the essayist, 
 endowed with much of the delicate and harmless sarcasm 
 of Horace ; and, in later times, Voltaire. So in England, al- 
 though we possess satirists of considerable merit, who have 
 adopted the form of the ancient satire, our true national 
 satirists are to be found among our essayists and novel-wri- 
 ters. Bishop Hall, in the reign of Elizabeth, and Donne, in 
 that of James, published collections of satires, directed 
 partly against the actual follies or vices of their times, but 
 too closely paraphrased, for the most part, from the Latin, 
 1090 
 
 SATURN. 
 
 to admit of much Original observation. Withers, among our 
 early satirists, is the only Otter writer who is at all remem- 
 bered. Among our modern poets. Pope founded his satire* 
 
 on the model of those of Horace, and of some of his English 
 predecessors. Hi„ style and train of thohght were rather 
 French than Roman. His works of this description are, in 
 point of form, mere imitations; but they are admirable for 
 their |>oint and the beauty of the verse, anil not unfreenent- 
 ly contain pungent personal allusions, without which, un 
 fortunately, a professed satirist can attract little notice and 
 produce little effect. Johnson, in his two well-known imi- 
 tations of Juvenal, Churchill, and Young, are the latest wri- 
 ters of any note who have composed in the form of the an- 
 cient satire. But of all these writers, ni 
 geniunc or national character, except, perhaps, Churchill; 
 while Swift, Fielding, &c, are, in our literature, what Hor- 
 ace and Juvenal were in those of the Romans — the painters 
 of existing manners, and the representatives of public opinion 
 respecting them. The literary satire may, perhaps, be men- 
 tioned as a separate species of composition, containing either 
 rules of writing, or critical observations on the defects of 
 individual writers. Some of Horace's satires and epistles 
 (as well as his Jlrs Poetita) belong exclusively, others par 
 tially, to this class; and have given birth to a series of sim 
 ilar productions, down to the English Hards and Scotch 
 Reviewers of Lord Byron. (See, as to the Roman satire, 
 Quart. Rev., vol. lii. ; Mem. de VJic. des Inscr., vol. xxxix.) 
 
 SA'TRAP. The title given by the Creek writers to (fie 
 governors of provinces under the Persian kings before the 
 conquests of Alexander. The satrapies of that empire are 
 enumerated by Herodotus. The name is thought by some 
 to be derived from a Persian word, signifying " fixed star." 
 {Mem. de VJIc. des Inscr., vol. xxxi.) 
 
 SATURDAY. The seventh day of the week, held by 
 the Jews as their sabbath. It was dedicated by the Romans 
 to Saturn ; whence its name. 
 
 SATURN. An Italian deity having many points of sim- 
 ilarity with the Grecian Kronos (K/joxoj), with whom he is, 
 accordingly, frequently identified. He seems to have been 
 originally the god of earth (of which his wife Tellns, Ops, 
 or Rhea was the goddess), and presided over tillage, of 
 which the sickle he carried was the symbol. The treasury 
 at Rome was in his temple. 
 
 The Grecian Kronos was the youngest son of Heaven 
 and Earth, and the father of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, and 
 Pluto. He usurped the sovereignty, and was in his turn 
 deposed and imprisoned by Jupiter. His reign was celebra- 
 ted by the ancient poets as the golden age. 
 
 The whole history of this deity is probably allegorical 
 The name itself, with a slight variation, signifies time 
 (Kpovoc) ; and his nttribute of the sickle, together with the 
 account of his being the son of Heaven, by whose lumi- 
 naries time is measured, and the husband of Rhea fflow- 
 ing), and of his devouring his own progeny, are corrobora- 
 tive of this conjecture. 
 
 Nlebuhr regards Saturn and Ops as the god and goddess 
 of the earth, its vivifying and its receptively-productive 
 powers. {Rom. Hist., vol. i., p. 66, Cambr. trans!.) f'reu 
 7.er makes Saturn the great god of nature, in many re 
 assimilated to Janus. He is the god who suffices for him 
 self— -the god who is satisfied with his own power-. [Sfm 
 hnlik. par Gulgniaut, vol. iii., p. 499.) Hence the derivation 
 of the name from the Ealin satur, full, sntixfud. 
 
 SATURN. One of the principal planets in the solar sys 
 tern, and the ninth in the order of distance from the sun. 
 Though less brilliant than Venus and Jupiter, Saturn is still 
 a conspicuous object in the heavens, and has accordingly 
 attracted the attention of astronomers since the first dawn 
 of the science. 
 
 Saturn revolves at the distance of about 800 millions of 
 miles from the sun, the mean radius of his orbit being 
 9-538786 times that of the earth's orbit; and the period of 
 his sideral revolution is 10759-2198174 mean solar da; 
 about 39J years. The orbit is nearly circular, its cccen 
 triclty being only -0561505 (half the major axis beintr unity) ; 
 and it is inclined to the ecliptic in nn angle which, at the 
 beginning of the present century, was 2° 29' 35"-7, and is 
 subject to a decrease of 0-155" annually. 
 
 The diameter of Satum at his mean distance from the 
 earth subtends an angle of about 16 - 2",j Whence his true 
 diameter is 9982 times that of the earth, or about 7G008 
 miles, and consequently his volume Is nearly a thousand 
 times that of the earth. From the theory of his perturba- 
 tions, his mass compared with that of the sun is found to be 
 •000284738; whence his density is inferred to be to that of 
 the sun as 55 to 100, or about jth of the density of the onrth. 
 
 From the observation of certain dark spots on his surface, 
 Saturn is found to revolve about an axis in 10 hours 29 m. 
 16-8 sec. This rapid rotation of so large a body gives rise to 
 a great centrifugal force at the equator of the planet, and 
 accordingly his form is that of a spheroid considerably flat 
 tened at the poles, the ratio of the polar to the equatorial 
 
SATURN. 
 
 diameter being nearly that of 11 to 12. The inclination of 
 his equator to iho |iiane of the ecliptic is 31° l'J', or nearly 
 
 I to the plane of his orbit. 
 
 U hen seen through b good relescope, the disc of Saturn 
 
 appears -.1 uiH'ii with dark belts, somewhat similar, but 
 
 let and less strongly marked than those of Jupiter. 
 
 ■Kri'Mi their parallel ism to his equator, it la inferred thai they 
 
 ill atmosphere, and arc probably determined by 
 
 i in our trade winds. 
 
 Batum U attended by seven satellites; but the two near- 
 est the planet can only ba seen in certain favorable circum- 
 l>es of the very highest power. 
 
 I I i.i.i. i ii.. 
 
 Saturn* Rings. — Saturn presents n phenomenon to which 
 la nothing analogous in the rest of the solar system. 
 
 Tins consist! of two flat, broad, and very thin rings, lioth 
 lying in the same plane, and concentric with each other 
 and wiih the planet. They an aanarated boa the body of 
 the planet by an interval equal to about two and a half 
 the diameli r of the earth, and from each other by a 
 much smaller interval. The plan.' in which they lie Is in- 
 clined 10 Uie ecliptic in an angle of 9BP 4ff ; and hence Uicy 
 ibUquel] i" the earth, under Uie form of 
 an ellipse, the 1m— iltti of which, when greatest, is nearly 
 
 equal to half the length. The follow Ing ate the dimensions 
 of this llllianisHaaiy appendage, us given by Sir John ller- 
 schel (Treatise of Astronomy, Cab. Cycl.), from the inicro- 
 inetm .ns of Struve, with lite exception of the 
 
 thickness of the rings, which was deduced from his own ob- 
 servations : 
 
 Ml'r,. 
 
 Ext- : of exterior ring - - = 1TG418 
 
 rlor diameter of exterior ring - - = 1.">.> 
 
 Exterior diameter ol inteiioi ring - - = 1 51880 
 
 Interior diameter of Interior ring - - =117339 
 
 Equatorial diameter oj 'the planet - — 7'JlbO 
 
 Interval between the planet and interior ring = 19090 
 
 - &= 1781 
 Thickness of the rings not exceeding - - = 100 
 As the plane of this double ring maintains its parallelism 
 during the revolution of the planet, the angle under which 
 presented to the sun la continually changing, and 
 hence the varieties which take place in its apparent form 
 and magnitude. The points in which it intersect.- the at lip- 
 tic are in l'.u j and 350° of longitude ; consequently, when- 
 ever the planet comes into either of those longitudes (and it 
 
 must piss through both in each revolution), the plane of 
 the ring passes through the sun, and only the thin edge is 
 illuminated. In ii, whole quantity of light 
 
 which is reflected from it is ImllflVaSJIlt tO render it visible, 
 
 and U entirely disappears, even In the most powerful tele- 
 scopes. On the 29 1 h of April, 1833, Sir John Herschel re- 
 cords, "The disappearance of the rings is complete, when 
 observed with a reflector 18 inches in aperture and 20 feet 
 in focal length." A little before or after the planet Is In 
 this position, the ring is seen as a tine straight line of light 
 drawn across the disc of the planet, and projecting on each 
 ke ansus or handles. As the planet continues to re- 
 cede, the sun's rays fall upon the ring more obliquely, and 
 the luminous line gradually ojk'iis out into on ellipse, which 
 becomes w Ider and wider until it attains its maximum, w hen 
 the longitude of Saturn is 80° or 200°. In following out 
 these phenomena, it is, however, necessary to take i ito 
 account the position of the earth relatively to the sun and 
 the plane of the ring ; for it is evident, in the lir~" place, 
 Unit the ring will only Ik: visible when the sun und earth 
 
 arc both on the same side of it ; and, in the ..if I place, 
 
 that it will become invisible when its plane passes through 
 the centre of the earth, as none of the iiuht reflected from 
 its sides can then reach us. On tins account the djaap 
 penrance of the ring Is generally double, the earth passing 
 twice through its plane in the same revolution. The suc- 
 cessive disappearances of the ring form a period of about IS 
 or half the limes of Saturn's revolution in his oiliii. 
 At present (1840), the north side of the ring is illuminated ; 
 in December, 1847, it will be invisible ; and in April, 1855, 
 the south side will become visible. The two sides of the 
 ring have thus alternately fifteen of our years of sunshine, 
 ami fifteen years of darkness. 
 
 Xhe singularity of Saturn's appearance was first noticed 
 by Galileo, to whom the planet appeared triple, or as a 
 large body placed between two small ones. The explana- 
 tion of the phenomena by means of the ring was first given 
 by Huygens. Some astronomers have thought they observ- 
 ed numerous dark divisions in the ring ; so that instead of 
 two there must bo a number of concentric rings. Sturvc 
 states, that he could perceive no traces of such division in 
 the great Dorpat refractor. 
 
 That the ring Is composed of solid ponderous materials is 
 proved from the circumstances of its casting a dark shadow 
 on Saturn on the side nearest the sun, and receiving the 
 shadow of the planet on the opposite side. The ring must 
 
 SAXIFRAGACE.E. 
 
 therefore be under the influence of the planet's Bttrei 
 and also liable to be deranged by the disturbing action id' the 
 satellites, the largest of which does not move in the same 
 plane. Hence it Is an Interesting problem in physical as 
 tronomy to determine the conditions under which lis equi- 
 librium is maintained. Laplace has shown, from the theory 
 of gravitation, that in order to maintain the stability of the 
 ring, it le necessary that the planet's attraction be counter- 
 acted by a centrifugal force arising from I very rapid rota- 
 tion of the ling ill its own plane. Observation has continu- 
 ed the result of theory; for from the motions of certain 
 dusky spots on its surface it has been found that the ring 
 revolves in 10 hours 29 m. 17 b., which is vary nearly the 
 period assigned U\ Laplace, and that in which a satellite 
 would revolve at B distance equal to that of the middle of 
 the ring. Laplace also showed that in order to resist the 
 tendency to subversion of the equilibrium, it is necessary to 
 suppose the ling to be of unequal density or thickness in its 
 dltterenl parts, so that the centre of gravity may not coin- 
 cide with the centre of figure ; for If it were perfectly I 
 lar throughout, its equilibrium would be disturbed by the 
 slightest force, as the attraction of a satellite ; and as it would 
 have no londaacj Hi recovei itself, it would ultimate!] 
 precipitated on the planet. This inequality of form would 
 seem to be indicated by observation, for it has ben noticed 
 that the two arms of the ring sometimes appear to at 
 similar. According to Bea el, the mass of the ring is equal 
 to about Uie 1-1 listh part of that of the planet, i'or further 
 Information, see Uerschel's Treatise on Astronomy. 
 
 S.V1 TUNA'I.IA, the festival of Saturn, was celebrated 
 at Rome about the middle of December, and occupied at 
 diilereiil times one, three, and live days. It was u season of 
 complete liberty and rejoicing. No business was done; 
 friends visited and made presents to each other; and, what 
 was most remarkable, slaves were permitted to jest with 
 their masters, and were even waited on at table by Uicm. 
 
 SATYRS. In Classical Mythology, divinities, or rather 
 supernatural personages, repn si nti d with the heads, anna, 
 and bodies Ol men, and Uio lower parts of goats. They 
 were under the peculiar government of the god Bacchus. 
 Some antiquaries have landed that the notion of satyrs 
 arose from the introduction of ournng-outangs by the real 
 Bacchus, 00 ln> return Ir.uii bis conquest of India, nnd de- 
 tive the name from the Hi b. sabiiriui liairy men ; BaficMa, 
 according to tradition, having remained some tune in I 
 line dining his return. In tin same way we may perhaps 
 account for St. Auguslin's story, of a satyr having been seen 
 and caught, in his own time, in the deserts of Africa In 
 i.n i Ian Dramatic Literature, the name satyr Is applied to ■ 
 theatrical piece, in which the chorus consisted of satyrs, of a 
 Mini -burlesque character — to judge of it by the only specimen 
 left to us, the Cyclops of Euripides. It was customary for 
 the tragedian to present at the same time th.ee tragic pi 
 and one satyr, forming a tetralogy. In Zoology, the outrung- 
 oulang (Sniits xalyrun, Linn.) is sometimes called satyr. 
 
 BAUCI8SON. In Fortification, a long pipe or bag filled 
 with gunpowder for the purpose of firing n none. The 
 term is ulso applied to a fascine, longer than the common 
 ones, used for raising batteries and repairing breaches. 
 
 SAU'NDEBS or SANDAL WOOD. The white or scent- 
 ed sandal wood is Uie produce of the Santalum album. It 
 is brought from the East Indies. When distilled with wa 
 ter il yields a thick essential oil, smelling something like 
 roses. Bed saunders or sandal is the wood of the Pterocar- 
 pus santalinus, ulso a native of India. Its colouring matter 
 is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol, and is used to 
 imparl u red tinge to certain tinctures. The resinous exu- 
 dation of this tree constitutes one of the varieties of dra- 
 gon's blood. 
 
 SA'UBIANS, Sauria. (Gr. oavpoe, a lilard.) The name 
 of an order of reptiles, Including all those which are cover- 
 ed wiUi scales and have four legs, as the crocodile and 
 lizard. The mouth of the saurians is always armed wiUi 
 teeth, and Uicir toes are generally furnished with claws; 
 they have all u tail mow or less long, and generally very 
 thick ut the base. A few species, exceptions to the general 
 character, have only two legs. The most gigantic, and sin- 
 gular s|M-cies of the Saurian order are now extinct. 
 
 8AUS8URITE. A variety of nephrite named in honour 
 of Saussure, who discovered it on the bunks of the lake of 
 Geneva In rounded masses. 
 
 SAVA'NNAHS. The name given to those vast systems 
 of plains watered by the Missouri and Mississippi. These 
 savannahs are greatly diversified in appearance; but they 
 have some general features, which the reader will find sys- 
 tematically described in Mr. Flint's work on America. 
 
 SAVINGS BANKS. Sec Bank, Savings. (SeealsoDe- 
 genndo, Di {a Bien/aisance i'uhi,i/ue, vol. hi., 1. 2, ch. 4.) 
 
 SAXIFBAGA'L'E.E. (Saxifrage, one of the genera.; 
 A natural order of herbaceous Exogens, chiefly inhabiting 
 the mountainous regions of Europe and the northern parts 
 of the world. They ore nearly allied to Rosacea, from 
 
 1091 
 
SAXON ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 svhich they differ in having polyspermous, didymous, par- 
 tially concrete carpels, and albuminous seeds, and in want- 
 ing stipules. The root of Heuchera Americana is a power- 
 ful astringent, whence it is called, in North America, alum 
 root ; other species are pretty herbaceous plants : none of 
 them are of general interest. 
 
 SAXON ARCHITECTURE. See Architecture. 
 
 SAXON BLUE. A solution of indigo in concentrated 
 sulphuric acid: it is much used as a dye stuff. 
 
 SCABI'NUS. The Latinized form of the old German 
 word schoppe.in French echevin. Judicial officers of vari- 
 ous descriptions in the middle ages bore this title, espemlly 
 in the " communes," or municipalities. See as to its history, 
 Meyer's Instit. Judiciaries ; Mem. de V Ac. des lnscr. vol. 
 
 SCA'BROUS. (Lat. scaber, rough.) In Zoology, when a 
 surface is rough to the touch, from granules scarcely visible. 
 SCA'FFOLDING, in Architecture, is the temporary com- 
 bination of timber-work, by the means of upright poles and 
 horizontal pieces, on which lauei <ue laid the boards for car- 
 rying up the different stages or floors of a building, and 
 which are struck or removed as soon as they have answer- 
 ed their purpose. The scaffolding used for carrying up 
 buildings on the Continent has always been more scientin- 
 cally and solidly constructed than that used in this country. 
 But great improvements have latterly taken place ; and 
 there seems to be a prevalent notion here, in the present 
 day, that for large buildings a little more skill should be dis- 
 played than that which emanates from the combination of 
 uninstructed Irish labourers. 
 
 SCAGLIO'LA. (It.) In Architecture, a composition ; 
 sometimes called also Mischia, from the mixture of colours 
 employed in it, being made to imitate marble. The Floren- 
 tines claim the invention of this art, but it had been prac- 
 tised in Lombardy previous to its introduction at Florence. 
 Lanza says that it was invented by Guido Sassi, who died 
 at the age of 65, in 1649, at Carpi, in the state of Modena, 
 and that he commenced by executing cornices and other 
 members of architecture which had all the appearance of 
 the finest marbles ; whereas its introduction at Florence was 
 not jii the middle of the 18th century. Scagliola is com- 
 posed of gypsum or sulphate of lime, calcined and reduced 
 to a fine powder, with the addition of which to water a fine 
 paste is made. When columns are made with this compo- 
 sition, a frame or cradle is first formed, which is lathed 
 round and coated with lime and hair, raised up in some 
 parts with small projections. On this, when dry, is laid a 
 composition consisting of pure gypsum, calcined and passed 
 through a sieve, and, as wanted, mixed with glue or isin- 
 glass ; it is floated with wooden moulds of the proper form, 
 during which operation the colours, by which the imitation 
 is obtained, are put on. When this is set the work is smooth- 
 ed with pumice-stone with one hand of the workman, while 
 the other is employed in washing it with a sponge and wa- 
 ter. It is then polished with tripoli, charcoal, and a piece 
 of fine linen, and afterwards with a piece of felt dipped in 
 oil and tripoli, and finished off with pure oil laid on with 
 cotton wool. 
 
 SCALD (Skalld), signifies in the ancient Norsk language 
 a poet. In the old northern literature, those mythological 
 poems of which the writers are known are properly called 
 songs of the Scalds, while those of unknown authors are 
 termed Eddas. It appears from Tacitus that the ancient 
 Germans had those three classes of poems which were 
 found at a later era in Scandinavia, namely, relating to the 
 gods, to heaven, and to historical subjects. The Scalds 
 whose remains have come down to us are very numerous. 
 Their poems are partly alliterative, and partly rhymed ; and 
 this latter circumstance seems to indicate works of compar- 
 atively recent date. The historical value of their poems is 
 considerable ; but they are written in a peculiar vein of ex- 
 aggeration, and in a metaphysical and almost enigmatical 
 fashion, which appears to have been characteristic of the 
 poetical art of the north. (See Edda, Saga.) The most 
 complete list of the Scalds, and commentary on Scaldic poe- 
 try, is to be found (according to the Conversations Lex.) in 
 the Fundgruben des Orient., vol. i. 
 
 SCALE. (It. scala, a /adder, or scries of stairs.) In 
 Music, a progressive series of sounds arising in acuteness or 
 falling in gravity from any given pitch to the greatest prac- 
 tical distance, through such intermediate degrees as create 
 an agreeable and perfect succession, wherein all the har- 
 monical intervals are conveniently divided. See the words 
 Diatonic and Chromatic. 
 
 Scale. In Mensuration, a line or rule of a definite 
 length, divided into a given number of equal parts, and used 
 for the purpose of measuring other linear magnitudes. It 
 becomes a standard scale when all its divisions have been 
 examined and compared with some standard measure. (See 
 Measure.) The scalts of thermometers are graduated 
 from some arbitrary point or zero (as that which indicates 
 the temperature of freezing water), from which the heat is 
 1092 
 
 SCAPULA. 
 
 counted upwards or downwards in degrees, which are als* 
 arbitrary. 
 
 The term scale is also applied to a mathematical instru- 
 ment, consisting of an assemblage of lines and figures en- 
 graved on a plane rule, by means of which certain propor- 
 tional quantities or arithmetical results are obtained by 
 inspection. Of these the principal are the plane scale, the 
 diagonal scale, Gunter's scale, &c. For the construction 
 and uses of these various scales, see Robertson'' s Descrip- 
 tion and Use of Mathematical Instruments. 
 
 In arithmetic, scale signifies the order of progression on 
 which any system of notation is founded ; as the binary 
 scale, the denary scale, Sec. See Binary Arithmetic, 
 Notation. 
 
 Scale, in Zoology, is properly applied to the plates, gener 
 ally thin, small, and umbricated, which defend the skin ol 
 fishes. They are substances of different texture which are 
 developed beneath the true epiderm, and appertain to the 
 system of the rete mucosum. The so-called scales of ser- 
 pents and other reptiles are modifications of the epidermis, 
 and are sometimes termed "scutes." Fishes have been 
 classified according to the structure of their scales. See the 
 words Ctenoid, Cycloid, Ganoid, Placoid. 
 
 SCALE'NE. (Gr. vKabnvos.) In Geometry, a scalene 
 triangle is a triangle of which the three sides are unequal 
 A cone or cylinder is also said to be scalene if its axis is in 
 clined to its base ; but in this case the term oblique is more 
 frequently used. 
 
 SCALE'NUS. A muscle of the neck, situated betwees, 
 the transverse processes of the cervical vertebra; and the 
 upper part of the neck. 
 SCALPEL. (Lat. scalpare, to carve.) A dissecting knife. 
 SCALPRUM. (Lat. a knife.) In Mammalogy, the cut- 
 ting edge of the incisor teeth. 
 
 SCA'MMONY, in Pharmacy, is the gum-resin of the 
 Convolvulus scammonca, chiefly imported from Aleppo 
 and Smyrna in packages, called drums, weighing about 100 
 pounds each. It is of a dark olive colour, and when wetted 
 and rubbed should easily form a milky solution ; it is very 
 apt to be adulterated, and an article entirely fictitious is 
 often sold under the name of scammony. Scammony is an 
 excellent drastic purge, and is generally administered in com- 
 bination with other purgatives in doses of three or four grains. 
 SCA'NDALUM MAGNA'TUM. In Law, an action 
 which still lies, although for a long period it has never been 
 resorted to, on the stat. 2 Ric. 2, stat. 1, c. 5., and statute of 
 Westminster the First, 3 E. 1, c. 34, for words spoken in 
 derogation of a peer, a judge, or other great officer of the 
 realm ; which need not be such as would be actionable at 
 common law in the case of a private person. " The Duke 
 of Richmond v. Castellow," in the eighth year of Queen 
 Anne, seems to have been the last instance of this species 
 of action. 
 
 SCANSO'RIALS, Scansores. (Lat. scando, / climb.) 
 Climbing birds. The name of an order of birds, including 
 those which have the toes arranged in pairs, two before 
 and two behind ; a conformation of the foot which is ad- 
 mirably adapted for the act of climbing. 
 
 SCANT. In Naval language, the term applied to the 
 wind when it is barely fair. 
 
 SCANTLING. (Fr. echantillon.) In Architecture, the 
 measures of breadth and thickness of a piece of timber or 
 other material. It is also the name of a piece of timber 
 when under five inches square. 
 
 Scantling. In Naval Architecture, the scale or dimen- 
 sions of the breadth and thickness of the timbers. Thus 
 two ships of different sizes may have the same scantling. 
 
 SCA'PE. In Botany, a peduncle, which, in plants desti- 
 tute of a stem, rises above the ground and supports the flowers 
 upon its apex, as in cowslip. Also a synonym of Scape/I us. 
 SCAPEMENT, or ESCAPEMENT. See Horology. 
 SCAPHITE. (Gr. oita<j>v. a boat.) A genus of elliptical- 
 chambered shells, belonging to the family of Ammonites, 
 having the inner extremity coiled up in whorls embracing 
 one another, and the outer extremity continued nearly in 
 a horizontal plane, and then folded back, so as sometimes 
 to touch the spire of the opposite end of the shell. The 
 transverse plates are numerous, and are pierced by a mar- 
 ginal siphuncle at the back of the shell, and their edges 
 are deeply cut and foliated. These beautiful shells, which 
 thus resemble the ancient form of a boat, are almost pecu- 
 liar to the chalk formation. 
 
 SCA'POLITE. A mineral, originally from Arendahl in 
 Norway, the crystals of which are often collected in groups 
 of parallel, diverging, or intermingled prisms ; hence its 
 name, from a/cams, a rod, and Xi0o{, a stone. 
 
 SCA'PULA. (Lat. the shoulder.) In Comparative Ana- 
 tomy, the bone which passes from the shoulder joint in a 
 direction towards the vertebral column. It is broad and 
 flat, generally triangular, sometimes subquadrilateral, in 
 the Mammalia ; narrow, and commonly sabre shaped, in 
 birds ; narrow and straight in Saurian reptiles ; a round, 
 
SCAPULARS. 
 
 sunup, and straight column, in Chclonlan reptiles; va- 
 riously shaped, and articulated to the back of the skull in 
 most li 
 
 SCAPULARS, or SCAPULAR FEATHERS, in Orni- 
 thology, are those which take their origin from the shoulders 
 er the sides of the back. 
 SCA'FUL All V. A portion of the dress of the monastic 
 
 , consisting of two bands of woollen stutf, of which 
 due one crosses the back or shoulders, and the other the 
 stomach. According to the Abbe Fleury (jtfdcurs de-s 
 Ckrctkits), the scapulary originated with St. Benedict, and 
 large and heavy covering of the shoulders, worn by 
 the early monks in their rural labours for the convenience 
 of earning loads, and to protect the tunic. Simon Stock, 
 an Englishman, general of the Carmelites in the 13lh cen- 
 tury, first introduced, under the authority of a vision, the 
 noli. in that the scapulary is an especial sign of devotion to 
 the Virgin Mary. Since that time it has been not an un- 
 common superstition, that whoever dies wearing it, is sure 
 of solvation. The scapulary of lay persons consists of two 
 little pieces of stuff on which the name of the Virgin is 
 embroidered. 
 
 \ ITS. (hat. a stalk.) In Ornithology, the stem or 
 
 trunk of a feather, including the hollow base or quill, 
 
 "calamus," which is inserted into the skin, and the solid 
 
 d Item supporting the barbs, or "rachis." 
 
 Scapus. In Architecture, the same as the shaft of a 
 
 column, whic b 
 
 EM AUAB.E'IDANS. Scarabeidte. (Lat. scarahteus, a 
 beetle.) The name of a family of Coleopterous insects, of 
 Which the genus Scarabasus is the type; it corresponds with 
 the great tribe of Lamellieorns. See that word. 
 
 \ It A BjE'US. In Antiquities. The use and meaning 
 of the scarabaus, as a. symbol, are, as yet, among the mys- 
 teries of archaeological science. The Egyptians, it is said, 
 found in it an emblem of the world instinct with the seeds 
 of life ; because the kind of bcelle represented by it forms 
 a bill of earth In which to deposit Its eggs. It is also 
 Galled a type of the sun. However thi~ may be. it was 
 habitually worn by the ancient Egyptians and Etrurians as 
 an amulet. According to .Mrs. Hamilion Gray (Tour to 
 the Sepulchres of Ktruria, 1840;, several different styles of 
 the scarabteus are traceable. The ancient Egyptian scan- 
 ba'us was plain, or inscribed with characters: and Was 
 
 of opaque stone, basalt, or porphyry. The Etrurian 
 
 ha;us (found in quantities in the sepulchres) was of 
 
 ■anspnrent stone, cornelian, onyx, sardonyx, agate, or 
 jasper. It is almost always engraved, generally with the 
 figure of a god or genius, supposed to be the rhosea pro- 
 tector of the Individual who wore it: sometimes with 
 whole scenes, such as the labours of Hercules, races, &e. ; 
 sometimes with Etruscan words or names; and occasion- 
 . ith Egyptian divinities, Isis or Horns. Lastly, the 
 modern Egyptian scaralKEUs of Roman times Was generally 
 of precious or semi-precious stones, and rudely engraved ; 
 and seems to belong to an age when the religious use of 
 the scariliaus was forgotten, and it was retained only as 
 an ornament. In the Etruscan scaraboel themselves, ac- 
 cording to the same authoress, there are three distinct 
 styles of art remarkable — the rude or native Etruscan, the 
 Grecian, and that of a period of decline. 
 
 VltAMOUCH. fltal. scaramuccia, skirmish.) A 
 personage In the old Italian Comedla dell' Arte, dressed in 
 the Spanish or Hlspano-Neapolitan costume, and repre- 
 senting a military personage, a poltroon and braggadocio, 
 who always ended by receiving a beating from the hands 
 Of Harlequin. The most celebrated Scaramouch of the 
 Italian theatre at Paris was Tiberio Fiurelli, a Neapolitan, 
 who had the honour of making Louis XIV. laugh when 
 an infant ; and whose agility was such that he was able, 
 according to his biographers, to give a box on the ear with 
 his foot at the age of 80. 
 
 SCARFING. In Architecture, the formation of a beam 
 out of two pieces of timber; usually employed when It 
 cannot be conveniently procured in one length. It is 
 usually performed by indenting the pieces where they are 
 joined to each other, and bolting them together in the op- 
 posite direction. 
 
 RFSKIN. The cuticle or epidermis. See Skis. 
 SCARIFICA'TOR. An instrument used in clipping; it 
 consists of 10 or 12 lancets, which are discharged through 
 apertures in its plane surface by pulling a kind of trigger, 
 so that in passing they make a number of incisions in the 
 part to which the instrument is applied. 
 
 SCARLATINA, or SCARLET FEVER. This highly 
 contagious disease assumes two forms. In the one it comes 
 on with the usual symptoms of fever, such as languor, 
 chills and heat, thirst, nausea and vomiting; and on the 
 third or fourth day a scarlet efflorescence appears upon the 
 skin, which in three or four days ends in the cuticle peeling 
 off In branny scales : the febriie symptoms and soreness of 
 the throat, if any had been observed, then give way, and 
 
 SCEPTICISM. 
 
 the patient gradually recovers. It is, however, not uncom 
 monly followed by dropsical swelling of the body, which i» 
 but of short continuance. In the other form of this disease 
 the febrile symptoms are at first more alarming: there is 
 bilious vomiting, great soreness and ulceration of the throat, 
 quick and small pulse, laborious breathing ; and the erup- 
 tion, instead of mitigating the symptoms, is accompanied bv 
 their dangerous increase. The body becomes swollen, anil 
 the nose and eyes inflamed; the breath grows foetid, and 
 the inflammation of the throat terminates in grey isli sloughs, 
 which give it a speckled appearance. Under an aggrava- 
 tion of such symptoms, the patient is cut off; or his recovery 
 is very slow, and dropsical swellings and glandular tumours 
 follow, and leave him in a very precarious state. It nccn 
 sionally happens that the putrid symptoms run very high : 
 the rash is livid, .and accompanied by petechia; ; the breath 
 highly fcetid, the throat gangrenous"; and other symptoms 
 announce a highly malignant form of the dtl 
 
 In the milder form of scarlet fever, the bowels should be 
 cleansed by saline aperients, and the patient k 
 moderate temperature, as near <XP as possible, and In 8j 
 clean and ma room. If the throat is much affected, an 
 emetic should lie given as early as possible, and the bowels 
 opened by small doses of calomel and anrimoniuls. When 
 the heat of the body is much above the usual standard, or 
 very distressing, sponging with cold water, judiciously re- 
 sorted to, has proved eminently useful. Acidulated gargles 
 must be used for the throat: and the dilute acids, with 
 light preparations of bark and tonics, at the decline of the 
 eruption, are required. Where the malignant symptoms 
 run high, cordial tonics, acids, wine, and the other treatment 
 of putrid fevers must be adopted. 
 
 Scarlet fever is distinguished from measles by the greater 
 extent and want of elevation of the eruption, and by its not 
 congregating Into semilunar patches; nor is there the cough, 
 and running from die eyes and nose, which usher in the 
 measles. It seizes those of all ages, but children and young 
 persons are most subject to it ; and it appears at rill seasons 
 of the year, but in autumn is often epidemic. It may attack 
 the same person more lhan once. 
 
 SCARP. In Fortitication, the interior slope of the ditch. 
 
 ■ ARP. 
 
 SCE'LIHES. (Gr. twiXoc, a leg.) In Mammalogy, the 
 lower, posterior, or pelvic, extremities. 
 
 SCENE. Iu Dramatic Literature (from the Gr. owfyn, 
 arbuur), dramatic representations, having, it is supposed, 
 originally taken place on spots of ground shaded with 
 boughs of trees. The imaginary place in which the action 
 of the play is supposed to pass; also a division of a drama: 
 properly speaking, whenever the action changes to a new 
 scene or place. But in the French theatre, and those 
 framed on its model (in which unity of place is observed), 
 every entry of an actor constitutes a new scene. On the 
 English stage, the subdivision called a scene is extremely 
 arbitrary ; the scenes in most plays being far more numerous 
 than the actual changes of scene, while nt the same time 
 the French rule is not observed, and actors enter in the 
 middle of a scene. The scenes in a play are numbered as 
 subdivisions of the act. See Act. 
 
 SCENE PAINTING. A department of the art of paint 
 ing governed by the laws of perspective, applied to the 
 peculiar exigencies of a theatre. It is conducted chiefly 
 in water colours, and admits of the most striking effects, 
 which indeed, in scene painting, is almost all that is re- 
 quired. 
 
 SCENERY. The appearance of a place or of objects, or 
 the representation of a spot wherein an action is performed. 
 See Landscape. 
 
 SCI.'PTICISM. (Gr. cKC-XTO/iai, I examine.) In the 
 History of Philosophy, a name given to that tendency of 
 thought or system of doctrines the object of which is, by 
 denying the existence of all grounds of knowledge, to intro; 
 duce universal doubt and suspension of assent. Schools of 
 scepticism have existed at several different periods in the 
 progress of philosophical inquiry. The first who received 
 or adopted the name was Pyrrho, a contemporary of Alex- 
 ander the Great, and his successors, who taught in Athens 
 about the year 300 B.C. Our chief notices of his opinions 
 are derived from the writings, in verse, of his disciple Timon, 
 preserved to us by Sextus Empiricus. He was led to his 
 sceptical views partly by the contradictions observable in 
 the impressions on our senses, and partly by the incompati- 
 bility of the principles of different schools with each other. 
 To a complete suspension of judgment in speculation [hoy r)) 
 he united a corresponding state of indifference in feeling 
 (arapaiia), and made virtue and happiness to consist in the 
 absence of mental perturbation. Either he or his scholars 
 endeavoured to present a synopsis of their sceptical views 
 in ten general forms, or commonplaces, all of winch, how 
 ever, may be included In one or other of the two sources 
 of doubt mentioned above. 
 
 The school of Pyrrho seems to have expired with his dis- 
 
 1093 
 
SCEPTRE. 
 
 ctplc Timon; thougli ninny of his views were espoused 
 Jnd maintained by the later academy. (See Academics.) 
 About the middle of the third century of the Christian era, 
 .ve meet with a school to which the name of the later scep- 
 tics has been assigned. Thfa sect seems to have originated 
 with one .Enesidemus, a physician. It was, in fact, a 
 school of physicians, who, in opposition to the Methodic 
 eect, adopted a strictly empirical mode of treatment, and 
 Bought in sceptical considerations a justification of their 
 practice. The grounds of this scepticism have been re- 
 corded by Sextus Empiricus. It regarded not so much the 
 validity of the notices given by the senses (to which their 
 empirical method imposed on them a necessity of yielding 
 their assent), as the general form and method of science. 
 Syllogism they regarded as utterly void, inasmuch as the 
 conclusion must Save been contained in the induction on 
 which the major proposition was founded. Perfect induc- 
 tion was impossible ; imperfect was unsatisfactory. They 
 also attacked, with considerable acuteness, the received 
 doctrines of cause and effect, and of the nature of God ; 
 chiefly in opposition to the Stoics, the most dogmatical of 
 the ancient sects. Their morality, like their speculative 
 creed, was a system of mere sensualism. This school may 
 be considered as the last purely Grecian sect. After them 
 an oriental element was introduced into philosophy, which 
 materially altered its character and bearing. The most 
 celebrated sceptics of modern times are, Montaigne (A.D. 
 1580) ; Glanville, an Englishman, who flourished about the 
 period of the Restoration ; Bayle, and Hume. Of these 
 Mr. Hume has the merit of producing the most systematic 
 and comprehensive scheme of scepticism the world has yet 
 seen. According to this philosopher, all the objects of con- 
 sciousness may be reduced to two classes — 1, the impres- 
 sions on the senses; and 2, ideas, or copies of those im- 
 pressions, which differ from their originals only in being less 
 vivid. All knowledge, save that of mathematical relations, 
 consists in the arrangement of these impressions according 
 to the order of their succession. Of the connexion between 
 any two links of this succession we know nothing ; that to 
 which we give the name of causation being, in fact, nothing 
 more than habitual sequence relatively to the phenomena, 
 and custom, or often-repeated association, in relation to 
 ourselves. All inquiry into things in themselves, or their 
 grounds — in other words, all metaphysical speculation, is 
 consequently founded on delusion. The writings of David 
 Hume, which contain his sceptical speculations, are his 
 Treatise on Human JVature, and the early part of the second 
 volume of his Essays. (See Hitter, book x., ch. 1.) 
 
 SCE'PTItE. (Gr. amympov, a staff to lean on.) A well- 
 i emblem of sovereignty. Achilles, as is well known, 
 swears by his staff or sceptre in the first book of 'the Iliad. 
 Tarquin, the elder, first assumed the sceptre among the 
 Romans. According to Justin, it was originally a spear. 
 The sceptre of the Merovingian kings, as represented on 
 monuments, is a rod, probably of metal, of the height of the 
 bearer, and slightly curved like a crosier. 
 
 SCH A A'LS'fEIN. A mineralogical synonym of table spar 
 (tafel-spath of the Germans). It occurs in grey laminated 
 masses or concretions, chiefly at Dognatscha in the Banna t. 
 
 SCHEELE'S GREEN. A green pigment obtained by 
 mixing arsenlte of potassa with sulphate of copper. It is 
 an arsenite of copper. 
 
 SCHEE'LIU.M. A name sometimes applied to tungslen, 
 in honour of Scheele, who discovered it. 
 
 SCHELLING, THE PHILOSOPHY OF, teaches the 
 identity or indifference of the ideal and real. Its author, 
 Frederick VVilhelm Joseph von Schelling, was born January 
 27th, 1775, and studied successively at Tubingen, Leipzig, 
 and Jena. In the latter place, he was a pupil of Fichte. 
 Schelling lived till recently at Munich, under the patronage 
 of the King of Bavaria, who ennobled him, and advanced 
 him to the dignity of geheime rath, or privy councillor; but 
 he has within the last few months accepted of an invita- 
 tion from the Prussian monarch to reside at Berlin, where 
 his lectures are said to excite the most lively interest among 
 the Prussian literati. 
 
 It is extremely difficult to understand the true import 
 and signiticancy of any particular system of philosophy, if 
 it is considered in itself, and apart from its connexion with 
 the general history of philosophy, which, from its earliest 
 origin to its latest development, will be found to constitute 
 a close and compact whole. This general truth is particu- 
 larly applicable to the philosophical development of Ger- 
 many, the unity of whose literary pursuits seems to supply 
 the want of a true political unity. The concatenation of 
 views and opinions, from Leibnitz and Spinosa to the 
 philosophers of the present day, is easily traceable ; but it 
 will be sufficient for the elucidation of Schelling's philoso- 
 phy to begin with the critical theory of Kant. The tran- 
 scendental idealism of this philosopher formed the transition 
 from the empiricism of the eighteenth century, and effected, 
 lis it were, a compromise between the scepticism of Hume 
 1094 
 
 SCHELLING, PHILOSOPHY OF. 
 
 and the realism which it succeeded to. Without doming 
 or asserting the existence of a material world, Kant was 
 content with confessing an ignorance at all events of its 
 nature. He taught that all that man can know of outward 
 objects is, that they furnish the material ground of his con- 
 ceptions; to which the mind furnishes, on its part, the 
 form, in congruity with its original and connatural laws. 
 Of things themselves, or, as Kant calls them, of phenomena, 
 man absolutely knows nothing; all that he can do is u> 
 note the modes under which they appear to him. But 
 while the criticism of the pure reason seemed to lead to a 
 speculative idealism, that of the practical reason appeared 
 to possess a mystical tendency. The principles of the lat- 
 ter work may thus be summed up : A consideration of the 
 exigencies of man's moral nature enforces the validity of 
 those ideas of God, immortality, and a future state of retri- 
 bution, which the speculative reason does indeed project, 
 but cannot legitimate. The latter tendency of the Kantian 
 philosophy was worked out by Hainan and Herder, but 
 found its culminating point in Jacobi's Philosophy of Faith 
 (Glaubrn's Philosophic), which had many adherents in 
 Germany, and extensively influenced the prevailing ideas 
 of philosophy. According to Jacobi, the end and aim of 
 true philosophy is a knowledge of God. Now, the pursuit 
 of this object must set out from feeing and intuition, for 
 there is no speculative method which can give a demon 
 stration of God; for God is infinite, but the understanding 
 finite : and all mediate knowledge by reasoning, which is a 
 procedure of the intellect, cannot attain to the infinite. 
 Reasoning, moreover, cannot do more than establish the 
 correspondence of certain identical propositions from which 
 it pasties, step by step, and on the presumption of whoso 
 truth it proceeds. The element, therefore, of all human 
 knowledge is faith ; an original instinct of man's nature, 
 which immediately reveals to him the divine ; and, in spite 
 of any suspicions of the validity of sensuous testimony, 
 enforces a belief in the existence of an external world. 
 The philosophical merits of Jacobi consist in this, that he 
 did not, with Kant, regard God as a mere abstraction, but 
 as a living spirit, whose presence is manifest within man 
 him ,; ; or... further, in the way that hi las; ted on ... 
 validity of the immediate perceptions of consciousness, in 
 opposition to the absolute authority of the finite understand- 
 ing. However, true philosophical science cannot admit of 
 any such contrariety of intellect and feeling; and to estab- 
 lish their identity, or at least to combine them in unison, 
 was the problem which Fichte attempted to solve. But 
 the predominant character of the latter's philosophy lies in 
 the way in which he carried, to its extreme result, tho 
 idealistic tendency of Kant. In the Wissenschufts! ehre wo 
 have a system of pure and absolute idealism. The exist- 
 ence of a material world is here denied unconditionally ; 
 the real exists only so far as it is necessarily conceived by 
 us ; so that the external world is purely a creation of our 
 conceptions, and the real is a product of the ideal. To use 
 the language of Fichte, tho ego is absolute, and posits itself; 
 it is a pure activity. As its activity, however, has certain 
 indefinable limits, when it experiences this limitation of 
 its activity it also posits a non-ego, and so originates the 
 objective world. The ego, therefore, cannot posit itself 
 without at the same time projecting a non-ego ; which, 
 consequently, is in so far the mere creation of the ego. 
 With the mediate knowledge of reflection, by which Fichte 
 attained to this speculative result, he combined for practical 
 ends the authority of immediate consciousness. As, ho 
 argued, it is from the impulse of the ego to activity that 
 the non-ego arises, the absolute ego is also in the same rela- 
 tion to the intelligent ego as a cause is to its effect. But 
 although the absolute practical ego is absolutely free, and 
 the sole principle of al: reality, so as to posit the world in 
 opposition to itself, and to be its cause, it has, nevertheless, 
 a subjective limit to its operation. This is the idea of duty 
 which the consciousness immediately announces to man as 
 an unconditional authority and obligation; which, however, 
 is not subversive of the freedom of the ego, but is simply an 
 impulsive motive to its activity. Now, so far as the ego 
 attempts to realize this dutv, it tends to a moral order. He 
 who does his utmost to establish this moral order, comes 
 near to the Deity, and enters uixm his true and proper life. 
 Such was the point to which speculation had attained 
 when Schelling appeared as a philosophical writer. Tho 
 subjective thought had been made the supreme and only- 
 principle, before which all objective entity was driven into 
 the back ground; and the subjectivity of the idea was the 
 only real existence acknowledged. For this subjective 
 idealism Schelling, however, did but substitute an ohjertive 
 idealism, by giving objectivity to the idea itself, and decla 
 ring every entitv to be also rational thought Kant bad 
 spoken of the objective as unknowable; Fichte had denied 
 its existence; and Schelling identified the ideal and tho 
 real. Fichte had confined himself to giving a derivation of 
 nature and its laws out of an absolute and spontaneous ac 
 
SCHELLING, PHILOSOPHY OF. 
 
 hvity of the ego. Schelling maintained that not only must 
 the laws of consciousness be immediately cognizable in the 
 objective world, as laws of nature ; but conversely, also, 
 the laws of nature must be immediately demonstrable in 
 the consciousness as laws of the subjective. Man finds 
 himself in nature, and nature in himself. Besides Fichte's 
 method, therefore, of descending from the ego, Schelling 
 held it to be necessary to ascend from nature up to ego. 
 The former method is given in his transcendental philoso- 
 phy, the latter in the nature-philosophy, which make up 
 his system of identity. The general principles of this sys- 
 tem are as follows : That true and perfect science, which it 
 has always been the object of philosophy to realize, must 
 be one which has its authority in itself, embraces all things. 
 and is perfectly correspondent to its object ; for truth is ta- 
 ble without a perfect agreement of thy knowing and 
 the known. How, as all philosophy must proceed on the 
 i I'tion that the cognizant mind is capable of true cog- 
 nit', a, it follows that the knowing subject cannot, in its es- 
 sence, be opposed to the subject known ; and that, con- 
 sequently, it must be possible to know the real essence of 
 a. The essence, therefore, of that which thinks and 
 wiich exists, of thought and entity, soul and body, is 
 one and the same. By means of this essential onen< 
 in the terminology of Schelling, of this absolute identity and 
 indifference of thought and being, the ideal and real, and in 
 of the mind being, in substance at least, ho- 
 . ;;h things without it, the former is capable of 
 repre ,'h as they are in 
 
 truth essence. The knowledge thus gained is 
 
 a pure intellectual intuition ; it is not mere reflcctim, which, 
 by its nature, cannot go beyond its data. Rising above phe- 
 nomena to the ideas of the absolute, which is their identi- 
 cal origin, it is able to apprehend the essence of things. 
 in that man becomes conscious of 
 : the aid of the senses ; and this art of 
 ■.I'.iiirs Dialectics. One of 
 the duties of this art is to trace the identical principle in its 
 r development, and to determine every branch of 
 ledge, in relation not only to the fundamental idea of 
 
 iphy is the method of construction, and without 
 it no mte step can be taken in speculative science. This 
 id is to become fully conscious of the laws of rated, 
 which are inherent in it ; and, agreeably to them, to shape 
 every special science conformably to the existence of 
 things. By such a method philosophical science is possi- 
 ble ; and this is a science of the existent agreeably to the 
 fVisscnschaft von idem) ; that is, a science of God, 
 and of his relation to the world, and of man and nature. 
 According to the nature-philosophy, the Absolute, or God, is 
 both thought and entity, without either unity or diiference, 
 out of which all contrariety has proceeded, and into which 
 it will ■gala return. As the Absolute is the sole and eter 
 nal essence of all things, every true entity, and therefore 
 nature also, is divine, without a participation in which there 
 can be no existence. In the eternal generation of things, 
 thy Absolute has revealed itself in infinite ways in space 
 and time. This revelation is a living development of the 
 infinite according to certain contraries of the subjective and 
 fijectivc, the ideal and the real. These contraries 
 strive to combine together in different proportions, and so 
 acquire different names, according to the varying prepon 
 derance or polarity of the ideal and real. Things, conse- 
 quently, are not different in their essence, but merely qnan 
 titatively, or in degree. The preponderance of the objective 
 constitutes unconscious nature ; that of the subjective is 
 spirit. The more complete the combination of these con 
 rr.iries, the more perfect are the objects. The most perfect 
 union of them, or their absolute indifference, is found in the 
 universe; and this complete identification and reunion of 
 them is the full revelation of God. Man, lastly, is a copy 
 of the universe (microcosm), in so far as, in a manner of 
 his own, he unites together the ideal and the real. 
 
 philosophy of Schelling appears, then, to be directly 
 opposed to that of Kant, from which, however, it is direct- 
 ly descended, not only in the nature of the knowledge 
 which it assumes to be possible, but also with respect to 
 the objects of that knowledge. In its essence it pretends to 
 give a true image of the object known, and embraces, there- 
 fore, both nature and the world of man and spirits. In its 
 
 1 of exposition, also, It pretends to imitate the true 
 
 of the development of nature, in which everything 
 by coherent and successive steps (or powers, 
 
 A*, fcc.) from the undeveloped to the developed and 
 perfect; and. beginning from the lowest grades of entity. 
 passes to its higher developments. 
 
 Such is an outline of the system of Identity, as propound- 
 ed by Soliciting upwards of thirty years ago, and which 
 has exercised so important an influence on the mind of 
 Germany. There is, however, good reason to believe that 
 the opinions of iu author have been materially modified in 
 
 SCH1RRU8. 
 
 the interval ; and though, influenced by some singular feel- 
 ing of reserve, which may, in fact, be said to bave charac- 
 terized him throughout life, Schelling has hitherto refrained 
 from embodying his new views in any distinct or tangible 
 form, yet the unaccountable leniency with which he treats 
 his opponents in the celebrated Vorrcde to Beckers'* trans- 
 lation of Cousin's f'urrtUe, and the covert but ill-concealed 
 hostility therein displayed to some of the principles on 
 which both b m and that of Hegel are based 
 
 I fra), coupled with the (unacknowledged, it is true, 
 but still sufficiently authentic) revelations of some of his 
 most distinguished pupils — :ili these circumstances have 
 given rise to the supposition that the long silence which he 
 has maintained towards the public will speedily be broken 
 by a recantation of his old, and his avowaj of a new system. 
 This conjecture has l>< en materially strengthened by his re- 
 cent call to Berlin ; and the rumours which have reached 
 us of the nature of his lectures leave little doubt of the fact, 
 though his present views have not been sufficiently devel- 
 oped to warrant us in hazarding an opinion respecting them. 
 A brief statement of the manner in which the theory of 
 Schelling was farther modified by Hegel may be well ap- 
 pended here, and will complete it as a general view of the 
 modern philosophy in Germany. In the Encyclopedia of 
 Philosophical Sciences, which Hegel published in 1817 at 
 Berlin, and de manual for the use- of his class, 
 
 he gives a general view of his system, and clearly exhibits 
 its ultimate tendency. " Logic," he says, "is the basis of 
 ontology." The idea in itself and potentially Is the pri- 
 mary substance, but in acta it passes into the re:il. The 
 ideitl is to be • ;. subjectively, as it exist* in the 
 
 mind ; 2d, objectively, or in other, i. e., in its outward man 
 ifestation ; and 3d, absolutely, as it is realized in art, reli- 
 gion, and pii - .'idling had made triplicity in 
 unity to be the law which the principle of identity follows 
 in its outward development, and this trinary law forms also 
 a conspicuous element of the Hegelian system. Thus he 
 makes thought to be threefold : 1. Formal thought, which 
 is independent of all subject matter, or, in the language of 
 Hegel, of all contents ; -. The notion, or thought more 
 
 .and 
 fuliy determined. ] the concrete, which is a 
 
 self-developing and organical system, containing In itself all 
 moment* at germs of farther developement. Philosophy is 
 the right evolution of this concrete, and its true mc:hod is 
 the dialectical momentum. The history of philosophy, apart 
 from its accidental media of schools and prof. 
 thing less than the actual development of philosophy itself. 
 The several systems successively recorded are but s > many 
 gradations of progress, and the latest system is the sum and 
 perfection of all anterior ones. Thus the theories of 
 Schelling and Hegel are essentially based on the same prin- 
 ciple; the absolute identity of thought and being. Accord- 
 ing to the former, the mind is in full possession both of 
 truth and reality, the knowledge of which it attain* by 
 self-co n the intellectual intuition. For the 
 
 latter, Hegel substituted his dialectical momentum, or the 
 logical development of the idea. Generally, Hegel, stood 
 in the same relation to Schelling as Wolff did to Leibnitz. 
 The cold and rigorous formalism of Fichte was displaced by 
 Schelling for a loose and illogical style of political enthu- 
 siasm. Hegel, however, rightly insisted on the necessity of 
 a scientific aini form as an indispensable condi- 
 
 tion of an exact science of truth. (Michelet, O esebieU t 
 iter letzen Systeme der Philosophic in Dcutschland ; Jacobi, 
 Brief euler die Lehre des Spinosa; Fichte, Vie IVissen 
 schaftslekre ; Die Bcstimmung der Menschen ; Schelling, 
 System des transcendentalrn Idealismus ; Bruno. Oder uber 
 die golliche und nalurliche Princip. der Dinge ; Hegel, Phe- 
 nomenologie des Oeistes ; F.ncyclopadie der Philusophischen 
 Wissens'choflen. For some of the more recent views at- 
 tributed to Schelling, see Staid" s Philosophic des Rechts nach 
 geschichtlicher .Qnsicht, <$-c, ire.) 
 
 SCHEME. (Gr. <rxyua.) A plan or representation of 
 any geometrical or astronomical figure ; a diagram. 
 
 SdlE'RIF. (Arab, lord, or master.) A title given in 
 the East, bv prescriptive usage, to those who descend from 
 Mohammed through his son-in-law and daughter. All and 
 Fatima. They are also called Emir and Seid, and have the 
 privilege of wearing the green turban. (See Emir.) The 
 chiefs of Mecca and of Medina, who are always supposed to 
 belong to this sacred family, are styled the schenfs of those 
 cities. • , 
 
 SCHERO'MA. A dryness of the eye arising from a deli 
 ciency in the secretion of the lachrymal glands. 
 
 SCHIAH. 8m H is mail 
 
 SCHILLERSPAR. (Germ.schillern, to change colours.) 
 A minernl of a pearly lustre and changeable hues. Horn 
 blend and Lnbradorite are varieties of it 
 
 SCHI'RRLS. (Gr. oicippoi.) An induration of a gland, 
 forming an indolent tumour, not readily suppurating, and at 
 first unattended by discoloration of the shin 
 
 1095 
 
SCHISM. 
 
 SCHISM. (Gr. <t%isoj, / cleave.) Separation from the 
 true church : of which, as of heresy, it may be said that 
 Christians are not agreed whether the mere act constitutes 
 the crime, or whether it is only a wilful and obstinate sep- 
 aration that deserves to be so denominated. The chief 
 schisms enumerated by Roman Catholic authorities are 
 those of the Novatians, the Donatists, the Luciferians, the 
 Greek Church, and the Protestants. The great schism of 
 the West in the 14th century holds also an important place 
 in the history of the Papacy. See Antipope. 
 
 BCHI'SMA. (Gr. o%iopa.) In Music, an interval equal 
 to half a comma ; therefore eighteen of them are required 
 to make a complete tone. 
 
 SCHIST. (Gr. 0%'otoj.) A Geological term adopted 
 from the German, and applied to the varieties of slate ; 
 hence also the term schistose rocks, applied to those which 
 have a slaty texture. See Geology. 
 
 SCHI'ZOPODS. (Gr. ax'&< I divide, and 7rou?, afoot.) 
 The tribe of long-tailed Decapod Crustaceans, including 
 those which have the legs slender and filamentous, accom- 
 panied by an external articulated branch as long as the 
 limbs, which thus appear doubled in number ; fitted for 
 swimming, and not cheliferous, the eggs being carried be- 
 neath them, and not under the tail. The opossum-shrimps 
 (JVysis) are examples of this tribe. 
 
 SCHO'LARSHIP. See Bursars. 
 
 SCHOLA'STIC PHILOSOPHY. That method of phi- 
 losophizing which arose in the schools and universities of 
 what are commonly called the dark ages. The father of 
 the schoolmen was John Scotus Erigena, a native of Ire- 
 land, who lived in the ninth century. He first introduced 
 among his conten.,/oraries, horn what source is unknown, 
 the philosophy of Aristotle, which he combined with the 
 doctrine of the new Platonists, and out of the combination 
 constructed a complete system of Pantheism. These spec- 
 ulations were at first regarded by (he church with an evil 
 eye ; nor was it before the expiration of the following cen- 
 tury that they were applied to the purpose of explaining 
 anil supporting the leading facts of Christianity. It was 
 probably the necessity which was felt of combating heretics 
 with their own weapons, that caused the universal adoption 
 of the Aristotelian philosophy by the great religious author- 
 ities of the day. It is at any rate certain, tlr.it the subtlety 
 ami ingenuity of the early schoolmen were confined to the 
 task of constructing a scientific basis for the doctrines of 
 trie church out of the materials afforded by that system. 
 The scholastic philosophy may be said to have expired with 
 the conclusion of the 14th century, at least as to its influ- 
 ence on the leading minds of the age. Four distinct periods 
 have been observed in the course of its development ; the first 
 beginning with its earliest commencement, and including 
 the names of Berengarius, and Archbishops Lanfranc, An- 
 selm, and Hildebert. The second era commences with the 
 rise of the sect of Nominalists, the founder of whom was 
 Johannes Roscellinus, and their most distinguished member 
 the celebrated Peter Abelard. The third period is marked 
 by the introduction into Europe of the writings of the Ara- 
 bian philosophers, and the translation into Latin of the ver- 
 sions of Aristotle's writings, with the complete ascendency 
 of realism (which see), and the now undisputed supremacy 
 of Aristotle. The greatest names in this period, which em- 
 braces nearly all the thirteenth century are those of Alber- 
 tus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus, with the 
 respective followers of the two latter, the Thomists and 
 Scotists. The glaring realism of Scotus roused the inde- 
 pendent spirit of an Englishman, William of Ockam, to a 
 closer investigation of the internal conditions of thought, 
 and in him led to what may be considered a transition 
 state between the formation of the old schoolmen and the 
 tendency towards nature and experience which distinguish- 
 es modern speculations. The acuteness of this man restored 
 the victory to the Nominalists. His nominalism, however, 
 differed from that of Roscellinus and Abelard in the admis- 
 sion that " universals" have a foundation of reality in the 
 subjective conditions of the intellect, though not an out- 
 ward nature ; whereas, according to the former, a general 
 term was a name only — a " flatus vocis." An excellent ac- 
 count of the leading principles of the scholastic philosophy, 
 and the mode of its combination with the Catholic doc- 
 trines, is to be found in Dr. Hampden's Bamptmi lectures 
 (Oxford, 1833). The learned author, however, does not 
 sufficiently explain the points in which the scholastic no- 
 tion of Aristotle's philosophy deviates from the genuine doc- 
 trines of that profound thinker, especially with regard to 
 tlie doctrine of emanation, a purely oriental dogma, grafted 
 on the Grecian philosophy of the new Platonists of the 
 Latin empire. (See Tennemann's Oeschichte der Philoso- 
 phic) 
 
 The scholastic theology, to adopt the definition of Mr. 
 
 Hallain ( Introduction to the IAterature of Europe in the 15/.A, 
 
 16f7i, and Yith Centuries), was, " in its general principle, an 
 
 alliance between faith and reason ; an endeavour to arrange 
 
 1096 
 
 SCHOOLS, NORMAL. 
 
 the orthodox system of the church, snch as authority had 
 made it, according to the rules and methods of the Aristo 
 telian dialectics, and sometimes upon premises supplied by- 
 metaphysical reasoning." The scholastic philosophy, ac 
 cording to the same author, " seems chiefly to be ilisiin 
 guished from this theology by a larger infusion of meta- 
 physical reasoning, or by its occasional inquiries into sub 
 jects not immediately related to revealed articles of faith. 
 There can be no doubt that the sudden rise and expansion 
 of the scholastic method was favourable to the growth of 
 mental vigour and illumination ; since it substituted rigid 
 reasoning, although on premises for the most part fanciful, 
 for that mere acquiescence in authority which had distin- 
 guished the theology and the scanty remnant of philosophy 
 which subsisted in the ages immediately preceding. Prance, 
 Germany, England, and at one period Spain, were the prin- 
 cipal seats of the scholastic controversies : in Italy they had 
 less influence. Our own island has indeed the honour of 
 having produced an unusual proportion of the chief mimes 
 in this department of literature. The best known anion:: 
 these are Duns Scotus, before mentioned; and William 
 Oc&un, one of the last of the distinguished schoolmen who 
 flourished In the 14th century. In the 14th century, the di- 
 alectical method of the schools was applied by some 
 learned legists to the science of jurisprudence. Bartolu* 
 and Baldus have the highest reputation among the scho- 
 lastic jurists. 
 
 SCHO'LIASTS. (Gr. oxnhi, leisure.) The name given 
 to the old grammarians, or critics, who used to write anno- 
 tations on the margin of the manuscripts of the classical 
 authors of antiquity, called scholia; the fruits, as it were 
 of leisure. 
 
 SCHO'LIUM. (Lat.) In Geometry, an explanatory ob 
 servation, or excursive remark, on the nature and applica- 
 tion of a train of reasoning. 
 
 SCHOOLS, FREE AND ENDOWED. Free schools are 
 such as afford a gratuitous, or nearly gratuitous education, 
 to the children of the place, from whatever source the funds 
 be derived ; endowed schools, those of which the funds 
 arise out of royal or private endowment. The greater ]ior- 
 tion of these, in England, are also grammar schools ; viz., 
 schools in which elementary education in the classical lan- 
 guages is afforded, according to the intentions of the foun- 
 der. A few among these have acquired, in popular phra- 
 seology, the designation of public schools. Most of these 
 schools were founded or endowed in the century and half 
 following the Reformation. Nearly 500 are described by 
 Mr. Carlisle in his work on these institutions. 
 
 SCHOOLS, INFANT, are said to owe their origin to Mr. 
 Robert Owen of New Lanark. They have now been in 
 operation since the year 1820. Their number is roughly es- 
 timated at 150 in England, 70 in Scotland, and 50 in Ireland, 
 each school having on an average about 100 scholars, gen- 
 ally between two and seven years of age. 
 
 SCHOOLS, NATIONAL. After public attention had 
 been drawn to the advantages of Dr. Bell's system of mutual 
 instruction in schools, chiefly through the activity of Mr. 
 Lancaster, two societies were formed in England for carry- 
 ing it into general operation. The British and Foreign 
 School Society was founded by Dissenters in IHO") ; the Na- 
 tional Society, by members of the establishment, a few 
 years later. The instruction of the former, in religion, is 
 confined to those points in which all are agreed; that of 
 the latter is founded on the liturgy and catechism of the 
 established church. The schools of these two societies are 
 now extensively spread over the face of the kingdom. The 
 education given by them is nearly gratuitous, but certain 
 small payments are in some cases exacted. Mr. Hill, in his 
 work on the state of education in England, estimates the 
 children attending schools of the former union at (50,000 or 
 80,000, and those of the National Schools at about 170,000 ; 
 but these calculations seem to be founded chiefly on proba- 
 bilities. The same writer estimates the average length of 
 education in these schools at about two years for each 
 child. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, with religious 
 knowledge according to the principles of the respective in- 
 stitutions, form the amount of education generally given : 
 but in some schools geography, and even the elements of 
 geometry, are taught ; and attempts have been made to 
 add instruction in various branches of manual industry, 
 Each society has a model school, and establishment for 
 training teachers. That of the British and Foreign Is in 
 the Borough Road: the principal one of the National In the 
 Sanctuary, Westminster ; but it has others in different places. 
 
 SCHOOLS, NORMAL. Schools for the education of 
 persons intended to become schoolmasters, teachers, or pro- 
 fessors in any line. Normal schools form a regular part of 
 the establishments for education in many Continental states, 
 especially in Germany. The normal school of Paris Was 
 suppressed in 1821, but revived a few years afterwards ol- 
 der the name of preparatory school, and has now .since the 
 event of 1830) resumed its original title. 
 
SCHOOLS OF ART. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF A RT. See these under the heads Dutch 
 School, Flemish School, &c. 
 
 IOLS, PUBLIC. Tliis is a name of not very defi- 
 nite application, by which a certain number of schools are 
 desig : ited, conferring a classical education, having on the 
 e a larger number of boys, and frequented by the 
 chililror. of persons of rank and wealth. The principal are, 
 1. The three college*, two of royal and one of private 
 foundation, Eton, Winchester, and Westminster. 2. Some 
 or all of the great metropolitan endowed schools, Charter- 
 House, St. Paul's, Merchant Tailors', Christ's Hospital (al- 
 though the last is no longer frequented except by children 
 of the less wealthy Classes). 3. Certain endowed grarnmar- 
 •chootl in the country, raised by fashion and old reputation 
 to the rank of public — Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, and 
 perhaps two or three more; but here the designation be- 
 ectnes extremely arbitrary. 
 
 BCH< IOL8, SCOTTISH PAROCHIAL. In the reign of 
 James IV. (14U4), the Scottish legislature enacted that all 
 baioru and substantial freeholders should send their children 
 tool from the age of six to rune years, and afterwards 
 to the academical Institutions. But it was not until 1613 
 that the foundations of the present system were laid by an 
 act empowering the bishops, together with a majority of the 
 landlords, or '•heritors," to establish schools in every parish. 
 In lii'.Mj. by another statute, the establishment of such schools 
 was directed. The appointment of the schoolmaster was 
 Vested in the heritors and minister; the burden of the ex- 
 • ting the school and a dwelling-house for the 
 master, and paying to the latter a salary of not less than 
 £."i 1 Is. If.'., nor more than £11 2s. 2rf. per ann., being sup- 
 ports! by the former. The general supervison of the schools 
 was intrusted to the presbyteries in which they were situ- 
 ated. Besides the salary (which has been raised to a maxi- 
 mum of £34 4s. 4\d., and minimum of £25 13*. 3|rf.;, the 
 l is supported by trilling fees from the scholars. Rend- 
 Ug, writing, and arithmetic, some of the branches of prac- 
 tical mathematics in ordinary use, and even a slight amount 
 of classical learning, have been usually taught in these 
 parish schools. Such is a short outline of the system, of the 
 results of which, in the general education and morality of 
 Scotland has been so justly proud. 
 
 schools, BDNDAY. First set on foot by -Mr. Robert 
 
 loucester. According to Mr. Hill, in his recent 
 
 work on national education, the number of children at 
 
 t frequenting Sunday schools varies from 800,000 to 
 
 ige length of a Sunday school education 
 
 minus at four years; the education given is almost 
 
 uniformly confined to reading alone; but many Sunday 
 
 schools appeal to have evening schools connected with 
 
 them, open two or thiee times a week, in which writing 
 
 thmelic are taught. 
 
 SCHOONER. A small sharp-built vessel, with two 
 masts of considerable length and rake, with small topmasts, 
 and lore and alt sails. A schooner carries a square foretop 
 tail and topgallant sail. 
 
 SCHORL. (Swed. scorl, brittle.) A mineral usually oc- 
 curring in black prismatic crystals ; it is brittle, and has 
 much lustre, and becomes electric by heat and friction. See 
 
 Tol KM.U.ISK. 
 
 SCLENOI'DS, Scianoides. The name of a family of 
 Acanthopterygian fishes, of which the genus Sciana is the 
 type. Tiiis family is nearly allied to the Percoids; but 
 both the vomer and palatine bones are without teeth ; the 
 bonei of the head are generally cavernous, and the muzzle 
 less enlarged and obtuse. 
 
 BCIA'TICA. (Ur. ia\iov, the hip.) A rheumatic affec- 
 tion of the hip joint. 
 
 SCI'ENCE (Lat. scientia), in its most comprehensive 
 applied to the knowledge of many, methodically di- 
 nd arranged so as to become attainable by one. 
 The knowledge of reasons and their conclusions constitute 
 abstract, that of causes and effects and of the laws of nature 
 -cience. The term science is, however, more parti- 
 cularly used in contradistinction to art and literature. As 
 distinguished from the former, a science is "a body of 
 truths, the common principles of which are supposed to be 
 known and separated, so that the individual truths, even 
 though some or all may be clear in themselves, have a 
 guarantee that they could have been discovered and known, 
 either with certainty or with such probability as the subject 
 admits of, by other means than their own evidence." (See 
 Art.) As distinguished from literature, science is applied 
 to any branch of knowledge which is made the subject of 
 tion with a view to discover and apply first princi- 
 See Literature.) The various sciences will be 
 found under their particular heads. 
 
 BCI'LLTTIN. The bitter principle of the squill (the bulb 
 of the Scilta maritime), to which its medical properties of 
 an expectorant and diuretic are referable. It is a white sub- 
 stance, of a resinous appearance. 
 
 SCINCOI'DS, Scincoidcs A family of Saurian reptiles, 
 
 SCOT. 
 
 of which the genus Scincus is the type. They have short 
 feet, a non-extensible tongue ; the body and tail are covered 
 with equal scales like tiles ; they have no impressed lateral 
 line, and the toes are margined. 
 
 SCIN'TILLA'TION. (Lat. scintilla, a spark.) In As- 
 tronomy, the term applied to the ttoritiiiig ur tremulous 
 motion of the light of the larger fixed stars by which they 
 appear as if the rays of light coming from them were not 
 continuous, but produced by particles succeeding each other 
 at intervals with a sort of vibratory movement. The plan- 
 ets, excepting, perhaps, Venus sometimes, have not this 
 twinkling appearance; and they are tlris readily distinguish- 
 ed from stars of the first magnitude. It arises from the ex 
 treme smallness of the apparent diameters of the fixed stars, 
 and depends in some measure on the state of the atmo- 
 sphere. In countries where the atmosphere is very pure 
 and dry, and at considerable altitudes, the scintillation is ob- 
 served to be much diminished, and the stars shine with a 
 steady, clear tight 
 
 SCIO'GRArHX*. (Gr. oKta, a shadow, and } patbw, I de- 
 scribe.) In Painting, &.C., the art of casting and delineating 
 shadows with truth, and upon mathematical principles. 
 
 SCl'ON. (Lat. scindo, I cut off.) The first young shoot 
 produced during the year by a tree ; or, more commonly, a 
 part of a branch prei>ared for the purpose of being grafted 
 upon some other tree. 
 
 SCIO'LTO. (II. free.) In Music, a term which, applied 
 to counterpoint, signifies that it is free from syncopated or 
 tied notes, or that it is not constrained by general rules. 
 When applied to notes, it signifies that they are not tied to- 
 
 gether A J^^eJ^KJ 
 
 Scinlti. Lfjili. 
 
 SCIO'PTIC or SCIOPTRIC HALL. (Gr. acta, shadow. 
 and oiTTount, I view.) A name sometimes given to a me- 
 chanical contrivance, used in the camera obscura, for the 
 purpose of giving motion to a lens in every direction. 
 
 BCI'RE FACIAS, in Law, is a judicial writ, which lies 
 In various cases ; most commonly to call on a party to show 
 cause to the court whence it issues, why executi >u of judg 
 ment passed should not be made out. It is not granted un 
 til a year and a day after judgment given. 
 
 SCI'SSKL. The clippings of various metals produced in 
 several mechanical operations concerned in their mnnulnc 
 ture. The slips or plates of metal out of which circular 
 blanks have been cut for the purpose of coinage are called 
 scissel at the mint 
 
 SCI "URINES, Sciurini. Squirrel tribe. The name Of a 
 family of Rodents, of which the genus Sciurus is the type. 
 They are distinguished by their very narrow lower incisors, 
 and by their long and bushy tail. They have four toes be- 
 fore, and live behind. The thumb of the fore foot is n 
 times marked by a tubercle. The molars are tuberculntcd. 
 
 SCLE'RODERMS, Sclerodermi. (Gr. oxXijpoc, hard, and 
 fitppa, skin.) A name given by Cuvier to a family of l'lcc- 
 tognathic fishes, comprehending those which have the skin 
 covered with hard scales. 
 
 SCLERO'TICA. (Gr. BKXnpoc.) One of the membranes 
 of the eye. See Eye. 
 
 SCOLOPA'CHJiE, (Gr. Ko\oira\, a woodcock.) Snipe 
 tribe. The name of a family of wading birds, of which the 
 genus Scolopaz is the type. The snipes proper have a 
 straight beak, the nasal furrows extending to near its point, 
 which is a little inflated externally, so as to extend beyond 
 the lower mandible. The point is soft, and very sensible. 
 
 SCOLOPE'NDRiE. (Gr. oKoXovcvlpa.) the generic 
 name of the Centipedes. 
 
 SCO'MBEROIDS, Scomberoidcs. Mackerel tribe. The 
 name of the family of fishes of which the genus Scomber is 
 the type. They are characterized by having a smooth body 
 covered with small scales, and a very powerful tail and 
 caudal fin ; and include species of the greatest utility to 
 mankind, in consequence of their abundance and flavour. 
 
 SCO'NCES. In Fortification, small forts for the defence 
 of a pass, river, or other place. 
 
 SCO'PA. (Lat. a little brush.) In Mammalogy, a fasci- 
 culus of long flaccid hairs, which may grow from any limit- 
 ed part of the body or extremities. 
 
 SCO'PiPEDS, Scopipedes. (Lat. scopea, a broom, and 
 pes, a foot.) The name of a tribe of Melliferous insects, in 
 eluding those which have the tarsi of the posterior feet fur 
 nished with a brush of hairs. 
 
 SCO'RPIO. In Astronomy, the eighth sign of the zodiac, 
 and one of the ancient zodiacal constellations. When this 
 constellation rises, Orion sets ; hence the mythological fable 
 of the death of Orion, who perished by the sting of a scor 
 pion. See Constellation. 
 
 SCOT. (Sax. sceat, part or portion, in the sense of con • 
 tribution.) This old word has passed into various ordinary 
 expressions, such as "scot-free," &c., and at one time found 
 its py into the Italian language (Dante, Purgotorio). In 
 
SCOTER. 
 
 English law il is still retained in the phrase "inhabitants 
 paying scot and lot," which has long boen held to mean 
 paying parochial rates, and constitutes one of the old rights 
 of voting in various boroughs existing before the Reform 
 Act. 
 
 SCO'TER. A name of the black duck, or black diver 
 'Anus nigra, Linn.), now the type of the subgenus Oidemia, 
 Flem. 
 
 SCO'TIA. (Gr. okotwi, darkness.) In Architecture, the 
 name of a hollow moulding, chiefly used between the tori 
 in the bases of columns. It takes its name from the shadow 
 formed by it, which seems to envelop it in darkjiess. It is 
 sometimes called a casement; and often, from its resem- 
 blance to a common pulley, trochilus. 
 
 SCOTISTS. An old scholastic sect, followers of Duns 
 Scotus, "the subtle doctor," one of the leading champions 
 of Realism in the 13th century. He held that the " univer- 
 sal" existed not in "in posse" only, but "in acta;" not de- 
 pending in anywise on the conditions of the understanding, 
 but presented to it as an outward reality. In this respect 
 his realism diners from that of his predecessor, Thomas 
 Aquinas, whose doctrines he combats in other respects. See 
 Thomists. 
 
 SCOTODI'NIA. (Gr. oKorog, darkness, and Sivos, giddi- 
 ness.) Giddiness, with imperfect vision. 
 
 SCREEDS. (Etym. uncertain.) In Architecture, wood- 
 en rules for running mouldings. Also the extreme guides 
 on the margins of walls and ceilings for floating to, by the 
 aid of the rules. They are always necessary for running a 
 cornice when the ceiling is not floated. 
 
 SCREEN. (Fr. escran.) In Architecture, a partition 
 usually wrought with rich tracery, placed behind the high 
 altar of a church, and also before small chapels and tombs. 
 Sometimes, as at Easter, they are placed temporarily at the 
 sides of choirs. 
 
 SCREW. In Mechanics, one of the six mechanical 
 powers, consisting of a spiral ridge or groove, winding round 
 a cylinder, so as to cut every line on the surface parallel to the 
 axis at the same angle. The screw may be formed either on 
 the outside or inside of the cylinder: in the former case, it 
 is called the urior XX uia/e icr< w ; in the latter, the in- 
 terior or female screw. The action of the screw resembles 
 that of the wedge, or inclined plane ; but as the cylinder 
 has always a handle attached to it, the screw is in reality a 
 compound of the inclined plane and lever; and if the direc- 
 tion of the power be parallel to the base of the cylinder, and 
 perpendicular to its radius, an equilibrium is produced when 
 the power is to the resistance or pressure as the interval 
 between the adjacent threads is to the circumference de- 
 scribed by the point to which the power is applied. Hence 
 the mechanical advantage aflbrded by the screw is propor- 
 tional jointly to the fineness of the threads and the smallness 
 of the cylinder relatively to the length of the lever or han- 
 dle. It is to be observed, however, that by diminishing the 
 distance between the threads, or diminishing the diameter 
 of the cylinder, we diminish also, in both cases, the strength 
 of the screw ; and hence there is obviously a limit to the in- 
 crease of power. But the action is greatly increased by 
 means of the contrivance called a double screw, or, from the 
 name of its inventor, Hunter's screw, which consists in the 
 combination of two screws of unequal fineness of thread, 
 one of which works within the other. In this case the 
 power does not depend upon the interval between the 
 threads of either screw, but on the difference between the 
 intervals in the two screws, and may be increased to almost 
 any extent. 
 
 The endless screw consists of a screw combined with a 
 wheel and axle in such a manner that the threads of the 
 screw work into the teeth fixed on the periphery of the 
 wheel. Suppose the power applied to the handle of the 
 screw, and the weight attached to the axle of the wheel, 
 then there will be equilibrium when the power is to the 
 weight as the distance between the threads multiplied by 
 the radius of the axle is to the length of the lever or handle, 
 multiplied by the radius of the wheel. 
 
 The water screw, or screw of Archimedes, is formed by 
 winding a flexible tube round a cylinder in the form of a 
 screw. If the machine, thus constructed, be placed oblique- 
 ly, so as to make with the vertical an angle equal to that 
 which the spiral makes with the lines parallel to the axis 
 of the cylinder, there will be in each convolution of the 
 spiral a part parallel to the horizon. If any body, then, be 
 placed within the spiral at this part, it will remain at rest ; 
 and if the screw be turned the body will ascend, because 
 the part of the screw behind it becomes more inclined than 
 the part before it, and it is consequently urged forward. This 
 simple but ingenious contrivance is usually employed for the 
 purpose of raising water to a small height, but it may be 
 employed to raise any substance that can pass within the 
 tube ; and i\ is evident that the action may be increased by 
 placing several tubes or spiral channels (for they may be 
 formed of wood or iron) on the same cylinder. The princi- 
 1098 
 
 SCROPHULARIACEtE. 
 
 pie has been recently applied to the propelling of steam- 
 vessels. 
 
 The micrometer screw is a contrivance adapted to as- 
 tronomical or optical instruments, for the purpose of measur- 
 ing angles with great exactness. The very great space 
 through which the lever of the screw passes in comparison 
 of that which is described by the cylinder in the direction 
 of its length, renders the screw of immense use in subdivid- 
 ing space into minute parts. 
 
 As a mechanical power, the screw has innumerable ap- 
 plications; but it is employed with most effect in all cases 
 in which a very great pressure is required to be exerted 
 within a small space, and without intermission. Hence it is 
 the power generally used for expressing juices from solid 
 substances, for compressing cotton and other goods into hard 
 dense masses for the convenience of carriage, for coining, 
 stamping, printing, &c. 
 
 SCRIBES. The copyists, and at the same time the inter 
 preters of the law, in the later periods of the Jewish history 
 They were held in great honour among that people, and 
 ranked with the priests themselves in their estimation. In 
 the New Testament we find them generally referred to in 
 connexion with the Pharisees, to which sect they appear 
 generally to have belonged, and with whom they coincided 
 in temper and sentiments. Some ancient writers conceive 
 the scribes to have formed peculiar sects in themselves ; but 
 there is no authority for this opinion. 
 
 SCRI'BING. (Lat. scribo, I write or scratch.) In Archi- 
 tecture, fitting the edge of a board to another board in the 
 same plane as the edge. In joiner's work, it is the fitting 
 one piece of wood to another so that their fibres may be re- 
 spectivelv at right angles. 
 
 SCRI'PTURES. The Holy Scriptures, or writings of the 
 Old and New Testament. The Canonical Scriptures, which, 
 having been duly authenticated, are inserted in the canon 
 or rule by which the faith of a believer is determined. See 
 Bible, New Testament, Old Testament. 
 
 SCRI'VENER. (From the Lat. scribo, I write ; apparent 
 ly through the Spanish escribano.) Money scriveners, ij. 
 old English usage, were parties who received money to 
 place it out at interest, and supplied parties who wished to 
 lend money on security. Money brokers and attorneys who 
 practise in this manner have been held to be within the 
 statutes relating to scriveners. In this sense, the word is 
 obsolete. The last regular scrivener is said to have been a 
 person of the name of Jack Ellis, a cotemporary of Dr. 
 Johnson, mentioned in BoswelVs Life. The city company 
 of scriveners remains to attest the ancient importance of the 
 business. 
 
 SCRO'FULA. This disease was originally termed xotpas, 
 or swine disease, by the Greeks ; and later nosologists have 
 translated it by the term scrofula. It consists in indurated 
 glandular tumours, especially about the neck, which, when 
 they suppurate, discharge a white curdled matter, unlike 
 healthy pus. Scrofula is not contagious, but often a heredi- 
 tary disease, and dependent upon a peculiar predisposition 
 in the constitution : its first appearance is usually between 
 the third and seventh years of the child's age, and it .seldom 
 shows itself after the age of puberty. It is most common 
 among delicate children with fair complexions, and those 
 disposed to rickets. It is rare in warm climates, and seems 
 to be favoured by cold and variable countries. It is pro- 
 moted by everything that debilitates ; and when its exciting 
 causes are by any accident not brought into action, it may 
 even remain dormant through life, and not show itself till 
 the next generation. In mild cases the glands, after having 
 suppurated, slowly heal ; in others the eyes and eyelids are 
 inflamed, and the joints become affected, the disease gradu- 
 ally extending to the ligaments and bones, and producing a 
 hectic and debilitated state, under which the patient sinks ; 
 or it ends irftuberculated lungs and pulmonary consumption. 
 In the treatment of the mild and simpler forms of scrofula, 
 the diet should be nourishing and invigorating, and a dry 
 situation and sea air are to be sought for ; great attention 
 should be paid to the clothing, so as to avoid colds and 
 coughs; and tonics and gentle stimulants, with mild nar- 
 cotics, and occasionally the alkalis, should be prescribed. 
 Iodine has sometimes appeared of much service, but it re- 
 quires the greatest circumspection in its internal use ; it 
 may be applied externally, as may also sea water and 
 other saline lotions. Chalybeates and mercurials are fre- 
 quently prescribed ; and much benefit has, in some instances, 
 been derived from a course of sarsapari'Ia. - 
 
 SCROPHULARIA'CEiE. (Scroe'-iarK nv if tht 
 genera.) A natural order of herbaceous or snrubuy r.i.ti> 
 petalous Exogens, inhabiting all parts of the world, except 
 the coldest. The stamens are either didynamous or un- 
 symmetrical : nevertheless the affinity of the order is un- 
 doubtedly with Solanaccac, through the medium of the tribe 
 SalpiglossideiB : so that it becomes necessary to separate 
 them by a mere artificial distinction, considering as Solano- 
 cccb such genera as have a plaited corolla and five stamens, 
 
SCRUPLE. 
 
 ninl as Scroph-ulariacea all those in which the fifth stamen 
 ]-, wanting, or the testivation of the corolla imbricated. 
 They an generally acriil, bitterish plants. The leaves of 
 .ire purgative, and even emetic, a property so much 
 increased in digitalis that its eflects become highly danger- 
 und nearly all the tribe turn black in drying. Many 
 oi the gener i, such as digitalis, calceolaria, &.c, are valued 
 by gardeners for their beautiful flowers. 
 
 RU'PLE. A denomination of weight; the third part 
 of m drachm, and equal to twenty grains. Sec Weights. 
 BCRU'TINY, (Lat. scrutor, / examine.) In the Primi- 
 nurch, an examination in the last week of Lent of 
 techumens who were to be baptized on Easter-day; 
 i hiefly In the ancient Church of Rome. In parlia- 
 mentary language, an examination of the votes given at an 
 i election committee, at which the bad given 
 mi both sides are rejected, and the poll corrected according- 
 ly, is called a scrutiny. 
 
 ' SCUD, The name given by seamen to loose, vapoury 
 (louds driven swiftly along by the winds. To Scurf, signi- 
 fies to run directly before the wind in a gale. As the ob- 
 ject is to keep before the sea, the fore sail or foretop sail 
 is set : the litter or the maintop sail is often necessary. 
 as the fore sail is often becalmed from the height of the 
 ■ 
 
 " INEY. 
 
 SCn. I,. An oar, so short that one' man can work a 
 It most generally implies an oar placed over the 
 stern of a boat, and worked from side to side ; the blade, 
 Which is turned diagonally, being always in the water. 
 In China, where the method is well understood, large 
 limits are impelled by a single t-cull with considerable ve- 
 locity. 
 
 SCU'LPTUILE. (Lat. sculpo, / cane.) The art of 
 carving In wood, stone, or other materials. The origin of 
 sculpture is so remote, that nt this period there neither ex- 
 ist) the probability of any authentic account of it being 
 satisfactorily deduced, nor even the indication of that na- 
 tion in which it first appeared. Though idolatry may have 
 favoured its early advances, and rendered it powerful os- 
 are not indebted to religion alone fur its ir.ven- 
 In Egypt, indeed, it may be said that its progress 
 the restraints and shackles with which 
 religion invested it. "The monstrous shapes and sorceries" 
 of" fanatic Egypt" clearly barred its perfection in the coun- 
 try where n bird's bead was combined with the body of a 
 lion, and cats' and wolves' heads were joined to the divine 
 form of in in. It was in Greece only that the unnatural 
 junction of the two noblest animals was successful, and 
 and dignity resulted from the attempt in the creation 
 of a centaur. The first artist on record as a sculptor is 
 lie/.aleei. who. with Ahollab 'see Exodus, xxxi.), formed 
 herubira that covered the mercy-seat; but, previous 
 to these, the art of moulding and working in metal was 
 Ioiil' known. The presents to Rebekah consisted of jewels 
 of silver and l">M ; Judili gave to Tamar his signet and 
 li's bracelets; in Egypt " Pharaoh took off his ring from his 
 hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand." Then, as to the 
 art of moulding or carving, from the use of idols, we know 
 It must have existed In Asia, and in Egypt from the time 
 of Abraham and Jacob. The ttrapkvm, which Rachel 
 stole from her father (Gen. x.xxi., v. 19, 30), were, accord- 
 ing to the best commentators, carved images in a human 
 form, and household deities, like the iienntes and lares of 
 the Romans many centuries afterwards. The command- 
 ment will doubtless occur to the reader, "Thou shalt not 
 make to thyself any graven image ;" as well as the address 
 of Moses to the Israelites, "For ye know how we have 
 dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the 
 nations which ye passed by ; and ye have seen their abom- 
 inations, and their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, 
 which were among tbem." 
 
 of the most extraordinary specimens of early 
 sculpture on record are described by Diodorus as the works 
 of Semiraniis; but they are too wonderful to allow of our 
 Implicit reliance on the author. She is said to have had 
 representations in brick on her palace of every sort of ani- 
 mal in relief. These were afterwards so coloured to nature 
 • have the appearance of life. In the midst of them 
 was represented Semiraniis piercing a tiger with a dart, 
 and near her Ninus killing a lion with his lance. In an- 
 other part of the same palace were placed the statue of 
 Jupiter Belu«, those of Ninus, Semiramis, and the princi- 
 pal officers of the state, the whole executed in bronze. Wo 
 are also told that, by command of this princess, a temple 
 was raised at Rabvlon, on the top whereof three massive 
 statues were placed of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea. That of 
 Jupiter was fi rty feet in height. Stupendous as these 
 "vo r - (0 have been, we gather from the same 
 
 Author an account of the execution of one which throws 
 them Into insignificance. One of the sides of the mountain 
 BubI tremely rough and steep, and seventeen 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 stadia in height ; this she caused to be reduced to a smooth 
 surface, and then sculptured into a figure of herself, attend- 
 ed by one hundred of her guards. It is to be observed that 
 Diodorus relates this story on the authority of Ctesias. 
 Doubtful as it is, the same sort of scheme was proposed to 
 Alexander by the architect Dinocrates, as related by Vitru- 
 vius in the preface to one of his books. 
 
 Of the sculpture of the Persians little notice is necessary. 
 In the article Painting we have mentioned that it was 
 contrary to the tenets of their religion to make in any way 
 representations of the human form. In Persepolis" there 
 are, however, some extraordinary sculptures, bearing con- 
 siderable resemblance to the style of the Egyptian buti 
 relievi in the palace of Thebes, allowing for the ditlen snee 
 of dress; but they contain nothing in science or imitation 
 particularly worthy of our notice. The earliest sculpture 
 to which we can refer, and on which we can reason, is 
 that of the Egyptians. Herodotus tells us, that they 
 erected the first altars and temples to the gods, and carved 
 the figures of animals in stone. The abundance and vari- 
 ety of the specimens still In existence of their sculpture, 
 minute and colossal, domestic and religious, prove them 
 to have been a nation with prodigious resources, and dis- 
 tinguished for their wisdom mid affection for the arts. The 
 greater portion of their sculpture seems to have been sa 
 cred ; that is, representations of the divinities, and their at 
 tributes and qualities. In respect of the dimensions of some 
 of their statues, Herodotus mentions one before the temple 
 of Vulcan at Memphis, and another at Sais, placed there 
 by King Amasis, each of the height of seventy-five feet. 
 The part of the sphinx, near the great pyramid, still out of 
 the sand, that is, from the throat upwards, rises to the 
 height of twenty-live feet. At Thebes, the sitting statues 
 of Memnon, the mother and the sons of Osymandvas, are 
 each fifty-eight feet high. A long catalogue might he add- 
 ed to these: we will, however, only add, that in the Brit- 
 ish Museum is n closed hand, which must have been part 
 of a statue sixty-live feet high. Grace of form, elegance, 
 and symmetry, are not to be found in Egyptian sculpture. 
 The faces of their statues have a resemblance to the Chi- 
 nese, rnd their bodies are formed with large bellies. They 
 generally stand equally poised on both lcr;s, having one 
 foot advanced ; the arms cither hanging down straight on 
 each side, or if one be raised, it is at a right angle across 
 the body. Some of their statues are seated, and some are 
 kneeling; the position, however, of the hands is rarely dif- 
 ferent from what we have described. The faces of them 
 are generally flat; the brows, eyelids, and mouths formed 
 of simple curves slightly marked, and with little expression. 
 The tunics and draperies are frequently without folds. 
 
 The arts of Egypt seem to have been in a progressive 
 state of improvement from about or before the period ot 
 Moses to the invasion anil subjugation of the country by 
 Cambyses, n thousand years afterwards. Winckelman 
 thinks that there were two di-tinct styles; the first ending 
 with the conquest just mentioned, and the second com- 
 mencing at that period, and ending after the time of Alex- 
 ander the Great. In the first of these styles he describes 
 the forms as straight, slilV, and ungraceful. The sitting 
 figures have the legs always parallel ; the feet are squeezed 
 together, and the arms fixed to the sides. In the females 
 the left arm is generally folded across the breast, and the 
 draperies exhibit very little skill or knowledge. In the 
 second style the hands become more elecant ; the feet are 
 placed at a greater distance from each other, the arms 
 hang more freely, and the figure is generally clothed with 
 a tunic, robe, anil mantle. The material usually employed 
 is granite or basalt : the statues are not only formed with 
 the chisel, but polished carefully ; and the eyes are some- 
 times formed of duTerent materials from the statues them- 
 selves. Small figures are frequently found, to which the 
 name of penates has been given ; they are sometimes com- 
 posed of wood, sometimes of baked earth, and some are 
 covered with a green enamel. 
 
 " Winckelman," says Flnxman in his Second Lecture on 
 Sculpture, "has remarked that the Egyptians executed 
 quadrupeds better than the human figure; for which he 
 gives the two following reasons : first, that as professions 
 in that country were hereditary, genius must have been 
 wanting to represent the human form in perfection ; sec- 
 ondly, that the superstitious reverence for the works of 
 their ancestors prevented improvement. This is an amu 
 sing but needless hypothesis ; for there are statues in the 
 Capitoline Museum with as great a breadth, and choice of 
 grand parts, proper to the human form, as ever they repre- 
 sented in their lions or other inferior animals. In addition 
 to these observations on Egyptian statues, we may remark, 
 the forms of their hands and feet are gross ; they have no 
 anatomical detail of parts, and are totally deficient in the 
 grace of motion. This last defect, in all probability, was 
 not the consequence of a superstitious determination to 
 persist in the practice of their ancestors ; it is accounted for 
 
 1099 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 in another and better way." This " better way" of the 
 professor is from their being deficient at the time in geom- 
 etry, which, he says, " will naturally account for that of 
 motion in their statues and relievos, which can only be ob- 
 tained by a careful observation assisted by geometry." We 
 confess we are not convinced with the reason given ; and 
 with all respect for the splendid talents of the professor, 
 whose own knowledge of geometry, from his curious defi- 
 nition of the centre of gravity in the human figure, we ap- 
 prehend to have been exceedingly limited, we rather pre- 
 fer the hypothesis of Winckelman. The Egyptian bassi- 
 relievi are usually sunk from the surface of the material 
 employed, which practice most probably obtained from 
 their being cut in very hard stone, such as granite or basalt, 
 and from the distance they were usually placed above the 
 eye. In the first case, cutting the ground away from the 
 figure would have occupied quite as much time as carving 
 the figure itself; and in the second case, the range of the 
 outline created a greater breadth of shadow and distinct- 
 ness to the spt ctator. These bassi-relievi, or hieroglyphics, 
 when found on the walls of tombs, relate the profession, 
 actions, and funeral of the deceased ; on those of palaces, 
 the wars, negotiations, triumphs, processions, trophies, with 
 the civil, military, and domestic enjoyments of kings ; on 
 those of temples they were the records of theology ; and 
 on obelisks they are hymns to the gods, or eulogies of their 
 kings. 
 
 The only correct notions that can be obtained on the 
 subject of Phoenician sculpture is from a contemplation of 
 the medals of the Carthaginians, who were a colony from 
 Phoenicia ; though, perhaps, these may mislead us. The 
 Phoenicians, known by the name of Canaanites in Scrip- 
 ture, were at a very early period advanced in civilization. 
 When Moses sent out the spies to search the land of Ca- 
 naan, they returned with an account, " that the people 
 be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled 
 and very great." It was from Chaldea, according to the 
 authorities cited by Jacob Bryant, that the arts of the 
 Phoenicians were derived, having first been transplanted to 
 Egypt. Beautiful in their own persons, they were, unlike 
 the Egyptian races, themselves models for their artists, and 
 their situation and character were favourable to the prog- 
 ress of the art. Their extraordinary and successful spirit 
 of commerce led to its cultivation, and some of the statues 
 that decorated their temples were celebrated in history. 
 Winckelman is of opinion that the Etrurians, or ancient 
 Tuscans, carried sculpture to a certain degree of perfection 
 much earlier than the Geeks. The same Daedalus who has 
 the reputation of having taught this art to the Greeks, has 
 a similar good office assigned to him by historians towards 
 the Etrurians ; for, in order to escape the resentment of 
 Minos, king of Crete, he is reported to have taken refuge in 
 Sicily, whence he passed over into Italy. Etrurian art 
 proves that the first attempts towards sculpture were in 
 clay, whereof innumerable specimens have been found in 
 Rome and its environs ; and as the Romans in the early 
 period of their existence as a people were entirely ignorant 
 of the arts, no doubt is left of these specimens being the 
 work of the Etrurians or Volscians. Clay was for a long 
 time the only material used — " nulla signa, statuaeve, sine 
 nrgilla;" and Pliny and Vhrro tell us that the Hercules, 
 the Jupiter Capitolinus, the quadriga on the top of his tem- 
 ple, and all the other statues of the gods before the temple 
 of Ceres was erected, were " Tuscanica omnia." Many of 
 the Etruscan statues bear so striking a resemblance to 
 those of Greece, that antiquarians have thought it probable 
 they must have been brought from that country, or from 
 Magna Grsecia into Etruria, about the period of the con- 
 quest of Greece by the Romans, when Italy became almost 
 saturated with the magnificent spoils of art which that 
 country yielded. The Etruscan sculpture is in two distinct 
 styles of art. In the first or earliest style, the general lines 
 or contours are exceedingly stiff and straight, and the atti- 
 tudes exhibit anything but a feeling of ease in the figure : 
 the form of the head is entirely devoid of beauty, the out- 
 lines not well rounded ; their figures are almost invariably 
 too slender ; the form of the head is oval, the chin piked, 
 the eyes flat, with some degree of tendency towards squint- 
 ing. All these defects indicate an infant state of the art, 
 and it is not extraordinary to see the very same defects in 
 the works of the Gothic sculptors. The second style of 
 Etruscan art is conjectured by Winckelman to be contem- 
 porary with the age of Phidias ; but it is to be observed 
 that this conjecture is in no way borne out or supported by 
 proof. In this style the joints are strongly marked, the 
 muscles raised, the bones perfectly distinguishable, and 
 considerable knowledge of the science of anatomy is dis- 
 played. The statues of the gods are executed with delica- 
 cy, and there is a show of great power without violent dis- 
 tension of the muscles. The attitudes, however, are far 
 from natural, and the action constantly overstrained. To 
 this Millin adds a th'rd period in the history of Etruscan 
 1100 
 
 art, commencing at the conquest of Greece by the Romans, 
 at which time the Etruscan artists became acquainted with 
 the works of the Grecians, and, adopting their style, he- 
 came at first their imitators, and afterwards their' rivals. 
 To the Italian artists of this period Horace is supposed to 
 allude in one of his satires. In concluding this succinct ac 
 count of the sculptures of Etruria, to exhibit the extent to 
 which it was cultivated it is only necessary to state, on the 
 authority of Pliny, that when the Romans conquered Vol- 
 sinium, one of the twelve cities of Etruria, they carried 
 away from that city alone about 2000 statues. 
 
 Before turning to the sculpture of the Greeks we may no 
 tice, as bearing some resemblance to the Egyptian sculp 
 ture, that of the Hindus. It is not, however, intended to 
 compare the one with the other; for the latter is far more 
 deficient than the former, both in science and resemblance 
 to nature. The stupendous excavations at El lorn, which 
 have been mentioned in the article Architkcture, and 
 those at Elephantis and other parts of India, are well 
 known by representations which have been published in 
 this country. They are, by some, considered of very high 
 antiquity, and are decorated profusely with mythological 
 sculpture, whereof the subjects are symbols, allegorical fig- 
 ures, and groups expressive of the attributes and energies of 
 divinity, according to the Brahmin doctrines. The reader 
 who is desirous of farther information on this subject may 
 profitably consult JWuore's Hindu Pantheon, which contains 
 upwards of 1500 outlines of Hindu painting and sculpture 
 faithfully delineated from the originals. 
 
 As we have seen, the first dawn of the art was on the 
 soil of Phoenicia and Egypt : we have now to trace it to its 
 meridian splendour on the shores of Greece. In Egypt the 
 forms of the human figure, and its " face divine," far re- 
 moved from beauty and intellectual expression, a burning 
 climate, and institutions inimical to improving on the mod 
 el, restrained the art within very narrow bounds ; whereas 
 in Greece, the beautiful forms of the male and female mod- 
 els, the genial and delicious climate, were among the lead- 
 ing physical causes of the supereminent success of the 
 Greeks. With them, says D'Agincourt, " au lieu de noirs 
 scarabees, du chacal, ou de la hyene feroce, du hideox 
 crocodile, c'fttaient les diligentes ouvrieres du mont lly- 
 mette, le noble coursier, le taureau vigoureux, le cerf agile, 
 l'elegant et doux chevreuil, qui peuplaient les rives L-mail- 
 16es deses fleuves, ses riantescollines, sesforets ombragees." 
 With them, unlike the attachment to the combinations of 
 human with the brutal forms of Egypt, the softest desires, 
 the noblest and liveliest emotions of the heart, found con- 
 tinual nourishment in the splendid and affecting spectacles 
 which the religion of the nation constantly exhibited. The 
 institution of public games, at which all men of considera- 
 tion and celebrity, and of whatever rank, contended for 
 honours, and the beauty of form to be seen at them, which 
 was an unceasing object of contemplation, raised them Into 
 a nation of connoisseurs. No crowns, no honours decreed 
 by a congregated assemblage of intelligence, awaited the 
 monotonous labours of the Egyptian sculptor: his works 
 were to be executed in conformity with the practice of 
 former ages. Egypt abounded with artisans, Greece with 
 artists. 
 
 Greek sculpture has usually been arranged under three 
 epochs, which we shall here enumerate. We of course 
 pass over the rude and unfashioned representations of the 
 divinities of the primitive ages, which Pausanias tells us 
 were little more than blocks of stone, though regarded to 
 the last with the greatest reverence, and to be seen as late 
 as the time of Adrian at Thebes, Argos, and other cities ; 
 and which, indeed, were rather symbols than representa- 
 tions. Neither do we think it here necessary again to 
 touch upon the works of Da-dalus and Endieus, about which 
 we can now form no just conception, except that the ma- 
 terial they employed was wood. About 775 B.C., Dipoenis 
 and Scyllis the Cretan became celebrated for their marble 
 statues, which retained much of the ancient style in the 
 advancing position of the legs, the general form of the fig- 
 ure, and particularly in the vertical folds of drapery, whose 
 edges were zigzag. Soon after this period sculpture re- 
 ceived the most elaborate finishing, though the character of 
 the face and limbs was not much changed from the taste- 
 less and barbarous style of former times. Flaxman con 
 jectures that the colossal busts of Hercules and A|>ollo in 
 the British Museum may have been the works of Dipoenis 
 and Scyllis. It is not difficult to conceive the progressive 
 improvement in an art so much cultivated, between the 
 time of which we are now speaking and the first epoch in 
 which Agoladas, the master of Polycletus, appeared. 
 Ageladas, with whom has been confounded Eladas or Gel 
 adas, the master of Phidias, was a native of Argos, and co 
 temporary with Pisistratus. It was at this period that art 
 approached the personification of ideal beauty by the 
 choice of forms from many models, so that the excellence 
 found in each might be combined in one. Its cultivation 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 had become an object of necessity in most of the Grecian 
 states, induced greatly by a practice introduced about this 
 era, of honouring with a statue every individual who had 
 received three crowns in the public games. Such a cus- 
 tom afforded the artist the opportunity of contemplating 
 some of the most perfect examples of living beauty, from 
 which were afterwards deduced those canons of proportion 
 on which all future art has been unable to improve. With- 
 in the interval of which we have just spoken appeared the 
 sculptor Callnuachus, to whom Vitruvius assigns the merit 
 of having Invented the Corinthian capital. (Set Arciii- 
 nnvu.) "The better drawing of the figure, with a 
 more careful attention to its parts, more precision and vari- 
 ety of attitude, a less elaborate curling and dressing the 
 hair, the form of the figure better shown through the dra- 
 panr, are all certain signs of a near approach to the age of 
 rafcttas." 
 
 The second epoch of sculpture among the Greeks was in 
 the aye of Phidias, who nourished about 490 years before 
 the Christian era — a period peculiarly splendid in history, 
 as abounding with statesmen, warriors, artists, philoso- 
 phers, and poet! ; among whom will doubtless occur to the 
 r the names of Socrates, Plato, Pericles, Miltlades, 
 Cimon. Theinistocles, and Xenophon. The emulation 
 among such rare talents as then appeared was highly fa- 
 vourable to the growth and perfection of genius. Athens, 
 destroyed by the army of Xerxes, rose under the auspices 
 of Pericles In renewed and far greater grandeur. Phidias, 
 the pupil of Kladas the Argive, though by some it is thought 
 that honour belongs to llippias, was employed by Pericles 
 in the superintendence of the public works; and the ad- 
 miraiinn of his powers was so universal with the ancients, 
 that Uuintilian says, speaking of his Athenian Minerva 
 and Olympian Jupiter at Elis, "Cujus pulchritudo adjecisse 
 aiiquid etiam roeepta religioni videtur, adeo majestas operis 
 deum aquavit." Plutarch alhrms that Callicrates and Icti- 
 nus executed the work of the Parthenon ; and this, as far 
 as relates to the latter, is continued by Pausanias. The 
 statue, however, of Minerva, of ivory and gold, within the 
 temple, was the work of Phidias himself; and, excepting 
 his Jupiter at Elis. his most celebrated production, some 
 have doubted that Phidias himself ever worked in marble ; 
 but although his chief material was bronze when he did 
 not use ivory, it is certain that he occasionally wrought in 
 marble. The great reputation of Phidias was founded upon 
 his representations of the gods, excelling more in them than 
 in human forms; and in his works in ivory it is said he 
 was unrivalled. Polycletus, the scholar of Ageladas above 
 mentioned, and cotemporary of Phidias, assisted in the per- 
 fection of style of the second epoch. He was of Sicyon, 
 and especially celebrated for his Doryphoros, or lance- 
 bearer, and his I 'iadumenus, or youth binding a fillet round 
 his head. The first was so esteemed by artists, that it was 
 called the " canon," from which they studied their propor- 
 tions. There is, however, some doubt whether it be this 
 or another statue to which this honour was paid. The co- 
 (emporaries of these great men were Callon, Phragmon, 
 Gorgias, I. a con, Myron, Pythagoras, Scopas, and Perelius. 
 In a p a s sa ge of Pliny, Alcamenes is classed with Critias, 
 Nestocles, and Hegias, who are called the rivals of Phi- 
 dias. The name of Colotes is preserved as another of his 
 scholars. 
 
 The third epoch is that in which we become acquainted 
 with the names of Praxiteles and Lysippus, and in which 
 what Winckelman calls the /71c style was introduced. The 
 graces of youth and beauty were the delight of Praxiteles ; 
 and in his marble statues at the Ceramicus of Athens, he 
 is said to have excelled himself. His Venus of Cnidos was 
 so endowed with charms, that her suitors were seaborne 
 from all quarters to pay homage at her shrine. This statue, 
 which had been rejected by the Coans on account of its be- 
 ing naked, was refused to Nicomedes by the citizens of 
 Cnidos in payment of a debt of immense amount. It re- 
 mained at Cnidos in the time of the Emperor Arcadius, 
 about 400 A.D. Flaxman in his Lectures observes of it, 
 that it '• seems to offer the first idea of the Venus de Medi- 
 cis, which is likely to be the repetition of another Venus, 
 the work of this artist." A satyr, Cupid, Apollo (the lizard- 
 catcher), and Bacchus leaning on a fawn, are known works 
 of this master. Cotemporary with Praxiteles was Lysip- 
 pus, so celebrated for the group of horses still to be seen in 
 the front of St. Mark's church at Venice. This epoch, 
 though that which Winckelman calls of the fine style, is 
 not in grandeur comparable to its predecessor. The refine- 
 ment of art was carried almost to its utmost limit: greater 
 delicacy and voluptuousness may indeed have been and 
 wai introduced into the female forms, but in dignity and 
 simplicity of feeling it is inferior to the extraordinary pro- 
 ductions of the age of Phidias. After this period several 
 of the finest groups and statues were nevertheless executed : 
 one of them, the Laocoon (see Laocoon), is in a very high 
 class of art, and perhaps not inferior to any group known. 
 
 The principal schools of sculpture were Athens anJ 
 Rhodes ; from which latter school came the Laocoon, the 
 Torso Farnese, and the Colossus. To what extent the Rho- 
 dians were sculptors may be conjectured from the cir.-um- 
 stanceof the Romans carrying ofl" from this tittle island .'1000 
 statues. After the death of Alexander the Great, 394 years 
 before Christ, the arts of design seem to have declined from 
 their meridian excellence. Apelles found an asylum in 
 Egypt with Ptolemy, a prince whose liberality induced 
 artists to repair to his dominions, and whose example in 
 this respect was followed by his successor ; but under the 
 detestable tyranny of the seventh of that dynasty, the art- 
 ists abandoned Alexandria altogether. The alternate fa- 
 vour and disgrace which they experienced under the kings 
 of Syria, and those of Bithynia and P e rg aiuu s, was re]>eat- 
 ed in Sicily under Agathocles and Hiero II., till the taking 
 (212 B.C.) of Syracuse by Marcellus, who was the first to 
 appreciate Greek statues as invaluable ornaments to the 
 "eternal city." 
 
 At the conclusion of the Macedonian war, 500 marble 
 and bronze statues graced the triumph of the conquerors. 
 Mummius and Scylla left no place unstripped of all in the 
 shape of art upon which they could lay their hands ; and 
 within a very comparatively circumscribed period Rome be- 
 came the rendezvous of all artists who had any pretensions 
 to talent, for it was the only place in which they could ob- 
 tain employment. 
 
 The Romans had no natural taste in the fine arts, nor any 
 style of their own originally ; and down to a late period they 
 employed the Etrurians in all works of art. Tibullus char- 
 acterized the art in its early age by the line, 
 
 Stabat in eaigua ligneus xde deus; 
 
 and even to its last hour it may be truly averred that sculp- 
 ture never shone in Rome except with a bor ro we d light 
 Volsinium, one of the twelve cities of Etruria (the modern 
 Boisena), was called the city of artists ; and it was this 
 depdt which for a long time supplied the Romans with ar- 
 chitects, painters, and sculptors, and taught the Romans at 
 an early period what little they knew or art. Before the 
 5th century of its existence the use of marble was scarcely 
 known in Rome; but in the 6th, the Romans began to 
 spread themselves towards the regions inhabited by Gre- 
 cians, and imbibed a taste for the expensive materials used 
 by that nation. 
 
 The year 146 B.C. was signalized by the entire reduction 
 of Greece under the dominion of the Romans. Sixty-six 
 years previously a dawn of luxury and taste had opened at 
 Rome by the introduction, through Marcellus, or statues 
 from Syracuse ; but though the increasing luxury of the Ro- 
 mans created a constant demand for fresh objects of the 
 art, its history in the city is but a melancholy continuing 
 decline of it, its energies and beauties being destined to ex 
 pire among the people of a strange land. The only occu- 
 pation then left for Greek artists was to be found in Rome, 
 whither they were invited, and where abundance of them 
 were to be seen. Among them Pliny (1. xxxv., c. 12, and 
 xxx vi., c. 5) mentions the name of Pasiteles, a sculptor, who 
 wrote five volumes, containing a catalogue raisonnec of the 
 finest works of art known in his time. Pasiteles excelled 
 as a modeller in metal. The silver statue he executed of 
 Roscius, as also his vases, were highly celebrated. Arche 
 silaus, Topirus, and Evander, all Athenians, were among 
 his cotemporaries in the Augustan age. The first of these 
 who excelled in marble is extolled by Pliny for his care in 
 modelling before he begnn upon the block. Ho was the 
 friend of Lucullus, for whom he executed a group, described 
 by Varro, representing a lioness with cupids sporting round 
 her, and endeavouring to force her to drink. Still, how- 
 ever, the passion for ancient Greek statues prevailed with 
 the Romans. Martial says, in speaking of a statue of Her 
 cules, 
 
 Non est farina recens, nee nostri gloria cali : 
 
 NoLilii Lysippi niunus, opusque vides. — v Lib. ix., Ep. 45., 
 
 Under Augustus the art had not been entirely aivested ol 
 grand and noble feeling ; but after his time it partook very 
 much of the character of his successors as they appeared. 
 Licentious and obscene under the sway of the vicious, de- 
 bauched, and cruel Tiberius ; under Caligula it became so 
 grossly flattering, that ancient Greek statues of the gods 
 were decapitated to make room for the head of this em- 
 peror. Under Nero, (to whom, however, we perhaps are 
 indebted for the preservation of the Apollo of the Vatican 
 and the Borghese gladiator, which were found in his villa 
 at Antium) it became so outre and extravagant, that some 
 of the statues of Lysippus were actually gilt. It has been 
 conjectured that the Apollo and gladiator above mentioned 
 were part of the spoils from the temple at Delphi. The 
 reigns of the three emperors that succeeded Nero were of 
 such short duration, that had they been so minded they had 
 not sufficient time to inflict any very serious injury on the 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 arts. Vespasian, whose only blemish was avarice, which 
 is even extenuated by the laudable and patriotic use he 
 made of his revenues, cultivated the arts as well as litera- 
 ture. The Temple of Peace, which was really a temple of 
 the arts, was by him decorated with the choicest specimens 
 of Greek painting and sculpture. The reigns of his son 
 Titus and of Trajan were also favourable to sculpture. The 
 latter was the patron of Apollodorus, from whose hand is 
 he sculpture on the column that bears the emperor's name 
 and records his military exploits. Trajan, moreover, had 
 the liberality and good sense to erect statues in honour of 
 the eminent men of his time. The works of this period 
 were, however, rather architectural than sculptural, such 
 as temples, palaces, triumphal arches, &c, and the sculp- 
 ture chiefly in request was for their decoration ; a want cer- 
 tainly not calculated to retrieve the art from its sinking 
 state, but rather to encourage bold and off-hand execution 
 at the expense of simplicity and expression. Adrian was 
 so great a lover of the arts, that he did not think it beneath 
 his character as emperor himself to exercise those of paint- 
 ing and sculpture for his amusement. He not only restored 
 the principal buildings at Athens, but extended his foster- 
 ing care to the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, where he 
 caused to be erected a colossal statue of the god in gold and 
 ivory. The statue of Antinous, so generally known, was 
 the work of this reign. Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius 
 were appointed by Hadrian as his successors ; under them 
 the art revived for a time, and has acknowledged her grati- 
 tude to the last by his bronze statue at the Capitol. The 
 former crowded with the choicest specimens of sculpture 
 he could procure his villa at Lanuvium. How sculpture 
 was encouraged at this time may be gathered from the in- 
 numerable busts of these emperors that have reached us. 
 Commodus had likewise been honoured with a multitude 
 of statues, but these, upon his death, were decreed by the 
 senate to be all destroyed. Only thirteen years afterwards, 
 under Septimius Severus, the decay of the art became very 
 manifest : its decline continued during the reign of Alex- 
 ander Severus, though two busts of him, which were dis- 
 covered a few years since, are not without merit. During 
 the next half century, the rapid succession of twenty em- 
 perors, scarcely one of whom died a natural death, gave to 
 sculpture little chance of a revival. In fact, by the end of 
 the 4th century it was extinct, of which no other proof is 
 necessary than the arch of Constantine and the statues of 
 that prince, through whose removal of the capital of the em- 
 pire to Constantinople, Rome no longer swayed the sceptre 
 of the fine arts. If the Romans do not deserve the admira- 
 tion in which the Greeks are held for their knowledge of 
 the fine arts, they deserve our gratitude for their instru- 
 mentality in preserving some of the noblest productions of 
 the art of sculpture. There are two epochs under which 
 the taste of the Romans for the fine arts may be classed : the 
 first beginning with the capture of Syracuse by Marcellus, 
 and ending at the time of Julius Caisar; the second, that of 
 the Augustan age, in which all the polite arts flourished. 
 
 From the 4th to the 13th century, if there were materials 
 sufficiently authentic, the history of the arts, as we have 
 shown also in the articles Architecture and Paintino, 
 is such a blank as to be scarcely worth the trouble of tracing. 
 In the 13th century, however, the clouds of darkness began 
 to separate, opening a dawn for their revival in the 14th, 
 which was soon afterwards to bring on the blaze of day. 
 We shall divide our account of the art from this period into 
 three epochs. 
 
 First Epoch. — The Roman power having been entirely 
 destroyed in the West of Europe, Italy became divided into 
 republics and principalities, whereof the chief were Venice, 
 Genoa, and Pisa, these being the earliest in fully establish- 
 ing liberty. The last, however, was foremost in founding 
 a school of native art. The Pisans, who possessed consid- 
 erable extent of coast, had beaten the Saracens in Africa, 
 Sardinia, Majorca, Minorca, and Sicily; and had thus ac- 
 quired the treasures with which they commenced the erec- 
 tion of their cathedral, which was finished in 1092, about 
 seven years after that of St. Mark at Venice had been con- 
 secrated. Schools of painting, sculpture, and architecture, 
 soon arose alter this period, and the cause of religion found 
 employment for the talent they produced. It has been con- 
 jectured that Buschetto, whom the majority of writers and 
 weight of argument prove to have been a Greek, though 
 thought by some to have been an Italian, was the founder 
 of the school at Pisa. The reputation of this school was 
 raised to the greatest height by the appearance of Nicolo de 
 Pisa, the pride and glory of the 12th century, and the first 
 who o.. its restoration gave dignity and importance to sculp- 
 ture. That the Grecian fragments which the Pisans had 
 acquired soon enabled Nicolo to discriminate between them 
 and the style of Buschetto, is evident from some remains 
 ef his work in the Campo Santo. In 1225 he was employ- 
 ed at Bologna in decorating the sarcophagus of St. Dominic, 
 *n which his admiration and successful imitation of the 
 1102 
 
 antique shine forth. He was afterwards engaged on the 
 bas-reliefs of the pulpits at Pisa and Sienna, and on the 
 facades of the cathedrals at Orvieto and Lucca. The time 
 of his death is uncertain. Giovanni, the son of Nicolo, suc- 
 ceeded his father, to whom in some respects he was more 
 than equal. Their figures, especially those of their draped 
 females, are elegant, and exhibit " an originality of idea and 
 a force of thought seldom met with when schools of art are 
 in the habit of copying from each other." The school of 
 Pisa is not limited to the two we have just named. Arnolfn 
 the Florentine, the brothers Agostino and Agnoto, and An 
 drea Ugolino, all deserve to be recorded. Andrea executed 
 in bronze the oldest gate of the baptistry at Florence, on 
 which is represented the life of St. John. This work is de- 
 signed with much grandeur and simplicity, and almost if 
 not quite equal to his master : but in his marble statues he 
 is inferior. Giovanni da Balduccio, scholar of Nicolo or 
 Giovanni, was of this epoch : his first works were at Milan, 
 where afterwards, in 1339, he executed the mausoleum of 
 St. Peter the Martyr. In the 14th century Giotto establish- 
 ed a school, distinguished by good drawing, which prepared 
 Florence for a perfect re-establishment of the art. Of it 
 was Orgagna, a name ever to be remembered for his cele- 
 brated loggia at Florence, who was also eminent for his 
 works in sculpture. A school at Sienna, towards the end 
 of this centmy, produced Jacopo della Querela, whose prin 
 cipal works were at Bologna, Lucca, and especially Sienna, 
 where a fountain which he designed was so admired that 
 he acquired the name of Jacopo della Fonte. From his 
 hand is the bas-relief in the facade of San Petronio at Bo- 
 logna. The 15th century was a splendid era for the pro- 
 duction of everything that was great and intelligent, and 
 most especially for the art of sculpture. The love of liberty 
 and knowledge seemed to animate the whole of the Italian 
 republics ; and as if the republic of the arts were not ex 
 eluded from the common sentiment, no individual master 
 seems so to have outstripped his rivals as to have impress- 
 ed the art with his own particular style. 
 
 This period brings us to the second epoch, at the begin 
 ning whereof we find six great artists engaged in a compe 
 tition for executing the bronze doors of the baptistry at 
 Florence, in which, after a year's trial, Lorenzo Ghiberti 
 bore away the palm from his rivals. Among these was 
 Donatello, a Florentine, one of the most distinguished re- 
 storers of the art. " Some of his works," says Flaxman, no 
 incompetent judge, " both in bronze and marble, might be 
 placed beside the best productions of ancient Greece with- 
 out discredit." His alto-relievo of two singing boys in the 
 Duomo at Florence is, in point of character, sentiment, 
 drawing, and drapery, of extraordinary beauty. The marble 
 statue he executed of St. George standing upright, equally 
 poised on both his legs, with his hands resting on the shield 
 before him, so excited the admiration of Michael Angelo. 
 that after contemplating it in deep silence for a considera- 
 ble length of time, he suddenly exclaimed "March." Lo- 
 renzo Ghiberti, the cotemporary, nnd, as we have before 
 mentioned, successful rival of Donatello, in the gates (1401) 
 to the baptistry of San Giovanni, has immortalized himself 
 by that work, which, from the eulogy bestowed on it by 
 Michael Angelo, bears the appellation of the "Gates of 
 Paradise." This undertaking occupied forty years of his 
 life, and still, notwithstanding the criticism of Reynolds, 
 remains one of the noblest monuments of modern art. The 
 subjects are from the Old and New Testaments ; and the 
 complaint of Reynolds is, that " the landscape and buildings 
 occupy so large a portion of the compartments that the 
 figures remained but secondary objects, entirely contrary to 
 the principle of the ancients." Brunelleschi, the intimate 
 friend of Donatello, known better by his high acquirements 
 as an architect, was not less a sculptor of considerable 
 eminence : at Florence, in the church of St. Maria Novella, 
 is an admirable crucifix by him in wood. In 1450, Andrea 
 Verrocchio and Dominico Ghirlandaio were found among 
 the first rank of sculptors in Florence. The former of these 
 two, the master of Pietro Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci, 
 executed at Venice the famous figure of Bartolomeo Oog- 
 leone da Bergamo on horseback. The latter was the mas- 
 ter of Michael Angelo da Buonarotti, whom we have once 
 more (see Architecture and Painting) to introduce to 
 the reader's notice as the most eminent of modern sculp- 
 tors, as well as of architects and painters. The miraculous 
 works of this extraordinary man seem rather the result of 
 inspiration than of genius, and with him is introduced 
 
 The third epoch, in which the perfect restoration of the 
 art was accomplished. The historian of the painters, sculp 
 tures, and architects wrote the life of Buonarotti while he 
 was yet living, nnd thus apostrophises for his so doing: 
 " Let none be surprised that I have here written the. Life 
 of Michael Angelo, who is yet living. Indeed, it cannot be 
 expected that he will ever die, and, therefore, it has ap- 
 peared to me proper to do him this little honour; for when, 
 in common with other men, his life shall pass away, he 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 will be immortal in his immortal works, the fame of which, 
 as long as the world lasts, will live with glory in the mouths 
 of nen and in their records, in contempt of envy and despite 
 of death." Michael Angelo was nobly descended, and at 
 the early age of 15 was patronized by Lorenzo de Medici, 
 who look him into his house, and whilst living continued 
 his friend. His career in sculpture was commenced by a 
 sleeping Cupid, a Bacchus, and young fawn, the colossal 
 David, and a group of a Madonna silling with the dead 
 Christ on her knees; works which raised him immediately 
 above his coiemporaries. It is not our purpose here to 
 touch upon the productions of Michael Angelo in the oilier 
 two arts which occupied a great portion of his time, and 
 which It appears he afterward* regretted; for Condivi, his 
 biographer, observes, "Che mi rammenta udirlo dire che 
 auando la, (the basso-relievo of the battle of Hercules with 
 
 taors), viede, cognosce quanto torto egli abbia fatlo 
 alia nalura a nun seguitar pronlamente l'arle della scul- 
 lura." Julius II., on being raised to the papal chair, em- 
 ployed .Michael Angelo on a mausoleum, which it was in- 
 tended to place under the centre of the dome of St. Peter's. 
 It was projected on a most magniliccnt scale: but being 
 ■Objected to many delays, and tin.- |>ope dying, only one of 
 its ddM was completed, which was afterwards erected in 
 the church of St. 1'ielro in Vincolu by order of his nephew. 
 In this monument is found the celebrated Moses and some 
 other statues, two of which in the present day are in the 
 gallery at the Louvre. It is mortifying lo know that a large 
 portion of this artist's time was wasted at the quarries of 
 ia, owing to the misconduct of the underlings of 
 LeoX. Cardinal Giuliano di Medici, in 1523, engaged him 
 on the sacristy and library of San Lorenzo. In the Capella 
 dei Deposit!, or sacristy, are the statues of Lorenzo and 
 Giuliano di Medici scaled, and in Roman military habits: 
 the former is conceived with a simplicity worthy of the 
 highest era of Grecian art. The recumbent statues of Day- 
 break and Night, under the statue of Giuliano in the same 
 chapel, "are grand anil mysterious: the characters and 
 forms bespeak the same mighty hand and mind evident 
 throughout the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Last Judg- 
 
 i Iven this mighty master was doomed to experience 
 ill-treatment from his employers, his last years having been 
 attended with mortification, and chequered with vexation 
 and trouble. Universal in his accomplishments, he was 
 mainly useful in defending the city of Florence when it was 
 
 I by the Prince of Orange. Having arrived at the 
 
 rj age of eighty, and withdrawn from all employ- 
 ment, except the conduct of the works at St. Peter's, which 
 lie retained to prevent the intrigues for marrying his design 
 from being successful, he gratified the pious inclination of 
 his mind, and derived amusement In his leisure hours from 
 working on an enormous block of marble a group of four 
 figures, consisting of the dead body of our Saviour, supported 
 by Joseph of Arimathea attended by the two Marys; a 
 composition of infinite grandeur and pathos, which he lived 
 not to finish. His death occurred on the 15lh of December, 
 1503, almost '.)() years of age. " Michael." says Ariosto, " pill 
 che mortal, Angel' divino." Besides the honour he con- 
 ferred on seven popes by serving tliem. he was the friend 
 of Solyman enqieror of the Turks, Francis I. king of France, 
 the emperor Charles V., the princes of the republic of 
 Venice, those of Italy, particularly the duke of Tuscany, 
 at the time of his death. His body having been 
 buried in the church of the Holy Apostles at Rome, where 
 the pope meditated a magnificent tomb to his memory, was 
 privately removed to Florence, where funeral obsequies 
 were celebrated over it with every demonstration of pomp 
 and splendour. The ceremony took place in the church 
 Della Croce, attended by all the members of the Academy, 
 the church being decorated for the occasion with a cata- 
 falco, and the choicest examples of painting and sculpture. 
 The panegyric was pronounced by Benedetto Varchi. Flax- 
 man, in his Tenth Lecture on Sculpture, closes his account 
 of him thus : " The character and works of Michael Angelo 
 have been dwelt on at greater length, because, as his mental 
 and bodily powers continued far beyond the usual date of 
 human life, his diligence attained to so much greater per- 
 fection in the principles of art. Anatomy, the motion and 
 perspective of the figure, the complication, grandeur, and 
 harmony of his grouping, with the advantages and facility 
 of execution in painting and sculpture, besides his mathe- 
 matical and mechanical attainments in architecture and 
 building, together with the many and prodigious works he 
 accomplished, demonstrate how greatly he contributed to 
 the restoration of art. 1 ' After this epoch, or perhaps almost 
 belonging to it, appeared Giovanni da Bologna, a sculptor 
 of extraordinary merit, and eminent particularly for his 
 works in bronze and marble. His Venus coming from the 
 Bath is delicate nnd graceful ; and the group of the Rape of 
 the Sabines, in the grand piazza at Florence, is extremely 
 well composed, and possesses a fine undulation of line. The 
 Mercury he executed, rising to fly, is energetic and original. 
 
 There are many small works extant by this artist. Bcne- 
 vento Cellini, one of the strangest and most eccentric fel- 
 lows that ever existed in the world, appeared about this 
 period. He was chiefly employed as a goldsmith and 
 sculptor in metals; but was frequently employed on large 
 figures and groups, of which the Perseus holding the head 
 of Medusa in his left hand, at Florence, is a splendid in- 
 stance of his talent. Other real disciples of the great Tus- 
 can master were Raphael di Monte Lupo, his favourite 
 pupil, who assisted in the execution of the two statues of 
 the Virtues on each side of the Moses ; Nicolo di Tribolo, 
 who made the bronze gates of the cathedral at Bologna; 
 Giovanni dell' Opera, who received that name from the 
 prolific chisel he wielded ; and Vincenzo Dante. Of bis 
 school also are Baccio Bandinelli, a man of considerable 
 talent, but of course greatly inferior to Michael Angelo, 
 though he set himself up as a rival and competitor; Baccio 
 di Monte Lupo, who, among his works, executed the cruci- 
 fix in the church of San Lorenzo ; Andrea Conlucci, a clever 
 and occasionally successful imitator of Michael Angelo, and 
 founder of the school of Loretto ; Francesco Rustici, a pupil 
 of Leonardo da Vinci, but whose works evince a devotion 
 to the style of Michael Angelo Buouarotti, and who intro- 
 duced it into France; and Jacopo Tatti, commonly called 
 Sansovino, who was the head of the Venetian school of 
 sculpture. As an architect he was an artist of surprising 
 talents, as is manifest from bis works at Verona; his sculp- 
 ture, however, is deficient in purity, though not in richness 
 of composition. His principal pupils were Danese Cattanco 
 and Alessandro Vittoria. The principles of the school were 
 diffused through Italy, and were equally to be seen in Lom- 
 bardy and Naples : in the latter city the principal masters 
 were Marliano Nola and Girolamo St. Orocc. At Milan 
 were Agoslino Busti and Gugiielmo della Porta, whose re- 
 putation was raised by the statues executed by him on the 
 tomb of Paul the Third at St. Peter's. These have been 
 esteemed as among the best examples of modem sculpture. 
 Torregiano, who also belongs to this period, was of a vaga- 
 bond disposition, but a man of genius; he was invited over 
 to England, where he Wrought upon the tomb of Henry VII. 
 at Westminster, for which he received the sum of ilOOO. 
 From Benvenisto Cellini we learn that he was handsome, 
 but of consummate impudence, having the manner of a 
 bravo more than of a sculptor; and to crown all, what with 
 his strange gestures, shrill voice, and a certain trick of knit- 
 ting his brows, he was enough to frighten any one who 
 came in contact with him. When lie quitted England lie 
 visited Spain, says Vasari, and, distinguishing himself by 
 many clever works, had a commission in marble from the 
 Duke d'Arcus, of a Madonna and Christ of the size of life, 
 with great assurances that he should be rewarded accord- 
 ing to his merit. The duke being a grandee of the first class, 
 the sculptor considered he should be proportionately re- 
 warded. After considerable study and application the work 
 was finished to his own satisfaction ; whereon, with impa- 
 tience to possess himself of the treasure, the duke forthwith 
 sent for it, and, to display his generosity to the greatest ad- 
 vantage, two of his servants were loaded with money in 
 payment for it. The bulk was pleasing in appearance to 
 the artist; but, upon being opened, the bags were found to 
 contain only brass maravedi, amounting to the trifling sum 
 of thirty ducats. Vexation and disappointment roused the 
 indignation of Torregiano, who, looking on the present more 
 as an insult than a reward due to his merit, snatched up his 
 mallet, and, heedless of the perfect workmanship with 
 which it had been finished, as well as the sacred character 
 of the subject, broke it in pieces, and sent the lacqueys 
 away with their load of brass to recount the tale to their 
 master. The grandee, enraged at the merited indignity with 
 which the artist had treated him, and it may be horrified at 
 the sacrilegious nature of the act, presented him to the In- 
 quisition as an infidel and a heretic. Torregiano pleaded 
 the right of an author over the work of his own creation, 
 but without success: he was condemned to lose his life. 
 Torregiano baulked, however, the holy office of its victim 
 bv starving himself to death in his prison. This occurred ir 
 1522, at which time he was fifty years old. In England we 
 also had Giovanni da Padua in the following reign. 
 
 Spain produced some celebrated sculptors in the lGth 
 century, their first native artist being Berruguette, a pupil of 
 Vasari and Buonnrotti. Berruguette's disciple, Paul de Ces- 
 pides, is reputed the greatest sculptor that Spain ever pro- 
 duced. 
 
 It does not appear that Germany produced any sculptors 
 of eminence before the 17th century. But in France, Jacques 
 d'Angouleme, who had been at Rome, where he had a 
 competition even with Buonnrotti; Jean Gongeon, who 
 finished the Fountain of the Innocents at Paris in 1550, and 
 was one of the victims in the massacre on St. Bartholomew s 
 Day ; Jean Cousin, whose works, though deficient in force 
 and truth, yet exhibit much grace and delicacy; and Ger- 
 man Pilon, whose detail is remarkable for its beauty, are 
 
 1103 
 
SCULPTURE. 
 
 ■ames that entitle that country to a high tank among the 
 nations of Europe, in which all the works of sculpture that 
 were produced are so many testimonies of the influence 
 which the genius of Michael Angelo exerted over the arts. 
 
 At the commencement of the 17th century, Bernini, a 
 native of Naples, born in 1598, raised himself to employ- 
 ment before unknown. Endowed with all the qualities ne- 
 cessary for becoming a great artist, and desirous of distin- 
 guishing himself by the foundation of a new school, he 
 plunged into caprice and complexity, and preferring effect 
 to simplicity, effaced all traces of the style which from the 
 time of Buonarotti had prevailed in Europe. His draperies, 
 founded on the paintings of the Boiognese school, his af- 
 fected style, the violent expression in which he delighted, 
 are the marks of an ambitious artist, whose only aim was 
 to be striking. He deluged Italy with his works, and cor- 
 rupted it with his taste till his death in 1G80. The most 
 celebrated cotemporaries of Bernini were Alguardi and 
 Fiammingo. The latter is much esteemed for his repre- 
 sentations of youth, and particularly of infants. At Naples 
 he executed a concert of cherubs, and two infants on a 
 monument at Rome, which are his most admired works : 
 the latter was particularly admired by Rubens, who says of 
 it, " Nature rather than art appears to have sculptured 
 them, and the marble is softened into life." Rusconi in 
 Italy succeeded to Bernini, and was the artist most in re- 
 quest at the beginning of the 18th century. His greatest 
 work was at St. Giovanni Laterano, where he was assisted 
 by Monnot, Le Gros, Moraldi, Moratti, Ottoni, and Rossi, 
 pupils of the preceding school. The further progress of 
 sculpture seemed now impassible ; in short, the art seemed 
 to have departed, though men whose names are not worth 
 recording, with all the pretensions of artists, still hovered 
 about the scenes of its former glory. 
 
 In France, Anzirevalle Adrian, Delia Bella, and Tacca, 
 pupils of Giovanni da Bologna, occupy the interval up to 
 the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV. — one extremely 
 creditable to the French school. In the remaining period 
 of that monarch's reign, the principal sculptors were Gerar- 
 don, born at Troyes in 1630, and Puget, born at Marseilles 
 in 1622 : the latter of whom, from his fiery and energetic 
 style, received the appellation of the Michael Angelo of 
 France. These two were the head of the school of the 
 succeeding sculptors of France ; among whom was Fal- 
 conet, celebrated for his writings, and for the equestrian 
 statue he executed at St. Petersburg of the Czar Peter. 
 The unfortunate Louis XVI., UT vi ous to the Revolution, 
 was a great patron of sculpture, ana had projected a col- 
 lection of statues of the most eminent characters of the 
 country. Pigal, the sculptor of the day, had executed 
 some of them before the dreadful period which stopped in 
 France, for a time, the cultivation of the arts. The school 
 of Pigal was of considerable extent and influence, Mouchy, 
 Bocquet, Moette, Chaudet, and Lebrune being members of 
 it, and continuing the art to within a generation of the 
 present time. Cotemporary, or nearly so, with these in 
 Germany, were Rauchmuller of Vienna, Schluter of Ber- 
 lin, Millich, Battel, and others; subsequent to whom are 
 Ohnmacht, Sonnenschien, and Nahl, all sculptors of much 
 reputation. Our knowledge of Spanish sculptors is so 
 limited, from their reputation not travelling away from 
 their own country, and in it indeed being little known, ex- 
 cept in Madrid and the chief cities, where the principal 
 employment for them is the decoration of churches, that 
 we apprehend little interest would be created by an enu- 
 meration of them. In England, up to a late period, the 
 most celebrated sculptors were foreigners. Cibber, Rou- 
 biliac, and Scheemacher had the sway ; and monuments 
 of .their genius, especially of the second, are the pride of 
 some of our churches. The art, however, seemed to be 
 near its dissolution, when Antonio Canova, in 1787, re- 
 vived in Rome the purity without which it is worthless. 
 This justly admired artist was born in 1757 at Possagno, a 
 village amidst the Asolani hills, at the foot of the Venetian 
 Alps. Pietro, his father, and Pasino, his grandfather, were 
 sculptors, whose labours were chiefly confined to the 
 churches of the district. Deprived of his father when only 
 three years of age, he was indebted to his grandfather for 
 the early instruction and employment of the chisel, by which 
 he acquired great mechanical dexterity. Attracting the 
 notice of the patrician Giovanni Faliero, he was by him 
 placed with Torretto, one of the best Venetian sculptors of 
 that day. Toretto soon afterwards died, and young An- 
 tonio then studied under Toretto's nephew, Ferrari. But 
 he soon broke through the trammels of the art as it was 
 then practised ; and the rapidity of his progress having in- 
 duced his patron to find a more appropriate theatre for the 
 exercise of his powers, the young artist was sent to Rome 
 in December, 1780, soon after which time the Venetian 
 government granted him a pension of 300 ducats for three 
 years. At this period the fashionable sculptors of Rome 
 were Agostino Penna, Pacili, Bracci, Sibilla, and others, 
 1104 
 
 SCURVY. 
 
 whose productions are already forgotten ; so that in the 
 way of emulation Canova had little to excite his talents. 
 Before the period had expired for which his pension was 
 granted, the zeal of Volpato had been successful in procur- 
 ing for him the commission to execute the monument of 
 Clement XIV. (Ganganelli). Thus was afforded to the 
 young sculptor an opportunity of exhibiting his powers to a 
 public who were fortunately capable of appreciating his 
 merit. Before the expiration of the 18th century, he hud 
 produced an amazing quantity of works, at which time it 
 was not the practice (one afterwards introduced by liini) to 
 employ inferior workmen to reduce the block to the last 
 shape of the superficies. The enumeration of his works 
 would occupy much more space than can be here assigned 
 to them: they were generally deficient in energy, but 
 abounding in grace and elegance ; and in his monumental 
 sculpture there is vast originality of invention, whilst it is 
 free from extravagance. His females are voluptuous, but 
 not offensively so; his execution of them exquisite. In the 
 monument executed in memory of the archduchess Chris- 
 tina of Austria, there is a pathos in the composition, whose 
 figures are linked together with the chain of nature, worthy 
 the divine Raphael himself. Canova died at Venice on 
 the 13th of October, 1822; and his remains were removed 
 to his native place, in which he had erected, at his own 
 expense, a splendid church. Albert Thorwaldsen, a cotem- 
 porary of Canova, but much his junior, a native of Den- 
 mark, has by his great, though irregular and erratic genius, 
 raised himself to eminence in Rome as well as in his own 
 country. His powers in basso-relievo are great ; but in ex- 
 tending the principles of the art, we cannot assign to him a 
 niche in the temple of fame, by the side of the men whose 
 merits we have just discussed. 
 
 In England, the respectable artists, Bacon, Banks, and 
 Nollekens, were followed by Flaxman, a name honourable 
 to the arts of this country. Intense feeling and simplicity 
 characterize all his works ; and in Epic sculpture, we think, 
 he very far surpassed Canova. He was born at York in 
 1755, and died in 1826. The lectures which he delivered 
 as professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy have been 
 published. In the present day, we apprehend, the sculp- 
 ture of our country, supported as it is by the talents of 
 Westmacott, Lough, Rennie, Chantrey, and many others, 
 will bear comparison with those of any other country in 
 Europe. 
 
 SCULPTURE, PRACTICE OF. What has been said 
 under the article Practice of Painting, relative to 
 anatomy, comparative anatomy, symmetry, invention, ex- 
 pression, and drapery, equally applies to the art of sculp- 
 ture, and need not be here repeated. We shall, therefore, 
 merely state the different methods practised in producing a 
 work in this art. 
 
 A model as large as the intended figure or group is first 
 made in clay. It is placed on a stand called the sculptor's 
 easel ; and the general form is got out with the hand and 
 fingers, small box-wood tools being made use of to touch 
 the parts that the fingers cannot reach. The clay is kept 
 moist, to prevent its shrinking, till the model is completed. 
 The model is then moulded in plaster of Paris, before it be- 
 gins to dry, whence a matrix is formed, into which plaster 
 is introduced ; and the matrix being broken away from it, 
 the model in clay is thus transferred into one of plaster. 
 This becomes the standard from which the artist takes all 
 the measurements for the figure he is about to execute. 
 The block of marble and the model being now placed on 
 stands, with a graduated rod, which moves on a frame per- 
 pendicular to it, and has a point attached to it which can 
 be made to advance and recede at pleasure, certain promi- 
 nent points are selected and marked in the model, and 
 their distance measured on the frame longitudinally and 
 vertically, and also the distance that the point of the rod is 
 advanced or receded to touch a given point. This being 
 found on the outside of the rough block, the particular 
 point is drilled down to as great a distance as was mea- 
 sured in the model. This operation being repeated for a 
 great number of points, the surface is worked away to all 
 the several points found as above, till at last it begins to 
 assume the general form of the model. As the sculptor 
 approaches the surface which is to be left when finished, 
 more caution and finer tools become necessary, till at length 
 it is brought into a state for his finishing touches. The 
 process which we have described of bringing the shapeless 
 block into something like the form it is ultimately to bear, 
 and which is an operation purely mechanical, is performed 
 by inferior workmen, by which the artist's labour and time 
 are much spared. It is only with such a genius as Michael 
 Angelo that the making a model could be dispensed with. 
 
 SCU'PPER. A hole in the ship's deck or side to carry 
 off the rain, or water shipped. 
 
 SCU'RVY, Scorbutus. This disease, once so common in our 
 navy, is now of very rare occurrence. It generally appears 
 connected with debilitating causes, and especially unwhole- 
 
SCUTATE. 
 
 tone food, want of exercise, and by cold and moisture. It 
 begins with indolence, sallow looks, and loss of strength 
 and spirits ; the gums become spongy, the teeth loose, the 
 breath fiEtid ; eruptions appear on different parts of the 
 body ; and at length the patient sinks under general emaci- 
 ation, iliarrlm:a, and hu.-morrb.ages. In the prevention and 
 cure hi this disease, much is effected by attention to diet 
 and cleanliness. Fresh vegetables, farinaceous substances, 
 and brisk fermented liquors, good air and due exercise, are 
 among tin: principal remedial means. Acids, and especially 
 lemon juice, have been much extolled; but the researches 
 of Dr. Bteevens have rendered the propriety of acid diet 
 somewhat doubtful, 
 
 i TATE. ( Lat. scutum, a shield.) In Zoology, when 
 a surface is protected by large scales. 
 
 I T. 1,1.1 M. (Lat. scHtum.) A term used by Gart- 
 ner to denote the small cotyledon on the outside of the em- 
 bryo of wheat, inserted a little lower down than the other 
 more perfect cotyledon, which is pressed close to the albu- 
 men. 
 
 SCUTIBRA'NCMANS, Scutibranchiata. (Lat. scutum ; 
 branchiae, gills.) A name given by Cuvier to an order of 
 hermaphrodite Gastropodous Mollusks, including those 
 which have the gills covered with a shell in the form of a 
 shield. 
 
 SCU'TIGERS. Scutigera. (Lnt. scutum ; gero, / carry.) 
 The name of a genus of unequal-legged Chilopodous Myria- 
 poiU, which frequent buildings in the South of Europe, and 
 my ii|Km inserts, wood-lice, and other small creatures. 
 
 SCU'TIPEDS, Scutipedes. 'Lat. scutum, a sliirtd ; pes. 
 afoot.) The name given byScopoli to one of the divisions 
 in his binary system of ornithology, including those birds 
 which have the anterior part of the leg covered with seg- 
 ments of unequal horny rings terminating on each side In a 
 groove. 
 
 SCU'TTLE. An opening in the ship's side or deck to 
 admit light or air. or for communication. 
 
 To scuttle the decks, implies to cut holes to let the water 
 down from them into the bold, as In the case of shipping a 
 heavy sea, or of lire. 
 
 7" tcuttle a vessel, is to cut a hole in her for the purpose 
 ofsmriinL' her. 
 
 BCDTTLE-BUTT. A cask of water with a large hole 
 la it placed tor use in a ship. 
 
 StT'TUM. (Lat.) The shield of the Roman heavy- 
 ariNeii legionaries: was made of wood, defended with plates 
 of iron, and covered with leather. It was either oval (ova- 
 turn) or >>f semi cylindrical shape (called imbricatum). 
 Poly bi us ap|iears to make the latter sort 4 feet long, and 
 it is evident that it covered a great part of the body. In 
 the centre was a boss of brass or iron, projecting from the 
 shield. Proa this classical word is derived the modern 
 term esquire, through the middle ages : Lat. scutiger, shield- 
 bearer. 
 
 SCY'LLA. In Mythology, the daughter of Nisus, king 
 ef Megara, who threw herself into the sea for love of Minos, 
 king of Crete, and was turned into a bird. Also a poetical 
 monster, half man half dragon, who inhabited the coast of 
 Italy opposite C'harybdis, according to the well-known le- 
 gend in the Odyssey. The modern town of Scilla stands 
 near the cave dreaded by the early navigators as the habit- 
 ation of this monster. 
 
 SCY'PHUS. (Gr. amtboc, a cup.) The cup of a narcis- 
 sus. Also, in Lichens, a cup like dilatation of the podetium, 
 bearing shields upon its margin. 
 
 SCYTALE. (Gr. crxvroc, a skin.) An instrument used 
 by the Laceda-monians for the conveyance of secret in- 
 structions to their commanders'. The construction of it 
 was as follows : When a general was sent out, a black 
 rod was given him, while another of exactly similar dimen- 
 sions was preserved at home. When instructions were to 
 be sent out, a strip of parchment was wrapped round the 
 the rod, and on the folds the orders were written ; which 
 accordingly could not be interpreted unless the parchment 
 were rolled on a similar rod. 
 
 SEA. In Geography, a part of the great ocean. See 
 Ocean Tidks. 
 
 Sea. The term used by sailors for a single wave, or for 
 genera agitation. In a long sea, the waves are distant ; in 
 a short tea, they are closer and more upright: a cross sea 
 Is composed of waves moving in different directions. 
 
 SEA ANEMONE. The name of a highly organized 
 Polype of the genus Actinia. 
 
 SEA BOAT. A term applied by seamen to a vessel, as 
 respects her qualities in bad weather. 
 
 SEA DEVIL. The seaman's name of a large cartilagin- 
 ous fish of the Ray tribe, the type of the genus Cephalop- 
 tera, Cuvier; also applied to the angler (Lophius piscato- 
 rius, Linn.) 
 
 SEAL. (Lat. sigillum.) In Gem Sculpture, a stamp cut 
 or sunk on stone, capable of yielding an impression to any 
 toft substance. When a gem is selected for cutting, it is 
 4 A 
 
 SEARCH WARRANT. 
 
 put into the hands of the lapidary to reduce it to shape and 
 smoothness. It is then fixed with mastic to a piece Of wood 
 to serve us a handle, and the subject is sketched upon it 
 with a copi>er point or a diamond. The tool is a lathe 
 somewhat resembling a turning lathe, into the end of the 
 spindle whereof points, knobs, or circles can be inserted. 
 The gem is then applied to the end of one of these tools, 
 according to the nature of the cutting required, wetted with 
 diamond-dust and olive oil, and by frequent working the 
 subject is wrought. Frequent impressions are of course 
 taken during Hie progress, to show the excesses or defects. 
 Tin .m\ however, are not necessary in working eami 
 because the prominences are obvious to the eye. Tin- 
 tools are soft iron or copper; and the powder of the 
 ruby, or other hard stones, is often substituted for diamond 
 powder. 
 
 Seal. In Zoology, the English name for a genus ot* 
 Marine Carnivorous Mammiferous Quadrupeds, otherwise 
 called Phocida. The variety of seals is very great, and 
 they are found In vast numbers in the seas round Spitz- 
 bergen, and on the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. 
 As it frequents the British shores, it is well known, and 
 has been repeatedly described. Seals are principally 
 hunted for their oil and skins. When taken in (he spring 
 of the year — at which time they are fattest — a full grown 
 seal will yield from 8 to 12 gallons of oil, and a small one 
 from 4 to 5 gallons. The oil, when extracted before putre 
 faction has commenced, is beautifully transparent, free 
 from smell, and not unpleasant in its taste. The skin, when 
 tanned, is extensively employed in the making of shoes ; 
 and when dressed with the hair on, serves for the covering 
 , of trunks, &c. See Fisheries. 
 
 SEAL, GREAT. All charters, commissions, grants of 
 land, franchise, liberties, fcc, letters patent, and letters 
 close, of the king, pass the great seal. The usual course 
 is, that a grant, or letters patent, pass by bill ; which is pre- 
 pared by the attorney or solicitor -general under warrant 
 from the king. It is then subscribed at foot with the sign 
 manual, and sealed with the privy signet. In this stage it 
 is next, in some cases, taken directly to pass the great seal ; 
 in other cases, an extract of the bill is taken to the keeper of 
 the privy seal, who makes out a writ or warrant thereupon 
 to the chancery, where it passes the great seal. Then the 
 sign manual is a warrant to the privy seal, and that to the 
 great seal. There are, however, some grants which only 
 pass through certain offices, as the Admiralty or Treasury. 
 under the sign manual, requiring neither privy nor great 
 seal. The keeper of the great seal has, by 5 Eliz. c. 18, 
 the same place and jurisdiction as the lord chancellor of 
 England: since that statute, therefore, both offices cannot 
 exist at the same time in different persons, which was not 
 unfrequontly the case before. 
 
 SEALING-WAX. The wax used for sealing letters, 
 legal instruments, &c. The best red sealing wax is made 
 by melting In a very gentle heat 48 parts of shell-lac with 
 19 of Venice turpentine and 1 of Peruvian balsam; 32 parts 
 of the finest cinnabar, thoroughly levigated, are then stirred 
 in, and the whole well mixed. When it has cooled down, 
 it is either rolled into sticks, or shaped in brass moulds. 
 The best black sealing-wax is a mixture of 60 parts of shell- 
 lac and 30 of ivory black; it may be perfumed with a little 
 Peru balsam or styrax. The earliest application of sealing- 
 wax to its present use seems to have been made about the 
 year 1553. The first printed account of it is said by Berze- 
 lius to have appeared in 1563. The great seals applied in 
 tin boxes to certain legal documents are made of a mixture 
 of 15 parts of Venice turpentine, 5 of olive oil, and 8 of wax 
 melted together, and coloured with red lead. 
 
 SEAL, PRIVY. All charters, pardons, fcc, which re- 
 quire the great seal, pass first through the hands of the 
 keeper of the privy seal : and other instruments of less con- 
 sequence pass the privy seal only. A warrant to issue 
 money out of the king's coffers, under the privy seal, is suf- 
 ficient. The keeper of the seal is now an officer of state, 
 with the title Lord Privy Seal. By 2 W. 4, c. 49, the offices 
 of clerks of the signet and privy seal are to be abolished as 
 soon as vacancies occur in them. 
 
 SEA'MAN. A man brought up to the sea, and capable # 
 
 of discharging the duties of that life. A complete seaman 
 is called an able seaman, and is rated A. B. ; one less com- 
 petent, an ordinary seaman; and a man fresh from the 
 shore, a landsman. The reader will find in the Com. Diet. 
 full particulars respecting the enrolment, wages, and, in 
 short, all the statistics of seamen. 
 
 SEAMS. The spaces between the edges of planks : these 
 in a ship are caulked, and then covered with pitch. 
 
 Seams. In Geology, thin layers which separate thicker 
 strata. 
 
 SEAMEW. A name for the gull. See Larus. 
 
 SEARCH WARRANT, in Law, is granted by a justice 
 of the peace, under 7 6l 8 G. 4, c. 29, to search for goods 
 stolen or respecting which other offences specified in the 
 
SEA SICKNESS. 
 
 act have been committed. The warrant is granted on the 
 oath of a credible witness, that he has "reasonable cause 
 to suspect" the goods to be in the possession and on the 
 premises of a certain individual. 
 
 SEA SICKNESS. Nausea and retching, which attack 
 most persons on first going to sea ; sometimes continuing 
 only a day or two, but often lasting the whole of a long J 
 voyage. The most effective antidote, or remedy, consists I 
 in lying in the horizontal position. In some persons its vio- 
 lence is prevented by small doses of opium, or by soda wa- 
 ter, or saline draughts in the act of effervescence ; liniments 
 and planters containing opium applied to the pit of the stom- 
 ach are also recommended, as mitigating, or even preventing 
 this most annoying malady. The violence of the attacks 
 not only varies in different individuals at different times, 
 but the same person who escapes in one voyage shall suffer 
 severely in another. The cause of sea sickness is probably 
 referable to the influence of the motion of the vessel upon 
 the circulation of the blood : it has been compared to the 
 sickness occasioned by swinging. For some ingenious ob- 
 servations upon this subject, see Dr. Wollaston's Croonian 
 Lecture, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1810. 
 
 SEASONS. (Fr. saisons.) The four quarters of the 
 year — spring, summer, autumn, winter. The seasons are 
 considered as beginning respectively when the sun enters 
 the signs Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn ; so that the 
 spring season commences about the 21st of March, summer 
 about the 22d of June, autumn about the 23d of September, 
 and winter about the 23d of December. 
 
 SEA UNICORN. The name of the narwhal (Monodon 
 monoceros, L.). 
 
 SEA URCHIN. The name generally applied to the dif- 
 ferent species of Echinus. 
 
 SEBA'CEOUS GLANDS. Small cuticular glands which 
 secrete a greasy matter, serving to protect and soften the 
 skin or cuticle. 
 
 SEBA'CIC ACID. One of the acids produced during the 
 destructive distillation of fat. 
 
 SECA'LE. (Lat.) The ergot or clavus of rye. See 
 Ergot. 
 
 SE'C ANT (Lat. seco, I cut), in Trigonometry, is a straight 
 line drawn from the centre of a circle to one extremity of 
 an arc, and produced until it meets the tangent to the other 
 extremity. The secant of an arc is a third proportional to 
 the cosine and the radius; hence, if the radius be taken as 
 unit, the secant is the reciprocal of the cosine. See Trig- 
 onometry. 
 
 SECE'DERS. See Burghers. 
 
 SE'COND, in the Sexagesimal Arithmetic, is the 60th 
 part of a minute, or prime. Thus a degree of a circle, and 
 an hour of time, are each divided into 60 minutes, and each 
 minute into 60 seconds. In the old treatises on astronomy, 
 the seconds are sometimes denominated second minutes, 
 (minuta; secunda?) ; while the minutes, being the first divi- 
 sion of the unit, are the primes (minuta? prima?). Following 
 out the analogy, the sixtieth part of a second was called a 
 third ; but this term is not found in modern works. It was 
 formerly usual to denote minutes and seconds, both of time 
 and arc, by the characters ' and " ; but these are now gen- 
 erally used only to indicate minutes and seconds of arc, 
 those of time being indicated respectively by the abbrevia- 
 tions m. and see. 
 
 _ Se'cond. In Music, a musical interval; being the dif- 
 ference between any sound and the next nearest, whether 
 above or below it. It may be either major or minor. 
 
 SECONDARIES, or SECONDARY QUILLS. (Second- 
 aria, Linn.) The large feathers of the wing which arise 
 from the bones of the antibrachium or fore-arm, and prin- 
 cipally from the ulna, are so called. 
 
 SE'CONDARY CIRCLES, in Astronomy, are great cir- 
 cles of the sphere perpendicular to another great circle, 
 which is regarded as the primary, and consequently passing 
 through its poles. The secondaries of the ecliptic are the 
 circles on which the latitudes of celestial objects are mea- 
 sured. 
 
 SE'CONDARY ROCKS or STRATA. A series of stra- 
 tified rocks with certain characters, by which they are dis- 
 • tinguished as a class from the primary rocks, which are 
 beneath them, and from the tertiary rocks, which lie upon 
 them. See Geology. 
 
 SE'COND COiiclan'GiovrJvitecture, either the finishing 
 coat, as in laid afetto, one of the"dered and set ; or it is the 
 floating when tf/tto soon nfterwaied in, floated, and set for 
 paper. .fed under Toretto 
 
 SE'COND Sllthrough the tramelicTaischitaraugh; from 
 taisch, an unre{ and the raniff appearance). A well-known 
 Highland supejn to fr.- 4 in all ages the idea has prevailed 
 that persons en'uuowu with the power of divination did not 
 only foretel by instinct, but had sometimes an actual and 
 mysterious vision of distant or future events ; as in the lines 
 of Lucan, which describe the presages before the battle of 
 Pharsalia — 
 HOC 
 
 SECRETION. 
 
 Euzaneo, si vera fides meniorantibus. augor 
 
 Colle sedens 
 
 Venit sunima dies, erri'ur res maxima, dixit i 
 Inipia concurrum Pompeii et Casaris arma. 
 
 But the peculiarity of the Highland superstition seems to 
 consist in this, that persons were supposed to be endowed 
 with the faculty who were in no other respect feared or 
 reverenced for their supernatural powers : it was regarded 
 as a mere natural power, like superior Bharpness of sisht or 
 hearing. The inhabitants of tin; Western Islands were 
 thought to be peculiarly gifted with it. It could not be ex- 
 erted at pleasure ; the power came on the tea involuntarily, 
 and often to his extreme terror and suffering. Neverthe- 
 less, certain rules were in fashion for the interpretation of 
 the visions ; such, for instance, as that mentioned by Sir VV. 
 Scott, that if a seer saw a figure with his back to him, on 
 altering the position of his own plaid if the figure appeared 
 with its plaid similarly arranged the vision regarded the 
 seer himself. Martin, in his Description of the Western 
 Islands, seems to have brought this superstition into notice 
 in England. It is well known how Johnson undertook the 
 defence of it, in his Journey to the Western Islands ; but, 
 in despite of evidence which neither Bacon, Boyle, nor 
 Johnson were able to resist, the taisch, with all its visionary 
 properties, seems to be now universally abandoned to the 
 use of poetry. The exquisitely beautiful poem of Lochiel 
 will at once occur to the recollection of every reader. (Notes 
 to the Lady of the Lake.) It is finely described by Collins 
 in his ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands. But the 
 classical bard of the second sight is Sir Walter Scott. (See 
 especially his noble ballad Lord Ronald, the character of 
 Allan Macalister in the Legend of Montrose, &c. &x.) 
 How far the belief in second sight is preserved at the pre- 
 sent day, we cannot tell. Mr. Logan, in his Scottish Gael, 
 only says, "It is not so prevalent as formerly." (Vol. ii. 
 340.) 
 
 SE'CRETARY. An officer employed in writing letters, 
 despatches, &c, under the orders of his superior. The title 
 of secretary was first used to denote a public minister in 
 France, where the three clerks of the privy council were 
 also termed secretaries as early as the 14th century. 
 
 SE'CRETARY, LORD. A high officer in the" kingdom 
 of Scotland, resembling the great prothonotary in foreign 
 courts. This office was kept up after the Union, but has 
 been disused since 1746. 
 
 SE'CRETARY OF STATE. One of the highest officers 
 of the British crown. This office, however, is compara- 
 tively modern in point of importance; the secretary of state 
 having been originally what his name implies, a mere ser- 
 vant of the privy council. There was only one until the 
 reign of Henry VIII., who added another; but their func- 
 tions were limited to preparing business for the council board, 
 which they attended afterwards with their proposals, Un- 
 der Elizabeth they became members of the council. Queen 
 Anne raised the number to thvee, by the appointment of a 
 secretary for Scotch affairs — an office which did not long 
 continue ; and one for the American department was ap- 
 pointed in the reign of George III., but abolished in 1782. 
 At present there are three secretaries of state. 1. The Se- 
 cretary for the Home Department. 2. The Colonial Secre- 
 tary. 3. The Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In each of 
 these departments there are two tinder-secretaries, one of 
 whom remains in office on a change of ministry. The 
 clerks in the Home Office are divided into senior and junior ; 
 but no such distinction obtains in the other two. Each of 
 the principal secretaries has 6000/. a year. The Alien Of- 
 fice is annexed to the Home Department : the State Paper 
 Office belongs alike to those of all the departments. The 
 Secretary for Home Affairs has the custody of the privy 
 signet; and the Privy Signet Office, in which grants, letters, 
 &c, sealed with the privy signet, are made out, is in his 
 department. The principal secretaries are always ex officio 
 cabinet ministers. Their position in the English govern- 
 ment is, in fact, identical with that of the ministers of home 
 and foreign affairs, &c, in France and other Continental 
 countries. The Secretary at War is attached to the War 
 Office. His salary is 2480/.; and he is also frequently, 
 though not always, a member of the cabinet. The secre- 
 tary of state for Ireland is also keeper of the privy seal of 
 that part of the kingdom, and chief secretary of the lord 
 lieutenant. His office is divided into two departments, mili- 
 tary and civil, in each of which an under-secretary is placed. 
 Like the secretary at war, he is, though more rarely, some- 
 times a member of the cabinet. 
 
 SECRE'TION. (Lat. secretio.) The process by which 
 substances are separated from the blood in animals, or from 
 the sap of vegetables. 
 
 In some cases a secretion appears to be a mere separation 
 of water, and of other substnnces held in solution by it. from 
 the blood ; but in others the process is much more elabo- 
 rate and intricate. A highly complicated glandular strue 
 ture is requisite ; and the proximate or ultimate element! 
 
SECT. 
 
 of the blood are arranged into new combinations, so as to 
 constitute a new and distinct product, of which no traces 
 are to be found in tin; healthy blood. The animal secretions 
 are arranged by linstock under the heads aqueous, albumin- 
 elatinous, fibrinous, oleaginous, resinous and 
 saline. Magendie's classification of the secretions comprises, 
 1. Exhalations, as from the skin, tile surfaces of the closed 
 if the body, and thelungs; 2. Follicular secretions, 
 which are either cutaneous or mucous ; and, 3. Glandular 
 secretions, such as milk, bile, urine, saliva, &c. See Physi- 
 oloiy and Hotanv, tec, 
 
 SECT. A term used in ordinary language to signify any 
 body which separates from the established religion of a coun- 
 try. In this sense, the word appears to be derived from Lat. 
 seco, lent : sectarians being, as it were, cut off from the gener- 
 nl mass. But, on the other hand, the term was anciently ap- 
 plied to the followers of some distinguished person ; in which 
 sense, the idea of cutting off wholly disappears, and the 
 uis then to he derived from Lat. sequor, I follow. 
 both of philosophers and religions, will be 
 found noticed under their respective heads. 
 
 SJS'CTION (Lat lectio), In Geometry, denotes the line 
 formed by the intersection of two surfaces, and lil, 
 
 formed when a solid liody is cut by a plane. When 
 - CU1 by a plane, the section is a straight line ; when 
 a sphere is cut by a plane the section is a circle ; and when 
 a cotie is cut by a plane, the section may be a triangle, a 
 circle, an ellipse, an hyperbola, or a parabola, which five fig- 
 ures are consequently called the conic sections. See Co- 
 me Suctions.) Vieta gave the name of angular sections to 
 the branch of analysis which has for its object the investi- 
 gation of the sines and chords of the multiples and subniul- 
 tiples of a given arc. On this subject the student DM} con- 
 sult the work of Poinsot, entitled licckerckes sur V Analyse 
 des Section Angulaires, Paris, 182.V — Section of a Hatio, and 
 Section of Space, are terms that were employed by Apol- 
 lonius of Perga, who wrote two books with those titles; the 
 former of which was restored by Dr. Ilalley, and the latter 
 by Willebrord Snell. 
 
 BacTIOH. In Architecture, the projection or geometrical 
 aion of a building, supposed to be cut through, so 
 as to exhibit its interior. 
 
 Lat.) In Geometry the sector of a circle 
 is a portion of the area of the circle bounded by two radii 
 and the Intercepted arc. Sectors of different circles are 
 said in be similar when the sides or radii include equal an- 
 gles. The area of a sector is equal to that of a triangle 
 5e is equal to the length of the contained arc, and 
 altitude equal to the radius of the circle. 
 
 Sector. A mathematical instrument, of considerable 
 
 use in m iking diagrams, laying down plans, Sec Its prin- 
 
 ci|>al advantage consists in the facility with which it gives 
 
 cal determination of proportional quantities; and 
 
 hence It is called by the French the compass of proportion. 
 
 The instrument consist- of two rulers (generally of brass 
 or ivory), representing the radii of a circular arc, and move- 
 able round a joint, the middle of which forms the centre of 
 the circle. From this centre there are drawn on the faces 
 of the rulers various scales ; the choice of which, and the 
 order of their arrangement, may be determined by a consid- 
 eration of the uses for which the instrument is chiefly in- 
 tended. The scales usually put on sectors are of two kinds 
 — sintile and double ; that is to say, such as are drawn only 
 on one of the limbs, and such as are drawn on both limbs. 
 The first kind, however (comprising, for example, a line of 
 Inches, of chords, sines, logarithms, tec.), are no; peculiar 
 to the sector, but are merely placed there for convenience, 
 and in iv he used whether the instrument is shut or open. 
 Of the lines repeated on both limbs the principal are the 
 following: 1. A line of equal parts, by which, with a pair 
 of compsases, we are enabled, on the principle that similar 
 triangles have their homologous sides proportional, to find a 
 third proportional to two given lines, a fourth proportional 
 to three given lines, to diminish a line in any given propor- 
 tion, Slc. 2. A scale of chords, which enables us to pro- 
 tract an angle of any given number of degrees, to find the 
 degrees which any given angle contains, to cut off an arc 
 of any given magnitude from the circumference of a given 
 circle, Sec. 3. Scales of sines, tangents, and secants, where- 
 by the length of the trigonometrical lines corresponding to 
 a given arc of n circle of any radius are determined. 4. A 
 line of polygons, whereby the proportional length of the 
 side of any regular polygon (of not more than twelve sides) 
 to the radius of the circumscribing circle is found. 
 
 The sector may be used in trigonometry for obtaining a 
 rough solution of all the cases of right-angled plane trian- 
 glos ; and it is also conveniently applied to the construction 
 of various geometrical problems. For a description of its 
 different uses, see Robertson's Treatise of such Mathemati- 
 cal Instruments as are usually put into a Portable Case. 
 
 Sector. In Astronomy, an instrument constructed for the 
 purpose of determining with great accuracy the zenith dis- 
 
 SEDATIVES. 
 
 tances of stars passing within a few degrees of the ze 
 nith, where the effect of refraction is small. Sec Zenith 
 Sector. 
 
 SE'CULAR EQUATION, SECULAR IXEO.UALITY. 
 (Lat. seculurn, a century.) In Astronomy, any deviation 
 from the mean motion or mean orbit of a celestial body is 
 called an inequality, and the numerical expression of the 
 magnitude and period of the inequality is called an equation. 
 The equations representing the motions of the bodies of the 
 solar system are of two kinds, periodic and secular: the 
 first being those which pass through all their change- and 
 return to the same state in a comparatively short period <t 
 time; and the second such as change their values so slowly 
 that the variation only becomes sensible after the lapse <"t 
 centuries, and require for the accomplishment of the 
 of their changes a length of time which in some cases as- 
 tronomers have not yet ventured to calculate. Thus the 
 lunar ejection, which depends on the position of the trans 
 verse axis of the moon's orbit in respect of the line of the 
 syzygios, is :\ in riuitic inequality, passing through all its dif 
 f. rent values in about 31 days 1<» hours: but the acceler 
 ation of the moon's mean motion depending on a slow vari- 
 ation of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, is a nccular ine 
 quality, amounting only to about 10 seconds in a century 
 The secular Inequalities are in fnct periodic as well as 
 the others ; but they proceed so slowly that the observa- 
 tions of many hundreds, or even thousands of years, would 
 be insufficient to make known their periodicitv. The dis- 
 covery of their nature is one of the results of the theory of 
 gravitation. 
 
 SE'CULAR GAMES, in Antiquity, were games celebra- 
 ted once in a hundred years. They lasted three days and 
 three nights, during which period sacrifices were offered up, 
 and theatrical shows exhibited, and combats in the circus, 
 Slc, took place. Valerius Puhlicola, the first consul creat- 
 ed after the expulsion of the kings, A.U.C. 245, was the first 
 who celebrated them at Rome. Some authors maintain 
 that the secu'um, or age, consisted of 100, and others of 111) 
 years ; hut it is certain several Roman emperors did not al- 
 low so long an interval as either period to elapse. Thus, 
 Augustus celebrated secular games A.U. 73C, Caligula (54 
 years later, and Domitian 20 years afterwards; on which 
 occasion Tacitus assisted in the capacity of juris decemvir. 
 According to Zosimus, the emperor Septimus Beveru 
 the last who celebrated them ; but other writers have stated 
 that under the emperor Philip. A.U. 1000, these games were 
 held with more magnificence than had ever been before 
 witnessed. They were celebrated, in all, eight i 
 
 The original saeculum of 'be Etruscan augurs is said by- 
 some to have been measured by the longest life of those 
 who were born at its commencement ; and they had a pe- 
 culiar tradition, that the duration allotted to nations was 
 measured by a certain number of these saxula. (Plutarch, 
 Sy'la : Censorinus, De die .Yatali.) 
 
 SECULARIZATION. In Politics, the appropriation of 
 church property to secular uses. In most European states 
 such appropriations have taken place on a great scale with- 
 in the last century. In England, the only great seculariza- 
 tion has been that made under Henry VIII. 
 
 SE'CULAR POEMS, in Antiquity, were those recited at 
 the celebration of the secular games. Of this species of 
 poem the Sapphic Ode of Horace, at the end of his book of 
 Epods, is a noble specimen. Several editions of Horace 
 give the name secular poem to the 21st Ode of the first book. 
 See Jfeibuhr's Rome, 2d edition, p. 289.) 
 
 SECULAR REFRIGERATION. The periodical cooling 
 and consequent consolidation of the crust of the globe : a 
 term used by geologists in reference to the supposed central 
 heat, and even fluidity of the globe, and to the phenomena 
 of its gradual refrigeration. 
 
 SECULAR YEAR. The same with Jubilee— kept once 
 in a century. 
 
 SEC'UNDINE. (Lat. secundus.) In Botany, the outer- 
 most but one of the enclosing sacs of the ovulum, immedi- 
 ately reposing upon the primine. Mirbel considers it the 
 second integument formed by the ovula; Schleider says it 
 is the first, and that the primine or first integument of Mir- 
 bel is formed afterwards. 
 
 In Zoology, the foatal membranes collectively are some- 
 times termed sec undines. 
 
 SECU'RIFERS, Sccuriferi. (Lat. securis, a hatchet; 
 few, I bear.) The name of a tribe of Tercbrantia, or boring 
 Hymenopterous insects, comprising those in which the fe- 
 males have a saw-sbaped or hatchet-shaped terrebra or ap- 
 pendage to the posterior part of the abdomen, for the pur- 
 pose of preparing a place to receive the eggs, and of depos- 
 iting them therein. 
 
 SECU'RIPALPS, Securipnlpi. Lat. securis, a hatchet : 
 palpo, I feel.) The name of a family of Coleopterous in- 
 sects, comprehending those in which the maxillary palps 
 terminate in a joint which is elongated and hatchet-shaped. 
 
 SE'DATIVES. (Lat. sedo, I assuage.) Medicines whici 
 
 1107 
 
SEDENTARIES. 
 
 assuage pain ; generally by inducing sleep and diminishing 
 rritahility. , 
 
 SEDENTARIES, Sedentaria. (Lat. sedeo, J sit.) The 
 name of a section of spiders (Araneida), comprehending 
 those which remain motionless in the hiding-place of their 
 web until called forth by an entangled prey. 
 
 SEDGE BIRD. The name of the Sylvia phragmitis, 
 Bech. This species of warbler visits this country about the 
 middle of April, and emigrates in September. It frequents 
 the sedgy banks of rivers, and constructs a nest composed 
 of a little moss intermixed with dry stalks, lined with dry 
 grass, and occasionally a few hairs. It lays five or six eggs 
 of a light brown colour, mottled with darker shades of 
 the same. It is sometimes called reed bunting. 
 
 SEDI'TION. (Lat. se. apart, and ire, to go.) In Law, 
 a general and not strictly technical word, comprising, in 
 common language, offences against the state which do not 
 amount to lxigh treason. The distinction between the two 
 offences was not very accurately adhered to or defined un- 
 til later times. Sedition is of the like tendency with trea- 
 son, but without the overt acts which are essential to the 
 latter. Thus, there are seditious assemblies, seditious li- 
 bels, tic, as well ns direct or indirect threats and acts 
 amounting to sedition ; all punishable as misdemeanours. 
 The acts 39 G. 3, c.79 (by which the famous Corresponding 
 Societies were suppressed), and 57 G. 3, c. 19, were passed to 
 prevent seditious meetings and assemblies. 
 
 SEE. (Lat. sedes, a seat.) The name usually given to 
 the diocess of a bishop in England. It was originally ap- 
 plied exclusively to the papal chair at Rome ; but it has 
 long been used in its present wide signification. 
 
 SEED, is the reproductive part of a plant resulting from 
 impregnation, and containing the embryo or rudiment of a 
 future plant ; or, in other words, it is the ovulum in its most 
 perfect and finally organized state. It is formed of repro- 
 ductive matter peculiar to flowering plants, its equivalent in 
 flowerless plants being the spore. It is commonly said that 
 as the seed is the part intended by nature to multiply 
 the races of plants, special contrivances are provided for 
 ensuring its dispersion and migration from place to place; 
 such, for instance, as being discharged with force by the 
 sudden explosion of the case or seed-vessel in which it is 
 generated ; having membranous wings that render it buoy- 
 ant, and so on. But this idea, although to a certain extent 
 true, is frequently misapplied to seed-vessels, as in the in- 
 stance of the dandelion, the ash tree, the sycamore, &c. : in 
 these latter cases the part to which the name of seed is giv- 
 en is a true pericarp or seed-vessel. On the other hand, 
 many kinds of seed-vessels, such, for instance, as those of 
 corn, of labiate and boraginaceous plants, &c, are miscalled 
 seeds, or naked seeds. 
 
 SE'GMENT. (Lat.) In Geometry, a part cut off from a 
 figure by a line or plane. The segment of a circle is a 
 part of the area comprised between an arc and its chord ; 
 and segments of different circles are said to be similar when 
 their arcs have the same ratio to the circumferences of their 
 respective circles, or when they contain the same number 
 of degrees. The area of a circular segment may be found 
 u follows : Let P R be the chord of a circle whose centre 
 is C, and let A B be the diameter per- 
 pendicular to P R, and meeting it in Q. ; 
 and putz = Aa,y=P Q,: = AP,r 
 = A C the radius, and 7r = 3-14159, the 
 ratio of the circumference to the diam- 
 eter. Now the area of the segment P 
 A R is evidently equal to the difference 
 between the sector A P C R and the 
 triangle P C R ; but the area of the 
 sector — n (the radius into half the arc), and the triangle 
 
 = y () x) ; therefore the segment = r z — ry+ yz. 
 
 When the radius of the circle and the chord of the segment 
 (that is, r and y) are known, this expression is easily calcu- 
 lated from a table of sines, for the angle ACP is found 
 from its siac = y- T -r ; and when the angle is given the arc 
 z is obtained from this proportion, z : ir r : : A C P : 180°. 
 With respect to x, we have from the property of the circle 
 x = ^/(rz— f). 
 
 The superficial and solid contents of a segment of a sphere 
 are found thus: Let S be the spherical surface of the seg- 
 ment of the sphere whose centre is C by the plane P Q. R. 
 The symbols having the same values as above, the circum- 
 ference of the circle P. O. R is 2 it y ; and the differential of 
 the surface is dS = 2irydz. But from the nature of the 
 circle, ydz—rdx; hence d S = 2 7T rdx, and S = 2 n- r i ; 
 so that the surface of the segment is found in terms of 
 the radius of the sphere and the altitude of the segment. 
 
 Let U denote the solid contents of the segment ; then, 
 since the area of the circle P Q. R is it y2, the differential of 
 tr e segment is d U= tt y 2 d x = 2 it r x d x — ir x 2 d x ; whence 
 U = 7rz2(r — ix). 
 
 SEGNO. (Ital. a mark.) In Music. See At, Segno. 
 
 SEGUE. (It. it follows.) In Music, a word which, pre- 
 1108 
 
 SELEUCIDiE, ERA OF. 
 
 fixed to a part, denotes that it is immediately to follow the 
 last note of the preceding movement. When minims, crotch- 
 ets, &c, are subdivided by a stroke drawn through their 
 tails, so as to make them into abbreviated groups, the term 
 indicates that the following notes are divided similarly to 
 those first marked. 
 
 0E1DLITZ WATER. The mineral waters of Seidiitz, 
 a village of Bohemia: sulphate of magnesia, sulphate of 
 soda, and carbonic acid, are its active ingredients. It is of- 
 ten taken as an agreeable and effective aperient. The arti- 
 cle sold under the name of Seidlitz-powdcrs is intended to 
 produce the same effect, though very different in composition 
 These powders are generally sold in different-colored pa 
 pers : one blue, containing 2 drachms of the potasssi-tar 
 trate of soda mixed with 2 scruples of bicarbonate of soda ; 
 the other red, containing 35 grains of finely powdered tar- 
 taric acid. The former powder is dissolved in half a pint of 
 water, and the latter in a separate wine-glass full ; the solu- 
 tions are then mixed, and taken in the act of efferveao 
 
 SEl'GNORY. (Fr. seigneurie.) In Lower Canada, the 
 right of feudal superiority in real estate. The term " fief" 
 is applied both to the land held of a seigneur, and to the 
 dominum directum, or right of direct seigniory, reserved to 
 him who has granted the land in fief. The king has the 
 paramount segniory in all the feudal lands. By 6 G: 4, c. 
 59, persons holding fiefs or segniories may, on application to 
 the king, obtain a commutation and release of feudal bur- 
 dens, and the fief or segniory may be regrantcd in common 
 socage. The land held in seigniory is said to amount to 
 more than 15,000 square miles. 
 
 SEIGNORAGE. An ancient prerogative of the crown, 
 whereby it claimed a percentage upon every ingot of gold 
 or silver brought to the mint to be coined. Upon gold it 
 amounted under Edward III. to 5s. per lb. weight, of which 
 a fifth was appropriated to the master of the mint: upon 
 silver it varied from Is. to Is. and 3d., &c, but the amount 
 varied in different reigns. The term seignorage is used in 
 common language to signify profit. 
 
 SEI'SIN, in the Common Law of England, signifies pos- 
 session, either actual (seisin in deed) or in law ; as where 
 lands have descended to a party who has not entered into 
 actual possession of them, or is by wrong disseised of them 
 
 SEISMO'METER. (Gr. cetcuoc, an earthquake.) An in- 
 strument for measuring the shock of earthquakes and othei 
 concussions. (Edin. Phil. Trans, vol. xv. p. 219.) 
 
 SE'JANT. In Heraldry, a term employed to describe 
 beasts when represented in a sitting posture. Sejantram- 
 pant, sitting with the two fore feet lifted up, tec., 
 
 SELA'CIANS, Selacii. (Gr. ochaxoc, a species of scale- 
 less fish.) The name given by Cuvler to the tribe of Chon- 
 dropterygians which includes the rays and sharks. 
 
 SELE'NE. (Gr. the moon.) In Grecian Mythology, the 
 goddess of the moon. Her Latin equivalent was Luna. 
 She was represented sometimes as the wife, the sister, and 
 the daughter of Helios, the sun ; and was identical with 
 Artemis or Diana, which see. 
 
 SELEN1TE. (Gr. cdnviTvc.) One of the mineralogical 
 synonyms of crystallized sulphate of lime. 
 
 SELE'NIUM. (Gr. 1eAt;v^, the moon.) A substance 
 discovered in 1818 by Berzelius. In its general chemi- 
 cal habitudes it bears a resemblance to sulphur. It has 
 hitherto been obtained in very small quantity, and general- 
 ly occurs in some of the varieties of iron pyrites. It is 
 a brittle, opaque substance, tasteless, and inodorous, hav- 
 ing something of the appearance of lead, but of a deep red 
 colour when reduced to powder. Its specific gravity is about 
 4-3. At 212° it becoms soft and tenacious and at 220° is 
 perfectly liquid ; at 650° it boils and sublimes. It is insol- 
 uble in water, and unaltered by air ; and when heated by 
 the blowpipe, so as to become oxidized, it exhales a strong 
 odour of horse-radish. Its equivalent is about 40. It forms 
 an oxide and two acids; the sclenious acid being a com- 
 pound of 1 equivalent of selenium and 2 of oxygen, and 
 the selenic acid of 1 and 3. It also combines with hydro- 
 gen, forming the hydroselenic acid, a gaseous compound of 
 40 selenium + 1 hydrogen. Its odour at first resembles sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen, but it afterwards powerfully irritates 
 the nose, excites catarrhal symptoms, and destroys the 
 sense of smell. Dr. Prout has suggested the possibility of 
 the evolution of this compound by volcanoes, and its diffu 
 sion through the atmosphere as productive of certain forms 
 of the epidemic disorder called influenza. 
 
 SELENO'GRAPHY. (Gr. ?i\nvn, the moon, and ypadxa, 
 1 describe.) The description of the surface of the moon, ai 
 geography is a description of the surface of the earth. 
 
 SELEU'CID^E, ERA OF THE. In Chronology, the era of 
 the Seleucida?, otherwise called the Macedonian era, dates 
 from the epoch of the first conquests of Seleucus Nicator in 
 Syria, about 311 years before Christ. It was followed genw 
 ally by the Greek colonies bordering on the Levant ; and 
 by the Jews till the 15th century, by whom it wns called 
 the era of contracts. There is considerable difference of 
 
SELLA TURCICA. 
 
 opinion among authors respecting the month and day on 
 v.'tii<:h the year of this era commenced, so that it is frequent- 
 ly not possible to fix the correspondence of dates ; but ac- 
 cording to the computation most generally followed, the 
 year 318 of the era of the Seleucidre began on the 1st of 
 September in the Julian yea* preceding the first year of our 
 era. Hence to reduce a Macedonian date to the common 
 era, subtract 311 years and 4 months. 
 
 1.1, A TURCICA. A cavity in the sphenoid bone; it 
 Is surrounded by the four clenoid processes, and contains 
 the pituitary gland. 
 
 I.I. I. The priests of Jupiter, who delivered his ora- 
 cles at the sacred grove of Dodona in Epirus. 
 
 SE'LTEKS or .SELTZER WATER. A mineral water 
 from Seltzer, about ten miles from Frankfort on the Maine. 
 It i- an agreeable beverage, from die quantity of free carbo- 
 nic acid which it contains, and which covers its slightly sa- 
 line taste. Common salt, with the carbonates of magne- 
 sia, lime, and soda, are the saline ingredients. 
 
 BE'LVAQE. A piece of very flexible kind of rope, com- 
 poaed of yarns not twisted together, but laid parallel, and 
 confined by external marline. 
 
 BE'MAPHOBE. (Gr. crjua, a sign, and 0tpw, 1 bear.) A 
 
 term mostly used synonymously with telegraph, but which, 
 
 I derivation imports, may be applied to any means 
 
 whatever employed to communicate intelligence by signals. 
 
 See Taxman. 
 
 SI'.M!','. (Fr. sotcn.) In Heraldry, a ferm employed to 
 i oe a field or charge powdered or strewed over with 
 -mli as stars, billets, crosses, &c. 
 
 SEMEfOTIC. (Gr. couuov, a sign.) That which re- 
 lates i" the signs or symptoms of diseases. 
 
 SEMI-A'RIANS. A branch of the great Arian heresy, 
 who denied the bpoovoiov, or eonsubstantiality of the Son 
 w ,ih the Father ; but admitted the bpotovctov, or similarity 
 of tubstaiue. (See art. Arians ; and Mosheim, Kcclc. Hist. 
 vol. i., trans. 1790, p. 44. See Homoousians.) 
 
 BE'MIBSEVE (i. e., half n breve). In Music, a note 
 whose length is half that of a breve. It is the Integer Whose 
 fractions and multiples express the time of other notes. 
 See Mrsu . 
 
 SE'MICIRCLE. In Geometry, the half of a circle ; or the 
 figure bounded by the diameter and half the circumference. 
 IICOLON. - iion. 
 
 iHIClTBICAL PARABOLA. In Analysis, n curve 
 of the second order: defined by this property. that the cubes 
 Of the ordinate* are proportional to the squares of the cor- 
 responding abscissa; or by the equation y3 = az2. The 
 curve i< the evolnte of the common parabola. 
 
 BE'MIDIA' METER. In Geometry, half of the diame- 
 ter ; or the part of the diameter of any figure comprehend- 
 ed between the centre and the extremity of the diameter. 
 
 BEMIDIAPA'SON. (Gr.) In M usic, a defective octave, 
 or one diminished bv a minor semitone. 
 
 Sr.'.MIDI APE'NTE. (Gr.) In Music, the same as de- 
 ftclicr fifth ; which see. 
 
 MTDIATE'BSARON. (Gr.) In Music, a defective 
 fourth, properly called a false fourth. 
 
 BEMIDITONO. (Gr.) In Music, the same as a minor 
 third. 
 
 SE.MIME'TAL. A term applied by the old chemists to 
 the brittle metals. 
 
 BE'MIMI'NIMA. In Music, a half minim or crotchet. 
 
 BE'MINYMPH. Lyonnet so calls the nymphs of those 
 U which undergo but slight changes in passing to the 
 perfect or imago stage. 
 
 BEMIOTAL. A silicious mineral nearly resembling the 
 common opal. 
 
 BEMIPA'LMATE. (Lat. semi, half, and pnlma, a palm.) 
 In Zoology, when the toes are connected together by a web 
 extending along only their proximal half. The term semi 
 being frequently used in the composition of zoological terms 
 with the Mime meaning, it is only requisite to refer to the 
 term to which it is prefixed. 
 
 SEMITE!, A'GIANS. A sect who differ from the Pela- 
 gians, from whom they are derived, in maintaining the ne- 
 cessity of the divine grace towards the practice of virtue ; 
 but at the same time conceive that this grace may be ob- 
 tained by an effort of the human will. (.See Calvinists, 
 Pei-aoians, &c. ; and Mosheim. Eccl. Hist. vol. ii., trans. 
 1790, p. 92.) 
 
 BE'MIQ.UA'DRATE, or SEMiaUARTILE. In the 
 language of Astrology, an aspect of the planets when dis- 
 join each other half a right angle, or 45°. The terms 
 semi<iuinti/c and semiscxtile have n similar meaning ; the 
 first denoting the half of a fifth of the complete circle, 
 Ifaal is, 3<P; and the second the half of a sixth, or 30°. 
 
 SE'MIQUAVER. In Music, a note whose duration is 
 half that of a quaver. 
 
 BE'MISOSPI'RO. (It.) In Music, a small pause equal 
 (o the eighth part of a bar In common time. 
 
 .SEMITONE. (Gr.) In Music, the half a tone ; though, 
 
 SENEGIN. 
 
 strictly speaking, that is not a proper definition of it, inas- 
 much ns semitones are of three sorts — greater, lesser, and 
 natural. In keyed instruments which have their sounds 
 fixed, the semitones afford the means of a new BOrt of scale 
 between the different tones, by which their defects are 
 partially remedied. 
 
 SEMIVOWEL, is said of thwe consonants which, liku 
 vowels, can be pronounced independently, or without the 
 aid of any other fetter. To this class belong b, d, c, g, k, 
 p, s, t, v, x, and i 
 
 SEMO'NES, in Roman Classical Antiquity, were deities 
 holding a middle place between the twelve supreme gods 
 and heroes. To this (lass belonged such gods as Vertum- 
 nus, Priapus, the Fauns, .Satyrs, &c. The word seiiioncs is 
 a contraction of Lat. semi, half, and homo, man. 
 
 SEMU'NCIA. A small Roman coin, equivalent to hail 
 an ounce, being l-24th of the Roman pound. 
 
 SENA'RIA. (Lat.) In ancient Architecture, the 
 of aqueducts, whose diameter was an inch and a half, or 
 six quarters ; when they were seven quarters they . 
 called sejttenaria, and so on, according to the number of 
 quarters of inches in their diameter. 
 
 SI/NATE. (Lat. senatus ; i.e., assembly of elders.) The 
 deliberative assembly of the Roman people. The members 
 of this council were originally chosen from the patric 
 and were probably tingle representatives of each of the 
 houses of that order: a plebeian senator is first mentioned 
 A.U.C. 355. At the foundation of the city their number 
 was 100, which wal doubled on the admission of thi 
 bines, and increased to 300 by Tarquinius Priscus; but the 
 more ancient members and those admitted by this last king 
 were distinguished by the titles of patrcs viajorvm and 
 patres minorum gentium, or senators of the greater and of 
 the lesser houses res|>ectively. In the last ages of the re- 
 public the members of the senate amounted to above 400. 
 and were still farther raised by the emperors to 1000. The 
 members of the senate w ere originally chosen by the I 
 and afterwards the election fell into the hands of the 
 suls, military tribunes, and finally of the censors; but the 
 fact of having held certain magistracies, as the qu.i 
 ship, and all superior posts, gave a right to this privilege. 
 Under the regal government the senate deliberated on such 
 
 atl'airs as the king proposed to them, and be was sairl to act 
 according to their counsel. On the establishment of the 
 republic the whole power of the state was thrown into i | 
 hands, the different magistrates using the authority they 
 enjoyed merely as its delegates. The first constitul 
 check imposed on it was the power of intercession, or ne- 
 gativing their proceedings, granted to the tribunes of the 
 commonalty. Still, while Rome was free, the authority of 
 the senate, though subordinate to the assembly of the peo- 
 ple, remained very great It assumed the guardianship ol 
 public religion; the management of the revenue; the ap- 
 pointment of governors to the provinces, whose constitution 
 it settled; the direction of diplomatic affairs, and many 
 other functions of importance. Under the emperors its 
 power became, in general, little more than nominal; yet 
 the assembly still existed till the occupation of Italy by the 
 Goths in the 13th century after the foundation of Rome 
 and in the last ages of its existence, after the seat of em- 
 pire had been transferred to Byzantium, it seems to have 
 been the centre of what remained of the old national spiri'. 
 After that time its existence as a council ceased, though 
 the name of senator was still retained by some noble fami- 
 lies of Rome as an empty but high-sounding title. The 
 senatorial badges were the laticlave, or tunic with a pur 
 pie band, black buskin- reaching up to the middle of the 
 leg. and a silver crescent on the foot. 
 
 The affairs of the Italian and provincial towns of the 
 Roman empire, in imitation of the capital, were adminis- 
 tered by senates. See as to these provincial senates, or 
 curire, Savigmfs Hint, of the Roman Law, vol. i. 
 
 Senate. In many republican constitutions of modern 
 times, the upper house of the national assembly has been 
 so called. The senate of the United States (see Congress) 
 is composed of two members for each state of the Union. 
 The senators are chosen by the state for six years. The 
 American senate, besides its legislative functions, is also a 
 species of executive council, assisting the president ; its 
 consent being necessary for the ratification of treaties, ap- 
 pointment of ambassadors, judges of the supreme court, 
 heads of departments in the administration, &c. It is also 
 the hich court of Impeachment for public functionaries. 
 
 BE'NEGA MOOT. The root of the Polygala senega. 
 Rattlesnake root. It is brought from North America: it 
 has a peculiar pungent flavour, and promotes the flow ot 
 saliva. In large doses, it nauseates and purges. It is oc 
 casionally used in stimulating gargles ; and in America, as 
 an antidote— probably a very inefficient one— to the effects 
 of the bite of the rattlesnake. 
 
 SE'NEGIN. The bitter, acrid principle of the Polygala 
 senrga, or rattlesnake root. 
 
 110°. 
 
SENESCHAL. 
 
 SE'NESCIIAL. A French title of office and dignity, de- 
 rived from the middle ages, answering to that of steward, 
 or high steward, in England. They were originally the lieu- 
 tenants Of the dukes and other great feudatories of the 
 kingdom; sometimes termed baillis, or bailiffs. When the 
 kings recovered the righte of suzerainty, and especially the 
 judicial authority, in those provinces which had been pre- 
 viously governed by these great nobles, the bailiff's and se- 
 neschals continued as royal judges and superintendents, 
 both military and financial ; but their powers, like those of 
 the dukes and counts whom they succeeded, were grad- 
 ually encroached on by the crown. 
 
 SENNA LEAVES. The leaves of the Cassia senna. 
 They are imported from Alexandria, whither they are 
 brought from Upper Egypt. They are largely mixed with 
 the leaves of the Cynanchum oleafolium, or Jlrgcl, which 
 are thick, and not ribbed like the genuine senna leaves. 
 They have a nauseous, mucilaginous, bitter taste, and yield 
 a pale brownish green infusion. The true senna leaves are 
 distinctly ribbed, thin, generally pointed, and when chewed 
 ha've a peculiar nauseous flavour, and yield a dark brown 
 infusion. It is a griping, nauseating, and somewhat drastic 
 purge, and a most valuable addition to, or vehicle for, other 
 purgatives. 
 
 SE'NSES. (Lat. sentio, / feci.) The faculties are so 
 called by which we become acquainted with the properties 
 and states of external things. They are five in number — 
 sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell : for the physiology 
 of which, the reader is referred to the articles; such as 
 Eye, Eak, Smell, &c. See also Nervous System. We 
 can only here advert to the fact, that the late Dr. Thomas 
 Brown of Edinburgh and Sir C. Bell have propounded the 
 novel doctrine of a sixth sense, called the muscular sense 
 (our whole muscular frame being supposed to be a distinct 
 organ of sense) ; a doctrine which had almost fallen into 
 oblivion, but to which Mr. Whewell has recently declared 
 his adherence in his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, 
 tec. This part of the subject is ably treated in the Edin. 
 Review, vol. lxxiv. 
 
 SENS!' P 'VE PLANT. This name is generally applied 
 to a small nnnnal, called Mimosa pudica, inhabiting the 
 tropics of America. It has a stem about a foot and a half 
 high, covered with stiff* hairs; the leaves are bipinnate in 
 a somewhat digitate manner; and the flowers are collected 
 in small pink balls. It derives its name from the irritabili- 
 ty of its leaves, which collapse and fold up when touched, 
 or even when irritated by casting on them the focus of a 
 burning glass; or by exposing them to the vapour of hydro- 
 cyanic acid. The cause of this irritability has been inves- 
 tigated by Dutrochet (Memoires pour scrvir a CHist. Anat. 
 ct Phys. des Vegetaux, <$-c. vol. i. 534), who refers the phe- 
 nomenon to the action of endosmose, and to the operation 
 of a " fibrous tissue capable of moving inward under the 
 influence of oxj'genation." Without attempting to analyze 
 the speculations of this author, which, however curious, 
 can scarcely be said to throw much new light upon the sub- 
 ject, it will be sufficieut to explain the nature of the pheno- 
 mena themselves. When the leaf of a sensitive plant is at 
 rest, it consists of many leaflets spreading flat, and connect- 
 ed in pairs along the sides of certain common leafstalks. 
 When one of these leaflets is irritated, the pair to which it 
 belongs rise upward, and apply their faces to each other ; 
 this is rapidly followed by the same action in the succeed- 
 ing leaflets, and in the course of a few seconds the whole 
 of the leaflets are in a state of collapse ; then the leaf itself 
 suddenly bends downwards ; and if" the plant is in very 
 good health, the shock thus communicated to one leaf will 
 extend to those immediately above and below it. After a 
 time the leaf resumes its original position. Upon the ap- 
 proach of night, that is to say, upon the withdrawal of light, 
 the leaf falls of itself into the same state, without any 
 special irritation. This kind of irritability is by no means 
 confined to the Mimosa pudica; on the contrary, some 
 other species of the same genus, as the M. dormiens, sensi- 
 tiva, casta, somniuns, palpitans, &c. possess the same pro- 
 perty, as is indicated by their names. And among the Le- 
 guminous order, it is also found beyond the genus Mimosa, 
 as in the Hcdysarum gyrans, whose three leaflets are in a 
 continual state of dancing or balancing during the day. In 
 fact the folding their leaves at night, which is universal in 
 all the compound-leaved species of this order, is the same 
 thing feebly exercised. Nor is such irritability confined to 
 this order ; the termite and pinnate leaved species of Oxal- 
 is, the Diandra muscipula, and numerous other plants, ex- 
 hibit similar phenomena. 
 
 SE'NSUALISM. In Mental Philosophy, that theory 
 which resolves all our mental acts and intellectual powers 
 into various modifications of mere sensation. The best 
 known, and the most elaborate attempt of this kind which 
 has been made in modern times, is that of Condillac, who 
 conceived that he was following out the principles of Locke 
 into their legitimate consequences For this belief it can- 
 1110 
 
 SEPOY. 
 
 not be denied that there exists at least plausible ground 
 Locke does indeed draw a distinction between sensation 
 and reflection, as separate sources of •' ideas :" but his ac- 
 count of reflection is so vague, and its existence apparently 
 so unsupported in his system, as to justify the attempt to 
 reduce it to mere revived sensation. The writings of 
 Condillac mav be regarded as a fair rcductio ad absurdum 
 of the theory which attempts to explain the existence of out 
 mental phenomena independently of conditions in the mind 
 itself. The theory opposed to sensualism is called intclUct- 
 ualism. 
 
 SE NTENCE. In English Law, the decree or judgment 
 of the ecclesiastical or admiralty courts is so termed ; 
 in popular language, the judgment of a criminal cum: .;! 
 lotting the punishment of a convicted person. 
 
 SE NTltY. (Lat. sentia, / perceive.) The name 
 to a soldier when placed on guard. In all the countries of 
 Europe, sentries are relieved every two hours. 
 
 SE'NZA (It. without), in Music, signifies without ; as 
 scma stromenli, without instruments; con e scnia violini. 
 with and without violins. 
 
 SE'PALS. The divisions of that portion of a flower 
 called the calyx. 
 
 SEPARATISTS. A religious sect which originated in 
 Dublin about the year 1803. Their principle, like that of 
 most sects at their commencement, was to return more near- 
 ly to what they conceived to be the primitive form of 
 Christianity. "There is nothing very peculiar in their ten- 
 ets, beyond their withdrawal from the fellowship of other 
 Christian bodies. In the year 1833 an act of parliament 
 was passed for their relief in the matter of oaths. 
 
 SEPARATISTS, or MOTAZAL1TES. The name of 
 one of the chief heretical sects of the Mohammedans. 
 They were the followers of Wasel Ebn Orta, who dissent- 
 ed from the main body of the Mohammedans about the 
 40th year of the Hegira. Their leading tenets consisted in 
 rejecting the eternal attributes of God ; in denying the great 
 doctrine of predestination, so zealously cherished by all the 
 orthodox Mussulmans ; and in asserting the free agency of 
 man. This fee: i? said to have been the first inventors of 
 scholastic divinity, and are subdiv ■: i fefior 
 
 sects, which mutually brand one another as infidels, (Sale's 
 Koran, Preliminary Discourse, vol. i., p. 212.) The 
 opponents of the Separatists were the Sefatians, who main- 
 tained the eternal attributes of God (hence they were call- 
 ed Sefati, or Attributists) ; but who afterwards adopted a 
 belief in the outward resemblance of God to created be- 
 ings. This sect was afterwards subdived into various 
 the chief of which were the Asharians, Moshabbehites, 
 Keramians, Jabarians, and Morgians: for an account of 
 which the reader is referred to the Preliminary JJiscourse 
 above mentioned. 
 
 SE'PIA. In the Fine Arts, a species of pigment prepar- 
 ed from a black juice secreted by certain glands of the sepia 
 or cuttlefish, which the animal ejects both to darken the 
 water when it is pursued, and as a direct means of annoy- 
 ance. That this juice was used as ink by the ancients is 
 well known. 
 
 Tunc queritur, crassus calamoquod pendeat humor, 
 
 Ni^C'a qu"d iiifuaa vanescat sepia hmjjha; 
 
 Lalu'.as queritur gemiuet quod iis'.ul.iguaas.— Pert. Sat. III. 
 
 Compare Pliny (Nat. Hist. 1. ii., c. 29), where he says 
 that it was the property of this fish, when it was enclosed 
 by a net, to shed a black juice, which so darkened the wa- 
 ter that the fisherman could not see it. All the varieties of 
 the sepia yield this juice ; but the Sepia officinalis, which is 
 so common in the Mediterranean, is chiefly sought after, 
 from the profusion of colour which it affords. It is insolu- 
 ble in water, but is extremely diffusible through it, and is 
 very slowly deposited. When prepared with caustic lye, 
 it forms a beautiful brown colour with a fine grain, and has 
 given name to a species of drawing now extensively cultiva- 
 ted for landscapes and other branches of the fine arts. The 
 honour of the invention of the sepic drawing is due to Profes- 
 sor Seidelmann of Dresden, who discovered it at Rome in 1777. 
 
 SE'PIAD^E. (Gr. trnvia.) Cuttle-fish tribe. The name 
 of the family of Decapodous Dibrnnchiate Cephnlopods of 
 w Inch the cuttle-fish (Sepia officinalis) is the type. They 
 are characterized by the rudiment of a shell, in the form of 
 a friable calcareous plate, imbedded in the back part of the 
 mantle, and of which the material called pounce is made. 
 
 SE'PIOLA. (Dim. of sepia, a cut tie-fish.) The name of 
 a genus of Decapodous Dibrunchiate Cephnlopods, of which 
 the species are of small size, and are characterized by 
 short, rounded, advanced subdorsal fins, and a short inter 
 nal hornv style. 
 
 SE'PIUM. The bone or internal shell of the cuttlefish. 
 
 SE'POY. (A corruption of the Indian word sipahi, sol- 
 dier.) The designation of the native troops in the service 
 of the East India Company. They were so called as early 
 as 1708 (see Mill's British India, book iv., ch. 1), although 
 at that period they do not seem to have been as yet disci- 
 
SEPS. 
 
 plined in the European fashion, nor, indeed, until long after 
 other European powers had set tlie example. (See the 
 Unitrd Service Journal for lt<3t>, vol. i., p. 401, where there 
 is a valuable paper 0:1 the "History and Character of the 
 Indian army.") The first Sepoys (says the author) who 
 were raised and regularly disciplined by the English, seem 
 to have been carefully chosen either from among the Mo- 
 hammedan portion or the population, or from among the 
 higher ca-tes of Hindoos, a considerable proportion of the 
 being Rajpoots, the most warlike of Indian racc3. 
 But the necessities of the service have subsequently intro- 
 duced a greater mixture in their ranks. The character of 
 poys as soldiers has been the subject of much discus- 
 sion. According to a writer in the same periodical (1831, 
 vol. iii.. p. 3), "the Sepoys have justly been celebrated for 
 lent qualities; as, for instance, patience and fortitude 
 under difficulties and privations. But, on the other band, 
 if we analyze the account of the wars in which they have 
 been employed, we shall fnd that they seem to possess pas- 
 sive rather than active courage; for instance, that in line 
 they will remain steady under tire; in a broken or close 
 country, however, where skirmishers and small detachments 
 are necessarily most employed, they are found wanting." 
 Others, however, disagree even from this modified dispraise. 
 At all event.-, their fidelity and respect for their ollicers have 
 generally been (bund of the highest and most durable char- 
 acter; the famous mutinies of Vellore in lcSOti, and Barrack- 
 poro in 1835, having been both, it is generally thought, pro- 
 voked by the mismanagement of their superiors. Some, iu- 
 ed a severe shock in 
 \ hen a Considerable alteration was made in the or- 
 Indian army, and a larger pro|>ortion of 
 ■ officers introduced, so that the internal economy of 
 their battalions ceased to be superintended by their own 
 "subadars." The Sepoys of Madras, says Sir J. Malcolm 
 (Quarter/;/ liev., vol. xviii.), still remember with pride tho 
 camp ■ and Coote, which are far beyond the 
 
 memory of the present generation. The native Indian can- 
 not rise higher than the rank of ensign, or cornet. The na- 
 tive cavalry is of more recent introduction, and seems 
 schi :< , idiness, which all agree in 
 
 ■ i the infantry. See, also, Williams's India* 
 Army; Alison, Hist, of the Revolution, chap, li.; Sir J. 
 i's Political History of India, vol. ii., chap, x.) 
 SEPS. (LaLs tpscies of serpent.) The name of a genus 
 n-ian reptiles, which have a long round serpentiform 
 body, and four very short legs, each terminated in the coin- 
 by only three toes. 
 PTABLA. Nodules of indurated and slightly ferru- 
 ginous marl, with Interior fissures generally filled with some 
 llized mineral, such as carbonate of lime, quartz, 
 sulphate of baryta, &c. ; thus dividing the section of the 
 nodule into septa, or distinct partitions. When calcined and 
 reduced to p septaria furnish the valuable mor- 
 
 tar called Roman or Parker's cement, which has the proper- 
 nardeninj under water. 
 
 PTE'MBEB Lit. septein, seven), so called from its 
 the seventh month in the Roman year as established 
 bj Romnlos, which began with March, is the ninth month 
 in the calendar of Xtima. Several of the Roman emperors 
 names to this month in honour of themselves; but, 
 unlike the month of August, whose ancient name of Sex- 
 tilis has been quite merged in that of Augustus, the name 
 of September Iris outlived every other appellation. 
 
 BEPTE'MBRISTS. The name given to the agents in the 
 dreadful massacre which took place in Paris on September 
 2, ITiiJ, during the French Revolution. The numbers that 
 ed in this massacre have been variously given ; but 
 the u rm has become proverbial throughout Europe for all 
 that is bloodthirsty and malignant in human nature. 
 
 BEPTE'MVIRl EPULONUM. Certain priests in ancient 
 Borne were so called, whose duty consisted in preparing the 
 I feasts at games, processions, and on other solemn oc- 
 . They were assistants to the pontifices, certain of 
 whose privileges, such as the right of wearing the togapra- 
 texta, they enjoyed. Their office was instituted A.U.C. 557; 
 and at first they were only three in number, which was In- 
 to seven, it is supposed, by Sylla. 
 BE'PTIC. (Gr. crnTrros, putrid.) A term applied by the 
 old chemists and physiologists to certain substances supposed 
 to promote putrefaction. 
 SEPTUAGE'SIMA. (Lat. seventieth.) In the Ecclesi- 
 ii Calender, the third Sunday before Lent; the first 
 day in Lent being termed Quadragesima (fortieth), the 
 three preceding ones Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quin- 
 ima. 
 SEPTUAGINT. (Lat. seventy.) The Greek translation 
 Of the Old Testament made at Alexandria for the advantage 
 Of the Jews of EgJ pt, who had lost the use of the Hebrew 
 Language. According to the old tradition, this version was 
 the work of -evenly two Interpreters, who were shut tip in 
 separate cells by the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
 
 SEQUESTRATION 
 
 and there completed the whole translation alone, in which, 
 upon examination, they were till foun a letter — 
 
 a prodigy Which established the inspiration of the work. It 
 is supposed, however, by modern critics, that tins \ersionof 
 the several books is the work not only of different hands, 
 but of separate times ; although the general design may 
 have been that which we have mentioned. The authority 
 of the Septuagint, as compared with the Hebrew text, from 
 which it diners in many points, has been the subject of much 
 controversy. It is from this version that the authenticity of 
 the Apocrypha, which are not found in the Hebrew, is as 
 scrted by Roman Catholic writers. The quotations of the 
 Old Testament which are found in the Hew are. for the 
 most part, given in the words Of the Septuagint. (See 
 Prideauz' Connexion.) 
 
 BE'PTTJM. (Lot. a partition.) In Botany, any partition 
 separating a body into two or more cells in a direction paral 
 lei with the longer axis. Partitions parallel with tie 
 axis are called phragmata. 
 
 BkftoK. In Anatomy, the plate or wall which separates 
 from each other two adjoining cavities ; ns the septum 
 trnnsversum, or diaphragm, between the chest and the ab- 
 domen ; the septum annum, between the two nasal pas 
 sages; the septum veniriculosiiin in the brain, and in the 
 heart, &c. The partitions of chambered shells are also 
 called nufiii 
 
 BE'PULCHRE. SmTomb. 
 
 BE'PULCHRE, SAINT, HOSPITALLERS OP THE. 
 An order of knighthood, originally instituted in Palestine, 
 afterwards established In France by Louis VII., and united 
 by Pope Innocent VIII. to that of Malta ; but the order still 
 continued to exist in France, and was taken under protec- 
 tion by Louis XVIII. in 1-1 I. 
 
 BE'PULTORE, RITES OP (Lat. sepelio, I bury), signi- 
 fy literally the ceremonies performed In depositing the bo- 
 dies of the dead in the earth ; but the expression is applied 
 in a more extended signification to all ceremonies of this 
 kind, whether they Consisl In interment, incremation, or 
 embalming. A veneration for the dead has characterized 
 the history of every age and country ; and the different kinds 
 of funer. 
 
 timalely connected with their religions feelings, and form 
 important testimonies at once of th thinking 
 
 and degrees of civilization. The three chief modes of treat- 
 ing the dead that have prevailed from the earliest ages down 
 to the present times, ore burning, Interment, and embalm- 
 ing ;* and all these modes were accompanied by cert monies 
 differing according 10 the genius or taste of the different peo- 
 ple, but bearing, notwithstanding, such strong features of 
 resemblance, as sufficiently to indicate the universality of 
 the feeling which led to their adoption. The peculiar 
 solemnities of the Greeks and Romans, among whom both 
 incremation and interment prevailed, though the former 
 was by far the most frequent, need not be detailed in this 
 place. Among the Romans, the importance of burial to the 
 dead may lie gathered from the belief, that the souls of the 
 unlmried wandered a hundred years on the borders of the 
 Styx before they were admitted to the infernal regions. 
 The practice, peculiar to the Egyptians, of embalming their 
 dead, has been noticed under Mummy ; and the custom still 
 
 prevalent In India — which it may be truly said mc polizes 
 
 the cruelties of funereal observances— of Immolating women 
 on the funeral pile of their husbands, will be found under 
 Suttee. The practice of interment has been adopted by 
 all the nations that have embraced Christianity. See Ceme- 
 tery. 
 
 SE'QUENCE. (Lat. sequentia.) In Music, a similar 
 succession of chords ascending or descending diatonically. 
 
 SEQUESTRA'TIOX. In English Law, a species of ex- 
 ecution for debt in the case of a beneficed clergyman, issued 
 by the bishop of the diocess on the receipt of a writ to that 
 effect. The profits of the benefice are paid over to the credi- 
 tor until his claim is satisfied. Sequestration is also, in 
 Chancery, the setting aside from both parties the matter in 
 controversy. 
 
 Sequestration. In Scottish Law— 1. A species of dili- 
 gence (i. e., a process), used where two or more creditors 
 are in competition for the property of a land estate, the own- 
 er of which is in insolvent circumstances; or where the 
 right to a land estate is the subject of litigation. In these 
 cases the court may, on application, sequestrate the rents, 
 and employ a factor to collect them. 2. Sequestration is 
 also the process whereby the whole estate, both heritable 
 and moveable, of a bankrupt, is distributed equitably 
 among his creditors. It is granted on application to the 
 court of session by the bankrupt, with the concurrence of 
 
 * The singular usace adopted by the follower* of Zoroaster, and still pre- 
 served in Thibet, is worthy of particular nonce. From an idea that the pure 
 elements of tank airfare would be contaminated by being made the instru- 
 ments of dissolution, the corpse is aid upon a platform erected for the pur- 
 pose, and enclosed with ma-sy walls, and there abandoned as a prey to the 
 wolra and Ihe vulture.. 'SchlcgcVl Hxflory of Literature.) 
 
SEQ.ULN. 
 
 one or more creditors, or on their application, and on citation 
 of the bankrupt; and is analogous to a fiat in bankruptcy in 
 English law. 
 
 SE'UUIN. (ltal. zecchino ; derived from zeccn, a mint.) 
 The gold pieces of Venice were originally so called ; after- 
 wards the name was extended to other gold coins in use In 
 the Mediterranean, as those of the Pope, the Sultan, Flor- 
 ence, and Genoa. See Money. 
 
 SERA'GLIO. An Italian corruption of the oriental word 
 serai. The palace of the Turkish sultan in Constantinople 
 is thus designated by European writers. The principal gate 
 of the seraglio is the Babi Humayun, or Sublime Gate, 
 whence the ordinary title of the Turkish government is de- 
 rived. 
 
 SE'RAPHIM, or JESUS, ORDER OF THE. An an- 
 cient Swedish order of knighthood, instituted in 1334 ; but 
 dormant from the period of the Reformation until 1748. The 
 number of knights, besides the king and members of the 
 royal family, is limited to twenty-four. 
 
 SERAPHINE. A keyed musical wind instrument of the 
 organ species, adapted to the size of a chamber. 
 
 SE'RAPHS, er SERAPHIM. (Heb. to purify.) In the 
 Celestial Hierarchy, the angels of the highest rank. They 
 are represented as surrounding the throne of God, whose 
 messengers they are, and as being more immediately in- 
 spired with the Divine love, which they communicate to the 
 inferior inhabitants of heaven. They are almost invariably 
 spoken of in connexion with the cherubim, whom they re- 
 semble both In rank and attributes. 
 
 SERATIS. An Egyptian deity. The image and wor- 
 ship of this god were brought from Sinope in Pontus to 
 Alexandria, in the last year of Ptolemy Soter, in conse- 
 quence, it is said, of a vision of Ptolemy I. According to 
 some accounts, this image was a statue of Jupiter; but how- 
 ever this may have been, Serapis was clearly, as Sir G. 
 Wilkinson expresses it (Jlnc. Egypt, iv., 360), " at most a 
 Qneeo-Egyptian deity." And there is no foundation for the 
 notion entertained by some early Christian fathers, that he 
 represented the Patriarch Joseph (which ihey supported by 
 an argument drawn from the ornament in the shape of a 
 bushel, which the images of this god usually bore on the 
 head) ; or for that of some modern antiquaries, that it was 
 another name for Apis. (Plut. de Is. ct Osir., Quart. Rev., 
 July, 1840.) 
 
 SE'RASQUIER. The name given by the Turks to the 
 commanders-in-chief of their armies. It is compounded of 
 two Persian words, signifying head of an army. 
 
 BERENA'DE (Span. serenata ; from Lat. serenits, clear), 
 signified originally music performed in the open air on a 
 serene evening ; but it is now universally applied to a musi- 
 cal performance made by gentlemen in a spirit of gallantry 
 under the windows of ladies whom they admire. This 
 practice, which was formerly very general in Spain and 
 Italy has latterly fallen greatly into disuse in these coun- 
 tries ; but it is still very common in the German university 
 towns, where the students are in the habit of assembling in 
 the evening under the windows of a favourite professor, 
 and offering him a musical tribute. 
 
 SERENE, SERENE HIGHNESS, SERENITY. (Germ. 
 dnrchlaucht.) Titles of courtesy in European etiquette of 
 considerable antiquity. Before the dissolution of the Ger- 
 man empire, Serene and Most Serene Highness were the 
 appropriate addresses of princely houses holding immedi- 
 ately of the empire. Since that period the rules of princely 
 etiquette have become more uncertain ; but it appears to be 
 the general principle that these titles belong of right to mem- 
 bers of the families of sovereign houses in the confederacy, 
 and also to members of ci-devant sovereign houses now 
 mediatized : and that sovereign princes can morever concede 
 these appellations to princes not sovereign within their own 
 dominions, but not so as to give them a title to it out of them. 
 But the distinctions as to the mode in which these titles are 
 to be employed in addressing superiors, equals, and Inferiors, 
 are extremely complicated. 
 
 SERF. (Lat. servus.) The French name for the lowest 
 class ol slaves in the dark ages ; those who were incapable 
 of holding property, attached to the land, and liable to 
 feudal services of the lowest description. In England this 
 appears to have been the general character of the condition 
 Of the villeins ; but in France and Germany Mr. Hallam 
 thinks that the villeins, properly so called, were a superior 
 class, only bound to fixed payments and duties in respect of 
 their land. ( Middle Ages, chap, ii., part 2. See Villein.) 
 The emancipation of this class in France was extremely 
 gradual. Louis Hutin enfranchised them on the royal do- 
 mains by edict in 1315 ; but it does not appear to have been 
 carried immediately into execution, and a limited kind of 
 servitude existed In some places down to the Revolution. 
 The "setts," or "gens de main morte," on some estates 
 (e. g , In part of Champagne and Nivernois), could not 
 leave their habitations, and might be followed by the lord 
 in any part of France for the taille, or villein tax, which, in 
 1112 
 
 SERJEANTS-AT-ARMS. 
 
 some localities, was not permanent, but a volonte. See, as 
 to the progress of enfranchisement, a memoir by Duprev, 
 Hist. Ac. I., 38.) 
 
 SERGE. A cloth of quilted woollen, extensively manti 
 factured in Devonshire and other English counties. 
 
 SERGEANT. Sec Serjeant. 
 
 SE'RIES (Lat. order), in Arithmetic and Algebra, is a 
 progression of numbers or quantities which succeed each 
 other according to some determinate law. Thus, the pro- 
 gression of the natural numbers, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, &c, constitutes 
 a series ; the law of which is, that any term is greater by 
 unity .than the preceding. As the law which connects the 
 terms may be varied in an infinite number of ways, it fol- 
 lows that series may have an infinite number of different 
 forms ; thus, an arithmetical series is one in which each 
 term differs from the preceding by a constant number or 
 quantity ; a geometrical series is one to which each term is 
 a multiple of the preceding by a constant factor. 
 
 The usual form of a series is a set of terms connected by 
 the signs -4- or — . When the number of terms is greater 
 than any assignable number, the series is said to be infauu. 
 
 A converging scries is one in which the successive terms 
 become less and less, each being smaller than that which im- 
 mediately precedes it. 
 
 A diverging scries is one in which any term is greater 
 than the preceding. 
 
 A recurring scries is one in which each term is a certain 
 constant function of two or more of the preceding terms 
 Thus, 1 + 3 x -f- 4 x2 + 7 x3 + 11 %\ + & c ., is a recurring 
 series, every term being formed in the same manner from 
 the two immediately preceding. This series is formed 
 by the expansion by division of the algebraic fraction 
 l + 2z 
 
 1 — x — xi 
 
 An exponential scries is one whose terms depend on ex- 
 ponential quantities; a logarithmic series is one whose 
 terms depend on circular functions, as sines, cosines, &c. 
 
 The general term of a series is a function of some inde- 
 terminate quantity x, which, on substituting successively 
 the numbers 1, 2, 3, &c, for x, produces the terms of the 
 series. 
 
 In general, the principal questions which arise respecting 
 series are to find the sum of all the terms, or of a given 
 number of them; and the exposition of the methods which 
 have been invented for this purpose forms an extensive and 
 important part of every treatise on the calculus. The stu- 
 dent may be recommended in particular to Filler's Intro- 
 ductio in Jinalysin Injinitorum, and Calculus Differentials ; 
 and the third volume of Lacroix's Calcul Differential ct In- 
 tegral. 
 
 SE'RJEANT. (Lat. serviens.) Serjeant-at-law is the 
 highest degree in the common law, and all must proceed 
 through this degree before attaining the dignity of judge. 
 The Court of Common Pleas is open to Serjeants only lor 
 the purpose of pleading. This exclusive privilege was at- 
 tempted to be taken away in 1834, and for five years the 
 court was thrown open. But after solemn argument, it was 
 decided by the privy council that this enlargement was mv 
 wirranted; and the former practice again prevails. Ser- 
 jf ants-at-law are now made by the king's writ commanding 
 fuein to take their degree. No precise time seems now ne- 
 cessary to permit a barrister to become a Serjeant (See 
 Serjeant Manning's learned work, Serviens ad Legem. I 
 
 Serjeant. In the Army, a non-commissioned oftieer, 
 both in infantry and cavalry regiments, whose duty it is Co 
 form the ranks and to instruct recruits in discipline. On 
 parade they act as fuglemen, in going through the evolu- 
 tions. The serjeant-major is a non-commissioned officer, 
 who acts as assistant to the adjutant; but originally he was 
 a field officer, corresponding in rank to the modern major. 
 Colour-serjeants are certain non-commissioned officers ap- 
 pointed to attend the officers who have charge of the col- 
 ours of the regiment. 
 
 SERJEANT, KING'S. One or more of the serjeauta-at 
 law, whose presumed duty is to plead for the king in causes 
 of a public nature, as indictments for treason, &c. 
 
 SERJEANT-AT-ARMS. Officers whose duty is to at 
 tend the person of the king, the lord-high stew. nil, when 
 sitting in judgment on a traitor, &c. The whole number is 
 restricted by an ancient law (13 R. 2) to thirty. Two of 
 these are allowed by the king to attend at the houses of 
 parliament during their sittings, and each has a deputy. In 
 the House of Lords, the practical maintenance of decorum 
 below the bar, near the throne, and in the gallery, devolves 
 upon the gentleman and yeoman usher, with their assis- 
 tants; so that " the serjeant-at-arms attending the House of 
 Lords," has less conspicuous duties to perform than those 
 which devolve upon "the Serjeant attending the House ''I' 
 Commons:" both, however, execute the commands of the 
 house to which they belong, as regards the apprehension m 
 custody of all persons committed by order of parliament. In 
 
SERJEANTY, GRAND AND PETTY. 
 
 the House of Commons, the serjeant-at-arms is an officer of 
 considerable importance, enjoying large emoluments, assist- 
 ed by a deputy and several subordinate officers. During the 
 sitting of the bouse he occupies a chair below the bar, and 
 lie directs a large proportion of the arrangements connected 
 with the maintenance of order in the approaches to the 
 and the offices adjacent. He is at once the executive 
 and the ceremonial officer of the lower house; but his dis- 
 cretionary powers are not extensive, for almost all his more 
 important duties are performed under the immediate direc- 
 tion of the house itself, communicated through the speaker. 
 Tin' office is usually held by a gentleman of the military 
 
 inn, seldom under the rank ofa field officer. 
 BERJEANTY, GRAND AND PETTY. In English 
 Law, feudal tenures. Tenure by grand serjeanty was 
 when: the tenant held land of the king by service, to be 
 performed in his own person, in his wars, &c. ; such as to 
 bear a banner or spear, or to assist at his coronation. 
 Tenure by petit serjeanty was where the owner was bound 
 to contribute some small thing towards military service, &c. ; 
 such as a sword, dagger, bow, or spear. Tenure by grand 
 serjeanty was preserved by slat. 12 C. 2, which abolished 
 the other feudal tenures, and still subsists in some cases; 
 as, for instance, the family of Dymoke hold the lands of 
 Scrivclsby by the service of attending as champions at royal 
 coronations. 
 
 SE'RMON. In Ecclesiastical usage. The use of the 
 sermon or homily as a portion of the communion service is 
 said to be of remote antiquity. This ancient custom fell 
 Into partial disuse during a great part of the middle ages. 
 The Homilies of Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury in the 
 10th century, were long used in the English church ; but 
 (hew became antiquated; and in the year 1281, says Mr. 
 Palmer (Orig. Lilurg., vol. ii., ch. 4,) preaching seems to 
 have been generally omitted. In that year Archbishop 
 Peckhnm ordered, in his Constitutions, that four sermons 
 should be delivered during the year. But for some time 
 prior to the Reformation preaching was again coming more 
 into use ; and the publication of homilies by authority 
 
 to have completely restored the ancient practice. 
 
 IK1LY. 
 
 BERON. A buffalo's bide, used for packing drugs and 
 other articles. 
 
 BEROSITY. (Lat. scrum.) The liquid which exudes 
 
 from the serum of the blood when it is coagulated by heat. 
 It is water holding some of the salts of the blood and a 
 Brace of albumen in solotion. 
 
 BE'RPENS, or SERPENS OPHIUCHt. In Astronomy, 
 one of the ancient constellations in the northern hemi- 
 sphere. 
 
 BERPENT. In Zoology, a general name for the species 
 ol the order Ophidia. 
 
 ats are divided into spurious, or Pscudophidians, 
 and true, or Ophidians proper. The Pscudophidians, al- 
 though presenting the well-marked external characters of 
 the order, retain an imperfect pelvis, a small sternum, 
 scapula', and coracoids or clavicles, bidden beneath the 
 skin; whereby, as well as in the structure of the skull, 
 they approach the saurian order. The common blind-worm 
 (Unguis fragilis) is a native representative of the Pscudo- 
 phiitina family. 
 
 The true serpents have neither sternum nor vestige of 
 capular arch : they have no third eyelid, nor tympa- 
 num ; but the auditory ossicle exists beneath the skin, and 
 its handle passes behind the tympanic bone. Several 
 secies retain a vestige of hind-limbs, which in some even 
 shows itself externally in the form of a small hook. The 
 chief subdivisions of the true Ophidians are — the Jimphis- 
 ; the Tythlopcs ; the Roles ( Tortrix) ; the Boas ; the 
 Pythons ; the Colubers ; the Jicrochords ; all which tribes 
 are non-venomous. The Pseudoboas, Rattlesnakes, Trigo- 
 nocephaly, and Vipers are the venomous tribes ; and are 
 distinguished by having the superior maxillary bones short 
 and moveable, supporting fewer teeth than in the non- 
 venomous serpents, and having the first of the short series 
 larger than the rest, sometimes the only conspicuous fang. 
 and traversed by the duct of a poison-gland, around which 
 duct the tooth is, as it were, longitudinally folded, so as to 
 appear perforated by a canal. The last tribe of true ser- 
 pents includes the Hydrophides, or sea-snakes, which have 
 likewise a poison-gland and duct, the latter being inclosed 
 by the last instead of the first of the maxillary series of 
 The tail of the sea-snakes is flattened vertically, 
 and forms their chief organ of swimming. No species of 
 this family has yet been discovered which exceeds seven 
 feet In length. 
 
 The remains of an extinct genus of serpents {Palaophis), 
 indicating species of from ten to twenty feet in length, have 
 discovered in the Eocene tertiary formations in Suffolk, 
 Kent, and Sussex. (See Mr. Owen's Paper in the Geologi- 
 cal Transactions, 2d Series, vol. vi., p. 209.) 
 In antiquity the serpent played an important part. By 
 
 SESAMUM. 
 
 some nations it was regarded as the emblem of cunning, 
 deceit, and wickedness '.compare the narration of the fall of 
 man in Genesis with .he Persian saga of Ahreman and 
 Orrauzd) ; by others, such as the Egyptians and Phoeni- 
 cians, it was looked upon as a good genius (ayaUoiaiuuv), 
 and worshipped as the emblem of fertility ; while by the 
 Greeks and Romans, whose mythology originated undoubt- 
 edly from Egypt and the East, it appeared under a variety 
 of symbolic representations. With the latter the serpent 
 was the well known emblem of the healing art ; and in the 
 present time a serpent with its tail in its month is regarded 
 as an emblem of eternity. The serpent appears also to 
 have held a place in the Scandinavian mythology, where it 
 was regarded as a symbol of the human "passions. In the 
 early ages of the Christian church, a sect of the Gnostics, 
 also, worshipped the serpent, whence they were called 
 Ophites (from Gr. o<pis, a serpent.) (See Mosheim's Ges- 
 chithte dcr Schlangcnbriider dcr erstcn Kirc/u .) 
 
 Serpent. (So called from its form.) A musical brass 
 wind instrument, serving as bass to the horns or cornets. 
 It is most generally covered with leather, and has three 
 parts — a mouth-piece, neck, and tail. The compass is two 
 octaves, produced by six holes stopped with the ringers. 
 
 SERPEN"!' A'RIUS. One of the ancient northern con- 
 stellations, represented on the globes by the figure ofa man 
 grasping a serpent (serpens) in his hand. Sec Constella- 
 tion. 
 
 BE'RPENTJNE. A mngnesian rock of various colours, 
 and often speckled like a serpent's back. See Geology. 
 
 SERPI'GO. See Ringworm. 
 
 SERPU'LEANS, Scrpulea. (Lat. serpo, / creep.) The 
 name ofa family oflCephalobranchiate AnelUdaoa, inhabit- 
 ing cylindrical and tortuous calcareous tubes ; generally 
 parasitic on shells. 
 
 SE'RRATE. (Lat. serra, a saw.) In Zoology, when a 
 part is cut into teeth like a saw, or is - armed with teeth 
 whose sides are unequal. 
 
 SER'RICORNS, Serricorncs. (Lat. scrra, a saw ; cornu, 
 a horn.) The name of a family of Coleopterous insects, 
 comprehending those which have serrated or saw-shaped 
 antenna;. 
 
 SERTULA'RIA. (LaL sertum, a wreath.) The name 
 of a genus of compound tubular Polypes ; restricted, in 
 modern zoology, to those species in which the cells are 
 arranged on two sides of the stem, either opposite or alter- 
 nate. 
 
 SE'RUM. (Lat.) The fluid which separates from blood 
 during its coagulation. Sec Blood. 
 
 SE'RVILE. A Spanish political nickname; applied, in 
 the first instance, to those who opposed the change? advo- 
 cated by the liberal party in the cortes of 1808 and the fol- 
 lowing venrs. 
 
 SE'RVITES. (Servants of the blessed Virgin.) A reli- 
 gious order, instituted in Tuscany in A.D. 1220, under the 
 rule of St. Augustin. The monks wore a black habit, in 
 commemoration of the widowhood of the Virgin. (Moshcitn, 
 cent, xiii., part 2.) 
 
 SERVITOR. (Lat.) An under graduate, who is partly 
 supported by the college funds, is 80 called at Oxford. The 
 servitors at Oxford are the same class as the sizars at Cam 
 bridge. 
 
 SE'RVITUDE, in the Civil Law, is divided into real or 
 predial, mixed, and personal ; the first being the subjection 
 of an inheritable thing to certain duties or services towards 
 another inheritable thing ; the second, that of an inheritable 
 thing towards a person ; the third, that of a person towards 
 a person or thing, t. «., slavery, whether by dependence on 
 a person or on the soil. The word servitude is equally 
 applicable to the duty or burden, and to the right of exact- 
 ing it: e. g., the right of way which A. enjoys on the land 
 of B, and B's liability to permit that right to be exercised, 
 are both designated by the term servitude ; the first active, 
 the latter passive. Real servitudes are numerous, and fall 
 into several classes or divisions. They are, for example, 
 either visible, such as the right to light and .air, sewers, &c. ; 
 or latent, such as the right of way, right of drawing water, 
 &c, which appeal only when they are exercised. They 
 were also divided by the Romans into urban, which affected 
 dwellings in the city ; and rustic, appertaining to land and 
 farm building. Of mixed servitudes only three species were 
 recognised by their writers on jurisprudence — usufruct, use, 
 and habitation. 
 
 SE'SAMOID BONES. (Gr. <n;<xa/.o7> a seed or grain, 
 and ctdos, form.) Small bones found at the articulations 
 of the great toes, and occasionally at the joints of the 
 thumbs. Little tendinous ossifications are sometimes met 
 with in other parts, especially in the advanced age of labo 
 rious persons. 
 
 SE'SAMUM. (Gr. oniauov.) A genus of plants of the 
 natural family Pedalina:. They are supposed originally to 
 have been natives of India ; but are now cultivated in 
 manv countries. Their seeds, which are employed as an 
 
 1113 
 
SESIA. 
 
 article of diet, and yield an oil of a very fine quality, form 
 an extensive article of commerce in the East. All the 
 species are annuals. The term sesame has long been fami- 
 liar to all the readers of the Arabian Nights' Entertain- 
 ments. 
 
 SE'SIA. (Gr oris, a moth.) The name of a genus of 
 Lepidopterous insects. 
 
 BE'SQUI (Lat.), applied to words, signifies one integer 
 and a half; as sesqui granum, a grain and a half, &c. In 
 Chemistry this term is used to designate compounds in 
 which an equivalent and a half of one substance are com- 
 bined with one of another ; thus, sesquicarbonate of soda is 
 a salt composed of one equivalent and a half of carbonic 
 acid with one of soda. 
 
 Sesqui. In Music, a whole and a half; which, joined 
 with altera, terza, guarta, Sec, is much used in the Italian 
 music to express a set of ratios, particularly the several 
 species of triple time. 
 
 Sesqui. In Geometry, the expression of a ratio in which 
 the greater term contains the less once, and leaving a certain 
 aliquot part of the less over. Thus, if the part remaining 
 is half the less term, the ratio is called sesquialtera ; if the 
 part remaining be a third of the less term (as in the ratio 
 of 4 to 3), the ratio is called sesquitertia, and so on. These 
 terms are nearly obsolete. Sesquiduplicatc, however, some- 
 times occurs in modern treatises, and signifies the ratio in 
 which the greater term is twice and a half times the less; 
 as the ratio of 10 to 4, or of 15 to 6. 
 
 SE'SSILES, Scssilia. (Lat.sedeo, I sit.) The name of 
 a division of the class drripeds, comprehending those 
 species which are not suspended by a pedicle. 
 
 SE'SSION, COURT OF. The supreme civil court of 
 Scotland, having jurisdiction in all civil questions, of what- 
 ever nature. It was constituted by an net of the Scottish 
 parliament in 1537. It was intended to supply the place of 
 the previously existing courts, and more especially of a judi- 
 cial committee of parliament called the "lords of session ;" 
 whence tiie name of the court and the titles of the judges. 
 Originally it consisted of seven laymen and eight church- 
 men, including the president. In 1640, however, an act 
 was i , [usion ^i churchmen from 
 
 the court; and though repealed in 1661, the principle laid 
 down In it has ever since been acted upon. Other important 
 improvements were introduced at different periods, particu- 
 larly after the Revolution, when the right of appeal from 
 the court to parliament was, for the first time, recognised. 
 At the Union power was given to all individuals who con- 
 sidered themselves aggrieved by judgments of the Court of 
 Session to appeal to the H. of Lords ; and it is a curious 
 fact that at this moment, and for a lengthened period, the 
 principal judicial business of the II. of Lords has consisted 
 in hearing and deciding Scotch appeals. Originally, and 
 down to 1808, the whole fifteen judges sat together in one 
 court ; but in that year an act was passed dividing the court 
 ^nto two chambers, the lord president presiding in the first 
 division of seven judges, and the lord justice-clerk in the 
 second of six ; the two remaining judges trying cases in the 
 first instance, or, as it is technically termed, sitting as lords- 
 ordinary. Since then the number of judges has been re- 
 duced to thirteen ; four belonging to each of the divisions, 
 and five acting as lords-ordinary. The judges were at first 
 chosen by the Scotch parliament; but since 1551 they have 
 been appointed by the crown. They are either, as already 
 stated, called lords of session, or senators of the college of 
 justice ; which last embraces the whole body of barristers 
 (advocates) and attorneys or solicitors who practise before 
 the court. They must be twenty-five years of age ; and, by the 
 Treaty of Union, no person can be named to the office unless 
 he have served as an advocate or principal clerk of session 
 for five years, or as a writer to the signet for ten. The 
 salaries of the ordinary judges have recently been raised to 
 £3000 a year each ; those of the lord justice-clerk and lord 
 president being respectively £4000 and £4500. 
 
 At its outset the Court of Session was intended to serve 
 as a standing or perpetual jury for the trial of cases ; the 
 introduction of petty juries into the trial of civil cases in 
 Scotland being only of very recent date, as well as of limi- 
 ted application. It was, in fact, unknown till 1815, when 
 a special or jury court was instituted, for the trial of cases 
 involving questions as to the value of property, or damages, 
 or the determination of some fact. But in 1830 this court 
 was suppressed, and the Court of Session now avails itself 
 of the assistance of petty juries in the trial of the above de- 
 scription of cases. See Justiciary, Court of. 
 
 SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. The period between its 
 meeting and prorogation. All the acts passed in a session 
 ire legally considered as forming a single statute; each 
 Separate act being designated as a chapter, and its subdivi- 
 sions as sections. .See Parliament. 
 
 SESSIONS OF THE PEACE. In English Law, the 
 term " Session of the Peace" is applied to designate a sit- 
 ting of justices of the peace for the execution of those 
 1114 
 
 SETTLEMENT. 
 
 duties which are confided to them by their commissioi., 
 and by charter or statute. Such are— I. A petty (or petit) 
 session, which is a private meeting of two or mure justices 
 of the peace for the execution of some power vested In 
 them by law; many acts of parliament requiring the con- 
 currence of a plurality of justices, and there being other 
 occasions on which, although not strictly necessary, it is 
 considered usual and expedient. One of the most important 
 instances of the first kind is the holding parties to bail 
 against whom a charge of felony has been entertained. 2. 
 A special session ; which is principally distinguished from 
 the former by being public, instead of on the private motion 
 of the justices, it being necessary that notice should be 
 given to every magistrate of the division. Special ses 
 are held to grant licences, execute the provisions of the 
 Highway Act, appoint overseers of the poor, and for many 
 other purposes. 3. Quarter sessions. (See that article ; 
 and see Justice of the Peace.) 
 
 SESTE'RTIUM. (Contracted from mille sestertiorum.) 
 The sum of 1000 sestertii ; usually estimated at about £8 
 English. 
 
 SESTE'RTIUS. A sesterce ; a Roman silver coin, equal 
 in value to two asses and a half, or nearly twopence of 
 English money. 
 
 SE'TA (Lat.), is a term used by botanists in various 
 senses. It is the stalk that supports the theca, capsule, or 
 sporangium of mosses ; the awn or beard of grasses, when 
 it proceeds from the extreme point of a palea or glurne , 
 sometimes the glandular aculeus of roses, and also the 
 abortive stamens or rudimentary perianth of Cyperaceous 
 plants. 
 
 SETA'CEOUS. (Lat. seta.) In Entomology, the an- 
 tenna? which resemble a bristle are so called. 
 
 SET FAIR. In Architecture, the coat of plaster used 
 after roughing in and floated, or pricked up and floated. If 
 should be well trowelled, to answer well for colour. 
 
 SE'THIANS. In Ecclesiastical history, a sect of Chris- 
 tian heretics, who sprung up in Egypt iii the second cen- 
 tury, strongly imbued with the principles of Gnosticism ; 
 but whose chief peculiarity consisted in their belief in 
 the identity of Jesus Christ with Beth, the son of Adam, 
 whence they derived their name. They continued to exisi 
 about 200 years, during which period they had many fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 SE'TICERS, Seticera. (Lat. seta, a bristle; Gr. wPflj. 
 a horn.) A term applied by Latreille to a family of Lr> 
 phyropodous Crustaceans, including those in which the 
 superior antenna? are long and setaceous. 
 
 SE'TIGEKS, Setigcra. (Lat. seta, a bristle: gero, 1 
 carry.) The name of a tribe of Anellidans, including those 
 which, like the earthworm, are provided with bristles for 
 progressive motion. The Setigera are the first tribe of the 
 Abranchiated order of Anellidans. 
 
 SE'TIUEMKS. (Lat. seta, a bristle; remus, an oar.) A 
 name given by Kirby to the natatory legs of certain aquatic 
 insects, which are fringed with bristles. 
 
 SET OFF. In Law, a species of defence to a civil action, 
 by which a party acknowledges the justice of the plaintiff's 
 demand, but sets up a demand of his own against the 
 plaintiff sufficient to counterbalance either the whole or a 
 part of it. 
 
 SE'TON. (From Lat. seta, a bristle ; because bristles or 
 horse hairs were formerly used to keep open the wound.) 
 A seton is an artificial ulcer, made by passing a skein of 
 thread under n portion of the skin by means of an instrument 
 called a seton needle : the thread is occasionally anointed 
 with irritating substances, in order to keep up a discharge 
 from the sore. 
 
 SETO'SE. (Lat. seta, a bristle.) In Zoology, when a 
 surface is beset with stiff, scattered hairs. 
 
 SE'TTING. In Architecture, the quality of hardening 
 in plaster Also the fixing of stones in walls or vaults. 
 
 SETTING COAT. In Architecture, the best sort of 
 plastering on ceilings or walls ; in inferior work it is made 
 of fine stuff, and when the work is very dry a little sand is 
 used. A setting coat maybe either a second coat on laying 
 or rendering, or a third upon floating. The term finishing 
 denotes the third coat, where stucco is used ; that of set 
 ting, where the work is for paper. 
 
 SE'TTLEMENT. In Law, the right which an indi- 
 vidual acquires to parochial assistance, under the statutes 
 for the relief of the poor, in that parish or district to which 
 he legally belongs, and in which he is said to have the 
 settlement. 
 
 The law of settlements has recently undergone consider- 
 able alterations by the Poor Laws Amendment Act, 4 & 5 
 W. 4, cap. 76. But that act does not, except in certain 
 cases, take away settlements already possessed by virtu* 
 of the law as it previously stood under a grettl variety of 
 enactments. It is, consequently, necessary to consider in 
 how many modes a settlement may now be legally acquired ; 
 and also, what modes of settlement were recognised before 
 
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF. 
 
 the oct in question. The first species of set- 
 tlement Is by birth ; all persons who have not obtained a 
 settlement bj other means being legally settled 
 
 in the parish < .r district wherein they were horn. Before 
 ing of the late act, bastard children wen; deemed 
 led ia the parish where they were horn : they now 
 id follow, the settlement of their mother until they 
 attain the age of sixteen, or acquire settlements in their 
 own right. -2. Settlement by parentage. All legitimate 
 
 Children ar" settled In the parish where their parents are 
 settled, until they become emancipated. Emancipation 
 attaining the age or twenty-one, tf living 
 separate from the parents ; or marriage ; or gaining B set- 
 tlement In the party's own right ; or contracting some other 
 relation inconsistent with the notion of a suhordir 
 tion in the parental family. 3. Settlement by marriage. 
 A woman acquires the settlement of her husband ; and 
 after his death she retains his last settlement, unless she 
 acquires a new one for herself. 4. Settlement by appren- 
 ticeship. This is acquired by a person who has been bound 
 an apprentice, and has inhabited, under such apprentice- 
 ship, in any town or parish ; the place where he li 
 the la.-t forty days being that in which he is settled. Actual 
 service with the master is not necessary ; but If he have 
 •where, it must be with the master 1 ! permission. 
 Apprenticeship in the sea service or tisliinti trade does not, 
 since the recent act, confer a settlement. 5. Settlement by 
 renting a tenement. A person bond fide occupying and 
 
 i tenement, at the rent of jCIO per annum at least, 
 for the term of a year, the rent for a year having been 
 actually paid (and the tenement having been actually occu- 
 pied by him for a year also), acquires a settlement In- 
 dwelling forty days in the parish in which such tenement 
 Ince 4 &. 5 \V. 4, no settlement can now be 
 acquireil by renting a tenement, unless the person occupy- 
 ing it has been rated to and has paid the i».or's rate for one 
 year ut least. 0. Settlement by estate. A person having, 
 tec an estate in lands or tenements, 
 either freehold, copyhold, or for years, acquires a settlement 
 in tin- parish in which it is situate by forty days' residence. 
 But uu such sel quired by the purchase of an 
 
 estate, unless bought for £30 at least, bond fide paid. And 
 by the late act, no person possessing such a power of ac- 
 quiring a settlement shall retain it longer than he shall in- 
 habit within ten miles of the parish. 7. Settlement by 
 being charged with and paying parish taxes and levies iu 
 
 of a tenement of the value of jCIO ; such as poor 
 rale, church rate, or land tax. These are now the only 
 modes of acquiring a settlement: but two more must be 
 mentioned, by which a settlement could formerly be ac- 
 quired, as the settlements so gained still continue In force. 
 1. By hiring and service. This could be obtained by any 
 unmarried person lawfully hired into any parish or town 
 for the space of a year, provided he continued in service 
 under such hiring "for the spare of a year, and resided 
 in the parish forty days. ". By serving an office. This 
 was obtained in any place by executing any public annual 
 
 1'oor people coming from one parish to another, and en- 
 deavouring to settle themselves in the latter, may, if they 
 become actually chargeable, be removed by an order of 
 two justices to that in which they were last legally settled; 
 and all persons who think themselves aggrieved by such 
 order of removal (usually the parish to which the removal 
 takes place) may appeal against such order to the next gen- 
 eral or quarter sessions of the peace. It is doubtful, Indeed, 
 since the statute 4 & 5 W. 4, whether any but the parish 
 can appeal. The parish appealing is bound to give suffi- 
 cient notice of the intended appeal, and also (since the stat. 
 4 fe'S W. 4) to state in writing the legal grounds on which 
 the order is contested. The sessions must either quash or 
 affirm the order of the justices; and the order of the ses- 
 sions can only be quashed by the Court of King's Bench, 
 either on a special case, granted by the sessions, for the ref- 
 erence of a point of law to the superior court, or'on certi- 
 orari, for defects appearing on the face of the order. 
 
 A certificate is a written acknowledgment, by the church- 
 warden and overseers, that a particular person is legally set- 
 tled in their parish. A certificate-man cannot gain a set- 
 tlement in the parish to which the certificate is directed, ex- 
 cept by renting a tenement of the annual value of j£10. 
 See Poor Laws. 
 
 BETTLEMENT, ACT OF. In English History, the 
 statute 14 & 13 VV. 2, c. 2, by which the crown was limited 
 o the Princess Sophia, duchess dowager of Hanover 
 
 v igest daughter of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, who 
 
 was daughter to James I.), and the heirs of her body, being 
 ..its — on the failure of issue of the Princess Anne, 
 then next in succession. The duchess died in the reign of 
 Uueen Anne: and her son, George I., was consequently 
 called to the throne. 
 
 SETT OFF. In Arcliitecture, the horizontal projection 
 
 SEXTANT. 
 
 left in carrying up a wall, where the thickness of it dimin- 
 ishes at its different stages or stories. 
 
 SE'YE.VJ'H. In Music, an interval ; whereof there are 
 lour species. First, the defective seventh, consisting of 
 three tones and three greater semitones. Second, the minor 
 seventh, consulting of scv^n decrees and six intervals, dia- 
 tonically taken ; four being tones, and the rest greater semi- 
 tones. Third, the major seventh, being only a major semi 
 than the octave. Fourth, the extreme sharp sev- 
 enth, which is only a comma less than the octave. 
 
 SEVEN FEARS' WAR. In History, a war carried on 
 in Germany between two alliances, headed respectively by 
 .Austria and Prussia, from the year 1 75ti to 1783, When it 
 was ended by the peace of Hubertsburg. it was signalized 
 chiefly by the extraordinary campaigns of Frederick II., the 
 Great King of Prussia. His principal ally throughout the 
 Struggle was England ; while he was, at one period, as- 
 sailed by the forces of Austria, France, the Empire, Swe- 
 den, and Russia. When the forces of the Prussian sover- 
 eign hail been almost annihilated by this coalition, the death 
 of the Russian empress, Elizabeth, caused the withdrawal 
 of Russia from the alliance of his enemies, and brought 
 about the termination of the war without material ndvau- 
 dned by any parly. 
 
 SEWER. In Architecture, a subterraneous conduit, or 
 channel, to receive and carry oil" the superfluous water and 
 filth of n city. The sewers of Rome have been the models 
 of those of the modern cities of Europe. They are as old 
 as the elder Tarquin. These cloaca had, between the 
 Quirinnl, Capitolinc, and Palatine hills, many branches, 
 which joining in the Forum, now the Campo Vaccino, were 
 received for conveyance into the Tiber by a larger one 
 called the cloaca maxima. It must be admitted, however, 
 that it is erroneous to designate the Roman cloaca- by the 
 term sewers. They were rather drains, made to carry olf 
 the stagnant water of the pestilential marshes which occu- 
 pied much of the low ground near the Tiber, and the spaces 
 between the Aventine, Palatine, and Capitolinc hills. The 
 height and width of the cloaca maxima are equal, each 
 Ing I3j feet 
 
 PEXAtjE'Si'MA. (Lat. sixtieth.) In the Calendar, the 
 eighth Sunday (nearly sixty days) before Easter. 
 
 SEXAGESIMAL ARITHMETIC. A method of com- 
 putation proceeding by sixties (as the common arithmetic 
 proceeds by tens), and used by the ancient Greek astrono- 
 mers for facilitating arithmetical calculations, particularly 
 action of roots; operations which, 
 when performed on numbers expressed by the complicated 
 Greek notation, are attended with great labour and ditli 
 cullv. 
 
 SEXAGESIMAL, FRACTIONS, nre such as have IK), 
 or some multiple of 00, for their denominator. Fractions 
 of this kind were anciently the only fractions used in astron 
 onn ; and they are still retained in the division of the cir- 
 cle,' and of timet "here the degree, or hour, is divided into 
 00 minutes, the minute into 00 seconds, and so on. 
 
 SE'XTAXS, or SEXTANT. In Astronomy, one of the 
 constellations formed 'ay Hevelius. It is placed across the 
 equator, and on the south side of the ecliptic. 
 
 SE'XTANT. (Lot. sextans, the sixth part ; the limb of 
 the instrument being the sixth part of a complete circle.) 
 A n instrument for measuring the angular distances of objects 
 by reflexion. The sextant is capable of very general appli- 
 cation ; but it is chiefly used as a nautical instrument for 
 measuring the altitudes of celestial objects, and their appa- 
 rent angular distances. It is an instrument of the utmost 
 importance in navigation. 
 
 The principle of the sextant, and of reflecting instru 
 ments generally, depends upon 
 nn elementary theorem of catop- 
 trics ; viz., if an object be seen by 
 reflexion from two mirrors which 
 are perpendicular to the same 
 plane, the angular distance of the 
 object from its image is double 
 the inclination of the mirrors. 
 Thus, let A and B be sections of 
 two mirrors perpendicular to the 
 same plane, and inclined to each 
 other in the angle A IB ; a ray 
 of light coming from the sun and 
 falling upon the mirror A, in the direction S A, will be re- 
 flected in the line A B ; and falling upon B, it will a^atn be 
 reflected in the direction B E. Let A B be produced to D 
 and S A prolonged to meet B E in E. Now, since the an- 
 gles of incidence and reflexion are always equal (see Rs- 
 FLEXtoN), we have nBE = 2DBLnnd BAE = 2BAI; 
 but DBE = B AE+BE A, nnd DB I = B A I + B I A, 
 consequently B A E+ B E A = 2 B A 1 + 2 B I A : and. there- 
 ce B A E =2B A I, we have also B E A=S I! I A : 
 that is to say, the angular distance between the object B 
 and its image seen by the eye at E, in the direction E B H, 
 
 1115 
 
SEXTANT. 
 
 Is the double of the inclination of the mirrors. It may be 
 remarked, that the place of the image, as seen from E is in- 
 dependent of the situation of the mirrors on the plane, so 
 long as the line of the intersection of their planes and their 
 Inclination to each other remain constant. 
 
 From what has been now said, it may be seen that if a con- 
 venient method could be devised for measuring the incli- 
 nation of two mirrors perpendicular to the same plane, 
 when they are so placed that the image of an object S is 
 brought to coincide with an object H seen directly, we 
 should at once have a reflecting instrument for measuring 
 angular distances. Such instruments are the sextant, the 
 quadrant, the reflecting circle, respectively so called from 
 the extent of the arc which the graduated limb embraces. 
 
 The contrivance adopted for this purpose in the sextant 
 is to attach the frame of the 
 mirror B to the plane of the sec- 
 tor of a circle A M N, and the 
 frame of the mirror A to a ra- 
 dial b:ir A I revolving in the 
 plane of the sector round a pin 
 passing through the centre. 
 ^N Both frames are generally sup- 
 plied with the means of adjust- 
 ing the planes of the mirror ver- 
 tically, and B is generally also 
 capable of being turned by a 
 delicate motion a small way round a pin passing through 
 the frame of the sector. 
 
 The arc or limb M N of the sector is graduated ; and the 
 revolving radius or index carries at its extremity a vernier 
 scale, applying to the graduations on the limb, and subdivi- 
 ding them into such smaller portions as may be desired. 
 
 The method of finding the zero point of the limb may be 
 understood generally from the following considerations : 
 The angle E (see the first figure) being double the angle I, 
 it follows that when the mirrors are parallel, or the angle 
 I is nothing, the angle E is nothing also, and S and its im- 
 age will appear as one object, the one exactly covering the 
 other. It is, therefore, only necessary to turn round the ra- 
 dial bar which carries A till the image of a distant object 
 seen by reflexion from B is in accurate conjunction with 
 the object itself seen directly; and the point on the limb 
 at which the index then stands is the zero point of the arc. 
 If it is not also the zero of the numbered graduations, its 
 distance from the numeral zero is called the index error of 
 the instrument, and is to be applied as a correction to all 
 angles measured. 
 
 In graduating the limb, half degrees are marked as whole 
 ones, and the smaller divisions accordingly ; so that the an- 
 gle read from the instrument is not the inclination of the 
 mirrors, but the distance of the object from its image. In 
 this class of instruments, therefore, 1)0° are indicated by an 
 arc of 4i°, 120° by an arc of 60°, &c. 
 
 The mirror A is completely silvered behind ; but B is sil- 
 vered on that half only which is next the plane of the in- 
 strument, the upper part being left clear, that objects, such 
 as H, may be seen through it, as well as the images of oth- 
 ers, as S, by reflexion from its surface. The mirror B is so 
 placed by the maker that when A is parallel to it, the index 
 which carries A either exactly or nearly corresponds with 
 the zero of the divisions as they are numbered on the limb. 
 When the index has been set by hand nearly in the position 
 requisite for measuring any proposed angle, "it is clamped to 
 the limb by a screw acting on a spring, and moved slowly by a 
 tangent screw till it attains accurately the required position. 
 
 Such being the general principles of the instrument, we 
 shall now briefly describe the different parts of it, as con- 
 structed by the best makers, and the methods of adjusting 
 and observing with it. 
 
 The only important object to be aimed at in the frame is 
 to combine lightness with sufficient strength. The frames 
 are generally of brass, and cast in one piece from a model ; 
 but the late Mr. Troughton introduced thin double frames 
 parallel to each other, and connected by pillars. These 
 frames are very light; but it may be doubtful whether they 
 sufficiently fulfil the condition of strength. 
 
 In all good instruments the index is strengthened by an 
 edge bar along its length. The graduations are made on a 
 slip of gold, silver, or platina, which is let in to a groove in 
 the limb. Instruments of this kind are now all graduated 
 by a dividing machine. 
 
 The frame of the sextant is supported by three feet, one 
 near each end of the limb, and the third at the centre, 
 where it serves also as a sheath to cover the central pin 
 (with its fastening screw) round which the index revolves. 
 A handle parallel to the frame is attached to the back of 
 it, to hold the instrument by when observing. 
 
 The revolving mirror A is attached by three screws to 
 the head of the index. In common instruments only two 
 of these screws are fastening screws, and the third is used 
 as an adjusting screw for placing the mirror perpendicular 
 
 to the plane of the instrument. But in the better class ol 
 instruments all three are fastening screws, the maker him 
 self placing the mirror in its perpendicular position. 
 
 The other mirror, B, is attached to the frame of the sec- 
 tor, and in some instruments is incapable of lateral motion, 
 being only provided with the means of placing it perpendic 
 ular to the plane of the instrument ; so that the position of 
 its plane with respect to the graduations may be regarded as 
 permanent The vertical adjustment is effected by a screw, 
 which sometimes acts on the frame; and in some instru- 
 ments directly on the mirror, on which it presses by means 
 of a spring. In other instruments the frame of this mir- 
 ror turns round an axis passing through the frame of the 
 instrument ; so that when the index is set to zero on the 
 limb, B can be set parallel to A, and the index error, there- 
 fore, reduced to nothing. This mirror B is called the ho- 
 rizon glass by seamen, and the adjustment we have been 
 speaking of is called the parallel adjustment of the horizon 
 glass. It is a most important adjustment, and one that re- 
 quires continual attention, being liable to be altered by very 
 trifling causes. 
 
 In common quadrants, a sight vane with two holes is 
 placed (as at E) opposite B, one hole at the same distance 
 from the plane as the upper edge of the silvered part of the 
 mirror, and the other opposite the middle of the unsilvered 
 part. But the best instruments, instead of the sight vane, 
 are furnished with telescopes, which screw into a socket 
 attached to a piece of brass passing through the frame of 
 the instrument ; and by means of a screw the socket can be 
 raised or depressed, so that the telescope can be placed 
 with more or less of the object-glass opposite the silvered 
 or the unsilvered part of the index glass, as the varying 
 brightness of the objects observed may render neo 
 
 The telescopes are of two kinds. One a direct tele-cope. 
 which is simply an opera-glass; and having a narrow lield 
 of view, is generally used in the more ordinary sort of ob- 
 servations, such as observing altitudes. The other is an in- 
 verting or astronomical telescope, which has a large field of 
 view, and is that which dexterous observers use exclusive- 
 ly. It is commonly supplied with two eye-pieces ; one of 
 considerable power, and chiefly for determining the index 
 error, and the other for observing with. In the frames of 
 each eye-piece are two pairs of wires, each pair perpendic- 
 ular to the other, dividing the field of view into nine spaces, 
 of which that in the middle is square; and it is important 
 that in all observations made with this instrument the con- 
 tact of the image seen by reflexion, and of the object seen 
 directly, should be made as near the middle of this square 
 as possible, at any rate at the same distance as the centre of 
 the square from the plane of the instrument. 
 
 It is essential, also, that the telescope should be parallel 
 to the plane of the instrument ; and in the collar into which 
 the telescope is screwed there are two screws for making 
 this parallel adjustment. The adjustment is not very lia- 
 ble to alter, but no careful observer will omit to examine it 
 at every convenient opportunity. 
 
 Both the mirrors are supplied with coloured glasses of 
 different degrees of shade, framed and placed in such a po- 
 sition that they can be turned down before the mirrors, ei- 
 ther singly or combined. The eye-pieces of the telescopes 
 are also supplied with coloured shades, set in caps, which 
 are screwed on the eye piece. They are used in taking the 
 index error by means of the sun, and in observing the sun's 
 altitude from an artificial horizon. 
 
 Sdjustmcnt of the Sextant. — 1. To set the index glass, 
 when it admits of adjustment, perpendicular to the plane 
 of the instrument. 
 
 Place the index about the middle of the limb; and look- 
 ing obliquely into the index glass, the part of the limb will 
 be seen by reflexion in the glass, as well as directly. If the 
 part of the limb seen directly and its image in the glass ap- 
 pear as one continned frame, the mirror is in adjustment ; 
 but if the reflected image appears to incline downward, it 
 shows .that the face of the glass inclines backward from 
 the perpendicular ; if upwards, that it inclines forward, and 
 the adjustment must be made by the screw supplied for the 
 purpose. 
 
 2. To set the horizon glass perpendicular to the frame of 
 the instrument. 
 
 Having carefully adjusted the index glass, or seen that it 
 is in adjustment, screw the telescope into its socket: adjust 
 the eye-piece to distinct vision : screw the dusk shade cap 
 on the eye end of the telescope, or turn down shades be- 
 fore the mirrors; and looking towards the sun, bring the in- 
 dex near to zero; move it steadily backwards and forwards, 
 and the reflected image of the sun will be seen to pass over 
 his disk, as viewed directly. If the two circular disks ac- 
 curately cover each other in passing, the perpendicular ad- 
 justment of the horizon glass requires no adjustment ; but 
 if they pass a little aside of each other, so that two different' 
 coloured lines appear on each side of the overlapping mid- 
 dle part, the mirror B must be turned by the appropriate 
 
SEXTANT. 
 
 screw till the disks accurately cover each other, when the 
 adjustment will be complete. This adjustment may also be 
 effected by making n bright star and its image coincide with 
 pact) other ; but in this case it is scarcely necessary to say 
 that the darkening shades must be turned aside. 
 
 3. To set the telescope parallel to the plane of the instru- 
 ment. This adjustment is effected by two screws in the 
 collar which attaches the telescope to the limb of the sex- 
 tant, and diametrically oppose each other in a line perpen- 
 dicular to the plane of the instrument. By tightening the 
 upper one the object end of the telescope is inclined towards 
 the instrument, and the contrary effect is produced by tight- 
 ening the lower one. To make the adjustment, turn round 
 the eye-piece of the telescope till two of the wires in its 
 focus appear parallel to the plane of the instrument (and of 
 this the eye can judge with sufficient accuracy) ; then take 
 two objects, as two bright stars, or the sun and the moon, 
 Whose distance in either case should not be less than 90°, 
 in order that any error in the adjustment may become moro 
 apparent, and bringing the image of one of the objects in 
 accurate contact with the other object on the wire next the 
 instrument, instantly bring them to the other wire ; and if 
 they are also in nccurate contact upon that wire, it may be 
 concluded that the axis of the telescope is parallel to the 
 plane of the instrument. If the objects are the sun and 
 moon, and tl at the farther wire, it shows that 
 
 the object end of the telescope inclines towards the plane of 
 the instrument, and the contrary if they overlap, and the error 
 most : I , turning the proper screws in the collar. 
 
 The above are all the adjustments which this class of in- 
 struments admit of, and they are essential to every instru- 
 ment of the kind. We have now only to state how, in 
 practice, the index error of the instrument may be most con- 
 veniently and accurately determined. 
 
 Having effected the perpendicular adjustment of the hori- 
 zon glass by the method above explained, bring the border 
 of the sun's reflected image to coincide with the sun seen 
 directly both on the right and left side ; and, reading the in- 
 dex at both observations, if one reading is on the left and 
 the other on the right of zero, half the difference is the index 
 error, and the fourth part of the sum ii the sun's semidi- 
 alneter ; but if both readings are on the same side of zero, 
 half the sum is the index error, and the fourth part of the 
 difference is the semldlameter. No instrument-maker, how- 
 ever, will leave the index error so large that the readings 
 for the sun's diameter will be both on one side of zero. 
 
 The Reflecting Circle depends on the same principles as 
 the sextant, from which it differs chiefly by having the 
 whole circle graduated. In some instruments of this kind, 
 the angle is measured by repetition. Src Repeating Circle. 
 Hut the only instrument of this kind that can be now said 
 to be in general use in this country is Tronghton's reflecting 
 circle ; in which, by means of three equidistant indexes, 
 and by observing alternately with the face of the index di- 
 rect and reversed, six times the required angle is obtained, 
 without reference to the index correction. After what lias 
 been said above on the principles of reflecting instruments 
 generally, the following short account of this instrument 
 will l.e sufficient. 
 
 All the indexes move round together ; and, of course, the 
 apparatus for slow motion, or the tangent screw, is only 
 requisite for one of them, which is called the leading index, 
 and which, for the sake of convenience, stands at or near 
 zero on the limb when the revolving and fixed mirrors are 
 parallel. 
 In the annexed figure let BD, BE, and B F, be the posi- 
 tions of the indexes when the re- 
 volving mirror is parallel to the 
 fixed one K L : and let A C and 
 M N be two positions of the re- 
 ^ volving mirror when it is equally 
 *' inclined to K L. Then the arcs 
 D G, D G , E H, E H\ FI, FI\ pass- 
 Jd ed over by B D, B E, and B F, will 
 / be all equal ; and if, when the 
 G mirror has the position M N, the 
 face of the instrument be reversed, 
 M N and K L will have the same 
 relative position to each other that 
 A C and K L have ; and consequently if an object is seen 
 by reflexion from A C and KL, it will also, when the in- 
 strument is reversed, be seen by reflexion from M N and 
 K L to an eye placed in the same situation. Hence the de- 
 grees on the arcs G G', II H', 1 1', which are the differences of 
 the readings of the observations in the direct and reversed 
 positions, are each the measure of double the distance of 
 the object from its reflected image. The degrees being 
 numbered round the circle from to 720°, and the indexes 
 placed very nearly at equal distances from each other, it is 
 customary in practice to read the degrees, with the minutes 
 and seconds, from the leading index only, and to read only 
 the minutes and seconds at the other indexes. 
 
 SHADOW. 
 
 SE'XTILE ASPECT, in Astrology, is the aspect of two 
 planets when they are distant from each other the sixth 
 part of a circle, or sixty degrees. 
 
 SE'XTON. (Lat. sachstanus, sacrista.) A church offi- 
 cer, who is properly the keeper of holy things belonging to 
 divine worship, and said to be the same with the ostinriui 
 In the Romish church. A sexton is usually appointed for 
 life (whether by the minister or others, according to cus- 
 tom), and in such case a mandamus lies to restore him to 
 his office. 
 
 SFORZA'TO. (It. forced.) In music, a term written 
 over a note to signify that it is to be played or struck louder 
 than the rest. 
 
 SFUMA'TO. (It. smoky.) In Painting, a term applied 
 to that style of painting wherein the tints are so blended 
 that the outline is scarcely perceptible, the whole present- 
 ing an indistinct misty appearance. Guercino's works pre- 
 sent some of the finest examples of the style. 
 
 SGRAFI'TfO. (It. scratched.) In Painting, a species of 
 painting in which the ground is prepared with dark stucco, 
 on which a white coat is applied; which last being re- 
 moved with an iron instrument, the chipping it away opens 
 to the black ground and forms the shadows, giving it the 
 appearance of a chiaro-scuro painting. The principal pic- 
 tures of Polidoro da Caravaggio are executed in this man- 
 ner, which is capable of great effect, and is extremely dura- 
 ble, though it must be conceded the appearance is rather 
 harsh. 
 
 SHABRACK. The cloth furniture of a cavalry officer's 
 charger. The term is of Hungarian origin. 
 
 Sll A'DDOCK. The fruit of the Citrus decumaria: it is 
 a species of orange. 
 
 SHA'DOW. In Optics, a portion of space from which 
 light is intercepted by an opaque body. As the rays of 
 light proceed in straight lines, every opaque object on which 
 light falls is accompanied with a shadow on the side oppo- 
 site to the luminous body ; and the shadow appears more 
 intense in proportion as the illumination is stronger, because 
 any object placed within it contrasts more strongly with the 
 surrounding objects on which the light is suffered to fall. 
 
 As every point of a luminous body is a separate focus of 
 illumination, it follows that an opaque object illuminated 
 by the sun, or any other source of light which is not a 
 single point, must have an infinite number of" shadows, 
 though not distinguishable from each other ; and hence the 
 shadow of an opaque body received on a plane is always 
 terminated by a penumbra, or partial shadow, the extent of 
 which is greater in proportion to the magnitude of the 
 luminous body, the distance of the opaque body from the 
 plane on which the shadow falls, and the degree of obliqui'.y 
 with which the luminous rays fall on the plane. 
 
 Shadows are said to be right, or versed, according to the 
 position on the planes on which they are thrown. The 
 shadow of an upright body projected on the plane of the 
 horizon is a right shadow ; and that of a body on a vertical 
 plane to which the body is perpendicular, as that of a bar 
 of iron fixed perpendicular in a wall, is a versed shadow. 
 In both cases, the length of the shadow is to the height of 
 the opaque body as the cosine to the sine of the angle which 
 the luminous ray makes with the plane. The ancient 
 geometers availed themselves of this property of shadows 
 to measure the altitudes of objects. 
 
 Coloured Shadows. — In certain states of the atmosphere 
 the shadows of opaque objects projected on a white surface 
 are frequently observed, about the time of sunrise or sun- 
 set, to be of a blue colour. This curious observation ap- 
 pears to have been first made by the celebrated painter 
 Leonardo da Vinci, and is also noticed by Otto Guericke in 
 his Magdeburg Experiments ; but no further notice seems 
 to have been taken of the phenomenon until about a cen- 
 tury later, when it again occurred to Buffon. Happening 
 to be standing on an eminence about the time of sunset, he 
 perceived the shadows of the trees on a white wall about 
 30 or 40 feet distant to be coloured with a light green, in 
 dining to blue. The next morning, at sunrise, he repeated 
 the observation; but instead of tinding the shadows green, 
 he found them blue, or rather the colour of lively indigo. 
 Afterwards, he often observed the shadows, both in the 
 morning and evening, but always observed them to be 
 blue ; and he remarks that any one may see a blue shadow, 
 if he will hold his finger before a piece of white paper at 
 sunrise or sunset. The phenomenon has since been fre- 
 quently observed ; and it is usually ascribed to the aerial 
 colour of the atmosphere, which enlightens the shadows, 
 and in which the blue rays prevail. (See Pricstly's His- 
 tory of Light, <$-c, 1762.) For remarks on shadows with 
 luminous borders, glorified shadows, and other optical phe- 
 nomena of the same kind, see Prof. Forbes's Report on 
 Meteorology in the Reports of the British Association for 
 1840. 
 
 Shadow. In Painting, the form which a solid object 
 projects on a surface or surfaces by being interposed be- 
 
 1117 
 
SHAFT. 
 
 iwcen the surface or surfaces and the sun, or other lumin- 
 ous body ; the doctrines whereof have received the name 
 of sciography. Shade is a term applied to that portion of 
 the object which is not obvious to the luminous body. 
 
 SHAFT. In Architecture, that part of a column between 
 the base and capital, sometimes called the trunk of the 
 column. The shaft of a columa always diminishes in 
 diameter from about a third of its height. Sometimes it, 
 has a slight swelling (see Entasis) in the lower part of its 
 height. In the oldest Doric columns, the diminution was 
 so considerable as to give the column a conical appearance. 
 In the Doric edifices at Athens, the upper diameter is not 
 more than a quarter less than the lower diameter; in the 
 temples of Jupiter Nemeus, between Argos and Corinth, 
 not more than a fifth less. In Ionic and Corinthian columns, 
 the difference of the upper and lower diameters varies from 
 a fifth to a twelfth. The ancients seem to have regulated 
 the diminution in some proportion to the absolute height of 
 the column, for no particular law seems to have prevailed 
 in terms of the lower diameter. 
 
 Shaft. In Mines. A shaft or pit is a prismatic or cylin- 
 drical hollow space, the axis of which is either vertical or 
 much inclined to the horizon. The dimension of the pit, 
 which is never less than 32 inches in its narrowest dia- 
 meter, amounts sometimes to several yards. Its depth may 
 extend to 1000 feet, and more. Whenever a shaft is open- 
 ed, means must be provided to extract the rubbish which 
 continually tends to accumulate at its bottom, as well as 
 the waters which may percolate down into it; as also to 
 facilitate the descent and ascent of the workmen. For 
 sometime a wheel and axle erected over the mouth of the 
 opening, which serve to elevate one or two buckets of 
 proper dimensions, may be sufficient for most of these pur- 
 poses ; but such a machine becomes ere long inadequate. 
 Horse-whims, or powerful steam-engines, must then be had 
 recourse to ; and effectual methods of support must be em- 
 ployed to prevent the sides of the shaft from crumbling and 
 falling down. ( Ure's Diet, of Arts, <S-c.) 
 
 SHAG. The English name of a species of cormorant 
 (Pelicanus graculus, Linn.) 
 
 SHAGREEW. A species of leather, supposed formerly 
 to have been prepared from the skin of the shagree, a 
 species of whale. It is prepared from horse or ass skin, its 
 granular appearance being given by embedding in it, whilst 
 soft, the seeds of a species of chenopodium, and afterwards 
 shaving down the surface : it is dyed with the green pro- 
 duced by the action of sal ammoniac on copper filings. It 
 was formerly much used for watch, spectacle, and instru- 
 ment cases, and was made chiefly in Astracan. 
 
 SHAH. (In Persian, prince.) The title given by Eu- 
 ropean writers to the monarch of Persia, who in his own 
 country is designated by the compound appellation of 
 Padishah, which see. 
 
 SHAH-NAMAH. ( The Book of Kings.) The most an- 
 cient and celebrated poem in the modern Persian language, 
 by the poet who received as a title of honour the name 
 " Firdousi" (of Paradise), by which he is known. Its date 
 is supposed to be about A. D. 1000. A complete translation 
 into Eng ish, in four volumes, was published by Captain 
 Macan, Calcutta, 1829. 
 
 SHAKE. In Music, a quick alternate repetition of the 
 note above with that over which the mark tr is placed, 
 commonly ending with a turn from the note below. 
 
 SHAKERS. In Ecclesiastical History, a sect said to 
 have originated by a secession from the body of Quakers, 
 in 1747, in Lancashire ; who received their nickname from 
 the peculiar contortions of body which they adopted in 
 their religious exercises. Anne Lee, the great female leader 
 of this sect, joined the society in 1758; and, considering 
 herself persecuted in England, went, with a few followers, 
 to New York in 1774, and died ten years afterwards, at 
 which time her sect had made great progress in America. 
 She was considered as the woman spoken of in Revela 
 tions. The sect appears to have fallen into obscurity, al- 
 though a few congregations still remain. 
 SHALE. A crumbling variety of slate. 
 SHA'MANISM, or SCHAMAXISM. A general name 
 applied to the idolatrous religions of a number of barbarous 
 tribes, comprehending those of Finnish race, the Ostiaka, 
 Samojeds, and other inhabitants of Siberia as far as the 
 Pacific ocean. These nations generally believe in a Su- 
 preme Being, hut to whom they attribute little share in the 
 Immediate government of the world: this is in the hands 
 of a number of secondary gods, both benevolent and ma- 
 'evolent towards men. They appear to have very uncer- 
 tain and fluctuating opinions respecting these last. Thus, 
 those tribes which dwell on the frontier of Russia are said 
 to admit Saint Nicholas among their gods. The shamans 
 or priests possess the power of propitiating such as are 
 malignant. These priests are called by various names in 
 different' tribes. The general belief respecting another life 
 appears to be, that the condition of man will be poorer and 
 1118 
 
 SHEKEL. 
 
 more wretched than in the present; hence death is an oh 
 ject of great drend. Women are esteemed very inferior to 
 men by fill these nations. The magic drum of the prieste 
 is well known. For one of the latest accounts of these re- 
 mote people, see Von IVravgcfs Journey to the Polar Sea. 
 
 SHAMMY, or SHAMOY. The tanned or tawed skin of 
 the Chamois goat. Any soft pliable leather now passes 
 under the name. See Leather. 
 
 SHAMPOOING. A name given to an operation in the 
 East, which consists in pressing the joints and rubbing 
 them, so as to mitigate pain, and restore tone and vigour to 
 the parts. 
 
 SHAMROCK. The popular emblem of Ireland: as the 
 rose of England, and the thistle of Scotland. It is generally 
 supposed to have been the plant called white clover, Tri- 
 folium repens ; but it appears to have been rather the wood- 
 sorrel, Ozalis acetosilla. 
 SHANK. In Architecture. See Femur. 
 SHANK PAINTER. The rope or chain which passing 
 round the shank of the anchor, lying horizontally, confines 
 it to the ship's bow. 
 
 SHARP. In Music, a character #, which prefixed to a 
 note signifies that it is to be sung or played a semitone 
 higher than it naturally would have been without such 
 character. 
 
 SHEAF. In Mechanics, a solid cylindrical wheel fixed 
 in a channel and moveable about an axis, as in the block 
 of a pulley. 
 SHEA'RING. The term in Scotland for reaping. 
 SHEARING SHEEP. The operation of clipping off the 
 wool from the bodies of ewes and lambs; generally per- 
 formed in the beginning of summer, when the animals are 
 not likely to suffer from being deprived of their warm cover- 
 ing, and when there is sufficient time for the wool to grow 
 again before winter. 
 
 SHEATH, in Botany, is a term npplied to a petiole when 
 it embraces the branch from which it springs, as in grasses ; 
 or to a rudimentary leaf which wraps round the stem on 
 which it grows, as in the scapus of many Endogenous 
 plants. 
 
 SHEATHING. The covering laid on the ship's bottom 
 to defend it from the worms. Sheets of thin copper nailed 
 on with copper nails constitutes, at present, the sheathing 
 of all the better kinds of vessels. Lead has been used; 
 and large-headed iron nails, called scupper nails are used 
 still for the same purpose on the bottoms of old hulks, piles, 
 &c. Zinc and different compositions have been proposed as 
 substitutes for copper; and Sir H. Davy ingeniously sug- 
 gested the application of pieces of zinc or iron upon different 
 parts of the copper surface, which by the action of the sea 
 water render the latter metal electro-negative, and capable 
 therefore, of resisting the oxidizing and corrosive agencies 
 of the substances held in solution. The pieces of iron or of 
 zinc so applied have been properly called protectors ; but 
 by occasioning the precipitation of earthy matters upon the 
 copper, while they effectually protect it, they render its sur- 
 face favourable to the adhesion of weeds, barnacles, &c, 
 and sometimes to such an extent as to interfere with the 
 passage of the ship through the water: upon such grounds, 
 Sir Humphrey's valuable suggestion has been neglected 
 When vessels are laid up in dock the protectors are in suc- 
 cessful use. Sheathing formerly was composed of thin fir 
 boards. 
 SHEEP. See Ovis. 
 
 SHEER. The curve which the line of ports, or of ihe 
 deck presents to the eye when viewing the side of the 
 ship. When these line* nre straight, or the extremities do 
 not rise, as is most usual, the ship is said to have a straight 
 sheer. 
 
 SHEER HULK. A hulk permanently fitted with sheers 
 for masting and dismasting ships. 
 
 SHEERS. Two masts or spars lashed together at or 
 near the head, and raised to a vertical position, for the pur- 
 pose of lifting the masts into or out of a vessel. 
 
 SHEET. The rope attached to the after mast or lee- 
 ward mast clue or corner of a sail, to extend it to the wind. 
 In the square sails above the courses, the ropes attached to 
 both clues are called sheets : in all other cases the weather- 
 most one is called a tack. 
 
 SHEET ANCHOR. The third of the four large anchors 
 generally carried by a ship. 
 
 SHEIK. (In Arabic, elder or eldest.) A title of dignity 
 properly belonging to the chiefs of the Arabian tribes or 
 clans. The heads of monasteries are also termed, in some 
 instances, sheiks among the Mohammedans. It is also the 
 title of the higher order of religious persons who preach in 
 the mosques. The mufti of Constantinople bears the title 
 of Sheikh-ul-Islnm. 
 
 SHEKEL. The name of n weight and coin in use among 
 the Jews. The weight of the shekel was about Joz. in 
 English avoirdupois weight; and the value of the coin was 
 Us. Id. There were two standards of the shekel : the she- 
 
SHINGLE. 
 
 Kil of the sanctuary, which was used in calculating the 
 offerings <>!' the temple, and all sums connected with the 
 i law , and the royal or profane shekel, used lor all 
 civil payments. Various opinions are entertained respecting 
 the relative value of these two standards ; but nothing cer- 
 tain can lie averred on the subject. VVener and Michaelis, 
 without, however, any sufficient reason, as it appears, are 
 of opinion that the shekel used in commercial transactions 
 differed from both of these. (See VVener, BMischcs Real- 
 wCrUrbnek, art. "SekeL") 
 
 SHEKTXAH. The Jewish name for the Divine pros 
 ence, which rested, in the shape of a cloud, over the " pro- 
 pitiatory," or " mercy seat," as it is rendered in our transla- 
 tion (Leviticus, xvi., 2). The Jews reckon it among the 
 five particulan which were present in the first temple, and 
 wanting in the second. (See Pridcauz' Connection, 1. 3.) 
 On this account God is so often said in Scripture to "dwell 
 between the cherubim;" that is. between the images of 
 cherubim on the mercy seat. (1 Sam., iv., 4 ; Psalm., lxxx., 
 1, &.<•. See also Mem. de CAc. des Jnxrr., vol. xxxviii.; 
 
 BHE'LDRAKE. The common name of the species of 
 duck called Jlnas tadorna, which is the type of the sub- 
 s Tadora of Hay and modern ornithologists. This 
 Dt species frequents many parts of our coast, and re- 
 main- throughout the year. The female commonly selects 
 a rabbit-hole in whkh to deposit bei eggs, which are some- 
 times as many as sixteen in number. The sheldrake feeds 
 on small fish, marine insects, and sea-weed. 
 
 SHELL. The hardening principle of shell is generally 
 carbonate of lime nearly pure. The animal principle, in 
 the porcellaneous shells, is a small quantity of soluble gela- 
 tine ; in the mother of pearl .shells, it is albuminous. The 
 latter, therefore, when steeped in dilute muriatic acid, 
 leave a membranous or cartilaginous residue; but the for- 
 mer are entirely soluble. For the form, structure, and mode 
 of growth of Shell, see Contuolooy. 
 
 i, i.. In Artillery, a hollow sphere of iron, which be- 
 ing filled wilh gunpowder and fired from a mortar, bursts 
 into pieces; when the powder is exploded, and produces a 
 Very destructive effect. The charge is introduced through 
 a hole in the shell of about an inch in diameter, and tired 
 by means of a fuze. The fuze is a wooden tube made to 
 fit the hole, and filled with a composition of sulphur, salt- 
 petre, and mealed powder; and is cut of such a length that 
 the shell is calculated to explode just before or immediate- 
 ly after it reaches the ground. 
 
 SHELI MARL. A deposit of clay and other substances, 
 mixed with shells, which collects at the bottom of lakes. 
 
 BHE'RBET (a word borrowed from the Persian), signi- 
 fies a favourite beverage in the East, bearing soi. 
 blance to our lemonade, made of water lemon-juice, and 
 fugar, with the addition of some other ingredients, such as 
 r, to give it a delightful perfume. 
 
 SHE'RLFF (originally shire-reeve, from the Saxon, mean- 
 ing the reeve or governor of the shire), is the title of that 
 ry who acted at first only as the deputy of the earl, 
 , led in Lot. vice-comes; but has long been the 
 1 officer in each county, where he Is styled bailiff 
 of the crown, and where he is specially entrusted with the 
 execution of the laws and the preservation of the peace: 
 for which purposes he has at his disjiosal the whole civil 
 force of the county — in old legal language the posse comita- 
 tus. The most ordinary and important functions of the 
 sheriff which he universally exercises by a deputy, called 
 under-sheriff, for whose conduct he is responsible, consist, 
 1st. In the execution of writs issuing from the superior 
 courts, or awarded by the judges on their consent, to take 
 effect within the county. 2. In the holding of the sheriff's 
 court. The sheriff himself only executes in person such 
 parts of his office as are either purely honorary, such as at- 
 tendance upon the judges on circuit (for whose lodging he 
 is nlso bound to provide) ; or as are of some dignity and 
 public importance, such as the presiding over elections and 
 the holding of county meetings, which it is in his power to 
 call at any time. The county courts are incident to the 
 jurisdiction of the sheriff. Until recently they could only 
 hold pleas of debt or damages under the value of 40s., ex- 
 cept in replevin, or actions by virtue of a particular writ 
 termed a justicies. But it is now enacted, by 3 & 4 W. 4, 
 c. 42, that in any action depending in a superior court for a 
 debt or demand, not exceeding £20 it shall be lawful for 
 the court to direct that the issue joined shall be tried before 
 the sheriff of the county in which the action is brought. See 
 Courts. 
 
 Sheritl's were originally chosen by the freeholders of the 
 county, except in some few counties where the office was 
 hereditary, as it still is in Westmoreland. The system of 
 popular election was abolished in the reign of Richard II., 
 and sheriffs have long been appointed by the crown upon 
 presentation of the judges, in a manner partly regulated by 
 law. partly by custom; but sheriffs may also be nominated 
 by the crown without recommendation of the judges, and 
 
 SHEKINAH. 
 
 are then familiarly styled pocket sheriffs. Those appoint 
 ed in either way are bound under a penalty of X'oUO to serve 
 the office, except in specified eases of exemption or disabili- 
 ty. The description given of the office as it is in England 
 applies to Ireland without variation, accept as to the time 
 of its origin. 
 
 SHE'RIFF DEPUTE. In Scotland, the principal sheriff 
 of a county. He is named by the crown, must lie an advo- 
 cate of three years' standing, and receives a salary varying 
 from £350 to £1200 per annum. He is entitled to name 
 sheriff substitutes ; executes writs, returns juries, &.c. ; de- 
 cides on claims for enrolment in the county lists of parlia- 
 mentary voters, and exercises a certain criminal jurisilic 
 tion. He holds also civil courts for the recovery of small 
 debts, and a court of record, the jurisdiction of which ex 
 tends to all personal actions, and possessory actions for the 
 recovery of real property. 
 
 SHE'RKV. A Spanish wine made from the grapes of 
 Xcres in Andalusia. Genuine sherry is a rich dry wine, 
 containing from 20 to 23 per cent, of alcohol : there are 
 many varieties, and it is extensively imitated and adulter 
 filial. Sm Wink. 
 
 SHEW-HREAD. In the Old Testament The name 
 given to the twelve loaves of bread, one for each of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel, which were appointed to be placed 
 every Sabbath "on the pure table before the Lord," for the 
 sustenance of the priests. Tiny appear to be the same 
 with that which is called " sliew-bread" in 1 Sam., 21, 
 where the act of David in taking these loaves for the nour- 
 ishment of himself and his followers is related. 
 
 SIII'BBOLETII. (Heb. a flood.) The name given to a 
 sort of test or criterion by which the ancient Jews sought 
 to distinguish true persons or things from false. The term 
 originated thus: After the battle gained by Jephtha over 
 the Ephraimites (see Judges, xii.), the Gileadites command- 
 ed by the former secured all the passes of the river; and 
 on an Ephraimite attempting to cross, they asked him if he 
 was of Ephraim. If he said no, they bade him pronounce 
 the word Shibboleth, which the Ephraimites from inability 
 10 give the aspirate called SibboletA; anil by this means he 
 was detected and Instantly thrown into the river. In mod- 
 ern tunes ibis word has been adopted into the language of 
 politics, in which it signifies those political opinions on 
 which all the members of a party are agreed, or the watch 
 word by which it is intended to unite them. 
 
 SHIELD. (Germ, schild.) A well-known piece of de- 
 fensive armour, very extensively used before the invention 
 of gunpowder, and still employed by many nations among 
 which military art has made imperfect progress. It would 
 be endless to detail the various materials and BRnpe 
 which it has been constructed at different periods. The 
 ancient Greek shield, as described in Homer, was large and 
 massive, sufficient to cover the man from the face to the 
 knee, composed of leather, inlaid in some instances with 
 metal. That of the Roman legionary was four feet high, 
 and two and a half broad, formed of wood covered with 
 leather, and strongly guarded with bosses of iron or bronze. 
 The ancient Britons and other nations of antiquity wore 
 round, light, basket like shields, often of wicker-work ; more 
 resembling the parma or lighter shield of the Romans. The 
 Norman shield, as used in England down to the time of 
 Henry II., was "of the form called kite or pear-shape," flat- 
 ter at first, afterwards approaching to the semi-cylindrical. 
 Heraldic devices were first borne on it, so far as is distinct- 
 ascertained, in the reign of Henry II. ( Pictorial Hist, of 
 England, i.. 640.) In that of Edward IV. the shield had be- 
 come triangular: the point of the triangle was rounded off 
 about the end of the 14th century. Afterwards the shape 
 of the shield, as worn by knights, became more and more 
 fantastic. In actual service it fell gradually into disuse : 
 sword and buckler fight, the favourite pastime as well as 
 warlike practice of former days, became obsolete after the 
 rapier and dagger had been introduced in the reign of Eliza- 
 beth. The Highlanders carried the target with the broad 
 sword to a much later period. 
 
 SHIELDS. In Botany, little coloured cups or lines with 
 a hard disk, surrounded by a. rim, and containing the fructi- 
 fication of lichens. 
 
 SHILLING. An English silver coin equal to twelve 
 pence, or the twentieth part of a pound sterling. Among 
 the ancient Saxons, the value of the shilling was only five 
 pence ; it afterwards underwent many alterations, contain- 
 ing sometimes sixteen pence, and often twenty pence. The 
 period when it obtained its present value is assigned to the 
 reign of Edward I. Many other countries besides England 
 have a coin of this name ; of these, perhaps, the Hamburgh 
 schilling is the best known. Its value is Irf. Engitsb. 
 
 SHI'LOH. (Hebr. differently rendered— .Son, He who is 
 sent, or the Sent, or the Peaceable, or the Prosperous.) The 
 name given to the Messiah by Jacob in his prophecy, Gen- 
 esis, xlix., 10. 
 SHINGLE. (Germ. ; or perhaps from Lat. scindendo.) 
 k 1119 
 
SHINGLES. 
 
 The coarse gravel, or accumulation of small stones, found 
 on the shores of rivers or the sea : in the latter case the term 
 sca-beac/i is applied. 
 
 SHI'NGLES. A corruption of the French word ceingh, 
 which means a belt. This eruptive disorder is generally 
 ushered in with febrile symptoms, followed by an itching 
 or tingling sensation of some part of the body, occasioned 
 by patches of little red pimples, forming in the course of 
 twenty-four hours small transparent vesicles; these suc- 
 ceed each other till they at length form a kind of belt round 
 Borne part of the trunk or abdomen; they often form small 
 ulcerations and scabs, continuing their progress for three or 
 four weeks. This disorder is not contagious, and generally 
 very slight; but in irritable habits the itching occasions 
 want of rest and fever, and it is sometimes attended by a 
 deep-seated pain of the affected part. The cause of shin- 
 gles is generally obscure, though it may sometimes be re- 
 ferred to indigestion and suppressed perspiration: young 
 persons are most subject to it. Gentle aperients and dia- 
 phoretics, strict attention to the diet, and occasional ano- 
 dynes, are the only internal remedies generally required; 
 and, externally, a little cold cream or fresh spermaceti oint- 
 ment, or the occasional application of a very weak Gou- 
 lard's lotion, 'n all that is necessary. 
 
 Shingles. In Architecture, small slabs of wood, or 
 quartered oaken boards, used instead of slates or tiles for 
 covering churches or spires. They are sawn to a certain 
 scantling, or rather cleft to about an inch thick at one end, 
 and shaped like wedges, four or five inches broad and eight 
 or nine inches long. 
 
 SHIP. A general term for all large vessels, but restrict- 
 ed by seamen to such only as have three complete masts ; 
 t. «., lower, top, and top-gallant masts. As we cannot here 
 give a complete description of so complex a fabric, and as 
 the reader will have become familiar with the forms of ships 
 from prints, we shall merely attempt to convey some gen- 
 eral ideas on the subject. After the hull has been com- 
 pleted, a slight account of the construction of which has 
 been given under Naval Architecture, the ballast, which 
 is necessary in most ships to keep them upright when un- 
 der sail, and which is in men-of-war in iron pigs is spread 
 over the bottom of the hold, chiefly towards the middle of 
 the length. The masts are then taken in. On the ballast 
 are laid loose pieces of wood, called dunnage, on which 
 rest the iron tanks containing the water to drink, or water 
 casks. The hold in large ships is divided by partitions into 
 the fore, main, and after holds. At the fore extremity, in 
 men-of-war, are the gunner's, boatswain's, and carpenter's 
 rooms, containing arms, supplies of rope, bolts, pump gear, 
 and other materials of the fittings, or for repairs. In this 
 part also is the fore powder magazine, when there are two. 
 In the fore hold are stowed water, wood for firing, and, 
 separated by a strong partition, coals. In the main hold 
 are stowed water, stores, chain cables, &c. In the after 
 hold are the provision* ; and, in the spirit room, the spirits : 
 here also is the powder magazine. In the narrow and 
 shallow after extremity is stowed the bread or biscuit. The 
 spare sails are kept in a space called the sail room, over the 
 fore bold. The hemp cables are kept in the cable tiers, on 
 a deck over the main hold. These decks immediately over 
 the holds constitute generally the fore and after cock pits. 
 In large ships the whole deck is called the orlop deck. On 
 the lower deck, which is next above the former, the men 
 mess and sleep. In frigates, and smaller vessels, this deck 
 is a little below the water; in two and three deckers, it is 
 three or more feet above the water, and is the lower gun 
 deck. 
 
 In merchant ships the arrangements depend, of course, on 
 the size of the vessel and the nature of the cargo. In all 
 these vessels, however, the place allotted to the crew is in 
 the fore part, and is called the fore peak. Ships are, in gen- 
 eral, constructed for the purposes of burden, expedition, and 
 war; the latter class, which must possess also, in part, the 
 qualities of the other two, exhibit the finest models. The 
 largest ships, of l-!0 guns, carry three complete rows or tiers 
 of heavy cannon (J2 pounders), and are thence called three- 
 deckers ; of late years some still heavier guns have been 
 introduced. Each deck has from 15 to 17 guns on each 
 side. The middle of these decks is called the middle deck ; 
 and the deck next above this, or which is next below the 
 uppermost deck, the main deck. Guns are also carried on 
 the tipper deck, of which the fore part is called the fore- 
 castle, and the part abaft the main mast the quarter deck. 
 The deck over this last, extending from the after extremity 
 to a little before the mizzen mast, is called the poop. The 
 after parts of these decks, from and including the mizzen 
 mast, are the cabins of the admiral, captain, and the offi- 
 cers; the latter being called the ward room in ships of the 
 line, and the gun room in frigates. The length of a ship of 
 the largest class is about 200 feet at the water line, extreme 
 breadth 54 feet, and draught of water about 26, and the 
 height of the truck above the water 210 feet. The whole 
 1120 
 
 SHIPWRECK. 
 
 weight of such a ship, with her crew and provisions, Is 
 about 4G00 tons, of which the hull or shell is about half. 
 The men, with their effects, amount to 100 tons; and the 
 guns, arms, and powder, to 500 tons. The 32 pounder (long 
 gun), and carriage, weigh 72 cwt., and the carronade one 
 third of this. Two-deckers carry from 70 to 90 guns. In 
 bad weather the ports of the lower deck are defended by- 
 heavy lids called ports, which are firmly secured from with- 
 in, the guns being then run in and secured from motion. 
 Frigates carry one tier of guns on the main deck, besides 
 guns on the upper deck; vessels of the lower classes carry 
 their guns on the upper or open deck. 
 
 Fine sailing ships have gone upwards of 13 knots (or sea 
 miles of 6080 feet) an hour, in a squall ; and upwards of 10 
 knots on a bow line, that is, the sails being sharply trimmed 
 when the direction of the wind makes an angle of nbout 
 67° with that of the ship's head. 
 
 The principal scientific works on ships are Bouguer, 
 Traitt du JVavirc ; Euler, Scientia Navalis ; Id. Theoric de 
 la Construction et de la Manoeuvre des Vaisseaux ; Don 
 George Juan, F.xamin Maritimo, and a French translation, 
 with notes, by L'Eveque ; Chapman's Naval Architecture, 
 &c. Much general information is to be found in Chariwck's 
 Marine Architecture, and many other works contained in 
 any good catalogue, under the heads Naval Architecture, 
 Seamanship, especially in Darcy Lever's Seamanship, &c. 
 But the subject has as yet been but impe/fectly treated, and 
 many points of great practical importance, and unconnect- 
 ed with the particular properties of fluids, have not been 
 discussed. 
 
 SHIP, ARMED. In the English usages of war, a private 
 vessel occasionally taken into the service of government in 
 time of war, armed and equipped like a regular ship of war, 
 and commanded by an officer of the navy, with the rank of 
 master and commander. 
 
 SHIP-BUILDING. See Naval Architecture. 
 
 SHIP MONEY. The celebrated tax imposed by Charles 
 I. without authority of parliament, which proved one of the 
 most immediate causes of the discontents that ended in the 
 great rebellion. This device was first put in practice in 
 1634. It was by a writ, directed to the sheriff of every 
 county, to provide a ship for the king's service ; accom- 
 panied by written instructions, appointing a sum of money 
 to be levied instead. This writ was framed by Attorney- 
 General Noy. The tax was paid for about four years with- 
 out opposition ; when the question of its legality was raised 
 by the refusal of Hampden to pay his share. It was argued 
 before the judges in the Exchequer Chamber, of whom a 
 great majority gave judgment for the crown. The act 
 " whereby all the proceedings in the business of ship-money 
 were adjudged void, and disannulled, and the judgments, 
 enrolments, and entries thereupon vacated and cancelled," 
 was one of the first proceedings of the Long Parliament. 
 (See Clarendon, hooks i., iii.) 
 
 SHIPS, REGISTRY OF. In Commercial Navigation, 
 the registration or enrolment of ships at the custom-house, 
 so as to entitle them to be classed among, and to enjoy the 
 privileges of, British-built ships. 
 
 The registry of ships appears to have been first introduced 
 into this country by the Navigation Act (12 Car. 2, c. 18, 
 anno 1660). Several provisions were made with respect to 
 it by the 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 22; and the whole was reduced 
 into a system by the 27 Geo. 3, c. 19. 
 
 It may be laid down in general, that a vessel, in order to be 
 admitted to registry, and consequently to enjoy the privileges 
 and advantages that exclusively belong to a British ship, 
 must be the property of his majesty's subjects in the United 
 Kingdom or some of its dependencies ; and that it must 
 have been built in the said United Kingdom, &c, or been a 
 prize vessel legally condemned, or a vessel legally con- 
 demned for a breach of the slave laws. 
 
 The great, and perhaps the only original object of the 
 registration of ships, was to facilitate the exclusion of 
 foreign ships from those departments in which they were 
 prohibited from engaging by the navigation laws, by afford- 
 ing a ready means of distinguishing such as were really 
 British. It has also been considered advantageous to in 
 dividuals, by preventing the fraudulent assignment of prop- 
 erty in ships ; but Lord Tenterden has observed, in refer- 
 ence to this supposed advantage, that "the instances ir 
 which fair and honest transactions are rendered unavaila- 
 ble, through a negligent want of compliapce with the forms 
 directed by these" and other statutes requiring a public re- 
 gister of conveyances, make the expediency of all such reg- 
 ulations, considered with reference to private benefit only, 
 a matter of question and controversy." ( Law of Shipping, 
 part i., c. 2.) 
 
 SHIPWRECK, in the open sea, arises from the water 
 leaking in at the bottom of a ship faster than the pumpdfcan 
 discharge it ; or from the sea coming over one of the decks, 
 and getting below in great quantity; or from the vessel be- 
 ing overset by the wind. In the labouring of a weak ship 
 
SHIRE. 
 
 in a heavy sea the seams of the sides and bottom open, and 
 the caulking works loosen. When the loss of a mast oc- 
 curs, the ship is often left entirely to the action of the 
 waves. People unused to the sea look with admiration on 
 thu strength and solidity of a ship ; but those who have ex- 
 perienced the violent shocks of the waves, and are con- 
 t with the effects of incessant agitation upon any 
 fabric, and the straining effects of the masts and sails on 
 the hull, are rather surprised that such a machine should 
 hold together fur so many years. 
 
 When the ship is wrecked near the shore, the object is 
 to land the crew. The first method proposed was, we be- 
 nch's, in 1791. A mortar was tired from the ship, car- 
 rying a shell wiih a rope attached, by which communica- 
 tion with the shore might be established. Captain Manby, 
 in 1808, employed the mortar on shore, where alone, itjs 
 obvious, its action could be depended ujion ; and methods 
 have since been adopted for winding the rope on a cone 
 for disengaging it without impediment, which had been 
 found the chief difficulty. 
 
 SHIRE. A territorial division. (From the Anglo-Saxon 
 scyran, to divide ; whence the verb to sheer.) In modern 
 language, shire is synonymous with county; but some 
 smaller districts in the north of England retain the provin- 
 ci;il appellation of shires : as Kichmondshire, in the North 
 Riding of Yorkshire ; Ilallamsliire, or the manor of llallam, 
 in tlw West Hilling, which is nearly coextensive with the 
 parish of Sheffield. StoCouirrr. 
 
 SHIRE CLERK. An officer appointed by the sheriff to 
 keeping the county court. 
 
 SII I U E M< ) IT.. The Shire Meeting ; t. c, sheriff's court. 
 
 BHOOTING STARS. Well-known meteors, of which 
 the urigii and nature are involved in great obscurity, 
 and which have, of late years, excited extraordinary inter- 
 est by their periodical appearances in unusually great 
 numbers. 
 
 ■ of Shooting Stars. — The apparent magnitudes 
 of these meteors are widely different. The greater part of 
 them resemble stars of the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th magnitudes; 
 bin some occur which surpass stars of the 1st magnitude, 
 ond even exceed Jupiter and Venus in brilliancy. In some 
 of them the globular form can be easily recognised : these 
 are, i>i every respect, similar to bolides or fire-balls ; and, 
 in tact, it is impossible, from their appearances, to make 
 any distinction between the larger shooting stars and the 
 (mailer individuals of the class of meteors to which the 
 name of the lire-balls is usually appropriated. Sec Fire- 
 balls. 
 
 Shouting stars nppear to be equally numerous in every 
 climate. The weather seems to have no influence upon 
 their number. They are observed at all times of the year; 
 but, generally speaking, they appear to be more abundant 
 in the end or summer and autumn than at the other sea- 
 Some of the shooting stars leave a luminous train behind 
 them, which marks their path through the sky with a milk- 
 white light. These trains for the most part disappear in a 
 few seconds ; but sometimes they continue longer, and even 
 for several minutes. In the case of actual fire-balls, Dr. 
 Olbers observed trains which continued from six to seven 
 minutes ; and Brandes, in one instance, estimated that fif- 
 teen minutes elapsed between the extinction of the fire-ball 
 and the disappearance of the luminous train. The trains in 
 general assume the form of a cylinder, the interior of which 
 is void of luminous matter; and not unfrequently, before 
 their disappearance, they take n curved form. The most 
 probable explanation is, that they arc caused by a gaseous 
 matter left behind by the meteor, and bent by currents of 
 air. 
 
 The older philosophers had formed various theories to 
 explain these remarkable phenomena. By some they were 
 supposed to be the products of an oily sulphurous vaponr 
 existing in the atmosphere, which being disposed in thin 
 layers, and becoming inflamed by some means, would ex- 
 hibit the appearance of a clear brilliant spark passing ra- 
 pidly from one point to another. About the middle of the 
 last century, when the effects and phenomena of electrici- 
 ty began to be better understood, Beccaria and Vassali, 
 among others, regarded the shooting stars as merely electri- 
 cal sparks ; an hypothesis which was soon shown to be 
 untenable. At a later period, when the inflammable nature 
 of the gases became known, Lavoisier, Volta, Herbert, 
 Toaldo, Gren, and others, referred these meteors to hydro- 
 gen gas, which, by reason of its inferior density, they sup- 
 posed must be accumulated in the higher regions of the at- 
 mosphere. Dal ton, however, showed that such accumula- 
 tion cannot take place, inasmuch as all the gases which 
 constitute the atmosphere must be equally diffused through 
 Its whole extent, according to the law of Mariotte. Deluc 
 maintained that certain phosphoric exhalations generated 
 si the earth, and becoming inflamed in the sky, formed the 
 *ue essence of the shooting stars. 
 4 B 
 
 SHOOTING STARS. 
 
 In this state the subject remained when Chladnl publish 
 ed his celebrated work on the causes of the masses of iron 
 and other similar substances found in Siberia by Pallas, in 
 which he clearly established, by comparing the circum- 
 stances of a great multitude of observations, that the tire- 
 balls are meteors having their origin beyond our atmosphere ; 
 that, in fact, they are masses of nebulous matter moving in 
 space with planetary velocities, which, when they come in 
 the way of the earth in its revolution about the sun, and 
 enter the atmosphere, are inflamed by its resistance and 
 friction, and become luminous, sometimes scattering 
 of stone and iron on the ground. Halley, Wallis, Pringle. 
 Maskelyne, and others, had previously assigned a cosmical 
 origin to these meteors, but without suspecting that masses 
 of stone and iron fell from them. The close resemblance 
 which the greater part of the shooting stars present to lire- 
 balls, at once induced Chladni to consider these phenomena 
 also as cosmical ; that is to say, ns small masses of matter 
 not having their origin in our atmosphere, but entering it 
 from without, and which are either entirely consumed in it. 
 or become extinguished when they have passed beyond it. 
 
 These conclusions, however, required to be con tinned by 
 a more accurate investigation of the phenomena ; for as yet 
 no exact determination had been made of the actual aver- 
 age heights of the shooting stars above the earth, or of their 
 orbits, velocities, or magnitudes. In the year 1798 this im- 
 portant but difficult inquiry was undertaken by Professors 
 Brandes of Leipsig, and Iienzenberg of Dusseldorf (both at 
 that time students in Gbttingen). Having selected a base 
 line (about nine miles in length), they placed themselves at 
 its extremities on appointed nights, and observed all the 
 shooting stars which appeared, tracing their courses through 
 the heavens on a celestial map, and noting the Instants of 
 their appearances and extinctions by chronometers previous- 
 ly compared. The differences of the paths traced on the 
 maps afforded data for the determination of the parallaxes, 
 and consequently the heights and the lengths of the orbits. 
 On six evenings, between September and November, the 
 whole number of shooting stars seen by both observers was 
 402; of these 22 were identified as having been observed 
 by each in such a manner that the altitude of the meteor 
 above the ground at the instant of extinction could he com- 
 puted. The least of the altitudes was about (i Knglish 
 miles. Of the whole there were 7 under 45 miles; 9 be- 
 tween 45 ami 90 ; 6 above 90 ; and the highest was above 
 140 miles. There were only two observed so completely ns 
 to afford data for determining the velocity. The first gave 
 25 miles, and the second from 17 to 21 miles in a second. 
 The most remarkable result was, that one of them certainly 
 was observed not to fall, but to move in a direction away 
 from the earth. 
 
 By these observations a precise idea was first obtained of 
 the altitudes, distances, and velocities of these singular me- 
 teors. A similar but more extended plan of observation was 
 organized by Brandes in 1823, and carried into effect at Bres- 
 lau and the neighbouring towns by a considerable number 
 of persons observing at the same time on concerted nights. 
 Between April and October about 1800 shooting stars were 
 noted at the different places ; out of which number 62 were 
 found which had been observed simultaneously at more 
 than one station in such a manner that their res|iective alti- 
 tudes could be determined, and 36 others of which the ob- 
 servations furnished data for estimating the entire orbits. 
 Of these 98, the heights (at the time of extinction) of 4 
 were computed to be under 15 English miles ; of 15 between 
 15 and 30 miles ; of 22 between 30 and 45; of 33 between 
 45 and 70; of 13 between 70 and 90 ; and of 11 above 90 
 miles. Of these last two had an altitude of about 140 miles, 
 one of 220 miles, one of 280, and there was one of which 
 the height was estimated to exceed 460 miles. 
 
 Of the 36 computed orbits, in 26 instances the motion was 
 downwards, in one case horizontal, and in the remaining 9 
 more or less upwards. The velocities were between 18 and 
 36 miles in a second. The trajectories were frequently not 
 straight lines, but incurvated sometimes in the horizontal 
 and sometimes in the vertical direction, and sometimes they 
 were of a serpentine form. The predominating direction of 
 the motion of the meteors from north-east to south-west, 
 contrary to that of the earth in its orbit, was very remarka- 
 ble, and is unpoOant in reference to their physical theory. 
 
 A similar set of observations was made in Belgium in 
 1824, under the direction of M. auetelet, the results of 
 which are published in the Annuaire de BrurelUs for 1837. 
 M. ftuetelet was chiefly solicitous to determine the velocity 
 of the meteors. He obtained six corresponding observations 
 from which this element could be deduced, and the results 
 varied from ten to twenty-five English miles in a second. 
 The mean of the six results gave a velocity of nearly sev- 
 enteen miles per second, a little less than that of the earth 
 in its orbit. 
 
 Another set of corresponding observations was made in 
 Switzerland on the 10th of August, 1838; a circumstantial 
 
 1121 
 
SHOOTING STARS. 
 
 account of which is given by M. YVartmann in QucteleCs 
 Correspondancc Mathimatiquc, lor July, 1839. M. Wart 
 mann and five oilier observers, provided with celestial 
 charts, stationed themselves at the observatory of Geneva ; 
 and the corresponding observations were made at Plaa- 
 chettes, a village about sixty miles to the north-east of that 
 city. In the space of seven and a half hours, the number 
 of meteors observed by the six observers at Geneva was 
 381 ; and during five and a half hours, the number observed 
 at Blanehettes by two observers was 104. All the circum- 
 stances of the phenomena — the place of the apparition and 
 disappearance of eacli meteor, the time it continued visible, 
 its brightness relatively to the fixed stars, whether accom- 
 panied with a train, &c, were carefully noted, and the tra- 
 jectories projected on a large planisphere. The extent of 
 the trajectories described by the meteors was very different, 
 varying from 8° to 70° of angular space. The velocities 
 appeared also to differ considerably; but the average velo- 
 city was supposed by M. Wartmann to be 25° per second. 
 It was found, from the comparison of the simultaneous ob- 
 servations, that the average height above the ground was 
 about 550 miles; and hence the relative velocity was com- 
 puted to be about 240 miles in a second. Hut as the greater 
 number moved in a direction opposite to that of the earth 
 in its orbit, the relative velocity must be diminished by the 
 earth's velocity (about 19 miles in a second). This still 
 leaves upwards of 220 miles per second for the absolute ve- 
 locity of the meteor, which is more than eleven times the 
 orbital velocity of the earth, seven and a half times that of 
 the planet Mercury, and probably greater than that of the 
 comets at their perihelia. 
 
 Such are the principal facts which have yet been estab- 
 lished respecting the heights, velocities, and orbits of the 
 shooting stars; and it is from these chiefly that we are en- 
 abled to form any probable conjectures respecting their ori- 
 gin. And since it is now established that no difference is 
 observable between the larger shooting stars and small fire- 
 balls, both having similar altitudes and velocities, and pre- 
 senting absolutely the same ap|)earances, we may assume 
 them to be of the same nature, and that whatever has been 
 proved respecting fire-balls will apply equally to the larger 
 shooting stars. Whether the meteoric appearances to 
 which the latter term is applied may not include objects of 
 totally different natures, is a question admitting of doubt. 
 It is possible that among the shooting stars there may be 
 objects which are merely electric sparks, or which have their 
 origin in spontaneously inflammable gases, known or un- 
 known, existing in the atmosphere ; but the greater part of 
 them must be considered as identical with fire-balls. 
 
 Physical Theory of the Shooting Stars. — Some philoso- 
 phers, as already stated, have ascribed an atmospheric ori- 
 gin both to the shooting stars and fire-balls; but the obser- 
 vations of Brandos, and more particularly those of Wart- 
 mann, which prove that many of them appear at altitudes 
 far beyond the limits which can be assigned with any pro- 
 bability to the atmosphere, have rendered this supposition 
 altogether untenable. Another hypothesis respecting their 
 origin is, that they are bodies projected to our earth from 
 volcanoes in the moon. Dr. Olbers was the first, perhaps, 
 who showed the possibility of this hypothesis. On compu- 
 ting the forces necessary to overcome the moon's attraction, 
 he found that a body projected from the moon with a velo- 
 city of about 8500 feet in a second would not fall back on 
 the lunar surface, but recede from it indefinitely; and that 
 in order to reach the earth it is only necessary that the 
 projectile should have the velocity of 8300 feet, which is 
 quite conceivable, being only about four or five times that 
 of a cannon ball. The hypothesis of the lunar origin of 
 meteoric stones was adopted by Laplace, Berzelius, Benzen- 
 berg, and others ; but the observed velocities of the shoot- 
 ing stars have rendered this origin extremely improbable 
 with respect to them. In order to enter our atmosphere 
 with a velocity of 20 miles in a second, it may be shown 
 that if they come from the moon they must have been pro- 
 jected from the lunar surface with a velocity of about 
 120,000 feet in a second, which may be regarded as altogeth- 
 er Impossible. 
 
 It thus appears that those shooting stars and fire-balls 
 which have the planetary velocity of from 20 to 40 miles in 
 a second, cannot with any probability be regarded as having 
 their origin in the moon. Whether any individual bodies 
 moving with a smaller velocity may have a lunar origin, is 
 a question which cannot be decisively answered. "To 
 me," says Dr. Olbers, "it does not appear at all probable; 
 and I regard the moon, in its present circumstances, as an 
 extremely peaceable neighbour, which, from its want of 
 water and atmosphere, is no longer capable of any strong 
 explosions." 
 
 The hypothesis first suggested by Chladni is that which 
 appears to have met with most favour, having been adopt- 
 ed by Arago and other eminent astronomers of the present 
 day to explain the November phenomena. It consists in 
 1122 
 
 supposing that, independently of the great planets, there 
 exist in tile planetary regions myriads of small bodies which 
 circulate about the sun, generally in groups of zones ; and 
 that some of these zones intersect the ecliptic, and are con- 
 sequently encountered by the earth in its annual revolu 
 tion. The principal difficulties attending this theory are the 
 following: First, that bodies moving in groups in the cir- 
 cumstances supposed must necessarily move in the same 
 direction, and consequently, when they become visible from 
 the earth, would all appear to emanate from one point and 
 move towards the opposite. Now, although the' observa- 
 tions seem to show that the predominating direction is from 
 north-east to south-west, yet shooting stars are observed on 
 the same nights to emanate from all points of the heavens, 
 and to move in all possible directions. Secondly, their aver- 
 age velocity (especially as determined by Wartmann) great- 
 ly exceeds that which any body circulating about the sun 
 can have at the distance of the earth. Thirdly, from their 
 appearance, and the luminous train which they generally 
 leave behind them, and which often remains visible for sev- 
 eral seconds, sometimes for whole minutes, and also from 
 their being situated within the earth's shadow, and at 
 heights far exceeding those at which the atmosphere can 
 be supposed capable of supporting combustion, it is mani- 
 fest that their light is not reflected from the sun ; they must 
 therefore be self-luminous, which is contrary to every anal- 
 ogy of the solar system. Fourthly, if masses of solid mat- 
 ter approached so near the earth as many of the shooting 
 star.- do, some of them would inevitably be attracted to it; 
 but of the thousands of shooting stars which have been ob- 
 served, there is no authenticated instance of any one having 
 actually reached the earth. Fifthly, instead of the meteors 
 being attracted to the earth, some of them are observed ac 
 tually to rise upwards, and to describe orbits which are con- 
 vex towards the earth ; a circumstance of which, on the 
 present hypothesis; it seems difficult to give any rational 
 explanation. 
 
 From the difficulties attending every hypothesis which 
 h-is hitherto been proposed, it may be inferred how very 
 little real knowledge has yet been obtained respecting the 
 nature of the shooting stars. It is certain that they appear 
 at great altitudes above the earth, and that they move with 
 prodigious velocity ; but every thing else respecting them is 
 involved in profound mystery. From the whole of the 
 facts, M. Wartmann thinks that the most rational conclusion 
 we can adopt is, that the meteors probably owe their origin 
 to the disengagement of electricity, or of some analogous 
 matter, which takes place in the celestial regions on every 
 occasion in which the conditions necessary for the produc 
 tion of the phenomena are renewed. 
 
 The presumptions in favour of the cosmical origin of the 
 shooting stars are chiefly founded on their periodical recur- 
 rence at certain epochs of the year, and the extraordinary 
 displays of the phenomena in various years on the nights of 
 the 12th or 13th of November. We shall here merely state 
 the principal circumstances accompanying those of 1799, 
 which put the notion of a lunar origin entirely out of the 
 question. 
 
 On the morning of the 12th of November, 1799, before 
 sunrise, Humboldt and Bonpland, then on the coast of Mex 
 ico, were witnesses to a remarkable exhibition of shooting 
 stars and fire-balls. They filled the part of the heavens 
 extending from due east to about 30° towards the north and 
 south. They rose from the horizon between the east and 
 east-north-east points, described arcs of unequal magnitude, 
 and fell towards the south ; some of them rose to the height 
 of 40°, all above 25° or 30°. Many of them appeared to 
 explode, but the larger number disappeared without emit- 
 ting sparks : some had a nucleus apparently equal to Jupiter. 
 This most remarkable spectacle was seen at the same time 
 in Cumana, on the borders of Brazil, in French Guinna, in 
 the channel of Bahama, on the continent of North Ameri 
 ca, in Labrador, and in Greenland; and even at Cnrlsruhe, 
 Halle, and other places in Germany, many shooting stars 
 were seen on the same day. At Nain and Hoffentha] in 
 Labrador, and at Neuhernhut and Lichtenau In Greenland, 
 the meteors seem to have approached the nearest to the 
 earth. At Nain they fell towards all points of the horizon ; 
 and some of them had a diameter which the spectators es- 
 timated at half an ell. (See Humboldt's Recueil des Voy- 
 age*, &-c. vol. ii.) 
 
 Under the term Fire-balls, the reader will find an ac- 
 count of a not less stupendous exhibition which took place 
 in North America on the night of the 12th of November 
 1833. In 1834, a similar phenomena occurred on the night 
 of the 13th of November; but on this occasion the meteors 
 were of a smaller size. In 1835, 1836, and 1838, shooting 
 stars were observed on the night of November 13th in dif 
 ferent parts of the world ; but though diligently looked for 
 on the same nights in 1839 and 1840, they do not appear to 
 have been more numerous than on other nights about the 
 same season of the year. 
 
SHORE. 
 
 The second g«3t me.c-oric epoch is the 10th of August, 
 first pointed out by M. Ouetelet; and although no displays 
 similar «o ihc-e of the November period have been wit- 
 I on this night, there are more instances of the recur- 
 rence of the phenomena. In the last three years (1838, 
 1830, 1940), shooting stars were observed in great numbers 
 both on the 9tli and 10th ; but they appear in general to be 
 unusually abundant during the two first weeks of Aligns. 
 The other periods which have been remarked are the 18th 
 of Octol>er, the 23d or 24lh of April, the 6th and 7th of 
 mber, the nights from the loth to the 20th of June, and 
 die 3d of January. 
 
 Bailey lirst suggested the idea that the shooting stars may 
 . erved as signals for determining differences of longi- 
 tude' by simultaneous observations ; and Maskelyne in 1783 
 published a pa|>er on the subject, in which he calls the at- 
 tention of astronomers to the phenomena, and distinctly 
 points out this application. The idea was revived by Ben- 
 zenherg in 1802; but so long as they were regarded merely 
 u.il phenomena, it could scarcely be hoped that they 
 would be of much use in this respect to practical astronomy. 
 As soon, however, as their periodicity became probable, the 
 phenomena acquired a new interest; and some recent at- 
 tempts to determine longitudes in this manner have proved 
 that the method is not to be disregarded. (Monthly Notices 
 of the H. Astr. Society for January, 1841.) 
 
 See an interesting paper on this subject by Dr. Olbers, in 
 Schumacher's Jahrbuch for 1837; also the Annuaire du 
 Jiitnau des Longitudes for 1836; Mem. de VAcademie de 
 Bruxelles for 1838; Schumacher's A stronomisckes Nach- 
 ric/itcn, vols. xvi. and xvii. ; and the various Scientific 
 Journals. 
 
 SHORE. In Architecture, a piece of timber or other 
 material placed in such a direction as to prop up a wall or 
 other heavy body. 
 
 SI lor. Any kind of missile discharged by an instru- 
 ment ; but the term usually denotes balls for fire-arms. 
 
 SHOT LOCKERS. Long pieces of wood pierced with 
 holes like cups, in. which the shot are placed, along the 
 ind round the hatchways. 
 
 SHOU'LDER. In Fortification, the angle of a bastion 
 included between the face and flank. 
 
 SIM CVELER. The name of a species of duck, remark 
 
 i'or the length and terminal expansion of the bill; 
 
 u hence the name of Spatkulea, proposed for the subgenus 
 
 of which it is the type. It is the Anus clypcata of Lin- 
 
 SHRA'PNELL SHELLS, in Gunnery, are shells filled 
 with a quantity of musket balls, which, when the shell ex- 
 plodes, are projected about 150 yards further. They are 
 fired from guns, mortars, and howitzers, and have been 
 found most effective. A six-pounder spherical case con- 
 tains twenty-seven musket balls, which, when the shell 
 explodes, do as much injury as an equal number of muskets, 
 at a distance far beyond the reach of musketry. [Ency. 
 Hrit.. art. "Gunnery.") 
 
 SHREW. SeeSoRax. 
 
 S II HIKE. A name for the butcher birds, or species of 
 Laniaries. 
 
 SHRINE. (Lat. scrinium, a desk or cabinet; whence 
 also screen.) Properly, the receptacle of the remains or 
 relics of a saint Shrines are of two sorts: portable, used 
 in processions, called in Latin /eretra ; and fixed, in churches. 
 The appropriate place for shrines, in the churches of the 
 middle ages, was generally in the eastern part, in the space 
 behind the high altar. Such is the situation nf the cele- 
 brated shrine of the three kings of Cologne: and such was 
 that of the shrines at St. Alban's, Cnnte.bury, Durham, 
 and Westminster, before the Reformation. (Archaologia, 
 vol. i.) 
 
 SHROUDS. The large ropes supporting a mast later- 
 ally; they take the names of their respective masts, as the 
 lower main shrouds, &c. 
 
 SHROVE TUESDAY. The Tuesday after Quinqua- 
 aa Sunday, and immediately preceding Ash Wednes- 
 day ; so called from the Sax. shriven, to confess, because 
 on that day confession was made preparatory to the fast of 
 Lent. The custom of ringing the bells for this occasion 
 was long retained in many parishes, particularly in Lon- 
 don ; although the vulgar name of " pancake bell" shows 
 that little was left of the solemnity beyond the dinner on 
 pancakes which followed it. See Brand's Popular Anti- 
 quities, for an account of the various Shrovetide or carnival 
 amusements of this country. 
 
 SHRUB. A small low dwarfish tree, which instead of 
 one single stem, frequently puts forth from the same root 
 several sets or stems. 
 
 Shrub is also the name given to a species of sweet wine 
 or liqueur, of which ruin forms the chief ingredient 
 
 SHUTTLE. An instrument used by weavers, which 
 guides the thread it contains, so as to make it form the 
 woofs of stuffs, cloths, linen, and other fabrics, by throw- 
 
 SIESTA. 
 
 ing the shuttle alternately from left to right and from ngnt 
 to left across between the threads of the warp, which are 
 stretched out lengthwise on the loom. In the middle of 
 the shuttle is a kind of cavity, called its eye or chamber, in 
 whicti is enclosed the spoul, which is part of the thread 
 destined for the woof. 
 
 SIIWAN PAN. The calculating instrument of the 
 Chinese. It is similar in shape and construction to the 
 Roman abacus, and is used in the same manner. See 
 Abacus. 
 
 SI. In Music, the name for the seventh sound, added by 
 Le Maire, a Frenchman, at the latter end of the 17th cen- 
 tury, to the six ancient notes, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, of Guido; 
 by means whereof, some authors say, much inconvenience 
 in the ancient gamut is avoided. 
 
 SI'ALAGOGUE. (Gr. crtoAar, saliva, and ayutyoc, a 
 leader.) Medicines which increase the flow of saliva. 
 
 SIBE'RITE. A mineralogical synonym of rubellite or 
 red tourmaline, the finest specimens of which have been 
 found in Siberia. 
 
 SI'BYL. The name given to certain prophetic women, 
 said to have lived in early ages in Greece and Italy. Some 
 authors recount as many as ten of them. The most cele- 
 brated were the Sibyl of" Cuma;, fabled to have been con- 
 sulted by Apneas, and the prophetess who offered her books 
 to Tarquin the Proud. (See, among many authorities, the 
 Mem. de I'Ac. des Inscr., vol. xxiii.) 
 
 SI'BYLLINE BOOKS. Documents supposed to con- 
 tain the fate of the Roman empire. Nine of them are said 
 to have been offered by an old woman, called Amalthsea, 
 to Tarquin the Proud; but Tarquin refusing to give the 
 price she asked, she went away, and burnt three of them. 
 Returning with the remainder, she offered them to the 
 king on the same terms as before; and, on his second re- 
 fusal, departed again, and returned with three, which she 
 still offered at the same price as the original nine. The 
 king, struck with her conduct, at last acceded to her offer, 
 and entrusted the care of the books to certain priests (the 
 quindecemviri). They were preserved in a stone chest be- 
 neath the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, nnd were consulted 
 in times of public danger or calamity. They were destroy- 
 ed by the fire that consumed the Capitol in the Marsic war. 
 After this calamity, ambassadors were sent to collect such 
 fragments of Sibylline prophecies as they could pick up in 
 various countries ; and from the verses thus collected Au- 
 gustus formed two new books, which were deposited in 
 two gilt cases in the temple of the Palatine Apollo. Sibyl- 
 line verses are often quoted by Christian writers, as con- 
 taining prophecies of Christianity ; but these are spurious, a 
 forgery of the second century. 
 
 SICI'LIAN VE'SPERS. In Modern History, the i 
 commonly given to the great massacre of the French 
 Sicily, in A.D. 1282. They were the soldiers and subjects 
 of Charles of Anjou, who had made himself master of the 
 island after the defeat and death of Conradin. The insur- 
 rection broke out on the evening of Easter Tuesday, whence 
 the name. Its consequence was the expulsion of Charles; 
 and the islanders placed themselves under the protection of 
 the king of Arragon. 
 
 SIDE'REAL. (Lat. sidus, a star.) Something relating 
 to the stars. 
 
 The sidereal day is the time in which the earth makes 
 a complete revolution on its axis, in respect of the fixed 
 stars or any fixed point in space. (See Day.) " If the side- 
 real day be taken equal to 24 sidereal hours, the mean 
 solar day will be equal to 24 h. 3 m. 56-55 sec. of those 
 hours; and if the mean solar day be taken equal to 24 
 mean solar hours, the sideral day will be equal to 23 h. 
 56 m. 4-09 sec. of those hours. Or," in all cases, if we wish 
 to determine, in sidereal time, the value of any given in- 
 terval expressed in mean solar time, and vice versa", we 
 shall have 
 
 sidereal time = 1-00273791 X mean solar time, 
 mean solar time = 0-99726957 X sidereal time." 
 (Baily's Astronomical Tables, 1827.) 
 
 The sidereal year is the time in which the earth performs 
 a complete revolution, relatively to the fixed stars, in its 
 orbit; namely, 365-2563612 mean solar days, or 365 d. 6h. 
 9m. 9-6sec, being 20m. 199 sec. longer th:in the tropical 
 year. See Year. 
 
 SIDE'ROCALCITE. (Gr. cifapoc, iron; Lat. calx, 
 lime.) The name given by Kirwan to the brown spar of 
 Werner. 
 | SIENITE, or SYENITE. (From Syene in Egypt, whence 
 the Romans obtained it for architectural purposes.) A 
 granitic aggregate of quartz, felspar, and hornblende. See 
 Geology. 
 
 SIERRA. A Spanish term, signifying a chain of hills, 
 and prefixed to the names of several places in Spain, and 
 other parts discovered or colonized by the Spaniards. 
 
 SIESTA. (Span.) The name given to the practice in 
 dulged in bv the Suaniards, and the inhabitants of hot 
 
 1123 
 
S1GILLARIA. 
 
 «llmates generally, of resting two or three hours in tiie 
 middle of the day, when the heat is too oppressive to admit 
 of their going from home. 
 
 SIGILLA'RIA. Fossil plant3 found in the coal forma- 
 tion. 
 
 SIGN. In Algebra, a symbol indicating an operation to 
 lie performed, or a relation subsisting between two quan- 
 tities. Of the former kind, those most commonly used are, 
 ■4- for addition, — for subtraction, X for multiplication, -r- 
 for division, y/ for the square root, ?/ for the cube root, 
 3/ for the nth root, &x. The signs denoting a relation are, 
 — equal to, > greater than, < less than, &c. 
 
 Sign. In Astronomy, a portion of the ecliptic or zodiac, 
 containing thirty degrees, or a twelfth part of the complete 
 circle. The first commences at the point of the equator 
 through which the sun passes at the time of the vernal 
 equinox; and they are counted onwards, proceeding from 
 west to east, according to the annual course of the sun, all 
 round the circle. The names of the twelve signs, in the 
 order in which they follow each other, with the characters 
 by which they are indicated on globes, and in the almanacs 
 and books of astronomy, are as follows: Aries T, Taurus 
 <3, Gemini TL, Cancer Za, Leo Si, Virgo I1JJ, Libra zdz, Scorpio 
 "l> Sagittarius t, Capricornus V3, Aquarius £?, Pisces JC. 
 
 It is to be remarked, that the above are also the names 
 of the twelve constellations of the zodiac; and in ancient 
 times (above 200 years before our era), the places of the 
 signs and the constellations were coincident; but owing to 
 the motion of the earth's equator, by which the equinoctial 
 points are carried backwards on the ecliptic about 50-6" 
 annually, the intersections of the ecliptic and equator, and 
 consequently the commencement of the signs, now corres- 
 pond to different stars, the first point of the sign Aries being 
 at present near the beginning of the constellation Pisces 
 On this account care must be taken not to confound the 
 signs of the zodiac, which are fixed in respect of the equi- 
 noxes, with the constellations, which are moveable in 
 respect to those points. See Constellation. 
 
 The ascending signs are the six beginning with Capri- 
 cornus, through which the sun passes while advancing 
 from the winter to the summer solstice, and is, consequent- 
 ly, acquiring altitude with respect to the inhabitants of the 
 northern hemisphere. The other six, beginning with Can- 
 cer, are called the descending signs. 
 
 SI' GNALS, NA'VAL, imply a system of symbols ad- 
 dressed to the eye, as flags, boards, lights, &c, for estab- 
 lishing communication at distances too great for the voice. 
 Guns are also used for the same purposes. The first sig- 
 nals seem to have been merely distinguishing flags for cer- 
 tain ships. In the system of signals instituted by James II. 
 for orders to the fleet, the purport depended on the part of 
 the ship at which they were exhibited ; a condition very 
 detrimental to the use of signals at sea. A code composed 
 of numeral flags and pendants, i.e., in which each symbol 
 had a number assigned to it, seems to have been the first 
 step towards a general system, as before this plan eacli 
 admiral instituted his own code. In 1815, Sir Home Pop- 
 ham's code was adopted. This added several literal or 
 alphabetical flags and pendants, which greatly extended 
 the means of communication, but necessarily rendered the 
 signals indistinct, and their purports deceitful, in many 
 cases, from the increased difficulty of distinguishing each 
 flag from the rest. In 182G, in consequence of some plans 
 having been submitted by admirals for a more efficient 
 system, the code now in use, which is considered as an im- 
 provement on its predecessor, was adopted. In 1828, Ad- 
 miral Raper published his code, which was one of those 
 under consideration. The principle of this system, which 
 is undeviatingly adhered to, is, that the manner of combi- 
 nation of the flags and pendants of which the signal is 
 composed, i.e., their order or arrangement, points out the 
 subject of the signal, or, as the author terms it, the point 
 of service to which the signal relates ; while the numbers 
 of the individual symbols indicate the number of the signal 
 in its class. The numbers are denoted, as usual, by the 
 colours ; but when these fail, from haze or distance, the num- 
 ber is supplied by numeral distant signals. From the dis- 
 tinctness attending the small number of symbols (the 
 smallest possible for complete numeral signals), the pre- 
 cision obtained from classification by which the simplicity 
 of each signal is proportioned to its importance, and the 
 saving of the time often wasted in vain attempts to distin- 
 guish the precise disposition of the colours of each flag, this 
 syttem has been considered by some competent judges as 
 the sole thoroughly efficient method. 
 
 In the merchant service, signals are of less extensive 
 utility than in the roynl navy, their chief employment being 
 to express the names of vessels, latitude and longitude, and 
 a few other such particulars ; and it were much to be de- 
 sired that governments would agree to establish universal 
 signals on like points of general interest. The code In use 
 is Captain Marryatt's. 
 1124 
 
 SILENUS. 
 
 Ingenious systems have been published by Lieutenant C. 
 Phillips, R. N., for the ships of all nations ; and also by Ad- 
 miral Sir C. Ekins, entitled Universal Signals, the symbols 
 being black and white only. From what little acquaintance 
 we have had with foreign signals, we consider them by no 
 means in advance of our own. 
 
 SIG'NATURE. (Lat. signatura.) In Music, the flats 
 and sharps placed after the clef, at the beginning of the 
 staff, which affect, throughout the movement, all notes of 
 the same letter. 
 
 Signature. In Printing, a letter of the alphabet placed 
 at the bottom of the first page of each sheet of a work, to 
 denote, alphabetically, the order of the sheets. 
 
 It is customary to commence with B on the first sheet of 
 the body of the work, and to go regularly through the 
 alphabet, with the exception of the letters J, V, and W, 
 which are never used as signatures; and which hail, in 
 fact, no existence in the alphabet at the time of the in- 
 vention of printing; $> expressed both J and J; 2S, both 
 U and V; 23231, the double letter W. If the work extend 
 to more sheets in number than there are letters in the 
 alphabet, the succeeding sheets go on with a second alpha 
 bet, which commences with A, and both the letters are 
 usually given ; in this manner, A A, or A a, and sometimes, 
 to avoid the repetition, thus, 2 A. If a third alphabet be 
 necessary, it is always, at the present day, placed with the 
 number before it, as 3 A. The printer's first alphabet con 
 sists 3f twenty-two letters, and the second and succeeding 
 ones of twenty-three. 
 
 As a guide to the bookbinder, there are other signatures 
 used in a sheet besides the first. In a sheet of octavo the 
 first page has B, the third has B2, the fifth has B3, and the 
 seventh has B 4: in a sheet of twelves they are carried to 
 B 6, B 5 being the first page of the offcut ; and however nu- 
 merous the pages may be in a sheet with one signature, 
 when they are all inserted, they are continued to the last 
 odd page before the middle of the sheet, but never carried 
 beyond the middle. In general they are all omitted except 
 the two first, to show the first fold of the paper, and the 
 first on the offcut. Small capitals are more frequently used 
 for signatures than large capitals, as disfiguring the foot of 
 the page in a slighter manner. Sometimes figures are used 
 instead of letters, but not often ; the Gentleman's Magazine 
 is an instance. (Savage's Vict, of Printing.) 
 
 SI'GNET, THE PRIVY. One of the king's seals in 
 England, used in sealing private letters and grants under 
 the sign manual. It is in the custody tif the Secretary of 
 State lor the Home Department. ( See Seal, Secretary.) 
 The signet in Scotland is the seal by which the king's let- 
 ters and writs for the purpose of justice are now authenti- 
 cated. Hence the title of clerks to the signet, or writers to 
 the signet; whose business is nearly the same with that of 
 attorneys in England. They were anciently clerks in thr 
 office of the Secretary of State, by whom writs were pre- 
 pared; and when the signet became employed in judicial 
 proceedings, they obtained a monopoly of the privileges of 
 acting as agents or attorneys before the Court of Session. 
 
 SIGN MANUAL. The royal signature, superscribed at 
 the top of bills of grants or letters patent; which are then 
 sealed with the privy signet or great seal, as the case may 
 be, to complete their validity. But there are some grants 
 which pass through certain offices, as the Admiralty or 
 Treasury, under the sign manual only. 
 
 SIGNOR. The Italian term equivalent to the English 
 Lord, Sir, or Mr., the French Monsieur, and the German 
 Herr. Signoria was anciently the appellation of the chief 
 council of Venice, Genoa, and Lucca. 
 
 SILENA'CEJE. (Silene, one of the genera.) An order 
 of Polypetalous Exogenous plants, with op|>osite undivided 
 leaves, and a stem with tumid nodes. The principal part 
 of the order consists of uninteresting weedy plants ; but it 
 also contains the genera Dianthus, of which the garden 
 pink, clove, and piccotee are species; the Agrostcmma, 
 Snponaria, and some other plants cultivated for their beau- 
 tiful flowers. 
 
 SILE'NTIARY. Among the Romans, the title ot office 
 of a class of slaves attached to wealthy houses. In the 
 court of the emperors, there was a body of officers attached 
 to the household styled silentiaries. Thence the title came 
 to functionaries of higher authority, and was borne by 
 cabinet secretaries in the Lower Empire, and in the courts of 
 Charlemagne and other western potentates who derived 
 their code of ceremonial from Byzantium. Members of the 
 privy council seem to have been sometimes called by this 
 name under the Plantagenets in England. 
 
 SILENUS. (Gr. SA^vos-) A Grecian divinity, the fos- 
 ter-father and attendant of Bacchus, and likewise leader 
 of the satyrs. This deity was remarkable for his wisdom, 
 his drunkeness being regarded as inspiration. He was re- 
 presented as a robust old man in a state of intoxication, and 
 riding on an ass, with a can In his hand. Silo, 111*. says Mr. 
 Bryant, is only a corruption of a masculine form of . i\>»v. 
 
SILEX. 
 
 the mm. By some speculative mythologist the drunken 
 companion of Bacchus is converted into a sage, who was 
 honoured as a daemon after his decease. (Theopompus in 
 ./Elian, cited in Bryant, .hi,-. Jft/t/tol., vol. iii., p. 323.) 
 There was an order of priests called Sileni, of the same 
 class witii the Curetes. 
 
 BI'LEX, or SI'LICA. (Or. \nXti, a pebble or stone.) 
 The earth of flints. This important substance constitutes 
 the characteristic ingredient of a great variety of siliceous 
 minerals; among which rock-crystal, quartz, chalcedony, 
 and flint may be considered as silica nearly pure. It also 
 predominates in many of the rocky masses which consti- 
 tute the crust of our globe, such as granite, the varieties of 
 sa-idstnne, and quartz rock. Although silica has none of 
 the ordinary or more obvious nciil properties, yet, as it com- 
 bines in definite proportion with m my salifiable bases, :, n <\ 
 irbofdc acid when fused with the carbonated alka- 
 lies, i( is very commonly termed silicic acid, and its various 
 eempoandl have been denominated silicates. When pure 
 ami I'lilourless rock-crystal is heated re/ hot, and quenched 
 in water, it becomes opaque and friable; and if in this 
 state it be reduced to powder, it presents one form of pure 
 
 li in this state (in which it is perfectly insoluble in 
 be fused with three parts of carbonate of potash, 
 it forms a glass which is soluble in water, and from this 
 solution (formerly called liquor of flints) the concentrated 
 acids throw down the silica in the form of a gelatinous 
 but if the solution be diluted, and the acid gradu- 
 ally added, the alkali may be perfectly neutralized without 
 -ition of the silica, which, therefore, is thus ex- 
 hibited in a very soluble state: when, however, the solu- 
 tion is eva|M>ratcd to dryness, the silica remains in a state as 
 insoluble as before. This solubility of hydrated silica, 
 whilst when dry it is perfectly insoluble, may serve to ex- 
 plain the occasional occurrence of silica in mineral waters, 
 and its de|wsiiion in various cbalcedonic Incrustations, But 
 silica presents another very remarkable character; which 
 is, that if we reverse the above proportions, and fuse to- 
 gether a mixture of one part of carbonate of potash and 
 tl.n-,- of powdered rock-crystal or calcined flint, we then 
 Obtain a transparent and fusible compound, which is in- 
 soluble in water, and which, in fact, is glass. 
 
 l'Ioss and window glass, or, as it is commonly call- 
 ed, crown glass, are silicates of soda or potassa ; and flint 
 glass, of which our common glass utensils are made, is a 
 similar compound, with a large addition of silicate of lead. 
 
 i.lSS. 
 
 in its ordinary or anhydrous state, is insoluble in 
 all acids except the hydrofluoric, which Immediately acts 
 i]|K>n it, and forms an extraordinary gaseous compound, the 
 Jluoxilicic acid. Silica was long considered ns an element- 
 ary form of matter; but Sir II. Davy found that when the 
 va|«>ur of potassium was brought into contact with pure 
 sIIm i bested to whiteness, silicate of potassa was formed, 
 and a dark -coloured matter separated, which was afterwards 
 found to be the base of silica, and to which the terms sili- 
 cimn and silicon have been applied. It is probably not me- 
 tallic, and bears a greater nnalogy to boron than to any 
 known principle. Silicon is a nonconductor of electricity, 
 incombustible in air and oxygen, and not acted upon by any 
 single acid ; but it is readily soluble in a mixture of the nitric 
 and hydrofluoric acids. It is, however, rapidly oxidized by 
 and burns vividly at a temperature below redness, when in 
 contact with fused soda or potassa. The exact equivalent 
 of silica has not been very satisfactorily determined, but we 
 are probably not very incorrect in regarding silica as a com- 
 pound of equal weights of silicon and oxygen. In that case, 
 if it be regarded as a protoxide, it is obvious that 8 will be 
 the ('univalent of its base, and silica will consistof 8 silicon 
 -f- 8 oxygen, and be represented by the equivalent 16. But 
 ■ regarded as a compound of 1 atom of silicon and 
 3 atoms of oxygen, and Berzelius has shown that some ana- 
 logies favour this view, then 24 will be its equivalent, and 
 4* that of silica. The chloride of si/iciicm, and its bromide, 
 are limpid fuming liquids; the former very volatile. The 
 tulphuret is a white earthy-looking substance. 
 
 SILHOUETTE. In the Fine Arts, a name given to the 
 Representation of an object filled in of a black colour, and in 
 which the inner parts are sometimes indicated by lines of a 
 lighter colour, and shadows or extreme depths by the aid 
 htening of gum or other shining medium. This 
 sort of drawing derives its name from its inventor, Etienne 
 de Silhouette, the French minister of finance in 1759. Rep- 
 :iii8 of this sort may be well enough taken from the 
 slrnlow of a person thrown on a piece of paper placed 
 against a flat surface or wall. The likeness may be still 
 better taken, if on a reduced scale, by means of the instru- 
 ment called a pantograph. 
 
 The invention of what is called a silhouette is, however, 
 ascribed to a remote period, being said to have been the 
 method whereby the daughter of a Greek potter drew the 
 outline of her lover's portrait on a wall ; and has been placed 
 
 SILK. 
 
 at the time of the renewal of the Olympic games, sh irtly 
 before the expedition of the B icchiades from Corinth, nbout 
 770 B.C. It is to be observed that Slcyon and Corinth were 
 the first cities in which painting flourished ; and that Crato 
 of Sicyon, Philocles of Egypt, and Cleanthes of Corinth, 
 were considered the inventors of monochromes, or silhouet 
 tes, as they have been more recently called, which were 
 applied to large objects. The Etruscan vases furnish to an 
 amiydng extent, and in boundless variety, some of the most 
 beaftifully drawn and elegant monochromes or silhouettes 
 that have ever been executed, 
 
 SILTCIFIC<E. Substances petrified or mineralized by 
 siliceous earth. 
 
 SILl'CUI.A. (I. at. siliqua, dim.) A fruit exactly similar 
 to that called a siliqua, except that it is shorter, and contains 
 fewer seeds. It is never more than four times as long as 
 broid, and usually much shorter. 
 
 SI'LIQUA. (Lat.) A one or two celled, many-seeded, 
 linear fruit, dehiscent by two valves separating from a rep- 
 lum; the seeds are attached to two placenta) adhering to 
 the replum. and opposite to the lobes of the stigma. 
 
 SILK. (Lat. sericum ; from Seres, the supposed ancient 
 name of the Chinese.) A fine glossy thread or filament 
 spun by various species of caterpillars or larva- of the Pha 
 lana genus. Of these, the Phalana atlas produces the great 
 eat quantity; but the Phala;na bombyx is that commonly 
 employed for this purpose in Europe. The silkworm, in its 
 caterpillar state, which may be considered as the first stage 
 of its existence, after acquiring its Cull growth (about three 
 inches in length), proceeds to enclose itself In an oval shaped 
 ball, or cocoon, which is formed by an exceedingly slender 
 and long filament of fine yellow silk, emitted from the stom 
 ach of the insect preparatory to its assuming the ^lnpe of 
 the chrysalis or moth. In this latter stage, after emanci- 
 pating Itself ftom its silken prison, it seeks its mate, which • 
 has undergone a similar transformation; and in two or 
 three davs afterwards, the female having deposited her eggs 
 (from 300 to 500 in number), both insects terminate their ex- 
 istence. According to Reaumur, the phnlana is not the oniy 
 insect that adonis this material — several species of the ara- 
 nea, or spider, enclose their eggs in very tine silk. 
 
 Raw silk is produced by the operation of winding off, at 
 the same time, several of the balls or cocoons (which are 
 immersed in hot water, to soften the natural gum on the 
 filament) on a common reel, thereby forming one smooth 
 even thread. When the skein is dry, it is taken from the 
 reel and made up into hanks ; hut before it is fit for weaving, 
 and in order to enable it to undergo the process of dyeing, 
 without furring up or separating the fibres, it is converted 
 into one of three forms — viz. sina-les, tram, or orgamine. 
 
 Singles (a collective noun) is formed of one of the reeled 
 threads, being twisted, in order to give it strength and firm- 
 ness. 
 
 Tram is formed of two or more threads twisted together. 
 In this state it is commonly used in weaving, as the shoot or 
 weft. 
 
 Thrown silk is formed of two, three, or more singles, ac- 
 cording to the substance required, being twisted together in 
 a contrary direction to that in which the singles of whfch it 
 is composed are twisted. This process is termed organis- 
 ing ; and the silk so twisted, orgamine. The art of throw 
 ing was originally confined to Italy, where it was kept a ee 
 cret for a long period. Stowe says it was known in this 
 country since the 5th of Queen Elizabeth, "when it was 
 gained from the strangers;" and in that year (1562), the 
 silk throwsters of the metropolis were united into a fellow- 
 ship. They were incorporated in the year 1629; but the 
 art continued to be very imperfect in England until 1719. 
 (See post.) 
 
 1. Historical Sketch of the Manufacture. — The art of rear 
 ing sil kworms, of unravelling the threads spun by them, and 
 manufacturing the latter into articles of dress and ornament, 
 seems to have been first practised by the Chinese. Virgil is 
 the earliest of the Roman writers who has been supposed 
 to allude to the production of silk in China, and the terms 
 he employs show how little was then known at Rome as to 
 the real nature of the article : 
 
 Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres — Georg., book ii., lin. 121. 
 
 But it may be doubted whether Virgil do not, in this line, 
 refer to cotton rather than silk. Pliny, however, has dis- 
 tinctly described the fortmtion of silk by the bombyx. [Hist. 
 JVat., lib. xi., c. 17.) It is uncertain when it first began to 
 be introduced at Rome: but it was most probably in the age 
 of Pompey and Julius Ca-sar: the latter of whom displayed 
 a profusion of silks in some of the magnificent theatrical 
 spectacles with which he sought at once to conciliate and 
 amuse the people. Owing principally, no doubt, to the great 
 distance of China from Rome, and to the difficulties In the 
 way of the intercourse with that country, which was car- 
 ried on bv land in caravans, whose route lay through the 
 Persian empire, and nirtlv. perhaps, to the high price of 
 
 1125 i 
 
SILK 
 
 silS In China, lis cost, when it arrived at Rome, was very 
 great; so much so, that a given weight of silk was some- 
 times sold lor an equal weight of gold ! At first it was only 
 used by a few ladies eminent for their rank and opulence. 
 In the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a law was passed 
 — ne vestis srrica viros fccdaret—ihiit no man should dis- 
 grace himself by wearing a silken garment. ( Tacit. Jlnnal., 
 lib. ii., c. 33.) But the profligate lleliogabalus despised this 
 taw, and was the first of the Roman emperors who wore a 
 dress composed wholly of silk (holosericum). The example 
 once set. the custom of wearing silk soon became general 
 among the wealthy citizens of Rome, and throughout the 
 provinces. According as the demand for the article in- 
 creased, efforts were made to import larger quantities ; and 
 the price seems to have progressively declined from the 
 reign of Aurelian. That this must have been the case, is 
 obvious from the statement of Ammianus Marcellinus, that 
 silk was, in his time (anno 370), very generally worn, even 
 by the lowest classes: Scricum ad us urn antehac nobilium, 
 nunc ctiam infinwrum sine ulla discrctione projiciens. (Lib. 
 xviii., c. 6.) 
 
 China continued to draw considerable sums from the Ro- 
 man empire in return for silk, now become indispensable to 
 the western world, till the 6th century. About the year 550, 
 two Persian monks, who had long resided in China, and 
 made themselves acquainted with the mode of rearing the 
 silkworm, encouraged by the gifts and promises of Justinian, 
 succeeded in carrying the eggs of the insect to Constantinople. 
 Under their direction they were hatched and fed ; they lived 
 and laboured in a foreign climate ; a sufficient number of 
 butterflies were saved to propagate the race, and mulberry 
 trees were planted to afford nourishment to the rising gen- 
 erations. A new and important branch of industry was 
 thus established in Europe. Experience and reflection grad- 
 ually corrected the errors of a new attempt: and the Sog- 
 doite ambassadors acknowledged, in the succeeding reign, 
 that the Romans were not. inferior to the natives of China 
 in the education of the insects, and the manufacture of silk. 
 (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. vii., p. 99.) 
 
 Gree-e, particularly the Peloy>n>i n er;n.>, W as early distin- 
 guished by the rearing of silkworms, and by the skill and 
 success with which the inhabitants of Thebes, Corinth, and 
 Argos carried on the manufacture. Until the 12th century, 
 Greece continued to be the only European country in which 
 these arts were practised ; but the forces of Roger, king of 
 Sicily, having, in 1147, sacked Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, 
 carried off large numbers of the inhabitants to Palermo, who 
 introduced the culture of the worm and the manufacture of 
 silk into Sicily. From this island the art spread into Italy ; 
 ami Venice, Milan, Florence, Lucca, &c, were soon after 
 distinguished for their success in raising silkworms, and for 
 the extent and beauty of their manufactures of silk, (Oib- 
 ijon, vol. x., p. 110 ; liiographie Univcrsclle, art. " Roger II.") 
 The manufacture of silk appears to have been introduced 
 into Spain at a very early period by the Moors, particularly 
 in Muicia, Cordova, and Granada. " The last town, indeed, 
 possessed a nourishing silk trade when it was taken by Fer- 
 dinand in the 15th century. The French having been sup- 
 plied with workmen from Milan, commenced, in 1521, tire 
 silk manufacture ; but it was not till 156-1 that they began 
 successfully to produce the silk itself, when Traucat, a 
 working gardener at Nismes, formed the first nursery of 
 white mulberry-trees, and with such success that in a few 
 years he was enabled to propagate them over many of the 
 southern provinces of France. Prior to this time, some 
 French noblemen, on their return from the conquest of Na- 
 ples, had introduced a few silkworms with the mulberry into 
 Dauphiny; but the business had not prospered in "their 
 hands. The mulberry plantations were greatly encouraged 
 by Henry IV. ; and since then they have been the source 
 of most beneficial employment to the French. 
 
 James I. was most solicitous to introduce the breeding of 
 silkworms into England, and in a speech from the throne he 
 earnestly recommended his subjects to plant mulberry-trees ; 
 but he totally failed in the project. This country does not 
 seem to be well adapted to this species of husbandry, on ac- 
 count of the great prevalence of blighting east winds during 
 the months of April and May, when the worms require a 
 plentiful supply of mulberry-leaves. The manufacture of 
 silk goods, however, made great progress during that king's 
 peaceful and pompous reign. In 1629 it had become so con- 
 siderable in London, that the silk throwsters of the city and 
 suburbs were formed into a public corporation. So early 
 as 1601 they employed 40,(MKI persons. The revocation of 
 the edict of Nantes, in 1C85, contributed in a remarkable 
 manner to the increase of the English silk trade, by the in- 
 flux of a large colony of skilful French weavers, who set- 
 tled in Bpitalfields. The great silk-throwing mill mounted 
 at Derby, in 1719, also served to promote the extension of 
 this branch of manufacture; for soon afterwards, in the 
 year 1730, the English silk goods bore a higher price in Italy 
 than those made by the Italians, according to the testimony 
 1126 
 
 SILVER. 
 
 of Keysier. It would be impossible, within our limits, to 
 give an account of the gradual progress of the silk manu- 
 facture from that period down to the present time. Upon 
 this subject, the reader will find ample details in the Com- 
 mercial Dictionary ; meantime we may remark, that a great 
 revolution was effected in the manufacture in 1825. Pre- 
 viously to that epoch the legislative enactments with re- 
 spect to it were the most contradictory and impolitic that 
 can well be imagined. The importation of foreign silks was 
 prohibited under the severest penalties; but the advantage 
 that this prohibition was believed, though most erroneous- 
 ly, to confer on the manufacturer, would, under any cir- 
 cumstances, have been more than neutralized by the im- 
 position of oppressive duties on the raw material. This 
 vicious system was productive of a twofold mischief; for, 
 by teaching the manufacturers to depend on custom-house 
 regulations for protection against foreign competition, it 
 made them indifferent about new discoveries and inven- 
 tions ; while, owing to the exorbitant duties on the raw ma- 
 terial, and the want of improvement, the price of silks was 
 maintained so high as to restrict the demand for them with- 
 in comparatively narrow limits. In 1825, however, a new 
 and more reasonable order of things was introduced. The 
 duties on the raw material were greatly lowered; at the 
 same time that foreign silk goods were allowed to be im- 
 ported on payment of a duty of 30 per cent, ad valorem. 
 This new system was vehemently opposed at its outset, and 
 it was confidently predicted that it would occasion the ruin 
 of the manufacture ; but the result has shown the sound- 
 ness of the principles on which it was bottomed. The man- 
 ufacturers were now, for the first time, compelled to call all 
 the resources of science and ingenuity to their aid ; and the 
 result has been that the manufacture has been more im- 
 proved during the last dozen years than it had been in the 
 whole previous century, and that it has continued progres- 
 sively to increase. 
 
 The total quantity of raw silk imported for home con- 
 sumption in 1838 was 3,595,816 lbs. The total number of 
 individuals directly engaged in the manufacture has been 
 -• t'miate'l at upwards "''207,000: but we IttClil e in think 
 that this is very decidedly beyond the mark. The value of 
 the silks annually produced may, perhaps, be estimated at 
 from £10,000,000 to £12,000,000. (For full particulars as to 
 the history and manufacture of silk, see Porter's treatise on 
 the subject in JLardner'3 Cyclopaedia.) 
 
 SILL. (Sax. syl.) In Architecture, the horizontal piece 
 at the bottom of a framed case, such as tnat of a door or 
 window. This word is also used to denote the bottom piece 
 of a quarter partition. Ground sills are those timbers on 
 the ground on which are placed the posts and superstruc- 
 ture of a timber building. 
 
 SI'LLIM ANITE. A mineral named after Professor Silli- 
 man, from Saybrook in Connecticut ; it is of a brown or dark 
 gray colour, and composed of silica and alumina, with z 
 trace of oxide of iron. 
 
 SILT. The name given to the sand, clay, and earth 
 which accumulate in running waters. 
 
 SILU'RIAN. The name given by Murchison to a series 
 of rocks forming the upper subdivision of the sedimentary 
 strata found below the old red sandstone, and formerly de 
 signaled the greywacke series. These strata are well de 
 vcloped in that part of England and Wales formerly in- 
 cluded in the ancient British kingdom of the Siiures. See 
 Geology. 
 
 SILU'RIDANS, Siluriilte. (Lat. silurus, a sheatk-fish.) 
 The name of the family of tishes of which the genus Silurus 
 is the type, and which includes the electric silurus (Malajr- 
 terurus electricus). They are chiefly distinguished by the 
 want of true scales, having merely a naked skin, or large 
 osseous plates. A strong osseous spine forms the first ray 
 of the dorsal and pectoral fins except in the genus Malap 
 terurus. 
 
 SILVA'NUS. A rural Italian deity ; so called from Lat. 
 sylva, a wood. He also presided over boundaries. 
 
 SI'LVER. (Germ, sillier.) A white, malleable, ductile, 
 and tenacious metal, of a brilliant lustre when polished, and 
 soft when pure. Its specific gravity is 10-5. It is not alter- 
 ed by air or moisture, but is blackened or tarnished by sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen. When melted in open vessels it lias 
 the curious property of absorbing oxygen, which it gives cut 
 when it congeals. This is the cause of the appearance of 
 granular crystallization which silver assumes when hastily 
 cooled: a small per centage of copper entirely prevents the 
 effect. The only pure acids which act upon silver are the 
 nitric and sulphuric. The nitric acid dissolves silver with- 
 out the aid of heat, nitrous gass is evolved, and a dejise col- 
 ourless solution obtained, from which tabular crystals of 
 nitrate of silver may be produced by evaporation. These 
 crystals are anhydrous and consist of 118 oxide of silver and 
 54 nitric acid, the equivalent of silver being 110. When 
 melted, and cast into sticks or quills, they form the lunar 
 caustic of the surgeons. Any gold which the silver might 
 
SIMARUBA. 
 
 aave i outlined, being insoluble in nitric acid, remains in 
 tin- form of a black powder, and this simple process enables 
 us readily to separate those metals. Silver is not attacked 
 by Cold sulphuric acid ; but when granulated silver is heat- 
 ed in concentrated sulphuric acid, one portion of the acid is 
 decomposed and imparts oxygen to the silver; sulphurous 
 acid is evolved, and the oxide ot" silver dissolves in the re- 
 siduary acid, forming a sulphate of Silver, It is a difficultly 
 soluble salt, forming anhydrous acicular crystals. In this 
 case, the gold also remains undissolved; and as sulphuric 
 icta cheaper than nitric acid, it is used foi the separa- 
 , Hon of those metals upon the large scale. The solutions 
 both of the nitrate and sulphate of silver are decomposed 
 by the immersion of several of the other metals. Copper is 
 generally used for the purpose; which, when Immersed in 
 ■lution of silver, causes its separation in the form of a 
 lo powder, which is sometimes technically call- 
 - iter silver. Chlorine and all the soluble chlorides, 
 when added to solutions of silver, occasion a white curdy 
 precipitate, which is distinguished by the rapidity with 
 which it blackens by exposure to light. The substance thus 
 formed is a chloride of silver, composed of 110 silver + 36 
 chlorine, the equivalent of chloride of silver being 146. It 
 Is nut decomposed by heat alone; but when carefully melt- 
 ed it concretes into a horny substance, formerly called ham 
 i. Chloride of silver may be easily decom pos e d either 
 by mixing it in a moist state with zinc tilings, or by fusing it 
 with carbonate of sot la or potash : In either case metallic 
 silver is obtained. The Insolubility of chloride of silver 
 renders a solution of nitrate of silver an admirable test of 
 the | DMBOn salt or other ch.orides in mineral 
 
 waters; and, on the other hand, a solution of common salt 
 is used to detect silver when in solution. A solution of two 
 drachms of nitrate of silver in an ounce of water, coloured 
 by a little sap green or Indian ink. forms mnrking ink ; and 
 i Written upon linen, previously prepared by the appli- 
 cation of a weak solution of carbonate of soda with a little 
 starch or gum in it. soon forms black indelible letters. When 
 a nitric solution of silver is mixed with alcohol, nn effer- 
 vescence ensues, and fulminating si'ver is precipitated. 
 
 ■ 
 veri o i be meddled ■•ii.i in u tantlty, i 
 
 ways with the utmost circumspection ; it explodes with vio- 
 lence upon the slightest friction of hard bodies, or when 
 Btrurk, rubbed, or heated. 
 
 Tin- numerous uses and applications of silver are well 
 known. In its pure state it is too soft for coin, plate, and 
 most ornamental purposes, anil is therefore, in such cases, 
 alloyed with copper, by which, in proper proportion, its 
 colour is not materially impaired, and it is considerably 
 hardened. The standard silver of our coin is an alloy of 
 11 o/.. 'J dwts. of pure silver, and 18 dwts. of copper, to 
 the pound Troy; and this weight is coined into 66 shillings, 
 und native, and in the state of sulphuret, con- 
 stituting the varieties of black and vitreous silver ore. It 
 occurs in combination with several other metals, and 
 more especially with the sulphurets of lead; so that the 
 lead of commerce Is seldom quite free from traces of silver, 
 and many such lead ores are worked as ores of silver. 
 
 SIM IBU'BA. The bark of the root of the Quassia sim- 
 amba, a native of the West Indies. This is a tough, 
 fibrous, bitter bark; the infusion is occasionally used in 
 medicine as a tonic. 
 
 SIM A RUB \'(i: 1'.. (Siinaruha, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of arborescent or shrubby Exogens, in- 
 habiting the tropics. The species are intensely bitter. 
 The wood of quassia is well known. A plant called Pa- 
 in Brazil, the Simarttba versicolor of St. Hilaire. pos- 
 sesses such excessive bitterness that no insects will attack 
 it ; and Picr&na ricelsa is another species of the order, 
 Which is employed in medicine for the same property. 
 
 BI'MIA. (Lat. eimus, flat-nosed.) The generic name 
 applied by Linnams to all the Quadrumanous Mammals, 
 except the lemurs. The Llnneean Sim/a; are divided into 
 numerous subgenera, to none of which the name Simia is 
 now applied, except by some modern naturalists to the 
 orangutans (simia satyrus), and 8, moris. 
 
 SI'MILAR. (Lat. similis, like.) In Geometry, similar 
 rectilineal ('mures are such as have their several angles 
 ctively equal, each to each, and their sides about the 
 equal angles proportional. The areas of two similar figures 
 are to each other as the squares of their homologous sides. 
 ,r segments of circles are such as contain equal an- 
 Similar curves are curves whose equations are of 
 the same form, ami the ratio of the constants in those 
 equations equal. Hence all circles are similar, and all 
 parabolas are similar; because, in both cases, only one 
 constant enters into the equation of the curve. Similar 
 toUdi rire such as are contained by the same number of 
 similar places, similarly situated, and having like inclina- 
 tions to one another. Such solids are to one another as 
 the cubes of their homologous sides. 
 
 SINE. 
 
 SI'MILE. 'Lat. like.) In Rhetoric, the same as com 
 parisoii, which see. 
 
 SIMI'LITER. il.it. fa like manner.) In Law, the 
 technical designation of the form by which either party, in 
 pleading, accepts the issue tendered by his opponent. The 
 one having concluded his plea, replication, &c, by tender- 
 ing issue in the common form, by " putting himself upon 
 the country," i. e., praying that the truth of the facts may 
 be inquired of by a jury, the other adds the similiter, which 
 is in the form—" And the said A. B. as to the plea, &.c. of 
 the defendant (or plaintiff) above pleaded, and whereof he 
 hath put himself upon the country, doth the like." See 
 Pleading. 
 
 SIMI'LITUDE, in Geometry, signifies the relation of fig- 
 ure, limilnr to each other. 
 
 SIMONIANS. The name given to the followers of Si- 
 mon MagtU, who pretended to be the great virtue and pow- 
 er of God sent from heaven to earth. Their system was a 
 medley of the philosophy of Plato, the mythological fables 
 of the heathens, and of Christianity. The sum of their 
 doctrines, as enjoined by their founder, was, that from the 
 Divine Being, as a fountain of light, How various orders of 
 eternal natures, subsisting within the plenitude of the Di- 
 vine essence ; that beyond these in the order of emanation 
 are different classes of intelligences, to the lowest of which 
 belongs the human soul ; that matter is the most remote 
 production of the em anative power, which, on account of 
 its infinite distance from the fountain of light p 
 sluggish and malignant qualities, which appear the divine 
 operations, and are the cause of evil; that it is the great 
 design of philosophy to deliver the soul from its imprison 
 ment in matter, and restore it to that divine light from 
 which it was derived ; and that for this purpose God had 
 sent us one of the first teons into the world. He believed 
 also in the transmigration of souls, ami denied the resurrec- 
 tion of the body. (Kncyc. Brit.) We have specified a; 
 greater length the opinions of this sect than they seem 
 properly entitled to; but considering that it was the first 
 heresy in the Christian Church, a resume of its views was 
 considered not to be out of place. 
 
 BIMONIAN I SAINT. -Sec Sunt BlMOJtMJJS. 
 
 Bl'MONY. In Law, an unlawful contract for the pre- 
 senting a clergyman to a benefice. When such presenta- 
 tion is made corruptly, for money, gift, or reward, by stat. 
 31 Eliz., c. 6, such presentations are void, and the crown 
 shall present for that turn And by 12 Ann. 8, t. 2, c. IS, if 
 any one, for money or profit, procures in his own name the 
 next presentation to any living ecclesiastical, and is pre 
 sented thereupon, the contract is simoniacal. The term is 
 derived from Simon Magus, who was punished, as is rela- 
 ted in the Acts, for attempting to obtain the gifts of the 
 Holy Spirit by bribing the Apostles. It Is generally re- 
 marked, however, that the practices against which our 
 laws are directed bear no precise similaritv to this. 
 
 SIMOON, or SIMOOM. A hot, arid wind which blows 
 in Arabia, Syria, and the adjacent countries, and chiefly 
 about the time of the equinoxes. The simoon, which is 
 identical with the khamsin of Syria and the samicl of the 
 Turks, and resembles in many respects the sirocco and 
 sorana of other countries derives its qualities from blowing 
 over sandy deserts heated intensely by the sun. Some- 
 times it blows In squalls, bearing along with it quantities of 
 burning sand and dust. In the desert it is greatly dreaded ; 
 and the only chance of safety the traveller has, is to fall 
 down with his face close to the ground, and to continue as 
 long as possible without drawing breath. It is described 
 by Bruce, Volney, Charind, Malcolm, and other travellers. 
 
 SIMPLI'CIMANES, Simplicimani. (Lat. simplex, sim- 
 ple; manus, a hand.) A name given by Latreille to a tribe 
 of Cnraboid beetles, comprehending those in which, in the 
 male, the two anterior tarsi are dilated. 
 
 SIMPLICITY. (From Lat. simplex.) In the Fine 
 Arts, that quality in works of art through which the ele- 
 ments whereof it is composed are arranged in the most 
 natural order ; and in which the ideas and images are pre 
 sented to us so that the principal objects are not eclipsed 
 by the accessories, and the details are in due subordination 
 to the whole. Simplicity is the reverse of excess and ex- 
 aggeration, and may be properly called a negative quality 
 in art. 
 
 SI'NAPISIN. A peculiar principle extracted from mus- 
 tard seed (Sinapis alba). It is a white, crystallizable, in- 
 odorous substance, of a bitter taste, accompanied by the 
 flavour of mustard. It is supposed to contain sulphur, car- 
 bon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. 
 
 SINAPISM. (Lat. sinape, mustard.) A mustard poul- 
 tice. 
 
 SI'NCIPUT. The anterior region of the upper part of 
 the head, from the vertex to the eyes in Mammals, and 
 from the vertex to the base of the beak in birds. 
 
 SINE. (Lat. sinus, the bosom.) In Trigonometry, the 
 sine of any arc of a circle is the straight line drawn from 
 ' 1127 
 
eN- 
 
 / 
 
 / \ 
 
 Is o 
 
 \ 
 
 Y 1 
 
 SINECURE. 
 
 one extremity of the arc perpendic- 
 ular to the radius passing through 
 the other extremity. Thus, in the 
 circle A B C D, let O A and O B be 
 two radii, and let B X be perpen- 
 A.' dicular to O A ; then B X is the 
 sine of the intercepted arc A B. In 
 like manner, if C Y and D Z be 
 perpendicular to A O, or its pro- 
 longation O A' ; then C Y is the 
 sine of the arc A B C, or of A' C, 
 the lenient of A B C, and D Z the sine of A C D, or of 
 
 A' P. " 
 
 ,iw the diameter P O P\ and suppose the arc A B to 
 i .uase from to 360°. It is evident that as the arc A B 
 increases from A to A P, or from to 90°, the sine B X in- 
 creases from zero to O P, where it becomes equal to the 
 radius ; and hence the radius is called the sinus totus, or 
 whole sine. Between P and A the sine again diminishes 
 as the arc is increased, and vanishes at A'. From A to- 
 wards P' it again increases till it becomes equal to the ra- 
 dius O P', and from this position decreases until it again 
 vanishes at A. Hence it appears that the origin being sup- 
 posed at A, the sine is positive in the first and second quad- 
 rants, or from to 180° ; and negative in the third and fourth, 
 or from 180° to 360°. 
 
 If we conceive another circle to be described about the 
 same centre O, the two lines O A and O B would intercept 
 on it an arc similar to A B ; and if, also, we suppose the 
 radius of this second circle = 1, and denote the intercepted 
 arc by ; then we shall have evidently sin. ip : 1 : : B X : 
 
 BX 
 
 B O, or sin. (p- 
 
 measure of the angle at the centre ; therefore the sine of 
 the angle A B is the ratio of B X to B O, or A O. This 
 definition of the sine of an angle is adopted in some of the 
 best recent works on trigonometry. 
 
 The sine of an arc is the half of the chord of the double 
 arc. Ptolemy, in the graphical constructions in the Jlna- 
 lemma, makes use of the semichords instead of the chords ; 
 but the introduction of the sines into trigonometrical calcu- 
 lation was an important improvement, of which the credit 
 appears to be due to the Arabian astronomer Albategnius. 
 (Delambre, Jlstronomie du Moyen Jige, p. 12.) The term 
 sine lias been variously derived; the Arabic name is gib, 
 or dgib, signifying a fold, of which sinus is the Latin trans- 
 lation. (Ifuthm's Mathematical Tables.) 
 
 For the analytical expressions of the sines of the sums 
 ami differences of two arcs, of multiple arcs, and of the 
 other trigonometrical lines, see Trigonometry. 
 
 SI'NECURE. In Politics, an office without any duties 
 attached to it. The term is properly ecclesiastical, and 
 applied to a benefice without care of souls ; in which sense 
 It is also still employed. 
 
 SINE DIE. (Lat. without day.) In Legal and Parlia- 
 mentary Usage, an adjournment or prorogation sine die 
 means without any specified day for resuming the subject, 
 or reassembling. 
 
 SI NGULAR TERM. In Logic, a term which stands 
 for one individual. A singular proposition is one which 
 has for its subject either a singular term, or a common 
 term limited to one individual by a singular sign. See 
 Term, Proposition. 
 
 SINl'STER (Lat. literally, left) is used in its ordinary 
 signification for unlucky ; though the Romans in the rites of 
 divination attached to it the opposite meaning. Thus avis 
 sinistra, or a bird on the left hand, was esteemed a happy 
 omen ; and intonuit Imvd, it thundered on the left hand, 
 indicated the same. Sinister, in Heraldry, is used to des- 
 ignate the left-hand side or part. 
 
 SINKING FUND. A provision made by parliament, 
 consisting of the surplusage of other funds, intended to be 
 appropriated to the payment of the national debt. See 
 Funds. 
 
 SINO'PLE. In Heraldry, the Continental designation 
 for the colour green ; by English heralds called vert. The 
 name is said to be derived, through the importation of the 
 Crusades, from the town of Sinope, in Asia Minor. 
 
 SI'NTER. A German word implying a scale. Calcareous 
 tinter is a variety of carbonate of lime composed of succes- 
 sive concentric layers. Silicious sinter is a variety of com- 
 mon opal. 
 
 SI'NUOUS. (Lat. sinuosus.) In the Fine Arts, of a 
 terpentine or undulating form. 
 
 Sl'NUS. (Lat.) The veins of the dura mater of the 
 brain are called sinuses. 
 
 Sl'PHON. (Gr. oubwv, a tube.) In Zoology, the name 
 of the membranous and calcareous tubes which traverse 
 the septa and the interior of Polythalamous shells. Also 
 applied to the tubular prolongation of the mantle in certain 
 Univalve and Bivalve Kq**\ ks; and by Latreille to the 
 '128 
 
 SIR. 
 
 mouth of certain Suctorious, Crustaceous, and Apterous 
 insects. 
 
 Sl'PHON, or SY'PHON. In Hydraulics, a simple and 
 well-known instrument, chief- 
 ly used for the purpose of 
 drawing off liquids from casks. 
 The siphon is simply a bent 
 tube, a b c, having one end 
 longer than the other. To use 
 the siphon, the tube is in the 
 first place filled with the li- 
 quid, and the open end a stop 
 ped by the hand, or by a cock, ! 
 in which state the liquid will <* ' 
 not flow from the other extremity. The end c is then im- 
 mersed in the liquid, and the stop removed from a ; upon 
 which, if a be at a lower level than c, the liquid will im- 
 mediately begin to flow out at a, and will continue to flow 
 until the vessel is drained down to the level of c. 
 
 The principle of the siphon may be explained as follows . 
 The lowest section of the fluid within the tube at the ex- 
 tremity c is subjected to two unequal pressures in opposite 
 directions : first, the pressure due to the weight of the li- 
 quid in the branch b c, which pressure is equal to the line 
 c d, perpendicular to the horizontal line drawn through the 
 highest part of the tube, and tends to force the '.iquid out ot 
 the tube ; secondly, the pressure of the external liquor at c, 
 which is equal to the atmospheric pressure, or the weight 
 of a column of liquid of about 34 feet in height, together 
 with the weight of the column reaching from c to the sur- 
 face of the liquid in the vessel, which, however, we may 
 leave out of consideration. Hence, if the line c d be less 
 than 34 feet (if the liquid be water), the last pressure will 
 preponderate, and the liquid will be forced into the tube by 
 a pressure equal to the weight of the atmosphere diminish 
 ed by the weight of a column of the fluid equal to c <l. In 
 like manner, the pressure upon a section of the liquid at a 
 is equal to the weight of the atmospheric column diminish- 
 ed by the weight of a column of the fluid equal in height 
 to a e. If, therefore, a e be greater than c d, the pressure 
 at c will be greater than the pressure at a, and the liquid 
 will be forced through the tube. 
 
 From this explanation it is obvious that the limits within 
 which the siphon can act are determined by the specific 
 gravity of the fluid. Water cannot be raised by the siphon 
 to a greater height than 34 feet, nor mercury to a greater 
 height than 30 inches. It is also obvious that the compar- 
 ative diameters of the two branches, and their oblique 
 lengths, are of no importance, the action depending only on ' 
 the difference of their perpendicular heights. 
 
 Sometimes the siphon is made with both branches equal, 
 and turned up at the extremities; in which case, so long 
 as the extremities are kept on the same level, it will con- 
 tinue always full and ready for use. This form of the in- 
 strument is called the Wurternberg siphon, from its having 
 been first used at that place. 
 
 SIPHONA'PTERANS, Siphonaptcra. (Gr. m<p<ov, a 
 priv., and vripov, a wing.) A name given by Latreille to 
 an order of insects, including those Apterous species which 
 have a mouth in the form of a siphon. 
 
 SIPHO'NIFERS, Siphonifera. (Gr. ciQuv ; Lat. fero, J 
 bear.) A name given by D'Orbigny, and Ferussac to an 
 order of Cephalopods, including all those species which 
 have a siphon contained within a polythalamous shell. 
 
 SIPHONOBRAN'CHIATES, Siphonobranchiata. (Gr. 
 ai<t>ii>v, and (3p'iYX' a < gills.) The name of an order of Gas- 
 tropods, including those in which the branchial cavity ter- 
 minates in a tube or siphon more or less prolonged, by 
 which the respiratory current of water is received and ex- 
 pelled. 
 
 SIPHO'NOPHORES, Siphonopkora. (Gr. c-Kpai; and 
 <ptpu>, I bear.) A name given by Escholtz to an order of 
 Acalephes, to which he refers those species that have no 
 central digestive cavity, but simply isolated tubes. 
 
 SIPHO'NOSTOMES, Siphonostoma. (Gr. oKpiov, and 
 CTopa, a month.) The name of a family of Crustacean'-, 
 comprehending those which have a siphon-shaped mouth 
 for suction. By M. de Blainville the term is applied to 
 those Gastropods which have the opening of the shell pro 
 longed into a siphon. 
 
 SIPHORHI'NIANS, Siphorhinii. (Gr. aiQiov, and pn\ a 
 nose.) A name applied to a tribe of swimming birds, inclu- 
 ding those which have the nostrils prominent and tubular. 
 
 SIP'UNCLE, Sipunculus. The name of a genus of 
 worms which burrow in the sands of the sea shore, and 
 are classed with the Echhiaderinx by Cuvier, and with the 
 F.ntozoa bv M. de Blainville. They differ from the son- 
 bodied Echinoderms chiefly in the absence of ambulacra! 
 pores. 
 
 SIR. The term used in England, either out of respect 
 or formality, In addressing anyone. More particularly, it 
 is the distinguishing appellation of knights and baronets, to 
 
SIREN. 
 
 .vnose Christian names it is prefixed. The derivation of 
 this word has greatly puzzled etymologists. The Lat. 
 herns, matter | whence the Germ, herr), and senior, whence 
 signor, store, sire, sir, and the Gr. Kvpiog, lord, are speci- 
 al the origin which has been assigned to this term. 
 The second is undoubtedly correct. Since the 16th centu- 
 ry, the word sire has been used in prose only in addressing 
 gn princes. 
 Bl'REN. The generic name of certain Perennibranchi- 
 ate reptiles which have only one pair of feet, and retain 
 the external gills ; they are peculiar to the southern prov- 
 inces of the United States. 
 
 BIRE'NB. In Acoustics, an instrument for determining 
 the Velocity of aerial vibration, corresponding to the differ- 
 ent pitches of musical sounds. "In this elegant instru- 
 ihe wind of a bellows is emitted through B small ap- 
 erture, before which revolves a circular disc pierced with a 
 certain number of holes, arranged in a circle concentric 
 Willi the axis of rotation, exactly equidistant from each 
 other, and of the nae si/..-, &c. The orifice through 
 which the air passes is so situated that each of these holes, 
 during the rotation of the disk, shall pass over it, and let 
 through the air; but the disk is made to revolve so near 
 the orifice that in the intervals between the holes it shall 
 act as a cover, and intercept the air. If the holes lie pla- 
 ced obliquely, the action of the current of air alone will 
 eet the disk in motion ; If perpendicular to the surface, the 
 disk uiust be moved by wbeel-work, by means of which 
 'city of rotation is easily regulated, and the number 
 of Impulses may be exactly counted. The sound produced 
 ' like the human voice. If. instead of a 
 ■tngie aperttn for transmitting the air, there be several, so 
 disposed |n a circle of equal dimensions with that in which 
 the holes of the di-k are situated that each shall be oppo- 
 site one corresponding hole when at rest, these will all 
 form sounds of one pitch, and being heard together will re- 
 enforce each other. The sircne sounds equally when 
 plunged in water and fed by a current of that fluid ns in 
 air; thus proving that it is the number of impulses only, 
 and nothing depending on the nature of the medium In 
 which the sound is excited, that influences our apprecia- 
 tion of iis pilch." (Sir John Herscnel's Treatise on Sound, 
 . Jhlropolitana.) 
 
 rene, as thus described, was invented by Baron 
 Oagniard de la Tour. An instrument on the same princi- 
 ple, and for ihe same purpose, had formerly been devised 
 by Professor Roblson; but the construction was much less 
 elegant and commodious. A current of air passing through 
 dternately intercepted and permitted to pass by 
 tin shutting and opening of a stop-cock. 
 
 81 RENS. ((Jr. Ecipilvcf, probably from acipa, a chain, 
 prify their attractive power.) Melodious divinities, 
 v, ho dwelt on the shores of Sicily, nnd so charmed passing 
 mariners by the sweetness of their song that they forgot 
 their homes, and rein lined there till they perished of hun- 
 Tluir history has been variously described. Accord- 
 ing to Homer, in the Odyssey, ns Ulysses and his compan- 
 ions were on their homeward voyage from AJaca, they came 
 first to the island of the Sirens : but they passed in safety ; 
 for, by the directions of Circe, Ulysses (topped the ears of 
 his companions with wax, and had himself tied to the mast 
 before approaching the island; so that, although when he 
 heard the song of the Sirens he made signs for his compan- 
 ions to unbind him, they only secured him the more closely 
 in compliance with bis previous instructions. Thus he lis- 
 tened to the songs of the Sirens, and escaped notwithstand- 
 ing. Hence it was feigned that they threw themselves into 
 the sea from vexation at the escape of Ulysses, an oracle 
 having predicted that they should live only so long as their 
 strains bad power to arrest all who heard them. But ac- 
 cording to other poets, they threw themselves into the sea 
 from rage and despair on hearing the more melodious song 
 of Orpheus. Originally there were only two Sirens; but 
 their number was afterwards increased to three, and their 
 names are given with great variety. See the speculations 
 of Bryant on the subject, Ancient Mythology, ii., 277, and 
 iii.. 237. 
 
 BI'RIUS (called nb/O Canicula, or Canis Candens, the 
 Dog-star). A star orthe first magnitude in the constella- 
 tion of Canis Mrjor, or the Great Dog, and the brightest in 
 the heavens. The Egyptians observing that the Nile be- 
 i swell at a particular rising of this star, paid it divine 
 honours, and named it Sirius ; from Siris, one of the ap- 
 pellations of the Nile. 
 
 SIRO'CCO. (Hal.) A soft relaxing wind, chiefly expe- 
 rienced in the south of Italy, Malta, and Sicily. It blows 
 from the south-east or south; and having been heated over 
 indy deserts of Lybin, it becomes occasionally moist 
 In its passage across the Mediterranean, and oppresses the 
 inhabitants of the above-named countries with excessive 
 languor, and a sinking of the mental energies. The setting 
 in of the sirocco is followed by a considerable rise of the 
 
 SKELETON. 
 
 thermometer, and is attended with a haze which jbscuret 
 the atmosphere. See Simoon. 
 
 SIRVE'NTE. In the Literature of the Middle Ages, a 
 species of poem in common use among the Troubadours, 
 usually satirical, and divided into strophes of a peculiar 
 construction. Sec Troubadour. 
 
 SI'STBUM. (Gr. odarpov; from acietv, to shake.) A 
 kind of timbrel, which the Egyptian priests Of lsis used to 
 shake with their hands at the festivals of that goddess. 
 
 Sl'SYPHUS. In Ancient Mythology, one of the de- 
 scendants of iEolus, respecting whom a variety of opinions 
 prevail*. By some he is said to have resided at Epyra. in 
 the Peloponnesus ; others maintain that he was a Trojan 
 prince, who was punished for betraying state secrets ; while 
 others allege that he was a notorious robber, slain by The- 
 seus. Be this as it may, all the ancient poets are agreed 
 that he was distinguished for his craftiness and cunning; 
 and that his punishment in Tartarus for his crimes com- 
 mitted on earth consisted in rolling a huge stone to the top 
 of a high hill, which constantly recoiled, and thus rendered 
 his labour incessant. The term Sisyphus Is supposed to be 
 derived from Gr. otoofoc (by a common duplication for no- 
 <pO(, irisr), and to signify overicise. 
 
 BITTA. (Gr. cirra.) The name of a bird in Aristotle, 
 which (Jesncr determined to be the nuthatch. Linnxus re- 
 tains the term for the genus of which the nuthatch (Sitta 
 Eiiroptza, L.) is the type. 
 
 SIVA. In Hindoo Mythology, a title given to the Su- 
 preme Beinir, considered in the character of the avenger or 
 destroyer. Sir William Jones has compared Siva to Jupi- 
 ter; but he appears to share many of the attributes of Pluto. 
 Under the name of Mahndcva, he is exhibited also as a type 
 of reproduction : to destroy, according to the Vedantns of 
 India, the Sufis of Persia, and even to many European 
 schools of philosophy, being only to generate or reproduce 
 under another form. See Vishnu, Drama. 
 
 SIVATHE'RIUM. (Siva ; nnd Gr. Snptov, a wild beast.) 
 The name of an exlinct genus of Ruminaniin found in fos 
 sil remains in the tertiary strata of the Sivalik Sub-Hima- 
 layan range. It surpassed all known ruminants in size, and 
 had four horns. 
 
 SI'ZARS. The lowest class of students at Cambridge. 
 At Oxford the same class go in different college! by the de- 
 nominations of servitors, &.<•. They are such as have cer- 
 tain allowances made in their battels (college bills), through 
 the benefactions of founders or other charitable persons. 
 In college phraseology, a size is a portion of bread, meat, 
 &c, allotted to a student ; and hence the name sizar. The 
 sizars at Cambridge are ulmost entirely on the same footing 
 with inde|>endent students; at Oxford they are somewhat 
 lower, and some relics of their former degraded condition 
 still subsist in certain colleges in the customs of bringing up 
 dishes to dinner, dining off the remnants of the fellows' din- 
 ners, &c. 
 
 SIZE. A sort of varnish, paint, or glue, used by paint- 
 ers, and in many other trades. It is made of the shreds and 
 parings of leather, parchment, or vellum, boiled in water 
 and strained. 
 
 SKELETON. (Gr. <r«XXo>, / make dry.) The desicca 
 ted support or framework of an animal body, which, usually 
 consisting of different parts, may be joined together by the 
 dried natural ligaments, when it is termed " a natural skel- 
 eton ;" or may be articulated artificially, when it is termed 
 "an artificial skeleton." In the lowest-oreanized animals, 
 as the Polygastria and Polypi, the skeleton, when it exists, 
 commonly consists of a single piece. In the Polygastria it 
 is external, in the form of a case, and consists of pure silex. 
 In the Polypi it is sometimes external, sometimes internal ; 
 and is composed of either pure carbonate of lime, or with a 
 small additional proportion of phosphate of lime, and these 
 earths are combined with a greater or less proportion of ge 
 latinous animal matter. In tho lsis the skeleton consists 
 of numerous separate calcareous joints, connected together 
 by portions of uncalcified gelatin. In many of the Litho 
 phytous Polypes innumerable minute spicula;, of various but 
 definite forms, are scattered through the fleshy investment 
 of the main internal skeleton. In the Echinoderms the 
 skeleton is external, as regards the viscera, but is covered 
 by an organized skin. It is chiefly remarkable for the great 
 number of pieces of which it is composed, and the regular 
 and beautiful forms In which they are combined ; it like- 
 wise supports numerous tubercles or spines : it is composed 
 of carbonate and phosphate of lime, with a gelatinous basis. 
 in Insects the skeleton is partly internal, but chiefly exter 
 nal ; and Its hardening material is a peculiar animal princl 
 pie, called " chitine." In cabinets of dried insects it is the 
 natural skeleton that is preserved. In Crustacea the skele 
 ton, which bears the same relative position to the animal as 
 in insects, is rendered denser and more brittle by being con- 
 solidated with the carbonate and phosphate of lime. In 
 the Mollusca the skeleton is generally external, but some 
 times internal : it is hardened by the carbonate of lime, with 
 
 1139 
 
SKETCH. 
 
 a very slight trace of the phosphate of lime, and constitutes 
 the shell. The beauty, durability, and variety of form of 
 this modification of the skeleton have rendered the shells of 
 the Mollusca at all times a favourite object of collectors, 
 and the subject of a distinct branch of natural history, un- 
 der the name of " Conchology." The skeleton of mollusks 
 is either in one piece, as in the univalve mollusks; or in 
 two pieces, as in most bivalves; or in many pieces, as in the 
 nuiltivalve chitons, and others. In the Cephalopods, besides 
 the shell, which offers remarkable varieties of form and 
 substance, there is likewise a rudiment of true internal 
 skeleton in a cartilaginous condition. In the Vertebrate 
 animals, there is always an internal skeleton destined to 
 protect the central part of the nervous system, and to form 
 the fulcrum and support of the locomotive members. In a 
 few fishes it is cartilaginous ; in the rest of the Vertebrates 
 t is osseous, or consolidated by a large proportion of phos- 
 phate and a small proportion of carbonate of lime, and some 
 other hardening salts. (See Bone.) This is termed the 
 " endoskeleton." In most lishes, in several reptiles, as the 
 crocodilians, and in the armadillos among the Mammalia, 
 osseous plates are developed in the substance of the skin ; 
 these are analogous to the skeleton of most of the Inverte- 
 brate animals, and form a more or less complete protecting 
 case, called the •• exo-skeleton." 
 
 SKETCH. (It. schizzo.) In Painting, ice, the first de- 
 lineated idea of the artist's conception of a subject, in which 
 are usually distinguishable the fire and enthusiasm with 
 which the subject is expressed and felt. 
 
 SKEW BACK. In Architecture, the sloping abutment, 
 in brickwork and masonry, for the ends of the arched head 
 of an aperture. 
 
 SKEW BRIDGE. In Engineering, the name given to a 
 kind of bridge introduced upon railroads, when the railway 
 intersects any existing communication at right angles. Such 
 bridges were occasionally built before railroads were intro- 
 duced ; but their general introduction has rendered the use 
 of skew bridges universal in cases where it may be neces- 
 sary or unavoidable to preserve as straight or direct a line 
 as possible. The Kncyc. Britannica contains an elaborate 
 article upon this subject. 
 
 SKIN. The external covering of the body. It is divisible 
 into three parts or membranes. The exterior is called the 
 scarfskin or cuticle : it is an albuminous membnme. Im- 
 mediately underneath it is a thin layer of soft or pulpy mat- 
 ter, called the rcte mvcosum (mucous network), which is 
 the seat of colour : it lies upon the cutis, or true skin, which 
 Is a gelatinous texture. 
 
 SKIP. (Fr. esquiver.) In Music, a passage from one 
 sound to another by more than a degree at one time. 
 
 SKl'RTING. In Architecture, the narrow vertical board 
 on the floor round the sides of an apartment. 
 
 SKO'LEZITE. (Gr. oko).oc, twisted.) A mineral which 
 occurs crystallized and massive. It is colourless and trans- 
 lucent, and when heated before the blowpipe slirinks up 
 into wormlike contortions. 
 
 SKO'RODITE. (Gr. oxopoSov, garlic; in allusion to its 
 odour when heated.) An arseniate of iron. 
 
 SKO'RZITE. A mineralogical synonym of a variety of 
 epidote, from Skorza. 
 
 SKULL. The bony case which contains the brain: it 
 forms the forehead, and every part of the head except the 
 face. It consists of eight bones, namely, the frontal and 
 occipital bones, upon its fore and back part ; the two tem- 
 poral and two parietal bones, forming the temples and the 
 sides of the skull ; and the sphenoid and ethmoid bones, 
 concerned in the formation of the orbits and nose. 
 
 SKY LARK. The name of a species of the genus Alau- 
 da (see that word) ; the Alauda arvensis of Linnauis. 
 
 SKY SAIL. A small sail sometimes set above the royal. 
 
 SLAB LINE. A small rope leading through a block un- 
 der the lower yards, and thence to the foot of the sail, for 
 the purpose of tricing it up. 
 
 SLACK. Small coal under the size of an egg. 
 
 SLAG. The imperfect glassy or vitrifiable compounds 
 which are produced during the reduction of metallic ores 
 by various fluxes. In the neighbourhood of large smelting 
 works, especially of iron and copper, the slags, which are 
 abundantly produced, are sometimes used as building mate- 
 rials, and for making and mending roads. They often con- 
 tain a considerable relative proportion of metal. 
 
 SLANDER. In Law, a malicious defamation of a man 
 by words spoken. It is not actionable unless it impute 
 Borne crime punishable by law ; or some infectious disease, 
 such as leprosy or the like, which may have the effect of 
 excluding from society the person slandered; or be uttered 
 concerning him in his trade or business in such a way as to 
 impair his means of livelihood; or, lastly, unless it be at- 
 tended with special damage. In this case, such special 
 damage must be averred upon the pleadings. If special 
 damage be not proved by the plaintiff, he will not, in any 
 action for words spoken, when the verdict is under 40 shil- 
 1130 
 
 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 lings, be allowed more costs than damages. A defendant 
 cannot be proceeded against criminally for words spoken, 
 unless they have a direct tendency to a breach of the peace, 
 as by containing a challenge to fight; or are of a seditious 
 or grossly immoral character ; or are spoken of a magistrate 
 in the execution of his duty. 
 
 SLATE. See Geology. 
 
 SLA'VERY, properly so called, is the establishment of a 
 right, which gives to one man such a power over another 
 as makes him absolute master of his life and property. But 
 the condition of a slave is susceptible of innumerable modi- 
 fications ; and there are few nations, whether of ancient or 
 modern times, among whom slavery has been long estab- 
 lished, that have not enacted certain laws for limiting the 
 power of a master over his slave. Slavery has existed from 
 the earliest periods of authenticated history, and its origin 
 has generally been ascribed to a state of war. In the ru- 
 dest stages of society, the difficulty of subsistence was so 
 great that the lives of captives were seldom spared ; but as 
 society advanced, and luxuries began to be introduced, the 
 aid of labourers became requisite, and it was found more 
 profitable to employ than to slay a captive. Th us the Latin 
 word servus, a slave, appears to have been derived from 
 servo, I preserve, and to have meant a person whose life 
 was preserved on condition of giving his labour to his con- 
 queror; so that a state of slavery, how repulsive soever to 
 our present feelings, probably formed at one time an impor- 
 tant mitigation of the horrors of barbarism. But in propor- 
 tion as socieiy rose in the scale of civilization, the suite of 
 slavery sprung from a variety of causes. Thus, in several 
 countries, those who had been convicted of crimes were 
 often doomed to perpetual slavery; and, as a necessary cor- 
 ollary of this principle of slavery, it was laid down as a 
 fundamental regulation, that slaves could only beget slaves ; 
 and hence the principle of hereditary bondage. It would 
 be foreign to the purpose of this work to enter into details 
 upon the different phases which slavery has exhibited in 
 the various countries in which it has existed, or to point out 
 the malignant influence it has exercised upon the character 
 of everv nation among whom it has been tolerated. Upon 
 this subject the reader will find ample details in the third 
 volume of the Cours d'Economie Politique of M. Storch, 
 Paris, 1823; and with regard to slavery, as practised among 
 the Romans, he may consult with advantage the elaborate 
 little volume of Mr. Blair on this subject. The species of 
 slavery which existed during the feudal ages, and which is 
 still to be found in some European countries, will be found 
 noticed under the heads Serf, Servitude, and Villein, in 
 this work ; and for some details of negro slavery, see infra, 
 and Negroes. 
 
 The British legislature, as is well known, passed an act 
 in 1834 for the emancipation of Negro slaves throughout 
 our dominions ; by which, after passing through a prelim- 
 inary term of compulsory apprenticeship, they were event- 
 ually raised to the condition of full citizenship. 
 
 SLAVE TRADE, generally denotes the trade in slaves 
 carried on by European nations between the western co:istd 
 of Africa and the American settlements; abolished, as far 
 as Great Britain is concerned, in 1808. 
 
 The European slave trade is, however, generally suppo- 
 sed to have been commenced by the Portuguese about the 
 end of the 15th century. About 1508 the Spaniards began 
 to import Negroes into America, to supply the place of the 
 Indians, whose numbers were rapidly diminishing under the 
 severity of the toil to which they were exposed by their 
 conquerors. Sir John Hawkins, one of Queen Elizabeth's 
 most famous captains, seems to have been the fust English- 
 man of note who embarked in this traffic, having been con- 
 cerned in the sale of Negroes to the Spaniards in the West 
 Indies. In the same reign the African Company was first 
 chartered, for the purpose of trade with Guinea. This com- 
 pany carried on a trade in Negroes with the English settle- 
 ments in America from the beginning of the 17th century 
 to the year 1732, when that traffic was abandoned by it, and 
 chiefly carried on from that time by private traders. It was 
 not until the latter end of the 18th century that the atroci- 
 ties of this trade began to engage the attention of parlia- 
 ment. In 1788 an act was passed tty regulate il ; and, after 
 twenty years' animated discussion, it was at last totally 
 abolished in 1807. The United States of America and Den- 
 mark had preceded us in this righteous act. (See Clark- 
 son' 1 s History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.) 
 
 The slave trade is now prohibited by the laws of most 
 European nations, except Portugal; and by the law of that 
 country it can only be carried on within certain geographi- 
 cal limits. Nevertheless, it is extensively carried on by 
 contraband dealers; and no measure can be reasonably ex- 
 pected to put a stop to it short of its being declared* piracy 
 
 * This most desirable act fas been recently accomplished ; the whole of 
 the European stales having agreed to enforce the strict, -s: measures in 
 to the right of search, and to regard those engaged in the trade as piratet. 
 
SLEEP. 
 
 oy the common consent of civilized states. To obtain tins 
 result ought to be one of the most prominent objects of 
 icy, both for the sake of humanity, and in 
 order to protect the interests of our own colonies, which 
 surfer severely from competition with those European pos- 
 Into which an unlimited importation of slave la- 
 bour takes place, lint it must be admitted that SirFowell 
 Buxton, whose name ranks so high among the opponents of 
 trade, appears to confess that even this measure 
 would prove ineffectual, from the difficulty of execution. 
 We can do DO more here than advert to the scheme recent- 
 ly proposed, received with acclamation by a great portion 
 of the public, and taken up by government, of establishing 
 a legitimate trade with central Africa by the channel of the 
 Niger. We can only say that those who expected the 
 effect to be produced on the progress of this abom- 
 inable traffic by any sueh measure, inii.-t have estimated 
 both end and means in a very different manner from our- 
 selves ; but the official report of Captain Trotter has recent- 
 ly announced the utter failure of the expedition, owing to 
 the destructive influence of the climate ; and the general 
 opinion seems to be, that henceforth those who may induce 
 their fellow countrymen to embark in any similar adven- 
 ture will involve themselves in very serious responsibility. 
 According to some recent estimates, about 75,000 slave* are 
 i to l>c annually carried from their homes in Africa 
 to supply the American markets, including those who per- 
 ish by the way. There can, however, be no doubt that this 
 estimate dj exaggerated ; and we question 
 
 whether, taking those exported from tne east coast to Ara- 
 bia. &.c, into account, the average number of slaves car- 
 ried from Africa during the seven yean ending with 1841 
 can have been as high as 40,000 a year ; and now, no doubt, 
 Weo this exportation will be very materially reduced. The 
 principal importing countries nre Cuba, Portorico, and Bra- 
 zil. Publications on the slave trade are so numerous, that 
 it is difficult to make a selection for purposes of reference. 
 Perhaps (alter Clarkson's History) the student could not 
 find the account of its progress better given than in succes- 
 Tiiimuers of the Kdin. Review, especially vols. xxi.. 
 though it must be admitted that 
 there is In these, and most works on the subject, a strong 
 tendency to exaggeration. There is a good article on the 
 international law of the slave trade in the Law Magaiine 
 f.r August, 1841. 
 
 BLEEP. (Germ, schlaf.) That state of the body in 
 which the functions of sensation and volition are suspended, 
 win,'- the vitil functions retain their usual activity: the 
 f the mind, if not at perfect rest, are discon- 
 iih external objects. 
 Healthy or natural sleep usually comes on with n pecti- 
 muscular lassitude, gaping, and desire of repose; 
 the eyelids fall, and there is general muscular relaxation. 
 •ease of bearing is that which is longest retained ; and 
 -< nerally hear what is going on about us, and even feel 
 inclined to take occasional part in conversation, long after 
 losed. 
 The quantity of sleep required by different individuals is 
 various, from six to nine hours being the average propor- 
 tion. Indolent listless persons, and especially those who 
 Indulge in the luxuries of the table, and are in good health, 
 will often slumber away from eight to ten hours daily ; 
 while others of active dispositions, and who live abstemi- 
 ously, will be satisfied with four or live hours of sleep; and 
 such persons are generally more disturbed by dreams than 
 the former. Very young children sleep away much of 
 their time, and so also do many old persons. Sleep is often 
 prevented by intense thought, by anxiety, and other mental 
 affections; and also by hun ger , and by the application of 
 cold to a part of the body. When a person has been over- 
 fatigued by bodily exertion, sleep is also often courted in 
 vain ; and there are many stimuli by which its accession 
 at the usual times is prevented or retarded, such ns strong 
 tea, coffee, small doses of opium, and several other articles 
 of medicine and diet. Bodily exorcise and mental tranquility, 
 a full meal, the absence of light, noise, and other disturbing 
 causes, are circumstances generally favourable to sleep; 
 but in all these respects various habits often greatly inter- 
 fere, and persons accustomed to very active lives when 
 suddenly deprived of their usual occupations often sleep 
 worse than before, indolence becoming an apparent stimu- 
 lant. A distended stomach keeps some individuals awake; 
 and others cannot sleep in a dark room, or in the quiet of 
 the country, who have been used to a night lamp, and to 
 (ho rumbling of carriages over a London pavement. 
 
 The proximate cause of sleep has been discussed by 
 several eminent physiologists, but without any very satis- 
 factory results: it is, in fact, as entirely beyond our grasp, 
 are the other functions of the nervous system. See 
 Dreams. 
 
 SMALLPOX. 
 
 SLEEPER. In Architecture, a piece of timber whereon 
 are laid the ground joists of a door. Slcrpers are also 
 pieces of timber, now rarely used, in foundations crossed by 
 planks, &.c, and at right angles to them, where the soil is 
 bad. Fondlrly the term was used to denote the valley 
 rafters of a roof. 
 
 SLl'CKENSIDE. A provincial term applied by the 
 Derbyshire miners to a species of galena, or sulphuret of 
 lead. 
 
 SLIDE. In Music, a grace used in the German school, 
 and consisting of two small notes moving by degrees. 
 
 SLI'DING KEEL, is a narrow oblong frame or platform, 
 let down vertically through the bottom of a small vessel, 
 like a deepening of the keel throughout a portion of her 
 length. > Its use is, like that of the lceboard, to sustain the 
 vessel sgsinst the lateral force of the wind. 
 
 SLI'DING RULE. A mathematical instrument or scale, 
 consisting of two parts, one of which slides along the other, 
 and each having certain sets of numbers engraved on it, se 
 arranged that when a given number on the one scale is 
 brought to coincide with a given number on the other, the 
 product or some other function of the two numbers is ob- 
 tained by inspection. The numbers may be adapted to 
 answer various purposes ; but the instrument is chiefly used 
 in causing, and for the mensuration of timber. 
 
 SLING. (Ger. schlioge.) A weapon made of a strap 
 and two strings, by means of which a stone or other missile 
 is projected with much greater velocity than could be given 
 to it by the hand without such assistance. The velocity 
 with which the projectile is discharged is the same as that 
 with which it is whirled round in a circle having the string 
 fbr its radius, and may therefore be computed when the 
 time of revolution and the length of the string are given. 
 The sling was known as a weapon of offence in the earliest 
 ages. 
 
 SI. ITS. In Geology, masses of strata separated vertically 
 or aslant. 
 
 SI, < ) \ M. Layers of clay between those of coal. 
 SLOOP. A vessel with one mast like a cutter; but 
 having a jib stay, which a cutter has not Also the general 
 name of i below tin lae of frigates. 
 
 SLOPS. Clothes and bedding supplied from the ship's 
 stores to the seamen, out at their expense. 
 
 SLOUGH. A Surgical term applied to the separation 
 which ensues between dead and living parts. 
 
 SLUE. In Naval language, to slue is to turn a cylindri- 
 cal piece of timber, as a m;ust or boom, about its axis, with- 
 out moving it out of Us place. 
 
 SLUICE. (Lat. clausus, shut vp.) In Hydraulics, a 
 frame of timber, stone, or other solid substance, serving to 
 retain and raise the water of a river or canal, and, when 
 necessary, to give it vent. 
 
 SLUR. In Music, an arch ^~n connecting two or more 
 notes not on the same degree, indicating to the performer 
 that In ploying they are to be united as much as possible. 
 
 SMACK. A vessel with one mast, commonly rigged as 
 a sloop, and used in the coasting trade, or as a tendor in the 
 royal navy. The vessels of this name that have long plied 
 between Leilh and London are well known, and have 
 always been noted for their security. 
 
 SMALLPOX. Called also Variola, from varius, changing 
 colour ; because it changes and disfigures the skin. There 
 are two forms of this disease, generally called by medical 
 men the distinct and the confluent ; in the former the pus- 
 tules are separate, in the hitter they coalesce. JJistinci 
 smallpox begins with the usual symptoms of inflammatory 
 fever; that is, pains in the back and loins, sickness, drowsi- 
 ness, headach, pain upon pressure about the region of the 
 stomach, and in infants one or more epileptic fits. About 
 the end of the third day little red spots, much resembling 
 flea-bites, make their appearance upon the face and head, 
 which spread during the fourth day over the breast, body, 
 and limbs; about the fifth dayasiuall circular vesicle forms 
 upon each little point, depressed in the centre, surrounded 
 by an inflamed margin, and containing a colourless fluid, 
 and at this time the eruptive fever disappears ; about the 
 sixth day the throat becomes sore, and the saliva viscid ; 
 and about the eighth day the face is swollen, and the pus- 
 tules round, prominent, and prevalent; about the eleventh 
 day the pustules attain their full size (about that of a pea), 
 and the matter which they contain becomes opaque and 
 yellow, and a dark central spot appears on each ; the swell- 
 ing of the face subsides, and is transferred to the hands and 
 feet, and more or less secondary fever now ensues. Alter 
 this the pustules become rough, break, and scab over, and 
 a dark brown spot remains for some days; and if the pus- 
 tules have been largo an indentation is left: the remaining 
 symptoms gradually subside, and about the seventeenth oi 
 eighteenth day (he secondary fever disappears. 
 
 Confluent smallpox is ushered in by a fever of a typhoid 
 rather than of an inflammatory character; all the Incipienl 
 symptoms are aggravated ; delirium or coma attends them: 
 
SMALT. 
 
 and ir. nfants there is diarrhoea, and in adults salivation. 
 The eruption is very irregular in its progress and appear- 
 ance, and usually preceded by red patches upon the face, 
 from which the pustules emerge on the secojpd day in the 
 form of clusters somewhat resembling mensles. Their 
 progress is rapid ; but instead of being circular and well- 
 detined, they are flat and irregular in shape, and contain a 
 brownish fluid very unlike pus : the intermediate species 
 between the clusters are generally pale and flaccid. The 
 tumefaction of the face and running of saliva are greater 
 than in the distinct species ; and the fever does not cease 
 upon the appearance of the eruption, but about the ninth 
 day it generally becomes aggravated, the eruption livid, and 
 accompanied by petechia? or purple spots ; and about the 
 eleventh day from the commencement of the disease it 
 often terminate* fatally. 
 
 This disease is the effect of a specific contagion, and is 
 produced either by inoculation, or by exposure to the effluvia 
 from persons suffering under it : in the latter case it is 
 usually called the natural smallpox. When the distinct 
 smallpox goes regularly through the stages above described, 
 it is rarely dangerous, except from mismanagement ; but it 
 often leaves a tendency to inflammatory disorders, and in a 
 scrofulous habit it excites that disorder into activity. Any 
 of the symptoms which have just been described as charac- 
 terizing confluent smallpox are alarming ; so is a sudden 
 disappearance of the eruption, or change in its appearance, 
 followed by depression or delirium. In treating the distinct 
 smallpox the febrile symptoms are to be moderated by cool 
 air, saline and mild acid and diluting drinks, and very gentle 
 aperients. Bleeding and purging are in almost all cases to 
 be decidedly avoided. Great irritability may occasionally 
 be allayed bysmall doses of opium and camphor, or, which 
 is preferable, by muriate of morphia : this will also check 
 diarrhoea, should it supervene. The confluent form gene- 
 rally requires more or less of the treatment which is adopt- 
 ed in low or putrid fever. Obstinate vomiting, which is 
 sometimes not only a troublesome but alarming symptom, 
 is best encountered by the saline draught in the act of 
 effervescence, with a few grains of aromatic confection, 
 and a few drops of tincture of opium. 
 
 SMALT. (Germ, schmalz.) A fine blue colour used 
 111 painting and printing upon earthenware, and applied to 
 several other purposes in the arts. The finest smalt is 
 made by fusing glass with oxide of cobalt, by which a very 
 deep blue compound is obtained, which when finely pow- 
 dered acquires a beautiful azure colour. Common smalts 
 are prepared by fusing mixtures of zafTre, sand, and pearlash. 
 
 SMARAGD. (Gr. auapay&oq.) In modern times used 
 as a synonym of emerald (which see) ; but applied by the 
 ancients to various other precious stones, such as fluor spar, 
 green vitrified lava, green jasper, and green glass. The 
 passage of Pliny (Nat. Hist, xxxvii. 5,) in which Nero is 
 said to have been in the habit of viewing the gladiatorial 
 combats in a smaragd, is generally understood to signify a 
 smooth polished mirror made of some of the above sub- 
 stances ; but it has been maintained that the emperor was 
 short-sighted, and used a concave eyeglass formed of the 
 smaragd. The smaragd is found in various parts of Europe, 
 Asia, and America; but particularly in the Ural mountains, 
 and in the mines of Chili and Mexico. 
 
 SMART TICKET. A certificate of a seaman's having 
 received a wound or hurt. 
 
 SMELL. This sense resides in the mucous or pituitary 
 membrane which lines the nostrils, and the surface of 
 which is more or less convoluted or extended in various 
 orders of animals. In the human subject this membrane 
 is highly vascular, and largely supplied, especially in its 
 upper parts, with nervous filaments, or ramifications of the 
 olfactory trunk, which has its origin, by three distinct roots, 
 from the posterior, inferior, and internal parts of the anterior 
 lobe of the brain, and proceeding towards the perforated 
 plate of the ethmoid bone, divides into the small threads 
 just mentioned. 
 
 The physiology of odours is a curious and intricate sub- 
 ject, requiring much more experimental investigation than 
 it has hitherto received. The air is the great vehicle by 
 which their various influences are transmitted in the act of 
 inspiring to the olfactory surfaces, and for the diffusion of 
 most odours a certain degree of humidity in the air appears 
 absolutely essential. There is scarcely any sense the 
 degree of perfection of which varies so much in different 
 individuals as that of smell, some being painfully alive to 
 those odorous influences which are not even perceived by 
 others. An obtuseness of this sense is also very frequent, 
 and its almost entire absence by no means uncommon ; this 
 is especially the case in certain catarrhal complaints, and 
 in some other affections of the lining membrane of the nose. 
 
 SMEW. The name of the diver called Mcrgus albellus 
 by Linnaeus. See Mergus. 
 
 SMILA'CEjE (Smilax, one of the genera), form a small 
 natural order of Endogenous plants with weak or twining 
 1132 
 
 SMORZATO. 
 
 stems and reticulated leaves, not distinguishable from those 
 of Exogens. The drug called sarsaparilla, or sarza, is the 
 root of various species inhabiting South America, and is 
 held in high esteem for its diuretic, demulcent, alterative 
 qualities. 
 
 SMOKE. (Low Germ, sniuke.) Smoke has been de 
 fined as the visible effluvium or sensible exhalation of any- 
 thing burning. The term is commonly applied to those 
 results of the combustion or ignition of pit coal which 
 escape from chimneys, and which constitute a serious and 
 well-known evil and nuisance in large towns, manufac- 
 turing districts, and almost everywhere where large quan- 
 tities of coal are consumed. Coal is often a very complex 
 substance ; but, putting aside its occasional and adventitious 
 ingredients, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen may be 
 regarded as its ordinary and essential constituents ; and the 
 results of its perfect combustion would therefore be carbonic 
 acid, steam, and nitrogen. These substances would consti- 
 tute invisible and incombustible gases and vapour, and 
 would therefore escape from the chimney top, and blend 
 with the atmosphere, without being perceived. But it un- 
 fortunately happens that from the way in which coaris 
 burned its combustion is far from being perfect, and that 
 besides the above-mentioned products inflammable gases 
 and vapours, together with large quantities of very finely 
 divided carbon, constituting soot and black and brown 
 smoke, are vomited forth from the chimney shaft, not only 
 contaminating the air, and making all neighbouring objects 
 black and dirty, but also occasioning great loss of fuel ; so 
 that the smoke of London is not only a nuisance, but a very 
 expensive one, and ought to be put down by legislative 
 enactments, several of which have been from time to time 
 suggested, but unfortunately never enforced, and are at this 
 moment a mere dead letter. 
 
 The neglect which this subject has encountered has 
 arisen chiefly out of the difficulty of enforcing and inculca- 
 ting rational doctrines upon the subject of combustion, and 
 of getting persons to adopt new systems of construction in 
 regard to furnaces and fire-places, new methods of stoking 
 and managing the fire, and new kinds of fuel ; and it is 
 astonishing to observe the obstinacy and perverseness which 
 prevail in these respects amongst the masters as well as 
 the men. There is another cause too, which no doubt has 
 had its influence in retarding the adoption of means for 
 diminishing the smoke nuisance, which is, the shoals of 
 quacks and ignorant empyrics and impostors who have 
 embarked in these speculations ; so that till stringent and 
 coercive measures are adopted in regard to it, founded upon 
 scientific and rational principles, we must be content to 
 continue breathing a tainted air, which fouls the organs of 
 respiration, encrusts our buildings, and covers our books, 
 pictures, and every article of furniture with an enamel of 
 soot, and which dims the atmosphere to such an extent as 
 materially to shorten the duration of metropolitan daylight 
 
 That all these evils may be got rid of admits of no doubt, 
 and ultimately with economy and convenience ; though the 
 first introduction of the remedies will probably be attended 
 by many practical difficulties, and considerable incon- 
 venience and expense. One remedy, and the most obvious, 
 consists in the substitution of coke, anthracite, and certain 
 other smokeless fuel, for the bituminous and eminently 
 smoke-generating varieties of coal now in common use. 
 Another is, the construction of fireplaces and furnaces 
 which shall not indeed burn smoke, but prevant its forma- 
 tion. It must be allowed that there are many practical 
 difficulties in the way, rather perhaps of the application 
 than of the invention or perfection of these contrivances ; 
 but experience has shown that none of these are of such a 
 nature or magnitude that they may not be overcome by 
 perseverance and skill. They all merge into one common 
 principle, that of mixing air with the combustible vapours 
 and gases generated by the action of heat on pit coal, so 
 that by virtue of a due supply of oxygen they may be made 
 to burn with flame, and become entirely converted into in- 
 combustible and transparent invisible vapours and gases, 
 instead of being, as they now are, only partially burned, by 
 which their carbon is precipitated, and escapes, together 
 with the other imperfectly consumed matters, into the air. 
 The foundation of a practical inquiry into the subject of the 
 prevention of smoke has been laid by Mr. C. VV. Williams 
 of Liverpool (Essays on the Combustion of Coal and Pre 
 vention of Smoke). The theoretical details are essentially 
 blended with the whole doctrine of heal; but the investi- 
 gations w-hich most essentially bear upon them will be 
 found in Sir H. Davy's Researches into the Philosophy of 
 Flame. 
 
 SMOKE SAIL. A small sail hoisted before the funnel 
 of the galley, when the ship is at anchor head to wind, to 
 screen the quarter deck from the smoke. 
 
 SMORZATO. (It. extinguished.) In Music, a term de- 
 noting that the violin bow is to be drawn to its full extent, 
 but gradually lighter till the sound is nearly lost 
 
SMUGGLING. 
 
 SMU'GGLING. The offence of defrauding the revenue 
 by the introduction of articles into consumption without 
 pajine the duties chargeable upon them. It may be com- 
 mitted indifferently either upon the excise or customs 
 revenue. 
 
 Origin and Prevention of Smuggling. — This crime, which 
 Occupies so prominent a place in the criminal legislation of 
 all modern states, is wholly the result of vicious commercial 
 and financial legislation. It is the fruit either of prohibi- 
 tions of importation, or of oppressively high duties. It does 
 not originate in any depravity inherent in man ; but in the 
 folly and ignorance of legislators. A prohibition against 
 importing a commodity does not take away the taste for it; 
 and the imposition of a high duty on any article occasions 
 a universal desire to escape or evade its payment. Hence 
 ind occupation of the smuggler. The risk of being 
 ■elected in the clandestine introduction of commodities 
 under any system of fiscal regulations may always be 
 valued at a certain average rate ; and wherever the duties 
 exceed mil rate, smuggling immediately takes place. Now, 
 there are plainly but two ways of checking this practice, 
 either the temptation to smuggle must be diminished by 
 lowering the duties, or the difficulties in the way of smug- 
 gling must be increased. The first is obviously the more 
 natoral ami efficient method of effecting the object in view; 
 but the second has been most generally resorted to, even in 
 i re the duties were quite excessive. Governments 
 have almost uniformly consulted the persons employed in 
 i the revenue with respect to the best mode 
 Of rendering taxes effectual ; though it is clear that the 
 Interests, prejudices, and peculiar habits of such persons, 
 utter!} disqualify them from forming a sound opinion on 
 such a subject. They cannot recommend a reduction of 
 a means of repressing smuggling and increasing 
 revenue, without acknowledging their own incapacity to 
 detect and defeat illicit practices; and the result has been, 
 that instead <•( ascribing the prevalence of smuggling to its 
 ., the officers of customs and excise have almost 
 Universally ascribed it to some defect in the laws, or in the 
 mode of administering them, and have proposed repressing 
 it by new regulations, and by increasing the number and 
 severity of the penalties affecting the smuggler. As might 
 en expected, these attempts have, in the great 
 majority of cases, proved signally unsuccessful. And it 
 has been invariably found that no vigilance on the part of 
 the revenue officers, and no severity of punishment, can 
 prevent the smuggling of such commodities as are either 
 prohibited or loaded with oppressive duties. The smuggler 
 is gemrally a popular character; and whatever the law 
 may declare on the subject, it is quite ludicrous to expect 
 thai the bulk of society will ever be brought to think that 
 those who furnish them with cheap brandy, geneva, to- 
 bacco, Slc. are guilty of any very heinous offence. 
 
 "To pretend," says Dr. Smith, "to have any scruple 
 about buying smuggled goods, though a manifest encourage- 
 ment to the violation of the revenue laws, and to the per- 
 •ury which almost always attends it, would, in most coun- 
 tries, be regarded as one of those pedantic pieces of hy- 
 pocrisy, which, instead of gaining credit with anybody, seems 
 only to expose the person who affects to practise them to 
 the suspicion of being a greater knave than most of his 
 neighbours. By this indulgence of the public, the smuggler 
 is often encouraged to continue a trade which he is thus 
 taught to consider as in some measure innocent ; and when 
 the severity of the revenue laws is ready to fall upon him, 
 he is frequently disposed to defend with violence what he 
 has been accustomed to regard as his just property ; and 
 from being at first rather imprudent than criminal, he at last 
 too often becomes one of the most determined violators of 
 the laws of society." ( Wealth of Nations, vol. iii., p. 491.) 
 
 To create by means of high duties an overwhelming 
 temptation to indulge in crime, and then to punish men for 
 Indulging in it, is a proceeding completely subversive of every 
 principle of justice. It revolts the natural feelings of the 
 people ; and teaches them to feel an interest in the worst 
 characters — for such smugglers generally are — to espouse 
 their cause, and avenge their wrongs. A punishment which 
 is not proportioned to the offence, and which does not carry 
 the sanction of public opinion along with it, can never be 
 productive of any good effect. The true way to put down 
 smuggling is to render it unprofitable, to diminish the temp- 
 tation to engage in it; and this is not to be done by sur- 
 rounding the coasts with cordons of troops, by the multipli- 
 cation of oaths and penalties, and making the country the 
 theatre of ferocious and bloody contests in the field, and of 
 perjury and chicanery in the courts of law ; but by repeal- 
 ing prohibitions, and reducing duties, so that their collection 
 rosy be enforced with a moderate degree of vigilance, and 
 that the forfeiture of the article may be a sufficent penalty 
 upon the smuggler. It is in this, and in this only, that we 
 must seek for an effectual check to illicit trafficking. When- 
 ever the profits of the fair trader become nearly equal to 
 
 SNOW. 
 
 those of the smuggler, the latter is forced to abandon hi* 
 hazardous profession. But so long as prohibitions or op- 
 pressively high duties are kept up, or which is. In fact, the 
 same thing, so long as high bounties are held out to encour- 
 age the adventurous, the needy, and the profligate to enter 
 on this career, we may be assured that armies of excise and 
 custom-house officers, backed by the utmost severity of the 
 revenue laws, will be insufficient to hinder them. (For full 
 particulars respecting the law of smuggling, &c, see the 
 Com. Diet.) 
 
 SMUT. A disease incidental to corn crops, by which the 
 farina of the grain in the whole body of the seed is convert- 
 ed into a black, soot-hke powder. If an ear of corn affected 
 by this disease be smartly struck with the finger, the pow- 
 der will be dispersed like that of the fungus known as 
 Lycoperdon bonista, the common puff-ball found in pastures, 
 but darker ; and if a portion of the powder be moistened and 
 examined with the microscope, it will be found to consist of 
 innumerable minute transparent globules. Some attribute 
 the smut to the4ichncss of the soil, and others consider it as a 
 hereditary disease transmitted by one generation to another 
 through the seed. Wildenow and Mirbel regard it as a 
 small fungus ; but Bauer believes it to be a proper disease, 
 indicated by a morbid swelling of the ear. Some cultivators 
 steep the grain of smutty corn in a weak solution of arsenic 
 before sowing ; but others deny the efficacy of this prepara- 
 tion. Smutty grain is separated from such as may be used 
 for seed, or for grinding into Hour, by being rapidly whirled 
 round in a cylinder lined with brushes ; or by steeping in 
 water, when the smut, from its lightness, floats on the sur- 
 face. The safest mode for the farmer to pursue is never to 
 sow grain from a field in which the smut has prevailed. 
 
 SNAKE ROOT. This term is applied to the root Of the 
 Aristolochia serpentaria, a native of Virginia ; it is a tibrous, 
 aromatic, and bitterish root. The infusion is occasionally 
 used as a tonic and diaphoretic : in typhoid fevers it is a 
 good adjunct to Peruvian bark, and to quinia. 
 
 SNAKE WOOD. The wood of the Strychnos colubrina. 
 Supposed to be an antidote to the poison of certain snakes. 
 
 HNKE'ZING. A convulsive action of the respiratory or- 
 gans, brought on by irritation of the nostrils. Violent fits 
 of sneezing have occasionally attacked persons, and are 
 even said to have proved fatal ; recourse must in such cases 
 be had to soothing the nasal membrane by the application 
 of warm milk and water, or decoction of poppies. 
 
 SNIPE. The common name of the Scolopax gallinago, 
 Linn. This bird is a plentiful species in most parts of Great 
 Britain, In wet seasons it resorts to the hills and higher 
 grounds ; inordinary seasons it frequents marshes. Its prin- 
 cipal food is worms, in quest of which it penetrates the soft 
 earth with its long and slender bill, which is especially or- 
 ganized for that purpose. 
 
 SNOW. (Ger. schnee.) Congealed water, which falls 
 from the bosom of the atmosphere. Very little is yet known 
 respecting the formation of this meteor. It has not been as- 
 certained, for instance, whether the clouds which produce 
 it are composed of vesicular vapours, or of frozen particles ; 
 nor whether the flakes are completely formed before they 
 begin to descend, or receive an increase in passing through 
 the lower strata of the atmosphere. The temperature of 
 the flakes, and the circumstances which determine their 
 form and volume, are likewise unknown. The only obser- 
 vations which may be considered as in any degree complete, 
 are with reference to the different forms which the flakes 
 .assume. This subject was considered by Kepler, Hooke, 
 Cassini, Muschenbroek, and many others ; but the most in- 
 teresting series of observations we possess are those of 
 Scoresby (Account of the Arctic Regions, 1820), who has re- 
 duced the different forms into classes, and given a number 
 of excellent representations of the flakes in different states. 
 Generally speaking, when examined with the microscope 
 they present modifications of stelliform and hexagonal 
 crystals ; and frequently they consist of n star of six rays 
 formed of prisms united at angles of 60°, from which other 
 prisms shoot at similar angles, giving the whole tin appear- 
 ance of exquisite beauty and great regularity. The variety 
 of modifications is probably owing to the state of the atmo- 
 sphere when the snow is formed. If the crystallization takes 
 place when the air is calm, the crystals will be regularly 
 formed ; on the contrary, they will be irregular and imper- 
 fect when the air is much agitated. Sometimes the flakes 
 present no traces of crystallization. 
 
 Snow is much less dense than ordinary ice. The bulk of 
 a given weight of ice is only about a ninth part greater than 
 that of the water from which it is formed, while the bulk 
 of new-fallen snow is ten or twelve times-greater than that 
 of the water obtained by melting it. 
 
 At moderate elevations above the sea, and in the mean 
 latitudes, snow most frequently falls after some days of 
 pretty hard frost, and when the temperature of the air, 
 though still a few degrees above the freezing point, is sensi- 
 bly mitigated. On this circumstance is founded the remark 
 
 1133 
 
SNOW. 
 
 ttiat it cannot snow in very severe cold ; and though the re 
 mark does not always hold {rood, it will do so generally, for 
 two reasons : in the" first place, the air which conies from 
 very cold regions contains a small portion of watery vapour; 
 and secondly, because the formation of clouds, by diminish 
 ing the radiation, necessarily mitigates the severity of the 
 :old. 
 
 As snow can only be formed when the temperature of 
 the atmospheric strata containing the aqueous vapour is be- 
 low the freezing point, it is obvious that if the snow in fall- 
 ing passes into strata of a higher temperature, it will be 
 melted before arriving at the surface of the earth. Hence 
 it follows that it never snows in the torrid zone, nor in the 
 heats of summer, excepting on the tops of very elevated 
 mountains. 
 
 Red Show. — It had been remarked by the ancients that 
 snow sometimes assumes a red tint, and Pliny ascribes the 
 cause to age : Ipsa nix vctustate rubescit. Many modern 
 observers have described and examined this curious phe- 
 nomena, which appears to be met with in All parts of the 
 world. Saussure observed red snow on the Bevem in 1760, 
 and on S}.. Bernard in 1778 ; and he supposed the colouring 
 matter to consist of a vegetable dust. Ramond met with it 
 in the Pyrenees, Captain Ross in Baffin's Bay ; Parry, 
 Franklin, and Scoresby collected it in still higher northern 
 latitudes; and it has been found abundantly in New Shet- 
 land in latitude 70° south. Among the Alps it is generally 
 found in low sheltered spots, and penetrating to the depth 
 of two or three inches ; or rather the strata in which it is 
 found (for it occurs overlaid at considerable depths) seldom 
 exceed two or three inches in thickness. The colouring 
 matter of this singular substance has been examined by 
 Wollaston, R. Brown, De Candolle, Thenard, Bauer, &c. 
 . Dr. Wollaston first remarked that it is composed of minute 
 spherical globules, which have a transparent envelop, and 
 are divided into seven or eight small cells filled with a 
 species of red oil insoluble in water. Mr. R. Brown and De 
 t'imlolle supposed the globules to be a kind of alga. Mr. 
 Bauer (Phil. Trans., 1820) found the globules to be exactly 
 identical in snow collected in Baffin's Bay and New Shet- 
 land ; and he supposed them to be small mushrooms of the 
 genus Urcdo, forming a peculiar species, to which he gave 
 the name of Uredo nivalis. 
 
 Snow Line, or Limit of Perpetual Snow. — Since the tem- 
 perature of the atmosphere continually diminishes in ascend- 
 ing from the surface into the higher altitudes, there must be 
 in every latitude a certain limit of elevation at which the air 
 attains the temperature of freezing water. This limit is 
 called the snow line, or line of perpetual congelation ; and 
 the mountains which rise above it are covered with per- 
 petual snow. Within the tropics the temperature varies 
 little throughout the year, and hence the snow line is dis- 
 tinctly marked ; but in countries remote from the equator 
 the limit of congelation rises in summer and descends in 
 winter through a band or zone of considerable breadth. The 
 line of perpetual congelation is, of course, the summer limit. 
 The altitude of the snow line, however, is not dependent upon 
 latitude alone, but also on the configuration and aspects of 
 the mountain chains, the extent and temperature of the sur- 
 rounding plains, the quantity of snow that falls annually, 
 and the multitude of causes which influence the climate of 
 a country. (See Climate.) On the Himalaya chain, for ex- 
 ample, the limit of perpetual congelation on the northern 
 side is at an elevation exceeding by upwards of 4400 feet 
 that on the southern side, though the latter is directly ex- 
 posed to the sun ; a circumstance which Humboldt ascribes 
 to the radiation from the great plain of Thibet, the general 
 serenity of the climate, and the rarity of snow in an exceed- 
 ingly cold and dry atmosphere. No dependence, therefore, 
 can be placed on any general rule for estimating the height 
 of the snow line, and it affords an exceedingly fallacious in- 
 dication of the altitude of mountains. The following table 
 is given by Humboldt in his Fragmens Asiatiques, p. 549. 
 The elevations stated are the heights of the line of perpetual 
 congelation above the level of the sea, and the measures 
 are reduced to English feet. 
 
 Mountain Chains. 
 
 Cordilleras of Quito 
 
 Cordilleras of Bolivia . 
 
 Cordilleras of Mexico . 
 
 Pyrenees . . , 
 
 Caucasus . . . 
 
 Swiss Alps . . , 
 
 Carpathians . . . 
 
 Altai range . . . 
 
 Norway }; 
 
 0°— lJ°S. 
 16 - 171 
 19*N. 
 
 7<4 
 
 Feet. 
 
 15,730 
 17,060 
 IS 030 
 16,940 
 12,470 
 8,950 
 10,870 
 8,760 
 8,500 
 6,395 
 3,518 
 2,302 
 
 (See, in addition to the works already cited, Humboldt, 
 Memoire sur la Limite de JVeige pcrpctuelle dan* les Mon- 
 
 SOAP. 
 
 tagnes de P Himalaya, et les Regions Equator ealcs, in the 
 Annales de Chimic, tome xiv.) 
 
 SOAP. IGr. outtwv, Lat. sapo.) This useful compound 
 is obtained by the action of alkaline upon oily substances. 
 There are, accordingly, a great variety of soaps; but those 
 commonly employed may be considered under the heads 
 of, 1. Fine white soaps, scented soap, &c. ; 2. Coarse house- 
 hold soaps ; 3. Soft soaps. The materials used in the manu- 
 facture of white soaps are generally olive oil and carbonate 
 of soda : the latter is rendered caustic bv the operation of 
 quicklime, and the solution thus obtained is called soap laj. 
 The oil and a weak ley are first boiled together, and portions 
 of stronger ley are gradually added till the soap, produced 
 by the mutual action of the oil and alkali, begins to become 
 tenacious and to separate from the water; some common 
 salt is then generally added to promote the granulation and 
 perfect separation of the soap: the fire is then drawn, and 
 the contents of the boiler allowed to remain for some hours 
 at rest, so that the soap may more completely collect. 
 When it is perfect it is put into wooden frames or moulds ; 
 and when stiff enough to be handled, it is cut into oblong 
 slices and dried in an airy room. Perfumes are occasionally 
 added, or various colouring matters stirred in while the soap 
 is semifluid to give it a mottled appearance. The Spanish 
 soap is marbled by stirring into it a solution of sulphate of 
 iron, which is decomposed by the soap, and black oxide of 
 iron separated in streaks and patches through the mass. The 
 action of the air converts the exterior into red oxide, while 
 the interior long retains its black colour ; hence a slice of 
 this soap presents a black mottled centre, surrounded by a 
 reddened external layer. 
 
 Common household soaps are made chiefly of soda and 
 tallow ; or if potash is used, a large addition of common 
 salt is made to harden the soap, which it probably effects by 
 the transference of soda. Yellow soap has a portion of 
 rosin added to it. Soft soaps are generally made with pot- 
 ash instead of soda, and fish oil. The common soft soap 
 used in London is a compound of this kind ; it has a tena- 
 cious consistence, and appears granulated. Soap is soluble 
 in pure water and in alcohol; the latter solution jellies 
 when concentrated, and is medicinally known under the 
 name of opodeldoc. When carefully evaporated the soap 
 remains in ji gelatinous state, which forms, when dry, the ar- 
 ticle sold under the name of transparent soap. 
 
 The earths and common metallic oxides form insoluble 
 soaps ; and accordingly these are precipitated when earthy 
 and metallic salts are added to solution of soap. It is the 
 sulphate of lime and carbonate of lime in common spring 
 water which thus render it unfit for washing, and give it 
 what is termed hardness ; and, upon this principle, a spirit- 
 uous solution of soap is a simple and valuable test of the fit- 
 ness of any river or spring water for the purposes of the 
 laundry. If it merely renders the water slightly opalescent, 
 as is the case with rain and other soft waters, it may be 
 used for washing; but if it become milky, it is usually too 
 hard to be conveniently employed ; and when we wash or 
 shave with hard water, the separation of the insoluble cal- 
 careous soap is extremely disagreeable; it adheres to the skin, 
 and soils instead of cleansing it. 
 
 The chemical nature of soap has been laboriously exam 
 ined by Chevreul, who has shown that the alkali in "the pro- 
 cess of saponification converts the oil into peculiar acids, as 
 he terms them ; the elain of the oil forming oleic acid, tind 
 the stearine margaric acid : so that soluble soaps are oleates 
 and margarates of soda and potash. He has enumerated 
 several other fatty acids similarly produced. 
 
 All new soaps contain a considerable portion of adhering 
 water, a great part of which they lose when kept in a dry 
 place ; hence the economy and excellence of old soap; and 
 hence the dealers in soap generally keep it In a damp eel 
 lar, that it may not lose weight by evaporation ; or, as it is 
 said, sometimes immerse it in brine, which does not dissolve 
 it, but keeps it in its utmost state of humidity. 
 
 Soap may be considered as a necessary of life ; in all civ 
 ilized countries its consumption is immense. According to 
 Pliny, the invention of soap must be ascribed to the Gauls, 
 by whom, he says, it was composed of tallow and ashes, 
 though the German soap was considered the best. Hence 
 the Lat. sapo, which by a slight transposition of letters has 
 become soap, is probably derived from the old German sepe 
 (now written seife). The great seats of the soap manufac- 
 ture in Great Britain are Liverpool, London, Runcorn, Bris- 
 tol, Bromsgrove, Brentford, Hull, and Glasgow. Thus, of 
 154,790,853 lbs. of hard soap made in 1839, Liverpool fur 
 nished 43,546,119 lbs.; London, 38,005,175 lbs; Runcorn 
 11,034.324 lbs. ; Bristol, 7,512.440 lbs. ; Bromsgrove, 5,854,213 
 lbs.; Brentford, 4,938,444 lbs.; Hull, 4,606,435 lbs.; and 
 Glasgow, 5,858,844 lbs. Of 14,874,963 lbs. of soft soap made 
 in the sam-. year, Liverpool furnished about one half, the 
 rest being supplied by Glasgow, Bradford, Aberdeen, Paisley. 
 &c. The Hianufncture of hard soap is subject to n duty of 
 \Kd. per 11> lhat of soft soap to a duty of Jrf. per In. 
 
SOAP STONE. 
 
 SOAP STONE. A mineralogical svnonym of steatite. 
 SOAVE, BOAVEMENTE. (it. 'sicect, sweetly.) In 
 Music, a term denoting to the player that the music to 
 which it is prefixed is to be executed with sweetness. 
 SO'BRKACET. Iu French, a burlesque appellation or 
 The word has been variously derived from the 
 Lat subridiculiun, subrusticuui, and the Gr. vSptartKov, &c. 
 There is a curious dissertation in vol. xiv. of the Histoire tie 
 I'JJcademie des Jnscrip., on the authority of these apiwlla- 
 tions in history. 
 
 IGE (Mod. Lat socagium ; from the Anglo-Saxon 
 soke, or plough), denotes, according to Blackstone, in its 
 original and most extensive signification, a tenure by any 
 certain and determinate service. The sokemen at and im- 
 mediately before the Norman conquest appear to have been 
 in the lowest ranks of free cultivators of the land, being 
 .ii.' with the villein in a law of Edward the Oon- 
 fessor. But by the lime when the works of Bracton and the 
 ■Utbor of Fieta were compiled, socage had come to signify 
 any tenure not military or quasimilitary ; i. c., either where 
 mlliOT) services were due (tenure in chivalry or by knight 
 service), or other services of an honorary kind, such as by 
 
 eh feudal law were due on what were called im- 
 .liire by grand scrjeanty). Socage, therefore, 
 comprehended various descripttoiis of tenure, and has been 
 divided into free and villein socage. In free so- 
 cage, i lie services were certain, and, in the feudal sense, not 
 base or dishonourable, as the payment of an annual rent; 
 and none of the feudal Incidents of wardship, &c, were de- 
 mandable in respect of lands so held, although certain aids 
 and reliefs were peculiar to socage as well as to knight ser- 
 vice. By the stat. 13 C. 2, c. 24, when military tenures were 
 abolished, all sorts of tenures held of the king and others 
 (except frank-nhfioizn, copyhold, and the honorary part of 
 grand-serjeanty) were turned into tenure by free or common 
 
 Villein socage was a species of tenure in lands held 
 of the kins: by certain villein sen Ices, but certain and deter- 
 minate, from which mixed species of tenure arose that in 
 ancient demesne. Lands so held arc deemed to be in cer- 
 opyhold; and these were within the excep- 
 tions of the statute 12 ( !harles -, and still subsist. 
 
 s< » I ETY. (Lat. socius, a companion.) The term usu- 
 ally applied to an association for the promotion of some 
 object, either literary, religious, benevolent, political, orcon- 
 
 kasoetariona formed for commercial purposes are 
 usually styled companies ; which see. Literary societies 
 extend their attention to all the sciences and literature ge- 
 nerally, or to particular divisions of each. The chief lite- 
 rary societies of Europe have been noticed under Academy. 
 The purposes for which brneeolent and n Ugieue societies 
 are formed will be best inferred from the epithets with which 
 
 i Dnnected ; thus temperance societies are established 
 with a view to promote sobriety, mendicity societies for the 
 relief of ihe indigent, Slc. There is no feature, perhaps, 
 which distinguishes a civilized from a savage state more 
 than the establishment of such societies; nnd in this view 
 England has a right to claim a place in the foremost ranks 
 of civilization, whether we regard the number or the prin- 
 ciples of the management of its religious and benevolent 
 institutions. It would be impossible in this place to give 
 even the names of the chief societies of this nature scat- 
 tered throughout the country; but the reader will find an 
 account of them in the various re|>orts published from time 
 to time by their respective directors, and embodying a mass 
 !>f information respecting them at once amusing and instruc- 
 tive. 
 Societies formed for convivial or political purposes are 
 
 iilly denominated clubs— a. term which may be 
 truly said to be exclusively English, and which embraces 
 so many complex ideas that it is all but impossible to reduce 
 It within the limits of a precise definition. The origin of 
 clubs may be said to date from the end of the 17th century. 
 It would be superfluous to call to the reader's remembrance 
 die beau ideal of a club which Addison has drawn in the 
 Spectator — the Kit-Kat club, which numbered among its 
 members all the most distinguished persons of the day ; the 
 Beriblerus club, of which Swift, Harley, Pope, Gay, and 
 Arbuthnot were members ; or that still nearer our own times 
 originally held at the Essex Head, which was ennobled by 
 the genius of Johnson, Burke, Reynolds, Goldsmith, Wynd- 
 ham, and Fox. They were originally instituted solely for 
 convivial purposes; but in the course of time the term "cUb 
 was successively adopted by various political associations, 
 both in this country and on the Continent. Since the com- 
 mencement or the present century, the chief clubs have 
 been either of an avowed political character, as the Carl- 
 ton, Boodle, and the Reform clubs; or devoted exclusively 
 to certain classes, as the United Service, the Oxford, anil 
 Cambridge; or open to all gentlemen on election, with- 
 out regard to political party or profession, as the Athenaeum, 
 Wyndham, &c. There are about forty clubs in the metro- 
 polis. They consist each of a limited number of members, 
 
 SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 varying from 1000 to 1500, who are admitted by ballot, ana 
 pay from ten to twenty-five guineas on their admission, and 
 an annual subscription, varying from five to ten guineas. 
 We need scarcely add, that the club-houses are, generally 
 speaking, splendid editices, which add much to the mtigni- 
 ficence of the streets and squares in which they are situated. 
 
 The latest appropriation of the term club has been made 
 by several associations— such as the Roxburgh club of Lon- 
 don, the Bannaryne of Edinburgh, and the Maitland oi 
 Glasgow— Which were formed for the purpose of printing 
 original MSS., which would not otherwise have seen the 
 light, or of rescuing rare productions from oblivion by te 
 printing them from scarce and valuable editions. 
 
 SOCTNIANS. The followers of Socinus, the uncle and 
 the nephew, both of the same name, and celebrated for 
 similar opinions concerning the nature of Christ. The ne- 
 phew, Faustus Socinus, was the principal founder of the 
 sect. He was an Italian, born at Sienna in 1539 ; u ho, after 
 publishing a treatise upon the nature of the Saviour, desired 
 to be admitted into a society of Unitarians already existing 
 in Poland. Their opinions do not appear to have precisely 
 corresponded with his, nnd admission was refused him; 
 nor did he eflBCl during his lifetime the institution of any 
 distinct congregation ; but the views which he disseminated 
 in his writings were gradually referred to and adopted by 
 many ministers and religious communities, especially in Po- 
 land, where Crellius, TVolgozenlus, and others published a 
 Socinian system of theology, comprised in the liibliotheca 
 Fratrum Polonorum. 
 
 Since the death of Socinus, the theologians who have as- 
 serted the mere humanity of Christ have been generally 
 denominated Socinians. The doctrines, however, to which 
 that appellation can with strictness be applied are not pre- 
 cisely equivalent to those of the modern Unitarians. The 
 Socinian denies the existence of Christ previous to his birth 
 of the Virgin Mary: he allows, however, that that birth 
 was miraculous, nnd considers the Saviour as an object oi 
 jieculiar reverence and an inferior degree of worship. By 
 the term Mediator, as applied to Christ, he understands that 
 in establishing the new covenant he was the medium be- 
 tween God and man; and of his sacrifice he says that as 
 the Jewish sacrifices were not made for the payment of 
 sins, but for the remission of them, so also the death of 
 Christ was designed for the remission of sins through God's 
 favour, and not for the satisfaction of them as an equiva- 
 lent (See J\f us heim, vol. iv. transl. 1790, p. 485, &c, art 
 " Unitarians.") 
 
 SOCK. (Lat. soccus.) The name given to the pecullai 
 kind of shoe worn by the ancient Roman comedlons ; hence 
 used metaphorically for comedy itself. See Buskin. 
 
 SO'CLE. (It. zoccoli, a shoe.) In Architecture, a square 
 member, whose breadth is greater than its height ; used in- 
 stead of apedestal for the reception of a column. It dUTen 
 from a pedestal in being without base or cornice. 
 
 SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY, in a more extensive sense 
 is used to comprehend the whole development of philosophy 
 of Greece from Socrates to the Neo Platonists. The title is 
 so far just, as all the schools of this period, with the single 
 exception of the Epicurean, called themselves by the name 
 of Socrates, and arrogated to themselves the merit of exclu- 
 sively propagating the true doctrines of Socrates. But in a 
 narrow and more proper signification, it signifies the pecu- 
 liar direction and method which Socrates gave to philoso- 
 phical inquiry. Rightly to understand this, a brief retro- 
 spect of the previous state of philosophy is requisite. Bv 
 the due course of things, the Ionian and other earliest phi- 
 losophers of Greece directed themselves to the study of ex- 
 ternal nature; which, as the outward condition of man's 
 existence, attracts and constrains his attention, and so be- 
 comes the root and source of his intellectual life also. In 
 this state of mental developement man is led to identify 
 himself with the physical objects which are around him, 
 and to form a single and exclusive science — that of universal 
 nature. But on a wider range of observation, man began 
 to perceive that his faculty of reason is not a physical 
 power, but different in kind, and peculiar to himself. And 
 so the belief in the affinity of man to the powers of the sur- 
 rounding world was gradually weakened. Philosophy, 
 then, had now arrived at the point where either the distinc- 
 tion of the ethical and the physical must be set forth in 
 clear evidence ; or else, by adhering to the previous direc- 
 tion of thought, the light which had been, however uncon- 
 sciously, kindled must be obscured and extinguished. To 
 the latter result the labours of the Sophists directly tended ; 
 for Archelaus, the physiologist, had opened the way, by 
 his disquisitions into the nature and constitution of law and 
 custom, in which, starting from a physical point of view, 
 he declared reason to be simply a power of nature, and 
 right to have no other foundation that might Such at- 
 tempts, however, served to stimulate rather than to repress 
 that inquiry into the nature of the moral and rational, as 
 distinct from the physical, while other considerations were 
 
 1135 
 
SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 at this period establishing them as independent sciences. 
 But to admit the claims of both as two conflicting sciences, 
 with equal pretensions to universality, WBS inconsistent 
 with the unifying tendency of philosophy ; and a more sci- 
 entific range of thought was required, adapted to reconcile 
 and combine their opposite conclusions. Such a view 
 could only be presented by logical or dialectical investiga- 
 tions, which, from the nature of science itself, might show 
 that it is essential to the completeness and perfection of 
 science that it should embrace both nature and reason at 
 once. It is this perception of the unity of science which 
 constitutes the true merit of Socrates as a philosopher. In 
 all the accounts of him which either Xenophon or Plato 
 furnish, we invariably discern the attempt, at least, to em- 
 brace every question within the light of universal science; 
 and to prove that every species of knowledge, if legiti- 
 mate, can be pointed out and shown to be a necessary mem- 
 ber of the general idea of science. 
 
 It was not the object of Socrates to establish any per- 
 fectly evolved system of doctrine, so much as to awaken 
 by his discourses a new and more comprehensive pursuit of 
 science, which, no longer one-sided and confined to special 
 branches of inquiry, but convinced of its universality, should 
 direct itself to all that is knowable. But beneath this con- 
 viction of the universality of science, and the oneness of 
 its object matter, we distinctly trace that division of the 
 latter into dialectics, physics, and ethics, which his succes- 
 sors more distinctly established. To these heads, there- 
 fore, without expressly ascribing them to Socrates, it will 
 be convenient, for the purpose of classification, to refer his 
 several doctrines. 
 
 Under the head of dialectics, we have, on the testimony 
 of Aristotle (Met., xiii., 4), to ascribe to Socrates two of the 
 very first principles of science — the inductive method of 
 proof, and the definition of ideas. The object which Soc- 
 rates had in view by the latter was, by the definition of 
 ideas to determine what the thing is in itself, or its essence. 
 As to the former, we are told by Xenophon that when Soc- 
 rates wished to come to a decision on any point, his inves- 
 tigations proceeded from propositions generally received as 
 true ; and if we are told that he often preferred to take up 
 trifling and improbable positions, it was from a conviction 
 that every thought, however imperfect as a work of rea- 
 son, must necessarily involve the idea of certainty. Anoth- 
 er feature of the Socratic method was to place the particu- 
 lar idea to be examined in a great variety of combinations ; 
 a procedure which is evidently based on a conviction of the 
 connexion of all scientific thought, and implying that every 
 particular thought must, if it contain any degree of certain- 
 ly, maintain its validity under every possible combinalion. 
 Such was the true Socratic method of dialectics, which 
 derived its name from the form of dialogue (()ta\£ycti>) in 
 Which it was accidentally worked out ; while, on the other 
 hand, the term Socratic method has, in modern times, been 
 confined to signify nothing more than this outward form of 
 arguing by question and answer, to the exclusion of its es- 
 sential characteristics. Socrates, indeed, did not evolve any 
 systematic doctrine of the form and subject-matter of sci- 
 ence. He was satisfied with exercising his disciples in its 
 form, and with infixing on their minds the pregnant truth, 
 that the legitimacy of every branch of knowledge must be 
 tested by its agreement with all others ; and that every 
 thought of man must give an account of itself, and have 
 its root in a knowledge of his own and the divine nature. 
 
 This knowledge was the end of bis physical inquiries, 
 which were based on the general principle that all the ob- 
 jects of nature are only so far worthy of inquiry as they 
 exhibit traces of intelligence and design. The self-knowl- 
 edge which the Delphian oracle had enjoined upon him 
 Socrates held to be impossible, while man is ignorant of 
 the universal principle whence are the issues of all things, 
 and, consequently, of the system of nature in the midst of 
 which man is placed. In order to oppose the atheism which 
 prevailed in his day, Socrates examined the causes of the 
 existing unbelief, and referred to the proofs of divinity 
 which the wise order of natural things exhibits. As the 
 prevailing scepticism had its origin in the denial of what- 
 ever is unseen and imperceptible to the outward senses, he 
 argued that the soul, which is the ruling principle within 
 man, is yet not discernible; but still its existence is admit- 
 ted, and it participates in the divine nature. Whoever, there- 
 fore, can get rid of the weak desire of seeing the Deity un- 
 der some palpable form, may easily recognise his opera- 
 tions within his own mind, where God has implanted a 
 consciousness of his presence. But he farther held, that 
 not only man, but the whole universe, is under the rule of 
 an intelligent governor; that all is formed for some wise 
 end, and affords evidence of that supreme reason from 
 which man's rational soul derives and has its being. In the 
 consideration of individual things, not less than of the uni- 
 verse, the sole question with Socrates was to establish in- 
 telligence as the ruling principle of all. This affords an ex- 
 
 SODA. 
 
 plnnation of his low estimate of the existing physiology, 
 which has not unfrequently been objected to him. His 
 contempt for it was grounded on the same reason as Ba- 
 con's aversion for the schoolmen. It stopped at secondary 
 causes, and did not remount to the one first cause, which 
 Socrates believed could only be found in intelligence benefl 
 cently disposing all things for the best. Although the ear 
 lier philosophers did not entirely neglect the marks of de- 
 sign which may be discovered in the universe, still they 
 confounded nature with intelligence. Socrates, on the con 
 trary, laboured to show that reason is above nature, and 
 that the natural is merely subservient to intellectual ends. 
 Whatever is without reason is contemptible; and the cor- 
 poreal is of no value except so far as it ministers to the ra- 
 tional soul. Into the nature of the divine essence he did 
 not inquire, but was content with asserting the principle, 
 that the Deity is the supreme reason, and must be honour 
 ed by man as the source of all things, and of all phenome- 
 na, and as the end of all human endeavours. Lastly, from 
 the divinity within man, the intelligence visible in the uni 
 verse, and the worthlessness of body, except as an instru 
 ment of reason, Socrates deduced the immortality of the 
 soul as a necessary consequence. 
 
 The object-matter of Socrates's disputations exhibit a 
 great preference of ethical to physical topics. This may 
 partly be explained by the fact, that in ethics a scientific 
 spirit of inquiry had yet to be awakened, while physics had 
 been long and "extensively cultivated. Partly, also, it had its 
 origin in the mental state of Athens at this period. The 
 art of sophistry, which Socrates was seeking to overthrow, 
 was based on the monstrous dogmas, that there is no truth 
 for man ; that he is the wisest who, rejecting all hope of it, 
 is skilful enough to hide from others his own ignorance 
 and incapacity by an ingenious display of artifices and 
 forms. Successfully to combat these pernicious views, an 
 appeal must be made to those general principles of belief 
 which are implied in, and indispensable to, the right conduct 
 of life ; a strong hold must be taken of what is lived and 
 indestructible in man in his moral convictions. But, con- 
 tent with thus awakening man to a consciousness of the 
 moral destiny of man, and his moral responsibility, he did 
 not seek to construct an elaborate system of ethics. Hav- 
 ing projected the ideal of science, both in its extent and 
 form, he contributed little to its realization, either as a 
 whole, or in its parts. A few propositions are necessary, 
 however, to exhibit the true spirit of the Socratic ethics. 
 Man naturally strives after happiness ; but in this we must 
 distinguish between accidental good fortune (tumviii) and 
 that which results from science and industry (cWpaijia). 
 The essence, therefore, of the moral act consists in the free 
 agency of man. All virtue is one ; and no act performed 
 without a clear perception of its nature and tendency is 
 either good or evil. There is no merit in a virtuous action 
 unless it has been undertaken as such, intentionally and 
 knowingly, the will being determined thereto by the notion 
 of good. 'But this natural sense of right may be overborne 
 by a stronger motive. This innate perception of good, 
 therefore, like all other human faculties, stands in need of 
 education to expand and strengthen it. Virtue may be 
 taught, since it consists in the science of good. 
 
 SOD. The grassy surface of the soil pared off with a 
 portion of the earth ; in other words, turf. 
 
 SO'DA. Natron ; mineral alkali. This important and 
 useful substance is an oxide of sodium. Sodium was dis- 
 covered by Davy in 1808. It is a metal much resembling 
 potassium in its general characters. It is soft, malleable, 
 fusible at 190°, and burns when heated in contact of air. 
 When thrown upon water it does not burn, but floats about 
 upon the surface, and rapidly disappears, being converted 
 into soda, which is dissolved in the water, and gives it sin 
 alkaline reaction. The specific gravity of soc'ura is 097. 
 By the quantity of hydrogen evolved during the action of 
 sodium on water, we leam that soda, or oxide of sodium, 
 consists of 1 equivalent of sodium = 24, and 1 of oxygen = 
 8. The equivalent of soda, therefore, is 32. The com- 
 mercial demands for soda are chiefly supplied from two 
 sources: the combustion of marine vegetables, such as 
 common sea-weed and the Salsola soda, which furnish the 
 impure alkalies called kelp and bari'la; and the decom- 
 position of common salt, or, rather, perhaps, of sulphate of 
 soda, obtained by the decomposition of salt by sulphuric 
 acid. Carbonate of soda forms large rhombo-prismatic crys- 
 tals, composed of 32 soda + 22 carbonic acid + 90 water. 
 They fuse in their water of crystallization at about 150°, 
 and it may be entirely expelled by exposure to heat. They 
 effloresce when exposed to air. Sulphate of soda, or Glau- 
 ber's salt, is the result of the action of sulphuric acid upon 
 common salt. (See Muriatic Acid.) It consists of 32 soda 
 4- 40 sulphuric acid ; and the crystals are constituted of 72 
 dry sulphate and 90 water : they are efflorescent, and solu- 
 ble in about three parts of cold water. When sodium is 
 introduced into chlorine it immediately combines with it to 
 
SODALITE. 
 
 form chloride of sodium, or common salt; if heated in the 
 burns very vividly: 24 parts of sodium combine with 
 30 of chlorine to form (iO parts of this important and well- 
 known compound. (See Salt.) When chlorine gas is pass- 
 ed into a weak .solution of caustic soda it is absorbed, and a 
 useful bleaching and disinfecting solution is obtained, which 
 in called Laharracquc 's disinfecting soda liquid. 
 
 BO'DALITE. A mineral composed chiefly of silica, 
 alumina, and soda. 
 
 BODA WATER. This common and refreshing beverage 
 usually prepared, a supersaturated solution of carbonic 
 acid gas in water. True soda water was formerly prepared 
 still by some manufacturers) for medical use, chief- 
 ly as a remedy for heartburn, and certain forms of dyspep- 
 sia and calculous complaints ; and consisted of one, two, or 
 drachma of carbonate of soda, dissolved in a pint of 
 water highly impregnated with carbonic acid. This is often 
 a valuable remedy; but would sometimes be attended by 
 mischievous results, especially if indulged in to the extent 
 to which some persons pursue the use of soda water. The 
 mere aqueous solution of carbonic acid, which is made by 
 forcing Hie gas into water by a condensing pump, and under 
 a pressure of six or eight atmospheres, is an agreeable and, 
 generally speaking, harmless diluent. 
 
 BOD-BURNING. Burning of turf taken from the sur- 
 face of worn-out pasture lands for the sake of the ashes as 
 manure, &c. 
 
 SODIUM. See Soda. 
 
 SOFF1TT. ( It. sofhtta, overlaid.) In Architecture. See 
 Lacunar. 
 
 SO'FI. A Persian word, which is employed to designate 
 religious persons, otherwise termed Dervishes. It is proba- 
 bly a corruption of the Greek sophos, wise. Son was the 
 surname borne by the ancestors of the kings of Persia of 
 the race preceding that which now occupies the throne; 
 and t-hah bmael Bad, the first monarch of that race, also 
 bore it ; hence by European writers of the 16th and 17th 
 centuries it was used erroneously as a title of the king of 
 Persia. 
 
 SO'FISM, or SUFISM. The mystical doctrines of the 
 class of Mohammedan religionists called Sons. This name 
 is indeed generally applied in the East to persons living to- 
 gether in a monastic way, and professing an ascetic life. 
 Bat the tenets peculiarly denoted by the name of Sufism 
 are those of a sect which is said to be gaining ground ex- 
 tensively in oriental countries, especially among the edu- 
 cated classes of .Mohammedans. These tenets, like those 
 of the Quitctists and other Christian sects of mystics, are 
 founded on a notion of the union of the human soul with 
 the divinity by contemplation and the subjugation of the ap- 
 petites; but, as has been too frequently the case among 
 Christians also, they have afforded a cover for the most li- 
 centious lessons of refined debauchery. In the last volume 
 of Mr. Buckingham's Oriental Travels, containing a narra- 
 tive of his journey in Mesopotamia, will be found a singular 
 account of one of these monastic philosophers, his doctrines 
 and conduct. The principles of Sufism appear also to have 
 a remarkable affinity, in some respects, with those panthe- 
 istic notions which are prominent in the system of the Bra- 
 mins, and .seem to form the very foundation of the still 
 more widely extended religion of Buddha. 
 
 SOFTENING. In Painting, the blending of colours into 
 each other. 
 
 SOI L. The primitive earths in a state of mixture with 
 organized matter fit for the growth of plants. The surface 
 of the earth in every country on which plants have grown 
 and decayed is properly denominated soil ; while the earth 
 at a foot or more beneath the surface, commonly called sub- 
 soil, is comparatively without organized matter, and is 
 therefore properly denominated earth, clay, sand, gravel, 
 lime, or mixed earth, rocks, or stones, as the case may be. 
 
 SOIREE. (Fr. soir, evening.) The term originally given 
 by the French to certain evening parties held for the sake 
 of conversation only, music, dancing, and similar entertain- 
 ments being excluded* but the word has been since intro- 
 duced into all the languages of modern Europe, and is now 
 employed to designate most descriptions of evening parties 
 in which ladies and gentlemen are intermixed, whatever be 
 the amusements introduced. It is frequently applied in 
 England to the public meetings of certain societies held for 
 the advancement of their respective objects, at which tea 
 and other refreshments are dispensed during the intervals 
 of business. 
 
 SOKE. A territorial division, now subsisting in Lincoln- 
 shire. This term, according to the etymology given by 
 Bracton, designated a precinct in which a particular lord 
 exercised justice. 
 
 SOL. In Music, the fifth note in the gamut. 
 
 SOLANA'CEiE. (Solanum, one of the genera.) A nat- 
 ural order of herbaceous or shrubby Exogens, inhabit- 
 ing all parts of the world excepting the arctic regions. They 
 are chiefly known from the Scrophulariacea by their curved 
 4 C 
 
 SOLANUM TUBEROSUM. 
 
 or spiral embryo, the plaited estivation of the flower, 
 and the flowers being usually regular, with the same num 
 ber of stamens as lobes. The first of these characters, how- 
 ever, is not of universal importance ; the plaited corolla and 
 symmetrical flowers are better marks of distinction. This 
 order contains nightshade, henbane, mandrake, tobacco, 
 stramonium, the potato, and the tomato, the leaves of all 
 which are narcotic and exciting, but in different degrees— 
 from Jitropa belladonna, which causes vertigo, convulsions 
 and vomiting ; tobacco, which will frequently produce the 
 first and last of these symptoms; henbane and stramonium 
 — down to some of the Solanum tribes, the leaves of which 
 are so inert as to be used as kitchen herbs. Even in the 
 potato plant, the narcotic acrid principle is found in the stem 
 and leaves, and even in the rind of the tuber. But the prin- 
 cipal part of the latter consists of starch; and the small 
 quantity of deleterious matter being volatile and near the 
 surface, is readily driven off by the heat used in cooking. 
 
 SOLA'NIA. The active principle of the Solanum iulca 
 mara, or woody nightshade. It is a white alkaline sub 
 stance, insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol; its conibi 
 nations with the acids are bitter. 
 
 SOLA'NO. A hot oppressive wind which occasional!) 
 blows in the Mediterranean, and particularly on the eastern 
 coast of Spain. The solano is a modification of the sirocco 
 
 SOLA'NUM TUBERO'SUM. The botanical name foi 
 the plant of which the potato is the root. The potato, 
 which is at present to be met with everywhere in Europe, 
 and forms the principal part of the food of a large propor- 
 tion of its inhabitants, was entirely unknown in this quar- 
 ter of the world till the latter part of the 16th century. It 
 is a native of America; but whether of both divisions of 
 that continent is doubtful. (Humboldt, JVouvclle Espagne, 
 liv. iv., c. 9.) Some authors affirm that it was first introduced 
 into Europe by Sir John Hawkins, in 1545 ; others, that it was 
 introduced by Sir Francis Drake, in 1573; and others, again, 
 that it was for the first time brought to England from Vir 
 ginia by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1586. But this discrepancy- 
 seems to have arisen from confounding the common or Vir 
 ginian potato (the Solanum tuberosum of Linnajus) with the 
 sweet potato (Convolvulus battatus). The latter was in- 
 troduced into Europe long before the former, and it seems 
 most probable that it was the species brought from New 
 Granada by Hawkins. Sweet potatoes require a warm cli- 
 mate, and do not succeed in this country; they were, how- 
 ever, imported in considerable quantities, during the 16th 
 century, from Spain and the Canaries, and were supposed 
 to have some rather peculiar properties. The kissing com- 
 fits of Falstaff, and such like confections, were principally 
 made of hattatas and eringo roots. On the whole, we are 
 inclined to think that we are really indebted for the potato 
 (as well as for tobacco) to Sir Walter Raleigh, or the colo- 
 nists he had planted in Virginia. Gernrde, an old English 
 botanist, mentions in his herbal, published in 1597, that he 
 had planted the potato in his garden in London about 1590; 
 and that it succeeded there as well as in its native soil, 
 Virginia, whence he had received it. Potatoes were at first 
 cultivated by a very few, and were looked upon as a great 
 delicacy. In a manuscript nccount of the household expen- 
 ses of Queen Anne, wife of James I., who died in 1618, and 
 which is supposed to have been written in 1613, the pur 
 chase of a very small quantity of potatoes is mentioned at 
 the price of 2s. a pound. The Royal Society, in 1663, rec 
 ommended the extension of their cultivation, as a means of 
 preventing famine. Previously, however, to 1684, they 
 were raised only in the gardens of the nobility and gentry , 
 but in that year they were planted for the first time, in the 
 open fields in Lancashire — a county in which they have 
 long been very extensively cultivated. 
 
 Potatoes, it is commonly thought, were not introduced into 
 Ireland till 1610, when a small quantity was sent by Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh to be planted in a garden in his estate in the vi- 
 cinity of Youghal. Their cultivation extended far more readi • 
 ly than in England ; and have long furnished from three-fifths 
 to four-fifths of the entire food of the people of Ireland ! 
 
 Potatoes were not raised in Scotland, except in gardens, 
 till 1728, when they were planted in the open fields by a 
 person of the name of Prentice, a day labourer at Kilsyth, 
 who died at Edinburgh 1792. 
 
 The extension of the potato cultivation has been particu- 
 larly rapid during the last forty years. The quantity that 
 is now raised in Scotland is supposed to be from 10 to 12 
 times as great as the quantity raised in it at the end of the 
 American war; and though the increase in England haa 
 not been nearly so great as in Scotland, it has been greater 
 than at any previous period of equal duration. The increase 
 on the Continent has been similar. Potatoes are now very 
 largely cultivated in France, Italy, and Germany ; nnd, with 
 the exception of the Irish, the Swiss have become their great- 
 est consumers. They were introduced into India some sixty 
 or seventy years ago; and are now successfully cultivated 
 in Bengal, and have been introduced into the Madras provin 
 
 1137 
 
SOLAR CYCLE. 
 
 ces, Java, the Philippines, and China. But the common 
 potato does not thrive within the tropics, unless it be raised 
 at an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet above the level of the 
 sea, so that it can never come into very general use In these 
 regions This, however, is not the case with the sweet po- 
 tato, which has also been introduced into tropical Asia ; 
 and with such success, that it already forms a considerable 
 portion of the food of the people of Java, and some other 
 countries. So rapid an extension of the taste for, and the 
 cultivation of an exotic, has no parallel in the history, of in- 
 dustry : it has had, and will continue to have, the most 
 powerful influence on the condition of mankind. But upon 
 this part of the subject we must refer the reader for full 
 particulars to the Com. Vict., art. "Potatoes," from which 
 the above historical sketch has been taken. 
 
 SOLAR CYCLE. A period of twenty-eight years. See 
 Cycle. 
 
 SOLAR SYSTEM, in Astronomy, consists of the sun, and 
 all the celestial bodies whose motions are controlled by its 
 gravitation, viz. the planets, satellites, and comets. See 
 Sun, Planet, &c. 
 
 SOLDER. Plumbers' solder is an alloy of three parts of 
 lead and one of tin ; it is more fusible than lead, and readily 
 adheres to clean surfaces of that metal when it is fused. 
 Fine solder is a mixture of two parts of tin and one of lend ; 
 it fuses at 360°. It is used in the process of tinning copper. 
 Hard soldering, or brazing, by which two surfaces of cop- 
 per are made to adhere, is done by fusing together brass 
 and zinc. When this solder is used, the copper requires to 
 ne heated to near its point of fusion. 
 
 SOLDIER. (Lat. soldarius ; literally, one who serves 
 for pay.) In general language, a person equipped and main- 
 tained by the state for the purpose of defending it from f >r- 
 eign aggression, of putting down intestine comrmtion ; or. in 
 short, of protecting its interests either at home or chtoad, 
 according to instructions issued by the civil government. 
 See Army, Enlistment, &c. 
 
 SO'LEA (Lat. a slipper), in Mammalogy, is the inferior 
 surface of the foot or hoof. 
 
 Solea. The name of a genus of flat fishes (Pleuronecti- 
 dce), characterized as follows: "Both eyes on the right 
 side ; the mouth distorted on the side opposite the eyes ; 
 small teeth in both jaws, but confined to the under side only ; 
 form of the body oblong; dorsal and anal fins extending to 
 the tail." The common sole ( Solea vulgaris, Cuv.) is ta- 
 ken by trolling, and in enormous quantities, along our coasts, 
 principally from Sussex to Devonshire ; and excepting to- 
 wards the latter end of February, and the beginning of 
 March, when the soles are spawning, and are rather soft 
 and watery, they are in good condition for the table through- 
 out the year. 
 
 SO'LECISM. In Rhetoric and Grammar (Gr. (toXoiVkt/zo?, 
 said to be derived from the name of a town in Cilicia, whose 
 inhabitants spoke a barbarous Greek), a violation of the idi- 
 omatic rules of grammar or construction in writing or speak- 
 ing a language. Ouintilian distinguishes solecism from 
 barbarism, the latter word being applied to the erroneous 
 use of single words. 
 
 SOLENA'CEANS, Solenacea. (Gr. cwXrjv, a tube.) The 
 name of a family of Dimiary Bivalve Mollusks, of which 
 the razor shell {Solen) is the type; they are distinguished 
 by the great length of the respiratory tubes, whence their 
 name. 
 
 SOLENOID. (Gr. awX^v.and eiSos, appearance.) In Elec- 
 tro-Dynamics, a name given by Ampere to a system of small 
 electrical currents, equal and equidistant, and returning into 
 themselves, the planes of which are normals to any given 
 line, whether a straight line or curve, upon which their 
 centres are situated, and which forms the axis of the solen- 
 oid. (Despretz, Traite de Physique, 183G.) 
 
 SOLFATA'RA. A volcanic vent emitting sulphur and 
 sulphurous compounds. The term is borrowed from Solfa- 
 tcrra, the celebrated mountain of Naples called by the an- 
 cients Phlaegrmi Campi. 
 
 SOLFE'GGIO. In Music, the system of arranging the 
 scale by the names ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, by which musical stu- 
 dents are taught to sing, these notes being represented to the 
 eye by lines and spaces, to which the syllables in question 
 are applied. (See art. Music, under which will be found 
 a diagram of the scale under the arrangement in question.) 
 
 SOLI'CITOR. The professional designation of persons 
 admitted to practice in the court of Chancery in the conduct 
 of suits, &c, who are styled attorneys in the courts of com- 
 mon law. (See Attorney.) The solicitor-general is an 
 officer of the crown, who holds by patent, and ranks next 
 to the attorney-general, with whom he is, in fact, associated 
 in the management of the legal business of the crown and 
 public offices. He receives some particular fees on plead- 
 ings, and on the enrolment of patents, &c. ; but the division 
 of business between him and the attorney-general is chiefly 
 regulated by usage founded on convenience. He is the offi- 
 cer on whom generally devolve (he maintenance of the I 
 1138 
 
 SOMNAMBULISM. 
 
 rights of the crown in revenue cases, patent causes, ice 
 The earliest date at which the name of this officer occurs, so 
 far as is known, is the year 1461. In Scotland, the term solicit 
 or is synonymous with attorney in England. They are inferior 
 to the irriters to the signet, and practise in the inferior courts. 
 
 SO'LID. In Physics, the term so'id is applied to that con- 
 dition of matter in which the attractive forces of the mole- 
 cules are greater than the repulsive, and the molecules con 
 sequently cohere with greater or less force. The other 
 states of matter are the fluid, in which the attractive and 
 repulsive forces are balanced ; and the gaseous, in which 
 the repulsive prevail. 
 
 Solid. In Geometry, a magnitude which has three di- 
 mensions ; length, breadth, and thickness. The boundaries 
 of solids are surfaces. Regular solids are those which are 
 terminated by regular and equal planes. They are five in 
 number, viz. the tetraedron, the hexaedron, the octaedron, 
 the dodecaedron, and the icosaedron. See Platonic Bodies. 
 
 SO'LID ANGLE, in Geometry, is an angle made by the 
 meeting of more than two plane angles which are not in the 
 same plane in one point. 
 
 SO'LH) PROBLEM. In Geometry a problem which can- 
 not be constructed by the intersections of circles and straight 
 lines, but requires for its geometrical construction the de- 
 scription of one or more conic sections. The algebraic so- 
 lution of a solid problem leads to a cubic or biquadratic 
 equation. Problems which admit of being constructed by 
 the intersection of two circles, or of a straight line and circle, 
 are called plane problems, and their equations are of the 
 second degree. 
 
 SOLIDU'NGUL ATES, Solidungula. (Lat. solidus, solid , 
 ungula. a hoof.) The name of a tribe of Mammals, inclu 
 ding those with only a single hoof on each foot ; as the horse, 
 
 SOLI'LOQUY. See Monologue. 
 
 SO'LIPEDS. Synonymous with Solidungulates, which 
 sec. 
 
 SOLLE'OTO. (It. afflicted.) In Music, a term deno- 
 ting that the movement to which it is affixed is to be per- 
 formed in a mournful manner. It also means that the mu- 
 sic is lo be performed carefully. 
 
 SO'LO. (It. alone.) In Music, a movement, or part of a 
 movement, in which only one voice or instrument is em- 
 ployed. 
 
 SO'LSTICE. (Lat. solstitium.) The time at which the 
 sun is at itsgreatcst distance from the equator, and when its 
 diurnal motion in declination ceases. This happens at mid- 
 summer and at midwinter ; or when the sun arrives at 
 the tropic of Cancer, and the tropic of Capricorn. 
 
 SOLSTI'TIAL POINTS, are those points of the ecliptic 
 at which the sun arrives at the time of the solstices. They 
 are the first points of Cancer and Capricorn. 
 
 SOLU'TION. (Lat. solvere, to untie.) In Mathematics, 
 the construction of a proposed problem, or the expression 
 of its conditions by an equation which gives the value of 
 the unknown quantity. 
 
 SO'MMITE. A mineralogical name of the nephelin of 
 Somma and Vesuvius. See Nepheline. 
 
 SOMNA'MBULISM. (Lat. somno amhulare, lo walk in 
 one's sleep.) This is a species of dreaming, in which the 
 bodily as well as the mental functions are affected. There 
 are many remarkable cases of this kind on record, some of 
 which would appear perfectly incredible, were they not attes- 
 ted not only by creditable, but by competent and scientific 
 witnesses. Somnambulism has been defined, as " a state in 
 which the mind retains its power over the limbs, but posses- 
 ses no influence over its own thoughts, and scarcely any over 
 the body, excepting those particular members of it which 
 are employed in walking." Dr. Abcrcromby in his excel- 
 lent Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers and the In- 
 vestigation of 'truth, observes, in regard to this singular af- 
 fection, that although the mind is fixed upon its own im- 
 pressions as in ordinary dreaming, the bodily organs are 
 more under the control of the will,; so that the individual 
 acts under the influence of his erroneous conceptions, and 
 holds conversation in regard to them. He is also, to a cer- 
 tain degree, susceptible of impressions from without, through 
 his organs of sense ; not, however, so as to correct his erro- 
 neous impressions, but rather to be mixed up with them. 
 Dr. Abercromby observes, that the first degree of somnam- 
 bulism generally shows itself by a propensity to talk during 
 sleep; the person giving a full and connected account of 
 what passes before him in dreams, and often revealing his 
 own secrets and those of his friends. Walking during sleep 
 is the next degree, and that from which the affection de- 
 rives its name. He gets out of bed, often dresses himself, 
 and goes out of doors, wnlks frequently over very dangerous 
 places in snfety ; sometimes he gets out of a window, walks 
 along a parapet, gets to the roof of the house, and returns 
 through similar risks to his apartment. On awaking in the 
 morning he is either utterly unconscious of having stirred 
 during the night, or remembers it as a mere dream These 
 
 
SOkNUS. 
 
 comparatively common ; but sometimes the trans- 
 actions of the somnambulist are carried much further: he 
 will mount his horse and ride, or go to his usual occupa- 
 tions Bach as threshing, saddle-making, playing on musical 
 instruments, composing verses, and so forth. 
 
 Although somnambulists are generally insensible to any- 
 thing that is said to them, they are sometimes capable 
 of holding conversation, especially in those cases where 
 lion occurs, as it sometimes does in the day- 
 time. In these attacks the individuals are generally 
 unconscious of external impressions, or at all events ex- 
 tremely confused in their notions of external things. They 
 frequently speak intelligibly, but in reference to the impres- 
 sions which are present in their own minds. They some- 
 times repeat poetry, and other matters of which they were 
 • to be perfectly ignorant; or they hold conversa- 
 tions with imaginary beings, or relate circumstances which 
 were supposed to have been entirely unnoticed or forgotten. 
 Some have been known to sing in a style superior to any- 
 thing to which they could attain when awake; and there 
 Dr. Abercromby, some well-authenticated instan- 
 ces of persons in this condition expressing themselves cor- 
 rectly in languages with which they were imperfectly ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 For the details of individual cases of this extraordinary 
 disorder, we must refer to Dr. Abcrcromby's instructive 
 volume already quoted, and the authorities therein cited. 
 to give any explanation of the extraordinary 
 condition of the faculties which such cases exemplify, or to 
 point out any general plan of treatment applicable to them. 
 
 The more ordinary cases of somnambulism are sometimes 
 cured by tying the patient to some part of the bed, or by se- 
 curing the doors and windows ; so that after ineffectual at- 
 inake his escape he is induced to return to bed, 
 and remains quiet. The state of the stomach and bowels, 
 and of the nervous system, requires careful examination 
 and proper treatment: in some cases intestinal worms ap- 
 pear to have been connected with nocturnal disturbances 
 bearing a close analogy to somnambulism, and which have 
 disappeared alter the successful operation of vermifuge reui- 
 edk s. 
 
 .SO'. MX UP, In classical Mythology, the poetical god of 
 sleep, is the son of Erebus and fiox, or of Nox alone. He 
 Ltfa his brother Death in a palace at the western 
 ixtremity of the earth. Homer makes Juno seek him in 
 I I.emnos, whither he had repaired for love of 
 tiie nymph Pasithea. Ovid makes him dwell in a cavern 
 among the Scythians or Cimmerians; Statins in ./Ethiopia. 
 TA. (It. sonare, to sound.) In Music, a compo- 
 sition exeoited wholly by instruments. It is generally a 
 free composition for exhibiting the composer's powers with- 
 out confining him within the rigid rules of counterpoint, 
 or iue;i 
 
 SO'NNET. (It. sonetto.) In Poetry, a short composi- 
 tion of fourteen or fifteen lines, deca or cndecasyllabic, 
 rhymed according to an intricate but not always precisely 
 hiinilar arrangement It is the oldest form in which the 
 Italian language was used ; but was, at a still earlier period, 
 employed, although not commonly, by the Provencal poets. 
 In Italy, Dante, and the Tuscan poets his ron^s^orarles, 
 Brought the sonnet into public estimation, abou ^-- «e?in- 
 ning of the 14th century; but by them it was ...** __;j\y 
 employed as the vehicle of thoughts wrapped L «iv ob- 
 scure language, and probably of a symbolical nature, - Jgh 
 generally, in their outward signification, breathing J s spirit 
 of romantic and chivalrous love. By Petrarch, in the 
 course of the same century, the sonnet was carried to per- 
 fection in point of form and polish ; although applied by 
 him, as it had been by his predecessor-, almost exclusively 
 to the subject of his figurative and mystical passion. Since 
 the Hum of Petrarch the sonnet has been a favourite form 
 of composition In Italy, especially for the purposes of occa- 
 sional poetry. In France it has had little success ; or rather 
 the French sonnet is a different poem, less regular in its 
 construction than the Italian. In Germany and England 
 the comparative poverty in rhymes of their respective lan- 
 guages has rendered it unusual ; but Milton has given to it 
 a dignity peculiarly his own, together with much of the 
 melody and tenderness which characterize his Italian mod- 
 els. The proper sonnet is divided into two quatrains, with 
 four lines and two rhymes each, and two terzines, each 
 with three lines and a single rhyme. Pieces of a similar 
 metrical structure in octo-syllabic lines are termed by the 
 Italians Anacreontic sonnets. It is sometimes said that 
 there is " hardly an educated Italian who h*as not composed 
 a sonnet." 
 
 SO'PHIST. (Gr. ao&iarw, from ao(f>os, wise.) A Greek 
 word, originally signifying a person of talent and accom- 
 plishments. It was afterwards restricted to a bad sense, 
 and applied to a class of men who arose in Greece in the 
 fifth century B.C., and taught the youth in the principal 
 cities various arts and acquirements for hire. It has hence 
 
 SORCERER. 
 
 come to be the general designation of all such as cultivate 
 any branch of science or philosophy with a view to outward 
 advantages, careless of the truth of what they advance, ex 
 cept in so far as it may contribute to those purposes. The 
 first Greek who assumed the name of Sophist was Protag- 
 oras, a native of Abdera, who flourished about the year 
 440 B.C., and obtained numerous pupils and auditors, e"s;>e 
 dally in Athens. Of those who followed the same occu- 
 pation the most celebrated were Hippias of Elis, Gorging 
 of Leontium, Prodicus of Ceos, and Euthydemus of Chios, 
 with his brother Dionysiodorus. None of the writii g 
 these men have survived ; but we have abundant notices 
 in the writings of their contemporaries, especially Plato, 
 Xenojihon, nnd Aristophanes of the nature and tendency 
 of the doctrines and principles which they communicated 
 to the youth of Greece. Of the truth of these accounts 
 the Grecian history of the latter part of the fifth century 
 furnishes us with a melancholy testimony. It is, indeed, to 
 the changes which had begun to take place in the internal 
 and external relations of the Greek states, that the preva- 
 lence and success of the Sophists are mainly to be attribu- 
 ted. The changes in the distribution of property which 
 these revolutions rendered necessary excited the passions 
 and gave scope to the energies of the young and enterprising ; 
 lit the same time that the political alterations tended to 
 shake men's confidence in those moral principles which, 
 among the Greeks, were intimately bound up with their civil 
 institutions. We accordingly find the leading feature of the 
 sophistic doctrine to be a dislike to everything fixed nnd ne- 
 cessary, in ethics as well as philosophy. Prescription was 
 represented as the sole source of moral distinctions, which 
 must consequently vary with the character and institutions 
 of the people. The useful was held to be the only mark by 
 which one opinion could be distinguished from another. An 
 absolute standard of truth is as absurd a notion in specula 
 tion as an absolute standard of morals in practice ; that 
 only is true which seems so to the individual, and just as 
 long as it so seems. "Man is the measure of all things." 
 These and similar doctrines they maintained with great 
 subtlety and acuteness, and found numerous disciples among 
 those who were well prepared for the admission of tenets 
 which swept away at once all the remnants of those prej- 
 udices which might still interpose a barrier between their 
 passionsand their gratification. Considered as a link in the 
 chain of philosophical development, the Sophists were 
 doubtless the involuntary cause of the greater depth and 
 soundness of the s ubse q u ent Grecian philosophy. The suc- 
 cess which they had found in demolishing the systems of 
 their predecessors proved the necessity of laying the foun 
 dations of human knowledge dee|>er than heretofore had 
 been done ; and it is thus to the Sophists that we may at- 
 tribute the more critical and cautious spirit which distin- 
 guishes the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle from those of 
 Heraclitus or Parmenides. (See Bitter, Hist, of Ancient 
 Philosophy, book vi. ; Mem. de I'Ac. des Inscr., vol. xiii., 
 xxxii. ; F.d. Review, vol. xxxiv.) 
 
 SOPORI'FICS. (Lat. sopor, sleep.) Medicines which 
 induce sleep. 
 
 SO'PRA. (It. above.) In Music, a term frequently used 
 for description ; as nella parte di sopra, in the higher or up- 
 per part; di sopra, above; contrapunto sopra il soggetto, 
 counterpoint above the subject, &c. 
 
 SOPRA'NO. (It. sopra ) The upper or treble part in 
 composition. 
 
 SO'RBIC ACID. The acid of the berries of the Sorbus na- 
 cuparia, or mountain ash. It is identical with tiie malic acid. 
 
 SORBO'NNE. A college at Paris for the study of the- 
 ology ; so called from the village of Sorbonne, in Cham- 
 pagne, where its founder, a priest named Robert, was born 
 about the beginning of the 13th century. He made a pro- 
 vision for the instruction of sixteen poor clerks in theology ; 
 and his college is said to be the first example of what was 
 afterwards the common character of all the English col 
 leges, the institution of a camobium for regular clergy. The 
 college of the Sorbonne was adorned with various new ed 
 ifices and enriched with a library by Cardinal Richelieu, in 
 1()20. His monument In the church is considered a chef 
 d'oeuvre of French art. (See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. 
 Hi., transl. 1790, p. 53, &c.) This great college of theology 
 exercised a high influence in ecclesiastical affairs, and on 
 the public mind, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries; 
 insomuch that the sceptical wits of the 18th usually employ 
 the name as synonymous with the spirit of bigotry itself. 
 Its proverbial celebrity for acuteness in theological disqui- 
 sition is attested by the lines of our own Butler : 
 
 For he a rope of sand could twin!. 
 As firm as learned Sorbonist. 
 
 SO'RCERER. (Lat. sortitor, from sors, a lot; whence 
 sorcer-/.) Properly one who practices sortilege, or divina 
 tion by lot (which see) ; but, in the ordinary language of 
 the middle ages, one exercising magical powers (see Ma 
 
SORDINI. 
 
 aic), especially by the aid of evil spirits. The sorcerer of 
 the middle ages was, generally speaking, a personage of 
 distinction, while the witch was degraded and loathsome. 
 The species of sorcery which is still practised in the East, 
 especially in Egypt, by means of the magic mirror, has re- 
 cently attracted much attention. The most complete ac- 
 count of it will be found in Lane's Modern Egypt. 
 
 SORDINI. In Music. See Con Sordini. 
 
 SORE'DIA. In Botany, heaps of powdery bodies found 
 In lichens lying upon any part of the surface of the thallus. 
 
 SO'REX. (Lat. sorex, a field-mouse.) A Linnaan genus 
 of the order Bcstia, now forming an extensive tribe of 
 Insectivorous Ferines (Carnassiers) in the system of Cu- 
 vier, and subdivided into different genera. The original ge- 
 neric term is confined to the shrews or shrewmice, which 
 are the type of the family (Soricida:), and are character- 
 ized by having the two superior middle incisors curved and 
 indented at the base, the two inferior incisors prolonged and 
 procumbent. Behind the upper pair of incisors there are 
 five little conical teeth on each side, and two similar teeth 
 behind the lower pair of incisors : the molars, which are 
 beset with sharp cusps, are four on each side above, and 
 three below. The true shrews are farther characterized by 
 lateral, and sometimes anal and femoral scent-glands. The 
 principal genera, now distinct, which would have ranked 
 with the Linnaean Sorex, are Myogalca, Condylura, Tupnia, 
 Gymnura, Macroscelis, Cladobatcs, Solenodon, Crossopus, 
 Orocidura. Of these Gymnura belongs rather to the fam- 
 ily of hedgehogs, and Condylura to that of the moles. 
 
 SORI. (Gr. ou>f>os, a heap.) The small heaps of repro- 
 ductive granules found growing upon the fronds of Polypo- 
 diaceous ferns. 
 
 SORITES. (Gr. ou>pos, a heap.) In Logic, an abridged 
 form of stating a series of syllogisms, of which the conclu- 
 sion of each is a premiss of the succeeding one ; e. g., 
 A = B, B = C, C = D; therefore A = D. This is a sorites, 
 consisting of two distinct syllogisms, which, drawn out at 
 length, would stand thus : A = B, B = C ; therefore A = C ; 
 and A = C, C = D ; therefore A = D. 
 
 SO'RREL, SALT OF. Binoxalate of potash. 
 
 SO'RTES HOME'RIC^E, VIRGlLIANiE, SANCTO- 
 RUM, &c. A species of sortilege or divination was prac- 
 tised in antiquity by opening at random a favourite au- 
 thor, and applying the first passage which met the eye to 
 the circumstances of the inquirer as an oracular answer : 
 termed by the Greeks oToixziouavrcia. They chiefly used 
 Homer for this purpose. Thus Socrates, when in prison, 
 hearing the line of Homer repeated, 
 
 fipait Kt.v Tptrarii), <bdinv tpiBiahov 'tKotprjv, 
 
 Interpreted it to foretell his own death within three days, 
 by a play on the word Phthia. Among the Romans, Virgil 
 was chiefly consulted, and many celebrated instances are 
 preserved. Adrian, when desirous to know on what terms 
 he stood with his patron, the emperor Trajan, consulting 
 the JEneid, opened at the verses respecting Numa, " Nosco 
 crines incanaque menta Regis Romani," &c. ; and thence 
 drew the augury of his future elevation to the empire. 
 Alexander Severus, according to Lampridius, obtained a 
 similar presage from the lines " Excudant alii spirantia mol- 
 lius cera," &.c. The anecdote of the ominous passages dis- 
 covered by Charles I. and Lord Faulkland, when opening 
 Virgil in the public library at Oxford, is well known (see 
 JVelwood's Memoirs). In Christian times, the Sortes Sanc- 
 torum came in fashion. They were obtained by consulting 
 the inspired writings in the manner before described : some- 
 times, also, the inquirer went into a church while service 
 was performing, and drew a prognostic from the first words 
 he heard. In this way, St. Anthony was directed to adopt 
 a life of solitary devotion. These practices became the oc- 
 casion of much superstition. They are condemned by St. 
 Augustine in his Epislle to Januarius ; but are nevertheless 
 continually mentioned, with evident credulity and approba- 
 tion, by early ecclesiastical writers. Gregory of Tours, 
 among other similar stories, has one of the French prince 
 Meroveus, which shows the ceremonious manner in which 
 they were sometimes performed. That prince having fled 
 to the Basilica of St. Martin, placed separately on the saint's 
 tomb the Psalms, the book of Kings, and the Gospels, and, 
 spending three days and nights at the tomb in fasting and 
 devotions, on the fourth day he opened these sacred books ; 
 from each of which he drew a discouraging" prediction. 
 Elections to the episcopal offices, and other solemn pro- 
 ceedings, seem to have been sometimes decided In the same 
 manner in the dark ages. And after this abuse had ceased, 
 it was long a common practice, on the consecration of a 
 bishop, after the book of the Gospels had been laid on his 
 head, to consider the first verse which offered itself as a 
 prognostic of his behaviour and the fortunes of his episco- 
 pacy. Thus the death of Albert, bishop of Liege, was inti- 
 mated by the ominous occurrence of the passage respect- 
 ing the execution of John the Baptist ; and that prolate was 
 1140 
 
 SOUND. 
 
 accordingly put to death by Henry VI. The Sortes Sapc- 
 torum had been, however, forbidden by the council of Van- 
 nes in the 5th century, and that anathema was repealed on 
 many later occasions, in which the consulting of the scrip- 
 tures is classed with other profane and magical modes of 
 divination. There is an essay on Sortes in the Mem. de 
 VJlc. des Inscr., vol. xix. See Stichomancy. 
 
 SORTIE, or SALLY. In Military language, a term bor 
 rowed from the French to signify a sudden attack made by 
 the inhabitants of a besieged city upon the besiegers. 
 
 SORTILEGE. (Lat. sors, lot ; lego, / collect.) Divina- 
 tion by lots. A very ancient mode of exploring future 
 events, and which has been supposed by superstitious per- 
 sons in modern times to derive countenance from various 
 incidents in sacred history, especially the choice of St. Mat- 
 thias by lot to the place of an apostle (Acts, i., 26) The 
 different modes in which sortilege has been practised will 
 be found detailed under that word, in a learned article in 
 the Ency. Metropolitana ; and see Sortus. 
 
 SOSPI'RO. (It. a sigh.) In Music, the same as Rest, 
 which see. 
 
 SOSTEN'UTO. (It. sustained.) In Music, a term which, 
 affixed to a note, indicates that it is to be held out in an 
 equal and steady manner. 
 
 SOTHIC YEAR. In Chronology, the Egyptian year of 
 365 days (said to have been introduced into Greece by Or- 
 pheus) was so called from Sothis, the Dog star, at whose 
 heliacal rising It was supposed to commence. (Bryant's 
 Jlncient Mythology, vol. Iv.) 
 
 SO'TTO. (It. below.) In Music, a term frequently used 
 for description ; as sotto il soggMo, below the subject ; nel- 
 la parte di sotto, in a lower part. 
 
 SOUND. (Fr. son.) The sensation produced by the vl 
 brations of the air or other medium with which the organ 
 of hearing is in contact. The doctrine of sound is usually 
 treated under the liead of acoustics ; a branch of physics 
 which has for its object the determination of the laws by 
 which the peculiar motions which give rise to the sensation 
 of sound are produced in bodies and conveyed to our ears, 
 and the manner in which they act on those organs ; in oth- 
 er words, to explain the origin, propagation, and perception 
 of sound. 
 
 Although, strictly speaking, sound is only n sensation ex 
 cited in the auditory organ, yet, in treating of the subject, 
 it is usual to transfer the name from the sensation to the 
 motion which gives rise to it. We shall therefore speak o( 
 sound as if it proceeded from the sounding body ; and 
 speak of a body as sounding when its particles are in that 
 state of vibration which is requisite for making an impres- 
 sion on the ear, either immediately or through the medium 
 of some other elastic substance. 
 
 Phenomena of Sound.— In order that a body may produce 
 sound, it is necessary that its particles be in a state of rapid 
 vibration ; and in order that these vibrations may be com- 
 municated to the auditory organ, it is necessary that air or 
 some elastic medium be interposed between the vibrating 
 body and the ear. Hauksbee, having suspended a bell un- 
 der the receiver of an air-pump, found the sound become 
 feebler in proportion as the air was removed, and again be- 
 come stronger as the air was readmitted ; and also that 
 when the bell was suspended in a vessel full of air, and 
 placed under the receiver, no sound was transmitted when 
 the air between the vessel and the receiver was exhausted 
 This experiment has been repeated by Biot, with a more per- 
 fect apparatus, and with every attention to the circumstan- 
 ces by which it is influenced; and it was found that when 
 the exhaustion was complete no sound was perceptible, 
 even when the ear was brought close to the receiver. Hence 
 it appears that sound cannot be communicated through a 
 perfectly void space. But although air is the medium 
 through which sound is usually communicated, this only 
 happens because it is the medium with which the ear is 
 usually in contact: and many other media are found by ex 
 periment to perform the office even more perfectly. Frank 
 lin having plunged his head under water, caused a per 
 son to strike two stones together beneath the surface, and 
 at more than half a mile distance heard the blows distinct- 
 ly. Colladon by plunging a few feet into the water a thin 
 tin cylinder, closed at the lower end, but having the upper 
 open to the air, was enabled to hear the sound of a bell 
 struck under water at the distance of 2000, 6000, and even 
 12,000 metres (about 9 miles) ; namely, across the whole 
 breadth of the Lake of Geneva, from Rolle to Thonon, 
 The conducting power of wood along the fibres is very re- 
 markable. Let a person bring his ear close to the end of i 
 fir deal, however long, and he will distinctly hear the slight- 
 est scratch made with the point of a pin at the other end, 
 although the sound may be so feeble as to be inaudible to 
 the person who makes it. Miners at work in one shaft oft- 
 en hear the sound of the pickaxe in another through the 
 solid rock ; and in general all solids tolerably compact are 
 good conductors of sound. 
 
SOUND. 
 
 Sounds arc propagated to great distances and with re- 
 markable distinctness over a surface of water, or ice, or fro- 
 7.i;n snow. In the account of Parry's third polar expedi- 
 tion, it is stated that two persons could hold a conversation 
 BCrOM the harbour of Port Bowen, a distance of 6696 feet, 
 ur about a mile and a quarter. Instances are also recorded 
 of sounds propagated to almost incredible distances over 
 land. Derham relates the following : Guns fired at Carl- 
 scroom were heard across the southern extremity of Swe- 
 den, as far as DoLinark. a distance of 120 miles. Dr. Ileum, 
 ;i Bwedish physician relates that he heard guns fired at 
 Stockholm at t:ie distance o( 30 Swedish or 180 English 
 miles: the (vxni'inaiip of a sea fight between the English 
 and Dutch, in 1672, was bean, across England as far sis 
 Shrewsbury, and even in Wales, a distance of upwards of 
 200 miles from the scene of action. 
 
 The diminution of the intensity of sound in rarefied air 
 is rendered manifest not only by experiments with the air- 
 pump, but also by the phenomena observed at great alti- 
 tudes in the atmosphere. Saussure relates, that at the 
 summit of Mtnt Blanc the report of a pistol was not loud- 
 er than that of a small cracker in the plain below ; and Gay 
 hiving ascended in a balloon to an altitude of near- 
 ly 83,000 feet, far above the clouds and away from all solid 
 erred the intensity of the sound of his voice 
 1. 1 be L'n ally enfeebled. 
 
 It la matter of familiar observation that sounds are not 
 propagated through the air instantaneously, but occupy a 
 portion of time in passing from one station to an- 
 iter in proportion as the stations are more remote. 
 The blow of a hammer on an anvil is not heard by an ob- 
 server at some distance, until a sensible time has elapsed 
 alter the hammer has been seen to descend ; and the Sash 
 of a trim tired a mile oil' is seen several seconds before the 
 rep,irt is heard. But all sounds, whatever lie their loudness 
 or pilch, are propagated with the same velocity through the 
 bum medium. In listening to tin' music of a concert, the 
 sounds follow each other in the same order and at the same 
 intervals; and the same measure and harmony are per- 
 ceived, at whatever distance the hearer may be from the 
 orchestra. Riot caused several airs to be played on a flute 
 at the en 1 of a pipe 3120 feet long, which were distinctly 
 heard at the other end without the slightest derangement 
 in the order or intervals of sequence of the notes. This 
 could not have been the case if there had been the small- 
 est difference in the velocity of their propagation. 
 
 Numerous experiments have been mule for the purpose 
 of determining the actual velocity of sound through the at- 
 mosphere. The usual mode of unking tfee experiment is 
 to observe the Interval between the Bash and the report ox 
 a cannon fired at a known distance. In this manner the 
 Florentine academicians, In 1060. found the velocity to be 
 1 148 English feet per second. These experiments were re- 
 peated In France in 1808, by Cassini, Huygena, Picard, and 
 Itormer, who found 1172 feet; and Flamsteed and Halley 
 at tl>e royal observatory of Greenwich, from experiments 
 made at the distance of 3 miles, found the velocity to be 
 1142 feet per second. This result was confirmed by Der- 
 ham {Phil. Trans., 1708), who found the same velocity by 
 a mean of observations made at more remote distances. In 
 1737, the Academy of Sciences of Paris directed farther ex- 
 periments to be made by Cassini de Thury, Maraldi, and La- 
 caille ; and on this occasion the experiments were for the 
 first time made so as to eliminate the effect of the wind by re- 
 ciprocal observations ; that is to say, by firing cannon at both 
 ends of the line, either simultaneously or at short intervals. 
 They also appear to have been the first who observed and re- 
 corded the temperature of the air at the time of the exper- 
 iment ; a very essential element, as will presently be seen. 
 The result at which they arrived gave the velocity equal to 
 1106 English feet per second, at a temperature between 4° 
 and 6° of Reaumur, or between 41° and 44A° of Fahren- 
 heit. When the proper reduction is made for temperature, 
 this agrees very nearly with the best modern observations. 
 
 Various other experiments were made in different coun- 
 tries in the course of the last century 'viz. by Bianconi in 
 Italy, in 1740; by Condamine at Quito and Cayenne, in 
 1740 and 1744: by Mayer in 1778, and Midler in 1791, in 
 Germany; by Espinosa and Bauza in 1794, at Chili) ; but 
 as the observers had not the means of determining minute 
 intervals of time with the precision which has been attain- 
 ed in more recent experiments, and besides neglected some 
 circumstances which influence the result, it is unnecessary 
 tc state the details. 
 
 i lie beginning of the present century, the velocity 
 of sound has been measured in various countries; in Ger- 
 many, by Benzenberg at Dusseldorf in 1809, and by Myr- 
 nacb and Stamfer, at Baltzburg In 1822; in France, by di- 
 •■f the Bureau des Longitudes, in 1822; in Holland, 
 i.v Moll. Vanbeek. and Knvtenbrcwer. in 1823; in England, 
 by Dr. O. Gregory at Woolwich, in 1824; in the East Indies, 
 (v Mr Goldingliam. in 1821; and at Port Bowen, in the 
 
 polar regions, by Parry and Foster, in 1825. The results of 
 these measurements, when reduced to the same tempera- 
 ture, agree very nearly with one another; but the experi- 
 ments made in France and Holland are by far the most 
 circumstantial and satisfactory. In the French experiments, 
 two stations in the neighbourhood of Paris weir chosen, 
 Villejuif and Montlehery ; and the signals were made by 
 firing a gun from each station alternately, at an interval (if 
 five minutes. The observers at Villejuif were Prony, Ara 
 go, and Mathleu; and at Montlehery, Humboldt, Gay Lux 
 sac, and Bouvurd. The observations commenced at I' 
 o'clock on the nights of the 21st and 22d of June, and (vers 
 continued on both nights during two hours ; but in many 
 instances the reports were not heard, at least by all the ob 
 servers. The intervals between the flashes and reports were 
 observed by means of stop watches of a peculiar construe 
 tion, which permitted the seconds to be divided and noted 
 The mean of all the observations gave 546 seconds for the 
 time which sound took to travel from the one station to the 
 other. The distance between the stations was afterwards 
 determined by Arago, and found to be 9549-6 toi 
 miles) ; whence the velocity is 174'9 toises, or 340-88 metres in 
 a second. But this is the velocity belonging to the mean 
 temperature, which was 10° centigrade (61° Fahrenheit), 
 and corresponds to a velocity of 331-12 metres (1086*1 Bo 
 glish feet), at the temperature of freezing water. The de 
 tails of these experiments are given in the Connaissancc des 
 Temps for 1825. 
 
 In the Dutch experiments, a clock with a conical pendu- 
 lum was used, which gave the means of determining the 
 time to the hundredth of a second by suddenly arresting the 
 motion of the index without stopping the clock. As in the 
 French experiments, guns mere fired from each extremity of 
 the line ; but instead of being fired alternately, they were in 
 the present case fired simultaneously, so that an v error that 
 might be feared from a variation in the state of the atmo- 
 sphere or the wind was entirely eliminated. The 
 the hygrometer was also observed. The interval between 
 the stations was 57839 feet (nearly 11 miles) ; and the mean 
 of all the experiments reduced to the freezing temperature, 
 and for dry air, gave for the velocity of sound 108942 feet 
 in a second. The details are given in the Phil. Trans, for 
 1824. 
 
 Dr. Gregory's observations are given in the Transactions 
 of the Cambridge Phil. Sue. for 1834. The signals were not 
 reciprocal ; but the velocity of fhe wind was measured by 
 an anemometer, and allowed for. The distances wen; also 
 very much smaller (varying from 2700 to 13460 feel) ; ne- 
 vertheless the results agree very well with those above 
 mentioned. Mr. Goldinghatu's experiments at Madras are 
 much less certain ; his method consisted in taking a mean 
 of the velocities observed daily in calm weather, during a 
 long time, by the firing of the morning and evening guns at 
 two stations visible from Madras, and a mean of all the ob 
 served temperatures for the reduction. (Phil. Trans, for 
 1823.) Benzenberg's experiments are given in Gilbert's 
 Annalen, new series, v. 383 ; and those of General Myrliach 
 in the Jalirbuch des Polytck. Instituts zu Wien, vol. vii. 
 The experiments of Parry and Foster are given in detail in 
 Parry's Journal of a Third Voyage, Src. The mean result 
 deduced by Dr. Moll (Phil. Trans. 1828) gives the velocity 
 equal to 10352 feet in a second, at the temperature of 17-7* 3 
 Fahr., which corresponds to 1092 feet at 32° ; but the cir- 
 stances were unfavourable. The following table exhibits 
 in one view the results of the principal experiments now 
 described. The numbers are taken from a more extended 
 table given by Sir John Herschel in the Ency. Jhtnpolita- 
 na, art. " Sound ;" to which admirable treatise we refer the 
 student for information on all points connected with this 
 important subject. 
 
 These results agree rem/rkably well with each other, 
 the greatest deviation from/tlie mean being less than 4 feet, 
 and the mean of the who/, being almost identical with the 
 determination of Moll an/ Vanbeek. " We may, therefore," 
 says Sir John HerschegT'adopt 1090 feet without hesitation 
 (as a whole number); tw no doubt within a yard of the 
 truth, and probably within a foot." This is the velocity 
 with which sound travels in dry air, at the temperature of 
 
 1141 
 
SOUND. 
 
 freezing water. But the velocity increases with the tempera- 
 ture (as will be shown presently), at the rate of 1-14 foot, 
 very nearly, for each degree of Fahrenheit's scale. Hence 
 at the temperature of 62° (the standard temperature of the 
 British metrical system), the velocity is 1124 5 l feet. We 
 may IheretVe assume the velocity of sound at this standard 
 temperature, as determined by the best experiments to be 
 1129 feet pei second. 
 
 Theory of Sound. — It has already been stated that sound 
 is produced by the vibrations of the molecules of a solid 
 body communicated to the atmosphere or other elastic me- 
 dium, and conveyed by it to the ear. The physical theory 
 of sound, therefore, resolves itself into two parts: 1st, the 
 state or condition of the vibrating body ; and 2d, the mode 
 in which this mechanical action is propagated through the 
 medium to the organ of sense. 
 
 State of Sonorous Body. — In order that a body may give 
 out sound, its particles must be put into a state of rapid vi- 
 bration. If the frequency of the vibration is under a cer- 
 tain limit, no sound will be produced ; above that limiting 
 velocity of vibration, sound is produced ; and experience 
 shows that the quality of the sound becomes more and 
 more acute as the vibrations are more rapid, until a second 
 limit of velocity is attained, beyond which the human ear is 
 affected with no sensation of sound. To prove this experi- 
 mentally, let a thin plate of tempered steel have one of its 
 ei:ds firmly fixed in a vice, and let the other end be drawn 
 a little aside from the position of rest. As soon as the force 
 by which the plate is bent is removed, the plate commences 
 a series of vibrations, which become smaller and smaller 
 until the position of rest is again attained. But the vibra- 
 tions are all performed in equal times ; and if sufficient 
 length is given to the plate, they take place so slowly as to 
 admit of being accurately counted. On shortening the plate, 
 they become more rapid ; and long before they attain that 
 degree of rapidity which is necessary for the productien of 
 sound, it becomes impossible to count them directly ; hut it 
 is demonstrable that when a plate of metal, of equal thick- 
 ness throughout, is made to vibrate in the manner now sup- 
 posed, the time of a vibration is directly proportional to the 
 square of the length of the plate, and consequently the 
 number of vibrations in a given time is inversely as this 
 square ; si that if the number in a second corresponding to 
 any length of the plate has been counted, the number cor- 
 responding to any other given length can be readily compu- 
 ted. In tiiis manner it has been found that a metallic plate 
 begins to sound when the number of vibrations in a second 
 is 32 ; and at this velocity of vibration, the sound which it 
 gives is of the same pitch as that of an organ pipe 32 feet 
 in length, open at both ends. (By vibration, we here 
 understand the passage of the plate from the extreme 
 excursion on one side of the position of rest to the o|>- 
 ]>osite, and not the going and returning, or complete vibra- 
 tion.) 
 
 This appears to be the minimum velocity of vibration ca- 
 pable of producing sound. The other limit, or maximum 
 velocity at which sound ceases to be appreciable, is not so 
 easily determined. Until recently it has been usual to fix it 
 at 8200 vibrations in a second ; but M. Savart has discover- 
 ed that by increasing the amplitude of the vibrations, acute 
 sounds may be distinguished at a velocity of 24,000 vibra- 
 tions in a second ; and it is possible that the limit may still 
 be considerably above this number. By means of an inge- 
 nious apparatus, Savart has succeeded in determining the 
 number of vibrations producing a sound of any given pitch 
 with great exactness. 
 
 Several other means exist of determining the absolute 
 number of vibrations in a given time, corresponding to difler- 
 ent musical sounds ; of which one of the most certain, and 
 most frequently had recourse to, depends on the mathema- 
 tical relation subsisting between the time of vibration, the 
 length of the cord, and the tension of vibrating cords. Let 
 n denote the number of vibrations in a second,^ the accel- 
 erating force of gravity (32 feet in a second), I the length of 
 the cord, w its weight, t its tension (or the weight by which 
 it is stretched) ; then a formula equivalent to the following 
 was demonstrated by Brook Taylor {Methadus fneremento- 
 ru7% p. 93) : 
 
 I W 
 
 In this formula^ is known, and t, I, and w are measurable 
 quantities, so that n is completely determined ; but a more 
 convenient expression is obtained by substituting the diame- 
 ter and density of the cord for it weight. Let r be the radius 
 of the cord, <5 the density of its matter, and tt the ratio of 
 the circumference to the diameter, or - = 3.14159; then a? 
 _ -t Rgri I, and the above formula becomes 
 
 ■-,V&)- 
 
 From this it results that the number of vibiations in a sc- 
 -,>r,d is proportional directly to the square root of the tension 
 1142 
 
 of the cord, and inversely to its length, to its thickness oi 
 diameter, and to the square root of its densitv. 
 
 In the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for 1822 and 1823, 
 are given the results of a great number of experiments 
 made in this manner by M. Fischer, for determining the ve- 
 locity of vibration corresponding to different musical sounds. 
 The rapidity of vibration giving the diapasons (that is, the 
 concert pitches) of various orchestras at Berlin was found 
 to be as follows: Berlin Theatre 437-32, Great French Op- 
 era 431-36, Feydeau 427-61, Italian Theatre 424-17 vibrations 
 per second. The reach of the voice of a man usually ex- 
 tends from soli to fa3 in the musical gamut ; and that of a 
 woman from re3 to la*. Taking the diapason of the Italian 
 Opera as the standard, the rapidity of vibration correspond- 
 ing to these several notes is as follows: Soli 190-8, fa3 678-4, 
 re3 572-4, la4 1606 vibrations per second. But the voices of 
 some singers reach much higher than la4, and consequently 
 the rapidity of vibration with respect to them will be high 
 er in proportion. 
 
 Some of the most acute sounds, or highest tones which 
 the ear can distinguish, are given by the wings of insects ; 
 and they correspond to the astonishing rapidity of 12000 or 
 15000 vibrations in a second. When we reflect how ex 
 tremely probable it is that the tympanum of the ear vibrates 
 in unison with the sounds that affect it, we cannot fail to 
 be struck with admiration of ihe wonderfully delicate or- 
 ganization of a substance which possesses the power of 
 adapting itself to all velocities of vibration, from 32 times 
 in a second up to 24,000, the number found by Savart to be 
 sensible. The limits, however, at which very acute sounds 
 cease to be audible appear to vary considerably in respect 
 of different individuals, some being altogether insensible to 
 sounds which painfully affect others. (See a very interest- 
 ing paper on sounds inaudible to certain ears, by' Dr. Woi- 
 laston, in the Phil. Trans, for 1820.) 
 
 The mathematical problem, to determine the vibrations 
 of a stretched cord, is one of very great difficulty. After 
 exercising the talents of Dr. Brook Taylor, D'Alembcrt, 
 Euler, Daniel Bernoulli, and others, it was completely solved 
 by Lagrange, in the first volume of the Turin Miscellanies, 
 and all the deductions from theory are found to be confirm- 
 ed by experiment. The subject of the vibrations of solids 
 has been recently examined experimentally by M. Savart. 
 and the results given in a series of most important memoirs 
 communicated to the French Academy of Sciences, and 
 printed in different volumes of the Jlnnales de Chimie. Set 
 Vibration. 
 
 Propagation of Sound. — In order to convey an idea of the 
 manner in which the vibratory motions of a sonorous body 
 are communicated to the atmosphere or other elastic medi- 
 um, let us conceive a tube, T T', of an indefinite length. 
 
 T C 5> R AT' 
 
 and open at both ends, to be filled with air of a uniform 
 temperature and density throughout. Let us also sup- 
 pose a piston, P Q, which closely fits the tube, and is move- 
 able within it along the direction of the axis, to be propell- 
 ed suddenly from the position PQ to RS; and to simplify 
 the consideration, let the distance PR be supposed one foot, 
 and the time in whieh the piston moves from PQ. to R S tc 
 be one second. Now, assuming the air within the tube to 
 have been in a state of rest before the piston began to move, 
 let us consider what will be its state at the instant when 
 the piston arrives at R S. If the air in the tube were acted 
 upon as a perfectly hard body, any motion communicated to 
 the particles at one extremity would be instantaneously 
 conveyed to the other; and when the piston arrived at RS 
 a quantity of air, equal to that which was contained be- 
 tween PQ and R S, would be expelled at T', and all the 
 particles within the tube would come to rest at the same 
 time with the piston. But in consequence of the compres- 
 sibility of the air the motion is not communicated to the 
 distant particles instantaneously, but only after a sensible 
 interval of time ; and we may conceive the tube to be so 
 long that when the piston has arrived at R S no air has yet 
 been propelled from the tube atT*. In fact, the disturbance 
 or compression of the particles, which takes place at the 
 instant the piston begins to move, is propagated along the 
 tube with a certain determinate velocity, depending on the 
 elasticity of the air, and when the piston reaches R S will 
 only have reached to a certain determinate distance. Let 
 AB be the section of the tube which the first compression 
 has reached at the instant the piston comes to R S ; then, at 
 the instant of time on which we have to fix our attention, 
 the column of air between R S and A B will be in a state 
 of compression, and between A B and the end of the tube 
 at T' it will still remain in its natural state. The column 
 of air between R S and A B, which is thus modified by th«> 
 
SOUND. 
 
 itroke of the piston, is called a wave or undulation, and II A 
 « the length of the wave. 
 
 On attending to the state of the molecules in the column 
 R A, it will readily l>e seen that they are not subjected to 
 the same degree of compression through its whole length. 
 Conceive the wave to be divided into a very great number 
 of thin layers by sections parallel to R S or A 1!, and that 
 the piston, in passing from the position P Q, to R S, has 
 produced the effect, not instantaneously, but by a great 
 number of successive small impulses. At the instant the 
 piston comes to R S the disturbance has by hypothesis been 
 propagated only to A Ii, and consequently the particles in 
 the infinitely thin layer next to A B have suffered only the 
 slightest degree of compression, or that caused by the first 
 impulse of the piston. In the second layer next to A B the 
 molecules of air are in a stale of greater compression J in- 
 asmuch as they have sustained not only the compression 
 due to the first impulse of the piston, but also that which is 
 dae to the second, the effect of which is propagated to them at 
 tiie same instant, at which the effect of the- first is propaga- 
 gated to A B. In like manner, the compression in the third 
 layer preceding A 1! is greater than in the second; and so on to 
 the middle of the wave. If we now attend to the state of the 
 tretnity BS of the wave, a similar 
 effect mil be manifest The instant after the piston stops 
 the layer next to R S has communicated all its velocity to 
 the one preceding it, and remains at rest ; or, at the moment 
 of the arrival of the piston at Its. sustains only the com 
 The next layer in succes- 
 sion sustains the compression due to two impulses of the 
 piston— the last, anil last but one. By following out this 
 mode of reasoning, it will readily appear that the particles 
 in thi ttesl compression are those towards the 
 
 middle of the wave ; and that if upon 8 B, as an axis (fig. 
 (2.; '.!,, we raise a great oum- 
 
 /, bet of perpendiculars, a a, 
 
 bb, ec, etc., each propor- 
 tional to the compression 
 at the corresponding point 
 of the column, the curve 
 drawn through the summits of these perpendiculars will 
 represent the law of compression; and hence is of the 
 form represented in the annexed diagram, the parts on each 
 side of the middle ordinate bb being perfectly symmetrical. 
 
 If we now attend to the motions developed on the other 
 side of tin; piston, it will be easily seen that similar phe 
 ■omena must take place; but in a reverse order, inasmuch 
 as the air within the tube on that side must be rarefied, in- 
 stead of being compressed by the motion of the piston from 
 
 PQ to BS. Let C II (fig. I,) be a -eclion of the tube, so 
 that the column *' R is equal to R A; then, as the velocity 
 of propagation depends only on the nature of the medium, 
 it is obvious that at the instant in which the piston arrives 
 at R 8 Die disturbance of the molecules will only have ex- 
 tended to CD. The whole column between C Dand R Swill 
 be rarefied by the withdrawal of the piston of air between PCI 
 
 andRS; but the rarefaction will be greatest at the middle of 
 
 the column, for the very same rersons that the condensa- 
 tion is greatest at the middle of the column between RS 
 and A 15. If, therefore, we represent the rarefaction by ncg- 
 (3.) 
 
 alive ordinate*, a' a', b' ft', c' c', &c. (fig. 3), the state of 
 the column of air between All and CD (and this is all 
 which is modified by the passage of the piston from P Q to 
 
 be represented by the double curve D ft' S A B, the 
 small p irt between I* U and U S being neglected as insensi- 
 ble. There are thus two distinct waves or undulations 
 causi d by the motion of the piston: the wave S B before 
 
 i is railed the condensed wave, and S D behind the 
 piston is called the rarefied wave. But some writers on 
 
 ri insider both these as belonging to the same wave ; 
 
 lore understand by the term wave the whole mass 
 of p utirles between C D and A B (fig. 1), which have been 
 disturbed by the motion of the piston from PCI to R S. 
 As every thin stratum of air in the tube, by reason of its 
 
 . communicates to the stratum before it the im- 
 palse which it has received from the one behind it, all the 
 particles will successively be aifected in the same manner; 
 and at the end of a second interval, equal to that in which 
 the piston Iris passed from I* to (i, the motion will be com- 
 
 d over another space equal to R A, or the wave 
 will have moved forward its whole length, retaining al- 
 ways the sam- form ; and, supposing the piston to have in 
 >nd interval remained at rest at R S, all the parti- 
 . B A will have returned to their original 
 stati of quiescence. 
 
 If. instead of supposing the piston to remain at rest at 
 
 R S, we suppose it to be drawn back, in the seci.nd into; vat 
 of time, toils original position at P Ci, then all the phenom- 
 ena now described will be repeated in the reverse order; 
 that is to say, the compressed wave will be to the left of 
 the piston, and the rarefied wave to the right; and the 
 state of the particles within the tube, with respect to their 
 compression, as modified by the advanced and subsequent 
 retreat of the piston (the complete vibration), will be rep- 
 resented as under (tig. 4). 
 
 (40 
 
 We have now only to suppose this forward and back- 
 ward motion of the piston to be performed with the same 
 rapidity as the vibrations of an elastic plate or stretched 
 cord, and the phenomena now described will give an idea 
 of the mode in which sound is transmitted through the at- 
 mosphere. 
 
 From this illustration (imperfect as it is) of the nature of 
 tin' motions communicated to the air by the vibrating body, 
 ;■> see that the particles of air in the tube do not 
 change their pi ices inter se, but acquire a vibratory mo- 
 tion, backwards and forwards, along the length of the tube. 
 It is also obvious that the vibrations of the air through 
 lnd is transmitted must be precisely equal in 
 number to those of the sounding body ; and as soon as the 
 vibrations cease, those of the air cease likewise. But so 
 long as the body vibrates, or the reciprocal motion of the 
 piston is continued with the same velocity, a continued 
 musical sound will be heard ; and this will be precisely the 
 same at whatever part of the tube the ear is situated, all 
 the waves being perfectly similar. 
 
 It is also evident that sound is propagated not only in 
 Straight hues, like light, but in every possible direction. 
 Air being equally elastic in all directions, each point of a 
 sonorous wave may be regarded as a new centre, from 
 which rays are propagated on all sides. A sound heard 
 from the opposite side of a mountain is not conveyed 
 through the mountain, but through the air in curved or 
 crooked lines along secondary rays. 
 
 Sounds difl'er from one nnother in three respects — pitch, 
 intensity, and quality. The pitch, or tone, depends on the 
 length of the wave ; or, which comes to the same thing, on 
 the number of vibrations in a given time (for the velocity 
 being constant, the length of the wave multiplied by the 
 number of vibrations iii a given time is constant). The 
 gravest tone which the ear can distinguish corresponds to a 
 wave of about thirty two feet in length, and the most ncutc 
 to one of about half an inch. Two sounds, however diti'er- 
 ent in loudness or quality, are always in perfect unison 
 when the undulations by which they are conveyed are pre- 
 cisely of the same length. The intensity or loudness noes 
 not depend on the length of the wave, but on the degree of 
 compression which the air receives; that is, on the violence 
 of the impulses, or the length of the stroke of the piston in 
 the above illustration. The quality of sound (the timbre 
 of the French authors) is less easily explained. It proba- 
 bly depends on the greater or less abruptness of the impul- 
 ses, or of the changes of velocity and density of the strata 
 of air between the two extremities of the wave. 
 
 Theoretical Determination of the Velocity of Sound. — 
 The investigation of the velocity of sound through the at- 
 mosphere (or any gaseous medium) is based upon this fun- 
 damental proposition of dynamics, viz., that the velocity of 
 the pulses in an elastic medium is as the square root of the 
 elasticity, divided by the density of the medium. Let v — the 
 velocity i c = the elasticity, d = the density ; and the propo- 
 sition gives v — y/(e-i-d). Make ^=the measure of grav- 
 ity (386-29 inches per second), io = weight of the unit of 
 volume of air, h = height of the homogeneous atmosphere 
 (i. e., of a column of air of the same density throughout, and 
 whose weight exercises on the base a pressure = c); we 
 have then e — hw, d = w-r-g; and the above equation be- 
 comes v = y/(g A). But this is the velocity which a heavy 
 body acquires by falling in vacuo from a height — J A; 
 therefore, the velocity with which sound is propagated 
 tbroiiirh the air is the same as that which a heavy body 
 would acquire by falling through half the height of the 
 homogeneous atmosphere. This proposition was given by 
 Newton in the Principia (lib. ii., prop. 47), but from a the- 
 ory wholly inapplicable. The correct demonstration was 
 first given by Lagrange. . , 
 
 In order to convert this formula into numbers, it is neces- 
 sary to determine k. Let b — the standard height of mer- 
 cury in the barometer, and m = the ratio of the density of 
 mercury to the density of atmospheric air under the same 
 pressure; then h=.mb, and the velocity becomes v — y/ 
 {«mb). At the temperature of freezing water (32°f ahr.), 
 and under a barometric pressure of 29927 inches, the value 
 of m is ftmtJd by experiment to be 10,466. But we hava 
 
SOUND BOARD. 
 
 also # = 386-29 inches; whence at that temperature v = 
 10,998 inches, or 91C feet. 
 
 Since the velocity, as above stated, is proportional to the 
 square root of the elasticity divided by the density, an alter- 
 ation in the height of the barometer, while the temperature 
 remains the same, will produce no change in the velocity ; 
 for an increase of pressure, and consequently of elasticity, 
 is accompanied by a proportional increase of density. An 
 increase of temperature, however, by increasing the elasti- 
 city without changing the density, is accompanied by an 
 augmentation of velocity. The correction for a difference 
 of temperature is 1'ob.nd as follows: Let t denote the num- 
 ber of degrees of temperature on Fahrenheit's scale above 
 32°, and a a constant coefficient ; then the elasticity at the 
 freezing temperature being e, the elasticity at the tempera- 
 ture t will be e (1-f-at). But the value of a is found by 
 experiment = -00208 ; therefore the elasticity is e (1-j- 
 •00208 1) ; and the formula for the velocity becomes v = 
 *J gmb (1 + - 00208r.) ; or, introducing the above value of 
 gmb, r> = 91G(l + -001040- 
 
 The velocity of 916 feet at the freezing temperature, thus 
 deduced from theory, falls short of the experimental ve- 
 locity (which has been shown above to be 1089 feet) by 
 173 feet, or about a sixth part of the whole quantity. This 
 discrepancy was remarked by Newton, who attempted to 
 account for it by supposing the spherical molecules of air 
 to be perfectly clastic solids, through which sound is propa- 
 gated instantaneously ; hut the true solution of the difficul- 
 ty was reserved for Laplace. The explanation given by 
 Laplace is, that the compression of the air which takes 
 place in the vibration disengages a portion of latent heat, 
 which thus becomes sensible, and modifies the law of the 
 elasticity, and accelerates the velocity. On submitting 
 this to calculation, he found that the formula for the velo- 
 city of sound must be multiplied by a certain factor, name- 
 ly, the square root of the quotient which is found by divi- 
 ding the number which expresses the specifi- heat of the air 
 (or other gas) under a constant pressure by that which ex- 
 presses its specific heat under a constant volume. Let k 
 = this factor; then Laplace's formula for the velocity of 
 sound is 
 
 v = y/g m b (1 + -00208 t) k. 
 
 The value of k for atmospheric air, as determined bv Oo- 
 long (Lame, vol. ii., p. 87), is 1*421 ; hence ,/& = l'192, and 
 the formula in numbers is 
 
 t> = 916 X 1-192 (1 + -00104 1) = 1092+1-14 «, 
 which is almost identical with the experimental determina- 
 tion. 
 
 Velocity of Sounds through Liquids and So'ids. — The 
 following general formula for the velocity with which 
 sound is propagated through any elastic compressible body, 
 whether liquid or solid, was fotind by Laplace : Let b de- 
 note (as before) the standard height of the barometer, D the 
 density of mercury at the freezing temperature, d trie den- 
 sity of the medium, and c the compressibility of the medi- 
 imn, that is, the diminution of bulk it sustains by an addi- 
 tional pressure equal to one atmosphere ; then the formula 
 
 /gbl) 
 is c = V — j; or, (since # = 38629 inches, 6 = 29-927 inch- 
 es, D = 13-5G8), t> = 396-04 v'U-f-c*/) inches, or 33^(1 -S-c 
 d) feet per second. Applying this to the case of water, we 
 have c — -000049589 (Herschel, Encv. Metrop.), and rf=l ; 
 whence c = 4687 feet per second. This result ntrrccs verv 
 nearly with the velocity determined by Culladon and 
 Sturm by direct experiment on the propagation of sound 
 through the lake of Geneva, the velocity actually observed 
 by them being 1435 metres, or 4708 English feet, which dif- 
 fers from the theoretical velocitv only by 21 feet— a space 
 described by the aqueous pulse in the 200th part of a sec- 
 ond. 
 
 By the above formula the velocity of sound through anv 
 medium of which the compressibility is known is readily 
 computed. According to Chladni the velocities of sounds 
 in different solids, that of air being taken as unity, are as 
 follows: Tin = 7A, silver = 9, cop]>er = 12, iron = 17, glass 
 = 17, baked clay = 10-12, woods of different kinds = 11-17. 
 But the velocity of propagation through cast-iron tubes 
 was determined experimentally by Biot, and found to be 
 only about 10.J times its velocity in air. (See HcrschcVs 
 Trcntise. on Sound; Chladni, Traite d'Jlcoustique ; Biot, 
 Traite de Physique ; Pouillet, Ettmens dc Physique ; Lame, 
 Cours de. Physique, &C.) 
 
 Sound. In Geography, a strait or inlet of the sea ; ap- 
 plied specially to the strait which connects the German Sea 
 with the Baltic. 
 
 SOUND BOARD. A thin board placed over the head 
 of a public speaker to strengthen or extend the sound of his 
 voice. 
 
 SOUTH. One of the four cardinal points of the com- 
 U44 
 
 SPACE. 
 
 pass; the direction in which the sun always appears at 
 noon to the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere with 
 out the tropic. 
 
 SOUTHCO'TTIANS. In Religious History, the follow 
 ers of Joanna Southcott, whose singular life and influence, 
 although now nearly forgotten, deserve to be kept in rec 
 ord as examples of the contagious effects of fanaticism 
 She was born at Gittisham, in Devonshire, in 1750; and 
 seems to have first persuaded herself of her miraculous 
 calling in 1792. From that time she was in the habit of 
 publishing pamphlets in an enthusiastic strain ; traversed 
 the west of England, preaching and prophesying, with a 
 select body of followers, and gradually collected about her 
 a considerable number of disciples. She came to town about 
 1803, when she announced a meeting, which she called 
 her trial, for the purpose of satisfying the world of the re 
 ality of her mission. Several such meetings took place, 
 the last in 1804; and many persons, including several 
 clergymen, attested their belief in her pretensions. After 
 this she became the founder of a church, which had a 
 chapel in Duke's Place, where service was performed by a 
 Mr. Tozer, a Dissenting clergyman of Exeter, who follow 
 ed her to London. At last she announced her supernatu- 
 ral pregnancy ; and this strange announcement took great 
 hold on the public imagination, in consequence of Dr. 
 Reeve and other medical men having declared their belief 
 that she was actually pregnant in her 65th year. The ex- 
 citement produced in London, in the summer of 1814, by 
 the whole affair, was to be paralleled only by that which 
 other delusions as absurd and impious have at different 
 times occasioned. Her death, in December of that year, 
 did not undeceive her disciples : even when her body was 
 opened, four days alter it, and no trace discovered to veri- 
 fy her assertions, many of them continued to proclaim 
 their belief in her future reappearance. Her sect continu- 
 ed to exist for many years, nor are we aware that it is yet 
 extinct. Many of its followers wore long beards, and a 
 peculiar costume. 
 
 SO'VEREIGN. In Politics, a person, or body of persons, 
 in whom the legislative authority rests in every state. A 
 sovereign state is one in which the jurisdiction of that 
 person or body, within the limits of the state, is absolute 
 and uncontrolled by any foreign authority. The states 
 which composed the German empire were termed, In the 
 language of politics, " mi-souveraines ;" because their sov 
 ereignty was qualified by their subordination, in some re 
 spects, to the imperial authority. The same term should 
 seem applicable to the several states in the American 
 Union, which are commonly, but improperly, termed sov 
 ereign ; as, on some definite subjects, the power of their 
 legislative bodies is subordinate to that of Congress, or the 
 sovereign body in the Federal Government. 
 
 Sovereign. An English coin of the value of twenty 
 shillings, the standard weight of which is 5 pennyweights 
 and 3-27 grains, or 123374 troy grains. 
 
 SO'VVING. Depositing seed in the soil for the purpose 
 of producing plants. The operation of sowing is generally 
 performed in spring, in order that the plants may have the 
 advantage of the coming summer. The seed is either 
 scattered abroad, or deposited in rows or drills ; on a small 
 scale by the hand, and on a large scale by a sowing ma- 
 chine. Some seeds which are of large size are planted 
 singly. The covering of seeds is greater or less, according 
 to their size and the texture of the soil. Where the soil 
 is somewhat firm, and the seed is pressed into it by a 
 roller or by other means, and where the climate is moist, 
 very little covering is necessary ; but where the soil is 
 loose, and the climate dry and warm, the covering should 
 be twice or thrice the thickness of seeds. As the seeds of 
 plants are the natural food of birds, insects, and vermin, in 
 a state of culture artificial protection is required from their 
 natural enemies. 
 
 SOWING MACHINE. A machine for depositing seeds 
 in the soil, either equally over its surface or in rows. The 
 simplest machine, and perhaps the most efficient for sow- 
 ing seeds broadcast, is a hollow cylinder, pierced with 
 holes, ahout the average size of the seed to be sown. 
 This will deposite them at a greater or lesser distance 
 asunder, according to the velocity with which it is turned 
 round. Machines for sowing seeds in rows are termed 
 drills. See Drills. 
 
 SPA. A place celebrated for its mineral waters, situtOs 
 about seven leagues from Aix-la-Chapelle. The term is 
 now generally applied to places at which there are miner- 
 al springs. 
 
 SPACE (Lat. spatium), signifies generally extension in 
 all directions. Sometimes it has a less general significa- 
 tion ; thus Euclid says, two straight lines cannot enclose a 
 space, that is. an area. 
 
 Space. In Music, the void between the lines in a mu- 
 sical staff. The spaces are four in number, and the lines 
 five. 
 
SPAD1X. 
 
 SPA'DIX. A form of inflorescence in which the flow- 
 ers are arranged around a fleshy rachis, and enclosed 
 within a kind of bract called a spathe, as in palms and 
 uaceous planus. 
 
 SPAIIi'S. or SIPAHIS. A part of the Turkish cavalry 
 irere to called. The word has the same derivation with 
 
 Sepoy. 
 
 SPAN, in ordinary language, signifies a measure taken 
 
 from the space between the thumb and the middle finger, 
 
 both being extended. In Architecture and Engineering, it 
 
 . to the extent or spread of an arch between its 
 
 abutments. 
 
 SPANDREL. (It. spandere, to spread.) In Archi- 
 tecture, lh<' space about the flanks or haunches of an 
 arch or vault above the intrados, and not higher than its 
 crown. 
 
 SPA'NKUR, or DRIVER. The name of the gaff sail 
 ♦ H on the mi/.zen mast of a ship. 
 
 SPANNER. An iron instrument used in the manner of 
 a lever to tighten the nuts upon screws. There Is usually 
 a notch at either end of the spanner, to suit nuts and 
 screw-beads of different sixes. 
 
 BPAR. [Germ, spath.) A mineralogical term, applied 
 
 to certain crystallized substances which easily break into 
 
 cubic, or prismatic, or other fragments, with polished sur- 
 
 tlso the term spa.th.ose, applied generally to 
 
 of a sparry fracture. 
 
 BPAR, FLUOR, or DERBYSHIRE. Fluoride of cal- 
 cium. See Fluor Si-ar. 
 
 BPAR, HEAVY. Sulphate of baryta. Sec Baryta. 
 
 SPAR, ICELAND. Rhomboid&l carbonate of lime. 
 
 BPA'El MDS, Sparoides. The name of a tribe of Acan- 
 • which the genus span's is the type. 
 The palate is edentulous, but the jaws are generally well 
 armed with teeth : sometimes these are all of a conical 
 form, .adapted for killing and lacerating; sometimes they 
 are all rounded and obtuse, fitted for bruising. In some 
 the anterior teeth are shaped according to the 
 laniiiry type, and the posterior ones are grinders; in oth- 
 ers, the anterior teeth resemble the human incisors. The 
 Bparoid fishes are chiefly founded on these den- 
 tal modlflcatlo 
 
 BPA'RROW-H WVK. The name of the Falco nisxis of 
 Lina.iiis, .leciptter fringillarius of Ray; which latter 
 i in modern ornithology for the sub-generic 
 denomination of this small Raptorial bird. 
 
 BPARS. In Architecture, a term used in the provinces 
 tin: common rafters of a roof, as distinguished 
 principal rafters. 
 
 SI' ASM. :<Jr. otraouos, a cramp.) An involuntary con- 
 Buctlon ■>!' toe muscles generally attended by pain. 
 
 SPATA'NGUS. (Gr. a-xnTayyoq, a species of Echinus.) 
 The name of a genus of Echinidai, or sea-urchins, having 
 i situated laterally, and but four rows of pores. 
 
 SI' All 1 1",. In Botany, a large and coloured bractea sit- 
 uated at the base of a spadix, enclosing the latter, and sup- 
 > perform the office of corolla. 
 
 SPA'TULATE. (Lat. spathulum, a broad knife to spread 
 eater, icith.) In Zoology, when a substance or part of an 
 animal Is Battened, and broader and rounder at the apex, 
 narrow at the base. 
 
 Sl'i; \ K BR. The presiding officer in each house of par- 
 liament is bo termed. The lord chancellor, keeper of the 
 great seal, or other person holding the king's commission, 
 is ex-officio speaker of the House of Lords; and if there be 
 none smb. it is said the house may elect. He can speak 
 and vote on any question. The speaker of the House of 
 Commons is chosen by the house. Formerly, it was cus- 
 tom try (see MatseWs Precedents of Parliaments, vol. ii.) 
 that persona holding high offices under the crown should be 
 i this dignity. The speaker chosen must be ap- 
 proved of by the crown. The speaker cannot speak or vote 
 except in a committee, when he is out of the chair; or in 
 n equality of voices, when he exercises the privi- 
 . mg a casting vote. The office of the speaker of 
 the House of Commons, In addition to keeping order and 
 controlling the debates of the house, is to issue warrants to 
 the clerk of the crown to make out new writs for the elec- 
 tion of members when seats are vacant. This power he 
 exercised only by virtue of orders of the House of Com- 
 lil the passing of the stat. 10 G. 3, c. 41, by which 
 he wa enabled to issue the writs during a recess. See Par- 
 liament. 
 
 BPEA'KING TRUMPET. Sec Trumpet. 
 
 Sl'i: CIALTY. In Law, any instrument in writing un- 
 der seal. Speci ilty creditors are those who have their debts 
 secured to them by deed, in opposition to creditors on sim- 
 ple contract. The advantages of the former security are, 
 that it ha? priority in the distribution of assets ; and that 
 specially debts in "general are not presumed satisfied until 
 after the lapse of twenty years, whereas simple contract 
 debts are buried in six by the Statute of Limitations. 
 
 SPELL. 
 
 SPECIE. A term used for gold and silver join, in con- 
 tradistinction to paper money. 
 
 SPE'CIES. (Lat.) In Logic, a predicnble which is eon 
 sidered as expressing the whole essence of the individuals 
 of which it is affirmed. The essence of an individual is said 
 to consist of two parts: 1. The material part, or genus; 2. 
 The formal or distinctive part, or difference. The genus 
 and dilference together make up, in logical language, the 
 species ; e. g., a " biped" is compounded of tiie genus " ani- 
 mal," and the difference "having two legs." It is obvious 
 that the names species and genus are merely relative ; and 
 that the same common terms may, in one case, be the tpe 
 cies which is predicated of an individual, and in another 
 case the individual of which a species is predicated : < . g., 
 the individual, Ctesar, belongs to the species man ; but man, 
 again, may be said to belong to the species animal, &.<-.., as 
 we contemplate higher and more comprehensive terras, A 
 Spedes, in short, when predicated of individuals, stands in 
 the same relation to them as the genus to the species ; and 
 when predicated of other lower species, it is then, in respect 
 of these, a genus, while it is a species in respect of a higher 
 genus. Such a term is called a subaltern species or genus; 
 while the highest term of all, of which nothing can lie pre- 
 dicated, is the "simimum genus;" the lowest of all, which 
 can be predicated of nothing, the "inlima species." The 
 dilference which, together with the genus, makes up the 
 species, is termed the "specific difference." See Predica- 
 ble, Logic. 
 
 SPECI'FIC. In Medicine, this term is applied to reme 
 dies the effects of which upon particular diseases are little 
 liable to fallacy and uncertainty ; hence cinchona is called 
 a specific in certain forms of intermittent lever, and mer- 
 cury in syphilis, tut. A specific charactrr is (hat which pe- 
 culiarly and certainly distinguishes one thing from another. 
 
 SPECIFIC GRAVITY. Sec Gravity. 
 
 SPE'CTACLES. An optical instrument, consisting of 
 two lenses set in a frame, for assisting or correcting the de- 
 fects of imperfect vision. The lenses are convex or con- 
 cave, according to the nature of the defect to be remedied. 
 In old nge the pupil of the eye becomes flat, and the rays 
 of light are consequently not refracted sufficienth in passing 
 through it to meet on the retina and produce distinct vision. 
 This defect is remedied by a convex lens, which produce! 
 a slight convergency of the rays before they enter the eye 
 Short sighted people, on the contrary, require concave 
 lenses; because, in their case, the indistinctness of vision 
 proceeds from too great a curvature of the pupil, which 
 causes the rays to meet in a point before they reach the 
 retina — a defect which Is remedied by giving the rays a 
 slight divergency before they enter the eye. 
 
 Spectacles appear to have been first used nbout the latter 
 end of the 13th century ; but the date and author of the in- 
 vention are not certainly known, and have been much dis- 
 puted. It seems most probable that the first hint of their 
 construction and use was taken either from the writings of 
 Alhazen, who lived in the 12th century, or of Roger liacon, 
 who died about 1292. A passage in the Opus Majue of the 
 latter renders it certain, at least, that he was acquainted 
 with the use of crystalline lenses in magnifying minute or 
 distant objects. (See Smith's Optics, "Remarks," art 8, 
 5-90.) 
 
 SPE'CTRES, Spectra. A name given by Stoll and La- 
 treille to a family of Orthopterous insects, comprehending 
 those which have a linear and attenuated body, like the 
 ghost of an insect. 
 
 SPE'CTRUM. (Lnt. Fpectrum, image.) In Optics, the 
 name given to an elongated image of the sun or other lumin- 
 ous body, formed on a wall or screen by a beam of unde- 
 composed light received through a small hole, and refracted 
 by a prism. For the different colours and fixed lines of the 
 solar spectrum, see Chromatics ; and for the refrangibility 
 of the different rays. Refraction. 
 
 SPE'CULUM. (Lat. speculum, a mirror.) In Optics, 
 the term speculum is usually appropriated to reflectors form- 
 ed of polished metal ; while the term mirror is used to sig- 
 nify a reflector of glass. For the focal distances and laws 
 of reflexion of spherical specula, see Reflexion ; and for 
 a description of the method of casting and polishing large 
 specula for reflecting telescopes, see Sir W. Herschel's De- 
 scription of his Telescope in the Phil. Trans, for 1795; 
 Brewster's edition of Ferguson's Lectures ; and Lord Ox- 
 mantown's Account of Experiments on the Reflecting Tele 
 sco|>e, in the Phil. Trans, for 1840. 
 
 SPE'CULUM METAL, with which mirrors for reflect- 
 ing telescopes are made, is an alloy of two parts of copper 
 and one of tin ; its whiteness is improved by the addition 
 of a little arsenic. 
 
 SPELL. (Ang. Sax. spel, story or tale.) Any form of 
 words, written or spoken, supposed to be endowed with 
 magical virtues. This superstition seems common to every 
 race of man ; but it was more peculiarly prevalent among 
 the ancients. The lines of Horace— 
 
 1145 
 
SPELTER. 
 
 Sun! verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem 
 Possis, Sec, 
 
 probably refer to the belief in the efficacy of magical words 
 in alleviating pain and disease. There is an amusing arti- 
 cle upon this subject in the Encyclopedia Metropolitan. 
 
 SPE'LTER. The commercial term for zinc. 
 
 SPERMACE'TI. This substance concretes or crystal- 
 lizes spontaneously out of the oil of the spermaceti whale. 
 It is purified first by pressure, then by fusion and boiling 
 with a weak alkaline ley. When melted in masses, it con- 
 cretes in crystalline plates of a silvery lustre and unctuous 
 feel. It fuses at about 100°. It dissolves in boiling alco- 
 hol ; and as the solution cools it separates in brilliant scales, 
 to which Chevreul has given the name of cetine. 
 
 SPERMl'DIUM. (Gr. oircpua, a seed.) A kind of small 
 seed-vessel, resembling a seed, and more commonly called 
 an akenium. 
 
 SPHA'CELUS. See Gangrene. 
 
 SPH^ERISTE RIUM. (Gr. oQatpa, a sphere or ball.) In 
 ancient Architecture, a circular court for playing tennis, or 
 other exercises. See Hall. 
 
 SPHENE. Native silico-calcareous oxide of titanium. 
 
 SPHENO'ID BONE. (Gr. mpijy, a wedge.) One of the 
 bones of the head; so called from its being wedged in, as 
 it were, among the other bones. It is of a most irregular 
 shape, and very complicated in its processes and connexions 
 with the other bones. When removed, it is something of 
 the figure of a bat with its wings extended. It is connected 
 with all the bones of the skull, and with those of the palate, 
 cheeks, and upper jaw. 
 
 SPHERE. (Gr. c<j>iupa.) In Geometry, a solid body de- 
 scribed by the revolution of a semicircle about its diameter ; 
 or it may be defined to be a body bounded by a surface of 
 which every point is equally distant from a single point 
 within the surface, called the centre of the sphere. If r 
 denote the radius of the sphere, and i, y, r the rectangular 
 co-ordinates, the origin being at the centre, the equation of 
 the surface is z 2 + y* -f- z--=. r 2 . 
 
 The following are some of the principal properties of the 
 sphere : 1. The surface of the sphere is equal to four times 
 the area of one of its great eircies , i. e. ! .1 se lion ma '■; 
 by a plane passing through its centre. 2. The cuive sur- 
 face of any zone, or portion contained between two parallel 
 planes, is equal to the curve surface of a cylinder of the 
 same height with the height of the zone, or the distance 
 between the planes, and of the same diameter with the 
 sphere. Hence it follows, that the whole surface of the 
 sphere is equal to the curve surface of the circumscribing 
 cylinder. 3. The solid content of a sphere is equal to that 
 of a pyramid whose altitude is the radius, and whose base 
 is equal to the surface of the sphere ; and hence the content 
 of the sphere is one third of the product of its radius into its 
 surface. 4. The sphere is equal to two thirds of its circum- 
 scribing cylinder. 
 
 Let r denote the radius of the sphere, s its superficies, c 
 its solid content, and tt the ratio of the semicircumference to 
 the radius = 3-14159; then, since the area of a circle of 
 which r is the radius is - r2, the properties above stated 
 give the relations which follow ; viz. 
 
 Surface = s = 4 tt r2 = 12-56637 X ri, 
 Content = c = J rs = jirr3 = 418859 X r3. 
 
 If we suppose the diameter = l, and consequently r=£, 
 these relations become s = n, c = 4w. 
 
 Sphere. In Astronomy, the concave expanse of the 
 heavens, which, having no definite limit, appears to the eye 
 as the interior surface of a sphere enclosing the earth, 
 which is placed at the centre. The ancients gave the name 
 of sphere to the orbits of the several heavenly bodies ; thus, 
 the sphere of Jupiter, the sphere of Saturn, the sphere of 
 the fixed stars. In the Ptolemaic astronomy, the different 
 spheres were supposed to be solid and transparent, moving 
 about their common centre independently of each other, 
 and each carrying its appropriate body along with it. 
 
 Sphere, in Geography, denotes a representation of the 
 earth on the surface of a globe, which has also represented 
 on it an assemblage of circles showing the positions of the 
 equator, ecliptic, meridians, &c. The ancients gave differ- 
 ent appellations to the sphere, according to the inclination 
 of the earth's axis to the horizon. When the poles are in 
 the horizon, it was called a right sphere ; when the poles 
 arc in the zenith and nadir, a parallel sphere ; and in every 
 other position, an oblique sphere. 
 
 SPHE'RICAL. Relating to a sphere. Thus, a spherical 
 angle is an angle formed on the surface of a sphere by the 
 intersection of two great circles, or circles whose planes 
 pass through the centre ; and a spherical triangle is a tri- 
 angle formed by the intersecting arcs of three such circles. 
 For the properties r%f spherical triangles, see Trigonometry. 
 
 SPHE'RICAL EXCESS, in Trigonometry, is the sum by 
 which the three angles of any triangle on the surface of a 
 sphere or spheroid exceeds two right angles. Let the three 
 11/10 
 
 SPHEROID. 
 
 angles of a spherical triangle be denoted respectively oy 
 A, 15, C, and let E represent the spherical excess ; then, 
 by the above definition, E = A + B-f C — 180°. Now, in 
 any spherical triangle the sum of the three angles is al- 
 ways greater than two and less than six right angles; con- 
 sequently E may have any value not exceeding four right 
 angles. 
 
 In Geodesy, the angles of each triangle arc determined 
 by instrumental measurement, and are consequently sub- 
 ject to the errors of observation. But in order to compute 
 the sides of the triangle with the requisite accuracy, ii is 
 necessary that the amount of the error in the sum of the 
 three angles be known ; and it is therefore necessary to de- 
 termine the spherical excess independently of extreme pre- 
 cision in the values of the angles. Let S denote the area 
 of the triangle, r the radius of the sphere, and t the ratio 
 of the circumference to the diameter (= 3-14159) ; then, by 
 trigonometry, 
 
 A + B + C-18QQ 
 
 S - 180° Xr " 7r ' 
 
 whence, since E = A + B -f C — 180°, we have 
 „ SX180°. , „ SX 648000" 
 
 E = in degrees, or E = , expressed in 
 
 r*ir rl-z 
 
 seconds. In any triangle that can be measured on the sur- 
 face of the earth S is very small in comparison of r2, and 
 E is therefore a very small quantity, seldom amounting to 
 more than five or six seconds (though, in some of the large 
 triangles of the British survey, where the sides were near 
 Iy 100 miles in length, it amounted to upwards of 30") ; and 
 therefore an approximate knowledge of the value of S, and 
 of the radius r, within the limits of any probable error, 
 will suffice to give E correct to the 100th part of a second. 
 Hence, for computing the value of E) the triangle may bo 
 considered a plane one, and the value of S computed from 
 approximate values of two of its sides and the included an- 
 gle. If, therefore, a and b denote the number of feet in the 
 sides opposite the angles A and B respectively, we shall 
 have S = hab sin. C; and if we also assume m = 048000 
 -7-2 r2 7r (where r is expressed in feet), the logarithm of E 
 In Seconds wiB be foand '"nun this formula. 
 
 log. E=r log. o-(-loj;. 4 + log. sin. C-f-log. m. 
 For the middle of England, the radius of an arc intersect 
 ing the meridian at an angle of 45° is 20,941,000 feet, nearly 
 Assuming this to be the value of r, then log. m = 9-62860. 
 
 SPHE'RICS. In Geometry, the doctrine of the proper- 
 ties of the sphere considered as a geometrical body, and, in 
 particular, of the different circles described on its surface. 
 See Trigonometry. 
 
 SPHE'ROID. (Gr. afatpa, and ciSus, form.) In Geo 
 metry, a solid generated by the revolution of an ellipse about 
 one of its axes. If the generating ellipse revolves about its 
 major axis, the spheroid is prolate, or oblong; if about its 
 minor axis, the spheroid is oblate. 
 
 Let 2 a be the axis of revolution, and 2 b the diameter of 
 the generating ellipse perpendicular to the axis ; then the 
 origin of the co-ordinates being at the centre, and x being 
 taken on the semi-axis a, the equation of the surface of the 
 spheroid is 
 
 x 2 , yl -4- ;2 _ 
 
 , + : 
 
 H 
 
 = 1. 
 
 Let k 2 denote the ratio of the difference of the squares of a 
 and b to the square of a; that is, tnako>n2 A-2= ai — b'~, and 
 put w = 3-14159 ; then the whole surface S of the spheroid 
 is expressed by the following series, in which the upper 
 signs are to be used if the spheroid is oblong (that is, if a is 
 greater than b), and the under signs if the spheroid is ob 
 late: viz. 
 
 The solid content of any spheroid, whether oblate or ob 
 long, is equal to two thirds of its circumscribing cylinder, 
 and is therefore equal to | jr a 62. And since the content 
 of a sphere, of which the radius is equal to a, is A tt a\ it 
 follows that the content of the spheroid is to the content of 
 a sphere whose diameter is equal to the axis of revolution 
 as 62 : o2. 
 
 The oblate spheroid being the figure assumed by the 
 earth and the other planets, its properties are of great im- 
 portance In astronomy and geodesy. Newton demonstrated 
 that the attraction of a sphere on any exterior body is th 
 same as if all the matter in the sphere were collected into 
 a point at the centre ; but this property does not hold true 
 of spheroids, and the calculation of the effects of attraction 
 is thereby rendered greatly more difficult. Sec Gravita- 
 tion. 
 
 In geodetical operations, it is necessary to have regard to 
 the curvature of the spheroidal surface of the earth. Sup 
 posing the elements of the spheroid (that is, the polar and 
 equatorial axes) to be known, the cirvature of the surface 
 
SPHEROMETER. 
 
 latitude Is given is determined by 
 the follow Ing formula : 
 
 i be half the polar axis, 4 toe radius of the equator, 
 ellipticity, or a number such that b = a (1 + e) see 
 Ellhticity), .-uid l the given latitude. Also, let r be die 
 radius of curvature in the direclion of the meridian, r the 
 radius of curvature in the direction perpendicular to the 
 meridian, and R the radius of curvature of a normal sec- 
 tion, inakinir with the meridian an angle = 0, then 
 r = a(l — e + 3esin. M) . . . (1.) 
 r J =a(.l + e+c sin. 2/) (2.) 
 
 R = r sin Htf-tr 1 cos. '0 (3>) 
 
 Dividing the numerator and denominator of this last ex- 
 m by r, substituting 1 — sin. Sfl tor cos. 20, and con- 
 vening the result into a series, of which it is sufficient to 
 retain only the two first term*, we obtain the following, 
 which is more convenient for calculation, 
 
 R = r(l + ^- r ^sin.20)- 
 
 SPHERo'METKR. ((Jr. c<p<npa, and ucrpov, measure.) 
 In Physics, an Instalment for measuring with great pre- 
 cision the thickness of small bodies, the curvature of opti- 
 cal glnsi 
 
 Sl'IIK KI'UTE. A term applied by some mineralogists 
 to a variety of obsidian or pearlstone, which occurs in 
 rounded grains. 
 
 BPHIGMCMETER. (Gr. oiIiyiioc, the pulse.) An in- 
 strument for counting the arterial pulsations. 
 
 BPHl'NCTER. (Gr atpiyx^, I close.) A term applied 
 by anatomists to several muscles which close or contract 
 the Orifices which thev surround. 
 
 SPHINX. A fabled monster, half woman and half lion, 
 siid by the Grecian poati n> have Infested the city of Thebes, 
 devouring its inhabitants till such time as a riddle it had 
 proposed to them should be solved. This was done by 
 CEdipus, who slew the sphinx, and was, by the gratitude 
 of the Thebans, chosen their Icing. The Grecian sphinx 
 • -ohably borrowed from Egypt; where the enormous 
 
 arche- 
 type oi the more elegant monster of Greece. This figure is 
 close to the Pyramids of Gliizeh, and was disinterred by 
 the late Mr. Uel/.oni, but has been again nearly covered. 
 It has been said (on the authority of Pliny) that the sphinx 
 represented the Nile in a state of flood; that event regular- 
 ly occurring under the signs of the Virgin and Lion. But 
 Others contend that the original Egyptian sphinx was male 
 
 (Androspninx), like the specimen described by Herodotus, 
 book ii. ( H'llkiiison's Ancient Egyptians.) But the greater 
 part of the enormous number around the temples of Luxor 
 (1500 in a single avenue) .are saiil to he female. (Libr. of 
 hint, rtainintr Knnwliiiiri .) Sphinxes are also represented 
 with the heads of rami and hawks (Crio-sphinx, Hieraco- 
 sphinx). The Egyptian sphinx had no wings; these ap- 
 pendages were added by the Greek artists. 
 
 SPHRAGI'STICS. (Gr. r(j>p,y t f, a seal.) The science 
 of seals, their history, peculiarities, and distinctions, espe- 
 cially with a view to the means which they afford of as- 
 certaining the age and genuineness of documents to which 
 they sire affixed. Ancient seals were chiefly impressed on 
 common wax of different colours; sealing-wax came into 
 use in the sixteenth century. This branch of diplomatics 
 owes its oriuin to lleineccius, who published a work on the 
 subject in 1709. Gercken's treatise, styled Anmerkungen 
 iiber die Siegel zum Nutzen der Diplomalik (Augsburg, 1781), 
 Will he found a useful guide. 
 
 SPICCATO. (It divided.) In Music, a term indicating 
 that every note is to have its distinct sound. When used 
 in relation to instruments played with a bow, it is to be 
 understood that <uery note is to have a bow distinct from 
 the preceding or succeeding one. 
 
 SPIDER. See Arachnid*;. 
 
 SPIKE. In Botany, a form of inflorescence in which all 
 the flowers are sessile along a common axis, as in Plan- 
 tago. 
 
 SrTNDLE. In Geometry, a solid generated by the revo- 
 lution of a curve line about its base or double ordinate. 
 The solid generated by the revolution of a curve about its 
 axis is called a conoid. In Mechanics, spindle denotes the 
 axis of a wheel or roller. 
 
 BPINE Sic Vertebra. 
 
 BPINE'L. (Fr. spinelle.) A subspecies of the niby. It 
 is of various colours, such as red, brown, yellow, and some- 
 times bine; its colouring matter is sometimes oxide of 
 chromium, but generally oxide of iron. It usually contains 
 from 80 to 84 per cent, of alumina, and from 8 to 10 of mag- 
 nesia. 
 
 SPINELLA'NE. A term applied by some mineralogists 
 to a dodecaedral variety of zeolite of a blucish or brownish 
 colour, found near Andernnch on the Rhine. Its essential 
 components arc silica, alumina, and soda 
 
 SPIRAL. 
 
 SPINES. Brandies that, being imperfectly formed, lose 
 their power of extension, become unusually hard, and ac- 
 quire a sharp point. They are very different from aculei, 
 or prickles, which are a kind of hardened hair. In leaves, 
 they are processes formed eituer by an elongation of the 
 woody tissue of the veins, or by a contraction of the paren- 
 chyma : in the former case, they project beyond the surface 
 or margin of the leaf, as in the holly ; in the latter I 
 they are the veins themselves become induruted, as In the 
 palmated spines of Berberit vulgaris. 
 
 .SPIN'E'T. A musical stringed instrument with a key- 
 board, ice, similar In construction to a harpsichord ; from 
 which, indeed, it little diners, except in being much smaller 
 Its general form is that of the harp, and it mi originally 
 called the cauchtd harp. 
 
 S1TNNEKS, or SPINNERETS. In Entomology, organs 
 with which insects form their silk or webs. In spiders 
 they consist of two retractile species issuing from anal pro- 
 tuberance';, and giving out the threads. 
 
 SPINNING. 8m Cotton Manufacture. 
 
 SPINNING JENNY. See Cotton Manufacture. 
 
 SI'INO'SISM. In Philosophy, the system of Benedict 
 Spinosn, a Jew of Amsterdam, born in 1034, which is 
 developed in his work on ethics. In it lie deduces by 
 strictly mathematical reasoning, from a few axioms, the 
 well-known principles, that " there can be no substance but 
 God ; whatever is is m God, and nothing can be conceived 
 without God." Hence his scheme is called, with justice, 
 Pantheistic. In fact, as Mr. Ilallam observes, " he i 
 essentially diner from the Pantheists of old. He conceived, as 
 they had done, that the infinity of God required the exclusion 
 of all other substance : that he was infinite ab omni parte, 
 and not only in certain senses." " It was one great error 
 of Spinosa," says the same writer, " to entertain too arro- 
 gant a notion of the human faculties ; in which, by dint of 
 his own subtle demonstrations, he pretended to show a 
 capacity of adequately comprehending the nature of what 
 he denominated God'. And this was accompanied by a 
 r.i;iil dogmatism, no one proposition being stated with hesi- 
 tation ; by a dknflJaTC of experience, at least as the basis 
 ling; and by a uniform preference of the synthetic 
 mode." (JAterature of Europe, vol. iv., p. -243, &c. ; and 
 hir's History of Philosophy, vol. iii. ; Stewart's 
 Introductory Essay to the Encyclopedia Hritannica.) 
 
 SITNTIIF.RH. A mineral' of a greenish gray colour, 
 found in the department of the Isere in France. 
 
 SPI'R.U'I.KS, orBPIRACULA. (Lafc splro, I breathe.. 
 In Entomology, the breathing pores of insects are so called. 
 
 SPIRAL. In Geometry, the name given to a class of 
 curves distinguished by this general property, that they 
 continually recede from a centre or pole, while they con- 
 tinue to revolve about it. Spirals receive different names 
 from the properties by which they are characterised, or 
 from their inventors ; thus, the equable spiral, the hyperbolic 
 spiral, the logarithmic Spiral, the spirals of Cotes, <fcc. 
 
 Equable spiral, or spiral of jln:/iiiiiedcs.—Th\s curve may 
 be supposed to be generated as follows: If a straight line P 
 
 A B turn uniformly about its ex- ^ ^ 
 
 iremitv P, a point in the straight line //■ D x - C\ 
 
 which advances from P with a uniform / 1,/\~\\ ^ 
 motion and arrives successively at a. A, ^.L£i£L^E.\ A iSl c 
 b. B, e, C, d, will describe the spiral. \\\^Jj~j 
 The point P is called the pole, and the nV^V/ 
 portion of the revolving line intercepted \> ^ y 
 between the pole and any point of the 
 curve is the radiant, or radius vector at that point. Let U 
 be a point in the spiral, make the radiant P(l=«, and let 
 be the angle described by the revolving line while the 
 travelling point advances from P to Q. ; then, since from the 
 definition the radiant u and the angle are both propor- 
 tional to the time, they are proportional to each other; and 
 the polar equation of the equable spiral is u = a 6, where c 
 is a constant. If we suppose u-=.r when the revolving liut 
 has made a complete revolution, or when 6 — 2 77 ; thet 
 
 a = r -7- 2 r, and the equation becomes u = 5 — 0. 
 
 Some of the principal properties of this spiral are the fol- 
 lowing: 1. The area of the spiral P a A b Q. is equal to 
 «3 _ ^ If u _ thjg becomes i „ T 2 ; or the area 
 6 a 3 r 
 
 generated while the revolving line makes one revolution, 
 is equal to a third of a circle whose radius is r. If u = 2r, 
 the expression for the area becomes g ti • (2r)Z; and the 
 spiral area is therefore the third part of a space that is 
 double of a circle described with a radius = 2 r. And 
 generally the whole area generated by the radiant, from 
 the beginning of the motion till after any number of revolu- 
 tions, is equal to the third part of a space which is the 
 same multiple of the circle whose radius is equal to the 
 greatest radiant as the number of revolution- is ol mnt. 2 
 The arc of the spiral between its origin and the radiant u U 
 
SPIRAL VESSELS. 
 
 equal to that of a parabola whose latus rectum is 2 a 
 included between the vertex and an ordinate = u, and the 
 corresponding area of the spiral is equal to one half the 
 corresponding area of the parabola. 3. The subtangent to 
 any point tl of the spiral is equal to the arc of a circle de 
 scribed by the radiant P (i ; and hence at the termination 
 ' of the first, second, third, fourth, &c. revolutions, the cor- 
 responding subtangents are as the series of square numbers, 
 1, 4, 9, 16, &c. ; lor the second, third, fourth, &.c, the sub- 
 tangents are equal to 2, 3, 4, ice. circumferences, whose 
 radii are at the same time doubled, tripled, quadrupled, &c. 
 The equable spiral was proposed by Conon to Archimedes, 
 who, in his treatise Ihpi i \i\ov, has investigated its quad- 
 rature, and some of its chief propei lies. 
 The hyperbolic spiral belongs to a class of spirals of 
 
 which the general equation is v. — a 0~ n . If we suppose 
 
 n — 1, we have u = a ', or u 6 = a which is the equa- 
 tion of the hyperbolic spiral ; and from w liich it follows, 
 that if from a point in a straight line, given by position, arcs 
 be described of a given length, and having each one ex- 
 tremity in the given straight line, the locus of their other 
 extremities will be in the spiral. 
 
 This curve was proposed by James Bernoulli, and has 
 been called the hyperbolic spiral, from the analogy between 
 its polar equation and the equation to rectangular co-ordi- 
 nates of the common hyperbola, when referred to its 
 asymptotes ; namely, x y = A, a constant area. 
 
 The logarithmic spiral differs from the equable spiral in 
 this respect, that the point which describes the curve, 
 instead of advancing equably along the uniformly revolving 
 straight line, is carried along it with a velocity increasing 
 in proportion to the distance from the centre. This curve, 
 which was noticed by Des Cartes, has many remarkable 
 properties, of which the more abstruse were investigated 
 by James Bernoulli. See Logarithmic Spiral. 
 
 For the investigation of the properties of spirals, see 
 Leslie's Geometrical Analysis ; Peacock's Examples of the 
 Differential and Integral Calculus ; Maclaurin's Fluxions, 
 
 cohol and Fermenta- 
 
 SPI RAL VESSELS, in Plants, are membranous tubes 
 with conical extremities, lined in the inside by a fibre 
 twisted spirally, and capable of unrolling with elasticity ; 
 their function is that of the conveyance of air. They are 
 found in almost any part of plants except the bark; but are 
 most abundant in leaves and flowers, and least common in 
 the stem and root, except in the medullary sheath of the 
 former. 
 
 SPIRE. (Gr. c-Ktipa, a twisting.) In Architecture, 
 among the ancients, the base of a column : also the as- 
 tragal or torus of the base. In modern architecture, it is 
 an erection above the tower of a church, which diminishes 
 gradually as it rises; sometimes rising in the form of a plain 
 tlender pyramid, polygonal on the plane. 
 
 SPI'RIFER. The name of a genus of extinct Pallio- 
 branchiate mollusks, characterized by the shell having two 
 internal calcareous spiral appendages, 
 
 SPl'RIT OF WINE, tee Alcoi 
 
 TION. 
 
 SPI'RITO, SPIRITOSO (It. spirit, with spirit), in Music, 
 denotes, when affived to a movement, that it is to be per- 
 formed in a spirited manner. 
 
 SPI'RITS. All inflammable liquors obtained by distilla- 
 tion, as brandy, rum, geneva, whiskev, &c, are comprised 
 under this designation. The manufacture of spirits is 
 pkiced under the surveillance of the excise, and a very 
 large revenue is obtained from it. The following statistical 
 accounts relative to spirits, &c, for the year ending Jan. 5, 
 1841, are extracted from a return laid before the House of 
 Commons : 1. It appears that during that period the total 
 gallons of proof spirits distilled in the United Kingdom, and 
 produced trom malt and from a mixture of malt with un- 
 malted grain, amounted to 22,021,394 gallons, of which 
 5,918,435 gallons were distilled in England, 8,821,530 gallons 
 in Scotland, nnd 7,281,440 gallons in Ireland. 2. The total 
 gallons of proof spirits on which duty was paid for con- 
 sumption in the Uniied Kingdom amounted to 21,859,337 
 gallons; the total amount of duty paid thereon havintr been 
 £5,208,040. Of these 21 ,859,337 gallons, there were 8,278,148 
 on which duty was paid for home consumption in England 
 6,180,338 in Scotland, and 7,404,051 in Ireland. 3? The 
 total number of gallons of proof spirits (made from various 
 grain, &c), imported into England from Scotland, was 
 2,056,640 ; into England from Ireland, 370,441 ; into Ireland 
 from Scotland, 762,358; and into Scotland from [reland, 
 6459 ; the gross total amount of duty paid upon all which 
 was £1,028.294. 4. The total number of gallons of proof 
 spirits permitted out from distillers' stocks in England 
 amounted to 5,864,950; and the total number of gallons 
 proof of British brandy and spirits of wine, permitted out 
 from rectifiers' stocks in England, was as follows, viz., 
 British brandy 308,063 gallons, and spirits of wine 236,007 
 1148 
 
 SPONGE. 
 
 gallons. 5. The total number of proof gallons of foreign 
 spirits (including rum, brandy, geneva, &c.) which paid 
 duty in the United Kingdom, amounted altogether to 
 ZnTSltn .L lb „? e \ . !, T u,lt °f dBtypald upon which was 
 £2,440,942. Of this duty, England paid £2,352,550, Scot- 
 land £66,134, and Ireland £33,258. If to the above quan- 
 tities there be added the spirits of the manufacture of the 
 United Kingdom, and of Jersey and Guernsey, the gross 
 total number of gallons of spirits of all kinds that paid duty 
 in the year 1840-41 will amount to 25,517,326, and the net 
 amount of such duty to £7,654,233. (For full particulars 
 as to the operation of the duties upon spirits, see the Com. 
 Diet.) See Distillation. 
 
 SPI'RITUALISM. as distinguished from Materialism. 
 I hat system according to which all that is real is spirit, 
 soul, or self; that which is called the external world being 
 either a succession of notions impressed on the mind by 
 the Deity, or else the mere educt of the mind itself. The 
 first is the spiritualism of Berkeley ; the second, which 
 may be called pure egoism, that of Fichte. 
 
 SPI'RULID^E. The name of a family of Dibranchiate 
 Cephalopods, of which the genus Spirula is the type. 
 They are chiefly characterized by having a spiral discoid 
 chambered shell developed in the substance of the mantle, 
 instead of a calcareous or horny plate. 
 
 SPLANCHNOLOGY. (Gr. oirXavvov, an entrail, and 
 Aoyoc, a discourse.) The doctrine of the viscera. 
 
 SPLAYED. (Displayed, spread out.) In Architecture, 
 a term used to denote an angle which is cut off, or oblique. 
 SPLEEN. A spongy viscus, of an oval form, the use of 
 which is unknown; placed in the human subject in the 
 left hypochondrium, between the eleventh nnd twelfth 
 false ribs. Spleen is also used for a species of hypochon- 
 driasis to which the English are said to be particularly 
 open. 
 SPLENITIS. Inflammation of the spleen. 
 SPLE'NIUS. A flat muscle, situated between the back 
 of the ear ard the lower and posterior part of the neck. 
 
 SPLExNT COAL. An inferior kind of cannel coal from 
 the Scotch collieries. 
 SPLICE. 
 
 In Naval language, to join the end of a rope 
 with the end or bight of another by untwisting the strands 
 of both and laying them up again involved. 
 
 To splice the main brace, a term applied to an extra allow 
 ance of spirits In cases of cold or wet. 
 
 SPLINT. A piece of wood or pasteboard, so shaped as 
 to support a broken or debilitated limb. 
 
 SPLINTERY. That fracture of minerals which is nearly 
 even, but exhibits small splinters or scales thicker at one 
 extremity than the other, and adhering by their thicker 
 ends to the broken surface. 
 
 SPO'DL'MENE. A mineral found in laminated masses, 
 hard, brittle, translucent, and of various shades of green, 
 or grey. It was first discovered at Utoe, in Sweden. It 
 consists of silica and alumina, with 8 to 10 per cent, of 
 lithia. Before the blowpipe, it exfoliates Into little scales 
 of an ash colour: hence its name, from oiroSvio, to reduce to 
 ashes. It is also called triphane. 
 
 SPOLIATION, WRIT OF, in English Law, is obtained 
 by one of the parties to a suit in the ecclesiastical courts 
 suggesting that his adversary has wasted the fruits of a 
 benefice, or received them to his prejudice. The suit 
 founded on this writ lies for one incumbent against another, 
 where they both claim by one patron, and the right of 
 patronage is not in question. 
 
 SPO'NDEE. (Gr. avovSn, a libation.) In Greek and 
 Latin Poetry, the name of a foot consisting of two long 
 syllables, it was so called because it was originally em 
 ployed in the hymns sung in honour of the gods during the 
 offering up of a sacrifice, for which it was admirably fitted 
 from its grave structure. Spondaic verse is an hexameter 
 line, in which the two lust feet are spondees; instead of 
 the usual termination, a dactylus and a spondee. 
 
 SPO'NDYLUS. (Lat. spondylus, a spindle or shellfish.) 
 The name of a Linnrean genus of the Vermes Testacea, 
 comprehending the spring oysters ; characterized by having 
 a strong tooth on each side of the depression lodging the 
 elastic ligament of the hinge of the shell. The genus is 
 included in the Ostracean family of the Acephalous Testa- 
 cea by Cuvier, and has been subdivided by Lamarck into 
 the genera Spondylus proper and Plicatula. Some of the 
 species of Spondylus, as the water-clam {Sp. vnriits). form 
 a series of chambers by secreting successive layers of 
 nacreous shell at a distance from each other, the last cham- 
 ber containing a quantity of fluid, which escapes by very 
 slow evaporation through the pores of the calcareous shell. 
 SPONGE (Fr. eponge, Germ, schwamm), is a cellular 
 fibrous tissue produced by small animals, almost Imper- 
 ceptible, called Polypi by naturalists, which live in the sea 
 This tissue is said to be covered in its recent state with a 
 kind of semifluid thin coat of animal jelly, susceptible of a 
 slight contraction or trembling on being touched ; which is 
 
SPONGE TENT. 
 
 the only symptom of vitality displayed by the sponge. 
 After death this jelly disappears, and leaves merely the 
 sponge ; formed by the combination of a multitude of small 
 capillary tubes, capable of receiving water in their interior, 
 and of becoming thereby distended. Sponges occur attached 
 to stones at the bottom of the sea, and abound particularly 
 upon the shores of the islands in the Grecian Archipelago. 
 Although analogous in their origin to coral, sponges are 
 quite different in their nature ; the former being composed 
 almost entirely of carbonate of lime; while the latter are 
 formed of the same elements as animal matters, and afibrd 
 on distillation a considerable quantity of ammonia. 
 
 Dilute sulphuric acid has been recommended for bleach- 
 ing sponges, after the calcareous impurities have been re- 
 moved by muriatic acid. Chlorine water answers better. 
 
 The sponges of commerce are usually prepared before 
 they come to the market, by being beaten and soaked in 
 dilute muriatic acid with a view to bleach them, arid to dis- 
 solve any adherent portions of carbonate of lime. Three 
 kinds are found commonly in the market, and known as 
 the Turkey ; the variety of the same, which is very rare ; 
 and the West Indian. On examining the living sponge of 
 commerce with a power of about 500 linear, the fleshy mat- 
 ter will be distinctly observed, having in its interior gemma:, 
 which are considered to be the young. These are occa- 
 sionally given off from the mass of living matte:. The 
 greater portion of the mass of sponge consists of small 
 cylindrical threads or fibres, various in size. The spicule 
 are not found within these, but in the large and flattened 
 Stores, and varying in number from one to three or more, 
 Imbedded in their substance. Sometimes one spirillum 
 projects a half or more from the side of the fibre, and is 
 then only covered with the animal matter at the base, or 
 half way up. The fibres of the West Indian species of 
 sponge have been clearly proved to be solid. In the rare 
 variety of Turkey sponge, the fibres are possessed of vessels 
 which anastomose in various directions, differing much in 
 wze, and not imbedded in homy fibre, but in a separate 
 sheath. This true vascular tissue performs very- iui|>ortant 
 functions in the economy of the animal during life. In 
 some of the tubes of sponge have been observed small 
 globules, the largest of which measured the 1666th of an 
 inch, and the smallest the 50,000th of an inch. They were 
 accidentally perceived to move from right to left. (See a 
 Paper read by Mr. Bowerbank at a meeting of the Micro- 
 scopical Society in 1841.) 
 
 SPONGE TENT, is formed by dipping sponge into hot 
 
 melted wax plaister, and pressing it till cold between two 
 
 iron plates : it is then cut into pieces, and used for dilating 
 
 wounds. 
 
 SPO'NGIjE. The nnme of n class of aquatic Zoophites 
 
 d of the different genera and species of sponge. 
 BPOWGIOLE. In Botany, the lax cellular tissue and 
 mucus situated at the extremities of roots, having the prop- 
 erty of absorbing fluid like a sponge ; whence the name. 
 
 SPONSIONS. In International Law, acts and engage- 
 ments made on behalf of states by agents not specially 
 authorized, or exceeding the limits of the authority under 
 which tiwy purport to be made, are so called by writers on 
 this branch of jurisprudence. Such conventions must be 
 confirmed by express or tacit ratification ; the latter of 
 which is implied from the fact of acting under it ns if bound 
 by its stipulations ; but mere silence is not, in general, held 
 equivalent to ratification. Such are the official acts of 
 admirals and generals suspending or limiting hostilities, 
 capitulations of surrender, cartels of exchange, &c. (See 
 Grotius, De Jure Bel. et Pae., lib. Hi.; Vattel, liv. ii. ; 
 Wheaton, On International Law, vol. i., p. 291.) 
 
 SPO'NSORS. In the Roman Catholic, Greek, Luthernn, 
 and Calvinistic Churches on the Continent, and in the Church 
 of England, the name given to the parties who at the bap- 
 tism of infants make a profession of the Christian faith in 
 their name, and guarantee their religious education. (See 
 Jfeandcr's Church History, vol. i., part 2.; In the Presby- 
 terian Church, baptism is administered without sponsors. 
 
 SPOO'NDRIFT. The light spray blown off the waves in 
 a violent wind. 
 
 SPO'RADIC. (Gr. oirtipw, I sow.) A term applied to 
 such diseases as attack a few persons at a time. 
 
 SPORANGI'UM. (Gr. airopa, a seed, and ayyciov, a ves- 
 sel.) The case in which the reproductive matter of ferns, 
 mosses, and many other Cryptogamic plants is enclosed. 
 Sporangiolum is the same part, when so small as to be mi- 
 croscopic. 
 
 SPORl'DIA. (Gr. onopa, and eiSos, form.) A term used 
 in describing Alga? and Characere, to denote the granules 
 which resemble sporules, but which are of a doubtful nature. 
 Also, in describing Fungi, to indicate the immediate cover- 
 ing of the sporules. 
 
 SPORIDIO'LA. The sporules or reproductive granules 
 of Fungi. 
 SPO'RTUM RPORTUT.A.. In Roman Antiquities. It 
 
 SQ.UILL. 
 
 uas an ancient usage in Rome for rich men to distribute 
 victuals on certain occasions among their poor clients, each 
 of whom attended for the purpose with a wicker basket 
 (sportum.) Afterwards this dole was generally commuted 
 for money; and the sum thus distributed, about UK) quad* 
 rantes, or eighteen pence English, was called sportula. 
 
 SPO'RULES, or SPORES. (Gr. tnropa. a teed.) The re 
 productive bodies of Asexual or Cryptogamic plants, differ 
 ing from seeds in not being generated by impregnation, and 
 in having no definite and predetermined points of growth, 
 but springing forth into young plants from any part of their 
 surface. 
 SPOTS ON THE SUN. See Si x. 
 SPUING. In Astronomy, one of the four seasons of the 
 year. For the northern hemisphere, the spring season be- 
 gins when the sun enters Aries, the first of the northern 
 signs, or about the 21st of March, and ends at the time of 
 tin' summer solstice. See Seasons. 
 
 Spring. In Mechanics, a piece of mechanism, formed 
 of tempered steel or some other elastic substance, applied 
 mostly for the purposes of producing resistance, or of pre 
 venting a shock from the collision of hard bodies, or of 
 giving motion to mechanism by its effort to unbend itself 
 For the law of the force exerted by a spring, see Elastic 
 Curve. 
 Spring. In Natural History. See Fountain. 
 Sprino. In Naval language, a rope or hawser by which 
 a ship is held at one part, as the bow or quarter, in order to 
 keep her ic a particular position, or to turn her in a short 
 compass. 
 
 SPRINGING. In Architecture, the lower part of an 
 arch; or that part from which it rises. 
 
 SPRING TIDES. The tides at the times of the new and 
 full moon. At these times the sun and moon are in a 
 straight line with the earth, and their joint effect in raising 
 the waters of the ocean is a maximum, and the tides are 
 consequently the highest. See Tides. 
 
 S I'll IT SAIL. This is generally a four-cornered fore-and- 
 aft sail, supported diagonally by a piece of wood called the 
 sprit. Ships formerly carried sails on their sprit-sail yards. 
 SQUA'DRON, in Military affairs, signifies a body of cav- 
 alry, averaging from one to two hundred men. In naval 
 matters, it is applied to a detachment of ships employed on 
 a particular expedition. 
 
 SQUALL. The Sea term for a gust of wind, or for a 
 short temporary increase in the force of the wind. 
 
 SQUA'MA. (Lat. a scale.) The brnctere of an amen 
 turn ; also used occasionally for any kind of bacted or rudi 
 nientary leaf which has a scaly appearance. 
 
 SQUA'MMIPKXNES. (Lat. squama; penna, a fin.) 
 The name of a family of Acanthopterygious fishes, com- 
 prising those which have the dorsal and anal fins covered 
 with scales. 
 
 SQUA'MOUS. (Lat. squama, a scale.) In Zoology, 
 when a surface is covered with small scales. 
 
 SQUARE. In Geometry, a four-sided rectilineal figure, 
 of which all the angles are right angles, and all the sides 
 equal. 
 
 SQUARE MEASURES. The squares of the lineal 
 measures. See Measure. 
 
 SQUARE NUMBER, in Arithmetic, is the product of a 
 number multiplied by itself. Thus, the squares of the nat- 
 ural numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c., are respectively, 1, 4, 9, 16, 
 25, Inc. The square numbers are the first series of figurate 
 numbers derived from the progression 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, &c, in 
 which the common difference of the terms is 2. {See Fiou- 
 rate Numbers.) Among the properties of square num- 
 bers the following may be mentioned : Every odd square 
 number is of the form 8 n + 1, or, when divided by 8, leaves 
 1 for the remainder. Every even square number is of the 
 form 4 n, or is divisible by four. Every square number ends 
 with one or other of the following digits, 0, 1, 4. 5, 6, 9. No 
 number of the form 2 m2 -f-3n 2 can be a square. 
 
 SQUARE-RIGGED. The term for a vessel carrying 
 square sails, which are extended by yards suspended hori- 
 zontally, or slung by the middle. 
 
 SQUARE ROOT. In Arithmetic, the square root of any 
 number is the number which being multipled into itself 
 produces the given number. Thus 12 is the square root of 
 144, i is the square root of i, and -05 the square root of 0025. 
 When the given number is not an exact square, the root 
 may be found to any degree of approximation by the process 
 for extracting the square root, which is taught in every book 
 of common arithmetic. See Quadratic Equation. 
 
 SQUILL The roof of the Scilla maritima. Squills are 
 imported from the Levant ; they have a nauseously hitter 
 and very acrid flavour, and are generally cut into slices and 
 dried for pharmaceutical uses. There are two varieties, the 
 red and the white ; which, however, do not appear to differ 
 materially in composition. In large doses squill is purgative 
 and emetic ; but it is chiefly employed in smaller doses as a 
 
 1149 
 
STABAT MATER DOLOROSA. 
 
 powerful expectorant, and as a diuretic in combination with 
 other remedies. Half an ounce of oxymel of squills is 
 sometimes prescribed as an emetic in cases where the 
 bronchia; are much loaded with viscid mucus, and in the 
 chronic coughs of old people. 
 
 STA'BAT MATER DOLOROSA. The first words of 
 a celebrated Latin hymn of the Church, in rhymed lines of 
 eight syllables without metre ; said to have been composed 
 by a Franciscan monk named Jacopone, in the 14th century. 
 It has been set to music by nearly all the great composers ; but 
 the best known of all their compositions is that of Pergolesi, 
 commenced by him when nearly on his deathbed, and fin- 
 ished by another hand. The stabat mater is performed in 
 the ecclesiastical services of the Roman Church during 
 Holy Week. 
 
 STACCA'TO. (It. separated.) In Music, a term denoting 
 that the notes to which it is affixed are to be detached in a 
 striking way from each oilier, being much like spiccato, 
 which see. 
 
 STACK. Corn in the sheaf piled up in a circular or rect- 
 angular figure, brought to a point or ridge at top, and after- 
 wards thatched to protect it from the influence of the weath- 
 er, and more especially from rains. The term is also some- 
 times applied to hay piled up in the same manner ; which, 
 however, in most places, is called a rick. The foundation 
 of a corn stack is commonly made on a platform of wood or 
 Iron, raised on props to protect it from the moisture of the 
 soil, and also from rats and mice ; in which respect stacks 
 of corn differ from ricks of hay, which are built always on 
 the ground. 
 
 STA'DIUM. (Gr. oraSiov.) A measure of length in use 
 among the ancient Greeks and some other nations, the pre- 
 cise value of which is unknown ; though there are some 
 data from which a rough approximation to its value may be 
 made. The most ancient measurement of an arc of the ter- 
 restrial meridian is that of Eratosthenes, and the result gave 
 the length of the circumference of a great circle = 250,000 
 stadia. But the circumference of the earth's equator is 
 known to be nearly 25,000 English miles; whence, suppos- 
 ing the measurement of Eratosthenes to be correct, a stadium 
 is the tenth part of an English mile. Posidonius found by 
 another measurement the circumference of the earth to he 
 240,000 stadia : on the same supposition of an accurate de- 
 termination, this gives about 9£ stadia to the English mile. 
 Rut it is to be remarked, that little dependence can be 
 placed on these ancient measurements ; for Ptolemy esti- 
 mated the circumference of the earth at 180,000 stadia, 
 which is only ijths of the result found by Posidonius. The 
 stadium is, however, supposed to have been different at 
 different places. (See Paucton, Metrologie ; nlso the Quar- 
 terly Review, No. 5.) The best account of the stadium, 
 and the ancient mode of measuring distances, is to be col- 
 lected from the various memoirs of Danville, in the Mem. 
 de VAcad. des Inscr., vols, xxiv., xxviii., xxxvi. ; and His- 
 toire de VJlcad., vols, xxvii., xxxi. 
 
 Stadium. In Ancient Architecture, an open area used 
 for exercises by the Grecian youth. With the Romans it 
 was much in the form of the circi, but most of the Grecian 
 stadia were enclosed by merely an earthen mound. Vitruvi- 
 us informs us that its length was much greater than its 
 breadth; the lists were formed by a bank or terrace. 
 Though the stadium mostly formed part of a gymnasium, 
 it sometimes formed a separate structure, and was built at 
 great cost and with considerable elegance ; witness that on 
 the Corinthian Isthmus mentioned by Pausanias, as well as 
 that of Herodie Atticus at Athens, which was of large di- 
 mensions, and constructed of Pentelican marble. Besides 
 this, mention is made bv that author of several others. 
 
 STA'DTHOLDER. (Dut. stadhouder, city-holder.) The 
 name formerly given to the commander-in-chief of the mili- 
 tary forces in the republic of the United Netherlands. Wil- 
 liam I., Prince of Orange, had been made governor or stadt- 
 holder of the three provinces of Holland, Zealand, and 
 Utrecht; and during the war of independence, he was con- 
 tinued in that office by the goodwill of those provinces. 
 After his death the Earl of Leicester was declared stadt- 
 holder by the States General ; while some of the separate 
 provinces appointed Prince Maurice, son of their former 
 governor. For a century and a half afterwards the office 
 was conferred and withdrawn by the several provinces at 
 many different times, although always confined to members 
 of the house of Orange. William IV., Prince of Orange, in 
 1747, was the first general hereditary stadtholder ; in 1794, 
 the office ceased in the French conquest ; in 1814, the pres- 
 ent head of the hou*e of Orange (who recently abdicated 
 in favour of his son) was raised to the throne by the title of 
 King William I. The power of the stadtholder varied in 
 different provinces, and at different periods. 
 
 STAFF. In Music, the five lines and spaces between 
 .hem, on which music is written. 
 
 Staff. In Architecture. See Rudenture. 
 
 Staff. In Military alluirs, those officers attached to the 
 1150 
 
 STAMENS. 
 
 commander of an army to assist him in carrying his phwi 
 into execution. They consist of a quartermaster-general, 
 adjutant-general, majors of brigade, &*•"- The importance 
 of the judicious selection of a stall' is ably demonstrated in 
 the preface to James's Military Dictionary. 
 
 STAFF ANGLE. In Architecture, a square rod of wood 
 standing flush with the wall on each of ils sides, at the ex- 
 ternal angles of plastering on the inside of the apartme.lts, 
 to prevent the angles thereof being broken or dam 
 
 STAIRS. In Architecture, steps for ascending (mm the 
 lower to the upper part of a house. When these are en- 
 closed with walls or balustrades, with landing-places foi 
 communication between the several stories of a building, 
 the whole is called a staircase. Vitruvius makes no men- 
 tion of staircases in his Treatise on Architecture ; and, in- 
 deed, with the ancients they formed no feature in the in- 
 terior, being generally on the outside of the houses. Those 
 of which traces remain are narrow, and so inconvenient 
 that in some cases the steps are a foot in height. In modern 
 architecture, they are often constructed with great display 
 of skill and magnificence, and are no small test of the skill 
 and power of the architect. Those stairs which proceed in 
 a right line of ascent are called Jlicrs ; when they wind 
 round a solid or open newel they are called winders. Mixed 
 stairs are such as partly wind and partly fly. 
 
 STALA'CTITES. Conical concretions of carbonate of 
 lime attached to the roofs of calcareous caverns, and formed 
 by the gradual dropping of water holding the carbonate in 
 solution : from ara\uooui, I drop. 
 
 STALA'GMITE. Stilactical formations of carbonate of 
 lime, found upon the floors of calcareous caverns. 
 
 STALK. In Architecture, an ornament resembling a 
 stalk in the Corinthian capital, from which the volutes and 
 helices spring. It is sometimes fluted. 
 
 STALL. In Architecture, a seat raised on the sides of 
 the choir or chancel of a church, mostly appropriated to a 
 dignitary of a cathedral or collegiate church. Sometimes 
 stalls are placed near the high altar, for the priest and 
 deacon or subdeacon to rest while the service in certain 
 parts is carried on by the choristers. In churches of the 
 kinds named there is generally a series of them. At St. 
 George's Chapel, Windsor, a stall is appropriated to every 
 Knight of the Garter after his election and installation. 
 
 STA'LLAGE. In Law, a duty paid for the liberty of 
 setting up moveable stalls or tables, or the like, b a fair or 
 market ; due to the owner of the soil as such, to set up stalls 
 without whose licence i.« trespass. When the stalls are 
 fixed into the ground, the duty is termed pic/cage. 
 
 STALL-FEEDING CWtle kept in stables, and tied up 
 separately, which have ttieir food brought to them, are said 
 to be stall-fed. The advantages of this mode of fattening 
 cattle are very great, both to the farmer or feeder and to th«= 
 public; because much less food is wasted, and a mu<h 
 greater quantity of mamue is produced. The disadvantages 
 are, that more manual labour is required for cutting and 
 carrying the food from the field to the stable: and that the 
 flesh of the animals, for want of exercise in the latter, is 
 not considered so wholesome or high-flavoured as that of 
 cattle which have pastured at large. To remedy this de- 
 fect of stall-feeding, the most enlightened fanners, instead 
 of rendering their cattle fixtures by tying them up to stakes, 
 put two or three togetber in small yards, with a shed atone 
 end, in which they can take exercise, shelter, or repose, ac- 
 cording to their inclination. By this mode an equal quan- 
 tity of manure is produced with less labour, and the flesh of 
 the cattle is reckoned wholesome. When herbage plants 
 or grasses are cut only two or three times in the course of 
 a season, instead of being continually cropped by the bite of 
 cattle during the whole summer, the amount of vegetable 
 produce is found to be much greater, because the plant while 
 growing perfects a sufficient number of leaves to nourish 
 the root; and when this produce is given to cattle in racks, 
 in stables, sheds, or small courts, much less of it is wasted 
 than if it were eaten on the spot where it grew. Hence any 
 given surface of cultivated land will produce a much greater 
 quantity of butcher meat under crops to be mown than un- 
 der herbage to be pastured ; and stall-feeding, therefore, is 
 one of the greatest modern improvements that has lieen in- 
 troduced into husbandry. There can be little doubt that, 
 with the progress of rural improvement, it will ultimately 
 become universal; and then, and -not till then, will the 
 butcher meat of warm climates be equal to that of such 
 climates as that of Britain. In warm climates, at present, 
 cattle cannot be fattened by pasturing. 
 
 STA'MENS. (Lat.) The male apparatus of a flower. 
 They are situated immediately within the petals, and con- 
 sist each of a filament, the anther, and the pollen ; of which 
 the two latter are essential, and the former not. The} 
 a modified form of the petal, and are placed next it on il < 
 inside next the centre of the flower. Independently of their 
 physiological importance, they are much used as good maika 
 of "discrimination in systematical botany. 
 
STAMIMDIA. 
 
 STAMIMDIA. (Lat. stamen.) Those bodies which 
 are supposed to he, In Hepatic*, and other Cryptogenic 
 plant*, the equivalent of anthers in more perfect plants. 
 
 STAMP DUTIES. Duties imposed on pieces of parch- 
 rnenl and paper on which many species of legal instruments 
 are written; on newspapers, advertisements, cards, dice, 
 &c. Tile stamp duties have been consolidated and altered 
 t variety of acts of parliament ; and by 4 and 5 \V. 
 it), the boards of stamps and taxes are united into a 
 single one. 
 
 The manner in which the stamp duties on lepral instrtt- 
 are chiefly secured is by prohibiting the reception of 
 them i.i evidence, unless they bear the (tamp required by 
 the law. Should the Instrument, after being stamped and 
 ■ d, be altered, a restainping will in certain cases be 
 requisite; thus, a mere mistake may be altered without a 
 • : but any change in the terms of a contract, or any 
 fresh conveyance by indorsement on a former one, requires 
 i stamp. The objection to an instrument arising from 
 the want of a stamp must be taken at the trial before the 
 neat is read; but it is sufficient lor the purpose of 
 ce that the instrument when produced on the trial 
 should be properly stamped, although it may not have been 
 ■tamped w bin it was executed ; except in cases where the 
 commissioners of stamps are prohibited, by express enact- 
 ment, from affixing in this manner a subsequent stamp. 
 an instrument has been lost, and it is proposed to 
 give secondary evidence of its contents, it is necessary first 
 • evidence that it was duly stamped; but this fact 
 may be presumed from circumstances: and where an in- 
 strument is withheld by an adversary alter notice to pro- 
 duce, it is always taken as against him that it is so stamped. 
 An unstamped instrument, though inadmissible in evidence 
 ■fits contents, may yet be received in evidence for collateral 
 pur|K»ses. Thus, in indictment for forgery of an instrument, 
 the instrument may be produced, although unstamped; and 
 an agreement, although unstamped, is admissible for the 
 pin pose of proving usury, &c. (dee Starkie on Evidence.) 
 
 STA'NCHIONB. The Sea term for upright supports in 
 general. 
 
 STAND. A Sea term, used variously; as, for example, 
 a sail is said to stand well or ill. A ship is said to stand 
 towards or from the shore or any object (for to sail). To 
 stand en, to continue the course. To stand by, to be ready. 
 
 BTA'NDARD. In Botany, the up|)er and erect petal of 
 tint form of corolla which is called Papilionaceous, from its 
 resemblance to a butterfly. 
 
 Standard. See Banner, Flaq. 
 
 Standard of Money. Set Money. 
 
 STANISLAUS, SAINT. A Polish order of knighthood, 
 founded by Stanislaus, king of Poland, in 1765; renewed by 
 the emperor Alexander in 18i5. 
 
 STA'NNARIES. (Lat. stannum, tin.) The stannary 
 courts of Devon and Cornwall, are courLs of record for the 
 administration of justice among the tinners. They are held 
 before the lord warden and his substitutes. The privileges 
 of the tinners were confirmed by 33 E. 1. The appeal from 
 the lord warden lies to the privy council of the Prince of 
 Wales, and thence to the sovereign. 
 
 BTA'NNIC ACID. Peroxide of tin. 
 
 STANZA. (Ital. stanza, station.) In Poetry, a series 
 or number of verses connected with each other in a poem, 
 of which the metre is constructed of successive series similar 
 in arrangement. The stanza, however, must be understood 
 to form a shorter division than the classical strophe, to 
 ivhich this definition would be equally applicable. The 
 term is of Italian origin, and signifies literally a station or 
 resting place : it is so called from terminating with a full 
 point or pause. The ottava rima, which consists of six 
 lines in alternate rhyme ended by a couplet, the lines being 
 deca, or, rather, hendeca-syllabic, is the principal Italian 
 stanza. (See Ottava Rima.) The Spenserian stanza (which 
 was perhaps invented by the poet from whom it derives its 
 name, but was certainly first applied by him to the construc- 
 tion of a regular poem) consists of eight deca-syllabic verses 
 and an Alexandrine at the end; the first and third verses 
 forming the last rhyme ; the second, fourth, fifth, and sev- 
 enth another; and the eighth and ninth a third rhyme. 
 Lord Byron has given both to the Ottava and the Spenserian 
 stanza in English verse a peculiar and original character. 
 
 .Stanza. In Architecture, an apartment or division in a 
 building. The series of divisions of the Vatican, for in- 
 stance, are called the stanze of the Vatican. 
 
 STAPES. A stirrup. One of the bones of the internal 
 ear is so called, from its shape. 
 
 STAPHYLO'MA. (Gr. otuQvXv, a grape.) A disease 
 of the eyeball, in which the cornea becomes opaque and 
 tumid, forming a white projection, sometimes resembling a 
 grape in shape ; it occasionally increases to a great extent, 
 and requires to be removed by an operation. 
 
 ST A PL E, signified originally a public market, whither 
 merchants were obliged to carry their goods for sale ; but is 
 
 STAR. 
 
 now applied to the chief commodities either grown or manu- 
 factured in any country. 
 
 STAR. (Gr. uotBuv, Ger. stern.) In a popular sense, 
 the term star is used to designate any celestial body what- 
 ever, including the planets; but in astronomy it is applied 
 only to those self-shining bodies which are situated beyond 
 the sphere of solar attraction, and consequently do not par 
 ticipate in the motions of the solar system. 
 
 One of the first results of the observation of the li'iivms 
 was, that the stars maintain always the same positions re- 
 latively to each other. Hence they were called./!] 
 in distinction to the planets, or wandering stars, which are 
 constantly changing their places in the armament The 
 fixity of the stars is, indeed, not absolute; lor modem ob- 
 servations have detected some changes of relative position 
 among them ; but these changes are so minute, that, in gen 
 era], they only become sensible after the lapse of a number 
 of years, by a comparison of positions determined with the 
 most perfect instruments at the beginning and end of the 
 interval. They are consequently altogether inappreciable 
 to unassisted vision, and the discovery of their existence lias 
 not rendered a change of language necessary: astronomers 
 still speak of the fixed stars. 
 
 Apparent Magnitude of the Stars. — The first circum 
 Stance which arrests the attention of the observer of the 
 stars is the great differences of their apparent magnitudes 
 or their relative brightness. In order to establish a grada- 
 tion in this respect, and for the convenience of description 
 and reference, astronomers divide them into classes or orders, 
 which are called magnitudes. A few of the most brilliant 
 are denominated stars of the first magnitude ; those of an 
 inferior degree of brightness aie of the second magnitude ; 
 and so on down to the Oth or 7th, which, according to the 
 established convention, romprehund all the stars visible to 
 the naked eye. The gradation is, however, still continued 
 among those which are only visible in the telescope, and 
 magnitudes from the 8lb to the 16th are familiar to those 
 who are in the practice of using powerful instruments. It 
 is, however, to be remarked, that this classification is not 
 based on any photemetrical determination, but is entirely 
 arbitrary. "Of a multitude of bright objects," says Sir 
 John Herschel, "differing, probably, intrinsically, both in 
 size and splendour, and arranged at unequal distances from 
 us, one must of necessity appear the brightest, one next be- 
 low it, and so on. An order of succession must exist ; and 
 it is a matter of absolute Indifference where, in thai infinite 
 progression downward* from the brightest to the invisible, 
 we choose to draw our lines of demarcation. All this is 
 matter of pure convention. Usage has, however, established 
 such a convention ; and although it is impossible to deter- 
 mine exactly, or a priori, where one magnitude ends and 
 another begins, and although different observers have dif- 
 fered in their magnitudes, yet, on the whole, astronomers 
 have restricted their first magnitudes to about 15 or 90 prin- 
 cipal stars, their second to 50 or 00 next inferior, their third 
 to about 200 yet smaller, and so on ; the numbers increas- 
 ing very rapidly as we descend in the scale of brightness, 
 the whole number of stars already registered, down to the 
 7th magnitude inclusive, amounting to 15,000 or 20,000." 
 (Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopaedia, p. 371.) 
 
 Arrangement and Nomenclature of the Stars. — In order 
 to indicate the quarter of the heavens in which any star is 
 situated, astronomers, in the earliest ages of the science, 
 had recourse to the method of forming them into groups, to 
 which they gave the name of constellations, or aeterianu 
 (see Constellation), and distinguished the different groups 
 one from another by appellations borrowed in general from 
 mythology, and suggested by vague resemblances or fanciful 
 analogies, the origin of which it is now difficult or impossi- 
 ble to trace. A few of the brightest stars received particu- 
 lar names; some of which, conferred by the Creeks and 
 Arabs, have been preserved, as Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, 
 Arcturus, Capella, &c. ; but it is obvious that this nomen 
 clature could not be carried to any great extent. The sys- 
 tem which has prevailed in modern times, and been gene- 
 rally adopted by astronomers in their charts and catalogues, 
 was invented by Bayer, whose Uranometria, containing 
 charts of all the constellations, was first published at Augs- 
 burg in 1603. It consists in distinguishing the stars belong- 
 ing to each constellation by the letters of the alphabet, be- 
 ginning with the brightest, which is called a. The next 
 brightest is called /?, the next in order of brightness y, and 
 so on; and when the letters of the Greek alphabet were 
 exhausted, Bayer had recourse to the Roman, and then to 
 the Italian. It is to be observed, that the order of the let- 
 ters indicates only the relative brightness of stars in the 
 same constellation, without reference to other parts of the 
 heavens. Admitting the principle, it might have been sim 
 pier to have employed the ordinal numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, &c, 
 for distinguishing individual stars. But great perplexity 5s 
 caused by the irregular forms of the constellations, whose 
 numerous contortions and interlacings with each other baffle 
 • 1151 
 
STAR. 
 
 the efforts of memory, and which seem, as Sir J. Herschel 
 remarks, " to have been purposely named and delineated 
 to cause as much contusion as possible." 
 
 Distribution of the Stars— The stars are very irregularly 
 distributed over the celestial splitre. In some regions spaces 
 of considerable magnitude occur in which scarcely a single 
 star is to be seen, while hi others they are crowded to- 
 gether, so as to present to the unassisted eye the appear- 
 ance of a confused mass of light. A great and rapid in- 
 crease of number is in general perceptible as we approach 
 the borders of the Milky Way, where they appear, when 
 viewed through a powerful telescope, to be crowded almost 
 beyond imagination. (Sec Milky Way.) Besides the ge- 
 neral increase which takes place towards this region, there 
 are in several parts of the heavens patches or clusters of 
 stars, where great numbers are condensed into a very nar- 
 row space. A telescope turned upon the Pleiades shows 
 fifty or sixty large stars crowded together within a small 
 area, and comparatively insulated from the rest of the hea- 
 vens. The constellation Coma Berenices is a similar 
 group, though more diffused. Another occurs in the con- 
 stellation Cancer, and is called Prasepe, or the Beehive, 
 from the great number of stars it presents in the telescope. 
 In the sword-handle of Orion there is also a group of the 
 same kind, but in which the individual stars can only be 
 distinguished in a telescope of considerable power ; and in 
 various parts of the heavens there are found luminous spots 
 in which no star can be distinguished with ordinary tele 
 scopes, but which, when viewed through very powerful in- 
 struments, are found to consist of stars crowded together so 
 as to occupy almost a definite outline. "Many of them," 
 says Sir J. Herschel, " are of an exactly round figure, and 
 convey the complete idea of a globular space) filled full of 
 stars, insulated in the heavens, and constituting in itself a 
 family or society apart from the rest, and subject to its own 
 internal laws. It would be a vain task to count the stars 
 in one of these globular clusters. They are not to be reck- 
 oned by hundreds ; and on a rough calculation, grounded on 
 the apparent intervals between them at the borders (where 
 they are not seen projected on each other) and the angular 
 diameter of the whole group, it would appear that many 
 clusters of this description must contain at least ten or 
 twenty thousand stars compressed and wedged together in 
 a round space, whose angular diameter does not exceed 8 
 or 10 minutes ; that is to say, in an area not exceeding the 
 tenth part of that covered by the moon." (Astronomy, p. 
 400.) 
 
 Number of the Stars. — Hopeless as any attempt to count 
 the number of the " starry host" may appear to be, it has 
 nevertheless been sometimes made. Of the stars visible to 
 the naked eye at any one time, the number probably does 
 not exceed a few thousands ; but in the telescope they are 
 prodigiously multiplied. Sir W. Herschel estimates that 
 in a zone not exceeding two degrees in breadth, but includ- 
 ing a portion of the Milky Way, the number which passed 
 through the field of his telescope in a single hour amounted 
 to 50,000. On account of their irregular distribution this 
 estimate furnishes a very imperfect datum for inferring the 
 whole number in the sphere ; but it has been supposed that 
 not fewer than 75 millions may be visible in a good tele- 
 scope. Baron Zach, indeed, was of opinion that there may 
 be 1000 millions in the entire heavens. But it is abundant- 
 ly obvious that all estimates of this sort are nothing better 
 than fanciful conjectures ; and instead of a limit being found 
 to the number of the stars, there is an infinitely greater 
 probability that if an observer could transport himself to 
 the remotest visible star, he would there behold a firma- 
 ment not less rich than the one he left behind. " Every 
 increase, " says Sir J. Herschel, "in the dimensions and 
 power of instruments, which successive improvements in 
 optical science have attained, has brought into view multi- 
 tudes innumerable of objects invisible before ; so that, for 
 any thing experience has hitherto taught us, the number 
 of the stars may be really infinite, in the only sense in which 
 we can assign a meaning to the word." (Astronomy, p. 373.) 
 Parallax and Distance of the Stars.— The distance of the 
 fixed stars from the earth has in all ages been an object of 
 interest and inquiry. The element from which the dis- 
 tance can be deduced is the annual parallax, or the angle 
 subtended by the diameter of the earth's orbit at the dis- 
 tance of the star (see Parallax) ; but this distance is so 
 great that if we except one or two instances, perhaps still 
 doubtful, all the attempts of astronomers to determine it 
 have hitherto been fruitless. The instance in which the 
 observations have most probably shown the annual parallax 
 to have a measurable value is that of the double star 61 
 Cygni, observed by Bessel at Konigsberg in 1839 and 1840. 
 The value of the parallax obtained by this celebrated as- 
 tronomer was 0-3483" (a little more than the third part of a 
 second), from which it results that the distance of the star 
 is 592,000 times the mean radius of the earth's orbit ; a 
 
 distance so enormous, that light, which is propagated with 
 
 a velocity of 192,000 miles in a second, would require 9j 
 years to traverse it. (Monthly Notices of the Royal Aslr. 
 Society, May, 1840.) Now there is every reason to believe 
 that this is one of the nearest of the fixed stars ; and it is 
 no extravagant supposition that there may be others still 
 visible which are a thousand times more remote. If, there- 
 fore, one of these were annihilated, some tea thousand 
 years would elapse before its extinction could be perceived 
 at the distance of the earth. 
 
 Proper Motions of the Stars. — On comparing the place* 
 of the stars determined by recent observations with the po- 
 sitions assigned to them in the older catalogues, it is found 
 that many of them have undergone a very sensible dis- 
 placement. Within the last fifty years the double star 61 
 Cygni, above mentioned, has moved through 4' 23" of 
 right ascension ; and as the motion appears to be uniform, 
 its rate is therefore about 5-3" annually. Another star (jx 
 Cassiopeia) has an annual proper motion of 374". The 
 number of stars in which such motion has been detected, 
 though of smaller amount than in the above instances, is 
 very considerable. Out of 2959 stars in the catalogues of 
 Bradley and Piazzi, Bessel found 425 having a proper mo- 
 tion of not less than - 2". The discovery of the existence 
 of such changes in the places of the stars gives rise to some 
 interesting speculations relative to the constitution of the 
 universe. That the stars gravitate to each other like the 
 bodies of the solar system is rendered certain from the phe- 
 nomena of binary stars ; and when we admit the prevalence 
 of this force among them, we are led to suppose a centrifu- 
 gal force to be necessary to counteract the tendeny to a ge- 
 neral collapse produced by their mutual gravitation. Hence 
 we conclude that the proper motions must be performed in 
 circular or elliptic orbits round some very remote centre ; 
 and as every appearance leads us to suppose the stars to be 
 bodies of the same nature as our own sun, it becomes ex- 
 tremely probable that the sun with its attendant system is 
 transported through space with a similar motion. Now the 
 translation of the solar system would necessarily give rise 
 to an apparent change of the positions of the stars; for in 
 consequence of the diminution of distance, they must ap- 
 pear to recede from that point of the heavens towards 
 which the sun's motion is directed, and to converge and be 
 come more condensed in the region diametrically opposite. 
 Sir William Herschel was of opinion that this is what ac- 
 tually takes place, and that a general recess of the principal 
 stars from the point occupied by g Hercules is already indi- 
 cated by the catalogues, and consequently that the solar 
 system is carried forward in the direction of that star. It 
 seems however, to be the opinion of astronomers at present 
 that the observations are not yet sufficient to establish the 
 certainty of this motion ; but whether the supposition shall 
 be confirmed or not, it is evident that the proper motions 
 which have been remarked, cannot be al^ accounted for in 
 this way. They appear, indeed, to be subject to no one as- 
 signable law, but to be directed to many different and even 
 opposite points of space. It is. a curious circumstance, and 
 was first noticed by Bessel, that a large proportion of the 
 stars which have a proper motion are double stars. In the 
 Memoirs of the Royal Jlstron. Society, vol. ii., a list is given 
 of all the stars whose proper motions, as determined by 
 comparison of the observations of Bradley and Mayer with 
 Piazzi's catalogue, exceed half a second either in right as- 
 cension or declination. 
 
 Variable and Periodic Stars. — The proper motions are 
 not the only indications of the existence of active forces in 
 the stellar regions. Many stars have been observed whose 
 light appears to undergo a regular periodic increase and di 
 minution of brightness, amounting in some instances to a 
 complete extinction and revival. Of this kind one of the 
 most remarkable is the star Omicron in the constellation 
 Cetus, or the Whale, which has a period of about 334 days 
 At its greatest brightness it is a star of the second or third mag 
 nitude, and continues in this state about a fortnight, when 
 its light begins to wane, and at the end of three months 
 it becomes for some time invisible to the naked eye. Algol, 
 in the constellation Perseus, appears for about 62 hours us a 
 star of the second magnitude ; its light then suddenly dimin- 
 ishes, and in about 3J hours it is reduced to the fifth magni- 
 tude ; it then begins to revive, and in the space of 3£ hours 
 more it is restored to its original state, thus accomplishing 
 its period in about 69 hours. The star 6 Cephei lias a peiiod 
 of about 5 days 8S hours, and ji Lyra; one of 6 days 9 hours. 
 A star in the breast of the Swan has a peiiod of about 15 
 years, during five of whidh it is invisible. Various other 
 similar instances have been remarked ; and recently Sir 
 John Herschel has pointed out a Cassiopeia; and a Orionii 
 (the latter of the first magnitude) as variable stars . ( Month 
 ly Notices of the Royal Jistr. Society, May, 1S39, and .Tuno 
 1840.) 
 
 Several hypothesis have been suggested to account foi 
 these variations. Newton suggested thai the starn wolva 
 about axes of rotation, like the sui. end planets ; and Ilia' 
 
STAR. 
 
 parts of their surfaces may be covered with spots, or be 
 less fitted to emit light. Maupertuis supposed that their 
 figure is not globular but flat, and that the variations of 
 brilliancy depend on the angle made by the tlat sides with 
 the visual ray. Others, again^have imagined that the par- 
 tial obscurations may be occasioned by dark bodies or pla- 
 nets revolving about them in regular periods. 
 
 Temporary Stars. — On examining ancient catalogues it is 
 found that some stars formerly distinguished by their splen- 
 dour have entirely disappeared, no stars being now found 
 in the places which they are set down as having occupied. 
 Others have suddenly shone forth with extraordinary bril- 
 liancy, and after a longer or shorter period have gradually 
 died away, and become extinct. A phenomenon of this 
 kind, about lv!5 years B.C., induced Hipparchus to under- 
 take the formation of his catalogue. In the year 389 of our 
 era a star suddenly blazed forth near a Aquilte, and re- 
 mained for three weeks as bright as Venus, and then dis- 
 appeared. But one of the most remarkable instances is 
 that of the star which appeared in 1572, and was observed 
 by the astronomer Tycho Brahe. It suddenly shone forth 
 in the constellation Cassiopeia, attained a splendour equal 
 to that of Jupiter and Venus when nearest the earth, and 
 could be seen with the naked eye at mid-day. Its bright- 
 .-.-adually diminished, and at the end of sixteen months 
 it disappeared, and has never been seen since. During the 
 time 01 its visibility, its apparent place remained unchanged. 
 All the phenomena attending it are fully described by Tycho 
 in his work entitled De JVotia Stella Anni, 1572. A similar 
 phenomenon occurred in the year 1604, in the constellation 
 ntarius, of which an account is given by Kepler (Z>e 
 Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii, Pragse, 1006). For various 
 other instances of a similar kind, nnd also of stars set down 
 in the catalogues, but which cannot now be found, the 
 reader is referred to Lalandc's Jlstronomie, tome 1., p. 250. 
 
 Double and Multiple Stars.— Many of the stars which 
 appear to the naked eye, or in telescopes of feeble power, 
 merely U bright point!, are found, when observed with high 
 magnifying powers, to be composed of two.^and some of 
 them of three or more stars, in close juxtajwiition. This 
 appearance may arise from the circumstance of two stare 
 being situated In nearly the same line of view; for it isevl- 
 that two stars thus placed would appear as a double 
 however gnat the real distance between them may 
 ltd" by Galileo that the variations (if sen- 
 sible) oif the apparent distance betweei two contiguous 
 stars would furnish a good method of determining the an- 
 nual parallax ; and a series of observations on double stars 
 was undertaken by Sir William Hcrschel with n view to 
 this question. The result, however, was a discovery of a 
 ■ iiti'erent kind; for instend of finding an alternate in- 
 crease and decrease of the apparent distance between the 
 two stars, which would be the consequence of an annual 
 parallax, he observed in some instances a regular progres- 
 ■ tiange from year to year in one direction. By reason 
 of the slowness of the apparent motion, a considerable in- 
 terval claimed before he was able to determine its laws ; 
 but it was explicitely announced by him in 1803 that there 
 exist sidereal systems composed of two stars, one revolving 
 round the other, or both about a common centre. Subse- 
 quent observations have fully confirmed this discovery ; and 
 in some instances even the ellipticity of the orbits and the 
 periods of revolution have been determined. Some of these 
 binary systems, as they are called, have periods of great 
 length, and which, consequently, have been inferred from 
 observations continued during the description of only a 
 small part of their orbits Thus, y Leonis has an angular 
 motion of about only 3-10ths of a degree in a year, and 
 consequently requires 1200 years to complete its revolution. 
 The star y Virginia, which consists of two stars of nearly 
 the same magnitude, has a period of 629 years. The period 
 of 61 Cygni is 452 years, and that of Castor 252 years. 
 There are others, however, having much shorter periods, 
 and which have already been observed through their entire 
 orbits. The star ri Corona?, for example, has a period of 
 little more than 43 years, and has consequently completed 
 nearly two revolutions since its discovery as a double star 
 by Sir William Herschel in 1761 ; ^ Ursa; Majoris has a pe- 
 riod of about 58$ years, and 70 Ophiuchi one of about 80 
 years. Since the time of Sir William Herschel, the observ- 
 ation of double stars has been a subject of much interest in 
 astronomy, and catalogues containing some thousands of 
 tli em have been published, giving the apparent distances of 
 the two bodies, and their angles of position, or the direction 
 of the straight line which joins them, by comparing which 
 with future observations their orbits and periods will be- 
 tome known. (Herschel and South, Phil. Trans. 1826; 
 Herschel, Memoirs of the Royal Astronom. Society, vol. iii., 
 Btruvc, Catalog-us Slcllarum Duplicium et Multiplicium, 
 Petropoli, 1837.) 
 
 About 40 or 50 of the double stars are already known to 
 form binary or revolving systems ; and there are others 
 4 D 
 
 STARCH. 
 
 presenting phenomena still more remarkable. Struve has 
 enumerated 52 triple stars; and systems have been ob- 
 served compounded of five and even more stars, all appear- 
 ing to revolve about a common centre. 
 
 Some of the binary systems afford curious instances of 
 contrasted colours, the colour of the smaller star bring fre- 
 quently complementary to that of the larger. In such in- 
 stances the larger star is usually of a ruddy or orange hue, 
 and the smaller one blue or green. Sir J. Herschel tliin!<-i 
 it probable that the colour of the small star is the effect of 
 the brighter light of the If.rgeone; for it is a general raw of 
 optics that when the retina is under the excitement of any 
 bright-coloured light, feebler lights for the time appeal 
 coloured with the complementary tints. This opinion 
 seems strengthened by the fact that though insulated Bt rs 
 of a red colour, almost as deep as that of blood, appear In 
 many parts of the heavens, no green or blue star (of any 
 decided hue) has been noticed unassociated with a com- 
 panion brighter than itself. 
 
 Intrinsic Light of the Stars. — On account of the dlstar.ee 
 of the stars, His not possible to form any idea of their acruKl 
 magnitude; for when viewed through good telescopes they 
 appear simply as luminous points without any sensible 
 disks. Their light may, however, be compared with that 
 of any other luminous object; and Dr. Wollaston found by 
 photometrical experiments the light of Sirius, the brightest 
 of the fixed stars, to be to that of the sun in the ratio of 1 10 
 20,000,000,000. Now the proportion of light received froM 
 any luminous body being inversely as the square of its dis- 
 tance it follows that the sun would require to be removed 
 to 141,400 (the square root of the above number) times its 
 actual distance, in order that its light should be equal to 
 that of Sirius. But the parallax of Sirius, if sensible at all. 
 is undoubtedly less than 1", whence it is easily calculated 
 that the distance of Sirius cannot be less than 200,000 times 
 the distance of the sun from the earth : from this it follows 
 that the light of Sirius cannot be less than the double of 
 that emitted by the sun. Dr. Wollaston, assuming a smalli-r 
 and more probable limit of the parallax, supposes the light 
 of Sirius to be equal to that of fourteen suns. (Phil. Trans., 
 1829 ; Nerschel's Astronomy, p. 380.) 
 
 The observation of the places of the stars has formed 
 the principal business of the astronomer in all ages; for as 
 it is to them that the motions of the planets nnd all the other 
 bodies of the solar system are referred, the knowledge of 
 their exact relative positions is the foundation of all our 
 astronomical theories, and of all the applications of the 
 science to the practical purposes of geography and naviga 
 tion. The discovery of their proper motions could only Ik: 
 made after instruments and methods of observation ni.il 
 theory had been brought to a state of great perfection, and 
 is consequently of recent date. For our knowledge of 
 binary and other systems of connected stars, and, in gen- 
 eral, of all the facts which have been brought to light 
 respecting the physical constitution of the stars, we are 
 chiefly indebted to the two Herschels; and so pre-emi- 
 nently distinguished have been the labours and discoveries 
 of these illustrious astronomers in this department of ob- 
 servation, that it is now usually called the Herschelinn 
 branch of astronomy, in contradistinction to the observation 
 of positions which forms the business of national observ- 
 atories. See Astronomy, Nebula. 
 
 STARBOARD. The right-hand side of a ship, lookins 
 forwards. 
 
 STARCH. (Germ, stflrke.) Starch is one of the com 
 monest proximate principles of vegetables. It is charac- 
 terized by its insipidity, and by insolubility in cold water, 
 in alcohol, and in ether. It dissolves in, or at least forms a 
 gelatinous compound with water, heated to 1750; and this 
 solution, even when much diluted, is rendered blue by 
 iodine. This admirable test of the presence of starch is not 
 effective in hot solutions ; and, by boiling, the blue colour 
 disappears, but returns in strong solutions as they cool. 
 The term starch is commercially applied to that obtained 
 from wheat, which, for this manufacture, is ground and dif- 
 fused through vats of water, where it undergoes a slight 
 fermentation, and acquires a peculiar sour smell. Apart 
 of the gluten and albumen of the grain is thus separated in 
 the form of a viscid scum; the starch being in the form of 
 a finely divided white powder, Is gradually further sepa- 
 rated by washing in large quantities of water, from which 
 it is ultimately allowed to settle, and put into boxes lined 
 with linen to drain ; it is then cut into squares, which are 
 dried first in airy chambers upon porous bricks, and after- 
 wards rolled up in papers and stove dried ; it isun this latter 
 operation that the starch acquires that peculiar columnar 
 texture and fracture which is well exhibited on opening a 
 paper parcel as it comes from the stove. A little smalt h 
 generally added to the starch, by which it acquires a very 
 pale blue tint, and is better adapted to conceal or cover the 
 yellow tint acquired by worn linen. Starch may be ob- 
 tained from many other grains, and from potatoes and 
 
 1153 
 
STAR CHAMBER. 
 
 several other esculent vegetables. Arrow root is the starch 
 of the Maranta arundinacea ; sago, of the Sagus farinifcra, 
 an East India palm tree; and tapioca and cassava of the 
 Jatropha manihot. Viewed under the microscope, the ve- 
 rities of starch exhibit a more or less distinct globular ap- 
 pearance, and are said to be made up of little spherical 
 particles of soluble starch, enveloped in an insoluble mem- 
 brane, which protects the interior from the action of cold 
 water, but which is broken or burst by hot water. In the 
 process of germination, and by various chemical agents, 
 starch may be converted into a species of gum and of 
 sugar. 
 
 Starch is charged with a duty of 34/2. per lb. ; and its man- 
 ufacture is, consequently, placed under the control of the 
 excise. Every maker of starch for sale must take out an 
 annual licence, which costs £5. Notice must be given to 
 the excise, of the erection, and of all changes in the con- 
 struction of workshops, implements, &.c. used in the manu- 
 facture of starch, under a penalty of £200. All starch, be- 
 fore it is put into any stove or place to dry, must be papered 
 and sealed, or stamped by the officer, under a penalty of 
 £100. Any person forging or counterfeiting such stamp or 
 seal is guilty of felony, but with the benefit of clergy. Any 
 person knowingly selling any starch with a forged or coun- 
 terfeit stamp, &c, forfeits £500. No quantity of starch ex- 
 ceeding 28 lbs. to be removed from one place to another, 
 unless the word starch be marked on the package in legible 
 letters three inches long, under forfeiture of the package, 
 and of the cattle and carts conveying the same. Any 
 dealer in starch receiving any quantity exceeding 28 lbs. not 
 marked as above, shall forfeit £200. Starch-makers are to 
 make weekly entries of the starch made by them, under a 
 penalty of £50 ; and are to make payment of the duties 
 within a week of such entry. Cockets granted for ship- 
 ping starch to be carried coastwise are to express the 
 quality, quantity, weight, the mark of the package, by 
 whom made and sold, and to whom consigned ; and if ship- 
 ped without such cocket, it may be seized. No starch is 
 to be imported, unless in packages containing at least 224lbs. 
 stowed openly in the hold, on pain of forfeiture, and of in- 
 curring a penalty of £50. No starch is to be exported, un- 
 less the package as originally sealed or stamped by the 
 officer be entire, and unless the officer mark the word ex- 
 portation upon it. The duties must have been paid on all 
 starch exported; but the exporter is entitled to an excise 
 draw back of 3|d. per lb. (Burn's Justice of the Peace, 
 Marriot's ed., tit. " Starch.") 
 
 STAR CHAMBER, COURT OF (Curia camera Stel- 
 la ts>; from the ornaments of the ceiling of the room in 
 which at one period it sate), was originally the privy coun- 
 cil itself, " sitting in the star chamber," and there exercising 
 important criminal jurisdiction, and administering equitable 
 relief. It is mentioned as early as the reign of Edward III. 
 In the third year of Henry VII. an act was passed giving 
 determinate criminal powers, extending chiefly to state of- 
 fences and misdemeanors of a pubhc kind, to the court of 
 star chamber. The judges were four high officers of state, 
 with power to join a bishop and a temporal lord of the 
 council, and two justices of the courts of Westminster, to 
 their number. They proceeded by bill and information 
 without the assistance of a jury. The sittings of the privy 
 council itself, as a criminal court, were after this gradually 
 abandoned, and its powers transferred to the star chamber. 
 This court continued to exercise very extensive jurisdiction, 
 both in political matters and in private concerns, during the 
 reigns of Henry VIII. and his successors, until it was finally 
 dissolved by 16 Car. 1, c. 10, together with what remained 
 of its cognate jurisdictions. (See Council, Privy.) 
 
 STA'RKEY'S SOAP. A compound of turpentine, or 
 oil of turpentine, and alkali. 
 
 STA'ROST. A title under the Polish republic enjoyed 
 by noblemen who were in possession of certain castles and 
 domains called starosties. These were grants of the crown, 
 and only conferred for life, but generally renewed after the 
 demise of a possessor to his heirs. 
 
 STA'RSTONE. A very rare variety of sapphire, which, 
 when cut and viewed in a direction perpendicular to the 
 axis, presents a peculiar reflection of light in the form of 
 a star. 
 
 STA'TER. (Gr. orarnp.) An ancient Greek measure 
 of value. It was undoubtedly a coined piece of money at 
 an early period. The common gold currency in the repub- 
 lican times of Greece consisted of staters. The Attic golden 
 stater weighed two drachms, and is estimated at twenty 
 silver drachms ; but the value of the coin struck by different 
 states with this denomination varied greatly. 
 
 STATES, or ESTATES. In modern European History 
 (French etats, Germ, stande), those divisions of society, 
 professions, or classes of men, which have partaken, either 
 directly or by representation, in the government of their 
 country. Their number has varied in different countries. 
 In France, and most othw feudal kingdoms, there have 
 1154 
 
 STATICS. 
 
 been three estates (nobles, clergy, commonality), member* 
 of the ancient national assemblies. Hence the well-known 
 appellation tiers Hat (third estate) for the last. In Sweden 
 there are at this day four : nobility, clergy, citizens, peasants 
 In most countries the ancient system of assemblies con 
 voked from separate estates disappeared by the pn 
 absolute government in the 16th and iTtb centuries ; and ir. 
 modern monarchical constitutions the English system of 
 government, by king, lords, and commons, or analogous 
 powers, has prevailed. But the states have been recon- 
 stituted of late years in some German monarchies and 
 grand duchies, the electorate of Hesse Cassel, &c. 
 
 STATES-GENERAL. In French History, assemUiei 
 which were first called A.D. 1302, and were held occasion- 
 ally from that period to the year 1614, when they were dis 
 continued, till they were summoned again at an interesting 
 period, viz., in the year 1789. These states-general, how- 
 ever, were very difFerent from the ancient assemblies of 
 tile French nation under the kings of the first and second 
 race. There is no point with respect to which the French 
 antiquaries are more generally agreed than in maintaining 
 that the states-general had no suffrage in the passing of 
 laws, and possessed no proper jurisdiction. The whole 
 tenor of the French history confirms this opinion. See 
 Assembly, Directory. 
 
 STA'TICS. (Lat. stare, to stand.) The branch of Me- 
 chanics which has for its object the investigation of the 
 conditions of equilibrating forces, or the conditions under 
 which several forces applied to a rigid body mutually de- 
 stroy each other. 
 
 There are three general principles on which the theory 
 of equilibrium may be grounded: these are, 1. The prin- 
 ciple of the lever; 2. The principle of the composition of 
 forces ; and 3. The principle of virtual velocities. 
 
 Principle of the Lever. — The equilibrium of a straight 
 horizontal lever, loaded at its extremities with weights 
 which are reciprocally proportioned to their distances from 
 the fulcrum, was demonstrated by Archimedes (see Le- 
 ver); and it is easy to extend this principle to the bent 
 lever, when t, e fulcrum is at the angular point, and to 
 show that if the two arms be urged in opposite directions 
 by two forces perpendicular to the arm-;, and reciprocally 
 proportioned to Weir lengths, there will be equilibrium. 
 Now, it is an axiom in statics that a force may tie regarded 
 as acting at any point whatever in the line of its direction ; 
 and hence it follows that any two forces, applied at any 
 points whatever in a plane which is only moveable round 
 a flied point, and having any directions whatever in that 
 plane, will be in equilibrium when they are to each other 
 reciprocally as perpendiculars drawn from the fixed point 
 to the lines of their direction ; for the perpendiculars may 
 be regarded as the arms of a bent lever having the fixed 
 point for its fulcrum. This general principle, which is also 
 called the principle of moments, suffices for the resolution 
 of all the problems of statics, and is, indeed, the only on* 
 which was rigorously demonstrated previous to the dis- 
 covery of the composition of forces; that is to say, previous 
 to the publication of the Principia in 1687. 
 
 Composition of Forces. — The second general principle 
 consists in this, that any two forces acting together nixin 
 the same point of a body, are equivalent to a single force 
 represented in intensity and direction by the diagonal of 
 a parallelogram, of which the two given forces aro repre- 
 sented by the sides. This equivalent of the two force! is 
 called their resultant ; and as the resultant may be com- 
 bined with a third force acting on thb same point, and the 
 resultant of this composition with a fourth, and so on, it 
 follows that any number of forces applied to the same 
 point have a single resultant, or may be replaced by a single 
 force. (See Force.) This principle was not known to the 
 ancients. Galileo demonstrated that a body moved by two 
 uniform velocities, the one vertical and the other horizontal, 
 must acquire the velocity represented by the hypothenuse 
 of the right-angled triangle, whose sides represent respect- 
 ively the two velocities. This is a particular case of the 
 principle. Newton proved it to be true generally, and sub- 
 stituted the composition of forces for that of motions; and 
 in the second corollary to the third law of motion, he shown 
 how the laws of equilibrium may easily be deduced from it. 
 The JVouvelle Mecanique of Varignon, published in 1725, 
 contains the first complete theory of the equilibrium of 
 forces in different machines, deduced solely from the prin 
 ciple of the composition of forces. The simplicity of th 
 principle, and the facility of its application to all question: 
 connected with equilibrium, caused it to be almost itmiie 
 diately adopted; and it is the basis of all the modem 
 treatises of statics. 
 
 Virtual Velocities.— -The third general principle on which 
 the conditions of equilibrium may be made to depend con 
 sist-- in this, that forces acting in opposite directions destroy 
 each other when they are inversely proportional to the ve- 
 locities which they would respectively communicate to the 
 
 it 
 
STATICS. 
 
 body in the first instant of its motion, if the equilibrium wen 
 oyed. '1'liis principle applies almost sell-evidently to 
 the conditions of equilibrium of the lever, pulley, and other 
 simple machines. lis generality was firs! remarked by John 
 Bernoulli. It has been adopted by Lagrange, as the basis 
 >f his JMcanique Jinalytiquc ; and it has the advantage 
 over the others of being capable of representation in I 
 general formula, which includes the solution of every ques- 
 tion that can be proposed relative to the equilibrium of 
 however, remarks that it is not suffi- 
 cient! . I to lie erected into a primitive principle; 
 but it may be regarded as a general expression of the laws 
 of equilibrium deduced from the two former. See Virtual 
 
 VELOCITY. 
 
 The general problem of statics may be thus enunciated : 
 Tujittd tlie equations of equilibrium of a body urged by any 
 number of forces having any directions whatever t'n space. 
 hall briefly indicate the steps by which the equations 
 which express the conditions of equilibrium are obtained, 
 principle of the composition Of forces. 
 1. A force which acts on any point of a solid body may 
 be regarded as applied at any point in the line of its direc- 
 tion, provided the different points of the line are invariably 
 connected, as is the case with any two points of a rigid 
 body. This, as already staled, may be assumed as an 
 axiom. 
 •J. I f a material point is urged by two forces acting in the 
 at line, and in the same direction, the etlect will 
 be the same as if the point were urged in the same direction 
 by a eingle force equal to their sum ; and if the two forces 
 net in opposite directions, the effect will be the same as if 
 the two forces were replaced by a single force equal to their 
 difference acting in the direction of the greater. The single 
 Into which the others are compounded is called the 
 resultant; and as a third force may lie compounded with 
 the resultant of two, another with the new resultant, and 
 so on, it is obvious that any number of parallel forces act- 
 a point have a single resultant. 
 1). It has been shown h 'Vne article Force (p. 4C2) that 
 a force acting in any direction can always be decomposed 
 into three others respectively parallel to three straight lines 
 u space, provided no two of these lines be parallel. 
 ■ it follows that whatever be the number or the di- 
 m of the forces which act upon a solid body, they may 
 be all replaced by three sets of parallel forces acting in 
 directions. We have, therefore, only to consider the 
 theory of parallel forces. 
 
 1 When two parallel forces P and Q, acting in the same 
 
 „, direction, are applied to the extremities of a 
 
 / rigid straight line A B, the resultant It will 
 
 / bo equal to their sum, parallel to their com- 
 
 / mon direction, and will divide the line A B 
 
 ■*■ c * into two parts in C, so that the distance of 
 
 / / / the points of application from C are recipro- 
 
 L / «' cally as the forces, or so that A C : C B : : 
 
 Q : P. Thus, if A P and B a be taken to 
 
 '* represent the forces, and CR the resultant, 
 
 we have CR=AP + BQ; and the two 
 
 forces will be in equilibrium with the force CR', equal to 
 
 C It, ami acting in the opposite direction. 
 
 5. When two parallel forces P and Q., acting in oppo- 
 
 site directions, are applied to the extremities 
 q of a rigid straight line A B, there are two 
 K- I cases for consideration. If P and Q are un- 
 
 / . / equal, they have a resultant which is par 
 -/* rallel to their direction, equal to their dif- 
 ference, and applied at a point C in A B pro- 
 duced, which is such that A (J : C B : : Q, : P, 
 'P or A C : A B : : a : P — (i, and the two forces 
 
 represented by AP and B CI will be in equi- 
 librium with a force C R' equal and opposite to C R. But 
 if the two forces P and Q. are equal, the point C, deter- 
 mined as above, is at an infinite distance, and there is con- 
 sequently no resultant. In this case, therefore, the two 
 forces I' and (i cannot make equilibrium with any single 
 force. 
 
 The system of two equal and parallel forces applied in op- 
 posite directions at the extremities of a rigid straight line is 
 very important in statics. For the sake of facilitating cal- 
 culation, the two forces may be transferred to other points 
 in the lines of their direction, so that the line joining the 
 new points of application shall be perpendicular to the di- 
 rection of the forces. Under this form, the system has been 
 aVuignntrd by the French mathematicians a couple ; and its 
 consideration has introduced great simplicity into the theory 
 •>f equilibrium. We shall here state the principal properties 
 of couples, referring for the details of demonstration to the 
 Elemens de Statique of Poinsot. 
 
 6. Def. : A couple is a system of two equal parallel forces 
 acting in opposite directions, and applied perpendicularly to 
 the extremities of an inflexible straight line of a given 
 length 
 
 V. It Lb obvious from the definition that the efficacy d a 
 couple depends on two things ; the intensity of the forcee, 
 and the length of the straight line or lever to the extrem- 
 ities of which they tire applied. Now the force multiplied 
 into the leverage is the ttwiiunt, or the measure of the ef- 
 fect produced. Let the force be denoted by !', and the 
 length of the straight line by a, then F a is the statical 
 moment of the couple. And if there be another couple F' 
 a', such that F : I" : : a' : a, then Fa = F'a'; or the sttiti 
 cut momenta of the two couples are equal, and the one may- 
 be substituted tor the other without disturbing the conditions 
 of equilibrium. 
 
 6. .Any couple applied to a solid body may be trat 
 parallel to itself, to any position in its own plane, or in any 
 other parallel plane ; and it may be turned round through 
 any angle In those planes Without altering in any manner 
 its effect 00 the body to which it is applied, provided the 
 new points of application are invariably connected with 
 those to which the couple was originally applied. 
 
 9. Two couples situated anywhere In the same plane, or 
 in parallel planes, may be (.imposed into a single couple 
 equal to their sum, if they tend to turn the body in the same 
 direction, or equal to their difference if they tend to turn it 
 in opposite directions. Heme, by successive composition, 
 any number of couples acting in parallel planes may be re- 
 placed by a single couple, the statical moment of which 
 will be equal to the difference between the sum of the mo- 
 ments of all the couples tending to turn the body in one di- 
 rection, and the sum of the moments of those which tend to 
 turn it in the opposite. 
 
 10. Two couples situated anywhere in two plan 
 intersect each other may always b« compounded into a sin- 
 gle couple ; and if we represent the moments of the two 
 couples respectively by two straight lines, making an angle 
 equal to that of the two planes, and complete with the par- 
 allelogram, the moment of the resulting couple will he rep 
 resented by the diagonal, and the plane of the resulting 
 couph; will divide the ancle termed by the plan 
 component couples into two parts respectively equal to the 
 parts into which the diagonal divides the angle of the par 
 allelogram. From this it is obvious that by successive com- 
 position any number whatever of couples, applied in any 
 manner to a solid body, may bo replaced by a single couple. 
 
 11. Reciprocally, any couple may always be reaob 
 two others situated in given planes, provided thei 
 
 and the plane of the proposed couple meet in the same or 
 in parallel straight lines. 
 
 H. From the principles above stated, we draw this im- 
 portant conclusion — viz., that when a solid body is urged by 
 any number of forces having any directions wfaatevt r, the 
 whole may be reduced to one force and to one couple. For 
 let m be one of the points of a solid body, and conceive a 
 force F represented in intensity and di- 
 rection by the straight line m F to be 
 applied ut m. Take O any point what- 
 ever in the solid body or invariably 
 connected with it, and draw O A per- 
 pendicular to m F, and conceive the H_ 
 force F to be applied at A in the same 
 direction m F. Now suppose another 
 force G represented by O G, equal and 
 parallel to m F, to be applied at O, and let a third force 11 
 represented by O H, equal to O G, but acting in the opposite 
 direction, be also applied at O. These two auxiliary forces 
 will not alter the statical condition of the body, because the 
 one exactly destroys the effect of the other. But the sys- 
 tem of three forces F, G, II may now be conceived as con- 
 sisting of a single force G applied at O, and of a couple 
 formed by the two forces F and H applied at the extremities 
 of the lever O A. Let O A be denoted by a, then the stati- 
 cal moment of this couple is Fo ; and by (91 we may eon 
 ceive it to be moved in its own plane until the centre of the 
 arm O A coincides with the point O 
 
 In like manner, if the other points m' m" &c, of the solid 
 body be respectively urged by forces F' F", &c, acting in 
 any directions whatever, each of these forces may be re- 
 placed by a single force acting at O, and by a couple having 
 its centre at O. Now (2) nil the force acting at O will have 
 a single resultant R applied at the same point, and all the 
 couples having their centre at O may be compounded into 
 a single couple, which has its centre at the same point (9). 
 Therefore, finally, the whole of the forces acting on the sol- 
 id body may be reduced to one force and to one couple ; and 
 in order that the body may remain at rest, it is necessary 
 that the efforts of the resulting force and the resulting couple 
 be severally destroyed. It is to be observed, that the result- 
 ant R cannot destroy the couple, or be in equilibrium with 
 it ; and, in general, the resultant and the couple will be sit- 
 uated in different planes. 
 
 From this it appears that the conditions necessary for the 
 equilibrium of a body urged by a number of forces are these 
 1. That the resultant of all the forces at the point O be no 
 
 1155 
 
STATICS. 
 
 lliing ; and, 2. That the moment of the couple be nothing. 
 When the first of these conditions is satisfied, there can be 
 no progressive motion ; and when the second is satisfied, 
 there can be no rotatory motion about an axis. In order to 
 express these conditions by equations, an expression for the 
 single resultant, and an expression for the single couple, 
 must be deduced from the conditions of the proposed prob- 
 lem, and the results severally made equal to nothing. We 
 ehull now show the general forms of these expressions, and 
 for simplicity we shall first suppose all the forces to act in 
 the same plane. 
 
 Let there be any number of forces F' F" F'", &c, applied 
 
 respectively at the points m', m", m'", &c, 
 
 of a system of points invariably connected ; 
 
 { and suppose all the points to be in one plane, 
 
 j >/[ an d all the forces to act in the same plane, 
 
 c — ^JU— — I &• but to have any directions whatever in that 
 
 plane. From a point O taken arbitrarily in 
 
 O — j} S"the plane draw the rectangular axes OX, 
 
 O Y ; then, whatever the direction of the 
 force F', it may be resolved Into two forces respectively 
 parallel to these axes. Let the force F' be represented in 
 intensity and direction by the line m' I, and let X' = m' k be 
 its component parallel to the axis O X, and Y' = k I its com- 
 ponent parallel to O Y. In like manner let X" and Y" be 
 the components of a second force F" resolved in the same 
 manner, X'" Y'" those of a third F'", and so on ; then, in- 
 stead of the system of forces F', F", F'", &c, we shall have 
 two groups of parallel forces, namelv, X', X", X'", &c, par- 
 allel to O X, and Y', Y", Y'", &c, parallel to O Y. 
 
 Now if x' and y' be the co-ordinales of the point m', so 
 that x' = O B. and y 1 = O C (to' B and to' C being respective- 
 ly perpendicular to O X and O Y) ; then (12) the force X' 
 may be replaced by an equal force applied at O, and by a 
 couple whose statical moment isX'XOC^X' y'. In like 
 manner the force Y' may be replaced by an equal force ap- 
 plied at O, and by a couple whose statical moment is Y' X 
 OB = Y' x'. Each of the remaining forces X", X'", &c, 
 Y ', Y"', &c, may evidently be replaced in a similar man- 
 ner. But it is evident that the group of forces X', X", X'", 
 &c., applied at O, may be represented by a single force X 
 equal to their sum (those. which fall to the right of the axis 
 O Y being considered as positive, and those which fall in 
 the opposite direction as negative), and those of the group 
 Y' ,Y", Y'", &c, by a single force Y (having due regard to 
 the signs), and the first condition of equilibrium requires 
 that we have X = 0, Y = (for the resultant of X and Y 
 can only be nothing when these quantities are severally = 
 0) ; that is to say, we must have the two following equa- 
 tions: 
 
 X' + X" + X'" + fcc. = 0f ,. 
 
 Y' + Y"+Y"'- T -&c. = 0(- • • W 
 
 With respect to the two sets of couples X' y\ X" y", &c, 
 Y' x', Y" x", &c, since they are all situated in the same 
 plane, it follows from the principle stated in (9) that they 
 may all be compounded into a single couple whose statical 
 moment is equal to the sum of the statical moments of the 
 component couples ; and since the second condition of equi- 
 librium requires that the moment of this resultant couple be 
 nothing, the following equation must be satisfied: 
 
 X'y'-f-X"y"-r-&c.— Y'x' — X'x" — &c. = . . (b) 
 
 The effort exerted by each of these separate couples is to 
 turn the system round an axis passing through the point O, 
 and perpendicular to the plane X O Y ; and the sum of the 
 efforts being nothing, there is consequently no rotatory mo- 
 tion communicated. 
 
 The equations which have now been obtained for the 
 equilibrium of a system of forces all acting in the same 
 plane are easily rendered general. Let F", F", F'", &c, be 
 • the forces, having any directions whatever in space, applied 
 to the points of a solid body ; through a point O in the body, 
 or invariably connected with it, draw three rectangular axes, 
 OX, O Y, and O Z ; and let each of the-forces F' be resolved 
 into three others parallel to those axes, and denoted respect- 
 ively by X', Y', Z' ; then the first condition of equilibrium 
 obviously requires the three equations, 
 X' + X"4-X'"+&c. = 0) 
 Y'+Y" + Y'" + &c. = ot . . . (c) 
 Z' + Z"+Z'"- T -&c.=:0S 
 
 With respect to the couples formed by transporting the re- 
 solved forces from their points of application to the point O, 
 It 's manifest that as the direction of the forces are now in 
 planes parallel to three rectangular planes, X O Y, X O Z, 
 and Y O Z, the couples may all be transferred to those three 
 planes ; therefore, by the same reasoning as above, it is 
 easy to see that in each plane there will be two sets of 
 couples tending to turn the body about an axis perpendicu- 
 lar to that plane. Thus, in the plane X O Y, there will be, 
 as before, the two sets of couples X' y', X' y", &c, Y' x', Y" 
 x", &c. ; and, similarly, in the plane X O Z there will be two 
 sets X' :', X" z' , &c, Z' x\ Z" x", &c. ; and in the plane Y 
 O Z the two sets Y' z', Y" z", &c, Z' y', Z" y", &c. Now, 
 llflfi 
 
 STATION. 
 
 supposing all these couples to be compounded into one, it is 
 manifest that the moment of this resulting couple can only 
 be nothing when the sums of the moments of the couples 
 in each plane are respectively nothing: hence we have 
 this second set of equations, 
 
 X' y' + X" y" + &c. — Y'x' — Y" x" &c. = > 
 Y' z' -j- Y" z" + &c. — Z' y' — Z" y" &c. = > ... (d) 
 Z' x' + Z" x" + &c. — X' z' — X" z" &c. = S 
 These two systems of equations (c) and (d) contain the 
 conditions necessary for the equilibrium of any solid body 
 When the first system (c) is satisfied, there can be no pro- 
 gressive motion; and when the system (d) is satisfied, ther6 
 can be no rotation about an axis. 
 
 These two systems of equations are usurCy given under 
 a different form. Let a', (i', y', be the three angles which 
 the direction of the force F' make with lines parallel to the 
 three axes O X, O Y, OZ ; we shall then have for the com- 
 ponents of the force F', 
 
 X' = F' cos. a', Y' = F' cos. /3', Z' = F' cos. y'. 
 Denoting the analogous angles in respect of the force F" by 
 a", p", y", we shall have similar expressions for the com- 
 ponents of that force; and so on. Hence the six equations 
 (e) and (d) become 
 
 F' cos. a' -f- F" cos. a" + &c. = ) 
 F'cos. P' + F" cos. j3" + &c. = 0j. . . . (O 
 F' cos. y' + F" cos. y" -j- &c. = > 
 F' (y 7 cos. a' — x' cos. /j') + F" (y" cos. a" — x" cos. 
 
 " (i") -f- &c. = 
 F' (z' cos. 0' — y' cos. y') + F ' (z" cos. 8" — y" cos. i 
 
 y") + &c. = 
 F' (x' cos. y' — z' cos. a') + F" {%" cos. y" — z" cos. 
 a") + &c. = 
 
 Our limits will only permit of our giving a general" indi- 
 cation of the manner in which the above equations are ap- 
 plied to the solution of particular problems. 
 
 1. If the body is retained by a fixed point, we have only 
 to assume the fixed point as that in respect of which the 
 preceding transformations are made. The effort of (he re- 
 sultant of the different forces will then be annihilated by 
 the resistance of the fixed point, and consequently there 
 will be equilibrium if the resultant couple is nothing, or if 
 the three equations (d') are satisfied. 
 
 2. If the body is retained by two fixed points, the line 
 which joins them will constitute a fixed axis in the body. 
 On taking the point O anywhere on the axis, the resultant 
 of the forces applied at O will again be destroyed by the 
 resistance of the axis ; but in order that equilibrium may 
 take place, it is not now necessary that the resulting couple 
 be nothing — it is sufficient that it be situated in any plane 
 which contains the axis ; for when this condition is fulfilled, 
 its arm coincides with the axis and is fixed, and consequent- 
 ly the effect of the forces applied at its extremities will be 
 annihilated. 
 
 3. Lastly, if the body, in other respects free, be subjected 
 to touch an invariable plane, it is not necessary for equi 
 librium that the equations (c').be satisfied ; it will be suffi- 
 cient if the resultant of the forces be perpendicular to the 
 plane, provided it also fall within the interior of the space 
 which limits the points of contact of the body with the 
 plane, for in this case it will be destroyed by the plane's re- 
 sistance. The second system of equations (d 1 ) must, how- 
 ever, be satisfied ; since the resistance of the plane can only 
 generate a normal resistance, which, therefore, is incapable 
 of destroying the action of the couple. 
 
 Of all the forces which act upon bodies, that which most 
 frequently comes under our observation is terrestrial gravity, 
 under the influence of which all bodies, when unsupported, 
 fall to the ground in vertical lines. A solid body acted upon 
 by gravity presents the case of an infinite number of con- 
 nected points urged by parallel forces ; for though gravity 
 is directed towards the centre of the earth, yet, by reason 
 of the great magnitude of the earth in comparison of such 
 bodies as usually come under consideration, the direction of 
 the forces acting on the different points may all be regarded 
 as parallel. All these forces have therefore a single result- 
 ant, which, in respect of every particular body, passes 
 through a given point, called the centre of gravity. The de- 
 termination of the centres of gravity of different bodies, and 
 of their various properties, consequently forms a considera- 
 ble portion of every treatise on statics. For the general for- 
 mula?, see Centre of Gravity. (See Poinsot, Elhnens i/e 
 Statique; Biot, Notions de Statique; Poisson, Trait* d* 
 Mecanique ; Lagrange, Mecaniqut Jinalitique ; WhewrW 
 Mechanics ; and the references under the term Mechanics. 
 
 STA'TION. (Lat. stflre, to stand.) In Astronomy, a 
 planet is said to be at its station, or to be stationary, when 
 its motion in right ascension ceases, or its apparent place in 
 the ecliptic remains for a few days unaltered. The real mo 
 tions of the planets are always in the same direction from 
 west to east ; but owing to the motion of the enrth from 
 which they are seen, their apparent motions, though goner- 
 ally from west to east, or direct, are sometimes from east to 
 
 s 
 
 ■0 
 
STATIONARY ENGINE. 
 
 west, or retrograde, and in changing from one of these di- 
 rections lo the other the planet appears for some short time 
 to stand still. The distance of the earth and of a planet 
 from the sun being given, and also their periodic times, the 
 determination of the arc of retrogradation, or the times at 
 which the planet will appear stationary, is an easy prob- 
 lem ; but to the ancient astronomers, who were unacquaint- 
 ed with the relative distances of the planets, and who, 
 moreover, supposed the eartli to be the centre of motion, the 
 phenomena of the stations and retrogradations occasioned 
 great embarrassment, and the principal object of the various 
 systems which were propounded previous to that of Coper- 
 nicus was to give a satisfactory explanation of them. See 
 le, Planet. 
 
 Station, in Surveying, is the place selected for planting 
 the instrument with which an angle is to be measured. 
 
 Station, in the Church of Rome, is applied to certain 
 churches in which indulgences are granted on certain days. 
 
 •Station, is applied to those resting-places on railways at 
 which a halt is made for the purpose of receiving or letting 
 down passengers or goods. The last stations on a railroad 
 il the termini. 
 
 STATIONARY ENGINE, in contradistinction to a "Lo- 
 comotive Engine," expresses a steam engine in a fixed posi- 
 tion, which draws loads on a railway by a rope or other 
 means of communication extended from the station of the 
 engine along the line of road. 
 
 On railways worked by locomotive engines, inclined 
 planes sometimes are constructed of an acclivity too steep 
 to be worked with advantage by these machines: such a 
 plane occurs on the London and Birmingham railway, be- 
 tween the passenger station at Boston Square and the de- 
 pot and station for goods at Camden Town, Similar inclined 
 planes are constructed on the Liverpool and Manchester 
 railway, between the quay at Liverpool and the station at 
 Edge Hill, and between the passenger station at Lime 
 Street and the same place. In these cases a stationary en- 
 gine is placed at the summit of the inclined plane, by the 
 power of which acting on a rope carried along the plane 
 the trains of carriages and wagons are drawn to the sum- 
 ma. 
 
 But it is not only on planes whose acclivity forbids the 
 advantageous application of locomotive engines that station- 
 ary engines are used as a moving power on railways, [n 
 some situations, where a line of railway is sufficiently level, 
 they are applied in preference to locomotive power. Thus 
 the railway extending from the India House in London to 
 Blackwell, whose acclivities do nit exceed sixteen feet 
 per mile, is worked throughout its entire length by station- 
 ary power. 
 
 When a line of railway is to be worked by stationary en- 
 gines the whole line is resolved into a succession of stages 
 of certain lengths, at the end of each of which a stationary 
 ■team engine is placed; or, more generally, two such engines 
 are provided, in order that the occasional suspension of one 
 for the purpose of repairs may not interrupt the traffic of 
 the rond. The power of these engines is applied to give 
 motion to a drum, or cylinder, or wheel, on which a rope is 
 wound. This rope extends along the road, being supported 
 at short intervals on iron sheaves or pulleys, by which its 
 friction and consequent wear and resistance are diminished. 
 
 There are several methods by which the stationary engine 
 is made to draw the train by a rope. 
 
 The plan adopted by Mr. Stephenson to draw the trains 
 of goods from the quay at Liverpool to the station at Edge 
 Hill, up an inclined plane of about a mile in length, is by 
 an endless rope. At the foot of the machine a wheel is laid 
 down in a horizontal position, revolving on a vertical axis, 
 having a groove on its circumference of a proper magnitude 
 to receive the rope. The diameter of this wheel is equal to 
 the distance between the centres of the two lines of rails ; 
 so that when the rope is extended between each line it will 
 fall into the groove at the ends of the diameter of the wheel 
 which is at right angles to the line of the road. Thus, the 
 rope being brought round the groove of the wheel for half 
 its circumference, is carried up each line of rails midway 
 between the rails. 
 
 At the summit of the plane, a similar wheel is similarly 
 placed, round which the rope is conducted ; but, instead of 
 being merely half carried round this wheel, it is brought 
 round two other wheels of less diameter, by means of 
 which the necessary tension is given to it. Let A represent 
 
 the great wheel at the top of the plane, and let a b represent 
 the rope passing up the plane between one line of rails and 
 
 falling into the groove of the wheel at b. It is carried 
 round the wheel A to c, and thence passes diagonally to d, 
 where it falls into the groove of a smaller wheel B, from 
 whence it is carried to c and half round another wheel C, 
 equal to B ; and from /it is conducted to g, where it (alls 
 again into the groove of the wheel II, from whence it pass- 
 es diagonally to A, and half round a second groove in the 
 great wheel A to i k, from whence it is carried down the 
 other line between the rails. 
 
 The steam engine is thrown into connexion with the 
 axle of the wheel, to which it imparts continued revolution. 
 The adhesion of the rope to the grooves makes this motion 
 cause the rope to be drawn in the direction of the arrows. 
 Any train of carriage, therefore, attached to the ro|>e ab 
 would be drawn in one direction, and a train attached to ik 
 would be drawn in the other direction. The tension of the 
 rope is regulated by a weight suspended by a roi* passing 
 over a vertical wheel D, and attached to the axle of the 
 wheel C. This weight hangs in a pit, and continually 
 draws the wheel C from the wheel D. By this means, 
 however the rope may vary its length by moisture or other 
 hygrometric causes, it will necessarily have the same ten- 
 sion. 
 
 The new tunnel at Liverpool, extending from the engine 
 station at Edge Hill to the passenger station at Lime Street, 
 is differently worked, but also by an endless rope. The dis- 
 tance from the Lime Street station being 2200 yards, a hori- 
 zontal shaft is extended across the whole width of the two 
 lines of .railway at Edge Hill. The extremities of this 
 shaft are continued on either side into two buildings, 
 where stationary engines are erected. A motion of revolu- 
 tion may be given to the shaft by either of those engines 
 separately, or by both of them simultaneously. Upon the 
 shaft, and in the centre of one of the lines of railway, a 
 grooved wheel, 19J feet in diameter, is fixed with its plane 
 vertical. The rope, which constantly ascends the plane 
 between the rails of the line appropriated to ascending 
 trains, passes over this wheel, and being brought under it. 
 is returned nearly to the point where it first comes upon 
 it. It is there conducted into the groove of another wheel 
 4 feet in diameter, placed In front of the greater wheel. * 
 By this arrangement the rope embraces nearly the whole 
 circumference of the greater wheel, and an adhesion is ob- 
 tained sufficient to draw a load of one hundred tons up the 
 plane. After the rope passes over the smaller wheel, it is 
 carried round a horizontal wheel placed upon a carriage 
 running backwards and forwards upon a railway, which 
 wheel is drawn by a weight similar to that described in the 
 preceding case, by which a uniform tension is given to the 
 rope. After passing round this horizontal wheel, the rope 
 is then directed to the centre of the other line of railway 
 by two other horizontal wheels, and, after passing down the 
 plane, is conducted by two other horizontal wheels at Lime 
 Street into the centre of the ascending line, along which it 
 is conducted, as already described, to the large shaft wheel 
 at the top of the plane. 
 
 By either of the contrivances here described a railway 
 of any extent may be worked by stationary engines driving 
 endless ropes ; and as the rope is at the same time moving in 
 contrary directions along the two lines of railway, trains may 
 be drawn by the same engine at the same time in contrary 
 directions. In case of such a rope being applied to an in- 
 clined plane, the weight of the descending train would act 
 upon the ascending train, leaving the moving power to act 
 against the difference of their weights only. If, in such a 
 case, the descending load were greater than the ascending 
 load, the latter would not only descend by its gravity 
 without any moving power, but would draw the ascending 
 load up. A plane worked in this way without an engine is 
 called a self-acting plane. Railways composed of self-act- 
 ing planes are very frequent in mining districts, where the 
 level at which the mineral product is obtained is much more 
 elevated than that at which it is shipped. The weight of 
 the mineral itself is, in such cases, used as the moving pow- 
 er, the loaded wagons in their descent drawing the empty 
 wagons in the contrary direction. 
 
 When an endless rope is not used, the power of the en 
 gine is applied to a drum or cylinder, called a rope-roll, on 
 which the rope is coiled. In such cases, the rope being car- 
 ried along the line of rails, has its extremity attached to the 
 train to be drawn ; and the engine, as it works, turns the 
 rope-roll on which the rope is gradually coiled, and the train 
 is thus drawn towards the engine. When the train has ar- 
 rived there, the whole of the rope will he coiled on the 
 rope-roll. In order to move the train in the other direction, 
 a similar engine is placed at the other extremity of the rail- 
 way along which the train is moved ; and the train is drawn 
 back by the other engine in the same manner. But, in or- 
 der to unroll the rope from each rope-roll, the train, in re 
 turning, is made to draw the rope after it. Thus the two 
 engines reciprocally draw the train backwards and forwards 
 between them; each engine, while it draws the train in 
 
 H57 
 
STATIONERY. 
 
 one directioi unrolling the rope from the rope-roll of the 
 other. 
 
 There are various other expedients that have been sug- 
 gested and practised for working railways by stationary en- 
 gines and ropes, but all of them partake more or less of the 
 principle of one or other of these here described. The 
 speed attainable by such means was formerly very much 
 limited ; but the application of ropes and the machinery con- 
 nected with them has been much improved, and, if it were 
 otherwise desirable, a line of railway could now be worked 
 at an average speed of from fifteen to twenty miles an iiour 
 by a series of stationary engines and ropes. Nor would it 
 be necessary in passing each station to stop the train, expe- 
 dients being devised by which the train may be transferred 
 from one rope to another without stopping it. 
 
 STA'TIONERY. The name given to all the materials 
 employed in the art of writing, but more especially to those 
 of pen, ink, and paper. The term stationery is derived 
 from the business of booksellers having been anciently car- 
 ried on entirely in stalls, or stations. The Stationery Office 
 in London is the medium through which all government of- 
 jces, both at home and abroad, are supplied with writing 
 materials ; and at the same time it contracts for the printing 
 of all reports and other matters laid before the House of 
 Commons, &.c. It consists of a comptroller, a storekeeper, 
 and about thirty clerks and other subordinate officers; and 
 has a branch establishment at Dublin. 
 
 STATION POINTER. An instrument used in maritime 
 surveying, for expeditiously laying down on a chart the po- 
 sition of a place from which the angles subtended by three 
 distant objects, whose positions are known, have been ob- 
 served. It consists of three scales, which move about a com- 
 mon centre, two of them carrying each a divided circular 
 arc, and the third two verniers adapted to the arcs, by means 
 of which the scales can be opened so as to form two angles 
 of any inclination. Suppose the angles of the scales to be 
 made equal to the two measured angles, and the instrument 
 to be laid on the chart, so that the edges of the three scales 
 coincide with the positions of the observed objects, the cen- 
 - tre murk; the position of the spot from which the o 
 
 were observed. (See Simms's IVeaii-e on Mathematical In- 
 struments, p. 98.) 
 
 STA'TIONo. In Ecclesiastical Antiquities (from the 
 Roman statio, a soldier keeping guard). The weekly fasts 
 of Wednesdays and Fridays. These were omitted between 
 Easter and Whitsuntide. They terminated at three in the 
 afternoon; hence sometimes called semijrjunia. Saturday 
 was made a station day by the council of Elvira ; which, it is 
 said, led to the gradual neglect of the Wednesday station in 
 the Western Church. (Riddle's Christian JintiqititUs, 684.) 
 STATISTICS. (Lat. status, state, condition.) The 
 name given to the science which exhibits the state or con- 
 dition of a country or nation, principally in relation to its 
 extent, population, industry, wealth, and power. 
 
 By a statistical account of a country, we mean a work de- 
 scribing its situation and extent; its natural and acquired 
 capacities of production; the quantity and value of the va- 
 rious articles of utility and convenience existing and an- 
 nually produced in it ; the number and classes of its inhab- 
 itants, with their respective incomes ; its institutions for the 
 government, improvement, defence, and maintenance of the 
 population ; with a variety of subsidiary statements and de- 
 tails. A science embracing so great a varietv of objects is not 
 easily defined or limited ; nor is it possible "to draw any dis- 
 tinct line of demarcation between what should he left out 
 of statistical works, and what should be included in them. 
 Much must always depend on the object in view, and on 
 the good sense and discrimination of the author. Statis- 
 tics has many features in common with geography and pol- 
 itics, and embraces that sort of mongrel science that his 
 been called political arithmetic. Some authors, and, among 
 others, the economist M. Say, contend that any description, 
 however brief, of the territory of a country is foreign to 
 statistics, and belongs exclusively to physical geography. 
 But this is evidently a most erroneous statement. How can 
 we acquire any accurate or comprehensive knowledge of 
 the capacities of production enjoyed by a country, if we be 
 unacquainted with its situation, soil, climate, and native 
 productions, and with its facilities for bringing them to market 
 and exchanging them with others ? So far from being alien 
 to, this knowledge lies at the very foundation of the science ; 
 nnd any work which should omit it, however well it might 
 be executed, wou.d have no claim to be considered as a 
 complete statistical work. Those topographical details 
 which are essential in a geographical work would, howev- 
 er, be totally out of place in one devoted to statistics. One 
 of the principal objects of the latter is to exhibit the means 
 and sources of the national wealth, its amount nnd distri- 
 bution ; and these would not be in any respect promoted by 
 indulging in topographical details. Hence, in statistical 
 works, a short notice of the principal divisions of the coun- 
 try with reference especially to its climate, soil, native prod- 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 ucts, agriculture, including the method of holding and occu 
 
 pying lands, manufactures, and population, is generally suf 
 ficient. This much, however, cannot be dispensed with 
 It is the foundation on which all the rest of the building 
 is to stand ; and the completeness of the other, and more 
 elevated parts, will generally depend more on the compact- 
 ness and solidity of this than on anything 
 
 Opinions diti'er as widely as to the mode in which statis 
 tical treatises should be drawn up, as with respect to the 
 topics they should embrace. Some contend that their ob- 
 ject is limited to an exposition of the state of a country 
 province, ot place, at some given period; and that, co.'ise. 
 quently, all historical and theoretical discussions should lie 
 rigidly excluded. The Germans, who are supposed to be 
 the great authorities in statistical matters, mostly compose 
 their works on this plan ; but it, notwithstanding, appears to 
 us to be radically objectionable, and to be calculated to de 
 prive the science of all that is most interesting and instruct 
 ive. Nor need we travel beyond the sphere of German 
 statistical works for ample proof of what is now stated. 
 They are, in fact, with few exceptions, the most worthless 
 rubbish imaginable. We have accounts, sometimes accu- 
 rate and sometimes not, but usually put forward with equal 
 confidence, of a variety of minute facts; but as we have no 
 explanation of the circumstances under which they origina 
 ted, they communicate, even when accurate, little useful 
 information : and it would not be more idle to attempt to 
 form any notion of St. Peter's or St. Paul's from an account 
 of the number of tons of stone, brick, and mortar, in each, 
 than it would be to attempt to form any opinion of the state 
 of Prussia, Austria, or any other German state, from the 
 details respecting it supplied by German statistical writers. 
 They tell us, for example, that so many looms were at work 
 in such a town or place at such a time ; but the chances are 
 not a word will be said as to whether the number of looms 
 was increasing or diminishing ; and supposing that were 
 stated, it is ail but certain that not a word will be said ex- 
 planatory of the causes by which this result lias been 
 brought about, though this be, in fact, of ten times more im- 
 porta:;~" than an; thing else. This species of stall tries pre- 
 sents us with a skeleton, Instead of a living animated body. 
 It is of importance, no doubt, to know the amount of popula- 
 tion, the sum paid in taxes, the rate of wages, &c.; in a coun- 
 try or district at any given period ; but it is only by comparing 
 these statements with others of the same sort, applying to 
 different epochs, that we learn whether such country be ad- 
 vancing or retrograding : and it is only by comparing details 
 peculiar to one country with those peculiar to another, that 
 we learn in what respects they agree and differ, and that 
 the attention of the politician and economist is called to 
 those circumstances that retard the progress of one, and ac- 
 celerate that of the other. Those who make a parade of 
 subdivisions would call this comparative statistics, and 
 would contend that it should not be mixed up with descrip- 
 tive statistics. But to be really good, and possessed of interest 
 enough to make it be read, a work must embrace both. They 
 should not be so intermixed as to create confusion ; but un- 
 less they be combined in due proportions, the principles 
 on which the comparisons are made expounded, and the 
 circumstances that produce the discrepancies pointed out, 
 and their influence correctly appreciated, no details, how- 
 ever accurate, can be of much value. It is the easiest thing 
 possible to pile figures on figures; but unless deduced trots 
 correct data, they serve only to mislead: and they do this 
 the more easily, that they have a scientific air about them, 
 and that most people shrink from the irksome task of exam- 
 ining whether tabular statements be correct or not. There 
 is nothing, indeed, about which one should !>e so sceptical 
 as the great number of what are called statistical facts and 
 details, or with respect to which a sound and searching 
 criticism is so necessary. The reader would do well gener- 
 ally to look with suspicion and distrust on most statements, 
 how imposing soever they may appear, unless he be in- 
 formed of the sources whence they have been derived, and 
 of the principles on and the mode in which they have been 
 compiled. 
 
 It would be easy to illustrate what has now been said by 
 references to the statements in parliamentary ami other of- 
 ficial documents, many of which are altogether false ; 
 while many more, from the conditions to which they apply 
 not being clearly set forth, are, though not absolutely incor 
 rect, fitted only to mislead. 
 
 Perhaps the least valuable book ever published on any 
 important subject was that of Dr. Colquhotm On the lVcaltk 
 and Resources of the British Empire. It is, from begin- 
 ning to end, a tissue of extravagant hypotheses, exaggera- 
 tion, and absurdity. Nothing was too difficult for thfa m 
 trepid calculator. Under his transforming hand everything 
 was reduced to figures; and matters as to which it is hnpos 
 sible to obtain any certain information, nnd of which he 
 knew nothing, were set down as if they had been ascer- 
 tained with absolute precision ! And yet the most cxtrava 
 
STATISTICS. 
 
 gant of his statements, were for a while regarded as well- 
 established truths. The book obtained an extensive circu- 
 lation ; it was translated into German, and the German doc- 
 tors continue to refer to it as if its authenticity were alike 
 unquestioned and unquestionable. 
 
 In justice, however, to the German writers on statistics, it 
 should be staled that the circumstances under which they 
 are placed do not really admit of their publishing the best 
 class of works. In Prussia, Austria, and most German 
 states, the press is subject to a rigorous censorship ; and no 
 Statements of a political kind are allowed to be published 
 that might give ollence to government, or that would be 
 likely to call the attention of the reader to the delects in the 
 organization of the state. This sufficiently accounts for the 
 ace of such discussions in German works, and their 
 anti-critical character. But this certainly is no reason why 
 the writers of other nations, not laid under any restraints, 
 should adopt such emasculated works as models for their 
 mail 
 
 Indeed, it would seem to be considered by some writers 
 that everything in statistics may be estimated in figures, 
 and exhibited in fibular statements ! But the truth is, that 
 but a lew of the more prominent facts in regard to the situa- 
 tion of any great country, can be so exhibited. A grand ob- 
 ject in every good statistical work should be, not merely to 
 what is, but why it is ; to trace and exhibit causes as 
 well as effects ! to show how advantageous results may be 
 Wrought about, and how those of an opposite character 
 may be best avoided, 
 it may be said, perhaps, that this would encroach on the 
 
 province of the politician and political economist. But, in 
 our estimation, a certain admixture of politics and inilitical 
 economy is indispensable to statistics. Without such ad- 
 mixture, most statistical works are little better than worth- 
 less ; if they are to be excluded, a good almanac may be ta- 
 ken as the model of a good statistical work. 
 * Arthur Young, in his Travels in France, Townsriul in his 
 Travels in Spain, and Volney, in his Syria and Egypt, in- 
 dulge largely in discussions that depend more oi less 00 pol- 
 itics and political economy. But, nevertheless, no ui • 
 doubt that the books in question belong to the clan of nav- 
 els, of which, Indeed, they are among file verv l-evt speci- 
 mens. And why should it be otherwise wi"i!i Statistical 
 works 1 If their writers know what they are about, they 
 will use political acii nee not to supersede, but to illustrate, 
 explain, and give utility to their statistical details. 
 
 A really good statistical work can only lie compiled by a 
 writer who to great talent and good sense adds the most ex- 
 tensive information, and hence the extreme rarity of such 
 works; but, when properly executed, they are alike in 
 structing and interesting. Est enim eogmiio rrijmUiim et 
 private homini et publico vttlissima et maxims nccessaria, 
 atque scientiam itlam, qua duce cognitionem nipublicas nobis 
 comparamus, imprimis dignam esse, quam studwsius cala- 
 mus et prosequamur, non est, quod jure negare vel adeo dubi- 
 tare possimus. (Mone, Hist. Statistics, p. 4.) 
 
 We subjoin n few ot such of the more Inn resting particu- 
 lars in the statistics oi the Tinted Kingdom, and of Kit rope 
 generally, as may be exhibited In a tabular form. The de 
 tails are mostly derived from official returns. 
 
 I. Table exhibiting the Area, Population, &c. of England and Wales. 
 
 Wala. 
 Anglesey 
 Brecknock 
 Cardigan 
 Caermaiihen 
 Caernarvon 
 Denbigh 
 Flint . 
 Glamorgan 
 Merioneth 
 Montgomery 
 ! Pembroke , 
 Radnor 
 
 Total of Walet 
 Total of England , 
 Tatal of England and Wales 
 
 1159 
 
STATISTICS. 
 II. Table exhibiting the Area, Population, &c. of Scotland. 
 
 Aberdeen . . . . 
 Argyle and Islands . 
 
 Ay 
 
 Banff 
 
 Berwick ... 
 
 Rule 
 
 Caithness . . . . 
 Clackmannan . . . 
 Dum barton . . . 
 Dumfries . . . . 
 Edinburgh . . . . 
 
 eixia 
 
 File 
 
 Forfar (Angus) . . 
 
 Haddington . . . 
 Inverness and Islands 
 Kincardine . . . . 
 
 Kirkcudbr 
 Lanark . 
 
 itllgO* 
 
 Nairn . 
 
 ;ht . 
 
 Orkney and Shetland 
 
 Peebles 
 
 Perth 
 
 Renlrew . . . . 
 
 Ross and Cromarty, 
 
 and Mauds . . . 
 
 Roxburgh . . . . 
 
 Selkirk 
 
 Stirling 
 
 Sutherland . . , , 
 Wigtown . . . . 
 
 Area in Acres. 
 
 Land. 
 
 1,254,400 
 
 2,002,560 
 664,960 
 412,800 
 2-f2,380 
 103,040 
 439,680 
 30,720 
 145,920 
 801,920 
 226,560 
 302,720 
 298,880 
 563,320 
 174,080 
 
 2,594,560 
 243,300 
 46,080 
 52 ',760 
 604,880 
 76,800 
 124.S00 
 819,200 
 204,160 
 
 1,856,320 
 144,000 
 
 1,846,400 
 457,600 
 168,320 
 312,960 
 
 1,222,560 
 288,960 
 
 18,944,000 
 
 6,400 
 51,840 
 3,840 
 
 2,560 
 6,400 
 
 19,S40 
 6,400 
 
 4,430 
 1,920 
 2,560 
 
 122,240 
 1,280 
 
 4,480 
 8,000 
 1,920 
 
 1,920 
 
 32,000 
 1,280 
 
 8,32(1 
 30,oso 
 4,800 
 
 Popula- 
 tion, 1801. 
 
 123,082 
 71,859 
 84.306 
 35.807 
 30,621 
 11,791 
 22,609 
 10,858 
 20,710 
 54,597 
 
 J 22,954 
 26.705 
 93,743 
 99,127 
 29.9S6 
 74,292 
 26,349 
 6,725 
 29,21 1 
 
 146,699 
 17,884 
 
 126.366 
 78,056 
 
 35,^3 
 33,682 
 5,070 
 50,825 
 23.1 17 
 22,918 
 
 Popula- 
 tion, 1821 
 
 155,387 
 97,316 
 
 127,299 
 43,561 
 33,385 
 13,797 
 30,238 
 13,263 
 27,3r 
 70,878 
 
 191,514 
 31,162 
 
 114,556 
 
 113,430 
 35,127 
 90,157 
 29,118 
 7,762 
 3S.903 
 
 244.337 
 22.6S5 
 9.0C6 
 53,124 
 10,046 
 
 13'J.050 
 
 112,175 
 
 63,828 
 40,892 
 6.637 
 65,376 
 23,840 
 33.240 
 
 32.193 
 18,514 
 30,247 
 11,228 
 7,405 
 3,067 
 6,962 
 3,593 
 7,986 
 14,37' 
 38,903 
 8,133 
 28,96'. 
 36,153 
 8,009 
 19,132 
 7,274 
 1,806 
 8,159 
 81,531 
 5,309 
 2,235 
 11,571 
 2,119 
 29,172 
 24,626 
 
 16,377 
 8,682 
 1,446 
 
 15,837 
 
 4,972 
 
 7,440 
 
 513,1'.! 
 
 Population, 1S41. 
 
 89,528 
 47,864 
 18,! 70 
 
 23,425 
 16,: 
 
 7,108 
 18.993 
 
 9,331 
 22,505 
 31,097 
 102,709 
 16,071 
 65,735 
 79,234 
 17.253 
 45,506 
 
 203.369 
 13,766 
 
 4,232 
 26,843 
 
 5,122 
 65.339 
 "2,725 
 
 3,972 
 41,070 
 11.307 
 18,258 
 
 102,755 
 49,486 
 85,552 
 26,651 
 17,900 
 
 8,587 
 ,9,204 
 
 9,785 
 21,790 
 38.72S 
 122,914 
 18,923 
 74,575 
 91,166 
 13,528 
 52.109 
 17,248 
 
 4.569 
 22,261 
 218,744 
 13,082 
 
 82,030 
 
 42,119 
 24,073 
 4,017 
 41,109 
 13,359 
 20,92 
 
 Total. 
 
 1,379,334 
 
 192,283 
 97,140 
 
 161,522 
 50,076 
 34,427 
 15,695 
 36,197 
 19,116 
 44,298 
 72,825 
 
 225,623 
 34,994 
 
 140,310 
 
 170,400 
 35,731 
 97,015 
 33,052 
 8,763 
 41,099 
 
 427,113 
 26,848 
 9.213 
 60,796 
 10,520 
 
 13S.I5I 
 
 154,755 
 
 78,980 
 46,003 
 7,989 
 82,179 
 24,666 
 39,179 
 
 Acres of 
 
 Land to a 
 
 Individual i 
 
 1841. 
 
 6-523 
 
 20 615 
 
 4 041 
 8-243 
 8 216 
 6-565 
 121-16 
 I 607 
 3-294 
 11011 
 1004 
 
 8-aso 
 
 2-130 
 3-335 
 4-805 
 26-579 
 7-368 
 6-258 
 12792 
 1-416 
 2 -.-1,0 
 13-533 
 13-474 
 19-41(6 
 11-989 
 ■930 
 
 23-378 
 9-947 
 
 21 069 
 3-808 
 
 45 510 
 7-375 
 
 Rent of Land 
 
 per Acre in 
 
 1810. 
 
 L. t. d. 
 
 3 84 
 I II 
 10 U 
 
 6 
 3 
 
 1 lit 
 
 13 ]-t 
 
 9 102 
 
 7 3} 
 
 9 loi 
 
 1 I 7-1 
 
 o I Kg 
 44 
 
 5 7-4 
 5 6} 
 17 7:j 
 
 1 l-j 
 
 n 10 l 
 
 ii 4 a 
 
 on 44 
 
 6 
 
 S 65 
 
 III. Table exhibiting the Area, Population, &c. of Ireland. 
 
 Provinces and 
 
 Area in 
 
 
 Extent in 
 Acres, ex- 
 
 Popula- 
 
 Population, 1831. 
 
 Inhabited 
 Houses, 
 
 Acies of 
 
 Rent of I.and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Individual in 
 1831. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lakes. 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Tolals. 
 
 1831. 
 
 1331. 
 
 L. a. d. 
 15 
 
 Lemster. 
 Carlow 
 
 219.S63 
 
 _ 
 
 219,863 
 
 97,070 
 
 48,327 
 
 51,026 
 
 99,353 
 
 13,275 
 
 MR 
 
 Dublin 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 335,892 
 
 173,856 
 
 206,311 
 
 380,167 
 
 39,861 
 
 
 
 Kildare 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 99,06'. 
 
 54,472 
 
 ;'3,9.2 
 
 108,424 
 
 17,155 
 
 
 13 0" 
 
 Kilkenny . 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 182,046 
 
 93,977 
 
 99,709 
 
 193,63b 
 
 31,007 
 
 
 17 0A 
 9 12 
 
 Kings .... 
 
 
 
 
 131,083 
 
 71,2S7 
 
 72,938 
 
 144,225 
 
 24,256 
 
 
 Longford 
 
 
 
 
 107.570 
 
 55,310 
 
 67,248 
 
 112,558 
 
 19,418 
 
 2-201 
 
 12 3 
 
 Louth .... 
 
 
 
 
 101,011 
 
 52.439 
 
 65,042 
 
 107.481 
 
 22,041,1 
 
 
 
 Meath .... 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 159.IS3 
 
 88,993 
 
 87,833 
 
 176,82b 
 
 29,796 
 
 
 13 a 
 
 Queens 
 
 
 
 
 134,27.=. 
 
 72,469 
 
 73,332 
 
 145,851 
 
 23.733 
 
 
 
 Wesimealh . 
 
 
 
 
 123.3 :t 
 
 67,700 
 
 69,172 
 
 136,672 
 
 23,803 
 
 2-703 
 
 13 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 170,806 
 
 87,995 
 
 84,718 
 
 132,7 13 
 
 29,923 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 32,474 
 
 4,74j,584 
 
 110.767 
 
 61.052 
 627,877 
 
 80,505 
 
 121,557 
 
 T73o9,TT3 
 
 18,412 
 2927729 
 
 4070 
 
 12 
 
 
 1,757,592 
 
 931,386 
 
 Av. 2-487 
 
 Av. 14 7A 
 
 Munater. 
 Clare .... 
 
 802,352 
 
 18,655 
 
 783,697 
 
 208,089 
 
 128,440 
 
 129.S76 
 
 253.322 
 
 40,358 
 
 3-034 
 
 113 
 
 Cork .... 
 
 
 
 
 730.444 
 
 396,714 
 
 414.018 
 
 810,732 
 
 
 
 13 7i 
 
 6 r 
 
 Kerry .... 
 
 Limerick 
 
 1,148,720 
 674.783 
 
 
 1,134,051 
 674,733 
 
 216.135 
 277,477 
 
 I3l,b96 
 153.62. 
 
 131,430 
 
 161,730 
 
 263,1 6 
 315,355 
 
 41,294 
 
 44,601 
 
 4-310 
 
 ripperary . 
 
 
 
 
 346,89( 
 
 197,713 
 
 204,850 
 
 402,563 
 
 60,264 
 
 
 17 Si 
 
 Totals 
 Ulster. 
 Antrim 
 Armagh 
 
 Cavaii .... 
 Donegal 
 
 Down . • . . 
 Fermanagh . . . 
 Londonderry , . 
 Mouaghan . 
 Tyrone 
 
 Tolals 
 Connaught. 
 Galway . . , 
 Leitrim 
 
 Mayo .... 
 Roscommon . . . 
 Sligo .... 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 44,6.2 
 
 5,835,220 
 
 709,076 
 309,789 
 
 156,521 
 1,935,612 
 
 262,860 
 205,450 
 
 85,217 
 "17*93,411 
 
 91,837 
 1,133,741 
 
 177,054 
 2,227,152 
 
 24,848 
 
 2 662 
 
 12 6" 
 
 753,866 
 323,183 
 
 330,444 
 
 Av. 2-620 
 
 Av. 13 Olj 
 
 49,790 
 18,394 
 
 152, 17S 
 111,618 
 
 164,731 
 117,222 
 
 316,909 
 
 223,840 
 
 55,971 
 39,571 
 38,917 
 50,171 
 
 62,629 
 25,731 
 39,077 
 35,225 
 54,663 
 402fiOS 
 
 2-178 
 
 16 0* 
 
 1,165,107 
 611,404 
 471,343 
 518,270 
 327,048 
 754,395 
 
 15- 
 
 48,797 
 9,56S 
 7,844 
 27,26 
 183,796 
 
 451,462 
 1,165,107 
 
 611,246 
 422,551 
 508,705 
 319,204 
 727,134 
 "57224,274 
 
 195,076 
 24S,270 
 32-410 
 130,997 
 193.86S 
 174,69' 
 261,865 
 1,998.494 
 
 113,174 
 141,845 
 169,416 
 
 73,117 
 106,657 
 
 95,679 
 149,410 
 
 114,759 
 147,304 
 182,596 
 
 76.646 
 115,355 
 
 99,657 
 155,058 
 
 227,933 
 289,149 
 352,012 
 149,763 
 222,012 
 195,536 
 304,468 
 *27236,622 
 
 414,684 
 141,524 
 366,328 
 249,613 
 171,765 
 1,343,914 
 
 1-981 
 
 4-029 
 1-736 
 2 321 
 2-291 
 1-632 
 2-3SS 
 
 13 71 
 6 J 
 
 16 
 12 3 
 12 2 J 
 13 3J 
 14 6$ 
 
 5,408,070 
 
 1,113,094 
 
 1,173,523 
 
 209,993 
 78.078 
 
 1*6,733 
 126,582 
 
 8S.035 
 683,416 
 
 Av. 2-283 
 
 Av. 12 3$ 
 
 12 li 
 
 10 7S 
 li 8 6Jt 
 13 
 10 84, 
 
 1,510,592 
 420,375 
 
 1,355,048 
 609,405 
 434,188 
 
 4,329,608 
 20,399.603 
 
 77,922 
 25,568 
 57,940 
 24,787 
 8,260 
 1947477 
 
 1 ,432,670 
 394,807 
 
 1,297,103 
 531,618 
 425,928 
 
 4.135,131 
 
 337,374 
 124,7s." 
 
 293,11-2 
 
 208,792 
 
 146,228 
 
 1,110,292 
 
 204,691 
 69,451 
 179,595 
 123,031 
 83,730 
 
 67,114 
 24,200 
 62.367 
 41,369 
 29,588 
 
 3-455 
 
 2790 
 3-541 
 2-342 
 2-480 
 
 660,498 
 
 224.63S 
 
 Av. 3-077 
 
 Av. 10 9J 
 
 
 
 6,801 ,990 
 
 3,794,880 
 
 3,972,521 
 
 7,767,401 
 
 1,249,316 
 
 Gen. A v. 2-566 
 
 Gen.Av.O 12 9 
 
 \l\ fn T,?r^twRL . * ^n and ' om,Iation ° f «»« different European States has been compiled from the 
 com. tl'ir,™ iim?M,' IT' ?? d WiU ' WC ^ elieVC ' ^ found ne;,r 'y accurite. There are nr means whatever »• 
 compiling any similar account for any one of the other quarters of the world 
 
 States, and their Designation. 
 
 iGreat Rritain 
 
 irel.nd ] 
 
 I We of Man and Channel Island 
 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Area in Square 
 Miles (-English) 
 
 1160 
 
 Total United Kingdom 
 
 87,412 
 
 31,874 
 
 1,096 
 
 Population 
 (Latest Returns.) 
 
 18,532,335 
 
 124.079 
 
 26,861,796 
 
 s jn.ire Mil* 
 
 
STATUARY. 
 
 STEAM. 
 
 States, and their Designation. 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 Rani* (includinr Poland) 
 
 Alia'" i ( including Lombardy, fcc.) .... 
 
 Franc* ^including Corsica) 
 
 
 
 Spain , • 
 
 Turkey (including Servia, Wallachia, and Moldavia) 
 
 Sweden and Norway 
 
 Belgium (including parts of Limburg and Luxemburg) 
 
 iWuiil 
 
 Holland I including parts of Limburg and Luxemburg) 
 Denmark ..including HoUtiin and LauenljurgJ . 
 
 Area in Square 
 Miles (English). 
 
 Ravaria 
 
 Germany. 
 
 Wiflembcrg . 
 
 Saxony 
 
 R.dcn . . . . 
 
 Hesse-Camel 
 
 Hrs~-I)<rrnstadt . 
 
 Mecklenburg Schwerin 
 
 Oldenburg . 
 
 Oilier German States 
 
 Italy. 
 
 Naples and Sicily 
 
 • nil Piedmont (including Monaco) , 
 
 Papal Stale 
 
 Tuscany 
 
 Parma . ....••• 
 
 Modena 
 
 Lucca 
 
 San Marino ..*••• 
 
 Swiss Confederation 
 Greece . 
 
 Malta and Goxao 
 Ionian Islands 
 Cracow . . 
 Andorra 
 
 Total 
 
 I20.3S2 
 1,000,000 
 
 257,368 
 203,736 
 107,921 
 182,270 
 210,685 
 291,164 
 13,211 
 S6.5I0 
 13,598 
 21,856 
 
 29.637 
 14,734 
 7,640 
 6,759 
 6,904 
 4,430 
 3,240 
 4,»33 
 2,417 
 L7M 
 10.2S2 
 
 42.132 
 29. 130 
 17,210 
 
 2.26s 
 
 2,<*l 
 
 413 
 
 22 
 
 14,950 
 
 17,900 
 118 
 
 S,684 r 34l 
 
 Popnlation. 
 (Latest Returns. 
 
 Fop. to the 
 Square Mile. 
 
 (1839) 
 (1-36) 
 (Ib38) 
 
 (1833-9) 
 (1336) 
 
 (1838) 
 (1834-5) 
 
 (1837) 
 (I83<) 
 (1*36) 
 (1837) 
 (1838; 
 
 (1837. 
 (1838) 
 
 (1836) 
 (1833J 
 
 (1836; 
 
 (1837) 
 
 I4 330,I4(. 
 12,2 -«.' 41 
 15,000,000 
 
 4,242.600 
 
 3.550.000 
 2.9K3S6 
 2,033,265 
 
 4,315.469 
 
 l.i. I4.tr. i 
 1,668,114 
 1,263.100 
 7II4.SKM 
 788 iik) 
 48ts.CSB 
 267.660 
 379,289 
 970,190 
 
 7,876450 
 4,650,3o8 
 
 2,732.436 
 
 46S.6-3 
 403 000 
 
 7,600 
 
 2. 1 2-,.4 -0 
 926.001) 
 
 7.000 
 
 240,04 \lW 
 
 t23 1 
 24-5 
 141 9 
 164 6 
 1327 
 66 9 
 71 2 
 146 
 121 
 97 2 
 214 4 
 
 145-2 
 
 122-5 
 214-2 
 
 213.9 
 1691 
 
 2411 
 99-8 
 110-7 
 
 ■2163 
 191-6 
 
 IS93 
 I&9-4 
 
 158 7 
 
 IS69 
 
 205-7 
 
 189-1 
 
 3.-. 
 
 345-4 
 
 142-1 
 511 
 10169 
 298-3 
 269 4 
 35 
 
 BTA'TUARV. (From statue.) The art of carving or 
 Otherwise forming statues. 
 
 STATUE. (Lat. statua, from 8to, / stand.) In Sculp- 
 ture, a representation in relief in some solid substance, as 
 marble or bronze, or in some apparently solid substance, of 
 a man or other animal. There are various species of sta- 
 tues : 1. Those smaller than nature. 2. Those of the same 
 size as nature. 3. Those larger than nature. 4. Those 
 that are ihree or more times larger than nature, and are 
 called colossal. The first were by the ancients confined to 
 men and gods generally. The second were confined to 
 the representation of men celebrated for their learning and 
 talents, who had rendered service to the stale, and were ex- 
 ecuted nt the public expense. The third were confined to 
 kiims, emperors, and, when more than twice the size of na- 
 ture, to heroes. The fourth species were confined to statues 
 of the gods, or of kings and emperors represented under the 
 form of gods. Equestrian statues are those in which the 
 figure is seated on a horse. See Sculpture. 
 
 BTATUS GUO. In Politics, a treaty between two or 
 more belligerents, which leaves each party in possession of 
 .he same territories, fortresses, fltx. as it occupied before 
 hostilities broke out, is said to leave them " in statu quo 
 ante bellum." in the same state as before the war. 
 
 STATUTE. (Lat. statuo, I establish.) An act of par- 
 liament made by the king by and with the advice of the 
 lords and commons. But some ancient statutes are in the 
 form of charters or ordinances, proceeding from the crown, 
 and in which the consent of the lords and commons is not 
 expressed. 1. As to the time from which statutes run, if no 
 time was expressed for the operation of a statute to com- 
 mence, it was of force, anciently, from the first day of the 
 session, and consequently had a retrospective operation. 
 By 33 G. 3, c. 13, it now has force from the day on which 
 it receives the royal assent. 2. Statutes are divided into 
 public and private ; a distinction which rests rather on con- 
 ventional usage and difference in the formalities of pass- 
 ing them, than on any principle; and public acts themselves 
 may be cither local or general. There may be a private 
 clause in a general act. Statutes are also said to be decla- 
 ratory of the law as it stood at their passing; remedial, to 
 correct defects in the common law, subdivided into enlarg- 
 ing and restraining ; and penal, imposing prohibitions and 
 penalties. But these, again, are rather distinctions of an 
 arbitrary character than of any legal effect, although some le- 
 gal maxims have been founded on them ; e.g. that penal stat- 
 utes, or clauses in statutes, are to be construed strictly, reme- 
 dial statutes liberally, &c. A few other rules laid down by 
 Learned authorities in the construction of statutes are — that 
 they are to lie construed out of the words themselves, accord- 
 ing to the truo intent of the makers ; that when the words of 
 a statute are doubtful, general usafe may be called in to ex- 
 plain them ; that the purview of the whole act is to be con- 
 
 sidered, and not particular words or clauses only ; that 
 doubtful words are to be construed wiih reference to the 
 object of the act; that the preamble, or recital at the com- 
 mencement, is to be considered, as it generally indicates tlf 
 evil which it was meant to remedy, and consequently nf- 
 fords an insight into the meaning of the trainers ; that re- 
 peal of firmer statutes by implication shall nut he favour- 
 ed, fcc. Statutes are numbered according to rather an in- 
 convenient arrangement : the entire acts of one session arc- 
 considered as forming two collections or volumes, one of 
 public and one of private acts ; each act forming a distinct 
 "chapter." and subdivided into sections. 
 
 STAUROLITE. (Gr. aravpn. a cross, and \iOas, a stone.) 
 The mineral called cross-stone, harmotome, and Jlndreat- 
 bergolite. It is a silicate or baryta and alumina, with traces 
 of lime and potash, and forms small quadrangular prisms 
 crossing each other: the most characteristic specimens ac 
 from Andreasberg, in the Hartz. 
 
 STAUROTIDE. (Gr. aravpoc, a cross, and ttSof, form.) 
 A name given by Haiiy, and other mineralogists, to the pris 
 matic garnet, or grenatile. It occurs in four and six-sided 
 prisms, sometimes crossing each other at right angles. It if 
 a silicate of alumina and lime, with the oxides of iron ant 
 manganese. It occurs in primary rocks, and is distinguish 
 ed from garnet by its form and difficult fusibility. 
 
 STAY. A strong rope from the mast head, leading for- 
 ward to support it from falling aft. It takes the name of 
 the mast, as the fore stay, main-topmast stay, &c. Tj stay, 
 means to tack. To be in stays, is to be in the act of arXing. 
 To miss stays, signifies to fail in attempting to tar-c 
 
 STEAM. The elastic fluid into which wate' it invert- 
 ed by the continued application of heat. 
 
 All liquids whatever, when exposed to a s* / iently high 
 temperature, are converted into vapour. r n . Mechanical 
 properties of vapour are similar to those r' r is^s in general. 
 The property which is most important t ' <; considered, in 
 the case of steam, is the elastic pressur* When a vapour 
 or gas is contained in a close vessel, the ' rer surface of the 
 vessel will sustain a pressure arising fr r the elasticity of 
 the fluid. This pressure is produced by he mutual repul- 
 sion of the particles, which gives then, a tendency to fly 
 asunder, and causes the mass of the fluid to exert a force 
 tending to hurst tvnv vessel within which it is confined. 
 This pressure is U" iformly diffused over every part of the 
 surface of the vpssr" in which such a fluid is contained : it is 
 to this quality tbatall the mechanical power of steam is due. 
 To render the chief properties of steam intelligible, it 
 will only be necessary to explain the phenomena which at- 
 tend the conversion of water into vapour by the continued 
 application of heat, under the various circumstances of ex- 
 ternal pressure which present themselves in the processes 
 of nature and art. 
 Let A B be a tube or cylinder, the magnitude of whose 
 
 1161 
 
STEAM. 
 
 b w 
 
 base is a square inch, and let a piston P move 
 steam-tight in it; let it be imagined that un- 
 der this piston, in the bottom of the cylinder, 
 there is an inch depth of water, which will 
 therefore be in quantity a cubic inch; let the 
 piston be counterbalanced by a weight W act- 
 ,>_ ing over a pulley, which shall be sufficient to 
 :ounterpoise the weight of the piston and its 
 El friction in the cylinder; and let the weight 
 \V be so arranged that from time to time its 
 amount may be diminished to any required 
 extent. Under the circumstances here sup- 
 posed, the piston being in contact with the 
 water, and all air being excluded from be- 
 neath it, it will be pressed down by the weight 
 of the atmosphere, which \ve shall assume to be 14$ lbs. 
 Let it be also supposed that a thermometer is placed in the 
 water under the piston, and that the tube A B is transpa- 
 rent, so that the indications of the thermometer may be ob- 
 served. The temperature of the water under the piston 
 being reduced to that of melting ice, which is 32° of the 
 common thermometer, let the flame of a lamp be applied 
 under the tube, and let the time of its application be noted. 
 If the thermometer be now observed, it will be seen slowly 
 and gradually to indicate an increasing temperature of the 
 water, the piston maintaining its position in contact with 
 the water unchanged. This augmentation of the tempera- 
 ture will continue until the thermometer indicates the tem- 
 perature of 212°. Let the time be then noted. It will be 
 found that after that epoch, the water will cease to increase 
 In temperature, notwithstanding the continued application 
 of the lamp, the thermometer not rising above 212°. But 
 another effect will begin to be manifested ; the piston P will 
 be observed gradually to rise, leaving a space apparently 
 vacant between it and the water. The depth of the water 
 will, however, be at the same time gradually diminished, 
 and the dimunition of its depth will be found to bear con- 
 stantly the same proportion to the ascent of the piston. 
 This proportion will render the circumstances here supposed 
 to be that of 1700 to 1. If the application of the lamp be 
 Hied, and the tube have sufficient length, the water 
 will, after the lapse of a certain time, altogether disappear 
 from the bottom of the tube; and when that occurs, the 
 piston will have risen to the height of 1700 inches, being 
 1700 times the original depth of the water. 
 
 The tube will now, to all appearance, be empty ; but if 
 the apparatus were weighed, it would be found to have the 
 same weight as at the commencement of the experiment. 
 The water, therefore, must still be contained in the tube, 
 though it has assumed an invisible form. To demonstrate 
 its presence, let the lamp be removed ; immediately the 
 piston will begin to descend, and the inner surface of the 
 tube will be covered with a dew, which speedily increasing, 
 will fall to the bottom in drops of water. The piston mean- 
 while will continue to move downwards, sweeping before it 
 the water from the sides of the tube ; and at length will re- 
 cover its first position, having under it, as at the beginning, 
 a cubic inch of water. 
 
 In the above process, the elevation of the piston is pro- 
 duced by the elastic force of the steam, into which the 
 water was gradually converted by the lamp. The space 
 between the piston and the water during its ascent, though 
 apparently empty, was filled with steam ; which, like air 
 and most other gases, is a colourless and invisible fluid. 
 The proportion of the elevation of the piston to the diminu- 
 tion of depth of the water being 1700 to 1, proves that the 
 water in passing into steam increases its volume in that 
 proportion. When the water altogether disappeared, the 
 height of the piston from the bottom of the tube was 1700 
 inches; and as the tube under the piston was then filled 
 with the steam into which the water had been converted, 
 t is apparent that the cubic inch of water, in this case, 
 was converted into 1700 inches of steam. 
 
 The pressure of the atmosphere above the piston was, 
 in this case, overcome by the elastic force of the steam, and 
 the pislon, bearing that pressure upon it. was raised to a 
 height of 1700 inches. In the evaporation, therefore, of 
 this cubic inch of water, a mechanical force has been 
 evolved equivalent to 14$ lbs. raised to the height of 1700 
 inches. 
 
 From the moment at which the water began to be con- 
 verted into steam the thermometer, having then attained 
 212°, ceased to rise. Nevertheless, the application of the 
 lamp was continued, and therefore the same quantity of 
 heat per minute was still supplied to the water. Since the 
 water did not increase in temperature, it may be asked 
 what became of this continued supply of heat received 
 from the lamp t It may be said that it was imparted to the 
 steam into which the water was converted; hut if the ther- 
 mometer were raised out of the water, and held in the 
 steam between the water and the piston.it would still indi- 
 cate the same temperature of 212°. We thus arrive at the 
 1162 
 
 extraordinary and unexpected fact, that notwithstanding a 
 large supply of heat imparted to water during iis evapora- 
 tion, that heat is sensible neither in the water itself nor in 
 tht vapour into which the water is convened. 
 
 The quantity of heat which is thus absorbed in convert- 
 ing water into steam is easily determined, the interval of 
 time being noted which elapsed between the first applica- 
 tion of the lamp and the moment at which the thermome- 
 ter ceased to rise. Let us suppose that interval in he an 
 hour ; the interval being also noted between the moment 
 the thermometer ceases to rise and the process of evapora- 
 tion begins, and the moment at which the last particle 
 of water disappears from the bottom of the tube and the 
 evaporation is completed, it will be found that this Interval 
 is5j hours ; and in general, whatever may be the length of 
 time necessary to raise the temperature of the water from 
 32° to 212°, 5£ times that interval will be necessary for the 
 same source of heat to evaporate the same quantity of wa- 
 ter. It follows, therefore, that to evaporate water under a 
 pressure of 14$ pounds per square inch requires 5.V times as 
 much heat as is necessary and sufficient to raise the same 
 water from 32° to 212°. 
 
 Since the difference between 212° and 32° is 180°, and 
 since 5£ times 180° is 990°, it follows that to convert the 
 water into steam after it has attained the temperature of 
 212°, as much heat must be supplied to it as would lie suf- 
 ficient, if it were not evaporated, to raise it 990° higher. 
 The heat thus absorbed in evaporation, and not sensible to 
 the thermometer, is .said to be latent in the steam ; and the 
 phenomena which have been just described form the found 
 ation of the whole theory of latent heat. That this large 
 quantity of heat is actually contained in the steam, though 
 not sensible to the thermometer, admits of easy demonstra- 
 tion, by showing that it may be reproduced by converting 
 the steam into water. If a cubic inch of water, in the farm 
 of steam at the temperature of 212°, be introduced into the 
 same vessel with 5£ cubic inches of water at the tempera 
 ture of 32°, the steam will be immediately converted into 
 water; the temperature of the 5A inches of ice-cold water 
 will be raised to 212°, and there will be found in the vessel 
 0£ cubic inches of water at 212°. r J ;.lS, whle ill : . 
 in reassuming the liquid form, has lost none of its temper- 
 ature, it has nevertheless given up as much heat as lias- 
 raised 5£ cubic inches of water from 32° to 212°. It is 
 therefore demonstrated that this quantity of heat was actu- 
 ally in the steam ; and that it was its presence there in the 
 latent state, by some agency not yet explained, that confer- 
 red upon the water in the vaporous form the property of 
 elasticity. 
 
 We have here supposed that the pressure under which 
 the water in the tube was evaporated was the mean pres- 
 sure of the atmosphere, or 14$ lbs. per square inch. Let 
 us now suppose that the piston resting on the water, is load- 
 ed with a force of 14$ lbs., besides the pressure of the at- 
 mosphere, which amy be done by taking 14$ lbs. from the 
 counterpoise W. If the same'process be followed as lie- 
 fore, it will now be found that the thermometer will not 
 cease to rise when it has attained 212° ; nor will the piston 
 then begin to ascend. The thermometer will, on the other 
 hand, continue to rise until it has attained 250°. It will 
 then, as in the former case, cease to rise ; the piston will 
 ascend, and the water will begin to be converted into steam ; 
 the proportion, however, between the ascent of the piston 
 and the diminished depth of the water, or, in other words, 
 between the volume of steam produced and the volume of 
 water producing it, instead of being 1700 to l,*will now be 
 about 930 to 1, being little more than half the former pro- 
 portion. The force against which the elasticity of the 
 steam, in the present case, acts, is 29A lbs. ; and this force 
 is raised about 930 inches by the evaporation of a cubic 
 inch of water. In the former case, a force of 14$ lbs., be- 
 ing half the present force, was raised to 1700 inches by the 
 evaporation of the same quantity of water. If the doable 
 force, instead of being raised 930 inches, had been raised 
 only 850 inches, or half the first elevation, then the me- 
 chanical effect evolved would in both cases be precisely the 
 same, the double resistance being raised through only half 
 the space; but the actual height through which the double 
 resistance is raised being 930 inches instead of 860, a great 
 er mechanical effect is produced in the one case than in the 
 other, in the proportion of 930 to 850, being an advantage 
 on the part of the steam of greater pressure of about 8 pei 
 cent. " 
 
 If the pressure under which the evaporation is produced 
 were further varied, it would be found thai with every in- 
 crease of pressure the temperature nt which the evapora- 
 tion would commence would be augmented, and that with 
 every diminution of pressure that temperature would be di- 
 minished. It would be also found that the volume 01 steam 
 produced by a cubic inch of water would he less with eve- 
 ry increase of pressor* under which the evaporation is 
 made ; and that the diminution of volume would be nearly 
 
STEAM. 
 
 but not in quite so great a proportion, as trie increase of 
 1. In like manner, it' the pressure lie diminished, 
 the volume of steam produced by a cubic inch of water 
 will be augmented in nearly, but not quite so great a pro- 
 portion, as that of the diminution of pressure. From all 
 this, it obviously follows that the mechanical effect evolved 
 by the evaporation of a given volume of water under dif- 
 ferent pressures is very nearly the same ; greater pressures, 
 however, having a slight advantage over lesser ones. 
 
 It has been seen that 14] lbs. tire raised to a height of 
 1700 incites by the evaporation of a cubic inch of water 
 under the pressure of 14$ lbs. per square inch. Now, 1700 
 inches are nearly equal to 142 feet; and 14} lbs. raised 149 
 feet is equivalent to 143 times 11 J lbs. raised one foot, which 
 is equal to very nearly 2100 lbs. raised one foot. To use 
 round numbers, it may then be stated, that by the evapora- 
 tion of a cubic foot of water a mechanical force is produced 
 equivalent to a ton weight raised a foot high ; and that this 
 force is very nearly the same, whatever be the temperature 
 or pressure under which the evaporation takes place. 
 
 In the following table, calculated by Dr. Lardner, and 
 given by him in the Appendix to the 7th edition of his work 
 on the Steam Engine, is exhibited the temperatures at 
 which water is evaporated under different pressures, the 
 volume into which the water expands by evaporation, the 
 mechanical effect evolved expressed in lbs. raised one foot. 
 
 r 
 
 ■- 
 
 UU. 
 
 ';!. 
 
 .s| 
 
 § 
 
 I >Z~- 
 
 *u3 
 
 'Z-- 
 
 t- 
 
 iiii 
 
 |BS\| 
 
 £.= 
 
 
 S 3 S = 
 
 i sS -l 
 
 is. 
 
 
 ml 
 
 h 
 
 f! 
 
 8 u " 3 — 
 
 li 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6-S. 
 
 r c = — 
 
 la el 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 102 9 
 
 
 173!) 
 
 53 
 
 Bfrfl 
 
 434 
 
 2339 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 59 
 
 294 2 
 
 477 
 
 2343 
 
 3 
 
 1410 
 
 7437 
 
 
 60 
 
 
 470 
 
 2347 
 
 4 
 
 1523 
 
 5615 
 
 1895 
 
 61 
 
 2969 
 
 403 
 
 
 5 
 
 161-4 
 
 4617 
 
 1934 
 
 
 
 456 
 
 2355 
 
 6 
 
 169-2 
 
 3397 
 
 1948 
 
 63 
 
 
 449 
 
 23 - 9 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 
 443 
 
 2JC1 
 
 8 
 
 1 2-0 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 301 3 
 
 437 
 
 
 9 
 
 1-7-4 
 
 2674 
 
 2006 
 
 66 
 
 302-4 
 
 411 
 
 2369 
 
 10 
 
 
 SOB 
 
 
 67 
 
 
 125 
 
 
 II 
 
 197 
 
 2221 
 
 2(136 
 
 ■ 
 
 304-4 
 
 419 
 
 vm 
 
 12 
 
 201 3 
 
 
 2050 
 
 69 
 
 305 4 
 
 414 
 
 23" s 
 
 13 
 
 2053 
 
 1904 
 
 
 70 
 
 206 4 
 
 403 
 
 
 14 
 
 209 1 
 
 1773 
 
 2074 
 
 71 
 
 307-4 
 
 403 
 
 
 15 
 
 212s 
 
 
 20 s6 
 
 72 
 
 3084 
 
 
 B 6 
 
 16 
 
 216-3 
 
 1 173 
 
 2097 
 
 73 
 
 309-3 
 
 3"3 
 
 2391 
 
 17 
 
 219-6 
 
 
 2107 
 
 74 
 
 3103 
 
 3S8 
 
 2391 
 
 IS 
 
 222 7 
 
 1411 
 
 2117 
 
 75 
 
 311-2 
 
 3-3 
 
 wen 
 
 19 
 
 225 6 
 
 1343 
 
 2126 
 
 76 
 
 3122 
 
 379 
 
 MOO 
 
 20 
 
 
 12-1 
 
 2135 
 
 77 
 
 3131 
 
 374 
 
 2403 
 
 21 
 
 231 2 
 
 1225 
 
 2141 
 
 73 
 
 3140 
 
 370 
 
 2405 
 
 22 
 
 
 1174 
 
 2152 
 
 79 
 
 314 9 
 
 366 
 
 em 
 
 23 
 
 986-3 
 
 11 -'7 
 
 2160 
 
 SO 
 
 315-3 
 
 362 
 
 2411 
 
 24 
 
 2117 
 
 1081 
 
 2163 
 
 81 
 
 316-7 
 
 358 
 
 2414 
 
 25 
 
 24 10 
 
 1044 
 
 2175 
 
 82 
 
 317-6 
 
 351 
 
 2417 
 
 2i 
 
 -.'43 3 
 
 ion 
 
 21-2 
 
 83 
 
 318-4 
 
 
 2119 
 
 27 
 
 2455 
 
 973 
 
 2189 
 
 t-4 
 
 319 3 
 
 346 
 
 2122 
 
 
 2-17 6 
 
 041 
 
 2196 
 
 gg 
 
 3 1 
 
 342 
 
 2425 
 
 29 
 
 2496 
 
 911 
 
 
 86 
 
 321 
 
 339 
 
 2427 
 
 30 
 
 Bl-fl 
 
 BM 
 
 2209 
 
 87 
 
 321-3 
 
 335 
 
 2430 
 
 31 
 
 253-6 
 
 857 
 
 2215 
 
 83 
 
 3226 
 
 312 
 
 2432 
 
 32 
 
 25.5 
 
 833 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 ■M 
 
 323 
 
 2435 
 
 33 
 
 257 3 
 
 810 
 
 22 !6 
 
 90 
 
 321-3 
 
 325 
 
 243S 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 2232 
 
 91 
 
 325 1 
 
 322 
 
 2440 
 
 35 
 
 2609 
 
 767 
 
 2234 
 
 92 
 
 315 
 
 319 
 
 3443 
 
 36 
 
 262-6 
 
 7H 
 
 2213 
 
 93 
 
 326 7 
 
 316 
 
 2445 
 
 37 
 
 2<54 3 
 
 72 1 
 
 22.1S 
 
 94 
 
 327-5 
 
 3'3 
 
 2443 
 
 33 
 
 265-9 
 
 712 
 
 2253 
 
 95 
 
 S28-S 
 
 310 
 
 2450 
 
 39 
 
 267-5 
 
 695 
 
 2259 
 
 OS 
 
 an 
 
 801 
 
 2J53 
 
 40 
 
 269-1 
 
 679 
 
 2226 
 
 97 
 
 329.8 
 
 304 
 
 2455 
 
 41 
 
 270-6 
 
 6»>1 
 
 2263 
 
 9S 
 
 3305 
 
 301 
 
 2157 
 
 42 
 
 2'2-l 
 
 619 , 
 
 , 2273 
 
 <<9 
 
 Ml 3 
 
 298 
 
 2460 
 
 43 
 
 273 6 
 
 ■8 
 
 227S 
 
 100 
 
 3320 
 
 295 
 
 2462 
 
 44 
 
 275 
 
 622 
 
 2232 
 
 no 
 
 339 2 
 
 271 
 
 24S6 
 
 45 
 
 276-4 
 
 610 
 
 22-7 
 
 120 
 
 345 S 
 
 2.1 
 
 2507 
 
 46 
 
 277-8 
 
 593 
 
 2291 
 
 130 
 
 352 I 
 
 233 
 
 2527 
 
 47 
 
 2792 
 
 686 
 
 2296 
 
 140 
 
 357-9 
 
 213 
 
 2545 
 
 48 
 
 230-5 
 
 575 
 
 2300 
 
 150 
 
 3B3-4 
 
 205 
 
 2561 
 
 49 
 
 2S1-9 
 
 .564 
 
 23)1 
 
 160 
 
 36-<-7 
 
 193 
 
 2577 
 
 50 
 
 2<3 2 
 
 5 ',4 
 
 2303 
 
 170 
 
 373-6 
 
 ISfl 
 
 293 
 
 51 
 
 21 1 
 
 511 
 
 2312 
 
 HI 
 
 37S 4 
 
 174 
 
 2604 
 
 52 
 
 2-5-7 
 
 5'tl 
 
 2316 
 
 190 
 
 3^9 
 
 166 
 
 2622 
 
 53 
 
 
 525 
 
 2320 
 
 200 
 
 387 3 
 
 15-1 
 
 2636 
 
 64 
 
 2---I 
 
 516 
 
 2324 
 
 210 
 
 301-5 
 
 151 
 
 2650 
 
 
 2 9-3 
 
 508 
 
 2327 
 
 220 
 
 395 5 
 
 145 
 
 2663 
 
 56 
 
 290-5 
 
 500 
 
 2331 
 
 230 
 
 399-4 
 
 140 
 
 2675 
 
 57 
 
 291 7 
 
 402 
 
 2335 
 
 240 
 
 403 1 
 
 134 
 
 26-7 
 
 From what has been above explained, it is apparent that 
 the quantity of sensible heat in steam is augmented with 
 every Increase of pressure under which the evaporation 
 takes place; but if the interval of time be observed which 
 elapses between the first application of the lamp to the ice- 
 cold water in the experiment above described, and the mo 
 nirtnt at which the last particle of water disappears by 
 evaporation from the bottom of the tube, it will be found 
 that 'his interval is exactly the same, whatever be the tem- 
 perafrre or pressure under which the evaporation takes 
 place It follows, therefore, that the actual quantity of 
 
 heat nec es sa ry to convert ice-cold water into steam is the 
 same, whatever he the pressure of the steam; but as the 
 temperature of steam increases and diminishes as the pres- 
 sure is Increased or diminished, it follows that this given 
 
 quantity of beat is differently distributed between sensible 
 
 and latent heat in steam of dilferent pressures. As the 
 preSSUM is increased the sensible heat is augmented, and 
 the Intent heat undergoes a corresponding diminution, and 
 vice versa. The sum of the sensible and latent h- 
 fact, a constant quantity ; the one being always increased 
 at the expense of the other. It has heen shown that in 
 converting water at 32° of temperature, and under a pres 
 sure of 14J lbs. per square inch, it was necessary first to 
 give it 180° additional sensible heat, and afterwards 990° 
 of latent heat, the total heat imparted to it being 1170°. 
 Such, then, is the actual quantity of heat which must be 
 imparted to ice-cold water to convert it into steam. The 
 actual temperature to which water would be raised by the 
 heat necessary to evaporate it, if its evaporation could be 
 
 I by confining it In a close vessel, will be found by 
 adding 380 to 1170°. It may, therefore, be stated that ths 
 
 eSSnry for the evaporation of ice-cold W8 
 
 much ns would raise it to the temperature of 120 
 
 evaporation were prevented. If the temperature of red-hot 
 iron be, as is supposed, about 800°, and that all bodies be- 
 come incande-cent at the same temperature, it follows that 
 to evaporate water it is necessary to impart to it 41)11° more 
 heat than would be sufficient to render it red hot if its 
 evaporation were prevented. As the mechanii 
 evolved by water evaporated at all pressures is nearly the 
 same, and as the quantity of heat necessary to effect that 
 evaporation is also the same, it follows that the same 
 quantity of fuel employed in the evaporation of Wft* r la 
 productive of very nearly the same mechanical effect, 
 whatever be the pressure of the steam. 
 
 Since the heat Imparted to water in eva[>oration is ne 
 cessary to sustain it in the form of vapour, it follows thai 
 if any portion of that heat be taken from it, the steam will 
 not be lowered in temperature, but a portion of it will he 
 reconverted into water ; a process which is called condensa- 
 tion. To illustrate this, let us suppose tie- 
 filled with steam of 212° of temperature, produced from a 
 cubic inch of water evaporated under the pressure of 14j} 
 lbs. on the piston. If, by the application of external Cold, 
 or any other means, a quantity of heat be extracted from 
 this steam, say as much as would be sufficient to evaporate 
 the tenth of a cubic inch of water, then a tenth part of the 
 steam in the tube will be condensed and deposited in the 
 Liquid state in the bottom, the piston will descend through 
 a tenth of its entire height, and the steam remaining uu 
 condensed will still have the temperature of 212° and the 
 pressure of 143 lbs. per square inch, while the water in the 
 bottom of the tube produced by the condensation will also 
 have a temperature of 212°. The heat, therefore, which 
 has been thus abstracted, is the heat which was latent in 
 the steam formed by the water thus deposited. And in the 
 same manner, any heat which is drawn from the steam 
 will be latent heat; a corresponding condensation will take 
 place until all the steam has been condensed, and the pis- 
 ton brought into contact with the bottom of the tube. Af- 
 ter that, any abstraction of heat must be made at the ex- 
 pense of the sensible heat of the water. 
 
 It has, in some works, been stated that by mere mechan- 
 ical compression steam will be converted into water. This 
 is, however, an error, since steam, in whatever state it may 
 exist, must possess at least 212° of heat; and as this quan- 
 tity of heat is sufficient to maintain it in the vaporous form, 
 under whatever pressure it may he placed, it is clear that 
 no compression or increase of pressure can diminish the 
 actual quantity of heat contained in the steam; and it can- 
 not, therefore, convert any portion of the steam into water. 
 
 If steam, by mechanical pressure, be forced into a di- 
 minished volume, it will undergo an augmentation both of 
 temperature and pressure, the increase of pressure being 
 greater than the diminution of volume ; in fact, any change 
 of volume which it undergoes will be attended with the 
 change of temperature and pressure indicated in the above 
 table. The steam, after its volume has been changed, will 
 assume exactly the pressure and temperature which it 
 would have in the snme volume if it were immediately 
 evolved from water. Thus, let us suppose a cubic inch of 
 water converted into steam under a pressure of 14$ lbs. per 
 square inch, and at the temperature of 212°. Let its vol 
 ume be then reduced by compression in the proportion of 
 1700 to 930. When so reduced, its temperature will be 
 found to have risen from 212° to 250°, and its pressure will 
 be increased from 14i{ lbs. per square inch to 29.1 lbs. per 
 square inch; but this is exactly the state, as to pressure, 
 temperature, and density, as the steam would be in if it 
 were immediately raised from water under the pri 
 S8>i lbs. per square inch. It appears, therefore, 1 bat in what- 
 ever manner, after evaporation, the density of steam be 
 
 163 
 
STEAM. 
 
 changed, vvhetlier by expansion or contraction, it will still 
 remain the same as if it were immediately raised from 
 water in its actual state. 
 
 The circumstance which has given rise to the erroneous 
 notion that mere mechanical compression will produce a 
 condensation of steam is, that the vessel in which steam is 
 contained must necessarily have the same temperature as 
 the steam itself. If then the steam contained in the vessel 
 be suddenly compressed, it will undergo as sudden an ele- 
 vation of temperature ; and the vessel containing it not re- 
 ceiving at the same time, from any external source, a cor- 
 responding increase of temperature, it will rob the steam of 
 a portion of its heat, and a partial condensation will be pro- 
 duced, and will be continued until the temperatures of the 
 steam and the vessel containing it shall be equalized. 
 
 Since water, in passing into steam, suffers a great enlarge- 
 ment of volume, steam, on the other hand, in being con- 
 verted into water undergoes a corresponding diminution of 
 volume. It has been seen that a cubic inch of water, 
 evaporated at the temperature of 212°, swells into 1700 
 cubic inches of steam. It follows, therefore, that if a close 
 vessel, containing 1700 cubic inches of such steam, be ex- 
 posed to cold sufficient to take from the steam all its latent 
 heat, the steam will be reconverted into water, will shrink 
 into its original dimensions, and will leave the remainder 
 of the vessel a vacuum. This property of steam has sup- 
 plied the means, in practical mechanics, of obtaining that 
 amount of mechanical power which the properties of the 
 atmosphere confer upon a vacuum. If by any means what- 
 ever the space in a cylinder under the piston be rendered 
 a vacuum, the atmospheric pressure will take effect above 
 the piston, and will urge the piston downwards with a force 
 amounting to about 15 lbs. on each square inch of the sur- 
 face of the piston. To render steam available for this pur- 
 pose, it is only necessary to inject it into the cylinder until 
 it expels from the cylinder all the atmospheric air or other 
 uncondensable gases which the cylinder contains ; and 
 when that is effected, the pure steam which remains in 
 the cylinder being suddenly condensed by the application 
 of cold, leaves the cylinder a vacuum, and gives effect to 
 the atmospheric pressure above the piston, as before ex- 
 plained. This is, in fact, the principle of the atmospheric 
 engine. 
 
 The temperature and pressure of steam produced by im- 
 mediate evaporation, when it has received no heat, save 
 that which it takes from the water, have a fixed relation 
 one to the other. If this relation were known, and express- 
 ed by a mathematical formula, the temperature might al- 
 ways be inferred from the pressure, or vice versa. But 
 physical science has not yet supplied any principles by 
 which such a formula can be deduced from any known 
 properties of liquids. In the absence, therefore, of any gen- 
 eral relation established by direct reasoning, empyrical for- 
 mulas have been proposed which express, with more or less 
 precision, this relation in different parts of the thermometric 
 scale. 
 
 When the pressure under which the evaporation takes 
 place does not exceed one atmosphere, or 15 lbs. per square 
 inch, the relation between the temperature and the pres- 
 sure will be expressed with sufficient accuracy by the fol- 
 lowing formulas, proposed by Southern : 
 
 /51-3 4- T\5-13 
 
 T = 155-7256 X s/ P — 004948 — 51-3 ; 
 where P expresses the pressure in pounds per square inch, 
 and T the temperature by Fahrenheit's thermometer. 
 
 For pressures exceeding one atmosphere and not exceed- 
 ing four, the relation is expressed by the following formulae, 
 proposed by Tredgold : 
 
 /103 + ry 
 
 >• 201-18 ) 
 T = 201-18 ^P — 103; 
 or by the following formulte, 
 
 / 98-206 + T X6 
 ^ 198-562 ) 
 T = 198-562 ^/ P — 98806. 
 For pressures extending from four to fifty atmospheres, 
 the following formula have been proposed by Messrs. Du- 
 long and Arago : 
 
 P = (0-26793 + <M)067585 T;5 
 T = 147-961 V P — 39644. 
 Blot has proposed a more general formula, which ex- 
 presses the relation between the pressure and the tempera- 
 ture, whatever be the pressure under which the evapora- 
 tion takes place. Let p be the pressure, expressed in mil- 
 limetres, of mercury at the temperature of melting ice ; let 
 t be the temperature of the water taken on the centesimal 
 air thermometer; and let a, a\, «2, bi, 42 be constant quan- 
 1164 
 
 tities, whose values shall be determined by the following 
 conditions ! 
 
 a = 5-96131330259 
 
 log. a, = 1-82340688193 
 log. 6, = — 00130 , J7342 , .ir ) 
 log 0.2= 0-74110951837 
 log. b 2 = — 0-00212510533. 
 The relation betweinp and t will then be expressed by 
 the following 'omnia. 
 
 , , 20 + < , 20 + 1 
 
 log. y = a — a\ b\ x — albz T - 
 
 M. Biot compared the temperature and corresponding 
 pressures, calculated by this formula, with the series de- 
 termined by an extensive course of experiments undertaken 
 by MM. Arago and Dulong by order of the French govern- 
 ment, to those of the experiments of Taylor at lower tem- 
 peratures, and to a numerous series of MSS. observations 
 of M. Gay-Lussac, extending from the boiling point to tem- 
 peratures considerably below that of melting ice, and found 
 that the calculated and observed results corresponded with- 
 in the limits of error of the experiments themselves. The 
 formula first given above offer, however, much greater fa- 
 cility for practical calculation, and afford as accurate results 
 as are required for all ordinary purposes. 
 
 The same difficulty which attends the establishment of 
 a general formula expressing the relation between the tem- 
 peratures and pressures of steam, also attends the deter- 
 mination of one expressing the relation between the pres- 
 sure and the augmented volume into which the water ex- 
 pands by evaporation. Empirical formula; have according- 
 ly been likewise proposed to express this relation. The 
 late Professor Navier proposed the following formula for this 
 purpose. 
 
 Let V express the number of cubic inches of steam pro- 
 duced by one cubic inch of water, and let P express the 
 pressure of this steam in kilograms per square metre ; then 
 we shall have 
 
 y- 100 ° 
 
 0-09 + 00000484 P 
 This formula gives sufficiently accurate results when ap- 
 plied to pressures much above one ttmosphere. It fails to 
 give the same accuracy, however, when applied to lower 
 pressures. 
 
 The following formulas have been proposed by M. de 
 Pambour : 
 
 10,000 
 
 — 0-4227 + 0-00258 P 
 which will apply to low pressures ; and 
 V— 10,000 
 
 1.421 + 0-0023 P' 
 which will De applicable to high pressures. In each of 
 these P is expressed in pounds per square foot. 
 
 Dr. Lardner proposes the following modified formula, V 
 and P retaining their signification : 
 3875869 
 V ~ 164 +"P' 
 which may be used in reference to low-pressure engines of 
 every form, as well as for high-pressure engines which 
 work expansively. 
 
 When the pressure is not less than 30 lbs. per square 
 inch, the following formula will be more accurate : 
 4347826 
 ~ 618 + P* 
 
 In the preceding observations steam has been considered 
 as receiving no heat except that which it takes from the 
 water during the process of evaporation, the amount of 
 which, as has been shown, is 1170° more that the heat 
 contained in ice cold water. But steam, after having been 
 formed from water by evaporation, may, like all other ma- 
 terial substances, receive an accession of heat from any 
 external source, and its temperature may thereby be ele- 
 vated. If the steam to which such additional beat is im- 
 parted be so confined as to be incapable of enlarging Us 
 dimensions, the effect produced upon it by the Increase of 
 temperature will be an increase of pressure ; but If, on t lie 
 other hand, it be confined under a given pressure, witl. 
 power to enlarge its volume, subject to the preservation ot 
 that pressure, as would be the case if it were contained in 
 a cylinder under a moveable piston loaded with a given 
 pressure, then the effect of the augmented teniperatiue 
 will be, not an increase of pressure, but an increase of vol 
 time; and the inciease of volume in this latter case will 
 be in exactly the same proportion as the increase of pros 
 sure in the former case. 
 
 These effects of elevated temperature are common 1101 
 only to the vapours of at.v iquids, bat also to all permanent 
 gases; but, what is much nore remarkable, the numerical 
 amount of the augment*, ion of pressure or volume pro 
 duccd by a given increase of temperature is the same fei 
 
STEAM. 
 
 all vapours and gases. If the pressure which any gas or 
 vapour would huve were it reduced to the temperature of 
 melting ice be expressed by 100,000, then the preemre 
 which it will receive for every degree of temperature by 
 which it is raised will be expressed by 208$; or, what 
 amounts to the same, the additional pressure produced by- 
 each degree of temperature will be the 480th part of its 
 pressure at the temperature of melting ice. From these 
 data it is easy to Obtain an algebraical expression by which 
 the augmentation of pressure in a given volume, or, what 
 nil-, the augmentation of volume under a given 
 pressure fur every increase of temperature, may be calcu- 
 lated. 
 
 Let v be the volume of any elastic fluid at the tempera- 
 lure of 38° ; and let it be then supposed to be raised by the 
 application of heat to the temperature T, if under a given 
 Let its augmented volume be V. The increase 
 of volume will then be V — v, while the increase of tem- 
 perature will be T° — 32°. But since the increase of vol- 
 
 TO— 32° will be — X (T<*— 32°) ; and therefore the aug- 
 mented volume V will be 
 
 = v 1 + 
 
 T° — 32° , 
 
 480 ! 
 
 If V be the volume at any other temperature T', we 
 shall have 
 
 i T'° — 32° } 
 
 From whence we infer 
 
 V T +448. 
 
 V = T' + 448 ' 
 
 by which, when the volume of steam at any one tempera- 
 ture is known, the volume at any other temperature may 
 be found, supposing that the steam receives no accession 
 of water by evaporation. 
 
 Steam which thus receives additional heat after its se- 
 paration from the water from which it is evolved has been 
 called by Dr. Lnrdner superheated steam, to distinguish it 
 from common steam, which is that usually employed in 
 ■team engines. Superheated tteam admits of losing a part 
 of its heat without suffering partial condensation ; but com- 
 mon steam is always partially condensed if any portion of 
 heat be withdrawn from it. For further details on these 
 properties, see Lardnsr on the Steam Engine, 7th ed. p. 168, 
 etseq; also Appendix. See also Lardncr on Heat, chap, 
 viii. ; Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 
 
 In the mechanical operation of steam, which has been 
 already explained, the pressure, density, and temperature 
 of the steam are supposed to remain the same during its 
 action, and the mechanical effect is produced by the con- 
 tinual increase of the quantity of steam produced by eva- 
 poration. Thus, the piston in the apparatus represented in 
 the figure is moved upwards, not by any change in the 1 
 temperature, density, or pressure, but by the increased vol- 
 ume required by the continual production of steam. It has 
 been proved that by this process alone the evaporation of 
 a cubic inch of water, whatever be the pressure under 
 which it takes place, evolves a mechanical force equivalent 
 to a ton weight raised a foot high. But if, after this eva- 
 poration has been completed, the steam be separated from 
 the water which produced it, and the load on the piston be 
 gradually diminished, the steam would expand by moving 
 the piston upwards in virtue of its excess of pressure, and 
 this expansion will continue until the pressure of the steam 
 shall be reduced to equality with the load on the piston. 
 , All mechanical effect developed in this process is due to 
 the steam itself, independently of any further evaporation. 
 
 To make this important quality of the expansive action 
 of steam understood, let us suppose the piston loaded with 
 a pressure amounting to four times that of the atmosphere, 
 including that of the atmosphere itself. If the water under 
 the piston be evaporated under this pressure, it will have a 
 temperature of about 291°, and by its evaporation the pis- 
 ton will be raised 40 feet. This will, therefore, be the 
 whole mechanical effect arising from the immediate eva- 
 poration of the water. But when the evaporation has 
 been completed, and the piston, with its Joad of four at- 
 mospheres, stands suspended at 40 feet above the bottom 
 of the tube, let a pressure equal to that of one atmosphere 
 be removed from the piston. The remaining pressure of 
 three atmospheres being less than that of the steam below 
 the piston, the piston will be raised, and will continue to 
 rise until it has attained a height of about 50 feet, and the 
 temperature of the steam thus expanded will fall to about 
 275°; and its pressure being reduced to that of three at- 
 
 mospheres, it will cease to rise. By this process, therefor, 
 a mechanical force has been obtained from the steam equal 
 to the weight of three atmospheres raised 10 feet, In addi- 
 tion to the effect obtained by immediate evaporation ; but 
 the expansive action does not stop here. Let it he sup- 
 posed that the piston is again relieved from the pressure of 
 another atmosphere, the superior pressure of three atmos- 
 pheres below will cause it to rise, and it will ascend to the 
 height of about 75 feet, the temperature of the steam fall- 
 ing to about 250°, and its pressure being reduced to two at- 
 mospheres. A further mechanical effect equivalent to the 
 weight of two atmospheres raised to about 25 feet, has thus 
 been obtained ; and it is evident that by constantly and 
 gradually diminishing the load on the piston, an additional 
 effect may be always obtained from a given amount of 
 evaporation, to an extent which is only limited by practical 
 circumstances which restrain the application of this ex- 
 pansive principle. Since the cost of producing steam as a 
 mechanical agent depends chiefly on the quantity of fuel 
 necessary to effect the evaporation of a given volume of 
 water, it follows that all the mechanical effect obtained by 
 this principle of expansion is so much power added to the 
 steam without further expense. Its importance, therefore, 
 will be obvious in thu economy of steam power. For the 
 manner of rendering it available in steam machinery, see 
 Steam E.noink. 
 
 History of Steam. — The nature and properties of steam 
 were altogether unknown to the ancient*. Some accounts 
 have come down to us hearing a very early date of engines ; 
 such, for example, as that proposed by Hero of Alexandria, 
 in which the mechanical agency of steam was more or less 
 used; but it does not appear that those who invented and 
 applied these machines comprehended the property 
 vapour, or had any correct notion of the phenomena pro- 
 duced by the application of heat to liquids. Even at a much 
 more recent period the effects produced by steam were 
 ascribed, not to the vapour of water, but to the force of air 
 which was supposed to be expelled from water by heat. In 
 the beginning of the 17th century, De Caus proposed the 
 construction of a machine by which a column of water 
 was raised by the elastic force of steam; but there is no 
 sufficiently distinct explanation of the properties of vapour 
 in his description of that machine to warrant the conclu- 
 sion that he comprehended the elasticity of the vapoOZ of 
 water. About the middle of the same century. Lord Wor- 
 cester published the description of a high pressure steam 
 engine, which has since formed so remarkable a feature in 
 all histories of that machine. Towards the latter end of that 
 century, however, the actual properties of vapour began to 
 be gradually unfolded. In 11383, Sir Samuel Moreland pub- 
 lished a description of the force of steam, in which he as- 
 signed very nearly the exact numerical proportion in which 
 water increases its volume when evaporated under the 
 pressure of a single atmosphere. A few years after this, 
 Papin discovered the method of producing a vacuum by the 
 condensation of steam, and the circumstances attending its 
 condensation, became gradually better understood, having 
 been applied to mechanical purposes by Savery, Newco- 
 men, and others. About the middle of the 18th century, 
 the celebrated Watt applied himself to the improvement of 
 the steam engine, and by varions experiments determined 
 the relative volumes of steam as commonly used in steam 
 engines, and the quantity of heat absorbed in evaporation 
 and evolved in condensation. About the same period Dr. 
 Black was engaged in his well-known investigations re- 
 specting the phenomena of heat, and had discovered the 
 phenomena and found the theory of latent heat, which 
 served to explain the effects which Watt had also observed. 
 During the latter part of the 18th and the beginning of the 
 present century, the physics of heat, and more especially 
 those principles immediately connected with steam, were 
 rapidly advanced. The relation between the temperatures 
 and pressures of the vapour of water throughout the com- 
 mon range of the thermometric scale was determined by 
 Dalton, and confirmed by Gay-Lussac, Prof. Robison, Ure, 
 Southern, and others. The discovery of the law in virtue 
 of which the pressure of all gases and vapours increases in 
 proportion to their density at a given temperature was due 
 to Mariotte, and is known as Mariotte's law. The discovery 
 of the remarkable fact that all gases and vapours receive 
 the same increase of pressure or volume for each degree of 
 temperature was first discovered by Dalton ; but was imme 
 diately afterwards discovered also by Gay-Lussac, who was 
 not informed of Dalton's proceedings. The most important 
 course of experiments which has since been made were 
 undertaken by a committee of the French Institute, con 
 sisting of MM, Prony, Arago, Gerard, and Dulong, in con 
 sequence of an application from the French government to 
 the academy to point out the best means of preventing ac- 
 cidents from the bursting of the boilers of steam engines 
 The experiments were conducted chiefly by Arago and Du- 
 long, and were certainly not only the most delicate as to 
 
 1165 
 
STEAM BOILER. 
 
 their management, but the most hazardous which science 
 and art owe to the courage and zeal of philosophers. Bte&aa 
 was produced of a sufficient pressure to force a column of 
 mercury up a glass tuhe to the height of nearly 43 feet; an 
 atmosphere being measured by a column of mercury mea- 
 suring 29-U22 inches. The following table exiiibits the 
 temperatures and corresponding pressures of steam as de- 
 termined by these experiments, up to fifty atmospheres. 
 
 f Pressure in 
 1 Atmospheres. 
 
 Temperature. 
 
 Pressure in 
 Atmospheres. 
 
 Temperature. 
 
 i 
 
 212- 
 
 13 
 
 380-b6° 
 
 \ '£ 
 
 234 
 
 14 
 
 386-94 
 
 1 2, 
 
 250-5 
 
 15 
 
 392-86 
 
 2k 
 
 263-8 
 
 16 
 
 39.V48 
 
 1 3 
 
 275-2 
 
 17 
 
 4U3S3 
 
 ȣ 
 
 235 
 
 IS 
 
 403-92 
 
 4, 
 
 293-7 
 
 19 
 
 413-78 
 
 a 
 
 300-3 
 
 20 
 
 418 46 
 
 s 
 
 3075 
 
 21 
 
 422-96 
 
 si 
 
 314-24 
 
 22 
 
 42'-28 
 
 6* 
 
 320-36 
 
 23 
 
 431-42 
 
 M 
 
 326-26 
 
 24 
 
 435-56 
 
 s 
 
 331-7 
 
 25 
 
 439 34 
 
 336 86 
 
 30 
 
 457- 16 
 
 8 
 
 341-78 
 
 35 
 
 472-73 
 
 9 
 
 35U-73 
 
 40 
 
 486-59 
 
 10 
 
 358-88 
 
 45 
 
 499 14 
 
 II 
 
 3otiS5 
 
 50 
 
 610 6 
 
 12 
 
 374 
 
 
 
 The last six temperatures in the above table are deduced 
 by calculation from the formula e = (1 -4- 0'7153l)5, in 
 which e expresses the elasticity in atmospheres, and t the 
 temperatures in centieme degrees, beginning from 100°, 
 and proceeding upwards. The methods employed in this 
 magnificent course of experiments will be found detailed in 
 the Annates de Chimie et de Physique, tome xliii. p. 74. 
 
 The committee seized the opportunity presented by the 
 apparatus used for these experiments for testing Marriotte's 
 law, as applied to atmospheric air; and they found that it 
 agrees with experiment as far as a pressure of twenty-four 
 atmospheres. 
 
 For further details respecting the properties of steam, see 
 Dr. Lardner on the Steam Engine, 7lh edition ; Lardner on 
 Heat, Cabinet Cyclopaedia ; JJe Pambour on the Steam En- 
 gine ; various articles on Steam and Vapour, in the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions in the Proceedings of the Institute of 
 France ; the Annates de Chimie ct Physique ; the Annates 
 dzMines ; the Journal des Ponts it Chaussees, &.C. &c. 
 ^STEAM BOILER. A vessel in which water is convert- 
 ed into steam for the purpose of supplying steam engines, 
 or for any other purposes for which steam is used in the 
 arts, or in domestic economy. 
 
 The most common form of boiler used for steam engines 
 is that called the wagon boiler, an isometric view of which 
 is given in the cut. The form of boiler adopted by Watt 
 
 consisted of a semi-cylindrical top, flat perpendicular sides, 
 flat ends, and a slightly concave bottom. That which 
 is represented in the cut has sides a little concave. The 
 steam v. >ed in these boilers does not exceed the pressure of 
 the atmosphere by more than 5 lbs. per square inch ; and 
 the sides and ends, though not so favourable to strength as 
 the cylindrical form, are sufficiently strong for this pressure. 
 In a boiler of this form the air and smoke, passing through 
 flues that are carried round it, are in contact at one side 
 only with the boiler. The brickwork or other materials 
 forming the flue must therefore be non-conductors of heat, 
 1160 
 
 i that they may not absorb any considerable quantity of heat 
 from the air passing in contact with them. 
 
 The grate and part of the flues are rendered viable in 
 the figure, by the removal of a portion of the surrounding 
 masonry in which the boiler is set. The interior of the 
 boiler is also shown by cutting off one half of the .semi- 
 cylindrical roof. The door by which fuel is introduced 
 upon the grate is represented at A, and the door lending to 
 the ash-pit at B. The tire-bars at C slope downwards from 
 the front at an angle of about 25°, giving a tendency to the 
 fuel to move towards the back of the grate. The ash-pit 1) 
 is constructed of such a magnitude, form, and depth, as to 
 admit a current of atmospheric air to the grate bins suth 
 cient to sustain the combustion. 
 
 The fuel, when introduced at the fire-door is laid on 
 that part of the grate which is called the dead plates. 
 There it is submitted to the process of coking, by which 
 the gases and volatile matter are expelled from" it ; and 
 being carried by a current of air admitted through small 
 apertures in the fire-door over the burning fuel in the 
 hinder part of the grate, they are burned. When the fuel 
 in the front of the grate has been thus coked it is pushed 
 back, and a fresh teed is introduced upon the dead plates. 
 The coal thus pushed back soon becomes vividly ignited, 
 and by continuing this process, the fuel spread over the 
 grate is maintained in tiie most active state of combus- 
 tion in the hinder part of the grate. By such an arrange- 
 ment the smoke produced by the combustion will be 
 burned before it enters the flues. The flame and heated 
 air proceeding from the fuel rushing to the back of the 
 furnace pass over the fire-bridge E, and being carried 
 through the flue, pass below the concave base of the boiler. 
 This bottom flue is very nearly equal in width to the base 
 of the boiler, the space left near the corners being only what 
 is sufficient to support the weight of the boiler resting on 
 the masonry. The bottom of the boiler being concave, the 
 flame and heated air rise to the upper part of the flue by 
 the effect of their high temperature, and tick the bottom 
 from the fire-bridge to the further end. 
 
 The flue rises at the back of the boiler, and returns along 
 the side from II to I. It then passes in front of the boiler 
 at K to the opposite side, along which it is again carried 
 from the front to the back of the boiler. At the back it 
 finally turns upwards to the base of the chimney. 
 
 By this arrangement the flame and heated air are made 
 to circulate round the boiler ; and the length and magnitude 
 of the flues should be such that when it arrives at the 
 chimney its temperature shall be reduced, as nearly as is 
 consistent with the maintenance of the draught, to the 
 temperature of the water with which it is in contact 
 
 The magnitude of the grate and ash-pit must be deter- 
 mined by the rate at which the evaporation is to be pro 
 duced in the boiler. There is no well-established rule for 
 this. Some engine-makers allow a square foot of grate 
 surface for eacli cubic foot of water to be evaporated per 
 hour, while others only allow half this for the same eva- 
 poration and the same quantity of fuel. Practice varies be 
 tween these limits. 
 
 To facilitate the raking out of the grate, the bars are 
 placed with their ends towards the fire-door. They are 
 made of cast iron about two inches broad on the upper sur 
 face, and with intervals of half an inch between them. 
 
 They taper downwards, the spaces between then widen- 
 ing, to facilitate the fall of the ashes between them. The 
 height of the centre of the bottom of the boiler above the 
 front of the grate is usually about two feet, and about three 
 feet above the back of it. 
 
 Between the evaporating power of the boiler and the 
 magnitude of surface it exposes to the action of the fire, 
 there is a relation not yet satisfactorily ascertained. That 
 part of the surface immediately over the grate is probably 
 the most efficient in producing steam. The tendency of the 
 flame to rise would naturally bring it more in contact with 
 those parts of the boiler which are horizontal in their posi 
 tion, and which form the tops of the flues, than with those 
 which are vertical or lateral. In the boiler here represent- 
 ed the most efficient surface would therefore be the bottom 
 of the boiler. Engine-builders vary much in the quantity 
 of surface which they allow for a given rate of evaporation. 
 Some allow twelve and some eighteen square feet of sur- 
 face for each cubic foot of water per hour to be evaporated. 
 
 The capacity of the boiler is appropriated to a two-fold 
 purpose: 1. to contain the water to be evaporated; 2. to 
 contain a quantity of ready-made steam to supply the engine. 
 The proportion of the steam space in the boiler to the vol- 
 ume of the cylinder has been variously estimated. It is held 
 by some that it will be sufficient if it be five times the volutin 
 of the cylinder, while others allow double that quantity. 
 
 For every cubic foot of water per hour intended to be 
 evaporated, water space should be allowed In the boiler 
 for at least five cubic feet ; so that one fifth of the contents 
 are evaporated per hour. 
 
STEAM BOILER. 
 
 The surface of the water in the boiler must be matter of 
 careful and exact regulation. It should always l>e above 
 of the flues. When the heat in the flues acts 
 upon a pan of the boiler which is not in contact with xxa- 
 :, being a slow recipient of heat, the heat accumu- 
 be boiler plates, and raises their temperature to an 
 injurious degree. The plates may he by this means soften- 
 in cause the boiler to burst ; or the difference be- 
 usioii of these highly heated plates and of 
 contact with water may cause tiie joinings of the 
 open and the boiler to leak. By whatever means, 
 therefore, the boiler be fed, the level of the water ought 
 never to be allowed to fall below the highest flue. 
 
 Since the level of the water in the boiler ought to be 
 maintained in a steady position, it is evident that the mag- 
 nitude of the feed must be equal to the quantity of water 
 evaporated. If, therefore, one tilth of the water in the 
 boiler he evaporated per hour, that quantity ought to be 
 introduced by the feeding apparatus in the same time. To 
 regulate the feed with safety and certainty, it is necessary 
 to provide an indicator of the Utn iof the water in the boiler. 
 This is accomplished by a float which rests on the sur- 
 face of the water suspended by a xx ire, which passes steam- 
 tight through a small hole in the top of the boiler, and is 
 connected by a flexible chain or string, passing over a wheel 
 with a counterpoise, which is only capable of balancing 
 jht of the float when the latter is sustained by its 
 '. The position of the counterpoise 
 Will depend on that of the float; when the latter falls the 
 counterpoise must rise, and vice versd. The position of 
 the counterpoise, therefore, will always indicate that of the 
 float, and of the surface of the water on which the float rests. 
 There are other methods of indicating the quantity of 
 water to the rue and the ear (see Lardner on the Steam 
 p, -Mi, et seq.) ; but that which is most deserving 
 is one in which the indicator is made to govern 
 r, so as to supply water to the boiler in the same 
 proportion u that in which it Is evaporated, The wire 
 supporting the float on the surface of the water above de- 
 scrib-d. i ' N in the figure, is attached to the 
 
 arm of a lever, of which the op(K>site aflin is connected with 
 a common puppet valve placed in the bottom of the small 
 fowling cistern. When the surface of the water falls, the 
 float tails with it, and draws down the arm of the lever, 
 Which raises the opposite arm and o|>ens the valve. Water 
 from the feeding Cistern flows into the boiler through the 
 tube I*, and continues to flow into it until the level of the 
 surface has been raised so high that the float no longer 
 pulls down the arm of the lever, and therefore the valve in 
 the bottom of the cistern is closed. In the actual operation 
 of tlii s self-acting feeder, however, the surface of the water 
 so adjusts itself that the float opens the valve just so much 
 as is necessary, and sufficient to admit as much water from 
 minute to minute as is consumed by evaporation, and there- 
 fore the level of the water is maintained in a fixed position. 
 To secure the safety of the boilers it is necessary to pro- 
 vide means for preventing the. pressure of the steam con- 
 tained In them from exceeding a certain limit, and also for 
 indicating its pressure at all times. The former object is 
 attained by safety valves, which are of various forms. The 
 safety valve is a common puppet valve placed on the top 
 of the boiler, which ojiens upwards, and which is held 
 down by a pressure proportional to the limit within which 
 the steam .s intended to be kept. When the pressure of the 
 steam exceeds that limit, this valve is raised by it, and the 
 steam escapes until its pressure is reduced to below that of 
 the valve. The magnitude of the aperture of the valve 
 should be sufficient to enable the steam to escape faster 
 than under any possible circumstances it could be gene- 
 rated. Safety valves differ one from another, chiefly in the 
 manner in which the required pressure upon them is pro- 
 duced. In some, weights of the requisite amount are placed 
 directly upon the valve, as represented in the figure under 
 N. In some, the valve is held down by the elasticity of one 
 or more springs. In others, a lever presses on the valve by 
 a sliding weight, the pressure be ng varied at discretion by 
 shilling the position of the weight; and in others the lever 
 which acts on the valve is held down by a spring similar 
 to that of the common spring balances, which may be 
 screwed up to any required tension. In all boilers two 
 safety valves should be provided, one of which should be 
 placed out of the reach of the engineer, so as to impose a 
 major limit to the pressure which he can give to the steam. 
 The most ordinary indicator of the pressure of the steam 
 in low-pressure boilers is the mercurial steam gauge, re- 
 presented at O in the figure, which consists of a glass tube 
 bent into .he siphon form, the bent part and a portion of 
 each leg being filled with mercury. One leg communicates 
 with the steam within the boiler, and the other is open to 
 the atmosphere. The diflerence between the levels of the 
 columns of mercury in the two legs is always a measure 
 of the difference between the pressure of the steam and 
 
 STEAM CARRIAGE. 
 
 that of the atmosphere. If die tube be of iron, which is 
 most generally the case, the position of the surface of the 
 mercury in it is indicated by a float having a wooden rod 
 rising Irom it. 
 
 This indicator cannot be conveniently applied to high- 
 toilers, since the column of mercury supported by 
 the pressure of the steam would have too great a height. 
 In these boilers a thermometer is immersed, hx which the 
 temperature of the steam is indicated ; and this becomes an 
 indicator to its pressure, since the pressure varies with the 
 tenqierature. See Steam. 
 
 The safety of high pressure boilers is sometimes provided 
 for, by inserting in them a plug of metal capable of being 
 fused at that temperature above which the boiler is exposed 
 to the danger of explosion. If the writer and steam exceed 
 that temperature, the metal of the plug or of its solder will 
 melt, and it will fall out, and the steam will escape from 
 the opening which it leaves. An alloy composed of one 
 part of lead, three of tin, and five Of bismuth, will fuse at 
 the common tem|M-rature off boiling water; and alloys of 
 the same metals in various proportions will fuse at dif- 
 ferent temperatures from :JUO° to 400°. 
 
 When a boiler ceases to l>e worked and the furnace is 
 extinguished, the space within it appropriated to steam 
 will be left a vacuum by the condensation of the steam 
 with which it was previously tilled. The external pres- 
 sure of the atmosphere acting on the boiler would, under 
 such circumstances, have a tendency to crush it inwards. 
 To prevent this a safety valve is provided, opening in- 
 wards, and balanced by a weight to keep it closed until it 
 be relieved from the pressure of the steam within. 
 
 To render the strength of the tire proportional to the 
 evaporating poxver, s plate called a dossssr is placed with 
 its plane at right angles to the flue, so that by raising and 
 lowering it, like the sash of a window, the space for the 
 passage of air through the line is increased or diminished. 
 The force of draft and that of the fire can, therefore, be 
 varied merely by shifting the position of the damper. 
 
 Such a danqier can he regulated by hand, hut more uni 
 fornily by connecting it with a float placed on a column of 
 water or mercury, which measures the force of the steam. 
 as represented in the figure, where the chain suspending 
 the damper is seen at O and the float at P. If the lone of 
 the steam be suddenly increased, such a column will raise 
 the float and lower the damper; and if the force of the 
 steam be too feeble, the contrary effect will be produced. 
 Such an apparatus is called a self-regu'aling damper. 
 
 The form of boilers Is sometimes cylindrical, having an 
 oval flue conducted through them from end to end. The 
 ends are hemispherical. Such n form is favourable to 
 strength, and is better adapted than the wagon shape to 
 high-pressure boilers. 
 
 (For the boilers of railway engines, see Locomottvk 
 Engine; and for those of mnrine engines, see Steam Navi- 
 gation. For more minute details respecting steam boilers, 
 see Lardner on the Steam Engine, 7lh edition ; also '1 red- 
 gold, iW edition, Appendix.) 
 
 STEAM CARRIAGE. A name usually opplied to loco 
 motive engines adapted to work on common roads. 
 
 The principle of the construction of these is, in its general 
 conditions, similar to that of the locomotive engine used on 
 railways (see Locomotive Engine) ; but the engine adapt 
 ed to common roads must have the same power, with a 
 much less weight; or, in other words, the ratio of the 
 weight of the engine to the evaporating power of the boiler 
 is much less than in the case of railway locomotives. 
 
 Although the attempt made to adopt the steam engine as 
 an accessory power on common roads has not hitherto 
 been productive of any practical result of a permanent na 
 ture, this has not arisen so much from the failure of steam 
 power to accomplish the traction of carriages, as from the 
 greater expense of that power, as compared either with 
 horse power on common roads or with steam poxver on rail- 
 ways. At the time when the construction of railways 
 throughout the country was extensively undertaken, and 
 when the great power and economy of the locomotive 
 engine upon them was demonstrated by the results of the 
 traffic on the Liverpool and Manchester railway, several 
 projects for the application of the locomotive engine on 
 common roads were in progress, and were attended with 
 effects which presented a fair prospect of ultimate success. 
 The establishment of the great lines of railway communi- 
 cation throughout the kingdom, by engrossing the traffic of 
 all those districts in xvhich the locomotive engine on com 
 mon roads promised greatest advantage, and on which, if 
 anywhere, it would have taken the place of horse power, 
 discouraged speculators, and most of the projects which 
 had been in progress fell to the ground. Among these 
 were the steam carriages of Mr. Gurney, Col. Maceroni, 
 Mr. Hancockf Dr. Church, Mr. Ogle, Mr. Russell, and va- 
 rious others. 
 
 The engine in steam carriages generally acts either dl- 
 
 1167 
 
STEAM CARRIAGE. 
 
 rectly on the wheels, and causes them to revolve, and 
 thereby propels the carriage ; or it acts on cranks formed 
 on the' axle of the wheels, and the wheels being keyed 
 upon the axle are compelled to revolve with it. In either 
 case, the revolution, whether of the wheels or the axle, is 
 produced by a connecting rod jointed on the end of the 
 piston rod, and receiving motion from the piston rod. The 
 wheels are generally driven by two pistons working in two 
 cylinders, so that one is at its dead point when the other is 
 in the position most favourable for its action. The arrange- 
 ment of this part of the machinery being similar to that of 
 the railway locomotive, need not be here more fully de- 
 scribed. 
 
 The steam carriages of different projectors differ one 
 from another, chiefly in the boilers, and in the apparatus 
 for generaling the steam and admitting it to the cylinder. 
 Mr. Gurney's boiler consisted of a series of strong iron 
 tubes placed side by side, so as to form the bars of the 
 grate of the furnace. These were connected with another 
 system nearly at right angles to them, forming the back of 
 the furnace ; and these again with a third system, forming 
 the roof of the furnace. The tubes forming the grate bars 
 had their ends inserted in a strong iron cylinder, having its 
 axis horizontal, and its length extended across the front of 
 the furnace under the fire-door; and the tubes forming the 
 roof of the furnace were inserted in a similar cylindrical 
 vessel, extending in like manner across the front of the 
 furnace above the fire-door. • These two cylinders were 
 likewise connected by upright cylinders of less diameter 
 placed at each side of the fire-door. This system of tubes 
 and cylinders being filled with water, the heat of the fur- 
 nace acting on the tubes surrounding the fireplace, and the 
 heated air and flame being afterwards conducted above the 
 tubes forming the roof of the fireplace, before it escaped 
 into the chimney, steam was produced in the tubes, which 
 by its lightness passed from them to the cylindrical vessel 
 extending over the fire-door. From that vessel the steam 
 passed into a larger cylindrical vessel above it, called a 
 separator, its purpose being to disengage the pure* steam 
 from the spray of water with which it is generally mixed 
 when it first escapes from the boiling water in a state of 
 violent agitation. 
 
 Every part of this boiler being cylindrical, has the form 
 which is most favourable to strength, and which, within 
 given dimensions, contains the greatest quantity of water. 
 The tubes surrounding the furnace can freely expand in 
 the direction of their length, without being loosened at the 
 joints, and without straining any part of the apparatus. 
 Proper means of opening the tubes at their ends are pro- 
 vided, by which they may be scraped on the inside, and 
 cleansed from any deposit which may be left in them by 
 the water evaporated in them. 
 
 In these engines the draught of the furnace was produced 
 by projecting the waste steam into the chimney ; but in- 
 stead of dismissing it directly from the eduction pipe of the 
 cylinder to the chimney, it was conducted to a receptacle 
 called a blowing box. This box served the same purpose 
 as the upper chamber of a smith's bellows. It received the 
 steam from the cylinder in alternate puffs, but it let it 
 escape into the chimney in a continued stream by a number 
 of small jets. A regular draught was by this means pro- 
 duced, and no noise was perceived. 
 
 The pipe through which the boiler is fed was carried 
 through this blowing box in a spiral form, so that an exten- 
 sive thread of the feeding water was exposed to the heat of 
 the waste steam as it passed from the cylinders. In passing 
 through this box the feeding water was raised from 60° to 
 212°, at which temperature it was forced into the boiler. 
 
 A steam carriage constructed by Mr. Gurney, weighing 
 35 cwt., working for eight hours, was found, according to 
 Mr. Gurney's statement, to do the work of about thirty 
 horses. The engine was placed on a carriage separate 
 from that which bore the passengers, and the one drew 
 the other after it in the same manner as the railway engine 
 draws its train. Mr. Gumey stated that the weight of an 
 engine sufficient to draw after it a carriage containing 
 eighteen passengers would be about a ton ; so that the gross 
 weight of the whole, the engine and carriage for passen- 
 gers taken together, would not exceed that of a common 
 stage coach and four horses. 
 
 In the steam carriage proposed by Mr. Hancock, and 
 which was worked for some time on the New Road and 
 other roads about London, the engine and passengers were 
 placed in the same carriage. In the boiler the subdivision 
 of the water, so as to expose a sufficient surface to the 
 action of the fire, was accomplished by dividing a case or 
 box by a number of thin plates of metal like a galvanic 
 battery, the water being allowed to flow between every al- 
 ternate pair of plates, the intermediate spaces forming the 
 flue through which the flame and hot air pass. In fact, a 
 number of thin plates of water are exposed on both sides 
 to the most intense action of flame and heated air ; so that 
 116B 
 
 STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 steam of a high pressure is produced in great abundance, 
 and with considerable rapidity. The plates forming the 
 boiler were bolted together by strong iron ties, extending 
 across the boiler at right angles to the plates The distance 
 between plate and plate was two inches. 
 
 There were ten flat chambers of this kind for water, and 
 intermediately between them ten flues. Under these flue* 
 was the fire-grate, six square feet in magnitude. The watei 
 spaces were filled to about two thirds of thoir depth with 
 water, and the other third was left for steam. The waiet 
 chambers throughout the whole series communicated with 
 each other at top and bottom, and were held together by 
 two large bolts. By releasing these bolts at any time, the 
 chambers fell asunder; and by screwing them up, they 
 might be all made tight again. 
 
 These boilers were constructed to bear a pressure of 400 
 or 500 lbs. per square inch ; but the safety valve was screw- 
 ed up to a pressure not exceeding 100 lbs. per inch. There 
 were 100 square feet of surface exposed to the fire. The 
 stages which the engine performed were eight miles, aftei 
 which a fresh supply of water and fuel was taken in. 
 
 Mr. Nathaniel Ogle, of Southampton, obtained a patent 
 for a locomotive carriage, which he worked for some time 
 experimentally. In his evidence before the House of Com- 
 mons, he has there described his contrivance. " The base 
 of the boiler and the summit are composed of cross pieces, 
 cylindrical within and square without ; there are holes 
 bored through these cross pieces, and inserted through the 
 whole is an air tube. The inner hole of the lower surface, 
 and the under hole of the upper surface, are rather larger 
 than the other ones ; round the air tube is placed a email 
 cylinder, the collar of which fits round the larger aperture 
 on the inner surface of the lower frame and the under sur- 
 face of the upper framework. These are both drawn to- 
 gether by screws from the top; these cross pieces are 
 united by connecting pieces, the whole strongly bolted to- 
 gether; so that we obtain in l-10th of the space, and with 
 l-10th of the weight, the same heating surface and power 
 that are now obtained in other and low-pressure boilers 
 with incalculably greater safety. Our present experimental 
 boiler contains 250 superficial feet of heating surface, in the 
 space of 3 feet 8 inches high, 3 feet long, and 2 feet 4 inches 
 broad, and weighs about 8 cwt. We supply these two 
 cylinders with steam communicating by their pistons with 
 a crank axle, to the ends of which either one or both 
 wheels are fixed, as may be required. One wheel is found 
 to be sufficient, except under very difficult circumstances, 
 and when the elevation is about 1 foot in 6, to impel the 
 wheel forward. 
 
 "The cylinders of which the boiler is composed are so 
 small as to bear a greater pressure than could he produced 
 by the quantity of fire beneath the boiler; and If any one 
 of these cylinders be injured by violence or any other way, 
 it would become merely a safety valve to the rest. We 
 have never, with the greatest pressure, burst, rent, or injured 
 our boiler; and it has not once required cleaning, after 
 having been in use twelve months." 
 
 For more full details respecting steam carriages, see 
 Lardner on the Steam Engine, 7th edit. ; also, a Treatise 
 on Elemental Locomotion, by Alexander Gorden, C. E. 
 
 STEAM-ENGINE. A machine in which the mechanical 
 power developed in the evaporation of water is rendered 
 available as a moving power. Steam engines vary much 
 in magnitude, form, and proportions, as well as in the de 
 tails of the machinery by which the power of the steam is 
 adapted as a prime mover. We shall first explain those 
 forms of steam-engine most generally used in the arts and 
 manufactures, and shall afterwards give a succinct account 
 of the history of the invention and progressive improve- 
 ment of this machine. The forms of engine, and the mode 
 of its application to transport by land and water, have been 
 consigned to separate articles. See Locomotive Engine, 
 Railways, and Steam Navigation. 
 
 Double-acting Condensing Steam Engine. — This form of 
 engine is that which is almost invariably used as a moving 
 power in all manufactures in this country. It consists of a 
 cylinder represented in section at C, in which a moveable 
 piston P is driven upwards and downwards by the force of 
 steam supplied by a boiler placed near the engine. Sea 
 Steam Boiler. 
 
 This piston gives motion to a working beam H/, which, 
 by means of a heavy bar O, called a connecting rod, moves 
 a fly wheel and crank, from which the Machinery Is bt 
 worked directly receives its motion. Stenm is supplied 
 from the boiler to the cylinder by the steam pi]>e S. Tha 
 throttle-valve T in that pipe, near the cylinder, is regulated 
 by a system of levers connected with the governor Q. Thit 
 governor is an apparatus consisting of two heavy balls at 
 tached to the ends of rods which are kept revolving on a 
 vertical shaft by a cord or bnnd, or by a train of cocgerf 
 wheels connected with the fly wheel. The velocity with 
 which the balls of the governor revolve is therefore always 
 
STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 proportional to that of the flywheel, and of the machinery 
 driven by it. If by reason of too rapid a supply of steam an 
 undue speed tie imparted to the fly-wheel, the balls are 
 
 whirled round with a corresponding velocity ; and by rea- 
 son of their centrifugal force they recede from the vertical 
 spindle riund which they turn, and acting thereby on the 
 ,i of levers which connect them uith the throttle- 
 valve T, they partially close the latter, check or diminish 
 Ripply of steam to the cylinder, and moderate the 
 ty of the machine. If, on the other hand, the motion 
 of the engine be slower than is requisite, owing to a defi- 
 cient supply of steam through S, then the balls, not being 
 ■efficiently affected by centrifugal force, fall towards the 
 vertic.le spindle, and acting on the system of levers in the 
 contrary way, they turn the throttle-valve T more fully 
 open, and admit a more: ample supply of steam to the cylin- 
 der, so as tii increase the speed of the engine to the requisite 
 limit. 
 
 The piston P is accurately fitted to the cylinder, and made 
 to move in it steam-tight by packing, with which it is sur- 
 rounded. This piston divides the cylinder into two com- 
 partments, between which there is no communication by 
 which steam or any other elastic fluid can pass. A case B 
 B' placed beside the cylinder contains the valves by means 
 of which the Steam which impels the piston is admitted and 
 withdrawn as the piston commences its motion in each di- 
 rection. The upper stcam-boz B is divided into three com- 
 partments by two valves; above the upper steam-valve V 
 is a compartment communicating with the steam-pipe S. 
 Below the exhausting valve E is another compartment com- 
 municating with a pipe called the eduction pipe, which leads 
 downwards from the cylinder to a vessel called the con- 
 denser, which we shall presently describe. By this eduction 
 pipe the steam is withdrawn from the cylinder after it has 
 driven the piston. By the valve V a communication may 
 be opened or closed between the boiler and the top of the 
 cylinder, so as to admit or intercept the supply of steam from 
 the one to the other. By the valve E a communication may 
 be opened or closed between the top of the cylinder and the 
 condenser, so that the steam in the top of the cylinder may 
 either be permitted to escape into the condenser or confined 
 in the cylinder. The continuation S' of the steam-pipe 
 leads to the lower steam-box B , which, like the upper, is 
 divided into three compartments by two valves V and E'. 
 The upper compartment communicates with the steam-pipe 
 S', and tho lower with the eduction-pipe. By means of the 
 valve V steam may be admitted from the steam-pipe S' to 
 the bottom of the cylinder, and by means of the valve E' 
 this steam may be permitted to escape to the condenser. 
 
 The four valves V, E, V, and E' are in the engine rep- 
 resented in the figure connected by a system of levers with 
 a single handle or spanner, m, which being pressed upwards 
 or downwards opens and closes the valves in pairs. Thus 
 when it is pressed down the levers connected with it raise 
 the upper exhausting valve E and the lower steam valve 
 V, and close the upper steam valve V and the lower ex- 
 hausting valve E'. On the other hand, when the spanner 
 m is pressed up it opens the upper steam valve V and the 
 lower exhausting valve E', and at the same time closes the 
 upper exhausting valve E and the lower steam valve V. 
 
 The cylinder is closed at the top, and the piston-rod P 
 being accurately turned, runs in a steam-tight collar furnish- 
 ed with a shifting box, by means of which it is surrounded by 
 4 E 
 
 a packing of hemp and constantly lubricated ma melted 
 tallow. A funnel is screwed on the top of the cylinder, 
 through which, by opening a stop-cock, melted tallow to 
 permitted to fall from time to time on the piston .so as to 
 lubricate it. 
 
 The condenser D is submerged in a cistern of cold water; 
 at its side there enters a lube 1' governed by a cock I, which 
 being opened or closed to any required extant a jet ni' col. I 
 water may be allowed to play in the eeodeaser, , h 
 throws the water upwards towards the lower ontiee of Ule 
 eduction pipe L'. From the bottom of the condenser I) pr,> 
 ceeds a tube having a valve M in it, opening out 
 tube leads to the air-pump K', which is a pump Mtbm 
 In the same cistern with the condenser, worked by a 
 having a valve in it opening upwards. The piston-rod R .„ 
 the air-pump is carried upwards, and attached at d to 
 tern of jointed rods called the parallel moduli, to which a 
 also attached &t g the great sleam-piston rod. On tin rod 
 of the air-pump is placed projecting pins, which, as a 
 nately ascends and descends, strike the spanner m, ami 
 thereby open and close the valves V, V, E, E ', in pain, at 
 already described. 
 
 The upper part of the air-pump cylinder communicates by 
 a valve opening outwards with a small cistern K, called 
 the hot well, for a reason which will presently appear. A 
 pump L, called the hot water pomp, descends' into the hot 
 well and is worked by the great working beam to Which its 
 rod is attached. 
 
 If the machine thus arranged continued to be worked for 
 any length of time, the cistern of water in which the con- 
 denser and air-pump are immersed would become warm. 
 and the condenser would be rendered Incapable of doing' 
 that for which alone it is useful, viz., of reducing the steam 
 to water by cold. To prevent this a pump .\ i-i proi 
 called the cold water pump, by which a supply of cold water 
 is constantly kept (lowing into the cistern, the heated water 
 being at the same time allowed to escape by u waste pipe. 
 By this means the temperature of the water In the cold 
 tern is kept so low as to be capable of ell'ectually condensing 
 the steam. 
 
 The piston being supposed to be at the top of the cylinder, 
 the spanner m will be raised by the lower pin on the air- 
 pump rod, and the valves V and E' will be opened, and at 
 the same time the other pair of valves V and B will In- 
 closed. Steam will therefore be admitted above the piston, 
 and the steam which had previously tilled the cylinder I e 
 low the piston will be drawn otr to the condenser. It will 
 there encounter the jet of cold water, which is kept con- 
 stantly playing there by keeping the cock I sullick ntly open. 
 It will thus be immediately reduced to water or condensed 
 (see Steam), and the cylinder below the piston will remain 
 a vacuum. The steam, therefore, admitted from the steam 
 pipe through the open valve V to the top of the cylinder, 
 will press the piston to the bottom of the cylinder. As it 
 approaches that position the spanner m will be struck down- 
 wards by the upper pin on the air-pump rod, and the valves 
 
 V and E' previously open will be closed, while the valves 
 
 V and E previously closed will be opened. The steam 
 which has just pressed down the piston, and which now 
 fills the cylinder above the piston, will then (low otf through 
 the open valve E by the eduction-pipe to the condenser, 
 where it will be immediately condensed by the jet of cold 
 water which constantly plays there, and steam from the 
 boiler admitted through the open valve V will fill the cylin 
 der below the piston and press the piston upwards. When 
 the piston has reached the top of the cylinder the lower pin 
 on the air-pump rod will have struck the spanner m up- 
 wards, and will thereby have closed the valves V" and E 
 and opened the valves V and E'. The piston will then be 
 in the same situation as in the commencement, and will 
 again descend, and so will continue to be driven upwards 
 and downwards by the steam. 
 
 While this process is going on in the cylinder a quantity 
 of warm water is formed in the condenser, by the mixture 
 of condensed steam with the cold water admitted through 
 the condensing jet I'. It has been shown [tee Steam) that 
 any quantity of water in the state of steam being condensed 
 by cold water, will raise nearly six times its own weight of 
 cold water from the freezing to the boiling point by the 
 latent heat which is rendered sensible in the process of con- 
 densation. But since the jet of cold water, instead of being 
 at the temperature of melting ice, is at the common temper 
 ature of the atmosphere, say 50°, and it is necessary to re- 
 duce the temperature of the water in the condenser to at 
 least 100° (otherwise steam would be produced by it, which 
 would seriously resist the motion of the piston), and to re- 
 duce water from 212° to 100° by mixture with water at 50° 
 would require a quantity of the latter about twice the for- 
 mer, it follows that the quantity admitted through the jet 
 must be more than twenty times the quantity which passes 
 through the cylinder in the form of steam. 
 
 The warm water which is thus formed in the condenser. 
 
 1 1(1" 
 
STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 fallowed to accumulate there, would soon choke it up and 
 3top the action of the machine. To prevent this the air- 
 pump is provided; when the air-pump piston ascends it 
 leaves below it a vacuum, and the foot valve M being re- 
 lieved from all pressure, the weight of the water in the 
 condenser forces it open, and the warm water flows from 
 the condenser into the lower part of the air-pump, from 
 which its return to the condenser is prevented by the closed 
 valve. When the air-pump piston descends its pressure on 
 the liquid under it will force open the valve in it, through 
 which the warm water will pass ; and when the piston de- 
 scends to the bottom of the pump-barrel the warm water 
 which was below it will pass above it, and cannot return, 
 as the valves which open upwards will be kept closed by 
 its weight. When the piston next ascends it will raise the 
 water thus collected above it, and will throw it through the 
 valve into the hot well K. 
 
 The hot water pump L is usually a suction and forcing 
 pump, and draws up the warm water from the hot well, 
 and drives it through a pipe called the feed pipe to a cistern 
 placed over the boiler, from which the boiler derives its 
 feed of water. See Steam Boiler. 
 
 The system of jointed rods, c, d, e, /, g, called the parallel 
 motion, have for their object the maintenance of the rods 
 of the steam-piston and air-pump in a truly vertical position. 
 The steam-piston rod Imparts motion to the beam, and the 
 air-pump rod receives motion from it. The beam, however, 
 moving as it does alternately upwards and downwards on 
 an axis, every point on it must move alternately in the arc 
 of a circle whose centre is in the axis of the beam. If the 
 ends of the rods of the steam-piston and air-pump were im- 
 mediately attached to the beam, they would move therefore 
 not in truly vertical straight lines, but in the arcs of circles, 
 and by reason of the curvature of such arcs they would be 
 alternately reflected to the right and to the left. Such an 
 effect would be quite incompatible wilh that smoothness 
 and precision which are essential to the effective action of 
 the steam-engine. By the parallel motion the ends of these 
 piston rods are not immediately attached to the working 
 beam ; a rod c d, called the radius rod, moves on a fixed 
 centre c attached to the framing of the engine ; a bar d b 
 connects the other end of this radius rod with a pivot b on 
 the beam, so that as the beam ascends and descends the 
 pivots b and d each moves in an arc of a circle, and these 
 pivots are thereby drawn aside, but always in contrary di- 
 rections. These deflections of the ends of the bar d b are 
 neutralized at its middle point e, which neither deviates to 
 the right nor to the left, but moves In a vertical straight line. 
 To this point e the end of the air-pump piston is attached. 
 
 At the end of the beam to another joint / is attached a 
 bar / g, equal to b d, connected by pivots with another beam 
 d g equal in length to bf, so as to form the jointed parallel- 
 ogram b dgf. By this arrangement, as the beam ascends 
 and descends the pointy is moved in a manner altogether 
 similar to the point e, only that it moves through a greater 
 space in the proportion of the distance of g from the axis 
 of the beam to that of e from the same point. The point g, 
 therefore, to which the steam-piston is attached, is moved 
 upwards and downwards in a truly vertical straight line, 
 while the end/ of the beam with which it is connected is 
 moved upwards and downwards in the arc of a circle. 
 
 When the piston is at the top of the cylinder the crank G 
 placed on the axis of the fly-wheel F is at its lowest position, 
 and when the piston is at the bottom of the cylinder it is in 
 its highest position. In each of these positions the action 
 of the steam on the piston could not impart any motion to 
 the crank ; for the connecting rod O being then in line with 
 the crank, any force given to it, being necessarily exerted in 
 the direction of its length, would only produce a pressure or 
 strain on the crank-pin without the least tendency to turn 
 the crank round the axis of the fly-wheel. In these posi- 
 tions the machine is therefore placed in a dilemna, in which 
 the moving power ceases to have any influence on the ob- 
 ject it is intended to move. 
 
 The machine is extricated from this dilemna by the in- 
 ertia of the fly-wheel ; that wheel being a large mass of 
 matter, having once received a certain velocity of rotation 
 on its axis, has a tendency to retain such motion, and will, 
 in fact, retain it until it has been deprived of it by the con- 
 tinued resistance of friction and the air. When, therefore, 
 the crank arrives at cither of the positions above mentioned 
 and the moving power ceases to be effective, the inertia of 
 the fly-wheel causes it to continue its motion, and the crank 
 is immediately turned out of the extreme position it has as- 
 sumed, and thrown into a position in which the power of 
 the piston on it becomes effective. 
 
 The functions of the fly-wheel are, however, not confined 
 to carrying the machine thus through the dead points by 
 the eneigy of the force it has received from the piston when 
 the crank was in a more favourable position ; it likewise 
 equalizes, by the same property, the unequal effect of the 
 erank; it is only when the crank forms a right angle with 
 1170 
 
 the connecting rod that it is fully effective. As that angle 
 changes its leverage changes, until at length the leverage is 
 reduced to nothing at those extreme positions just mentioned. 
 When the crank is in and near the position in which it is 
 rectangular to the connecting rod, iis action is shared be- 
 tween the fly-wheel and the machinery driven by the en- 
 gine, a part being engaged in accelerating and therefore giv- 
 ing momentum to the fly-wheel. As it passes towards the 
 dead points this momentum taken up by the fly-wheel is 
 given back to the crank in aid of the moving power, at those 
 positions of the crank where the effect of the moving 
 power upon it becomes enfeebled. In this manner the fly- 
 wheel in the steam-engine becomes a perfect equalizer of 
 the mechanical action of the machine. 
 
 Although the system of rods called the parallel motion 
 appears in the figure to consist only of one parallelogram 
 b dgf, and one rod c d, it is in fact double, a similar paral- 
 lelogram and radius rod attached to corresp^iding points, 
 and acting in the same manner on the other side of th» 
 beam ; but from the view given in the cut, the one set of 
 rods hides the other. The two systems of rods thus at- 
 tached to the beam are connected by cross rods, the ends of 
 which form the pivots or joints, and extend between the 
 parallelograms. The ends of these cross rods only are visi- 
 ble in the figure. It is to the middle of one of these rods, 
 the end of which is represented at e, that the air-pump pis- 
 ton is attached ; and it is to the middle of another, the end 
 of which is represented at g, that the steam-piston rod is at- 
 tached. These two piston rods, therefore, are driven not by 
 eitiier of the parallelograms, but by the bars extending be 
 tween them. 
 
 To the working end H of the beam is attached the con 
 necting rod O, formed of cast iron, the lower end of which 
 is attached to the crank G by a pivot. The weight of the 
 connecting rod is made to balance the weight of tbej)iston 
 rods of the air-pump and cylinder, and the weight of the 
 piston rod N of the cold water pump, balances the weight 
 of the piston rod L, of the hot water pump. Thus, so far as 
 the weight of the moveable parts of the machine is concerned, 
 the engine is in equilibrium, and the piston would rest in- 
 differently in any position in the cylinder. 
 
 The axis of the fly-wheel on which the crank is formed is 
 square in the middle, where the wheel is attached to it; 
 but has cylindrical necks at each end/which rest in hear- 
 ings supported by the framing of the machine, in which 
 bearings the axis revolves freely. On the axis of the crank 
 is placed the fly-wheel, and connected with its axle is the 
 governor (A already described. 
 
 The manner in which the crank affects the connecting 
 rod at the dead points already mentioned produces an effect 
 of great importance in the operation of the engine. When 
 the crank approaches the lowest point of its play, and at 
 the same time the piston is approaching the top of the 
 cylinder, the motion of the crank pin becomes nearly hori- 
 zontal, and, consequently, its effect in drawing the con- 
 necSng rod and the end of the beam downwards, and the 
 piston upwards, is extremely small. The consequence of 
 this is, that as the piston reaches the top of the cylinder its 
 motion becomes very rapidly retarded ; and as the motion 
 of the crank pin at its lowest point is actually horizontal, 
 the piston is brought to a state of rest by this gradually re- 
 tarded motion. A similar effect is produced ai the other 
 dead point. This suspension of motion at each end of the 
 stroke affords time for the process of condensation to be 
 effected, so that when the moving power of the steam upon 
 the piston can come into action, the condensation shall be 
 sufficiently complete. As the piston approaches the top of 
 the cylinder, and its motion becomes slow, the working gear 
 is made to open the lower exhausting valve ; the steam en- 
 closed in the cylinder below the piston, and which has just 
 driven the piston upwards, presses usually with a force of 
 about 17 lbs. per square inch, while the uncondensed va- 
 pour resists with a force of about 2 lbs. per square inch. 
 The steam will therefore have a tendency to rush from the 
 cylinder to the condenser through the open exhausting 
 valve, with an excess of pressure amounting to 15 lbs. pet 
 square inch, while the piston pauses at the top of the cylin- 
 der. This process goes on ; and when the piston has been 
 made to descend by the motion of the fly-wheel a sufficient 
 distance from the top of the cylinder to call the moving 
 force of the steam into action, the exhaustion will he com- 
 plete, and the pressure of the uncondensed vapour in the 
 cylinder will become the same as in the condenser. The 
 pressure of the steam, and of the uncondensed vapour, varies 
 within certain limits, and therefore the amount here assign- 
 ed to them must be taken merely as an example. 
 
 The size of the exhausting valves should be such as to 
 cause the condensation to be completed when the steam im- 
 pelling the piston is called into action. It is usual «o make 
 these valves with a diameter equal to a fifth of tl.f of the 
 cylinder, and the steam valves are generally ma:'f of the 
 same magnitude. 
 
STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 The great lever or working beam was so called from being 
 originally made of oak. It is now, however, universally 
 constructed of cast iron. 
 
 The mechanism by which the four valves V, V , E, E , 
 are o|>ened and closed, is subject to great varieties. Some- 
 times tliev are opened alternately in pairs by two distinct 
 levers, anil driven by two pieces attached to the air-pump 
 rod ; but more generally the admission of steam to the cylin- 
 der is regulated by a single moveable piece, called a slide. 
 
 glides are very various in their form and arrangement; 
 
 but that which has come into most general use is one winch 
 
 is culled from the form of its cross section the D valve. 
 
 This slide is represented in vertical section in figs. '- and 3. 
 
 (2.) (30 
 
 («•) 
 
 N @: — J > 
 
 The rod E, by which the slide is moved, passes through 
 % stuffing box P. The moveable piece or slide G is repre- 
 sented by a vertical section «, being a hollow passage 
 through it extending from the top to the bottom: 8 is the 
 BOOlh of the meat steam pipe coming from the boiler; i' is 
 leading to the condenser ; T H is a hollow space 
 formed within the slide, always in communication witli the 
 steam pipe S, and, consequently, always filled with steam 
 from Ihe boiler. A transverse section of the slide and cylin- 
 der is represented in fig. 4, where a represents the top of the 
 nwiwili marked a in ti|_'. 3. 
 
 In the position of the- slide represented in fig. 2, the steam 
 filling the space T H has access to the 
 top of the cylinder, but is excluded from 
 the bottom. The steam which was be- 
 low the piston, passing up the passage a, 
 escapes through the tube P to the con- 
 denser. When the piston has descended 
 the rod E moves the slide downwards, 
 and throws it into the posidon represent- 
 ed in fig. 3. The steam in T H has now 
 access to the bottom of the cylinder; 
 while the steam above the piston, pass- 
 ing through T, escapes to the condenser. 
 In this way the operation of the piston is 
 continued, and the steam consumed at 
 each stroke only exceeds the capacity of the cylinder by 
 what is necessary to fill the passages between the slide and 
 the cylinder. The steam filling the space TH has a ten- 
 dency to press the slide back, so as to break the contact of 
 the rubbing surfaces, and thereby to cause the steam to 
 leak from the space TH to the back of the slide; this is 
 counteracted by the packing x at the back of the slide. 
 
 In engines of very long stroke, the r.uent of the rubbing 
 surface of slides of this kind render? it difficult to keep them 
 In steam-tight contact, and to insure their uniform wear. 
 In such cases, therefore, separata slides on the same prin- 
 ciple are provided at the top and bottom of the cylinder, 
 moved, however, by n single rod of communication. 
 
 A great variety of slides and cocks for regulating the ad- 
 mission of steam to the cylinder may be seen described in 
 Dr. Lardncr's work on the Steam Engine, p. 227-242. 
 
 The method of working the valves by pins attached to 
 the air-pump rod already described, has been, except in the 
 case of engines of great magnitude and power, superseded 
 by a contrivance called an eccentric, by means of which 
 the slides or valves receive motion from the axle of the fly- 
 wheel. 
 
 An eccentric is a metallic circle attached to the axle of 
 the fly-wheel, so that its centre shall not coincide with the 
 centre round which the axle revolves. Let us suppose that 
 G (fig. 5) is a square revolving shaft; let B D be a circular 
 plate of metal, having a square hole cut in it through which 
 the revolving shaft G passes;and let C be the centre of this 
 circular plate. By the revolution of the shaft this centre C 
 will be carried round it in a circle, the radius of which will 
 beCG 
 
 Let E F be a metallic ring formed of two semrclrcl 
 metal screwed together at H, so as to be capable by the ad- 
 justment of the screws of having the circular aperture form- 
 ed by the ring enlarged or diminished within certain small 
 limits ; let this circular aperture be equul to the magnitude 
 of the eccentric B D, and to the circular ring E V let an arm 
 L M be attached. If the ring be placed round the eccentric, 
 and the screws H be so adjusted as to allow the eccentric to 
 revolve within the ring, then, while the eccentric revolves, 
 the ring not partaking of its revolution, the arm L M will be 
 alternately driven right and left by the motion of the centre 
 C as it revolves round <;. When the centre C of the ec- 
 centric is in the same horizontal line, and to the left of it, 
 then the position of L M will be that which is represented 
 In fig. 5. But after half a revolution of the main axle the 
 centre C will be thrown to the right of G, and the point M 
 will be moved to the right to a distance from its former po- 
 sition equal to twice C G. Thus, as the eccentric revolves, 
 the ring, together with the arm L M, will be alternately 
 driven right and left, through a space equal to twice the 
 disiance between the centre of the eccentric and the centre 
 of the revolving shaft. 
 
 If we suppose a notch formed nt the extremity of the arm 
 L M, capable of embracing a lever N M moveable on a pivot 
 at N, the motion of the eccentric would give to such a lever 
 an alternate motion from right to left, and vice versa. If 
 we suppose another lever N O connected with N M, and nt 
 rinht angles to it, forming what is called a bell crank, then 
 the alternate motion of M from right to left will impart a 
 corresponding motion upwards and downwards to the end 
 O of the lever N O. If this last point O were attached to 
 the vertical rod of the slide, it would move the slide up- 
 wards and downwards. The extent of this motion might 
 be regulated at pleasure by varying the length of the arms 
 of the levers, and the moment at which it would commence 
 to move in either direction would be determined by the po- 
 sition of the eccentric on the fly-wheel shaft. 
 
 Expansive Engine. — As the operation of the steam en- 
 gine has been explained, the power which moves the piston is 
 the immediate force with which vapour is produced in the 
 boiler. Each quantity of water which is successively evap- 
 orated obtains the space requisite for it in the form of steam, 
 by pressing towards the cylinder an equal quantity of steam 
 previously contained in the boiler; and it is the force with 
 which the steam is thus pressed forward that impels the 
 piston. But it has been shown (see Stbam) that great ad 
 ditional mechanical power will lie obtained from the steam, 
 if, besides this moving power which results from immediate 
 evaporation, the expansive power of the steam separated 
 from the water be used. This is accomplished by closing 
 the valve through which steam flows from the boiler to the 
 cylinder before the piston has completed its stroke. Thus, 
 let us suppose that when the piston has advanced through 
 half its stroke the steam valve be closed, the steam which 
 is then acting upon the piston will still urge it forward ; but 
 as the piston advances, this steam, assuming a proportion- 
 ally augmented volume, will acquire a gradually diminish- 
 ed pressure, so that through the remaining half of the stroke 
 the piston will be urged by a pressure progressively de- 
 creasing, and at the termination of the stroke it will be a 
 little less than half the force with which the piston was 
 impelled while the steam valve was open. 
 
 Since the force of the steam, from the moment the steam 
 valve is closed, is thus continually diminished, its moving 
 power might be so much attenuated that it would be inca- 
 pable of overcoming the resistance so as to complete the 
 stroke ; this would happen if the steam were cut off" when 
 only a small fraction of the stroke has been made, unless 
 the pressure of the steam while the valve Is open exceeds 
 the resistance in a proportionate degree. It is for this reason 
 that the expansive principle cannot be brought into opera 
 tion to any considerable extent unless steam be used of a 
 greater pressure than is commonly adopted in low-pressure 
 engines. It is also apparent that with an equal volume of 
 cylinder greater length of stroke should be given when the 
 expansive principle is used. 
 
 1171 
 
STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 The mechanism by which the expansive principle is 
 brought into practical operation consists merely in the adap- 
 tation of valves or slides which shall stop the admission of 
 steam when the required fraction of the stroke has been 
 made by the piston, but which shall leave the communica- 
 tion with the condenser open till the stroke is completed. 
 If separate valves be used, this is accomplished by adapting 
 the pins or other mechanism by which they are worked to 
 open and close them, independently of each other, at the 
 proper times. If slides be used, it is effected by regulating 
 the form and aperture of the slide, so as to cover and un- 
 cover the passages to the cylinder at the proper times. 
 Each species of valve, and each form of slide or cock, has 
 its own peculiar provisions for accomplishing this, the de- 
 tails of which may be seen by a reference to Lardner on 
 tlie Steam Engine, p. 232, et seq. 
 
 Single-acting Steam Engine. — When the steam engine is 
 applied to the purpose of pumping water, which in the first 
 periods of its invention was its only practical application, 
 the force which it exerts is only required in raising the 
 pump rods with their load of water, their own weight being 
 more than sufficient for their descent. As the pump rods 
 are attached to the working end H (fig. 1) of the beam, the 
 force of the steam is only required to draw up that end, and, 
 therefore, to draw down the end at which the steam piston 
 is attached; the steam, therefore, being only required to 
 press the piston downwards, it is not admitted from the 
 boiler below it, as in the engine already described, which 
 for distinction is called the double-acting engine. During 
 the down stroke of the single-acting engine the performance 
 of the machine is precisely similar to that already descri- 
 bed ; steam is admitted through the upper steam valve 
 above the piston, while the space in the cylinder below the 
 piston is kept in free communication with the condenser by 
 keeping the lower exhausting valve open. The operation, 
 therefore, of the upper steam valve, and the lower exhaust- 
 ing valve, is precisely the same as in the double-acting en- 
 gine. When the piston lias reached the bottom of the cyl- 
 inder, the two former valves being closed, a valve called 
 the equilibrium valve is opened, by which a free commu- 
 nication is made between the top and bottom of the cylin- 
 der : by this means the steam which fills the upper part of 
 the cylinder, being allowed to flow equally to the lower 
 part, will press with the same force on both sides of the 
 piston, and will, therefore, have no tendency whatever to 
 move it. Under these circumstances, the preponderating 
 weight of the pump rods suspended from the other end of 
 the beam will draw the piston to the top of the cylinder ; 
 while it is ascending the steam which was above will pass 
 through the equilibrium valve below it, and when the pis- 
 ton has reached the top of the cylinder, the cylinder under 
 the piston will be filled with the same steam which previ- 
 ously had driven the piston down. In order to accomplish 
 the next down stroke, the equilibrium valve is closed, and 
 the upper steam valve and lower exhausting valve are 
 opened ; the steam pressure acts above the piston, and " 
 vacuum is produced below it, and the piston descends as 
 before. 
 
 Single-acting engines are frequently worked with expan- 
 sion. In the application of this principle to them the upper 
 steam valve is closed before the lower exhausting valve ; 
 but both these valves are open together. The mechanism 
 for working the expansion valves does not materially differ 
 in its principle from that already described in the double- 
 acting engine. 
 
 The great theatre of the operation of single-acting engines 
 is the mining districts, and especially that of Cornwall. The 
 Cornish pumping engines are constructed of enormous pow- 
 er, and carry out the expansive principle to a great extent. 
 Engines are there used for the drainage of mines with cyl- 
 inders from 7 to 8 feet in diameter, and from 10 to 12 feet in 
 the stroke. Steam having a pressure of from 20 to 30 lbs. 
 per square inch and upwards, is used for impelling them, 
 and is cut off at a third or fourth of the stroke. A system 
 of careful inspection has been for some years established by 
 the mining companies with a view to the improvement of 
 the efficiency of the engines, and monthly reports of the 
 performance of the engines have been regularly printed. 
 The effect of this has been to stimulate the activity and 
 skill of all concerned in the manufacture and working of 
 ■.hose machines, and a rapidly progressive improvement in 
 them has taken place. The efficiency of these engines is 
 estimated by the number of pounds weight of water which 
 they are capable of elevating one foot high by the combus- 
 tion of a bushel of coals. This has been termed the duty 
 of the engine. In 1769, wh|p Mr. Watt first directed his 
 attention to the steam engine, Smeaton computed that the 
 average duty of the engines then in use was about 5J mill- 
 ions ; from that time to the year 1800, a period of thirty 
 years, Mr. Watt's improvements in the steam-engine were 
 made, and the duty was gradually increased to 20 millions, 
 or very nearly quadrupled. In 1813, the system of inspec- 
 1172 
 
 tion first mentioned was commenced, and the average duty 
 was the same as in 1800. From this time to 1826, the en- 
 gines underwent a progression of slow but steady improve- 
 ments, and the duty was increased to 30 millions. This 
 state of improvement continued, and in 1828 the average 
 duty had risen to 77 millions. The increase since that time 
 has been slower: the average duty for the last few years 
 has been from 80 to 90 millions ; but in one Well-con dieted 
 experiment it was found that by the combustion of a bushel 
 of coals an amount of mechanical power was produced 
 which raised the inconceivable load of 125 millions of 
 pounds weight one foot high. Thus, by the improvements 
 of Watt, and their immediate consequences, the power of 
 the steam engine was, within the space of seventy years, 
 increased about 25 fold. 
 
 JVon-condensing Steam Engines. — The form and struc 
 ture of non-condensing engines differ in nothing from that 
 of double-acting condensing engines except in me absence 
 of the condensing apparatus ; that is to say, the condenser, 
 the air-pump and the cold water and hot water pumps. 
 The stearn, after it has impelled the piston, instead of being 
 conducted to a cold vessel to be condensed, is simply allow- 
 ed to escape into the atmosphere, and is commonly ejected 
 into the chimney of the furnace. 
 
 The operation of such a machine is extremely simple 
 The valves by which the steam is admitted to, and allowed 
 to escape from the cylinder, are exactly similar to those of 
 the double acting engine. In the down stroke of the piston, 
 the upper steam valve being open, admits steam from the 
 boiler above the piston, and the lower exhausting valve 
 allows the steam below it to escape through a tube which 
 leads to the chimney, up which it rushes. In the upstroke, 
 the lower steam valve being open admits steam from the 
 boiler below the piston, and the upper exhausting valve 
 being open allows the steam above the piston to escape to 
 the chimney. 
 
 It is evident, in such a machine, that the piston is always 
 resisted by the pressure of the steam escaping to the chim- 
 ney. As such escape cannot be effected except by steam 
 of greater pressure than that of the atmosphere, it follows 
 that the piston is always resisted by a force somowliM 
 greater than the atmospheric pressure. The steam which 
 urges the piston is, therefore, only effective by the excess 
 of its pressure above that of the escaping vapour, which 
 may be taken at about 16 lbs. per inch, but which varies in 
 different engines. 
 
 As the steam used in non-condensing engines must of 
 necessity have a pressure considerally exceeding that of the 
 ntmosphere, such machines have been generally called 
 high-pressure engines; while those which condense the 
 steam have been, on the other hand, called low-press um 
 engines. These terms are not, however, correctly expres- 
 sive of the nature of these engines respectively. Many en- 
 gines in which condensation is used, especially those in 
 which the expansive principle is applied with much effect, 
 are worked with steam of a high pressure, not unfrequently 
 with a pressure amounting to from two to three atmo- 
 spheres. It is, therefore, not correct to call such machines 
 low-pressure engines. It is, however, true that engines 
 worked without condensation must, of necessity, be worked 
 by steam of a pressure which is generally called high pres- 
 sure. 
 
 All locomotive engines, without exception, used on rail- 
 ways or common roads, are high-pressure non-condensing 
 engines. See Locomotive Engine, and Steam Car- 
 riage. 
 
 High-pressure non-condensing engines are almost univer 
 sally used for inland navigation in the United States. See 
 Steam Navigation. 
 
 Rotatory Steam Engine. — This term is sometimes applied 
 to the double-acting engine working a crank and fly-wheel, 
 as distinguishing it from the single-acting engine used for 
 pumping. But it is more properly applied to an engine in 
 which a motion of rotation is produced immediately by the 
 action of the steam, without the intervention of such mech- 
 anism as the working beam, crank, and fly-wheel. This is 
 usually effected by a piston which, instead of moving longi- 
 tudinally in the cylinder, revolves within the cylinder on 
 nn axis which coincides with the geometrical axis of the 
 cylinder itself. The mechanism is so contrived that this 
 piston shall revolve in steam-tight contact with the sides 
 and ends of the cylinder; and that while steam from the 
 boiler constantly presses it on one side, the steam on the 
 other side shall continually escape to the condenser, if it be 
 a condensing engine, or to the chimney, if it be a non-con- 
 densing engine. The various contrivances for rotatory en 
 gines which have been suggested differ one from the other 
 only in the mechanical expedients by which these ends are 
 attained. Such machines are very numerous and various: 
 but as none of them have yet been found to be attended 
 with sufficient practical advantages to force them into any 
 use beyond the experimental trials of their inventors, it is 
 
STEAM ENGINE. 
 
 tufficicnt here lo have indicated the general principle of 
 Iheir structure. 
 
 .Itmofplurtc Engine. — The engine BO called was the first 
 form of steam engine which was ever brought into exten- 
 durable practical application, and in districts where 
 fuel is cheap and abundant the simplicity of its structure 
 Still keeps it In partial ux 1 . Steam, in the atmospheric en- 
 . iily used as an agent lor the production of a vacu- 
 
 um, in order to give effect to the atmospheric pwre. 
 
 The atmospheric engine, which is only applied to pump- 
 ing, consists of a cylinder open at the top, having a piston 
 wl.ii. h moves in it airtight and steam-tight. The piston is 
 thus maintained by being lubricated by oil or melted tallow 
 pouted above it. Supposing the piston to be at the bottom 
 of the cylinder, steam is admitted from the boiler by a 
 propel valve. This steam, having a pressure not much ex- 
 ceeding that of the atmosphere, will balance the pressure 
 of the atmosphere above the piston, and will be sufficient, 
 also, to overcome the friction of the piston with the cylin- 
 der. I 'rder such circumstances, the preponderating weight 
 of the pomp-rod at the other end of the beam draws the 
 piston to the top of the cylinder, in the same manner as the 
 • Irawn up in the single-acting steam engine already 
 described. The piston being thus suspended at the top of 
 the cylinder, the valve admitting steam from the boiler is 
 ad another valve or cock is opened by which a jet 
 of cold water is thrown into the cylinder. This immediate- 
 ly condenses the steam, and leaves a vacuum under the 
 piston. The atmospheric pressure above it consequently 
 feet, and, forcing the pi<ton to the bottom of the 
 cylinder, draws the pump-rods, with their load of water, up. 
 When the piston arrives at the bottom of the cylinder, the 
 cock admitting the jet of cold water is closed, and another 
 i- opened, by which the warm water formed by the mixture 
 :\n with the cold water of the jet is 
 
 red into a reservoir from which the boiler of the 
 
 fed. The steam is then again admitted from the 
 
 boiler, the piston ascends, and so the process is continued. 
 
 The coca or valves above mentioned are opened and 
 
 toe proper times by means of a rod or beam, called 
 
 the plug frame, attached to the working beam, which is 
 
 placed and which moves In a manner similar lo the rod of 
 
 pump in the steam engines already described. 
 
 m Engine. — Various attempts' at the 
 mechanical application of steam on a small scale were 
 mode at very early periods In the history of mechanical 
 science. Hero of Alexandria has left a description of a 
 small machine, in which a motion of continued rotation 
 was imparted to an axis by the reaction of steam Inning 
 from lateral orifices in arms placed at right angles to the 
 revolving axis. The date of this invention is about a cen- 
 
 ore the birth of Christ. Branca, an Italian engineer, 
 about the beginning of the 17th century, proposed to give 
 motion to a wheel by a blast of steam blown against its 
 axis; and about the same period lie Caus, a French en- 
 gineer, described a machine by which a column of water 
 might be raised by a pressure of steam confined in the ves- 
 sel above the water to be elevated. There is nothing, 
 however, In the descriptions and developments which these 
 have left, to demonstrate that they were ac- 
 quainted with those physical properties of elasticity and 
 condensation (tee Steam) on which all the power of steam, 
 as a mechanical agent, depends. In the middle of the 17th 
 century, or somewhat later, the celebrated .Marquis of 
 Worcester published in his work, called A Century of In- 
 ventions, a description of a steam engine to be worked by 
 steam of high pressure, which, though not minute and 
 explicit in its details, is still such as it is difficult to con- 
 ceive being written by any one unacquainted with the 
 elastic force of steam. (See Lardneron the Steam Engine, 
 p. 23, c t seq.) Towards the close of that century, Papin, a 
 French engineer, who was employed by the Landgrave of 
 Hesse, in Germany, and was professor of mathematics at 
 Marbourg, directed his attention to the properties of steam, 
 and conceived the idea of obtaining a moving power by in- 
 troducing a piston into a cylinder and producing a vacuum 
 under it by the sudden condensation of steam by coal. In 
 fact, he conceived the notion of the principle of the atmo- 
 spheric engine ; but there is no evidence of his having 
 carried that or any other machine into practical application, 
 even so far as the construction of a model, until after 
 machines worked by steam had been constructed else- 
 where. 
 
 The first actual working steam engine of which there 
 is any record was invented and constructed by Thomas 
 Bavery, an Englishman, to whom a patent was granted for 
 it in the year 1G98. Savery reproduced the method of 
 forming a vacuum by the codensation of steam, apparently 
 Without being aware of the paper written by Papin. He 
 combined this with the elastic pressure of steam as applied 
 by Lord Worcester, and constructed an engine, which, for 
 a time, was used to a considerable extent for raising water. 
 
 Papin's steam engine consisted of a strong iron vessel 
 formed in the shape of an egg, having a tube or pipe at the 
 bottom, which descended lo the place from which the 
 water was to be drawn, and another at the top, which 
 ascended to the place to which it was to Ik- elevated. This 
 oval vessel was tilled with steam supplied from a boiler, by 
 which the atmospheric air by which it was previously filled 
 was first blown out of it. When the atmospheric air was 
 thus expelled, and nothing but pure steam was left in the 
 vessel, the communication with the boiler was cut off, and 
 cold water was poured on the external surface of tin 
 sel. The steam within it was thus condensed and a 
 vacuum produced, and the water was draw n up from below 
 in the usual way by suction. The oval steam vessel W5» 
 thus lillea with water ; a cock at the top of the lower pipe 
 was then closed, and steam was introduced from the boilei 
 into the oval vessel above the surface of the water. This 
 Steam being of high pressure, forced the water up the 
 ascending lube, from the top of which it was dlschl 
 and the oval vessel being thus again tilled with steam, the 
 vacuum was again produced by condensation, and the same- 
 process was repeated by using two oval steam vessels 
 which would act alternately; one drawing water from 
 below, while the other was forcing it upwards, an iminter 
 rupted discharge of water was produced. 
 
 Owing to the danger of explosion, from the high pressure 
 of the steam winch was used, and from the enormous 
 waste of heat by unnecessary condensation, these engines 
 soon fell into i! 
 
 The demand for a moving power for the drainage of the 
 mines le-s expensive and more efficacious than that of 
 horses, which was then generally used, became at this time 
 pressing, and probably led to the invention of the atmo- 
 spheric engine already described. This machine was m 
 vented by iNeivcomen, a blacksmith, and Cawley.a glazier, 
 at Dartmouth, in Devonshire. In the first engine con- 
 structed by them the condensation was effected by ihi 
 allusion of cold water upon the external surface of tin cy- 
 linder, which was introduced into a hollow rasing h\ 
 which it was surrounded : the discovery of condensation h) 
 jet within the cylinder, one of the most important stejis in 
 the improvement of the steam engine, was accidental. It 
 happened that a small hole occurred in the bottom of the 
 cylinder of an engine, by which the water let in to cool its 
 external surface oozed in, forming a little jet. The effect 
 was a much more rapid and perfect condensation than ever 
 was or could be effected by external cold. Thenceforward, 
 the method of condensation by jet was adopted, and has 
 ever since been used. 
 
 In the early atmospheric engines, the cocks by which the 
 steam was admitted and condensed, and by which the in 
 jecled water and condensed steam were drawn off, werr 
 worked by hand ; and as the labour was light and monoto 
 nous, and required no skill, boys were employed for the 
 pur|K)se, called cock boys. It happened that a cock boy, 
 by name Potter, having an itch for play, and endowed with 
 more ingenuity than industry, imagined that by tying strings 
 to the cocks, and connecting them with the working beam 
 above the cylinder, regulating the action by carrying them 
 under or over certain pipes, he could make the beam, as it 
 ascended and descended, open and close the cocks more 
 regularly and effectually than he found himself able to do. 
 This he accordingly accomplished, and was habitually 
 absent from the engine-house, enjoying himself with his 
 playfellows, when his employers were giving him credit for 
 most extraordinary industry and regularity in the discharge 
 of his duties. The engine, in fact, by this expedient, nearly 
 tripled its efficacy. Thus, by the ingenuity of a child, the 
 steam engine was first endowed with those qualities of an 
 automaton which have ever since rendered it an object of 
 admiration and interest. The atmospheric engine, thus 
 improved, held its place as the great instrument for the 
 drainage of mines until the epoch which was rendered 
 memorable by the inventions and discoveries of the imiiior 
 tal Watt. 
 
 Watt was a mathematical instrument maker in Glasgow . 
 and, being employed by the university of that place, it 
 chanced, about the year 17C3, that the model of an atmo- 
 spheric engine used at the lectures of the professor of 
 natural philosophy required some repairs, to make which 
 it was placed in the hands of Watt. In the experiments 
 which it became his duty to make with this model, he was 
 struck witli the fact that the quantity of steam it consumed 
 for each stroke of the piston was many times more than 
 the contents of the cylinder. The large quantity of water 
 necessary to be injected in order to complete the condensa- 
 tion also excited his surprise. This led him to make ex- 
 periments, by which he soon arrived at the discovery of 
 some of the most important phenomena connected with the 
 evaporation of water. He made a near approximation to 
 the pro|»rtion of the volume of steam to that of water 
 He ascertained with great precision the latent heat of steam, 
 
 1173 
 
STEAM GUN. 
 
 and consequently determined the quantity of water neces- 
 sary to condense any given quantity of steam. Filled with 
 astonishment at these results, and more particularly at the 
 nature of latent heat, and at the great amount of the latent 
 heat of steam, he repaired to Dr. Black, then professor of 
 natural philosophy in the university, and communicated to 
 hirn the result of his discoveries. He then, for the first 
 time, \ea~t.ed Black's celebrated theory of latent heat, and 
 found that he had himself thus accidentally discovered 
 one of the most striking facts on which that theory rested. 
 
 Considering the atmospheric engine in an economical 
 ^cint of view, Watt was forcibly impressed with the waste 
 of expense which appeared to arise in the unnecessary con- 
 sumption of steam involved in its operation. In the theory 
 of that engine, one cylinderful of steam ought to be suffi- 
 cient for each stroke of the piston. Watt, on the other 
 hand, found that the actual consumption was at the rate 
 of four or five cylinderfuls per stroke. On examination, he 
 discovered the source of this waste to arise from the neces- 
 sity, in order to make the piston ascend, not only to con- 
 dense the steam, but to cool the whole mass of the cylinder 
 down to 100° ; and, to make the piston descend, it was ne- 
 cessary not only to fill the cylinder with steam, but to raise 
 the temperature of the cylinder and piston from 100° to 212°. 
 He soon perceived that this enormous waste of fuel was 
 the inevitable consequence of condensing the steam in the 
 cylinder. 
 
 Reflection on these circumstances happily led him to the 
 Idea of condensing the steam in a separate vessel, which 
 should be kept immersed in a cistern of cold water, and 
 in which a jet of cold water might be kept constantly play- 
 ing, with the addition of a pump to draw off the injected 
 water and condensed steam from such vessel. In fact, all 
 the details of the steam engine as already described were 
 soon carried into practical effect, and engines constructed 
 according to these principles. 
 
 At the time of this invention the steam engine had never 
 been used, except for the purpose of raising water. It 
 became a substitute for horse power in working pumps. 
 Although Watt perceived, in the first instance, the ea.-e 
 with Which it might be adapted as a general moving power, 
 his first efforts were to get it adopted' in the mining districts 
 for drainage. His first engines were, accordingly, the single- 
 acting engine above described ; and it was not until about 
 the year 1784 that he took a patent for the double-acting 
 engine, which is adapted to give a motion of rotation to a 
 shaft, and therefore capable of giving motion to every kind 
 of mill work. 
 
 Notwithstanding the manifest advantages attending these 
 Improvements of Watt, the mining and manufacturing 
 interests were slow and reluctant in their adoption of them ; 
 and, at the end of twenty years from the date of his first 
 improvement, Watt and his partners found that the manu- 
 facture of the steam engine had not only not been a source 
 of commercial profit, but had entailed upon them a loss of 
 capital to the amount of about -£.'>0,000. An application 
 was made to parliament, on this ground, for an extension 
 of the patent, which was, after much opposition, granted 
 till the year 1800. Various improvements in the more 
 minute details of the machinery of the engine succeeded 
 this ; and Watt lived to reap an ample reward for his in- 
 genuity and perseverance, and to be acknowledged as one 
 ^ of the greatest benefactors of the human race. 
 
 The engine, as applied to drainage and to manufactures, 
 has received no important improvement in its principle since 
 it was dismissed from the hands of Watt. Those principles 
 which he suggested and applied have been carried out to 
 their fullest extent, and the efficiency of the engine has 
 been proportionally increased. The engine has been suc- 
 cessfully adapted to navigation. For an account of appli- 
 cation to that purpose, see Steam Navioatic s. 
 
 For the details of the form and construction of the boilers 
 by which steam is generated, and from which it is supplied 
 to the different kinds of engines, see Steam Boiler. 
 
 For further and more minute details respecting the 
 structure and operation of steam engines of every variety 
 of form, and respecting the history of the invention and 
 progressive improvement of the steam engine, see Lardncr 
 on the Strain Engine, 7th edition, London, 1840. 
 
 STEAM GUN. A contrivance by which balls, or other 
 projectiles used in warlike operations, may be projected by 
 the expansive force of steam. 
 
 This invention, which is due to Mr. Jacob Perkins, an 
 American mechanician, so well known for various ingenious 
 and useful contrivances in the mechanical arts, having been 
 fir.n brought forward since the general peace which suc- 
 ceeded the battle of Waterloo, has never been submitted to 
 the test of actual experience either in military or naval 
 opeiations, and consequently has not received the benefit 
 of that stimulus to improvement which is always so neces- 
 sary to bring mechanical contrivances of a novel kind to 
 perfection, an. which can only be derived from their prac- 
 1174 
 
 STEAM NAVIGATION. 
 
 tical application on a large scale. Of the probable or possi- r 
 ble utility of the steam gun nothing, therefore, can be|' 
 inferred from that safest source of information — experience ; 
 and we are left to judge of it by the general properties ot 
 vapour, and by the experiments on a small scale to which 
 it has been submitted. 
 
 If a strong close iron vessel, having two valves, one 
 opening inwards and the other outwards, the hitter being 
 loaded with some definite pressure, be completely filled 
 with water, such a vessel may be heated to the temperature I 
 corresponding to the pressure with which the valve U I 
 loaded without causing any portion of the water in it to lie i 
 converted into steam. To render the effect more easily I 
 understood, let us suppose that the valve is loaded with a i 
 pressure of fifty atmospheres. The temperature of water 
 evaporated under that pressure being 510° (see Steam), the 
 vessel may be raised to any temperature not exci 
 500°, without having any of the water contained in it con- 
 verted into steam. If the temperature to which the water 
 is raised be 500°, and a cubic inch of water at common 
 temperature be forced into the vessel through the valve 
 which opens inwards, water being sensibly incompressible, 
 a cubic inch of water at 500° will be forced out at the val ve 
 which opens outwards. This water being no longer sub- 
 jected to the pressure which kept it in the liquid state, 
 will suddenly expand and flash into steam, which at first 
 will have a pressure of 45 atmospheres, but as it expands 
 will have its pressure diminished in nearly the same pro- 
 portion as the volume into which it swells shall be in- 
 creased. Since, however, 500° is not sufficient heat to 
 enab.e ttte whole of the water thus ejected to pass into 
 steam {sec Steam), that part of it which will take the 
 vaporous form will take the requisite amount of latent heat 
 from the sensible heat of that portion which remains in 
 the liquid state. As this latter portion will still retain a 
 considerable temperature, it may be conducted to a vessel 
 containing the feed for the heated vessel just mentioned 
 from which it will be again forced into that vessel. 
 
 Such was the principle of Mr. Perkins's generators ; h\ 
 which term he denominated those close vessels in which 
 water was raised to a high temperature without being -con- 
 verted into steam. 
 
 Now if the valve through which the heated water is 
 ejected be supposed to be in communication with the barrel 
 of a gun or piece of ordnance, in the same manner as the 
 barrel of an air gun is in communication with the hollow 
 metallic ball in which air is compressed, a ball may be 
 projected by the expansive force of the water ejected from 
 the valve, in the same manner exactly as the ball of an air 
 gun is projected by the expansive force of the compressed 
 air. 
 
 As the water may be ejected from the valve either in a 
 constant stream or by a rapid succession of jets, the balls 
 may be discharged from the barrel as rapidly as it is possi- 
 ble for them to be brought under the action of the steam ; 
 and since the heating of the'barrel only tends to Increase 
 the elastic force of the steam, there appears to be no other 
 practical limit to the action of such an engine of offence 
 except that which may be imposed on the heating powes 
 applied to the generator* 
 
 Of the abstract practicability of applying steam in this 
 manner as an offensive engine there can be no doubt. Both 
 theory and experiment conspire to establir-h it ; but of the 
 comparative efficacy, convenience, and economy of it, com- 
 pared with gunpowder, many doubts will present themselves 
 to all who duly reflect on the circumstances and purposes 
 of war on the one hand, and the phenomena attending the 
 explosion of gunpowder and the evaporation of water on 
 the other. Not to mention any other, the fact that the 
 steam gun cannot be brought into action until the generator 
 has been raised to a high temperature by the application 
 of an adequate furnace, would at once give to gunpowder 
 an advantage over steam which would limit the application 
 of the latter to a very few cases indeed, such as those of 
 siege and other protracted military operations. In naval 
 warfare it might possibly be more frequently available ; but 
 even in that case, great improvements in the details of its 
 mechanism should be made before its use could be at- 
 tempted with any reasonable prospect of advantage. 
 
 The steam gun is exhibited on a small scale in most me- 
 chanical museums and other exhibitions of a like kind ; 
 and such will probably be the limit of its use for a long 
 period to come. 
 
 STEAM NAVIGATION. The art of applying the 
 power of steam to the propulsion of boats and vessels in 
 general, as well for inland communication by rivers and 
 lakes, as for the general purposes of national commerce 
 on the seas and oceans by which the various parts of thf 
 globe are separated. 
 
 The manner in which the steam engine is rendered an 
 instrument for the propulsion of vessels must, in its general 
 features, be so familiar to every one as to require but short 
 
STEAM NAVIGATION. 
 
 BXpihiiic;. • A shaft is carried across tho vessel, being 
 Continued c. either side beyond the timbers ; to the ex- 
 tremities oi this shaft on the outside of the vessel are 
 attached a pair of wheels, constructed like undershot 
 wa'er whe> ,s, having fixed upon their rims a number of Sat 
 boards cai! d paddle boards. As the wheels revolve, these 
 paddle bos ds strike the water, driving it in a direction con- 
 trary to th it in which it is intended the vessel shall be pro- 
 pelled. The moving force imparted to the water thus 
 driven hi;, kwards by reaction on the vessel propels it. On 
 the padd'e shaft are constructed two cranks or winches, 
 placed a: right angles one to the other, so that whenever 
 one of tliem is thrown into the highest or lowest position 
 the other is horizontal. These cranks are worked by strong 
 iron rods called connecting rods, which are themselves 
 eitiier driven directly by the pistons of two steam engines, 
 or are worked by those pistons ; thus the medium of work- 
 ing becomes similar to those used in ttie ordinary land 
 e?. (See Steam Enoine.) The two cranks being 
 placed at right angles, it follows that when one piston is at 
 ttotn of its stroke, and the crank driven by it in 
 -best or lowest position, the other will he at the 
 - stroke, and the crank driven by it will be in 
 th- i orizontal position. One of tin- pistons is therefore 
 alwsra in a position to produce the most advantageous 
 effect on the crank at the moment that the other piston 
 lose i all power over the crank driven by it : and in the 
 aair.e manner it may be seen that white the power of one 
 piui-m is augmented from zero to it- t, h« 
 
 tvtwer of the other is decreasing from its greatest effect to 
 Thus the combined action of the two pistons is 
 
 , nearly uniform in its efficient . If one engine only were 
 used, the motion of the wheelj wou be unequal, being 
 Boat rapiii when the pist n is ;.t the middle of the stroke 
 and slowest at the extremities. 
 
 The steam engines used for navigation may be either con- 
 densing engines or non-co.ulunsing engines. If the latter 
 are used, steam must lie used having a pressure above the 
 atmosphere of from 15 to 2u lbs. per square inch. Boilers 
 in which steam is produced under this pressure arc con 
 sidered in Europe SO unsafe, that non-condensing engines 
 with low-pressure boilers are almost universally used for 
 navigation. In America, however, high-pressure boiler* 
 with non-condensing engines are generally used. 
 
 The arrangement of the parts of marine engines is differ- 
 ent in several respects from land engines. Steam vessels 
 being generally employed to navigate the open seas, and 
 being, therefore, subject to the vicissitudes of tempestuous 
 weather, the machinery must be protected by being placed 
 below the deck. The space allotted to it being thus limited, 
 great compactness is necessary. The paddle shaft being 
 very little below the deck, the working beam and connecting 
 rod could not be placed above it. The beam is therefore 
 placed below the cylinder, and la driven by the pistons by 
 means of I cross head attached to the piston rod, from the 
 ends of which the rods of the parallel motion (sec Steam 
 Knuink) are carried downwards to the end of the beam. 
 From the other end of the beam the connecting rod is pre- 
 sented upwards towards the crank. 
 
 The general arrangement of the parts of a marine engine 
 Will be easily understood by nti rence to the figure, in which 
 is represented in section a marine engine with its boiler, as 
 
 placed in a steam vessel. The sleepers of oak supporting 
 the engine are represented at X ; the base of the engine is 
 secured to these by bolts passing through them and the bot- 
 tom timbers of the vessel. S is the steam pipe leading from 
 the steam chest in the boiler to the slides c, by which it is 
 admitted to the top and bottom of the cylinder. The con- 
 denser is represented at B, and the air-pump at E. The 
 hot well is seen at F, from which the feed is taken from 
 the boiler. L is the piston rod connected by the parallel 
 motion a with the beam II, working on a centre K near the 
 base of the engine. The other end of the beam H drives 
 the connecting rod M, which extends upwards to the crank, 
 which it works upon the paddle shaft O. The framing by 
 which the engine is supported is represented at Q. E. 
 
 The nature and operation of the several parts just men- 
 tioned will be understood by reference to the explanation 
 of the structure and operation of the double-acting steam 
 engine, given under the head Steam Engine ; for, in fact, 
 the marine engine, such as is here represented, is nothing 
 more than a double-acting condensing steam engine, adapt- 
 ed in its form to the circumstances in which it is used in 
 navigation. 
 
 The beam exhibited in the figure is shown in dotted lines, 
 as being on the farther side of the engine. A similar beam 
 similarly placed, and moving on the same centres, must be 
 understood to be at this side, connected with the cross head 
 of the piston in like manner by a parallel motion, and with 
 a cross piece attached to the lower end of the connecting 
 road and to the opposite beam. The eccentric, which works 
 -. Is placed upon the paddle shaft O ; and the eon- 
 irm which drives the slides may he easily detached 
 when the engine requires to be stopped. The section of the 
 boiler grate and flues is represented at W LT. The safety 
 valve y is enclosed beneath a pipe carried up beside the 
 
 chimney, and is inaccessible to the engine-man. The cocks 
 for blowing off the salt water from the boiler (a process 
 which we shall presently explain) are represented at A, 
 and the feed pipe at I. Those parts will be fully und r- 
 stood by reference to the explanation given under the head 
 Steam Boiler. 
 
 To save space, marine boilers are constructed so as to pro- 
 duce, within the smallest possible dimensions, the necessary 
 quantity of steam. With this view a more extensive surface 
 in proportion to the capacity of the boiler is exposed to the 
 fire. The flues by which tlie flame and heated air are con- 
 ducted to the chimney arc so constructed, that the heat shall 
 act upon the water on every side in thin oblong shells oi 
 plates. This is accomplished by constructing them so as to 
 traverse the boiler backwards rind forwards several times 
 before they issue into the chimney. The bottom of the 
 boiler is not, therefore, one uniform fiat or arched surface, 
 as in land boilers; but is divided by a number of plates 
 placed in a vertical position side by side, having spaces be- 
 tween them alternately appropriated to the water to be heat- 
 ed and the air from the fire. This division is fn some boil- 
 ers, not only made in the bottom on a level nearly with the 
 furnace, but another stratum of similar flues and water 
 spaces is constructed above the level of the furnace; so 
 that the heated air first traverses the lower stratum of flues, 
 and afterwards, being conducted upwards, traverses the up- 
 per stratum before it issues into the chimnies. 
 
 In steam vessels, instead of effecting the necessary evap- 
 oration by a single boiler, it is usual to provide two, three, 
 four, or more independent boilers, according to the mag 
 nitude of the vessel and the power of her engines. By 
 this means, when at sea, the engines may be worked by 
 some of the boilers while others are being cleaned or re- 
 paired. 
 
 1175 
 
STEAM NAVIGATION. 
 
 The greatest inconvenience and difficulty attending the 
 application of the steam engine to navigation arises from 
 the necessity of supplying the boilers with sea water. This 
 water is injected into the condenser for the purpose of con- 
 densing the steam, and it is thence mixed with the con- 
 densed steam conducteil as feeding water into the boiler. 
 Sea water holds in solution certain alkaline substances of 
 which the principal is muriate of soda, or common salt. 
 This forms about three per cent, of the water. This salt 
 not being evaporated with the water, remains in the boiler, 
 and enters into solution with the water remaining in it, ren- 
 dering that water a solution more and more concentrated 
 the longer the boiler is worked. At length the water in the 
 boiler becoming saturated, the salt will begin to be precipita- 
 ted in the form of sediment; and if this were continued, 
 the boiler would finally be filled with salt. 
 
 Besides the deposition of salt in a loose form, some of the 
 alkaline substances have an attraction for iron and a crust 
 is thereby formed on the inside of the boiler. This crust 
 obstructing the passage of heat from the fire to the water, 
 gives the boiler plates an undue or unequal temperature, 
 causes them to open in the seams, and softens them, so as 
 to expose the boiler to a liability to leak or even to burst. 
 
 These effects can only be prevented by either of two 
 methods: 1st, by so regulating the feed of the boiler that 
 the water it contains shall not be suffered to reach the point 
 of saturation, but shall be so limited In its saltness that no 
 injurious incrustation or deposit shall be found ; 2dly, by 
 the adoption of some means by which the boiler may be 
 worked by fresh water. This end can only be attained by 
 condensing the steam by a jet of fresh water, and working 
 the boiler always by the same water. 
 
 The method by which the water is prevented from being 
 over malted has been usually to discharge into the sea a cer- 
 tain quantity of over-salted water (called brine), and to 
 supply its place by sea water introduced through the con- 
 denser, and which, being mixed with the condensed steam, 
 is rather less salted than ordinary sea water. To effect this, 
 cocks, called blow-off cocks, are placed in the lower part of 
 the boiler where the brine collects. The pressure of the 
 steam is sufficient to force the lower strata of water out 
 through these cocks when they are open, and this process 
 is called blowing out. It is, or ought to be practised, at such 
 intervals as will prevent the water from becoming over 
 salted. 
 
 The improper observance of this process is attended with 
 injurious effects at sea. If too much water be blown out, 
 a proportionate loss of heat and waste of fuel is incurred. 
 If insufficient water be blown out, incrustation takes place, 
 and its injurious consequences ensue. The Messrs. Sea- 
 ward of Limehouse use a gloss hydrometer gunge, to 
 indicate the saltness of the water in the boiler by showing 
 its increase of density compared with ordinary sea water. 
 A vessel containing one ton of water is placed so as to 
 communicate on one side with the boiler, and on the other 
 with the sea. In this vessel is a cock, which turned in one 
 direction opens the communication with the boiler, and clo- 
 ses that with the sea ; and turned in the other direction 
 opens that with the sea, and closes that with the boiler. 
 By this means the engineer is enabled to discharge a defi- 
 nite and ascertained quantity of brine, and the gauge indi- 
 cates when a sufficiency has been discharged. 
 
 But the most effectual method of keeping the boilers 
 from being over salted is by means of the brinepumps of 
 Messrs. Maudslay and Field. This method, which has 
 been successfully applied in the Great Western (plying be- 
 tween Bristol and New-York), consists of pumps by which 
 water is drawn from the lower parts of the boiler and driv- 
 en into the sea. These pumps are worked by the engine, 
 and their operation is constant. The feed pumps are like- 
 wise worked by the engine ; and thev bear such a propor- 
 tion to the brine pumps, that the quantity of salt discharged 
 in a given time in the brine is equal to the quantity of salt 
 introduced in solution by the water of the feed pumps. By 
 these means the same quantity of salt is constantly main- 
 tained in the boiler, and consequently the strength of the 
 solution remains invariable. 
 
 To save the heat of the brine, the current of heated 
 brine is conducted from the boiler through a tube, which is 
 contained within that by which the feed is introduced. 
 The warm current of brine, therefore, as it passes out, im- 
 parts a considerable portion of its heat to the cold feed 
 which comes in ; and it is found by this expedient that the 
 brine discharced into the sea mav be reduced to the tem- 
 perature of 100°. 
 
 This expedient is so effectual that where the apparatus is 
 n'operly constructed, and kept in a state of efficiency, it 
 may lie regarded as nearly a perfect preventive against in- 
 i ustation. 
 
 hod of condensing the ste'm without a jet, by cold 
 . was practised by Mr. Watt, but abandoned be 
 cause its effect was not sufficiently instantaneous. This 
 1170 
 
 was revived by Mr. Samuel Hall of Basford, with a view to 
 working marine boilers vvilh fresh water. The steam from ! 
 the cylinder was drawn through a great number of small 
 tubes, which were constantly surrounded by cold water 
 Being by this means condensed, without being mixed with 
 any injected water, it was carried to the feeding cistern to 
 be reconducted to the boiler. In this manner the same wa 
 ter circulated constantly through the boiler, condenser, and 
 feeding cistern, and it was only necessary to make trood the 
 waste produced by leakage. The same supply of fresh wa 
 ter, therefore, would always work the boiler, the very smaB 
 quantity of waste being made good by the distillation of 
 sea water. 
 
 These condensers were adopted in several steam vessels 
 In some they were abandoned titter the experience of a few 
 months; and the results have failed to produce their use to 
 any considerable extent, notwithstanding that the object 
 their projector professed to attain was admitted to be one of 
 great importance. 
 
 One of the remedies proposed acainst incrustation was 
 the use of copper boilers. The attraction which produces 
 the adhesion of the calcareous matter to the surface of iron 
 has no existence in copper, and all the saline matter preci- 
 pitated in a copper boiler will therefore pass away through 
 the blow-off cocks. Besides the injuries attending incrusta 
 tion, an evil of another kind attends the accumulation of 
 soot mixed with salt in the Hues. In the seams of the boil 
 er there are always numerous apertures of dimension! so 
 small as to be incapable of beimr rendered staunch by any 
 practicable means, through which the crater within the 
 boiler filters, and the salt which it carries with it. mixed 
 with the soot, forming a compound which rapidly corrodes 
 the boilers. The evil is not removed by copper boilers, in 
 which it equally prevails. 
 
 As the voyages accomplished by steam vessels have in- 
 creased in length, the economy of fuel in working them has 
 become a subject of vastly augmented importance. So 
 long as steam navigation was confined to river er channel 
 transport, or to coasting voyages, the speed of the vessel 
 was a paramount consideration, at Whatever expenditure of 
 fuel it might be obtained ; but since steam navigation has 
 been extended to ocean voyages, where coals must be trans- 
 ported sufficient to keep the engine in operation for a long 
 period of time without a fresh relay, greater attention has 
 been bestowed on economizing it. Since the resistance of 
 a steam vessel to the moving power produced by the action 
 of the paddle wheels varies with the state of the weather, 
 the consumption of steam in the cylinders must undergo a 
 
 corresponding variation; and if the production of so i in 
 
 the boilers be not proportioned to this, the engines will ei- 
 ther work with less efficiency than they might do under 
 the actual circumstances of the weather, or more steam will 
 he produced than the cylinders can consume, and the sur- 
 plus will he discharged to waste through the safety valves. 
 The firemen of a marine ensrine must therefore, in a certain 
 degree, discharge the functions of a self-regulating furnace, 
 rendering the force of the fire always proportionate to the 
 wants of the engine. None but the most industrious and 
 skilful stokers can be expected to accomplish this. 
 
 Until within a few years of the present time the heat ra- 
 diated from everv part of the surface of the boiler was al- 
 lowed to go to waste, and to produce injurious effects on those 
 parts of the vessel to which ifwas transmitted. This evil 
 has been lately removed by coating the exterior of the boil 
 ers with felt, prepared for the purpose, by which the escape 
 of heat from the surface of the boiler is very nearly if not 
 altogether prevented. This felt is attached to the (dates of 
 the boiler by a thick covering of white and red lead. 
 
 A form of marine engine was some years ago proposed by 
 Mr. Thomas Howard, in which steam was produced by 
 projecting water in small quantities on the surface of a piece 
 of mercury maintained at a temperature of from 400° to 
 500°. The steam thus produced contained much more heat 
 than was necessary to sustain it in the vaporous form. The 
 engine was worked expansively, and by condensation; but 
 as the project does not appear to have produced any practi- 
 cal consequences of permanent importance, we need not 
 here notice it farther. 
 
 The method by which the greatest amount of practical 
 effect can be obtained from a given quantity of feel must 
 mainly depend on the extended application of the expan- 
 sive principle. [See Steam, Steam Ehchkb.) The difti- 
 cultv of the application of this principle in marine 
 has 'arisen from the objections entertained in Europe against 
 the ti?e of steam of high pressure under the circumstances 
 in which an engine must be worked at sea. To apply the 
 expansive principle with great effect, it is necessary that the 
 moving power at the commencement of the stroke shall 
 considerably exceed the resistance, its force luiiu jrrndually 
 attenuated till the completion of the stroke, wl en it will 
 finally become less than the resistance. Vhis condition 
 mav be fulfilled without resorting to steam high pressure, 
 
STEAM NAVIGATION. 
 
 n a sufficient quantity of piston surface be used. This 
 method of tendering the expansive principle available for 
 •alible with low-pressure steam, has 
 '■0:1 brought into operation by Messrs. Maudslay 
 d. Their improvement consists in adapting two 
 linders in one engine to work a single crank, both 
 •_■ and descending together, the piston rods 
 being both attached to the same horizontal cross-head mo- 
 [tiides. 
 Mr Francis Humphry's has obtained a p'tteut for a form of 
 marine engine, by which some simplification in the machin- 
 ery is attained, and the same power comprised within more 
 limited dimensions, a matter of great moment in long voy- 
 ilt-. lu this engine, there is attached to the piston of the 
 cylinder, instead of a piston rod, a hollow casing, which 
 moves through a Stuffing box in the cover of the cylinder. 
 The cross section of this casing is a very narrow and elon- 
 gated ellipse, extending across the cylinder, or rather a long 
 Barrow slit with rounded ends. One end of the connecting 
 rod is attached Immediately to the centre of the piston, 
 while the other end is attached to the crank placed above 
 the cylinder; the connecting rod, therefore, works within 
 the casing just mentioned ; and instead of being, as usual, 
 driven by D piston rod, it is driven by the piston itself. 
 
 To obtain from the moving powqr its full amount of me- 
 chanical elfect it would be necessary that it should be ex- 
 erted against the water in a horizontal direction, and with 
 a motion contrary lo the course of the vessel. No system 
 of mechanical propellers has, however, yet been contrived 
 capable of perfectly accomplishing this; patents have been 
 granted for numerous ingenious mechanical combinations 
 to impart to the propelling surfaces such angles as appear 
 to the respective contrivers to be the most advantageous. 
 In most iif these, the complexity has been a fatal objection. 
 No part of the machinery of a steam vessel is so liable to 
 deranged at sea as the paddle wheels; and there- 
 fore that simplicity of construction which is compatible 
 with those repairs which are |«issilile on such emergencies 
 is quite essential for safe practical use. 
 
 In the ordinary paddle wheel, the paddle boards have the 
 
 placed as to radiate from the axle of the wheel. 
 
 to fact, the geometrical axis of the wheel is the common 
 
 line of intersection of the planes of all the paddle boards. 
 
 On entering and leaving the water, therefore, these boards 
 
 will Iw; oblique to the water, and this obliquity will be in- 
 
 ith the immersion of the whirls. When the 
 
 in proper trim, the immersion should be equal to 
 
 the depth Or the lowest paddle board ; and if this immer- 
 sion can be preserved unaltered, nearly the whole of the 
 propelling power will be effective with the common wheels. 
 In river navigation, or in general in smooth water, and when 
 the trip is so limited that the fuel consumed has no sen- 
 sible effect on the immersion, this steady immersion may he 
 
 d, and in such cases the common wheel is a highly 
 advantageous propeller; but in a heavy rolling sea, the 
 motion of the vessel will produce a constant change of im- 
 
 in the wheels, and in long voyages the fuel con- 
 sumed will lighten the vessel, so us to produce a consider- 
 able change in her trim. 
 To remove this inconvenience, and economize as much 
 le the propelling effect of the paddle boards, it 
 would he necessary so to construct them that they may en- 
 ter and leave the water edgeways, or as nearly so as possible : 
 such an arrangement would be, in effect, equivalent to the 
 
 called feathering, as applied to rowing. Any me- 
 chanism which would effectually accomplish this would 
 cause the paddles to work in almost perfect silence, and 
 would very nearly remove the inconvenient and injurious 
 Vibration which is produced by the action of the common 
 paddles. But the construction of feathering paddles is at- 
 tended with great difficulty under the peculiar circumstan- 
 ces in which such wheels work. Any mechanism so com- 
 plex that it could not be easily repaired with such imple- 
 nniii- and skill as can be obtained at sea would be attend- 
 ed with great objections, and the efficiency of its pro- 
 pelling action would not compensate for the damages which 
 must attend the helpless state of a steamer deprived of her 
 propelling agents. 
 
 Feathering paddles have been projected by a vast number 
 Of ingenious persons, and a greater number of patents have 
 been granted for this than perhaps for any other contrivance 
 
 1 connected with the application of steam power 
 to the useful arts; yet it is remarkable that in no case has 
 there been 60 signal a failure in attaining the desired end. 
 Seme inventors have failed by not clearly understanding the 
 mechanical conditions to be fulfilled by a perfect wheel, and 
 Others by the complexity and expense attending the construc- 
 tion of the wheels they proposed. The common paddle- 
 wheel, with very slight modifications, still maintains its place 
 as the almost universal propelling instrument for steam ves- 
 sels. 
 
 About the year 1832, a naddle wheel, with mechanism 
 
 for shifting the paddle boards as the wheel re rolled, was 
 brought into partial use in the admiralty steam vessels. 
 This was called Morgan's paddle wheel: the inventor was 
 Elijah Galloway. Its propelling eflect In a rough sea was 
 found to be superior to the common wheel, hut In smooth 
 water the difference was not considerable. The expense of 
 this wheel excluded it altogether from commercial v e s s els 1 
 and it seems to have been found, in practice, to have been 
 attended with other objections, for it has been gradually re- 
 linquished by the government vessels, aiyl is now, we be- 
 live, quite discontinued. 
 
 AlKiut the year 1833, Mr. Field, of the firm of Maudslay 
 and Field, proposed the split paddle, which is now coming 
 into very extensive use. In this wheel each paddle bo.tro 
 is divided into two or more narrow slips ai ranged one be- 
 hind the other, like the laths of a Venetian blind or the 
 steps of a step-ladder. These wheels are as efficient in 
 propelling when at the lowest point as the common paddle 
 boards; and when they emerge, the water escapes simul 
 taneously from each narrow board, and is not thrown up, as 
 is the case with the common paddles. 
 
 The limit of the extent of the voyages capable of being 
 made in one uninterrupted trip by a steam vessel will evf 
 dently de)>end OO the efficiency of the fuel. As the means 
 of economizing this are improved, this limit will be more 
 extended. In li-:i.">, when it was first proposed to cross the 
 
 Atlantic from Bristol to New York in a single trip, it was 
 considered by persons who had given much .attention to the 
 subject that, in the state of steam navigation at that time, 
 the expense would be bo enormous, and the tonnage of the 
 vessel so engrossed by the fuel, that the success of tie- 
 project asa commercial speculation intended for permanent 
 operation throughout all seasons of the year was more than 
 doubtful. A long interval, however, elapsed before the ex 
 perimentwas brought into full operation ; and, in tin- mean- 
 while, much improvement was effected in the application 
 Of the steam engine to navigation. The experiment has 
 been happily at length brought into full practical eflect bv 
 two companies. What the commercial result has been t. 
 the speculators, we an; not able to say. 
 
 At the time referred to In 1835, those who were doubtful 
 of the expediency of attempting the pas-age to New York 
 recommended a trial of a line to Boston, touching a! Hali- 
 fax. This has since been accordingly effected, with every 
 prospei't of permanent success. 
 
 Steam A"avi {ration in America. — The problem of the ap- 
 plication of steam power to water transport presented Itself 
 in the United States under conditions very different from 
 those under which it offered itself in Europe, and its solu- 
 tion has been accordingly productive of very different re- 
 sults. While the chief object of the commercial Interests 
 in Europe was the establishment of lines of steam vessels 
 connecting (be great cities and coast towns of the British 
 dominions with each other, and with those of the Conti- 
 nent, and as the art advanced, to extend the same social 
 and commercial benefit to the coasts of the chief countries 
 of Europe, so as to stimulate the social intercourse of na- 
 tions too long disunited and struggling in unprofitable war- 
 fare, and thereby to diffuse equally among all the benefits 
 of general commercial intercourse, America, standing alone 
 in her va«t extent of territory, having no near neighbours 
 with whom to cultivate social or commercial relations, re- 
 garding her Immense country intersected by some of the 
 most noble rivers in the world, enriched by the largest 
 sheets of Inland water which can be found upon the globe 
 — thus situated, she saw that inland navigation, river and 
 lake transport, was the great application of steam by which 
 her rising and enterprising population would be most bene- 
 fitted, and by which the necessary intercourse could be 
 maintained between her great western emporiums erected 
 on the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio ; her more north- 
 ern settlements on the coasts of the gigantic lakes Ontario, 
 Erie, Michigan, and others; and on the eastern rivers, the 
 Hudson, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna. It was 
 therefore to the construction of steam boats suitable to such 
 internal navigation that American genius was directed ; and 
 in this it has been eminently successful. 
 
 The American river steamers are, in general, long, narrow 
 boats with a small draught of water, supporting a platform 
 or deck of vast magnitude projecting on either side consid- 
 erably beyond the limits of the boat on which it rests. The 
 paddle wheels are large, and are usually impelled by a sin- 
 gle engine placed with its boiler and machinery above the 
 deek. The engines arc almost universally non-condensing 
 high-pressure engines, and many of them are worked ex- 
 pansively. The fuel is generally wood ; but in many cases, 
 especially in the eastern vessels, coal. In the structure of 
 the machirery there is much rudeness and simplicity, and 
 none of that extreme precision of construction and fine 
 finish is to be found which is almost always observable in 
 European vessels. Owing to the form of the boats and the 
 smooth wnter in which they work, a much greater average 
 
 1177 
 
STEAM NAVIGATION. 
 
 speed has been attained than in the sea-going steamers of 
 Europe. Although we have reason to know that in com- 
 mon reports the average rate of the American steamers has 
 been grossly exaggerated, there is no doubt that their rate of 
 going is very considerable. On the Hudson, between New 
 York and Albany, are the fastest steamers in the United 
 States ; and it is probable that if the average speed of these 
 vessels, taken in all circumstances of weather and tide, be 
 stated at thirteen geographical miles an hour, it is not overra- 
 ted. 
 
 The principal theatres of river steamers in the United 
 States are the Hudson and the Mississippi, with its branch- 
 es. The Hudson is navigated by steam from its mouth at 
 New York to a distance of about 160 miles, the chief point of 
 traffic being the city of Albany, situated on its western bank, 
 at about 145 miles from New York. Although this extent is 
 not considerable, the intercourse upon it is quite enormous 
 during the seasons of the year in Which the river is open. 
 It is obstructed by the frost during the winter months. 
 
 The Mississippi is navigated by many hundred steamers 
 of very large tonnage. This steam traffic is carried on 
 through a distance of nearly 2000 miles from the mouth at 
 New Orleans. Tho towns of Natchez, Cincinnati, Louis- 
 ville, Pittsburgh, and numerous others, maintain, by this 
 means, an easy and constant intercourse with the capital 
 of the southern states. 
 
 The steamers on the Mississippi and the Ohio are con- 
 structed with even less attention to safe engineering princi- 
 ples than those of the western rivers, and, consequently, 
 more frequent and fatal accidents arise from explosion and 
 other causes. 
 
 The dimensions of the steamers which ply on the Hud- 
 son are generally as follows : The length of deck from 150 
 to 250 feet ; the breadth of beam from 20 to 30 feet ; and the 
 depth of the hold from 8 to 10 feet. They are generally, 
 but not always, worked by a single engine; the length 
 of stroke is never less than 8 feet, but the most com- 
 mon length is 10 feet ; the diameter of the piston varies 
 from 40 to 66 inches, and the diameter of the paddle wheels 
 from 20 to 25 feet ; the breadth, or rather the thickness of 
 the wheel, varies from 12 to 14 feet, giving a gnat extent of 
 surface to the paddle boards, which have usually a dip of 2J 
 feet ; the draught of water of these boats varies from 6 to 9 
 feet ; the steam is generally worked expansively, being cut off 
 at half the stroke, and often sooner ; the wheels are said to 
 make, on an average, from 25 to 30 revolutions per minute. 
 
 The Ohio steamers are inferior in magnitude to those on 
 the other western waters; their number must be very con- 
 siderable. About seven years since, the number plying on 
 the river and its branches was about 200; and that number 
 has probably since been nearly doubled. " Economy," says 
 Mr. Stevenson in his Engineering Tour, " would seem to be 
 the only object which the constructors of these boats have 
 in view; and therefore, with the exception of the finery 
 which the cabins generally display, little care is expended 
 in their construction, and much of the workmanship con- 
 nected with them is of a most imperfect and insufficient 
 kind. When the crews of these frail fabrics, therefore, en- 
 gage in brisk competition with other vessels, and urge the 
 machinery to the utmost extent of its power, it is not to be 
 wondered at that their exertions are often suddenly termi- 
 nated by the vessel taking fire and going to the bottom, or 
 by an explosion of the steam boilers. Such accidents are 
 frequently attended with an appalling loss of life, and are 
 of so common occurrence that they generally excite little or 
 no attention." 
 
 The steamers of the Mississippi vary in magnitude from 
 10C to 700 tons ; and, unlike the light mould of the Hudson 
 ■teamen, they are heavily built, so as to give them abun- 
 dant tonnage for goods. They are built with a flaubottom, 
 with a draught of from 6 to 8 feet of water. A deck is 
 supported by the hnll at about 5 feet above the level of the 
 "water, and the space in the hull under this deck is appro- 
 priated to the cargo. The whole of the steam machinery 
 is placed on this deck ; the engine standing in the middle of 
 the vessel, and the boilers and furnaces towards the bow. 
 That part of the lower deck towards the stern is occupied 
 by the crew and deck passengers, and is generally a scene 
 of great filth and squalor. From the front of the paddle 
 boxes, a staircase leads to a gallery or balcony of about 3 
 feet in width, which surrounds a structure raised upon the 
 deck, and extending nearly the whole length of the vessel, 
 presenting the external appearance of a long wooden housed 
 the doors and windows of which open on this balcony! 
 This structure is, in fact, the great cabin, extending from 
 the two smoke funnels to within about 30 feet of the stern ; 
 this latter space, extending quite to the stern, is appropriated' 
 to the ladies' cabin. The large cabin, which contains the 
 sentlemen's berths, is also used as the chief dining room. 
 From tho balcony just mentioned, staircases on either side 
 lead to the third, or upper deck, 30 feet above the level of 
 the water. The wheel house, in which the steersman is 
 1178 
 
 STEEL. 
 
 placed, is erected on the forepart of this deck, and the mo- 
 tion is communicated to the helm by ropes or iron rods. 
 
 The engines are constructed with very small cylinders, 
 worked with steam of great pressure. The diameter of the 
 cylinder is often under 18 inches, while the length of stroke 
 is from 5 to 6 feet. The safety valve is usually loaded 
 with 100 lbs. per square inch, which, at the discretion of 
 the captain, is sometimes increased to 150 lbs. Sunn; of 
 the large boats on the Mississippi are equal in magnitude 
 to those on the Hudson, having a length of 231) feet, and 
 a breadth of beam of 28 feet. With this great magnitude 
 of deck and a capacity of not less than 1000 tons, they do 
 not draw above 8 feet of water. For further details re- 
 specting steam navigation in general, and in the United 
 States, see Dr. hardner on the Steam Engine, 7th edition ; 
 Appendix to Tredgold on the Steam Engine ; and Stevenson's 
 Civil Engineering in North America. 
 
 STEARIC ACID. (Gr. crtap,fat.) One of the acids 
 produced in the process of saponification by the action of 
 alkalies upon stearine. 
 
 STE'ARINE. (Gr. ortap.) That part of oils and fats 
 which is solid at common temperatures. • 
 
 STE'ATITE. (Gr. oriap.) A soft mineral of an unctu- 
 ous or soapy feel ; hence called soapstone. It is a hydrated 
 silicate of magnesia and alumina. 
 
 STEATO'MA. (Gr. orcap.) A tumour, the contents of 
 which are of the appearance and consistency of hard fat 
 
 STEEL. (Germ, stahl.) This most useful and curious 
 substance is a compound of iron and carbon : their relative 
 proportions vary in steel of different qualities; but in that 
 used for ordinary purposes, the carbon rarely exceeds 2 per 
 cent., and is generally below it. Certain kinds of iron are 
 preferred to others in this manufacture ; but this relates 
 entirely to its purity, which is the essential requisite. Steel 
 is made by a process called cementation, which consists in 
 filling a proper furnace with alternate strata of bars of the 
 purest malleable iron and powdered charcoal : atmospheric 
 air is carefully excluded from the boxes containing the bars, 
 and the whole kept for several days at a red heat. Ey this 
 process carbon, probably in the state of vapour, penetrates, 
 and coi ■ s it i . ivi ■ 
 
 the iron, the texture of which, originally fibrous, becomes 
 granular, and its surfica acquires a blistered character. 
 The malleability of steel falls far short of that of iron ; but 
 it is harder, and more sonorous and elastic, and susceptible 
 of a higher polish, and has less tendency to rust. At a red 
 heat it admits of hammering into various forms, and of be- 
 ing welded or united by the blows of the hammer to ano- 
 ther piece of steel or iron. Blistered steel, rolled or beaten 
 down into bars, forms shear steel ; and if melted, cast into 
 ingots, and again rolled out into bars, it forms cast steel, 
 which, when well prepared, has the great recommendation of 
 perfect uniformity of texture.and a finer and closer grain. The 
 peculiarity of steel, upon which its high value in the arts in 
 great measure depends, is its property of becoming, by sud 
 den quenching in water, when at a bright red heat, ex 
 tremely hard, and of being again softened down to any re 
 quisite degree by the amplication of a certain temperature, 
 which may be indicated by a thermometer, commencing at 
 about 300°, and terminating at a dull red heat. This pro- 
 cess is often called tempering ; and the workman is some 
 times guided in the extent to which it is carried by the 
 colour of the polished surface of the heated steel, w hich is 
 at first rendered of a pale straw tint, then yellow, brown 
 ish, purple, and blue, as the temperature rises from one ex- 
 treme to the other. The latter colour indicates extreme 
 softness and elasticity, such as belongs to watch springs, 
 some sword blades, &c. ; pale straw indicates great hard- 
 ness, as for razor blades; yellow is somewhat softer, and 
 shows a fit temper for penknives ; and the incipient blues 
 announce the temper that belongs to coarser cutting instru- 
 ments, and to table knives, any of which, made of hard 
 steel, would soon get spoiled and notched, but the edges of 
 which, when duly tempered, resist breaking on the one 
 hand, and bending on the other. When a large miss of 
 steel is hardened by quenching in water, it undergoes a 
 certain degree of expansion, so that the specific gravity of 
 hard steel is somewhat less than that of soft. It has been 
 attempted to improve the quality of steel for certain pur 
 poses by adding to it small portions of other metals : hence 
 the term silver steel, &c. ; but none of these alloys have or. 
 the whole proved superior to well made common steel. 
 There is a kind of steel imported from India, known under 
 the name of wootz, the cutting instruments of which are 
 celebrated for the toughness nnd durability of their edge. 
 It appears probable that its peculiarities depend upon the 
 presence of a little aluminum. When the surface of some 
 kinds of steel is washed over with a weak acid, it acquire! 
 a peculiar mottled or damasked appearance, as If its texture 
 consisted of an intimate mixture of two different kinds of 
 steel, or of fine fibres of steel and iron. Steel, alloyed with 
 a little nickel, often puts on this appearance ; but thesp 
 
 
 I 
 
STEEL ENGRAVING. 
 
 »nd sonic other Imitations of the celebrated Damascus 
 ■word blades have not led to any Important improvements 
 in the manufacture of our cutting instruments. (SeeStod- 
 artand Faraday. Phil. Trans. 1822.) 
 
 BTEEL ENGRAVING. The art of engraving on steel. 
 See Enoraviso. 
 BTEEL YARD. A balance by which the weights of 
 bodies are determined by 
 _JJ means of a single stand- 
 "" ard weight. The instru- 
 ment, which is represcut- 
 ^ ed in the annexed figure, 
 is a lever having unequal 
 arms. The load whose 
 to be determined ii -n ptuled from the extremity 
 1} of the short arm ; and, in weighing, the constant weight 
 or counterpoise I' is slid along the longer arm until the 
 equilibrium is established. Divisions traced on this arm in- 
 dicate the Weight at Ft corres|H Hiding at each |Hisition of P. 
 In the Roman steel yard, or statera, the lever was so 
 constructed that the centre of gravity was brought immedi 
 ret the point of support; and the system being ac- 
 cordingly balanced upon its fulcrum F, the effect of the 
 Hi iglit of the levet was neutralized. The longer arm was 
 then divided into parts, each equal to the shorter arm, and 
 in equally subdivided. Suppose now the length 
 Of :iif shorter arm, or the distance F II, to be one inch, and 
 the constant weight P to be one pound ; then If 1* lie placed 
 at the distance of five inches from F, it will make equilibri- 
 um with a load of live pounds suspended from B; for, from 
 the property of the lever, when the equilibrium is establish- 
 ed the weight P is to the load at B as the distance of 15 
 from F is to the distance of P from F. Whatever propor- 
 tioii, therefore, F P has to F B, the same proportion has the 
 weight suspended from B to the constant weight P. 
 
 The steel yard in common mm; is constructed somewhat 
 differently, the beam being seldom mode so as to balance 
 
 itselt on the fulcrum F; but the error that would arise OH 
 this account is compensated by beginning the divisions at 
 
 d, the equilibrium 
 a i, movi 
 i inderates, the divisions commence from a point 
 between K and B. For the purpose of increasing the range, 
 also in general two fulcra, from either of which 
 the beam may lie suspended, and two corresponding scales 
 >n are marked on opposite sides of the longer arm. 
 For weighing heavy loads the steel yard is a convenient 
 instrument ; but lor smaller weights it is susceptible of less 
 accuracy than the common balance. It should be construct- 
 ed an that the |M>int of support F, and the point of suspen- 
 sion at B, may be in the same straight line with the divi- 
 i the beam. 
 BTEEL V Mil), MERCHANTS OF TFIE. A company 
 it merchants to whom the steel yard (see above) 
 Was assigned by Henry III. A.I). 1333. They were all for- 
 chlefiy Flemish and German, and were long the 
 only exporters of the staple commodities of England. 
 
 BTEEN1NG, or STEANING. In Architecture, the brick 
 or stone wall or lining of a well. 
 
 STEEPLE. In Architecture, a tower of various forms, 
 usually attached to churches and other public buildings, in 
 which hells are frequently bat not always suspended. 
 
 BTEER. To keep the ship on a given direction. This is 
 done by tinning the rudder by the tiller, which last is moved 
 from that side to which the ship's head is required to be 
 moved. 
 
 STEERAGE. The steering of the ship. Also a place 
 below in the fore part of ships, as distinguished from the 
 chief cabin ; but the term is of uncertain acceptation. 
 
 STEGAXO'GRAPHY. (Gr.rrrtynios, covered, and ypaipia, 
 
 The art of writing in cypher. See Cypher. 
 STE'GANOPODS. (Gr. ortyavof, covered; -aovc. a foot.) 
 The name of a family of swimming birds INatatores) In the 
 system of Illiger, including those species in which all the 
 four toes are connected by the same web. It corresponds 
 with the genus Pelecanus of Linmeus. 
 
 STEINHEILITE. A mineral of a blue colour; a variety 
 Of iolite. 
 
 STE'LA. (Gr. arriXn, from "tarnixi, I stand.) In Architec- 
 ture, a small column without base or capital, usually with 
 an inscription to record an event, or to perpetuate the mem- 
 ory of some deceased person. The ancients also used them 
 for marking distances. There are several specimens of ste- 
 le in the British Museum. 
 
 BTELLA'TiE. In Botany, a natural order of Exogens, 
 also known under the name of Oaliacea; which see. 
 
 BTELLE'BIDANS, StMeridas. (Lat. stella, a star.) Star 
 fishes. The name of the family of Echinodenns of which 
 the genms . Hterias is the type. 
 
 BTE'LLIONATE. In the Roman law, a general term com- 
 prehending all sorts of fraud committed in matters of agree- 
 ment which were not designated by any more special appel- 
 
 STEREOMETER. 
 
 lation. The name is said to be derived from stcllio, a lizard, 
 because the fraudulent man is comparable to that animal for 
 versatility and address. Thesix common species of stellion- 
 ate enumerated by Roman writers were. 1. When one sells 
 the same thing to two purchasers ; 2. When a debtor pledges 
 to his creditors something which does not belong to him ; 
 3. When one abstract! or damnifies something which he 
 has pledged to creditors ; 4. Collusion by two parties to the 
 prejudice of a third; 5. When a vender substitutes an ob- 
 ject of less value for that which he has engaged to sell ; fi. 
 A wilful, false declaration in an instrument. 
 
 STEM. In Music, the upright or downright line added 
 to the head of a musical note; the head being that part 
 filled in black or left open, as the case may be. 
 
 BTENELYTRANS, Stenelytra. (Gr. crtvot, narrow; 
 cXvrpov.a sheath.) The name given by Latreille to a fami 
 ly of Coleopterous Insects, comprehending those in which 
 the elytra become narrow at the posterior part of the body. 
 
 STENOGRAPHY. (Gr. ertvos, and >p«0u>, / write'.) 
 The art of short Jiand, otherwise termed tachxjgraphy. This 
 art has been practised from remote antiquity, audit is said to 
 have originated in the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians. Nu 
 tneriiiis systems of Stenography have been invented in more 
 recent times, many of them of great simplicity ; but it would 
 be out of place here to enter Into any details respecting them. 
 
 STEP. A block of wood, or in large ships of late years 
 a strong solid platform, upon the kelson, supporting the Keel 
 of the mast. It was found that the weight of the mast. 
 yards, &c, added to the enormous force upon the rigging, 
 especially during strong winds, forced the keel down. 
 
 STEPPES. Run.) The name given to the vast system 
 of plains peculiar to Asia ; 8) nniij tnous with the prairies of 
 North America and the Ilhanos of South America, The 
 steppes of Russia are not unlike the heaths of Germany, 
 being in part susceptible of cultivation, and affording pastu 
 ragi for numerous herds of nomadic tribes. 
 
 STERCO'RIANISM. In Ecclesiastical History, a nick- 
 name which seems to have been applied in the Western 
 church, in the 5th and Gth century, to those who held the 
 opinion that a change took place In the consecrated ele- 
 ments, so as to render the divine body subject to the act of 
 digestion. (See Mosheim, vol. ii., transl. 1730, p. 342.) 
 
 STERELMI'NTHANS, Sterelmintha. (Gr. or, ptoc, solid, 
 and tXpivc, an intestinal worm.) The name of n class or 
 Infernal parasitic animals or Entozoons, comprising those 
 wfcich are composed of a solid parenchymatous substance, 
 in which the nutrient and generative canals are simply ex 
 cavatcd, and not freely suspended in tin abdominal cavity. 
 
 STEREOGRATHIC PROJECTION. {Gr.^nptos, solid; 
 ypatyn, description.) The projection of the sphere upon the 
 plane of one of its great circles, the eye being situated at the 
 }joIe of that circle. See Projection. 
 
 STERECGRAPHY. In the descriptive Geometry, the 
 representation of solids on a plane. 
 
 STEREt )'M ETER. (Gr. orcpeof, solid ; ficrpov, measure.) 
 In Hydrodynamics, an instrument invented by M. Say, a 
 French officer of engineers, for determining the specifir 
 gravity of liquid bodies, porous bodies, and powders, as w ell 
 as of solids. The instrument may be described as follows : 
 Let A E be a glass tube, about three feet long, and open at 
 both ends, the upper part A B being about 4-10ths, and a 
 the lower 2-10ths of an inch in diameter. The upper 
 edge is ground smooth, so that it can be shut air- 
 tight by a piece of ground plate glass : and the upper u' 
 part A B communicates with the lower by a very nar- 
 row slit at B, which allows air to pass, but prevents 
 the passage of sand or water. In using the instrument, 
 a powder (for instance) is placed in the tube A B, and r> 
 the lower part B E is plunged into a vessel containing 
 mercury till the fluid rises exactly to B. The ground 
 glass cover is then placed upon the mouth A, and 
 there is now no air in the tube except what is mixed 
 with the powder. Supposing the barometric pressure 
 to be 30 inches ; let the tube be elevated until the ' 
 mercury standi within it at a point C, 15 Inches aoove 
 its surface in the open vessel, and it is manifest that the 
 air within the tube is pressed with exactly half an atmo- 
 sphere. It consequently expands to twice its original bulk, 
 and hence the tube A B now contains only half the quantity 
 of air it contained at first. The part BC must therefore con- 
 tain the other half, or the air in B C is equal to the air mixed 
 with the powder in A B ; and being half the original quan- 
 tity under half the original pressure, it fills the same space 
 which the whole occupied previous to the expansion. Let 
 the powder be now removed from A B, and the process re- 
 peated when the tube is filled with air. The quantity of air 
 being now greater, will, when expanded to twice its bulk, 
 till a larger space than B C, and the mercury will rise only 
 to some point D ; but as the expanded air occupied exactly 
 the same space in B D or B C as the whole occupied in A B 
 under twice the pressure, it follows that the cavity CD = I1 
 D — B C is equal to the bulk of the solid matter in the pow 
 
 117U 
 
STEREOTYPE, 
 der. If, therefore, we now find the number of grains of water 
 which would fill the part CD, we determine the weight of 
 water equal in bulk to the solid matter in the powder; and 
 by comparing this with the weight of the powder, we obtain 
 its specific gravity. (Ency. Brit., art. " Hydrodynamics.") 
 
 Say's stereometer was first described in the Annates de 
 Chimie for 17SJ7. An instrument on exactly the same prin- 
 ciple was afterwards brought forward by Sir John Leslie 
 under the name of a coniometer. 
 
 STE'REOTYPE. (Gr. ortptoi, solid, and tuttoj, a figure.) 
 Masses of letters, called letter-press plates, of the size of a 
 page, cast from a plaster mould, in which an exact repre- 
 sentation of the types has been made, and thus forming 
 the permanent plates from which books are afterwards 
 printed. As the art of printing (see Printing) began with 
 the impression of whole blocks, it may be said that in its 
 progress towards perfection it has again reached the same 
 point by the introduction of stereotype plates. The origin 
 of the more modern invention is involved in greater obscuri- 
 ty than might at first sight appear probable from its compar- 
 atively recent date. By some writers the merit of the inven- 
 tion is ascribed to the Dutch, who had adopted the plan of 
 printing with solid or fixed types in the 17th century ; but 
 it was not till the end of the last, and the commencement 
 of the present century, that the process was perfected and 
 generally introduced. In this useful invention, the most 
 prominent names are Ged of Edinburgh, Tulloch and Foulis 
 of Glasgow, Didot in Paris, and Wilson and Earl Stanhope 
 in London. The process of stereotyping is very simple. A 
 page of any work proposed to be stereotyped is set up with 
 moveable types in the usual way. A plaster is then taken 
 from it, which, being first dried, is immersed in fluid metal. 
 The cast or plate, after being sufficiently cooled, is then 
 withdrawn from the mould, and, at a subsequent stage, care- 
 fully examined with a view to removing any imperfections 
 previous to its being printed from. The plaster used for 
 forming the mould is pulverized gypsum, mixed with water 
 to the consistence of cream. After the form of types has 
 been surrounded with a brass frame, and slightly oiled on 
 the surface, the fluid plaster is poured upon it, and, by the 
 application of a brush, made to fill every cavity of the let- 
 ters, the superfluous portion being scraped off. When the 
 plaster has set sufficiently hard, it is, by means of the frame, 
 lifted oft the face of the type and detached from it. It is 
 then baked to dryness in an oven ; and when quite hot it is 
 placed in an iron box, or casting pot, which has also been 
 heated in an oven. The box is now plunged into a large 
 pot of melted type-metal and kept about ten minutes under 
 the surface, in order that the weight of the metal may force 
 it into all the finer parts of the letters. The whole is then 
 cooled ; the mould is broken and washed oft"; and the back 
 of the plate turned smooth on a lathe, or planed by a ma- 
 chine. {Conversations Lexicon.) 
 
 STE'RLING. The legal description of the English cur- 
 rent coin, of which the most probable derivation is from 
 Eastcrling, the popular name of the Baltic and German tra- 
 ders who visited London in the middle ages; but in what 
 manner it came to be so applied is unknown. Camden says 
 from the employment of German artists in coining. The 
 silver penny was first called Esterling. 
 
 STERN. In Naval affairs, the after extremity of a vessel. 
 
 STE'ENA. A genus of web-footed birds, having a bill 
 as long as or longer than the head, almost straight, com- 
 pressed, arid pointed; the mandibles of equal length, the 
 upper one slightly inclined towards the point; nostrils 
 pierced towards the middle of the bill ; legs small, naked to 
 above the knee ; three anterior toes united by an indented 
 web ; the hind toe free ; wings very long and pointed ; tail 
 more or less forked. From the two latter characters, the 
 species of Sterna are sometimes called " sea swallows :" 
 their proper English name is "tern." 
 
 ST ERNO'XI. (Gr. ctcOvo;, sternum, and oi-uy, pointed.) 
 The name of a tribe of Coleopterous insects, comprehending 
 those in which the sternum is prolonged into a point at both 
 extremities. 
 
 STE'RNTJM. (Lat. sternum, the breast bone.) In Com- 
 parative Anatomy, the simple or compound bone which 
 completes the thoracic cage anteriorly, and serves as a me- 
 dium of union to a greater or less number of the ribs. The 
 sternum is not present in the skeleton of Fishes, Amphibi- 
 ans, or Ophidians. In Saurians the anterior portion is gen- 
 erally expanded, to be joined to the broad coracoids and 
 clavicles. In Chelonians, this part of the skeleton is re- 
 markably developed, and very complex, and constitutes the 
 greater part of the plastron or floor of their defensive osse- 
 ous case. In Birds, also, it is more or less complex at the 
 beginning of its development; but the different ossifications 
 i blended together, and form a single broad bone, 
 principally remarkable for the keel-like process developed 
 from the middle line of its under surface. This keel is sub- 
 servient to the attachment of the muscles of the wing, and 
 bears a direct proportion to the powers of flight; except I 
 1180 
 
 STIGMATA. 
 
 where the wings, as in the penguin, are used as fins. In the 
 Struthious birds, the keel ofthe stemum is wanting. 
 
 In Mammalia, the sternum is generally simple, and con 
 sists of a single chain of ossicles; except in the orangutang, 
 and occasionally in man, where a double series of ossifica 
 tions are originally developed in the body of the bone, but 
 which afterwards become confluent. The upper portion, 
 or manubrium sterrii, remains long distinct from the main 
 body of the sternum ; in man, the cartilaginous appen 
 dage of the lower edge of the sternum is called xiphoid 01 
 ensiform. 
 
 STE'THOSCOPE. (Gr. ot v 9os, the chest, and (jkotew, J 
 explore.) A cylinder of cedar wood, about 12 Inches long 
 and 1 in diameter ; perforated throughout its length, and di 
 vided inlo two parts for the convenience of using the whole 
 or half its length. The end of each part terminates in a fun. 
 nel-shaped cavity. Its use is adverted to under the head 
 Auscultation. 
 
 STEWARD, LORD HIGH, was anciently the first officer 
 of the crown in England, with the Latin title of Magnus 
 Seneschallus. The office was at one period annexed to the 
 lordship of Hinkley, in Leicestershire, held by the family 
 of De Montfort ; but on the rebellion and fall of that noble 
 house, it was in effect abolished as a permanent dignity, and 
 is now only revived pro hdc vice on the occasion of a cor- 
 onation, or the trial of a peer. In the former case the lord 
 high steward's commission is to settle matters of precedence, 
 &c. ; in the latter, to preside in the House of Lords. 
 
 STEWARD, LORD, OF THE HOUSEHOLD. An offi- 
 cer of the king's household in England ; in Norman French, 
 Seneschal. He is steward of the marshalsea or court of the 
 household ; an office which he performs by deputy. In his 
 department is the counting house where the expenses of the 
 king's household are taken; within which is the board of 
 green cloth, an ancient court which has jurisdiction of of 
 fences committed within the king's palaces and verge of 
 the court. 
 
 STHE'NIC DISEASES. Those which are the result of 
 inflammatory or increised action; as opposed to asthenic, 
 or diseases of debility. 
 
 STIBIUM. Antimony. 
 
 STICHOMANCY. (Gr. vrixoc, aline, and u&vrtia, proph- 
 ecy.) Divination by lines or passages in books taken at haz- 
 ard. Among the Romans verses from the Bybilline books 
 were written on slips of paper, which were thrown into a 
 vessel ; and future events were conjectured from the inter- 
 pretation of one of these slips drawn out at hazard. Of the 
 same kind were the Sortes Virgilianm, Homcricm, &c. ; a 
 sort of literary superstition by which the works of author? 
 were consulted, and the meaning of a line casually taken 
 assumed as indicative of the fate of the person discovering 
 it. Verses of the Bible selected in this way by chance have 
 been, and are still, frequently taken by the superstitious as 
 oracular. This sort of divination has been called biblioman 
 cy, or sortes biblicce. It was condemned by the council of 
 Vannes in 465, and other early synods ; but was long after- 
 wards practised in France at the elections of bishops, abbots, 
 &c. The custom of drawing by lots verses from the Bible 
 on such occasions is said to have prevailed as late as 1740, 
 in the cathedrals of Ypres, St. Omer, and Boulogne. Sec 
 Sortes, Sortilege. 
 
 STICK, GOLD. The colonels of the two regiments of 
 Life Guards are so called, whose duty it is to be In Immedi- 
 ate attendance on the sovereign on all state occasions. These 
 colonels do duty for a month alternately; the one on duty be- 
 ing called the gold stick in waiting. The field officer of the 
 Life Guards, when on duty, is called silcer stick. The term 
 originated in the custom of the sovereign presenting the col- 
 onel of the Life Guards with a gold stick on his receiving the 
 regiment. 
 
 STI'GMA. (Gr. criyua.) An impression, such as that 
 made by branding with a hot iron. Stigmatizing was a 
 common practice among the ancients to mark their slaves 
 as property ; and it is pursued at the present day among 
 slave-drivers. It was customary also to stigmatize the vo- 
 taries of some of the gods with some recognised emblem of 
 their divinity, such as the ivy of Bacchus, the trident of Nep 
 tune, &c; or with the initial of their names, or some mys 
 tical number. It is supposed that reference is made to this 
 practice by St. John, Rev., ch. 13. See Tattooing. 
 
 Stigma. In Botany, the upper extremity of the style 
 without a cuticle, in consequence of which it has almost 
 uniformly a humid and papillose surface. It is the part upon 
 which the pollen falls, and where it is stimulated into the 
 production of the pollen tubes, which are indispensable to 
 the net of impregnation. 
 
 STI'GMATA. In Theological language, the marks of 
 the wounds of our Saviour. The text at the end <■!' thi EpiB- 
 tle to the Galatians, "From hence let no man trouble me, 
 for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," teems 
 to have given ri^e to thf superstitions promulgated in the 
 Roman Catholic church .especting the impression of the 
 
STILE. 
 
 tUgxnata on favoured saints; of which the legend of 8l. 
 <i Assisi affords the most remarkable instance. 
 
 .-TIL I'.. In Architecture, the vertical piece in framing or 
 panelling- See Rail. 
 
 STILL. (Lat. stillare, to drop.) An apparatus for the 
 distillation of liquids upon the large scale. It includes the 
 body, or boiler, which is usually set in brick work over a 
 furnace, and to which is annexed the head, forming the com- 
 munication between the boiler and condenser or worm pipe ; 
 from the extremity of which the distilled liquid passes in 
 successive drops, or a small continuous stream, into the re- 
 r,iptt,d. There are an infinite variety of stills adapted to 
 particular pur|>oses, of which the most important are the dis- 
 tillation .it' spirituous liquors, (rice Lire's Diet, of Arts, <$•£.) 
 
 BTILT BIRD. The name of the Himantopus melanopter- 
 ui. significative of its very long and slender legs. 
 
 STPNKSTONE. A bituminous carbonate of lime, which 
 exhales a fetid odour when rubbed. 
 
 .STINT. In Coal Mines, a measure of work used under 
 Round, - yards long and 1 broad, which each miner clears 
 before he removes to another place, and which is proved by 
 a boy appointed for the purpose, who is colloquially called 
 •• the Judge." 
 
 STIPEND (Lat stipendium), signified originally the pay 
 
 . In a legal sense it is applied to the salary or al- 
 
 l; i veil to some person for transacting the business of 
 
 another; bill in Scotland the term Is almost exclusively 
 
 confined 10 the provision made by law for the established 
 
 Presbytery. 
 
 BTl'PPLING. In Engraving, the method of producing 
 shadows by means of dots of greater or less size, according 
 to the intensity of the shadow re qui re d . Ry this method 
 tin' resemblance to chalk drawings i< produced. 
 
 STrPULA. In Botany, a small appendage situated upon 
 Bach side of the base of a petiole, most commonly of a less 
 firm texture than the latter, and having a subulate termina- 
 tion : the word is also used in describing Hepaticee, to denote 
 the appendage! which .are occasionally present at the bases 
 of tin: leaves, but of which they seem rather to be lobes 
 than distinct organs. 
 
 STOCK DOVE. The name of the wild species called 
 Culumlta JKhos by Lin nans. 
 
 BTOCK EXCHANGE. The name given to the system 
 whereby the purchase, sale, and "carrying over" of stock 
 and shares are effected by certain parties called brokers. 
 This curious and complicated subject may be explained and 
 l under three different head* : viz. first, the parties 
 ungated in stock transactions, whether brokers or jobbers ; 
 secondly, money and time bargains; thirdly, the rules and 
 regulations by which these operations arc conducted. 
 
 ■ taring-house in Lombard Street affords the great- 
 est facilities to the transactions of the Stock Exchange, 
 Inasmuch as, without its intervention, difficulties and ein- 
 barrassmenta would present themselves in the final settle- 
 ment or adjustment of those transactions of an almost 
 Insurmountable character. By means of this clearing- 
 liou-e, all the great monetary transactions of the day are 
 brought to a close by 5 o'clock in the afternoon; whereas 
 in the ordinary mode of paying or receiving money, whether 
 in notes or hard cash, their settlement might not be finnlly 
 effected tor several days afterward.^ to say nothing of the 
 security afforded to all parties concerned by the operation of 
 the clearing-house. 
 
 The- members of the Stock Exchange are divided into two 
 distinct classes : — viz. the brokers, and the jobbers. It is 
 the business of the brokers to receive and to execute the 
 orders of merchants, bankers, capitalists, and private indi- 
 viduals, who are "out of the house;" the Stock Exchange 
 being among its own members honoured with that dignified 
 appellation '. 
 
 The jobbers remain stationary in the "house ;" and ready 
 to act upon the orders thus received by the brokers. And 
 here it may be as well to explain the nature and character 
 of the business transacted by these jobbers, who, being men 
 d of more or less capital, endeavour to turn it to 
 account in the manner we are about to explain. It is their 
 business to be always prepared to make a price to the bro- 
 kers whenever the latter present themselves : the readiness 
 which they display in offering to do business to large 
 amounts nt the apparently small difference of l-8th per cent, 
 would appear extraordinary, were it not that they are so 
 numerous that an eager competition is excited among them 
 for the favours of the brokers. When one of the latter 
 appears in the market, he is surrounded by a knot of job- 
 bers, who announce themselves ready to buy or sell what- 
 ever amount of stock he has to deal in at a price varying 
 only l-8th ]>er cent. For instance, if a broker has to do 
 business in 5000/. Consols (the market price being about 90), 
 the jobber offers to buy his 5000/. at 90, or to sell him that 
 amount at 90J, without being in the slightest degree aware 
 whether the orders of the broker are to buy or to sell, and 
 thus taking upon himself the risk of selling that which he 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE. 
 
 does not possess, or of buying what he does not intend to 
 keep; his only object being to undo bis bargain, at a differ- 
 ence of l-8th per cent., or even less, with another broker, 
 who may have to effect an operation the very reverse of the 
 other, which l-8th or even l-16th constitutes his profit. 
 
 Without the intervention of the jobber, therefore, it will 
 be seen that there would exist a vast difficulty in etlecting 
 the transactions which daily take place. The jobbers are, 
 in fact, the "middle men," who stand in the house in the 
 character of dealers, always ready to buy or sell, thus obvi- 
 ating the necessity of the broker's going in quest of a second 
 broker, with whom he might transact his lm>iness ; or, in 
 other words, whom he might suit to buy what the other 
 broker had to sell, or vice versa. Again, even if one were 
 at hand, he might not be able to concur in the actual amount 
 of stock which the other wished to deal in; whereas the 
 jobber is ready to do business to any amount, even to the 
 smallest fraction, and hence a great deal of lime is saved. 
 li often happens that a broker who has to dispose of shares 
 not currently dealt in is frequently obliged to wait for 
 months before' he can find a purchaser; whereas, in the 
 case of stock, the jobbers offer themselves as buyers or 
 sellers at a moment's notice, and thus offer facilities foi 
 transactions in the public funds which could not be effected 
 without them. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to explain the difference be- 
 tween broker and joblicr, and confined our attention hither- 
 to to money transactions, we next proceed to describe the 
 nature of " time-bargains," which form so essential a feature 
 in stock business. Indeed, the very existence of the Stock 
 Exchange, as at present constituted, depends upon specula- 
 tions in time-bargains; for where there exists a body of 600 
 members, the actual bond fide business would not be ^nl' 
 Sclent to provide employment lor them all, notwithstanding 
 the magnitude of the national debt. Time-bargain 
 of purchases and sales of stock made for a certain lived 
 period, regulated by the committee. There can be little 
 doubt that they had their origin in the business which has 
 always been transacted in tiie funds during the period! 
 when the stocks are shut. For instance, Consols usually 
 close about the beginning of June and December; that is to 
 say, the transfer books at the bank are shut for the space 01 
 five or six weeks, in order to afford time for the preparation 
 of the dividend warrants, which are paid in the following 
 July and January. Hence it is clear that a person wishing 
 to buy or sell that particular stock during the period refer 
 red to would be unable to effect his object ; but in order 
 to secure the price of the day, he buys or sells the stock 
 "for the opening," that is, for actual transfer on the day on 
 which the transfer-hooks are re-opened. This mode of 
 doing business is legitimate enough ; but this practice has 
 no doubt given rise to operations of the greatest magnitude, 
 founded, not on actual necessities, but merely on specula- 
 tion ; and this method being found convenient for one 
 period, has been continued on other occasions, without, 
 however, possessing the same pretext for its adoption. Pe- 
 riodical dates have consequently been fixed upon by the 
 committee, similar to the "opening," nt intervals of about 
 six weeks, making altogether about eight "settling days," 
 as they are called, in the course of a year. On these settling 
 days are arranged and adjusted nil the bargains made dur- 
 ing the preceding six weeks for that particular day ; those 
 who sold stock having to deliver it on the one hand, and 
 those who purchased having to accept and pay for it on the 
 other. But as the majority of the speculators have no in- 
 tention of doing either the one or the other, their bargains 
 having been of a purely speculative character, founded on 
 their anticipations of a rise or fall in the value of the securi- 
 ties, so whatever difference may exist between the price at 
 which a party commenced his speculation and that at 
 which he finally closed it, is settled on this important day , 
 and his operations most likely not having been confined to 
 the same jobbers, but having been effected with several, it 
 becomes necessary to balance them with the parties con- 
 cerned, and much the same process takes place on this occa- 
 sion as that practised at the banker's clearing-house, by es 
 tablishing balances between each other. Whatever ba 
 lance remains unsettled is adjusted by the name of the bond 
 fide purchaser of the stock (who intends to pay for it) being 
 passed from one broker, or jobber, or speculator to another, 
 until it comes into the hands of the party who intends to 
 deliver or transfer the stock ; by which means all the inter 
 mediate persons through whose hands it passes (the price 
 given by the purchaser being marked on the ticket) are en 
 abled to close their accounts with each other at that par 
 ticular price, and to pay and receive the differences accord- 
 ingly. In short, all transactions kept open until the settling 
 day must then be closed; and the party who delays this 
 operation until the last moment is often exposed to a loss, 
 from the difficulty of finding others who, having adjusted 
 their own accounts, are unable or unwilling^to enter into a 
 fresh transaction on this " day of reckoning," whereby he is 
 
 1181 
 
STOCK EXCHANGE. 
 
 tompelled to pay something extra in the price to those who 
 have it in their power to afford him this facility, in order to 
 enable him to settle his account. 
 
 But, as many of the bargains made for this particular day 
 are really bona fide transactions, the slock bought and sold 
 being, in point of fact, delivered by the actual holder and 
 taken bv the new purchaser, let us briefly explain how this 
 is effected. This process is one of daily occurrence, and is 
 not necessarily confined to a settling day, although on sucli 
 occasions it usually amounts to a considerable item, from 
 its having extended over a wider period. In either case, 
 however, the following is the way in which the matter is 
 seitled between the broker and his principal who has sold 
 stock : The broker usually passes his check for the proceeds 
 of the sale to his principal, taking the precaution of crossing 
 it, t. e., writing a banker's name across the check. When, 
 however, Bank of England notes are demanded in lieu of 
 crossed checks (as is sometimes the case), the bargain is 
 made accordingly : in this case, the jobber who buys the 
 stock provides them either by borrowing of those who hap- 
 pen to have large balances at their banker's, or from their 
 own private bankers. The notes so borrowed by the jobber 
 are then paid over to the broker, and by him to his principal. 
 This operation is, however, seldom resorted to by men of 
 business where there is no reason to doubt the credit of the 
 party drawing the check. 
 
 The jobber, on the other hand, having sold the stock to 
 some other broker, who buys for his principal, receives in 
 return his check ; so that, by this simple process of passing 
 four checks — viz. that of the purchaser to his broker, that 
 of the broker to the jobber, that of the jobber again to the 
 broker who first sold the stock, and that of the latter to his 
 principal — the whole transaction is completed. 
 
 To advert to another technical peculiarity appertaining to 
 the Stock Exchange which may appear puzzling to the 
 reader; the use, namely, of the term "bull" and "bear." 
 A bull is one who speculates for a rise ; whereas a bear, on 
 the contrary, is he who speculates for a fall. The "bull" 
 would, for instance, buy £100,000 Consols for the settling 
 day, or, as it Is technically termed, " for the account," with 
 the object of selling them again during thei ntervening pe- 
 riod at a higher price. The "bear," on the other hand, 
 would sell the £100,000 stock (which, however, he does not 
 possess) " for the account," with a view of buying them in 
 for the purpose of balancing the transaction at a lower 
 price than he originally sold them at. In stirring periods, 
 7/hen fluctuations of 4 or 5 per cent, often occur during " one 
 account," vast profits may be realized, or equal losses sus- 
 tained, by these gambling operations. 
 
 The transactions in the foreign market are carried on 
 much in the same way as in that of the English stocks, 
 with the exception that the settling days are much more fre- 
 quent, occurring, as they do, once in every fortnight. The 
 foreign " house" is quite of modern origin ; but it is subject 
 to the same rules and regulations as tue English, with a 
 few exceptions. The dealings are there carried on in all 
 the foreign stocks, as well as in railway, mining, and other 
 shares. The jobbers are distinct from those in the English 
 house, although there is nothing to prevent them from deal- 
 ing in both, if they possess sufficient intelligence to enable 
 them to give their attention in two places at once. 
 
 In connexion with time-bargains may be noticed that im- 
 portant branch of business which goes under the denomina- 
 tion of " continuation," or " carrying over." This is no- 
 thing more than interest for money borrowed or lent on se- 
 curity of stock. The rate of this continuation or interest 
 varies according to the abundance or scarcity of money, and 
 the nature of the security offered. For instance, on British 
 stocks, even when money is very scarce, it seldom exceeds 
 the rate of 5 per cent, per annum from one account to an- 
 other ; whereas in the foreign market, where the security 
 consists of foreign bonds of various and doubtful descriptions, 
 it ranges from 5 to 10 per cent., or even more on particular 
 occasions, when it reaches 15 per cent, per annum. 
 
 There are several causes which tend to produce this ex- 
 traordinary variation in the rates of continuation ; for in the 
 case of Consols, which constitute the only stock for specu- 
 lation in time-bargains in the English market, the price 
 varies so little in comparison with the value of the stock, in 
 the course of an " account," that the security is considered 
 good in itself; and therefore no extra charge is superadded 
 by the party who lends his money. This is not the case 
 with regard to foreign stocks, which are constantly fluctu- 
 ating in value, a fact to be accounted for by the extremely 
 precark..is nature of this description of property. Most of 
 the bonds in circulation in the foreign house have ceased to 
 bear any interest whatever, and many of them bear upon 
 them the marks of their shame and disgrace, in the shape 
 of the arrears of interest, called coupons, overdue for several 
 years. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that foreign 
 securities of this description do not command the same 
 credit as our own English stocks ; and it must hence follow, 
 1182 
 
 as a matter of course, that parties who wish to raise money 
 upon them must consent to pay a higher rate of interest lor 
 the accommodation. 
 
 A great deal of business is transacted in this way ; and 
 some brokers, who possess the means of obtaining large 
 sums of money without much difficulty, devote their entire 
 attention to it. The process by which the operation is 
 effected is simple, both in the English and foreign market. 
 The present rate of continuation in the Consol market is 
 9-lGths per cent, until the opening ; and if a person, we will 
 suppose, wishes to lend money on that stock, from 'he shut- 
 ting (on the 2d of December) to the opening (on the Uth of 
 January, 1842), his broker procures him X 1,000 Consols aa 
 security, for which he furnishes the money at the actual 
 price of the day, which is .£90, making X900, and resells at 
 the same time the said £1000 stock for the opening (on the 
 14th of January) at 90^, making £906 12s. 5d., and there- 
 by leaving a difference in his favour of £5 12s. Gd. for the 
 loan of £900 during the above period of forty-four days, 
 which will be found to be at the rate of £5 3s. 8d. percent, 
 per annum. On foreign securities the principle is the same. 
 Supposing he lends on the security of Spanish bonds, he 
 receives as security £5100, for which he pays on the 30th of 
 November, at the price of 24£ per. cent., £1249 10s. ; but 
 sells it to the same party for the 15th of December (the 
 next settling day at 24^, producing £1252 13s. 9d., leaving 
 a difference in his favour of £3 3s. 9d., or 1-10 upon the 
 stock bought and resold, which, for fifteen days, is equal to 
 l-8th per cent, per month, or 12-8ths per cent, per annum, 
 equal to £76 10s., being at the rate of about £6 2s. Gd per 
 cent, per annum interest. This calculation is made upon 
 the current rate of interest for the " continuation" of that 
 stock on the 30th of November, which was considered as 
 extremely low. 
 
 The continuation on shares, in which a great deal of 
 business is also done, varies but little from the above ; but 
 a difficulty here arises, which offers a g'eat obstacle to the 
 lending of money for short periods. 
 
 The stamps which by law are necessary for the due trans 
 fer of property of this description, and without which trans 
 fer there could be no security to the lender of money, are sc 
 onerous, and press so heavily on all bond fide transactions, 
 that notwithstanding the many attempts made at various 
 times to evade them, they operate materially against the 
 parties who lend money upon them, and, in fact, neutralize 
 all profit for short periods. 
 
 Persons who have sold shares or stock, if they are not in 
 immediate want of their money, frequently avail themselves 
 of this method of "continuation," in order to obtain inter- 
 est for it until they actually deliver the stock. On the othei 
 hand, speculators for the rise are by this means able to carry 
 over their purchases from one account to another ; and 
 although it may appear strange that they should be paying 
 at the rate of 5 and even 10 per cent, per annum interest on a 
 stock which, in the instance of Consols, pays them only 3 
 per cent., and in that of Spanish pays them actually no- 
 thing, still, when viewed solely in the light of speculations, 
 the rise in cither security, if it takes place, will more than 
 compensate for this apparent inconsistency. 
 
 The proceedings of th» Stock Exchange are regulated by 
 a committee consisting of thirty members, who are elected 
 from the general body every Lady- day, each member hav 
 ing one vote. They take care that the rules and rcgula 
 tions enacted for the admission and expulsion of members, 
 and for the settlement of disputes, are properly observed ; 
 and although some of their laws are at variance with the 
 established laws of the country, they are not so strictly en- 
 forced by the committee as to bring them into collision with 
 the courts of justice : they fully answer the purpose for 
 which they were intended, and all members previously to 
 their admission subscribe to the conditions there laid down. 
 
 All members, on being admitted, are obliged to produce 
 three securities of £300 each, for the first two years of their 
 probation, which £900 becomes forfeited in the event of 
 their failure, and goes to the creditors of the new member. 
 In consequence of their being interdicted from ervgagingm 
 any other business, on becoming members of the Stock Ex- 
 change they are no longer subject to the bankrupt laws ; and 
 therefore, in the event of failure, all their assets are secured 
 to the creditors in the house, to the exclusion of those ou of 
 it. This rule is enforced in order to secure the house from 
 the loss which would ensue to its members, were the legal 
 creditors (if any existed) to step in and lay claim to their 
 property. 
 
 The tendency of the above regulation is to insure honesty ' 
 among its members. Should any principal have reason to 
 complain, he has only to appeal to the committee, who In 
 stantly take cognizance of the matter, and subject it to the 
 strictest investigation. Defaulters whose conduct has been 
 dishonourable are punished, and an example is made of 
 them by publicly affixing their names in the house on whal 
 
STOCKS. 
 
 m termed the black board : this is the heaviest disgrace 
 which :i member can possibly experience. (For this elabo- 
 rate account of the procedure of business in the Stock Ex- 
 change, we are indebted to the Times of 184L) 
 
 KS. A well known kind of punishment. The 
 practice of confining men by the legs was so common as to 
 have given the ordinary name to a chain of any kind in 
 languages; e.jr., Gr. *«Sq ; Lat. compos ; Engl. fetter; 
 all from 7r.;t'>, foot. The stocks in England have been, gen- 
 erally speaking, rather used for restraint than punishment, 
 constables being empowered to put disorderly persons into 
 them ; but it is likewise ordered by some statutes as a pun- 
 ishment on conviction. It is now almost disused; though, 
 we believe, not entirely in remote districts. 
 
 STO'ICS. A celebrated sect of antiquity ; so called from 
 the stoa or porch, in Athens, which was the scene of the 
 discourses of their founder Zeno of Ciltium (B.C. 300). The 
 Stoics are proverbially known for the sternness and austeri- 
 ty of their elhical doctrines, and for the influence which 
 their tenets exercised over some of the noblest spirits of an- 
 tiquity. To give a connected and systematic account of the 
 philosophical principles on which they grounded their moral 
 precepts is a less easy task than, from the notoriety of the 
 latter in some of their main features, might have been an- 
 ticipated. Their speculations were not confined to ethical 
 subjects, but aimed at embracing the whole circle of human 
 knowledge ; physics, theology, and logic, no less than morals 
 and polities. Their system, as far as we can gather from 
 the notices preserved by Cicero, Diogenes, and others, ap- 
 pears to be an attempt to reconcile a theological pa nt h e i sm 
 and a materialist psychology with a logic which seeks the 
 foundations of knowledge in sensible experience, and a 
 morality which claims as Us firs! principle the absolute free- 
 dom of the human will. Of the mode in which they com- 
 uined dogmas apparently so Inconsistent into a philosophi- 
 cal whole, we have accounts sufficient to inspire us with 
 respect for the earnestness and strength of character pos- 
 sessed by the leaders of their sect, and with admiration of 
 their subtlety, ingenuity, and depth. We discern, at the 
 same lime, in all their speculations, equally a narrow and 
 controversial spirit, most unlike the critical but comprehen- 
 sive impartiality which marks the philosophical writings of 
 their great predecessors; of Plato, and, in a still more emi- 
 nent degree, of Aristotle, The philosophy of the Stoics 
 itially polemical. On every side it presented an 
 armed front to an opponent It sought to confute the aca 
 domic scepticism by the strenuous assertion of the truth of 
 sensible perceptions, and the validity of the judgments to 
 which they lead by a vigorous protest in favour of the com- 
 mon sense of mankind as opposed to the theories of the 
 schools. Sensation, they affirmed, is not merely a passive 
 aflection of the mind ; it becomes, under certain conditions, 
 perception or comprehension UariAjjd'tj) — a faculty where- 
 by the mind reaches beyond itself, and lays hold, as it were, 
 on outward being. From the acquisitions of sensible expe- 
 rience are formed conceptions and judgments of successive 
 stages of generality, which it is the province of the reason 
 to construct into philosophical system. Such is the sto- 
 ical logic, which is consequently a material, and not, as 
 with Aristotle, a formal science. An equally controversial 
 bearing is perceptible in the remainder of their philosophy. 
 Their greatest enemies, the Epicureans, had adopted the 
 mcchanico- corpuscular theory of Democritus, which ac- 
 counted for all physical phenomena by the varieties in size 
 and figure of the ultimate atoms of which all substances are 
 the aggregate. The fortuitous concretions which thus be- 
 came the first cause of all things, had attracted the partiali- 
 ties and won the assent of a sect averse in all things equally 
 to limitation or constraint. The Stoics espoused the op- 
 posite doctrine of a one ail-pervading substance, a permeating 
 ether, a creative fire, the source of life and law to the mate- 
 rial universe. On this they built their doctrine of a univer- 
 sal providence, excluding chance in the least things as in 
 the greatest, and directing all events by irresistible necessi- 
 ty to the promotion of perfect good. The same hypothesis 
 furnished them with a ground for the first principle of their 
 ethical doctrines. " Live according to nature" is, with the 
 Stoics, the expression of the coincidence which ought to 
 exist between the human will and the universal reason, 
 which, as we have seen, they identified with the life and 
 power of nature. This coincidence is virtue, the .only 
 good ; as vice, its opposite, is the only evil. All things else 
 are in themselves indifferent ; being approved or disapprov- 
 ed only by comparison. Virtue is the perfect harmony of 
 the soul with itself; vice is, in its essence, inconsistent and 
 self contradictory. The wise man, the ideal of human per- 
 fection, is absolutely, and without qualification, free. His 
 actions are determined by his free will, with a power as 
 irresistible as that by which universal nature is guided and 
 animated. In the one no less than in the other, freedom 
 and necessity are one. 
 In these doctrines the controversial character to which 
 
 STONE BORERS. 
 
 wc have adverted is sufficiently obvious. Mnch, howevei, 
 that is exaggerated and paradoxical, both in the tenets of 
 the Stoics and in those of their opponent Epicurus, is to lie 
 accounted for by a reference to the poliical circumstances 
 of the age in which both lived. The pressure of public 
 calamity and the utter extinction of national life in Greece, 
 while they precluded all healthful exercise of the duties of 
 a citizen — duties which had entered so largely into (he cal- 
 culation of the earlier Greek moralists — would drive the 
 more virtuous and thoughtful part of mankind to seek in the 
 development of the individual life for that satisfaction 
 which they sought elsewhere in vain. It is easy to coo 
 ceive that the same circumstances which would recommend 
 to minds of a certain order the good-humoured apathy and 
 the tranquil voluptuousness of the garden, might, will] men 
 of sterner temperament, be the occasion of drawing forth 
 all the energies of" their will, and of placing those energies 
 at once in distinclcr consciousness to themselves, and in 
 sharper antagonism with the evil that surrounded them. 
 In the declining period of the republic, as well as in the 
 darkest periods of the empire, we find the noblest Romans 
 seeking for consolation in the doctrines of one or the other 
 of these rival sects. Brutus, Seneca, Epictclus, ami the 
 philosophic emperor Amelias, are among. the names of the 
 most celebrated Roman Stoics. Little, however, was done 
 by the Romans to advance the speculative part of the stoical 
 philosophy, which was indebted for its systematic form to 
 Cleanthes and (hrysippus. 
 
 The chief sources of information concerning the doctrine 
 of the earlier Stoics are the philosophical works of Cicero; 
 for their logic, the Academic Questions ; for their ethics, 
 the treatise Uc Fiuibus, and the Tusculan Questions; and 
 for their theology and physics, the books lie jYatura JJeo- 
 rum, and De Fato. See also Diog. Laert., I. vii. Plutarch, 
 Adv. Stoicos, ice. ; Ritter, Hist, of Ancient Philos. xi., part 5. 
 
 STO'LA. {(jr. croXr/.) A dress of which the name was 
 borrowed by the Romans from Greece, hut acquired in their 
 language a peculiar signification ; being the habit appro- 
 priated to women. It was a long vest, coming down to 
 tiie ankles; was worn within doors, anil covered by the 
 palla or cloak when they went out ; as described by Horace, 
 Sat., 1. i., 2: 
 
 Ad Uto« stola demits* et circunrtata palla. 
 
 Common prostitutes, at least in the age of Horace, ware 
 not permitted to wear this distinguishing garb of the Reman 
 lady. The stole is a robe worn by deacons in the Roman 
 Catholic church. See Vestments. 
 
 STOLE, GROOM OF THE. An officer of the kings 
 household in the lord chamberlain's department. lie is 
 first lord of the bedchamber: his title is derived from the 
 long robe (stola) worn by his majesty on solemn oi 
 His original duty, likewise, was to put the king's shirt on 
 of a morning, which, in his absence, devolved on another 
 lord of the bedchamber. 
 
 STO'MACACE. (Gr. croua, the mouth, and koko;, evil.) 
 A fetor of breath, arising from ulcerated gums. Mouth- 
 washes, with tincture of myrrh and borax, and the internal 
 use of tonics are the remedies which relieve it. 
 
 STO'MAC'H, Stomachus. (Gr. aropia, Ike mouth; and 
 \iu:, I melt, from its receiving the contents of the mouth 
 and melting them down into nutriment.) The human 
 stomach is a somewhat oblong and rounded membranous 
 bag, situated in the epigastric region. It is largest on the 
 left side (or cardiac end), and gradually diminishes towards 
 the right or lower orifice, which is called the pylorus. Like 
 the intestines, the stomach has three coats or membranes, 
 connected together by cellular membrane. The exterior or 
 peritoneal coat is a dense, firm membrane; the internal or 
 villous coat is soft, mucous, and vascular; the central coat 
 is muscular, and the glands of the stomach are situated be- 
 tween it, and the villous coat. The stomach is largely sup- 
 plied with nerves which come from the eighth pair and 
 sympathetic. They are chiefly from the ca;liac, and are 
 accompanied by veins which empty themselves into the 
 vena porta?. The lymphatics of the stomach proceed di 
 rectly to the thoracic duct. See Anatomy and Digestion. 
 
 STOMACH PUMP. A small pump or syringe with two 
 apertures, the valves of which are so arranged as to admit 
 of liquids being drawn out of, or injected into the stomach, 
 by means of a flexible tube. 
 
 STO'MAPODS, Stomapoda. (Gr. oropa, a mouth ; ro»c, 
 afoot.) The name of an order of the class Crustacea, com- 
 prehending those in which the maxillary feet are formed 
 like the first four thoracic feet. 
 
 STO'MATA. Passages through the epidermis of plants 
 having the appearance of an areola, in the centre of which 
 is a slit that opens or closes, according to circumstances, 
 and lies over a cavity in the subjacent tissue. They are 
 universally regarded as spiracles or breathing pores. 
 
 STONE BORERS; called also Lithophagi. Molluscous 
 Bivalves, which, by means of a fleshy foot, on which they 
 turn as on a pivot, perforate or bore into rocks. 
 
 1183 
 
STONE-CHAT. 
 
 STONE-CHAT. A species of warbler, forming the type 
 of the genus Saxicola of Bechstein. It is the Sylvia rubi- 
 cola of Latham ; Motacilla rubicola of Linnajus. Also call- 
 
 STONE CURLEW. The name of a large species of 
 plover, the JEdicnemus crepitans of Temminck. It appears 
 in England at the latter end of April; frequents open hilly 
 situations ; makes no nest, but lays two eggs on the bare 
 ground ; and emigrates in small flocks about the end of Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 STONE GALLS. A technical term applied to nodules 
 of clay occurring in sandstone; they often fall out on ex- 
 posure to weather, and render the stone unfit for architec- 
 tural purposes 
 
 STONE IN THE BLADDER. See Calculus. 
 
 STOCKING. The Scotch term for setting up sheaves 
 of corn in stooks, that is, shocks. The operation is performed 
 soon after the corn is cut; it being previously tied into 
 bunches or sheaves. 
 
 STOOL. The root of a timber tree, which throws up 
 shoots. Coppice wood consists chiefly of the shoots sent up 
 by the roots of stools of trees or shrubs which have been 
 cut over by the surface. In general all Dicotyledonous trees 
 are endowed by nature with the property of sending up 
 shoots from the stump or stools ; but this is not the case 
 with most of the Gymnosperms or Coniferous trees. A 
 wood of pines or firs, therefore, when once cut down, can 
 never be renewed, except by seeds. 
 
 STO'RAX. A fragrant balsamic exudation from the Li- 
 quidambar stijracif.ua. It is generally much adulterated. 
 
 STORK. An English name, equivalent to the Ciconia of 
 modern ornithologists. The white stork (Ciconia alba) is 
 that species which visits, though rarely, in England. 
 
 STORM. The causes of those violent commotions of the 
 atmosphere to which we give the names of storms, tem- 
 pests, hurricanes, tornados, &c, are involved in great ob- 
 scurity, chiefly from the difficulty of obtaining a precise 
 knowledge of the various circumstances with which they 
 are accompanied. In order to ascertain the general laws 
 of theso phenomena, it would be necessary to determine, in 
 a great number of particular instances, the place and time 
 at which the storm begins and ends, the path it describes, 
 the extent of atmosphere disturbed, the direction and force 
 of the wind, and the barometic pressure at every part of the 
 disturbed column during the whole time of its continuance. 
 But several of these points could only be determined from 
 the comparison of a great number of simultaneous observa- 
 tions on that tract of the earth's surface over which the 
 storm passes ; while, from the nature of the thins to be ob- 
 served, it is evident that a few insulated observations is the 
 most that can be expected in almost any case. Besides, a 
 storm for the most part passes over some part of the sea, 
 Where, unless a ship unfortunately happens to be caught in 
 it. no observation can be made, or even evidence be obtained 
 of its existence. 
 
 It is In the torrid zone that storms display the greatest 
 violence, and rage with most destructive fury. In our lati- 
 tudes they are comparatively rare, and in the polar regions 
 they seldom amount to more than a strong wind. 
 
 Until recently it was generally believed that during n 
 hurricane the wind, at every part of the agitated mass, blows 
 In a rectilinear and parallel direction, and a storm was con- 
 sidered to be sufficiently explained when it was described 
 as a wind blowing with a / velocity of 100 or 120 miles in an 
 hour. A comparison ofthe recorded accounts of the cir- 
 cumstances attending several storms has of late years shown 
 that this idea was erroneous, and that the phenomena are 
 considerably more complicated. 
 
 Franklin appears to have been the first who remarked 
 that storms travel in a direction opposite to the actual move- 
 ment of the wind at the time the storm is raging ; and he 
 ascribed the phenomenon to a great but partial rarefaction 
 of the air. arising from the sudden precipitation of vapours, 
 or other causes, the consequence of which would necessa- 
 rily be a simultaneous rush of wind from all quarters to fill 
 up the vacuity: and the mass of air being thus set in mo- 
 tion by a sort of aspiration, the gale will be first felt at those 
 places towards which it blows. (Letters and Papers on 
 Philosophical Subjects.) In a work on winds and monsoons, 
 published in 1801, Colonel Capper was led from a com- 
 parison of the details respecting the hurricanes at Pondi- 
 cherry and Madras in 1760 and 1773, to remark that these 
 hurricanes must have been whirlwinds, whose diameters 
 could not exceed 120 miles, and that the velocity of the 
 wind at any point was due to the rotatory velocity of the 
 vortex. He also supposed that, besides the gyratory move- 
 ment which forms the characteristic of the whirlwind, a 
 storm has probably also progressive motion. Colonel Cap- 
 per's speculations, however, appear to have met with little 
 attention until the subject was taken up by Mr. Redfield of 
 New- York, who, in a series of papers recently published 
 in the American journals, has diligently collected and ex- 
 1184 
 
 STORM. 
 
 amined a great number of observations relative to the storms 
 of the West Indies and North American coasts, anil arrived 
 at similar conclusions. The following general phenom- 
 ena appear to be established: 1. The severest hurricane* 
 originate in tropical latitudes to the north or east of the 
 West Indiu Islands. 2. They cover simultaneously an ex 
 tent of surface from 100 to 150 miles in diameter, acting with 
 diminished violence towards the exterior, and increased 
 energy towards the interior of that space. 3. The tract 
 over which the hurricane passes is not a straight line 
 South of the parallel of 30° north latitude, it proceeds in a 
 westerly course inclined to the north ; but when it comes 
 to about this parallel, it changes rather abruptly to the 
 north and eastward, and continues to incline gradually raor< 
 to the east. The average progressive velocity appears to 
 be from fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour. 4. The du 
 ration of a storm at any particular place depends, of course 
 on the extent of the mass of agitated air, and the progres- 
 sive velocity; and storms of smaller extent move with even 
 greater rapidity than large ones. 5. The direction of th« 
 wind in a hurricane is not in the direction of its progress 
 When the progressive motion of the storm is westward, the 
 wind at the commencement is from a northern quarter, and 
 during the latter part of the gale from a southern quarter of 
 the horizon. When the progressive motion is eastward, 
 the phenomena are reversed ; the wind blows at first from 
 a southern quarter, and towards the end of the gale from a 
 northern quarter of the horizon. 
 
 From these phenomena, and particularly the last, Mr. 
 Redfield concludes that the great body of the storm whirls 
 in a horizontal circuit round a vertical or somewhat in- 
 clined axis of rotation, which is carried forward with the 
 storm ; and that to a spectator placed at the centre the di- 
 rection of the rotation is invariably from right to left. It is 
 to be understood, however, that the phenomena now de- 
 scribed and the conclusion drawn from them apply only to 
 the northern hemisphere. 
 
 Another fact deserving of attention is, that the barometer, 
 in all latitudes, sinks during the first half of the storm in 
 every part of its track, and rises during the second. This 
 phenomenon is ascribed to the effects of the centrifugal 
 force of rotation ; and such is the regularity of its occur 
 rence, that it has been considered as affording of itself a 
 strong proof of the rotatory character of the motion. 
 
 Colonel Reid, of the engineers, having been officially em- 
 ployed to restore the government buildings at Barbadoes 
 blown down by the great hurricane of 1831, was led to in- 
 vestigate the subject generally; and in his work, entitled 
 An Attempt to Develop the Laws of Storms, $-c, he has col- 
 lected and given the results of an immense number of de- 
 tails, obtained from an examination of ships' logs furnished 
 to him by the admiralty, and other sources. These results 
 he considers as confirming in all respects the conclusions 
 of Mr. Redfield respecting the gyratory motion of the gale 
 from right to left; its progressive motion in a curve line, 
 first westward, and then towards the north and east ; the 
 position of the vertex of the curve at or near the 30th de- 
 gree of latitude ; and the fall of the barometer during the 
 first half of the storm, and its rise during the second. Colonel 
 Reid has also given an account of several great hurricanes 
 In the southern hemisphere, from which it appears that the 
 southern storms follow exactly the same laws as the north- 
 ern, but in a reversed order. The direction of the rotation 
 is from left to right ; the centre of the gyrating mass ad- 
 vances first eastwards, then turns towards the south, and 
 falls off towards the south-west and west, the vertex of the 
 curve being at the 30th degree of south latitude. In the 
 northern hemisphere, the West Indies, and Atlantic coast o' 
 North America appear to be the places where storms most 
 frequently rage ; in the southern, the focus of storms ap 
 pears to be placed near the Mauritius. 
 
 The uniformity of the direction of the rotatory motion of 
 the hurricane, and its opposite direction in the opposite 
 hemispheres, was explained by Mr. Redfield from theoreti- 
 cal considerations respecting the origin of storms, which he 
 supposes to be produced by the mingling and collision of 
 two atmospherical currents near the outer border of the 
 trade winds; namely, the superior or equatorial stream, 
 and the polar stream, which constitutes the trades. On 
 looking at the curves representing the paths of the hurri- 
 canes on the charts projected by Mr. Redfield and Colonel 
 Reid, it is difficult not to believe "that the direction of their 
 progressive motion is mainly determined by the configura- 
 tion of the American continent. 
 
 The fact of the whirling character of storms has been 
 controverted by Mr. Espy, another American writer on the 
 subject, who advocates Franklin's theory of progressive 
 motion in radial lines. Mr. Espy states, that on comparing 
 simultaneous observations in the middle of storms and all 
 round their borders, he found that the wind blows inward on 
 all sides of a storm towards the central parts — towards a 
 point, if the storm bo round ; and if oblong, towards a line 
 
STORTHING. 
 
 extending through its greatest diameter; nnd that he had 
 traced the effect* of seventeen storms, without finding a 
 single exception to the general rule. Professor Bnche, of 
 Philadelphia, maintains the same opinion ; and has de- 
 ■cribed a tornado which occurred at New Brunswick in 
 1835, in which he could find no proof of rotation, the ob- 
 jects thrown down by the wind being all directed to a 
 centre. It is not improbable that there may be hurricanes 
 of both characters. An outline of Mr. Espy's theory is 
 given in the Report of the British Jl ssociation for 1840. 
 
 Independently of the interest which attaches to the sub- 
 ject in a meteorological point Of view, a knowledge of the 
 general laws which regulate the phenomena of storms 
 would be of immense ini|>ortance, inasmuch as it would en- 
 able the navigator to avoid those tracts of the ocean in 
 which they chiefly prevail at particular seasons, or at least, 
 if surprised by a storm, to steer on the course by which he 
 ape from it or fall into its wake. On either 
 theory the direction of the wind at the commencement of 
 the gale must indicate, with considerable certainty, the 
 quarter where the storm is raging with greatest fury. (See, 
 in addition to the works already cited, *illiman's Journal 
 from 1831 ; Prof. Forbes's Reports on Meteorology, in the 
 Reports of the British Association for 1832 and 1840; and 
 the Edin. Review, vol. lxviii.) See also Wind. 
 STO'RTHINO. The parliament of Norway. It is elect- 
 
 >i three years, and sits every year for the despatch 
 Of business. The election is double; every qualified per- 
 son (an owner or liferenter of land paying taxes in the 
 country, nnd every one possessing land or houses of 150 rix 
 dollars value in towns) joining in the election of councillors, 
 who elect out of their own body the representatives of the 
 country. These must be from 75 to 100 in number. The 
 storthing, when elected, divides itself into two houses : one 
 fourth, chosen by the rest, joining the laything, or upper 
 
 I be remainder the odelsthing, or lower house. The 
 storthing has the usual powers of a legislative assembly in 
 
 titionnl country, and the king lias only a suspensive 
 veto; which, if the storthing passes a law three times in 
 > ears, becomes of no effect 
 
 . If. In Architecture, a subdivision of the height of 
 ■ house, comprehending the height ascended by one flight 
 
 *T< >KY POST. In Architecture, a vertical post to sup- 
 port a floor or superincumbent wall. 
 
 BTTOVE. (Dutch, stove.) A receptacle for the combus- 
 tion of fuel for the purpose of heating houses, &c. The 
 common tire grate for the combustion of coal, with itsvari 
 tldagea, is generally called a stove; hence register 
 stoves, Bath stoves, fee. These are often, and indeed gen- 
 erally, very unscientifically constructed, and calculated to 
 consume a large quantity of fuel, with a proportionate 
 waste of heat. They are generally intended to diffuse 
 warmth principally or entirely by radiation, and should be 
 a near the ground as possible; while the diflerent 
 parts into the contact of which the burning fuel is brought 
 should be of fire-brick, or some similar composition, which 
 is a bad conductor but a good radiator of heat. It is mani- 
 fest that in our common fireplaces the enormous volume 
 of hot air which passes up the chimney is not available as 
 a source of heat; hence, in colder climates, and where 
 greater economy of fuel is studied, the fireplace is frequent- 
 ly closed in, and contained in an iron box which projects 
 into the room, while the heated air before it finally enters 
 the chimney is made to circulate through tubes or pipes, to 
 which it communicates much of its excess of heat, and 
 these again impart it to the surrounding air. What are 
 termed German stoves are usually made upon such princi- 
 ples ; and in them the fuel i3 often introduced, and the air 
 required for the support of its combustion admitted, on the 
 outside of the room in which the stove with its flues and 
 heating surfaces is placed. 
 
 In Jirnott's stoves the heat is similarly but more scien- 
 tifically economized. There is only enough air admitted 
 to keep up the slow combustion of the fuel, and the heat is 
 communicated to the radiating surfaces of the stove ; so that 
 before the air which has passed through the fuel finally 
 enteis the chimney it has been deprived of the greater part 
 of its available heat. These stoves are also so constructed 
 as, by means of thermometric or self-acting registers, to ad- 
 just with much nicety the supply of air, so that neither 
 more nor less may enter than is required to maintain the 
 combustion of a given quantity of fuel. 
 
 In Feetham's air-stoves the common open fire is retain 
 ed ; but the heat is to a certain extent economized by causing 
 the hot air, before it enters the chimney, to communicate a 
 portion of its heat to an iron box, over which a current of 
 air pass s nd is sent warm into the room. 
 
 It is manifest that our common open fires must act as 
 
 powerful ventilators, and that the large quantity of air 
 
 which is driven up the chimney must be supplied in some 
 
 way or other through the apartment in which the fire is 
 
 4 F 
 
 STRAINING PIECE. 
 
 burning. This supply of air is generally left to chance, 
 and finds its way into the room B] crevices In the doorways 
 and window sashes, or between the boards of the iloor. or 
 any similar accidental passage through which it can make 
 its way ; and as, in London at least, the air always abounds 
 in fuliginous particles, these are carried In along with it, 
 and show its track by the blacks which it deposits. If thin 
 supply of air is inadequate, and it generally is so in new 
 and well-built houses, in consequence of the tightness of 
 the doors, windows, and floors, the chimney ol necessity 
 ■ml the door or window requires to be bit open to 
 prevent such an effect. This evil may usually be • 
 ly prevented by admitting fresh air from without through 
 some proper and adequate channel, and various ornamental 
 or concealed apertures may be contrived for the purpose ; 
 in the best arrangement of which, however, much practical 
 as well as theoretical skill is often essential. 
 
 When rooms arc warmed by German or Arnott's stoves, 
 the ventilating powers of which are very inferior to the 
 open grate, ventilation requires to be strictly attended to. 
 Where buildings are warmed by currents of hot air Bent up 
 from stoves on the basement story, great attention should 
 also be paid to ventilation ; and in such cases the leading 
 object should be to send in a large volume of air very mod- 
 erately heated (to about 100°), rather than a small quanti- 
 ty of very hot air; the latter does not readily mix with the 
 surrounding cold air, but forms a distinct nnd rapidl) ascend- 
 ing column, which does not diffuse itself where most want- 
 ed; and it is apt to have a disagreeable and burned odour, 
 arising from the charring of the particles of organic dust 
 which are carried with the air over the too highl) healed 
 surfaces of the stove or flues. A little aqueous vapour, 
 sent in along with the warm air by placing a saucer of 
 water in some convenient situation, is often effectual in 
 preventing the disagreeable sensation occasioned by reapl 
 ring too dry an atmosphere. 
 
 Stove. In Horticulture, a structure In which plant! are 
 cultivated that require a considerably higher temperature 
 than the open air in Britain and similar climates. There 
 are two or three kinds of stoves, but the principal are the 
 dry stove and the damp stove. The dry stove is a struc- 
 ture, the atmosphere of which is heated to the temperature 
 of from 55° to 60° during winter, In which are chiefly cul- 
 tivated succulents; such as the different species of Cere 
 tus, Cereus, Stapheltn, Euphorbia, JlisrmbryunUit nium, and 
 other succulents having similar habits. During winter 
 these plants require very little water, and during summer 
 they require intense heat, and abundance of air and water 
 during fine weather. The damp stove, sometimes also call- 
 ed the bark stove, requires a temperature of between tin 
 and 70° during winter, with a proportionate increase during 
 summer, accompanied, In both seasons, with a high de- 
 gree of atmospherical moisture. This moisture is produced 
 partly by evaporation from the bark bed in which the plants 
 are plunged, but chiefly by watering the floor of the house, 
 and by syringing the plants. During summer the plants in 
 the bark stove require all the light which the atmosphere 
 in this country is capable of producing, together with abun- 
 dance of air, as in the dry stove. Both stoves arc heated 
 by smoke flues, or by hot water or steam, circulated in me- 
 tallic or other tubes. The plants cultivated in the moist 
 stove are exclusively those of the tropics; and those which 
 require the highest degree of heat ore chiefly Monocotyle- 
 donous plants, such as the Scitaminea, which include the 
 ginger, plantain, banana, sugar cane, palms, Orchidaceoe ; 
 and such Dicotyledonous plants as the bread fruit, the yam, 
 mnngosteen, and other East Indian plants. The bark bed 
 is chiefly employed for producing a uniform degree of mois- 
 ture and heat to the roots, and also as a reservoir of heat 
 for the atmosphere of the house in case of any diminution 
 from the flues, water or steam pipes, or the sun. Stoves 
 of every description require a constant degree of attention 
 from the gardener throughout the year, more especially 
 such as are devoted to the palms, the banana, the pine ap- 
 ple, and the Orchidacea. 
 
 STRABI'SMUS. (Gr. arpaPi^tiv, to squint.) An unna- 
 tural obliquity in the axis of the eye, arising from various 
 causes. It may often be, to a great extent, overcome, espe- 
 cially in children, by blindfolding the sound eye, presuming 
 one only to be affected. In very bad cases, especially those 
 of squinting inward, and such are by far the most common, 
 an operation which has lately been introduced is often ef- 
 fectual in greatly relieving the deformity ; it consists in di 
 viding the internal rectus muscle of the eyeball, which 
 done by a proper scissors without externally wounding th 
 eyelid. 
 
 STRAIGHT ARCH. In Architecture, the arch over an 
 aperture, whose intrados is straight, but with its joints 
 drawn concentrically, as in a common arch. 
 
 STRAIGHT JOINT FLOOR. In Architecture. See 
 
 FtOOR. 
 
 STRAI'NING PIECE. In Architecture, a piece of tim 
 
 1185 
 
STRAIT. 
 
 ber, wh >se office is tt prevent the nearer approach of two 
 pieces of Umber in an assemblage of framing; such is the 
 collar in a queen-post roof. See Roof. 
 
 STRAIT, in Geography, signifies a narrow pass or frith 
 separating one country from another. 
 
 STRA'MONY, or THORN APPLE. The Datura stra- 
 monium ; an indigenous narct>tic plant, the seeds and leaves 
 of which are used in medicine. The dried leaves are oc- 
 casionally smoked, like tobacco, for the relief of spasmodic 
 asthma ; and an extract of the seeds is used as a sedative 
 in some painful chronic affections. See Daturia. 
 
 STRA'NGURY. (Gr. orpay\, a drop, and ovpov, urine.) 
 A difficulty in voiding urine. 
 
 STRATH, in Scotland, is generally understood to signify 
 a valley of considerable size, whose appellation is deter- 
 mined by some river running through it, or some particular 
 characteristic. 
 
 STRA'TUM. When different rocks lie in succession 
 upon each other, each individual forms a stratum. See 
 Geolooy. 
 
 STREAK. The appearance which arises from scratch- 
 ing a mineral with the point of a knife. The streak is 
 similar when the colour of the scratch is the same as that 
 of the mineral, but dissimilar when the colour varies. 
 
 STREAM TIN. Native oxide of tin, or tinstone, which 
 is found in rounded particles and masses, mixed with other 
 alluvial matters. The finest grain tin is procured from this 
 ore. 
 
 STRE'LITZ. (Rus. plural strelitzy, said to be derived 
 from strelai ; It. strale, an arrow.) A soldier of the ancient 
 Muscovite militia was so called. The strelitzy wero the 
 only standing army of the empire ; and, like the Turkish 
 janissaries, constantly interfered with its government. 
 Their last revolt was in 1698, during the absence of the 
 Czar Peter I., who, on his return, cashiered the corps alto- 
 gether. 
 
 STRENGTH, in Mechanics, is used in the same sense as 
 force or power. Thus strength of animals is the muscular 
 force or energy which animals are capable of exerting; 
 strength of materials is the resistance which bodies oppose 
 to a force acting upon them. 
 
 Strength of Animals. — It is obviously a matter of much 
 Importance to be able to estimate with tolerable accuracy 
 the effort which an animal of the average strength employ- 
 ed in labour is capable of exerting, and accordingly very 
 numerous observations have been made on the subject ; 
 but this species of force is subject to variation from so great 
 a number of circumstances, both physical and mechanical, 
 that the results given by different authors present very lit- 
 tle agreement with each other, though they are of great 
 value as affording data for determining the modes in which 
 animal labour is most advantageously employed. 
 
 The force which an animal is capable of exerting against 
 an obstacle is greatest when the animal stands still. When 
 it begins to move, a considerable part of its strength is ex- 
 pended in the transference of its own body ; and the greater 
 the velocity with which it moves, the less will be the load 
 which it is capable of transporting. There must, also, be 
 a certain velocity at which it can only move when it car- 
 ries no load. Now, if from the total effect of the muscular 
 force exerted we subtract the part which represents the 
 transference of the weight of the animal's body, the re- 
 mainder, which is called the useful effect, will be obviously 
 measured by the load which the animal is capable of trans- 
 porting to a given distance in a given time ; therefore, put- 
 ting w = the weight, v = the velocity, and t = the time, 
 the useful effect is represented by the product w v t, and 
 will be greatest when this product is a maximum. In or- 
 der to determine this maximum it is necessary to establish 
 a relation between w and v (for the time t may be taken as 
 unity). The empirical formula given by Euler for repre- 
 senting the relation between the load and the moving power 
 in machines generally may be adopted for this purpose, as 
 it has been found to agree tolerably well with experiment. 
 Let P denote the power of the animal, or the greatest load 
 it is capable of moving, and c the greatest velocity with 
 which it can move unloaded ; then the equation between 
 
 » and v is w = P (^ 1 J ; and the product w v becomes 
 
 a maximum when 3 v = c, or v is one third of c. See Ma- 
 chine. 
 
 In order to compare the effects produced by different ani- 
 mals, or by the same animal under different circumstances, 
 it is usual to express the effect numerically in terms of some 
 conventional unit, which, as being the measure of a force, 
 is called the dynamic unit. Thus, in the product wvt, we 
 call w — 1 lb., v — 1 foot, and f.= l minute; the measure 
 of the force will be the effort necessary to raise or trans- 
 port a pound through one foot of space in one minute of 
 time. For example, Desaguliers asserts that a man can 
 raise a hogshead of water 10 feet high in a minute. Now 
 1166 
 
 STRENGTH. 
 
 a hogshead of water, vessel included, weighs about 550 
 lbs. ; and 550 lbs. raised through 111 feet must require the 
 same exertion of muscular force as 5500 lbs. raised through 
 one foot; therefore, the useful effect, which in this case is 
 the whole effort, as the man stands still, is expressed by 
 5500 dynamic units, and may thus be compared with any 
 other effort which is capable of being similarly expressed. 
 Instead of a pound, a foot, and a minute, we might assume 
 a hundred weight, a yard, a day, or any other denomina- 
 tions that may be convenient. 
 
 Strength of Men. — The measure of human force has 
 been the subject of numerous experiments, principally by 
 Desaguliers, Lahire, Guenyvenu, Coulomb, Schulze, Bu 
 chanan, &c, whose results may be found in ino„t treatise* 
 on practical mechanics. These results differ very widely 
 as indeed might be expected, considering the very great 
 differences of the force which different individuals are ca 
 pable of exerting — differences which depend not only upon 
 age, constitution, and habit, but even upon climate, tem 
 perature, and food. 
 
 Of the different modes of estimating human strength, the 
 most practically useful is the observation of the average 
 effect produced daily by a labourer who continues his ex- 
 ertions for a number of successive days. We shall state a 
 few of the results; and for the sake of comparison reduce 
 them to dynamic units, assuming the unit to be 1000 lbs. 
 avoirdupois transported to the distance of one foot in one 
 minute. 
 
 According to Coulomb, a man walking on a level road 
 may travel at the rate of 30 miles per day, or 264 feet per 
 minute, and continue his exertions 10 hours a day. Taking 
 the weight of the man at 150 lbs., the quantity of action is 
 23. "(ill dynamic units. 
 
 If instead of walking on a level road he mounts a stair, 
 the velocity is reduced to 26-4 feet per minute, and the la- 
 bour can be continued only 8 hours a day. In this case, 
 the effect produced is 1901 dynamic units. 
 
 A man walking on a level road, and carrying on his back 
 a weight of 90 lbs., travels at the rate of a mile and a half 
 per hour, or 132 feet per minute, and continues his exertions 
 7 hours per day. The useful effect is consequently 4989 
 dynamic units. 
 
 A man climbing a stair, and carrying on his back a load 
 equal to his own weight or 150 lbs., proceeds at an average 
 rate of only 7 feet per minute, during 6 hours a day. The 
 useful effect is consequently 378 dynamic units. 
 
 A labourer transporting materials in a wheelbarrow, and 
 returning unloaded for a fresh burden, transports a load of 
 130 lbs. with a velocity of 90 feet per minute, working 10 
 hours a day. The useful effect is consequently 7020 dyna- 
 mic units. 
 
 The force which man exerts in dragging a load has been 
 variously estimated. Schulze estimates the absolute effect, 
 or that which the man can exert for a short time without 
 moving, as equal to a pressure of about 107 lbs. ; Bernoulli 
 at 75 lbs. ; and Guenyveau found the absolute force of 
 traction, when exerted by means of a rope passing over the 
 shoulder, to be from 110 to 132 lbs. Allowing the accuracy 
 of Euler's formula above given, and assuming the action to 
 be a maximum when the velocity is 2 miles per hour, we 
 shall have c = 6; and if we also assume the absolute force 
 P = 72 lbs., then the formula will become te=9 (6 — *>)2, 
 in which w represents the number of pounds corresponding 
 to the force developed when the velocity is v miles per 
 hour. Thus when v — 0, we have w = 72 lbs. ; when v = 2, 
 we have w = 32 lbs. ; and when the velocity is 4 miles per 
 hour, the force of traction becomes 8 lbs. In the extreme 
 cases the formula is inaccurate, but for moderate velocities 
 it affords a tolerable approximation. 
 
 The greatest velocity with which a man can walk for a 
 length of time, having no load to drag, is, according to 
 Schulze, 5-37 feet per second ; according to Bernoulli, 0-56 
 feet ; according to Guenyveau, from 656 to 9 - 84 feet per 
 second, or from 4A to 6J miles per hour. 
 
 According to Mr. Buchanan (Repertory of Arts, vol. XV.), 
 the effective strengths of men in working a pump, in turn- 
 ing a winch, in ringing a bell, and rowing a boat, are re- 
 spectively as the numbers 100, 167, 227, 248. The last is 
 one of the most advantageous modes in which human force 
 can be exerted. 
 
 Porters in London carry from 200 lbs. to 300 lbs. at the 
 rate of 3 miles per hour ; chairmen walk nt the rate of 4 
 miles an hour with a load of 150 lbs. each ; and it is said 
 that an Albanian porter will carry from 700 to 900 lbs., 
 stooping forward and assisting his steps with a short staff. 
 
 The following results of experiments on the comparative 
 strength of men of different countries, with Regnier's dyna 
 mometer, are given by M. Peron : — England, 71-4; France, 
 69-2; Timor, 587; Van Dieman's Land, 51-8; New Hol- 
 land, 50-6. 
 
 Strength of Horses and ether Quadrupeds. — Of all ani 
 mals employed as first movers, the horse is, beyond que» 
 
STRENGTH. 
 
 tion, the most useful, and that whose labour is siiscoiitiMc 
 of the most numerous and varied applications. Ii is there 
 fore very Important to ascertain his average force ; and ac- 
 eordingly a great number of estimates have been publish- 
 ed, both of the amount of labour he is capable of perform- 
 ing, '": ' of his absolute muscul ir jKiwer. For the purpose 
 of determining the latter, the dynamometer may be con- 
 veniently used ; but as the action of the animal is very 
 I by continued exertion, it is more nasal to 
 estimate it according to the amount of daily labour perform- 
 Bguliera and Bmeaton estimate the strength of a 
 bane as equivalent to that of five men; the French authors 
 inionly stated it as equal to that of seven men; 
 and Bchulzfl makes it equal to that of fourteen men in 
 horizontally. According to Pesnguliers, a horse's 
 equivalent to 44,000 lbs. raised 1 foot high in one 
 Bmeaton makes this number 22,916; Hachette 
 28,000, and Watt 31,000. This last estimate is what is com- 
 monly understood by tlio term horse power as applied to 
 stem u engines. 
 
 The quantity of action which a horse can exert ditnin- 
 ihe duration of the labour is prolonged. Tredgold 
 gives the following table, showing the average maximum 
 velocity with which a horse unloaded can travel, accord- 
 ing to the number of hours per day : 
 
 'lii/ic of Mirth, 
 in Houn. 
 
 Gr.a'i«'. Velocity 
 
 per Hour, in 
 
 Mile*. 
 
 Time of March, 
 in Houn. 
 
 Greatest Velocity 
 
 per Hour, in 
 
 Mile.. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 4 
 5 
 
 14-7 
 10-4 
 
 73 
 6 8 
 
 6 
 7 
 8 
 9 
 '0 
 
 60 
 5-5 
 5-2 
 4'9 
 4 6 
 
 The useful effect a horse is capable of producing depends 
 much on the manner in which his strength is applied. One 
 of the liest modes is to make him draw a loaded carriage. 
 Ilii' carriers in Scotland usually transport in a single-horse 
 riling about 7 cut., the load of a ton, and travel at 
 the rate of 22 miles per day. Neglecting the weight of the 
 animal and of the cart, and supposing the journey to be ac- 
 complished in 10 hours, the useful effect reduced to dy- 
 namic units (1000 lbs. one foot in one minute) is 260,198 dy- 
 namic units. 
 
 Navier gives the following results: A horse drawing in a 
 ■ ait a load of 1540 lbs. (701) kilogrammes) travels at the 
 i ita of 216.'. feet per minute, during 10 hours per day. Here 
 ful effect is 200,046. 
 A horse harnessed in a coach, and drawing a load of 770 
 lbs. avoirdupois, goes at a trot al the rate of 433 feet per 
 minute, during 44 hours per day. The useful effect is con- 
 ntty 90,090. 
 A horse carrying on his back a load of 264 lbs. can travel 
 at the rate of 216£ feet per minute, 10 hours a day. The 
 naefu] ellect is 34,294 dynamic units. Going at a trot with 
 double the velocity, during seven hours a day, and carrying 
 a load of 176 lbs., "the useful effect is 32,007. 
 
 A horse harnessed in a mill, going at a pace of 195 feet 
 |>er minute, and exercising a force equal to a pressure of 99 
 His., during eight hours a day, produces a useful effect rep- 
 ■ I by H266 dynamic units. 
 On the strength of mules, oxen, and the other animals 
 employed in industry, there are few correct observations. 
 The following tire the principal results: Taking the useful 
 effect of the daily labour of a man according to Coulomb's 
 estimate as unity, then the comparative effects of the la- 
 bour of some of the other animals applied in the same 
 manner are thus estimated: 
 For carrying loads in a horizontal plane. 
 Strength of a man ... 1 (Coulomb.) 
 " of a horse . . 4-8 (Brunacci.) 
 " of a horse . . 6-1 (Wesennann.) 
 " of a mule . . 7-6 (Brunacci.) 
 
 For transporting burdens with a wheel carriage. 
 Man with a barrow . . 1 (Coulomb.) 
 Horse in a four wheel wagon 17-5 (Wesermann.) 
 Horse with a cart . . . 24-3 (Brunacci.) 
 Mule with a cart . . . 23-3 (Brunacci.) 
 Ox with a cart . . . 12-2 (Brunacci.) 
 The above comparisons are probably nearer the truth 
 than the following, which are usually quoted from Hassen- 
 fratz (Encyclopedic Methodique) : 
 In carrying loads on a horizontal plane. 
 
 Strength of a man 
 " of a horse 
 " of a rnule 
 " of an ass 
 of a camel 
 
 Strength of a dromedary 
 of an elephant 
 of a dog 
 of a reindeer 
 
 2.-. 
 
 147 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 In drawing a weight along a horizontal plane. 
 
 Strength of a man 
 
 of a horse 
 
 " of a mule 
 
 " of an ass 
 
 Strength of an ox 
 of a dog 
 of a reindeer 
 
 4to7 
 . 0-6 
 . 0-2 
 
 STRENGTH OF MATERIALS 
 
 On the subject of animal power and the best modes of ita 
 employment, reference may be made to the following works ' 
 Coulomb, .Sur la Force des Hommcs (jMem. de l\lcad.); 
 I'rony. .-Irriutrcture Jlwlrauliqur ; Hachette, Traits dtt 
 Mae/iincs ; Guenyveau, Essai sur la Seumes in .Machines , 
 Coriolis, Calcul. de VF.ffet des Machines; llorgnis 1 
 la Composition drs .Machines ; Wesermann, Tan chenb tick 
 fur Strnsstn und H i ■vbaubeamte. 
 
 STRENGTH OF MATERIALS. The force with which 
 a solid body resists an effort to separate its paitici- 
 stray their aggregation, can only become known from e> 
 jierimeiit; nevertheless, If we assume an hypothe-i 
 resent the manner in which the elementary particles are 
 arranged and cohere, general formula may be deduced, 
 which will represent the comparative strength of hndioa of 
 different forms and dimensions, or submitted to the action 
 of forces applied in different manners, and will consequent- 
 ly be of great use in practical mechanics. 
 
 There are four different ways in which the strength of a 
 solid body may be exerted : first, in resisting a longitudinal 
 tension, or force tending to tear it asunder ; secondly, in re 
 sisting a force tending to break the body by a transverse 
 strain; thirdly, in resisting compression, or a force tending 
 to crush the body; and fourthly, in resisting a force tend- 
 ing to wrench it asunder by torsion. We shall consider 
 these separately. 
 
 1. Longitudinal Tension. — The resistance opposed by n 
 solid body to a longitudinal strain is usually termed the ab- 
 solute strength, or force of direct cohesion, of the body. 
 Two point-i may he pro po sed for investigation ; first, to de- 
 termine the quantity by which a body of a given length is 
 stretched or elongated under the action of a given force or 
 weight; and, secondly, the ellect required to separate the 
 parts or produce rupture. Experiments have usually been 
 directed to the last of these only, but the first may Ik; deter 
 mined indirectly from experiments on flexure. In bodies 
 of a fibrous structure, as the woods, the cohesive force dif- 
 fers greatly, according as the effect is applied in the direc- 
 tion of the fibres, or at right angles to it. When the strain 
 is exerted in the direction of the fibres, the cohesive force 
 obviously depends on two circumstances only — the strength 
 of each fibre, and their number; and, In general, in bodies 
 of the same substance and structure, the strength is propor- 
 tional to the transverse area of the body, and to a certain 
 constant which must be determined by experiment. 
 
 Suppose the body to be a prism or cylinder, and let A be 
 the area in square inches of a section perpendicular to its 
 length, or to the direction of the force ; W the weight in 
 pounds which produces rupture ; and s the absolute strength 
 of the substance, or the weight in pounds v, hieil would 
 overcome the cohesive force of a rod whose transverse sec- 
 tion is one square inch ; then W = s A, or s = W -£■ A. In 
 a rectangular beam whose breadth and thickness are re- 
 spectively a and J, we have A = ai; whence W= » ab, 
 and «= W-j-a6. in a cylindrical rod whose radius is r, 
 we have A = nr 2 (ir= 3 - 14159) ; whence W = «jrr 2 , and 
 * = W-r-Tr 2 . 
 
 Under the term Cohesion, we hnve already given a table 
 of the values of* in respect of different woods and metals. 
 For farther information the reader is referred to Barlow's 
 Treatise on the Strength of Timber, &c. (1837) ; but a much 
 more ample collection of experimental results will be found 
 in the work of Navier, Resume des Lecons, 4/c., sur V Appli- 
 cation de la Micanique d V Etabiisstment des Constructions 
 et des Machines. We may remark, that although tire lon- 
 gitudinal tension is, with respect to mechanical action, the 
 simplest of all the strains to which a solid body can be sub- 
 jected, it is the most difficult to submit to experiment, by 
 reason of the enormous forces required to produce rupture, 
 and, in the case of fibrous bodies, the difficulty of applying 
 those forces in the direct line of the fibres. If the fibres 
 are not all subjected to the same strain, it is obvious that 
 the direct cohesion will be estimated at less than its real 
 value ; and, as Mr. Barlow remarks, it is probably owing ts 
 this circumstance that so little agreement is found in the 
 results of experiments. 
 
 2. Transverse Strengtli. — When a body suffers a trans 
 verse strain, the mechanical action which takes place 
 among the particles is of a more complicated nature. Gali 
 leo was the first who attempted to give a rational explana- 
 tion of this action, and to submit the strength of the mate 
 rials used in the mechanical arts to the measures of geom 
 etry and arithmetic. He assumed that all solid bodies are 
 composed of numerous small parallel fibres, perfectly in 
 flexible and inextensible ; and that when they break, the 
 several fibres give way in succession, the body turning on 
 the last, which give way as on a hmge, and the strain on 
 each fibre, previous to the rupture, being pro|«rtional to its 
 distance from the quiescent fibres. From this it follows 
 that the resistance of a beam to a transverse strain is in 
 the compound ratio of the strength of the individual fibres, 
 the area of the cross section, and the distunce of the centra 
 
 1187 
 
STRENGTH OF MATERIALS. 
 
 of gravity of the cross section from the points round which 
 the beam turns in breaking. 
 
 The first who attempted to submit the theory of Galileo 
 to actual experiment was Mariotte, whose results were 
 published in his Traite sur les Mouvcments des Eaux, 1680. 
 These experiments attracted the attention of Leibnitz, who, 
 in the Acta. Eruditorum for 1684, pointed out defects of the 
 theory, and proposed a different hypothesis. Leibnitz as- 
 sumes that every body before it breaks admits of a certain 
 degree of extension, and consequently the fibres are neither 
 inflexible nor inextensible. He farther assumes a principle 
 first, proposed by Hooke, namely, that the strength of each 
 fibre under the action of a straining force varies with the 
 degree of extension, or is proportional to the distance of the 
 fibre from the fixed point about which the beam is supposed 
 to turn. In this hypothesis, the beam is still supposed to 
 turn about its upper or lower edge, or that all the fibres, 
 excepting the quiescent ones, are in a state of tension ; al- 
 though it had been remarked by Mariotte (and is, indeed, 
 sufficiently obvious) that when flexure takes place part of 
 the fibres only are in a state of tension, another part being 
 compressed, so that the line about which the beam turns is 
 somewhere within the section of fracture. Professor ltobi- 
 son appears to have been the first who distinctly showed 
 that the position of the neutral axis is a necessary datum in 
 the solution of the problem. 
 
 Although it cannot be doubted that the hypothesis of 
 Galileo is at variance with the precise fact, yet it is found 
 to be sufficient for practical purposes ; and, indeed, the re- 
 sults which it gives appear to agree nearly as well with 
 experiment as those which are derived from a more refined 
 theory and more elaborate calculations. It has, therefore, 
 on account of its great simplicity, been very generally adopt- 
 ed by writers on mechanics. We shall here briefly state 
 the principal results. 
 Suppose a prismatic beam A B to have one end firmly 
 fixed in a wall, and a weight W 
 to be suspended from the other 
 end, the beam lying horizontal ly. 
 According to the hypothesis, the 
 fibres are inflexible and inexten- 
 sible, so that no bending takes 
 place ; and when the rupture 
 commences the fibres first give way at the upper side C, 
 and the beam turns about A as upon a hinge. The two 
 forces brought into action are, therefore, the weight W act- 
 ing at the end of the lever A B, and the resistance of the 
 particles in the section A C ; and at the instant previous to 
 the rupture the two forces are in equilibrio, or their re- 
 spective moments of rotation are equal. Now, the resist- 
 ance of any fibre in the section A C is the absolute strength 
 of the fibre multiplied into its distance from the point A ; 
 therefore the whole resistance of the beam is formed by 
 multiplying each differential element of the area into its 
 distance from the point A, and into the absolute strength, 
 and taking the sum of all the products. But this is equiva- 
 lent to the product of the area of the section by the distance 
 of its centre of gravity from A, and by the absolute strength ; 
 hence, if we put A = the area of the section, c = the dis- 
 tance of its centre of gravity from the lowest point, * = the 
 absolute strength of the unit of surface, the resistance to 
 fracture is s c A. Let W = the breaking weight in pounds, 
 and I = A B, the length of the beam ; then the moment of" 
 the force tending to produce fracture is W I, and the equa- 
 tion of equilibrium iaWl=zscA; whence W = sc A —I, 
 or s = W I -7- c A. 
 
 In a rectangular beam whose breadth is ft, and thickness 
 or depth d, we have A = 6d, e = £d; whence W=sbd 2 
 -4-2/; or the strength of the beam is directly as its breadth 
 and the square of its depth, and inversely as its length. 
 In a square beam 6 = d, whence W = s ft 1 -i-2 /. 
 In a square beam whose diagonal is vertical, we have 
 A = o a , and c = £a v /2; whence W = sa' .^2-5-2/. The 
 beam ought, therefore, to be stronger in this position ; but 
 this result of the theory is contradicted by experience. 
 
 If the beam be cylindrical, and r be the radius of it£ sec- 
 tion, then A = t»- 2 , and c — r; whence W = irsr* -j-Z. 
 
 In a cylindric tube, the radii of whose external and inter- 
 nal surfaces are respectively r and r', we have A = k (r 2 — 
 r /a ), c-=.r ; whence W = rrsr (r~ — r' 2 ) ~-l. 
 
 Prom the two last cases it may be shown the strength of 
 the tube is to the strength of the same quantity of matter 
 formed into a solid cylinder in the ratio of r to ^/(r 2 — r" 2 ) ; 
 so that a tube may be much stronger than the same quan- 
 tity of matter in a solid form. This principle furnishes an 
 explanation of many facts in the economy of nature. To 
 obtain the greatest strength with the least possible weight, 
 the bones of animals, and the quills and feathers of birds 
 have the form of hollow tubes ; and the same arrangement 
 is observed in many of the vegetable tribes, as the Gra 
 raina. 
 In the preceding formulas the weight of the beam is neg- 
 1188 
 
 lected, as inconsiderable in comparison of the weight op 
 plied; but since in similar beams of the same substance the 
 strength increases as the square of the depth, while the 
 weight increases as the cube, there is consequently a limit, 
 which, if a beam of a given shape and of given materials 
 were to reach it, could only bear its own weight, and would 
 be broken by any farther increase. 
 
 Suppose a beam A B to be laid horizontally on two propa, 
 and to be broken by a weight placed at A 
 equal distances between them, the pres- eg 
 sure will be equally shared between «* 5 
 
 the props ; and since by the hypothesis f>. 
 
 fracture takes place without bending, 
 the effect will be the same as if the 
 beam had been fixed at the middle, and each end acted 
 upon by a force equal to half the weight, but directed up- 
 wards. The breaking weight is, consequently, double of 
 that which would be required to break a beam of half the 
 length having one end fixed in a wall ; or the transverse 
 length of the beam, when supported at one end, is four times 
 as great as that of the same beam supported at one end 
 only, and having the weight suspended from its other ex- 
 tremity. In this case, therefore, when the beam is rectan- 
 gular, W = 2 s ft d 2 -r- 1 ; when the beam is square, W ss 2 s 
 ft 3 -7-i; when cylindrical, W== 4 trsr 3 -i-l; and so with the 
 other cases. 
 
 When the horizontal beam, instead of being merely sup 
 ported, is firmly imbedded in a wall at each end, the resist- 
 ance will be equal to that of the same beam merely sup- 
 ported at each end, added to the resistance of two beams of 
 half the length fixed at one end only, and acted upon by 
 half the weight. For it is manifest that three fractures 
 must take place — one in the middle, and one at each end ; 
 and the strain in the middle is equal to that of the support- 
 ed beam, which has just been shown to be 2sftd 2 -—l, and 
 that at each end is one fourth of this, or J s ft d 2 ■— I ; there- 
 fore the whole weight W, under which, if suspended from 
 the middle, the beam will give way, is W = 3sftd- -i-l. 
 
 On the same principle, it may be shown that when a beam 
 is supported at both ends, the weight which it is able to 
 bear at any point is inversely as the rectangle under the 
 segments into which it is divided by that point. Hence a 
 beam supported at both ends is weakest in the middle, the 
 rectangle under the segments at that point being a maxi- 
 mum. It also follows that when the pressure is equally 
 distributed over the whole beam, twice the weight will be 
 required to break it. 
 
 When the beam, instead of being laid horizontally, is in 
 clined, its strength is increased in the ratio of unity to the 
 square of the cosine of the angle of inclination. This con- 
 sequence of the theory, however, can obviously hold only 
 within certain limits ; inasmuch as it would give the strength 
 equal to infinity when the inclination is a right angle, oi 
 when the load is applied endwise. 
 
 In the hypothesis of Galileo, from which the preceding 
 results have been deduced, the beam is supposed to be ab- 
 solutely inflexible, which is not the case with any material 
 substance; and although the results are sufficiently accu- 
 rate in their application to architectural or mechanical pur- 
 poses, yet in the comparison of experiments to determine 
 the ultimate strength of different substances it becomes ne 
 cessary to take the elasticity and consequent incurvation 
 into the estimate. Mr. Barlow, assuming that the flexure 
 takes place only at the section of fracture, and that the 
 fibres remain inextensible in every other point, deduces the 
 following formula; for the transverse strain, which agree 
 very well with the experiments. 
 
 As before, let I denote the length, ft the breadth, and d the 
 depth of the beam, all in inches; and let A be the angle of 
 deflection, W the breaking weight, and S the resistance of 
 a rod whose section is one square inch, W and S being ex- 
 pressed in pounds ; then, 
 
 1. When the beam is fixed at one end and loaded at the 
 other, S = W / cos. A -7- A d 2 . 
 
 2. When the beam is supported at each end, and loaded 
 in the middle, S = Wi sec. 2 A -f- 4 A d'. 
 
 3. When the beam is fixed at each end and loaded in the 
 middle, S = W I sec. • A -J- 6 ft d'. 
 
 The angle of deflection being small, its secant in the or- 
 dinary applications may be considered as equal to unity, 
 and if we also write £s instead of S in the above formula;, 
 they will become the" same as those deduced from the hy- 
 pothesis of Galileo. 
 
 The preceding results have reference to the absolute 
 strength of the beam, or to the weight which it can just 
 support without being broken ; but it is also very important 
 to know the nmount of deflection which a given weight will 
 produce in a beam of a given material and of given dimen 
 sions. Suppose a prismatic beam to be firmly fixed at one 
 end, and to have a weight suspended from the other ; then, 
 if we adopt the hypothesis that the extension of the fibres 
 at each point is proportional to the straining force, the cur- 
 
STRENGTH OF MATERIALS. 
 
 future at the different points, and the law of the action 
 which takes place, may In; deduced from the properties of 
 the elastic curve. (See Elastic CdKVK.) The following 
 results of theory are confirmed by the experiments of Dupin 
 and Harlow: 
 
 1. The deflections of a beam loaded with different small 
 •weights are proportional to those weights. 2. The deflec- 
 tion, ceteris paribus, is directly as the cube of the length, 
 inversely as the cube of the "depth, and inversely as the 
 breadth. Hence, if I denote the length, b the breadth, d the 
 depth, and k the deflection (that is. the distance to which 
 the loaded end of the beam is drawn below the horizontal 
 line), all expressed in inches, and if w be the weight in 
 pounds which the body can support without iis elasticity 
 being Impaired, then k is proportional to wl> -7-bd 3 ; or, if 
 nine E as the constant modulus of elasticity, E = icZ* 
 ■i-kbd*. . 
 
 The deflection of a beam fixed at one end and loaded at 
 the Other is double that of a beam of twice the length sup- 
 portod at both ends and loaded at the middle with a double 
 weight, supposing the strain to be the same in both cases; 
 
 quently, when the weights are the same, the deflec- 
 
 D the first case is to that in the second as 4 : 1 ; and 
 the length and weight are both the same, the deflec- 
 which vary as the cubes of the lengths) will be to 
 
 Other as 32 : 1. In the case of the beam supported at 
 both ends, the formula therefore becomes hj — wl'-i- 
 •Mkbd*. 
 
 From the table of data given by Barlow [Strength of Tim- 
 ber, p. 150), we extract the following mean results of exper- 
 iments (on beams supported at both ends), made in the 
 dock-yard at Woolwich, for determining the elasticity and 
 
 jth of various species of timber : 
 
 Mr. Hodgkinson gives the following results of his experi- 
 meu M on the resistance to a crushing force of short pillars of 
 some of the most common descriptions of wood, the ^brce 
 being applied in the direction of the libit s. 
 
 Dncriplion nf Wood. 
 
 Elatucitr. 
 
 ~~ 32 u h<& 
 
 Strength. 
 Wt 
 
 Teak .... 
 . 
 
 Oik . 
 Ditio, another specimen . 
 1 -anadiau Oak . 
 
 H<-ch . 
 
 Filch I'M.e 
 
 upland Fir . 
 . 
 
 reel Fir 
 Larch .... 
 Norway Spar . 
 
 801800 
 
 211200 
 IOft2(K) 
 
 1M4IHI 
 
 263600 
 20.VO0 
 169*00 
 ^Tl-11 
 I532U0 
 273900 
 16m 00 
 I0a700 
 131600 
 1S2200 
 
 2462 
 2221 
 1181 
 
 1672 
 1763 
 
 20_'6 
 
 WIS 
 
 I10J 
 
 1149 
 1474 
 
 From the mean of a number of experiments by Tredgold, 
 iilues of E and S, for rectangular cast iron bars, were 
 found to be E = 2254000, S = 7C20. 
 
 3. Resistance of Bodies to Forces tending to crush them. 
 — The resistance of a body to a crushing force might be 
 supposed, a priori, to follow the same law as the absolute 
 of cohesion, and, consequently, to depend only upon 
 the area of the section and the force of aggregation of the 
 particles. It is found, however, by experiment, that the 
 thickness of the body (or length, if the force is applied end- 
 has an important influence on the amount of pressure 
 it is capable of bearing. Very thin plates are readily crush- 
 ed; and the resistance appears to increase with the thick- 
 np to a certain maximum, after which it diminishes. 
 The theory of the resistance of pillars, which is of great 
 importance on account of its application to architectural 
 purposes, was investigated by Euler; and, according to the 
 hypothesis adopted by him, the strength varies directly as 
 the fourth power of the diameter or side, and inversely as 
 the square of the length. This is confirmed by the recent 
 experiments of Mr. Hodgkinson [Phil. Trans., 1840) in re- 
 of pillars of wrought iron or timber; but in the case 
 of pillars of cast iron, the powers of the diameter and length 
 were somewhat different. Mr. Hodgkinson found from a 
 mean of experiments that a solid, uniform pillar of cast 
 iron whose transverse section is one square inch, is de- 
 stroyed by a weight of 98922 lbs., or 44.10 tons. Assuming 
 this as a unit of measure, he gives the following formula (as 
 representing his experiments), in which * is the strength or 
 weight in lbs. that would crush the pillar, d the diameter, 
 aril I the length, viz., s = 98922 X a? 53 -f-' 1 ". This formu- 
 iplies to pillars of which the lengths are twenty-five 
 times the diameter and upwards, and which are perfectly 
 t!;;t at the ends. When the ends of a pillar are rounded, 
 so that the load bears only on the middle fibres, the strength 
 \< greatly reduced. In pillars whose length is thirty times 
 diameter, or upwards, Mr. Hodgkinson found the 
 strength of those with flat ends to be about* three times 
 ' r than the strength of others of the same dimensions 
 wiili round ends, the "mean ratio being 3167. In shorter 
 ratio was not constant. The strength of a pillar 
 ;!itly increased by placing disks on the ends to increase 
 the bearings. 
 
 Description of Wood. 
 
 Strength per .Nqualt; Inch, 
 in lbs. 
 
 Elm 
 
 I Walnut ... ... 
 
 6331 to bite 
 1808 
 751S — 7513 
 7733 — 9363 
 32:/7 — 6402 
 5674 — 5363 
 6743 — 6W6 
 (,7-1 
 
 7451 — 9973 
 
 10331 
 
 6499 — 6319 
 
 4231 - 
 6484 - 
 6790 — 6780 
 ' — 77,18 
 3107 — 5124 
 324! — 10493 
 12101 
 6063 - /227 
 2398 — 6123 
 
 The results in the first column were deduced in each 1 
 from experiments upon cylinders of wood turned to one inch 
 diameter, and two inches long, Hat at the ends. The wood 
 was moderately dry. The second column gives the mean 
 strength from similar specimens after being turned and kept 
 dry in a warm place two months longer. The great diller- 
 euce in the strength frequently s<<n in the two columns 
 shows Strongly the effect of drying upon wood, and the great 
 weakness of wet limber. 
 
 Mr. Tredgold found that cast iron is crushed by a weight 
 of 93,000 lbs. upon a square inch, and will bear 15,300 lbs. 
 without permanent alteration. 
 
 4. Strength of Torsion. — The resistance which bodies op- 
 pose to a force tending to wrench them asunder has fre- 
 quently been made the subject of experiment The follow- 
 ing results, showing the comparative strength of various 
 metals, as ascertained by re istance to torsion, is given by 
 Mr. Rennie. For the law according 10 which the elasticity 
 i veil in die case of slender metallic wires or threads 
 of fibrous substances, when the twisting force is less than 
 is necessary to produce a permanent change of structure, we 
 refer to the term Torsion. 
 
 Lead 1000 
 
 Tin 1438 
 
 Copper 4312 
 
 Brass 4688 
 
 Gun metal 5000 
 
 Swedish iron 9500 
 
 English iron 10125 
 
 Cast iron 10600 
 
 Blister steel 16688 
 
 Shear steel 17063 
 
 Cast steel 19562 
 
 Mr. Banks (on the Tomer of Machines) states, as the mean 
 result of several experiments, that a bar of cast iron, one 
 inch square, is wrenched asunder by a weight of 031 lbs. 
 avoirdupois, applied at the extremity of a lever two feet in 
 length. Other experiments on ihe force of torsion are givejn 
 by G. Bevan (Phil. Trails., 1829), and Savart (Annales de 
 Chimie, August, 1829). 
 
 For farther information on this subject, in addition to the 
 works already quoted, see Rondelet, Art de lintir ; Girard, 
 Traite Analytique de la Risistance des Solides ; Tredgold, 
 Elementary I'rtncijilcs of Carpentry, and Practical K.isay 
 on the Strength of Cast Iron ; Banks, Treatise on the Power 
 of Machines ; Hodgkinson, Transactions of the British As 
 sociation, vol. vi. ; and Phil. Trans., 1840, &c. 
 
 STREPSITTERANS, Strepsiptera. (Gr. o-toctttos, twist 
 ed; irrepov, a wing.) The name given by Kirby to the or- 
 der of insects which he discovered to possess rudimental 
 elytra in the form of linear and spirally twisted scales. 
 
 STRETCHER. In Architecture, a brick or stone laid 
 horizontally with its length in the direction of the face of a 
 wall. 
 
 STRETCHING COURSE. In Architecture, a course in 
 which the bricks or stones are laid horizontally with their 
 lengths in the direction of the face of the wall. See Heat» 
 ers and Heading Course. 
 
 STRE'TTO. (It. narrow.) In Music, n term indicating 
 that the measure to which it is affixed is to be performed 
 short and concise, hence quick. It is the opposite of largo 
 STRI'ATE. (Lat. stria, a grooos.) In Zoology, when a 
 surface is painted or impressed with several narrow trans 
 verse streaks. 
 
 STRIGjE. (Lat.) In Architecture, the flutings of & 
 column. 
 
 BTBIGIDX. The name of the family of Nocturnal 
 Raptores of which the owl (Striz) is the type. 
 
 1169 
 
STRING BOARD. 
 
 STRING BOARD. In Architecture, a board with its 
 face next the well-hole in a wooden staircase, which re- 
 ceives the ends of the steps. 
 
 STRING COURSE. In Architecture, a course running 
 quite along the face of a building, the projecture whereof is 
 small in proportion to its height. 
 
 STRO'BILE, or STRO'BILUS, is the fruit of the fir tree, 
 to which the common name of cone is assigned. It may be 
 defined to be a spike of very imperfect flowers subtended by 
 bracts, which are woody, pressed close to each other, and 
 in many cases consolidated. 
 
 STRO'MBUS. The name of a shell-fish in Pliny. This 
 term was applied by Linnaeus to a genus of the Vermes Tes- 
 tacea, characterized by the form of the shell, of which the 
 aperture is much dilated, the lips expanding, and produced 
 into a groove leaning to the left. The Mollusca to which 
 this character is applicable form a group of Pectinibranchiate 
 Gastropods in the system of Cuvier, which has been subdi- 
 vided into the genera Strombus proper, Pterocera, Lam., 
 &c. 
 
 STRO'NGYLUS. A genus of intestinal worms in Ru- 
 dolphiVclassification, characterized by having a cylindrical 
 body, the anal extremity of which, in the male, is surround- 
 en by a kind of pouch of a varied shape, from which is pro- 
 truded a small filament or spiculum, probably subservient 
 to generation. The mouth is orbicular, sometimes armed 
 with spines, as in the Strongylus armatus, which infests 
 the mesenteric arteries of the horse and ass, producing 
 aneurisms; sometimes the mouth is surrounded by tuber- 
 cles or papilla;, as in the Strongylus gigas, which is some- 
 times found in the kidney of the human subject. 
 
 STRO'NTI A. An earth contained in a mineral, generally 
 of a pale green tint and radiated crystalline texture, found 
 at Strontian in Argyleshire. It is a carbonate of strontia. 
 Strontia is the oxide of a metallic base, the properties of 
 which are very imperfectly known, called strontium ; the 
 equivalent of strontia, or oxide of strontium (composed of 
 44 strontium and 8 oxygen), is 52. It has a caustic taste, an 
 alkaline reaction, and a degree of solubility in water inter- 
 mediate between lime and baryta. The salts of strontia tire 
 generally obtained by dissolving the natural or artificial car- 
 bonate in the acids ; those which are soluble give the flame 
 of burning bodies a fine rose red colour : the nitrate of strontia 
 is used for this purpose, and with beautiful effect, in theatri- 
 cal exhibitions and fireworks. The sulphate of strontia is 
 found native : it is an insoluble white powder when artifi- 
 cially prepared. Some of its native varieties have a pate 
 blue tint, whence the term calestine. A colourless prismatic 
 crystalline variety, of great beauty, is found associated with 
 the native sulphur of Sicily. 
 
 STRO^NTIANITE. Native carbonate rf strontia. 
 
 STRO'PHE. (Gr. crpodin, a turning ) A division of a 
 Greek choral ode answering to a stanza. The name is de- 
 rived from oTp/0£ii/, to turn, because the singers turned in 
 one direction while they recited that portion of the poem ; 
 they then turned round and sung the next portion, which 
 was of exactly the same length and metre as the preceding, 
 and was termed the antistrophe (ivTiarpd^rj, from Avt", op- 
 posite.) These were sometimes followed by another strophe 
 and antistrophe, sometimes by a single stanza called the 
 epode (eTTwSoi). 
 
 STROPHI'OL^E. In Botany, synonym of Caruncula, 
 which see. 
 
 STROPHULUS. (Lat.) The red gum ; an eruption 
 peculiar to Infants. 
 
 STRUMA. (Lat.) In Anatomy, an enlarged gland. 
 
 Struma. In Botany, a swelling that is present in some 
 leaves at the extremity of the petiole, where it is connected 
 to the lamina ; as in J\hmosasensitiva. The term also used 
 in describing mosses to denote a dilatation or swelling that is 
 at times present upon one side of the base of the theca. 
 
 STRUT. In Architecture, a piece of timber obliquely 
 placed from :i king or queen post to support a rafter. It is 
 sometimes called a brace. See Roof. 
 
 STRUTHIO'NULE. (Struthio, an ostrich.) The name 
 of a family of terrestrial birds, incapable of flight, with very 
 Bhort or rudimental wings, and long and strong legs ; includ- 
 ing the ostrich and other congeneric species which constitute 
 the order Cnrsores of Kirby, and the family Brevipenncs in 
 the system of Cuvier. 
 
 STRY'CHNIA. A poisonous vegetable alkaloid, discov- 
 ered in 1818 by Pelleler and Caventou in the seed of the 
 Strychnus ignatia and Nux vomica, and also in the upas 
 poison. It is almost insoluble in water, but very soluble in 
 soiling alcohol, from which it is deposited by careful evapo- 
 ration in small white crystals. It is so virulently poisonous, 
 mat half a grain blown into the throatof a rabbit occasioned 
 death in five minutes ; its operation is accompanied by lock- 
 jaw and other tetanic affections. The chemical equivalent 
 :>f strychnia is about 238. It probably consists of 30 atoms 
 jf carbon, 1G hydrogen, 3 oxygen, and 1 nitrogen. 
 
 STU'BBLE. The root ends of stalks of corn, left in the 
 1190 
 
 STYLE. 
 
 field standing as they grew after the corn has been reaped 
 by the sickle or scythe. In some parts of the country only 
 a small portion of the straw is cut oti' with the ears of corn, 
 and the stubble in that case is a foot or eighteen inches in 
 length ; but in others the corn is cut as close to the surface 
 as possible, in which case the stubble is quite short. In gen- 
 eral, long stubble is a symptom of bad farming, because a 
 quantity of straw is in this case left waste in the field, 
 which might have been carried home and rotted into manure. 
 
 STU'CCO. (ltal.) In Architecture, a term applied to 
 many sorts of calcareous cements. The sense in which it 
 is most commonly used in this country is to denote the third 
 coat of three-coat plaster, consisting of fine lime and sand. 
 The better sort is hand-floated twice and well trowelled. 
 There is a species called bastard stucco, in which a small 
 portion of hair is used. (See Finishing.) Rough stucco is 
 merely floated and brushed with water, but the best is 
 trowelled stucco. 
 
 STUDDING SAILS, called also Steering Sails, are nar- 
 row sails set temporarily at the outer edges of the square- 
 sails. 
 
 STUFA. (Ital.) A jet of steam issuing from a fissure in 
 the earth : these jets are not uncommon in volcanic dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 STUFF. A Commercial term, applied to various woven 
 fabrics; it especially signifies a light woollen cloth formerly 
 much used for curtains and bed furniture. 
 
 STU'RGEON. (Lat. sturio, from the German stoer, a 
 sturgeon.) The type of a genus of Cartilaginous fishes, 
 with free gills, having the body more or less covered with 
 bony plates in longitudinal rows. The mouth is placed be- 
 neath the snout, is small and edentulous ; but is protractile 
 Soft feelers or cirri are attached beneath the snout. The 
 bodies of the vertebra; retain the primitive condition of an 
 undivided gelatinous cord. The sturgeons ascend the larger 
 rivers of Europe in great abundance, and are the objects of 
 important fisheries. The flesh of most of the species is 
 wholesome and agreeable food ; their ova are converted into 
 caviar, and their air-bladder affords the finest isinglass. 
 
 The sturgeon which Is oc 'astonally captured on our east 
 coast is the Accipc.mer sturio of Linnaus. See A<jcipensi:r. 
 
 STURIONIANS, Sturionii. (Lat. sturio, a sturgeon.) 
 The name of the family of Cartilaginous fishes, of which the 
 sturgeon is the type. 
 
 STY. A little boil or tumour projecting from the ed^o of 
 the eyelid. 
 
 STYLAGA'LMAIC. (Gr. anjAos, a column, and gyaXpe 
 an ornament.) In Architecture, a term used to denote 
 figures which perform the office of columns. See Cakya 
 tides. 
 
 STYLE. (Lat. stylus, or stilus.) A kind of pencil made 
 use of by the Romans for writing on waxed tablets. It was 
 made of brass or iron, with one end sharp for writing, and 
 the other blunt and smooth to make erasures with ; hence 
 to turn the style is a phrase used by ancient writers, signify 
 ing to make corrections. 
 
 In Literature, the word style may be defined to mean the 
 distinctive manner of writing which belongs to each author, 
 and also to each body of writers, allied as belonging to the 
 same school, country, or age. It is that winch, to use the 
 expression of Dryden, individuates each writer from all 
 others. The style of an author is made up of various minute 
 particulars, which it is extremely difficult to describe, but 
 each of which adds something to the aggregate of qualities 
 which belong to him. Collocation of words, turn of sen- 
 tences, syntax, rhythm ; the relation, abundance, and the 
 character of his usual figures and metaphors ; the usual or- 
 der in which thoughts succeed each other; the logical form 
 in which conclusions are generally deduced from their 
 premises ; the particular qualities most insisted on in de- 
 scription ; amplification and conciseness, clearness and ob- 
 scurity, directness and indirectness, exhaustion, suggestion, 
 suppression — all these are features of style, in the largest 
 sense of the expression, in which it seems to comprehend 
 all peculiarities belonging to the manner in which thought 
 is communicated from the writer to the reader. Excellence 
 of style, particularly of the rhetorical parts of style, was 
 more cultivated by the ancients than the moderns ; and less, 
 perhaps, at the present day, than at any former period since; 
 the English language began to be written in prose with cor- 
 rectness and elegance. Since the period when Bolingbroke 
 Junius, Johnson, Gibbon, and Burke became established as 
 models, a certain superficial sameness of style, wanting in 
 the roughness and vulgarity, but also in the force and indi- 
 viduality of old English composition, seems to prevail to 
 such an extent as to render modern writing extremely 
 monotonous and artificial. But it should never be forgotten 
 that whatever quality may command a temporary popular- 
 ity, no work, either in poetry or prose, has ever permanently 
 maintained its hold on pubiic admiration without excellence 
 of style. 
 
 Style, in the Calendar, is a manner of reckoning tin* 
 
STYLITE. 
 
 The reformation of th<= calendar by Julius Cresar consisted 
 chiefly in restoring the equinox to its proper place in the 
 month of March. This reformation took place in A.U.C. 
 707. Which year was made to consist of fourteen months, in 
 order to till up the deficiency which had been produced by 
 the former method of computing, and was styled the "Mar 
 of confusion." By the Julian calendar an intercalary day 
 was added to every fourth year (leapycar). In consequence 
 of this erroneous intercalation, the equinox receded a day in 
 about 130 years; and, in the beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, the vernal equinox fell on the 10th instead of the -1st 
 Of March. The calendar was reformed by Gregory XIII., 
 in 1577. By this reformation ten days were dropped in the 
 year 1582, the 15th of March being reckoned Immediately 
 after the 4th ; and it was arranged that every 100th year 
 
 (which by the former calendar was a leap year) should lie 
 a common year, except the fourth, i, e., ltioo remained a 
 leap year; but 1700, 1800, were common years; and 1900 
 will be a common year likewise, after which the cycle of 
 four centuries will again commence. The Gregorian calen- 
 dar was Immediately adopted in Catholic countries ; but by 
 l'rotestant nations the old .style was tor a long BOX 
 tinued. England adopted the JVcss Style in 1758 In statute, 
 efter debates in parliament, of which a curious notice will 
 and in Lord Chesterfield's Letters. Previously to this 
 time, dates according to the old style are frequently denoted 
 
 by the initials O. S. ; or thus —? I of January', 1750, the 
 
 upper line denoting the old, and the latter the new style. 
 This mode of dating will still be found in the despatches and 
 public paiiers of Russia and Greece, which ate the only Eu- 
 ropean slates in which the Julian period is still in use. The 
 time of the two styles now varies thirteen days. For farther 
 Information on this subject, see Calendar. 
 
 Style, in Dialling, is the gnomon which projects the 
 shadow on the plane of the dial. See Dial. 
 
 . i.e. in Botany, is that elongation of the ovarium which 
 supports the stigma. It is an extension of the midrib of the 
 carpell iry leal, or is formed by the rolling up of the attenu- 
 tremity of the litter. 
 i.e. In the Tine Arts, the mode in which an artist 
 forms and expresses his ideas on and of a given subject. It 
 is the form and character that he gives to the expression of 
 his ideas, according to his particular faculties and powers. 
 may be almost considered as the refinement of manner 
 (See Manner) : it is a characteristic essence by which we 
 distinguish the works of one master from another. From 
 literature this word has passed into the theoretic language 
 of the liae am ; and as in that we hear of the sublime, bril- 
 liant, agreeable, historic, regular, natural, confused, and 
 other it) les, so wefave almost the same epithets applied to 
 Of art. Indeed this is not wonderful, since the prin- 
 ciples of taste, in both the one and the other, are founded in 
 nature; and it is a well-known saying, that poetry is a 
 speakim; picture. This word is Improperly used as applied 
 to colouring and harmony of tints : we speak of the style of 
 a, of a composition, of draperies, tec.; but not of the 
 Style Of colouring, but rather the method or manner of col- 
 ouring. The definition of this word by Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 is as follows: "Style in painting is the same as in writing — 
 a power over materials, whether words or colours, by which 
 prions or sentiments are conveyed." But we can 
 : | consider this definition sufficiently general. 
 
 STY LITE. (Gr. oruAof, a column.) The title given to 
 a peculiar class of anchorites from the places on which 
 they took up their solitary abodes, being the tops of various 
 columns in .Syria and Egypt. This strange method of de- 
 votion took its rise in the second century, and continued 
 to be practised by many individuals for a great length of 
 time. The most famous among them was one St. Simeon, 
 In the 5th century, who is said to have lived thirty-seven" 
 years upon various columns of considerable height in the 
 neighbourhood of Antioch. 
 
 STYLO. Names compounded of this word apply to the 
 muscles attached to the styloid process of the temporal 
 bone. 
 
 .S'i'Y'LOBATE. (Gr. oreAoc, a column, and (iaais, a 
 bate.) In Architecture, a term signifying the uninterrupted 
 base below a range of columns. 
 
 STYTTICS (Gr. arvtpio. I restrain), in Medicine and 
 Surgery, are remedies used for checking a flow of blood 
 
 STY RAX. SeeSroKJiX. 
 
 STYX. (Gr. Xrv\.) In Mythology, a nymph: the 
 
 daughter, according to Hesiod, of Oceanus and Thetis; but 
 
 other uiythologists relate the genealogy differently, She 
 
 dwelt in a rock palace in the infernal regions, from whence 
 
 me of the infernal rivers burst forth. This river, Styx, 
 
 of the ten arms or branches of Oceanus! The 
 
 ■ uympus swore by the water of Styx ; and a deity 
 
 , this oath in vain was banished from the heavenly 
 
 is lor ten years, to endure various torments. The 
 
 riyer Styx has been sought fot in various places ; but the 
 
 SUBLIME. 
 
 most remarkable stream of the name wae in Arcadia. It 
 forms a terrific walerf ill. 
 
 BU'BAJLTERN. i.at. sub. under, and alter, other.) 
 Ily an inferior officer, but generally applied lo all 
 under the rank of captain. 
 
 SUBBRACUIAXS. Subbrachia. (Eat. sub, and brach- 
 iuin. the arm.) The name of the order of Malacopterygious 
 fishes comprising those which have the ventral fins situated 
 either immediately beneath and between, or a little in 
 frontor behind the pectoral fins. 
 
 SI BCLA'VIAN. An Anatomical term applied to ves- 
 in is, etc. under the shoulder or armpit. 
 
 SUB-CO' VI'RARY SECTION. In Geometry, if an 
 oblique cone on a circular base be cut by a plane not 
 parallel to the base, but inclined to the axis, so that the 
 section is ■ circle, tin n the section Is said to be sub-contrary. 
 The part of the cone thus cut off is similar to the whole 
 cone; the plane of the section and the base of the cone 
 being equally inclined to the axis, but the inclination being 
 in opposite directions. 
 
 SUBDU'MINANT. (Lat. sub, .under, and dominant, 
 governing.) In Music, that note which is a fifth below 
 the key note. It is a species of governing note, inasmuch 
 as it requires the tonic to be heard after it in the plagal 
 •. In the regular ascending scale of seven notes it 
 fourth; the term, however, has its origin from its 
 relation to the tonic as the fifth below. 
 
 SUBDUTLICATE RATH). In Arithmetic and Algebra, 
 the subduplicate ratio <•( two numbers is the ratio of their 
 square roots. Thus, the subduplicate ratio of the numbers 
 !) and lti is the ratio of 3 to 4 ; and of the numbers a and 4, 
 it is the ratio of ^/a to y/b. 
 
 SU'BERIC ACID. (Lat. sober, cork.) An acid sub 
 stance into which cork is converted by the long-continued 
 action of nitric acid. 
 
 BEKDT. A n line given by Chevreul to the cellular 
 tissue of cork after the various soluble matters have been 
 removed by the action of water and alcohol. 
 
 SU'BITO. (It. sudden 1 1/.) In Music, a term of direction ; 
 as volti subito, turn (the leaf) quickly. 
 
 SLM: ■• subj . . / .,',.. to under.) In the Fine 
 
 Arts, that Which i: is the object and aim of the artist to 
 express. 
 
 SU'BJECTIVE and OBJECTIVE. Terms expressing 
 the distinction which in analyzing cverv intellectual act 
 we necessarily make between ourselves, the conscious sub 
 ject, and that of which we are conscious, the object. "1 
 know." and "something is known by me," are convertible 
 propositions; every act of the soul which Is not thus re- 
 solvable belongs to the emotive part of our nature, as dis 
 anguished from the intelligent and percipient. For the 
 distinction between subject and object, all-Important in 
 intellectual philosophy, and the neglect of which has been 
 the cause 01 infinite confusion and perplexity, we tire in 
 debted to the schoolmen ; from whom it was derived, 
 through Wolf and Leibnitz, by Kant and the modern Ger- 
 man philosophers. 
 
 SUBJECT OF A PROPOSITION, in Logic, is the term 
 of which the other is affirmed or denied. See Term, Prop 
 osition, Lome. 
 
 SUBLAPSA'RIANS or INFRALAP3ARIANS. In 
 Ecclesiastical History. The greater number of the divines 
 of the Reformed or Calvinist churches have held that God 
 permitted the fill of Adam, without positively predetermin- 
 ing it ; a doctrine which has been termed sublapsariaii, in 
 opposition to the high Calvinistic or supralapsarian view. 
 (Mosheim, cent, xvii., sect. 2.) See Supralapsarians. 
 
 SUBLIMATION. (Lat. sublimutio.) A process by 
 which solids are by the aid of heat converted into vapour, 
 which is again condensed, and often in the crystalline form. 
 This operation is frequently resorted to for the purpose of 
 purifying various chemical products, and separating them 
 from substances which are legs volatile. 
 
 SUBLl'ME. (Lat. sublimis.) In the Fine Arts, high or 
 exalted in style. That which in art is raised above the 
 higher standard of nature or its prototypes. Sublimity Is 
 incompatible with our ideas of elegance, grace, or any of 
 the other sources of beauty, though these may nil enter 
 into an object wherein those and many other qualities may 
 be combined with sublimity. They have been, however 
 not unfrequently considered as some of the sources of the 
 sublime. The nod of Jupiter, in the hands of such a mas- 
 ter as Homer, is an indication of sublimity ; but when 
 Longinus tells us, that, as applied to literature, the con- 
 stituent ingredients of sublimity are boldness In thought, 
 the pathetic, proper application of figures, use of tropes and 
 beautiful expressions, and, last, musical structure and 
 sounds, we are inclined to think he had very indistinct 
 notions of it himself. We cannot better exemplify the 
 meaning of this term than by referring the reader lo the 
 works of Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel, wherein, 
 as Fuseli has truly said, "His line is uniformly grand; 
 
 1191 
 
SUBMEDIANT. 
 
 cnaracter and beauty were admitted only as far as they 
 could be made subservient to grandeur. The child, the 
 female, meanness, deformity, were by him indiscriminately 
 stamped with grandeur. A beggar rose from his hand the 
 patriarch of poverty ; his infants teem with the man, his 
 men are gi iiits." The terribile via, hinted at by Agostino 
 Caracci, is indeed the sublime. 
 
 SUBME'DIANT. (Lat. sub, under, and medius, middle.) 
 In Music, the middle note between the tonic and subdomi- 
 nant descending. It is the greater sixth in the major scale, 
 and the lesser sixth in the minor scale. 
 
 SUBMU'LTIPLE, in Arithmetic and Geometry, is the 
 same with a iquotpart or measure ; or it is such a part of a 
 quantity as can be expressed by a whole number, as a third, 
 fourth, &c. 
 
 SUBNO'RMAL, in Geometry, is that part of the axis of 
 a curve line which is intercepted between the ordinate and 
 the normal. It'y be the ordinate, and x the absciss of any 
 
 curve, the expression for the subnormal is y — . The sub- 
 
 d x 
 normal is always a third proportional to the subtangent 
 and the ordinate. See Subtangent. 
 
 SUBO'RDINARY. In Heraldry. According to some 
 writers on this imaginary science, an ordinary, when it 
 comprises less than one fifth of the whole shield, is termed 
 a subordinary, 
 
 SUBORN A'TION. (Lat. sub and orno, / provide, fur- 
 nish, procure ; a meaning not classical.) Subornation of 
 perjury, in Law, is the procuring a man to take a false 
 oath amounting to perjury. The offence of subornation is 
 not complete unless the oath be taken, so as to bring the 
 offender within the stat. 2 G. 2, c. 25; but it is a misde- 
 meanor to attempt to procure false testimony. 
 
 SUBPGG'N A. In Law, a writ of which there are several 
 sorts. Subpana ad testificandum is the common process, 
 both in equity and in the couris of common law, to compel 
 •Jie attendance of a witness. Subpava duces tecum is a 
 writ of the same nature with the former, with a clause 
 requiring the witness to bring with him and produce books 
 and papers. An action of damages lies against parlies dis- 
 obeying this writ. 
 
 SUB Sh'MITONE. In Music, the leading note or sharp 
 seventh of the scale. It is a term more used by the Ger- 
 man than by other writers. 
 
 SUBSIDY. (Lat. subsidium, assistance.) In Politics, 
 pecuniary aid granted by one government to another in 
 pursuance of a treaty. The grants of public money made 
 to the sovereign, or taxes imposed in this country, were 
 called subsidies. 
 
 SU'BSTANTIVE COLOURS, are those which, in the 
 process ot dyeing, remain fixed or permanent without the 
 intervention of other substances; they are opposed to 
 adjective colours, which require to be fixed by certain itittr- 
 vicdes, or substances which have a joint affinity for the 
 colouring matter and the material to be dyed. See Dyeino 
 and Mordant. 
 
 SU'BSTANTIVE, or NOUN SUBSTANTIVE. In 
 Grammar, that part of speech which denotes a substance 
 or subject, as distinguished from an attribute or predicate. 
 See Grammar. 
 
 SUBS'liTU'TION, is defined by writers on the Civil 
 Law to be the designation of a second, third, or other heir 
 to enjoy, in default of a former heir, or after him. Taken 
 in this general sense, it includes all those modes of disposi- 
 tion which are expressed in our law by the terms entail 
 rcviatn,/rr,-exrcutory devise, &c. Substitutions were of two 
 classes : 1. Vulgar or common, by which a testator named 
 a second devisee to receive the succession, if the first were 
 unable or unwilling to do so; 2. Fidei-commissary, in 
 Which the second devisee was named to receive the suc- 
 cession after the first. See Fidei-Commissum. 
 
 Substitution, in the language of Algebra, signifies the 
 replacing ot one quantity by another which is equal to it 
 but differently expressed. 
 
 Substitution, Chord or. In Music, a name given to 
 the chords of the ninth major and minor. 
 
 SUBSTRA'TUM. A stratum lying under another. The 
 term subsoil is generally applied to the matters which in- 
 tervene between the surface soils and the rocks on which 
 they rest ; thus clay is the common substratum or subsoil 
 of gravel. 
 
 SU'BSTYL':, in Dialling, is the straight line formed by 
 the intersection of the face of the dial with the perpen- 
 dicular plane which passes through the gnomon. See Dial. 
 SUBTA'NGENT, in Geometry, is the part of the axis of 
 • curve intercepted between the tangent and the ordinate. 
 The general expression for the subtangent of any curve 
 whose equation is y — F x (y the ordinate being a function 
 
 of x the absciss) is y — . 
 dy 
 SUBTE'NSE. (Lat. sub and tensus.) A term some- 
 1192 
 
 SUCCESSION, APOSTOLICAL. 
 
 times used in Trigonometry to denote the chord of an arc 
 Sec Chord. 
 
 SUBTRACTION. (Lat. subtraho, / draw away.) In 
 Arithmetic, the taking of one number or quantity fr< it) 
 another in order to find their difference. The operation i= 
 precisely the reverse of addition. 
 
 SUBU'LICORNS, Subulicornes. (Lat. subula, an awl ; 
 cornu, a horn. ) The name of a family of Nemopterous 
 insects, including those which have awl-shaped antenna; 
 
 SUBU'LIPALPS, Subulipalpi. (Lat. subula, and palpus, 
 a feeler.) The name of a section of Caraboiil beetles, in- 
 cluding those which have the exterior palps or feelers nw 1 - 
 shaped. 
 
 SUCCEDA'NEUM. A medicine or remedy substituted 
 for another. 
 
 SUCCESSION, APOSTO'LICAL. In Theology. By 
 these words is meant the uninterrupted succession oV 
 priests in the church by regular ordination, from the first 
 commission given by our Saviour to the Apostles, and re- 
 corded in the Gospels, down to the present day. And the 
 doctrine of "the apostolical succession," as it is popularly 
 called, means the belief that the clergy so regularly or- 
 dained have a commission from God to preach the gospel, 
 administer the sacraments, and guide the church ; that 
 through their ministration only we can derive the grace 
 which is communicated by the sacraments. It follows, of 
 course, that those sects of Christians which have no regu- 
 lar succession (having seceded from Romanism without 
 retaining ministers regularly ordained, or having subse 
 quently interrupted the succession, that is, all Protestant 
 bodies, except the church of England) have, properly speak- 
 ing, neither church nor sacraments, since they possess no 
 apostolical authority. 
 
 This doctrine was, by admission on all hands, of very 
 great antiquity in the church ; but whether that antiquity 
 is primitive or not, is matter of discussion at the present 
 day. The arguments from Scripture cannot alone be relied 
 upon by either parity. As to the historical part of the 
 question, those Epistles of Ignatius which the learned 
 have in the most part agreed to regard as genuine (com- 
 monly called the Greater), are much referred to by the 
 maintainors of the doc:rine in support of it. They do not, 
 indeed, declare it in express terms ; but the strict and re- 
 peated injunctions to honour and obey the bishop and pres- 
 bytery, together with some insulated expressions (such as. 
 "If a man be not within the altar, he failelh of the bread 
 of God," &c), have been thought important in the contro- 
 versy ; and, as Mr. Keble observes, "the discovery ot" those 
 remains probably lent considerable force to the cour>e of 
 opinions among the clergy of England in favour of the 
 doctrine in the 17th century." • 
 
 At the Reformation it was almost entirely lost suzht of; 
 and that the succession was actually preserved in England 
 is rather owing (humanly speaking) to i>oliiical causes than 
 to any deliberate intention on the part of the then leaders 
 of the church. In fact, the Romanists contest the validity 
 of English ordinations, partly on the ground that the suc- 
 cession was actually interrupted at the accession of Eliza- 
 beth ; but there is no need to discuss an historical ques- 
 tion on which there seems to be no substantia] doubt 
 whatever. The church of England does not affirm the 
 doctrine in her articles; and the language of art. 19, 
 although not excluding it, is plainly not such as would 
 have been used by framers who wished to inculcate it. 
 Many expressions of her services, borrowed as they arc 
 from ancient liturgies, more or less distinctly point towards 
 it. The first school of Anglican divines did not rely on it 
 in their controversy with Puritanism. They rather rested 
 their argument on the fact, that the church had in early 
 times appointed the episcopal government and regular ordi- 
 nation, and that it could not, therefore, be wise or prudent 
 to swerve from it. It was at this point that Hooker took 
 up the subject. Whether he actually held the tenet or no, 
 has been much controverted. His recent editor (Mr. Keble) 
 contends that he did; but, at the same time, admits that 
 there is a marked difference between bis language and that 
 of the succeeding school of Laud, Hammond, anil Leslie. 
 (Preface to Hooker, p. lxxvii.) Under that school, it 
 became the rallying point of high churchmen, and was 
 zealously maintained by the divines of that section of the 
 church down to and long after the Revolution. But since 
 that time, without being renounced, it had certainly long 
 ceased to be brought prominently forward in ecclesiastical 
 controversy, until within the last seven or eight \ 
 
 In fact, the opposite ground had been constantly taken 
 by ordinary Protestant reasoners, both in and out of this 
 country, in their contests with the church of Koine. Chit 
 lingworth, as is well known, argues against the Roaumisl 
 tenet, that " succession is a certain and perpetual mark of 
 the true church," by maintaining that it is impossible to 
 prove it; that is, that it is impossible that any individual 
 can feel cep tin that his orders were derived by regular 
 
SUCCESSION, LAW OF. 
 
 succession from the Apostles. If we assume, with the 
 Romanist, a priori, that the church must have regular 
 use of Christ's promise to it, then there is 
 no room fit Mich doubts ; but if we are endeavouring to 
 the fact of succession as a test of the truth of a 
 Uen it cannot be denied that this argument presents 
 surmounted. 
 SUCCESSION, LAW OF. In Political Economy, the 
 law or rule according to which the succession to the prop- 
 erty of deceased individuals is regulated. Generally 
 spe iking, this law obtains only in cases where a deceased 
 party has died intestate, or in cases where the power of 
 bequeathing property by will is limited by the legislature. 
 It is plain that in cases of intestacy, where the deceased 
 althei leaves a number of descendants, or where he leaves 
 no direct descendants, the law, in order to prevent endless 
 uul litigation, IlUtfl interfere to regulate the suc- 
 Cesslon to the property; and it will necessarily follow that 
 the succession will be determined in different countries by- 
 local circumstances, depending partly on the peculiar state 
 and institutions of each country, and on the views enter- 
 tained by its legislators of what is just and proper, and most 
 conducive to the public advantage. Hence it is to no pur- 
 post: in a matter of this kind to look for any general or fixed 
 3. The succession to the property of those dying 
 , and the power of bequeathing properly by will 
 or testament, depend wholly on the rules and regulations 
 enacted in each country; and these necessarily vary with 
 the varying circumstances of dillercnt countries and con- 
 ditions of society. 
 
 In most countries a preference has been given, in regu- 
 lating the succession to property vacant by intestacy, and 
 in defining the power to leave property by will, in favour 
 of male heirs ; and in some countries, and especially in 
 modern times, a marked predilection has been shown in 
 favour of the eldest son, or, as it is usually termed, in favour 
 of the right of primogeniture. Among the Jews, the eldest 
 sun was entitled to a double share of the paternal inherit- 
 ance ; but among the Greeks, Romans, and our Saxon an- 
 al! inheritances, whether consisting of land or 
 • s, were equally divided, in some cases among all 
 children ; and in others among all the children, 
 whether male or female. The growth of the feudal 
 intern appears, however, to have put an end to this rule 
 Of inheritance in most European nations. When titles 
 of nobility were created, it was necessary to limit their 
 to the eldest son; and it was also necessary that 
 te n quired to maintain the dignity of the possessor 
 Of the title should descend according to the same rule of 
 primogeniture. And even when estates were not held by 
 UOble proprietors, various inconveniences were found to 
 in their partition, in the division of military services; 
 the number of infant tenants incapable of performing any 
 kind of duly ; and, more than all the rest (though its im- 
 port nice was the last to be perceived), the injurious ta- 
 il the system of equal partition in occasioning the 
 too great subdivision of the land, in emancipating the 
 sons from the control of their parents, in tempting 
 iln in to remain at home and to indulge in the pleasures 
 and idleness of a country life, and lastly, in overspreading 
 the country with a proud and a beggarly gentry. In con- 
 , tin; old rule of succession to landed property was 
 hi most countries; and in England, except in Kent 
 and a lew other places, when a person dies intestate his estate 
 entile to his eldest sou. And it will be afterwards 
 seen, notwithstanding the statements of Adam Smith and 
 others to the contrary, that this rule, though not without its 
 disadvantages, is, on the whole, the best that can be devised. 
 Females being incapable of performing any personal feu- 
 dal service, it is the common rule, when a person seised of 
 an estate dies intestate leaving only daughters, that they 
 should succeed as co heiresses. Such is the law of Eng- 
 land ; and, when thus limited, little harm can ensue from 
 tie subdivision that is thus occasioned. 
 
 It has, speaking generally, been the usual practice in 
 Dates of intestacy to divide the money or other moveable 
 property in equal portions among the children or kinsmen 
 of the deceased, without respect to sex or seniority. This, 
 however, though a general, is by no means to be regarded 
 as a constant rule. Thus, in the case of the Jews, daugh- 
 ters were excluded from all participation in the inheritance, 
 and, apparently, were left to depend on the bounty of their 
 father's heirs. (Michaelis, Law of Moses, i. 420.) In 
 also, daughters inherited nothing when there'were 
 sons alive; and when there was no son, and a daughter 
 (1 to the inheritance, she was bound to marry her 
 nearest relation, so that the properly might not be taken out 
 of the family. (Michaelis, ubi supra.) In Rome, howev- 
 er, all sorts of properly were divided equally between sons 
 and daughters. And as the inconveniences found to result 
 hi modern limes from the splitting of landed property do not 
 follow at all, or in anything like the same degree, from the 
 
 subdivision of moveable property, it is the practice in this 
 and most modern countries to admit females of the same 
 propinquity to share in the succession to such property, 
 when left intestate, equally with males, excluding all pre- 
 ference on account of primogeniture. 
 
 These notices, brief and imperfect as they necessarily 
 are, will probably be sufficient to give the reader a genera] 
 idea of the rules that have been most commonly followed 
 in regulating tin; succession to property in cases of intesta- 
 cy, or where there is no power to bequeath property by will 
 or testament, inasmuch, however, as this p ow ei evicts to 
 a greater or less extent in most civilized countries, we shall 
 now proceed shortly to state some of the more important 
 principles and limitations that either have boon or should 
 be attended to in the construction of such documents. 
 
 Bequeathing of Property by Hill. — The power of be- 
 queathing pro|ierty by will or testament (the libera testa- 
 menti faetio) is not usually recognised in the earlier stages 
 of society. A man's property is then, for the most pail. 
 divided in equal shares among his children, who succeed to 
 il as matter of right ; and in their default it is inherited by 
 his surviving relations, or nearest of kin. Hut experience 
 begin* at length to manifest the inconveniences resulting 
 from the enforcement of this strict rule of succession, and 
 power is, in consequence, given to persons possessed of pro- 
 perty to make testaments, or to dispose of a part at least of 
 their personal or real estate by will. Al first, however, 
 this power is usually confined within very narrow limits, 
 
 being in general restricted to the making of alterations in 
 the shares falling to the children of kinsmen of the testa 
 tor ; that is, to the increasing of the portion of some to the 
 diminution of thaUfi' others. Thus, in Athens, there was 
 no power to devise property from the natural Inns previ- 
 ously to the age of Solon ; and that legislator confined the 
 privilege to those who died without leaving issue. In 
 Rome, three centuries elapsed before a citizen could dis- 
 pose of his property by a deed mortis causa, except in an 
 assembly of the people; and in that case his will, as Mon- 
 tesquieu has remarked, was not really the net of a private 
 Individual, but of the legislature. "With us In England. 
 till modern times, a mnn could only dispose of I tie third of 
 his moveables from his wife and children ; and in general 
 no will was permitted of lands till the reign of Henry 
 VIII., and then only of a certain portion : for it was not till 
 after the Restoration that the power of devising real pro- 
 perty became so universal as at present." ( lilackstonc, 
 book ii., cap. i.) In Scotland, down to a comparatively re- 
 cent period, almost all land property was inalienable from 
 the lineal heir. 
 
 Not only, however, is the power of testators usually aug- 
 mented as society advances, but in some countries they are 
 permitted to exercise a nearly absolute control over the 
 disposal of their property, and even to bequeath the whole, 
 or the greater part of it, to strangers, to the exclusion of 
 their children and relations, as is substantially the COW at 
 this moment in England. This, however, is an extension 
 of the power of bequeathing, as to the policy of which 
 much difference of opinion is entertained. It is contended 
 that no one who has any property to dispose of should be 
 . allowed to throw his children destitute upon society ; that 
 the fear of total disinheritance should not be rendered an 
 instrument of tyranny in the hand of fathers ; and that before 
 allowing a man to leave any portion of his fortune to stran- 
 gers, he should be compelled to make an adequate provis- 
 ion for the individuals he has been the means of bringing 
 into the world, and to whom, independently altogether of 
 any considerations of personal merit or demert, he is un- 
 der the most sacred obligations. But though it must be 
 owned that this is a question of considerable difficulty and 
 nicety, and with respect to which it does not seem possible 
 to come to any conclusion that will not be liable to objec- 
 tions, yet, on the whole, it would seem that the reasoning 
 of those who argue in favour of the unlimited power of 
 bequeathing to strangers is the most satisfactory and con- 
 vincing ; or if any restriction be laid on this, it would ap- 
 pear to be enough to enact that parents possessed of pro- 
 perty should be obliged to appropriate a portion thereof 
 sufficient to bring up and educate their children till they 
 come to maturity, or be in a condition to provide for them- 
 selves, when all compulsory obligations on the part of the 
 parents should cease. None hut the strongest possible rea- 
 sons can ever justif/ a legislature in giving their sanction 
 to any measure having a tendency to weaken the spirit of 
 industry and economy in the people. Il is plain, however, 
 that if it interfere to regulate the disposal of property, it 
 must unavoidably do this: if it be enacted that how umlu- 
 tifully soever a man's children or relations may have be- 
 haved, they shall notwithstanding be entitled to the whole 
 or a certain proportion of his fortune, this will, in the first 
 place, render every one less anxious about the accumula- 
 tion of that wealtii which he is no' to be permitted to dis- 
 Dose of at pleasure than he would otherwise be ; and, In 
 
 1183 
 
SUCCESSION, LAW OF. 
 
 the second place, the securing of a certain provision to 
 children, independently of their conduct, must in so far 
 render them independent of their parents, and weaken 
 that parental authority, which, though occasionally abused, 
 is yet, in the vast majority of instances, exercised in the 
 mildest and mosl indulgent manner, and with the best ef- 
 fect. The more, therefore, that this subject is inquired into, 
 the more, we apprehend, it will be found that it is always 
 the safest policy to abstain as much as possible from ma- 
 king the relations of private life the object of legislative 
 enactments. The humanity of the law is but a sorry sub- 
 stitute id' -arental affection. If children be ordinarily 
 well behave J ; If they be not extremely deficient either in 
 filial affection or common prudence, we have, in the princi- 
 ples and instincts inherent in our nature, a sufficient secu- 
 rity that but few parents will be found disposed to leave 
 their property to others to their exclusion. The interference 
 of the legislature in their behalf appears, therefore, to be, 
 speaking generally, quite unnecessary. In countries like 
 England and Holland, in which the greatest latitude is giv- 
 en to the power of bequeathing, the instances are extreme- 
 ly rare in which an affectionate and dutiful family have 
 suffered from the circumstance of their father being per- 
 mitted to leave his fortune to strangers ; and it would be 
 most impolitic to attempt to obviate an evil of such rare 
 occurrence by exempting children from the constant influ- 
 ence of a salutary check on their vicious propensities, and 
 compelling a man to bestow on profligacy, extravagance, 
 and idleness, that property which is at once the fruit and 
 the appropriate reward of virtue, economy, and industry. 
 
 The advantages resulting from the unrestrained power of 
 bequeathing property by will are so striking as hardly to 
 require to be pointed out. Perhaps, however, we may be 
 excused for laying the following passage, from the valuable 
 though little known work of M. Luzac, De la Richesse de 
 la Hollande, before the reader. It strongly corroborates 
 what has now been stated. "La liberte de tester, celle de 
 disposer a volonti de ses Mens par un acte de derniere vo- 
 lonte peut encore etre mise au nonibre des causes, qui ont 
 confribu" a animer 1'industrie des habitans. Quelque in- 
 difierent que Ton soit stir le partage des biens que l'on lais- 
 se en monrant, I'idee de pouvoir en faire jouir ceux qu'on 
 veut en gratifier, crt surcment un aiguillon qui doit exciter 
 au travail, ou du moins prevenir qu'on se degoute d'accu- 
 muler des richesses. Pourquoi travaillerai-je a augmenter 
 ma fortune si je suis oblige de la laisser & ceux qui ne m'en 
 snuront aucun gre, et qui ne la meriteront pas t La liberte 
 de disposer librement dc ses biens par testament, est peut-etre 
 la principals cause que les fortunes des particulicrs sont 
 plus considerables en Hollande que par tout ailleurs." (i. 
 301) 
 
 Entails. — The recognition of the right to bequeath pro- 
 perty to any particular heir has, in several countries, been 
 followed by an acknowledgment of the right of the propri- 
 etor of an estate to name an indefinite series of heirs, and to 
 prescribe the conditions on which they shall be entitled to 
 hold the property. This right is founded by lawyers on 
 the maxim of the civil law, that every one has the abso- 
 lute disposal of his own property: unusquisque est rex sute 
 moderator et arbiter. This, however, is not a natural but a 
 civil right ; and it is not to be judged of by referring to ab- 
 stract or imaginary principles, but by its practical operation 
 and real influence over the condition and interests of socie- 
 ty. To enter fully into an examination of the advantages 
 and disadvantages incident to the practice of entailing, 
 would far exceed the narrow limits within which an article 
 of this description must be confined ; but we may, notwith- 
 standing, glance at one or two of the principal topics that 
 should be attended to in forming a correct conclusion as to 
 the influence of entails. 
 
 In the first place, it is alleged in their favour that they 
 stimulate exertion and economy ; that they hold out to 
 honest industry and ambition the strongest and safest ex- 
 citement, in the prospect of founding an imperishable name 
 and a powerful family, and of being remembered and ven- 
 erated by endless generations as their chief and benefactor; 
 and, in the second place, it is said that entails form the only 
 solid bulwark of a respectable aristocracy, and prevent 
 generations from being ruined by the folly or misfortunes of 
 an individual. 
 
 Now, it is not to be denied that the prospect of founding 
 a powerful family, and of securing property, accumulated 
 during a course of laborious and successful exertion and 
 economy, from the risk of being squandered by the incon- 
 siderate projects or extravagance of any future individual, 
 must act as a very powerful spur to the industry and ambi- 
 tion of the original founder of a family. But here the 
 benefi ;: ri influence of the system stops ; its operation on the 
 subsequent holders of the property is entirely different. An 
 heir of entail is in a great measure emancipated from the 
 Influence of parental authority ; his chance of succeeding 
 to the property of his ancestors does not depend on the cir- 
 
 cumstance of his having deserved it, of his being industn 
 ous or idle, dissipated or sober. The succession to entailed 
 estates is not regulated by the principle of detur digniori. 
 Their occupiers have no power to change the established 
 order of succession ; they cannot exclude the worst to make 
 room for the best of their descendants, but must submit to 
 see the properties of which they are in possession descend, 
 as, in fact, they not unfrequently do, to the most worthless 
 and undutifulof their children or relations. Gran ting, there- 
 fore, that the institution of entails has a tendency, as it un- 
 doubtedly has, to make one generation active, frugal, and 
 industrious, it is clear to demonstration that it must exempt 
 every succeeding generation, that is, every succeeding heir 
 of entail, from feeling the full force of some of the most 
 powerful motives to such conduct. A system of ent.il 
 makes the succession to property depend, not on the good 
 or bad conduct of the individual, but on the terms of a deed 
 written a couple of centuries, perhaps, before he was in 
 existence. Its effect is, therefore, to substitute a species of 
 fatalism in the place of an enlightened discrimination ; to 
 throw property indifferently into the hands of the undeserv- 
 ing and the deserving; and it is plainly Impossible it can do 
 this without weakening the motives which stimulate men 
 to act the part of good citizens, and strengthening those of 
 an opposite description. When, therefore, we refer, as we 
 ought, to the decisive criterion of public utility, it is imme- 
 diately seen that the industry of one generation is not to be 
 purchased by the idleness of all that are to come after it : a ml 
 that it is not much less injurious to allow an individual to 
 appoint his remotest heirs, than it would be to deprive him 
 sf the power of nominating his immediate successors. 
 
 As to the second point, there can be no doubt that a sys- 
 tem of entail affords the best attainable security for the per- 
 manence of property in particular families ; and as individ- 
 uals possessed of property act, generally speaking, with 
 more independence, and are less liable to be biassed by 
 purely selfish considerations than those who are compara- 
 tively poor, it would seem that the privilege of executing a 
 perpetual entail of a certain amount of properly might, 
 with propriety, be allowed to noble families. Indeed, we 
 are disposed to thini UiHt in ,!te case o' - sacn familii 
 would be advantageous to carry this principle :i good deal 
 farther; and that no individual should be advanced to the 
 peerage unless he were able to establish a majorat, or to 
 entail such an extent of landed property on the heirs of the 
 title as might be sufficient to secure them, supposing they 
 acted with ordinary prudence, from falling into a state of 
 poverty, and becoming mere dependents on the crown. But 
 though the power of entailing were conceded to noble fam- 
 ilies vested with the prerogative of hereditary legislation, it 
 might be confined within certain limits, and made to vary 
 with the entailer's rank in the peerage. Neither is there 
 the shadow of a reason, on political grounds, for conceding 
 this power to others. A system of perpetual entail is, in a 
 general point of view, certainly injurious; and though con- 
 stitutional considerations may require the privilege to be 
 granted, under proper modifications, to a particular clas*. 
 they can never require that it should be granted to all. It 
 is not possible to interfere to protect the families of the 
 commons from the casualties to which they are subject, by 
 sanctioning a system of perpetual entail, without producing 
 mischievous results. It is the duty of government to adopt 
 such regulations as may most effectually call forth industry 
 and economy among all classes of its subjects; but it is no 
 part of its duty to inquire whether the frugality of those on 
 the box, and the extravagance of those in the coach, bid 
 fair to make them change places : and still less to attempt 
 to prevent it by throwing artificial ramparts round the pro 
 perty of the latter. 
 
 In Scotland the practice of entailing has boon carried to 
 a very great extent, and in some counties hardly an acre of 
 land "is now to be met with that is not burdened with the 
 fetters of a perpetual entail, chalking out an endless suc- 
 cession of heirs. Latterly, indeed, the system has been so 
 far modified by the interference of the legislature, that mo- 
 ney is allowed to be raised on the security of entailed es- 
 tates for the effecting of necessary improvements, and cer- 
 tain provisions may be made for widows and younger chil- 
 dren. In consequence of these modifications, and of the 
 abolition of the practice of letting entailed lands by fine, 
 the practice Is by no means so injurious as has been sup- 
 posed, and as it has been frequently represented. Still, 
 however, there can-be no doubt of its extreme inexpedien- 
 cy in a public point of view ; though, owing to the number 
 of third parties interested in the succession to entailed es- 
 tates, the question as to the abolition of entails is one of 
 the greatest difficulty. 
 
 In England, on the other hnnd, it seems as if the legisla- 
 ture had hit the happy medium between giving too much 
 and too little power to those who have accumulated proper 
 ty over its disposal by will. An English gentleman may 
 entail an estate vi such heirs as are in existence when the 
 
SUCCESSION, LAW OF. 
 
 ecuted, or till the first unborn heir be 21 years of 
 age; but here the destination .stops, and the heir in posses- 
 sion has then the absolute disposal of Ibe property. This 
 every one that degree of power over his property 
 Which is required to inspire him With the desire of arm- 
 
 ■aiming a fortune; at the same time that it tak-s Gram 
 him the power of legislating for future ages, or of creating 
 rules to be obeyed in all time to come. 
 
 Frrnth Law of Succession. — We have already seen that 
 i; has been the practice in most countries, as society ad- 
 vanced, lo relax the restraints imposed in early and less en- 
 lightened ages on the bequeathing of property by will. But 
 the modern legislators of France have followed a different 
 ml have confined the power of testators within the 
 narrowest limits. They have, in fact, gone far to make 
 that rule of llie Roman law, as to equal partition among all 
 the children, that obtained in cases of intestacy, the imper- 
 ative rule of succession to all property, whether landed or 
 moveable. 
 
 Una to the new French law, a person with one 
 child may dispose at pleasure of a moiety of his properly, 
 the child inheriting the other moiety as matter of right; a 
 having two children is only allowed the absolute 
 of a third part of his property ; and those having 
 more than two must divide three fourths of their property 
 equally among them, one fourth part only being left at 
 their own disposal. The property of those dying intestate 
 is equally divided among their descendants, without re- 
 spect of sex or seniorily. 
 
 This law was intended to subvert the foundations of that 
 feudal aristocracy whose ascendency had been very preju- 
 dicial to France; and as the influence of an aristocracy 
 mini always be mainly dependent on the magnitude of their 
 property, it was certainly well fitted to accomplish its ob 
 ject. It is seldom, however, that a law adapted to a parti- 
 cular emergency may be maintained with advantage as u 
 general rub' of national policy; and it would be singular 
 originally fallen upon for the express purpose 
 of splitting estates, found beneficial for regulating the suc- 
 • ■ propp'tj In a r-eat kingdom Considered in n 
 
 item of perpetual entail. Ry interfe- 
 Itent in the disposal of a man's prop- 
 erty, it must plainly lessen the motives to accumulation ; 
 while, by rendering all the children in a great measure in- 
 dependent, it weakens the parental authority, and has the 
 same injurious operation in reference to an entire family 
 that the law of entail has in reference to a single child. 
 When the pro|icrty of the father must be divided, all his 
 descendants are aware, from their earliest infancy, that 
 they are, without any peculiar merit or exertion on their 
 part, to obtain a certain provision; and can any one doubt 
 tint this sort of certainty must tend to paralyze their ef- 
 forts, and to render the younger children at least less enter- 
 prising than they would he, did they know that their -condi- 
 tion in society was to depend principally on themselves, and 
 that they had no security, other than their own deserts, for 
 obtaining any thing from ttreir parents'? But even these do 
 not seem to be its worst effects. The inevitable tendency 
 of this, and of every similar system, is to occasion too great 
 an increase of agricultural population ; at the same time 
 that it operates to reduce landed property into such minute 
 portions as neither to afford sufficient employment to the 
 families occupying them, nor to allow of their being culti- 
 vated and improved in the best and most efficient m inner. 
 The strong predilection entertained by the great bulk of the 
 children of persons engaged in the business of agriculture 
 for the pursuits of their fathers has been remarked by every 
 one in any degree familiar with rural affairs ; and it is obvious 
 that the existence of a law making the division of estates 
 compulsory affords the greatest facilitiesfor gratifying this in- 
 clination. It will give to many, who might otherwise have 
 been obliged to emigrate, or to resort to some other employ- 
 ment, the power of continuing in that line of life in which 
 they have been educated, and which is endeared to them 
 by those early associations that exert so strong an influence 
 over future conduct. Should a family be unusually large, 
 or should the share of the paternal property falling to each 
 of the children be insufficient to enable them to maintain 
 themselves in nearly the same class as their father, some 
 of the more adventurous spirits will probably be disposed to 
 sell their portion, and to engage in other pursuits. But ex 
 perience shows that, in the great majority of cases, they 
 continue to reside on the little properties obtained from 
 
 estors; and the fair presumption seems to be, that 
 the process of division and subdivision will continue, until 
 the whole land has been parcelled out into patches, and 
 lill»d with an agricultural population, destitute alike of the 
 Deans and the desire of rising in the world. 
 
 It is no doubt true that the condition of the agriculturists 
 of France, at this moment, is decidedly superior to what it 
 
 lowly to the Revolution, But it cannot be truly af- 
 
 firmed that this improvement has been in any respect ow 
 ing to the law of equal inheritance. It has taken place, not 
 quenee of that law, but in despite of it. The aboli- 
 tion of the feudal privileges of the nobility and clergy, and 
 at the gabelle, corvees, and other oppressive and partial 
 burdens and imposts, was of the greatest service to proprie- 
 tors and fanners; and, in addition to these advantages, a 
 great part of the property of the church and of the emigrants 
 came into their hands at very low prices; so that small 
 properties were augmented, and fresh energy given to agri- 
 cultural pursuits. Still, however, it is certain that the rapid 
 subdivision of landed property, and the continually ll 
 excess of the agricultural population, caused by the law 01 
 compulsory succession, have gone far to neutralize the ef- 
 fect! of these advantageous circumstances, and form at this 
 moment one of the most deeply-seated evils in the social 
 condition of the people of France. 
 
 In every respect, therefore, this law would seem to be 
 most inexpedient; and certainly the experience of France 
 does not tend in any res|>ect to shake our belief in the wis- 
 dom of those who contend that the interference of the leg- 
 islature in respect to wills should, in all ordinary 
 confined within the narrowest limits; and that in this, as 
 in most other things, their object should rather be to pre- 
 vent abuses, llian lo enact rules for the guidance of individ- 
 uals in the distribution of their properly under ordinary cir- 
 ciimsta! 
 
 liequcathing of Properly for Charitable Purposes. — In the 
 article Foundations in fhis work, we have briefly glanced 
 at some of the more prominent considerations that should 
 be intended to in the endowment of hospitals, and in file 
 appropriation of property for purposes of public utility. No 
 doubt it is of the ereatesi importance, In a national point of 
 view, that projierty should be bequeathed for such subjects : 
 and it would be easy lo show that England has derived, and 
 is deriving, the greatest advantage from the bequests of pri- 
 vate individuals for the promotion of education, the rapport 
 of the poor, and other charitable pur|Hisis. Still, however, 
 it seems abundantly obvious that such bequests should in 
 be sul'j'-ct to the control of the state. It is dilricult 
 . athe- impa -.iblc perhaps, to clr n. ••. i priori, how 
 tar interference should be carried in such oases ; but that, 
 speaking generally, it is indispensable even lo the proper 
 carrying out of the views of the testators, is abundantly ob- 
 vious. 
 
 To resnrd the instructions in the wills of those who have 
 established foundations as immutable laws, which are in no 
 case to be altered, is, in truth, to permit the ignorance, fill 
 ly, or presumption of an individual to become a standard for 
 all future ages, anil to regulate the si utiles and the insiitu 
 tions of a more advanced and enlightened period by his 
 crude conceptions and views. Surely, however, it is need- 
 less to say, that no select number of men, and still less indi- 
 viduals, should be allowed to erect themselves into infalli- 
 ble legislators for every succeeding generation. The regula- 
 tions of the great Allied and the other benevolent individu- 
 als who founded the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 
 may have been excellent at the time when they were 
 framed ; but had they been strictly adhered to, their chairs 
 must now have been filled with Aristotelian doctors, and 
 lecturers on the Ptolemaic system of the world and the in- 
 fallibility of the Pope ! 
 
 It is impossible to doubt the pious and benevolent views 
 of many of those who, in the middle ages, left their proper- 
 ty to monastic institutions ; but still less is it possible to 
 hesitate applauding the conduct of the reformers, who di- 
 verted this property to other purposes, and who justly con- 
 sidered that the terms of a will dictated in a comparatively 
 barbarous period should not be permitted to consecrate and 
 hnllow a system, which had been discovered to be most in- 
 imical to the interests of true religion, and productive only 
 of injurious consequences. 
 
 The establishment of foundling hospitals is another»in- 
 stance of the same kind. They were projected, and have 
 been kept up, with the best intentions; but it admits of dem- 
 onstration, and is now, indeed, generally admitted, that they 
 have been productive of an incomparably greater amount 
 of crime and of mortality than they have obviated. 
 
 Even as respects the educational foundations established 
 in many parts of England, no one can doubt that their utili- 
 ty is in' very many instances greatly narrowed, and in not a 
 few wholly nullified, by the injudicious rules laid down for 
 their government ; and, in fact, there is nothing that stands 
 in greater need of revision and amendment than the consti 
 tution and administration of foundations. 
 
 Succe'ssion. In Civil Law. In that jurisprudence, and 
 those modern systems which are derived from it. there H 
 no distinction between moveable and immox'eable property, 
 considered as a subject of succession. Succession, whether 
 of real or personal property, is either ah intestate, or by ten 
 tament. The order of succession ab Intestate, according to 
 the civil law (sec Descent), is to be found in laws of Jn-,- 
 
 1195 
 
SUCCINEA. 
 
 tinian (Novell, 118, 127, &c). It admits three classes of 
 successors — descendants, ascendants, and collaterals, who 
 are preferred in that order in the succession ; so that if a 
 man leave any descendants, all ascendants and collaterals 
 are excluded ; and ascendants exclude collaterals, except 
 brothers of the whole blood and their children. The chil- 
 dren of the deceased partake equally. Step-children are 
 strangers to the succession of their step-parents. Children, 
 the issue of several marriages, succeed equally to the prop- 
 erty of their father ; but severally to the property of their 
 respective mothers. Grandchildren take per stirpes, or by 
 right of representation ; i. e., if a child die in the parent's 
 lifetime, his children divide his share equally. Among de- 
 scendants, he or she of the nearest degree is preferred, and 
 there is no right of representation. Brothers and brothers' 
 children per stirpes divide with parents ; but it is doubtful 
 whether or no more distant ascendants divide with them. 
 Succession among collaterals is said not to extend beyond 
 the 10th degree. The wife (by Novell, 53, c. 6,) succeeds, 
 under certain circumstances, to a fourth. 
 
 SUCCI'NEA. (Lat. succinum, amber.) A genus of fresh- 
 water Gastropods, so called from the transparent texture 
 and amber colour of the shell. Of this genus two species 
 (Succinea amphibia, Drass., and Sue. oblonga) are British, 
 and to be found occasionally in the river Wandle, and in 
 Greenwich marshes. 
 
 SU'CCINIC ACID. (Lat. succinum.) An acid obtained 
 among the products of the destructive distillation of amber ; 
 when pure it is a white crystalline substance. Its salts are 
 termed succinates ; of these the succinate of ammonia is oc- 
 casionally used as a test for iron. It precipitates the perox- 
 ide of that metal in the form of a brown insoluble succinate. 
 
 SU'CCINITE. (Lat. succinum.) An amber-coloured 
 garnet. 
 
 SUCKING PUMP, or SUCTION PUMP. The common 
 construction of the pump, in which the two valves open 
 upwards. See Pump. 
 
 SUCTO'RIAxNS, Suctorii. (Lat. sugo, / suck.) The 
 name of a tribe of Cartilaginous fishes, comprehending 
 those which, like the lamprey, have a circular mouth 
 adapted for suction. 
 
 SU'ET. The fat situated about the loins and kidneys, 
 which is harder and less fusible than that from other parts 
 of the same animal. That of the ox and sheep is chiefly 
 used ; and when melted out of its containing membranes it 
 forms tallow, and is largely used in the manufacture of can- 
 dles and in the ordinary soaps. Beef and mutton suet, 
 when fused, concrete at a temperature of about 100. Like 
 other kinds of fat, it is a compound of carbon, oxygen, and 
 hydrogen. 
 
 SUFFE'TES. (Said to be from the Phrenic, schopetim.) 
 Certain Carthaginian magistrates, whose office bore consid- 
 erable analogy to that of the Spartan kings and Roman con- 
 suls. Their number was two, and they were elected annu- 
 ally from the noblest families of the state. The functions 
 of the suffetes seem principally to have been confined to the 
 management of civil affairs. Thus it was their province to 
 assemble the senate and preside in it, and also to propose 
 the subjects of debate, and collect the votes ; but there are 
 instances recorded of suffetes leading the armies of their 
 country. All the cities of note in the Carthaginian domin- 
 ions had likewise their suffetes ; but these, of course, wee 
 invested merely with municipal authority. (See Mem. tie 
 VJlc. des Ivscr. vols, xxxiv. xxxviii.) 
 
 SU'FFRAGAN. In Ecclesiastical Usage, every bishop 
 is said to he suffragan, relatively to the archbishop of his 
 province; thus the bishop of Carlisle is suffragan to the 
 archbishop of York, &c, either on account of the suffrages 
 given by them in the provincial synods, or because they can- 
 not be consecrated without the suffrage or consent of the 
 archbishop. Titular bishops, ordained to assist a bishop in his 
 spiritual functions, are also commonly, but rather improperly, 
 styled suffragans; a title adopted by the stat. 26 H. 8, c. 14. 
 
 SU'FFRAGE. See Parliament. 
 
 SUFFRAGO. (Lat. suffrago, the pastern.) In Mammal- 
 ogy and Ornithology, the joint of the tibia with the tarsus. 
 
 SUFFRU'TICOSE. (Lat. suffrutex, on undershrub.) 
 Any plant which is not exactly either a shrub or an herba- 
 ceous plant; that is, which has not hard, woody twigs and 
 complete buds like the one, nor perishable succulent twigs 
 like the other. Lavender is an instance of a sufl'ruticose 
 plant. 
 
 SU'GAR. (Fr. Sucre, Germ, zucker.) The great commer- 
 cial demand for sugar is almost exclusively supplied from 
 the sugar cane (Jlrundo saccharifera), which contains it In 
 greater quantity and purity than any other plant, and con- 
 sequently affords the greatest facilities for its extraction. 
 A large quantity of sugar is contained in the sap of the 
 American maple (Acer saccharinum), and in the juice of 
 ill.' beet-root (Beta vulgaris), from both of which it may be 
 economically obtained ; it has also been extracted from 
 grapes or raisins, and, as is well known, is contained abun- 
 1196 
 
 SUGAR. 
 
 dantly in many ripe fruits and esculent vegetables. It is, 
 however, in these, seldom so pure or in such quantity as to 
 admit of ready separation. 
 
 The process, as carried on in our West India islands, 
 consists in pressing out the juice by rolling mills, and care 
 fully evaporating it till it has acquired the proper consisten 
 cy for crystallizing; lime water is added during this opera 
 tion, to neutralize any free acid, and to facilitate the sepa- 
 ration of certain vegetable matters, which, in consequence 
 of the action of the lime, rise more readily to the surface. 
 aftid admit of being skimmed off. When duly concentrated, 
 the syrup is run off into shallow wooden coolers, where it 
 concretes ; it is then put into barrels with holes in the bot- 
 tom, through which a quantity of treacle or molasses gradu- 
 ally drips, and the remaining sugar acquires the granular 
 crystalline state ; it is packed into hogsheads, and comes to 
 us under the name of raw or muscovado sugar. The follow- 
 ing is a sketch of the process by which raw sugar is purified 
 in this country. Raw sugar is chosen by the refiner by the 
 sharpness and brightness of its grain ; it is put into a copper 
 pan or boiler, previously charged with a certain quantity of 
 lime-water, with which a portion of bullock's blood has 
 been well mixed by agitation, and is suffered to stand a 
 night to dissolve. Early in the morning fires are lighted un- 
 der the pans, and when the liquid boils the coagulated al- 
 bumen of the blood rises to the surface and carries the im- 
 purities of the sugar with it. The liquid is kept gently sim- 
 mering, and continually skimmed, till a small quantity, ta- 
 ken out in a metal spoon, appears perfectly transparent : this 
 generally takes from four to five hours. The clear syrup is 
 then run off into a cistern ; the pans are reduced to half 
 their former size, by taking off a moveable front, and a smal- 
 ler portion of the purified syrup returned into each ; the fires 
 are now increased, and the sugar made to boil as rapidly as 
 possible, till asmall quantity taken on the thumb is capable 
 of being drawn into threads by the fore-linger; the fire is 
 then damped, and the boiling syrup carried off in basins to 
 the coolers ; a fresh quantity is then pumped into the pans 
 and evaporated as before. In the coolers the sugar is vio 
 lently agitated with wooden oars till it appears granulated. 
 It is upon this agitation that the whiteness and fineness of 
 drain in the refined sugar principally depend ; the crystals 
 are thus broken down while forming, and the whole con- 
 verted into a granular mass, which permits the coloured li- 
 quid saccharine matter to run oft", and which would je com- 
 bined with the solid if it were suffered to form into larger 
 crystals. This granular texture likewise facilitates the per- 
 colation of water through the loaves in the after process, 
 which washes the minutely divided crystals from all re- 
 maining tinge of molasses. That this is the real theory of 
 the whitening of sugar by the process of refining appears 
 from a comparison with the process for making sugar candy. 
 In this the raw material is cleared and boiled as above : bin 
 instead of being put into coolers and agitated, it is poured 
 into pans, across which threads are strung, to which the 
 crystals attach themselves ; these are set in a stove, and 
 great care is taken not to disturb the liquid, as upon this de- 
 pends the largeness and beauty of the candy. In this state 
 it is left for five or six days exposed to a heat of about 95° 
 when it is taken out and washed with lime-water. This 
 takes off the molasses from the outside ; but a great quanti- 
 ty is combined in the crystal, and the consequence is, that 
 candy is never whiter than the sugar it is made from. 
 When the sugar has attained the granular state in the cool 
 ers, as above described, it is poured into conical earthen 
 moulds, which have been previously soaked a night in wa 
 ter; in these it is again stirred, for ihe purpose of extricat- 
 ing the air-bubbles, which would otherwise adhere to the 
 surface and render it rough ; when sufficiently cold, the 
 loaves are carried to some of the upper floors of the manu- 
 factory, and the paper covers being removed from their 
 points, they are set with their broad ends upward upon 
 earthen pots. The first portions of the liquid molasses goon 
 run down, and leave the sugar much whitened by the sepa 
 ration ; afterwards, pipe-clay mixed with water to the emi 
 sistency of cream is put upon the base of the loaves to the 
 thickness of about an inch; the water from this clay filters 
 through the loaf, and carrying with it all remaining tinge of 
 molasses, runs into the pot, the clay being of no other use 
 than to retain the water and prevent its too rapid percola- 
 tion, by which too much of the solid sugar would he dis- 
 solved. This process, called claying, is repeated four or five 
 times, according to the nature of the sugar and the degree 
 to which it has been boiled. When the loaves are thus 
 cleansed from all relics of colour they are suffered In remain 
 sometime for the water to drain oil"; when this is complet- 
 ion, theyare set with their points upwards, when nil remains 
 of it are equally diffused throughout; theyare then ttove- 
 driedaX a temperature between 95 and 100. The syrup, or 
 drainings collected in the pots, is mixed with the raw sugar in 
 the next boilings: it is divided according to iis fineness ; the 
 first runnings, which are the foulest, being reserved for the 
 
. JlCiDE. 
 
 coarsest loaves; while the last, being little else than clear 
 syrup, is boiled into loaves of the same fineness as those 
 from which it ran. Thr lowest syrups are boiled into what 
 is culled bastard sugar, from which the molasses runs with 
 Tery little mixture of solid sugar: this it is which is sold un- 
 der the name of treacle, being quite incapable of further 
 crystallization. The average produce of 100 cwt. of raw su- 
 gar treateil as above is 63 lbs. of refined, 18 of bastard, 27 of 
 molasses, 4 loss in dirt, &c. 
 
 Mr. Howard, in his patent process for the refining of sugar, 
 Introduced a variety of modifications and improvements, the 
 principal of which depended upon boiling under diminished 
 atmospheric pressure, ao that no part of the syrup was liable 
 to be burned or otherwise injured by heat ; he also em- 
 pi >v( (I recently precipitated aluminous earth to abstract part 
 4pl tl.e colouring matter; well-burned charcoal, especially 
 nt.imal charcoal, has been found very serviceable for the 
 latter purpose, and a number of other improvements in and 
 modifications of the process of refining have more lately been 
 adopted. 
 
 The chemical characters of sugar are well defined, espe- 
 cially those of the crystnilizable or cane stuiar. Its specific 
 gravity is about 1-6. It dissolves in all proportions in water, 
 l soluble in alcohol, and is recognised by its purely 
 sweet taste. It is blackened by sulphuric acid ; and when 
 about one part of this ncid is added to two of thick syrup, 
 the mixture presently boils up into a black frothy mass, 
 Which is little else than carbon, acid, and water. In respect 
 to ultimate composition, sugar belongs to that important class 
 of proximate vegetable principles which are theoretically re- 
 garded as compounds of carbon and water; that is, of carbon 
 and of oxygen and hydrogen, in the same relative proportions 
 as they exist In water. The following shows the results of 
 Dr. Proof I analysis of the finest loaf sugar in a dry and pure 
 state, with its probable atomic constitution ■ 
 
 Carbon 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 Atoms. Equiv. Theoir. Eipt. 
 
 . 9 54 42-86 4285 
 
 . 8 8 6-35 6-35 
 
 . 8 64 50-79 50-80 
 
 1 126 10000 10000 
 
 Several other varieties of sugar have been chemically ex- 
 amined ; such as grape sugar, honey sugar, mushroom su- 
 gar, manna liquorice sugar, &c. 
 
 Consumption and Supply. — Sugar Is to be ranked rather as 
 a necessary than as the most desirable of luxuries ; and a 
 larger sum is, we believe, expended on sugar in this country 
 than on anything else, excepting corn and butcher's meat. 
 The sugar consumed in England is all derived from the 
 Jirundo saccharifera, or sugar cane, and was, for a length- 
 ened period, almost wholly supplied by our colonies in the 
 West Indies; but latterly we have derived very extensive 
 supplies from the Mauritius and India. Foreign sugar is vir- 
 tually excluded from our markets by the prohibitory duty 
 with which it is loaded. 
 
 Besides the West Indies, South America, especially P>ra- 
 zil, the East Indies, the Mauritius, Java, Slam, the Philip- 
 pine Islands, &c, are the countries which export by far the 
 largest supplies of cane sugar, though it either is or may he 
 produced in most tropical countries, and it is also cultivated 
 to some extent in some countries within the temperate zone. 
 During the last war, when the nations of the Continent ex- 
 perienced very great difficulty In getting supplies of sugar 
 from tropical countries, attempts were made to raise it 
 at home from the hcet-r<x>t ; and this sugar being exempted 
 from the heavy duty laid on colonial sugar, its culture has 
 latterly been very greatly extended, especially in France 
 But the general opinion seems to be, that were beet-root su- 
 gar subjected to the same duty as colonial sugar, its culture 
 would have to be abandoned. We subjoin 
 
 An Account of the Quantities of the different Descriptions of Sugar entered for Consumption in the United Kingdom 
 during each of the Eleven Years ending with 1840; with an Account of the Amount of Duty received on the same, 
 the average Price of Muscovado Sugar in Bond, &c. 
 
 
 Wuantiuts entered for Consumption. 
 
 
 
 Years. 
 
 British Plantation 
 
 find. Mauritius). 
 
 East India. 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 Total. 
 
 from Duties on Sugar 
 
 Muscovado Sugar. 
 
 
 C-wtt. 
 
 Cat: 
 
 Cum. 
 
 C*ot$. 
 
 L. 
 
 /.. I. d. 
 
 1830 
 
 3,590,041 
 
 131,979 
 
 24 
 
 3,722,044 
 
 4,767,342 
 
 1 4 11 per cwt. 
 
 1831 
 
 3.667,396 
 
 113,536 
 
 79 
 
 3,781,011 
 
 4,650,590 
 
 13 8 — 
 
 1832 
 
 3,575,329 
 
 79.600 
 
 605 
 
 3,655.534 
 
 4.394,338 
 
 17 8 — 
 
 1833 
 
 3,553,450 
 
 98,283 
 
 71 
 
 3,651,804 
 
 4,414,302 
 
 19 8 — 
 
 1834 
 
 3,620,522 
 
 121,007 
 
 50 
 
 3,741,579 
 
 4,559,392 
 
 19 5 — 
 
 1835 
 
 3,757,851 
 
 8b\60O 
 
 31 
 
 3,856,562 
 
 4,667,900 
 
 1 13 5 — 
 
 1836 
 
 3,378,144 
 
 110.222 
 
 33 
 
 3,188,399 
 
 4,184,105 
 
 2 10 — 
 
 
 3,684,712 
 
 270,055 
 
 43 
 
 3,954,810 
 
 4,760,565 
 
 1 14 7 — 
 
 1638 
 
 3,491,225 
 
 418,375 
 
 65 
 
 3,909,665 
 
 4,656,891 
 
 1 13 8 — 
 
 1839 
 
 3,348.298 
 
 477,252 
 
 49 
 
 3,825,599 
 
 4,586,936 
 
 1 19 2 — 
 
 1840 
 
 3,074,198 
 
 518,320 
 
 2316 
 
 3,594,834 
 
 4,449,070 
 
 2 9 1 — 
 
 Oulv on British plantation and Mauritius sugar from 1830 to 1S40 
 
 Duly on K:ist In lian sugar from 1830 to 13th August, 1835 
 
 Duty c.n ditto of any British possession within the limits of the East India Company's charter into which the importation of foregn i 
 
 gar is prohibi'ed, aud^mported thence from 13lh of Angus', 1S35 to 1S40 
 
 Duty on ditto of any other British possession within those limits, and imported from thence from 13th of August, 1835, to 1840 . 
 
 Duty on foreign susar from 1S30 to 1840 ... ... • 
 
 'Additional 5 percent, on the above rates from 16th of May, 1840. 
 
 4 per cwt. 
 
 SUTCIDE, or SELF-MURDER. (Lat. suicidlum.) Few 
 chapters in the history of the human mind are more sin- 
 gular than that of suicide, as showing the kind of honour 
 and estimation which a practice so unnatural has attained 
 in the feelings of many nations. The rank which religious 
 suicide has held from immemorial antiquity, and still holds, 
 in the opinion of the Hindoos, has been too often described, 
 and is too familiar in its most notorious and painful instan- 
 ces, to need more than adverting to on the present occasion. 
 It is said that the practice is condemned by their older 
 books; if so. the traditionary sentiments of the people have 
 been formed on some different model. The suicides of the 
 Hindoos have proceeded partly from fanaticism, partly from 
 an apathetic philosophy; those of the ancient Scandina- 
 vians, esteemed equally honourable, from the overflow of 
 courage in warriors, who could endure any evil except the 
 approach of helpless and unwarlike old age. 
 
 Among the Greeks, the first inquirers who reasoned out 
 the principles of human life and action by a train of phi- 
 losophical investigation, singularly vague and discrepant 
 opinions on this subject seem to have prevailed ; as might 
 have been expected from a people to whom religion fur- 
 nished so very few fixed data of reasoning, and by whom 
 abstract truth was pursued with such unequalled ingenuity 
 and earnestness. Socrates, the great master of ethics, was 
 emphatic in his condemnation of suicide. Plato speaks in 
 a more dubious strain : writing as a lawgiver, he reprobates 
 it: and in his arguments on the subject is to be found the 
 well-known illustration which has figured ever since in all 
 such discussions, in which he compares it to the desertion 
 
 by a soldier of his post : yet he expressly excepts from his 
 censure those cases in which it is committed under the pres 
 sure of immitigable calamity. Pythagoras, at nn earlier pe 
 riod, denied its lawfulness. (See Mhtrnaus, I. iv.) In the 
 later days of Greek philosophy, both Stoics and Epicureans 
 found arguments for its defence in their respective princi- 
 ples. The former sect was most notorious for its tenets on 
 this subject; Zeno and Cleanthes, its great masters, hav- 
 ing both put an end to their own lives, as Democritus had 
 done before them, from the mere tedium of old age 
 
 Cum jam matura vetustas 
 Admnmiit memorem motus lansuwcere mentis, 
 Sponte sua letho caput obvius obtulit ipse. 
 
 The argument of an Epicurean philosopher on the topic 
 may be collected from Cic. Tusc. Disp., v. 41 ; and, indeed, 
 may be compressed in the pithy Greek motto for a drinking 
 party, 'H itWi }) awtdt — drink, or begone. " Stoical acade- 
 mies" (says Dr. Moore, in his Essay on Suicide, i„ 233), 
 " if such an expression be warrantable, would plead a dismis- 
 sion whenever their dignity was affronted, or their glory 
 diminished ; whilst Epicurean academics would care no- 
 thing about such matters, as long as their personal indolence 
 and tranquillity were not superseded." The influence of 
 Greek philosophy had, as is well known, a great share in pro 
 ducing that tendency to suicide which distinguished the high- 
 er society of Rome in the later days of the commonwealth. 
 The " Roman death," as it is emphatically called, was not 
 really a national habit; the older manners of the common 
 wealth repudiated it ; its prevalence was owing to foreign 
 doctrines, acting on minds affected by the violent passions 
 
 1197 
 
SUICIDE. 
 
 engrossing luxuries, and rapid vicissitudes of fortune which 
 distinguished that momentous era. Virgil returns to the 
 Pythagorean view ; and, without inveighing against suicide, 
 represents it as a sad and mournful death, the peri>etrators 
 of which are doomed to a long and shadowy existence — 
 without torment, but without enjoyment ; one which they 
 woirld willingly exchange for the bitterest poverty and la- 
 bour in the cheerful light of day. Perhaps the courtier-poet 
 mi a little affected by the feelings of those in power, who 
 loved to have contented, orderly, and not too irritable sub- 
 jects, and disliked the fashion among the noble Romans of 
 escaping in this manner from tyranny and persecution. At 
 a later period suicide committed by criminals under accusa- 
 tion was made criminal by the Roman law. This was with 
 a view to preserve the forfeiture of the criminal's property 
 to the government. Suicide, as such, does not seem to have 
 been the subject of legislation. 
 
 Although Christianity was not slow in effecting a reform 
 in the feelings of mankind on this important subject, yet 
 some relics of the ancient sentiments lingered awhile, even 
 In the minds of enlightened believers. The fanatical Do- 
 natists were greatly addicted to suicide, and are justly con- 
 demned on this account among others by the early writers 
 of the church. Nor did these latter ever esteem suicide 
 lawful, even under the severe persecutions to which the 
 church was subjected, except perhaps in one case — when 
 committed by virgins to preserve their chastity. The cher- 
 ished sentiments of the fathers of the church on this suh- 
 ject rendered them not only lenient to such victims of hon- 
 our, but some of them have even gone so far as to com- 
 mend them. Augustine, with his usual strong sense of 
 moral right, only pities them ; and expressly classes all sui- 
 cide as homicide. (De Civ. Dei, 1. i., c. 19.) There was, 
 at an early period, no commemoration for the souls of sui- 
 cides in the early church. And the council of Bracara, 
 A.D. 563, refused them Christian burial ; a measure which 
 has been pretty generally adopted throughout Christendom. 
 There have been a few paradoxical writers who have 
 contended in favour of the lawfulness of suicide, arguing on 
 Christian premises. In Hume's Essay on Suicide this 
 ground is taken, with the author's usual adroitness in point- 
 ing out supposed deficiencies in the scheme of Revelation. 
 A more remarkable instance is Dr. Donne's " (Jindavaro: ; 
 or a declaration of that paradox or thesis, that self- homicide 
 is not so naturally sin that it may never be otherwise." It 
 is remarkable, however, less from the force of the argu- 
 mentation, than the circumstance that a man of a religious, 
 though eccentric turn of mind, should have defended such 
 positions. Some of his arguments, those derived from the 
 silence of Scripture on the specific subject, have been com- 
 monly repeated : others seem very puerile. Those who 
 wish it will find them seriously refuted, at much length, 
 by the painstaking Dr. Moore, in his Essay on Suicide, al- 
 ready quoted, from which we have taken most of this his- 
 torical sketch. To say the truth, his refutation is in some 
 instances as weak as any part of Donne's paradox. 
 
 Among the writings of another class of thinkers, the 
 reasonings pro and con urged by Rousseau in the JVouvclle 
 Heloise are well known. Though there is little convincing 
 in the logic of the antagonist of suicide, yet the side he 
 takes is made to appear the generous and noble one ; and 
 in this case, as in several others, Rousseau must be owned 
 to have done service to the cause of moralitv, considering 
 the incredible influence which he exercised on the fervid 
 heads and hearts of his time. It is remarkable that Lord 
 Edward, in the work above alluded to, is made to admit one 
 exception in favour of suicide, in the case of acute and 
 irremediable pain. Madame de Stael, in her Essay on the 
 Influence of the Passions, advanced a sort of defence of sui- 
 cide ; in her later work (Reflexions stir le Suicide, published 
 in 1810) she has enforced the more customary doctrine with 
 much eloquence and feeling. We are not acquainted with 
 the work of the Swedish professor Robeck in defence of 
 suicide (who killed himself after writing it) except through 
 the mention made of it by Dr. Moore and Madame de Stael. 
 In discussions on the subject of proneness to suicide in par- 
 ticular classes or nations, it is impossible to disconnect it 
 from that of insanity; because the miserable delusions of 
 that disease constantly impel their victim to its commission. 
 In societies, therefore, where insanity is most common, the 
 number of suicides will be greatest. It does not follow 
 that the number of suicides committed by persons not in- 
 sane will also be greatest in such societies ; that is, when 
 we disregard the refinements of those wjjo profess to con- 
 sider suicide itself as a proof of greater or less derangement 
 of the mental functions. What we mean by the suicide of 
 a sane person is, the suicide of one of whose insanity there 
 is no evidence except such as may be considered to arise 
 from the act itself. Considered in this light, the tendency 
 to deliberate suicide has been almost epidemic in many 
 communities. Nor does it arise from similar causes, or in 
 similar states of society. Among the old Scandinavians 
 1198 
 
 as at this day with some tribes of savages, it was the off 
 spring of the intolerance of fierce dispositions of the help- 
 lessness of age and disease. It prevails, too, sometimes il 
 effeminate communities, where there is Utile zest or excite- 
 ment in life, with mean habits, little self-respect, and much 
 apathy: thus it is extremely common in China, even, it is 
 said among the lower classes, notwithstanding the procla- 
 mations, full of ethical saws, which the magistrates issue 
 against its commission. Among people of minds thus dis- 
 posed, the act is generally deliberate, and unconnected with 
 insanity; so, again, where it results from a cold tempera- 
 ment, and a snrcastic and contemptuous view of life, which 
 was the notion formerly entertained by foreigners of the 
 English mania for suicide ; a notion which probably had not 
 foundation in truth at any time. Sixty years ago, Mercier 
 (Tableaude Paris, vol. iv.) thought it prevailed less in Eng-^ 
 land than France. At present, in communities civilized on 
 the European model, it would probably be found tiiat the 
 number of suicides was pretty nearly in proportion to that 
 of insane persons, and that the same causes which produce 
 mental disturbance lead likewise to self-murder. Perhaps 
 the principal predisposing influences, as they atfect society 
 in the mass, may be reduced to four: — the spirit of mercan- 
 tile speculation, leading to sudden and overpowering vicis- 
 situde of prosperity and want; mental excitement, produced 
 chiefly by misdirected education, literature, and philosophy ; 
 absence of self restraint, especially on religions principles; 
 and intemperance in spirituous liquours. Either of these 
 causes' alone may be sufficient : for example, in various 
 parts of northern Germany, and in Geneva, where there is 
 little of commercial movement, and where the body of the 
 people are orderly and well-conducted, suicide is never- 
 theless extremely common among the educated classes, and 
 may be referred almost wholly to mental excitement. But 
 where they all combine, the effect is fearful ; as may be 
 witnessed in the great cities of France and the United 
 States. On the other hand, suicide is rare in nations where 
 fatalism prevails, as among the Turks and Spaniards; in 
 nations in which a love of order is joined with an unrefined 
 mental organisation and great love of physical enjoyment, 
 such as the south Germans, and, to a certain extent, the 
 Italians. The following table exhibits some of the results 
 given by M. Quetelet, from researches extending over a 
 number of years, from 1820 downwards ; but we give them, 
 premising our doubt as to the possibility of obtaining accu 
 rate returns in many countries. 
 
 Number of Suicides annually, compared with the Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Russia 1 in 49,182 
 
 Austria " 20,900 
 
 France " 18,000 
 
 Pennsylvania " 15,875 
 
 Prussia . . ..." 14,404 
 
 Nr;w-York (State) ... . " 7,797 
 
 City of London " 5.000 
 
 City of Berlin " 2,941 
 
 City of Geneva . " 2,941 
 City of Paris " 2,400 
 
 With regard to classes, the number of suicides is probably 
 distributed in a pretty equally diminishing proportion from 
 the highest to the lowest: with the exception, however, of 
 crowned heads ; for it has been observed, that no sovereign, 
 at least in modern times, was ever known to commit self- 
 murder. There is a remarkable paper in the first volume 
 of the Journal of the London Statistical Society, showing 
 its prevalence among the military in this city. The sui- 
 cides in the Dragoon Guards and Dragoons are said to 
 amount to one twentieth of all the deaths ; while among 
 the members of the Equitable (to make the comparison 
 with a body of grown-up persons) they are only 1 in 110. 
 
 With respect to the causes of suicide, some curious re- 
 sults have been obtained by statisticians ; but, in giving 
 them, we must profess our doubts concerning the value of 
 such statements, from the very vague data on which they 
 must necessarily be founded. It appears from a classifica- 
 tion of 134 suicides committed in ten years at Geneva (by 
 M. Prevost, in the 15ih vol. of the Jlnnales de Hygiene), 
 that the following causes produced them : 
 
 Disease 34 
 
 Mental alienation 24 
 
 Pecuniary misfortunes . . . .19 
 
 Domestic " chagrins" 15 
 
 Melancholy, cause unknown . . .13 
 
 Misconduct, drunkenness . . • .10 
 Fear of punishment, remorse ... 6 
 
 " Chagrins" of love 
 
 Gambling and lotteries 4 
 
 Mysticism 2 
 
 Comparing these with other accounts, it would seen: that 
 love produces at Paris -g- of the suicides committed, otGo 
 
sun. 
 
 ncva 6 \„ at Petersburg J, if Mr. Schon is to he believed ; a 
 lingular contrast to the commonly supposed effects of cli- 
 mate. Domestic griefs, at Paris (from 1794 to 1823), rs ; at 
 Geneva the same. Miscouduet, at Paris off, at Geneva 
 JL at Petersburg |. Gambling, at Paris 4 ' 5 , at Geneva rT - 
 . of these results, in Paris and Geneva, are certainly 
 remarkable for their correspondeice. (See an Essay ot M- 
 Drour in the 16th vol. of the .'limn!,:' de Hygiint, alreao} 
 cited. The reader may consult also M. de Villeneuve Bar- 
 gemont, Kcon. Politique Chretienne.) _ 
 
 The following statement is extracted from the official ta- 
 bles of revenue, trade, and population for 1839 : 
 
 Number of suicides in Englnnd and Wales during the year 
 ended 30th of June, 1839— Males, 751 ; Females, 307. 
 
 SULPHUR. 
 
 The Ages of 1044 Suicides. 
 
 Between the ages of 10 and 15 
 
 15 " -M 
 
 20 " N 
 
 30 " 40 
 
 40 " 50 
 
 50 " 60 
 
 00 " 70 
 
 70 " 80 
 
 « 80 " 90 
 
 •« 90 
 
 8 
 
 73 
 
 151 
 
 172 
 
 217 
 
 221 
 
 141 
 
 54 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 From this it appears that the greatest number of sui- 
 cides (relatively to the numbers living) are between the 
 ages of fifty and sixty (which appears from M. Prevost's 
 calculation to be also the case at Geneva) ; the tendency to 
 suicide regularly increasing up to the latter age. Between 
 seventy and eighty the number is still very considerable. 
 
 
 The Season of the Year. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Female* 
 
 66 
 $4 
 73 
 74 
 
 
 ireb 
 
 ■ '-i-mber .... 
 
 16a 
 210 
 214 
 164 
 7M 
 
 Thus the proportion of male to female suicides is 2t to 1 ; 
 a exactly the same (95 to 38). The subject must 
 not be dismissed without noticing the groat increase of sui- 
 cide which most observers represent to have taken place 
 in the last twenty years, especially in the large towns of 
 northern Europe. But there must be a certain degree of 
 doubt how much of the apparent increase is owing to more 
 accurate observations. 
 
 Suicide is ranked by the English law as a peculiar spe- 
 cies of felony ; and, like other felonies, cannot be commit- 
 ted by persons under the age of discretion, or insane. From 
 very ancient times (see Bracton) the law imposed the for- 
 feiture of personal property as a consequence of it; and a 
 felo de sc (as a wilful suicide is termed) forfeits all chat- 
 ties, real and personal. But the offence was never attended 
 with corruption of blood, or the forfeiture of lands of inher- 
 itance : so that the will of a felo de se stands good as to 
 realty. In order to vest these chattels in the crown, the 
 fact of self-murder must be proved by an inquisition, which 
 the coroner is the proper officer to hold. In addition, the 
 law formerly required that a self-murderer should be buried 
 in a highway, with a stake driven through his body. Now, 
 by 4 G. 4. c. 5), his remains are to be privately buried at night 
 in the churchyard. But the canon law (confirmed by the 
 rubric in the Common Prayer Book) forbids the perform- 
 ance of Christian rites over them. 
 SUIT. In Law, the same as action; which see. 
 SULCATE. (Lat. sulcus, a furrow.) In Zoology, when 
 i surface is deeply impressed with longitudinal parallel 
 ines. 
 
 SU'LPHATES. Salts containing sulphuric acid; green 
 /itriol is a sulphate of the protoxide of iron. Glauber's salt 
 e a sulphate of soda. 
 SU'LPHITES. Salts of the sulphurous acid. 
 SU'LPHOCYA'NIC ACID. This acid was discovered 
 m 1808, by Mr. Porrett, who ascertained it to be a com- 
 pound of sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen ; he call- 
 ed it sulphuretted chyaiic acid, the term chyazic being com- 
 Kised of the initials of carbon, hydrogen, and azote. It is 
 ?st formed by distilling a strong solution of sulphocyanuret 
 of potassium with phosphoric acid, when sulphocyanic, or 
 more properly hydro-sulphocyanic, pisses over into the re- 
 cipient, and phosphate of potassa remains in the retort. 
 So obtained, it is a liquid of a slight pink hue, and smells 
 somewhat like vinegar. The strongest solution has a spe- 
 cific gravity of 1-022 ; boils at 217°, and crystallizes at 55° 
 'a six-sided prisms. It gives a very characteristic deep 
 ►d so', uion with persalts of iron ; with a salt of copper it 
 i_ ?es a white precipitate. It is composed of 
 
 Sulphur 
 Cyanogen: 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 Atoms. Kquiv. 
 
 . 2 33 
 
 . 1 26 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 59 
 
 Sulphorynnurrt of potassium is obtained by mixing eqsal 
 weights of powdered sulphur and ferrocyanate of potassa, 
 and keeping them in fusion for half an hour In a tlask ; 
 when colli, reduce the mass to powder, and digest it in 
 water; filter the solution, and add a sufficiency of liquid 
 potassa to throw down the iron. 
 
 BU'LPHONAPHTHA'LIC ACID. A compound of sul- 
 phuric acid and naphthaline, discovered by Mr. Faraday. 
 (Pkil. Tmns.. 1826.) 
 
 BU'LPHOHNA'PISIN. (Lat sulphur, and sinape, mus 
 tard.) A crystalliz able substance obtained from mustard 
 seed ; it appears to contain sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, Bad 
 nitrogen. 
 
 SULPHOVINIC ACII), iF.uothionic Add. An acid 
 formed by the action of sulphuric- arid upon alcohol. From 
 Mr. Kennel's experiments [Phil. Trans., 1836 and 1828) it 
 appears to be a compound of 
 
 Atoms. Kquiv. 
 Sulphuric acid ... 2 80 
 
 Quadri-hydrocarbon . . 1 28 
 
 1 108 
 
 SU'LPHUR. Brimstone. A yellow brittle mineral pro 
 duct, found in various parts of the world ; but apparently 
 most abundant in volcanic regions. Europe is rhii'th sup 
 plied with it from the south of Italy and from Sicily. It 
 most commonly occurs massive; but it is sometimes met 
 with crystallized in the form of an oblique rhombic octoe- 
 dron. Pine specimens of this description are seen in our 
 mineral cabinets, and bear a high price. A considerable 
 
 quantity of sulphur is also obtained from sonic of its metal- 
 lic combinations, such as the sulphurets of copper and of 
 iron. These ores are boated, or roasted, as it is teemed, in 
 furnaces so eoastraeted that the sulphur vapour may bs 
 condensed, and from time to time collected; this, when 
 purified hv fusion, is cast into moulds, and forms common 
 
 or roil brimstone. Small quantities of sulphur also occur 
 In several animal ami vegetable products, and are frequent- 
 ly recognised by the odour of sulphuretted hydrogen which 
 they evolve during putrefaction. Sulphur is a non-con- 
 ductor of electricity. insipiiT, and inodorous, unless ml. hid 
 
 or heated, when it evolves a sulphurous smell. Its specific 
 
 gravity is 1-99. It melts at about 216°; and when heated 
 to about 2.">0 o it becomes a limpid, amber-coloured liquid ; 
 if the heat be raised to about 450°, it "gain Incomes Viscid 
 and deeper coloured ; at 480° up to its boiling point it ac- 
 quires rather more fluidity ; at about 600° it rises rapidly in 
 vapour, and in close vessels condenses in the form of a line 
 yellow powder, composed of crystalline grains : in this state 
 it is called flowers of sulphur. The earthy and metallic 
 impurities which, with a portion of sulphur, remain in the 
 subliming vessel, were formerly called sulphur vicum. 
 When sulphur in its viscid state of fusion is poured into 
 water it becomes a ductile mass, which slowly hardens. 
 and which Is often used for taking impressions of seals and 
 medals. When sulphur is in the form of vapour it is of a 
 dense oranae colour : its specific gravity in that state is about 
 6-6 and 100 cubic inches of It should therefore weigh about 
 206 grains. 
 
 There is another form of sulphur which is sometimes 
 called milk of sulphur (lac sulphuris), and which is a hy- 
 drate of sulphur ; it is obtained by precipitating sulphur by 
 muriatic acid from certain of its alkaline solutions. When 
 sulphur which has been melted is suffered to cool slowly, 
 its interior often exhibits prismatic crystals, and very beau- 
 tiful specimens of this artificial crystallization of sulphur 
 may be obtained by melting a few pounds of it in a crucible 
 or ladle, and when partially cooled piercing the outer crust 
 and inverting the vessel, so that the interior liquid part 
 may run out; on breaking the mass when cold, the cavity 
 will be found lined with prismatic crystals. 
 
 The results of the combustion of sulphur, its equivalent 
 number (16), and several other details respecting its com- 
 binations and uses, are given under the heads of Sulphu- 
 retted Hydrooen, and of Sulphuric and Sulphurous 
 Acids. 
 
 Sulphur is insoluble in water; it dissolves in boiling oil 
 of turpentine, and is deposited often in crystals as the solu- 
 tion cools. It is also soluble in alcohol, if both substances 
 be brought together in the state of vapour. It combines 
 also with chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Its native com- 
 binations with the metals form some of the most important 
 ores. It is from the sulphurets of lead and of copper that 
 the commercial demands for these valuable metals are al 
 most exclusively supplied. 
 
 Sulphur is of great importance in the arts. It is used ei 
 6 1199 
 
SULP BURETS. 
 
 tensively in the manufacture of gunpowder, and in the 
 formation of sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol. It is also used 
 in medicine, and for other purposes of the arts. The en- 
 tries for home consumption in 1838 and 1839 amounted, at 
 an average, to 695,056 civt. a year. The duty on refined or 
 roll brimstone varies from 6s. to 9s. &d. a cvvt., whereas on 
 rough it is only 6d. ; so that the imports consist almost 
 wholly of the latter. The largest portion by far of the im- 
 ports come from Italy, or rather Sicily. The price of rough 
 brimstone in bond in the London market usually varies 
 from 61. 10s. to 71. 10s. a ton. 
 
 SU'LPHURETS. Compounds of sulphur with electro- 
 positive or inflammable bodies. The most common ores of 
 copper and of lead are sulphurets of those metals. 
 
 SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN. Hydro-sulphuric 
 Acid. A gaseous compound of 1 atom of sulphur = 16 + 1 
 atom of hydrogen = 1. The equivalent, therefore, of sul- 
 phuretted "hydrogen is 17. This gas was first examined by 
 Scheele in 1777. It may be obtained by acting upon sul- 
 phuret of antimony by muriatic acid, or upon protosul- 
 phuret of iron by diluted sulphuric acid, and is immediate- 
 ly recognised by its peculiar fetid odour, which is so diffusi- 
 ble that a single cubic inch of it escaping into the atmo- 
 sphere of a large room is soon everywhere perceptible by 
 its smell. It is very deleterious to respiration. 100 cubic 
 inches weigh about 36 grains, its specific gravity compared 
 with air being as 1180 to 1000, or, compared with hydrogen, 
 as 17 to 1. It is liquefied by a pressure of 17 atmospheres 
 at 50°. Water agitated with this gas takes up its own vol- 
 ume, and acquires a bitterish nauseous flavour, and the 
 odour which characterizes Harrowgate and Aix-la-Chapelle 
 waters, a^id which derive their chief peculiarities from the 
 presence of this gas. Sulphuretted hydrogen extinguishes 
 flame, but is itself inflammable in the contact of air, burn- 
 ing with a blue flame, and depositing, during its slow com- 
 bustion, a portion of its sulphur. When mixed with excess 
 of oxygen and inflamed, it explodes, and the mixture is con- 
 verted into sulphurous acid and water. One volume of 
 the gas requires one volume and a half of oxygen for its en- 
 tire combustion, and the results are water, and 1 volume of 
 gaseous sulphurous acid. This gas is immediately decom- 
 posed by chlorine and by iodine, which, if not added to ex- 
 cess, throw down its sulphur and combine with its hydro- 
 gen. It is unequivocally recognised by its peculiar odour, 
 and by its blackening the salts of lead. Sulphuretted hy- 
 drogen, diluted with 20,000 measures of pure hydrogen, 
 sensibly blackens a piece of paper which has been dipped 
 into a solution of acetate of lead: white lead is also imme- 
 diately discoloured by it ; hence the mischief which it does 
 to white paint, and to pictures. The aqueous solution of 
 sulphuretted hydrogen reddens litmus ; and inasmuch as 
 it combines with certain bases, it is properly considered as 
 a weak acid. 
 
 SULPHURIC ACID, Oil of Vitrioh This most impor- 
 tant acid was discovered by Basil Valentine towards the 
 end of the 15th century. It was formerly obtained by the 
 distillation of green vitriol, and from its oily appearance it 
 acquired the name, which it still bears, of oil of vitriol. In 
 this country it is procured by burning a mixture of 7 or 8 
 parts of sulphur with 1 of nitrate of soda or of potash. The 
 mixture is burned in a furnace so contrived that a current 
 of air carries the products of the combustion into a large 
 leaden chamber, the bottom of, which is covered to the 
 depth of a few inches with water. The principle products 
 of the combustion of the above-mentioned mixture of nitre 
 and sulphur are sulphurous and nitrous acids ; and these, 
 together with atmospheric air and aqueous vapour, form 
 the contents of the chamber. 
 
 The sulphurous and nitrous acids, with a portion of wa- 
 ter, combine to form a white crystalline substance, which, 
 upon falling into the water of the chamber, is instantly de- 
 composed. The nitrous acid imparts oxygen to the humid 
 sulphurous acid, and so converts it into sulphuric acid; 
 while the nitrous acid, having lost oxygen, reverts to the 
 state of nitric oxide, which is given out into the air of the 
 chamber, from which it immediately again abstracts oxygen, 
 and becoming nitrous acid, is again ready to acidify a new 
 portion of sulphurous acid. The oxygen, therefore, is thus 
 indirectly transferred to the sulphur, or to the sulphurous 
 acid, from the atmosphere, through the medium of the at- 
 tractive power of the nitric oxide for that element ; and the 
 circumstance of this process being repeated over and over 
 again by the same portion of nitrous gas, accounts for the 
 small quantity of nitre required in this curious process. 
 
 When the water in the chambers is rendered sufficiently 
 acid, which is judged of by its specific gravity, it is drawn 
 off" into leaden boilers, where it is evaporated down to a 
 certain density ; after which, as it would then act upon the 
 lead, it is transferred to platinum boilers supplied with still- 
 heads, and there is brought to its proper degree of concen- 
 tration by farther distilling off" a portion of the residuary 
 water. This last process was formerly conducted, at great 
 1300 
 
 SULPHUROUS AC IT ". 
 
 risk and inconvenience, in glass retorts : its present improve 
 ment shows a most important application of platinum 
 which is not acted upon by the boiling acid. Of late, sal' 
 phuric acid has been largely manufactured from the sulphur 
 obtained by roasting common pyrites (sulphuret of iron) ; 
 one of the objections to which is, that it almost always run- 
 tains more or less arsenic, by which the resulting acid is 
 therefore contaminated. The acid made from Sicilian sul 
 phur is indeed not always free from this mischievous im 
 purity. 
 
 Sulphuric acid isa limpid colourless fluid, of a specific 
 gravity of 1-8. It boils at 620° ; it freezes at 15°. But the 
 temperature at which the diluted acid congeals is singular 
 ly modified by the quantity of water which it contains 
 When of the specific gravity of i - 78 (which may be regard 
 ed as a compound of 1 atom of dry acid and 2 of water), it 
 freezes at 40°, and remains solid for a long time at several 
 degrees above that point : if the density be either diminished 
 or increased, a greater cold is required to congeal it. 
 
 It is acrid and caustic, and intensely acid in all its char- 
 acters, even when largely diluted. Its attractions for bases 
 is such that it separates or expels all other acids more or 
 less perfectly from their combinations. Its affinity for wa- 
 ter, is such that it rapidly absorbs it from the atmosphere, 
 and when mixed with water much heat is evolved ; thus 
 by suddenly mixing 4 parts of the acid and 1 of water at 60°, 
 the temperature rises to 300°. Its attraction for water also 
 causes the sudden liquefaction of snow ; and if mixed with 
 it in due proportion, an intense cold is the consequence. It 
 acts energetically upon animal and vegetable substances, 
 generally charring them, and often, as in the case of sugar, 
 with singular rapidity. 
 
 The acid, as it usually occurs in commerce, under the 
 name of concentrated sulphuric acid, is a compound of 1 
 atom of anhydrous acid and 1 of water. The anhydrous 
 sulphuric acid is constituted of 16 sulphur (1 atom), and 24 
 oxygen (3 atoms); its equivalent, therefore, is 16 + 24=: 
 40: this is the composition of the acid as it exists in the 
 anhydrous sulphates. The strongest liquid acid consists of 
 40 of the dry or anhydrous acid (1 atom), and 9 water (1 
 atom), and is therefore represented by the equivalent 40 + 
 9 = 49. 
 
 Sulphuric acid is an article of great commercial consump 
 tion ; its purity and value are judged of by its specific grav- 
 ity. Upon this subject Dr. Ure's tables may be consulted, 
 which show the quantity of real or dry, and of commercial 
 acid, in diluted acid of all densities. 
 
 By the term real, dry, or anhydrous sulphuric acid, we 
 mean that which exists in the sulphates, and which may 
 be obtained in a separate state by distilling protosulphatc 
 of iron, or green vitriol, at a high temperature : there comes 
 over a dense brownish liquid, which emits vapour when 
 exposed to air, and has hence been termed fuming sul- 
 phuric acid. On putting this into a retort to which a re- 
 ceiver surrounded by ice or snow is carefully adapted, and 
 heating it gently, a vapour passes over, which condenses 
 into a white crystalline solid; this, which is anhydrous 01 
 glacial sulphuric acid, liquefies at about 70°, and evaporates 
 at about 112°. Yet, when combined with such portion of 
 water as constitutes the above described liquid acid, it is 
 one of the most fixed of fluids. It hisses when dropped 
 into water in consequence of the great heat evolved. 
 
 The ready test of sulphuric acid is a soluble salt of ba- 
 ryta; the solution of chloride of barium is generally used, 
 which, when dropped into any solution of free or combined 
 sulphuric acid, announces its presence by a white cloud, or 
 precipitate of sulphate of baryta, which is insoluble in nitric 
 acid : this precipitate, when collected, and well washed 
 and dried, consists of 77 baryta and 40 sulphuric acid ; so 
 that 117 is its equivalent, and this weight indicates 40 of the 
 dry acid. In the same way sulphuric acid, and the sul 
 phates, are tests of barvta. 
 
 SULPHURIC ETHER. See Etheh. 
 
 SULPHUROUS ACID. This acid consists of 16 sulphur 
 + 16 oxygen ; its equivalent being 32. It is obtained by 
 heating sulphuric acid in contact with certain metals, 
 which abstract an atom of its oxygen ; such, for instance, 
 as silver or mercury. It is also formed by burning sulphur 
 in oxygen gas. One volume of water takes up about 30 
 volumes of sulphurous acid gas; so that it requires to be 
 collected and preserved over mercury, or in dry stoppered 
 phials. It has the well-known suffocating odour or burn- 
 ing sulphur, and is possessed of considerable bleaching 
 powers; so that the fumes of burning sulphur are often 
 used to whiten straw, and certain silk and cotton goods ; 
 and when certain flowers, such as violets, dahlias, &c. are 
 exposed to such fumes, or to sulphurous acid, their colour? 
 are mostly destroyed. Upon other colouring matters it hfcs 
 little effect. 100 cubic inches of sulphurous acid gas weigh 
 between 67 and 68 grains ; its specific gravity compared with 
 atmospheric air being 2-22. It extinguishes flame, and kills 
 animals. When subjected to the pressure of about two 
 
SULPHUR SALTS. 
 
 atmospheres, or when cooled down to 6°, it assumes a liquid 
 form; and in this state it evaporates with such rapidity at 
 common temperature as to produce a most intense degree 
 of cold, so that by its aid chlorine may be liquefied and 
 mercury frozen. It combines with bases, and produces a 
 class of salts called sulphites ; they are characterized by 
 emitting sulphurous acid when acted upon by sulphuric 
 acid, and by becoming converted into sulphates by oxidizing 
 agents. 
 
 SU'LPHUR SALTS. Chemists have lately applied this 
 term to the double sulphurets. The sulphurets of the most 
 electropositive metals have been termed sulphur bases, 
 such as the protosulphuret of potassium, sodium, barium, 
 Jtc; while the sulphurets of arsenic, antimony, fee, the 
 bisulphuret of carbon, and sulphuretted hydrogen, have 
 been called sulphur acids ; and the compounds resulting 
 from the union of a sulphuret of the former with one of the 
 latter class are sulphur salts. 
 
 SU'LTAN. (Sultaun.) In Arabic, mighty. Various Mo- 
 hammedan princes are styled by this title besides the Otto- 
 man emperor or grand sultan, to whom it is commonly 
 given by Europeans, but whose peculiar title of Padishah 
 is more dignified. The princes of the deposed family of the 
 khan of the Crim Tartars are also styled sultan: so also 
 the pacha of Egypt in that country, although not by the 
 court of Constantinople. 
 
 BUM ACH. (Eng. and Fr.) The powder of the leaves, 
 peduncles, and young branches of the Rhus eoriaria and 
 Rhus cotinus, shrubs which grow in Hungary, the Bannat, 
 and the Illyrinn provinces. Both kinds contain tannin, 
 with a little yellow colouring matter, and are a good deal 
 employed for tanning light-coloured leathers ; but the first is 
 the best. With mordants, it dyes nearly the same colours 
 as galls. In calico-printing, sumach affords, with a mor- 
 dant of tin, a yellow colour; with acetate of iron, weak or 
 strong, a gray or black ; and with sulphate of zinc, a brown- 
 ish yellow. A decoction of sumach reddens litmus paper 
 strongly ; gives white flocks with the proto-nmriate or tin ; 
 pale yellow flocks with alum; dark blue flocks with red 
 sulphate of Iron, with an abundant precipitate. In the south 
 of France, the twigs and leaves of the Coriaria myrtifolia 
 are used for dyeing, under the name of redoul or rodou. 
 The imports for home consumption amount to about 200,000 
 cwt. a year. 
 
 SUMMER. One of the four seasons of the year. The 
 summer season, for the northern hemisphere, begins when 
 the sun reaches the tropic of Cancer, and ends at the fol- 
 low ing equinox. 
 
 Simmkr. (Quasi trabs summaria, an upper beam.) In 
 Architecture, any large piece of timber supported on two 
 strong piers or posts, and serving as a lintel to a door, win- 
 
 MONS, WRIT OF. In Law. By the Uniformity 
 of Process Act, 2 W. 4, c. 39, s. 1, it is provided that wher- 
 ever (in personal actions) it is not intended to hold the de- 
 fendant to special bail, or to proceed against a member of 
 parliament under 6 G. 4, c. 16, this writ, or process, shall 
 be the commencement of the action. It may issue from 
 either of the four superior courts of common law ; and a 
 copy of the writ must be personally served on the defendant 
 against whom it is intended to proceed. The duration of a 
 writ of summons is four calendar months, inclusive, from 
 the day of issuing ; but it may be continued by renewals, 
 termed alias and pluries writ of summons. The amount 
 of the debt claimed (if the action t»e to recover a debt), 
 with other requisite particulars, must be indorsed on the 
 writ of summons. If the defendant do not appear either 
 personally or by his attorney in answer to the writ, the 
 plaintiff" may enter an appearance for him in the proper 
 court, and proceed to declare as if he had appeared. 
 
 SU'MPTUARY LAWS. (Lat. sumptus, expense.) Laws 
 intended to restrain the expenditure of citizens. Ancient 
 legislation abounded in them. Thus, among the Romans, 
 the Lex Orchia limited the number of guests at a feast ; 
 the Lex Fannia restricted the cost of an ordinary enter- 
 tainment to ten asses, and so forth. There were anciently 
 many laws in England to restrain excess in apparel ; but 
 they were ail repealed by 1 J. 1, c. 25. It is said, however, 
 that one ancient statute, 10 E. 3, st. 3, which orders that no 
 man shall be served at dinner or supper with more than 
 two courses, remains unrepealed. It is truly said by Mon- 
 tesquieu, that sumptuary laws are of all laws the most in- 
 efficacious and most constantly violated. 
 
 SUN. (Ger. sonne.) In Astronomy, the central body of 
 our system, about which all the planets and comets revolve, 
 and by which their motions are regulated and controlled. 
 In Physics, the sun is the source of light and heat ; and 
 therefore the primary cause of all the motions and changes 
 effected on the surface of the earth by those great agents of 
 nature. 
 
 Apparent Magnitude of the Sun. — The sun presents to the 
 naked eye the appearance of a luminous circular disc, sub- 
 4 G 
 
 SUN. 
 
 tending an angle of rather more than half a degree. But 
 on measuring accurately the diameter of the disc by means 
 ot' a micrometer, it is found to be not always the same, but 
 subject to an annual variation. In fact, as the earth de- 
 scribes an ellipse, of which the sun occupies one of the i'->ci, 
 its distance from the sun is constantly changing, anil the 
 variation of the sun's apparent diameter is a necessary cou 
 sequence of the change of distance. When the earth is in 
 its perihelion, or point of its orbit nearest to the sun, vli^ 
 sun's apparent diameter is 32' 35-6"; and when the earth 
 is at its aphelion, or most distant point, the apparent divine- 
 ter is 31' 31*0". The mean apparent diameter, or diameter 
 at the sun's mean distance, is 32' 29". 
 
 Distance of the Sun. — The sun's true distance is (bund 
 from his horizontal parallax. This is so small ■ quantity 
 that it would scarcely be possible to determine it in the 
 usual way by observations made on opposite sides of the 
 earth; but the astronomical nhenomenn of the transits of 
 the planet Venus over the sun's disc afford the means of 
 determining it with the utmost precision. From such phe 
 nomena the parallax has been found to be only 8-ti '; that 
 is to say, if an observer could be placed at the centre of the 
 sun, the earth's semidinmeter would be seen by him under 
 an angle of 8 - 6". From this it follows that the mean cli.- 
 tance of the sun from the earth must be at least equal to 
 24,047 times the earth's radius; and as the ratlins of the 
 earth is nearly 4000 miles, it follows that the sun's true dis- 
 tance from the earth must be about 90,000,000 miles. See 
 Pla.net. 
 
 In order to obtain a more distinct Idea of this enormous 
 distance, we may compute the time in which it would be 
 passed by some of the swiftest motions with which we are 
 acquainted. A 24 lb. cannon ball, fired with a charge of 
 8 lbs. of gunpowder, is projected with a velocity of about 
 1600 feet in a second. Supposing it were to continue to 
 
 move towards the sun with the si uniform velocity, it 
 
 would require ten years to reach his surface. A body 
 travelling with the velocity of sound would require about 
 five years to pass from the' sun to the earth. Light itself, 
 which travels with the astonishing velocity of 192.500 miles 
 in a second, only reaches the earth eight minutes and 
 eighteen seconds after leaving the sun's surface. 
 
 Knowing the distance and apparent diameter of the sun. it 
 is easy to compute its real dimensions. A body which sul. 
 tends an arc of 32* 3" of a circle, whose radius is 96,0<>0.iM)ii 
 miles, must have a real diameter of 892,000 miles ; which, 
 therefore, is the diameter of the sun. Or, since the true di- 
 ameter of the sun must have to the diameter of the earth 
 the same ratio which the sun's apparent diameter u Men 
 from the earth has to the earth's apparent diameter as seen 
 from the sun, that is, a ratio of 32* 3" to 8*6f , or of 111-8 to 
 1, it follows that the sun's diameter must be nearly 112 
 times the diameter or the earth. Hence the volume of the 
 sun must be 1,397,415 (the cube of 1118) times, or, ir 
 round numbers, 1,400,000 times the volume of the earth. 
 The mean distance of the moon being rather less than 60 
 times the earth's radius, if the sun's centre were placed at the 
 centre of the earth its surface would be at twice the distance 
 of the moon's orbit ; and the volume of a sphere whose radius 
 is equal to that of the moon's orbit would only be nn eighth 
 part of the volume of the sun. The sun's volume is 500 times 
 greater than the volumes of nil the planets taken together. 
 
 Mass and Density of the Sun. — The magnitude and dis- 
 tance of the sun are determined by direct observation ; his 
 mass as compared with that of the earth is deduced from 
 the law of universal gravitation, and the theory of central 
 forces. The earth revolves round the sun at a given dis 
 tance, and in a given time ; and from these data the centri 
 fugal force becomes known. But the force which counter 
 acts this centrifugal force, and. compels the earth to move 
 in its elliptic orbit, and prevents it from flying oft' in a tan- 
 gent to that orbit, is the sun's attraction. Hence the solar 
 attraction is equal to the centrifugal force. But the earth's 
 attraction at its surface is a known force, being that which 
 causes a heavy body to fall through 16 T \f feet in a second 
 of time; and consequently, from the known law of diminu- 
 tion proportionally to the inverse square of the distance, 
 the earth's attractive force at any distance from the surface 
 also becomes known. Now, on comparing the centrifugal 
 force due to the earth's motion in its orbit with the force of 
 terrestrial gravity on a body at the distance of the sun, it is 
 found that the former exceeds the latter in the ratio of 
 354936 to 1. But when the distance is the same, the attrac 
 live forces of two bodies are directly as their masses or 
 quantities of ponderable matter ; and hence the sun's mass 
 is 354936 times greater than that of the earth. It is also 
 found to be about 800 times greater than the aggregate of 
 the masses of all the planets and satellites. 
 
 The density of a body is directly as its mass, and inverse- 
 ly as its volume. If, therefore, we call the density of the 
 earth 1, the ratio of the density of the sun to that of the 
 earth will be as 354936 -J- 139741 5 to 1, or as 0254 to 1; 
 
 1201 
 
SUN. 
 
 whence the sun's density is about one-fourth of that of the 
 earth. 
 
 In order to compare the force of solar gravity at the sun's 
 surface with that of terrestrial gravity at the earth's surface, 
 we must recollect that the attraction of a body on an exte- 
 rior point is directly as the mass of the attracting body, and 
 inversely as the square of the distance of the point from its 
 centre. Hence, since the sun's mass is 35493b times that of 
 the earth, and the radius (or distance of the surface from 
 the centre) 111-8 times that of the earth, if A denote the 
 force of solar gravity at the sun's surface, and B that of ter- 
 restrial gravity at the earth's surface, then 
 354936 1 
 A:B: : (111-8)2 : (i;2 J 
 or A is to B as 27-9 (nearly) to 1. A body, tnerefore, which 
 at the earth's surface weighs one pound, would weigh 27 - 9 
 pounds if carried to the surface of the sun. " An ordinary 
 man would not only be unable to sustain his own weight on 
 the sun, but would be literally crushed to atoms under the 
 load." (Herschet's Astronomy.) 
 
 Rotation of the Sun. — The sun's surface, when viewed 
 through the telescope, is frequently diversified with a num- 
 ber of dark patches or spots, which being observed from 
 day to day are found not to remain in (he same place, but 
 to move across the surface, without, however, changing 
 their relative positions. These phenomena are accounted 
 for by supposing the sun to have a rotatory motion about an 
 axis from west to east. From a comparison of the best ob- 
 servations, Delambre found the period of rotation to be 
 about 25 days ; and that the sun's equator is inclined to the 
 ecliptic in an angle of about 7° 21)', and intersects it in a 
 line which makes an angle of 80° 21' with the line of the 
 equinoxes. The observations of spots are, however, subject 
 to great uncertainty ; but the fact of rotation from west to 
 east, or in the same direction as the earth and all the other 
 planets, is established. 
 
 Spots of the Sun. — The solar spots, to which allusion has 
 just been made as furnishing the elements of the sun's ro- 
 tation, present very remarkable appearances, and have been 
 the subject of numerous theories respecting the nature and 
 physical constitution of the sun. They began to attract 
 attention soon after the discovery of the telescope, and their 
 phenomena are described with sufficient accuracy by Heve- 
 lius and Scheiner. In form they are exceedingly irregular ; 
 and, when watched attentively for some time, are observed 
 to enlarge and contract, and to change perpetually tlieir 
 form and outline. Frequently they disappear without ap- 
 proaching the edge of the disc, and break out suddenly in 
 places where none were seen before. Sometimes a spot 
 has been seen to break up into several parts, and the frag- 
 ments to separate from each other, as if acted upon by an 
 explosive force. The nucleus of a spot is perfectly black, 
 and sharply defined ; and is surrounded by an umbra, or 
 border of a fainter shade. In the neighbourhood of large 
 spots, or in places where they are numerous, bright streaks, 
 or portions more luminous than the general surface of the 
 sun, called faculw, are frequently seen. Among these 
 facula; spots are often observed to break out; and when 
 this does not happen they are generally succeeded by spots, 
 larger in proportion to the brightness of the antecedent 
 faculte. The region of the spots is generally confined to 
 the equatorial parts of the sun, within about 30° of the 
 equator ; but occasionally they are observed over the whole 
 disc. 
 
 The magnitude of the spots, and the scale on which 
 their movements are performed, are not the least remarka- 
 ble circumstances connected with the phenomena. At the 
 distance of the sun, a line which subtends an angle of one 
 second is equal to about 460 miles, and a circle of that di- 
 ameter has an area of about 166,000 miles ; and this is the 
 smallest space which can be distinctly discerned on the 
 sun's disc. But a spot was observed by Mayer having a di- 
 tmeter equal to l-20th of the diameter of the sun, or up- 
 wards of 96", and consequently (supposing it to be circular) 
 covering an area of 1520 millions of square miles— upwards 
 of 30 times the whole surface of the earth. 
 
 Numerous hypotheses have been formed respecting the 
 solar spots. Scheiner supposed them to be planets revolv- 
 ing at no great distance from the sun's surface. Galileo 
 and Hevelius conceived them to be a sort of scoria or scum 
 foimed at the surface of the sun, and floating in an ocean 
 of liquid matter. Lahire supposed them to be protuberant 
 parts of solid, opake, and irregular masses, floating in the 
 fluid matter of the sun. Dr. Wilson, of Glasgow, account- 
 ed for the spots by supposing the sun to consist of a dark 
 nucleus, covered to a certain depth by luminous matter, 
 through which cavities or gulfs are made by volcanic or 
 other actions, and permit the dark nucleus to be seen. La- 
 lande suggests that the spots or opake bodies may be merely 
 the summits of mountains, usually covered by the igneous 
 fluid but which, by the flux and reflux of the fluid, some- 
 times protrude beyond its surface, and thus become visible. 
 1202 
 
 (Astronomic, art. 3240.) The most pic bahle view, however, 
 is that taken by Sir William llerschel, who considers "the 
 luminous strata of the atmosphere to be sustained far above 
 the level of the solid body by a transparent elastic medium, 
 carrying on its upper surface (or rather at some considerably 
 lower level within its depth) a cloudy stratum, which, being 
 strongly illuminated from above, reflects a considerable por- 
 tion of the li-ht to our eyes, and forms a penumbra, while 
 the solid body shaded by the clouds reflects none. The 
 temporary removal of both the si rata, but mere of the upper 
 than the lower, he supposes effected by powerful upward 
 currents of the atmosphere, arising, perhaps, from spiracles 
 in the body, or from local agitations." [Sir J. llvrschcl's 
 Astronomy, p. 209.) 
 
 Physical Constitution of the Sun.— Respecting the physi- 
 cal nature of the enormous mass of matter which controls 
 the motions of all the bodies of the solar system, and sup- 
 plies them witli light and heat, we can only form conjec- 
 tures, guided in a feeble degree by the phenomena of the 
 spots. According to the hypothesis broached by Sir Wil- 
 li mi llerschel, as stated in the above quotation, there are 
 two regions of solar clouds; the inferior stratum being 
 opake, and probably resembling our own atmosphere : while 
 the upper stratum is the repository of light and heat, which 
 emanate from it in all directions. This upper luminous 
 stratum he supposed to have an altitude of between 1840 
 and 2765 miles above the surface of the sun. The lower 
 stratum, by reflecting a considerable portion of the rajs 
 which fall upon it from the luminous clouds above, not only 
 increases the quantity of light which the latter send forth 
 into space, but serves as a canopy to screen the surface of 
 the solid body of the sun from the scorching effects of the 
 surrounding regions of light and heat; and he supposed its 
 density might even be such as to maintain a temperature at 
 the actual surface of no greater elevation than is consistent 
 with the support of animal life. But whatever may In: the 
 state of the temperature nt the actual surface, of which 
 only casual glimpses are obtained through openings in the 
 luminous clouds, it is difficult to conceive that the luminous 
 matter can be otherwise than in a state of the most intense 
 ignition. "That the temperature," says Sir John llerschel 
 "at the visible surface of the sun cannot be otherwise than 
 very elevated, much more so than any artificial heat pro- 
 duced in ouirfurnaces, or by chemical or galvanic processes, 
 we have indications of several kinds. 1st, From the law of 
 decrease of radiant heat and light, which, being inversely as 
 the squares of the distances, it follows that the heat receiv- 
 ed on a given area exposed at the distance of the earth, 
 and on an equal .area at the visible surface of the sun, must 
 be in proportion to the area of the sky occupied by the sun's 
 disc to the whole hemisphere, or as 1 to about 300,000. 
 A far less intensity of solar radiation, collected in the focus 
 of a burning-glass, suffices to dissipate gold and plalina in 
 vapour. 2dly, From the facility with which the calorific 
 rays of the sun traverse glass — a property which is found 
 to belong to the heat of artificial fires in the direct propor- 
 tion of tlieir intensity. 3dly, From the fact that the most 
 vivid flames disappear, and the most intensely ignited solids 
 appear only as black spots upon the disc of the sun when 
 field between it and the eye." (Astronomy, p. 210.) 
 
 These circumstances give great probability to the suppo- 
 sition that luminous matter which surrounds the body of 
 the sun has a temperature far exceeding any which can be 
 produced by artificial means; but the sciences of light and 
 heat are yet not sufficiently advanced to enable us to arrive 
 at any certain conclusions on the subject, or to form other 
 than purely conjectural hypotheses respecting the nature 
 and constitution of the sun. " The great mystery," con- 
 tinues Sir John Herschel, "is to conceive how so enormous 
 a conflagration (if such it be) can be kept up. Every dis- 
 covery in chemical science here leaves us completely at a 
 loss, or rather seems to remove farther the prospect of pro- 
 bable explanation. If conjecture might be hazarded, we 
 should look rather to the known possibility of an indefinite 
 generation of heat by friction, or to its excitement by the 
 electric discharge than to any actual combustion of ponder- 
 able fuel, whether solid or gaseous, for the origin of the 
 solar radiation." (P. 212.) 
 
 Considering the enormous and incessant emanation of 
 light and heat from the sun, the question has often arisen 
 whether the volume of the sun undergoes any diminution* 
 If the high temperature is kept up either by electric cur- 
 rents, or by friction, as above suggested, no loss of volume 
 would be sustained ; but if, according to the hypothesis of 
 Wewton, light is produced by the actual emission of lumi 
 nous particles, a diminution of volume would appear to be a 
 necessary consequence. Observation, however, can afford 
 us no information on this head; for, supposing mi actual 
 diminution to be going on at such a rate as to lessen the di- 
 ameter by two feet in 24 hours (which, having regard to 
 the sun's "magnitude, may be considered as enormous), .'1000 
 vears would elapse before the diminution of the apparent 
 
 
SUN. 
 
 diameter would amount to a single second. Button sup- 
 posed the sun to be an immense furnace, alimented by 
 comets precipitating themselves into it from time to time. 
 
 Atmosphere of the Sun. — The existence of a solar atmo- 
 sphere was inferred by Bouguer from a comparison of the 
 intensity of radiation at different points of the disc. By 
 reason of the globular figure of the sun, a much lamer por- 
 tion of the surface towards the border is comprehended un- 
 der B given visual angle than at the centre; and, as every 
 point of the surface must be supposed to radiate equally in 
 all directions, it follows that the intensity of light near the 
 holder should be greater than at the centre in proportion to 
 the greater extent of surface comprised under the snme an- 
 gle. Bouguer's observations, however, led him to infer that 
 the liL'bt from the centre of the disc had a greater intensity 
 than that which proceeded from the borders — a circum- 
 stance which would be explained on the sup|Kisilion of its 
 being absorbed in a greater proportion by having to traverse 
 • extent of atmosphere. But the more delicate ex- 
 ts of Antgo have shown that nil the points of the 
 disc are equally luminous; so that the hypothesis of an at- 
 i , however probable on other grounds, is not sup- 
 ported by such observations. The existence of a solar 
 atmosphere is, however, indicated by the fnint light observ- 
 ed round the sun's limb in a total eclipse ; ami, perhaps, 
 stillmore unequivocally by the phenomenon of th< zodia- 
 cal light. See Zodiacal Light. 
 
 Sun's 1'osition and proper Motion in the Heavens. — The 
 discoveries in sideral astronomy which have been made in 
 modern limes, all tenil to establish the hypothesis of a simi- 
 larity of condition and a community of nature between the 
 sun and the fixed stars. The prevalence of gravitation 
 among these remote bodies, following the same law as is ob- 
 served in the solar system, is no longer a matter of specula- 
 tion the proof being afforded by the elliptic orbits described 
 <ny of the double stars about their common centre 
 of gravity. With respect to the place which tin; sun OCCU- 
 te heavens, we have, says Sir J. Herschel (Mem. 
 Royal Astron. Society, vol. xi.), almost ocular evidence that 
 m is eccentrically situated within the nebula of the 
 Milky Hay, and nearer to its southern than to its northern 
 portion, ft was also an opinion of Sir William Herschel, 
 that the sun, like many of the fixed Start, has a proper mo- 
 tion in space, in consequence of which it is at present ad- 
 vancing towards a point of the heavens within the constel- 
 lation Hercules. That the sun does not remain absolutely 
 at rest in space, but has a proper motion in some direction, 
 niay be regarded as not only highly probable, but almost 
 certain ; but many centuries of observation may be required 
 (0 enable astronomers to detect its laws, or even to arrive at 
 .iny definite conclusions respecting its direction or the remote 
 centre about which it is performed. (Sir J. Herschel' s As- 
 tronomy; Lalande, torn, iii.; Biot, Jlstronomie Physique; 
 Laplace, Systcme du, Monde; Dclambre, Astronomie, &c.) 
 See Star. 
 
 81 "MJ.W, the first day of the week, is said to derive its 
 name from the Saxons, who consecrated it to the sun in 
 heathen times. The solemnization of this day dates from 
 the earliest age of the Christian church, in memory of the 
 death of Christ, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost, both 
 of which events took place upon it. The Jewish Chri-ti ans 
 retained at the same time their Sabbath, the last day of the 
 week, but this practice become obsolete early, at least in 
 in the Western church. The Sunday was at first distin- 
 guished merely by peculiar prayers and passages of the 
 Scriptures. It does not appear to have been strictly observ- 
 ed as a day of cessation from labour before the reign of Con- 
 stantine. By the decree of that emperor (A.D. 321) public 
 , and military exercises, weie suspended. The 
 council of Laodicea (A.D. 360) forbade labour in general 
 terms; and the laws of Theodo-ius (circ. A.D. 204) sanc- 
 tioned this interdiction by civil penalties. See Sabbath. 
 
 SUNDAY LETTER.' See Dominical Letter. 
 
 SUNNIAH. (Arab, a troop, or band.) The name given 
 to the sect commonly considered as orthodox among the 
 Mussulmans by the followers of AH. The latter believe 
 that the sovereign imanship, or imaginary dignity which 
 conveys supremacy over all the faithful, belongs of right to 
 the descendants of Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed. The 
 schism between these two sects has subsisted from the 
 earliest times of Mohammedanism ; when Ali, having be- 
 come fourth caliph after the death of Othman, a rebellion 
 was raised against him by Maaniah, founder of the Ommiad 
 race of caliphs about the year 1000 of the Christian era. 
 The division took place between the two parties in the 
 court of the caliph Moli 1' Mah, which resulted in the 
 Schiito party becoming pre-eminent in Persia, the Sunniah- 
 itcs in Turkey and most other Mohammedan countries. 
 
 SUO'VETAURILIA. (Lat. sus, a swine, ovis, a sheep, 
 and taurus, a bull.) In Roman History, a quinquennial 
 sacrifice, which consisted of the immolation of a sow, a 
 sheep, and a bull ; hence the name. See Lustration. 
 
 SUPERTONIC. 
 
 SUPERCARGO. The person in a merchant ship ap- 
 pointed to superintend all the commercial transactions of 
 the voyage, is so called. 
 
 SUPEKDn'MlNANT. (Lat. super, above, and domi- 
 nans, governing.) In Music. In the descending scale, the 
 sixth of the key. 
 
 BOTPEREROGATION, WORKS OF. In Theology. 
 It is a belief countenanced by many tenets of the Chureh 
 of Rome, that men may acquire merit in the eyes of God 
 by good works beyond what are necessary for salvation. 
 This notion is Mid by Protestants to have boen first known 
 
 about the 12th or 13th century, and to have 1 n founded 
 
 • upon what the Roman Catholics call " counsels of per 
 fection ;" that is, rules which do not bind under the pen 
 alty of sin, but are only useful in carrying nun to a higher 
 degree of perfection than is requisite for Christians. This 
 doctrine is condemned by the Church of England in her 
 14th article. 
 
 SUPERFICIAL MEASURE. The measure of surfa- 
 ces or areas; also called square measure. See Meas- 
 ure. 
 
 SUPERFICIES. The exterior face of any body. See 
 Surface. 
 
 SUPE'RIOR. In Scottish Law, one who has made an 
 original part of heritable property with reservation of rent 
 and service. The grantee is termed vassal: the interest 
 of the grantor is dominium directum, that of the grantee 
 dominium utile; or, the former superiority, the latter prop- 
 erty. The reunion of these two rights in the same person 
 is termed consolidation. 
 
 SUPE'RLATIVE. In Grammar, the name vulgarly 
 given to the third degree in comparison, formed in the 
 Teutonic, languages by the additional syllable "est." 
 
 SUPERSE'DEAS. In Law, a writ that lies to stay va- 
 rious ordinary proceedings ; as to stay an execution after a 
 writ of error has been allowed and bail put in ; to set 
 aside erroneous judicial processes ; and, In certain cases, 
 to discharge pii- 
 
 SUPERSTITION. (Lit. superstltio, from super, above, 
 sto, / stand : the steps of the derivation are extremely 
 obscure.) This word, like m:-tny others, has, in common 
 language, both a subjective and objective sense ; that is, 
 we speak of superstition as a habit in the mind ; and we 
 also speak of a particular tenet, or a particular observance, 
 as "a superstition." Every belief — 1, in the existence of 
 particular facts or phenomena, produced by supernatural 
 agency, which existence is not demonstrated by experience 
 nor asserted in Revelation ; 2, in causation not demon- 
 strated by experience or asserted by Revelation, t". e., of 
 the direct agency of supernatural power in producing re- 
 sults which can either be proved to proceed from second- 
 ary causes, or by reasonable analogy must be Inferred so 
 to proceed— is, in common language, superstition. An In- 
 stance of the first species is the belief in the existence of 
 imaginary beings, ghosts, spectres, &c. ; of the second, the 
 belief that epileptic fits are produced by witchcraft— that 
 meteorological phenomena hitherto imperfectly explained, 
 such as wind or lightning, are produced without the inter- 
 vention of regular physical causes by the immediate act 
 of the divinity, &c. The word is almost always used in a 
 religious sense, like the Greek 6eitrtiaiuovta ; that is, the 
 belief which we regard as superstitious concerns the 
 agency of the Deity, or inferior supernatural agents. For 
 example, we do not generally term the belief in animal 
 magnetism, tellurism, the divining rod, &c. superstitions ; 
 these are persuasions respecting certain occult powers of 
 nature undemonstrated (that is, in the case of most be- 
 lievers) by experience ; they are superstitions in the mode 
 in which they are generated and affect the mind, but not 
 in point of subject matter. On the other hand, there is 
 much carelessness in the application of the word to reli- 
 gious tenets, where these flow necessarily from the belief 
 in certain other truths as revealed : for example, no Chris- 
 tian esteems it superstition to believe that a dead man 
 was, in a certain instance, restored to life, although no 
 thing can be in itself more incredible ; because it is assert- 
 ed in writings which he considers as revealed, and the 
 power of working miracles is expressly claimed in that 
 revelation. But some Christians place faith in the decla 
 ration of their Church, just as all Christians do in Scrip- 
 ture ; and justify that faith by argument addressed to the 
 reason. How, then, can they be accused of superstition in 
 believing the truth of narratives, however incredible in 
 themselves, which that Chinch sanctions and approves; 
 for example, many of the miraculous legends commonly 
 received in the Romish Church ? Those who do not ad- 
 here to that Church may stigmatize it as superstitious J 
 but they can hardly call the belief which leads the Ro- 
 man Catholic to address his prayer to the Saints, or the 
 Virgin, a superstition in him. 
 
 SUPERTONJC. (Lat. super, above, and tonus, a tone.) 
 In Music, the second above the key note. From its being 
 
 1203 
 
SUPINATION. 
 
 a comma higher in the major scale than in the relative 
 minor, it is, in theory, considered a variable sound. 
 
 SUPINA'TION. The art of turning the palm of the 
 hand upwards by rotating the radius upon the ulna. 
 
 SU'PINES. In Grammar, certain forms of the Latin 
 verbs. The supine in urn (of which the form is the same 
 as the neuter of the past participle, as amatum in the verb 
 amo) serves generally, in conjunction with another verb, to 
 express an intended action; as "Lusum it Maecenas," 
 " Neque vos ultum injurias hortor ;*' in both which cases 
 it would be expressed by the infinitive in modern langua- 
 ges ; in the Greek, either by the infinitive, or more accu- 
 rate'ly by the infinitive used as a noun with a preposition. 
 The existence of the other supine (in u) is doubted by 
 some grammarians. The name is said to have been given 
 to signify their character, neither passive nor active. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. In Geometry and Trigonometry, the 
 supplement of an arc or angle is what must be added to it 
 in order to make a semicircle, or 180°. 
 
 Supplement. In Literature, an addition made to any 
 work or treatise, in the view of rendering it more com- 
 plete. 
 
 SUPPLY. In Parliamentary language, the sum granted 
 to the sovereign by parliament for defraying the expenses 
 cf the current year. The known or probable amount of 
 the different branches of the year's expenses is stated to 
 the House of Commons, in a committee of supply, by the 
 chancellor of the exchequer, and, after these have been 
 voted by the committee, they are formally granted by an 
 act of parliament, called the Appropriation Bill. The 
 granting of the annual supplies is a peculiar privilege of 
 the House of Commons, which never permits any altera- 
 tion or amendment (except merely verbal) to be made by 
 the House of Lords in the bills passed for this purpose. 
 
 Supply. In Political Economy. See Political Econ 
 omy. 
 
 SUPPORT. In Architecture. See Points of Support. 
 
 SUPPORTERS. In Heraldry, the figures placed on 
 each side of a shield. The device of supporters probably 
 originated from the practice of knights at tournaments 
 having their armorial shields fixed or hung near the place 
 of justing, and guarded by pages or other retainers stand- 
 ing on the side of them dressed in various fanciful accou- 
 trements ; although some consider it as entirely a modern 
 invention, or ornamental addition by painters and limners, 
 who found a vacant space on each side of the escutcheon 
 which itey filled up by imaginary figures. It does not 
 appear that supporters were at first exclusively borne by 
 individuals of a particular rank ; and some private families 
 are supposed to be still entitled to them by prescription. 
 But, in modern English heraldry, the grant of supporters is 
 limited to sovereigns and princes of the blood royal, peers 
 of the realm, knights of the Bath, knights banneret, baro- 
 nets of Nova Scotia (by their patents of creation), and to 
 such persons as receive them by special license from the 
 king. It is said by heraldic writers that females cannot 
 assume supporters ; but this prohibition seems to be habit- 
 uallv infringed in practice. 
 
 SUPPO'SED BASS. In Music, the bass of a chord 
 when it is not the root of the common chord or harmonic- 
 triad. It is also sometimes called the inversion of the ac- 
 companying chord. 
 
 SUPPOSITION. (Lat. suppositum.) In Music, the 
 use of two successive notes of equal value as to time, one 
 of which being a discord supposes the other a concord. 
 The harmony, though by rule falling on the accented part 
 of the bar, and free from discords, requires their proper 
 preparation and resolution ; and Ihey are called passing 
 notes. Discords on the unaccented part of the measure 
 are allowable by conjoint degrees, and it is then not re- 
 quired that the harmony should be so complete on the ac- 
 cented part. This transient use of discords followed by 
 concords is what we, after the French, call supposition, 
 whereof there are several kinds. 
 
 SUPPO'SITORY. A pill or bolus introduced into the 
 rectum, where it gradually dissolves. Opium is sometimes 
 usefully applied in this way to allay irritation of the blad- 
 der and neighbouring parts. 
 
 SUPPRESSION. A figure in Grammar is sometimes so 
 called by which words are omitted in a sentence, which 
 are nevertheless to be understood as necessary to a perfect 
 construction : as, for instance, in most languages, the repe- 
 tition of a noun is avoided where it is coupled with a pro- 
 noun in one branch of the proposition ; e. g., " this (horse) 
 is my horse," or " this horse is mine" (horse). See El- 
 lipsis. 
 
 SUPPURA'TION. The process by which pus or matter 
 is formed in inflammatory tumours. 
 
 SUPtACRETACEOUS ROCKS. A Geological term 
 applied to certain rocks or strata lying above the chalk ; 
 they have also been called tertiary strata. See Geology. 
 
 SUPRALAPSA RIANS. Those who assert that the 
 13Q4 
 
 SURRENDER. 
 
 fall of Adam, with all its pernicious consequences, was 
 predestinated from all eternity, and that our first parents 
 had no liberty in the beginning. See Calvinist. 
 
 SUPRANA'TURALISTS. A name given of late years 
 to the middle party among the divines of Germany, to dis- 
 tinguish them from the Rationalists, who exclude all su- 
 pernatural manifestations from religion; and from the 
 Evangelical party, whose tenets are of a more strict de- 
 scription. Thus many of the supranaturalists appear to 
 have given way to the system of accommodation (as it is 
 termed) in religious matters, so far as to explain away the 
 doctrine of original sin, and other tenets which we are ac- 
 customed to consider as fundamental : others approximate 
 to what are regarded as orthodox Protestant opinions 
 among ourselves. 
 
 SUPRE'MACY, OATH OF. An oath denying the su- 
 premacy of the pope in ecclesiastical or temporal affairs in 
 England, which by many statutes was required to be ta- 
 ken, along with the oath of allegiance, by persons in order 
 to qualify themselves for office, &c. By 10 G. 4, c. 7, s. 10, 
 Roman Catholics are qualified for all offices (with the ex- 
 ception named in the act), on taking a declaration, which 
 is substituted for the former oaths. 
 
 SURAES. A name given in Persia to buildings con- 
 structed for the accommodation of travellers. They are 
 synonymous with khans or caravanseras, which see. 
 
 SU'RBASE. (Fr.) In Architecture, the upper base of 
 a room, or rather the cornice of the dado. 
 
 SURD. In Arithmetic and Algebra, a magnitude which 
 is inexpressible by rational numbers. Thus the square 
 root of 2, the cube root of 3, &c. are numbers which can- 
 not be expressed exactly in the ordinary notation, and are 
 represented by prefixing the radical signs indicating the 
 operation, viz., ,/2, $/3. Such quantities are otherwise 
 called irrational or incommensurable. 
 
 SURFACE. A mathematical surface or superficies is 
 defined by Euclid to be that which has only length and 
 breadth. This definition excludes a line, which has length 
 only ; and a solid, which has length, breadth, and thick- 
 ness. As a line is generated by the motion of a point, so a 
 surface is generated by the motion of a line. If the gener 
 ating line be a straight line, and move subject to the con- 
 dition of having always two consecutive positions in the 
 same plane, the surface generated is developable, and can 
 be stretched out on a plane, as the surface of a cone, a 
 cylinder, Sec. But if the generating straight line is con 
 strained to move so that no two of its consecutive positions 
 are in the same plane, the surface cannot be developed on 
 a plane. Such a surface is called by the French geome- 
 ters surface gauche. 
 
 SURMOUNTED. In Architecture, a term used to de 
 note an arch or dome which rises higher than a semicircle. 
 
 Surmounted. In Heraldry, a term used when one fig- 
 ure is laid over another : c. g., a pile surmounted of a 
 chevron. 
 
 SURNAME. In modern European usage, the family 
 name of an individual ; but often used for any distinguish- 
 ing name. (See Name.) According to Ducange, the use 
 of surnames in France began about the year 987, when 
 the barons adopted the practice of designating themselves 
 by the names of their estates. And this has been the gen- 
 eral, though by no means the uniform, origin of family 
 names in the nobility of Europe ; some having been de- 
 rived from badges, cognizances, the nicknames applied to 
 individuals, &c. Among the commonalty of this country, 
 surnames are said not to have been general before the 
 reign of Edward II. It will be found on examination that a 
 great number of them originate in the still older custom 
 of adding to the son's Christian name that of the father 
 by way of distinction ; many more from the names of 
 trade ; and many more from accidental distinctions, as of 
 size or colour, probably applied in the first instance to the 
 founder of the family. 
 
 SU'RPLICE. (Lat. superpelli.ceum, apparently from 
 pellis, skin.) This ecclesiastical vestment is thought by 
 Mr. Palmer (Orig. lAturg., ii., 320) to have been at one 
 time not different from the alb. It now has wider sleeves, 
 a difference which is thought to have originated in some 
 distinction between the dress of a superior and inferior or- 
 der of clergy. It dates from the 12th century. The vehe- 
 ment objections entertained by the Puritans of the 16th 
 century to its use are well known. See Vestments. 
 
 SURRE'NDER. In Law. 1. A deed by which the ten 
 ant of a particular estate conveys his interest to tenant in 
 remainder, a reversion immediately expectant on the de- 
 termination of that estate. 2. A surrender of copyhold or 
 customary estates is the yielding up of such estates by the 
 tenant into the hands of "the lord for purposes expressed in 
 the surrender. Bv this means are accomplished convey- 
 ances of copyhold "lands, the lord being in general bound to 
 admit the party in whose favour the surrender is made. 
 See Copyhold. 
 
SURROGATE. 
 
 SU'RROGATE. (Lat. surrogatus.) In Law, one sub- 
 stituted lor or appointed in the room of another. It is com- 
 monly used in the ecclesiastical courts as the description 
 of an officer who acts as deputy for the bishop's chancellor. 
 
 SURSO'LID. In Arithmetic, the fifth power of a num- 
 ber. If 2 be the root, the sursolid is 2x2x2x2X2 = 32. 
 
 8U'RTURBRA.ND. A species of peaty, bituminous coal 
 found in Iceland. It resembles Bovey coal. 
 
 BURVEYING. (Fr. survoir, to overlook.) In Practical 
 Mathematics, the art of determining the boundaries and su- 
 perficial extent of a portion of the earth's surface. The 
 object of a survey may be either to ascertain the contents 
 of.' a field or portion of land, or to determine the relative 
 J. stances and bearings of the most prominent objects of a 
 country far the purpose of constructing a map, or to deter- 
 Etine the form and dimensions of a portion of the earth's 
 surface with a view to deduce the magnitude and figure of 
 the earth by comparing the geodetical distances between 
 given points with their astronomical positions. In all ca- 
 ses the operation is conducted on the same principles; but 
 while the first requires only the application of the merest 
 elements of arithmetic and trigonometry, the last can only 
 "inplished with the aid of instruments of the most 
 refined description, and processes of calculation deduced 
 from mathematics of the highest order. 
 
 In measuring land all the lines and the surfaces whose 
 contents are to be found nre reduced to the same horizon- 
 tal plane, on the principle that as plants shoot up vertical- 
 ly no greater number can be produced on the slant side of 
 a hill than would grow on the area covered by its horizon- 
 tal base. When the lines actually measured arc not hori- 
 zontal, they are therefore multiplied by the cosines of their 
 respective inclinations to the horizon. 
 
 The English standard unit of land measure is the acre, 
 which contains four roods; and a rood is subdivided into 
 40 poles or perches, each pole containing 30^ square yards. 
 (.Sec Measure.) But though roods and poles are the legal 
 subdivisions of the acre, and the terms continually occur in 
 all descriptions of the contents of land, in practice a deci- 
 mal division is followed, which is greatly more convenient 
 for calculation. For the linear measurements a chain is 
 employed consisting of 100 links, and its whole length is 
 such that one square chain is equal to the tenth part of an 
 acre. But the acre containing 4640 square vanN, the 
 square chain Consequently contains 484 square yards, and 
 the length of the chain is the square root Of 481 thai is, Si 
 yards ; whence its 100th part, or oee link, is TH9 inches, 
 in order to avoid decimal fractions, surveyors usually set 
 down all the measures in links; and when'the contents of 
 .1 nre cast up in square links, it is only necessary to 
 mark off the five last figures as decimals in order to have 
 the contents in acres, the number of square links in an 
 acre being 100X100X10=100,000. 
 
 The measurement of angles being in general an opera- 
 lion much less liable to error than the measurement of 
 linear distances, when the surface to be measured is of 
 Considerable extent the skilful surveyor will avoid making 
 farther use of the chain than is necessary for obtaining the 
 data requisite lor a trigonometrical computation. The 
 most convenient instrument, and that which is almost uni- 
 versally employed in land surveying for the measurement 
 of angles, is the theodolite, which, from the nature of its 
 construction, gives the angles reduced to the plane of the 
 horizon, and consequently renders a computation for that 
 purpose unnecessary. (See Theodolite.) As auxiliary 
 to the theodolite, and for the purposes of sketching and fill- 
 ing in the details of a map, the plane table and the pris- 
 matic compass (see the terms) are used ; and in order to 
 determine the bearings of the several objects observed from 
 any station with reference to the cardinal points of the 
 horizon, a compass and needle accompany the theodolite. 
 
 It frequently happens in surveying that triangles are to 
 be measured whose sides contain very acute or obtuse 
 angles. In such eases a small error in the angular mea- 
 surement would lead to very erroneous results ; and the 
 practice usually adopted for finding the area is to measure 
 the longest side of the triangle and the perpendicular let 
 fall upon it from the opposite angle, the area being half 
 the product of the side into the perpendicular. For the 
 purpose of tracing the perpendicular, the simple cross-staff 
 may l>e employed; but the instrument called the optical 
 square (which is merely a small, shallow, circular box 
 containing the two principal glasses of the sextant fixed at 
 an angle of 45°) will effect the purpose with greater accu- 
 racy. The method of u^ing it is obvious. If the observer 
 movcH forward or backward in the straight line A B until 
 the object B seen by direct vision coincides with another 
 object C se<ru by reflection, then a straight line drawn to C 
 ,rom the i>oint at which he stands when the coincidence 
 will be perpendicular to A B. The box sextant 
 might evidently be employed lor the same purpose. 
 
 very plane figure may be regarded as composed of 
 
 8 Bin. A 
 
 SURVEYING. 
 
 a certain number of triangles, the whole theory of land sur 
 
 veying resolves itself into the measurement of the areas of 
 
 plane triangles. For computing the area of a triangle it is 
 
 necessary to know the length of at least one side : and 
 
 when this is known, together with any two of its oiher 
 
 parts, the remaining parts and the area are computed by 
 
 the rules of trigonometry. As usual, let the sides of a 
 
 triangle be denoted by a, b, c, and the angles respectively 
 
 opposite by A, B, C, and let s = i (a-\-b + c) ; then the 
 
 area is found by either of the three following formula: 
 
 /S.i. _w i\ / si i i ■ n «- sin. B sin. (' 
 
 y/ < s (s — a) (s — b) (s — c) > , £ a b sin. C, 
 
 (See Trigonometry.) 
 
 In surveying nn estate, the usual practice is to measure 
 round it with a chain, and observe the several angles with 
 the theodolite; and if the boundaries are very irregular, a 
 straight line is run between two poirj n| off one 
 
 or more of the bendings and the perpendiculars . 
 from the straight line to each bending measured with a rod 
 or offset staff, the most convenient length of Which is ten 
 links. By this means the spaces included between thi 
 actual boundaries and the assumed straight lines are com- 
 puted; and tho sides and angles of the interior polygon 
 being known, its area may be formed without revolving it 
 into triangles. See Polygon. 
 
 Trigonometrical Survey. — When a survey is to I 
 ed on a large scale, as tor making a geometrical map of a 
 country, or for measuring an arc of the terrestrial meridian, 
 not only is minute accuracy required in all the practical 
 parts of the operation, but it becomes necessary to have 
 regard to the curvature of the earth's surface, the effect! Of 
 temperature, refraction, altitude alsive the sea, and a host 
 of circumstances of which the influence is wholly unap 
 preciablein the practice of ordinary surviving. Geodetical 
 measurements of this kind have been executed in various 
 countries. (See Degree.) The first which was under- 
 taken in our own country was that ol General Koy, begun 
 in 1783, for the purpose of connecting the Greenwich ob- 
 servatory with the French tri angulation, which had been 
 carried on from Paris to the. coast opposite Dover, and con- 
 sequently for determining the difference of the meridians of 
 the two observatories bj actual measurement. This gave 
 rise to a more Important operation; oatnely, a general sur 
 vey of the kingdom, which was begun in 1791, under the 
 direction of the Hoard of Ordnance, and has been carrying 
 o. up to the present time. A brief description of the me 
 thods employed in conducting the different parts of this 
 splendid national undertaking will probably be the best 
 means we could adopt to explain the nature and objects of 
 an accurate trigonometrical survey. 
 
 Measurement of llasc. — This is the fundamental, and 
 probably the most difficult part of the whole operation, and 
 requires to be executed with the most minute accuracy, as 
 any error committed in its determination will affect all the 
 distances deduced from it, and be multiplied in the ratio of 
 these distances to the length of the base. First of all, a 
 suitable piece of ground, on which a straight line of not 
 less than five or six miles can lie laid down, must be select- 
 ed and carefully levelled: and a measuring apparatus em- 
 ployed of which the length is exactly known in units of a 
 standard scale. General Roy's base on lloiinslow Heath 
 was first measured with deal rods ; but as these were found 
 to be affected by the hygroinetrical changes of the atmos- 
 phere, it was again measured with glass tubes 20 feet in 
 length, furnished with a peculiar apparatus for making the 
 contacts. In the subsequent measurement of the same line 
 for the ordnance survey, two steel chains of 100 feet in 
 length, made by the celebrated Kamsden, were made use 
 of. One of these was used as a measuring chain ; the other 
 was kept for the purpose of the measuring chain being com- 
 pared with it before and after the operation. In the act of 
 measuring, the chain was laid in a trough supported on 
 trestles, and stretched with a weight of 56 lbs. The same 
 apparatus was employed in measuring five other bases in 
 different parts of the country, for the purpose of verifying 
 the accuracy of the work. For the measurement of a base 
 in the survey of Ireland, Colonel Colby employed a com 
 pensating apparatus formed of bars of different metals, so 
 arranged that the distance between two points viewed by 
 microscopes remains constant under all changes of tempera- 
 ture. The length of the Hounslow Heath base was nearly 
 Sri miles ; that of the Irish base about 8 miles. 
 
 Selection of Stations.—' The next step in the operation is 
 to divide the country to be surveyed into a series of con- 
 nected triangles. The choice of the stations which torm 
 the angular points must depend in some measure on tho 
 nature of the country ; but where circumstances admit of a 
 selection being made, it is very important to form the tri- 
 ani'les so that the small unavoidable errors of observation 
 shall produce the least errors possible in the resulting sides 
 The conditions required for this purpose are most nearlj 
 
 1205 
 
SURVEYING. 
 
 mi tilled by making the triangles as nearly as possible equi- 
 lateral. 
 
 .Signals. — Various plans have been adopted in the course 
 of the survey for marking and rendering visible the stations 
 at which the instrument is successively set up. At first 
 itag-stans were chiefly used, carrying lamps and concave 
 reiiectors for night observations. Such signals could be 
 seen in the telescope of the great theodolite at distances of 
 20 or even 24 miles. Bengal lights, fixed in small sockets, 
 were used for more dMant stations. But night observations 
 having been found by experience to be attended with much 
 uncertainty as well as inconvenience, they have of late 
 yjars been abandoned. In the mountainous countries of 
 Scotland and Ireland, and where the sides of the triangles gen- 
 erally exceeded 50 and sometimes even 100 miles in length, 
 conical piles of stone were erected on the tops of hills ; and 
 although these signals are attended with this disadvantage, 
 that they can only be seen when the atmosphere is clear 
 (and the surveying parties have been frequently compelled 
 to remain weeks and even months encamped on the sum- 
 mits of the mountains before a single observation could be 
 made), yet, from the steadiness of the object observed, they 
 are found, on the whole, to be preferable to any night signals 
 that have hitherto been tried. When the theodolite is to be 
 set up at a station which has been already observed from 
 another, the pile is thrown down, and the instrument placed 
 exactly over its centre. The heliotrope, and small plane 
 mirrors, have likewise been occasionally employed with 
 success. (On this subject, see Mr. Drummond's paper in the 
 Phil. Trans, for 1826.) 
 
 Reduction to Centre of Station. — In observing the angles 
 at any station, it is supposed that the centre of the instru- 
 ment is placed exactly at the centre of the station. This 
 condition was rigidly adhered to in the ordnance survey 
 of Britain, by erecting signals on purpose; but where the 
 saving of expense is an object, it will often be convenient 
 lo take advantage of spires, towers, &c, in which case, the 
 instrument cannot always be placed in the required position. 
 In such circumstances, the observation is made at a point 
 near the station, and the angle at that point subtended by 
 two remote objects is reduced to that which would have 
 been observed if the instrument had been placed exactly at 
 the centre of the station. The reduction is made as follows : 
 Let C (fig. 1) be the centre of the sta- 
 tion ; A and B the two remote objects ob- 
 served ; and suppose the instrument to 
 be set up at a point K near to C; then 
 the angle actually measured is A K B, 
 while that which is to be determined is 
 ACB. Put CA = ft, CK = rf, the an- 
 gle BAC = A, ACB = C, AKB = K, 
 BKC = 4; then the difference between 
 C and K expressed in seconds of a de- 
 gree is 
 
 „ „ rfsin. (A — k) sin.K 
 
 ft sin. A sin. 1" 
 The distance C K or d is measured j C A or ft is found ap- 
 proximately by computing the triangle ACB with the ap- 
 proximate value of C observed at K ; and the angles A, K, k 
 are given by observation. The formula is not quite exact, 
 but sufficiently so for.nl! ordinary cases. 
 
 Reduction to the Horizon. — Another indispensable condi- 
 tion is, that the angles observed at each station be reduced 
 to the plane of the horizon. When the theodolite is em- 
 ployed for measuring the angles this reduction is effected 
 by the instrument itself, and hence the great advantage of 
 the theodolite as a surveying instrument; but when the 
 angles are measured with a repeating circle or sextant, a re- 
 duction is necessary, unless the two distant objects observed 
 be in the same horizontal plane with the instrument, which 
 will rarely happen. Suppose the observer stationed at A, 
 and let B and C be the distant objects. Let the angular 
 elevation of B above the horizontal plane (which is found 
 by measuring its zenith distance) be ji seconds, and the ele- 
 vation of C be y seconds ; also let A' bo the horizontal pro- 
 jection of the angle A, and suppose A — A' = x seconds; 
 then 
 
 H(^)''^)-(^)-(J)K'" 
 
 which gives the correction to be subtracted from the ob- 
 served angle A in order to have the corresponding angle A'. 
 If one of the objects B or C be depressed, the arc of depres- 
 , sion, ji or y, must be regarded as a negative quantity. 
 
 Spherical Excess. — The sum of the three aneles of any 
 spherical triangle exceeds 180° by a quantity which is call- 
 ed the spherical excess, and which we shall denote by E. 
 If the observations could bo made with absolute accuracy, 
 the sum of the three observed ancles of any triangle on the 
 ground would be 180° + E; the difference of their sum 
 from this quantity is the aggregate error of the three ob- 
 1206 
 
 served angles, and must be distributed among those angles 
 so as to render the sum precisely 180° -f-E before the sides 
 are computed. It is therefore necessary to determine E 
 Let S denote the area of the triangle in square feet, r the 
 number of feet in the radius of the earth, and rr=3'14159; 
 then E is given in seconds by this formula {see Spherical 
 Excess), 
 
 _ S X 643000" 
 L. = » 
 
 itr% 
 
 (648000 being the number of seconds in 180°). In order, 
 therefore, to compute E, we must previously know the va- 
 lues of S and r. Now with respect to S, it is to be otnerved 
 that in every case which can arise in practice the aiea of 
 the triangle must be a very small quantity in comparison of 
 ri, so that in order to find E it is not necessary to compute 
 S with great precision. A sufficiently near value will be 
 obtained by calculating one of the unknown sides as if the 
 triangle were a plane one, and computing the area from the 
 formula S = £ a b sin. C. 
 
 With respect to r, which is here taken to represent the 
 radius of curvature of the surface of the triangle in question, 
 it is to be remarked that by reason of the ellipticity of the 
 earth, the radius of curvature of any arc on the earth's sur- 
 face varies not only with the latitude of the place of ob- 
 servation, but also with the direction of the arc in respect 
 of the meridian. For the present purpose it would be suffi- 
 ciently accurate to assume r as the radius of the meridian ; 
 but as the radius of the perpendicular and oblique arcs is 
 required in other parts of the computation, we shall here 
 state the formula; from which they are computed. Let K 
 be the radius of curvature of the meridian at latitude /, R' 
 the radius of the circle perpendicular to the meridian, and 
 r the radius of a great circle making an angle = with the 
 meridian; also let p denote half the polar axis of the earth 
 = 20,852,394 feet (see Degree), and e the ellipticity, or the 
 difference between the equatorial and polar axes divided bv 
 the polar axis (= 1 ~- 301-026 = -003322) ; then 
 
 R=p(l — e+3esin. 2/) 
 
 lV:=p (1-f-f + csin. 21) 
 
 Since the inclination is different for each of the sides 
 of the triangle, a mean value of r may be found by making 
 = 45°, in which case sin. 20 — A; and as the curvature 
 varies very little through a considerable extent of country, 
 the same value of r may be used for all the triangles within 
 a zone of two or three degrees of latitude. Suppose, then, 
 the value to be computed for the mean latitude of a chain 
 of triangles, the formula for the spherical excess will be 
 „ aft sin. C X 648000 , 
 
 i. = ; and on assuming the constant 
 
 2 TS 7-2 
 
 648000 -f-2 ir r2 =:?n, the formula for computation will be 
 log. E =s log. a -f- log. ft -j- log. sin. C -f- log. m. 
 
 It is proper to remark, that in general E is a very small 
 quantity. When the tides of the triangles are about 20 or 
 30 miles, it will seldom exceed 4 or 5 seconds of a decree 
 but in some of the great triangles connecting Ireland wit 
 the west coast of Scotland its value was found to excee 
 30 seconds. 
 
 Having computed the spherical excess E, make e= A 
 B + C — (180° + E), ( A, B, C being the observed horizontal 
 angles) then e is the error of the sum of the observed an- 
 gles; and if there be no reason for supposing that any one 
 of the angles has been less accurately determined than the 
 others, the error e must be equally divided among them, or 
 a third of e must be added to or subtracted from each angle, 
 according as the error is in excess or defect, and the re 
 suits will give the tingles from which the sides are to be 
 computed. Thus, if the angles for computation be A', B', C\ 
 we have 
 
 A' = A-f£e, B' = B + Je, C' = C + ie. 
 
 Calculation of the Sides. — The angles being thus corrected 
 for errors of observation, it now remains to compute the 
 two unknown sides of the triangles. The computation may 
 be made by the ordinary rules of spherical trigonometry ; 
 but this method is seldom practised on account of the length 
 of the calculations. A second method, which was prac- 
 tised by Delambre, and has been adopted in the ordnanc 
 surveys of Britian and Ireland, consists in first computin 
 from the observed horizontal angles the corrcspondin 
 glos firmed by the chords of the terrestrial arcs, and then 
 calculating the triangle as a plane one. In this manner tho 
 chords of the spherical arcs are found, whence the arc* 
 themselves are easily obtained. The reduction of a hori- 
 zontal or spherical angle to the corresponding chord angle 
 is made as follows: Let A be the observed spherical angle, 
 ft and c the lengths of the containing sides computed up 
 proximately as above explained, r the radius of curvature 
 at the place of observation, and A — x the plane angle con 
 tained by the chords of the sides be; then 
 
 h 
 
 I 
 
SURVEYING. 
 
 .2 cot. A A 
 
 l /» + c\2 tan.&A i f b — e \ 
 
 This formnla gives the reduction x expressed in seconds, 
 ami consequently the chord angle A — x. If we now de- 
 note by j' and r' the corresponding corrections for the other 
 angles' II and 0, the sum of the three corrections will evi- 
 dently lie the difference between the sum of the three 
 spherical angles of the triangle and the sum of the angles 
 of the plane triangle formed by the chords, or 180°, and, 
 consequently, 
 
 z-f-x' + i"- -E; 
 so that the spherical excess is obtained from the reduction, 
 not require to be previously computed. 
 The three COM angles A — x, B — x', C — x", being com- 
 puted from the above formula, the difference between their 
 sum mid lHtP gives the error of the three observed angles, 
 and must be apportioned among the thri." chord angles, so 
 that their sum shall be precisely 180°. Willi these cor- 
 ungles the chords of the spherical Dputed 
 
 plane trigonometry; and the arcs are then found from 
 the chords from the following formula.', where a,', V, <t are 
 the chords of the three terrestrial arcs a, ft, c ; namely, 
 
 '.Mr* ■<,■!' ^24f2 
 
 .—A third method of computing the 
 Alii'h has been generally adopted in the recent sur- 
 veys on Lite Continent, is derived from a thcorc n " 'Inch 
 red by Legendre, and is demonstrated in his 
 EUuut -rir.. " If from each of the angles of any 
 
 small triangle OB the surface of a sphere or spheroid one 
 third of tli«' spherical excess be deducted, the sines of the 
 angle* thus diminished will be proportional to the lengths 
 of the opposite sides, and consequently the sides may be 
 Computed as If the triangle were rectilineal." This is the 
 MelMt method of any; and, in fact, if the three angles in 
 ed to have been equally well determined, the pre- 
 vious comp uta tion of the spherical excess is not necessary 
 for the calculation of the sides, though it will be required 
 for estimating the relative accuracy of the observations. 
 The method of proceeding is this: Let A, B, C be the three 
 observed angles; and let i = A + I! + C — 180°; then, 
 from each of the three observed angles subtract (-d, and 
 with the angle* thus reduced compute the sides ns in a 
 plane triangle from the formula A = asin. (B — J'5)-r-sin. 
 (A — Id). The sides thus determined are equal to the 
 geodetical lines, or the spherical arcs on the ground. 
 
 Latitude*, Longitudes, *ind Azimuths. — When the sides 
 of all the triangles have been computed the distances be- 
 tween the stations become known ; but in order to com- 
 plete the survey, it is still necessary to determine the astro- 
 nomical positions of the principal stations, and the bearings 
 of the sides of the triangles with respect to the terrestrial 
 meridians. Tor this purpose the latitude and longitude of 
 One of the stations, and the azimuth of another as seen from 
 it, must be found by astronomical methods (see Latitude, 
 Lonoitudk, Azimuth) ; but when this has been done 
 /o \ these elements may be computed for each 
 p of the other stations in the chain of tri 
 
 angles, provided the dimensions and elip- 
 ticity of the spheroid are assumed to be 
 known. The ibrmulce for computation are 
 the following : 
 
 Let A and B (fig. 2) be two stations, A P 
 and B P tho meridians passing through A 
 and B and meeiing in the pole P; and let 
 the azimuths at each station be counted 
 f.-om tho south towards the west. Assume 
 I = 90° — A P = latitude of A, 
 e = 90° — B P == latitude of B, 
 A = 180° — P A B the azimuth of B as seen from A, 
 B = 180°+ P B A the azimuth of A as seen from B, 
 P = APB the difference of the longitudes of A and B, 
 d= length of the geodetical line A B in feet, 
 R' = radius of the circle perpendicular to the meridian at 
 
 A in feet, 
 < = lhe ellipticity as above defined = '003322 ; 
 Then, 
 
 „ , l dcos. A . d^sin.Z A tan./ > ., . „ „,. 
 
 = 1 - \-.-r— TT, ;+ „„., . ,„ [ (l + 2ecos.2/), 
 
 IV sin. 1" 
 
 211'-! sin. 
 
 r/sin. A. 
 
 R cos. I' xm. I"' 
 B=180°+A-P s lBj_ii±41, 
 COS. ft (/—f) 
 
 formula; are theoretically sufficient to give the 
 
 elements in question; but an same uncertainty must exist 
 
 ■ pllipticity of the e'.rth, and a small error in this 
 
 respect will affect the convergency of the meridians, and 
 
 produce a considerable error in the computed longitudes 
 
 SUTURE. 
 
 and azimuths, it la necessary, in carrying a survey over a 
 considerable tract of country, to check the azimuths bv de- 
 termining the direction of the meridian at different stations 
 lomical observations. 
 Calculation of Altitudes. — The only element which re- 
 mains to be determined, in order to complete the survey, is 
 the relative altitudes of the different stations or principal 
 \t ever}- station the elevation or depression of each 
 of the others observed from it is measured with the theodo- 
 lite; but owing to the curvature of the earth, and the re- 
 fraction of liuht, a calculation is necessary In order to deter- 
 mine their true differences of level, or of distance from the 
 centre of tin? earth. 
 
 Let A and II (tig. 3) be two stations, C the centre of the 
 earth ; and let 6 be the position of B 
 as seen from A elevated by refraction, 
 anil a that of A as seen from B. Make 
 CH=CA; then II B is the true dif- 
 ference of altitude of A and B, or the 
 quantity to be determined from obser- 
 vation.' Join A II, A II, A b, and draw 
 the horizontal lines A D and B D, 
 which will be reflectively perpendic- 
 ular to C A and C B. Assume in sec- ,: 
 onds, 
 
 d = D A &, the observed depression of B ; 
 
 if=DB<t, the observed depression of A; 
 
 =A0 IS, the angle measured by the arc AB; 
 
 p = the mean refra 
 
 <p =B A H, the angular difference of altitudes ; 
 then B II will be found by the following formula.': 
 
 F = i}c-(d + d') j*- = JC-(d + />) 
 
 BII = ABX0sin.l". 
 
 Thus DII is found In terras of A B, and the reciprocal 
 observations at A and B. The mean refraction p is also 
 determined at the same time; but if this be assumed to be 
 known, the observation of depression at one of the stations 
 would be sufficient to give the difference of elevations. The 
 two quantities d and d' have been both assumed to be de- 
 pressions ; If one of them 1-; an elevation, it mu t be I 
 with the negative sign. 
 
 See the Trigonometrical Survs* of England and Wales ; 
 
 Delambre, Basedu Systime M, tnque; Puissant, Traitt de 
 Geodesic ; Id. Nouvelle Description Geomctriquc de la 
 France; F.ncyc. Brit., art. "Trigonometrical Survey." 
 
 SURVIVORSHIP, in the doctrine df Life Annuities, is a 
 reversionary benefit contingent upon the circumstance of 
 some life or lives surviving some other life or lives, or of 
 the lives falling according to some assigned order. For the 
 solution of the different questions which can he put relative 
 to the values of annuities and assurances in every order of 
 survivorship, where there are only three lives, see the trea- 
 tises of Bally and Milne, or the Essay on Probabilities by 
 i De Morgan, In the Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 
 
 SUSPE'NSION BRIDGE. In Architecture, a bridge In 
 which the roadway, Instead of being carried over the sup- 
 porting points, is suspended from them, the supporting points 
 being chains or other flexible materials. The principle has 
 recently been carried to a great extent in this country, as in 
 the case of the Menai bridge ; but its application is old, and 
 has long been practised among people who have attained 
 verv little, if any, skill in the arts. See Bridoe. 
 
 SUSSEX MARBLE. A variety of limestone which con 
 stitutes one of the fresh-water deposites of the Wealdon 
 group; it abounds In shells of Paludinte, a genus of fresh- 
 water Univalves. It occurs in layers varying from a few 
 inches to upwards of a foot in thickness, the layers being 
 separated bv seams of clay or of friable limestone. 
 
 SU'TTEE. (More correctly written Sati or Satee ; in 
 Sanscrit, pure.) A word applied by the Brahmins to vari- 
 ous rites of religious purification ; but more especially, by 
 usage, to the voluntary self-immolation of widows on the 
 funeral pile of their husbands. This is nowhere command- 
 ed in the religious books of Hindostan, although it is spoken 
 of, in common with tnanv other acts of similar fanaticism, 
 as highly 'meritorious. The English government, up to a 
 late period, had only interfered to ensure, as far as possible, 
 that the -.acrifico should be voluntary on the part of the 
 sufferer, which was done by the presence of a government 
 officer. Thus legalized, suttees became frightfully common 
 in Bengal and the adjoining provinces in the present centu- 
 rv. At length, in December, 1829, they were abolished in 
 the Britisl'i dominions by Lord W. Bentinck. (See Forbes's 
 Oriental Memoirs, ii.. 20 ; Ueber's Journal, i., 70 ; and many 
 other authorities.) There is a curious account of a suttee 
 in Bali, an island in which the Hindoo religion now pre- 
 vails, in Crawford's Jnd. Archipelago, book vi., ch. 2. 
 
 SUTURE, in Mammalogy, is the line formed by the in- 
 cumbent series of converging series of hairs of the integu- 
 ment. In Entomology, it is the line at which the elytra 
 meet, and are sometimes confluent. 
 
 1207 
 
SWAB. 
 
 Suture, in Anatomy, means the junction of bones by 
 their serrated or teethed margins : the bones of the skull 
 are so uniled. 
 
 SWAB. A large bundle of old yarns hung by the mid- 
 dle, and swung right and left to dry the decks. 
 
 SVVA'LLOW. A name equivalent to the subgeneric 
 term Hirundo, appropriated in modern Ornithology to the 
 British species called bank, chimney, and window swallows, 
 and to foreign allied forms dismembered from the swifts. 
 
 SWAMP. Ground habitually so moist and soft as not 
 to admit of being trod on by cattle, but, at the same time, 
 producing particular kinds of trees, bushes, and plants. A 
 swamp differs from a bog and a marsh in producing trees 
 and shrubs, while the latter produce only herbage, plants, 
 and mosses. 
 
 SWAN. Of the noble web-footed birds so called there 
 are three British species — the Hooper or Bewick's, the wild 
 and the tame swan. These form the type of the subgenus 
 Cygnus. The wild swan and Hooper ought, perhaps, to be 
 regarded as the only true native species. The tame swan 
 (Cygnus olor) is superior in bulk to either of the wild spe- 
 cies, and is at once distinguished by a large black callous 
 knob on the base of the bill. Both the wild species are pe- 
 culiarly characterized by convolutions of the windpipe, ex- 
 tending in the mature bird through the whole length of the 
 keel of the sternum. These convolutions are horizontal in 
 the Cygnus Bewickii, and vertical in the Cygnus ferus. 
 
 SWARD. Green turf; that is, the surface of land under 
 pasture grasses. A fine sward may be called the charac- 
 teristic feature of British landscape, not being found in the 
 same degree of perfection in any other country, not even in 
 Ireland. 
 
 SWEDENBO'RGIANS. The followers of Emanuel 
 Swedenborg, a Swedish nobleman, who died in 1772. He 
 conceived the society which he founded to be the New Je- 
 rusalem spoken of in Revelations, and its members to be 
 gifted with peculiar insight into spiritual things. The Swe- 
 denborgians imagine that they can see mentally, and hold 
 conversation with spirits. They interpret Scripture by a 
 system of correspondences, supposing it to have three dis- 
 tinct senses, accommodated respectively to particular class- 
 es, both of men and angels. They date the hast judgment 
 of the spiritual world and the second advent of Christ from 
 the year 1757. They abound principally in England, where 
 they have at the present day several chapels in London and 
 other large towns.- 
 
 SWELL. The term for a succession of waves in a par- 
 ticular direction, and named after the point of the compass 
 from which the waves move. 
 
 Swell. In Music, a set of pipes in an organ acted upon 
 by a key board, and capable of being increased in intensity 
 of sound by the action of a pedal, which allows of its being 
 thereby gradually augmented. See Organ. 
 
 SWIFT. The name of the largest and most powerful 
 flier of the swallow tribe which visits this country. It is 
 the type of the subgenus Cypselus of Temminck ; the Hi- 
 rundo apus of Linnxus. See Hirundo. 
 
 SWIFTER. The name given to the foremost and after- 
 most shrouds, which are not rattled with the rest. The 
 term swifter is also applied in many cases to a rope used 
 for the temporary purpose of tightening or keeping a thing 
 in its place. 
 
 SWIMMERS. The web-footed or aquatic birds (JVato- 
 tores, III.; Palmipedes, Cuv.) are so called; also a tribe of 
 spiders (Araneida natantes) which live in water, and there 
 spin and spread abroad filaments to entrap their prey. 
 
 SWINEPOX. The chicken pox, which see. 
 
 SWINE STONE. Fetid or bituminous limestone, which 
 exhales a disagreeable odour on friction. 
 
 SWING. The ship at anchor is said to swing when she 
 changes her position at the turn of the tide. 
 
 SWIVEL. In Gunnery, a small cannon ; so called from 
 its being fixed in a swivel, by means of which it may be di- 
 rected to any object. Swivels are chiefly used at sea, and 
 are placed on the ship's side, stern, or bow, and also in the 
 tops. 
 
 SWORD OF STATE. Four swords are used at the 
 coronation of a British sovereign: 1. The sword of state, 
 properly so called. 2. The curtana (curtus, shortened), the 
 sword of mercy, which is pointless : it is mentioned by 
 Matthew Paris. 3. The sword of spiritual justice. 4. The 
 sword of temporal justice. These three are carried before 
 the sovereign : he is girt with the first. 
 
 SWORD, ORDER OF THE. A Swedish military order 
 of knighthood, instituted by Gustavus Vasa. 
 
 SY'BARITE. A term used metaphorically to designate 
 an effeminate voluptuary; so called from the inhabitants of 
 Sybaris, formerly a town of Italy on the gulf of Tarentum, 
 whom a devotion to sensual pleasures had so enfeebled that 
 they became an easy prey to the Crotonians, a people com- 
 paratively insignificant in point of numbers, by whom their 
 city was levelled to the ground, B.C. 310. 
 1208 
 
 SYLLOGISM. 
 
 SYCEE SILVER. The only approach to a silver cur 
 rency among the Chinese. In it the government taxes and 
 duties, and the salaries of the officers are paid ; and it is 
 also current among the merchants in general. The term 
 sycee is derived from two Chinese words se sze, " fine gloss 
 silk;" which expression is synonymous with the significa- 
 tion of the term wan. This silver is formed into ingots (by 
 the Chinese called shoes), which are stamped with the 
 mark of the office that issues them, and the dates of their 
 issue. The ingots are of various weights, but most com- 
 monly of ten taels each. 
 
 Sycee silver is divided into several classes, according to 
 its fineness and freedom from alloy. The kinds most cur- 
 rent at Canton are the following : 
 
 1. Kwan heang: the hoppos duties, or the silver which 
 is forwarded to the imperial treasury at Pekin. This is of 
 97 to 99 touch. On all the imperial duties a certain per 
 centage is levied for the purpose of turning them into Sycee 
 of this high standard, and of conveying them to Pekin with- 
 out any loss in the full amount. The hoppo, however, ii> 
 all probability, increases the percentage far above what is 
 requisite, that he may be enabled to retair, the remainder 
 for himself and his dependants. 
 
 2. Fan hoo, or fan foo : the treasurer's receipts, or that in 
 which the hind tax is paid. This is also of high standard, 
 but inferior to the hoppos duties ; and being intended for 
 use in the province, and not for conveyance to Pekin, ne 
 percentage is levied on the taxes for it. 
 
 3. Yuen paon, literally "chief in value." This kind is 
 usually imported from Soochan in large pieces of 5u tacls 
 each. It does not appear to belong to any particular gov- 
 ernment tax. 
 
 4. Yen, or een hearg, "salt duties." It is difficult to ac- 
 count for these being of so low a standard, the salt trade 
 being entirely a government monopoly. 
 
 5. Muh tue, or wuh tue, the name of which signifying 
 " uncleansed or unpurified," designates it as the worst of 
 all. It is seldom used except for the purpose of plating. 
 (Prinsep's "Useful Tahles," Appendix to Journal of Asiatic 
 Society, 8vo, Calcutta, 1834.) 
 
 SYCO'MA. (Gr. cvkov, a fig.) A fig-shaped tumour. 
 
 SY'COPHANT. (Gr. auKofavrtis, from ovkov, a fig, 
 (paivw, I disclose.) It was forbidden by the laws of Athens 
 at one period to export figs. The public informers who 
 gave notice of delinquencies against this fiscal law were 
 extremely unpopular, and hence the word came into use to 
 signify an informer or false accuser generally; in which 
 sense it is constantly used by Aristophanes and the orators. 
 In modern languages it has acquired the sense of a mean 
 flatterer. 
 
 SYCO'SIS. A tubercular eruption upon the scalp, or 
 bearded part of the face : it sometimes forms a very trouble- 
 some impediment to shaving. 
 
 SY'ENITE. A granitic rock from Sycne, or Siena, in 
 Egypt. It often has the appearance of a variety of granite. 
 See Geology. 
 
 SY'LLABLE. (Gr. ovlXnGi;, from ov\\au6avu>, I collect), 
 is defined by Girard. the celebrated French grammarian, " a 
 simple or compound sound, pronounced with all its articu- 
 lations by a single impulsion of the vwice." The principal 
 difficulty in arranging the syllabic construction of language 
 is to ascertain in what cases two or more consonants fol- 
 lowing each other may be joined in a syllable ; which can 
 only be done by investigation of the mechanism of speech. 
 (See a learned article on this subject in the Encyclopedic) 
 
 SY'LLABUS. (Gr. avv and \au6avw.) A compendium 
 or abridgment, or a table of contents ; as a syllabus of lec- 
 tures, &c. 
 
 SYLLE'PSIS. (Gr. ovWnxpiS, connexion, or taking to- 
 gether.) In Grammar, sometimes called substitution. A 
 name given by some writers to that idiom of the Greek and 
 Latin languages whereby an adjective predicated of a mas 
 culine and feminine substantive is made to accord in gender 
 with the former : e. g., " rex et regina beati." 
 
 SY'LLOGISM. (Gr. ovWiyu, I collect.) In Logic, an 
 argument stated in the correct logical form, consisting of 
 three propositions, and having the property that the conclu- 
 sion necessarily follows from the two premises; so that if 
 the premises be true, the conclusion must be true also. (Sec 
 Proposition, Logic.) As often as the mind observes any 
 two notions to agree with a third, it immediately concludes 
 that they agree wilh each other: as, A is equal to B; B is 
 equal to C ; therefore A is equal to C. Or, if it finds that 
 one of them agrees and the other disagrees with the third, it 
 pronounces that they disagree with each other. In tin QrW 
 of these processes it produces a syllogism with an affirma- 
 tive conclusion in the latter, a syllogism with a m-gntiv. 
 conclusion. 
 
 Syllogisms are variously divided : by some into single, 
 complex, and conjunctive, &c. ; by others (according to the 
 Oxford system of logic) into categorical, hypothetical, con- 
 ditional, "&c. But the categorical syllogism, consisting of 
 
three categorical propositions, is the simplest form of reason- 
 ing, and that to which all other forms can he reduced. 
 
 The following are the two canons by which the validity 
 of a categorical syllogism is explained: 1. If two terms, 
 i. c, notions expressed in language (see Term), agree with 
 one and the same third, they agree with each other. 2. If 
 one term agrees, and another disagrees with a third, the 
 two first disagree with one another. Hence are deduced the 
 six following rules I 
 
 1. Every syllogism has three terms only, viz., the middle 
 term, ami the two extremes. The subject of the conclusion 
 is called the minor term ; its predicate the major term : the 
 middle term is that with which they are respectively com- 
 pared. 2. Every syllogism has three propositions only : the 
 major premiss, in which the major term is compared with 
 the middle , the minor premiss, in which the minor term is 
 compared with the middle ; and the conclusion, in which 
 thi; major and minor terms are compared together. 3. The 
 middle term must be, in logical language, distributed once 
 at least m the premise*; i. e., it must be the subject of a 
 universal, or the predicate of a negative (.see Proposition) ; 
 Otherwise it may hapiicn that one of the extremes is com- 
 pared with one part of it, and the other with another part. 
 4. No term must be distributed in the conclusion which is 
 not distributed in one of the premises; otherwise the whole 
 term would be employed in the conclusion, where part only 
 are employed in the premiss: this error is called an illicit 
 process of the major or minor premiss. 5. From negative 
 premises you can infer nothing ; i. e., if two terms disagree 
 with a third, you cannot conclude either their mutual agree- 
 ment or disagreement 6. If one premiss be negative, the 
 conclusion must be negative ; for if one term disagree with 
 the middle, it must of necessity also disagree with the other. 
 The other rules are corollaries deducihle from these six. 
 
 The mood of a syllogism is the designation of its three 
 •"is In their order, according to their respective 
 quantity and quality. By reference to the head Proposi- 
 tion, it will be seen that arbitrary symbols are adopted in 
 logic to mark the quality and quantity of propositions : thus 
 A stands f'<>r a universal affirmative; E represents a univer- 
 sal negative : I, a particular affirmative; and O a particular 
 negative. These four letters will afford sixty-four different 
 combinations of three letters ; but of these the greater part 
 will afford syllogisms erring against some one or more of 
 the rules previously laid down: thus E E E would be at 
 once inadmissible, as exhibiting two negative premises — 
 against rule 5. By an accurate examination, it is found that 
 eleven moods only will afford correct syllogisms: AAA, 
 A A I, A E E, A E O, A 1 1, A O O, E A E, E A O, E I O. 
 I A I, and A O. 
 
 The figure of a syllogism consists in the situation of the 
 middle term with reference to the major and minor terms. 
 1. The first fi»ure is where the middle term is the subject 
 of the major premiss, nnd predicate of the minor. 2. Where 
 the middle term is the predicate of both premises. 3. Where 
 it is the subject of both. 4. Where it is the predicate of the 
 major, and subject of the minor. Multiplying the moods by 
 the figures, we should have forty-four different syllogisms. 
 But it will be found, on examination, that five moods in 
 =ach figure (twenty in all) would err against some one or 
 tther ot the rules before laid down : e. g., 1 A I is an allow- 
 nble mood in the third figure; but, in the first, it would have 
 an undistributed middle. Of the twenty-four remaining, 
 five are unnecessary ; t. «., they are moods in which a par- 
 ticular conclusion only is inferred from premises which 
 would warrant a universal. The nineteen remaining are 
 expressed in the following mnemonic lines : 
 
 Fig. 1, 4 moods: BAriArA, cElArEnt, dArll, fErlOaue 
 
 prions. * ' 
 
 Fig. 2, 4 moods: CEsArE, cAmEstrEs, fEstlnO, bArO- 
 
 kO, secundic. 
 
 Fig. 3, 6 moods : Tertia dArAprl, dlsAmU, dAtlsl, /E- 
 
 lAptOn, ROkArdO,fErlsOn, habet: quarta insuper 
 
 addit. 
 Fig. 4, 5 moods : BrAmAntlp, cAmEnEs, dlmArls. f E- 
 
 sApQ, frEslsOn. J 
 
 Dne mood in each figure may be given by way of exam- 
 ple. The letter M designates the middle term ; the letter 
 preceding the proposition its quantity and quality. 
 
 1. A. All excess (M) is sinful. 
 
 A. All gluttony is excess (M) : therefore, 
 
 A. All excess is sinful. (A syllogism in Barbara ) 
 
 2. A. Everything expedient is lawful (M). 
 
 E. Nothing unjust is lawful (M) : therefore, 
 E. Nothing unjust is expedient. (A syllogism in Ca- 
 mestres.) 
 
 3. A. All conquerors (51) are cruel. 
 
 1- Some conquerors (M) are just: therefore, 
 a \ ™? me jusl men are cruel - ( A s y»"<?'sm in Datisi.) 
 
 4. A. Whatever is expedient Is conformable to nature (51) 
 
 SYMBOL. 
 
 E. Whatever is conformable to nature (51) is not hurt- 
 ful : therefore, 
 E. What is hurtful is not expedient. (A syllogism in 
 Camenes.) 
 it will be observed that in all these instances the major 
 premiss is presumed to precede the minor; but although 
 this is the most convenient form of reasoning, the minor 
 premiss is, with equal validity, made the first in the series : 
 t.g., 
 
 Brutus is an honourable man : 
 Honourable men affirm the truth ; therefore 
 llrutus affirms the truth. 
 This is a syllogism in Barbara, with the minor premiss 
 placed before the major. 
 
 The fourth figure is considered to be inverted and un 
 natural ; and the first three figures, with their fourteen 
 moods, furnish almost every argument which is employed, 
 however far it may be removed in appearance, through" the 
 intricacy of language, from the syllogistic form. But all ar- 
 guments may be brought, by an ingenious process termed 
 reduction, into one or other of the four moods of the first 
 
 flL'lire. 
 
 In reducing a syllogism, the premises may be illatively 
 converted (sre Illative Conversion), or transposed ; since 
 the force of the argument can be altered by neither of these 
 processes. By employing this liberty, we deduce either the 
 same conclusion with the original, or another conclusion 
 from which the original conclusion follows by illative con- 
 version. We have not sjxice to explain, by examples, these 
 various processes. The letters which compose the nan* i 
 of the syllogistic moods are framed to express the manner 
 in which those of the three last figures are reduced into 
 those of the first. The first letter indicates the mood into 
 which those beginning with the same letter are to be re- 
 duced: e.g., Brainantip is reducible into Barbara , i indicates 
 that the premises are to be transposed ; s and p that the 
 proposition denoted by the vowel immediately preceding is 
 to be converted — * simply, p |ier accident) ; k, which occurs 
 only in Barokn and Bokardo, indicates that the proposition 
 denoted by the vowel Immediately before it must be left out, 
 and the contradictory of the conclusion (tet i'ontradic- 
 tory) substituted, which is termed the rcductio ad impos 
 sibile. 
 
 A hypothetical syllogism is one in which the conclusion 
 is deduced from a hypothetical premiss (called the major) 
 and a categorical premiss (called the minor). It is of two 
 kinds — conditional and disjunctive : the first subdivided into 
 constructive and destructive. 
 
 (If the demand increases, the supply will in- 
 crease : 
 But the demand increases ; 
 Therefore the supply will increase. 
 !If the country is flourishing, agriculture is 
 flourishing: 
 But agriculture is not flourishing; 
 Therefore the country is not flourishing. 
 (Either A is B, or C is D: 
 3. Disjunctive.-) But A is not B ; 
 I Therefore C is D. 
 It is evident that a disjunctive syllogism may easily be re- 
 duced to a conditional. (See the Compendium of Logic by 
 Dean Aldrich, commonly used at Oxford ; and the Treatise 
 of Archbishop Whately.) 
 
 SYLPH. (Gr. aiXfn, a kind of insect.) The name given 
 to the spirits of nir in the fantastic nomenclature of the 
 Rosicrucians and Cabalists. (See those articles.) The use 
 which Pope has made of this fancy in his Rape of the /mcL 
 is well known. He seems to have borrowed it from the 
 enigmatical romance called the Count de Gabalis. 
 
 SY'MBOL. (Gr. cvpSoXov ; from aw, together, and fiaX- 
 X(o, I throw.) A word of many meanings, although now 
 commonly used in one only. 1. The primary meaning of 
 the verb av^nXXeiv expresses the act of several in consti- 
 tuting or throwing together portions to form a whole. Hence 
 ovpiGoXov signified a treaty or agreement. (Jlrist. Polit.) 
 And it seems to be in this sense that the creeds are termed 
 by early ecclesiastical writers symbols : either because (as 
 Augustine says) all the fundamental doctrines of Christian- 
 ity are collected in them ; or from the old traditional story, 
 related by Rufinus, that the creed called the Apostles' was 
 formed by each of them contributing a sentence. ($M 
 Cried.) 2. The mind may be said to put together (avfiSaX- 
 Xav) outward appearances, and collect from them the notion 
 of a thing signified by them ; and hence the outward ap 
 pearances themselves derive the appellation of symbols, signs, 
 or emblems; while the act of the mind is termed conjec- 
 ture (Lat. conjicio). Thus, the standards of military bodies 
 were culled by the Greeks symbols ; as likewise omens and 
 portents ; and expressions or figures denoting a received 
 meaning, as the Pythagorean symbols. In this sense, the 
 early Christian church called all rites, ceremonies, and out 
 ward forms, bearing a religious meaning, by the general 
 
 1209 
 
SYMMETRICAL SOLIDS. 
 
 name of symbols; the sacraments themselves, and the 
 sacramental elements, the Cross, and, in later times, images 
 and pictures. Symbols, properly so called, must be distin- 
 guished from types, t. e., phenomena, manifestations record- 
 ed in the Old Testament, of which the full meaning is de- 
 veloped by correlative manifestations in the New ; and from 
 mere symbolical attributes, such as the figures usually intro- 
 duced in company of the four Evangelists. Symbolical books 
 are such as contain the creeds and confessions of different 
 churches ; such as the three creeds, received by all ; the 
 Confession of Augsburg, received by the Lutherans ; the ar- 
 ticles of the Church of England, &c. The Germans call the 
 study of the symbols and mysterious rites of antiquity, and 
 also the study of the history and contents of Christian creeds 
 and confessions of faith, by the name of Symbolics (mytho- 
 logical or theological.) Marheineke's Institutio7ics Sym- 
 bolics, of which the first edition appeared in 1812, is one of 
 their most distinguished works in the latter class. 
 
 SYMMETRICAL SOLIDS. In Geometry, a name given 
 by Legendre to solids which, though equal and similar, can- 
 not be brought to coincide with each other, or to occupy the 
 same portion of space. A man's two hands affords an ex- 
 ample of symmetrical solids. The equality of plane figures 
 is proved by showing that they may be made to coincide, 
 but it is evident that this mode of proof cannot be extended 
 to all solids. 
 SY'MMETRY. In the Fine Arts. Sec Proportion. 
 SY'MPATHY. (Gt. ovnTraox«>, I suffer with.) In Moral 
 Philosophy, the quality of being affected by feelings common 
 to our fellow-men. In his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Dr. 
 Smith maintains that sympathy is the real foundation of 
 morals. (See Virtue.) For a succinct statement of this 
 theory, see " The Life of Dr. Smith," prefixed to M'Culloch's 
 edition of the Wealth of Nations, p. iv. In the Fine Arts, 
 the term signifies conformity of the parts to each other ; but 
 in Painting it is more usually applied to the effective union 
 of colours. 
 
 SY'MPHONY. (Gr. oiiv, with, and q)wvn, voice.) In 
 Music, a composition which, from the etymology of the term, 
 evidently implies that the vo^e anciently formed an essen- 
 tial part of its construction. In the pres iat day, i. v. 
 the term is otherwise applied, and is exclusively ii:-ed for a 
 piece ia which instruments only are engaged. It is, in fact, 
 a composition for a perfect instrumental orchestra, which, 
 until the beginning of the eighteenth century, was unknown. 
 The Concerti grossi of Corelli were the first of the species, 
 Which was carried out to a greater extent in the works of 
 Geminiani and Vivaldi ; but it does not seem to us that be- 
 fore the time of Haydn it can be said to have assumed the 
 form which the name now imports. There is, perhaps, no 
 musical composition in which the power of the author is so 
 completely developed as in a symphony. The musician in it 
 becomes a poet, or, perhaps rather, a painter. Scenes and 
 the passions are represented therein by a combination of 
 musical sounds ; in illustration of which we need only cite 
 that splendid work of Beethoven, known to all under the 
 name of II Pastorale. The general form of the symphony 
 may be thus described : It opens with a short, serious, slow 
 movement ; this is followed by, and forms a contrast to one 
 of spirit and of a lively nature; then comes an andante 
 varied, or an adagio or slow movement; a minuet with its 
 trio follows ; and the symphony usually closes with a lively 
 rondo, or a finale of rapid motion. 
 
 SYMPHYSIS. (Gr. ovu<puttv, to grow together.) A term 
 applied to the junction of certain bones, or to joints not ad- 
 mitting of motion, as the symphysis of the pubes. 
 
 SYMPIESO'METER. (.Gt.ovuiru<,u, I compress; ucrpov, 
 measure.) An instrument contrived by Mr. Adie of Edin- 
 burgh for measuring the weight of the atmosphere by the 
 compression of a column of gas. It consists of a glass tube 
 ilA A B C of about 18 inches in length, bent as repre- 
 sented in the annexed figure, and having an en- 
 larged portion or bulb of about 2 inches in length 
 and half an inch in diameter at each end. The top 
 at A is hermetically sealed, and the other extremity 
 C can be stopped by a cork. The upper part of the 
 ] »* tube A m is filled with some permanently elastic 
 gas different from common air (hydrogen gas is 
 found to answer best), and the lower nlln with a 
 fixed oil, or some fluid which does not act upon the 
 gas and is not acted upon by air. 
 
 The tube being opened at C, the oil is exposed to 
 the pressure of the atmosphere, and stands at a 
 height m, corresponding to the difference of the 
 pressures of the atmosphere and of the column of 
 enc'osed gas. Consequently, as the atmospheric 
 pressure becomes greater the gas will be compressed, and 
 the column of oil will rise. The change in the bulk of the 
 gas occasioned by a change of pressure is measured by a 
 scale, which is formed experimentally, and of which the di- 
 visions are entirely arbitrary. 
 But as the hulk of the enclosed gas is altered by any 
 1210 
 
 SYNCHRONISM. 
 
 change of temperature as well as of pressure, it is necessary 
 to apply a correction on this account. Fur this purpose a 
 common thermometer is attached to the instrument to indi- 
 cate the temperature ; and the principal or barometric scale, 
 which measures the compression of the gas, is made to slide 
 upon another scale divided so as to represent the change of 
 bulk in the gas produced by a change of temperature under 
 the same pressure, and corresponding to the graduation of 
 the thermometer. In making an observation, the tern 
 perature is first observed by the thermometer; an index ot 
 pointer, which is fixed to the top of the sliding scale, is then 
 set opposite to the degree of temperature on the n 
 and the number on the sliding scale opposite the top of the 
 column of oil gives the pressure of the air in inches of the 
 mercurial barometer. 
 
 The principle of the sympiesometer is the same as that ef 
 the manometer, or air barometer, which was long ago pro] 
 posed by Hooke ; and Mr. Adie's great improvement con 
 sists in the substitution of a gas for common air, which lias 
 the defect of being absorbed by the enclosing fluid. It is 1 
 valuable instrumental sea, as it is not affected in any degree 
 by the motion of the ship; and it possesses several advan- 
 tages over the barometer in its convenient size, its gieateJ 
 portability, and in being less liable to accident. (See tnj 
 Edinburgh Encyclopedia, art. " Meteorology ;" I 
 Journal, No. 1 ; Edin. Journal of Science, No. 20.) 
 
 SYMPO'SIARCH. (Gr. cvp.voaiov, feast, and af\u>, 1 
 rule.) The ruler or master of a feast; one selected by t lie 
 consent of the party to be their president for the 
 whom the Greeks sometimes called (iaaiXtvi. The word 
 rendered "governor of the feast," in John, ii., 8, is afix lT n 
 /cAivoj. Some think that a priest or Lcvite was chosen to 
 fill this office in Jewish feasts. 
 
 SYN^E'RESIS. (Gt. ovvaipui, I contract.) Otherwise 
 called Crasis. (Gr. xpaois, mixture.) In Grammar, till 
 contraction of two syllables into one by the formation oi' a 
 diphthong, or by rendering one of them mute: as, Auvitfcj 
 for Atreides. See Metaplasm. 
 
 SY NAGOGUE. (Gr. ovvayia, I assemble.) The :v,i- 
 gious assemblies of the Jews are so called by Hollei it 
 Wli -''.'1: 
 
 the Babylonish captivity. Thar were first forme 
 return of the Jews to the Holy Land. The rule was, that a 
 synagogue was to be erected in any place where there wea 
 ten persons of full age and free condition ready to ut.cuil 
 the service of it. Others, however, consider the ten ba 
 to use the Hebrew word, to have been ten elders, or statio, 
 ary men of the synagogue. (See Lightfoot.) The servii 
 performed in the synagogues consisted, and still consist-, \ 
 prayers, reading the scriptures, and preaching and expoiui 
 ing of them. The prayers are contained in litin; 
 reading of the scripture consists of three portions: th 
 "Shetna," certain selected passages from Deuteronomy an 
 Numbers; the law and the prophets. The third part of th 
 service is mentioned in several places in the narratives of til 
 life of our Saviour, and the Acts: Luke, iv., 16; Acts, xiii, 
 5. The times of the synagogue service were three days 
 week (Monday, Thursday, and Saturday), besides the hoi 
 days. The ministration of the synagogue was not confin 
 to the order of priests; the elders, or "rulers of the syn 
 gogue" were persons qualified, and duly admitted, of 
 tribes. (Prideau.v, Connexion, vol. i.) 
 
 SYNALiE'PHA. (Gr. ovv, together, <iAu0u>, / anoint 
 from the melting together of two sounds.) In Classics 
 Prosody, the usage by which, when a word cm\^ with n 
 vowel, with the letter m, and the next begins with a vowel 
 the final syllable of the one runs into the first of the other 
 This, in Latin verse, also takes place when the hist letter is 
 m; but the usage in this instance is called ectklipsis, or eli- 
 sion. The synaln-pha is commonly, though not With equal 
 regularity, adopted in Italian and Spanish poetry, and is not 
 unfrequently attempted,. especially by Milton, in our own ; 
 in French it extends only to the e mute at the end ot words. 
 
 SYNARTHRO'SIS. (Gr. cw, with, and apOpor, a joints 
 The immoveable connexion of one bone with another. 
 
 SYNCA'RPOUS. (Gr.ovv, nadicopiros, fruit.) Jn Botany, 
 a term applied to the carpels of a compound pistil when they 
 are completely united into an undivided body, as ill the 
 orange. 
 
 SY NCATEGOREMA'TIC. (Gr. cuv, and icarm n^a : I 
 word employed together with categoremotlcs or terms.) In 
 Logic, a word which cannot be employed by itself as a term, 
 but requires to be conjoined with another or others lor that 
 purpose. Such are adverbs, prepositions, nouns in other 
 cases besides the nominative, &.c. See Term. 
 
 SY'NCHONDRO'SIS. (Gr. ovr, and x<>vipvs< a cartilage.) 
 The junction of one bone with another by an intervening 
 curtilage. 
 
 SYNCHRONISM. (Gr. cvv, and xpoioc, time.) The 
 tabular arrangement of history according to dates, by which 
 contemporary persons and things in different countries are 
 brought together. 
 
 re 
 
SYNCLINAL. 
 
 SYNCI.l'.N AL. Sec Anticlinal. 
 SYNCOPA'TION. In Music. See Driving Notes. 
 NCOPE. [Gr.miv, and kotttid, I cut.) A figure of 
 Sramm ir. by which one or more letters are omitted In the 
 middle of a word; as in the Latin litus for littus. Sec 
 Metaplism. 
 
 Byncopk. In Pathology, fainting. A disease in which 
 the circnlation and respiration temporarily cease, or become 
 extremely feeble. 
 
 .!•!:. In Music. Sec Legato. 
 SY'NCRETIBM. (Gr. cvv, and icpaots, mixture.) In 
 Philosophy, the blending of llie tenets of diflcreut schools 
 Into a system. A party among the Platonlsti at the revival 
 iters, to which belonged Ammoniac, Pteodella Miran- 
 doln, Bessarion, and other distinguished men, have received 
 the name of Syncrel 
 
 \CRKT1STS. In Ecclesiastical History, the partisans 
 ■ Lutheran divine of the Kith century, who en- 
 ired to form B comprehensive scheme which should 
 Unite the different professor* of Christianity. The opinions 
 raised a stroll!; controversy In the Lutheran 
 church. A new confession of faith was drawn up i 
 ony for the purpose of excluding his partisans. As doctrines, 
 i ?er, they did not long sorvive his death, althoagb not 
 without effect on the spirit of the age. {Mosheim, cent. 
 Ct B.) 
 MJA'CTYLES, Syndactyly The nnme of a tribe of 
 here, including those which have the external and 
 middle too united BS far as the second joint. 
 
 SYNDESMOSIS. (Gr. ovnleiuoi, a ligament.) The 
 union of one hone with another by menus of ligament 
 
 NWC. (Gr. aw, with, iitn, justice.) A title given 
 nl different times to various municiiril and Other Officers, 
 j ndics of cities in Provence and Languedoc, under the 
 old Fiench government, were officers delegated by the muni- 
 cipal ii mandatories. Such were also the syn- 
 i trading companies. The creditors of a bankrupt, un- 
 der the law of France, appoint syndics or directors from 
 among their number. 
 sy.\ K'CDOCH E (Or. mix. with, ck, out, and Sexopai, I 
 
 . Ki i >no, .. i i' w hole is put 
 
 ir part for the whole. It is a species of trope. 
 
 ,'kiipi.) There are six ordinary instances of synec- 
 
 : 1. When genus is put for species (as " being" in the 
 
 of '•man"). l J. When species is put for genus. 3. 
 
 ,1 whole is put for one of its parts. 4. 
 
 I lie matter, or form, is put for the whole being. 5. 
 
 The whole for a part. (>. A part for the whole. 
 
 E'CHIA. (Gr. cvvc\io, I adhere.) A disease of the 
 in which the iris adheres to the cornea, or to the cap- 
 tbe crystalline lens. 
 SYNERGISTS. (Gr. ovvtpyi^u, I co-operate.) A name 
 to a party in the Lutheran church in the latter end 
 : ItUh century. Those who were thus called appear 
 to have held the doctiine that the divine grace requites a 
 pondent action of the human will in order to become 
 ual; which, or something resembling it, is termed 
 pelagian in early ecclesiastical history. Some senii- 
 ■ expressed by Melancthon, towards the close of his 
 i- to have Introduced it into that church. 
 BYNEUEO'SIS. (Gr. tvv, and vcvpm; a nerve, or liga- 
 ment, or membrane.) The una n of one bone with another 
 by means of an intervening men brane. 
 
 SYNGNATBIAN8, Syngnathii. (Gr. ovv, with, yvaOoc, 
 a jaw.) The name of a family of Lophohranchiale fishes, 
 including those in which the lengthened jaws are united by 
 a surrounding integument, so as to form a tubular mouth : 
 the genus Syngnathus, or pipe flab, is tin; type. Syngnatlxe 
 is ■ name given by Dr. Leach to an order of Myriapodous 
 Insects. 
 
 SY NGRAPHA. (Gr. cvv, and ypatpw, I write.) In 
 Diplomatics, contracts signed^ry the creditor and debtor, 
 ,ind of which a duplicate original was kept by each. 
 
 SYNIZE'SIS. (Gr. cuvtU), / meet.) An obliteration of 
 the pupil of the eye; a closed pupil. 
 
 SY'.VOCHA. (Gr. awtx^, I continue.) A continued in- 
 flammatory fever. The term synochus is applied to con- 
 tinued fevers, which are in their symptoms intermediate be- 
 tween synocha and typhus. They are also called mixed 
 fevers. 
 
 SYNOD. (Gr. ovvoSoc., employed in that language to sig- 
 nify a council or ecclesiastical assembly.) Among the mod- 
 erns a distinction is sometimes made between a council and 
 a synod ; the former term representing a general assembly 
 Of the episcopal, provincial, or national order ; the latter the 
 Convention of the inferior clergy of a diocess under its bish- 
 op or archdeacon. See Council. 
 
 Synod, in the Scottish Kirk, an assembly composed of 
 two or more presbyteries. It consists of every parish min- 
 whhln its limits, and of the elders who have last rep- 
 lied the different session* in the presbytery. There are 
 Is in Scotland. See Presbytery. 
 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 SYNOD OF DORT. See Dort, Synod or. 
 
 BYNO'DIC. ((ir. cci. together, odo$, pathway.) In As- 
 tronomy, the synodic revolution of a planet (or the moon), 
 with respect to the mid, is tin; time between two consecu- 
 tive conjunctions or oppositions. The duration of this 
 period is easily found when the difference between the 
 mean motion of the planet and sun la a given interval of 
 time is known ; tor this difference is to 300° as the given 
 interval to the synodic revolution. The synoilicut month is 
 the period ol' the moon's synodic revolution, and is the same 
 with lunar mouth or lunation. See Moon. 
 
 BY'NONYMS. (,Gr. cvv, and ovopa, a name.) Words 
 of the same language which have a similar signification. 
 Strictly spcakim:. wools having exactly the same ■IgnlAca- 
 tion are not to he found in tiny language, unless one of them 
 has been borrowed from another language; but in this case 
 the shades of (Inference are often BO alight that words may 
 be frequently Osed lor one another, and this interchange 
 produces a pleasing variety in composition, nee. 
 |x>etry. Synonyms form an Important object of philological 
 study, demanding, on the part of the Inquirer, great know- 
 ledge of the principles of language. The chief «orks on 
 this subject are the Churmasticm on Creek, Dumesnll on 
 Latin, HI air. Booth, and Crabbe on English, Btoseb and 
 
 Bberhard on German, and (lirard, Beauzee, and Koubaud 
 on French synonyms. 
 
 SY M ) TSIS. (Or. rw, together, o4>ts, view.) A collective 
 view of any subjei tronomy, theology, fee. 
 
 SYNO'VIA. (Gr. on, and uov, an egg.' The fluid 
 which lubricates the cartilaginous surfaces of the joints : it 
 is glairy, and resembles the while of egg. 
 
 SYNTAX. (<;r. ovvrdecu), J arrange together.) In 
 Grammar and Rhetoric, the disposition of the words and 
 members of a sentence In the grammatical arrai | 
 proper to the 1 1 Grammar. 
 
 SY'NTIII'.SIS. (far. ovv, with; nOnui, I place.) In 
 Geometry and Logic, the method of demonstration which 
 sets out from some principle established or assumed, or 
 proposition already demonstrated, and ascends through a 
 (series of propositions to that which is enunciated. Synthe- 
 sis is also callwi the direct method or composition, and is 
 the rever- ;ution. It is the method fol- 
 
 lowed In Kuclid's Blements. For the sense In which 
 and lysines]* were understood by the ancient 
 geometricians, see Analysis. 
 
 Synthesis. In Chemistry, those chemical operations 
 by which compounds are obtained by the union of the sepa- 
 rate component parts are called synthetic. The term is 
 especially used us opposed lit analysis. Thus I demonstrate 
 the composition of water analytically by resolving it into 
 oxygen and hydrogen gases; and synthetically, by recoiu- 
 bining those gases so as again to produce the water which 
 had previously been decomposed ; the inrmi urafaiift and 
 analysis being, in fact, synonymous with composition and 
 ■ition. 
 
 SYPHILIS. (Probably from Gr. oi<p\o;, unclean.) The 
 venereal disease. 
 
 SY'RINGE. In Hydraulics, a machine consisting of a 
 small cylinder with an airtight piston or sucker, which is 
 moved up utd down in it by means of a handle. The lower 
 end of the cylinder terminate* in a small tube, through 
 which a fluid is forced into the body of the cylinder by the 
 atmospheric pressure when the handle is drawn up, and 
 then expelled in a small jet by pushing the handle in the 
 opposite direction. The syringe acts on the principle of Ihe 
 sucking pump. The syringe is also used as a pneumatic 
 machine for condensim: or exhausting the air In a close 
 vessel, but for this purpose it must be furnished with two 
 valves. In the condensing syringe, the valves open down- 
 wards and close upwards; In the exhausting syringe they 
 are closed downwards and opened upwards. See Air Gun 
 and Air l'r.Mi'. 
 
 SY'RMA. (Gr. avpua, from avpta, I draw ) A long gar 
 ment ; so called from its train reaching the ground. It was 
 the proper dress of actors in the classical tragedv. 
 
 SYSSARCO'SIS. (Gr. vvv, with, and aap\,fit»k,) The 
 junction of bones by intervening muscles. 
 
 SYSSI'TIA. (Or. cviohta. common messes.) An instl 
 tution of some ancient states, particularly Lacedamion and 
 Crete, by which the male freemen had their meals together 
 in common messes, instead of eating with their families in 
 private. 
 
 SYSTEM. (Gr. <rui* together, and tarn/it, I stand.) In 
 Astronomy, nn hypothesis of a certain order and arrange- 
 ment of tlie celestial bodies by which their apparent motions 
 are explained. For an account of the systems of Ptolemy, 
 Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe, see Astronomy. 
 
 System. In the Fine Arts, a collection of the rules arid 
 principles upon which an artist works. 
 
 System. In Music, an interval composed, or supposed 
 to be composed, of several lesser ones: as an octave, which 
 is a system. See Diastem. 
 
 1211 
 
& /S i'OLE. 
 
 SY'STOLE. (Gr. owrrXAw, I contract.) In Greek and 
 Latin prosody, a licence by which a long syllable is used 
 as short : e. g., 
 
 Matri lunga decern tulerunt fastidia Menses. 
 
 Systole. Tlie contraction of the heart. 
 
 SY 'STYLE. (Gr. ovv, with, and otvXoc, a column.) In 
 Architecture, the arrangement of columns in such a manner 
 that they are two diameters apart. 
 
 SY'ZYGIES. (Gr. cv^vyia, union, conjunction.) In 
 Astronomy, the places of the moon or planets when in con- 
 junction or opposition with the sun 
 
 T. 
 
 T, the nineteenth letter in the English alphabet, belongs 
 to that order of consonants called dentals, or palato-dentats, 
 and is susceptible of numerous interchanges, both in the 
 ancient and modern languages. As an abbreviation, T was 
 used for Titus, Tilius, and Tullius. The Roman tribunes 
 indicated their assent to the decrees of the senate by sub- 
 scribing a T. The sound of th is peculiar to tlie English 
 language. 
 
 T BANDAGE. A bandage so named from its shape ; it 
 is used to support the dressings after certain surgical opera- 
 tions. (See Cooper's Surgical Dictionary.) 
 
 TABA'RD. A sort of tunic, or mantle, covering the body 
 before and behind, reaching below the loins, but open at 
 the sides from the shoulders downwards : an ordinary article 
 of dress in England and France in the middle ages. It was 
 at first chiefly used by the military, afterwards by other 
 classes. The tabard, with coats of arms blazoned before 
 and behind, is the state dress of heralds to this day. It 
 is the dress worn by the knaves in cards. Long tabards, 
 reaching to the mid-leg, were a peculiarly English fashion. 
 
 TABASHE'ER. A Persian word signifying a light white 
 porous substance found in the joints of the bamboo : it con- 
 sists almost entirely of silica. It is said to be used medi- 
 cinally in the East Indies ; but its virtues must be merely 
 imaginary. 
 
 TABBY. (Ital. tabino.) A term formerly applied to 
 certain figured silks and other goods upon which an irregu- 
 lar pattern had been stamped, either by the pressure of 
 engraved rollers, or by folding the stuffs in such a way as 
 to produce, by the mutual pressure of their fibres, an ine- 
 quality of surface, which, by reflected light, gives rise to 
 the appearance called watering. 
 
 TABE'LLION. (Lat. tabula, from the tablets on which 
 they wrote.) In the Roman empire, officers who had 
 charge of public documents were so called ; they were also 
 secretaries, or registrars, and in some cases judges. (See 
 Saviguy, Hist, of the Roman Law, vol. i.) The notaries 
 were their assistants. In France, the titles of " Tabellion" 
 and " Greffier" were confounded, and Henry IV. united the 
 functions of tabellion with those of notary ; but the old title 
 seems still to be retained (or was until the Revolution) in 
 some few places. 
 
 TA'BERN ACLE. (Lat. tabernaculum.) A Latin word 
 signifying a tent or cabin. The tabernacle which was car- 
 ried from station to station by the Jews during their wan- 
 derings in the desert, was a tent of sails and skins stretched 
 upon a framework of wood, and divided into two compart- 
 ments; the outer, named the Holy, being that in which 
 incense was burned, and the shew bread exhibited ; and the 
 inner, or Holy of Holies, in which was desposited the ark of 
 the covenant. (Exod., xxvi., xxvii. See Archmologia, vol. i.) 
 
 The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three principal 
 festivals among the Jews. It commenced on the 15th of the 
 month Tisri, corresponding with the 30th of September, 
 and lasted seven days, during which the people dwelt in 
 booths formed of the boughs of trees. It was instituted in 
 commemoration of the habitation of their ancestors in simi- 
 lar dwellings during the forty years of their pilgrimage in 
 the wilderness. (See Leviticus, xxiii.) 
 
 TABES. (Lat.) A wasting away of the body ; ema- 
 ciation ; atrophy. 
 
 TA'BLATURE. (Lat. tabula, a table.) In Music, the 
 use of the letters of the alphabet, or any other character, 
 for expressing the notes or sounds of a composition. It is 
 not now a usual mode of writing. In its stricter and more 
 original sense it is a mode of writing music for a particular 
 instrument on parallel lines (of which each represents a 
 string of the instrument) by means of certain letters of the 
 alphabet. Thus A denotes that the string is to be struck 
 oj>en, B that one of the fingers is to be put on the first stop, 
 C on the second, D on the third, and so on through the 
 octave. 
 
 TA'BLE. (Lat. tabula.) In Physics, Astronomy, &c. 
 
 This term has two different significations. In the first 
 
 pi ice, ii is used to denote merely a collection of numbers, 
 
 exhibiting the measures or values of some property common 
 
 1212 
 
 TABOR1TES. 
 
 to a number of different bodies in reference to some common 
 standard. Thus we have tables of specific gravity, of re- 
 fractive powers, of the expansion of substances by heat, <tc. 
 In its second signification, it denotes a series of numbers 
 which proceed according to some given law expressed by a 
 mathematical formula. Of this kind are the logarithmic 
 tables ; tables of the powers or roots of the different num- 
 bers; of the sines, cosines, and other angular functions; of 
 astronomical refractions; of the equations of the planetary 
 orbits, &c. Tables of this sort, by exhibiting at cncc to the 
 eye all the different values which a given formula can 
 have, save endless labour in calculation, and are of the 
 utmost importance in every branch of natural philosophy. 
 The logarithmic tables, for example, form the universal in- 
 strument of astronomical calculation ; and it may be safely 
 affirmed that without them the computations necessary for 
 determining the places of the different bodies of the solar 
 system, and rendering astronomy a science of practical 
 utility, would be altogether impossible. 
 
 Table is also used in a popular sense to denote a collection 
 of particulars brought under one view. Thus, in history, 
 we have chronological tables ; in statistics, tables of mor- 
 tality at different ages, &c. The mere titles of the useful 
 tables which have been formed in the various departments 
 of knowledge would fill a large volume. 
 
 TABLEAUX VIVANTS. (Fr. living pictures.) The 
 name given to an amusement in which groups of persons 
 dressed in appropriate costume are made to represent some 
 interesting scene in the works of distinguished painters or 
 authors. It is thus managed ; The room in which the 
 spectators are placed being darkened, the group assume 
 their respective attitudes behind a frame (or some otter 
 contrivance intended to represent it) covered with gauze ; 
 and candles being so placed as to reflect light upon the 
 group from above, the illusion is complete. These repre- 
 sentations are not unfrequently resorted to in England ; hut 
 their home is chiefly in France and Germany, where they 
 form an important feature on all festive occasions. They 
 owe their present popularity to the celebrated M. Hindel- 
 Schutz, whose genius for imitation and delineation WW un- 
 rivalled in Germany. (See the D amen- Lexicon.) Tableaux 
 are often employed to represent some scene in which a 
 riddle is concealed. 
 
 TA'BLE LANDS. In Physical Geography, the name 
 given to an extensive system of-plains with steep acclivities 
 on every side, and differing from other plains, which are 
 either not mueh elevated above the sea, or rise by imper- 
 ceptible degrees. Some of these are very extensive, and 
 retain a general level of several thousand feet above the 
 sea. Sometimes they are bordered with chains of moun- 
 tains much less elevated on the side towards the table land 
 than in the opposite direction ; and sometimes they have 
 surfaces much undulated or broken. The chief table lands 
 are in Central Spain, Southern Africa, Central Asia, Persia, 
 Southern India, Mexico, and the Southern Andes. (See 
 Traill's .Physical Geography, p. 25, et scq.) 
 
 TABLE SPAR, TABULAR SPAR. Schaalstein of 
 Werner. A greyish white mineral, which occurs in masses 
 and in granular concretions : it is a silicate of lime. 
 
 TABLETS. In Roman Antiquities, pieces of ivory, 
 metal, stone, or other substance, used in judiciary proceed 
 ings, or in the passing of laws. 
 
 TA'BOR. (Fr. tabourine.) A small drum. 
 
 TA'BORITES, or THABORITES. The denomination 
 of one of the parties into which the followers of Hum, in 
 Bohemia, separated after the death of their leader. They 
 were so called from Tabor, a hill or fortress of Bohemia, 
 upon which they encamped during the struggle which thev 
 maintained against the civil and ecclesiastical power. At 
 their head stood John Ziska von Brockznow, who was dis- 
 tinguished at once for his indomitable courage and his 
 remorseless cruelty. Aftv various fanatical exhibitions, 
 which were met by their adversaries with determined hos- 
 tility, the better and more quietly disposed portion of the 
 Taborites formed themselves into a religious society under 
 the denomination of the Bohemian Brethren. They estab- 
 lished several Christian communities, elected their own 
 bishops, priests, and elders ; drew up a rigorous plan of 
 ecclesiastical discipline; and sent forth missionaries to 
 various parts, though with little success. Though harassed 
 by persecutions, they continued to augment their numbers, 
 and at the end of the 15th century they counted about 200 
 communities of adherents. At the end of this period the 
 distinctive name and opinions of the Taborites were los,t 
 among the various assailants of the Romish corruptions, 
 who formed the vanguard of the Reformation in Germany. 
 (See Camxtines, Hussites.) An interesting picture of 
 the horrors of the bloody religious war in which this sect 
 was engaged at the period of its institution is to be found in 
 the historical romance of Herlossohn, called The Last 
 TaborUe (I)er Lctzlc Taborit)—B. work well worthy of 
 being translated into English. 
 
TABULATUM. 
 
 TABULA'TUM. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, a 
 term n-eil to denote the floors, ceilings, and other wood- 
 work in a house : occasionally also it was applied to bal- 
 conies and projections of that nature. 
 TA'CAMAHA'C. (An Indian word.) A brownish aro- 
 sin formerly used in medicine, supposed to be the 
 produce of the Populus balsamifcro. 
 
 TACET. - Lat. taceo, silent.) In Music, a term denoting 
 that through the movement to which it is affixed in any 
 part, that part is to lie still or be silent during its performance. 
 TACHOMETER. (Gr. Ta%oi, speed, and pcrpov, mea- 
 ivrt.) A contrivance invented for the purpose of indicating 
 minute variations in the velocity of machines. When a 
 itaininf a tluid is whirled rapidly round a vertical 
 axis, the centrifugal force produced by the whirling motion 
 causes the tluid to recede from the axis, and to rise on the 
 sides of the vessel, so that the surface of the fluid assumes 
 'a concave parabolic form; and the distance to which the 
 centre of the surface falls below its original level is propor- 
 tionate to the velocity of rotation, and subject to corres- 
 ponding variations. Any method, therefore, of measuring 
 or rendering visible the depression of the 
 central surface will indicate (he variations 
 of velocity. The method usually adopted 
 is the following: A glass tube A, open at 
 both ends, and expanding at one extremity 
 into a bell It, is immersed with its wider 
 end in mercury contained in a cup C D. 
 The tube is so suspended as to be uncon- 
 nected with the cup. This tube is then 
 filled to a certain height. A, with spirits 
 tinged with some colouring matter, to ren- 
 der it easily observable. The cup is at- 
 tached to a spindle turned by the machine. 
 Now as the cup is whirled round 1>y the 
 spindle, the level of the mercury in the 
 bell falls, nnd the spirit therefore descends 
 in the tube. As the motion is continued, 
 every change of velocity causes a corres- 
 ponding change in the level of the mer- 
 cury, and consequently also in the height 
 of the spirits in the lube at A ; and as the 
 capacity of the bell II is much greater than that of the tube 
 A, a very small change in the level of the mercury causes 
 a considerable change of the height of the spirits in the 
 tube. (Cabinet Cyclopedia, art. "Mechanics," p. 235.) 
 
 TACHYDRO'Ml AN8, Tachrjdromii. (Gr. raxvs, *wift, 
 and Sftouos, a course.) The name of a family of wading 
 birds, ot which the genus Tachydromus is the type. The 
 term is also applied to a family of Saurian reptiles by Fitzin- 
 ger, and to a family of Dipterous insects by Mirgen. 
 
 TACHY'DROMUS. (Gr. raxvi, and dpuuos, a course.) 
 A subgenus of Lacertidte, differing from the true lizards in 
 having a very long body and tail, with their fore legs very 
 distant from the hind legs, and the back covered with 
 scales similar to those on the belly. They are found in the 
 Indian islands and China, and run with great velocity ; 
 whence their name of swift lizards. 
 
 TACHY'GEAPHY, orTACHE'OGRAPIIY. (Gr. rax°s, 
 quick, and ypa<pu>, I write.) One of the many names of 
 Greek derivation which have been given to the art of short 
 hand. 
 
 TACK. The weather clue or corner of a course, as also 
 of any sail set with a boom or gaff, and of a flag. Also, the 
 rope by which such clue is extended : thus, the main tack 
 is the rope by which the tack or weather clue of the main- 
 sail is drawn down to the ship's side. 
 
 A ship is said to be on the starboard tack when she is 
 close-hauled, having the wind on the starboard side ; and 
 on the larboard tack, when the wind is on the larboard side. 
 To tack is to change from one tack to the other by turning 
 the vessel round with her head to the wind. 
 
 TA'CKLE. The Sea term for a pulley composed of two 
 or inure, blocks. The rope is called the fall. The term 
 appears to have been derived thus: Gr. rpoxaha; Lat. 
 trochlea; Ital. taglia; Dutch taakel. (See Willis's Princi- 
 ples of Mechanics, p. 198.) 
 
 TA'CTICS. In a general sense, the evolutions, ma- 
 noeuvres, and positions which constitute the main spring of 
 military nnd naval finesse. 
 
 The expression naval tactics is commonly understood to 
 relate to the attack or defence of fleets or single ships ; but 
 as tactical manoeuvres are necessarily practised also in 
 keeping any number of ships together, and in the commu- 
 nication of single ships, whether for hostile purposes or not, 
 the subject, in fact, includes all considerations relative to 
 tke closing or separating of vessels at sea. We can of 
 course here merely attempt to convoy such general notions 
 at the subject as may assist the reader in the study of it. 
 
 The subject of tactics, as applied in war, naturally divides 
 Itself into two parts ; viz. disposing the fleet for closing 
 with or avoiding the enemy while distant, and bringing on 
 
 TAGLIACOTIAN OPERATION. 
 
 the engagement. The former alone of these can be made 
 the subject of fixed rules ; but the manner of bringing on 
 the action with the whole or part of the enemy's fleet, the 
 choice of the weather or lee gage (as the windward or U» 
 ward position is called), under given circumstances of 
 weather, locality, armament, relative numbers, discipline, 
 &c, must depend on the experience, skill, and coup d'wtl of 
 the commander-in-chief. 
 
 The evolutions by which the ships of the fleet pass from 
 one position to another are given in all works on naval tac- 
 tics; and those in most common use are of en contained in 
 Signal Books, both English nnd foreign. The elementary 
 evolutions really necessary are but few, thoush, especially 
 in foreign works, they are multiplied to an inconvenient, if 
 not impracticable extent. The opinions of officers and 
 writers have differed on many points of great importance ; 
 such as the position gf the commander-in-chief, the tacking 
 or wearing of the fleet together, or in succession, and also 
 in the general disposition of the fleet. 
 
 In regard to the action itself, it appears it was the cus 
 torn formerly to endeavour to engage the enemy's whole 
 fleet, ship to ship. This, however, was, in most cases, easi- 
 ly avoided, and actions were consequently often indecisive. 
 The circumstance of Lord Rodney's passing through the 
 French fleet on the 18th of April, 1782, seems to have 
 drawn attention strongly to the principle of separating the 
 enemy's fleet into portions which might be attacked in de- 
 tail. The merit of suggesting the breaking of the enemy's 
 line on this occasion having been attributed to Mr Cl<-rk of 
 Eldin, author of a work on Tactics which appealed at the 
 time, has become the occasion of much controversy; but 
 the manoeuvre had been already treated in French and 
 Spanish works on Tactics. One of the roost striking appli 
 cations of the principle was exhibited in Lord .Nelson's at- 
 tack at the battle of the Nile. Among the worn* on Tac 
 tics may be noticed here, Tactique JVavale, b> the Count 
 Morogues, which was considered an improvement on Le 
 I'ere Hoste's work; Tactica Naval, by Salazais; and Mr. 
 Clerk of Eldin's Naval Tactics, above quoted. Much in- 
 formation is contained in Admiral Ekins's Naval li'ales ; 
 and remarks on the tactics of single actions are found in Sir 
 Howard Douglas's Naval Gunnery. Some other works on the 
 subject will bo found in any good catalogue of naval books 
 
 TA'CTION. (Lat. tango, / touch.) In Geometry, the 
 some as tangency or touching. See Tanobnt. 
 
 TjE'NIA. (Gr. run i.i, a filet.) An intestinal worm, 
 commonly called the tape worm. When this worm infests 
 the bowels, it often produces a variety of anomalous symp 
 tnins, and is very difficult to get rid of. The most effective 
 remedies are purges, and especially oil of turpentine, b»lf 
 an ounce of which is taken in the mornings fasting, mixed 
 with a little barley water. If it does not purge briskly, a 
 dose of castor oil may be taken after it, or the oil of tux- 
 jientine repeated. If any portion of the tape worm remains 
 in the intestines, the symptoms are apt to recur, so that 
 much attention is requisite to ensure its total evacuation. 
 
 T/esia. In Architecture, the listel above the architrave 
 which separates it from the frieze in the Doric order. 
 
 T^E'NIOIDS, Ttenioidcs. (Gr. raiviu, a ribetnd ; r&fi 
 form.) The name given by Cuvier to a family of Acan 
 thopterygious fishes, comprehending those which have a 
 flattened riband-shaped body ; also the name of a family ol 
 Sterelminthoid intestinal worms, of which Hie tape worm 
 ( Tania) is the type. 
 
 TA'FFETY. A thin glossy silken fabric, formerly much 
 used in England. It is extensively used on the Continent 
 for window curtains. 
 
 TA'FFRAIL. The uppermost rail of a ship's stern. 
 
 TA'GES. An old Italian divinity, who is represented to 
 have sprung as a beautiful boy from the earth, which a 
 Tuscan ploughman had furrowed too deep. The first act 
 of this earth-bom god was to foretel from the wings of 
 birds what was to happen to the peasants, by whom he was 
 quickly surrounded ; and hence he was worshipped as the 
 inventor of augury'. (See Augurs.) A collection of his 
 prophecies was made nnd preserved in the sacred records 
 of Etruria. 
 
 TA'GLIA. (Ital.) In Mechanics, the name given to a 
 particular combination of pulleys. "The taglia consists of 
 a system of fixed pulleys collected in one common block, 
 and also of a system of moveable pulleys in a separate 
 block, to which the weight is attached, with one string go- 
 ing round all the pulleys, and having one of its ends fixed 
 to a point in the system, and the other end going from one 
 of the fixed pulleys drawn by the power." (VenturclCt 
 Mechanics, by Cresswell.) Sometimes several taglias ore 
 combined, so that one acts upon the other ; the system is 
 then a compound taglia. See Pulley. 
 
 TAGLIACO'TIAN OPERATION. The operation for 
 the restoration of the nose, hhinoplastie of the French. 
 The merit of inventing this operation is usually given to 
 Tagliacotius, a Venetian surgeon, who wrote upon the sub- 
 
 1213 
 
TAGUS. 
 
 ject in 1598, and proposed the replacement of the deficient 
 organ by an artificial nose cut out of the skin of the shoul- 
 der or arm. A supposed modern improvement consists in 
 having recourse for the new materials to the skin of the 
 forehead, out of which a triangular piece is so cut that it 
 may retain connexion at its apex, which is downwards, 
 and so admit of being twisted or turned down to form the 
 artificial nose by adhesion to the recently cut surfaces of 
 the truncated organ. It appears that this operation was 
 practised in India from time immemorial, and that it was 
 also not uncommonly resorted to by the Italians, and espe- 
 cially the Romans, among whom the loss of the nose was 
 a punishment of not unfrequent infliction. (See An Ac- 
 count of Two Successful Operations for restoring a lost 
 Nose, by J C. Carpue, Lond. 1816; Liston's Practical Sur- 
 gery, Lond. 1837 ; and Cooper's. Surgical Dictionary.) 
 
 TA'GUS. (Gr. rayo'g.) In ancient Greek History, the 
 title of the president of the Thessalian confederacy. 
 
 TAIL. In Architecture, the bottom or lower end of any 
 member, as of a slate or tile. A tail trimmer is that next 
 the wall into which the ends of joisls are fasiened to avoid 
 the flues. Used as a verb, to tail in any thing is to fasten it 
 by one of its ends into a wall. 
 
 TAILLE. In ancient French Jurisprudence, any impo- 
 sition levied by the king or any other lord on his subjects. 
 There is some obscurity about the derivation of this word. 
 It is commonly deduced from talca:, taflics, little pieces of 
 wood with which reckonings were made. But whether 
 these were not so called from their use in telling or count- 
 ing (Germ, zahlen), does not appear. Again, it is appa- 
 rently connected with the Germ, zoll, Engl, toll; but these 
 words are derived by some, through the Ital. tolta, from 
 the Lat. tollere, to raise. Perhaps the whole series of 
 words is from the same original root ; but it is not easy to 
 trace the affinities. The Royal Taille, in old France, which 
 was the impost commonly understood under the general 
 name, was a personal or rather mixed constitution, from 
 persons not noble or ecclesiastical, or enjoying certain 
 other exemptions imposed according to their supposed 
 ability, measured by their goods. In the respect in which 
 it fell on the agricultural class, from which it was 
 chiefly levied, it is described by Adam Smith as " a tax on 
 the supposed profits of the farmer, which they estimate by 
 the stock which he has upon the farm." (Book iii., ch. 2.) 
 In Languedoc, and one or two other districts, the taille was 
 real ; i. e., imposed on land and goods. The tax was ren- 
 dered annual and permanent in 1445. The "real" taille is 
 now replaced by the " contribution fonciere," and the per- 
 sonal by the "contribution personnelle et mobiliare." 
 
 TAILLOIR. (Fr.) In Architecture, the same as abac- 
 us ; which see. 
 
 TAI'LZIE, or ENTAIL. (Fr. tailler, to cut off), in Scot- 
 tish Law, signifies, in general, any deed whereby the legal 
 course of succession is cut off, and an -Jbitrary one substi- 
 tuted. But, more strictly, a deed of tailzie is one framed 
 in terms of the statute 1685, c. 22, and intended for the 
 purpose of securing the descent of an heritable estate to 
 the series of heirs and substitutes called to the succession 
 by the maker of the tailzie. The principal difference be- 
 tween Scottish and English entails lies in the absence of 
 any provision, in the law of the former country, similar to 
 the fictions of fines or recoveries in the latter, whereby 
 parties in possession were enabled to cut off the entail. 
 Several statutes have been passed since that of 1685 to 
 give heirs of entail in possession certain liberties which 
 they could not otherwise possess ; as, to sell superiorities (2 
 G. 2, c. 50, 51) ; to grant leases for 31 years, 14 years, and a 
 life or two lives, and building leases for 90 years ; and to 
 , exchange lands (10 G. 3, c. 51), redeem the land tax (42 
 G. 3, c. 46), make provisions for wives and children (5 G. 4, 
 c. 87). ' 
 
 TALAPO'INS. The title, in Sinm, of the priests of Fo ; 
 who are called in China, Seng ; in Tartary, Lamas; and by 
 Europeans, Bonzes. 
 
 TALC. A foliated magnesian mineral of an unctuous 
 feel, often used for tracing lines on wood, cloth, &c, which 
 are not so easily effaced as those of chalk. Talc is em- 
 ployed in the composition of rouge vegetal. The Romans 
 prepared with it a beautiful blue, by combining it with the 
 colouring fluid of particular kinds of testaceous animals. 
 Talc is met with in Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, and Banff- 
 shire in Scotland, and in various parts of the Continent, 
 where rocks of serpentine and porphyry occur. The talc 
 brought from the Tyrolese mountains is called in commerce 
 Veneti\.i talc. Several varieties are found in India and 
 Ceylon. 
 
 TA'LCITE. In Mineralogy, a synonym of nacrite ; which 
 *ee. 
 
 TA'LENT. (Gr. raXavrov.) A Grecian weight, which 
 
 was much used in the computation of money. It contained 
 
 60 inintB ; but its value varied in different states. The Attic 
 
 talent was equivalent to about £198 of English money ; 
 
 1214 
 
 TALMUD. 
 
 the .Eginetan to £331. (See as to the Attic talent, Bocckk, 
 i. 25 ; (ribbon's Misccllan. IVorm iii., 410.) 
 
 TA'LES. In Law. If by rea-on of challenges or other 
 causes a sufficient number of jurors do not appear at a trial, 
 either party may pray a tales ; that is, may pray the sheriff 
 (since 6 G. 4, c. 50, the judge at the trial) to allow a suf- 
 ficient number of qualified men who happen to be present 
 (tales circumstantibus) to be joined with the other juror3 
 to nnke up the twelve. In practice this seldom arises, ex 
 cept in the case of special jury trials, When the talesmen 
 are taken from the common jury panel in the same court. 
 See Jury. 
 
 TALIO'NIS LEX. (Lat.) A punishment in which a 
 person convicted of a crime suffered exactly in the same 
 manner as he had offended : thus an eye was required for 
 an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This mode of punishment 
 was established by the Mosaic law, and was in some cases 
 imitated by the Romans. 
 
 TA'LISMAN. (From the Arabic, dual of the noun te- 
 lesm ; Gr. rcXinna, in the sense of an astrological wonder, 
 or effect of the stars.) Among the Eastern nations, a figure 
 cut in metal, stone, &c, supposed to have been made with 
 particular ceremonies, and under particular astrological cir- 
 cumstances, and to possess various virtues, but chiefly that 
 of averting disease or violent death from the wearer. In a 
 more general sense, any portable object endowed with ima- 
 ginary influence in controlling evil spirits, &c. has been so 
 designated. The term is frequently used as synonymous 
 with amulet (which see); but, strictly speaking, the latter 
 is not believed to possess such extensive powers as the 
 talisman. (See a curious article in the JEncyc. Metropoli- 
 tana.) 
 
 TA'LLAGE (from the Fr. taille), in the language of the 
 old English law, is said to be a general name for all taxes 
 by Sir E. Coke. See Toll, T.ulle. 
 
 TA'LLO W. (Germ, talg.) The fat obtained by meltinj? 
 the suet of the oe and sheep, and straining it so as to free 
 it from membrane. 
 
 Tallow is an article of great importance. It is manufac 
 tured into candles and soap ; and is extensively used in the 
 dressing of leather, and in various processes of the arts. 
 Besides our extensive supplies of native tallow, we annually 
 import a very large quantity, principally from Russia. The 
 exports of tallow from Petersburgh amount, at an average, 
 to between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 poods, of which the 
 largest portion by far is brought to England ; the remainder 
 being exported to Prussia, France, the Hanse Towns, Tur- 
 key, &c. 
 
 TALMUD. The traditionary or unwritten laws of the 
 Jews. It is called unwritten, to distinguish it from the tex- 
 tual or written law ; and is, in fact, the interpretation which 
 the rabbins affix to the law of Moses, which embodies their 
 doctrine, polity, and ceremonies, and to which many of 
 them adhere more than to the law itself. 
 
 The word is derived from Ileb. lamad, he taught. The 
 Talmud, therefore, is a book or volume which contains 
 such doctrines and duties as are taught to the Jews by their 
 own authorized teachers, the ancient rabbins. 
 
 There are two Talmuds, that of Jerusalem and that of 
 Babylon ; not to mention those of Onkelos and Jonathan, 
 which are rather paraphrases than volumes of traditionary 
 doctrines. 
 
 The Talmud of Jerusalem consists of two parts — the 
 Gemara, and the Mishna. The Mishna signifies a doub- 
 ling or reiteration ; the Gemara, a work brought to perfec- 
 tion or completed — from the Chaldee gamar, to finish or 
 complete. The Gemara and the Mishna together, strictly 
 speaking, form the Talmud; but the rabbins are wont to 
 designate the Pentateuch of Moses the first part of the 
 Talmud, and which is simply the law. The second part is 
 the Mishna, which is a more extensive explication or am- 
 plification of the law; and the third part the Gemara, as 
 finishing and completing it. 
 
 The Mishna is the work of Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh, 
 120 years after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem. 
 It is written in a tolerably pure style, and its reasonings 
 are much more solid than those of the Gemara, which the 
 Jewish doctors, it is stated, have stuffed with dreams and 
 chimeras, and many ignorant and impertinent questions 
 and disputations. The Gemara was written about 100 years 
 afterwards by Rabbi Jochanan, the rector of the school at 
 Tiberias. These two works form the Jerusalem Talmud. 
 
 But the Talmud of Jerusalem is less esteemed than the 
 Talmud of Babylon formed by Rabbi Asa or Aser, who had 
 an academy for forty years at a place called Sara, near Ba- 
 bylon, whence it was denominated the Babylonish Talmud. 
 It is this Talmud which the Jews more frequently consult; 
 and it is especially esteemed by those Jews who live be- 
 yond the Euphrates, from the circumstance that it was 
 compiled at Babylon. Rabbi Asa was called to his fathers 
 before this celebrated commentary on the Mishna was 
 completed ; but it was finished by his disciples (some say 
 
TALON. 
 
 tils children) about 500 year? after Christ. With the ex- 
 ception of the sacred author* these Talmuds, utter the 
 Chaldee paraphrases, are the most ancient books of doc- 
 by the Jews. 
 
 A converted Jew in the year 1238 detected several er- 
 'ore in the Talmud, which he laid before Pope Gregory IX., 
 who required the archbishops of France and the kings of 
 and Portugal to seize and bum sill such books of the 
 Jews, and twenty cartloads of Hebrew books were accord- 
 ingly burnt in France alone. 
 
 Pope Paul IV. and Clement VIII. also signalized fhem- 
 Mlves in destroying all the Talmudic books that could be 
 found, and many thousand volumes of the Talmud were 
 by tiieir orders judicially condemned to the flames. These 
 acts, worthy of Roman pontiffs, might have suggested that 
 
 •'anions list," entitled Libri I'ruhibiturum. which afterwards 
 ed much augmentation ; and among the many hereti- 
 cal works enumerated might be found Addison's spectator. 
 The Talmud of Jerusalem was printed in one vol. folio, 
 .ind that of Babylon in twelve and fourteen vols, folio, 
 which we find in a bookseller's catalogue thus described, 
 "Talmud Babylonicum Hebraicum integrum ex Sepientum 
 
 Beriptl* el Responsis compoaltum a Kali. Ascr, additis 
 Comment. Rob. Sal. larchi, et Kali. Hosis Maimonidis, He- 
 1 torn, folio, Ainstelodauii, 1044." 
 Two curious works on the traditions and doctrines of the 
 and selections from the Talmud, were written by 
 Peter Stehelin and \V. YVotton ; the former entitled Tradi- 
 tions of the Jews, with the Expositions and Doctrines of 
 the Rabbins contained in the Talmud awl other Rabbinical 
 li'ritittgs,2 vols. 8vo, 174.2 ; the latter, .Wocellaneous Dis 
 courses relating to the Traditions and Usages (if the Scribes 
 and Pharisees in our .Saviour's Time, 2 vols. 8vo, 1718. 
 the Knc. Metropolitans ; U'olli'. liibl., ii., 658; Eisen- 
 menger, Das Kntdeckte. Judrnthum ; Remarks on the study 
 Of it in Quart. Rev., vol. xliii.) 
 
 TA'l.oX. (Fr.) In Architecture, the same as ogee; 
 which see. 
 
 TA'LPA. In Surgery, a tumour under the skin or cuti- 
 cle, commonly calledamofc. 
 
 TA'I. US. The .-loping heap of fragments accumulated 
 at the foot of a steep rock. The term talus has also been 
 applied to the astragalus, one of the bones of the ankle. 
 TA'MARIND. (Arab, tamor-hlndy, Indian date.) A 
 tree of the Leguminous order, whose pods supply the 
 id preserve commonly sold in the shops under this 
 name. The pods in their natural st; te are acid, and ac- 
 quire their sweetness by the sugar in which they are pack- 
 ed alter their hard, brittle shell has been taken off. The 
 tree itself is a native of both the East and West Indies. 
 
 TA'.MARIX (Tamarisia, the people among whom it 
 grows), is a name given by botanists to some shrubs of 
 ■lender growth, clothed with very small green leaves and 
 long spikes of pink flowers, the natural country of which 
 as to extend from Spain to Delhi, occupying a band of 
 ten or twelve degrees CI latitude. They are in this coun- 
 try merely ornamental plants ; but in Syria and the adjoin- 
 ing countries they secrete a kind of manna, which some 
 authors have asserted was the manna of scripture ; but 
 this opinion is not regarded as well founded. 
 
 TA.MBOUKl'NE. (Fr. tambour.) A musical instru- 
 ment of procession of the drum species, being a cylinder of 
 aboutO inches wide, in which bells are suspended. It is cov- 
 ered at one end with parchment, after the fashion of a drum. 
 TA'MPING. A term used by miners to express the fill- 
 ing up of a hole bored in a rock for the purpose of blasting. 
 TANGENCIES. (Lat. tango, / touch.) In the ancient 
 Geometry, the problem of tangencies was one of the six 
 branches of the geometrical analysis created by Apollonius 
 of Perga. Its general object was to descrilic a circle pass- 
 ing through given points, and touching straight lines or cir- 
 cles given in position, the number of data in each case be- 
 ing, of course, limited to three. Of the treatise of Apollo- 
 nius some lemmas only were preserved in the mathemati- 
 cal collections of Pappus; from which the treatise was re- 
 stored by Vieta, of whose restoration there is an English 
 translation by Lawson, with the addition of a supplement 
 by Fermat, on Spherical Tangencies. The principal cases 
 of the problem of plane tangencies are given, and neatly 
 demonstrated, in Leslie's Geometrical Analysis. 
 
 TA'NGENT. (Lat. tangens; from tango, I touch.) In 
 Geometry, the tangent to a curve is a straight line which 
 meets or touches the curve without intersecting it. The 
 nature of the tangent may be explained as follows : Let 
 A P B be an arc of a curve, and let the straight line TAB 
 m intersect it in two points, A 
 
 P><! v • andB. Conceive the straight 
 line to revolve about the 
 point T. When it comes 
 into the position Tab the 
 intercepted arc a P b is short- 
 n er than A P B, or the points 
 
 TANNIC ACID. 
 
 a and b have approximated. Let the motion of the line 
 about T still be continued, and the length of tho intercept- 
 ed arc of the curve will become less and less, until the 
 straight line comes into the position T P, when the two 
 points a and b coalesce, or rather their distance becomes 
 smaller than any assignable quantity. In this ultimate posi- 
 tion, the direction of the vanishing arc is that of the tan- 
 gent, or the element of the arc coincides with the tai 
 
 From this it is easy to deduce an expression which deter- 
 mines the direction of the tangent at the point P. Let A be 
 the origin of the rectangular co-ordinates, the abscissa being 
 measured on A B. Through I' draw the ordinate 1' U : ajid 
 taking Pp an Indefinitely small element of the curve, draw 
 p q the ordinate through /). and I' r parallel to A IS ; also let 
 the tangent meet A 1! produced in T. The line UT is call- 
 ed the rabtangent; and the point 1' being assumed, it is 
 only necessary to determine T, or the distance UT, in or- 
 der to have the tangent PT. .Now the triangles l'prand 
 PUT are similar, whence pr: rV : : PU : U T ; but by the 
 principles of the Infinitesimal calculus pr — dy, rV — dz; 
 and we have also PQ = y, therefore dy : dz : : y : O-T; 
 
 dl 
 that is, the subtangent (JT = v-. See Differential 
 
 <ty . 
 
 Caiculus, p. 344. 
 
 This is the general formula for the subtangent of any 
 curve at the point whose coordinates are x and y ; and 
 therefore the position of the tangent can always be deter- 
 mined when the relation between z and y is defined by an 
 equation, by differentiating that equation. 
 
 One of the earliest uses which was made of the ditl'cren 
 tial calculus was to find tin- positions of Inngenta to carve 
 lines; and hence the calculus itself, in its early period, was 
 Often denominated the mithod of tangents. When the equa- 
 tion of the curve is given, it is easy to find the tangent at 
 any point, as only a simple differentiation is required in ad- 
 dition to the ordinary operations ol algebra ; but the inverse 
 problem, to determine the equation of the curve when its 
 subtangent at any |K>int is given, requires an integration, and 
 
 is consequently, In general, attended with much greater dif- 
 ficulty. The first problem was called the direct, wnA the 
 method of tangents. The terms are sy- 
 nonymous with differential and integral calculus. 
 
 Euclid has shown that no straight line c in be drawn be- 
 tween a circle and its tangent which does not cut the i 
 This property is true of all other curves, and tin contact of 
 a curve with its tangent is called a contact of the first order. 
 See Contact, Angle or. 
 
 Tanue.nt. In Trigonometry, is the straight line which 
 touches a circular arc at one of its extremities, and is ter- 
 minated by the production of the radius passing through 
 the other extremity. The arc and its tangent have always 
 a certain relation to each other; and when the one is given 
 in parts of the radius, the other can always be computed 
 by means of an infinite series. Let <j> denote an arc, and 
 tan. $ the tangent of the arc <p ; we have the following se 
 ries: 
 
 $ = tan <j> — ^ tan3 <b + '• tans <j> — l tan? <p + &c. 
 
 -♦-♦+WS+£&+ir3&i+*"> 
 
 The tangents were introduced into trigonometry by the 
 Arabians, and the introduction has been of the most impor- 
 tant use in simplifying calculations. For the manner of 
 using the sines, cosines, tangents, and other angular func- 
 tions, see Trigonometry. 
 
 TA'NISTRY. An ancient Irish custom of descent, defi- 
 ned as "descent from the oldest and worthiest of the 
 blood." (See Sir J. Davies's Cases before the Irish Judges, 
 1762.) Some have derived it from thane or thegn ; but this 
 seems to be a word of Teutonic origin. (See also Quart. 
 Rev., vol. lvi., p. 223.) 
 
 TANK. In the Navy, a case of sheet iron about 4 feet 
 square, and containing about 2 tons. Bilge tanks are of va- 
 rious forms, in order fo employ the vacant spaces near the 
 sides in small vessels. Iron tanks have for many years 
 been used in the navy from their incomparable superiority 
 over casks in keeping the water sweet. 
 
 Tank. In Gardening, a cistern or reservoir, made of stone 
 or timber or some other material, used in collecting and pre- 
 serving water during a scarcity or drought. Tanks are some- 
 times built in the ground, and lined with lead or cement 
 {Loudon's F.ncyc. of Gardening, p. C03.) 
 
 TA'NNER'S BARK. The bark of oak, chesnut, willow, 
 larch, and other trees, which abounds in tannin, and is used 
 by tanners for preparing leather. After being exhausted of 
 the tanning principle by being chopped into small pieces, or 
 bruised, or steeped in water, it is laid up in heaps to dry, 
 and sold to gardeners for the purpose of producing artificial 
 heat by fermentation in pit< or beds, in bark-stoves or o'.h 
 er out-houses, or pits. See Stove. 
 
 TANNIC ACID. This term has been especially applieo 
 to a substance obtained by Pelouze by acting upon bruised 
 
 1215 
 
TANNIN. 
 
 galls by common ether ; it is a white uncrystalline powder, 
 very astringent, little soluble in water, and reddening lit- 
 mus. When moistened and exposed to air it becomes con- 
 verted into gallic acid. It is extremely astringent, and ap- 
 pears to be the active principle of tanning substances (tan- 
 nin) in general. Its equivalent, deduced from the analysis 
 of the neutral tann i!ts, appears to be 426. Its ultimate ele- 
 ments are 30 atoms of carbon, 18 of hydrogen, and 24 of 
 oxygen. 
 
 TA'NNIN. The pure astringent principle of vegetables, 
 upon which their power of converting skin into leather de- 
 pends. Its leading character is its property of producing a 
 dense whitish precipitate in a strong solution of animal jel- 
 ly, such, for instance, as isinglass. It may be obtained tolera- 
 bly pure by infusing bruised grape seeds in cold water; or 
 more circuitously by adding acetate of copper to filtered in- 
 fusion of galls, washing the precipitate, and decomposing it 
 (diffused through water) by sulphuretted hydrogen. On 
 evaporating its solution, it is obtained as a pale yellow ex- 
 tract, of a strong astringent taste. The action of astringents 
 upon persalts of iron has given rise to its distinction into 
 two varieties ; the frst changing them to deep blue or 
 bl ack, the second to green. The tan of gal Is, oak bark, grape 
 seeds, &c, possesses the former property ; that of catechu 
 and tea the latter. 
 
 By digesting powdered charcoal in nitric acid, and care- 
 fully evaporating the solution so obtained, Mr. Hatchett suc- 
 ceeded in procuring a brown substance of an astringent 
 taste, and precipitating solution of gelatine, which he terms, 
 therefore, artificial tan. 
 
 TANTALITE, or COLUMBITE. The ferruginous oxide 
 of columbium. It occurs in small masses, and in octoedral 
 crystals. It his been found in Finland and in the United 
 Slates of America. 
 TANTA'LIUM. See Columbicm. 
 TANTALUS. In Greek Mythology, a king of Lydia, 
 Phrygia, or Paphlagonia, according to different authors, 
 whose punishment in the infernal regions is well known to 
 classical readers. He was condemned to be plunged in wa- 
 ter, and have delicious fruits continually hanging over his 
 head, without the power of satisfying either thirst or hun- 
 get". His crime is differently represented. According to 
 some, he served to the gods at a feast the limbs of his own 
 son Pelops; according to others, he revealed the mystery 
 of the gods, of whom he was high-priest ; while others 
 attribute to him the vices of pride and too great wealth. 
 (For a learned interpretation of the myth, see Bryant's An- 
 cient Mythology, i. 304.) 
 
 TANTALUS'S CUP. A philosophical toy which amu- 
 singly exhibits the principle of the siphon. Into a hole in 
 the bottom of a cup A the longer leg of a si- 
 ja phon B C D is cemented, so that the end D of 
 TT the shorter leg nearly touches the bottom of 
 | A the cup within. When water is poured into 
 the cup, it rises in the shorter leg of the si- 
 phon until it reaches the level of the top of 
 the bend at C, when it flows over into the lar- 
 ger leg, and is carried off at G ; so that if wa- 
 ter is not supplied to the cup faster than it is 
 drawn off by the siphon, the cup will be emp- 
 tied. To form the toy, the legs of the siphon 
 are concealed by the hollow figure of a man 
 whose chin is on a level with the bend of the 
 siphon; so that the figure stands like Tanta- 
 lus in the fable — up to the chin in water but 
 unable to quench his thirst. 
 
 TA'NYSTOMES, Tanystoma. (Gr. mw, J stretch, and 
 nro/ta, a mouth.) The name of a family of Dipterous insects, 
 comprehending those which have a projecting proboscis, 
 with the last joint of the antennas undivided. 
 
 TA'PESTRY. (Fr. tapisserie.) An ornamental figured 
 textile fabric of worsted or silk for lining the walls of apart- 
 ments. The most celebrated manufacture of this kind is 
 produced at the Gobelins royal manufactory, near Paris. In 
 Painting, tapestry is applied to a representation of n subject 
 in wool or silk, or both, worked on a woven ground of hemp 
 or flux. 
 TAPEWORM. SeeTjENiA. 
 
 TAPIO'CA. The prepared starch of the root of the \Ja- 
 tropha manihot. The root abounds with a milky juice, 
 which is poisonous, out which deposits an inert starch 
 when diffused tnrough water. The root is called cassava, 
 and is rendered harmless by boiling. 
 
 TA'PIR. (Lat. tapirus.) The name of a genus of Pachy- 
 dermatous Mammals, of which three existing and several 
 extinct species have been determined. Of the existing spe- 
 cies one is a native of Sumatra, the other two of South 
 America. They have a short proboscis ; four toes on the 
 fore foot, and three toes on the hind foot. 
 
 TAR. A dark-brown viscid liquid, obtained by heating 
 the wood of the fir tree: it consists of resin, empyreumatic 
 oil, and acetic acid. When inspissated by boiling, it is con - 
 1216 
 
 TARTARIC ACID. 
 
 verted into pitch. The varieties of tar have lately been the 
 subject of an elaborate investigation by Dr. Reichenbach, 
 who has obtained from it six distinct substances, which he 
 terms paraffine, eupion, kreasote, picamar, capnomar, and 
 pittacal. 
 
 TAR, MINERAL. A variety of bitumen, much resem- 
 bling petroleum. 
 
 TA'RANIS. In Mythology, a Celtic divinity, confounded 
 by Latin writers with their Jupiter. He was regarded a* 
 the evil principle, and worshipped with human sacrifices : 
 whence the verse of Lucan, 
 
 El Taranis Scythicae lion mitior ara Diana;. 
 (See Mem. de I'JJcad. des Inser., vol. xxiv.) 
 
 TARA'NTULA. (So called from Taranto in Sicily ) 
 The name of a Fabrician genus of Pedipalpous Pulmonarj 
 Arachnidans, infesting the torrid regions of Asia and Ameri- 
 ca. The group is now divided into the genera Phrynus and 
 Thelyphonus. The term is also applied to a genus of spi- 
 ders found in some parts of Sicily, whose bite produces a 
 train of symptoms long believed to be curable only by music. 
 From this word is derived the term tarantella, the national 
 dance of the Sicilians. 
 
 TA'RDIGRADES, Tardigrada. (Lat. tardus, slow ; gra- 
 dior, I march.) A family of Edentate Mammals, comprising 
 those which are remarkable for the slowness of their mo- 
 tions when upon the ground, as the sloths. 
 
 TA'RDO (It. slow.) In Music, a term denoting that the 
 movement to which it is affixed is to be performed slowly. 
 It is nearly the same in signification as largo. 
 
 TARE. In Commerce, an abatement or deduction made 
 from the weight of a parcel of goods on account of the 
 weight of the chest, cask, bag, &c, in which they are con- 
 tained. Tare is distinguished into real tare, customary tare, 
 and average tare. The first is the actual weight of the pack- 
 age ; the second its supposed weight according to the prac- 
 tice among merchants ; and the third is the medium tare, de- 
 duced from weighing a few packages and taking it as a stand 
 ard for the whole. In Amsterdam, and some other com 
 mercial cities, tares are generally fixed by custom ; but in 
 this country, the prevailing practice, as to all goods that can 
 be unpacked without injury, both at the custom-house and 
 among merchants, is to ascertain the real tare. Sometimes, 
 however, the buyer and seller make a particular agreement 
 about it. 
 
 Tare. In Agriculture. See Vetch. 
 
 TA'RGUM. A Hebrew word, denoting a paraphrase o( 
 some portion of scripture in the Chaldean language, of 
 which there are ten in existence : the two principal ones 
 being those of Jonathan (or rather the Pseudo Jonathan), an 
 author who wrote a paraphrase, or rather a commentary, 
 upon the Greater and Lesser Prophets, about thirty years 
 B.C. ; and of Onkelos, upon the Pentateuch, which is con 
 sidered the most valuable of all, and is referred to the first 
 century of our era. Two others arc supposed to be of con 
 siderable antiquity. The remaining six are comparatively 
 modern. (See Enc. Metr.) 
 
 TA'RIFF. A table, alphabetically arranged, specifying 
 the various duties, drawbacks, bounties, &c, charged and 
 allowed on the importation and exportation of articles of for 
 eign and domestic produce. 
 
 TARPAW'LING. A painted or tarred canvass cover 
 generally. 
 
 TARRAS, or TERRAS. A volcanic product, which, 
 mixed with mortar, gives it the property of hardening under 
 water. Several argillo-ferruginous minerals possess this 
 property, and are often indiscriminately used under this 
 term. 
 
 TARSE, Tarsus. (Gr. rapoos, sole of foot.) In Mamma- 
 lia, signifies the collection of small bones between the tibia 
 and metatarsus, or those which constitute the first part of 
 the foot. In Birds, it is sometimes applied to the third seg- 
 ment of the leg, which is rarely fleshy or feathered ; and 
 corresponds with the tarsus and metatarsus conjoined. In 
 Insects, it signifies the aggregate of minute joints which 
 constitute the fifth principal segment of the leg or the foot. 
 
 TA'RTAR. (Gr. raprapos, infernal; because it is the 
 sediment or dregs of wine.) The substance which con- 
 cretes upon the inside of wine casks. It is called red and 
 white argol, according to the wine from which it is obtain 
 ed. When purified it is often called cream of tartar: it is 
 a bitartrate of potash. 
 
 TARTAR EMETIC. A double salt, consisting of tartar 
 ic acid in combination with potassa and protoxide of and 
 mony. See Antimony. 
 
 TARTA'RIC ACID. The acid of tartar. This acid Is 
 contained in grape juice, and in tamarinds and several other 
 fruits. It is usually obtained from purified tartar: 4 parts of 
 powdered tartar and 1 of chalk are mixed in hot water, and 
 the white powder which subsides (tartrate of lime) is de 
 composed by dilute sulphuric acid, which combines with 
 the lime to form sulphate of lime, and the tartaric acid 
 
Equir. 
 
 
 24 
 
 3636 
 
 2 
 
 303 
 
 40 
 
 6061 
 
 TARTEft OF THE TEETH. 
 
 ■■eing liberated is obtained by evn|>oration. When pure it 
 .onus white cry^als, composed of one equivalent of dry acid 
 ami one of water (66 + 9 = 75). The anhydrous tartaric 
 acid, us it exists in the dry tartrates (tartrate of lead, for in- 
 stance), is composed of 
 
 Atoms. 
 
 Carbon ... 4 
 
 Hydrogen ... 2 
 
 Oxygen ... 5 
 
 1 66 10000 
 
 TARTAR OF THE TEETH. This substance, which oc- 
 casionally concretes upon the teeth, consists, according to 
 Beraellus, of 
 
 Salivary mucus 13*5 
 
 Animal matter soluble in muriatic acid 7-5 
 
 Phosphate of lime (earthy phosphates) 7'9 
 
 100-0 
 
 TA'RTARUS (Tdprapoc; called also the house of 
 Hades by the Greeks, and Orcus by the Latins), was the 
 name of the infernal regions, over which Pluto or Hades 
 had dominion. 
 
 TARTRATES. Salts in which the tartaric acid is com- 
 bined with bases. 
 
 TARTROVTNIC ACID. An acid composed of tartaric 
 acid in combination with the elements of ether. 
 
 TARTU'FFE. A common French nickname for hypo- 
 critical pretenders to devotion. It is derived from the cele- 
 bntsd comedy of Moliere, of which the hero is so called. 
 Whether Moliere invented, or took it from the popular 
 lnnguage of the time, does not appear: some say that he in- 
 tended to attack Louis XIV. \s confessor. Pert la Chaise, 
 whom he had once seen eating trollies with peculiar gout ; 
 and thence the name. The play was written in 1664, but 
 not acted till 1669: great difficulties being thrown in the 
 way of the author by the clergy and the papal legate. On 
 one occasion it was prohibited when the curtain was on the 
 point of rising, ami Moliere announced to the public its dis- 
 appointment in the well-known equivocal words, " Mon- 
 sieur le president ne vent pas qu'on le joue." When at last 
 licensed (through the influence, it is said, of the king him- 
 self), it had a run of three months with unparalleled sin 
 
 d the easier attention and applause which it still 
 excites bear testimony at once to the keenness of the wit, 
 nnd the peculiar relish of the public for the exposure of the 
 of those who profess a religious character. In Eng- 
 land, this play has been made man than once to serve the 
 popular passions of the day. fibber translated it, and made 
 the hero a nonjuring churchman ; and the play is still acted 
 under the name of The Hypocrite, in which the Tnrtulle is 
 a methodislical divine. 
 
 TASTE. That |*iwer of the mind which is conversant 
 about the beautiful, both of nature nnd of art. In the Latin 
 language, the same metaphor obtained a very wide applica- 
 tion, and the term sapientia was employed to signify quick- 
 ness and correctness of judgment generally. Shnftsbury's 
 use of the term is nearly as extensive, being applied by him 
 to manners, morals, and government, and to wit, ingenuity, 
 nnd beauty. In its modern use it is restricted to those ob- 
 jects which fall within the province of imagination. Now, 
 although imagination derives its objects pre-eminently from 
 those of the sight and hearing, and although the epithet 
 beautiful, is, for the most part, confined to these ; yet the 
 mental power which judges of them borrows its name from 
 n third sense. The reason of this is satisfactorily shown by 
 Coleridge. (Literary Remains, vol. i.) The senses, he ob- 
 serves, are either purely organic, or mixed. The former pre- 
 sent their objects to the mind distinct from its perception of 
 them, while the latter invariably blend the percep;ion of the 
 object with a certain consciousness of the percipient subject. 
 To the latter class belong the touch, the smell, and the 
 taste. Of these, taste and smell differ from the touch, as 
 adding to that reference to our vital being which is common 
 to the three a degree of enjoyment or otherwise ; while the 
 taste is distinguished from the smell only by its more fre- 
 quent and dignified use in human nature. By taste then, 
 as applied to the fine arts, we must be supposed to mean an 
 Intellectual perception of any object, blended with a distinct 
 reference to our sensibility of enjoyment or dislike. 
 
 In the same essay Coleridge gives nnother and a wider 
 definiiiop of taste ; as " a metaphor taken from one of the 
 mixed senses, and applied to objects of the more purely or- 
 ganic, and of our moral sense, when we would imply the 
 co-existence of an immediate personal dislike or complacen- 
 cy." Now, by the constitution of man's nature, every exer- 
 tion of human activity, in the pursuit of the good, the beau- 
 tiful, and the true, combines a sense of pleasure, or the con- 
 trary, with the perception of their respective objects; and 
 this fact would justify the widest application of the meta- 
 
 Ehor. While, however, in the case of the true, this co-ex- 
 itent pleasure has not received any distinctive appellation, 
 4 H 
 
 TASTE. 
 
 and while conscience, (is comprehending the sense of ap- 
 probatioikmnd disapprobation, is characteristically applied to 
 the moral energy, that of taste has been confined to the 
 perception of beauty and the accompanying gratification. 
 
 Hut taste, like all other metaphorical terms, is extremely 
 inaccurate; and by directing attention exclusively to this 
 element of pleasure, it has led to a very inadequate coueep 
 tion of the true nature of the faculty which it designates. 
 Thus Ilutcheson (Inquiry into the Idea of Beauty am! ) it- 
 tue) maintains that the faculty is peculiar, and a sense 
 which, similarly to the other senses, procures a pleasure 
 totally distinct from a cognition of principles, or of the 
 causes, relations, and usages of an object; that beauty 
 strikes at first sight, and that knowledge the most perfcel 
 will not increase the pleasure which it gives rise to; ami 
 lastly, that all the diversity of sentiments excited In diner 
 ent minds by the beautiful, arise solely from the modific i 
 lions of the sense by association, custom, example, and oxlu 
 cation. Among the advocates of the theory of a moral taste 
 we may reckon Hume, Akenside, Blair, Lord Karnes, and 
 Beattie. 
 
 Blair accordingly defines taste to be the power of receiving 
 pleasure from the beauties of nature and art; while Aken- 
 side describes it as "certain internal powers feelingly alive 
 to each finer impulse." Dr. Beattie (Essay on Poetry and 
 Music) supposes tasle to have its origin in a mutual Jiar- 
 mony and sympathy between the soul in its first formation 
 and the rest of nature, which experience may confirm, but 
 no perverse habits subline. In the Essay on the Inlicacy 
 of Taste, Mr. Hume talks of it as a natural sensibility- 
 while in the Essay on the Standard of Taste, he seems to 
 admit of no other criterion than the decisions of a due and 
 sufficiently extensive experience. Lastly, Lord Karnes de- 
 clares a taste in the fine arts to be nearly allied to the mural 
 sense; but yet, like morals, capable of being raised to a ra 
 tionnl science by an examination of the sensitive branch of 
 the human constitution, nnd an enumeration of the objects 
 which are either agreeable or disagreeable by nature. 
 
 But taste is not only a sensitive, but also a cognitive facul 
 ty. When a beautiful object is presented to the mind, not 
 only does it make on it a delicious impression of pleasure, 
 but the mind in the first place passes judgment upon it, and 
 declares it to be beautiful ; that is conformable to a stand 
 ard called the beautiful. In this complex operation of taste, 
 the Judgment is the antecedent, and the pleasure the con- 
 sequent. When the impassible judgment has pal sod sen- 
 tence upon the object, then the sensibility is awakened to 
 certain sentiments, which are, as it were, the echo of the 
 reason. (Cousin, Sur le Vrai, le Bien, et le Beau.) 
 
 Thus, too, Ancillon (Melanges Literaires, <$-c.) : "The 
 Impression which an object makes on the senses is insuffi- 
 cient to give rise to the sentiment of the beautiful. The 
 impression on the senses is but the occasion on which the 
 taste declares that the idea which it impressed on the sen- 
 sible object, and which that object expresses, is the idea of 
 beauty." To this view of taste we may refer the opinions 
 of Addison and Burke. "According to the latter, taste is 
 that faculty or those faculties of the mind which are aiiict- 
 ed with, or form a judgment of, the works of imagination 
 and the elegant arts ; while Addison connects the emotion 
 of pleasure with the power of distinguishing the beauties 
 and imperfections of an author. To this class also we must 
 refer the views of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Gerard, and Mr. 
 Allison. According to the latter, taste is that faculty of the 
 human mind by which we both perceive and enjoy what- 
 ever is beautiful and sublime in the works of nature and 
 art, the perception of these two qualities being attended 
 with an emotion of pleasure distinguishable from every other 
 pleasure of our nature. In the sketch of his proposed work, 
 which, unfortunately, he has never completed, he intended 
 to show the nature of the faculty, and, in refutation of the 
 theory of Hutcheson, to prove that it has no resemblance 
 to a sense ; and that it is not even a separate and peculiar 
 faculty, but admits of being ultimately resolved into more 
 general principles of our mental constitution. If taste were 
 only a sense, it would be difficult to explain the fact, that 
 amid the inexhaustible variety of sensations which differ 
 ent minds experience from the beautiful, there nevertheless 
 reigns a certain unanimity In men's judgments with respect 
 to it, which cannot have any other source than the identity 
 of reason in the human species. The sense of pleasure, 
 however, is still a necessary and essential element of the 
 faculty of taste. Without it we should be condemned to a 
 perfect uniformity of sentiment in the presence of the beau- 
 tiful, in the same manner as the absence of judgment would 
 reduce us to an endless diversity. 
 
 The same conclusion will follow from an examination of 
 some of the principal definitions of beauty. According to 
 St. Austin (Ep. 18), " unity is the universal form of beauty ;" 
 and to Malespina (Delle Leggi del Bello), "beauty consists 
 in unity, multiplicity, and propriety." De Crousaz (Traiti 
 da Beau) makes beauty to consist in variety, unity, regu- 
 
 121? 
 
TASTO. 
 
 tarity, order and proportion. Winckelmann and Sulzer 
 agree also in making unity and multiplicity to be essential 
 constituents of the beautiful. And lastly, the definition ol 
 beauty in the Italian schools of painting, was, "il piu nell' 
 uno," variety in unity ; which is nearly identical with Hut- 
 cheson's explanation of it, uniformity in variety. The just- 
 ness of these views will readily appear, if we consider that 
 while variety satisfies the demands of the imagination by 
 affording the gratification most conformable to its nature 
 and laws, unity is necessary for its being apprehended by 
 the judgment, and in order to its appreciation as a work of 
 art. 
 
 A few definitions of beauty remain to be noticed, which 
 apparently favour the theory of Hutcheson. According to 
 Burke (On the Sublime and Beautiful), and Price (Essay on 
 Beauty), beauty consists in such qualities as induce in us a 
 sense of tenderness and affection. Allison declares that 
 the qualities of matter are neither beautiful nor sublime in 
 themselves, but only such so far as they are signs or ex- 
 pressions of qualities capable of producing emotion. Wie- 
 land makes beauty to consist in the unity of an agreeable 
 variety ; and Kant teaches that the beautiful pleases irre- 
 spectively of any idea of utility, or of any conception of de- 
 sign, simply by the correspondence of the object and the 
 sensitive organ. 
 
 The emotions of taste are usually distinguished into those 
 of the sublime and beautiful ; but Dugald Stewart seems 
 with justice to have denied the existence of any intrinsic 
 difference between them. According to Burke, indeed, the 
 terrible is a fruitful source of the sublime; and this idea 
 does not seem capable of being made an ingredient of the 
 beautiful. In the same way, on the other hand, there are 
 ideas eminently beautiful which can never give rise to an 
 emotion of sublimity. Nevertheless, this does not consti- 
 tute an essential difference between the two. It is with 
 reference to their several effects upon the imagination that 
 they may, perhaps, be most correctly distinguished. Con- 
 sidered in itself, a beautiful object ought to present the 
 greatest possible unity combined with the greatest possible 
 variety ; and considered in the effect it produces on the 
 mind, its beauty consists in the free, facile, and harmonious 
 play of the imagination. On the other hand, the imagina- 
 tion is lost and overpowered in the contemplation of the 
 sublime, which in its infinity presents at once unity and 
 variety. 
 
 TASTO. (It. the touch.) In Music, a term used in con- 
 junction with solo, to signify that the instruments that can 
 accompany by chords are only to play single sounds till the 
 direction is contradicted by the word accordo, or accompani- 
 mevto. 
 
 TA'TTA. (Indian. 1 A bamboo frame or trellis, over 
 which water is suffered to trickle with a view of cooling the 
 air as it enters the windows or doors. 
 
 TATTOO'ING. The name given to a practice common 
 to several uncivilized nations, which consists in puncturing 
 the skin and rubbing a dye or gunpowder into the wounds, 
 by means of which certain figures are represented on the 
 face and other parts of the body on which the operation has 
 been performed. 
 
 TAU'RUS. (Lat. the Bull.) In Astronomy, the second 
 in order of the twelve zodiacal constellations. There are 
 several remarkable stars in this constellation: Aldebaran, 
 of the first magnitude, in the eye ; the well-known cluster 
 called the Pleiades, in the neck ; and the Hyades, in the 
 face. See Constellation, Zodiac. 
 
 TAU'TOCHRONE (Gr. ravros, the same, and ypovoc, 
 time), in Mechanics, is a curve line having this property, 
 that a heavy body descending along it by the action of 
 gravity will always arrive at the lowest point in the same 
 time, wherever the point from which the body begins to fall 
 be taken in the curve. Huygens first showed that this is a 
 property of the common cycloid when the motion takes 
 place in a vacuum, and gravity is supposed to act in parallel 
 straight lines. (See Cycloid.) Newton and Hermann also 
 determined the tautochrone in a vacuum, when gravity is 
 supposed to be directed towards a given centre. Newton 
 likewise showed that the cycloid is also the tautochrone in 
 a resisting medium, when the resistance is proportional to 
 the velocity (Principia, b. ii., prop. 26) ; and Euler first de- 
 termined the nature of the curve when the resistance is pro- 
 portional to the square of the velocity (Mechanica vol ii ) 
 See also Joh. Bernoulli, Opera, vol. Hi. ' 
 
 TAUTO'LOGY. (Gr. rami, the same thing, and \ovoc, 
 discourse.) In Rhetoric, a vicious diction, by which the 
 same idea is expressed in two or more different words or 
 
 n> a A S ™;, a J > £ aren,1 - v intended t0 convey different meanings. 
 
 l A VV LNG. The art of preparing certain kinds of leather 
 by imbuing the skins with saline, oily, and other matters 
 ■See Leather. 
 
 TAXATIO ECCLESIASTICA. A name given to sev- 
 ? ra .of.> U, i liC records - The oldest is that of Norwich, made 
 in 1253, for the purpose of assessing the first fruits and tenths 
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 of ecclesiastical benefices ; sometimes called Pope Inno- 
 cent's valour, that pontiff having made a present of them tor 
 three years to Henry HI. All taxation was regulated by 
 this assessment until the reign of Henry VIII., when tha 
 Valor Ecclesiasticus, sometimes called the King's Books, 
 was compiled by his commissioners. 
 
 TAXATION. A tax is a rate or duty laid by government 
 on the incomes or property of individuals, or on the product! 
 consumed by them ; the produce of such duty or rate being 
 placed at the disposal of government. 
 
 A tax may be either general or particular ; that is, it may 
 either affect all classes indiscriminately, or only one or more 
 classes. 
 
 Taxation (Lat. taxatio) is the general term used to ex- 
 press the aggregate of particular taxes. It is also the name 
 given to that branch of the science of political economy 
 which explains the mode in which the revenue required 
 for the public service may be most advantageously raised. 
 
 It would be quite superfluous to enter into any lengthen- 
 ed arguments to show the utility, or rather necessity, of 
 raising a revenue for the use of the public. JWyuc quiet 
 gentium, sine armis ; neque arma, sine stipendiis ; nequt 
 stipendia, sine tributis habere qucunt. (Tacit. Hist., iv., 
 cap. 74.) It is admitted on all hands that security from 
 foreign invasion, the speedy and impartial administration 
 of justice, and the maintenance of good order and tranquilli- 
 ty, are absolutely indispensable to the successful exertion of 
 industry, and to the advancement of society. And when 
 such is the case, no individual can justly complain that he 
 is made to contribute, in the same proportion to his means 
 as others, for the attainment of such objects; or, which is 
 the same thing, that he is made to pay his fair share of the 
 sum required to procure the services of the soldiers and 
 sailors necessary to repel hostile aggression, and to support 
 the various institutions and public functionaries required to 
 maintain internal peace, to promote prosperity, and to protect 
 every citizen in the undisturbed enjoyment of his property 
 and rights. In most countries the public has frequently had 
 to contribute larger sums than have been required for the 
 ends of good government. But abuses of this kind obvious- 
 ly originate either in the misconduct of administration, or in 
 the defective political organization of the states in which 
 they occur, and do not, therefore, properly come within the 
 scope of our inquiries. In treating of taxation, the object of 
 the political economist is, not to inquire whether the reve- 
 nue raised by the state exceed its necessary wants, or wheth- 
 er it be judiciously expended : but to point out the effect of 
 taxation on individual and public wealth, and, by analyzing 
 the various methods in which a revenue may be raised and 
 comparing them together, to show which is most advan- 
 tageous, or rather which is least injurious. But as such in- 
 quiries, were they prosecuted at any considerable length, 
 would involve discussions nowise suited for a work of this 
 kind, and far exceed its limits, we must confine ourselves 
 to a few observations illustrative of the principles that 
 should be especially kept in view in the imposition of 
 taxes. 
 
 Taxes may be either direct or indirect; that is, they may- 
 be either imposed on the incomes or property of individuals, 
 or on the articles on which these incomes or property are 
 expended. But before proceeding to inquire into the nature 
 and influence of different taxes, it may be proper to piemise 
 the maxims laid down by Adam Smith with respect to taxes 
 in general, inasmuch as they are drawn up with singular 
 judgment and comprehensiveness. 
 
 First Maxim — "The subjects of every state ought to con 
 tribute towards the support of the government, as nearly ns 
 possible in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, 
 in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy 
 under the protection of the state. The expense of govern- 
 ment to the individuals of a great nation is like the expense 
 of management to the joint tenants of a great estate. In 
 the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is 
 called the equality or inequality of taxation." 
 
 Second — " The tax which each individual is bound to pay 
 ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of pay- 
 ment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought 
 all to be clear and plain to the contributor and to every 
 other person. When it is otherwise, every person subject 
 to the tax is put, more or less, in the power of the tix- 
 gatherer, who can either aggravate the tax upon any ob- 
 noxious contributor, or extort, by the terror of such airura 
 vation, some present or perquisite to himself. The uncer 
 tainty of taxation encourages the insolence and favours the 
 corruption of an order of men who are naturally unpopular, 
 even where they are neither insolent nor corrupt. The 
 certainty of what each individual ought to pay is, in taxa- 
 tion, of so great importance, that a very considerable degrqe 
 of inequality, it ap|>cnrs, I believe from the experience of 
 all nations, is not so great an evil as a very small degree of 
 uncertainty." 
 
 Third — " Every tax ought to be levied at the time and in 
 
TAXATION. 
 
 the manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for 
 mtributor to pay it. A tax upon the rent of land or 
 oi" houses, payable at the sumo term at which rents are 
 usually paid, is levied at the time when it is most likely to 
 be convenient lor the contributor to pay, or when he is most 
 likely to have wherewithal to pay. Taxes upon such con- 
 sumable goods as are articles of luxury are all finally paid 
 by the consumer, and generally in a maimer that is very 
 convenient lor him. He pays them by little and little as he 
 has occasion to buy the goods; and as lie is at liberty, too, 
 either to buy or not to buy as he pleases, it must be his own 
 fault if he ever suffers any considerable inconveniences 
 from inch taxes." 
 
 Fourth — " Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to 
 take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as lit- 
 tle as possible, over and above what it brings into the pub- 
 lic treasury of the state." ( Wealth, of Nations, M'Culloch's 
 ed.. 1 vol. 8vo., p. 371.) 
 
 It may be, and in fact often has been supposed, that di- 
 rect taxes, or taxes laid on property or income, or both, 
 Would have the advantage of corresponding better with the 
 first of Smith's maxims than any other description of taxes, 
 by making individuals contribute to the wants of the state 
 proportionally to the revenue which they enjoy under its 
 protection ; and so, no doubt, were it possible to assess them 
 fairly, such would be the case. But the obstacles in the 
 way of their fair and equal assessment are such as can 
 never be overcome; and the truth is, that taxes on either 
 income or property, though theoretically equal, are practi- 
 cally the most unequal that can be imagined. We may get 
 a pretty accurate notion of the income derived from lands, 
 OS, funded property, and mortgages; but nil beyond 
 this is mere guess-work. There are no means by which to 
 ascertain the amount of farming capital, stork in trade, the 
 profits derived from them, or the incomes of professional 
 men. No inquisition into the private affairs of individuals 
 can ever discover these particulars. There is nothing, in 
 
 fact, to depend upon In such cases but the declarations of 
 the parties ; and we need not dwell on the impolicy of any 
 n of finance that si is the duty and the interests of the 
 contributors in opposition, and makes them profit by con- 
 cealing or |>erverting the truth. Besides, although these 
 preliminary and insuperable difficulties were overcome, and 
 We learned the capital and Incomes of dill; rent parties, we 
 should have other and greater difficulties to surmount be- 
 fore the tax could be fairly assessed. The same deduction 
 should not be made from incomes derived from sources that 
 are not equally lasting. To assess them on a just princi- 
 ple, the present value of different incomes, or their value 
 reduced to a perpetuity, would have, in the first place, to 
 be determined. 
 
 But it may be unhesitatingly affirmed that to do this upon 
 a lame scale would be quite impracticable. It is clear, 
 therefore, that taxes on income or property should not be 
 introduced, except as a dernier resort, as a means of filling 
 the coffers of the treasury when the other and more legiti 
 male sources of revenue are insufficient, and when, as in the 
 late war, money must be had at all hazards. 
 
 It is besides absurd to suppose, as has been done, that 
 the burdens that at present fall on the labouring classes 
 could be sensibly reduced by repealing the duties on tea, 
 sugar, soap, &c., and imposing in their stead taxes on prop- 
 erly. Suppose that the attempt were made, and observe 
 what the result must be. A manufacturer employs a cer- 
 tain number of men, who pay £1000 a year in taxes on com- 
 modities. Now, if the taxes that are at present paid by the 
 labourers be repealed, those that fall on their employers 
 must be equally increased; so that the manufacturer in 
 question will have £1000 more to pay in taxes after the 
 change takes place, and will ofcou.se have £1000 less to 
 lay out on wages. It is consequently contradictory and ab- 
 surd to suppose that you esn improve the condition of the 
 labouring classes by repealing the taxes that fall on them 
 to lay them on capitalists. 
 
 Direct taxes on property have been the curse of every 
 country into which they have been introduced, and are at 
 once a consequence and a cause of a low and impoverish 
 ed state of society. To evade them, people that are not 
 poor counterfeit poverty ; some of the most powerful incen- 
 tives to industry and economy are in consequence destroy- 
 ed, at the same time that inferior stock, machinery, &c, are 
 made use of. Such taxes are, besides, most unpopular, as 
 well from their requiring an odious though ineffectual in- 
 quisition into the affairs of individuals, as from their being 
 iirect. So much is this the case, that we are well con- 
 rinrt-d that the raising of eighteen or twenty millions by 
 aXM on income would be felt to be a much greater burden, 
 *nd would really be fir more injurious, than the raising of 
 fifty or sixty millions by well-devised Indirect taxes, such 
 rs the greater number of those that now exist In England. 
 Luckily, however, indirect taxes have almost invariably 
 seen the greatest favourites both of princes and subjects ; 
 
 and there are many solid reasons why this should be tne 
 v burden of direct taxation" is palpable and ob- 
 vious. It admits of no species of disguise or concealment, 
 hut makes every one fully sensible of the exact amount of 
 Income taken from him by govemmeu. Ev ■ ..,„■, how- 
 ever, is extremely averse from parting with properly, un- 
 less he obtain some more acceptable equivalent in it- -lead , 
 and as lire benefits derived from the institution of govern- 
 ment are neither so very obvious nor Striking as to !.,■ easily 
 and readily felt and appreciated by the bulk of the people, 
 there is, in the great majority of cases, a decided disinclina- 
 tion to pay a laru'e amount of direct (axes. Hence it is thai 
 governments have so generally had recourse to indirect 
 taxes, in-lead of exciting the prejudices of their subjects 
 by openly demanding a specific portion of their incomes, 
 they have taxed the articles on which Ibese incomes are 
 usually expended. This ingenious plan conceals the amount 
 of taxation, and makes its payment appear in some measure 
 voluntary. The tax being generally paid, in the first in- 
 stance, by the producers, the purchasers confound it with 
 the natural price of the commodity. No 1 separate demand 
 being made u|K>n them for the tax, it escapes their recollec- 
 tion, and the article which they rece've seems the fair 
 equivalent of the sacrifice made in acquiring it. Such taxes 
 have also the advantage of being paid by degrees, in small 
 portions, and at the time when the commodities are want 
 ed ftir consumption, or when it is most convenient for the 
 consumers to pay them. 
 
 That indirect taxes labour under some considerable dis- 
 advantages is most true, though these have been much ex- 
 aggerated. It is alleged, in tin- firs! place, thai taxes on 
 commodities necessarily alter the natural distribution of the 
 capital and Industry of a country, and force them into less 
 advantageous channels; because, where a tax Is laid on a 
 particular class of commodities, the producers, in order to 
 raise the price proportionally to the tax. diminish the supply 
 in the market by transferring a portion fit" the capital em- 
 ployed in the production of the taxed commodities to some 
 other business. But it is to In- observed that this effect, if 
 it he sensible at all, is experienced only when a duty is first 
 imposed, and that afier a short while the duty is blended 
 with the cost of production, and has no farther influence 
 over the distribution of capital. It is also true, that provided 
 the tax be not oppressive, or so high as to drive capital 
 wholly from the business, it acts as a stimulus to invention, 
 and makes those engaged in the business exert themselves, 
 by new efforts of ingenuity and economy, to find out means 
 of paying the tax without adding to the price of the ar- 
 ticles produced, or withdrawing any portion of their capital 
 from the business. In many instances these efforts have 
 been completely successful ; and in some instances the in- 
 fluence of the tax has been more than neutralized by the 
 exertions made to defeat it. 
 
 Taxes on commodities being almost always paid by the 
 producers before they are sold to the consumers, they not 
 only, it is said, increase prices by the whole amount of the 
 duties, but also by the profits due to the manufacturers by 
 whom they have been advanced. But though this circura 
 stance undoubtedly operates to increase prices, its influence 
 in this respect has been greatly overrated by M. Say, M. 
 Sismondi, and others. The latter has calculated that a tax 
 of 4000 francs, paid originally by a manufacturer whose 
 profits were 10 per cent., would, if the manufactured com 
 modity only passed through the hands of five different per 
 sons before reaching the consumer, cost the latter the sum 
 of 6734 francs. This calculation proceeds on the supposi- 
 tion that he who first advanced the tax would receive from 
 the next manufacturer 4400 francs, and he, again, from the 
 next, 4840 francs; so that at each step 10 per cent, on its 
 value should be added to it. "But," as Mr. Bicardo has 
 justly observed, "this is to suppose that the value of the 
 tax would be accumulating at compound interest; not at the 
 rate of 10 per cent, per annum, but an absolute rate of 10 
 per cent, at every step of its progress. M. Sismondi's state- 
 ment would be correct if five years elapsed between the 
 first advance of the tax and the sale of the taxed commod- 
 ity to the consumer ; but if one year only elapsed, a remu- 
 neration of 400 francs, instead of 2734, would give a profit 
 at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum to all who had con- 
 tributed to the advance of the tax, whether the commodity 
 had passed through the hands of five manufacturers or fif 
 tv." (Principles, <$<;., 3d edit., p. 459.) 
 " It is certainly true that duties on commodities encourage 
 smuggling. ""They tempt," says Dr. Smith, " persons to 
 violate the laws of their country who are frequently inca- 
 pable of violating those of natural justice, and who would 
 have been in every respect excellent citizens, had not the 
 laws of their country made that a crime which nature 
 never meant to be so." (P. 3~8.) In consequence of this 
 tendency, duties on commodities require the employment 
 of a number of revenue officers ; and as they expose the 
 producers of the taxed articles to considerable inconvenience 
 
 1219 
 
TAXATION. 
 
 md hardship from domiciliary visits, they force them to 
 Indemnity themselves by making a corresponding addition 
 to the price of their goods. But this, after all, is not so 
 much a consequence of duties on commodities, as of their 
 abuse, or of their being carried to an oppressive extent. So 
 long as they are confined within reasonable limits, the temp- 
 tation which they create to engage in smuggling transac- 
 tions may be very easily obviated ; and it has been shown 
 over and over again, that duties so restricted are uniformly 
 more productive than those which are carried to such a 
 height as to hold out any great encouragement to smuggling. 
 
 It may also be said that duties on commodities do not fall 
 on individuals in proportion to their means of paying for 
 them; and that while they press with undue severity on 
 persons with large families, or who occupy prominent sta- 
 tions, they may be almost wholly avoided by rich misers 
 and those in the more obscure walks of life. But in taxa- 
 tion we have only a choice of difficulties. However desi- 
 rable, it is, as already seen, quite impossible to tax individ- 
 uals in proportion to their incomes ; and as any attempt to 
 impose an equal income tax would not only be sure to fail, 
 but would be attended with the most disastrous effects, re- 
 sort must necessarily be had to the best practicable taxes, 
 that is, to duties on commodities. And it does not really 
 appear that such duties can be considered as unequal. If 
 duties be laid on sugar or wine, those who abstain from 
 their use will, of course, escape them ; but those who use 
 such articles have no good right to complain of this, seeing 
 that they may also, by exercising the same self-denial as 
 the others, exempt themselves from the duties. 
 
 Taxes on commodities are most commonly divided into 
 two great classes ; the one consisting of external or frontier, 
 and the other of internal duties. The first class, called in 
 England customs duties, are principally charged on com- 
 modities brought from foreign parts on their importation 
 into a country, and sometimes also on native commodities 
 when exported. The second class, which are here called 
 excise duties, are charged on certain articles produced with- 
 in a country, and intended for home consumption. In ad- 
 dition to these great sources of indirect taxation, duties are 
 sometimes laid on the paper or other materials necessary 
 to the completion of deeds and other contracts, on the lib- 
 erty to use certain articles and to exercise certain privileges, 
 &c 
 
 Customs Duties formed an important branch of the public 
 revenue of most ancient states, and in modern times they 
 have been very extensively imposed. In England they have 
 been charged from a very remote period; and, though in- 
 considerable at first, they have increased with the increase 
 of civilization and commerce, till they have long formed one 
 of the most copious sources of the public revenue. The 
 various duties were collected, for the first time, in a book of 
 rates, or tariff, published in the reign of Charles II. ; but 
 there is hardly a year in which the customs duties do not 
 undergo considerable modifications. It is now the practice 
 to consolidate the different acts imposing or varying the cus- 
 toms duties before they become inconveniently numerous ; 
 and tariffs, or tables of duties, drawbacks, &c, are annually 
 published for the convenience of merchants and others. 
 
 Owing principally to the vast increase of the commerce, 
 wealth, and population of the country, but partly also to 
 the increase of the rates, the progress" of the customs du- 
 ties has been quite extraordinary. The revenue derived 
 from the customs duties in 1596, in the reign of Elizabeth, 
 amounted to no more than £50.000. In 1613. it had in- 
 creased to .£148.075, of which no less than £109,572 was 
 collected in London. In 1660, at the Restoration, the cus- 
 toms produced £421,582; and at the Revolution, in 1689, 
 they produced £781,987. During the reigns of William 
 III. and Anne, the customs revenues were considerably aug- 
 mented, the nett payments into the exchequer in 1712 being 
 £1,315,422. During the war terminated by the peace of 
 Paris in 1763, the nett produce of the customs revenue of 
 Great Britain amounted to nearly £2,000,000. In 1792, it 
 amounted to £4,407,000. In 1815, at the close of the war 
 with revolutionary France, it amounted to £11,360,000; 
 and in 1840, the customs revenue of the United Kingdom 
 amounted to £23,341,813, of which Great Britain furnished 
 £21,209,082, and Ireland £2,132,731. 
 
 For a lengthened period customs duties were charged in- 
 differently on all sorts of commodities, whether exported or 
 imported ; the duty on wool sent to '.he Netherlands, 
 France, &c, being formerly, in fart, the principal item in the 
 sustoms revenue. But for a long time past customs duties 
 Mve been almost exclusively laid on imported articles ; those 
 laid on exports being, in most instances, imposed rather to 
 check or prevent the exportation of the articles, than in the 
 view of raising revenue. 
 
 Customs duties, when judiciously imposed, and confined 
 within reasonable limits, are, perhaps, the least exception- 
 able of all taxes. (See Customs.) But if they be carried 
 to such a height as to give any overpowering stimulus to 
 1220 
 
 smuggling, they contradict and defeat the very purpose iOi 
 which they are intended. Our finance ministers havo not, 
 however, been sufficiently alive to this obvious considera- 
 tion. There can be no articles better fitted to bear customs 
 duties than tobacco and spirits ; but the duties with which 
 they are loaded are so extravagantly high that they oc- 
 casion a great deal of smuggling, with its accompanying 
 crime and demoralization, and would certainly be a good 
 deal more productive were they effectually reduced. The 
 existing duties on brandy and geneva are, perhaps, the very 
 worst in our tariff; but they would be about the very best 
 were they reduced from 22s. 6d. to 8s. or 10s. a gallon. 
 
 As already stated, the customs revenue of 1840 amounted 
 to £23,341,813 ; and we hesitate not to affirm that no equal 
 amount of revenue was ever raised in any country, or in any 
 period of time, with so little difficulty and inconvenience. 
 The assessed taxes, exclusive of the land-tax, produced, in 
 1840, £2,971,005; and no one familiar with the facts, can 
 doubt that their payment produced more irritation, and was 
 regarded as a greater burden by the public than the pay- 
 ment of the customs duties, though the latter brought be- 
 tween six and seven times as great an amount of income 
 into the coffers of the treasury. 
 
 The customs revenue of 1840 was collected in Great 
 Britain at a charge of £4 18s. 10d. per cent, on its gross 
 produce; and in Ireland, at a charge of £10 8s. 3rf. on ditto. 
 
 Excise Duties. — The next great branch of the public 
 revenue consists of inland or excise duties; that is, as al- 
 ready seen, of duties charged on certain cominoditiea pro- 
 duced or manufactured at home. 
 
 Excise duties were introduced into England by the Long 
 Parliament in 1643; being then laid on the makers and 
 venders of ale, beer, cider, and perry. The Royalists soon 
 after followed the example of the Republicans, both par- 
 ties declaring that the excise should be continued no longer 
 than the termination of the war. But it was found too 
 productive a source of revenue to be again relinquished; 
 and when the nation had been accustomed to it for a few 
 years, the parliament declared, in 1649, that the "impost 
 of excise was the most easy and indifferent levy that could 
 be laid upon the people." It was placed on a new ('noting 
 at the Restoration : and notwithstanding Mr. Justice Black- 
 stor.s says, that "from its first original to the present time 
 its very name has been odious to the people of England" 
 (Com., book i., c. 8), it has continued progressively to gain 
 ground ; and it is at this moment imposed on several mist 
 important articles, nnd furnishes nearly a third part of the 
 entire public revenue of the kingdom. See Excise Duties 
 
 Some excise duties that were justly objected to have been 
 repealed within these few years ; and with the exception 
 of the duty on glass, which interferes injuriously with the 
 manufacture, we are not sure that there is one of the exist- 
 ing duties that can be fairly objected to on principle, though 
 the rate of duty might, in some instances, be advantageous- 
 ly reduced. We subjoin an account of the articles sub- 
 ject to excise duties in Great Britain in 1840, with the nett 
 produce of the duties in the same year. 
 
 Auctions . • ■ 
 
 Bricks 
 
 Glass 
 
 Hops . . . 
 
 Licences • . 
 
 Malt 
 
 Paper 
 
 Posl Horse Duty 
 
 Post Horse Licences 
 
 Soap . . 
 
 Spirits , . . 
 
 S'isnr . . 
 
 Vinegar . • 
 
 Total 
 
 Net! Rev 
 
 302,948 
 523 379 
 704,540 
 34 1 ,439 
 947.6 
 
 4,788.402 
 
 5A8.7I6 
 
 212,634 
 
 4.001 
 
 806,704 
 
 4,169.5.4 
 
 I 
 ■09 
 
 15 0£ 
 
 26.470 8 8J 
 
 13.3*6,847 I60g 
 
 It has been said that the excise duties "greatly raise the 
 cost of subsistence to the labouring classes." But this as- 
 sertion has really no solid foundation. We have seen 
 above that, in 1840, the excise duties in Great Britain pro- 
 duced £13,386,774. Now of this sum the duties on spirits, 
 malt, and licenses, produced £9,905,937. In fact, the only 
 excise duty that can be said to fall on a necessary of life is 
 that on soap, which produced in 1840 (in Great Britain) 
 £806,705; and as the population of Great Britain amounts 
 at present to above 18,500,000, the soap-tax, at an average, 
 does not impose a burden of above lOd. a year on each in- 
 dividual ! If we estimate its annual pressure on a labour- 
 ing family of five persons at 2s. 6d\, we shall not be within, 
 but considerably beyond the mark. In Ireland there is no 
 tax on soap. 
 
 Latterly some reductions have been made in the duties 
 on glass. Still, however, they are most objectionable, in- 
 asmuch as they interfere most materially with the processes 
 carried on in the manufacture, nnd, by obstructing the intro- 
 duction of new discoveries and improved methods, enhance 
 
 • 
 
TAXATION. 
 
 je prices of the article in a much greater degree than 
 nicht he inferred from the amount of the duty. 
 
 The only taxes in the departments of customs and ex- 
 cise, or of the revenue generally, that can he truly paid to 
 fall on articles necessary to the labourer are, besides soap, 
 those on tea, sugar, and one or two more. It is pretty cer- 
 tain that the duties on tea and sugar, which are by far the 
 most important, might be materially reduced without affect- 
 ing the revenue; and the presumption is, that the duty on 
 su."ir, which enters so largely into most descriptions of food, 
 will be speedily reduced, and the trade in it placed on an 
 entirely new footing. 
 
 Even though they were not required by the public ex- 
 igencies, the duties on spirits obstruct a pernicious habit, 
 and should not be given up. They are the best of all pos- 
 sible duties; and the only thing to be attended to in their 
 Imposition is, not to carry them to such a height as to defeat 
 their o|>cration by encouraging smuggling. We have yet to 
 learn, supposing they are not carried beyond this limit, that 
 a single good objection can be made to these duties. 
 
 iiscurity and complexity of the excise laws have 
 been justly complained of; in this respect, however, they 
 have been materially improved of bite years ; and the stat- 
 utes under which they are collected are now, for the most 
 part, sufficiently perspicuous, and easily understood. 
 
 The capacity of a tax on a commodity to raise a revenue 
 depend* partly on the nature and extent of the demand for 
 I article, and partly on the means of preventing its 
 being smuggled or the duty evaded. F.very tax, by raising 
 the price of the article on which it is laid, has a tendency 
 to bring it within the command of a smaller number of 
 rs, and to lessen its consumption. An individual 
 who might be able and disjiosed to pay 1*. a bottle of duty 
 on wine might neither have the means nor the inclination 
 to pay 2*. or 3*. ; and instead of being augmented, the rev- 
 enue might be diminished by such an Increase of duty. 
 Anil hence, whenever the duties on commodities are raised 
 beyond certain limits — which, however, it is impossible to 
 define a priori, seeing that they necessarily '■•rv according 
 to the description of commodities charged with duties, the 
 van-ins tastes and circumstances of society, and the means 
 of counteracting smuggling — they depress eontuwplkm to 
 such an extent as to becomo less productive than if they 
 had l>een lower. 
 
 Variations In the amount of the duties affecting commod- 
 ities have exactly the same effect on their price, and conse- 
 quently on their consumption, as corresponding variations 
 In the cost of production. But it is clear that any reduc- 
 tion in the price of articles the necessary cost of which is 
 very considerable, and can therefore be used only by the 
 rich, would not so powerfully increase their consumption 
 as an equal reduction in the price of cheaply produced 
 commodities in general demand. Thus, a reduction of 25 
 or even 50 per cent, in the price of conches would not add 
 greatly to the demand for them; for, notwithstanding this 
 reduction, they would still be luxuries for which none but 
 the rich could afford to pay. But a reduction of 25 or 50 
 per cent, in the price of tea, sugar, beer, gin, or any article 
 in general demand, would extend its consumption in a much 
 greater ratio. The reason is plain. The lower classes form 
 by far the most numerous portion of society ; the articles 
 referred to, and others of the same description, are highly 
 esteemed by them, and are, even at their present prices, ex- 
 tensively consumed. But a reduction of a half, or even a 
 fourth from their price, would add prodigiously to the de- 
 mand for them. It would enable their present consumers 
 to use them n larger quantities ; while it would at the same 
 time bring many of them fully under the command of a very 
 large class by whom they are now used as luxuries only on 
 rare occasions. The history of taxation in this and other 
 countries fullv confirms this statement. When carried be- 
 yond due limits, taxes on commodities cease to be product- 
 ive, and recover that quality when they are reduced. There 
 is much truth in the shrewd remark of Dr. Swift, t' at in 
 the arithmetic of the customs two and two do not always 
 make four, but sometimes only one. In 1808, the duty on 
 coffee was la. 7J<Z. per lb. ; the quantity entered for con- 
 sumption that vear being 1,069,691 lbs., producing a nett 
 revenue of £161.246. In the course of the year the duty 
 was reduced to Id. per lb.; and next year no fewer thnn 
 9.251.837 lbs. were entered for home consumption, produ- 
 cing a nett revenue of .£245.886. The coffee duty has since 
 been lowered to M; and the quantitv entered for consump- 
 ■ ow (1842) about 28,500,000 lbs., and the revenue 
 about £850,000 a year. 
 
 The history of the duties on tea, spirits, wine, sugar, nnd 
 Indeed of every other article in extensive demand, is pre- 
 milar. When carried to an oppressive height, the 
 duty either occasions the use of the article to be given up; 
 .ir. which is the most common case, it makes it be supplied 
 through clandestine channels in defiance of the law. But 
 when the duty Is moderate, a taste for the article is diffused ; 
 
 and the profits to he made by trampling on the law not be 
 ing sufficient to remunerate the smuggler, he is forced to 
 abandon his hazardous occupation and the article is whol- 
 ly supplied through legitimate chant-els. After the various 
 disastrous consequences entailed on the country by the ex- 
 orbitant height to which many duties were carried previous 
 ly to 1825, and the signal advantages that have resulted to 
 the revenue and the public from their subsequent modifica- 
 tion, it may be hoped that the principle now stated will 
 meet with more attention in future. 
 
 The attempts that have been made in Great Britain and 
 elsewhere to suppress smuggling, and at the same time to 
 maintain exorbitant duties, have all signally failed. It has 
 been invariably found that no severity of the law, nor vigi 
 lance on the part of the officers, can prevent the smuggling 
 of commodities loaded with excessive duties. At this mo- 
 ment it is supposed that from 500,000 to 600,000 gallons of 
 foreign brandy and geneva find their way into our nnrkc t 
 without paying any duty, in defiance of the coast guard, 
 and of all the other machinery for keeping thi 
 Large quantities of tobacco are also smuggled. In fact, 
 there are no means of effectually putting down smuggling 
 other than a reduction of duty. The very severity of the 
 laws prevents their execution. It creates a sympathy in 
 favour of the smuggler ; it stimulates the trader to corrupt 
 the officer to conceal a fraud ; and it makes the officer 
 overlook what he might otherwise discover. 
 
 Stamp Dutirs. — These duties form the next most impor- 
 tant branch of the public revenue, after the customs and 
 excise. They are mostly laid on the parchment or paper 
 on which certain deeds, contracts, receipts, acquittances, 
 bills of exchange, newspapers, policies of insurance, inden 
 tures of apprenticeship. &c. are written or printed ; and 
 derive their name from the parchment or pa|ier being im- 
 pressed with a stamp stating the amount of the duty. 
 When imposed on fair principles, and not carried to loo 
 great a height, stamp duties seem to be one of the most 
 legitimate sources of revenue. Thev assist in authentic* 
 ting legal instruments, and render it much mo'« difficult 
 than formerly to c rgc deeds of any standing. It is need- 
 less, perhaps, to say, that if stamp duties be carried to such 
 a height as to op|K>se any serious obstacle to the free cir 
 cnlatlon of property, or tothe execution of necessary deeds, 
 they become exceedingly injurious. Perhaps the duty on 
 fire insurance is the most objectionable of the existing 
 stamp duties. It amounts to 3s. per cent, on all property 
 insured : whereas the premium paid to insurance offices, 
 for common risks, is no more than 1*. IW. per cent., or only 
 half the duty. Thus, if a person wish to insure £i000 on 
 a dwelling house, a shop, warehouse, or other commonly 
 hazardous property, he pays 15«. to an insurance office as 
 nn indemnification for the risk, and 30.». to government for 
 leave to enter into the transaction. So exorbitant a duty 
 cannot be too severely condemned. It discourages that 
 providence and foresight the encouragement of which 
 ought to be nn object with all prudent governments; and it 
 is the principal cause that much property is not insured at 
 all, and that what is insured is seldom sufficiently covered. 
 Every individual, in fact, who insures any commonly haz- 
 ardous property, is obliged to pay three times as much as 
 the risk is really worth. Under such circumstances, the 
 wonder certainly is, not that a great deal of property is un- 
 insured, but that such is not the case with a great deal 
 more. Seeing the vast importance of insurance, it may 
 well be doubted whether it ought to be charged with any 
 duty, however slight. But were the duty fixed at 9rf. per 
 cent., or at half the premium, its influence in repressing in- 
 surance would not be very sensible ; and the increase of 
 business to which such a reduction of the duty would lead 
 would be so very great, that we have little doubt that in a 
 few years the reduced duty would yield nearly as large a 
 revenue as is derived from the present exorbitant duty. 
 
 The duties on legacies, and on the probates of wills, are 
 included under the head of Stamp Duties, of which they 
 are very important items. These duties affect only per- 
 sonal or moveable property. The first, or legacy duty, 
 varies according to the propinquity of the successor : being 
 1 per cent, on property devolving on children nnd lineal 
 heirs, 3 per cent, on property devolving on brothers and 
 sisters, 4 per cent, on property devolving on cousins, and 
 10 per cent, on property devolving on strangers. The pro- 
 bate dtuv varies according to the amount of property in the 
 will. The duties on stage and hackney coaches, gold and 
 silver plate, &c. come under the head of Stamps. 
 
 Land Tax.— The existing land tax originated in 1692, be- 
 ing intended to replace the subsidies and such like grants 
 previously made to the crown. According to the valuation 
 at which it was assessed, it was found that a charge of 1*. 
 per pound on the rental of the country produced £500.000. 
 No subsequent change has been made in this valuation. 
 The tax, which was annually voted, usually amounted to 
 is. per pound of the valued rent. In 1798, it was made 
 
 1221 
 
TAXATION. 
 
 jserpetual at that rate, leavft being at the same time given 
 to the proprietors to reduce it. 
 
 The land tax has always been very unequal. When 
 imposed, the proprietors friendly to the Revolution return- 
 ed theii estates at a much higher value than those attach- 
 ed to the House of Stuart. The different degrees of im- 
 provement that have since taken place in the various dis- 
 tricts of the country have, in some instances, tended to 
 correct the inequalities in the original imposition of the 
 tax ; but their more common effect has been to increase 
 them. j . 
 
 Assessed Taxes.— These form the fourth great head of 
 revenue. They include the duties on windows, servants, 
 horses, carriages, armorial bearings, game, &c. The house 
 duty, that used to be one of the principal items in the as- 
 sessed taxes, has been recently repealed. A hearth tax, 
 or duty proportioned to the number of fireplaces in a house, 
 was established in this country at a very early period ; but 
 owing to its being necessary to the assessing of the tax 
 that the government officers should be admitted to view 
 the inside of each house, the hearth tax became exceed- 
 ingly unpopular, and was repealed by the stat. 1 Will. & 
 Mary, c. 10. This statute declares hearth money " not 
 only a great oppression to the poorer sort, but a badge of 
 slavery upon the whola people, exposing every man's 
 house to be entered into and searched at pleasure by per- 
 sons unknown to him ; and therefore to erect a lasting 
 monument of their majesties' goodness in every house in 
 the kiugdom, the duty of hearth money was taken away 
 and abolished." 
 
 But six years afterwards " the prospect of this monu- 
 ment of goodness was," to use Blackstone's words, " some- 
 what darkened," by the passing of an act (7 Will. III., c. 
 18) laying a duty on all inhabited houses except cottages, 
 and also on windows. These duties were afterwards con- 
 siderably%ncreased : they were, however, materially modi- 
 fied within the last few years ; and neither the existing 
 window tax, nor the house tax previously to its repeal, 
 could be said to be oppressive. Indeed, out of 2,850,937 
 inhabited houses in Great Britain in 1831, only 442,482, or 
 not a si .h part of the entire number, paid du;y in 1333. 
 All houses below .£10 a year of rent were exempted from 
 the duty ; the rate of charge on those that were assessed 
 being Is. bd. per pound on houses worth from j£10 tojC20 a 
 year ; 2s. 3d. per pound on those worth from £20 to .£40, 
 and 2s. 10d. per pound on those worth £40 and upwards. 
 The assessed taxes do not extend to Ireland. The cost of 
 their collection amounted, in 1840, to £4 lis. 10<Z. per cent, 
 of the gross produce. 
 
 The house tax being assessed according to the rent, it 
 frequently happened that private houses, shops, and tav- 
 erns in towns, were assessed in a larger sum than the 
 finest houses of the nobility and gentry in the country. 
 1222 
 
 There was not, however, any injustice in this ; for, in 
 point of fact, had any attempt been made to let the latter, 
 they would rarely have found a tenant or brought any 
 rent. This apparent inequality afforded, however, a con- 
 venient topic for declamation, and for raising an outcry 
 against the tax, which was, in consequence, repealed in 
 1835. 
 
 With the exception of the duties on the postage of let- 
 ters, which have been noticed elsewhere (see Post-Of- 
 fice), the observations now made will probably suffice to 
 give the reader a general idea of the principles on which 
 taxes should be imposed, and of the leading characteristic* 
 of Ihe principal taxes now in force in this country. 
 
 Collection of Taxes. — Taxes in Great Britain are almost 
 wholly collected by government officers, paid by salaries. 
 The customs duties, the excise duties, and the duties on 
 stamps, with the assessed taxes are each under the man- 
 agement of a particular department, having at its head a 
 board of commissioners, with various classes of inferior of- 
 ficers. The post-office revenue is managed by a post-mas- 
 ter-general and a principal secretary. The heads of the 
 different revenue departments correspond with and receive 
 their instructions from the treasury, to which is committed 
 the charge of supervising, controlling, and regulating all 
 matters connected with the assessment and collection of 
 taxes. The number of commissioners in the different rev- 
 enue boards was formerly much greater than at present ; 
 and it is contended by some very high authorities that 
 their number might still be advantageously reduced, and 
 that the whole responsibility should rest with the head of 
 each department. Various reforms and retrenchments 
 have been also introduced into the subordinate depart- 
 ments, and not a few abuses have been rectified in the as- 
 sessment and collection of most duties. Perhaps the only 
 very material reforms that need now be looked for in this 
 department, must arise rather from changes and modifica- 
 tions of duties than from any changes in the way in which 
 they are charged and collected. The reduction of the 
 present exorbitant duties on brandy, geneva, and tobacco, 
 by taking awav an overwhelming temptation to their clan- 
 des tine importation, .vc U mabie - . to be ef- 
 
 fected in the customs departments, at the same time that it 
 would be productive of various other beneficial consequen- 
 ces. In the excise there remains little to be amended ; and 
 were the glass duties repealed, and the regulations as to 
 some of the other duties simplified, the system would ha\e 
 received all the perfection of which it seems capable. 
 
 Those who wish for farther information on the subjects 
 treated of in this article may consult the article on Taxa- 
 tion in the new edition of the F.ncyclop&dia Britannica : 
 Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy ; M'Cullooh'a 
 edition of the Wealth of Nations, Jfcc. 
 
TAXATION. 
 
 Account of the Public Income of the United Kingdom ; specifying its different Sources, and the Amount derived from 
 
 each, during 1838, 1839, and 1840. 
 
 INCOME. 
 
 IS38. 
 
 1S39. 
 
 1840. 
 
 CUSTOMS AND EXCISE. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 l Foreign 
 
 1,388,371 
 
 
 1 £41,881 
 
 
 1,290,581 
 
 
 SpiriuwRum .... 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,411,067 
 
 
 
 1,273630 
 
 
 1,155.613 
 
 
 (British .... 
 
 
 
 
 
 5.467 201 
 
 
 
 6,442,478 
 
 
 5,201,664 
 
 
 Milt 
 
 
 
 
 
 4,932,040 
 
 
 
 4,845,949 
 
 
 4,933,602 
 
 
 Hop. 
 
 
 
 
 
 302,906 
 
 
 
 2S0.079 
 
 
 341,440 
 
 
 Wine 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,846,057 
 
 
 
 1,849,710 
 
 
 1,791.646 
 
 
 Su<.\r and Molasses . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 4.89MM 
 
 
 
 4>27,lil'l 
 
 
 4,650.017 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 3,362.035 
 
 
 
 3,6.3, KW 
 
 
 3,472,364 
 
 
 Coffee 
 
 
 
 
 
 634,979 
 
 
 
 779,115 
 
 
 921,552 
 
 
 Tobacco ud Snuff . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 8,561 ,812 
 
 27,851, 
 
 
 3,495,687 
 
 
 3,588,192 
 
 27,397,171 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 27,791.2 S 
 
 
 nutter 
 
 
 
 
 
 251.665 
 
 
 
 213.073 
 
 
 Km 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 113,907 
 
 
 
 105.219 
 
 
 1 17,679 
 
 
 t uri uits and Raisins . . • 
 Cmn 
 
 
 
 
 
 300,323 
 
 
 
 6JMH 
 
 
 339,330 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 186,760 
 
 
 
 1 ,09f,778 
 
 
 1,156,640 
 
 
 Wool and Sheep "• imported 
 
 
 
 
 
 721 4 r> 
 
 
 
 559,679 
 
 
 785.491 
 
 
 Silk 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HUM 
 
 
 240,628 
 
 
 Hides and Skim . 
 
 
 
 
 
 61,478 
 
 
 
 6 J. -22 
 
 
 50,504 
 
 
 Paper 
 
 
 
 
 
 641,788 
 
 
 
 ■Ml? 
 
 
 ■sun 
 
 
 Soap 
 
 
 
 
 
 810,313 
 
 
 
 7-4.li., 
 
 
 80*201 
 
 
 Candle* and Tallow . 
 
 
 
 
 
 183,669 
 
 
 
 isxvm 
 
 
 !36,2>-3 
 
 
 Coals, sea-borne . 
 
 
 
 
 
 7,632 
 
 
 
 8,447 
 
 
 6,827 
 
 
 Glass 
 
 
 
 
 
 mum 
 
 
 
 7IS.34S 
 
 
 733,513 
 
 
 Bricks, Tiles, and Slate* . 
 
 
 
 
 
 418,335 
 
 
 
 463,426 
 
 
 523,380 
 
 
 Timber 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,572,618 
 
 
 
 1,603,194 
 
 
 1,730.551 
 
 
 Auctions , 
 
 
 
 
 
 235,186 
 
 
 
 n -t-t 
 
 
 316.246 
 
 
 Kxcise Licence* 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,023,202 
 
 
 
 ijoajm 
 
 
 1,054,116 
 
 
 Post Horse Duties .... 
 
 
 
 
 
 241,266 
 
 
 
 
 
 216,636 
 
 
 Miscellaneous of Customs and Excise • 
 
 
 
 
 1,596,366 
 
 
 
 1,546,716 
 
 lo',H7,2l8 
 
 1,617,064 
 
 10,730,237 
 
 
 
 9,264, 6o» 
 
 
 
 37,ll5,8ol 
 
 
 STAMPS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,699.283 
 
 
 1,710,533 
 
 
 
 2,192,231 
 
 
 2.UI7.686 
 
 
 2,093,078 
 
 
 wance \ «£" ; j ;;:;.;: 
 
 251,856 
 
 
 292,978 
 
 
 188,888 
 
 
 891,704 
 
 
 923,005 
 
 
 ! 44,321 
 
 
 Bills of Kxchiiije, Bankers' Notes 
 
 734,109 
 
 
 781,629 
 
 
 773,114 
 
 
 
 341,974 
 
 
 868,490 
 
 
 376.006 
 
 
 
 HIM 
 
 
 497,216 
 
 
 43.-.047 
 
 
 
 173.^25 
 
 
 173,047 
 
 
 175.070 
 
 
 Other Stamp Duties • 
 
 463,784 
 
 7,212,437 
 
 469,001 
 
 
 473.2)6 
 
 7,287,823 
 
 ASSESSED AND LAND TAXES. 
 
 
 
 7,217,265 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,174,100 
 
 
 1,181 ,283 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,188,622 
 
 
 1,404,642 
 
 
 
 201,018 
 
 
 201,432 
 
 
 216,-23 
 
 
 
 377,477 
 
 
 3-4,2-6 
 
 
 416,170 
 
 
 
 442,757 
 
 
 447,467 
 
 
 431,409 
 
 
 
 156.200 
 
 
 168,861 
 
 
 170,951 
 
 
 
 278,242 
 
 
 266,8.-10 
 
 3,932,689 
 
 230,919 
 
 4,152,287 
 
 
 
 8,803,088 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2,390.764 
 
 
 1,342,604 
 
 
 
 33.1 642 
 
 
 357,815 
 
 
 4-2,429 
 
 Other Ordinary Revenues, and other Resources . . 
 
 
 312.575 
 
 
 243,110 
 
 
 300,966 
 
 
 51 ,278,8 « 
 
 
 52,058,349 
 
 
 51,693,510 
 
 Excess of Expenditure over Income . . 
 
 
 441.819 
 
 
 1,331,938 
 
 
 1,750343 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 51,720,747 
 
 
 53,440,287 | 
 
 
 53.444,053 
 
 1223 
 
TAXATION. 
 
 TAXUS. 
 
 Account of the Expenditure of the United Kingdom during 1838, 1839, and 1840 ; specifying the different Items, and 
 
 the Amount of each. 
 
 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 REVENUE.— Charges of Collection. 
 ... ■, r, , S Customs .... 
 
 (.ml Department*. < £ 2c j se .... 
 
 Preventive Service, Land Guard, Revenue Police Crullers, 
 and Harbour Vessels • 
 
 Stamps 
 
 Assessed Taxes . . . • , . 
 Other ordinary Revenues . 
 Superannuation and other Allowance* 
 
 PUBLIC DEBT. 
 Interest of Permanent Debt • • • 
 
 Terminable Annuities. . . . 
 Management 
 
 Interest on Exchequer Bills 
 
 Total Debt 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT.— Ctm' Litt-Priw) Purtc 
 
 Salaries of the Household, Tradesmen's Bills . 
 
 The Allowances to the several Branches of the Royal Fam- 
 ily, and to his Royal Highness Leopold, Prince of Co- 
 bourg (now King of the Belgians,* .... 
 
 The Lord-lieutenant of Ireland's Establishment 
 
 The Salaries and Expenses of the Houses of Parliament, 
 including Printing 
 
 Civil Departments, including Superannuation Allowances . 
 
 Other Annuities, Pensions, and Superannuation Allowances 
 on the Consolidated Fund and on the Gross Revenue 
 
 Pensions, Civil List 
 
 Total Civil Government . 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 Courts of Justice ...... 
 
 Police and Criminal Prosecutions . • • 
 
 Correction 
 
 Total Justice 
 
 DIPLOMATIC. 
 
 Foreien Ministers' Salaries and Pensions . . 
 Consuls 1 Salaries and Superanuuatiou Allowances 
 
 Disbursements, Outfit, &c 
 
 • Total Diplomatic 
 
 FORCES. 
 
 •Effective . S N«n>ber of Men . 
 £ Charge . . 
 I Number of Men 
 f Change • . 
 
 Army. 
 
 Noneffective 
 
 Navy. 
 
 Effective . 
 Non-effective 
 
 Effective 
 Non-effective 
 
 Total Army 
 
 i Number of Men . 
 | Charge 
 
 Number of Men . 
 f Charge . . 
 
 Total Navy 
 
 i Number of Men . 
 i Charge 
 
 I Number of Men . 
 ( Charge . . 
 
 Total Ordnanc* 
 Total Forces . 
 
 £ 
 
 636,847 
 851,494 
 
 24.212,530 
 
 4,133,966 
 
 133,566 
 
 1,530,112 
 
 720.92S 
 
 371,800 
 
 303 000 
 33,869 
 
 142.195 
 458,253 
 
 357,576 
 
 552,181 
 562.191 
 417,966 
 
 182,028 
 148,606 
 62 198 
 
 (82,746) 
 4,263/>4l 
 
 (90.9H) 
 2,552,1UJ 
 
 6,815.641 
 
 (30.399) 
 3.046,867 
 
 (24/30) 
 1,473,661 
 
 4.520.42S 
 
 (9,012) 
 
 1,219,631 
 
 (6 '21 
 
 165,058 
 
 1 384/.81 
 
 Army and Ordnance, Insurrection in Canada . . 
 
 China Expedition ._._ [ " 
 
 Bounties. &c, for promoting Fisheries . , 
 
 Public Works '.'.'. 
 
 Payments out of the Revenue of Crown Lands, for Improvements and va- 
 rious Public Services 
 
 Post-office : Charges of Collection, and other Payments ", 
 Quarantine and Warehousing Establishments " \ 
 
 Miscellaneous Services not classed under the foregoing beads I '. '. 
 
 Memorandum : 
 The amount of Terminable Annuities on the 5th of January was 
 In corresponding Perpetuities, as estimated by Mr. Finlaison . 
 
 1,48S,341 
 570,129 
 
 2.053,470 
 154,213 
 209.203 
 52,213 
 374,401 
 
 2,843,500 
 
 29,251,040 
 
 1,672,319 
 
 1,532,333 
 
 12,720,750 
 500.000 
 
 ' 13,454 
 
 2!9,f64 
 
 144.731 
 
 676,335 
 
 134,534 
 
 1,513.550 
 
 4.292 173 
 I,830,ti54 
 
 £ 
 
 633,824 
 
 855,424 
 
 24,183,865 
 
 4,271 458 
 
 133,866 
 
 23.W9.l-i9 
 856,701 
 
 37I.S00 
 
 525 501 
 510.201 
 403,274 
 
 186 P34 
 115.929 
 48,100 
 
 (89,481) 
 3.952 881 
 
 (8P..30) 
 2,5-^.781 
 
 6.542 662 
 
 (34.137) 
 3 993. "5 
 
 (23,732) 
 1,496.979 
 
 5.490.204 
 
 (9.235. 
 
 1,790.464 
 
 (6141 
 
 160.746 
 
 1,494,248 
 £67,636 
 
 2,0*1,884 
 158,709 
 169,578 
 64,223 
 369,101 
 
 2,823,415 
 
 29,445,890 
 
 1,634,1 
 
 1,438,976 
 
 350,963 
 
 13,984,076 
 647,000 
 
 ' 14.553 
 
 321,702 
 
 146,466 
 
 746,^79 
 
 118.594 
 
 1,767,010 
 
 53.440.2S7 
 
 £ 
 
 623,733 
 
 840,700 
 
 24,352,209 
 
 4,2)4.444 
 
 134,241 
 
 1,730.954 
 642,997 
 
 371,800 
 
 323.928 
 32,359 
 
 349,397 
 2,743 
 
 534,945 
 577,363 
 285,295 
 
 183,765 
 
 124,732 
 51,993 
 
 (91,901) 
 4,400 595 
 
 (88,006) 
 2,4'9,672 
 
 t,S9(l,2l;7 
 
 136.501) 
 4,152 663 
 
 .22.958) 
 1,444.845 
 
 (H.39'.l 
 
 1,474,577 
 
 (614) 
 
 157.063 
 
 # No nart of this income is at present paid for the use of King Leopold. The trustees, after discharging certain annuities and pensions to the servants 
 and establishment of the late Princess Charlotte, repay the balance of the annuity to the Exchequer : the sum so repaid in the last year was 34.0001. 
 
 TA'XTCORNS, Taxicornes. (Lst. taxus, a yew tree; 
 cornu, a horn.) The name of a family of Coleopterous in- 
 sects, including those in which the antenna? gradually aug- 
 ment in size as they extend from the head, or terminate in 
 an enlargement. 
 
 TA'XIDERMY. (Gr. ra\ic, arrangement, and hpun, 
 skin.) The art of arranging and preserving the skins of 
 animals. The most popular treatise on taxidermy is Mr. 
 Swainson's volume In Lardner's Cyclopedia. 
 1*24 
 
 TA'XIS. In Surgerv, the replacement of parts which 
 have quitted their natural -situation by the hand, and with 
 out instrument or operation ; as in reducing hernia or rup- 
 ture. 
 
 Taxis. In Architecture, the fitness of the parts to the 
 end for which a huilding is erected. 
 
 TA'XUS (L-nt.), is the botanical name of the yrw tree, 
 celebrated for the hardness and elasticity of its wood. Its 
 berries are harmless ; hut its leaves ate poisonous, parte 
 
TAYLOR'S THEOREM. 
 
 ring of the property of foxglove. It is the most simple form 
 )f the Coniferous alliance, and is usually taken as the best 
 Illustration of the gymnospermotis structure among Exo- 
 gens, because its female flower is quite solitary, and readily 
 examined. W'h:tt travellers in New Zealand call yews ap- 
 pear 10 be species of Dnrryilium. 
 
 TAYLOR'S THEOREM. In Mathematics, a very gen- 
 eral and remarkable formula of most extensive application 
 In analysis, discovered by Dr. Brook Taylor, and given in 
 his JlriUudus Incrcmentorum. published in 1715. The for- 
 mula is ibis: Let u be any function whatever of a variable 
 z, and let u' be what u becomes when z receives an incre- 
 ment = A; then 
 
 . du h , i 2 u A« , d'u A' , , 
 u=u + ^-I + ^'l.2 + JI»*F^3 + ' &C - 
 
 Demonstrations of this important theorem are given in 
 •very treatise on the differential calculus; and it is made 
 by I.igrange the foundation of the calculus itself. (See 
 •e. Tlteorie des Fonctions Jina'ytique.) 
 
 'i BA. The dried leaves of the tea tree, of which there 
 arc two varieties. 1. The Thea nigra ; black or bohca tea. 
 2. Thea viridis ; green tea. The bohens include souchong, 
 pekiw, and congou; and the greens are hyson, singlo, and 
 imperial or bloom tea. The leaves tire collected and dried 
 on iron plates by a gentle heat. Ten taken in moderation, 
 especially as we use the infusion, with sugar and milk, is 
 strengthening and invigorating; it also appears to possess 
 certain stimulating and narcotic properties, of which some 
 individuals are peculiarly susceptible, and which renders it 
 improper in hypochondriacal and hysterical patients. We 
 know little of the chemical properties of the varieties of 
 tea ; but the following table shows that, in regard to its 
 more obvious constituents, the different varieties are not 
 widely dissimilar. The column showing the weight of the 
 precipitate by jelly miy be taken as indicating the relative 
 proportion of the astringent matter. 
 
 100 parti of Tea. 
 
 Green : hymn, 14*. per lb. 
 
 Diaek : souchong, 12*. 
 
 10.. 
 
 " 8r. 
 
 Soluble 
 
 Precipi- 
 
 in alco- 
 
 tate with 
 
 hol. 
 
 jelly. 
 
 44 
 
 31 
 
 43 
 
 29 
 
 43 
 
 26 
 
 42 
 
 B 
 
 41 
 
 24 
 
 36 
 
 23 
 
 37 
 
 21 
 
 35 
 
 28 
 
 3', 
 
 24 
 
 31 
 
 23 
 
 Of the above precipitate by jelly, about 40 per cent, may 
 be re ga rded as tannin ; nnd the difference between the 
 second and the first column shows the quantity of resin 
 contained in the above teas : the resin has an agreeable 
 flavour of the tea. Water distilled off tea has an agreeable 
 flavour, nnd is said to be narcotic : it contains a trace of 
 Volatile oil. Oudry's statement of the existence of a pecu- 
 liar principle in tea {thein) requires confirmation. 
 
 The late rise and present magnitude of the British tea 
 trnde are among the most extraordinary phenomena in the 
 hisiory of commerce. Tea was wholly unknown to the 
 Greeks and Romans, and even to our ancestors, previously 
 to the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 17th century, 
 to have been originally imported in small quanti- 
 ties by the Dutch, but was hardly known in> this country 
 till after 1650. In 1660, however, it began to be used in 
 coffee houses ; for, in an act passed in that year, a duty of 
 &/. is laid on every gallon of "coffee, chocolate, sherbet, 
 and lea," made and sold. But it is abundantly evident that 
 it was then only beginning to be introduced. The follow- 
 ing entry appears in the Diary of Mr. Pepys, secretary to the 
 Admiralty: " September 26, 1661. I sent for a cup of tea 
 (a China drink), of which I had never drunk before." In 
 1664, the East India Company bought 2 lbs. 2 oz. of tea as 
 a present for his Majesty. In 1667 they issued the first or- 
 der to import tea, directed to their agent at Bantam, to the 
 effect that he should send home 100 lbs. of the best tea he 
 could get ! (See the references in Milburne's Orient. Com., 
 vol. ii., p. 530; Jlfacpher son's Hist, of Com. with India, p. 
 130-132.) Since then the consumption seems to have gone 
 on regularly, though slowly, increasing. In 1689, instead 
 of en i f trmsi a duty on the decoction made from the leaves, 
 an excise duty of 5*. per lb. was laid on the tea itself. 
 
 The great increase that took place in the consumption of 
 duty paid on tea in 1784 and 1785. over its consumption in 
 tin: preceding vears, is to be ascribed to the reduction that 
 was then effected in the duties. In the nine years prece- 
 i, above 180,000,000 II*. of tea were exported from 
 China to Europe in ships belonging to the Continent, and 
 about .10.O00.0O0 lbs. in ships belonging to England. But, 
 from the bent information attainable, it appears that the real 
 consumption was almost exactly the reverse of the quanli- 
 
 TEAK WOOD. 
 
 ties imported ; and that, while the consumption of the Brit 
 Ish dominions amounted to above 13.000,000 lbs., the con 
 sumption of the Continent did not exceed 5,500,000 lbs. If 
 this statement be nearly correct, it follows that an annual 
 supply of above 8,000,000 lbs. was clandestinely imported. 
 It was well known, indeed, that smuggling was' carried on 
 to an enormous extent ; and, after every other means of 
 checking it had been tried to no purpose, Mr. Pitt proposed, 
 in 17NJ, to reduce the duties from II!) to 12.1 percent. This 
 measure was signally successful, "—"gglfllg and the prac 
 lice of adulteration were immediately put an end to, and 
 the legal im|Hirts of tea were about trebled. In 178ft, how- 
 ever, the duty was raised to 25 per cent. ; ami .titer succes 
 sive augmentations in 1707, 1800, aud 1803. it was raised, 
 in 1806, to 96 per cent, ad valorem, at which it continued 
 till 1819, when it was raised to 100 per cent, on all teas that 
 brought above 2«. per lb. at the Company's sales. 
 
 Down to the 22d of April, 1834, the duty on tea was an 
 ad valorem one, being 96 per cent, on all teas sold under 2* 
 a pound, and 100 per cent, on all that were sold at or above 
 2». Seeing that tea may now be considered almost as a 
 necessary of life, this was certainly a high duty ; though, 
 ns a large amount of revenue must be raised, we do not 
 know that it could be fairly objected to on that ground. 
 But under the monopoly system the duty was, in fact, about 
 200 per cent, ad valorem ! For, the price of the tea sold by 
 the Company lieing forced up to nearly double what it 
 would have been had the trade been free', it followed, inas- 
 much as the duty varied directly as the price, that it also 
 was doubled when the latter was doubled. The price of 
 congou at Hamburgh, for example, varies from 1*. VM. to I*. 
 id. per lb.; and had the Company supplied our mniket* 
 with congou at the same rate, it would have eosl ns, duty 
 included, from 2*. 2d. to 2s. 8d. per lb. Hut Instead of this, 
 the congou sold by the Company has been, kt an average, n 
 good deal above 2*. per lb. ; and the duty being as much, it 
 has invariably cost us from 4s. to 5s. per lb. Hence, 
 though the duty was only 100 per cent, on the Company's 
 price, it was really above 200 per cent, on the price of tea 
 in an open market! The mischief of the monopoly WBI 
 thus aggravated almost beyond endurance, InnsmnCB as 
 every addition made by it to" the cost of the article made an 
 equal addition to the duty on It. 
 
 But this system is now happily at an end. The ml ralo 
 rem duties ceased on the 22d of April, 1834; nnd all ter 
 imported into the United Kingdom for home consumption 
 is now charged with a customs duty as follows: 
 
 Bohea is. Gd. per lb 
 
 Congou, twnnkay, hyson skin, orange 
 pekoe, and campni . ... 2s. 2</. " 
 
 Souchong, flowery pekoe, hyson, young 
 hyson, gunpowder, imperial, and other 
 teas not enumerated .... 3s. 0d. u 
 
 We subjoin an account of the quantities of tea entered 
 for home consumption in the United Kingdom in 1840 and 
 1841, with the gross amount of duty received on the same ■ 
 
 Quantities. Revenue. 
 
 1840 
 1841 
 
 32.262,802 
 36,396,078 
 
 3,473.964 
 3,978,198 
 
 TEAK WOOD, or INDIAN OAK. The produce of the 
 Tectona grandis, a large forest tree, that grows in dry and 
 elevated districts in the south of India, the Bnrman empire, 
 Pegu, Ave, Sinm, Java, etc. Teak timber is by far the best 
 in the East ; it works easily, and, though porous. Is strong 
 and durable ; it is easily seasoned, and shrinks very little ; 
 it is of an oily nature, and therefore does not injure iron. 
 Mr. Crawfurd says that, in comparing teak nnd 'oak to- 
 gether, the useful qualities of the former will be found to 
 preponderate. '' It is equally strong, nnd somewhat more 
 buoyant. Its durability Is more uniform and decided ; and 
 to ensure that durability It demands less care and prepara- 
 tion ; for it may be put In use almost green from the forest, 
 without danger of dry or wel rot. It is fit to endure all 
 climates and alternations of climate." (See TmlgohVs 
 Principles of Carpentry, p. 206 ; Crawfurd's East. Jlrchip., 
 vol. i., p. 451.) 
 
 The teak of Malabar, produced on the high table land of 
 the south of India, is deemed the best of any. It is the 
 closest in its fibre, and contains the largest quantity of oil, 
 being at once the heaviest nnd the most durable. This 
 species of teak is used for the keel, timbers, and such parts 
 of a ship as are under water: owing to its great weight, it 
 is less suitable for the upper works, and is not at nil fit for 
 spars. The teak of Javn ranks next to that of Malabar, 
 and is especially suitable for planking. The Rangoon or 
 Burman teak, and that of Siam, is not so close-grained or 
 durable as the others ; it is, however, the most buoyant, 
 and is therefore best fitted for masts and spars. Malabar 
 teak is extensively used in the building yards of Bombay. 
 Shins built wholly of it are almost wholly indestructible by 
 
 1225 
 
TEA NY. 
 
 ordinary wear and tear; and instances are not rare of their 
 having lasted from 80 to 100 years ; they are said to sail in- 
 differently ; but this is probably owing as much to some 
 defect in their construction as to the weight of the timber. 
 Calcutta ships are never wholly built of teak ; the timbers 
 and framework are always of native wood, and the 
 planking and deck only of teak. The teak of Burma, 
 being conveyed with comparatively little difficulty to the 
 ports of Rangoon and Martaban, is the cheapest and most 
 abundant of any. It is largely exported to Calcutta and 
 Madras. 
 
 A species of timber called African teak is pretty largely | 
 imported into England, from the west coast of Africa. But, j 
 in point of fact, it is not teak, and it is destitute of several j 
 of its most valuable properties. It is, however, for some 
 purposes, a useful species of timber. 
 
 TEANY, TAWNY, or BRUSK. In Heraldry, a colour 
 compounded of red and yellow, employed in blazonry, 
 but rarely met with in English coats of arms, and reckoned 
 one of the dishonourable colours. In engraving, it is rep- 
 resented by diagonal and horizontal lines crossing each 
 other. 
 
 TEARS. The fluid which lubricates the comea of the 
 eye, when secreted in excess, forms tears ; they are limpid, 
 saline, perfectly miscible with water, and have a slight 
 alkaline reagency, owing to the presence of free soda : their 
 principal saline contents are common salt and a trace of 
 phosphate of soda, and they contain traces of albumen; but 
 the whole solid matter scarcely amounts to 1 per cent. 
 When the lachrymal duct by which the tears are conveyed 
 into the nostrils is obliterated, and they flow over the angle 
 of the eye, they become concentrated by evaporation, and 
 leave an irritating muco-saline crust. The exact nature, 
 however, of the animal matter contained in the tears has 
 not been determined. 
 
 TECHNO'LOGY. (Gr. rtxi";, art, and \oyos, a dis- 
 course.) A term invented to express a treatise on art or 
 the arts. 
 
 TECTIBRA'NCHIATES. (Lat. tego, / cover, and 
 bronchia, gi'ls.) A name given by Cuvier to an order of 
 Hen;, -ii* ods, com rehend ig e species in 
 
 which the gills are covered by a process of thij mantle, con- 
 taining a shell, or enveloped in a reflected margin of the 
 foot: for this name that of Monopleurobranchiata has been 
 substituted by M. He Bl ainville. 
 
 TECTO'RIUM OPUS. (Lat. tector, a plasterer.) In 
 Architecture, the plasterers' work used on ceilings and 
 interior walls: it was a composition of lime and sand, and 
 differed from stucco, which was called albarium opus. 
 Great pains were taken to prevent its cracking, by crossing 
 layers of reed upon it coated with argillaceous earth pre- 
 vious to coating it with paint. 
 
 TECTRI'CES, Coverts. (Lat. tego, I cover.) The name 
 of the feathers which cover the quill feathers and other 
 parts of the wing. See Coverts. 
 
 TE DEUM. (From the first words of the original Latin, 
 "Te Deum laudamus ;" We praise thee, O God.) The 
 authorship of this sublime hymn has been ascribed by some 
 to Ambrose and Augustine ; by others to Ambrose alone, 
 to Hilary, and other less distinguished persons, it is, how- 
 ever, generally thought to have been composed in the 
 Gallican church: the most ancient mention of it being in 
 the rule of Caisarius, bishop of Aries In the fifth century. 
 The Te Dcum, In the office of matins, is always sung after 
 the reading of scripture; in the English morning service, 
 between the two lessons. (Palmer, Origines Liturgies, 
 ch. i., part 1, sec. 2.) 
 
 TEETH. See Dentes. 
 
 TEETH OF WHEELS, ore generally the means by 
 which the power of the first mover is conveyed to the 
 working point of a machine ; and it is obviously of great 
 Importance that they should be of such a form that as little 
 as possible of the original power may be lost in transmission, 
 and that the impulse should be conveyed through the train 
 of wheels with a uniform force. 
 
 In the formation of the teeth of wheels, the object aimed 
 at is to give them such a curvature that the angular velo- 
 cities of the two pieces working together shall maintain 
 the same constant ratio in all positions of contact. In order 
 to preserve the constancy of the angular velocity ratio, it is 
 only necessary that the acting faces of the teeth shall have 
 •uch a form that the normal common to the two surfaces 
 in contact shall always divide the line of centres (that is, 
 the line joining the centres of the wheel and pinion) in a 
 fixed point. Now, the teeth of one wheel being assumed 
 to iave any form whatever, it is always geometrically pos- 
 sik e to assign the form of those of another so that they 
 shall fulfil this condition, and, consequently, work together 
 correctly; but the forms which are found to answer in 
 practice are limited to a comparatively small number. We 
 subjoin the following cases rom Brewster's edition of Fer 
 guion's Mechanics : 
 1226 
 
 TEINOSCOPE. 
 
 Case 1.— If the acting faces of the teeth of a wheel are 
 epicycloids whose generating circle has the same radius as 
 the primitive radius of the pinion, and whose base has the 
 same radius as the primitive radius of the wheel; and if 
 these teeth drive the pinion by acting upon infinitely small 
 pins in its circumference, the motion of the wheel and 
 pinion will be uniform. 
 
 Case 2. — If the acting faces of the teeth of a wheel are 
 epicycloids whose generating circle is of any magnitude 
 whatever, and whose base is the convex circumference of 
 the wheel ; and if the acting faces of the leaves of the 
 pinion are epicycloids described by the same generating 
 circle, and whose base is the concave circumference of the 
 pinion — the motion of the wheel and pinion will be uni- 
 form. 
 
 Case 3. — If the acting faces of the teeth cf a wheel are 
 epicycloids whose generating circle has a radius equal to 
 half the radius of the pinion, and a base of the same 
 radius as the wheel ; and if the acting faces of the leaves 
 of the pinion are straight lines directed to the centre of the 
 pinion, the motion of the wheel and pinion will be uni- 
 form. 
 
 Case 4. — If the teeth of a rack drive a pinion ; then, 
 when the acting faces of the teeth of the rack are cycloids 
 whose generating circle has the same radius as the pinion, 
 and when their teeth drive the pinion by acting upon infi- 
 nitely small pins placed in its circumference, the motion of 
 both will be uniform. 
 
 Case 5. — If the acting faces of the teeth of the rack are 
 cycloids whose generating circle has a radius equal to half 
 the radius of the wheel ; and if they drive the wheel by 
 acting upon rectilinear teeth which are a continuation of 
 the radii, the motion of both will be uniform. 
 
 Case 6. — When the teeth of a wheel driving a rack have 
 their acting faces formed of the involutes of a circle having 
 the same radius as the pinion, and drive the rack by acting 
 upon infinitely small pins fixed in its rectilinear edge, the 
 motion will be uniform. 
 
 For detailed information connected with this subject, the 
 reader may be referred to the following works: Camus, On 
 the Teeth of Whals ; Buchanan's Treatise en Mill Work, 
 by Rennie; Airy, On the Teeth of Wheels {Cambridge Phil. 
 Trans., vol. ii.) ; and particularly to Willis's Principles of 
 Mechanism, 1841. See Wheel. 
 
 TEGME'NTA. (Lat. tego, / cover.) In Botany, the 
 scales covering the leaf-buds of the deciduous trees of cold 
 climates. 
 
 TE'GUMENT, or TEGMEN. In Anatomy, the general 
 covering of the body. In Entomology, the term i* applied 
 to the coverings of the wings of the order Orthoptera, or 
 straight-winged insects. 
 
 TE1NDS. In Scottish Law, tithes. By the course of 
 various usurpations, the whole teinds of Scotland had 
 become vested after the Reformation in the crown ; or in 
 private individuals, termed titulars, to whom they had 
 been granted by the crown, or to the feuars or renters from 
 the church. By a succession of decrees and enactments 
 these tithes were generally rendered redeemable at a fixed 
 valuation ; and the clergy are provided for by stipends, paid 
 by the commissioners of tithes (when these are vested in 
 the crown) or by the titular. The minister can seek the 
 increase of these stipends by process of augmentation and 
 modification ; and, if augmented, every heritor becomes 
 liable in proportion to the amount of his teinds. 
 
 TEI'NOSJX)PE. The name given by Sir David Brewster 
 to an instrument otherwise called the prisiM telescope, 
 formed by combining prisms in a particular manner, so that 
 the chromatic aberration of the light is corrected, and the 
 linear dimensions of objects seen through them increased 
 or diminished. 
 
 "If we take a prism, and hold its refracting edge down 
 wards and horizontal, so as to see through it one of the 
 panes of glass in a window, there will be found a position, 
 viz. that in which the rays enter the prism and emerge 
 from it at equal angles, when the square pane of glass is of 
 the nt'tural size. If we turn the refracting edge towards 
 the window, the pane will be extended or m ignified in its 
 length or vertical direction, while its breadth remains the 
 same. If we now take the prism, and hold its refracting 
 edge vertically, we shall find, by the same process, that the 
 pane of glass is extended or magnified in breadth. If two 
 such prisms, therefore, are combined in these positions, so 
 as to magnify the same both in length and breadth, we 
 have a telescope composed of two prisms ; but unfortunately 
 the objects are all highly fringed by the prismatic (..lours. 
 We may correct these colours in three ways: 1st, We may 
 make the prisms of a kind of glass which obstructs all the 
 rays but those of one homogeneous colour ; or we may use 
 a piece of the same glass to absorb the other rays whan 
 two common glass prisms are used. 2d, We may use 
 achromatic prisms in place of common prions. Or, :.'ci, 
 what is best of all for common purposes, we may place; 
 
TELAMONES. 
 
 two pri>ins exactly similar in reverse positions." 
 >ptus. Cabinet Cijc. p. 30.'!.) 
 ir Amici, of Modena, has recently constructed a 
 combination u( prisms of the same "las*," in which the 
 chromatic aberration is corrected, and a power of about 
 three bines obtained. The plan is well suited for opera 
 glas-es. Amici's teinoscope consists of four rectangular 
 is, having their retractive angles different, and con- 
 d by pans; the two pairs being similar, those next the 
 the lirst pair are verticil, and the second pair hori- 
 zontal, so that equal refraction is produced in every direc- 
 tion. The distance between each p ir is about an inch 
 and a half. (Library of Usrful Knowledge, " Optical 
 Instruments," p. 53.) sjj r D. Brewster (Optics, p. 364.) 
 that this instrument had been made by Dr. Blair as 
 Well as by himself, before it was proposed or executed by 
 Amioi. 
 
 1 i.I AMD WES. (Gt. rXau), I bear up.) In Architecture, 
 figures of men used for supporting entablatures, similar to 
 Caryatides: sec that word. 
 
 TE'LEGRAPH. (Gr. rrjXr], afar off, and yptiQu), I write.) 
 The name given to a mechanical contrivance for the rapid 
 communication of intelligence by signals. Of late years, 
 the term semaphore (Gr. trn/ia, sign ; <ptpui, I bear) has 
 been introduced by the French, and frequently adopted by 
 -h writers. 
 Although the art of conveying intelligence by signals was 
 I in the earliest ages, and is known even to the 
 iv.iges; and although its importance is not only 
 but continually felt wherever government is es- 
 allowed to remain in its original state 
 fection down almost to our times. The first descrip- 
 telegruph universally applicable was given by Dr. 
 Booke, in the I'hitosophical Transactions for l(j84. The 
 Which he proposed, for it was not carried into 
 consisted in preparing ns many differently shaped 
 liiiurrs formed of deal — lor example, squares, triangles, 
 circles. fcc., as there are letters in the alphabet, nnd exhibit- 
 ing them successively, In the required order, from behind a 
 proposed that torches or other lights, com- 
 bined in (iiiiereni arrangements, should supply their place 
 by night. About twenty years later, Amontons exhibited 
 some ex|icrimenU before the royal family of France, and 
 the members of the Academy of Sciences, by which the 
 practicability of the art was demonstrated. But although 
 both the proposal of Ilooke and the experiments of Amon- 
 tons were made public, telegraphic communication was not 
 applied to any useful purpose until 1704, when the plan 
 was adopted for conveying intelligence to the French 
 armies. The first telegraph actually used was the inven- 
 tion ot (,'happe. It consisted of a beam which turned on a 
 pivot in the top of an upright post, having a moveable arm 
 at each of its extremities ; and each diilerent position in 
 which the beam and its two arms could be placed at angles 
 of 45° afforded a separate signal, which might represent a 
 letter of the alphabet, or have any other signification that 
 might be agreed upon. In the following year, 1795, several 
 plans were submitted to the English admiralty: of which 
 one, proposed by Lord George Murray, was adopted, and 
 continued to be made use of down to the year 1816. It 
 Consisted of six shutters, arranged in two frames, which 
 being opened and shut according to all the different combi- 
 nations which can be formed, afforded the means of giving 
 sixty-three separate and distinct signals. 
 In 1803, the French erected semaphores 
 along their whole line of coast, formed 
 of an upright post, carrying two, or 
 sometimes three beams of wood, each 
 turning on its own pivot, one above the 
 other. In 1807, Captain (now General) 
 Pasley, of the Royal Engineers, pub- 
 lished his Polygrammatic Telegraph, 
 differing from the French semaphores 
 by having beams turning on the same 
 pivot ; nnd, in order to obtain a sufficient 
 number of different signals, he proposed 
 to erect two or three posts at each station. 
 In J816, Sir Home Popham considerably 
 simplified this construction. His telegraph, which was 
 adopted in that year by the Admiralty instead of the shut- 
 ter telegraph, and has continued in use ever since, consists 
 of merely two arms, moveable on different pivots on the 
 same mast, as represented in the annexed figure (1). It is 
 capable of giving forty-eight independent signals. Lastly, 
 In 1822, General Pasley still farther simplified the con- 
 struction, by placing the two arms on the same axis. As 
 tlii-i form of the instrument appears to be the most perfect 
 at preseiit in use, we shall give a few details respecting its 
 construction, and the mode of using it. 
 
 For day signals, the telegraph consists of an upright post 
 of sufficient height, with two arms moveable on the same 
 pivot on the top of it, and a short arm, called the indicator, 
 
 &■) 
 
 TELEGRAPH. 
 
 on one side ; as in the annexed figure (2). Each arm caa 
 
 exhibit the seven positions, 1, 2, 3 4, 5, 
 
 (i, 7, besides the position called (lie stop, 
 
 which points vertically downwards, and 
 
 is hid by the post. In order to show 
 
 the number of signals that may be made 
 
 with this machine, we may suppose 
 
 the arm nearest the indicator, reckoning 
 
 in the order of the numbers as shown in 
 
 the figure, to indicate tens, and the other 
 
 units ; then the signal represented in 
 
 the figure will be 17, which may be 
 
 taken to denote a letter of the alphabet. 
 
 If the arm on the left had the position 
 
 Indicated by 3, and that on the light the 
 
 position indicated by 6, the signal would 
 
 be 30. Ir this manner, the number of 
 
 separate and independent signals, with their signification, 
 
 will be as in the following table : 
 
 No. of 
 S'ljnal. 
 
 There are thus, as already stated, 28 independent signals 
 which are more than sufficient for spelling any message 
 though not enough for indicating both the letters of the 
 alphabet, and also the numeral digits; and it may be re- 
 marked that No. 4, is a bad signal, when used by itself, 
 because it ap|>ears in the telescope as a prolongation of the 
 post. Advantage may, however, be taken of the indicator, 
 if made moveable, to Increase the number of combinations. 
 The use of the indicator is to show the order or direction 
 in which the signals are to be reckoned ; that is, Whether 
 from right to left, or from left to right. This is indispensable 
 at sea, or wherever it is required to convey intelligence in 
 different directions at the same tune. 
 
 In order to adapt the telegraph to the purpose of making 
 night signals, a lantern, called the central light, is fixed la 
 the pivot on which the nuns move, and one is also attached 
 to the extremity of each arm. A fourth lantern, used as an 
 indicator, is fixed in the same horizontal line with the cen- 
 tral light, at a distance from it equal to twice the length of 
 one arm, and as nearly as may be in the plane in which 
 the lights revolve. 
 
 The arms and the indicator are made of wood, framed 
 and panelled for the sake of lightness. The arms are lived 
 one on each side of the post, and counterpoised by weights, 
 or by light frames of Iron-work, which at a little distance 
 are quite invisible. The precaution of counterpoising is 
 necessary, as the anus would not otherwise remain in any 
 given position unless held by the hand, or stopped by some 
 mechanical contrivance, which would be attended with 
 inconvenience. Motion is communicated to the arms by 
 means of an endless chain passing over two pulleys ; one 
 fixed to the arm itself, and turning on the same pivot ; and 
 the other on a pivot fixed to the lower pnrl of the past, 
 within the reuchof the signalman The pulleys are of the 
 same size, and worked with great care, so that the arms 
 can be set with the greatest exactness ; nnd the required 
 positions are pointed out by a dial plate, the index of which 
 is moved by a lever attached to the lower pulley. 
 
 It is found from experience that the length of the arm 
 should be about one foot for each mile of distance, and the 
 width of the arm should be from one sixth to one eighth 
 of its length. The indicator should be of the same width, 
 but only about four fifths of the length of the arm. 
 
 Instead of employing the different telegraphic signals to 
 represent the letters of the alphabet, each may have a sig- 
 nification entirely arbitrary, but settled by previous agree- 
 ment ; and thus a message may be communicated by a 
 single sign. When this plan is adopted, a much greater 
 number of signals is required ; but this is obtained by suc- 
 cessively exhibiting two or more of the different single signs. 
 Thus, supposing the telegraph capable of exhibi.ing 20 in- 
 dependent signs ; then by two successive chai ges 400 sig- 
 nals mav be made, and 8000 by three succe-sive changes. 
 Every system of telegraphic signals according to this plan is 
 of necessity accompanied with n telegraphic dictionary, 
 containing the signification of the different combinations ef 
 signs. Several works of this kind have been compiled. 
 One by Sir Home Pi ph m, at present used in the English 
 navy, contains about 13,000 words or sentences, which is 
 probably more than is necessary for any practical purpose 
 though there are others much more extensive. The Adtu.' 
 
 1227 
 
TELEOLOGY. 
 
 ralty adheres to the safer, though somewhat less rapid 
 practice, of spelling all the sentences. 
 
 In the management of a fleet at sea, telegraphic commu- 
 nication is indispensable. In the English navy, the signals 
 are generally made by flags ; though, from the difficulty of 
 making out their figures and colours in calm weather, or 
 when the wind blows in the direction in which the signal 
 is to be communicated, the communication, itmight be sup- 
 posed, would be made with greater certainty by means of 
 the semaphore. 
 
 Various attempts have been made at different times, par- 
 ticularly on the continent, to supersede the optical telegraph, 
 which is always useless in hazy weather, by applying the 
 agency of electricity or galvanism to the rapid communica- 
 tion of intelligence. An apparatus for accomplishing this 
 purpose by means of galvanism has recently been contrived 
 by Professor VVheatstone, of King's College, London, which, 
 if experiments on a relatively small scale may be trusted to, 
 appears to be completely successful. It has been adopted 
 on some of the principal lines of railway in this country. 
 
 TELEO'LOGY. (Gr. tcXoc, an end, and \oyos, a dis- 
 course.) The doctrine of final causes is so called. The 
 teleological argument for the existence of a Deity is derived 
 from the murks of design apparent in the universe, which 
 not only imply an intelligent Creator, but demonstrate at 
 the same time his benevolence and other moral attributes. 
 When these are derived from material nature, the argu- 
 ment is styled the physico-theological. The reader will tind 
 in Whexoeil's Bridgewater Treatise an explanation of Ba- 
 con's meaning in banishing final causes from the domain of 
 physical science. 
 
 1'E'LEOSAUR, Teleosaurus. (Gr. rcAtioj, perfect ; aavpuc, 
 a lizard.) The name of a genus of fossil Saurian reptiles, 
 resembling the Gavials ; but having the vertebra? united 
 by flat surfaces, instead of ball-and-socket joints. 
 
 TE'LESCOPE. (Gr. rnXv distant ; okoitcu), I look at.) 
 An optical instrument for viewing distant objects. 
 
 For several reasons a distant object is seen less distinctly 
 than a similar near one. The angle which an object sub- 
 tends diminishes as the distance increases; the density 
 of the light which renders it visible also diminishes with 
 the distance, but in a much faster ratio ; and a considerable 
 portion of light is always lost in its passage through the at- 
 mosphere. , 
 
 It is found by experience that to be discernible at all in 
 ordinary daylight, a detached object must subtend at the 
 eye an angle of not less than 30", and that the least angle 
 under winch contiguous objects can be satisfactorily distin- 
 guished is about one minute. By the aid of a telescope a 
 magnified image of the object is obtained ; and within cer- 
 tain limits the object is not only apparently enlarged, but 
 rendered brighter than it appears to the unassisted eye. 
 
 The invention of the telescope, to which practical astro- 
 nomy is indebted for its most important discoveries, has 
 been ascribed to various persons. Sir David Brewster 
 (Encyc. Brit., art. "Optics") says, "We have no doubt 
 that this invaluable instrument was invented by Roger Ba- 
 con or Baptista Porta, in the form of an experiment ; though 
 it had not, perhaps, in their hands assumed the maturity of 
 an instrument made for sale, and applied to useful purposes, 
 both terrestrial and celestial. If a telescope is an instru- 
 ment by means of which things at a distance can be seen 
 better than by the naked eye, then Baptista Porta's concave 
 lens was a real telescope ; but if we give the name to a 
 tube having a convex object-glass at one end, and n convex 
 or concave lens at the other, placed at the distance of the 
 sum or difference of their focal lengths, then we have no 
 distinct evidence that such an instrument was used before 
 the beginning of the 17th century." Descartes ascribes the 
 invention to James Metius, a citizen of Alkmaer in Hol- 
 land ; Huygcns to John Lippersey, or Zacharias Jansen ; 
 Borellus also to Jansen. Professor Moll, who has discussed 
 these rival claims, after examining the official papers pre- 
 served in the archives at the Hague, comes to the conclu- 
 sion that Metius (whose proper name was Jacob Adriaansy), 
 on the 17th of October, 1608, was in possession of the art of 
 making telescopes , but that from some unexplained reason 
 he concealed his invention, and thus gave up every claim 
 to the honour he would have derived from it ; that on the 
 21st of October in the same year, 1G08, John or Hans Lip- 
 persey, a si>ectac!e-maker of Middleburg, was actually in 
 possession of the invention ; and that there is little reason 
 to believe that either Hans or Zacharias Zanz (or Jansen, 
 father and son) were inventors of the telescope, though one 
 of them invented a compound miscroscope about 1590. 
 (Journal of the Royal Institution, vol. i.) 
 
 The telescope soon made its way into other countries. In 
 April or May, 1609, the illustrious Galileo, having heard 
 a rumour of the invention, set about considering the means 
 whereby distant objects could be seen distinctly, and was 
 soon in possession of a telescope which magnified three 
 times. In subsequent trials he succeeded in. increasing the 
 1228 
 
 TELESCOPE. 
 
 magnifying power : and before the beginning of 1610, he had 
 observed the satellites of Jupiter. Our countryman Harriot 
 also, in 1609, began to use the telescope for examining the 
 disc of the moon, and before he had heard of the discoveries 
 of Galileo. (Priestly' s History of Discoveries relating it 
 Piston, L,ight, and Colours.) 
 
 Telescopes are of two kinds, refracting and reflecting 
 telescopes ; the former depending on the use of properly 
 figured lenses, through which the rays of light pass ; anil 
 the latter on the use of specula, or polished metallic mirrors, 
 which reflect the rays ; an inverted image of the object 
 being formed in both cases in the focus of the lens or mirror. 
 
 Refracting telescojjes were those which were first con- 
 structed. They were of the most simple character, consist- 
 ing merely of an object-glass of one lens, and an eye-glass 
 of one lens, but of a shorter focus. But in this construction 
 the prismatic colours produced by the difference of the re- 
 frangibility of the luminous rays tinged the images of all 
 objects seen through the telescope, and the image was like- 
 wise distorted by the aberration of the extreme rays. It 
 was soon found that the latter defect could be sufficiently 
 corrected by employing more lenses than one in the eye- 
 piece; but it was long before a remedy was found for the 
 chromatic dispersion ; and artists, despairing of success, 
 generally turned their attention to the improvement of in- 
 struments of the reflecting class. The difficulty, however, 
 was at length overcome through the persevering efforts of 
 John Dollond (see Achromatism) ; and the achromatic re 
 fracting telescope may now be regarded as an instrument all 
 but perfect. 
 
 The principles on which telescopes depend having been 
 explained under the terms Reflexion and Refraction, 
 and the properties and construction of their principal parts 
 under Achromatism, Lens, Mirror, we shall here de- 
 scribe some of the principal forms which the instrument 
 has assumed. Il will be borne in mind that the general 
 aim in the construction of a telescope is to form, by means 
 of lenses or mirrors, as large, bright, and distinct an image 
 of a distant object as possible, and then to view the image 
 with a magnifying glass in any convenient manner. We 
 shall first describe those of the refracting glass. 
 
 Galilean Telescope. — This is the most ancient form of the 
 telescope, and is that which was used by Galileo. It con- 
 sists of a converging object-glass A B (fig. 1), and a concave 
 U) 
 
 diverging eye-glass C D. On passing through the object 
 glass A B, the rays of light coming from the different point* 
 of a distant object in parallel pencils are rendered conver 
 gent, and proceed towards the principal focus, where they 
 would form an inverted image; but before they arrive at 
 this point they fall upon the concave lens C D, by which 
 they are again rendered parallel, or at least their conver- 
 gence is corrected so as to give distinct vision of the object 
 to the eye at E. The lens C D is therefore placed between 
 the object-glass and the image, and at a distance from the 
 image equal to its principal focal distance. The magnify 
 ing power is equal to the principal focal distance of the ob- 
 ject-glass. See Lens. 
 
 In this telescope the object is seen erect, and the length 
 of the tube is only the difference between the focal lengths 
 of the two lenses. These properties render it preferable to 
 any other telescope for many ordinary purposes ; as, for ex- 
 ample, an opera-glass. When used for this purpose, the 
 magnifying power is hardly ever greater than 4 ; and it is 
 often as low as 2. 
 
 Astronomical Telescope— This is composed of a converg- 
 ing object-glass A B (fig. 2), and of a converging eye-glass 
 C D. Rays of light proceeding from any point M of a dis- 
 tant object M N, and falling on the different points of the 
 (2.) 
 
 object-glass, are refracted into a point m in the principal 
 focus. In like manner, those proceeding from the point N 
 are refracted into the point n; and thus an inverted image 
 in n is formed at the focus of the object-glass. The eye- 
 glass is placed so that its focus shall coincide with the 
 place of the image; consequently rays diverging from any 
 point of the Image, and falling on the lens C D, are refract 
 ed into a parallel direction before they ei.ter the eye at E 
 
TELESCOPE. 
 
 and are thereby rendered fit to produce distinct vision. The 
 .ength ol'the telescope is equal to the sum of the focal dis- 
 tances of the two lenses ; and the magnifying power is 
 equal to the focal distance of the object-glass divided by 
 the focal distance of the eye-glass. This telescope was 
 
 rtbed by Kepler in his Dioptrice (1611) ; but it does 
 not apj«?ar to have been executed until about twenty or 
 thirty vears later. 
 
 Terrestrial Telescope. — This differs from the astronomical 
 telescope only in having two additional lenses EF.CH 
 (tig. '.t , placed in the tube of the eye-glass for the purpose 
 IT restoring the inverted image to its erect position, and 
 thereby accommodating the telescope to terrestrial objects. 
 
 1 lengths of these additional lenses are usually the 
 same as that of the eye-glass. The two pencils of rays 
 proceeding from the points M and N cross each other in the 
 anterior focus of the second lens E F, and falling parallel 
 on E F form in its principal focus an inverted image of mn, 
 and consequently an erect image of the object M N. This 
 
 ' it is seen by the eye at E through the lens G H, 
 as the rays diverging from m' and n' in the focus of G H en- 
 ter the «ye in parallel pencils. When the three first lenses 
 are equal, the magnifying power is the same as that of the 
 astronomical telescope, whose object and eye-glasses are 
 the same as A B and U D. 
 
 (3.) 
 
 M A S .£ _ JLV-S 
 
 The performance of refracting telescopes depends most 
 
 essentially on the goodness of the object-glass; for if the 
 
 first Image is bright and distinct, and perfectly achromatic, 
 
 ittle difficulty in constructing eye-pieces to magnify 
 
 it, without causing it to undergo any sensible alteration. 
 
 Reflecting Telescope*. — In reflecting telescopes the specu- 
 lum, of mirror, performs the same office that the object- 
 glass does to those of the refracting kind, and is therefore 
 called the object-mirror. The instrument is constructed in 
 Various tonus ; but these differ from one another chieflv in 
 reference to the contrivances which have been adopted for 
 bringing the focal image into a convenient situation for be- 
 ing viewed by the eye-piece. The principal forms are the 
 Newtonian, the Gregorian, the Cassegrainian, and the Her- 
 schelinn. 
 
 Newtonian Telescope— Let A B C D (fig. 4) represent a 
 
 w 
 
 ■action of the tube of the telescope ; A B the object-mirror, 
 which would form at its focus the image a of any distant 
 object. Now if a person attempted to view the image in its 
 place at a by placing himself directly before the mirror, he 
 would necessarily intercept the rays of light from the object 
 passing down the tube to the mirror, and consequently 
 there would be no image to view. Sir Isaac Newton over- 
 came this difficulty by introducing a small diagonal plane 
 speculum d between A B and a, which intercepting itself 
 but a small portion of light, reflects towards the side of the 
 tube the rays converging from A B, and causes the image 
 which would have been formed at a to be formed at b, 
 where it can be conveniently viewed by the eye-piece E at- 
 tached to the side of the tube. The small mirror is of an 
 oval form, and is fixed on a slender arm c connected with a 
 slide, by means of which it may be made to approach or re- 
 cede from the large speculum A B, according as the image 
 approaches to or recedes from it. In this telescope the 
 magnifying power is equal to the focal length of the object- 
 mirror A B divided by that of the eye-glass. 
 
 Gregorian Telescope. — In this construction the object- 
 mirror A B (fig. 5) is perforated in the middle, and the rays 
 (5.) 
 
 
 
 flight from a distant object being reflected from the sur- 
 •xe of A B cross each other In the focus, where they form 
 an Inverted image a. and are then intercepted by a small 
 concave mirror d, which causes them again to converge to 
 
 a focus at J, near the perforation of the object-nirror, wher* 
 they form a reinverted or direct image, which '•» viewed by 
 an eye-piece E screwed Into the tube behint A '.V The 
 curvature of the small speculum should be ellipt.ca., having 
 the foci at a and b ; but it is generally made spherical. In 
 this case the great speculum should be slightly hyperbolic. 
 to counteract the aberration of the small mirror. 
 
 Cassegrainian Telescope. — The great speculum of this in 
 strument is perforated like the Gregorian ; but the rays cum 
 verging from the surface of the mirror AB <&•>. (!) towards 
 (6.) 
 
 D 
 
 ;i* 
 
 the focus a are intercepted before they reach that point by 
 a small convex mirror </, not sufficiently convex to make 
 the rays divergent, but of such a curvature as to prevent 
 them from coming to a focus till they are thrown back to b, 
 near the aperture in A H, where they form an inverted 
 image which is viewed by the eye-piece E. This construe 
 lion has the advantage of requiring a shorter tube than the 
 Gregorian ; but the inversion of the image is not corrected, 
 and for this reason probably it has not been much used. 
 
 In the two last constructions the small mirror d is ad- 
 justed by means of a rod turning on a shoulder near the 
 eye end of the tube, and connected by a screw with the 
 apparatus which carries the arm c, to which the mirror is 
 attached. 
 
 Herschelian Telescope. — This construction differs from 
 the othersin having no second mirror. The large speculum 
 A B (fig. 7) is placed at the bottom of the tube in an inclined 
 
 position, so as to bring the focal image a near the edge oi 
 the tube, where it is viewed directly by the eye piece r? 
 without interfering with the light entering the telescope 
 from the object observed. The magnifying power is the 
 same as in the Newtonian. 
 
 The reflecting telescope was invented by James Gregory, 
 and is described by him in his Optica Promota (1663) ; but 
 the first telescope of the kind was executed by Newton. 
 Reflecting telescopes have been mnde on a very large scale. 
 The celebrated instrument of Sir William Herschel, erect- 
 ed at Slough In 1789, was 40 feet in length. Its great spe- 
 culum had a diameter of 49£ inches ; its thickness was 
 about 3£ inches, and its weight when cast was 21 18 lbs. Its 
 focal length was 40 feet, and it admitted of a power of 6450 
 being applied to it. The essential advantage of large tele- 
 scopes of this kind consists in the immense quantity of 
 light which they collect, whereby the observer is enabled 
 to perceive faint nebula; and stars which are altogether in 
 visible in ordinary instruments. 
 
 Reflecting telescopes are used only for observing pheno 
 mma, and are not, like refracting telescopes, attached to cir 
 cular instruments for the purpose of measuring angles with 
 greater precision. In order to derive full benefit from them, 
 they must be used in the open air; and must either be 
 mounted equatorially (see Equatorial), or else in such a 
 manner as to be capable of a smooth motion both in a ver- 
 tical and horizontal direction. Telescopes of this kind be- 
 ing generally used with a high magnifying power, and con- 
 sequently having a small field of view, are always accom- 
 panied with a smaller telescope or finder fixed to the tube, 
 so that the axes of the two instruments are exactly parallel. 
 
 Eye-pieces of Telescopes.— When the image formed by the 
 object-glass or mirror is viewed with a single lens or eye- 
 glass, whether concave or convex, it is only in the centre 
 of the field that distinct vision is obtnined, all towards the 
 margin being hazy and distorted. To remedy this defect, 
 Boscovich and Huvgens separately proposed the construe 
 tion of an eye-piece formed of two lenses, placed at a dis 
 tance from each other equal to half their focal distances. 
 Boscovich recommended two similar lenses ; Huygens, that 
 the focal length of the one should be twice that of the 
 other; and as this construction is found to answer best In 
 practice, it is that which is most commonly used. 
 
 1239 
 
TELLINA. 
 
 The two lenses are usually plano-convex, with the con- 
 vex faces towards the object-glass ; the larger lens, called 
 the field glass, is Innermost, or nearest the object-glass ; and 
 a diaphragm cutting oft' the marginal rays is usu.tlly placed 
 between them near the focus of the eye lens, where the 
 image is formed. This eye-piece is usually called the nega- 
 tive eye-piece, from its having the image seen by the eye 
 behind the field glass ; and is that which is commonly sup- 
 plied with telescopes intended only for the purpose of seeing 
 objects, without reference to measurement. 
 
 Another modification of the two-lens eye-piece was pro- 
 posed by Ramsden, and is called the positive eye-piece, be- 
 cause the image observed is before both lenses. The lenses 
 are plano-convex, and nearly of the same focal length ; but 
 their distance from each other is less than the focal distance 
 of the lens nearest the eye, two lenses thus placed acting as 
 a compound simple lens. This eye-piece is the most con- 
 venient when micrometer wires are placed in the focus, be- 
 cause it can be taken out without injuring the wires ; and it 
 has also this advantage, that the measure of an object given 
 by one eye-piece is not altered when it is changed for an- 
 other of a ditterent magnifying power. 
 
 In both the eye-pieces now described, the image is seen 
 inverted ; and though this is of no importance in astronomi- 
 cal observations, it is inconvenient when the telescope is used 
 for looking at terrestrial objects. By placing an additional 
 pair of lenses in the tube of the eye-piece, the image is re- 
 peated and reinverted, and, consequently, seen erect. By 
 this means, as explained above, the terrestrial telescope is 
 obtained. 
 
 The name of diagonal eye-piece has been given to eye- 
 pieces furnished with a diagonal reflecting mirror, the object 
 of which is to give a more convenient direction to the rays 
 emerging from the eye-piece when the telescope is pointed 
 high. 
 
 Telescopes are generally supplied with eye-pieces of dif- 
 ferent powers, which are all fitted to enter the same lube ; 
 and the focal adjustment is commonly effected by a rack 
 and pinion motion acting on the tube which carries the eye- 
 piece. 
 
 For full information respecting the construction of tele- 
 scopes, and the best modes of mounting them on stands or 
 otherwise, to secure steadiness and allow of the requisite 
 motion, the reader is referred to Pearson's Practical As- 
 tronomy, vol. ii. (See also Smith's Optics ; Coddington's 
 Optics.) 
 
 TELLINA. (Gr. reWivn, a species of muscle ) A genus 
 of cockles (Cardiaceous Bivalves in the Cuvierian system), 
 characterized by the hinge of the shell having one tooth on 
 the left and two teeth on the right valve, often bifid ; in the 
 right valve there is a plate which does not enter a cavity 
 in the opposite valve. There is a slight fold near the pos- 
 terior extremity of both valves which renders them unequal 
 at that part, where they gape a little. The soft parts, or 
 animal of the Tellina, called peroneca by Poli, has two long 
 tubes for respiration and excretion, which can be withdrawn 
 into the shell, and are concealed in a fold of the mantle. 
 
 Cuvier separated from the Linnaean Tellinte the genus 
 Loripcs, distinguished by the feebly developed cardinal 
 teeth, and by a long cylindrical foot. Olher genera have 
 since been detached from the Cuvierian Tellin<e, which now 
 form a family. Tellinidce, in the system of Lamarck. 
 
 TELL TALE. The dial plate at the wheel, showing 
 the position of the tiller. 
 
 TELLU'RIUM. (Lat. tell us, the earth.) This rare 
 metal has only been found in small quantities in the gold 
 mines of Transylvania: it occurs in the metallic state, com- 
 bined with gold or silver. It is white, brilliant, brittle, and 
 easily fusible. Its specific gravity is about C'25. It is com- 
 bustible, and often exhales a peculiar odour, like horse- 
 radish, which Berzelius ascribes to the presence of minute 
 portions of selenium. It forms a protoxide and a peroxide, 
 often called tellarous and telluric acid3. Its equivalent is 
 either 32 or 64. In the former case, the protoxide consists 
 of 1 atom of tellurium and 1 of oxygen (32 + 8), and the 
 peroxide of 1 atom of tellurium and 1£ of oxygen (32+ 12) ; 
 in the latter the numbers are doubled. Tellurium forms a 
 gaseous compound with hydrogen, which has been called 
 hydrotelluric acid. 
 
 TE'MPERAMENT. (Lat. temperare, to moderate.) In 
 Music, the adjustment of the imperfect concords, in musical 
 instruments, whose sounds are fixed, such as organs, piano- 
 fortes, &c, so as to transfer to them part of the beauty of 
 the perfect concords. The defect to be remedied arises 
 from the single short keys between the two larger ones 
 serving for flats as well as sharps. It is necessary to ob- 
 serve, that in the theory of harmonies the interval of a tone 
 is not always the same ; for instance, that lying between the 
 fourth and fifth of the scale contains nine small parts, called 
 commas, whereas that between the fifth and sixth of the 
 major scale contains only eight commas. Again, the dia- 
 tonic semitone contains ive commas, and the chromatic 
 1230 
 
 TEMPLE. 
 
 semitone three or four, according to the magnitude of the 
 tone. Hence it is that the dift'erent situations of these ele- 
 ments with regard to each other, causes intervals of the 
 same name to consist of ditterent degrees or elements. To 
 improve them, therefore, musicians temper them so as to re- 
 duce the whole more to mean distances from each other, 
 necessarily producing a new division of the octave. 
 
 Temperament, in Physiology, has been defined ;is that 
 peculiarity of organization which, to a certain extent, influ- 
 ences our thoughts and actions. The ancient physicians 
 enumerated four temperaments; namely, the bilious, the 
 choleric, the phlegmatic, the sanguine, the melancholic. To 
 these some have added the nervous ; and these terms are 
 still in use among medical writers. 
 
 TEMPERATE ZONES, in Geography, are two of the 
 five zones into which the terrestrial globe is divided. Th« 
 north temperate zone is included between the tropic of Can 
 cer and the arctic circle ; and the south temperate zone be 
 tween the tropic of Capricorn and the antarctic circle. 
 
 TE'MPERATURE. A definite degree of sensible heat 
 as measured by the thermometer. 
 
 TE'MPLARS, or KNIGHTS OF THE TEMPLE. A 
 military order of religious persons. It was founded by at 
 association of knights, in the beginning of the 12th century 
 for the protection of pilgrims on the roads in Palestine : after- 
 wards, it took for its chief object the protection of the Holj 
 Sepulchre at Jerusalem against the Saracens. Knights were 
 fixed at Jerusalem by King Baldwin II., who gave them tha 
 ground on the east of the Temple. Their rules were taken 
 from those of the Benedictine monks : they took the vows 
 of chastity, obedience, and poverty. The classes of the or- 
 der were, knights, esquires, servitors, and chaplains; the 
 universal badge of the order was a girdle of linen thread. 
 The officers of the order were chosen by the chapter from 
 among the knights : they were, for military affairs, marshals 
 and bannerets: for purposes of government, priors, who 
 superintended single priories or preceptories ; abbots, com- 
 manders, and grand priors, who governed the possessions of 
 the order within separate provinces; and the grand mas 
 ter, who, in some respects, assumed the dignity of a sov- 
 ereign prince, being independent in secular matters, and de- 
 pending solely on the pope in spiritual. The chief part of 
 the 90UD estates, lordships, &c, which the society possessed 
 in the 13th century, was situated in France ; and the grand 
 master was usually of that nation. The Templars were 
 driven from Palestine by the Saracens, with the rest of the 
 Christians, and then fixed the chief seat of their order in 
 Cyprus. Their exorbitant power and wealth, and the 
 haughty manner in which they endeavoured to keep aloof 
 from the control of European sovereigns, and act as a mili- 
 tary republic independent of their authority, were probably 
 the principal reasons which induced Pope Clement V. and 
 Philip the Fair of France to concert their overthrow. The 
 charges of heresy and idolatry, which were preferred against 
 them, were at least unsupported by evidence. In Kill?, 
 Jacques de Molay, the grand master, having been enticed 
 into France, was arrested by Philip; the templars' estates 
 were seized ; many of them burned alive, after the mockery 
 of a trial ; and, in 1312, the order was abolished by a bull 
 of Clement V. Its vast estates fell partly into the hands of 
 the sovereigns of the countries in which they were situated, 
 partly into those of the Hospitallers and other military or- 
 ders. Detached bodies of the order, however, continued to 
 subsist for some time in different countries. See, among 
 numerous authorities, Raynouard's tragedy of Lrs Tern- 
 pliers, with the notes; Turner's England in the Middle 
 Ages, vol. ii. ; Mem. de I' Ac. des Inscr., vol. xxxvii.; Ad 
 dison's History of the Knights Templars and the. Temple 
 Church, 1842. For a notice of the strange irreligious doc- 
 trines attributed to them, see the article Baphomet. 
 
 TE'MPLE. A building dedicated to the service of some 
 deity. Derived from the Lat. templum, Gr. Tipcvm, signify 
 ing separation and consecration. The term is generally con- 
 fined to heathen edifices ; excepting in the case of the build- 
 ing erected for the worship of God by Solomon at Jerusalem, 
 which is emphatically denominated the Temple. This edi- 
 fice was similar in its plan to the Tabernacle, consisting of 
 the holy of holies, the sanctuary, and a portico. It is minute- 
 ly described in 1 Kings, vi. 
 
 The temple of Solomon was begun B.C. 1012, and de- 
 stroyed by Nebuchadnezzar B.C. 586. It was rebuilt after 
 the return of the Jews from captivity, and, after a period of 
 nearly 500 years, repaired and beautified by Herod the 
 Great. The restoration contemplated by this prince must 
 have been extensive. When the Jews say to Christ, 
 " Forty years was this temple in building," they are gen- 
 erally supposed to allude to the time during which the re 
 pairs had been in progress ; nor, according to Jnsephus, were 
 they brought to a completion when the temple itself, to 
 gether with the entire city, were demolished by the army 
 of Titus, A.D. 70. 
 
 The structure to which this term is applied is of <,om 
 
TEMPLET. 
 
 pnratively modem date, for the earliest temples were an 
 open spot with a rude altar of earth and stones ; indeed, the 
 Persian religion forbade the worship of the Deity except in 
 
 ■nt, ana the earliest Greek temples gi\- 
 notion of the same sort of practice. The oracle at Delphi, 
 according to I'ausunias, was merely an arbour of laurels; 
 and from Herodotus we learn that the oracles at Dodona 
 were delivered from an old oak. The remarkable features 
 of the Egj p'lan tem,>lo are the massive dimensions, and the 
 tuber am) arrangement of the columns; the cell being al 
 
 Ways of diminutive size- In Greece, al the period when 
 they had advanced in art, every city exhibited structures of 
 the most elaborate and splendid description dedicated to the 
 sen i. i of their divinities ; and the Romans long alter emu- 
 lated their masters in the care and riches bestowed upon 
 lificea. Some of the most celebrated were those of 
 
 ht; Parthenon (to Minerva) ut Alliens, of Diana at Ephesus, 
 ■f Apollo at Delphi, of Jupiter at Olympia, of Venus at Pa- 
 phos and Cythera, and that of the Capitoline Jupiter at 
 Koine. Asia Minor abounded with them ; and in the other 
 we find them as far West as Nismes. Vitruvius 
 -ed temples under seven heads; viz., those in an- 
 tis, the prostyle, the amphiproslyle, the peripteral, the dtp- 
 lend, the pseudodipteral, and the hypathral, all of which are 
 defined under these names in this work. 
 
 TE'MPLET. (Etym. doubtful.) In Architecture, a short 
 piece of timber lain under a u'irder or beam to distribute the 
 Weight. Also a mould used for bricklayers for cutting or 
 setting out work, and by millwrights for shaping the teeth 
 of win 
 
 TEMPO. (It. time.) In Music, the Italian word constant- 
 lv need to express time. 
 
 ' TE'MPO U'IMBROGLIO. (It. time of trouble.) In Mu- 
 sic, a term applied to a composition written in' one measure, 
 but re.illv performed in another. 
 
 TEMPORAL or TEMPLE BONKS. Two irregular 
 ine on each side of the head. They are connected 
 with the occipital, parietal, and sphenoid bones, and are ar- 
 ticulated with the lower jaw. Comparative anatomy shows 
 that the so-called "temporal bone, in man, is essentially 
 nliluge of five bones, called squamous, zygomatic, 
 tympanic, |>etroiis, and mastoid; having distinct function! 
 developed in different proportions, and continuing perauv- 
 nently detached in the cold-blooded classes, but soon coalesc- 
 ing in the warm-blooded classes. The tympanic element, 
 however, continues permanently detached In birds. 
 
 TENA'CfTY OF THE MET ALB. The power which 
 metallic wires possess of sustaining, without breaking, the 
 action of a suspended weight. See Cohesion, Strength 
 ok Materials. 
 
 TENACULUM. A surgical instrument, consisting of a 
 fine sharp pointed hook, by which the mouths of bleeding 
 arteries are seized and drawn out, so that in operations they 
 may be secured by ligaments. 
 
 TENAILLON. In Fortification, a kind of outwork made 
 on each side of a small ravelin to increase its strength, and 
 to cover the shoulders of the bastion. Works of this kind 
 are, however, so decidedly inferior to large ravelins, that 
 tliev are seldom adopted. 
 
 TENANT, TENEMENT. In Law. These words are 
 derived from the principles of the feudal system, according 
 to which (as it prevailed in England) no land was without 
 a lord ; and every one who enjoyed land held it either of a 
 mesne tenant, or of the crown. The party holding the land 
 is called tenant, the thing holden tenement, the mode of 
 holding tenure. Thus tenants are said to be in fee-simple, 
 In tail, for life, for years. &c. Tenement, in the largest sense 
 of the word, is everything which may be holden ; viz., all 
 corporeal hereditaments, and incorporeal hereditaments of a 
 permanent nature issuing out of the same. Thus lands, 
 houses, rights of common, &c, franchises, offices, are all 
 tenements in the larger sense. In the more narrow accep- 
 tation in which the word is popularly applied, it describes 
 a house with the homestall or immediate appurtenances. 
 
 TENCH. The name of a species of Cyprinoid fishes 
 ( Tinea vulgaris, Cuv.), and the type of a subgenus of that 
 family. It is generally more or less abundant in ornamen- 
 tal waters and ponds, but is seldom found in rivers in this 
 country. It is common in most of the lakes of the European 
 continent, whence it is supposed to have been imported into 
 England. The tench is remarkable for its tenacity of life ; 
 It spawns about the middle of June, at which time the fe- 
 male i° attended by two males. Their food consists of the 
 smaller soft-bodied aquatic animals, and vegetable matter. 
 In stocking a pond with tench, the large-sized fish should 
 Be selected, and two males to one female should be the pro- 
 portion of the sexes. See Tinca. 
 
 TE'NDER. In Law, the legal tender of a debt is by the 
 actual production and offer of the sum due, unless the credi- 
 «or dispense with it by a declaration that he will not accept 
 U. The tender must be of money: if beyond the sum of 
 We., in gold, or in what has been rendered by act of parlia- 
 
 TENURES, SCOTTISH. 
 
 ment equivalent for that purpose, viz., Bank of England 
 Botes, u hich .'ire a legal tender tor every sum above X'j, ex 
 
 cept at the Bank of England or lis branches A tender of 
 country bank notes, if not objected to on that ground, is suffi- 
 cient The lender of a larger sum than thai due 
 unless it lie of a Mini requiring chat 
 
 TEN DO ACHILLES. The large tendon which passes 
 from the muscles of the call' of the leg to the heel. Its 
 name has. reference to the (able of the dipping of Achillea 
 in the Styx; his mother, Thetis, having, as ii is said, held 
 
 him bv that part. 
 TE'NDRIL, is ai 
 
 any slender twining part by Which one 
 plant attaches itself to another. It is often a transformation 
 of a leaf which has no lamina, or which has the midrib 
 elongated beyond it, retaining its usual tapering figure, and 
 becoming long and twisted spirally. In the vine it is an 
 abortive bunch of flowers; in the passion flower a meta- 
 morphosed brunch ; in some petals a thin extended point, as 
 m StropMantue. 
 
 TENE'SMUS. fGr. tciv, I stretch or constringe.) A 
 Straining and ineffectual inclination to void the contents of 
 the In.'.'. . 
 
 TK'.NN ANTIT 1 '.. A mineral named in honour of the 
 
 laii' .Mr. Tennanl. t is an arsenical sulphurel of copper and 
 
 iron. It occurs in l e coppi r veins of some of the Cornish 
 
 I crystallized. 
 
 TE'NON. (Lat. teneo, 1 hold.) In Architecture, the end 
 of a piece of wood or limber, diminished usually by one 
 third of its thickness, which is received into a hoi 
 spending to it in size, called a mortise, by which expedient 
 the two are held jointed or fastened together. 
 
 TENO'RE, or TENOR. (It.) In Music, the mean or 
 middle part of a composition, being the ordinary compass of 
 the human voice u ben neither raised to a treble or lowered 
 to a bass. What is called counter-tenor is only a highel 
 tenor. 
 
 TE'NREC. The name of a small Insectivorous quadra 
 ped of Madagascar, allied to the hedgehog: it forms the. 
 type of the genus Otmtetee. 
 
 TENSE. (Lat. tempos, time.) In Qa unmar, that modi 
 
 ficaliou of the Verb which defines the time at which the ac- 
 tion is conceived as inking place. Sec Grammar. 
 
 TENSOR MUSCLES, in Anatomy, are those which 
 tighten the pari to which they are lived; as l!i 
 vagina: I'einoris, tensor palati, &c. 
 
 TENT, 'l'uila. A .Spanish red wine, chielly from Malawi 
 and Galliciu. 
 
 Tent, in Surgery, is a plug of lint used for dilating 
 wounds; a piece of sponge which has been Imbued with 
 wax is termed sponge-tent. 
 
 TB'NTACLE. (Eat. tentaculum, a holder.) This term 
 is used by Savigny in a restricted sense to signify the elou 
 gated, filiform, inarticulate appendages of the mouth of An- 
 nellides; but it is also applied to all appendages, whether 
 jointed or not, which are used as instruments of exploration 
 and prehension. Thus the oral arms of the Polyps, the pre- 
 hensile processes of Cirripeds and Annellides, the cephalic 
 feet of the Cephalopods, the barbs of fishes, are termed ten- 
 tacles. 
 
 TENTH. In Music, an interval containing nine degrees 
 and five spaces. 
 
 TENTHS. The tenth part of the yearly value of all bene- 
 fices, which was anciently paid, with the first fruits, to the 
 pope. See First Fruits. 
 
 TENTO'RIUM. The process of the dura mater which 
 separates the cerebrum from the cerebellum. 
 
 TE'NUES. 'Lat. thin ; Gr. yWAai.) The three letters 
 k, p, t in the Greek alphabet are so called, in relation lo 
 their respective middle letters, g, b, and d, and their aspirates 
 ch, ph. and th. 
 
 TE'NUIRO'STERS, Tenuirostres. (Lut. tenuis, slaulr.r, 
 and rostrum, a beak.) The name of a tribe of Insessorial 
 birds, including those which have a long and slender bit'. 
 
 TE'NURE. The feudal relation between lord and vassal 
 in respect of lands. Tenures in capite, or in chief, were 
 those by which land was held immediately of the crown ; 
 mesne tenures, of mesne or inferior lords. English tenures 
 under the feudal system are reduced by Blackstone to four: 
 knight-service, or chivalry; free socage; pure villenagc; 
 and villein-socage. See Feudal System, Socage, Villen 
 
 AGE. 
 
 TENURES, SCOTTISH, were five, viz., 1, Military or 
 ward-holding ; abolished, with all iLs casualties or incidents, 
 by 20 G. 2, c. 50. 2. By mortification, or mortmain ; which 
 now only applies to manses and glebes, retained by the act 
 of 1587 as mortified to the church. 3. Burgage holding, by 
 which the burgesses of royal burghs hold lands and houses 
 within the burgh of the sovereign by service of watching 
 and warding, &c. 4. Blanch tenures, by which the grantee 
 or vassal is bound to pay to the superior annually a specie 
 of quit-rent or acknowledgment. 5. Feu-holding, by gran 
 with reservation of pecuniary services. See Feu. 
 
 1231 
 
TERPHROMANTIA. 
 
 TEPHROMANTl'A. (Gr. rc<ppa, ashes, and pavreia, 
 prophecy.) Divination from the figures assumed by red-hot 
 embers. (See Potter, Arch. Or., i., 353.) 
 
 TE'RAPHIM. A word used thirteen or fourteen times 
 in the Old Testament, and commonly rendered by our trans- 
 lators "idols." Bryant explains them as "lunar amulets, 
 or types of the ark in the form of crescents, supposed to 
 have been invented by the patriarch Terah." (Antiq., Hi., 
 321.) In later times, strange and horrible practices of witch- 
 craft are described by Rabbinical writers in explaining this 
 word. The teraph, according to Rabbi Eliezer, was made 
 »y killing a first-born child, opening the head, putting a 
 gold plate with the name of the impure spirit under the 
 tongue, &c. (See also the notes to Southey's Thalaba, 
 »ook i.) 
 
 TERATO'LOGY. (Gr. rtpa%, a monster, and \oyoc, a 
 discourse.) That branch of physiological science which 
 treats of the various malformations and monstrosities of the 
 organic kingdoms of nature. 
 
 TEREBE'LLUM. ( Lat. terebro, I bore.) The name of 
 a genus of Buccinoid Pectinibranchiate Gastropods, hav- 
 ing an oblong shell with a narrow aperture, destitute of 
 folds and ridges, and gradually enlarging to the extremity 
 opposite to the spire. 
 
 TEREBRA'NTIA. (Lat. terebro, / bore.) The name 
 of a section of Hymenopterous insects, characterized by the 
 possession of an anal instrument organized for the perfo- 
 ration of the bodies of animals, or the substance of plants. 
 The borer (terebro.) is peculiar to the female, and is com- 
 posed of three long and slender pieces, of which two serve 
 as a sheath for the third ; it is placed at the anal extremity 
 of the abdomen, and the oviduct is continued into it. The 
 females instinctively use this weapon to prepare a place for 
 the deposition of their eggs, where the maggot may be in- 
 cubated in safety, and upon its exclusion be surrounded by 
 already organized matter adapted for its sustenance. Some 
 genera" select vegetables for the parasitic support of their 
 young, as Sirex (Linn.), which infests the pine tree; and 
 Cephus (Latr.), which perforates the stalks of corn for the 
 purpose of oviposition. Others, as the ichneumons, pierce 
 the skins of insects, and deposit their eggs in the subcuta- 
 neous fatty and nutrient material. Some ichneumons are 
 provided with long and extensible anal borers, which they 
 insinuate beneath the bark of trees, and into crevices and 
 fissures, where their instinct and peculiar antennal organs 
 of sensation teach them that the insect resides that may 
 form a fitting nidus for the parasitic and carnivorous larvae. 
 Other ichneumons, with short terebrae, place their ova in 
 the bodies of Lepidopterous larva;, or in those pupte which 
 are readily accessible to their attacks. 
 
 The female ichneumons manifest a wonderful instinct at 
 the season of oviposition in discovering the insects, as well 
 mature as in their different stages of egg, maggot, caterpil- 
 lar, and chrysalis, which are obnoxious to the wounds, 
 with all the fatal consequences, of the instrument from 
 which the present section of Hymenoptera takes its name. 
 TEREBRA'TULA. (Lat. terebro, / bore.) The name 
 of a genus of Palliobranchiate Acephalous Bivalve Mol- 
 iusks, in which one of the valves is perforated for the 
 transmission of a peduncle: the hole through which the 
 peduncle passes is completed by a small detached calcare- 
 ous piece. 
 
 TERE'DO. (Lat. teredo, the ship-worm.) The name of 
 a genus of Acephalous Mollusks which bore their habita- 
 tions in submerged timber, and occasion destructive rava- 
 ges in sunken piles, ships' bottoms, &c. 
 
 TE'RGUM (Lat. tergum, the back), in Entomology, signi- 
 fies the upper or supine surface of the abdomen. 
 
 TERM (Lat. terminus, a boundary), in Logic is the ex- 
 pression in language of the notion obtained in an act of 
 apprehension. (See Apprehension.) A term may consist 
 of one word, or of several ; but every word is not capable 
 of being employed by itself as a term, or, in logical lan- 
 guage, catcgorcmatic. Adverbs, prepositions, &c, and also 
 nouns in any other case besides the nominative, are syncat- 
 egorematic, i. e., can only form part of a term ; while a verb 
 is a mixed word, being resolvable into the copula (or auxilia- 
 ry verb) and the term, to which the copular gives tense, 
 mood, and position ; but an infinitive mood is a term by it- 
 self. Simple terms, or categorematics, are divided into sin- 
 gular and common. A singular term stands for one indi- 
 vidual ; as " Caesar," " the king." It is obvious that these 
 terms cannot be affirmed or denied (in logical phrase, pre- 
 dicated affirmatively or negatively) of anything but them- 
 selves. A common term stands for many individuals 
 (which are called its significates), as " man," " king." 
 These, it is evident, can be said (or predicated) of others ; 
 e. g., "Caesar is a mar.," "Frederick is a king." The sub- 
 ject of a proposition, therefore (see Proposition), may be 
 either a singular or a common term ; the predicate must be 
 a common term. Terms are said to be univocal, equivocal, 
 analogous, &c. ; but these are rather distinctions of lan- 
 1232 
 
 TERMITES. 
 
 gunge than of logic. They are also to be " of the first in 
 tention," and "of the second intention;" the first appear 
 ing to be words used in a vague and general sense ; tfce 
 latter words used in a limited and specific sense, which 
 they bear in some particular art or science. 
 
 TERMI'NALIA. Annual festivals celebrated by the 
 Romans in the month of February, in honour of Terminus, 
 the god of boundaries. On such occasions the. peasants 
 assembled at the different landmarks or termini that divi- 
 ded their property, and offered up libations of milk and 
 wine. See Terminus. 
 
 The word terminus is now employed chiefly to designate 
 the extreme points of a railroad. 
 
 TE'RMINISTS. In Ecclesiastical History, a name given 
 to a class among the Calvinists, whose tenet it is (or was, 
 for such opinions hardly exist at the present day), that 
 there are persons to whom God has fixed, by a secret de- 
 cree, a certain term before their death, after which he no 
 longer wills their salvation, however long they may live. 
 They instanced the case of Pharaoh, Saul, and Judas, 
 among others. 
 
 TERMINO'LOGY. (Lat. terminus.) In every science 
 or art, that preliminary knowledge which teaches us to de- 
 fine the words and phrases peculiarly employed in it (in 
 other words, its technical terms) is called its terminology. 
 
 TERMINTHUS. A black pustule chiefly attacking the 
 legs. It is not, however, clear what the disease was which 
 the Greek writers describe under this name. (Med. Vict.) 
 
 TE'RMINUS. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture, a stone 
 raised for {he purpose of marking the boundary of a pro- 
 perty. Also, a pedestal increasing in size as it rises, or a 
 parallelopiped for the reception of a bust. Terminus was 
 the name of the god of boundaries among the Romans. 
 Terminus, in more recent times, is applied to the beginning 
 or the end ; i. e., to the first and last station of a railroad. 
 
 TERMITES. (Lat. termes, the branch of a tree.) These 
 insects constitute an extensive and important tribe of the 
 Neuropterous order, confined to the warmer latitudes of the 
 globe, and performing a considerable share in the essential 
 labour of completing the comminution and destruction of 
 dead and decomposing organized matter. The termites are 
 all social, terrestrial ; and are active, carnivorous or omniv- 
 orous, in all the stages of their existence, save that of" the 
 ovum, after which they undergo only a semimetamorpho- 
 sis. The mandibles are always strong and hard, but differ 
 in relative size in different classes of individuals of the 
 same community. 
 
 The tribe Tcrmctince includes the genera Mantispa, Ra- 
 phidia, Psocus, Pcrla, and Termes proper (now the type 
 also of a family, Tcrmitida, or white ants, as they are 
 commonly called). These are characterized by four-joint- 
 ed tarsi ; but the wings are carried horizontally on the 
 body, and very long ; the head rounded, and the prothorax 
 short and square. The body is depressed, with the anten- 
 na? short ; the mouth very similar to that of the Orthoptera, 
 with the four-cleft lower lip; three occelli, one rather in- 
 distinct ; the wings generally but slightly transparent, col- 
 oured, with the nervures not forming a close network ; and 
 the legs short. 
 
 The termites peculiar to the tropical and adjacent coun- 
 tries are known under the name of whit^ ants, and com- 
 mit most extraordinary ravages, especially in the larva 
 state, in which they are called workers ; these are like the 
 perfect insect, but with the body softer, and without wings, 
 and the head generally larger and destitute of eyes, or 
 nearly so. They are united into colonies of incalculable 
 numbers, and live concealed in the interior of the earth, 
 trees, and other wooden matters, such as furniture, shelves, 
 &c, in which they form galleries, forming routes conduct- 
 ing to the centre of their nests ; so that these objects, of 
 which the outer surface is (with surprising instinct) left 
 untouched, fall to pieces on the slightest touch. The nests 
 of some species are external, but without any evident exit. 
 Sometimes they are elevated to a great height above the 
 surface, like pyramids, occasionally surmounted by a solid 
 roof, which, by their height and number, appear at a dis- 
 tance like a small village. Sometimes these insects affix 
 their nests to the branches of trees. Another sort of indi- 
 vidual, termed neuters or soldiers, and which Fabrlcius 
 mistook for pupae, defend the nest. They have a head 
 much larger and longer ; and the mandibles are very long, 
 and cross over each other. They are far less numerous 
 than the larvae, and live near the outer surface of the nest, 
 so that they make their appearance just when it is attack- 
 ed : they are also stated to compel the workers to labour. 
 The demi-nymphs have the rudiments of wings, and in 
 other respec;s resemble the larvae. 
 
 When arrived at the perfect state the termites quit their 
 habitation; fly abroad during the evening and night in 
 great numbers ; they lose their wings before morning, which 
 dry; and falling to the earth, they become the prey of 
 birds, lizards, &c. The couples are then collected by the 
 
TERMS. 
 
 larva;, which inclose each of them in a large cell ; but La- 
 treille conjectures that the act of coupling takes place in the 
 air, as In ihe tint*, and that the females alone occupy the 
 attention of the larva: in order to the establishment of fresh 
 colonies. The abdomen of the female subsequently acquires 
 an enormous size, from the innumerable eggs which it con- 
 tains. The royal chamber occupies the centre of the habi- 
 tation, and around it are distributed those which contain 
 the eggs and provisions. 
 
 i- of Termrs varium have eyes, and appear to 
 have habits somewhat different to the rest, and to approach 
 our ants. 
 
 and Hottentots are very fond of these insect-). 
 TERMS, in Law, are four sections of the year appropri- 
 ated to the transaction of particular business in the superi- 
 or courts of common law and equity. They are now regu- 
 lated by 11 G. 4, and 1 W. 4, c. 70. 
 
 Hilary Term begins the 11th, and ends the 31st of Janu- 
 ary. 
 
 Easter Term begins 15th of April, and ends the 8th of 
 May. 
 
 Trinily Term begins 22d of May, and ends the 12th of 
 June. 
 
 Michaelmas Term begins the 2d, and ends the 25th of 
 November. 
 
 Whenever any one of these days falls on a Sunday, the 
 following Monday is substituted for it; and if the days 
 from Thursday before to Wednesday after Easter Sunday 
 inclusive, or any part of them, fall within Easter term, 
 such days are regarded as holydays, and the term is in- 
 creased by an additional number of days at the end, and 
 Trinity term proportionably postponed. During term the 
 three superior common law courts sit in banc ; and all their 
 business, with the exception of the trial of issues in fact, 
 ami such preliminary or other matters of minor imix)rtance 
 as can be transacted before a judge at chambers, is per- 
 formed. The power of the courts has, however, been in- 
 - ed by a recent statute, enabling them to transact cer- 
 tain term business in v .nation time. The rest of the year is 
 termed Vacation. Daring the vacation, one judge of each 
 court sits at Nisi 1'rius for the trial of causes in London 
 and Middlesex, through the periods called Sittings; which 
 are fixed by the same act to last not more than twenty-four 
 days after Hilary, Trinity, and Michaelmas terms res|iect- 
 nor more than six days after Easter term. During 
 the vacation also the circuits are held, in which causes are 
 tiied and the gaols delivered in other parts of England and 
 
 TERMS OF EQUITATIONS, are the several parts of 
 which they are composed, connected by the signs of addi- 
 tion or subtraction. Thus, 2 o i — b c, has for its terms 2 o i 
 and b c. Generally, all terms containing the same power of 
 the unknown quantity are considered as one compound 
 term ; the coefficients, with their proper signs, being con- 
 nected with that power of the unknown quantity. 
 
 TERPS1 CHORE. (Gr. rep™, I delight, and %opoc, « 
 dance.) The muse who presided over dancing, usually re- 
 presented with a seven-stringed lyre or a plectrum in the 
 hand, and in the act of dancing. 
 
 TERRACE. (Er. terrasse.) In Architecture, a raised 
 natural or artificial bank for the purpose of affording a 
 promenade. 
 
 TERRA COTTA, literally baked clay, is the name giv- 
 en to statues, architectural decorations, figures, vases, fcc, 
 modelled or cast in a paste made of pipe or potter's clay 
 and a fine-grained colourless sand from Ryegate, with pul- 
 verized potsherds, slowly dried in the air, and afterwards 
 ftred to a stony hardness in a proper kiln. 
 
 TERR.* FILIUS. In Classical Latinity, a humorous 
 designation of persons of low origin or obscure birth : ter- 
 ra: filii, sons of the earth. (See Persius, Satire 6.) In 
 the university of Oxford, by an ancient custom, abolish- 
 ed a century ago, a satirical Latin oration was read at 
 the commemoration, annually, by an undergraduate, who 
 assumed the title of Terrae Filius, and often indulged in 
 considerable license in his treatment of the authorities of 
 the place. 
 
 TERRA JAPONICA. The old pharmaceutical desig- 
 nation of the substance now called catechu. It was for- 
 merly regarded as an earthy mineral. 
 
 TERRA PONDEROSA. The old mineralogical name 
 of carbonate and sulphate of baryta. 
 
 TERRA SIENNA. A brown ocherous clay brought 
 from Sienna, and sometimes used as a pigment. 
 
 TERRE-PLEIN. In Fortification, the horizontal surface 
 of the rampart where the guns are placed and worked. 
 Its breadth may be from 24 to 40 feet; and it Is bounded 
 outside by the parapet, and inside by the inner slope of the 
 rampart. See Fortification. 
 
 TERRE'STRIALS, Terrestres. (Lat. terra, the earth.) 
 
 The name of a section of the class Jives, corresponding to 
 
 the orders Rasores and Cursores ; also of a family of Pnl- 
 
 4 J 
 
 TESSERA. 
 
 monated Gastropods, and of a division of Isopodous Crus 
 taceans. 
 
 TEHRE VERTE. Green earth. A Bpecies of chloriu 
 of a green or olive colour, found in Germany, France, Italy 
 and North America. According to Klaproth. it is a hydra- 
 ted silicate of oxide of iron and potash, with a little mag- 
 nesia and alumina. The green earth of Verona, once used 
 as a pigment, is a sub-species of this mineral. 
 
 TE'RROR, REIGN OF. In the History of the French 
 Revolution. This term has been generally applied to the 
 period during which the executions were most numerous, 
 and the country under the sway of the actual terror inspir- 
 ed by the ferocious measures of its governors, who hail cs 
 tablished it avowedly as the principle of their authority. 
 It seems to be most properly confined to the period between 
 October, 1793, when the revolutionary tribunal, although 
 constituted at an earlier time, was first put in permanent 
 action on the fall of the party of the Gironde, and the 
 overthrow of Robespierre and his accomplices in tbermidoi 
 (July), 1794. The agents and partisans of the system have 
 been termed Terrorists. 
 
 TE'RTIALS, TerliaritB. (Lat. tres, three.) These are 
 the large feathers which take, their rise from the proximal 
 extremity of the bones of the wing, corresponding to those 
 of the forearm near the elbow joint, forming a continuation 
 of the secondaries. They arc so long in some birds of the 
 snipe and lapwing kind, that when the bird is living they 
 give it the app earan ce of having four wings. 
 
 TERTIAN FEVER. An intermittent fever or ague, 
 the paroxysms of which return every other day. See 
 Ague. 
 
 TE'RTIARIES. In Ecclesiastical History, a religions 
 body, a kind of associates of the Franciscans, who ac- 
 knowledged the third rule of Saint Francis, and seem con- 
 nected with the Frnticelli and Deghardi of the 13th centu- 
 ry. (See Mosheim, l.'ltli cent., part ii., chap, ii.) 
 
 TE'RTIARY STRATA. A series of sedimentary rocks 
 which lie above the primary and secondary' strata, and are 
 distinguished from them by their organic remains, See 
 Geology. 
 
 TERTIUM SAL. An obsolete chemical term former- 
 ly applied to neutral salts, as being a third substance, 
 or tcrtium quod, resulting from the union of an acid and 
 alkali. 
 
 TERTU'LLIANIBTS. In Ecclesiastical History, a 
 branch of the African Montanists; so named fiom the 
 father Tertullian, who embraced Montanist opinions. (See 
 Burton's lectures, vol. ii., p. 234.) 
 
 TERU'NCIUS. A coin of ancient Rome, the same as 
 the quadrans or triuncis, being the 4th part of the as, and 
 consequently containing three ounces before the value was 
 diminished. 
 
 TE'RZA Rl'MA (third or triple rhyme). A peculiar 
 and complicated system of versification, borrowed by the 
 early Italian poets from the Troubadours. The verses are 
 the ordinary Italian heroic lines of eleven syllables (inter- 
 spersed very rarely with ten-syllable lines). The rhyme is 
 thus arranged : At the commencement of a poem or portion 
 of a poem, verses 1 and 3 rhyme together ; as do verses 2, 
 4, and 6; the third rhyme begins with verse 5, which 
 rhymes to 7 and 9; the fourth is formed by 8, 10, and 12, 
 and so on ; and the poem or canto ends abruptly, the last 
 rhyme, like the first, being on a couplet instead of a triplet. 
 It is obvious that the rhyme is interlaced throughout, and 
 continually in suspense, so that no pause can be found until 
 the end of the poem or canto ; as, at the end of every line, 
 there must still be a rhyme incomplete. This continuity 
 gives a very peculiar character to the metre, and renders it 
 highly expressive of sustained narrative or passion, and 
 the abruptness of the conclusion is often turned to good ef- 
 fect by masters of versification. This metre has hern ren- 
 dered celebrated by Dante, who wrote in it in his THema 
 Commedia. It has been adopted by his imitators, of whom 
 the latest, Nincenzo Monti, has used it to much advantage ; 
 and by Ariosto and other poets for their satires. Byron 
 has adopted it in English, with indifferent success, in his 
 Prophecy of Dante; and it has been attempted by various 
 translators. 
 
 TERZETTO. (It.) In Music, a composition in threo 
 parts. 
 
 TE'SSELATED PAVEMENT. (Lat. tesselo, dimin. of 
 tessera.) In ancient Architecture, a pavement formed of 
 small square pieces of stone called tessera or dies. They 
 are frequently, indeed mostly, found inlaid in different col- 
 ours and patterns, and with a central subject. They are 
 embedded in cement, and rest on prepared hard strata. 
 
 TE'SSERA. In Roman Antiquities, a die, six-sided, like 
 the modern dice ; and thus to be distinguished from the 
 talus, which had only three sides. Tickets or tallies used 
 for various purposes were called tessera. Thus guards 
 were set at night in their camps by means of a tessera 
 with a particular inscription, given from one centurion to 
 
 1233 
 
TESSERACOjNTERIS. 
 
 another through the army , and in this way the word tes- 
 sera seems to have come to signify the watchword or pass- 
 word delivered to the guard. (See Mem. de I' Acad, des 
 Infer., vol. xxxvii.) 
 
 Tessera. In Architecture. See Tesselated Pave- 
 ment. 
 
 TE'SSERACONTE IUS. (G. TtnctpiKovra, forty, and 
 tficaaui, I row.) A galley, with forty banks of oars ; one 
 of the largest of monstrous vessels mentioned by ancient 
 writers. Great doubts have been entertained as to the 
 possibility of the construction of a vessel which, according 
 to the received notions respecting classical shipbuilding, 
 must have required about four thousand rowers ; but it is 
 seriously recorded that one was built for Ptolemy Philo- 
 pater, probably for purposes of show only. See Trireme, 
 Galley. 
 
 TESSULAR. A term applied in Crystallography to a 
 system of crystals, including the cube, tetraedron, &c. 
 
 TEST. In Chemistry, any thing by which we distin- 
 guish the chemical nature of substances from each other; 
 thus, infusion of galls is a test of the presence of iron, 
 which it renders evident by the production of a black col- 
 our in water and other liquids containing that metal ; in 
 the same way sulphuretted hydrogen is a test of the pre- 
 sence of lead, and nitrate of baryta of sulphuric acid. In 
 Metallurgy and Assaying, the poms crucible which ab- 
 sorbs the liquid verifiable oxide of lead and other metals 
 combined with it is sometimes called the test. 
 
 TE'STA. In Botany, the integuments of a seed. 
 
 TESTA'CEANS, Testacea. (Lat. testa, a shell.) This 
 term was employed by Linne to signify an order of the 
 jlass Vermes. It is applied by Cuvier 10 an order of his 
 llass Acepha'a, comprehending those which are provided 
 with a calcareous shell. 
 
 TESTACE'LLUS. (Lat. testa.') A genus of slugs ; so 
 called from their being furnished with a diminutive shell, 
 which forms a shield or protection to the heart. Of this 
 iestructive g«nus the following species are British, and 
 •ccasionally infest our gardens and nursery grounds : Test. 
 tcutrlltim, Sowerby ; Test, hali/otideus ; Test, maugei. 
 
 TESTAMENT, OLD AND NEW. See Bible. 
 
 TEST AND CORPORATION ACT. . The popular 
 names of the statutes 13 Car. 2, st. 2, c. 1,'and 25 Car. 2, 
 ch. 2 ; by the first of which it was provided that all ma- 
 gistrates in corporations should take the oaths of allegiance 
 and supremacy, and another renouncing the doctrine that 
 it is lawful to take arms against the king ; and should have 
 received the sacrament within a year before their election, 
 according to the rites of the church of England. The lat- 
 ter extended these provisions to "all persons that shall 
 bear any office or offices, civil or military," &c. ; and in- 
 troduced a new declaration against transubstantiation. 
 These acts, long esteemed the great bulwarks of the Pro- 
 testant church, were nevertheless evaded by means of acts 
 of indemnity annually passed for the relief of those who 
 had neglected to take the oaths. They were finally re- 
 pealed 1828 (9 G. 4, c. 17), as far as regarded the adminis- 
 tration of the sacrament, and a declaration set forth in the 
 act substituted. Locke, as well as many other eminent 
 men, has strongly objected to the principle of making a 
 religious solemnity a test of conformity ; it is defended by 
 Dean Swift. 
 
 TESTIMONY. See Evidence. 
 
 TE'STING. In Metallurgy, the operation of refining 
 gold and silver by means of lead upon a vessel called a 
 test or cupel. See Ccpellation. 
 
 TESTUDINA'TA. (Lat. testa.) The name of a tribe 
 ofChelonian reptiles, of which the tortoise (Testudo) is 
 the type. It has been sometimes used as synonymous 
 with Chrlonia, and as a name for the whole order. 
 
 TESTU'DO. A military contrivance adopted by the 
 Greeks and Romans principally in attacking walls and 
 fortified places. It was formed by a body of troops hold- 
 ing their shields above their heads, so as to overlap one 
 another and form a kind of pent house, which threw off 
 the missiles of the enemy while the assailants were ap- 
 proaching the walls. The word properly means a tortoise, 
 from the similitude of whose shell to this contrivance the 
 name was borrowed. 
 
 TETANUS. (Gr. rava, I stretch.) A spasm of the 
 ■whole of the muscles. It is frequently caused by lacernt- 
 fA wounds, and affecting the jaw is termed lockjaw. In 
 hot climates this disease is sometimes produced by ex- 
 posure to cold, or by suppressed perspiration, and it then 
 OfVn admits of relief and cure ; but when it is the conse- 
 qm tire of a wound it is usually fatal. 
 
 TETHY'DANS, Tethydes. The name of a tribe of Tu- 
 nicated Acephalous Mollusks, of which the genus Ascidia 
 {Tethys of the ancients) is the type. 
 
 TE'TH YS. (Gr. rnQvov, an ascidian.) A name applied 
 by Linnaeus to a genus of Vermes Testacea; and by Cu- 
 vier to a genus of Nudibranchiatc Gastropodes, character- 
 1234 
 
 TETRaO. 
 
 I ized by having two rows of branchi;e along the back in the 
 
 I form of tufts. 
 
 Tethys. In Greek Mythology, the daughter of Uranm 
 
 ' and Gaia, and wife of her brother Oceanus. The symbol 
 
 | of the sea, and of the element of water; in which charac 
 ter she is sometimes confounded with Thetis, unless in- 
 
 I deed the name of the latter goddess be only another form 
 
 i of hers. 
 
 TETRA'CERAS. (Gr. TirTapcg,four, and ncpas, a horn.) 
 The generic name proposed by Dr. Leach for the four- 
 homed antelope. 
 
 TE'TRACHORD. (Gr. Tcrrapcg, and xop'^'lt a string ) 
 In Music, a concord consisting of three degrees or inter- 
 vals, and four terms or sounds; in modern music it is 
 commonly called a fourth. The word, in its strictly literal 
 sense, signifies any instrument with four strings, and was 
 applied to the lyre in its primitive state. 
 
 TE'TRADITES. A word used in several senses, all of 
 them, however, bearing upon its original derivation from 
 Gr. TtTT'.tpa, four. 1. Among the ancients children were 
 so called who were born in the fourth month ; and such 
 were believed to be unlucky. 2. The Manichec-s and 
 others, who believed the Godhead to consist of four in- 
 stead of three persons, bore this name. And, 3. In Eccle- 
 siastical History different sects of heretics were so called, 
 in consequence of the respect with which they regarded 
 the number four. 
 
 TETRA'DORON. (Gr.) In ancient Architecture, a 
 species of brick used by Greek builders in the private 
 dwellings, four palms in length. 
 
 TE'TRADRACHM. A common silver coin of the an 
 cient Greeks, of the value of four drachms. 
 
 TETRADYNAMOUS. (Gr. rerraptc, and Swapi* 
 power.) A flower having six stamens, of which two are 
 short, and separated by two pairs of longer ones. 
 
 TETRAE'DRON, or TETRAHEDRON. (Gr. Tcrrapcc, 
 and cfpov, side.) In Geometry, one of the live Platonic 
 bodies, or regular solids. It is bounded by four equilateral 
 and equal triangles, or it Is a triangular pyramid hiving 
 four equal and equilateral faces. If we assume a = the 
 linear edge, b = the whole superfices, c = the solid con- 
 tent, r = the radius of the inscribed sphere, R = the ra- 
 dius of the circumscribed sphere, then the following rela 
 tions hold true : — 
 
 B = 2rV6,J = 2 4r2 v /3,c = 8r3 % /3,R = 3r. 
 See Platonic Bodies. 
 
 TETRAETE'RIS. (Gr. Tcrrapcc, and croc, ayear.) In 
 Grecian Chronology, a cycle of four years, invented by So- 
 lon, to make the lunar year equal to the solar. This he 
 effected by intercalating a month of twenty-two days at 
 the end of two years, and at the lapse of other two years 
 another month of twenty-three days, making in all forty- 
 five days, which will be found to be the difference between 
 the lunar and solar year after an interval of four years. 
 
 TE'TRAGON. (Gr. rtrraptc, and yovta, angle.) In 
 Geometry, a figure having four angles. 
 
 TE'TRAGO'NIA (Gr. rcrropcr, and ywvia), is a genus of 
 herbaceous plants of the Portulacaceous order, with four- 
 cornered fruit ; one species of which, native of New Zea- 
 land, is cultivated as an esculent under the name of New 
 Zealand spinach. Although inferior to genuine spinach, 
 it is valuable on account of its resistance to drought and 
 the great quantity of foilage that may be gathered from a 
 single plant. It is an annual of the easiest culture. 
 
 TETRAGRA'MMATION. Among several ancient na- 
 tions, the name of the mystic number four, which was 
 often symbolised to represent the Deity, whose name was 
 expressed in several languages by four letters: thus the 
 Heb. TTVT; tne Assyrian Adad; the Egyptian Amon; 
 the Persian Syre; the Greek Geo? ; the LatDeus. By a 
 curious coincidence, the same peculiarity prevails in many 
 modem languages, as will be seen in the Germ. Gott, the 
 French Dieu, &c. 
 
 TETRA'LOGY. (Gr. Ttrrapcg, and Aoyos, discourse,) 
 The name given to the collection of four dramatic compo- 
 sitions which was brought forward for exhibition at Athens 
 by competitors for scenic honour. It consisted of threo 
 tragedies and a " satyrus" (see Satire), of which the only 
 example left is the Cyclops of Euripides. . 
 
 TETRA'METER. (Gr. Tcrrapu, and ucrpoi', measure.) 
 A verse consisting of four measures; that is, according to 
 the Greek prosody, of eiirht iambic, trochaic, or anapaestic 
 feet, or four feet exceeding three times. 
 
 TETRA'NDROUS. (Gr. rerraptc, four, and avnp, a 
 man.) A flower having four stamens. 
 
 TE'TRAO. (Lat. tetrao, a bustard.) A name selected 
 by LinnaMis for an extensive genus of gallinaceous birds, 
 characterized by a naked and generally red band, which 
 occupies the place of the eyebrow. This genus rompre 
 hended all the various species of grouse, partridges, Iran 
 colins, quails, and tinamous ; and the necessity for subdi 
 
 
TETRAPHARMACON. 
 
 viding it was consequently soon recognised. Latham ic- 
 rtricls the genus Telrao to those species of which the feet 
 are covered with feathers, and are without spurs, with 
 naked toes, and a round or forked tail: these are the true 
 grouse. The spec : es in which the toes are feathered as 
 well as the legs, railed ptarmigan, form the genus Lagopus. 
 Brlsson separated from the Linna-an Tctraoncs, the par- 
 tridges, lrancolins, and quails, under the generic title Pcr- 
 dii ; and the obvious characters indicated by the common 
 names of these tribes, have been made, by later zooli 
 the '■!> minds tor as many distinct genera. The quails of the 
 World form the distinct genus Orttjx. The long- 
 necked tinamous of America, constitute the last genus ( Ti- 
 Uamus, Latham] of the family Telraonida. 
 
 TETRAI'IIA RMACON. An ointment composed of 
 four remedies ; namely, wax, resin, lard, and pitch. 
 
 TETRAPLA. (Gr. Term pes.) In Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, the name of a Bible arranged by Origen in four col- 
 umn f four different Greek versions; viz., that 
 of the Beptnaglnt, that of Aqulla, that of Symmachus, and 
 that of Theodosian. This work must not be confounded 
 With the Hexapla, which 
 
 TETRAPNEOMO'NIANS, Titrnpneumonts. (Gr. rtr- 
 Tapa. and ttvivuuiv. a lung-.) The name of a section of 
 uneidte), comprehending those which have four 
 pulmonary sacs. 
 
 TETRA'PTERANS, Tttraptcra. (Gr. Tcrraptc, and 
 prepay, a xcing.) A name applied by some entom 
 to the insects which have four wings, and which thus con- 
 stitute an extensive primary division of the class. 
 
 TETRARCH. (Gr. Tcrp,ip xni .) Tllc governor of a 
 fourth part of a country. 1 his was a title granted by the 
 Botnani to some tributary princes, whom they did not dig- 
 nify with the" style of king. It seems to have originated 
 among the Galatians. Such were the sons of Herod the 
 Great, among whom his dominions were divided after his 
 death. (See Mem. dr V Mead, des Inscr., vol. xxviii.i 
 
 TETRA8PASTON. (Gr. rcrrapes, and <nraw, I pu'l.) In 
 Mechanics, a machine in which four pulleys all act toge- 
 ther. 
 
 TETRASTICH. (Gr. Tcrrapa, and arixos, verse.) In 
 Poetry, a stanza of four vei 
 
 TETRASTYLE. (Gr. rcrr»/)tc, and otuXoj, a column.) 
 In Architecture, a building having four columns in front. 
 
 TETTER. An eruptive disease of the cuticle. See 
 Psoriasis. 
 
 TETTIGES. (Gr. grasshoppers.) An appellation as- 
 sumed by the ancient Athenians in allusion to the boast 
 that they were produced from the soil which they inhabit- 
 ed. In conformity with this belief they were often styled 
 \_0ovts, or eurthborn, and wore golden grasshoppers in 
 their hair. 
 
 TETTIGO'NIAXS, Teltigonides. (Lat. tettigonia, a 
 kind of grasshopper j A secion of Hemipterous insects, 
 of which the genus Tettigonia is the type. It is synony- 
 iii' us with Cicadarians. See Cicada. 
 
 TEl'TATES. In Mythology, a Celtic divinity, to whom 
 Roman writers have given some of the attributes of their 
 Mercury {.Mtm.de PJlc. des Inscr., xxiv. 349), enumerated 
 by Lucan among the gods of the Gauls ; Quibus immitis 
 placatur sanguine diro Teutates. 
 
 TEUTHIDANB, Tcuthidas. (Gr. rcvOos, a calamary.) 
 The family of Dibranchiate Cephalopods, of which the ca- 
 laniarv (I.o/itrn vulgaris) is the type. 
 
 TELTO'NIC ORDER. One of the principal military 
 orders of religious persons. It was founded In 1190, by 
 Frederic duke of Swabin, and intended for Germans of no- 
 ble rank only: its rules were the same with those of the 
 Templars. Like the other orders {tee Saint John, Tem- 
 plars), its original object was the performance of service 
 against the infidels in Palestine. It was dedicated to the 
 Virgin Mary. After the conquest of Jerusalem by the Sa- 
 racens, the grand master removed to Venice, and after- 
 wards to Marburg. By degrees it made extensive conquests 
 from the- various heathen nations on the southern shores 
 of the Baltic. The Prussians were subdued by it and 
 forced to embrace Christianity, after a struggle of more than 
 half a century. In 1237, it was united with the order of 
 the Brethren of the Sword in Livonia. Its conquests ele- 
 vated it to the rank of a sovereign power in Europe. The 
 grand master, during the epoch of its domination, had his 
 I at Marienburg, in Prussia. Its territory extended from 
 the Oder to the Gulf of Finland, and the population under 
 its government is supposed to have amounted in the 15th 
 century to two millions and a half of souls. Its domin- 
 ions, however, were gradually lost by revolt or foreign 
 conquest. West Prussia fell to Poland, East Prussia to the 
 house of Brandenburg. Afterwards the seat of the grand 
 master was at Mergentheim in Swabia ; and he became a 
 spiritual prince of the empire. By the peace of Presburg, 
 m 1P05, the rights and revenue of the grand mastership 
 was obtained by the emperor of Austria : but the order 
 
 7HEA. 
 
 was abolished by Napoleon in 1809; and its lands having 
 i to the sovereigns of the various districts in which 
 they were situate, it now retains a titular existence only 
 in Austria. 
 
 TE'XTUARIES. Among the Jews, the sect of Caraites, 
 OT Karaites, has been so called (see that wordy, from its 
 adherence to the text of the Jewish scriptures. 
 
 THABORITES. See Taboriteb. 
 
 THALAMUS. (Gr. SaXapoc, a bed.) In Anatomy, the 
 part of the brain from which the optic nerves have part of 
 tli'ir origin. 
 
 Thalamus, in Botany, is the part on which the ovary is 
 seated. The succulent red centre of a s tr a wber ry, the 
 core in the fruit of a raspberry, are the thalami ol these 
 plants. Some botanists call it the receptacle of the fruit 
 
 TIIALI'A. (Gr. $a\ua, the blooming one.) The muse 
 who is generally regarded as the patroness of pastoral and 
 comic poetry. She Is also Bupposed to preside over hus- 
 bandry and planting. She is represented leaning on a col- 
 umn with a mask in her right hand and a shepherd's 
 crook in her left. 
 
 THALI'DANS, Thalides. (Gr. QaXtta, one of the 
 Muses.) The name of a tribe of Tunicaries, of which the 
 genus Salpa or Thalia is the type. See Salpa. 
 
 THA'LLTJS. in Botany, a term given to the organs of 
 vegetation of liverworts, lichens, and sea-weed, and to the 
 bed of fibres from which many species of fungi arise. It 
 is regarded as a fusion or blending together of leaf and 
 stem. Hence plants consisting of thalli only are called 
 Thallophytes or Thallogens. She spawn of the mushroom 
 shows the appearance of the thallus in fungi. 
 
 THAMMUZ. The tenth month of the Jewish civil 
 year, answering to part of June and July, anil including 
 twenty-nine days. In Mythology, the name under which 
 the Phoenicians worshipped Osiris or Adonis. See Adonis. 
 
 THANE. (Sax. thegn.) In early English History, a 
 title of honour among the Anglo-Saxons. In its original 
 meaning it signified a minister or servant, and was applied 
 to (he followers of kings and chieftains. Thus the king's 
 thanes were at an early period a distinct and elevated 
 class. In a later age of the Anglo-Saxon power, the term 
 had become more extensive in its signification, and seems 
 to have been appropriated to all landed proprietors who 
 were below the rank of earl and above that of alderman, 
 and had the privilege of assisting in framing the laws. In 
 Latin charters the word miles is the equivalent of thane. 
 There were superior and subordinate thanes, standing in 
 the same relative situation as mesne lords and vassal 
 der the feudal system of France and Normandy, (See 
 Turner's Anglo-Saxons ; Palgrauc's Commonwealth.) 
 
 THATCHING. Covering houses, stacks, or ricks with 
 straw or reeds, In such a manner as to throw off the rain, 
 and exclude excessive heat, or prevent its escape from 
 within. The straw generally used in thatching is that of 
 the wheat, as being the longest and thickest, and the most 
 durable. Next to wheat, rye straw is preferred, or, in de- 
 fault of that, the straw of oats ; but the most durable of all 
 thatch in cold countries is that formed of the reed (Jlrvndo 
 donax, Linn.), or of the common heath or ling (Calluna vul- 
 garis, Sal.). A very durable covering of the thatch kind 
 b also formed of the spray of birch, of the bark of that tree, 
 or of oak or pine, and of the chips and shavings made by 
 hurdle-makers from the poles and shoots supplied by copse 
 woods. Thatched roofs were formerly almost universal in 
 cottage architecture ; but they are now being supplanted 
 by roofs covered with tiles or slates, which are much more 
 durable, and not subject to catch fire ; while the straw for- 
 merly used for roofs is much more profitably employed as 
 litter for cattle, and thus turned into manure, and employed 
 in reproduction — a process which, in agriculture at least, 
 ought not to be deprived of any material contributing so 
 essentially to its aid as manure. 
 
 THAU'MATROPE. (Gr. $avpa, a wonder; rpnrui, I 
 turn.) The name given by Dr. Paris to an optica) toy, the 
 principle of which depends on the persistence of vision. A 
 circle is cut out of a piece of card, to opposite edges of 
 which two silk strings are fixed, by twisting which between 
 the finger and thumb of each hand the disc is turned round 
 with considerable velocity. On one side of the disc is 
 drawn any object, as a chariot^ on the other side a chariot- 
 eer in the attitude of driving; so that when the card is 
 twirled round, we see the charioteer driving the chariot; 
 or. in consequence of the duration of the impressions of 
 light on the retina, we see at once what is drawn on both 
 sides of the card. (Library of Useful Knowledge, " Op- 
 tics.") 
 
 THEA (Chinese tcha), is the botanical name of the gc 
 nus which includes the plants yielding tea. They are 
 found in China and the bordering countries in various situ 
 alions, either in warm and damp valleys by the sides of 
 rivers, as in Assam, or on mountain sides, and on cool 
 hills; occurring in the latter situations as far northward 
 
 1335 
 
THEATINES. 
 
 m Chusan. Some botanists assert that there is but one 
 kind of tea tree, the difference in the samples of commerce 
 depending upon the mode of preparation ; others say that 
 genuine black and green teas are the produce of different 
 species, but that both kinds may be made artificially from 
 the former sort. The latter appears to be the truth. The 
 cultivation of tea for commercial purposes has been at- 
 tempted successfully in the Himmalayas, Java, Brazil, and 
 Madeira ; but unprofitably in the two latter countries, on 
 account of the high price of labour. See Tk4. 
 
 THE'ATINES. A religious order in the Roman Catho- 
 lic church, the earliest in point of date of the communities 
 of " regular clerks : " it was founded in 1524 by St. Cajetan 
 of Thiene. The members, besides the ordinary monastic 
 vows, bound themselves to the duties of the cure of souls, 
 preaching against heresies, tending the sick and convicts, 
 and to abstain from possessing property or asking for alms. 
 This order does not appear to have met with much success, ex- 
 cept in Italy, where (it is said in the Conv. Lex.) the bishops 
 are very generally chosen from it. (See Mosheim, cent, xvi.) 
 
 THE'ATRE. (Gr. Starpov, from Seaottai, I behold.) In 
 Architecture, a building appropriated to the representation 
 of dramatic spectacles. The theatres of the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans display some of the most extraordinary specimens of 
 their power in the arts. Bacchus has the reputation of 
 being the inventor of them, which, after their temples, ap- 
 pear to have been the most important public edifices of 
 those people. They seem to have been carried to perfection 
 in the Grecian colonies at an earlier period than they were 
 in the mother country. The first theatre of stone at Athens, 
 called the theatre of Bacchus, was built in the time of The- 
 mistocles ; and as there seems little doubt that the Atheni- 
 ans were the inventors of the drama as a regular scenic 
 action, it is fair to presume that they were the first to regu- 
 late the form and proportions which necessity and pleasure 
 dictated in their arrangement. The subjoined diagram 
 shows the general form of the Greek theatre, which differed 
 but little from that of the Romans; and the instructions giv- 
 en by Vitruvius in the eighth chapter of his fifth book, as to 
 the general outline of the plan, are as follows: "Whereas 
 . • • "••• • « j in the Latin theatre the 
 
 »1 
 
 points of the four trian- 
 gles touch the circumfer- 
 ence, in the theatres of the 
 Greeks the angles of three 
 squares are substituted ; 
 ami the side of that square 
 which is nearest to the 
 place of the scene, at the 
 points where it touches 
 the circumference of the 
 circle, is the boundary of 
 the proscenium. A line 
 drawn parallel to this, at 
 the extremity of the cir- 
 cle, will give the front of 
 the scene. Through the centre of the orchestra, opposite tc 
 the proscenium, another parallel line is drawn touching the 
 circumference on the right and left ; then, one foot of the 
 compasses being fixed on the right-hand point, with a radius 
 equal to the distance from the left point, describe a circle on 
 the right-hand side of the proscenium, and, placing the foot 
 of the compasses on the left-hand point, with the distance 
 of the right-hand interval describe another circle on the left 
 side of the proscenium. Thus describing it from three cen- 
 tres, the Greeks have a larger orchestra, and their scene is 
 further recessed. The pulpitum, which they call \oytiov, is 
 less in width ; wherefore among them the tragic and comic 
 performers act upon the scene, the rest going through their 
 parts in the orchestra." The ancient theatres were fre- 
 quently used for the deliberations of the general assembly 
 of the people on political matters, as we find from Tacilus 
 and Ausonius in respect of the theatres at Anfioch and Ath- 
 ens. Notwithstanding the use of those buildings in later 
 times as quarries freely used by the inhabitants of the cities 
 in which they stood, there are still considerable ruins at 
 Ephesus, Alabanda, Teos, Smyrna, Hieropolis, Cyzicus, 
 Alinda, Magnesia, Laodicea, Mylassa, Sardis, Miletus^ Strat- 
 onicea, Telmessus, Jasus, and Patara, all in Asia Minor; in 
 Sicily, at Catana, Taurominium, Syracuse, Argyrium, and 
 Segesta. In Greece, ruins are still extant at Athens, Spar- 
 ta, in the island of Eglna, at Epidaurus, and Megalopolis. 
 According to Pausanius, that at Epidaurus, built by Polycle- 
 tus, surpassed all the other theatres of Greece in its beauty 
 and proportions ; but in grandeur and magnificence the Ro- 
 man theatres far surpassed those of the Greeks ; nor is this 
 surprising, considering the population the former had to ac- 
 commodate compared with that of the latter. For a very- 
 considerable period the theatres of Rome, like those of the 
 Etruscans, were of wood ; and Pompey, on his return from 
 the war against Mithridates, was the first who constructed 
 one of stone. This must have been of large dimensions, in- 
 
 '- -V\ A r'V- *\ 
 i-- \lWjl\VV j?4 
 
 I. .... . --■-■>-: v.^;- •-".-•«< 
 
 £:: 
 
 THEMIS. 
 
 asmuch as it would contain 40,000 spectators. The remains 
 of it as some stables of a palace are still visible. There 
 were two other considerable theatres in Rome ; the first built 
 in the year 741 of the city, by Cornelius Balbus ; and the 
 second which was begun by Julius Cssar, but not finished 
 till the time of Augustus, who dedicated it to his friend 
 Marcellus. From the remains it appears that it was a spe- 
 cimen of great beauty and purity, as far as relates to the 
 profiles of two of its orders, there being no vestiges of the 
 upper order. The only other remains of Roman theatres 
 are at Saguntiun and Oranges, though the Romans usually 
 erected theatres in their newly conquered cities, or at least 
 embellished and improved those they found on the spot. 
 
 The modern theatres of Rome are, perhaps, the w orst in 
 Europe. Italy, however, boasts some beautiful examples ; 
 the principal whereof are those at Parma, now in a very 
 dilapidated state, Milan, Verona, Turin, Naples, and Bo 
 logna. In France, a very fine theatre at Bourdeaux ; the the- 
 atre at Versailles; and some elegant theatres in Paris. Till 
 recently this country has been unsuccessful in the design 
 of theatres; but a taste seems rising, which we doubt not, 
 if opportunity occurred, would tend to raise its character 
 in that respect in the eyes of foreigners. We subjoin a 
 short table of the width of the stage in a few European 
 theatres : 
 
 Milan . . . . . 40 feet. 
 
 San Benedetto Venice .... 40 
 Theatre Francais, Paris .... 40 
 
 Parma 40 
 
 Bourdeaux 39 
 
 Turin 39 
 
 Covent Garden 37 
 
 Argentino at Rome .... 36 
 
 Theatre Italien, Paris .... 33 
 
 THE'BAID. The name given to the heroic poem of Sin 
 tius, which celebrates the civil war of Thebes waged be- 
 tween the two brothers Eteocles and Polynices. It consists 
 of twelve books. The poet Gray has translated book li. 
 
 THEBAN YEAR. In Chronology, the Egyptian year of 
 365 days 6 hours was so called. (See Bryant, Ancient .My- 
 thology, iv., 437.) 
 
 THE'CA. (Gr. $77*77, a case or receptacle.) This term is 
 used in Botany in various senses. It is applied to one of 
 the lobes of an anther; to the case or urn containing the 
 spores of mosses; to delicate tubes sunk in the shields of 
 some lichens; and to certain simple kinds of fruit. In all 
 cases it expresses a hollow case. It is now seldom used, ex 
 cept for the spore- vessel of a moss. 
 
 TIIE'CAPHONE. The long stalk upon which the ova 
 rium of some plants is seated ; as in Cleome, and the caper 
 bush. 
 
 THECODA'CTYLUS. (Gr. $17*77, and S'iktv\os, a digit.) 
 A subgenus of night-lizards or geckoes, distinguished by 
 having the subdigital scales divided by a median groove 
 into which the claw can be retracted. 
 
 THE'CODONTS. Gr. $77*77, and oSovs, a tooth.) A tribe 
 of extinct Lacertian reptiles, distinguished by having their 
 teeth implanted in distinct sockets. One of the genera of 
 this tribe, from the magnesian conglomerate near Bristol, 
 has been called Thecodontosaurns. 
 
 THE'COSTOMES, Thecostoma. (Gr. $17/07, and OTopta, 
 a mouth.) The name given by Latrielle 10 those insects 
 which have a suctorious mouth enveloped in a sheath. 
 
 THEFT. In Jurisprudence, the general name for the 
 most ordinary class of offences against property ; for which 
 English law uses the peculiar designation of larceny. The 
 difficulty of distinguishing between theft, those other spe- 
 cies of fraudulent appropriation which are regarded by the 
 laws of most countries as criminal offences, and, finally, 
 that class which is only the subject of civil action, has giv- 
 en rise to a variety of definitions. By the French Code, art. 
 379, " Whoever has fraudulently abstracted a thing which 
 does not belong to him is guilty of theft." By that of Bava- 
 ria, art. 209, "Whoever knowingly of his own accord takes 
 possession of moveables not his, without consent of the jier- 
 son entitled thereto, but without violence to any one, with 
 intent unlawfully to hold the same as his property, is a 
 thief." The principnl characteristics of English law on the 
 subject are, that it requires an actual taking, and an actual 
 carrying away for some distance, however snvll, to consti- 
 tute the offence. The Commissioners of Criminal Law, in 
 their Third Report (1839), recommend the following defini- 
 tion : " Whosoever shall, without such consent as is herein- 
 after specified, take and remove anything, being the proper- 
 ty of any other person, and, unless when it shall be other 
 wise provided, of some value with intent to despoil th« 
 owner, and fraudulently appropriate the same, shall b« 
 guilty of theft." 
 
 THEISM. See Deism. 
 
 THEME. (Gr. $t/j.i.; A subject proposed for discussion, 
 whether orally or in writing. 
 
 THE'MIS. (Gr. Ot/iif.) In Grecian Mythology, the god 
 
THEOCRACY. 
 
 less of law. She was one of the Titans, and bore to Jupi- 
 ter Peace, Order, Justice, the Fates, and Seasons. 
 
 THEO'CEACY. V-r. Qcoc, God; Kfarcu), I rule) A 
 term expressing the government of a state immediately by 
 God. The constitution of tin: Israelites, previous to tlie ap- 
 pointment of kings, was emphatically a theocracy; their 
 chief magistrates or Judges being for the most part occasion- 
 al officers appointed by the express direction of God. The 
 kingly government may still be considered in a secondary 
 ;i theocracy, from the general superintendence 
 hovah continued to exercise over it. All polities 
 may ir. this sense be called theocratic in which the linal ap- 
 peal in matters of moment is made to the will of God, as 
 i m oracles, by auguries, or the mouth of the priest- 
 hood. 
 
 TIIEOCRA'SY". (Gr. Qcos, and xpian. mixture.) In 
 ancient Philosophy, a term invented to signify the intimate 
 Union of the soul with God in contemplation, which was 
 considered attainable by the newer Platonists. Similar ideas 
 are entertained by the philosophers of India, and by many 
 religious sects. See Quietism. 
 
 THEODICJS'A. (Gr. Ococ, God; Sixmos, just.) A justi- 
 fication of the dealings of Divine Providence with man. A 
 work under this title was published by Leibnitz in the year 
 1710, lu which he endeavours to prove that of all the possi- 
 ble schemes of government which God might have adopted, 
 the one which actually exists is the best. This is common- 
 ly known under the name of Optimism. 
 ' THEODOLITE. (Gr. Scaouai, I view, and c'uAos, strat- 
 agem.) A surveying instrument for measuring the angular 
 distances between objects projected on the plane of the ho- 
 rizon. 
 
 In accurate surveying, when the instrument used for ob- 
 serving the angii ll or reflecting circle, or such 
 that Its plane must be brought into the plane of the three 
 inch form the angular points of the triangle to be 
 measured, the altitudes of the two distant objects above the 
 horizon of the observer must be determined, and a calcula- 
 tion is then necessary to reduce the observed angles to the 
 plane of the horizon. The object of the theodolite is to mea- 
 sure tile horizontal angles at once, and thereby render the 
 preVtOUS calculation, and even the observation of the alti- 
 tudes, unnecessary. 
 
 . -y to conceive, in a general way, how this object 
 may be effected. A telescope with cross wires in its focus 
 must be mounted so as to be moveable both about n verti- 
 sal and horizontal axis, in order that it may be brought to 
 beai upon any object, whether in the horizon, or above or 
 below It; am! the proper means applied for measuring, with 
 the utmost accuracy, the angle described aliout the vertical 
 axis (which is the horizontal angle) in turning the telescope 
 round from one object to another. It is consequently neces 
 sary to tix a graduated circle to the vertical axis, so that its 
 plane may be exactly horizontal, and its centre coincident 
 with the vertical axis; and about the same axis a radial 
 bar, firmly connected with the telescope, must revolve par- 
 allel to the plane of the circle, for the purpose of indicating 
 the divisions passed over on the limb of the circle when 
 the telescope is turned from the first object to the second. 
 And in order to render the instrument subservient to the 
 purpose of measuring altitudes, a graduated vertical arch is 
 attached to the telescope ; but as it seldom happens, in the 
 practice of surveying, that the objects observed are very 
 much elevated above or depressed below the horizon, or 
 that the vertical angles are required to be taken with the 
 same degree of accuracy as the horizontal angles, the ver- 
 tical arch is generally only a portion of a circle of smaller 
 radius, and less minutely divided than the horizontal circle. 
 
 The theodolite, as now generally constructed for the pur- 
 ordinary surveying, may be described as follows: 
 The horizontal limb or circle consists of two circular plates, 
 which turn freely on each other. The lower or graduated 
 plate receives the divisions of the circle, and the upper or 
 vernier plate has two vernier divisions diametrically oppo- 
 site. The vertical axis consists of two conical parts, one 
 working within the other. The external part is attached to 
 the graduated plate, and the internal to the vernier plate. 
 Tin- diameter of the under plate is somewhat larger than 
 that of the vernier plate, and its edge is sloped otTto receive 
 the graduation ; and portions of the opposite edges of the 
 vernier plate are sloped otT in like manner to receive the 
 vernier divisions. The graduation is usually to thirty min- 
 utes ol a degree, but it is subdivided by the verniers into 
 single minutes; and in a well-made instrument quarter 
 ■mutes may be estimated by the eye. For the purpose of 
 adjusting the plane of the circle to the horizon, the external 
 Una Is tilted into a ball, which works in a socket between 
 two parallel plates held firmly together by the ball and 
 socket, the under plate being connected with the staff head 
 supporting the Instrument. But this adjustment may also 
 be made tand in larger Instruments is usually made) by a 
 tipod support, having a I lot screw at each extremity acting 
 
 THEODOLITE. 
 
 against a plate of metal supported by the staff. Upon the 
 plane of the vernier plate are placed two spirit leveta at 
 right angles to each other, with their proper adjusting 
 screws, by which the circle is brought accurately into the 
 horizontal plane indicated by the levels. Tin' centre of the 
 circle is adjusted over the point which forms the centre of 
 the station from which the observation is to be made by 
 means of a plummet. 
 
 Instead of the vernier plate described above, the index is 
 sometimes formed by three radial bars connected with the 
 internal vertical axis, each carrying a vernier at its extremi- 
 ty; and a fourth bar carries the clamp, by which the syx 
 tern is secured to the graduated limb. 
 
 The horizontal axis of the vertical limb | which is ns'iiil- 
 ly a semicircle) is sup|K>rted by a frame firmly imbedded in 
 the vernier plate, and turning along with it about the verti- 
 cal axis. The telescope has two collars or rings of bell met- 
 al, ground truly cylindrical, on which it rests in supports 
 permanently attached to the vertical limb, so that both 
 move together in the vertical plane. The divisions on this 
 limb are read off to single minutes by means of a fixed ver- 
 nier connected with the framo, and so adjusted that the in- 
 dex points to the zero of the graduated urc when the opti- 
 cal axis at the telescope is truly horizontal. For effecting 
 this adjustment, or determining its index error, a spirit level 
 is attached to the telescope, at one end by a joint, and at 
 the other by a screw, whereby the end is raised or depres 
 sed until the air bubble stands at the middle of the glass 
 tube. The telescope is then reversed ; mid if the air bubble 
 of the level still stands at zero, the adjustment is perfect; 
 if not, the index error becomes known by bringing the level 
 to the proper position, and may either be corrected or allow- 
 ed for in the observations. 
 
 In some theodolites the telescope is supported in the man- 
 ner of a transit instrument ; that is to say, the telescope and 
 the horizontal axis on which it turns form one piece, and 
 the vertical limb is a complete circle. By this construction 
 the instrument becomes better adapted lor determining the 
 altitudes of stars, and consequently for finding the direction 
 of the meridian and the azimuths of objects, or for other 
 astronomical purposes. In fact, it becomes an altitude and 
 azimuth instrument. 
 
 In theodolites for topographical purposes the horizontal 
 circle is seldom more than five inches in diameter; but as 
 the double vertical axis gives the means of carrying round 
 the telescope from the first object to the second without dis 
 turbing the graduated circle, and then, by clumping the ver- 
 nier and graduated plates, of bringing it back, and the grad- 
 uated circle along with it, to the first object, the measure of 
 the angle may be repeated any number of times, exactly as 
 with the repeating circle, and a very considerable degree of 
 accuracy obtained even with a circle of this small size. 
 (See Rkpeatino Circle.) But the principle of repetition is 
 better carried into effect by means of a particular kind of 
 stand or tri|>od, called a repeating stand, which turns round 
 concentrically with the vertical axis of the theodolite; and 
 this apparatus is usually had recourse to when the instru 
 ment is on a large scale. 
 
 As the accuracy of the observation must depend on the 
 horizontal circle remaining perfectly fixed while the tele 
 scope and verniers arc turned round, a second telescope, 
 called a watch telescope, is sometimes attached to the horl 
 zontal circle beneath the limb, which, being directed to a 
 fixed object, serves to detect any disturbance of the circle 
 clamp, or accidental shifting of position while the upper tel- 
 escope with the verniers is turned from the first object to 
 the second. But this can scarcely be applied to the repeat- 
 ing theodolite. 
 
 The principal adjustments of the theodolite are, first, to 
 rectify the line of collimation of the telescope ; secondly, to 
 make the axis of the horizontal limb truly vertical ; and, 
 thirdly, to adjust the zero of altitude. For the practical 
 methods of making these adjustments in the case of the 
 common surveying theodolite, and instructions as to the 
 mode of observing, the reader may be referred to Simms's 
 Treatise on Mathematical Instruments, 1834. 
 
 In geodetical operations, where very great accuracy is in- 
 dispensable, as, for example, in measuring an arc of the me- 
 ridian, the instrument is constructed on a much larger scale. 
 The great theodolite by Ramsden, belonging to the Board 
 of Ordnance, which has been used for measoriag :nost of 
 the principal angles of the British Trigonometrical Survey, 
 has a horizontal circle of three feet in diameter, and two 
 telescopes of thirty-six inches focal length. A similar one 
 of equal dimensions had formerly been constructed by the 
 same excellent artist for the Royal Society, and was used 
 by General Roy in his operations for connecting the obser- 
 vations of Greenwich and Paris towards the end of the last 
 century, and also by Colonel Colby and Captain Kater for 
 the same purpose in 1821. A full description of this superb 
 instrument Is given in the Phil. Trans., vol. lxxx., and \n 
 the first volume of the Trigonometrical Survey of England 
 
 1237 
 
THEOGONY. 
 
 md IVales. A theodolite of equal dimensions, by Cary, has 
 been employed in the measurement of the great meridional 
 arc of India by Colonel Lambton and Colonel Everest. 
 The French astronomers, it? measuring their arc of meridi- 
 an, used only the repeating circle ; but in the more recent 
 operations of the same kind in Germany and Russia, the ge- 
 odetical angles were determined with the theodolite. 
 
 THEO'GONY. (Gr. Ow, God; yovos, birth.) In the 
 Religion and Literature of ancient Greece and Rome, the 
 history of the descent and relationships of the various gods 
 who were the objects of popular worship. These gene- 
 alogies were very variously related by different writers, and 
 originated in some instances from national superstition ; 
 while in others they had an allegorical sense, and were in 
 vented by the learned men or poets of those countries. 
 
 Theogony is also the title of a poem attributed to Hesiod, 
 giving an account of the birth and parentage of most of the 
 Grecian divinities. 
 
 THEOLOGIUTVI. A small upper stage in the ancient 
 theatre upon which the machinery of the gods was ar- 
 ranged. 
 
 THEO'LOGY. (Gr. Osos, and ^oyog, discourse.) The 
 science which treats of the nature and attributes of God, 
 of his relations to man, and of the manner in which they 
 may be discovered. Lord Bacon divides the science under 
 the following heads: I. Inspjred. 2. Natural, which he 
 calls the first part of philosophy. 3. Appendices Theologian 
 Inspiratte: sc. Doctrina de legitimo usu rationis humantc in 
 divinis ; doctrina de gradibus unitatis in civitate Dei ; ema- 
 nationes scripturarum. 4. Theologian tain inspiratan quam 
 naturalis appendix : Doctrina de angelis et spniKibus. {De 
 Jiugm. Sci., 1. ii., ch. 1.) • 
 
 Natural Theology is the inquiry into these subjects prior 
 to the idea of revelation, and conjectures concerning them 
 from data furnished by the constitution of nature alone. It 
 is only by the conclusions arrived at by this process that 
 we are put in a proper condition to examine the evidence 
 of revealed religion, the basis of which is the satisfaction it 
 affords to the demands of the human reason and affections. 
 
 A pure system of natural theology, looking no farther for 
 the evidence of divinity than the marks of it displayed in 
 the creation, is deism — the belief in God as a superintend- 
 ing Providence, which seems to require as a corollary the 
 idea of a future retribution. Those who can discover no 
 design in the constitution of the word, i. e., no trace of God's 
 hand therein, are atheists, or deniers of a Deity. Again, 
 the most common form of religion deduced by the heathens 
 from their researches in natural theology is the supposition 
 of numerous gods, each manifesting himself to us in the 
 various functions and qualities of the animate and inanimate 
 world, and sometimes, according to ancient legends and tra- 
 ditions, by direct communication in various ways. Opposed 
 to this is monotheism, which recognises more distinctly 
 than deism the unity of the godhead, and gathers up under 
 one volition and agency the attributes which the polytheist 
 dispersed among a vast number of divinities. Of mono- 
 theist religions the Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan 
 lay claim to express revelation by the word of God. 
 
 THE'OMANCY. (Gr. 6tof, and uavrua, prophecy.) A 
 name which has been given to that species of divination 
 which was drawn from the responses of oracles among 
 heathen nations, in which a god himself was supposed to 
 answer the inquirer; or from the predictions of sibyls and 
 others supposed to be immediately inspired by some di- 
 vinity. 
 
 THEOPA'SCHITES. (Gr. 6 £0f , and vaoxu, / suffer.) 
 In Ecclesiastical History, a name given by the orthodox to 
 certain heretics of the fifth century, followers of Peter the 
 Fuller, an usurping bishop of Antioch. Being strongly at 
 tached to the Monophysite opinions, his enemies charged 
 him and his disciples with holding that all the three per- 
 sons of the Godhead were crucified. (Mosheim, fifth cent., 
 part ii., ch. 51.) 
 
 THEO'PHANY. (Gr. 0£ O f, rnd epatvouai, I appear.) A 
 word invented to signify the manifestations of God to man 
 by actual appearance. These have formed a striking fea- 
 ture in most systems of religion. (See, on Pagan Theo- 
 phanies, the 5th Dissertation of M. Foucher on the Hellenic 
 Religion, J\fem. del'Jlcad. des fuse, vol. xxxvi., p. 292) 
 
 THEOPHILA'NTHROPISTS. (Gr. 6 £0S , God, and (pi- 
 XavOpwiTos, a lover of men.) A title assumed by a society 
 formed at Paris during the first French revolution. The ob- 
 ject of its founders was to establish a new religion in the 
 place of Christianity, which had been formally abolished 
 in France by the Convention, and had lost its pow*er over 
 the minds of large classes of the people. The Directory 
 panted thf.se philosophical sectarians the use often parish 
 churches in Paris, where they held meetings for religious 
 service : at first on the Decndi, or revolutionary holyday, 
 afterwards on the Sunday. Their system of belief was a 
 pure deistrl; their service a simple liturgy, with some em- 
 blematic mummeries. The attempt to found a new sect 
 1238 
 
 THERMOMETER. 
 
 was, however, wholly unsuccessful. In 1802 they were 
 forbidden the use of the churches by the consuls, and then 
 ceased to exist. 
 
 THEO'RBO. (It. tiorba.) A lute of large dimension*, 
 sometimes called the arch-lute, and formerly used for sink- 
 ing the chords of the thorough bass in accompaniments. 
 
 THE'ORE.M. (Gr. Seuipnpa, from Scaouai, J observe.) 
 In Geometry, a truth proposed to be proved ; in contradis- 
 tinction to a. problem, which proposes something to be done. 
 A theorem wants demonstration; a problem requires solu- 
 tion. In algebra, the term is applied to various formula), 
 as the binomial theorem, Taylor's theorem, and others • for 
 which see the respective terms. 
 
 THEO'RICON. In ancient Attic History, the name given 
 to that portion of the revenue of the state which was ex- 
 clusively reserved for the purpose of theatrical representa- 
 tions. (See Bocckh's Public Economy of slthcns, i. 2S9, 299, 
 
 &.C.) 
 
 THE'ORY (Gr. Seoipin), in Science, properly expresses a 
 connected arrangement of facts, according to their bearing 
 on some real or Hypothetical law. A hypothesis has been 
 distinguished from a theory as an assumption which is con- 
 ceived to afford a support to the discovered law. Thus, 
 some have imagined that the facts of gravitation are ex- 
 plained on the supposition of a subtle and all-pervading 
 ether. Here it is evident that the facts, and therefore the 
 theory or connected survey of them, are unaffected by the 
 supposition in question 
 
 Theory. The abstract principles of any science or art, 
 considered without reference to practice. 
 
 THEO'SOPHISTS. (Gr. Oeo s , and aocbia, wisdom.) The 
 name commonly given to a sect of philosophers who pre- 
 tended to derive their knowledge of God and divine matters 
 from direct inspiration. One of the most distinguished of 
 this class in modern times was Jacob Biihme. 
 
 THERAPE'UT^E. (Gr. worshippers.) A Jewish sect of 
 the first century after Christ, concerning whom some doubt 
 is entertained whether or not they had embraced Christi- 
 anity. They are mentioned by Philo Judams. (See Bur- 
 ton's Lecture on the 7 :'. ■'■ . ■■ ij of '' •■ PVV*I 
 Three Centuries, vol. i., p. J00.) 
 
 THERAPEU'TICS.) Gr. $tpcnrevsiv,t6 heal.) A branch 
 of pathology relating to the application of remedies, and 
 the curative treatment of disease. 
 
 THERAPHIM. See Teraphim. 
 
 THERI'ACA. (Gr. Sep, a venomous animal.) A name 
 given in ancient Pharmacy to certain complex remedies 
 supposed to be antidotes to poisons: they were usually in 
 the form of confections. Some of the more celebrated ' 
 been transferred to comparatively modern pharmacoj 
 such as the Theriaca of Andromachus ; Thcriaca Vcnct.a ; 
 Confectio Jilithridati, &C 
 
 THERMAE. (Lat.) In Ancient Architecture. See Bath. 
 
 THE'RMIDOR. In the French Calendar, the name of 
 the 11th month of the year in the French Republic. It 
 commenced on the 19th of July, and ended on the 17th of 
 August. The name is derived from the Gr. $tpu»;, warm, 
 and was borrowed from the great heat which characterizes 
 that period of the year. It was the month signalized by the 
 overthrow of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror ; thence 
 commonly called the Revolution of Thermidor, and those 
 who boasted of having participated in it called themselves 
 Thermidorians. 
 
 THERMO-ELECTRICITY. When one part of a me- 
 tallic bar is heated and another cooled, an electric current 
 is generated in its substance, which may be rendered evi- 
 dent and it3 direction ascertained by the galvanometer. 
 When two metals of different temperatures are brought 
 into contact similar electric currents are generated, the 
 quantity and direction of the electricity varying with tha 
 nature of the metals and their respective temperatures. 
 The best apparatus for exhibiting these thermo-electric 
 currents consists of alternate bars of antimony and bismuth 
 soldered together at their ends, so as to form a compound 
 bar or parallelogram, the junctions of which may be alter- 
 nately heated and cooled : in this case the direction of the 
 current is from the antimony to the bismuth ; so that these 
 metals bear the same relation to each other in the thermo- 
 electric series, as the zinc and silver in the simple voltaic 
 circuit. The term stereo-electric has also been applied to 
 these currents, implying their production in solid bodies in- 
 dependent of a fluid, and as opposed to the hydro-electric 
 or voltaic current. See Voltaic Battery. 
 
 THERMOMETER. (Gr. Sepuac, warm, and uCTfov, 
 measure.) An instrument for measuring variations of heat 
 or temperature. 
 
 The principle upon which thermometers are constructed 
 is the change of volume which takes place in bodies when 
 their temperature undergoes an alteration. Generally 
 speaking, all bodies expand when heated and contract 
 when cooled, and in such a manner that, under the same 
 circumstances of temperature, they return to the same di- 
 
THERMOMETER. 
 
 mensions; so that the change of volume becomes the ex- 
 ponent of the temperature which produces it. But as it is 
 -ary not merely that expansion and contraction take 
 place, but that they be capable of being conveniently ob- 
 served and measured, only a small number of bodies are 
 adapted for thennometrical purposes. Solid bodies, for 
 example, undergo so small a change of volume with mode- 
 rate variations of temperature, that they are in general only 
 used for measuring very high temperatures, as the heat of 
 furnaces, of melting metals, itc. Instruments for such pur- 
 are called pyrometers. (See Pyrometer.) The 
 us fluids, on the other hand, are extremely susceptible 
 of the impressions of heat and cold ; and as their changes 
 of volume are great even with moderate accessions of heat, 
 they aie onlj adapted for Indicating very minute variations, 
 or tor forming differential thermometers. (.See Differen- 
 tial Thermometer.) Liquids hold an intermediate place; 
 and by reason of their moderate but sensible expansion 
 through the ranges of temperature within which observa- 
 Eava to be made for by far the greater number of pur- 
 inmonly used for the construction of thermo- 
 luus liquids have been proposed, as oils, ether, 
 spirits of wine, and mercury; but scarcely any other than 
 the two last are now ever used, and mercury by far the 
 aerally. 
 The properties which render mercury preferable to all 
 other liquids (unless for particular purposes) are these : 
 1. It < upports, before it boils and is reduced to vapour, more 
 heal than any other fluid, excepting certain oils, and en- 
 dures a greater cold than would congeal most other liquids, 
 excepting certain spirituous liquors. 2. It takes the tempe- 
 ratine or the medium In which it is placed more quickly 
 than any other fluid. Count Itumford found that mercury 
 lusted from the freezing to the boiling point of water 
 in 58 seconds, while water took 133 seconds, and air 617 
 Is, the beat applied being the same in nil the three 
 X The variations of its volume within limits which 
 include the temperatures most frequently required to be 
 observed, are found to be perfectly regular, and proportional 
 to the of temperature. The spirit thermometer 
 
 is no 1 ' excepting for observations of very tow 
 
 temperatures, or a- ring instrument for meteor- 
 
 ations. 
 Construction of the Mercurial Thermometer. — In order to 
 render small changes of volume sensible, a glass bulb, hav- 
 ing a slender hollow tube attached to It, is tilled with mer- 
 cury, so that expansion or eontrac ion can only take place 
 b> the ri-e or fall of the liquid in the tube. The diameter 
 of the tube may be of any convenient size; but the smaller 
 it is the larger will be the scale of the variations; and ca- 
 pillary tubes are usually employed. It is e s sen tial that the 
 diameter of the bore be of a uniform width throughout; a 
 quality which Is tested by drawing up into the tube a short 
 column of mercury, and measuring its length at the dif- 
 parts, with a pair of compasses. Not more than a 
 sixth part of the tubes which come from the glass-house 
 nl to be fit for the pur|>ose. 
 Having selected a tube, the workman begins by blowing a 
 hollow ball A upon one extremity of it, by means 
 of an air-bag of caoutchouc (in order to avoid the 
 introduction of watery vapour by blowing from the 
 mouth). The length which the thermometer is to 
 )jj have is then marked, and above this point the tube 
 -r^ is expanded into a second bulb B, rather larger than 
 the lirst. When the tube has acquired its natural 
 temperature one of the bulbs is warmed, in order to 
 expel the air from it, and the open end of the tube 
 is plunged into distilled and well-boiled mercury. 
 During the cooling the mercury rises into the second 
 bulb B, whence it is made to pass into A by placing 
 this undermost, and expelling the air from it by heat, 
 (_)a after, which the mercury descends from the effect 
 of cooling. When the bulb A has been completely 
 filled, and also a part of B, the tube is suspended horizon- 
 tally over a charcoal fire, so as to be equally heated through- 
 out, and the enclosed mercury boiled, in order to expel 
 every remaining particle of air or humidity. The open end 
 is then touched with sealing-wax, and the tube withdrawn 
 from the fire, and placed in an upright position until it is 
 cooled, when the bulb A and the portion of the tube under 
 B will be filled with mercury. A portion of mercury is 
 then expelled by beat, so that the column may stand at the 
 proper height in the tube. The tube is then carefully 
 softened with the blow-pipe, and hermetically sealed under 
 the bulb B, which is thus cut off. 
 
 i, tion of the Scale. — The instrument prepared in 
 
 ler now described is admirably adapted for render- 
 
 a\ the expansions and contractions of the enclosed 
 
 fluid, and it only remains to adopt a scale to it in order to 
 
 thermometer. The graduation of the scale 
 
 me measure arbitrary; nevertheless. In order that 
 
 thermometers may be comparable with each other, 
 
 it is necessary that two points at leas, be taken on the 
 scale corresponding to fixed and determinate temperatures, 
 the distance between which will determine the graduation. 
 The two points which are now universally chosen for this 
 W g po se are those which correspond to the temperatures of 
 tree/.iim and boiling water. With respect to the first of 
 these there is bo difficulty; it is only necessary to surround 
 the bulb with ice. and to mark on the stem the point at 
 which the mercury stands when the ice begins to melt 
 The boiling point is not so readily determined. As the tem- 
 perature at which water boils varies to a small extent with 
 the barometric pressure, it is necessary, in order to have 
 instruments comparable with each other, either that the 
 boiling point on the scale be determined when the baro- 
 meter .-lands at a certain height which is arbitrarily as- 
 sumed for the standard, or else to apply a correction when 
 the actual height of the barometer is above or below the 
 assumed standard. De Luc made a number of experiments 
 on this subject, and gave a formula for the correction, which 
 was a dap te d to Fahrenheit's scale and English inches by 
 Horsier. (I'hil. Trans., vol. lxiv.) A committee of the 
 Royal Society who undertook to investigate the best method 
 of adjusting the lived points, and whose report Is contained 
 in vol. I.xvii. of the Transact inns, laid down a set of titles 
 which have been generally followed by English instrument- 
 makers. They recommended the adoption of 29*8 inches 
 
 for the standard barometric pressure, and gave a table of 
 the corrections for all ordinary pressures above or below 
 this standard, 'their table Is very nearly represented by 
 the following simple rule, which will be quite sufficient for 
 the guidance of the artist in all ordinary cases: 
 
 Supposing the thermometer placed in an atmosphere of 
 steam Immediately over the surface of boiling water, then 
 for every tenth of an inch by which the barometer 
 or below SB'S, the correction for the boiling point of the 
 scale of the thermometer is one thousandth part of the in- 
 terval between the freezing and boiling points. The cor- 
 rected must he placed lower than the observed boiling point 
 by this quantity when the pressure exceeds 298 inches, and 
 higher when the pressure is less than the standard. 
 
 Several i i umstanc •. .; t lie .. tnded to 
 
 in the construction of delicate instruments. As the tem- 
 perature of boiling water is different at the top and near the 
 bottom of the vessel in which it boils, the thermometer 
 should not be plunged into the water itself, but into the 
 vapour which rises above it, in a close vessel with an aper- 
 ture for the escape of the steam. The vessel should be of 
 metal, because water boils at a different temperature in 
 vessels of different substances, as metal and glass. Dis- 
 tilled water, or clear soft water, should be used ; if mixed 
 with saline ingredients, the temperature at which it boils 
 would be affected, and the instrument rendered Inaccurate. 
 
 The interval between the two fixed points on the stem 
 may be divided into any number of degrees at pleasure, and 
 the graduation continued above and below as far as may be 
 thought requisite: the numeration may also be begun at 
 any point whatever on the scale; but there are only three 
 methods of division so generally adopted as to require par- 
 ticular notice. The first is Fahrenheit's, which is used in 
 this country, in Holland, and North America; the second 
 Kcauiner's, which was formerly in general use in France, 
 and is still followed in Spain and some parts of Germany; 
 and the third that of Celsius, or the centigrade scale, now 
 used in France, Germany, and Sweden. 
 
 Fahrenheit's Scale. — In this scale the interval between the 
 freezing and boiling points of water is divided into 180 equal 
 parts, or degrees, which number was chosen by Fahrenheit 
 (or probably Boomer), from some theoretical considerations 
 respecting the expansion of mercury ; it being computed 
 that the thermometer when plunged into melting snow 
 contained 11,150 parts of mercury, which, at the tempera- 
 ture of boiling water, were expanded into 11,330 parts, being 
 an increase of 180 parts. The zero point of the scale is 
 placed at 32° below the freezing point of water. It has 
 been frequently stated that this point was selected as indi- 
 cating the temperature of a freezing mixture of snow and 
 salt; but it appears from Boerhaave that it was adopted 
 from a still more precarious supposition, namely, the greatest 
 cold observed in Iceland, which was probably assumed to 
 be the lowest natural temperature. The freezing point is 
 thus marked 32°, and consequently the boiling point at 
 32-f- 180= 212. It must be admitted that this scale, though 
 it possesses some advantages in the lowness of the zero 
 point and the smallneas of the divisions, is not well adapted 
 to philosophical purposes. 
 
 Reaumer's Scale. — Reaumer, in 1730, proposed the adop- 
 tion of the temperature of melting ice as the zero of the 
 scale, and to divide the distance between this and the boil- 
 ing point of water into 80°, having observed that between 
 those temperatures spirits of wine (which he used for the 
 theruiometric fluid) expanded from 1000 parts to 1080. This 
 division soon became general in France and other countries, 
 
 1239 
 
THERMOMETER. 
 
 ana a great multitude of valuable observations have been 
 recorded In terms of it ; but it is now seldom used in works 
 of science. 
 
 Centigrade Scale.— In 1742, Celsius, professor at Upsal in 
 Sweden", proposed to divide the space between the freezing 
 and boiling points of water into 100 equal parts, the zero 
 point being placed (as in Reaumer's) at freezing. This di- 
 vision being in harmony with our decimal arithmetic, is bet- 
 ter adapted than the two former to scientific purposes. It 
 has been adopted by all the French writers since the Rev- 
 olution, and is the best known in most parts of the north 
 and in ddle of Europe. 
 
 It has been sometimes objected to this scale (and the ob- 
 jection applies equally to Reaumer's), that on account of 
 the comparatively high point at which the zero is placed, 
 meteorological observations are embarrassed with the al- 
 gebraic signs of plus and minus. The inconvenience (if 
 any) is a very trifling one, and is much more than com- 
 pensated by the facilities for calculation which the scale 
 affords. 
 
 Conversion of Degrees of one Scale into Degrees of an- 
 other. — From the manner in which the three scales are 
 graduated, it is easy to deduce formula; expressing any tem- 
 perature given according to one scale in terms of either of 
 the others. The interval which in Fahrenheit's scale is 
 divided into 180 parts is divided into only 100 parts in the 
 centigrade scale, and into 80 in Reaumer's. Hence orle de- 
 gree of Fahrenheit's is equal to 5-9ths of a degree of the 
 centigrade, and to 4-9ths of a degree of Reaumer. But 
 some attention is required on account of the difference of 
 the zero points. For the sake of perspicuity, it is conve- 
 nient to adapt the expressions to three distinct cases. Let 
 F denote degrees of Fahrenheit's scale, C degrees of the 
 centigrade, and R degrees of Reaumer; then, 
 
 Case 1. For all temperatures above the freezing point, 
 F — 32=|C = f R. 
 
 Case 2. For all temperatures between the freezing point 
 and the zero of Fahrenheit's scale, 
 
 32 — F= — §C = — f R. 
 
 Case 3. For all temperatures below the zero of Fahren- 
 heit, 
 
 — 32 — F = — §C= — £R. 
 
 By substituting numbers in these formula; for F, C, or R, 
 as the case may require, the corresponding values on the 
 other scales is immediately obtained ; but if many reduc- 
 tions are required to be made, it is more convenient to have 
 comparative tables, by which the correspondence of the 
 scales is seen at a glance. Such tables are given ir most 
 treatises on chemistry. 
 
 Theory of the Graduation. — It will be evident from what 
 has now been said that, whatever scale be adopted, the di 
 vision is founded on the assumed principle that equal in- 
 crements of heat produce equal expansions. This assump- 
 tion may be put to the test of experiment by the mixture of 
 fluids at different temperatures. For example, if a pound 
 of water at 212° Fahr. be mixed with another pound of wa- 
 ter at 32°, and the requisite precautions be used, then the 
 temperature of the mixture will be 122°, which is the arith- 
 metic al mean between the two temperatures; and if the 
 assumed principle be correct, a thermometer plunged into 
 the mixture will stand at 122°. This is found to be the case 
 with the mercurial, but not with the spirit thermometer ; 
 and, in general, thermometers formed of different fluids, 
 when exposed to the same temperatures, do not give the 
 same indications throughout the whole extent of the scale. 
 An important question hence arises: what substance ought 
 to be adopted as the standard to which, in comparing ob- 
 servations, all others should be reduced ; It is, perhaps, 
 not possible to determine this question with absolute cer- 
 tainty ; but the experiments of the French chemists Dulong 
 and Petit on the dilatation of various substances, render it 
 probable that air and the other permanent gases (which all 
 expand equally) afford the most accurate indications of the 
 true variations of temperature. As compared with the air 
 thermometer, the expansion of mercury is proportional to 
 the increase of temperature from — 36° to -4^1 00° of the 
 centigrade scale. From this point to 360° (th^ boiling point 
 of mercury), mercury expands more rapidly'^an air, and 
 consequently the mercurial thermometer stani; higher'than 
 the air thermometer in the same temperature' 1 When the 
 former indicates 200° and 300°, the latter indie tcs l'J7° and 
 292-7° respectively; and it seems to be a gem al law that 
 all fluids with the same increase of heat expat' more rapid- 
 ly as the temperature approaches their boilint 'point The 
 more rapid expansion of the mercury at high temperatures 
 is, however, in some measure corrected by the expansion of 
 the bulb. 
 
 Change of the Zero Point.— There is a circumstance con- 
 nected with the mercurial thermometer which requires to 
 be attended to when very exact determinations of tempera- 
 ture are to be made. Bellani in Italy, and Flaugergues in 
 1240 
 
 
 France, observed that when thermometers which have been 
 constructed for several years are placed in melting ice, the 
 mercury stands in general higher than the zero point of the 
 scale; and this circumstance, which renders the scale inac- 
 curate, has been usually ascribed to the slowness with 
 which the glass of the bulb acquires its permanent arrange- 
 ment, after having been heated to a high degree in boiling 
 the mercury. Despretz ( Traite de Physique) observes, that 
 in very nice experiments it is always necessary to verify the 
 zero point; for he found that when thermometers have 
 been kept during a certain time in a low temperature, the 
 zero point rises, but falls when they have been kept in a 
 high temperature: and this remark applies equally to old 
 thermometers and to those which have been recently con 
 structed. 
 
 Register Thermometers. — In meteorological observations, 
 it is of gieat importance to ascertain the limits of the range 
 of the thermometer in a given period of time, during a day 
 or night, for example, while the observer is absent. Nu- 
 merous contrivances have accordingly been proposed for 
 this purpose, but the two following are those most frequent- 
 ly used. 
 
 Six's Register Thermometer. — This instrument was in- 
 vented by Mr. Six of Colchester, and is described in the 
 Phil. Trans., vol. lxxii. It is a spirit thermometer, having 
 a long cylindrical bulb A, with a tube bent in the form of a 
 siphon, and terminating in a small cavity B. 
 A part of the tube, from a to b, is filled with 
 mercury; but the bulb A, and the remaining 
 portion of the tube, and a small part of the 
 cavity B, with highly rectified alcohol. The 
 use of the mercury in the middle of the tube is 
 to give motion to two indices, c and d, which 
 consist each of a glass tube in which a small 
 bit of iron wire is enclosed, the ends being cap- 
 ped with enamel. The indices are of such a 
 size that they move freely within the barome- 
 tric tube, and allow the spirit to pass; but a a | 
 slender spring is attached to each, which 
 presses against the side of the tube, and is just 
 strong enough to prevent the index from tail- 
 ing down when it has been raised to any point 
 and the mercury recedes. The action of the 
 instrument will be readily apprehended from the figure. An 
 increase of heat expands the alcohol in the bulb A, de- 
 presses the mercury at a, and consequently raises it in the 
 other branch of the siphon at b. The mercury while rising 
 drives the index d before it; and when the temperature di- 
 minishes, the mercury recedes from the index, which is re- 
 tained in its place by the action of the spring, and conse- 
 quently marks the highest point at which the mercury has 
 stood. In like manner, when the spirit in the null) A is 
 contracted by a diminution of heat, the mercury is pressed 
 towards A by the elastic force oi'a portion of air purposely 
 left in the cavity B.'and drives before it the index c, which 
 is prevented from falling back by the spring, and consequent- 
 ly remains at the highest point at which the mercury has 
 stood in that branch of the siphon. When the observation 
 has been made, the indices are brought back to the surface 
 of the mercury by means of a magnet, which acts on the 
 enclosed iron wire and overcomes the force of the spring. 
 A scale is applied to each limb of the siphon, and graduated 
 by comparison with a standard thermometer. 
 
 This instrument has all the defects which belong to the 
 spirit thermometer, and the indications are besides in Bome 
 degree deranged by the expansion and contraction of the 
 enclosed column of mercury ; probably, also, by the friction 
 of the indices. Nevertheless, it is the best instrument wo 
 possess for determining the temperature of the sea at great 
 depths. 
 
 Rutherford's Thermometer. — Another register thermome- 
 ter, simpler in its construction, and less expensive than the 
 former, and consequently more generally used, is the day 
 and night thermometer proposed by Dr. Rutherford in the 
 Edinburgh Transactions, vol. iii. It consists simply of two 
 thermometers ; a mercurial thermometer A, and a spirit 
 thermometer B, attached 
 
 horizontally to the same c _ . - =A_._ , f"~\ 
 
 frame, and each provided j \^J 
 
 with its own scale. The /^s 
 
 index of A is a bit of *<^=/ ' n ** ""~ 
 
 steel, which is pushed be- 
 fore the mercury ; but, in consequence of its horizontal po 
 sition, remains in its place when the mercury recedes, and 
 consequently indicates the highest degree of the scale to 
 which the mercury has risen. The index of 1! Is of glass, 
 with a small knob at each end. This lies in the spirit, 
 which freely passes it when the thermometer rises; but 
 when the spirit recedes, the cohesive attraction between 
 the fluid and the glass overcomes the friction arising from 
 the weight of the index, and the index is consequently car- 
 ried back with the spin' Awards the bulb. As Uiere is no 
 
THERMOSCOPE. 
 
 force to move it in the opposite direction, it remains at the 
 point nearest the bulb to which it has been brought, and 
 thus indicates the lowest temperature which has occurred. 
 By Inclining the instrument, the indices are brought to the 
 surfaces of their respective fluids, and prepared for a new 
 observation. 
 
 4 > y of the Thermometer. — The invention of the ther- 
 mometer dates from about the beginning of the 17th cen- 
 tury, but it is not certainly known when or by whom it was 
 first brought into use. By the Dutch authors it is ascribed 
 to Cornelius Drebhel, a peasant of Alkmaar, and by the 
 Italians to Sonctorio. Lihri (. -In utiles di Chimie, Dec. 1830) 
 maintain-", on the authority of Castelli and Viviani, that the 
 Instrument was invented by Galileo prior to 1597. Thether- 
 mometer of Drebbel and Sanctorio was a very imperfect in- 
 strument. It consisted of a [Mass tube, having a ball blown 
 on one of its extremities, and the other end left open. A 
 portion of air being expelled from the ball by heat, the open 
 end was plunged into a cup containing any liquid, when, on 
 lag of the bill, the liquid would rise In the tube, 
 and the variations of its height indicate the increase or dim- 
 inution of the temperature of the bulb. The instrument had 
 no scale, and was therefore merely an indicator of changes 
 of temperature, or a thermoseope ; and it was defective even 
 Inasmuch as it is affected not merely by heat 
 and cold, but by the varying pressure of the atmosphere. 
 eatlne academicians first excluded the influence of 
 atmospheric pressure by using a spirit instead of an nir 
 thermometer, and bermetlcaU} sealing the tube. The next 
 step in improvement was the adoption of a lived point in 
 Boyle proposed the thawing oil of aniseeds, 
 which he preferred to thawing ice, because it could be 
 readily obtained at all times of the year. Halley proposed 
 the uniform teni|>crature of a deep pit, which he probably 
 considered would be the mean temperature of the earth ; 
 to suggested the point at which spirit boils, as well 
 as the boiling ixiint of water. Newton appears to have 
 been the lirst WOO saw the advantage of having two fixed 
 points in the scale; and in order that the instrument might 
 be applicable to a wider range of tempera tore, he used lin- 
 s the thermometric fluid. This, however, has not 
 been found to answer, on account of its sluggish motion and 
 adhesion to the sides of the tube. The astronomer Roemer 
 proposed the substitution of mercury, which is now gener- 
 : and the knowledge of the fluctuation of the boil- 
 ing point of water, owing to atmospheric pressure, is due to 
 Fahrenheit, about PS4. Since tliat ime no improvement 
 made In the principle of the instrument. 
 For farther Information on this subject, the reader may he 
 referred to Deluc, Riekerche* sur Its Mollifications deVJlt- 
 .-, l"7-2; Biot, Traiti tie Physique, tome 1. ; 
 Nicholson's Chemistry ; Library of Useful Knowledge, 
 "Thermometer and Pyrometer;" Muncke, in Gehler's Phy- 
 hes ll'ortrrbiirh. 
 THE'RMOSCOPE. (Gr. Sepnoc, and <r*orru>, / viete.) 
 An instrument by which changes of temperature are indi- 
 cated. The modification of the air thermometer, called by 
 Leslie a differential thermometer, was claimed by Count 
 Stamford as one of his own inventions, under the name of 
 ik. Set Thermometer. 
 THE'RMOSTAT, or HEAT GOVERNOR. (Gr.Srpuoc, 
 ii, / stand.) A self-acting physical apparntus for 
 regulating temperature. A thermostat, the principle of 
 which depends on the unequal expansion of metals by heat, 
 osed by Dr. I're, for regulating the safety valves 
 engines with more certainty than the common ex- 
 Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1830 
 and 1831, p. 07.) 
 
 THE'SIS (<-r. Sro-ic, aposition), in a general sense, is ap- 
 plied to any proposition, affirmative or negative, which is 
 laid down or advanced to be supported by argument; but it 
 is more particularly applied to those questions which are 
 propounded In most of the Scotch and Continental uni- 
 versities to the students previously to their obtaining a de- 
 gree. 
 
 Thesis. In Music, the depression of the hand in mark- 
 ins or heating time. 
 
 THESMOPHO'RIA. (Gr. Scaptotbopia.) A festival in 
 honour nf Ceres, surnamed the lawgiver (^tauotp'opo';), be- 
 le first taught mankind the use of laws. It was 
 I bv many cities of Greece, but with most observa- 
 tion and cereiiony by the Athenians. The worshippers 
 were free -burn women, whose husbands defrayed the ex- 
 f the solemnity, assisted by a priest and band of 
 virgins. The women were clothed in white garments as 
 emblematic of purity, and were strictly enjoined to preserve 
 istlty some days previous to and during the 
 who.e of the festival, which lasted five days. 
 
 THEBMCTHETiE. The six inferior archons at Athens, 
 who presided at the election of the lower magistrates, re- 
 ceived criminal informations in various matters, decided 
 civil causes on arbitration, took the votes at elections, and 
 
 THIRST. 
 
 performed a variety of other offices. (See Mem. de I'.icad. 
 des Inscr., vol. xxxix.) 
 
 THESPIAN ART. That of tragedy or tragic acting is so 
 termed; from Thespis, an Athenian, who lived In the first 
 half of the 0th century before Christ, and introduced the 
 first rudiments of a tragic stage. See Dram \. 
 
 THE'TA. (Gr. $.) The unlucky letter of the Greek 
 alphabet; so called because the judges in balloting on the 
 prisoner used it to intimate their desire for his condemna- 
 tion, from its being the first letter of Suvam, death. Hence 
 the verse— 
 
 O multum ante alias infelix liter* Theta. 
 
 THF.TF.S. (Gr. Srjr«.) In ancient Attica, originally 
 bondsmen, who were excluded from holding the chief ma- 
 gistracies of the state. Under the constitution of Solon they 
 formed the lowest class of free citizens who contributed 
 nothing to the support of the state; but in the course of the 
 subsequent innovations which brought the state to ■ com- 
 plete democracy all the restrictions on the thetes were re 
 moved. They served generally as light-armed soldiers, but 
 sometimes also as regular infantry upon an emergency. 
 (See lioeckh, Public Kruno my ,,f .iihens, ii., S5B.) 
 
 THETIS. In Greek Mythology, one of the Nereids, 
 daughter of Nereus and Doris : was wedded under the au- 
 spices of the gods, among whom jealousy had arisen bv 
 reason of her beauty, to Peleus, king of Thessaly. By him 
 she became the mother of Achilles. According to the an- 
 cient cosmogonies, Thetis was an emblem of the element 
 of water. She is best known by the verses of Homer. IU't 
 marriage with Peleus is the subject of some exquisite lines 
 bv Catullus. 
 
 THETJRGY. (Gr.thr.c, God, and cpyov, work.) A name 
 given by the ancients to their iinaginan art of magic, which 
 
 was, like the whole magic of the middle ages, the result of 
 
 an intercourse with and Influence over spiritual beings of 
 the more exalted class — gods, demons. &c. In the modern 
 art of magic, it was that species of magic which operated by 
 celestial means; opposed to natural magic, which was ef- 
 fected by knowledge of the occult powers of nature; and 
 necromancy, or magic effected by the aid of evil spirits;. 
 (See Mem. de l\1cad. des Inscr., vol. XXvil.) 
 
 THI'CKET. Trees or shrubs crowded together in such 
 a manner as to form a mass not easily penetrated by men 
 or cattle. 
 
 TIII'NNING. Reducing the number of plants or trees 
 which have been sown or planted, with a view to those 
 which remain attaining a more mature growth. Natural 
 woods are .also (binned for the same purpose. The opera- 
 tion ought to be commenced as soon as the extreme leaves 
 or branches are nearly touching one another, and continue 
 till the plants have attained their full growth, or the re- 
 quired dimensions or age. On no account should the 
 branches of any one tree in a plantation be allowed to touch 
 the branches of any other tree; because in that case the 
 foliage is deprived of its due proportion of sun, air, and rain, 
 and the tree is drawn up in height at the expense of its 
 thickness and vigour to resist stoims; while the limber or 
 fruit produced will be diminished both in quantity and quali- 
 ty. There is no department of planting less understood 
 than the subject of sheltering young plantations ; and it may 
 with truth be said that in by far the greater number of cases 
 nothing is ultimately gained by drawing up trees in masses, 
 and afterwards thinning them out. The trees left being un- 
 prepared both by their bark and roots for the new atmo- 
 spherical circumstances in which they are placed, receive 
 a greater check than if they had been originally planted so 
 thin as at no period of their growth to touch one another. 
 
 THIN OUT. Geologists say that strata thin out when 
 they gradually diminish in. thickness and disappear. 
 
 THIRD. In Music, an imperfect concord, containing two 
 degrees or intervals, and three terms or sounds. 
 
 THIRD COAT. In Architecture, the stucco when paint- 
 intr is to be used, or the scttinc for the reception of paper. 
 
 THIRD ORDER. In Ecclesiastical History, most of the 
 chief religious orders (Premonstrants, Carmelites, Francis- 
 cans, Augustines, &c.,) have or had bodies of secular asso- 
 ciates, not bound by vows, but conforming to a certain ex 
 tent to the gei ral designs of the order; a custom thought 
 to have origii ied about A.D. 1476, when Sixtus IV. gave 
 permission to te Carmelites to attach such persons to their 
 body. In coi se of time the third order contained a mix 
 tore of secula and religious persons. 
 
 THIRST. Germ, durst.) The sensation of a desire to 
 drink, consist '.».£ in a sense of dryness and heat of the mouth, 
 sometimes extending along the cesophncus to the stomach: 
 the posterior fauces become red, and the usual mucous se- 
 cretion thick and viscid, as also the saliva. A vague in- 
 quietude, troubled mind, and quick pulse ensue; and if not 
 relieved, respiration becomes laborious, and the mouth Is 
 opened wide to admit the cool air. Some people soon suf- 
 fer from thirst, and are in the habit of drinking to an ex- 
 
 1241 
 
THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 cessive extent; while others hardly ever experience its 
 sensation, and scarcely require to drink the diluting liquids 
 or water. Thirst is a common symptom of febrile and other 
 diseases, and is most effectively relieved in such cases by 
 mild acid and mucilaginous drinks j milk and emulsions are, 
 however, sometimes more efficient and agreeable. Exces- 
 sive exercise or perspiration arc common causes of thirst, in 
 which case the sensation seems merely to announce the de- 
 ficiency of water in the system. Habitual thirst is often ac- 
 quired by indulgence in drinking, especially among labour- 
 ers and others who take excessive quantities of beer, and 
 who at length can scarcely exist without unnecessary and 
 prejudicial quantities of that or similar beverages. The 
 thirst induced by excessive exercise in warm weather is in 
 ordinary cases most effectually relieved by milk and water, 
 or warm tea. In these cases indulgence in beer, cider, wine, 
 or spirits and water, invariably induces febrile reaction, and 
 should therefore be generally avoided. 
 
 THIRTY YEARS' WAR. In History, properly a se- 
 ries of wars carried on between the Protestant and Roman 
 Catholic leagues in Germany, in the first half of the 17th 
 century. The house of Austria was, throughout, at the 
 head of the latter party. The Protestant princes of Ger- 
 many were assisted by various foreign powers ; in the 
 earlier part of the war by Denmark and Sweden, and af- 
 terwards by France. It is considered to have commenced 
 with the insurrection of the Bohemians in 1618, and end- 
 ed with the peace of Westphalia in 1048. The celebrated 
 history (incomplete) of this war, by Schiller, is rather a 
 spirited historical essav than an accurate narrative. 
 
 THISTLE, or SAINT ANDREW. A Scottish order of 
 knighthood, said to be of great antiquity, but revived by 
 James V. in 1540 ; again by James II. of England, VII. of 
 Scotland, in 1C87 ; and a third time in 1703, by Queen 
 Anne, who increased the number of knights to twelve, 
 and placed the order on a permanent footing. The thistle, 
 as is well-known, is the national emblem of Scotland ; 
 and the national motto is very appropriate, being " Nemo 
 me impune lacesset," nobody shall provoke me with im- 
 punity. This is also the motto of the order of the this- 
 tle. 
 
 THEMi. The Egyptian goddess of justice, or of truth. 
 Her figure is frequently represented in Egyptian sculp- 
 tures in the hands of the kings. The Hebrew Thummim 
 (the well-known and mysterious Urim and Thummim, 
 Exod., xxxix., 8, 10) is the plural or dual of the same 
 word. ( Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient 
 Egyptians, vol. v., p. 58.) 
 
 THO'LUS. (Gr. SuAo?.) In Architecture, a building of 
 a circular form, but used by Vitruvius for expressing the 
 roof of a circular building. The term was also employed 
 to denote the laconicum of a bath, which was circular in 
 form. 
 
 THOMiEANS, or THOMITES. In Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, a name given in Europe to the ancient church of 
 Christians established on the Malabar coast of India, and 
 thought to have been originally founded by St. Thomas ; 
 although whether this was the Apostle of that name is 
 doubtful. The language used by them in their sacred 
 rites, when they were first discovered by Europeans, was 
 the Chaldee or Symc. The Portuguese have effected a 
 partial conversion of them to Romanism. 
 
 THO'MISTS. The followers of Thomas Aquinas, the 
 Angelic Doctor, one of the most distinguished of the 
 schoolmen of the 13th century. They differed from the 
 rival sect of Scotists chiefly in the milder form under 
 which they adopted the doctrines of realism. The Scot- 
 ists regarded the universe as objectively and independ- 
 ently real ; the Thomists sought rather to ground the ob- 
 jective in a spiritual or rational principle, in some degree 
 approximating to the Platonic doctrine of ideas. The 
 Thomists continued as a sect to the commencement of the 
 17th century, and numbered several eminent men in their 
 ranks, among whom may be mentioned Algidius of Co- 
 lonna and Francis Suarez. 
 
 THOMSONITE. (So called from the discoverer.) A 
 variety of zeolite from Dumbarton : it generally occurs in 
 radiated masses of small prismatic crystals. 
 
 THOR. In Scandinavian Mythology, the son of Odin 
 and Freya, and the divinity who presided over all mis- 
 chievous spirits that inhabited the elements. His power 
 is represented as irresistible. Many of his deeds are pre- 
 served in the Edda (which see) ; but it is probable that 
 the worship of this divinity under the name of Donan, or 
 god of thunder, spread also into Germany, where traces of 
 him are still to be found in numerous local appellations, 
 as Donnersberg, Th irstein, &c. As the worship of this 
 god extended, nothing was more likely than that the Ger- 
 mans should confound him with the Jupiter of the Ro- 
 mans, who were then invading their country ; and hence 
 in Germany the day sacred to Jupiter was denominated 
 Donnerstag, while the Scandinavian equivalent of the 
 1843 
 
 THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. 
 
 same deity has been retained by the English in Thursday 
 (Thor's day). 
 
 THORA'CIC DUCT. The great trunk which convey* 
 the contents of the lacteals and absorbents into the blood 
 In the human body it is about the diameter of a crow 
 quill, and lies upon the dorsal vertebra between the aorta 
 and azygos vein, extending from the posterior opening of 
 the diaphragm, in a somewhat serpentine course, in the 
 angle formed by the union of the left subclavian and jugu- 
 lar veins, into which it pours its contents. Sec Chyle and 
 Lymph. 
 
 THORA'CICS, Thoracici. (Gr. Swpal, the chest.) The 
 name given by Linnaeus to those fishes which have the 
 ventral fins placed beneath the pectorals. 
 
 THO'RAX. (Gr. §wpa\, a shield.) The second seg 
 ment of insects is so called by Latreille and Andouin ; the 
 term is restricted to the upper surface of the trunk by 
 Linne and Fabricius. In Arachnidans the thorax and 
 head are confluent, and form but one segment, which is 
 termed the cephalothorax. As a cavity appropriated to 
 the reception of the circulating and respiratory organs, the 
 thorax is only distinct in Mammals. 
 
 Thorax. The chest ; the part of the body between the 
 neck and the abdomen. It contains the heart and lungs, 
 the oesophagus, the thymus gland, the thoracic duct, part 
 of the aorta and vena cava, the vena azygos, the eighth 
 pair of nerves, and a part of the great intercostal nerve. 
 
 Thorax. In Grecian Antiquities, a piece of defensive 
 armour consisting of two parts, one defending the back, 
 and the other the belly ; called lorica by the Romans. 
 The more ancient were made of padded linen ; but they 
 were also made of leather, brass, iron, and other metals. 
 
 THORI'NA. (From Thor, the Scandinavian deity.) 
 An earthy substance discovered in 1828 by Bcrzelius in a 
 rare Norwegian mineral called thorite, which is a hydra- 
 ted silicate of thorina. Like the other earths, thorina is 
 the oxide of a heavy, gray metal, which has been termed 
 thorium, and which is not acted upon by water ; but when 
 heated in the air it burns with great brilliancy into a white 
 oxide. Thorina obtained in this way is white, infusible, 
 and very he i try, its specific gravity being ;;■■!. [i 
 ble in all acids except sulphuric, and in that with diffi- 
 culty. Its equivalent is about 68. Thorina is distinguish 
 ed from alumina and glucina by its insolubility ia caustic 
 potash, and from zirconia by being precipitated by f - o- 
 cyanuret of potassium. 
 
 THO'RN APPLE. Sec Strammony and Daturia. 
 
 THO'RNBACK. The name of a species of r:iy (Rata 
 clavata, Linn.), distinguished by the short and strong re- 
 curved spines, rising from a broad, osseous, tubercular 
 base, which are scattered over the back and tail. Two 
 of these broad-based spines occupy the central ridge of the 
 nose. 
 
 THOROUGH BASS. See Bass. 
 
 THOTH, THOUTH, TAOUT. An Egyptian divinity, 
 considered by the Greeks as identical with Mercury. His 
 hieroglyphic represents the beginning of the astronomical 
 year. He was regarded as the inventor of writing and 
 Egyptian philosophy ; and is hence paralleled with Mer- 
 cury by Cicero. He is represented as a human figure with 
 the head of a lamb or ibis. (Plato, Plucilrus ; Plutarch, 
 De Is. et Osir. ; Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. v.) 
 Bryant says the same with Oro; {Mythol., i., 13). 
 
 THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, more commonly 
 called among ourselves the Arabian Nights' F.vtrrt.ain- 
 ments, from the title adopted in our first translation from 
 Galland's version. A well-known collection of oriental 
 tales, which has acquired in the west a popularity never 
 attained by any other eastern composition. The history 
 of the work has been the subject of much investigation, 
 especially by De Sacy, Von Hammer, and our last lenrned 
 translator Mr. Lane, from whom we borrow most of this 
 article. It is the opinion of Mr. Lane that the work, in its 
 present form, is the composition of a single author living in 
 Egypt ; and that it was most probably " not commenced 
 earlier than the last quarter of the 15th century of our 
 era, and completed before the termination of the first 
 quarter of the next century, soon after the conquest of 
 Egypt by the Osmanlee Turks in 1517." But the origin of 
 the tales is a much more difficult subject of inquiry. It 
 seems to be now established (from the discoveries of De 
 Sacy and Von Hammer) that there was an ancient Persian 
 collection of stories, known by the name of the Hezat 
 Afianeh (the "Thousand Fanciful Tales"), of unknown 
 antiquity, but certainly older than the Bth century of our 
 era; that the framework of this collection was the s.ime 
 with that of the modem, namely, the story of the; cruel 
 King Shakryar and his ingenious queen Chehrazad ; and 
 that this was very early translated into Arabic by th* 
 name of the Thousand Nights. But Mr. Lane differ? 
 from these learned irientalists in still believing that the 
 I early work was onlj a model , that the greater proportion 
 
 : 
 
 
THRANITE. 
 
 r>f the modern tales are really Arabian, especially all those 
 founded on the supposed adventures of the Khalif Haroon 
 and his queen Zobcyde, a few only being distinctly ofPer- 
 r Indian original ; c. g., the Magic Horse, the Damsel 
 and the Seven Wezeers. The difference seems to reduce 
 to llii-, whether the present work is the last of sev- 
 eral successive editions of the old One Thousand Mights, 
 or has pretensions to be considered as a new construction 
 on an old groundwork ; the latter being Mr. Lane's opin- 
 ion. See He Sacy's Dissertation, prefixed to a late edition 
 
 Hand's version; Von Hal er's preface to that of 
 
 miieii ; Mr. Line's Preface, and "Review" at the 
 conclusion of his third volume ; the JHhemeum, No. 622.) 
 
 But whatever the history of the work, many of the main 
 features of the stories are of primeval antiquity, and form, 
 in fact, part of the popular literature of all countries. The 
 ■ I Persian or Arab writers were connected by habit! 
 LVellingand merchandise through India with the far 
 East, and through Greece with the extreme West ; and 
 the superstitions, anecdotes, and pregnant savings of all 
 limes ami ages, repeated in various forms to the tired lis- 
 teners of the caravan at its evening's halt, have contribu- 
 ted to enrich this singular collection. The Adventures of 
 id have been curiously illustrated with antiquarian 
 learning by Mr. Hole, and form one of the most singular 
 examples ut' the ubiquity of good stories. 
 
 It appears that the learned Arabs hold the Thousand and 
 
 Mights in small esteem, as an incorrect and uuclnss- 
 
 ical composition ; but it is a great mistake (a very natural 
 
 one for distinguished orientalists, like .Mr. Lane, 10 fall into 
 
 unconsciously) to imagine that their great charm to the 
 
 ■ 01 the (Vest consists in their faithful representation 
 manners. A far greater attraction lies in the 
 fancy which dictated the narratives — a quality belonging 
 to all times and places. And hence it is that we are eon 
 vinced Mr. Lane is wrong in his low appreciation of Gal- 
 land's version. That it is very incorrect in point of cos- 
 tume is doubtless true ; but the peculiar genius of Galland 
 led him to detect the poetical fancy, the humour, the odd- 
 Itv, the pii of the composition, under the 
 
 eumb iry-telllng, and to bring it 
 
 out in a manner by no means strictly faithful, but suffi- 
 atal qualntness to his work, with- 
 out the languor of the original — an odd but agreeable mix- 
 ture of Arab simplicity with the artificial naivete of polish- 
 ed Frame. \\'e believe that while the versions of Mr. 
 and other learned men will alwi ys be consulted with 
 interest, that of Galland will still be the cherished com- 
 panion ■ ,! all ages, but especially of youth. The numer- 
 ous European imitations of the Thousand and One Xiglits 
 are well known, and may, for the most part, he character- 
 ized as very unsuccessful : perhaps the best is the French 
 Additional Jlrabian Mights, containing the history of Man- 
 graby the Magician, &c. 
 
 THRA'NITE. The uppermost (or, according to some 
 arrangements of the classical galley, the foremost) of the 
 three clashes of rowers iii an Athenian trireme; the mid- 
 dle being called the zeugita', the lowest thalamlts. Sec 
 Galley, Trirkmk. 
 
 THRASHING. Separating grain or seeds from the 
 straw or hauin by means of a Hail or thrashing machine, 
 or by treading with cattle. The latter was the mode em- 
 ployed in the ages of antiquity ; and it is still practised in 
 the south of Europe, and in Persia, and India. The Ro- 
 mans employed oxen for this purpose ; sometimes alone, 
 and sometimes with the addition of a kind of roller studded 
 with iron knots, which they dragged over the corn, and 
 which was spread on a circular floor, the driver standing 
 in the centre, and guiding the oxen around him by means 
 of reins. It was customary to allow the oxen occasionally 
 to breathe and take a bite of the corn, agreeably to the 
 Scripture precept. A kind of flail or rod was also some- 
 times used by the Romans, anil is doubtless the origin of 
 the present implement of that name. In colder and moister 
 climates, such a.s that of Britain, where a floor sufficiently 
 hard for thrashing out corn could not be maintained in the 
 open air, thrashing appears to have been alwavs performed 
 under cover, and with the flail, till the latter end of the 
 18th century, when thrashing machines were introduced. 
 
 THRA'SHING MACHINE. A machine for separating 
 corn or other seeds from the straw or haum ; and either 
 impelled by horse or cattle, wind, water, or steam. The 
 modern thrashing machine was invented in Scotland about 
 the year 1758, by a farmer in the parish of Dumblaine, 
 Perthshire, and afterwards brought to nearly its present 
 state of perfection by Mr. Meikle, a millwright of Hadding- 
 tonshire, about the year ITHfi. Melkle's thrashing machine 
 its of a cylinder furnished with beaters fixed on its 
 circumference, to which the corn being presented by roll- 
 the ears are beat in pieces; and while the grain drops 
 through a grating into a winnowing machine, the straw is 
 lied forward, and delivered by itself ready to be made 
 
 
 THUG. 
 
 up into bundles. Some thrashing machines only heat out 
 the corn, and separate it from the straw; while others 
 beat it out, winnow it, and sift it. One of the most com- 
 plete thrashing machines in Britain is that of VVinstay, in 
 Denbighshire, which not only thrashes and winnows, but 
 measures the corn in bushels, and transports it to the 
 granary in a tit state for being carried to market. 
 Encyc. of Jigr., p. 1311.) 
 
 The employment of thrashing machines relieves ihe 
 labourers from the severest drudgery incident to agricul 
 Hire ; they enable the work to be done at the time there is 
 a demand for corn ; and, by doing it better, or separating 
 the corn (particularly wheat) more completely from the, 
 straw, they add both to the wealth of the farmer and the 
 produce 0» the country; enabling the former to employ, 
 and the hitter to l'ce<\, more labourers. This latter is, in- 
 deed, a most Important consideration. It is calculated, by 
 the best informed agriculturists, that 5 |>er cent., or one 
 twentieth part, more produce is afforded by a crop thrash 
 ed by machinery than by the old method ; ami. estimating 
 
 the total produce of the corn crpps of Great Britain and 
 Ireland :il 50,(100.000 quarters, we should, on this hypothe- 
 sis, have an additional annual supply id' no less than 
 2,. r >00,000 quarters, were thrashing machines universally 
 substituted for flails '. So great an increase of produce in 
 the hands of the farmers would obviously enable them to 
 employ far more labourers than would be superseded by 
 the u<e of the machine. {Brown on Rural Affairs, vol. i, 
 p. 332.) 
 
 As we remarked above, thrashing machines may be 
 driven either by horse, water, or steam power; but in all 
 the great firms in the Lothians In Scotland, and in some 
 parts of England, all other methods have merged in the 
 last. 
 
 THREE-COAT WORK. In Architecture, plastering 
 which consists of pricking-up or roughing-in, floating, and 
 a finishing coat. 
 
 THRE'NODY. (Gr. Spnvos, a dirge; Mr), song.) A 
 species of short, occasional poem, composed on the occa- 
 sion of the funeral of some distinguished personage. See 
 Epicedum. 
 
 THRO'MBUS. A small tumour which sometimes en- 
 sues in consequence of the escape of blood into the cellu- 
 lar membrane in the operation of bleeding. 
 
 THRONE. (C.r. fyovof.) In Architecture, a chair of 
 state raised above Ihe level of the floor whereon it stands, 
 usually richly ornamented and covered with a canopy. 
 
 THRUSH. In Medicine. This disease consists in small 
 white ulcers upon the tongue, palate, and gums, and is 
 common in infants who are ill fed or brought up by hand. 
 It is apt to extend through the whole course of the mucous 
 membrane lining the alimentary canal, exciting fetid eruc- 
 tations and flatulency, with a troublesome diarrhoea, and 
 sometimes proves fatal. The treatment consists in giving 
 a gentle emetic of ipecacuanha, and keeping the bowels 
 clear and open with castor oil, or rhubarb and DQ 
 The strictest attention should be paid to the diet, which 
 should consist of milk .and light farinaceous food. 
 
 Thrush. In Ornithology, one of the largest and most 
 melodious of our native song-birds ; the type of the genus 
 Tardus, Linna'tts. It is not migratory, but is supposed to 
 quit the more northern parts of England In winter for the 
 southern provinces. It makes its nest in March ; lays four 
 or five blue eggs, spotted with black at the larger end. 
 It feeds on berries, insects, and shell. snails ; and often se- 
 lects a particular kind of stone against which it breaks the 
 shell of the snail, and near which a great quantity of frag- 
 ments of the shells may he found. 
 
 THRUST. (Lat. truilo, / push.) In Architecture, the 
 horizontal force of an arch, by which it acts against the 
 piers from which it springs. Also a similar action of raft- 
 ers or of a beam against the walls which bear them. 
 
 THUG. (From the Hindoo verb thunga, to deceive.) A 
 member of a singular association of robbers and murderers, 
 which has excited of late years much attention in India. 
 It appears that the existence of the system of thuggee, as 
 it is culled, was hardly known before the year 1810, and 
 that no combined measures were taken to put a stop to it 
 until about 1830. Since that time it has been fully de- 
 tected, and greatly checked, chiefly through the admission 
 Of approvers from all the gangs. Capt Meadows Taylor 
 informs us that, between 1831 and 1837, 32G6 Thugs were 
 brought to justice, of whom 412 were hanged, 1059 trans 
 ported, and 4> Q 3 turned approvers. Still it is by no means 
 supposed to be extinct. Its origin is unknown ; and botn 
 Mohammedans and Hindoos belong to the society indiffer- 
 ently, although its tutelary goddess, Bhowanee, belongs to 
 the latter faith. The Thugs are peculiarly superstitious In 
 their observances. They are directed. In all their proceed- 
 ings, by auguries supposed to be vouchsafed by their god. 
 dess ; and particular classes are altogether exempt from 
 their attacks : among whom are dancing girls, minstrels, 
 
 1243 
 
THULE. 
 
 slKhs, some religious mendicants, tailors, oilmen, black- 
 smiths, carpenters. It is stated, also, that they seldom de- 
 stroy women unless for their own safety ; and they have 
 very seldom ventured to attack Englishmen. They usual- 
 ly move in large gangs, and attach themselves to travelling 
 parties ; they will journey with them for days, to find at 
 last an opportunity to master them. When all is ready, 
 one division of the murderers strangles the victims, while 
 another body prepares their graves ; and by means of this 
 division of labour the fearful work is accomplished with 
 wonderful celerity. It appears that numbers of Thugs re- 
 sided together in villages, when they were prohibited by 
 the landowners, sometimes by rajahs, to whom they paid 
 tribute. The common destruction of life occasioned by 
 them may be conjectured by the fact that one Thug, ad- 
 mitted an approver at Saugor, confessed to Col. Taylor, 
 who does not seem to suspect him of exaggeration, that he 
 had been coucerned in the murder of 71i) persons ! The 
 existence of so strange and monstrous a system can only 
 be explained by the condition of India ; the extreme timid- 
 ity and apathy of its inhabitants, and their division into 
 castes ; the number of small native governments ; the 
 habit of dwelling in villages, divided by extensive unin- 
 habited tracts ; the quantity of travelling that takes place 
 in that commercial country, without navigable rivers or 
 secure conveyances; and the murderous spirit of Hindoo 
 fanaticism. (See Col. Sleeman's Ramasceana, Vocabulary 
 of the Thugs, and an article on it in the Ed. Rev., vol. 
 lxiv. ; and Col. Meadows Taylor's Adventures of a Thug, 
 2 vols., Loud., 1839, from the Introduction to which these 
 details are chiefly taken.) 
 
 THU'LE. The name given by the ancients to the most 
 northern part of the habitable world ; but it is almost im- 
 possible to say, from the variety of opinions entertained 
 respecting it, whether any definite country was meant by 
 this appellation. Some have thought that Norway, but 
 most geographers are of opinion that Iceland, was the place 
 alluded to. But be this as it may, it is long since the 
 prophecy of Seneca in the following lines has been ful- 
 filled: 
 
 Saicula seris, qutbus Oceanus 
 Vmcula rerum laxet, et ingens 
 Paleat tellus, Typhisque novos 
 Deieget Orbes, uec sil term 
 Ultima Thule. 
 
 THULITE. A rare mineral of a peach-blossom colour 
 from Norway. Its composition has not been ascertained. 
 
 THU'MEKSTONE. A variety of aximite from Thum, 
 in Saxony. 
 
 THUM'MIM. See Urim. 
 
 THU'NDER. (Germ, donner, Lat. tonitru.) The noise 
 produced by an explosion of lightning, or by the passage of 
 lightning through the air from one cloud to another, or from 
 a cloud to the ground. 
 
 The character of the sound of thunder varies with the 
 force and the distance of the explosion, the situation of the 
 observer, the nature of the surrounding country ; and it is 
 probably influenced, also, by the relative situations of the 
 clouds. 
 
 When lightning strikes an object near us on the earth", it 
 produces a noise resemblimg that of a violent crash, which 
 is not repeated or prolonged by reflection. When the ex 
 plosion is more distant, a rumbling irregular, and recurring 
 noise is heard, which gradually dies away in the distance, 
 like the prolonged echo of the sound of ordnance discharged 
 in a mountainous district. 
 
 Thunder frequently commences with an astounding rattle, 
 which is probably occasioned by a series of explosions or 
 discharges of electric matter in rapid succession from a 
 highly charged thunder-cloud. 
 
 We have a familiar example of this species of noise in 
 the cracking which accompanies the sparks discharged 
 from the conductor of a well-supplied electrical machine 
 towards any adjacent conducting body ; the loudness of the 
 snaps, as well as their frequency, increasing with the 
 electric intensity. And when we consider how trifling a 
 portion of electric matter can be put in action by the most 
 powerful means of artificial excitement, compared with the 
 quantity stored up in a full-charged thunder-cloud, the dis- 
 crepancy between the appalling crash of the one and the 
 insignificant snap of the other will not appear surprising, 
 though both originate in the same cause. This cause is 
 the vibration of the air, agitated by the passage of the elec- 
 tric discharge with a greater or less degree of intensity ■ 
 and two explanations may be given of the manner in which 
 the vibration is produced. 
 
 The first explanation proceeds on the supposition that 
 the electric fluid opens a passage to itself through air or 
 other matter, in the manner of a projectile, and that the 
 sound is caused by the rush of the air into the vacuum 
 produced by the instantaneous passage of the fluid. But it 
 1214 
 
 THYMELACEiE. 
 
 is objected, that if this explanation holds good, the passage 
 of a cannon ball through the air ought to produce a similar 
 sound ; whereas it only produces a sort of whistling noise, 
 which even the most timid have never thought of com 
 paring with thunder. Another, still stronger objection is, 
 that all the experiments seem to indicate that the electric 
 fluid is not transferred from point to point like a projectile 
 of ponderable matter, but is conveyed along by the vibration 
 of an elastic medium, as sound is conveyed through the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 The second explanation, which appears more in harmony 
 with all the facts, is founded on this vibratory propagation 
 of the electric fluid. When the electric spark passes be- 
 tween two points, there is a decomposition and recomposi- 
 tion of electricity in all the media in which it appears, and 
 consequently a vibration more or less violent is produced, 
 which vibration gives rise to the sound. On this hypothe- 
 sis, the continued roll is the effect of the comparatively 
 slow propagation of sound through the air. For the sake 
 of illustration, suppose a flash of lightning of 11,251) feet in 
 length, or that the spark is instantaneously seen from one 
 end to the other of this line. At the same instant the flash 
 is visible, the vibration is communicated to the atmosphere 
 through the whole extent of the line. Now suppose an 
 observer placed in the direction of the line of the flash, and 
 at the distance of 1125 feet from one end; then, since sound 
 travels at the rate of about 1125 feet in a second (.see Sound), 
 one second will elapse after the flash has been seen before 
 any sound is heard. When the sound begins, the vibration 
 communicated to the nearest stratum of air has reached 
 his ear ; and since we have supposed the line of disturbance 
 to be 11,250 in length, the vibrations of the more distant 
 strata will continue to reach his ear in succession during 
 the space of ten seconds. Hence the length of the flash 
 determines the duration of the sound ; and it follows that 
 the same flash will give rise to a sound of greater or less 
 duration, according to the position of the observer with 
 respect to its direction. Thus, in the above instance, sup- 
 pose a second observer to be placed under the line, and 
 towards its middle, he would only hear the sound during 
 half the time it was heard by the first observer ; and it we 
 suppose the line to be circular, and the observer to be placed 
 near its centre, the sound would arrive from every point at 
 the same instant in a violent crash. 
 
 Although the vibratory motion is communicated to all 
 the strata of air along the whole length of the flash, they 
 will not all receive the same impulsion unless they are 
 all at the same temperature and in the same hygrometric 
 state, which can rarely happen. Hence the first impression 
 of the sound is not always the most intense, although it 
 proceeds from the nearest point. 
 
 During a thunder storm shelter should not be taken under 
 trees and hedges, which are likely to act as conductors, 
 but, at the same time, a person is safer when at the 
 tance of about 30 or 40 feet from such objects than on an 
 open plain. Water should also be carefully avoided, 
 because it is a cood conductor, and the height of a man 
 above it may determine the course of the lightning. In 
 house, the safest position is near the middle of a room 
 and the security may be increased by sitting on a feathei 
 bed or hair mattress, or thick woollen rug, all of which are 
 bad conductors. It is injudicious to take refuge in a cellar, 
 because the discharge is often from the earth to a cloud, 
 and buildings frequently sustain the greatest injury in the 
 basement stories. It is dangerous to be near the fireplace, 
 because the chimney is the part most likely to be struck, 
 and the soot is a powerful conductor. Gilt furniture, bell- 
 wires, and all large metallic surfaces, arc to be avoided for 
 the same reason. (See, on this subject, a highly interestin_ 
 Notice sur le Tonnerre, by Arago, in the Jlnnuaire for 
 1838, translated in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.) 
 
 THURLS. Short communication between the adits i: 
 mines. 
 
 THU'RSDAY. The fifth day of the week, which a> 
 rives its name from Thor, the old Scandinavian god 
 thunder ; equivalent to the Jupiter of the ancients, to wh itn 
 this day was also consecrated. 
 
 THUS. (Gr. $vu, I sacrifice ; from its use in sacrifV.es. 
 The resin of the spruce fir. The terra frankincense is al 
 applied to it, and to olibanum, which is the gum resin of the 
 Junipirus lycia. 
 
 THWART. In Naval affairs, used for athwart or ucr 
 also a bench for rowers. • 
 
 TH YMEEA'CE^E. (Thymelea, one of the genera.) 
 natural order of shrubby Exogens, having a calix onlyi 
 and no corolla, although the flowers of many arc col nued 
 very gaily. Daphnes, valued for their fragrance. .Wnereutm 
 the various species of the Australian genus Ptmclca, and 
 the Gnidias and Struthiolas of the Cape of Good Hope, are 
 favourite subjects of cultivation. One feature of the order 
 is the causticity of the bark, which acts upon the skin as a 
 vesicatory, anil causes excessive pain in the mouth if 
 
THYMUS GLAND. 
 
 ihewed. The berries of Daphne laureola (the spurge lau- 
 rel) are poisonous to nil animals except birds. 
 
 THY'Ml'S GLAND. A glarul situated under the upper 
 part of the sternum, in the anterior mediastinum. Its ex- 
 cretory duct has not been detected, nor is its use known. 
 It is di great comparative size in the fcetus. 
 
 THY'NNl'S. (Gr. Swvoi, a tunny.) A genus of Scom- 
 beruid fishes, of which the highly valuable fish the tunny 
 (Thynnus vulgaris, Cuv.) is the type. The form of the 
 body in tliis genus of fishes is like that of the mackerel, but 
 is less compressed ; the Brat dorsal fin extends nearly to the 
 second ; the second dorsal and the anal fins are divided 
 into numerous finlets ; the sides of the tail are decidedly 
 carinutcd ; there is n single row of small pointed teeth in 
 each JaW. The tunny is remarkable among fishes for its 
 high temperature, its perfect respiratory organs, the quan- 
 tity of nerves supplying the gills, and the general abundance 
 of rich red Wood throughout the body. It is the object of 
 Xr most important fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea, and 
 when sailed and dried serves the inhabitants of most Catho- 
 lic countries with the fast days' meat. The bonito (Thyn- 
 nus pelamys) is a species of the present genus of fishes. 
 
 THY'Kfe. (Gr. Svpis, a window.) A genus of butter- 
 Hie-^. 
 
 THYROID. (Gr. Svpcoc, a shield, and ciloc, form.) 
 The thyroid or sculiform cartilage is placed perpendicular 
 to the cricoid cartilage of the larynx, of which it forms the 
 uppei and anterior part. In men it is harder and more 
 prominent than in women ; it is sometimes called Jldam's 
 apple. The thyroid gland is situated upon the thyroid and 
 cricoid cartilages of the trachea ; its duct has not been seen, 
 and its use is unknown. When enlarged, it forms the 
 bronchi 
 
 THY'RSUS. (Gr. Svpoos.) A staff entwined with ivy, 
 which formed part of the accoutrement of a Bacchanal, or 
 performer In the orgies of Bacchus. 
 
 Thyrsus. In Botany, a form of inflorescence, consisting 
 of a compact panicle, the lower branches of which are 
 shorter than those of the middle; in other words, it is com- 
 posed of a primary axis developing secondary axes from its 
 sides, which in their turn develop tertiary axes, the upper 
 and lower branches being shorter than those of the middle, 
 as in the common lilach. 
 
 Til Y 'SAN U RAMS, Thysanura. (Gr. Svoavot, fringes, 
 ovpa, a tail.) The name of an order of Ametabolian in- 
 sects, comprehending those in which the abdomen is ter- 
 minated by filaments, or by a forked tiii adapted for leaping. 
 
 TIA'RA. The well known ornament with which the 
 ancient Persians adorned their heads. It was in the form 
 of a tower, and adorned with peacocks' feathers. Xeno- 
 phon says that it was sometimes encompassed with the 
 diadem, at least in ceremonies, and had frequently the 
 figure of a half moon embroidered upon it. This was the 
 name also originally given to the mitre of the popes. It was 
 nothing more than a round high cap, at first single instead 
 of double, like that of the other bishops. Nicholas the 
 First added the first gold circle, us the sign of the civil 
 I>ower. The second was added by Boniface about 1300; 
 the third by Urban V. about 1305. (Bowden, Life of Greg- 
 ory VII., i., 60.) 
 
 TI'lilA. (Lat.) In Anatomy, the largest of the two 
 bones which form the second segment of the leg, or sacral 
 extremity. In Entomology, it is the fourth joint of the leg, 
 is very long, and usually triquetrous. Its name is said to 
 have reference to its resemblance to the ancient pipe or 
 tlute. 
 
 TIC DOULOUREUX. A very painful affection of a 
 nerve, coming on in sudden and excruciating attacks : it is 
 perhaps most common in that branch of the fifth pair which 
 comes out of the infra-orbitary foramen. Nothing is known 
 of the cause of tic douloureux, except in one or two very- 
 rare cases, where a small spicula of bone has been found 
 on the nerves. The treatment is equally uncer- 
 tain, except where it assumes an intermittent form, and 
 then large doses of tonics, and especially carbonate of iron, 
 have proved useful. 
 
 TI'CHORRHINE. (Gr. tu X os, a wall; ptv, a nose.) 
 The name of a fossil species of rhinoceros (Rhinoceros 
 tichorrinus), which is so called on account of the middle 
 vertical bony septum or wall which supports the nose. 
 
 TIDE MILLS are such as have the ebb and flow of the 
 tide for Iheir first movers. As the tide rises, the water is 
 admitted into a reservoir through a sluice, over which the 
 mill .s built, turning the water-wheel in its passage through 
 the sluice. At high tide the sluice gates are shut till the 
 Water has fallen sufficiently outside, when they are opened, 
 so as to Hilow the water to flow out again from the reser- 
 roir, and turn the wheel as it escapes through the sluice. 
 
 In some tide mills the water-wheel turns one way as 
 the tide rises, and the contrary as it falls ; but in others an 
 arrangement is adopted by which the wheel is made to 
 turn always in the same direction. In some, the water- 
 
 TIDES. 
 
 wheel rises and falls with the tide ; and in others, the axis 
 is fixed, so [hat it can neither rise nor fall. In the lattei 
 case, the power is applied at an obvious disadvantage, 
 though rotatory motion to a certain extent may be given 
 even when the wheel Is wholly immersed In the water, 
 from the difference of the velocity of the water at the 
 top and bottom of the sluice. (See Gregory's .Mechanics, 
 vol. ii.) 
 
 TIDES. The alternate rise and fall of the waters of the 
 ocean. The moon is the principal agent in the productior 
 of the tides; but they are modified, both with respect to 
 their height and the times at which they happen, by the 
 action of the sun. The effect of the planets is inappre- 
 ciable. 
 
 The attractive force of a body on a distant particle of 
 matter varying inversely as the square of the distance, the 
 particles of the earth on the side next the moon will be 
 attracted with a greater, and those on the opposite side 
 with a smaller force, than those which are situated inter 
 mediately. The gravitation towards the earth's centre of 
 the particles nearest the moon will therefore be diminished, 
 and consequently, if at liberty to move among themselves, 
 they will rise above the general level. In like manner, the 
 moon's attraction on the most distant panicles being less 
 than on the central ones, their relative gravitation towards 
 the centre will also be diminished, and the waters will con- 
 sequently be heaped up on the side of the earth which is 
 turned away from the moon. Hence, If the earth were at 
 rest, the ocean would take the form of an oblong spheroid, 
 with its longer axis passing through the attracting body: 
 and it may be shown from theory that the spheroid would 
 be in equilibrium under the influence of the moon's attrac- 
 tion, if the longer semi-axis exceeded the shorter by about 
 58 inches. But in consequence of the rapid rotation of the 
 earth about its axis, the spheroid of equilibrium is never 
 fully formed ; for before the waters can take their level, 
 the vertex of the spheroid has shifted its position on the 
 earth's surface, in consequence of which an immensely 
 broad and very flat wave is formed, which follows the 
 motions of the moon at some interval of time. In the open 
 sea the time of high water is, in general, from two to three 
 hours after the moon's transit over the meridian either 
 above or below the horizon. The tidal wave, it is to be 
 observed, is entirely different from a current: the particle* 
 of water merely rise and fall ; but except when the wave 
 passes over shadows, or approaches the shore, there is little 
 or no progressive motion. 
 
 The waters of the ocean are affected in a similar manner 
 by the action of the sun, under the influence of which they 
 have a tendency to assume at every instant the form of an 
 elongated spheroid ; but although the attractive force of 
 the sun is immensely greater than that of the moon, yet, 
 by reason of the greater distance of the sun, the difference 
 of the effect on particles situated on opposite sides of the 
 earth (on which difference the phenomena depend) is very 
 much less. The solar tides are therefore comparatively 
 small with respect to the lunar tides, and, in fact, are never 
 perceived as distinct phenomena, but become sensible only 
 from the modifications which they produce in the heights 
 and times of those which primarily depend on the moon. 
 At the syzygies, when the sun and moon come to the merid- 
 ian together, the tides are, ceteris paribus, the highest ; at 
 the quadratures, or when the sun and moon are 90° distant, 
 the tides are least. The former ore called spring tides, the 
 latter neap tides. Although we are not in possession of 
 data to enable us to compute the exact height either of 
 the spring or neap tides, yet their relative heights in the 
 open ocean probably correspond very nearly to the ellipti- 
 cities of the spheroids of equilibrium that would be formed 
 under the action of the two bodies exerted separately. 
 Now the ellipticity of the aqueous spheroid formed by the 
 moon's action is about five feet, and the ellipticity of that 
 formed by the sun's action about two feet ; therefore, the 
 spring and neap tides being the sum and difference of ihe 
 separate effects, the average spring tide will be to the aver 
 age neap in the ratio of about 7 to 3. See Gravitation. 
 
 By reason of the ellipticity of the orbits, the distances of 
 the sun and moon from the earth are continually changing ; 
 and the theory of attraction proves that the efficacy of 
 either body in disturbing the waters of the ocean is inversely 
 proportional to the cube of its distance. Hence it is found 
 that if the mean efficacy of the sun be represented by 20, 
 the influence of the sun's action will vary between the ex 
 tremes of 19 and 21. and that of the moon's between 43 and 
 59. The highest spring tide will therefore be to the lowest 
 neap as 59 + 21 to 43 — 19; that is, as 80 to 24, or as 10 to 3. 
 
 Another effect of the solar action is observed in the times 
 at which high water takes place from day to day. In the 
 spring and neap tides the timo of high water is not altered 
 by the sun's action, the solar and lunar tides being synchro 
 nous in the former case, and the time of actual low water 
 being that of solar high water in the latter ; but in the in 
 
 1345 
 
TIDES. 
 
 termediate tides the time of actual high water is accelerated 
 or retarded. In the first and third quarters of the moon, 
 the solar wave is to the westward of the lunar one ; and 
 consequently the observed tide, which is the result of the 
 combination of the two waves, will be to the westward of 
 the place it wou'd occupy if the moon acted alone, and the 
 time of high water will therefore be accelerated. In the 
 second and fourth quarters, the general effect of the sun is 
 to produce, for a like reason, a retardation in the time of 
 high water. This result of the combined action of the two 
 attracting bodies is what is usually termed the priming and 
 lagging of the tides, and it is most remarkable about the 
 time ot new and full moon. 
 
 It is to be observed, however, that the effect now de- 
 scribed is modified to some extent by the inertia of the 
 water. The greatest and least tides do not happen exactly 
 at the times of new and full moon ; but at least two, and 
 commonly three tides after, even at places directly exposed 
 to the general tide of the ocean. In consequence of the 
 greater amount of impressed force, the acceleration of the 
 lunar, tide is greater than that of the solar ; whence it may 
 happen that when the lunar tide occurs two or three hours 
 after the transit of the moon, the solar tide may be three 
 or four hours after that of the sun, so as to be about an 
 hour later at the times of conjunction and opposition. The 
 highest spring tides will thus occur when the moon passes 
 the meridian about an hour after the sun ; while at the pre- 
 cise time of new and full moon the lunar tide will be re- 
 tarded about a quarter of an hour by the solar tide. But 
 the time of high water does not follow the moon's transit 
 at the same interval at every period of the lunation. When 
 the sun and moon are in conjunction, the interval is called 
 the mean interval; at other periods of the lunation the 
 lunitidal interval is sometimes greater and sometimes less 
 than the mean, and the difference is called the half- monthly 
 or scmimcnstrual inequality. 
 
 The apparent time of high water at any port, in the af- 
 ternoon of the day of new or full moon, is what is usually 
 called the establishment of the port. Mr. Whewell calls this 
 the vulgar establishment, and the mean of all the intervals 
 of tide and transit for a half lunation he terms the correct- 
 ed establishment. This corrected establishment is conse- 
 quently the lunitidal interval correspondiug to the day on 
 which the moon passes the meridian exactly at noon or 
 midnight. 
 
 The two tides immediately following one another, or the 
 tides of the day and night, vary, both in height and time of 
 high water, at any particular place with the distance of the 
 sun and moon from the equator. As the vertex of the tide 
 wave always tends to place itself vertically under the lu- 
 minary which produces it, it is evident that, of two consec- 
 utive tides, that which happens when the moon is nearest 
 the zenith or nadir will be greater than the other; and con- 
 sequently, when the moon's declination is of the same de- 
 nomination as the latitude of the place, the tide which cor- 
 responds to the upper transit will be greater than the oppo- 
 site one, and vice versa, the differences being greatest when 
 the sun and moon are in opposition, and in opposite trop- 
 ics. This is called the diurnal inequality, because its cycle 
 is one day ; but it varies greatly at different places, and its 
 laws, which appear to be governed by local circumstances, 
 are very imperfectly known. 
 
 We have now described the principal phenomena that 
 would take place were the earth a sphere, and covered en- 
 tirely with a fluid of uniform depth. But the actual phe- 
 nomena of the tides are infinitely more complicated. From 
 the interruption of the land, and the irregular form and 
 depth of the ocean, combined with many other disturbing 
 circumstances, among which are the inertia of the waters, 
 the friction on the bottom and sides, the narrowness and 
 length of the channels, the action of the wind, currents, 
 difference of atmospheric pressure, &c. &c, great variation 
 takes place in the mean times and height of high water at 
 places differently situated; and the inequalities above allu- 
 ded to, as depending on the parallax of the moon, her posi- 
 tion with respect to the sun, and the declination of the two 
 bodies, are, in many cases, altogether obliterated by the ef- 
 fects of the disturbing influences, or can only be detected by 
 the calculation and comparison of long series of observa- 
 tions. 
 
 Bv reason of these disturbing causes, it becomes a matter 
 of great difficulty to trace the propagation of the tide wave, 
 and the connexion of the tides in different parts of the 
 world. In the Philosophical Transactions for 1832, Sir 
 John Lubbock published a map of the world, in which he 
 inserted the times of high water at new and full moon at a 
 great number of places on the globe, collected from various 
 sources, as works on navigation, voyages, sailing directions, 
 fcc. ; and in order that the march of the tide wave might 
 be traced more readily, the times were expressed in Green- 
 wich time as well as the time of the place. In the same 
 Transactions for 1833, Mr. Whewell prosecuted this sub- 
 1846 
 
 ject at greater length ; and availing himself of a priori con 
 siderations, as well as of a mass of Information collected 
 in the Hydrographer's office at the Admiralty, inserted in 
 the map a series of colidal lines, or lines along which high 
 water takes place at the same instant of time. But these 
 cotidal lines, as Sir J. Lubbock remarks, are entirely hypo 
 thetical ; for we have few opportunities of determining the 
 time of high water at a distance from the const, though this 
 is sometimes possible by means of a solitary island, as St 
 Helena. (Lubbock's Elementary Treatise on the TiUi s,1839.) 
 
 According to Mr. Whewell's deductions, the general prog- 
 ress of the great tide wave may be thus described: It ii 
 only in the Southern Ocean, between the latitudes of 3( 
 and 70 degrees, that a zone of water exists of sufficient ex- 
 tent to allow of the tide wave being formed. Suppose. 
 then, a line of contemporary tides, or cotidal line, to be 
 formed in the Indian Ocean, us the theory supposes, that is 
 to say, in the direction of the meridian, and at a certain 
 distance to the eastward of the meridian in which the moon 
 is. As this tide wave passes the Cape of Good Hope, it 
 sends off a derivative undulation, which advances north- 
 ward up the Atlantic Ocean, preserving always a certain 
 proportion of its original magnitude and velocity. In trav- 
 elling along this ocean the wave assumes a curved form, 
 the convex part keeping near the middle of the ocean, and 
 ahead of the branches, which, owing to the shallower water, 
 lag behind on the American and African coasts ; so that 
 the cotidal lines have always a tendency to make very 
 oblique angles with the shore, and, in fact, run nearly par- 
 allel to it for great distances. The main tide, Mr. Whewell 
 conceives, after reaching the Orkneys, will move forward 
 in the sea bounded by the shores of Norway and Siberia 
 on the one side, and those of Greenland and America on 
 the other, will pass the pole of the earth, and finally end 
 its course on the shores in the neighbourhood of Behring's 
 Straits. It may even proptigate its influence through the 
 straits, and modify the tides of the North Pacific. But a 
 branch tide is sent off from this main tide into the German 
 Ocean: and this, entering between the Orkneys and the 
 coast of Norway, brings the tide to the east coast of Eng- 
 land, and to the coasts of Holland, Denmark, and Germa- 
 ny. Continuing its course, part of it, at least, passes through 
 the strait of Dover, and meets in the British Channel the 
 tide from the Atlantic, which arrives on the coast of Eu- 
 rope twelve hours later; but in passing along the English 
 coast, another part of it is reflected from the projecting land 
 of Norfolk upon the north coast of Germany, and again 
 meets the tide wave on the shores of Denmark. Owing to 
 this interference of different tide waves, the tides are almost 
 entirely obliterated on the coast of Jutland, where their 
 place is supplied by continual high water. 
 
 In the Pacific Ocean the tides are very small ; but there 
 are not sufficient observations to determine the forms and 
 progress of the cotidal lines. Off Cape Horn, and round 
 the whole shore of Terra del Fuego, from the western ex- 
 tremity of the Strait of Magalhaens to Staten Island, it it 
 very remarkable that the tidal wave, instead of following 
 the moon in its diurnal course, travels to the eastward. 
 This, however, is a partial phenomenon: and a little far- 
 ther to the north of the last named places, the tides set 
 to the north and west. In the Mediterranean and Baltic 
 seas the tides are inconsiderable, but exhibit irregularities 
 for which it is difficult to account. The Indian Ocean ap- 
 pears to have high water on all sides at once, though not 
 in the central parts at the same time. 
 
 Since the tides on our coasts are derived from the oscilla- 
 tions produced under the direct agency of the sun and 
 moon in the Southern Ocean, and require a certain interval 
 of time for their transfer, it follows that, in general, the 
 tide is not due to the moon's transit immediately preceding, 
 but is regulated by the position which the sun and moon 
 had when they determined the primary tide. The time 
 elapsed between the original formation of the tide and its 
 appearance at any place is called the age of the tide,, and 
 sometimes, after Bernoulli, the retard. On the shores of 
 Spain and North America the tide is a day and a half old; 
 in the port of London, it appears to be two days and a half 
 old when it arrives. 
 
 Velocity of the Tide Wave. — In the open ocean the crest 
 of the tide travels with enormous velocity. If the whole 
 surface were uniformly covered with water, the summit of 
 the tide wave, being mninly governed by the moon, would 
 everywhere follow the moon's transit at the same interval 
 of time, and consequently travel round the earth in a little 
 more than 24 hours. But the circumference of the earth 
 at the equator being about 25,000 miles, the velocity of prop- 
 agation would therefore be about 1000 miles per hour. The 
 actual velocity is perhaps nowhere equal to this, nnd is 
 very different at different places. In latitude 00- south, 
 where there is no interruption from land (excepting the 
 narrow promontory of Patagonia), the tide wave will com- 
 plete a revolution in a lunar day, and consequently trarel 
 
TIDES. 
 
 at the rate of 670 miles an hour. On examining Mr. Whc- 
 well's map of cotidal lines, it will be seen that the ereat 
 from the .Southern Ocean travels from the Cafe 
 of c;<«.<i Mope to the Azores in about 12 hours, and from 
 the Azores to the southernmost point of Ireland in 3 hours 
 more. In the Atlantic the hourly velocity in BOOM c aso s 
 appears to be 10° of latitude, or near 700 miles, which is 
 qua! to the velocity of sound through the air. 
 From the south |>oint of Ireland to the north point of Bcot- 
 land tin- time is 8 hours, and the velocity about 160 miles 
 an hour along the shore. On the eastern coast of Britain, 
 and in shallower water, the velocity is less. From Bu- 
 channess to Sunderland it is about 60 miles an hour ; from 
 Scarborough to Cromer, 35 miles ; from the North Foreland 
 to London, 30 miles; from London to Richmond, 13 miles 
 an hour in that part of the river. (Whewell, Phil. Trans. 
 1833 and 1836.) It is scarcely necessary to remind the 
 reader that the above velocities reler to the transmission of 
 the undulation, and are entirely different from the velocity 
 of the current to which the tide wave gives rise in shallow 
 
 Havre of the Tide. — The difference of level between 
 liinh and low water is affected by various causes, but chief- 
 ly In the configuration of the land, nnd is very different at 
 different places. In deepinbends of the shore, open in the 
 direction of the tide wave, and gradually contracting like a 
 funnel, the convergence of the water causes a very great 
 
 of the range. Hence the very high tides in the 
 Bristol Channel, the Bay of St. Malo, and the Ray of Fun- 
 dy, where the tide is said to rise sometimes to the height of 
 100 feet Promontories, under certain circunistan. 
 U opposite influence, and diminish the magnitude of the 
 tide. The observed ranges are also very anomalous. At 
 certain places on the southeast roast of Ireland the range 
 is not more than 3 feet, while at a little distance on each 
 side it becomes 12 or 13 feet; and it is remarkable that 
 these low tides occur directly opposite to the Bristol Chan- 
 nel, where (al Chepstow) the difference between high and 
 low water amounts to 60 feet. In the middle of the Pacific 
 it amounts only to 9 or 3 feet At the London Docks the 
 average range is about 93 feet; at Liverpool, 15-5 feet; at 
 Portsmouth, 125 feet ; at Plymouth, ulso 12-5 feet; at Bris- 
 tol, 33 feet. 
 
 Tktory of the Tides. — The theory of the tides, consider- 
 
 nnsequence of solar and lunar attraction, was first 
 sketched by Newton in the P r i nciv ia . In the 36th nnd 37th 
 propositions of the third book, he determines the forces 
 of the sun and moon to elevate the waters of the ocean, on 
 the supposition that the sea is a (luid of the same density 
 na the earth, covering the whole terrestrial surface, and 
 Which takes at every instant the figure of equilibrium. He 
 assumes, without demonstration, that this figure is an elonga- 
 ted spheroid. One spheroid he supposes to be formed under 
 the action of the sun, another under the action of the moon ; 
 and by reason of the smallness of their eccentricities they 
 may be conceived as superposed the one on the other. From 
 these suppositions he deduced the general phenomena of the 
 ebb and (low of the sea ; and by comparing his theory with 
 observations of the heights of the spring tides made at the 
 mouth of the Avon, near Bristol, he determined the ratio of 
 the attraction of the moon to that of the sun to be nearly 4.48 
 to 1 , whence he deduced the mass of the earth to be to that 
 of the moon as 39788 to 1, the density of the sun to that of 
 the earth as 1 to 4, and the density of the moon to that of the 
 earth as II to 9. Newton's theory was defective in many 
 points of view, but fifty years elapsed before it received 
 any improvement. In 1738, the subject of the tides was 
 p r op o s e d as a prize question by the French Academy of 
 
 . which gave occasion to the celebrated treatises of 
 
 Bernoulli, Maclaurin, and Euler. Maclnurin's Es- 
 say is remarkable, as containing a demonstration of the 
 theorem assumed by Newton, that the elliptic spheroid af- 
 fords an equilibrium under the action of the disturbing 
 forces: those of Bernoulli and Euler, though they fur- 
 nish no new principle of equal or similar importance 
 in point of theory, enter more into details, and contain 
 many useful illustrations. That of Bernoulli, indeed, con- 
 tains a table which has served as the model for all those 
 (not purely empirical) which have since been formed. The 
 next important step in the theory of the tides was taken by 
 Laplace 1 , who first treated the subject as a general question 
 of hydrodynamics, nnd attempted to deduce the principal 
 phenomena from the equations of the motions of fluids. 
 But In order to simplify the equations, which are of a very 
 complicated nature, he was forced to have recourse to the 
 hypothesis of a fluid covering entirely a spheroid of a regu- 
 lar surface, and consequently the results were far from rep- 
 resenting the actual observations of the tides at anv port. 
 The late Dr. Thomas Young (Ency. Brit., art "Tides") 
 extended Laplace's method to the more genetal case of an 
 ocean covering a part only of the earth's surface, and more 
 or less irregular in its form : and attempted also to include 
 
 in his calculation the effects of hydraulic friction on the 
 times and magnitudes of the tides. It is, however, quite 
 impossible to embrace in any calculation the whole 01 the 
 ory circumsttnees which influence the times and 
 magnitudes of the tides, the greater part of which are, in 
 fact, entirely unknown; and therefore, says Laplace, all 
 we can do is to analyze the general phenomena which 
 should result from the joint action of the sun and moon, 
 and deduce from observations the data which are indispen- 
 sable for completing the theory of the tides for each partic- 
 ular port. 
 
 A great number of observations of the tides at the port 
 of Brest, during the last century, were disrtunori by La 
 place in the Mtcanique Celeste; but in old. r to determine 
 the motion of the tide wave, and separate the general laws 
 of the phenomena from local Irregularities, it is ne< . 
 to have regular series of observations made at different 
 parts of the ocean. Until very recently the theory may be 
 said to have been In advance of the observations; but of 
 late yean the subject has received great attention, and at 
 the present time a more perfect theory of hydrodynamics 
 appears to be necessary f<>r the physical explanation of the 
 phenomena. In lr"j;i. Sir John Lubbock undertook the 
 discussion of the tide observations which are made at the 
 London Docks, with the view of obtaining comet tallies 
 for predicting the time and height of the tides for the I 
 ish Mmaiuic. The results, which wire published in the 
 Philosophical TV—Hli finilll for 1831, are deduced from a 
 ■ I upwards of 13,000 observations, during a period of 
 nineteen years, and are of great Importance, both as aliiird- 
 ing materials for the construction of tide tables, and as 
 pointing out the defects of the equilibrium theory, with 
 which they were accurately compared. In some of the 
 subsequent volumes Of the Transactions the author has 
 continued bis investigations, and has also published, scpar 
 ately, an account of Bernoulli's Traits sur le Flux ct He- 
 flur, and an elementary treatise, which appeared in 1839. In 
 the Phil. Trait*, tor 1833, Mr. Whewell gave an Essay to- 
 wards a fir.-: tion to a Map of Cotidal Lin**, 
 which has been followed by a series of interesting papers 
 in the subsequent volumes to the present time | 1843). Mr. 
 Whewell's researches have been chiefly directed to the de- 
 termination of the following points: First, the motion of 
 the tide wave at different parts of the ocean ; secondly, the 
 comparison of the observed laws at different places with 
 theory ; and, lastly, the laws of the diurnal inequality. In 
 
 1834, the British Association procured an extensive series 
 of observations to be made on the coasts of Britain and 
 Ireland at 537 stations of the coast-guard. These were re 
 peated at the same places in June, 1835 ; and, at the request 
 of our government, simultaneous observations were made 
 by the other maritime powers of Europe and the United 
 States. The number of stations in America was 96, ex- 
 tending from the mouth of the Mississippi to Nova Scotia; 
 and the number on the continent of Europe 101, between 
 the Straits of Gibraltar and the North Cape of Norway 
 The results of these observations, reduced under .Mr. Whe- 
 well's superintendence, were published in the Phil. Trans. 
 for 1836; and they are of great importance, not only as af- 
 fording a far more precise determination of the progress of 
 the tide wave and the forms of the cotidal line on the 
 coasts of Europe and North America than previously exist- 
 ed, but as furnishing more correct data for the construction 
 of the tide tables. 
 
 Influence of Atmospheric Pressure and Winds. — Besides 
 the numerous causes of irregularity depending on the local 
 circumstances, the tides are also affected by the state of the 
 atmosphere. At Brest, the height of high water varies in- 
 versely as the height of the barometer, and rises more than 
 eight inches for a fall of about half an inch of the barome- 
 ter. At Liverpool, a fall of one tenth of an inch in the 
 barometer corresponds to a rise in the river Mersey of about 
 an inch; and at the London Docks, a fall of one tenth of 
 an inch corresponds to a rise in the Thames of about seven 
 tenths of an inch. With a low barometer, the tides may 
 therefore be expected to be high, and vice versa. The tide 
 is also liable to be disturbed by winds. Sir J. Lubbock 
 states that, in Ihe violent hurricane of Jan. 8, 1839, " there 
 was no tide at Gainsborough, which is twenty-five miles up 
 the Trent — a circumstance unknown before. At Saltmarsh, 
 only five miles up the Ouse from the Humler the tide 
 went on ebbing, and never flowed till the rivet wns dry in 
 some places ; while at Ostend, towards which the wind 
 was blowing, contrary effects were observed. During strong 
 northwesterly gales the tide marks high wafer earlier in 
 the Thames than otherwise, and does not give so much 
 water, whilst the ebb tide runs out late, and marks lower ; 
 but upon the gales abating nnd the weather moderating, 
 the tides put in, and rise much higher ; whilst they also 
 run longer before high water is marked, and with more ve- 
 locity of current; nor do they run out so l»ng or so low. ' 
 (Elementary Treatise on the Tides.) 
 
 1347 
 
TIDE GAUGE. 
 
 Til>^ GAUGE. A mechanical contrivance for register- 
 ing the state of the tide continuously at every instant of 
 time. Ik- the Phil. Trans, for 1838, there is a description 
 of a verv complete self-registering machine for this purpose, 
 erected at Bristol by .Mr. Bunt. The principal parte are an 
 eight-day clock, which turns a vertical cylinder revolving 
 once in twenty-four hours ; a wheel, to which an alternate 
 motion is communicated by a float rising and falling with 
 the tide, and connected with the wheel by a wire passing 
 over a pulley, and kept constantly strained by a counter- 
 poise ; and a small drum on the same axis with the wheel, 
 which, by a suspending wire, communicates one eighteenth 
 of the vertical motion of the float to a bar carrying a pen- 
 cil, which describes a curve on the cylinder, and thereby 
 marks the fluctuations and the time and height of high wa- 
 ter. Various tide gauges, on similar principles, have been 
 constructed by others, particularly by Captain Lloyd, Mr. 
 Mitchell, and Mr. Palmer. (See the Nautical Magaiine 
 for October, 1832.) 
 
 TIE. In Architecture, a piece of timber or metal placed 
 in any direction, whose office is to bind two bodies together 
 which have a tendency to separate or diverge. See Roof. 
 
 Tie. In Music, a character • — sused in ancient music 
 to connect syncopated notes, which were divided by a bar ; 
 
 thus, r(fej^|iiE 
 
 TIER. A row or range of guns, casks, tec. Also the 
 place on the orlop deck on which the cables are stowed. 
 
 TIERCE. In Heraldry, a term used for the field when 
 divided into three parts. 
 
 TIERS E'TAT. The third branch, or commonalty, in 
 the French estates. The origin and meaning of the word 
 are illustrated by M. Gautier. {Mem. de VAcad. des Inscr., 
 vol. xxxvii.) The important part which the representation 
 of the tiers etat played at the commencement of the French 
 revolution is known to all. Previously to the great French 
 revolution, the French were divided into three distinct 
 classes, the nobles, the clergy, and the commonalty, form- 
 ing, in their united capacity, the states general of the king- 
 dom ; and their deliberations were separately conducted by 
 individual vote in different chambers, in which the three 
 classes above mentioned respectively assembled. They 
 then met in common to deliberate together, and vote col- 
 lectively. Now, as the number of the deputies was nearly 
 equal in each order, the result of the votes taken collect- 
 ively was always necessarily favourable to the privileged 
 orders. Hence it was loudly demanded that the number of 
 the third or tiers estate should be doubled, and the definitive 
 resolutions decided by individual instead of collective votes. 
 Every one knows that it was owing to the refusal of the no- 
 bles and the clergy to comply with this demand that the cri- 
 sis of the French revolution was accelerated ; and to the 
 consummation of this event a celebrated pamphlet of Sieyes, 
 entitled Qu'cst ce que le Tiers Etat, in a great degree con- 
 tributed. See Assembly. 
 
 Tl'GER. A species of the. genus Felis, as large as the 
 lion, but with a rounder head and longer body: of a bright 
 reddish fawn colour above, a pure white below, irregularly 
 crossed with black stripes. It is clothed with short hairs, and 
 has no mane. The tiger is the most formidable and cruel of 
 all quadrupeds, and the scourge of the less inhabited parts 
 of India. It is limited to the Asiatic continent. See Felis. 
 
 TIGHT. The Sea term for the opposite of leaky. 
 
 TILIACEjE {Ttlia, the linden or lime tree), form a nat- 
 ural order of Exogenous plants, very nearly allied to the 
 Malvaceous order, from which they differ in the stamens 
 being distinct. In useful qualities they resemble that order, 
 the bark being tough, their sap mucilaginous, and their tim- 
 ber light. Russia mats are made from the tough inner bark 
 of the common lime-tree ; and a species of Corchorus, called 
 olitorius, is employed in India as a potherb. A few have 
 gay flowers, but the majority are plants of little interest. 
 
 TIMBER. 
 
 TI'LLAGE LANDS. Lands kept under the plough, 
 that is, cropped with annual or biennial plants, which re 
 quire a continual change of the surface soil by stirring and 
 turning with the plough or other agricultural implements, 
 and by the addition of manure. The tillage plants of lirit- 
 ain and of analogous climates are chiefly the bread corn; 
 leguminous or pea-flowered plants, such as the bean, pea, 
 tares, clover, &c; plants cultivated for their roots or tu- 
 bers, such as the turnip, carrot, potato, &c. ; or plants culti- 
 vated for their seeds, such as mustard, rape; or for the 
 entire plant, such as wood, flax, hemp, and a variety of 
 others. 
 
 TILLER. In Naval language, the bar placed in the 
 head of the rudder to turn it. 
 
 Tl'LMUS. (Gr. rAAw, 1 pluck.) Picking of the bed- 
 clothes, or floccitation ; a symptom of the fatal termina- 
 tion of some disorders. 
 
 TIMBER. In Carpentry, a word used to denote those 
 pieces of wood that admit of being squared, or are capa 
 ble of being employed in house and ship-building. 
 
 A considerable portion of the timber (oak) used in ship- 
 building, and in the construction of machinery, is of home- 
 growth ; but the greater portion of the timber (fir) used in 
 house carpentry, and in the making of furniture, &c, is 
 imported either from our colonial possessions or from for- 
 eign countries. 
 
 The trade in timber is one of great extent and importance. 
 In fact, if there be one article more than another with 
 which it is of paramount importance that a great maritime 
 and manufacturing nation like England should be abundant- 
 ly supplied on the lowest possible terms, that article is tim- 
 ber. But of late years this sound principle has been most 
 materially interfered with, partly for the sake of revenue, 
 and partly to force a trade with our North American colo- 
 nies. This forcing system lias been carried to such an ex- 
 treme extent, that from 1821 down to the present year 
 (1842), a duty of 55s. a load has been laid on foreign timber, 
 or timber from the N. of Europe, whereas timber from Brit- 
 ish America has been admitted at a duty of 10*. a load, ma- 
 king a discriminating or differential duty of no less than 45s. a 
 load in favour of the latter ! Such a preference would, un- 
 der any circumstances, be most injurious ; but it has been 
 especially so from the fact of the timber of our North 
 American possessions being, speaking generally, of very in- 
 ferior quality ; so that the practical operation of the system 
 has been to compel the British public to pay a comparative- 
 ly high price for a comparatively worthless article. We are 
 glad, however, to be able to state that this pernicious sys- 
 tem has recently been very materially modified ; and that, 
 under the tariff" introduced by Sir Robert Peel, the duty on 
 foreign timber is to be immediately reduced to 30s. a load, 
 and that in 1843 it is to be reduced to 25s., while the duty 
 on timber from British America is to be reduced to Is. the 
 load. This reduces the differential duty or bounty in favour 
 of Canadian timber from 45s. to 24s. and is, in so far, a mate- 
 rial improvement. But there neither is nor can be any 
 good reason why the differential duty should not be still far- 
 ther reduced, or rather why it should not be altogether abol- 
 ished. The better plan would have been to have made the 
 reduction only in foreign timber, and to have kept the duty 
 on Canadian timber at its old level. Had this been done, 
 the loss to the revenue would not have been nearly so great 
 as it will be, at the same time that the differential duty in 
 favour of colonial timber would have been reduced to 15s. 
 a load, which, though an impolitic, could not have been 
 called an oppressive duty. 
 
 The consequence of this forcing system has been that of 
 from 350 to 450 cargoes of timber annually imported into 
 the United Kingdom, not more than from 00 to 100 are from 
 the north of Europe. But under the new system, the pro- 
 portions will be materially varied, and the balance of impor- 
 tation will be greatly in favour of of the north of Europe. 
 We subjoin, 
 
 An Account of the Quantities of Timber imported in 1838 and 1839 ; and of the Quantities retained for Home Con- 
 sumption, and the Nett Amount of Duty derived therefrom in the same Two Years. 
 
 Timber. 
 
 Quantities import- 
 ed. 
 
 Quantities export- 
 ed. 
 
 Quantities returnee 
 for Consumption. 
 
 Nett Revenue, i 
 
 1838 
 
 I8i>9. 
 
 1838. 
 
 1839. 
 
 1838. 
 
 IS39. 
 
 1838. 
 
 1839 1 
 
 Batten and batten ends . . . great hhds. 
 
 18,020 
 
 20,118 
 
 95 
 
 168 
 
 17,640 
 
 19,405 
 
 L. 
 161,112 
 
 L. \ 
 
 174,819 
 
 Deals and deal ends . . " 
 
 72,737 
 
 80,647 
 
 1,306 
 
 1,072 
 
 70,878 
 
 77,536 
 
 622,261 
 
 631,839 
 
 Masts above 6, and under 8 ins. in diameter numb. 
 
 11,240 
 
 17,188 
 
 303 
 
 209 
 
 10,969 
 
 15.374 
 
 3,331 
 
 4,7811 
 
 8 " 12 
 
 3,943 
 
 5,263 
 
 121 
 
 320 
 
 3,690 
 
 4,723 
 
 2,635 
 
 3,304 
 
 " 12 inches and upwards ■ . " 
 
 4,339 
 
 9,308 
 
 75 
 
 50 
 
 4,393 
 
 8,018 
 
 6,494 
 
 6,859 
 
 
 3,996 
 
 3,558 
 
 
 
 3,889 
 
 3,489 
 
 15.552 
 
 13,863 
 
 
 78,181 
 
 81,020 
 
 1,876 
 
 1,579 
 
 75,461 
 
 83,070 
 
 58,738 
 
 54,566 
 
 Fir, 8 ins. square and upwards . ■ loads 
 
 647,061 
 
 623,265 
 
 545 
 
 310 
 
 633,81)9 
 
 629,251 572,595 550.999 
 
 
 34,890 
 
 50,752 
 
 
 1 
 
 36,155 
 
 49,664 46,766 75,147 
 
 Unenumerated ... . " 
 
 43,415 
 
 51,676 
 
 45 
 
 58 
 
 43,523 
 
 51,336 10.976 12,961 
 
 
 5.737 
 
 2,644 
 
 
 
 4,518 
 
 4,072 1 12,353 
 
 11,862. 
 
 1243 
 
TIMBERS. 
 
 TIMBERS The general term for the upright pieces of 
 wood in a ship's frame. 
 
 TIME. In Music, that affection of sound whereby short- 
 ness or length is denominated as regards its continuity on 
 the same degree of tune. Time may be considered either 
 with respect to the absolute duration of the notes them- 
 selves, measured by motion foreign to music, or with respect 
 to the proportion or quantity of notes compared with each 
 other. The signs or characters by which the time of notes 
 ■ ■n ted are given under the article Music. 
 
 Time. A limited portion of duration, measured by certain 
 conventional or natural periods, and often marked by par- 
 ticular phenomena — as the revolution of the celestial bod- 
 ies, more especially of the sun, or the rotation of the earth 
 ■ \is. 
 
 Absolute Time is time considered in itself without refer- 
 oal portion of duration to which it belongs, howev- 
 er noted or marked. 
 
 Relative Time, is time considered with reference to the 
 termini of some specific interval of duration. 
 
 Apparent Time is time deduced from observations of the 
 sun, and is the same as that shown by a properly adjusted 
 sun-dial. 
 
 .Warn Time is that shown by a well-regulated clock ; and 
 would be the same as that shown by the sun. if the sun 
 were always in the equator, nnd his apparent diurnal mo- 
 tion In the heavens were uniform. 
 
 ( Time is the portion of a sidereal day which has 
 nee the transit of the first point of Aries. It rep- 
 resents at any moment the right ascension of whatever ob- 
 ject is then upon the meridian. 
 
 Astronomical Time of Day is the time past mean noon of 
 that day, nnd is reckoned on to twenty-four hours in mean 
 time. 
 
 I niie is mean time adapted to the purposes of civil 
 
 life. The day commences at the midnight preceding the 
 
 noon of the day, and is divided into parts of twelve Hours 
 
 ench, the first twelve marked A.M., or ante meridiem, and 
 
 id P.M.. or post meridiem. 
 
 TIMCCRACY. Gr. riuoKparla.) A term made use of 
 ■ .reek writers, (specially Aristotle, to sienify n pe- 
 culiar form of constitution ; but there are two different sen- 
 ses in which it is thus used, corresponding to the different 
 meanings of the word nun, a price or honour, from which 
 ed. According to the first, it represents a state in 
 which the qualification for office is a certain amount of 
 properly ; in the latter it is a kind o.' mean between nris- 
 tociacy and oligarchy, when the ruling class, who are still 
 and noblest citizens, struggle for pre-eminence 
 anions themselves. (See Quart. Rev., vol. xlv.) 
 
 TIN (Germ, zinn.) This metal was known to the an- 
 cients, who procured it from Spain and Britain. It appears 
 to have been in use even in the time of Moses. (Numbers, 
 xxxvi., 22.) It is rather a scarce metal, found in few parts 
 of the world in any quantity. Cornwall is its most pro- 
 source ; it also occurs in the mountains between 
 Gallicia and Portugal, and in those between Saxony nnd Bo- 
 hemia. Tin has also been brought from the peninsula of 
 Malacca in India, and from Chili and Mexico. There are 
 only two ores of tin, the native peroxide, nnd the double 
 sulphuret of tin and copper: the latter, sometimes called 
 bell-metal ore, is extremely rare ; and it is exclusively from 
 the former that the commercial demands are supplied. In 
 Cornwall, the native peroxide, or tin stone (which is usual- 
 ly blended with oxides of iron and manganese), occurs in 
 veins, and in loose grains and nodules in alluvial soil : the 
 latter is called stream tin, and from it the purest metal is 
 obtained. The ore is reduced by a very simple process ; it 
 is ground, washed, nnd roasted in a reverberatory furnace ; 
 it is then mixed with charcoal or Welsh culm and lime- 
 stone, nnd strongly heated, so as to bring the whole into fu- 
 sion, which is kept up for eight or ten hours : the lime com- 
 bines with the earthy matters of the ore into n fusible slag, 
 while the coal reduces the oxide to the metallic state, and 
 the fused metal is drawn out at the bottom of the furnace 
 Into a clny mould. In this impure state it is exposed to a 
 heat just sufficient to melt the pure tin, which runs off into 
 a kettle, while the less fusible impurities remain behind: in 
 the kettle, the tin is kept in fusion, nnd agitated by plun- 
 ging pieces of wet charcoal into it, which causes a quantity 
 of dross to rise to the surface, where it is skimmed off, and 
 the purified metal is then cast into blocks of about 3 cwt. 
 each. 
 
 The stream tin is smelted by charcoal ; and the mass of 
 grain tin obtained by such reduction is heated and let fall 
 from a height, by which it splits into masses of a columnar 
 fractire. which characterizes the pure metal. 
 
 P\/e tin is a white brilliant metal. It has a slight taste 
 and smell when rubbed, and its hardness is intermediate 
 between that of gold and lead. Its specific gravity is 7-2. 
 It Is very malleable; and one of its most useful forms is 
 that of foil, which is made by beating : it is about a thou- 
 4 K 
 
 TINCTURE. 
 
 sandth of an inch in thickness. Its ductility and tenacity 
 are inferior to most of the other malleable metals. A iiii 
 wire 78 thousandths of an inch In diameter will not support 
 more than 38 pounds without breaking. It produces a pecu 
 liai*cracklins noise when beat. Exposed to air, it 
 comes superficially oxidized ; and when melted, sdi 
 films of a gray powder form upon its surface. The temper 
 attire at which it melts is about 442°. At a white heat i 
 takes fire, and hums with a bright flame. The equivalent 
 of tin is 58. It forms two oxides. The protoxide is thr< ,u n 
 down by alknline carbonates from an aqueous solution <■: 
 protochloride of tin; and when dried nnd heated out of Ibe 
 contact of air, its water is expelled, and it remains in tin 
 form of a dark substance, of the specific gravity (>(>. It 
 hums like tinder, and becomes converted into the | 
 It is soluble in sulphuric and hydrochloric, and in dilute ni- 
 tric arid, and in the pure fixed alkalies. Its sails have ■ 
 strong attraction for oxygen, and easily pad into persftlts : wi 
 that it is a powerful deoxidizing agent, and is often and I i 
 such in some of the chemical arts. When a solution of 
 protochloride of tin is dropped into a solution of perebloride 
 of gold, a purple precipitate, called, from its inventor, purjril 
 of Cassius, is thrown down : it appears to be a compound 
 of peJtuiHa of tin with protoxide of gold, and its formation 
 depends upon the deoxidizing power of the solution of tin. 
 When tin foil is put into nitric acid there is violent action, 
 attended by the dccom|>osilion of the acid and the peroxl 
 dizementof the tin, which is thus converted into a white 
 powder: this, when edulcorated nnd dried at a red heat, ac- 
 quires a yellow tint. It does not easily form permanent 
 compounds with the acids; but it unites with the pure al- 
 kalies, and forms soluble compounds, which have some- 
 times been called stannates, and the peroxide itself stannic 
 acid. The two oxides of tin are respectively composed of 
 58 tin and 8 oxygen, nnd 58 tin and 16 oxygen : their equiv- 
 alents, therefore, are GO and 74. Tin and chlorine also 
 combine in two proportions : the protochluriile »f tin is 
 formed by passing hydrochloric acid gas over metallic tin 
 gently heated in a glass tube, or by heating a mixture of 
 equal weights of tin filings and calomel, when it remaii . 
 after driving off the mercury, in the form of a gray solid, 
 fusible at a red heat, and volatile at higher temperatures. 
 Its aqueous solution is commonly termed protumuriate of 
 tin. When tin foil is heated in excess of gaseous chlorine, 
 or when 1 part of tin filincs is mixed with 3 of corrosive 
 sublimate and heated, a volatile liquid distils over, which 
 is percMoride of tin, nnd Its aqueous solution forms the 
 permuriate. Exposed to air, it is decomposed by the aque- 
 ous vapour of the atmosphere, and exhales dense white 
 fumes : hence it has been called, after its discoverer, fuming 
 liquor of JAbavius. Both the protumuriate and permuriate 
 of tin are used by dyers and calico-printers. The former is 
 prepared by heating granulated tin in strong hydrochloric 
 acid, as long as hydrogen continues to be evolved ; the latter, 
 by gradually dissolving granulated tin in a mixture of two 
 parts by measure of hydrochloric acid, one of nitric acid, 
 nnd one of water. These chlorides of tin are respectively 
 composed of 58 tin and 30 chlorine, and 58 tin and 72 chlo- 
 rine, and are therefore represented by the equivalents 94 
 and 130. 
 
 When melted tin and sulphur are brought together, a 
 black protosulphurct of tin is formed. The bisulp/inrtt of 
 tin is a yellow glistening substance, sometimes called .Mo- 
 saic gold {aurum musivum), and used in ornamental japan 
 work. It is prepared by heating in a glass retort 2 parts of 
 peroxide of tin, 2 of sulphur, and 1 of sal ammoniac, and 
 maintaining a low red heat till sulphurous acid ceases to be 
 evolved. The sulphuret and bisulphurct of tin are consti- 
 tuted of 58 tin and 16 sulphur, and 58 tin and 32 sulphur; 
 nnd have, therefore, the equivalents 74 and 80. The total 
 produce of the tin mines and works of Cornwall may, at 
 present (1842), be estimated at about 4000 tons a year, 
 worth from £65 to £80 a ton. 
 
 TI'NCA. (Lat. tinea, a tench.) A subgenus of Cypri 
 noid fishes, characterized by having short anal nnd dorsal 
 fins ; very short barbules or tentacles about the month , 
 no bony serrated rav at the commencement of either the 
 dorsal or anal fins; small scales. Like the Linnaan Cy- 
 prini, the Tinci, or tenches, have no teeth except In the 
 pharynx ; whence the name of " leather-mouthed fishes' 
 applied to this family of Pisces Abdominales. 
 
 TI'NCAL. The commercial name of rough borax as 
 imported from India. 
 
 TI'NCTURE. A pharmaceutical preparation, generally 
 consisting of active remedies dissolved in rectified or proof 
 spirit. Tinctures are generally made by digesting bruised or 
 pulverized vegetable substances in the spirit, either at com- 
 mon temperatures or aided by heat. The. term tincture is 
 sometimes applied to alcoholic solutions of resins, of which 
 tincture of myrrh, of assafanida, &c., furnish instances. 
 Tinctures, from the quantity of alcohol which they con- 
 tain, are necessarily exhibited in small doses: the me*t 
 
 1249 
 
TINCTURES. 
 
 important of them are those which contain highly active in- 
 gredients, such as tincture of opium, &x. 
 
 TI'NCTURES, in Heraldry, are of throe descriptions : 
 metals, colours, and furs. The former are or, argent ; the 
 second, gules, azure, sable, vert, purpure, sanguine, and 
 tenny. The chief furs are ermine and vair; but there are 
 several varieties of both, distinguished by different names. 
 Each metal and colour, in blazonry (except the two last and 
 least honourable, sanguine and tenny), is represented by a 
 distinct precious stone and heavenly body; and when the 
 anus of sovereign princes or high dignities are described by 
 old heralds, the tinctures are frequently denoted by the 
 names of these jewels or celestial bodies. See Or, Ar- 
 gent, &c, 
 
 TI'NEA. The scald head. See Ringworm. 
 
 TIN PLATE. White iron. The art of tinning iron ori- 
 ginated in Saxony, and was first made known here by Mr. 
 Andrew Yarranton, about the year 1G65 ; but it was not 
 till nearly a century afterwards that works were established 
 for its production upon a large scale at Pontypool. It is 
 made by immersing for about one hour and a half very 
 carefully cleaned plates of rolled iron in melted tin, by 
 which they acquire a bright surface, and are applicable to 
 a number of purposes for which iron plate, in consequence 
 of the extreme facility with which it rusts, could not be 
 used. The crystalline texture of the surface of these 
 plates is beautifully shown by washing it over with a weak 
 acid, and then cleaning it with an alkaline ley, and varnish- 
 ing with a transparent varnish. Thus modified, it forms 
 an ornamental article called moiree metallique. (On the 
 manufacture of tin plate, see Parkes's Chemical Essays.) 
 
 TI'RONIAN NOTES. The shorthand of Roman an- 
 tiquity. According to the received story, they were intro- 
 duced into Rome by Tiro, the freedman and favourite of 
 Cicero: he is supposed to have imported the art from 
 Greece. MSS., written entirely in what are called the Ti- 
 ronian notes, are not unfrequently of the date of the 7th 
 century and downwards ; and they are still common in mar- 
 ginal notes. Kopp {Tachygraphia Veterum Eiposita, p. 
 1617) thinks that they are called from the word tiro, a learn- 
 er. His second volume contains a dictionary of these notes, 
 which he appears to have succeeded in deciphering. Some 
 have thought that valuable lost classics may be recovered 
 through this key ; but as yet these hopes have been nuga- 
 tory. (See Ed. Rev., vol. xlviii., p. 357, &c.) 
 
 TI'SRI. The first Hebrew month of the civil year, and 
 the seventh of the ecclesiastical year. It corresponds to 
 putt of September and October. 
 
 TI'SSUE, in Plants, the thin membranous organization 
 of which every part is composed, microscopical in size, and 
 often appearing to the naked eye homogeneous, although it 
 consists of a great variety of forms closely compacted. Vege- 
 table anatomists regard its primitive form as spheroidal, and 
 that the tubes and spiral vessels are mere extensions of that 
 form. Tissue appears to be in all plants of the same nature 
 originally, but it soon becomes altered by the deposition of 
 various secretions upon its sides. 
 
 TI'TAN. In Grecian Mythology, according to the more 
 modern account, the eldest son of Uranus and Gaia, who 
 relinquished the sovereignty of gods and men to his young- 
 er brother Saturn, the latter undertaking to destroy all 
 his children, so that the monarchy might revert to those of 
 Titan. He afterwards recovered the sovereignty from 
 Saturn ; but Jupiter, the son of the latter, vanquished him, 
 and restored it to his father. This, however, is a tale alto- 
 gether unknown to the original mycologists. According to 
 them, the Titans were many in number, children of Uranus 
 and Gaia. Hesiod makes them six. The children of the 
 Titans, Atlas for example, retained the same appellation. 
 The war of these Titans with Jupiter was the subject of 
 many different and contradictory legends. Its scene was 
 laid in Thessaly ; by Homer on the mountains Olympus, 
 Pelion, and Ossa. By some writers Titan is identified with 
 Hyperion ; but this point is involved in great obscurity. 
 
 TITANITE. Native oxide of titanium. 
 
 TITA'NIUM. A rare metal, discovered by Gregor in a 
 mineral from Cornwall called menachanite. Its characters 
 were first ascertained by Klaproth, who gave it the above 
 name. In the year 1822, Dr. Wollaston ascertained that the 
 minute copper-coloured crystals occasionally found in the 
 slag of the iron smelting furnaces at Merthyr and elsewhere 
 were pure titanium ; and it is to him that we are indebted 
 for a precise account of its properties. In this state it has 
 a copper colour, is extremely infusible, and of a specific 
 gravity of 58 ; it is so hard as to scratch not only glass, but 
 crystal. It resists the action of air and acids, but is oxidized 
 by the action of jiitte at a red heat. Titanium appears sus- 
 ceptible of two degrees of oxidizement. The protoxide of 
 titanium is blue or purple, and appears to constitute the 
 mineral called anatase. The peroxide, or titanic acid, exists 
 nearly pure in titanite or rutilite, and is combined with the 
 oxides of iron and manganese in menachanite. The equiva- 
 1250 
 
 TITHES. 
 
 lent of titanium has not been very satisfactorily ascertained, 
 but it is probably about 24 upon the hydrogen scale. 
 
 TITHES. In Ecclesiastical Law, the tenth part of the 
 produce of the land, which, in this and other Christian 
 countries, was anciently set apart for the endowment of the 
 Church. By the Mosaical law, the Levites, by whom the 
 public worship of the Jewish state was performed, were 
 supported, not as the other tribes, by the allouuent of a cer- 
 tain district of Canaan, but by the appointment of divers 
 cities in various parts of the country for their abode, and tho 
 payment of tithes from the whole community. This ordi- 
 nance has frequently been appealed to under the Christian 
 dispensation, as establishing the divine right of the clergy to 
 the receipt of tithes forever; but this ground of claim has 
 been generally abandoned in modern times ; nor does the 
 practice of the early Church, at its first establishment in 
 connexion with the state, give any reason to suppose that 
 such an idea was then entertained. Nor, in this country, do 
 the people and their rulers appear, upon their conversion, to 
 have felt themselves under the obligation of any strict pay- 
 ment of tithes. It was first enjoined, apparently, in certain 
 ecclesiastical canons, in the year 750 ; and the first civil de- 
 cree upon the subject is discovered in the laws of Offa, king 
 of Mercia, in 794. In France, a similar law was enforced 
 by Charlemagne in 778, and from that time the pay- 
 ment has been continued without interruption to modern 
 times. 
 
 Of tithes there are three kinds: 1. Predial, of the vegeta 
 ble productions of the land, as corn, hay, &c. ; 2. Mixed, as 
 of wool, pigs, &c, which, though natural products, are nur- 
 tured and preserved by the care of man; 3. Personal, an of 
 manual occupations, trades, fisheries, and the like. Another 
 division of tithes is into great and small, or parsonage and 
 vicarage tithes : of these, the former are chiefly corn, hay, 
 and wood ; the latter are predial tithes of other kinds, to- 
 gether with mixed and personal tithes. The great tithes lie- 
 long to the rector, whereas only the small tithes are due to 
 the vicar. By the original law, all the land of the country 
 was tithable, excepting the property of the crown, and ot' the 
 Church itself. But when, at the Reformation, the monas- 
 teries were dissolved, and their estates granted, lor the most 
 part, to laymen, these lands would have become tithable 
 again but for a particular statute, which was enacted for the 
 advantage of the new possessore. It was also allowable, up 
 to the 13 Eliz., to effect compositions between the clergy and 
 owners of the land, by which the parish was discharged of 
 these payments forever, in consideration of lands made over 
 to the parson in exchange. This practice was, however, re- 
 strained by the statute above referred to, which limited all 
 such compositions to a period of three lives or twenty-one 
 years. From these causes, however, it is that we find a 
 great deal of land in the hands of lay proprietors not subject 
 to this charge. The monasteries, however, held one third 
 of the benefices of the kingdom, from all of which they re 
 ceived tithes, and appointed members of their own body, as 
 their vicars or curates, to discharge the ordinary functions 
 of ministers in them. To these they either gave fixed 
 stipends, or allotted the small tithes, taking, as their own 
 share, the great or rectorial. This is called appropriation 
 of tithes ; but when these benefices fell into the hands of 
 laymen, the same practice was continued, and is distinguish 
 ed by the title of impropriation. 
 
 Tithes are either due de jure or by custom : to the latter 
 class belong all personal Uthes. 
 
 The subtraction of tithes from a parson, whether a clergy- 
 man or lay impropriator (see Impropriation), or from a 
 viear, is cognizable in the ecclesiastical courts. But these 
 courts cannot try the right to tithes, except between spiritual 
 persons; consequently, if the defendant pleads any matter 
 involving a question of right, it must be tried by a jury. 
 Suits for tithes are generally instituted in the Court of Ex- 
 chequer. By the 53 G. 3, c. 127, justices of the peace have 
 jurisdiction for the recovery of small tithes to the amount 
 of £10. 
 
 Lands and their occupiers may be discharged from the 
 payment of tithes, either in part or totally, by a real compo 
 sition, or by custom or prescription. The first is where an 
 agreement is made between the owner and the parson or 
 vicar, with consent of the ordinary and patron, that sumo 
 land, or other real recompense, be given in satisfaction of 
 tithes. By 13 Eliz., c. 10, as we have seen, no real compo- 
 sition, made since that statute, is good for any longer time 
 than three lives or twenty-one years. Compositions between 
 a tithe-owner and parishioner cease on the death of the in- 
 cumbent witli whom they were made. 
 
 A discharge by custom or prescription is either, 1. l)i 
 modo Uecimandi, where a vwdus, or particular manner of 
 tithing, is shown to exist by custom, which must have ex 
 tsted immemorially ; i. e., is not good, if evidence be shown 
 of its non-existence at any time since the reign of Richard 1. 
 Or, 2. De non decimando, where a total exemption from 
 tithes is shown. 
 
TITHES. 
 
 Such b a general view of the law of tithes previous to the 
 great changes Introduced by the Tithe Commutation Act, ti 
 tL ', W. 4, c. 71 ; the object of which Wat to convert a tax, 
 imposed on the gross produce of the soil, and varying annu- 
 ally in amount as well as money value along with it, into a 
 rent-charge, perpetual as to the amount, but varying accord- 
 ing to the money value. 
 
 By this act the money value of the tithes in each parish 
 w:is t<< Ik- calculated according w the average of the seven 
 yean ending at Christmas, 183$, minus the expense of col- 
 lecting, &c. ; but without deduction on account of parochial 
 inty rates, &c. The commissioners appointed for that 
 purpose under the act were then to award that sum (subject 
 n« unimportant allowances), as the amount of the 
 rent-charge to be paid in respect of the tithes. This rent- 
 charge was to be apportioned among the lands of the parish, 
 having regard to their average tilhable produce and produc- 
 tive quality. The rent-charge, being thus valued in i. 
 
 to be taken as the price of such a quantity of wheat, 
 
 and oats as it would have purchased (each grain in 
 
 equal quantities), according to the average price at the period 
 
 Of the confirmation of the apportionment. That quantity 
 
 in was therefore to remain forever as the annua] 
 
 . ■ upon the parish. In order to regulate the money 
 
 amount of the tithes, the money payment each year was ti) 
 
 be equal to the price of that quantity at the average of the 
 
 ..ears immediately preceding, to be ascertained by an 
 
 advertisement of the comptroller of corn returns, published 
 
 in the month of January every year. The rent-charge to be 
 
 paid by the occupiers of the land on Which it is respectively 
 
 apportioned. 
 
 It will be apparent, from this brief outline of the provisions 
 ol the act. that a very great benefit was conferred bv it, for 
 mediate purposes, upon the tithe-owner, and for many 
 upon both parties. The strifes and heart-burnings between 
 en piers of the soil and the clergyman, which were oc- 
 ned by the old mode of collecting the impost, have been 
 removed. The latter has been relieved alike from the con- 
 fluences of indulgence towards his debtors, and the imputa- 
 tion of rapacity. In point of fact, the result of the valuation 
 has been a considerable improvement in the incomes of the 
 clergy, who comparatively seldom received their full due. 
 The tenant anil landowner gain bv the removal of a most 
 injurious tax on improvement; for the tithe, while it Ine- 
 rt along with the produce of the land, acted us a great 
 n nt to increasing that produce. ■ 
 Bat, looking to the future, its advantages are far more 
 questionable. The tithe-owner will gain, no doubt, by any 
 increase which may take place in the money price of corn. 
 Uut he will be a loser by any fall in the price of corn; while 
 ■ crease in the quantity of commodities produced in the 
 1 1 y, the price of corn remaining the same, will leave 
 indition stationary, while other classes advance. It is 
 thought that, in the last century, the agricultural produce of 
 England has trebled. Tithe has nearly trebled along with 
 it. It the same progression should continue for a century 
 Bon, the produce of the country will again have trebled; 
 rents mid other incomes will have increased in proportion; 
 population will have followed the same law of advance- 
 tithe will remain stationary; the income of the church will 
 be no greater than what is now deemed sufficient for her 
 support, while the exertions required of her will have great- 
 ly augmented. ° 
 
 And a permanent rise in the money price of corn which 
 might compensate this relative loss, is probablv the last 
 thing to be anticipated. Indeed, should that price fall ma- 
 terially, from the introduction of foreign grab, it will prob- 
 ably, be necessary to commute anew, if the income 'of the 
 Lithe owners is to be maintained at all. 
 
 To those who consider the sufficient temporal maintenance 
 of the church a matter of high national interest, this pros- 
 peet is a serious one ; but even those who think otherwise 
 cannot possibly regard it with indifference. Tithes are the 
 property of the nation ; and it cannot be for the advantage 
 of any country that state property should not partake in the 
 advance ot individual wealth— that it should, relatively 
 speaking, continually decrease. 
 
 The Tithe Commissioners report (1841), that they have re- 
 ceived notices that voluntary commutations have been com- 
 menced in 1)197 tithe districts ; have received 5906 agree- 
 ments, and confirmed 5136; 821 drafts of compulsory awards 
 (such as thoy are empowered to cause to be made on the 
 Maagreement of the parties), and confirmed 560. Taking 
 I he tithe districts of England and Wales at about 12 000 
 tiny appear to have finished about half the work of valuing 
 and awarding. They have received 3688 apportionments 
 and confirmed 2632. According to the returns under the 
 property tax (1810), it ap|ieared that about 8,000,000 acres 
 hi i England and Wales were tithe-free, and 21,000,000 toll- 
 able. See M'Culloch's Statistics of the British Empire. 
 the same work contains the following analysis of appropri- 
 ations and impropriations of tithes : 
 
 TOKAY. 
 
 Belonging to the crown . 39 
 
 Archbishops and bishops ... . 335 
 
 Ecclesiastical c o rpo ratio ns aggregate . . 703 
 
 Dignitaries and other eccl. corporations sole . 433 
 
 Universities, colleges, and hospitals . . . 28i 
 
 Private owners ' 0550 
 
 Municipal corporations (since sold) . . ' ~V7 
 
 Vicarages partly endowed m 
 
 Ditto wholly endowed . .... 130 
 
 TITHING. A territorial division, of which the origin ia 
 pretty generally attributed to Alfred. It was a district sup- 
 posed to contain ten freeborn men, of whom each was 
 pledge for the others (sec Frankpledge.) One of these was 
 annually appointed titkingman, borsholder, or headborourrh 
 (from bom, a fledge). Ten tithings constituted (as is sup- 
 posed) a hundred. 
 
 TTTULAR. Chiefly in Ecclesiastical usage, a person In- 
 vested with the title to a benefice; generally used for one 
 Who has the title only, without possession or enjoyment. 
 
 T.ME'SIS. (Or. renvu), 1 cut.) In Grammar, a figure by 
 which a compound word is separated into two parts by 
 the intervention of one or more words, as in the following 
 line of Terence, " Ume meo cunque animo lubitum est fa- 
 cere," for "quscunque men ammo." This iiL'iire is a licence 
 in the Latin language, frequent in Terence and Lucretius, 
 rare in later writers; in the Greek it is more common ; but 
 of all Western languages, the German lends itself most readi- 
 ly to the division of <■, nip, iund words. In English the li»ure 
 is unused. 
 
 TOADSTOXE. A provincial term applied to certain ig- 
 neous or basaltic rocks associated with the limestone forma- 
 tion of Derbyshire. See Geology. 
 
 TOBA'CO ». The dried leaves of the JYicotiania tabacum. 
 a plant indigenous to America, but which succeeds very 
 well, and is extensively cultivated, in most parts of the Old 
 World. The recent leaves possess very little odour or taste ; 
 but when dried, their odour is strong, narcotic, and some- 
 what fcetid ; their taste bitter, and extremely acrid. When 
 well cured, they are of a yellowish green colour When 
 distilled, they yield an essential oil, on which their virtue 
 depends, and which is said to be a virulent poison. The 
 leaves are used in various ways; being chewed, smoked, 
 and ground and manufactured into snuff. It is in tin 
 mentioned form that tobacco is principally us,,d in Great 
 Britain, and, though the contrary has often been asserted, 
 its uve does nut seem to have been productive of any percep- 
 tible bad consequence. 
 
 The term tobacco is probably derived from Tabaco, a 
 province of Yucatan, where it was first found bv the Span- 
 iards. To Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh has 
 been ascribed the honour of having introduced it into Eng- 
 land, nearly three centuries ago. For full particulars as to 
 the history and statistics of this important article of com- 
 merce, sec the Com. Vict. 
 
 TO'CSIN. An old French word, of which the derivation 
 seems not to be ascertained (Gregory of Tours uses the word 
 " seing" for the sound of a bell— see Encycl. Methodique), 
 signifying an alarum-bell (Germ, sturmglocke). The use of 
 the terrible tocsin, during the troubles of the Revolution, to 
 assemble the multitude, has rendered the word almost 
 proverbial. 
 
 TOD. A weight used in weighing wool. It contains 28 
 lbs. avoirdupois. 
 
 TOFT, in old English, appears to signify the ground or 
 enclosed space on which a messuage has formerly stood. 
 
 TO'GA. The gown or mantle peculiar to the Roman peo- 
 ple ; whence it was sometimes designated as the g-ens togata, 
 or toga clad nation. The toga was a loose flowing woollen 
 garment covering the whole body round, and close below, 
 but open at the top down to the girdle. The end was drawn 
 up and thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm 
 at liberty, as it had no sleeves. The ordinary colour of the 
 toga was white; but this was changed for a dark colour in 
 mourning. The chief dignitaries of the state were distin 
 guished by a purple band affixed to the edge of the toga, 
 which was then called pratezta. An embroidered toga was 
 worn by generals when they triumphed. (See Chambers's 
 Dictionary for a concise account of the different species of 
 toga.) It was the national characteristic of the Romans in 
 the republican age; and when Augustus thought he per- 
 ceived its disuse commencing among the crowds assembled 
 at the theatre, and the substitution of the ordinary " lacernn " 
 he repeated with emphasis the line of Virgil — 
 Romanes rerum dominos, gentemque to^atam. 
 Among women, the toga was only worn by the disrepttta 
 ble ; the dress of the matron was the stola. 
 
 TOISE. A French measure of length, containing six 
 French feet, or 1-949040 metres. The French toise is equiva 
 lent to 6-3945925 English feet. 
 
 TOKAY. A wine made at Tokay in Hungary ; it is lus- 
 cious, and yet has an agreeable quickness of flavour. It if 
 
 1251 
 
TOLERATION. 
 
 usually more or less turbid, and is the only wine which is 
 preferred in that state, and, consequently, agitated before it 
 is poured into the glass. 
 
 TOLERA'TION (Lat. tolero, / bear), is used in a gen- 
 eral sense to express impunity and safety in the state for all 
 dissenters from the established church, who do not maintain 
 any doctrines inconsistent with the peace and welfare of 
 the state. Hence toleration implies a right of enjoying the 
 benefit of the laws and of all social privileges, without any 
 regard to difference of religion. The first toleration act in 
 England passed in 1689 ; but it was not till 1829. when the 
 Catholic Emancipation Bill was passed, that dissenters could 
 be said to be on equality with churchmen in every respect. 
 The Jews are now the only sect in England precluded from 
 the full enjoyment of civil rights in consequence of their re- 
 ligion. 
 
 TOLL. (Germ, zoll.) The name usually given to the 
 duties imposed on travellers and goods passing along public 
 roads, bridges, &c. It is also used to indicate the payment 
 to the corporation of a town, or to the lord or owner of a 
 market or fair, upon sale of things tollable. The right, 
 whether to take toll, or to be exempt from ils payment, rests 
 upon prescription or grant from the king. Toll is sometimes 
 taken by a man for every beast driven across his ground, 
 and is then called toll-traverse ; also by a town for beasts 
 going through it, or over a bridge or ferry maintained at its 
 cost, and is then called toll-thorough. See Taxlle. 
 
 TO'LMEN, or DOLMEN. In Antiquities. Borlase, In 
 his History of Cornwall, gives this name to large stpnes 
 with passages apparently hollowed through them, which 
 are commonly believed to be Druidical remains. There are 
 many such in Brittany. See also Jlrch&ologia, vol. ii., and 
 vol. viii., p. 210, where there is a description and represen- 
 tation of a celebrated one at Primham Rocks, in Yorkshire. 
 It has been supposed that they were acoustic contrivances, 
 by means of which the Druids returned oracular answers. 
 
 TOLU BALSAM. The concrete balsam of Myrozylon 
 peruiferum, a tree growing in the warmest parts of South 
 America. The substance is pale brown ; brittle in cold, 
 but tenacious in hot weather ; fragrant when heated, and 
 entirely soluble in alcohol. It appears to contain that modi- 
 fication of the benzoic acid which has been called cinnamic 
 acid. 
 
 TOMB. (Gr. to/*/3oc, Lat. tumulus.) It used to express 
 both the grave or sepulchre in which the body t)f a deceas- 
 ed person is interred, and a monument erected in his memo- 
 ry. In many countries it was customary to burn the bodies 
 of the dead, and to" collect the ashes into an urn (see Urn) 
 which was deposited in a tomb. The tombs of the Jews 
 were generally hollow places hewn out of a rock. The 
 Greeks constructed their tombs outside the walls of their 
 cities, with the exception of those raised to distinguished 
 personages. The same distinction was observed by the 
 Romans ; their sepulchres were in the country near the high 
 roads, and none but emperors, vestals, and great personages 
 had the privilege of burial within the walls. In Etruria, 
 several tombs of the ancient inhabitants have been disco- 
 vered containing beautiful vases, for full particulars respect- 
 ing which, the reader may consult Mrs. II. Gray's interest- 
 ing ToMr to the Sepulchres of Etruria. See for the tombs 
 of the Egyptians, Sir G. Wilkinson's .Manners of the Ancient 
 Egyptians, vol. ill., p. 183. 
 
 TO'MBAC. An alloy of copper and zinc, or a species of 
 brass with excess of zinc. When arsenic is added, it forms 
 white tombac. 
 
 TOMENTO'SE. (Lat. tomentum, sheared wool.) Cov- 
 ered with short inconspicuous interwoven hairs. 
 
 TON. A denomination of weight equal to 20 cwt., or 
 2240 lbs. avoirdupois. Ton is also the name of an English 
 measure of capacity containing 252 gallons ; but when used 
 in the latter sense, the word is usually written tun. 
 
 TONDI'NO. (Ital.) In Architecture, the same as astra- 
 gal, which see. 
 
 TONE. (Gr. rovos.) In Music, a property of sound 
 which brings it under the relation of grave or acute, or the 
 gravity of acuteness it may have from the number of vibra- 
 tions of the sonorous body producing it. It is more particu- 
 larly used for expressing "that degree or interval of time by 
 which sounds may be raised or lowered from one extreme 
 of concord to another, so as still to produce melodv 
 
 TONES, ECCLESIASTICAL. In Music, the eight 
 modes now generally called the Gregorian Chant, in which 
 the service of the Catholic church is performed ; four 
 whereof are authentic, and four of them plagal. Pope 
 Gregory has been considered the inventor of them. They 
 are the foundation of all music, and will ever be considered 
 stupenduous monuments of composition. 
 
 TONGUE. In Architecture. See Groove. 
 
 Tonoue. In Anatomy, the organ of taste ; a soft fleshy 
 
 viscus, moveable in all directions, composed of muscular 
 
 fibres covered by a nervous membrane, upon which, especi- 
 
 tlly a» the tip an.'? sides, are numerous nervous papilla;. 
 
 1232 
 
 TONSILS. 
 
 The tongue is largely supplied by blood vessels, its arteries 
 being branches of the ranine and labial, and its veins emp- 
 tying into the great Unguals which proceed to the external 
 jugular ; the nerves come from the fifth, and eighth, and 
 ninth pairs. The tongue performs important functions, not 
 only in tasting, but in articulating, and in eating or chewing, 
 or swallowing food, and in receiving drink. 
 
 TO'NIC. (From Tone.) In Music, the principal note of 
 the key. It is the chief sound upon which all regular melo- 
 dies depend, and in which they all terminate. Its octaves, 
 both above and below, are equally called by the same name. 
 It is, however, to be understood that the termination here 
 alluded to has relation only to the chief melody, or to its 
 bass, inasmuch as the inner or mean parts of the harmony 
 conclude on the third or mediant, and the fifth or dominant. 
 
 TO'NICS. (Gr. rovout, I strengthen.) Medicines which 
 strengthen and increase muscular action. To this elan be 
 long vegetable bitters, stimulants, astringents, &c. 
 
 TO'NNAGE, implied originally the number of tons 
 weight a vessel might safely carry. Prior to January, 1836, 
 the rule established by the act of parliament for the meas- 
 urement of the tonnage of ships was founded on erroneous 
 principles, and led to the most mischievous consequences. 
 
 By considering the breadth and depth nearly the same, 
 the rule implied the square of the breadth ; and hence in- 
 creasing the breadth of a vessel increased her nominal ton- 
 nage for the payment of dues more than it increased her 
 real capacity. Under this pernicious system vessels came 
 to be built narrow and deep ; and thug not only less effi- 
 cient, but highly dangerous. In 1823 a committee, of which 
 the celebrated Dr. T. Young was chairman, proposed M 
 measure the internal capacity by taking the breadth and 
 depth at each quarter of the length ; but for some reason 
 no step was taken. In 1832 another committee was ap- 
 pointed to consider the subject ; and they concluded their 
 labours in 1834 by recommending the method of Mr. Riddle, 
 of the Royal Hospital, Greenwich. Mr. Riddle inferred, 
 that since a great number of direct measures for capacity 
 would afford a result very near the truth, an approximation 
 might be obtained by means of a smaller number of meas- 
 ures, provided additional weight was given in the calcula- 
 tion to those dimensions which extend through a greater 
 part of the hull. He obtained the multipliers of these di- 
 mensions, the midship breadth and depth, by trial, from the 
 vessels measured for the guidance of the committee ; and 
 the method is therefore founded on an arithmetical fact. 
 The rule, briefly expressed, is as follows : 
 
 Divide the upper deck, between the after part of the stem 
 and the forepart of the sternpost, into six equal parts. At 
 the foremost, middle, and aftermost points of division, 
 measure, in feet and decimals, the depths from the under 
 side of the upper deck to the ceiling at the limber strake. 
 Divide each depth into five equal parts, and measure the 
 inside breadths at l-5lh and 4-5tbs (from the upper deck) at 
 the two extreme depths, and at 2-5ths and 4-5th of the mid- 
 ship depth. Measure the length, as above, at half the mid- 
 ship depth. To twice the midship depth add the extreme 
 depths, for the sum of the depths. To the upper and lower 
 breadths at the foremost division add three times the upper 
 and lower breadths at the midship division, and the upper 
 and twice the lower breadth at the aftermost division, for 
 the sum of the breadths. Multiply the sum of the depths by 
 the sum of the breadths, and the product by the length, 
 and divide this product by 3500 ; the result is the tonnage 
 for register. 
 
 In vessels with a poop or a break in the upper deck, 
 measure the mean length, breadth, and height ; multiply 
 these together, and divide by 92-4, and add the result to the 
 former quantity. In open vessels, the depth is measured 
 from the upper edge of the upper strake. In steam vessels, 
 thetonage due to the content of the engine room (the depth 
 being considered at the midship depth, and the breadth that 
 at 2-5ths of this depth), divided by 92.4, is to be deducted. 
 
 The relative capacities of ships are determined very 
 neariy by this method ; that is, within little more than 4 or 
 5 percent, generally, though, in extreme cases, the difference 
 may amount to 10 or 13sper cent. : even this, however, is in- 
 significant, as compared with the usual errors of the former 
 method. The divisor by which cubic content is reduced to 
 nominal tonnage was adopted, merely that while the repu- 
 ted tonnage of most kinds of vessels would be corrected by 
 the new rule, the total registered tonnage of the kingdom 
 might remain unaltered. By the new method the dues 
 paid on tonnage are proportioned to the capacities of the 
 vessels ; and as no advantage is gained in these respects b) 
 defective forms, a marked improvement in merchant vesseli 
 has followed the passing of the bill in 1835. 
 
 TONSILLI'TIS. Inflammation of the tonsils. Su 
 
 Q.UINSEY. 
 
 TONSILS. (Lat tonsilla.) An oblong suboval gland 
 on each side of the fauces, and opening into the cavity of 
 the mouth by several large ducts. 
 
TONTINE 
 
 TONTINE, a term derived from the .iame of the inventor 
 Tonti, signifying a loan raised on life annuities with the 
 benefit of survivorships. Sec Annuities. 
 TOOTHING. In Architecture, bricks alternately pro- 
 ag ut the end of a wall, in order that they may be 
 bondei into a continuation of it when the remainder is 
 carried ip. 
 
 TOP In Naval Language, a small light platform near 
 the lower mast-head. 
 
 TO'PARCHY. (Gr. toitoc, a place, and apxn govern- 
 ment), in Antiquity, signified a small state or lordship con- 
 sisting only of a few cities or towns ; or a petty country un- 
 der the sway of a toparch. Thus Judea was anciently di- 
 Vlded into en toparchies. 
 
 TO'PAZ. (Gr. rona^tov.) A crystallized mineral harder 
 than quartz, of a yellow or wine colour, competed of 60 
 alumina, 35 silica, 5 flouric acid. When heated, the Bra- 
 zilian topaz becomes rose red, and is sometime-; in this 
 slate passed off as a ruby : the Saxon topaz loses its colour 
 by heat. When without flaws and of a good colour, it is 
 much employed in jewellery. The Saxon U usually paler 
 than the Brazilian, which often has a pinkish hue; the 
 I in topaz is usually colourless, and the Scotch has a 
 blue tinge. 
 TOrA'ZOLITE. (Gr. rovafyov and XtOoc, a stone.) A 
 iriety of garnet of a pale yellow colour, found In 
 Piedmont It is a silicate of alumina, lime, and iron, with 
 : glucina and manganese. 
 TOPCHAIN8. Chains used in action, by which the 
 lower yard is hung in case of the slings being shot away. 
 TOPGALLANT. That which is above the topmast. 
 TOTIIET. A polluted unclean place near Jerusalem, 
 into which the Jews used to throw the carcasses of beasts, 
 or the bodies of men to whom they refused burial ; and 
 where a tire was perpetually kept up to Consume all that 
 was brought. Hence Topbct Is sometimes used metaphori- 
 for hell. This place had also been defiled by human 
 ii h had been offered to Moloch. Hence Milton 
 says of this hideous deity, that he 
 
 Ma.le his grove 
 The pleasant vallev of Hinnoni : Tophet thence 
 And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. 
 
 The name is derived by some from Ileh. toph, a drum, on 
 account of the beating of drums and other Instruments by 
 Which the cries of the children sacrificed to Moloch were 
 Stifled. 
 
 T< CPU US. A soft tumour upon a I one. In Mineralogy, 
 the term tophus has been applied to jxjrous deposites of 
 reous matter from water. 
 
 TOTIC8. (Gr. tottoc, a place.) In Rhetoric. By ab- 
 ig from a proposition which conveys a truth in the 
 rete (». e , reelecting certain circumstance* expressed in 
 the terms of the proposition) a portion of those circumstances 
 denominated accidental, we arrive at the same truth in the 
 abstract, or (in stricter language) more widely applicable, 
 arid accommodated to many different sets of accidental cir- 
 tances. Thus, for example, in jurisprudence, from an 
 ligation of the truth in various insulated cases in which 
 a ti>o strict application of legal principles has been attended 
 with evil effects, we deduce the general truth that such 
 application is so attended ; or, in the proverbial phrase, 
 '• suuimum jus summa injuria." Among the helps employ- 
 ed by the ancients in their favourite study of rhetoric was 
 the collection and arrangement of a great variety of such 
 general truths, according to the several sciences or subjects 
 to which they belonged. These they termed topoi, or 
 places ; from which the modern term topic is derived. They 
 considered it useful for the student in rhetoric to have at 
 hand, by means of his memory, those compendious expres- 
 stons of universal sentiment, and the general reasonings or 
 declamations applicable to each of them, in order to employ 
 them for particular use by performing the converse of that 
 o|>eration by which they were arrived at; viz. clothing 
 tbein with the particular circumstances of the case. Thus 
 the topos just cited might be useful to the forensic orator; 
 it affords a subject for reasoning and declamation applicable 
 10 a great number of individual instances. Many of these 
 topics answer to what In modern phrase we should term 
 axioms ; and. indeed, some of the axioms of pure mathe- 
 matics are enumerated by Aristotle among the topics which 
 are proper to everv species of oratory. 
 
 T< (PO'GRAPHX (Gr. tottoc, a place, and ypaipto, I de- 
 scribe.) Strictly the description of a place, or the science 
 of describing places (distinguished from chorography or the 
 description of a district, and from geography, the description 
 ofthe earth.) 
 
 TOPPING LIFT. A rope for raising the end of any yard 
 ir boom. 
 
 TUP. SPINNING. A well-known toy. The steady mo- 
 tion which a well spun top soon acquires suggested to Mr. 
 about eighty years ngo, the employment of a mirror 
 Ipon it at ri'.'fit angles to its axis, as an artificial ho- 
 rizon wbkh might probably be used at sea ; and on sending 
 
 TORSION. 
 
 out the first of the late polar expeditions, the attention of 
 Mr. Troughton was turned to the subject. But though use- 
 ful Observations might have been made on land with the 
 Instrument which he constructed, it was not found at seo 
 
 ID give results of any practical value ; and we are not aware 
 that any further attempts have been made to Imp 
 construction, which Is attended wiih considerable mechani- 
 cal difficulties. 
 
 TOREU'MATO'LOGV. (Gr. TopcmtK, scvlpture, and 
 ypaipu), I describe,) signifies either the science or ar: of 
 sculpture, or a description of ancient and modern sculuturi 
 and has relief. 
 
 TOREU'TlC. (Gr. ropevroi, polished.) In Sculpture, a 
 term applied to such objects as are executed Willi high 
 finish, delicacy, and polish ; but properly to all figure- In 
 hard wood, ivory, sic. 
 
 TO'RMBNTIL ROOT. The root ofthe Potentilla tormen- 
 tilla. It is occasionally used in medicine as an astringent. 
 
 TORNADO. (Spanish.) A violent hurricane or gust of 
 wind, which, arising suddenly from the shore, veera 
 to all points ofthe compass, and ii cribed 
 
 as blowing from all points at once. Tornadoes are usually 
 accompanied with thunder storms, and are general 
 short duration. They are frequent in the Chinese seas and 
 the West Indies. See Storms. 
 
 TORNATE'LLA. A genus of oval marine I 
 longing to the Plicacece, found in the oolite and BUp 
 cent strata. Recent lornati lie are found in shallow water, 
 creeping upon and furrowing the sand. 
 
 TORPE'DO. (Lat. torpedo, numbness.) A genus of 
 
 Cartilaginous fishes separated from the Haiw of Luuneus on 
 account ofthe circular form of the body, and ; 
 ally from the presence nf the electrical organs on which 
 that form of the body mainlv depends. Violent shocks are 
 experienced on touching the living and active torpedo. It is 
 probable that it exerts its electrifying or benumbing powers 
 in order to secure its prey ; and it is certain that tin 
 power is employed in defending itself against assailants, to 
 whose assaults It would be otherwise more exposed than 
 are the ordinary rays ; for the torpedo has a smooth skin, 
 and Is not defended by the spiny tubercles, or barbed and 
 pointed bony weapons, with which the non-electric ra 
 provided. 
 
 TORQUES. In Antiquities, a chain or collar formed of 
 a number of .small ringlets interlaced with each other, 
 framed of metal, and worn round the neck. No ornament 
 perhaps was of more early or general use. It is mentioned 
 in Genesis, xli., -i-2, as one of the ornaments conferred by 
 Pharaoh on Joseph. It was in use among the Greeks and 
 Romans, but peculiarly among the Celtic nations. The 
 legends respecting the torques of the Gauls who invaded 
 Rome are well known. It was from his victory over a Gaul 
 that T. Mnntiu.s Torquatus derived his surname. (J. icy, 
 lib. vii., ch. 10.) And no relic is more commonly found En 
 this country by antiquarian explorers. Boadicea wore a 
 long, golden torques. ( Dio. Cass., Ixii.) See the Jlrchaolo- 
 gia, vol. xiv., p. 97, and passim, for descriptions of particular 
 specimens. 
 
 TORREFA'CTION. (Lat.) The operation of roasting 
 ores to deprive them of sulphur, arsenic, or other volatile in- 
 gredients. When drugs are highly dried, or partially toast 
 ed or roasted, they are also said to he torrefied. 
 
 TORRICE'LUAN VACUUM. In Physics, the vacuum 
 produced by inverting a tube of sufficient length, filled with 
 mercury or any other fluid, in a vessel containing a portion 
 ofthe same fluid, and allowing the fluid in the tube to de- 
 scend until its weight is counterbalanced by that of the at- 
 mosphere. In this manner the first barometers were form 
 ed by Torricelli, and thence called Torricellian tubes. Sec 
 Barometer. 
 
 TO'RRID ZONE. In Geography, the zone ofthe earth 
 included between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. It 
 extends from the equator, on both sides, to the parallel cor- 
 responding to the sun's greatest declination, about 23A de- 
 grees. See Ecliptic Zonk. 
 
 TO'RSION. (Lat. torsio ; from torqueo, I twist), in Me- 
 chanics, is the twisting or wrenching of a body by the ex- 
 ertion of a lateral force. If a slender rod of metal suspend- 
 ed vertically, and having its upper end fixed, be twisted 
 through a certain angle by a force acting in a plane perpen- 
 dicular to its axis, it will, on the removal of the force, 
 untwist itself, or return In the opposite direction with a 
 greater or less vclocitv, and, after a series of oscillations, 
 will come to rest in Rs original position. The limits of 
 torsion within which the body will return to its original 
 state depend upon its elasticity. A fine wire of a few feet 
 in length may be twisted through several revolutions 
 with, ut irnpairir.; its el istcity ; and within those limits 
 the force evolved is found to be perfectly regular, and di 
 rectly proportional to the angular displacement from the 
 position of rest. If the angular displacement exceeds a 
 certain limit, the particles of the body will he wrenched 
 
 1253 
 
TORSION. 
 
 asunder ; or if the elasticity is not perfect (as in a wire of 
 lead, for example, before disruption takes place, the particles 
 will assume a new arrangement, or take a set, and will not 
 leturn to their original position on the withdrawal of the 
 disturbing force. 
 
 The resistance which cylinders or prisms formed of dif- 
 ferent substances oppose to torsion, furnishes one of the 
 usual methods of determining the elasticity and strength of 
 materials ; and the property which a metallic wire or thread 
 stretched by a small weight possesses of becoming twisted 
 and untwisted in a series of isochronous and perfectly regu- 
 lar oscillations, has been ingeniously applied in the torsion 
 balance to the measurement of very minute forces, and 
 thereby to the establishment of the fundamental laws of 
 electricity and magnetism, and to the determination of the 
 mean density of the earth. See Balance of Torsion. 
 
 The laws of torsion have been experimentally investi- 
 gated by Coulomb in a variety of substances ; as metallic 
 wires, hairs, fibres of silk, &c. The method which he em- 
 ployed consisted in attaching a body of given form and di- 
 mensions to the extremity of the wire, and, after twisting it 
 through a certain angle, to abandon it to the action of the 
 force evolved, and observe the time of the oscillations. 
 The following general laws were found to hold good : 
 
 1. On loading a wire or thread with ditferent weights, it 
 will settle in different positions of stability; that is to say, 
 an index attached to the weight will point in different di- 
 rections if the weight be varied, and the angular deviation 
 may amount even to a whole circumference. 
 
 it The oscillations are isochronous. 
 
 3 The time of oscillation is proportional to the square 
 root of the weight which stretches the wire. 
 
 4. The time of oscillation is as the square root of the 
 lensth of the wire. 
 
 5. The time of oscillation is inversely as the square of the 
 diameter of the wire. 
 
 From the second of these laws it follows that when the 
 wire is twisted round from the position of rest, the force 
 with which it tends to return to that position is proportional 
 angle to be described ; n order to attain It. For it is 
 r.U result of mechanics, that all motions produced 
 by forces acting according to this law have the property of 
 tautochronism ; that is to say, the oscillations are perform- 
 ed in equal times, whatever be the length of the arc. This 
 fundamental property is usually enunciated by saying that 
 the force of torsion is proportional to the angle of torsion. 
 
 Let F denote the force of torsion, measured by the weight 
 which it would be necessary to apply by means of a pulley 
 to a point p, situated at the unit of distance (one inch) 
 from the axis of the wire, and invariably connected with 
 it, to cause the point p to describe an arc of a circle equal 
 in length to the unit of distance ; then, by the property 
 enunciated, the force which must be applied at p in order 
 that the point may describe any arc <p is expressed by F - (f>. 
 if the arc of torsion is expressed in degrees instead of parts 
 of the radius, we have </> = t p°-r- ISO (t being the se- 
 micircumference to radius 1, or = 3-14159) ; whence the 
 expression of the force becomes F -f- r (f>° -i- 180°. 
 
 On this principle of the proportionality of the impelling 
 force to the angle or deviation the problem of determining 
 the time of an oscillation is solved. Suppose a body of any 
 form attached to the extremity of a slender wire, whose 
 sveinht in comparison of that of the body mav be neglected, 
 and let d m be an clement of the mass, V the distance of d 
 m from the axis of the wire, and T the time of an oscilla- 
 tion ; the solution of the problem gives 
 
 The integral J r%dm is the moment of inertia of the at- 
 tached body. If the body be a cylinder whose axis coin- 
 cides with that of the wire, and if a denote its radius and 
 M its mass, then / >-2 d m = § M a 2 ; or, substituting the 
 weight for the mass, and observing that if the weight be 
 denoted by P, and the accelerating force of gravity by g 
 (= 32.1908 feet or 386-2894 inches in a second,) we have P 
 = M g, J t-2 d m = P a2 -j- 2 g. Hence the expression 
 
 p 
 for the time becomes T = tt a J ■ 
 2«-F 
 
 If the attached body were a slander cylindrical needle 
 suspended horizontally by its middlf to the" wire, we should, 
 nn denoting its length by /, have Jrl im = JM;2; whence 
 
 P 
 3 g F 
 
 T ss «• I y/ 
 
 The following results are deduced from the formula- 
 t. The force of torsion is independent of the weight which 
 itretches the wire, or F remains constant while P is varied. 
 1254 
 
 TORTURE. 
 
 For suppose P to become P', and let T' be the correspond- 
 ing time of oscillation, and F' the corresponds ig force, we 
 have then 
 
 2^-F' 1 2^F" 
 whence T2 : T'2 : : P F' : P F. But, by the third experi- 
 mental law, T2 : T'2 : : P : P' ; therefore F' = F. 
 
 2. The force is inversely as the length of the wire For, 
 supposing P to remain constant, we have T* :T' 2 ; \ F : F. 
 But, by the fourth experimental law, T- : T' 2 ::l:l'; whence 
 F':F::l:l'. 
 
 3. The force is proportional to the fourth power i 
 diameter of the wire. Let there be two wires of the sam 
 substance, but of different diameters, D and D', and stretch 
 ed by the same weight P; and let T and T' be the corres 
 ponding times. Bv the fifth experimental law, we have 'i 
 T' : : D'i : D 2 . But it has been shown that 1* : T* : : i" 
 F ; therefore F : F' : : IM : D'4. 
 
 To show the method of applying the formula;, we shall 
 compute one of the experiments of Coulomb. An iron 
 wire was stretched by a vertical cylinder of -8 of an inch 
 radius rind weighing 2 lbs., and it was observed to make 
 20 oscillations in 242 seconds, or one in 12-1 seconds. It 
 is proposed to determine the force F. From the formula 
 for the time of an oscillation we have, by transposition, 
 
 772 a2P 
 F = ry2 ' Substituting numbers in this formula, wo 
 
 have iz?= 9S69S, a- — 04, P = 2, g = 3S6-2801, T" — . 
 
 12633 
 (12-1)2 — 146-41 ; consequently F = n ^j-r^= -0001117ofa 
 
 pound, or about -78 of a grain. Hence the weight applied 
 at the distance of one inch from the axis of the wire that 
 would be required to twist the wire through a complete 
 revolution, or 360°, is 6-283 times this quantity, or nearly 
 fiva grains. 
 For the demonstration of the fundamental formula, 
 
 namely, T 2 F = tt 2 I r2 d in, see Coulomb, Tkeoric act 
 
 Machines Timpjts ; or Biot, Trc.itl de Physique, ton), i. 
 
 TORSO. (It.) In Sculpture, a statue of which nothing 
 but the trunk of the human figure remains. 
 
 TORT. (Fr. wrong.) In Law, signifies injustice or injury. 
 
 TORTOISE. This name is usually applied to species of 
 that division of the Linnrean genus Testudo including the 
 terrestrial Chelonians, to which the generic name is now 
 limited. See Testudo. 
 
 TORTOISE SHELL. The name given to the homy 
 scutes or plates of the sea turtles ; and in particular to thoe< 
 of the hawk's-bill turtle, Chelone imbricata. 
 
 TORTRI'CES. (Lat. torqueo, / wreath.) The name of 
 a tribe of nocturnal Lepidopterous insects, comprising those 
 the larva; of which live concealed in leaves, which they 
 roll round them for the purpose. 
 
 TO'RTURE. (Lat. torqueo, / twist or torment.) In a 
 legal sense, the infliction of pain on an accused person in 
 order to extort an avowal of guilt, or revelation of accom- 
 plices. Such a practice is sufficiently common among all 
 half-civilized nations; but the Greeks anil Romans were 
 perhaps the first who introduced it as a part of their regu- 
 lar proceedings in criminal cases. Both at Athens and 
 Rome torture was, however, considered as applicable only 
 to extort evidence from slaves : towards them it was used 
 profusely : and it was, in fact, a usual occurrence to order 
 a whole family of slaves to the torture, in order to extract 
 revelations where an atrocious crime had been committed, 
 ;ls, for instance, the murder of the master. Cicero, in se- 
 veral passages, condemns the use of torture; and Clpian 
 (Lex. i., De Quastionibus) says, "Res est fragilis et peri- 
 culosa, et qute veritatem fall it, nam plerique patientia sive 
 duritia tormentorem ita et tormenta contemnunt, ut expri- 
 mi eis Veritas nullo modo possit ; alii tanta sunt impa'ientia 
 ut quid vis mentiri quam pati tormenta malint." ( '. 
 the torture at Rome, see Gibbon, vol. ii., p. 49, 4to ed.) Nut- 
 withstanding these recorded opinions of the highest lumi- 
 naries of ancient jurisprudence, torture was adopted along 
 with the rest of the process of the civil law in most Euro- 
 pean countries. (For its use in France, see Quksi 
 The general principle of the civilians was, that it could no! 
 be used unless vehement suspicion warranted its applica- 
 tion. But no very definite meaning was attached in prnctice 
 to these Words, especially in Germany, where the abuse 
 seems to have been carried to the greatest extent \y the 
 ignorant and cruel tribunals of her smaller states. VYhen 
 Howard visited the prisons of that country (about 1770) i 
 was still in general use. See his Account of Prisons.) 
 The writings of various philosophical authors of the IStb 
 century, especially Volta'.re, Tho.nasius, and Beccnrln, 
 (whose short treatise, Dei Delitzi e delle Pen/-, obtained 
 such singular notoriety), effected much towards luinc-i pr 
 its employment into disrepute ; but its geie-a^ ibclition ran 
 only be attributed to the superior regard for the rights of 
 
TORUS. 
 
 man introduced every - where by the agitation of the French 
 Revolution. In England, judicial torture was not recog- 
 nized by the common law (for the peine forte et dure hard- 
 ly tails within the same definition) ; and th:U it was also 
 nearly unknown in practice, in the 14th century at least, 
 may be inferred from the reluctance of Edward II. to sub- 
 mit the Templars to torture, which was overcome by the 
 Of I'ope Clement V., and from a curious paper of 
 questions addressed on that occasion by the archbishop of 
 York to some divines, from which it appear* that 710 tor- 
 turer cuuld at that time be found in England. ■ - 
 nouard. Memoires sur les Trmpliers ; Hallam's Constitu- 
 tional History.) The rack is said to have been introduced 
 as an engine of state by the Duke of Exeter in the reign of 
 II. >v. i-vi-r thjl may be, during the whole of the 
 16th century we rind that the* privy council assumed and 
 1 the right to direct torture-warrants to the lieuten- 
 ant of the Tower and other officers, commanding them to 
 submit to the torture persons accused not only Of 
 
 but of ordinary municipal crimes, when strong sus- 
 picion, but no sufficient evidence, existed. Torture-war- 
 rants w> 1 ft, not by the council, but under the 
 sign manual only. During this period the council seems, 
 in fart, to have acted as a supplementary tribunal in aid of 
 \I courts, for the purpose of extorting discoveries 
 of criminal offences. The instances of torture of seminary 
 
 •- 1-., in Elizabeth's reign, have been often cited; 
 but it is not so generally known that the practice was not 
 .id sedition, but extend- 
 ed to Oth >ee Jardine's Heading on the Use of 
 Torture in England, 1837.) Under James I. and Charles 
 I. torture Menu to have become less frequent, nnd to have 
 been only employed In state oftencea; and this perhaps, 
 explains the well-known answer of the judses to Charles's 
 ting I'elton, the murderer of the Duke of 
 Buckingham, that he ought not to he tortured, " for DO such 
 punishment i< honour to our law." The last recorded case 
 is that of William Archer, 1640; and as In that year the 
 act for the abolition of the Star Chamber granted a habeas 
 corpus to all persons detained on warrants from the privy 
 i\e be virtO 
 
 and it was so ,n the 7th year of Anne. 
 TO/EU8. (Lat. a rope.) In Architecture n large mould- 
 ing used in the bases of columns, the profile whereof {§ eem- 
 icircular. This term is also used in botany for the cen- 
 tral part of the llower on which the carpels are placed. 
 
 Tt'KV. A well-known party nanc in English history. 
 (See IViiiii.) The Irish malcontents, half robbers and half 
 Insurgents, who harassed the English in Ireland nt the pe- 
 riod of the massacre in 1640 and during the troubles which 
 followed, were the first to whom this name was applied. 
 It is said to have been transplanted into England about the 
 time of the Popish Plot, when the public mind was agitated 
 by chimerical fears respecting the apprehended employ- 
 ment of Irish Catholics to further that imaginary design ; 
 whence it was commonly applied by way of reproach to 
 
 ■i party, against which the popular hostility was 
 as favouring and countenancing the sup- 
 posed abettors of the plot. From the period of its intro- 
 duction into England down to the present times the term 
 Tory has been constantly employed to designate a lar::c 
 political party In this country. Down to the period when 
 Hume wrote his Essay on the Parties of Great Hritain, 
 the conduct of the two great parties in the state (the 
 Whigs and Tories) had been so vague and undetermined 
 as to have led him to declare his utter inability to tell their 
 nature, pretensions, and principles. Since that period, 
 
 r, the conduct of the Tories has been more uniform ; 
 and it might now be easier to define the principles by which 
 they have been sruided during the last half century: but 
 we shall not undertake the task. Within the last two or 
 three years, the word Tory has been gradually displaced 
 by Consematiee., which seems likely to become the perma- 
 nent designation of the Tory party. This term was ori- 
 ginally assumed in contradistinction to Destructives, a 
 name by which the more violent reformers came to be de- 
 signated by their enemies ; and it is now understood as re- 
 ferring to the whole Tory party, but more especially to 
 what may be called the more liberal portion of that party. 
 TnTIP.VLMATES, Totipalmati. (Lat. totus, entire, 
 and ptlma, a palm.) The name of a tribe of Palmipedes, 
 or swimming birds, including those in which the hinder 
 veloped in the same web with the three anterior 
 Irjes, 
 TOUCH. In Medicine. The belief in the possibility of 
 maladies by the touch has produced a va- 
 ingular superstitions. Plutarch attributes sin2ular 
 virtues to the touch of King Pvrrhus of Epirus. According 
 ■ liiis. Adrian and Vespasian had the power of cur- 
 ing various di cases In the same manner. In what period 
 on respecting the virtue of the touch of the kings 
 i'f Trance anil England in curing epilepsy, scrotulas, &c, 
 
 TOURNAMENT. 
 
 had its origin, it is difficult to ascertain. Andre Dulaurent, 
 chief physician of Henry IV. of France, published a trea- 
 tise on the subject. The ceremony of touching by the 
 kings of France, WB8 practised at the four great 1 
 the year; sometimes as many as 1500 were touched at a 
 time. By an odd etiquette, the Spaniards had the first 
 rank, then other foreigners, and the French Inst of all. 
 The formula used at each imposition of the royal hand was, 
 "Le roi te touche, et Dieu te guerit." Polydore Virgil at- 
 tributes this virtue to Edward IV., and all our kings down 
 to the end of the Stuart dynasty touched for the ki 
 Much efficacy has heen attributed in different dlsea 
 ticularly tumours, &c, to the touch of the hand of .a dead 
 body; especially, according to Pliny nnd various ..„^ie;:: 
 authorities, of one who had died violently. We do not 
 know whether the superstition is yet extinct under the in 
 fluonce of which scrofulous persons used to have iln-ui 
 selves touched by the hands of criminals after execution. 
 Boyle endeavours to explain away part of the miracle by 
 attributing some virtue to the coldness of the application. 
 
 TOUCH. One of the live senses, resident in the 
 papilla: of the skin; it is also the sensibility diffused over 
 the whole body. It Is much more exquisite in some ports 
 than oil. 
 
 In Naval language, the sails are said to touch 
 when the wind come- edgeways upon them. 
 
 TOUCH NEEDLES. Small bars, consisting of gold nnd 
 silver alloyed with various definite proportions of copper, 
 are thus termed by assayers, who use them to ; 
 comparing their colour and streak upon a piece of bard 
 black stone, such as basalt, with that of alloys of the pre 
 cious metals, of the relative quantity of gold or silver in the 
 latter. Heme also the term touchstone. 
 
 TOU'RMALINK. The more perfect forms of sclwrl 20 
 under this name. It is the hjneurium of the ancients. It; 
 chief constituents are silica and alumina, with about 10 
 percent, of soda, and a little oxide of manganese and of 
 iron. The transparent coloured varieties are Mine I 
 into ring stones, ami some of them are much valued for ex- 
 periments on the polarization of light. 
 
 TOUEN, in Law, was the turn or circuit anciently made 
 thrice every year by the .sheriff, for the purpose of holding 
 in each hundred the great court leet of the county. The 
 jurisdiction exercised by the sheriff on his tourn extended 
 by the common law to the cognizance of all offences not 
 capital ; but sheriffs are prohibited by Magna Charts from 
 holding any pleas of the crown in which they had a pecu- 
 niary interest in procuring a conviction; while a better tri- 
 bunal was at the same time supplied by the establishment 
 of annual circuits. The tourn, though never disallowed 
 by law, has, with the curtailment of its jurisdiction, and 
 the abandonment of the leet as a registry of pledges, long 
 fallen into disuse; and the right of the jury or suitors ;l ; 
 the tourn to present nuisances, or convict of minor offences, 
 has, with other functions of courts leet, been transferred 
 to the quartet session". 
 
 TdiritNAMKNT (in modern Latin torneanientum or 
 TOURNEY; originally derived from the Fr. tourner, mo- 
 dern Latin tornare, to turn.) A well-known military sport 
 of the middle ages, which without doubt arose from the 
 exercises of military training. A joust or just is, properly 
 s|>eaking, the encounter of two knights in this species of 
 exercise : the tournament, an assembly held for the pur- 
 pose of exhibiting such justs, or the encounter of several 
 knights on a side. The earlier tournaments were highly 
 dangerous and sanguinary sjinrts. They were performed 
 with the ordinary weapons of warfare, the lance and the 
 sword ; and the combatants had only the strength of their 
 armour to rely on for their defence. It was a recognised 
 custom, nccordlng to Meyrick (Hist, of Jlncient Jlrmour), 
 that whoever slew or disabled an adversary in the tourna- 
 ment was indemnified against all consequences. The ac- 
 count of the tournament given by the Count of Chablais, in 
 Savoy, to Edward I. on his return from Palestine to Eng- 
 land, as given by Thomas de Walsingham, represents a 
 sort of violent melee, in which knights, squires, and arch- 
 ers were engaged on both sides, endeavouring to unhorse 
 their riders and overthrow the footmen by every possible 
 means. But in the course of time this chivalric amuse- 
 ment became the subject of minute regulations, which in 
 some degree diminished the danger and insured the fair- 
 ness of the sport. The English Statute Jlrmomm de Tor- 
 neamentis are assigned by Dr. Meyrick to the year 1295. 
 (See Sainte-Palaye.) "Impartial taste," says Gibbon, 
 " must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic games 
 of classic antiquity." (Oe.cl. and Fall, ch. 50.) 
 
 In tournaments, when under the strict regulation of 
 knightly usage, two sorts of arms were employed ; those 
 expressly made for the purpose, viz., lances with blunt heads 
 of iron ; and the ordinary arms of warfare, termed, " amies 
 a outrance," which were only employed by such champions 
 as were desirous to signalize themselves in a more thau 
 
 1355 
 
TOURNIQUET. 
 
 ordinary degree, and frequently were not permitted by the 
 judges of the tournament. Every knight attending was re- 
 quired to show his noble birth and rank, as a title to ad- 
 mission. These were at first proclaimed by the heralds 
 with sound of trumpet; and hence the word blazonry, 
 which signifies the correct deciphering of the heraldic 
 symbols on a coat of arms, is derived by some from the 
 German blasen, to blow. Afterwards, when armorial bear- 
 ings became general, 'the shield of the knight gave token 
 of his rank and family. The attendance of ladies at the 
 tournaments, their distribution of prizes to those who had 
 borne themselves best, arming and unarming the knights, 
 &c, are various romantic circumstances well known to the 
 reader of chivalric legends ; but they must not be supposed 
 to have been the necessary, or even usual accompani- 
 ments of these knightly sports, at least until a later age, 
 when the taste for gallantry, combining with that for show 
 and spectacle, turned these military exhibitions of skill into 
 little more than gorgeous pageants. When we arrive at 
 the reigns of Edward III. and Henry V., we find the justs 
 usually held in favor of ladies, and every knight bound to 
 possess in reality or in show a dame of his affections, for 
 whose sake all his deeds of chivalry were performed. Dr. 
 Meyrick quotes from a manuscript of the reign of Elizabeth 
 the ordinances of justcs, made by John Earl of Worcester, 
 constable of England, in the sixth year of Edward IV. ; 
 from which it appears that the law of justs had become 
 by that time the subject of very minute regulation. The 
 prize belonged to him who broke most spears " as they 
 ought to be broken ;" t. e. on the head or body of the an- 
 tagonist. From Stow we find that the lists erected in 
 Siuithtield in 1467, when the Bastard of Burgundy challeng- 
 ed Lord Scales, were 380 feet in length by 260 in breadth: 
 these champions rode at each other two days with spears, 
 and on the third encountered on foot with pole-axes. In 
 the reign of Henry VIII., when the real spirit of chivalry 
 was far advanced in its decline, the tournament was in- 
 vested almost wholly with the character of a court pageant, 
 but celebrated with a degree of splendour and costliness 
 scarcely equalled in former times. The famous volumes of 
 woodcuts of the same period, styled the Triumphs of Maxi- 
 milian, shows that it was as favourite and almost as mag- 
 nificent a spectacle at the court of Germany. The tragical 
 death of Henry II. of France, in consequence of a blow re- 
 ceived in a tournament, is well known, and was the cause of 
 the final, although only gradual abolition, of this knightly 
 amusement; which was revived at intervals in court so- 
 lemnities in the seventeenth century, but rather as a memo- 
 rial of past times than as a subsisting and popular custom. 
 
 The revival of the tournament was recently attempted In 
 the west of Scotland by the Earl of Eglinton ; but we scarce- 
 ly suppose that the success of that attempt was either com- 
 mensurate with its deserts, or was such as to induce any 
 party to renew it. At the court of Wurtemburg tournaments 
 are notunfrequently exhibited at this day. 
 
 See Sainle-Palaye, Memoires sur la Chevalerie ; Turner's 
 History {Middle Jiges), vol. i., p. 472 ; Hist, de I'Jic. des la- 
 ser., vol. xix. ; and Walter Scott's admirable delineation in 
 Icanhoe, which gives a more vivid idea of the tournament, 
 with all its variety of martial exercises, than any serious 
 work extant. 
 
 TOU'RNIQUET. (Fr.) A bandage which may be tight- 
 ened to any extent by means of a screw, so as to exert pres- 
 sure upon a cushion and compress the arterial trunks to 
 which it is applied : it is chiefly used to prevent hemor- 
 rhage In the operations of amputation. 
 
 TOW. To draw a vessel along by a rope. As the vessel 
 towed afi'ects the motions of the other, much attention is 
 requited on her part to second the intention of the towing 
 vessel. 
 
 TOWER. (Lat. turris.) In Architecture, a lofty build- 
 ing, square, polygonal, or circular on the plan, and often 
 consisting of several stories. The tower of a church is that 
 part which contains the bells, and from which the steeple 
 rises. 
 
 TOWERS, ROUND. In Ireland, remarkable edifices of 
 extreme antiquity, of which the origin has perplexed anti- 
 quaries to an unexampled degree. They are tall, narrow 
 edifices, varying in height from 80 to 120 feet. That at Kil- 
 dare, we believe, is the highest; cylindrical in shape, with 
 a door 8 or 10 feet from the ground, and narrow apertures at 
 the top. There are sixty-two of these curious relics ascer- 
 tained to exist in Ireland ; and two in Scotland, at Aberne- 
 thy and Brechin. They cannot have been watch-towers, 
 their position being generally low; nor belfries, their shape 
 and construction rendering such a supposition impossible, 
 a though some appear to have been used in that way in later 
 times; and the notion that they were places of confinement 
 for penitents or hermits seems extravagant. Common be- 
 lief, however, attaches to them an ecclesiastical origin and 
 use; and the well-known passage of Gintldus Cnmbrensis, 
 a writer of the 12th century (who says that the fishermen 
 1256 
 
 TOXICOLOGY. 
 
 
 of Lough Nengh reported that in clear weather remains ol 
 buildings, and among others round towers of the country 
 fashion, were seen at the bottom), necessarily implies a g« at- 
 er antiquity. Irish antiquaries, however, as maybe sup- 
 posed, have luxuriated in hypotheses connecting them with 
 ancient forms of pagan worship; such as the pyrolatry ol 
 the Persians, the Phallic rites, &c. (See Moore's History 
 of Ireland, vol. i., ch. 2, for a variety of these opinions, anil 
 their authors.) 
 
 TOXICO'LOGY. (Gr. toIikov, poison, and \oyos, a dis- 
 course.) Poisons have been divided by Orfila ami Christi- 
 son into irritants, narcotics, and narcotico-acrids : the first 
 class including those whose sole or predominating symptoms 
 are those of irritation or inflammation ; the second, those 
 which produce stupor, delirium, and other affections of the 
 brain and nervous system; and the third, those which are 
 of a mixed character. 
 
 The chief effects of irritants are upon the alimentary ca- 
 nal, exciting inflammation, and sometimes ulceration of the 
 tongue, fauces, and oesophagus, difficult deglutition, nausea, 
 vomiting, and heat and pain of the stomach, with more or 
 less tension of the abdomen, and pain on pressure. The 
 sickness is generally accompanied by extreme anxiety and 
 anguish, and the matters vomited consist, in the first in 
 stance, of any food that may have been in the stomach, 
 with portions of the poison itself, and afterwards of viscid 
 mucus, often streaked with blood and tinged with bile ; the 
 pain afterwards extends throughout the intestines, and mu- 
 cous, bilious, and often bloody diarrhoea succeeds. The 
 skin is cold and clammy, the pulse quick and feeble, the 
 breathing often difficult, and the countenance expressive ot 
 extreme anxiety. 
 
 JVarcotic poisons induce a train of symptoms of a very 
 distinct character: headach, vertigo, confused vision, stupor 
 convulsions, paralysis, and coma, are their leading el: 
 but each particular poison is usually attended by certain 
 peculiarities in the succession, violence, or generic charac- 
 ter of the symptoms, which assist the experienced practi- 
 tioner not only in determining the nature of the poison, brt 
 in discriminating between its effects and those of disease. 
 
 The symptoms of the narcotico-acrid poisons usually con- 
 sist ot those of the two former classes blended, and are of 
 ten of a Very complicated character ; for the most part, how- 
 ever, their narcotic and irritant effects appear to be incom 
 patible. In large doses, narcoticism predominates; in small 
 er, irritation: it is rarely that both are coexistent. 
 
 In the following tabular view of the principal poisons i 
 the above classes, they are enumerated in the order in whicl 
 they are described by Dr. Christison, to whose Treatise on 
 Poisons the reader is referred for details which would be 
 quite incompatible with the space which can be allotted 
 the subject in this work. Under the heads, however, < 
 many of the individual substances mentioned in the follow 
 ing list, we have elsewhere given particulars respectii 
 their composition and properties, and sometimes referred to 
 their toxicological history. 
 
 I. Irritant Poisons. 
 Mineral acids. Arsenic and its compounds 
 
 Phosphorus. Mercurial compounds 
 
 Acetic acid. Salts of copper. 
 
 Oxalic acid. Antimonial poisons 
 
 Fixed alkalies. Salts of tin. 
 
 Nitre. Salts of gold. 
 
 Alkaline and earthy chic- Salts of silver. 
 
 rides. 
 Lime. 
 
 Ammonia and its salts. 
 Alkaline sulphurets. 
 Barytes. 
 
 Vegetable acrids. 
 Cantharides. 
 Venomous serpents. 
 
 Salts of bismuth 
 
 Salts of chromium 
 
 Salts of zinc. 
 
 Lead poisons. 
 
 Diseased and decayed animal 
 
 matter. 
 Mechanical irritants 
 
 Opium. 
 Hyoscyamus. 
 Lactuca. 
 Solatium. 
 
 III. 
 Nightshade. 
 Thornapple. 
 Tobacco. 
 Hemlock. 
 Monkshood. 
 Hellebore. 
 Squill. 
 Meadow saffron 
 
 IJ. Narcotic Poisons. 
 
 Hydrocyanic acid. 
 Carbazotic acid. 
 Poisonous gases. 
 
 NARCOTICO-ACRln POISONS. 
 
 Strychnia. 
 Cocculus Indicus 
 Upas. 
 
 Poisonous fungi. 
 Poisonous grain. 
 Alcohol. 
 Ether. 
 F.nipyreumatii' olli 
 
 The treatment of cases of poisoning must, ol course, vnrj 
 with the nature of the poison, the quantity taken, and the 
 peculiarities of the individual. In almost all cases, coplaM 
 
TOXODON. 
 
 Voattting should he excited as soon as possible, by tickling 
 ml by emetics, such especially as sulphate of 
 icuanha with emetic tartar; the former, how- 
 si ten-grain doses dissolved in a little warm water, 
 . , .itcd every ten or fifteen minutes till it freely ope- 
 rally most effectual. The use of the stomach- 
 pump should also lie resorted to. The vomiting should he 
 kept op, ;tnd the stomach washed out with bland albumin- 
 ous or mucilaginous fluids, such as milk, barley-water, flour 
 and water, or ihin paste, &c. ; sometimes sugar and water. 
 Tlic following is a short summary of the antidotes which 
 may be resorted to, in reference to particular poisons. 
 They should, of course, be administered as speedily as 
 
 I. Pot Mineral ileitis, or Acetic and Oxalic Jlcid : Chalk, 
 or whiting and water; magnesia and water; soap and wa- 
 ter; followed by albuminous diluents, such as milk, and 
 White of eggs mixed with water. 
 
 '2. Jllkalies, Soda. Potash, JJmmonia, &c. : Vinegar, or any 
 mild acid and water, or even very dilute mineral acids, such 
 as water acidulated by them ; olive oil, almond oil. 
 
 nic : Kinetics; and then milk, gruel, thick barley- 
 water, and other similar diluents, in lari;e quantities. 
 
 4. Corrosive Sublimate: White of egg and water; miik 
 and cream ; decoction of cinchona; infusion of galls. 
 
 3. Sulphate of Copper and other Cupreous Poisons : Sugar 
 and water; white of egg and water. 
 
 t>. Jlntimunial Poisons : Warm milk, gruel, or barley- 
 water; infusion of galls; decoction of cinchona. 
 
 7. Mttrate of Silver : Copious draughts of warm salt and 
 
 8. Sulphate of Zinc : Solution of carbonate of soda in 
 water, with milk, and mucilaginous or farinaceous liquids. 
 
 ; ate of Lead: Emetics; solution of sulphate of soda 
 in water; milk; white of egg and water. 
 
 10. Opium and its Preparations : Emetics; strong coftee ; 
 dashing cold water upon the face and breast; pieventing 
 torpor by forced exercise. 
 
 II. Prucsic Jlcid : Ammoniacal stimulants cautiously ap- 
 plied to the nose; ammonia, or sal volatile, in repeated 
 small doses; small doses of solution of chlorine in water; 
 small doses of chloride of lime in water. 
 
 12. Strychnia and Vegetable Jllkaloids : Infusion of gait 
 nuts; decoction of cinchona ; emetics. 
 
 •DON. (Gr. tq\ov, abow, and oSovc, a tooth.) An 
 extinct genus of quadruped connecting the Pachydermal 
 Wilhtfhe Undent order, ami distinguished by the curved 
 form :h. The only known species, Tozodon 
 
 platen* t.--, Owen, was as large as the hippopotamus, and ap- 
 10 have been restricted to the warmer parts of South 
 Amei 
 
 TO'XOTiE. (Gr. ro£ov, o bow.) In Greek Military His- 
 tory, bowmen. In the Plays of Aristophanes, the toxotte 
 mentioned, like the French "archers," are a kind of police, 
 employed to keep order in the assemblies of the people and 
 on other public occasions. 
 
 TRA'BEA. In Roman Antiquities, the robe used at first 
 by the kings, but afterwards by consuls and augurs. The 
 purple trabea was used only on the occasion of great sacri- 
 The second sort, of purple and w bite, was commonly 
 worn by consuls on state occasions. A third, of purple and 
 scarlet, was the dress of the augurs. 
 
 TEABEA'TION. (Lat. Indies, a beam.) In Architec- 
 ture, the same as entablature ; which see. 
 
 •J RA'CHEA. (Gr. rpaxcia, from vpa\vi, rough.) The 
 windpipe. A cartilaginous and membranous tube through 
 Which the air passes into and out of the lungs. Its upper 
 extremity is called the larynx, and consists of five cartilages. 
 The uppermost forms a kind of valve at the mouth of the 
 larynx or glottis, and is called the epiglottis : it closes the 
 passage in the act of swallowing. The sides of the larynx 
 ate formed by the aretenoid cartilages, and the anterior part 
 of the thyroid and cricoid or annular cartilages: these may 
 be felt under the skin in the front of the neck. These car- 
 tilages are united by elastic ligaments, and are acted upon 
 by appropriate muscles, so as to modify the dimensions and 
 form of the aperture in the act of speaking : they are mois- 
 tened by a mucous secretion. The canal from the larynx 
 downwards is called trachea, till it divides into two bronchia 
 opposite the fourth or fifth dorsal vertebra. They are kept 
 open, for the free passage of the air, by their elastic car- 
 tilaginous texture, which consists of rings with intervening 
 membrane and muscular fibres, 
 
 Tkachex, in Botany, are what are now called spiral 
 Is, which received that name in consequence of their 
 being considered the respiratory tubes of plants. Trachen- 
 chvma. is a tissue composed of trachea?. 
 
 TEA CHEAIUES, Trachearia. (Gr. rpaxeia, the wind- 
 pipr.) The name of an order of the cl ass Jirachnida, in- 
 cluding those which breathe l>v means of trachea;. 
 
 TRACHE'LIDANS, TrachelideB. (Gr. rpu X n\oi, a neck.) 
 The name of a family of Coleopterous insects, comprising 
 
 TRADE WINDS, 
 
 those which have the head supported on a kind of pedicle 
 or neck. 
 
 TRACHE'LIPODB, Trachelipoda. (Gr. rp t , X '^og, and 
 rovi, a foot.) The name given by Lamarck to an order ol 
 
 Motluaks, i prehending all those which have a free and 
 
 flattened foot attached to the under side of the part of the 
 body whicli be considers as analagous to a neck. The order 
 corresponds nearly with the I'eclinilyanchiate (,'asteropods 
 ofCuvter. * 
 
 TRACHEOCELE. (Gr.r/>ax£«», and Kip\n, a tumour.) A 
 tumour upon the trachea; an enlargement of the thyroid 
 gland. See Bronchocele. 
 
 TRACHEO'TOMY. (Gr. rpnxtia, and Ttpvw, I cut.) 
 The operation of making an opening into the trachea in 
 cases of threatened suffocation. 
 
 TRACHl'NUS. (Gr. rpa\v(, rough.) A genus of spiny- 
 flnned fishes, characterized by their compressed body and 
 approximated eyes: two dorsal fins; the tirst short, and 
 with spinous rays; the second long, and with flexible rays. 
 The anal tin is very long; the operculum is armed with a 
 long spine directed backwards. By the wounds which the 
 species of Trachinus, usually called " weoveis." inflict with 
 
 tie ir opercular spine, they have become formidable to fish- 
 ermen of all nations ; and it is said that the French have a 
 police regulation, by which the fishermen are directed to 
 cut off the spines before they expose the fish lor sale. 
 
 TRACH'ITIB. Inflammation of the trachea. 
 
 TRA'CHYTK. i(ir. rpa\vi, rough.) A variety of lava 
 which is often porphyritlc, and when containing hornblende 
 and augite passes inn. the varieties ol trap called basalt, 
 greenstone, dolenie, &c. 
 
 TRACT, TREATISE. In Literature, both originally 
 from the same Latin word tractatus; the latter through the 
 French. It would be difficult to assign any reason for the 
 
 difference in signification between two words identical iii 
 origin and etymological meaning ; but the ftrsl i- now com- 
 monly used to describe short compositions, in which some 
 particular subject is "treated," generally in the form of a 
 pamphlet: the latter, more extensive works. 
 
 TRA'CTION. (I.at. traho, / draw.) The act of draw- 
 ing, or state of being drawn. In Mechanics, the angle of 
 traction is the angle which the direction of the pow er makes 
 with a given plane. 
 
 TRACTORS, METALLIC. Small ban. of metal which 
 were supposed to possess certain magnetic powers, and to 
 cure painful affections and tumours by being drawn over 
 the part They hore the name of their inventor, Perkins, 
 and were in considerable vogue about thirty years ago. A 
 number of wonderful cures, however, having been attested, 
 which were performed by means of spurious wooden Irac 
 tors, the imaginary virtues of the magnetic or metallic fell 
 into disrepute, and then into oblivion. 
 
 TRA'CTORY, or TKA'CTRIX. (Lat. traho, / draw). 
 in the geometry of curve lines, is the curve characterized 
 by this properly, that the tangent is always equal to a given 
 line. It was called the tractory by Huygens, because it 
 may be considered as described mechanically by a small 
 weight attached to one extremity of a thread, while the 
 other extremity is drawn along a given straight line. Bti» 
 in order that the curve may be described in this manner, it 
 is necessary to suppose the friction of the plane of traction 
 to be infinite, or at least to destroy at every instant the mo- 
 mentum which is generated by the motion of the small 
 weight, otherwise the direction of the motion of the de- 
 scribing point would not be a tangent to the curve. The 
 tractory has much analogy with the logarithmic whose 
 subtangent is constant. The evolute of the curve is the 
 common catenary. (D'Alembcrt, Ency. Methodique; Pea 
 cock's Examples, p. 174.) 
 
 TRADE. See Commerce. 
 
 TRADE WINDS, are winds which in the torrid zone, 
 and often a little beyond it, blow general'y from the same 
 quarter, varying, according to circumstances, from N. E 
 toS. E. 
 
 The cause of this wind is to he ascribed principally to tho 
 high comparative temperature of the torrid zone, combined 
 with the rotation of the earth from W. to E. The heated 
 air at the surface ascending into the higher regions of the 
 atmosphere, its place is supplied by the colder air rushing 
 from the poles ; which also becoming rarefied, ascends in 
 its turn, and is carried in the upper regions towards the 
 poles to supply the stream of the under current: these un- 
 der polar currents moving in progress towards the equator 
 from the zones where the earth's motion is slower, to others 
 where it is more rapid, acquire an apparent relative mo- 
 tion in a westerly direction. The current! from the two 
 hemispheres meeting near the equator, their meridional 
 motions are there destroyed, and they theiefore advance 
 together with the remaining motion from the eastward 
 round the globe. The re^U&rity of the trade winds is dis 
 turbed in some places bv 1-acal causes, and chiefly by the 
 sunerior rarefaction c/ the 'iir 0V6r land heated by the sun's 
 
 1257 
 
TRADITION. 
 
 jays. They extend farther to the northward or southward 
 according as the sun's declination is north or south ; and in 
 some places they become periodical, blowing one half of 
 the year in one direction, and the other half in the opposite 
 one. (See Monsoon.) In the great Pacific ocean, how- 
 ever, the trade wind blows with a uniform and gentle breeze 
 all the year round. The name of trade winds was given 
 them from their important influence in navigation. See 
 Winds. • 
 
 TRADI'TION. (Lat. trado, J deliver.) A truth of doc- 
 trine or fact, delivered or handed down to one from an- 
 other, and received on the faith that the first to whom it 
 was so delivered received it from an authentic source. In 
 common language, the word is used to signify records of 
 facts preserved in the memory of successive persons or 
 generations only,"iand not committed to writing. In The- 
 ology, tradition means, generally, that body of doctrine and 
 discipline supposed to have been put forth by our Saviour 
 or his inspired Apostles, and not committed to writing ; and 
 thus the word is used in a contrary sense from " Scripture." 
 And such traditions are of two sorts: tradition of doctrine 
 (such as that of the Trinity), which is commonly said to be 
 directly affirmed by tradition and proved by Scripture ; and 
 tradition of rites and ceremonies, called by Hooker " tradi- 
 tions ecclesiastical," or " ordinances made in the prime of 
 Christian religion, established with that authority which 
 Christ has left to his church in matters indifferent, and, on 
 that consideration, requisite to be observed till like authority 
 give just cause to alter them." (Eccl. Pol., v. 65.) 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to deny that Revelation may 
 have been communicated to man in this manner, as well as 
 in the form of Scripture. Therefore, when a Protestant 
 asserts that Scripture is the only rule of faith, he must 
 mean this only, that the evidence on which Scripture rests 
 is solid, while no particular tradition has sufficient evidence 
 to support it ; for if any tradition had evidence to support it, 
 there can be no d priori reason assigned why it should not 
 be as binding as any Scripture. " I make no scruple to 
 grant," says the high church writer Hammond, " that apos- 
 tolical traditions, such as are truly so, as well as apostoli- 
 cal writings, are equally the matter of that Christian's be- 
 lief, who is equally secured by the fidelity of the convey- 
 ance that as the one is apostolical writing, so the other is 
 apostolical tradition :" one of those unmeaning phrases 
 which are of such common occurrence in this widely spread 
 controversy ; for the only real questions are, whether we 
 can be " equally secured by the fidelity of the conveyance," 
 in the case of tradition and of Scripture 1 and, secondly, 
 who is to be the judge for us what is authentic tradition 
 and what is not 1 
 
 In the latter question lies the real difference, on this sub- 
 ject, between Romanist and Protestant. The former holds 
 tradition of equal authority with Scripture; but then he 
 also holds that the church, that is, the pope, with or with- 
 out a council, is the authoritative declarer of tradition. 
 
 It is curious to observe that at the Council of Trent this 
 fundamental difficulty, namely, who is to say what is tradi- 
 tion and what is not, struck the minds of the divines who 
 were contending to fix the doctrine of the Catholic church. 
 They were probably hardly agreed as to the form, rather 
 than the substance, of its solution. "All agreed," says 
 Paolo Sarpi, " that Christian faith is contained partly in 
 Scripture and partly in tradition. Yea, some said more: 
 that tradition was the only foundation of the Catholic doc- 
 trine ; for the Scripture itself is not believed but by tradi- 
 tion." But Vicenzo Lanello, a Franciscan friar, thought 
 ' that they ought first to treat of the church, which is a 
 more principal foundation ;" since " Scripture itself is found- 
 ed upon it," according to Saint Augustin's saying, and " that 
 no use can be made of traditions, except by grounding them 
 upon the same authority." But his opinion had no follow- 
 ers. " Some objected that the synagogues of the heretics 
 would also arrogate the authority of a church." Others 
 thought that the authority of the church was sufficiently 
 declared already. (Book 2.) Perhaps some confusion 
 would have been avoided if the father's suggestion had 
 prevailed : but there is no doubt that the Romanist, by tra- 
 dition, means tradition declared to be such by the church. 
 
 Protestants, on the other hand, without laying ' down as 
 a doctrine that tradition is equal to Scripture, have, in gen- 
 eral, assented to the proposition that an authentic tradition 
 of doctrine is binding; but on the question, what is the au- 
 thority competent to pronounce a tradition authentic, they 
 have wandered strangely indeed, from a reluctance to ad- 
 mit to its full extent that very right of private judgment on 
 which ihey founded their dissent from Rome. And this is 
 peculiarly the case with tt.ose reformed divines who dis- 
 like parting with the title "Catholic." 
 
 When the early Reformers, especially those of the Lu- 
 theran and Anglican schools, attacked a doctrine or prac- 
 tice of Rome, their first endeavour was generally to show 
 that it was not scrpitural ; their second, that it was not an- 
 1258 
 
 cient, i. e., did not rest on tradition. For this purpore, they 
 opposed to the authority of the church, as it existed in their 
 day, the authority of early fathers and councils, as expound- 
 ing the belief of an earlier age. Thus they recognised the 
 right of private judgment to try the authority of the exist- 
 ing church by comparing it with authorities of earlier times ; 
 they permitted each individual to apply for himself the his- 
 torical test. But at the same time they denied, more or less 
 directly, the right of private judgment to go farther, and 
 criticise the ancient authority itself; to examine, for in 
 stance, whether a doctrine acquiesced in, in the fourth cen 
 tury, might not have been altogether unknown to the first; 
 whether corruption in the church may not have commenced 
 at so very early a period as to invalidate greatly the testi- 
 mony even of the oldest father; and, lastly, whether tradi- 
 tions, resting on high historical authority, are or are not con 
 sistent with Scripture. And even to the present day, the 
 high church school of Anglican divinity does practically 
 consider all these as points without the reach of private 
 judgment. 
 
 Now this we cannot but think an untenable position 
 Either the church has and always had authority to declare 
 to us what is tradition, or it has not. If it had, then the 
 Reformation was an unlawful thing ab initio ; and no 
 church commencing in schism can be said to have a pure 
 and real existence. If it had not, then each man, in the last 
 resort, must judge for himself of the authenticity of what 
 is propounded to him as tradition. He will be bound to 
 judge with humility, respect, and submission ; but the de 
 cision belongs ultimately to the forum of his proper con 
 science. 
 
 He will, therefore, feel it necessary to examine the value 
 of the evidence for the doctrines or rules of discipline pre 
 sented to him as traditional, by the same principles oi'criti 
 cism which he would apply to other testimony ; not re 
 ceiving all in the mass, on the faith of any alleged adoption 
 of it by the church. For example, he finds that, scarcely 
 two centuries after the lifetimes of the Apostles, several 
 hundred bishops, convened from all parts of Christendom, 
 at the Council of Nice, declared that the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, as embodied iii the creed of that council, had ben: 
 "handed down" in their respective churches from the be- 
 ginning. He accepts this as evidence of the highest au- 
 thority to show that there was an oral teaching of that doc- 
 trine by the Apostles and their successors, corresponding 
 with the indications afforded, but not expanded into the 
 the same explicit form, in Scripture. But when he is re- 
 quired to receive the doctrines, for instance, of the Apos 
 tolical succession as commonly understood, or of the sanc- 
 tity of celibacy, or the use of language widely deviating 
 from that of Scripture respecting the Sacraments, on the 
 ground that these are "traditions," he holds himself at lib- 
 erty to inquire, first, whether the language of fathers anil 
 councils respecting them is distinct and consistent, when 
 freed from rhetorical exaggeration; next, whether it is not 
 least strong in the age nearest the Apostles, and increases 
 in force as we proceed lower; and, lastly, whether on all 
 these subjects their testimony was not likely to be warped 
 by the ordinary causes of error which throw discredit on 
 witnesses, and from which we have no right whatever to 
 imagine the Christian writers of the fourth, third, or second 
 centuries exempt; such as the ambition of the clergy, the 
 tendency to admit gnostic and heathen influences, and the 
 deficiency in solid judgment and reasoning power which 
 characterized the educated men of those ages. Again ; he 
 will not be influenced by the common Romish argument 
 already alluded to, and frequently in use among high An- 
 glican writers also, that " Scripture itself is found to be such 
 by tradition." Because we receive the testimony of early 
 Christian writers that such and such books were canonical, 
 i. e., received in the church in their time, it by no means 
 follows that we must receive their deductions from Scrip- 
 ture as having the form of tradition ; not even when tliey 
 style these the deductions of the church. Such reasoning 
 would not pass for eminent in any but theological contro- 
 versy. We receive the testimony of Xenophon and Plato 
 as to the actions and sayings of Socrates ; we do not, there- 
 fore, admit as authoritative their exposition of his philoso- 
 phy, not even as an authoritative representation of what 
 was regarded as his philosophy at Athens ; and yet they 
 were his cotemporaries. Irenreus, the earliest father on 
 whom we depend for anything like extensive testimony to 
 tradition, lived a hundred years after the Apostles, and a 
 hundred years of much corruption and dissention. 
 
 Lastly, he will know that if an overweening contempt of 
 the authority of early uninspired writers, and of old eccle- 
 siastical traditions, Is most unbecoming a Christian inquirer, 
 an exaggerated and superstitious veneration for them, if" a 
 more amiable error, is scarcely a less serious one. There 
 could be no traditions more venernble, more sanctioned by 
 the apparent " authority of the church," than those of the 
 Jews at the time of our Saviour ; yet our Saviour does not 
 
TRAGACANTH. 
 
 on thru account in any degree mitigate his condemnation 
 of them, nr speak of them as entitled even to respect, when 
 he denounces those who teach for doctrines the command- 
 ments of men. 
 
 (It would he impossible to refer to particular works OB 
 this subject of controversy. The extreme Protestant view 
 of tradition is no where so fully argued as by Chillimiworlh, 
 passim. For a concise and lair view, on high church prin- 
 ciple, of the estimate of tradition by the English Reformers, 
 <:kurck of Christ, vol. i., p. 403, 504.) 
 TRA'GACANTH. A variety of gum: it is the produce 
 l/tU TragacantJia, a native of Africa, and 
 Ml twisted or flattened pieces, while or yel- 
 ind translucent or marly opaque. When put into 
 •TStei they swell up, and gradually form a gelatinous or 
 pasty mass; not dissolving into a clear solution, as is the 
 ': cum arable. An analogous Kind of gum is found 
 in olher plants, and the generic name of tragacanthin is 
 sometimes applied to it. 
 
 TRAGEDY. (Gr. rftii) of, a goat, and (oi)n, a song.) A 
 species of drama, in which the diction is elevated and the 
 catastrophe melancholy. The name is usually derived 
 from the ancient Greek custom of leading about a goat in 
 i at the festivals of Bacchus in whose honour those 
 choral odes were sung which were the groundwork of the 
 Attic tragedy. Some recent writers, however, have given 
 tplanatJon of the word Tpdyos, considering it an an- 
 cient Gn and translating it "melancholy," or 
 "lament Mkama. 
 
 TI!A<;i OCMEDY. In Literature, a compound name, 
 invented to express a class of the drama which should par- 
 take both of tragedy and comedy. If the mixture of serious 
 with humorous portions in the piece alone entitles it to this 
 name, then all the Hays of Sbakspeare r with the single ex- 
 ception of tht; Merry Wives of Windsor, to which some 
 add the Twelfth JV-'^Ar), as being pure comedies, belong to 
 »; us do, indeed, almost -j II vrie works of the old 
 English dramatists. Hut TroilS and Cressida alone, of 
 the Plays of Shakspeare, bears this title in old editions : on 
 what '.cconnt we do not know. French critics define the 
 
 the i cent of tin fcragl-comi 
 up' .ip;'.v or bloody. Dacier condemns them as illegitimate. 
 diai) poet, wrote an essay on the subject. 
 TRAGUS, in Anatomy, is the term applied to the small 
 cartilaginous eminence at the entrance of the external car; 
 in the adult it is beset with small hairs. 
 
 THAJE'CTORY. (Lai. trajectus.) The curve which a 
 body describes In space ; as a planet or a comet in its orbit, 
 or a stone thrown obliquely upward? in the air. The form 
 of the trajectory depends on the initial velocity with which 
 the body is projected, the law and direction of the forces 
 which act upon it, and the resistance of the medium in 
 which it moves. The planetary orbits would be strictly 
 elliptical, were it not for the disturbins forces which they 
 exert on each other; and but for the resistance of the air, a 
 body projected obliquely from the earth would describe a 
 portion of a parabolic curve. 
 TRA'MMEL. (Old French, tramel.) An instrument 
 for drawing ovals, much in use among 
 -J ! joiners and other artificers. It con- 
 sists of a cross, C D E F, in which are 
 cut two grooves at right angles to 
 each other ; and a beam, A B, car- 
 rying two pins, G, H (which are 
 clamped to A B, and slide in their 
 grooves), as well as a pencil P: these 
 parts are called the cross and the 
 beam. By turning A B rouna, the 
 pins G, H slide along the grooves, 
 and the pencil P describes an elliptic 
 curve. A demonstration of the properties of this instru- 
 ment may be seen at p. 700, vol. xiv. of Hutton's Abridg- 
 ment of the Philosophical Transactions. 
 TRAMONTANE. See Ultramontane. 
 TRANSCENDE'NTAL. In Algebra, a term applied to 
 any quantity which cannot be represented by an algebraic 
 equation of a finite number of terms with determinate in- 
 dices. Such quantities include all exponential and logarith- 
 mic expressions and trigonometrical lines in terms of the 
 arc. Thus a*, z*, log. z, tan. x, Sec., are transcendental ex- 
 pressions ; and any equation into which such expressions 
 enter i» called a transcendental equation, and any curve de- 
 fined by such an equation is called a transcendental curve. 
 But by transcendental equations are sometimes meant 
 such differential equations as can only bo integrated by 
 means of curves, logarithms, or series. 
 
 Trans' i:\i.kntal. A word used by German philoso- 
 phers to express that which transcends or goes beyond the 
 limits of actual experience. This general meaning is some- 
 what restricted by Kant, who draws a distinction between 
 the transcendental and the transcendent. The transcend- 
 ent;.! he defines to be that which, though it could never be 
 
 TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. 
 
 derived from experience, yet is necessarily connected vritl 
 experience, and which may lie shortly expressed as the in 
 tellectual form, the matter of which is supplied by sense 
 "1 call," says he, "all knowledge transcendental, whict 
 has regard In general not so much to objects as to our mode 
 of knowing or apprehending objects (tint is to say, to 
 formal knowledge), so far as this is conceived to be jiossi- 
 ble d priori. A system of such co nceptio ns would be named 
 transcendental philosophy, as the system of all the princi- 
 ples of pure reason." The transcendent, on the contrary, is 
 that which regards those principles as objectively real to 
 which Kant assigns only a subjective or formal reality, and 
 consequently is by him regarded as beyond the limits of the 
 human reason altogether. 
 
 TRA'NSEPT. (Lat. trans and septum.) In Architec 
 ture, the cross part of a cathedral which extends on the 
 north and south sides of 'he area between the nave and the 
 choir, and forming, as it were, the short arms of the cross 
 upon which the plan is laid out. 
 
 TRANSFIGURA'TION. The supernatural change 
 which is des cr ib ed to have taken place in the appearance 
 of Christ, when, as is recorded In Matth., xvii.: Mark, ix.; 
 Luke, ix., he look Peter, James, and John up into a high 
 mountain with him, and was transfigured before them, his 
 face shining as the sun, and his raiment showing white as 
 light. There ap|iearcd in conversation with him Moses 
 and Elias ; and the apostles erected three tabernacles or 
 tents to them. An ancient tradition assigns Mount Tabor 
 as the scene of this event, upon which three contiguous 
 grottoes havo been fashioned to represent the three taber- 
 nacles. 
 
 TRANSFU'SIDN. The injection of blood from one liv- 
 ing animal into another. It was at one time supposed thai 
 this operation might be resorted to, to sustain life in cases 
 of great loss of blood from accidental hemorrhages and other 
 causes; and that in certain cases of mental and bodily dis- 
 ease a cure might be effected by abstracting a large quanti- 
 ty of blood, and supplying iLs place by transfusion from an- 
 other animal, such as a calf or sheep. Some of these ex- 
 periments anpeared at first to be attended with success, 
 
 in which it was tried upon the human subject it proved 
 fatal. 
 
 TRA'NSIT (Lat. transitu*, passage), in Astronomy, la a 
 the culmination or passage of a celestial object across the 
 meridian of any place. The determination of the exact 
 times of such transits is one of the most important opera- 
 tions of practical astronomy, as it is by this means that the 
 differences of right ascensions, and consequently the rela- 
 tive situations of the fixed stars, and the motions of the 
 planets and comets in respect of the celestial meridians, be- 
 come known; and it is most easily and accurately effected 
 by the aid of the transit instrument, the nature and method 
 of using which will be explained under that term. 
 
 Transit is also used to signify the passage of an inferior 
 planet across the sun's disk. See Mercury and Venus. 
 
 TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. This important instru- 
 ment, called by the French instrument des passages, lunette 
 meridienne, consists essentially of a telescope firmly attach- 
 ed to a transverse horizontal "axis, the ends of which are 
 directed to the east and west points of the horizon. The 
 extremities of the axis are formed into cylindrical pivots of 
 exactly equal diameters, which rest in notches (technical- 
 ly called Y's, from their resemhance to that letter), formed 
 in metallic supports, susceptible of nice adjustment both 
 horizontally and vertically, so that the axis can be placed 
 perfectly horizontal, and at right angles to the plane of the 
 meridian in which the telescope moves. In the focus of the 
 eye-piece is placed a system of three, five, or sometimes 
 seven vertical and equidistant wires or spider lines, gener- 
 ally crossed by two horizontal ones, between which it is 
 convenient that the passage of objects over the vertical wires 
 should be observed. By means of adjusting screws the 
 diaphragm, or plate to which the wires are attached, is 
 brought into such a position that the middle vertical wire 
 intersects the optical axis of the telescope, in which posi 
 tion it is permanently fixed. 
 
 When the system of wires is brought into this position, 
 the middle one will be a visible representation of that part 
 of the meridian to which the telescope is directed ; and 
 when a star is seen to pass this wire, it is in the act of cul- 
 minating, or transiting the celestial meridian. The instant 
 of the transit is note3 on a clock or chronometer, which is 
 an indispensable accompaniment of the instrument; and ir. 
 order to render the observation more certain, the instant at 
 which the star passes each of the vertical wires is noted, 
 when practicable, and the mean taken as the true instant 
 and passing the vertical wire. The times at which the 
 sun and certain principal stars pass the meridian of Green 
 wich (and consequently the meridian of any other place 
 whose longitude from Greenwich is known) being iriven in 
 the Nautical Almanac, the comparison of the time indicated 
 
 1259 
 
TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. 
 
 Dy the clock and the time in the almanac gives the clock 
 error ; and by observing the same stars from day to day the 
 tlock rate is determined. In this manner we are enabled 
 to assign the exact interval of sidereal time between the 
 transits of the different stars, and consequently the differ- 
 ence of their right ascensions. For determining the abso- 
 lute place of a celestial body it is necessary to know also 
 its polar distance, which is given by the mural circle ; so 
 that the transit instrument and mural circle are the two 
 essential instruments of an astronomical observatory. 
 
 The foregoing diagram represents the portable transit in- 
 strument, as at present constructed by Troughton and 
 Simms, when the telesco]>e does not exceed twenty inches 
 or two feet in focal length. The telescope tube A A is in 
 two parts, connected together by a sphere B, which also re- 
 ceives the larger ends of the two cones CC placed at right 
 angles to the telescope, and forming the horizontal axis. 
 The axis terminates in two cylindrical pivots, which rest in 
 V's fixed at the top of the vertical standards D D. One of 
 [he Y's has a small motion in azimuth, by means of which 
 the telescope can be adjusted exactly to the plane of the 
 meridian. A spirit level E, which is made to stride across 
 the telescope and rest on the two pivots, serves to show 
 when the axis is horizontal. The standards D D are fixed 
 by screws upon a brass circle F, wnich rests on three 
 screws, A, c, d, forming the feet of the instrument, and by 
 which the levelling is performed. G G are two oblique 
 braces for the purpose of steadying the supports. On the 
 extremity of one of the pivots, which extends beyond its Y, 
 is fixed a divided circle H, which turns with the axis ; 
 while a double vernier remains stationary in a horizontal 
 position, and shows the altitude to which the telescope is 
 elevated. The verniers are set horizontal by means of a 
 spirit level /, and are fixed in their position by a brass arm 
 ph, clamped to the supports. The whole of this apparatus 
 is moveable with the telescope, and when the uxis is re- 
 versed can be attached in the same manner to the opposite 
 standard. For the pur-pose of illuminating the wires when 
 observations are made at night, one of the pivots is pierced, 
 and admits the light of a lamp I, which is thrown upon the 
 wires by a reflector placed diagonally in the sphere B. 
 {Si m ma's Treatise on Mathematical Instruments.) 
 
 Adjustments. —In practice, the transit instrument is sub- 
 ject to three principal errors. 1st, The axis may not be per 
 feclly horizontal, which is called the error of inclination. 
 2d, The optical axis of the telescope may not be quite per- 
 pendicular to the axis of the instrument, which is called 
 the error of collimation. And 3d, The axis may not be ex- 
 actly east and west, or the optical axis may not be exactly 
 in the meridian, which is called the error- of azimuth. To 
 place the axis exactly horizontal, the level E is suspended 
 In the proper manner from the pivots, and the air-bubble 
 brought to the middle by means of the foot screws. The 
 level is then reversed, that is, the end which was turned to 
 the west is now turned to the east; and if the air-bubble 
 still stands at the middle, the axis is horizontal ; if not, the 
 foot screws are adjusted until it stands nt the middle in both 
 positions of the level. The error of collimation is detected 
 by pointing the telescope to a distant well-defined terrestrial 
 object, and bisecting it by the middle vertical wire ; the 
 telescope is then lifted out of its supports nnd reversed 
 'that is, the end of the axis which was turned to the west 
 1260 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 is now turned to the east), and brought again to hear on the 
 same object. If the middle wire is found to be still bisected, 
 the adjustment is perfect; if not, the diaphragm is moved a 
 little to the right or left by means of the adjusting screws, 
 until the middle wire bisects the object in both positions of 
 the axis. To place the instrument exactly in the meridian 
 some knowledge of practical astronomy is required. It is 
 easy to place it nearly in the meridian by the transit of the 
 sun at apparent noon, or of any star whose nulii ascension 
 is known; and when in this approximate position to the 
 meridian, the deviation may be discovered and corrected in 
 various ways. One of the simplest is to observe two suc- 
 cessive transits of Polaris (or any circumpolnr star) above 
 and below the pole. If the interval between the two tran- 
 sits is exactly twelve sidereal hours, the telescope is exactly 
 in the meridian; and the difference of the Interval from 
 twelve hours shows both the amount and the direction of 
 the azimuthal error. Another method consists in observing 
 the transits of two stars differing considerably from each 
 other (not less than 50°) in declination, and whose right as- 
 censions (which should be nearly the same) arc accurately 
 known. The deviation from the meridian, in seconds of 
 time, will then be given by this formula (AT — A (A R) 
 cos. N cos. S , „...._ 
 
 -i — : — ... , ,,, =• ; where A T is the diflerence ot the 
 
 sm. (N + S) cos. L 
 observed times of the two transits in sidereal seconds; A 
 (A R) the observed difference of right ascensions, also in 
 seconds of time; N the declination of one of the stars, 
 supposed north; S the declination of the other, supposed 
 south; and L the latitude of the place. If A T is greater 
 than A (A R), the deviation will be to the east ; and if 
 less, to the west. A few repetitions of this process will 
 suffice to place the instrument exactly in the meridian. In 
 the case of fixed instruments, a meridian mark is usually 
 made on some distant object, and permanently established 
 for the convenience of ready reference. 
 
 The transit instrument appears to have been invented by 
 the Danish astronomer Roemer, by whom it was first de 
 scribed in 1700, in the Miscellanea Berolincnsia, tome iii 
 Dr. Halley placed a transit instrument in the Green wicl. 
 observatory in 1721, the telescope of which was about live 
 feet in length; but it was little used until 1742, when Brad- 
 ley commenced a regular series of meridional observations 
 The transit instrument at present in use in the Royal Ob- 
 servatory is the workmanship of Troughton, and was set 
 up in 1816. The object-glass of the telescope is 5 inches in 
 clear aperture, and the focal length 10 feet. Its horizontal 
 axis, including the pivots, is 3 feet 10 inches. There are 
 seven fixed vertical wires in the focus, and two horizontal 
 axes; and the distance of the former from each other is 
 such that an interval of about 183 seconds elapses while a 
 star in the equator passes between each adjoining two. 
 
 For full details respecting the construction and adjust- 
 ments of this important instrument, see Pearson',* Practical 
 Astronomy ; Memoirs R. Jlstr. Society, vol. i. ; and the ar- 
 ticle in the P/nvi/ Cyclopedia. 
 
 TRANSITION ROCKS. A Geological term, formerly 
 applied to the older secondary series, under the idea that 
 they were formed during the transition of the globe from 
 the uninhabited to the inhabited state. See Geology. 
 
 TRA'NSITORY ACTIONS. In English Law. actions 
 in which the venue, i. e., place alleged in the declaration, is 
 immaterial, and consequently the trjal may be had in any 
 county; opposed to local actions, in which the trial can 
 only be had in the county where the alleged injury was 
 committed. To the former class belong actions of contract 
 and quasi contract (assumpsit, debt, &c.) .Set' Action 
 Venue. 
 
 TRANSLATION. In Literature, the rendering of a lit 
 erary work from the original language into another. The 
 peculiar merits and peculiar difficulties of successful trans- 
 lation have often been pointed out by critics, but their judi 
 cious directions have been seldom realized by authors In 
 truth, those difficulties require a talent of so high an order 
 to surmount them, that few writers are fit to undertake the 
 j office of translators (we mean of works of any high liters 
 ry merit), except those whose genius has more congenial 
 occupation in original composition; for notwithstanding 
 Dryden's sarcastic remark, that "imitation of nn author is 
 the most advantageous way for a translator to show him- 
 self, but it is the greatest wrong which can be done to the 
 memory and reputation of the dead," we are inclined to 
 doubt whether, in reality, imitation be not the more advan- 
 tageous method of the two. " Every author,' 1 says an able 
 critic (Edin. Review, vol. xxxvi.), "is a mannerist. This 
 manner constitutes, as it were, the identity of each author; 
 it is what the translator ought to catch, and is, nevertheless. 
 the very thine which is apt to evaporate in translation." 
 Or, to borrow again the language of Dryden, the office of 
 the translator is (-specially to render the "particular turn 
 of thoughts and expression which are the characters that 
 distinguish, and, as it were, individuate him from all wii 
 
TRANSLATION. 
 
 tors." But nothing is so arduous as the attempt to catch 
 this spirit or manner, when the writer is also bound by the 
 duty of rendering faithfully the sense. The imitator, freed 
 from the Decently of exactly copying the sense, is far more 
 at liberty to devote himself to seizing the evanescent qual- 
 ities of the manner. This truth might, as it appears to us, 
 be exemplified by many instances. Terence and Horace 
 seem to nave aimed at familiarizing Roman ears with the 
 best poetry of Greece, not by translation, but by imitation. 
 Indent, much as the Romans borrowed from the Greeks, 
 actual translation seems to have been uncommon; the only 
 
 Which we at this moment recollect are ( i< i- 
 ro'* version of Aratus, and that by Catullus of a poem of 
 Callimachus. Among modern authors, which of the En- 
 glish translators of Horace has approached half so near 
 Pope in his .Satires ! Where, among all the trans- 
 lations of the Greek drama, shall we find anything so thor- 
 oughly Imbued with the spirit of that noble order of poetry 
 
 l . Igonistes of Milton, and the Bride of Mes- 
 sina of Schiller I What translator of Lucan is nearly so 
 leille ? We do not mean to disparage the 
 utility oS "translations, or the merits of some few among 
 ■i «li have passed into popularity; but as, with 
 scarcely an exception, they are in relation to the originals, to 
 use the w( ll-known phrase of Cervantes, only the "wrong 
 te tapestry turned outwards," so, in themselves, 
 
 considered as literary works, they generally leave an im- 
 pression of that peculiar stiffness which belongs to all copies. 
 
 observations apply with greater force to poetical 
 than prose translations ; and. among the latter, more to 
 works of taste and fancy than to scientific or historical 
 treatises. !n the latter, an easy style, clearness, and fideli- 
 ty appear of greater Importance In translation, than the 
 more difficult feat of catching the manner and spirit of the 
 author. In literary, and especially poetical translation. 
 much controversy has been carried on between the advo- 
 cates of literal and loose adherence to the sense of the 
 author. Each has its advantages and merits ; but the last, 
 approaching most nearly to the character of imitation, ap- 
 
 i:-, on the whole, the better extreme of the two. 
 | Itinct styles of translation are not ill characterized 
 
 by a lively writer in the Quarterly Review (on "Mitchell's 
 Aristophanes"), vol. xxiii., p. 482. 
 
 " It is the office of the translator to represent the forms 
 of language according to the intention with which they are 
 employed: he will therefore, In his translation, make use 
 of the phrases in his own language to which use and cus- 
 tom have assigned a similar conventional import; taking 
 care, however, to avoid those which, from their form, or any 
 other circumstances, are connected with associations exclu- 
 sively belonging to modern manners. He will likewise, if 
 he is ca| CUtlng his work upon a philosophic 
 
 principle, endeavour to render the personal and local allu- 
 sions into the genera of which the local or personal varie- 
 ty employed by the original author is merely the accident- 
 al type, and to reproduce them in one of those permanent 
 forms which are connected with the universal and immu- 
 table habits of mankind. The faithful translator will 
 not venture to take liberties of this sort; he renders into 
 English all the conversational phrases according to their 
 grammatical and logical form, without any reference to the 
 current usage which has affixed to them an arbitrary sense, 
 and appropriated them to a particular and definite purpose. 
 The spirited translator, on the contrary, employs the cor- 
 responding modern phrases; but he is apt to imagine that a 
 peculiar liveliness and vivacity may be imparted to his per- 
 formance by the employment of such phrases as are particu- 
 larly connected with modern manners; and if at any time 
 he feels more tlian usually anxious to avoid the appearance 
 of pedantry, he thinks he cannot escape from it in any way 
 more effectually than by adopting the slang and jargon of 
 the day. The peculiarities of ancient times he endeavours 
 to represent by substituting in their place the peculiarities 
 of his own time and nation." 
 
 lie proceeds to exemplify these distinctions by an instance 
 from Aristophanes : 
 
 XotSopttaSat i'oi TOcirct 
 uvlpaf irotnras iioirtp aproirii)\iiac. 
 This, says he, the faithful translator will render literally, 
 "scold each other like bakers' wives." The spirited 
 translator will adopt the modern popular phrase most near- 
 ly analogous — " like oyster wenches." The translator par 
 excellence will choose a phrase rendering the particular and 
 obsolete expression of the ancients by a general equivalent 
 which must be equally appropriate in the idiom of all 
 limes and countries — "like market-women," or "huck- 
 sters." Without cavilling at this ingenious piece of criti- 
 cism, we must be permitted to doubt whether a translation 
 of a highly idiomatic author conducted on this last princi- 
 ple would not preserve his general meaning with the serious 
 •acrifice of his spirit. 
 
 TRANSLUCENCY. 
 
 In most modern languages there are some few transla- 
 tions which have attained celebrity. In English, Fairfax's 
 Tasso, one of the earliest, has great beauty, but is rather 
 enervate. The versions of Dryden are distinguished !>v 
 their poetical power; though we agree with Jlr. Saltan 
 (Introiliirtiun to the Literature of Europe, iv. .">;)<>), that he 
 did not give the example as well as precept of rendering 
 the "particular turn of thought and expression" of his 
 authors. The utter want of individuality in his respective 
 translations is plainly perceptible; lor Instance, in that 
 from the fourth book of Lucretius. (It mi\ t» 
 in passing, that the remarks of Dryden on the art of trans- 
 lation. Of which so much has been said, are chiefly to he 
 found in his prefaces to Ovid's Epistles, and to his Second 
 ■iy.) Pope's Homer is a bad and careless version 
 (critically speaking) of the Latin translation of the Greek 
 poet: but it has one essential characteristic of the original, 
 namely, his sustained energy: which renders it, even now, 
 more popular than the cold, though not unfreipiently digni- 
 fied and elegant work of Cowper. Some portions of Cum- 
 berland's versions from . Instophanes deserve mention, al- 
 though on the whole he is prosaic, and has not dared to 
 follow the bold tliL'ht or imitate the metrical variety of his 
 original. Mitchell's Aristapkanta has been much admired ; 
 but it is wearisome from the continual striving' alter efl'ert. 
 Some of Elton's translations are very pleasing, especially 
 of parts of Ilesiod. Shelley has left two of the most beau- 
 tiful essays in this line of composition which are to be 
 found in our language: the Hymn to .Mercury of Homer, 
 and the H'tilpurgis Might Sctne from Goethe's Faust. In 
 the latter, indeed, he laboured under the disadv.v 
 
 an inadequate knowledge of the language; but n< of 
 
 Goethe's more critical translators (not even Dr. Anster) has 
 so powerfully seized his "turn of thought and expression." 
 The same cannot be said of Byron's performance— the first 
 book of the Morgantc Maggiore ; which is, however, a 
 remarkable feat of dexterity, from its extreme llterafaMM : 
 a feat in the same kind as Lord Brougham's recent version 
 of the De Corona of Demosthenes. Mickle's J.usiad, 
 though now little read, is one of the most poetical of Eng 
 lish tran> la lions. Coleridge's IVallenstein is a truly won 
 derful work. So carelessly written that the poet has omit 
 ted whatever he found difficult, or thought unornamental 
 it is so exact and so spirited, that the reader is eonttanti] 
 impressed with the idea of Schiller himself rewriting his 
 own drama in English, with here and there a variation as 
 perfectly Schiller-like as the German original. Among 
 prose translations, Philemon Holland's numerous oneB, par 
 ticularly that of Pliny, are still occasionally referred to by 
 literary antiquaries, for their quaintness rather than their 
 merit. Melmoth's Epistles of Cicero and Pliny,once much 
 admired, are polished but coid. Gordon's Tacitus is a cred- 
 itable attempt at rendering an extremely difficult author. 
 Among our numerous translators from the German in the 
 present times, none bears so high a reputation as Mrs. 
 Austin. Mr. C. Lewis's translation of Boeckh's Public 
 Economy of Jithens is a work of great merit. French is a 
 language affording so many advantages to the prose trans- 
 lator, from its condensation, its exactness, its rhetorical 
 force, that it is, perhaps, rather to be wondered at that 
 higher distinction has not been attained by individual 
 French writers in that line. But (ew French translators 
 are much remembered, except Amyot; and he chiefly for 
 his vernacular language, possessed of great sweetness as 
 well as quaintness, which formed a mode of style in the 
 10th century. The Chevalier Townley's translation of 
 Hudibras is worth mentioning as a phenomenon, from its 
 singular fidelity and spirit. Italian, on the other hand, 
 seems to be an unfit language for the purposes of transla- 
 tion, from extreme diffuseness ; yet it boasts of one trans- 
 lator of Tacitus (Davnnzati), who made a point of render- 
 ing that affectedly concise historian in fewer words than 
 the Latin. But of all modern languages, at least of those 
 generally known in the literary world, German has by far 
 the greatest capabilities for this purpose. This must be 
 conceded, a priori, by those who are familiar with its pe- 
 culiar powers and flexibility ; and not less by those who 
 are acquainted with this portion of its literature. Among 
 the most highly esteemed poetical works of this description 
 in Germany are Voss's Homer and Virgil; Streckfuss's 
 Dante; Schlegel and Gries's Calderon; Schlegel's Shaks 
 peare. In prose, the complicated syntax of the Germans, 
 perhaps we may add the as yet unformed character of their 
 prose style, detract from the natural powers of the Ian 
 guage ; still they have some excellent specimens of prose 
 translation, among which Strombeck's Tacitus holds a high 
 rank. (See also Ed. Rev., vol. xxxvi.) 
 
 TRANSLU'CENCY. (Lat.transluceo, I shine through.) 
 Semitransparency. The term is chiefly used in descriptive 
 mineralogy as applied to minerals which admit of a passage 
 of the rays of light, but through which objects cannot be 
 definitely distinguished. 
 
TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. 
 
 TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. See Metempsy- 
 chosis, Pythagorean Philosophy. 
 
 TKANSMUTA'TtON. In Alchemy, the operation of 
 changing the imperfect metals (as they were termed) into 
 the two precious— gold and silver. This was the great ob- 
 ject of that pretended science. See Alchemy. 
 
 Transmuta'tion, in Geometry, the change of one figure 
 or body into another of equal area or solidity ; as a trian- 
 gle into an equivalent square, a sphere into a cube, &x. 
 
 TRA'NSOM. (Lat. transenna, a stretched card.) In 
 Architecture, the horizontal piece framed across a double- 
 ight window : when a window has no transom it is called 
 
 clerestory window. 
 
 TRANSPARENCY, is that quality in certain bodies by 
 which they give passage to the rays of light, and is gener- 
 ally supposed to be a consequence of the homogeneity of 
 the matter of which they are composed. 
 
 TRANSPLANTING. The art of removing a plant or 
 tree from one situation to another in such a manner as not 
 to interrupt its growth. This operation is commonly per- 
 formed in the winter season, or in autumn and spring, when 
 vegetables are generally in a dormant state ; and the great 
 object of the transplanter is to lift as many of the roots as 
 possible without injuring them, and to replace them In a new 
 .situation to which the tree is transplanted in such a man- 
 ner as to facilitate their growth. With herbaceous plants 
 and young trees this is comparatively a simple operation ; 
 but with large trees it is an operation of skill, care, and la- 
 bour. The tree to be transplanted should be considerably 
 under the normal age of the species ; and to prepare it for 
 the change which it is to undergo, other trees or objects of 
 its own height, with which it is immediately surrounded, 
 should be taken away a year or two previous to removal, in 
 order to accustom the tree to the direct action of the light 
 and air on every part of it which is above ground. The 
 next part of the operation is to dig a trench round the tree, 
 equidistant from the trunk, at the distance of three, six, 
 nine, or twelve feet, according to its height, and to such a 
 depth as to cut through all the horizontal roots. The tree 
 may then be removed to its new situation, with or without 
 the earth attached to that part of the roots which remain ; 
 or, which is a more certain mode, the trench may be left 
 open during a year, in order that the sections of the ampu- 
 tated roots may heal over, and be prepared to emit new 
 ibroas roots alter the tree is transplanted; or, and which 
 is the more general mode, the trench may be filled up with 
 finely pulverized soil, in order to encourage the production 
 of librous roots; and at the end of a year, or of two years 
 if the tree is very large, it may be removed to its final situ- 
 ation. Hitherto we have said nothing of the trunk and 
 branches of the tree to be removed. In a moist climate, 
 such as that of Ireland or the west of Scotland, all the 
 branches may be retained; but in dry climates, such as 
 that of England, the branches require to be thinned out in 
 proportion to the roots cut oft*; and in fry and warm cli- 
 mates, such as that of central France, the greater number 
 of the branches require to be removed. The proper season 
 for transplanting all ligneous plants, whether small or large, 
 is in autumn, after the leaves of deciduous trees have drop- 
 ped and when the sap of evergreen trees, in consequence of 
 the decline of temperature, is comparatively in a dormant 
 state. 
 
 TRA'NSPORT. A vessel hired by government to con- 
 vey stores, troops, &c. 
 
 TRANSPORTA'TION. In Law, a species of punish- 
 ment. It is not known to the common law of England, and 
 was originally a commutation of punishment, pardon being 
 granted to various descriptions of offenders on condition of 
 undergoing transportation : generally for seven or fourteen 
 years, or for life. It is now a statutable punishment for a 
 great variety of offences. It is said to have been first in- 
 flicted as a punishment by 39Eliz. c. 4., enacting that such 
 rogues as were dangerous to the inferior people should be 
 banished. At that time the English plantations in North 
 America were the receptacles of transported convicts. Vir- 
 ginia, the Jerseys, Delaware, Maryland, &c. are the districts 
 which received the greatest accession to their population 
 from this cause. At the very commencement of the practice, 
 the same arguments were employed against it by Lord 
 Bacon which arc urged at this day by many law reformers. 
 "It is," he says, "a shameful and unblessed thing to take 
 the scum of people, and wicked condemned men, to be 
 those with whom you plant." It was not, however, brought 
 into general use as a punishment until 1718, by 4 Geo. I., 
 which act gave the courts a discretionary power to banish 
 felons entitled to clergy to the American plantations. After 
 the loss of the greater part of our American colonics, se- 
 veral years elapsed before the government fixed on any 
 place by way of substitute. At length, in 1787, Botany Bav, 
 on the coast of New South Wales, was fixed upon : 7C0 
 convicts were despatched that year. But when the expe- 
 dition arrived, it was discovered that Botany Bav (discovered 
 12G2 
 
 TRANSPOSITION. 
 
 by Cook in 1770) afforded no practicable site for the colony, 
 which was consequently landed at Port Jackson, where the 
 town of Sydney was founded. From that period to the pre- 
 sent, great numbers of convicts have been transported to 
 Port Jackson, and to the later founded colony of Van Die- 
 men's Land — our only two penal settlements. Much has 
 been done of late years towards regulating the condition of 
 the convicts in the colony, and subjecting the worst part of 
 them to severe privations; in particular, by transporting 
 some of them to particular depots, where they are liable tc 
 close inspection and hard labour. Among the writers who 
 have lately contended against the policy of continuing the 
 punishment of transportation, we may particularly mention 
 Archbishop Whately. (See his Tracts on Secondary Fan- 
 ishme?its and Transportation.) 
 
 Returning from transportation before the legal expiration 
 of sentence was an offence formerly punishable with death ; 
 but by 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 07, those who commit the offence, or 
 aid others in its commission, are punishable with transporta- 
 tion for life. A great mass of evidence on the effect of 
 transportation as a punishment for crime in Great Britain, 
 and its effect on the moral condition of the Australian 
 colonies, will be found in the volumes published by the two 
 committees of 1838 and 1839. It requires, however, to be 
 read with much caution, on account of the evident bias of 
 the committees themselves; for every one knows how ef- 
 fectually the inclinations of a committee give a colour to 
 the evidence taken before it, from the mode in which the 
 operation is performed. The views of that committee, re- 
 sembling those of Archbishop Whately, of the inutility of 
 the punishment here, and its mischievous effects in the 
 colonies, have had some effect on the proceedings of gov- 
 ernment; so far, at least, as to produce the abolition of the 
 practice of the immediate assignment of convicts as labour- 
 ers on their arrival, and the detention of considerable num- 
 bers in the hulks in lieu of the full execution of their sen- 
 tence. 
 
 Many of the vices ascribed to the system are undeniable; 
 but it must never be forgotten that the truly philosophical 
 or sensible mode of looking at it is by comparison w iih other 
 secondary punishments. Take any mode of punishment in 
 the abstract, and the eyes of the inquirer will soon detect so 
 much of mischief caused to the sufferers, and so little 
 visible good produced on the community, as to tempt him to 
 regard it as detestable. In the first place, transportation 
 must be considered without the bad practice of immediate 
 and indiscriminate assignment, which was a mere abuse. 
 Thus corrected, let it be compared with the best regulated 
 system of imprisonment: 1. In respect of its effects on the 
 convict himself; and it may be doubted whether in the 
 Penitentiary, whether on the silent or separate system, the 
 mind of the majority of sufferers goes through a more 
 wholesome process than in the penal settlements, notwith- 
 standing all we have heard even of the frightful condition 
 of Norfolk Island, which is not an ordinary sample. 2. In 
 respect of its effects on the ill-disposed population at home; 
 and here, defeclive as transportation is commonly supposed 
 to be, the experience of any one conversant with conns of 
 justice will decide which sentence appears to produce the 
 greatest impression when announced — imprisonment, or 
 banishment. And it must not be forgotten that it is not the 
 real severity, but the action on the imagination, which de- 
 ters from crime : the worst inflictions of the gaol are thought 
 little of by anyone except the sufferer, while the evils of 
 expatriation are greater in idea than in reality. 3. In respect 
 of the ultimate reform of the offender; and here transporta- 
 tion possesses an incalculable advantage over every other 
 secondary punishment. The convict who has undergone 
 •it begins life afresh: he remains, indeed, under some dis- 
 abilities, sufficient to mark the sense entertained by society 
 of the difference between him and the man unstained by 
 crime; but there is nothing to prevent his rising by regular 
 and honest conduct, if he chooses, into a station of comfort, 
 and even of respectability. The man who leaves a gaol 
 is utterly ruined : society has devised, perhaps can devise, 
 no means of extending to him a jus postliminii, and bring- 
 ing him back within the pale of citizenship. His character 
 is gone forever ; and if it could be really ascertained how 
 many among relapsed offenders are actually driven into the 
 recommission of crime by the hopelessness and infamy of 
 their condition, if not by the actual want which results frora 
 it, we suspect that many who are now ready to give their 
 suffrage for the abolition of transportation would be induced 
 at least to pause until they can see their way through this 
 difficultv. 
 
 TRANSPOSITION, in Algebra, is the transposing of a 
 term from one side of an equation to the other, and is in 
 effect the adding of equal quantities to, or subtracting equal 
 quantities from, each side of the equation, the sigit of the 
 quantity being changed from + to — , or from — to -f-. 
 For example, if a + x—c — <l, by transposing a we have 
 i = c — d — a; or if a + i = c — .t, by transposing x and 
 
TRAIN-SUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 a-\- b we gel z = c — a — b. The object of transposition gen- 
 is to bring all the unknown terms to one. side of the 
 equation for more conveniently finding their value with 
 respect to the known terms. 
 
 Traxsi-o-ition. In Music, the change which takes place 
 by performing the same melody in a higher or lower pitch, 
 Which in iv always be effected by altering the signature as 
 the pitch of the new key note may require. 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 'The doctrine held by the 
 church of Rome, that in the Eucharist the bread and wine 
 arc annihilated and replaced by the body and blood of 
 Christ. In one of its liturgical offices it says, ''This is not 
 bread, but God and Man, my Saviour." It is maintained by 
 Protestant! that this dogma, which was made the principal 
 test of a true faith by the Papists at the Reformation, is not 
 found in Scripture, which, in the most literal acceptation, 
 only asserts of the elements that they are Christ's body and 
 blood; i.e., that the substances coexist in some mysterious 
 manner. Nor can they discover it in the writings of the 
 fathers, or in the canons of the early church. They affirm 
 that the first theologian who asserted even the consub- 
 i! ion, or union of substances, was Paschasius, in the 
 ninth century, and that he was accused of making too gross 
 an explanation of the mystery. It was in the course of 
 disputes, and in consequence of the formal and de- 
 finite statement of their opinions to which controversialists 
 Wen forced, that this idea of trun.-ubstuiilia.tion came into 
 fashion among theologians; nor was it ever propounded as 
 an article of faith by the authority of a council till the be- 
 ginning of the Kith century, in the papacy of Innocent III. 
 
 TRANSUDATION, (I. at. trans aiid'sudo, I transpire.) 
 The oozing of fluids through membranes, or through porous 
 
 TRANSVERSAL. In Geometry, the name applied to 
 aline (whether straight or curved; which traverses or in- 
 ■ is any system of other lines ; a-; when B straight line 
 intersects the three sides of a triangle. The properties of 
 Straight and circular transversals arc discussed by Curnot, 
 in his (ievtnetrie de Position, and Essai sur la Theorie des 
 
 TRANSVERSE AXIS, in Conic Sections, is the diameter 
 
 which passes through both foci. It is the longest diameter 
 
 ■ , tlie shortest in the hyperbola; and in the 
 
 w infinite, as in that curve all diameters are. 
 
 c Bbctioiis. 
 
 TRAPE'ZIUM (Gr. rparrs^a, table), in Geometry, is the 
 
 ,1 name for a plane figure bounded by four straight 
 
 lines. When two opposite sides are parallel, it is called a 
 
 trapezoid ; when both pairs of opposite are parallel, it is 
 
 called n parallelogram. 
 
 The following are a few of the most remarkable element- 
 ary properties of this figure. 
 
 1. The sum of any three sides is greater than the fourth 
 
 slile. 
 
 2. The sum of the squares of the diagonals is equal to the 
 sum of the squares of the sides, and four times the square 
 of the line joining the middle points of the diagonals. 
 
 3. The lines joining the middle points of the sides form a 
 parallelogram. 
 
 4. if the figure can be inscribed in a circle, the sum of 
 
 each pair of opposite angles in two right 
 angles, and the sum of the rectangles of 
 each pair of opposite sides, are equal to 
 the rectangle of the diagonals. 
 
 To find the area of a trapezium, let A D 
 be a diagonal, and C E, F B perpendiculars 
 D upon it; then AD X 4(CE + BF)= the 
 
 area. 
 TRAPEZIUS. In Anatomy, a muscle situated immedi- 
 ately below the integuments of the posterior part of the 
 neck and back. Its principal action is upon the scapula ; 
 and it also acts upon the neck and head, drawing the latter 
 backwards, and turning it on its axis. 
 
 TRAPEZO'ID. A trapezium which has one pair of op- 
 posite sides parallel. The area of a trapezoid is equal to 
 half the sum of the parallel sides multiplied by the perpen- 
 dicular distance between them. ' 
 
 In Anatomy, the trapezoides is the second bone of the 
 second row of the carpus. 
 
 TRA'PPISTS. The name of a religious order which 
 still exists in Normandy. It was founded in 1140 by a 
 Count de Perche, in a deep valley called La Trappe, 
 whence the name of the order, and has survived all the 
 changes and revolutions of France. The rules of this order 
 are of the strictest kind. It was, however, far less celebra- 
 ted under its original foundation, than from the reform it 
 underwent under the celebrated Abbe de Ranee, in the 
 reign of Louis XIV. The history of this celebrated man is 
 well known : he was a gallant and daring profligate, whose 
 conversion was owing to the sudden death of a mistress. 
 His character and reform were a favourite subject of dis- 
 suasion in the court of that king in its last and devout peri- 
 
 TRAVERSE TABLE. 
 
 od ; and he was himself the fashion, and much consulted 
 and thought of by the fashionable devotees of the time. 
 Perhaps the best appreciation of him will be found in the 
 ittered through the Memoir* of Saint Simon, 
 who reverenced hirn, but was too clear-sighted to idolize 
 any one. His rule was of the austerest description ; com- 
 prising, ai lg other severities, absolute silence on the part 
 
 of those admitted for a considerable peiiod. At the Revo- 
 lution the community of La Trappe was dispersed; many 
 members escaped to England, and were received by Mr. 
 Weld, the proprietor of Lul worth in Dorsetshire. There 
 
 are now several congregations of Trappists. The famous 
 Baron Geramb, so long the lion of the fashionable circles 
 in London, ended his career by entering one of them. (See 
 the Encyl. Methodique, " ThOologie.") There is an ac- 
 count of the present state of the original convent in the 
 Revue de Paris, vol. xxix. It is a melancholy picture. 
 Many of the stories told of the austerities of La Trappe— 
 e. g., that each of the monks is employed in digging every 
 day a portion of his grave, ice. — are fables. But the maiii 
 features of the discipline, the enforced silence, the complete 
 seclusion from the world (Insomuch that the superior alone 
 receives news of the i relation of any monk, 
 
 and it is only announced to the community by B direction 
 to pray for the soul of the kinsman of one of the brethen, 
 without n lining him), are as commonly re|>orted. 
 TRAP Rucks. From the Swedish trappe, a flight of 
 
 steps, because these rocks frequently occur in large tabu- 
 lar masses rising one above another like 
 steps of a Staircase.) They are apparently of igneous or 
 volcanic origin, and composed of felspar, augite, and horn- 
 blende, the predominance of one or other of these minerals 
 giving rise to many varieties. Ste Geology. 
 
 TRAUMATIC. (Gr. Tpavfta, a wound.) Relating to 
 wounds; hence the traumatic balsams and Ointments of 
 old pharmacy. 
 
 TRAVELLER. In Naval allairs, a ring or hoop which 
 slides alone g rn pe or spar. 
 
 TRA'VERSE. In Law, a name given to a plea contain- 
 ing a denial of some matter of fact alleged on the other 
 side, and offering to refer the matter to the decision of u 
 jury- 
 In cases of misdemeanour, where the defendant |K)st- 
 pones the trial of the indictment until the next sessions or 
 assizes, he Issaid to traverse the indictment. The delays 
 which this form formerly occasioned have been materially 
 abridged by the act 60 G. :i, and 1 G. 4, c. 4 ; under which 
 pcr>ons in custody, or held to bail twenty days before the 
 sessions, are bound to plead, unless a certiorari I 
 delivered before jury sworn. 
 
 TRAVERSE BAILING, in Navigation, is sailing on dif 
 ferent courses in succession; and the method of reducing 
 such compound courses and distances into an equivalent 
 single course and distance is called resolving a traverse. 
 The reduction may be effected either by geometrical pro- 
 jection or trigonometrical computation ; but it is generally 
 performed by inspection, with the aid of a traverse table. 
 
 TRAVERSE TABLE, in Navigation, is the tabulated 
 form in which the northing, southing, easting, and westing 
 are made on each individual course and distance in a 
 traverse, for the purpose of finding readily the difference of 
 latitude and departure made upon the whole ; the differ 
 ence between the sums of the northings and southings be 
 ing the diff. lal., and between the sums of the eastings and 
 westings the departure. 
 
 The northing, southing, easting, and westing are general- 
 ly taken by inspection, from u table which contains the 
 parts of a right-angled plane triangle corres|>onding to a giv 
 en acute angle, and a hypothenusal line of every unit in 
 length from 1 to 300, and sometimes to 500 ; an extent suf 
 ficient for the wants of the practical navigator. This table 
 itself is also called a traverse table, from the facility which 
 it affords in resolving a traverse ; but it may be applied ad 
 vantageously to many other purposes. 
 
 In the annexed figure A B C is a plane trianglo right 
 angled at B ; and if A B represent a portion a. 
 of the meridian passing through A, and A C 
 the distance from A to C, then the angle A 
 is called the course, A B the difference ot 
 latitude, and B C the departure; and to a 
 given angle A the corresponding values ot 
 A B and B C, being computed and entered 
 in a table, form for the assumed value of A 
 a portion of a traverse table. ** C 
 
 The table is thus constructed to A C and the angle A as 
 arguments, the angle being taken to every degree and every 
 quarter point of the compass, and the hypothenuse to every 
 integer from unity to as high a number as may be thought 
 requisite. But the table being formed, any two elements 
 which geometrically determine the triangle may be assum 
 ed as the given one, and the other found by inspection 
 from the table. But tbe vse of the table is not limited to 
 
 1203 
 
TRAVERTIN. 
 
 the solution of right-angled triangles only ; for every case 
 of oblique triangles may be solved by means of it. 
 
 TRA'VERTlN. (Ital. travertino.) A limestone, depos- 
 ited from water holding carbonate of lime in solution. The 
 word is a corruption of tiburlinus, this kind of stone being 
 abundantly formed by the river Anio at Tibur near Rome. 
 The species about Alba is usually called peperino. They 
 are both of good quality, and were much used by the an- 
 cient Romans. Its Li tin name was lapis tiburtinus. 
 
 TRAVESTIE. (Fr. travestir, to disguise.) In Litera- 
 ture, a word used in the same signification as parody. See 
 Parody. 
 
 TREACLE. The viscid, brown syrup which drains 
 from the sugar in the refining moulds. Its specific gravity 
 is generally 1*4, and it contains on the average 75 per cent, 
 of solid matter. ( Ure's Dictionary.) 
 
 TREAD. (Sax. tredan, to set the feet on.) In Architec- 
 ture, the horizontal part of a step on which the foot is 
 placed. 
 
 TREAD MILL. A recent invention for giving useful 
 employment to persons imprisoned for crime. 
 
 Its usual form is that of a cylindrical wheel of about 5 
 feet diameter, and 16 feet long ; and several of such wheels 
 are sometimes coupled together. The circumference is 
 furnished with twenty-four equidistant steps, on which the 
 prisoners are made to work on the mill. Each individual 
 treads in a separate compartment, boarded off so that no in- 
 tercourse can take place between the parties at work at the 
 same time. 
 
 All mounting the first step together, their weight sets the 
 wheel in motion, bringing down the step trod upon ; when 
 they step up to the next one, which descends in the same 
 manner, and so on, producing a continuous rotatory motion 
 In the wheel, which may be applied as the moving force to 
 a mill for grinding corn, or in turning any other machinery. 
 
 The prisoners at work on the wheel are assisted and sup- 
 ported by a hand-rail before them. The wheel makes 
 about two rounds per minute, which is equivalent to a 
 vertical ascent of about 32 feet per minute, and this is 
 about the maximum of labour usually permitted on the 
 wheel. These machines, which have now been introdu- 
 ced into all the great prisons in England and Wales, have 
 been most efficacious in counteracting that feeling which 
 disposes the worthless to balance the pleasures of idleness 
 against the discomforts of confinement. The application 
 of it to prisoners before trial was much denounced as an 
 abuse. (See Ed. Rev., vol. xxxix., for a paper by the Rev. 
 Sydney Smith on this subject.) The Court of King's 
 Bench, however, refused a mandamus to compel the justi- 
 ces of Yorkshire to allow food, except bread and water, to 
 prisoners committed for trial who refused to work. 
 
 TREASON, or HIGH TREASON. By the statute 35 
 E. 3, c. 2, the limits of this great offence were first accu- 
 rately defined ; and although subsequent enactments at 
 different periods widely enlarged the range of actions 
 which might be drawn within its penal character, yet 
 most of these have been regarded as encroachments upon 
 the principles of our jurisprudence. To compass the 
 death of the king, queen, or king's eldest son and heir ; 
 to violate the king's wife or daughter, or the wife of the 
 heir apparent ; to levy war against the king in the realm ; 
 to assist the king's enemies in the realm or elsewhere ; to 
 counterfeit the king's privy seal ; to clip or counterfeit the 
 king's money ; to slay the chancellor or other high judi- 
 cial magistrates — these are the seven species of treason 
 constituted by this act. The many fresh species devised 
 during the troubled periods which followed that reign, and 
 by the arbitrary genius of Henry VIII., were repealed in 
 the first year of the reign of Queen Mary. Of new treas- 
 sons since created by analogy to those which were previ- 
 ously so considered, the principal are defined by 36 G. 3, 
 c. 7 : such as conspiring to excite foreigners to invade the 
 realm ; levying war in order to compel the king to change 
 his measures or counsels, or to overawe either house of 
 parliament; and the expressions or declarations of such 
 opinions by printing, writing, or any other overt act. 
 Counterfeiting the king's money, or filing and clipping the 
 king's coin, are still treasons ; as well as having coining 
 tools in possession, and importing false coin from abroad. 
 Most other offences relating to the coin are of a lower de- 
 scription. In high treason all parties concerned are prin- 
 cipals, no accessaries being recognised in this offence. 
 (.See the Sixth Report of the Commissioners of Criminal 
 Law.) 
 
 TREA'SURER, LORD HIGH. Formerly the third 
 great officer of the crown in England. The office is now 
 executed by five persons, styled the lords commissioners 
 of the treasury ; one of whom holds also the office of 
 chancellor of the exchequer. See Treasury. 
 
 TREASURE TROVE. During the middle ages, treas- 
 ure trove, or money dug from the ground, formed an im- 
 portant branch of the revenue of this and of most other 
 1264 
 
 TREATY. 
 
 European states. The security of property which we 
 have enjoyed since the Revolution has, however, put, 
 long ago, a complete stop to the practice of burying treas- 
 ure in Great Britain. But down to a late period the pra. 
 tice was common in Ireland, and is, perhaps, not yet alto- 
 gether abandoned in that country ; and it is also common 
 in some of the Continental states. Neckar mentions that 
 in France, under the ancien regime, the vassals of many of 
 the nobles, afraid of subjecting themselves to the violence 
 of their masters, buried all the money they could scrape 
 together ; and during the anarchy and brigandage of the 
 Revolution, vast sums were thrown into the earth. The 
 well-informed Russian economist, M. Storch, mentions 
 that the practice of burying treasure is still extreir ely prev- 
 alent in Germany, Italy, and Russia ; and it must necessa- 
 rily be more or less prevalent in every country exposed to 
 the ravages of war, and where the rights of property are 
 imperfectly protected. But it is chiefly in the despotical 
 states of Asia, and in Turkey in Europe, that the burying 
 of money is carried to the greatest extent. There every 
 rich individual estimates his wealth, not by the stock or 
 capital he has lent to others, or has employed in the great 
 work of production, but principally by the amount of the 
 treasure he has been able to conceal ; and every poor man 
 deposits in the earth whatever he can contrive to with- 
 draw from the grasp of his avaricious masters. " The ra- 
 jahs," says Mr. Luke Scrafton, in his valuable tract on 
 Hindostan, " never let their subjects rise above mediocrity ; 
 and the Mohammedan governors look on the growing 
 riches of a subject as a boy does on a bird's nest ; he eyes 
 their progress with impatience, then comes with a spoiler's 
 hand and ravishes the fruit of their labour. To counter- 
 act this, the Hindoos bury their money under ground, often 
 with such secrecy as not to trust even their own children 
 with the knowledge of it ; and it is amazing what they 
 will suffer rather than betray it. When their tyrants have 
 tried all manner of corporeal punishments on them, they 
 threaten to defile them: but even that often fails; for 
 resentment prevailing over the love of life, they frequently 
 rip up their bowels, or poison themselves, and carry the 
 secret to the grave." Mr. Scrafton considers that the uni- 
 versality of this practice and the quantity of the precious 
 metals which must in consequence have been lost, has 
 been a principal cause of the long-continued drain of spe- 
 cie to the East. From the discovery of the American 
 mines down to a very late period, the greatest portion of 
 their produce has been directly or indirectly exported to 
 Turkey, Hindostan, and other eastern countries ; and yet 
 it is said that the precious metals do not seem to have be- 
 come more abundant in those countries, or the prices of 
 commodities to be materially increased. But, without at- 
 tempting to investigate the precise degree of credit that 
 ought to be attached to this statement, it is abundantly 
 certain that the want of security which has caused this 
 locking up of so large a quantity of capital must be one 
 of the main causes of the poverty and wretchedness in 
 which the people of India, Persia, Turkey, &c. are in 
 volved. 
 
 TREA'STJRY, BOARD OF. In England, the board to 
 which is entrusted the management of all matters relating 
 to the sovereign's civil list or other revenues. This office 
 was formerly committed to the lord high treasurer, the 
 third great officer of the crown ; but in modern times a 
 lord high treasurer has not been appointed, the duties of 
 his office being executed by a board of five lords commis- 
 sioners. The chief of these, or first lord of the treasury, 
 is generally the prime minister for the time being ; and, 
 when a commoner, also chancellor of exchequer ; though 
 Sir Robert Peel has recently deviated from this practice. 
 The salary of the first lord of the treasury is £5000 per 
 annum ; that of the others £1200 each. The other officers 
 of the board are, two joint secretaries, a number of clerks 
 (chief, senior, junior, minute, copying, &c), a receiver of 
 fees, a keeper of the papers, a solicitor, a chamber keeper, 
 messengers, housekeepers, extra clerks and extra messen- 
 gers. 
 
 TREA'TY. In Law, an agreement between two or more 
 independent states. Grotius {De Jure Belli et Pads, 1. ii., 
 ch. 15, s. 5) divides treaties into two classes: those which 
 turn on things to which the contracting parties are already 
 bound by the law of nature, such as mutual amity, com- 
 merce, &c. ; and those which contain stipulations for 
 something more, such as treaties regulating boundaries, 
 conceding particular powers, &c. The municipal constitu 
 tion, in every state, determines in whom resides the au- 
 thority to make and to ratify treaties. In most monarchies 
 it is vested in the sovereign; in republics. In the chief 
 magistrate, senate, or executive council ; in federal states, 
 sometimes exclusively in the federal authority, as in the 
 United States ; while in the Germanic federation the par- 
 ticular states retain the right of making treaties of alliance 
 and commerce not inconsistent with the fundamental laws 
 
TREBLE. 
 
 ul tne confederatifl n. In order to enable a public minister 
 or other diplomatic agent to conclude and sign a treaty, he 
 must be furnished wilh a full power ; and when so con- 
 cluded the treaty is binding on the state, in the same man- 
 ner as an agent is bound by the act of his principal. But 
 the question how far, and in what cases, ratification is ne- 
 cessary, has been the subject of much debate among writers 
 on International law. It is usual to reserve a power to 
 ratify In the treaty itself. It is necessary also, in most 
 constitutional governments, for the sanction of the legisla- 
 tive body to be subsequently given to treaties of commerce, 
 or imposing taxes on the people, entered into by the execu- 
 tive. Thus the government of Great Britain, when making 
 treaties, mating subsidies, ttc., usually stipulates that the 
 kim: will recommend to parliament to make the grant ne- 
 cessary for the purpose ; but under the constitution of the 
 United States, it has been thought that ConjB— is bound 
 to sanction treaties, in general made by the President with 
 the advice and consent of the senate. Treaties have been 
 divided into real and personal: the former of which are 
 said to hind the contracting parties, independently of any 
 "frfg" of sovereignty or in the rulers of the state ; the lat- 
 iacle with express reference to the person of the 
 actual ruler. But treaties properly so called, as of friend- 
 ship and alliances, commerce and navigation, even if per- 
 petual in terms, are said to expire — 1. In can either of the 
 contracting parties cease to be an independent state ; 
 '_'. When the internal constitution Of government is so 
 changed as to render the treaty no longer applicable. In 
 this they differ from what are called transitory conven- 
 tions, which pass from one government to another ; such 
 as treaties of cession, boundary, &c. (See Wiequefort, 
 book ii. ; Faltd, book ii. ; Schoell, Hist, des Traites de 
 Vau, 1 vols., Brussels, 1817.) 
 
 TREBLE. (Said to be the same as "threefold," sed 
 In Music, the highest part In a concerted piece. 
 Thus we say a treble violin, a treble hautboy, &c. In 
 VOCal DlUSic, this part is committed to boys or females. 
 The treble is divided into first or highest treble, and sec- 
 ond or low treble. Half treble, or, as it is sometimes called, 
 is d high counter-tenor. 
 
 TRECKSCHUYT. (Dutch, true* ship or boat.) The 
 covered boats drawn by horses or cattle, and used for the 
 nee of goods and passengers on the Dutch and 
 Flemish o called. For an admirable descrip- 
 
 tion of the accommodations and management of the 
 " treckscnuyt," now so rapidly fulling into disuse from the 
 introduction of railways, see Murray's Handbook for 
 ~\'urt?nrn (,'irmany. 
 
 TREENAILS, in Naval Language, wooden bolts by 
 which the planks of a ship's bottom ore secured to the 
 limbers. 
 
 TREFOIL. (Lit. tres, three, and folia, leaves.) In 
 Architecture, an ornament of three cusps in a circle ; re- 
 iembling three-leaved clover. 
 
 Trefoil. A name given in English to different kinds 
 of three-leaved plants. White trefoil is Trifolium repens ; 
 yellow trefoil is Trifolium minus ; black trefoil is Medi- 
 cago lupulina ; bird's-foot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus. All 
 such plants are used for the food of cattle. The French 
 word trefte has a similar application. 
 
 TKEMA NDO, Tremolo. (It. trembling.) In Music, a 
 direction for one of the graces of harmony, which consists 
 in a reiteration of one note of the chord : this, however, 
 applies more directly to the word tremolo, while the tre- 
 mando is a general shake of the whole chord. 
 
 TEE'M ATODES, Trematoda. (Gr. rpnpa, a hole.) The 
 name of an order of Sterelminthans, or Parenchymatous 
 Entoza, comprising those which have organs of imbibition 
 and adhesion in the form of suckers. 
 
 TREME'LLA. (Lat. tremo, / tremble.) A jelly-like 
 plant of the lowest organization, found in damp walks and 
 similar situations. It is composed of a thallus containing 
 microscopical spores, and is closely allied to the plants 
 called lavers. 
 
 TRE'MOLITE. A mineral, often of a fibrous texture, 
 generally containing silica, magnesia, and carbonate of 
 lime, originally found in the valley of Tremola on St. 
 Gothard. 
 
 TRE'NCHER, (Fr. tranche), in Fortification, are places 
 cut out by besiegers to approach the place attacked in 
 greater security. They are generally from 8 to 10 feet 
 wide, and in depth something more than the height of a 
 man. being commonly about 7 feet. 
 
 TRENT, COUNCIL OF, in Ecclesi»tical History, was 
 assembled by Paul III. in 1545, and continued, in twenty- 
 five sessions, until 1563, under Julius III. and Pius IV. 
 This celebrated council was convoked at a period when 
 the Christian world was agitated by the early efforts of 
 the reformers ; and its most important decrees have there- 
 fore reference to the points on which the controversies of 
 (he Reformation cb'.efly turned : e. g., transubstantiation, 
 4 L 
 
 TRIAL. 
 
 image-worship, the authority of the pope. There is a 
 certain degree of ambiguity in the expression of some of its 
 decrees, owing to the uncertainty which the doctrines of 
 the reformers caused in the minds of supporters of the Ro- 
 mish faith. But, on the whole, it cannot be denied that 
 they express the general belief of Western Christians at 
 the period when they were drawn up ; and that 'hey con- 
 demn, although with little decision and firmness, many of 
 the more gross abuses of the church. The authority < i 
 these decrees (except so far as the more strictly doctrinal 
 part of them is embodied in the creed of Pope Plus IV. 
 has been much debated among Romish ecclesiastics. In 
 Germany, Poland, and Italy, they appear to have been 
 adopted from the beginning without restriction: in B 
 only with a reservation of the rights of the monarch ; in 
 France they have never been solemnly received. But as 
 regards the more important portions of them which contain 
 the rule of faith, they probably accurately express the be- 
 lief of the Roman Catholic Church at the present day. 
 The famous history of Father Paul (Paolo Sarin) la in 
 many respects a noble model, but does not always contain 
 a fair estimate of the subject. That of Cardinal l*;ii:a\i- 
 cino represents the more Romanist view. (See Mns/u-im, 
 vol. iii. ; Robertson's Charles V.; Hallam's Intr. t<, /A, 
 I.ttfrnt are of Europe, vol. ii.) 
 
 TREI'A'N. (Gr. 7{,vr:au), I perforate.) A circulat 
 saw for perforating the scull. The term trephine Is atom 
 applied to a similar but improved form of the instrument. 
 (See the article "Trephine," in Cooper's Surgical Dic- 
 tionary.) 
 
 trespass, in Law, strictly, is any transgression of the 
 law less than felony, or misprision of felony ; but is gener 
 ally used to signify any wrong or damage which is dons by 
 one private person to another. Trespass vi <t arwis \< 
 where an act is done which is in itself an immediate injur) 
 to another's person or property; such as assault and bet 
 tery, or breaking and entering a house; or close. 
 trespass, or trespass on the. case, where an act is not im- 
 mediately injurious, but only by consequence and collater- 
 ally. Trespass is a personal action of tort, and lies for in- 
 juries of a very miscellaneous character. Trespass on the 
 case, as a form of action, arose originally out of a power 
 given to the Court of Chancery to frame new writs lor in- 
 juries which could not be redressed under the common 
 forms of trespass or covenant. Trover and assumpsit 
 are, in their origin, different forms of trespass on the Case, 
 
 TRE'SSURE, In Heraldry, a border running parallel 
 with the sides of the escutcheon, which should contain 
 about one quarter of the bordure. It is generally either 
 double or triple; and has usually fleur-de-lis, arranged In 
 opposite directions alternately, perpendicular to the length 
 of the tressure : it is then called flory counterflory. The 
 tressure forms part of the royal arms of Scotland, and of 
 those of many noble Scottish houses. 
 
 TRESTLE TRF.F. See Mast. 
 
 TRET. In Commerce, an allowance of 4 lbs. for every 
 104 lbs. for the waste which certain kinds of goods are lia- 
 ble to from dust, &c. 
 
 TRIAD. (Gr. rpcts, three.) As to the mysterious triad 
 of deities or daemons, who are supposed by some to have 
 been the basis of the diemon-worship of the Greeks, ac- 
 cording to a passage in Proceus on the Timasus of Plato 
 (see Bryant's Jlncient Mythology, vol. iii., p. 107), "they 
 could," he says, in accordance with his singular theory, 
 " be no other than the three sons of Noah, who were the 
 Baalim of the Scriptures, and the Aaiuoves and AOuvurot of 
 Greece*." Others have imagined that the Triad of Plato 
 and his followers was connected with the Christian Trini- 
 ty. What are called by Cymric antiquaries the Triads of 
 the Welsh Bards are poetical histories, in which the facts 
 recorded are thrown into a kind of triplets. Thus, to take 
 the commencement of the first Triad as an example — 
 "Three names have been given to the Isles of Britain since 
 the beginning : Clas Merddin, Til Inys, and Inys Pridain." 
 The Triads are supposed to be of no greater antiquity than 
 the reign of Edward I., although they probably contain 
 fragments of old history. (See Turner's Jlnglo-Sanms, 
 vol. i. : "Britannia after the Romans.") 
 
 Triad. In Music, a compound of three sounds, which, 
 from the extraordinary property it has of being naturally 
 divisible into two thirds, one major and the other minor, 
 constituting a fifth in the whole, has received the name of 
 the harmonic triad. Its name is founded on its being 
 formed of a third and a fifth, which, with the bass or fun- 
 damental sound, make three different terms. 
 
 "RIAL, in Common Law, is the examination and dis- 
 posal of an issue of fact, either in criminal or civil proceed 
 ings. Trials are by certificate, by inspection, by the record, 
 and per pais, or by a jury. The first three are of a pe- 
 culiar character. Trial by certificate is where the evidence 
 of the person certifying is the only proper test of the issue ; 
 as, the customs of the city of London are to be tried by the 
 
 1265 
 
TRIANGLE. 
 
 certificate of the mayor and aldermen, &c. Trial by in- 
 spection is said to be where the judges personally examine 
 and decide the question in dispute ; a practice long obso- 
 lete. Trial by the record is where the point at issue being 
 whether or not a certain record exists, or certain aver- 
 ments in it, it is decided by the production of the record 
 itself. But the ordinary trial of all facts, with these very 
 rare exceptions, is by a jury, summoned to try the issue 
 raised by the pleadings. Trials at bar of civil actions are 
 those which take place before all the judges of the court of 
 which the record is ; the original, and, as it were, direct 
 mode of trial, from which all others are variations, al- 
 though it is now very rare in practice. In ordinary cases, 
 it ha? been long superseded by trial at Nisi Prius (since 13 
 Ed. 1). (See Nisi Prius ■> A trial at bar is now only 
 granted on special grounds. Trials before the sheriff are 
 when the demands do not exceed jC20, by virtue of the 
 stat. 3 &. 4 W. 4, c. 42, s. 17. These are the only modes 
 of disposing of issues raised on records in the superior 
 courts; and trials of actions in courts of limited jurisdic- 
 tion are governed by the same general rules. Criminal 
 trials are had in like manner when an issue of fact, gener- 
 ally guilty or not guilty, is raised by the pleadings. JVetc 
 trials, in civil cases, are granted where the court of which 
 the record is, sees reason to be dissatisfied with a verdict, 
 either on the ground that evidence was improperly receiv- 
 ed or rejected ; or that the judge misdirected the jury as to 
 the law applicable to the facts; or that the verdict was 
 against the weight of evidence ; or that a party was un- 
 fairly surprised ; or, lastly, that fresh evidence has since 
 been discovered. 
 
 TRIA'NGLE. (Lat. triangulum.) A three-sided figure, 
 which consequently has also three angles. 
 
 Triangles are rectilineal, spherical, or curvilineal. Rec- 
 tilineal or plane triangles are bounded by straight lines ; 
 spherical triangles are formed on the surface of a sphere 
 by the intersection of the planes of three great circles ; 
 curvilineal triangles are those which are bounded by three 
 curves of any kind whatever. 
 
 Triangles receive other distinctive denominations from 
 the relation of their sides and angles. Plane triangles are 
 denominated equilateral when their three sides are all 
 equal ; isosceles when two only are equal ; and scalene 
 when all three are unequal. They are called right-angled 
 when one of the angles is a right angle ; oblique-angled 
 when one of the angles is more than a right angle; and 
 acute-angled when each of the angles is less than a right 
 angle ; and triangles are said to be similar when their 
 angles are respectively equal each to each. 
 
 The following are some of the principal properties of 
 plane triangles ; 
 
 1. The greater side is opposite the greater angle, and 
 rice versa. 
 
 2. The sum of any two sides is greater, and the differ- 
 "ence of any two less than the third side. 
 
 3. The sum of the three angles is equal to two right an- 
 gles ; and if one of the sides be produced, the exterior an- 
 gle is equal to both the interior and opposite ones. 
 
 4. If A E and C D be perpendiculars from the angles A 
 and C on the opposite sides A B and B C, 
 then, generally, AC2 = AB-AD + CB- 
 C E ; and, consequently, if the angle B is 
 a right angle, A C-! = A B2+ B C2. 
 
 5. Lines which bisect the angles of a 
 plane triangle will pass through the centre 
 O of the inscribed circle ; perpendiculars from 
 the middle of the sides pass through the centre of the cir- 
 cumscribing circle ; and lines drawn from the angles to the 
 middle of the opposite sides pass through the centre of 
 gravity. 
 
 6. Triangles are to each other in the compound ratio of 
 their bases and altitudes. 
 
 The area of a plane triangle is found by multiplying the 
 length of one of the sides into that of the perpendicular let 
 fall upon it from the opposite angle ; but there are various 
 other expressions for the area, for which see Trigonome- 
 try. 
 
 Triangle. In Astronomy, one of the forty-eight con- 
 stellations of Hipparchus, situated in the northern hemi- 
 sphere. The same name is also given to one of the twelve 
 southern constellations formed by Bayer. There is also 
 the Little Triangle, added by Hevelius, near the first 
 named. See Constellation. 
 
 Triangle. In Music, a small steel triangular musical 
 Instrument of percussion, open at one of its angles. It is 
 iet in vibration by being struck with a short bar of the same 
 metal as that whereof the instrument is composed. 
 
 TRIANGLE, ARITHMETICAL. The name given by 
 Pascal to a table of certain numbers disposed in the form 
 of a triangle. The first vertical column of the table con- 
 tains units only ; the second contains the series of natural 
 numbers ; the third the series of triangular numbers ; the 
 1966 
 
 TRIBUNE. 
 
 fourth the series of pyramidal numbers and so on. (Set 
 Figurate Numbers.) Thus — 
 
 I 
 
 1 1 
 
 12 1 
 
 13 3 1 
 
 14 6 4 1 
 
 I 5 10 10 5 1 
 1 6 15 20 15 6 1 
 &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Any number in the table is obtained by adding (he nuir,- 
 ber next above it, in the same column," to the number In 
 the same line in the next preceding column ; and it will be 
 observed that the oblique diagonal rows, beginning at the 
 left and descending towards the right, are the same as the 
 vertical columns. One of the properties of the table is, that 
 numbers taken on the horizontal lines are the coefficients 
 of the different powers of a binomial. For the description 
 and uses of the table, see the Introduction to Mutton's 
 Mathematical Tables. 
 
 TRIANGULAR COMPASSES. Compasses having three 
 legs; two opening in the usual manner, and the third turn- 
 ing round an extension of the central pin of the other two, 
 besides having a motion on the central joint of its own. 
 The instrument is useful in the construction of maps and 
 charts, as three points may be taken off at once. 
 
 TRIANGULAR NUMBERS. The series of numbers 
 formed by the successive sums of the terms of an arith- 
 metical progression, of which the common difference is 1, 
 Thus, 
 
 Arithmetical progression, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, G, &.c. 
 Triangular numbers, 1, 3, 0, 10, 15, 21, &c. 
 
 The general term of the series is itifn-j- 1). See Fiou 
 rate Numbers. 
 
 TRIA'RII. The third, last, or veteran rank of infantry 
 in the Roman legion. (See Legion.) There is an essay 
 on this particular rank, Mem. de VAc. des Inscr., vol. xxix. 
 
 TRIBE. (Lat. tribus.) A principal subdivision of the 
 Roman people. The word signifies a division into three, 
 which was the number of the patrician tribes ; which were 
 distinguished by the names Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres. 
 The first of these consisted of the original body of patli- 
 cians ; the next two were added at different times under 
 the kings from the free citizens, who grew up round the 
 first. The plebeian tribes, which finally included the 
 whole people, were quite distinct from the above. They 
 were instituted by Servius Tullius, who divided the city 
 into four regions, and the rest of the Roman territory into 
 twenty-six ; most probably making in all thirty tribes, to 
 correspond to the number of patrician curia. Ten of these 
 are supposed to have been swept away by the cession of 
 the territory on the Etruscan bank of the Tiber to l'orsenna, 
 as we hear of only twenty-one immediately alter that event ; 
 the one having been most probably added. In later times, 
 the number of tribes was increased to thirty-five, and they 
 then included all the free citizens. In the mean time the 
 patrician tribes became quite extinct; when all the differ- 
 ence of privileges enjoyed by their respective curia; were 
 abolished. (See Nicbuhr's Hist, of Home, 2d edit., p. 417.) 
 
 TRIBO'METER. (Gr. t^iGw, / rub, and ucrpov, mea- 
 sure.) In Mechanics, the name given by Musschenbroek 
 and CouloniL to a sort of sledge, or apparatus for measuring 
 the force of friction. See Friction. 
 
 TRIBU'NAL. A judgment seat in the forum of Rome, 
 built by Romulus in the form of a half moon ; hence any 
 judgment seat : also a raised place in a camp, whence the 
 general addressed his soldiers and issued orders. 
 
 TRI'BUNE. Properly, as the name denotes, the chief 
 magistrate of a tribe. There were several kinds of officers 
 in the Roman state that bore the title. 1. The plebeian 
 tribunes, who were first created after the secession of the 
 commonalty to the Mons Sacer (260 A.U.) as one of the 
 conditions of its return to the city. They were especially 
 the magistrates and protectors of the commonalty, and no 
 patrician could be elected to the office. At their first ap 
 pointment the power of the tribunes was very small, being 
 confined to the assembling the plebeians, and the protection 
 of any individual from patrician aggression ; but their per 
 sons were sacred and inviolable, and this privilege consoli 
 dated their other powers, which, in the later ages of the 
 republic, grew to an enormous height, and were finally in- 
 corporated with the functions of the other chief magistracies 
 in the person of th§ emperor. The number of the tribunes 
 varied from two to ten, and each of these might annul the 
 proceedings of the rest by putting in his veto. (Hee JV"i« 
 buhr"s Hist, of Rome, 2d edit., I., 624 : Lableterie, Mem. dt 
 VAc. des Inscr., vol. xxxvii.) 2. Military tribunes were 
 first elected in the year 310 A.U. in the place of the consuls, 
 in consequence of the demands of the commonalty to bt 
 admitted to a share of the supreme power. This measur* 
 
TRIBUTE. 
 
 was not, however, a complete concession of their demands, 
 but, in (act, evaded tiiem in a great degree ; for the tribu- 
 nate was nut vested with the full [K)wers or honours of the 
 consulate, not being a curule magistracy, and though it was 
 open to all the people, patricians were almost invariably 
 chosen. The number of the military tribunes was some- 
 . and sometimes three. For above seventy years 
 sometimes consuls were elected and sometimes military 
 tribunes; at last the old order was permanently restored, 
 but the plebeians wero admitted to a share of it. (See 
 Mem. de CAc. dea Inscr., vol. xxxvii.) ,3. Legionary tri- 
 bunes, or tribunes of the soldiers, wero the chief officers of 
 a legion, six in number, who commanded under the consul, 
 .n his turn, usually about a month ; in battle each led 
 ■ cohort 
 
 Tkuicnb. In Ancient Architecture, a raised seat or 
 d whence speeches were delivered to the people; the 
 term is still used in this sense in the French chambers. 
 
 TRI BUTE. (Lat. tribu,), / give.) A sum of money 
 paid by an inferior sovereign or state to a superior potentate, 
 to secure the friendship or protection of the latter. The 
 black mail formerly levied by the Scottish borderers on their 
 (en powerful neighbours, for protecting their property from 
 the dearedaUottJ of caterans, was a species of tribute. 
 
 TRl'CA. In Botany, one of the names of the shield or 
 reproductive organ of a lichen. 
 
 TKKTIE'CHUS. (Gr. $ptl hair, and t X 6vi, fish.) A 
 name invented by Artedi to designate the manatee, as being 
 the only species of tish, or whale-lisli, that was hairy: 
 " aula solus inter place* fere hirsutus sit." Linnirus, In his 
 System of JVature, adopted the term trichechus as the generic 
 appellation for the manatee (.Trichechus manatus); but he 
 added the walrus as a second s|iecic.s of the genus. Utilise 
 quent zoologists, in separating these very different animals, 
 end placing them In distinct genera, have in tlijs, as unfor- 
 ttmolel] in too many cither cases, invented a new generic 
 doom KM the animal so well designated by its original epi- 
 thet; and have restricted the application of the term triche- 
 chus to the walrus, for which it was not originally designed. 
 
 TRICHI'ASIS. (Gr. S/> ( t, a hair.) A disease of the 
 ds, in which the eyelashes grow inwards and irritate 
 the bulb of the eve. 
 
 TRICIU'DIUM. (Gr.Sp,?.) A netted filamentous organ, 
 resembling a netted purse, In which the spores of some 
 
 kinds of fungi are included. 
 TRICHINA. (Gr. diminutive of $pit.) The name of 
 of microscopic encysted Entozoa, which infest the 
 lar tissue of the human subject. 
 TRICHIU'RUS. (Gr.Spif,and ovpa,atail.) The name 
 of spiny-tinned flsb.es, literally rendered in their 
 popular English name of " hair-taiN," significative of their 
 most striking generic character, which is taken from the 
 elongated hair-like filament that terminates the ray- 
 ul. The Trichiuri have no anal fin, and have neither 
 ventral fins nor supplemental scales. But one species, viz. 
 the silvery hair-tail {Trtchiurus lepturus, Linn.), has been 
 admitted into the catalogue of British tishes. 
 
 TBICHOCE'PHALUS. (Gr. $ptl, and Kt<)>a\ri, a head.) 
 The name of a genus of Hematoid Entozoons, one species 
 of which (Trichocephalus dispar, Rudolphi) infests the 
 human intestinum caecum. 
 
 TRICHOP'TERANS, Trichoptera. (Gr. Soif,, andrrrpov, 
 a wing.) The name of an order of insects founded by 
 Kirby for the case-worm flies, which are characterized by 
 four hairy membranous wings, resembling in their nervures 
 those of the Lepidopterans ; the under ones folding longi- 
 tudinally. 
 
 TRICLI'NIUM. (Gr. rpcic, three, and ichvn, a conch.) 
 In Ancient Architecture, a room furnished on three sides 
 with couches, the fourth side being left open for facilitating 
 the attendance of the servants, in which company was 
 received and the repasts served. The winter triclinia were 
 placed to the west, and those for summer to the cast. 
 
 TRI'C'OLOR. The national French banner of three 
 colours, blue, white, and red, adopted on the occasion of 
 the first revolution. The immediate occasion for adopting 
 them is said to have been that they were the colours worn 
 l.y the servants of the Duke of Orleans ; and they were 
 first assumed by the people when the minister Neckar was 
 dismissed in 1789. But these colours, in combination, appear 
 to have formed a national emblem in France from a very 
 early period. It is also said to have been formed by uniting 
 the three colours successively used in the French standards 
 at different periods ; viz. the blue of the banner of St. Mar- 
 tin, the red of the oriflamme (see Oriflamme), and the 
 white of the white cross, supposed to have been assumed 
 under Philip of Valols. The three colours were given by 
 Henry IV. to the Dutch on their desiring him to confer on 
 them the national colours of his country ; and they have 
 since been borne successively by the Dutch republic and 
 the kingdom of the Netherlands. The domestic livery of 
 Louis XIV. was tricoloured, as were also the liveries of the 
 
 TRIGONOMETRY . 
 
 Bourbon kings in Spain. At the Revolution, when th« 
 three colours were assumed on the national flag, they were 
 borne in the same order as the Dutch, but in a different 
 position, viz. the division of colours parallel to the flag 
 staff; whereas in the Dutch flag it is at right angles with it. 
 Tricoloured flags have been adopted in some of the German 
 states, and in Belgium, &.c. ; and they are often employed 
 as emblematical of liberty. 
 
 TRICUSPID VALVE. The valve of the right ventricle 
 of the heart. 
 
 TRl'DEN'T. (Lat. tree, three, and dens, a tooth.) The 
 sceptre which the poets and painters of antiquity placed in 
 the hand of Neptune is so called by way of eminence. It 
 is in the form of a Bpear or fork with three prongs or teeth ; 
 hence the name. See Nepttnk. 
 
 TRl'ENS. A small Roman copper coin, worth one third 
 of the as (which see), as the derivation of the word implies. 
 This was the piece of money usually placed in the hands 
 of the deceased poor to pay Charou for their passage over 
 the Btyx. 
 
 TRiERA'RCHIA. (Gr. rpirjpapxta.) An Athenian in 
 stitution which imposed on a certain body of citizens the 
 duty of fitting out triremes fur the use of the state. About 
 1200 citizens were usually chosen for this purpose from 
 the richest individuals, and these were subdivided Into 
 clubs of 12 or 1G to each ship. Demosthenes introduced a 
 new regulation, by which the burden to be borne by each 
 individual was made to bear a given proportion to his prop- 
 erty. (See Boeckh, Fublic Economy of Athens, ii., 319, 360.) 
 
 TRIE'TERIS. (Gr. rpeic, three, and croc, a year.) In 
 Grecian Chronology, it cycle invented by Tiiales to connect 
 his year, wh of 12 months of 30 days each, 
 
 amounting to 360 days ; this falling short of the true solar 
 year, he inserted a month of 30 days at the end of every 
 three years, by which means he made it exceed the true 
 year by 13 days. 
 
 TRIFO'RIUM. (Lat.) In Gothic Architecture, an arched 
 sti iry between the lower arches and the clere-story in the 
 aisles, choir, and transepts of a church. An example may 
 be seen in Westminster Abbey, where the trilorium aflbrds 
 a communicating gallery entirely round the church. 
 
 TRI'GAMOUS (Gr. rptic, three, and yapoc, marriage), 
 is a name applied by some botanists to plan' 
 three sorts of flowers in the same flower-head ; that is to 
 say, males, females, and hermaphrodites. 
 
 TKIGE'MINI. (Lat. tres, three, and geminus, double.) 
 The fifth pair of nerves : they arise from the crura of the 
 cerebellum, and are divided within the cranium into three 
 branches; namely, the orbital, and the superior and inferior 
 maxillary. The orbital branch is divided into the frontal, 
 lachrymal, and nasal nerves; the superior maxillary into 
 the spheno-palatine, posterior alveolar, and infra-orbital 
 nerves ; and the inferior maxillary into two branches, the 
 internal lingual, and one more appropriately termed the 
 infra-maxillary. 
 
 TRl'GLYPH. (Gr. rpttc, three, and yXu0a>, 1 carve.) In 
 Architecture, an ornament in the Doric frieze, consisting of 
 two whole and two half channels, separated by flat spaces 
 cal led femora. 
 
 TRl'GONALS, Trigona. (Gr. rpctc, three; yoivta, an an 
 gle.) The name of a family of Decapodous Crustaceans, 
 the carapace of which is nearly triangular. Trigonia is 
 also the name of a genus of Bivalves of a triangular form, 
 and of which most of the species are fossil. 
 
 TRIGO'NIA. (Gr. Tpiyiovoc, having three corners.) A 
 name applied by Lamarck to a genus of Ostracean Bivalves, 
 most of the species of which are found fossil ; but which 
 has a beautiful recent representative in the seas of the 
 southern hemisphere, remarkable for the irridescent lining 
 of the valves, La Trigo nacree of Lamarck. It is also the 
 name of a genus of South American plants. 
 
 TRIGONOCE'PHALUS. (Gr. rpiyoivoc, and KifaXn, a 
 head.) A genus of poisonous serpents, characterized by 
 having the tail terminated by a horny conical process or 
 spur. No species is known to inhabit Europe or Africa, in 
 which continents the Trigonocephali are replaced by the 
 vipers. The poisonous serpent of the island of Martinique, 
 called by the French settlers " fer de lance," is a species of 
 the present genus (Trigonocephalus lanccolatus) . 
 
 TRIGONO'METRY. (Gr. rpiyuivoc, triangle, ucrpov, 
 measure.) This term, as its derivation implies, originally 
 signified the measurement of triangles, or the branch of 
 mathematics which treats of the relations between the sides 
 and angles of triangles ; but in its modern acceptance it 
 includes all formula? relative to angles or circular arcs, and 
 the lines connected with them, these lines being expressed 
 by numbers or ratios. In relation to its practical utility, it 
 may be regarded as the most important of all the applica- 
 tions of mathematics. 
 
 The magnitude of an angie is usually measured by the 
 circular arc which has its centre at the angular point, and 
 is intercepted by the straight lines forming the angle ; but 
 
 1207 
 
TRIGONOMETRY. 
 
 there is no necessary connexion between an angle and the 
 arc which subtends it, and in some modern works the fun- 
 damental properties of trigonometry are explained without 
 any reference to the circle. This method of proceeding is 
 undoubtedly more direct than the other ; nevertheless, as 
 the language of trigonometry has taken its form from con- 
 siderations respecting the circle, there is some advantage 
 on the score of perspicuity in the ancient method, for which 
 reason we shall adhere to it in the present sketch. 
 
 The primary unit by which angles and their correspond- 
 ing arcs are numerically expressed is the degree, or the 
 ninetieth part of a right angle or of a quadrant. This divi- 
 sion of the quadrant into ninety parts is entirely arbitrary. 
 It was adopted by the ancient Greeks, and has been all but 
 universally followed down to the present time ; for although 
 the French mathematicians attempted to introduce the 
 decimal system, by dividing the quadrant into a hundred 
 parts, their example has not been imitated, as the first effect 
 of the alteration would be to derange and render useless 
 the whole of the existing trigonometrical tables. 
 
 The degree is divided into CO minutes, and the minute 
 into 60 seconds. Anciently the seconds were subdivided 
 into thirds ; but the practice of writing down the parts of 
 seconds as decimals is now universally followed. The ex- 
 pression 20° 16' 43-57" is read 20 degrees, 16 minutes, 43 
 seconds, 5 tenths and 7 hundredths of a second. 
 
 Let B AC (fig. 1.) be an angle contained by the two 
 
 dO 
 
 p 
 
 «/ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 6 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 1 A 
 
 £ 
 
 [ 
 
 straight lines AB, AC; with 
 A as a centre, and radius A B, 
 describe a circle ; let B A be 
 produced to meet the circum- 
 ference in E, and draw the diam- 
 eter D F perpendicular to B E. 
 From C draw C H and C K re- 
 spectively perpendicular to B E 
 . B and D F ; and let B L and D M 
 be also perpendicular to B E 
 and D F, meeting A C produced 
 in L and M. Now, since the 
 angles at the centre of a circle 
 are proportional to the arcs on 
 *■ which they stand, the arc B C 
 
 may be taken as the geometrical measure of the angle 
 B A C, and both will be expressed without distinction by 
 the same number of degrees, minutes, &c. The following 
 definitions are used. 
 
 Tiie arc D C, which is the defect of B C from the quad- 
 rant, is called the complement of B C ; and C E, which is 
 its defect from the semicircle, is called its supplement. C H 
 is the sine of the arc B C, and C K or A H is the sine of its 
 complement, or the cosine of B C ; BLfe the tangent of 
 the arc B C, and D M is the tangent of its complement, or 
 the cotangent of B C ; A L is the secant of B C, and A M 
 the secant of its complement, or its cosecant ; B H is the 
 versed sine of B C, and D K its co-versed sine. These ap- 
 pellations are abridged as follows : The arc being denoted 
 by the single letter A, its sine is expressed by sin A ; its 
 cosine by cos A ; its tangent by tan A ; its cotangent by cot 
 A ; its secant by sec A ; its cosecant by cosec A ; its versed 
 sine by ver sin A ; and its co-versed sine by co-ver sin A. 
 
 Since the arc B C is assumed as the measure of the an- 
 gle B A C, the above lines may be regarded respectively as 
 the sine, cosine, tangent, &c, of the angle ; and since all 
 quantities used in trigonometry are to be expressed by num- 
 bers, we may take, instead of those lines, any numbers 
 which are proportional to them ; and thence we may as- 
 sume the ratio of the arc B C to the radius A B, that is, 
 B C — A B, as the measure of the angle B A C. In like 
 manner the sine of the angle B A C may be represented by 
 C H -i- A B, its cosine byAH^AB, its tangent byBL-i- 
 1 B, its secant by A L -J- A B, its cotangent by D M — A D, 
 and its cosecant by A M -4- A D. Adopting these definitions, 
 the values of the trigonometrical functions of the angle B A 
 C will evidently remain the same when the angle remains 
 constant, whatever be the magnitude of the circle to which 
 they are referred. It is usual to regard the radius A B as a 
 unit, in which case the sines, cosines, tangents, &c, will be 
 expressed in terms of that unit by the decimal notation. 
 This is the way in which they are expressed in the trigono- 
 metrical tables. 
 
 From the right-angled triangles in the above diagram we 
 have AH2 + HC2 = AC2, AB2 + BL2 = AL2, AD2 + D 
 M2= A M2 ; and because the three triangles AHC.ABL, 
 ADM, are similar, we have also 
 
 AH:HC::AB:BL::DM:DA; 
 
 HC:CA::BL:LA:: DA:AM; 
 
 C A : AH : : L A : A B : : A M : D M. 
 
 Making the radius A B = A C = A D = 1, and denoting the 
 
 angle B A C by A, these proportions give 
 
 cos A : sin A : : 1 : tan A : : cot A : 1 ; 
 sin A : 1 : : tan A : sec A : : 1 : cosec A ; 
 
 1 : cos A : : sec A : 1 : : cosec A : cot A ; 
 1268 
 
 from which, and the above equations, we obtain the folio iv 
 ing table of formula?, exhibiting the relations among the 
 trigonometrical lines : 
 
 cosz A + sin2 A = 1. 
 
 sec2 A — tan2A = l. 
 
 cosec2 A — cot2 A = 1. 
 
 cos A sec A = l. 
 
 sin A cosec A = I. 
 
 tan A cot A = l. 
 
 tan A cos A = sin A. 
 
 ^;ot A sin A = cos A. 
 
 sin A sec A = tan A. 
 
 cos A cosec A = cot A. 
 
 tan A cosec A = sec A. 
 
 cot A sec A = cosec A. 
 Of the Signs of the Trigonometrical Lines. — In the above 
 definitions and formula? the angle A was assumed to be less 
 than a right angle, or less than 90°, and the sine, cosine 
 tangent, &c, were all regarded as positive. We have now 
 to inquire what the expressions severally become as the arc 
 increases through all its values from to 360°. As before, 
 let B E and D F (fig. 2) be two diameters of the circle at 
 right angles to each other ; sup- 
 pose the arc to begin at B ; let 
 B Ci be less than a quadrant, 
 and let the arc B Ci or angle B 
 A Ci be denoted by A. Draw 
 A C2 at right angles to A C; 
 then, since Ci C2 is 90°, the arc 
 B C2 = 90-j-A. Let Cl A be 
 produced to meet the circum- 
 ference in C3 ; then (reckoning 
 always in the same direction) 
 BC3=18u° + A. Lastly, let 
 C2 A be produced to meet the 
 circumference in C4, and we have B C4 (or B D E C4) — 270° 
 + A. Draw Ci Hi, C2 H2, &c, perpendicular to E I!. Now, 
 according to the usual conventions of analytical gecn 
 if the point A be regarded as the origin of the co-ordinates, 
 and distances measured in the direction A B be considered 
 as positive, those measured in the direction A E . 
 negative; and of the lines perpendicular to E B, If tliuse 
 above E B be positive, those below it will lie negative. 
 Hence the sines and cosines of arcs in the different quad- 
 rants will be as follows: 
 
 In the first quadrant the arc B Ci (= A) is less than 90°, 
 and Ci Hi and A Hi are both positive; that is, sin A and 
 cos A are positive. . In the second quadrant we have 15 O2 
 = 90 -4- A ; its sine is C'2 H2, which is positive, and its cosine 
 is A H2, which is negative. But from similar triangles we 
 have C2 H2= A Hi, and A H2= Ci Hi ; therefore, sin (90° 
 + A) = cosA, and cos (90 -f A)= — sin A. In the third 
 quadrant, we have A C3 = 180 + A ; the sine is C3 H3 nega- 
 tive, and the cosine is A H3 positive; butC3H3=Ci Hi, 
 and A H3 = A H 1 ; therefore sin (180° + A) =: — sin A, and 
 cos (180+ A) = — cos A. In the fourth quadrant we have 
 A C4 z=270°-+- A ; the sine is C4 H4 negative, and the cosine 
 is A H4 positive. But C4 H4 = A Hi, and A H4 = Ci Hi ; 
 therefore sin (270° + A) = — cos A, and cos (270° + A) =. 
 sin A. 
 
 Having found the directions and values of the sine and 
 cosine of an arc in each of the different quadrants, those of 
 the tangent, cotangent, secant, and cosecant are also deter 
 mined ; for the above formula; give 
 
 tan A = 
 
 sin A 
 
 cos A' 
 
 . . cos A , 1 
 
 cot A =3 — — -, sec A = — , 
 sin A cos A 
 
 cosec A = 1- — . . 
 sin A 
 
 Whence it appears that the tangent and cotangent will be 
 positive when the sine and cosine have both the same BlgJtj 
 that is, in the first and third quadrants ; and negative when 
 the sine and cosine have opposite signs, that is, in the sec 
 ond and fourth quadrants. It follows also that the secam 
 has always the same sign as the cosine, and the cosecan 
 the same as the sine. 
 
 On these principles the following table is constructed, 
 which will very frequently be found useful in calculation, 
 as it shows not only the sign to be prefixed to the several 
 trigonometrical lines when the arcs to which they belong 
 exceed 90°, but also how to find those lines in tables which 
 contain them only for the first quadrant. 
 
 1st Quadrant. 
 
 -f- sin A 
 + cosec A 
 -j- cos A 
 
 tscc A 
 tan A 
 + cot A 
 
 2ii Quadrant. 
 
 sin(90O-4-A) = -f-coeA 
 cosec (90°+ A) = -f- sec A 
 cos(90° + A) = — sin A 
 sec (90° + A) = — cosec A 
 tan (90° + A) = — cot A 
 cot(90O + A) = — tan A 
 
 n 
 
 ■ 
 
TRIGONOMETRY. 
 
 3d Quadrant. 
 
 4 th Quadrant. 
 
 Bin v 180" + A) = — sin A 
 cosec ( 180 + A )= — cosec A 
 cos (180O + A ) = — cos A 
 sec ( l&P + A) = — sec A 
 tan (180° 4- A) — + tan A 
 cot M80O -f- A) = + cot A 
 
 sin (270°-fA)=— -cos A 
 cosec (270° -\- A) = — sec A 
 cos 270° + A) = + sin A 
 sec (270° + A ; = + cosec A 
 tan (270° + A) = — cot A 
 cot (270° + A) = — tan A 
 
 Of the Trigonomctricl Tables. — We now proceed to show 
 how the diflerent trigonometrical lines may be computed. 
 The ordinary tables contain the logarithms of the sines, co- 
 sines, tangents, and cotangents for every ten seconds, and 
 Borne of the better tables, as Taylor's Baguay's, &c, for 
 r» second of the quadrant; but it is evident from the 
 formula; given above, that if the values of any one of the 
 four be computed for the different angles between and 90°, 
 the values of all the others will be obtained at the same 
 time. Thus, since cos A = sin (90° — A), a table of the 
 values <>i the sine is also a table of the values of the cosine; 
 ami since tan A = sin A -=- cos A, the logarithm of the tan- 
 gent of any angle is obtained by subtracting the logarithm of 
 the cosine from the logarithm of the sine, and the logarithm 
 of the cotangent by subtracting the logarithm of the sine 
 from that of the cosine. The whole difficulty, therefore (or 
 nearly the whole, for some peculiar artifices must be em- 
 ployed when the angles difler very little from 0, or from 
 90°), is reduced to the computation of the sine ; and as this 
 is expressed indefinitely in terms of the arc, it is necessary 
 first of all, to determine the length of the whole circum- 
 ference in terms of the radius, from which the arc corre- 
 sponding to any given number of degrees, minutes, and sec- 
 mid-, is found by proportion. 
 
 :.il to designate the semicircumference of a circle 
 whoso radius is 1 by ir. A great number of formula? have 
 been given for computing the value of it by means of in- 
 finite scries. The following, which was discovered by 
 Mechiii, is the most rapidly convergent, and therefore the 
 best adapted for computation : 
 
 V.239 3-2393 ^ 5-2393 7-239* ^ V" 
 By computing a few of the terms of this series, the value 
 of Tf is readily obtained. The following is its value correct 
 to 20 decimals : 
 
 r = 31415920535897932384G, &c. 
 
 The series which give the trigonometrical lines in terms 
 
 of the arc are as follows : Let x be any arc less than 90°, 
 
 then 
 
 rf 
 
 %■■ 
 
 T- 
 
 1-2-3 ' V&Sr+S r?3 : 4 : 5-G-7 
 62 zi 
 
 COS 1=1 — —-{ 
 
 1-2 ^ 1-2 3-4 
 
 + &c. 
 
 + &X. 
 
 cosines, &.c, of the sum or difference of two angles in terms 
 of the sines, cosines, &c, of the single angle?. The follow- 
 ing table contains a synopsis of the most useful formula; - 
 the first four are easily demonstrated by means of a simple 
 geometrical construction, and all the others are deduced 
 from these four by the ordinary algebraic transformations : 
 cos (A -J- B) = cos A cos B — sin A sin B. 
 cos (A — B) = cos A cos B -4- sin A sin B. 
 sin (A -f B) = sin A cos B + cos A sin B. 
 sin ( A — B) = sin A cos B — cos A sin B. 
 cos B -f- cos A = 2cos J (A + B) cos J (A — B). 
 cos B — cos A = 2 sin 4 ( A -f B) sin A (A — B). 
 sin A + sin B = 2 sin J (A + B) cos 4 (A — B). 
 sin A — sin B — 2 cos 4 ( A + B) sin A ( A — B). 
 
 tan(A-f-B)= tanA + tanB . 
 1 — tan A tan B 
 
 tan A — tan B 
 1 + tan A tan B 
 1 — tan A tan B 
 ten A + tan B 
 1 -f tan A tan B 
 
 tan A — tan B ' 
 
 tanA + tanB = i in(A + B J. 
 cos A cos B 
 
 ,„. , . i> sin (A — B) 
 
 tan A — tan B = '. 
 
 cos A cos B 
 
 tan (A — B) = 
 cot(A + B) = 
 cot (A— B) = 
 
 sin (A -f B) 
 sin A sin B ' 
 
 CQtB-cotA = ? nfA - B >. 
 sin A sin B 
 
 ,_ cos(A — B) 
 
 cos A sin B 
 
 cos (A + B) 
 
 cot A -f cot B : 
 
 tan A -f- cot B : 
 
 cot A — tan B = 
 
 tin A cos B 
 
 cos2A = l — 2sin2A, sin2 A = 2siu Acos A 
 2 
 
 tan 2 A= — 
 
 cot A — tan A 
 cos J A=V [J(l + cos A)], sin 4 A = ^[4(1— cos A)). 
 
 tan4A= 8inA , ■ ■ sinA 
 
 1 + cos A 
 
 cot2A = 4(cot A — tan A) 
 
 r , cot A A = ; 
 
 ■zT 1-2-3 T 3-4-5-6^: 
 
 — &.C. 
 
 + &.C. 
 + &.C. 
 
 3-4-5G2-7 
 
 For other and more expeditious methods of computing 
 the trigonometrical lines, or deriving them from one an- 
 other, the reader is referred to the Preface to the Tables 
 Tngonometriques Decimals, by Delambre ; or to Collet's or 
 UuttoiCs Tables. 
 
 The following expressions for the sine and cosine of an 
 angle, found by John Bernoulli, are of frequent use in an- 
 alytical trigonometry: Let e = 2-7182818 (the base of the 
 Napierean logarithms), then 
 
 an x — — _ ; 
 
 2y-T 
 
 cosi=f^lL+£^f!. 
 2 
 
 lo these we may add the following formula for a mul- 
 tiple ancle, discovered by Demoivre, which is readily de- 
 duced from them (m is any number whatever) : 
 
 (cos x + sin x y/- i) m = cos m x + sin m x j~-\. 
 Formula rtUaive to Two Jtrcs.—\n trigonometrical cal- 
 culations, it is very frequently necessary to express the sines, 
 
 1 — cos A 
 
 Solution of Plane Triangles. — Having explained the na- 
 ture of the trigonometrical quantities, and exhibited rmm 
 of their most useful relations, we come next to apply them 
 to the solution of triangles, which forma the proper object 
 of trigonometry. Of the six parts of which a triangle con- 
 sists namely, the three sides and the three angles, it is 
 known from geometry that when any three (excepting the 
 three angles) are given, all the rest are determined ; accord- 
 ingly, we have to find expressions for each part in terms of 
 three others, and so arranged that they can be Immediately 
 calculated from a table which contains the Logarithms of 
 the sines, cosines, tangents, and cotangents to every minute 
 or smaller division of the quadrant. The solution'of trian- 
 gles may therefore be regarded as the art of applying such 
 a table to each particular case. It is convenient to consid 
 the cases of the right-angled triangles separately. 
 
 Right-angled. Plane Triangles. — In all the solutions 
 which follow, the sides of the triangle 
 will be denoted by a, ft, c ; and the an- 
 gles respectively opposite by A, B, C. In 
 the right-angled triangle ABC (fig. 3), 
 let C be the right angle, and consequent- 
 ly c the hypothenuse. There are four 
 distinct cases, and in each case the solu- 
 tion follows immediately from the defini- 
 tion of the sine, cosine, tangent, and co- 
 tangent. 
 
 Case 1. Given the two sides a and ft to find the angles A 
 and B, and the hypothenuse c. Here we have from the 
 definition 
 
 tan A = - ; tan B = - ; cos A =- ; whence c = > 
 
 ft a c cos A 
 
 or in like manner e = a -f- cos B. 
 
 Case 2. Given the hypothenuse c and a side a, to find the 
 angles A and B and the side ft. Here 
 
 sin A=cosB= I sin B = -; b = c sin B =ccos A. 
 e c 
 
 The side ft may be found independently of the angles; 
 for since b 2 = c 2 — a 2 , wo have b = y/ [(c + a) (e — a)]. 
 
 Case 3. Given a side a and one of the acute angles A, to 
 find the other side ft, the hypothenuse c, and the angle B 
 
 1269 
 
TRIGONOMETRY. 
 
 Here cot A— ', sin A = c ' b = a cot A; c = ^ n "^' 
 For the angle we have B = 90° — A. 
 Case 4. Given the hypothenuse c and an angle A, to find 
 the sides a and b and the other angle B. Here a c= e sin A ; 
 4 = ccosA; B = 90 — A. .,___,. - ,. „ 
 
 Obliquc-ana-lcd Plane Triangles.— -The solutions of the 
 different cases are all derived Irom the 
 three following propositions : First, the 
 sum of the three interior angles of any 
 triangle is equal to two right angles; 
 that is, A + B + = 1800 .... (1.) 
 Secondly, in any triangle, the sides are 
 to each "other as the sines of the oppo- 
 site angles. For, draw A D (flg. 4) 
 perpendicular to BC, and let AD = 7>; 
 
 V V 
 
 C we then have sin B = r , sin C = - ; 
 c b 
 
 whence — ~ =-. The same property must evidently hold 
 sin C 
 
 true of sides a and c, and a and b ; whence 
 
 sin A _ a > sinB _ b . sin C 
 
 sin B — 1 ' sin C ~~ c ' sin A 
 The third general property may be derived from the sec- 
 ond, but is more readily found as follows: In the last figure 
 let B D = to, D C = n ; we have then m = a — n, whence 
 to 2 = a2 + nZ — 2 a n. Adding p 2 to both sides, and observ- 
 ing that mi +p 2 = c2, n2 -f-p2 = b% and n = b cos C, we have 
 c2 = a 2 + 62 — " a b cos C, and consequently 
 
 a 2 + fl2- c 2 
 
 cosC = - — -—- — . . . (3.) 
 2 a b 
 
 We now proceed to give the solutions of the different 
 cases, of which there are four. 
 
 Case 1. Given the three sides, a, b, c, to find the three an- 
 gles, A, B, C. 
 
 = - . . (2.) 
 
 Put s = 4 (a + 6 + e), M: 
 M 
 
 I f>-a)(* -J) (;•-£)> 
 
 Iheu tan h A = , tan J B = 
 
 s — o 
 
 M , „ M 
 
 -, tan£C = . 
 
 s — c 
 
 Case 2. Given two sides, a, b, nnd the included angle C, 
 to find the other side c, and the other angles A, B. 
 Find first the sum and difference of A and B from these 
 
 two formula;, A + B = 180° 
 
 (A + B) ; then 
 
 A = *(A + B)+A(A 
 B=4(A + B)-I(A 
 
 C, tan J ( A — B) = 2__ i tan A 
 o + & 
 
 sin C sin C 
 
 sin A sin B' 
 
 Case 3. Given two sides a, b, nnd the angle opposite one 
 of them, A, to find the third side e, and tho other angles 
 B, C. 
 
 Here we have sin B = - sin A ; C = 180° — (A + B) ; 
 
 sin C , sin C 
 
 c — a -. — r = »- — -. 
 
 sin A sin B 
 
 In this case, however, it is necessary 
 
 to remark, that if the side which is adjacent to the given 
 angle be greater than the side opposite to 
 it (that is, if b be greater than a), then 
 there are two triangles which furnish the 
 same data, and consequently the solution 
 is ambiguous. For with C (fig. 5) as a 
 centre, and radius equal to C B, describe 
 an arc of a circle intersecting A B in B', 
 and join C B' ; it is obvious that the data 
 a, *, A belong to both triangles A C B 
 and A C B', and the solution gives alike 
 t = AB, and c = A B'. The solution is 
 therefore said to be ambiguous. 
 Case 4. Given two angles, A, B, and the side between 
 
 them e. 
 
 In this case the third angle is likewise given by reason of 
 
 C= 180°— (A + B), and consequently the sides are fonnd 
 
 from the formula: 
 
 sin A sin B 
 
 a = c — — b = e - — =• 
 
 sin C sin C 
 
 Area of a Plane Triangle. — Euclid has shown that the 
 area of any plane triangle is equal to the rectangle contained 
 under half the base and the perpendicular let fall on it from 
 be opposite angle ; that is, area = 4 ap (fig. 4.) But for p 
 we may substitute b sin C (or c sin B), and we have area = 
 iab rui C. If from this expression we eliminate b hv the 
 I2H1 
 
 first of the equations (2), we shall have the area in terms 
 of a side and the three angles ; or, if we eliminate sin C by 
 means of the formula (3) and the equation cos 2C = 1 — sin 
 2 C, we shall have an expression for the area In terms of 
 the three sides. Assume s = J (a + 6-f-c) ; then the area 
 is expressed by any of the following formulae : 
 
 a b sin C a2 sin B sin C 
 nrea = — _ =___- = 
 
 •v/fs (s — a) (s — b) (* — c)]. 
 
 Spherical Trigonometry. — This branch of Trigonometry 
 considers the relations between the sides and angles of tri- 
 angles formed on a sphere. Before giving the formula; foi 
 the solutions of the different cases, it will be useful to state 
 a few elementary properties of spherical triangles, depend 
 ing on principles purely geometrical. 
 
 The following definitions must be premised: 1. The com- 
 mon section of the spherical surface and any plane passing 
 through the centre of the sphere is called a great circle of 
 the sphere. 2. The pole of a great circle is a point on the 
 surface of the sphere from which all straight lines drawn 
 to that great circle are equal. 3. A spherical angle is the 
 angle on the surface of the sphere made by two great circles 
 at their intersection. It is identical with the angle made My 
 the planes of the circles, and is measured by an arc of the 
 great circle whose pole is at the angular point. 4. A spheri- 
 cal triangle is a figure on the surface of the sphere bounded 
 by three arcs of great circles, each of which is less than a 
 semicircle. 5. Any arc of a great circle is the measure of 
 the plane angle formed at the centre of the sphere by the 
 two radii passing through the extremities of the arc. 
 
 From these definitions the following properties are easily 
 derived : 
 
 1. The distance of a great circle from its pole is a quad- 
 rant. 
 
 2. If two great circles cut one another at risht ai 
 each passes through the pole of the other; and, consequent- 
 ly, if two great circles cut a third at right angles, they will 
 meet in its pole. 
 
 3. A sDhcrical triangle which hns two equal sides has 
 the angles opposite to those sides equal, and the greater side 
 lias the greater angle opposite to it. 
 
 4. The sum of any two sides is greater than the third, the 
 difference of any two less than the third ; nnd tho sum of 
 all the three sides is less than the circumference of a great 
 circle. 
 
 5. If about the angular points of a spherical trkir_ 
 poles there be described three great circles on the spheie. 
 these, by their intersections, will form a triangle which i- 
 said to be supplemental to the former; and the two trian- 
 gles are such that the sides of the one are the supplements 
 of the arcs which measure the angles of the other. 
 
 6. The sum of the three angles of any spherical triangle 
 is greater than two right angles, but less than six right an- 
 gles. 
 
 Solution of Spherical Triangles.— -The solutions of all the 
 different cases of spherical triangles are comprehended in 
 the four following sets of formula: ; and it will be remarked 
 that the different formulae in each set express all the same 
 property, and are formed by merely interchanging the let- 
 ters. Those of the first set are readily demonstrated from 
 the properties of the triangular pyramid, or tctraedron. and 
 and the others may be all deduced analytically from the 
 first; so that, in fact, the whole of spherical trigonometry is 
 comprehended in the first of the underwritten equations. 
 The radius of the sphere is supposed to be (C.) 
 
 unity ; the three sides or arcs are respective- ^ 
 
 ly denoted by a, b, c, (fig. 6), and the mea- 
 sures of the angles respectively opposite by 
 A, B, C. It is to be observed that the sides 
 a, b, c (as well as the angles A, B, C), are 
 expressed in degrees, minutes, &c. ; and not, 
 as in plane trigonometry, in absolute mea- 
 sures, as feet, yards, &e. 
 
 I. 
 
 cos b cos c + sin b sin c cos A. 
 
 cos a cos c + sin a sin c cos B. 
 
 cos a cos b + sin a sin b cos C. 
 
 II. 
 
 B sinc_sinC sin* sin B 
 
 A' sin a sin A* sin c sin C 
 
 III. 
 
 b = cot A sin C + cos b cos C. 
 c = cot A sin B 4- cos c eos B. 
 a = cot B sin C + cos a cos C. 
 c = cot B sin A + cos e cos A ' 
 a = cot C sin B 4- cos a cos B. 
 6 = cot C sin A 4- cos b cos A. 
 IV. 
 cos A = — cos B cos C + sin B sin C cos a 
 
 cos a = 
 
 cos 6 = 
 
 cos c = 
 
 sin b sin 
 
 
 sin a sin 
 
 cot a sin 
 
 cot a sin 
 
 cot b sin 
 
 cot b sin 
 
 cot c sin 
 
 cot c sin 
 
TRIGONOMETRY. 
 
 cos B = — cos A cos C + sin A sin C cos 4. 
 cos C = — cos A cos 11 -j- sin A sin B cos c. 
 The above general formula; apply to every case of spheri- 
 cal triangles ; but when one of the angles is a right angle, 
 they become considerably more simple ; and, in the case of 
 oblique-angled triangles, they admit of transformations, liy 
 which they are rendered mure convenient for logarithmic 
 calculation. 
 Right-angled Spherical Triangles. — As before, let C be 
 (7.; the right angle and c the hypothenuse. 
 
 t Case 1. Given the two side* a, 4, to find 
 the hypothenuse c, and the two oblique an- 
 gles A, B. Here 
 
 tan a „ 
 
 cos c = cos a cos b ; tan A =— — ; tan B = 
 sin b 
 
 tar. 4 
 sir. a 
 
 Case 2. Given the hypothenuse c and a side b, to find the 
 Other side a and the two oblique angles. 
 
 cos c tan 4 , _ sin 4 
 cos a = : ; cos A = ; sin B = — — . 
 
 cos 4 tan c sin c 
 
 Case 3. Given a side a and the opposite angle A, to find 
 the other side 4, the hypothenuse c, and the angle B. 
 
 tan a . sin a 
 
 sin 4 = . ; ; sin c = 
 
 , _ cos A 
 
 - : sin B = . 
 
 sin A cos a 
 
 tan A 
 
 In this case it is necessary to observe, that as a sine be- 
 longs to the supplement of the angle as well Bfl to the angle 
 itself, each of the tilings to be found has two values; and 
 oily the solution is ambiguous, HtWO distinct trian- 
 gles may be formed of the same .lata. 
 
 Case 4. Given a side a, and the adjacent angle 11 ; to find 
 4, e, and A. 
 
 tan 4 = sin a tan B ; cot c = cot a cos B ; cos A = cos a sin B. 
 ... Given the hypothenuse c, and an angle A, to find 
 the sides a, 4, and the angle B. 
 sin «=:sin c sin A; tan 4 = tan e cos A; cot B = cos c tan A. 
 
 Case ti. Given the two oblique angles A, B, to find the 
 two sides a, 4, and the hypothenUM t. 
 
 cos A „ cos B _ 
 
 cos a = ^ : cos B = - — r ; cos c = cot A cot B. 
 
 sin I! sin A 
 
 All the six easel of right-angled spherical triangles, it is 
 proper to remark, were reduced by Lord Napier, the invent- 
 or at the logarithm*, to two rules, which are known by the 
 name of A*apier'« Rule* oftlic Circular Parts. See Circu- 
 lar 1'akis. 
 
 Oblique- angl id Spherical Triangles. 
 
 I. Civen the three sides a, 4, c, to 
 find the three angles A, B, C. 
 Find s = J (a + 4 + c), and put M ss 
 sin(s — a) sin (s — 4) sin (a — c) i 
 sin s > ' 
 
 M . _ M 
 
 v' 
 
 then tan A A = 
 
 -, tan i B = . 
 sm (s — a) sin (s — 4) 
 
 u 
 
 , tan A C 
 
 sin (» — e) 
 Case 2. Given two sides a, b, and the included angle C, to 
 find c, A, and B. 
 
 . , . •». sin 4 (a — 4) 
 tan J (A-B = 2 ) cot 4 C; 
 
 sin 4 (a + 4) 
 
 A = s(A + B) + 2 (A-B); B = J (A + B)- 2 (A-B ; 
 
 sin C sin C 
 
 sin c = sin a - — 7 = sin 4 - — -. 
 
 sm A sin B 
 
 The side c may be otherwise found without finding the 
 angles A and B. Thus, find an auxiliary angle 6, such that 
 cot (j> = tan a cos C ; then 
 
 cos a sin (4 + 6) 
 
 cos c = ; — : — — — . 
 
 sin <p 
 Case 3. Given two sides a, 4, and the angle opposite one 
 of them A, to find the third side c, and the angles B, C. 
 
 Find two subsidiary angles and u>, such that cot <h = tan 
 6 «os A, tan xp = cos 4 tan A ; then 
 
 sin (c + <p) — 
 
 cos a sin (f> 
 
 sin B = sin A- 
 
 , , cos * sin a' 
 
 sin (C+ ip) = cot a tan 4 sin \p. 
 
 This case is ambiguous forthe same reason as the corres- 
 ponding ease of plane triangles. 
 
 Case 4. Given two angles A, B, and the side between 
 :hcm r, to find the other sides a, b, and the remaining angle C 
 
 Find two angles </> and \p, such that tan = cos c Ian A 
 tan -J- = cos c tan B ; then 
 
 TRILLION. 
 
 tan c sin d> tan c sin xb 
 
 tan a = - , tan 4 = • 
 
 sin (B-f-0) sm A -f- ip) 
 
 cos C = cos A cos ( B + t) _ cos Bcos (A + yy ) 
 cos tp COS U/ 
 
 Case 5. Given two nngles A, B, and the side opposite one 
 of them a, to find the other sides 4, c, and the remaining an 
 gle C. b 
 
 Find two angles <h and xp, such that tan <p = tan a cos B, 
 cot xp = cos a tan B ; then 
 . , sin B 
 
 sm 4 = sin a^ — -, sin (e — xp) = cot A tan B sin xp, sin (C 
 
 _ , . cos A sin xp 
 
 ™ ~ cos B ' 
 This case is also ambiguous. 
 
 Case 6. Given the three angles A, B, C, to find the sides 
 a, 4, c. 
 Find S = A (A + B + C), and assume 
 U_ ./ / — cosT 
 
 N=v/ (. 
 
 Vcos(S — A) 
 
 > 
 
 then 
 
 ) cos (S — B) cos (S — C)> 
 tan U=N cos (S — A) ; 
 tan A 4 = N cos (S — B) ; 
 tun Ac = N cos (S — C). 
 When the side- of a spherical triangle are very small in 
 comparison of the radius of the sphere, as is the' case in all 
 triangles measured on the surface of the earth, the sides 
 imputed from tbe observed angles with all the ac- 
 curacy whf h the observations wUJ admit of by approximate 
 formula;, which greatly abridge the calculations. See SuR 
 
 VEY1N0. 
 
 Area of a Splnrind Triangle. — It is known from the in 
 tegral calculus that the area or surface of a sphere is equal 
 to four limes that of one of its great circles, or =4irr2; 
 u here r Is the radius , if the sphere, and it = 314159. Hence. 
 surface of hemisphere = 2n-r2. 
 
 Now it is manifest that the portion of the spherical sur- 
 face included between two great semicircles, and which is 
 called a tunc, will have the same ratio to the surface of the 
 re U the angle of the lune has to ISIP; therefore 
 it the angle of the lune be A° its sur- 
 face will be 2 ir rl ( A -f- 180). 
 
 Let ABC (fig. 9) be a triangle upon 
 the hemisphere A I! II K, and let the 
 sides IIC and A C be produced till they 
 meet again in F on the opi>o.«ite hemi- 
 sphere ; then, since C I) V and C E F are 
 semicircles, they are equal to A C D and 
 BCE; whence A C=DFandBC = F 
 i:, and the two triangles ABC and DE 
 F are every way equal. 
 
 Let S= surface of the triangle ABC; then S = surface 
 of hemisphere — BIIDC- AGEC — D CE= 2777-2 — 
 (lune A II D — S) — (lune B G E — S) — (lune CDF 
 
 E-S) = 2, r ,(l-A_ I |_^) + 3 S; there- 
 
 . _ A + B + C — 180 „ E „ , 
 
 foreS = — ! — X_ nr 2 = — vr 2 t where E = A + 
 
 B + C — 180°. 
 
 From this it follows that the area of a spherical triangle 
 is proportional to the excess of the sum of its three angles 
 above 180°; and hence this quantity, which is called the 
 spherical excess, is sometimes taken as the measure of the 
 area of the triangle. The spherical excess and the area are 
 immediately deducible from each other. See Spherical 
 Excess. 
 
 In the above formula the area is given in terms of the 
 three angles. The following elegant formula, which gives 
 the spherical excess in terms of the three sides, is due to 
 L'Huillier: Let * = 4 (a +4 + c) ; then 
 tan i E = v /[tan J s tan A. (s — a) tan J (* — b) tan A («— e)| 
 
 Trigonometry owes its origin to the Greek astronomers ol 
 Alexandria. The solutions of the most useful cases of 
 spherical triangles have been known from the lime of Hip- 
 parchus, and the fundamental formula; appear in the Ana- 
 lemma of Ptolemy. The Greeks, however, instead of the 
 sines, employed the chords of the double arcs. The sines 
 were introduced by the Arabians, to whom the science is in 
 debted for some other improvements. Regiomontanus in 
 troduced the tangents, which have greatly simplified the 
 calculations. But the present elegant and compact form in 
 which the solutions now appear is the result of improve- 
 ments in modern nnalysis. The treatises on trigonometry 
 are extremely numerous. For the history the reader may 
 be referred to Montucla, Histoire des Mtithemntinucs ; De- 
 lambre, Histoire de I' Astronomic ; and the Introduction to 
 Dr. Mutton's Mathematical Tables. 
 
 TRILA'TERAL. (Lat. tres, three, and latus, side.) 
 Three-s'ded ; a term applied to all triangular AsTUTes. 
 
 TRI'LLION. In Arithmetic, a million of billions, or a 
 
 1271 
 
TR1LLO. 
 
 million of million of millions. The term is said by Dr. 
 Johnson to have been invented by Locke. 
 
 TJU'LLO. (It.) In Music, a term by which it is inti- 
 mated that the performer is to beat quickly on two notes in 
 conjoint degrees alternately one after another, beginning 
 with the highest and ending with the lowest. It is marked 
 with a singleTas well in a vocal as in an instrumental part. 
 
 TRl'LOBITES. (Lat. tres, three, and lobus, a lobe.) 
 The name given by Cuvier to an order of Crustaceans, 
 comprehending those remarkable fossil species in which 
 the body is divided into three lobes by two fissures which 
 run parallel to its axis. 
 
 TRl'LOGY. (Gr. rpus, three, and \oyot, a discourse.) 
 The word applied to a series of three dramas, which, al- 
 though each of them is in one sense comr-Vste, pet bear a 
 mutual relation, and form but parts of ram historical and 
 poetical picture. All the plays of ^Eschylus, and the Hen- 
 ry VI. of Shakspeare, are examples of a trilogy. 
 
 TRIM. The position of the keel of a ship with respect 
 to a horizontal line. Also the disposition of the weights or 
 stowage, as favourable or otheiwise for sailing, which are 
 expressed by in trim, and out of trim. 
 
 TRI'MERANS, Trimcra. (Gr. rpus, three, and ucpo;, a 
 part.) The name of a section of Coleopterous insects, in- 
 cluding those which have each tarsus composed of three 
 articulations. 
 
 TRl'MMER. In Architecture, a piece of timber framed 
 at right angles to the joists opposite chimneys or the well 
 holes of stairs, which receives the ends of the joists inter- 
 cepted by the opening. 
 
 Till MM 1NG JOIST. In Architecture, a joist into which 
 a trimmer is framed. 
 
 TRl'MYARIES, Trimyaria. (Gr. rpcic, three, and uv(ov, 
 a muscle.) The name by which those Bivalves are distin- 
 guished which present three muscular impressions on each 
 valve. 
 
 TRINE. (Lat. trinus, threefold.) Of threefold dimen- 
 sions—length, breadth, and thickness. In Astrology, the 
 trine is one of the five aspects of the influential bodies, the 
 angle subtended by the two planets as seen from the earth 
 being 120°, or the third of the zodiac. The trine was sup- 
 posed to be a benign aspect. See Astrology. 
 
 TIU'NGA. (Lat. a wading bird.) A genus of wading 
 birds (Qralla), characterised by a compressed bill of mod- 
 erate length, enlarged at the point ; and a hind toe, too 
 short to reach the ground. It is by the latter character 
 that the lapwings (Tringai) are distinguished from the plov- 
 ers (Cluiraili ii), in which the hind toe is wanting. 
 
 TRINITA'RIANS. A religious order, founded in 1198 
 under the pontificate of Innocent III. Its members devoted 
 themselves especially to the duty of ransoming captives 
 taken by the Moors and other infidels. Another body of 
 Trinitarians was formed in consequence of a reformation 
 of the order in 1578. There was also a female order of the 
 same name, and dedicated to the same objects. 
 
 TRPNITY. The three persons comprised in the God- 
 head, and distinguished as the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost. The term is not found in the Scriptures, and 
 its introduction is referred at the earliest to the 2d century. 
 All denominations of Christians that believe in the Trinity, 
 or Triune Deity, are comprised under the general name of 
 Trinitarians. Several theories have been framed as to the 
 existence of supposed doctrines of a Trinity in Pagan sys- 
 tems. (See, as to the Orphic, Platonic, Egyptian, Greek, 
 and Latin, Magian, and Indian Trinities, Dale's Chronology, 
 vol. iv.) 
 
 TRINITY SUNDAY. The Sunday next after Whit- 
 Sunday ; so called on account of a feast which was ancient- 
 ly and still continues to be held on that day, in the Romish 
 Church in honour of the Holy Trinity. This feast does not 
 appear to have been fully established in the Western 
 Church until the year 1334, under Pope John XXIII. 
 
 TRINO'MIAL. (Lat. tres, three, and nomen, name.) 
 In Algebra, a quantity consisting of three terms connected 
 by the signs + or — ; as a -f- b c- — di. 
 
 TRI'O. (It.) In Music, a composition consisting of 
 three parts. Besides those general rules of counterpoint 
 which forbid that two octaves or fifths follow one another 
 either to the bass or any other part in trios, the third must 
 be heard in every time of the bar, cither with the bass or 
 between the other two upper parts; or, in other words, one 
 of the parts must make a third with the bass, and the oth- 
 er a fifth or octave. 
 
 TRIOLET. A stanza of eight lines, in which the first 
 line is thrice repeated. 
 
 TRIO'NES. In Astronomy, the seven principal stars in 
 the constellation of Ursa Major, popularly called Charles's 
 Wain ; four of the stars being fancied to represent a wain 
 or wagon, and the three others the horses by which it is 
 drawn. 
 
 TRIPHA'NE. A synonyme cf the mineral called also 
 tpodimcw. 
 1272 
 
 PRISECTION OF AN ANGLE. 
 
 TRI'PHTHONG. (Gr. r/Wtj, three, and (pdoyy,,, sound. 
 In Grammar, a composite sound of three vowels, as a 
 diphthong is of two; such as the German "aeu." Theie 
 is no such sound in English, nor, strictly speaking, ii. 
 French, unless the combinations "ieu" in that language be 
 so considered. 
 
 TRI'PLE. (Gr. rpiirXovs, threefold.) In Music, one ol 
 the kinds or measures of time, of which there are many 
 different subdivisions. There are, however, only four prin- 
 cipal ones, whereof the others are varieties. See art. Mu- 
 sic. 
 
 TRIPLE SALTS. A term by which, in Chemistry, cer- 
 tain salts are sometimes designated, in which two bases ate 
 combined with one acid. Thus, emetic tartar, which is com- 
 posed of oxide of antimony and of potassa witli tartaric 
 acid, and Rochelle salts in which soda and potassa are 
 combined with the same acid, are triple tartrates. These 
 salts, however, are more properly regarded as double salts'; 
 that is, as consisting of tartrate of antimony and of tartrate 
 of potassa, or of single equivalents of tartrate of potassa 
 and tartrate of soda. 
 
 TRI'PLETS. In Poetry, three verses rhvming together. 
 Thus, in the famous lines of Pope : 
 
 ,; W:\llcr was unooth, but Dryden taught to jon, 
 'the varying verse, the full'resounding line, 
 The long majestic march and energy divine." 
 
 In Music, notes grouped together by threes ; thus, 
 
 In common time, where three of the 
 
 jgi^s; 
 
 quavers are intended to be equal in duration to a crotchet, 
 a 3 is sometimes placed over them ; but they are generally 
 known by being grouped together, and thus form one of the 
 single parts of the whole measure. 
 
 TRIPLICATE RATIO. In Arithmetic and Geometry, 
 the ratio of the cubes is the cube of the simple ratio. 
 Thus the triplicate ratio ol 2 to 3 is the same as that of 8 
 to 27. ' Similar solids are to each other as the triplicate ra- 
 tio of their like dimensions. 
 
 TRI'POD. (Gr. rpeis, three, and ttouc, a foot.) In Ar- 
 chitecture, a vessel, table, seat, or instrument having three 
 feet. It was from such a seat that the Pythian goddess 
 rendered oracular answers at Delphi. 
 
 TRI'POLI. A mineral used for polishing, originally from 
 Tripoli in Barbary. It occurs in friable earthy in; 
 dull clay colour. Its essential components arc silica, alu- 
 mina, and oxide of iron ; but the varieties of tripoli appear 
 to vary extremely in composition. Ehrenberg has found 
 the different tripolis to be aggregates of silicified animal 
 cules. 
 
 TRI'REME. (Lat. tres, and remus, oar ; Gr. rpojprn, a 
 galley with three rows of oars.) The usual war Vessel ol 
 the Greeks at the time of the Persian and Peloponneslan 
 wars, and nearly down to the period of the first Punic, 
 when we find quinqueremes pretty generally substituted. 
 With respect to the construction, and the difficulties attending 
 its explanation, see Galley. Some light has been thrown 
 on Athenian naval matters by the recent discovery of soma 
 inscriptions at the Piraus, which have been commented on 
 by Boeckh. See Foreign Quart. Rev., Jan., 1841. See also 
 his Public Economy of Athens, transl., i., 372, &c, 
 
 TRISA'GION. (Gr. rpi , thrice, and ayiov, holy.) In the 
 Greek Church, the threefold invocation of the Deity as 
 "Holy." (Lat. tersanctus.) This invocation takes it- ori- 
 gin from Isaiah, vi., 3; Revelations, iv., 8. The ordinal* 
 form is that in Isaiah, "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord Gtod Of 
 Hosts, all the earth is full of thy glory." A different form 
 of the trisagion is repeated daily in the service of the 
 Greek Church, and is attributed to Saint Proclus. Concern- 
 ing the war which was raised A.D. 508-518, by the addi- 
 tion of the words " who was crucified for us," see Gibbon, 
 ch. xlvii. 
 
 TRISE'CTION. (Lnt. trisectio.) The dividing of any 
 thing into three equal parts. 
 
 TR1SECTION OF AN ANGLE. In Geometry, a prob 
 lem of great celebrity among the ancient Greek matherafl 
 licians. The indefinite trisection of an angle cannot be ef- 
 fected by plane geometry, that is to say, by means of the 
 straight line and circle, inasmuch as the analytical equation 
 on which it depends rises to the third degree ; but it may be 
 accomplished by means of the conic sections and some oth- 
 er curves, as the quadratrix. The geometrical conditions 
 on which the solution of the problem depends may be e\ 
 plained as follows : 
 
 Let B A C be the angle, and suppose D A C te 1* fs thirt" 
 part. Through any point B in A B 
 draw B C perpendicular to A C, and * 
 B E parallel to A C ; produce A D 
 to meet B E in E, and complete the 
 rectangle A F B C. Now since D A C 
 is the third of B A C, therefore BAD A 
 is equal to twice D A C, or twice BE A. Draw BG, makffl| 
 
TRISMUS. 
 
 the angle E8G equal to B £ G ; then B G A, being equal 
 to G B E and GEB together, is equal lo twice B E A, and 
 itly equal to B A G. Hence the two triangle* 
 EGBandd 15 A aretooicele«,orGEs=GB = B A. Again, 
 the angle G B 1) is tin; difference between a right angle and 
 id GDB or its equal A DC is the difference be- 
 ngal angle and 1) A C, which is equal to B 15 G: 
 G 1! I) la equal tip Q L) 15, whence G D is equal lo 
 G I! or A B. It thus appears that DG and G Eareeach equal 
 ■ A 11, or that I) E is equal to twice A B, which is a given line, 
 fore, In a rectangle A F 11 C, a straight line AD 
 could he drawn from the angular point A, so that on produ- 
 cing it to meet the opposite side F B the produced part 
 should be equal to a given straight line, the problem would 
 Tins is the condition to which the trisection of 
 the angle is reduced by Pappus of Alexandria, in the 4th 
 hook 0? his .Mathematical Collections, where he shows how 
 it may lie (instructed by means of an hyperbola. When, 
 however, the rectangle A FBC becomes a square, that is, 
 when the given angle B A C is half a right angle, the con- 
 struction is easily effected by elementary geometry. (See 
 ictrical Analysis.) 
 
 TIM'S MI'S. (Gr. rptsw, J gnash.) Lockjaw; tetanus 
 
 the jaw. There are two species of this malady : 
 
 the one caused by wounds, or, under certain circumstances, 
 
 by exjiosiire to cold ; the other attacking infants during the 
 
 two first weeks from their birth. 
 
 THI'SPAST, or TRI8PA8TON. (Gr. rpus. three, and 
 tnrau, / draw.) A machine with three pulleys acting in 
 connexion with each other for raising heavy weights. 
 
 TRJTHEISM. (Gr. rptts, three, and Otoe, God.) In 
 Controversial Theology, an error into which some divines 
 appear to have unconsciously fallen in their zeal to support, 
 the honour due to each of the three persons of the Trini- 
 ty. Sherlock in his controversy with South, whose views 
 seemed to tend lo confound the separate natures of the Fa- 
 ther, Son, and Spirit, and were generally characterized as 
 Sabclliuu, is accused of having been betrayed into the oppo- 
 site dogma of TritheiMii. 
 
 TRI'TK T.M. &ss Wheat. 
 
 TRITON. In Mvthology, a marine deity, eon of Nep- 
 tune. Tritons re sometimes mentioned in the plural num- 
 ber. They were represented as half fish in form. In Zo- 
 ology, the name Tritonia has been given to a genus of ma- 
 tine, naked, gastrnpudnus Moilusks, or sen-slugs. 
 
 TRITONE, or TKITONTS. {Qt.rfetf. three, and rovoc, 
 t.ni- ., In Music, an interval, now get erally called a sharp 
 fourth, consisting of four degrees, and containing three 
 en the extremes, on which account the ancients 
 gave it its name. It is, moreover, divisible into six semi- 
 three diatonic and three chromatic. In dividing the 
 octave, we and on one side the tritone and on the other the 
 false fifth. 
 
 TRITO'XIDE. In Chemistry, such oxides as contain 
 one atom of base united to three atoms of oxvgen. 
 
 TRI'UMPH. (Lat. triumphus.) The highest military 
 ur that could be obtained by a Roman general. It was 
 a solemn procession, with which the victorious leader and his 
 army advanced through the city to the capiiol, accompa- 
 nied by the captives taken in war, and vehicles beating the 
 and till the furniture that could add magnificence to 
 the spectacle. On arriving at the capitol the general offered 
 up a prayer of thanksgiving to Jupiter and the other gods, 
 and sacrificed white bulls. A triumph was decreed by the 
 senate, and sometimes by the people against the will of 
 the senate, to the general who In a just war with foreigners, 
 and in one battle, had slain above 5000 enemies of the state, 
 and enlarged the limits of the empire. Sec Ovation. 
 
 TRIUMPHAL ARCH. In Architecture, an arch erect- 
 ed to perpetuate the memory of a conqueror, or of some re- 
 markable victory or important event. At first it consisted 
 of a single arch, decorated merely with a statue and spoils 
 of the victorious commander ; but arches were afterwards 
 erected with two, and then with three passages. Those on 
 the Via Triumphalis in Rome were the most magnificent ; 
 and in cases where they served as gates, they were usually 
 constructed with two openings, so that one was appropriated 
 for carriages passing into, and the other for carriages pass- 
 ing out or the city. The following is a list of some of the 
 principal triumphal arches of antiquity : The nrch at Rimi- 
 ni, erected In honour of Augustus on the completion of the 
 repairs of the Flaminian Way from Rome to that city. It 
 was one of the noblest as well as most ancient of the arch- 
 es of the ancients, having a single passage about thirty-three 
 feet wide, and was, c mtrary to the nana] practice, crowned 
 with a pediment. The lesser nrch of Septimus Severus at 
 Rome, commonly called the Jlrch of the Goldsmiths, is a 
 curious example, being of a single owning, and crowned 
 with n flat lintel. An extremly elegant arch at Susa, on the 
 Italian side of Mont Cenis, in honour of Augustus. The 
 arches of Aurelian and Janus, which possess more singu- 
 larity than beauty. The arch of Pola. in Istria, which is 
 
 TROCHILUS. 
 
 curious from the use of coupled columns which it exhibits, 
 and was erected by Salvia Posthumn, in honour of Sergius 
 I.epidus and his two brothers. The arch of Trajan at 
 Ancona, which, though it has been stripped of its bronze 
 ornaments, retains the beauty of its effect and proportions, 
 and is still in tolerable preservation. It stands at the en 
 trance of the mole or the port, and has four Corinthian col- 
 umns on pedestals. The arch of Titus at Rome, in which 
 the order used is Composite, and was probably erected after 
 Ihe emperor's death. An arch at Benevento, in honour of 
 Trajan, somewhat resembling that of Titus at Bone, alsj 
 of the Composite order. An arch of Gavius at Verona, 
 called del Castel Vorchio, but no longer in existence. The 
 arch of Septimus Severus at Rome, at the foot of the cap- 
 itol, and that of Constantino in the same city. All tbess 
 are each with three openings. For the latter the arch of 
 Trajan was despoiled of its ornaments, as the greater pari 
 of the bassi-rclievi upon it represent the victories of thai 
 emperor. It is in better preservation than any of the othei 
 arches that we have mentioned, and was indebted for iti 
 state to the care of Pope Clement XII. 
 
 TRIU'MVIRATr.. In Ancient History, this term wni 
 applied to two Croat coalitions of the three most powerful 
 individuals in the Human empire for the time being. Tin 
 first of these W>aa •fleeted in the year 60 B.C. between J u 
 lius Casar, Pompejr, and Crassus, who pledged themsrivei 
 
 to support each other with all their influence. This coali 
 tion was broken by the fall of Crassus at Carrha- in Mc-'o 
 potamia; soon alter which the civil war broke out, which 
 ended in the death of Poinpey, and establishment of Julio 
 Cassar as perpetual dictator. After his murder, 44 B.C.. tin 
 Civil war again broke out between Antony, who wished t< 
 avenge th" death and succeed to the fortunes Of Ca-ar, DJI( 
 
 the republic, on whose side were ranged Octavius an« 
 Brutus. I.epidus with a large army rem lined in suspenst 
 which side to take. But after the battle of Mutina, ii 
 which both consuls fell, 43 B.C., Antony, Octavius, ant 
 Lepidus coalesced: thus forming the second triumvirate 
 each party confirming the bond of union by the sacrifici 
 of some of his own friends to the hatred of the others— 
 in which case was Cicero, who was delivered up by Octa 
 vius to the vengeance of Antony. Against this confeder 
 ntion Brntus still held out, with the rest of the conspirators 
 against CVsnr, till their destruction at the battle of Philip- 
 pi. The triumvirates divided the provinces of the empire, 
 Octavius taking the west, Lepidus Italy, and Antony the 
 east; but the iniquitous union was soon broken by the pas- 
 sion of Antony for Cleopatra, which induced him to repil 
 diate Octavia, the sister of Octavius. War ensued, which 
 was terminated by the defeat and death of Antony at Ac- 
 tium, in '.f3 B.C.; after which everything fell into the hands 
 of Octavius, Lepidus offering no obstacle. 
 
 TRI'VIUM. (Eat. three ways.) The name given in the 
 schools of the middle ages to the first three liberal arts 
 (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) , which were studied together. 
 The other four (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astron- 
 omy) formed what was termed the quadrivium ; and the 
 two following mnemonic lines comprehend the whole 1 
 
 Grim, loquitur ; Dia verba docet; Rhe. verba niiimtnt j 
 Mus. camt j At. numeral ; Ge. ponderat ; As. edit utnu 
 
 TRO'CAR. An instrument used in tapping for the dropsy. 
 This name is said to be corrupted from the French trois 
 quarts, from the three sides of its point. 
 
 TROCHA'NTER. (Gr. Tpcx<", I run ; because the mus 
 cles inserted into it are those chiefly concerned in the act 
 of running.) A name given to two processes (greater and 
 less trochanter) at the upper end of the thigh bone. 
 
 TRO'CHE. (Lat. trochus, or trochescus, dim. of wheel.) 
 A small round lozenge or cake, generally composed of sugar 
 and mucilage, united with small portions of more active 
 remedies, intended to be allowed gradually to dissolve in 
 the mouth. 
 
 TRO'CHEE. (Gr. Tpox<"°S-) A rhythmical measure 
 consisting of two syllables, a long and short ; thus, — ^. 
 
 TRO'CHILUS. (Gr. rpo%i\os, a small bird.) This term 
 was applied by Linnisus to the genus of small and brill 
 iantly coloured birds which, from the energy and rapidity 
 of the vibrations of their wings during flight, are called 
 humming-birds. This genus includes the smallest of the 
 feathered tribe, and, if we except a few fishes, the most 
 diminutive of vertehrated animals : some humming birds 
 scarcely exceed a humble-bee in size; they are unable to 
 escape from the strong webs of the large spiders of the 
 American tropics, and thus sometimes become their prey. 
 
 The humming-birds are characterized by a long and slen- 
 der bill, inclosing an extensile bifid tongue, by which they 
 extract the nectar and the small insects which may lurk in 
 the recesses of flowers. They have very small feet, long 
 and narrow wings, a broad and entire sternum with an un- 
 usually deep keel and a short and strong humerus; all 
 combining to form a mechanism for rapid and powerful 
 flight, like that of the swift. Humming-birds live in pairs 
 
 1273 
 
TROCHLEA. 
 
 Uicy have the character of being very quarrelsome, the 
 males fighting desperately with each other: both sexes 
 combine to defend their nests with courage. 
 
 TROCHLEA. (Gr. rpox^ia, Lat. trochlea.) In Me- 
 chanics, the same as pulley or tackle. See Pulley. 
 
 In Anatomy, the term trochlea is applied to the cartilage 
 through which the tendon of the trocklearis muscle pass- 
 es. It is the superior oblique muscle of the eyeball, and is 
 accompanied by the trocklearis nerve. 
 
 TRO'CHOIl). (Gr. Tpo%os, a wheel, and eiSos, form.) 
 The curve described by any point in a wheel rolling straight 
 forward on a level. It is the same as the cycloid ; and for 
 an account of its principal properties, see Cycloid. The 
 same name is also given to another curve, sometimes called 
 the companion of the cycloid, or curve of arcs. 
 
 TRO'CHUS. (Gr. rpoxog.) The name given by Lin- 
 naius to a genus of the Vermes Testacea, characterized by 
 a subconical spiral shell, with the margin entire, without a 
 fissure or canal for the siphon of the mantle, the animal not 
 possessing any respiratory tube. The mouth of the shell is 
 closed by an operculum, or some analogous part. The spe- 
 cies to which the characters of the Linnaian genus are ap- 
 plicable constitute a family of Pectinibranchiate Gastro- 
 pods in the. system of Cuvier, called Trochoida, which in- 
 cludes the following genera: Tectaria, Montfort ; Calcar, 
 Montf. ; Rotella, Lam. ; Cantharis, Montf. ; 1 nfundibilum, 
 Montf. ; Telescopium, Montf.; Solarium, Montf.; Euom- 
 phalus, Sowerby. The Gastropod called Turbe pica by 
 Linnffius, having been ascertained to have an operculum, is 
 now referred to the genus Trochus. 
 
 TRO'GLODYTES. (Gr. rpoyXv, cave, and <Ww, J en- 
 ter.) Tribes of men who have their dwellings in subterra- 
 neous caverns. Several such tribes are mentioned by an- 
 cient authors, and the remains of their dwellings still attest 
 their existence; especially along the banks of the Nile, in 
 Upper Egypt and Nubia, and in parts of Syria and Ara- 
 bia. (See Bryant's Mythology, iv., 381.) 
 
 The chimpanzee has been called by Blumenbach Simia 
 troglodytes. 
 
 TROMBONE. (It.) A brass musical wind instrument 
 serving as ;he bass to the trumpet, to which in general form 
 it is similar, but of much larger dimensions. 
 
 TRO'NA. A native sesquicarbonate of soda found on 
 the banks of the soda lakes of Sukena in Africa. 
 
 TRON WEIGHT. The most ancient of the weights 
 used in Scotland ; and though its use is now prohibited by 
 law, it is still occasionally employed in some or the rural 
 districts in weighing wool, cheese, butter, &c. The tron 
 pound was not a well-defined weight, but varied from 21 to 
 23 ounces avoirdupois. 
 
 TROOP. A body of mounted soldiers, equivalent to 
 company in foot regiments. The term troops is not limited 
 to cavalry, but extends to all kinds of soldiers, whether 
 mounted or not. 
 
 TROP.<E'OLUM. (Lat. tropreum, a trophy; the leaves 
 resembling a buckler, and the flowers an empty helmet.) A 
 genus of handsome trailing plants, some of whose species 
 have pungent fruits, which have rendered them useful as 
 condiments. Indian cress, the name given to Tropmolum 
 majus, expresses their quality. They form a small group 
 nearly allied to the Geraniaceous order, if not forming a 
 part of it. 
 
 TROPE. (Gr. rnnrw, I turn.) In Rhetoric, literally any 
 expression turned from its primary signification, and em- 
 ployed in a sense derived in some manner from that primary 
 signification. In this sense, the general term trope, com- 
 prises the various figures termed metaphor, allegory, me- 
 tonymy, synecdoche (which see), and perhaps • several 
 others. By the natural progress of language, words or 
 phrases at first employed as tropes become impressed so 
 strongly with their new or derivative signification, that it 
 finally supersedes the original ; its tropical or figurative 
 being lost in its simply indicative character. 
 
 TRO'PHI. (Gr. rpcoiuj, I nourish.) A name given by 
 Kirby to the different instruments of, or organs contained 
 in the mouth, or closing it, and employed in manducation 
 or deglutition. They include the labrum, labium, mandi- 
 Imlce, maxilla;, lingua, and pharynx. 
 
 TROPHONIUS, in Greek Mythology, son of Erginus, 
 king of Orchomenos, together with his brother Agamedes, 
 built the temple of Apollo at Delphi ; and having prayed' 
 for a reward from the god, it was promised him on the 
 seventh day, on which he and his brother were both found 
 dcRd. The story is told in other ways. He had a temple 
 at Lebadea, as Jupiter Trophonius. In this temple was 
 the celebrated cave into which those who descended spoke 
 oracularly on their return ; and in this way responses were 
 made. But the impressions produced by the descent were 
 thought so to work upon the spirit of a visitor, that he re- 
 mained a victim to melancholy the remainder of his life. 
 Hence arose the proverb applied to a serious man— that he 
 looked as if he came out of the cave of Trophonius. Some 
 1274 
 
 TROUBADOURS. 
 
 thought that the priests had secret access to the cavern, 
 and that those whose minds did not give way under the 
 terror of the scene which they encountered were murdered 
 by them. (See Bryant, Jlnc. Myth., vol. ii., p. 361.) 
 
 TRO'PHSPERM. (Gr. rpe(piO, I nourish, and oircppa, a 
 seed.) A name given by some French botanists to the pla 
 centa of a plant. 
 
 TROPHY. (Gr. rpoiraiov, from Tptiru), I turn.) A monu- 
 ment consisting of some of the arms of slain enemies, hung 
 upon the trunk of a tree, or a stone pillar, bv a victorious 
 army in token of its victory and the flight of the enemv ; 
 whence its name. Trophies were always dedicated "to 
 some deity, and especially to Jupiter, whence it was deem- 
 ed sacrilegious for any one to injure or demolish them , 
 while at the same time it was esteemed an equal crime to 
 repair them when decayed. This custom was common to 
 all the Greeks, except the Macedonians, who were forbid- 
 den to raise trophies by law of one of their ancient kings. 
 Perhaps the most celebrated trophies of ancient times were 
 those of Marius at Rome, which were of marble, and were 
 restored by Caesar after their destruction by Sylla, contrary 
 to all the usages of the times. (See as to Roman trophies, 
 Mem. de VJic. des Inscr., xxiv., 32.) 
 
 TROPICAL HIEROGLYPHICS. See Hieroglyphics. 
 
 TRO'PICAL YEAR. (Gr. Tpoirn, return.) The time 
 between the sun's leaving a tropic and returning to it; 
 popularly it means the time from the longest day in one 
 year till the longest in the next. See Ye*r. 
 
 TRO'PICS, in Astronomy, are the parallels of declination, 
 between which the sun's annual path in the heavens is 
 contained, their distance from the equator being equal to 
 the sun's greatest declination. The northern tmpic is 
 called the tropic of Cancer, and the southern one that of 
 Capricorn, from their touching the ecliptic in the first points 
 of those signs. 
 
 The distance of the tropics from each other is equal to 
 the difference between the greatest and least meridian alti- 
 tudes of the sun, observed at any place whose latitude is 
 greater than the obliquity of the ecliptic. See Ecliptic. 
 
 Tropics, in Geography, are the two parallels of latitude 
 on tii'j earth, over which the son is vertical when his de- 
 clination is greatest, or when it is the longest day in the 
 hemisphere in which the tropical circle is situated over 
 which the sun is, and the shortest in the other hemisphere. 
 
 TRO'PIDONO'TUS. (Gr. rpoiris, a keel, and ,wo$, the 
 back.) A genus of non-venomous serpents, nearly allied to the 
 true Colubers ; but with bodies thicker in proportion to their 
 length, the back more keel-shaped, and the abdomen more 
 expanded and convex ; the head is large and conical, with 
 a slender and short muzzle. The species seldom exceed 
 three or four feet in length ; they live near fresh water 
 streams, and are good swimmers : they are confined to the 
 old world continents, and are replaced in South America 
 by the genus Homalopsis. The Coluber scaber, Linn, a ser- 
 pent of the Cape of Good Hope, remarkable for the presence 
 of teeth in the oesophagus, and their absence from the 
 mouth, is referred to the genus Tropidonotus by Schlegel. 
 
 TROU'BADOURS, i.e., Inventors, (ital. trovar; Fr. 
 trouver, to find.) A school of poets who flourished from 
 the 11th to the latter end of the 13th century, principally in 
 the south of France, but also in Catalonia, Arragon, and 
 the north of Italy. They wrote in varieties of the Provencal 
 or Romance language, also called in the middle ages 
 Langue d'oc. They flourished under the lines of the Counts 
 of Toulouse, Barcelona, and Provence ; and their minstrel- 
 sy and peculiar spirit declined from the time of the crusade 
 against the Albigenses, when the former of these noble 
 houses was vanquished and humiliated, and their land over- 
 run by the sterner adventurers of the north. The must re- 
 nowned among the Troubadours were knights ; who culti- 
 vated poetry as an honourable accomplishment; hut their 
 art declined in its later days, when it was chiefly cultiva- 
 ted by minstrels of a lower class. The names and some of 
 the productions of more than 200 Troubadours have been 
 preserved, and among their numbers are to be found kings, 
 dukes, counts, and warriors of historical celebrity. The 
 most remarkable characteristics of the Provencal poetry 
 were its almost entire devotion to the subject of romantic 
 gallantry, and the very complicated character, in general, of 
 its metre rhymes. The principal species of composition cul- 
 tivated by the Troubadours were tenioncs, or poetical con- 
 tests between two minstrels ; sometimes breathing satire or 
 defiance, sometimes rivalling each other in the praise of 
 their ladies, sometimes aiming at mere exertions of verbal 
 ingenuity; sirventes, pieces devoted to martial and othei 
 serious subjects ; short songs, or chanros : and a variety of 
 other lyrical strains, soulas, lais, pastourrlles, arbades, ser- 
 enades, rctronage, and redondes. The earliest Italian poets 
 framed their style of thought and versification closely alter 
 the model afforded them by the troubadours. (See Sismon- 
 di, Literature du Midi de V Europe, vol. i. ; the works n 
 M. Raynouard ; Mr. Lewis's Researches into the Romance 
 
TROUGH OF THE SEA. 
 
 Language . Schlcgel, Ubser. sur la Langue et Liter. Pro- 
 vetif ate. ) 
 
 TR< il CM < iF THE SEA. The ship is said to be In the 
 trough when she lies parallel to the hollows between the 
 
 TROUT. (Lat trutta.) This name is restricted properly 
 and specifically Id the Salmo fario of Linnajus ; but is ap- 
 plied in b genetic sense to other native species of Salmo, 
 Ldnnasus, which is the S. salar of Rondele- 
 tius, being called the bull trout and grey trout; the Salmo 
 fitrox. the great grey trout, or lake trout ; the S. trutta, the 
 Million trout, &.<:. The common trout inhabits most of our 
 ■ i rivers, and is subject to many varieties of colour, 
 proportion*, and even of internal structure, as in the stomach 
 of the L'lllaroo-trout, according to the variations of soil and 
 food. The ■eMOfl ui spawning with the trout is generally 
 in the month of October, at which period the gravid fish 
 make their way up the stream to the shallows. Trouts are 
 ition from the end of May to September. 
 
 TIM i ' VER. In Law, is an action of tort. It isa species of 
 action mi the case {see Action), which la employed to try 
 I question Of property in goods and chattels. The 
 on in trover assumes (by a fiction) that the plain- 
 til] lot, and the defendant found and converted to his own 
 in question. 
 
 TR< (WELLED STUCCO. In Architecture, stucco left 
 ready for the reception of paint. 
 
 TBOY WEIGHT. An English weight chiefly used in 
 weighing gold, silver, diamonds, and oilier articles of Jewel- 
 lery. The pound troy contains 12 ounces or 5760 grains, 
 i avoirdupois containing 7000of such grains. The 
 lupposed to have reference to the monkish name 
 to London, of Troy Novant See Weights. 
 
 TKI OB. Mod. Lat. treuga, from the Teutonic treue, 
 truth.) An agreement between states, or those represent- 
 ing them, for the suspension of hostilities. Such an agree- 
 ment, when made by ollieers of the state in the general cx- 
 ilieir duty, and not authorized for the purpose ex- 
 <r by necessary implitication, ranks among that 
 ejasa of conventions which jurist! ions, and 
 
 re binding oni, ,f ratified, (.sec Sponsion.) A 
 general armistice or truce differs from a partial, which is 
 liiiule 1 in particular places; as between two armies, or be 
 tween ■ beseiged fortress and the besieging army. The 
 former, In general, requires ratification; power to include 
 the latter is held to lie implied in the general authority of 
 military and naval officers. (See Fattel, book hi., ch. 16.; 
 international Laic, vol. ii.) 
 
 TR1 CEOPGOD, Treuga Vet. A suspension of arms, 
 <rhlch occasionally took place in the middle ages, putting a 
 stop to private hostilities. The right to engage In these hos- 
 tilities was jealously maintained by the inferior feudatories 
 of the several monarchies of Europe. Hut it was restrain- 
 ed by the repeated promulgation of these truces, under the 
 authority of the church. Thus, In the county of Roussillon, 
 A.O. 1UJ7, it was determined in a synod of the clergy, that 
 no man should attack his enemy from the hour of nones on 
 Saturday to the hour of prime on Monday. In 1041, a gen- 
 eral "truce of Cod" was accepted by the barons, first of 
 Aquitain, and then of all France, to last from the Wednes- 
 day evening of every week to the Monday morning follow- 
 ing. This regulation was admitted by Edward the Confes- 
 sor in England, in 1042, with some additions of great festi- 
 vals and other days. It was confirmed by many councils, 
 especially tho Lateran council of 1179. The observation of 
 it was sworn by knights, burgesses, and peasants, of the 
 age of fourteen and upwards ; and the penalty of its in- 
 fringement was excommunication, which, however, was 
 quite insufficient to maintain it. Phillippe Auguste intro- 
 duced a new species of truce, termed the quarantine, by one 
 of his ordinances. It restrained the family of an injured or 
 murdered person from the commencement of hostilities until 
 forty days after the act done, under penalty of high treason. 
 
 TRUCK. The small wooden cap at the extremity of a flag 
 staff, or at the mast head. Also a small circular piece of wood 
 with a hole bored through it for a rope to run through. 
 
 TRUCK SYSTEM. A name given to a practice that has 
 prevailed, particularly in the mining and manufacturing dis- 
 tricts, of paying the wages of workmen in goods instead of 
 money. The plan lias been for the masters to establish 
 warehouses or shops ; and the workmen in their employ- 
 ment have either got their wages accounted for to them by 
 supplies of goods from such depits, without receiving any 
 money ; or they have got the money, with a tacit or express 
 Understanding that they were to resort to the warehouses 
 or shops of their masters for such articles as they were fur- 
 nished with. (For the advantages and disadvantages of 
 e Com. Die.) 
 TRU'FFLE. A subterranean fungus, of a roundish ob- 
 long form, and a blackish brown colour, much employed in 
 cookery. It is found by dogs and pigs, trained for the pur- 
 pose, in soil beneath trees, especially beeches and oaks; it 
 
 TRUMPET. 
 
 is, however, very local. It is propagated by spores inclu 
 ded in sinuous chambers in the interior ; but has never yet 
 been cultivated with success, notwithstanding many at- 
 tempts that have been made. Botanists recognise several 
 kinds of truffles, the commonest being the Tuber cibarium. 
 
 TRU'MPET. In Acoustics, an instrument used for the 
 purpose either of conveying articulate sounds to a great dis- 
 tance, or for applying to the ear, in order to collect the sono- 
 rous rays, and render sounds more distinct. In the fonnei 
 case, the instrument is a speaking-trumpet ; in the latter, a 
 hearing-trumpet. 
 
 Speaking-trumpet. — The object of the speaking-trumpet 
 is to increase the intensity of speech, and transmit it to con- 
 siderable distances in a particular direction. In order to 
 obtain this effect, it is necessary that the aerial undulations 
 which would disperse themselves in all directions, be con- 
 fined by the sides of the trumpet, and reflected so as to take, 
 as nearly as possible, a direction parallel to the axis. This is 
 accomplished by giving the trumpet such a form that its di- 
 ameter becomes greater towards the extremity furthest from 
 the mouth. A cylindrical or prismatic tube, of equal diam- 
 eter throughout, assi-ts powerfully In conveying sound from 
 one extremity to the other, but contributes in no degree to 
 give a direction to sound, or transmit it through In 
 
 The theoretical explanation of the effects of the speaking- 
 trumpet is attended with considerable difficulty. Assuming 
 that the reflexion of sound takes place according to tho 
 laws of catoptrics, Lambert (Berlin Memoirs for 1703) shows 
 the best form of the instrument is a truncated cone, for the 
 rays successively reflected from the interior surface of this 
 figure make smaller angles with the axis after each succes- 
 sive reflexion. Cassegrain (Journal des Savant, torn, iii.) 
 recommends the surface formed by the revolution of a hy- 
 perbola about its asymptote; and Kircher had previously 
 proposed a truncated parabolic conoid, the mouthpiece 
 occupying the focus. Some authors suppose that the trum- 
 pet should be formed of a very elastic material, in order to 
 strengthen the sound by its vibrations. Others are of 
 opinion that it should be without elasticity, toavoid the con- 
 fusion that minht be caused by the vibrations of the tube. 
 fTinnenfraU (Jtmnui de Physique, torn. 1 v , . > . who made o 
 number of experiments on the power of the trumpet, by fix- 
 tng a small watch in the mouth-piece, and observing the 
 distance at which the beats ceased to be audible, found that 
 the effects were precisely the same with a trumpet of tinned 
 iron, whether used in its naked form, or tightly bound round 
 with linen to prevent vibration, or when lined with woollen 
 cloth, whereby reflexion was entirely prevented. It would 
 appear, therefore, that neither the shape of the instrument, 
 nor the material of which it is formed, is of much conse- 
 quence. Leslie (Kiperimental Inquiry into the JVaturc and 
 Propagation of Heat) supposes the effect of the trumpet to 
 be owing to the more condensed and vigorous impulsion 
 given to the air from its lateral flow being checked. "The 
 tube," he observes, " by its length and narrowness, detains 
 the efflux of air, and has the same effect as if it diminished 
 the volubility of that fluid, or increased its density. The 
 organs of articulation strike with concentrated force; and 
 the pulses, so vigorously thus excited, are, from the re- 
 flected form of the aperture, finally enabled to escape, and 
 to spread themselves along the atmosphere," p. 225. 
 
 The invention of the speaking-trumpet is commonly as 
 cribed to Sir Samuel Moreland, who, about the year 1670, 
 proposed the best form of the speaking-trumpet as a ques- 
 tion to the Royal Society, and exhibited some instruments 
 constructed according to his own views. These were, in 
 general, large conical tubes, spreading suddenly, at the ex- 
 tremity, to a greater width. They were tried in St. James's 
 Park ; and it is stated that their effects were such that the 
 king (Charles II.), speaking in his ordinary colloquial pitch 
 of voice, through a trumpet of only five feet and a half 
 long, was distinctly heard at the distance of 1000 yards. 
 Another person was perfectly understood at the distance ot 
 four miles and a half. Kircher claims the credit of having 
 made such experiments previously ; but his remarks apply 
 rather to hearing than to speaking-trumpets. 
 
 Hearing-trumpet. — The hearing-trumpet, or ear-trumpet, 
 may be considered as a reversed speaking-trumpet, with 
 which it generally corresponds in form, though, for the sake 
 of portability, it is often made curved or spiral. Lambert 
 recommends the parabolic figure as the most advantageous ; 
 but, in order to give the greatest effect, the apex of the para- 
 boloid must be cut off, and the mouth of a small tube In- 
 serted In the focus, to convey the sound concentrated at 
 that point to the auditory organ. Various other forms are 
 adopted in practice; and, of late years, flexible India rub- 
 ber tubes have been brought into use, having a conical 
 mouth-piece of ivory or silver at one extremity, and n 
 small tube of like material, to be applied to the car. A 
 trumpet of this kind may be used advantageously, not only 
 for remedying the defects of the organ or hearing, but foi 
 assisting the observer to collect feeble and distant sounds 
 
 1275 
 
TRUNDLE. 
 
 See Jllorcland on the Speaking- Trumpet, 1C71 ; Chladni, 
 Traite des Sons : Gehler, Physickalisches Worterbuch, art. 
 "Horrohr.") 
 
 Trumpkt. A musical wind instrument usually made of 
 brass, but sometimes of silver. This instrument former- 
 ly possessed but few notes : but in later times it has, by 
 means of slidea and keys, been vastly extended in its in- 
 flexions. Its compass will be seen by referring to the synop- 
 tical view of the different instruments at the end of the ar- 
 ticle Music. 
 
 TRU NDEE. In Mechanics, a pinion having its teeth 
 formed of thick cylinders or spindles ; otherwise called a 
 lantern wheel, or wallower. 
 
 TRUNK. (Lai. truncus.) In Architecture, the same as 
 shaft. In the application of this word to a pedestal, it sig- 
 nifies the die, dado, or body of the pedestal. 
 
 Trunk, in Entomology, signifies the intermediate section 
 of the body which lies between the head und the abdomen. 
 
 TRU'NNIONS. The pivots or short cylinders projecting 
 from the sides of a piece of ordnance, by which it rests on 
 the cheeks of the carriage. The trunnion ring is the ring 
 on a cannon next before the trunnions. 
 
 TRUSS. (Fr. trousser ) In Architecture, a framed as- 
 semblage of pieces of timber for the purpose of tying up or 
 suspending a principal beam or piece. See Roof. 
 
 Truss. A rope confining the middle of a lower yard to 
 the mast. 
 
 Truss, in Surgery, is an apparatus by which in cases of 
 rupture the intestine is retained in the abdominal cavity. 
 This is usually effected by the aid of a steel spring resting 
 upon a small pad or cushion, which is kept in its place by a 
 proi>er bandage. 
 
 TRUSSED ROOF. In Architecture, one so constructed as 
 to support the principal rafters and tie beam at certain points 
 where bending of the timber is likely to occur. See Roof. 
 
 TRUST. In Law, is a term commonly used to designate 
 any equitable right or interest, as distinguished from a legal 
 one : properly, that class of equitable rights supposed to be 
 founded in the confidence placed by one party in another; 
 the name trustee denoting the person in whom confidence 
 is placed ; cestny que trust, the person who trusts — in other 
 words, the parly who enjoys a beneficial interest in the ob- 
 jects of which the trustee has the legal property. 
 
 The origin of conveyances in trust may be traced to the 
 ddei commissum of the Romans, which was a gift by will 
 to a person capable of taking in trust for another incapable 
 by the Roman law of taking such benefit, whose claim un- 
 der such gifts was for a long time precarious, and merely 
 fiduciary, but came at length to be recognised and enforced 
 by law. With us in the same manner, the original motive 
 for the introduction of the fiduciary right, which was cer- 
 tainly borrowed from the Romans, was the wish to escape 
 from the disabilities affecting certain persons, or bodies, or 
 the liabilities attached to property in its direct and simple 
 shape. Such was, in particular, the disability of corpora- 
 tions to purchase land at common law ; and on this ac- 
 count, as it is commonly said, the ecclesiastics, who were 
 chiefly interested in this matter, introduced this new spe- 
 cies of property, which was willingly recognised by the 
 chancellors, then usually ecclesiastics, and in other respects 
 inclined to adopt the principles of the civil law. The clergy 
 were, however, soon themselves deprived of the benefit of 
 the invention, the disability of corporations to take land 
 being extended by statute to the new right so created. But 
 there still remained many liabilities arising from feudal 
 tenure, incident to property at common law ; such as, for 
 instance, dower, escheat, wardship, restraint upon aliena- 
 tion by will, which it was desirable and possible either to 
 evade by this mode of conveyance in trust, or to transfer to 
 a quarter less likely to be affected by them : and there were 
 also many modifications of property for the benefit of fami- 
 lies, which could only be given to it in this manner. It 
 must be admitted, further, that there were less honest pur- 
 ines, such as the defrauding bond fide purchasers by secret 
 alienation, sought to be attained by the same means. For 
 these, among other reasons, conveyances in trust were still 
 resorted to ; and the Court of Chancery, which had once, 
 for whatever reason, originally recognised, continued to en- 
 force them. 
 
 There were also two other means of creating a trust, or 
 rather raising a use, not by actual conveyance; the one by 
 agreement for money ; the other by covenant under seal in 
 consideration of near relationship. 
 
 The right so created was called indifferently a trust or 
 an use ; more commonly the latter, from the actual enjoy- 
 ment of the rents and profits annexed to it in equity. In- 
 deed, the benefit of the use or trust was in the first instance 
 confined to this ; but the cestuis que use, or parties benefi- 
 cially interested, soon acquired the right of directing a con- 
 veyance by the holders of the legal estate, legal ( y termed 
 the feoffees to uses, and also of calling upon them to use 
 the legal title in their defence in a court of cuinmon law. 
 15*76 
 
 TRUST. 
 
 Several statutes were passed at different times, gi ring to 
 the owner of the use or trust partial legal rights, and par 
 Bally also subjecting interests of that sort to legal liabili- 
 ties, before the celebrated statute, commonly called tho 
 Statute of Uses, which was passed in the -27th year of 
 Henry VIII. The general object of this statute, as stated 
 in the preamble, was to prevent those secret and fraudulent 
 transfers occasioned by the separation of the real from the 
 apparent ownership, and to restore those rights of the feudal 
 lord, and of the crown, which had been in a great measure 
 evaded, by keeping the legal title to which alone they at- 
 tached In a course of succession ; where it was likely to be 
 forfeited by treason, and where it was less frequently sub- 
 ject by descent to an infant heir to the burden of wardship 
 and relief. The general effect of the statute as slated in 
 the title, was the transferring or changing the use into pos- 
 session, that is, annexing to the use the legal right of pos- 
 session, whereby the real owner would be made manifest 
 to all, and the real ownership would become subject to all 
 the liabilities incident to the legal title ; in short, the dis- 
 tinction between equitable and legal rights would be abol- 
 ished, and the adjudication on all questions of property, 
 except in particular cases of fraud or accident, would be 
 restored to the courts of common law. 
 
 The statute, however, was so worded as not to apply 
 either to copyholds or leaseholds, nor indeed to personal 
 property of any description, which at thai time was little 
 thought of; so that equitable rights in copyholds and per- 
 sonalty remained as before, merely equitable ; and they 
 arose again, very shortly afterwards, in every species of 
 real property, it being held by the courts of common law 
 that such uses or trusts only were executed and transferred 
 into possession by the statute, as were raised or declared 
 upon what was before the statute the legal seisin or 
 estate; so that where anew legal estate taking effect as 
 such by virtue of the statute was created or conveyed in 
 trust, such trust-right not being within the purview of the 
 statute, and not being recognised by the courts of common 
 law, was adopted and enforced in equity, for reasons alto- 
 gether similar in kind to those which originally led to the 
 introduction of uses. Hence a new system of equitable 
 rights grew up under the name of trusts, commensurate 
 with the new system of legal rights or uses (for the use 
 henceforth denoted the legal estate), created by the statute ; 
 and though some of the peculiar advantages of the old trust 
 were, by the effect of the statute, transferred to the new 
 legal ownership, such as the capability of modification for 
 the benefit of different parties upon different events, and 
 though the right of disposition by will was shortly after- 
 wards extended to it by special statute, and though what- 
 ever advantages were still possessed by the trust, as a 
 means of evading the burdens of tenure or other liabilities 
 now attached to the use, were gradually removi 
 by the abolition of those burdens or the extension of those 
 liabilities, trusts still continued and continue to be habitu- 
 ally resorted to for various purposes. These lire, generally, 
 either to protect the interests of married women and child- 
 ren, by placing in the hands of trustees for them the legal 
 rights which they would be incapable of exercising ; or to 
 secure the rights of those in remainder, by severing from 
 the usufruct of property for a life the power of disposing of 
 the whole ; or, lastly, the convenience of management, 
 where many parties are interested in the same subject. 
 These observations can apply only, at least with one or 
 two exceptions, to express trusts. An express trust sup- 
 poses a legal transfer of the property actually completed, 
 and a declaration in the same instrument, or having re- 
 ference to the same instrument (as an appointment under 
 a power thereby created) of the trust upon which the pro- 
 perty so transferred is to be held. Such trusts may he de- 
 clared in or by a reference to any instrument, either deed 
 or will, that is sufficient to pass property at law ; the ground 
 upon which they rest is the express confidence that is placed 
 in the trustee, by the person who transfers the property to 
 him, no consideration of money or blood between the trus- 
 tee and those for whom he holds being required ns an in- 
 ducement for the interference of equity. Trusts are most 
 commonly raised by marriage-settlements, or by will. The 
 usual trusts in the former case, as to real estate, arc upon 
 legal estates in terms of years, to arise upon certain events, 
 to be held in trust, in fiie first place, for securing to the 
 wife pavment of her pin-money during marriage, and of 
 her jointure after the husband's death ; then for the rais- 
 ing, by sale or mortgage of the term, the stipulated provi- 
 sions for younger children, and also for providing for their 
 maintenance during minority. The ultimate trust of such 
 terms, whether expressed or not, is for the person entitled 
 to the corpus of the estnte, subject to those charges which 
 the terms are created to secure. Similar tinsts, a.'so, 
 are commonly raised in wills, for the maintenance or 
 advancement "and portioning of younger children. In all 
 such cases, the legal rights vested in the trustees most 
 
TRUST. 
 
 commonly remain in their hands, as a means only of 
 compelling the person actually in possession to discharge 
 Ims subject to which he holds his estate. But 
 there are other trusts of frequent occurrence, both in mar- 
 riage-settlements and in wills, which require a more active 
 interfere nit; on the part of the trustees, and which, there- 
 fore, carry with them a greater degree of responsibility. 
 These are trusts for the sale of land and investment of the 
 Upon security, rat in the purchase of other land, 
 or trusts for the investment of what was originally person- 
 alty ; in which cases, it is important for the trustees to 
 consider, in the first place, how far the trust for sale or 
 conversion is imperative and immediate, lest by delay they 
 become liable for any loss that may ensue from the altera- 
 Aaa in the value or price of land securities; in the next 
 place, w hat are the securities in which they are directed to 
 IS they will be answerable for the failure of any 
 security a resort to which lias not been authorized by the 
 terms of the trust. Where these securities are private, or 
 where a purchase of land is made with Uust moneys, they 
 are further bound to see that the usual professional inquiries 
 instituted into the validity of the title. 
 It is obviously their duty, also, to look to the due appropria- 
 tion or distribution of the proceeds. Where there is a con- 
 fute, or, as it is called, out and out, of realty 
 into personalty, or of personalty into realty, either agreed to 
 or directed by deed or will, land is in equity considered as 
 y, and money as land, for nil the purposes of succes- 
 r transmission ; but it rarely happens that a conver- 
 sion by will is in terms sufficiently absolute to exclude the 
 right of the heirs, or, where it is personalty, the rights of 
 ilie |. tentative, to such part of the real or per- 
 
 sonal estate, whether actually converted or not, ns shall 
 not be required to fulfil the purposes for which the conver- 
 sion was directed. 
 
 'flie system of trusts is still more generally prevalent in 
 limitations of copyhold and personal property, particularly 
 personal chattels, as money or stock in the funds, to neither 
 of which classes of property the Statute of Uses applied, 
 and in which, therefore, the legal interest remained, at 
 least for a time, subject to the narrow rules of the common 
 law ; and copyhold property is, therefore, for this as well as 
 for other reasons, more commonly settled upon trust than 
 is property of freehold tenure, Personal property, though 
 once held incapable at common law of partial ,or shifting 
 limitations, has long, by a somewhat forced though ingeni- 
 ous rule of construction, been released from that restric- 
 ;ion : and therefore In the settlement of chattels real, of 
 Which the title is distinct from the possession, the creation 
 of a distinct equitable title is not more often resorted to 
 than in the settlement of real property of freehold tenure. 
 Hut it is in regard to that sort of personal property, the title 
 10 which, or rather the power of conferring a title to which, 
 is annexed to the possession, cither from the nature of the 
 thing itself, as in the case of money, or for reasons of pub- 
 "Venience, as in the case of bills of exchange, and in 
 regard also to stock in the funds (a class of projierty over 
 which the holder, whether it be in trust or not, has by the 
 regulations of the bank absolute power of alienation), that 
 the utility of trusts is more particularly conspicuous. When- 
 It is sought to create in any such property shifting or 
 partial interests, nothing in such cases can secure future or 
 contingent rights from the dishonesty of the tenant for life 
 or partial owner but the intervention of trustees, in whose 
 hnnds the whole legal interest, that is to say, the whole 
 power of alienation, resides ; and though a similar danger 
 ■ metimes to be apprehended even at their hands, yet 
 their number itself, and the discretion that may be exer- 
 cised in their appointment, afford a greater security than is 
 to be found in the integrity of a single individual. 
 
 Duties of Trustees. — It is only in cases of express trusts, 
 whether such in the origin, or become such by the accept- 
 ance and acknowledgement of the legal owner undertaking 
 to act as trustee, that the rules respecting the duties, lia- 
 bilities, and rights of trustees are applicable. As to their 
 liabilities, they are liable not only for such sums as they 
 actually have received, but for such also as they might, 
 but for their wilful neglect or default have received. Where 
 there are several trustees, each is generally liable for his own 
 acts and receipts only ; but where all concur in empower- 
 ing either one of themselves, or a third party, to do or re- 
 ceive that which lie could not do or receive but by virtue 
 of such authorization, all are responsible for his acts and 
 receipts under such joint authority. It is the duty of trus- 
 tees, besides being faithful accountants, to apply and distri- 
 bute rightly the property they are entrusted with according 
 to the various rights of the parties entitled to it ; and they 
 are liable for any misapplication, arising either from ignor- 
 ance of facts which they ought to have known, i. e., might 
 by common diligence have known, or from ignorance of 
 the law in any case. It is their business, then, as to the 
 first, to inquire diligently into all the circumstances of the 
 
 TUBERCLE. 
 
 trust ; and as to the second, where, upon consulting profes 
 sional advisers, there appears to be any reasonable doubt, 
 to refer it to the opinion of the court by instituting a suit 
 for the fulfilment of the trust. The rights of trustees are 
 confined to the reimbursement of their proper expenses out 
 of the trust property. An express trust will not fail for the 
 want of trustees ; where none are nominated, the court will 
 take upon itself the appointment. To the same class of 
 trusts proper, that is to say, equitable rights arising from 
 confidence reposed, may be assigned implied or resulting 
 trusts, in which the confidence is not expressed, but implied 
 by courts of equity from the want of consideration or mo- 
 tive apparent in such cases, to give away the whole, or, as 
 it may be, any part of the beneficial interest. Such trusts 
 arise, in the first place, upon the conveyance or transfer, 
 by deed or will, of property real or personal upon some 
 trust expressly declared, which does not exhaust the whole 
 beneficial interest, or expressly upon trust, though no trust 
 be declared ; in the first of which cases, the surplus of the 
 beneficial ownership, after satisfaction of the express pur- 
 pose or trust, and in the second case, the whole of the 
 ownership, results to the party making such conveyance 
 or transfer. To the former class of partial resulting trusts 
 belongs the equity of redemption upon a mortgage, Which 
 is an equitable right resulting to the mortgagor alter all right 
 of redemption is forfeited at law, to recover back il% thing 
 mortgaged upon payment of the capital and interest of the 
 money borrowed upon the security of such pledge. This 
 equity of redemption subsists in favour of the real or per- 
 sonal representatives of the mortgagor against the real or 
 personal representative mortgagee, till it is destroyed either 
 by twenty years of the adverse possession. I. r.. \ • 
 without any acknowledgment whatever of any rights in the 
 mortgagor, or, which is the most common case, by decree 
 of foreclosure inequity, by which a peremptory day i- fixed. 
 
 Trusts of a similar nature frequently arise upon devises 
 of real property for payment of debts, in which 
 trust results in the surplus, either for the heir, or the resid 
 uary devisee, where there is one; but it should be observ- 
 ed, that where any specific purpose for which a trust is 
 created by devise in the produce of land fails of taking 
 effect, such as a legacy charged upon land by predecease 
 of the legatee, ora similar legacy void under the Statute 
 of Mortmain, the benefit of the lapse results to the heir, 
 and not to the residuary devisee, who takes by such devise 
 not that which ultimately is not applicable to the purposes 
 of the will, hut that only which the testator expresses no 
 intention of Otherwise disposing of. But where a legacy, 
 payable out of the personalty, fails of taking effect, the 
 lapse shall enure for the benefit of the residuary legatee, 
 where there is one, in preference to the next of kin ; the 
 reason of the difference being that previous to the late Wills 
 Act a devise of land spoke from the time of the will, a be- 
 quest OfpefMMlty from the death of the testator. 
 
 A trust is implied in the whole beneficial ownership upon 
 the conveyance or transfer by deed of the legnl interest in 
 real or personal property ; i. e., where it is either chattels 
 real or stock, or where the corpus of the property is not ac- 
 tually delivered to a person from whom no motive or con- 
 sideration moves, and in whose favour no declaration of 
 trust is contained in such deed or instrument; in which 
 case a trust is Implied, either for the party making such 
 conveyance or transfer, or for the person from whom it is 
 shown aliunde that the consideration for such conveyance 
 or transfer, as, for instance, the money with which the 
 purchase was made, actually moved. The implication of 
 resulting trusts has, perhaps, arisen through an unwise de- 
 parture from the Statute of Frauds, as it is a reliance upon 
 parol evidence in opposition to the legal title. It should, 
 liowever, be observed, that the parol evidence, upon which 
 such trusts may be raised, must be evidence, not of decla- 
 rations or intention, but parol evidence of facts, as, for in- 
 stance, of the payment of money by a person not the no- 
 minal purchaser ; but to repel a presumption of a trust parol 
 evidence of a declaration of intention is admissible, because 
 such evidence is corroborative of the legnl import of the deed 
 
 TRUTH. In the Fine Arts, a faithful adherence in rep 
 resentation to the models of nature, or the prototypes on 
 which the principles of art are founded. 
 
 TRY'ING, or A-TRY. In Naval Language, a word 
 somewhat obsolete for heaving or hove to. 
 
 TRY'SAIL. A small gaff sail of strong or storm canvass, 
 set in bad weather. 
 
 TUBE. (Lat tubus.) A pipe or long hollow body. A 
 tube is generally understood to signify a hollow cylinder, 
 but the cylindrical form is not essential. 
 
 TUBER. In Botany, a kind of fleshy stem, formed on 
 derground, and filled with starch. It is commonly looked 
 upon as a root, as in the potatoe. Also the systematical 
 name of the truffle. 
 
 TUBERCLE. In Morbid Anatomy, this term is appliet 
 to certain diseased structures, as tubercles of the lung* 
 
 1277 
 
TUBERCLE OF LOWER. 
 
 small hard superficial tumors of the skin are also called 
 
 TUBERCLE OF LOWER.. An eminence in the right 
 auricle of the heart where the two vena? cava meet; it 
 was first described bv Richard Lower, in 16G5. 
 
 TUBE'RCULA QUADRIGEMINA. Four white oval 
 tubercles in the brain, two of which are situated on each 
 side, over the orifice of the third ventricle and the aque- 
 duct of Silvius. The old anatomists called them nates and 
 
 TU'BICOLES, Tubicola. (Lat. tubus, a tube, colo, I in- 
 habit.) The name of an order of Anellidans, comprehend- 
 ing those which live in tubes, and which are Cephalobran- 
 chiate ; also the name of a family of Lamellibranchiate 
 Acephalous Mollusks, including those which have a tubu- 
 lar calcareous sheath in addition to the two shelly valves. 
 
 TU'BiCORNS, Tubicornia. (Lat. tubus ; cornu, a horn.) 
 The name of a family of the order of Ruminants compre- 
 hending those in which the horns are composed of a horny- 
 axis covered with a horny sheath. 
 
 TU'BIFERS, Tubifera. (Lat. tubus; fero, / carry.) 
 The name given by Lamarck to an order of the class Poly- 
 pi, comprising those which are united upon a common sub- 
 stance fixed at its base, and whose surface is wholly or par- 
 tially covered with retractile hollow tubes. 
 
 TUBIPORES, Tubipora. (Lat. tubus; porus, a pore.) 
 The name of a family of Zoophytes, comprehending those 
 in which the animals are isolated and contained in elon- 
 gated cylindrical calcareous cells, attached by their base, 
 and strengthened by cross bars at definite distances. 
 
 TUBULA'RIA. The name of a genus of Corallines, 
 with simple or branched horny tubes, from the extremities 
 of which the polypes are protruded ; these have two rows 
 of tantaces, of which the external is expanded in a radiated 
 manner, the internal one raised into a tuft. 
 
 TUBULIBRA'NCHIANS, Tubulibranchiata. (Lat. tu- 
 bus; branchiae, gills.) The name of an order of Her- 
 maphrodite Gastropodous Mollusks, comprehending those 
 which have the shell in the form of a more or less irregular 
 tube in which the branchia are lodged. 
 
 TUBU'LICOLES, Tub ulicola ; Polypes a Tuyaux. (Lat. 
 tubus ; colo, / inhabit.) A name applied by Cuvier to a 
 family of Polypes, including those which inhabit tubes of 
 which the axis is traversed by the gelatinous flesh, and 
 which are open at the summits or sides to give passage to 
 the digestive sacs and prehensile mouths of the polvpes. 
 
 TU'ESDAY. In the Calendar, the third day of the week, 
 named after Tuisco, the Saxon god of war ; whence the as- 
 tronomical symbol is the same as that for the planet Mars. 
 As to the god Tuisco, or Tuisto, see Mem. de VAcad. des 
 /user., vol. xxiv. 
 
 TU'FA. (Italian.) A volcanic rock, composed of an 
 agglutination of fragmented scoria;. 
 
 TU'FO. In Architecture, a species of porus, light, sandy, 
 calcareous stone, suited to the construction of vaults. The 
 travertine, with which the cupola of St. Peter's is con- 
 structed, is of this species. 
 
 TU'GENDBUND. (Germ, union of virtue.) A patriotic 
 association formed in Prussia after the treaty of Tilsit in 
 1807. Its object was to prepare the people of that country 
 by moral instruction and discipline for better times. It was 
 Abolished at the instigation of the French ; but its spirit sur- 
 vived, and it had great effect in promoting the national war 
 against Napoleon in 1813. 
 
 TU'LIPA. (Turkish, toliban.) A gay flower inhabiting 
 the warmer parts of Europe and Asia Minor. It is well 
 known for the gaudiness of its colours, which have made 
 it a favourite with gardeners, who have converted its cul- 
 tivation into a system of gambling, which the Dutch have 
 been obliged to repress by sumptuary laws. It is a genus of 
 the Liliaceous order. 
 
 TUMBLE HOME. The term describing the falling or 
 bending inwards of the upper timbers of the ship's side. 
 
 TU'MBREL. (Old Fr. tumerel.) A low carriage with 
 two wheels, occasionally used for the most ordinary pur- 
 poses by farmers ; but it is chiefly used for carrying the im- 
 plements of the pioneers attached to trains of artillery. 
 
 TU'MULI. See Barrows. 
 
 TUN. A measure of capacity. The English tun con- 
 tains 252 gallons, or 4 hogsheads. See Ton. 
 
 TUNE. (Gr. two;.) In Music, the relation of notes to 
 each other and the distances between them, wherefrom 
 arises melody. In other words, it is a certain succession of 
 different single sounds arranged according to art. 
 
 TU NGSTATES. Compounds of the tungstic acid. See 
 Tungsten. 
 
 TU'NGSTEN. (Swedish, tung sten, heavy stone.) The 
 ores of this metal are the native tungstate of lime, and the 
 tungstate of iron and manganese ; the latter mineral is 
 known under the name of Wolfram. Tungsten is a white, 
 hard, brittle metal, very difficult of fusion, and having the 
 high specific gravity of 174. Heated to redness in the open 
 127K 
 
 TUNNEL. 
 
 air, it burns into the peroxide, or tungstic acid. The equiva 
 lent of tungsten is probably about 100 ; and the tungstic acid 
 consists of 1 atom of metal and 3 atoms of oxygen (8X3 
 = 24), and is represented by the equivalent 134. Tins 
 metal was discovered by Messrs. Dclhuyart. It is some 
 times called IVolframium, and also Scheelium, in honour of 
 Scheele, who first examined the nature of tungstate of 
 lime. 
 
 TUNIC. (Lat. tunica.) A garment worn by the ancient 
 Romans of both sexes, under the toga (which s'eej, and next 
 to the skin. It was generally of wool, of a white colour, 
 and it reached below the knee. The senators wore their 
 tunics with a broad stripe of purple sewed on the breasts 
 the equites had narrow stripes ; hence the epithets Uti- 
 clavii and angusticl&vli, applied respectively to these ordors 
 
 TU'NICARIES, Tunicata. (Lat. tunica, a tunic.) The 
 name of an order of Acephalous Mollusks, comprehending 
 those in which the exterior covering is uncalcified, soft, and 
 elastic: it is equivalent to the Jlscidies of Savigny, and the 
 Acephalcs sans Coquillcs of Cuvier. 
 
 TUNKERS, or DUNKERS. A religious sect, a subdi- 
 vision of the Baptists : chiefly found in Pennsylvania. Their 
 name is said to be derived from tunken, Germ., to dip : be- 
 cause in baptism they plunge the person head foremost into 
 the water. They differ little in doctrine from other Bap- 
 tists; but every brother is allowed to speak in their churches. 
 This society was originally founded by one Conrad Beissel, 
 in 1720; who founded a colony called "Ephrata," sixty 
 miles from Philadelphia. They wear long beards. 
 
 TU'NNEL. (Sax. tcenel.) In Engineering, a subterra- 
 nean passage cut through a hill or under a river, for the 
 purpose of carrying a canal, road, railway, &c. 
 
 In the conslruction of railways and canals, it is some- 
 times absolutely necessary, and very frequently expedient, 
 to have recourse to tunnelling, either to preserve the requi- 
 site level, or shorten the distance, or to lessen the expense 
 of open cutting. The circumstances on which the question 
 of expediency depends are often of a very complicated na- 
 ture ; but, generally speaking, it must be decided by con 
 siderations of economy, for in the present state of engineer 
 ing, a tunnel may be made of almost any length, and 
 through materials of any description, from a granite rock to 
 a quicksand. The nature of the ground can hardly be said 
 to interpose any farther obstacle than what may be occa- 
 sioned by the expense. 
 
 On account of the peculiar nature of the difficulties to be 
 overcome, the tunnel which has recently been carried under 
 the bed of the Thames, from Rotherhithe to Wapping, may 
 perhaps be regarded as the most remarkable work of the 
 kind which has ever been executed. A short account of 
 this operation will probably be the best mode of convey- 
 ing a notion of the extent and difficulty of such works gen- 
 erally. 
 
 Some previous attempts had been made to carry a tunnel 
 under the river below London bridge. In 1799, one was 
 projected at Gravesend ; but the project was soon aban- 
 doned. In 1804, another was attempted from Rotherhithe 
 to Limchouse. A shaft of 11 feet in diameter was sunk to 
 the depth of 42 feet, and continued at a reduced diameter 
 of 8 feet to the depth of 76 feet, whence a drift was carried 
 923 feet under the liver, and to within 150 feet of the op- 
 posite shore, where difficulties of so formidable a nature 
 arose that the engineer reported farther progress to be im- 
 possible. The scheme, however, continued to be agitated; 
 and in 1823, Mr. Brunei proposed a plan which has at length 
 been carried successfully into execution. 
 
 The act of parliament authorizing the operation was ob- 
 tained in June, 1824, and shortly after the work was com- 
 menced at Rotherhithe. The shaft at this place is 150 feet 
 from the river. It was formed by building a cylinder of 
 brickwork 50 feet in diameter, 42 feet in height, and 3 feel 
 in thickness, on the top of which a steam engine was erect 
 ed for raising the water and earth. The cylinder was let 
 down bodily into the ground, forcing its way through a bed 
 of gravel and sand 20 feet deep, and full of land water. 
 The shaft was sunk to the depth of 65 feet, and from this 
 level another smaller shaft, 25 feet in diameter, was sunk, 
 destined to be a well or reservoir for the drainage of water. 
 The excavation for the body of the tunnel was commenced 
 at a depth of 63 feet, and was carried on at a declivity of 2 
 feet and 3 inches per 100 feet, in order to have sufficient 
 thickness of ground to pass safely under the river. The ex- 
 cavation is 38 feet in breadth, and 22.J feet in height, pre- 
 senting a sectional area of 850 feet; and the base, at the 
 deepest part of the river, is 76 feet below high-water 
 mark. The body of the tunnel is of brickwork in R: man 
 cement. 
 
 The means by which this extensive excavation wr.n ef- 
 fected, consisted of a powerful apparatus of iron, which hag 
 been called a shield. It was formed of twelve great trames 
 lying close to each other, and severally provided with the 
 mechanism necessary to move them forward, and to swum 
 
TUNNEL. 
 
 tfcem, when stationary, against the brickwork. The frames 
 were 22 feet in height, and about 3 feet in breadth, and 
 each divided into three stages or stories ; the whole thus 
 presenting thirty-six compartments or cells for the work- 
 men. These compartment* were open at the back; but in 
 front small boards, which could be separately removed and 
 replaced at pleasure, were pressed firmly against the ground 
 to be excavated by screws. Each workman in his cell 
 operated upon the surface opposed to him, taking out one of 
 the atnall boards at a time, cutting the (.'round away to the 
 depth of a few inches, mid then replacing the board before 
 he prei ceded to the next ; and when from 3 to G inches 
 were thus removed over the whole surface of the shield, 
 ho Inline, was moved forward, and the work secured by 
 Immediately adding so much more of the brickwork to the 
 body of the tuunc-l. By this means the excavation and tbl 
 structure were carried forward simultaneously. 
 
 The tunnel consists ol a double and capacious archway, 
 appropriated to carriages passing in one di- 
 rection, and the other to those pas-ing iii the contrary, with 
 paths tor foot passengers by the sides of the carriage roads. 
 The middle wall between the two archways was first built 
 solid lor mater Strength, but openings were afterwards cut 
 at short distances, so that each has a rei-dy communication 
 with the other. The two shafts at the extremities will 
 IghtS of steps for foot passengers; and the 
 intended to lie by circular roadways 
 i diameter, the declivity of which will not exceed 
 4 feet in 100. The entire length of the tunnel is 1300 feat, 
 and the expense is said to have been £1200 per yard. 
 
 In the course id' the work, two irruptions of the river took 
 place, the first on the 18th of .May, 1887, after the excava- 
 tion had been advanced to the distance of about 400 feet; 
 and the second in January, 1898. These accidents were 
 repaired b) filling the chasms in the river with bags of clay; 
 and on dealing the tunnel of water, the structure was 
 found, on both occasions, to in: in a perfectly sound state, 
 and to have sustained, in fact, little or no injury. After 
 i irruption, however, the works, for want of funds, 
 remained suspended for seven years ; but assistance having 
 at length been obtained from the government, they were 
 resumed in J835, and proceeded without further interrup- 
 tion till the tunnel reached the termination on the Whip- 
 ping side of the river, early in the present year, 1842. This 
 ordinary work, which during its progress was visited 
 by multitudes of jiersons from all pans of the world, is, 
 doubtless, destined to remain lor ages n proud monument 
 of the genius and perseverance of the engineer by whom it 
 was contrived and successfully executed. 
 
 Tho establishment of railway communication in this 
 country has given rise to some stupendous undertakings in 
 the way of tunnelling. One of the most remarkable, per- 
 haps the most remarkable, of all, is the Box Tunnel, on the 
 Great Western Railway, an account of which is given in 
 the Companion to the Jiritish Almanac for 1842, and the 
 Railway Times for July 10, 1841. This tunnel pierces Box 
 Hill, between Chippenham and Bath, part of which is 400 
 feet above the level of the railway. '• It is !H>80 feet long, 
 39 feet high, and 35 wide to the outside of the brickwork. 
 The shafts for making and ventilating it are thirteen in 
 cumber, and vary in depth from 80 to 3UG feet. The exca- 
 vation amounted to 414,000 cubic yards, and the brickwork 
 and masonry to more than 54,000 cubic yards. The num- 
 ber of bricks used was 30,000,000 ; a ton of gunpowder and 
 a ton of candles were consumed every week, for two years 
 and a half, and 1100 men and 250 horses were kept con- 
 stantly employed." For a considerable distance, the tun- 
 nel passes through freestone rock, from the fissures of 
 which there was at times an immense influx of water, 
 whereby on one occasion the works were interrupted for a 
 period of nine months. On a subsequent occasion, after an 
 irruption, water was for some time discharged by the en- 
 gine at the rate of 32,000 hogsheads a day. This tunnel 
 occurs on an inclined plane of 1 in 100. 
 
 The extent of brickwork or other structure which may 
 be necessary to secure the excavation in works of the class 
 now mentioned will depend, of course, on the nature of the 
 materials through which the tunnel is driven; and in de- 
 ciding this question, it is important to attend to the geologi- 
 cal formation of the locality. In the unstratified rocks an 
 excavation may be made with perfect safety and will re- 
 quire no support, while in those whose strata are nearly 
 vertical, danger may be apprehended from slipping. In the 
 chalk, oolite, marl, lias, and similar formations, the tunnel 
 requires to be lined with brickwork throughout, as the ma- 
 terials cohere so imperfectly, that even the vibration arising 
 from the passage of the carriages may cause the fall of 
 parts of the roof. 
 
 The following table of the dimensions of a few railway 
 tunnels will enable the reader to form an accurate notion 
 of the gigantic scale on which such operations are con- 
 ducted: 
 
 TURNIP-FLY. 
 
 Box T-jnel- Great Western 
 Waning to Edge Hill— Liverpool and t 
 Manchester j 
 
 Lime Street - 
 
 Kilsby— tendon and Birmingham 
 Primrose Hill— Ditto .... 
 Canterbury and VVlii's'able • 
 Leicester and Swanniogton 
 
 2.200 
 
 1,760 
 
 2.-UD 
 1,250 • 
 
 1,760 
 
 
 1$J 
 
 23j 
 
 a 
 
 ioi 
 
 TU'NNY. See Tuvmiua. 
 
 TU'RBAN. The usual head-dress of the Turks, Per- 
 sians, and most other eastern nations. It varies in Iomii in 
 different nations, and in different classes of the same na- 
 tion. It consists of two parts : a quilted cap, w nliout brim, 
 fitted to the head, and a sash, scarf, or shawl, usually of 
 cotton or linen, artfully wound about the cap, and some- 
 times hanging down the neck. The Grand Slgnior'a turban 
 contains three heron's feathers, and is ornamented with 
 diamonds. 
 
 DO. (Lat. turbo, a whirling.) The name of a 
 Linruean genu* of the Verne* Teetaeea, characterised by 
 
 having a shell of a regular turbinated form, with tin entire 
 
 and rounded nioiiih. The species grouped together by this 
 specific character form a family ,,t Pectini branchiate Gas- 
 tropods hi the system of Cuvier, which is subdivided into 
 the genera Turbo proper, Cuv.; Delpkinult, hum. ; I'icu- 
 rotoma, Defrancc ; Scissurc/ta, IVOrb; Tornatclla, Lain.; 
 Scalaria, Lam. ; Cyclostoma, Lam. ; Valvata,ilii\l.; JaIIo 
 rina, Ferussac, «tc. 
 
 TU'RBOT. The best, and, excepting the halibut 
 of our flat fishes; it is the type of the subgenus Hlwmbus 
 of Cuvier. It is taken either by the troll-net, or, in deep 
 water, by the many-hooked line bated With 1 Ik- eoUUnon 
 smelt, or small gar-tUh. A preference is given in the l.on 
 don markets to the turbots caught by the Dutch, who art; 
 estimated to have drawn tor this supply not 1. 
 XriO.OOO a year. « 
 
 TURF. Thfl surface of grass lands, of a smooth and 
 uniform texture, covered with pasture grass. The term is 
 also sometimes applied to peat cut out of bog. See Pkat. 
 
 TU'RKKV RK1). A line and durable red dyed upon 
 calico and woollen cloth; the colouring matter used in us 
 production is madder, but the process for producing it in 
 perfection is tedious and complicated. (See Bancroft on 
 Permanent Colours.) 
 
 TU'KLUPINS. (A word of which no satisfactory do 
 rivation has been found, Jsee ]>u Gauge 1 * Ototti 
 French Ecclesiastical History, one of the numerous populai 
 by-names by which the sectaries of the I4th century, the 
 precursors of the Reformation, were distinguished : culled 
 elsewhere Reghards, Picards, Beguina, Lollards, &x. 
 
 TU'RMA. In the Roman Legion, a company of horse, 
 of which ten formed the whole complement of the legion. 
 According to Varro, it consisted of thirty horsemen, ten 
 answering to each of the three original equestrian tribes, 
 the Tatienses, Hamnenses, and Luceres. But in addition 
 to the ten, there seems to have been two file leaders ; and 
 as the word turnia was sometimes indiscriminately used 
 for the subdivision or third part of the full turma, the fol- 
 lowing lines of Virgil's JEneid seem to describe the ar- 
 rangement : 
 
 Tres equitum numero turma?, ternique vagaotur 
 Duciores; puen bbseni quemque seculi. 
 
 (See M. Le Beau's 8th Dissertation on the Roman Legion, 
 Mem. de VJlc. des hiscr., vol. XXXii.) 
 
 TU'RMERIC. The root of the Curcuma longd. This 
 root yields a fine yellow powder, which is occasionally 
 used as a dye-stutfin medicine ; it also forms one of the in- 
 gredients of curry powder. Paper stained with turmeric is 
 often used in the chemical laboratory as a test of the pres- 
 ence of free alkalies and their carbonates, by which its 
 yellow colour is converted to brown. 
 
 TURN. In Music, a grace thus marked ~ ; indicating 
 that the note above it, one degree higher, must be struck 
 before it shortly, then passed quickly through the note 
 itself, and turned from the note a degree below into the 
 note itself, over which the mark is placed. 
 
 TU'RNIP-FLY. As different insects prey, in the larva 
 state, upon the leaves of the growing turnip, the most de- 
 structive, and consequently the most important and interest- 
 ing of these, will be noticed under the present head. They 
 are the turnip-flea, as it may be called from its power af 
 agile leaping {Haltica nemorum), and the turnip-fly Wtl«- 
 lia centifolia). The turnip flea belongs to a genus ("Uallta: 
 of minute Coleopterous insects, of the section 7Vf/v«r._ 
 and family Galerucidte ; in which genus the species ire all 
 remarkable for the large size of the femora or thighs of the 
 hindmost pair of legs. The species in question dois not 
 exceed the twelfth of an inch in length ; it is of an oval 
 form, with the elytra of a greenish tinge, each ornamented 
 
 1870 
 
TURNSOL. 
 
 with a broad longitudinal stripe of a pale brimstone colour ; 
 but there are other species of the same genus, perhaps 
 equally destructive, and not characterized by the longitudi- 
 nal elytral bands. The perfect insect shelters itself in the 
 rough uncultivated margins of fields, feeding upon the hedge- 
 weeds ; and appears to be ready at any time, provided the 
 weather be warm, to commence the work of destruction on 
 the young turnip shoots. Late sowing of the turnip seed 
 does not therefore obviate the attacks of the Haltica. The 
 first precaution obviously is to clear away all the weeds in 
 the neighbourhood of the turnip grounds that may afford 
 food or shelter to the little enemy. When the turnip-flea 
 has made its appearance in the crop, the ground should be 
 dusted with quicklime, and this repeated as often as rain or 
 wind beats it off, and the flea reappears. The other enemy 
 to the turnip (Athalia centifolia) belongs to the order Hy- 
 memoptera, and family Tcutkredinidai, or saw-flies. 
 TU'RNSOL. See Litmus. 
 
 TU'RPEN'TINE. A viscid exudation from certain trees, 
 either spontaneously formed upon the bark, or obtained by 
 incision. Common turpentine is the produce of certain 
 species of Pinus, or fir trees. When distilled with water 
 it yields a limpid volatile oil (oil of turpentine), and yellow 
 resin remains in the still. 
 
 TU'RPETH M1N ERA L. (From its yellow colour, which 
 resembles the powdered root of the Convolvulus turpethum.) 
 The yellow subpersulphate of mercury. 
 
 TU'RCIUOISE. A blue mineral, found in great quanti- 
 ties in the Nishapoor mines, in Persia. It appears to derive 
 its colour from oxide of copper and of iron, and consists 
 chiefly of hydrated alumina : it is admired in jewellery. 
 
 TU'RTLE. This word is used to signify a species of 
 dove (Colurnba turtur), and also a genus of Chelonian rep- 
 tiles (Chelone, Brongn.). 
 TU'SCAN ORDER. In Architecture, one of the five 
 — -/ orders, and the simplest of 
 =j> them all. It is not found 
 J in any ancient example. 
 Palladio has given two ex- 
 amples of this order, from 
 one of which the profile 
 here given is adopted, 
 though by some that com- 
 posed by Vicnola has been 
 preferred. The base, as 
 will be seen on inspection, 
 consists of a simple torus 
 with its fillet, accompani- 
 ed by a plinth. Sir Wil- 
 liam Chambers assigns to 
 the column, with its base 
 and capital, a height equal 
 to seven of its diameters. 
 Vitruvius speaks of this or- 
 der with little praise, but 
 Palladio commends it for 
 its great utility. It does 
 not allow the introduction 
 of ornament ; and it is to 
 he observed, that its col- 
 umns tire never fluted. By 
 some architects it has been 
 varied on the shaft u itli rustic cinctures; but such taste is 
 perhnps very questionable. Though not suitable to every 
 application of the order, the must perfect profile in this 
 country to which we can refer is that of the portico of St. 
 Paul's. C.wnt Garden, by Inigo Jones. 
 
 TU'TENAG. An alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel, made 
 in China ; the term is also sometimes applied to a pale brass, 
 and to bell-metal. (See Packfono.) In India, zinc also 
 sometimes goes under this name. 
 TUTORS. See Universities. 
 
 TU'TTI. (It. all.) In Music, a notice to the performer 
 that, from the place to which it is affixed, all the parts are 
 to play together. This word is generally used to contra- 
 dict the word soli, or solo, which see. 
 
 TUTTY. An impure oxide of zinc collected from the 
 chimneys of the smelting furnaces. 
 
 TWELF HINDI. In the old Saxon Commonwealth, the 
 highest class of citizens were so called. They were valued 
 at 12.000 shillings, and enjoyed many special privileges. 
 
 TWELFTH-DAY. The festival of the Epiphany, or 
 Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles ; being the twelfth 
 day, exclusive, from Christmas. (See Epiphany.) For the 
 customs peculiar to this day in England, see Brande's Pop- 
 ular JJntquities.) 
 
 TWELVE TABLES, LAWS OF THE. The celebrated 
 laws of the Roman republic, framed by the decemvirs ap- 
 pointed A.U.C. 303, on the return of three commissioners 
 who had been sent to Greece to examine into foreign laws 
 and institutions. The tables, as set up by the decemvirs, 
 v ere originally ten in number ; two were added in the se- 
 1280 
 
 TWILIGHT. 
 
 cond year of the decemviratc, and bore a more aristocratic 
 stamp than the original ten (according to Cicero, the prohi- 
 bition of marriages between patricians and plehians was 
 among the number). The text of the Twelve Tables were 
 preserved down to the latest age of Roman literature, and 
 formed the basis of the greater part of the Roman juris- 
 prudence' they are called by Livy, " fons omnia pulilici, 
 privatique juris." The authentic remains of them are given 
 by Haubold {Institution urn juris Romani privali Linca.- 
 menta, Leipsig, 1820). There is a valuable chapter on th§ 
 early Roman law, as founded on the Twelve Tables, it 
 Dr. Arnold's History of Rome, vol. i. 
 
 TWI'LIGHT. (Germ, zwielicht.) In Astronomy, the 
 faint light which is perceived for some time after sunset 
 and before sunrise. 
 
 The twilight is produced by the reflexion of light from 
 the atmosphere. When the sun descends below the ho- 
 rizon, the rays of light no longer reach the earth directly ; 
 but as they pass through the atmospheric strata a portion 
 of them are reflected towards the earth, and illuminate its 
 surface. At first the light, falling on the lowest and densest 
 strata, is reflected in great abundance ; but as the sun de- 
 scends to a greater distance below the horizon, his rays fall 
 on strata at a greater height, and consequently less dense. 
 A smaller number of them, therefore, suffer reflexion; and 
 as this number is constantly diminishing, the vivacity of the 
 twilight diminishes in the same proportion, till at length the 
 solar rays fall on strata so rare as to be incapable of reflect- 
 ing light, and the twilight accordingly disappears. In the 
 morning, the change from darkness to light takes place by 
 the same gradations. 
 
 From this theory it is evident that twilight must begin 
 and end when the sun's depression below the horizon tit- 
 tains a certain limit. The limit, however, cannot be fixed 
 with any precision. It is usually estimated according to 
 the time which elapses from sunset till the smallest stars 
 which are seen by the naked eye become visible. Hut this 
 mode of estimating the duration of twilight is uncertain and 
 arbitrary; and it will be reckoned greater or less according 
 to the goodness of sight of the observer, and the tempera- 
 ture and pressure of the atmosphere. Accordingly, the 
 sun's depression at the beginning and end of twilight has 
 been fixed at various limits by different observers; by Al- 
 hazen, at 19° ; by Tycho, at 17° ; by Rothman, at 24° ; by 
 Stevintts, at 18°; by Cassino, at 15°; and by others tit dif- 
 ferent quantities; but the limit usually assigned 
 is 18°. Assuming this limit, the duration of twi- 
 light in different latitudes, and at the different 
 seasons of the year, is computed as follows : 
 
 In the spherical triangle Z P S, let P S = 90° — d 
 be the distance of the sun from the pole, Z P as 
 90 — p the distance of the pole from the zenith 
 of the observer, and Z S = 90° + 18° ; S being 
 the place of the sun when he reaches the circle 
 parallel to 18° below the horizon. Now, as d, 
 the sun's declination, is known, and also j>, the 
 latitude of the place, the three sides of the triangle are 
 given ; whence the hour angle Z P S is found (see Trigo- 
 nometry) by the formula 
 
 „„„ — sin 18° — sin v sin d 
 
 cos Z P S .= £- 
 
 cos p cos d 
 
 If, therefore, we make A = the semidiurnal arc of the sun, 
 or the angle at the pole when the sun is in the horizon, and 
 consequently his zenith distance = 90°, we shall have from 
 the same formula 
 
 cos A = — tan p tan d ; 
 whence the angles ZPS and A are known, and their dif- 
 ference expressed in time gives the duration of the twilight. 
 
 At the equator sinp = 0, cos/> = l, and A = 90°. We 
 
 sin 18° 
 
 have, therefore, cos Z P S = 1st ; Suppose the 
 
 cosd 
 sun to be in the equator; in this case we have also <2 = 0, 
 and ZPS becomes equal to ZS =90° + 18°; whence the 
 duration of twilight is equal to the time in which an arc of 
 18° on the equator passes over the meridian, or equal to 
 1 hour and 12 minutes. 2d; Suppose the sun to be at the 
 tropic; in this case d = 23J°, and the duration of twilight 
 is found by computing from the formula to be 1 h. 19 m. 
 
 By computing from the above formula, the duration of 
 twilight, at the time of the equinox, is found to be 1 h. 55 m. 
 at the latitude of 50°, and 2h. 32 m. at the latitude of 60°. 
 At the shortest day, its duration at different latitudes is as 
 follows : 
 
 1 h. 20 m. at latitude 25° 
 
 2 h. m. at latitude 50°, 
 2 h. 57 m. at latitude 00°; 
 
 and at 70°, when the sun no longer rises above the hori 
 zon, it continues about 5h. 12 m. after the sun lias passed 
 the meridian of the place. 
 When the angle ZPS = 180°, we have cos Z P S = — I 
 
TWO-COAT WORK. 
 
 But in order that the hour angle may have this value, the 
 sun must be on the lower semicircle of the meridian ; and 
 consequently, as his depression below the horizon is by hy- 
 pothesise 18°, the twilight will not entirely disappear, or 
 will continue through the whole night. The formula ir. 
 this case become* 
 
 cos p cos d = sin 18° + sin p sin d; 
 or mm (p + d) — sin 18°, whence p + d = 72°. When, there- 
 fore, the sun's declination <Z = 72° — p, the twilight will 
 continue hrougli the whole night at the place whose lati- 
 tude is f Hence, by giving Afferent values top, we find 
 the declination, ami consequently the day of the year on 
 which twilight begins to continue through the whole night 
 Suppose p — :>(P; then </ = 22, which corresponds to the 
 1st of June. In the latitude of London (SBP) perpetual twi- 
 light begins about the 20th of May. At 00° latitude it be- 
 gins about tae 33d of April : at 70° about the 20th of March ; 
 at 80° about the last of February; and at the pole itself 
 about tlie 39th of January. It is scarcely necessary to re- 
 mark, that as no account has been taken of the refraction, 
 oressions are only approximative 
 One of the problems most frequently proposed respecting 
 the twilight, is to find the day of the year when its duration is 
 the least possible at a given latitude. This problem, which 
 is the same as to determine the sun's declination when his 
 zenith distance increases from 'MP to 108° in the least time 
 ble, was first solved by John Bernoulli {Opera, t. i., 
 p. 64.) Solutions of it are given in most works on Practical 
 Astronomy, (:see Delambre, Astronomic, t. i.) 
 
 TWO-COAT WORK. In Architecture, plasterer's work 
 that is cither laid and set, or rendered and sit. 
 
 TYMPANITIS or TYMPANY. An elastic distension 
 of the abdomen, arising from a morbid collection of gas in 
 the intestine-. The disease is sometimes termed drum belly, 
 and .ii illy from air secreted into the abdominal 
 
 cavity, in which cases it is usually fatal. 
 
 TY'MI'AM'M. (Lat. a drum.) The drum of the ear : 
 the cavity behind the membrane of the tympnnum, sur- 
 rounded by the petrous portion of the temp or al bone, and 
 terminating at the cochlea of the labyrinth ; it contains the 
 four small auditory bones, and the Eustachian tube opens 
 into it. 
 
 TvMt'AsrM, in Architecture, the space in a pediment en- 
 closed by the cornice of the inclined sides and the horizontal 
 fillet of the corona. 
 
 Tympanum, in Botany, is a membrane stretched across 
 the mouth of the threa of a moss. 
 
 TYPK. (Gr. Tf-os.) In the Fine Arts, the model or 
 pattern in nature of an object used. Thus, in architecture, 
 the types of columns are said to be trees, &c. &c. 
 
 Tyi-k. Properly, the figure stamped upon a coin : hence, 
 a figure, sign, or symbol, especially those by which Christ 
 prefigured to the Jews, as the Brazen Serpent, the 
 Lamb of the Passover, the Sacrifice of Isaac ; or persons 
 whose character and history are considered as embodying 
 an anticipatory representation of the Saviour, as Moses, 
 David, the prophet Jonah, &c. 
 
 Many types are referred to as such by the writers of the 
 New Testament ; and hence we learn to look for such in- 
 tentional meaning in what we might otherwise, in particular 
 Instances, pass over as mere coincidences and analogies. 
 It is the great sum of such analogies, and the fulness with 
 which they pervade the whole of Scripture, which seem 
 most strikingly to evince the unity of design. 
 
 TYPE METAL. The alloy of lead and antimony used 
 in casting printers' types. One part of antimony to three 
 of lead are the usual proportions. This alloy takes a sharp 
 impression from the mould or matrix, and is hard enough 
 to stand the work of the press, without being brittle or 
 liable to fracture. 
 
 TYPES. By this term is understood the letters, from the 
 smallest size to the largest, with which books and other 
 articles are printed. A single type consists of the shank, 
 the beard, and the face. The shank is the body of the 
 letter ; the beard is that part between the shoulder of the 
 shank and the face ; the face is the shape of the letter, 
 from which the Impression is taken. 
 
 The following are the English names of the different 
 sizes in their regular order ; with the addition of the Dutch, 
 French, German, and Italian names: 
 1. Diamond, the smallest. 
 
 3. Pearl. (Fr. La Parisienne ou Sedanolse ; Ocr. Perl; 
 Itol Occhio di Mosca.) 
 
 3. Ruby. 
 
 4. Nonpareil. (Dutch. Nonpareil ; Fr. La Nompareille ; 
 Oer. Nonpareille ; Ital. Nompariglia.) 
 
 5. Emerald. 
 
 6. Minion. (Fr. La Mignione; Oer. Colonell ; Ital. Mi- 
 nione.) 
 
 7. Brevier. (Dutch, Brevier; Fr. Le Petit Texte ; Oer. 
 Petit, or Jungfer : Ital. Piccolo Tcsto.) 
 
 4 M 
 
 TYPHUS. 
 
 8. Bourgeois. (Dutch, Bourgeois ; Fr. La Gaillarde ; On 
 Burgeoia; ital. Gagliurda.) 
 
 9. Long Primer. (Dutch, Garmond ; Fr. Le Petit Ro 
 main; Gcr. Corpus, or Garmond ; Ital. Garamone.) 
 
 10. Small Pica. (Dutch, Dessendiaan ; Fr. La Philo 
 sophie ; Ger. Brevier, or Rheinla-nder ; Ital. Filosotia.) 
 
 11. Pica. (Dutch, Mediaan ; Fr. Le Cicero ; Ger. Cicero ■ 
 Ital. Lettura.) 
 
 12. English. (Dutch, Augustyn ; Fr. Le Saint August in . 
 (;,r. Mittel; Ital. Silvio.) 
 
 13. Great Primer. (Dutch, Text ; Fr. Le Gros Romain , 
 Oer. Tenia ; Ital. Testo.) 
 
 14. Paragon. (Dutch, Paragon; Fr. Le Petit Parangon ; 
 Ger. Paragon ; Ital. Parangone.) 
 
 15. Double Pica. (Dutch, Dubbelde Dessendiaan ; Fr. 
 Le Gross Parangon ; Gcr. Text, or Secunda ; Ital. Duo 
 Linee Filosofia.) 
 
 10. Two Line Pica. (Dutch, Dubbelde Mediaan ; Fr. 
 Les Deux Points de Cicero ; Oer. Doppclcicero.) 
 
 17. Two Line English. (Dutch, Dubbelde Augustyn ; 
 Fr. Palestine ; Oer. Doppclmittel ; Ital. Canoncino.) 
 
 18. Two Line Great Primer. (Dutch, Kanon ; Fr. Petit 
 Canon ; Ocr. Kleine Canon ; Ital. Grosso Testo.) 
 
 19. Two Line Double Pica. (Dutch, Groote Kanon ; Fr. 
 Trfcmegiste; Ger. Grobe Canon.) 
 
 20. Trafalgar. 
 
 21 . Canon. (Dutch, Parys Romeyn ; Fr. Le Gros Canon ; 
 Ger. Kleine Missal ; Ital. Canone.) 
 
 Canon is the largest size with a specific nnme ; Pica then 
 becomes the standard to distinguish them, and the next size 
 to Canon is Four Line Pica, then Five Line Pica, and so 
 on, to the largest size used in posting bills. 
 
 1. To enable the reader to form on opinion of the comparative eiicR rf 
 
 2. typea, and tb« pro|>or1ioni which ihcy bear to each other, Hi. r 
 
 3. in this paragraph a line of each size, from Diamond, the 
 
 4. smallest type in general use among printers, up to Great 
 
 5. Primer, inclusive, each being munbered to correspond with 
 C. the preceding list, in order to distinguish one from 
 
 7. the other by their names. There is a small- 
 
 8. er type than Di.tmond lately introduced, 
 
 9. but it is as yet but seldom used. The 
 
 10. French have one so very small thai 
 
 11. it cannot easily be read by the 
 
 12. naked eye, even by young 
 
 13 persons. 
 
 TYPHO'EUS. One of the Titans, said to have been 
 overthrown in the war against Jupiter, and imprisoned 
 under the weight of JElna. ; a circumstance in mythological 
 romance well known from the descriptions of Virgil, Pin- 
 dar, and iEschylus. And see Bryant's Anc. Mythol., iv., 
 
 TY'PHON. The Evil Genius of Egyptian Mythology. 
 According to Sir G. Wilkinson (Ancient Egyptians, vol. iv., 
 p. 417, &c.), they seem to have acknowledged two deities, 
 who answered lo the description given \o the Greeks (es- 
 pecially Plutarch, De Is. et Os.) of T;pho. " One, who 
 was the brother of Netpe, and opposed to his brother Osiris, 
 as the bad to the good principle: the other bearing the 
 name of Typho, and answering u that part of his character 
 which represents him as the opponent of Horus:" the true 
 evil genius Ombte, whom die Greeks seem to confound 
 with Typho. "He is figured under the human form,-hav 
 ing the head of a quadruped, with square-topped ears, which 
 some might have supposed lo represent an ass with clipped 
 ears, if the entire animal did not too frequently occur to 
 prevent this erroneous conclusion." In his Egyptian names 
 is " Ombte," in which Sir G. Wilkinson thinks he traces a 
 connexion with Antceus, the son of Earth. There appears 
 to have been a general propensity to erase his figure and 
 titles from the monuments at some remote epoch, (bee 
 also Brvant, Anc. Myth., vols. ii. and iii.) 
 
 TYPHOON. The name given to a violent tornado or 
 hurricane in the Chinese seas. See Storms. 
 
 TY'PHUS. This term (implying to burn with a con 
 cealed and smothered flame) is applied to certain continued 
 fevers, attended by great debility and a tendency to putic 
 faction. It is contagious or infectious, and often epidemic, 
 and is most prone to attack debilitated persons, especially 
 where aided by want of cleanliness, good food, and fresh 
 air ; so that it often spreads in hospitals, jails, camps, and 
 other situations where such causes assist its progress. This 
 form of fever is liable to several modifications, commonly 
 termed low fever, putrid fever, nervous fever, jail fever, fcc. 
 Its attack is generally characterized by inordinate muscular 
 i and nervous debility, and by great depression of spirit*?, 
 
TYPOGRAPHY. 
 
 veariness, flying pains, sighing, and a frequent, small, hard, 
 and fluttering pulse ; the tongue is foul and brown, and the 
 taste impaired, and not unfrequently nausea and bilious 
 vomiting prevail, constituting that variety of typhus which 
 Is sometimes called bilious fever. As the disease advances, 
 the debility increases; the mouth becomes very foul, and 
 the breath fetid ; the urine deposits a brown sediment, and, 
 together with the motions, is fetid, and rapidly putrefies ; 
 all these symptoms increase in intensity; the speecli be- 
 comes inarticulate, muttering, and delirious; there is a ten- 
 dency tj bleeding from the nose, mouth, and bowels; pe- 
 techia, or livid spots, appear upon the surface ; the pulse 
 sinks and intermits ; the mind wanders ; hiccup comes on ; 
 the hands and feet become cold ; and, under these horrible 
 symptoms, the patient dies. Such is an outline of the pro- 
 gress of a typhus fever to a fatal termination. In this cli- 
 mate it may endure for three weeks or a month ; but in hot 
 countries the symptoms follow each other more rapidly and 
 violently, and it is not of more than eight or ten days' dura- 
 tion. When it does not terminate fatally, the symptoms 
 begin to assume a more favourable aspect about the twelfth 
 or fourteenth day; the pulse improves, the patient gets 
 some tranquil sleep, perhaps perspires ; the urine deposits 
 a red sediment ; bilious stools are passed ; he becomes 
 more tranquil in mind and body, and his symptoms gradu- 
 ally disappear till health is restored ; but it is a disease the 
 event of which must be anticipated with the utmost cau- 
 tion, for attacks apparently mild sometimes terminato fa- 
 tally, and in other cases the constitution has rallied under 
 the most alarming and malignant features. At the very 
 commencement an emetic and a mild aperient are proper, 
 followed up by aromatic opiates, with camphor and ether. 
 It is possible that some particular symptom, indicative of 
 local congestion, may call for bleeding or blistering: the 
 former, except in some very rare cases, should be local only, 
 and very limited as to quantity. Serpentaria, Peruvian 
 bark, cascarilla, and Colombo are the tonics which are most 
 relied on ; and, with these, camphor, aromatic confection, 
 opiate confection, and ether; or, if agreeable to the stomach 
 and bowels, sulphuric and muriatic acids, in small doses, 
 and acidulous drinks. Wine and brandy, and, in some 
 cases, bottled ale and porter, are requisite to keep up the 
 general powers of the system ; but care must be taken lest 
 their use should be followed by over-excitement, and the 
 quantity in some measure regulated by the previous habits 
 of the patient. Broths, jellies, and the varieties of farina- 
 ceous food, may constitute the diet; and, in all cases, the 
 utmost attention must be paid to extreme cleanliness, fre- 
 quent change of linen, ventilation, and the due use of chlo- 
 rine fumigation. On the first attack of typhus, the allusion 
 of cold water, performed two or three times a day, often 
 affords much relief; and afterwards, when the shock of 
 such a remedy would be too great, sponging the head and 
 body with cold or with slightly tepid water is productive of 
 infinite comfort. 
 
 TYPO'GRAPHY. The art of printing. Sec Printing. 
 
 TVRANNY. (Gr. rvpavvos, a tyrant.) In the original 
 sense of the word, n citizen who acquired sovereignty by 
 violence »r other usurpation is called, in the language of 
 Greek political writers, a tyrant ; and where the power thus 
 acquired became hereditary, the title of tyrant is still given 
 to his descendant in the generations immediately following. 
 A tyrant in this tense is opposed to basileus, a rightful 
 king, with power either limited by the laws or sanctioned 
 by ancient usage. (See, as to the Greek tyrannies, Wachs- 
 muth, Historical JintiguHics, vol. i., ch. 6 ; and the ex- 
 planation of the difference between the ancient and modern 
 sense of the word given by Mhford, Hist, of Greece, i., 250, 
 ed. 1829.) "* 
 
 TY'THING. A tything was a subdivision, i. e., a tenth 
 part, as its name indicates, of the hundred, with which it 
 was probably coeval in institution, as n was certainly iden- 
 tical in object, as far at least as regards the prevention of 
 offences by the condition of liability for the production of 
 offenders, or in default thereof reparation of the mischief, 
 in the case of offences committed within the district. For 
 this purpose, all free persons above the age of twelve' vears 
 were required by the Saxon law to belong to some tything. 
 No jurisdiction seems to have belonged to the tything • and 
 the office of tythingman, or constable, seems always to have 
 Deen confined, as it is now, to the preservation of the peace 
 and the apprehension of offenders. The limits of a tything 
 were in most cases coextensive with those of a parish, 
 with which it is now commonly, for practical purposes' 
 'dentical. 
 
 U and V. 
 
 U and V were long considered the same letter, and were 
 used indiscriminately the one for the other; but at the 
 1283 
 
 ULTIMATE ANALYSIS. 
 
 beginning of the 16th century their peculiarities came to be 
 marked, and u has since been used as a vowel and v as a 
 consonant. 
 
 UBI'QUISTS, or UBIQTJITA'RIANS. (Lat ubique, 
 everywhere.) In Ecclesiastical History, a school of Luth- 
 eran divines ; so called from their tenet that the body -of 
 Christ was present in the Eucharist in virtue of his divine 
 omnipresence. Luther is said to have maintained this 
 argument, as a mode of reconciling the doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation with reason, for two years. Brentius, one of 
 his disciples, passes for its principal supporter. Melanch- 
 thon opposed it ; but it seems to have obtained great credit 
 among the Lutherans of the sixteenth and seventeenth! 
 
 U'CKEWALLISTS. In Ecclesiastical History, a sect 
 of rigid Anabaptists ; so called from one Uke Wallis, a 
 native of Friesland. They appear to subsist still, indepen- 
 dent of other Anabaptists and Mennonites, in Friesland 
 and Groningen. (See Mosheim, vol. v.) 
 
 UKA'SE. An ordinance of the emperor of Russia 
 having the force of law in his dominions. 
 
 U'LCER. (Lat. ulcus.) A solution of continuity in any 
 of the soft parts of the body, attended by a purulent at I 
 other discharge. The several kinds of ulcers are divided 
 by surgeons into local and constitutional, but these often 
 run into each other. They have been termed simple and 
 specific sores or ulcers ; the former resulting from accidental 
 injuries, the latter from specific poisons or particular habits 
 of body. (See Cooper's Surgical Dictionary.) 
 
 ULE'MA. (Turk, learned men.) The college or corpo- 
 ration composed of the three classes of the Turkish hier- 
 archy : the imans, or ministers of religion ; the muftis, or 
 doctors of law ; the cadis, or administrators of justice. This 
 organization, according to D'Ohisson (Tableau de l' Empire 
 Ottoman), was first framed by the caliphs, and adopted, 
 along with the other principles of their government, by the 
 Ottoman sultans. Candidates for admission into the Uiemal 
 are educated at the different colleges (medresses) of the 
 empire. The Sheikh ul Islam, or mufti of Constantinople, 
 is the president of the whole body. (See Ed. Rev., vol.l 
 50.) 
 
 ULLAGE. In Gauging, what a cask wants of being full, ■ 
 is so called. 
 
 ULMA'CE^E (Ulmus, the principal genus), are woody 
 plants, usually timber trees, inhabiting temperate climates. 
 They are apetalous Exogens, nearly allied to the Urtica- 1 
 ceous order, from which they principally diner in having a 
 two-celled fruit. The various kinds of elm trees are the ' 
 best known species ; but the thin papery fruit of these 
 plants is by no means characteristic of the order ; it is 1 
 merely a character of the genus Ulmus. 
 
 U'LMIN. (Lat. ulmus, the elm tree.) A black or dark] 
 brown substance which exudes from the bark of the elm I 
 and several other trees, and which appears to be contained 
 in most barks. It may be obtained by digesting elm-bark 
 in boiling alcohol, and afterwards in cold water, by which 
 various more soluble substances are removed ; the residue 
 is then digested in an aqueous solution of carbonate of 
 potash : it acquires a brown colour, and \ iel/ls a precipitate 
 when neutralized by muriatic acid, which, after having 
 been washed and dried, is ulmin. It is very sparingly solu-? 
 ble in water, but readily soluble in solutions of the alkaline 
 carbonates. According to Boullay (Annalcs it C/iim. 
 Phys. xliii., 273), it is a compound of 567 carbon and 43 
 hydrogen and oxygen in the ratio to form water* He tern 
 it ulmic acid, and considers it identical with the brov 
 matter of vegetable mould and turf, and as contributin 
 materially to the nutriment of growing plants. 
 
 U'LNA. The larger of the two bones of the foreari 
 It forms the point of the elbow, and is articulated by 
 species of hinge-joint to the humerus, and to the radius; 
 and below to the radius, and to the bones of the wrist. 
 
 U'LTIMATE ANALYSIS. This term is applied 
 Chemistry to the resolution of substances into their absolut 
 elements ; and is opposed to the proximate analysis, byj 
 which they are merely resolved into secondary compounds. 
 The ultimate analysis of crystallized blue vitriol, for in- 
 stance, teaches us that its true elements are sulphur, copper, 
 oxygen, and hydrogen; its proximate elements are sulphuric 
 acid, oxide of copper, and water ; the ultimate elements of 
 sulphuric acid are sulphur and oxygen ; of oxide of copper, 
 copper and oxygen; and of water, hydrogen and oxygen 
 The terms ultimate analysis and ultimate cluneals are, 
 however, most generally used in reference to organic pro- 
 ducts: gum, resin, starch, and other compounds, are often 
 found associated in a vegetable, and are called its proximal* 
 principles, and they are separated by proximate analysis; 
 but all these are resolvable into carbon, hydrogen, and 
 oxygen. These three elementary substances, therefore, are 
 their ultimate components. The accurate determination of 
 their relative proportions in the various products of vege 
 tables is almost always a difficult chemical problem 
 
 
ULTIMATE RATIO. 
 
 ULTIMATE RATIO. The ratio of evanescent quan- 
 
 imk and Ultimate Ratio. 
 ULTIMA'TUM. (Lat) In Diplomacy, the final condi- 
 tions offered by a government for the settlement of its dis- 
 pute with another. 
 
 ULTRA. In Modern Politics, those who carry to their 
 
 fariliir-t point the opinions of the party to which they belong 
 
 med. The name was applied in 171)3 to the more 
 
 volutioaists ; it has since been bestowed on the 
 
 on of all parties in turn. 
 
 ULTRAMARI'NE. (Lat. ultra, beyond, and marinus, 
 
 to the sea. i The blue colouring matter of the 
 
 lapis li/.uli. This substance is much valued by painters, 
 
 on account of the beauty and permanence of its colour, 
 
 both fur oil and water painting. In its preparation the 
 
 finest lapis lazuli is selected, heated to a dull red heat, and 
 
 quenched in water ; it is thus rendered friable, and is ground 
 
 down into an impalpable powder. This is then mixed with 
 
 B tenacious paste made of linseed oil, wax, resin, turpentine, 
 
 and mastic ; and the mixture being kneaded in warm water 
 
 ■ it the blue particles, winch Me afterwards collected 
 
 by sab moists have long in vain endeavoured 
 
 to imitate this colour, but till lately its nature even had not 
 
 been determined. It appears from the experiments of 
 
 n that sulphuret of sodium is the principle to which 
 
 the blue colour is owing, and he has succeeded in preparing 
 
 an artificial ultramarine by beating sulphuret of sodium 
 
 with a mixture of silica and alumina. (See the Annates de 
 
 el Physique, vol. xxxvii., p. 409..I 
 
 ULTRAMONTANE, or TRA'MONTANE. A name 
 
 applied by Italian writers to theologians and jurists of other 
 
 countries beyond the Aljw, especially Prance, In ecclesi- 
 
 1 law, ultramontane tenets are those least favourable 
 
 supremacy of the popes As to ultramontane jurists, 
 
 jay, //list, of Roman J. air, vol. vi. 
 
 I "MlHil,. In Botany, a form of inflorescence in which 
 
 all the pedicels proceed from a single point, as in Jistrantia. 
 
 If there i< no subdivision, the umbel is called simple; but 
 
 if the pedicels produce other umbels, as in parsley, the 
 
 umbel is compound. 
 
 UMBELLIFEROUS PLANTS (Umbel), are a race of 
 great frequency in all cool or temperate climates, and even 
 occur in hot ones, though much more rarely. They are 
 by their Bowers being disposed in an 
 umbel. They have a berbaceous stem ; leaves usually 
 much divided, often Inflated when they join the stem; and 
 they have universally a dry fruit, winch divides into two 
 Borne of mem are poisonous, as hemlock 
 and water dropwort ; others are esculents, as celery, carrots, 
 and parsnips ; many yield aromatic fruits, as caraway, 
 coriander, and anise ; a few secrete a foetid gum resin, of 
 which assafcBtida, ammonincum, and galbanum are ex- 
 amples. The species are extremely numerous, and difficult 
 to recognise with accuracy ; and, unfortunately, no general 
 rule has yet been discovered fur distinguishing those poi- 
 sonous from the harmless kinds. 
 
 I .MIIl'.K. Two distinct substances are used as pigments 
 under this name : one is a variety of peat or brown coal, 
 large beds of which are worked near Cologne ; it is said to 
 be largely used in the adulteration of snuff: the other, 
 called Turkish umJ/er, is a variety of ochraceous iron ore, 
 composed, according to the analysis of Klaproth, of 48 
 peroxide of iron, 20 peroxide of manganese, 13 silica, 5 
 alumina, 14 water. The term umber is said to be derived 
 from Ombria, or Spoleto, in Italy, where it was iirst ob- 
 tained. 
 
 UMBI'LICAL CORD, in Botany, is an elongation of the 
 placenta in the form of a little cord, as in the hazel nut. 
 
 I MISI'LICATE. (Lat umbilicus, a navel.) In Zoology, 
 when n pit, tubercle, or granule has a depression in its 
 centre. 
 
 UMBILI'CUS. (Lat.) Troperly the navel ; whence it 
 was metaphorically applied to the two ends of the roller 
 on which the manuscripts of the ancients were rolled, and 
 which were usually adorned with ornamental knobs, while 
 the ends of the parchment were filed with pumice-stone, 
 in order that the folds might lie smooth and neat. 
 
 Umbilicus. In Conchology, the aperture or depression 
 in the centre, round which the shell is convoluted. 
 
 Umbilicus. The scar by which a seed is attached to 
 the placenta, frequently of a different colour from the rest 
 of the seed, and not uncommonly very dark-coloured. It is 
 more commonly called hilum. 
 
 Umbilicus. In Geometry, used by the older geometers 
 synonymously with focus. 
 
 UMBO. (Lat.) A protuberance or boss. In Conchology 
 it is that point of a bivalve shell immediately above the 
 hinge. 
 
 UMBRA. Ashadow. In Astronomy, this term is applied 
 to the dark cone projected from a planet or satellite on the 
 side opposite to the sun. See Eclipse. 
 U'MPIRE. This word appears to be properly derived 
 
 UNGULA. 
 
 from the Fr. "impair," uneven in number ; an umpire being 
 a third party to whom a dispute is referred. An umpire is, 
 properly, a person whom two referees, each chosen by his 
 client, being unable to agree, jointly choose to determine 
 between them. 
 
 UK BEND. In sea language, to take the cable from the 
 anchor, a sail from its yard, &c. ; to untie one rope from 
 another. 
 
 UNCUS. The name given by the old writers on algebra 
 to the coefficients of the letters in the expansion of any 
 power of a binomial. Thus, the expansion of (a + 4) 4 gives 
 a-t + 4 «3 j -j- a2 bi -j- 4 a 43 -f i 4 , in which the numbers 1, 
 4, 0, 4, 1, are the uncus, or coefficients. 
 
 UNCIA'LES LITER/E. (Lat.) Uncial letters or writing. 
 In Diplomatics, a species of character compounded between 
 the capital and the minuscule or small characters ; some 
 of the letters resembling the former, others the latter. It is 
 supposed to have been employed in Latin UBS. as early as 
 the third or fourth century, but was seldom used after the 
 tenth. 
 
 U'NCIFORM BONE. Lat. uncus, a hook.) The last 
 bone of the second row of the wrist bones; so called from 
 its hook-like process, which projects towards the palm of 
 the hand, and gives origin to the great ligament which binds 
 down the tendons of the wrist. 
 
 UN< '< ID Mi >\ CHORD. In Music, another term for the 
 chord of the sixth ; not so called, however, because it is 
 unusual or improper, but to distinguish it from the common 
 chord, wherein the lowest note is the root or fundamental 
 bass. See Mi 
 
 UNCONFORMABLE STRATA. A term applied by 
 geologists to strata not lying parallel with the subjacent 
 ones, or having a different line of direction or inclination. 
 UNCTION, EXTREME. See Extreme Unction. 
 UNDE'CAGON. (Lat. undecim, eleven, and Gr. yuivia, 
 angle.) In Geometry, a plane figure of eleven sides or 
 angles. The area of a regular undecagon is found by mul- 
 tiplying its side into y of the tangent of 73py degrees; 
 hence if the sido be 1, the area is 9-36564. 
 
 UNDERTOW. A current below, different from that at 
 the surface. 
 
 UNDER WOOD. The low woody growths produced 
 among timber trees: sometimes called coppice wood ; though 
 the term coppice-wood is more especially applied to woods 
 in which low growths of shrubs, or the stools of trees, are 
 more abundant than timber trees See Coppice Wood anc 
 Stool. 
 
 UNDI'NES, or ONDINES. (Lat. uuda, water.) The 
 name given by the Cabalists to one class of their spirits of 
 the elements, namely, those residing in the waters. The 
 ancient Greeks believed springs and lakes to be haunted by 
 a peculiar race of supernatural nymphs (see Naiads) ; and 
 this belief passed down unimpaired to the middle ages. 
 The ancient Saxons adored the female deity of the Elbe ; 
 and the belief in undines is still scarcely eradicated in that 
 region. The Saxon peasants report that an undine is often 
 met in the market-place of Magdeburg, dressed as n girl of 
 their own class, but always to be known by having one 
 corner of her apron wet. Near Toulouse many objects of 
 value were once discovered on draining a large artificial 
 lake, which are supposed to have been thrown in as offer- 
 ings to the spirits of the water. The nixe of the northern 
 countries is of the same family, and the Scottish kelpies are 
 creatures of a similar superstition. 
 
 UNDULA'TION. (Lat. unda, a wave.) A waving mo- 
 tion ; applied, in physics, to the vibratory motion of an 
 elastic fluid, as the atmosphere. 
 
 UNDULATORY THEORY, in Optics, is the hypothesis 
 according to which the impression of light is conveyed to 
 the eye by the undulations of an elastic medium. This 
 theory supposes the universe to be filled with an ether or 
 medium of great elasticity, but so extremely rare as to offer 
 no resistance to the motions of the planets. For an expla- 
 nation of the phenomena of light and colours according to 
 this theory, see Light. 
 
 UNEVEN NUMBER. In Arithmetic, the same with 
 odd number ; a number not divisible by 2. 
 
 UNFORMED STARS, in Astronomy, are such as are 
 not included in any of the constellations. 
 
 UNGUI'CULATES, Unguiculata. (Lat. unguis, a claw.) 
 The name of a primary division of the class Mammalia, in- 
 cluding those which have the digits armed with claws, but 
 free for the exercise of touch upon their under surface. -See 
 Mammalia. 
 
 U'NGUIS, or CLAW. The narrow part of the base of 
 a petal, taking the place of the footstalk of a leaf, of which 
 it is a modification. The term is also used as a term of 
 measure equal to a nail, or half an inch, or the length of 
 the nail of the little finger. 
 
 U'NGULA. (Lat. a hoof.) In Geometry, n solid formed 
 by cutting off a part from a cylinder, cone, or other solid of 
 revolution, by a plane passing obliquely through the base. 
 
 1283 
 
UNGULATES. 
 
 The ungula £, consequently, bounded by the plane of the 
 base, the intersecting plane, and the portion of the surface 
 of the cylinder, &c. included between them. The name is 
 derived from its resemblance to the hoof (ungula) of a 
 horse. 
 
 U'NGULATES, l/ngulata. (Lat. ungula, a hoof.) The 
 name of a primary division of the class Mammalia, inclu- 
 ding those species which have the digits enclosed in hoofs, 
 the under surface not being left free for the exercise of 
 touch. See Mammalia. 
 
 U'NICORN. (Lat. unus, one ; cornu, horn.) The beast 
 called unicorn, in our version of scripture (Heb. rem), is 
 now commonly understood to be the rhinoceros. But the 
 fabulous unicorn, which has passed into heraldry, is repre- 
 sented with the figure of a horse, and a single horn issuing 
 from its forehead. The unicorn of Pliny, however, has the 
 head of a hart, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, 
 and the 'rest of the body resembling a horse. Aristotle, 
 iElian, and all the classical writers on animals, mention 
 the unicorn. The traveller Ludovicus Romanus asserts 
 that he saw two unicorns, kept alive in the temple of Mecca. 
 Altogether there is perhaps no fabulous beast for whose 
 existence there is so much appearance of evidence, and 
 some seem to imagine that it may yet be discovered in the 
 interior of Thibet. Many strange virtues were attributed 
 of old to the horn of the unicorn, particularly against poison ; 
 but the horns preserved in collections, and to which that 
 name was given, were either of the rhinoceros, or of the 
 narwal or sea-unicorn. 
 
 UNIFORMITY. (Fr. uniforme.) In the Fine Arts, 
 resemblance in shape between the correspondent parts of a 
 subject. 
 
 UNIFO'RMITY, ACT OF. In English History, the first 
 act of uniformity is the 1 Eliz., c. 2 ; that at present sub- 
 sisting, 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 4. It regulates the form of public 
 prayers, administration of the sacraments, and other rites 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 UNIGE'NITUS. The celebrated constitution, in the form 
 of a bull, issued by Pope Clement XI. in 1713, in condemna- 
 tion of Pere Ouesnel's Reflexions Morales sur le JV. Testa- 
 ■ment. It is so called from its beginning, "Unigenitus Dei 
 Filius." Father ©.uesnel was a friend of the celebrated 
 Jansenist leader Arnauld, and became chief of that religious 
 party after the death of the latter. He died in exile at 
 Amsterdam, in 1679. The bull was procured by the Jesuits, 
 especially Father le Tellier; it condemned 101 propositions 
 selected from Quesnel's work. Its publication created great 
 discord in France. Most of the bishops accepted it, but 
 with explanations which they gave to the public. Cardinal 
 de Noailles and others refused to accept it at all. As soon 
 as the Duke of Orleans became regent, Father le Tellier was 
 banished, and the party opposed to the bull came into 
 power ; but the strength of Rome pre/ailed, and eventually 
 the Duke of Orleans himself compelled de Noailles to 
 accept the bull, in 1720. After that event the Jansenist 
 party only survived in small fragments, especially among 
 the commonalty of Paris. See Jansenists. 
 
 UNILO'CULAR. (Lat. unus, one; loculus, partition.) 
 In Conchology, shells which are not divided into chambers. 
 In Botany, seed vessels not separated into cells. 
 
 UNION. In British History. The union of the crowns 
 of England arid Scotland took place on the accession of 
 James I. to the former. The scheme of uniting the king- 
 doms was afterwards several times taken up ; and com- 
 missioners were appointed to consider it in the reigns of 
 Charles II. and James II. But it was finally carried into 
 execution in 1706 ; the statute passed on that occasion being 
 the 5 Anne, c. 8. By this enactment laws relating to trade, 
 customs, and excise were to be the same in both countries ; 
 other laws to remain in force in each respectively. The 
 parliament of the United Kingdom, called Great Britain, 
 was to have 16 Scottish peers, and 45 members of the 
 House of Commons. The mode of election of peers was 
 subsequently regulated. (See Parliament.) Since the 
 union, acts of parliament, in general language, are held to 
 extend to Scotland ; a proviso being inserted where it is to 
 be excepted. The union of Great Britain and Ireland took 
 place in 1800, by the statute 39 & 40 G. 3, c. 67, of the 
 British, and 40 G. 3, c. 38, of the Irish statutes. It admitted 
 4 Irish lords spiritual, 28 temporal, and 100 commoners to 
 the united legislature ; the lords temporal elected for life, 
 the lords spiritual sitting by a certain rotation. By article 
 5, the churches were united. For the changes which have 
 since taken place in the number of Scottish and Irish mem- 
 bers in the House of Commons, see Parliament. 
 
 UNIPE'LTATES, Univeltata. (Lat. unus, one, and pel- 
 ta, a buckler.) The name of a family of Stomapodous 
 Crustaceans, comprehending those in which the carapace 
 is composed of a single shield-like plate. 
 
 U'NISON. (Lat. unus, one, and sonus, sound.) In Mu- 
 sic, a consonance of two sounds equal in gravity or acute- 
 ness, produced by two bodies of the same matter, length, 
 1384 
 
 UNIVERSAL JOINT. 
 
 thickness, tension, &c, equally struck at the same time, so 
 that they yield the same tune or sound. 
 
 UNIT, UNITY. In Arithmetic, the number one ; an 
 individual of discrete quantity. # Euclid defines number to 
 be a multitude or collection of units. 
 
 UNITA'RIANS. Those who confine the Godhead to a 
 single person ; in which general sense the term may be ta- 
 ken to represent the Arians and Socinians, as well as tho 
 sect which is more strictly denominated Unitarian. These 
 last are the descendants of the religious communities which 
 adopted, in the 16th century, the opinions of Socinus; but 
 in the course of years they have gone considerably further 
 towards reducing Revelation to a mere ethical system. 
 They have been supplied with an abundant stream of con 
 verts from the Presbyterians and Independents in this coun 
 try, many congregations of whom became first Arian, and 
 latterly Unitarian in sentiment. The principal Unitarian 
 authorities are Drs. Priestley, Belsham, and Channing, who 
 have either entirely rejected or neutralized the doctrine of 
 the atonement, and represent the language of the apostles 
 upon this and other mysterious points as either intentional- 
 ly accommodated to the ideas current among their hearers, 
 or derived from erroneous conceptions of their own. The 
 revelation of the New Testament is thus reduced to the 
 assertion of a mere historical fact — that of the existence of 
 the man Jesus as a moral teacher. But with respect to 
 what he taught, great latitude of interpretation is allowed 
 to Unitarians, since it appears that in their view the expo 
 sition of the first disciples is not to be implicitly relied on ; 
 nor do they allow infallibility to the Author of the religion 
 himself. The Unitarians were subjected to severe penal 
 ties, as deniers of the Trinity, long after other dissenters 
 had been relieved by the Act of Toleration: the laws 
 against them were not repealed by statute till the yeai 
 1813. 
 
 In this country they do not constitute a numerous body : 
 the number of their congregations lias been stated at some- 
 thing more than 200; but they are principally composed of 
 persons of the educated classes. In Geneva the pulpits of 
 the established church are mostly occupied by professors of 
 these opinions; and in the northern states of America they 
 form one of the most influential of Christian denomina- 
 tions. 
 
 UNITED BRETHREN. In Ecclesiastical History, a body 
 of reformers in Bohemia, who separated themselves from 
 the Catholics and Calixtines (according to some writers) 
 about 1467. It is also said that they received episcopal or- 
 dination from the Vaudois. According to others (Bossuet, 
 Variations des Eglises Protestant.es, chap, ii.), they were 
 an offshoot from the Taborites or Thaborites (see that arti- 
 cle). At all events, it appears certain that there already 
 existed a considerable body of persons professing the tenets 
 of the Reformation in Bohemia at the period of Luther. 
 
 U NITIES, in the Drama, are three — of time, place, and 
 action. The latter only is strictly adhered to in the dramat- 
 ic compositions of classical antiquity ; but what is termed 
 by moderns the classical drama (in opposition to the roman 
 tic) requires all three. See Drama. 
 
 UNIT JAR. A small insulated Leyden jar placed be- I 
 tween the electrical machine and a larger jar or battery, so 
 as to announce by its repeated discharges, which may be 
 counted, the number of them which have passed into the 
 larger jar. This is among the many valuable additions 
 made to electrical apparatus by Mr. Snow Harris. 
 
 U'NIVALVE. (Lat. unus, one ; valva, a valve.) This 
 term is applied to those Mollusks, the shell of which is 
 composed of one piece, and which is generally convoluted 
 spirally. Latreille also thus denominates a family of Lophy 
 rojiodous Crustaceans. 
 
 UNIVE'RSAL. In Logic. A universal proposition Is 
 that which has the subject distributed, so that the predi 
 cate is declared concerning every thing comprehended in 
 it; e.g., "All men (subject) are mortal (predicate)." In j 
 universal negative propositions the predicate is distributed 
 also ; e. g., " No men are immortal." 
 
 UNIVE'RSALISTS. A name by which the Arminians 
 are sometimes characterized, expressing the universality 
 which they attribute to the operation of grace, conceiving 
 it to be given to all men without favour or reserve. On the 
 other hand, the Calvinists, or those who hold the particu- 
 lar election of individuals, are designated as Particular- 
 ists. 
 
 UNIVERSAL JOINT, or HOOKE'S JOINT. In Ma 
 chinery, an ingenious contrivance of Dr. Hooke for the pur- 
 pose of communicating motion obliquely. It is single of 
 double. In the single universal joint, the two shafts or 
 axles, A and B, between which the motion is to be commu- 
 nicated, terminate in semicircles, the diameters of which 
 are fixed in the form of a cross, their extremities moving 
 freely in bushes placed at the extremities of the semicir- 
 cles. Thus, while the central cross remains unmoved, the 
 shaft A and its semicircular end may revolve round CDm 
 

 UNIVERSITY. 
 
 an axis; and in the same manner B, with 
 its semicircular end, will revolve round 
 E F. 11" the shaft A he made to revolve 
 without changing its direction, the points 
 jCD will move in a circle whose centre is 
 sit the middle of the cross. The motion 
 thus given to the cross will cause the points 
 E F to move in another circle round the 
 litre, and hence the shaft B will be 
 mi d ■ to revolve. (Mechanics, Cabinet Cycl., 
 P. 853.) 
 When the shafts are inclined toeach other 
 under an angle of 40°, it is necessary to employ a double uni- 
 versal joint, as represented in the an- 
 
 ± ^.VrV/J nexed figure, in this maimer the motion 
 
 ^S^£k may be transmitted from one shaft to 
 
 \5j3sw another at right angles. Instead of ciii- 
 
 Wni ploying a cross in the manner now d<-- 
 
 ^JJ scribed, the joints may be Constructed 
 
 with four pins, fnstened at right angles 
 
 upon the circumference of a hoop or 
 
 ball. Universal joints are of great use 
 
 til cotton mills, where the tumbling shafts are continued to 
 
 a great distance from the moving power; for, by applying 
 
 a universal joint, the shafts may be cut into convenient 
 
 lengths, and so be enabled to overcome a greater resi>t- 
 
 (See Gregory's Mechanics, vol. ii., p. 'J; Willis's 
 
 Principles of Mechanism, p. -7-J. ) 
 
 UNIVERSITY. In the middle ages, the Latin term 
 univi-rsitas signified the whole body of students, or of teach- 
 ers and students, assembled in a place of education, with 
 Corporate rights, and under by laws of their own ; in later 
 the name was held to Imply that all branches 
 tdy were taught in a university, in the modern sense 
 of the term, a University Signifies an establishment for the 
 purposes of instruction in all or some of the most important 
 divisions of science and literature, and having the power 
 of conferring certain honorary dignities, termed degrees. It 
 is generally understood that the authorization of the saw- 
 power in the state is necessary to enable such an cs 
 tablishment to confer degrees; and. in most European 
 countries, there are various offices and professional situa- 
 for which a person is qualified by haunt: taken a cer- 
 tain degree at one of these establishments. Hence univer- 
 although in many instances they are composed of 
 private foundations, are justly regarde 1 as national institu- 
 The University of Paris, the most celebrated of 
 of the middle aires, and which served in some degree 
 IJOdel to the rest, was formed about 1900 by tin; union 
 of tie.' various schools of rhetoric, theology, and philosophy, 
 with which that city abounded, under one head, styled trie 
 rector. That university was divided into four nations; — 
 French. I'icard, Norman, and English: the first compre- 
 hended students from Italy and Spain ; the last from the 
 north of Europe generally. The subjects taught were ar- 
 ranged under faculties ; viz., theology, law, medicine, and 
 that of the seven liberal arts — rhetoric, logic, grammar, 
 geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music. (See Trivium, 
 (iiAiiiuvtuM.) These faculties were corporate, and elect- 
 ed each a dean ; and these last, with the procurators of 
 the nations, represented the university. The lowest degree 
 was that of bachelor ; the next licentiate ; the third magis- 
 ter (this degree at Paris corresponded with that of doctor 
 at Bologna). The colleges were royal or private founda- 
 tions for the benefit of poor students, whose board was, in 
 some instances, found for them, and who received stipends 
 or other emoluments. The faculty of theology at Paris 
 was well known by the name of the Sorbonne (q. v.) This 
 slight sketch of the constitution of the famous University 
 of Paris may serve for similar establishments in other Con- 
 tinental countries during the middle ages, and down to a 
 comparatively late period. In England, the two national 
 universities have been established, from a period of consid- 
 erable antiquity, at Oxford and Cambridge. The original 
 union of these universities much resembled that of 
 the Parisian, with the exception of the division into four 
 is, which was wanting. But their subsequent history 
 was much modified by the growth of the colleges, or indi- 
 vidual foundations, into a much higher degree of conse- 
 quence. These were originally destined by their founders 
 merely to entertain a certain number of junior students 
 (generally termed scholars), and a higher body (named in 
 fellows), and furnish them with assistance in 
 the prosecution of their studies; while the great body of 
 independent students lodged in the numerous halls, and at- 
 tended only on the public university lectures. But by de- 
 cree likewise became receptacles for utdepend- 
 r the tuition of the fellows; the halls 
 were for the most part abandoned, and such as remained 
 partook of the collegiate character; and, in the modern 
 in (which has subsisted for more than two centuries), 
 no student is admitted to take a university degree unless he 
 
 UP UP A. 
 
 has completed his studies in a college, or collegiate hall, 
 under the superintendence of its tutors. But the original 
 division into independent and foundation students still sub- 
 sists : although the fellowships in many instances, instead 
 of being tilled up from the junior foundation members in 
 each college, are left open as prizes for the cornp, tition ol 
 the whole university. The degrees, in Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, are differently named, or arrived at in different sue 
 cession, in the several faculties ; but degrees in theology 
 and medicine can only be obtained after the acquisition ol 
 certain degrees in arts. In Spain, the universities are ar 
 ranged OB B system somewhat resembling that which pre 
 vails in England, the students being entered of their re 
 spective college in each. In Germany, as in England, the 
 earliest universities (Prague, founded in 1348, and Vienna. 
 in 1365) were framed on the model of thai 
 many has now a far more numerous list of Universities 
 than any other country. From the Buna (charitable es- 
 tablishments resembling our collegiate foundations (bribe 
 benefit of poor students) was derived the term liursche, by 
 which the students of these universities are so generally 
 known. But the collegiate system never prevailed in that 
 country as among ourselves. On their present arrange- 
 ment (which is pretty similar in all, Catholic as well as 
 Protestant), the four faculties are retained. Proie 
 the various branches are appointed by government. These 
 form the senate, at the head of which is the protector, who 
 is chosen annually or biennially. Besides these, there are 
 extraordinary professors, who receive small salai 
 an inferior class of licensed teachers, or licentiates, who 
 receive none. The professors are obliged to give public 
 lectures in the branch of study to which they are appoint" 
 ed ; but they, as well as the other two classes, may give 
 also private lectures on whatever subject they please ; and 
 from the fees of attendance at these their principal Income 
 is derived. The student is for the most part left at liberty 
 to attend what lectures he pleases; but licences to practise 
 various pp aefices in the various churches, be., 
 
 are only given, especially in Prussia, to those who have 
 studied a certain Dumber of years by attending lectures in 
 the requisite branch of study. The constitution of the 
 Scotch IV is a great resemblance to those of 
 
 Germany; and the same observation is applicable to the 
 two universities established in the metropolis within the 
 last few years — London University and King's College, In 
 France, the old university system may be said to have bcien 
 entirely done away with by the Revoiution. As to the uni- 
 versities of the middle ages, see Savigny, Hist, of lioman 
 Law, vol. iii. For an elaborate defence of the English 
 system, see Quart. Rev., vols. Iii., lix. The history of the 
 great change effected in it by the substitution of collegiate 
 for professorial instruction, has been traced in a series of 
 recent papers in the Edin. Rev. 
 
 UNl'VOCALS, .r SYNONYMS. In the Aristotelian 
 Logic (as used by the schoolmen), generic words; i.e., 
 words of which both the genus and the difference are pre- 
 dicate of many different species: e.g., the genus "ani- 
 mal" is " univocum univocans" with respect to " man" and 
 " brute," both of which are comprehended under any defi- 
 nition which can be given of the word "animal," and are 
 called with reference to it "univoca univocata." Univer- 
 sal terms are also such as have only one signification ; op- 
 posed to equivocal. 
 
 UNMOOR. To take up one of the two anchors by 
 which the ship is moored. 
 
 UPAS TREE (Upas, the Javanese name), is a plant 
 common in the forests of Java and some of the neighbour- 
 ing islands, to which extraordinary stories, for the most 
 part fabulous, have been attached. Upon the authority of 
 Dutch writers, it has been asserted that it is a most deadly 
 poison, employed in the execution of criminals ; who are, 
 however, pardoned if they succeed in reaching a tree and 
 bringing back its venom, ltirds were said to drop dead 
 while flying over it, and the whole country round it was as 
 serted to be desolated by its pestilent effluvia. The truth is, 
 that the Upas tree is merely a tree with poisonous secre 
 tions, and nothing more; there is nothing deleterious in its 
 atmosphere. It is an Urticaceous plant, called Jlntiaris 
 toiicaria, and is very nearly related to the fig, some of 
 whose species are also deadly poisons. 
 
 UPIIERS. In Architecture, fir poles chiefly used in 
 scaffolding ; they run from twenty to forty feet in length, 
 and from four to seven inches in diameter. 
 
 U'LANDS. Lands on bills or steep declivities, which 
 in general require a different kind of management from 
 lands in plains or comparatively flat surfaces. Uplands 
 are generally kept in pasture or underwood. 
 
 U'PUPA. (Lat. tipupa, a hoopoe.) A genus of Tenui- 
 rostral Passerine birds, distinguished by an ornamental 
 head-crest formed of a double range of feathers, which 
 can be erected at will. The common hoopoe Upupaepapt) 
 is an occasional but rare visitant of England. 
 
 1285 
 
URACHUS. 
 
 U'RACHUS. The ligamentous cord which arises from 
 flie base of the urinary bladder, and terminates in the um- 
 bilical cord. 
 
 URA'NIA. In Mythology, the muse of Astronomy. She 
 is generally represented with a crown of stars, in a gar- 
 ment spotted with stars, and holding in her left hand a ce- 
 lestial globe or a lyre. 
 
 URA'NIUM. A metal discovered by Klaproth in 1789, 
 who named it after the planet Uranus, discovered about 
 that time. It occurs only in two native combinations — the 
 pechblende of Saxony, and the uranite ; of the latter, fine 
 specimens have been found in Cornwall. Little is known 
 of the properties of metallic uranium: it appears to be a 
 brittle gray metal, of the specific gravity about 9. From 
 the experiments of Berzelius and Arfwedson we deduce 
 the number 217 for its equivalent ; that of its protoxide be- 
 ing 225, and of its peroxide (sesquioxide) 229. The salts of 
 the oxides of uranium are of a fine grass green or yellow 
 colour: the persalts have been most examined. Ferrocyan- 
 ate of potassa produces in them a very characteristic rich 
 brown precipitate, not unlike that formed by the persalts 
 of copper. They are also precipitated brown by infusion 
 of galls. 
 
 U'RANOSCOPUS. (Gr. ovpavo;, heaven ; okoitc(o, I ex- 
 plore. A genus of fishes was so called by Linno-us, be- 
 cause both eyes were placed on the superior surface of the 
 head, which presents a nearly cubical form. The mouth 
 is cleft vertically at the anterior part of the head, and, like 
 the eyes, is directed upwards. The species of this genus, 
 commonly called "star-gazers," belong to the Percoid fam- 
 ily of Acanthopteiygian fishes in the Ichthyological system 
 of Cuvier. 
 
 U'RANUS. (Gr. ovpavos, heaven. In Mythology, a di- 
 vinity, the first king of the Atlantic nation, and the father 
 of Saturn. 
 
 Uranus. In Astronomy, the remotest known planet be- 
 longing to our solar system. The mean distance of Ura- 
 nus from the sun is 19.18239, that of the earth being consid- 
 ered as unity, whence its real distance is upwards of 1800 
 millions of miles. Its sidareal revolution is performed in 
 about 84 Julian years. The orbit is inclined to the ecliptic 
 in an angle of only 46' 28-44"; and the eccentricity of the 
 orbit is 0-046679, half the major axis being taken as unity. 
 The apparent diameter of Uranus (which, on account of 
 the great magnitude of its orbit in comparison of that of 
 the earth, undergoes very little variation) is about 4' ; 
 whence the real diameter of the planet must be about 
 35,000 miles, or nearly four and a half times that of the 
 earth ; and its bulk about eighty times that of the earth. 
 Uranus presents the appearance of a small round and uni- 
 formly illuminated disk, without rings, belts, or discernible 
 spots. From analogy we infer that it revolves about its 
 axis ; but of this there is no direct proof: the great distance 
 of the planet, indeed, precludes our obtaining much know- 
 ledge of its physical state. Two satellites at least are 
 known to attend Uranus. Sir William Herschel thought 
 he could discern six ; but the existence of more than two 
 has not been clearly made out. In fact, with the exception 
 of the two inferior satellites of Saturn, those of Uranus 
 are the most difficult objects to obtain a sight of in the so- 
 lar system. The two satellites which are in some degree 
 known have this remarkable peculiarity, that, instead of 
 advancing from west to east round the centre of the prima- 
 ry, the planes of their orbits are nearly perpendicular to 
 the eclipWe, and their motion is retrograde. 
 
 Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel, at 
 Bath, on the 13th of March, 1781. It had been previously 
 observed by Flamsteed, Bradley, Mayer, and Lemonnier ; 
 but, owing to the inferiority of their telescopes, not one of 
 these astronomers suspected it to be a planet. Sir W. 
 Herschel called it the Georgium Sidus, in honour of George 
 III. Foreigners for some time called it the Herschel ; and 
 it is now, in some English works, called the Georgian. See 
 Planet. 
 
 URE'A. A peculiar crystallizable substance held in 
 solution in the urine. When dried in vacuo it consists, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Prout, of 
 
 
 Atoms 
 
 Equiv. 
 
 Theory. 
 
 Experiment 
 46~65 
 2007 
 6-65 
 26-63 
 
 Nitrogen .... 
 Carbon .... 
 Hydrogen . . . 
 OT7gen .... 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 12 
 4 
 
 in 
 
 46 67 
 20-00 
 6-67 
 26-66 
 
 
 60 | 100-00 
 
 100-00 
 
 Urea is readily soluble in water, tasteless, inodorous; and 
 when mixed with the other contents of the urine very 
 prone to putrefaction, the principal result of which is car- 
 bonate of ammonia. Urea has been artificially obtained by 
 the action of ammonia on cyanate of lead : oxide of lead 
 is precipitated, and colourless crystals of urea obtained by 
 carefully evaporating the solution. 
 URE'DO. (Lat. uro, / bum.) A genus of microscor/i- 
 1286 
 
 urine. 
 
 cal Fungi, whose presence is known by the burnt appear- 
 ance of the part they infest. They consist of extremel" 
 minute brown spores, which multiply with great rapidity, 
 and appear to injure plants by absorbing their juices. 
 Smut and brand, diseases too well known to the farmer, are 
 caused by their ravages. Steeping corn in lime-water is 
 the best means of repelling their attacks. 
 
 U'RETER. The membranous tube which conveys the 
 urine from the kidney to the urinary bladder. 
 
 U'RE'THRA. The membranous tube or canal by which 
 the urine is voided. 
 
 U'RIA. A genus of web-footed birds, belonging to the 
 short-winged family Brachypteres of Cuvier, and, like the 
 rest of that family, admirable divers. The species of Uria 
 are all marine, and generally known by the name of Guil- 
 lemots." They resort in vast numbers to breed among the 
 rocks of the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and are a source 
 of profit to the adventurous inhabitants. 
 
 URIC ACID. An acid peculiar to the urine of certaip 
 animals ; it is always present in human urine, and in th« 
 excrements of many birds of prey and of serpents, especial 
 ly of the Boa constrictor, which is voided in white nodules, 
 consisting of little else than urate of ammonia. Uric acid 
 also forms one of the commonest varieties of urinary cal 
 culi, and of the red gravel or sand which is voided in cer 
 tain morbid states of the urine. Pure uric acid is obtained 
 in the state of a very insoluble while powder by digesting 
 powdered uric calculus, or the excrement of the boa, in 
 potash, and dropping the solution into weak muriatic acid : 
 the precipitate which falls is to be well washed, and dried 
 at 212°. Its most distinctive chemical character, by which 
 it is at once easily recognised, is, that when moistened with 
 nitric acid and heated it dissolves, and upon evaporation to 
 dryness leaves a red compound, which, upon the addition 
 of a drop or two of a solution of caustic ammonia, becomes 
 of a fine crimson (purpurate of ammonia'). The following 
 is the composition of uric acid: 
 
 | Atoms. 
 
 Equiv. 
 
 Theory. 
 
 Experiment. 
 
 1 Nitrogen .... 2 
 Carbon .... B 
 Hydrogen ... 2 
 Oiygen , . . 3 
 
 28 
 36 
 2 
 24 
 
 81*11 
 
 40-00 
 2-B2 
 
 26-67 
 
 31125 
 39-878 
 2-225 
 26 17" 
 
 , 1 90 
 
 100 00 
 
 It m uoo 
 
 U'RIM. A word connected in its signification with lh» 
 word thummim, being the plural of the Hebrew aur, a light, 
 a luminary; whence it has come to signify fire. Thv.ni 
 mini., which is the plural of thorn or tarn, means fulness ct 
 perfection. See Wilkinson' s Ancient Egyptian*, as to th*; 
 connexion of this word with the title of the Egyptian gorf 
 Thauth, orThoth. 
 
 The two words, conjointly, signify light and perfection 
 but the Septuagint render it literally e^uim; xai iiXtjOenj, 
 manifestation and truth. The urim and thummim wers 
 the precious stones on the high priest's breastplate, which 
 made known the will of God by casting an extraordinarj 
 lustre, and thereby manifested the success of events tn 
 those who cohsulted them. 
 
 The high priest alone could officiate at this solemn cere 
 mony ; and the urim was to be consulted only at the in 
 stance of public persons, such as the king, the president oi 
 the sanhedrim, and the general of the Israelitish army ; 
 and only on such public matters as related to the common 
 interest of the twelve tribes. 
 
 The manner in which the high priest consulted the urim 
 was as follows: Having entered into the sanctuary or holy 
 place, being fully invested with his robes and breastplate, 
 and with his face turned towards the ark of the covenant, 
 upon which the divine presence reposed, he brought the 
 matter to be consulted ; the person for whom he consulted 
 standing behind him, and in humility and reverence await 
 ing the answer. The high priest then fixed his eyes on 
 the pectoral, and those letters which formed the answei 
 shone with more than ordinary lustre, and were signifi- 
 cantly raised out of their places. So when David inquired 
 of God, by means of the urim, whether he should go up tc 
 one of the cities of Judah, three letters came out of their 
 places as it were, and gave the answer. 
 
 While the Hebrews were under a theocracy, or immedi- 
 ately governed by Jehovah, it was necessary there should 
 always be means at hand to consult him; but when this 
 theocracy ceased, and the kingdom became hereditary in 
 the person and family of Solomon, and Israel became di- • 
 video into two monarchies, under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, 
 the consulting of the urim and thummim appears to have 
 ceased. 
 
 URINE. (Gr. oaoveiv, to rush out.) The fluid secreted 
 by the kidneys, whence it passes by the ureters into the 
 bladder. The variable appearance of the urine announces, 
 even to the casual observer, corresponding fluctuations in 
 its composition ; these have long been studied by physician 
 and medical chemists, as furnishing useful prognostics ii 
 
URINE. 
 
 disease. The chemical analysis, however, of the urine is 
 attended l>y many difficulties, chiefly arising out of the 
 grea/ number of different substances which are found Id it, 
 
 the variations in quantity and quality to which they are li- 
 able, and the facility with which they are modified by the 
 analytical reagents which it is necessary to employ. The 
 ■nbttancei always found in healthy urine are, water; car 
 bonic acid ; phosphoric acid, or superphosphate of lime ; 
 uric acid, or superurate of ammonia; phosphates of lime, 
 soda, magnesia, and ammonia ; sulphate of soda; chloride 
 Hum (common saltj ; urea, albumen, and mucus; 
 colouring and odorous matter. To these may probably be 
 added fluoric, benzoic, and lactic or acetic acidri ; gelatine, 
 acetate of ammonia ; sulphate of potas>a ; fluoride of cal- 
 3i\im ; muriate of ammonia ; sulphur; silica, in certain 
 diseases other products make their appearance, which are 
 not discoverable in healthy urine; such as oxalic acid, or 
 oxalate of lime; nitric acid; stig ir ; carbonate of lime; 
 
 anomalous organic 
 compounds, the nature of which has not been very saii.-fnc- 
 torily ascertained. 
 
 It is almost impossible, in consequence of the clrcum- 
 stanee* above mentioned, to give a correct notion of the 
 relative pro|Kirtions of the component pans of healthy 
 urine; but the following statement, from Herzelius, will 
 
 (imposition of this 
 complicated fluid : 
 
 Water 93300 
 
 i 3010 
 
 , bates of potash and soda .... G'87 
 Phosphate or soda and of ammonia . . . 4 - 59 
 
 Chloride of sodium 44.3 
 
 Muriate of ammonia 1-50 
 
 Free lactic, acid (acetic?) 1 
 
 Lactate of ammonia > .... 17-14 
 Animal matter j 
 Earthy phosphate and a trace of fluoride of cal- 
 cium . . 100 
 
 Uric acid 100 
 
 Mucus and albumen 0-32 
 
 lea 0-03 
 
 100000 
 When the urine is in a healthy state, there are many 
 
 circumstances of mind and body which materially influ- 
 ence its appearance and quantity. It is often Littli 
 (Han water, as after very copious draught! of diluting and 
 diuretic liquids; at other times it is saturated with its solid 
 contents, and even deposits part of them as it cools. If 
 turbid at the lime it is voided, it may always be considered 
 M 'n a m irliid state, Sometimes it contains foreign matters 
 which have been taken as medicine or food. The peculiar 
 odour imparled to it by asparagus, the colour by spinach, 
 rhubarb, &c, and the passage of certain saline substances 
 by the kidneys, are familiar cases of these modifications to 
 which the urine is subject. The daily average voided un- 
 der ordinary circumstances, by healthy individuals, is not 
 less than 30 nor more than 40 ounces ; and its specific grav- 
 ity should not exceed 1030; though in some cases of dis- 
 
 diabetes, and occasionally in some disc: 
 the liver and of the kidneys (as in cases of albuminous 
 urine described by Dr. Bright) it rises to 1040, The Usual 
 average is 1030. It always reddens the vegetable blues 
 which indicate free acid. In cases of suppressed perspira- 
 tion its quantity is usually increased; and in hot weather, 
 and when the perspiration is copious, it is diminished, for 
 it is one of the great outlets of mere water from the system. 
 We may also observe, that a large quantity of nitrogen is 
 thrown off by the same channel, for that clement consti- 
 tutes 20 per cent, of urea. 
 
 Urinary Calculi. — When the uric acid of the urine, 
 which we have already stated to he one of its most insolu- 
 ble contents, is secreted in any extraordinary proportion, it 
 is passed in a solid state, generally in minute, red crystals, 
 or red sand ; and these not unfrequently agglutinate, so as 
 to form small calculi from the size of a phi's head upwards. 
 These, passing with more or less pain from the kidney 
 along the ureter into the bladder, produce what is termed a 
 fit of gravel; and if one or more of them remain in the 
 bladder, it then increases in size, and becoming too large to 
 be passed with the urine, gives rise to symptoms of stone in 
 Vie bladder The increase of this nucleus will be more or 
 less rapid according to the state of the urine; but if the In- 
 ordinate formation of uric acid continues, that substance 
 will frequently be deposited upon it in successive layers, 
 and il will sometimes thus attain a considerable size, and 
 consist almost entirely of uric acid. But if the uric attack 
 in the kidney is transient, the small uric calculus in the 
 bladder usually becomes encrusted with a while deposit, 
 composed of ammonfcmagnttian phosphate, perhaps with 
 more or less phe phate of lime, ibis mixture forming what 
 iias been termed the fusible calculus ; and this gives rise 
 
 UROPTERANS. 
 
 to a second and frequent species of urinary calculus, name 
 ly, that in which a uric nucleus is enveloped in the phos- 
 phates. The natural tendency of the urine is to deposit 
 
 the above-mentioned difficultly soluble phosphates upon 
 any extraneous matter or nucleus which may chance to be 
 in the bladder; but the rapidity with which it is deposited 
 is very different in different individuals, and accordingly 
 the increase in size of such a calculus is sometin 
 slow, and sometimes extremely rapid ; and as the violence 
 of the symptoms generally depends (but not always) upon 
 the size of the concretion, they will be subject to great 
 consequent irregularity. It does occasionally happen that 
 calculi are formed in the bladder independent of any mor- 
 bid state of the urine I Half, or of any uric nucleus sent 
 down from the kidneys; but these cases are rare, and ap- 
 pear to dejiend upon the accumulation of sand and mucus 
 in certain disordered states of the bladder, which is gradu- 
 ally indurated into a nucleus, and which then goes ou to 
 m the phosphates; so that, on cutting such a 
 calculus through the centre, we do Dot, as in the majority 
 • i uric nucleus, hut the whole concretion 
 is white and more or less crystalline, and usiialh 
 of little else than nmmonio in ignesian phosphate, This 
 outline of the formation of calculi Includes by far the 
 greater number of cases ; but it occasionally happens that 
 not only the nucleus, but the bulk of the stone, is made up 
 of oxalate of lime, a substance which we have al>ove allu 
 ded to as not belonging to healthy urine. When these cal 
 cull come direct from the kidney, tl _;ray and 
 
 smooth, and look almost like a hempseed ; or, n 
 carefully examined, are found to be a congeries of little, 
 rounded particles; but when they have increased in the 
 bladder, they are then generally rough and dark brown on 
 the exterior, whence they have acquired the name ot 
 initlhimj calculi. Another, and more rare substance, 
 which forms gravel und calculi, is the cystic ozidc ; and in 
 some very ran UIM small concretions of carbonate of lime 
 have been voided, most probably originating in the prostate 
 gland. Lastly, minute grains of silica are said to have 
 been detected in the urine, and this substance has also 
 been found in calculi ; but it is rare, and in small quantity. 
 In concluding this sketch of the liistory of the urine and 
 urinary calculi, we cannot too strongly insist upon the im- 
 portance of attending to tin' early symptom - 
 and to its first announcement, which generally consists in 
 habitual turbidness and deposits in the urine. All persona 
 are subject to occasional appearances id" this kind; but 
 when they aro constant, they ought to be considered as 
 alarming indications of farther mischief. These, in their 
 early stages, are almost always curable, either by diet. 
 medicine, or both ; but when once a stone has formed in 
 the kidney or bladder, all hope of its removal, except by an 
 operation (and even that not admissible in the case of kid- 
 ney calculi), is vain, nothing having been yet discovered tC 
 which the term solvent is properly applicable. The re 
 moval of the stone from the bladder is effected by opera- 
 tion in two ways : either by an incision into the bladder, 
 and the removal of the stone by a forceps — this constitutes 
 lithotomxj : or by lithotntij, in which certain instruments 
 are introduced by the urethra, so as to grasp the stone, and 
 enable the operator to reduce it to fragments surficiently 
 small to allow of being voided by the usual passage. 
 
 URN, in Mosses, is the hollow urn in which the spores 
 or false seeds are lodged. 
 
 URN, CINERARY or SEPULCHRAL. (Lat. uro, / 
 burn.) A species of vase used among the nnsknts to re- 
 ceive and preserve the ashes of the dead. The form of 
 the urn was derived by the Romans from Greece ; but the 
 Greeks did not employ their urns for sepulchral purposes 
 Among the Romans the.-e vessels were especially conse- 
 crated to retaining the ashes of the dead. Similar vessels 
 were used by the ancient Teutonic and Slavonic tribes, 
 who likewise burned their dead. Sir T. Brown's celebra- 
 ted work, lliidriolaphia, or Urn Burial, contains a strange 
 collection oflearned fragments and philosophical reflections 
 on this subject. Numerous descriptions of cinerary urns, 
 both Roman and British, discovered at different periods in 
 this country, will be found in the Jlrcliaologia, 
 
 UROCE'RATA. (Gr. ovga, a tail, and Kipac, a horn.) 
 The name of a tribe of the Terebrantia, or boring Hymenop- 
 terous insects, in which the tercbra or borex of the females 
 is sometimes very long and prominent, and composed of 
 three filamentary processes, sometimes capillary, and coil- 
 ed in a spiral form in the interior of the abdomen. 
 
 U'RODELES, Urodelm. (Gr. ovpu, and InXoc, manifest.) 
 The name of that tribe of Caducibranchiate Batrachian 
 reptiles which preserve the tail through all the stages of 
 their existence. 
 
 URO'PTERAN'S, Uroptera. (Gr. ovpa, and irrcpov, a 
 wing-.) The name of a family of Amphipodous Crustace- 
 ansrincluding those in which the tail is terminated by en 
 larged appendages in the shape of fins. 
 
UROPYGIUM. 
 
 UROPY'GIUM. (Gr. ovpa, a tail, and 7:11/17, behind.) 
 The base of the tail in mammals and birds. 
 
 URO'SCOPY. The judgment of diseases founded upon 
 an inspection of the urine. 
 
 U'RSA MA'JOR. The Great Bear ; one of the forty- 
 eight constellations of Ptolemy, in the northern hemisphere, 
 and near the pole. It is often alluded to in the most an- 
 cient histories, sacred and profane, under the various de- 
 nominations of Arctos, Bootes, Helix, Callisto, Megisto, 
 the Wagon, the Plough. It contains seven very con- 
 spicuous stars, called septemtrioncs : whence septemtrio, 
 the north. 
 
 URSA MINOR. The Lesser Bear; also one of the 
 forty-eight constellations of Ptolemy. It was called by the 
 Greeks Cyr>osura ; that is, the Dog's Tail. The pole star 
 is in this constellation. 
 
 U'RSULINES. In Ecclesiastical History, an order of 
 nuns, of which the origin is ascribed to Angela di Brescia, 
 about 1537 ; but which derived its name from St. Ursula 
 (a lady of the family of Benincasa at Naples). The Ursu- 
 lines were bound to perform charitable offices to the sick, 
 poor, and penitent. They were erected into an order by 
 Gregory XIII., in 1577, at the solicitation of St. Charles 
 Borromeo. They take, in addition to the three ordinary 
 vows, a fourth — to devote themselves to education. (See 
 Waddington, History of the Church, p. 401.) 
 
 O'RSUS. (Lut. ursus, a bear.) A genus of Pantigrade 
 Oarnivora in the system of Cuvier, restricted to those spe- 
 cies which have three large tuberculate molars on each 
 side of botli jaws, the anterior lower and the posterior up- 
 per one being the largest. They are preceded by a tooth a 
 little more trenchant, representing the carnassial tooth, and 
 by a variable number of small premolars. In accordance 
 with this dentition, the bears are omnivorous or frugivor- 
 ous. They are heavy, stout-bodied animals, with thick 
 limbs, and a very short tail : the cartilage of the nose is 
 moveable, and sometimes very long, as in the labiated 
 bear, commonly called the ursine sloth. The bears of the 
 northern regions pass the winter in a state of somnolency 
 in dens or other hiding places,' and it is in these retreats 
 that the female brings forth her young. The species best 
 known are the common brown bear ( Vrsus arctos), the 
 black bear (Ursus Jimericanus), the grisly bear (Ursus 
 ferox), the polar bear (Ursus maritimus), the Ursus labia 
 tus, Ursus Thibetanus, Ursus Malayanus, and Ursus Syri- 
 acus. 
 
 URTICA'CE^E (Lat. urtica, the nettle), form a very 
 large and natural order of plants, with apctalous flowers, a 
 lenticular, simple fruit, and a seed whose embryo always 
 directs its radicle towards the top of the cavity. The 
 stinging properties of the common nettle are participated in 
 by inai.y others whose acridity is intense. Others are 
 provid* I with a poisonous juice, which in its most concen- 
 trated form gives the upas tree of Java its formidable quali- 
 ties. A narcotic principle is highly developed in hemp, 
 and the toughness of the fibre of that plant occurs in many 
 others of the order. Nevertheless the fig, the bread-fruit, 
 the mulberry, and hops, in which nothing deleterious is 
 remarked, are the produce of some species ; and even the 
 milk tree of the Caraccas, whose bland juice feeds the 
 natives of the country, is an Urticaceous plant. Many 
 species furnish caoutchouc, which, in Ficus elastica, is of 
 the finest quality. 
 
 URTICARIA. See Nettle Rash. 
 
 U'SANCE. In Commercial Law. A foreign bill is often 
 drawn at one, two, or more " usances," meaning thereby 
 certain periods of time which it is the usage of the coun- 
 tries between which the bills are drawn to allow for pay- 
 ment thereof. Thus, the " usance" between London and 
 Paris is one calendar month; a bill drawn here "at one 
 usance," on the 2d January, is payable there on the 5th 
 February, allowing three days of grace. 
 
 USE, in its original sense, signified the equitable right 
 one had to take the rents and profits of land whereof the 
 legal ownership was in another. It was very nearly the 
 same as the trust of the present day, and created in the fol- 
 lowing manner: The owner of land conveyed it by feoff- 
 ment to some friend, on the understanding that the feoffee 
 should hold it for the sole use and benefit of the feoffor, or 
 su:h persons as he might nominate. In this wav the seisin 
 or legal property of the land became vested in 'the feoffee 
 to uses as trustee ; while the feoffor, or other person nom- 
 inated by him, who was called the cestui que use, had the 
 substantial use and enjoyment of it. The simplicity of the 
 common law, however, recognised but one person in con- 
 nexion with the soil, namely, its real owner, and repudia- 
 ted the idea of any use as separated from the seisin ; so 
 that if the trustee, abusing the confidence placed in him, 
 refused to let cestui que use take the rents and profits, 
 there was no redress for the grievance. But the Court of 
 Chancery, as a court of equity, considered the agreement 
 entered into by the trustee as binding on his conscience ; 
 
 USE. 
 
 and after calling on him by writ of subpoena to appear and 
 make a disclosure on oath of the particulars of his trust, 
 compelled him to perform it. 
 
 The system of uses was transplanted from the civil law, 
 and introduced into this country about the time of Edward 
 III. by the ecclesiastics, who procured conveyances to be 
 made, not directly to themselves, but to lay persons as 
 trustees for them, in order to evade the statutes of mort- 
 main. Once known, it was generally adopted ; and though 
 crushed in its infancy, so far as regarded religious houses 
 continued to flourish without disturbance in other respects, 
 and was found admirably adapted to the wants and con- 
 venience of the people at large in softening the rigours of 
 feudal tenure, and facilitating the alienation and settlement 
 of property. The laws and policy of feudal tenure required 
 the vassal to render certain fruits and services to his lord ; 
 and if these were not duly rendered, or any act were done 
 in derogation of the lord's title, the estate was forfeited. 
 The tenancy of the freehold could not be interrupted or 
 suspended for an instant ; and to every transfer of it, actual 
 and public delivery of possession, in the presence of wit- 
 nesses, and accompanied by much solemn ceremonial, was 
 absolutely indispensable ; so that the lord might always 
 have some person to perform the services due to hiin, and 
 always know with certainty who that person was. The 
 lord was entitled to sell his ward in marriage, to take the 
 profits of the land during the wardship, and on the descent 
 or alienation of the land heavy fines were payable to him. 
 The tenant hud no power of directing the destination of the 
 land by will; such a mode of disposition would at once 
 have been wanting in notoriety, and have deprived the lord 
 of his fruits upon a descent. 
 
 When, however, the equitable interest in land, as dis- 
 tinguished from the legal property in it, became recognised 
 and enforced in the Court of Chancery, the principal hard- 
 ships of tenure were easily avoided. A conveyed land to 
 B to A's own use; the terms upon which B took the land 
 were said, in equity, to affect his conscience, and to impose 
 upon him a moral obligation to fulfil them honestly. But 
 it was in equity only that A had any claim : there he might 
 call upon B to allow him to take the profits of the land, and 
 to make such conveyances of it as he might from time to 
 time direct. At law A had no control over or connexion 
 with the land any longer remaining to him. His use, there- 
 fore, altogether evaded the grasp of tenure, which rested 
 entirely upon the common law. It was held of no one : it 
 was the creature of his own declaration, operating upon 
 the conscience of the person in whom he confided. It 
 might be transferred at anytime without any public solem- 
 nities by n secret deel iration. At law A could not carve 
 out for himself a portion of the whole fee, and limit the 
 residue of it to others, without first of all going through all 
 the formalities of a conveyance to B, and then taking back 
 a reconveyance, with the same formalities, of that portion 
 of the fee which he might wish to retain to himself. Hus- 
 band and wife being one person in law, he could not carve 
 out a portion for her without conveying to B. in order that 
 B might afterwards convey to her. He could not convey 
 the fee, or any portion of it, to B ; so that it should, on the 
 happening of any named event, or the expiration of any 
 named period, shift either wholly or in part from him to 
 any other person. He could not even convey to B at all 
 without giving him immediate possession: a conveyance 
 to him in futuro, as from Christmas next, would have been 
 altogether void. He might, however, resorting to equity, 
 and making a declaration of the uses to which he wished 
 his property to be npplied, effect all these and innumerable 
 other arrangements by a single stroke of the pen, or a mere 
 breath. The use, emancipated from the common law, had 
 such a suppleness and pliability as almost to accommodate 
 itself to his very whims. He might dispose of it by will, or 
 it would descend to his heirs in the course of the common 
 law ; but no fine was payable upon its descent. It was not 
 liable either to dower or to curtesy ; it was not extendible 
 for debts, nor forfeited for treason. Lord Bacon according 
 ly complains, that it " deceived many of their just and rea- 
 sonable rights. A man that had cause to sue for land knew 
 not against whom to bring his action, or who was the 
 owner of it. The wife was defrauded of her thirds ; the 
 husband of his curtesy; the lord of his wardship, relief. 
 heriot, and escheat ; the creditor of his extent for debt ; ;i ml 
 the poor tenant of his lease." To remedy these and other 
 inconveniences, the statute 27 Henry 8, c. 10 was passed, 
 usually called the Statute of Uses ; which enacts, thai when 
 any person shall be seised of lands to the use. confidence, 
 or trust of any person, he shall thenceforth he seised and 
 possessed of the land of and in the like estate as he had in 
 the use, trust, or confidence. 
 
 The statute thus executed the use, as it is called, by 
 transferring it into possession, and doing away with the dis- 
 tinction between the beneficial interest and h gal property 
 in land. Whoever had the use had now also the legal 
 
USHER. 
 
 estate. Thus the use was not abolished, according to the 
 
 probable intention of the legislature, but merely annexed to 
 
 ifil with the legal estate; to which, therefore, 
 
 it now superadded all the convenient ductility of its own 
 
 nature. It had no longer a merely precarious existence in 
 
 equity, but a linn locus standi in courts of law. It was 
 
 indeed, of many of its old privileges, such as excmp- 
 
 om dower, curtesy, and forfeiture; but for this loss 
 
 was soon contrived a remedy. The judges, in their 
 
 Barrow construction of the statute, decided that itsprovi- 
 
 • lnl not extend to a use limited upon a use, as their 
 phrase wis. Accordingly, on a feoffment to A and his heirs, 
 to ttit- use of />' and bis heirs, to (lie use of (or in trust for) 
 C and his heirs ; they held that the statute clothed the first 
 
 ill (In- legal ownership, and that the second was a 
 nullity, lint as it was quite clear that C, and not B, was 
 ~on Intended to enjoy the estate, this verbal pedantry 
 of the common law judges drove C into the Court of Chan- 
 cery lor relief, where he was immediately received as the 
 intial cestui que use; and the use which the statute 
 had been in law held not to execute was considered a valid 
 (nut in equity*. Thus by limiting two uses suf.cwrt.vely 
 I of one only as before the statute — by making, in 
 fact, the i ii.viy.iiice only three words longer than had 
 ustomary, the equitable interest and the legal estate 
 disunited, and the use under its new name of 
 trust was as popular and available as ever. In this man- 
 ner the destructive qualities of the statute are virtually re- 
 pealed, while its creative qualities are to this day in full 
 operation : and the legislature, instead of paralyzing the use, 
 has only given new form and flexibility to the legal estate, 
 re of various kinds. 
 An executed use is one to which the statute applies by 
 annexing to it the legal ownership. That to which the 
 Statute does not apply is called, as has been already rnen- 
 trust. 
 
 or shifting use is one which takes effect in 
 deroL' < lion of a use previously limited, as in a conveyance 
 
 • the us'- of B ; and if C shall return from Rome or 
 pay /; a cert tin sum of money, then to the use of C. 
 
 Springing ass is one limited to arise on a future event, 
 Where no preceding use is limited. 
 
 Future or contingent use is one limited to a person not 
 ascertained, or upon an uncertain event, but without dero- 
 gation of an use previously limited, as to A for life, and af- 
 terwards to his unborn son. 
 
 ulting use. When the use limited expires or cannot 
 I, either after such expiration or during such 
 impossibility, to result back to the grantor; as on a con- 
 veyance by A to the use of his intended wife for life, thin 
 lo net eldest son in tail: here, until the marriage, the use 
 results back to A • or results to him in fee in the event of 
 his n il'i' dying without issue. 
 
 U'SHER. (Probably from the Fr. huissier.) An officer 
 who has the care of the door of a court or hall, &c. In the 
 court of England, he is an officer of considerable rank, 
 whose business it is to introduce foreign ambassadors or 
 other high strangers to the sovereign. 
 
 U8Q.UEBAUGH. A strong compound liquor, made in 
 greatest perfection at Drogheda in Ireland. Brandy or other 
 spirits, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and various other spices 
 are iis Ingredients. 
 
 USTRI'NUM, or USTRl'NA. (Lat. uro, I burn.) In 
 Roman Antiquities, a public burning-place, enclosed by 
 wails, in which bodies, mostly of the poorer sort of people, 
 were consumed. An ustrinum, according to Montfaucon, 
 was square, and in compass about 300 feet. In the Ar- 
 ch&oloiria (vol. xxvi.) will be found a detailed account of 
 the site of one recently discovered in Cambridgeshire, 
 which appears to have been of rather large dimensions. 
 
 I rSTULATION. (Lat.) A term of old Pharmacy, im- 
 plying the gradual desiccation and torrefaction of sub- 
 
 I'PTION. In Civil Law, the acquisition of prop- 
 erty in anything by possession and enjoyment for a certain 
 term of years ; commonly considered as synonymous with 
 prescription, although some have restrained the use of the 
 former term to moveables only. 
 
 I "SI IK I CT, in the Civil Law, is defined to be the right 
 of enjoying indefinitely something belonging to another 
 without diminishing its substance. Usufruct differs from 
 use ; because he who has the use of a thing can only enjoy 
 it personally, whereas the right of him who has the usu- 
 fruct is alienable, and may lie granted, sold, or hired to an- 
 other. Usufruct may be constituted in four ways ; by con- 
 by will, by judgment of a court (as where the judge, 
 In effecting a division of common property, may, under cer- 
 tain circumstances, instead of dividing the inheritance, allot 
 the iisiifrucl to one, and the thing to another), and by opera- 
 tion nf law. Usufruct is, properly speakine, confined to 
 things real, anil to incorporeal rights (whether they would 
 be termed real or personal, according lo the division of our 
 
 UVA URSI. 
 
 law), such as debts; but a sort of usufruct (quasi usufruct) 
 may exist in things liable to be consumed by use. The di- 
 vision between the fruit (whicli belongs to the usufructua- 
 ry), and the thing itself (which belongs to the proprietor), 
 affords r a for a great variety of legal distinctions. Usu- 
 fruct may he extinguished in several ways: by the death, 
 natural or civil, of the usufructuary; by loss : by prescrip- 
 tion, the right being extinguished if disused for a certain 
 period: by forfeiture, where the usufructuary abuses his 
 right; by expiration of time, if the usufruct have been 
 {□ranted for a term ; and by the union of the usufruct with 
 the property in the same hands. 
 
 I 8URY. The taking of interest for money: from the 
 Lalin word usura. The Jews were forbidden by the law 
 of Mosei to exact interest from one another. By the old 
 Roman law of the twelve tables, the rate of interest allow 
 ed as legitimate was the usura centesima, which was strict- 
 ly one per cent, a month ; and has been supposed by some 
 U) have amounted to twelve, by others to ten ]>er cent, in 
 the year. Interest was also computed in the following 
 manner: Usura unriaria, being the lowest term, one 
 cent., or one twelfth of the usura centesima : usura semis, 
 half the centesima (six per cent.) : he-, quadrans, 
 quincunx, ate., two third parts, a quarter, a tifih of the cen- 
 tesima (eight, three, two per cent.). The Roman laws 
 against excessive usury were frequently renewed, and con- 
 stantly evaded' but the same principle, additionally sanc- 
 tioned by mistaken religious opinions, pervaded the laws 
 of all countries in which the civil jurisprudence prevailed. 
 The amount of legal interest has been fixed by various 
 statutes in England. In the reign of Henry VIII. ten per 
 cent, was allowed; by -Jl J. 1, 8 per cent.: by 18 C. "J. li per 
 cent.; by 12 Ann., 5 per cent. All contracts made for the 
 payment of any principal to be lent on usury above this 
 rate were utterly void. The question of usury, i. e., w both- 
 er a contract is bond fide, or a colour for a usurious loan, 
 
 was determined by the verdict of a jury. Hut the usury 
 laws have been relaxed by several recenl statutes. By the 
 last, 2 & 3 Vict., c. 37, bills of exchange not having more 
 than 1 -J months to run, and contracts for loans or forbear- 
 ance of money above X10, are no longer affect) by those 
 laws. But 5 per cent, remains the legal interest recover- 
 able on all contracts, unless otherwise specified. 
 
 IT. In Music, the name of the first of the urn 
 tables. The Italians, for the - Ing the sound, 
 
 use the syllable Do instead of Ut in the modern s< 
 
 UTERINE. (Lat. uterus, belly.) In the Civil Law, an 
 Uterine brother or sister is one issneii from the same mother 
 
 I'TILITA'RIANS. A name which has been given to a 
 particular sect of modern politicians; those, namely, who 
 profess to try the excellence of modes of government and 
 ■imply by their utility. The celebrated Jeremy 
 Bentham, regarded as the founder of this sect, introduced 
 into the critical department of politics a closer logic than 
 had been commonly applied to it; and aimed at applying 
 his famous principle, " the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number," as an immediate test by which to affirm or deny 
 the value of institutions. It is evident that all poliucal 
 sects, both of writers and statesmen, profess ultimately the 
 same object. The real characteristic of the Utilitarians 
 consists in the peculiar sense in which they understand it.' 
 They confine for the most part the proposed utility, so as 
 to restrict it to that which is useful for the material and 
 economical well-being of the multitude. Their tenets have 
 been attacked in two celebrated articles in the F.din. Re- 
 view (vols. 49 and 50) : Mill's Essay on Government, and 
 Austin on Jurisprudence, may be referred to as containing 
 the most intelligible summaries of them. 
 
 UTI POSSIDETIS. In Politics, a treaty which leaves 
 belligerent parties mutually in possession of what they have 
 acquired by their arms during the war is said to be based on 
 the principle of uti possidetis — "as you possess." 
 
 UTO'PIA. A term invented by Sir T. More (from Gr. 
 ovTOKos, no place), and applied in his celebrated work call- 
 ed Utopia to an imaginary island, which he represents to 
 have been discovered by a companion of Amerigo Vespucci, 
 and as enjoying the utmost perfection in laws, politics, &c, 
 in contradistinction to the defects of those which then ex- 
 isted. The work was first printed in 1516, but Froben's 
 edition, of 1518, is more correct. The word Utopia has now 
 passed into all the languages of Europe to signify a state 
 of ideal perfection ; and Utopian is used synonymously with 
 fanciful or chimerical. 
 
 UTRI'CULUS. (Lnt. utcr, a gladder.) A term in Bota- 
 ny applied to a one-celled one or few-seeded, superior mem- 
 branous fruit, frequently dehiscing by a transverse suture, 
 as in Chenopodium. it is also used to indicate a fruit with 
 a thin skin and a single seed. Sometimes this word Is em- 
 ployed to express a separate cell of the cellular tissue of a 
 plant, which is usually a little vegetable bladder. 
 
 ITVA URSI. The Arbutus uva ur-t, bear's berry, or 
 whortleberry. The leaves of this r/n<«Ji .V/ui-b have a hlph 
 
 1289 
 
UVULA. 
 
 Iy astringent and sweetish taste ; their decoction or infusion 
 is occasionally used in medicine, especially in certain dis- 
 orders of the kidney and bladder. 
 
 V VULA. (Lat. dim. of uva, a grape.) A small fleshy 
 protuberance attached to the soft palate, and hanging over 
 the tongue. It consists of tne common integuments of the 
 mouth, and a small vermicular muscle by the contraction 
 of which the uvula is elevated. In some cases of enlarged 
 or relaxed uvula which will not yield to local or other 
 remedies, it becomes necessary to amputate a part of it, in 
 consequence of the impediment to deglutition which then 
 ensues, and the tickling cough and retching which it in- 
 duces. 
 
 VACCINA'CE^E. (Vaccinium, one of the genera.) A 
 natural order of shrubby Exogens, chiefly inhabiting North 
 America. Formerly combined with the Ericaceous order, 
 from which they differ in their inferior ovary and succu- 
 lent fruit. The berries of many are eaten, under the names 
 of cranberry, bilberry, whortleberry, &c. ; and some of the 
 species are cultivated as objects of ornament. 
 
 VACCINATION. See Cow Pox. 
 
 VACU'NA, or VACI'NA. The ancient Italian goddess 
 of leisure, to whom the husbandmen sacrificed at the close 
 of harvest, or "harvest-home;" to which rustic festival 
 Horace alludes in the words " fanum putre vacunse." (See 
 also Ob. Fasti, vi.) 
 
 VA'CUUM (Lat. vacuus, empty), in Physics, is a portion 
 of space void of matter. The possibility of the existence 
 of a perfect vacuum has been a favourite subject of dispute 
 with the schoolmen and metaphysicians. Its existence 
 was maintained by the Pythagoreans, Epicureans, and 
 Atomists ; and denied by the Peripatetics, who ascribed 
 the rise of water in a sucking-pump, and some other phe- 
 nomena of the same kind produced by atmospheric pres- 
 sure, to nature's abhorrence of a vacuum. Descartes made 
 the essence of matter to consist in extension, and there- 
 fore denied the possibility of a vacuum ; for if extension 
 be the essence of matter, wherever extension is, there mat- 
 ter must be. Those, again, who suppose all material bod- 
 ies to be formed of the agglomeration of elementary par- 
 ticles, are compelled, by fid plunomeaa of motion, to ad- 
 mit at least the existence of what was called by the school- 
 men a vacuum intcrspersum, or of intervals devoid of all 
 matter among the interstices or pores of bodies ; for if there 
 were no interstices, all space would be full of matter, in 
 which case no body could be moved out of its place, inas- 
 much as there would be no unoccupied place into which it 
 could move. For the arguments on this subject, see JVcw- 
 fon's Optics. 
 
 The most perfect vacuum that can be produced artificial- 
 ly is the torriccllian vacuum, or the space above the mer- 
 cury in the barometric tube. But in this sense vacuum 
 merely signifies the exclusion of atmospheric air ; for this 
 space in the barometer may be filled with the vapour of 
 mercury, or with some other medium infinitely more rare 
 than air, and inappreciable to our senses. It is obvious, 
 from the nature of the pneumatic machine, that the vacuum 
 produced by an air-pump, or the Boylean vacuum, as it has 
 been called, can never be perfect, as some air must always 
 remain in the receiver, however long the exhausting pro- 
 cess may be continued. 
 
 The question of the abstract existence of a vacuum is not 
 worth discussing ; but there is another question of great in- 
 terest with reference to physical astronomy connecied with 
 the subject — namely, whether the spaces in which the 
 planets move are so far void of matter as to offer no resist- 
 ance to their motions, or are occupied by a medium of suf- 
 ficient density to impede their motions in the long run in a 
 sensible degree. Recent observations appear to give some 
 countenance to the supposition that this is actually the case. 
 It lias been observed that after the most careful allowance 
 has been made for the attractions of the planets, and all 
 other known causes of disturbance, on Encke's comet, the 
 successive returns of that body to its perihelion are accom- 
 plished in periods which are constantly diminishing. (See 
 Comet.) Now this is precisely the effect that would be 
 produced if the body moved in a medium which offered a 
 smal' resistance to its motion; and as this is the only ob- 
 vious mode of explaining the phenomenon, it has been gen- 
 erally adopted. Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to 
 reconcile the supposition of an existing medium with the 
 astronomical fact, that during the last two thousand years 
 of observation, it has produced no effect on the motions of 
 the large planets capable of being appreciated by the most 
 delicate instruments. This fact, however, though it proves 
 the extreme feebleness of the resistance, does not furnish 
 an absolute proof that such a medium may not exist, and 
 that its effects may not ultimately become sensible even 
 on the densest planets. If it does exist, the consequence 
 seems inevitable that all the planets and satellites, as well 
 as the comets, must be ultimately precipitated into the sun. 
 Another argument against the existence of a vacuum is 
 1890 
 
 VALENTINE. 
 
 furnished by the undulatory theory of light. I "this hypoth 
 esis be true, and it is rendered probable by numerous phe 
 nomena, a medium of great elasticity must pervade ail the 
 parts of space through which light penetrates. There could 
 in this case be no vacuum ; unless, indeed, the term be un 
 derstood to denote merely the absence of ponderable matter 
 See Light 
 
 VA'DE IN PACE. (Lat. go in peace.) In monastic com 
 munities offences were sometimes punished by the dread- 
 ful infliction of starving to death in prison ; ami bones have 
 occasionally been found among the ruins of convents of vic- 
 tims who appear to have perished in this manner. The 
 punishment acquired this name from the words in which 
 the sentence was pronounced. The use which Walter 
 Scott has made of this custom in his poem of JUarmion is 
 well known. But it is no romantic fiction. (See Fleury, 
 Hist. Eccles. vol. xx., p. 102 ; where, however, the vade in 
 pace is described as perpetual solitary imprisonment. Diet 
 de Trevaux.) 
 
 VAGA'NTES. (Lat. vago, / wander.) The name of a 
 tribe of spiders (Araneidm), comprehending those which 
 watch their prey concealed in a web ; but also frequently 
 run with agility, and chase and seize their prey. 
 
 VAGI'NA (Latin term for sheath), is applied by botanists 
 to the leafstalk of those plants in which it becomes thin 
 and rolls round the stem, to which it then forms a sheath : 
 this is the case in grasses. 
 
 VAGI'NATES, Vaginati. (Lat. vagina, a sheath.) Sheath 
 ed Polypes. The name of an order of Polypes, compiehend 
 ing those which are constantly surrounded by and attached 
 to a calcareous or horny polypiary. 
 
 VA'GRANCY. (Lat. vagro, J wander.) In Law, a very 
 miscellaneous class of offences against public police and or- 
 der is comprehended under this title in English Law. Va- 
 grants, under the present act of parliament in force on the 
 subject (5 G. 4, c. 83) are of three descriptions : 1. Idle and 
 disorderly persons; including persons neglecting to main- 
 tain their families ; paupers returning without certificate to 
 parishes whence they have been legally removed : beggars, 
 common prostitutes, pedlars without license, &c; all of 
 whom may be summarily convicted and 
 for a month by a single justice, subject to an appeti to the 
 sessions. 2. Rogues and vagabonds, including persons guilty 
 of the fonner offences who have been once already con- 
 victed of being idle and disorderly; fortune-tellers and oth- 
 er impostors; persons guilty of indecent exhibitions; pro 
 curers of charitable contributions under false pretences ; 
 playing at games of chance in public places ; having in their 
 possession housebreaker's implements, or offensive weap- 
 ons, with intent to use them ; reputed thieves frequenting 
 public places to commit felony, and others ; all of whom 
 may be committed for three months. 3. Incorrigible rogues, 
 viz. persons guilty of the last class of offences, having been 
 already convicted; persons breaking out of legal confine- 
 ment, &x., who may be committed to the next sessions, and 
 there sentenced to a year's imprisonment. Under this act 
 justices pos«.ess very extensive powers, such as to issue 
 warrants to bring before them persons suspected of vagran- 
 cy, to search lodging houses reasonably suspected of har- 
 bouring vagrants, &c. 
 
 VAIR. In Heraldry, one of the furs employed in blazon- 
 ry. It is supposed to represent the skin of a small squirrel. 
 It is always white and blue, unless otherwise specified in 
 the blazon; as vair of or and azure, vair of ermine and 
 gules, &c. Vair appears to be derived from varius. Vairy 
 is the pattern of vair with more than two colours. 
 
 VA'LENTINE. Feb. 14 is the day sacred to St. Valen 
 tine, a presbyter, who, according to the legend, was behead- 
 ed at Rome under Claudius. Mr. Brand (Popular Antiqui 
 ties, vol. i., p. 47) says that he cannot find in the life of the 
 saint any circumstances likely to have given origin to the 
 peculiar ceremonies of the day. It appears to have been a 
 very old notion, however, (for it is alluded to by Chaucer, 
 as well as by Shakspeare in the Two Gentlemen of Verona), 
 that on this day birds begin to couple. And the custom of 
 "choosing Valentines" is of great antiquity in this country, 
 as well as in France, where, however, it has been long dis- 
 used. Lydgate mentions it (1476) ; Grose explains Valentine 
 to mean " the first woman seen by a man, or man by a wo- 
 man," on that day ; but it does not appear whore he picked 
 up this explanation. There is also a curious French Val- 
 entine, composed by the poet Gower, in Warton's History 
 of English Poetry (Additions to vol. ii., p. 31). Ilerrick 
 mentions the notion and the custom : 
 
 Oft have I heard both youths and virgins siy, 
 Birds choose their mates, and couple too, ttiis day. 
 
 It appears that the Reformers attacked this as well as 
 other legendary customs of their time; and that the Roman- 
 ists themselves were so scandalized at it that devices were 
 invented for turning the day to profitable use. Hi. Francis 
 de Sales introduced the practice of drawing iols lor patron 
 
. VALENTINIANS. 
 
 saints on it, by way of substitute. According to others, this 
 latter practice was of much older date, and substituted fora 
 paean custom by which boys and girls drew each other's 
 names on the 15th February (day of Fehruata Juno). How- 
 ever this may be, it is certainly one of the few saints' days 
 in the calendar popularly remembered in England, as the 
 returns of the |w>st office Invariably testify. 
 
 VALENTTwLANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a sect nf 
 
 tin.' second century ; so called from Valentinus, their found- 
 er. They were a branch of the OnoStb rtcs. 
 
 VALF.'UIAN. The root of this plant, the Valeriana 
 officinali.*, is used in the form of infusion, decoction, or tinc- 
 ture, as a nervous stimulant and antispasmodic 
 
 VALERIANA'CEAS. Valeriana, one of the genera.) 
 A natural order of herbaceous Exogens Inhabiting temper- 
 mates. They are distinguished from the Dipsaceons 
 order by their flowers not being in heads, by the want of al- 
 bumen, and the absence of an involucel. The roots of Va- 
 leriana officinalis, are aromatic and antispasmodic ; and the 
 young leaves of the species of Vahrianclln are eaten as sal- 
 ad, under the French name of mache, or the English one 
 of lamb's lettuce and corn salmi. 
 
 VALE'SIANS. An ancient sect of heretics mentioned 
 by Epipbanius, and supposed to have become known about 
 
 A.M. 910; said to have adopted the practice of eunuchism. 
 
 V VI.I.T. VARLET. Originally, the sons of knights, ami 
 afterwards those of the nobility before they had attained 
 the age of chivalry. The name is sometimes written vasle- 
 ms to be derived from the same root with vas- 
 sal : probably the Celtic gwas. (See Vassal.) Valet in 
 French, and varlet in English, degenerated in later times in- 
 to the signification of servant. 
 
 VALHA'LLA. or W'ALHALLA. The palace of immor- 
 tality, in the Scandinavian mythology, inhabited by the 
 souls o»' hemes slain in battle. 
 
 VAI.KV'ltllli, or IllS AS. The Fans of the Scandina- 
 vian mythology: the " choosers of the slain," who conduct 
 illed in battle to Valhalla. 
 
 VALLEY. (I. at. vallis.) In Architecture, the internal 
 
 angle fo ' by two inclined sidei of a roof. '< e suppnrt- 
 
 ■i n.er, called the 
 which lies a board for the reception of the lead gutter, call- 
 ed the valley board. 
 
 VA'LLCM. (Lat.) The rampart with which Roman 
 armies enclosed their camps, and which was crowned with 
 a breastwork of stakes. 
 
 VALVATA. (Lat. valvsj, folding doors.) A genus of 
 frcshuaier snails or Gastropods ; so called from the valve- 
 like form of the operculum or lid which covers the aperture 
 of the depressed spiral shell. Of this genus several species 
 British.; as Valvata obtusa, common in the ditches at 
 Batteisea ; lain, spirorbis, Valv.planorbis,Valv.minuta,&.c. 
 
 VALVE. In Mechanics, a close lid affixed to a tube, or 
 hollow piston, or opening in a vessel, by means of a hinge 
 or other sort of moveable joint, in such a manner that it can 
 be Opened only in one direction. A spherical ball of metal 
 laid on the end of a tube properly formed, and retained in 
 its place by its weight alone, is sometimes used advanta- 
 ly instead of a valve, as in the hydraulic ram. The 
 safety valve of the steam engine is a valve attached to the 
 boiler, to obviate the danger of its bunting in case the steam 
 should become too strong'. The valve is so loaded that its 
 Weight, added to that of the atmosphere, exceeds the pres 
 sure of the steam, when of a sufficient force. When the 
 expansive force increases so far that its pressure preponder- 
 ates over the pressure of the atmosphere and the weight of 
 the safety valve, the valve opens, and the steam escapes 
 from the boiler till its elastic force is sufficiently diminished, 
 and the valve shuts by its own weight. By opening the safe- 
 ty valve the engine may be stopped at pleasure, for which 
 purpose a particular apparatus is attached to the valve. As 
 nny accidental derangement of the safety valve might be at- 
 tended with the most disastrous consequences, it has been 
 proposed to make the valve of a metal which melts at a 
 particular temperature, by which means the elastic force of 
 the steam could never exceed that which corresponds to 
 the temperature at which the valve would melt. This meth- 
 od has been adopted in France. 
 
 VALVES. In Botany, the pieces into which the fruit of 
 a plant naturally separntes when it bursts. The name is 
 also applied to similar parts in any other organ, as the an- 
 ther. 
 
 V.V.MBRACE. (Fr. avant-bras.) In Plate Armour, the 
 piece « hich served as a protection to the arm below the el- 
 now. 
 
 VA'MPTRE. A bloodsucking spectre, the object of supcr- 
 stxious dread among various nations of Europe. The belief 
 in vampires, /. c, in persons returning to the earth after 
 death ami burial, not as ghosts, but in actual corporeal sub- 
 stance, and sucking the blood of living men, appears to have 
 prevailed in classical times. The Empties, Laniite. and Le- 
 murcs were species of vampires. One of the most detailed 
 
 VANESSA. 
 
 stories of vamp-ires is the tale of Machates and PMlinnun 
 which Goethe has made the foundation of his poem of the 
 Bride of Corinth : in which the dead bride of a young man 
 visits him at night, and withers him by her embrace. But 
 in modem Europe, the populations among which vampire 
 superstitions have prevailed appear to be of Sclavonic de- 
 scent. The word vampire is said by Adelnng to be of Ser- 
 vian origin; and although the modem Greeks have also 
 their vampires, yet the barbaric, names by which they coll 
 them (Vroucolachas, Vuroulacbas, Vardoulachas) seem 
 rather to indicate the Sclavonic, or perhaps Albanian source 
 from which they derived both the tradition and the word. 
 In Crete they are called Katakhanas, and firmly believed in. 
 (See PashJey's Travels.) About a century ago, there pre- 
 vailed in several districts of Hungary an epidemic dread of 
 vampires, which lasted some years, and gave birth to many 
 extraordinary stories. It was believed that in several pla- 
 ces those among the dead who belonged to the class of vam- 
 pires arose nightlj from their graves and sucked the blood of 
 the Mving, who fell into consumptions and perished; that 
 those who had died in this manner became infected with Vam- 
 pirism ; and that the only way of exterminating the plague 
 was by disinterring all the suspected vampires, and, if it 
 were discovered that they exhibited the tokens of their hide- 
 ous character, burning them to ashes, or driving a stake 
 through their middle. The attestations winch these gro- 
 ly fearful tales received, are among the most singular 
 instances of human credulity recorded in all the annals of 
 superstition. They are, in many instances, related on the au- 
 thority of the pastors and other most credible persons of vil- 
 lages and towns, who depose to having been themselves 
 witnesses of the scenes beheld on openinc the vampires' 
 graves. Some, indeed, had actually seen the spectres them- 
 selves on their nightly excursions ; but more generally the 
 subscriptions are by persons present at the inspection of 
 the dead bodies; when, if the subject was a true vampire, 
 he was generally found of a florid and hale complexion ; his 
 hair, beard, and nails had grown ; his mouth, hands, &c, 
 were stained with fresh blood ; his eyes open and brilliant. 
 Sometimes, when the stake was driven through him, ho 
 W8j> I me those of a living person. It 
 
 was believed that the consumption produced by the sucking 
 
 of the vampire COUld be cured by eating earth from his 
 grave. The popular name of the vampire-bat (Vcspertilio 
 spectrum), a small animal of South America which sucks 
 the blood of persons asleep, is derived from these imaginary 
 monsters. 
 
 VAN. In Navnl language, the foremost division of the 
 line of battle, which is also the weather division when the 
 fleet is on a wind. 
 
 VANA'DIUM. (Lat. Vnnsdis, a Scandinavian deity.) A 
 metal discovered in 1830, by Professor Seftstr.im of Fahlun, 
 in iron prepared from the iron ore of Taberg in Sweden. 
 Vanadium has also been found in a lead ore from Wanlock- 
 head in Scotland, and in a similar mineral from Zimapnn in 
 Mexico. Vanadium is a white brittle metal, very difficult 
 of reduction; not oxidized by air or water; and insoluble 
 in sulphuric, muriatic, and hydrofluoric acids; but soluble 
 in nitric and nitromuriatic acids, with which it yields solu- 
 tions of a fine dark blue colour. It is not acted upon by boil- 
 ing caustic potash, nor by the carbonated alkalies at a red 
 heat. The peroxide of vanadium is of an orange colour, and 
 very slightly soluble in water; it unites with the salifiable 
 bases; with the alkalis its salts are soluble, with the -other 
 bases sparingly soluble. These salts are orange or yellow 
 coloured ; in these and other respects there is a close resem- 
 blance between vanadium and chromium. Peroxide of va- 
 nadium, or vanadic acid, is distinguished from chromic acid 
 by the action of deoxidizing substances, which give a blue 
 solution with vanadium, but a green one with chromium 
 When heated with borax in the reducing flame of the blow 
 pipe, both of the acids yield a green glass; but in the oxi- 
 dizing Same the bead becomes yellow if vanadium is pres- 
 ent, but the green colour is permanent if produced by 
 chromium. According to the experiments of Berzelius, the 
 equivalent of vanadium is about 08; and the protoxide, the 
 deutoxide, and the vanadic acid, are composed respectively 
 of 1 atom of vanadium, ami 1, 2, and 3 of oxygen. 
 
 VANE. A contrivance for showing the direction of the 
 wind. It consists usually of a thin slip of wood or metal, 
 attached to a perpendicular axis, round which it moves free- 
 ly; and is so shaped that it presents always the same ex- 
 tremity to the point of the horizon from which the wind 
 blows. 
 
 VANE'LLUS. (Lat. a lapwing.) A name applied by 
 Bechstein to a subgenus of .he Linntean Tringa, including 
 the true lapwings, which are distinguished from the Squat- 
 arola of Cuvier, by their more distinct, though small, hind 
 er toe, and their partially scutellated tarsi. 
 
 VAXF'SS A. (Or better Phanessa ; from <p nr/coneof the 
 names of Venus or Love in the Creek as well as Egyptian 
 mythology.) The term is applied to a genus of butterflies 
 
 1391 
 
VANG. 
 VANG A rope for steadying the extremity or peak of a 
 aft' to the ship's side. 
 
 VANGUARD. That part of an army which precedes the 
 main body on the march, as a security against surprise. 
 
 VANl'LLA (Span, bavnilla, a small pod), is the succu- 
 lent fruit of a plant of the Orchidaceous order, climbing 
 over trees in the tropical parts of America alter the man- 
 ner of ivv. Its fragrance is owing to the presence of ben- 
 zoic acid, crystals of which form upon the pod if allowed to 
 be undisturbed. It is an aromatic, employed in confection- 
 ary and tlie preparation of liqueurs, and in flavouring some 
 kinds of chocolate, &c. 
 
 VAPOUR. (Lat. vapor.) When liquids and certain solids 
 are heated tliey become converted into elastic fluids or va- 
 pours, which differ from gases in this respect, that they 
 are not under common circumstances permanently elastic, 
 but resume the liquid or solid form when cooled down to 
 ordinary temperatures. The term vapour is frequently lim- 
 ited to water in the state in which ft exists in our atmo- 
 sphere and in other humid aeriform bodies ; that is, in a per- 
 fectly invisible state. When very" moist air is duly cooled, 
 the vapour, previous to assuming the liquid state, becomes 
 visible, as seen in mist and fog; it is observed in the same 
 state when steam issues rapidly from the spout of a tea- 
 xettle, when it escapes into the air from the surface of hot 
 water. In this case it is sometimes called vesicular vapour ; 
 for, from its action on light, it seems in that visible state to 
 exist in the form of minute vesicles. Different substances 
 yield vapours with very different degrees of facility, or, in 
 other words, are more or less volatile ; a circumstance de- 
 pendant probably, upon the less or greater cohesion with 
 which their particles adhere. Hence fluids are generally 
 more volatile than solids, and hence solids generally pass 
 into the liquid state before they assume the form of vapour. 
 To both these statements there are, however, many excep- 
 tions : thus most of the expressed oils are very differently 
 vaporizable, and are hence termed fixed oils. Common con- 
 centrated sulphuric acid is also a very fixed liquid, requiring 
 a high temperature for its vaporization; and camphor and 
 jome other solids evaporate at common temperatures, 
 and arsenic and sal ammoniac at high temperatures, with- 
 out previously assuming the liquid state. The space 
 <vhich vapours occupy always exceeds that of the sub- 
 fiances from which they arise. Thus, at the temperature 
 jf 212P, and under a pressure of 30 inches of mercury, 
 * cubic foot of water produces 1696 cubic feet of vapour, of 
 alcohol 660, and of ether 443. Hence it is obvious that dif- 
 ferent vapours differ very considerably in density, and that 
 this property is not directly as that of the liquids, which fur- 
 nish them. Thus, if we assume the density of air as 1000, 
 that of aqueous vapour or steam is only 625; the density of 
 aqueous vapour to that of atmospheric air being as 1000 to 
 1(594. Again, assuming the density of air as = 1000, that of 
 alcohol vapour is 1613, and of ether no less than 2586; 
 though alcohol and ether are both, in the liquid state, light- 
 er than water. As water boils at a higher temperature than 
 alcohol, and alcohol at a higher temperature than ether, it 
 was supposed that the density of vapours was probably di- 
 rectly as the volatility of their respective liquids: but this 
 law has exceptions; for bisul phuret of carbon yields a heav- 
 ier vapour than ether, but its boiling point is higher. All 
 pure vapours follow the same law of expansion, when 
 heated, as gases; that is, for every degree of Fahrenheit's 
 thermometer they increase by v-roth of the volume which 
 they occupied at 32°. 
 
 Vapour, in Physics, denotes the condition of a body, 
 when by the accession of heat its particles acquire a re- 
 pulsive foice, and it is reduced to the state of an elastic flu- 
 id. Every liquid possesses the property of boiling at a cer- 
 tain determinate temperature, under the mean pressure of 
 the atmosphere. Water, for example, boils at the tempera- 
 ture of 212° of Fahrenheit's scale, when the pressure of 
 the atmosphere is equal to a column of mercury 30 inches 
 in height ; but under a diminished pressure it boils at a low- 
 er temperarure ; and by increasing the pressure, the tem- 
 perature of the boiling point is increased. In the course of 
 ebullition an elastic fluid, or vapour, is generated ; and it is 
 •>nly when the tension of the vapour becomes equal to the 
 pressure that the action of boiling begins. But though ebul- 
 Htion and the consequent rapid formation of vapour only 
 tike place at a given temperature under a given pressure, 
 vapour will jise from the surfaces of all liquids in free con- 
 tact with the atmosphere at much lower temperatures. 
 Water, for example, exposed in an open vessel, undergoes a 
 rnulual diminution of bulk, and is dissipated at tempera- 
 iures far below the boiling point; and ice itself soon wastes 
 tway in the same insensible manner. This dissipation has 
 been shown by Dalton to be occasioned by the formation of 
 vapour of the snme temperature as that of the water from 
 which it proceeds, and having an elastic force equal to that 
 of the vapour of water boiling at that temperature under a 
 1292 
 
 VAPOUR. 
 
 diminished pressure. Some liquids, ether for instance, re- 
 quire to be carefully secluded from the atmosphere to pre- 
 vent their rapid evaporation. 
 
 Tension of Vapour at different Temperatures. — Dr. Dal- 
 ton, of Manchester, was the first who ascertained by accu 
 rate experiments the elastic force of vapours at different 
 temperatures below that of the point of ebullition. (Man 
 Chester Memoirs, vol. v., 1802.) The method which he 
 employed consisted in introducing a portion of liquid into 
 the vacuum of a barometer, where it floats on the surface 
 of the mercury, and part of it is immediately converted Into 
 vapour. The tension of the vapour causes the mercury to 
 descend ; and the force of the tension is measured by the 
 space through which the mercury falls, or by the difference 
 of the height of the mercury in the tube in which the ex 
 periment is performed and its height in the common barom- 
 eter. Dr. Dalton employed two barometric tubes plunged 
 in the same cistern of mercury ; into one of these the liquid 
 furnishing the vapour was introduced, the other serving the 
 purpose of comparison ; and in order that the experiment 
 might be made at any determinate temperature, the two 
 tubes were surrounded by another wider tube, into which 
 water was poured of the temperature required. When the 
 liquid on which the experiment was made was water, and 
 the water surrounding the two barometric tubes was at the 
 temperature of ebullition, the vapour formed in the tube 
 caused the mercury to descend to the level of that in the 
 cistern; whence it was inferred that at the temperature of 
 ebullition the elastic force of aqueous vapour is precisely 
 equal to the atmospheric pressure. A similar result was 
 obtained when the experiment was performed with other 
 liquids. 
 
 If the tube containing the portion of liquid be of consider- 
 able length, and the basin in which it is inverted of con- 
 siderable depth, the pressure on the vapour above the mer- 
 cury may be varied by raising or lowering the inverted 
 tube. When the pressure is diminished in this way, it is 
 found that so long as any liquid remains, new vapour of 
 the same degree of tension will be generated, and the alti- 
 tude of the mercury in the tube remain constant. On the 
 other hand, an increase of pressure causes the condensa- 
 tion of a part of the vapour, and the mercury in the tube 
 stands at the same height above that in the cistern. If the 
 quantity of liquid in the barometric tube be so small that 
 the whole is converted into vapour, it will be found that on 
 raising the tube and increasing the space in which the va- 
 pour is contained, the elastic force diminishes In proportion 
 as the space is increased. The law of Mariotte, therefore, 
 applies to vapours as well as to the permanent gases (see 
 Pneumatics) ; but with this distinction, that the vapours 
 of all liquids, at a certain determinate temperature, have a 
 maximum of density and tension which cannot be exa 
 and on attaining which they are condensed into the liquid 
 form by any attempt to compress them further. It follows, 
 therefore, that at a given temperature no more thin a lim- 
 ited quantity of vapour can exist in a given space. This 
 forms the criterion which distinguishes vapours from the 
 permanent gases. 
 
 The results obtained by Dalton, in his experiments on 
 the tension of aqueous vapour, are exhibited in the follow- 
 ing table (Manchester Memoirs, 1802) : 
 
 Table showing the Maximum Tension of Aqueous Vapour 
 at Temperatures below 212°, estimated in the Height of 
 the Column of Mercury they are capable of supporting. 
 
 
 Tension 
 
 
 Tension 
 
 
 Tension 
 
 Temper- 
 
 in Indies 
 
 Temper. 
 
 in Inches 
 
 Temper- 
 
 in Inches 
 
 ature. 
 
 of Mer- 
 
 ature. 
 
 of Mer- 
 
 ature. 
 
 of Mci- 
 
 
 cury. 
 
 
 cury. 
 
 
 cury. 
 7-81 
 
 2° 
 
 0-068 
 
 770 
 
 0910 
 
 152" 
 
 7 
 
 0-082 
 
 aa 
 
 1-07 
 
 IS1 
 
 8-81 
 
 12 
 
 00>?6 
 
 S7 
 
 1-24 
 
 162 
 
 991 
 
 17 
 
 01 16 
 
 92 
 
 1 44 
 
 167 
 
 11 25 
 
 22 
 
 0-139 
 
 97 
 
 1 68 
 
 172 
 
 12 72 
 
 27 
 
 0168 
 
 102 
 
 I 98 
 
 177 
 
 14 22 
 
 32 
 
 200 
 
 107 
 
 2-32 
 
 isa 
 
 I5-S6 
 
 37 
 
 (1-2.17 
 
 112 
 
 2-68 
 
 1ST 
 
 17-90 
 
 42 
 
 0483 
 
 117 
 
 308 
 
 192 
 
 in-t.6 
 
 47 
 
 0339 
 
 122 
 
 3-50 
 
 1117 
 
 2213 
 
 52 
 
 0-40t 
 
 127 
 
 4 00 
 
 202 
 
 24-61 
 
 57 
 
 471 
 
 132 
 
 4-60 
 
 an 
 
 27-20 
 
 62 
 
 0-560 
 
 137 
 
 5-29 
 
 212 
 
 30TO 
 
 67 
 
 0-655 
 
 142 
 
 6 05 
 
 
 
 72 
 
 0770 
 
 117 
 
 6 87 
 
 1 
 
 
 From this table the following formula for the elastic 
 force or tension (which is measured by the pressure ,,)m 
 terms of the degrees of temperature t, reckoned turn .1^, 
 his been deduced, which nearly represents the table : 
 
 namely, ? — .ni8 (1 + -006 «)*■ 
 
 In order to determine the tension of vapour at a tempera 
 tun- above the boiling point, it is necessary to have recourse 
 to D different method of experimenting. By far the most 
 
VAPOUR. 
 
 satisfactory experiments hitherto made on this subject are 
 those of Dulong and Arago, which were undertaken at the 
 instance of the Frencli government, for the purpose of as- 
 certaining the exact temperatures at which aqueous vapour 
 acquires a given tension, with a view to establish such 
 legislative regulations as might appear necessary to pre- 
 vent accidents from the hurslinjj 01 steam-boilers. As an 
 account of these experiments, and a table of the results, 
 have already been given under the term Steam (p. 1166), 
 it is here only necessary to remark, that the pressures or 
 tensions were ascertained by direct experiment at different 
 temperatures from 212 3 to 436° of Fahrenheit, between 
 which Ibey were found to vary from 1 to 24 atmospheres; 
 ami mat the relation between the pressure and tempera- 
 ture (at least for all pressures exceeding tour atmospheres) 
 was found to lie represented very nearly by the following 
 empirical formula, viz. 
 
 p =(1 + 0-003974 s . 
 it which p denotes the tension or elasticity expressed in 
 ; lures, and t the degrees of temperature of Fahren- 
 heit, counting from 212°. 
 
 It is evident from this empirical formula, as well as the 
 numbers in the table, that the tension of aqueous vapour 
 increases in a much faster ratio than the temperature. 
 J 'his result appears to be general, and applicable to the 
 elastic force of the va pours of all liquids, at least so far as 
 may be judged from the imperfect experiments which have 
 hitherto been made on the vapours of mercury, alcohol, and 
 ether. Dalton thought that lie had discovered a law which 
 would establish a very simple relation among the tensions 
 of the vapours of different liquids. It consists in this, that 
 at an equal number of degrees above or below the point of 
 ebullition corresponding to each liquid the elastic force of 
 their vapours is equal. Thus, water boils at 212°, alcohol 
 at 175°, and ether at 100°, the tension of the vapour at the 
 boiling point being in all cases the same, and equal to the 
 prong e of the atmosphere. Now, from the experiments of 
 Dulong it appears that the tension of aqueous vapour is 
 doubled when heated under pressure to 251°; that is, by an 
 increase of temperature of 39° above the boiling point. 
 Hence, by the law of Dalton, the tension of the vapour of 
 alcohol is equal to two atmospheres when its temperature 
 is 175° + 3U° = 214° ; and that of ether equal to two at- 
 • tieres when the temperature is 100° + 39° = 139°. 
 Dnllou himself afterwards discovered that this law fails 
 when the distances from the point of ebullition are con- 
 siderable. 
 
 Density of Vapour.— The density of vapour may be de- 
 termined' by introducing a known weight of the liquid 
 Which yields it into a receiver containing mercury, and in- 
 verting the receiver in a vessel also containing mercury, 
 and tall enough to contain, above the mercury, a sufficient 
 depth of water to cover the receiver. The whole appara- 
 tus is then heated ; and when the whole of the liquid In 
 the inverted receiver has been evaporated, the space the 
 vapour occupies and its temperature are noted. We have 
 then a given bulk of vapour, the weight of which is the 
 same as that of the liquid from which it has been produced, 
 and consequently known. The temperature is also known ; 
 and the pressure given in terms of the column of mercury 
 in the receiver, and the height of the surrounding fluid com- 
 pared with the indication of the barometer. In this man- 
 ner the density is found ; and when the density of a vapour 
 at a given temperature and under a given pressure has been 
 found, its density under any other pressure, and at its corres- 
 ponding temperature, may be calculated in the following man- 
 ner: Let a — the constant coefficient of dilatation = -00208 
 (it being found by experiment that vapour out of contact 
 with liquid expands or contracts at the same rate as perma- 
 nently elastic fluids by variations of temperature, that is to 
 say, by l-4S0th part of its volume for each degree of Fah- 
 renheit's scale), t = the number of degrees ef Fahrenheit's 
 thermometer above 32°, v = the volume, p = the pressure, 
 and d — the density of a vapour at the temperature of 32° ; 
 and let v' , p', and d', be respectively the volume, pressure, 
 and density at another temperature, 32°+'- We have 
 then v' = (1 -f- a t) v. Now, when the pressure is constant, 
 the density is inversely as its volume ; and, by the law of 
 Mariotte, the density of gas or vapour is directly as the 
 
 d' p r v , d 1 
 
 pressure; whence - = — X —• and consequently — = 
 
 or d' = —-, 
 
 VARIATION OF CURVATURE. 
 
 Dalton's values of the pressures, shows the density and 
 volume of aqueous vapour, at its maximum tension, for 
 every ninth degree of temperature from the freezing to the 
 boiling point. The unit of density is water at the tempera- 
 ture or 32° ; and the unit of volume the volume of an equal 
 weight of water, also nt 32°. As the density is inversely 
 proportional to the volume, the numbers in the two last 
 columns are the reciprocals of each other. They differ 
 slightly from the numbers given by Gay Lussac. 
 
 Temperature. 
 
 Density. 
 
 Volume. 
 
 32° 
 
 •00000 i3 
 
 
 41 
 
 •0000073 
 
 137000 
 
 60 
 
 ■ooMntl 
 
 IOH00 
 
 69 
 
 •00OUI3I 
 
 76330 
 
 6S 
 
 •0000173 
 
 57S0O 
 
 77 
 
 •O00O227 
 
 4J050 
 
 M 
 
 •00OU297 
 
 33670 
 
 95 
 
 ■0000390 
 
 25640 
 
 KM 
 
 0000499 
 
 20030 
 
 113 
 
 •0OUCI637 
 
 15690 
 
 122 
 
 •0000710 
 
 141130 
 
 131 
 
 4001021 
 
 971*4 
 
 140 
 
 •0001261 
 
 7930 
 
 149 
 
 •0001592 
 
 afsi 
 
 1M 
 
 •0001964 
 
 5091 
 
 167 
 
 moras 
 
 4187 
 
 176 
 
 •OOMSSfl 
 
 3406 
 
 186 
 
 •0003V57 
 
 2SI1 
 
 194 
 
 4004361 
 
 2346 
 
 203 
 
 ■0005074 
 
 1971 
 
 212 
 
 •O005896 
 
 1696 
 
 If we compare the dens- 
 
 Ky of aqueous vapour at any temperature with its density 
 at the boiling point of water, which is 1800 above the freezing 
 point, and put d" = the density, and p" = the presure at the 
 
 .. <• , u j. d";/ (1+180 a) 
 
 boding point, the formula becomes if = — ,, ._ , r— « 
 
 p" (1 + a t) 
 
 The following table, computed from this formula, with 
 
 By means of this table the weight of water may be cal 
 culated that would be contained in the form of vapour of 
 the maximum tension in any given volume — a calculation 
 which is frequently required in meteorological inquiries. 
 
 The phenomena of vapour have been studied with refer 
 encc to two objects — the condition of the atmosphere as to 
 moisture, and the properties of steam as a moving power in 
 machinery. On the subject of vapour in connexion with 
 the first of these objects, see DanieWs Meteorological Es- 
 says ; Davy's Elements of Jigricul. Chemistry : also the 
 terms Dew, Evaporation, Hygrometry. For expert 
 ments on the elasticity and density of aqueous vapour, see, 
 in addition to the Memoirs of Dalton and of Arago and Du 
 long, already cited, Robinson's Mechanical Philosophy ; Ure, 
 in the Phil. Trans, for 1818; Pouillet, Traite de Physique; 
 DetpretZ, Traite de. Physique; Gehler's Physikalisches 
 IVorterbuch, art. "Dampf," by Professor Muncke; and the 
 various recent works which treat of the steam engine. See 
 Steam. 
 
 VARIABLE QUANTITY, in Analysis, is a quantity 
 conceived to be in a state of increase or diminution, or to 
 have different values in the same equation. Thus, the ab- 
 scissa and ordinates of a curve are variable quantities; be 
 cause they have different values for every different point in 
 the curve, and in passing from one point to another their 
 values increase or diminish according to the law of the 
 curve. In the equation of the circle y — ^/ (2 a — z z ), i 
 and y are variables ; for x may have any value whatever 
 between and 2 a, and there will be a corresponding value 
 of y, which satisfies the equation. The quantity a is a con- 
 stant quantity, and remains the same, whatever be the 
 values of x and y. It represents, in fact, the radius of the 
 circle. In mechanics, a variable motion is that which is 
 produced by the action of a force which varies in intensity, 
 or which continues to act after motion has been commu- 
 nicated. 
 
 VARIANCE. In Law, a difference of statement be- 
 tween two material documents in a cause; as where the 
 plaintiff's declaration differed (formerly) from the writ, or 
 where it differs from a deed on which it is grounded. And, 
 in ordinary language, a departure in the oral evidence from 
 the statement in the pleadings is termed a variance. This 
 variance may be either immaterial or material ; and, in the 
 latter case, amendable or not, according to a great variety of 
 distinctions. The powers of amendment given to courts 
 and judges are greatly extended by 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 42, s. 
 23, 24. 
 
 VARIA'TION. (Lat. varius, changing.) In Music, a 
 difference in performing the same air or melody, either by 
 subdivision of its notes into several others of less duration, 
 or by adding graces ; but, nevertheless, in such a manner 
 that the original melody is not lost in the decorations or 
 alterations which it is thus made to undergo. 
 
 VARIATION OF CURVATURE, in Analytical Geome- 
 try, is the change which takes place in the curvature in 
 passing from one point of a curve to another. The circle is 
 the only curve in which the curvature is uniform at every 
 point. The curvature of a curve line at any point is the 
 same as that of the osculating circle at that point. But 
 the curvature of a circle is inversely as its radius : hence 
 the curvature of any curve is inversely proportional to the 
 radius of curvature ; and, consequently, the differential of 
 
 1393 
 
VARIATION OF THE COMPASS. 
 
 Jhe curvature is proportional directly to the differential of 
 •he radius, and Inversely to the square of the radius of 
 curvature. In the conic sections, the variation of curvature 
 at any point is proportional to the tangent of the angle in- 
 cluded between the diameter and normal, both passing 
 through that point. 
 
 VARIATION OF THE COMPASS. The angle which 
 the magnetic needle makes with the plane of the true me- 
 ridian. It is otherwise called the declination. (See Decli- 
 nation or the Magnetic Needle.) For tables showing 
 the variation in a great number of places, and its progressive, 
 annual, and diurnal changes, see Brewster's Treatise on 
 Magnetism, 1837, reprinted from the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 nica. 
 
 VARIATION OF THE MOON. In Astronomy, an in- 
 equality of the moon's motion, depending on the angular 
 distance of the moon from the sun. It arises from that part 
 of the sun's disturbing force which is at right angles to the 
 radius vector, and which accelerates the motion of the moon 
 from the quadratures to the syzygies, and retards it from 
 the syzygies to the quadratures. It is proportional to the 
 sine of twice the angular distance between the sun and 
 moon ; and its maximum value, or the coefficient of its argu- 
 ment is 35' 41-9". Hence it is represented by the formula 
 (35' 4P9") sin. 2 A, A being the angular distance of the 
 moon from the sun. The variation was discovered by Ty- 
 cho Bruhe. It had escaped the observation of Hipparchus 
 and the ancient astronomers, though of sufficient magnitude 
 to have been sensible to them ; probably because tbey 
 chiefly observed the moon in the syzygies and quadratures, 
 and at these points of the orbit its value is nothing. 
 
 VARIATIONS, CALCULUS OF. An important branch 
 of modern mathematics, invented by La^rasge, the principal 
 object of which is to resolve in a general manner certain 
 classes of questions respecting maxima and minima, the so- 
 lution of which cannot be obtained by the ordinary processes 
 of the differential calculus. In solving problems of max- 
 ima and minima by the differential calculus, it is necessary 
 to find the determinate values of the different variables 
 which enter into a proposed finite function of those varia- 
 bles, in order that the proposed function may have the 
 greatest or least value possible. Many problems of this na- 
 ture are met with in the writings of the ancient geometers, 
 particularly in the Conies of Apollonius; and the applica- 
 tion of algebra to geometry gave rise, about the middle of 
 the 17th century, to numerous others, proposed and solved 
 chiefly by Fermat, Slusius, Hudde, &c. As no general 
 method of solving such questions was known previous to 
 the invention of the differential calculus, tbeir solution was 
 accomplished by particular artifices, and was frequently at- 
 tained with very considerable difficulty. This difficulty was 
 removed, in respect to the class of questions now men- 
 tioned, by the invention of thecalculuj; but as the instru- 
 ment of investigation was improved, new views were open- 
 ed up, and a more difficult class of questions was proposed, 
 to which the known methods seemed inapplicable. It was 
 proposed to find, among all curves subjected to a given law, 
 that which best fulfilled a given condition : for example, to 
 find the curve which, relatively to co-ordinates given in 
 magnitude and position, encloses the greatest space ; to find 
 the curve along which a heavy body must descend in order 
 to pass from one given point to another given point in the 
 least time possible, &c. In such questions the relations be- 
 tween the variables is not given, as in the ordinary cases of 
 maxima and minima; the object proposed is to find that re- 
 lation, or to find the equation which must subsist between 
 the variables in order that the condition of maximum or 
 minimum may be fulfilled. 
 
 The first problem of this kind which was solved appears 
 to have been that of the solid of least resistance. In the 
 first edition of the Principia, published in 1687, Newton 
 gave the equation of the curve by the rotation of which 
 about its axis the solid is formed which, when moved 
 through a fluid in the direction of the axis, is less resisted 
 than tiny other body of the same specific gravity and bulk; 
 but without demonstration or indication of the views by 
 which he had been guided. About ten years later the fa- 
 mous question of the brachystocrone, or curve of quickest 
 descent, was agitated between the two brothers James and 
 John Bernoulli, in which Leibnitz and some of the other 
 most illustrious mathematicians of the day took a. part. 
 The more general problem of isoperimeters was solved by 
 James Bernoulli in 1701 ; and it was in the analysis which 
 he gave on this occasion that the principle on which the 
 solution of similar questions depends was first distinctly 
 unfolded. Euler treated the whole subject in his peculiarly 
 luminous manner, in a treatise published in 1744, under the 
 title Methodus Jnveniendi Lineas Curvas Maximi Mini- 
 mine Proprietate Gaudentcs. And, lastly, the method was 
 reduced to its utmost simplicity by Lagrange, who supplied 
 the algorithm and gave it the form under which it is now 
 exhibited as the calculus of variations. 
 1294 
 
 v 
 
 r,,, 
 
 for the 
 
 VARIATIONS, CALCULUS OF. 
 
 In order to give an idea of the nature 
 and objects of this calculus, let us suppose 
 a parabola A P referred to its rectangular 
 co-ordinates A M =; x, M P — y, and of 
 which the parameter is o. The equation M 
 of this parabola is yl = a x. Now if m p "> 
 be drawn infinitely near M P, and P r par- " 
 allel to the axis, the line MmorPr will 
 represent d x, the differential of the axis x ; 
 and r p will represent d y, the differential of the ordinale 
 y ; also the relation between those differentials is found by 
 differentiating the equation y- =■ ax, which gives "ydf 
 
 . , a d x , a dx 
 
 — a d x, whence d» = — — , or a w= - — - — 
 2 y 2 y a x. 
 
 Let us now suppose the parameter of the parabola also 
 to vary, and to become a + <5 a (the Greek letter <5 being 
 used to indicate the variation of a quantity in the same 
 manner as d is used to denote the ordinary differential). 
 On constructing another parabola A Ci, the parameter of 
 which is a + 8 a, the variations which the co-ordinates un- 
 dergo in consequence of this variation of the parameter 
 will be represented as follows: — 1. Suppose the absciss A 
 M to be the same in both parabolas. The ordinate M U of 
 the new parabola A Q. will be equal to the ordinate M P 
 augmented by the small quantity P Q,, which, therefore, is 
 the variation of y, and according to the notation of the cal- 
 culus denoted by <5 y. In order to find the value of this 
 variation, we must substitute y + & y for y, and a -4- 6 a for 
 a in the equation yt = ax. This gives (y-\- 8 y)i — (a + 
 8 a)x, from which subtracting the original equation y2 = a 
 x, and neglecting quantities of the second order, as in the 
 differential calculus, we get 2 y8y=-x8a, whence 8y — 
 
 x 6 a x 8 a 
 
 2 y "y/ ax' 
 
 2. Suppose the absciss also to vary, and to become A n. 
 We have then M» = oi and sq=8y. By substituting 
 x -j- 8 x for x, jf -4- 8 y for y, and a + 8 a for a, in the ori- 
 ginal equation, it becomes (y -\- 8 y)i — (a -(- 8 a) (x -f- 8 
 x) ; whence, by performing the multiplications indicated, 
 subtracting the equation y2 = a x, and neglecting quanti 
 ties of the second order, we get 2 y 8 y — a 8 x + x 8 a, and 
 
 a 8 x -\- x 8 a a 8 x -4- x 8 a 
 consequently c y 5 = — - — ; 
 
 1 J J 2y 2Vai 
 
 value of the variation of y. 
 
 From this example we may see clearly the distinction 
 between differentials and variations. The changes of the 
 co-ordinates relative to the same curve are made by differ- 
 entials ; those which take place in passing from one curve 
 to another of the same kind are made by variations. Each 
 of the small quantities 8 x, 8y, 8 a, is arbitrary, and we 
 may make 8x = dx; but this equality being established, 
 we are no longer at liberty to suppose 8 y = dy, or 8 a = i 
 a. It is also obvious that the variations of algebraic quail 
 tities are found exactly in the same manner as the differ- 
 entials of those quantities ; in fact, it is only necessary to 
 substitute the characteristic 8 for d, and to follow the rules 
 of the differential calculus. This remark extends to varia- 
 tions of all orders, and to circular and exponential quanti- 
 ties. 
 
 The rules being entirely the same in both methods, it is 
 evident that the variation of dxisSdx, and reciprocally 
 that the differential of 8 x is d 8 x. These two quantities 
 are also identical ; for if we suppose x and x' to be two con- 
 secutive values of x, we have, by the principles of the dif- 
 ferential calculus, dx = x' — x, whence 8 d x = <5 x' — 8x. 
 But in the same manner as x and x' are two consecutive 
 quantities in the series of values of the variable x, so 8 % 
 and 8 x' may be regarded as two consecutive values of the 
 variable 8 x ; whence d8x-=8x' — 8x, and consequently 
 8 d x = d 8 x. 
 
 Another principle of equal importance is, that the varia- 
 tion of the integral of any differential quantity is equal to 
 the integral of the variation ; that is to say, in any func- 
 tion P of different variables, x, y, z, &c, and their differen- 
 tials, we have sfp =J~8 P. To prove this letJP=V 
 We have then P = d U by taking the differentials ; whence 
 8 P = 8 d U, and therefore, by what has been shown, 1 
 = d 8 U. Integrating this last equation, we gety 8 P = i 
 U ; whence, by restoring the value of U, / <5 P — 8 J P. 
 
 By means of these two principles we are enabled to find 
 the variation of an indefinite integral expression y V d x, 
 which, in fact, is the principal object of the method of vari- 
 ations. If this integral is a maximum or minimum, its vari- 
 ation must be made equal to nothing; and in this manor 
 an equation is obtained which gives the required relations 
 between the variable co-ordinates. 
 
 Lagrange, in his Mecanique Analytique, has founded a 
 
VARICELLA. 
 
 complete system of rational mechanics on the method of 
 variations. The object of this Important application may 
 be understood from considering that the coordinates of the 
 different points of a moving body may be used either for 
 the purpose of comparing the positions of two different 
 points at the same instant, of two consecutive positions of 
 ime |K)tnt. In the former case, the only relation be- 
 tween the co-ordinates is that which results from the form 
 of the surface of the body ; in the latter the change of the 
 co-ordinates io determined by the conditions of the motion, 
 and a new variable is introduced which is the measure of 
 the lime. The co-ordinates, therefore, vary in two totally 
 distinct modes, which it is necessary to indicate by different 
 symbols. One of these modes becomes, in reference to the 
 oilier, the calculus of variations, which, according to this 
 View of the subject, may be described us a method of (in- 
 itiating quantities conceived to vary in a particular 
 manner, after having been already differentiated on the 
 thai they vary in a different manner. See La- 
 anigue Analytique; Id.. Lcfons du Calcut. ; 
 tic du Cateui. Jtijj'.H Integral, tome ii. ; Bossut, 
 I //. J tiff, et lnteg. ; Wooahoutt on lsopcrimet- 
 rical Problem* ; Airy' a Mathematical Tracts. 
 VARICE'LLA. See Umi kkn Pox. 
 VARICOCELE. (Lat. varix, a distended vein, and (07X17, 
 a tumour, \ swelling of the veins of the spermatic cord. 
 VARTETY. (I, at. varletas.) In Zoology, this term is 
 applied to individuals of the same species, which, from the 
 operation of dilli-rent causes, as age, climate, food, locality, 
 in, Sec-, present deviation* from the specific type 
 in size, colour, form, and relative proportion of parts of the 
 but have the capacity of reverting to the original 
 1 form in successive generations, on the cessation of 
 the Influences under which the variety originated. 
 VARI'OLA. See Shall Pox. 
 
 VA'RIOLITE. A porphyrltlc rock consisting of an im- 
 perfectly crystallized aggregate of felspar and quartz. 
 
 VARIOLOUS. (Lat. variola, smallpox.) In Zoology, 
 when a part is In-set with many shallow impressions like 
 marks of Hie small pox. 
 
 VARIO'KUM EDITIONS. In bibliography, certain edi- 
 tions ol the classic authors of antiquity, published chiefly 
 in Holland in the 17th and I8th centuries, and containing 
 the noies of numerous commentators, are sucalled. These 
 editions are chiefly valued by collectors. 
 
 VA'IUX. (Lat.) A dilatation or swelling of a vein. 
 VA'RNISH. (Fr. vernis.) A fluid which when spread 
 thin upon a solid surface becomes dry, and forms a coating 
 Impervious to air and moisture. There are two kinds of var- 
 nish, namely, spirit and oil varnishes : rectified alcohol is 
 used for the former; and for the latter fixed and volatile 
 oils, or mixtures of the two. The solid substances dis- 
 solved in the above menstrua, and which constitute what 
 is termed the body of the varnish, are almost exclusively 
 IUS, and are chiefly the following: 1. Turpentine, all 
 the varieties of which are employed by the varnisher: 
 they form an excellent body, and give strength and glos- 
 at a small expense ; but they do not dry without other 
 additions. 2. Copal, a peculiar resin, very difficult to dis- 
 solve, but forming a hard and durable ingredient. It is 
 generally melted over a gentle fire previous to use. 3. Lac, 
 which gives great toughness and hardness; but is often in- 
 admissible, on account of its reddish brown colour. 4. Mas- 
 tic, which yields a tough, hard, brilliant, and colourless var- 
 nish. 5. Ele.mi, a resin of a pale yellow green tint, and a 
 valuable ingredient, on account of its toughness and dura- 
 bility. 6. Sandarach, a resin which imparts splendour, but 
 which alone is not durable. 7. Amber, a valuable ingre- 
 dient, on account of its hardness and durability; but difficult 
 of transparent solution, and hence chiefly used in opaque 
 varnishes. 8. Benzoin, added on account of its fragrancy. 
 9. Anime, which gives brilliancy and some scent. 10. Gam- 
 boge, for yellow varnishes. 11. Dragon's blood, for red 
 varnish. These, together with turmeric, saffron, and annot- 
 ta, are chiefly used on account of their colour, and to cover 
 brass and copper under the name of lacquers. 12. Caout- 
 chouc. This extraordinary vegetable product has of late 
 been much employed in a variety of preparations used as 
 varnishes. It is invaluable where materials are to be ren- 
 dered air-tight, as balloons, for example, and where at the 
 same time flexibility, and even elasticity, are required; but 
 its principal application in this way is in the manufacture 
 of various water-proof articles. 13. Asphaltum, the va- 
 rieties of which are indispensable in black oil varnishes. 
 In making spirit varnishes, the strongest alcohol of com- 
 merce should be used (of a specific gravity not exceeding 
 820), and its solvent power over some of the more intrac- 
 table resins is sometimes improved by the addition of a little 
 camphor ; in order to prevent the agglutination of the resin, 
 It is often requisite to mix it with sand or pounded glass, by 
 which the surface is much increased, and the solvent en- 
 ergy of the spirit facilitated. The proportions in which the 
 
 VASSAL. 
 
 several ingredients are used, and the selections for partic- 
 ular purposes, are infinitely various. The following are a 
 few good varnishes, in illustration of their varieties: 1. 
 Spirit varnish. Sandarach 4 oz., seed lac 2 oz., elemi 1 oz., 
 digest the whole In D quart of moderately warm alcohol, 
 and when dissolved add Venice turpentines ozs. 2. Lac 
 varnish. Seed lac 8 oz. ; digest for four days in a warm 
 place with a quart of alcohol, and then strain through flan- 
 nel. 3. Turpentine varnish. Mastic 12 oz., mixed with 5 
 oz. of pounded glass, and digested in aquart of oil of turpen- 
 tine, edding at Intervals about half an ounce of camphor in 
 
 small pieces. When the mastic is dissolved, add to the 
 worm fluid an ounce anda half of previously liquefied Ven- 
 ire turpentine, and stir the whole together. •!. Copal var- 
 nish. Copal which has been previously melted by a gentle 
 heat 3 oz., oil of tur|ientine 20 oz. (measure; : put the oil 
 into a flask placed In boiling water, and add the powdered 
 copal in small |>ortions nt a time, so that it may be gradual 
 ly dissolved ; let it stand a few days to clear, and then pour 
 it otf and if too 1I1 K-k for use, add to it a little warm oil of 
 turpentine. This varnish dries slowly, but is very durable. 
 .< Linseed NDItlA, Melt Hi oz. of copal in an iron pot 
 
 with as as possible, and when fused pour in 3 
 
 oz. of hot linseed oil ; stir the mixture, remove it from the 
 fire, and while yet warm gradually add a pint of warm oil 
 of turpentine; when the whole is Incorporated, strain it 
 through piece of linen into phials. This is a hard and 
 durable, but also a coloured varnish, (i. .-hither varnish. 
 Melt 16 oz. of amber in an iron |>ot, then add 2 oz. of 
 melted lac and HI oz. of hot, drying linseed oil ; incorporate 
 the whole by stirring; remove it from tin- tire, and before 
 it cools add a pint of warm oil of turpentine. 7. Black 
 varnish. Melt l(j oz. of amber in an iron pot, and add halt 
 a pint of hot. drying linseed oil, 3 oz. of powdered rosin, and 
 :) oz. ol' powdered asphaltum: stir all together, and when 
 removed from the tire and sufficiently cool, add a pint of 
 warm oil of turpentine. .-. Lacquer. Digest :i oz. of teed 
 lac, 1 oz. of turmeric, and 2 drs. of dragon's blood for si'. 
 days in a pint of alcohol, frequently shaking the bottle, 
 which should be kept in a warm place ; strain the lacquer 
 through linen. The above are samples of each of the prin- 
 cipal varnishes ; but every maker varies the proportions, and 
 often the nature of the ingredients. In the preparation of 
 varnishes, in consequence of the highly combustible nature 
 of all the materials, the utmost care is requisite to avoid ac- 
 cidents by lire.. 
 
 VAR'VICITE. An ore of manganese found at Harts- 
 hill in Warwickshire. It appears to be a compound of i 
 equivalents of peroxide and l of sesquloxide of mangai 
 
 with 1 of water. 
 
 VA'SCULAR SYSTEM, in Botany, is that portion of 
 the tissue of plants which is destined for the conveyance 
 of air. Vascular plants are those in which the vascular 
 system occurs, or tonus a principal feature. Theairws 
 sels are the trachea: or spirals. 
 
 VASE. (Lat. vas.) In Sculpture, a vessel usually omn 
 mented with sculpture of fruits, flowers, bassi-rilievi, &c. 
 
 VA'SES, ETRUSCAN. In Antiquities. These well- 
 known and beautiful objects of ancient art have been dis- 
 covered in great numhers, chiefly in the sepulchres of an- 
 cient Italian cities. Their material is terra cotta, and they 
 are painted with figures and scenes. The most beautiful, 
 and, indeed, the most numerous, were formerly obtained 
 from Campania and Magna Grecia ; and it was much con 
 troverted among antiquarians whether the workmanship 
 was not originally Greek, which is maintained by Sir. W. 
 Gell. (Topography of Rome, vol. i.) Of late years, the 
 great sources have been the sepuichres of Etruria Proper. 
 Five thousand have been taken in twenty-five years from 
 the ruins of Tarquinia alone ; and it seems to be now gen- 
 erally admitted that the manufacture is rightly called Etrus- 
 can ; that it is of extreme antiquity ; that in its origin it is 
 connected, in some way not easily explicable, with early 
 Egyptian art ; that in its progress Greek taste and style 
 were introduced ; that the art had fallen into disuse in the 
 flourishing period of the Roman empire, which is evinced 
 by this fact, among others, that none have been found in 
 Pompeii or Herculaneum. "The most ancient vases are 
 those called of the Egyptian style. They are particol- 
 oured, of red and black upon a pale yellow ground. Black 
 vases, with friezes of animals and ornaments in bassi-ri- 
 lievo, are also of very high antiquity. Those with black 
 figures on a red ground come next in order ; while the' most 
 modern are black with red figures : such of them, at least, 
 as depart from the old stiff Etruscan style, and have the 
 more natural shapes of Greek art; for example, those of 
 Magna Gracia in general, and Nola in particular." (Mrs 
 II. way. Sepulchres of Etruria, p. 45.) 
 
 VA'SSAL. (Derived, according to Sir F. Palgrave on 
 the English Commonwealth, from the Welsh gwas, a young 
 man or page ; gwasaeth, the. state, of pagehood, being ren- 
 dered in Latin vassaticum.) The holder of a fief, by fealty 
 
 1295 
 
VASTUS. 
 
 and service, of a feudal superior or lord. (Sec Feudal Sys- 
 tem.! From the Celtic origin of this word, it has been in- 
 ferred that some portion of the feudal usages were derived 
 from those of the tribes which possessed Gaul and Britain 
 before their annexation to the Roman empire. In the an- 
 cient documents of the Carlovingian kings, the vassal is 
 termed " vassus," or " homo fidelis ;" the lord generally 
 " senior." The term vassal was also more generally used, 
 in common language, to signify all who were dependent on 
 a superior lord, from those who held fiefs of him down to 
 his serfs or villeins. (See Guizot, Civilization en France, 
 vol. iv.) 
 
 VASTUS. A term applied by anatomists to two mus- 
 cles of the thigh, the external and internal vasti. 
 
 VA'TICAN, the ancient palace of the popes, and the 
 most magnificent in the world, stands at Rome on the right 
 bank of the Tiber, and on the hill anciently called by the 
 same name ; derived, according to Aulus Gellius, from Va- 
 ticinium, or rather from an ancient oracular deity of the 
 Latins, called by the Romans Jupiter Vatican us, who was 
 worshipped there. Some say that Pope Symmachus began 
 the construction of the palace. It was inhabited by Char 
 /emagne in 800 ; and the present irregular edifice has been 
 raised by the gradual additions of a long series of pontiffs. 
 Its extent is enormous, the number of rooms, at the lowest 
 computation, amounting to 4422 ; and its riches in marbles, 
 bronzes, and frescoes, in ancient statues and gems, and in 
 paintings, are unequalled in the world ; not to mention its 
 library, the richest in Europe in manuscripts. The length 
 of the museum of statues alone is computed to be a mile: 
 here are the Sistine Chapel ; the Camere of Raphael, 
 painted by himself and pupils; the Museum of Pius VI., 
 peculiarly rich in objects of ancient Italian workmanship ; 
 and other deposits of art and antiquity, eooh of which by 
 itself would suffice to render a city illustrious. 
 
 VAU'DEVILLE. In French poetry, a species of light 
 song, frequently of a satirical turn, consisting of several 
 couplets and a refrain or burden, introduced into theatrical 
 pieces. The origin of the word is disputed ; some derive 
 it from Vau-de-vire, a village in Normandy. Short comic 
 pieces interspersed with such songs are also termed Vaude- 
 villes. 
 
 VAU'DOIS. (Lat. Waldenses.) The inhabitants of 
 some valleys in the Alps between Italy and Provence, from 
 whence they derive their name ; and who must be distin- 
 guished from the Waldenses, or followers of Peter Waldo, 
 who acquired celebrity in the 12th century, and from whom 
 some writers have deduced both their religious tenets and 
 their appellation also. The Vaudois are celebrated for 
 having maintained the purity of their doctrine for many 
 ages before the. Reformation ; and it has been asserted by 
 some theologians that the true spirit of the primitive Chris- 
 tianity was kept alive among them throughout the whole 
 period of Romish corruption. This position, however, does 
 not seem susceptible of proof. Another claim that they 
 possess to a place in ecclesiastical history, is derived from 
 the numerous persecutions to which they have been ex- 
 posed on account of the witness they have so long borne 
 against the erroneous doctrines of the nations by whom 
 they are surrounded. Their extreme antiquity is certain at 
 all events; and the numerous attempts which have been 
 made by Romanist writers to fix on them the stigma of 
 Manicheism seem unsupported by the evidence. For the 
 last three centuries they have been viewed with displeasure 
 by the dukes of Savoy and the kings of Sardinia, their 
 masters, and repeatedly visited with military execution, or 
 more legal forms of violence. One great persecution, in the 
 17th century, is known to us by Milton's noble sonnet. 
 Not long after it they were altogether expelled, and retreat- 
 ed into Switzerland, whence they returned by a celebrated 
 march, and recovered ibeir valleys by force ; an event com- 
 memorated in the wofk of Arnaud, one of their pastors, La 
 Olorieuse Rentree des Vaudois dans leurs Vallees. At pres- 
 ent they are by no means free from occasional vexations. 
 Their number is about 30,000. (See Faber on the Walden- 
 ses and Jllbigenses, as to their tenets.) 
 
 VAULT. (Fr. voute ; It. volta.) In Architecture, an 
 arched roof, so contrived that the stones, bricks, or other 
 materials whereof it is constructed, sustain and keep each 
 other in their places. Vaults are circular and elliptical. 
 When their section rises higher than a semicircle, they are 
 said to be surmounted ; when less, surbased. 
 
 VA'VASSOR. A word of uncertain derivation, although 
 probably derived from the same root with vassal (gwas, a 
 youth or page, in some Celtic dialects). The vassals who 
 held immediately of the higher nobility, under the feudal 
 system in France, were frequently comprehended under this 
 general name; the chatelains being such vavassors as pos- 
 sessed castles or fortified houses. (See Hallam, Middle 
 Jiget, vol. i., p. 149.) The word, however, seems to have 
 been of very loose application. Poor gentleman are termed 
 vavassors in old French romances. In England the title 
 1296 
 
 VEHMIC COURTS. 
 
 was not usual, although it is mentioned in Bracton in con 
 tradistinction to baron, and sometimes appears to have 
 designated persons who held land by military tenure of oth- 
 ers than the king. (See Jlrchaologia* vol. ii.) 
 
 VE'CTIS. (Lat. Die lever.) In Mechanics, the same 
 with lever. See Lever. 
 
 VE'CTOR. (Lat. vehere, to carry), or RAD' CJS VEC- 
 TOR. In Astronomy, a straight line conceived to be drawn 
 from the centre of a planet to the centre of the sun, by 
 which the planet appears to be carried round the sun it. its 
 orbit. In .geometry, lite radius vector of a conic section is 
 a straight line drawn from one of the foci to any point in the 
 curve. 
 
 VE'DA. The name by which the Hindoos designate the 
 collective body of their scriptures; sometimes called Ve- 
 dam, Bedam, &c, according to various provincial pronunci- 
 ations, by European writers. The four Vedas (Rig, Yaiust, 
 Saman, and Atharvan) are believed, according to the or- 
 thodox creed, to have been revealed by Brahma. But the 
 subdivisions are infinite, as are also the connected works — 
 Upavedas, Angas, Upangas, &c. ; some of which are con- 
 sidered by Mr. Colebrooke to constitute, according to re- 
 ceived opinion, a fifth Veda. The arrangement is ascribed 
 to one Vyasa, a sage of whom nothing positive can be as- 
 certained. The Vedas chiefly consist of prayers, precepts 
 or maxims, and stories; called respectively by different 
 titles. Thus a portion of the mythological histories are 
 called Puranas ; but these are not to be confounded with 
 the poems of romantic mythology called by the same name. 
 (See Puranas.) The genuineness and antiquity of the Ve- 
 das have been matter of much dispute among western anti- 
 quaries. The chief chronological data are, that they were 
 compiled before the supposed incarnation of Vishnu, as 
 Rama and Kirshna, under which titles he is now so com- 
 monly worshipped among the Hindoos ; and also before the 
 appearance of Buddha. Sir William Jones (Asiat. Re- 
 searches, vol. ii.) gave them a conjectural antiquity of about 
 3000 years ; and Mr. Colebrooke (lb., vol. vii.) arrives at 
 about the same conclusion. 
 
 VEDA'NTA. A sect among the Hindoos, whose theory 
 of philosophy is professedly founded on the revelation's 
 contained in the Vedas. Its fundamental tenets appear to 
 have a near connexion with the opinions of Epicharmus, 
 Plato, Pyrrho, and what is termed the Berkelian philosophy 
 among ourselves: namely, that matter has no existence in- 
 dependent of mental perception ; with the ordinary conse- 
 quences of that doctrine, of which those practically most 
 important are the maxims of Quietism. See, on the phi- 
 losophy of the Vedas, Ritter's History of Ancient Philoso- 
 phy (translation), vol. i., p. 06, &c. 
 
 VEER. In Naval Language, to give the ship more scope 
 of cable. Also to let any thing drop astern by a rope. Also 
 the old term for to wear. 
 
 VE'GETABLE EARTH. Soil in which decayed vege 
 table matter is in a much larger proportion than the primi- 
 tive earths. In Horticulture, vegetable earth is called 
 mould; and in Agriculture the term is applied to the sur- 
 face soil of hollows, which contain alluvial soil beneath, 
 and vegetable matter, generally of a black colour, on the 
 
 VEGETA'TION. See Botany. 
 
 VEGETA'TION, CHEMISTRY OF. From the moment 
 a seed begins to grow a series of chemical changes are in- 
 duced, essential to the development of its germ. The pro- 
 cess has been chiefly studied in regard to bicotyledonous 
 plants, and a general outline of it is given under the word 
 Germination. 
 
 VE'HMIC COURTS. (Germ, vehm, or femgerichte.) 
 Criminal Courts of Justice, established in Germany during 
 the middle ages. These courts are commonly said to have 
 originated in those held by the Missi Dominici, or imperial 
 legates, sent by Charlemagne into the provinces of his em- 
 pire ; but many circumstances denote their descent from the 
 more ancient tribunals of the German tribes, held in the 
 open air in the primitive periods of their history. (See a 
 curious account of the free field courts of the Germans in 
 Sir F. Palgrave's work on the English Commonwealth , 
 JVigand's Femgericht Wcstphalens.) But the character 
 under which these institutions became formidable and in 
 portant, about the beginning of the 13th century, arose froffl 
 the disordered state of northern Germany after the dissolu- 
 tion of the duchy of Saxony. The Vehmic, or, as they were 
 called, free courts, were then modelled on a secret system of 
 organization. The president was usually a prince or count 
 of (he empire ; his assistants (styled Freischiinen) were 
 persons affiliated to the society by secret initiation, to the 
 number, it is said, at one time of 100,000. All these were 
 bound to attend the secret meetings of the courts when 
 summoned, and to execute their decrees, if necessary, by 
 taking the life of persons condemned. Westphalia, styled, 
 in the language of the free courts, the Red Land, was the 
 district in which their central authority was seated. These 
 
VEIL. 
 
 courts exercised a great power, which was occasionally ser- 
 viceable in repressing the lawless violence of the nobles of 
 that period, but which was also liable to be perverted to 
 the gratification of private malice and tyranny. Various 
 leagues were formed in the 15th century, by the nobles of 
 the empire, for the purpose of destroying their influence; 
 Which was at last effected, chiefly by the introduction of a 
 better s\ Mem of public judicature and police In the several 
 See also the publication of the Library of Enter- 
 tainin:: Knowledge Society, Secret Societies of the Middle 
 Ages. The romantic use of this history made by Goethe in 
 ron BerUc&inftn is well known. 
 
 VEIL. A term used In describing fungi to denote the 
 horizontal membrane connecting the margin of the pileus 
 with the stipes. 
 
 VEINS, ^at. vena.) In Anatomy, elastic tubes which 
 convey the blood from the arteries back to the heart. See 
 
 HBART. 
 
 MINERAL. Cracks or fissures in rocks filled 
 up with substances differing from the rock itself. When 
 these are of a metallic nature, they form the chief reposi- 
 t!ie most useful metals, and are termed metallic 
 veins, they often contain cavities lined with some of the 
 ullful mineral products. Some veins are several 
 le ; and they often branch off into smaller rumiti- 
 hich are gradually lost in the surrounding rock. 
 i.oov. 
 VELELLA. (Diminutive of velum, a sail.) The name 
 of I genus of Acalcphes, characterized by a vertical crest 
 or sail, by means of which they are wafted along the sur- 
 ■ an. 
 VE'LfTES. The light-armed infantry attached to a Ro- 
 il were so called. (See Mem dc VAc. des Inscr., 
 vol. wix.) They were equipped with bows, slings, and 
 javelins, a light wooden buckler covered with leather, and 
 a head | 
 VE'LLCM. fLat. velnmen, or vitulinum.) A fine kind 
 iment made of calf-skin. The skins are limed, 
 ihav.-d. washed and stretched in proper frames, where 
 scraped with the currier's fleshing-tool, and ulti- 
 nbbed doivn to a proper thickness with pumice- 
 
 VELO'CE. (It. swift.) In Music, a term which, pre- 
 fixed to a movement, indicates that it is to be performed in 
 a rapid manner. 
 
 VELO'CIPEDE. (Lat velox, swift, and pes, foot.) A 
 vehicle invented at Mannheim in 1817, by M. Drais, consist- 
 ing of a piece of wood about five feet long, and half a fool 
 mg on two wheels, one behind the other. On 
 this an Individual sits, as on horseback, his feet touching 
 the ground, and thus propelling the machine. The front 
 lay be turned at pleasure, so that the rider may 
 give any direction to the machine. This species of vehicle 
 never came into general use ; but it was improved by 
 Knitrht in this country, and a patent received for it. 
 
 VELO'CITY (Lat. velox, swift), is measured by the 
 space which a moving body passes through in a given 
 time. The velocity of a body is uniform when it passes 
 through equal spaces in equal times; and variable when 
 the spaces passed through in equal times are unequal. It 
 is accelerated when the force by which a body is put into a 
 state of motion continues to act after the motion has com- 
 menced ; and retarded when the moving body encounters 
 obstacles which tend to destroy the motion. Velocity is 
 merely a relative term ; for there is nothing, as Biot re- 
 marks Traite dc Physique, I. iii., p. 148), vt '->ich in itself is 
 either swift or slow, any more than great o. small. The 
 velocity of a cannon ball appears very grea,. as it can 
 scarcely be followed by the eye; yet it is slow in compari- 
 son of the motion of a point on the earth's equator carried 
 round by the diurnal motion ; and this, in its turn, is far in- 
 ferior to the velocity of the earth in its orbit, which again is 
 greatly exceeded by the velocity of light. (For the velocity 
 of falling bodies, see Acceleration; for the velocity of a 
 body moving in curve about a centre of force, see Central 
 Forces. See also Gunnery, Virtual Velocity, &c.) 
 
 VELVET. A rich kind of stuff, extensively used for 
 ladies' dresses and a variety of other purposes. Of velvet 
 there are properly only two kinds, that with a plain, and 
 that with a tweeled, or, as it is also called, a Genoa ground 
 or back. When the material is silk, it is called velvet; 
 when cotton, velveteen. The latter is a species of fustian, 
 which, under a variety of names, is largely used for men's 
 wearing apparel. 
 
 VENA CAVA. See Heart. 
 
 TENEE'R. In Architecture, a thin piece of material of 
 • more valuable kind laid on another of a more common 
 sort, by which the whole substance appears to be of the 
 more valuable sort. Veneering is more usually applied to 
 furniture than to strictly architectural purposes. 
 
 VENETIAN SCHOOL. In Painting. The distinguish- 
 ing character of this school is colouring, and a consummate 
 4 N 
 
 VENTILATION. 
 
 intellectual knowledge of chiaro-scuro ; in both which all 
 is grace, spirit, and faithful adherence to nature, 
 five as to lead the spectator away from any consideration of 
 its defects. It is an exquisite Bouquet of well-arranged flow- 
 ers ; or a collection of pulpy, juicy, saccharine fruits. Hut 
 it is not to be inferred that it is altogether wanting in still 
 higher accomplishments : for the head of it was Tiziano do 
 Vecelli; and in its ranks are to be found Tintoretto. Paul 
 Veronese, Giorgione, and many other illustrious masters. 
 See Painting. 
 
 VE'NIAL SIN. (Lat venin./or^itjencs.').) In Theology, 
 is defined, by Roman Catholic theologians, a sin which 
 weakens sanctifying grace, but does not take it away. It i- 
 not necessary, although commendable, to mention such sit; 
 In confession. Reformed theologians altogether reject the 
 formal distinction between venial and mortal sin. 
 
 VENl'RE FA'CIAS. In Law, a judicial writ, directed 
 to the sheriff, to cause a jury to come or npi>ear in the 
 neighbourhood where a cause is brought to issue, to try the 
 same. (See Jury.) A venire facias de nora. being a writ 
 directing the sheriff to cause a jury to come and try a cause 
 a second time, is granted where there has been a mis-trial : 
 on the ground of irregularity, as, for instance, in summoning 
 the jury; on the ground of misconduct by the jury; and 
 also in certain enses where the verdict given is imperfect by 
 reason of some ambiguity and uncertainty. The great rule 
 of difference between a venire de novo in the latter case and 
 a new trial is, that the former Is only granted on matter ap- 
 pearing on the record. 
 
 VENL BANCTE BPIRITUS. (Lat, Come, Holy Ghost.) 
 The name given to a mass in the Roman Catholic church 
 to invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 VENTA'YLE, or AVENTAYLE. The visor of a hel- 
 met. See Helmet. 
 
 VE'NTER, (Lat.) in Entomology, signifies the lower 
 part of the abdomen. 
 
 VENTILATION, (Lat. ventus, wind) literally signifies 
 fanning or blowing. In Domestic Economy, it is the art of 
 conveying currents of fresh air through close apartments or 
 confined places, so as to maintain the atmosphere in a state 
 of purity. 
 
 Atmospheric air consists of two ingredients, oxygen and 
 azote, blended together in the proportion of one part by 
 measure of the former to four of the latter. When these 
 proportions are altered, air becomes unfit for respiration . 
 and when the oxygen is withdrawn or consumed, it is ren 
 dered altogether incapable of supporting animal life or com 
 bastion. But there are operations both of nature and art 
 continually going forward in which the oxygen of the atmo 
 sphere is consumed, and gaseous products evolved which 
 are destructive of life. Thus, in the act of respiration, a 
 certain portion of the oxygen contained in the air inhaled 
 into the lungs is converted into carbonic acid, a substance 
 which acts as a narcotic poison ; and hence, in a confined 
 apartment, air is soon rendered, by breathing alone, not 
 merely incapable of maintaining life, but highly destructive 
 of it, in consequence of the evolution of a deleterious gas. 
 In like manner, oxygen is consumed, and carbonic acid 
 evolved, in the process of combustion ; and the burning of a 
 pan of charcoal in a close room is known to be a certain 
 mentis of extinguishing life. 
 
 Although a decomposition and deterioration of nir is thus 
 continually going forward, nature has by various means 
 provided so effectually for the restoration of the two con- 
 stituent gases, that in whatever part of the world, and at 
 whatever height in the atmosphere, air is taken, it is found, 
 when chemically examined, to contain azote and oxygen in 
 exactly the same proportions. See Air. 
 
 Quantity of air required for Ventilation. — If the quea 
 tion were solely how to command a sufficient supply of 
 fresh air, it would be easily solved ; but as in our climates 
 the temperature of the external atmosphere is in winter 
 generally very much lower than is necessary for comfort, 
 we have at the same time to provide for the maintenance of 
 an artificial temperature in our apartments, by allowing the 
 air to enter no faster than it can be warmed. One of the 
 first points, therefore, to be considered, is the amount of the 
 supply of fresh air which an individual requires for comfort 
 and health. This, however, is a point on which, by reason 
 of the great variety of circumstances concerned, it is ex- 
 tremely difficult to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 Dr. Henry estimates that an adult person makes, on the 
 average, 20 inspirations per minute, and draws into his 
 lungs at each inspiration 20 cubic inches of air. Peclet 
 allows 40 cubic inches for each inspiration. Taking the 
 mean of the two estimates, we have 600 cubic inches ex- 
 pired per minute. But, according to Dr. Arnott, air expelled 
 from the lungs is found to vitiate, so as to render unfit for 
 respiration, twelve times its own bulk of pure nir ; hence, 
 the quantity of air spoiled every minute by the respiration 
 of an adult, is 7200 cubic inches, or rather more than 4 
 cubic feet Dr. Arnott, however, supposes the waste to be 
 
 1297 
 
VENTILATION. 
 
 only talf of this quantity. But there are several other 
 causes of deterioration besides the production of carbonic 
 acid from the lungs: the effluvia and vapour of animal 
 matter exuded from the whole surface of the body is not less 
 injurious than carbonic acid ; and, according to M. Seguin, 
 in a temperature of 60°, about 3£ cubic feet of air per 
 minute is charged with animal vapour transmitted through 
 the skin of an adult, and rendered unfit for respiration. 
 When artificial. lights are used, a further allowance must 
 be made for the waste by combustion. Besides, air is re- 
 quired for various other purposes than those which have 
 now been mentioned. It acts as a cooling power, and 
 hence the supply requisite for comfort depends on its tem- 
 perature. It likewise serves to carry off moisture from the 
 skin, and therefore its state as to dryness or humidity must 
 be considered. Dr. D. B. Reid found, from observations on 
 a number of persons assembled in an experimental room, 
 that not less than 10 cubic feet per minute should be allow- 
 ed to each individual on the average, at an agreeable tem- 
 perature; but that, to maintain the atmosphere in all its 
 purity, a much larger supply would at times be desirable. 
 On the whole, therefore, we may conclude that 10 cubic 
 feet of fresh air per .minute, for each individual, is the 
 smallest allowance that should be made in order to ensure 
 healthful ventilation. 
 
 Sources of JErial Movement. — One of the most efficient 
 means of ventilation is afforded by the action of heat. At 
 ordinary temperatures, air suffers an expansion Otf about 
 l-500th part for each degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer 
 by which the temperature is raised ; and being rendered 
 specifically lighter in the same proportion, the pressure of 
 the surrounding atmosphere predominates, and the heated 
 air is forced upwards. This principle is exemplified in the 
 action of the ordinary chimney, which may be regarded as 
 a tube open at both ends, and placed in any position except 
 the horizontal. The air in the lower end of the tube, being 
 heated by the fire, rises and passes out at the upper end, 
 while its place is supplied by the pressure of the fluid sur- 
 rounding the lower opening ; and the circumstances of mo- 
 tion are the same as if another tube, filled with air of the 
 original temperature, were adapted to the lower end of the 
 chimney, which is filled with healed air, so that the cur- 
 rent is established in the same manner as in an inverted 
 siphon, in which two columns of air of different densities, 
 but equal altitudes, press against each other. At the lower 
 opening of the chimney, the draught or velocity of the cur- 
 rent is expressed by this formula, 
 
 where v denotes the velocity in feet per second, g the ac- 
 celerating force of gravity (=32 - SJ feet per second), a the 
 rate of expansion for one degree of increased temperature, 
 t' the temperature of the heated air as it enters the chim- 
 ney, and t that of the external air. It appears from this 
 that the velocity of draught is as the square root of the 
 height of the chimney, and the square root of the excess of 
 temperature at the lower opening. But as the same quan- 
 tity of air must be supposed to pass through every different 
 section of the chimney in the same time, it follows that 
 the velocity at every part must be inversely as the density, 
 and, therefore, decreases from the bottom to the summit. 
 
 As the draught of a chimney depends on the difference of 
 the temperature of the air at its lower and upper ends, it 
 will atford a- considerable power of ventilation, even when 
 there is no fire, if the room be heated by any means (as by 
 an assemblage of persons) above the temperature of the ex- 
 ternal atmosphere. In warm weather this may, however, be 
 insufficient; hut in this case a large shaft, communicating 
 with the apartment at some distance, will afford, by means 
 of a good fire, an exhausting power to any extent. This is 
 the in«"hod by which the Houses of Parliament are at pre- 
 sent ventilated, and the principle has been frequently ap- 
 plied in mines and manufactories. The impulsion of air 
 into a chamber by mechanical means is often had recourse 
 to in particular circumstances. In the printing-office of the 
 Bank of England there is a ventilating apparatus consisting 
 of a square, box for a pump body, with a loose piston, and 
 furnished with large valved openings, by means of which 
 1100 cubic feet of air per minute are driven through the 
 apartments. For ventilating the holds of ships, cellars, &c, 
 the windsail is usually applied, though sometimes a fanner 
 is introduced for the same purpose. 
 
 The subject of ventilating is intimately connected with 
 that of warming apartments; and the great difficulty to be 
 overcome is, to provide for both objects at the same time. 
 The open fire-place, so generally used for private buildings 
 in this country, affords, beyond question, the purest ami 
 wholesomest source of heat; but it is attended with many 
 serious defects. By far the greater part of the heat produc- 
 ed by the combustion passes through the chimney without 
 contributing to warm the apartment, thus occasioning a 
 great waste of fuel ; while the air admitted into the room to 
 1298 
 
 VENTRILOQ-UIST. 
 
 supply the place of that which sustains the combustion is 
 allowed to lind its way through the imperfect fittings of the 
 doors and windows, wherever accident leaves an aperture, 
 under no regulation, and accordingly passes through the, 
 apartment to the fire-place in offensive and injurious cur 
 rents. Nor, after all, is the ventilation by any means com 
 plete ; for while currents of cold air are passing along a tew 
 inches or feet above the floor, they seldom rise above the 
 level of the chimney piece, and the air in the upper [tart of 
 the room may exist in a greatly vitiated state by the pro- 
 ducts of respiration and the combustion of the lamps or 
 candles. These evils might, indeed, be obviated to a con 
 siderable extent, and the currents in the room much dimin 
 ished, by bringing an independent supply of air through 
 tubes leading directly from the outer air to the fire-place, 
 and provided with valves to regulate the quantity. Count 
 Rumford recommended that the air should be conducted 
 from the roof of the building through a pipe or canal 
 placed in the interior of the chimney, and admitted into the 
 apartment through a regulated ventilator in the chimney 
 piece. The object of placing the tube within tie chimney 
 was, that the air, in its passage through it into the room, 
 should be warmed by the contrary current of air from the 
 fire-place ; thus economising the heat which in the ordina 
 ry arrangement is entirely lost. This suggestion has been 
 improved upon in a great variety of ways, and the principle 
 applied to close as well as to open stoves. 
 
 When apartments are warmed by other means than open 
 fires, as close stoves, the circulation of hot water in tubes, 
 heated air, &.c, means should be applied to obtain ventila- 
 tion entirely independent of the heating, and controlled by 
 valves. If stoves are used, the chimney to carry off the 
 products of combustion, and the tubes which supply the air 
 necessary to maintain it, should have no communication 
 with the chamber in which the stove is placed. Stoves of 
 low combu?tion, like Arnott's stoves, or the porcelain stoves 
 used in the north of Europe, are the best: iron, heated to a 
 high temperature, causes an offensive smell, and decom- 
 poses the air; besides, the air which conies in contact with 
 it, in consequence of the temperature it acquires, rushes 
 rapidly to the highest part of the mom, and renders regula- 
 ted ventilation impossible. The mild hot-water apparatus. 
 when the pipes are suitably disposed, affords an agreeable 
 warmth, and has this advantage — that the sources of heat 
 not being confined to a particular part of the room, equable 
 ventilation is rendered more easy. In rooms for public as 
 semblies, where the air requires to bo changed rapidly 
 greater difficulty is encountered: the best method undoubt- 
 edly is, to admit the pure air from a chamber in which it 
 is previously heated (or cooled, as the case may require) to 
 the suitable temperature, and to carry off the respired and 
 vitiated nir by the shaft of a furnace. 
 
 Of late years, the subject of ventilation, as connected 
 with the public health, has engaged much attention ; and a 
 mass of useful information respecting it will be found in the 
 recent Parliamentary Reports, particularly on the ventila- 
 ting and acoustic arrangements of the present House of 
 Commons, on education and manufactures, and the means of 
 improving the health of large towns. (t>ee Trcdgola"s 
 Principles of Warming and Ventilating Public Buildings, 
 iv>c; Amotion Warming and Ventilation; the JMonthly 
 Chronicle, vol. i., p. 390; Dr. Hcid's Chemistry of the At- 
 mosphere; Encyc. Brit., art. " Ventilation ;" Peclet, Traiti 
 de la Chaleur). 
 
 VENTILATOR. Any machine or contrivance for pro- 
 moting or re 1 ' dating ventilation. The common ventilator 
 placed in w' .dows, which revolves in the same manner as 
 a smoke-j- ck, in consequence of the bnpultdon of a current 
 of air, seives only to retard, in some degree, the entrance of 
 the current, to disperse it in different directions, and to pre- 
 vent any sudden increase in the intensity of the draught. 
 It has no power of acting so as to create a current, or keep 
 up its intensity when it has been established. 
 
 VE'NTRICLE. (Lat. venter, the belly.) A term in 
 Anatomy, applied to cavities of the brain and of the heart. 
 
 VE'NTRICOSE. In Zoology, a part is so termed when 
 it bellies out as if filled with air. 
 
 VENTRI'LOOUIST. (Lat. venter, the belly; loquor, I 
 speak.) One whose voice appears to come from his belly. 
 Ventriloquists are generally supposed to have the power of 
 making the voice appear to come from distant objects or 
 quarters ; but this is a deception, arising out of the manner 
 in which the ventriloquist manages his voice. The art ap- 
 pears to consist in filling the lungs with air, and employing, 
 during expiration, such organs of voice as can be used with- 
 out the aid of the lips ; or at least with as little movement 
 of the lips, mouth, or cheeks, as is compatible with the pro 
 nunciation of certain words. By practice many individuals 
 have acquired considerable dexterity in this art ; and when 
 certain words can be distinctly pronounced in different tones, 
 in the way described, the imagination of the hearers easily 
 leads them to suppose that they come from a person in a 
 
VENUE. 
 
 box, or up the chimney, or from inanimate objects, especially 
 If adventitious means Lie resorted to lo aid the illusion, as is 
 generally the case in such exhibitions. 
 
 VENU'E. (Norm. Fr. Vtsne; I>at. \H\nclum, neighbour- 
 hood.) In L iw. By the original institution of trial By jury, 
 re summoned from the immediate neighbourhood 
 where a fact happened, to try it by their own knowledge. 
 Besce, Ion;.' alter the institution had been altered in charac- 
 ter, Juries were still .siiuiiiioncd in point ot' form from the 
 illage, &c, until by 4 Ann., c. 16, they became suin- 
 uionable as they still are, from the body of the county. The 
 venue, therefore, was the neighbourhood named in the 
 venue facias, or writ summoning the jury ; and the last 
 relics of the old practice, in criminal proceedings, were 
 abolished by 5 G. 4, C 50. (See Jury.) The venue, there- 
 to] e, is the county in which the action is to be tried, which 
 . d in all material allegations in the pleadings; and 
 it need not be the county in which the fact took place ex- 
 cept in what ure called local actions. See Pleadi.no. 
 
 VE'NUS. In Astronomy, one of the principal planets, 
 md In the order of distance from the sun, and the 
 most brilliant of all the planetary bodies. From her alter- 
 nate appearance in the morning and evening, Venus was 
 called by the Greeks Hesperus and Phosphorus, the evening' 
 and morning star ; sometimes also she is called the shep- 
 herd's star. 
 
 The distance of Venus from the sun is •7233316, that of 
 
 >rih being unity ; whence her true distance is about 68 
 
 millions of miles. Her slden nl revolution is performed in 
 
 oTdO'J mean solar days; and her synodical period, or 
 
 the interval between her successive conjunctions with the 
 
 sun, is 083-92U mean solar days. The inclination of the 
 
 orbit to the ecliptic was 3° 23' •286" at the commencement 
 
 il century, and is subject to a decrease of about 
 
 i " in a year. The eccentricity of the orbit is IKH386074, 
 
 half the major axis being unity; and the longitude of the ns- 
 
 rtg node at the commencement of the present century 
 
 .1-54' 129", having a motion westward, when referred 
 
 Ml the fixed stars, amounting lo 17-6" in a year. 
 
 The mean apparent diameter of Venus, or her apparent 
 ;er when at her mean distance, is 16-9" ; but it is sab- 
 great variations, being only 9'0" at the time of her 
 junction, and at the time of the inferior con- 
 .11 .sometimes so much as 01-2". Comparing this with 
 iicr mean distance, her true diameter is 1175, that of the 
 being unity ; and is consequently about 7700 English 
 Her volume is therefore -927 of that of the earth. 
 Her mass, as compared with that of the sun, is •OOOOOOtti;;-'. 
 
 Venus being an inferior planet, is never seen in opposi- 
 tion to the sun. Her greatest elongation, or angular distance 
 from the sun, varies from 45° to 47° 12\ According lo her 
 various jRisitions relatively to the sun and earth, she changes 
 her phases like the moon, appearing when she first emerges 
 from the sun's rays, and becomes visible in the morning as 
 a hue luminous crescent, the horns of which are turned 
 m ay from the sun. As the planet recedes from the sun, 
 the breadth of the crescent increases : at the greatest elonga- 
 tion it becomes a semicircle; after this the breadth of the 
 disk goes on increasing till the planet arrives at its superior 
 conjunction, where it nppears as a full orb, the illuminated 
 Ride being turned towaids the earth. These appearances, 
 on account of the irradiation, are not appreciable by the 
 naked eye, but they become visible in an ordinary telescoiie. 
 
 Venus is supposed to revolve about an axis ; and the time 
 of rotation is stated, from observations made by .Srhroeter, 
 to be 23 h. 21 m. 7-2 sec, the axis of rotation bei:ig inclined 
 to the ecliptic in an angle of about 75°. There is, how- 
 ever, considerable doubt as to the accuracy of these con- 
 clusions. On this subject Sir John Hetschel remarks, that 
 Venus, "although il attains occasionally the considerable 
 apparent diameter of 61", which is larger than that of any 
 other planet is yet Ihe most difficult of them all to define 
 with telescopes. The intense lustre of its illuminated part 
 dazzles the sight, and exaggerates every imperfection of the 
 telescope ; yet we sec clearly that its surface is not mottled 
 over with permanent spots like the moon: we perceive in 
 it neither mountains nor shadows, but a uniform brightness, 
 in which we may, indeed, fancy obscurer portions, but can 
 seldom or never rest fully satisfied of the fact. It is from 
 some observations of this kind that both Venus and Mercury 
 hive been concluded to revolve on their axes in about 
 the same time as the earth. The most natural conclusion, 
 from the very rare appearance and want of permanence in 
 the spots, is, that we do not see, as in the moon, the real 
 surface of these planets, but only their atmospheres, much 
 loaded with clouds, and which may serve to mitigate the 
 otherwise intense glare of their sunshine." (" Astronomv," 
 Cabinet Cyclap&dia, p. 279.) 
 
 Venus is sometimes seen to pass over the disc of the sun, 
 presenting a phenomenon analogous to that of a solar 
 eclipse by the moon. This phenomenon, which is called a 
 transit of Venus, can only happen when the planet is at its 
 
 VERDURER. 
 
 inferior conjunction, and, at the same time, very near one 
 of its nodes. It is therefore of rare occurrence: but very 
 Important, inasmuch as it affords the best means astronomers 
 ;< running the sun's parallax, and consequently 
 the dimensions of the planetary system. (Sec Planet.) 
 Delambre hag given a list of all the transits occurring In a 
 period of 20110 years. The following contains all that have 
 happened since 1631, and thai will happen before the end 
 ot the 21st century: 
 
 1 Ml, Dec. 6. 1874, Dec. 8. 
 
 1639, Dec. 4. 1888, Dec. 6. 
 
 1761, June 5. 2004, June 7. 
 
 1769, June 3. 2012, June 5. 
 
 <.•/'.-• Astronomical Tab'cs and Formulas. 
 
 The first transit ever seen was that Of 1639, which wa.. 
 observed in this country by Horrox and Crabtrce. The im- 
 portance of the phenomenon for determining the sun's 
 parallax was first pointed out by James Gregory in his Op- 
 tica Promota, 1663. 
 
 Venus. In Zoology, a name applied by Ltnncus to a 
 genus of Vermes Testacca, including those which have a 
 bivalve shell with the frontal margin flattened, with incum- 
 bent lips; the hinge with three teeth, all of them approxi 
 mate, and the lateral ones divergent at the top. 
 
 The Bivalves thus characterized enter in'o the Cnrdiacean 
 family of the Testaceous Acephala of Cuvier, and are sub- 
 divided into Ihe genera Venus proper, Lam. ; jlstarlc. Sow 
 erby ; Cyt/icrea, Lam. ; Capsa, Brug. ; Pctricola, Lara. 
 
 Venus. The Latin name of the Grecian Aphrodite ('A£ 
 pob"iTn). This goddess is generally supposed lo have been 
 of eastern origin, and to have been the same as the Phoeni- 
 cian Astarte. By the Grecian poets she was called the 
 daughter of Jupiter and Dione ; or, according to some ac- 
 counts, arose from the loam of the sea. She was Worship- 
 ped as the goddess of beauty and love, her principal 
 being the islands of Cyprus nnd Cythera. The Romans re- 
 garded her as the progenitress of their nation, which was 
 tabled to have sprung from ./Eneas, the olfspring of her 
 union with the Trojan Anchises. She was married to Vul- 
 can ; but was not remarkable for fidelity to her husband. 
 Her amour with Adonis is particularly celebrated in ancient 
 poetry. (See, as to her worship, M in. de l\lc. des fnscr., 
 vol. xvi.; Ilryant's Mythology, i., 392; iii., 157.) 
 
 Venus Urania, or Heavenly, was distinguished from 
 Pandemos, or Popular, rather by philosophers man the mul- 
 titude. The most celebrated ancient statues of Venus now 
 existing are the Anadyomene and Medicean, both at Flor- 
 ence. 
 
 VERA'TRIA. An alkaline p.inciple found in the root 
 of the Veratrum album, or white hellebore ; in the seels of 
 the Veratrum sabadilla ; and in the bulb and seed of the 
 Co/chicum autumnale, or meadow saffron. It is acrid and 
 poisonous ; difficultly soluble in water, readily soluble in al- 
 cohol, and less so in ether. It excites violent sneezing, and 
 is probably the principle upon which the efficacy of colch't 
 cum in the cure of gout depends. 
 
 VERB. (Lat. verbum, a word.) In Grammar, a part of 
 speech which consists of an affirmation and a property or 
 attribute affirmed. Verbs are distinguished into transitive, 
 intransitive, and passive. Besides these, there is the verb 
 substantive, which expresses simple affirmation abstracted 
 from any particular property affirmed. See Grammar. 
 
 VERBAL. In Grammar, a noun derived from a verb. 
 In English, verbals are commonly known by the termina- 
 tions inn, ive, which are derived from the Latin. 
 
 VERD ANTIQUE. A beautiful mottled green marble ; 
 it is an aggregate of marble and serpentine. 
 
 VE'RDICT. In Law, the answer of a jury given to the 
 court concerning the matter of fact in any cause committed 
 to their trial. A special verdict is a verdict not delivered 
 generally in behalf of cither plaintiff or defendant, but 
 stating the facts, and referring the law arising Upon them to 
 the judgment of the court. Sec Jury. 
 
 VE'RDIGRIS. A blue green pigment, originally prepared 
 in the south of France by covering copper plates with the 
 refuse of the grape after the expression of the juice for wine. 
 It appears to be a mixture of the subacetates of copper, and 
 is now largely manufactured in this country by alternating 
 copper plates and pieces of coarse woollen cloth previously 
 soaked in crude pyroligneous acid. 
 
 VE'RDITER. A blue pigment, generally prepared by 
 decomposing solution of nitrate of copper by the addition of 
 chalk. It is a hydrated percarbonate of copper. 
 
 VE'RDURER, or VERDEROR. An officer in the royai 
 forests, whose peculiar charge was the care of the vert: 
 i. e„ in forest language, the trees and underwood of the forest, 
 all veeetation sufficient to cover a deer being included in 
 the term ; which was divided, in old language, into o°-er 
 vert and nether vert. The verderor is sworn to keep the 
 assizes of the forest ; to view, receive, and enrol attach- 
 ments and presentments, &c. 
 
 1809 
 
VERGE OF THE COURT. 
 
 VERGE OF THE COURT. The compass of tlie king's 
 eourt, within which is bounded the jurisdiction of the lord 
 steward of the household. It is said to be so called from 
 the verge, or rod of office, borne by the marshal. See 
 Steward. 
 
 VE'UJUTCE. The expressed juice of unripe or green 
 grapes. The term is applied also to a kind of vinegar made 
 of the juice of unripe apples. 
 
 VER'MIFUGES. (Lat. vermis, a worm, and fugo, / put 
 to flight.) Medicines used in elfecting the expulsion of intes- 
 tinal worms : these are sometimes merely purgatives, such as 
 calomel, scammony, gamboge, jalap, &c. Some substances 
 are supposed to have a specific action on the worm, such 
 as male fern root; others act as mechanical irritants, such 
 as the spiculte of cowhage. The most effective vermifuge 
 is a large dose of oil of turpentine. (See Anthelmintics.) 
 VERMI'LION. Red sulphuret of mercury. See Cinna- 
 bar and Mercurv. 
 
 VE'RMIN. Quadrupeds, reptiles, worms, or insect*, 
 which are injurious to the cultivator. The number of 
 these is great in every country, and calls into continual 
 requisition the skill and vigilance of man to subdue them. 
 In British agriculture the sheep and poultry are attacked by 
 foxes, weasels, and other quadrupeds; the corn and other 
 seeds and roots by rats and mice ; and all plants, as well as 
 seeds, by the weevil, the gnat, the turnip-fly, the Hessian- 
 fly, the cockchafer, the wireworm, and numerous other in- 
 sects. In gardening, almost all plants are liable to the at- 
 tacks of insects, seeds to those of rats and mice, and fruits 
 to be eaten by birds. In general, the most efficient mode to 
 subdue insects which attack plants is to invigorate their 
 growth as much as possible by culture, because it is found 
 that insects thrive best on plants which are in a state of in- 
 cipient disease ; and the next best mode to this, is the en- 
 couragement of such natural enemies to vermin as are not 
 themselves more injurious than the creatures they prey 
 upon. Thus birds of every kind, from the crow to the spar- 
 row, are the natural enemies of insects ; the crows seeking 
 out and devouring the larva of the cockchafer, the beetle, 
 and the wireworm, found at the roots of grasses ; the black- 
 bird and the thrush devouring snails, slugs, and worms ; the 
 turkey frogs, lizards, and small snakes; and the singing 
 birds and sparrow destroying not only the larva of insects, 
 but their eggs, and the insect in a winged state while flying 
 through the atmosphere. Hedgehogs and weasels, while 
 kept in outhouses and gardens, prey upon rats, mice, frogs, 
 lizards, worms, snails, slugs, and beetles. There are some 
 insects, such as the turnip-fly, the wheat or Ilessian-fly, and 
 the aphides or green fly, which propagate themselves very 
 extensively, in consequence of the extensive propagation of 
 the plants on which they feed; and these are the insects 
 which are most injurious to the cultivator, because he can- 
 not multiply their natural enemies in the same proportion as 
 he multiplies the insects by cultivating on a large scale the 
 plants on which they grow. The aphides he may destroy 
 by the application of tobacco-water and other means; but 
 he has little or no control over the turnip-fly or the wheat- 
 '!>"; Happily for man the seasons are not always alike pro- 
 pitious to these and other enemies to vegetation ; and thus 
 chance, providence, or the nature of things, enables him to 
 maintain his struggle against his natura I enemies. 
 
 VERNA'TION. Tho manner in which the nascent 
 leaves are arranged with a leaf-bud. 
 
 VERNIER. A contrivance for measuring intervals be- 
 tween the divisions of graduated scales or circular instru- 
 ments. The name is given from that of the inventor, Peter 
 Vernier, who published an account of the contrivance in a 
 work printed at Brussels in 1G31. It consists of a small 
 moveable scale, which slides along the graduated scale; 
 the divisions on the one scale being to those on the other in 
 the proportion of two numbers which differ from each other 
 by unity. The theory of the instrument, and the manner in 
 which it is used, may be explained as follows : Let A B = a 
 A I |B 
 
 89 I 12345678 9 10 12 
 
 VERNIER. 
 
 on the vernier == ~. Suppose the zero of the vernier to 
 coincide with the division marked A on the scuJe ; then the 
 first division on the vernier will not coincide with the first 
 after A on the scale, but fall behind it by a quantity equal 
 
 to their difference, or equal to — . In like manner the next 
 
 n2 
 line on the vernier will fall behind the next on the s^ale 
 by a quantity equal to twice the difference of the divisions, 
 or equal to — . The third on the vernier will fall behind 
 
 the third on the scale by -^; and so on to the nth division 
 
 on the vernier, which will fall behind the nth on the scale 
 
 u n a a , 
 
 Dv ^7 = -. that is, by a whole division ; and therefore the 
 
 nth on the vernier coincides with the division n — 1 on the 
 scale. Conceive the scale to be a scale of inches, and sup- 
 pose it divided into tenths ; then a = 1 inch, n = 10, -= J th 
 
 n to 
 
 of an inch, and — (the difference between a division on the 
 
 scale and on the vernier) = -j-J-^. ; so that the y^th of an 
 inch is exhibited on the scale, though its divisions are only 
 to tenths. 
 
 The vernier is connected with the scale in such a way 
 that it can be moved along iLhy means of a rack and pin- 
 ion, or a tangent screw, or some similar contrivance, and its 
 zero be brought to coincide with any point on the scale. If, 
 when the vernier is thus adjusted, its zero coincides exactly 
 with a division on the scale, the measure is read off at 
 once; but if (as must generally happen) the zero fails be- 
 tween two of the divisions on the scale, then some one of 
 the lines on the vernier will coincide, or very nearly coin- 
 cide, with one of the divisions on the scale, and the distance 
 of the zero beyond the last division on the scale, behind it 
 is expressed in hundredths by the number of the division on 
 the vernier which is coincident with a division on the 
 scale. Suppose, for example, the position of the vernier 
 with resjiect to the scale be as represented in the annexed 
 figure, where the zero of the vernier is brought to coincide 
 |29 [30 
 
 123456789 123 
 
 £ 
 
 H 
 
 B 
 
 U 
 
 0123456789 10 
 oe a distance on the scale containing n of its divisions. Let 
 v t> be another scale equal in length to n — 1 of the divisions 
 on A B; and let v v be divided into n equal parts. Since 
 the distance AB = i, and contains n equal parts, each di- 
 vision on the scale = -. Hence the length of the vernier 
 n 
 a 
 v t>=o— -; and, as it is divided into n equal parts, each 
 
 division on the vernier = - (a--) = *- ~; and there- 
 lore the difljrenco between a division on the scale and one 
 
 0123456789 10 
 with a certain point p on the scale. The point p is read on 
 the scale 29 inches, 2-10ths, and a fraction, which is to be 
 measured by the vernier. Here the division 5 on the vernier 
 coincides with that which is marked 7 on the scale ; there- 
 fore the distance of the zero of the vernier from the last di- 
 vision (2) behind it on the scale is 5-100ths of an inch ; for 
 as 5 on the vernier coincides with 7- on the scale, the dis- 
 tance of 4 from 6 is MOOths ; of 3 from 5, 2-100ths ; of 3 
 from 4, 3-100ths ; of 1 from 3, 4-100ths ; and of from 3 
 5-lOOths. In like manner, if the vernier were pushed 
 along till the division 8 coincided with 30 inches on the 
 scale, then the reading of the zero point would be 29 inch- 
 es, 2-10ths, and 8-100ths. If, when the zero is brought to 
 coincide withp, none of the divisions on the vernier Coin- 
 cide exactly with a division on the scale: for example, if 
 the 5 on the vernier should be a little past the 7 on the scale, 
 and the 6 not up to the 8, the reading would be between 
 5-100ths and 6-100ths; but its precise amount could only be 
 stated by estimation. If the line 5 appeared nearer 7 than 
 6 to 8, the distance measured would be greater than 5 lOOths, 
 or 10-200ths, but less than 11 200ths; and if the line 6 ap- 
 peared nearer to 8 than 5 to 7, the distance would be 2ieat- 
 er than ll-200ths, but less than 12-200ths or 6-100ths. Thus 
 in any case the limits of the uncertainty must be confined 
 within a distance = l-200th of an inch. In order that the 
 coincidences may be observed with greater certainty, the 
 divisions are generally read with a lens. 
 
 The vernier is equally applicable to circular scales as as- 
 tronomical circles; it is then circular also, and must move 
 concentric with the limb of the circle Suppose the limb 
 divided into intervals of 10* ; and let n = 10. We have 
 then 10 divisions on the limb = 100' = a ; and the length 
 
 of the vernier (= a —-) — 100 — 10 1 = 90' ; which, divi- 
 ded into 10 equal parts, gives 9' for the length of a division 
 on the vernier, and consequently the difference of the length 
 of a division on the scale and on the vernier = I', The 
 arc, therefore, can be read to minutes. But the reading 
 may be carried to much more minute quantities by increas- 
 ing the length and the number of divisions on the vernier. 
 Instead of embracing 9 intervals of 10' on the scale, let the 
 
VERRUCOSE. 
 
 vernier embrace 50 such intervals, and be divided into 60 
 equal parts. We have then a = 10' X 60 = 600', n = 60, 
 
 «2 = 3600; therefore, — =——=- = 10"; that is to say, 
 RP .1000 6 " 
 
 the arc may be read to 10." 
 
 In barometers, where a considerable degree of accu- 
 racy is required, the inch is divided into 20 equal parts; 
 the vernier is made equal in length to 24 of these, and 
 divided into 25 equal parts. In this case we have a = 
 
 5^=1-25 inch, n = 25; therefore -= ~^=z 002 ; so that 
 
 *" »2 62a 
 
 the vernier gives the reading to l-500th of an inch 
 
 d of making the vernier equal to n — 1 divisions of 
 the scale, it is sometimes made equal to n -f- 1 divisions, and 
 the object will still be accomplished in precisely the same 
 manner For in this case the length of a division on the 
 
 scale being as before, -, and that of n division on the ver- 
 
 71 
 
 nier-( a-r- - )=-+ -„ the difference is still -. The 
 
 principle is the same in both cases. 
 
 The vernier is often Oiled a nonius, but improperly, the 
 contrivance invented by Nonius or Nunnez being on a quite 
 different principle. See Noji 
 
 VEREUCCSE. (Lat. verruca, a wart.) In Zoology, 
 when a surface presents several wart-like prominences. 
 
 VERSED SINK or AN ARC, in Trigonometry, is the 
 difference between the radius and the cot 
 
 VERT. (Pr. vert, green.) In Heraldry, one of the col- 
 ours or tinctures employed in blazonry. It is equivalent to 
 emerald among precious stones, to Venus among planets. 
 In engraving it is represented by diagonal lines from the 
 devter to the sinister sides of tile escutcheon. 
 
 VffRTEBR.fi. The bones of the spine. They are di- 
 vided into true and false ; the former constituting the up- 
 id the latter the lower portion of the spinal column. 
 Tin- true vertebra: are farther divided into those of the neck, 
 and loins; or the eerrien/. dorsal, and lumbar verte- 
 even cervical vertebra; ; the firstot which 
 ru tie- head, and is called the atlas; the second is the 
 dentata; it lias a tooth-like process, forming a kind of pivot 
 up in which the head rotates. The dorsal vertebra are 
 tw he in number, and the lumbar vertebra: five. In the 
 neck the spine projecis forwards; it is then curved back- 
 wards in the thorax, and in the loins again projects for- 
 iii elastic substance between the verte- 
 ulniitting of a certain degree of motion; small be 
 ihe individual bones, but considerable as affects the 
 whole column. The vertebra;, and their projections or pro- 
 nfford attachments lor a number of muscles and lig- 
 aments ; and the spinal marrow is lodged in the bony canal 
 which their several perforations form. 
 
 VE'RTEBRATES, Vertebrate. (Lat. vertebra, a hove of 
 the spine.) The name of a primary division of the animal 
 kingdom, including those which have a cerebro-spinal ner- 
 vous axis, protected by a bony cylinder composed of a suc- 
 n of Vertebra", which are expanded into a cranium, 
 where they inclose the enlarged anterior or upper portion of 
 the nervous avis, called the brain. See Zoology. 
 
 VERTEX (Lat. the top), in Astronomy, is the point of the 
 sphere directly overhead, more frequently called the zenith. 
 The vertex of an ancle or a cone is the angular point, or 
 that in which the sides of the angle or of the cone inter- 
 sect. The vertex of a curve is the point in which the di- 
 ameter meets the curve. 
 
 VERTICAL. Relatine to vertex. Vertical angles, in 
 Geometry, are the opposite angles formed by two straight 
 lines which intersect each other. Euclid demonstrates that 
 vertical or opposite angles are equal. 
 
 Vertical Circle, in Astronomy, a great circle of the sphere 
 passing throush the zenith and nadir. The meridian, and 
 all azimuth circles, are vertical circles. The prime verti- 
 cal is that particular vertical circle or azimuth which is 
 perpendicular to the meridian, or which passes through the 
 eastern and western points of the horizon. 
 
 Vertical lAne, in Dialling, is a line perpendicular to the 
 horizon ; in the Conic Sections it signifies anv line on a ver- 
 tical plane which passes through the vertex of the cone. 
 
 Vertical Plane, in Conies, denotes a plane passing through 
 the vertex, and parallel to the plane of the section. 
 
 VERT1CEO.LUS, is a ring for organs of any kind placed 
 round a stem upon the same plane. If the arrangement is 
 Isely so, and cannot be described by a line drawn 
 horizontally round a stem, but consists of parts either above 
 the line or below it, the verticellus is said to be broken. It 
 is in Englioh called whorl. 
 
 VEttTI'GO. (Lat. verto, I turn.) Giddiness. This af- 
 fection is a common symptom of fulness of the vessels of 
 and of nervous and general debility. In some it is 
 produced hv an overloaded stomach, and in others by emp- 
 I that organ. It is frequently symptomatic of fe- 
 
 VESTAL VIRGINS. 
 
 vers, inflammations, and other disorders, and requires pecu- 
 liar treatment accordingly. 
 
 Vertigo. In Zoology, a genus of marsh or land snails , 
 so named from the abrupt twist of the volutions of the 
 shell. Several species of this genus are British; as Verti 
 go secale, turton, tic. 
 
 VERTU'MNUS. An Italian deity of rather obscure char- 
 acter. Some make him preside over merchandise, others 
 over spring or the seasons hj general. 
 
 VESA'NIyE. (Lat. vesnnus, insane.) A class of dis 
 eases in which ihe judgment is impaired without stupor or 
 fever; it includes the various forms of insanity. 
 
 VE'SICANTS. (Lat vesica, i bladder.) Substances 
 which raise blisters upon the skin. 
 
 VE'SICLE. A small blister, or bladder-like tumour, 
 formed by an elevation of the cuticle, and containing a se 
 rous thud. 
 
 VESICULCSANS, Vesiculosa. The name of a tribe 
 of Tanystome Dipterous insects, comprehending those which 
 abdomen in the form of a bladder. 
 
 VESPER, or HESPERU8. The evening star. A name 
 given to the planet Venus when it is to the eas^f the sun, 
 and consequently appears after sunset. 
 
 VESI'KRTILiO'NIM.-E. Lat. vespertUio, a hat.) The 
 name of a family of Chelropterous Mammals, of which the 
 genus VespertUio is Ihe type. It includes the Insectivorous 
 and bloodsucking species of the order. 
 
 VESPI'DjE. (Lat. vespa, a wasp.) A family of acu 
 leatcd hymenopterous insects characterized by their geni 
 rnlnle antenna;, composed in the males of thirteen joints. 
 and sometimes, in this sex. booked at the extremity. Man 
 diblea strong anddentated; clypens large; llgula plus 
 or bilohed. The sting of the females and neutrals long, 
 powerful, and highly venomous. The larva: of the wasp 
 tribe arc vermiform and without feet: those of the solitary 
 species are inclosed separately ill a cell, in which the moth- 
 er deposits, with singular apparent foresight, at the same 
 time with the egg, the bodies of Insects, killed for tin: pur- 
 pose, and upon which the larva fcr,\^. Toe true wasps 
 form large societies, composed of males, females, and neu- 
 ters. A colony is commenced by a solitary female, which 
 lays eggs that produce neuters or labourers." These proceed 
 to enlarge the nest by detaching particles of old wood or 
 
 bark, moistening and reducing them into a pultaci i 
 
 resembling that of pasteboard, and constructing of this ma 
 terial a conical or sobspherical comb, usually suspended by 
 
 a stalk, and having on the under sides ranges of v, 
 
 hexagonal cells. These are appropriated exclusively to the 
 use of the larva;, a cell to each, which the neuters enlargi 
 in proportion to the growth of the occupant. The n 
 generally surrounded by an envelope, pierced with a com 
 mon central opening. The larva: are nourished with the 
 juices or pulp of fruit provided for them by the neuters; 
 they are shut up, and spin for themselves a cocoon when 
 about to become nymphs. 
 
 VESTA. One of the four ultra-zodiacal planets which 
 circulate between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Vesta 
 was discovered by Dr. Olbers of Bremen, on the 29th of 
 March, 1807. Its mean distance from the sun is 2-36787. 
 the mean distance of the sun from the earth being unity ; 
 and its sidereal revolution is performed in 1325-7431 mean 
 solar days. The orbit is inclined to the ecliptic in an angle 
 of 7° 8' 9", nnd the eccentricity of its oult is 0-08913. 
 Vesta is supposed to be the smallest of all the celestial bod- 
 ies with which we are acquainted, its volume being 
 mated to be only about a fifteen thousandth part of that of 
 the earth, and its surface not to exceed that of the kingdom 
 of Spain. On account of its smallness it is, however, dif- 
 ficult to determine its apparent diameter with any degree 
 of certainty. It is distinguished from the other small plan- 
 ets by the vivacity of its light. 
 
 Vesta, the Hestia fLVr/«) of the Greeks, in Classical 
 Mythology, was a goddess about whom hangs considerable 
 obscurity. She is called the daughter of Saturn and Rhea, 
 and was worshipped as the patroness of the domestic and 
 public hearth. At Rome she was attended by six virgins, 
 called vestals, whose duty it was to preserve the sacred fire 
 in her temple unextinguished ; as the safety of the city was 
 held to be connected with its preservation. (See Mem. de 
 VJicad. des laser., vol. xxvii., xxix.) According to Ovid 
 (Fast., vi.), 
 
 Vaita ex\em mi qius Terra ; nubest rigil ipii« utrique; 
 Stat vi Terra jua : vi si.indo Veiita vocatur. 
 
 (See Bryant, Jlnc. Myth-. U 77, 281.) The beautiful builn 
 lng popularly called the Temple of Vesta, at Rome, is not 
 known to have been such. 
 
 VESTAL VIRGINS. This name was given to the six 
 virgin priestesses of the coddess Vesta, who had charge of 
 her temple at Rome, and the superintendence of the sacred 
 fire, which was never to be suffered to go out. They had 
 several privileges granted them; but the loss of their vir- 
 ginity was punished by burying the offender alive. TheL' 
 
 1301 
 
VESTIBULE. 
 
 institution is ascribed to Numa. Theif abolition was one 
 of the last victories of Christianity. (See Beugnot, De- 
 struction du Paganismc en Occident, i., 164.) 
 
 VE'STIBULE. (Lat. vestibutum.) In Architecture, an 
 area before the entrance of the Roman houses ; said by 
 some to have been so called because an altar to Vesta was 
 placed therein. It was surrounded by a wall, and was the 
 place in which the master of the house received his clients. 
 It is used in modern architecture to signify .an ante-hall, 
 lobbv, or porch. 
 
 VESTIBULE OF THE EAR. A small bony cavity of 
 the internal ear, the opening of which into the cavity of the 
 tympanum is closed by the small bone called the stapes ; 
 it is also connected with the cochlea and semicircular ca- 
 nals. 
 
 VE'STMENTS or VESTURES, ECCLESIASTICAL. 
 Articles of dress or ornament worn by ministers in the cel- 
 ebration of divine service. The following were and are the 
 principal known to the Western Church, and many of them 
 to the Eastern also: 1. The vestment properly so called, or 
 chasuble, called in the Western churches casula, plancta, 
 pcenula, dttjihiboiinn, &.C., and in the Eastern <pawo\iav, 
 phenolium, was a garment extending from the neck nearly 
 to the feet, closed all the way round, with only one aper- 
 ture, through which the head passed. When the offices 
 were performed, it was lifted up at the sides, while the 
 front and back remained pendent. The Greeks retain this 
 primitive form ; the Latins have divided it at the sides. It 
 admitted of various materials and colours. It is of very 
 great antiquity, mentioned by Gregory of Tours, and ap- 
 pearing in a mosaic of A. D. 1540. 2 The cope (cappa, pal- 
 lium, pluviale, &.c.) similar in form to the vestment, but 
 longer, and with a short division in the lower part of the 
 front ; and a cowl, which in modern times has given place to 
 a sort of triangular ornament of the same shape, hanging 
 over the shoulders. It is also of the highest antiquity in the 
 Western Church. 3. Thetunicle, ordalmatica (in the East 
 Eticharion, used by deacons), received the addition of wide 
 sleeves as early as the 4th century. 4. The alb (camisia, 
 nlha, linen ; in the Eas: poderis, from reaching the feet), a 
 garment made of white linen. 5. The scarf, or sto'r,, is 
 worn by bishops with the rochet, and generally by digni- 
 taries and prebendaries in cathedrals, and by chapla ns. 
 Its origin is obscure. It is called oradium by the Greeks. 
 The pall (pallium, which see), generally worn by Western 
 metropolitans, appears to have been a kind of stole, called 
 uiltofoptov in the East. 6. The rochet, a linen garment 
 worn by bishops, much resembling the surplice; but in 
 modern times, and in our church, with very wide sleeves. 
 7. The chiinere, zimarra, cimar (probably from xtpafos, 
 hid), a sort of cape worn under the rochet by bishops ; in 
 modern England of black silk. 8. The pastoral staff (bac- 
 illus pistoralis) was spoken of In the 4th council of Toledo, 
 in the 7th century, as used by bishops. The form of the 
 shepherd's crook is rather later. 9. The surplice (sec that 
 article), which only differs from the alb in having wider 
 sleeves. 10. The hood was generally fastened to the back 
 of the cape; called an "amice." "almatium" when lined 
 with fur or wool. The square cap is thought to have been 
 originally part of the amice. 
 
 Most of lliese ve tments are noticed in the Act of Uni- 
 formity, passed in the 2d vcar of Ed. VI., which regulates 
 ihe habits of t. e English Church. But many of the direc- 
 tions are alternative : c. p., that a vestment or a cope, an 
 alb or a surplice, may be used in particular instances. 
 (See Palmer's Originea Liturgicm, vol. ii.. Appendix, from 
 which this article is chiefly taken ; and Jrchwo/orria, vol. \i.) 
 
 The extreme hostility conceived by the Calvintet and Zn- 
 inglian reformers, and the Puritan partv in England, to 
 vestments, and especially the surplice, is well. known. The 
 argument against them, as stated by Beza (Tract. Theol.. 
 iii., 29), refers chiefly to the danger of wounding weak con- 
 by retaining apparent relics of popery, &c. The 
 defence bv Hooker is in book v., ch. 29. ' 
 
 VI7STRY. (Lat. vestiarium.) The robing room at- 
 tached to a church ; and from hence applied to designate a 
 meeting of parishioners for parochial purposes, the bishop 
 ■'nd priests having in former times used these rooms when 
 they met to consult together on similar affairs. 
 
 A general vestry is one to which every parishioner or 
 iratdweller assessed to or paying the church rates, or scot 
 and lot, is admissible of common right. The minister, 
 whether rector, vicar, or perpetual curate, is ex officio chair- 
 man of the meeting. The powers of the vestry extend to 
 Investigate and restrain the expenditure of parish funds ; to 
 determine on repairs, enlargements, ornaments, &c, of the 
 Chure h ; and to elect certain parish officers. 
 
 Select Vestries existed by custom in many larse and pop- 
 ulous parishes, especially in and round the metropolis. 
 Originally these consisted of a number of householders, an- 
 t.uulh elected by the rate-pavers. But, by usage of long 
 standing, these bodies were in «anv instances self-elected ; 
 1302 
 
 VETO. 
 
 j. e., the members of the vestry filled up by their own choice 
 any vacancy occasioned by death or resignation. 
 
 Power has been given to parishes in which select vestries 
 did not exist by custom to appoint such vestries by the stat. 
 59 G. 3, c. 12; and in many parishes the election of vestry- 
 men, &c, has been regulated by local acts. 
 
 But in the first and second years of the last reign, an act 
 was passed (1 & 2 W. 4, c. 60,) " for the better regulation 
 of vestries, and for the appointment of auditors of accounts, 
 in certain parishes of England and Wales." Every parish 
 not already under a local act is empowered to decide, by a 
 majority of the votes of its rate-payers, whether it vvi I 
 adopt the provisions of this statute. If adopted, a certain 
 number of vestrymen, limited by the act according to the 
 amount of the population, and five auditors, are to be an- 
 nually elected by the rate-payers; the rector, district rec- 
 tors, vicar, perpetual curate, and churchwardens, being al 
 ways vestrymen ex officio. Vestrymen to be elected under 
 this act must, in any parish out of London and the metro 
 politan police district, be rated to the poor on a rental of 
 .£10 a year within that district or city ; if the resident house 
 holders amount to more than 3000, on a rental of not less 
 than £40 per annum. This act does not extend to parish- 
 es in which there are not more than 800 rate-payers, except 
 in cities or towns. 
 
 VESU'VIAN. The volcanic garnet. The idocrase of 
 Hauy. 
 
 VETCH. (Lat. vicia.) The name given to leguminous 
 plants with herbaceous stems, often supporting themselves 
 on surrounding objects by means of the tendrils with which 
 their leaves are terminated. The common vetch or tare is 
 extensively cultivated in Europe, and is considered a very 
 valuable agricultural plant, being an excellent fodder for 
 milch cows and working stock, &e. 
 
 VE'TERAN. (Lat. vetus, old.) Among the Romans, a 
 soldier who had passed the legal age of military service, 
 which extended from seventeen to forty-six, was termed 
 veteranus; or, in the later times of the republic, one who J 
 had served a requisite number of campaigns, generally 
 twenty-five. 
 
 VE'TO. (Lat. I forbid.) In Poi:.ics, tht p v.er tnj 
 by a branch of the legislature, which cannot of itself orig- 
 inate or modify a law, to reject the propositions ; : 
 other branch or branches In the Polish diet, every noble 
 who was an independent member could prevent any reso 
 lution from passing by his simple dissent (expressed in tht 
 words " Nie pozwalam," / do not permit). The privilege 
 of thus arresting the deliberations of the diet was te 
 the "liberum veto," and proved the fertile source of tht 
 disorders and anarchy of that country. In most constitu- 
 tional monarchies the king has an absolute veto (as in 
 France and England) ; in some it is only suspensive. Tints. 
 in Norway, if three successive storthings (assemblies) re- 
 pent the same resolution, it becomes law against the will 
 of the king. The president of. the United States may re- 
 turn a bill, with his reasons for dissenting from it, to the 
 house in which it originated ; but if both houses pass it af- 
 terwards by a majority of two thirds in each, it is not in his 
 power again to reject it. 
 
 Veto. An act passed by the General Assembly of the 
 Church of Scotland, known by the name of the Veto Act. 
 Lay patron age, or the presentation by a lay-patron of a 
 minister to a living in the church, has never been cordially 
 recognised on the part of the people of Scotland. On the 
 final establishment of Presbytery as the national church, 
 in 1690, patronage was vested in the elders and heritors 
 (landowners) of a parish. In 1711 (10 Anne, c. 12, s. .(), 
 that law was annulled, and patronage was transferred as a 
 civil right to individuals as an accessory of land, or as a 
 separate estate; and those patronages which had of old 
 belonged to the pope, or to monasteries, or to archbishops, 
 bishops, and chapters, were vested in the crown. The Rel 
 of Queen Anne was never universally acceptable in Scot-" 
 lnnd. Two dissenting denominations (the United Associate! 
 Synod, and the Relief) owed their origin to the i discreet 
 exercise of lay-patronage ; ami though patrons « i 
 ally disposed, particularly within the last twenty years, to 
 show due deference to the feelings of the people, yet hos- 
 tility to this mode of nominating clergymen having gained 
 greater force, the general assembly, in 1834, pissed the 
 Veto Act, whereby, if a majority of the male heads nl 
 mmilte-s, in full communion with the church, appear before] 
 the presbytery and dissent, or lodge dissents at the ineetlnjj 
 for "moderating in a call," the presentee was to I 
 ed. No specific objections were required to be made by 
 the act. the dissentients being only required to declare, it 
 asked, that they were actuated bv no factious or mnlicttnil 
 motive, but solely by a conscientious retmrd fur tin' spirit" 
 al interests of themselves and the congregation , and If such 
 declaration was made, their (lis ent was sustained; If not, 
 it was rejected. Those entitled to dissent are ascertai 
 from a roll annually made up. The Veto Act was first 
 
VETO. 
 
 passed as an interim act; but, being referred to presbyte- > 
 ries, and having received the sanction of a majority of pres- 
 byteries, it was enacted into a standing law of the church 
 by the General Assembly of in:i,"». (Hill's Practice of the ' 
 ries of the Church, p. 83.) 
 Against the provisions of this act, the minority of the as- 
 sembly entered, and had recorded, both In 1834 and lri.'!5, 
 their solemn protest, on the ground that theso provisions 
 (rare not merely wrong in themselves but also ultra vires 
 on the part of the assembly, In violation of the statutes 
 Conferring on the church tiie privileges of an establish- 
 ment, and calculated, therefore, on the first occasion on 
 which a patron or presentee should determine to enforce 
 his rights, to lead to a collision between the ecclesiastical 
 and civil courts. Nor was this opinion without foundation. 
 Immediately after the rising of the assembly of 183% the 
 Earl of Kinmmll, as patron of the church and parish of 
 Auchtexarder, and the Kev. Robert Young, whom his lord- 
 ship had presented to that living, and whom the presbytery 
 of Auchterarder had rejected In terms of the Veto Act, 
 tailed an action in the court of session to have it found and 
 declared that the said presbytery had acted illegally, and 
 to the hurt and prejudice of the pursuers, in having reject 
 ed Mr. Voui.g ; there being no other ground of such rejec- 
 tion, as admitted in the record of presbytery, than that a 
 ;v of the male heads of families, communicants, in 
 the pariah Of Auchterarder, had dissented, without any 
 ned, from his admission as minister. In giving 
 
 lent in this action, the court of session (8th March, 
 
 repelled the objections started against the jurisdiction 
 of the civil court In the matter, and to the competency of 
 the action, and found that the presbytery had acted illegally 
 and to the hurt and prejudice of the pursuers, and in Viola- 
 tion of their duly, and, in particular, contrary to the provi- 
 • the statute of 10 Anne. 
 This decision of the court of session was appealed from 
 by the defenders to the House of Lords; and this supreme 
 court affirmed the judgment In question (3d May, 1830] 
 without the alteration of a simile word. Subsequently to 
 this affirmation, when the case had been remitted to the 
 couri of session to apply the. sentence, the latter tribunal 
 pronounced in regard to it a further judgment, to the effect 
 that the pre. Intery and the Individual members thereof 
 " are hound aad astricted to make trial of the qualifio 
 of the pursuer, the said Rev. Robert Young, as presentee 
 to the church and parish of Auchterarder; and if, in their 
 judgment, after trial and examination In common form, he 
 id qualified, to receive and admit him minister of the 
 said church and parish, according to law." 
 
 Tin! dominant party of the church had, meanwhile, 
 come to the resolution not to obey or recognise the judg- 
 ment of the court of session, though confirmed by the 
 highest judicatory In the empire, to which themselv 
 mule the appeal, but to declare the ecclesiastical law as 
 supreme. Accordingly, tbe assembly of 1839 resolved, by a 
 majority of forty-nine, to adhere to the Veto Act, notwith- 
 standing the decision of the House of Lords. They main- 
 tained that the ecclesi istlcal and civil courts were endow- 
 ed with co-ordinate powers; that their provinces were suf- 
 
 tly distinct, each being supreme in its own depart- 
 ment; and th it the church courts were the sole and only 
 judges of what was spiritual and what was civil. In short, 
 they refused to induct Mr. Young as minister of the church 
 and parish of Auchterarder. They regarded the parish 
 as still vacant, and nominated a clergyman of their own 
 sentiments to the parochial charge, quoad spiritualia, leav- 
 ing the temporalities untouched. Tims the case still stands: 
 but Mr. Young has raised an action of damages against the 
 members of the presbytery of Auchterarder, both as a 
 body and as individuals, for illegally and contumaciously 
 depriving him of both his ecclesiastical and civil rights and 
 privii- 
 
 But the case of the parish of Marnoch, in the presbytery 
 
 I Lhbogie, affords a still more striking illustration of 
 tie' fruits 01 the collision that has taken place between the 
 civil and ecclesiastical courts. The Rev. Mr. Edwards 
 havinc been legally presented to that parish, and having 
 been rejected by means of the Veto Act, a majority of the 
 members of the said presbytery (seven in number) were 
 ed in consequence of the decision in the Auchterard- 
 er case, and of the veto having been declared bv the hlgh- 
 
 . il judicatory of the land as ultra vires of the church, 
 to show due respect to the civil law, and to proceed with 
 
 ettlement of Mr. Edwards, as if such a statute as the 
 Veto had never existed. The majority, however, feeline 
 the delicacy of the circumstances in which, both as clergy- 
 men, and as local subjects hound to obey the civil law, 
 they were placed, did not proceed hostilv to take steps to- 
 wards the induction of Mr. Edwards. They remained in 
 active till a special decree, on the application of the pre 
 sentee, had been obtained from the court of session, find- 
 tag that they were bound to take him on trial, in common 
 
 form, and that, if they found him qualified, to receive and 
 admit him according to law. On their adopting the pre- 
 liminary steps for the purpose, the commission of the Gen- 
 mbly, 1839, suspended the seven ministers from 
 the function of their sacred oliice, both judicial and minis- 
 terial. Against this proceeding the seven ministers applied 
 to the court of session for protection ; which court granted 
 an interdict prohibiting the sentence of suspension from 
 being carried into execution, and prohibiting any clergyman 
 Of the established chuicii from occupying the pulpits ot 
 the deposed ministers, or performing aiiysacerdot.il func- 
 tions in their respective parishes. This interdict was disre- 
 garded by the dominant party in the church, who treated 
 a parishes as if their ministers had been Anally 
 suspended from their functions. 
 
 Matters remained in this anomalous state till the meet- 
 ing of the General Assembly of 1840 ; which court 
 continuing the suspension, imperatively demanded of the 
 suspended ministers that they should unconditionally ac- 
 knowledge the supreme authority of the church in all 
 thing! which it might define to be spiritual, and in all 
 such matters yield implicit obedience to the decrees of the 
 
 ecclesiastical courts, notwithstanding any oner or injunc- 
 tion to the contrary, of even the highest civil tribunal of 
 the land. This requisition, too, was made under the pen- 
 alty that, if after a limited period had elapsed, it should not 
 have been complied with, tin; parties refusing to comply 
 should be served with a libel (indictment) for contumacy. 
 The mil asters of Strathbogle n unit to the con- 
 
 nighl to be imposed on them, though, in regard to 
 the settlement of Marnoch, they did not take any ,'arther 
 steps till the presentee had raisial another action against 
 them, both collectively and individually, calling on them 
 to receive and admit him as minister of that parish. Mr. 
 Edwards was thus ordained minister of Marnoch on the 
 Jl-t of January, 1841. Meanwhile the suspended minis- 
 ters had been served with a libel for contumacy, and 
 were in consequence deposed by the ensuing assembly 
 HI) from the office of the ministry. An interdict 
 from the court of session was forthwith obtained, setting 
 
 ing the seven deposed ministers in their temporal and spi- 
 ritual privileges as parochial clergymen. This interdict 
 ■ the former, and others to which in tins article 
 we cannot particularly allude,* disregarded by the domi- 
 nant section of the church. Not only have they treated 
 the parishes as vacant, and introduced preachers of their 
 own party into them, but have taken steps against such Oi 
 the minority of the church as regard the depo,ed gentle- 
 man as still ministers of the establishment, ami 
 have, in consequence, supported them by officiating in their 
 pulpits, or assisting them on sacramental occasions. And 
 such litis been the forbearing conduct of the deposed min- 
 isters, that they have hitherto restrained from adopting 
 means to have their brethren punished for violating these 
 interdicts, and for encroaching on their official rights and 
 privileges. 
 
 The same assembly which deposed the seven ministers 
 of Strathbogle, deprived Mr. Edwards, whom they would 
 not recognise as an ordinary clergyman, of his licence as a 
 probationer, and ordered the minority of the said Presbyte- 
 ry (four in number) to proceed with the settlement of an- 
 other minister in the parish of Marnoch, as if it had been 
 vacant. This was accordingly done, so that there is a com- 
 plete and irreconcileable schism within the presbytery of 
 Strathbogle. 
 
 A similar case has recently occurred in the presbytery 
 of Garioch. and under exactly similar circumstances. The 
 presentee 'Mr. Middleton) to the parish of L'ulsalmond 
 having been served with a veto, was notwithstanding in- 
 ducted by the majority of the presbytery, and is now min- 
 ister of that parish. The ecclesiastical courts promptly in- 
 terfered ; interdicts, however, against their authority have 
 been obtained : hut the case is still sub judice, having been 
 appealed to the House of Lords. The ultimate decision in 
 this case will, it is apprehended, put an end to the unseem- 
 ly collision between the civil and the ecclesiastical courts, 
 by driving at least the leaders of the dominant party out of 
 the church. Indeed, these leaders have already issued a 
 manifesto to that effect, and promulgated the out; 
 secession from the established church, somewhat s milar in 
 point of principle and detail to that of the Wesleyan Meth- 
 odists in England. It is not improbable, however, but that 
 circumstances may arise by which the schism in question 
 may be brought on before the merits of the appeal to thr 
 supreme civil court in the Culsalmond case can be decided 
 
 entee u> ihe parish if Le'hendy, presbyter nt Diinketl, having 
 i by 'he Vim Act, Hie majority nf the members of 'ha! preshv 
 lery inducted another minister in defiance nf nn interdict of Ihe curl of ieV 
 sinn ; for which contempt Ihey ivere ium owned before hi ir lord 
 censure of the court was pronounced against them ; and 
 ble in exjici !«s 
 
 1303 
 
VEXILLARII. 
 
 jdeanwhile (to omit all farther particulars), Scotland is 
 ji a state of agitation and religious ferment from one end 
 to the other. The dominant party, by emphatically declar- 
 ing Christ as the sole and only head ot the church, and 
 that his authority is decidedly in favour of their views, as- 
 sert their spiritual independence, without reference to the 
 civil law, or the decisions of the civil judicatories; and 
 are agitating for the total repeal of patronage. They seem 
 resolved to submit^o no compromise. Even no legislative 
 measure on the subject, however otherwise liberal, would 
 be accepted by the majority of the church, if it had a re- 
 trospective tendency, or, in other words, found the Veto 
 Act ultra vires of the church, and contained a clause for 
 the restoration of the deposed ministers of Slrathbogie. 
 But we incline to think that the best thing to be done 
 would lie for parliament to pass a statute similar to the 
 Veto Act ; for we do not apprehend that it is possible ever 
 to reconcile an honest or consistent presbyterian to the law 
 of patronage as it has been enforced in the civil courts. It 
 *s true that the leaders of the presbyterian dissenters have 
 objected to the proceedings of the dominant party in the 
 church ; but such objection comes with a peculiarly ill 
 grace fioin them, though it is easy to see its motives. Were 
 patronage abolished, the main source and principle of dis- 
 sent would be removed, and the parlies who now rule the 
 dissenting bodies would fall into insignificance 
 
 VEXILLA'RII. Veteran troops in the Roman army 
 who had served out their time ; but, under the emper- 
 ors, were retained in service, and fought distinct from 
 the legions under a particular standard of their own (vexil- 
 lum.) 
 
 VEXI'LLUM, or STANDARD. (Lat.) In Botany, a 
 term given to the upper petal of a Papilionaceous corolla, 
 which is erect, and more expanded than the other four pe- 
 tals. 
 
 VIADUCT. See Railroads, Bridge. 
 
 VIA'LACTEA. In Astronomy, the galaxy or milky way. 
 See Milky-Way. 
 
 VIA'LES. In Roman Antiquities, a name given to those 
 gods who had charge of the roads and highways (via>). 
 Jupiter and Mercury were among the number. 
 
 VIA'TICUM. (Lat. a supply of something requisite for 
 x tourney.) In Ecclesiastical usages, the sacrament given 
 to a dying person. In ancient times both the sacraments 
 appear frequently to have been given to the dying : name- 
 ly, baptism to catechumeai (hence termed c6odtov, or viati- 
 cum, by some Greek fathers I or unbaptised converts; the 
 eucharist to those who were in communion with the 
 church. 
 
 VI.VTOR. (Lat. traveller.) The title of inferior offi- 
 cers among the Romans sent by the senate or people to 
 convey decrees, mandates, &.c, and also by governors of 
 provinces and other high functionaries. 
 
 VIRRA'TION. (Lat. vibrare, to shake.) In Music, that 
 regular reciprocal motion of a body, which, suspended or 
 stretched between two fixed points, swings or shakes to and 
 fro. The vibrations of chords are the source of the differ- 
 ent tones they emit. If two strings or chords of a musical 
 instrument merely differ in length, their tones, that is, the 
 numb i of vibrations they make in equal times, are in the 
 inverse ratio of their lengths. If they differ in their diam- 
 eters only, their sounds will be in the inverse ratio of their 
 diameters. To measure the tension of strings, let us con- 
 ceive them stretched by weights attached to their ends ; 
 then their sounds will be in the direct ratio of the square 
 roots of the weights stretching them; that is, the pitch of a 
 string stretched by a weight equal to 4 will be an octave 
 above the pitch of a string stretched by a weight 1. 
 
 Vibration. Id Mechanics, the reciprocating motion of a 
 body, aa of a pendulum, a musical chord, or elastic plate. 
 The term oscillation is, however, more frequently used to 
 denote a slow reciprocating motion, as that of the pendu- 
 lum, which is produced by the action of gravity on the 
 whole mass of the body; while vibration is generally con- 
 fined to a motion with quick reciprocations, as that of a so- 
 norous body, and which proceeds from the reciprocal action 
 of the molecules of the body on each other when their 
 «tate of equilibrium has been disturbed. 
 
 Vibrations of Musical Chords.— The laws of the motion 
 of vibrating chords were first investigated by Dr. Brook 
 Taylor, in his Methodus fncrcmentorum, published in 1715' 
 and afterwards by John Bernoulli, Daniel Bernoulli^ 
 D'Alembert, and Euler; but the complete solution of the 
 problem, which is one of great difficulty, requiring the in- 
 tegration of an equation of partial differences of the second 
 order, was reserved for the illustrious Lagrange. Let a 
 homogeneous metallic wire, or musical chord, stretched be- 
 tween two fixed points by a given force, be made to vi- 
 brate; thon, as has been shown in the article Sound, (p. 
 1134,) the number of vibrations in a second (the vibration 
 being understood to signify the excursion of any point from 
 its greatest distance from the position of rest on one side to 
 1304 
 
 VIBRATION. 
 
 its greatest distance on the other, and not the going and 
 commg) is expressed by either of the two formula; 
 
 where n is the number of vibrations in a second, ^ = the 
 accelerating force of gravity (=386-29 inches in a second), 
 t = the tension of the chord or weight by which it i.-, 
 stretched, «i = its weight. l=its length in inches, r=its 
 radius, r) = its specific density, and n = 3-14159. The con- 
 sequences which follow from these formula; are important 
 in the theory of acoustics, inasmuch as they furnish the 
 means of representing dirterent sounds numerically. 
 
 A curious circumstance, indicated by the calculus, and 
 confirmed by experiment, is, that a vibrating chord may 
 spontaneously divide itself into any number of parts, each 
 of which, being an aliquot part of the whole, will vibrate 
 separately, in the same manner as if it were fixed at its 
 two extremities and formed a separate chord ; and which, 
 consequently, performs its vibrations as much more rapidly 
 as it is a smaller aliquot part. Thus, the chord A B may 
 
 -^* X '. 
 
 divide itself into 2, 3, 4, or any number of equal parts in 
 the points N, N', &c, each of which will vibrate 2, 3, 4, 
 &.c. times more rapidly than the whole chord, and in such 
 a manner that the motion of any two contiguous parts will 
 be in opposite directions at the same instant of time, while 
 the points of division N, N' remain fixed. But the most 
 remarkable circumstance is, that these different states of 
 vibration may coexist, superposed as it were one on an- 
 other; so that a musical chord will emit not only the fun- 
 dmiental sound corresponding to the number of vibrations 
 given by the formula, but also, at tile same time, a scries of 
 other sounds corresponding to the number of vibrations of 
 chords of £, J, $, &c. of the length. 
 
 The preceding remarks apply only to transversal vibra 
 tions, or those in which the motion of any material point of 
 the chord is at right angles to the straight line which joins 
 its extremities; but the molecules of a stretched chord 
 may also be put into a state of longitudinal vibration, in 
 which case the motion is parallel to the axis of the chord, 
 and is subject to a different law. Poisson [Mem. 
 de r/nstitut., ton), viii.) found, from the mathematical 
 analysis of the problem, the following simple relation to 
 exist between the transversal and longitudinal vibrations 
 of the same chord : Let n be the number of transversal vi 
 brations, n' the number of longitudinal vibrations (both 
 corresponding to the gravest sounds proceeding from those 
 respective modes of vibration), 1-=. the length of the chord, 
 and &=its elongation, or the increase of its length under 
 the weight by which it is stretched ; then 
 
 7l N // = 7l' v /4. 
 
 This equation is verified by experiment ; and as k is al- 
 ways a very small fraction of the length /, it follows that 
 the number of longitudinal vibrations n' is always very 
 much greater than the number of transversal vibrations n, 
 which explains the extreme acuteness of the sounds which 
 are produced by the longitudinal vibrations. The quantity 
 /,- depends upon the elasticity of the chord, and is therefore 
 different in respect of chords of different substances. 
 
 Vibrations of Elastic Rods. — The laws of the vibrations 
 of elastic rods are different from those of the vibrations of 
 chords; for in the case of the latter the tension acts only in 
 the direction of the length of the chord, whereas in the 
 case of elastic rods and plates, and rigid elastic surfaces in 
 general, the curvature is modified by the elasticity of the 
 substance. The relation between the velocity of the vibra- 
 tions and the length, thickness, rigidity, and specific grnviW 
 of the rod, is expressed, as in the case of a vibrating chord, 
 by a very simple formula. Let 
 
 ?! = the number of vibrations in a second, 
 
 I = the length of a vibratory rod or plate, 
 
 A = its thickness, 
 
 e = the elasticity of the matter of the rod, 
 
 d = its specific density ; 
 then the following equation is deduced from the principles 
 of dynamics, 
 
 a'-h ,(ge\ 
 
 in which a denotes a constant number depending on the 
 mode and initial circumstances of vibration (». «., the mode 
 in which the rod is supported, whether fixed at ni 
 at both ends, or in the middle, &c.) This formula will 
 apply, in general, to any elastic rods or plates of the same 
 form, and of which the mode of vibration is similar. It 
 shows that in rods of the same matter the number of vibra- 
 tions is din-ctly as the thickness, ami inversely as the 
 square of the length of the vibrating part. It' thi 
 of two rods are equal, the number of vibrations is propor 
 
VIBRATION. 
 
 Jon.il to the thickness ; a result which might be anticipa- 
 ted a priori, since ilie thicker the rod the greater will be 
 the force or spring with which it tends to redress itself 
 when drawn aside from the position of rest, and therefore 
 the quicker the vibration. When the figures of the rods 
 are similar, the numbers A and / are proportional, and con- 
 sequently the number of vibrations is inversely us the 
 homologous dimensions, or as the cube root of the weight. 
 The above formula, which wis first given by Riccati. in 
 the Memoir* of the Italian Society, lias also been verified 
 imenl. 
 Metallic rods or glass tubes may vibrate longitudinally 
 like stretched chords. In this case they divide themselves 
 ■pontaaeousiy Into several parts, which \ibrate in unison; 
 and are separated by nodes, or parts which remain at rest. 
 The extreme parts are shorter than the others, which are 
 all of equal length ; but the vibrations of all the parts are 
 synchronous. This sort of vibration may be induced in a 
 slip or lube of glass, by holding it between the fingers, in the 
 middle, and rubbing it longitudinally with a piece of moist 
 cloth, when it will emit a very acute sound. Poisson 
 found from theory the ratio of the number of transversal 
 vibrations («) to tiie number of longitudinal vibrations (n') 
 
 of a cylindrical rod to lie as follows : -, = 3-5608 -r; r being 
 
 the radius, and / the length of the rod. This formula has 
 been verified by Savart from direct experiments. {Annates 
 de Physique et de C/iimie, tome xxxvi.) 
 
 ions of Elastic Plates. — All elastic solid bodies, 
 when put into a .slate of vibration, may be conceived, in 
 reference to the internal motions of their molecules, as 
 spontaneously separating themselves into parts, each of 
 which vibrates independently of the others, and in such a 
 manner that the molecules of one part arc at every instant 
 moving In a direction opposite to that of the molecules of 
 the adjacent part. It follows that the points of separation 
 between two part< participate neither in the motion of the 
 one nor of the other, and consequently remain at rest. In 
 tie- case of thin elastic plates, the continuity of these 
 points forms lines of repose, or nodal lives, the forms and 
 positions of which are detected by placing the vibrating 
 plan- in a hori/.ontol position, and strewing a small quanti- 
 ty of line sand over its upper surface. This Ingenious 
 mod-, of determining the nodal lines was pointed out by 
 . and was practised by Chladni 
 iU d'Ac.uustiqui ), and more recently by Savart in his 
 nm srous experiments on this subject. 
 
 lines assume a great variety of forms, depending 
 on i le figure of the plate, the position of the point or points 
 at which it is lived, and the rapidity and direction of the 
 ni' ion by which the vibration is communicated to it. 
 Ci.cular plates atl'ord numerous different systems of nodal 
 linjs. When the plate is fixed at its centre between two 
 kn ibs or points held fast by a vice, two nodal lines are in 
 general produced crossing each other at the centre. By 
 ap living the finger to the plate at a suitable point, so as to 
 inl irrupt the vibration, three of those lines may be formed, 
 of metal furnish a number of nodal lines, dividing 
 til* circle into numerous sectors. In certain circumstances 
 th(se straight nodal lines are intersected by a greater or 
 smiller number of concentric circular lines; the circular 
 I'm w may also exist by themselves ; and sometimes the 
 noiial lines assume the form of the branches of a hyper- 
 bol i. Some of these forms are represented as under. 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 The investigation of the laws of vibration of a homo- 
 geneous solid body of a given form, when the circumstances 
 in which it is placed and the forces by which it is thrown 
 into vibration are perfectly defined. Is a problem of pure 
 analysis ; but though the differential equations of motion 
 to which it leads have been integrated in a number of par- 
 ticular cases, their integration in general presents difficul- 
 ties which, in the present state of the calculus, cannot be 
 entirely overcome. (See Poisson, Traite de Mecaniquc, 
 lem.il.; Iler-chel, F.ncyc, Mrtrnp., art. " Sound ;" Monge, 
 Jlppiitations de V Analyse, p. 415; Riccati, Mem. di Mat. e 
 ■'la Sue. Itnl., t. i. ; Lagrange, Melanges de la Soc. 
 df, Turin, t. i.. ii.. and iii. For the experimental research- 
 ' hi alii. Thtorie d'Acoustique ; Savart, Annates 
 ft. et Chimic; Biot, Traite de Physique, &c.) 
 
 VIDAME. 
 
 VIBRIO'NID^. The name of a tribe of Animatcu.es, 
 commonly known as microscopic eels, of which the genus 
 Vibrio is the type. One of the species of this genus of 
 Animalcules is parasitic upon wheat; they form a cottony 
 mass in the interior of the grain, which, when the litter is 
 ground, will not pass through the cloth, but rem iin behind 
 in the bran. When full-grown, the Vibrio trttici, as this 
 species is termed, attains a quarter of an Inch in length 
 but the young are of such microscopic minuteness that Mr. 
 Bauer, the naturalist, by whom this par tslte h is been suc- 
 cessfully investigated, has calculated that 50,000 of them 
 might be contained in one grain of wheal. The disease 
 thus occasioned is commonly termed ear cockles. Scalding 
 water has been mentioned as the most obvious remedy for 
 these creatines. 
 
 VlBRl'SSA (Lat. vibrissa, o whisker), in Mammalogy, 
 are the still", long-pointed bristles which grow from the up- 
 l«:r lip and other parts of the head. In Ornithology, the 
 term is also applied to hairs which stand forward, like 
 feelers; or which .n some birds, as the flycatcher, point 
 both upwards and downwards from both the upper and 
 under sides of the mouth ; or which spread out on each 
 side like a comb from the upper sides of the mouth only, 
 as in the goatsucker, when they are termed vibrissa pec- 
 tinate. 
 
 VI'CAR. (Lat. vicarius.) An ecclesiastical personage 
 who has tin- care of a parish in the place of (vice) a toy or 
 collegi U Ti i iiks. 
 
 VICARS OF TIIK EMPIRE. In the German I .institu- 
 tion, princes who had the right of representing the emperor 
 in case of absence or interregnum. The king of the Ro- 
 mans, whenever there was one, was perpetual I 
 there wore none, the office was divided into two : 1 lie elec- 
 tor of Saxony exercised the vicariate in the two Saxon cir- 
 cles; the electors palatine, and of Bavaria, alternately in 
 the remainder of the empire. They administered revenues, 
 presented to benefices, received feudal hornige, &c. 
 
 VICE-CHAMBERL UN. An officer of the king's house- 
 bold immedl itelv under the lord chamberlain. 
 
 VICEGE'RENT. (Lat. vicem gerens, holding the place 
 of any one.) Any officer acting as deputy or lieutenant of 
 another. In France the bishops appointed formerly vice 
 gerents to the official in ever 
 
 VTCEROV, or VICE-KINO. A title often a| 
 common usage to any officer representing the' supreme 
 authority in a dependency ; c. g., the lord lieutenant of 
 Ireland. Hut it has seldom been officially given, except to 
 the governors of certain dependencies of tie- old Spanish 
 monarchy ; such as Naples, Peru, and Mexico, each of 
 whom bore the pompous title of " Alter Ego" of the 
 sovereign. 
 
 VICTIM. (Lat. victima, of uncertain etymology; said 
 to be from vinco, / bind.) The creature immolated at a 
 sacrifice was so called among the Romans. [8te Sacri- 
 fice.) The well-known ceremonies of leading the victim, 
 unbound, to the altar ; pouring wine, oil, tec. on its fore- 
 head ; the ceremonies of killing and burning it— are all 
 amply described in ancient writers. The general object of 
 sacrifice, in all ancient religions, was expiation ; but to this 
 must be added another, peculiar to the Romans — that of 
 deducing auguries from the appearance of the entrails of 
 the victim. Victims of different kinds had many designa- 
 tions : bidentes, according to some, all kinds of sheep; ac- 
 cording to others, lambs only : eximia anim lis chosen be- 
 forehand out of a flock or herd, for their beauty or other 
 fitness, to serve for sacrifice: prodigal, according to Peslus, 
 those which were entirely consumed, instead of leaving, as 
 in the ordinary case, various parts which wen- consumed 
 or sold by the priests: succidanex, those Immolated in a 
 sacred sacrifice to repair some error committed in a former 
 one : probata;, after they had been examined by the priest 
 to ascertain their fitness. Various auguries were deduced 
 from the demeanour of the victim : its resistance, its un- 
 usual cries, above all its flight, were unlucky. Artificial 
 victims, made of flour, spices, &.C., were sometimes sacri- 
 ficed. Pythagoras seems to have introduced this custom 
 among his disciples. 
 
 VI'CTORY. In Classical Mythology, a goddess, called 
 by Varro the daughter of Heaven and Earth. Her a tar 
 was preserved in the curia or senate-house of Rome; and 
 its destruction was the subject of one of the latest con 
 tests between Christians and pagans. (See Beugnot, Destr. 
 du Piganisme en Occident., i., 410, 430 ; Mem de, I' Ac. del 
 lnscr., vol. xviii., 21.) 
 
 VIDA'ME. In French Feudal Jurisprudence, originally 
 an officer who represented the bishop, as the viscount did 
 the count (vice-dominus). In process of time these digni- 
 taries erected their offices into fiefs, and became feudal 
 nobles, such as the vidame of Chanres, Rheims. fcc. ; 
 continuing to take their titles from the seat of the bishop 
 whom they represented, although the lands held by vir 
 tiie of their fiefs might be situated elsewhere. 
 
 1305 
 
VIDELICET. 
 
 VIDE'LICET. (More properly scilicet.) In Law. In 
 pleading, it is usual to state any allegation which tonus 
 part of the facts set out, but which it is not intended to 
 prove with precision, with the word " scilicet" (in English, 
 "to wit") preceding it. Thus, numbers and dates, tor 
 instance, are frequently laid under a videlicet : ns where 
 anything is alleged to have taken place heretofore, " to 
 wit," on such a day ; or where, in trespass, the plaintiff 
 charges the defendant with carrying away or injuring 
 divers, " to wit," so many articles, &c. The general rule 
 on this subject is, that where an allegation is in itself ma- 
 terial, so that the issue cannot be established without it, 
 there the putting a videlicet before it will not dispense 
 with the proof; but where an allegation is in itself imma- 
 terial, there (in general, but not always) the omission of a 
 videlicet before it will render it material, and make it ne- 
 cessary for the party so alleging it to prove it as stated. 
 But the distinctions on this subject run, as may be sup- 
 posed, into extreme minuteness. 
 
 VI'GIL. (Lat. vigilium, watch.) An ecclesiastical usage, 
 the evening before a feast day, is so termed. The observa- 
 tion of vigils is said by some to be nearly the oldest of 
 Christian ceremonies. According to Lactantius, Jerome, 
 and other ancient authorities, the second advent of our 
 Saviour was expected to take place on the vigil of Enster. 
 fhey were originally celebrated by meeting together at 
 night (as they are still on some occasions in the Eastern 
 ehurcb.ee), and are said thus to preserve the memory of 
 the nocturnal assemblies of Christians in times of perse- 
 cution. 
 
 VIGNE'TTE. (Fr.) A small, ornamental engraving 
 used in printing for the illustration or decoration of a page 
 of any work. 
 
 VIGORO'SO. (It. vigorous.) In Music, a term which, 
 prefixed to a movement, denotes that it is to be performed 
 • with strength and firmness. 
 
 Vl'LLA. In Roman Antiquities, originally any country 
 dwelling, farmhouse. &c, but in architectural language, 
 the country residences of individuals of the wealthier class- 
 es were so called. Many descriptions >f mclen* villas are 
 hen Bred in the pu< l of lassi . i .i iters 
 
 but the two most complete, undoubtedly (besides those 
 contained in the work of Vitruvius.) are tin accounts given 
 by Pliny the younger of his Laurentine and Tuscan resi- 
 dences (Epist., ii., 17 and v. 6) : the first being the com- 
 plete picture of a marine, and the second of an inland villa. 
 The remains of the first are thought to have been dis- 
 covered not far from Ostia, in the beginning of the last 
 century. To these may be added the pleasing, though 
 over-ornamented poetical delineation of Statius, (SUva, lib. 
 3, entitled " Surrentinum Pollii," describing a magnificent 
 residence overlooking the Bay of Naples. The most im- 
 portant parts of an ordinary villa were the porticoes, one 
 or more, along the front or sides of the mansion ; the tri- 
 clinium or dining-room : the wings forming suits of living 
 apartments, commonly called, in the time of Pliny, diretie ; 
 the baths, with their appurtenances, the hypocausta or 
 vaulted heating-rooms, apodyteria or dressing-rooms, rooms 
 for exercise (sphsristeria), &c. Adjacent to the main 
 portico are generally the xystus (which see). There is a 
 work by A. Castle on the villas of the ancients, with illus- 
 trative engravings, (fol., 1728.) The remains of several 
 have been discovered in England. (See Archaol., vol. viii. ; 
 Pictorial History of England, i., 56-1.) 
 
 VILLAGE, or VILL. (Lat. villa, properly, a country- 
 house.) In English Legal phraseology, a subdivision of a 
 parish ; sometimes a whole parish, and sometimes a manor. 
 Most commonly it means the out part of a parish, con- 
 sisting of a few houses separate from the rest. (See Fleta, 
 1.6; and 1 Inst.) In countries where there are peasants 
 attached to the glebe, or possessing distinct rights and obli- 
 gations from other subjects, a village is properly a pi ce 
 inhabited by peasants only. From the Latin villa was de- 
 rived the French ville, city, originally signifying any resi- 
 dence ; and thence a collection of houses which gradually 
 grew around a principal residence. Thus, especially in 
 Normandy, ville is a common termination to the names of 
 places, like ton or by in England ; and consequently, also, 
 of family names. The English "town" furnishes a paral- 
 lel instance of the alteration of the meaning of a word pro- 
 duced by an increase of population, our original " towns" 
 having been single residences or hamlets; and in Scotland, 
 at this day, a house with its appurtenances in rural districts 
 is sometimes called " the town." 
 
 VILLEIN, Alienage. In Anglo-Norman Feudal Juris- 
 prudence, the villeins are thought to have been those who, 
 under the Saxons, had held by the tenure known to the 
 Saxons as " folk-land." Villeins were either " reirardant," 
 i. c, annexed to the manor, or " in gross," transferable from 
 one owner to another. On the Continent, the rank of 
 "villeins," " vilains," seems to have been from the begin- 
 ning superior to that < f serfs. (See Guizot, Civilisation en 
 1306 
 
 VILLEIN. 
 
 France ; Arcliceologia, vol. ii.) The word villein is derived 
 from the Latin villa; whence villani, country people. Re- 
 sides the actual servile population of the Roman empire, 
 there appears to have been a class of cultivators of tho 
 soil, who probably became greatly multiplied in the later 
 period of the western division of that empire, known under 
 the name of coloni, who were wholly or in part Bttached 
 to the soil, and liable to certain fixed services to the pro- 
 prietors of it, but not destitute of property or civil rights. 
 Out of this class, augmented in process of time by the addi- 
 tion of numbers whom the vicissitudes of conquest, during 
 the revolutions of the dark ages, subjected, with or with 
 out their consent, to the protection and control of masters, 
 arose the villein population of Europe in the middle ages. 
 Among the causes which increased their numbers, .Mr. 
 Hall mi also enumerates the fines and compositions so gen- 
 erally imposed in the barbarian codes of law, by default in 
 payment of which many were reduced into this siate ; and 
 tho prevalent superstitions, which induced many to sur- 
 render their persons as well as their property lo the control 
 of churches and monasteries. The villeins are designated 
 in these early codes under the general name of Mi, f emirs, 
 &c. (leute, people) ; a name which, however, is also ap- 
 plied to the free vassals, or liegemen : some, who were 
 attached to the soil of royal or church demesnes, are term- 
 ed fiscalini, or ecclesiastici ; and the condition of various 
 classes appears to have been extremely different. See 
 Meyer, Institutions Jiidir.inires, liv. i., c. 7.) The general 
 obligation common to all villeins was that of rem; 
 the lord's estate, and passing along with it by subinfeuda- 
 tion and alienation. The lord had also everywhere juris- 
 diction over the persons of his villeins. Rut in other re- 
 spects there were several degrees of servitude. In Eng- 
 land, at least from the reign of Henry Ii., only the inferior 
 sort of villeins, or absolute serfs, seem to have existed. 
 They were not only bound to the soil {villeins regardant), 
 but they might also be severed from the soil anil conveyed 
 apart from it by the lord; and then became, in legal 
 phraseology, villeins in gross. They were ine 
 acquiring a full right to property, their pcculium (as the 
 K :::; >-s termed tho possessions of ■ 
 
 be seized at any moment by the lord. Their tenure tx und 
 them to what were termed villein or ignoble services, inde- 
 terminate in degree. It must, however, be observed, that 
 these villein tenures were rather attributes of the land 
 than of the individual holding it, insomuch that lands held 
 in villenage were frequently in the occupation of I 
 and thus, in process of time, our English copyhold tenures 
 have been derived from those which prevailed in these 
 lands of a villein equality. In France and ' 
 where serfs of this description likewise existed, there were 
 at the same time other classes whoso servitude was of a 
 less severe character, being bound only to fixed duties and 
 payments in respect of their lands. 
 
 The abolition of villenage, in the greater part of Western 
 Europe, was brought about by various causes. An 
 ers, 1. Manumissions, which, during some centuries, were 
 extremely common from religious principles, being strongly 
 inculcated by the church ; although that body is accused of 
 not having added the force of example to its precepts, the 
 villeins on church lands having been, in most parts, among 
 the last emancipated. Redemption by the villein himself 
 was also a common mode of acquiring freedom. 0. The in 
 fluence of the towns, within which, when enfranchised, 
 serfs by a certain period of residence frequently obtained 
 their freedom. But, perhaps more generally, the process 
 was gradual: the severest attributes of personal servitude 
 being the first to disappear, while predial servitude i. «., a 
 liability to servile duties and payments in respect of land, 
 existed down to a comparatively late period in most coun 
 tries of Western Europe, and still exists, though much mod 
 ified, in parts of Germany. In the 15;h century there were, 
 according to Machiavel," no villeins left in Italy. Predial 
 servitude, in some rare instances, existed in England, it is 
 believed, as late ns the reign of Charles I. In France, it 
 was not whollv abolished until the Revolution. In the 
 greater part of the Prussian territories, the condition of the 
 peasantry was still in some respects mirked with the attri- 
 butes of "villenage until the reforms of Stein in the present 
 reign. In those Eastern parts of Europe in which the feu- 
 dal system never prevailed (Russia and Poland), the condi- 
 tion of the great mnss of the people is still servile, and. in 
 some respects, lower, perhaps, than that of most feudal vil 
 leins. The Russian peasants are divided into those belong] 
 ing to the crown, and tho-.-e belonging to Individuals; the 
 former being rather more than half as many :is the latter 
 throuahout the empire. The late emperor Aleznndei intr.v 
 duced some ameliorations in the condition of the crown 
 peasants, with a view to their ultimate enfranchisement 
 lie also planned measures for the prevention of the Salfl of 
 serfs apart from the estates on which they reside. 1'nder 
 his superintendence, the nobility in the German provinces 
 
VILLOSE. 
 
 A Uourland and Livonia abolished villenage altogether; 
 jut hitherto without much advantage in Lmpro 1 
 Rata of tin- peasantry. 
 
 VILLO'SE. (LaL villas, wool.) In Zoology, vvlien a part 
 is coi. i ,1 with soft flexible hairs lliickly SBL 
 
 VILLOUS. In Anatomy, the term is applied to vascu- 
 lar surfaces which, when minutely examined, look like the 
 pile of velvet; as in the villous or internal coat of the in- 
 testinal canaL 
 
 VIN A'l.l A. According to Varro and Ovid (from vinum, 
 icinc), a festival in ancient Rome. There were two Viua- 
 lia: the first In April, sacred to Venus; the second in Au- 
 gu^t, to Jupiter. The latter was considered as the begin- 
 ning of the vintage season, before w Inch new win. 
 permitted to be conveyed into Home. (See Ovid, Fast. I., 
 iv.) 
 
 VI NCULUM. (Lat. a bond or tie.) In Algebra, a mark 
 or Char u'ter Which connects several letters or quantities, 
 and indicates that they are to be treated as a siut'le quanti- 
 ty, Vleta lirst used the bar or line over the quantities for a 
 vinculum, thus, aX b + c ; meaning that the quantity a is 
 to be multiplied by the sum o'"the quantities b and c. This 
 Planner of connecting quantities was generally used by the 
 early English writers on algebra : hut it is now more com- 
 mon to make use of the parenthesis, which is a much more 
 convenient mode of notation, especially when the expres- 
 sion i s somewhat lon g. Thus, instead of writinz a X b -+- c, 
 or y' z- -}- 2 z y -+ yi, it is more usual to write a(b-\-c), 
 y/ (zl-\-1x y + y'). The parenthesis, which has generally 
 ra mathematicians, is said by Elation 
 to have been Brat used as a vinculum by Albert Glrard, 
 
 VIM;. Horticulture, It'iti* i-hufi ra. L.) the grapevine, 
 is a ligneous cliiulier, found wild in Syria and in various 
 Isla and In Greece, the fruit or which is in univer- 
 sal demand for the desert, either fresh, or dried as raisins, 
 and its fermented juice forms wine, the noblest liquor that 
 ever gladdened the heart of man. The best grapes for the 
 grown under glass ; but grapes are also grown of 
 very good ■ south of 
 
 r north as 
 Formerly the grape vine was grown in England 
 without any protection, for the purpose of wine making; 
 and Mr. Iloare In his interesting work on the Cullivition 
 te, maintains that with proper Care, this might be 
 •>me districts even at the present day. See Vine- 
 yard 
 
 Vim is often employed in a general sense to designate 
 
 any stun which trails along the ground without rooting, or 
 
 ! itself with other plants, to which it adheres by 
 
 means of its tendrils or by twining; as the cucumber and 
 
 the hop. 
 
 VI'N BGAE. This term is applied to various modifications 
 of the acetic acid. The simplest mode of obtaining vinegar 
 is to excite a second or acetous fermentation in wine: in 
 owgen is absorbed, ■ variable proportion of car- 
 Id is generally evolved, and the alcohol of the wine 
 ito acetic acid. Very good vinegar is also made 
 from strong beer, or from a wort or infusion of malt pre- 
 pared for the purpose, or from a decoction of common rai- 
 sins, or from a mixture of about 1 part of brandy with 8 of 
 water and some BUgor and yeast. 
 
 When vinegar is distilled, various impurities which it 
 contains remain in the still, ami the liquid which passes 
 over is the acetic acid, nearly pure, but largely diluted with 
 water. In this state it is usually called distilled vine/far, 
 and is chiefly used in pharmacy. Hut though a considera- 
 ble quantity of vinegar is made in wine countries, by the 
 first-mentioned process, and here and elsewhere by the 
 second, in which malt is employed; yet for all the pur- 
 poses of the arts and manufactures, as well as for domestic 
 consumption, the market is chiefly supplied from another 
 source, which is the destructive distillation of wood. It 
 has long been known that when certain kinds of dry wood, 
 especially beech and such woods as are not resinous, in- 
 stead of being burned in the open air, are converted into 
 charcoal in close vessels, so as, in fact, to be submitted to 
 distillation, that the vapours which pass off yield, when 
 condensed, a large quantity of tar, and of very acid water. 
 The latter, is, in fact, an impure vines ir; that is, it owes 
 its acidity to acetic acid, which is formed during the process 
 out of the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen of the wood, 
 which elements are also tluse of acetic acid, and, what is 
 remarkable, not in very different proportions. When this 
 impure acetic acid is freed from the tar and empyreiimatic 
 oils with which it is mixed, it is called crude pyrolignrous 
 acid. To convert it into pure acetic acid, that is, to sepa- 
 rate IV it the empyreiimatic products with which it is in- 
 
 combined, is a somewhat circuitous process, of 
 which the following is an outline: It is first, distilled, by 
 which pyroxilic spirit and oil of tar first pass over, and these 
 are followed by a quantity of impure or rough acetic acid. 
 
 VINEYARD. 
 
 This rough acid, which is used by dyers and calico-printers, 
 and by makers of sugar Of lead, is saturated with powdered 
 ■hiked lime, and being filtered, yields a solution of impure 
 acetate of lime, which is evaporated to dryness, and which, 
 distilled with dilute sulphuric acid, yields a purer acetic 
 acid than the former, but which still has a burned and dis- 
 agreeable flavour; it is therefore again saturated by lime, 
 and this liquid acetate of lime is mixed with a solution of 
 sulphate of soda, which acting by dounle decomposition, 
 yields a precipitate of sulphate of lime, and aceta 
 remains in solution. The latter salt is procured by evapo- 
 ration, and purified by torrefoctlon and crystallization. The 
 
 vinegar-makers, who purchase it, decompose it in 
 proper stills, by means of sulphuric acid, by which a verj 
 d strong acetic acid passes over, sulphate of soda 
 remaining in the retort. The acetic acid thus obtained, 
 which is in its most concentrated state, is extremely acrid, 
 sour, and pungent, and is often called radical tv» 
 when perfumed, aromatic vinegar; it is also occasionally 
 termed glacial acetic acid, from its properly of congealing 
 at a low temperature, and remaining frozen at temi 
 below SO . In this state it is a compound of 1 atom of real 
 acetic acid = 51, und one of water = U; the real or anhy- 
 drous acid, as it exists in the dry acetates, being composed 
 of, 
 
 Atom*. Eijitiv. Per On». 
 4 24 4700 
 
 Hydrogen 
 Oxygen 
 
 '2 1 
 
 4706 
 
 1 51 100-00 
 
 proportions which are equivalent to 4 atoms of carbon and 
 3of water. When this strong acetic acid is diluted with 
 water and slightly coloured, it forms a very pure and ex- 
 cellent substitute for common vinegar, and is cheaper than 
 acid of the same strength prepared in any other way. 
 
 The combinations of acetic acid with various I 
 called aeetat**; and of these salts some are Importantly use- 
 ful in the arts: such especially are the acetates of lead, cop- 
 per, iron, and alumina, which are chiefly employed In dyeing 
 and calico printing ; the acetate I of ammonia and of potash, 
 which, as well as acetate of lead, are used in medicine; 
 mid the acetates of lime and of soda, which have Ik 
 timed as steps in the preparation of strong acetic acid. The 
 acetates are recognised by their solubility in water, anil by 
 the fumes of acetic arid which they evolve when acted 
 upon by sulphuric ncid. The specific gravity of the strong 
 est liquid acelic acid is 10629; that of good malt vinegar is 
 10200; and that of distilled vinegar about 10023. The 
 strength or value of vinegar, and of acetic acid, can only bo 
 learned by its saturating (lower. 
 
 A duty of 2d. per gallon is imposed upon vinegar; and 
 the manufacture is consequently placed under the control 
 of the excise. Previously to 1826 the duty was Ad. per gal- 
 lon. The manufacture is chiefly confined to England, the 
 quantity produced in Scotland and Ireland not amounting 
 on the annual average to more than 100,000 gallons. The 
 quantity of vinegar manufactured in England is nearly 
 2,700,000 gallons annually. 
 
 VINEYARD. A plantation of grape vines cultivated for 
 the purpose of making wine. Though vineyards at present 
 are chiefly confined to the warmer parts of the Continent, 
 yet it appears thai formerly they were occasionally to be met 
 with in Britain, more particularly in the neighbourhood of 
 religious establishments. Among the last vineyards which 
 we have any account of, are one at Haffield, near Ledbury, 
 which belonged to the celebrated Jacob Tonson ; one in the 
 Isle of Wight; another at Pain's Hill, in Surrey. The 
 ground chosen in all these cases was a sloping surface of 
 dry gravelly soil, with a southern aspect; and the vines 
 were planted in rows at four feet apart every way, and 
 trained to short stakes about four feet high. Every year the 
 shoots were cut down to within a foot of the ground, and 
 not more than three shoots were allowed to be ma tired by 
 each plant. Kach shoot produced two or three bunches of 
 grapes, and the shoots were shortened in the course of the 
 summer so as never to reach higher than the stakes, to 
 which they were tied with rushes previously cut and dried 
 for the purpose, or wi:h twisis of willow. The kinds of 
 grapes grown were chiefly the Burgundy or large black clus- 
 ter, and the small black cluster or miller grape, so called 
 from the white mealy appearance of the leaves. Inlfine 
 seasons a tolerably good wine was produced. On the Con- 
 tinent, the vineyards which produce the best wine are inva- 
 riably found on dry soils, more or less calcareous; and the 
 most celebrated are on the dry, sunny sides of granitic 
 or calcareous hills, with the surface formed into terraces, 
 like the steps of stairs on a large scale; each step or ter- 
 race beinu supported on the lower side by a stone wall, to 
 which the vines planted at the base of the wall are some- 
 times attached, not by nails, as wall trees are in Britain, but 
 by hooked sticks driven into the interstices between the 
 
 1307 
 
VIOL. 
 
 siones, sucli walls being for the most part built without mor- 
 tar. In France and the south of Germany, vines are seldom 
 allowed to grow higher than four feet ; and they are cut 
 down every year, after the crop has been gathered and the 
 leaves dropped, to within one or two feet of the ground. In 
 the neighbourhood of Stuttgard, and between that city and 
 Heidelberg, where the sides of the hills are covered with 
 vineyards, the shoots are not cut down before winter; but 
 those of each stool or plant are bent down to the ground, 
 where they are tied together with a straw band, and retain- 
 ed in that position by laying a stone on the bundle. This is 
 for the purpose of preserving the vines from the extreme 
 cold of winter; the shoots, when so laid prostrate; being 
 soon covered with snow. In spring, the shoots are raised 
 up again, pruned, and tied to stakes. In the north of Italy, 
 and chiefly in the plains of Lombardy, the vineyards are 
 managed much in the same manner as they are in France ; 
 but in Tuscany, the Papal States, and Naples, the vineyards 
 are interspersed with mulberry trees, which are kept pol- 
 larded ; and to these the vines are attached, partly by ties 
 of willow and partly by their tendrils, and they produce 
 bunches of grapes to the height of six or eight feet from 
 the ground. S imetimes the shoots are trained to elms, mul- 
 berry trees or poplars, in which case they produce grapes to 
 a much greater height. The only plantation of vines in the 
 manner of a vineyard, which we know of in England at 
 present, is a small one at White Knights, near Reading ; 
 where, however, the plants for several years past have been 
 in a state of utter neglect, the leaves and young shoots being 
 injured or totally destroyed by rabbits. The ground which 
 was occupied by the vineyard at Pain's Hill is now covered 
 with a plantation of pine trees, among which some of the 
 vines still continue to spring up. The vineyard in the Isle 
 of Wight has long since been laid down .n pasture. In the 
 early part of the list century there were several small vine- 
 yards in the neighbourhood of London : the situation of one 
 at Hammersmith still bears the name of the Vineyard, and 
 is now occupied as a nursery. But the most celebrated of 
 the London vineyards appears to have been one cultivated 
 by Richard Warner, at Rotherhithe, who is supposed to 
 have introduced the Hamburg grape. There was a vine- 
 yard in the neighbourhood of Gloucester cathedral; one at 
 St. Albau's ; and one at Canterbury, the ground occupied by 
 which is now cultivated as a nursery, by Mr. Masters of 
 that city. 
 
 VIOL, or VOYOL. In Naval language, a purchase used 
 occasionally in weighing the anchor. 
 
 VIOLA. (It.) In Music, a musical instrument of the 
 same form and with the same number of strings as a violin, 
 and, like it, played with a bow. The English call it the 
 tenor violin. 
 
 VIOLA'CE^E {Viola), are Polypetalous Exogens, well 
 represented by the sweet violet of our woods, and distin- 
 guished by having five membranous anthers adhering to 
 each other round a superior ovary, with parietal placenta?. 
 The heartsease or pansy is a kind of violet, and there is a 
 large number of other species in different parts of the world. 
 An emetic property resides in their roots, and renders some of 
 them useful medicinal agents as substitutes for ipecacuanha. 
 
 VIOLI'NO. (It.) In Music, a musical instrument, vul- 
 garly called a fiddle, mounted with four strings, and played 
 with a bow. It consists of three parts — the neck, the table, 
 and the sounding board ; at the side are two apertures in 
 the shape of Ss. On it is abridge, which bears the strings 
 up from the bully, over which they pass from one extremity, 
 called the tail-piece, to the other near the head, where they 
 are received by turning pins, which tighten or loosen them 
 at pleasure. 
 
 VIOLONCE'LLO. (It.) In Music, a bass violin with 
 four strings, whose principles of construction are the same 
 as those of that instrument. 
 
 VIOLO'NE. (It.) In Music, a large bass violin, com- 
 monly called a double bass ; seldom played with more than 
 three strings, which lie an octave below the violoncello. 
 
 Vl'PER. (Lat. a contraction of Vivipar ; from vivos 
 alive, and paro, J bring forth.) The common name of a ge- 
 nus of venomous serpents which produce living young, and 
 have a head broader than the neck, and no pits behind the 
 nostrils. The true vipers {Vipera) are distinguished by the 
 head being covered with scales, like those on the back, and 
 by the nostrils being very large. The horned vi|>er of North 
 Africa and the puff adder of South Africa belong to this 
 group. The adders (Berus) have the head covered with gran- 
 ular scales, with larger ones intermixed in some species, and 
 have the nostrils of moderate size. The black adder and 
 the common adder {Berus ckersca), which are the only in- 
 digenous venomous reptiles of Great Britian, are examples 
 of this group. 
 
 VIKGI'LLIAN HUSBANDRY. That kind of agriculture 
 which was practised by the Romans, and Which is descri- 
 bed in the Georgics of Virgil ; or, in other words, the old mode 
 of managing arable land throughout Europe. By this sys- 
 1308 
 
 VIRTUAL VELOCITY. 
 
 tern two or three corn crops were taken in succession, and 
 the land afterwards allowed to lie fallow for several years, 
 when it was broken up again ; being sometimes prepared 
 by paring and burning. The Virgillian and Roman practice 
 is fully described in Dickson's Agriculture of the Ancients. 
 The first departure from this kind of husbandry in Britain 
 was made by Jethro Toll in the middle of the last century, 
 whose plan it was to keep arable land continually under 
 crops cultivated in rows, and alternately growing corn and 
 pulse, or plants cultivated for their leaves or roots. 
 
 VIRGO (the Virgin). In Astronomy, one of the twelve 
 zodiacal constellations or signs, being the sixth in order, be- 
 ginning with Aries. Virgo is usually represented with an 
 ear of corn in her hand, and is hence called Signum Cercris. 
 The sun enters this sign about the 22d of August. The con- 
 stellation Virgo contains one bright star of the first magni- 
 tude, called ispica Virginis. 
 
 VIRTUAL FOCUS, in Optics, is the point from which 
 rays, having been rendered diver- i, 
 
 gent by reflection or refraction, 
 appear to issue. Thus, let M N 
 be a metallic speculum, F a radi- 
 ating point, F o, F a' rays falling 
 on the speculum at a and a', and 
 reflected into the directions a b 
 and a' b' ; then the point V, in 
 
 the concourse of the straight lines ^~i>" 
 
 a b and a' b', is called the virtual focus of the reflected rays. 
 See Reflexion. 
 
 VIRTUAL VELOCITY, in Mechanics, is the velocity 
 which a body in equilibrium would actually acquire during 
 the first instant of its motion in case of the equilibrium 
 being disturbed. 
 
 The general principles on which the laws of equilibrium 
 in machines are established may be reduced to three; 
 namely, the principle of the lever, the principle of the com- 
 position of forces, and the principle of virtual velocities. 
 The last consists in this, that forces are in equilibrium 
 when they are in the inverse ratio of the virtual velocities 
 of the points to which they are applied, estimated in the 
 direction in which they respectively act. Thus, let F and 
 F' be two forces applied to the points p and 7/ of a body 
 which is in equilibrium between their joint actions and let 
 s and s' be the spaces which the points p and // would 
 describe in the first instant of "lime, in case of the equili- 
 brium being disturbed ; then F : F' : : s' : s, or Fs = F'»'. 
 The principle is thus enunciated generally by Lagrange 
 (Mcc. Jlnalytique, p. 22) : 
 
 " If any system of bodies or material points, urged eaah 
 by any forces whatever, be in equilibrium, and there be 
 given to the system any small motion, by virtue of whicli 
 each point describes an infinitely small space, which space 
 will represent the virtual velocity of the point ; then the 
 sum of the forces, multiplied each by the space which the 
 point to which it is applied describes in the direction of 
 lhat force, will be always equal to y.ero or nothing, regard- 
 ing as positive the small spaces described in the direction 
 of the forces, and as negative those described hi the oppo- 
 site direction." 
 
 In order to illustrate this principle, we may take as an 
 example the case of the bent lever Let P, P', P" be the 
 
 ?.. 
 
 b^p-- v\ / w^ 
 
 points of application of the three forces F, F, F", acting 
 on the lever B A C, in the directions P O, P' Q! , P" Q", 
 which are all supposed to be comprised in the same plane. 
 Suppose the lever to describe an infinitely small angle 
 about the fulcrum A. so that the points P, P, P" come into 
 the positions p, p', p". According to the definition given 
 above, the infinitely sm ill arcs P p, P' p'. P' p' , which may 
 be considered as straight lines, will be tne virtual velocities 
 of the points of application P, I", P", of the three forces V. 
 F , F". From the points p, ;/, p", let there bo drawn p m, 
 p' m', p" w" respectively perpendicular to the lines P O, 
 P' ft', P" &"; then P m will be the virtual velocity of the 
 point P reduced to Ibe direction P U of the WfW F, and 
 P' m', P" m" will in like manner represent the virtual veto; 
 Cities of the points P' and P" reduced to the directions in 
 vi hlch the forces F' and F" respectively act Let P m — s, 
 V m' = s', and P" m" = s" ; and as the force !' acting in 
 the direction P Q tends to turn the lever in the direction in 
 Which the motion lias been supposed to take place, while 
 I" and F" tend to turn it in the contrary direction, the 
 
VIRTUE. 
 
 jpace s must be regarded as positive, and *' and e" as 
 negative. 
 
 Now, according to the principle of virtual velocities, the 
 sum of the given force*, each multiplied by the velocity of 
 its pant of application reduced to the direction of that force, 
 is zero in the case of equilibrium; and, reciprocally, when 
 tbis sum is zero the system is in equilibrium; hence the 
 equation of the equilibrium of the lever is 
 F • + F' s' + F" s" = 0. 
 
 It is easv to verify this equation by showing that it may 
 be derived' from the" equation of equilibrium deduced from 
 the principle of the lever. From A let A q, A q', A q", be 
 drawn respectively perpendicular to the directions P Q, 
 1" U', P" U", and let the Mgle l'Ay=0; then, since the 
 an^le A I'p may be regarded as a right angle, mPp—VAq; 
 Whence the two triangles ml' p, q A V, are similar and 
 m P : A q : : 1' p : P A : : tan. 0:1; therefore mP = A} tan. 
 0, that is, ,s = A q tan. 0. In like manner we have s' = A}' 
 tan. 0, *" = A q tan. ; whence, by substituting in the 
 above equation, and leaving out the common multiplier 
 tan. 0, we find 
 
 F ■ A q + F' • A q' + F" • A q" = 0, 
 which is the well-known equation of equilibrium. See 
 Static*. 
 
 The equation F» + F'j' + F" t" = may be extended 
 olid body of any form, or to any machine whatever. 
 Let d m be an element of tin- body, ¥ an accelerating force 
 applied to d 111, v the velocity of that element, 2 the angle 
 comprised between the direction of the force F and that in 
 which the element d n moves ; then the moving force of 
 the element will be F d m, and v cos. : its velocity esti- 
 mated in the direction of this force; and consequently, by 
 the principle of virtual velocities, the equation of equili- 
 
 will be J 
 
 F t> cos. 1 d m = 0. 
 
 hrium 
 
 The principle of virtual velocities is easily verified by ex- 
 periment with respect to all the simple machines ; namely, 
 the lever, the pulley, the wheel and axle, the inclined plane, 
 
 and the screw. Us Importance as a fundamental principle 
 in rational mechanics was first recognised by John Ber- 
 noulli (see the jVouvc/le jVicanique Of Varignon, torn, ii.) ; 
 ami I derived from it the whole theories of 
 
 statics and dynamics in his celebrated work, the Mecanique 
 Jinalylique. Fourier (Journal de V Ecule Potytechnique, 
 cahier v.) has demonstrated the principle from the property 
 of the lever. 
 
 VIRTUE, in Moral Philosophy, is employed both in an 
 abstract and comprehensive sense, to signify the law or 
 laws in which right conduct consists, and also concretely 
 for that quality OS actions and persona which arises from 
 their agreement with the rules of morality. By theories of 
 virtue are understood the different explanations which 
 have been given, both of that which distinguishes right 
 from wrong, and of the nature of the feelings with which 
 virtue and vice are contemplated by mankind. The dis- 
 tinction of these two questions, so frequently confounded 
 by ethical writers, is due to Adam Smith, but has since been 
 strongly insisted uixm by Mackintosh and Hampden. The 
 former question Mackintosh entitles "The Inquiry into the 
 Criterion of Morality in Action," and the latter, "The 
 Theory of Moral Sentiments;" whereas Smith and Hamp- 
 den designate the former as "the Inquiry into the Nature 
 of Virtue," and apply the terra criterion of virtue to the 
 principle of approbation. In the use o f the phrase " Theory 
 of Moral Sentiments," the last two writers again are at 
 issue. Smith understands by it moral philosophy in general, 
 while Hampden limits it to a division only of ethical inquiry. 
 According to the latter, it comprises the two investigations 
 already specified : that into the nature, and that into the 
 criterion, of virtue. It constitutes the subjective branch of 
 ethics, and arises from a consideration of man in himself as 
 the subject of moral action, while the objective branch 
 results from a regard to the end or object to which the 
 moral nature of man has reference. This speculation into 
 the final cause of man's capacity for virtue and happiness, 
 Hampden considers to be the complement of ethics, and 
 entitles it the theory af natural religion. Lastly, he defines 
 ethics thus understood to be the science of what ought to be, 
 as distinct from the science of uhat is ; or of moral facts, 
 as tney are exhibited in life, or as they may be gleaned 
 from the philosophy of history, and the study of the intel- 
 lectual arts, which are based upon an appeal to the actual 
 moral nature of man. These two together make up the 
 whole domain of moral philosophy. (Hampden's Lectures 
 on JUoral Philosophy.) 
 
 The several theories of virtue are conveniently divided 
 Into ancient and modern. The distinction, however, is not 
 founded on nny essential difference of theory, but rather on 
 the opposite points of view from which they respectively 
 viewed the moral facts. While modern theories ore per- 
 manently subjective, the objecJve question is the charac- 
 
 teristic feature of ancient ethics. The leading speculation 
 of the former is: what is the origin and nature of moral 
 obligation? The first problem of the latter was to deter- 
 mine the object or end to which the moral constitution of 
 man has reference, and this ultimate end of human activity 
 they usually denominated the end or sovereign goad (r:Ao$, 
 finis, bonorum, summvm bonum). And although the con- 
 sideration of this question might tend in a few. as in Socrates 
 
 and Plato, to carry the mind forward to s e limber and 
 
 ulterior existence, in which should be realized that entile 
 iction after which man aspires, still, as these prompt- 
 ings of natural religion were but vague and Unauthoritative, 
 the ethical writers of antiquity confined their views to this 
 life alone, and the sovereign good which they proposed as 
 the final cause of mural action was limited to the greatest 
 good attainable in the present state of existence. 
 
 With Socrates, the first object of speculation was to ac 
 quire a knowledge of man's true and proper nature; but 
 this self-knowledge he held to be Impossible so long as man 
 continues Ignorant of the universal principle. Now the 
 nature of God can only he learned from his works, and 
 these bespeak him to be good and intelligent. Moreover, 
 the consciousness of man attests his participation in the 
 divine essence; consequently the ultimate destination of 
 man is reason and goodness, and his moral end is the cogni- 
 tion and practice oi good. Virtue, therefore, is the intelli- 
 gent performance of duties, whose notions man may arrive 
 at by a study both of his own nature and of the laws of an 
 all-wise Creator discoverable in the system of the universe. 
 In this pursuit happiness is inseparable from \iriue. But 
 if Socrates thus founded morality on a disinterested princi- 
 ple, he reconciled it with interest rightly understood; and 
 on the other hand raised political science above the mere 
 calculation of utility, by identifying it'with justice as 
 founded not on convention {ioyua irokcui). hut on natural 
 right, or the invention of what is (tov ovroi tiivp 01, ). 
 
 Socrates having thus referred the laws of morality to the 
 Deity as their author and upholder, Plato proceeded by a 
 definition of the divine nature to guard against the objection 
 of their arbitrary position by the will of God. He made 
 the Deity to be the perfection of intelligence as resulting 
 from an union of the good, the beautiful, and the true, 
 which are in their nature eternal, necessary, and immutable. 
 This perfection is also the term to which man spontaneoasiy 
 tnds. For reason is the true principle of his nature, 
 although in the present existence there is mingled with i 
 a foreign element — mutter, which, by obstructing its develop 
 iiieul, becomes the cause of his falling short of perfection 
 All, then, that is now possible for man is an approach to 
 the divine excellence. This is virtue, and is effected by 
 the harmony of the rational, irascible, and cuncupiscible 
 P iris of the soul. Although the two latter belong to the 
 foreign element in man's nature, they are yet indis|>cnsable 
 to the moral act: for the third affords a motive to action, 
 inasmuch as beauty, being identical with the good and true, 
 gives rise to desire or love (£pu>$), and thereby impels to 
 virtuous action; while the second, disapproving what is 
 base, and ugly, and false, furnishes the fortitude requisite 
 for attaining to what is approved under every difficulty and 
 every discouragement. To each of the three parts of the 
 soul Plato assigns a special virtue, in a lower sense, and 
 names them, respectively, prudence, fortitude, and temper- 
 ance (<ppovnois, avipia, awippoavvri), while in a proper sense 
 he declares virtue to be eminently one and the same with 
 justice (iiKaioavvr/)- These four are the so-called cardinal 
 virtues. From the notion of justice he draws the connex- 
 ion of ethics and politics : the latter is but an application 
 of the former to society. At the close of the republic he 
 teaches that as an individual cannot be at peace with him- 
 self except by the harmonious adjustment of all his facul- 
 ties, wherein each is allowed its due weight, so in the 
 whole world happiness is proixirtionate to justice, and each 
 individual derives the greater benefit from the community 
 the more complete the harmony is in which he lives with 
 all his fellow citizens. 
 
 Essentially agreeing, the ethical systems of Plato and 
 Aristotle are chiefly distinguished by the relative value 
 which they respectively ascribe to happiness ; the former 
 considering it as the natural fruit of virtue, while the latter 
 rather viewed virtue as the means of attaining to happiness. 
 Plato taught, that although the just man regulates his con- 
 duct by no reference to his own enjoyment, yet pleasure 
 invariably attends him, since justice is good not only in 
 itself, but also in its effects, and renders all things fitting 
 and friendly to man. In Aristotle's opinion, the end of 
 morality is to render individuals as useful as possible to 
 society; the objects of whose institution is to procure in its 
 members the highest moral perfection, as necessary to the 
 attainment of the greatest possible felicity by the whole. 
 Man, he teaches, is a free and rational agent, and there- 
 fore acts spontaneously and deliberately, invariably pro- 
 posing to himself some end as the motive to action. All 
 b 1309 
 
VIRTUE. 
 
 unman arts and pursuits, then, have their appropriate ends; 
 but among these there is a certain subordination, which 
 implies a supreme end towards which they all converge ; it 
 being desirable not for its own sake, but the cause for 
 which all else is sought. This supreme good is perfection : 
 virtue is the approximation thereto, and consists in the 
 habit of mediocrity according to right reason ; in other 
 words, it is self-control, which triumphs alike over the im- 
 petuosity of the passions and the weakness of the will, and 
 thereby accomplishes a just mean. Every special virtue, 
 In like manner, lies in a kind of middle between the two 
 opposite vices of too much and too little: courage, for 
 instance, being a mean between cowardice and rashness, 
 of which the former offends by an excessive, the latter by 
 a defective, regard to the proper objects of fear. 
 
 According to the Stoics, the supreme good which is the 
 final cause of every special good is to act conformably to 
 nature ; i. c, in obedience to the immutable laws which 
 reason discovers in the universe. This eternal and universal 
 order, which they called fate, is an infinite enchainment of 
 causes and effects, in virtue of which whatever happens is 
 what ought to be : it embraces all living things, and man 
 therefore has a principle within him which obliges him to 
 seek that state of his nature which is the best and most 
 perfect that it is capable of. This is reason. Wisdom, 
 therefore, is man's chief good, and the pursuit of it is phi- 
 losophy. Perfect wisdom, however, as modelled in the 
 sage of the Stoics, they did not believe to be conceded to 
 mortals, to whom nothing more is granted than to be in the 
 way to perfection. Now, as they made reason to be the 
 supreme arbiter in moral determinations, they naturally 
 held vice to be but an error : yet this error, they taught, is 
 the only evil ; and, on the other hand, nothing is good but 
 what is such in nil times and all circumstances : all else is 
 morally indifferent. But even indifferent things are, in a 
 lower sense, agreeable to nature, and objects more or less 
 of choice or aversion. That perfect rectitude of conduct, 
 therefore, which constitutes the essence of virtue, consists 
 in a just and accurate discernment of good, and in assigning 
 to every object its due importance according to the place it 
 holds in the natural scale of things. Lastly, although their 
 first object was to emancipate the moral man from all 
 dependence on external conditions and from the slavery of 
 his passion — and although, therefore, they removed all 
 sensuous pleasures and pains from the catalogue of good 
 and evil — nevertheless the apathy which they taught was 
 not, as commonly understood, an absolute insensibility, 
 but rather the undisturbed supremacy of reason over the 
 passions. 
 
 All the preceding theories agree in making reason the 
 end of human activity, and are thereby distinguished from 
 the Epicurean, which gave the first place to the sensuous 
 element of humanity, and reduced science to the rank of a 
 mean. According to Epicurus, pleasure alone is sought for 
 its own sake, and philosophy and all else is but the pursuit 
 of it. If, sometimes, it seems to be foregone, it is only with 
 a view to some higher gratification, as pain also may occa- 
 sionally be endured in the acquisition of a pleasure whose 
 intensity will fully compensate for the intermediate suffer- 
 ing. The pleasures and pains that are primarily the objects 
 of desire and aversion are corporeal, and from these the 
 pleasures of the mind are ultimately derived, and consist 
 merely in the anticipation of future and in the recollection 
 of past states. This, however, constitutes the superiority 
 of the secondary pleasures of the mind ever their corporeal 
 originals, for the latter do not extend beyond the present 
 sensation. Virtue, therefore, is an enlightened pursuit of 
 pleasure, which, although it is selfish in its principle, still 
 r.ilows free course to the social and benevolent affections, 
 as being a part of man's nature and an additional source of 
 gratification beyond the calculations of personal interest. 
 For though they may expose a man to the chance of pain, 
 as in the case of the death of a friend, still this is a less 
 evil than apathy, and the deprivation of a natural enjoy- 
 ment. Justice, lastly, has no other object than the general 
 good ; and right, properly understood, is but the sign of 
 utility. 
 
 Modern ethics having taken their rise from a system 
 greatly resembling the Epicurean, the inquiry into the 
 nature of virtue became the first question that was proposed 
 foi solution. Accordingly this fact furnishes a general 
 classification of the later theories of morals into selfish or 
 disinterested, according as they found virtue on a selfish or 
 on a benevolent principle. 
 
 The selfish theory has found its ablest advocates in 
 Hobbes, Helvetius, Haley, and Bentham. Of these the 
 first and last deserve a particular notice : Hobbes as the 
 originator of the controversy into the nature of morality ; 
 Bentham as furnishing the most complete and elaborate 
 exposition of the utilitarian scheme. According to Hobbes 
 (born 1588, died 1679), the only motive that can induce 
 men to any act is the pleasure which will follow from its 
 1310 
 
 execution. A preconception of pleasure is the necessary 
 condition of every moral determination. Good and evil are 
 simple tendencies to pleasure and pain, without whiih 
 every object is indifferent. Self-love is the exclusive pas- 
 sion of man's nature. Other passions differ from it out 
 wardly only, i. c, in the objects wl'ich excite them: pity, 
 for example, is but the imaginatioi of misfortunet which 
 may happen to ourselves, suggested by the contemplation 
 of another's sufferings ; love, the conception of advantages 
 to be derived from its object ; and benevolence, nothing 
 more than the consciousness of power sufficient to secure 
 not only one's own happiness, but that of others also. Tho 
 first law of nature is self-preservation : whatever tends, 
 therefore, to this end is lawful and good, and all men have 
 a natural right to appropriate by every means in their power 
 whatever may contribute to their personal happiness. As 
 this is the imprescriptible right of all, there are as many 
 forms of natural right as there are separate and independent 
 wills ; and actions of the most opposite kinds are equally 
 virtuous and legitimate. Now, as all possess an equal right 
 to nil things, and as there is no reason why one should 
 yield to another the objects which both may desire, the 
 state of nature must be one of war ; but as, in such a con- 
 dition of things, the safety of every one is constantly en- 
 dangered by the conflicting interests of all others, peace, at 
 any price, becomes preferable to it. Peace, however, is the 
 result of society alone ; i. e., as defined by Hobbes, of the 
 existence within a community of a sufficient force to con- 
 trol all individual wills and forces. But this is only practi- 
 cable in two ways: either all are seized with a desire to 
 terminate the state of hostility, and enter into a mutual 
 compact, by which they engage to do no violence, nor to 
 suffer it to be done to each other; or a single person suc- 
 ceeds by stratagem or force in establishing his own authority 
 over the rest. The latter form of society is as legitimate as 
 the former; and indeed, as the end of the institution is the 
 suppression of warfare among its members, and as the more 
 unlimited the power is the better calculated it must be to 
 effect this object, an absolute monarchy is the very best 
 polity that can be devised. Against the government in 
 such a society, it is evident that subjects cannot consistently 
 possess any rights ; for these would impede its effective- 
 ness: they have but one simple duty, and that is — implicit 
 obedience. (On Human Nature ; Leviathan, be.) 
 
 Bentham (born 1748, died 1832), sets out from Hobbes' 
 principle, that every object would be perfectly indifferent 
 but for its fitness 'a produce pleasure or pain, which, he 
 declares, are the sole motives of human determinations. 
 This proposition he does not attempt to. prove, but, assert- 
 ing that it is one of those primary and self-evident truths 
 which are the foundation of all reasoning, he proceeds to 
 draw from it certain practical conclusions in the form of 
 definitions. Thus he defines utility to be the fitness of ac- 
 tions and things to augment the happiness, or to diminish 
 the misery, of individuals and communities ; and maintains 
 that this is the only true and intelligible interpretation of 
 what is usually called the lawfulness, goodness, justice, 
 and morality of an action. The principle of utility is next 
 defined to be that which exclusively derives the quality 
 of actions from their twofold property of augmenting the 
 happiness or misery of one or many. This, he asserts, is 
 the only valid principle of moral appreciation ; and he re- 
 duces all opposing theories to two classes, which he desig- 
 nates by the principle of asceticism, and the principle of 
 sympathy and antipathy. Under the latter head, Bentham 
 comprises every theory of morals which draws the distinc- 
 tion of good and evil from any other principle than a con- 
 sideration of consequences ; whereas he explains the asce- 
 tical principle as agreeing with the utilitarian in drawing 
 its qualification of objects from their tendency to produce 
 pleasure or pain, but as differing from it in that it proceeds 
 in an inverse manner, and calls pain good, but pleasure an 
 evil. To forego the least pleasure, simply as pleasure, is 
 to act on a principle of asceticism ; but the true disciple of 
 utility holds every pleasure to be in itself good Even the 
 abominable pleasure which the wretched criminal enjoys 
 in gloating over his crime is good, so far as it is a pleasure ; 
 it is only evil so far forth as it entails the ill consequences 
 of fear and punishment, which far transcend its guilty en- 
 joyment. The practical conclusion, therefore, of the theory 
 of utility is, that an action is only really good when it will 
 give rise to more of pleasure thati of pain; and evil, when 
 its painful exceed its pleasurable consequences. It be 
 comes, consequently, of the first importance to possess an 
 accurate standard by which the amount of pleasure and 
 pain likely \o result from certain actions, and the relative 
 value of the two quantities, may be measured. This de 
 ■Ideratotn Bentham has attempted to supply in a manna 
 that constitutes the most original and characteristic feature 
 of his theory and system. The first item of this mora, 
 arithmetic is what is intended for an exhaustive enumera 
 tion of all the pleasures and pains of which human naturr 
 
VIRTUE. 
 
 is susceptible ; in the next, he proceeds to furnish a method 
 of determining their comparative value. For this purpose 
 it is neces ary to take into account the following consider- 
 ations : I. Whit are the intrinsic circumstances of the 
 pleasure itself which can augment or diminish its value; 
 and these are, 1, intensity; 2, duration; 3, certainty; 4, 
 lily, or remoteness; 5, fecundity, or the probability 
 immediate pleasures engendering others more remote ; 
 C, purity, or whether its pleasures are mixed or not with 
 of pain. II. What circumstances are likely to 
 alleci tiic sensibility of tin' agents, and so to modify indi- 
 rectly the result. These are of two kinds, individual and 
 u . to the former belong temperament, constitution, 
 intellectual development, and other traits of personal 
 Character ; those of the latter order are little more than 
 fixations of the first, and are — sex, age, education, 
 lunate, national character, government, and re- 
 111. What are the consequences which, going lie- 
 he immediate objects of the action, remotely affect 
 Others more or less numerous, and even the whole of society. 
 By allowing their due weight to all these particulars, Ben- 
 tliain pretends that any ordinary capacity may form a cor- 
 timate of the real tendency of actions, and thereby 
 arrive at that general utility which it is the proper end of 
 Morals ami J.igislation.) 
 The recognition of a principle of action independent of 
 ■elf-love will atlbrd a general characteristic of the remain- 
 ing theories. Bome of these, however, place the origin of 
 the disinterested determination In a perception of moral good 
 and evil by the intellect or reason; while others explain 
 the distinction by certain facts which Hike place within the 
 ility or emotive part of man, so that the disinterested 
 lunations which result proceed from an instinct or 
 sentiment. These two classes maj be conveniently desig- 
 nated the rational and the sentimental or instinctive. Of 
 Instinctive theories, however, while some are content with 
 referring the moral principle to an original and admitted 
 tendency of human nature, such as sympathy or benevo- 
 lence, others have derived it from a new and peculiar 
 faculty. 
 
 To begin with the former class. According to Smith 
 (born 1733, died 1790), when we are in the company of an- 
 other who is sensibly affected with any sentiment or passion, 
 our nature spontaneously, and without the intervention of 
 reason or will, lends to reproduce in ourselves the same sen- 
 time, ,t or passion ; and not only have we this disposition to 
 sympathy, but we even feel a pleasure in finding ourselves 
 to be brought thereby into harmony with those around us. 
 Indeed, so strong and so instinctive is the desire for such 
 union between our own minds and those of others, that 
 when we are under any strong emotions in the presence of 
 another who is unable to conceive anything that approaches 
 to the same degree of violence with our own, in such a case 
 we involuntarily and unconsciously lower our passion to 
 that pitch in which the spectator can go along with it. 
 The spectator, on the other hand, seeing what we suffer, 
 endeavours to enter into our sentiments, and rises by an in- 
 stinctive complaisance to the level of them. In regard to 
 those objects which have no peculiar relation cither to our- 
 selves or others, this sympathy is simple. In whatever de- 
 gree, for instance, the love of truth may be felt, it will not 
 directly nftecl the happiness of any one ; it cannot excite any 
 feeling but a simple emotion of sympathy. It may, there- 
 fore, be allowed to appear as it is felt, because there is no 
 reason either of instinct or of reason to suppress it. There 
 are, however, certain internal dispositions which excite a 
 twofold or even a triple sympathy, which are all of the same 
 kind ; thus, when we see a man animated with sentiments 
 of charity and love, pity and benevolence towards his fel- 
 low men, we are affected by a twofold sympathy, directly 
 with the benevolent disposition, and indirectly with the 
 gratitude which is duo from its objects. As, then, the two 
 mutually strengthen each other, the benevolent dispositions 
 evidently awaken the highest degrees of sympathy, and, 
 consequently, they contribute most of all to effect that per- 
 fect harmony of sentiments and affections to which all men 
 instinctively aspire. But, on the other hand, there is a di- 
 vided sympathy. Suppose the case of merited anger; on 
 the one hand we sympathize with the passion of anger, and 
 on the other with the object of it, and with the sufferings 
 which it may bring upon him. These are the elements of 
 moral approbation and disapprobation. We approve those 
 sentiments of others in which we ourselves are able to par- 
 ticipate ; and when this sympathy is pure our approbation 
 is unqualified, but mixed with disapprobation when our 
 sympathy is divided. But farther, when we witness, for in- 
 stance, an act of benevolence, we sympathize not only with 
 the feelings of the actor, but also with the emotion of the 
 pirty benefited. Now this emotion is gratitude ; but what 
 else is gratitude but an instinctive desire to do good to the 
 benefactor? Consequently, as we participate in the feel- 
 ings of the obliged party, we wish to do good to the author 
 
 of the obligation: we feel that he merits it in reward for 
 the good which he has done. As to the judgment which 
 we pass on our own sentiments and actions, .Smith asserts 
 that if it were possible for a human creature to grow up to 
 manhood in some solitary place without communication 
 with his species, lie could no more think of his own char- 
 acter, of the propriety or demerit of his own actions, of the 
 beauty or deformity of his own mind, than of the beauty or 
 deformity of his own face. Since society is essential to 
 sympathy, which is the rule or qualification of all our acts, 
 the solitary cannot unive to a consciousness of that tule, 
 and by it appreciate the morality or immorality of his acts. 
 Our moral criticisms are first exercised upon the i-liaradi r 
 and conduct of others, hut we soon learn that others are ex- 
 ercising their judgment upon our own: we became anxious 
 to know bow far we deserve their censure and applause; 
 and, in order to examine in this respect our own passions 
 and conduct, we have the faculty of supposing ourselves 
 
 of our own dispositions and behaviour, and BO ex- 
 perience, in s< Ie;;r<v. the same sensations as would be 
 
 excited in our mind.- by the sight of similar actions and feel 
 iii;:s in another. By Virtue of this faculty we feel, as it 
 were, a sympathy with ourselves when we have acted well, 
 and are led to suppose that all other spectators would be 
 similarly affected. This consciousness of unison between 
 our own conduct and the sentiments of our fellows con-tl- 
 
 I Icasure of rectitude. And farther, by aid of the 
 same principle by which we judge of the actions of others, 
 we feel that we have a right to pronounce our own also to 
 
 he good. This i^ a source of inward tranquillity and satis- 
 faction, while the least suspicion of the contrary gives rise 
 to the pains of remorse. In manhood, indeed, when ex- 
 perience has drawn a Bystem of general rules from the oc- 
 casional judgments of s) mpathy, and established them in 
 the mind, a new source of pleasure arises. We have BOW 
 an Intellectual perception also of the conformity of the act 
 with the law of morality ; and, Independently of the In- 
 stinctive approbation, the reason also awards to it its sanc- 
 tion. This rational perception is wanting in the infantine 
 and uncultivated mind ; hut it is invariably found w hetevei 
 education or experience has stored the mind with the gen- 
 eral maxims of morality which are primarily founded on 
 the instinctive emotions. The act of reason in approbation 
 is simply a perception of the ngrceahleiicss of the act with 
 the moral laws, and therefore implies them. Lastly, the 
 act itself appears by its very nature to hi' pail of a 
 of conduct titled lo establish a perfect agreement of set ti 
 meats among mail kind ; and Ibis universal harmony being 
 eminently beautiful in itself, we judge, in virtue of this per- 
 ception, the act in question to be not only good but even 
 beautiful. This is the principle of moral beauts, v 
 the origin of every other species of the beautiful. {Tluury 
 of .Mural Hi ntimi nl.<., 
 
 The doctrine of a moral sense owes its origin to Lord 
 .Shaftesbury (born 1071, died 1713). According to this 
 writer, the human dispositions are of two kinds — the social 
 or benevolent, and the personal or selfish. The former lead 
 us to desire the welfare of others simply for its own sake 
 and without regard to our own interests. In the develop/ 
 uients of these affections the soul takes part, and some ore 
 naturally agreeable and others disagreeable to it; of tiie 
 former it approves, but disapproves the latter. As, then, 
 these dispositions are a source of pleasure to the soul, there 
 must be in it some faculty distinct from the dispositions 
 themselves, by virtue of which they become agreeable or 
 otherwise, and which performs the same office in their case 
 as they do with respect to their immediate objects. This 
 faculty Shaftesbury calls a sense which be characterizes, 
 from its mode of operation, as reflex, and from its object- 
 matter as mural. The dispositions which this reflex sense 
 approves or disapproves are morally good or evil: virtue 
 consists in yielding to the former, but resisting the hitter. 
 Between goodness and virtue there is agreement, but not 
 identity ; the former being merely a constitutional predomi 
 nance of the benevolent affections in the character and con- 
 duct, the latter being the same state produced by the opera 
 tion of the conscience or moral sense, which, when the per- 
 sonal affections are of equal force with the social ones, In- 
 terposes its authority, and inclines the balance in favour of 
 the latter. 
 
 Butler (born 1692, died 1752), in the same manner divides 
 the principles of action into those which lead directly to pri- 
 vate good, and those which promote immediately the good 
 of the community; but of both he shows with great origin- 
 ality that they are alike disinterested. The objects of both 
 classes of passions are outward things, which are sought as 
 ends in themselves and without any regard to their tendency 
 to promote happiness, which is the proper end of self-love. 
 This, again, is distinguished by Butler from selfishness, 
 which consists in the weakness of the public affections and 
 the undue strength of personal desires. Self-love, or an en- 
 lightened regard to our general happiness, is not a vice: 
 
 1311 
 
VIRTUE. 
 
 whereas selfishne&s is utterlv at variance with the happi- 
 ness of him who harbours it," since without the gratification 
 of the benevolent feelings it is impossible to attain to the 
 greatest satisfaction of our nature, of which they are a part. 
 But, besides these personal and social instincts and self-love, 
 Butler discovers in man another faculty, which by its very 
 nature is supreme over all others, and authoritatively ap- 
 proves or disapproves both the affections of our minds and 
 the actions of our lives. This principle is conscience. Its 
 perceptions are immediate, and its very idea implies that 
 supremacy and authority are essential to it. [Sermons at 
 the Ralls Chapel.) 
 
 The first object of Hutcheson (born 1694, died 3747) is to 
 show that the very frame of our nature which determines 
 us to pursue happiness for ourselves, also determines us 
 both to esteem and to benevolence on their proper occasions. 
 But besides these original desires, he shows that there 
 arise, in consequence of them, secondary desires of every- 
 thing useful to gratify the primary ones. But there is nlso 
 in man an idea of moral good which can be explained by 
 neither of the former. By a careful analysis, Hutcheson 
 shows that by moral good we understand neither what gives 
 pleasure by satisfying our benevolence, nor what is simply 
 good toothers; nor is it what is useful to others or agree- 
 able to the spectators; nor, lastly, is it a conformity to the 
 will of God, or to law, or truth, or order; it is simply what 
 the word itself expresses, which is simple and original and 
 inexplicable by any other. From this originality and sim- 
 plicity of the term, Hutcheson argues that it must be per- 
 ceived by a sense, because the senses alone are percipient 
 of simple qualities ; and by a special sense, since the quali- 
 ty apprehended by it differs from all other objects of sensa- 
 tion. Farther, he observes that this perception is attended 
 with pleasure, which is the property of all sensuous per- 
 ceptions ; and that as moral good is an end and motive of 
 action, it must be apprehended by a sense, since the under- 
 standing can neither propose the ends of human activity nor 
 exercise any influence on the will. Again, the pleasure 
 which accompanies the perception of good, being a conse- 
 quence of the discovered quality, necessarily presupposes it ; 
 therefore it is impossible to resolve moral good, or the ap- 
 probation which we award to it, into that pleasure; this 
 would be to resolve the cause into the effect, and the con- 
 sequence into the principle. As the qualities which it is 
 the province of the moral sense to discover belong to the in- 
 ternal affections and emotions, it is internal and not exter- 
 nal, although, like the outward senses, it is capable of im- 
 provement by education and habit. This sense is designed 
 to govern all the others, and we have an immediate con- 
 sciousness of its authority. Reason is the servant of this 
 sense, its only office being to discover and to combine the 
 means necessary to the attainment of the objects which 
 the moral sense approves of. The object of this approba- 
 tion is benevolence alone: every action or measure which 
 has in view our own advantage is, simply on that account, 
 morally wrong; it may be innocent — it lannot be virtuous. 
 {Inquiry into Beauty and Virtue.) 
 
 According to Hume (born 1711, died 1776), all the mental 
 qualities and actions which are generally approved of by 
 mankind agree in the circumstance of being useful to so- 
 ciety. The fact that the different degrees of moral appro- 
 bation correspond to the degrees of utility, affords an ex- 
 planation of the greater merit ascribed to the benevolent 
 passions : for these tend to the happiness of many, and in- 
 deed of all ; whereas the personal affections tend to that of 
 the agent alone. Yet even the latter are in a degree meri- 
 torious, inasmuch as they are useful to one, and they are 
 only to be blamed when they are entertained at the sacri- 
 fice of the social feelings. The pursuit of self-interest is in 
 the latter case culpable, although in itself it is not only in- 
 nocent, but praiseworthy: for we admire in any character 
 certain qualities, such as prudence, for instance, merely be- 
 cause they appear fitted to promote his personal welfare. 
 In short, whatever is useful is morally good, and is only to 
 be disapproved when it is preferred to what is more useful. 
 That which judges of utility and the contrary is reason ; but 
 if we approve of one and disapprove of the other, and call 
 the former good, but the latter evil, this is in virtue of a 
 primary sentiment of our nature, which leads us to prefer 
 the useful to the hurtful, as we prefer what is sweet to 
 what is bitter. This instinct, however, is distinct from and 
 frequently opposed to self-love; for this would lead us to 
 love what is useful to ourselves, and not what is useful in 
 itself absolutely and independently of any reference to our 
 own advantage. This instinct is commonly called con- 
 science, or the moral faculty, but more frequently designated 
 by Hume as benevolence or humanity, inasmuch as its ob- 
 ject is the good of mankind generally. As to the idea of 
 moral obligation, it is simply a conception of the understand- 
 ing. What is honoured by this name is, he says, nothing 
 more than the undoubtedly correct view, that there is more 
 happiness in obeying the impulses of the moral sense than 
 1312 
 
 in following the dictates of self-love. The reason is inc;.pa 
 ble of exercising any influence on the will. What deter 
 mines us when we resolve to act rightly is merely the 
 charm which utility exercises on the mind, and the force 
 of certain dispositions which propel us to seek the good of 
 ourselves and others, and are iu\ariably seconding the 
 promptings of conscience. {Inquiry concerning the Princi- 
 ples of Morals.) 
 
 Mackintosh (born 1765, died 1832) agrees with all the wii 
 ters of the instinctive school in denying conscience to be either 
 a state or act of the understanding: but he differs from one 
 form of the sentimental theory by denying that man has 
 any special organization for moral perception, while he 
 equally dissents from the other view, which would refer 
 these perceptions to some one of the original and adiiitted 
 sentiments of our nature. Butler and Stewart had shown 
 that self-love is a secondary principle ; and Hartley hod e.i 
 hibited the important part which association plays in the 
 formation of our passions and affections, and even of our 
 sentiments of virtue and duty. This view was farther do 
 veloped by Mackintosh, who declared conscience itself to be 
 a similar derivative. In the same manner he says that 
 in the formation of self-love the desire which originally 
 attaches to external objects is transferred to the pleasure 
 which results from their attainment ; so In the case of con- 
 science the agreeable and disagreeable sensations which be- 
 long naturally to certain actions is transferred to the voli- 
 tions which determine conduct, so that the latter become 
 at last the immediate objects of love and repugnance. In 
 this manner there is formed by association a number of sec- 
 ondary desires and aversions, whose proper object is voli- 
 tion, and which collectively form that interior principle 
 called conscience, which judges, without regard to conse- 
 quences, unerringly and authoritatively. As to the action 
 of conscience on the will, this is composed both of the pecu- 
 liar energy of the primary dispositions, which it causes to 
 triumph, and of the pleasures naturally attached to them, 
 as well as those which are produced by the gratification of 
 the secondary affections. Accordingly, Mackintosh strongly 
 insists upon the distinction between perception and emotion, 
 and declares that the phrase association of ideas, as over- 
 looking this distinction, conveys but a partial and incom- 
 plete view of the truth. He therefore proposes to substitute 
 for it association of thoughts with emotions and with each 
 other, but at the same time declares that the term " associ- 
 ation" very inadequately indicates that perfect combination 
 and fusion which occurs in these operations of the mind. 
 For the moral faculty is properly and intelligibly spoken of 
 as one. Now it is as common in mind as in matter for a 
 compound to have properties not to be found in any of its 
 constituent parts: the originally separate feelings are so 
 completely blended together that they can no longer be dis- 
 joined from each other. Thus the sentiment of moral ap- 
 probation, formed by association out of antecedent affections, 
 may become so perfectly independent of them that we are 
 no longer conscious of the process by which they were 
 formed. It is in this mature and sound state of nature that 
 our emotions at sight of right and wrong are ascribed to con- 
 science. And although this supreme arbiter and judge of 
 human conduct does not supersede the ordinary motives of 
 virtuous feelings and habits, which are the ordinary motives 
 to good actions, it yet exercises a lawful authority over them 
 Whatsoever actions and dispositions are approved by con- 
 science acquire the names of virtues and duties; they are 
 thereby pronounced to deserve commendation, and we are 
 justly considered as under a moral obligation to practise the 
 actions and cultivate the dispositions. The peculiar charac- 
 ter of the moral sentiments is their exclusive reference to 
 states of the will, and this is a character both of the private 
 desires and social affections, and, indeed, among the many 
 dissimilar elements that enter into the formation of con- 
 science, this is the only common property that the mind can 
 discover. Hence, however, the facility with which general 
 terms, at first limited to relations between ourselves and 
 others, are gradually applied to any voluntary nets and dis- 
 positions: it is thus that prudence and temperance, for in- 
 stance, become objects of moral approbation. On the other 
 hand, as the will is the sole means of gratifying any passion, 
 the power of conscience is coextensive with the whole man. 
 It is a universal principle, because will is the universal 
 means. And as, when the mind is in a healthy state, no- 
 thing is interposed between it and the will, the dictate of 
 conscience is immediately followed by a determination of 
 will ; conscience is thus at once universal, independent, and 
 commanding. Lastly, as Mackintosh held that utility, as 
 tending to promote the greatest happiness of the species, is 
 the criterium of morality, he naturally felt himself called 
 upon to explain the fact, that, while the moral approbation 
 involves no perception of a beneficent tendency, there is, 
 nevertheless, a striking coincidence between that principle 
 and the moral sentiments. He replies that it is true that 
 conscience itself rarely contemplates so distant an object a* 
 
VIRTUE. 
 
 the welfare of all sentient beings, but that all its elements 
 are invariably tending to this end. The social affections 
 promote happiness, so far as their foresight and power ex- 
 tend ; the rules of justice are conducive, if not necessary, to 
 the well-being of society; even the angry passions, so far 
 as they are ministers of morality, are employed in removing 
 hindrances to the welfare of ourselves and others; and if 
 the private passions terminate in the happiness of the indi- 
 vidual, this is yet a part of the general happiness. And al- 
 though this beneficent tendency be not one of the natural 
 objects of conscience, because our voluntary acts are not 
 felt to affect it, yet little is left to reason to perform: which 
 is, to discover merely the truth, that the acts of those who 
 labour lo promote separate portions of happiness must in- 
 B the amount Of the whole. (Dissertation on the 
 •est of Ethical Philosophy.) 
 
 The distinctive characteristic of the rational theory of 
 morality is, that it considers the idea of good to be an 
 d priori conception of reason, in which the idea of obliga- 
 tion is necessarily and essentially implied. As to the na- 
 ture of the idea itself, two opinions have been held. While 
 some moralists of this school pronounce it to be simple and 
 immediate, others resolve it into some higher notion of the 
 intellect, from which it derives at once explanation and 
 authority. 
 
 The most distinguished representatives of the latter 
 opinion are Clarke and Wollaston ; while the former has 
 found able advocates in Cudworth, Price, and Stewart. 
 
 According to Clarke (born 1GT5, died 1739), the universe 
 is an assemblage of objects held together fry certain mutual 
 relations which result from their respective natures ; but as 
 the nature or essence of things is iomiulable and real, and 
 the essence is the principle of the relations the latter must 
 be equally real and Immutable; and as they must have 
 been always present to the Eternal Mind, they are also eter- 
 nal. Now, as soon as reason conceives these relations as 
 Constituting the laws of individual things and the order of 
 the universe, they Immediately appear to command the re- 
 spect of every free and rational agent. Hence the oblige 
 •ion on every creature capable of thought to act conformably 
 to those relations ; and every act agreeable to them is judged 
 lo In- good, and evil if opposed to them. Now, moral good 
 being the conformity to the relations of objects, these, while 
 tie y constitute, serve also to explain, all duties. Thus, the 
 true nature of God and man, and their reciprocal relations, 
 being known, the duties of man towards God are at once 
 discoverable. In the same way the duties of man to his 
 fellows similarly suggest themselves from a consideration 
 of their relations as equally free and in dependent beings ; 
 and as the latter relation is one of equality, whereas that 
 between God and man is one of Inequality, the difference 
 between the two classes of duties which those relations re- 
 spectively engender is at once conceivable. In confirma- 
 tion of this view id' the moral principle, Clarke appeals to 
 the historical factof the gradual development of moral ideas 
 among mankind : for the knowledge of the nature of things, 
 and their consequent relations, is neither natural nor Im- 
 mediate to the mind, but is gradually unfolded by observa- 
 tion and science, which are more or less complete accord- 
 ing to the degrees of its culture. The evolution of moral 
 science, although subsequent to that of nature, nevertheless, 
 being once awakened, is promoted by its progress, and keeps 
 pace with the advancement of civilization. ( Being and at- 
 tributes of God : Evidence of Natural and Revealed Re- 
 ligion.) 
 
 Wollaston (born 1G59, died 1794), makes morality to be 
 conformity to truth. In support of this view he asserts that 
 actions, equally with words, are but signs, and that conse- 
 quently every true proposition, i. e., one which expresses 
 things as they are, may be contradicted by deeds ns well as 
 by words. To violate a compact, for instance, is simply to 
 deny by that act that there is any such compact subsisting. 
 He then asserts that no act, whether word or deed, of any 
 free and rational agent to whom moral good and evil are im- 
 putable, which interferes with any true proposition, or de- 
 nies any thing to be as it is, can be right. For, 1. If a false 
 proposition be wrong, the act which implies, or is founded 
 on it, cannot be right. 2. Whatever interferes with a true 
 proposition, which expresses the relation between the sub- 
 ject and attribute as it is in nature, must, therefore, interfere 
 with nature, and is consequently unnatural, or wrong in na- 
 ture. 3. An act which contradicts a true proposition con- 
 tradicts what is ; and is, therefore, a revolt against God, the 
 author of whatever is. 4. To deny things to be as they are, 
 is a transgression of the great law of our nature — the law 
 of teason. What is said of acts inconsistent with truth may 
 be said of omissions to act, since by these, also, true propo- 
 sitions may be denied to be true. For instance, whoever 
 having engaged to do some certain act, nevertheless volun- 
 tarily omits to do it, behaves himself as if there had been no 
 such promise or engagement. Having thus established his 
 theory, he proceeds, like Clarke, to show that it is agreea- 
 4 O 
 
 ble to facts, and especially with that of the pn ^ressive de- 
 velopment of morality. For morality being simply the 
 truth expressed in action, it implies the knowledge of truth , 
 and consequently the improvement of the moral perce|v-' 
 ttoos must be proportional to the progress of science. It 
 also affords an explanation of erroneous views in morality, 
 and of the difference so universally drawn by the common 
 sense of mankind between error and vice, it' it it 
 to err in morals, this is because the mind is liable to err in 
 science, and not to see things as they actually are. To err 
 in morals is but to affirm practically a false position : hence 
 the act may be evil, but the agent is not culpable. 
 error is involuntary. Lastly, Wollaston maintains that his 
 theory, far from being inconsistent with the acknowledged 
 characteristics of the idea of moral good, affords the only 
 just explanation of them. The truth is immutable, because 
 it expresses the unchangeable nature of things, anil there- 
 fore the ideas of moral good are immutable. Hi 
 the same eternal distinction between moral good ami evil is 
 between truth and falsehood. Whatever, in short, may be 
 predicated of truth, is applicable to the moral principle ; 
 and its foundations are as valid and imperishable as those 
 of science itself. ( The Religion of Nature.) 
 
 The other form of the rational theory, which explains 
 the idea of good to be an immediate conception of the in- 
 tuitive reason, intelligible in itself, ami incapable of defini- 
 tion, now remains tor elucidation. According to Cudworth 
 (born 1017, died 1688), certain universal and absolute Ideas 
 exist from all eternity in the Divine mind, from which the 
 human intellect emanates ; and, therefore, by its nature 
 possesses these ideas antecedently to experience. Tiu-v 
 remain dormant, it is true, until outward Objects call them 
 forth: but when once awakened, they Immediately apply 
 themselves to things, and give them a significant character, 
 which in themselves they do not possess. Cudworth's 
 chief object in advancing this theory of intellection, WW •.. 
 exempt the ideas of right and wrong from the arbitrary and 
 relative character Willi which the sensuous doctrines ot 
 Hobbes had invested them. Accordingly, ho shows that 
 no relation of human will or pleasure can constitute these 
 ideas. Positive laws, he urges, do not oblige by their mere 
 enactment, but by virtue of the natural ideas of justice 
 and obligation which tiny imply. Neither is this idea the 
 mere creature of man's reason, for this does but CO] 
 and, by applying its unchangeable standard to at tj 
 Characters, appreciates and judges them. I.asily, Ibis Idea 
 is simple and indefinable, and inseparably combined with 
 that of obligation. Hence every virtue assumes the char- 
 acter of a duty, and is as unalterable as good itself. {Eter- 
 nal and Immutable Morality.) 
 
 Price (born HS3, died 17'JI), nscribes all simple ideas to 
 two faculties — sense and understandiruf. The I ■ 1 1« -r sees 
 things as they are; the former perceives the effects only 
 that they produce on the sensuous organization. The 
 ideas of the understanding consequently express realities 
 which are independent of man, whereas those of the latter 
 are sensations which would be different if man's sensuous 
 organs were changed. Now the question of the objective 
 reality and immutability of the ideas of right and wrong 
 reduces itself to the inquiry into their origin. According to 
 Price, they belong to the understanding as a faculty of in- 
 tuition or immediate power of perception, distinct from the 
 understanding as a reasoning or deductive faculty. The 
 doctrine which would assign them to sensation as their 
 origin has its source in the fact that the moral perceptions 
 are invariably attended with agreeable or disagreeable 
 emotions, and the exclusive consideration of this circum- 
 stance. But when men declare gratitude to be a virtue, 
 and ingratitude a vice, they intend to signify not merely 
 that they produce emotions in their own minds, but that 
 they are naturally virtuous and vicious in themselves. If 
 by virtue and vice nothing more be meant than certain 
 mental affections, then, in that case, our moral judgments 
 would be infallible, and the same act might with equal 
 truth be the subject of the most conflicting estimates, and 
 all things would be indifferent in their own nature, since 
 tin: understanding, which alone apprehends things as they 
 are, could see in them neither good nor evil. Moreover, in 
 this case, they would be without authority ; for what obli 
 gation can there be to do what is pleasing, or to forbear 
 what is displeasing? But these ideas are both Immutable 
 and imperative : they are immutable, since they are real 
 qualities of actions, and every real quality is a part of the 
 nature of things, which is immutable. God may destroy 
 the things themselves, but he cannot cause them to be 
 what they are not. After establishing the rational origin 
 and immutable character of the moral perceptions, Price 
 proceeds to explain the manner In which they are appre- 
 hended by the intuitive reason. As the sight of an event 
 suggests the idea that it must have taken place in time, and 
 thereby we arrive at the idea of duration, in the same way 
 certain actions of free and rational agents are immediately 
 
 131? 
 
VIRTUE. 
 
 apprehended to be good or evil, and the ideas of right and 
 wrong arise in the consciousness. As to the notions of 
 moral beauty and deformity, these we ascribe to good and 
 evil actions in virtue of the pleasure and pain which ac- 
 company, but yet are distinct from the perception of right 
 and wrong. In contemplating the actions and affections of 
 moial agents, we have both a perception of the understand- 
 ing and a feeling of the heart; the latter are the effects of 
 the former, and partly depend on the positive constitution 
 of our nature, and partly on the essential congruity of ob- 
 ject and faculty. The former are wholly inexplicable, and 
 the only account we can give of them is— such is our frame ; 
 so God has seen fit to make us. But there are some ob- 
 jects and ideas which have a natural fitness and unfitness 
 to please our mind, and such is the nature of certain ac- 
 tions that when perceived by a rational being, there must 
 result in him certain emotions and affections. These are 
 at first of a purely intellectual kind ; but, as such, they are 
 too weak to govern and actuate mankind, and they are 
 therefore combined with a stronger excitement, and we are 
 endowed with certain special instincts which impel us to 
 goodness, and by means of these we are effectually moved 
 towards their proper objects. As to duty or obligation : 
 this idea is so intimately allied to that of gfcod, that one 
 cannot appear without the other. Obligation to action and 
 Tightness to action are plainly coincident and identical. It 
 is not plainer that figure implies something figured, than 
 that Tightness implies oughtness. Rewards and punish- 
 ments suppose in their very ideal moral obligation, and are 
 founded upon it. They do not make it, but enforce it, or 
 furnish additional motives to comply with it. They are 
 the sanctions of virtue, but not its efficients. The ideas of 
 good and ill desert are equally immediate ; for they are 
 really nothing less than a species of the ideas of right and 
 wrong; although there is this difference in them, that 
 while the latter are properly ascribed to actions, merit and 
 demerit are applicable to agents or jiersons only. We have 
 an immediate approbation of making the virtuous happy, 
 and discouraging the vicious, apart from all consequences. 
 The conception of virtue is totally distinct from the fact 
 that virtue is a source of pleasure ; for it is one thing to find 
 by experience that the tendency of virtue is to the happi- 
 ness of the world, and vice to its misery, and another to 
 conceive that virtue is by a necessary truth deserving of 
 happiness. Neither does it result from the view that virtue 
 is of public utility ; for, even though this consideration 
 may incline us to wish good to the virtuous, yet are we an- 
 tecedently moved to the same wish by the more immediate 
 and more simple consideration that he is virtuous, and as 
 such, without any other consideration, we pronounce him 
 deserving of honour. Lastly, Price makes liberty and in- 
 telligence to be essentially necessary to the morality of the 
 agent, and rightly distinguishes absolute virtue, which is to 
 act voluntarily and consciously in conformity with the 
 moral laws, from practical virtue, or acting on a belief of 
 good in supposed conformity to good. {Viae of Principal 
 Questions and Difficulties in. Morals.) 
 
 Stewart (born 1753, died 1828,) distinguishes two ques- 
 tions in the fundamental problem of ethics— that of the na- 
 ture of good, and that of the faculty which discerns and 
 judges of it. With respect to the first, he teaches that 
 upon observation of certain actions the idea of good arises 
 in the mind. This idea represents a certain quality of the 
 actions themselves, and inherent in them, like the primary 
 qualities of bodies, and therefore independent of the sen- 
 suous percipient, and not like the secondary qualities, mere 
 relations between us and the actions. As to the nature 
 of these qualities, they are, like the ideas which we have 
 of them, perfectly original, simple, and irreducible, and 
 consequently indefinable. He farther shows, after Price, 
 that i*. :3 impossible to explain the terms good and evil ex- 
 cept by synonyms, or by substituting for the ideas which 
 they represent some of the circumstances which accompa- 
 ny the perception of them. As to the second question, 
 Stewart argues that good being a simple and real quality 
 in actions, it is impossible to refer the idea of it to any 
 faculty which is not a source of original ideas, and which 
 does not apprehend the real and inherent qualities of ob- 
 jects. It is, therefore, impossible to refer it to a sense — 
 such as that of taste or smell, which do not reveal the real 
 nature of objects, but only the effect which they produce 
 in the perceiving subject ; nor to reason— if by this term 
 we understand nothing more than the faculty which seizes 
 the relations and deductions of ideas previously establish- 
 ed, because the idea of good is simple and original, and not 
 one of relation and consequence; but if by sense we un- 
 derstand a faculty analogous to that which perceives the pri- 
 mary qualities of bodies and their existence — or if by rea- 
 son we mean the intuitive and understanding which fur- 
 nishes the simple, primary, and original ideas of time 
 space, and causation— then the ideas of good and evil may 
 be referred to either. If Stewart inclines, nevertheless, to 
 
 VISIBLE. 
 
 favour the claims of reason, lie yet declares the question to 
 be unimportant when once it has been admitted thai good 
 and evil are simple and indefinable. (Philosophy of tht 
 Jlctive and Moral Powers.) 
 
 In this exposition, the first object has been to give a cor 
 rect and Impartial view of the several theories which have 
 been proposed of the nature of virtue and of the moral per- 
 ceptions. Their comparative merits have been left to the 
 reader's judgment, unbiassed and undisturbed by any criti- 
 cal estimate by the writer himself, except so 'tar as his 
 arrangement of the subject-matter necessarily implies his 
 own opinion. (Cf. Ritter, History ef Ancient Philosophy; 
 Mackintosh, Dissertation on Ethical Philosophy ; Schleier 
 macher, Kritik der Ethik : Jouffroy, Droit Naturel : 
 Cousin, Cours de Philosophic Morale : and the articles 
 Ethics and Sciiellino in this work.) 
 
 VIS. (Lat. force or power), in Mechanics, is synony 
 maul with force. The term is chiefly used by the older 
 writers, and is applied by them to divers kinds of forces or 
 powers. Thus, vis acccleratrix, accelerating force ; vis 
 inertia, resistance ; vis matrix, moving force, &.C. Vis 
 mortua and vis viva, are terms which were used by Leib- 
 nitz and his followers ; the former signifying a pressure, 
 and the latter the force of a body in motion estimated by 
 the distance the body goes to. About the beginning of the 
 last century, a keen dispute arose among mathematicians 
 with respect to the manner in which the forces indicated 
 by those terms ought to be estimated. It began with a 
 prize essay by John Bernoulli on the " Investigation of the 
 Laws of the Communication of Motion," and was carried 
 an for many years with great asperity. The question was, 
 whether the force of a moving body is proportional to the 
 square of the velocity, or to the simple power only of the 
 velocity. No controversy, says Playfair, was ever carried 
 on by more illustrious disputants: Maclaurin, Stirling, 
 Desaguliers, Jurin, Clarke, Mairan, were all engaged on 
 the one side; and on the opposite were Bernoulli. Herman, 
 Poleni, S'Gravesende, Muschenbroek. The dispute was 
 taken up as a point of National honour. Germany, Hol- 
 land, and Italy declared for the vis viva; England stood 
 firm for the old doctrine; and France was divided between 
 the two opinions. (Dissertation on the Progress of Math. 
 and Phys. Science, Ency. Brit.) The difference in this 
 case, as in most other disputes of a similar kind, arose from 
 the parties not understanding each oilier. When the effect 
 of a body in motion is measured by the distance to which 
 it goes, the effect is proportional to the square of the veloci- 
 ty : if measured by the time that elapses before the motion 
 is destroyed by a resistance of uniform intensity, it is as the 
 velocity simply. Both measures may be considered as cor- 
 rect, and they are not inconsistent when rightly under- 
 stood. (Playfair's Nat. Phil., vol. i., p. 56.) The vis viva 
 considered as a power residing in a moving body, is other 
 wise called impetus See Force. 
 
 Vl'SCOUNT. A title of honour; in its original signitica 
 tion, the delegate of a count (vice-comes), and applied to 
 governors of towns and districts under the authority of thai 
 officer. In England, the appellation of vice conies, or vis 
 counte, in Norman French, was long used to designate the 
 sheriff of a county (the vicegerent of the earl) before it be 
 came a title of peerage. It is the most modern of English 
 honours in the latter sense; and was first conferred by let 
 ters patent on John Lord Beaumont, and the heirs male of 
 his body, by Henry VI., in 1440. For the rank of the vis- 
 count, see Precedency 
 
 VISHNU. One of the three principal deities of the Hin- 
 doo mythology, the other two being Brama and Siva, He 
 is commonly called the Preserver, the other two being re- 
 spectively the Creator and the Destroyer. The great ob- 
 jects of his providence are brought about by his successive 
 incarnations or avatars, in which he appears and acts on 
 earth. Nine of these have taken place. The last is said to 
 have been the appearance of Buddha, which is supposed by 
 some learned orientalists to have taken place about a. d. 
 1014; and hence the Buddhists reject the Vcdas, which 
 were compiled before that event. (See Vkdas.) The tenth 
 avatar of Vishnu is yet to take place, when he will appear 
 on a white horse, with a blazing scimitar, for the everlast- 
 ing punishment of the wicked. One of the incarnations oi 
 Vishnu is the celebrated Juggernaut, whose temple and 
 worship hold such a prominent place in Indian superstition. 
 On the great annual festival in his honour, all distinctions 
 of castes and classes are forgotten, and even on that occn. 
 sion the Brahminical Hindoos and the followers of Buddha 
 cease their religious hostilities. The word Juggernaut sig- 
 nifies literally Lord of the Universe; and it is said that on 
 the day he expired, Buddha assumed this appellation, ex 
 claiming, " O Universe, I am thy Lord." 
 
 VI'SIBLE. Capable of being seen. Objects are visible 
 or otherwise, according as they emit or reflect a sufficient 
 quantity of light to make a sensible impression on the retina 
 of the eye. According to Newton, colour is the proper ob 
 
VISION. 
 
 Jcct of sight- tlie visibility oi an object must therefore de- 
 mitting to the eye rays of a different colour 
 from those which proceed from the surrounding objects. 
 
 \. in Optics, the faculty of swing. Philoso- 
 phers have disputed much respecting the means of vision, 
 
 i at In the eye. The Platonists and Stoics held 
 vision to be effected by the emission of rays out ef the eyes. 
 The Epicureans supposed vision to lie performed by the 
 emanation of Images or corporeal species from objects to 
 
 and the Peripatetics differed in opinion from the 
 Epicureans by supposing the species received by the eye to 
 poreal. Modern philosophers agree in referring the 
 Cause or vision to the impressions of light on the eye; but 
 whether this impression is made by material particles 
 emanating from a self-luminous body, and reflected from 
 
 '>erts. or by the (Mum of a fluid of great elasti- 
 city exciting the eye by the vibrations communicated to it 
 by the luminous body, is a question which is still umleter- 
 v . > Light.) In what manner the eye, or the par- 
 ticular part of it affected by the light, conveys to the brnin 
 the impressions it receives from the luminous rays, is a 
 question which philosophy has not yet solved, and will 
 probably never be able to solve. 
 
 • of Vision. — The retina of the eye, on which an in- 
 verted image of external objects is formed, lias usually been 
 regardeil as the seat of vision ; but this opinion was long 
 ago brought into doubt by the accidental discovery of Mari- 
 otte, that the base of the optic nerve is insensible to the 
 I light, and consequently incapable of conveying to 
 the brain the impression of vision. Hut the retina, lieinL' 
 only the extension or contraction of the optic nerve, Mari- 
 otte inferred that if the former were the true seat of vision, 
 that part of it at the entrance of the nerve, and where it 
 In the greatest quantity, and where precisely vision 
 is wanted, ought to be at least .as sensible to the rays of 
 liL'ht as the other parts. Mariotte, therefore, concluded 
 that the choroid coat which lies immediately below (he re- 
 tina, and lines the whole bottom of fffe eve excepting tin- 
 place at which the optic nerve is Inserted, is the real seat 
 and cause of vision. [Priettlej/ an Vision, Light, and 
 wrt, p. 7U-2 ; or Hutton's Dictionary.) The opacity of 
 the choroid coat, and the transparency of the retina, which 
 render it an unfit ground for the reception of images, furnish 
 arguments In support of this view; and an interesting fact 
 
 observed by Sir 1). Brewster which points to the 
 
 conclusion. He observed that in young persons the choroid 
 coat, which is generally supposed to he black, and to grow 
 fainter by age, reflects a brilliant crimson colour, like that 
 of di>p> and other animals. Hence, it the retina is effected 
 by rays which pass through it, this crimson light, which 
 must necessarily be transmitted by it, ought to excite the 
 ition of crimson, which he found not to be the case. 
 (" Optics," Cab. Cijcl., p. 291.) 
 
 M. Lehot, a French writer, has recently attempted to 
 prove that the seat of vision is in the vitreous humour; and 
 that instead of seeing a flat picture of objects, we actually 
 see an image of three dimensions. To produce this effect, 
 he supposes that the retina sends out a number of small 
 nervous filaments, which extend into the vitreous humour, 
 and convey to the brain the impression of all parts of the 
 image. (Id., p. 292. For further information on this sub- 
 ject, see Jurin's Etta* on Distinct and Indistinct Vision, 
 in Smith's Optics ; Robins' Tracts, vol. ii. ; a paper On 
 Vision, by Dr. T. Young, Phil. Trans., 1793 ; Horn on the 
 Sent of Vision. 8vo, 1813.) See Optics. 
 
 VISION, BEATI'PIC. In Theology. The doctors of 
 the church distinguish three manners of seeing or knowing 
 God: which they call, 1. Abstractive vision ; i. e., through 
 the consideration of his attributes. 2. Beatific ox intuit in- 
 vision ; that which the faithful enjoy in heaven. (1 Cor , 
 xiii., 12.) The belief termed Catholic by the Romanists is, 
 that this vision is accorded to the just, who die without 
 leaving a sin unexpiated, immediately on their departure. 
 The Greek church holds that they do not enjoy it until after 
 the general resurrection. This is one of the opinions con- 
 demned by the Council of Florence in 1439 ; and its deci- 
 sion is confirmed by that of Trent. 3. The third kind of 
 vision, or comprehension, is that which belongs to God, who 
 alone can know Himself as He is. Prophetic vision is only 
 the knowledge of future or distant events, given by inspi- 
 ration. 
 
 VISITATION. In Ecclesiastical Law, the inspection 
 oy the bishop of the several parishes in his diocess; < r by 
 an archbishop of the dioceses in his province. By th j an- 
 cient canon law visitations were to be held once a year, and 
 by the personal repairing of the ordinary to each parish ; 
 but the modern practice, which appears to have come gradu- 
 ally into use, owing to the extent of dioceses, is to summon 
 the clergy from several parts to one convenient place. The 
 imes of episcopal visitations are now usually fixed in this 
 country about Easter and Michaelmas. By can. 60, of the 
 English Church, such visitations for the purpose of confirm- 
 
 VIVACE. 
 
 ation must be triennial at least. The care of the ancient 
 parochial institutions has by degrees devolved on the arch- 
 deacons. They are bound to see that the offices ef the 
 church are duly administered; to keep account of the orna 
 merits, vestments, &.c, appertaining to the churches; to 
 examine into the state of repair of parsonages, church- 
 yards, &.C.; and to receive presentments of excesses com- 
 mitted by ecclesiastical persons. Ecclesiastical corpora: 
 such as conventual bodies, had usually their special visitors 
 
 appointed by the founder; as is the case at present with 
 
 in our universities, hospitals, &c. 
 
 VISITATION. A festival of the Western Church, in hon 
 our of the visit of the Virgin -Mary to Elizabeth; said to 
 have been first instituted among t'oe Franciscans by Saint 
 Bonaventure, general of that order. It is celebrated on the 
 2d of July. .V female religious order was (bunded In Savoy 
 in 1610, by St. Frani in honour of II. e visitation. 
 
 VISUAL ANGLE in Optics, is the angle under which 
 an object is seen, or the angle formed at the eye by the rays 
 of light coming from the extremities of the object Visual 
 rays are the lines of light coming from an object to the eye. 
 
 VITAL VESSELS. .\ name given by Schultz to cer- 
 rufying in all directions in plants, especially 
 near the surface, and conveying latex, which that physiolo- 
 gist calls a vital fluid. The milk-vi ssels of spurges are vital 
 
 VITE'LLUS. In Botany, a name given to the lleshy sac 
 that is sometimes present In seeds; interposed between the 
 albumen and the embryo, and enveloping the latter. It is 
 the enlarged sac of the amnios. 
 
 VrriLrGO. (Eat. vitulus, a calf.) A disease of the 
 skin, givine it a white appearance somewhat resembling 
 that of calves. 
 
 \ "I'TIS. (Celt, gwid.a tree.) The grape-vine Is doubtless 
 a native of Asia Minor, although its universal cultivation 
 renders it no longer possible to distinguish the wild from 
 I he domesticated kinds. It Is the type of the \ 
 order, which consists of plants climbing by tendrils, and 
 producing small green flow its, succeeded by succulent fruit. 
 None of trie species are, however, to be compared with the 
 true grape, Vitis vinifera, for quality; the best of the 
 American species being disagreeable to the taste, and some 
 of the order even acrid. The reputed varieties of grape arc 
 
 innumerable, if we are to believe the writers on the subject; 
 
 MOO being cultivated in the garden of the Luxembourg alone, 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that many of these are repeti- 
 tions of each other. When the pulp is fleshy and tweet, 
 and the skin thick, raisins are prepared from the fruit ; and 
 when it is watery and less sweet, with a thin skin, grapes 
 are best suited for wine. The currants of the gi 
 the dried berries of a small variety of the grape cultivated 
 at Zante. 
 
 VITREOUS HUMOUR, so called from its glassy appear 
 nnce, is the third or in»«"'.;r humour of the eye, filling a 
 large portion of the -vouail, and greatly exceeding in quan- 
 tity the aqueous and crystalline humours together. Ac- 
 cording to Sir D. Brewster, the refractive power of the 
 vitreous humour is 1-3394. Sec Optics. 
 
 VITRIFIED WALLS or FORTIFICATIONS. An- 
 cient remains discovered in Scotland, constructed of stones 
 piled rudely upon one another, and firmly cemented together 
 by some matter which has been vitrified by means of fire. 
 They generally surround the top of some steep conical hill. 
 They have been discovered chiefly in the Highlands, but 
 alsoin Galloway. The vitrification is mostly external, the 
 interior of the walls being a mere heap of loose stones. 
 Daines Barrington considered the vitrification to be acciden- 
 tal, but his explanation of how it took place is not very 
 intelligible. (Jirchasologia, vol. vi.1 It seems more reason 
 able to suppose that the art was derived from observation 
 of the ease with which some kinds of earth containing much 
 iron ore are vitrified by fire, and that the process was ren- 
 dered easy by the quantities of wood which in early days 
 covered the Highlands. 
 
 VITRI'NA. (Lat. vitrea, glass.) A gemis of fresh- 
 water Gastropods; so called from the extreme thinness and 
 fragility of the shell, and its watery green appearance. 
 Vitrina pcllucida and Vitr. elongata are natives of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 VITRIOL. (Lat. vitrum. glass ; from the glassy char- 
 acter of its crystals.) This term is applied by the old 
 writers to crystallized sulphate of iron, or green vitriol . 
 sulphate of copper and sulphate of zinc were afterwards; 
 called blur vitriol end white vitriol. See Iron, Copper, Zinc. 
 
 VITRIOL, OIL OF. The old name of sulphuric acid, 
 which was originally obtained by distilling green vitriol 
 See Sulpim'r. 
 
 VIVA'CE. (It. live'y.) In Music, a term w*iich, affixed 
 to a movement, denotes that it is to be executed by the per- 
 former in a lively manner. It is a mean between largo and 
 allegro ; but, if any thing, rather nearer the latter than the 
 former. 
 
 1315 
 
VIVERRIDjE. 
 
 VIVE'RRIDjE. (Lat. viverra, a ferret.) Civet tribe. 
 The name of a tribe of Carnivorous Mammals, of which 
 the genus Viverra is the type. The characters are throe 
 premolars above, and four below ; two tolerably large tuber- 
 culate molars above, one tuberculate and one sectorial 
 molar below; the tongue beset with firm papilla?; claws 
 more or less retracted ; a large anal scent-gland and pouch. 
 
 VIVi'PAROUS, Vivipara. (Lat. vivus, alive, and pario, 
 J bring forth.) Tho.se animals are so called which bring 
 forth their young developed and alive, and commonly ex- 
 tricated from the egg coverings; as all the Mammalia, 
 which were hence called Zootoka by Aristotle; many rep- 
 tiles, as the viper or " viviper ;" some fishes, and numerous 
 invertebrate animals. In its restricted sense, the term sig- 
 nifies that mode of generation in which the chorion, or ex- 
 ternal tunic of the ovum, contracts a vascular adhesion 
 with the uterus ; and hence only the Placental Mammalia 
 are truly viviparous, the rest being termed ovi-viviparous. 
 
 VIZIR. (In Arabic, a porter ; and, by a singular meta- 
 phor, the title in various oriental countries of a minister 
 and councillor of state.) The grand khalifs had their vizirs, 
 who attained to the highest rank and consideration in their 
 states, and were often more powerful than their masters ; 
 but after the creation of the new dignity of Emir-ul-omnih 
 (commander of commanders), by Khalif Radhi, the older 
 title lost much,of its consideration. In Turkey, the coun- 
 cillors of state who sit in the divan, generally eight in num- 
 ber, are styled vizirs; and the chief among them vizir azem, 
 rendered by us by grand vizir, which is the highest tempo- 
 ral dignity in the empire. 
 
 VOCA'TION. (Lat. voco, / call.) In Divinity, the 
 grace vouchsafed by God to any man in calling him from 
 death unto life, and putting him into the way of salvation. 
 It is also used for the call of the Holy Spirit, by which per- 
 sons are supposed to be initiated into the clerical order. 
 
 VOICE. The sound produced by the vibration of air 
 emitted from the lungs of animals, which vibration is 
 caused by an organ developed in the wind-pipe, called the 
 "larynx." Mammals, birds, and reptiles, are the only ani- 
 mals, which, according to the above definition, possess a 
 voice ; but many species of other classes produce peculiar 
 sounds, by which the individuals are attracted to each other, 
 or express their wants and feelings. A true organ of voice 
 includes the lungs, bronchi, trachea, larynx, and mouth. 
 The most essential parts are two vibratile chords, bounding 
 a slit- shaped aperture, called the "glottis," and this may be 
 situated at different parts of the air-tube in different ani- 
 mals ; the portion of the tube between the glottis and the 
 oral outlet being the true sonorous instrument. In mam- 
 mals and reptiles the glottis is situated at the end of the 
 wind-pipe, which communicates with the bronchial tubes, 
 and consequently the whole trachea becomes, in this class, 
 part of the vocal instrument. The organ of voice in rep- 
 tiles consists of a simple laryiiA, without an epiglottis, and 
 in which the glottis is merely membranous, not provided 
 with fibrous vocal chords. Since neither fleshy moveable 
 lips nor soft palate exist in this class, the voice cannot un- 
 dergo any farther modification after its formation by the sim- 
 ple larynx. It consequently rarely rises beyond a hiss ; and 
 in tin; frog tribe, where the bones or gristles of the larynx 
 are largest and most complicated, and the vibratile mem- 
 brane of the glottis is best developed, the voice is only a 
 more or less noisy croak. 
 
 In mammals, the air driven by the muscles of expiration 
 from the lungs through the trachea strikes against the two 
 vibratile "vocal chords," which bound the sides of the 
 glottis; and a voice is produced, varying in different ani- 
 mals, according to the power of regulating the degree of 
 tensions of the chords, and according to the size and shape, 
 and various complications of the laryngeal sacculi of the 
 pharynx, of the tongue, and of the mouth and lips. 
 
 The superior organization and mobility of the tongue and 
 lips enables man to modify his vocal sounds so as to render 
 them articulate, and adapted to express the ideas which it 
 is his peculiar privilege to form. Although some quadru- 
 peds possess the imitative faculty, and can be taught to do 
 certain tricks, it would seem that the physical condition of 
 their vocal organs is an insuperable impediment to their 
 imitation of the human speech. 
 
 The sacculi or membranous pouches which communicate 
 with the larynx in the chimpanzee,, orang, and most other 
 quadrumanous animals, together with their thicker and 
 more confined tongues and less flexible lips, are assumed to 
 constitute the impediments to speech in them ; but it may 
 be doubted whether they have the imitiUive faculty for 
 sounds possessed by the parrot or starling ; and in respect 
 of their voluntary application of their vocalorgans to speech, 
 the absence of any such application is accounted for by 
 presuming that they have nothing to say. 
 
 In birds, which possess the most diversified and compli- 
 cated organ of voice, combined in some species with a high 
 degree of imitativeness, instances are not uncommon, es- 
 1316 
 
 VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 
 
 pecially in the parrot and crow tribe, of an acquired power 
 of forming articulate sounds superadded to the ordinary 
 voice. 
 
 VOIRE DIRE. (Norm. Fr. a corruption of vrai dire, U 
 speak the truth.) In Law, according to ancient practice, an 
 objection to the competency of a witness, in a trial at com 
 mon law, could only be taken on a preliminary examination, 
 in which the witness was sworn to speak the truth, and then 
 examined touching his interest in the subject matter. Tho 
 same practice is sti-fei followed occasionally, although the 
 objection may now be taken when it arises on the ezamin 
 alion in chief. 
 
 VOLATILE ALKALI. See Ammonia. 
 
 VOLCA'NO. See Geology. 
 
 VOLTA-ELE'OTRIC INDUCTION. The term indue 
 tion, as applied to common electricity (of tension), has been 
 explained under the word Electricity. By volta-electric 
 induction, we mean the electricity that is induced by a 
 proximate electric current. The phenomena thus produced 
 were discovered by Mr. Faraday in 1821, (Philos. Trans.), 
 and were briefly as follows: A long copper wire wound in 
 the form of a spiral round a cylinder of wood ; a similar, 
 but perfectly separate spiral, was then wound upon the 
 same rod, the coils of each being interposed and close to 
 each other, but nowhere in contact , ue extremes of one 
 of the wires were then connected with the galvanometer, 
 and those of the other with a voltaic battery. At the mo- 
 ment of making the contact with the battery, as well as of 
 breaking it, the deflection of the galvanometer indicated a 
 current of induced electricity in the proximate spiral ; but 
 in the interval, that is, while the current of electricity was 
 continuing quietly to traverse, no deflection took place : the 
 induced current was found to be in one direction upon 
 making the contact, and in an opposite direction upon break 
 ing it. 
 
 VOL'TAIC ELECTRICITY. The phenomena result- 
 ing from the evoluti#i of electricity by chemical action, as 
 manifested by that important instrument of electro chemical 
 research called the Voltaic Battery, are usually incluiled 
 under the above term. Whenever substances act chr-mi- 
 cally upon each other, their electrical states are disturbed; 
 but the electricity thus evolved is, in ordinary case-;, so Inst 
 and dissipated as to escape observation. It may, however, 
 be rendered manifest by the following simple arrangements ; 
 When a plate of pure zinc (or of common zinc rubbed over 
 or amalgamated with mercury) is dipped into a glass of 
 very dilute sulphuric acid, little or no action is observed; 
 nor does any thing happen when a similar plate of silver is 
 placed in the same cup of acid, provided the metals be kepi 
 apart from each other. But if, as in the annexed figure, 
 the zinc and silver be brought into contact, 
 at their extremities out of the liquid, the 
 water is decomposed ; its oxygen combines 
 with the zinc to form oxide of zinc, which 
 is dissolved by the acid ; and its hydrogen 
 passes over to the surface of the silver, 
 where it collects, and ultimately escapes in 
 gaseous globules. These phenomena are 
 further connected with the production of a 
 continuous current of electricity passing 
 from the zinc across the water to the sil- 
 ver, and again from the silver, by metallic 
 contact, to the zinc, in the direction represented by the 
 darts. It is not necessary that the metals should be con- 
 nected exactly as represented in the above diagram ; but it 
 is necessary to the establishment of the continuous electrie 
 current that they should be somewhere in contact, or at 
 least connected by what is usually termed a perfect con- 
 ductor. By modifying (as represented in the margin by 
 fig. 2) the preceding arrangement, so that the metallic con- 
 tact between the plates be made out of the vessel, namely 
 at the point A, the electric current takes 
 the same direction, travelling through the 
 liquid from the zinc or generating plate Z 
 to the conducting plate S, and through the 
 wires B and C back again to Z, as shown 
 by the darts. Here again Z is oxidized and 
 dissolved, nnd hydrogen is liberated upon 
 S; but the moment that the circuit is 
 broken, by parting the wires at A, these 
 actions cease, because the electric current 
 ceases to flow. It is evident that various substancas may 
 be interposed between the wires at A, or they may be im- 
 mersed into different liquids; and provided these are ca- 
 pable of transmitting electricity, the current will still pass, 
 and its phenomena under a variety of circumstances may 
 be studied. In this arrangement the end of the wire B is 
 the emitting, and of C the receiving point or pole ; nenc< 
 these have been termed, in reference to the common elec 
 trical machine, the positive and negative poles. Mr. Fara 
 day, with a view of avoiding certain misupf rehensions tr 
 which these terms give rise, calls them the electrodes ; th< 
 
VOLTAIC ELECTRICITY. 
 
 positive electrode he further terms the anelcctrode, and the 
 . e the catelcctrode. See Anode. 
 in the preceding paragraph it has been assumed that the 
 generating metal is zinc, the conducting or conveying metal 
 
 ul that the intermediate liquid is dilute sulphuric 
 acid. A number of other metals may be substituted lor the 
 
 uuely, for the zinc, cadmium for instance, or iron; 
 and for the silver, platinum, gold, or cupper. Many liquid! 
 may ulso be substituted for tile dilute sulphuric acid; the 
 requisite condition being that one of the metals shall be 
 Chemically acted on, whilst the other is indifferent, or at 
 least not acted on by the liquid to the same extent. And 
 the current is always in the direction above represented ; 
 that is to say, passes from the metal most attacked to that 
 'cast attacked, whenever the communication is perfect or 
 le closed. In the above cases also certain forms of 
 charcoal, which are excellent conductors of electricity, may 
 
 Uted for the conveying; metal, or passive element 
 of the arrangement. Another' requisite condition to the 
 phenomena properly called Voltaic is that the interposed 
 ftu.d shall conduct; and further, that it shall be capable of 
 that form of decomposition which Faraday has designated 
 
 it, thai is. resolvable into its elements by the elec- 
 tric current. See Elkctrolytk. 
 
 Such, then, are the conditions requisite for this evolution 
 of electricity. The existence of the electric current, and 
 its direction, may be rendered manifest in various ways: 
 the most striking is perhnpi afforded by its magnetic etlects, 
 as exhibited by the galvanometer. Sie (ulvanommer 
 and Elkctko-maqnetism. 
 
 The quantity of electricity generated in the above in- 
 stances depends chiefly upon the superficial extent of the 
 rmcerned, and upon the activity of the liquid acting 
 upon the generating metal ; and that it is considerable, even 
 
 i 11 surfaces and weak acids are used, is manifest 
 by the violence with which the magnetic needle of the gal- 
 vanometer is deflected, but In the above described ar- 
 rangements, the intensity of the electricity is very feeble - 
 and in order to attain this, and to give the current that ap- 
 parent Impetus which it requires to traverse bad conductors, 
 and easily to effect electrochemical decompositions, it be- 
 comes necessary to repeat the metallic i"" : "" - ' " 
 
 other words, to employ a properly arrange.. ..... , 
 
 generating, conducting, and electrolytic substances. This 
 
 leads to the grand discovery of Volta; namely, the con- 
 struction of the Voltaic Pile or Battery. 
 
 In this arrangement, which, like tiie simple circles, ad- 
 mits of Infinite varieties, the metals generally used are zinc 
 ie hand, and cop|>er or silver or platinum on the 
 other. The alternations originally adopted by Votta, and 
 which are quite effectual, were zinc, silver, and flannel or 
 rd soaked in acid; and these were repeated ac- 
 cording to the effects that were to be obtained. The incon- 
 of arrangement led him, however, to various mo- 
 difications of it; and, among them, to that represented in 
 tbe following diagram (tig. 3), which he called the crown 
 
 3. 
 
 of cups (couronne des tasses;, and which, slightly modified, 
 has since been very generally adopted. The flannel is re- 
 jected, and in its place a cup of dilute acid, or other proper 
 electrolyte, is substituted ; so that each silver and zinc plate 
 are in metallic communication, though in separate vessels: 
 the arrangement being zinc, acid, silver ; zinc, acid, silver, 
 &c. Here the direction of the electric current is the s tine 
 as in the simple circle, namely, from the zinc through the 
 liquid to the silver; but in this form of the apparatus, for 
 the mere convenience of carrying on the series, the con- 
 ducting wire connected with the first zinc plate has a super- 
 numerary silver one attached to it, and that with the last 
 silver plate a supernumerary zinc plate ; so that much con- 
 fusion has arisen in regard to the direction of the current 
 in these cases, in c insequence of calling what is here the 
 siiter extreme the negative, pole, and the zinc extreme the 
 ,<i>Ik; whereas it is in fact the reverse, and the cir- 
 culation of the current goes on through the electrodes pre- 
 n the simple circle. Hut though the direction of the 
 the same, and the absolute quantity of travelling 
 i» circulating electricity not increased, the case as regards 
 ry different; and with numerous series ar- 
 ranged as above we obtain, on removing the electrodes 
 (Which In this experiment ought to consist of pointed pieces 
 of well burned boxwood charcoal) a little from each other, 
 i most brilliant and continuous current of fire, luminous, 
 
 so that the eye can scarcely endure it, and capable of over 
 coming obstacles and traversing conductors .and el 
 m a way essentially different from that of the simple cir- 
 cuit. Yet, even with all these energetic phenomena, and 
 with a quantity of circulating electricity far beyond any 
 thing which the most powerful fiictional nt 
 ford, the intensity is still Insufficient to penetrai 
 layer of card or paper, or to make its way through non-con- 
 ducting obstacles, as it does in the case of the di« 
 
 len jar or battery. And now, if the hands be well 
 ! with salt and water, so as to overcome I 
 conducting tendency of the cuticle, and the body lie made 
 part of the circuit, an extraordinary and unendurabli 
 tion is perceived, which is in fact a coyitinuous shnrk. By 
 the same means wires may be ignited, metals bur: i 
 buslibles exploded, magnets made, and galvanomi 
 fecled tit any distance from the pile, provided the conduct- 
 ing communication is perfect. (4.) 
 Thus it is that this power I 
 been used to blast rocks, to 
 plode gunpowder under water, 
 and to communicate telegraphic 
 signs, as in the arrangement of 
 ■ 
 The modification of Vol ta's cou- 
 ronne (l 1 the form of 
 voltaic apparatus in most general 
 use, is the annexed (fig. 4), in 
 which the plates are attached, In proper ordei and con- 
 nexion, to a piece of dry wood, so that they may at once be 
 plunged into the cells of the porcelain trough over which 
 they are suspended. Sometimes also plates el' zinc and 
 copper soldered together are cemented into a wooden 
 trniigh with intervening cells, which, when required for 
 action, are filled with proper acid or saline solutions, as 
 shown in (fig. 5). 
 
 (5.; 
 
 An important modification, as regards the arrangement of 
 
 («•) 
 
 the plates in fig. 4, introduced by Dr. 
 Wollaston, is represented in fig. (>; in 
 which the copper pi a f being 
 
 single, is doubled over the zinc plate, 
 actual contact being prevented by wood- 
 en cylinders placed between them. In 
 this way much of the electricity lost in 
 the preceding arrangements is brought 
 into circulation. 
 
 But the most important modification 
 of this instrument is that suggested by Mr. Daniel), and 
 i\ hich he terms " a constant battery." "in all the preceding 
 arrangements the electrical power is liable to fluctuation; 
 ami after a time various causes induce such a falling otl'of 
 its evolution as to render them inconvenient, or even use 
 less, where continuous or regular action is required. It: 
 Wollaston's battery, for instance, which is the best of 
 them, several circumstances combine to render it incon- 
 stant in its action: the adhesion of hydrogen to the copper 
 plate, and the precipitation of zinc upon it, the saturation 
 of the acid by oxide of zinc, and the local action which 
 common zinc induces, are perhaps the principal sources of 
 the above-mentioned irregularity and inconstancy. In Mr. 
 Daniell's arrangement those inconveniences are to a great 
 extent obviated; and although it is more complicated than 
 the preceding, its constant and regular action, when it is 
 properly constructed, amply repays the additional trouble 
 and expense: there sire, indeed, many investigations which 
 can scarcely be carried on without it. 
 
 The annexed diagram (fig. 7), which is Intended to rep- 
 resent two cells of the constant battery, 
 may perhaps serve to illustrate the ar- 
 rangement. 
 
 (.' C are cylindrical vessels of copper ; 
 V. E smaller cylinders or tubes of porous 
 earthenware; % Z are rods of amalga- 
 mated zinc, which arc connected by the 
 wires W W with the next copper cylin- 
 der, and so on in succession. The por- 
 ous tubes are filled with dilute sulphuric 
 acid (about one part of acid to ciL'ht of 
 water) ; and the copper cylinders are 
 filled with a siring solution of sulphate 
 of copper, .also acidulated by sulphuric acid: so that the 
 acid in the generating cells is separated from the solution 
 of sulphate of copper: but the porosity of the tubes allows 
 of their becoming so far imbued with the acid liquid astc 
 
 1317 
 
v UL TA10 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 dmit of the passage of electricity, the current being in the 
 direction of the darts. At the same time the sulphate of 
 «inc is prevented mixing with the sulphate of copper, and 
 Jius all precipitation of zinc upon the copper prevented; 
 Ahilc at the same time the hydrogen evolved in the copper 
 jells or cylinders tends to reduce the oxide of copper, and 
 jonfmuously to throw down a film of metallic copper, with 
 which they ultimately become lined. In proportion as the 
 sulphate of copper is decomposed, fresh portions of that 
 salt are added, and the acid in the generating cells requires 
 occasional renewal : for the former purpose there is a per- 
 forated receptacle or colander in the upper part of the copper 
 cell, which is kept filled with crystals of sulphate of copper. 
 PSe DaniclVs Introduction to Chemical Philosophy, p. 438.) 
 It lias already been stated that, in all the ordinary forms 
 of the voltaic battery, two metals and an acid dissolved in 
 water are the essential elements. But it is by no means 
 necessary that two metals should be employed to obtain an 
 electric current; for if only one metal be used, different 
 parts of which are differently acted on by an acid or other 
 fluid, electricity will be evolved; according to the same law, 
 the portion of the metal most acted on becoming the gene- 
 rating element. Thus, a current is established when a 
 plate of clean zinc and one of oxidized or corroded zinc are 
 used ; or even when one of the plates is of cast and the 
 other of rolled zinc. So also when a stick of copper, clean 
 at one end and corroded at the other, is immersed in dilute 
 nitric acid, an electric current is produced. In all these 
 cases the surface most open to chemical action corresponds 
 to the zinc, and that least so to the silver of the above de- 
 scribed simple circles. 
 
 An electric current is also manifested when a single plate 
 of metal of uniform surface is acted on by two fluids exert- 
 ing distinct chemical actions upon it. If, for instance, a 
 vessel be half filled with a strong solution of sulphate of 
 topper, and then carefully filled up with dilute sulphuric 
 icid, so that the latter may lie upon but not mix with it, a 
 plate of iron immersed will be so acted on as to produce an 
 electric current ; the upper part becoming the equivalent of 
 the zinc, and the lower that of the copper in the simjile cir- 
 cle. A plate of copper immersed in the same way will 
 produce a similar effect, and metallic copper will be depo- 
 siicd upon its lower end. (See" Faraday's Researches, Phi- 
 losophical Transactions, 1840.) 
 
 The chemical powers of the electric currents produced 
 by arid circulating under the circumstances above detailed 
 are to a certain extent, manifest by the phenomena of the 
 pile itself; but they are more especially illustrated by inter- 
 posing different substances between the electrodes in proper 
 vessels, so that the changes which they suffer in the axis 
 of the electric current may be more conveniently and dis- 
 tinctly observed. Under these circumstances, we find that 
 all electrolytes must, to a certain extent, be conductors ; and 
 that the same body in different states may either be or not 
 be an electrolyte, according as it has or has not a power of 
 conduction. Thus, water is a conductor and an electrolyte ; 
 but ice is a non-conductor, and therefore unsusceptible of 
 electrolysis. So also nitre, chloride, iodide, and bromide of 
 silver, and many other salts, require to be fused in order to 
 become susceptible of electrolytic action." It would more- 
 over appear probable, from Faraday's researches, that all 
 bodies susceptible of true or primary electrolytic action 
 (.electric decomposition) must be compounds of single atoms, 
 or equivalents of their components (proto-compounds) : thus 
 protochloride and protoiodlde of tin are decomposed, but 
 the bichloride and biniodide are not. Of this phenomenon 
 the ultimate cause requires further investigation. The 
 principal apparent exceptions to it have been ranked by 
 Faraday among cases of secondary decomposition. Thus, 
 When common sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol (which is a 
 compound of 1 atom of sulphur, 3 of oxygen, and 1 of water, 
 oi the ultimate elements of which are 1 atom of sulphur, 
 1 of hydrogen, and 4 of oxygen), is subjected to the electric 
 current, sulphur and hydrogen appear at the cathode (or 
 negative electrode), and oxygen at the anodo (or positive 
 electrode). Hut in this case the sulphur is the result of the 
 action of the hydrogen upon the acid ; for in all cases of 
 true or primary electrical decomposition of the sulphurets, 
 the sulphur is evolved at the anode. 
 
 .Vol only, however, are the ultimate elements of binary 
 compounds thus evolved in obedience to certain uniform 
 laws, but proximate elements arc also similarly separated. 
 Thus, when sulphate of soda, nitrate o.'potaxsa, and other 
 neutral salts, are subjected in aqueous solution to the action 
 of tiio current, the respective acids travel with the oxygen 
 t i the anode, and the alkalies, oxides, or bases, with the 
 n to the cathode. Faraday terms substances sua- 
 ble of these transferences ions, and those which go to 
 me anode anions; those to the cathode cations: thus doing 
 with tlie less definite terms of electro-negative ana 
 itive bodies. And he has drawn up the follow- 
 in; table of simple and compound anions. 
 1316 
 
 VOLTATYPE. 
 
 Jlnion3. 
 
 Oxygen. Sulphuric acid 
 
 Chlorine. Phosphoric acid 
 
 Iodine. Carbonic acid. 
 
 Bromine. Nitric acid. 
 
 Fluorine. Selenic acid. 
 
 Sulphur. Chloric acid. 
 
 Selenium. Boracie acid. 
 
 Cyanogen. Acetic acid. 
 
 Sulpho-cyanogen. Tartaric acid. 
 
 Citric acid. 
 
 Oxalic acid. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 Potassium. 
 
 Sodium. 
 
 Lithium. 
 
 Barium. 
 
 Strontium. 
 
 Calcium. 
 
 Cations. 
 
 Nickel. 
 v Antimony. 
 • Bismuth.' 
 Mercury. 
 Silver. 
 Platinum. 
 Gold. 
 
 Magnesium. Ammonia. 
 
 Manganese. Potassa. 
 
 Zinc. Soda. 
 
 Tin. Lithia. 
 
 Lead. Baryta. 
 
 Iron. Strontia. 
 
 Copper. Magnesia. 
 
 Cadmium. Alumina. 
 
 Cerium. Protoxides generally. 
 
 Cobalt. Vegeto-alkalies generally 
 
 Analogy leads us to assume that all elementary bodies 
 are ions ; but this has not been experimentally proved iit 
 regard to carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, silicon, boron, and 
 aluminum. 
 
 VOLTA'METER. (Itnl. volta, and Gr. ixtrpov, a mea- 
 sure.) An instrument contrived by Mr. Faraday for mea- 
 suring the voltaic electricity passing througi. it, ad which, 
 being interposed in the course of the current used in any 
 particular experiment, serves as a comparative standard of 
 effect, or as a positive measurer of the electricity. 
 
 The indicating body used in this instrument is watet 
 acidulated by sulphuric acid. The electrodes are plates of 
 platinum; and the quantity of electricity which has passed 
 is indicated by the quantity of the mixed gases (oxygen and 
 hydrogen, resulting from the decomposition of the water) 
 evolved, or, in other words, by the weight of water decom- 
 posed. When the quantity of evolved gases is small, lit* 
 voltameter represented in the margin is a good 
 form: a is a graduated straight tube closed at 
 the upper end. and including two platinum "| 
 electrodes, connected with the external wires 
 bb. This tube is fitted by grinding into one 
 mouth of the double-necked bottle containing 
 the acidulated water, and is filled by inclining'* || 
 it; so that when an electric current is passed* 
 through it the gases evolved collect in the up- 
 per part of the tube and displace the dilute acid, 
 the stopi>er c being left open. When the grad 
 uated part of the tube is filled with the mixed 
 gases the electric current may be broken by re- 
 moving the wires connected with bb, the stop- 
 per c replaced, and the meter-tube refilled by 
 inclining the instrument; a second measure of the gases is 
 then collected on re establishing the circuit, and so on. 
 
 When large quantities of the mixec^gases are to be men 
 sured, as in cases where the 
 current is left continuous for 
 several hours or days, a volta- 
 meter in the form of a small 
 retort may be used, set up in 
 the block or foot a, and the 
 evolved gases will then pass 
 by the tube b into the common 
 pneumatic trough, where they 
 may be received into a graduated jar and measured : c c are 
 the projecting wires by which communication is made with 
 the platinum electrodes. 
 
 In using these and similar forms of aparatUS for the elec- 
 tro-chemical decomposition of water, great care must lie 
 taken that the electrodes are kept continually covered by 
 the water, and that their ends are never exposed to the 
 mixed gases in the tube; for in that case they would be apt 
 to become heated, and even incandescent, in consequence 
 of the peculiar action of clean platinum on a niixtui 
 hydrogen and oxygen, and in such a case an explosion 
 might ensue. In these voltameters the eontacl of the elec- 
 trodes is prevented by inserting between them a small piece 
 of glass tube. 
 VO'LTATYPE, or ELECTROTYPE. It has been sta 
 
VOLTATYPE. 
 
 letf under the article on Voltaic Electricity, that when 
 metallic solu'ions are suhjecteil to the transmission of the 
 electric current, the metallic oxides which they hold are in 
 certain cases decomposed ; so that the metal in its pure 
 stale is deposited upon the cathode, or upon what is usual- 
 ly termed the negative electrode. In these cases the me- 
 tallic deposition is usually a secondary effect, arising out of 
 the action of the hydrogen evolved at the cathode upon the 
 oxide of the metal. A good illustrative experiment of this 
 metallic precipitation constate in plunging two pieces of 
 Clean platinum into a solution of sulphate of copper: noth- 
 ing happens. But if the electric current be transmitted 
 ihe solution, so that these platinum plates may 
 farm the electrodes, copper is immediately precipitated upon 
 the ca (electrode or negative surface, the positive service or 
 ode remaining than. If the currejit he now re- 
 vriMil, the copper will he removed from the platinum plate 
 upon which it had just heen deposited, and will he trans- 
 mitted to the clean plate ; and thus by reversing the direc- 
 tion of the electric current, the copper may be sent back- 
 wards and forwards, it always being deposited upon the 
 pile, or, in other words, upon that surface hy 
 be electric current leaves the electrolyte. A sola 
 ilphate of copper is particularly well adapted to 
 .meat, especially it it be slightly acidulated by 
 sulphuric acid, inasmuch as it deposUS the copper in a 
 clean metallic slate; and liy a continuance of the electric 
 rid keeping up the strength of the solution by the 
 i .! addition of fresh portions of the salt of copper, 
 llic film upon the cathode may be obtained of any 
 required thickness, and may afterwards he |>eeled off the 
 platinum surface. The texture of the deposited Copper va- 
 ries with the power employed and with the tem|»erature 
 ngth of the solution; so that it may he obtained 
 hard, brittle, and crystalline, or malleable and tough, or 
 even pulverulent, according to the management of the ope- 
 rator. A low electric, power, or rather a current of low 
 Intensity, a moderately strong acidulated solution of sul- 
 phate of copper, ami a temperature not below 0<P or "IP, 
 are the circumstances under which the best deposit of cop- 
 per is usually obtained for the purposes to which this pro- 
 cammonly applied. 
 When the negative i»ile or cathode, instead of being, as 
 above represented, ■ plane surface of platinum, is irregular, 
 or worked into a pattern, or a medal or coin for instance. 
 Impression of the Irregularities of smttce, or of the 
 device upon the medal or coin, may be taken oil' on the pre- 
 cipitated copper; and to copies or plates of thi- kind the 
 term voltatypt, or electrotype, has bean more particularly 
 applied. Gold, silver, and other metals may, by proper 
 Dent, he substituted for copper, and thus a variety 
 of VOltetypes may he obtained; or, if the precipitated 
 metal lie let) upon the surface on which it is thrown down, 
 gilding, silvering, and coppering may be extensively and 
 beautifully effected. Thus it is that a new art of plating 
 has arisen also out of these electro-chemical actions. 
 
 We shall now proceed lirielly to point out the manipula- 
 tion in a few id" the principal applications of this new art, 
 and to describe the apparatus commonly employed; illus- 
 trotlrjg the subject, in the first instance, by one of the sim- 
 -, in which lie will suppose that an impression in 
 copper is to be obtained from a copper medal, which, being 
 in relief, will of course yield an impression in indent: the 
 111 being a cameo, the copy will be an intaglio. 
 The medal is first slung in a loop of annealed copper 
 wire, so that it may he conveniently suspended and made 
 legative in the metallic solution; the following 
 simple voltaic arrangements may then be used. 
 
 A is a glass cylinder (a common lamp-glass answers the 
 pur|>ose), closed at bottom with a piece 
 of bladder, or with a plus of plaster of 
 I'aris. and tilled with dilute sulphuric 
 acid (1 of acid to8 of water by measure) ; 
 Z is a piece of zinc immersed in the acid, 
 and connected by a copper wire with the 
 medal M; C is a jar nearly tilled with a 
 strong solution of sulphate of copper, 
 acidulated by the addition of about a 
 tenth part of sulphuric acid. In this ar- 
 rangement, the acid in the generating cell 
 is prevented mixing with the solution in 
 the jar hy the diaphragm of bladder or 
 plaster; which, however, when thorough- 
 ly wetied, sutlers the electric current to 
 pass from the zince to the medal (or ne- 
 gative pole), and so through the wire, in 
 the direction of the darts, back to the zinc. In this way a 
 film of metallic copper is gradually thrown down upon M, 
 which goes on increasing, and which, when it is sufficient- 
 ly thick (perhaps in 24 or .'(I) hours), the wire with Z and 
 M at its ends is lifted out; and by the point of a knife care- 
 fully applied, and aided, if necessary, by a file, the deposit- 
 
 ^-c3D 
 
 ed copper is pulled off" of M, of which it presents a faith 
 ful and minute copy or impression. To prevent the depo- 
 sition of copper upon the edges, and upon the reverse of the 
 medal, those parts should be covered with a varnish not 
 acted upon by the solution ; and the connecting wire should 
 also be similarly varnished, to prevent its receiving an ttn- 
 Bjajceasary incrustation of copper. In this way, by careful 
 Management, any number of impressions may be taken 
 from either side of a medal without materially injuring the 
 original; and for the medal any other metallic plate may 
 be substituted, provided its dimensions and weight he not 
 such as io render it inadmissible or inconvenient in this 
 form of apparatus. 
 
 But it often happens that the article to be voltati/iml, as 
 this process is now called, is not a conductor of electricity ; 
 as, for instance, a seal, or sulphur or wax impression, or a 
 plaster cast of a medal or coin. In these cases the surface 
 is carefully covered by a film of the purest plumbago, or 
 black lead, which is applied by a soft brush, and which, 
 being a good conductor of electricity, renders the surface 
 equivalent to that of a metal, care being at the same time 
 taken that the conducting wire is in good contact with the 
 plumbago, so that the electrical current may be nowhere 
 Intercepted by a non-conductor. Where the material of 
 • porous, or permeable to water, it must lie imbued 
 with melted wax or oil, or some kind of fatty matter; 
 where plaster casts an; used, melted spermaceti answers 
 best: the surface to be voltatyped is then carefully black- 
 lead I'd. am ed on as above. The use of 
 black lead, so extremely convenient in these and a number 
 of similar cases, was first suggested hy Mr. Robert Murray, 
 and communicated by him to the Society of Aris, who 
 awarded a medal for the invention. 
 
 In the case of seals, coins, and other small articles, a 
 number of them may be put in process at once by the fol- 
 lowing modification of the above described apparatus. A in 
 a jar tilled with a saturated and slightly acid solution o 1 " 
 sulphate of copper; I! is a porous earth- 
 enware cylinder, similar to those used in 
 DanieU's constant battery, filled with di- 
 lute sulphuric acid. to be 
 coated with copper are prepared as above 
 described, ami copper wires 
 having a small piece of zinc at their oth- 
 er end; several of these may then so be 
 suspended round the porous tube as that 
 the zinc being in the acid, and the coin or 
 seal in the cupreous solution, the process 
 goes on until the voltatype is perfect. 
 
 When a number of articles of different sizes are to be 
 voltatyped, the following is the preferable arrangement, 
 and is that which i- generally used where the process is 
 employed upon a large scale; as in preparing voltatypes 
 from wood-cuts, copper-plates, plaster casts, &c. 
 
 A is a trough of any required dimensions, made of slate 
 
 or wood, and filled with a proper solution of sulphate of 
 copper; C is a copper plate immersed in the trough, and 
 forming the positive electrode of the constant battery B (of 
 which one cell only is here represented, hut of which two 
 or more may he employed as required) ; I) 1) is a copper 
 rod forming the negative electrode, to which the articles to 
 be coated with copper tire suspended by copper wires. 
 
 vcral article-, previously properly prepared by the 
 means above described, are retained in the circuit till ade- 
 quately coated by copper. In this form id' apparatus it is 
 imt necessary to provide againsl the Impoverishment of the 
 cupreous solution; for in proportion to the quantity of cop- 
 per depo.-ited upon the moulds is that which is taken up 
 from the plate C, and when this plate is so far dissolved lis 
 no longer to form an effective electrode it must he replaced 
 by another. 
 ' Where other metals are to he employed, proper solutions 
 must be selected for the purpose, and (he electric power 
 
 accordingly: the weakest power, consistent wlfh 
 
 the precipitation of the metal and the non-evolution < f hy- 
 (iroL'en at the negative electrode, is that which Is generally 
 to be preferred. For gilding copper or silver, the solution 
 which is generally employed is a double cyanide of gold 
 5 1319 
 
VOLTI. 
 
 raid potagBlum: it is made bv dissolving about 60 grains of 
 Milpii ret or of oxide of gold in a pint of a solution of cy- 
 anide o,' potassium containing 1 part of the cyanide to 10 of 
 water. The sulphuret of gold is prepared by precipitating 
 a solution of perchloridc of gold by sulphuret of potassium, 
 and washing the precipitate with hot water: the oxide of 
 gold may be similarly prepared by precipitating the solution 
 of the chloride by carbonate of potassa at a boiling heat. 
 With this solution silver and copper may be effectively 
 gilded, and the thickness of the coat of gold may be car- 
 ried to any required extent. If it be desired to gild the in- 
 side of a silver vessel, the vessel may be filled with the 
 gilding solution, and connected by its outside with the neg- 
 ative elec ode, a plate of gold immersed into the centre of 
 the solution in the vessel constituting the positive elec- 
 trode. 
 
 For covering or plating articles with silver, a solution of 60 
 grains f chloride or of oxide of silver in a pint of the solu- 
 tion of cyanide of potassium of the strength above stated is to 
 be sed. In this case the article which is to receive the 
 d posit is made the negative electrode, and a plate of silver 
 may be used as the positive electrode. Here, as in the case 
 of gold, the plating may be carried to any extent, and arti- 
 cles from which the silver has been abraded by wear may 
 easily lie replated. 
 
 In all cases where silver or gold is to be thus voltnically 
 deposited so as to give a durable adhesive coating, the re- 
 ceiving surf ices must be perfectly clean; hence the neces- 
 sity of dipping them, in the first instance, into warm aqua- 
 fortis (or nitric acid diluted with three or four parts of wa- 
 ter), and then washing them in a large quantity of pure 
 water, previously to putting them into the solution: it is 
 also generally right to make the connexion with the batte- 
 ry, and immerse the positive pole, previous to putting the 
 article into Ihe depositing liquid. Messrs. F.lkingtnn of Bir- 
 mingham, who have patented these operations, have pro- 
 duced a number of beautiful specimens both of gilding and 
 silvering, and have largely applied them In numerous pro- 
 cesses of the arts. 
 
 Mr. Palmer of London has made the most important ap- 
 plications of these precipitations to the purposes of the fine 
 arts, in volt ityping the plates of engravings executed by 
 the first artists. In these cases much care and dexterity 
 are required in the manipulations, but the results are then 
 beautifully perfect. The first impression of the etched or 
 engraved plate is of course in relief, mid serves as a matrix, 
 from which any number of impressions in indent (or fac- 
 similes of the original plate) may be obtained. Mr. Palmer 
 has also invented various modifications of the process, full 
 descriptions of which would be inconsistent with our pre 
 sent object, but which promise to render it much more ex- 
 tensively subservient to the purposes of the fine and use- 
 ful arts. Messrs. De la Rue have also carried these pro- 
 cesses t ■ great perfection, and have extensively multiplied 
 their applications to various purposes of ornamental print- 
 ing. (See the article Voltaic Electricity in this Dic- 
 tionary. Also Mr. Suite's E'emcnts of Electro- Metallur- 
 gy, whose platinized silver battery is well adapted to most 
 of the preceding operations.) 
 
 V()'l/l'l. (It. turn.) In Music, a term directing that the 
 leaf is to be turned over. 
 
 VOLUME. (Lat. volumen, from volvo, Troll.) A book. 
 Thus a library is said to consist of so many thousand vol- 
 umes, and a long work is divided for convenience into sev- 
 eral volumes. Every single roll of paper or parchment in 
 an ancient library, was, of course, equivalent to a single 
 book in one of our own; hence the name is derived. It 
 should seem that the books (in the sense of divisions of the 
 subject) of ancient works were originally actual volumes; 
 so that the History of Herodotus or Iliad of Homer con- 
 sisted of" as many volumes, in ordinary writing, as bonks. 
 The French word tome (signifying, properly, a single vol- 
 ume of a work containing more than one) is derived from 
 the Greek rc/ivta; to cut or divide. 
 
 VOLUTA. (Lat. voluta, a wreath.) A name applied 
 by Liiituciis to a genus of the Vermes Testacea, including 
 those which have a univalve spiral shell, with an aperture 
 without a beak, and somewhat effuse ; and a columella 
 twisted or plaited, generally without lips or perforation. 
 The Mollusca thus characterized form a family in the Buc- 
 cinoid tribe of the Pectinihranchiate Gastropods of Cuvier's 
 system, and are distributed into the following subgenera: 
 Oliva, Brug. ; Volvaria, Lam.; Voluta, proper ; Cy milium, 
 Montf. ; Marginella, Lam. ; Colombella, Lam. ;" Mitra, 
 Lam.; Cauretlaria, Lam. 
 
 VO'LUTE. (Lat. volvo, / roll.) In Architecture, the 
 sphal scroll appended on each side to the capital of the 
 Ionic order. The Corinthian and Composite capitals arc 
 also decorated with volutes; hut their character is different, 
 their size smaller, and they are always diagonally placed. 
 In the Corinthian order Ihev are more numerous, and in 
 the Composite they are larger than in the Corinthian. 
 1320 
 
 VULCAN. 
 
 VO'LVA, or WRAPPER. A term used in descrying 
 fungi to denote the involucrum-like base of the stipes of 
 Jlgaricus. It was originally the bag enveloping the whole 
 plant, but was left at the foot of the stipes when the plant 
 elongated and hurst through it. 
 
 VO'LVULUS. (Lat. volvere, to roll vp, because it was 
 supposed to arise from twisting of the intestines.) See Iliac 
 Passion. 
 
 VO'MICA. (Lat. vomo, I spit up.) An abscess of the 
 lunss. 
 
 VOMITO'RIA. (Lat. vomo.) In Architecture, the 
 openings, gates, or doors, in the ancient theatres and am- 
 phitheatres, which gave ingress and egress to the public. 
 
 VO'RTEX. (Lat.) An eddy or whirlpool ; a body of 
 water running rapidly round and forming a cavity in' the 
 middle, Into which floating bodies are drawn. The term is 
 also applied to whirlwind. In the Cartedan philosophy, 
 vortex signifies a collection of material particles, forming a 
 fluid or ether, endowed with a rapid rotatory motion about 
 an axis. By means of this hypothesis, and the received 
 doctrine of centrifugal forces, a plausible explanation may 
 be given of the motion of the planets, which move nearly 
 in Hies tine plane; but the motions of the comets which 
 traverse the heavens in all directions are inexplicable, and 
 In fact are inconsistent with the hypothesis. Descartes, 
 nevertheless, had the merit of attempting to show how the 
 universe might have assumed its present form and be pre- 
 served on mechanical principles. For an explanation of 
 the system of vortices, see Maclaurin's Account of Newton's 
 Philosophical Discoveries. 
 
 VO'RTICEL, Curtice/la. (Lat. vortex, a whirlpool.) 
 The generic name of certain pedicellate Wheel Animal- 
 cules, which are provided with vibratile organs at their 
 anterior extremity, whose apparently rotatory actions pro- 
 duce little whirlpools in their vicinity, and thus attract the 
 particles of food. 
 
 VOTIVE. (Lat. votum, vow.) In Numismatics, votive 
 medals are such as were struck in grateful commemoration 
 of any auspicious event, such as the recovery from sickness 
 of a prince, &c. ; especially those of the Roman emperors, 
 struck every five, ten, or twenty years, on which the public 
 vows on their behalf are recorded. The custom is said to 
 have origin ited in the repeated continuance of Augustus in 
 his high offices at the prayers of the people. A votive 
 tablet, picture, &c, is one dedicated in consequence of the 
 vow of a worshipper; in classical Europe some deity, in 
 modern Roman Catholic countries to s. hits. 
 
 VOU'SSOIKS. in Bridges, are the stones which imme- 
 diately form the arch, being of the shape of a truncated 
 wedge. Their under sides lbim the intrados or sotiiit. 'I lie, 
 length of the middle voussoir, or keystone, ought to he 
 about 1 -15th or l-16th of the span, and the rest should in- 
 crease all the way down to the imposts. Their joints 
 should be cut perpendicular to the curve of the intrados; 
 consequently the angle of the sides is determined by the 
 curvature. (Mutton's Tracts, vol. i.) 
 
 VOW. (Lat. voveo, / vow.) A promise made to God 
 of a thing which we believe to be agreeable to him, and 
 which we are not on other grounds obliged to render to 
 him. This is what the Theologians understand by it, 
 when they say a vow is " promissio de meliore bono." To 
 promise God to do what he commands, or to avoid what he 
 forbids, is not a vow, because we are under an obligation 
 so to act. (Diet, de Theologie, Toulouse 1817.) The use 
 of vows is found in most religions. The Roman Catholics 
 adduce numerous passages from the Old Testament to 
 prove that vows are acceptable to God; the Protestants on 
 the other hand reject the theory of vows as altogether 
 untenable. 
 
 VOWEL. In Grammar, a letter which can be pro- 
 nounced alone, thus distinguished from consonants, which 
 require to be sounded with the aid of a vowel. They are 
 divided in ancient prosody into long, short, and common 
 (ancipites), i. e., either long or short at pleasure. A dip- 
 thong consists of two vowels, of which the sounds run (or 
 are supposed to run) into one another. 
 
 VU'LCAN. In Mythology, the Latin name for the 
 divinity called by the Greeks Hepha'stus, the god who pre- 
 sided over the working of metals. He was also called 
 Mulciber. He was the son of Jupiter, who, Incensed at his 
 interference on the part of his mother Juno, cast him out 
 of heaven : he fell in the isle of Lemnos, and broke his leg 
 in the fall. His feats as the patron of armourers and 
 workers in metal, his marriage with Venus, and her infi- 
 delities, form the subjects of many of the best known 
 classical stories. (See Bryant, Jinc. Myth, vi., 115.) There 
 is about the character of Vulcan much of the usual confu- 
 sion belonging to Greek mythology. Cicero mentions three 
 Vulcans, besides the son of Jupiter: one, the child of 
 Uranus : another, of Nil us, who reigned in Egypl ; a third, 
 of Ma-nalius. A peculiarity attending the worship of Vul- 
 can was, that the victims were wholly consumed, in re 
 
VULPES. 
 
 ence to his character as God of Fire. In sculpture, he is 
 represented us bearded, with a hummer and pincers, and a 
 pointed cap. He dues not appear lame, as represented by 
 the poets. Cicero, however, praises the sculptor Alcaiuencs 
 for making his lameness observable without amounting to 
 deforiiiiiy." The description of his cavern in the isle of 
 Vulcan, or Uiera, in the tJLh Book of the JEbaeti, is among 
 the best known passages in classical poetry. 
 
 VI.' I. PES. (Lat. a fox,.) This has been made a sub- 
 generic term by those naturalist! who so distinguish the 
 un the dogs, jackals, and wolves, to which they 
 consequently restrict the term Canis. The grounds lor the 
 distinction are Chiefly the form of lire pupil of the 
 eye, which is vertical in the foxes, circular in the dogs; 
 of the upper incisor teeth are less distinctly marked 
 titan in the dog; the tail of the fox is longer and more 
 bushy ; lb head broader, and terminated by a narrower and 
 inted muzzle ; its gait and attitude crouching. 
 \ I "I.PINITE ; so called from Vulpino, near Berg Uno in 
 Italy, where it is found, An anhydrous sulphate of lime, 
 containing a little silica. It is sometimes employed by the 
 Ball U) artists UK small statues and other ornamental work, 
 under the n:uue of marmo bardiglio. 
 
 VI . 1,'ITTI, (Lat. a vulture.) The name of a Linna.Mii 
 
 genus of diurnal Accipitrine birds, characterised by an 
 
 elongated beak, curved only at the extremity, and by having 
 
 or le?s proportion of the head, and sometime* of 
 
 k, denuded of feathers. To the brief Linnwn 
 
 scripUve of this genus it may be added, that the 
 
 power of the claws does not correspond with the bulk of 
 the body. The wings are so long that they are carried In 
 the half-extended state when the vulture walks on the 
 ground. In general, the birds of this group are of a cowardly 
 nnture, living on dead carcasses and oll'al ; their gullet 
 to a considerable crop, which, when distended 
 with garbage, projects above the furcular bone. When 
 gorged with food a foetid humour is discharged from the 
 md the bird is reduced to a state of stupidity. The 
 vultures of Llnnsjus an: divided into the subgenera Fultur, 
 i tkartt*, Cuv. ; Sarcoramphus, Cuv. ; Percnopterus, 
 
 Cuv. ; Gypailus, Slorr. 
 
 w. 
 
 W. A letter found only in the alphabets of modern lan- 
 
 In form, it resembles two Vs, and its English 
 
 derived from the fact Of the letter v being identical 
 
 With u In the Latin, and in the more early form of the 
 
 language. In German, w is pronounced like the 
 
 i •; the latter having the sound of/. When w 
 
 commences a syllable, it is a consonant; but in all other 
 
 a a vowel. 
 
 WACKE. (German.) A modification of basalt. 
 
 WAD, or WADDING. In Gunnery, a bundle of paper, 
 tow, old rope-yarn, or other loose matter, rolled up closely 
 together, and rammed into a gun after the |«iwder to keep 
 n its chamber. From the experiments of Dr. Hut- 
 ton it does not appear that the wadding has any effect in 
 ig the tone of the charge. 
 
 WADD. A name occasionally given to plumbago, and 
 also to an ore of manganese found in Derbyshire, which 
 when mixed with linseed oil for the purpose of a paint is 
 apt to take fire. 
 
 W.VDEIIS, WADING BIRDS, Grallatores. An order 
 of birds, including those which have long legs naked from 
 above the distal or lower extremity of the tibia downwards. 
 Set (. kallator.es. 
 
 WA'DSETT. In Scotch Law, a right by which goods 
 are pledged for the recovery of a debt, answering to the 
 English mortg ge. 
 
 WA'GER OF BATTLE. The usage of deciding a civil 
 suit by battle was common to the Jurisprudence of many of 
 the Teutonic tribes which established themselves in the 
 provinces of the Roman empire. It was especially favoured 
 among the Lombards ; and there is a celebrated passage in 
 the laws of their king Luitprand, in which, while he recog- 
 nizes the impiety of the custom, he professes his inability 
 to aboli>h it in consequence of the prejudices of his subjects. 
 In England, battle trial is not mentioned in any Anglo- 
 Saxon laws now extant; and its introduction is therefore 
 attributed to William the Conqueror, although bearing in 
 his laws the Saxon name of "orneste." probably earnest. 
 (See Sir F. Palgrave on the British Commonwealth, chap, 
 vii., who believes that the Conqueror did no more than 
 confirm a usage already known to the inhabitants of Eng- 
 land. He supposes that battle in civil suits was regularly 
 Joined in the Anglo Saxon county courts.) Trial by battle, 
 by the English common law, was used in civil cases only, 
 me was joined upon a writ of right, in which the 
 tenant pleaded the general issue, viz. that he had more 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 right to hold than the demandant to recover, which lit 
 offered to prove by the body of his champion ; for in civil 
 actions the combat was not between the jiarties themselves 
 The champions were armed with batons and targets, and 
 the combat took place before the judges and Serjeants of 
 the Court of Common Pleas. The combatants were bound 
 to light until the stars appeared in the evening ; and If tiic 
 champion of the tenant could either hold out so long, or 
 obtain tlie victory, the tenant prevailed in his cause. Vic- 
 tory was obtained either by the death of the champion, or 
 by his pronouncing the horrible word "craven," which 
 caused bis principal the loss of his land, and legal infamy 
 to himself The trial by battle was the only mode of* 
 deciding a writ of right, until Henry U. introduced the 
 grand appeal or trial by inquest, and gave the tenant his 
 choice between them. The last trial by battle in the Court 
 of Common Pleas was in the Kith Elizabeth, 1571 ; but in 
 the Court of the County Palatine of Durham then was one 
 in 1G3». Trial by battle in criminal cases is explicitly 
 noticed in the laws of the Conqueror. It took place on an 
 appeal, when the appellee of felony pleaded not guilty, and 
 declared he would defend the same with his bod) : as in 
 app r ov e ment, when a party arraigned of treason or felony 
 having become an approver by appealing, or accusing his 
 accomplices, the latter might iii the same manner demand 
 trial by battle; in which case the combat was between the 
 parties themselves. The last trial by battle awarded in 
 this country w - of Lord Reayand Mr. II unsay, 
 
 in the Tth of Charles I.; but the king, after having appointed 
 a constable to preside, revoked the commission. In 1618, 
 William Ash ford having brought an appeal against Abra- 
 ham Thornton for the murder of his sister, the appellee 
 waged his battle. Judgment was stayed, in consequence 
 of a legal dilliculty which arose in the case ; and in the fol- 
 lowing year an art was passed, by which appeals of treason, 
 
 felony, and other Offences, and trial by battle on writs of 
 right, were abolished. 
 
 WAGER, In Law, wagers are valid, and may be made 
 subjects of action, unless they are on illegal matters. Illegal 
 wagers are of two kinds: such as are rendered expressly 
 void by statutes, and such as have an Illegal or Immoral 
 tendency. To the first class belong wagers on the event 
 Of prohibited games; wagers on horse races, if the sum 
 billed by either party be above A' 10. or on any horse rare 
 not a bona fide race on the tint; of lite latter class many 
 instances might be given. Anything that incites to a breach 
 Of the peace or to immorality, or thai b IS a tendency to 
 annoy the feelings of another or cast ridicule on him, is not 
 a legal subject of wagers. Wagers on merely speculative 
 subjects, not arising out of circumstances in which the 
 parties have un interest (for instance, on a point oi law, or 
 on the amount of a branch of the public revenue), are of 
 loo trivial characters to be enforced by legal proceedings. 
 When a wager is illegal, both parties may recover back 
 their deposits from a stakeholder. 
 
 WAGER OF L VW. See Compurgation. 
 
 WA'GES, in Political Economy, are the return made or 
 compensation paid to those employed to perform any kind 
 of labour or service by their employers. 
 
 In ordinary language, the term wages is usually employed 
 to designate the sums paid to artisans or labourers employed 
 in manufactures, in household services, and in agriculture, 
 mines, and other manual occupations. Substantially and 
 in fact, however, it has a much more extensive application ; 
 the salaries of public functionaries of all sorts, and the fees 
 of lawyers, physicians, and other professional men, are ns 
 really wages as the sums paid by them to the menials in 
 their service, and depend on the same laws and principles. 
 " Every man," says Dr. Paley, "has his work. The kind 
 of work varies, and that is all the difference there is. A 
 great deal of labour exists besides that of the hands, ninny 
 species of industry besides bodily operation, equally neces 
 sary, requiring equal assiduity, more attention, more anxiety. 
 It is not true, therefore, that men of elevated stations are 
 exempted from work ; it is only true that there is assigned 
 to them work of a different kind ; whether more easy or 
 more pleasant may he questioned ; bin certainly not less 
 wanted, nor less essential to the common good." (.issize 
 Sermon, July 29, 1795.) 
 
 Rates of Wages in different Employments. — The wages 
 paid to the labourers engaged in different employments 
 differ so very widely, that at first sight it may seem to bo 
 impossible to lay down any principles that should be gene- 
 rally applicable to them all. Such, however, is not the 
 case. The differences in question are apparent rather than 
 real ; and when the various favourable and unfavourable 
 circumstances connected with different employments at* 
 taken into account, it will be found mat the wages or earn 
 ings of those engaged in them are very nearly the same. 
 
 If all employments were equally agreeable and healthy 
 if the labour to be performed in each was of the same in 
 tensity and if each required the same degree of dexlcriU 
 
 1321 
 
WAGES. 
 
 and skill on the part of thosfi employed, it is evident, sup- 
 posing industry to be quite free, that there could be no 
 permanent or considerable difference in the wages of labour ; 
 for if those employed In a particular business were to earn 
 either more or less than their neighbours, labourers would, 
 in ihe former case, leave other businesses to engage In it; 
 and in the latter, they would leave it to engage in others, 
 until the increase or diminution of their numbers had 
 lowered or elevated wages to the common level. In point 
 of fact, however, the intensity of the labour to be performed 
 in different employments, the degree of skill required to 
 carry them on, their healthiness, and the estimation in 
 ' wnich they are held, differ exceedingly ; and these varying 
 circumstances necessarily occasion proportional differences 
 in the wages of the workmen engaged in them. Wages 
 are the price paid to the labourer for the exertion of his 
 hysical powers, skill and ingenuity. They, therefore, 
 necessarily vary according to the severity of the labour and 
 the degree of skill and ingenuity required. A jeweller or 
 engraver, for example, must be paid a higher rate of wages 
 than a common farm-servant or a scavenger; for a long 
 course of training being necessary to instruct a man in the 
 business of jewelling and engraving, were he not indemni- 
 fied for the cost of this training by a higher rate of wages, 
 he would not think of learning so difficult an art, but would 
 addict himself in preference to such employments as hardly 
 require any instruction. Hence the discrepancies that ac- 
 tually obtain In the rate of wages are confined within certain 
 limits, increasing or diminishing it only so far as may be 
 necessary fully to countervail the unfavourable or favoura- 
 ble peculiarities attending any employment. 
 
 The following, according to Dr. Smith, are the principal 
 circumstances which occasion the rate of wages, in some 
 employments, to fall below or rise above the general average 
 rate of wages : 
 
 1st. The agreeableness and disagreeableness of the em- 
 ployments. 
 
 2d. The laziness or cheapness, or the difficulty and ex- 
 pense of learning them. 
 
 3d. The constancy or Inconstancy p f tp" employments. 
 
 llh. Tut' small or great tust 1. ...... De i; ■■•... ' In 
 
 those who carry them on. 
 
 5th. The probability or improbability of succeeding in 
 them. 
 
 It would be useless, even if our limits permitted, to enter 
 into any lengthened details with respect to the variations 
 in the rates of wages arising out of the particular circum- 
 stances now enumerated. They have been fully illustrated 
 by Smith in the 10th chapter of his first book. Every one 
 must see that, cateris paribus, those engaged in a disagree- 
 ble or disreputable employment must have greater wages 
 than those engaged in such as are comparatively agreeable 
 and respectable. Wherever a comparative disadvantage 
 attaches to any branch of industry, it must be compensated 
 to those engaged by higher wages or profits, or both, other- 
 wise they would withdraw wholly from it. And on this 
 principle it is plain that those engaged in a business or pro- 
 fession which it costs a great deal to learn, must be more 
 amp y remunerated than those engaged in a business that 
 may be learned with comparatively little trouble and ex- 
 pense. Inconstancy of employment must also, it is obvious, 
 be indemnified by a higher rate of wages during the period 
 of employment; and greater trust by requiring higher char- 
 acter must also be remunerated by higher wages. The 
 probability or improbability of success in different employ- 
 ments applies mostly in the higher departments of industry. 
 The instances are rare in which a person who is bound 
 apprentice to a tailor, shoemaker, or other individual en- 
 gaged in an ordinary business, fails of acquiring sufficient 
 proficiency to enable him to live by it. But it is far other- 
 wise in the higher departments; and supposing an indi- 
 vidua' is bound apprentice to a lawyer, physician, painter, 
 sculptor, player, &c, the chances are more than twenty to 
 one that lie will not attain to distinction in his profession, 
 and perhaps five to one that he will not be able to live by 
 it. But, in professions where so many fail for one who 
 succeeds, that fortunate one should gain not only what will 
 indemnify him for the expenses of his education, but also 
 all that has been laid out on the education of his unfortu- 
 nate competitors. Hence the comparatively large earnings 
 of successful lawyers, physicians, players, and so forth ; 
 though it be, after all, abundantly certain that they hardly 
 •.ompeustte for the losses of the unsuccessful candidates 
 for wealth and honours. 
 
 It will be found, therefore, taking all the circumstances 
 
 Into account, that the rates of wages in different employ- 
 
 ' incnts approach pietty near an equality ; and that the 
 
 higher rate in some, and lower rate in others, is uniformly 
 
 occasioned by certain contingent circumstances. 
 
 But without insisting farther on the causes of variation 
 from the common standard, we shall now proceed shortly 
 to inquire into the circumstances which determine this 
 1322 
 
 common standard, that is, Into the circumstances which 
 determine the rate of wages paid to labourers engaged in 
 the common and ordinary departments of nranuAicturing 
 and agricultural labour, or in such as require no peculiar 
 skill or other superior quality, and have nothing peculiarly 
 disagreeable about them. 
 
 To facilitate the acquisition of clear and correct views 
 with respect to the circumstances which determine the 
 price of ordinary labour, wages may be considered in a 
 double point of view : viz. either (I.) as the sum which the 
 labourers receive at any given period in return for their 
 services, or (II.) as the sum which the habits of society 
 render necessary to enable them to subsin and continue 
 their race. Wages, considered in the first point of view, 
 maybe called market or actual wages; and considered in 
 the second, they may be called natural or necessary wages. 
 
 I. Dr. Smith has said ( Wealth of Nations, p. 30, M'Ciil- 
 loch's edit.), that the common or market rate of wages de- 
 pends everywhere ui>on the terms of the contract betw een 
 the workmen and their employers. But we man not 
 thence infer that these terms are adjusted on any arbitrary 
 or capricious principle. In businesses of small extent, and 
 placed under peculiar circumstances, this may occasionally 
 be the case. But in the vast majority of cases, it is not 
 possible for any combination, whether of the masters or the 
 workmen, materially to affect the rate of wages. That 
 must always depend on the amount of capital devoted to 
 the payment of wages as compared with the number of 
 labourers. 
 
 That portion of the capital, or wealth of a country, which 
 the employers of labour lay out in the purchase of labour 
 may be much larger at one time than at another ; but 
 whatever may be its absolute magnitude, it obviously forms 
 the only source from which any portion of the wages of 
 labour can be derived. No other fund is in existence from 
 which the labourers, as such, can draw a single shilling. 
 And hence it follows that the average rate of wagi 
 share of the national capital appropriated to the employ- 
 ment of labour falling, at an average, to each labourer, 
 must enti'elv depend on its amount as compared with the 
 ii (■ ose umo ,• « ..•:',. it .1,. ■■. bo rUvid 
 
 An increase of capital, or of the means of supporting and 
 employing labourers, is not therefore, as is so generally 
 supposed, always productive of an increased rate of wages. 
 It has this effect when the number of labourers remains 
 stationary, or when it increases in a less proportion than 
 capital; but not otherwise. Were capital and population 
 to increase or diminish in the same proportion, the rate ■■>( 
 wages, or the quantity of necessaries and conveniences 
 falling to the share of the labourer, would undergo no 
 change; but if the mass of capital be, on the on 
 augmented without a corresponding augmentation taking 
 place in the population, a larger share of such capital wiil 
 fall to each individual, or the rate of wages will be Incre is- 
 ed. And if, on the other hand, population be augmented 
 faster than capital, a less share will be apportioned to each 
 individual, or the rate of wages will be reduced. The well- 
 being and comfort of the labouring classes are thus espe 
 cially dependant on the proportion which their increase 
 bears to the increase of capital. There are, in fact, no 
 means whatever by which their command over the ncces 
 saries of life can be increased that do not, at bottom, resolve 
 themselves into an increase of capital its compared with 
 population ; and every scheme for improving the condition 
 of the labouring class, not bottomed on this principle, can 
 hardly fail to prove nugatory and ineffectual. 
 
 It is needless to enter into any disquisition with respect 
 to the circumstances which tend to increase capital. Suf- 
 fice it to observe, that its increase is always of the greatest 
 importance to the bulk of the population. It may not, in- 
 deed, occasion a corresponding increase in the demand for 
 labour; but it is, notwithstanding, sure to increase it con- 
 siderably, and consequently to improve the condition of the 
 labourers. Their condition may also be improved by a 
 greater prevalence of moral restraint or of foresight in the 
 formation of matrimonial connexions; for, by lessening the 
 rate at which population was previously increasing, such 
 increased restraint would tend to reduce the number of la- 
 bourers as compared with the demand, and would con 
 tribute to improve their condition in the same way as an 
 increase of capital. On this ground, it is believed, that the 
 establishment of a proper system of education might 
 made to contribute, by enlightening the public as to the 
 governing causes of the rate of wages, to increase their 
 amount. It were right, certainly, that education should 
 made to embrace such subjects. The causes of nntlOttS 
 poverty should be explained to every one, that all may 
 made aware of their existence and enabled, in some men 
 urc, to provide against them. It should be impressed en 
 
 the lab iusr classes that the means of Increased comfor 
 
 are, to a very great degree, in their own hands ; Unit what 
 others can do lor them is but trivial KfOpared with what 
 
WAGES 
 
 uiey can do for themselves ; that the best institutions, and 
 the most tolerant and liberal system of government, cannot 
 I them from poverty and degradation, should their 
 numbers become too great as compared with the means if 
 subsistence ; and that to obviate this, and to advance their 
 individual and collective interests, they should exercise a 
 reasonable decree of foresight in the formation of matri- 
 monial engagements, and should, if possible, endeavour to 
 make gome previous provision against unfavourable con- 
 tingencies. We have already seen (art. Population In 
 this work), that the native sagacity of the bulk of the peo- 
 tud their laudable desire to preserve their present 
 in, or to rive to a higher, are powerful enough to 
 make the progress of population subordinate to the increase 
 in the means of subsistence. And it seems reasonable to 
 conclude, without overrating the power of education, that 
 the prudential virtues would acquire greater strength were 
 their importance and the influence they exercise over the 
 condition of society explained to and enforced on the atten 
 lion of every one. 
 
 The laws with respect to corporations, apprenticeships, 
 combinations, &.c, the effect of wblcb on the market rate 
 Of WS I ably pointed out by Dr. Smith, have of 
 late years undergone very great modifications. The itsl 
 the 5th of Elizabeth, regulating the duration of ap- 
 prenticeships in most common trades in England and 
 Wiles, was repealed in 1814; the laws preventing volun- 
 tary i tblnaooni among workmen were repealed in 1824 
 
 {see Combination), and the privileges of the different cor- 
 poratious have, in so far as mutters of this sort are con- 
 cerned, ceased to be oppressive. A similar change has 
 
 made in many of the continental states. The B 
 lution swept off all the vexatious enactment; with respect 
 
 to apprenticeships and corporations thai formerly restricted 
 (he freedom of industry In Prance; and they have all 
 appeared in Prussia, the .Netherlands, &c. The compul- 
 sory provision for the support of the able-bodied poor is the 
 only institution now existing in England, that seems to 
 iny very considerable Influence over the rate ofwa- 
 
 m tuiever fluctuations may t:. i place in the 
 rate of wages, there is in all countries a limit below which 
 it is i tilt to reduce Wages for any COBSidl 
 
 period; and below which they can never he permanently 
 reduced, without a Change taking place in the habits of the 
 population. This limit forms what lias been denominated 
 the natural or necessary rate of Wages, and consists of 
 the various necessaries and accommodations, or the money 
 sufficient for their purchase, required to enable the la- 
 bourers to exist and continue their race according to the 
 habits and customs prevailing in the countries to which 
 they belong. 
 
 It is obvious from what has now been stated, that the 
 natural or necessary rate of wages is susceptible of much 
 
 ion. It varies in different countries according to the 
 varying wants and necessities of the labourers; and it 
 
 • in the same country according to the perpetually oc- 
 curring changes in their diet, dress, lodgings, and other ac- 
 commodations. 
 
 The varieties in the climate of different countries oc- 
 aasion considerable variations in the necessary rate of 
 Humboldt states that there is a difference of about 
 a third part between the wages of labour in the hot and 
 temperate districts of Mexico. Nor is it difficult to see why 
 this is the case. According as the severity of the climate 
 
 : les, warmer, and for that reason, speaking generally, 
 more expensive clothing, more substantially-built house's, 
 and a larger supply of fuel become necessary. The influ 
 ence of these circumstances may, it is true, be either par- 
 tially or wholly counteracted by Others; such as the supe- 
 rior progress made by countries with a less genial climate 
 in the arts of civilized life, the possession of unusually pro- 
 ductive coal mines, &c. But abstracting from these cir- 
 cumstances, it is plain, as a general proposition, that the 
 
 of necessary Wages must vary with variations of cli 
 
 : and that, other things being equal, it will he high- 
 est in countries where the most expensive clothes and 
 nouses and the largest supplier, of fuel are required. 
 
 The share of the wages of labour appropriated to the 
 purchase) of food necessarily differs in different countries. 
 In all, however, it is very large; and even in Great Britain, 
 where tin' labourers consider comfortable clothes and neat 
 cottages as Indispensable, it is commonly supposed that, at 
 an average, from two to tkrre-fifths of their earnings are 
 laid out for food. It is obvious, therefore, that the neces- 
 sary, and, by consequence also, the market rate of wages, 
 must he especially dependant on the sort of food consumed 
 
 10 Inhabitants, and the cost nt which it may be raised. 
 
 ■-.'. for example, the present average rate of waeos in 
 agricultural employments in England at jC25 a year, and 
 Supposing three-fifths of this sum, or £15, to be expended 
 on food, it is obvious that, if either by a reduction in the 
 
 price of corn, or by substituting potatoes in its place, or 
 any other means, the cost of food were reduced a half, the 
 necessary rite of wages might be reduced in the same pro- 
 portion, or from £-i~> to £ 17 10s. Such a reduction in the 
 price of corn, or such a change in the sjiecies nt' food as 
 has been supposed, would lead to an increase in the means 
 of subsistence ; an additional stimulus would, in conse- 
 qtience, he given to population, and though the market 
 rate of wages would not sink in the same degree that ne- 
 cessary nrages are supposed to have sunk, it would sink to 
 some extent ; and were necessary wages to sink still more, 
 market wages would also sustain a certain decline, which 
 would be greater or less according to the habits and fore 
 sight of the people. 
 
 The state of the labouring classes in every country fur- 
 nishes abundant proofs of what has now been stated. In 
 Bengal, for example, where clothing, lodging, and fuel nre 
 of comparatively inferior importance, the necessary wages 
 of labour arc almost entirely determined by the cost of the 
 food consumed hy the labourer. And this food being tho 
 simplest and cheapest imaginable, consisting merely of 
 boiled rice wi h split pulse, and salt to relieve its insipidity, 
 a labourer is able to suh-ist on the merest trifle ; and, in 
 consequence, the customary ra;e of wages in common em- 
 ployments is so low as 'J 1 .,/, a day. (Colehrooke, On tht 
 Husbandry of Bengal, p. 20, 131.) 
 
 But it is nut necessary to refer to distant countries or re- 
 mote periixls for an example of this principle. The contrast 
 between the wages and the condition of the labouring 
 Great Britain, and the wages and condition of 
 the same classes in Ireland, illustrates it in the most strik- 
 ing manner. In Great Britain the necessary rite of wages 
 is principally determined by the cost of wheat and butch- 
 er's meat, and in a less degree by the rent of a comfortable 
 Cottage, the price of clothes, beer, tea, &c. In Ireland, on 
 the contrary, the peasantry rarely taste butcher's meat ; 
 they do not even consider bread as necessary to their sub- 
 sistence; they are generally without either beer or tea; 
 and their hats, clothes, &.c, are all of the most miserable 
 description. The rate of necessary wages i- there almost 
 entirely determined hy the juice of potiin.es; and as a 
 quantity of these sufficient tor the support of a family may 
 he bought for a third part of the price of the bread and 
 other articles required for that purpose, the necessary rate 
 is proportionally low. The market rite of uu 
 L'es. too, owing to the weakness in Ireland of re- 
 straint, and the nenrly total non-existence of thai prudent 
 forethought and decent pride which distinguishes the la- 
 bouring class in Great Britain, does not differ sensibly from 
 - ary rale. The principle of increase has tided up 
 the population to ill e level of mere subsistence: so that 
 while the wages or common labour may be taken on a 
 rough average at 2(W. a day in England, they .are not sup- 
 posed • or at st ~il. a day in Ireland. 
 
 If we except the influence that would be exerted on the 
 of population, and consequently also on the rate 
 of wages, by the prevalence of a greater decree of moral 
 restraint, an increased demand for labour, and a" fall in the 
 price of the articles consumed by the labourer, seem to be 
 the only modes in which wages can be raised. Prom 
 whatever causes an Increased demand for labour may pro- 
 ceed, it must obviously raise the rate of wages; and it Is 
 hardly less obvious, that a fall in the cost of producing any 
 article consumed by the labourer, or suitable for his con- 
 sumption, must, In so far, improve his condition. The de- 
 mand for labour Is in most eases immediately increased, 
 and it is never generally or permantly reduced, by a re- 
 duction in the cast of producing commodities. But sup- 
 posing that the demand for labour continues the same after 
 commodates fall in price, then, as the number of labourers 
 in the market, and consequently the money wage; [aid 
 them, must also be the same as before the fall, it is plain 
 they will obtain a greater quantity of produce, and that 
 their condition will be in so far improved. It is no doubt 
 true, that were population to increase, as is sometimes al- 
 leged, proportionally to the increased demand for lauour, 
 or to the fall in the price of produce, the improvement in 
 the condition of the labourer would only be temporary. 
 But it is not Improbable merely but next to Impossible that 
 population should increase in the same proportion. A 
 period of about twenty years necessarily elapses before the 
 stimulus which an increased demand for labour gives to 
 population can occasion any increase in the number of la- 
 bourers ; and the labourers being nccustomed, during this 
 long interval, to an improved manner of living, the standard 
 of natural or necessary wages becomes elevated ; and the 
 majority will he disinclined to do anything that might tend 
 to sink themselves and their children below the new level 
 to which they have attained. 
 
 The effects produced hy a decreasing demand for labour. 
 or by a rise in the price of the .articles usually consumed 
 hy the labourer, are directly the reverse of those now stu 
 
 1323 
 
WAHABEES. 
 
 ted. The number of labourers continuing, for n while at 
 least, the same, the rate of wages is necessarily diminished 
 when the demand for labour declines, and it necessarily 
 continues at its old level when prices rise ; so that in both 
 cases the condition of the labourers is changed for the 
 worse. In consequence, they are obliged to economize ; 
 and should the pressure continue for a considerable period, 
 there is a risk lest their habits be degraded, or that they 
 should learn to be satisfied with an inferior species of food, 
 or a lower standard of comfort. Should this change unfor- 
 tunately take place, the population would accommodate it- 
 self to the new state of things ; and it would be difficult for 
 the labourers to attain, at any subsequent period, to the 
 elevation from which they had been cast down. 
 
 When the labourers are already subsisting, as in Ireland, 
 on the lowest species of food, it is, of course, impossible for 
 them to go to a lower in a period of scarcity ; and should 
 their wages, or the means of subsistence failing to their 
 share, sustain any serious decline, an increase would ne- 
 cessarily take place in the rate of mortality. But in a 
 country like England, where the inhabitants have been 
 long accustomed to superior comforts, and erjoy various 
 privileges, it is probable that they might pass through a 
 pretty long period of privation, and that it would rather 
 give new efficacy to the principle of moral restraint, and 
 lessen the proportion of marriages and births, than induce 
 them to submit to a lower scale of living or to relinquish 
 comforts they have long possessed, and been taught to re- 
 gard as indispensable. As the well-being of the labouring 
 classes is essential to the tranquillity and happiness of the 
 State, it is of the highest importance that this principle 
 should be strengihened by every possible means. It is easy 
 from this to see that a principal advantage of a compulsory 
 provision for the support of the poor consists in the assist- 
 ance it gives them in periods of adversity, and in its there- 
 by contributing to prevent their tastes and habits or their 
 Standard of comfort from being lowered by the privations 
 to which thev might otherwise be compelled to submit. 
 
 WAHA'BEES or WAIIA'BYS. A Mussulman sect, of 
 which the founder was a learned Arabian, named Abd el 
 Wahab, who became persuaded of the corruption, both of 
 doctrine and practice, prevalent among the professors of 
 Islam, especially the Turks. His daughter married Mo- 
 hammed Ibn Saoud, the principal person of the town of 
 Dernych, who became his first convert and leader of the 
 sect, about 1760. Like the original prophet of their faith, 
 Saoud and his followers propagated their doctrines at once 
 by persuasion and arms. Abd el Aziz and Ibn Saoud, the 
 son and grandson of the first Saoud, carried their arms to 
 the utmost extremities of Arabia, and, conformably with 
 the old Mohammedan principle, established a spiritual and 
 temporal leadership united in their pe*ons. The Bedouins, 
 or wandering tribes, formed tiie bulk of their converts. 
 They acknowledged the Koran and the Sunne, or orthodox 
 tradition, and they professed adherence to the liberal tenets 
 of both ; but they accused the other Mohammedans of an 
 idolatrous veneration for the prophet and other saints, and 
 denied the intercession of saints altogether. Like the 
 early Protestants of Europe, their favourite taste was the 
 destruction of the cupolas and tombs of saints. To this the 
 mob of Wahabys added a strong aversion to the rich dress 
 ot the Turks, and to the practice of smoking tobacco, which 
 had been prohibited by Abd el Wahab much on the same 
 hold principle which had induced Mohammed himself to 
 condemn the use of wine. The province of Nedjd became 
 the chief seat of the Wahaby power. Under the last 
 Saoud (a very handsome man, whom the Arabs called 
 Abou Showateb, or the Father of Mustaches), it reached 
 its greatest extent. Like the early caliphs, he administer- 
 ed justice in person to great part of Arabia. The Waha- 
 bys, in the first twenty years of this century extended their 
 plundering expeditions to Syria. Irak, and Mesopotamia. 
 In 1803 they took Mekka, and soon conquered the Hidjah. 
 In 1809 Mehemet Ali began hostilities in Arabia; and in 
 1812 the Hidjah was restored, and the caravans of pilgrims 
 once more arrived with their usual pomp at Mekka ; but 
 for some years afterwards the Wahabys maintained their 
 superiority in the rest of Arabia. Saoud died in 1814, ami 
 was succeeded in his political and religious authority by 
 his son Ahdalhh, under whom the Wahabys were finally 
 subdued by Mehemet Ali ; but we possess no authentic 
 account of their conquest, or their present condition. (See 
 BurhhardVs Travels in Jlrahia ; his Notes fur a History 
 of the Bedouins and Wahabys, 1830; and the Travels of 
 Ali Bey ; Ed. Rev., vols, xxvii., xxxiv.) 
 
 WAIF. (From the Saxon wafian, to abandon.) In Law, 
 goods stolen and abandoned by the felon were so termed, 
 and were forfeited to the king, or lord of the manor having 
 the franchise of waif; but if the owner made fresh pursuit 
 after the felon, and sued an appeal of robbery, or gave 
 evidence whereby he was concluded, within a year and a 
 day, he was er titled to restitution. 
 1324 
 
 WALLOWER. 
 
 WAINSCOT. In Architecture, the framed lining in 
 panels wherewith a wall is faced. The wood originally 
 used for this purpose being a species of foreign oak, that 
 wood Ins acquired the name from the purpose to which it 
 was thus applied. 
 
 WAIST. That part of the gun-deck between the fore 
 and main masts. 
 
 WAITS, the popular name for the music played in our 
 streets on the nights of the Christmas holidays, is thought 
 to be only a corruption of "wake," the common name for a 
 nocturnal solemnity. (See Arc/ncul., vol. ii., GO.) 
 
 WAl'VER. In Law, a term used to signify a party's de- 
 clining or refusing to accept to avail himself of something; 
 as waiver of an estate, which may he mule by infant or 
 his heirs of an estate conveyed to him in his" minority; 
 waiver of tort, in some cases where action of tort ana 
 action of contract both lying, the aggrieved party declines 
 the former and pursues the latter remedy. 
 
 WAKE. In Antiquities and popular usage, the word is 
 of the same meaning as vigil; and the custom originated 
 in the processions which took place early in the morning 
 offcast days to the church, and were not uncommonly fol , 
 lowed by revelling and drunkenness. At present most 
 fast days are popularly called wakes by the English peas 
 antry ; but the peculiar "wake" or "revel" of county 
 parishes was, originally, the day of the week on which the 
 church had been dedicated ; afterwards, the day of the 
 year. In 1536, an act of convocation appointed that the 
 wake should be held in every parish on the same day, 
 namely, the first Sunday in October; but it was disregard- 
 ed. Wakes are expressly mentioned in Charles the First's 
 Book of Sports, among the feasts which it was his majes 
 ty's pleasure should be observed The wake appears to 
 have been also held on the Sunday after the day of dedica- 
 tion ; or, more usually, the day of the saint to whom the 
 church was dedicated. In Ireland, it is called the " Patron 
 Day." {Brand's Popular Antiquities.) 
 
 Wake. The track of a ship which she leaves in the 
 water. A vessel directly astern of another is said to be iu 
 her wake. 
 
 WALDE'NSES. In Ecclesiastical History, a remark- 
 able religious sect, said to have derived their name from 
 Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who preached what lie 
 regarded as the pure doctrine of the Scriptures about 1180. 
 Historians have confounded them, on the one hand, with 
 the Vaudois (see that article), who appear, although their 
 history is involved in much obscurity, to he an older and 
 separate people; and on the other (especially those of ilic 
 Catholic party), with the Alhigenses; and thus it has been 
 endeavoured to throw on them the discredit of the Mani- 
 cbean tract*, which are commonly (but on very doubtful 
 testimony) imputed to the latter. It seems clear, howc '• BT, 
 that the Waldenscs were distinct from these, and probably 
 from the Vaudois also. Their distinguishing chart 
 has been said, "seems to have consisted in a strict ad- 
 herence to what they considered to be the doctrine originally 
 delivered by Christ to his apostles." And out of their ex- 
 tremely literal interpretation of the Gospel appears to have 
 arisen most of their peculiarities, whether good or evil. 
 They seem to have rejected an established succession of 
 the priesthood, and the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 priestly office; the high Catholic doctrine of the sacra 
 meats, besides the common ecclesiastical abuses of their 
 day; and are said, in addition, to have protested against 
 oaths, warfare, lawsuits, and the accumulation of wealth. 
 Their later history is obscure; and it may be said of them, 
 as well as of other sects of the day, that they had little of 
 the elements of permanence, the same opinions being con- 
 tinually promulgated afresh by new reformers, and then 
 receiving new denominations. (See Alhigenses, Petuo- 
 brusians, Vaudois.) The reader may consult Miliier's 
 Ecclesiastical History for the most favourable view of 
 these and similar sectaries ; and, among many o;her au- 
 thorities, Faber, On the Churches of the H'aldenses and Al- 
 bi/renscs. Moshcim, cent. 12. vol. iii. There is a curious 
 notice of an establishment of Waldenscs in Kent, iu the 
 Archalosria, vol. ix. 
 
 WALL. In Architecture, a body of stone, bricks, or 
 other materials, serving to enclose a space, or carry super 
 incumbent weights, or serving both these purpi 
 
 Wall. In Horticulture, a fixed structure for the purpose 
 of improving the climate of plants by shelter, by supplying 
 heat, and by exposing them to tin' influence of the sun. 
 Garden walls are formed cither of brick, wood, or othei 
 materials; and are either solid, fluid, or cellular, upright 
 or sloping, straight or angular, according to the purpose in 
 tended by their erection. (See London's Encyc. of G&r 
 dening, p. 575, &c.) 
 
 WALL EYE. An opacity of the cornea of the eye 
 Sen Glaucoma. 
 
 WA'LLOWER. In Machinery, is used synonymous 1 
 with lantern or trundle. See Lantern Whkkl 
 
WALL PLATE. 
 
 WALL PLATE. In Architecture, a piece of timber 
 lying on a wall, on which girders, joists, and other timbers 
 rest. 
 
 WALPU'RGIS NIGHT. The night of the 1st of May, 
 a festival of St. Philip and St. James. Saint Walpurga 
 j English lady, si-ter of Boniface, the apostle of the 
 Germans: her festival falls on the same day with that of 
 the above-mentioned saints, and is a common day in Ger- 
 many, like Lady-day in England, for the commencement of 
 leases, &c. It is also known as the day on the eve of 
 according to popular supersliiion, the great witch 
 festival is held on the summit of the Bracken, in the Hartz 
 mountains. This superstition is supposed to have originated 
 
 in the rites performed by the pagan remnants of the Saxons 
 tn their gods, when their nation was forcibly converted to 
 Christianity; which, being secretly celebrated in remote 
 >-ed by the vulgar to be supernatural 
 orgies. 
 
 WALTZ. (Germ, waltzer.) The name of the German 
 national dance, and also of the species of music by which 
 it is accompanied. Bohemia is said to be the original home 
 of the wall/., whence it soon spread into other parts of Ger- 
 many, and all over the Continent; and within the last few 
 naturalized In England. 
 
 W.VPF.NTAKK. A territorial division in use among the 
 ):mi.-h inhabitants of England' from wapiti, a weapon. 
 Yorkshire is subdivided into wapentakes instead of hun- 
 {reds. 
 
 WAR, in International Law, is said to be " public," when 
 
 t is a contest by force, between independent sovereign 
 
 A civil war is regarded by Grotius as " mixed" in its 
 
 lature : being, according to him, public on the side of the 
 
 Mablisbed government, and private on that of the portion 
 
 of the | pie resisting its authority. Public war is said to 
 
 be perfect when one whole nation is at war with another, 
 ami all the members of each are authorized to commit hos- 
 tilities mutually, subject only to the general laws of war. 
 An Imperfect war i< limited as to persons, places, and things : 
 to wl i'li class may be referred the hostilities of the United 
 States against France in 1798 ; the hostilities between Eng- 
 land, Trance, Russia, and Turkey, In 1827; and perhaps 
 the recent proceedings against the* Pacha of Egypt. 
 
 Formal declarations of war are now out of use : the latest 
 example is said to be that by France against Spain, at Brus- 
 sels, In lf>3o, which was announced by heralds. War is 
 now usually preceded by the publication of what is termed 
 a " manifesto/ 1 (see that word) ; and the permission of " re- 
 prisals" (which see) is usually the last step short of ac- 
 tual hostilities, and preceding them. The immediate effect 
 of the commencement of hostilities WOUld appear to be, on 
 principle, the liability of all propem belonging to subjects 
 oi one of the belligerent parties within the dominions of 
 the other to seizure and confiscation ; but many exceptions 
 have been introduced by the practice of civilized stales, 
 ■.rutins. J j,-. Jure, B. &■ P., lib. iii. ; Vattel. lib. ii., &c.) 
 In recent times, it has been the regular practice in Great 
 Britain to seize and condemn, as droits of the admiralty, 
 property of the enemy found in our ports at the commence- 
 ment of hostilities. Trade, and every species of contract 
 between subjects of belligerent states,' is in general unlaw- 
 ful, although often authorized for particular times and pur- 
 Subjects of hostile slates, domiciled in the enemy's 
 Country, are held liable to reprisals ; but not, it is said, mere 
 travellers or temporary sojourners. 
 
 The " rights of war" are such as arise in times of hostili- 
 ties — 1. Between enemies ; '2. Between neutrals. As be- 
 tween enemies, it is a general law that subjects of a hostile 
 state who are not in arms, or who have submitted, may not 
 be slain. The killing of prisoners is only justifiable in very 
 extreme cases. The usage of exchanging prisoners is now 
 general, but was only firmly established in the 17th cen- 
 tury ; and it is not now considered obligatory. As to prop- 
 erty, that belonging to the government of the vanquished 
 nation belongs to the victorious state, wherever it is found ; 
 but private rights are unaffected by conquest, with the re- 
 markable exception of private property when at sea, which 
 is by general usage held lawful prize. Acts of hostility are 
 only lawful, according to modern usage, when committed 
 by those authorized by the express or implied command of 
 the state; such as the regularly commissioned military and 
 naval forces of the nation, and all others called out by the 
 government in Its defence, as well as persons spontaneously 
 defending themselves in case of necessity. IrreguJar bands 
 of marauders are therefore denied the rights of war, and 
 liable to be treated as banditti ; and this distinction is gene- 
 rally only observed so far as suits the belligerent's purpose. 
 For private citizens taking up arms, although in obedience 
 to proclamations, are constantly liable to be treated as ma- 
 rauders; as by the French in the Peninsular war, and in 
 numerous other cases. As to suspensions of hostilities, tec, 
 see Truck, Treaty. As to the rights of war as to neu- 
 trals, see Neutrality. 
 
 WASHER. 
 
 WARD. In Feudal Law, the heir of the king's tenant, 
 in capite during his nonage was so called ; and, in general 
 language, all infants under the power of guardians. (See 
 Guardian.) The court of wards and liveries, for cogni- 
 zance of various matters relating to the king's prerogative, 
 was established by Henry VI1L, and abolished at the Res- 
 toration. (See Archceologia, vol. ii.) 
 
 WARD-MOTE. A court in each ward of the city of 
 London, which has power to present defaults in matters 
 relating to the watch, police. &c. 
 
 WARDEN, LORD, OF THE CINQUE PORTS. (See 
 Cinque Ports.) The constable of Dover Castle was crea- 
 ted warden of the Cinque Ports, and guardian of the adja- 
 cent coast, by William the Conqueror : an office resembling 
 that of the comes littoris saxonici in the decline of the Ro- 
 man empire. The lord warden has the authority of admiral 
 in the Cinque Ports and their dependencies, with power to 
 hold a court of admiralty, and courts of law and equity : he 
 is returning officer of all the ports. The salary is £3000 a 
 year. There is also a lord warden of the stannaries. Set 
 Stannaries. 
 
 WARMTH. In Painting, a tone of colour arising from 
 the use of colours expressive of heat. 
 
 WARP. In Weaving, the longitudinal threads of a wo- 
 ven fabric; they are crossed by the transverse threads, oi 
 woof. Warp, in Naval affairs, signifies a rope laid out foi 
 the purpose of moving the ship. To warp is to move a ship 
 from one position to another by means of warps. 
 
 W.VRPING. (Fr. guerpier.) A mode of increasing the 
 fertility of tillage lands on the banks of rivers liable to be 
 overflown by them. It appears to have been first practised 
 In Britain on the banks of the Trent, Ouse, and other rivers 
 which empty themselves into the estuary of the Dumber. 
 The water of these rivers, from passing through a gnu ex 
 tent of alluvial country, are, after heavy rains, nimbly to an 
 excess; and they are in that state conducted over the ad- 
 joining surface in portions enclosed by banks, and there 
 suffered to deposit their mud, which is technically called 
 iriir/i, and which being of the depth of an inch or two, adds 
 greatly to the fertility of the soil, and ultimately to its 
 quantity. The practice has existed on the banks of the Po 
 and other rivers in the .North of Italy, from time immemorial 
 
 Wapping. In Architecture. See Casting. 
 
 WA'RRANT. In Law, a precept under hand and seal 
 directed to a proper officer, to arrest an offender. 
 
 WA'RRANT OF ATTORNEY, in Law, is a power 
 given by a client to his attorney to appear and plead for 
 him, or to sutler judgment to pass against him by confession. 
 It authorizes a creditor to enler up judgment and levy exe- 
 cution, cither instantly, or within a certain time specified iu 
 the instrument. 
 
 WARRANT OFFICERS, in the Navy, are the gunner, 
 boatswain, and carpenter. 
 
 WA'RRANTY, in Law, as applied to lands, is a promise 
 or covenant real annexed to lands or hereditaments, where- 
 by the bargainor and his heirs are bound to warrant the 
 same to the bargainee and his heirs against all men. But 
 the ancient law of warranty of real property has been long 
 obsolete in practice. 
 
 With regard to warranty of things personal, it is the gene 
 ral rule, that a purchaser of goods and chattels may have a 
 satisfaction from the seller, If he sells them as his own, and 
 the title proves deficient, without any express warranty for 
 that purpose ; but that with regard to the goodness of the 
 things so purchased, the vendor is not bound to answer, un 
 less he has expressly warranted them to be good, or unless 
 he has in any way misrepresented them. 
 
 WA'RREN. (Fr. garenne ; from the Teutonic wahren, 
 (to protect or defend.) In Law, a franchise or place privi- 
 leged for the keeping of beasts and fowls of warren, which 
 are said by some to be only hares and rabbits, partridges and 
 pheasants; others add quails, woodcocks, waterfowl, &c. 
 The franchise is from the crown by grant, or prescription 
 which implies grant. It is often called freewarren. In com- 
 mon language a warren is a surface of poor dry sandy soil 
 on which rabbits are kept. In general, warrens may be de- 
 scribed as the natural habitations of wild rabbits appropri- 
 ated by man, and preserved for the breed of these animals; 
 but they are occasionally formed in suitable situations. 
 The rabbits are allowed to burrow in the soil at pleasure, 
 and to crop the natural herbage which grows on the sur- 
 face ; but to render warrens profitable, the rabbits require 
 to be supplied with clover, hay, corn, or other food, in the 
 winter season. 
 
 WASH. The fermented liquor from which spirit is dis- 
 tilled. 
 
 WA'SHER. A circular piece of leather, or pasteboard, 
 placed at the base of a screw, so as to prevent the metal 
 surfaces from being injured when it is screwed home; it iu 
 also used to render screw and other junctions air tight. 
 
 Washer. In Architecture, a flat piece of iron pierced 
 with a hole for the passage of a screw, between whose nut 
 
 1333 
 
WASSAIL. 
 
 and the timber it is placed to prevent compression on a 
 small surface of the timber. 
 
 WA'SSAIL. (From the Ang. Sax. waes hael, be in 
 health.) A common salutation used in drinking; whence 
 the " wassel bowl," which was anciently carried round on 
 New Years' Eve. " A carol for a wakel bowl" will be 
 (bond in Ritson's Ancient Songs, 1790, p. 304. (See Brand's 
 Popular Antiquities, vol. i., p. 1.) 
 
 WASTE, in Law, is the destruction or material altera- 
 tixx. of things forming an essentia] part of the inheritance ; 
 as houses, limber, &e. Neglect of repairs is termed per- 
 missive waste ; active injury, voluntary waste. The action 
 of waste, at common law, can only be brought by a person 
 who has an estate of inheritance in immediate expectancy 
 upon the devastator's estate. 
 
 WASTE LAND. Any tract of surface not in a state of 
 cultivation, and producing little or no useful herbage, or 
 wood. The quantity of this kind of land in Britain was 
 estimated, about the end of the last century, at upwards of 
 «U millions of acres ; four millions of which were considered 
 tapable of being brought under the plough, and the greater 
 part of the remainder of growing wood. 
 
 WATCH. A well-known portable machine, moved by a 
 spring, for measuring time. When executed in the most 
 perfect manner, it is called a chronometer, and used in navi- 
 gation for determining differences of longitude. See Longi- 
 tude, Chronometer. 
 
 Watches are said to have been made at Nuremberg bo 
 early as 1477 ; but it is uncertain how far the watches then 
 constructed resembled those which now go by that name. 
 Some of the early ones were very small, in the shape of a 
 pear, and sometimes sunk or fitted into the top of a walk- 
 ing-slick. As time-keepers, watches could have very little 
 value before the application of the spiral spring as a regu- 
 lator to the balance. The merit of this excellent invention 
 has been claimed by Hooke and Huygens ; but it seems es- 
 tablished by unquestionable evidence that the priority be- 
 longed to Hooke by at least fifteen years. The date of the 
 invention is about the year 1658." Hooke's first balance 
 spring was straight, and acted on the balance in a very im- 
 perfect manner; but he soon perceived its defects, and 
 attempted to obviate them by adopting first the cylindrical, 
 and afterwards the flat spiral. The latter appears to have 
 been applied to watches before the publication of Huygens' 
 claim in 1675. {Encyc. Brit., art. "Clock and Watch 
 Work.") See Horology. 
 
 Watch. The portion of the ship's crew on duty at a 
 time. This is usually half; and the watches are called the 
 starboard and larboard watches. Large crews are put in 
 three watches. The period of time called a watch is four 
 hours, die reckoning beginning at noon or midnight. Be- 
 tween 4 o'clock and 8 P. m., the time is divided into two 
 short or dog watches, in order to break the constant recur- 
 rence of three watches at the same hours. 
 
 WATER. (Germ, wasser. The old chemists considered 
 water as an element, and supposed it convertible into earth, 
 and into various organic products. This opinion was first 
 questioned, and afterwards disproved, by the experiments of 
 Watt and of Cavendish, in the years 1780 and 1787. (Phil. 
 Trans.) And it has since been satisfactorily demonstrated 
 that hydrogen and oxygen are the elements of water, and 
 that they are contained in it in the relative proportions by 
 weight of 1 and 8, or by vol ume 2 and 1 ; the specific gravity 
 of hydrogen being to that of oxygen as 1 to 16. 
 
 The electro-chemical decomposition of water is that 
 which affords the most satisfactory evidence of its nature. 
 When made part of the volta-electrie circuit, it is resolved 
 into 2 measures of hydrogen and 1 of oxygen gas ; the for- 
 mer evolved at the negative, and the latter at the positive 
 surface ; and if the gases thus obtained be mixed, and fired 
 by the electric spark, they again combine, and produce their 
 weight of water. The analytic and synthetic evidence, 
 therefore, of the composition of water is thus rendered 
 complete. 
 
 But although perfectly pure water, such, for instance, as 
 has been boiled and very cautiously distilled, is in fact an 
 oxide of hydrogen, and composed as above stated, all com- 
 mon water is more or less contaminated by foreign matters, 
 which, if not in excess, or of an uncommon or injurious na- 
 ture, render it, generally speaking, more fit for most of the 
 ordinary uses to which it is applied. Of all water, rain 
 water, carefully and cleanly collected, is most pure. But it 
 absorbs air, and with it traces of carbonic acid ; minute por- 
 tions of certain ammoniacal salts are also found in it, and 
 very near the sea it is seldom free from a trace of salt. 
 During thunder-storms the rain which falls sometimes ex- 
 hibits indications of nitric acid, formed, no doubt, by the 
 passage of the lightning through the humid atmosphere. 
 Next to rain water, river water is, generally speaking, most 
 free from foreign matter. The water of the Thames, espe- 
 cially wnere it is not contaminated by drainage and manu- 
 factures, only contain* about 2 grains of saline or soluble 
 1326 
 
 WATER. 
 
 matter in each pint; and this is chiefly carbonate ot ume. 
 with a little sulphate of lime, chloride of sodium (common 
 salt), and chloride of magnesium, and traces of organic 
 matter. The saline contents of a gallon of Thames water, 
 in its most ire pure state, do not exceed '.24 grains; ami when 
 in its purest state, fall short of JG grains. This statement 
 refers only to matters dissolved in the water ; for it is often 
 loaded with substances mechanically suspended to a much 
 greater extent, as is obvious from the muddy state in which 
 it is often supplied to the houses of London and its vicinity 
 by the water companies. These last impurities an 
 ted either by subsidence or by filtration ; hence the utnan 
 tage of allowing the water to clarify itself in reservoirs bo- 
 fore it is supplied for use, or of filtering it through fine sand, 
 which imparts nothing to the water, and renders it clean 
 and transparent. When water contaminated by animal or 
 vegetable matter is kept for some time, it undergoes a spon- 
 taneous depuration, losing its odour and colour, and deposit- 
 ing more or less sediment. By this process, however, it 
 becomes hard, in consequence of retaining certain indestruc- 
 tible saline matters in solution. The water for the supply 
 of ships is well known to undergo this process of fermenta- 
 tion and purification, and the larger the quantity of destruc- 
 tible matter the more complete and rapid is the depuration ; 
 hence the preference given to Thames water for sea store, 
 the purer river waters fermenting less rapidly, and remain- 
 ing more or less foul and putrid for a much longer time. It 
 is obvious, however, that for all ordinary purposes the puret 
 the water the better; and it is quite cloar that London 
 ought to be supplied with Thames water from above Rich- 
 mond, and out of the reach of the tides, instead of from the 
 heart of the metropolis, where it is loaded with the contents 
 of the sewers, the offal of manufactures, and the mud stir- 
 red up by the steamers. 
 
 Spring water, as afforded by our common wells, may be 
 considered as rain water modified by filtration through the 
 superficial strata o(*the earth, and consequently o 
 more or less of the soluble substances which it meets with 
 in its course. In and about London the purity of the water 
 is very various at different depths from the surface. In the 
 more superficial wells it is usually very hard, and abounds 
 in sulphate of lime ; in the deep wells, and especially the 
 artesian and overflowing wells, the water is softer, and 
 contains less foreign matter. These different states of 
 purity may be judged of with a degree of accuracy sufficient 
 for all common purposes by dropping into the water a solu- 
 tion of soap in spiritof wine: with pure water, such as rain 
 or distilled water, it remains clear : but with river or spring 
 water it becomes more or less turbid or milky, in proportion 
 to the impurity. Water which is thus rendered decidedly 
 opaque or milky is not fit for washing; but that which is 
 only slightly troubled, or becomes merely opalescent, is 
 usually called soft water. This simple experiment shows 
 the cause of softness and hardness in water; for pure 
 water perfectly dissolves soap, whereas, in common spring 
 water the salts are of such a nature as to form insoluble 
 compounds with it, and these adhere to whatever is washed 
 in it, and give that unpleasant sensation called hardness 
 when me wash our hands. The application of a few other 
 simple tests may be resorted to, to indicate more exactly the 
 nature of the hardening impurities. The presence, for in- 
 stance, of sulphate of lime is indicated by the production of 
 a white cloud upon adding a few drops of a solution of 
 chloride of barium (which shows the sulphuric acid), and 
 of oxalate of ammonia (which detects lime). Such water 
 generally leaves a white crust in the decanter in which it is 
 kept, and incrusts boilers and kettles with a troublesome 
 sediment; so that, unless frequently cleansed, they are soon 
 destroyed by the action of the fire, in consequence of the 
 sulphate of lime which coats their interior, and which pre- 
 vents the transmission of heat. The impurity chiefly be- 
 longs to what are called land springs, and is derived from 
 the blue clay upon which London is built, and which 
 abounds in sulphate of lime The deeper springs, especially 
 those from the sandy deposits nearer to or upon the chalk, 
 or those from the chalk itself, are more pure, especially 
 where the land springs are excluded ; and though they ex- 
 hibit traces of sulphate of lime, common salt, carbonate of 
 lime, and carbonate of soda, are yet pure enough for wash 
 ing, brewing, &c. Traces of ammoniacal salts, and of ni- 
 trates, are also not uncommon in the waters from the deep 
 wells of London and its vicinity. 
 
 Carbonate of lime, or chalk, is sometimes held in solu- 
 tion in spring water, by excess of carbonic ncid; in this case 
 the water becomes turbid upon the addition of oxalic acid, 
 and slightly effervesces with muriatic acid; when boiled, 
 the excess of carbonic acid which holds the carbonate ia 
 solution is expelled, and the water becomes more or Iras 
 turbid. It is sometimes contained in such quantity as to w 
 deposited upon substances thrown into the wafer, and upon 
 the vessels containing it, as we see in the petrifying springs 
 of Matlock in Derbyshire, and elsewhere; and the lieauti 
 
"WATER. 
 
 lul stn'a-tius which line the caverns in limestone rocks 
 are produced in the same way. Spring water which {after 
 having been boiled and filtered ) becomes turbid upon the ad- 
 dition of d few drops of nitrate of silver generally contains 
 commiin sail, anil the proportion may lie judged of by the 
 degree of miltdnees thus occasioned. If water, after it Iris 
 been evaporated to a small hulk, be tested by tumeric ot 
 violet piper, it often shows an alkaline reaction, and upon 
 closer examination is found to contain carbonate of soda : 
 and it occasionally evolves during its evaporation traces of 
 carbonate of ammonia, and affords to detinue li 
 
 tions of organic matter. This is especially observed in the 
 pump water from churchyards, in which most improper 
 situation wells for the supply of the neighbourhood are 
 often sunk. 
 
 Mineral springs or waters are of such a nature as to be 
 Unfit for common purposes, and often derive important me- 
 dical efficacy from the substances which they hold dissolved. 
 Those which have an inky and astringent flavour, and 
 which become reddish brown and turbid by boiling, or by 
 exposure, are usually called chalybeate waters, and contain 
 carbonate or sulphate of iron : when examined as they 
 How from the spring, they blacken with a few drop* of 
 tincture of galls or of strong green tea, Tumbridge water 
 is an instance of a chalybeate containing carbonate of iron, 
 and the Bright** chalybeate contains sulphate of iron. 
 There are some mineral waters which derive their efficacy 
 from certain salts, and are called sa'ine tenters ; such as 
 Cheltenham water, Leamington water, &.C. The salts which 
 they contain are chiefly sulphate of soda and Mips 
 magnesia ; they have a bitterish salt taste, and are more or 
 aperient: when reduced to a small bulk by evapora- 
 tion, and set aside for a few hours in a cool place, the salts 
 generally crystallize. What are termed sulphureous wa- 
 ters are usually saline, and nlsn contain sulphuretted hydro 
 
 gtn, which is presently recognised i>y Its fetid smell, and 
 
 by becoming black when a solution of sugar of lead is 
 dropiKcl into it; and turliid on the addition of a little mu- 
 riatic acid, or bv mere e\po-uie to air. from the depo 
 of sulphur. I/arrowgale and Aiarla-Ckafellt waters are 
 Instances. There are some waters which are occasionally 
 resorted to medicinally, but which are only remarkable for 
 extreme purity, such as Malvern utater; and that 
 others which, exclusive of their chalybeate or saline qunli- 
 I or sparkling, from the presence of enr- 
 icid, which gives them an agreeable and .-lightly 
 
 pungent flavour-, these qualities are entirely lost on boil- 
 ing, in consequence of the escape of the gaseous acid ; con- 
 sequently they lose the power of reddening vegetable blues 
 after they have been exposed to heal In reaped to mad 
 
 teal virtues, the chalybeate springs are more or less tonic 
 and astringent, and the saline springs aperient and nltera- 
 live and though they often contain their active ingredients 
 in small relative proportions, they are perhaps 00 that very 
 account more likely to be absorbed into the system, and to 
 eflect cures w here larger doses of the same remedies fail. 
 There are also some mineral waters which contain iodine 
 and bromine, and which, though in very minute quantities, 
 nre powerful medicines; in others, baryta nnd strontia 
 have been discovered. Hut a course of mineral water Is 
 often useful apon other principles: it generally is accom- 
 panied by strict attention to diet, by moderate bodily exer- 
 cise, by mental relaxation, and by regular hours, all of 
 which an- powerfully curative resources; and with these 
 aids the mere diluent effect of pure water (such as that of 
 Malvern) may, in many instances, prove of eminent ser- 
 vice ; this is certainly often the case in the early stages of 
 calculous complaints. 
 
 Sag Water.— The chemical history of sea water is ex- 
 tremely important, as involving that of sea salt (sec Sodium 
 and Chlorine), of magnesia and its most important com- 
 binations, and of those singular nnd powerful agents known 
 to chemists under the names of iodine and bromine. It ap- 
 pears from the best authorities that the composition of sea 
 water, when not influenced by adventitious or accidental 
 canoes, is nearly uniform in the vast extent of the ocean, 
 which covers about two-thirds of the globe, and probably 
 has a mean depth of not less than half a mile (2640 feet). 
 Its s|»ecific gravity varies from 10269 to 10285 ; and it con- 
 tains- rather more than three per cent, of solid matter, com- 
 posed chiefly of common salt, muriate of magnesia, sulphate 
 of magnesia, and sulphate of lime. These are the principal 
 Ingredients of sea water; besides which it contains traces 
 of chloride of potassium, of muriate of ammonia, of carbo- 
 nate of lime, of hydrobromate of magnesia, and often of 
 hydriodate of magnesia. There is some difference of 
 opinion as to the state of combination in which the acids 
 and bases exist in sea water. The following tables show 
 their proportions in n pint of sea water of the Frith 
 of Forth, taken up near Leith, as obtained by evapo- 
 ration, and as presumed to exist after and previous to 
 evaporation : 
 
 WATERSPOUT. 
 
 After Evaporation. Before Evaporation. 
 
 Common salt 180-5 Common salt 180-5 
 
 Muriate of magnesia '23-0 Muriate of magnesia 183 
 
 Sulphate of magnesia 155 Muriate of lime 57 
 
 Sulphate of lime 7^ Sulphate of magnesia 21-6 
 
 896-1 eaon 
 
 The other substances exist in such small quantities that 
 they are omitted in this general statement. Set ' 
 
 WATER BAILIFF. An otlicer in port towns, whose 
 duties in general are with respect to the searching - 
 in London he lias also the supervision of the fish market 
 gathering of tolls, &c. 
 
 WATER CLOCK. A contrivance for measuring time 
 bv the flow of water. See Clepsydra. 
 
 WATEK-COLOUR PAINTING. A species of painting, 
 
 in which the medium of representation is colour levigated 
 
 with water and gum. and which in our days boa been car 
 
 ried to such extraordinary perfection as to rival oil painting 
 
 iliing but durability. 
 
 WATER DEVIL. A name given bv some microgra- 
 ple rs to the larva of a British species of Hydrophilta. 
 
 WATERLA'NDIANS. In Ecclesiastical History, a di- 
 vision of the Dutch Anabaptists, also called " Gross" (Grob), 
 
 or " Moderate," in contradistinction to the " Fine," or 
 "Rigid." They were so called from a district in North 
 Holland, denominated Waterland, and originated in the 
 16th century. John de Eties, in 1580, composed a confession 
 of faith, which seems tfi have been pretty generally used 
 among them. They still constitute (we believe) a portion 
 of the genert] body of Mcnnoniles. (.See Mosheim, cent. 10, 
 sec. 3, part ii.; 
 
 WATER I. IM'. The boundary of any horizontal sec- 
 tion of the bottom of a ship. The uppermost one is called 
 the load water line: the lowest the light water line. 
 
 WATER-LOGGED. A Nautical term, denoting the 
 state of a ship when a quantity of water having been rc- 
 
 Ito the hold by leaking. & ( -.. she has ii 
 measure lost her baoyancy, and j [elds to tie 
 wave I'-ssjiiL' over the deck. 
 
 WATER MEADOWS. Meadows on low flat grounds. 
 !' being kept in a state of fertility by being over- 
 flown with water from some adjoining river or Stream. The 
 principal season at which this operation is performed la 
 during winter, when the water is allowed to remain stag 
 nant on the surface for some weeks; but meadows which 
 can be watered nre occasionally overflown during summer, 
 especially after a crop of bay has been taken. The manner 
 in which water so applied to grass lands is found h 
 has never been satisfactorily explained. By some it is at- 
 tributed to the warmth retained in, or communicated to the 
 soil, by the water during winter ; by others to its effect in 
 destroying insects, worms, tec.; and by some to the par- 
 ticles of manure deposited on the surface of the soil. I)ur- 
 Ing summer the eflect is more readily accounted for, a sup- 
 ply of moisture being advantageous to all plants at that dry 
 season. See Irrioatio*. 
 
 WATER OF CRYSTALLIZATION. Some crystal- 
 lized salts contain more or less water, which, as it bears a 
 definite proportion to the other components of the snlt, may 
 be considered as one of its essential constituents. Crystal- 
 lized sulphate of lime, for instance, is n compound of 68 of 
 dry sulphate and 18 water, or of 1 equivalent of nnhv- 
 drous salt and 2 equivalents of water; 1 equivalent of crys- 
 tallized sulphate of magnesia= 123, contains 7 of water = 
 63; and an equivalent of crystallized sulphate of soda 
 = 162. contains 10 of water = HO ; the equivalent of water 
 being 9. But it does not necessarily follow that a salt in 
 crystals contains water, there being many crystals which 
 are anhydrous, such as nitre, sulphate of potash. &c. 
 
 WA'TERSPOUT. A very remarkable meteorological 
 phenomenon, observed, for the most part, at sea, but some 
 times also on shore, though generally in the neighbourhood 
 of water. Its general appearance may be described as fol 
 lows: from a dense cloud, a conical pillar, which appears 
 to consist of condensed vapour, is seen to descend, with the 
 apex downwards. When over the sea. there are usually 
 two cones; one projecting from the cloud, and the other 
 from the water below it. These sometimes unite, nnd the 
 junction has been observed to be accompanied with a flash 
 of lightning; but more frequently they disperse before the 
 junction is effected. In calm weather the column main- 
 tains its vertical position while carried along the surface; 
 but when acted on by the wind it becomes oblique to the 
 horizon. The causes of this meteor are very imperfectly 
 known. By some it is supposed to be formed by a whirl- 
 wind of o.\trefhe intensity, while others ascribe to it an 
 electric origin. Dr. Young (Nat. Phil., vol. i.) thinks that 
 some of the circumstances may be explained by considering 
 the spout ns a whirlwind, carrying up drops of water which 
 it has sep'irated from the waves, and that the remainder 
 may perhaps be deduced from the co-operation of electri- 
 
 1327 
 
WATER TABLE. 
 
 city already existing in a neighbouring cloud. (See alst 
 Pouillet, Elemens de Physique, tome ii.) 
 
 WATEK TABLE. In Architecture, a projection or 
 horizontal set-off in a wall, so placed as to throw off the 
 water from the building. 
 
 WATER WAYS. Strong pieces of wood extending 
 round the ship, at the junction of the decks with the sides, 
 to carry off the water. 
 
 WATER WHEEL. In Hydraulics, an engine for raising 
 water in large quantities. {See Persian Wheel.) Also 
 a wheel turned by the force of running water. Of these 
 there are two kinds : the undershot wheel, and the overshot 
 wheel. In the case of the undershot wheel, the water 
 strikes the float boards below the axle, and acts by the im- 
 pulse due to its velocity ; in the case of the overshot wheel, 
 the water is brought over the top of the wheel, received in 
 buckets, and acts solely by its weight. 
 
 WAVE. The alternate elevation and depression of 
 parts of the surface of a liquid above and below the natu- 
 ral level. 
 
 When the surface of a liquid is unequally pressed, the 
 columns which sustain the greatest pressure are shortened, 
 and sink below the original level ; and this pressure being 
 communicated to the contiguous columns, these will be 
 lengthened and rise above that level. But as the elevation 
 is not sustained by a hydraulic pressure, the lengthened 
 columns again fall, and acquiring in the fall a velocity due 
 to the height, they descend below the original level, and 
 communicate in their turn a pressure to those which are 
 adjacent to them. In this manner a reciprocating motion is 
 produced, the particles to which the primitive impulse was 
 communicated being alternately the lowest and the high- 
 est ; and a series of ridges and hollows is formed, which 
 are called waves or undulations. 
 
 In passing from the columns which are shortened to 
 those which are lengthened, and back again to those to 
 which they originally belonged, the particles of the fluid 
 acquire both a vertical and horizontal motion ; but while 
 the depth is sufficient to allow the oscillations to proceed 
 unimpeded, no progressive motion takes place, each column 
 being kept in its place by the pressure of the surrounding 
 columns. If, however, free oscillation be prevented (by the 
 shelving of the shore, or the interposition of a rock, for ex- 
 ample), the columns in the deep water are not balanced by 
 those in the shallower, and, in consequence, acquire a pro- 
 gressive motion towards the latter, or form breakers. Hence 
 the reason why waves always break against the shore, 
 whatever be the direction of the wind. 
 
 When waves are produced by the agitation of a small 
 portion of the fluid, as, for example, by throwing a ■ stone 
 into stagnant water, they appear to advance from the dis- 
 turbed point in expanding concentric circles, the height of 
 the wave gradually diminishing as it recedes from the cen- 
 tre ; but that there is no transference of any part of the 
 mass from one place to another, is manifest from the mo- 
 tions of any light body floating on the surface. The ap- 
 pearance of progression is, in fact, an optical deception, 
 produced by the form of the wave and the mode of oscilla- 
 tion. On attending closely to the phenomena it will be 
 seen that the fore part is always in the act of rising, and 
 the hinder part in the act of falling; and thus the whole 
 system appears to roll onwards, while each particle of wa- 
 ter in succession merely oscillates with a vertical ascent 
 and descent. 
 
 If a second series of concentric waves take its origin from 
 a different point at some distance from the first, the two 
 sets will cross each other without the slightest interruption. 
 Where a wave of the first series meets one of the second, 
 and the two elevations correspond, the resulting elevation 
 will be equal to the sum of the two ; and the same is the 
 case with the depressions. Where the elevation in the 
 one series corresponds with a depression in the other, the 
 surface will maintain its original level, at least if the waves 
 of the two series have the same height. Thus, although 
 different series of waves do not interfere with each others' 
 propagation, they may nevertheless increase or neutralize 
 each others' effects. The one series is, in fact, superposed 
 on the other. 
 
 A series of waves meeting a vertical obstacle, as a wall 
 or bank, is reflected ; and the reflected waves are propn- 
 gated in the same manner as those arising from the origi- 
 nal impulse, but in an opposite direction. Waves proceed- 
 ing in concentric circles are reflected in concentric circles, 
 and in such a manner as to appear to diverge from a cen- 
 tre as far behind the obstacle as the original centre is in 
 fro it of it, and, in short, appear to be subjected to all those 
 laws which are usually noticed to belong to reflected light. 
 
 If the obstacle against which the waves strike have an 
 opening in it of small horizontal breadth relatively to the 
 breadth of the wave, the oscillating columns which reach 
 it wi'l act as an impulse originally exerted at that point, 
 ind a series of waves will diverge from the aperture as 
 1328 
 
 WAVE. 
 
 from a new ventre ; but when the aperture is consideramj 
 wider than the wave, the wave confines its motion ii: 
 great measure to its original direction, though with some 
 small divergence, or the oscillation is continued principally 
 in the direction of a sector, whose centre is at the point 
 from which the original wave proceeded. 
 
 Waves which have been raised by the wind in the open 
 sea proceed in parallel and nearly straight lines ; and the 
 original impulse being increased by the continued action of 
 the wind, they will increase in height until the weight of 
 the elevated column, together with the friction, becomes 
 equal to the inciting cause. It has been inferred that the 
 greatest height to which a single series of waves raised by 
 the wind blowing constantly in one diiection will attain 
 does not exceed six feet. The force of the wind also tends 
 to give a progressive motion to the mass of water raised 
 above the general level, and likewise to alter the shape of 
 the wave by diminishing the acclivity of the side against 
 which it strikes. In a strong gale this effect may be in- 
 creased so far as to cause the top of the wave to project 
 over the base, in which case it breaks and rolls over on 
 the preceding wave. Hence, as is well known to sailors, a 
 very strong wind will blow the sea down. 
 
 If the wind, after having given rise to a series of waves, 
 suddenly veers about so as to strike the waves on the op- 
 posite side, it will produce a greater effect from its more 
 direct impact ; and hence the greatest waves are produced 
 by sudden changes of wind, or by the wind blowing in an 
 opposite direction to that in which the waves are propaga- 
 ted. In this mariner the elevation of the waves may be 
 greatly increased above the height to which they would 
 be raised by winds of equal force blowing constantly in the 
 sume direction ; and hence the ocean is comparatively 
 smooth in regions where the winds are constant. And as 
 it is by the friction of the wind on the water that the waves 
 are raised and kept up, whatever diminishes the friction 
 will tend to lessen the elevation. Hence the comparative 
 tranquillity produced by pouring oil on agitated water. 
 The influence of the wind, which is exerted entirely at the 
 surface, does not extend to a great depth, probably not 
 more than 30 or 40 feet, below which the water suffers no 
 agitation excepting that which arises from the motion of 
 the tide wave. 
 
 Mathematical Theory of Waves. — In order to determine 
 the time of an undulation and the velocity of the propaga 
 tion of waves from the theory of hydrodynamics, Newton 
 compares the undulatory motion of waves on the surface 
 of water vrith the oscillations of the fluid in a siphon, with 
 which they have a considerable, though not perfect analo- 
 gy. Let the tube C A BD (fig. 1), open and turned uj at 
 both ends, be filled with any liquid up 
 to the level C D. Suppose the equilib- 
 rium to be disturbed, and that the li- 
 quid rises in consequence in the branch 
 A C from C to E. The tube being sup- 
 posed equally wide throughout, it is ev- 
 ident that the liquid will fall as much 
 in the branch B D as it rises in AC; c; - 
 that is, making D F = C E, from D to F. 
 Let CG = DF, then the difference of 
 the height of the liquid in the two 
 branches is E G ; and according to the 
 principle of D'Alembert, the accelerating force which acts 
 on the fluid is the difference of the masses in the two col- 
 umns divided by their sum, that is proportional to E G di- 
 vided by E A B F ; or bisecting A B in 0, proportional to E 
 C-rCAO. Now, C A O is constant ; therefore the accel 
 erating force is proportional to E C, or to the distance from 
 the position of rest. Hence it may be inferred that when 
 the fluid has been disturbed so as to rise from C to E, it will 
 acquire, in falling to its level, a velocity which will carry 
 it to an equal height H in the other branch, and that the 
 oscillations, whether large or small, will be isochronous, or 
 petformed in equal times. 
 
 To prove this, and also to determine the time of the oscil 
 lation, let X be any point in C E, and make EX = i, EC = 
 a, and CAO = /. Also let u= the velocity, and = the 
 accelerating force when the liquid is at the point X, and 
 g-=. the accelerating force of gravity. We have then, by 
 
 a — i 
 what has been shown, 0= — r- g. But from the theor> 
 
 dv , dx , _ 
 of accelerating forces d> = — , and v = — - , (see Force' 
 at at 
 
 the substitution of which in the former equation gives 
 
 vdv = 
 
 gdx; 
 
 whence, by integrating and extracting the square root, 
 and consequently 
 
WAVE. 
 
 <*£ = v / 
 
 dr. 
 
 g 1 J&ax — zi)' 
 The general integral of the variable part of this expression 
 
 is an arc whose cosine is equnl to (1 ) ; therefore be- 
 
 a 
 tween the limits x = and z — 2a, the integral is 
 
 ■=„v(-p. 
 
 (it being the semi-circumference of a circle whose radius = 
 I). Tin- gives ihe time which elapses during the passage 
 of any particle of the water from the highest to the lowest 
 point ; and it is also the time in which a pendulum whose 
 length is /. vibrating in an infinitely small arc, makes a sin- 
 
 l illation (f«e Pendulum). Hence the time of p 
 from the highest to the highest again, or of a complete un- 
 dulation, is the double of tbis, or equal to 2r */ (t-r-g), or 
 to w v / (4/ -r-g), the time in which a pendulum whose length 
 is 4 / makes one oscillation. 
 
 To apply this solution to the undulatory motion of a fluid 
 mass of indefinite extent, let A B C U E, &c, (fig. 2) repre- 
 sent a superficies of stagnant water ascending and descend- 
 (2.) 
 
 ing in successive waves ; and let ACE, &.c, be the summits 
 of the waves, and B D, &c, the intermediate hollows. 
 Now since the wave is produced by the alternate ascent 
 and descent of the water, so that the panicles at A C E, &.c, 
 which are at one instant the highest, become in their turn 
 It, and the moving power is the weight of the ele- 
 vated water, the alternate rise and fell la analogous to the 
 rim'.' motion of water in a siphon, and will observe 
 the same laws as to lime; therefore if the distance between 
 a summit A and the adjacent lowest point B be equal to 2/, 
 the highest points ACE, ice, will become the lowest in the 
 lime in which a pendulum whose length is equal to /makes 
 one oscillation, and again become the highest in the time 
 nf the other oscillation. Hence the Interval of time from 
 the wave being the highest at any point to its being the 
 Ufjsssl at that |H)int again will be equnl to two oscillations, 
 and the wave will describe its breadth (that is, the space 
 between two successive summits or cavities, as from A to 
 C or from B to D, which space is equal to 4/) while the 
 pendulum oscillates twice ; or in the time to which a pen- 
 dulum of quadruple the length, that is, equal to 4/, or equal 
 to the breadth of the wave, will oscillate once. (I'rittcipia, 
 lib. ii., prop. 40.) 
 
 Il must be admitted that the sup|>osition on which this 
 theory is founded, namely, that the vertical oscillations of 
 re similar to that of water in a bent siphon, is a 
 very precarious one : in fact, the theory itself is altogether 
 insufficient for the explanation of the phenomena, as it 
 gives no account whatever of the form of the wave. The 
 subject, is, however, one of great difficulty ; and although 
 it has been treated by the ablest mathematicians since the 
 lime of Newton, a complete theory is still a desideratum. 
 Lagrange in the Mecanique Jlnalytiqixe, has given an equa- 
 tion containing the general theory of waves formed by the 
 I e and infinitely small elevations and depressions 
 of stagnant water in a canal of small depth. Poisson (in the 
 Annalrs de. Mathrmatique, and Memoires de CJI cad., tome 
 I.) and Cauchy {Mem. de VJlcad.) have treated the subject 
 more generally , and Professor Kelland (Edin. Phil. Trans. 
 vols, xiv., and xv.) has endeavored to obtain the equations 
 of motion of a regular set of waves, without imposing any 
 restriction whatever on the conditions. M. Kelland dedu- 
 ces from his analysis the following results, which apply to 
 the motion of a wave in a canal whose depth is continally 
 but slowly varying in the direction of its length: 1. That the 
 length of the wave is in direct proportion to the breadth. 2. 
 That the velocity of transmission at any point varies as the 
 square root of the depth. 3. That the elevation of the crest 
 of the wave varies reciprocally as the total depth of the 
 fluid. M. Kelland states that his endeavours to deduce a re- 
 lation between the depth of the fluid and the length of the 
 wave been unavailing. 
 
 Experimental Researches on Waves. — In the Reports of 
 the British Association for 1838, there is an account by Mr. 
 Scott Riwsel of a series of observations on waves in the riv- 
 er Dee in Cheshire, and the Frith of the Clyde, and also in 
 the open sea, which are interesting, as they establish the 
 existence of waves of different kinds, following totally dif- 
 ferent laws. The most important results of these observa- 
 tions nre the following : 
 
 1. The progressive wave sent forward by a floating body 
 in rapid motion (or generated in any other manner) differs 
 entirely in its character and phenomena from the oscillato- 
 ry waves of the sea, or those which ripple the surface of a 
 4 P 
 
 WAX. 
 
 lake or are caused by the sudden elevation or depression ot 
 a small portion of the fluid. It is not necessarily followed 
 either by a depression or elevation, but is a single eleva 
 fion of a well defined form, and transferred with a uniform 
 velocity. This wave is called by Mr. Russel the great pri- 
 mary wave of translation. It is analogous to the tide w av» 
 of the ocean. 
 
 2. The velocity of the primary wave in channels of uni 
 form depth is Independent of the breadth of the Quid, 
 and equal to the velocity acquired by a heavy body in fall- 
 ing freely through a height equal to half the' depth of the 
 fluid, reckoned from the top of the wave to the bottom of 
 the channel. The velocity of the wave is according!} pro 
 portional to the square root of the depth of the water, as 
 the theory indicates, and it is not affected by the Telocity of 
 the impulse or the form of the body by which it in genera 
 ted. 
 
 3. If waves be propagated in a channel whose depth di 
 minishes uniformly, they will break when their height 
 above the surface of the level fluid becomes equal to the 
 depth below the surface. When waves of the .-., a ap 
 proach the shore, or come into shallow water, they become 
 waves of translation, and, in conformity with this law, al- 
 ways break when the depth of the water is not greater than 
 the height of the wave above the level. 
 
 4. The great primary waves are reflected from surfaces 
 at right angles to the direction of their motion, Without sot' 
 fering any other change but that of direction ; and they 
 cross each other without change of any kind, as the small 
 oscillations on the surface of a pool. 
 
 5. In the primary wave of translation the displacement 
 of the particles is uniform to the greatest depth ; whereat 
 in waves of the oscillatory kind the displacement of the par- 
 ticles of the fluid is greatest at the surfaces, and diminishes 
 rapidly, and extends only to an inconsiderable depth. 
 
 ti. The phenomenon called the tidal bore is produced in 
 two ways. First, if the water is so shallow that the lirst 
 waves of the flood tide move with a velocity so much less 
 than the succeeding ones that they are overtaken by them : 
 and secondly, where the tide rises so rapidly, and the water 
 on the shore or in the river is so shallow, that the heigh 
 of the first wave is greater than the depth of the water. 
 
 The law by which the velocity of the primary wave va 
 ries according to the square root of the depth of the water. 
 gives rise to several other phenomena. Thus any changi 
 in the depth of rivers produces a corresponding change in 
 the interval between the moon's transit and the hour of 
 high water. A wave of high water of a spring tide travels 
 faster than a wave of Inch water of a neap tide, &c. 
 
 The character and phenomena of the primary wave of 
 transmission, and its importance as an element affecting the 
 amount of the resistance of fluids on bodies moving through 
 them, were first detected and examined by Mr. Rnssel in 
 1834. ( Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinbur<rh.vo\. 
 xiv., part 1.) Its existence and laws are of great impor- 
 tance in reference to the construction and navigation of ca 
 nals and the improvement of tidal rivers. See Hydrody- 
 namics. Tidies. 
 
 WA'VELLITE. A mineral named after Dr. Wavell of 
 Barnstaple, in which neighbourhood it was first found. It is 
 a hydrated phosphate of alumina: it has also been called 
 /lydrnrg-illite. 
 
 WAX. (Germ, wachs.) This is a common vegetable 
 product forming the varnish which coats the leaves of cer- 
 tain plants and trees. It is also found upon some berries, as 
 of the Myrica certfera ; and it is an ingredient of the pollen 
 of flowers. It was long supposed that bees merely collected 
 the wax thus ready formed in plants; but Huber found that 
 though excluded from all food except sugar, they still formed 
 wax: and accordingly ii has been found that the elementary 
 composition of bees' wax and vegetable wax is slightly differ- 
 ent. Bees' wax is prepared by draining and washing the-hon 
 eycomb, which is then melted in boiling water, strained, and 
 cast into cakes. English and foreign wax are found in the 
 market; the latter being chiefly imported from the Baltic, 
 the Levant, and the coast of Barbary. Fresh wax has a pe 
 cnliar honey-like odour: its specific gravity is -i)6. At about 
 150° it fuses, and at a high temperature volatilizes, and 
 burns with a bright white flame. It is bleached by being 
 exposed in thin slices or ribands to light, air, and moisture, 
 or more rapidly by the action of chlorine ; but in the latter 
 case it does not answer for the manufacture of candles, 
 which is one of its principal applications. Wax candles are 
 made by suspending the wicks upon a hoop over the caul 
 dron of melted wax, which is successively poured over 
 them from a ladle till they have acquired the proper size, 
 so that the candle consists of a series of layers of wax ; the 
 upper end is then shaped, and the lower cut off. Attempts 
 have been made to cast wax candles in moulds, but when 
 thus made they burn irregularly. Bleached or white wax 
 is generally adulterated with more or less spermaceti, and 
 sold at different prices accordingly ; in this case it has not 
 
 1329 
 
WAY. 
 
 tne peculiar lustre of pure wax, and is softer and more fusi- 
 ble. It is also largely adulterated with stearine or stearic 
 acid, Which is detected by the odour of fat or tallow which 
 it evolves when highly heated, and by its crumbly texture ; 
 it may also be separated to a certain extent by ether or alco 
 hoi. Wax is insoluble in water, and scarcely acted upon 
 by (he acids, so that it forms a good lute or cement: boiling 
 alcohol and ether act partially upon it, and deposit the por- 
 tion which they had dissolved, on cooling. Some varieties 
 of vegetable wax appear to contain two distinct principles, 
 which Dr. John has termed cerin and myricin ; the former 
 soluble, and the latter insoluble, in alcohol. Heated with 
 the fixed alkalies, wax forms a difficultly soluble soap. 
 
 WA Y. The Sea term for progress. A ship in progress 
 is said to have way upon her ; when stationary, to have no 
 way. 
 
 WEALDEN FORMATION and STRATA. See Geol- 
 ogy. 
 
 WEAR. To put the ship on the other tack by turning 
 her round, with her stern to the wind. 
 
 WEA'THER. (Germ, wetter.) The state or condition 
 of the atmosphere with respect to heat, cold, dryness, moist- 
 ure, wind, rain, snow, fogs, &c. The appreciation of the va- 
 rious causes which determine the state of the atmosphere, 
 and produce those changes which are incessantly taking 
 place in its condition, and which are popularly called the 
 weather, forms the subjects of Meteorology and Climate. 
 (See those terms ; also Atmosphere, Barometer, Cloud, 
 Dew, Hail, Rain, Wind, &c.) , 
 
 In all ages of the world, mankind have attempted to ex- 
 plain and prognosticate the changes of the weather; hut 
 such is the complication of the subject, and the vast multi- 
 tude of circumstances to be taken account of, that no theory 
 can furnish rules for determining the order in which they 
 succeed each other, or for predicting the state of the weath- 
 er at a future time, with any approach to certainty. Never- 
 theless, all the different modifications of the atmosphere are 
 the necessary results of principles, not only fixed and unal- 
 terable in their nature, but (many of them at legist) well 
 known in their separate and individual operation. The dif- 
 ficulty of tracing the results of their combined influences 
 arises chiefly from their complexity and endless concatena- 
 tion. 
 
 The principal cause of all the variations which take 
 place in the state of the atmosphere is the heating action of 
 the sun's rays ; but in order to appreciate correctly its effect, 
 it is necessary to know not only the extent of the atmo- 
 sphere, hut the properties of all the substances of which it 
 is composed. Modern science has discovered that the atmo- 
 sphere is composed of three different gaseous fluids, every- 
 where combined in the same proportions, and penetrated by 
 an ever-varying quantity of elastic vapour. These two dis- 
 tinct envelopes of air ar.d vapour mechanically mixed have 
 different relations to heat ; and therefore, in consequence 
 of the unequal temperature of the surface of the earth, 
 with which they are in contact, they cannot both be in a 
 state of equilibrium at the same time. In consequence of 
 the diurnal rotation, the different parts of the atmosphere 
 are constantly receiving different quantities of heat, as the 
 solar rays penetrate more or less obliquely. This inequal- 
 ity of temperature produces winds, which, if the surface of 
 the earth were perfectly regular and homogeneous, would 
 always blow in the same direction ; but the surface of 
 the earth being composed of materials of various kinds, 
 and irregularly disposed, the distribution of heat over 
 it is extremely irregular. The winds, sweeping along 
 the surface, acquire its tenfperature ; and hence the atmo- 
 sphere also becomes irregularly heated. This produces 
 an accumulation of air at one place, and a deficiency at 
 another; and hence a subsequent rush to restore the equi- 
 librium. As the air is cooled it becomes also incapable of 
 holding the same quantity of aqueous vapour, a portion of 
 which is therefore set free, and gives rise to clouds, mist, 
 rain, dew, snow, fcc. Besides all this, there is to be taken 
 into account the development of electricity ; the influences 
 of light and galvanism; the agitation of the atmosphere 
 produced by the rise and fall of the tides; and probably a 
 variety of other circumstances with which we are entirely 
 unacquainted. This very imperfect enumeration may serve 
 to give an idea of the difficulties to be overcome in forming 
 a theory of the weather. See Climate. 
 
 It has always been a favourite prejudice that the weather 
 is influenced in some mysterious manner by the moon. The 
 moon can be supposed to act on the earth only in one of three 
 ways ; namely, by the light which it reflects ; by its attrac- 
 tion ; or by an emanation of some unknown kind. Now, 
 the light of the moon does not amount to the 100,000th part 
 of that of the sun ; and the heat which it excites is so 
 small as to be altogether inappreciable by the most deli- 
 cate instruments, or the best devised experiments. No ef- 
 fect can be attributed, therefore, to the moon's light. With 
 regard to the attraction of the moon, we see its influence 
 1330 
 
 WEDGE. 
 
 on the tides of the ocean, and might therefore he disposed 
 to allow it a similar influence on the atmosphere ; but when 
 we take into account the small specific gravity of atmo- 
 spheric air in comparison with water, and the consequent 
 smallness of the mass of matter to be acted upon, it will 
 readily be perceived that this influence also must be ex- 
 tremely feeble. In fact, it has been demonstrated by La- 
 place that the joint action of the solar and lunar attraction 
 is incapable of producing more than an atmospheric tide 
 flowing westward at the rate of about four miles a day, and 
 consequently scarcely, if at all, appreciable. As to the remain 
 ing supposition, that the moon may act on the atmosphere 
 by some obscure emanation, it is sufficient to remark that no 
 meteorological observations that have yet been made afford 
 the slightest traces of any such connexion between the earth 
 and its satellite. The registers which are now kept in va 
 rious observatories and other places also prove, contrary to 
 the popular belief, that the changes of weather are in no 
 way whatever dependant on the lunar phases. (See the 
 Jinnuaire du Bureau des Longitudes for 1833; Kamptz, 
 Lehrbuch dcr Meteorologie ; Schubler, Einjluss des Mondcs 
 auf die Vcranderung unscrer Jitmosphere, Leipzig, 1830. 
 
 Weather. The Sea term for that side on which the wind 
 blows. To weather, to pass to windward of an object. 
 
 WEATHER BOARDING. In Architecture, feather- 
 edged boarding nailed upright, whose boards lap over each 
 other, so as to prevent the rain, &c, from penetrating them. 
 
 WEATHER GAGE. A ship to windward of another is 
 said to have the weather gage. 
 
 WEATHER GLASS. A name commonly given to the 
 barometer; but sometimes also applied to other instruments 
 for ascertaining the state of the atmosphere, or measuring 
 atmospheric changes. It is thus applied to the thermometer, 
 the hygrometer, &c. 
 
 WE'AVERS, Textorite. The name of a tribe of spiders, 
 including those which fabricate webs in order to entrap 
 their prey. 
 
 WEAVING, the art of forming cloth in a loom by the 
 union or intertexture of threads. The art of weaving is 0i 
 great antiquity : it has been practised in all ages and in all 
 countries; but it would be impossible within our limits to 
 give even a sketch of its history, progress, and successive 
 improvements down to its present perfect state. We had 
 intended to present the reader with a notice of the various 
 improvements that have been made in the loom from its 
 simplest construction, down to the elaborate invention of 
 Jacquard ; but it was found that this could not be effected 
 without the introduction of numerous diagrams and details, 
 which would have been foreign to the purpose of the work ; 
 and we must, therefore, content ourselves by referring to 
 Ure's Dictionary of Jlrts, 4-e., for full particulars. 
 
 WEDGE. In Geometry, a solid havingfive sides or faces, 
 three of which are rectangles, and the remaining two con- 
 sequently triangles, and parallel to each other; hence the 
 wedge, considered as a geometrical figure, is a prism with 
 a triangular base. Its content is therefore equal to the 
 area of the triangular base multiplied into the distance be- 
 tween the parallel planes. 
 
 Wedge, in Mechanics, is one of the five simple engines 
 or mechanical powers, and is used sometimes for raising 
 bodies, but more frequently for dividing or splitting them. 
 In the former case, if we suppose the wedge to be urged by- 
 pressure, the action of the wedge is precisely the same as 
 that of the inclined plane ; for it is evidently the same, in 
 point of mechanical advantage, whether the wedge be 
 pushed under the load, or the load be drawn over the plane. 
 The power is therefore to the force to be overcome as the 
 tangent of the angle of the penetrating sides to the radius, 
 leaving the friction out of consideration: hence the thinner 
 the wedge the greater is its effect. But when the wedge, 
 as is generally the case, is driven forward by percussion, 
 its power cannot be estimated with any degree of accuracy. 
 The percussive tremor excited by the blow destroys for an 
 instant the friction at the sides, and augments prodigiously 
 the penetrating effect. Besides, when the wedge is used 
 in rending wood or other substances, the parts of the block 
 are generally separated to a considerable distance before 
 the edge of the wedge, as in the annexed figure ; in which 
 case it acts besides as a lever, the power being 
 applied at the end of the block or acting part 
 of" the wedge, and the resistance being at the 
 point where the fibres begin to separate. 
 
 All the various kinds of cutting and piercing 
 tools, as axes, knives, scissars, chisels, &c, 
 nails, pins, awls, &c, are modifications of the 
 wedge. The angle in these cases is more or 
 less acute, according to the purpose to which 
 it is applied. The mechanical advantage is in- 
 creased by diminishing the angle of the wedge; 
 but the strength of the tool is thereby also diminished. In 
 tools for cutting wood the angle is generally about 30° ; fof 
 iron it is from 50° to 60° ; and for brass from 80° to 90°. la 
 
 
WEDNESDAY. 
 
 general, the softer the substance lo he divided is, the more 
 acute may the wedge he constructed. 
 
 WEDNESDAY. (Sax. Woden's day, Lat. dies Mer- 
 
 curii). The fourth day of the week, consecrated by our 
 
 Scandinavian ancestors to Woden, the deity whose func- 
 
 . responded to those of Mercury in the Greek and 
 
 Uoinan mythology. 
 
 WEEK. A period of seven days, of uncertain origin, but 
 which has been used from time Immemorial in eastern 
 countries. The week did not enter into the calendar of 
 the Greeks, who div ided the civil month into three periods 
 of ten days each ; nud it was not introduced at Rome till 
 after the reign of Theodosius. By some writers the use of 
 weeks is supposed to be a remnant of the tradition of the 
 by others, that it was suggested by the phases of 
 the moon: while a third class, with more probability, refer 
 its origin to the seven planets known in ancient times. 
 This opinion explains the circumstance that the days of the 
 week have been universally named after the planets, ac- 
 cording to a particular order. In the ancient Egyptian as- 
 tronomy, the order of the planets, in resect of distance 
 from the earth, beginning with the most remote, is Saturn, 
 Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon. The 
 day was divided into 24 hours, and each successive hour 
 consecrated to a particular planet in the order now stated ; 
 so that one hour being consecrated to Saturn, the next fell 
 to Jupiter, the third to Mars, and so on ; and each day was 
 named after the planet to which its first hour was conse- 
 crated. Now, suppose l " e AW boat of a particular day to 
 have been consecrated to Saturn, it is evident that Saturn 
 would also have the 8lh, the 15th, and the 22d hours. The 
 23d hour would therefore fall to Jupiter; the 24th to Mars; 
 and the 25tb, or the first hour of the following day, would 
 belong to the Sun, from which it would take its name. By 
 proceeding in the same manner, it is found that the first 
 h^ur of the third day would fall to the Moon, the first of 
 the fourth day to Mars, of the fifth to Mercury, of the sixth 
 lo Jupiter, and of the seventh to Venus. The cycle being 
 completed, the first hour of the eighth day would return to 
 Saturn, and all the 'others constantly succeed in the same 
 order. According lo Dlo Cabins, the Egyptian week began 
 with Saturday. The Jews, on their (light from Egypt, made 
 Saturday the last day of the week. The Saxons seem to 
 have borrowed the week from some eastern nation, sub- 
 stituting the names of their own divinities for those of the 
 gods of Greece, [n England, the Latin names of the days 
 are still retained in legislative and judiciary acts. (See 
 Ehcii. Brit., "Calendar.") 
 
 WEE'PING CROSSES. In Ecclesiastical Antiquities, 
 •tone crosses, at which penances were commonly finish- 
 ed with weeping and signs of contrition, were so called. 
 There was one close to the town of Stafford. (See Mr. 
 Astle's " Observation on Stone Crosses," Jirchaol., vol. xiii.) 
 
 WEIGH. To take the anchor out of the ground. 
 
 WEIGHT. In Physics, that property of bodies in virtue 
 of which they tend towards the centre of the earth. In this 
 sense, weight is synonymous with gravity. See Gravity. 
 
 Weight, in Mechanics, denotes the resistance to be over- 
 come by a machine, whether in raising, or sustaining, or 
 moving a heavy body. The force applied to the machine 
 for this purpose is called the moving power; and where 
 the equilibrium subsists, the difference between the weight 
 and the moving power is the purchase of the machine. In 
 all cases of equilibrium by the intervention of machinery, 
 if the machine be put in motion by a small additional force, 
 the space passed over by the moving power will 'je greater 
 than that passed over by the weight, in proportion as the 
 weight is greater than the moving power ; or the product 
 of the weight by its velocity will be r(;ual to the product 
 of the moving power by its velocity. See Momentum, Vir- 
 tual Velocity. 
 
 Weight, in Experimental Philosophy and Commerce, is 
 the measure of the force by which any body, or a given 
 portion of nny substance, gravitates to the earth. The pro- 
 cess by which this measure is obtained is called weighing ; 
 and when required, as in many philosophical experiments, 
 to be performed with great accuracy, is a tedious and deli- 
 cate operation. See Balance. 
 
 The measurement of weight, like that of extension, con- 
 sists in the comparison of the thing to be measured with 
 some conventional standard. But it is impossible to fix 
 such a standard by written law or oral description ; for it is 
 impossible to communicate by words, and without reference 
 to a sensible object, any adequate idea of a pound-weight, 
 or foot-rule. Standards of linear measure, not accurately 
 defined indeed, but having an average value sufficiently 
 well known for the rude purposes of mankind in the early 
 rtages of society, were furnished by the different parts of 
 the human body ; hence the measures foot, cubit, span, pace, 
 fcc. (See Measures.) But the method of comparing the 
 weights of bodies does not suggest itself so readily to the 
 mind as the comparison of linear dimension, and is not so 
 
 WEIGHT. 
 
 easily accomplished. A balance is necessary, the cot struc 
 tion of which requires some degree of mechanical knowl 
 edge. Hence the art of weighing, though of great antiqui- 
 Qoguet, Uridine drs Ems, Src.,) was probably prac- 
 tised at a later period, and in a still less accurate manner, 
 than that of measuring. There has also been a much 
 greater variety of standards of weight, still less definite 
 than those of measure, as will be readily conceived by con- 
 sidering the origin and import of such terms as stone, load, 
 last. tec. The term pound (pondus) implies only weight 
 Indefinitely. The grain, as a standard of small weight, be- 
 ing taken from the grains or corns of wheat, was perhaps 
 the only denomination of weight that would universally 
 convey anything like a precise idea. 
 
 As there is a constant ratio between the volumes and 
 weights of the same substances when placed in the same 
 physical circumstances, ii is obvious that standards of weight 
 may be derived from those of measure. For example, a cubic 
 foot or a cubic inch of distilled water, at the same tempera 
 ture, and under the same atmospheric pressure, will always 
 have the same weight. Advantage has been taken of this 
 property of bodies to connect weights with measures in the 
 metrical systems that have been adopted, in this and other 
 countries. 7 
 
 English, li'rights. — It was declared by the G rent Charter 
 that the weights should be the same all over England, but 
 no ordinance, perhaps, was ever so ill observed ; for the 
 diversity that has prevailed, and which is still far from be- 
 ing remedied, has been so gTeat as not only to produce 
 confusion and Inconvenjence, but to render the system of 
 weights adopted In one part of the country scarcely intel- 
 ligible in other. The old English pound, which is said to 
 have been the legal standard of weight from the time of 
 William the Conqueror to that of Henry VII., was derived 
 from the weight of grains of wheat : 32 grains gathered 
 from the middle of the ear and well dried made a penny- 
 weight. 2(1 pennyweights an ounce, and 12 ounces a pound. 
 Henry VII. altered this weight, and introduced the troy 
 pound instead, which was l-16th part, or 3-4ths of an 
 ounce, heavier than the Saxon pound. The troy pound 
 was divided in the same manner as the Saxon pound, into 
 ounces, pennyweights, and grains ; but the pennyweight 
 contained only 24 grains, and consequently n grain troy be 
 came a much heavier weight than the grain of wheat. In 
 fact the pound troy contains 5,760 grains, while the Saxon 
 pound, which was divided into 7,680 grains, contained only 
 5,400 troy grains. Another weight, the avoirdupois pound, 
 was introduced by a statute of 24 Henry VIII. ; and though 
 its first object was that of weighing butchers' meat in the 
 market, it has gradually come to be used for all kinds of 
 coarse goods or merchandise. Two legal measures of 
 weight were* thus established, and have continued to be 
 used in the country ever since ; the avoirdupois weight be- 
 ing used for common purposes, and the troy for the precious 
 metals, and, with a different division, by apothecaries in 
 compounding their drugs. The standard of these measures 
 was at length definitely fixed by the act of parliament pass- 
 ed on the 17th June, 1824. cap. 74, George I V., entitled "An 
 act for ascertaining and establishing Uniformity of Weights 
 and Measures," which was partially amended by clause 
 (A) of an act to prolong the time of the commencement of 
 that act to January. 1826. The following are the terms in 
 which the standard is defined by the act: "That from and 
 after the 1st day of May, 1825, the standard brass weight 
 of 1 pound troy weight made in the year 1758, now in the 
 custody of the clerk of the House of Commons, shall be, 
 and the same is hereby declared to be, the original and gen- 
 uine standard measure of wcVgh t ; and that such brass 
 weight shall be, and is hereby denominated, the Imperial 
 standard troy pound; and shall be, and the same is hereby 
 declared to be, the unit or only standard measure of weight, 
 from which all other weights shall be derived, computed, 
 and ascertained ; and that 1 12th part of the said troy pound 
 shall be an ounce, and that l-20th part of such ounce shall 
 be a pennyweight, and l-24th part of such pennyweight 
 shall be a grain, so that 5,760 such grains shall bo a troy 
 pound; and that 7,000 such srains shall be, and they are 
 hereby declared to be, a pound avoirdupois, and that l-16th 
 part of the said pound avoirdupois shall be an ounce avoirdu 
 pois, and that l-16th part of such ounce shall be a dram." 
 
 It follows from this that the weight of the pound troy to 
 that of the pound avoirdupois, or common pound, is in the 
 proportion of 5,760 to 7.000, or of 144 to 175. The retention 
 of two different systems of weights was in compliance with 
 the common usages of the country ; and the motives which 
 influenced the commissioners of weights and measures in 
 recommending the system which has been adopted were 
 thus explained by Mr. Davies Gilbert: "The troy pound 
 appeared to us to be the ancient weight of this kingdom, 
 having, as we have reason to suppose, existed in the same 
 state in the time of Edward the Confessor; and there nra 
 reasons, moreover, to believe that the word troy has nc 
 
 1331 
 
WEIGHT. 
 
 reference to any town in France, but rather to the monkish 
 name giver, to London, of Troy Novant, founded on the 
 legend of Brute. Trov weight, therefore, according to this 
 etymology, is, in fact, London weight. We were induced, 
 moreover, to preserve the troy weight, because all the coin- 
 age has uniformly been regulated by it ; and all medical 
 prescriptions and formula; now are, and always have been, 
 estimated by troy weight, under a peculiar subdivision 
 which the College of Physicians have expressed themselves 
 most anxious to preserve." 
 
 In the sixth clause of the act it is enacted, that if the 
 standard troy pound should be lost or destroyed, it is to be 
 restored by a reference to a cubic inch of distilled water, 
 which has been found and is declared to be 252-453 troy 
 grains, at the temperature of 62° of Fahrenheit, the barome- 
 ter being at 30 inches. Hence the weight of a pennyweight 
 troy is to that of a cubic inch of distilled water, in such cir- 
 cumstances, in the proportion of 24 to 252-458, or of 24,000 
 to 252.458 ; so that the weight of the cubic inch of distilled 
 water must be conceived to be divided into 252,458 equal 
 parts, and 24,000 of such parts will be the standard penny- 
 weight ; or 100 of such parts will be the standard pound. 
 The restoration of the standard, however, in the manner 
 prescribed by the act, is wholly impracticable. 
 
 Though the commissioners on this occasion probably act- 
 ed wisely in accommodating their regulations to existing 
 usages, it cannot be disputed that the circumstance of hav- 
 ing different weights expressed by the same names, as the 
 pound and ounce troy and avoirdupois, is a source of great 
 inconvenience and confusion. Few persons, in fact, recol- 
 lect the different standards and divisions well enough to 
 have any clear or accurate ideas on the subject. The com- 
 parison of the weights is always a matter requiring care 
 and calculation. The avoirdupois pound is greater than 
 the troy pound, as has been already stated, in the ratio of 
 175 to 144 ; but in consequence of the different division, the 
 ounce avoirdupois is smaller than the ounce troy, the former 
 being equal to 437J grains while the latter contains 480 
 grains. The drachm in apothecaries' weight is 60 grains, 
 while the drachm avoirdupois is equal to only 27,|4 grains. 
 For philosophical purposes and in delicate weighing, troy 
 weight only is used, and the weight is usually reckoned in 
 grains. By this means fractional numbers are avoided, and 
 no ambiguity can arise, as there are no other grains than troy 
 grains. Dr. Kelly, in his Universal Cambist, an elaborate 
 and useful work, states that the drachm avoirdupois, like 
 the drachm of the apothecaries, has sometimes been divided 
 into 3 scruples and 60 grains; but as no such weight as an 
 avoirdupois grain ever existed, the use of the expression is 
 an instance of the confusion inseparable from having dif- 
 ferent systems of weights, in which the same names are 
 applied to things totally distinct. 
 
 The irregular divisions which have been adopted and re- 
 tained are also liable to much objection, on account of the 
 great number of weights to be employed in practice. The 
 most convenient system would probably be the decimal di- 
 vision, which requires weights of the following values : 1, 
 2, 3, 4, &c, (grains for instance); 10, 20, 30, 40, &c. ; 100, 
 200, 300, &c. ; 1000, 2000, 3000, &c, up to 9000; and -1, -2, 
 ■3, &c; -01, -02, -03, &c; -001, -002, -003, &c. By this 
 means arithmetical calculations would be facilitated, and 
 the number of weights in the scale would equal the digits 
 in the number by which the grains or units of" weights are 
 expressed. Thus a load of 735*4 grains, would be counter- 
 poised by weights of 700 grains, 30 grains, 5 grains, and 
 4-10ths of a grain. The composition according to the geo- 
 metrical series, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, fee, offers this advantage, that 
 asmaller number of weights would be necessary than when 
 any other system is adopted. 
 
 In consequence of the destruction of the parliamentary 
 standards of weights and measures by the burning of the 
 two houses of parliament in 1834, a commission (at the head 
 of which was the Astronomer Royal) was appointed in 
 1838 to consider and report upon the steps to be taken for 
 their restoration. The report of the commissioners, which 
 is dated the 21st of December, 1841, enters very fully into 
 the subject, and recommends the adoption of considerable 
 changes in the present system of weights and measures and 
 coinage, chiefly with the view of introducing, at least par- 
 tially, a decimal system. But as these recommendations 
 may not be adopted by the legislature, or at all events will 
 probably be considerably modified, it is unnecessary, in the 
 present" state of affairs, to state them in detail. With re- 
 spect to weights in particular, the plan of the commission- 
 ers is briefly this : that the troy pound be abolished, and 
 that the use of the troy ounce and penny weight be confined 
 to gold, and silver, and precious stones ; that apothecaries' 
 weight may continue to be used for the combination of 
 drugs ; that for all other purposes the only legal weights 
 shall be derived from a pound, equal to the present avoirdu- 
 pois pound, the distinctive term avoirdupois being abolished. 
 The pound is to be divided into 16 ounces, and 7,000 grains, 
 1332 
 
 and no denomination is to be recognised lower than pound 
 except the ounce and the grain and the decimal parts of the 
 pound. They also recommend that the weight of 14 pounds, 
 or stone in common use, and its multiples 28 pounds, 56 
 pounds, 112 pounds, be abolished; and that the only legal 
 weights above one pound be weights of multiples of 1 pound 
 and not exceeding 10 pounds, and weights of 10 pounds and 
 its multiples not exceeding 100 pounds. According to this 
 plan there would only be decimal multiples of the standard ; 
 while, with respect to the submultiples, there would not 
 only be a decimal system, but also a denomination of weight 
 equal to a 16th and another equal to a 7-thousandth part of 
 the standard. It is not easy to see what stronger reason 
 there can be for retaining the ounce than the stone or the 
 hundred- weight, which are so extensively used, particular- 
 ly for purposes connected with agriculture. The quantity 
 of iron weights of 14 lbs. and its multiples in use in the 
 country, is estimated to be not less than 30,000 tons, and the 
 expense of changing them for weights in the decimal scale 
 to be between £100,000 and £200,000. With respect to 
 the standard unit, the commissioners recommend that a 
 platinum weight of 7,000 grains be constructed and declared 
 to be the parliamentary standard of weight ; but that it be 
 not defined with reference to any natural standard, or to 
 measures of length or capacity, as a cubic inch of distilled 
 water. 
 
 Tables of British Weights. 
 
 1. Imperial Troy Weight. — Standard: One cubic inch ol 
 distilled water, at 62° Fahrenheit's thermometer, the bar- 
 ometer being 30 inches, weighs 252-458 troy grains. 
 
 grs. dvvts. 
 24 = 1 oz. 
 480= 20= 1 lb. 
 5760 = 240 = 12 = 1 
 Troy weight is used in weighing gold, silver, jewels, Su. 
 and in philosophical experiments. 
 
 2. Apothecaries'' Weight. — Standard : The same as in troy 
 weight, with, the ounce divided into -8 drachms and 24 
 scruples. 
 
 grs. scrs. (£) 
 20 = 1 drs. ( Z ) 
 60 = 3=1 oz. ( ; ) 
 480= 24= 8= 1 lb. (lb) 
 5760 = 288 = 96 = 12 = 1 
 Medicines are compounded by this weight ; but drugs are 
 usually bought and sold by avoirdupois weight. 
 
 3. Imperial Avoirdupois Weight.— Standard: The same 
 as in troy weight; and one avoirdupois pound = 7000 troy 
 grains. 
 
 drs. oz. 
 
 16 = 1 lbs. 
 
 256= 16= 1 qrs. 
 7168= 448= 28= 1 cwts. 
 28672= 1792= 112= 4= 1 ton. 
 573440 = 35840 = 2240 = 80 = 20 = 1 
 This weight is used for the general purposes of commerce. 
 The preceding are the British statute weights ; but numer- 
 ous other discordant denominations of weight, generally 
 multiples of the avoirdupois pound, are still used in different 
 parts of the country for weighing particular kinds of mer- 
 chandise. One of the most common of these is the stone, 
 which has a great variety of different significations. In 
 London, however, only two stones are generally understood ; 
 viz., the stone of 8 pounds for butchers' meat, and the stone 
 of 14 pounds for other commodities. (For values of dif- 
 ferent local weights, see Buchanan's Tables of Weights 
 and Measures ; General Paisley's work on the Measures, 
 Weights, and Money used in this Country; M'Culloch'a 
 Commercial Dictionary ; Kelly's Universal Cambist, <S c.) 
 
 A particular denomination of weight, a carat, is used for 
 weighing diamonds. An ounce troy is equivalent to 151J 
 carats ; whence a carat is nearly equal to 3£ grains. In ex, 
 pressing the fineness of gold by carats, the term rather de- 
 notes a proportion than a weight. Thus gold 22 carats fine, 
 signifies an alloy such that the proportion of the weight of 
 pure gold to that of the whole weight is as 22 to 24 ; or such 
 that it contains 22 parts by weight of pure gold, and 2 parts 
 of some inferior metal. 
 
 French System of Weights.— The French denominations 
 of weight occur so frequently in works connected with the 
 physical sciences, that it is convenient to be acquainted 
 with their values. The unit of weight is the gramme, 
 which is the weight of the 100th part of a cubic metre of 
 distilled water at the temperature of melting ice. A gramma 
 is equal to 15434 troy grains ; whence the following com 
 parative table of French with troy weight : 
 
 grammes. Troy grains. 
 Milligramme = -001 = -01543 
 
 Centigramme = '01 = -15434 
 
 Decigramme = •! = 1-5434 
 
WELD. 
 
 grammes. Troy grains. 
 Cram me = 1 as 15*434 
 
 Decagramme = 10 as 154-34 
 Hectograuime = 100 a= U43'4 
 Kilogramme = looo as 15434 
 M\ •riagramme = 10000 = 154340 
 
 The kilogramme is equal to 2 lb. 3 oz. 4'428 drams avoir- 
 dupois weight. In llie System* I'sucl the standards are the 
 same as the above, but liie denominations are those which 
 anciently in use. It was found impossible to introduce 
 the new terms. The divisions are binary. Half the kilo- 
 cramme forms the fiore usuel, whicli is divided into halves, 
 qtuu ters, eighths, &.c, down to the gros, which is the eighth 
 Of the once, or the l-128th of the livre. (For a comparative 
 table of tiie weights and measures and in different countries 
 of the world, see the Encyc. Britannica, art. " Weights.") 
 
 WELD, [Reseda luteola, Linn.) A plant cultivated for 
 the use of the dyers. When the seeds are ripe, the plant 
 Is cut and dried : it yields a brownish yellow decoction, the 
 colour of which Is rendered paler by acids, and richer and 
 deeper by alkalies. Alum throws down a yellow precipi- 
 tate, and leaves the clear liquor of a fine lemon yellow; 
 tartar also brightens its colour ; and solutions of tin gives it a 
 dilute green tint. When a mixture of whiting and alum is 
 added U) a hot decoction of weld, a yellow precipitate is ob- 
 tained, which, when collected, washed, and dried, is of a 
 line delicate colour, and much employed by paper-stainers. 
 
 WE'LDING. There are D very few of the metals which 
 arc susceptible of being united by pressure or hammering, 
 or of being welded together. Two pieces of potassium may 
 idtta at common temperatures (from 60° to 80°) ; but 
 mi is generally applied to the junction of two pli i 
 iron at a white heat, or of iron and steel. Platinum, also, 
 although infusible, may be welded at a white heat; and it 
 is la this way that that valuable metal, when in the granu- 
 lar or pulverulent state, is worked Into bars. 
 
 WELL. In Architecture, a deep pit sunk by dtt 
 the purpose of collecting and retaining the water of a spring 
 or of a reservoir, by which it may be ; supplied. See Watek 
 and Ahtesian Foi ntains. 
 
 Before proceeding to dig a well, it ought first to be deter- 
 mined on, whether a mete reservoir tor the Water which 
 out of the surface soil is desired or obtainable, or a 
 perpetual spring, it the former is the object in view, a 
 depth of fifteen or twenty feet may probably suffice, though 
 this cannot lie expected to afford a constant supply, unless 
 a watery vein or spring is hit on: If the latter, the depth 
 may be various, there being instances of 300 and 5(H) feet 
 having been cut through before a permanent supply of water 
 was found. 
 
 The art of well digging is generally carried on by person! 
 who devote themselves exclusively to that department. 
 The site being lixed on, the ground-plan is a circle, gen- 
 erally of not more than six or eight feet In diameter : the 
 digger then works down by means of a small short-handled 
 spade, and a small implement of the pick-axe kind ; the 
 earthy materials being drawn up in buckets by the hand or 
 a windlass lived over the opening for the purpose. Where 
 persons conversant with this sort of business are employed, 
 they usually manage the whole of the work, bricking round 
 the sides with great facility and readiness; but in other 
 it will be necessary to have a bricklayer to execute 
 this part of the business. 
 
 There are two methods of building the stone or brick 
 within the well, which is called the steining. In one of 
 these a circular ring is formed, of the same diameter as the 
 intended well ; and the timber of which it is composed is 
 of the size of the brick-courses with which the well is to be 
 lined. The lower edge of this circle is made sharp, and 
 shod with iron, so that it has a tendency to cut into the 
 ground; this circular kirb is placed flat upon the ground, 
 and the bricks are built upon it to a considerable height, 
 like a circular wall. The well-digger gets within this circle, 
 and digs away the earth at the bottom; the weight of the 
 .vail then forces the kirb and the brickwork with which it is 
 loaded to descend into the earth, and as fast as the earth Is 
 removed it sinks deeper, the circular brick wall being in- 
 • d or raised at top as fast as it sinks down ; but when 
 it gets very deep, it will sink no longer, particularly if it 
 - through soft strata: in this case, a second kirb of a 
 smaller size is sometimes begun within the first. When a 
 kirb will not sink from the softness of the strata, or when it 
 is required to stop out water, the bricks or Etones must be 
 laid one by one nt the bottom of the work, taking care that 
 rk is not left unsupported in such a manner as to let 
 the bricks fall as they are laid ; this is called underpinning. 
 
 Well diggers experience sometimes great difficulty from a 
 :s air which fills the well, and suffocates them if they 
 breathe it. The usual mode of clearing wells of noxious 
 air, is by means of a large pair of bellows, and a long leath- 
 ern pi|ie, whbh is hung down into the well to the bottom 
 *nd fresh air forced down bv working the bellows. 
 
 WESTERN EMPIRE. 
 
 The use of the auger is common in well-digging both In 
 ascertaining, before commencement, the nature of the strata 
 to be dug into, and also in course of digging for the same 
 purpose ; and because, by boring in the bottom of a well to 
 a considerable depth, the spring is sometimes hit upon, and 
 digging rendered no longer necessary. 
 
 The use of the borer alone may procure an adequate sup- 
 ply of water in particular situations. This mode appears to 
 have been long resorted to in this and other countries. 
 From what we have already stated as to the disposition of 
 strata, the conditions requisite for its success will be readily 
 conceived; viz.. watery strata connected with others on a 
 higher level: the pressure of the water Contained in the 
 higher parts of such strata on that In the lower will readily 
 force up the latter through any orifice, however small. All 
 that is necessary, therefore, is to bore down to the stratum 
 containing the water, and, having completed the bore, to In 
 sert a pipe, which may either be left to overflow into a cis 
 tern, or it may terminate in a pump. In many Ca- 
 may be found in this way, and yet not in sufficient quantity 
 and force to rise to the surface; in such cases a well may 
 be sunk to a certain depth, and the auger-hole made, and 
 the pipe inserted in it at the bottom of the well. From the 
 bottom it may be pumped up to the surface by any of the 
 usual modes. 
 
 As an example of well-digging combined with boring, we 
 give that of a well dug at a brewery at Chelsea, Middlesex, 
 in 171)3. The situation was within 20 or 30 feel ol I 
 of the Thames, and the depth 394 feet, mostly through a 
 bluo clay or marl. At the depth of nearly fifty foe) a 
 quantity of loose coal, twelve inches in thickness, was <lis 
 covered: and « little sand and gravel was found about the 
 same depth. The well-digger usually bored about ten, fif- 
 teen, or twenty feet at a time lower than his work as 
 he went on ; and on the last boring, when the rod was about 
 fifteen feet below the bottom of the well, the man felt, OS 
 the first signal of water, a rolling motion, something like the 
 gentle motion of a coach passing over pavement: UDOl 
 continuing to bore, the water presently pushed its way by 
 the side of the auger with great force, scarcely allowing 
 him time to withdraw the borer, put that and his other tools 
 Into the bucket, and lie drawn up to the top of the well 
 The water soon rose to the height of 200 feet. 
 
 In a case whicli occured in digging a well at Dr. Darwin's, 
 near Derby, the water rose so much higher than the surface 
 of the ground, that, by confining it in a tube, he raised it to 
 the upper part of the house. (liees's Cyclopwdia, art. 
 "Well ;" and Derbyshire Hep.) 
 
 The process of boring the earth for spring-water has, of 
 late, been practised with great success in various parts of 
 England, chiefly by Mr. Goode of Huntingdon. In the 
 neighbourhood of London, many fountains of pure spring 
 water have lately been obtained by these means. We may 
 particularly name those at Tottenham, Middlesex, and 
 Mitcham, Surrey, both of which afford a continuous and 
 abundant flow of water, at one time equal to about eight 
 gallons per minute ; but now reduced to a much smaller 
 quantity, in consequence of the great number of holes that 
 have been bored into the supplying strata. 
 
 Well. A small enclosed space near the mainmast, ex- 
 tending from the bottom of the ship to the principal gun 
 deck, containing the pumps. 
 
 WE'REGILI). Among the Anglo-Saxons, the compen- 
 sation paid by a delinquent to the party injured, or his lela- 
 tions, for offences against the person. This custom was com- 
 mon to all the Teutonic tribes, and to many Celtic. It is 
 mentioned by Tacitus in his account of the ancient Germans. 
 The great distinction between Saxon freemen was that be- 
 tween the " eorls," or nobility, and " ceorls," or commonalty ; 
 and the wrrc of the former was usually rated at six times 
 the amount of that of the latter. 
 
 WE'RNERITE. A mineral named after Werner. It is 
 a silicate of alumina, lime, and oxide of iron ; of a green or 
 gray colour; and forms eight-sided prismatic crystals. It 
 has been found in Norway and Sweden, and also in Switz- 
 erland. 
 
 WE'SLEVANS. The chief denomination of the Metho- 
 dists ; so called from John Wesley, their founder. See 
 Methodists. 
 
 WE'STERN EMPIRE. The name given by historians 
 to the western division of the Roman empire, when divided, 
 by the will of Theodosiusthe Great, between his sons Hono- 
 ri'us and Arcadius, A.D. 395. After the deposition of the 
 emperor Augustulus by Odoncer, A.D. 476, the Western em- 
 pire was definitely at an end. Cut when Charlemagne, in 
 the year 800, assumed the imperial crown, it was with the 
 view of reassuniing the ancient dignity of the Caesars in 
 Western Europe ; and after him the German emperors were 
 considered by the jurists of their own country, and of their 
 party in Italy, as representing the majesty of ancient Rome 
 the Italian states being looked on as feudatories of the em 
 pi re. 
 
 1333 
 
WHALE. 
 
 WHALE. See Bal/ena. 
 
 WHEAT. ( Triticum, L. ; Triandria Digynia, L. , Gram- 
 mas, Juss. Inflorescence spiked. Glume two-valved, many- 
 flowered, sliurter than the spikelet ; the valves nearly equal, 
 beardless, or with one beard enclosing the florets. Pale;e 
 two, one of them bearded from the end. Seed enclosed in 
 the pales, rarely otherwise.) 
 
 Wheat is by tar the most important and most extensively 
 cultivated species of bread-corn raised in England. It is 
 sown after fallow, turnips, cabbages, potatoes, beans, &c. 
 In light soils it follows clover and the cultivated grasses ; 
 but it never, at least in the best farmed districts, follows 
 any other white crop. Wheat may be raised on all sorts of 
 soils; but those of a clayey nature are the most suitable. 
 So peculiarly, indeed, is wheat adapted to heavy still' lands, 
 thai they arc usually termed "wheat soils." The lighter 
 the soil, the less it is suited to this species of grain; aivl it is 
 an error in practice to force the cultivation of wheat on 
 soils, and under circumstances, better suited to the produc- 
 tion of other grain. In this country it does not admit of 
 being raised at a great elevation. As it is a crop on which 
 the farmer mainly depends, the preparation for it, in what- 
 ever rotation it comes, should be an object of great care and 
 attention. If it he intended to sow wheat after fallow, the 
 land is repeatedly ploughed, harrowed, and well manured: 
 if after clover, only one ploughing is given, and seldom more 
 after beans ; where tares have been previously sown, they 
 are got off the land in sufficient time to plough it more than 
 once; when wheat follows turnips or cabbages, it must, un- 
 less they be stored or eaten, be sown in the spring months. 
 
 The kinds of wheat grown in England seem mostly all 
 to be varieties of two species — the Triticum hybirnum, or 
 winter wheat, and the Triticum turgidum, or turgid wheat. 
 The culture of the latter is mostly confined to clays; the 
 cone or bearded wheat being the most esteemed of its 
 varieties: it enjoys this pre-eminence, not because it yields 
 the finest flour, but because it is comparatively productive, 
 und not subject to disease on wet soils. 
 
 The varieties of wheat are perpetually changing, in con- 
 st • •- ice ' r "arii ;, "is of culti re, climate, and soil. Those 
 m,<< in use are distinguished by different local terms. They 
 may, however, be divided into the two great classes of red 
 and white — the latter being superior as respects quality of 
 produce, and the former of hardiness. In general, the 
 thin and smooth-chaffed varieties are preferred to those that 
 are woolly and thick-chaffed. Wheat sown in the spring is 
 called spring wheat; but the species is quite the same as 
 that sown before winter ; though, by being sown in the 
 spring, its period of ripening is changed. It is always sown 
 before winter when the ground can be cot ready; but when 
 it follows turnips, cnbhi.ges, and such like crops, it has fre- 
 quently to be deferred to the spring. (Low an Agriculture, 
 
 p. 2*>-i:o-^ 
 
 Winter wheat is seldom sown in any part of England be- 
 fore the beginning or middle of September, or later than the 
 end of November. Spring wheat is generally sown between 
 the middle of March and the middle of April. The seed is 
 Invariably pickled or steeped : a process intended to prevent 
 smut. The quantity of seed allowed to an acre, when 
 sown broad-cast, usually varies from 2J to 3, and even 4 
 Winchester bushels. 
 
 The drill husbandry, M applied to wheat, is practised to 
 a considerable extent in many parts of England ; and in 
 some places i; is not (infrequently planted with the dibble; 
 but by far the greater portion is sown broad-cast. While 
 growing, but little attention or labour is bestowed upon it. 
 When drilled, it is generally lined ; and when sown broad- 
 cast, it. Is sometimes hand-weeded, nnd occasionally, though 
 rarely, harrowed and rolled in the spring. But these opera- 
 tions are generally, perhaps, prosecuted as much in the 
 View of covering the clover and unss seeds that are then 
 frequently sown in the wheat fields, as of improving the 
 wheat crop. 
 
 Wheat harvest generally commences, in the south of 
 England, about the 25th of July, or the beginning of Au- 
 '.oi-:; in the midland counties it is about ten days, nnd in 
 the northern counties from a fortnight to three weeks later. 
 There is a striking difference in the harvest field operations, 
 with respect to this as well as other kinds of grain, between 
 the north and south of England; in the former, during har- 
 vest, the corn-field exhibits a large number of reapers, per 
 haps 50, 00, or even 100, all working together, and present- 
 ing! an interesting and animating spectacle. In the south 
 of England, on the other hand, and over the greater part of 
 {he midland counties, wheat is reaped by small sets of indi- 
 viduals, who contract to cut a field or a certain number of 
 acres; so that, in general, the field merely exhibits one or two 
 men, with, perhaps, their wives, working in different parts 
 of it. Wheat is seldom or never cut down with the scythe, 
 but is either reaped with the common sickle, or, as is the 
 practice in some of the counties near the metropolis, as well 
 as in some of the south western counties, it is bagged, that 
 1334 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 is, struck down near the ground with a large and hear> 
 hook. It is universally bound in sheaves, which are set uy 
 in shocks or stooks, each containing twelve or fourteen. 
 sheaves. Perhaps no circumstance marks the difference of 
 climate in the south and north of England more strongly 
 than the difference in point of time during which it is neces 
 sary to keep wheat and other grain in the field before it in 
 carried home. In the southern counties it is generally ready 
 in a week or ten days; whereas in the north it .s necessary 
 to let it stand out for two or three weeks. In the southern, 
 eastern, and midland counties, it is frequently put into 
 barns: in the north, it is almost universally stacked. 
 
 As this grain is so extensively cultivated, frequently en 
 very inferior soils, and after very imperfect preparation, the 
 produce per acre varies materially in different counties and 
 districts; it is also very liable to injury from a bail seed 
 time, a wet winter, or a blight during the period of its flower 
 ing (which last is the most common cause of the failure oi 
 deficiency of our wheat crops) ; so that its produce varies as 
 much in different seasons on the same farms, and under the 
 same management, as it does during the same season on 
 different farms. The lowest quantity of produce, except 
 where an absolute deficiency from blight occurs, may, per- 
 haps, be rated at from 10 to 12 bushels an acre; and the 
 highest at from 48 to 56 or G4 bushels. Occasionally, in- 
 deed, even more than this has been reaped on the deep 
 loams near Chichester, in Sussex, on the calcareous loams 
 near Epsom, and in some of the more favoured and highly 
 cultivated parts of Kent, Essex, Lincoln, Somerset, &c. 
 
 The following table gives a comprehensive view of the 
 
 most important circumstances connected with the British 
 
 trade in wheat from 1799 down to 1841, both inclusive: 
 
 Account of the Total Quantities of Wheat and Wheat 
 
 Flour imported into and exported from Great Britain ; 
 
 distinguishing between the Quantities imported from 
 
 Ireland and Foreign Parts, in each Year from 1799 to 
 
 1841, both inclusive, with the Average Prices of Wheat 
 
 per Imperial Quarter, in England and Wales, during the 
 
 same period. 
 
 Yean. 
 
 Import! 
 
 from 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 Import! 
 
 from Fo- 
 reign Pans 
 
 Total 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Kiports. 
 
 Price*. 
 
 
 QiJ. 
 
 Qrj. 
 
 $>. 
 
 Q.J. 
 
 j. 
 
 ~ 
 
 1799 
 
 
 
 463.185 
 
 31.382 
 
 69 
 
 
 
 1S0I) 
 
 7-19 
 
 1.262.771 
 
 1.264 S20 
 
 22,013 
 
 113 
 
 10 / 
 
 1801 
 
 ISO 
 
 1,424,615 
 
 1,-124,765 
 
 88,406 
 
 119 
 
 6 
 
 IS02 
 
 103,751 
 
 53 >,9 12 
 
 647. 663 
 
 
 69 
 
 10 
 
 1303 
 
 61.267 
 
 312,458 
 
 373,7*5 
 
 
 58 
 
 10 I 
 
 IK14 
 
 70.071 
 
 391,069 
 
 461,110 
 
 63 073 
 
 
 
 1803 
 
 B 1 -7 
 
 836.717 
 
 620.-34 
 
 77,955 
 
 89 
 
 '1 
 
 181(6 
 
 102.276 
 
 208,066 
 
 310 342 
 
 29.566 
 
 79 
 
 
 1807 
 
 44.900 
 
 360.046 
 
 404.916 
 
 25,113 
 
 75 
 
 4 
 
 1803 
 
 43.497 
 
 41.392 
 
 84.889 
 
 
 81 
 
 4 
 
 1309 
 
 66.944 
 
 389,043 
 
 4 ',5.987 
 
 31,278 
 
 97 
 
 4 ! 
 
 tsto 
 
 186 338 
 
 1,440,733 
 
 1,567.126 
 
 75 788 
 
 108 
 
 5 
 
 1811 
 
 447.243 
 
 ]SS,S.S6 
 
 336.131 
 
 97.765 
 
 95 
 
 3 
 
 1812 
 
 ISs,3',J 
 
 132..T.S 
 
 290,7)0 
 
 46.325 
 
 1 26 
 
 6 
 
 1313 
 
 217,154 
 
 341,846 
 
 559,000 
 
 Records 
 destroyed. 
 
 109 
 
 9 
 
 1314 
 
 225,473 
 
 627.0 -'9 
 
 852,567 
 
 111.477 
 
 71 
 
 4 
 
 I3I'> 
 
 1 -9.544 
 
 194,931 
 
 384,475 
 
 227 947 
 
 65 
 
 7 
 
 1816 
 
 121,631 
 
 210,-60 
 
 332,491 
 
 1 M .61 1 
 
 "s 
 
 6 
 
 |S|7 
 
 .Vvl-I 
 
 1,034 374 
 
 1,089,-55 
 
 317,524 
 
 96 
 
 11 ' 
 
 1818 
 
 105,179 
 
 1,389.088 
 
 1,694.261 
 
 58.668 
 
 
 3 ! 
 
 13)9 
 
 153,850 
 
 171. >. 
 
 625,63:! 
 
 44.6 9 
 
 74 
 
 6 
 
 1820 
 
 403.407 
 
 593,072 
 
 1 96.479 
 
 84 657 
 
 67 
 
 10 
 
 IS2I 
 
 569,700 
 
 137. 6S4 
 
 707.3-4 
 
 199,816 
 
 56 
 
 1 
 
 IS22 
 
 ■!6?,004 
 
 47,598 
 
 510.602 
 
 
 44 
 
 7 ' 
 
 1-J.S 
 
 400.068 
 
 .'3.951 
 
 42 1.019 
 
 146.951 
 
 83 
 
 4 
 
 1824 
 
 356.3-4 
 
 S5.207 
 
 441,591 
 
 01,6-0 
 
 63 
 
 II 
 
 1825 
 
 39' .013 
 
 391.588 
 
 
 38.796 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 826 
 
 3:4.-51 
 
 5-2.276 
 
 897,127 
 
 20.054 
 
 
 s 
 
 18*7 
 
 405.258 
 
 306,613 
 
 711.' 6s 
 
 
 38 
 
 6 
 
 1823 
 
 652,f,i4 
 
 7-7.716 
 
 1.410,300 
 
 
 
 ;\ 
 
 ls29 
 
 ■519.017 
 
 1.671 078 
 
 ■'.. 90.093 
 
 73 < 91 
 
 66 
 
 3 
 
 1838 
 
 529.717 
 
 1.676 034 
 
 2.205.751 
 
 37.149 
 
 64 
 
 3 
 
 1-31 
 
 357,498 
 
 2,310,362 
 
 
 65,873 
 
 66 
 
 4 
 
 1832 
 
 790 293 
 
 464.1 58 
 
 1 254.351 
 
 289. S58 
 
 
 8 
 
 ts33 
 
 8*4,211 
 
 322 246 
 
 1,166 J '-7 
 
 
 52 
 
 II 
 
 1^34 
 
 77". '.Ill 
 
 2111. 9-1 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 2 
 
 1 395 
 
 661.. 76 
 
 
 7'0. sll-; 
 
 
 3 r . 
 
 4 
 
 1S38 
 
 593,757 
 
 262 399 
 
 861.156 
 
 
 49 
 
 6 
 
 1S37 
 
 534,465 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 ■ 542,5 3 
 
 1.3 0.si7 
 
 1,923 400 
 
 
 64 
 
 7 
 
 1838 
 
 25S.33I 
 
 2, '-2 398 
 
 3 1 1-'. -2-1 
 
 42.5 12 
 
 
 
 1-1'! 
 
 174.439 
 
 2.3-2 216 
 
 2.526 645 
 
 
 (6 
 
 1 
 
 1841 
 
 21 -.7ns 
 
 2.704.481 
 
 2.923 189 
 
 30.390 
 
 64 
 
 4 1 
 
 The wheat counties are Kent. Essex, Suffolk, Rutland, 
 Hertford, Berks, Hants, and Hereford; that ls,thesi 
 counties most distinguished for the quality as well as the 
 quantity of their wheat. In the north, this grain 
 times raised of a very fine quality ; but generally it is inferior ; 
 being colder to the feel, darker coloured, thicker skinned, 
 and yielding less flour. In tin' best wheat counties, end In 
 good' years, the weight of a Winchester bushel of when! 
 
 varies from 60 to 03 lbs. In the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent 
 
 (where, perhaps, the best samples are produced, it * n:r- 
 
 tlmes weighs, in favourable seasons, 64 lbs. a bushel. 
 Where the climate is naturally colder, wetter, and more 
 
WHEEL AND AXLE. 
 
 oackward, or in bnd seasons, the weight of the bushel does 
 not exceed 56 or 57 lbs. It is calculated that, at an aver- 
 age, a bushel of good English wheat weighs 584 lbs. : and 
 that the average yield of rtour is \~\ lbs. of Hour to 14 lbs. 
 of grain. The weight of the straw is supposed to be about 
 doable that of the grain ; so that an acre yielding 30 bushels 
 of wheat, at 58. lbs. per Winchester bushel, would yield 
 8510 lbs. of straw. {Statistics of British Empire, i„ 464.) 
 
 The increase of population, and the extraordinary exten- 
 sion and Improvement of cultivation during the ton years 
 ending with 1840, coupled with the inquiries we have 
 m ile. have satisfied us that in average seasons the quantity 
 (,f wheat raised in the United Kingdom for food cannot at 
 1842) be less than 15,000,000 quarters, and adding 
 ill part for seed, the total produce will be 17,500,000 
 - : worth, at the low average price of 93f. a quarter, 
 .£45,500,000. But notwithstanding its magnitude, the supply 
 is. speaking generally, inadequate to meet the demand, and 
 whenever the crops are below an average there is a large 
 Importation. 
 
 We incline to think that of the total produce of wheat in 
 the United Kingdom, at least 15,000,000 quarters are furnish- 
 ed by England. The climate of Scotland and Ireland, es 
 of the latter, is, speaking generally, too cold and 
 t the profitable culture of wheat Along the east 
 
 ■ Scotland, indeed, in Berwickshire, East Lothian, 
 
 Fife, Perth, and Far far. there are extensive tracts where 
 and climate are comparatively good, and the cul- 
 llent, and where very good wheat is rated. Bui 
 with these exceptions, the rest of Scotland, and the whole 
 of Ireland, is more suit tide for the growth of oats and bar- 
 ley than for that of wheat. Indeed its culture in Ireland 
 ently been declining. 
 WHEEL AMI AXLE. In Mechanics, one of the simple 
 mechanical powers or machines, consisting of a wheel hav- 
 ing a cylindrical BUS passing through its centre, resting 00 
 I its extremities, oi supported in gudgeons, and ca- 
 pable of revolving. The power is applied to the circumfer- 
 ence of the wheel, and the weight or force to be overcome 
 to the circumference of the axle : and equilibrium takes 
 hen the power and to each other in- 
 
 '.ersuly as the radii of the circles to which they are np- 
 „ plied. In the annexed figure, a Is the 
 
 wheel, b the axle, p the power, and w the 
 weight. The power is applied hy a rope 
 passing round the wheel, and the weight 
 attached to another rope coiled round the 
 axle in a contrary direction. As the wheel 
 and axle turn together, the wheel takes 
 up or throws oil" as much more rope than 
 the axle as its circumference is greater 
 than that of the axle ; or the space 
 through which p descends la as much 
 greater than that through which w is 
 lilted up as the circumference or radius 
 of [be wheel is greater than the circumference or radius of 
 Hence if a denote the radius of the wheel, and b 
 i . t of the axle, we have, by the principle of virtual veloci- 
 ty : : b : a, or p a = w b. 
 The wheel nnd axle is a perpetual lever, so contrived as 
 t i have a continued motion ahou! a fulcrum. When the 
 of the rope is taken into consideration, the force 
 must he conceived its acting at the centre of the rope, and 
 B the thickness of the rope which supports the 
 i ust be added to the diameter of the axle, and the 
 - of that which supports the power to the diameter 
 of the wheel. But the manner in which the power is a p- 
 very various, and frequently otherwise than by 
 i a rope-. If the power acts not at the circumfer- 
 •lie wheel, but at the extremity of a handspike or 
 projecting pins inserted in the wheel, the distance of that 
 extremity from the centre of the axis is to be accounted 
 the radius of the wheel. The common winch with which 
 a grindstone is turned or a crane worked, the capstan, the 
 windlass, the crank, and other contrivances of a similar 
 kind, ire only different modifications of the wheel and axle. 
 A fin in of the wheel and axle is represented in the sub- 
 joined figure, by which a great mechanical advantage is ob- 
 The axle consists of two parts having different 
 r] the ro|>e after being coiled round one of 
 Is carried round a pulley attached to the weight, 
 and coiled around the other in 
 the opposite direction. The 
 power p is applied at the han- 
 dle of the winch, which here 
 take- the place of the wheel. 
 In order to compute the advan- 
 tage gained by tliis machine, let 
 a denote the circumference 
 I by the handle of the 
 Wit cb. I> the circumference of 
 the thicker part of the axle, 
 
 f/ ' 
 
 WHEEL WORK 
 
 and c that of the thinner part ; then, while the wincji 
 makes one revolution In the direction which raises the 
 weight, the pari of the rope which passes from the one part 
 Of the axle to the other round the pully will he shortened 
 hy the quantity b—c, and consequently the weight w will 
 be raised through the height i (A — c). But the space de 
 scribed in the same time by the power p is equal to that 
 through which the handle of the winch passes, or equal to 
 o; therefore, by the principle of virtual velocities, p : w : : 
 i (b — c) : a, or p a = A to [b—c). As the circumferences 
 of circles are to their radii in a constant ratio, it is evident 
 that the formula will equally apply if the letters a, !■ c bo 
 taken to represent the respective radii. 
 
 WHEEL. In a Ship, the wheel and axle by which the 
 tiller i* moved. 
 
 Wll EEL ANIMAL, or WHEEL ANIMALCULE. See 
 
 KoTlPKRS. 
 
 WHEEL, BREAKING ON THE. A mode o-- capital 
 
 punishment, said to have been first employed in Go.nianv; 
 
 according to some writers, on the murderers of Leopold, 
 
 Austria, in the I4ih century. According to the 
 
 German Method or this savage execution, the criminal was 
 
 laid on a can wheel with his aims and Icl's extended, and 
 his limbs in that |>osture fractured with an iron bar. But 
 in France (where it was restricted to cases of assassination, 
 or other murders of an atrocious description, highway rob- 
 bery, parricide, and rape), the criminal was laid on a irame 
 of wood in the form of a St. Andrew's cross, with grooves 
 cut transversely in it above ami below the knees and elbows; 
 and the executioner struck eight blows with an iron bar, so 
 as to bleak the limbs in those places, sometimes finishing 
 the criminal by two or three blows on the chest or stomach: 
 thence called coups lie grace. He was then unbound and 
 laid on a small carriage wheel, with his face upwards, and 
 his arms and legs doubled under him; there to expire, if 
 still alive. BaBDetimes the sentence contained a ntmtvm, 
 by which the executioner was directed to strangle tho 
 criminal, either before the first, or after one, two or threa 
 blows. This punishment was abolished in France at the 
 Revolution; but it is still resorted to in Germany as tho 
 punishment for parricide, the last In 
 
 nlace in 1827 near (iottingen. The assassin of the bishop 
 or Ermeland iu Prussia, in 1841, was sentenced to the 
 wheel. 
 
 WHEELS OF CARRIAGES. Wheels applied to car- 
 ve a two-fold purpose. In the fust place, they 
 greatly diminish the friction on the ground by transferring it 
 from the circumference to the nave and axle; mid In the 
 second place, they serve to raise the carriage more easily 
 over obstacles and asperities met with on the roads. ,Tha 
 friction is diminished in the proportion of the circumference 
 of the axle to that of the wheel ; and hence the larger the 
 wheel, and the smaller the axle, the less is the friction. The 
 mechanical advantage of the wheel in surmounting an oh 
 stacle may be computed from the principle of the lever 
 Let the wheel touch the horizontal line of traction in tho 
 point A, and meet a protuberance B D. 
 Suppose the line of draft CP to be par- 
 allel to A Ii, join C I), and draw the per 
 pendiculars I) E and I) F. We may sup- 
 pose the power to be applied at E, and 
 the weight at F, and the action is then 
 the same as the bent lever E I) F turn- 
 ing round the fulcrum nt D. Hence P: 
 \V::FD:l)E. But F D : D E : : tan. ~ ° 
 
 FCD: 1; and tan. FCD = tan. 2 (D A B) ; therefore P = 
 W tan. 2 (D A B). Now, it is obvious that the angle DAB 
 increases as the radius of the circle diminishes; and there- 
 fore the weight W being constant, the power required to 
 overcome an obstacle of a given height is diminished when 
 the diameter is increased. Large wheels are therefore best 
 adapted for surmounting inequalities of the road. There 
 are, however, circumstances which prescribe limits to the 
 height of the wheels of carriages. If the radius A C ex- 
 ceeds the height of that part of the horse to which the 
 traces are attached, the line of traction CP will be inclined 
 to the horizon, and part of the power will be exerted in 
 the wheel against the ground. The best average 
 size of wheels is considered to be about 6 feeMn diameter. 
 The fore wheels of carriages and wagons in this country 
 are usually much too small. 
 
 Cylindrical wheels are best adapted for level roads; nnd 
 the breadth of the rim should he considerable (not less than 
 three inches), to prevent their sinking into the ground. In 
 hilly and uneven roads a slight inclination of the spokes, 
 called dishinfr. tends to give strength to the wheel ; but it is 
 verv fVeqiiently carried to e) 1 
 
 WHEEL WORK, In Machinery consists of a combine 
 tion of wheels communicating motion to one 'another. 
 Such combinations may be formed in various w 
 they are generally reducible to the principle of th( 
 axle, though the wheel which turns the other is not usual! y 
 
 1335 
 
WHEEL WORK. 
 
 on the same axis with it. The motion in such cases is 
 communicated from the one wheel to the other, either by 
 belts or straps passing over the circumferences of both, or 
 by teeth cut in those circumferences, and working in one 
 another. In either of these ways the velocities of points in 
 their circumferences are equal ; and consequently their an- 
 gular velocities, or the number of revolutions which they 
 make In the same time, are inversely as their radii. When 
 one wheel drives another by teeth, they necessarily turn in 
 opposite directions ; if united by a cord or belt, they will 
 turn in the same direction, if the belt does not cross itself be- 
 tween the two wheels; but if the belt crosses itself, they 
 will turn in opposite directions. The chief advantage of 
 transmitting motion by cords or belts is, that the wheels 
 may he placed at any convenient distance from each other, 
 and be made to turn either in the same or in opposite di- 
 rections. 
 
 Wheels may act on one another so as to communicate 
 motion in various ways. When the resistance of the work 
 is not great, the object may be accomplished by the mere 
 friction of their circumferences. In order to increase the 
 friction, the surfaces of the rims are faced with butfleather 
 (caoutchouc might answer the purpose better), or wood cut 
 against the grain, and pressed together with a certain de- 
 gree of force. This method is sometimes used in spinning 
 machinery, and has even been applied successfully to the 
 saw mill ; but is seldom adopted in works on a great scale. 
 Motion communicated in this manner proceeds smoothly 
 and evenly, and is accompanied with little noise. 
 
 When motion is to be transmitted through a train of 
 wheel work, toothed wheels are generally employed. It is 
 usual to call a small wheel acted on by a large one a pinion, 
 and its teeth the leaves of the pinion. Wheels and pinions 
 are combined in the manner represented in the annexed 
 figure. On the axle of the wheel A, which bears the 
 ^ n _n UVj ^ rt _ n _ rVi _^__^ power, is a pinion a which 
 
 drives the wheel B. The 
 
 CQA - jj'#*\\ a xle of this wheel carries a 
 il?'U ISMlSyr II l )m ' on *• which drives the 
 'mTWWeW$P i W/1 wheel C. In the figure, the 
 axle c of this wheel carries 
 the weight ; but the combi- 
 D nation may he continued at 
 pleasure. When motion is 
 communicated in this man- 
 ner, the angular velocity of 
 the first wheel is to that of 
 the last pinion as the product formed by multiplying to- 
 gether the radii of all the wheels to the product formed by 
 multiplying together the radii of all the pinions. Conse- 
 quently, if R, It', R", &c. denote respectively the radii of 
 the wheels, and r, r', r", &c. the radii of the pinions, we 
 shall have, by the principle of virtual velocities, p (R X R' 
 X R",&c.) = w (r X r' Xr", &c.) As the size of the teeth 
 of any wheel and the pinion into which it works must be 
 equal, we may substitute for the radii the number of teeth in 
 the wheel- and pinions respectively. 
 
 Toothed wheels, as distinguished by the position of the 
 teeth relatively to the axis, are of three kinds : spur wheels, 
 croim wheels, and bevelled wheels. When the teeth are 
 raised upon the edge of the wheel, or are perpendicular to 
 the a \is (as in the above figure), the wheel is a spur wheel ; 
 when they are raised parallel to the axis, or perpendicular 
 to the plane of the wheel, it is a crown wheel ; and when 
 they are raised on a surface inclined to the plane of the 
 wheel, it is called a bevelled wheel. The combination of 
 a crown wheel with a spur wheel as pinion is used when it 
 is required to communicate motion round one axis to an- 
 other at right angles toil. Two bevelled wheels are em- 
 ployed to transmit motion from one axis to another inclined 
 to it at any proposed angle. Wheels have also different 
 names, according to their mode of action, as heart wheel, 
 sun-avd-plancl wheel. 
 
 Form of the -Teeth of Wheels.— -In the construction of 
 machinery, it is of the utmost importance that the several 
 parts act on one another with a uniform force, and with 
 the smallest possible amount of friction. When wheels act 
 by teeth working into each other, every 
 point of the side ab of the tooth which is 
 in action comes successively into contact 
 with the tooth of the pinion as the wheel 
 turns round, and the force is necessarily ex- 
 erted at the point c, which are in contact. 
 Hence the lengths and positions of A c !A 
 being supposed the centre of the wheel) 
 and Be, the levers by which thev act. are 
 constantly changimr; and in order, there- 
 fore, that the force of the one tooth upon the other may be 
 constant, it is necessary that the line drawn perpendicular 
 to the surfaces of both teeth, at the point of contact e, al- 
 ways intersect the line A B of the centres in the same point. 
 There are many different cui ves according to which the 
 33C 
 
 : 
 
 WHIGS. 
 
 teeth might be formed so as to answer this condition ; but 
 that which has been most generally adopted, and which 
 appears the most convenient, is the epicycloid generated by 
 the revolution of a circle whose radius is equal to half the 
 radius of the pinion on the circumference of a circle equal 
 to the wheel. This was first [imposed by Roemer, the cele- 
 brated Danish astronomer. The evolute of the circle was 
 proposed, with other curves, by Euler. See Teeth ov 
 Wheels. 
 
 When the teeth are constructed according to the thee 
 retical rules, the action is not only uniform, but there ii 
 little friction ; for the teeth roll on one another, and neither 
 slide nor rub. But as it is impossible to attain perfect ac 
 curacy in practice, the surfaces of the teeth will always 
 present some inequalities, and there will consequently be 
 some friction. In order, therefore, to equalize the wear, it 
 is necessary that every leaf of the pinion should work in 
 succession through every tooth of the wheel, and not al- 
 ways through the same set of teeth ; and hence the num- 
 ber of teeth in a wheel and in a pinion which work into 
 each other should be prime to one another. This precau- 
 tion is more especially necessary in mill work, and where 
 considerable force is used. ( Willis's Principles of Me- 
 chanism ; Buchanan on Mill Work, by Rennie ; Lardner'e 
 Mechanics. Cab. Cyclop. ; Gregory's Mechanics, eve.) 
 
 WHELPS. Short upright pieces placed round the bar- 
 rel of the capstan, to afford resting points for the mcssei 
 ger or hawsers. 
 
 WHE'TSTONE. A talcy slate containing silica, us 
 for hones. See Novacvlite. 
 
 WHEY. The limpid part of milk which remains after 
 the separation of the curd and butter: it consists chiefly of 
 water holding between 3 and 4 per cent, of sugar of milk 
 in solution. See Milk. 
 
 WHIGS. The well-known designation of a political 
 party in English history. It was first used in the reign of 
 Charles II. The term, which is of Scottish origin (vide 
 infra), was llr-t assumed as a party name by that body of 
 politicians who were most active in placing William III. on 
 the throne of England. Since that time it has been home 
 by successive generations of those who, by hereditary in- 
 clination, or by education, or party connexion, have fol- 
 lowed in the same political line. Generally speaking, the 
 principles of the Whit's hive been popular, and their mea- 
 sures, when in power, tending to increase the democratic 
 influence in the constitution. It may not be out of place 
 to subjoin a few of the various accounts of the origin of 
 the term Whig, now incorporated indelibly in the political 
 vocabulary of this country. It was introduced immediate- 
 ly after the failure of Hamilton's expedition i/it<> F.ngland, 
 in the year 1648, for the rescue of Charles I. from the 
 hands of the English levellers and fanatics. Alter Hamil- 
 ton's defeat at Preston, the Westland Whigs raised an in- 
 surrection, which is thus alluded to: 
 
 "The party appellation of Whigamores, or, briefly, 
 Whigs, had its origin at this period; and the insurrection 
 referred to was called the ' Whigamores' raid,' or incursion, 
 that term being the common one for the predatory expedi- 
 tions of the Borderers. This niekname being stili preserv- 
 ed in the vocabulary of party, although there is truly none 
 now existing that can be in any degree assimilated to the 
 original faction, it seems proper to explain how the distinc- 
 tion originated. Mr. Laing, in his History (vol. i., p. 381, 
 2d ed., 1804), informs us that 'the expedition was termed 
 the Whigamores' inroad, from a word employed by these 
 western peasants in driving horses; and the name transfer- 
 red, in the succeeding reign, to the opponents of the court, 
 is still preserved and cherished by the Whigs as the genuine 
 descendants of the Covenanting Scots.' And in a foot-note 
 he adds, 'According to others from whig or whey, the cus- 
 tomary food of those peasants.' " 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his Tales of a Grandfather, Prose 
 Works, vol. xxiv.), says, "This insurrection was called the 
 Whigamores' raid, from the words whig, whig — that is. get 
 on, get on — which is used by the western peasants in dri- 
 ving their horses ; a name destined to become the distinc 
 tion of a powerful party in British history." 
 
 In Daniel Defoe's Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, 
 printed 1717, p. 173, speaking of the Covenanters, he says, 
 "This is the first time that the name of a Whigs was used 
 in the world — I mean as applied to a man or t ■ a party of 
 men; and these were the original primitive Hi 
 name for many years being given to no other peo| 
 word is said to be taken from a mixed drink the poor men 
 drank in their wanderings, composed of water and soul 
 milk." 
 
 And Bishop Burnet, who lived nearer to the time in 
 which the nickname was invented, gives the following BX 
 planation of it in the History of his Own Times, (p. ..'<>, 
 imperial ed., 1837): "The southwest counties of Scotland 
 have seldom corn enough to serve them round ihe year; 
 and the northern parts producing more than they need 
 
WHINSTON. 
 
 those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the 
 stores that come from tin? north ; and from a word whig- 
 ; in driving their horses, all that drove were call- 
 amores, and, shorter, the Whlggs. Now, in that 
 year, after the news came down of Duke Hamilton's de- 
 feat, the ministers animated their people to rise and march 
 to Edinburgh, and they came up marching on the head of 
 their parishes with an unheard-of fury, praying and preach- 
 ing all the way as they came. The Marquis of Argyle and 
 his party came and headed them, they being about six thou- 
 sand. This was called the Whiggamorcs' inroad, and ever 
 after that all that opposed the court came, in contempt, to 
 be called Whigg ; and from Scotland the word was brought 
 into J'.hl'I and, where it is now one of our unhappy terms 
 of distinction." 
 
 WHI'NSTON. A s|>ecie.s of basalt. See Geolooy. 
 
 WHIP. In sea language, a rope passed through a single 
 block or pulley. 
 
 WHIRLING TABLE. A machine contrived for re- 
 presenting several phenomena of centrifugal force, by giv- 
 ins bodies a rapid rotation. Mr. Robins invented a whirl- 
 ing machine for the purpose of determining the resistance 
 of the air, which is described in the 1st vol. of his Tracts ; 
 and al.-o in Hutlon's Tracts, vol. iii., where the results of u 
 series ot experiments with it are detailed. 
 
 WM'RLPOOL. A vortex, eddy, or gulf, where the wn- 
 circular motion. Whirlpools are produced by the 
 meeting of currents which run in dillerent directions. Their 
 danger to navigation is well known, but is, perhaps, not 
 equal to the dread which sailors entertain of them. Borne 
 of the most celebrated arc the Euripus, near the coast of 
 ffegropout; the Cltarvhdis, In the straits of Sicily ; and the 
 Maelstrom, on the northern coast of Norway. (Murray's 
 Geography. Introd.) 
 
 WHIRLWIND. A revolving column or mass of nir, 
 ■Upposed with most probability to be produced by the 
 meeting of two currents of air blowing in opposite direc- 
 tions, but ascribed by some to electricity. It is analogous 
 to the whirlpool. When the opposite currents have the 
 OClty, the circulation will be maintained at the 
 same spot; but If the motion of one of them is more rapid 
 than that Of the other, it will transport the whirling mo- 
 tion with its excess of celeiitv, and a progressive and rota- 
 tory motion are thus maintained at the same time. Whirl- 
 winds generally occur In summer, and are most violent in 
 tropical countries, where they frequently produce most de- 
 structive effects. The diminution of atmospheric pressure 
 •rising fiom the centrifugal force of the revolving column 
 is thui computed by Professor Leslie: " If r denote in feet 
 the radius of the extreme circle described by the whirlwind, 
 and l the lime of circumvolution in seconds, the elasticity, 
 or pressure of the column at the verge, will sutler a dimi- 
 
 5 r 
 nution corresponding to the fraction - — . The amount of 
 
 4 t i 
 this diminution over the whole base would be reduced to 
 three fourths; and consequently, A expressing the height of 
 
 the revolving column of air, ...-, would represent the 
 
 mean effect of centrifugal action. Suppose the whirlwind 
 to have an elevation of 2<M( feet, and a radius of 50, and to 
 circulate in 3 seconds, the diminished pressure would be 
 
 15 X 50 X 200 
 equal to the weight of a column of so 1040 
 
 feet. This example, assuming a celerity of sixty -five miles 
 an hour, might be reckoned an extreme ca^e ; but it would 
 occasion the mercury to sink in the barometer more than 
 an inch, or 1-12." (Ency. Brit., "Meteorology.") See 
 Storm ; Winds. 
 
 WHI'SKEY. (A corruption of the Gaelic word usque- 
 A species of corn spirit. See Distillation. 
 
 WHI'SPERING DOMES, or GALLERIES, are places 
 in which whispers or feeble sounds are communicated to a 
 greater distance than under any ordinary circumstances. In 
 order to produce this effect, the form of the roof or walls 
 of the building must be such that sound proceeding from 
 one part is transmitted by reflection or repeated reflections 
 to another The dome of St. Paul's church in London fur- 
 n Instance. See Sound. 
 
 WHITE. In Painting, a negative colour (if such defini- 
 tion may be allowed). Whose Opposite OT antagonist is Mack, 
 which may best serve as its explanation; because black is 
 Void of all colour, properly so called. 
 
 White. The colour produced by the combination of all 
 the prismatic colours mixed in the same pro|>ortions as they 
 exi-t in the solar rays. This is proved both by decomposing 
 White light by means of a prism, and by recompounding 
 the primitive colours in due proportions. See Colour, 
 Lioiit. I!efua( tio\. 
 
 WHITE ARSENIC. Oxide of arsenic, or arsenious 
 ac.il. Sre Arsenic. 
 
 WHITE BAiT. The name of a small and peculiar 
 
 WHITFIELDIAN METHODISM & 
 
 species of Clupca; confounded, until studied by Mr. Yarrel, 
 with the young of the shad (Clupca alosa). The young 
 fish of the white bait (Clupea alba, Varrel) begin to ascend 
 the Thames at the beginning of April, and continue In that 
 part of the river where there is a mixture of s;.lt with fresh 
 water until September, when young fish of the year four 
 or five inches long are not uncommon, though accompanied 
 by others of smaller size; but the parent fish are believed 
 not to ascend beyond the estuary. The young of tho shad 
 arc not two incites and a half long till November, when 
 the white bait season is over; and they are distinguished 
 by a spotted appearance behind the edge of the upper pari 
 of the operculum, which the white bait never exhibits 
 Mr. Yarrel suggests that if a net sufficiently small in the 
 mesh were used, the white bait might be taken in other ri 
 vers besides the Thames; but he states that the llamble 
 which runs into the Southampton Water, is the only othei 
 river from which he has received this Justly estimated fish 
 
 WHITE COPPER. An alloy used by the Chi 
 called by them P.tckfong or Pakfong : it is composed, ac 
 cording to the analysis of Dr. Fife, of 40-4 pails of copper, 
 iV4 of zinc, 31-0 of nickel, and 2-G of iron. German silver 
 is a modification of this alloy. 
 
 WHITE EAGLE, ORDER OF THE. An order ot 
 knighthood in Poland, instituted by Uladislaus V. in 1985; 
 revived by Frederic Augustus I. in 1705. 
 
 WHITE LEAD. Carbonate of lead. Sre Lead. This 
 Important compound, of which from 16,000 to 17,01(0 tons 
 are annually manufactured In England, is chiefly used as 
 the basis of white oil paint; it is also employed to a small 
 extent in the manufacture of cements. It Is chiefly made 
 in two ways: either by precipitation, as when carbonic add 
 or a carbonate used to decompose a soluble salt, or a sub- 
 salt of lead ; or by exposing plates of cast lead to the joint 
 action of the vapour of acetic acid, air, and carbonic acid : 
 it is by the latter process only that the resulting carbonate 
 of lead is obtained of that degree of density and opacity, 
 and perfect freedom from crystalline texture, which fits it 
 for paint. This last, commonly called the Dutch process, 
 was introduced into England about the \ ear 1780. I: i-; de- 
 scribed, together with the other processes, in Brands'* 
 Manual of Chemistry, fifth ed., p. 844. White li 
 ten largely adulterated with sulphate of baryta, which is 
 detected by insolubility in dilute nitric acid, when 
 white lead is entirely dissolved by it. 
 
 WHITE LEG. A disease which generally occurs in 
 women soon after delivery, and which has been erroneous- 
 ly supposed to arise from redundancy of milk. It conies 
 on with stillness and pain of the limb, which afterwards 
 becomes tuned and tense from the effusion of serum, and 
 in some instances goes on to suppuration. Leeches, fo- 
 mentations, friction, and gently stimulating liniments, with 
 the internal use of mild aperients and remedies calculated 
 to allay the febrile symptoms that attend it, are the piinci 
 pal points of treatment. Those women who during preg- 
 nancy have suffered very much from swellings of the low- 
 er extremities are generally most liable to its attacks. 
 
 WHITE PRECIPITATE. The white powder which 
 falls on adding ammonia to a solution of corrosive subli- 
 mate : it is a compound of peroxide and bichloride of mer 
 cury with ammonia : it is virulently poisonous, and is 
 chiefly used in ointments and for killing vermin. 
 
 WHITE STONE. A granite abounding in white fel 
 spar. 
 
 WHITE SWELLING. A term vulgarly applied to in 
 dolent tumours in scrofulous habits. 
 
 WHITE VITRIOL. The old name of sulphate of zinc 
 See Zinc. 
 
 WHITEWASH. A mixture of whiting, size, and wa 
 ter, for whitening ceilings, walls, &c. 
 
 WHITFIE'LDIAN METHODISTS. The name given 
 to the most numerous body of the Methodists after the 
 Wesleyans ; so called from Whitfield, whose early connex- 
 ion with the Methodists will be found noticed under that 
 term. Soon after the return of Mr. Whitfield from Amer 
 ica In 1741, he withdrew connexion with Wesley on nc 
 count of religious tenets; the former holding the high doc 
 trine of Calvinism, anil differing from the latter chiefly on 
 the subjects of election and general redemption. Lut though 
 they differed in sentiments, these good men lived and died 
 united in heart. Whitfield devoted his life to itinerant 
 preaching, and was, if possible, more popular as an ener- 
 getic and eloquent pulpit orator than his former coadjutor. 
 He did not confine his labours to Great Britain and Ireland, 
 but visited North America no fewer than seven different 
 times; and died there at Boston, in 1770, in the fifty sixth 
 year of his age. But he can scarcely be said to be the 
 founder of a sect: his chief object was itinerating. At sev 
 eral places, indeed, he erected chapels, or tabernacles, as 
 he called them ; but these he invariably left to the care of 
 any orthodox clergyman, whether in the establishment oi 
 among the dissenters, who was prepared to occupy them 
 
 1337 
 
WHITING. 
 
 Since his death the members of these congregations have 
 Deen nominally, but only nominally, classed together as a 
 distinct body, under the title of the Tabernacle Connexion. 
 They are not governed by a general conference, nor is their 
 cause supported by a common stock ; but each congregation 
 is virtually independent in itself, and provides for its own 
 expenses. The lay-preachers are few, most of their minis- 
 ters being ordained among themselves; but, like the Wes- 
 levans, they have a periodical change of pastors. {Dr. 
 Gillie's Life of Whitfield.) 
 
 Among the most zealous of Whitfield's followers was 
 Seiina, Countess of Huntingdon, in whose family he had at 
 one time officiated as chaplain. She devoted her ample 
 funds to the erection of chapels in different parts of Eng- 
 land, and invited clergymen of the established church to 
 occupy them ; but finding the supply of pastors from that 
 source deficient, she founded a college at Trevecca, in 
 South Wales, for the education of pious young men for the 
 ministry. She thus became the foundress of a distinct sect, 
 under the name of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion. The 
 college has. since her death, which took place in 1791, been 
 transferred to Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire. In her chapels, 
 about sixty in number, the service is performed according- 
 ing to the ritual of the church of England. {Dr. Haweis's 
 Hist, of the Church, vol. iii. ; Adam's Religious World, vol. 
 iii. 14^-56.) 
 
 Another sect of Methodists, whose name is frequently 
 found in connexion with that of Whitfield, are the Welsh 
 Calvinistic Methodists. Tliis body, which, though not 
 founded by Whitfield, received much countenance and 
 support from him in its earlier stages, had its origin so early 
 as 1735, but was not finally organized till 1785. Its founder 
 was Mr. Howell Harris of Trevecca. The field of the 
 operations of this sect is chiefly Wales ; and there is scarce- 
 ly a village in the principality in which one of their chapels 
 is nut to be found. 
 
 WHI'TING. The name of a species of the Cod tribe 
 IJ\l ■ rlangus vulgaris, Cuv.), and the type of a subgenus, 
 distinguished from the true cod by the absence of the bar- 
 bules at the chin. It is esteemed for the delicacy of its 
 flavour and its easiness of digestion. 
 
 Whiting. Chalk carefully cleared of all stony matter, 
 ground, levigated, and made up into small oblong cakes. 
 As it is often used as a polishing material, it should be 
 very carefully freed from all particles of flint or sand. 
 
 WHI'TLOW. (Sax.) A painful inflammation, tending 
 to suppuration, at the ends of the fingers. 
 
 WHI'TSUNDAY, in the Calendar, is the seventh Sun- 
 day, or 49th day after Easter. Whitsuntide corresponds 
 with Pentecost. This Sunday was called in the ancient 
 church Dominica Alba, White Sunday ; or Dominica in Al- 
 bis, the Sunday in which white garments were worn, it 
 having been formerly a custom with those who were bap- 
 tized on this day to dress in white for the occasion. The 
 term, however, has been differently derived from the Saxon 
 "utas," octave, the eisrhth from Easter. (Hamon V Es- 
 trange. See Kiddle's Christian Antiquities.) 
 
 WI'CKLIFFITES. In Ecclesiastical History, the fol- 
 lowers of the reformer Wickliff, who are better known by 
 their popular name of Lollards (which see). The memory 
 and opinions of Wickliff were solemnly condemned by the 
 council of Constance in 1415. His bones were dug up and 
 publicly burned in 1428, an event finely commemorated in 
 one of the sonnets of Wordsworth. 
 
 WILL, or TESTAMENT, is, in Law, the legal declara- 
 tion of a man's intentions as to what he wills to be per- 
 formed after his death. In strictness of language, the 
 term will is limited to land ; testament, to personal estate. 
 Wills, according to the law up to a recent period, were 
 either nuncupative or written. A nuncupative will could 
 not revoke one that is written ; it must be proved by the 
 oaths of three witnesses present at the making of it, must 
 have been made in the last sickness of the testator, and at 
 his house; and was subject to various other restrictions. A 
 written will to dispose of personal property was good, if 
 sufficient proof could be obtained of the writing of the tes- 
 tator, even without his signature or the attestation of any 
 witnesses. A will of real propeity must, by 29 C. 2, c. 3, be 
 in writing, signed bv the testator, or by some other person 
 in his presence, and by his express direction ; and witnessed 
 or subscribed, in presence of the testator, by three or four 
 credible witnesses. This state of the law cave rise to con- 
 siderable inconvenience. Much litigation was occasioned 
 by the uncertainty as to what was, or was not, a paper suf- 
 ficient to convey personal property as a will: much fraud 
 was supposed to have been caused by the facility with 
 which such testament* micht be forged, or surreptitiously 
 obtained ; while, on the other hand, the rules respecting 
 the publicity of wills of real property were thoucht more 
 stringent than the <■ ase required. These considerations in- 
 duced the legislature to pass the statute 7 W. 4, & 1 Vict. 
 6 2ri in 1837), by which the making of wills is now regu- 
 1338 
 
 WINDMILL. 
 
 lated. All wills (except those of seamen and soldiers on 
 service), whether of real or personal property, must be in 
 writing, and signed at the foot by the testator or some othej 
 person in his presence and by his direction; and such sig- 
 nature must be made and acknowledged by the testator in 
 the presence of two or more witnesses present at the 
 same time; and such witnesses must attest ami subscribe 
 the will in the presence of the testator; but no form of at- 
 testation is necessary. All appointments by will, whatev 
 er formalities may have been required by the creator of the 
 power, must now be made according to the provisions of 
 this statute, and require no further form. 
 
 The same statute enacts that no will of a minor shall bo 
 valid. All devises and gifts by will to an attesting witness 
 are void. To put an end to the various questions which 
 had arisen respecting the revocation of wills, it is provided 
 that they shall be revoked only by the marriage of the 
 party, or by another will duly executed, or some writing 
 declaring an intention to revoke, and executed with similar 
 formalities, or by burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying, 
 with intention to revoke. All wills now speak from the 
 death of the testator, unless they show on the face a con 
 trary intention, that is, they act upon the propeity which 
 he possesses at his death. And various important altera- 
 tions are introduced in the effect of the ordinary language 
 used in devises and bequests. 
 
 A married woman cannot make a will of lands or tene 
 ments ; nor, without the consent of her husband, of person 
 alty. 
 
 A disposition by will of real property is termed a devise ; 
 of personal property, a bequest or legacy. Sec Devise, Ex- 
 ecutor. 
 AVl'LLOW. See Salix. 
 
 WINCH. In Mechanics, a bent handle or rectangular 
 lever, for turning a wheel, grindstone, &c. The term 
 winch is also popularly applied to the windlass. Sec Wind- 
 lass. 
 WIND. Sec Winds. 
 
 WINDAGE OF A GUN. The difference between the 
 diameter of the bore of a gun and the diameter of the bail. 
 Formerly it was usual in the English servic 
 considerable windage, l-20th of the diameter of the Lore; 
 but it has been found that the shot will go much truer, and 
 that a smaller quantity of powder is required, when the 
 above allowance is considerably diminished. (Hutton's 
 Tracts, vols, ii., iii.) Sec Gunnery. 
 
 WIND GAGE. An instrument for measuring the force 
 or velocity of the wind. See Anemometer. 
 
 WI'NDLASS. A machine used for many common pur- 
 poses. It is a particular modification of the wheel and 
 axle, the power being applied by means of a rectangular 
 lever or winch. The arm B C of the winch represents the 
 radius of the wheel; and the power 
 is applied to CD at right angles to D 
 BC. The windlass is frequently 
 used in merchant ships or small tra- 
 ding vessels instead of a capstan for 
 heaving the anchors, &c. In this 
 case it consists of a large cylindri- 
 cal piece of timber laid in a hori- 
 zontal position, and supported at its 
 two ends by two pieces of wood 
 called knight-heads placed on oppo- 
 site sides of the deck near the foremast. This axle is 
 pierced with holes directed towards the centre, in which 
 long levers are inserted, called handspikes. It is furnished 
 with strong pauls to prevent it from turning backwards 
 when the pressure on the handspikes is intermitted. 
 
 WI'NDMILL. In Mechanics, a mill which receives its 
 motion from the impulse of the wind. The general appear 
 ance of the windmill is familiar to every one. The build- 
 ing containing the machinery is usually circular. To the 
 extremity of the principal axis, or wind-shaft, are attached 
 rectangular frames (generally five), on which cloth is usual- 
 ly stretched to form the sails. The surfaces of the sails 
 are not perpendicular to the axis, but inclined to it at a car 
 tain ancle, about 72° at the extremities nearest to the axle, 
 and 83° at the farther extremities ; so that their form is in 
 some degree twisted, and different from a plane surface. 
 Suppose the axis to be placed in the direction of the wind: 
 the wind will then strike the sail obliquely, and the force 
 may therefore be resolved into two parts, one of which, 
 acting in the direction perpendicular to the axis, gives a mo- 
 tion of rotation to the sails, and consequently to the wind- 
 shaft, from which it is communicated to the machinery, 
 The wind-shaft is inclined to the horizon in an 
 from 8° to 15°, principally with a view to allow room for 
 the action of the wind at the lower part, where it would be 
 weakened if the sails came too nenrly in contact with the 
 building. 
 
 As the direction of the wind is constantly chancing, soma 
 apparatus is required for bringing the axle and sails into 
 
WINDMILL. 
 
 lOeir proper position. This is sometimes effected by sup- 
 porting the machinery on a strung vertical ;i\is, tlio pivot of 
 which moves iii a socket firmly fixed in ttie ground ; so that 
 the whole structure may be turned round by a lever. But 
 it is now usual to construct the building with a moveable 
 l oof, which revolves upon friction rollers; and the shaft 
 being lived in the roof is brought round along with it. The 
 > sought into the required position hy means of a 
 
 small vane wheel furnished with wind sails, which turns 
 round when the wind strikes on either side of it, and drives 
 a pinion which works into the teeth of a large crown 
 wheel connected with and surrounding the moveable roof. 
 Of Vie Form and Position of the Sails. — From the inves- 
 tigations of I'arent and Belidor, it appear* that the maxi- 
 mum ell'ect of the wind on the sails is produced when their 
 inclination to the axis of rotation is about 54{ degrees; or 
 When the angle of weather, that is to say, the angle formed 
 by the plane of the sail and the plane of its revolution, is 
 Bat this result, being obtained from consider- 
 ing the ell'ect of the wind on the sails when at rest, does 
 not agree with mot which is found by experiment. In 
 the velocity of the sail tends to withdraw it from the 
 wind, it is Decenary to counteract the diminution of force 
 by diminishing the angle of weather, or to bring the sail 
 into such a position that the wind strikes its surface more 
 directly : and since the velocity of the different parts of the 
 sail is in proportion to their distance from the axis, it follows 
 that in order to produce the greatest effect every element 
 ary portion of it ought to have a different angle (if weather, 
 diminishing from the centre to the extremity of the sail. 
 Euler has given a theorem which determine* the law of 
 variation. Let a be the velocity of the wind, and b the ve- 
 locity hI' any given part of the sail ; then the action of the 
 wind u|xin that part of the sail will be a maximum when 
 the tangent of its inclination to the axis, or the cotangent 
 
 of the angle of weather, = V 2 -f ( — ) 4. --. Suppose 
 
 VI a' 2 a 
 that at a given part of the sail the velocity of the sail 
 (equal I of the wind, WO have then a — A,- 
 
 irmnla becomes v / '--r'' + 8.331561 sstBJ 
 Which give- ISO 4i' f m t ) ic Hngle of weather. 
 tbject was investigated experimentally by Smenton 
 {PkUosopktcai Trans., vol. li.), who found Ihatthe common 
 practice of inclining tin' sails from 72° to 7">o id the axis is 
 much more efficacious than the angle assigned by Parent, 
 the effect being as 45 t'i 31. When the sails were weath- 
 ered in the Dutch manner, or with their surface concave to 
 the wind, anil the angle of inclination greater toward* the 
 es, the effect was greater than when weathered 
 either in the common way or according to Kuler's theorem. 
 , t But the effect was greatest of all when they 
 
 Were enlarged at their extremities, and had 
 the forme dfe, represented in the annexed 
 figure ; so that c d was one third of the radius 
 A B, and c B to B d as 5 to 3. If the sails be 
 farther enlarged, the effect Is not increased in 
 proportion to the surface; and bellies, when 
 the quantity of cloth is great, the machine is 
 much eviiosed to injury from sudden squalls. 
 In Smeaton's experiments the angle of weath- 
 er varied with the distance from the axis : 
 and it appeared from several trials that the 
 most efficacious angles at the different parts 
 of the sail were those in the following table : 
 
 Pirrs of A B, which is 
 
 divided iuio Six equal 
 
 Tarn. 
 
 Anglo with ihe 
 
 A is. 
 
 Angle of 
 Weather. 
 
 1 
 > 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 
 72° 
 71 
 
 72 
 74 
 
 77 4 
 
 f-3" 
 
 18" 
 19 
 IS 
 
 12i 
 
 7 
 
 If the radius A B of the sail be 30 feet, then the sail 
 will commence at l-6th of A B, or 5 feet from the axis, 
 where the angle or inclination will be 72°. At 10 feet 
 from the axis, the angle will be 71°; and so on, as in the 
 table. 
 
 Of the Effect of Windmill Sails. — The following maxims 
 relative to the ell'ect of the suils were deduced by Smeaton 
 from his experiments: 
 
 1. The velocity of windmill sails, whether loaded or un- 
 loaded, bo as to produce a maximum effect, is nearly as the 
 velocity of the wind, their shape and position being the 
 same. 2. The load at the maximum is nearly, but some- 
 what less, as the square of the velocity of the wind, the 
 sha|>e and position of the sails being the same. 3. The ef- 
 fects of the s:one siils at a maximum are nearly, but some- 
 what less, as the tubes of the velocity of the wind. 4. 
 The load of the same sails at the maximum is nearly as the 
 
 WINDS. 
 
 squares, and their effects as the cubes, of their number of 
 turns in a given time. 5. When the sails are loaded so as 
 to produce a maximum ellect at a given velocity, and the 
 velocity of the wind increases, the load continuing the 
 same, ihen the increase of effect, when the increase of the 
 velocity of the wind is small, will be nearly as the square 
 of those velocities ; when the velocity of the wind is 
 doubled, the effect is nearly as 10 to 27A. When the velo- 
 cities compared are more than doable of that where the 
 given load produces a maximum, the effects compiled In- 
 crease nearly in the simple ratio of the velocity of the .viae 
 li. In sails where the positions and figures are similar an 1 
 the velocity of the wind the same, the number of turns in 
 a given time will lie reciprocally as the radius or length ol 
 the sail. 7. The load at a maximum that sails of a similar 
 figure and position will overcome at a given distance from 
 the centre of motion will be as the cube of the radius. B. 
 The effects of sails of similar figure and position are as the 
 square of the radius. 9. The velocity of the extremities 
 of Dutch sails, as well as of the enlarged sails in all their 
 usual positions, when unloaded, or oven loaded to a max- 
 imum, is considerably quicker than the velocity of the 
 wind. 
 
 Horizontal IVindmills. — Windmills are sometimes con- 
 structed in such a manner that tho planes of the sails in- 
 tersi ct each cither in the wind-shaft, in which case they 
 are called horizontal windmills ; because the wind-shaft 
 being usually verticil, the sails have a horizontal motion. 
 The wind-shift, however, might be placed with equal ad- 
 vantage in the horizontal position. In this construction 
 A B is the wind-shaft or arbor, 
 which moves upon pivots. Cross 
 bars are fixed in this arbor, which 
 carry the frames C 1) E K and 
 (; II I K. The sails C E and G I 
 are stretched on these frames, 
 and are carried round the axis 
 A B by the perpendicular im- 
 pulse of Ihe wind ; and a toothed 
 ■ ■■ the arbor Fives 
 . ,il..ne r v. . ivo 
 sails only are represented in this 
 figure, but there arc always other two at right angles tc 
 ■ '."hen the wind Impels the two sails (.' E and (i I 
 equally, it is obvious that no motion can ensue. In order, 
 then, that motion may be communicated to Ihe machine, the 
 impulse of the wind on the returning sail must be removed 
 by screening it from the wind, or at least diminished by 
 making it present n less surface when returning against the 
 wind. The first of these methods is said lo be praciised in 
 Tarlary, and some provinces in Spain; it is the simplest 
 and probably the best. The other method requires the sail 
 to be formed of several flaps moveable on hinges, aid so 
 adjusted that on one side of the axis they present Iheir 
 surfaces to the wind, and when returning on Ihe other only 
 their edges. Other contrivances have been proposed, but 
 horizontal windmills are greatly inferior, in point of effect, 
 to those which have vertical sails, and are accordingly sel- 
 dom met with. 
 
 On account of the irregularity of the moving force, and 
 the interruption of calm weather, machines impelled by 
 the wind can only be used udvantangeously lor purposes 
 which are. not urgent, and where regularity is not indispen- 
 sable. The chief purposes to which they are applied are 
 grinding corn, expressing oil from seeds, bruising oak bark 
 for tanning, sawing wood, raising water, &x. Windmills 
 were brought into Europe from the East about the time of 
 ihe Crusades. {Phil. Trans., vol. li. ; Smeaton's Miscella- 
 neous Papers ; Ferguson's Lectures, by Brewster ; Greg- 
 ory's Mechanics.) 
 
 WI'NDOW. (Quasi wind door.) In Architecture, an 
 aperture in a wall for the admission of light and air to the 
 interior. In distributing windows so that there be had a 
 sufficiency of light, it is usual to make the piers or intervals 
 between them never less than the width of the window, 
 and never more than two widths of the same. Where it is 
 required to ascertain the total area of light necessary for a 
 room, the following empirical rule is frequently used Mul- 
 tiply together the length, breadth, and height, and extract 
 the square root of the product, which will be the area of 
 light required. 
 
 WINDS. Currents in the atmosphere, conveying the air, 
 with more or less velocity, from one part to another. Not 
 Withstanding all that has been written on the subject of ihe 
 winds, their theory is still involved is considerable obscu- 
 rity. The subject is exceedingly complicated ; and no at 
 tempt that has yet been made to derive a general law from 
 the observations has been attended with much success 
 Nevertheless, we can discern, clearly enough, certain pre- 
 vailing causes of the disturbances which are constantly ta 
 king place in the equilibrium of the elastic fluid which e:i 
 velopes the earth, though their influence is modified, ami 
 v 1334 
 
WINDS 
 
 sometimes alt Jgether concealed, by disturbing causes, the 
 effects of which we have no means of adequately appre- 
 ciating. 
 
 The principal cause of wind may be ascribed to the un- 
 equal and variable distribution of heat through the atmo- 
 sphere, the temperature of which is mainly determined by 
 that of the surface of the earth. The distribution of heat 
 at the surface is determined by the manner in which it is 
 received from the sun, and radiated from the earth to the 
 celestial spaces. If we consider the whole earth, or the 
 state of any given portion of it through a long series of 
 sime, the quantity of heat received from the sun and the 
 quantity lost by radiation exactly balance each other, and 
 the mean temperature remains an invariable quantity. But, 
 on considering any particular portion of the earth, it is easy 
 to see that though a balance is effected in the long run be- 
 tween the heat received and parted with, the two quan- 
 tities are never precisely equal at the same time, or only so 
 for very short intervals, the one alternately exceeding and 
 falling short of the other. The radiation goes on contin- 
 ually, though not uniformly ; but the supply of heat from 
 the sun, on a given surface, is interrupted entirely while the 
 sun is below the horizon, and during the day varies with the 
 sun's altitude. It varies also at the different seasons of the 
 year, in consequence of the unequal lengths of the days 
 and nights, and the greater or less obliquity with which the 
 rays strike against the surface. 
 
 But the effect of the solar rays depends not only on the 
 obliquity with which they fall upon the surface, but also in 
 a great degree on the nature of the surface. The daily il 
 luinination of the sun warms the land to a very small 
 depth, scarcely exceeding, perhaps, an inch. The heat is 
 therefore accumulated at the surface, the temperature of 
 which is rapidly increased when the heat received exceeds 
 that which is radiated away, and as rapidly cooled in the 
 reverse circumstance. In water, however, the calorific 
 rays penetrate to a considerable depth, twenty or thirty 
 feet. If we suppose a tenth part of the incident light to be 
 intercepted by a stratum of water one foot in thickness, 
 while it is totally intercepted by 1*2 inch of dry land, it 
 would follow that the sun's rays communicate everyday a 
 nundred times less heat to the surface of a body of water 
 than to an equal expanse of level ground. Now the etfect 
 of the two surfaces in heating the superincumbent atmo- 
 sphere will be in proportion to theft respective tempera- 
 tures : but in the present instance the general conclusion is 
 modified by two circumstances. In the first place, a por- 
 tion of the solar light, perhaps a fiftieth of the whole, is 
 intercepted in its passage through the atmosphere, and con- 
 verted into heat ; and it is obvious that the increase of tem- 
 perature caused by this portion is independent of the na- 
 tore of the surface. In the second place, a small portion 
 of the light which falls upon water is reflected from the 
 surface into the atmosphere, and converted into heat. On 
 the whole, it may be concluded that the change of temper- 
 ature in the air caused by the succession of day and night is 
 about thirty times less over water than over land. Hence, 
 if the whole surface of the globe had been covered by the 
 ocean, the effect of the alternation of day and night in pro- 
 ducing atmospheric currents would have been scarcely 
 sensible. Hence, also, over a great part of the surface of 
 the ocean, the winds are reducible to fixed and determinate 
 laws; while on continents, and also on the ocean in high 
 latitudes, the order and periods of their recurrence are ir- 
 regular and anomalous. 
 
 Besides the effects arising from the disturbance of the 
 equilibrium of temperature, we have also to consider the 
 mechanical effect of the earth's rotation about its axis. If 
 the earth were a sphere of uniform temperature, and at rest 
 in spice, the atmosphere would also be at rest; its height 
 would he constant over every point of the earth's surface, 
 and its density and elasticity at equal altitudes everywhere 
 the same. But if the temperature of the motionless sphere, 
 instead of being equal at every point, were greatest at the 
 equator, and decreased towards the poles, though the pres- 
 sure on every point of the surface would still continue the 
 same, the altitude of the atmospheric column would be- 
 come greatest at the equator, and consequently its specific 
 gra\ity less there than at the poles. The heavier fluid at 
 the poles would then, by virtue of its greater weight, pass 
 beneath and displace the lighter, and a current be estab- 
 lished in the lower part of the atmosphere from the poles 
 towards the equator. In the higher regions of the atmo- 
 sphere the effect would be reversed. The lower stratum of 
 air in the equatorial regions being heated by its contact 
 with the earth, becomes ratified and ascends, and thus 
 produces an accumulation, and causes a counter current in 
 tiie higher regions from the equator towards the poles. 
 Tne height at which this change in the direction of the 
 aiotion takes place under certain circumstances may be 
 computed. Professor Daniell (Meteorological Essays) com- 
 putes that the lower current, from the poles to the equator, 
 1340 
 
 extends to the height of 2i miles, diminishing in velocity 
 from the surface upwards. 
 
 If we now suppose the sphere to revolve about its polar 
 axis, an apparent modification will take place in the direc- 
 tions of the currents. The lower current, coming from a 
 zone where the velocity of rotation is less than that of the 
 parallel at which it arrives, will appear to be affected with 
 amotion contrary to that of the diurnal rotation; while the 
 upper current, flowing from the equator to the pules, would 
 be apparently affected in an opposite manner. On this 
 theory it is usual to explain the trade winds, which prevail 
 within and to a considerable distance beyond the tropics 
 in both hemispheres. These easterly currents, however, 
 receive important modifications, both as to their direction 
 and the distance to which they extend from the equator on' 
 either side, from the annual variations of the sun's decli 
 nation and the configuration of the land. They prevail in 
 the open ocean, in the Atlantic and Pacific, between the 
 latitudes of 30° N. and 27° S. On entering these from 
 either side, the deviation, arising from the rotation of the 
 earth towards the east, is greatest ; and this deviation be- 
 comes less and less as the equatorial zone is approached. 
 In the immediate vicinity of this zone, the wind is nearly 
 due N. on the northern side of the equator, and nearly due 
 S. on the southern side. See Trade Winds. 
 
 In the Indian Ocean the trade winds receive a curious 
 modification from the position of the surrounding land, and 
 the effect of the solar heat on it. During one half of the 
 year, from November to April, the winds blow in the ordi- 
 nary direction of the trades, that is to say, from the north- 
 east; but from April to November they blow in the directly 
 opposite direction. These periodical winds are called the 
 Mvnsoons. (See Monsoons.) Between the equator and 
 10^ south latitude, north-west winds prevail from October 
 to April, and south-west the rest of the year. In other 
 parts of the tropics, the regular trade winds are also modi- 
 fied by the configuration of the land. On the coast of Gui- 
 nea the wind almost constantly blows from the south-west, 
 In the opposite direction to the trades. Near the Cape 
 Verd Islands calms and variable winds are usually expe- 
 rienced. 
 
 Between the parallels of 30° and 40°, in both the North 
 and South Pacific Oceans, westerly winds blow almost 
 constantly, excepting only for a short time after each equi- 
 nox. In the North Atlantic Ocean the prevalence of 
 westerly winds between those parallels is less constant) in 
 consequence of the comparative narrowness of that ocean, 
 and the consequent influence of the opposite continents, 
 they are still, however, the prevailing winds, except in the 
 months of April and October, when a north-east wind is 
 more frequent. In consequence of these winds, the voyage 
 from Europe to America is much more tedious than the 
 opposite one. 
 
 Upon the continents the diurnal and annual changes of 
 temperature are much more rapid and extensive than over 
 the ocean; hence there is little constancy in the direction 
 or intensity of the winds, even in equatorial countries. In 
 high latitudes the inequalities are still greater, and extend 
 even to the open seas. Beyond the latitude of 40°, the 
 winds do not seem to be reducible to any fixed laws. 
 
 The different manner in which land and water are affected 
 by radiation and the direct heat of the sun gives rise to the 
 land and sea breezes which prevail on the coasts, particu- 
 larly in tropical countries, though they are not confined to 
 any particular latitude, and are perceptible sometimes as 
 far north as Norway. During the day the surface of the 
 land becomes more heated than that of the adjacent ocean, 
 and the air over the land, in consequence of its greatet 
 rarefaction, is displaced by the denser air rushing from the 
 sea. Hence a current, or sea breeze, beginning at some hour 
 in the morning, and continuing till the sun is near setting, 
 will flow from the water towards the land. At night the 
 water remains warm, while the surface of the land cools 
 rapidly ; and hence the current sets from the land towards 
 the water, and forms the lavd breeze. Winds of this sort 
 are more frequent about islands and small peninsulas than 
 in other situations. 
 
 A variety of local winds are observed, the circumstances 
 occasioning which are either too complicated or too imper- 
 fectly known to admit of their being satisfactorily explained. 
 The Etesian is a northerly or north-easterly wind, which 
 prevails very much in summer all over Europe. The 
 Sirocco is a" hot, moist, and relaxing wind, which visits 
 Naples and the south of Italy from the opposite shores of 
 the Mediterranean. The Samiel or Simoom of Arabia is a 
 hot, arid, pestilential blast, generally coming from the south. 
 The Kamsin of Egypt is of the same kind. The Harmattan 
 is a dry east wind, also of an unwholesome description, 
 occurring in Guinea and some other countries 
 
 In the preceding remarks the winds have been considered 
 as produced by the unequal distribution of temperature in 
 the a'mosphere, combined with the earth's diurnal rotation 
 
WIND SAIL. 
 
 Other causes, however, depending on the physical constitu- 
 tion of the atmosphere, must be assigned tor those sudden 
 and Irregular blasts which occasionally spring up, and rage 
 tor KMne time with tremendous fury. Among these c mses, 
 one of the most powerful is, doubtless, the rapid condensa- 
 tion of v.i pours in the bosom of the atmosphere. An inch 
 of rain his sometimes been observed to fall within the 
 ii hour over a great extent of country, particularly 
 in the equinoctial regions. Suppose the superficial extent 
 over which rain has fallen to the depth of an inch to be 
 only 100 square leagues; if the vapour necessary to produce 
 this quantity of rain existed in the atmosphere at the tem- 
 i 5\f> of Fahrenheit, it would occupy a space 
 nies greater than in the liquid state ; that is to say, 
 occupy a space equal to a column of which the 
 i: leagues, und the altitude 100,000 inches, 
 10,000 feet, und such would be lite dimensions of 
 in created by the condensation. Bome abatement 
 made from this estimate, inasmuch as the vapour 
 existing in the atmosphere is in the vesicular, and not the 
 ate; hut in any case its condensation into drops 
 id must create an Immense void, the filling 
 •ip of n Inch must necessarily occasion violent atmospherical 
 In this principle may be explained a fact, 
 \ itiun of which is often of great Impafl&nofl at sea, 
 that an unusual fall of the barometer is generally followed 
 ►y a gale of wind. See Storm. 
 
 The velocity of wind varies from nothing to upwards of 
 a hundred miles an hour but the maximum is variously 
 Slated by different experimenters, and in facl, it is not easy 
 What means iLs velocity cai. be ascertained within 
 moderate limits of accuracy. The best method seems to 
 be that of deducing its velocity from its force, observed by 
 [ an anemometer. In vol. Ii. of the Philosophical 
 u.ins a table is given of the differpnt forces and 
 velocities of winds, drawn up by Smeaton from a consider- 
 able number of facts and exiieriinents. The following 
 from it will give the reader a general idea ol the 
 velocity of the wind in different circumstances : 
 
 Perp torce on 
 1 bq. Foot, in 
 i»s. Avoirdupois. 
 
 Common Appellation of 
 the Force of such Wind). 
 
 •123 
 1-107 
 
 i ass 
 
 3U7', 
 
 i at 
 
 eon 
 
 7v-i73 
 12300 
 17, 15 
 3IM90 
 49-200 
 
 llardlv percep-it.la 
 ■ Gentle, pltasant wind. 
 - Pleasant, brisk gale. 
 
 • Very brisk. 
 
 • Hi;h nimi. 
 Very high. 
 
 A t;reat storm. 
 
 A hurricane. 
 
 A violent hurricane. 
 
 Of late years the theory of winds (in common with other 
 meteorological phenomena) has received much attention', 
 and through the recommendation of the British Association, 
 setf-regtsterlng anemometers have been erected,at the prin 
 cipal observatories and other places, with a view to obtain 
 systematic series of observations. The principal points to 
 be determined are the mean duration of the different winds, 
 the law of their succession, and their connexion with the 
 state of the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer. (See 
 Prof. Forbes' Reports on Meteorology to the Brit. Associa- 
 tion for 1831 and 1840; Experiments by Col. Beaufoy in 
 the .Innate of Philosophy, vol. viii., p. 94 ; Daniell's Meteo- 
 rological Essays ; Murray's Geography, Introd. ; Pouillet, 
 de Physique.) 
 
 WIND SAIL. A tube or funnel of canvass, employed 
 to convey a stream of fresh air down into the lower part of 
 a ship. 
 
 WINE. (Germ, wein.) All spirituous products offer- 
 mentation are occasionally denominated wines. The term, 
 however, is more generally limited to fermented grape 
 juice, or must ; and the theory of the process has been 
 noticed under the word Fermentation. There are many 
 circumstances which influence the general characters or 
 quality of wine ; among which are principally climate, soil, 
 ami aspect, the nature and maturity of the grape, and the 
 mode of fermentation. In regard to climate, for instance, 
 it may lie observed that that which is best suited to the 
 culture of the vine extends from the 35th to the 50th 
 degrees north latitude ; in more northerly situations the 
 grape seldom ripens perfectly, and the wines that it yields 
 are of a less generous character than those produced in 
 more congenial districts. In warmer climates, on the other 
 hand, the juice becomes too rich and saccharine. It often 
 happens, however, that a very luscious grape transplanted 
 to a colder climate yields a good wine, and that vines car- 
 ried from a cold to a warmer climate, within the latitudes 
 
 WINE. 
 
 mentioned, afford excellent liquors ; it is said, indeed, thai 
 we are indebted for some of our most choice wines to such 
 judicimis transplantations. Chaptal has stated that the 
 must obtained from grapes grown in the south of France 
 was richer than that from the northern departments. With 
 respect to soiP, it may be observed that no fruit is more 
 remarkably influenced by itsqualities than the gr ipe. Light 
 and porous soils are best suited to it; and although the 
 Plant will grow vigorously in rich and moist ground, the 
 fruit is by no means excellent in proportion to its luxuriance. 
 Dr. Henderson states {History of iVines), that strong argil- 
 laceous soil not only checks the extension of the roots, but 
 keeps them too moist, and often imparts to the wines a 
 peculiar earthy taste, such as we perceive in Cape wine. 
 A stony or gravelly soil is preferable to all others ; it allows 
 of the free growth of the roots, and is sufficiently retentive 
 of moisture. Volcanic soils are also favourable to the 
 growth of the vine, as shown in the island of Madeira, 
 Italy, Sicily, and the south of France. The quality of the 
 grape is also greatly influenced by differences in the ex- 
 posure and inclination of the ground. Hills are preferable 
 to plains, especially where the aspect is such as to be duly 
 exposed to the sun and sheltered from cold winds; hence 
 the advantage of a south eastern aspect. The influence of 
 season, so important in regard to the ripening and perfection 
 of all fruits ; is especially so with respect to that of *he 
 vine, its consequences going beyond the mere temporary 
 perfection of the grape as fitting it for the tible, and ex- 
 tending in a very striking manner lo the qualities of the 
 wine; hence the notoriety and high character of the vin 
 tages of particular seasons, as, for instance, that of the 
 comet in 1811. In a cold year the wine is weak and 
 acescent. " When the season is rainy," observes Dr. Hen- 
 derson, "the produce will be increased ; but it will be poor 
 and insipid, and generally found to contain a large portion 
 of malic acid, which gives to it a peculiar fl tvour, always 
 most perceptible in those wines which are most devoid of 
 spirit. A moderate degree of humidity, however, is essen- 
 tial to the welfare of the vine. In those climates, accord- 
 ingly, where great droughts prevail, as in Persia, and in the 
 neighbourhood of Malaga, the earth is formed into a dish 
 around the plant, in order to collect and retain the rain 
 which falls during the spring. High winds and fogs are 
 always very injurious to the vine." Manures are generally 
 regarded as prejudicial in warm climates ; but in colder 
 aspects, as upon the Rhine, they are often not only useful, 
 but necessary. Different methods of planting and training 
 the vine are adopted in different countries; but it is gene 
 rally found advantageous to keep the plant as low as possi 
 hie, fur the same vine yields fruit of very different qualities, 
 depending upon the mode in which it is trained and trimmed 
 But there are no circumstances by which the quality of the 
 wine is more affected than those dependent u|K>n the state 
 (if maturity of the grape When grapes are fully ripe they 
 generally yield the most perfect wine as to strength and 
 flavour : if suffered to shrivel to a greater or less extent, 
 the wine will be more saccharine ; and if they are not fully 
 mature, it will be brisk, and often tart. " In general, dry 
 and clear weather ought to be chosen for the vintage ; but 
 when a slow and imperfect fermentation is required, as in 
 the case of the brisk champagne wines, the grapes that are 
 collected during a fog, or before the dew that has settled on 
 the vines is dispersed, are found to answer best, and to yield 
 the largest quantity of must." The few facts which have 
 now been stated will show how many minute circum- 
 stances must be attended to in the selection und cultivation 
 of the vine; and it is astonishing how much the character 
 and excellence of the produce depend upon causes which 
 often appear so trifling as to be beneath notice. But the 
 ultimate production of good wine involves a variety of 
 other considerations connected with the process of fermen- 
 tation, in the due management of which much practical 
 skill is often requisite, and the utmost cleanliness always 
 indispensable. The component parts of must, and the 
 changes which they undergo in the fermenting vats, have 
 already been noticed (see Fermentation) ; so that it only 
 remains here to add a few remarks upon the general char- 
 acters and composition of the principal varieties of wine. 
 The colour of the wine almost always depends upen the 
 husks of the grape ; for the pulp, even of the blackest fruit, 
 is, with very few exceptions, equally colourless with that 
 of the green grape. The seeds of the grape, and more 
 especially the stalks, containing tan and extractive matter, 
 also modify the taste of the wine ; hence they are added to 
 Port wino, but generally excluded from the delicate wines 
 of Bourdeaux and of the Rhine. The peculiar aroma or 
 perfume is sometimes dependent upon very recondite causes, 
 as in the fine wines of Burgundy. In some cases it is acquired 
 by age, and appears to depend upon some chemical change, 
 perhaps connected with the formation of something like a 
 variety of ether ; but it also depends upon the quality of 
 the grape, as in the Muscadine and Frontignac wines. The 
 6 ' ' 1341 
 
WINES. 
 
 leading character, however, of wine must he referred to 
 the alcohol which it contains, and upon which its intoxi- 
 cating powers principally depend : not exclusively, how- 
 ever ; for some of the lighter wines, if brisk and effervescent, 
 seem to derive from the admixture of carbonic acid a pecu- 
 liar exhilarating power not directly proportional to their 
 alcoholic contents. And again, we find other^vines, among 
 which certain Burgundies stand foremost, which are emi- 
 nently heating, though not very strong. The following 
 table shows the quantity of alcohol (of the specific gravity 
 of 825 at 60°), by measure, contained in 100 parts by measure 
 of the respective wines. Some other vinous and spirituous 
 liquors have been added, for the purpose of showing the 
 relation which they bear to wine in the proportion of alcohol 
 which they contain. 
 
 Proportion of 
 
 
 Proportion cf 
 
 Spirit 
 
 per Cent. 
 
 
 Spirit per cent. 
 
 ty 
 
 Measure. 
 
 Average. 
 
 by 
 
 Measure. Average. 
 
 . 1.1-1 
 
 26-47 
 
 
 33. Syracuse . 
 
 15-28 
 
 Ditio 
 
 24 35 
 
 
 34. Sauterne . 
 
 14-22 
 
 Ditto 
 
 15 90 
 
 
 35. Grenache . 
 
 21-24 
 
 
 
 
 25-41 
 
 36. Burgundy 
 
 16 60 
 
 2. Raisin wine 
 
 2640 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 15-22 
 
 Ditto 
 
 25-77 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 14-53 
 
 Ditto 
 
 23 20 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 11-95 
 
 
 
 
 25-12 
 
 Ditto (20 years 
 
 3. Marsala 
 
 2603 
 
 
 in bottle) 
 
 1216 
 
 Ditto 
 
 25 05 
 
 
 
 17-84 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1.V40 
 
 
 37. Hock 
 
 1437 
 
 
 
 2509 
 
 Ditto 
 
 13-00 
 
 4. Port 
 
 25-83 
 
 
 Ditto old in 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 24-29 
 
 
 cask) 
 
 8-88 
 
 Ditto 
 
 23-71 
 
 
 
 1208 
 
 Ditto 
 
 23-39 
 
 
 3S. Johannisberger 
 
 Ditto 
 
 22-30 
 
 
 (I7P8J . 
 
 8-71 
 
 Ditto 
 
 21-40 
 
 
 39. Rudisheimer 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1900 
 
 
 (IS!!) . 
 
 10-72 
 
 
 
 22-96 
 
 40. Rhenish . 
 
 7-36 
 
 5. Madeira . 
 
 2142 
 
 
 41. Nice 
 
 14-36 
 
 Ditto 
 
 23 93 
 
 
 42. Barsac 
 
 13-S9 
 
 Ditto (Sercial) 21-49 
 
 
 43. Tent 
 
 13-3* 
 
 Ditto 
 
 19-24 
 
 
 44. Champagne 
 
 
 
 
 22-K 
 
 (still, . 
 
 13SC 
 
 6. Currant wine 
 
 20 55 
 
 
 Ditto (spark* 
 
 
 7. Sherry . 
 
 19-81 
 
 
 ling) 
 
 12-80 
 
 Ditto 
 
 19-83 
 
 
 Ditto (red) 
 
 12-56 
 
 Dttto 
 
 18-79 
 
 
 Ditto (ditto) 
 
 11-30 
 
 Ditto 
 
 18-25 
 
 
 
 12 01 
 
 Ditto(very old) 23S0 
 
 
 45. Red Hermitage l->-32 
 
 
 
 1917 
 
 46. Vin de Grave 
 
 1394 
 
 S. Teneriffe . 
 
 19-79 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12-80 
 
 9. Colares . 
 
 19 75 
 
 
 47. Frontignac 
 
 12-79 
 
 10. Lachrvma 
 
 
 
 45. Cole Rotie 
 
 12-32 
 
 Cbnatii . 
 
 19-70 
 
 
 49. Gooseberry 
 
 
 11. Constantia 
 
 
 
 
 11-84 
 
 (white) . 
 
 1975 
 
 
 50. Orange wine 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 14-50 
 
 
 (average of 
 
 
 12. Ditto (red) 
 
 18-92 
 
 
 six samples 
 
 
 13. Lisbon 
 
 1894 
 
 
 made by a 
 
 m 
 
 M. Malaga (1666) 18-94 
 
 
 Loudon 
 
 
 15. Bucelias . 
 
 18-49 
 
 
 manufactu- 
 
 
 16 Ked Madeira 
 
 22 30 
 
 
 rer) 
 
 11-26 
 
 Ditto 
 
 IS 40 
 
 
 51. Tnkay . 
 
 988 
 
 17 CapeMuschat IS 1 
 
 
 52. Elder wine 
 
 8-79 
 
 IS. Cape Madeira 
 
 22 94 
 
 
 53. Cyder (highest 
 
 Ditto 
 
 20-50 
 
 
 average) 
 
 9-37 
 
 Ditto . * 
 
 18.1 1 
 
 
 Ditto (lowest 
 
 
 19. Stein wine 
 
 10-60 
 
 
 ditto) . 
 
 5-21 
 
 20. Grape wine 
 
 IS- 11 
 
 
 54. Perry (average 
 
 
 21. Calcavella 
 
 19 20 
 
 
 of four sam 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 18-10 
 
 
 pies) . 
 55. Mead 
 
 7-26 
 
 22. Vidonia . 
 
 19-25 
 
 
 7 32 
 
 23. Alba Flora 
 
 17-26 
 
 
 56. Ale (Burton) 
 
 8 88 
 
 24. Malaga . 
 
 17-26 
 
 
 Ditto ( Edin- 
 
 
 25. White Hermi 
 
 
 
 burgh) . 
 
 6-20 
 
 Inge 
 
 17-43 
 
 
 Ditto (Dorches- 
 
 26. Rousillon . 
 
 1900 
 
 
 ter) 
 
 5-56 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 17-26 
 
 
 
 
 
 27. Alcatico . 
 
 16 20 
 
 
 57. Brown stout 
 
 6-80 
 
 2S. jElna 
 
 30 00 
 
 
 58. London porter 
 
 
 29. Claret . 
 
 17-11 
 
 
 (average) 
 
 4 20 
 
 Ditto 
 
 16 32 
 
 
 59. Ditto small beer 
 
 Ditto 
 
 14-08 
 
 
 (ditto) . 
 
 1-29 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12 91 
 
 
 60. Brandy . 
 
 63 39 
 
 
 _— — 
 
 15-20 
 
 61. Rum 
 
 53-83 
 
 30. Malmsey Ma- 
 
 
 
 62. Gin 
 
 51-60 
 
 deira 
 
 16-40 
 
 
 63. Scotch whis- 
 
 
 31. Lunel 
 
 15-52 
 
 
 key 
 
 54 32 
 
 32. Mteraai (red) 
 
 15-52 
 
 
 64. Irish ditto 
 
 63 90 
 
 Ditto (while) 
 
 19S0 
 
 
 
 
 Jt is necessary, however, to observe, that the proportion 
 of alcohol in the same wine varies materially according to 
 the age of the wine and other circumstances, and that 
 wines having the same quantities of alcohol in each, may, 
 notwithstanding, differ essentially in every other respect. 
 Practically wines are distinguished by their colour, hard- 
 ness or softness on the palate, their aroma, and their being 
 still or effervescing. In many cases, too, the same variety 
 of wine may be distinguished into a number of sub- varieties, 
 differing more or less in one or more of these particulars. 
 Thus, in the case of champagne, some varieties are red, 
 and others white or straw-coloured ; some are dry and 
 others sweet ; the aroma of one variety differs from that of 
 anotner ; and, while some are still, others have every dif- 
 ferent degree of effervescing power. The same variety 
 exists in the case of clarets, and, indeed, of almost every 
 description of wine. 
 1343 
 
 The differences in the qualities of wines depend patty 
 on differences in the vines, but more on the differences of 
 the soils in which they are planted, in the exposure of the 
 vineyards, and in the treatment of the grapes, and llie 
 mode of manufacturing the wine. Though the vim- grown 
 in every sort of soil, a rising ground, or gently-sloping bill 
 facing the south, with ;t loose, gravelly, or rather velcru ic 
 soil, is by far the best situation for a vineyard : 
 
 It is in such situations that all the finest wines are |ro 
 duced. 
 
 It would be useless in a work of this kind to attempr 
 characterizing the different sorts of wine used in Great 
 Britain. Port and sherry have long enjoyed a decided pre- 
 ponderance in our markets; and it must be admitted that, 
 when of good quality and sparingly used, they are very 
 unexceptionable wines. But they are often harsh, and 
 have the disadvantage of being strong and heating, so that 
 they cannot be taken, to anything like excess, by most per- 
 sons with impunity. They are well enough for a glass or 
 two, but they are not wines for conversation or society. It 
 is not probable, indeed, had it not been for the high differ- 
 ential duties with which French wines were so long bur- 
 dened, that the use of port and sherry would ever have 
 been so general in England ; and since the abolition of the 
 differential du,ty in 1831, French wines have begun gradu 
 ally, though slowly, to make their way from the highest, 
 to which they have hitherto been mostly confined, among 
 the middle classes. They are, indeed, superior, in almost 
 all respects, to every other variety. The best growths of 
 claret, champagne, and Burgundy, seem to unite till the 
 qualities required to constitute perfect wines. Htid they 
 been known in antiquity we apprehend they would have 
 engrossed most part of the praise so profusely lavished on 
 the Pramnian, Cecuhan, Falernian, and other renowned 
 wines of Greece and Rome. We subjoin 
 An Account of the Quantities of the different sorts of Wine 
 imported into and exported from the United Kingdom; 
 the Quantities entered and retained for Home Consump- 
 tion ; and the Rates of Duty in 1840. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Quantities 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 retained 
 
 
 
 
 Quan'ities 
 
 
 for I'nn 
 
 Rates 
 
 
 
 Upnil 
 
 
 sumption, 
 
 of 
 
 Wine. 
 
 Quantities 
 
 which 
 
 Quantities 
 
 deducing 
 
 Duly 
 
 imponed. 
 
 Duty has 
 
 exported. 
 
 eiport 
 
 per 
 
 
 
 been paid 
 
 
 u.'ter Pay- 
 ment of 
 
 Gal- 
 Ion. 
 
 
 
 
 Gallons. 
 
 Duty. 
 
 Gallons. 
 
 771. 
 
 
 Gallons. 
 
 Gallons. 
 
 
 460.021 
 
 4 5-.U62 
 
 5,467 
 
 456 7:3 
 
 2 9 
 
 
 570,19") 
 
 362,: 12 
 
 155,375 
 
 34I.S4I 
 
 56 
 
 Portugal .... 
 
 2,9S!),3^3 
 
 2/73.4U4 
 
 391 SSI 
 
 2.6S>,534 
 
 do. 
 
 Spanish .... 
 
 4,022 315 
 
 2.641,171 
 
 l,23:-,87s 
 
 2.500.76U 
 
 do. 
 
 Madeira .... 
 
 279,157 
 
 122.010 
 
 143.829 
 
 1 12,555 
 
 d.i. 
 
 Rhenish .... 
 
 75,011 
 
 82,381 
 
 14,760 
 
 60,056 
 
 do. 
 
 
 250,804 
 
 30,149 
 
 2S0.607 
 
 29.'29b 
 
 do. 
 
 
 1,241 
 
 191 
 
 277 
 
 191 
 
 do. 
 
 Sicilian and o'.hersons 
 
 671,517 
 
 391,124 
 
 IS9,:o9 
 
 383.H4 
 
 do. 
 
 Mixed, in bond 
 
 Total . 
 
 
 6,343.204 
 
 18.51* 
 
 
 do. 
 
 9.31 1,247 
 
 2.437.07S 
 
 6 5.M) 922 
 
 WINGS. In naval matters. Passages along the sides 
 of the ship between the fore and after cockpit. 
 
 Winqs, in Plants, are membranous expansions of differ 
 ent parts. The two lateral oblong petals of a Papiliona 
 ceous corolla, the two lateral sepals of a P61yga.ui, the ex 
 pansion from the back of the fruit of the ash-tree, from tho 
 sides of the seed of a Bignonia, and from the surface of 
 many Umbelliferous fruits, are all called wuigs. 
 Wings. In Architecture. See Al*. 
 WI'NTER. One of the four seasons of the year. Win 
 ter is usually understood to begin with the shortest day 
 and to end when the sun returns to the vernal equinox. 
 
 WI'PERS, in some kinds of machinery, as oil-mills 
 powder-mills, fulling-mills, are pieces projecting generally 
 from horizontal axles, for the purpose of raising stampers, 
 pounders, or heavy pistons, in vertical directions, and then 
 leaving them to fall by their own weight. The principal 
 object to be attended to in the construction of wipers is to 
 give them such a form that the weight shall be raised with 
 a uniform force and velocity. (Gregory's Mechanics ; .Ap- 
 pendix to Ferguson's Lectures, by Brewster ; Willis'* 
 Principles of Mechanism.) 
 
 WIRE-DRAWING. The art of extending the ductile 
 metals into wire. The operation Is performed by casting 
 or hammering the metal into a bar, which is then succes- 
 sively drawn through holes in a steel plate, each being 
 smaller than the other, until the requisite fineness is at 
 tained. The holes through which extremely fine wires of 
 platinum, gold, or silver are occasionally drawn, are some 
 times made in a diamond or ruby. See Gold. &c. 
 WIT (Germ, witz), has been defined briefly to he tht- 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 unexi>ected combination of distant resemblances. The | 
 term wit hits in the course of two centuries passed through 
 more significations thin most others in the English tan- 
 Without going further back than the reign of 
 James 1., wit is used by Sir J. Davies .is the most general 
 the intellectual faculties, of which reason judg- 
 ment, wisdom, &.c, are subdivisions. In the time of Cow- 
 ley and Ilobbes, it came to denote a superior degree of un- 
 derstanding, and more particularly a quick and brilliant 
 reason. By Dry den it is used as very nearly synonymous 
 With talent or ability, but alter his time, and more par- 
 ticularly by Addison in his papers on Wit, we find a grad- 
 ual approximation to the modern signification of the term. 
 
 The forms of wit are so various that it would be impos- 
 sible to include them all within the circle of a precise de- 
 but the following comprehensive enumeration of 
 . in-, by the celebrated Dr. Barrow may be interest- 
 ing to the reader. '•Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to 
 a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial 
 saying, or in forging an apposite tale ; sometimes it playeth 
 taking advantage from the ambigui- 
 ty of their sense, or the affinity of their sound ; sometimes 
 It is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression ; sometimes 
 it lurketh under an odd similitude ; sometimes it is lodged 
 in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, 
 hi a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting, or cleverly 
 retorting an objection; sometimes it is couched in a bold 
 of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hy|ierbole, in 
 i startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contra- 
 dictions, or in acute nonsense; sometimes a scenical re- 
 tion of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a 
 mimical look or gesture, posse til tor ii : sometimes an af- 
 "netimes a presumptuous bluntness 
 givcll; it being; sometimes it rtsetb only from a lucky hit- 
 ling upon what is strange; sometimes from a crafty wrest- 
 .ng obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in 
 jne knows not what, and springe th up one can hardly tell 
 how. lis ways are unaccountable and inexplicable, being 
 answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy and wind- 
 ings of language." (See, as to the dilference of meaning 
 between tcU and hulls, Kdin. Km., vol. iii., p. 399.) 
 
 WITCH, WITCHCRAFT. It has been a subject of 
 much controversy whether the verse, "Thou sbalt not 
 suffer a witch to live," in the 9Sd chapter of Exodus, is cor- 
 rectly rendered in modern versions. The Septuagint ren- 
 Jer it by ftipu-axos, a poisoner. It is, however, generally 
 Held, that the latter interpretation is not the true one, and 
 Ibat the practice here condemned was that of pretended 
 I'. vjnation by means of supernatural agency. This was, 
 oy the Jewish law, an act of rebellion against the Al- 
 mighty Ruler of the Jewish nation, and punished as such. 
 M Deuteronomy, xviii. 10, 11.) The only detailed 
 and particular narrative of witchcraft in the Old Testa- 
 ment is that of the evocation of Samuel by the witch of 
 Emlor. (See on this subject Sir Walter Scott's Second Let- 
 ter on Dcmunology and Witchcraft.) 
 
 Among the Greeks, a general belief prevailed in magical 
 practices and Incantations, especially by women ; and 
 rbessaly was the region most celebrated for the pursuit 
 of these arts by its inhabitants. The same superstition was 
 equally prevalent among the Romans. But, in the sense 
 in which the word is tsed in modern limes, a witch is sup- 
 pitecd to derive her power from a peculiar compact with 
 evd spirits ; and this species of witchcraf' is of course pos- 
 terior to the rise of Christianity, although the belief in de- 
 moniacal possession was common from the first ages of the 
 Christian church, and a particular class of the clergy was 
 early set apart for the purpose of conjuring devils, with the 
 name of exorcists. The first traces of the modern super- 
 stition respecting witchcraft are perhaps to be found in 
 Jlufrustine. who speaks of magicians as living in society 
 with devils, and having a compact with them. The an- 
 cient witchcraft of the classical limes became easily con- 
 nected in vulgar belief with the sii|ierstitions arising out of 
 Christian theology. As early as the Council of Ancyra 
 (308). the belief in transformations by magical art (of which 
 we find so remarkable an instance in the romance of Apu- 
 leiusj is condemned as heretical. The gods of the ancient 
 mythology, by the zealous preaching of the Christian cler- 
 gy, acquired in popular imagination the attributes of de- 
 mons; and there is little doubt that many of the supposed 
 assemblies of witches and devil-worshippers, which terri- 
 fied the imaginations of the chroniclers and historians of 
 saints in the early part of the dark ages, originated in the 
 secret meetings of the proscribed worshippers of Pagan 
 deities, who endeavoured to secure their privacy by terri- 
 fying their orthodox neighbours. (See a poem of Gogthe's 
 on this subject.) From all these causes combined, the be- 
 lief In witchcraft grew, ns has been observed, side by side 
 with the prevailing worship of saints and relics. About 
 the lime of Charlemagne and his successors, we find one 
 species of imaginary witchcraft peculiury prevalent. Storms 
 
 and tempests were atlributed to certain magicians (defen 
 sores), who were believed, as in the classical mythology, to 
 have acquired a power of controlling the elements; but 
 Ihis belief was condemned by the church as superstitious. 
 The very general superstition (which also is mentioned by 
 Augustine) of assemblies of females riding through the air 
 with the demon Diana, Minerva, or Ilerodias (from which, 
 in later days, the notions of the witch festival on Ihe Brac- 
 ken in Germany, the French sabbat.&c, were all derived;, 
 is also reprobated by the divines of this period. It has been 
 supposed by some, that the sudden spread of intelligence, 
 and the cast of noble and more liberal sentiment which 
 prevailed in Europe about the time of the Crusades, check- 
 ed for a time, at least among the higher orders, the spread 
 of debasing superstitions; but if this was really the case, 
 the elfect was but temporary. Up to this time we have 
 found ihe church generally condemning most of the popu- 
 lar fancies respecting demoniac agency as superstitious ; 
 but from the end of the ISth century we find them gradual- 
 ly gaining ground, so as to become articles of religious ere 
 dence. At the coronation of Richard I., Cceur de Lion, 
 Jews and women were forbidden to attend ; the latter be- 
 cause so many of them were suspected of witchcraft. The 
 works of Gervase of Tilbury (at the beginning of the 13th 
 century) give, perhaps, the best picture of the extent to 
 which similar opinions prevailed about that epoch. In the 
 same century, witches and heretics were first connected in 
 the eye of the church: the commissioners who tried the 
 various sectaries of the time were equally directed to in 
 quire into and punish magical practices. In the 14th cen 
 tury the persecution of witches assumed a more regular 
 and severe character. The well-known accusations against 
 the Templars (1309), in which all the common charges 
 of compacts with the devil, witch assemblies, etc., were 
 mingled with those of atheism and heresy, were but the 
 prelude to a long series of similar proceedings. About 
 ihis lime the south of France, north of Italy, and some 
 parts of Germany, seem to have been most Infested with 
 demoniacal agency. The female sex seems, from the earli- 
 est times, to have been most implicated in the public hor- 
 ror of witchcraft ; and from Ihe commencement of the 15th 
 century we find this common notion become a confirmed 
 doctrine : almost all the decrees of councils, etc., which 
 speak of witchcraft, and the prosecutions which are car 
 ried on, henceforward are directed against women only. 
 From this time, therefore, we may date (as far as accuracy 
 is practicable on such subjects) the separation in popular 
 belief of the higher magic practised by learned and distin- 
 guished men, from the petty witchcraft of which the great 
 performers were poor, old. and ignorant women. Many of 
 the great magicians were believed to operate their wonders 
 by the control which they had acquired over inferior spj 
 ritual agents, without any express compact with the devil ; 
 and although such practices were often condemned by the 
 church, always liablo to suspicion, and sometimes brought 
 those who indulged in them (together with alchemists and 
 astrologers) under the cognizance of criminal tribunate, yet 
 they were always considered as of a different order alto 
 gether from the feats of common witches. In 1484 appear 
 ed the famous bull of Innocent VIII., "Summis desider 
 antes aflectibus." In this remarkable instrument all the 
 absurdities of the popular superstition are formally recapit- 
 ulated, and a commission directed to three individuals (In- 
 stitor, Sprenger, and Grcmper) to examine and punish 
 witches in the German empire. Although immediately 
 relating to Germany only, this bull is rightly considered by 
 Herzog (the author of the nrticle on witchcraft in Ersch 
 and Gruber's Encyclopaedia, from whom we have borrowed 
 largely on the present subject) as forming a period in tiie 
 history of this superstition. Although much cruelty had 
 been committed before in the pursuit of this imaginary 
 crime, it is from this solemn confirmation of the vulgar su- 
 perstition that we must date the continuous course of legal 
 persecution which lasted for two centuries over the greater 
 part of Europe. 
 
 The details of these legal proceedings bear a striking 
 similarity in all rhe countries in which this baleful super- 
 stition so long prevailed It has been seen that by the bull 
 of Innocent VIII., witchcraft was rendered a crime pecu 
 liarly cognizable by ecclesiastical authorities: so it remain- 
 ed for the most part in Catholic countries, especially where 
 the Inquisition was established ; and this constituted the 
 chief difference between the procedure in those regions and 
 that which prevailed in Protestant districts, where the civil 
 magistrate took cognizance of the offence. Thus the vari- 
 ous forms of religious observance which were interwoven 
 with the judicial proceeding in the former, exorcisms and 
 so forth, were for the most part disused by Protestants. In 
 other respects, the mode of investigation and punishment 
 was much the same. Everywhere they exhibited a singu 
 lar mixture of legal refinement with popular violence 
 Thus the various ordeals by which suspected witches 
 
 1343 
 
WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 purged themselves (one of the most vulgar superstitions 
 connected with witchcraft) were conducted with gravity 
 and regularity under the eye of the law. The best known 
 in England was that of water : if the accused swam when 
 thrown in, it was held as a proof of guilt. On the Conti- 
 nent a favourite mode, among many others, was by weigh 
 Ing. In the scales set apart for this purpose a true witch 
 was always found to weigh more than her previously as- 
 certained weight. There was in the 17th century a weigh- 
 ing beam in Budewater, in Holland, of such celebrity, that 
 persons accused of witchcraft in many neighbouring pro- 
 vinces used to appeal to it. When, however, the suspect- 
 ed person was in the hands of the tribunal, there was in 
 general one only mode of procedure — by torture. This was 
 carried to the most horrible and unheard-of excesses ; and 
 as it was generally recognised that witchcraft was a crime 
 entirely out of ordinary rules, the various provisions of the 
 civil or municipal laws by which that dreadful practice waa 
 mitigated were wholly neglected, and the accused aban- 
 doned to all the cruelty with which fear or fanaticism 
 might inspire the judges. In England, which forms in this 
 respect a solitary exception, torture was not judicially prac- 
 tised ; but the various severities to which the unfortunate 
 prisoners were subject had probably nearly equal effect. 
 And thus every where the witch persecutions produced 
 the same result — confessions, nninely, of all the strange 
 and monstrous crimes with which the accused lay charged. 
 These appear to have grown more voluminous and more 
 utterly incredible in every generation ; and this may be 
 naturally accounted for: for when a witch had made up 
 her mind to confess, it cost her nothing to promulgate the 
 most extravagant inventions; and these being regarded as 
 undoubted truths, formed the basis of interrogatories to be 
 administered to other unhappy beings who might be brought 
 under the same accusation. The punishment was uniform- 
 ly death, usually at the stake. 
 
 Much has been said concerning the connexion between 
 religious fanaticism and the superstition of witchcraft. It 
 has already been seen that the cruelties and absurdities of 
 witch persecution had reached a great height even before 
 the Reformation ; but it can scarcely be denied that the 
 strong religious excitement which produced and accompa- 
 nied that event was in some way connected with the rapid 
 spread and development of that atrocious system. The 
 more intense the belief in the overruling providence of 
 God, and his immediate interference in the course of ordi- 
 nary events (which especially characterized the revival of 
 religion), the more does the parallel belief in the agency of 
 evil spirits, and their dealings with man, appear to take 
 root in the imagination. Sir VV. Scott observes that, among 
 Protestant sects, the Calvinists (whose views of religion 
 were at once the most gloomy and the must engrossing) 
 seem to have afforded tlie most terrible examples of this 
 prevailing mania. There seems also to have been a con- 
 stantly recurring tendency to treat witchcraft and heresy as 
 allied offences. It appears, upon the whole, that the per- 
 secutions during the 16th and 17th centuries were most vio- 
 lent in those countries which were the scene of much strife 
 between the two religions, or in which the Calvinist opin- 
 ions were pushed to an extreme — France, the Netherlands, 
 Northern and Western Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, 
 England under the Commonwealth, and at a still later pe- 
 riod New England. A singular example of the contagion 
 of fanaticism suddenly spreading with extraordinary vio- 
 lence, and subsiding again after one terrible outbreak, is to 
 be found in the history of the witch persecutions in Swe- 
 den, in the end of the 17th century. In Italy, with the ex- 
 ception of one or two northejn districts, the superstition 
 was generally less prevalent, or at least less distressing in 
 its effects ; and the same may be said of Spain, after the 
 first period of the history of the Inquisition. 
 
 Among many and voluminous authors who wrote disqui- 
 sitions on witchcraft with a full conviction of its reality, 
 we may cite, as some of the most remarkable, Sprenger, 
 one of Pope Innocent's three inquisitors, whose celebrated 
 Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) contains a 
 complete code of precedents for inquisitors, which was 
 adopted, varied, and extended through succeeding genera- 
 tions; Delrio trie Jesuit, the author of Magical Disquisi- 
 tions ; Bodinus ; and Remigius, a judge in the duchy of Lor- 
 raine, who put to death eight hundred witches in sixteen 
 years, and was at last himself burnt as a conjuror. In 
 England, King James I. has acquired an unenviable celeb- 
 rity by bis literary zeal against witchcroft. Even from the 
 earliest times, there were not wanting here and there bold 
 and enlightened individuals, who ventured to publish their 
 sentiments against the vulgar delusion. Ulric Molitor, a dis- 
 tinguished divine at the period of the Council of Constance, 
 avowed his doubts of the very existence of the crime of 
 witchcraft. In 1556 appeared the book of Wier (a native 
 of Brabant), Dc Prastigiis Damonum, in which he exposes 
 the cruelty and absurdity of the judicial proceedings ; but 
 
 WIZARD. 
 
 either from caution, or from his own imperfect enlighten 
 ment, he ascribes the confessions of the witc.ies to their 
 own melancholy, or the delusion of the devil so working 
 on them as to make them believe they had seen and done 
 what they avowed. In England, Reginald Scot, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, was still more advanced beyond his 
 age. Even at the end of the 17th century, Balthazar Bek 
 ker. a Dutch Jesuit, for having ventured to assail the pre 
 valent superstition in his Monde Enchanti, was persecuted, 
 and died in want. The writings of Thomasius, about 1700, 
 had much effect in Germany, and prepared the way for the 
 abolition of witch persecutions in all her Protestant states 
 But the public mind was at that period rapidly changing 
 Louis XIV. had already put an end to them by edict in 
 France. The last execution on account of witchcraft in 
 England was probably in 1682 ; although the statute against 
 it was not repealed until the 9th of Geo. 2. In Scotland, a 
 woman was executed in Sutherlandshire in 1722. Bui the 
 practice lingered on later in some Continental districts, as 
 in Catholic Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. The bud- 
 prioress of a convent was burnt at Wurtzberg in 1749. And 
 the last, probably, of all the victims of this superstition 
 was burnt at Glarus, in Switzerland, in 1783. It now exists 
 only as a vulgar delusion, which it will probably require 
 some centuries more wholly to extirpate. It is prevalent to 
 a degree little suspected among the English peasantry in 
 remote districts. The writer of this article has seen a 
 horse-shoe suspended inside over the door of a gaol in a 
 Cornish borough, as a protection against the " ill wishes" 
 to which the guardians of such an establishment naturally 
 considered themselves exposed. The most painstaking 
 collection of learning on this strange subject will be found 
 in Worst's Zaubcr- Bibliothck. An amusing essay on it is 
 contained in the Quarterly Review, vol. xlviii. See also 
 Qrimm's Deutsche Mythologie, passim. 
 
 Wl'TENA GEMO'TE, or MEETING OF THE WISE 
 MEN. The great national council of the Anglo-Saxon 
 kings ; also termed the " Mycel-getheaht," or Great 
 Thought. Who composed the " witan" cannot now be 
 ascertained: bishops, abbots, earls, aldermen, thanes ot 
 the Danish burghs, &c. attended. It seems that in East 
 Angfla the possession of forty hides of land was necessary 
 to entitle n person to rank among those termed in the Lat 
 in of the age " proceres," who appear to have been mem 
 bers of the great council. The powers and character Oi 
 the witena gemote passed to the great council of the early 
 Norman kings, which are called by the same name by 
 Saxon writers. The subject has been abundantly discuss 
 ed by older and more recent antiquarians; the reader may 
 consult an article in the Ed. Rev., vol. xxxiv. 
 
 WI'THERITE. In Mineralogy, a name tippled to car 
 bonate of baryta, in honour of Dr. Withering, who first dis 
 covered it at Anglesark in Lancashire. 
 
 WI'TNESS. In Law, one who gives evidence in a ju 
 dicial proceeding. In civil cases, witnesses are compelled 
 to attend by the process called subpana ad testificandum 
 (which see), and punishable if they neglect to do so by at- 
 tachment or action. In criminal cases, by subpeena or by 
 recognisance taken by the magistrate before whom the in 
 formation is given. 
 
 By the law as it at present stands, witnesses are disqual 
 ified or rendered "incompetent" by reason — 1. Of want ol 
 reason or understanding; 2, Want of religious principle 
 that is, their want of belief in a God and a future state ol 
 rewards and punishments; 3. Infamy ; that is, conviction 
 of an infamous crime, and judgment thereupon ; the crimes 
 which fall within this class being treason, felony, and oth 
 er offences which involve the charge of falsehood. The 
 suffering of the punishment, if so provided by statute, re 
 stores the witness to competency, as does also pardon ; the 
 only exception being the case of convictions for perjury oi 
 subornation of perjury, which disqualify forever unless 
 reversed; 4. Interest; on which grounds the heads c-f ex- 
 clusion are numerous, and the distinctions very refined, 
 the general principle being, in civil causes, in courts ol 
 common law, that every one interested in the event and in 
 the verdict is excluded. Sec Evidence. 
 
 The policy of these exclusions has been matter of much 
 debate ; and, perhaps, the only practical reason which can 
 really be given for this is, that the time of courts of justice 
 being limited, it is advisable to exclude at once from con- 
 sideration all those classes of evidence which, from their 
 peculiar deficiency, must be of less weight than the testi- 
 mony of witnesses at once upright and disinterested. This 
 year (1842) Lord Chief Justice Denman has brought in a 
 bill for the abolition of all incompetency by reason of in- 
 famy or interest, except in the case of parties to the suit, 
 and one or two other special exceptions. 
 
 WI'ZARD. (Seems to be from the old verb witan, to 
 know, and of the same derivation with wise and witch : 
 Glanville, Sadditismus Triumphatus.) The popular name 
 in England for a sorcerer. See Sorcery, Witchcraft. 
 
WODEN 
 
 WO'DEN, or WUOTAN. An Anglo-Saxon divinity, 
 
 considered to correspond with the Mercury of the ancient 
 
 Greeks and Romans ; from whom Wednesday derives its 
 
 3i e Mem. de PAc. des Inscr., vol. xxiv.) He is 
 
 sometimes also, though erroneously, considered as identical 
 
 Odi.v. 
 
 WOLF FISH. The name of a species offish (Anar- 
 
 '«.■.-, Linn.), which subsists on whelks and other 
 
 which it seizes by means of strong conical 
 
 slightly-curved anterior teeth, set in the jaws like grap- 
 
 ks, and bruises by the action of very powerful 
 
 molar teeth. The flavour of this forbidding- 
 
 looking fish is much superior to what might bo supposed 
 
 ral low estimation in which it is held. 
 
 WOLFRAM. A native tungstate of iron and man- 
 
 Wo'i.LASTON'lTE. A name applied by some miner- 
 to a species of prismatic augite, in honour of Dr. 
 i.m. 
 U't ii >D, in Plants, physiologically considered, is the sup- 
 port of all the deciduous organs of respiration, digestion, 
 and impregnation ; the deposit of the secretions peculiar to 
 the individual species; and also Uie reservoir from which 
 | forming parts derive their sustenance until they 
 can establish a communication with the soil. It consists 
 organically of woody tissue, and various kinds of vessels 
 surrounded by cellular matter, and more or less carefully 
 In the youngest state it is succulent and brittle, 
 • nearly the same quality in all plants; but as it 
 ■•- the sides of the woody tissue become hardened 
 by the deposit within them of matter of 
 solidification, and wood then amines the colours and ap- 
 bs peculiar to different species. In the young state 
 (I sapwood or alburnum; when hardened and col- 
 oured it becomes duramen or hearticood. It abounds in 
 which may be, removed by simple washing; and 
 .-•■ii that the perishable quality of wood is owing 
 to the presence of this element. It is believed that the 
 ■ er of certain agents em]. loved to render 
 Wood durable depends upon their rendering the azotized 
 matter Insoluble. 
 
 Wood, or Timber. The trunks or main stems of ligne- 
 ous plants, which attain such dimensions as to be fit for 
 use in architectural construction. In general, every COUn- 
 . appr o p riate timber, which is produced by its in- 
 ; but there are some kinds of timber, such 
 as that of the oak and that of the pine, which, in conse- 
 of their durability and of commercial intercourse, 
 I in all countries. The most useful timbers of Eu- 
 ihe oak, the ash, the Scotch pine, the larch, and 
 those of North America are the hickory, 
 the (hUerext species of pine, and some species of oak; 
 tropical countries are the teak tree, the different 
 i bamboo, anil the palm. The oak, the teak, and 
 the larch are throughout the whole world found the most 
 limbers for shipbuilding; and the pine, and fir, 
 and the bamboo those most conveniently adapted for civil 
 architecture. 
 WOOD coal. A synonym of brown coal. 
 WOOD ENGRAVING. See Kngravino. 
 WOOD-OPAL. An opalized quartz occurring in various 
 
 ble forms. 
 WO( i' I >ST< IN B. Petrified wood. 
 
 WOOD-TIN. An opaque, fibrous, and nodular variety 
 of oxide of tin, of a brown colour, hitherto only found in 
 Cornwall. 
 WOODT FIBRE. Very slender, transparent membra- 
 • s tapering acutely to each end, lying in bundles 
 in the tissue of plants, and having no direct communica- 
 tion with each other. They are of extreme tenuity, and 
 form the substances called hemp and flax. 
 
 WOOL. (Germ, wolle.) A term used very indefinitely, 
 being applied both to the fine hair of animals, as sheep, 
 rabbits, some species of goats, &c., and to fine vegetable 
 is cotton (called in German baumwolle, or tree- 
 wool); hut when used without restriction it is generally 
 confined to the wool of sheep — a substance which, from 
 the remotest period of history, has been of primary im- 
 portance to mankind. In reference to textile fabrics, 
 sheep's wool is of two different sorts, the short and the 
 long stapled; each of which requires different modes of 
 manufacture in the preparation and spinning processes, as 
 also in the treatment of the cloth after it is woven, to fit 
 it for the market. Each of these is, moreover, distinguish- 
 ed in commerce by the names of fleece wools and dead 
 wools, according as they have been shorn at the usual 
 annual period from the living animal, or are cut from its 
 •kin after death. The latter are comparatively harsh, 
 weak, and incapable of imbibing the dyeing principles, 
 ;iecially if the sheep has died of some malignant 
 distemper. The annular pores, leading into the tubular 
 cavities of the filaments, seem, in this case, to have shrunk 
 and become obstructed. The time of year for sheep- 
 4Q 
 
 WOOL. 
 
 shearing most favourable to the quality of the wool, an 
 the comfort of the animal, is towards the end of June and 
 beginning of July— the period when Lord Leicester holds 
 his celebrated rural fete for that Interesting purpose. 
 
 The wool of the sheep has been surprisingly improved, 
 by its domestic culture. The moufion (Ovis ariea), the 
 parent stock from which our sheep is undoubtedly derived, 
 and which is still found in a wild state upon tlie mount- 
 ains of Sardinia, Corsica, Barbary, Greece, ami Asia Minor, 
 has a very short and coarse fleece, more like hair than 
 wool. When this animal is brought under the fostering 
 care of man, the rank fibres gradually disappear, while 
 the soft wool round their roots, little conspicuous in the 
 wild animal, becomes singularly developed. The ma 1 .-? 
 most speedily undergoes this change, and continues ever 
 afterward to possess far more power in modifying the 
 fleece of the offspring, than the female parent. The prod 
 uce of a breed from a conrse-woolled ewe ami a fine 
 woolled ram, is not of a mean quality between the two, 
 but halfway nearer that of the sire. By coupling the fe- 
 male thus generated, with such a male as the former, 
 another Improvement of one half will be obtained, af- 
 fording a staple three fourths finer than thai of the gran- 
 dam. By proceeding inversely, the wool would be as rap- 
 idly deteriorated. It is. therefore, a matter of the first con 
 sequence in wool husbandry, to exclude from the flock all 
 coarse-fleeced rams. 
 
 Long wool is the produce of a peculiar variety of sheep, 
 and varies in the length of its fibres from :t to 8 inches. 
 Such wool is not carded like cotton, but combed like flax, 
 either by hand or appropriate machinery. Short wool 
 is seldom longer than 3 or 4 inches ; it is susceptible of 
 Carding and felting, by which processes the filaments lie- 
 come first convoluted, and then densely matted together. 
 The shorter sorts of the combing wool are used princi- 
 pally for hosiery, though of late years the liner kinds 
 have been extensively worked up into merino ami iiuiiis- 
 seline-de-laine fabrics. Tho longer wools of" the Leices- 
 tershire breed are manufactured into hard yams, for 
 worsted pieces, such as waistcoats, carpets, bombazines, 
 poplins, crapes, &c. 
 
 The wool of which good broad-cloth is made should bo 
 not only shorter, but generally speaking, liner and softer 
 than the worsted wools, in order to fit them for the fulling 
 process. Some wool-sorters and wool-staplers acquire by 
 practice great nicety of discernment in judging of Wools 
 by the touch and traction of the fingers. Two years ngo 
 I made a series of observations upon different wools, and 
 published the results. The filaments of the finer qualities 
 
 varied in thickness from y-j-V?r t0 TTffo" °'" an ' nc * 1 ' lnn ' r 
 structure is very curious, exhibiting, in a good achromatic 
 microscope, at intervals of about ^-^ of an inch a series 
 of serrated rings, imbricated towards each other, !.- : tbe 
 joints of Equixettan, or, rather, like the scaly zone* ;.f i 
 serpent's skin. (See Philosophy of Manufactures, Jigs. It, 
 12, p. 01, 2d ed.) 
 
 There are four distinct qualities of wool upon every 
 sheep; the finest being upon the spine, from the neck to 
 within six inches of the tail, including one-third of the 
 breadth of the back ; the second covers the flanks be- 
 tween the thighs and the shoulders ; the third clothes the 
 neck and the rump; and the fourth extends upon the 
 lower part of the neck and breast down to the feet as also 
 upon a part of the shoulders and the thighs, to the bottom 
 of the hind quarter. These should be torn asunder, and 
 sorted, immediately after the shearing. 
 
 The, harshness of wools is dependent not solely upon 
 the breed of the animal, or the climate, but is owing to 
 certain peculiarities in the pasture, derived from the soil. 
 It is known, that in sheep fed upon chalky districts, wool 
 is apt to get coarse ; but in those upon a rich loamy soil, 
 it becomes soft and silky. The ardent sun of Spain ren- 
 ders the fleece of the Merino breed harsher than it is in 
 the milder climate of Saxony. Smearing sheep with a 
 mixlure of tar and butter is deemed favourable to the soft- 
 ness of their wool. 
 
 All wool, in its natural state, contains a quantity of a 
 peculiar potash-soap, secreted by the animal, called In 
 this country the yolk ; which may be washed out by wa- 
 ter alone, with which it forms a sort of lather. It consti- 
 tutes from 25 to 50 per cent of the wool, being most 
 abundant in the Merino breed of sheep ; and however fa- 
 vourable to the growth of the wool on the living animal, 
 should be taken out soon after it is shorn, lest it injure the 
 fibres by fermentation, and cause them to become hard 
 and brittle. After being washed in water, somewhat 
 more than lukewarm, the wool should be well messed, 
 and carefully dried. England grows annuall about 
 1,000,000 packs of wool, and imports 100,000 bags. r 're'# 
 Diet, of Arts.) , 
 
 The woollen manufacture was the early staple cu Eng 
 land The first impulse towards the improvement of tl- 
 . 1345 
 
WOOLSACK. 
 
 wooUen manufacture was given in the 14th century, by 
 Edward III., who invited a number of Flemish manufac- 
 turers to settle in England. But the manufacture laboured, 
 down almost to our own day, under a number of vexatious 
 and oppressive restrictions ; and it did not begin to make 
 any very rapid progress, or to participate in the wonderful 
 improvements made in the cotton trade, till the introduc- 
 tion of the gig-machine, &c, in 1802, and the repeal of, the 
 prohibitory acts of Edward VI. and Mary, in 1807. The 
 total value of the exports of woollen goods in 1839 
 amounted to £6,271,645, of which the exports to the 
 U. States made j£2,142,352. The woollen factories of 
 England and Wales employed, in 1838, 30,115 males, and 
 18,387 females. 
 
 WOOLSACK. The seat of the Lord Chancellor of 
 England, in the House of Lords, is so called, from its being 
 a large square bag of wool without back or arms, covered 
 with red cloth. 
 
 WOOTZ. A species of steel imported from Bengal, pe- 
 culiarly excellent for some cutting instruments. It appears 
 to contain minute portions of silicum and aluminum. 
 
 WO'RMING. An operation performed on puppies, con- 
 sisting in the removal of a vermiform ligament from under 
 the tongue ; it is sometimes supposed to prevent madness, 
 but, in fact, merely breaks them of their habit of gnawing. 
 
 WOULFE'S APPARATUS. A series of two or three- 
 necked bottles, connected by intermediate tubes, used in 
 the chemical labratory for impregnating water and other 
 liquids with various gases or vapours. 
 
 WRA'NGLER. At Cambridge, those who attain the 
 highest honours in the public mathematical examinations 
 for the degree of bachelor of arts are so called. At the 
 close of the last day of examination, those who have most 
 distinguished themselves (to the number of thirty at least) 
 are arranged in order of merit by the examiners, and divi- 
 ded into three classes : wranglers, senior optimes, and ju- 
 nior optimes. The first or senior wrangler is the most dis- 
 tinguished mathematician of his year. The name is prob- 
 ably derived from the public disputations in which candi- 
 dates for degrees were formerly required to exhibit their 
 powers ; of which the " exercises" still held at Cambridge 
 retain the form. 
 
 WRECKS. Goods cast up by the sea after a ship- 
 wreck', and left on land within the limits of some county. 
 The goods so brought to land belong at common law to the 
 king, or to the lord of the manor enjoying the franchise of 
 wreck. It was ordained by Henry I. and II. that such for- 
 feiture should not take place if any man or beast escaped 
 alive from the wreck ; and we find in Bracton (Henry III.) 
 that in his time if the goods could be known by marks to 
 appertain to any owner, it was no wreck, even if no living 
 creature escaped. The limitation of claims by the owner, 
 by stat. Westm., 1 (3 E. 1), was within a year and a day. 
 By 7 & 8 G. 4, plundering wrecked vessels or goods strand- 
 ed is felony. Goods cast overboard at sea, and not strand- 
 ed, are divided into jetsam, i. e., things sunk to the bottom ; 
 flotsam, things found floating; and ligsam, things sunk, but 
 fastened to a buoy or cork in order to be found again. 
 These are all the king's, if no owner appears to claim 
 them ; and they do not pass by the ordinary grant of 
 wreck. 
 
 WRIT. In Law, a precept in writing under seal, in the 
 name of the king, judge, or other person having jurisdic- 
 tion in the particular subject matter, and directed to some 
 public officer or private person, requiring him to do some- 
 thing in relation to a suit or action. Writs, though still 
 very multifarious, have been within the fest few years 
 much reduced in number. The original writ issuing out 
 of Chancery for the commencement of actions in the three 
 courts of common law is now superseded by three judicial 
 writs, n hich issue in the name of the chief justices of the 
 respective courts ; namely, the writ of summons, the writ 
 of capias ad respondendum, and the writ of detainer. The 
 first of these is the one in ordinary use ; the second is only 
 used when it is intended to arrest the defendant, and the 
 last when he is already in prison for some other cause. 
 
 WRITERS TO THE SIGNET. A numerous society 
 of lawyers in Scotland, equivalent to the highest class of 
 attorneys in England. They possess several privileges. 
 See Signet. 
 % WROUGHT. In Architecture, a term applied to any 
 
 material to denote that it is brought to a fair surface. 
 
 WUOTAN. See Woden. 
 
 X. 
 
 A. A letter borrowed from the Greek, and used chiefly 
 in words derived from ihat language. Numerically it sig 
 nifies 10; and as an abbreviation it is used for Christ: 
 Xmas for Christmas, &c 
 1346 
 
 YANOLITE. 
 
 XA'NTHIC. (Gr. lavOos, yellow.) Tending towards a 
 yellow colour, or some colour not green, of which yellow 
 forms a part; as orange, which is a mixture of yellow 
 and red ; scarlet, which is another mixture of the same 
 colours, &c. 
 
 XA'NTHIC ACID. (Gr. lavOoc, yellow, and ytvvaoi, I 
 generate.) An acid composed of sulphur, carbon, hydro- 
 gen, and oxygen, obtained in combination with potassa by 
 agitating sulpfiuret of carbon mixed with solution of puio 
 potassa in strong alcohol. Its compounds are mostly of a 
 yellow colour, whence its name. The relative proportions 
 of its component parts have not as yet been satisfactorily 
 obtained. 
 
 XA'NTHIC OXIDE. (Gr. \av6os, yellow.) A yellow 
 substance found by Dr. Marcet, composing a urinary calcu- 
 lus ; its solution in nitric acid, when evaporated to dryness, 
 left a bright lemon-coloured residue. 
 
 XE'BEC, a small three-masted vessel, constructed for 
 conveying merchandise or stores: it is chiefly found in the 
 Mediterranean and on the coasts of Spain and Portugal. 
 
 XENELA'SIA. (Gr. the expulsion of strangers.) A 
 Spartan institution which prohibited strangers from dwell- 
 ing in Sparta beyond a certain time, and also from entering 
 the city except on stated days. The object of this institu- 
 tion was to preserve the simplicity of manners of the na 
 tion, and prevent foreigners from prying into their measures ■ 
 but it acquired for Lacedtemon the reputation of great in- 
 hospitality. 
 
 XE'NIA. (Gr. tyros-) In Classical Antiquities, the pres 
 ents given by friends connected by the rites of hospitality as 
 pledges of that singular relation. In the Iliad, the mutual 
 gifts which pass between Glaucus and Diomede are so called. 
 
 XEROPHA'GIA. (Gr. \r,p.os, dry; <j> a yo>, J eat.) In 
 Ecclesiastical Antiquities, a name given to the rigorous 
 practice of certain fasts, during which nothing was con- 
 sumed but bread with salt, and water. It was particularly 
 observed in Holy Week. 
 
 XIPHIRHY'NCHS, Xiphirhynchi. (Gr. $i0 Oi r, a sword, 
 'pvyxos, a beak.) The name given by Latrcille to a family 
 of Acanthopterygious fishes, of which the sword-fish (Xiphi- 
 as) is the type. 
 
 XI'PHOSURES, Xiphosura. (Gr. \i<t>og. and ovpn, a tail.) 
 A name of a tribe of Crustaceans, comprehending those in 
 which the body terminates posteriorly in a long, hard, 
 sword-shaped appendage. 
 
 XYLO'GRAPHY. (Gr. lv\ov, wood, and yi ii/jw, I draw.) 
 The same as wood -engraving. See Enoravino. 
 
 XYLO'PHAGANS, Xylophaga. (Gr. tyXov, and fayu, 
 I eat.) The name of a tribe of Coleopterous insects, com 
 prehending those of which the larva; devour the wood of 
 trees in which they are developed ; also applied to a family 
 of Dipterous insects, the laryaj of which have similarly de 
 structivc habits. 
 
 XYLO'PHILANS, Xilophili. (Gr. \vlov, and ( Aru, 1 
 love.) The name of a tribe of beetles, consisting of those 
 which live on decayed wood. 
 
 XYLO'TROGES, Xylotrogi. (Gr. tyXov, and Tfiayo, 1 
 gnaw.) The name of a tribe of Serricorn beetles, compre 
 hending those which perforate timber. 
 
 XYNO'ECIA. In Classical Antiquities, an Athenian 
 festival in commemoration of the union by Theseus of the 
 little townships of Attica into one commonwealth : whence 
 the name, derived from \vvos, common; and 'vikiw, I inhabit. 
 
 XYST; or XY'STOS. (Gr. Ivorbs, from {vu, I polish.) 
 In ancient Architecture, an open, or sometimes covered 
 court, of great length in proportion to its width, with porti- 
 coes on three sides, for the performance of the uthletic ex 
 ercises of wrestling, running, &c. 
 
 Y. A letter borrowed from the Greek v, is considered a 
 consonant at the beginning, and a vowel in every other 
 place, in English words. As a vowel, it has exactly the 
 sound of i, being short or long, according to its position. 
 
 YACHT. A vessel of state or pleasure. 
 
 YA'GERS, or JAGERS. (Germ. Hunters.) Light in 
 fantry armed with rifles (chasseurs, riflemen). In the Prus- 
 sian service, the Yagers form a distinct corps with peculiar 
 discipline; in that of Austria, light infantry, generally from 
 the mountain districts. In Germany the term jagcr is ap- 
 plied to a peculiar species of higher servant attached to the 
 families of the aristocracy. 
 
 YA NKEE, the popular name for the New Englandei* 
 in America, and among English people pretty indiscrimi- 
 nately applied to all inhabitants of the United States, a word 
 for which many ridiculous etymologies have been assigned. 
 is, according to Dr. We'sh's Dictionary, "a corruption of 
 the word English by the Indians of North America." 
 
 YA'NOLITE. A mineralogical synonym of Axinit«. 
 which see. 
 
YARD. 
 
 CARD. The British standard measure of length. See 
 Measures. 
 
 Yard. A beam or rod suspended by a rope called the 
 . for the purjiose of extending a sail, signals, itc. 
 I a square yard when hung horizontally by 
 the middle . such a yard is turned round by braces. 
 
 YARD ARM. In Naval language, the extremity of the 
 nrd. Yard arm end yard-arm M B term descriptive of two 
 ther as close as possible. 
 The Sea, term for temporary deviation from a 
 
 YAWL. A particular kind of carvel-built boat, rather 
 narrow, and not carrying many oars. 
 YAWS. A disease in which eruptions form upon the 
 ibling a raspberry. &'ee Frambcesia. 
 YEAR. A period of time determined by (be revolution 
 1 tii in its orbit, and embracing the four seasons. 
 r is cither astronomical or civil. 
 tronomical year is determined by astronomical ob- 
 seivations, and is of different kinds, according to the celestial 
 body or the point of the heavens to which flie earth's revo- 
 '. When the earth's motion in its orbit is 
 . an immoveable point in the heavens, to a fixed 
 star, for example, the time of revolution is that which 
 ■ in the instant at which the star, the sun, and the 
 earth are in a straight line, till the earth returns again into 
 straight line with the sun and the star. This in- 
 terval is called the sidereal year. But when the earth's 
 motion is referred to a point of the ecliptic, as one of the 
 equinoctial points, or the tropics, the time of revolution is 
 that in which the earth returns to that point, and is called 
 Ihe equinoctial, or tropical, orsolarycar. On account ofthe 
 inoxes (sec Precession) the equinoc- 
 i points, in reference to the fixed stars, have 
 ion on the ecliptic, in consequence of which 
 i returns to one of these points In a shorter time 
 than it returns to the Bame lived star. 
 The length of the sidereal year is 365-2563612 mean solar 
 « :ii;.-) d. 6 h. 9 m. 9-6 sec. 
 
 inoctial or tropical year is 365-2422414 
 
 i ir days, or 305 d. 5 h. 48 in. 49 - 7 sec. (Baity' s 
 
 Tables, p. 10.) 
 
 The difference is 19 minutes 19-9 seconds of mean solar 
 
 being the time in which the earth describes in its orbit 
 
 I 50*1", the annual precession of the equinoxes. 
 
 WLTII. 
 
 The earth's motion may also be reckoned by the time in 
 
 which a revolution is completed with respect to the line o 
 
 the apsides or the line of the noi/m. In these cases the 
 
 times of revolution may be called respectively the anoma- 
 
 ycar and the nodical year: the former term is some- 
 
 nict with. 
 
 The cicil year is the year of the calendar. As it is always 
 supposed to begin with the beginning of a day, the civil year 
 contains a whole number of days ; and hence, in order that 
 the seasons may always correspond with the same parts of 
 the year, i: Qrom time to time to vary the length 
 
 ofthe year, or to intercalate a day when the fractional parts 
 neglected have accumulated to a whole day. The ancient 
 Egyptian year consisted invariably of 305 days, and hence 
 Called a vague or erratic year, because the first day of 
 the year in the course of 1460 years wandered, as it were, 
 over all the see 
 
 The Julian year, which is frequently employed in chrono- 
 logical reckoning, consists of 3654 days. Julius Caesar or- 
 dered that the civil year should consist of 3tj.j days for three 
 suco and that the fourth year should contain 
 
 . 30G days. This practice of intercalating a day every fourth 
 ' year has been adopted In all European countries, with the 
 modification introduced by the Gregorian calendar. The 
 mean Julian year is longer than the true tro;>ical year by 
 11 m. 10-3 sec, a difference which amount? to a whole day 
 in about 120 years. The years which contain 365 days are 
 called common years ;' those which contain 366 days are 
 called leap years. See Leap Yeap.. 
 
 According to the regulations of the Gregorian calendar 
 the intercalations are omitted on years in which centuries 
 end, excepting when the number of the year is divisible by 
 4, after leaving out the two zeros. Thus the years 1700, 
 1800, 1900, which would be leap years in the Julian calen- 
 dar, are common years in the Gregorian ; hut 1600 and 2000 
 ore leap years in both calendars. (See Calendar.) The 
 mean length of the Gregorian year is 365 d. 5 h. 49 m. 12 
 ice , exceeding the true tropical year by 22-38 sec., which 
 unounts to a whole day only in about 3866 years. 
 
 The civil or legal year, inEngland, formerly commenced 
 on tho 2jth of March, the day ofthe Annunciation, though 
 the historical year began on the 1st of January, the day of 
 the Circumcision. Between these two epochs it was usual 
 to date the year both ways, as 1745-6 or 174|. By the act of 
 parliament for the alteration of the style in 1751, the begin- 
 
 * YOKE. 
 
 ning of the year was transferred to the 1st of January. U 
 is frequently necessary to keep this circumstance in mind 
 in referring to old dates. 
 
 The fraction by which the tropical years exceed days, is 
 ■2433414; and the series of approximating vulgar fractions 
 alternately greater and less than this quantity is, 
 
 4' ■>»' 3 3' T5T TTW &c - 
 The fractions in this series indicate the intercalations by 
 which the coincidence between the civil and solar year may 
 be restored to any degree of exactness. The third, ,i, offers 
 a very convenient mode of intercalation which would pre- 
 serve the coincidence wilh great accuracy. It require! 
 eight intercalations to be made in thirty-three years : that 
 is to say, one at the end of four years seven times in sue- 
 to, and the eighth at the end of the fifth ) ear. The 
 mean length of the civil year would by this arrangement 
 differ in excess from the solar year only by 15-38 seconds, 
 while the Gregorian year is too long by 33*38 seconds. In a 
 period of thirty-three years, it therefore produces a nearer 
 coincidence between the civil and solar yean than the 
 uui method does In 400 years; and, by reason of its 
 shortness, it also confines evagations of the mean equinox 
 from the astronomical within much narrower limits. The 
 modern Persians are said, but not on very good authority, to 
 intercalate in this manner. (Delambre, Astronomic Mod- 
 erne, torn. 1.) See Calendar. 
 
 Lunar Year.— Though the return of the seasons obviously 
 depends on the motion of the sun, or rather of the earth in 
 Its orbit, some nations have chosen to regulate their civil 
 year by the motions of the moon; and many others have 
 formed luni-solar years, by combining periods determined by 
 the revolutions of both bodies. The proper lunar ycarcon- 
 sists of twelve lunar months or lunations, and consequently 
 contains only H."i4 da\ its commencement, therefore, an 
 ticipates that of the solar year by upwards of eleven days, 
 and passes through the whole circle ofthe seasons in nbout 
 34 lunar j ears. The inconvenience attending this circum- 
 stance has been so universally perceived that, excepting 
 the modern Jews and Mohammedans, almost all nations 
 
 have regulated their months by the moon h;i-v . 
 played some method of intercalation for the purpose of re- 
 taining the beginning of the year at nearly the same place 
 in the seasons. The^ methods are founded on certain luni 
 solar periods or cycles, which were established in the most 
 ancient times, and which, with other relics of a barbarous 
 ire still preserved in our ecclesiastical calendar!. Set 
 Chronology, Calendar, Cycle. 
 
 YEAST. The substance produced during the vinon 
 fermentation of vegetable juices and decoction-, rising partly 
 to the surface in the form of a frothy, flocculent, and some- 
 what viscid matter, insoluble in water and alcohol, and 
 gradually putrefying in a warm atmosphere. It excites fer- 
 mentation, and accelerates the process when added to sac- 
 charine and mucilaginous liquors. It appears closely allied 
 to gluten; and, like that vegetable principle, it contains 
 nitrogen as one of its ultimate elements. 
 
 YE'l.I.i >W. In Painting, a colour of golden hue, and ot 
 many varieties. It is one of the seven primary colours. 
 See Coloi-r, Light. 
 
 YE'LLOW FEVER. A bilious remittent fever. Sec 
 Fever. 
 
 YE'NITE. A ferruginous silicate of lime, from Elba; 
 named by Lelievre, its discoverer, in honour of the battle 
 of Jena. 
 
 YEO'MAN. (From the Anglo-Saxon gemen ; Germ. 
 gemeln, common.) Camden ranks yeomen as the next class 
 to the gentlemen; and calls them "ingenuos." The name 
 seems to have been generally appropriated in the middle 
 ages to small freeholders. In the king's household, the 
 yeomen of the different departments have a middle place 
 between the sergeant and the groom. 
 
 Yeoman. A seaman appointed to certain duties, as to 
 attend to the store-rooms. 
 
 YEO'MANRY CAVALRY. A denomination given to 
 those troops of horse, which were embodied during the 
 Revolutionary wnrs of France, and afterward among the 
 gentlemen and yeomen of this country. They were called 
 out annually, and disciplined for three weeks; and as they 
 consisted entirely of volunteers, and were not called upon 
 to have their homes, or to quit their ordinary ernjjiloyments, 
 except for the short period they were in quarters," the duty 
 was not found to entail any serious privation. Several 
 troops of yeomanry are still kept up, though most of them 
 have been disbanded. The infantry troops that voluntarily 
 enrolled themselves for similar purposes to the yeomanry 
 were called volunteers. These were all disbanded at the 
 peace. 
 
 YEOMEN OF THE GUARD. See Guard, Yeomanrt 
 
 OF TOE. 
 
 YOKE. A piece of wood or light frame of two arms 
 placed over the head of a boat's rudder Instead of a tiller 
 
 1347 
 
YTTRIUM. 
 
 and having two lines (yoke lines), by pulling on which the 
 boat is steered. 
 
 YTTRIUM. The metallic base of an earth, discovered 
 in 1794, by Professor Gadolin, in a mineral found at Ytterby 
 in Sweden, whence it was called Yttria. The metal was 
 first obtained by W8hler in 1828 . it is of a dark gray colour, 
 and brittle. The salts of Yttria have a sweetish taste, and 
 some of them a pale purple colour. Yttria is distinguished 
 from el icina by the amethystine colour of its sulphate, by 
 its in set ubility in pure potassa, and by yielding a precipitate 
 with ferrocyanate of potassa. According to Berzelius, the 
 equivalent of Yttrium is about 32 ; and that of Yttria, which 
 is probably a protoxide, 40. 
 
 YTTROTA'NTALITE. A mineral from Ytterby in 
 Sweden, containing Yttria and oxide of columbium. 
 
 YU. (Chinese.) Nephrite or jade (which see). 
 
 YULE. The Common Scottish name for Christmas. It 
 appears to be a very ancient Celtic word. In Welsh, wyl 
 or gywl signifies a holyday ; whence also the old phrase, 
 " Gule of August," the first day of August, or fast of St. Peter 
 and Vincula, for which various absurd etymologies have 
 been found. Perhaps the old French word " Noel," for 
 Christmas (used also generally as a popular cry of rejoicing), 
 has the same original. (See Archceol., vol. ii.) Count de 
 Gebelin, however, derives yule from a supposed primitive 
 word, connected with the idea of revolution or " wheel." 
 /See Brand's Popular Jlntiq., vol. i., p. 364. 
 
 Z. The last letter in the alphabet of all the modern lan- 
 guages, usually regarded as a double consonant, from its 
 having the sound in some languages, of ts or ds. Like the 
 letter x, it begins no word originally English ; and Dr. John- 
 son has remarked, that although it is found in the Saxon 
 alphabets, set down by grammarians, it is read in no word 
 originally Teutonic. 
 
 ZA'FFRE. An impure oxide of cobalt, obtained by ex- 
 posing the native arseniuret of cobalt broken into small 
 pieces to the action of heat and air in a reverberating (9t- 
 nace, by which its elements are oxidized, and the greater 
 part of the arsenic driven off. 
 
 ZA MITE. Fossil zamia. 
 
 ZA'NTHOPI'CRIN. A bitter principle, obtained from 
 ihe oark of the Zanthoxylon caribaum. It forms yellow 
 acicular crystals, insoluble in ether, but readily soluble in 
 alcohol, and sparingly in water. 
 
 ZAX. In Architecture, a tool for cutting slates. 
 
 ZE'CHSTEIN. (Germ.) A magnesian limestone, lying 
 under the red sandstone. 
 
 ZE'IN. A substance of a tough, elastic nature, resem- 
 bling gluten, but said to be destitute of nitrogen, contained 
 in Indian wheat; the produce of the Zea mays. 
 
 ZEMINDA'R. (From the Persian zemin, land.) A title 
 introduced into India by its Mohammedan conquerors, con- 
 ferred in Bengal, and generally throughout the Mogul em- 
 pire, on the agent employed to collect that share of the 
 produce of the soil which belongs to it. The zemindars 
 were the great landholders of the Mogul empire ; but the 
 nature of their tenure has given rise to much dispute. 
 Whether they were hereditary, absolute owners of the soil, 
 or only tenants of the sovereign at a fixed rent by way of 
 land-tax, for which they were personally responsible, was a 
 question much agitated by writers on Indian subjects at the 
 period of the " Permanent Settlement" in 1793. By that 
 settlement the rent was to be fixed in the first instance by 
 custom, and the zemindar was then to give the ryot a lease 
 restricted to himself and his assignees on performance of its 
 conditions ; his own share being fixed as before at 10 per 
 cent, of the assessment, and his hereditary right secured. 
 A zemindary, i. e., the district of a zemindar, is liable to be 
 sold by government for arrears of revenue, and existing 
 leases with the ryots to be set aside. At present the land- 
 tax of India is levied in three methods, which prevail in 
 different districts — the " zemindar settlement," by which 
 the zemindar is responsible to government; the "mouza- 
 vvar" or village settlement, by which the collector contracts 
 with the head man of the village; and the " ryotwar" or 
 cultivator settlement, by which the tax is collected immedi- 
 ately from the peasantry. (See, as to the effects of the 
 . eemindary settlement, MilVs History of British India, vol. 
 v.; M'CulIoch's Edition of Smith's Wealth of Nations, note 
 19; Ed. Rev., vols, xxxi., Ixxi.) See Ryots. 
 
 ZE'ND-AVE'STA. (Pers. Living- Word.) The sacred 
 books of the Parsees in India, and Guebers in Persia, who 
 profess the religion of the ancient Persians. According to 
 the popular belief among them, these books are attributed 
 to the famous Zoroaster. Their real history is much dis- 
 puted; but it is generally supposed that they are not of 
 great antiquity, and that the belief cf the modern Guebers 
 1343 
 
 ZENITH SECTOR. 
 
 is, for the most part, a compound of legendary notions drawn 
 from various religions. (See Magians.) Sir William Jones 
 thought the Zendavesta a forgery of the learned adventurer 
 Anquetil du Perron. (See Mem. de I'jlc. des Inscr., vol. 
 xxxi. ; Milman's Hist, of Christianity, vpl. i., p. C8, for the 
 arguments for and against its authenticity ; and the Conv. 
 Lex., article "Persian Religion." See also Bryant's My- 
 thology, vol. ii., p. 390, 401.) It is certain, at all events, that 
 the Zend language, in which it is written, is of great anti 
 quity, and radically allied to the Sanscrit. See Sansciut, 
 Parsees. 
 
 ZE'NDIK. In Arabic, a name given to those who a ! ? 
 charged with atheism, or rather, disbelief of any revealed 
 religion; or with magical heresies. The- sect of Zcndikt 
 opposed the progress of Mohammedanism in Arabia with 
 great obstinacy. It appears to have had many features in 
 common with Sndduceeism among the Jews. 
 
 ZE'NITH. (From the Arabic.) In Astronomy, the top 
 of the heaven, or vertical point ; the point directly over 
 head. The zenith is that point of the celestial sphere 
 which would be intersected by the plumb line, supposed to 
 be indefinitely extended. It may also be defined as the pole 
 of the horizon, from which it is 90° distant. All vertical 
 circles or azimuths necessarily pass through the zenith. 
 
 ZE'NITH DISTANCE. The distance of any celestial 
 object from the zenith ; or the complement of the altitude 
 of the object above the horizon. 
 
 ZE'NITH SECTOR. An astronomical instrument, con 
 trived for the purpose of measuring, with great accuracy, 
 the zenith distances of stars which pass near the zenith. 
 It was by means of a zenith sector that Bradley discovered 
 the existence and magnitude of two most important astro- 
 nomical elements — the aberration of light, and the nutation 
 of the earth's axis. The instrument has also been gener- 
 ally used (in this country at least) in trigonometrical sur- 
 veys for determining the difference of latitude of two sta- 
 tions, a purpose for which it is very convenient; for the 
 difference of the zenith distances of the same star, observed 
 at its meridional passages at two places, gives the difference 
 of the astronomical latitudes of the places without any re- 
 gard to the star's declination. The general description of 
 the zenith sector has been given by the present 
 mer Royal as follows (Encyc. Mctrop., art. "Figure of the 
 Earth") : 
 
 "In the annexed figure A B is a bar of iron with a oi .)=-. 
 piece C D, the whole in one piece. 
 The top A is formed in such a way 
 that the instrument can be turned 
 half around in azimuth when sus- 
 pended at the top, and that the bot- 
 tom can be moved freely in the di- 
 rections D C or C D. The bracket 
 or other support E, on which it 
 rests, is attached to some firm part 
 of the building. To the bar A B is 
 firmly attached a telescope F G. 
 At a point a, near A, is attached a 
 plumb line a H ; sometimes it is 
 fastened at a point of attachment 
 which is moveable, in order that 
 by moving the point of suspension 
 the plumb line may be made to 
 pass over a fine dot at a. The limb 
 C D is graduated, sometimes on a 
 circular arc of which a is the cen- 
 tre, and sometimes on a straight 
 line. L D is a screw passing 
 through a block strongly connected 
 with the floor, and acting with its 
 point against the end D of the piece 
 C D ; and M N O are a string and 
 weight pressing the sector against 
 the point of the screw." 
 
 The method of observing with 
 the zenith sector is this: A clock 
 being regulated by transits or equal 
 altitudes, the direction of the meri- 
 dian is found, and guides fixed to 
 compel the sector to move in the 
 meridian. When a star is to be ob- 
 served, the screw L D is turned till the plumb line falls ex 
 actly on some point K of the graduated arc, such that the 
 telescope is very nearly directed to the point through which 
 the star will pass when it comes to the meridian. When 
 the star enters the field of view, the screw is again turned 
 till the star appears to glide exactly along the wire fixed ia 
 the focus of the eye glass ; and the motion of the screw be- 
 ing ascertained, and the value of the division known, the 
 apparent zenith distance of the star is found. But it is evi- 
 dent that this is not the true zenith distance, unless the zero 
 point of the division on the scale be quite accurate ; that ii 
 to say, so placed that when the plumb line falls on it, the 
 
ZEOLITE 
 
 optical axis of the telescope is exactly vertical. It is im- 
 to Insure this accuracy; but it is easy to see that 
 if the instrument be turned half round in azimuth, and the 
 same observation made, the apparent zenitli distance will 
 be just i- much greater than the true as in the former de- 
 termination it was less. The mean of the two will there- 
 fore be the irue zenith distance of the star. 
 The advantages of the zenith sector are these ; The stars 
 ■ ir the zenith, the tremor and dancing 
 . affect stars in other positions are seldom 
 ire is no uncertainty about the effects of refraction ; 
 il the whole instrument are not subject to 
 and the variation of temperature produces no sen- 
 nit of Ramsden's zenith sector used in 
 urementofthe English arcs of the meridian, see the 
 second volume of the Trigonometrical Survey of England 
 Phil. Trans, for 1803. This superb instru- 
 iinfortunately burned in the great lire which took 
 ower of London in October, 1841. Another 
 plan from that above described (the 
 zenith point being determined by levels instead of a plumb 
 try been constructed for the use of the sur- 
 al and Simms, under the directions of the 
 i r Royal. A description of the new instrument 
 I ly Notices of the Royal Astronomical 
 
 7,1. <>U TH. .;<ir. siw, I boil, and XiQoc, stone.) A name 
 a family of minerals, which, when heated before 
 the blowpipe, melt with considerable ebullition. They 
 of silica, alumina, lime, and water. 
 
 zeolite containing soda : from 
 
 ZE'PHYRUS. (Gr. Ct^upof.) The west wind, a my- 
 
 1 divinity, chilil Of Astrteus and Aurora, according 
 
 I; to whom Anchises sacrifices a ram. It is said 
 
 to be tin' same wind with the Latin Favonius ; but Vegetius 
 
 n the two. 
 
 ZERl'NTHIA. (Gr. ZtpnOui, one of the nanus of the 
 
 The name of a subgenus of butterflies 
 
 in, where it Is erroneously written 
 
 ZE'RO. i lt:il. ?) A term generally used in reference to 
 
 nometer, implying the point at which the gnulua- 
 
 tion commences. The zero of Reaumur's and of the centi- 
 
 innometer is the freezing |>oiiit of water. The 
 
 sen) of Fahrenheit's scale is 'J\P below the |K>int at which 
 
 . being about the temperature of a mixture 
 
 of salt and snow. Set ThermometKR. 
 
 ZE'THES. la Classical Mythology, Zethes and Calais 
 were the sons of Boreas, king of Thrace, and Orithyia. 
 tiled the Argonauts, and were afterwards 
 slain by Hercules. 
 
 ZEU'GllA. 'ir. ?cvyua,yoke.) A figure in grammar, by 
 
 Ive or vert which agrees Willi a nearer win! 
 
 i also, by way of supplement, toon.' more remote. 
 
 ZI'MOME. (C.r. .viiwu'i, a ferment.) That part of the 
 
 gluten of wheat which is insoluble in alcohol. When 
 
 robbed in a mortar with powdered guaiacum, it produces 
 
 a fine blue colour. 
 
 ZINC. A metal, first mentioned by Paracelsus ; but its 
 ores were known at a much earlier period. In commerce 
 a called miter; and is obtained either from the 
 rbonate Of zinc, called calamine, or from the native 
 sulphuret or blende of mineralogists. These ares are roast- 
 ed and mixed with charcoal or carbonaceous flux ; the mix- 
 ture is put into a kind of crucible closed at top, and per- 
 il bottom by an iron tube, which passes through the 
 i ice into water; the vapour of the zinc dis- 
 tils downwards through this tube, and is condensed in the 
 rite first portions are impure, containing arsenic, 
 and often cadmium, in which case the vapour burns with 
 what the workmen call a brown blaze ; when the blue blaze 
 appears the zinc is collected. The zinc»of commerce (which 
 is not epiiie pure) has a peculiar bluish colour and lustre, 
 a lamellar and crystalline texture, and its specific gravity 
 ,. At common temperatures it is tough and in- 
 e under the hammer: and when heated to above 
 becomes brittle, and fu-es at about 770°. But at 
 ires between 220° and 330° it becomes malleable 
 and ductile ; so that it may be beaten out under the ham- 
 mer, and rolled into sheets and leaves, and drawn into wire, 
 in a manner extremely remarkable wiien its highly crystal 
 line texture is considered. Being a cheap and light metal. 
 w Ich, after having been Superficially oxidized, 
 long resists the farther action of air and water, it has lato- 
 uch employed as a substitute for lead in lining 
 ivtter :istenis and covering buildings; it has also been 
 lately employed in the curious operation of transferring 
 printing (under the name of zincography''. It is a very in- 
 lammable netal, burning in the flame of a spirit lamp with 
 v brilliant white light: but the oxide which forms inter- 
 feres with its continuous combustion, which can only be 
 
 ZODIAC. 
 
 carried on at a high red heat, when the vapour of the metai 
 burns with an intensely bright flame, and yields at the same 
 time a quantity of tlocculent oxide, which floats about In 
 lunding air, and was formerly called philosopher'* 
 wool, pompholix, and nihil album. The equivalent of zinc 
 is 3-2, and that of its oxide 40. Though zinc is apparently 
 without action upon water, yet it is a most ozldable metal ; 
 but the insolubility of its oxide protects it from farther ac- 
 tion, so that when a film is once formed upon it, it resist 
 farther change; but when a little acid is present in the 
 water, and the zinc not quite pure, it is rapidly acted upon, 
 and oxidized at the expense of the water, which evolve.; 
 abundance of hydrogen (when dilute sulphuric acid Is used) 
 and the oxide of zinc is removed and dissolved by the acid 
 It is this action which renders zinc so powerful a generate/ 
 of electricity in the voltaic pile. The salts of zinc are most- 
 ly soluble, and have a nauseous astringent, and metallic 
 taste. The sulphate of zinc, or white vitriol, is employed in 
 medicine as an emetic and tonic, and the oxide and carbon- 
 ate are externally used m the form of ointment. The 
 chloride of tine is a colourless compound, fusible at a heal 
 a little above 212°, and known to the older chemists under 
 the name of butter of zinc. Brass is an alloy of zinc and 
 cop|>er. 
 
 ZINGIBER A'CE.E (Zingiber, one of the genera), or 
 8CITAMINEJ8L A natural order of Herli 
 drous Endogeas, inhabiting the tropics. It is distinguished 
 from the Musaceous order in the latter having h. 
 stamens, with a calyx and corolla of the same texture ; and 
 from Jridacece, by two of the stamens being either deform- 
 ed or abortive; and from Marantacea, by the single stamen 
 being placed opposite to the labellum or anterior 
 of the inner series of the corolla, and proceeding from the 
 base of the posterior outer division. Cardamoms are the 
 
 leveral plants of this order, which are, I 
 principally valued for the aromatic stimulating properties 
 of the root or rhizoma ; such are found in ginger [Zingiber 
 officinale), galangale (Jllpinia racemosa galungn) and zedoa- 
 ry {Curcuma zedoaria and zcrumbct). Turmeric, a substance 
 hall dye and half condiment, is the powder of the rhizoma 
 of Curcuma longa. 
 
 U'ECON. A mineral chiefly composed of zirconia and 
 silica, found in the sand of the rivers of Ceylon, and occa- 
 sionally imbedded in primitive rocks. It is of various col- 
 ours, and when transparent is sometimes used in jewellery. 
 
 ZIRCO'NIUM. The metallic base o( zirconia, an earth 
 discovered in 1789, by Klaproth, in the Jargon or zircon of 
 Ceylon. Zirconium has only been obtained in the form of 
 a black powder, which when heated in the air burns into 
 the oxide. The salts of zirconia are distinguished from 
 those of alumina and glucina by being precipitated by all 
 the pure alkalies, and by being insoluble when they are 
 added in e 
 
 ZOA'NTHUS. (Gr. ^moi', on animal, and avOoc, afioioer.) 
 The name of a genus of Polypes, comprehending those 
 which possess tin.- complex structure of the Jlclinia, but 
 consist of different individuals adhering to a common fleslry 
 basis. 
 
 ZO'CLE, or ZOCCOLO. (It. zoccolo, a wooden shoe.) 
 In Architecture, the same as socle; which see. 
 
 ZO'DIAC. (Gr. {uh'iov, dim. of ^wof, animal ; because 
 the constellations of the ecliptic are for the most part rep- 
 resented in celestial charts by the figures of animals.) An 
 imaginary zone or belt in the heavens, extending to about 
 8° or 9° on each side of the ecliptic, which divides it in the 
 middle. No use is made of the zodiac in astronomy: the 
 name only indicates that region of the heavens within 
 which the apparent motions of the sun, moon, and all the 
 greater planets are confined. Three of the new planets, 
 Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, have inclinations which exceed the 
 limits of the ancient zodiac, and are therefore sometimes 
 called extra-zodiacal planets: but Vesta is also sometimes 
 included in the same description. See Planet. 
 
 The zodiac is divided into twelve equal parts, called 
 signs ; which are designated by the names of the constel- 
 lations with the places of which the signs anciently corres 
 ponded. They are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, 
 Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricomus, Aquarius, 
 ee. The signs arc counted from the vernal equinox, 
 one of the points In which the equator intersects the eclip 
 tic; whence, in consequence of the regression of the oqui 
 noctial points, their position with respect to the eonsteHa 
 tions or fixed stars is greatly different from what it was in 
 remote ages. Some time prior to Hipparchus, the first points 
 of the constellations Aries and Libra corresponded to the 
 vernal and autumnal equinoxes; those of Cancer and Capri- 
 corn to the summer and winter solstices : at present, the dif- 
 ference is about 30°. The vernal equinox now happens in 
 the constellation Pisces, the summer solstice in Gemini, the 
 autumnal equinox in Virgo, and the winter solstice in Sa- 
 gittarius ; but the vernal equinox always corresponds to the 
 first point of the sign Aries, the summer solstice to the firsl 
 of Cancer, and so on. On this account it is necsssary to di3 
 
 1341 
 
EC 
 
 '! 
 
 ZODIACAL LIGHT. 
 
 dnguish between the signs of the zodiac, which follow the 
 motions of the equinoctial points, and the constellations of 
 the zodiac, which are Immoveable in the celestial sphere. 
 It has been supposed that the constellations of the zodiac 
 were invented in Egypt in a very remote age, and that they 
 had a reference to the divisions of the seasons and the agri- 
 culture of that country at the time of their invention. If 
 we go hack to a period about 2500 before Christ, the con- 
 stellations Aquarius and Pisces, at the season of the over- 
 flow of the Nile, would be diametrically opposite to the sun, 
 and would consequently rise at sunset. Virgo, usually rep- 
 resented as a woman with an ear of corn in her hand, would 
 be the constellation rising at sunset in the time of the har- 
 vest in Egypt. Such conjectures, however, it is easy to 
 conceive, are at best extremely uncertain. Representations 
 of the zodiac have been found in several Egyptian temples, 
 and also in other eastern countries, which have given rise 
 to much discussion. (See Dupuis, Jlemoire surl'Origine du 
 Zodiaquc ; Uiot, Richcrchcs sur I'Astronomie Egyptienne ; 
 Montucla, Histoire des Math. torn. i. ; Bailly, Histoire de. 
 VJlstr. Ancienne.) 
 
 ZODIACAL LIGHT. In Astronomy, a faint nebulous 
 aurora which accompanies the sun. This curious phenom- 
 enon was observed by Kepler, who supposed it to be the 
 solar atmosphere; but it was first accurately described by 
 Dominic Cassini, who gave it the name by which it is now 
 known. It is visible immediately before sunrise or after sun- 
 set, in the place where the sun is about to appear or has just 
 quitted in the horizon. It has a flat lenticular form, as rep- 
 resented in the annexed figure, extending from the horizon 
 II H obliquely Upwards, and 
 following the course of the 
 ecliptic, or rather of the sun's 
 equator. For this reason it is 
 scarcely visible in our lati- 
 tudes, excepting in those sea- 
 sons when the plane of the 
 sun's equator is most nearly 
 perpendicular to the horizon. 
 The most favourable times far 
 observing it are in the months 
 of April or May, in the even- 
 ing, or at the opposite season 
 of the year before sunrise. At 
 niTier times, the plane of the solar equator being more ob- 
 lique, and the luminous pyramid inclined in the same de 
 iiree, it rises so little above the horizon that its light is ef- 
 faced by the atmosphere of the earth. The apparent an- 
 gular distance of its vertex from the sun varies, according 
 Co circumstances, from 40° to 90° or 100°, and the breadth 
 of its b;ise perpendicular to its axis from 8° to 30°. It is 
 extremely faint and ill-defined, at least in this climate ; 
 though it is better seen in tropical countries. 
 
 Numerous opinions have been entertained respecting the 
 nature and cause of this singular phenomenon. Cassini 
 thought it might proceed from tho blended light of an in- 
 numerable multitude of little planets circulating about the 
 sun, us the milky way owes its appearance to the light of 
 agglomerated myriads of stars. Euler endeavoured to 
 prove that it proceeds from the same causes as the tails of 
 c mets. Kepler had ascribed its appearance to the solar 
 atmosphere; and the same hypothesis was adopted by 
 M.i Iran and others, till it was shown by Laplace to be un- 
 : !iie for the following reasons : In the first place, the solar 
 atmosphere cannot extend beyond the distance at which 
 the centrifugal force would be balanced by the attraction ; 
 but this point lies far within the orbit of Mercury, the great 
 est elongation of which is 28°, whereas the zodiacal light 
 has been observed to extend to 100° from the sun. In the 
 second place, in order that the spheroid of the solar atmo- 
 sphere may be in equilibrium, the ratio of the equatorial to 
 the polar axis cannot exceed that of 3 to 2 ; whence its form 
 would not correspond with the lenticular appearance of the 
 zodiacal light. Sir John Herschel remarks, that "it may 
 be conjectured to be no other than the denser part of that 
 medium, which, as we have reason to believe, resists the 
 motion of comets ; loaded, perhaps, with the actual ma- 
 terials of the tall" of millions of those bodies, of which they 
 have been stripped in their successive perihelion passages, 
 and which may be slowly subsiding into the sun." — Astron- 
 omy, Cab. Cyc, p. 407. (Biot, Astronomic Physique ; Mairan. 
 Traitd Physique et Historique de VAurorc Borealc ; Euler, 
 Mem. de Berlin, 1746 , Lalande, Astronomie, torn. 1 ; Ilooke, 
 Opera Posth.) 
 
 ZO'IIAR. (Heb. splendour.) A Jewish hook, highly 
 esteemed by the rabbis, and supposed to be of great, though 
 altogether unascertained, antiquity. It consists of cabalis- 
 liral commentaries on Scripture, especially the books of 
 Moses It has been translated into Latin (ed. 1680). 
 
 ZOI'SITE. A variety of epidote, named after its discov- 
 erer Baron von Zois. 
 ZONE (Gr. luii'}], a girdle or belt), in Astronomy, denotes 
 1350 
 
 ZOOLOGY. 
 
 a portion of tho celestial sphere included between two para, 
 lei circles. In Geography, the terrestrial -/.ones arc the fiv6 
 broad spaces or belts into which the surface of the earth is 
 divided by the two tropics and the two polar circles. The 
 space included between the tropics is called tho 'orrid zone . 
 its breadth is equal to 47°, or twice the sun's greatest do' 
 clination, and it is divided into two equal parts by the 
 tor. That included between the tropic of Cancer and the 
 arctic circle is culled the north temperate zone; and that be 
 tween ihe tropic of Capricorn and the antarctic circle the 
 south temperate zone. The breadth of each of these i? 13° 
 The space between the arctic circle and the north poie is 
 the north frigid zone ; and that between the antarctic circle 
 and the south pole is the south frigid zone, iicc Geoora 
 phy. Earth. 
 
 ZOO'GRAPHY. (Gr. \:„ov, and ypa<i>u, I write.) Th« 
 description of animals, 
 
 ZOO'LATRV. (Gr. \u>ov, an animal, and Xurpcvoi, 1 
 worship.) The worship of animals ; which was the char 
 acleristic of the ancient Egyptian religion most remarked 
 upon by foreigners. 
 
 ZOO'LOGY. (Gr. {uiov, an animal; Aoyoj, a discourse.) 
 The science of animals. It teaches their nature and prop- 
 erties, their classification, and their order of succession upon, 
 and their distribution over the earth. 
 
 A know ledge of the nature of animals, as it implies that 
 of their organization, and of the functions and interde 
 pendencies of their component parts, constitutes the two 
 great branches of zoology, called Zootomy, or comparative 
 anatomy, and Physiology. The doctrine of the succession 
 of species of animals upon the earth, as it relates principal- 
 ly to such as no longer exist, is included in a third branch 
 of the science of animals, called Palaeontology, with which 
 is closely connected that which treats of the geographical 
 distribution of existing spi cies. The term Zoology !s prac- 
 tically restricted to the science of the outward characters, 
 habits, properties, and classification of animals. 
 
 As the forms of living animals, the parts they play in the 
 theatre of nature, their good and evil relations to man, can- 
 not be profitably treated of in the space assigned to this ar- 
 ticle, it will be limited to the exposition of the principles of 
 the classification of animals, and of the characters and rela- 
 tive value of those groups which have not been already 
 treated of in the present wotk. 
 
 A classification is essentially based on the ideas of like- 
 ness, unlikeness, and proportion in its subjects. When it is 
 purposed to define, in a classification of animals, their diii'er- 
 ent degrees of resemblance, a natural system is aimed at. 
 When a classification is restricted to the enunciation of a 
 few likenesses which may be most readily detected and 
 most easily retained in the memory, it becomes an artificial 
 system. A likeness extends as far as a character is com 
 mon; and the more extended or common the property or 
 structure on which such character is founded, the more im 
 portant and essential it becomes as an element of the classi- 
 fication. 
 
 Zoologists having ascertained as many of the characters 
 common to all animals as served to form their complex idea 
 of an animal, have, in the next place, endeavoured to dis- 
 cover the difl'ereiice, which, added to the idea or definition 
 of the animal, would form the most extended species of that 
 genus, logically speaking. 
 
 Such a difference or character is not to be detected by a 
 superficial examination. Aristotle thought he had found it 
 in the blood, recognizing as blood only the red-coloured nu 
 trient fluid, like that which flows in the arteries and veins 
 of man. His primary division of animals was therefore into 
 Sanguineous and Exsanguineous animals ; the Enaima and 
 the Anaima. The Enaima were the beasts, birds, reptiles, 
 and fishes; and the Anaima, or bloodless animals, included 
 all the lower species. 
 
 Nothing, perhaps, can show more forcibly the nature and 
 amount of observation required to frame a good classiflcn 
 tion, and the value of the information concentrated in ita 
 exposition, than the great and long-continued deference paid 
 to this early step in the classificatory branch of zoology, and 
 the minute and extended researches required for the elimi- 
 nation of its erroneous element. First, it was found that 
 many of the Exsanguineous animals of Aristotle did actually 
 possess blood, differing only in colour from that of the so 
 called Sanguineous species. This discovery, however, led 
 only to a nominal improvement in the primary division of 
 animals; the Enaima being " red-blooded," and the Anaima 
 "white-blooded" animals. It was reserved for Cuvier, in 
 the course of his minute dissections of the lower animals 
 to discover that an extensive class of worms had red blood 
 circulating in a closed system of arteries and veins ; and thi? 
 discovery first materially affected the value of the charactei 
 adopted by Aristotle for the primary groups of the animal 
 kingdom. 
 
 Now, if scientific classification were really based on the 
 idea of likeness alone, and the grouping together of individ 
 
ZOOLOGY. 
 
 arils into kinds in forming a natural system were regulated 
 by a consideration of their resemblances only, then the 
 modification of the Aristotelian system involved in Cuvit-r's 
 discovery would be merely an extension of the group linai- 
 ina at the expense of the group Anaima ; and the Anellides, 
 or red 'i ins, must have been united with birds, 
 
 . mis animals. But the zoologist, 
 41 the formation of a natural system, has to be governed at 
 u by the idea of difference us well as by that of like- 
 lent with the discovery above mentioned was 
 the perception that it' the Anelldes resembled beasts in the 
 colour of their blood, Ibey differed from them in most other 
 ; and thus the circulating Quid was rejected 
 rut for the primary groups of the animal kingdom, 
 : traders were eagerly sought for. 
 
 that he had discovered the best sub- 
 stitute for the Aristotelian primary character in the verte- 
 bral column ; this structure being present in all the Ennima 
 t in all the Anaima. He proposed, 
 • rata for the one class, and fit- 
 be other. The deled of this primary division 
 of the animal kii to arise from the 
 
 of a third fundamental idee in a cinssiiicuiory 
 ../.., that of proportion, or relative value, in the 
 primary groups ; and in the attempt to remedy this delect 
 the imp y was made, that the vertebral col- 
 
 umn was a modification of structure subordinated related 
 to a particular condition of an organic system of much high- 
 er importance in the animal body than the skeleton, viz., 
 the nervous system. A knowledge of the anatomy of this 
 
 system hence became essential to the zoologist; and there- 
 salt of a i minute and elaborate dissections was, 
 the detection of tit lea.»t three modifications of the nervous 
 system ol equal Importance with that In regard to which a 
 skull and vertebral column ai inordinate. 
 .: rose the proposition by Cuvier, to divide the animal 
 primarily into four provinces or subkingdoms : viz., 
 lata, and lladiata ; or, as they 
 i termed, In accordance with the modifications of 
 (henerva ly characterizing them. Mije- 
 Icncr/i/t ■;■ Uomogangliata, and 
 An previous primary divisions of the animal kingdom,* 
 
 having been proposed in ignorance ol' the true characters by 
 
 I -t In nature, are now abandoned by 
 
 Uie coinn and nothing would he 
 
 gained b) quoting them in this place. Herein the Linmeaii 
 
 method is inferior tu the Aristotelian system: the class 
 
 ma Naturte, as it included the Ostra- 
 
 and Malakia of Aristotle, afterwards tin: Mollusea 
 
 r. with the true PitrMss, was a retrograde step in 
 
 this branch of zoological science. 
 
 The iuhkingdom Verttbratu, or Myelnicrphala, is subdi- 
 vided into classes, according to the modifications of the re- 
 codifications are 
 essentially tour in number, which may be ihuseij 
 
 1. Lai' freely in a thoracic cavity; subdi- 
 vided into minute air-cells. Heart divided into four cavi- 
 ties ; pulmonic and systematic circulations distinct. 
 
 2. Lungs adherent to the walls of a thoracic cavity, com- 
 
 ig with large air-cells In other cavities of the body. 
 Heart with four cavities; pulmonic and systemic circula- 
 tions t i i - 
 
 3. Lungs suspended freely in, or attached to the parietes 
 of a thoracic-abdominal cavity ; not divided into minute air- 
 cells. Heart with four or three cavities ; pulmonic and sys- 
 'emic blood mixed in the general circulation. 
 
 4. Gills lor respiration, with or without lungs. Heart with 
 two cavities, transmitting all the blood to the breathing organs. 
 
 The tirst condition of the respiratory and circulating or- 
 gnns coexists with a viviparous generation, and lacteal or- 
 gans for the nourishment of the new-horn young ; whence 
 
 was termed Zootoca] by Aristotle, and Mammalia 
 by luminals; and the latter term is retained, because it ex- 
 
 character which is truly peculiar to the class. The 
 total or partial clothing of hair, and the other organic coex- 
 
 . liich proclaim the naturalness of the group in 
 question, are mentioned under the term Mammalia. 
 The second condition of the respiratory and circulating 
 
 i iracterizes the class of Birds. It is associated in 
 
 with an oviparous generation, a covering of feath- 
 ers, and those other modifications of the vertebrate type of 
 •structure which are detailed under the head of Aves. This 
 Is the most natural and circumscribed of all the groups of 
 animals of corresponding value. Both mammals and birds 
 dilli-r from all other classes of animals in being warm-blood- 
 ed ; whence they have been combined to form a group called 
 Hcmatherms. 
 
 * If we except some of the schemes of classification of the animal kingdom 
 by John Hunler. found among his manuscripts after his death. (See Preface 
 lo Palmer's edition of his Animal Economy.) 
 
 T The term Zootoca has been degndad by a mnd<-ru naturalist to designate 
 ■obgenui of lizards, distinguished by Ibeir viviparous generation. 
 
 The condition of the circulatirg and breathing organs 
 which characterizes the third class of vertebrate animals, 
 called Etepdli ed with oold blood, and a covering 
 
 of scales, bonv plates, or a naked skin. The generation is 
 oviparous or two viviparous : the other characters are given 
 under the head Reptilia. 
 
 Pishes, be.'ides breathing by gills, and having a heart 
 composed of a single auricle and ventricle, have the skin 
 defended by scales, or by bony plates, or are naked. They 
 are likewise oviparous, or ovo viviparous; nod, with a lew 
 exceptions, as the tunny, the temperature of their blood cor- 
 i that of the surrounding medium. They are 
 exclusively aquatic; and their general characters ami i 
 Mention are given under the heads Pisces ami Ichthyology 
 • The Mbkingdom Mollusca,or Hctcrugann-tlata, is charac- 
 terized by a ring of nervous matter surrounding the gullet, 
 whence the nerves radiate, often unsyiiuuetricaily, to dili'er- 
 ent parts of the body. There is a ganglion or little brain 
 below the gullet, and sometimes also above thai tube: the 
 nerves of the body air generally connected with one or more 
 detached ganglions. The form of the body corresponds with 
 the disposition of the nervous system, and is often unsym- 
 metrical ; it is generally soft, covered with a mucous skin, 
 and destitute of jointed limbs. In one class {CephaUpoda), 
 in which the supraa-sophage.il nervous mas-, is large, it is 
 protected by a cartilaginous cranium; bat this is absent in 
 other Molluscs, and a vertebral column exists in none. 
 Many species have for their skeleton a calcareous plate or 
 plates, called shells, secreted by tin' .-kin. (SccCunxholo- 
 oy.) The animal functions are feebly enjoyed in the Ihter- 
 ogangliate subktngdom. Distinct organs" of hearing and 
 smell have as yet been found only in tin,, highest class 
 •opoda); the eyes are reduced to mere rudiments in 
 the group next in subordination {Gasteropoda); and the 
 head is altogether wanting in the three lower classes, thence 
 collectively called AtephaAa. The machinery of the organic 
 functions, on the other hand, is largely and completely de- 
 veloped. Every moll usk has a heart, "and a closed system 
 of arteries and veins : in Ibo higher Cephalopoda the circu- 
 lating system b physiologically as perfect as in the highest 
 tnlcally more complicated 
 An organ of respiration is never wanting; but it presents 
 this character, that whereas in the Vertebrata it communi- 
 cates with the mouth, in the Mollusea it la connected with 
 the opposite termination of the alimentary canal. The Mol- 
 lusca are either Dioecious or Hermaphrodite. 
 
 Die prim try division of Mollusea is, according to the prea 
 head, into the Enccphala and Jlerphala 
 
 The Bncephalous Mollusks tire divided, according to 
 their locomotive Organs, into the <■ Uopoda, Gas- 
 
 teropoda, and^tfru/Wtz ; the Acephalous HoUusks, accord- 
 ing I" e> mis, into Lamellibranchiata, Pal- 
 nnchiata: the two latter classes 
 are more commonly called Brachiopoda and Tunicata. See 
 those names of classes, and Malacology. 
 
 The third primary division of the animal kingdom, viz., 
 the Jlriiculata, is as well characterized, Cuvier states, as 
 that of the Vertebrata. "The skeleton is not interna!, as in 
 the latter: neither is it annihilated, as in the Mollusea. 
 Tin- articulated rings which encircle the body, and frequent- 
 ly the limbs, supply the place of it; and as they are usually 
 hud, they furnish to the powers of motion all requisite 
 |Hiints of support; so that we have here as many kinds of 
 locomotion as among the Vertebrata. This external position 
 of the hard parts, and internal one of the muscles, reduce 
 each articulation to ihe form of a sheath, and allow it but 
 two kinds of motion, unless the limbs be united by flexible 
 membranes, or fit into one another; and then their motions 
 are more various, but have not the same force. 
 
 "The system of organs in which the Jlrtieulnta resemble 
 each other the most, is that of the nerves. Their brain, 
 which is placed above the axophagus, and furnishes nerves 
 to the parts adhering to the head, is very small. Two cords, 
 which embrace the (esophagus, are extended along the ab- 
 domen, and united at certain distances by double knots or 
 ganglia, whence arise the nerves of the body and limbs. 
 Each' ol" these ganglia seems to fulfil the functions of a brain 
 to the surrounding parts, and to preserve their sensibility 
 for a certain length of time when the animal has been di- 
 vided. If to this we add that the jaws of these animals, 
 when they have any, are always lateral, and move from 
 without inwardly, and not from above downwards, and that 
 no distinct organ of smell has hitherto been discovered in 
 them, we shall have expressed all that can be said of them 
 in general." The existence, however, of the organs of hear- 
 ing, the presence, number, and form of those of sight, Un- 
 kind of respiration, the condition of the organs of circulation, 
 and the colour of the blood, present great differences, which 
 characterize the subdivisions or classes of the Articulate or 
 Homogangliate subkingdom. 
 
 These classes are, Crustacea, Jlrachnido, Inretta, Jlnclla- 
 ta, and Cirripcdia. See those words. 
 
 1351 
 
ZOONOMY. 
 
 The first three are combined by Latreille into a larse I 
 group, called Condylopoda, in reference to their possessing 
 articulated members ; but these are likewise possessed by 
 the Cirripcdia, which, although placed by Cuvier in the 
 Molluscous subkingdom, are proved by their nervous system 
 and metamorphoses to be essentially Articulata, nearly al- 
 lied to the Crustaceans. 
 
 The Radiated, or fourth primary division of animals in 
 the system of Cuvier, is so called because the low-organized 
 animals composing it agree, Cuvier says, in having their 
 parts arranged round an axis, and on one or several radii, or 
 On one or several lines extending from one pole to the other. 
 "Even the Entozoa have at least two tendinous lines, or 
 two nervous threads, proceeding from a collar round the 
 mouth; and several of them have four suckers situated 
 round a proboscidiform elevation ! The nervous system, 
 when traces of it have been visible, is also arranged in radii." 
 This cannot, however, be affirmed with propriety of the 
 nerves of the Entozoa or Rotifcra ; but these classes agree 
 with all the other Hadiata (liulothuria excepted) in the ab- 
 sence of distinct respiratory organs. It has been proposed 
 to divide the Radiated animals, or Zoophytes of Cuvier, into 
 two subkingdoms : the Ncmaloneura, presenting conspicuous 
 nervous filaments ; and the Acrita, in which such filaments 
 are rarely distinguishable. The Ncmatoncura are more 
 definitely and readily characterized by having the alimentary 
 canal in the form of a distinct tube, with proper parietes, 
 floating in an abdominal cavity, and provided with a sepa- 
 rate inlet and outlet; while in the Acrita the digestive 
 cavity Is excavated in the parenchyma of the body, is de- 
 void of distinct parietes, and has no anal outlet. The Nema- 
 toneura never propagate by germination or spontaneous fis- 
 sion, but these modes of reproduction are common in the 
 Acrita. The latter division has been termed Oozoa from 
 their analogy to the ova or germs of the higher classes ; 
 but I have elsewhere observed* that as the changes of the 
 embryo succeed each other with a rapidity proportionate to 
 its proximity with the commencement of its development, 
 so, also, in each class of Acrita, there are genera which 
 closely approximate or merge into some one or other of the 
 higher or Nematoneurous classes, and their characters are 
 consequently less definite and fixed. If, therefore, guided 
 by their natural affinities, we arrange the Hadiata into their 
 primary groups, it will be found that one part of each of 
 these groups presents the characters of the Ncmatoncvra- 
 and another those of the Acrita. This will be exemplified 
 in the disposition of the Radiated classes in the 'following 
 tr.ble ol the primary groups and classes of the animal king- 
 ilom. 
 
 Kingdom Animalia. 
 
 Subkingdom Vertebrata. 
 
 Class Mammalia. 
 
 Aves. 
 
 Reptilia. 
 
 Pisces. 
 
 Subkingdom Articulata. Subkingdom Mollusca 
 
 'lass Crustacea. Class Cephalopoda. 
 
 Arachnida. Gasteropoda. 
 
 Insecta. Pteropoda. 
 
 Anellata. Lamellibranchiata. 
 
 «.7RRji>EDIA. BraCHIOPODA. 
 
 TuNICATA. 
 
 Subkingdom Radiata. 
 
 ^>mn.^ncui & Acrita. 
 
 class Radiaria, Lamarck. 
 
 V-hinoderk:-^, Cut. Acalepha, Cuv. 
 
 Class Entozoa, Rudolphi. 
 
 JffiLELMINTHA, Owen. ?TERELMINTHA, Owen. 
 
 V'lass fcLYPi, f!uvter. 
 
 ►iliodrachiata, Fane. NuD:?UAcfliATA,t Farre. 
 
 Class Infusoria, Ccvier. 
 
 ,—, .a . > 
 
 Rotifera, Ehrenb. Poly<,_stru, Ehrenb. 
 
 ZOO'NOMY. (Gr. \uov, and vouos.) The branu.i of 
 science treating of the laws of animal life. 
 
 ZOO'PF:AGANS. (Gr. luov, and ^uyw, I devour.) The 
 term applied to the order of Unguiculate Mammais which 
 live on animal food, and corresponding to the French term 
 
 * Cycl if Jnat. and Physiol., art. "Airita." 
 
 * This may be tgaid subdivided into the Anthezoa and NudiWachiata 
 unptir, whicr. le:id to the doubtful class 01 Svoiurix. 
 
 1352 
 
 ZYGOPHYLLACEJK. 
 
 Carnassicrs ; also the corresponding group of the Marsupial 
 Quadrupeds. 
 
 ZOO'PHORUS. (Gr. Ccoov, an animal, and <pcpui, / bear.) 
 In Architecture, the same as frieze ; which see. 
 
 ZO'OPHYTES, Zoopkyta. {Gt.\wov,u.n&$\iTov i a.plan:.) 
 The name given by Cuvier to his fourth and hist primarv 
 division or subkingdom of animals. By Linne it was ap- 
 plied in a more restricted sense to an order of Vermes, com- 
 prehending those beings which he supposed to participate 
 of the natures of both animal and plant. Mr. Hatchett's 
 dissertation upon these subjects, in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions for 1800, contains nearly all the chemical informa- 
 tion which we have respecting them. In respect to their 
 composition they may be arranged into four classes: I. 
 Those which consist almost entirely of carbonate of'lime 
 and gelatine. They are perfectly soluble, with efferves 
 cence, in muriatic acid, and the solution yields slight traces 
 only of animal matter: when heated red hot they evolve 
 but little smoke or odour, and leave quicklime. Common 
 while coral (Madrepora virginea) is an instance of this va- 
 riety. 2. Those which, like the former, have carbonate as 
 their hardening principle, but which when steeped in muri 
 atic acid are less rapidly acted on, and leave membranous 
 or cartilaginous films, and which, when heated, exhale 
 smoke and the odour of burned bone ; these, therefore, 
 consist of enrbonate of lime, gelatine, and albumen. Such 
 are the jMadrepora lamea and the Madrepora fascicularis. 
 The Isis hippuris is a curious variety of this class, in which 
 separate portions of variety 1, are united by cartilaginous 
 joints. 3. This class includes the Oorgonia nobilis, or red 
 coral, the Tubipora musica, and some other vnrieties ; the 
 earthy part of which is not merely carbonate of lime, but 
 contains a. portion of phosphate of lime, whilst the animal 
 part resembles class 2. 4. This class includes the various 
 sponges. Some of these consist almost exclusively of what 
 may be called animal matter, that is, of a peculiarly organ- 
 ized albumen, with a trace of gelatine ; others are harden- 
 ed by abundant siliceous or calcareous spicules. Mr. Ilatch- 
 ett has pointed out the resemblance which exists among 
 the three first classes to porcellaneous shell, mother-of-pearl 
 shell, and the crustaceous coverings of the crab and lobsters. 
 
 ZOOTOMY. (Gr. i,,oor, and" rsjivia, 1 dissect.) The 
 branch of anatomical science which relates to the structure 
 of the lower animals. .See Anatomy, Comparative. 
 
 ZOTHE'CA. (Gr.) In ancient Architecture, a small 
 apartment or Alcove, capable of being separated from or 
 added to a larger one by means of curtains. 
 
 ZU'MIC ACID. (Gr. fyun, leaven.) A compound form- 
 ed in sour bread, and in vegetable substances which have 
 undergone acetous fermentation. 
 
 ZUMO'LOGY. (Gr. tyixn, and \oyoc,a discourse.) The 
 doctrine of fermentation. 
 
 ZUMO'METER, or ZUMOSI'METER. (Gr. u> w , and 
 uerpov, a measure.) An instrument intended to show the 
 degree to which fermentation has proceeded in diflerent 
 fermenting liquors. Sec Saccharometer. 
 
 ZU'RLITE. A name given to a recently discovered 
 Vesuvian mineral. 
 
 ZYGODA'CTYLES. (Gr. fyyov, a yoke; SoktvXoc, a 
 finger.) The name given by M. Temminck to an order of 
 Climbing Birds, including those which have the toes ar- 
 ranged in pairs, two before and two behind; corresponding 
 to the Scan sores of Cuvier. 
 
 ZYGOD'NA. (Gr. Zvym'va ; the name of a fish in Aris- 
 totle.) A genus of Cartilaginous fishes of the Squaloid or 
 Shark tribe, remarkably characterized by the extreme 
 breadth and flatness of the head, the sides of which extend 
 outwards at right angles with and far beyond the body, just 
 as the head of a hammer is placed on the handle: the eyes 
 are placed at the lateral margins of the bend The term 
 Zygwna has also been applied by Tchsenheimer to a genus 
 of Lepidoptcra. 
 
 ZYGO'MA. (Gr. Zvyov, a yoke; because it transmits 
 the tendon of the temporal muscle like a yoke.) The ca- 
 vity under the zygomatic process of the temporal bone. 
 Hence, also, the term zygomatic muscles. 
 
 ZYGOPIIYLLA'CE^E. (Zygophillum, one of the gen- 
 era.) A natural order of arborescent, shrubby, or herbace- 
 ous Fxogens, inhabiting the hotter parts of the world. Are 
 nearly allied to Oxalidaccas, from which they differ in many 
 characters; with Simarubaeea they accord in the stamens 
 springing from the back of an hypogynous scale; and arc 
 distinguished from Rutacecs in the leaves being constantly 
 opposite, with lateral or intermediate stipules, .and in being 
 generally compound, and always destitute of pellucid dots. 
 The ligneous plants of this order are remarkable for theit 
 hardness. Guaiacum, or Lignum Vita, is one of them. 
 
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